Quick Update

I just wanted to say a quick apology to everyone for not being online a lot recently.

However, I’ve been run off my feet trying to sort out my new working conditions and settling into a new schedule. There has been so much going on relative to the political scene in NZ and the World in general that I’ve been dying to comment on, unfortunately I just don’t have the time.

I promise to get back to making controversial blog posts, and voicing my somewhat unreserved and unqualified opinion. I also look forward to updating my friends and family about what’s going on in my personal life. As this is also the only way you can keep up to date with me here in Korea, seeing that I’ve gone off of facebook yet again.

Remember you can still see what I’m up to through my twitter account, those of you who are interested.

I’ll be back on soon. Promise!

Alofa atu!

Gay Marriage, the Samoan Community and Its Hypocrisy

It’s funny what one man says can do to the conscience of so many people. Even those who are not technically affected by this person’s decisions or statements suddenly find themselves engrossed in a conversation that pertains to the topic touted by such a ‘great’ man. But such is the interconnected world that we live in now that the statements made by Barack Obama the President of the United States; has led a situation where now New Zealand’s legislature maybe confronted with perhaps the most controversial bill to come before the house in recent times. The issue of Gay Marriage.

It’s rather ironic that the two members’ bills that have been placed in the ballot for debate have been drafted so hastily and so publicly considering that less than a month ago, the issue wasn’t even close to being on the agenda. Rather, the country has been imploring the government to not go ahead with selling its assets as opposed to a lively discussion about whether we should let Adam and Steve join in legal matrimony.

And let’s not ignore the violent storm of public opposition to the government’s proposed education reforms (that was hastily reversed after it was apparent that it could be an issue to bring them down at the next poll)

But such is the fickleness of politics. A master politician wields far greater influence than any ordinary citizen can imagine. And an American president, nonetheless, has given LGBT rights campaigners in New Zealand the impetus to force the debate to the public fore. This coupled with a survey conducted by TVNZ which said that 63% of the country was now in support of gay marriage, the time has never seemed more ripe for New Zealand’s last bastion of discriminatory legislation to finally be brought out into the public, aired, dried and hopefully retired to the yesteryear of backward, conservative bigoted thinking.

It’s been a fast rise for the LGBT community in New Zealand. Homosexuality itself was only decriminalised in 1986, when I was 2 years old, and now nearly 30 years on, we are on the cusp of perhaps the country’s biggest signal that it has arrived at a point of social tolerance that encompasses all minorities. A status that really can only be afforded to a small developed nation like ours at the back end of the world, where social experiment is something we aren’t afraid of.

The path to this point has been rather interesting though. In 2004 the then Labour government (socially progressive) passed the Civil Unions Act, which allowed same sex couples to join legally and live just like a married couple. We thought that this was progressive for the country at the time and struck the right compromise between the conservatives and the progressives as marriage was more of a ‘religious’ institution in most people’s eyes. So it seemed everyone was happy with this arrangement.

So what has changed then to push gay marriage back on to the agenda in New Zealand? Besides President Obama’s ringing endorsement, and John Key’s half endorsement (if you could call it that) there were a couple of things that most of us weren’t aware of.

The government of the day claimed that the Civil Unions Act 2004 would give same sex couples and heterosexual couples that opted for a civil union the same legal rights as a married couple. It would just remove the religious aspect of the bonding of two people. Helen Clark the then Prime Minister even went as far to say that if she had had the option in her day, she would have had a Civil Union instead of Marriage to her long suffering husband Peter.

One thing we all forgot to pay attention to was the fact that under New Zealand adoption laws, a same sex couple could not legally adopt a baby even if they are in a recognised legal civil union.(It has recently been pointed out to me that this also true for heterosexual couples) So this is where the lines become blurry and the voice of dissent louder. I suppose then the easiest thing would be to just amend the adoption act right? Well, yes it would be, but would it be the right thing to do?

I thought about this long and hard at first. I asked myself, is it really necessary for gay marriage to be allowed? Is it worth all the angst, the public outcry, the heated and misinformed debate. The bigots attacking the gays, the liberals being labelled gay for supporting the ‘gays’. Why don’t we take the easy way out? Compromise is such a New Zealand thing to do!

But I answered my question with one simple sentence. Because it’s the right thing to do.

Why is that a small section of our society should be denied the basic right that is afforded to every man and woman due to their sexuality? It’s more than the right thing to do, it’s a basic human right. To be joined in matrimony with the person YOU love.

And that’s essentially it. Someone can not control who they fall in love with. And you and I have no right to tell them otherwise. In a world where love is difficult for many to find, why must we shun those who have found it just because it came in a form that we aren’t used to?

A wise woman once said to me that ‘I identify myself as a being capable of love, because although I prefer the company of men, I can not rule out falling in love with a woman. Because love knows no physical boundaries, true love connects two beings’. It was in that moment the penny dropped for me.

Unfortunately it hasn’t dropped for others.

Recently in the media, New Zealand First Member of Parliament Le’au Asenati Lole-Taylor came out rather aggressively in her opposition to the gay marriage debate and labelled the debate a ‘waste of time’. To quote the esteemed first term MP, she said to the Samoa Observer Newspaper:

“What I find irritating is that all of a sudden politicians or certain people are in support of it because President Obama said it, and because 63 percent of people polled are in support of it,The truth is, that’s 63 percent of people the surveyors spoke to, not 63 percent of the New Zealand population, let’s be completely honest about that.”

