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Do we all have a little ‘Mutu’ in us?
A week ago Professor Margaret Mutu responded to a Department of Labour report that found Maori are more likely to express anti-immigration sentiment than any other ethnic group by saying that white immigration should be restricted because they pose a threat to race relations due to their “white supremacist” attitudes. Over the following few days there has been a plethora of debate around this will some groups supporting her, some denouncing her and many calling her comments “racist!”
She further angered many by claiming in a radio interview that she couldn’t be racist as Maori are not in a position of power.
Today it’s been reported there has been 30 complaints have been made to the Race Relations Office and many people are calling for Auckland University to sack Ms. Mutu.
Let me state this clearly at the start. I neither support Margaret Mutu’s position, nor do I believe that Maori can’t be racist. Any one individual can demonstrate racism and in this situation perhaps there is a case to be answered for.
I am left with two questions…
1. Is this a racist statement?
2. If it is, is society showing a balanced hand in their reaction to Ms. Mutu?
So let’s investigate that. Firstly what is Professor Mutu saying?
Well it would appear to me she is saying, albeit it very bluntly, is that white immigrants are having a negative influence on her culture. It appears that she is concerned for the plight of the Maori culture, practices and place in society and she doesn’t want a foreign culture coming in and ‘taking over’ what over the last 30 years or so Maori have fought so hard to gain back from what was once lost in a society of imposed European dominance. I wonder if someone from the indigenous people of NZ would look at the countries mentioned (Australia, USA and South Africa) and see what has happened to the indigenous peoples of that land and become a little concerned about that ‘attitude’ following migrants to this country. She may be concerned that the culture that is demonstrated in that country may be brought here and imposed on her culture. I find that a reasonable position. I can understand what the sentiments behind what Ms. Mutu appears to be saying. I don’t endorse, nor do I know if those sentiments are correct…but I understand why she may have them.
So is this a racist sentiment? Well that’s probably a relative question depending on who you are, however my interest in how we are responding to this controversy. Is society’s reaction to this balanced? Are we reacting to Margaret Mutu as we would any other person showing this kind of position in society? What would we do if another member of society said what Margaret Mutu has said…but maybe about another ethnic group or ‘colour’…answer…we elect them!
The Rt. Honourable Winston Peters made his name in the last few terms he was a member of parliament telling NZ that we would have out culture, or way of life and our place in society taken away from us unless we restricted Asian, and third world, immigration. Margaret Mutu says “white” and we lose our minds, Winston Peters says “yellow” and many seem okay with that. Even this year he has begun his tried and true yellow peril argument telling a Grey Power meeting that immigrants threaten the lives and living standards of elderly New Zealanders.
Winston Peters’ argument is the same as Margaret Mutu’s and I disagree with them both, and if you don’t you may have a little ‘Mutu’ (or maybe Peters) in you.
For you to react to Margaret Mutu over the past week with distain, to disagree with her position, then you are someone who agrees with immigration no matter what race, religion or country that someone comes from.
Mutu is saying that a culture, that is foreign to hers, shouldn’t come here because it makes her nervous, and she doesn’t want to see it influence her. For you to disagree with that sentiment then you need to be welcoming to cultures, religion and practices contrary to your…or maybe you have a little Mutu in you.
So what about it….how would you like to see Islam, or Somalian, or Communist, or any cultural, political, sociological or religious influence on your culture that is foreign to you.
If you’re uncomfortable with any of those then I have to say you do have a little Mutu in you.
Showing posts with label Religion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Religion. Show all posts
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Saturday, November 20, 2010
It’s more important to be accurate and truthful, than to win every battle
As a talkback host I am often in a position to spar with people over topics, it’s probably a weakness that I enjoy it a little too much as on occasions I may lose the context of a conversation, or the importance of an issue, to 'win' the argument.
I am growing as a person and a talkback host and think this is an area that I can, and have worked on. I am a bit of a stickler for facts and accuracy; I don’t like sweeping statements and regularly call-out someone using them. This isn’t to say that I am not guilty of that same ‘sin’ at times, I am sure we all are.
In the last 24 hours I have had occasion to think through this ‘win at all cost’ mentality over an interesting email I received.
It’s headed up “FW: Islam Mass Marriage of girls aged 6-10yrs” in which the claim is made that 450 Muslim men, supported by Hamas, in Gaza married girls aged between 6 and 10. Have a look here to get the guts of the email.
