Drew, the new spelling of Maori is now Maaori, according to a newly opened Visitor Centre on Taranaki [the volcanic mountain in the process of being renamed from Mount Egmont]. Since Maoris didn't have a written language, it's amusing to see the revisionist correction of the language which was carefully matched to pronunciation a couple of centuries ago when 'Maori' was the nearest representation using the English alphabet and pronunciation the linguists of the day could come up with.
Also, Maoris didn't use plurals, so now it's fashionable to speak of Maaori for lots of them rather than Maoris or Maaoris. I suppose they couldn't count past one before the Europeans arrived with numbers so everything was singular. They didn't use any abacus or other means of calcuation. They did have Tahi, rua, toru and fa but I don't know how far the counting went.
Since tribes don't have much in the way of property rights, they had never developed a concept of capital so other than educated Maoris, [of which there are similar numbers as other people] tribal sharing is the norm and capitalist concepts such as capital formation are thin on the ground. Tribal sharing is being adopted by the rest of New Zealand too, which has got a lot to do with why the currency is going down the gurgler. It's a cargo-cult mentality being developed.
Anyway, the answer to your question is that the Maori tribes don't need to have money to buy the spectrum. Just as we might get rights to QUALCOMM shares in a rights issue, they can sell the rights [or form other contracts] to somebody with piles of dosh who understands and acts to form a stash of capital. They'll hire some lawyers [who will rip them off as continues to happen] and Telstra or some company which misses out on the 'for sale' 3G spectrum will try to persuade the Maoris to do a deal.
The Maoris are allegedly all about cultural preservation and identity, but in fact, money talks and they like flash cars, so I expect they'll use the spectrum to get US$ rather than keep the spectrum for Maori language week or anything like that.
They are being given the right to buy at 95% of the winning bids. So it's only a gift of NZ$1 million at the moment. Nothing worth getting excited about.
The racism is absurd. Maoris or Maaori are just people. The stupid apartheid treaty signed in 1840 should be ditched as a racist apartheid idiocy in the modern world although suitable for the time to persuade the Maoris to accept Europeans for the benefit of both on the promise that Maoris could continue to live as they had done for as long as they wished to do so.
There is mass interbreeding and damn all Maoris live in tribal conditions in their protected traditional areas. We are soon all going to be Maoris in New Zealand because males and females have a propensity for DNA blending. [Thinking about that, DNA blending is all they are actually good for; males and females - they have no other function apart from DNA blending. Without DNA blending, humans could just reproduce by cloning and 'clip-on' DNA engineering and all the hassle of blending DNA could be dropped from human design. No more silly love songs, no porno, no rape, no war, no cancer of the cervix or testicles, no need for poetry or his and hers - life would be a doddle and the fun of CDMA could occupy our minds].
Maoris are mostly integrated into the economy or are receiving taxpayer benefits. NONE are living as Maoris did in an independent context, catching fish, weaving flax, living in a ponga whare in the stone age. They have ALL become integrated into the economy of the modern world. They have ALL got their hand out, either by working and thereby abandoning traditional life, or by being on free money from the taxpayer.
If they want to retain Maoridom and racially distinct treaty rights, they should live separately on their tribal land without their hand out. Racism is stupid and causes disaster.
Mqurice |
