In her immediate response to the Christchurch shootings our Prime Minister spoke the words that I ,for one, wanted to hear.
“This is not who we are”
I embraced that message and applauded Jacinda Ardern for her leadership in articulating it, because it resonated with what I, until yesterday , also believed – that we are a tolerant country where race and religion don’t matter .
But something I stumbled across while researching another topic yesterday afternoon smacked that complacent belief in the face .
It’s a survey of our attitudes to cultural and religious diversity carried out by Research New Zealand just 3 days after the Christchurch shootings which revealed that… just over half of us (52%) feel discrimination exists in our country and 1 in 4 of us had personally experienced discrimination in the last 12 months.
If those figures are anywhere near representative of our true values then we have to face the uncomfortable truth that THIS is in fact ‘who we are’ and we have a lot of work to do on our prejudicial attitudes if we really want to be a haven of tolerance and goodwill in the world.
On the upside 65% of us think that ‘fairness’ is a value that ‘most, if not all New Zealanders currently live by’ – which is a good place to start .
If we want to be a more tolerant society we need to demonstrate our willingness to achieve that goal by at least legislating for a fairer distribution of the nation’s wealth.
While I know that getting rid of the politics and economics of selfishness is not the silver bullet that will cure all our social and cultural ills – it sure is one of them!
So I guess I will be publishing uncomfortable truths and railing against neoliberalism for a good while longer yet because an inclusive, tolerant, fair society is not who we are .. but it’s what I want us to be.
Bryan Bruce is one of NZs most respected documentary makers and public intellectuals who has tirelessly exposed NZs neoliberal economic settings as the main cause for social issues.
that link’s not working fyi Bryan
“we” don’t exist… therein lies part of the problem… the main part of the problem is that “our” leaders are all neoliberals themselves and members of the propertied class
Renters are the largest minority group in the country, with less parliamentary representation than most other smaller minority groups
Still good that people can read and speak here without being scared of losing their jobs.
Took me yonks to figure out why people failed to proffer even pre-agreed
views at meetings. Discrimination is everywhere, and yet being fair is a value universally saluted, I think.
Next time I see that l s Bill English in the supermarket I’ll ask him for his views on fairness. I like to have something to ask him when I see him skulking around the fruit and veges – before I report him for behaving surreptitiously. 2x.
”If we live in a world where the majority is supposed to govern, we have to try to root our perspective in that of the majority, not the minority.”
Read More: http://www.trueactivist.com/politics-is-not-for-the-rich-says-former-uruguayan-president-jose-mujica/
A rich man has no place in politics.
I think you will find the now popular and prevalent idea now that money is what is important in politics and being elected.
From the foreign donations in NZ where you can buy your way onto being a list MP by creating money pipelines for the party and in NZ is has become the norm to give councils mayors who influence the council policy and resource consents processes ‘free’ trips and help with their political campaigning.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/money/107915296/alleged-national-donor-yikun-zhang-bringing-1000-wellconnected-compatriots-to-nz
to a person being groomed or lobbied by the powerful to continue the status quo (aka ex Meryl Lynch, John Key, barbecue man from a state house, but very helpful to the international banking industry).
In my view if we want to stop the corruption in politics in NZ then all public donations should be banned and the politicians get a set amount by the state to campaign and are not allowed to use any additional money. Aka back to the old days of grassroots and volunteers and real issues being the centre of the politics.
Money has also infected all the charities that now many spend more time and effort on raising money than caring about the causes! New charities with similar sounding causes and glamorous professional marketing with celebrities seem to pop up daily and undermine the charities who use the money and focus on the good causes instead.
Then we need to combat tax benefits for charities to lobby governments on behalf of big business to get more power and money aka
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/02/disney-ceo-asks-employees-to-chip-in-to-pay-copyright-lobbyists/
The ‘Hillary’ Foundation, etc that the NZ government is expected to contribute millions to is pretty much buying or being forced to pay money in a soft power protection money racket.
Yes.
When I was 14 years old in 1982 I had the chance to visit Canada for a year.
As a young Maori boy I was delighted to travel to a country I could only dream about visiting but also my Mother lived their whom I had never seen until then. I only lasted a year as my mother and I didn’t get on so I return home.
I was surprised when returning to NZ as I moved to Auckland (Otara) The level of violence and what also surprised me was the segregation of races (Islander,Maori) in mostly poor area suburbs and the majority of white people “Pakeha” in mostly affluent areas.
I have experienced racism most of my life but I’ve never really knew properly what (Racism) looked nor processed it articulately until I returned to my country of birth.
During my time in Canada I was attending a Prep school (Private) and what was strikingly different that I experienced was that Canadians were more tolerant to other cultures although I do understand that Canada is a settler colonial country they seem to have tolerance towards other peoples races but I do know that the Native Canadian Indians suffered from discrimination more so than other migrants.
Returning home I became aware the different treatment (negatively) I received from fellow NZer and the level of racism directed not only to myself personally but to Polynesian overall with MSM print ,audio,visual outlets all parioting similar talking points when discussing Maori and Pacific Island issues and a Pakeha society willingly ignorant and in acceptance of the values and beliefs sprout by MSM.
