Fieldwork today or cultural theft ? (part 5)

[Diego Quesada]

On Fri, 7 Feb 1997, Michael Everson wrote:

> >It has nothing to do with skin-color, rather, it is birthright.
>
> Birthright. "A right of possession or privilege on has from birth, esp. as
> the eldest son." (Concise Oxford Dictionary)
  There you go! Eurocentricity at its best. Why don't you ask Peter
  what their definition of birthright is? It may not be on paper in a Maori
  Concise Dictionary but sure it's somewhere in their historic memory.

  > Birthright. Birthright? Rights because of where and what and to whom you
  > were born? Rights denied others because of where and what and to whom they
  > were born? "Speaking for Maori" is not the same thing as "speaking about
  > Maori", I suppose.
    What's wrong with that? Didn't George Bush outrage Panama because
    apparently a US person was "harassed" there?

> But I don't know if such rights are inherent. I think your statement is not
> quite in synch with, at least, the freedoms specified in the United
> Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948
  Neither is the practice of certain leaders of the so-called
  democracies, to impose their views on others: blockade on Cuba (sin: a
  wish for sovereingty), coup in Chile (sin: a democratically elected
  president), invasion of Panama (sin: make sure that the Canal Agreement is
  respected), the list is endless.

  Diego

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