We are told, whether it's health or education, Maori cannot be reached, or cannot access, or cannot receive current 'best practice' because it is couched in racism. Until our institutions look through a Maori worldview lens, inequity and injustice will continue. Progress will be impossible. These are the circumstances that New Zealand's academic institutions and public agencies have accepted, embraced and acted on.
So I have a conundrum for them.
Teenage births are considered, by many, to be undesirable. Sixty years ago they led to shot-gun marriages; thirty years ago (and since) to long term dependence on welfare. They often lead to undesirable outcomes for offspring. After all, teen-age mothers are barely more than children themselves, and the biological fathers of their children seldom actively participate in parenting.
But as females became better educated and independent, they themselves started to question the wisdom of premature pregnancy and all that it entailed. In an ultra-connected world, reality TV programmes like Sixteen and Pregnant followed the lives of teenage mothers, exposing the difficulties and hardships they experienced and were viewed by millions worldwide.
Health authorities put ever increasing efforts into reducing teen births through contraception education and availability, especially new long-acting reversible contraceptives and the morning-after pill. Secondary schools provided more guidance and advice.
In terms of welfare reform, where births were not prevented, the Ministry of Social Development got closer to the mothers, exercising control of their benefit money, connecting them to mentors, ensuring GP enrolment and keeping them in study. Unconditional cash stopped.
From youth surveys it seems young people are increasingly delaying sex and /or avoiding pregnancy.
The result?
Teenage births have plummeted BUT for Maori and non-Maori alike (as did abortions by the way).
Click image to view
Whatever factors are driving this steep decline, Maori females responded in exactly the same way as non-Maori females.
This phenomenon gives lie to much of the hitherto described propaganda which is now pushed as 'fact'.
Yes, Maori teenage births are still more common - and still leading to benefit dependence - but that's actually another issue.
The point here is, regardless of ethnicity, teenage girls are subject to and responding to the same social stimuli in the same way.
Maori females are throwing a spanner into the works. They challenge the current orthodoxy.
Perhaps the orthodoxy is unsound?
Lindsay Mitchell is a welfare commentator who blogs HERE. - Where this article was sourced.
So I have a conundrum for them.
Teenage births are considered, by many, to be undesirable. Sixty years ago they led to shot-gun marriages; thirty years ago (and since) to long term dependence on welfare. They often lead to undesirable outcomes for offspring. After all, teen-age mothers are barely more than children themselves, and the biological fathers of their children seldom actively participate in parenting.
But as females became better educated and independent, they themselves started to question the wisdom of premature pregnancy and all that it entailed. In an ultra-connected world, reality TV programmes like Sixteen and Pregnant followed the lives of teenage mothers, exposing the difficulties and hardships they experienced and were viewed by millions worldwide.
Health authorities put ever increasing efforts into reducing teen births through contraception education and availability, especially new long-acting reversible contraceptives and the morning-after pill. Secondary schools provided more guidance and advice.
In terms of welfare reform, where births were not prevented, the Ministry of Social Development got closer to the mothers, exercising control of their benefit money, connecting them to mentors, ensuring GP enrolment and keeping them in study. Unconditional cash stopped.
From youth surveys it seems young people are increasingly delaying sex and /or avoiding pregnancy.
The result?
Teenage births have plummeted BUT for Maori and non-Maori alike (as did abortions by the way).
Click image to view
Whatever factors are driving this steep decline, Maori females responded in exactly the same way as non-Maori females.
This phenomenon gives lie to much of the hitherto described propaganda which is now pushed as 'fact'.
Yes, Maori teenage births are still more common - and still leading to benefit dependence - but that's actually another issue.
The point here is, regardless of ethnicity, teenage girls are subject to and responding to the same social stimuli in the same way.
Maori females are throwing a spanner into the works. They challenge the current orthodoxy.
Perhaps the orthodoxy is unsound?
Lindsay Mitchell is a welfare commentator who blogs HERE. - Where this article was sourced.
9 comments:
Lindsay's observations always interesting. And I like the preamble. Not something you ever read succinct in the msm. The maori rate relatively very high. With maori infiltrating the health service, especially services for maori, and most aware that total domination is achievable by breeding within the democratic system, I suspect the graph to turn sharply up. Pacifica graph would be interesting. Perhaps nowadays taking the age somewhat higher would show a lesser trend.
