Post by Kiwi Frontline on Nov 26, 2017 6:16:31 GMT 12
Dear Editor, (Sent to the Herald on Sunday before 19/11/17)
Paul Little's Opinion piece equates culture with the arts and entertainment. Whether you support opera or kapa haka is one of choice. What the unnamed journalist he quotes so rightly points out is Maori culture and superstitions are given special recognition and rights in legislation such as the Resource Management Act, Local Bodies Act, the Marine and Coastal Areas Act, etc. No recognition is accorded to Pakeha culture and Judeo-Christian beliefs.
Article 3 of the Treaty of Waitangi grants equality of citizenship but special recognition is not equality. To give the Maori world view a status superior to anyone else's world view is a denial of the democratic principle of democracy as a form of government in which all eligible citizens are able to participate equally.
Equality used to be just that; equality. Treating everyone equally, alike.
These days it is not that at all. Equality now means discrimination disguised as ideals; it means preferential treatment for special interest groups especially Maori. Promoters of these ideas are not interested in equality but rather recognition of inequality.
No person should be disadvantaged for having a different skin colour, nor should any person be advantaged for exactly the same reason.
RICHARD PRINCE, Tauranga
sites.google.com/site/kiwifrontline/letters-submitted-to-newspapers/unpublished-letters
Paul Little's Opinion piece equates culture with the arts and entertainment. Whether you support opera or kapa haka is one of choice. What the unnamed journalist he quotes so rightly points out is Maori culture and superstitions are given special recognition and rights in legislation such as the Resource Management Act, Local Bodies Act, the Marine and Coastal Areas Act, etc. No recognition is accorded to Pakeha culture and Judeo-Christian beliefs.
Article 3 of the Treaty of Waitangi grants equality of citizenship but special recognition is not equality. To give the Maori world view a status superior to anyone else's world view is a denial of the democratic principle of democracy as a form of government in which all eligible citizens are able to participate equally.
Equality used to be just that; equality. Treating everyone equally, alike.
These days it is not that at all. Equality now means discrimination disguised as ideals; it means preferential treatment for special interest groups especially Maori. Promoters of these ideas are not interested in equality but rather recognition of inequality.
No person should be disadvantaged for having a different skin colour, nor should any person be advantaged for exactly the same reason.
RICHARD PRINCE, Tauranga
sites.google.com/site/kiwifrontline/letters-submitted-to-newspapers/unpublished-letters