China concerns

I was interested to see the headline ‘‘Maori solutions to Maori issues’’ and thought that things might be changing. But I was disappointed to read the same old reasons – No one understands our culture or our language and there is institutional racism and the effects of colonisation. I have a little secret for your commentators – The world does not care about your culture or your language – or my culture or language – or anyone’s culture and language. The only thing the world cares about is the culture of globalisation. It’s a nasty, self interested culture that has taken productive jobs away from many countries and sent them to low cost countries. It has forced countries like New Zealand to effectively lower wages – with some results being un-affordable housing, poverty and cheap goods that last until you get them home. And as for the problems of colonisation – to think that New Zealand would never be colonised is to live in cloud cuckoo land – just be thankful it wasn’t the Dutch or the Japanese. But don’t waste time thinking about the past – concern yourself with the next colonial wave – it comes from the land of the dragon. We will all have something really serious to moan about then. Learning Mandarin will be the least of our problems. Yes – it might be 50 or 100 years away – but it’s coming. From 1830 to about 1950 we were controlled by the UK, from 1950 to about 2025 it has been the USA, from 2025 we will be controlled by China – both culturally and financially.

B. Burke, Hamilton