It’s been very interesting entering the US and being exposed to the US at the organic level, ie. experiencing what US citizens experience first hand, rather than looking at it from the outside. Now, New Zealand has its fair share of racial tension. Almost 200 years after the fact, many Maori still feel robbed and deceived by the colonialists and settlers that arrived in the early 1800′s and promptly stole land from them. There are a considerable number of parallels between the the early history of New Zealand and the early history of the continental US. In both case, the aboriginal peoples were displaced by invading foreigners and land was stolen and sold to yet more foreigners. Continue reading →