Don Brash is on the money again when he says;
"(But) it is quite wrong to argue that, because Maori are over-represented in negative social statistics, the 'Crown', or the Government on behalf of all New Zealanders, has somehow failed to discharge its obligation under the Treaty.
"If Maori New Zealanders die more frequently from lung cancer than non-Maori do, for example, it is almost certainly because Maori New Zealanders choose to smoke more heavily than other New Zealanders do ...
"Similarly if there are relatively few Maori at the Auckland Law School - and that despite preferential arrangements for Maori - that is not a failing of the Government, but a result of decisions made by individual Maori," he said.
Unfortunately this is no longer just an argument about personal failure. It's about an attitude that is now manifesting itself more ominously than ever before. When asked why youth violence in South Auckland is escalating an ambulance officer replies;
"They just don't understand what they're doing," says Carey Dobbs, team leader of the St John Ambulance Specialist Emergency Response Team.
"They'll beat someone to death and . ... they don't appear to care, which is quite frightening."
Mr Dobbs, who covers the South Auckland area, says that attitude exists in the youth gang culture.
"My personal feeling is it's a culture of 'Let's blame someone else', 'It's my upbringing', 'It's a lack of money', 'I've got no education'.
So the danger of inculcating a culture of blame goes beyond creating personal failure, it is spilling over to affect completely innocent people. People who do not wallow in self-pity. Many of them also Maori or Pacific people who just happen to live in the same neighbourhoods.
People like Tariana Turia, who foster Treaty victimhood or colonist victimhood (essentially racism towards Pakeha) need to start preaching a different message.
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7 comments:
The history of colonisation and the Treaty processes are complex subjects. Alot of New Zealanders don't understand the issues surrounding the Treaty, so surely Brash's strongest arguement is to expose specifics on how the Treaty has become an unwielding and wasteful animal rather than discussing the who is to blame for Maori over-representation in negative statistics.
Aside from this issue, National also has to fight against Labour deliberating indoctrinating public servants with politically correct notions of the Treaty processes.
Gloria
The point is that there were injustices it's just that there needs to be an end to the restitution.
Gloria
There were injustices. Fact. Awful injustices.
The Maori economy pays $2.4 billion in tax and recieves $2.3 billion in social cash benfits.
Leaving the "other" economy paying for Maori health, education, etc.
We are paying ongoing restitution beyond Treaty settlements. There has been lot of goodwill and political effort from those appalled by what happened historically but advancement or improvement (for many) seems elusive.
Maori may have became disproportionally poor because of the unlawful actions of the crown reguarding the treaty. More importantly however, they were detached from their culture, their ties to their family and ancestral roots severed by the injustices that happened. Simply giving the land back that the crown took is not enough. Not to the Maori that suffered the injustice in the first place, and were forced to move to the cities, who's children grew up not understanding what caused their parents suffering, only understanding that it was the fault of the authority in place.
The way culture evolves is not entirely one of random chance. There are real reasons as to why it's important. The Maori that are represented in those statistics, and do not want to assimilate into western culture have to want to rediscover their own roots, they have to stand up and say "Yes I'm Maori, teach me how to be a good one", to use a european point of view. But how is that going to happen with so few visible role models that are Maori? No benefit shown in being Maori? when being european and making money is what makes you "successful"?
This is not about blame, it's about fixing the problem that still exists because of the mistakes made by our former governments. Don Brash does not want to improve things for Maori, he wants to assimilate them. He will make things worse, not better, and I only hope that if he does get the opportunity that the inevitable backlash will forge a new respect and understanding for our country's different cultures.
Adonis said...
>Maori may have became disproportionally poor because of the unlawful actions of the crown reguarding the treaty. More importantly however,
What I don't understand is how this applies to people like Turiana Turia who has and American father and x% mother??
What you need to understand in that case, is that the concept of race is a racist one. What separates people of different race? Culture? DNA? Skin tone? None of these are binary options, they are real numbers, incalculable. The classification of people is inherantly racist.
