Why does New Zealand want to change its country name
4hw.com.cn: some time ago, New Zealand staged a farce for changing the national flag. However, recently, some people in New Zealand applied for changing the country name. What's going on? Let's have a look.
According to the New Zealand Herald reported on the 14th, a new Zealander named Danny tahau Jobe suggested adding Maori 'Aotearoa' (meaning the land of long clouds) to the current country name New Zealand earlier this year and calling the country 'Aotearoa New Zealand'.
At present, the petition has collected more than 6000 signatures on the website of the New Zealand Parliament. This proposal has attracted the attention of marama Davidson, leader of the coalition of the Green Party of New Zealand, and Louisa wall of the labour party.
Subsequently, wall submitted this petition to the New Zealand Parliament on May 1. At present, this document has been submitted to the Special Committee on Governance and administration of New Zealand. It is reported that the opinion will be made public soon.
The report pointed out that Jobe's suggestion to change his name is not groundless. " The current situation in New Zealand is that Aotearoa and New Zealand are used to represent New Zealand in official documents such as birth certificate, citizenship card, passport and currency. But now, only the name 'New Zealand' has formal legal status.
Jobe said, 'I think adding Aotearoa to New Zealand's official name can strengthen our country's uniqueness in the world& lsquo; Aotearoa New Zealand’ It's not just a name. This is our language, culture, identity and history. "
It is reported that New Zealand has been using this name since the Dutch named New Zealand after Zeeland Province in the Netherlands in 1645. But for a long time, no one has considered adding 'Aotearoa' from New Zealand to the country name.
John Bull, former Prime Minister of New Zealand; Ji announced a referendum on changing the national flag in March 2014. At the initial stage, more than 10000 options were submitted to the national flag referendum Committee. After screening, the blue black silver fern flag and the existing national flag were finally selected for voting.
The national flag change caused great controversy. Many people criticized the huge cost of the activity and expressed dissatisfaction with the selected national flag scheme.
But John & bull; Ji and others stressed that the flag currently used in New Zealand has British colonial characteristics and is easy to be confused with the Australian flag. We should use a new flag with more own characteristics.
According to the results released by the New Zealand government, among the 3.17 million registered voters, a total of 2.12 million people voted, with a turnout of 67.3%. Most people chose not to change the flag.
John & bull; Ki said the referendum was New Zealand's last chance to change its flag. He said: 'if the public does not vote to change the flag, they will not have another chance unless New Zealand becomes a republic.'
He pointed out that in view of the high public opinion of the British royal family in New Zealand, he did not think that New Zealand would become a republic in his lifetime.