Kevin Clements gives particular attention to the relationship between Maori and Pakeha, in both directions. “Who we choose to see and attend to are profoundly political acts. Very often Pakeha do not see and attend to Maori with reverence and respect. Many Maori in turn feel contempt for Pakeha,” he says. “We need to learn how to honour the other. We, i.e. Maori and Pakeha, need to work out how to develop a common vision of the future which provides space for all New Zealanders to realise their full potential.
There's that 'common vision' thing again. If we honoured property rights and individual freedom our cultural differences wouldn't matter. A great deal of the lack of "respect" and feelings of "contempt" described can be laid directly at the feet of the state. From a historical viewpoint the state interfered big time in property rights, from preventing Maori dealing with individual and private buyers to its confiscation of Maori land. But instead of rejecting the (Pakeha) state, Maori came to embrace it as their best shot at aiding their recovery. When the state is embraced the natural consequence is an ongoing fight over the resources it commands and apportions - assets, cash and services.
The speaker focuses overly on cultural difference as the source of conflict when it is actually the method and degree of political governance that generates the rift.
2 comments:
Hear hear.
Except - Lindsay, as you very well know - "property rights" and "individual freedom" are Western ideas
Prior to the 1800s Maori society had no notions of individual freedom, and very different ideas of "property rights" to anything in the west since at least the American Revolution. And it survived quite well for several hundred years without those concepts.
To claim otherwise is complete foolishness.
Now, most White Kiwis don't really believe in individual freedom (and individual responsibility) and property rights either. The fact that less that 10% vote ACT, and that 35-40% of them still vote for Labour or Greens, and that 20% of them still belong to unions, makes this absolutely clear.
As it is, positive change in NZ will only come about when anyone who has ever be associated with the left is banned from participation in the body politic.
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