I have been travelling for nearly three months and often meet people who have only a hazy idea of where New Zealand is and what it is really like. For Loyalty's sake I smile and agree that it is a lovely country full of intelligent people and sheep. I am tempted sometimes to say what I really think. So here goes, and I hope I will be allowed back in the country when I come home in September.
On the surface New Zealand is a pleasant society, founded by idealists who wanted to build Utopia. But New Zealand has a brutal understructure. It runs by male values for the three Rs, Rugger, Racing and Rooting. The rich guy with the best P.R. gets the top job Yes we have had Female Prime Ministers,Governors General, and Chief Justice, but listen to the undercurrent, Fred Redneck drinking with his pals and Lucy Loudmouth in the coffee shop. Do these achievements earn respect? Of course not, High achieving women are lesbians who have slept their way to the top. Good old Fred knows somebody who drives a taxi in Wellington and they should know. Or Lucy's daughter is a hairdresser in a salon on Lambton Quay, and one of her clients works in the Prime Minister's Department and told her.
What worries me is that Lucy and Fred and all their connections get to vote. They have only a vague notion of how the country functions, but they cast votes. After Helen Clarke was defeated I asked several friends and aquaintances why they had voted the way they did, Common replies were, 'Ít's time for a change'but no idea why they thought that. 'John Key's a nice looking man,' So if masculine good looks is a qualification for high office I should nominate Justin Beiber for Pope.
But New Zealand is a great place to bring up children. Really? That sad little roll call, Lilly Bing, Delcilia Whittaker, Coral Burroughs, James Whakaruru, the Kahui twins, and so on, tell a different story.
Of course Lucy Loudmouth KNOWS these things are done by non white solo mums with unemployed boyfriends.Well the probloems of bullying and violence is spread a lot more thickly through all classes of New Zealand society.I saw that in my teaching years and it has been going on for a very long time.
And then there is the habit we have of cutting down tall poppies. Helen Clarke had been Prime Minister 'Long enough', when two women in Masterton won Lotto there was an outcry, 'It was too much.'our guardians of public virtue cried. It was exactly the amount prescribed by the rules of Lotto.
I read in the news that the Government is planning to issue coupons for unemployed under eighteens which can only be redeemed for food and clothing not cigarettes or alcohol. How sanctimonious! May I suggest that the authorities then modify petrol pumps so that farmers can only fill their tractors with tax rebated petrol, not the family car, and while they are at it they should modify cash registers so that farmer's grocery items are not classed 'dog food'regardless of the vintage.
So Fred Redneck and Lucy Loudmouth open your eyes, and your minds, start putting your brains into gear before engaging your vocal chord. But neither of you read my blog do you?
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