New Zealand is a beautiful country pity about the people

Tu Tangata, Issue 31, 1 August 1986, Page 54

New Zealand is a beautiful country pity about the people

LONG ago, Nga Kete e toru o te wananga (the three baskets of knowledge) Kete Aronui - all knowledge that goes with the good of human nature, Kete tuatea all the knowledge that makes up evil, and Kete tuauri - all knowledge of rituals and ceremonies, were presented to the people of beautiful Aotearoa.

about robberies, murders, rapes and shootings are heard commonly through the media. These days we get so used to these horror stories we tend to switch off and wait for the important news.

New Zealand society is on a downhill path. As the economy slumps more and more into depression, so does the population.

In the last fifty years the people of New Zealand have been steadily increasing their response towards Kete tuatea.

New Zealand still remains a beautiful country but the people are changing.

New Zealand pioneers wrote about cascading waterfalls, artists sketched the beautiful bush. Now, where cascading waterfalls once were, we have humanbuilt hydrodams; where beautiful bush once was we have grey buildings.

It is my belief that New Zealand is following the trends of America in human kind’s downhill slide.

Who had heard of street kids and gang fights fifty years ago?

Presently in New Zealand, stories

In a tall grey city, money has become the key to having fun.

Nowadays it will cost you to do this, it will cost you to do that - everything has a price.

As these prices rise, people seem to be spending more and more time earning money and therefore have less time for enjoyment, and less time for spending with others.

Criminals rob shops to obtain money. Drug trafficking is on the increase. Another way to make money at the expense of another’s happiness.

In maori society we have observed the loss of whanau, to the iwi.

What has happened to Maoritanga? We now observe a high proportion of Maori people in jail, due to these losses. This culture is running out of places for its youth to turn.

Changes are trying to be made in modern society, but the people trying to make these changes in the system are having more and more of an uphill climb through legality, bosses and government departments. We are seeing less and less of these people bothering to speak forth and aim for changes.

I have no solutions to these problems but I suggest we start to look more and more into the other two baskets: Kete aronui and Kete tuauri.

From these maybe we can obtain a balanced society where people work towards and obtain their own goals and happiness at their own speed.

This I believe will bring New Zealand society around to a more caring way of thinking and lead to a saying - New Zealand is a beautiful country, due to its people.

JONTY TETLEY

[Form 7 Naenae College, Lower Huttl