Yesterday, reading some of the things our new right-wing government plan to do, I felt angry. I didn't relish the prospect of feeling angry for the next 3 years.
However Stoicism reminds me I can't control what the government do. I can control how I feel and what I do.
I plan some email actions …
Hugh Young-Bish From now on I will make a point of referring to government departments by their reo Māori names only.
Odd-Egil “Oddzthrash” Auran Let your righteous anger turn into action for the opposition Miraz. I’m sorry that ANZ fell for these enticements too. 😔
Miraz Jordan @hugh My feeling too! Let's boost our use of Te Reo. Now, more than ever, Māori need Pākeha like me as allies.
Miraz Jordan @odd Indeed! This new government aim to explicitly undo much of the hard-won progress over recent years. That's what they said they would do and loads of people voted for them. Some of what they're doing is petty, costly and doesn't actually achieve anything (positive). Some things will achieve negatives. For example, a while ago NZ put in legislation that would help stop smoking tobacco, especially amongst young people. Why on earth would they undo that!!!
Hugh Young-Bish @Miraz
Like us. But being a good ally means work, to overcome our paternalistic, colonial habits. We do not know what is best for Māori. They do.
💬 John Philpin well ‘loads’ did .. but hardly a resounding win and in the end - only a coalition of small minded, retro thinking old white men that can’t even agree on their own govt get to be in charge .. hopefully NZ will come to its senses next time … unlike the UK where we keep changing the cabinet - but NOT the policies .. and they keep winning anyway … they now have had so many people rotate through that they are now having to recycle the losers from 12 years ago!
Miraz Jordan @JohnPhilpin 'recycle losers' : LOL . It galls me that 2 of the 3 old white men aren't even white and one isn't even old. Anyway, whoever they are, they are about to inflict a lot of damage.
Miraz Jordan @JohnPhilpin I liked one comment I read — maybe in The Spinoff - calling them something like The Friday the 13th Three.
💬 John Philpin true enough … meanwhile …
Does Maori blood make you ‘non white’?
… and while Seymour is younger than many, Peter’s is so old that their AVERAGE age is 57 … fully 20 years older than the average Kiwi 😂😂
Pratik As at the 2018 census, the majority of New Zealand's population of European descent (70 percent) [source].
The Tipping Point hypothesis strikes again.
Miraz Jordan @JohnPhilpin Well, they need to define themselves of course, but I can't in all conscience describe men with Māori heritage as 'white men'.
Pratik @JohnPhilpin oops, sorry. Unnecessarily complex. The idea, popularized by social scientist Thomas Schelling, suggests that when a neighborhood or community reaches a point where a particular group (minority in this context) constitutes around 30% of the population, it can trigger significant changes in the social dynamics of that area. I guess NZ reached that as per the 2018 census. The otherwise liberal attitudes of Kiwis may have pushed the limit slightly higher
Miraz Jordan @pratik @JohnPhilpin Maybe, but I think key things that have influenced NZ social dynamics in recent times are efforts to revive the Māori language, setting up Kura Kaupapa — specialist Māori schools based on Māori traditions and processes, an incredible amount of work around honouring Te Tiriti o Waitangi (the Treaty), NZ's founding document signed in 1840 when the enormous bulk of the population was Māori and a few Europeans were behaving lawlessly. NZ is simply not the same as the other countries where 'white' people are dominant.
Pratik But currently only 15% of the population is Māori, right? And as commendable as the efforts to restore Māori culture are, perhaps it’s having this unintentional effect of making the majority white people feel uncomfortable just like civil rights and BLM evoked a backlash from the otherwise moderate whites.
Miraz Jordan @pratik Unfortunately NZ is nevertheless a place where racism is alive and well, Māori have very high rates of every undesirable thing you can think of (eg poverty, imprisonment). I don't mean to suggest everything is rosy. The plans of the incoming government will set back some of the progress of recent years. Some of their policies are downright racist, although, of course, they claim they aren't. @JohnPhilpin
Miraz Jordan @pratik I don't know the percentage offhand, but yes, some non-Māori folks are now and have always been 'uncomfortable'. In recent times more and more pākeha (non-Māori) have been learning Te Reo (Māori language and culture), more and more Māori language terms have been used in official correspondence and news items and everyday speech. The number of 'uncomfortable' is dwindling but is still not zero.
💬 John Philpin I guess Facebook’s relationship status ‘it’s complicated’ can be used in many. Scenarios.
Pratik That's what I mean; there will always be people who are more accepting of other cultures and people, just as there will be people who are not. We have to hope that the former outnumbers the latter enough to give the latter no political power. Unfortunately, such demographic and cultural change will cause the people who are mixed in their acceptance to waffle between them. They may eventually settle at either end. In the meantime, there will be political tumult. hopefully, not irreversible.
💬 John Philpin funny .. I was trying to find a link from substack yesterday … and failed, totally forgetting that I had already posted 🖇️ the irony.