August 18 2011
Lithuanian Prime Minister puts Maori next to Kangaroos
In mid August a scandal bursted in Lithuania: on the background of massive cuts of social spending, Vice-Chancellor of
the Prime Minister Giedrius Kazakevičius went on an extremely expensive trip to New Zealand “to pick good practice of
the public administration reforms”.
Now it has taken a new turn. Lithuanian Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius, back from vacations, found it difficult to
explain, what inappreciable experience could have been picked during a few days visit, but commenting his subordinate’s
misconduct to Žinių radijas radio channel on August 18, he said as follows: “For many people New Zealand, of cause, may
look such a fancy country inhabited with Maori, kangaroos and others,” yet it was a successive public administration
reform, which “turned New Zealand not only into a land of Maori and kangaroos, but also into one of the most successful
modern economies and a state of modern administration”.
Alkas.lt, website of the Lithuanian Ethnical Culture Society, condemns such racist attitudes of the Prime Minister and
stresses that Maori, New Zealand’s indigenous people preserving unique ethnical culture, should not be spoken of as some
kind of kangaroos, which, by the way, live in Australia, not in New Zealand.
Tomas Baranauskas, Editor Alkas.lt
According to the information: http://alkas.lt/2011/08/18/jeigu-naujoji-zelandija-butu-tik-maoriu-ir-kenguru-salis-a-kubilius-ja-nesidometu/
Based on interview http://www.ziniur.lt/archyvas/2011/4/pozicija/14225/pokalbis-su-ministru-pirmininku-andriumi-kubiliumi
ENDS