IN JUNE 1973, the Prime Minister of New Zealand, Norman Kirk, bade farewell to the HMNZS Otago as it steamed out of Waitemata Harbour for the tiny Pacific atoll of Mururoa, the island where France’s controversial nuclear weapons programme conducted its atmospheric tests. Minutes before the ship pulled away from the Devonport naval base, the Prime Minister had delivered a short, impromptu speech:
“We could stand back and say ‘We have done enough’. Perhaps some prefer not to get involved. But let the world see. We will not turn our eyes and pass by on the other side of the road. That is not our way.”
Nearly 42 years later, on Waitangi Day 2015, another Prime Minister, John Key, delivered a short, impromptu speech of his own. Responding to challenges from Maori Council Chair, Manu Paul, about why New Zealand was proposing to involve itself in “other people’s wars”, in Syria and Iraq, when there were so many more urgent calls upon its resources at home, Key replied:
“New Zealand is not going to turn the other way. We’re actually going to stand up for human rights, and we’re not going to do silly things, but we may join 60 or so other countries around the world trying to protect people who can’t protect themselves.” “(We have) no intention of going to fight other people’s wars but I’m not going to turn the other way when people are being persecuted and say as a leader it’s other people’s problems. I don’t think that’s the New Zealand way.”
The phraseology of these speeches is remarkably similar. In both cases, the speakers draw upon the New Testament parable of the Good Samaritan.
In Kirk’s case the invocation is quite deliberate. Compare his “We will not turn our eyes and pass by on the other side of the road”, with the wording of Luke’s Gospel:
“A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he travelled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him.”
In Key’s case, the language is looser, and the reference less precise, but the image conjured up, of someone refusing to ignore the victim of an attack – “I’m not going to turn the other way when people are being persecuted” – is unmistakably that of the Good Samaritan.
Key’s use of the parable is all the more remarkable given his background. Unlike Kirk, who was raised in a devout Salvation Army household, Key was raised by a Jewish mother, who, by all accounts, was not a particularly strict follower of her people’s faith.
It’s an indication of just how deeply embedded this core Christian story has become in our culture. Certainly, it was Kirk’s belief that Christ’s moving response to the question: “Who is my neighbour?” had been thoroughly internalised by his fellow citizens. Hence his confident assertion that, when it came to French nuclear testing in the South Pacific, New Zealanders were simply unwilling to pass by on the other side. Or, as he put it: “That is not our way.”
When it came to joining the fight against Islamic State, Key’s assumptions about how the average Kiwi was most likely to respond prompted him to voice a conclusion almost identical to Kirk’s: “I don’t think that’s the New Zealand way.”
But which of the two Prime Ministers demonstrates the surer grasp of the parable’s meaning? Is it Kirk or Key who can lay legitimate claim to be acting in the spirit of the Good Samaritan?
The first point to make about the parable is that, although it includes violent acts, none of the violence is perpetrated by the principal players. Yes, the robbers have beaten, stripped and robbed the Samaritan, but the central purpose of the story is to demonstrate the appropriate response.
As Prime Minister, Kirk inherited a situation in which the French were poisoning the South Pacific’s skies with the radioactive by-products of their atomic bombs. The injured parties, in this case, were the innocent peoples of the Pacific. By sending the HMNZS Otago to bear witness to France’s injurious conduct, he hoped to bring it to an end – the diplomatic equivalent of bandaging the victims’ wounds, pouring on oil and wine.
Key faces a rather different problem. In Syria and Iraq, the part of the robbers is clearly played by Islamic State. The victim’s part, equally clearly, belongs to the suffering people of those war-torn nations. What, then, should the Samaritan – i.e. New Zealand – do?
To hear Mr Key tell the story, the Samaritan should return to Jerusalem, get in touch with the Roman Governor, and offer to assist in the training of a special unit to patrol the Jericho Road.
It is possible to argue that, by participating in the training of such a unit, the Samaritan would be helping to prevent any future travellers from being attacked by robbers, and that by so doing he is demonstrating the ethical qualities of a good neighbour.
But what about the victim lying bleeding at the side of the road? In the parable, he is the focus of the Samaritan’s neighbourliness. It is his urgent need that the Samaritan responds to.
Translating this into New Zealand’s options in the Middle East, would it not be more in keeping with spirit of the story for our government to direct its resources towards binding up Syria’s and Iraq’s wounds? To supplying them with medicines, food and shelter?
Christ did not err in choosing a Samaritan as the focus of his story. In the Israel of his day the Samaritans were a despised people. That it should be one of these that showed the victim mercy added a special poignancy to the tale.
If he really wishes to emulate the Good Samaritan, shouldn’t our Prime Minister demonstrate to the people of Syria and Iraq that even the despised unbelievers of the West – the ones who attacked and robbed them, bombed their cities and left their shattered communities for dead – are also capable of mercy and compassion; of bandaging-up the wounds they have inflicted; of pouring on wine and oil?
Chris, Good coverage here,
“to be a Good Samaritan, shouldn’t our Prime Minister demonstrate to the people of Syria and Iraq that even the despised unbelievers of the West – the ones who attacked and robbed them, bombed their cities and left their shattered communities for dead – are also capable of mercy and compassion;”
TRUTH.
We have learned through the past six years that Key has rubbed shoulders with the secretive “Bilderberg group” meetings without informing us, in 2011-12. as PM of NZ.
http://twochurchesonly.com/supmat/03/most_influential/bilderberg_group/list_of_bilderberg_attendees.pdf
Now this same secretive man from Bilderberg will not allow us to see what noose he is signing us all up to during the next highly sensitive TTPA set of meetings with the same elitists who are planning the this TTPA or Transpacific Trade Pact.
