korero

drug dealers pay tax under secrecy

Labels: compensation, drug dealers, ird, tax

posted by mystified @ 10:37 am 0 Comments

happiness

i was having a surf this morning and came upon this. i found the site interesting. something we all need to consider.

happiness = k (knowing who you are) x d (discovering your life's work) x l (learning not to tolerate what's not important).

that's a formula for happiness -- know yourself, your true calling and that you get what you tolerate.

you get what you tolerate

in medicine you look at how "well tolerated" a drug will be related to its side effects. at work and at home, many people evaluate new opportunities related to what can be well tolerated. yet after life, most people don't want their tombstone to read, "he tolerated stuff for other people because they paid him." especially, when we realize that we can make more money and have more fun doing work that engages our passions. life is too short for doing work you don't enjoy for people you don't respect.

"no man is born into the world whose work is not born with him."

james russell lowell

the message is: life is not a dress rehearsal. you can solve your problems using the mind you know you have. you can stop seeking answers outside yourself. you can look within.

Labels: happiness, life's work, tolerate

posted by mystified @ 11:25 am 0 Comments

it's started

Labels: bank, departure, november, rubbish, south

posted by mystified @ 2:14 pm 1 Comments

google accused

there is a lot of bile in the world. it saddens me that this kind of evil exists in nz. it saddens me that the worst of some cultures has spread it's evil on our most beautiful land. it mystifies me that these seriously misguided people came to this place to poison it with their racism and their hate. i truly do not know how they were ever allowed to bring their "shit" to this country. these guys think that they own nz. they think that they can dictate to us all, how we will live, who we will live with, and at what level we will be allowed to exist. this kind of utter ignorance, motivated my people to go to war against hitler and his oppression. i am proud, that my uncle won the victoria cross for bravery, fighting against this type of bullshit. go home! you do not deserve to live in aotearoa.....or maybe it's a dastardly plot by the "donsta" and his deputy, "caligula keys."

