likely tonight to note that immigration can be beneficial to New Zealand and to avoid making any definitive statements that clearly commit National to a change in position.Actually, I support Don on this one. Of course, to be consistant, the first thing he'll have to do is deport Brian Tamaki, anyone who supports Destiny Church, and oooh, the entirety of the Exclusive Brethren. And ban Christian groups from using schools to proselytize with a sem-official stamp, and censor our students' access to the web. Heck, maybe you could repeal the law on blasphemous libel (section 123 of the Crimes Act). And remove the prayer from opening of Parliament; and from Council meetings.
But his suggestion that Western ideals such as personal liberty and New Zealand's belief in the importance of a secular society could be compromised by immigration reveals the party is at least contemplating taking a tougher line.
Because, you know, if he doesn't support all those things, then one might just have to conclude that what he didn't like was people who weren't Christian.
And surely that wouldn't be right, would it?
What Wikipedia says about Secularism:
As secularism is often used in different contexts, its precise definition can vary from place to place. In philosophy, secularism is the belief that life can be best lived by applying ethics, and the universe best understood, by processes of reasoning, without reference to a god or gods or other supernatural concepts. Secularism in this sense was coined by George Jacob Holyoake and is one of the precursors of modern secular humanism ... In government, secularism means a policy of avoiding entanglement between government and religion (ranging from reducing ties to a state religion to promoting secularism in society), of non-discrimination among religions (providing they don't deny primacy of civil laws), and of guaranteeing human rights of all citizens, regardless of the creed (and, if conflicting with certain religious rules, by imposing priority of the universal human rights).Expand and Discuss. (25 points)
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I heard Mr. Brash on the radio this morning, expanding on how we'd want to make sure that immigrants will fit in with New Zealand's "secular, liberal" culture.
So, no Americans, then?
well now, that's a being a little harsh ... we could let them in if they lived north of the Mason-Dixie line, surely?
Maybe we'd have to have some sort of test. We could show them a clip of The Daily Show and see if they laugh or not.
Or we could show them a clip of Letterman and if they laugh they're out. That show is seriously unfunny.
Simple solution: Maybe we should just tell them, up front, that we don't have the right to bear arms in this country. Anyone who still wants to come, we let in.
--Hewligan
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