This is my experience of racism and I have learn over the years to have a thick skin and internalise this hatred which affects my ability sometimes to act and think rationally.
https://truthout.org/articles/settler-colonialism-lurked-beneath-the-christchurch-massacre/
Conversely my white (half-Australian) kids experienced profound racism when attending a small East Coast (80% Maori) primary school. There was no question that as pakeha they were considered to be racially, culturally and spiritually inferior to their Maori co-students. Sadly, I attended this same school back in the early 1970’s and despite the same percentage of Maori/pakeha mix, the issues were not then in evidence.
My sister and her Black South African boyfriend traveled through China around 1990, the SA guy said apartheid was nothing compared to the way foreigners were treated in China!
Some people are just ‘tribal’ in their thinking, and what their skin colour is or what ethnic background they come from is not a good indicator of the likelihood of this occurring. Often this issue is broken down into far too simplistic equations with all the blame thrown one way only. Multiculturalism is a great ideal but sometimes I suspect 250,000 years of human practice defending their own patch from the occaisonally hostile ‘others’ is going to take a fair bit of overcoming!
“There was no question that as pakeha they were considered to be racially, culturally and spiritually inferior to their Maori co-students.”
“My sister and her Black South African boyfriend traveled through China around 1990, the SA guy said apartheid was nothing compared to the way foreigners were treated in China!”
Both sound to be fucken bullshit – its the type of stuff that alt-right come up with to justify white supremacism and attack diversity and multiculturalism.
There are different types of ethnocentrisms and ethnic prejudice. They lie along a spectrum. The most pernicious and virulent and uniquely unforgiving is north-Western European white supremacism.
Here’s the difference. One can marry into even the most ‘radical’ Maori group, regardless of skin colour. Likewise Chinese are open to intermarriage, even nationalistic types.
Other ethnic nationalist groups are to do with preservation and self-defence, and not about the supposed superiority or inferiority of other cultures or races. They don’t spend most of their time talking about skull sizes and purported racial differences in IQ etc, and the superiority of their kind over thers. If you go to a Mana conference as a well meaning white person, you will by and large be welcomed with open arms. You Completely different if it was a white nationalist conference.
People can get along by and large. But racial supremacists can get on with no-one, and typically even those of their own group, as the type of society they would advocate for is one that is alien to the feelings and instincts of the vast majority of the people of the world, regardless of racial or cultural background.
So all inter racial and inter tribal, inter religious fighting and killing that occurs in so many places is just mere fiction, or perhaps ‘created’ by colonial powers interfering, right?
Perhaps you should do some travel through parts of Africa, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, also the Indian Subcontinent and South East Asia, like other places.
Racism is rather prevalent in many cultures, it is not one attribute that can be stuck onto North or North West Europeans only, as you seem to suggest.
And why are suburbs in large centres in New Zealand often also showing certain ethnic groups being predominant, others not so?
I suppose it is all just the nasty ‘Pakehas’ and some white immigrants who are to blame???
“This is not who we are,” purely aspirational codswallop. There are many divides and isms in this country. I see one problem being that many groups who have very unhelpful ideologies are already somewhat underground. For instance racists in the UK are less hidden and as a result are easier to see and confront. Ally the hidden nature of NZ’s bigots with the ability to only see what one wants to see, and I guess it becomes very easy for the PM to mouth platitudes. If you will not see an problem or admit to it you will not be able to address it meaningfully. Making an international show over tightening controls over media systems such as Facebook etc does nothing to address sickness in our societies that leads humans to commit atrocities and acts of terror such as in Sri Lanka and Christchurch.
Basically YES.
The many cults people are drawn into are diverse and some not recognised as such.
Many do not like the term “cult” being used to describe their belief or activity but most people in NZ society do belong to groups or group beliefs. overtly or covertly, which are cults.
Aspects of beliefs or activity that cut across the rights of others are the concern as can be the aggressive evangelising to gain cult membership numbers.
Would help if those supporting identity politics actually looked at policies rather than the candidates phenotypes or their phenotype guilt complexes (even more an issue in NZ) … personally don’t care what people look like, it’s real policies not their vocals about identity that will get the changes… aka saw this about Bernie Sanders who is always being accused about being a white old guy by the identity parade so therefore worthless and undermined in politics..
“Here’s the thing: universal healthcare is a feminist issue. Widening access to education is a feminist issue. A foreign policy that doesn’t involve constantly bombing other countries is a feminist issue. Refusing to cozy up to Saudi Arabia is a feminist issue. Calling out Israel for its treatment of Palestinians is a feminist issue. As far as I’m concerned, Sanders is the most feminist candidate in the race. Nevertheless, as the primaries progress, I’m sure we’re going to hear a lot more about how he just doesn’t get women.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/apr/27/bernie-sanders-is-the-most-feminist-2020-candidate-as-far-as-im-concerned
Spot on SAVENZ.
100%
Personality politics for those who don’t have acceptable policy or wish to hide what policy they intend.
For me leadership is addressing issues like poverty, homelessness, healthcare and fighting neo liberalism in all its forms.
I’m not interested in Ardern. What I can say is I see little evidence of policy leadership from Labour as a party.
In short if you want cue-dos from voters like myself lets see some action, I’m not interested in words.
“a fairer distribution of the nation’s wealth”
Firstly, it’s not the nation’s wealth, it’s wealth owned by individuals
Secondly we already have a system where the lower 48% of income earners get a free ride. Just how much “fairer” do you want it?
The “nations wealth” comes from labour. The ones who scoop it off and amass it are the free loaders.
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