Re:America’s Shameful Human Rights Record (2012)
by lostlogin on Monday June 24, 2013 @02:47PM
(#5934859)
New Zealand has spent a lot of time agonising over its past treatment of the native Maori and is slowly paying for land taken and righting some of the historic wrongs. It had been politically difficult, with the right wing parties very much against this, but it has gone on a while now. Repairing the damage that nearly destroyed a race may not be possible, but the state that did it should at a minimum try.
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Re:America’s Shameful Human Rights Record (2012)
by mickeyr on Monday June 24, 2013 @05:23PM
(#5935769)
So you're saying it makes since to take money from people that were not involved in harming people & giving it to people that were not harmed makes up for something that happened centuries ago?
Re:America’s Shameful Human Rights Record (2012)
by duncan_bayne on Monday June 24, 2013 @10:25PM
(#5937125)
There are two separate issues here.
* taxpayer money being allocated on the basis of race, e.g. a Maori television station. That is morally wrong. I think that's the situation you're referring to, and completely agree with you.
* the Crown (now Government) signed the Treaty of Waitangi with almost all of the Maori tribes in New Zealand, essentially pledging to leave their land alone. Then, in many cases, they took it anyway. That is something for which reparation is entirely appropriate, as the entities involved (tribes, and Government) are still extant today.