There’s an interesting article in today’s Dom Post, written by Kelly Burns and Kiran Chug. We’d like to share some of it with you. Many of the issues presented in it are identical to the problems that some migrants have had with New Zealand, especially with regards to money, housing and discrimination. For background to this see Migrant Tales.
“On the surface, we are a happy bunch, with a snapshot of Kiwis showing 86 per cent of people are satisfied with their lives. Wellingtonians were the most prepared for an emergency and felt the safest walking their city streets alone at night.
But dig a little deeper and there is discontent. Half of those questioned in a recent survey say they have major problems with their housing and one in seven are struggling to come up with enough money for everyday needs.
The New Zealand General Social Survey interviewed 8721 people from April last year to March….”
According to their article the survey ended on the eve of the recession, Kiwis were finding it tough making ends meet before the downturn in the economy.
“Family Budgeting Services chief executive Raewyn Fox said that was no surprise, with people struggling daily. “It’s not for luxuries, it’s a roof over their head, food and power. They are living on a real fine line.”
“Half of people reported having major problems with housing; most of them were concerned over heating, the size of their homes and neighbourhood noise. Housing Minister Phil Heatley said many would also be referring to their inability to afford the house they wanted…Mr Heatley said the Government was investing heavily in upgrading the “slum” standard of its 68,000 Housing New Zealand properties, and changes to the Residential Tenancies Act would help improve the results in the next survey.”
Discrimination
“The $3 million survey found one in ten people had been discriminated against in the past year. Most of the cases related to nationality, race, ethnic group or “skin colour” and included 23% of Asian people and 16% of Maori.
Race Relations Commissioner Joris de Bres said the survey was a positive step towards measuring whether discrimination was going up or down.”
Safety
Safety is also an issue for many people with almost a third saying that they would feel unsafe walking in their own neighbourhood at night.
Read the full article here: ‘Happy’ Kiwis worry beneath the surface
E2NZ.org 
Happy in a favela because the “sun shines” and they have a “great view”.
From Times Online:
“Life in Rocinha seemed truly awful, particularly for women. I wandered round shacks with no running water, dodging the trickle of stinking sewage and jumping at the occasional rat-a-tat-tat of automatic gunfire from daily battles between rival drug gangs. Police did not dare enter these places. There was no sign of the menfolk – they were off downing what little they earned on cachaca, sugar-cane rum. Brazil has the world’s biggest gap between rich and poor, and just below Rocinha the beach was lined with fabulous apartments that were among the most expensive real estate in Latin America. I expected the mothers of Rocinha to complain. But one after another assured me: “Life is good. The sun always shines. Rich or poor, we’ve all got the beach. And look at our view!”
Like the Kiwis who have never left New Zealand, they measure their quality of life not by comfort, quality and opportunity but rather by simple and predictable constants – sun and scenery. If you cannot imagine living like this, remaining happy by keeping a postcard in your mind’s eye and existing only in the present, then do not move to New Zealand. You don’t even get the Brazilian sun. ;P
But at least the favela people don’t claim to live in the 1st world or pretend to “punch above their weight” and be “the best in the world” or “100% pure”, they are just simple, uneducated people who know no better and are just trying to have a living, far more honest compared to the kiwis and their lies
Self-reported happiness measures are so complicated by other factors that they are worth essentially nil. This very good paper by Marianne Bertrand and Sendhil Mullainathan concludes that self-reported happiness is a poor outcome measure.
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=260131