google accused of harbouring nz racists

thursday , 26 october 2006

racist blogs targeting minority groups in new zealand and australia are springing up on the web, but google's blogger, the service some are hosted on, refuses to take them offline, says an anti-racism lobby group.
"blogger is absolutely insensitive to complaints about racist and neo-nazi content," said brian stokes, co-founder of fightdemback!, a group that monitors the activities of racists, fascists and other such offenders operating in australia and new zealand.
blogger, owned by google, enables anyone to create a blog or online journal, and publish their thoughts online using internet space provided by blogger.
mr stokes said his group had reported numerous discriminatory blogger journals to google, both through the "flag" button that appears on each blog and through an email form that mr stokes said was "buried in their site, very hard to find".
mr stokes said his appeals had fallen on deaf ears at google.
"most other outfits [that provide free web space] like angelfire and tripod actually do respond," he said.
"we have probably knocked about 25 or 30 nazi, white supremacist, racist in general websites off the web, in the two and a bit years [since the group founded]," he said.
he refers specifically to two blogger journals that google has refused to remove from the web - patriot alliance downunder and red watch nz.
"patriot alliance downunder comprises a number of patriots and nationalists alike from new zealand and australia," its blog reads.
"we ... hope to preserve and defend our heritage, culture, customs, traditions, morals, and values, as well as our blood itself, against hostile alien elements that are destructive to who we are and we as a race hold dear."
the blog posts photographs and full names of anti-racism activists from australia and new zealand, in effect making this information available to those who wish to do these activists physical harm.
it also publicly endorses and links to the recent racist online board game based on last year's cronulla riots, but it denies that it's a "hate" group.
mr stokes said that the owner of the patriot alliance downunder blog was ben weerheym, convicted for being a getaway driver in a racist graffiti attack by neo-nazi group australian nationalist movement.
patriot alliance downunder does not list weerheym as the owner of the blog, but he has signed certain postings with his name.
while the patriot alliance downunder blog says its musings are simply nationalistic, red watch nz is more overtly racist.
"red watch nz is here to combat communism and zionism within our borders," reads the blog, which openly endorses the nazi movement.
"today is a sad day for national socialists all over the world. today in 1946, the eternal jew managed to swindle the allied nations into hanging 10 of our comrades at the nuremberg war crimes trial," reads a post published on the anniversary of the nuremberg trials written by author "we hate the jews!".
mr stokes said red watch nz was operated by nic miller, "famous for stunts like publishing a photo of fdb nz activist asher goldman's mother's tombstone, leafleting goldman's neighbourhood with libellous material, publishing photos of activists's parents' homes and their street addresses, [and] much more".
the tombstone post mr stokes mentions is still online, as are numerous posts that include photos, street addresses and even phone numbers of various activists.
miller is not listed as the owner of red watch nz, but some recent postings have been signed with his name.
"i think what google intends is not to restrict people's freedom of speech," mr stokes said.
"but we're talking about bashing up brown people and defaming them. this isn't politics, this is terrorism."
both blogs appear to violate blogger's user agreement, particularly red watch nz.
blogger's terms of service reads: "member agrees not to transmit through the service any unlawful, harassing, libelous, abusive, threatening, or harmful material of any kind or nature. member further agrees not to transmit any material that encourages conduct that could constitute a criminal offense, give rise to civil liability or otherwise violate any applicable local, state, national or international law or regulation."
whether or not the blogs invite legal action under australian law isn't immediately clear, simeon beckett, president of the australian lawyers for human rights organisation said.
"the racial discrimination act [federal legislation] and anti-discrimination act [state legislation] both prohibit racial vilification. it doesn't make that a criminal offence, but it does make it unlawful for a person to do an act which is reasonably likely to offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate another person or group. as long as that act is done because of the person's race," he said.
mr beckett hasn't visited red watch nz or patriot alliance downunder, but, based on our description of the blogs, he said their actions were probably in violation of australian law.
regardless, he said there might be difficulties in enforcing the law because it's highly likely that blogger's servers are located overseas.
"trying to enforce a right under australian law in the us makes it complicated and cumbersome," he said.
google refused to divulge where its servers are located.
mr beckett also said that, since the authors of the blogs have only posted names, addresses and photos of anti-racism activists, and don't appear to have explicitly incited violence against them (even if violence is implied), pursuing legal action would be difficult.
"i think there may be difficulties if all there was available was the name and address of the anti-racism activists," he said.
in its terms of service, pyra (the company that founded blogger, now acquired by google) says that it is not liable for the contents of user blogs, but mr beckett suggests that this might not legally be the case.
"if it's an australian server, and google itself has listed a blog that's racist in australia, it may be acting unlawfully itself," he said.
google, whose corporate motto is "don't be evil", says it will take the blogs in question offline only if ordered to do so by a court.
"blogger is a provider of content creation tools, not a mediator of that content," a google spokesman said.
"we allow our users to create blogs, but we don't make any claims about the content of these pages. in cases where contact information for the author is listed on the page, we recommend working directly with this person to have this information removed or changed. we would only remove content from this blog if ordered to do so by a court order," the spokesman said.

Labels: donsta, google, nic miller, racist, red watch nz

posted by mystified @ 10:00 pm 0 Comments

time for a break

Labels: bored, date scone, flat white, guitar lesson

posted by mystified @ 10:47 am 0 Comments

i could not resist this

Labels: anus, chicken

posted by mystified @ 9:46 pm 0 Comments

we're killing ourselves

we have joined the developed world. the goal? let's eat ourselves to death. we have the lose weight adverts, the weight busting tv programmes, the print media articles, advertising from the govt and we still eat rubbish at an alarming level. we still allow maccas and the colonel to kill our people. it's like smoking isn't it? we're just too dumb to take notice of what's happening. we ignore the facts. the diabetes, heart problems, the cost of this approach. lets face it. it's not working.
there is an important issue in this. the cost. in nz, it is less expensive to eat rubbish than to eat healthy. we live in a low wages society. this fact, is having a real impact on our health spending.
if people are poor, and good food is expensive, well, you do the maths. wake up govt. you dropped the ball and we are paying for it!
this is also worth a read.

