No peace till there's justice

The lead story and editorial in todays Dominion Post confirmed that not only has New Zealand entered the arena of international terrorism, but that personal surveillance by phone tapping, bugging and cctv footage is now an acceptable police tool and part of our daily life.

Of course there is a necessity to fight fire with fire and the ends of national security, it can be argued, justify the means: that civil liberties must be weighed against internal security. Like most New Zealanders, I accept that argument, but what would it take to eliminate terrorism?

One thing that 'terrorists' everywhere have in common is that they are marginalised both socially and economically. They are, generally speaking, the have nots of our society: Syrians, Palestinians, Pakistanis, Gazans, Irish Catholics and now, Maori.

We can try our hardest to control terrorism by surveillance but history shows there will be no peace until we share our wealth and address the underlying issues of social justice and equity that are the breeding ground of discontent, rebellion and, latterly, terrorism.