KEY POINTS:
Last December, Santa personally awarded the Falun Gong participants in the annual Downtown Calgary Christmas parade the prize for "most enthusiastic entry". The year before, the Chinese spiritual group's entry in the famed Edinburgh Arts Festival's cavalcade won "best speciality award" for the fourth year in a row.
Indeed, a quick internet search suggests that these days a parade isn't a parade without these ubiquitous apostles of truthfulness, compassion and forbearance: Columbus Day Parade, San Francisco; Annual Veterans' Day parade, New York City; Annual Nambour Sugar Festival, Queensland. Wherever you look, there they are, marching or drumming or posing as little fairies on giant lotus blossoms.
Everywhere, that is, but Queen St, Auckland City, where for the past seven years the trustees of the annual Farmers Santa Parade, headed by Chamber of Commerce chief executive and regional councillor Michael Barnett, have resolutely resisted their approaches.
Last year they almost sneaked in, until the organisers discovered the 60-piece Divine Land Band that they had accepted into the parade was made up of Falun Gongsters.
Overnight the group which had been welcomed as a great addition to the parade and offered $250 for expenses became an organisation that "does not fit with the Santa Parade". Its participation would not meet the trust deed's requirements to "turn children's fantasies into reality".
The door is still firmly closed, as a testy exchange of emails last Friday between Mr Barnett and Auckland City councillor Cathy Casey underlines. Dr Casey, a lone voice of outside support for the Falun Gong, in a polite hurry-up to Mr Barnett, asked him to reply to their application to take part dated July 7. "Please allow the Divine Light marching band to participate this year. You will not be sorry."
Mr Barnett's response was blunt. "Your approach is aggressive and unhelpful. This may be your style but it is not conducive to changing people's minds."
Certainly Mr Barnett's response suggests a mind so closed it's going to take more than sweet nothings from Dr Casey to change it.
Last year, the Falun Gong were kicked out of the Wellington Santa Parade despite, in previous years, winning awards for excellence. The city council claimed no pressure had come from the Chinese Embassy, it was all about "tightening things up in terms of length and quality ... "
Dr Casey believes that, like Wellington City Council, Mr Barnett's business leader's cap is getting in the way of his Santa hat.
"There's absolutely nothing wrong with a group wanting to celebrate in this country their particular spiritual dimension. In China they are persecuted. Here we should be a lot more inclusive. The Chinese consulate cannot dictate how we approach some of our citizens."
Santa Parade general manager Pam Glaser gets rather exasperated about the whole issue. She says the parade "is not a platform for organisations to use to get messages out there".
She admits it's a marching band on offer, not a travelling propaganda bus, "but they're still Falun Gong and the tune they play isn't Jingle Bells, it's Falun Gong's theme song and they only play one song in the parade".
But she then goes on to talk about a Japanese dance group that is acceptable each year which "chooses the most awesome song" to dance to. Jingle Bells perhaps? She says not.
As for the parade not being the place to sell messages, the reality is, it's full of commercial sponsors and their loud messages. Ronald McDonald, for example, is there in all his glory. But that's okay, she says, "he's a kids' icon".
Pam Glaser also says that elsewhere, Falun Gong have distributed propaganda around parades.
In Palmerston North, she said, they handed out origami lotus blossoms which opened to scenes of torture.
Palmerston North City Council community and commercial services manager Jane Julian says Falun Gong did distribute leaflets while participating in a Christmas parade two or three years ago and were warned it was not in the spirit of Christmas. They accepted that and have paraded with "no problem since".
Personally, I think it's time for Mr Barnett and his trustees to lighten up. A good act is a good act no matter who performs it and whatever one thinks of their spiritual hang-ups, the Falun Gong are proven masters of a putting on a good show.
What harm would there be in giving them a trial run?