if it's fatty and sweet, we can't resist
wednesday october 25, 2006
by martin johnston
new zealanders' love of burgers, chips and especially pizza just grows and grows - matching our waistlines. figures released by the ministry of health yesterday show how big the swing away from home cooking was in the five years to last year. revenue at supermarkets, grocery stores and dairies grew by 37 per cent, but the income of takeaway food shops rose by 67 per cent - nearly twice as much - to $1.02 billion. this was matched by big rises in the number of takeaway outlets. although the number of supermarkets rose by 17 per cent, the number of take-out pizza joints jumped by 57 per cent and chicken takeaways by 33 per cent. last year new zealand had 3524 takeaway food shops - and 6705 cafes and restaurants. in 2003-04 the average household, comprising 2.7 people (adults and children), spent $19.20 of its weekly food budget of $142.50 on meals out. proportionally this was a rise of nearly 3 percentage points in three years. this average household also spent more on confectionery ($6.50) than on fresh fruit ($5.90). quoting the restaurant association, the ministry's food and nutrition monitoring report 2006 offers a possible reason for the pizza proliferation. "pizzas, with low food costs, can be produced by low-skilled staff and will continue steep growth." the association's foodservice facts also comments on the pressure for chains to offer healthy foods. "history suggests consumers will let their taste buds dictate and salads with a burger will be a 'one-day wonder'." in a first, the ministry has bought information on advertising expenditure from ac nielsen media research showing that spending on fast-food chains, restaurants and cafes exceeded $67 million last year. mcdonald's was highest in that category, at $21.4 million. chocolate, confectionery and fizzy drinks attracted advertising spending of $57.3 million, nine times the $6.2 million on fruit and vegetables. the report reveals a subtle but significant change in the ministry's direction on obesity, nutrition and the food industry by providing the advertising figures and by raising questions, as it does, on matters such as the risks of food advertising to children, a battle long fought by public health campaigners. food marketing practices were not previously considered a core part of food and nutrition monitoring, the report says. but options for systematic monitoring were being explored and it would become central. the report says the food industry has detailed information available to it on the impact of food marketing. "but most of this information is not widely available because it is commercially sensitive and probably provides evidence that food advertising does increase sales." obesity action coalition executive director celia murphy said the release of the advertising figures provided strong evidence that "we need to restrict the kinds of foods that can be advertised because it's not the healthy foods that are being advertised".
weekly household food spending * total: $142.50.
* meals out: $19.20.
* ready-to-eat foods: $17.70.
* confectionery: $6.50.
* fresh fruit: $5.90.
source: ministry of health (figures for an average household of 2.7 people in 2003-04)

Labels: burgers, chips, fat, maccas, obese, sweet

posted by mystified @ 9:56 am 0 Comments

kiwis take note

Labels: chain gangs, discrimination, jail, sentences

posted by mystified @ 2:07 pm 0 Comments

global warming

this we should know about - this we should worry about - what kind of earth are we going to leave behind for our children? - just what can we do about it?

ozone layer hole 'bigger than north america'

the hole in the ozone layer above antarctica has grown to the biggest recorded size - larger than the north american continent - say nasa scientists, who yesterday released dramatic images documenting its changes.

the hole is a region where there is severe depletion of the layer of ozone - a form of oxygen - in the upper atmosphere that protects life by blocking ultraviolet rays from the sun. scientists say made-man gases such as bromine and chlorine cause the hole by damaging the layer.

paul newman, atmospheric scientist at nasa's goddard space flight centre in greenbelt, maryland, said: "from september 21 to 30, the average area of the ozone hole was the largest ever observed, at 10.6 million square miles." the increased size of the hole was blamed on unusual weather patterns. if the stratospheric weather conditions had been normal, the ozone hole would be expected to reach about 8.9 to 9.3 million square miles. however, colder temperatures result in larger and deeper ozone holes, while warmer temperatures lead to smaller ones. and this year, the lower stratosphere was about nine degrees celsius cooler than average. in addition to the vast area covered by the hole, what ozone there is in the skies above antarctica is thinner than usual this year. the ozone hole is considered to be the area with total column ozone below 220 "dobson units". a reading of 100 dobson units means that if all the ozone in the air above a point were brought down to sea-level pressure and cooled to freezing, it would form a layer 1cm thick. a reading of 250 dobson units translates to a layer about 2.5cm thick (about an inch). satellite measurements observed a low reading of 85 dobson units of ozone earlier this month. in july, by contrast, the ozone layer had a thickness of 300 dobson units. "these numbers mean the ozone is virtually gone in this layer of the atmosphere," said david hofmann, the director of the global monitoring division at the us national oceanic and atmospheric administration's earth system research laboratory. "the depleted layer has an unusual vertical extent this year, so it appears the 2006 ozone hole will go down as a record-setter.