The TTPA is the precursor for “The Bilderbergers” One World Government” project using the most powerful corporations and industrialists globally.
Dig here Chris for where FJK is taking us all.
Yes read here, John Key meets with Nazis and keeps this from NZ?
“Very Very dangerous people we have in power here in NZ”
Why didn’t PM tell NZ he was into Bilderberg?
List of Bilderberg participants 4
New Zealand
• John Key (2011-2012), Prime Minister of New Zealand
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Bilderberg
This a Nazi founded organisation.
Creator and chairman of the Bilderbergers was a card carrying member of Hitler’s SS and repeatedly lied when asked if he was a Nazi party member as a student (separate page all about Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands)
No Bilderberg meeting agenda has ever been made public. “It is the epitome of low-profile dark ops, a shadow government hidden in a doorway.” According to critics and close observers, it’s agenda is to weaken all world leadership but their own. It is also, according to a U.S. law called the Logan Act, [15] illegal:
http://twochurchesonly.com/supmat/03/most_influential/bilderberg_group/list_of_bilderberg_attendees.pdf
John Key is not compassionate in any sense.
Key is simply a ruthless money man without any compassion or soul.
Don’t read is as human, he is just a stool pigeon for the rich and powerful, lets be clear about this.
I agree 100%
I think CLEANGREEN is one of a few people in the country who actually understand what “The future of NZ according to Key” is all about.
Congratulations, and well-stated.
This is what the country is being signed up for.
One of the ironies of New Zealand troops fighting Isis is that Isis will be using weapons supplied by Saudi Arabia bought with money earned by selling oil to New Zealand.
Mmm… a lot of ISIS weaponry is former Iraqi army materiale, for which they need not pay at all. The US occupation, for domestic political reasons, did not prioritise disarmament.
As for Saudi funding, their self-funding has been much more significant: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iraq/10899995/ISIS-half-a-billion-dollar-bank-heist-makes-it-worlds-richest-terror-group.html
What Kirk and the RNZN sailors did was individual and brave, no one else took a stand against France, not the previous National government, not our allies, no one. There was no deal making going on, it was in your face France for your arrogance to treat other people this way.
What Key is doing is riding in on the coat tails of “the club”, been the toadying caddy, the good boy, the deal maker hiding in the background and lying to NZ. He’s pathetic.
As for his impromptu speech, I doubt anything he says, especially in this regard, is impromptu, it’s not in him, there’s no money to be made. It will be a script thrown together from a Farrar type focus group, considering the limp we go to someone else’s war somewhere on the other side of the earth because “we are in a club” didn’t sound too convincing!
@ Chris Trotter . You ask
” shouldn’t our Prime Minister demonstrate to the people of Syria and Iraq that even the despised unbelievers of the West – the ones who attacked and robbed them, bombed their cities and left their shattered communities for dead – are also capable of mercy and compassion; ”
I say . ” Yep . Of course . That’s what a mentally healthy human-being would suggest as an elected Leader of a democratic population . ”
Someone’s grooming jonky . He’s been given a script to work with . He should stick to swindling money from others because he sucks as an actor . Or does he ? He’s doing a pretty good job thus far I suppose .
Was it Oscar Wilde who said ” Be nice to ones enemies . Nothing annoys them more . ” ?
Jonky’s Corporate American arse kissing is becoming an embarrassment .
Perhaps we of the ‘opposite persuasion’ need the new Flag ? Not just another flag, for flags sake, but a flag those of Us can wave and wear . To show that we’re not as greedy , vile and as easily bought as the Jonkies are ? A flag that can be waved to show the clear divisions between Us and Them . I do a bit of traveling when I can and I don’t want people of other countries thinking I’m as big ( small ) a dick as The Jonky . OMG ! How embarrassing would that be ?
What could be a cool flag for us Us’s ? Beige showing a pair of slippers ? A pie and a beer surrounded by Fern leaves ? One jandle ? Because that’s all you ever find ?
And for the Thems ? A blank canvas ? No soul , no spirit , no class , no style , no truth , no honesty , no passion , no empathy , no love , no courage , no intellect . Just greedy sacks , that consume in the front and shit out the back .
I believe there are fewer than a thousand Samaritans left alive today.
Considering Key and this government’s conduct, it’s rather doubtful Key understands the New Zealand way, perhaps the American way, as those of his political persuasion often romaticise and wish to enforce it here.
It appears Key is doing his mutant Kirk routine again, remember when in opposition he was concerned about the underclass, child poverty, and that Waitangi Day publicity stunt with a girl who now as a woman has fled to Australia disgusted with the direction of this country and broken promises.
Lacking sincerity, it’s doubtful Key appreciates the parable of the Good Samaritan. Rather more likely his strategists choreographing his performance, appealing to liberals for support, particularly as there is some division amongst liberals over the Islamic matter, hence capitalising on it.
Considering his pathetic and laboured performances, it baffles me how this character is supposedly so popular. There’s about as much life there as a sock puppet, a holey smelly one.
The ‘good samaritan’ seems out of place to ideology of
‘there is no such thing as society’
But lets face it, Key will say anything to stay in the ‘club’ and sell NZ sovereignty to Washington for a game of golf.
Noam Chompsky Solution to ISIS…..
And to solve the mess, the US again decided to act against the international law, building an anti-ISIS coalition that is “meaningless, apart from being illegal.”
“A law-abiding state would go to the Security Council, ask for a declaration by the Security Council of a threat to peace, and request the Security Council to organize direct response to it. And that could be done. The US could then participate in it, but so could Iran,” which is a major military force and would probably wipe out ISIS in no time, if it was allowed to join the fight on the ground, Chomsky believes.
http://rt.com/news/203055-us-russia-war-chomsky/
Inappropriate anti-semitic comment deleted. – ScarletMod
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