McLeod writes;
Blanket Man is Maori, and wears his blanket much how Maori did when Europeans first arrived here to settle.....The outcome of our arrival and colonisation has not been a happy one for Maori overall, and I hate to be starting another year with Blanket Man in his usual place. He symbolises much that's wrong with how we live together, his wilful, slow suicide an indictment of our lack of understanding.
That is rather sweeping.
Should the "overall" situation of Maori be compared to their pre-colonisation one or to that of present NZ European? On the first count there is no comparison. Life expectancy, health, housing, access to technology, etc is vastly improved. On the second count, today probably a majority of Maori have the same standard of living as a larger majority of NZ European.
And then we can go down the other avenue of conjecturing over what the outcomes might have been for Maori if a different race had colonised NZ. But really this whole colonisation thing, which is factual and undeniable, has, at some stage, to be put to bed.
I'm not prepared to call those people feral, or condemn them, without having a realistic solution for the problems that lie behind their destructive choices. Where are the jobs for them? Where are the schools designed to cater to their learning needs? Why do we continue to fail them in an education system which half of all Maori boys leave without any achievement recorded? Why don't we consider that as outrageous as serious crime? And why are Maori still so unhealthy?
Now we are firmly in the realms of paternalism and determinism. What is it? We stuffed-up for Maori and we have to un-stuff-up? The labour market and education system are to blame, not personal choices and actions or lack thereof? I am certain that in the early part of the 1900s the prescribed problem was Maori lack of access to Pakeha health and education services. Now it is the services themselves?
It's not as if we haven't been down a 'corrective' pathway with Maori immersion schools and umpteen funding initiatives aimed at improving Maori health. Fully restoring Maori property rights is yet to occur. I hope it does.
But it is a dangerous thing to describe the situation of Maori in NZ today as "overall" worse than previously. It plays to the culture of victimhood and resentment that has been perpetuating social problems for too long already.
4 comments:
Ain't liberal white guilt a wonderful thing. We are responsible for blanket man. Not his tribe or iwi, which have likely received squillions in "settlements". Not his whanau, in which he is likely the high-achiever (he's been in the papers, bro). And certainly not blanket man himself, who has chosen the path on which he finds himself.
Oh and Lindsay, "Life expectancy, health, housing, access to technology, etc is vastly improved". Add to that the likelihood that the bigger, nastier tribe down the road would have won the battle and either enslaved, or killed and eaten, him. But we can't talk about that now, can we?
I have a completely different impression of Blanket Man and Society:
That he chooses to live on the streets when he can access so many different support services indicates that some people have the freedom to chose how they live, and no amount of welfare and opportunity to raise them out of such a lifestyle will make any difference.
So, the offer is there, and he chooses to reject it.
Rather than feel guilty about it, respect it. He's there because that's were he wants to be.
The poor lazy bugger could do with a bit of soap and water. His stench is hideous.
he is a crim - and one that is sadly is afforded special status
http://roarprawn.blogspot.com/2011/01/blanket-man-his-choice.html
http://roarprawn.blogspot.com/2011/01/blanket-man-his-choice.html
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