Quote:
Originally Posted by GoNative
Of course beyond making sheep your very bestest of friends is there anything else NZ has ever done that's noteworthy?  |
Careful! My mom's a sheep
Seriously though.. you know the whole Salman Rushdie thing? NZ was negotiating trade with the middle east and Iran at the time... and sided with the Iranian's on the issue.
Of course it eventually flipped to supporting the West... but very hesitantly.
New Zealand also supported the Indonesian invasion of Timor Leste. Of course today it is a supporter of Timor-Leste's independence.
New Zealand soldiers are in Afghanistan. There are many people that are against that... but I suppose the Afghanistan war is a lot less controversial abroad. In New Zealand... especially among students... it is likened to Vietnam. The main issue is that NZ has no business in Afghanistan and the argument is that we are just there to get on the good side of the Americans. A country that many in New Zealand are suspicious of politically.
New Zealand up untill the 70's forbid the Maori language in schools which is one of the reasons speakers of Maori, even amongst Maori are low.
Not to mention the fact that Maori were dispossessed of their land for over a hundred years AFTER they signed a treaty with the Empire which made them citizens of it.
I could go on with all the sh*tty things my country has done...
Does it make me a traitor or "anti-New Zealand" that I think this way and am aware of the sh*tty things my country does? I don't think so.... so I don't know why I'm branded as anti-American.