Apparently she disagrees with the TVNZ poll. And thinks people only support it because other people do? Interesting logic. She goes on to say:

“The media should be play(ing) its role to inform our people about some of the important issues that has to do with the cost of living, future direction of the country, education, employment and so on. Those are the things media should be bringing to the people so they are aware and be part and participate in them.”

I was taken aback at how low brow the quality of some of our politician’s comments can be. To say things like the media should be bringing ‘important’ issues to our people, is poor even by a novice politician’s standards.

What could be any more important to a person than recognition that they are an equal of any other person in our free society? What is more important than someone’s human rights? And this coming from a member of one of New Zealand’s other minority communities. To me it is rather disappointing. But she is not alone in her criticism of the debate.

Labour’s Su’a William Sio, another Samoan Member of Parliament wrote this in a column for the Samoa Observer: “I have received strong views from our Pacific community, the Asian community as well as Muslims regarding this topic. “I believe the majority [of them] hold to the belief that a marriage is a divine covenant made between a man and a woman and that covenant remains from beginning until the end of time.”

The word ‘Divine’ is the one that gets me the most. Because if you are Samoan you know for a fact that there is sometimes nothing ‘Divine’ about our people’s sexual practices. We don’t talk about it, but we all know it happens (married men sleeping with other men and fa’afafeine) And where does the Bible mention anything about fa’afafeine being a third gender? It doesn’t, yet it is a view widely regarded in Samoa as being a social custom. The truth be told our community are closeted bigots when it comes to the issue of homosexuality. And we promote an idea of social piety when in actual reality, we are far from chaste or pure.

Our community boasts one of the highest teenage pregnancy rates in New Zealand. We also have one of the highest teenage delinquency rates, yet we remain one of the most religious. Somehow, that correlation just does not seem to fit a logical order.

And neither does our view on gay marriage. Sio even admits later on in his column that: “The issue is sensitive because there are Samoan same-sex couples living together. Some of them raising children. And that is not new. Many of these couples are also strong supporters of the church and their extended families. These same-sex couples have mixed answers. Some would like to marry and others prefer the status quo.”

So there is recognition that they do exist. So why are our community so tight lipped about it?

I guess we are sticklers for hierarchy, and even in some crude way, Samoan society accepts fa’afafeine and ‘gays’ at the bottom of the social hierarchy.

There have been signs of change in Samoa. The Prime Minister is the patron of the fa’afafeine society/association and there are many fa’afafeine who are now working in Samoa’s public service, some of which are my good friends and family.

But the issue goes to the core of what Samoans do that piss me the hell off. (excuse my bluntness) Our refusal to support anything that may upset the hierarchy is really just an attempt at exerting dominance over another group. There is no reason why Samoans should be opposed to gay marriage. But it would mean that Samoans would have to accept a caste of people, that they have long designated to the bottom of the heap in society, and recognise that they actually do have something valuable to contribute. This scares the institution more than anything else in my opinion.

So as beautiful and wonderful my culture is, there are things I still loathe about it. Namely in this regard, the utter hypocrisy demonstrated by our leaders in New Zealand and their lack of a backbone. Their job is to serve all the community, not just the part that they are enraptured with. The majority.

And what about the others who are Non-Samoan and opposed to gay marriage? What do I have to say to them? Well let’s be honest. A common response I always get when I ask people why they are opposed to it is because it’s unnatural, it’s between a man and a woman. Well your lack of an explanation is all the explanation I need. Could you perhaps be a tad homophobic?

It’s like how a racist always precursors a racist statement with “I’m not racist but…” and proceeds to make a racist statement; such is the same logic behind your inability to find a sound argument for your opinion to be propped up on.

There is no logical or ‘natural’ reason to disallow gay marriage. People say that gay marriage will cause an upheaval in society. That’s not the ‘gays’ fault, that’s societies fault for being closed minded. I even read in a column by a New Zealand herald columnist that ‘gays’ shouldn’t be allowed to adopt because it will have severe damages on a child having to battle through discrimination all their lives because of their parent’s choice. That has nothing to do with their parents, the only thing that is causing the severe damage is the society itself. It’s refusal to accept others for their differences and your inability to focus on your own life and your insistent poking into other peoples business is really the issue here.

And that’s just it. Why do people get so worked up about gay marriage in the first place? No one’s telling you to have one. so what if your neighbours down the road do? You’re not walking down the aisle. So why don’t you just take a seat and let love be.

And the issue of religion is something that I really can’t stand. It’s a touchy subject for Samoans and I would probably need an entire new post to let out my frustrations.

But I just want fellow Christians to know this, God has made all of us in his image, he has earmarked all of us in his plans. Concentrate on your own plan and on letting God have his way in your life, rather than trying to get the Drag Queens on Kr’d to turn in their high heels!

Your right to your religion doesn’t give you the right to take away another person’s freedom. That is the most anti-christian thing I have ever heard in my life.

So let others be who they want to be, and let them be with who they want to be if you are a true Christian.

Because if you’re so busy making a huge racket, and screaming to other people to repent, chances are you’ll be too busy trying to be pious that you won’t hear God call out to you to love your neighbour as he has loved you.

