Kerre Woodham: Appeasement and the art of living in a multiculural world

Opinion

I've always thought Neville Chamberlain was a bit of a twit. The famous image of the British Prime Minister, emerging from a plane after the talks in Munich with Hitler, waving a piece of paper triumphantly in the air and later proclaiming that "peace with honour" had been achieved and promising that there would be "peace in our time" looks so naive, so hopelessly wishful with the benefit of our knowledge of what came next.

How could he have believed Hitler's promises and assurances? Was it incompetence or obdurance that led him to believe Hitler was a good bloke at heart, who meant no real harm?

You can imagine the Tui billboards if they'd been around in London in 1938.

Latterly, historians have offered a revisionist version of the Munich accord, suggesting that Chamberlain had agreed to appeasement in a shrewd move to allow the British armed forces more time to prepare for a full-blown war.

Which is a charitable interpretation. But now, in the midst of the furore surrounding the publication of cartoons deemed offensive to Muslims and the subsequent organised agitation by those Islamists who love any excuse for a good, old anti-Western stoush, I have a bit more sympathy for Chamberlain and the appeasement policy.

If you have a choice between confrontation, aggression and alienation or mediation, tolerance and understanding, who wouldn't go for the soft option?

Thank heavens there are people around the world who feel the same. The Co-existence Exhibition opened at Britomart on Friday night, showing the works of 40-odd artists from around the world.

So far it's travelled to 22 cities worldwide, trying to get across the message that the world needs more co-operation between different cultures and ethnicities and a whole lot more tolerance, understanding and love.

Given there are more than 180 different ethnic groups living in Auckland alone, a little co-operation and tolerance will go a long way towards creating a truly multicultural city.

If you're sick to death of debating the rights and wrongs of Danish newspaper cartoons and offended Muslim sensibilities, this exhibition will act as a balm to your soul.