Indigenous rights vs Immigrant rights.

The rights of Indigenous and Immigrants can at times cross over and be very similar because of the Inferiority they are given socially to Caucasian culture. Indigenous rights means people who came first in their country should have their own rights, and these rights must also respect the rights of the Caucasian counterpart.

For example, If you see wardens on the train in New Zealand you will notice that there are Wardens who under any ethnicity can work and then there are Maori Wardens who are given different uniforms despite being given the same duties. It at times becomes very hard to distinguish with Immigrant rights because many Maori's and other immigrants live among each other in areas such as Otara and Ranui where the place is not necessarily seen as financially higher class.

Even the way they get treated, It comes to the point that many of them stop fighting and decide to come together because of their personal struggles. But Indigenous rights that are given within the country however is not globally recognized by the U.N and has only been recognized within the country. The presence of it exists but still is not established properly to become its own category without being mistaken for something else.

Middle Eastern Immigration to overstayers

Middle Eastern Immigration around the world has also been a controversial topic till this very day because It has not been established properly among other cultures and even the global market to be properly explored.

Middle Eastern communities are very large around the world, however the stigma around their culture makes people categorize Middle Eastern's as Muslims without realizing that Islam is a faith and religion and is not necessarily limited to any ethnicity. The only recognition that Middle Eastern communities have had over the global market was the refugee crises that occurred in Syria, terrorist attacks and Caucasian portrayals of Middle Eastern people in movies.

I believe the source of the issue that occurs with this is for the Muslim Community learning to adapt and apply their religious beliefs within the Western society. I am a Muslim who lives in the West and have encountered many Muslims who still talk badly about the West and how people should follow Islam, I have told them various times that they are not In an Islamic ran country so they need to learn to adapt their beliefs among the culture they live in so they can move forward in life.

What I say may not sound the greatest but I believe that If people can establish a way to apply the religion towards the culture, they are able to keep their religious traditions without being discriminated against. I believe there should be people who can publicly speak about it (of course not like Donald Trump) in ways where everyone can come along and make public agreements. The issue is that If anyone speaks out to solve the problem they are initially branded as racist and/or prejudice. But because there is very little open talks about it nothing gets resolved and Middle Eastern culture will not evolve to fit among the global market.

Pacific Island immigration

Pacific Island Immigration has played a big part in New Zealand culture and also plays a part globally in places such as America and Australia. Pacific Islanders now have established an existence among many other cultures which has contributed towards the global media, New Zealand holds the biggest number of Pacific Islanders where they are known for playing Rugby and other physical sports.

Pacific Island Immigration in the beginning however has often been misunderstood among many communities who interact with them, growing up as a middle eastern I lived among many Pacific Islanders and grew up being taught to hate them. But I came to New Zealand around a time where a lot of different cultures would immigrate here in order to find a better a life, and I understood that my culture faced discrimination as well whether it was racial or other ways of discrimination.

So I learnt to mingle with Pacific people because I learnt that it is good to not be hostile among those who face the same or similar prejudice by others. Pacific culture has been established in New Zealand so much that there are Pasifika groups in schools and universities and even pacific media such as Tala Pasifika and The laughing Samoans.

 The establishment of Pacific culture has even been recognized in the Global market with stars such as Dwane Johnson and Roman Reigns, even a show that has featured a big Pacific Island cast is Hawaii 5.0. I believe that Pacific Island culture has evolved so much that it is able to fit into mainstream media and stay true to the roots of their heritage.

Is Whiteness really a bad thing?

The subject of whiteness has caused many issues for people, such as how Caucasian people play roles that are usually non Caucasian or how we follow under Caucasian culture and way of thinking despite other cultures being seen as inferior.

While that maybe true there are a lot of benefits about Whiteness despite the negativity and stigma around it, due to whiteness there has been an establishment of how humans interact and how people are able to form groups, because in today's society closeted racism occurs everywhere even among non Caucasian communities. 

Nowadays we see less racist groups and more groups that are prejudice among other groups, for example; there are many groups among Christians such as Protestant, Catholic, Pentecostal and even branches that are among those branches that all think the other group is wrong. Even among Muslims, there is a specific group called the Ahmadiyya who are a distinguished group of Muslims that branched out to be so different to mainstream Islam that it became its own religion.