To Be Samoan, a Blessing Indeed

As Samoans around the world celebrated 50 years of our beloved nation’s independence, I was heartened to see so many wonderful images of our people in every corner of the world paying homage to the sacrifice our forefathers made to regain a freedom that we so often take for granted. Samoa’s road to independence was not an easy one. Neither was it a peaceful one. The sounds of gunfire may have long ago gone from the streets of Apia, but the scars of the 1929 Black Saturday shootings are still discernible (albeit faint and distant). I personally will never allow the memories of these incidents to fade. It gives me great pride knowing our people survived such hardship and emerged victorious.

About 6 weeks ago, I met with a couple of my Samoan friends here in Seoul and suggested to them that we do something a bit more meaningful to mark Samoa’s golden jubilee of independence. And I also suggested that we make the event a charity event, whereby we raised funds and sent it back to Samoa to charities to help with the resourcing of Samoa’s schools. However big or small, at least it was something that we could say was our contribution to our nation. An added bonus that I am super proud of the organising team for pushing for. The support we received was just overwhelming from other peoples of pasefika here in Korea. Just incredible.

And so we, the self appointed komiti fa’afoe began work on creating a suitable event charged with celebrating Samoa’s independence, even here, on the neon plastered, overpopulated humid streets of the divided Korean peninsula.

I always found it rather somewhat ironic (even poignant to a certain degree) that I live here, among a divided nation, when Samoa too is a divided nation. Koreans like to harp on about their uniqueness, so much so that a lot of them don’t realise the commonness they actually share with a lot of the peoples of the world.

Oppressed you say you were? Join the club.

DIvided by the world’s big powers in a sick game of International Hegemony creation you claim? Been, there, done that, got the t-shirt.

However, I digress, (yes I do that a lot).

So as the curtain came down on our celebrations on Saturday night, and I was finally able to relax after a night of MCing the show and running around like a headless chicken. I started to think about what being Samoan has really meant to me, what it has taught me, and funnily enough, what my experience really was or is of being Samoan.

The last part of that previous paragraph might be a bit confusing for some. But I did mean for you to read a little bit more into what I’m insinuating.

As a gregarious communal culture, Samoans believe in the extremely strong bonds of family, kinship, respect, brotherhood and alofa. Not just unique to Samoa I know, but the cultural expectations are massive. I do not mean that this is a bad thing at all. In fact I love this aspect of our culture. Being Samoan means that my family is everything, and my family always has my back. no matter what happens.

Our individual families are then bound to other families from your village and a lot are also bound through the church. These families are so close that they kind of blend into one family, where everyone’s your Auntie, Uncle or second Mum or Dad. It’s great because there isn’t any shortage of babysitters, or family members to visit during the holidays. And everyone makes sure that you are well fed and looked after!

Samoan culture is such a proud culture that our way of doing things we believe to be the right way and the only way. (sounds suspiciously like Korea) But the difference with Samoan culture is that we embrace foreigners but don’t expect them to assimilate unless they want to marry in, then that’s a completely different story altogether.

There are also the natural physical abilities that Samoans have, the way in which we behave, the way in which we speak to people who are older than us. There is this old Samoan saying that goes ‘You can always recognise a Samoan by the way they stand, the way they walk and the way they talk’ But what if you don’t tick any of these boxes?

There are some things that are meant to come naturally to Samoan boys but was never natural for me. For example, the ability to play Rugby, (apparently we have superhuman powers that allow us to do this). I was meant to speak in a particular accent, (‘fobbish’ in NZ, a slight hint of ‘American’ in Samoa) which I never did. I was meant to have the taste for taking hard knocks to the body, fighting in scraps. None of which come natural to me either.

I don’t know, I’ve always had these Samoan physical features, And as a Kid, I knew that I was Samoan, but never felt that any of my peers on either side of the international dateline really accepted me as one.

In Samoa, I was too palagi. My cousins in Samoa would always make fun of me, the one who spoke Samoan funny. And the Samoan kids at school in New Zealand didn’t even think I could speak Samoan because apparently I spoke English like a palagi. And there was this weird assumption that I came from a rich privileged family. Yeah right.

Unbeknownst to my ‘chingus’ at school, Samoan was my first language, I spoke it all the time at home, And my Mum was a solo mum, barely able to make ends meet. I didn’t enjoy all the things that Samoan boys were meant to because I was different.

This is where I think being Samoan has its pitfalls. Although supportive and caring we are of our family and each other, we are slow to accept people who are different. This is an affliction that is not limited to just our culture I know. But I level criticism at it, because of the mere fact that it’s my culture, and I have the right to offer a reflective criticism of it.

Recently, I’ve seen and read a lot of discussion about the defiling of some Samoan traditions, and from what I’ve read, I can see why a lot of people are angry at the way in which the fa’a Samoa is not being maintained by some Samoans. Especially around the idea of the tatau or the traditional Samoan tattoo.

But I offer a different line of discussion to the mix.

I want to ask: When will Samoans learn to give up their tall poppy ways and their constant disregard of the ‘other’ Samoan?

Why is it that as gregarious as we are, if we meet another Samoan our natural emotion is one of defence until we can suss out where they come from and if they are from where they say they come from?

And then there’s the prejudices we hold against Samoans who come from a different part of the Diaspora/transnational community. There is the much vaunted and talked about ‘locals’ vs the ‘New Zealand borns’. Both of them cite their own reasons for their disdainful attitude toward each other.

There is also the emerging divide between Samoans in New Zealand, the ones in Australia and the ever growing community in the U.S. all three are distinctly different, obviously due to the amalgamation and sharing of the local host country’s practices. But, is the angst really that necessary? Each group tries to outdo the other with their ‘authenticity’ claiming the others to be ‘plastic’ meanwhile, the ‘locals’ call all of us ‘plastic’.