I get dozens of these types of emails from friends, family members and listeners, and always approach them with caution as I have found in the past that not many of them are completely accurate. This email stood out to me as a hoax just simply from a logical point of view, Hamas is a terrorist organisation, a well oil, well organised (albeit democratically elected) terrorist organisation, so I found it hard to believe that they would put themselves in front of the world showing them supporting paedophiles. It makes no sense.
I started to search the interweb to see if I could either disprove…or indeed prove the claims of the email.
What I found is that this email, or versions of it, have been circulating the globe for over a year, there are hundreds of website references and one must assume that hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people have read them, many will have forwarded it on, or sent links to the claims. So many people out there believe this story to be true, but forwarding on someone else’s email, or putting all the information onto your blog doesn’t mean it’s true, it just means you buy it.
I still wanted to know whether it was true or not.
The sad part of this story is that the truth was revealed within about 5 minutes or looking…the story is a hoax.
You can look here which may not be the most reliable/official place to find inaccuracies, but it’s out there.
If you want more you can go to websites like this one that put the original story up, then retracted if after they realised it was a hoax, again though not an ‘official’ source.
How about this one, a Jerusalem publication, it doesn’t either confirm or deny the claim, but one would think if any area of the world was going to want to give Hamas a black eye it would be in Jerusalem, if the story about child brides were true, then this is the exact kind of publication to support it.
The most accurate way to see if there were indeed child brides or not, is independent eyewitness testimony. Tim Marshall is an English reporter for Sky News, he was there at the ceremony and when he saw the ‘Christian’ world starting to spread this disgusting rumour he started getting onto the websites posting things like this...(this is one of his posts)
“Hi. I was there. The girls are relatives, nieces etc. Dressed up having fun. Brides were in the audience. It’s always like this. Hamas does enough terrible things without anyone having to make up nonsense about child brides…
I was there at the Wedding ceremony. We filmed the event. These young girls are NOT the brides. The brides are among the 5,000 or so audience. Where is your proof they are child brides. It is a cultural thing among the conservative Gazans to do things this way. It is grossly unfair to portray ordinary Gazan men in this way. Hamas does enough terrible things to write about without having to resort to making things up. The girls are having fun dressing up. Its been like that for years.”
You can real a full post from him here.
It’s more important to be truthful and accurate than to win the fight every time. Sometimes the right thing to do is get a proverbial black eye, be a little embarrassed, but retract and set the record straight.
For Christians out there, who has believed this lie, and then passed it on as fact, you are implicit in this deception. The Christ you serve isn’t into deception, He is into truth.
If you read this post, or Tim Marshall’s, or others out there…and you still believe it to be 450 child brides getting married then there is no evidence that can be put before you to convince you otherwise.
Christians out there, please love the Muslims…that your job…that’s your God mandated job, not to judge them, not to try to ‘win the argument at all costs’, not to put them in their place, not to defend your faith by bringing theirs down…none of that…just love them.
There are also real issues that we need to be concerned about in the world, Hamas is actually one of them, as is child prostitution and paedophilia, but you cannot beat evil…by being involved in evil things. You cannot win against lies…by lying, whether the lie is intentional as the originators of this email must be, or unintentional by forwarding on something you believed to be true.
I also want to make clear that this 'rant' is not aimed at the actual Child Bride email, or anyone person who has sent it on, but at the idea of how important truth is, how important it is to be a purveyor of truth whenever possible. It’s more important to be accurate and truthful, than to win every battle.
When you get the next chance to score one for Jesus by taking a group down a peg or two, whether it be valid or not, just ask if you think this is this going to bring the ‘one’ closer to the God you know, or will it give the ‘ninety nine’ something to snigger about?
I am growing as a person and a talkback host and think this is an area that I can, and have worked on. I am a bit of a stickler for facts and accuracy; I don’t like sweeping statements and regularly call-out someone using them. This isn’t to say that I am not guilty of that same ‘sin’ at times, I am sure we all are.
In the last 24 hours I have had occasion to think through this ‘win at all cost’ mentality over an interesting email I received.
It’s headed up “FW: Islam Mass Marriage of girls aged 6-10yrs” in which the claim is made that 450 Muslim men, supported by Hamas, in Gaza married girls aged between 6 and 10. Have a look here to get the guts of the email.
