Post by Kiwi Frontline on May 13, 2020 12:49:39 GMT 12
Dear Editor, (Sent to the NZ Herald )
I read in the Weekend Herald (9 May) the wacky idea to give Maori and Pasifica patients priority in a health system emerging from lock-down. Racial privilege is always unacceptable and particularly so in our health system. If you move some people up the waiting list then other people have to be moved down. To suggest that ethnicity and maybe deprivation could be included in the assessing priorities “to make the reforms more palatable” is simply an attempt to put lipstick on pig.
Maori health problems come from living a Maori lifestyle; too much smoking, too much drinking and poor dietary choices resulting multiple health problems. Sir Peter Gluckman pointed out the need to reduce smoking to improve Maori life expectancy*. Iwi need to step up to improve Maori health by promoting healthier Maori lifestyles.
As for Dr David Tipene -Leach (Chairman of the Maori Medical Practitioners) comment that “if you get it right for Maori you get it right for everybody”, I fail the see how people who have been bumped down the priority rankings would agree with that statement.
Nobody should be disadvantaged because of their ethnicity and nor should anybody be advantaged for exactly the same reasons.
RICHARD PRINCE, Tauranga
Dear Editor, (Sent to the Bay of Plenty Times 8/5/20)
It is entirely possible that most New Zealanders have never read the “Treaty of Waitangi” although there has been plenty of opportunity to do so. It is clear that many activists and agitators have never read the Treaty – nor do they recognise the laws of the Land (NZ Law) which were originally British Laws. (Dec.1994) These racists claim no loyalty to anyone & desire to set up Maori rule 7 sovereignty (Ken Mair) They have attacked the One tree hill landmark with a Pakeha chainsaw; tried to sink a vessel on the Waikato river by setting it on fire, and vandalised a statue of a NZ prime Minister (John Balance ) at Wanganui; also stealing a gun from the museum of New Zealand.
When questioned, they claim the Land under the “Treaty of Waitangi” but have no intention of abiding by it. These people are no Maori Chiefs or Elders but part-Maori activists that are after power and monetary gain. Auckland residents are aware of the fiasco of Maori claims at Orakei and Bastion Point. Prim Minister Muldoon at the time had an agreement with the tribal elders which settled their claims for $3,000, - Jo Hawke stirred up trouble and managed to coerce the present Government into parting with another $3,000,000 to settle the same claims and the weak and ineffective Government ended up by giving them the land .
IAN BROUGHAM, Wanganui
sites.google.com/site/kiwifrontline/letters-submitted-to-newspapers/unpublished-letters
I read in the Weekend Herald (9 May) the wacky idea to give Maori and Pasifica patients priority in a health system emerging from lock-down. Racial privilege is always unacceptable and particularly so in our health system. If you move some people up the waiting list then other people have to be moved down. To suggest that ethnicity and maybe deprivation could be included in the assessing priorities “to make the reforms more palatable” is simply an attempt to put lipstick on pig.
Maori health problems come from living a Maori lifestyle; too much smoking, too much drinking and poor dietary choices resulting multiple health problems. Sir Peter Gluckman pointed out the need to reduce smoking to improve Maori life expectancy*. Iwi need to step up to improve Maori health by promoting healthier Maori lifestyles.
As for Dr David Tipene -Leach (Chairman of the Maori Medical Practitioners) comment that “if you get it right for Maori you get it right for everybody”, I fail the see how people who have been bumped down the priority rankings would agree with that statement.
Nobody should be disadvantaged because of their ethnicity and nor should anybody be advantaged for exactly the same reasons.
RICHARD PRINCE, Tauranga
Dear Editor, (Sent to the Bay of Plenty Times 8/5/20)
It is entirely possible that most New Zealanders have never read the “Treaty of Waitangi” although there has been plenty of opportunity to do so. It is clear that many activists and agitators have never read the Treaty – nor do they recognise the laws of the Land (NZ Law) which were originally British Laws. (Dec.1994) These racists claim no loyalty to anyone & desire to set up Maori rule 7 sovereignty (Ken Mair) They have attacked the One tree hill landmark with a Pakeha chainsaw; tried to sink a vessel on the Waikato river by setting it on fire, and vandalised a statue of a NZ prime Minister (John Balance ) at Wanganui; also stealing a gun from the museum of New Zealand.
When questioned, they claim the Land under the “Treaty of Waitangi” but have no intention of abiding by it. These people are no Maori Chiefs or Elders but part-Maori activists that are after power and monetary gain. Auckland residents are aware of the fiasco of Maori claims at Orakei and Bastion Point. Prim Minister Muldoon at the time had an agreement with the tribal elders which settled their claims for $3,000, - Jo Hawke stirred up trouble and managed to coerce the present Government into parting with another $3,000,000 to settle the same claims and the weak and ineffective Government ended up by giving them the land .
IAN BROUGHAM, Wanganui
sites.google.com/site/kiwifrontline/letters-submitted-to-newspapers/unpublished-letters