E2NZ.org

No regrets about leaving too….there are just too many people not striving hard enough to improve their standards of living and taking to the benefits while on the other hand, those in authority are paying themselves to be even fatter cats .
It is also the government’s fault for not marketing itself to foreign companies to set up factories, etc there but maybe, due to its isolated location, it is not appealing for factories to set up and ship their goods over to the other parts of the world. Finding a decent paid job is so tough there.When we met our relatives at joint family reunions, we felt like the poor cousins of the south ….as we have gone down in our earning and spending capacity and felt worst off than before emigrating.

We are also faced with high council bills after buying a wooden shed there. Every time, when we read about news on how the council is dishing out the taxpayers money in irresponsible ways like paying Deloitte $3400 per day for its staff, we get really annoyed that those who are in charge and have access to the funds are not utilizing them properly and paying these consultants exorbitant fees (wonder whether some are their friends) while the average worker would be happy to have $800 nett per week in their bank accounts.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10784578

What? Even Paul Holmes reaffirmed that `spitting’ was part of the NZ culture in his Sunday article http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10784735

`I know that later that evening, the news will show us irrational Maori ghastliness with spitting, smugness, self-righteousness and the usual neurotic Maori politics, in which some bizarre new wrong we’ve never thought about will be lying on the table’

Maybe, soon the Lonely Planet and other travel guide books will warn tourists to be aware that the locals do spit and hopefully they won’t infected with any HIV, etc…how crude can that be? “Wear a mask while dealing with the Kiwis”

`The Red Hill principal Kathy Irvine says poverty struck her most last winter when many pupils came to school in thin shirts and shorts without shoes or sweaters.

Others come in dirty uniforms because their parents are on pre-paid electricity cards and can’t afford to top them up to do the washing’.

Kids are trained from young that it is okay to go to school or go out without shoes or without smart looking attire. Have you heard of kids who visit you without shoes and have muddy dirty feet jumping onto your bed to trample? No wonder they still have skin infections, scabies, cellulitis, etc when the basic hygiene is not practised or maybe known by their parents. Having said that, I experienced standing in the line to buy Powerball tickets, when other Kiwis buy $50 worth or more of lotto tickets. These money could have been used to purchase a pair of shoes for their kids but they are used instead to feed their dream to become millionaires. Maybe, Bill and Melinda Gates should include NZ poverty stricken kids in their charity works as they do give out shoes to the impoverished in Africa.

We heard the word feral being used on the mother and daughter who stole some groceries at Rotorua. At first, we laughed watching the video on Youtube, but, after thinking about it, people there did fight over a small bag of groceries that were not theirs and they had no qualms to hit others too! They were really desperate.

When I questioned a lady once why she did not put on make-up to work as she looked like as if she had just climbed out of bed, she said that her husband preferred her to be natural….yes, look and smell natural so you do not use `deo’ for your armpits and let others smell your natural stink…how uncivilized is that?

No wonder second or third hand clothes from the Salvation Army or Thrift shop will do….when the ladies from the first world country sport a Louis Vuitton bag, they think that they are showing off…(tall poppy syndrome). Even men driving around in continental cars are frowned upon..they expect you to drive a cheap Japanese car to be like them. The irony is that even though they dislike Asians, they still have to go for the cheaper Japanese cars as they cannot afford an expensive Continental car. Totally bizzare thinking.
I suppose we have to let the people remain as they are as it will take years to transform them to first world behaviour but tell your friends not to emigrate there . When the honeymoon period of living there is over, the reality bites…

Beautiful scenes do not put food on the table.