Yes, I was going to say "the good, the bad and the ugly" but I think ugly might be a bit harsh.I currently like living in NZ... or do I? I'm obsessed with reading about American politics right now... but as the Nov2 elections show, I'm not the only one.
My obsession has me both happy and unhappy at the same time. Strange. America has lot of work to do right now. I am a T.E.A. partier at heart.
Would I want to move back to Chicago? Not right now. I DO miss the people and American attitudes. Last year when I visited home, I noticed the fast fast paced Chicago lifestyle... do I want that again? Not sure. Would I miss the laid backness in NZ? Probably. Do I want to shovel lots of snow again? Hmm... snow can be fun, but honestly I don't really miss it.
So am I living in NZ just for the climate only? There are some things here in NZ that are good, bad or strange. The government here is a really weird "MMP" system. It is unjust and not fair. Why? Because minor, small parties get WAY too much "power". The two bigger parties and the final party elected should call the shots. (...yes, I'm used to a two party American system where primaries select the 2 candidates and elections sort the winner)
With itty bitty parties like ACT, Greens and Maori, the NZ National party has to do lots of DODGY deals to get legislation passed. It is not "fair" a separatist party, solely based on race, lobbies for stuff for THEIR race ONLY. What the hell kind of racist shite is this? But NZers don't see it this way. They see poor wee Maoris as victims, so Maoris see themselves as victims hence the political party to get as much stuff for their people... who are victims of what, who knows... They think the Waitangi agreement (which formed the country) was a bad deal and they want the country back?
OK, so yes, the political system in America has a few current problems... after all, the left lulled the majority of Americans asleep for quite a few decades. Luckily the current leftist SHOCK squatting in the W.House WOKE the majority up: awake and engaged now. I see many battles happening the next two years, but the evils and communist infiltrators WILL be purged.
The left has America on the wrong path... and NZ as well.
OK, so what is good about NZ:
Food, beautiful landscapes everywhere, tropical birds, palm trees, beaches, temporate climate on the north island, daily sunshine 8-9 months straight, mountains, forests, volcanoes, tourism, jet boating, glaciar hiking, movie making (hobbits!), athletic competitions, entrepeneurship in dairy, wine and other export markets, friendly people who will chat with you at the local store and a slower-paced way of life.
The bad:
NZers are really naive about America. NZ believes in and follows UN propaganda. The main paper, the NZ Herald, often runs many COMPLETE LEFTISTS LIES and propaganda about America. I saw a commentary from some woman who loves Mee-chella Obama. I almost barfed. Mee-chelle & TheWon and their leftist regime is running America off a cliff. If America goes down, NZ won't survive either.
Many in NZ, including the political "green party" are just non-thinking sheep who believe the man made global warming B.S. (ha! baaah.. baaaa). Good god, can a leftist not read facts and data, learn then change an opinion? NZ are now paying taxes for AIR and trees. WTF...
Politics in NZ (as mentioned) are left of center or REALLY far left with little minority groups weilding too much power - like Maori. There is a Maori queen (why?) Maori make up 1/2 the people on the dole: that is their way of life. Non Maori NZ taxpayers work so 1/2 of the dole, who are Maori, don't have to? Waaaah waaaa, Maoris, get off your asses and get jobs. NZ All Black rugby matches insist on hakas (Maori challenge/war chants) before national games. If NZ was ONLY a nation of Maoris, this ritual might make sense. But it isn't so it doesn't! 85% of NZ is non Maori!
Should NZ have a WHITE ONLY rugby team, political party or special queens? Where are the Indian, European, Chinese or other special promotions or perks NZ? Are there any Chinese rugby clubs? How about celebrating ALL previous ethnic backgrounds and being more of a melting pot. I suppose my Americanism is showing, isn't it.
NZ is not "one people" if they keep all the special Maori crap going on. It will continue to be more divisive. Maori now push for special forshore and seabed laws = want more free stuff! 15% of your population is VERY racist and separatist NZ. Wake up...
I thought I was paying higher taxes to have free health care in NZ. But, I have to wait in line, though, just like Canada and the UK. There is private insurance here though, but EMPLOYERS don't offer it (like they do in the states). This sucks. If I buy my own insurance, can I pay less taxes then? Crikey...
What is strange:
Why does NZ celebrate "Guy Fawkes" day? It's an old British holiday. Noone I've asked in NZ knows WHY the 'celebrate' it... weird. Are they happy a terrorist tried to blow up British parliament ... or are they happy the guy and his cohorts were caught and hung?
Red sliced beets on hamburgers... yuck.