As I've said however, culture does not develop for entirely random reasons. Cultures that have had socio-economic systems forced upon them have little success. Zimbabwe is a prime example - a system so similar to our own, and yet it's caused nothing but trouble since the british left, and why? One simple reason: they didn't develop it themselves, and it is not suited for them.
Our system evolved to suit your average european. Specifically, the people who do well in it are stereotypical white male europeans OR people who adapt to that cultural ideal. Maori can adapt to this, anyone CAN adapt to this, if they have the motivation, but why is it nessesary to have such a bias system in the first place? In reality, the inherant bias of the system is starting to cause major international problems as mutlicultural countries that have a single culture overriding all others are reverting from well reasoned, responsible countries to thuggish, profit mongering cabals.
Communism was (and still is to a lesser extent), viewed as the great evil of the world, and quite rightly so. Stalin was one of the most tyrannical leaders in our species history. However, China is set to become the next superpower, not through military conquest, but through an economic one. Their civil rights track record is sketchy at best, but it is improving. China is improving. The US is not, it's getting worse.
Fifty years ago it was only US government agencies fucking over the middle east for profit
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0605/S00058.htm
Now it's the entire US military, given the mandate from ill-educated people driven to extremes of para-noir by mass media campaigns that can only be described as one thing: Brain washing.
We are comparable to the US. We have a very similar system. The main difference between our countries is that we have a smaller population.
.. and before you think it, no, I'm not a communist, China developed that system for themselves, they do not have a multicultural population like us, it would never work here.
What people do not seem to understand is why Don Brash's policies are racist. Well, the answer is, the system is racist, and he wants that system to be the overriding system for everybody. This is not a call for seperatism, or facism. It is a call to change our system to accept it's multiculturalism. To seperate what laws should apply to everyone, the ones that protect people, and the organisational systems that came about because of stereotypical cultural guidelines.
Captalism is a dinosaur, it is bloated.. and not suited to a multicultural nation like New Zealand. Don Brash wishes to silence the last bastion of real objection from government, the last voice that says, "Hey, you guys are racist".
Why are so people supporting an option that leads us towards such a flawed ideal?
Brash is right to say that, Maori performance is not the test of whether the Treaty has been or is being honoured or not.
But the fact is, Maori performance is not good and they were ripped off. That they would be underprivileged, after being ripped off, was quite predictable. For some time many thought the Maori people would die out.
His attempt to place responsibility for individual performance on Maori of a generation, is nothing more than an attempt to remake the way forward from the present, by forgetting the past. In a country where Maori are the indigenous people, this is is not possible.
Thus the full and final settlement line will never work. One law for all is after all, only the third article of one treaty and exists within that framework.
We have to consider, why it is that many Maori make a better new one generation transformation start of it in Oz than here. One reason is that Maori there cannot get welfare and thus are all employment role models. Also the work is well paid and they are able to build a successful life there (that is those unable to get work, or hold down jobs, end up back here).
Thus it's about getting Maori into employment and Maori people connected, not by reliance on welfare, but on connections to iwi help for tertiary education and venture capital for business start-ups.
Before anyone talks about welfare reform, it's about forming an aspiration culture and this is not built by attacking the necessary safety net of welfare. Banging on about welfare does not build an aspiration culture. It's about creating positive role models and bringing more Maori into this future. Accentuating the positive involves less talk about the safety net remaining there for others. Less talk of welfare reform, enables more focus on ways of helping people move forward.
One could make further comment about the fact of international research showing that all disadvantaged minorities have issues with maintaining pride and aspiration culture amongst their communities and schools. This has nothing to do with being indigenous.
It is entirely predictable that the young male with an uncertain sense of being a successful mature adult, or becoming one, joins with others to find a sense of post family community place. Maori youth did so when coming into the city from the provinces a generation ago. We adjusted, but then came the unemployment of parents in the late 80's and 90's and now we have a generation of youth from broken by poverty families to deal with. The problem is in that historic unemployment leaving it's last footprint on this nations society.
For the good of the future of this country, Mr Brash has to respond to this problem without showing an irrelevant lack of respect for the indigenous people of this country, and instead look at the true causes and look to support government and community efforts that build up the aspiration role model answer that we need.
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