Posted on 09/29/2003 2:51:37 PM PDT by shaggy eel
The New Zealand Government has started daily Maori prayer sessions to help stressed-out parliamentary workers cope with their jobs.
The 25-minute voluntary sessions, due to start this morning, are the brainchild of Oketopa Kuni Shepherd, the new Maori cultural services kaiwhakahaere (coordinator) for Parliamentary Services.
"You've got to be creative with people under stress. I thought we'd start the hikoi (journey) to setting people going in a positive way."
The session would help clear workers of "any negativity" before starting their day, he said.
But National's internal affairs spokeswoman, Judith Collins, said the initiative was a waste of time and money, and an example of "political correctness gone mad".
National Party workers, who started work about 8am, would be too busy to attend. "Instead of praying they should work an extra half an hour to lower the stress," she said.
Mr Shepherd said the session would be held outside normal working hours and was open to anyone in the parliamentary complex.
The sessions would include karakia (prayers), a kiwaha (saying) or a whakatauaki (proverb) and end with a waiata (song). A session would be held every day in a meeting room on the fifth floor of Bowen House in central Wellington between 8.30am and 8.55am.
Bowen House, which is part of the parliamentary complex, contains offices for ministers, MPs, government and parliamentary staff. About 1000 people work in the complex.
Mr Shepherd started his job at Parliamentary Services earlier this month. He said similar ideas had worked well for him before. He would not reveal his employment background because it might "affect" his employment and was a privacy issue.
His boss, planning and corporate support manager Sheryl Kruger, said that, though Mr Shepherd had recently started his job, the role of cultural coordinator was established three years ago.
"His role is to assist with initiatives with our cultural and bicultural obligations," she said. The sessions would be offered daily while interest was gauged. If they were popular, they would be continued.
Ms Kruger said that, though prayers might well form a small part of the session, it was mainly about learning. "It's all part of learning about different cultures, it's not necessarily about prayers."
I feel like I'm watching a B-movie.
I think I'm gonna hurl.
http://www.national.org.nz
Bill English, leader of the National Party [September 30 2003]
Racial divisions in New Zealand are being heightened by this Government. My colleague, Simon Power, recently issued a press statement setting out an appalling list of cases illustrating how this Government’s policies are intensifying racial divisiveness in the research field.
Otago University provided the most recent example when its Council voted (by 10 votes to 2) to require all research projects to be the subject of prior consultation with Ngai Tahu tribe.
He cited the research project at Lincoln University studying foot-rot in sheep that was denied funding because its Maori reference group felt “the outcomes for Maori need to be better targeted”. And a research project at Canterbury University into the growth of paua and crayfish was canned because it didn’t have strong enough Maori connections.
Just this month the Government announced that the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology is putting almost $2 million “to support research that is driven by the priorities identified by hapu, iwi and Maori organisations”.
Meanwhile, the Government has cut back sharply on the funding of soil science (crucial to our farming industry) and completely cut research on bees.
This defies sanity. Where is New Zealand heading? There is absolutely no basis whatsoever for preferring one racial group to another when allocating research money, or indeed for allocating anything else. We are all New Zealanders, equal before the law, whether we are Maori, European, Asian, or whatever.
ooh! Kinky!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.