Posts by Sacha
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I read Tze Ming's comments as conceding the label to 'a certain group of Pakeha' rather than resisting it.
I read an unequivocal challenge for us Pakeha of European ancestry to sort it out and leave her out of it. I don't believe we've done that yet.
However, when I say repeatedly on this blog sort it out amongst yourselves, my meaning is not 'email me, a Chinese person, with your opinions on why you're not Pakeha or New Zealand European but 'just a New Zealander'. My meaning is email a white person, for example, Russell Brown, with your opinions on why you're not Pakeha or New Zealand European but 'just a New Zealander'.
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If you are 'just a New Zealander' of European extraction and have problems with how the state and society or even some inconsequential non-white blogger describes you - as I keep saying, sort it out amongst yourselves. I mean it.
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I have already apologised for my earlier use of the term "redneck" as shorthand for several dimensions in material I am unable to circulate here. I regret that.
People denying power relationships does annoy me, yes, and I suspect I share that sentiment with others like Tze Ming. I doubt that's going to make this space resemble Kiwibog any time soon, but your comment is noted and I'll pay more attention to my choice of words.
Reading the source material, it seems reasonable to me in this instance to describe the campaign as "organised, aggressive and ignorant". By all means address the substance of what I said, rather than reducing it to some sort of simultaneously personalised and all-encompassing disagreement. I was talking about a movement, not any particular individuals. We're not all tarred with the same brush, but I believe we have a basic human duty to watch out for each other and to speak up.
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All hope not lost (and all funding not removed). However, a contrast with the trumpeting last month about ORRS increases, and more evidence of where this Government's real priorities lie.
Similarly, City Vision are pretty unhappy today about Auckland City Council approving an $84m spend on "party central". That included over $10m on flash paving when cheaper alternatives were suggested - and with proposed investments in poor suburbs being refused in the name of keeping rates down.
Councillor Leila Boyle said, “C&R’s lack of analysis of the figures for the different parts of the overall project costs is really disappointing and downright lazy. I am sick and tired of C&R spending these huge amounts of money on RWC at the expense of important suburban community projects like the Otahuhu swimming pool and MAGIC (Music and Arts Glen Innes Centre).”
Councillor Cathy Casey said, “A new pandemic has broken out at Auckland City Council called ‘Rugby World Cup-itis’. The symptoms are feverish spending of ratepayers’ money on anything to do with the RWC 2011 and blindness to the real long term needs of Aucklanders living in the suburbs.”
I am not, for the record, opposed to leveraging the World Cup to improve the city, but it should be treated the same as any other applicant if budgets are being cut.
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Peripherally related to the topic of government funding, news that the blighters did cut some special education funding despite the blarney to the contrary at Budget time. The DomPost covers one affected school in Naenae.
The extra funding covered the cost of a qualified conductor one of a handful in New Zealand who have had specialist training, which is available only in Hungary or Scotland. The school provided a $4000 top-up.
[The Principal] was angry that private schools had been awarded a $35m Budget boost by the Government while funding for special schools was cut.
Can't afford $2.5m for disabled students, but finding eight times as much to subsidise a sporting venture is essential.
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Tze Ming is of course, entitled to her ethnicity. Why does she feel she has to define mine?
Perhaps you'd best re-read what she's actually saying, Logan. By claiming the label "New Zealander" for themselves a certain group of Pakeha are denying it to all other ethnic groups. That's an organised, aggressive and ignorant act, and resistance is to be expected.
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That's beautiful and brave, David. Thank you for baring so much of yourself. And my thanks to Russell for publishing it here, where I am sure many will visit over time for genuine insight into an often confusing, overly secret and poorly supported experience for all concerned. Kia kaha.
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I applaud Scott's illustrated take on the referendum.
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I support calls for more use of "categories for grrr".
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anybody who asserts that ethnicity is an entirely internal property is somewhat out of date.
I agree. I think our concepts have not kept up at all.
We're using ethnicity as a signifier for belonging to a group that is assumed to signifcantly affect the way we live. I understand the primary purpose for the gathering of ethnicity statistics is to measure inequalities and guide practice accordingly - especially notable in health.
However, people's lives and motivations have always been more complex, and especially today when the groups and communities we belong to are multiple, connected online and not so tied by locality or ancestry. Differences within groups are far more significant, and evolve faster than they used to. There can be vast gulfs of experience between first and second generation migrants, and between generations in any community.
Different parts of who I am and where I belong come to the fore at different times, as the Irish political example shows. Nationality is just one of those layers of identity, but it does have certain fixed meanings at times.
As Tze Ming noted in a sublime post at the time of the "write NZer" campaign:
For plenty of people (yes, even ethnic minorities), ethnicity doesn't matter as much as their national identity as a New Zealander. It doesn't mean they don't have an ethnicity as well. For others, their identity as, for example, a Deaf person is more important than either their New Zealand identity or their ethnicity.
But it doesn't meant they're going to turn up at Customs and present their Deaf Association membership card to get back into the country.
She also reprints campaign material that should help explain why the matter became associated with and coloured by certain Pakeha subgroups and perspectives.
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For the detail junkies, you can find summary 2006 Census stats about culture and Identity here and detailed Excel tables from this page.
Table 16 shows languages, which provides another layer. The "Sino-Tibeto-Burman" grouping includes "Yue, Northern Chinese, Sinitic, Min and Other". Yue is noted as including Cantonese, and Northern Chinese is noted as including Mandarin.
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