But aren’t we all essentially the same? We all originated from the same group of islands, all our families are interlinked, we can all trace our lineage to any of the aristocratic lines. We all came from a small group of homogenous people in the middle of the south seas.

And what about me? The one Samoan who didn’t even fit within his own diaspora community. For most of my childhood I floated among all of New Zealand’s minority communities trying to find my place.

I joined many different groups at school, played all the different sports, did all the different extra curricular activities, but made sure I never joined the Samoan group. People may have thought that I was trying to avoid being Samoan, but this could not be further from the truth. I was simply trying to avoid the empty feeling of not being accepted even by my own ethnicity.

The real pride I had in being Samoan stayed private to me going through school. I would only ever exclaim my enthusiasm for our legends and stories to the closest of my friends. To be honest I loved speaking Samoan. I embraced my identity wholeheartedly at home. I helped my Mum when she would tutor girls in Samoan dance for an upcoming performance or for the Miss Samoa New Zealand Pageant. I would stay up and listen to my Aunts and Uncles regale me of stories about living in Samoa during the days of economic hardship after our grandfather passed away. About how the whole village would come to play volleyball on our family’s lands in the evenings; meanwhile my grandmother would get my Mother and Aunt to siva for the village after the game.

The stories my elders told me of Samoa was some of the happiest moments I had as a kid. They were grandiose, heartfelt and told with a strong sense of longing, and it was in those moments, the true extent of my Mothers sacrifice became evident. The giving up of their security, their home, so I could be afforded a better opportunity. It is a burden, I carry respectfully everyday.

But it was also how I felt connected to my homeland. Because New Zealand although home it is, was never a comfortable place for me. I never felt connected to New Zealand the way I did with Samoa. But no one in Samoa ever felt like I belonged there except for me. And from my point of view New Zealand has never really shown any real desire to have me or my people a part of her unless we agreed to sit at the bottom of the heap cleaning their fancy buildings or playing Rugby for the All Blacks, and most importantly,  not committing any crime. (which we are supposedly pre-disposed to doing).

But the point is this. Being Samoan has so many different meanings and interpretations for all of us, whether you grew up in Apia, Auckland, Sydney, Brisbane, Los Angeles or Alaska! Your idea of being Samoan may differ in practice but we all share one common bond. I know this to be true because, no matter where I go, and who I meet, and what kind of Samoan I meet, we all believe in alofa and aiga. Love and family.

My love for Samoa will never diminish. I have wept for Samoa, laughed for Samoa, I’ve even fought for Samoa. But I’ll never abandon Samoa or my heritage. It is part of who I am.

So as Samoa begins another year of her independence, I can sit back and reflect on a beautiful country and people that I am so proud and honoured to be a part of. Knowing that despite all my differences, I am still bound to the same place as a million others. Makes being different, not so bad after all.

Samoa mo Samoa

Singing the Samoan National Anthem at Samoan Independence Day Celebrations in Seoul (June 9th 2012)

Lest We Forget… ANZAC Day Dedication 2012

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.At the going down of the sun and in the morning,We will remember them.

As another ANZAC day approaches, the people of Australia and New Zealand unite in honouring their war dead. As a kiwi, I have always felt great pride in the spirit of New Zealand’s fallen soldiers. Those men who risked their lives for our country. For our freedoms, something that so many take for granted today.

As I child I always listened intently, read intensely and watched appreciatively all the information that was given to me by my teachers, the newspapers and television specials about ANZAC day. But I fear many people don’t appreciate the significance of the day anymore. So many people just seem to think of it as another public holiday. Busy making plans to have a drink up on the night before; planning a day trip somewhere else. But it should be so much more than that.

Tomorrow morning I will mark ANZAC day for the fourth time in Korea and the third time at the War Memorial in Seoul, at a Dawn service here in the place where New Zealand soldiers made the ultimate sacrifice, a place in which they lost their lives for a people today whose everyday population can barely locate us on a world map.

However, we often forget that ANZAC day is a day that all New Zealanders, irrespective of their ethnic background have a responsibility in which to honour all those who fought to preserve New Zealand for you and me, and for generations to come. Their sacrifice enabled others to build a country in which my family was able to immigrate to, to create a country that for better or worse has always tried to do the right thing by her people. Including her immigrant people.

I don’t want to say too much as I feel that the sacredness of ANZAC day need not be defiled by politics and questions over contributions and so forth. But there is one thing I want everyone to remember.

In World War One NZ contributed over 100,000 troops to the war effort. Per capita our tiny little country sent the most troops of any nation to the great war. Nearly 10% of our entire population of the time. In World War Two we sent over 120,000 troops. We sent troops to every major conflict of the 20th century in which our allies were involved. New Zealand soldiers died at Vietnam and Korea. We also have recently lost men in Afghanistan.

But never have we attacked, invaded, or had to defend our own shores from a foreign enemy. Our men and women fought wars that other people orchestrated. Our soldiers sacrifice may have been to protect their homeland, but they fought for the people of the world. And that to me is the most beautiful sacrifice and contribution that all New Zealanders should be proud of.

On ANZAC day we should all stand tall and proud in honouring the people who honoured our nation. For their contribution, was our nation’s greatest gift to the people of the entire world. Not just our nation.

Lest We Ever Forget on ANZAC day.

