The World Health Organization is one of a number of global organizations that fall under the United Nations umbrella, which New Zealand is a member of.
New Zealand lives as a nation in a connected world where we have to work with neighbouring countries and share data about medical issues, particularly those which are transmissible. Being a part of this community is unavoidable, short of leaving the planetary system which we call home. With 212 nations hosting 8 billion people, some kind of governance at planetary level is inevitable, if the homosapien species is to survive. In dealing with those problems in a world where aircraft flights can get you most of the way around the world in a day, it is only sensible that a global body exists to co-ordinate responses to global threats.
Is the W.H.O. perfect? No it is not. But it is only as good as the nations that participate in it. If they sabotage the organization, don’t look at the W.H.O. Look at the Governments that think a global approach to global problems is not a good idea. Look at the state actors that wanted to crash the organization.
Winston Peters formed New Zealand First in 1993 to give New Zealanders disgruntled with the behaviour of National and Labour, a voting option. In 1996, it landed 17 seats in Parliament and was enough to establish a coalition with the then National-led Jim Bolger. It stuck to its word about State Asset sales in 1998 when Mr Bolgers successor, Jenny Shipley announced that Wellington Airport would be sold. The party split in two with some of the members, such as Tau Henare joining National, and it barely survived the 1999 election.
Mr Peters and his party has always been a bit controversial. Many will remember his argument with a taxi driver from Somalia. Others will recall the 2008 Deputy Leader Peter Brown brazenly saying “there are too many Asians in New Zealand” in Parliament, which was. But the most infuriating one was actually from local electorate chair who told me to be wary of Asian people as they “come to N.Z. to breed like flies”. All parties probably have people like him in some form, but I found the comments particularly offensive, leading to me not talking to him again and contributed to my leaving the party in 2006.
It was this attitude and a party still stuck in the 20th Century in terms of social media, campaign organization and co-ordination that led it to be ousted from Parliament in 2008. I rejoined in 2010 because I was concerned at the attack on local democracy in New Zealand by the National Party. By then they had started working on the issues that made me leave, and had started to invest in a Youth section, which every other party in Parliament already had.
When I left a second time in 2017, the party was beginning to take on some disturbing dimensions. It was appealing to former Labour Party Minister Shane Jones, who left with corruption accusations hanging over his head. Some in the youth wing were developing a distinctly Trumpian rhetoric that I – with friends from Colombia, Peru and colleagues from Sri Lanka, India, China, Japan, Australia, Brazil and elsewhere – could not reconcile with. A party that was wanting to keep National and Labour honest, could not be honest with its members about the state of the finances.
The parties around the world that are called “________ First” are generally right wing parties with little time for immigrants, the environment, international law or . New Zealand First started off as a moderate party with a nationalist lean in 1993, but it has – after nearly 33 years – finally, fully slid across the political spectrum to join Britain First, America First, Australia’s “One Nation” and other such parties. It has abandoned its commitment to international law; long since shed any remaining regard for the environment and conservation. And in doing so, have rejected the aspects of nationhood that made New Zealand a much admired and respected member of the global community; a source of hope for many from the third world who did not want to go to Australia, the U.K. or Australia because of the known anti-immigration/asylum seeker/refugee factions there.
I see no going back for the party that was New Zealand First. It has forgotten its own principles and is now deriding the many diverse communities that have built the country up, who have supplied the party with members and candidates. It is attacking the things that originally made it a good party for work across the political spectrum in a bi/multi-partisan sense.
So, it is against this backdrop I received the unwelcome news that New Zealand First had rejected the World Health Organization amendments to the international health regulations. A rejection that appealed to conspiracy theorists and so-called freedom fighters, and believes that there is a global cabal led by billionaire George Soros bent on some kind of totalitarian world order. A belief that would be laughable if so many of them did not whole-heartedly believe that bureaucracies – famous for their inability (and/or unwillingness) to work together – were working together to control us.
This is not putting New Zealand First. This is putting New Zealand Last.
Leftist Kiwi Writes 