same shit, same shit

Well we knew Susan Devoy was going to struggle in her new role - and so far it has proven to be. Her latest speech, described as a "slow motion train crash" shows just how far from being able to fulfill her role she is. I'm starting to believe that when devoy says stuff like "same shit, different day", when asked about the nature of her new work, that she is being deliberately provocative. 

The big issue is that it becomes all about her and not about the role itself which is not only needed but needing to have a strong, understanding and empathetic person in there. Susan is not that person and I cannot see how she will make it very far in the role, especially when she describes the Wellington staff as "difficult". It seems that the drive and determination of a squash player are not so transferable to the Race Relations role, but those qualities could be useful in creating a fairer society - it depends on the person really.

The lack of insight by devoy and the lack of tolerance from many people over her lack of insight will make devoy very gunshy - she won't speak up, she won't advocate, she won't put herself on the line against the almost constant racism we find here. No, we will have a fake role with fake concern and fake action - meanwhile life goes on for the disadvantaged in our society, as devoy says, "same shit, different day".

devoy - early bad-taste April Fools joke

So, Dame Susan Devoy has been appointed as this countries Race Relations Commissioner - my view is that this is a shocker but she takes up the role on 1 April so it could be an early April Fools joke - if so, ha bloody ha. 

Devoy is on record as saying that Waitangi Day should be ditched as our national day and that we should have a national day that we "shouldn't be ashamed of" - she has absolutely zero idea of the rights of tangata whenua and she is dangerous because she believes that her new role is, "to make it right for every New Zealander" and it isn't difficult because the issues are just like, "disability, gender or employment issues" and that the Human Rights commissioner looks after all that stuff. She has said it is not a very complicated job and that tells us more about her than anything - she does not get it and really why would she - a squash player who supported veitch the scum who kicks and breaks a woman's back, a person who thinks Waitangi Day is an excuse to sit in the sun and have a barbie. I hope Idiot/Savant is correct and that this appointment is unlawful and those responsible are held to account.

This is the way tangata whenua are treated in this country by the likes of devoy and her ilk - how long before the shit is shaken off and tangata whenua decide to take back their rights. Can't come soon enough for me.

Hattips - Kiwipolitico, Frog Blog, The Daily Blog, No Right Turn

the twist of hate

TV3 are shocking with their completely misleading headline saying, "Harawira: Hang Rena captain - or Steven Joyce" They say

Controversial MP Hone Harawira's calling for the captain of the stricken vessel the Rena to be hanged over the environmental disaster the ship has caused in the Bay of Plenty.

This is what Hone actually said

Mana Party leader Mr Harawira wants a strong punishment for the Rena's captain. "Hanging the poor bugger might sound a bit harsh, but somebody should pay," he said. "Maybe we can send the Rena captain home with a stern warning and put [Transport Minister] Steven Joyce up on the gallows in his place."

As Rob on The Standard notes

Clearly is Harawira is joking.  He’s angry (we all are) – but he’s taking the piss.

Of course he is and it is obvious but TV3 have for some reason decided to go the inciting racial hatred way. Expect more of this as the election looms closer.

Hat tip The Standard

power and racism

Professor Mutu is continuing to agitate some people with statements like this,

Stuff

She said Maori could not be racist against New Zealand European as Maori were not in a position of power.

This is a very interesting point - the power aspect and on The Standard dave brown from redave made this comment which sums up my view beautifully.

A pretty dim post actually. Just because Mutu makes over-sweeping generalisations that actually have historic truth on her side, dimpost comes along with a more crude set of generalisations and lowers the level of debate which others accept with alacrity, except for uke.

You cannot be a racist unless you impose your views by means of power. Thinking that other people, tribes or family members are different and inferior is not racism unless you can define the ‘other’ in such as way as to gain by it long term. Historically racism as we know it was invented by European colonisers to classify non-Euros as subhuman to justify ripping off their riches and impose white supremacist rule. The Catholic church had a huge upheaval before it recognised Native Americans as humans capable of ‘salvation’. It took a couple of centuries for black Africans to achieve this select status.

When this colonial rule was overturned lots of white racists retreated to countries where they attitudes where not challenged. The British in India went ‘home’. NZ was already colonised by a majority of racists who while professing equal citizenship took away the land and self-rule. In the 20th century NZ copped a big flow of ‘kith and kin’ from Africa and Britain and here their attitudes were not usually challenged because they were accepted as normal. So there is some truth to what Mutu says. In many cases racists don’t recognise they are racists because racism has been ‘institutionalised’ and made respectable as ‘bicultural’ or ‘multicultural’ by the dominant ‘culture’. As RWC says lets haka as one people.

On the other hand, reverse racism, or reciprocal racism is not really racism since it can’t be imposed. If it could be then Maori would be running the country and whites would be complaining about being at the bottom of the heap. So-called reverse racism is no more than the expression of historic grievance of the colonial past being reproduced today as Maori marginalised off their land in the underclass. White racists hide their racism by trying to claim that this reverse resentment is equally pervasive and potent as Euro racism. Historic amnesia.

Some Maori gains have been made, especially by iwi middle class, but only by begging the state to redress past wrongs and playing by the rules of capitalism – that even Brash can agree with. Begging is hardly the action of racists. But if the begging begins to look like ‘special treatment’ then the racists come rushing out to cry ‘one law for all’.