'The elephant in the room' here that's not immediately apparent, is that the rate of 15-19 yr old motherhood for Māori girls is around 7.5x that for Pākehā girls. That's a concern, whatever the reason.
The narrative, the orthodoxy and the reasons used for both are totally unsound, if not clearly false.
Dr Knight wrote his paper in March 2022 https://breakingviewsnz.blogspot.com/2022/03/dr-lawrie-knight-fact-checking-maori.html absolutely refuting the health statistics as given about maori.
The problem we have as a country is that there is no political or media courage to have a rational conversation. Everything has to be steeped in Te Ao Maori and the entitlement has become outrageous. Without rational conversation solutions can never be found (and maybe that is the point).
To question is to be racsist.
As we know from your previous postings Lindsay we have children living in poverty, be they maori or non-maori. That said oddly it seems only maori children are more disadvantaged in any reporting of poverty. This among all statistics we are fed.
We have a severe problem in the country caused by both Ardern's government (if you can call it that because governance is not what she did), our media promulgating a story of maoridom that is untrue and an education system determined to deconstruct itself lead by people like Rose Hipkins with her de-colonise the curriculum ideology.
As I see it there are distinct groups within maoridom (like all humans).
Those that achieve and those that do not (to varying degrees).
The question that maoridom needs to ask is why, (and I paraphrase you Lindsay) if the system and society are so dysfunctional for maori and they have special needs arising from uncontrollable sources that fosters generational trauma created by colonialism in which they are unable to fit in contemporary New Zealand without constant assistance, do we have so many very successful maori in academia, politics (maybe), sport, media and commerce?
Why also is it that so many Maori generally who move to Australia are successful and fit into Australian society without issue?
If the narrative we are fed is so true these people could never, ever exist and yet, they do!
Thomas Sowell once stated that “When people get used to preferential treatment, equal treatment seems like discrimination.”
His quote sums up Maoridom (or more truely the vocal maori activists, academics and politicians) in a nutshell.
Everyone is so over this it seems. The indoctrinated start out trying to defend this nonsense but when it is explained to them they can't or won't understand.
Roll on "let's be over it day" and hopefully the new government will deal to this crap asap. Let the purge of all our institutions begin and everyone who has bought into the Maori wonderfulness agenda can have a think.
MC
Anna, you've nailed it!
It's the same question I've always asked myself - if colonisation has been so bad, how come we have so many successful Maori, and why is it all of them, on average, live substantially longer and more comfortably than their ancestors did before that purportedly dreadful event?
Maybe, those who claim this victimhood (who typically tend to be doing quite nicely) could answer that question, or is it they don't like the answer?
Perhaps a few people should read the ruling of United States Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas ending affirmative action in that country.
Dated July this year.
Or his words, discrimination stops, when people stop discriminating.
Born in Southern Georgia his first language was Gullah, a dialect of Creole.
Hi Anonymous 6.44. Perhsps the new govt, pushed by Winstone and Shane, will introduce another PIJF but with the conditons that articles are totally rational, objective, and free of inculcated overriding race based bias.
In the past those from disadvantaged homes and of any ethnicity were mostly taught equally in schools.
What has changed is that in the past those children who were reluctant, stubborn or in some way difficult to teach were disciplined and cajoled into learning using effective methods. Everyone in a class ended up being able to read the same text, everyone knew their tables and could do the same arithmetic exercises. It was a real slog for the class teacher to achieve this.
Then along came the ideology of progressive education which had a sentimental view of children advocating freedom of choice and the a- fore mentioned rascals didn't achieve because they don't naturally choice to learn. They need firm discipline and effective methods. We now have neither.
You see progressive education believes forcing a child to do something they choice not to do is comparable to a mortal sin. But the end product is what we have now. Children from educationally deprived and unmotivated homes becoming
the natural products of their backgrounds and inclinations. A good education breaks this cycle. It overrides deficiencies in a child's nature and background. We used to have that in a world class education system.
In a tribal society individual responsibility is not encouraged. This has trickled down into Maori society today. Those who can break free from the casual attitude common in Maori groups prosper like other people even if they have to go to Australia to do it.
Young Maori are vulnerable and follow group mores. This gives the iwi "mafia" a handy weapon to develop the myth that it is all the fault of colonialism. A counterculture is needed to promote gratitude rather than resentment to the colonists who gave us a nation and membership of an Imperial power that tried to welcome in the Maori on an equal footing with all British subjects.
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