Am I Making Census?Tomorrow, I have to fill out the 2006 Census form. Apparently it's required by law that everyone in the country complete the form (how they police it is another thing). I don't ever remember filling out a Census form. The last Census was 5 years ago, in 2001, so I was overseas. But before that? My mum probably did it for me LOL.
Today, at our Monday morning staff meeting, there was a rather animated discussion about the Census. This year, for the first time, people will be able to put "New Zealander" as an answer to the question about ethnicity. A colleague said that she will be putting down New Zealander as her ethnicity...which produced howls of protest from everyone in the room. I almost felt sorry for her LOL.
To me New Zealander is not an ethnicity. It's a national identity. I was born in NZ. So were my parents, my grandparents and great grandparents. I am a true blue Kiwi. But, my ethnicity is European and Maori. Yes, we can all identify with being a New Zealander, whether we are of Chinese, Maori, Samoan or Filipino backgrounds. But that is not what the Census, the statisticians and ultimately, policy makers are looking for in the answer to that question.
My colleagues argument was "But we're all New Zealanders...we're all the same...we all have skin, hair, eyes". Which is a daft fucking argument if you ask me. We are NOT all the same! My cultural identity differs from my fellow New Zealanders who come from Chinese or Dutch backgrounds.
The move to have "New Zealander" as an ethnicity has come from this very right wing, politically correct group of politicians, who I believe, want to marginalise other ethnicities and remove any concept and acknowledgement that we are different. So that there is no perception of one specific ethnic group having more rights than others and therefore influencing policy.
Hmm. All this from a throw away comment by a co-worker.
Monday, March 06, 2006
Tart at 2:12 PM |
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