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Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Ture tahi mo nga tangata katoa

The names in the by-lines might be multicultural, but it wouldn't be Granny Herald if there wasn't some racist angle involved. The headline "Jury's out on compulsory use of Maori in court" is an indicator - the pejorative "compulsory" being used completely out of context. This is known as a "dog-whistle" in political terms but may as well be applied here in the propaganda sense when dealing with an instrument of the ruling elite such as the NZ Herald. By posing the counter-factual: "Jury's out on compulsory use of English" we see how prejudiced and inappropriate the headline is.

NZ Herald:

Jury's out on compulsory use of Maori in court

New Zealand's District Court staff will have to make announcements in Maori as well as English from next week.

The move has sparked both staunch support and opposition.

From Monday court registrars and attendants will open, adjourn and close sittings at the District, Family and Youth courts in both languages.

New Zealand Law Society president Jonathan Temm said it was surprising te reo Maori was only now being introduced, considering it had been an official language of New Zealand since 1987.

The clear imputation from the reporters is that the court staff are being forced - obviously against their will as it would imply - to speak Te Reo. But the assumption of resistance by the court staff to this is not cited at all in the article - indeed the official voices are supportive - so they are pulling their Pakeha cultural paranoia angle directly out of their arses.  And what arses:

But Sensible Sentencing Trust national spokesman Garth McVicar called the move a waste of time.

"A lot of the victims that we deal with, their issues have been frustrated by the clogging within the court system at present.

"So in my opinion it's pouring salt into the wound. What's the benefit of it, realistically?"
[...]
"We're dealing with a court system that is overworked to the point of being dysfunctional and we're just putting another stumbling block in the way."

New Zealand First MP Winston Peters said: "If we've got any spare money to be tossing around at the courts, then let's spend on better counsel and on facilities to speed up the justice system of this country.

"With the greatest respect - it's not going to help the spread of the Maori language at all."

The voices of conservative NZ speak as one fart.

How will saying a handful of extra words be "pouring salt into the wound" exactly? How are these extra words of an official language in any way "putting another stumbling block in the way" of anything? And, with the greatest of respect, no matter how small it is, having any announcement made in Te Reo where once it was only made in English - is very obviously a spread of the language.

It's amazing that all these bigoted relics are bitching about is this:

Opening
Turituri mo Tona Honore, te Kaiwhakawa, Taki tu - Silence for His/Her Honour the Judge. All stand.
Kua tuwhera te Kooti a-Rohe - The District Court is now open.

Adjournment/Conclusion
Turituri. Taki tu. Kua hiki te Kooti - Silence. All stand. The court is adjourned.
Kua haere ano te Kooti - The court is resumed.

As far as the judicial system goes this is a tiny step forward in the history of the NZ government which has hitherto been obsessed with taking rights away from Maori and then making up sets of lesser rights and applying them to Maori whether they consented to it or not.

For example in the midst of the East Coast expeditions/invasions of late 1865 many pernicious and repugnant acts were passed by the NZ parliament (all of which have been validated in some way by the UK and successive NZ governments) including the Native Rights Act 1865, which declared two extraordinary things fundamental to the citizenship and judicial rights of the Crown and Maori: that all Maori whether born before or after the Treaty (although they didn't say Treaty, just NZ becoming a dependency of Britain) are British subjects and are to be treated as such by the courts, and secondly: that the jurisdiction of the NZ government's courts extend to Maori and their property including land and that anything involving Maori custom will be dealt with in the Maori Land Court.  These concepts would prove to be in varying degrees a safeguard, an impairment and a loss for Maori in the years ahead.

So from that sweeping assertion of compulsion and equality made by the NZ parliament almost 150 years ago to today, where a few words of Maori are to be uttered in the district courts, it seems like an eternity has passed to come only a very short distance.

2 Comments:

At 18/7/12 9:51 pm, Blogger countryboy said...

Oh Jesus ! ' Pejorative ' . What a great word but ok , ok . Here's how a moron like me sees it . This Maori / Pakeha / thing . It's a fucking red herring , more red than the end of Charlie Sheens nob . More of a herring than the inside of a North Sea fishermans underpants . Maori / Pakeha / customary rights / water ownership / Who said what to whom for why etc etc . I'm no creepy Christian but it's said the devil is in the details . That's where he / she / it lures one to confuse and diffuse . It's not that complex really . The Uber Filth . The likes of jonky and his mate Owen Glen . Luring . Confusing . Destroying . Devouring . When we of many skin tones realize we are all in this shit together we can befriend and unite ? Jonky says we can't own the water . Bullshit ! He owns what ever the fuck he wants . That's what he does . He owns stuff . He doesn't share or allow . He doesn't foster free - dom , goodwill and love . He consumes while he segmentalises us into court hearings , anemic protests and brief media interest . " Growth for the sake of growth is the rationale of cancer " .

I have this fear right ? I have a deep seated fear that spiders rule the world . No , wait that's my other fear . My other fear , not the spider fear but the other one is that clever bastards are fucking around with our brains ... Nigel Latta getting a Queens Thingy for Brain Fuckery advice to the jonky regime OMG ! Oh , and I'm terrified of those letters with little windows .

 
At 19/7/12 10:13 pm, Blogger countryboy said...

" The voice of Conservative New Zealand speak as one fart " ! hahahahahahah !

 

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