I get dozens of these types of emails from friends, family members and listeners, and always approach them with caution as I have found in the past that not many of them are completely accurate. This email stood out to me as a hoax just simply from a logical point of view, Hamas is a terrorist organisation, a well oil, well organised (albeit democratically elected) terrorist organisation, so I found it hard to believe that they would put themselves in front of the world showing them supporting paedophiles. It makes no sense.
I started to search the interweb to see if I could either disprove…or indeed prove the claims of the email.
What I found is that this email, or versions of it, have been circulating the globe for over a year, there are hundreds of website references and one must assume that hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people have read them, many will have forwarded it on, or sent links to the claims. So many people out there believe this story to be true, but forwarding on someone else’s email, or putting all the information onto your blog doesn’t mean it’s true, it just means you buy it.
I still wanted to know whether it was true or not.
The sad part of this story is that the truth was revealed within about 5 minutes or looking…the story is a hoax.
You can look here which may not be the most reliable/official place to find inaccuracies, but it’s out there.
If you want more you can go to websites like this one that put the original story up, then retracted if after they realised it was a hoax, again though not an ‘official’ source.
How about this one, a Jerusalem publication, it doesn’t either confirm or deny the claim, but one would think if any area of the world was going to want to give Hamas a black eye it would be in Jerusalem, if the story about child brides were true, then this is the exact kind of publication to support it.
The most accurate way to see if there were indeed child brides or not, is independent eyewitness testimony. Tim Marshall is an English reporter for Sky News, he was there at the ceremony and when he saw the ‘Christian’ world starting to spread this disgusting rumour he started getting onto the websites posting things like this...(this is one of his posts)
“Hi. I was there. The girls are relatives, nieces etc. Dressed up having fun. Brides were in the audience. It’s always like this. Hamas does enough terrible things without anyone having to make up nonsense about child brides…
I was there at the Wedding ceremony. We filmed the event. These young girls are NOT the brides. The brides are among the 5,000 or so audience. Where is your proof they are child brides. It is a cultural thing among the conservative Gazans to do things this way. It is grossly unfair to portray ordinary Gazan men in this way. Hamas does enough terrible things to write about without having to resort to making things up. The girls are having fun dressing up. Its been like that for years.”
You can real a full post from him here.
It’s more important to be truthful and accurate than to win the fight every time. Sometimes the right thing to do is get a proverbial black eye, be a little embarrassed, but retract and set the record straight.
For Christians out there, who has believed this lie, and then passed it on as fact, you are implicit in this deception. The Christ you serve isn’t into deception, He is into truth.
If you read this post, or Tim Marshall’s, or others out there…and you still believe it to be 450 child brides getting married then there is no evidence that can be put before you to convince you otherwise.
Christians out there, please love the Muslims…that your job…that’s your God mandated job, not to judge them, not to try to ‘win the argument at all costs’, not to put them in their place, not to defend your faith by bringing theirs down…none of that…just love them.
There are also real issues that we need to be concerned about in the world, Hamas is actually one of them, as is child prostitution and paedophilia, but you cannot beat evil…by being involved in evil things. You cannot win against lies…by lying, whether the lie is intentional as the originators of this email must be, or unintentional by forwarding on something you believed to be true.
I also want to make clear that this 'rant' is not aimed at the actual Child Bride email, or anyone person who has sent it on, but at the idea of how important truth is, how important it is to be a purveyor of truth whenever possible. It’s more important to be accurate and truthful, than to win every battle.
When you get the next chance to score one for Jesus by taking a group down a peg or two, whether it be valid or not, just ask if you think this is this going to bring the ‘one’ closer to the God you know, or will it give the ‘ninety nine’ something to snigger about?
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Noah's Ark Found!!!
THE remains of Noah's Ark have been discovered 13,000ft up a Turkish mountain, it has been claimed.
A group of Chinese and Turkish evangelical explorers say they have found wooden remains on Mount Ararat in eastern Turkey.
They claim carbon dating proves the relics are 4,800 years old — around the same time the ark was said to be afloat.
Yeung Wing-Cheung, from the Noah's Ark Ministries International research team, said: "It's not 100 per cent that it is Noah's Ark, but we think it is 99.9 per cent that this is it."
He said the structure contained several compartments, some with wooden beams, that they believe were used to house animals.
The group of evangelical archaeologists ruled out an established human settlement on the grounds none have ever been found above 11,000ft in the vicinity, Yeung said.
Local Turkish officials will ask the central government in Ankara to apply for UNESCO World Heritage status so the site can be protected while a major archaeological dig is conducted.
