Political Correctness strikes again

November 2nd, 2010 at 12:00 pm by David Farrar

Lincoln Tan in the Herald reports:

A government office promoting ethnic diversity has pulled support from a multi-ethnic carnival over pictures it deemed offensive to Muslims – without apparently consulting Islamic groups.

The Office of Ethnic Affairs said “highly inappropriate” pictures on the website of the Auckland International Carnival, including scantily clad Cook Islands and Brazilian dancers, would upset Muslims and called for the office’s logo to be removed from promotional material.

What is interesting is how the PC bureaucrats in Wellington have decided that the sensitivities of one religion out strip the cultural traditions of all other cultures, and even worse make this decision without even consulting anyone.

The Islamic federation said the office had appeared to reach its decision without consultation.

Javed Khan, the federation’s senior vice-president, said such pictures might be viewed as inappropriate but many Muslims also would respect that the way the dancers were dressed “was part of their culture”.

“We have not made any complaints, and I am not aware of any Muslim groups who did,” Mr Khan said.

Bravo to Javed Khan. I have said many times that I think we are fortunate in NZ that the senior leadership of the Islamic community is moderate and they are good ambassadors for their community.

A director of the company behind the festival, Patrick Iwobi, said the organisers were deeply disappointed “that officials at a Government agency, meant to support ethnic people in New Zealand, is hell-bent on destroying the reputation of those who are trying to put together an ethnic event”.

Carnival organiser Jocelyn Sasa says dealing with the Office of Ethnic Affairs had been “a nightmare”, but there was no plan to remove its logo.

“It will cost us $20,000 to replace all the promotional materials. We just don’t have that kind of money and the OEA says they will not pay the cost, so their logo stays.”

Can I suggest that Minister Pansy needs to bash some heads together in the Office of Ethnic Affairs.

Tags: political corectness

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38 Responses to “Political Correctness strikes again”

Ryan Sproull (5,578) Says:
November 2nd, 2010 at 12:16 pm
Couldn’t it be considered offensive to get offended on someone’s behalf without even asking them if they have a problem? It’s a bit condescending.
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Steve Wrathall (124) Says:
November 2nd, 2010 at 12:20 pm
Islam isn’t an ethnicity anyway. It’s a belief system, just like socialism, environmentalism or pastafarianism. Because anyone can leave it, can’t they?
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kowtow (4,442) Says:
November 2nd, 2010 at 12:20 pm
In these days of constrained govt spending (of taxpayers money) and huge borrowing surely this is one office that could be done away with.
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Viking2 (9,483) Says:
November 2nd, 2010 at 12:23 pm
How about Pansy grows some nuts and abolishes the Trough of Ethnic Affairs.
Like the stupuid tart on Sainsbury last night from the Trough of Equal opportunites. Fineing an emp[lyer for being honest about a job applicant instead of him simply not replying. Legalised theft.
Defending this type of rubbish in 2010 shows just how out of touch and out of date all this PC stuff is.
Remove it all and let Kiwi’s get on with life.
After all I’ve never seen either office act for the Mongrel mob and I don’t want to see it either although, it just might prompt enough anger that the Govt. gets a spine and rids us of these overheads we don’t need.

and remove that other useless Trough that controls racial discrimination .
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labrator (1,334) Says:
November 2nd, 2010 at 12:24 pm
We have an Office of Ethnic Affairs?
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Ryan Sproull (5,578) Says:
November 2nd, 2010 at 12:25 pm
From the website: “The Office of Ethnic Affairs is focused on people whose culture and traditions distinguish them from the majority in New Zealand.”

Does that mean they should be watching out for things that might offend Exclusive Brethren too?
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Komata (783) Says:
November 2nd, 2010 at 12:26 pm
kowtow

.And if they tried to do so, the ‘usual suspects’ (Locke, Minto, Norman, etc, etc) will of course be waving and screaming before the stement removing it had even been read to its conclusion. Iit’s helpful to remember that all socialists stick together and that they are a clan that has infiltrated every part of our society. Helen did her job well, and they will be very difficult to remove.