When is Tolerance Acceptable?

Most of us at one time or another, have had the fortune (or misfortune) of having to participate in organised debates in some form. For most of us this would have been at high school if you grew up in New Zealand. I remember one debate we had when I was on the advanced team in 7th form at Rosehill College. (I skipped doing my bursary year at De La Salle and moved across to Public School for my final year of high school education)

This debate was against none other than the infamous Kings College. One of New Zealand’s poshest and most expensive schools. The moot we debated was ‘Dissent should be encouraged’ we lost this debate heavily if I recall. We were the proposition team, and the opposition destroyed our case by simply arguing that dissent should be tolerated, not encouraged.

It wasn’t until recently I finally came to realise that we actually should have won this debate. Not in a literal sense; ie that we were the deserving team, but because until our society learns that tolerance is not enough, we can never alleviate many of the growing pains, social ills, prejudice, discrimination, evils of insider outsider perspectives if we do not learn that acceptance is a must.

Many people confuse tolerance and acceptance. They think that they are one in the same. The reality couldn’t be further from the truth. We tolerate our immigrant neighbours; our gay hairdressers; our female police officers, but we very rarely accept them.

It is ok to allow immigrants into a country to do the dirty jobs, until they want to maybe take a more prominent role in our society either by asking for community centres to be built (ask the Muslims in London or the Sikhs in Auckland), or even attempting to take political office. And definitely don’t let them play with your kids. Just watch the rocks go flying through your bay window.

Not kidding, as a kid I will always remember the night when it happened to us. The baby goodnight kiwi had come on T.V. and so I knew it was time for bed. As I got up and went to say good night to my Mum when all of a sudden, a rock came flying through our living room window, shattering glass that spilled on to the seat that I had just been sitting on. This was followed by a racist taunt and the sound of a car screeching away. Earlier that day, my older cousins had got into an altercation with some other kids of non-Pacific Islander descent while playing on the playground. It was assumed but never proven that it was those kids parent’s or older siblings, able to drive a car who must have cast the stone.

It’s funny, I’ve found that in our society, It is also ok for ‘gays’ to appear in cameo roles on T.V. as entertainers, becoming dancers, doing make-up and hairstyling; but don’t come out if you are in a corporate setting, and want a career in sport? well forget that idea. It is definitely ok for gay people to do hair and make up for brides, but ever dream of being the one getting married? Honey, you better sit your gay ass down and as Tamar Braxton would say. ‘Take a Seat, and get your life’.

And what about women? well outwardly, sure we talk about equal rights for women across the board. That they have the same freedoms as men to pursue their careers, to go into any field. But is this really true? Consider this, in todays modern society, a Woman is still 3 times more likely to be underemployed than a man despite sharing the same qualification, a Pasefika woman in New Zealand will take on average the longest of any demographic bracket to pay back their student loan. The number of women in Parliaments or Legislatures are less than 30% on average worldwide.

In the South Pacific this number is so embarrassingly low that the Australian Governor-General, in a recent address to the Samoan Parliament highlighted in a veiled statement the astoundingly low number of Women in Samoa’s parliament. It was ironic because she was announcing the Australian Government’s gift to Samoa on the 50th anniversary of Samoa’s independence, which was a refurbishment of Samoa’s parliamentary buildings. A building where men would wield all the political power, using a gift announced from a people whose representative is a woman.

Sure, some of you would say, it is all unfair, we know this. But I’m not a bigot, I’m not a racist, I’m not a homophobe, it’s all those people in power. The truth is though, your leaders are a reflection of your society. And your social views are a product of societal conditioning. Don’t believe me? well ask yourself this question.

How many times in the past year have you had something bad happen or saw something you didn’t like and yelled out “That’s just GAY’

Or seen a Rugby player perform badly on the field and scream out ‘Stop being such a girl’ or ‘He’s playing like a fag’, ‘stupid fagnuts’ and then afterward said that it’s ok to call them those names because you didn’t mean it. It was just a reaction.

And well, have you ever uttered the words ‘Stupid Asian’ ‘Typical Palagi’ ‘Stupid Islanders’

But what taught you to have those reactions? to belittle other people in the community based on their identity, an identity that has nothing to do with you. That doesn’t infringe on your ability to breathe.

It is because you have been conditioned to tolerate, not to accept.

You have been told, just leave them alone, they won’t do anything to you as long as you don’t do anything to them. But when they become involved in your community, a community that you being part of the majority of, has told them that they must behave in a particular way, and they choose not to, you get offended. ‘How dare they behave differently from me, I’ve been tolerating them all this time.’

It is because we want to be dominant over others. It is human nature, we are insecure beings, so we have to project these insecurities on to others so we can feel better about ourselves.

You are the problem. I am the problem, we are all part of the problem. Even within minority communities, there is a hierarchy that exists where we try to control those we think are our subordinates. I am a minority within a minority, and although I realise all these failings I still find myself sometimes uttering these words of superiority. ‘Ugh, Korean’s are this, Korean’s are that, Samoans are better than that, etc. etc.’

But all I’m doing is reinforcing a hierarchical order that continues to suppress minority groups because of my own insecurities.

The current discussions around things like Gay marriage, or in New Zealand the sale of the Crafar farms to the Chinese Consortium, as well as Paid Parental leave. seem to be based on moral judgements. Morals are important yes, I don’t deny this, but the underlying reason for each movement’s opposition has not been any real sense of rational arguments. The arguments have all been grounded in prejudices that were developed out of continual tolerance of the minorities, and no real attempt by the society and its individuals to accept these minorities.

