MANGAWHAI'S NO.1 NEWSPAPER
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Worzels World - A Flagging DebateThe Government-appointed flag committee met to take submissions. There were a few new designs submitted. Many were tongue-in-cheek, including one that depicted a Kiwi farting a rainbow – an inspired choice. If we are too humble to have the sun shining from between our national cheeks then surely a rainbow is a fine colourful alternative.
No-one told me about this committee meeting, I didn’t go. Hardly anybody else did either apparently and the committee had to talk amongst themselves. If they are anything like any committee I’ve ever known I don’t think they will have found this much of a problem – especially as they are being well remunerated by the taxpayer for doing so. Informants with such devices as televisions tell me a referendum has been advertised that, in usual government fashion, will cost a king’s ransom. As a barbeque discussion topic the flag serves well enough, yet people took to the streets in protest over the sale of public assets and polls showed over 70 percent of New Zealanders were against these sales, there was no referendum. The contentious Trans-Pacific Partnership deal was being negotiated and we are not even told the details. There will never be a referendum about that. I am yet to hear a single passionate opinion expressed about our flag and are unaware of any protests about it. Our flag may not be a Picasso print but the Union Jack indicates that we speak English, which in most places outside of Auckland we still do. Our flag indicates that we are a democracy that has enjoyed the protection and rights afforded citizens under English common law. In days gone by, shipping under our flag enjoyed a degree of immunity from attack. The blue background may say that we are an island nation with lots of sky, at least when that long white cloud is dispersed. And the Southern Cross indicates that our islands are situated in the Pacific, south of the Equator. It would be difficult to come up with symbols that say as much. Anyone with family roots in this country will have relatives who fought or died under our existing emblem. The international community is used to it. Our flag, much like my old sow, may not be the prettiest critter in the yard but she’s been around a while. I’ve come to like her. She has performed admirably over the years and it just seems wrong to turn her into sausages in favour of something new. For over a century and a half our flag has served us well enough, so why a costly referendum? Is it simply an expression of our government’s penchant for fixing things that aren’t broken like teachers’ payrolls and terrorism? Or are there other reasons for pumping up this flagging debate? During the decline of the Roman Empire, when wealth and privilege had taken its usual toll and the rot had set in, vice and corruption had softened the bellies and will of the world’s rulers. Subject peoples on the outskirts of that empire were rebelling. Militarily the Empire was overextended and their legions no longer as proficient as those which fought under the great generals. Sula, Pompey, and Julius Caesar were struggling to subdue the barbarians abroad. Tax income was down and the suppression of rebellion is costly – the people of Rome were feeling the pinch. In order to divert the roman citizens (the voters), bread and circuses were the order of the day. The ploy was to draw attention from the dire state of the state. There are no new vices or virtues. It has all been done before and it seems this is as true for nations and empires as it is for individuals. It is impossible to ignore the parallels between the declining empires of past ages and the Western empire of today. Is the flag referendum merely a ploy to distract our attention from other weightier issues that really do matter? I prefer bread and circuses myself. The seas of life, so full of the run-off nitrates of bullshit and spin are experiencing a bumper season for the breeding of red herrings. The flag debate is just another red herring on a wild goose chase. What flag we have has little practical ramifications for the average Kiwi. While discussion and debate waxes about flags, less publicised changes conceived behind closed doors and passed into law in the dead of night have greater potential to impact heavily on all our daily lives. n prof_Worzel@hotmail.com |