One can but hope that one day . . .
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CHFR (130) Says:
November 2nd, 2010 at 12:26 pm
Have to agree kowtow.

It is so sad that these cretins are prepared to be offended for the Muslim community without bothering to find out if the community themselves are offended. This reminds me of the council in Melbourne that tried to impose dress standards at a swimming pool so as not to offend “muslims” and were told by the local muslim population that they lived in Australia to get away from just such attitudes.
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Man in a Hat (11) Says:
November 2nd, 2010 at 12:39 pm
What do you mean “officials at a Government agency”? Who are these nutters, and what are their names? Bureaucrats should not be allowed to hide behind the entity for which they work. Can anyone find out the names of the people responsible for this decision?
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Scumsucker (59) Says:
November 2nd, 2010 at 12:46 pm
And the West is doing it to itself.

Fucking madness.
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simpleton (85) Says:
November 2nd, 2010 at 12:47 pm
http://davidthompson.typepad.com/davidthompson/2010/10/dissident-academic-feels-the-warmth-of-social-justice-.html

KC Johnson, a Brooklyn College history professor who’s written at length about leftist groupthink in academia, its various pathologies and its imperviousness to correction. Johnson is the co-author of “Until Proven Innocent”

Some programmes encourage teachers to regard themselves as “enlightened leaders” who “must understand the political nature of education,” that “education is a political act,” and thereby “act as change agents,” while “developing emerging theories to support change agentry principles and processes.” The prospective teacher is expected to “serve as an advocate for groups that have been traditionally discriminated against” and to “provide evidence” of their own “commitment to social justice.” This commitment may be fostered by “fully developing candidates, not only academically but also in moral and political senses.”

All of which prompted Johnson to ask the obvious question: Who gets to define this mysterious “social justice”? Who gets to say what a “more just society” might entail and how one might achieve it?

I do not know if I have got the link able to click on.
The comments are also interesting is summarising and other people noticing this.
Even though this is in the USA, this is being taught from universities and into teachers and so into our institutions and schools.
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RightNow (5,391) Says:
November 2nd, 2010 at 12:57 pm
Will the OEA be making an official statement that Kapa Haka performances are likely to offend the sensitivities of Muslims unless Maori women perform in full length robes and veils?
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scrubone (2,321) Says:
November 2nd, 2010 at 1:10 pm
From the website: “The Office of Ethnic Affairs is focused on people whose culture and traditions distinguish them from the majority in New Zealand.”

Heck, why stop at Exclusive Brethern? One suspects that you could find ways to include the majority of NZ’ers in that description.
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s.russell (1,292) Says:
November 2nd, 2010 at 1:15 pm
My culture requires that all people wear top hats. It is offensive not to do so.

The Office of Ethnic Affairs must therefore not fund and condemn any event at which any person fails to wear a top hat.
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kaya (1,360) Says:
November 2nd, 2010 at 1:20 pm
This is a golden opportunity for Key to increase his popularity AND save the taxpayer money at the same time. Shut this office down instantly. A win – win – win if ever there was one.
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BeaB (1,610) Says:
November 2nd, 2010 at 1:26 pm
Paul Henry got the boot because he focused on people who were different from the majority in NZ!

Why do we have this madness? Abolish the Office forthwith!
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Christopher Thomson (370) Says:
November 2nd, 2010 at 1:46 pm
What we need is a site like “YOUCUT”. It is an American GOP site where the public get to nominate recipients of Government expenditure for axing after the elections this week.

A fascinating look at where US taxes are being spent and the amounts.

It was also interesting to see on a local financial advisers site that the USA is just about bankrupt. Very worrying implications for what will happen when they try and inflate their way out of debt. I would think that Greece will have nothing on what will happen when the lenders decide to stop America from doing this.
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MajorBloodnok (356) Says:
November 2nd, 2010 at 1:58 pm
@dpf Can I suggest that Minister Pansy needs to bash some heads together in the Office of Ethnic Affairs.