We don’t want Chinese people owning New Zealand land; we don’t want those social deviants having the same rights as we normal people; We don’t want more Paid Parental Leave so more women can go back to work. They should just stay at home after giving birth like every good wife should do.

I have been on the outside my entire life, so it grates me so much when I hear people say such horribly inaccurate things about immigrants, Asians, Samoans, Gay people, about Women (ok I’m not a woman, but I was raised only by women) and that all these people have to have a place in society, and they should know that they sit at the bottom rung of the ladder.

So I guess what this post is attempting to do is in a roundabout way remind everyone that we are not as accepting as we may think we are. It hurts me when I hear people say things flippantly about my communities, and I speak up about it more now than I did before. But this goes hand in hand with me reminding myself to not do the same thing to other communities.

The thing is, we need to accept that tolerance is not enough, and we also need to realise that acceptance is far more than just tolerance.

The only way I’ve come to lose my preconceived notions of people has been through learning more about their communities. Finding out why they prefer to wear particular types of clothing, trying to understand the difference between me and my neighbour. And finally coming to accept them truly, for who they are.

And who knows, when you learn to accept others, maybe you’ll come to learn to accept yourself.

World Peace and Good Eats!

Since When Was Free Speech Only For the Masses?

It’s funny, I tend to over think a lot of things. For real, I stay in bed late at night, going over things in my head; what I should have said in a situation, how I could have worded something a little better, what I did wrong, who I was mean to, who I was too kind to. The list goes on and on. But the one thing that I love is the fact that being a ‘nobody’ means that I can come on here, rant and rave about what I like, make grand sweeping statements and no one is none the wiser. I’m exercising my right to free speech, so I stick my tongue out to all of you who don’t like what I have to say.

But lately I have been astounded at what has been reported in the mainstream media in relation to social media. Ok I’ll be honest, I hate facebook now, I used to be a facebook whore of sorts, constantly updating my statuses and posting links to videos that I found insanely funny and waiting to see how many ‘likes’ I’d get. (Be honest, you do this too.) But the one thing that I didn’t like about facebook was that people would often read my posts, take them out of context and feel free to add their 5cents when they had no clue whatsoever about why I wrote a status; or worst of all, assume I was talking about them, when I was really taking a jab at the old man in front of me in the line for the subway who refused to get out of everyones way!

But I, as well as the rest of my facebook friends are nobodies, we can voice our opinions freely, we can say outrageously incorrect things, generalize our guts out and get away with just a simple LOL or LMAO to take the edge off; because as I mentioned before we all have a right to freedom of speech. I have no idea what amendment of the US constitution that phrase alludes to. (Neither do I care, I’m not American.) But the truth of the matter is, now, people are bound by companies, agreements, contracts, even their own celebrity to restrict what they say on social media. And I’d like to ask all these self appointed regulators, who died and made you Queen of the Speech!

What you say on social media sites is your business, and irrespective of whether your opinion maybe polarising, it is damn well better to be honest then hide behind a facade of graciousness, when underneath you are secretly hating on your brown brother, or your white sister. Let’s be honest, what social networking sites do is that they take the niceties away. Where there was a buffer, there is now a comment box, where there was an ‘excuse me’, there’s a like icon. But it is wrong for people to be restricted in what they say, tweet, blog or post about. Because it is their opinion. If you tell someone that they are wrong for what they are thinking, you are essentially trying to tell them what to think. That sounds to me like an attempt at social control.

Ok so there are people who write racist things, who can forgive the idiots who wrote those racial slurs at Pat Lam. But the thing is, we all know they are idiots, let the idiots be idiots. Like they say, no need to try and locate the town idiot, he’ll do something unmistakably idiotic eventually. But when celebrities, some of whom are insightful, have been wrongfully treated by their industry, try to speak out, theres a big hush hush cry that comes out from mainly business interests.

This is the biggest problem I have with the attempted censorship of social media. It is not an attempt at censorship in order to regulate bad behaviour, the only motivation behind it is to protect business interests. To not have a company/organisation associated with an individual, have their image tarnished. In the end it comes down to money. And this is nowhere more evident than in the sporting arena. To me, money is killing sport, the true essence of competition has now been moved off the playing field into the marketers offices, battles taking place in boardrooms over who controls revenue and what the athletes should and should not say.

Case in point, the recent article in the New Zealand herald where they quoted specific tweets from athletes who had received gifts from sponsors, some which included a new car. I don’t know about you, I would have tweeted my gratitude too. Apparently the New Zealand Olympic Committee are worried that it may infringe on sponsorship deals. And they warned the athletes to be careful what they tweet. hmmmmm.

And then there is the other side of the coin. Ever since his well publicized twitter attack on the IRB, Eliota Sapolu-Fuimaono has been followed closely by mainstream media on twitter. What I saw on my twitter timeline posted by Eli a hour earlier is a headline piece the next; complete with possible discipline scenarios to be handed out by the IRB. Outrageously speculative, and taken completely out of context for what means? (One doesn’t have to wonder or wander much to work that one out!)

