Continuing in our series of What Kiwis Say About New Zealand, honest accounts of living in New Zealand taken from places around the net.
These posts were taken today from the community boards at Trademe.co.nz, *scroll down for a list of headlines from 2 Nov 2012.
“Imagine leaving friendly New Zealand and arriving in a place with these depressing headlines..
* Toddler’s murder trial begins
* Man goes on rampage in bank
* Gatecrasher clash leaves man in ICU
* P found in hair of children
* Teens turn blind eye to drink-driving
* Cycling mayor hit by car
* Woman in checkpoint chase with police
* Elderly man died after substandard careWhere could this place be? Hint, headlines are taken from today’s Stuff web site”
You can view the news site Stuff here http://stuff.co.nz
These are some of the replies,
datoofairy: “Its New Zealand. But it could be any country at all. Every country has its fair share of horror stories, none are perfect.”
astroflight1: “Americans believe they live in the greatest country on earth too. Americans and New Zealanders are both wrong. This cleanest greenest Godzone crap…..ENOUGH ALREADY!”
onlylv: “+1 It was my American dream yonks ago but somehow I landed in NZ and too late now to go anywhere…”
christin: Yes, it may be NZ, but we dont live in a war torn country, a country that doesn’t accept different religions, a country where anyone can walk in and buy a gun (and use it!), where the colour of your skin or race can cause you problems, a country in major financial crisis to the point of bankruptcy, where terrorism is an actual possibility, where nuclear bombs are held……….I think NZ isnt too bad after all!”
bantamus: “where do you live ?NZ is racist, just expressed differently, its more covert.
There is a strong gun culture, just look at the hunting element and the number of accidents and fatalities
Terrorism has hit NZ, remember rainbow warrior ?
NZ is in a major financial crisis, why do you think so many have left ?”vickyh1: “This exactly, and also:
– We don’t suffer from regular flooding or bushfires
– We don’t have any major water or electricity shortages
– Our climate is temperate enough that it’s rare for people to die of heatstroke in summer or freeze to death in winter.
– If anyone wanted to invade us they’d have to get past our wonderful (and heavily armed) neighbour Australia.We have our share of problems but we’re still easily one of the most priviledged countries on earth.”
bantamus: “lol
we have around 16000 eq’s a year, yes majority not felt
we constantly have severe weather events
we have active volcano’s
we have one island that gets 2/3rds of its power from an island thats going to get munted by a mag 8 quake anytime
australia couldnt prevent nothing; their military is too small and today “war” is fought very differently
the fallacy of dieing from heat stroke or hypothermia is just that, a fallacy. nz doesnt keep accurate stats.”kohi5656: “Some very good points made here. Yes, newspapers love bad news. And yes, other countries have crime as well. But these headlines reflect just one day chosen at random. The same stories appear day after day. Are earlier posters indifferent? Or desensitised? Maybe they think there’s nothing alarming about today’s front page news: a parent giving marijuana to his 2 year old. I don’t think it happened in North Korea..”
hyena2: “You missed 2yr old forced to smoke cannibis through asthma inhaler” link
- Five men storm house in home invasion
A dog has been shot, a man assaulted with the butt of a rifle and five others left traumatised after a violent home invasion in Mt Roskill overnight.
- Six to appear in court after drug bust
Six men will appear in court today after a drug bust in Auckland.
- Bashed dad feared for kids
Solo dad Marty Keen choked up thinking about the attack he says could have left his children without their father.
- Murder accused told police: ‘She was my love’
A jury has watched a video interview with accused killer Shanal Sajesh Kumar, 29, where he was told of the death of his former lover.
- Drugs a large part of crime, judge says
Around 80 to 90 per cent of crime is related to alcohol and drug misuse, according to one of New Zealand’s top judges.
- Crown to seek Red Devils retrial
All 21 people targeted in a bungled police sting on the Red Devils bikie gang may face a retrial after the Crown launched appeal proceedings yesterday.
- Lawyers’ daughter linked to serious-injury crash
The teenage daughter of two prominent Wellington lawyers has been charged with drink-driving after a collision in which another teen was seriously injured.
- Second Kaitaia man faces child sex charges
A second Kaitaia man who worked with children has been charged with sexual offences against boys.
- Boy, 15, charged with South Auckland murder
Police have arrested a 15-year-old boy and charged him with the murder of a South Auckland man.
