Waitangi Day

Waitangi Day

(You might have missed the following item from AAP--Australian Associated Press, MELBOURNE)

‘Macquarie’ nominates ‘toxic debt’ word of the year: The word is that the global financial crisis has affected or influenced or influenced just about every corner of our lives. Now the GFC, itself a legitimate dictionary term, is responsible for Macquarie Dictionary sages selecting “toxic debt” as their word of the year for 2008. In the end, toxic debt edged out “bromance” (“a non-sexual but intense friendship between two males”): “textaholic” (“someone who sends an excessive number of text messages”); and “flashpacker” (“a backpacker who travels in relative luxury”). [You need to know that flash is a common adjective down under meaning upscale, elegant—with tinges of fancy or expensive] “ ‘Toxic debt’ was thought to be the root cause, the lingering blight on our lives, and in addition it had, as a lexical creation, a visceral impact. It needed no explanation but said it all.”

The word of the day though, Waitangi, is a key to knowledge of New Zealand’s history.

This holiday, Waitangi Day, celebrates the treaty between the pakeha (white, European settlers) and Maori which was first signed at Waitangi and then circulated over the course of the next eight months around the country in 1840 for all to sign. Progress is still being made on various issues, for instance: The completion of a $400 million central North Island forestry settlement and the Government’s promise to review the controversial Foreshore and Seabed Act.

Dunedin’s mayor, Peter Chin, approved flying the tino rangatiratanga (Maori sovereignty) flag over the Civic Centre building making this the only major New Zealand city to officially fly a Maori flag for Waitangi Day.

Kia ora!