And now employers are asking people to open up their social media sites so they can ascertain what sort of person you are! This is ridiculous! In the U.S. there are reports of people being asked during job interviews to hand over their facebook passwords so that an HR employee can take a snoop. Not only is this a gross invasion of privacy, it is also fruitless and pointless to make assumptions based on a person’s online persona. One which is often cultivated to display a certain kind of lifestyle that that individual probably doesn’t actually lead. Furthermore, this means that people will have to limit what they say on social networking sites about their employers.

Well excuse me, if you’re an employer be prepared to be loathed by your employees. It comes with the territory, you are in a position of authority, of course your employees will talk about you, back stab you, complain about you to others, but this doesn’t mean that they will ditch you. People need to vent, and that’s all most people will do, then go back to work happily knowing that they got it off their chest. Threatening people with disciplinary action over a facebook post is pushing it if you ask me. It’s the height of vanity, and a little bit overbearing to say the very least!

Enough is enough, we have chained ourselves to the dollar in almost every facet of our lives, must we chain our mouths to it too?

Free speech is for all, even for those people we idolize, because at the end of the day, celebrities are just ordinary people who were turned famous by other ordinary people. And ordinary people have a freedom to say what they like about other ordinary people.

And I wonder, if we stop looking at our so called ‘idols’ long enough, and actually listened to what some of them have to say, we might be pleasantly surprised at the validity in some of their opinions. There are others who will just prove the old adage of ‘they’re just a face’ but once in a while, a genuinely intelligent, well grounded celebrity will have something valid and profound to say. But we’ll all miss it, because we’ll be too busy worried about whether them even speaking violates our nation’s agreement with coca cola or pepsi or whoever owns the world now.

Free speech yall! Use it or lose it!

Ciao!

No Funding, No Parental Leave, No Government Spending, National Says No

I’ve been relatively quiet recently in terms of the domestic political situation in New Zealand. It’s because I’ve been too busy studying international relations that I haven’t had much of an opportunity to comment on the failings of New Zealand’s current government. I was slightly heartened by the news that a recent poll showed that the government’s popularity is starting to wane a bit. But considering what they have done recently, I’m surprised they are still out in front by such a considerable margin. But perhaps this will change once the public start to see just what a dreadful job they are doing at managing the country. But then again, this is the ill-informed, often blind sided public. So unless someone experiences first hand in a tangible manner the government’s long arm of reckless management, it may not even so much as raise an eyebrow.

Rest assured though, your trusty self appointed political commentator has been raising more than his eyebrows at the government recently.

The governments major mis-step first came earlier in the year when they announced proposed cuts to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) by attempting to save $25million a year through restructuring. Yes Mr Key, Mr McCully and everyone else in National, we know that we are in a recession and we have to save money. But you err’d terribly when you railroaded changes to a ministry that does phenomenal work for our country’s image and reputation.

Although most people in New Zealand still think that we are an important player on the world stage, the truth of the matter is, we’re a small group of islands, too far away from the ‘real world’ to make a splash or influence others besides those in the same ocean as us, with smaller islands. If the key to our influence is through networking, why in the world are we trying to sever the funding to the ministry that is opening up these pathways and opportunities for our country’s exporters? As a little nobody in the south sea, do you think it is easy to get countries like China, Japan and even our big American ‘allies’ to stand up and take notice? It is a far from easy task, and these people know their jobs better than Mr Key does. All he knows is money.

Additionally, key diplomats all over the world have voiced their concerns at the proposed cuts. They believe that their ability to do their jobs are going to be severely damaged by the proposed reforms. In fact high ranking officials in MFAT have been aware of the budget constraints facing the country and had planned on restructuring themselves and saving far more money than what Nationals proposed cuts are meant to do; and at the same time not severely compromise our foreign affairs people’s ability to do their jobs.

It always happens like this though. Successive governments always feel like they know what’s best, even better than those who were trained specifically in an area to do a job. It’s as if the word ‘government’ gives you a mandate to be smarter than the rest of the population and makes you more intuitive to a job than experts in that field. It’s the height of arrogance, and this government is certainly very guilty of this.

*Strange Aside* >> I wonder if there was a bomb placed at the beehive,(there is no bomb at the beehive, just in case anyone gets the wrong idea, this is an analogy only!) whether the government would try to tell the bomb disposal unit which wire to cut. They would probably justify intervening because they are the mouthpiece of the New Zealand public who fund their squad. The unit would probably reply with a big fat ‘Mouth Piece These’ Nonsensical situation I know, but the same principle applies here as in the situation of MFAT.

Let me give you a quick lesson on how governing foreign affairs policy goes. It works like this National, you tell the staff at MFAT what type of foreign policy agenda item you want pushed, and they have the know how to do it. You tell them to save money, and they will find a way to do it. You don’t tell them to do this job, and then say it’s too expensive, followed by a ‘i’m taking your money away but you have to do it anyway, because I’m the government’. Not only is it illogical; it’s just plain mean!

And essentially, that is what National governments have always been like in my experience, meanies! They did it again this week when they announced that they would be pulling the plug on extending paid parental leave to 6months. They said it is too expensive. They think it is better to push Mothers back in to work as soon as they possibly can. And not just Mothers, paid parental leave means that stay at home Dads can’t stay at home for as long as they may have wanted. (we are a progressive society after all)

You know, like they say, you tell a lie long enough and repeat it enough and people will end up believing you. (Just ask Hitler, he knows all about that) Yes we accept that the government doesn’t have a lot of money. Yes we know treasury announced that the overall tax take is lower than expected, yes we know that unemployment is at some of its highest levels since the employment disaster of the late 1980′s. But this does not mean we can’t afford 6months paid parental leave. I will repeat it, so hopefully more people will believe it. This does not mean we can’t afford 6months paid parental leave.