The biblical story says that God decided to flood the Earth after seeing how corrupt it was.
He then told Noah to build an ark and fill it with two of every animal species.
After the flood waters receded, the Bible says, the ark came to rest on a mountain.
Many believe that Mount Ararat, the highest point in the region, is where the ark and her inhabitants ran aground.
Some video footage here
From http://www.thesun.co.uk/
A group of Chinese and Turkish evangelical explorers say they have found wooden remains on Mount Ararat in eastern Turkey.
They claim carbon dating proves the relics are 4,800 years old — around the same time the ark was said to be afloat.
Yeung Wing-Cheung, from the Noah's Ark Ministries International research team, said: "It's not 100 per cent that it is Noah's Ark, but we think it is 99.9 per cent that this is it."
He said the structure contained several compartments, some with wooden beams, that they believe were used to house animals.
The group of evangelical archaeologists ruled out an established human settlement on the grounds none have ever been found above 11,000ft in the vicinity, Yeung said.
Local Turkish officials will ask the central government in Ankara to apply for UNESCO World Heritage status so the site can be protected while a major archaeological dig is conducted.
The biblical story says that God decided to flood the Earth after seeing how corrupt it was.
He then told Noah to build an ark and fill it with two of every animal species.
After the flood waters receded, the Bible says, the ark came to rest on a mountain.
Many believe that Mount Ararat, the highest point in the region, is where the ark and her inhabitants ran aground.
Some video footage here
From http://www.thesun.co.uk/
>>
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Freedom??? Not on my watch baby!
Last week Matt Stone and Trey Parker celebrated their 200th episode of South Park. The episode basically showed every celebrity that they had ripped on in the previous 199 episodes trying to figure out a way that they could become impossible to mock, then the answer dawned on them, the one being that is never mocked…Mohammed!
If the group of celebrities could capture Mohammed, they could extract his ‘goo’ to make them impervious to mockery.
The episode was entitled ‘200’ and is below.
If you haven’t had time to watch the episode, at the end Mohammed is in a bear suit, as he isn’t allowed to be seen, and there is another group also trying to gain his powers of ‘no-mockery’, a group that has been mocked, teased and kept society kinda creeped out for generations….the gingers! So Episode 200 finishes with the gingers insisting that the people of South Park, hand over Mohammed (who is in the bear suit remember) to get his powers.
This aired in the States last week.
Then the ‘you know what’ hit the fan.
After the airing of ‘200’, a group calling themselves Revolution Muslim delivered what is now being described as ‘veiled’ death threats. Muslim Revolution now say they were just sending a warning to Stone, Parker and the South Park crew that ‘some’ Muslims have killed people before for offending their faith. Citing specifically when a Dutch filmmaker was murdered for a film that Muslims considered insulting.
You decide in this extract as printed in the NY Times
The post, written by a member named Abu Talhah Al-Amrikee, said the episode “outright insulted” the prophet, adding: “We have to warn Matt and Trey that what they are doing is stupid, and they will probably wind up like Theo van Gogh for airing this show. This is not a threat, but a warning of the reality of what will likely happen to them.”
You might think that a group like Revolution Muslim, may be sitting in the hills of Pakistan sending messages via grainy internet connections, and that may make sense as the ideology and fervour in some of those extremists are removed from daily Western society. Well one of the many kickers here is that Revolution Muslim is a New York based group, as Jon Stewart said, “…residing in the former shadows of the twin towers.” Crazy!
So now Parker and Stone have a decision to make, you see Episode 200 is a two-part story, the following week there is to be aired ‘201’, and like any free loving First Amendment boys they leave 201 as it is…however, Comedy Central censors it heavily, bleeping out the word ‘Mohammed’ every time it is said and bleeping out whole lines of the final wrap of the story.
The full episode is here…201
Stone and Parker had already, very cleverly censored Mohammed, as a message about ‘pointless censorship’, which is pointed out when Tom Cruise get’s Mohammed’s powers…but is still able to be mocked. Why is there a prohibition on satire on Mohammed? Why is anyone person, group or religion above the wit of a comedian?
What is Comedy Central doing? Why would you bow to the threat and basically turn this commentary of a social/political/religious issue into a waste of time, we don’t get the show kicker, we don’t get the wrap, and the only people that are happy….are still not going to be happy, even if Mohammed’s name was bleeped…it still inferred he was there.
