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@SammyC said in NZ Politics:
@No-Quarter said in NZ Politics:
@Mokey said in NZ Politics:
They are awful things to tell people. My better half is from Papua New Guinea, a country with genuine problems. She feels utterly privileged to be in NZ with all of the opportunities it has afforded her. But when she was at Uni she had SJW lecturers tell her that she needs to think about the fact that she is a black woman and be mindful of what people will think when they enter her office. That's 1) racist as fuck, 2) incredibly demotivating and 3) completely detached from reality where the vast majority of people in NZ couldn't give a toss about the colour of your skin.
OK, you've written this a few times now... so I'll attempt to reply.
My wife is from Mexico, emmigrated to New Zealand 6 years ago. And is brown.
Masters degree, really hard worker, excellent English (probably better than mine).
I actually can't believe she has stuck it out.
Have lost track of the jobs she has applied for and been turned down for, many of which she was obviously a great candidate. Shit she never even gets an interview.
Before a family member was kind enough to offer her an administration position the only work she could get was as a waitress (where they only hire immigrants, pay them bare minimum, and recently changed all employees from guaranteed 30 hour a week contracts to zero hour equivalents). This is not an isolated case, many of her friends are in the same position.
I've had her come home in tears quite a few times after suffering straight up racist comments to her in the restaurant from customers. Donald Trump seems to have given the average white man/ woman a view that it's OK to attack her for being Mexican.
Maybe it's a Christchurch thing? But I definitely see some form of racism in the way she is treated vs the average kiwi.
The racism at work thing is shocking and I hope she calls people out on that.
With regard to the work thing, unfortunately some people prefer to stick to what they know and just play it safe. Where does your wife have her degree from?
I moved to Norway with 2 degrees and relevant work experience and couldn't get a single interview. Fark, I couldn't even get an interview with a temp agency. I ended up washing dishes and working in the fridge of a supermarket for a year. Even then I never found a job relating to my qualifications and ended up teaching English and then qualifying as a translator.
When there are heaps of job vacancies then qualified foreigners can get in, but when there are plenty of qualified locals and limited positions the foreigner tends to get the raw deal. Unfortunately that's just the way it is.
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This came out recently and is pretty interesting reading. Don't expect to find reports on it in the general media.
https://pmc.gov.au/sites/default/files/publications/BETA-report-going-blind-to-see-more clearly.pdf
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@SammyC said in NZ Politics:
@No-Quarter said in NZ Politics:
@Mokey said in NZ Politics:
They are awful things to tell people. My better half is from Papua New Guinea, a country with genuine problems. She feels utterly privileged to be in NZ with all of the opportunities it has afforded her. But when she was at Uni she had SJW lecturers tell her that she needs to think about the fact that she is a black woman and be mindful of what people will think when they enter her office. That's 1) racist as fuck, 2) incredibly demotivating and 3) completely detached from reality where the vast majority of people in NZ couldn't give a toss about the colour of your skin.
OK, you've written this a few times now... so I'll attempt to reply.
My wife is from Mexico, emmigrated to New Zealand 6 years ago. And is brown.
Masters degree, really hard worker, excellent English (probably better than mine).
I actually can't believe she has stuck it out.
Have lost track of the jobs she has applied for and been turned down for, many of which she was obviously a great candidate. Shit she never even gets an interview.
Before a family member was kind enough to offer her an administration position the only work she could get was as a waitress (where they only hire immigrants, pay them bare minimum, and recently changed all employees from guaranteed 30 hour a week contracts to zero hour equivalents). This is not an isolated case, many of her friends are in the same position.
I've had her come home in tears quite a few times after suffering straight up racist comments to her in the restaurant from customers. Donald Trump seems to have given the average white man/ woman a view that it's OK to attack her for being Mexican.
Maybe it's a Christchurch thing? But I definitely see some form of racism in the way she is treated vs the average kiwi.
Hate hearing stories like these. My mate had a roofing firm in California and apart from a few kiwis his staff were all Mexican. When I asked him why he told me that nobody he's ever come across works harder than a Mexican.
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@Mokey said in NZ Politics:
Yeah @jegga and @taniwharugby. I've had a couple of brushes with Winz in the past 20 years. Never had just one contact person, but two, a man and an older woman were absolutely wonderful. Helpful, straight up yet still compassionate, and efficient. Two younger women were absolute fucking bitches. One, I kid you not, on my first appointment, accused me of wanting to screw the system. That was a slap in the face (I've never had so much as a parking ticket) and a double blow considering it felt humiliating enough to go to Winz in the first place.