- Appeal in Red Devils case ahead
The Solicitor General has decided to appeal against the stay of proceedings in the Red Devils case.
“The man accused of murdering a toddler by slamming him so hard in the stomach that he split the child’s pancreas and liver in half gave the two-year-old marijuana, a court has heard.
Josephine Lawrence told the High Court at Auckland how Joel Loffley used an asthma inhaler as a marijuana pipe and helped her two-year-old son smoke the class C drug.
“He would give him a pipe and give him a spot.”… more here
E2NZ.org 
How many times do Yanks here “New Zealand is a secular and rationalist nation. We don’t have the religious nutters you have over there in the States”. Can you imagine this headline in the U.S.? “National Party MP Alfred Ngaro punched an atheist art teacher at his son’s school for not bowing his head during a prayer”.
The UK is a safer country than NZ
Please take a look at the OECD Better Life Index. (NZ and UK) There you will see the following information.
This is supported by the homicide statistics.
Based on those figures alone the UK would appear to be the safer country of the two, and a much safer place for women, regardless of what gets reported in the press.
It makes one question why British people move to New Zealand believing it to be a safer country, and what they’re basing that assumption upon?
P.S. The armed offenders squad / police were out in action in Devonport, Auckland two nights ago, have you seen that reported by the news media yet? let us know if you do.
That’s just for “reported” crime. The police have chosen to edit their crime stats. There are places that the police do not report incidents to the media. Makes you wonder, with the driving desire to be seen as normal or above average and the tourist industry depending on a good image for revenue, it is no stretch that the stats might be fiddled with to make it seem that things are not quite as they are.
Honesty is not NZ’s strong suit, neither is integrity.
With that knowledge, judge for yourself.
Thank you for your reply.
Carpentaro is correct. A couple of years ago there was a concerted move to reduce the amount and types of crime reported to the media. It was based around this report in the Gisborne Herald
A desire to preserve the public’s confidence in the police also plays a part in the reporting of crime, as does an increase in the number of attacks on police officers. You can read more here https://emigratetonewzealand.wordpress.com/2010/07/30/no-crime-in-gisborne-its-offical-updated/ and these are all the blogs tagged with “restrictions on the reporting of crime in New Zealand”.
Crime reports also have a nasty way of appearing in Wikipedia pages for towns in New Zealand, in the past this has led to censorship, as in the case of Palmerston North. Crime is bad for business and puts people off working in a town.
There have been other more subtle attempts to influence the reporting of crime. Gangs are often referred to as groups, police call car pursuits “fleeing drivers” etc.
We’re always interested to hear about incidents of crime that don’t get reported to the news organisations.
having lived in britain twice once twenty years ago and again recently. These headlines would never make the news there,because they have so much more serious news depending on the newspaper. Murders don’t even usually get reported until the court date, in the USA too a murder wouldn’t normally make the news unless it was unusal because they happen so often. Murders of preschoolers happen in Britain too and they too have rung their hands wondering how to stop it.While I was there a lovely blue eyed little boy with blond hair was killed , his name was Peter, just like here the social workers were taken to task for not doing enough and the country lamented their appalling child murder stats and the rest of the country looked on appalled. In Germany a man was found to have kept his daughter and her children in a cell underground. The drink culture among teenagers is a world wide problem, try sleeping in a nice hotel on a weekend in Brighton, you can’t sleep for all the yelling , breaking of bottles etc, litter in Britain is a huge problem, much worse than here. All suburbs of London had street cleaners although with the cutbacks those jobs may go. Teenagers drop empty fried chicken packets on the pathment day after day, its disgusting.
Horrible things happen all over the world..New Zealand is a small country of only 4500,000 so news items like the above (except the child murder) make the news here as there is so little to report on. Initally I had sympathy for this website because I miss some of the things available in a much more populated country. Much of the stuff reported on this website is human nature which I have found in the Uk but I have also found kindness in the Uk just as I have found kindness here. All countries can do better. Do you really think there are not drug addicts giving their two year old marijuana in Oz or the USA or UK or Europe or South America, of course there is, they are low lifes who seem not to know better. Most people would rather live in any country than North Korea, it has its own batch of bad problems. Why not write to politicians if you want social change, if enough people write you can effect change, there are very courageous people who have been able to do just that in all countries of the world including here.