" however, despite the dramatic size of the hole, the long-term prognosis for the ozone layer is healthy. while there are and will continue to be year-to-year variations in the extent of its coverage, scientists expect a slow but complete recovery by the year 2065. "i don't think there's a risk of the ozone hole growing and destroying the world," said ken caldeira, of the carnegie institution of washington's department of global ecology. although cfcs and other dangerous gases that damage the ozone layer can linger in the atmosphere for as long as two generations, the amount of such damaging gases released into the atmosphere peaked in 1995 and has been declining ever since. this means that, in theory, the ozone layer will have a chance to recover, although at an extremely slow and gradual pace for the next decade. scientists expect the hole to reduce by just 0.1 to 0.2 per cent a year for the next ten years, before bouncing back more swiftly in later years.

nasa also reported that ice was melting in greenland more quickly than it was being replaced and more rapidly than scientists had believed.

"the results show a dramatic speed-up in the rate of ice-mass loss since the 1990s," said nasa researcher jay zwally. "a very large change in a very short time."

in a report published in science magazine, researchers concluded that greenland has lost 41 cubic miles of ice along its coast and gained only 14 miles from snowfall in its interior. sea levels would rise 20ft if greenland's icecap melted totally.

invisible barrier that protects planet from harmful solar rays

ozone forms a protective layer high in the earth's atmosphere, helping to reflect harmful rays from the sun.
particles of ozone normally exist at levels of about 10 parts per million in a layer between nine to 30 miles above the ground.
however without this thin protective barrier virtually all forms of life from penguins to plants would be affected by ultraviolet radiation, which can cause skin cancer in humans and generally damages dna, the fundamental building block of life.
normally, there is a natural cycle of creation and destruction of ozone, a pale-blue gas with a pungent odour, but pollution can adversely effect this process. warm temperatures on the ground tend to mean colder temperatures in the upper atmosphere, which exacerbates the problem.
many of the ozone-damaging cfcs - once commonly used in refrigeration, air conditioning and industrial cleaning - were banned in 1985 by the vienna convention and in 1987 by the montreal protocol.

Labels: global warming, nasa, ozone

posted by mystified @ 10:11 am 0 Comments

criminal teachers in the classroom

Labels: abuse, council, criminal, pc, sexual, teachers

posted by mystified @ 11:02 am 0 Comments

poor kieth

Labels: kieth urban, marriage, nicole kidman, rehab

posted by mystified @ 11:55 am 0 Comments

aargh we lost!

Labels: kiwis, oz

posted by mystified @ 11:11 am 0 Comments

wee willie won't wack back

Labels: david kidwell, haka, hongi, test, willie mason

posted by mystified @ 10:05 pm 0 Comments

our very own

Labels: darwin, idiots

posted by mystified @ 7:50 pm 2 Comments

mmm it's on

Labels: coaching

posted by mystified @ 7:34 pm 0 Comments

now for the life

Labels: christchurch, gymnasts, job

posted by mystified @ 8:25 pm 0 Comments

those who decide lack empathy

Labels: herceptin, pharmac

posted by mystified @ 10:55 am 0 Comments

will they ever learn?

Labels: maori bloodlines, ranginui walker, ruth laugesen, steve maharey

posted by mystified @ 11:36 am 0 Comments

treaty claim for uk pensions

Labels: hone heke, ngapuhi, treaty of waitangi

posted by mystified @ 10:46 pm 0 Comments

whatever!

Labels: caffiene, calories, coaching, diet, enviga, health

posted by mystified @ 4:27 pm 0 Comments

it's thursday today

Labels: christchurch, gangs, naenae, racist, treaty

posted by mystified @ 11:47 am 0 Comments

can aotearoa be violence free?

tariana turia
co-leader
nz maori party

this speech by tariana turia is quite interesting. she speaks against violence and offers a possible scenario for maori to consider. definitely worth a read and a think.

speech: can aotearoa be violence free? - absolutely

the way forward

tariana turia, co-leader, maori party

whanganui memorial hall; tuesday 3 october 2006

there was a question asked early on in the workshops which got me thinking. a simple enough question: do we believe that aotearoa can be violence free? the response was resounding. not one hand went up. i am hopeful that if we were to ask that question now, that the hall would be a sea of hands, all proudly, passionately proclaiming, yes; we believe we can make the difference. we owe it to ourselves, our whanau, our mokopuna, to be violence free. we have to believe we can make a difference. we have to believe in the value of toi ora - of holistic well-being, that we can be purposeful in all that we do, to be life-enhancing. all it takes is three little steps. tamati kruger, this morning, has given us inspiration coupled with practical ideas, about how to achieve mauriora.

mauriora - ultimate and optimal well-being - is an ongoing journey which involves

