We recently had this post brought to our attention, it was published on the forum at Trade Me.co.nz where the author said this about this website.
It is also full of incorrect and misleading information that has been re worked by the owner. To be honest a lot of his writing is rumour and opinion not fact…also given that they like to take snippets from peoples posts on here as “evidence” to back up their opinions or views really says it all.
Our writing is based on facts, mostly from official statistics, published and peer review academic papers and reports – national and international, news items and first hand testimonies. Our aim is to raise awareness of the issues present in New Zealand as a counterbalance to the hype put out about the country. By bringing these issues out into the open and raising awareness we hope to be a force for change. See our Welcome page for further information
If you looked at many countries criminal and violence all assembled in one place it would make ours look pitiful.
Violence and crime in other countries is the reason why so many people express a desire to move to New Zealand. This desire features very highly in the aspirational marketing put out by the country, for tourism, education and emigration sectors.
Our aim is to show that New Zealand has exactly the same problems as other developed nations, plus a few that are unique to New Zealand – for instance its low wage v. high cost of living, geographical and cultural isolation, a strongly bi-cultural society that by default excludes multiculturalism, a deeply ingrained gang culture and a high proportion of its citizens living overseas. There are more but we’d like to hear from our readers what they think they are.
I suspect the person running this website has never travelled beyond their town…
Everyone involved in this website is, without exception, someone who has travelled thousands of miles to emigrate or study in New Zealand. We have all travelled “well beyond” our towns and have the experience of other many countries against which to measure New Zealand from an international perspective.
E2NZ.org 
delivering a few home truths never plays well in new zealand , kiwis simply cannot take criticism of any kind for any reason
This is great site. I get comfort that I can discuss things here that i do not want to bring it up with my family. I said before in another tread here, the reasons why.
I can vent my upsetting incidents here and also listen to what others say. This is great place to be.
I’ve traveled many countries and lived in 4 different countries.
I like New Zealand, but this racism that I experience whenever I go out is reasonably new (since 2009) and when it was really bad, I didn’t want to live here, but I think New Zealand so far was good for me and my family, so I try to look positive side. But, being treated like 2nd citizen many times when I go out for coffee/meal, it is hard to swallow my pride. I almost feel like I can understand some criminals why they do it. Like in the U.S. for racism ground… Previously, I simply didn’t recognise the signs as they seem to be subtle. Even your friend and family member don’t notice it unless they are aware of it. My experience with racism is mainly by service people, cafe/restaurant, shops. Because that’s the people that I encounter most. But I remember nurses when my child was born at Wellington hospital how they treated me, but at that time, I wasn’t aware that was because they look down on their noses.
I see those service people who are racist and I wonder how many of NZers could be so racist?
Could there be any action against those service people who show racist/discrimination behavior discrimination?
Could any blog name and shame those place and staff?
Thank you for your comments Lesley, we regret that you have been made to feel like this in your adopted country. Many migrants make the move to New Zealand intending to fit in, to become Kiwis, but find that they are excluded simply because of their colour of their skin or their accents.
Please consider talking to your children about this, it may be that they too are experiencing racism and have developed ways to manage it. Open up the dialogue with them.
If you want to set up a blog to tell the story of your experiences in New Zealand we’d be happy to provide a link to it.
I’ve found your website helpful in recent months to validate our thoughts, thanks. As second generation NZers we’ve decided to leave NZ because we think there are other parts of the world that will suit us and our young family better. Seems like we aren’t as crazy as the local spin doctors would have us believe in thinking that there are other options – many of our well educated, 30 something friends are also doing or contemplating the same.
I don’t find your site generally biased, as you say, there are many facts. One comment that did surprise me from a contributor was on what terrible teeth Kiwis have. Having just returned from the UK and seeing some shockers there, I found this interesting – I guess a lot depends on the socio demographics of where you are in NZ.
We’re from the States and we thought people’s teeth were awful. We might just as well have found them awful in the UK as well.
