I thought I had taken a vow of silence of all things political. After the Maldivian presidential election came the American one (a very important and history making one as everyone would agree). For me next came the NZ elections. As this is my adopted country this has a huge impact on me as well. Following the trend, we in NZ also had a change in government. After 9 years of Labour rule under Helen Clark, we have (ahem) the National Party in the house. Wonder how that is going to play out in the next three years. Anyway not going to say much...
BUT have you seen Haveeru recently? 14 NEW STATE MINISTERS! what the hell?
The only thing that comes to my mind right now is from Lord of the rings
"Don't be so quick to take what you can't give."
Athena, Perhaps the new government in Male has taken the lead from the defeated socialist government of Helen Clark in your adopted homeland. Under Miss Clark, Nanny-State bureaucracy grew exponentially. For example the number of civil servants in Miss Clark's education ministry grew from about a thousand to well over five thousand. She created absolutely useless Nanny-State departments such as the Office of Ethnic Affairs. The new government in your old homeland surely is learning from the old government in your new homeland. You should celebrate the departure of Nanny Helen, even if you voted to retain her in office. If she had her way your morning shower would soon have the thrust of the urine flow of an old man suffering from prostate cancer.
ReplyDeleteIntelligent people in your adopted homeland voted for the Key to success!
as you usual you go off on your tangent! State Ministers are Hardly civil servants. After the big speech about cutting down political people on paycheck this is certainly worth noting.
ReplyDeleteWhether John Key is the key to success - still remains to be seen. As I said I am willing to give him a chance.
Helen Clark has been a strong leader and nobody can deny that. And I think its great that she brought in what you call 'useless' ethnic department called Ethnic Affairs. Just in case you are wondering, not everyone wants to be assimilated in to a dominant culture. Most ethnic people like to retain their identity and sense of belonging. And as long as NZ wants to keep importing skilled foreign people - it needs to provide for their needs as well. Some people think of it in terms of tax cuts while others stress more importance on their identity.
Also - Isn't Mr Key retaining the so called 'useless' department. and let alone heading it up with an Asian?
And anyway for those people who want to assimilate there is an 'ethnic' (or otherwise) category called "New Zealander' to tick.
And anywhere, trust you to find a relationship between two entirely different topics and two countries where none exist.
Anyway I am off the grid for a few days will catch up when I get back
Big government includes both useless politicians and useless civil servants. Both cost the taxpayer. A tax dollar spent by the nanny state returns the taxpayer only a few cents. A dollar not taken by the taxman gives the taxpayer a full dollar's worth. I would sooner keep my dollar rather than let the nanny state spend it for me. For goodness sake, I buy my own breakfast and so why should the nanny state choose the school I send my child and penalise me if I chose it myself?
ReplyDeleteExactly which box would you tick, if not "New Zealander"? "Kiwi-hating Sharia-demanding Christmasophobe Aotearoa-dwelling halal-meat-eater"?
My identity comes from my proud heritage which begins and ends with my family. It transcends national borders. Assimilation leaves it intact.
It could be worse. Consider that at the time of Silmarils, Sauron was just a pawn of the true Dark Lord. So its just evolving into the third age now.
ReplyDeleteJust kidding...
My Dear friend
ReplyDeleteMy ethnicity - I always tick other because I am not given the proper choice, if asked to clarity or specify I put Maldivian.
Wow, even for you ""Kiwi-hating Sharia-demanding Christmasophobe Aotearoa-dwelling halal-meat-eater" - is hitting way below the belt. Where did your golden rule go to? Or do you only apply it when you feel like it OR to specific people and ethnicities?
I wonder how much of your proud heritage you can express as a New Zealander.
Me calrifying my ethnicity as a Maldivian isn't necessarily related to national borders. Simply there is no better term to describe my ethnicity. I will not categorise myself with Indians, and as you well know 'Asian' means something entirely different in the NZ context.
can you let me know which policies of key will let you send your child to any schools you want without 'penalising' - this is a genuine query as opposed to a challenge, I really want to know!
Mr Karma - ehheh wish you weren't kidding coz it makes sense.
Are you putting that in the Maldivian context? cox I am dying to know who the dark lord is.... or the puppet master at this stage
I am not into ethnicity that much, as you will be aware from what I say in another forum where we have a mutual presence. I was not brought up in an environment where people were pigeonholed into ethnicities; rather the only categories I knew were family and nationality/ allegiance to a sovereign ruler. I always identified ethnic classifications with such unpalatable ideologies as certain forms of Hinduism, Nazism and Apartheid. Our civilisation endured much pain and lost life in order to abolish the latter two ideologies and I won’t subscribe to any effort anywhere in the world to recreate these concepts by other means. That is why I continue to classify myself by family and nationality/ allegiance to a sovereign ruler. Where none exists I don’t tick any boxes.
ReplyDeleteAs for the Golden Rule, I am still true to it, as I don’t treat others in a way I would not expect them to treat me. I don’t wish Apartheid to be applied on me and so will continue to protest anyone applying it on themselves or others.
I think you read only the first sentence of what I said about my identity as deriving from “… my proud heritage which begins and ends with my family. It transcends national borders. Assimilation leaves it intact.” If you have read and comprehended the other two sentences, you won’t ask me the question “how much of your proud heritage you can express as a New Zealander?” Every family I know has a family heritage quite distinct from their neighbours’ unless they are closely related by blood. They have their collective memory, their photographs, and epitaphs on the tombstones of their deceased ancestors that are different from those of their neighbours. To that extent, your family, mine and my next-door neighbours’ have distinct heritages which are not shared. This has nothing to do with nationality or allegiance to a sovereign ruler.
I am not a spokesman for Mr Key and so I am not in a position to answer your other question. Perhaps you should direct it to his office. As things were, the penalty for sending one’s child to a private school is having to pay tuition fees with no tax relief.
time will tell i gues. who knows. it might all be for the best in the long run.
ReplyDelete