Month: March 2016

The zika outbreak has given me the shivers but not how you would have imagined. Naturally, like ebola, mad cows disease and bird flu the disease rightfully deserves its respect. Yet again many of these perils reflect the consequences when men meddle in the matters of Mother Nature. Yes, zika merits our serious recognition as a disease that could potentially bring a great deal of harm to human kind. However, scratch the surface a little deeper and one does not need to probe very far to see the manifestation of perhaps an equally diabolical ill simmering away. The travesty which I allude you to is the remarkable endeavours being undertaken by First World nations to ideologically bash the emerging ones. Look at the facts one might instruct me. This is not xenophobia or cultural clobbering but the fact of the matter. In brief this is a disease which is raging in the largely more impoverished and developing states of the world. A click on the World Health Organisations website will second that you and your senses aren't being blinded by cotton wool allusions. What you see is what you get. I get that and if that is the picture then so be it. But what leaves me feeling indignant and utterly outraged is the West's blatant vilification of these zika ridden states and their sense about their own moral and ideological self-righteousness. "It wouldn't happen in 'Straya (Australia), cobber' says one of my neighbours at a street picnic. 'Why not? I say. You guys do have the tropical elements'. He looks dumbfounded that his crystal clear argument has flown over the top of my head without my awareness. "Mate nah way. You know cos we're on to things like that. We're a European country". "ahh a European nation" I repeat like a compliant parrot praying to be rewarded with a cracker. In reality I'd have tested this Ozzie to a geographical and cultural duel if the energy hadn't been lacking but I still had many neighbours to shake hands and gas bag (chat) away with. In recent years, I had challenged the guys and gals to see ourselves under one of several associations. We could be Australasians an idea that culturally did not sit well with some who saw Australia as the hegemonic cowboy of a Southern frontier which went beyond its geopolitical shores. Belonging to the greater continent (most of it under the waves) of Zelandia gave us a powerful physical sense of punchiness which to some degrees turned us into the hegemonic ogre for the nations of New Caledonia and Tonga that sat on our shores. In the evolving world of commerce, the obvious affiliation to make was to see ourselves as part of Asia. After all they were the economic hand that was feeding us. Interestingly, the traditionally Orientallyphobic Australians elected to do this in football but most probably for the conniving and crafty profit of playing against teams of a more formidable calibre rather than the weaker Pacific states. Then there is the idea of Oceania which I feel encapsulates the New Zealand mood more soundly than the others. Our ancestors from Hawaiki were the same ones who sowed their seed across the Pacific and eventually gave us the people who would be our first native people. But, my conception was no more valid than any of the other assessments. It was just part of the jumbled jigsaw that we constantly quibbled about when it came to defining who and what made a New Zealander. However, the idea that I was a "European" sat uncomfortably with me. Yes, genetically I was probably highly European in composition, a tad Celt, a splash Angle, maybe a morsel Jute with just a hint of feisty Viking and God knows what else. But, why, here at the end of the Earth would I still seek to associate myself with a continent and a people so very far away. In fact, I cringe when I see that annoying most frustrating of generic identity markers in our census and voting papers 'Tick here if you are a European NZ'. Why is it that we still have to place such prominence on the idea of the "Europeaness" of NZ. Whose Europeaness are they even inferring to? "I love NZ cos it's the England of the Pacific” says one Pom." That's interesting I say especially given that so many Kiwis have Irish and Highland decent". "Yes, I suppose" the speaker observes. "But they had to adapt to fit in". Clearly, not all kinds of Europeaness were equal in our formative years. Yet, the idea of Europe as a civilising force never left the NZ mind-set. The North Americans, Australiana and who other but those missionaries of cultural enlightened and civility the Europeans engaged with us because we convinced them, promised them and guaranteed to them that we prescribed to White Western ways. As times have changed and in spite of greater knowledge and travel we still find it impossible to part way with the oxymoronic broach of the "European NZ". Why are we so unwilling to embrace the all accepting generic title of being just New Zealanders? “We can't deny our roots" one student informs me. "We are what we are and why should we deny it?" To a mild extent the point is taken but what often troubles me