Beyond the Hype: A Closer Look at New Zealand

Mukesh Devrari 

Last year, I met a young caucasian Australian girl living in New Zealand, Betty, who was a nurse but fed up with her job. She was upgrading her skills and studying psychology. Her next destination was to become a psychologist. It was not a mean feat to pursue another four-year degree program after a three-year nursing program, particularly in New Zealand, where youngsters are more interested in weed, alcohol, and other recreational drugs to have fun and relax than working or aspiring for more incredible things. What is the source of this contentment? It is not spirituality or enough money for sure. However, I am unsure if money can bring peace and fulfillment to anyone’s life. Yes, one can use the money to buy freedom. 

It is not some hidden secret about New Zealand. People are laid back, relaxed, and easy-going, which is a polite way of saying lazy. Nothing can be far from the truth. New Zealanders are generally very hard-working people. They are the worthy inheritors of British farmers who settled in these remote Islands and converted them into one of the richest lands in the world. Even today, New Zealand’s economy mainly depends on farming and cattle. It has no high-tech industry like Europe or the United States. It has only seven universities. Yet, per capita income is the highest in the world. 

I met an engineer. His name was Charlie. He was last year's student in the grilling engineering program at the University of Canterbury. He was very vocal in opposing pay raises offered to nurses. He felt they knew very well how much money they would get before pursuing the program, and now they are blackmailing the taxpayers. It is a low-level skill program that must not be given undue importance over other crucial trades. 

He was returning from the hospital after taking his antibiotic shot as he had recently contracted a sexually transmitted disease - syphilis. He told me the girl who gave it to him said, ‘It’s nothing. You just take a shot (injection) in the bum, and you are good to go.’ I curiously asked him why he did not use condoms and what if the girl became pregnant. He laughed and said, ‘That means I got lucky. I knocked her out. I don’t care whether she keeps the child or aborts’. I questioned why he was not worried about his disease. He retorted, ‘If you don’t have syphilis, it means you are not from here (Christchurch).’ Thank god I am not from here, I told myself. 

New Zealand tops the list of caucasian nations in Public Relations campaigning and is undoubtedly perceived as a country without trouble and troublemakers. I was returning from Christchurch's city center at 2200 pm on a Saturday night. It was late, but not very late. I generally prefer to walk the roads that go through the market as those areas are well-lit, are likely to have CCTV cameras, and have fewer chances of being infested with criminals and violence. If you are in New Zealand and not afraid of violent young men mainly under the influence of drugs and alcohol on Saturday evenings, then either you are stupid, or you don’t love your life enough. 

If you are a dark-skinned immigrant with broken English, as a precaution, don’t walk alone. At least walk with someone else for your physical safety. And if some angry white men or women or native New Zealander abuse you, just walk away. If you indulge in an argument, they might stab you. Believe it or not, white judges are unlikely to punish them for anything serious, and dark-skinned judges are likely to set them free as they are mentally colonized and perhaps are more white inside in an attempt to fit in. Though they never would. The offender will be out in no time; everything will be wiped out from their track record within months. However, if any Chinese or Indian commits any crime, they will make an example of him. Let me come to the point again: New Zealand has every problem that other Western societies are facing. Racism is deeply ingrained, violence is rampant, and drug addiction is widespread. I am not even counting alcohol and weed as drugs, though weed is illegal.

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