Colonial capers
Aug. 7th, 2005 08:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
trixtahCanada's new Governor General seems like teh cool.
NZ's one isn't being replaced until August next year, because we're shortly going to have an election - 17th of September. Despite my reservations about the Labour Party, they're much better than the alternative. It'll be interesting to see what kind of GG we have after the dust settles. Personally, I'd vote (not that we get to vote for the GG, but you know what I mean) for Georgina Beyer - she says she's going to retire from Parliament this year. A leftie Maori transexual woman - that would really position NZ appropriately in the world's view. hee.
And it would vastly mitigate my disgruntlement about the petition to change the NZ flag not gathering enough signatures to force a referendum. There was some muddying of the waters with the non-existant issue (in NZ) of republicanism. Some of the discussion bandied about implied that those who "fought for the flag" in various wars were not willing to let it (meaning the Union Jack) go. Leaving aside all scorn for the notion of fighting for a piece of cloth, rather than the safety of one's home, I don't think that the fact that NZ was so willing to let Britain dictate its military endeavours is something to be particularly proud of. We should have learned that at Gallipoli. In WWII, the NZ forces were busy running around North Africa and being evacuated from places like Crete, while the Australians were brought back home to fight in the Pacific war, which is where our forces should have been. Willingness to help out is one thing (I have no problem with kiwis being sent off as UN peacekeepers); being sucked into battles that are not our own is something else (I think we'll leave out discussion on the Korean and Vietnam wars).
Since the early 1970s, when Britain joined the EEC, we have not been treated any differently than any other ally/Commonwealth member. Sure, a significant proportion of our population is descended from the British, but we are not British any more; I don't believe that even the most jingoistic New Zealander would want to be British. So why have their bloody Union Jack on our flag? We'll sic Georgina Beyer onto all those old farts who drink the cheap piss at the Returned Services clubs and who reminisce about the "good old days", when the flag was the flag, there were no uppity Maori and queers to unsettle things, and we tugged our caps when Britain summoned us.
NZ's one isn't being replaced until August next year, because we're shortly going to have an election - 17th of September. Despite my reservations about the Labour Party, they're much better than the alternative. It'll be interesting to see what kind of GG we have after the dust settles. Personally, I'd vote (not that we get to vote for the GG, but you know what I mean) for Georgina Beyer - she says she's going to retire from Parliament this year. A leftie Maori transexual woman - that would really position NZ appropriately in the world's view. hee.
And it would vastly mitigate my disgruntlement about the petition to change the NZ flag not gathering enough signatures to force a referendum. There was some muddying of the waters with the non-existant issue (in NZ) of republicanism. Some of the discussion bandied about implied that those who "fought for the flag" in various wars were not willing to let it (meaning the Union Jack) go. Leaving aside all scorn for the notion of fighting for a piece of cloth, rather than the safety of one's home, I don't think that the fact that NZ was so willing to let Britain dictate its military endeavours is something to be particularly proud of. We should have learned that at Gallipoli. In WWII, the NZ forces were busy running around North Africa and being evacuated from places like Crete, while the Australians were brought back home to fight in the Pacific war, which is where our forces should have been. Willingness to help out is one thing (I have no problem with kiwis being sent off as UN peacekeepers); being sucked into battles that are not our own is something else (I think we'll leave out discussion on the Korean and Vietnam wars).
Since the early 1970s, when Britain joined the EEC, we have not been treated any differently than any other ally/Commonwealth member. Sure, a significant proportion of our population is descended from the British, but we are not British any more; I don't believe that even the most jingoistic New Zealander would want to be British. So why have their bloody Union Jack on our flag? We'll sic Georgina Beyer onto all those old farts who drink the cheap piss at the Returned Services clubs and who reminisce about the "good old days", when the flag was the flag, there were no uppity Maori and queers to unsettle things, and we tugged our caps when Britain summoned us.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2005-08-07 07:13 pm (UTC)Just in case I haven't mentioned it lately, you're definitely Cute When Vehement. :)
Now I'm feeling all cosmopolitan and informed.
You know, as a southerner, I can identify with a lot of what you're saying. After all, a disproportionate number of military folks come from the south, in part due to lack of economic opportunities. So it's our folks going around the world, doing the sitting around & fighting & dying. I've even been known to spout genocidal yankee conspiracy theories; although, given the extensive Scottish-Irish descent of lots of southerners, one might think of fighting as a historical or cultural, as well as economic, imperative.
We have our own ongoing flag controversies, too.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-08-08 06:36 pm (UTC)I just hope she can reform the spending habits...frankly I was rather appalled with Adrienne Clarkson and John Ralston Saul for their spending habits, despite the fact that I like both of them a lot. It took me by suprise that they weren't a bit more restrained.
Things are just too tough financially now, to be seen as elite and etheral in where the money goes.
btw, I love you're commentaries on almost anything...they are always interesting, and I always learn something new.