Lock it in

Ka pai. Tino tika!
Knowing the Maori language better would have saved one of his lifelines, but in any event this British man on British television is several thousand pounds up due to the Maori language. So much for the white supremicist mantra that the Maori language will never come in handy! They are the losers.

Reflecting on the absurdity and the racism of the Pakeha couple in the Campbell Live show the other night that were horrified when their daughter came back from pre-school speaking some Maori words and their presumption, expectation and insistence that every pre-school should be exclusively English language the way their own household is... makes you wonder how far resistance to cultural intergration is in the Pakeha community. Probably quite a bit wider than the urban, middle class liberals that make television will ever adequately be able to show.

Half the population of Gisborne - where the couple were - are Maori, but the idea that their daughter is not in an exclusively Pakeha/English environment at pre-school seems irrelevant to them. They resent their daughter being in a position to understand and communicate in the indigenous language of this country. Their country is New Zealand - not Aotearoa - and they articulate the base supremicist traditions of this European NZ construct: a form of apartheid. They expect Maori to learn English and conform to Pakeha norms, but utterly reject they should have to learn of conform in any way for even one moment to anything Maori. Hypocrites, hatemongers and morons - the worst sort of person.

And then they get upset when the principal suggests that if they reject everything Maori then what is the point of them being in NZ? Why don't they leave?

The point for these Pakeha being in this country - whether they are conscious of it or not - is precisely the ideological strategy behind the more-than-likely importation of their European ancestors by the NZ government in the first place: to displace and suppress the Maori. Their self-worth and value in a Pakeha-dominated society is still premised on their white skin and to a lesser extent their thick Newzild accent - and so they resist and deny. They have made Maori the enemy and intend to keep it that way.

Their daughter has little real option but to grow up every bit as racist as their parents and to repeat the teachings of hate and mistrust to her children. These types of people should leave the country and end their occupation. We cannot progress when the balance of power is held every three years by a rump of bigots who get pandered to by the major parties.