Parker and Stone issued a statement after 201 showed.
In the 14 years we've been doing South Park we have never done a show that we couldn't stand behind. We delivered our version of the show to Comedy Central and they made a determination to alter the episode. It wasn't some meta-joke on our part. Comedy Central added the bleeps. In fact, Kyle's customary final speech was about intimidation and fear. It didn't mention Muhammad at all but it got bleeped too. We'll be back next week with a whole new show about something completely different and we'll see what happens to it.
Others in the Comedy Central family have come to their defence as well…
Freedom of speech? Freedom of the press? Freedom of expression? Freedom of religion?
Where are we left? We either have freedoms…or we don’t. There is no middle ground here. Once you attach strings to freedom, then freedom is tethered and can’t be called freedom….
I guess what we have in truth in the world in 2010, is freedom that society allows us. We have freedom that the government approves. We have freedom…as long as we don’t say Mohammed
If the group of celebrities could capture Mohammed, they could extract his ‘goo’ to make them impervious to mockery.
The episode was entitled ‘200’ and is below.
If you haven’t had time to watch the episode, at the end Mohammed is in a bear suit, as he isn’t allowed to be seen, and there is another group also trying to gain his powers of ‘no-mockery’, a group that has been mocked, teased and kept society kinda creeped out for generations….the gingers! So Episode 200 finishes with the gingers insisting that the people of South Park, hand over Mohammed (who is in the bear suit remember) to get his powers.
This aired in the States last week.
Then the ‘you know what’ hit the fan.
After the airing of ‘200’, a group calling themselves Revolution Muslim delivered what is now being described as ‘veiled’ death threats. Muslim Revolution now say they were just sending a warning to Stone, Parker and the South Park crew that ‘some’ Muslims have killed people before for offending their faith. Citing specifically when a Dutch filmmaker was murdered for a film that Muslims considered insulting.
You decide in this extract as printed in the NY Times
The post, written by a member named Abu Talhah Al-Amrikee, said the episode “outright insulted” the prophet, adding: “We have to warn Matt and Trey that what they are doing is stupid, and they will probably wind up like Theo van Gogh for airing this show. This is not a threat, but a warning of the reality of what will likely happen to them.”
You might think that a group like Revolution Muslim, may be sitting in the hills of Pakistan sending messages via grainy internet connections, and that may make sense as the ideology and fervour in some of those extremists are removed from daily Western society. Well one of the many kickers here is that Revolution Muslim is a New York based group, as Jon Stewart said, “…residing in the former shadows of the twin towers.” Crazy!
So now Parker and Stone have a decision to make, you see Episode 200 is a two-part story, the following week there is to be aired ‘201’, and like any free loving First Amendment boys they leave 201 as it is…however, Comedy Central censors it heavily, bleeping out the word ‘Mohammed’ every time it is said and bleeping out whole lines of the final wrap of the story.
The full episode is here…201
Stone and Parker had already, very cleverly censored Mohammed, as a message about ‘pointless censorship’, which is pointed out when Tom Cruise get’s Mohammed’s powers…but is still able to be mocked. Why is there a prohibition on satire on Mohammed? Why is anyone person, group or religion above the wit of a comedian?
What is Comedy Central doing? Why would you bow to the threat and basically turn this commentary of a social/political/religious issue into a waste of time, we don’t get the show kicker, we don’t get the wrap, and the only people that are happy….are still not going to be happy, even if Mohammed’s name was bleeped…it still inferred he was there.
Parker and Stone issued a statement after 201 showed.
In the 14 years we've been doing South Park we have never done a show that we couldn't stand behind. We delivered our version of the show to Comedy Central and they made a determination to alter the episode. It wasn't some meta-joke on our part. Comedy Central added the bleeps. In fact, Kyle's customary final speech was about intimidation and fear. It didn't mention Muhammad at all but it got bleeped too. We'll be back next week with a whole new show about something completely different and we'll see what happens to it.
Others in the Comedy Central family have come to their defence as well…
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| South Park Death Threats | ||||
| ||||
Freedom of speech? Freedom of the press? Freedom of expression? Freedom of religion?
Where are we left? We either have freedoms…or we don’t. There is no middle ground here. Once you attach strings to freedom, then freedom is tethered and can’t be called freedom….
I guess what we have in truth in the world in 2010, is freedom that society allows us. We have freedom that the government approves. We have freedom…as long as we don’t say Mohammed
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