Is it really any surprise?

Looking at a poll today on the Herald website, I had to think today whether it was any surprise that 60% of the 2,062 people who had taken the poll at the time thought that Waitangi Day is a day off.

Does anyone think that the atmosphere has long been dead because of all the muck around that usually gets associated with the day in years gone by? People throwing mud at politicians, protests galore, a general stroppy attitude gets tiring after a while. Something significant turns into something run of the mill.

I think Waitangi day has for me anyways, lost its meaning. Its like having birthdays. The novelty wore off when I turned 25 or maybe even earlier. Now I'm 30+ it just even means less. The irony is, that even after 169 years of living together, and all the best intentions under the sun, we still are stuck on the petty differences of opinion, and when one group doesnt agree with the other, they get stroppy and park themselves on land.

I was driving home from Wellington one holiday and on the side of the road just outside of Turangi there was a van parked stating that the 'person' was staging an occupation of land confiscated. I thought it was amusing. Its almost childish at times.

Down the road from where I lived at one stage was a group who were having a Tino rangatiratanga moment on what used to be a house held section. I guess some time before the house had burned down and it was never re-built. Even today its a relatively empty section. Their van was painted in the old Maori white and blue flag. They seemed to partly live off the land, and others off the neighbours electricity. Now, we hardly see any one there. Its an over gown plot of land which has a shell of a shack they used to cook on. Pretty much a hazard.

Then I remember the guy with the Maori Drivers licence and registration on the Highway Patrol show. That was amusing.

As I've grown older I've come to see the treaty more as a bone of contention rather than a sorce of unification and still today, cannot see its application in New Zealand's modern society. New Zealand has to some degree outgrown the application of it due to the multi-cultralism of this country as opposed to the once bi-culturalism. Is it fair to expect the Indian, Somalian, or the Martian for that matter to abide by something that the two primary parties cannot really abide by? Thats my thought on that.

Maori will always be disaffected by the wrongs done to them under the treaty and for the most part, they have a right to be. They were ripped off to some extent and quite harshly too in some cases. Many things were done in poor judgement by the English and whether the deception was intentional or not is now irrelevant. New Zealand could be a great nation, but is being held back by a document no one lives by and most don't even acknowledge.

(as at 11:22am today, the poll mentioned above now has 2,155 votes, 60% a day off, 27% as New Zealands national day, and 13% as the day the treaty was signed).

As for me? We'll myself and my family will be using it as a day to spend in spiritual retreats. But for the most part, its a day off for us. We're not going to Waitangi obviously, we may check out some things, but its a day off none the less.

(as at 11:30am today, the poll now has 2,200 votes, 60% (1,316) a day off, 27% (589) as New Zealands national day, and 13% (295) as the day the treaty was signed).

Take your pick.