phil twyford – KIWESE

Started from the Bottom Now We’re Here: 14 Years Since the Poll Tax Apology

“Sorry,” “arohamai,” “对不起,” “ma bad.” Kiwis tend to over apologise for everything – sorry for being late, sorry for moving your bag, sorry for ever so slightly scuffing your foot on the bus. But what about when ‘sorry’ really means something? The Poll Tax was a tonnage restriction and tax on all Chinese arrivals to New Zealand from 1881 to 1944. Fourteen years agoContinueContinue reading “Started from the Bottom Now We’re Here: 14 Years Since the Poll Tax Apology”

Year of the (Scape)goat: Responding to Phil Twyford on Chinese sounding names

Crime rates rising? Road toll increasing? Quality of secondary or tertiary education declining? No jobs? Housing bubble in Auckland? Just blame the Chinese. New Zealand’s social media is aflame with hot and sour responses (from people with Chinese sounding names and non-Chinese sounding names) to comments from Labour’s housing spokesman Phil Twyford on TV3’s The Nation in an interview with Lisa Owen on Saturday evening,ContinueContinue reading “Year of the (Scape)goat: Responding to Phil Twyford on Chinese sounding names”