Capitalism has a long history, I have heard George Monbiot give what he thinks is an accurate time and place of origin of capitalism as we know it around 1450 on the island of Madeira where the people exhausted to collapse the natural environment and became very wealthy in the process then moved on to other geographic areas and repeated the process of extraction and paying a pittance or using slavery as a workforce . And in many ways what we have in current New Zealand has not been too much different in a general sense. We are living in a time where our ecology is breaking down and our leadership is steam rolling ahead to continue to extract while inequality gets to grotesque levels. 311 families own as much as the bottom 2.5 million people in our country. That is approximately half the country’s population. 20 percent or so of Māori live in poverty with the Māori population of New Zealand being around 20 percent. Around 14 percent of Pākehā or European people live in poverty and they make up around 70 percent of the population. I have taught for many years what is some of the history that has lead to this disproportionate poverty for Māori the taking of land being the great example and also they laws that led Māori to live in cities a foreign and punitive education system all of which lead to this disproportion in wealth, health and other stats. Something not as much explicity educated about perhaps is how capitalism has also had devistating effects for the Pākehā, Pacifika and others who also find themselves in poverty. Captililism creates that underclass to enrich its masters. Therefore the solution in my eyes is not to use our past to judge who is worthy of redress, as picking and choosing winners and losers is exactly how the capitalism began and how it sustains itself. The privelegeing of one persons story over another if they are all suffering now if you think about it is ridicoulous. Instead my Māoriness wishes to lift all people out of poverty which would actually bring solidarity between people and because Māori are disproportionately affected by poverty then a universal scheme would be pro Māori also. The basic destruction of a class consciousness which comes from the philosophy and living with neo liberalism has vanquished a substantial universal class response which i have outlined here. Most people have littlte to no structrual critique of our economic system is telling that capiltism is doing its job!. To strengthen public services, put a holt to privatisation, restore our environment and to prioritise the poor should be at the for front for anyone who is conscious in our country. I see the Green Party as a moderate vehicle for many of these aspirations. In particular their policy “The Income Guarantee” would do a lot to help those in dire need. The Māori Party while having a similar tax program to the Greens both are moderate needed changes in my view have used their time in parliament to highlight other aspirations then directly what they aim for the poor of us. This i think has been more clearly targeted and pushed forward by the Greens . All other parties continue the status quo or worsen the situation. I believe it was the tupuna of the north Te Pahi when he travelled to England int he 19th century and was shocked to see beggars of food and the poor under their class system, While around a hundred years later Te Puea Hērangi led a hands on wellbeing program for her many peoples of Waikato facilitating adoption, food production , raising funds and establishing the national marae Tūranga Waewae, We have new challenges today for Māori and non Māori alike but this type of hands on leadership is needed to materially extend wellbeing to those that have the least among us. Wiremu Tamihana quoted from the bible when summing up a way forward between the Crown and Māori after the invasion of Waikato from the book of Paul “Kia aroha ki te aroha whakateina, kia whakanui tētahi i tētahi ki te honore” Have love like that towards a younger sibling , and we should uplift everyone with honour” Pai mārire Good Peace
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