NZer’s way of providing solutions is to ‘crash’ rosy migrant sites, no thanks. We draw attention to the problems and the hype and leave people to make up their own minds about whether or not they want to buy-in to New Zealand.
Sounds like a plan to get more migrants in trouble (especially with NZ employers) when they are found grousing about New Zealand, since obviously it is a perfect country …
Gang culture is not unique to New Zealand but it is deeply embedded in its culture and there is a fair degree of acceptance of it, tribalism runs deep in Godzone.
“Tribal Trouble:- New Zealand harbours a small, unique and brutal street-gang culture that has defied authorities for more than 30 years and now appears to be nurturing a new, more violent mutation. Last month, the country’s older ethnic gangs were involved in a series of tit-for-tat drive-by shootings that left a toddler dead; meanwhile the country’s juvenile gangs have emerged as a new force in crime, linked to eight killings and many hundreds of other violent crimes in the past two years. Sully Paea is a youth worker who tries to reform young gang members. “We’ve already lost one generation to the gangs,” he says. “The generation we are working with now—the 14-, 15- and 16-year-olds—some of them are hard-core, already gone. These kids are cold.”
New Zealand has been home to ethnically based street gangs since the mid 1960s. The two largest—the Mongrel Mob and Black Power—between them boast about 2,600 members, gathered in 145 “chapters” that center on “pads,” or clubhouses. Members trace the names to specific incidents. The Mongrel Mob got theirs the day a magistrate described them as a “pack of mongrels.” Black Power say their gang was formed in response to a series of rapes committed by the Mongrel Mob. When the attackers demanded, “Who are you to challenge us?” the opposing men called back, “We are Black Power.” The feud between the two continues today.
Associate Professor Greg Newbold, a New Zealand criminologist, believes the situation is now beyond control: “They might manage to suppress it in one area temporarily, and it will just crop up again somewhere else. The problem is generated by the cultural milieu and the economic conditions in that area.” Newbold speaks with the authority of a man who has done jail time himself for drug dealing and written a book on crime in New Zealand. “This is their excitement. This is their entertainment. This is what they live for. They live for their patch, for their gang and for their neighborhood. They are living worthless, meaningless lives without a proper future.” Paea’s prognosis is equally bleak: “We are in a situation where the ambulance is parked at the bottom of the cliff.”
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1640583,00.html
Another longwinded explaination as to why the problems exist, but offers no solutions. More hand wringing. Typical Kiwi response should equal “Get on wiith it”, and yet there is no getting on with it. Just more finger-pointing and explanations as to why things are as they are, but not on the “Migrant sites”. There, everything is rosey, come on down, everything is good, don’t look behind the curtain.
NZ is full of longwinded explainations as to why…
Hmm, those rosy migrant sites… Ever considered crashing one? (No, not in the hacker sense – in the “crash your party” sense.) You know, you could go and post a link to this site on some forum somewhere.
Ever heard of raising awareness of an issue? Talking about “what” and “why” is part of that. And awareness can lead to a solution, or be part of the solution.
Of course, action speaks louder than words. There should be action. From you (if you are even at all relevant to the situation), from me, from the rest who are aware.
And there is action, but you won’t find much here. This website is dedicated to talking – to pointing our New Zealand’s problems: “Our aim is to show that New Zealand has exactly the same problems as other developed nations, plus a few that are unique to New Zealand…” Problem-solving is understood to not be a problem, so this website has not interest in pointing out actual pro-active problem-solving in New Zealand. But if you want, I could point you in the direction of some problem-solving action.
Please do offer solutions. I encourage you to. Stand out from the crowd. Don’t be what you’re complaining about.
But I think I know the solution. It involves hard work and selflessness – being willing to slog it out and bring to light sensitive issues in a less-than perfect country.
Personally, I don’t give a shit whether NZ sinks into the Pacific or stays afloat. I just want to spare migrants the trouble of losing their life progress and worse by moving there. It is not the goal of this site to solve NZ’s problems. Just to warn unaware people away from them. I suggest you go solve your own country’s problems.
