Christine posted about an unfortunate experience her young daughter had on a public bus in suburban Christchurch. It seems that xenophobia is alive and kicking – at least here in the Garden City.

My parents were immigrants to New Zealand. 50 years ago they were refugees from the Hungarian revolution and came here to find a better life for them and their (future) children. So I can appreciate the sacrifice that immigrants make to secure a future for their families.

I also know that many immigrants (my parents included) avoid teaching their children their mother’s-tongue in an effort to increase the chances of them being “real kiwis” – remember real kiwis play Rugby, Drink Beer and don’t speak any language other than English.

Remember people – other than Tangata Whenua we’re all immigrants going back only a few short generations – if your self confidence is sufficiently low that you need to put someone else down to bolster yourself – maybe step back and think about what you’re doing.

Unfortunately the small mindedness of Winston Peters and the Grey brigade feeds this sort of attitude – somehow it’s easier to blame the successful, hard-working immigrant for our woes than to take a look at our own failings.
Ben Kepes

Ben Kepes is a technology evangelist, an investor, a commentator and a business adviser. Ben covers the convergence of technology, mobile, ubiquity and agility, all enabled by the Cloud. His areas of interest extend to enterprise software, software integration, financial/accounting software, platforms and infrastructure as well as articulating technology simply for everyday users.

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