THE CENTRIST has an article
on how Auckland University slipped out of the world’s top 150 universities’
rankings last year, and this year began a course on the Treaty and indigenous
“knowledge systems” for all first-year students in every faculty. The compulsory course, with its name ‘gifted’
as “Waipapa Taumata Rau” which also applies to the university, plays a key part
in indigenising — or decolonising — it.
And you will have to pay for the privilege of being railroaded onto the
course — with international students paying up to $5730 for the paper. Perhaps
most alarmingly, students must pass to be entitled to move on to second-year
studies.
Education professor Elizabeth Rata considered that the effect of the
decolonisation programme would be to turn the university into a faith-based
institution, like a wananga, seminary or a madrassa. It will mean a university would no longer be a
place for the discovery of new knowledge, and for the testing and refutation of
the knowledge that we currently have.
The course is an example of the erosion of the universality of science and of
objective truth. "Situated
knowledge" is the idea that knowledge is always shaped by and embedded in
the specific social, cultural, historical, and political contexts in which it
is produced. It lies in the dubious company
of ‘anecdotal evidence’, ‘standpoint epistemology’ and ‘lived experience’, as
being knowledge that must be accepted on trust.
This tends to be antithetical to the expert authority which is embodied
in strong governance. Woke culture
enables it by taking strong account of feelings and perceptions and has led to ‘identity
politics’, establishing a kind of “moral aristocracy” in public debate on the
basis of a particular racial category, and to close ranks around ever-narrower
conceptions of group interests.
THE DAILY BLOG carries a story on Luxon and police minister Mitchell wishing NZ’s Muslims a happy Ramadan and reading a script from FIANZ’s Dawah Division. The Blog is Left-wing, so its criticism is of Luxon and Mitchell, not Islam. Of course. The X post is frankly creepy, and Luxon reads out the well-worn line about Ramadan being a time of ‘spiritual rejuvenation’. I found this hard to resist so posted the following on the Blog's site:
Ramadan’s spiritual rejuvenation carries statistical value. The average daily slaughter in the name Islam for the last ten years is 37.9 dead people. But Ramadan carries a 13.6% premium – 43.1 dead people. For those who think this is a bad thing, take comfort. Rates are declining. Islam’s daily dead peaked at 90.4 in 2014 while last year’s was only 23.8. Thanks to TheReligionOfPeace.com for keeping pace with ‘peace’.
But as I say, The Daily Blog is Left-wing, so did not publish my post. It's hard to say whether this is support for, or fear of, Islam.
Meanwhile, Pakistan experienced 84 militant attacks during this year's Ramadan, the highest number in ten years.