Who is the Minister in charge of deciding what ministries should exist? The PM? Then it is his responsibility to bash some heads together in cabinet and get rid of superfluous, pandering ministries such as this one (and many of the others, I suspect).
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Fletch (4,314) Says:
November 2nd, 2010 at 2:04 pm
It’s the dhimmi attitude that seems to be prevailing in leaderships around the world and eroding free speech. That is what Islamic leaders want. The “respect” due to Muslims is partly in fear of death threats and partly the effort of leaders trying to be multicultural and sensitive toward the “Religion of Peace”™ that isn’t a religion of peace at all. In Islam, you’re in one of two houses – “Dar al-Islam” the House of Islam, or “Dar al-Harb”, the House of War (all unbelievers)
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kaya (1,360) Says:
November 2nd, 2010 at 2:08 pm
Christopehr Thomson – America is technically bankrupt as is most of the world. It is only staying afloat because whoever the money is owed to is too frightened of the impact to call in the loans. The next round of money printing (almost certain to happen) is going to cause huge instability in the world economy. Watch that space.
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simpleton (85) Says:
November 2nd, 2010 at 2:39 pm
Fletch (1,478) Says:
November 2nd, 2010 at 2:04 pm
It’s the dhimmi attitude……

As to follow on my 12.47pm comment it is interesting to follow on some of the links of that davidthompson article

I think it first starts in many small issues to teach, practice and hone it’s skill in multiculture, diversity, sustainablity, ethnicities and etc to dhimmi status. Having been feed into an intellectual concept then through out into the universities and now teachers to our schools and to the students and pupils.
With the training that they receive they can get jobs that allow and encourage that thinking so the “Office of Ethnic Affairs” and many other departments, local government have niches for this.

http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2005/05/23/johnson

Disposition for Bias
May 23, 2005
By KC Johnson

Despite this clear threat of politicization, however, dozens of prominent education programs demand that their students promote social justice. For example:

•At the State University of New York at Oneonta, prospective teachers must “provide evidence of their understanding of social justice in teaching activities, journals, and portfolios . . . and identify social action as the most advanced level.”
•The program at the University of Kansas expects students to be “more global than national and concerned with ideals such as world peace, social justice, respect for diversity and preservation of the environment.”
•The University of Vermont’s department envisions creating “a more humane and just society, free from oppression, that fosters respect for ethnic and cultural diversity.”
•Marquette’s program “has a commitment to social justice in schools and society,” producing teachers who will use the classroom “to transcend the negative effects of the dominant culture.”
•According to the University of Toledo, “Education is our prime vehicle for creating the ‘just’ society,” since “we are preparing citizens to lead productive lives in a democratic society characterized by social justice.”

Are our universities and colleges any different with social science, political science, etc. that merges pieces of truth with murky dreaming theories.
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RightNow (5,391) Says:
November 2nd, 2010 at 2:52 pm
I’m looking forward to the Atheist Bus Campaign using “Allah probably doesn’t exist” on their billboards and ads.
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Right of way is Way of Right (1,043) Says:
November 2nd, 2010 at 2:56 pm
Do I laugh, cry, or write a poem?

Diversity’s a lovely thing,
It makes you laugh, and dance, and sing,
And as you look around, you’ll find,
some others with a diverse mind.

They come from lands across the sea,
(A lot like you, and just like me!)
To throw theirs in amonst our lot
a giant bloody melting pot!

And you’re allowed to stay diverse!
It’s not a duty, nor a curse.
Til Ethnic Affairs say’s “That will do,
“That group is MORE diverse than you”

A social beureaucratic’s dreams
Ethincity based on extremes.
Or is it based on a reliance
on which culture’s more prone to violence?

