Posted on 06/05/2002 3:47:13 PM PDT by shaggy eel
New Zealand: Clark says sorry to Samoans and gays
Apologies are flowing from Prime Minister Helen Clark, with a public expression of sorrow to Samoa yesterday closely following a much-less-publicised apology to New Zealand gays and lesbians.
In a speech in the Samoan capital, Apia, yesterday morning, Miss Clark made a formal apology to Samoa for New Zealand's inept administration of the island state early last century.
She apologised for the decision by New Zealand authorities in 1918 to allow a ship carrying passengers with influenza to dock in Apia, which resulted in the deaths of 22 per cent of the Samoan population.
She also acknowledged the shootings in Apia in 1929 of non-violent protesters by New Zealand police. At least nine people died.
The apology followed a much-lower-profile expression of regret to gays and lesbians in the latest issue of gay newspaper Express.
In a candid interview with Express, Miss Clark also spoke about whispering campaigns that she is a lesbian. She offered a "personal apology . . . on behalf of the Government" for past transgressions against gays and lesbians.
"It's been disgraceful. People have put up with the most appalling discrimination, stereotyping, people have been criminalised," she told the newspaper.
A spokesman for Miss Clark confirmed the Express interview.
Express editor Victor van Wetering said the apology was a watershed for gays and lesbians.
"There has been a long silence in acknowledging the experience of queer people in New Zealand and the kind of discrimination they have had to put up with both before sexual law reform in 1986 and since then."
Labour had clearly branded itself as "the gay party", he said. It had three openly gay representatives - Georgina Beyer, Tim Barnett and Chris Carter - and its party list included three lesbian newcomers in the top 50.
"That earns them points from liberals generally, but especially from the gay and lesbian community," Mr van Wetering said.
"I think they realise that there is some political advantage to increasing the representation of queer people in Parliament."
Opening up about her personal experiences of prejudice and whispering campaigns, Miss Clark said she saw "nothing wrong" with being a lesbian.
"I am not a lesbian but some of my best friends are," she said.
"Those who do the whispering come from an ethical position that being lesbian is morally wrong. It's designed to be a smear."
Wellington expert in class actions Roger Chapman said neither apology was likely to result in suits against the Government.
He said the Samoan apology related to incidents that were too long ago and took place outside New Zealand. And the apology to the gay and lesbian community had no obvious legal ramifications.
Miss Clark has also apologised this year to New Zealand's Chinese community for the indignity and hardship of a poll tax imposed on early Chinese settlers.
You're getting close to Bill English territory in Dunedin aren't you? The rest of the country could stand to learn a few things...
,,, I see you're in San Francisco. Is there a sheep exhibit at the Power Exchange?
It's brilliant - I get an official apology from the NZ government, and then I spurn it, saying something like "an apology is hardly enough for the pain and suffering I've had to endure." And then I take the apology to court as an admission of guilt, and get megabucks out of the NZ government. It's fiendishly clever, if I do say so myself...
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