especially here in the "whiter South Island" is the impetus placed by these descendants upon the "European” aspect of their New Zealandness. Isn't the point germane and evidently redundant unto itself? That would be like an obese person insistently introducing himself by saying "hi I'm Fat Tony, because I'm fat” ok thanks for that we get you. But at least the part of the identity wishing to be conveyed is clear. But what the heck is someone trying to infer or tell us when they say “even though I'm living in New Zealand in Asia, Australasia, Zelandia or Oceania but please don't forget I'm above all else a European New Zealander”. From my perspective at least it hints to the insecurity which still haunts our part of the world. Unlike the Americans who fought a war of independence, the Irish who were a European culture who reclaimed their values through might and right or even the Aussies who built their identity around lampooning the Brits we played the card of the UK tag along colony. Never questioning always obeying and always copying. Is it any wonder that when we saw Maori art, dance and 'waita' that we got totally titillated by the idea that we could be more than just drone clones of Britannia. Even with this brim-full of eye catching jewels we were terrified of treading away from our "Europeaness". Perhaps, in respect to our early forefathers that is the only social binding fabric which people from around Britain and the Empire had to initially distinguish themselves in this brave new world. But for us to cling to such assumptions is dubiously questionable. Why should we be insecure to still refer to ourselves with such an irrelevant referential prefix to the simple fact that we are all New Zealanders or Kiwis if you prefer the more avian natured referral to our nationhood. In a fascinating twist, the term Kiwi perhaps has come closest to capturing the universal idea of a New Zealander, especially a Caucasian one, who does not need to make their genetic or pigmentary roots announced. A Kiwi is a person from New Zealand and that's that. That's fine if people know what or who a Kiwi is. In a study conducted several years ago, a Middle Eastern school, intrigued by the defining of a people by referral to a flightless bird sought to quiz people outside of "civilised White world" if they knew where these natives hailed from. To the horror of many "European" New Zealanders, people across Africa, Asia and even in parts of Eastern and Western had no idea of who a Kiwi was or even what a kiwi (the bird) was. But they did know.. Wait for it... Where "" New Zealander"" was most likely to come from even when their wisdom towards our state and its history was fickle on a generous assessment of appearances. A Maori friend of mine keen to see the Mairification of New Zealand vernacular English is keen to mop up this confusion and increase our individual uniqueness. "Why not just embrace the Maori word for all Westerners 'pakeha' (white person)?" the public scorn towards the term proves resistantly defiant though. From people who doubt the Maori translation of the term to those who question it's "unspecific" defining to my humorous amazement. How interesting that we cannot accept the generic titles bestowed upon us by our Maori brothers but we continue to be shackled by the all swallowing ones of the Old World. Why is it that like Soviet or present day Russian Federation fear mongers that we fear being enveloped or contained by the barbarians, the savages and the "non Europeans" who surround our "European" land adrift in the Pacific Dark Continent? Afraid to release ourselves from our "Europeaness" as a nation for fear of being seen as a third world. For that is the real mind-set which seems to permeate through the thick craniums of the averagely homogeneously fearful "European" white settler descendant. As we widen our eyes in horror as zika romps its way around the world while we sit back and feel relieved because we subconsciously recall that we are a "European" developed, civilised, advanced, modern progressive, industrial and cultured economy. How risibly false is the conclusion which we have reached? Even in a nation where religion is in sparse practice it abhors me when I hear that God is punishing the hordes of Asia for their lasciviousness, cheap breakable toys and following strange Eastern faiths. Are we that completely marbles to make these stupid ignorant remarks? Why do we hold steadfast to the belief that what's from the West is better than the rest? In complete disregard for the knowledge which made its way westward from the Far East and everywhere in between the 500 years since the Renaissance seems to have instilled in the West an air of invincibility. A sense that everything that I is good in the world is directly attributable to their endeavours. Anything not good must come from somewhere else. Not even...

Month: March 2016

Cómo la contaminación oceánica afecta a los humanos (infografía)

The meaning of love in the age of capitalism

Día internacional de la mujer, equidad y medio ambiente

On culture, society and Self