Ok have attended many local body election candidate hui, all over the city of Hamilton and one in Kawerau. The apathy is so evident among our people. Why? Because many of our whanau are "living to survive" and NOT "living to live". Door knocking whare in my hometown of Kawerau has been an absolute eye-opener. The level of drug abuse evident in many of the homes we door knocked was incredible for such a small town Maori and Pakeha alike. Many psychology evidence of people suffering as a result. Its obvious the people of Kawerau have lost hope........Its heartbreaking. The racism in Kawerau is rife from the levels of local governance level reflected at community level. I attended a local candidate hui in Kawerau. The forum was facilitated by "Grey Power" (of which co-incidently was faciliated by a current council member who is the secretary of Grey Power...hello!) and was attended by a predominantly Pakeha elderly crowd, the numbers 150 people attended I could count quite easily on one hand the number of Maori that were in attendance. I walked into the forum and all I saw was a sea of grey haired elderly people, my elderly father who attended with me took one look in the room and walked out. ANYWAY........ I posed the question in the hui... "My question was in regards to the violent incident that took place in Kawerau where two men were shot" which we now know was drug and gang related etc etc. Specifically my question was to all candidates: In your mind what are the key contributors to the violence in this town? and...... If you were re-elected into council what strategy would you use to combat this? It certainly generated some discussion but mostly exposed the racism deeply embedded in the psyche of many members of this community. It was disgusting and sad at the same time. ANYWAY........
Posted on: Mon, 23 Sep 2013 19:41:48 +0000
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