[UPDATED] What To Do In The Aftermath Of The Christchurch Killings

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The outpouring of aroha around New Zealand and across the world for the Muslim victims, family, and whanau of last Friday's shootings in Christchurch has been incredible. The vigils, the flowers, the speeches, the introspection, and the determination to grow from this disgusting event is a testament to what it means to be "Kiwi".

A lot of what should happen can seem out of our control - 'the government will sort it', 'I'm not a Muslim so I feel disrespectful', 'those in Christchurch are closest to it all', and many other feelings.

The event has also brought up a metric tonne of issues that New Zealand needs to work upon, use and control of social media, gun control, media reporting, SIS surveillance (or lack of), "free speech", the trial, immigrants and refugee support, racism in New Zealand ... so many big hairy problems that we, as a country, need to work upon.

So what about little old me?
What could I even do?
  1. Take care of yourself first
  2. Check in with the people in your immediate circle
  3. Choose a thing you want to be changed / made better
  4. Go for it
No-one can do everything, not even Jacinda Ardern. You do what you can do making sure that you repeat steps '1' and '2' as many times a day as you can whilst picking maybe just one of the categories below.
source: https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/18-03-2019/this-is-us/

[updated] Gun control 

Whilst this may seem the most obvious "in the government's court" we already know that the US NRA (National Rifle Association, a far right organisation with much influence in the US) has started lobbying the NZ MPs.

What you can do

  1. Email your local MP
    Let them know you still support gun  control AND for the law to be implemented within 3 weeks
  2. Sign a petition
  3. Phone your local MP

Social Media

I see there are two to-do items here - the social media entities themselves must be made to have more accountability, and the use of social media needs to be curbed.

If you currently or have plans to, use Facebook (incl. Instagram and WhatsApp), YouTube, Twitter, or any other social media service (are there any others, really?) your hard earned dollars by advertising on them:
  1. Don't give your money to those you don't support
You could also get your industry big players / groups to write to the CEOs of these social media companies much like the New Zealand telco companies have.

For those of us that use the social media services then you have quite a black and white decision to make.

What you can do

  1. Stop using them
    Delete the account and move on with your life - be aware you may see "deactivate your account", this is NOT the same as deleting your account.
  2. Check before sharing something - is it true, kind, useful?
  3. Challenge those that have shared something that is not true, kind, or useful

"Free Speech"

There is an on-going discussion about what New Zealand wishes to support as free speech, and what it does not allow. This topic is a hot one with the alt-right / bastards who will use it to ensure the paths of communication are left open for them to spread their fucked up views.


What you can do

  1. Educate yourself before joining the conversation
    Some great starting points
  2. Shut down conversations that you hear propagating incorrect views
  3. Report any messages to the platform that break their ToS
    1. Facebook 'community standards'
    2. Twitter rules
    3. YouTube 'community guidelines'

One other thing that I am doing is supporting those that are endeavouring to work out the stance that New Zealand(ers) want to take. It's a fine line between "free speech", "allowing hate speech", and "censorship" ... and I use quote marks as each phrase is up for definition. I will trust those I know have the knowledge, insight, and work ethic making positive changes to what these mean in New Zealand. I will also get out of the way and limit / stop my own 'reckons' on the subject unless asked.


The trial / mainstream media reporting

Whilst this seems like something for the mainstream media (MSM) of newspapers, TV, and radio organisations to sort out (and they may well be), we are complicit in this  ... ratings are published for a reason.

What we can do

  1. Choose who to give your attention to, and tell them why
    I only listen to Radio NZ, and even then I have been turning it off when it's merely people's reckons and not actually reporting of useful information.
  2. Speak as you expect to hear
    One of my expectations is that I don't hear the suspect's name and that we focus on the victim's and their whanau and so, as per the PM, I will never utter his name (in fact, I am happy to say I don't know it).
  3. Report those that break their own rules / broadcasting standards
  4. Stop listening to all talkback radio
    This is a massively popular method of spreading "shock" ideas (to increase audience and therefore gain more advertising dollars for the radio owners). It's THE worse thing you can listen to and if you're in a public place and it is being broadcast, ask for it to be turned off or switched to a music only station.

Also, be kind to yourself, especially if like me you have sa wobbly brain that can easily latch onto the worst of things and start the slippery slide down intro the abyss. I refer to you to research done post the 9/11 atrocities in New York:


And there we have it, my reckons on what you, I, we all could do to help each other in the coming days and years ahead. I will hark back to the 4 main "What could I even do?" steps:
  1. Take care of yourself first
  2. Check in with the people in your immediate circle
  3. Choose a thing you want to be changed / made better
  4. Go for it
Kia kaha New Zealand


Updated:

  • 22-Mar-2019: GUN CONTROL: Added RNZ Gun Control video, strike through on petitions and link to email template. Added "or the law to be implemented within 3 weeks".

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