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Some rather pithy commentary about colonialisation…

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Kiwithrottlejockey
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« on: April 03, 2018, 07:29:47 pm »


from STUFF/Fairfax NZ....

Racism and colonisation are inseparable twins

That prisons are full of young Māori men is an entirely
predictable consequence of colonisation.


By CHRIS TROTTER | 5:00AM — Tuesday, 03 April 2018

Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, chief science advisor to the Prime Minister. — Photograph: Stacy Squires.
Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, chief science advisor to the Prime Minister.
 — Photograph: Stacy Squires.


SIR PETER GLUCKMAN has pleaded with his fellow New Zealanders for a more rational conversation about crime and punishment. Good luck with that Sir Peter.

New Zealand came into being at the behest of the New Zealand Company's titled investors and the Foreign and Colonial Office's high-minded bureaucrats. It was paid for out of the lands and resources expropriated from the indigenous population. Or, to put it even more bluntly: New Zealand was built on the ruins of tribal economies and at the expense of Maori culture generally.

That this country's prisons are full of young Māori men is, therefore, an entirely predictable consequence of colonisation. What's more: from the point of view of the Pakeha legatees of all that nineteenth and twentieth century expropriation; it is an entirely necessary one.

Colonisation is about much more than simply transplanting the culture of the metropolitan power geographically. Long before the first wave of settlers sets sail, the colonising power is required to furnish them with an unassailable justification for doing so.

Ordinary, decent people are reluctant to steal the property of other ordinary, decent people. But only convince your settlers that the indigenous inhabitants of their new home are heathen cannibals: primitive savages in desperate need of the blessings of civilisation; and all the subsequent thievery required of a successful colonisation effort can be presented to posterity as evidence of settler beneficence.

Racism is not the unfortunate by-product of the colonisation process: just one of those things that happen when two very different cultures come into contact with one another. No, racism is absolutely integral to the colonial project: its usefulness extending far beyond the initial phases of conquest and pacification.

The legitimacy of the New Zealand colonial state rests upon its foundation myth. The uplifting story of how of the Treaty of Waitangi drew the indigenous tribes of New Zealand peacefully within the compass of Great Britain's beneficent civilisation.

Implicit in that myth, however, is the unspoken contention that Māori needed Britain's civilising influence. Without the efforts of the missionaries; without the spread of literacy and all the useful knowledge that accompanied it; Maori existence would have remained, to use Thomas Hobbes' pithy definition of the State of Nature: “nasty, brutish and short”. That, in brief, is what Pakeha New Zealand has been encouraged to believe for nearly 200 years.

Within this overtly racist construction of the Māori-Pakeha relationship, the justification for the Land Wars takes on a profoundly defamatory aspect. In essence, the argument advanced in defence of these military campaigns is that they were forced upon the colonial government by the wilful reversion, by a number of “rebel” tribes, to the primitive superstitions and unspeakable savageries of the Māori past.

Without the help of “friendly Māoris” (not to mention the intervention of 12,000 imperial British troops) the infant New Zealand nation would have perished. But, by overcoming this last, desperate gasp of Māori barbarism, the colony was able to move forward and embrace its destiny as the “social laboratory of the world”.


That prisons are full of young Māori men is an entirely predictable consequence of colonisation, writes Chris Trotter. — Photograph: Iain McGregor.
That prisons are full of young Māori men is an entirely predictable consequence
of colonisation, writes Chris Trotter. — Photograph: Iain McGregor.


Here, then, is the deeply embedded racist explanation for the gross over-representation of Māori in New Zealand prisons. Consciously, or unconsciously, when the eyes of Pakeha authority-figures fall upon young Maori men they see people who are dangerous; potential rebels; ready to “revert”. And, when young Maori men see this version of themselves reflected in the eyes of teachers, social workers, police officers, prosecutors, judges and corrections staff, that is precisely what far too many of them become.

