Graham Clark & Russell Watkins - Political bloggers Two experienced defenders of political freedom take on the establishment through the blogospere. ‘Liberty requires eternal vigilance'.

The ongoing kerfuffle about flying two flags really gets New Zealanders going – ostensibly understandable I suppose. Hell, I'd have got worked up over such a thing once upon a time too.
Most commentators are saying that, 'this is the path to separatism,” that, 'soldiers died for that flag,” etc. They are somewhat right of course, but is it the whole truth?

Firstly, it has been pretty obvious for years now that a small cadre of pseudo-intellectual & fashionably Maori tribalists have been peddling the line that pre-western civilization New Zealand was paradise for the indigenous population; of course no amount of evidence to the contrary is taught by the establishment, nor is it sort nor understood by most regular folk of any race – this ignorance plays well into the hands of the separatists and their official spokesmen; as there is nothing more powerful than a mass of, as Lenin would say, 'useful idiots,” for a support base; and on the other, a frothing-at-the-mouth pissed off & mainly white population that begin to show their latent anti-Maori tendencies. So what does the Tino Rangitira Tanga flag supposedly represent? The idea of self-determination is a noble one if it means that those asking for it are simply asking to be independent, and live peacefully. Perhaps for some who claim Maoriness it means living in a traditional Pa, eating daily from a hangi pit, without modern medicine. Perhaps for others it means living in Ruatoria and living off the land and riding horses instead of owning a car; yet for others it may mean working as a senior executive for a corporation in a big city and being able to speak Te Reo – all of these lifestyle choices are legitimate in a free society and shouldn't be stopped. But these things aren't the only things the ‘Tino' movement want are they? No, what they mean by ‘self-determination' is they want to have their cake and eat it too, ie they want their independence paid for by other people, and privileges that don't exist for anyone else. This used to be called bludging, now it's called Maori independence. What flag design would best exemplify that? Maybe a flag with the curly fishhook thing would be an accurate depiction of what's in store – I say fly that Maori flag, as an emblematic reminder.

Secondly, the line that says our soldiers, Maori & Non-Maori fought for, or under the NZ flag is definitely worthy of respect. More accurately though is that what they were actually fighting for, consciously or not, was a free country. A country where you could do mostly as you damn well pleased as long as you respected that right in others; without interference from the state.
Well, I did say mostly - as New Zealand was on it's way to the Nanny State from about WW1 onwards; and positively launched on its socialist utopian path by the Socialist Savage; but I digress.
Anyway, the recognition and salutation of the NZ flag by our soldiers and folk back home probably stemmed from a mixture of tradition, and a pride and feeling of safety that comes from being a country that is part of a club, i.e., the little Union Jack in the corner of our flag that say's 'civilized world”. Fly this flag too, as it reminds us all that civilization built and defended this country; and besides, the old boys love it and deserve to be happy.

But time is moving on, New Zealanders seem hell bent on finding a defining emblem that says 'New Zealand” - whatever the hell that means? It is inevitable that New Zealand will one day have a new flag. The debate will be boring, and the resultant design predictably ridiculous.
I say each one of us should fly our own flag, figuratively speaking. There is no such thing as a New Zealander qua New Zealander, there's just each one of us living in a pretty damn nice geographical area, (mostly) peacefully, (somewhat) freely, that's a figurative flag I'd salute and fight for.