Small town attitudes and racism

I have a bit of a bee in my bonnet this week with the two subjects in the title. The first is the "small town" view of things. With it being Labour weekend there is normally a big influx of visitors to the Mount, but not this time. This will be a big relief to so many people who live here and hate the idea of "outsiders" coming into "their" town. I was talking to one customer who really was quite bitter that she can't get parked in the summer in "her" town because of all the outsiders. Others just hate the idea of any rate payers money being spent on expanding the attractions of the town "its just for the outsiders" they go and the councillors who stood on a platform of don't spend money on the town, won the day and the museum project and a new walkway have been scrapped. There are so many people that lament the development that has taken place and really wish the mount was how it was 30 years ago (a mosquito ridden, wind swept sand dune). This is a real contradiction to the image that the tourist industry tries to project. They want the Mount to be seen as the premier beach resort in NZ but it will never be this. There is less and less casual accommodation, three motels have been pulled down this week to make room for yet more holiday homes that will stand empty for 10 months of the year. There are no hotels in the area and if it rains you have nothing to do, and the locals want nothing done that might bring more people to town. Yet those people that come to town spend large amounts of money in the local economy, but it is those who have retired here who shout the loudest, they don't care about the livelihoods of the young, they just want to get parked.
The second item of this weeks rant is racism. There really is a "we are better than them" attitude among elements of the white population and what really gets me is when they finish a conversation with "yeh but at least we don't eat people" WHAT!!!! no the "civilised" white people of the world have just tortured people in ways that only the sickest of minds could dream up, they have destroyed cultures the world over, and even today, Iraqis are paying the price of an empire expanding. I will say I have no problem whatsoever with the Maori population, I find them polite and respectful and friendly (there are of course exceptions, as there are in all peoples) and I feel honored that I have been allowed to settle in their land. The racist elements hate the idea that any recompense is paid in the land disputes (soon to end) and they keep saying that we are all New Zealanders now and should be treated the same. This is kind of like saying if Germany had invaded Britain in the war and renamed it New Germania and made German the official language and 150 years later were telling all the native Brits to stop whinging because we are all New Germanians now. There is a huge cultural difference here and I applaud this, the world would be a boring place if we were all the same that's for sure.