The scary thing is that people actually support them.
I worry that in the future there will be enough ill feeling developed to make New Zealand a really nasty place for Asians. My wife and son are Taiwanese, so this really raises a few issues for me. Isolating a racial group like that is just low. Blaming them for crime and morality problems really sucks too.
Here’s most of my reply…
[quote]Quotes below…
[color=red]“New Zealand First has called on the Government to increase the number of border surveillance staff at airports and start searching all Asian students to stop them bringing in flu pills for making methamphetamine.”[/color]
A general increase in border surveillance is a good idea and very practical in these present times. However, to suggest searching all Asian students is going a little too far. So, all Asian students are potential drug dealers and manufacturers? To single out Asians is a big mistake, just because they are the only ones that have been caught out so far. Did you know that many Asian students bring in medicine from their own countries for very legitimate reasons, as do New Zealand ex-pats living in Asian countries. Should all New Zealand citizens be searched when entering Asian countries? The next time I bring my diabeties medicine into New Zealand I will be very careful.
[color=red]“This follows a report that Asian students are flying into Auckland with thousands of the pills for illegal factories and that border officials are struggling to cope.”[/color]
This is understandable, but what do you propose as the tolerance for medication or flu pills? One pack? Twenty packs? When would the student cross over from being a student to potential drug dealer? All Asian students or just students from particular countries? A close group of students? Just how many students have been caught?
[color=red]“Law and order spokesperson Ron Mark says any students caught with the pills should be immediately sent home in disgrace and their governments notified so they can take appropriate action.”[/color]
Again, how many pills are we talking about here? I can’t imagine that you’d want to disgrace someone for having a pack of cold medication. That would be ridiculous, wouldn’t it?
[color=red]“New Zealand has a serious problem and it is a total affront for these students to come here and create social mayhem so they can make money at the expense of the society of their host country.”[/color]
This would be true, but then we are talking about drug dealers now and not students. They cease to become “students” when they engage in illegal activities. To brand all students from Asia as creators of social mayhem is unjust. Besides, there is an underlying problem with society in NZ that causes social mayhem and the drugs are meeting the needs of a depraved society. The Asian students didn’t create the demand. I do agree that students shouldn’t engage in this kind of activity and should conduct themselves well in NZ.
[color=red]“Over the past few years many of these people have shown that they have a different standard of morality to ordinary New Zealanders. Unfortunately it appears that some education providers and the Government are not too concerned about the type of people they are letting in to study here.” [/color]
Asian students have lower morals than NZer’s, is that what you are trying to say? I find the opposite to be true and that comes from five years of being a New Zealander living in Asia.
What sort of checks do you suggest for screening students that wish to study in New Zealand? Drug tests? Clean criminal records checks? Or would you rather not have any Asian students at all? I am sure I could find some students from Columbia, but then they’re all drug dealers too, right?
[color=red]“Mr Mark said that Customs activity should also be stepped up to stop mail order imports of flu pills for drug manufacturing.”[/color]
Agreed. Do you know how easy it is to get things into NZ? Easy. I recently heard of a tourist bringing in a whole tin of milk powder and baby formula in a suitcase. They had no idea that they weren’t allowed to do that until after they had been in the country for a few days. Needless to say, because of the risk to NZ agriculture, they disposed of the product in a responsible way and assured that the product would not cause any harm.
[color=red]“By making Auckland an Asian colony, the Government has allowed an alien crime culture develop that threatens the fabric of society. The Police and Customs Ministers have to act before it is too late,said Mr Mark.”[/color]
A rather racially biased statement. How would people react if I described Otara as a Samoan colony that has a crime culture that is destroying the fabric of society? (This is an example and not a statement of opinion).
This is the sort of bigotry that creates hate crimes. Your party should be ashamed of itself. This is nothing short of political point scoring and stirring people up against minority groups, especially Asians. The “aliens” living in New Zealand are, for the most part, law abiding. There is a small percentage of any group that are criminals, the highest percentage of criminals in New Zealand are New Zealanders. It is statements like the one above from Mr Mark that really threaten the fabric of society and stir up racial tension and misunderstanding.
As an agent for English Schools I hope that this does not get around in Asia or New Zealand will decline as a popular destination for students. Language schools are closing fast in New Zealand and this kind of statement form Mr Mark could see the death of an industry. Not a good thing for NZ or the people of NZ.
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