– dispelling the illusion that violence is normal;

– removing opportunities for violence to occur;

– transformative practice, sourced in our kaupapa.

the first critical step is recognising that violence diminishes the potential of whanau. we need to stare at the many faces of violence: how we speak to each other, how we treat others, the institutional violence of ‘power over’. to recognise economic violence, when people are denied access to resources and power; when their dignity, and even their existence is under threat. being able to see and feel spiritual poverty. as tamati says, it is the assassination of hope. violence can also be demonstrated in denigrating someone’s project or idea - when you choose not to make it work. i wonder if the hostile treatment that project mauriora has faced through lack of sustainable state support is an example when those in power chose not to support greatness, ideas sourced in our kaupapa. and i will say to you all, that the maori party will heed the call from our kaumatua, john maihi, this morning, that we will leave no stone unturned in demanding that project mauriora must continue to be supported as a project that works, that has results, that has the power to achieve universal well-being and happiness. a world free of violence. mereana described all violence as having a whakapapa. tim metcalfe brought the stark reality of that whakapapa to us yesterday -intimidation, threats, assault, sexual violation. i know that some in this hui found his workshop challenging - but in order to address violence, we need to know it, to breath it, to smell it - no matter how uncomfortable it makes us feel. tim told us about terror. he talked about the way in which responsibility is shifted, control is exerted, sometimes all it takes is the look in the eyes. he identified the violence of colonisation; a theme which nayda also picked up on, in her account of the alienation that was entrenched over generations in her whanau. inter-generational despair. archie expressed the anger and hopelessness we have experienced with the foreshore and seabed confiscation; the actions of a government intent on removing references to the treaty from legislation, from education. he gave voice to the anger that has built in us all, through the recent statements about whakapapa being diluted, the hurt we have all felt about someone wanting to define us; to deny us our right to be maori. mereana also expressed the grim impact of internalised hatred, aided and abetted by the impersonation of power. and she gave proof to the fact that humour is indeed a way of helping us to cope. but if all of these actions reduce or diminish our potential - the upside is that whanau also have the opportunity to unleash the potential of whanau like no other group can. indeed, whanau are the key.

and i share, with all those who stood in awe this morning, to honour the wana, the wehi, the ihi of the korero laid down. we breathed, we experienced, we felt the thrill of life, the awe of life, the excellence of inspiration. tamati enraptured us, embracing the fullness of wairua, hinengaro, ngakau, tinana so that we could know it. so that we could feel it. so we can be it. mauriora! the second step in the mauriora framework is to remove opportunities for violence to occur.

once we have identified the intent and impact of violence; we must look at the contributing causes of violence within our society, our whanau, hapu, iwi, our communities. we need to look at the areas where there are risks and face them front on. alan johnson talked about south auckland : social hazards like pokie machines, loan sharks, liquor outlets, gambling venues. professor mason durie made such a huge impact on the hui with his application of the tikanga of the marae - and how we can consider factors such as time, boundaries, distance, space in ways which can help us to be violence free. i must admit i was surprised that as a descendant of whanganui, no-one stood to question the use of the concept ‘kawa’. i remember my cousins matiu and joan saying absolutely definitively, that for us in whanganui we consider kawa as te kauwae runga - those atua-given gifts that come to us; while tikanga is te kauwae raro - the man-made factor that we can do something about. we must look to our kaupapa - from which flows our tikanga - to provide us with opportunities to create transformative practices. and as mason talked about - it’s knowing the whole picture: mana is not just about being strong and powerful; mana also evolves from manaakitanga, the way in which we care for people.

so the third step, is in truly believing and understanding the value of our kaupapa and tikanga as tools for transformation. to recognize the whanau impact assessment that needs to take place not just in the processes of designing and implementing policies but in our living rooms and our wharekai. the question that piri left us with yesterday, was what can i do, to give strength to my whanau? the tikanga of our marae life - celebrating collective action, the standing of the group as a whole, encourages us to think broadly about what are our rights, and our obligations in responding to the circumstances of the whanau. how do we apply the concept of tikanga to our families, establishing safe spaces apart which will help nurture a relationship; respecting the boundaries between generations? the whakatauaki from rawiri - in quoting popeye - says it all - “if it is to be; it is up to me”.

