Judith Collins

It seems the right are offended by the above, which has been posted all over the North Shore.

Actually I think it is an honourable suggestion, given the nastiness of Mrs. Collins. lest we forget that the root cause of crime is well proven to be linked to poverty, which itself is well proven to be linked to ethnicity, social circumstance and a lack of good education provision.

Also, national don't seem to realise that countries with armed police also have more gun deaths - funny that!

If you create a monster then learn how to deal with it!

Austerity revisited…

According to this report (OK, so it is actually a syndicated story, hence the references to the US and ‘soda cans’) the UK students protest against the increase in student tuition fees was

the largest street protest yet against the government's sweeping austerity measures.

 

So yet again I am forced to define what austerity (as seen before in my other blog re this) although I am using a slightly different definition here, the other is still relevant

In economics, austerity is a policy of deficit-cutting, lower spending, and a reduction in the amount of benefits and public services provided. Austerity policies are often used by governments to reduce their deficit spending while sometimes coupled with increases in taxes to pay back creditors to reduce debt.

Governments around the world (the UK and NZ seem to be copying each other) are mainly playing the austerity policy game and at last someone has the sense to publicly challenge this. True, you cannot just print more money, but you do need to think about why you are introducing these measures.

Some of the quotes from the AP article state quite succinctly why people have sound arguments

"Politicians don't seem to care, they should be taking money from people who earn seven-figure salaries, not from students who don't have any money."

"We will not tolerate the previous generation passing on its debts to the next, nor will we pick up the bill to access a college and university education that was funded for them”

So, rather than this being a ‘class war’(as suggested by the likes of the right wing Sky TV News) this is  a generation war, those than benefited from the boom years are now being challenged, rightly in my opinion,  on the justice of their decisions. Another article provides a clearer insight into the political arguments, the back tracking of the Liberals, conveniently changing policy direction to become bed mates with the Tories. Not unlike the Maori party and their cosy relation with National here in NZ – about time people begin to see through that marriage of convenience.

And to finish - if Austerity involves increasing taxes to repay debt, exactly why is the New Zealand government borrowing money to pay for tax cuts?

So what exactly is racism?

And more to the point, how does it happen, is it appropriate, is it worse in New Zealand or the UK; and possibly why even bother to try to start to explain

* I am explaining as it gets it off my chest - me, today!!

According to the dictionary definition racism is

• the prejudice that members of one race are intrinsically superior to members of other races
• discriminatory or abusive behavior towards members of another race

The UN doesn't actually define racism, but instead

• the term "racial discrimination" shall mean any distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference based on race, colour, descent, or national or ethnic origin which has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal footing, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural or any other field of public life. 

So, let's consider some recent media stories, both here in New Zealand and from the UK. In the UK there has been some interesting research on the make up of the prison population - in the 10 years from 1998 to 2008 (when the UK has been under a Labour government) the number of black inmates has doubled. There are now seven times the number of Afro-Caribbean prisoners than the percentage of similar people in the mainstream population; Muslims make up a stonking 12% of the prison population (despite being less than 3% of the general population. So, why is this? Are all black and Muslim people criminals, or, are they more likely to be singled out for custodial sentences - this would certainly link to the second definition. Similarly in New Zealand it is well recognised that Maori and Pacific Islanders are over represented in custodial statistics. Maybe there is some truth to the over representation by virtue of committing more crime - if you are in a situation that is perceived by you as hopeless, where your peers are in gangs, where the education, welfare and health systems have failed you, you are more likely to go off the rails - and of course minorities are over represented in these groups.

Meanwhile in the media in New Zealand we have witnessed not one, but two media 'personalities' engage in real 'racist' activity. The first is the Paul Henry case - he's gone, which is good news. The second is the Michael Laws case; he is another outspoken individual, another who has set race relations back many years. In both these cases the perpetrators were offensive to specific ethnic groups and both asserted that they were somehow superior - racism as per definition one. Hiding behind an excuse of 'but it's funny!' is weak - it may be a chuckle, but not when you are the population that is affected, offended or disadvantaged through no fault of your own.

Why has this whole debacle upset me so much? Well simply because I believe that left unchecked inequalities are harmful. I am extremely worried with the road New Zealand is going down, it is not healthy. Labeling individuals in the manner these public figures have done is not productive, it undermines any attempt to have a fairer society, arguably something the current government have failed to nurture. What is reassuring is that you can actually find some real empirical evidence of measures that do work, that help communities to have stronger, more egalitarian societies and in doing so rid populations of the scourge of racism.