So can we stop with this pretence
Apply a bit of common sense.
Desist with stupid proclaimation
We’re all the self same bloody nation!
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Fletch (4,314) Says:
November 2nd, 2010 at 3:00 pm
Paul Weston made a speech yesterday in Amsterdam, saying –

Yet still our treasonous politicians call it the “religion of peace”, and tell us that if we refuse to share such a fantastical and ridiculous notion, that if we choose to believe Winston Churchill’s argument that Islam is a religion of blood and war, then we will be sent to prison.

[...]

In criminalising free speech, our socialist leaders reveal their dictatorial ambition. The mark of a free society is freedom of speech. To take this away is a totalitarian act, made all the worse because freedom of speech is our only defence in the peaceful opposition against the foreign totalitarian ideology of Islam.

[...]

And when our politicians today excuse Islam as a religion of peace and allow them to set the rules both at home, at the European Union, and at the United Nations, then our politicians are betraying their countries and they are betraying their people. They are committing treason.

[...]

In fact, it is a war of aggression on two fronts. Radical Islam on the one, and left-wing treason on the other.

Our children are told to celebrate multiculturalism and Islam, without being told the real history of violent expansionist Islam.

Instead, they are told that their own history, their religion, their culture, their traditions, their very being, is just a litany of imperialism, racism, murder and slavery. This is a proven psychological technique designed to render an enemy helpless, or to quote Alexander Solzhenitsyn, “in order to destroy a people, you must first sever their roots.”

His whole speech is worth watching –

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TCrwdb (246) Says:
November 2nd, 2010 at 3:15 pm
“The Office of Ethnic Affairs is focused on people whose culture and traditions distinguish them from the majority in New Zealand.”

Then surely gingas fall within the remit of OEA then?
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joana (1,784) Says:
November 2nd, 2010 at 3:19 pm
What is the annual budget for this outfit? How many staff are employed? What has happened to the proposed multicultural Act? If you think Joris is bad , you should read up on this act..various people have been pushing for it from behind the scenes.
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Inventory2 (8,809) Says:
November 2nd, 2010 at 3:24 pm
@ RightNow – I certainly wouldn’t be travelling on THAT bus
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adze (1,443) Says:
November 2nd, 2010 at 3:30 pm
@TCrwdb
Do gingas have their own culture and traditions?
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simpleton (85) Says:
November 2nd, 2010 at 3:31 pm
RowiWoR , Like your poem

We’re all the self same bloody nation!

But you have to get with the programme, a world with no borders and control from the Headquarters in New York.

Fletch, I appreciate your quotation of free speech

are told to celebrate multiculturalism………. without being told the real history ……..

And history is “picked” to only be relevant to suit their purposes and so our children, community is being taught and ultimately controlled.

Can this break out into wider knowledge? into our schools, communities, universities and government of what I mentioned in my earlier posts 1247
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simpleton (85) Says:
November 2nd, 2010 at 3:55 pm
in my earlier posts of 12.47 pm and 3.39 pm.
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Chthoniid (1,912) Says:
November 2nd, 2010 at 4:21 pm
@RightNow

I’m looking forward to the Atheist Bus Campaign using “Allah probably doesn’t exist” on their billboards and ads.

Hmm, why?

Wouldn’t that be covered under the generic rubric that “God probably doesn’t exist”?
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RightNow (5,391) Says:
November 2nd, 2010 at 4:41 pm
Chthoniid – I want to know if they have the balls to specify Allah rather than God, or if they’re scared to. What do you think? Would they do it or would they be too scared?
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double d (176) Says:
November 2nd, 2010 at 4:41 pm
@TCrwdb
one of my best friends is a ginga….
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Chthoniid (1,912) Says:
November 2nd, 2010 at 5:42 pm
@RightNow

Chthoniid – I want to know if they have the balls to specify Allah rather than God, or if they’re scared to. What do you think? Would they do it or would they be too scared?

Let me suggest that your question is thus misleading. Confronting Islam by specifying Allah on an NZ bus would be an empty gesture. Atheists do confront Islam where it actually can do some good. For instance, boobquake this year was an initiative started by atheists. I confront Muslims on issues like evolution in other forums. You might notice we don’t get a lot of Muslims visiting KB.

