A friend of a friend has been musing on plans to introduce an end-of-life bill, to decriminalise marijuana for both medicinal and recreational use, and to give prisoners the vote, no matter their crime.
These – he reckons – add to a bemusing array of contradictions within New Zealand in the 21st century.
Fair to say, some of his observations are open to challenge. One person’s contradiction – you might argue – is another’s common sense.
Thus readers may agree that some – or many – items on the list are contradictions but not necessarily all.
One of those consulted about the list illustrated this by proposing another contradiction:
It is not OK to allow terminally ill animals to suffer but it is OK to deny terminally ill, fully conscious adults, judged to be of sound mind and after careful consideration by two independent doctors, the option of ending their suffering.
This (the consulted person says) should give a big hint to his position on the End of Life Choice Bill
The fellow who drew up the list countered by saying he is not actually seeking any agreement on any of the issues identified – he is merely pointing out apparent contradictions.
He is confident Point of Order readers will be able to add to his list:
- It’s not okay … to execute murderers and terrorists
But it is okay … to terminate life before birth
2. It’s not okay … to condone youth suicide
But it is okay … to promote elders’ suicide
3. It’s not okay … to smoke tobacco
But it is okay … to smoke marijuana
4. It’s not okay … to manufacture “P” in state housing
But it is okay … to smoke marijuana in state housing
5. It’s not okay … to do drugs in rental housing
But it is okay … to require landlords to clean up
6. It’s not okay … to allow anyone to migrate to NZ
But it is okay … for NZ to sign the UN open migration agreement
7. It’s not okay … to include religion in state affairs
But it is okay … to include karakia in state affairs
8. It’s not okay … to adopt children (not these days)
But it is okay … to force children into state care
9. It’s not okay … for prisoners to be allowed freedom of choice
But it is okay … for prisoners to vote
10. It’s not okay … to approve enforced acculturation
But it is okay … to require participation in tikanga
11. It’s not okay … to discriminate between ethnic groups
But it is okay … to give some ethnic groups preference
12. It’s not okay … to deny NZ is multicultural
But it is okay … to claim NZ is bicultural
13. It’s not okay … to steal and publish private emails
But it is okay … for the media to publish stolen emails
14. It’s not okay … to steal private correspondence
But it is okay … to discuss private stolen correspondence in Parliament
15. It’s not okay … to deny freedom of speech
But it is okay … to ban speakers at universities
16. It’s not okay … to parody other cultures
But it is okay … to mock European traditions
17. It’s not okay … to have unemployment
But it is okay … to import 30,000 seasonal workers
18. It’s not okay … for certain countries to crush human rights
But it is okay … for those countries to sit on the UN Human Rights Council
It’s not ok to deny the science of climate change, but it’s ok to deny that the science of genetics can be used to reduce the rate of change.
It’s not ok for species to go extinct, but it’s ok to try and prevent the eradication of introduced predators.
It’s not ok for species to be endangered but it is ok to kill species in NZ that are endangered in their original countries. (If we really believed what we say about species conservation we would be relocating stoats and hedgehogs back to Britain.)
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