Welcome to OUR country

I am about to embark on a huge adventure that will see me travel through many countries over a long period of time. I will be living in Thailand for about three months and then Japan for at least a year.

I am a strong believer in being prepared and while I have created a list of things that I will need for my travels I have also researched customs and cultures. You see, while I am away I will be a guest in other countries. The reason I am visiting them is because they have unique cultures and I want new experiences. As a guest I am obliged to make as little impact to their country as possible and conduct myself in a manner appropriate to their culture.

The ways in which we do things in my country will be almost irrelevant. I will be a guest that plays by their rules. I understand and fully accept this but sometimes wonder why others don't and why the same rule doesn't apply here?

Why is it that our society must change in order to accomodate new migrants? Don't get me wrong. I am not agianst new migrants and I understand the importance of welcoming foreigners as well as helping them integrate. I am also a believer that they should retain aspects of their own culture/religion or at least have an understanding of it to pass onto future generations if they so wish.

However, I am against migrants who settle here without attempting to integrate beyond their ethnic communities. Migrants who have been resident here for over two decades yet who still cannot speak English because they have not had the need in their ethnic communities. I am against the imposition of other cultural values upon us in order to protect their feelings. Don't get me wrong, it is important to have an understanding of other cultures and try to stay away from offending them and I do not advocate racist behaviour but some of the sensitivities border on the ridiculous.

This is still OUR country and if they wish to make it theirs they should adapt to the New Zealand way of life... not the other way around.

I don't like the refugee category and the ease of gaining access through 'political assylum'. I know people who work for the New Zealand Immigration Service and have discussed the flaws of the system with them and am horrified at what I now know.

We should be responsible players in the global community and help those that are persecuted by violent regimes. However, refugee status cannot be given out as easily as it is at present. There are far too many that are not directly being persecuted but are at odds with developing regimes. We cannot save the world and I am of the belief that we have to protect our society first and foremost.

By this, I do not mean protect our society from foreigners but I mean undesirable foreigners and it is important to qualify that this cannot be done on race, religion or nationality alone.

I am referring to refugees who come from violent backgrounds, subscribe to puritanical religious ideologies inconsistent with developed human rights standards. They must obey New Zealand law first and foremost. They have to live by the standards that we set and not by the backwards violence present in their former nations.

Their religions and cultural practices do not supercede our law. They can be permitted to coexist so long as they do not seriously conflict with those values that we have established to safeguard our nation.

If they want to live a life of violence and inherent bigotry then they can fuck off back to where they came from. After all, they came here to get away from that stuff didn't they?

Now there are many great migrants that have moved to New Zealand, made great things of themselves in one or two generations and integrated with other New Zealanders and I applaud them. It is not an easy thing to do but they rose to the challenge and succeeded. But from time to time I witness third world acts that deserve third world punishments!

The reason for this post is that last night I witnessed a taxi driver with Somali, Ethiopean or similar ethnicity making lewd gestures with his tongue at a girl around the age of thirteen to fifteen that happened to be walking by. She was disgusted (as were we) and he walked after her making obscene suggestions.

This act was witnessed by a couple of my Samoan friends as well who promptly issued the type of mob justice dispensed back in his developing country. Needless to say, we didn't stick around afterwards and not too much damage was done but this is just another time bomb sex offender waiting to go off.

There are numerous other unsavoury characters operating taxis around Wellington who as a bouncer I would simply not let park around my bar and would actively prevent customers from riding with.

One of the worst cases I have seen is of a fat, pock marked dark Indian male who licks his lips at girls and offers free rides home. Despite one of our bars making a complaint to the incompetent (and only reactive) Land Transport safety Authority this bastard is still driving!

All I can say is 'welcome to our developing country'.