Prison Population in NZ, Word of the Year and Jeanette Fitzsimmons Dies
Good Morning and Welcome to this week’s Gospel and Culture update, by Alan Vink
Monday 9th March 2020
Prisons. This piece is not about Maori bashing, trust me not one little bit. The majority of Maori are honest, decent and hardworking people. But we can’t ignore the data. Here it is as at March 2019:-
Over the last 5 years Jeanette and I have worked and volunteered amongst a predominately Maori Community in Hamilton. I have talked to many Maori folks who are on a benefit of some kind some of them all their lives and I have read more than usual around this subject.
The most recent book I have read is by Alan Duff (of Once Were Warriors Fame), “A Conversation With My Country”. It’s a hard hitter but my goodness it certainly has a ring of truth. Alan Duff maintains that when 15% of NZ’s Population is Maori and yet they make up just over 50% of the prison population something has gone terribly wrong. No disagreement there. He says the problems are essentially, poor parenting, insufficient education, the lack of books and dependency on welfare. These factors he goes on to say lead to drug-taking, excessive alcohol use, violence, abuse, dishonesty and all other reasons people get into trouble. I think he is spot on. Interestingly he does not believe that ‘colonisation’ is a major contributing issue. I would highly recommend his book.
What is our response as pastors to this gross injustice? How can we respond as churches? “The Spirit of the Lord is on me (Jesus), because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free...
Perhaps visit prisoners, perhaps get involved in a prisoner rehab programme, perhaps_ _ _ _ _ _ fill in the gap.
Word of the Year. This will surprise you...maybe not. In 2019 according to Merriam Webster, the word of the year is the common old pronoun, they. Why is that? This 2:30min video explains why.
Over the last few years it has changed from a quite unremarkable use as a pronoun to, being used to refer to a single person whose gender identity is non-binary. The American Psychological Association now recommend that in professional writing we use...get this...singular ‘they’ over he or she. Singular they? Go figure!
Jeanette Fitzsimmons died 4 days ago. I want to say that I had a huge respect for this lady. Her demeanour in Parliament, her steely resolve, her pursuit of fairness and her absolute principled leadership are very rare in the world of politics these days. Here is a 20min Radio NZ interview with Catherine Delahunty, her long time friend, neighbour and parliamentary colleague. RIP Jeanette.
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Alan Vink is currently the Executive Director for LeadershipWorx. Prior to this role he has been the Executive Director of Willow Creek Association NZ (WillowNZ), a Baptist pastor (23 years), Bible College teacher, and church consultant.