we must be bold enough to look at the impact of violence in our own lives, and trust that true liberation will come from our kaupapa. and i want to really mihi to every single one of you here today. i felt such a rush of hope when i walked into this crowded hall yesterday, and could feel the awesome potential of you all gathered here. to see such a huge turnout for such a soul-shattering issue is incredibly affirming. you have all demonstrated courage in coming to this hui, having the faith to know that together, we can change this. and i give particular tribute to the leadership and vision of nancy tuaine, in making this day happen. in standing up to be counted. we must apply that same faith now, to truly living our kaupapa.

i know it isn’t always easy. the maori party has upheld tikanga derived from kaupapa such as manaakitanga, kotahitanga, whanaungatanga, wairuatanga, kaitiakitanga, whakapapa, te reo, mana whenua, rangatiratanga; right from the day we were launched, in this very memorial hall, on 10 july 2004. even though i thought i believed in key basic values such as respect, there have been times over the last two years, when it would be so tempting to fall into conflict or mana-diminishing behaviour. rangatiratanga involves hard work. and until it becomes automatic, it may take practise. taking risks, edging towards the middle, rather than the back row. it may mean re-learning a new way - like tisa told us -for some families, learning that the fridge is for kai, not just beer.

making the changes necessary so that our children don’t become the parents they fear. i recall in our time at pakaitore, for many of our young people, it was their first experience of marae living. the discipline inherent in our tikanga and our kaupapa were critical to our safety - and a powerful learning experience about what we needed to stay strong. we must believe we can do it. we owe it to ourselves to liberate ourselves, to have hope and faith, to trust that we know what are the best solutions for us. we have to show we can do this - that our tikanga is important to us, that project mauriora works because it is based on our values. nothing would disappoint me more than if after leaving this hui, the providers that have come, adapt the information and handouts to enable them to get more resources, to get more services, to provide more services back to whanau. there has been korero throughout the hui about resources, about providers, about agencies, and quite rightly, we mustn’t let the state off the hook. we must ensure our basic citizenship rights are supported, that there is sufficient investment to enable our people to determine our own best plans. and as mereana pointed out, eight out of a possible $68 million for the people to determine our own solutions is not fair; it is not just; it not equitable. we must not get seduced by counterfeit authorities, in imposters. the solutions do not lie in the crown; the answers are not out there. for as mason reminded us the key lies in whanau. the fourteen iwi prevention violence strategies that are alive throughout aotearoa give us ideas about how one elevates and enhances mauriora. we have the leadership within. we have the authentic models refined over generations; in whanganuitanga; in te ao whanau. all we need now is the action to make it happen. we need to empower whanau - to work within our own - to restore and transform our families. to draw on our kaupapa and tikanga, as tools to help work towards a life-long commitment to the restoration of peace within our whanau. to reignite that fire in our souls, to reinstate the capacity to care. to be generous with time. to understand that aroha is the only way to counter hate. to celebrate the collective strength of whanau. believing in what is possible - whanau wellbeing.

let us not be the ones who put up the fence to forever contain us in a paddock not of our making. and let us also resist those who would want to put up fences to stop our potential in its track. we must climb over that fence, and be brave, proud and strong enough to confront the issues that deny us te wana, te wehi, te ihi.

do we believe that aotearoa can be violence free? absolutely.

Labels: violence, whanau

posted by mystified @ 3:32 pm 0 Comments

smoker's fault

Labels: addiction, don brash, helen clarke, smoking

posted by mystified @ 3:03 pm 0 Comments

the power culture strikes

Labels: entrenched, power culture, racism

posted by mystified @ 10:44 am 2 Comments

naenae living

Labels: black power, mongrel mob, naenae

posted by mystified @ 10:31 am 0 Comments

debating the maori bloodlines issue

08 october 2006
don brash's comments on maori bloodlines have stirred debate about the nature of maoridom and national's policies. sunday star-times columnist frank haden and dr rawiri taonui, head of the school of maori and indigenous studies at canterbury university, debate this divisive issue.