In the final analysis NZ remains a racist country and the evidence for that is the majority support for the NACT regime that continues to plunder NZ’s land and resources and deny any possibility of Maori emerging from marginalisation into economic self-sufficiency.

And I cannot see any good arguments against that. I realise that dave's analysis is broad but we must understand the big picture to really see what is before us. There are many subtle aspects of racism, bigotry and discrimination and these absurd worldviews didn't arrive out of thin air - they were created and they can be uncreated - by us.

Meanwhile on Kiwipolitico Pablo has vented his spleen at his former workmate Professor Mutu.

chained by your insensitivity

Sometimes i get accused of being too sensitive, of finding offense when none is intended. That may have some truth - who knows. I do believe that too often some people just do not consider others or the ramifications of what they say or do. This example is from where I live. Needless to say the use of these effigies is disgusting to me but the symbolism with this one takes insensitivity to a new level. Am I too precious?

sci fi colonisation

the first one arrived all

sun-spill and screaming

like a God. Somewhere

a parchment of pixels

was signed and they don't

talk to us anymore.

What have we loved?

To make ours into

theirs they came in numbers.

I know it's a bit indulgent putting up another visual poem but this photo, when I turned it around, just looked like clouds to me, then spaceships. Stephen Hawkings warnings about aliens...  my love of sci fi and the assignments that I have just finished on colonisation... an interesting mix and my response to the ansells of this world.

john minto is right

John Minto is right.

From his blog

"The next time Sheppard drives from Auckland to Hamilton through the best agricultural land in the world I hope he gives a thought that all the land he sees was confiscated from Tainui because they had the temerity to fight a defensive war for their land against an invasion by colonial soldiers. Sheppard would call the miserly $170 million paid to Tainui in compensation a handout. I'd call it a ripoff."

and this is sheppards post that caused the response

"Look, nothing changes, our forebears gave them lollies in the 1820s, guns and booze, and it surely killed them off in droves. Copious volumes of cash that will cause social divisions among their people will surely do the same over time."

Read the comments on both posts to see what the challenge is in this country. We have a long long way to go but we are going don't worry about that.

facebook hate groups

Facebook hate groups and sites - well I am not a facebooker so I can't say I've seen too many of these but it is disquieting how many offensive groups form in this social networking arena. In Australia there is a big battle, from The Sydney Morning Herald

"Facebook sites inciting anti-Indian sentiment continue to flourish despite protests from Indians in Australia.

Groups such as I think Indian People Should Wear Deodorant, Stop Whinging Indians, and Australia: Indians, You Have a Right to Leave, have not been removed."

Freedom of speech so get over it? or the birthplace of hate and abuse?

"More than half a dozen Australian groups that are specifically anti-Indian are still active on Facebook. On top of that, there are many broadly racist groups, including F--- Off – We're Full and Speak English or Piss Off!!!, which has 54,000 members and is growing at a rate of about 2000 people a week.

"I don't think it's just a Facebook problem – it's a social problem, a problem in the society," Gautam Gupta, secretary of the Federation of Indian Students said.

This month anti-racism groups and school principals condemned students from elite Melbourne private schools who joined the group Mate, Speak English, You're in Australia Now.

Students from Sydney private schools Monte Sant' Angelo, Trinity Grammar and MLC are members of Speak English or Piss Off.

Facebook declined to comment on the sites.

I don't think i'll search for anti maori or anti-people of colour immigration in NZ because I am sure the results will agitate me.

Is this acceptable? Where are the lines? For me, respecting others and their unique differences is part of what connects us all. I love diversity and individuality because, paradoxically, the more we respect differences and diversity the stronger collectively we become. Knowledge is power - power over ourselves. And knowledge is the basis of awareness and connection.

I know that some people live in so much fear, mainly of themselves, that they hate or dislike people because of their race or colour. These people get together via social networking or whatever, and they gee each other on, reinforce their mutual paranoid fantasies, sometimes commit hate-crime, sometimes shoulder a person of colour on the sidewalk, and so on. If they didn't have a facebook site would they still do this? Yep. Does having a facebook site encourage them? Yep. Should the facebook sites promoting hate and intolerance be banned? Dunno. Or yes and no. Yes - because we must always make it harder for these people, they must know that we won't accept their dehumanising of other people. And No - it is important that we keep an eye on these nutters, their rantings and raveings are just mindless dribble from their fear-maddened minds. But those maddened thoughts lead to action for some.

What do you think?
Hat tip - Fight Dem Back

how to improve the quality of our 'race debate'

Well i think we are in for a big year this year. In many areas we will be tested, and race relations is going to be right up there. We have heard and read various debates around the issue in this country last year and often the debates descended into arguments about semantics rather than the real issues. The real issues were derailed.

Ever heard or read someone say things like...

"We just did to the maori what they did to the moriori."
"Maori kept slaves too."
"You are getting too emotional."
"Why not deal with the real maori problems."
"You're just oversensitive."

I have come across this article on 'derailing'. Funny and perceptive, I highly recommend it.

We are going to have to raise the quality of the race debate in this country or we will forever be battling these derailing tactics. Keep your ears pealed - these derailing tactics are everywhere.

Hat tip - stuff white people do