In terms of balls, it might be germane to point out that when I was in the Philippines doing some conservation work, we dealt with a bomb threat from Muslim separatists every day. And if you had paid attention, you might have remembered I assisted an 18 year old Yemeni woman escape an honour killing earlier this year.

Do you think my balls are big enough?

Or to prove it, should I be waking up in bed each morning, pissing my pants in fear of some ghazi slitting my throat, from the safety of good old NZ and then blustering anti-Islamic tirades?
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Fletch (4,314) Says:
November 2nd, 2010 at 7:46 pm
Good for you Clint, helping that woman. It’s also good to see that another high profile woman has had her nose rebuilt after it was cut off as punishment.

I think that we should be allowed to speak up for our freedoms though, without it being seen as an “anti-Islamic tirade”.
I don’t think Muslims in this country are bad or anything, but I do worry about Islam and Sharia law which is not compatible with western democracy.

Douglas Murray says in a debate here about whether it is true that Islam is a ‘religion of peace” (and the whole series is worth watching), that there are three Islams. To quote him –

1. The Koran and the Hadith.
2. The tradition of Sharia
3. What Muslims do now

The first of those things, the Koran, is BAD. It is bad. There is a lot of violence in it. And what’s worse, the peaceful verses are superseded [abrogated] by the violent verses. The violent verses, sadly, are more numerous in number. Then you’ve got the life of Mohammed, again, a bad man. A very bad man, it has to be said, not a great role model if you look at it. Takes child brides, abuses a small girl, multiple wives, himself a warrior, himself a war criminal, himself beheads Jews. This, I would have thought, would be a signal of not great peacefulness.

Then you’ve got the tradition of the Sharia; again, not great peacefulness, still no schools of Sharia that anyone in this hall would want to submit to.

Thirdly, what Muslims do now; thankfully, there is some hope in that one. Because most Muslims, thank goodness, [..] don’t do what those texts say, because they exercise the judgement of moral beings without having to refer to defunct holy books. The problem is that Islam is an unstable component as a religion. [but] to say Islam is a religion of peace is nonsense; it’s to ignore reality, it’s to ignore very difficult but necessary facts.

He does very well, and his team actually wins the debate based on audience voting, where at the start more of the audience did think Islam was a religion of peace.
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CharlieBrown (688) Says:
November 2nd, 2010 at 8:21 pm
A government having an “Office of Ethnic Affairs” is political correctness gone mad. End of story.
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Dave Mann (988) Says:
November 3rd, 2010 at 7:52 am
Hear hear Charlie! And on the weekend I heard minister stupid PC Pansy blathering in MAORI at the INDIAN Diwali event in Aotea Square! I think these fuckwits just can’t help themselves from sticking their snotty little noses into everything like pigs in a trough in order to brainwash and control the serfs. The bloody busybody government should back off and stop interfering…. these festivals etc should not be being hijacked as vehicles for nanny’s propaganda.
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RightNow (5,391) Says:
November 5th, 2010 at 1:15 pm
Chthoniid (pardon for a very late response) – the reason I asked that question is centred on the fear that is pervasive around anything regarding Islam. I like free speech, but it seems that through threats of violence Islam manages to suppress free speech around the world.

My issue with this is that we let one religion (Islam) bully and cower us around the world, while at the same time we target another religion (Christianity) with abuse and scorn. It is discrimination, and the root of it is (as I see it) fear of retaliation, although I also think some if it is political manoeuvring by the Western left.

Fundamentally I think extremism is dangerous from any source (be it religious, political, economic etc). Moderate attitudes are the way forward for all societies. However in this respect Christianity has already been thoroughly moderated, while Islam still has a way to go. I have no quarrel with moderates of any type, live and let live.

I do think the observation that Islam (through the violence of the extremists) is bullying away our free speech is entirely valid though.
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