Look deeper Armchair Critic have you ever read NZFirst policy?
http://nzfirst.org.nz/sites/nzfirst/files/manifesto2011-4.pdf
Much of it is good old fashioned common sense and I suspect you might find youself a closet supporter. As with much in politics it is the lurid that dominates in the media and the substance is ignored. Which is why as the western world teeters on the brink of financial crisis gay marriage dominates the head lines - the big issues are too scary and incomprehensible while the visceral pros and antis of gay marriage have everyone in a froth.
It is diversionary and sufficently unthinking on one side and indulgent on the other that it is easy to have a position.
Also being unhappy with the current level of immigration is not the same as racism.
Xenophobia is not the same as wanting to preserve our own cultural identity
Being of Maori Ancestry Winston has the benefit of experience with regard to open door policies on immigration and land sales. The policies being run now will in the long run have the same effect on what we currently see as being a New Zealander as the sale of land to British settlers did to Polynesian culture
And harking back to learn from history China is at the same point in its development as Britian was in the late 1700's. then Biritian had a huge and dominant position in world trade, it was resource hungry and it had a surplus of labour resulting from industrialisation. What better way to address all of these problems than to put the surplus labour into boats and send them elsewhere to displace the less assertive inhabitants of other lands. Lo and behold resources aplenty, a familiar culture to deal with, and new and growing markets to invest in and sell to - a happy empire!
We will never overwhelm China but they could overwhelm us in weeks that innitself breeds insecurity in a culture such as ours. They simply need to move in and buy us out and put us onto the bad lands and we become second class citizens in our own land - or at least our children do while the few who sell us out retire rich to Hawaii. Me I will be dead before it has happened but is it the world we want to leave to our kids?
I have a huge respect for the Chinese and Chinese culture and they are govened by people collectively of far greater vision and intellect than the vacuous twits currently running our own country but I like being a Kiwi and I would like this special little part of the world to be available to evolve culturally in its own maner for our next generation.
We see China as an oppressive regime but are we any less repressed and are our business leaders any less corrupt? The finance industry would suggest that our lot are every bit as good at fleecing the innocent as any and our political process does little about it - but put a tear into the fabric cover over a spybase aerial and watch out -the full force of the state is upon you.
We kid ourselves that we have effective democratic government but why do so few vote - becasue it has become largely meaningless. The communist party leadership process in China is arguably at least as democratic as our own and as much of the population is involved. It is also more effective process for selecting a leadership and a strategy for the colelctive future if the talent that gets to the top is anything to judge by.
As we sell everything off and drive our children to leave New Zealand to find a decent career and a living wage we collectively commit cultural suicide. So being against excessive levels of immigration is not being racist it is being pro-Kiwi.
We have had a series of governments who seem to hate us. they destroy communities by amalgamating local government into super cities and by destroying the insitutions that hold community together. They make everyone who is not wealthy poorer with wages lowering and house prices inflating. The last socialist government thought the state knew best and the current one seems to think that corporations know best but both are anticommunity and anti the individual.
Immigration is another tool the state uses to undermine the existing sense of community and our culture of social justice - it does not make us wealthier, instead it puts downward pressure on wages and upward pressure on house prices.
China does not want millions of foreigners living in China for just the same reasons that most here do not want to be overwhelmed by a culture that is not our own. It is not that our culture is superior to any other culture - it is just that it is home. And I like it the way it is.
Anti-Chinese sentiment is deep rooted in the New Zealand psyche, culture and society. Lets turn the clock backwards and look at our proud history. New Zealand imposed a poll tax on Chinese immigrants during the 19th and early 20th centuries. This imposed a tax per Chinese person entering New Zealand, and permitted only one Chinese immigrant for every 10 tons of cargo. This legislation has never been imposed on any other race in New Zealand's history. Turn the clock forwards to today... sure the legislation may be abolished but what is left is the same xenophobic and racist views and attitudes towards Chinese people and asian people in general. So what you are saying is that it's ok for New Zealanders to turn a blind eye to all the immigrants and tourists who are of caucasian appearance who have different cultures, but when there is an immigrant who is Chinese or has asian features then there is hell to pay! So you say you have a "huge respect for the Chinese and Chinese culture". Really? More like you have a huge respect for Chinese food, Chinese money, Chinese made products, but just not the Chinese themselves. Double standards if you ask me. You know what all this xenophobic and racist attitude does to kiwis like me who were born here but look asian! Do you know what it feels like to be a stranger in your own country? Do you know what it feels like to take your caucasian god daughter down the street for an ice cream holding her hand and have people come up to you and ask you what you are doing or see strange looks and hear whispers from people on the street. In the end its these attitudes that effect Kiwis of Asian descent like me, and there are a lot of us.
ReplyDeleteThat all sounds like a dose of reverse racism to me. But also you should not have to endure the attitudes that you do. I have lived overseas and even in Australia a caucasian kiwi gets treated as an outsider. In Japan the locals all quietly move to the other side of the train if they can when I as a European sit down. I will bet that as a European I would get the outsider treatment in China as well. I would bet that if a whole horde of kiwis wanted to move in to China they would not get past the border - and even worse if you are a Tibetan or a Uigur. The experiences you have happens to anyone anywhere who is perceived as an "outsider" by the general population.
ReplyDeleteSo what right does any culture have to think that just because it wants to live somewhere else it should have the right to just move in and shift the locals along. I am sure that the Chinese equally resented the wave of British imperialism that they were subject to in the 17th and 18th century. I am not arguing about any cultural superiority here and I consider that you are as much a kiwi as I am. Simply I don't want to live in a New Zealand with 100 million people in it or even 20 Million regardless of where they come from. It is the old story you dont realise you live in paradise until it is gone. I have seen how the sense of community in this country has deteriorated over the past three decades and I feel sorrow for that not because different people have moved in but because our current lack of moral government and the philosphy that money rules is rapidly spoiling what was really nice about the place. I would bet that you as much as I would resent finding your children unable to buy a home bacause immigration had rendered housing unaffordable to the locals.
Interestingly enough I have an old friend who is of chinese descent and who feels as you do that he is still a foreigner here but on returning to China he found that he was treated as a foreigner there too. It is just the human race and our innate sense of territoriality - without it we don't have community or an existence - the same sense of communal self does have it's ugly side but that is a human trait not an exclusively European one.
The point I am endeavouring to make is that every culture has a right to exist and do the Chinese have any more right to do to the current culture of this country that the European settlers did to the Maori Culture.