A sense of national identity is forged through our response to historical challenges. What it is to be a ‘Kiwi’ has been developed through colonisation and wars (we’re ANZACs), through leadership in the face of emerging and destructive technology – nuclear arms, (we’re nuclear free and proud of it), and through the domestic contests we’ve won about apartheid, homosexual law reform, abortion and women’s rights.
Many of us on the left of the political spectrum stand proud for the fact that women won the vote here, first; that we sent the navy to the Pacific to oppose nuclear testing; that we stood up to America against nuclear ships; we showed solidarity against apartheid and that we implemented many laws giving equal rights and freedoms to others regardless of their gender, sexual orientation or religious beliefs. We’ve been proud to be clean and green – or at least aspiring to be. We’ve been proud of our egalitarian society and incremental progressive political development. We had a noble, principled foreign policy stance that saw us as peacekeepers; independent and not caught up in other peoples’ wars. We stood up to other nations against whaling in the Southern Oceans.
Unfortunately, our sense of national pride and righteousness is becoming quickly sullied. What sort of country have we become?
‘Our New Zealand’ is now a nation where the gap between the rich and the poor has grown faster than ever before in any other place and at any other time. Economic inequality overwhelms any equality before the law. High rates of suicide graphically demonstrate the despair and hopelessness in our society. Our environmental standing is grim with what we’re doing to freshwater, wetlands, high country habitats. Extinctions march onward with only token Governmental response. Christchurch is bulldozed under residents’ feet. Homelessness affects thousands. Any sort of home ownership, much less the quarter acre Pavlova paradise, is now out of the reach of so many while a privileged few own more than one house. Access to tertiary education and upward advancement through studying as an adult has been reduced. Private indebtedness means we’re owned by foreign banks. Corporatised and privatised infrastructure is operated for commercial gain not as a public service – no wonder over 40,000 people had their power cut off last year. Our fragile sovereignty has been traded off through World Trade Organisation negotiations and the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Our nation which once stood righteous on foreign policy, now sucks up to and actively participates in America’s spy networks, drone strikes and imperialistic invasions.
These days, those of us on the left are desperate for a change in government if not in political-economic order. Our sovereign integrity is a myth. John Key’s ‘comfort’ with the erosion of our moral statehood is embarrassing and scary. This is not the New Zealand we had, nor the New Zealand we aspire to.
Cry, for our beloved country, cry.
In answer to your question x
I particularly liked Alan Gibbs’ voice .
http://youtu.be/JZXpeUQ0tD8
These scum have the blood of their own contrypeople on their hands and they just don’t care . They have our money . They are Winners . They are quite flash . They are mad .
Rest in Peace , my Mum , Dad and Aunt V xx
Enjoy
http://youtu.be/_ECxoyUrkpk
Someone Else’s Country is independent filmmaker Alister Barry’s in-depth look at the economic revolution that took place in New Zealand in the 1980s at the hands of then Labour Finance Minister Roger Douglas. The country’s fourth Labour Government had been voted in on a traditional Labour platform, but unbeknownst to the public, it would implement a radical programme of right-wing economic policies as proscribed by the World Bank and the ideologues behind the Thatcher and Reagan administrations in Britain and the US. Barry’s 1996 debut documentary, which draws extensively on archive footage and interviews with key players of the time, was refused a screening by TVNZ until it was belatedly aired in 2004. In 2008 White Fungus held a screening of Someone Else’s Country and a panel disussion at Massey University. The panel was hosted by White Fungus Editor Ron Hanson and featured Alister Barry, Nicky Hager and Tim Bollinger.
So true & an enlightening documentary – I think people have just forgotten what our society used to be like. And I think a lot of that can be seen by his other documentary (and Nicky Hager’s book) ‘The Hollowmen’ – they got a better frount man in Jonh -‘just a bloke’ – Key. AND the sleezing off of jornalism in the main stream media (where the majority of people get their news, sadly) really killed nz’s fairness compass.
… and it’s our lack of direct action to rid ourselves of this pestilence that should really be the focus of discussion .
“This is not the New Zealand we had, nor the New Zealand we aspire to.”
Absolutely agree.
I lay awake the other night recalling some of the big issues that had made NZ internationally famous in the past – issues like “Nuclear free” and “Women’s suffrage”, “the birth of ACC”, “Universal Superannuation” . . . Then I wondered what the last two terms of parliament will be remembered for in years to come.
All I could think of were Key’s two “crowning” (clowning?) achievements:
1. The record overseas debt that we are still running up in order to pay for the Tax Cuts for the rich (and which we couldn’t afford to extend to the poor because of the Global Financial Meltdown .
2. The selling out of NZ’s independence and sovereignty in order to join “The Five Eyes” network and, if Key/Groser had their way, the further selling out of NZ’s interests in their haste to try to sign us up to the PPTA”.
Great legacy, eh?
Maybe we could have a crying protest outside John Key’s house this Sunday evening?
Question : What have Alan Gibbs, Michael Fay and John Key done to make NZ a more productive, profitable and richer (net equity) country?
Answer: Very little in my humble opinion.
David Lange’s Oxford Union debate was the last gasp of any integrity NZ had – although Helen stood up and said we weren’t going into Iraq…I guess that was something, but when i see what the country has become under 30 yrs of neo-libs, I want to pick up a gun and start eliminating some of the worst blights on the countries character……..
WHY IS ANY OF THIS SURPRISING ?
We allow an ex-pat ex Federal Reserve Banker stand in our elections .
Key has spent more of his adult life (before returning this time) living overseas . He grew up in New Zealand as a welfare kid and attended University for free.
John Key’s unquestioning support for America is hardly surprising…he is almost an American citizen being a property owner and all.
Who was embarrassed watch Key suck up to Obama ?
Then you watch Key prostrate himself to stand in for Obama at the TPPA talks …
Who was surprised to see the Campbell Live report show Key manipulated the current Governor General to fulfill directives from America ? Now we have the GCSB being run by Key’s childhood sweetheart !
John Key is obviously marching to a different drum to most Kiwi’s even if they don’t know it !
Watch this video and tell mr if you honestly think America didn’t influence our Government !
http://www.3news.co.nz/Keys-meeting-with-GCSB-boss-revealed/tabid/817/articleID/345034/Default.aspx
http://www.3news.co.nz/Keys-meeting-with-GCSB-boss-revealed/tabid/817/articleID/345034/Default.aspx
This country has prostituted itself to the smiling merchant bankers who have restructured NZ for the benefit of who?
They call it smoke and mirrors.
How do you figure out that “‘Our New Zealand’ is now a nation where the gap between the rich and the poor has grown faster than ever before in any other place and at any other time”? All the data shows that the trends in income inequality have been essentially flat for the last 20 years. The big increase in income inequality occurred in the 80s under a Labour Government, but in large part that was correcting the complete lack of margin for skills and qualifications that had developed during the union-dominated decades, where wharfies and meat workers earned at least double what teachers etc were paid. That was unsustainable in an information economy. So are you arguing that we go back to those days then?
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