So, what you’re saying is that the migrants should stand up and suggest some pro-active action that might change or improve things in NZ?
Good luck with that, all that happens, after accent is identified, is you are told to sit down and shut up as whatever it is that you might suggest “won’t work in NZ”.
I spent the first several years trying to improve the methodology of my trade. Now I just keep it to myself. Every one of my clients are quite satisfied, actually prefer my “non-Kiwi” ways of doing things. They usually ask “why don’t we do it like that here?” The industry is sooo behind the times, they’ll never catch up, and I don’t think that they really want to. Happily ignorant, “she’ll be right, mate”.
Thank you JT and Carpentero. So far no one has disputed the problems we’ve listed. Does this means we’ve got it about right, or are there some we haven’t mentioned?
The problem with bashing anecdotal evidence is that when the other (mass-produced) evidence is not empirical in any sense of the word, then anecdotal is all we have to go on if we want to learn the reality of something. New Zealand’s P.R. machine (that includes the government and private interests working together for the good of the country) mass-produces an image of New Zealand that carefully omits some of New Zealand’s problems, because New Zealand is a country that desperately needs “outside money” in order to pay its bills.
E2NZ is a good website, and I wish I had known about it 7 years ago. Keep up the good work, thank you!!
Agree 100%.
Click on it and it takes you to this place http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:New_Zealand_Visa_Waiver_Map.png It is a map of countries with visa-free status to New Zealand. The UK and Australia have access for 6 months, while every other listed country is allowed 3 months. All others require a visa in advance. I’m guessing that these are the home countries for most of the migrants to NZ?
Yes and no.
The maps shows which countries have a visa free status with New Zealand, you could say these are the countries New Zealand feels more comfortable with. About 50% of migrants come from Asian countries, the majority of whom do not have this visa status. You could take this as indicative of the nationalities who are made to feel most welcome in New Zealand. Perhaps it is a hangover from the “white New Zealand” days?
Well, the site is mostly one-sided (I think the idea is to be the anti-type of New Zealand-phile one-sidedness such as can be seen in some add campaigns as opposed to a stand-alone guide to what New Zealand is really like?) As such, by itself, it does not give a comprehensive and balanced view of New Zealand. But it does inform regarding the dark side(s) of New Zealand… which is the above-stated purpose of this site.
And… ummm… I hope I am not the only one who does agree with the person that this site does indeed take snippets of what people say as evidence. I mean, not that that by itself is evil or anything… (Some people would call it quote mining, but I think one should only call something quote mining when you present it in such a way that it appears to say something that the original author did not intend it to say.)
By “involved”, do you mean “participating in the maintenance of it” or “participating in it”? If the latter, I was born in New Zealand, so I am an exception. If the former, you’d know better than I who participates in the maintenance of it.
BTW, what is that image supposed to demonstrate? According to Wikipedia, all countries in the world except USA, Canada, Australia, and Ireland have Visa.
Nzer we do not class you as involved with this this site. You’re someone who stops by and leaves the occasional comment. Trolls as well as useful contributors also do the same.
It’s almost like they’re telegraphing their intent to do harm or create misfortune for anyone with valid criticism regarding New Zealand.
Last year I remember seeing on ExpatExposed how some newly registered people intimidated and threatened old posters.
Is “She’ll be right, mate” and incomplete sentence … to be finished with the words “or it’s curtains for you?”
All that type of behaviour does is reinforce the idea that some people want immigrants to be fooled so that they can gain access to their money without providing service.
And also weakens social fabric: if people are aware they are deliberately being cheated while being told they should make sacrifices, one of the principles of a sustainable society: reciprocity … is being undermined.
No. Its a good site. I use it to advise my international guests. It is a little frightened, as most news outlets are – To state demographics ie The large percentage of perpertrators by race !
There in the danger lies. If its not stated, its information withheld.