Any good accountant will tell you, you can find money anywhere in a large organisation. In terms of accounting, I think managing the finances of a small developed nation is pretty close to being categorised as one of those. You just need to be prepared to prioritise areas, shift some money out of one area and into another.

The real issue is the government’s priority isn’t families, working class people or those in lower income brackets. Their priority is wealth creation. I am not telling a lie. This government has repeatedly said that their goal is wealth creation, not job creation and therein is the big difference. People have not been listening carefully to what John Key and National have been saying. They as well as other neo-liberal economists still believe in the trickle down effect. They believe that by creating an environment where big business can come to New Zealand and bring in capital, the jobs will flow in, unemployment will drop, and overall the population will be better off.

Neo-liberal economics only favours those in the know how, and those in control of the resources. In a recent article in the NZ herald, columnist Brian Gaynor quoted a study carried out by MIT professors (no I don’t mean the Manukau Institute of Technology, the other MIT) on the reason why states fail. And their conclusion was like reading a history of New Zealand State Sector Reform. Institutions and the kind of institutions a country has is the main reason for a country’s failure. To quote from the article: “New Zealand’s original privatisation programme, in which a few individuals became extraordinarily wealthy, and our failure to regulate the 1980s sharemarket boom and recent finance company debacles are examples of political and institutional failures, particularly by the defunct Securities Commission. These failures have enabled a few to become extremely wealthy at the expense of the many.’ Asset sales round 2 anybody?

It’s a simple piece of logic, hands off the purse strings let the market take care of it, but who’s looking after the babies? You gonna leave that to the market too? Hang on, what babies? The problem is this; as a nation, New Zealand needs to wake up to the fact that it is an ageing society. Our birth rate is teetering on replacement levels, but this is forecasted to drop in the near future, if not already. We cannot afford to continue to discourage our population from having children. Because when the baby boomers all become elderly, I sure as hell won’t be happy that all my tax money is going to supporting them. At least Labour had the foresight to introduce Kiwi Saver, a scheme that National strongly attacked while in opposition, but has kept, because in the back of their minds they know that it was the right thing to do.

But has anyone counted the social effects and what that’s going to cost the country in the long run? We already see increased numbers of teen delinquency, the disintegration of the family unit, and the overall lowering of socially acceptable behaviour. You can’t blame that all on MTV and the internet Mr Key. It has to do with the fact that there are no parents in the home. There are no street games of cricket using empty crates of Lion Red as wickets going on anymore, because there is no one supervising the kids. No one is able to prepare nutritious meals anymore, because Mum and Dad are at work. Very few people sit down to a family meal at the same time anymore, so a lot of parents don’t even know what’s going on in their children’s live’s.

It’s funny because I’m not the only one who thinks this. In fact the majority of the politicians agree with me. But it was the very fact that the opposition looked to have the numbers to pass the proposal that the government killed the passage of the bill in the house by pulling rank. For those of you not familiar with our governmental arrangements, the ruling party needs over 50% of the votes in the house to pass a  law. Since New Zealand switched to proportional representation in 1996, no party has ever secured an outright majority of the vote so we have always had coalition governments. The current government secured a huge chunk of the vote at the last election, but not enough to govern alone. So they rely on the support of other minor parties to pass their proposed pieces of legislation.

This piece of legislation was proposed by an opposition MP, and once National caught wind that it looked like this bill might have the support of the majority of the house, they called on their coalition agreements to kill the bill’s passage.

And once again democracy has failed.

But even more disturbing was the announcement that came this week that the government has formed a deal with Sky City that it would allow them to increase the amount of poker machines (Pokies) they had at the casino in exchange for Sky City building for free a national convention centre to attract international conferences and visitors to Auckland city. Talk about selling your soul to make a quick penny.

A national convention centre in the middle of Auckland City sounds fabulous I know, but there’s a couple of things that I don’t like about this. First of all, it does nothing to help the Pacific Island community. Pacific Island problem gamblers spend on average $13,000 a year on gambling as opposed to the general population’s problem gamblers who spend about $1500. Pacific Islanders are also in the lowest socio-economic bracket in the country, The impact gambling has on our community is far more profound than on the rest of New Zealand’s population.

Our social problems are getting worse, and John Key stood on T.V. and said that he doesn’t believe that this is going to encourage problem gamblers to get worse. Once again the arrogance of this government rears its ugly head. All the research shows that this is not going to be a good thing for problem gamblers. Stop lying John, and stop turning a blind eye to the suffering of ordinary kiwis. I know it must be difficult for you to see our point of view from your holiday home in Hawaii, but at least try.

And what about the Greenlane convention centre at the Auckland Showgrounds? Might as well just turn it into a development plot for all of the government’s multi-national company friends to come and build headquarters at. The truth is, Greenlane is a much better option for a national convention centre, it has space, it is close to both the motorway corridors and it wouldn’t add to the already heavily congested CBD’s traffic woes. But what would I know, I, like the rest of Auckland, only grew up there their entire lives. John’s not from our area guys.

So there you have it. That’s my political wrap-up and rant for this week. Join me again next week when I take on prejudice discrimination and freedom of speech. I hope you enjoyed reading, if you made it to this point of my blog post without navigating to another website, I commend you!

Happy Spring Korea, and Happy Autumn New Zealand!