NZ wants good trade with America, but too many in NZ have bought into the leftist tripe & think Americans are crazy, violent war mongers. Do you hate or love America? Stop reading the NZ herald's false leftist deranged opinions on America, NZ. You should support Israel, NZ, not the terrorists in Gaza. You should wake up, greenies, the science is NOT settled and AGW is false. If anything, the earth is in a cooling trend right now due to sun spot activity.
Wee wittle grandma's-garden stories get a lot of news talk... so really not much goes on here in NZ (well, perhaps that is sort of on the good side actually...)
NZ parents seems to really coddle their kids. Harden up. Kids should do chores for their allowance, get full licenses & drive at 16 and have part time JOBS at age 16 upwards. Learn responsibility kids. Teenagers leave home, don't get jobs then go on the dole. Nice. My taxes have to then pay for YOUR laziness kid?! Get a job flippin' burgers, work the crops or sweep floors. My taxes pay for your SHITE on the dole? Get off my tit.
Guess this is just my rant for today... For two years, I've felt my American home has really gone down the wrong road. If TEA partiers keep up the fight and Sarah Palin or another corruption fighter becomes president? I might have to move back... For now, I think I've learned the NZ whinging pretty well. Guess I'll work in the garden...
Thanks for your comments Lisa. Glad to see you got to Pahia,I'd recommend Karekare Beach in the Waitakere ranges-it is where The Piano was filmed and if you get the right day it is spectacular viewing,as is most of the West Coast region. You are here at the right time i.e. Spring as the Winter here is endless-rain and bleak and everyone gets ratty (if they haven't shot through to a Pacific Island somewhere) by October. February is best,guaranteed hot and humid and best time to invite the rellie's/friends from back in the states.
ReplyDeleteIf you are,as you indicate,looking at staying awhile-can I suggest you join the Ex-pat's for Palin site I set up (the link is on my Recovering Liberal site)? You would be the first and more than welcome.
I enjoy your site and enjoy seeing NZ through fresh eyes.
Cheers
Mike
If you love to live in NZ then its your wish but think of your safety and go ahead with your work.I loved your blog so i have added your blog to my Blog roll at http://auditions-for-all.blogspot.com/
ReplyDeleteSo would you put my blog too, on you...
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Hope you would add my blog.
Thanks a lot.Keep blogging....
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Fairly accurate overall though I think NZ'ers attitude to MMP and 'ethnic issues' is closer to your own (and mine) than you realize.
ReplyDeleteWe have a 'heartland' as US does and these people have attitudes different from what our leftist media spouts.
Roughly speaking, (apart from Wellington), the farther south one travels from Auckland the further into the heartland you go.
MMP was dumped on NZ with a majority vote of only 57% and a promise of review by referendum in 2002, which was broken.
It is a bad system and I believe it will go in the 2011 referendum that this Govt will deliver.
My wife and I lived and worked in the US (FL) back in the '90's so we are your situation reversed. I can well understand your culture shock!.
US is the better political system of course but remember that US is blessedly unique amongst democracies. We are a young country (only since 1931) and have a lot of baggage from the UK that needs trashing.
thanks for the comments thus far!
ReplyDelete@Mike - we live in the Waitakere Ranges right now - so beautiful. Saw horse racing at Kerekere beach last year - great! Cool you've set up an expat for Palin site...
@rareresource - when I lived in the Chicago area, I knew exactly where the safe neighborhoods were vs the very unsafe... home is wherever my husband & I are :)
@auditions - I do enjoy NZ for now... just am of two minds since so much political chaos is going on in the USA - I'm a fighter so I feel like I'm missing out a bit by not being in Chicago and TEA partying there...
@michael - thanks for the compliments...
@nzgarry - I'm glad to hear there is more of a NZ heartland out there. Interesting about MMP being dumped on NZ. As a newbee here, I can tell it doesn't seen ti work very well so I hope NZers do get involved vote it out (somehow). A NZ constitution might be good... get off the British thing completely.
culture shock? hmm, yep, that is probably correct!
I admit, I probably didn't write enough about the things I do love about living in NZ in this post though... ;)
again, thanks for the comments everyone
Lisa
ReplyDeleteI see that you are still somewhat averse to acquiring a contextual historical background for Treaty related issues in my country (or of basic NZ history for that matter) if the content of your post is any measure to go by.
I don't feel like it's my job to educate you on some basic NZ history like the Kingitanga or provide a Maori voice for contemporary issues such as the Foreshore and Seabed, but I do wonder why you insist on blogging about something that you clearly have little to no understanding of?
