Just lately our senses have been subjected to a barrage of news, (mostly bad) involving our ethnic brothers in this country. Apart from the violent end of things that have been happening, women raped, 3 month old babys killed with the extended family covering up , there is also our local Iwi (pronounced eewee & generally understood to stand for the words " I Want It" ; thats tribe to you non kiwi's. )they are trying to get us, being the tax payer , to pay for the gold in them thar hills past & present. Now the only gold from them thar hills that I possess is that which I wear on my ring finger. Jude gave it to me. I presume she paid coin of the realm for it & didnt hold a Maori to gunpoint for it.
I also have a book that describes an early horse racing event run in Thames by a local Maori family because they werent welcome at the white man's meet. Ok, that wouldnt be PC now, but these are more enlightened days as the Dubliners said in a song. Anyway, the upper crust of this particular tribe were wont to taunt the lesser heeled among the Pakeha, (Read NZ er of European origin) by lighting expensive cigars with 50 pound notes. This money was part of the payment received for allowing said white person to dig for gold on their property. I dont know about you, but if I had a banknote of that equivalent value, I could think of 50 better things to do with it than that.
My point is, that anything that Jude or I own, including land, we have bought from the current owner with money that we have earned fair & square, & we are damned if we like the concept of paying twice for things, the second time being millions of dollars of taxpayers money that usually ends up being squandered on bad investments or worse, stolen by a select few instead of being filtered down to those members of the race that are in desperate need, & believe me, they are more prevelent that you may care to think. Every time I hear Maori being sung or spoken on TV now, I cannot help but wonder what is being asked for now. I am not racist nor ever have been. Our present PC government has created the situation. If they held that particular carrot out in front of me I would probably take a hearty chomp at it too...
Rant over
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3 comments:
You know me, Jamie...I'm no racist either, nor would I ever condone racism in any form. But in the U.S., the blacks have been talking for some time now about "reparations" and their voices are getting louder and louder all the time. And even though I'm terribly sad that the economy of our country was once bolstered by slavery, I for one do not feel responsible for slavery and don't believe I should be held accountable for same by virtue of my membership in a non-black segment of our society. I didn't ask to be born white anymore than they asked to be born black.
Right on the button, Kathy. We as ordinary New Zealanders didnt steal from Maori. Neither did our parents or grandparents ad infinitum. What the British Empire did to Maori in NZ, they perfected long beforehand in all points across the globe, but for some reason it is ok 150+ years later for us to be paying for the sins of our forefathers' governments and that is not right. Its not Britain and its not those responsible who continue to pay through the nose, its ordinary New Zealanders stuck with a Govt without the balls to say "its over, its done, you have no power to coerce us generation after generation". Its not like the majority of the money is being spent on social systems to help Maori anyway, just the select few who are better at skimming the cream and most of the milk with it.
Hear, hear, Morty!
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