Sustento - Exploring possibilities for building a sustainable society » Blog Archive » New Zealand: Still are Warriors
Tags: new zealand, violence
2 Responses to “New Zealand: Still are Warriors”
It seems we have the worst of both worlds in this country. We (or at least the founding fathers) bought with them the stiff upper lip, born with a silver spoon, buggery and bishops mentality from the hell-hole they came from (and the majority only came because they were the black sheep of the upper crust families back home - here they could reinvent themselves).
Along with that we have a new world anti-intellectualism that allows an oaf like Bolger to make PM, and when he stuffs that up to be given a bevvy of fat directorships.
So we have an elite brotherhood of oafs whose claim to fame was selection, 40 years previously, for the 1st XV of whichever toffee nosed school mummy and daddy paid hand over fist to get them into.
I live in a rural area and the general feeling is one of incredulity that I don’t either follow rugby or sink pints at “the local” - luckily things are changing a little bit - but unfortunately the change seems to see us swinging more to the Tony Veitch direction (instead of sinking pints of DB we sink overpriced cocktails - instead of beating the kids at rugger training, we beat them up in multi million dollar Parnell apartments)
Where did we go so wrong????
Maybe we should think of culture as an evolutionary process. There’s no doubt that violence is embedded here. Just look at Parliament where our MPs like to sort disagreements out with their fists and verbal abuse is part and parcel of the debating process as opposed to rigorous intellectual sparring.
New Zealand just needs to work through this level and treat all of the bad stuff is a catalyst for a process of change.
We certainly need huge investment in our schools and communities to make this change happen.
Sustento - Exploring possibilities for building a sustainable society » Blog Archive » New Zealand: Still are Warriors
Tags: new zealand, violence
2 Responses to “New Zealand: Still are Warriors”
It seems we have the worst of both worlds in this country. We (or at least the founding fathers) bought with them the stiff upper lip, born with a silver spoon, buggery and bishops mentality from the hell-hole they came from (and the majority only came because they were the black sheep of the upper crust families back home - here they could reinvent themselves).
Along with that we have a new world anti-intellectualism that allows an oaf like Bolger to make PM, and when he stuffs that up to be given a bevvy of fat directorships.
So we have an elite brotherhood of oafs whose claim to fame was selection, 40 years previously, for the 1st XV of whichever toffee nosed school mummy and daddy paid hand over fist to get them into.
I live in a rural area an
d the general feeling is one of incredulity that I don’t either follow rugby or sink pints at “the local” - luckily things are changing a little bit - but unfortunately the change seems to see us swinging more to the Tony Veitch direction (instead of sinking pints of DB we sink overpriced cocktails - instead of beating the kids at rugger training, we beat them up in multi million dollar Parnell apartments)
Where did we go so wrong????
Maybe we should think of culture as an evolutionary process. There’s no doubt that violence is embedded here. Just look at Parliament where our MPs like to sort disagreements out with their fists and verbal abuse is part and parcel of the debating process as opposed to rigorous intellectual sparring.
New Zealand just needs to work through this level and treat all of the bad stuff is a catalyst for a process of change.
We certainly need huge investment in our schools and communities to make this change happen.