dr rawiri taonui
don brash's claim that maori are no longer indigenous because there are few, if any, full-blooded maori left is nothing but old-fashioned colonial racism in new-age disguise.
while whakapapa or descent is a prerequisite for identity, the exclusive application of the stockman's blood quantum in this way is deeply offensive. in colonial times the quantum doctrine, skin colour, and weird things such as head shape, the size of the penis and female buttocks were used to position dark skinned peoples along an evolutionary continuum between animals and europeans. black, brown and yellow were inferior and evolving toward whiteness.
the assumptions underwrote policy from 1840 to recent times. governor george grey, henry williams, richard taylor, elsdon best and percy smith -administrators, missionaries and teachers alike - believed maori were children in the lower stages of human culture. the infamous 1960 hunn report classified three kinds of maori: half-castes, who were more european-like, lived in cities, spoke no maori and were advanced; those who were still maori but lived in the cities and were making progress; and those who spoke maori, lived in rural areas, and remained "backward and retarded".
colonial governments and racist regimes used the doctrine to deny basic human rights. dark aborigines were deemed non-human so britain could possess an uninhabited australia. north american colonies classified indians, african slaves and mixed offspring. the united states graded hawaiians. nazi germany applied the same principles as racial science. in pre-1974 new zealand, maori who were less than half-maori did not always officially qualify as maori.
among its several assumptions, the doctrine presumed intermarriage accelerated evolutionary progress. adherents welcomed intermarriage as a way of obliterating difference. dilute dark blood, lighten the skin, create a more intelligent and evolved person. hence, post-korean war australia granted the franchise to aborigines who reached the half-caste threshold, although, as a check against residual pollution, they still had to prove they were "civilised".
these views drove the view that maori would and should die out or assimilate. but the opposite happened. the maori population recovered from 35,000 at the turn of the 20th century to over 600,000 today.
brash's belief that the arrival of his forebears in 1848 somehow negates the indigeneity of maori is an affront to the 6000 indigenous peoples who number 500 million in the world. indigenous is more than hanging around for a generation or five.
indigenous peoples are the descendants of the original first occupants. they are first nations, first peoples, tangatawhenua. later arrivals have nothing to lose and everything to gain by respecting that. in a weak attempt to regain the post-orewa popularity of 2004, brash threatens the reverse by appealing to the innate fears of those who have difficulty accepting brown people as co-equals.

indigenous peoples also descend from pre-state societies marginalised politically, economically, socially, culturally and ideologically through western colonisation. brash tramples the tragedy of this reality when he blames maori for the disproportionately negative social indices - it's their own fault.

this rhetoric ignores the cumulative intergenerational impact of colonisation. the present is shaped by the past. when the land was taken, maori lost their economic base. maori were excluded from political power. economic and political disempowerment impeded providing the basic needs of tribes and families. it undermined development, causing under-performance in education, the main avenue of upward mobility. education was also prejudiced. the barriers were insurmountable. one generation could not provide for the next. most of the next generation repeat the cycle. the dominant culture expected the subordinate culture to fail and condemned them for it, while garnishing its own table with the spoils from the land.

brash says poor maori choices cause poor maori health and a failure of maori to study law, despite having places reserved for them. however, the poor practice poor health the world over. poverty and despair level choice. affirmative action and equity initiatives in education fail because they assume deficits on the part of maori rather than institutions.

race versus need is a rhetorical smoke screen. maori have the greatest need and that is to be treated without prejudice. brash's cry of one law for all ignores the cumulative impact of a history of racist legislation, court decisions, government policy and continuing institutional barriers.

indigenous is also about preserving and transmitting to future generations cultural identities, social institutions, customary practices and spiritual values about ancestors, land and the natural world. brash diminishes and dismisses the identity of the descendants of a people who have lived here for 1000 years.

he mistakenly thinks new zealand is whitening. it is browning. the maori population is growing faster than the european one. children of maori descent will comprise 40 per cent of all school children by 2050. more than that, any person of maori descent can call themselves maori. there is new pride in doing so, less fear. gone are the days when people hid their maoriness because of the stigma and discrimination of mono-cultural white new zealand.

it is disturbing that a deliberately divisive person might be the next leader of a multicultural maori, pakeha, pasifika and asian country. archaic, antiquated, anachronistic, backward and inferior views have no place in a civilised society. i prescribe evolution.

frank haden
don brash's attack on demands for indigenous status for everyone who feels like a maori is one of the most effective barrages he has mounted in his campaign to lead the next government. by insisting maori people can't claim to be a distinct indigenous group because, after a couple of centuries of racial dilution by interbreeding, few if any full-blooded ones remain, he has struck gold.

if he follows up this success, summoning his best advisers to help join battle with adroit political stair-dancers winston peters and pita sharples, he will rekindle the fires lit by his memorable orewa speech of 2004, when he promised to dump laws that give maori people preferment based on the colour of their skins.

this time he has put his finger on the most vulnerable point of maori activists' claim for special treatment -that anyone can become a maori by choice as well as by birth.

we can work this out from the shrill reaction to his eminently sound assessment.