I believe Whiteness is not the only problem in social media but its also how communities are formed, Whiteness is only the base of the issue about how humans are separated and categorized in different ways because the stigma in Whiteness has caused a closeted racism so it is not as obvious. The main issue is how communities act towards others close to their communities in order to get along in peace.  

Why sub-groups tend to fight each other despite being labelled among the same tree.

I believe that many people who are apart of certain races and religions tend to face struggles of discrimination that is done not necessarily by different groups but people among their own groups who practice their views differently despite being under the same tree.

I as a Muslim who was raised in New Zealand have had my fair share of discrimination among people of different categories but also people who fall under the same category as mine, Muslims who came from different cultural backgrounds. Of course I do not justify any discrimination, I believe that there are people who are devout and people who are not necessarily devout but follows aspects of Islam due to it being apart of your culture, I am the latter.

Knowing this, I have had many Muslims thinking I am crazy due to my Ideology in life ad have been laughed at. This goes to show that despite laws of and faith within ones beliefs, we still live by an imperfect social code where there are loopholes; loopholes in the sense that there is closeted prejudice among every community despite their claim of being welcoming to anyone.

With a social code, we live by an unwritten social contract where unwritten rules or acting in society gives humans ways of communicating and are taught what is normal and abnormal but in the process we fall to social control and ranking. Despite collectivism being the desired practice in certain communities, it will always fall to individualistic ideologies where people are seen as better to so race, gender, sexuality and factors that are given among these sort of circumstances.

Black and White movies... next up US

I recently watched the movie "Baggage claim" which has a predominantly black cast. Which is a good thing, personally I enjoy watching Black movies. Not that i'm being racist to white films I think that sometimes its just good to see Colored people being represented on Television, even though i'm not African American i think i can relate more to their stories than white stories. I love the series Empire I think it is very empowering to black people, and i hope that one day i'll be able to help create influential and empowering stuff for Pacific people as we are a minority and we are hardly ever represented on screen, apart from within New Zealand. Anyways watching "Baggage claim" i started thinking about how by having a predominantly black cast makes the African American race seem like the superior people rather than white people. I think this is done not necessarily to be racist to white people but rather to empower African American people.

I think colored people have in someway or the other had influential success within the Film Industry. For example Bollywood, Chinese Action Films and African American films. But Pacific people have just touched the surface of this. I think this is what makes us again a minority in the way that we are hardly ever present or being represented onscreen's worldwide. And when we are it is the question of how we are being represented, and who is creating this representation.

I find that the people of the Pacific are at a disadvantage and at a advantage.
The disadvantage is that we are under represented in the world, people all over the world hardly know that we exist because we are hardly represented. And when we are represented are we being represented in the right ways, who is creating this representation of us and can this representation be changed.?
The advantages we still can change these representations because we are under represented on screens world wide. Our stories have not been told thus we still have time to develop an identity hopefully one that is empowering and influential.

Is colonization a bad thing?

The lecture on Colonization got me thinking... Is Colonization in regards to where i come from a bad thing or a good thing?

Colonization is and has always been thought of as a negative ordeal, because of how it negatively impacted the loss of culture, the loss of land, and all the oppression that came with it.

However in this blog I want to question this. 

How would Samoa life be like if it wasn't for Colonization?

What would be different

For one thing, religion would be different in regards to Christianity and how Samoa's culture is built off of it, hence "Fa'avae i le Atua Samoa" meaning "Samoa is founded on God" This statement motto in Samoan is an indication of how Christianity is apart of Samoan culture. 

Christianity arrived in Samoa when the missionaries arrived on their shores. 

What would Samoa be like without Christianity? would we be better of or worse?

I guess i can't answer this question as I cannot imagine Christianity not being apart of Samoan Identity... because it is so embedded into their way of life. For example the way i was brought up i was never to question anything about God and i had to attend Sunday school and Church every Sunday even though I never really understood why. 

I don't know I guess what im trying to say is Colonization isn't all negative if you think about it in the right way because without Colonization would I be born here in New Zealand getting these opportunities that are available to me? or what kind of person would i be if Colonization didn't happen?

I'm not saying that Colonization is a positive thing, No! I just wanted to think about what would it be like if things (Colonization) didn't happen the way that it did?