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This impressive book sets out Maori aspirations for more political, economic and cultural self determination in the face of ongoing settlements with the Crown. Durie discusses this self determination under six distinct headings which are separated as chapters. These are: the environment, cultural identity, social policy, land issues, fisheries and the Treaty of Waitangi. In each of these areas he looks at the power historically held by the Crown and also looks to more recent developments which have influenced Maori relationships with the Crown.
As well as this the book is aspirational about what could be offered to Maori in the future and how this can be extracted through the current framework of the public sector. By the end of the book, ideas for how tino rangatiratanga can best be offered to Maori is shaped within possible future governance and sovereignty structures. He offers the idea that sovereignty can be maintained both at a tribal level and at higher levels of governance, allowing for both arguments which have traditionally been the focus of much debate.
Through this, Durie focuses on the 1835 Declaration of Independence by Maori iwi as an important constitutional document alongside the Treaty of Waitangi. He sees the sovereignty aspired to by Maori as existing within and not apart from the wider nationhood of New Zealand.
This is a very well written and argued book. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in Maori and constitutional law in New Zealand.
This book, written in the 1970s is a well-structured account of the arguments for animal liberation. Singer's arguments are put forward in a way that starts on a premise that the majority of people would agree with. Arguments are then set out which clearly lead to conclusions that are not perhaps as well-regarded. Singer's philosophy is flawless and his arguments are convincing.
Singer has written a more recent book which I plan on reading when I get the chance. The only complaint I would have about this first book is that much of the evidence it uses is now vastly outdated and it's hard to tell what is still in use and what is not. Moreover, there has been a huge boom in factory farming in recent years which would possibly make many of his arguments even stronger. I look forward to reading his most recent book where I would assume newer evidence has been used.
The main argument Singer uses in this book is that of Jeremy Bentham, that is: "can it suffer?" Singer offers ample evidence of the pain that animals clearly feel being kept in cramped cages, being branded as a farming procedure, untreated injuries and a lot more. He asks why we are willing to inflict such pain on animals when we would not do so ethically on humans. He labels this speciecism, forcing us to confront that we base this strange ethic on nothing other than the fact that these animals are different species than us.
I highly recommend this book. Even though I would not go quite as far as Singer in some respects, I think he puts forward an argument that is persuasive and difficult to ignore.