No matter how much you try to provide a politically right-wing Pakeha spin on issues such as the Foreshore and Seabed i.e. 'free stuff' according to you, the fact remains that Maori did not relinquish rights to the same, and that the governments extinguishment of Maori property rights is itself racist given that that only Maori rights are targeted, and is in clear violation of Articles Two and Three of the Treaty of Waitangi.
Any country that treats property rights differently based on race (or culture) is discriminating, so it is ironic that you should invoke the race card.
Just a quick mention on what might be considered a 'typical' NZ view of the US. As a Kiwi living in the US for nearly 10 years now I can tell you that I don't know of any Kiwi (myself included) who truly hates the US.
In my experience, it is US foreign policy, US militarism, and US imperialism that people dislike.
The US spends more on arms than the rest of the world combined. In 2005 the US had 750+ foreign bases and 2,500,000 personnel serving around the world.
The US is known for supporting dictators, fighting or funding covert operations for political ends, deposing foreign leaders when they oppose American interests or supporting the same if they advance American interests.
It amazes me when I watch Beck, Hannity and others attack Obama night after night fixated as they are on spending while ignoring the US$2 Trillion spent on two wars on as many fronts.
The US has been involved in over 100 military operations since WW2.
People can see that the image of itself that America projects to the world is not real and it is the hypocrisy that they dislike.
In a recent interview I listened to, the US was compared to ancient Rome at the time that that republic imploded. An oversized standing imperial army serving imperial interests is at odds with the ideals of a modern democracy.
Kiwi in NYC
wow, kiwi in NYC... it is obvious to me you are a naive leftist from a teeny weeny country who subscribes to the lefist school of thought in America (lucky for you, 20% of America thinks like you! geee!!).
ReplyDeleteWhy was the Maori party formed? IT IS A POLITICAL PARTY BASED ON RACE.
I don't Maoris, I hate SEPARATISTS who want welfare and free stuff like foreshore and seabed.
SIGNING THE TREATY OF WAITANGI MEANS MAORIS GAVE UP SOVEREIGNTY TO BRITAIN.
Its too late for Maoris anyway, there aren't any with true Maori bloodlines from what I've read from NZ sources.
85% of NZ (non Maori) would have to LEAVE and then all the Maori could just breed amongst themselves... perhaps go back to just wearing grass skirts... fun in your utopian dream I'm sure...
America has its share of leftist/separatist groups. Their ideology was laid bare for all to see the last 2 years since 2008 election.
The 2010 election was the first step in righting it. Its a war to save America.
America is AN IDEA. Too bad you don't understand it. You'll probably never get it.
The NZ media and NZ herald hardly EVER get it right when supplying scant American news. Liberal lies and deceit permeate ALL the way down to NZ.
You have been lied to by NZ media and USA media. WAKE UP
"The US spends more on arms than the rest of the world combined. In 2005 the US had 750+ foreign bases and 2,500,000 personnel serving around the world." THIS IS BECAUSE COUNTRIES WANT AMERICA'S PROTECTION FROM OTHER A&&HOLE COUNTRIES like China, N.Korea (happy bombers) or Russia.
You are anti-war, yet believe the falsity America is pro-war? THEN WHY DO YOU LIVE THERE?
Sounds like you LOVE your LEFTIST tripe so much, move to Cuba... let us all know how you get on
all liberalism really sucks a&&
TheWon's regime will end... soon
Hi Lisa
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure that I would categorise myself as being 'leftist'. I find that while simple labels might be useful for the purposes of differentiation, they are usually not representative of how I might feel about a wide range of issues.
On some issues I am conservative and liberal on others, but of course you are free to judge me as you see fit.
In an effort to keep you honest, I am going to challenge your view that the Maori party is a political party 'based on race'.
It is in fact a party based on culture, not race. This is evidenced in the fact that people of all races can join. The party itself was formed after the fallout of the Labour governments handling of the Foreshore and Seabed issue.
Where is the Maori 'separatism' that you blog about? If separatism can be catagorised by a general resistance toward something, then I would argue that I would argue that it is pakeha, not Maori who are raising the prospect of separatism in NZ.
When Maori seek justice for past wrongs and suggest the embodiment of a binational ideal promised in the Treaty of Waitangi, right-wing Pakeha respond with knee-jerk commentaries about the dismemberment of New Zealand, and fantasise about the establishment of separate Maori and Pakeha states.
It is the right wing pakeha element who resists Maori language and culture, deny Waitangi Day its rightful place as the founding document of NZ and continue to deny the protection of Maori property that was promised by the Treaty.
If you are such an expert, then can you please point out when NZ has actually seen a large scale Maori secessionist movement?
Talk is cheap Lisa, time to front up with some facts!
