Justcol

Many will never fail a course either, I know from 1st hand experience that failed
assignments are marked up to give a pass, my ex was told to do on several occassions

No they are not, legally yes but morally and ethically not. Its discriminatory against everybody else in NZ
I may send my son to uni in Paris claiming that as William the conqueror was French and apparently one of my ancestors came over
with him then that entitles my son to a free education in france at someone else's expense.

barnsleymat

I agree Col, it's bang out if order.

We had to turn a Uni place down for my wife last year cos we simply couldn't afford it but because someone has an ancestor with a different skin colour they get it for free. Bonkers.

I best get on genes reunited and start seeing where my great great great great great great great great great great great great grandparents are from.

P18PPS

it's not just university either - in my years living here I have witnessed free exercise classes for fat maori.... it is so unfair that fat people are discriminated against!

Justcol

I've actually heard a lady complaining on the radio because she was turned down for the Police force.
She had failed the tests but still still thought she should have been allowed in. Her argument and repeated comment to the presenter was
"But I'm Maori"

P18PPS

the fact is, that 7 years ago before moving here I would have gasped at these comments as to how insensitive to indigenous people us british ex-pats were being. sadly now however, I've seen it and heard it all....

Leither

I was being facetious, and I agree with you.

pricklykina

Sad, but not surprised that this thread has gone racist.
One doesn't even have to scratch the surface for it to appear

As for the Wh...
Yep, does take some getting used to when your first arrive. Just do your best with it I'd say.
I make it with the F sound and it seems passable to most people.
I still pronounce Whanganui as a W though - apparently down in that district, WH is more of a W than an F...although that probably confuses you more

barnsleymat

The only thing racist about this thread is that free education depends on a persons race which I find to be very racist.

One of the things I liked about NZ was that there's no class system, a bloke is a bloke and no one is better than anyone else. Seems I was wrong.

Justcol

There is a difference between racism and equality

P18PPS

not racist, just thoroughly cheesed off with the inequality this country has created for itself and seems hell bent on continuing down an "all pigs are equal except some pigs are more equal than others" .......

pricklykina

Absolutely agree that many people in Nz experience privilege and advantage solely attributable to their lineage. I however disagree with he groups that enjoys this privilege. it is very obvious in nz who is enjoying the best health, best access to resources, longer life span, better education, easier access to welfare

Justcol

You can lead a horse to water but you cant make it drink.

The resources are there it cant be helped if many for, (cut your nose of to spite your face) cultural reasons wont take advantage of them
Look who all the health promotion ads are aimed at

Genesis

We have not. What are we doing wrong? The only Maori people we got an opportunity to make friends with a few years back smoked with Felix and their kids in the car. They were biffed post haste (as any race of dumb parent who did that would be).

Shame as they were lovely people. And no I did not want to have a cosy chat about it. It was the time when ALL those ads were on the TV about it..duuuuuuuuuuh!!

Kija

Thanks for the explanations about "wh", I guess the best answer was in Justcol's video clip

NakiMan

Until the Europeans arrived, the Maori had no written language. Written Maori we created in 1820 by Professor Samuel Lee of Cambridge University working with the chief Hongi Hika and his junior relative Waikato.

They constructed the written language phonetically based on the sounds from common English words.

It follows that they used the WH construct because, at the time, it sounded like the WH in "why" or "what". If it had sounded like an F they would have used an F.

It would therefore appear that sounding WH like an F is something that has developed in spoken Maori since the written form was created.