In fact, if you've been following what happened in the House yesterday, it doesn't actually make all that much sense. But the bit the media is focusing on is the part where Winston tells Green Party MP Lawrence Xu-Nan to "go back to your own country".
I don't like it when Winston does this. It gets personal when it shouldn't be. The fact is, Lawrence Xu-Nan is a New Zealander. End of. He's allowed to ask questions in Parliament as an MP. He's allowed to shout across the House during question time like the rest of the mob, unless the Speaker says stop. He has the same rights to speak his mind as anyone else. That's the beauty of a democracy.
Every man and his dog will debate whether this is racism or something else. What it's not is hate speech. Hate speech is what old mate Brian from Destiny Church said the other week, talking about physical violence to groups of people.
Back to Winston - he has now embroiled himself in a fight with the Chinese embassy, having a hissy fit at the Ambassador. This should surprise no one. It's Winston being Winston. The metamorphosis from Minister to campaigner is almost complete. His skin is almost shed. A butterfly is breaking free from its chrysalis!
But Winston is right about one thing. We're lucky to live here and not China.
Opinions, freedom of expression, access to the internet and the right to elect your political leaders are not virtues of their system, but ours. It's an autocracy. The system we hold dear allows Lawrence to ask questions and shout inside our Parliament - but also protects Winston's right to say off-colour comments in return.
Taste is an entirely different question and, on this point, I find Winston off-putting.
Ryan Bridge is a New Zealand broadcaster who has worked on many current affairs television and radio shows. He currently hosts Newstalk ZB's Early Edition - where this article was sourced.
12 comments:
Lawrence Xu-Nan is not a New Zealander, "end of". He was born in China to Chinese parents, of Chinese heritage. He only settled in NZ when he was 11.
The "end of" is the desire not to debate what has up until about 10 years' ago been so obvious: New Zealand is a White and Maori country. If a New Zealander can be anyone, from anywhere, at anytime, it is not an identity but a changeable t-shirt.
NZ now had one of its highest levels of distrust and disunity. Europe is a mess of suicidal policies and decline - 50,000 "new Spaniards" rout over its African fence in one day.
And that's the real issue here. A culture in NZ suppressed into race-communism where being European is now, at best, a minor embarrassment that must be downplayed.
Honestly, I like Chinese people. My ex was Chinese. I've visited it multiple times. The Chinese are many things, but New Zealanders they are not.
It’s a matter of competency. The octogenarian is clearly losing his mind and his judgement. I agree with Don Brash: Winston is a racist. And Don should know!
Are the same standards applied when it is a Maori who tells a non-Maori (who happens to be born in New Zealand) to "go back to England"?
To Anonymous 6.40am. How do you define what is "racist". Is it, someone who treats another differently because of their race?
What a stupid question, Anon @ 8.53am. A non-maori who "happens to be born" in NZ is not from England. By the same logic, you might well ask if it's okay to tell maoris to go back to Rarotonga.
>"New Zealand is a White and Maori country. If a New Zealander can be anyone, from anywhere, at anytime, it is not an identity but a changeable t-shirt."
Let's see now............ I am White (Dutch) so I can presumably be a NZer, whereas a Samoan born in Auckland presumably cannot be.
Doesn't work, does it?
NZ (and Australia, Canada, the US.......) are immigrant societies principally founded by British emigrants (unless you're Quebecois, of course.....) Their cultures are largely derived from their English heritage. Over time, however, they have developed idiosyncrasies that set them apart from the original and from one another. Some of these have been derived from non-British immigrant groups that have subsequently made their mark on those societies.
The Yanks have got this one fairly sorted out as to be 'American' means you honour the US Constitution. The Aussies too appear to be moving in the direction of identifying as one of them meaning that one is committed to the constitutional order.
It's a bit harder to define what a NZer is. I can just hear some people saying "It means you are committed to the ToW." In which case an awful lot of self-identifying NZers just might stop doing so.
Anon 408 can you explain a little more about what a white country is? Congrats on previously having an Asian girlfriend by the way!
NZ is one of the ten most sluggish poorly performing economies in the world. Labour left it wrecked. But National, ACT and NZ First cannot stand on their records. They got captured by monopolies, sourced advisers from the NZ (Oligarchs) Initiative and achieved nothing on the Treaty. GDP per capita is lower and debt higher than in 2023. Luxon screwed up by appointing Willis as Finance Minister who ran to retired Bill English in Wellington asking him what to do. Nobody in parliament can be proud of any achievement. So all of our MPs are desperately trying to get their photos in the papers by dumb "shag marry kill" tripe, despicable racist & sexist garbage outbursts that would get any other NZer fired from their job, with lock down Labour saying and doing nothing because the party has no talent & is intellectually bankrupt. All MPs must take responsibility for taking a richly endowed nation brimming with talented youngsters who I personally know and am sending overseas = dragging it through the gutter for the sake of their own careers and super funds. Luxon; Hipkins; Peters; Swarbrick; Seymour. You collectively sank NZ.
Anonymous at 10:25 am asks: "Anon 408 can you explain a little more about what a white country is?"
We all know what a "White country" is: it is a country where the historical majority has been White people (i.e. people of non-Jewish European ancestry - the Germanics, the Nordics, the Anglo-Saxons etc.).
There's a tendency to play (or perhaps actually be) dumb when the topic of "what is a White person/White country?" arises.
Well, it's clearly very easy to define these concepts and categories when it comes to saying White people have "privilege," or when White people aren't allowed to identify and organise on the basis of their Whiteness, or when their countries must be "diversified" (i.e. made less-White).
To qualify as a MP a person has to be a New Zealand citizen. That means they have to be born here or have been naturalised. So if Xu-Nan came here as a child and is now a MP he has clearly become naturalised and is therefore a New Zealander. Which part of that does Anon 4.08 not understand?
“country where the historical majority has been White people”
This excludes NZ then. And Australia, and the USA, and Brazil. I might be missing a few countries, someone will correct me.
Anonymous at 10:25: Boethius explains succinctly what a White country is.
He also explains perfectly the level of race-communism that means we must play dumb on that question, when "What is an African / What is a Japanese / What is a Latino country?" gets no second thought.
British people (and other Europeans to a lesser extent) were the settlers of NZ, not immigrants. I can move to Pakistan and have a son there, but it wouldn't make him Pakistani. The same for a Samoan in NZ. The sugar rush of very recent, mass low-GDP per capita immigration to NZ doesn't change this.
I can assure you there is a new generation - of which I am in - who don't give a fig about being called racist. We have no burning hate of other races or cultures.
We simply want the same right as we grant all non-White nations: the right to keep our own identity and our own country. You enjoyed the fruits of this identity and culture in 20th Century NZ, all without having to pretend race exists - I'm happpy for you. We can't play that game now unfortunately.
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