Wheeler’s Corner
“Connecting Citizens Who Care“. Every Monday
at 4 pm on Access Manawatu 999AM” Join Peter’s blog http://wheelerscornernz.blogspot.com/
06 11 February 2018
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| Oh to be young again and bias free...good friends forever. |
1. Why were they hiding? Why did they hide their identity?
Waitangi Day has come and gone and I never saw one Hobson’s Pledge fan present at all the local events I attended.
Waitangi Day has come and gone and I never saw one Hobson’s Pledge fan present at all the local events I attended.
Maybe they were there
but were hiding, the local leader of Hobson’s Pledge in the city Donald
Esslemont if he was present kept his face well hidden.
Before the term Hobson’s
Pledge was created some 50 years after the signing of the Treaty of
Waitangi, the term ‘Hobson’s choice’ was used to describe the treaty options. Now-days of course it has as a different meaning for real modern New Zealanders:
The phrase is said to have
originated with Thomas Hobson (1544–1631), a livery stable owner in
Cambridge, England, who offered customers the choice of either taking
the horse in his stall nearest to the door or taking none at all.
Modern use
The term
"Hobson's choice" is often used to mean an illusion of choice, but it
is not a choice between two equivalent options, which is a Morton's
fork, nor is it a choice between two undesirable options, which is a dilemma.
Hobson's choice is one between something or nothing.
John
Stuart Mill, in his book Considerations on
Representative Government, refers to Hobson's choice:
When the individuals
composing the majority would no longer be reduced to Hobson's choice, of either
voting for the person brought forward by their local leaders, or not voting at
all.[9]
In another of his books,
The Subjection of Women, Mill discusses
marriage:
Those who attempt to
force women into marriage by closing all other doors against them lay
themselves open to a similar retort. If they mean what they say, their opinion
must evidently be that men do not render the married condition so desirable to
women, as to induce them to accept it for its own recommendations.
It is not a sign of
one's thinking the boon one offers very attractive, when one allows only
Hobson's choice, 'that or none'.... And if men are determined that the law of
marriage shall be a law of despotism, they are quite right in point of mere
policy, in leaving to women only Hobson's choice. But, in that case, all that
has been done in the modern world to relax the chain on the minds of women, has
been a mistake. They should have never been allowed to receive a literary education.[10]
A Hobson's choice is
different from:
·
Dilemma: a choice between two or more options, none of which
is attractive.
·
False dilemma: only two choices are considered, when
in fact there are others.
·
Catch-22:
a logical paradox arising from a situation in which an individual needs
something that can only be acquired by not being in that very situation.
·
Morton's fork, and a double bind: choices yield equivalent, and often
undesirable, results.
·
Blackmail and extortion:
the choice between paying money (or some non-monetary good or deed) or risk
suffering an unpleasant action.
The term ‘Hobson’s
Choice’ is used to explain the offer made to Maori in 1840 to accept the terms
laid down by Hobson…The only meaningful version of the treaty [the one signed
by the massive bulk of Maori leaders was the Maori Version…the only problem was
that New Zealand’s settler and crown leadership never had any intention of
treating Maori and non-voting settlers as equals.
Esslemont and Brash
stated in their latest half page ad in the local paper ‘that a Maori Ward would
affect the voting process…that is simply a lie! In no way will it change in any
respect your voting rights or process or who you opt to vote for…
PS:
Hobson’s Pledge fan
Bob Jones resigns from National Business Review:
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| Yet another rich grumpy old white male Bob Jones. |
UPDATE: Bob Jones has quit the NBR
due to the NBR pulling his obscenely racist column from their online site. The
Daily Blog has asked if Bob Jones will be joining Cameron Slater on Whaleoil.
The Daily Blog has had no response from his office.
2. Let’s take a quick look at which Councillors support Maori Wards. In the picture below you notice that one Cr is marked with
a question mark, she is Gabrielle
Bundy-Cooke. Well she informed her fellow Cr’s that she strongly supports Maori
Wards…so that lifts the total Cr's to eleven who are at this point supporting
Maori Wards when you add the Mayor that equals 12 out of sixteen possible
votes… Of course, us who watch Cr’s behaviour had strong doubts about one in
particular Cr, Cr, Lew Findlay
he has become well known for his fence sitting and back peddling.
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| The question mark becomes a tick.. |
Regarding the other
Cr’s, let hope that the wisdom and courage of those who after serious
consideration have opted for the Maori Ward choice remain strong and don’t give
into the self-preservation pressures of the Lew Findlay style character.
Let’s all have faith
in the democratic processes that exist…we voted for our Cr’s to listen and to
decide. Do we call for a poll to question a rates rise? No because the law
doesn’t allow us to do that. Yet when they decide by an overwhelming majority
to have Maori wards, the law allows for 5% of the rate payers to force the
council to fork out one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars of your hard
earned money.
Look at the huge amounts of money
that Hobson’s Pledge has been poured into paying for the half page ads in our
local paper, and ask yourself ‘Why are they doing this? And they even had the
audacity to suggest that Maori Wards will cost more…that ladies and gentlemen
is simply bull-shit of the highest order. Ask yourself why a bunch of wealthy outsiders are funding this anti-democratic behaviour?
I can only hope that
Cr’s Brent Barrett, Susan Baty, Rachel Bowen, Gabrielle Bundy-Cooke, Vaughan
Dennison, Jim Jefferies, Lorna Johnson, Duncan McCann, Aleisha Rutherford and
Tangi Utikere and the Mayor Grant Smith if required, will after the 21st
hit the road running as they campaign for a yes vote for Maori.
It would be really
great if this campaign wasn’t needed, not only would it save us, the rate payers, a
heap of cash it would prove that the majority have grown up and no longer live in
the long tarnished past that fed the flame of hate known as racism and fear of what was once unknown…
Those Councillor's
named above have taken a huge step forward in seeking to join those other local
government bodies around the country that have Maori wards and have had for many
years…
So let our region
[Palmerston North and Manawatu] become a hot bed of democracy in action, a
table at which we can all sit and dine in honour and safety as we manage our
local and community affairs.
Where we can share: the wonderful aromas of new experiences rather than the digestion of stale out-dated crumbs from histories long consumed bigotry. Let us partake in a feast of collectiveness and let us fully introduce this practice to rest of our nation and then the world.
All of this can be
achieved if we change our dining habits and share the hopes and aspirations of
those Councillors who seek a better future through cooperation rather than
fear.
Peter J Wheeler
