The current news situation is a joke. The media have an agenda. They are supposed to report the facts to us and we can interpret them how we choose. At present they create biased stories and right now I am scared of all the propaganda we are reading. People need to think about everything they read. Digest it. The writer always has an agenda. I don’t expect people to agree with everything I write, but I want to offer an alternative viewpoint because I’m sick of the biased nature of the news today.
Today I came across this article http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/89021169/the-seven-nations-living-in-new-zealand-but-from-a-banned-country. First of all, the headline its self is propaganda. Trump has not banned any countries. He put in an executive order to temporarily freeze nations of six countries entering the United States. Dual citizens from America, UK, Australia and NZ are allowed in, as are Green Card holders. The seventh country, Syria, has no end date for the freeze, but he has implied that this too is not a straight out ban, but merely a freeze to buy the government some time to make decisions about how they are going to deal with applications from people from these countries to enter the United States, Syria will just take longer as it is more complex. Personally, I think that sounds fair enough. The list used was a list created by Obama of countries that were high risk. Incidentally, Obama also had a ‘ban’ of people from Iran when he was president – something I didn’t even know about until Trump’s policy. This just goes to show the issue isn’t the ‘ban’ but the media and their campaign against Trump. I don’t agree with the guy on everything, and during the election I wondered how America managed to get the pick between Hilary and Donald, how were they the best options for America? But Trump won. The American people spoke – yes, I know their electoral system is a bit strange, but it’s their system, if they want it changed then campaign to change it, but you can’t do anything about Trump winning fairly on the system they had at the time of the election. Anyway, back to the attached linked story.
This story is about refugee success stories and no doubt there are heaps of success stories but there are also a lot of failures. Firstly, what strikes me about all the people photographed is they look like every other New Zealander. They are dressed like we do. They clearly speak English to be able to hold down the jobs they have. They are educated. The obviously mix with New Zealanders because they are in employment. These are the things that speak to me. These are the reasons that these people are successful.
The reason a lot of people have issues with refugees is cost. We can’t afford to support the world. We have people on our own on waiting lists for surgery, we have infrastructure that needs improving, when you pay into a tax system you expect the government to provide, not pay for others. Even these people would have cost a lot to get them to this point. Those who arrived in the country unable to speak English would have had a lot of money spent on getting them to speak English and then catching them up to everyone else academically, because when you are in a class that teaches in English and you don’t speak it, inevitably you will fall behind. This article ignores the cost that it took the New Zealand taxpayer to get to this point and just talks about their success. I’m glad they made themselves a success. Now they are paying tax and contributing, helping to pay back, or pay forward, the large amount of money that the taxpayer poured into making them who they are today. We as New Zealanders should be proud that we helped them accomplish what they have and they should be proud of the effort they put in to making New Zealand their home and adapted to the New Zealand way of life. But not everyone adapts to New Zealand.
Increasingly we have more and more people come here who do not want to be like us and who will likely be dependent on the generosity of New Zealanders forever and this is simply unaffordable. People who refuse to learn to speak English will never be employable. If you can’t work, you can’t provide for yourself. People who don’t speak English will never fit in because if you can’t communicate with your neighbour, your child’s teacher, your community if you can’t understand them and they can’t understand you. My local school has two woman dropping their children off in a burqa – you can only see their eyes. In New Zealand culture making eye contact, smiling when you greet people and body language is part of communicating. Coving up in a burqa is not the New Zealand way. I used to work with a lady who wore one outside of the workplace. There was actually only woman working there so she didn’t have it on in our office. One day she addressed at the supermarket by name. I just looked at her, “How do you know my name?” I didn’t recognise her in her outfit. She sat next to me in the office yet when out in public in her full burqa I had no idea who she was. I don’t know what happened after I left that job as they promoted someone into the team who was a man. Guess she has to wear it all the time in the office now. She was a lovely person, but it was weird. I can’t help but wonder how people who live in countries with the burqa cope with only identifying one another by looking at their eyes. It’s hard enough to pick out your kid from a distance at lunch time and they are all on the field playing in school uniform and hat, imagine a crowded shop with everyone wearing the same and only seeing people’s eyes. I find it creepy. So I can see why the people in the article were a success. They embraced English, got educated and they dress like us. No one sees them as any different to any of us. That is the key to a successful refugee, just blending in and accepting your new culture. You don’t have to get rid of everything about your past. Embrace your past, share stories of your past, keep your language alive with your children and events/food from your culture – but don’t shun New Zealand ways or New Zealanders will find it hard to accept you.
The posted article didn’t include failed refugees, like this story http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/88114181/Somali-refugee-hijacker-Asha-Ali-Abdille-tells-court-her-story-of-survival. A woman who hijacked a plane, is about to be released from prison and vows to do it again if she gets the opportunity. I wonder why she wasn’t included? She is from the list of ‘banned’ countries and since we can’t deport her I assume she has a NZ passport now. That actually means she could enter the US and isn’t ‘banned’ at all. Plus many of the people who are in this article are now NZ citizens so they aren’t ‘banned’ either. My issue with this article is that is isn’t balanced. They have found successful refugees, yet fail to say how much it cost the taxpayer to get them to this point, what percentage of refugees are success stories versus how many are either beneficiaries for life, need government top ups or end up in prison. Taking the success stories and making them out to be the norm is straight up biased reporting. Claiming a ban when it is a temporary freeze is biased reporting. We should all be offended by the lack of integrity shown by our media who are always presenting half truths.
Revisionist Media 