"there goes brash again, kicking us when we are down," cry the politically correct of all skin shades from pink to brown.

these people are left cruelly exposed as they flounder about trying to justify their proposition that because some maori settlers got here before the first white ones, all their descendants are entitled to regard themselves as special, as part of a separate racial group that automatically goes to the front of the handout queue.

they have no answer to people like brash who point out that many who claim they are maori have far more pinkish people than brown among their ancestors.

these off-pink people should logically be classified as non-maori when the goodies are being distributed, or when concessions are made to maori criminals whining that their race entitles them to special privileges.

brash also struck a nerve with the rest of us out here, already alarmed to hear the extraordinary statement by high court justice david baragwanath that maori people might need separate legal treatment.

we agree with brash that there must be one set of laws for everyone, regardless of skin colour.

the ill-advised crew attacking brash included senior national mp georgina te heuheu, leaving herself open to ridicule when she said that whether or not you were maori was a matter of practices, customs and language, not the proportions of your maori and non-maori blood.

it was not surprising she was joined by auckland university academic dr lynette carter in this desperate attempt to show that being a maori is a matter of how you behave, not who your parents are. carter, regarded as an expert in "blood quantum", said that what made people maori or non-maori was their degree of participation in and belonging to the maori community.

the bizarre conclusion both these women had come to, in effect, was that a person's race was not involuntary, as we had all naively believed, but a matter of choice. they would have been better off listening to highly-respected academic dr elizabeth rata as she told the annual conference of the skeptics in auckland last weekend that politicised ethnicity subverts democracy when it takes precedence over citizenship as a person's primary political status.

a former fulbright scholar with her own unchallengeable whakapapa, rata works in postgraduate studies at auckland university and knows her stuff. she pointed out that since the 1970s we have ignored our national identity by prioritising ethnicity disguised as biculturalism.

maori party co-leader sharples was intellectually dishonest when he said brash's argument would lead to the extinction of the indigenous maori nation once a certain blood threshold was reached.

brash has never called for the racially defined maori segment to disappear.

all he wants, and all we want, is for the privileges that now attach to the group to disappear.

sharples continued with a mysticism-shrouded claim that maori ancestry is indivisible, that no matter how many of your grandparents were non-maori, you are still mokopuna. this means if you are part-maori you are maori, never mind how many non-maori people lurk in the family tree. we out here are never going to accept such a proposition.

peters, the perennial jester, has made a mistake in conveniently forgetting his own history of objecting to special treatment for maori people, and deciding by his own tortuous thinking that brash's questioning of indigenous status is now somehow "evil". he showed he has lost touch with us out here when he attacked the brash view of maori blood proportions as a prescription for denying the minority race any legal status as maori.

too right that's what it would mean, and that's exactly what we want. if i go into a court with a maori, i don't want to have to allow for the fact that i will be fighting with one hand behind my back because my opponent has legal status as a maori.

Labels: bloodlines, don brash, donsta, frank haden, maori, rawiri taonui

posted by mystified @ 3:07 pm 0 Comments

now for something very important

mighty lions roar at last
07 october 2006
by toby robson

wellington 36 canterbury 23!
yehaa - we killed them, smashed them, and did several other unmentionable things to them. the world has been put to right. things are as they should be. get the full story right here .....

Labels: canterbury, rugby, wellington

posted by mystified @ 10:35 am 0 Comments

correction vs abuse

Labels: abuse, amoral, consequences, correction, guidance

posted by mystified @ 9:19 pm 0 Comments

had enough yet?

Labels: assault, unconcious

posted by mystified @ 2:48 pm 0 Comments

who's problem is it?

Labels: community, poverty, south auckland, teachers, violence

posted by mystified @ 11:07 am 0 Comments

a community problem

Labels: community, crime, gangs, mob, youth

posted by mystified @ 10:53 pm 0 Comments

the 'donsta' - an unneccessary evil?

Labels: don brash, donsta, maori

posted by mystified @ 12:07 pm 1 Comments

respect

Labels: forgiveness, nickel mines, respect

posted by mystified @ 7:29 pm 1 Comments

what a day

posted by mystified @ 4:00 pm 0 Comments

what i do.....

posted by mystified @ 9:38 pm 0 Comments

one law for all?

Labels: don brash, one law for all, winston peters

posted by mystified @ 1:46 pm 0 Comments