March 26, 2015
Privilege in an under privileged country
Privilege in an under privileged country
MARTYN BRADURY
The controversy surrounding the case of the two St Bede's College rowing team who were suspended for breaching airport security only to have that suspension reversed by a High Court injunction, refuses to die down.
I don't begrudge leniency for young men who are excited and not supervised by adults (the coaches had left them to get a rental). The frontal lobes of the brain where consequences are determined are not fully developed until the mid twenties, so expecting unfettered obedience seemed optimistic.
We should be lenient on these young passionate men, however the added problem for the team was that they had already been put on their best behaviour after last years hi-jinx which included burning their initials into grass with petrol.
The ruling was harsh, but those are the terms of the agreement they had all signed up to. If the students themselves had apologised on social media and started a movement asking for leniency, that would have been honourable, but what instead occurred was their parents spending $20 000 on a High Court injunction to force the school to allow them to row at Maadi Cup.
Such elitist privilege for an event that is firmly rooted in English class bigotry has sounded like nails on an egalitarian blackboard for those New Zealanders who aren't benefiting from the Rock Star Economy.
Having the wealth to just buy the outcome one wants is an electric shock to working people and witnessing it gives vent to the chasm between the haves and the have nots in this country.
Key's appeal to working NZ is a blunt anti-intellectualism built upon vacant aspiration, the moment working NZ realise how hollow that promise is, National are in deep trouble.
They are seeing this division in Northland right now.
Martyn Bradbury
Editor – TheDailyBlog.co.nz
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