Hi o sung wu and runner,

Runner, that's so true about grandchildren, they bring such joy. We have 11 direct, and I'm not sure how many from nieces and nephews, they are all called mokopuna, which brings them all into what we Europeans call grandchildren status. Similar with nieces and nephews, they become daughters and sons, particularly those where your own brother or sister has passed on, they sort of become your adopted children, regardless of age. Last year when "T"'s sister died, not long after "T" declared "well now we have 3 news daughters and a son, mind you, the youngest is in her late 20's.

O sung wu, lifestyle is a problem, so many ticking time bombs. In the cousins case, he spent a lot of time attending gatherings, which always involves a lot of eating during and after the event of a big meal, during a tangi for example, the kitchen is going all the time. about 6 meals a day, including morning and afternoon tea, plus late night supper, do they lay it on. Although he was not much of a drinker, only one or two, drinking is not permitted at a Marae anyway, he was a smoker, like most, rolled his own, and a large man to boot. Like many Maori, probably not liking doctors and health checks to often. For so many of them 60 is old age, with such a large clan, surprisingly I've met very few above about age 75, a handful at most.

G'day there Paul1405...

That's sad that most of these big proud men, consider that attaining 60 as old age, and with just a handful making it to 75. To someone who knows 'squat' about Maori culture, I'm surprised to hear that. I don't believe for a moment one can juxtapose the Maori and the Aussie indigenous Aborigine. From what I've read, our Indigenous people are among the oldest races on earth. Whereas the Maori are well developed and very self sufficient in most areas when compared to the Indigenous folk of Australia.

I could be wrong, but I think the NZ Govt. treat the Maori far better than our Govt. treat our aborigines? Despite the amount of money Canberra throws at them.

You may recall I mentioned herein that I was relieving sergeant in the bush for six months or so, thus had a bit to do with the 'blacks'. A term both appropriate and one considered not offensive to the Indigenous people, and one often used when describing each other. And one thing I've learnt, they are extremely proud people, with simply desires, and with most basic needs.

Somehow I don't believe the Maori needs help with the simple needs of life, unlike our blacks. Do you believe it's their self reliance and the fact they have the capacity to sort out their own problems? And in some measure decreases their life expectancy? Sounds absurd I know?

Dear o sung wu,

Could a factor in the different treatment of the Maori and the Australian Aborigine be the more effective resistance the Maori put up? The result was a peace treaty between two competitive forces. The resistance of the Aborigines was not nearly as effective and resulted in neither a treaty nor recognition.

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/obama-dhs-sec-jeh-johnson-freely-admits-they-detained-children-families-we-believed-it-was-necessary/

The Obamessiah did it....nothing to see here.

Trump did it...end of the world.

http://www.dictionary.com/browse/hypocrite?s=t

actually David f some of the Maori's ate the previous inhabitants of New Zealand. Something a number of Maori's I know are happy to share. Thankfully for our Indigeneous they were treated much better than that.

I shall repeat that in 2014 there was an influx of
unaccompanied minors who showed up at the border, fleeing
violence from Central America. The Obama Administration
was trying to move these children as fast as humanly
possible and connect them with their parents. 80% of cases
were re-united with their parents and allowed to stay in
the US.

The Trump's administration policy was a policy to separate
children from their parents.

Big difference between the two.