NATIONAL UNITY
At last the motto of Hobson’s Pledge, the maxim for which Don Brash has been constantly vilified and satirised in the media, has been accepted by the Prime Minister in her comfortingly inclusive phrase to Muslim immigrants; “We are one people.”
No, Ms. Ardern, we will not be ‘One People’ until you and your government return to all New Zealanders the same exclusive privileges you have bestowed on the 15% part-Maori in the community and correct the national injustices resulting from the political and judicial revisions of the Seventies, until the ethnically exclusive institution, the Waitangi Tribunal is removed, until you make us truly ‘One People,’ New Zealanders, and not accept groups claiming ethnic privilege.
— Bryan Johnson
ETHNIC EXCLUSIVITY
Recently, when acknowledging acceptance of a contract with Healthcare NZ, I was required to agree to a clause that I must “align to the Maori Health Strategy (2002) and apply the principles accordingly. On researching the M.H.S. I found that it was an official agreement signed by Hon. Annette King, Minister of Health and Hon. Tariana Turia, Associate Minister of Health in November 2002. I was disturbed by the fourth paragraph which stated the need for supporting the health status of whanau by “ addressing systemic barriers including institutional racism.” Seventeen years on this term appears regularly in the media from ethnic sources but without a shred of supportive evidence of the claim.
I then read an article in the Herald eulogising Naida Glavis claiming ethnic privileges. She acknowledges that in hospitals Whanau are already given special grieving rooms and designated corridors for the passage of deceased. The Kaipara Ward at Tauranga Hospital is available exclusively for Maori. Is this not institutional racism? If the ward was exclusively for pakeha it would be. But that would be considered Apartheid.
When questioned about Maori crowding out the waiting rooms and stairwells outside operating theatres she replied “ Maori aren’t responsible for the size of your waiting rooms and they are entering into a specialist area of karakia to give support to ensure the knife doesn’t slip.....” A slur on the expertise of our surgeons. Try using a tohunga who wasn’t even allowed to feed himself.
Ms Glavis, Hospital space and facilities are at a premium. Those of the other 230 national ethnicities have equal concerns for the health and well-being of their relations awaiting medical procedures but are not so impractical, self-serving and insensitive as you to others’ needs. None of them has been given special medical or health privileges.
Many of the health problems of Maori are the result of their chosen life styles and not the result of colonial oppression or institutional racism.
The cultural changes that you have claimed and that the Herald unreservedly published have been solely for the benefit of Maori and not all New Zealanders who pay for them. Your phrase “your waiting rooms” indicates an exclusive mindset. Is that because WE pay for them and YOU should have unlimited access to them?
— Name withheld
TO THE EDITOR
A couple of weeks ago you published an "anonymous" article on Maori myths and legends. I am SO glad that you have the courage, and integrity, to publish all that Don Brash has to say on the subject of the state of our nation as a counter balance to this. The constant harassment by people with Maori blood to be 'compensated' for having their position as sole migrants usurped by the British/Dalmations/Chinese (the latter having been proven to have been here before the Maoris since it is written in their annals, unlike Maori history) has done its dash, as far as I'm concerned. It is totally incorrect to call the original Polynesian settlers "indigenous people" to NZ since they arrived a scant 550 years before the Europeans. That does NOT make them indigenous - unlike the Aboriginees who've been in Australia for over 50,000 years.
As usual, my opinion will probably be met with silence, but I always believe in saying up front what I'm saying behind one's back. It would be nice to know that someone actually reads what I write, even if they don't agree. Remember, the other person's 'outrage' or potential accusation that I'm a racist (I can't be - the so-called Maoris of today aren't a race but a hybrid mix), is met by my own. To make matters worse, you may have surmised that I'm anti-Muslim. Actually I'm anti-religion! But – worst of all – I'm pro-Israel/Jewish. Boy do I buck the usual trends!
— Heidi
MEALS ON WHEELS
Thanks for printing the article on Papakura Meals on Wheels in the March copy of elocal. It says all we needed to say.
Appreciate your time and love the elocal, keep up the good work.
— Denise Levien
PACIFIC ISLAND WARRIORS
I find this subject fascinating. That a Kiwi people had successfully colonized this land with their own unique Kiwi culture, long before the Pacific Island warriors arrived.
Like all colonisers, the Pacific Island warriors initially, gratefully accepted help in the moment, friendship and companionship in order to survive in this new land until they noticed that by pure luck they had an aggressive advantage and went on to enslave, butcher and eradicate these people to near extinction.
The ancient people of this land and their remaining ancestors are still treated with contempt by Maoridom and the Government off the day, in their endeavour to perpetuate a blatant myth that modern Maoridom are the real Tangatawhenua.
The story of the ancient people will eventually be told, as history has shown throughout the world with similar examples but until it is nationally recognised, many believe the credibility of the history of Maoridom itself must be considered as suspect. What other history has been constructed purely for political and financial advantage?
I am reminded of the saying… “at every crossroad on the road that leads to the future, each progressive spirit is opposed by 1000 men assigned to protect the past.”
I look forward to reading the stories of any ancestors of the real Tangatawhenua and answers to the questions of how, why, when and where specific events took place, because the records prove they truly did happen.
— Phil A. Long-Taylor