You might be surprised to find that I actually agree with you as far as the issue of sovereignty is concerned. It is too late for Maori, but your view that sovereignty was established by the signing of the Treaty is only partially correct.
British sovereignty in 1840 was nominal only and not substantive, and I remind you (again) that it is only the English version of the Treaty that ceded sovereignty.
The Maori version granted a limited form of governorship to the British in order that they might better govern their own people who were beyond the reach of British law prior to 1840, and it is the Maori version that the British circulated around NZ in an effort to collect signatures.
In any case, British sovereignty in NZ is not the same thing as ownership. Article Two of the Treaty guaranteed possession of all lands, fisheries, forests and estates; while Article Three gave Maori the rights of protection and supposed equality before the law as British subjects.
Getting back to the issue of US imperialism Therefore, resolving historical injustices (of which there are many) is not 'separatism' but a realisation of the ideal of the Treaty.
You can't have it both ways - sovereignty was conditional at best, and carried with it the not unreasonable expectation for the British and later NZ governments to actually honour the document that gave them and their descendents the right to call NZ home.
(Continued from last post due to size)
ReplyDeleteGetting back to the subject of US imperialism, I just wanted to add that my second long term visit to the US occurred almost a year to the day after 9/11.
It always struck me, as it still does, that Americans are so engrossed in their belief of the right of America to exercise pre-emptive war, they tend to be almost willfully ignorant of wider world view of America's foreign policy, its military interventions, its support for despotic and dictatorial regimes, its economic agenda and the fanatic 'My Country Right or Wrong' attitude, that it is hardly surprising that most Americans were simply ill prepared to put the events of 9/11 into context.
While Americans were asking themselves 'how could this happen?' many commentators had asked 'why did this take so long to happen?’
I remember being on a bus on my way to work in Wellington on 9-11-2001, and of course you can imagine the topic of conversation that day.
But the general consensus appeared to be that the attacks, as shocking as they were, were not really surprising.
Now, if citizens of a 'teeny weeny' country like NZ can see this, what is causing America to be so willfully blind of the downstream effects of American foreign policy?
Ok, that's enough typing for one day. I have a turkey that needs my attention.
Happy Thanksgiving by the way.
Kiwi in NYC (Soon to be in NJ)
Kiwi in NYC, thank you for your comments.
ReplyDeleteI wasn't surprised 9/11 occurred at all. Clinton's reduction of USA military into reduce them to "peace keeping" forces only and foreign appeasement policies made sure it did. The horror of engagements in Somalia is a glaring example.
Or can you not see past the leftist mantra everything is Bush' fault? That is whay I call you a leftist for you believe the leftist media.
Do you subscribe to "peace through strength"? Why or why not?
Many Americans, NZers and you SEEM to have been brainwashed: you tipped your hand by stating "almost willfully ignorant of wider world view of America's foreign policy, its military interventions, its support for despotic and dictatorial regimes"...
Be specific please. Let's pick ONE "military intervention" which supported a "despotic and dictatorial regime" you don't like and discuss it. Who was the president and the policies at the time? D or R?
Your pick.
Gotta go to work for now.
We still have a Maori Queen ? we Maori believed she died in 2006, good to have an expert to set we poor humble brown types straight on that.
ReplyDeleteNow being a nasty sod I do believe in absolute purity between the races, just like in the USA's history but without the small pox blankets.
Racial equality, no problem, we have a church here whose members are white only, now they believe they are too important to be called up to carry a rifle.
I would call them up and use them for mine clearing, Christians have some uses.
I have no problem with total equality, do you ?
Haven't you been keeping up with your separatist movement, anonymous? After all, Maori have a political party to get Maori rights and free stuff just for being Maori - LUCKY for YOU! P.S. yep the queenie died and her son is now king...yea! ummm... KING OF WHAT? How SILLY! Your tribesman ceded to British authority in 1840 or have you FORGOTTEN you are now a BRITISH commonwealth nation?
ReplyDeleteI've read your people agreed to it for protection from the French. The French may have conquered you and killed all Maori. Whoops, you may not have EXISTED if that happened... Instead the British, besides having a few squabbles through the years, LET YOUR PEOPLE LIVE... Do you appreciate that NOW Maoris? Doesn't appear like it...
The other 85% of NZ probably need their own political parties too now, eh? Since political parties are HIP and COOL to be RACE BASED in NZ, how about:
Anglo Saxon Party
Asian Party
South African Party
Australian Party
Ethopian Party
... oh I could go on
Appears no such country as "New Zealand" exists for Maori... just 85% invaders.
such a shame
http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/politics/the-maori-king-movement
ReplyDelete