That more than half of the 9,000 prisoners incarcerated in New Zealand prisons are Māori tells us all we need to know about what Pakeha New Zealand needs from its indigenous population.

Many Pakeha see Māori culture crowding-in on them like the primeval bush that once crowded-in around their settler ancestors' farmsteads. An alarming number of them would be hugely relieved to see it cut down, broken up and ploughed under. How else to explain the huge majorities racked up in local government referenda against the prospect of including even one dedicated Māori seat at the council table?

Since the 1970s, the New Zealand state has steadily distanced itself from the entrenched anti-Māori prejudices of its Pakeha citizens. Clearly in evidence across this country's political class is an ongoing effort to move beyond the racist rationalisations of its colonial predecessors. Sir Peter's attempt to wrench the crime and punishment debate out of the clutches of the Pakeha Right is another push in the same direction.

It remains to be seen whether the effects of colonisation — so evident in the behaviour of both Māori and Pakeha — are responsive to the well-meaning ministrations of social scientists. If New Zealand's story is not about British civilisation triumphant and Māori barbarism overcome, then what story should we be telling ourselves?


__________________________________________________________________________

• Known principally for his weekly political columns and his commentaries on radio and television, Chris Trotter has spent most of his adult life either engaging in or writing about politics. He was the founding editor of The New Zealand Political Review (1992-2005) and in 2007 authored No Left Turn, a political history of New Zealand. Living in Auckland with his wife and daughter, Chris describes himself as an “Old New Zealander” — i.e. someone who remembers what the country was like before Rogernomics.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/opinion/102768966
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aDjUsToR
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« Reply #1 on: April 03, 2018, 09:38:44 pm »

Another one who appears to have a PhD in bullshit.

The number one reason why any particular group is more likely to end up in prison is CULTURE. IE a culture that has a violent contempt for the wellbeing if others.

And the number one force driving that culture is lefty idiocy like that contained in the above essay. Prior to a lot of academia going mental around the late sixties Maori were actually proudly  training up to be part of modern society. Lefty lunatics celebrate hate mongering about ancient history. THEY are the problem, not "colonisation" in the distant past!
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« Reply #2 on: April 03, 2018, 10:17:28 pm »


Yep....I knew that article would draw the racists out of the woodwork.....those who cannot handle the truth.

And now the first one has oozed out of wherever he hides while spouting off about those uppity Maori folks who won't cooperate with what whitie wants.
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aDjUsToR
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« Reply #3 on: April 03, 2018, 10:28:20 pm »

Nah it's lefty idiots who are racist. Obsessed about contrived grievances over ancient history and dividing the population. That's textbook racism!!!
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aDjUsToR
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« Reply #4 on: April 03, 2018, 10:30:49 pm »

Hey Einstein have a look in the mirror. What colour do you see? 😁
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Kiwithrottlejockey
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« Reply #5 on: April 03, 2018, 10:56:28 pm »

Nah it's lefty idiots who are racist. Obsessed about contrived grievances over ancient history and dividing the population. That's textbook racism!!!


So in your eyes, it's okay for people to gatecrash one's country and take your land by force?

Bring on the boat people eh? Especially if they've got guns so they can seize your land at gunpoint.

Hey, in another 150 years or so, your descendents can start a grievance industry, eh?
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aDjUsToR
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« Reply #6 on: April 03, 2018, 11:28:43 pm »

Why are you dribbling on about ancient history??The British Empire conquered New Zealand. It's in the distant past. You aren't those people and neither are people today who identify as Maori. We're all part of the modern world. Wake up.
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Kiwithrottlejockey
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« Reply #7 on: April 03, 2018, 11:55:36 pm »


Actually, the Chinese will take over New Zealand by more subtle methods than those used by the British.

They will simply continue to buy up more and more real estate in NZ, then they will out-breed WHITE New Zealand, then take over at the ballot box.

No different to the British taking over in the 19th century.....one culture being superceeded by another culture.

In another 100 years, we may even have an English Language Week in this country, eh?

Hilarious!!!
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