And yeah, having worked in a number of jobs dealing with the public, I know some people are awesome and grateful and polite, and others are complete fluffybunnies with a monster set of entitlement. So I don't envy the Winz people their task. However, I think perhaps their mindset needs to be innocent until proven guilty.
Mate of mine worked at WINZ for six months in the mid-2000s. He had a client in who was getting frustrated with the obligations put on him by WINZ.
Eventually at the end of the meeting, the guy sighed angrily, got up and, as he walked out, said "I'll go out and find a fucking job then!"
My mate chuckled as he typed ''self-starter'' into the guy's file...
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Stuff keep running these sorts of articles and then they have to shut down the comments because they are overwhelmingly negative of the perspective stuff is trying to push. You'd think they'd get the point and either stop or realise that maybe they are out of touch with the prevailing attitudes in the country. But no, here's another article.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/94875046/solo-mothers-say-they-understand-reasons-for-benefit-fraud-after-turei-bombshell -
@jegga said in NZ Politics:
Stuff keep running these sorts of articles and then they have to shut down the comments because they are overwhelmingly negative of the perspective stuff is trying to push. You'd think they'd get the point and either stop or realise that maybe they are out of touch with the prevailing attitudes in the country. But no, here's another article.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/94875046/solo-mothers-say-they-understand-reasons-for-benefit-fraud-after-turei-bombshellMust resist obvious and rather unbecoming comment ...
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She's not exactly starving , her kids look like following in her rather deep footsteps too.
And an hour later stuff pumps out another one with the same negative reaction. Its getting weird now.
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fuck i've had a gutsful of this shit. there are people who need benefits, who don't rip the system off. but you put a photo of a big fat fluffybunny with a claim she eats one meal a day, what are most people going to think?
you boast about ripping nz taxpayers off, what do you expect nz taxpayers to think?fucking idiots.
new zealand needs a viable left. plenty of shit is happening that needs to change, but there is just no pressure on the government because of the morons on the other side. look at something like the state of our rivers. that is something that the majority of people care about. there's an article on stuff about the 100% pure NZ tourist campaign showing someone drinking water from a river - which is pretty much never safe in nz. people from all over the political spectrum care about that, they care about the environment - the government's response has been to shift the 'swimmable' goalposts to outside world standards - which is a goddamned fucking disgrace. that is a huge opportunity for the greens, but instead they're boasting about ripping us all off. fucking hell, you wouldn't read about it.
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@reprobate said in NZ Politics:
fuck i've had a gutsful of this shit. there are people who need benefits, who don't rip the system off. but you put a photo of a big fat fluffybunny with a claim she eats one meal a day, what are most people going to think?
you boast about ripping nz taxpayers off, what do you expect nz taxpayers to think?fucking idiots.
new zealand needs a viable left. plenty of shit is happening that needs to change, but there is just no pressure on the government because of the morons on the other side. look at something like the state of our rivers. that is something that the majority of people care about. there's an article on stuff about the 100% pure NZ tourist campaign showing someone drinking water from a river - which is pretty much never safe in nz. people from all over the political spectrum care about that, they care about the environment - the government's response has been to shift the 'swimmable' goalposts to outside world standards - which is a goddamned fucking disgrace. that is a huge opportunity for the greens, but instead they're boasting about ripping us all off. fucking hell, you wouldn't read about it.
We really should be able to upvote stuff like this more than once.
If there was a viable environmental party I would give it my party vote, trouble is most green types tend to view hunters and fisherman with contempt when they should see them as allies . We went for a tramp last year in a place I use to go as a kid and the river I used to go eeling in was choked up with didymo ffs. I wasn't keen on drinking it. Google Lake Horowhenua and ask yourself how we have places in NZ as polluted as that?
Instead the greens gloat about that fat smug cow cheating the taxpayer.
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@jegga said in NZ Politics:
Stuff keep running these sorts of articles and then they have to shut down the comments because they are overwhelmingly negative of the perspective stuff is trying to push. You'd think they'd get the point and either stop or realise that maybe they are out of touch with the prevailing attitudes in the country. But no, here's another article.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/94875046/solo-mothers-say-they-understand-reasons-for-benefit-fraud-after-turei-bombshellSurely that should read one meal during the DAYTIME.
I'm sure there are people on benefits who desperately need them, but they're far too proud to let the Herald or Stuff write a sob story about them.
I'm a strong believer in a strong safety net for those who fall between the cracks, but it shits me no end when people abuse the system and then brag about it. Just imagine how fucked we'd be if everyone had that attitude.
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@Rancid-Schnitzel said in NZ Politics:
@jegga said in NZ Politics:
Stuff keep running these sorts of articles and then they have to shut down the comments because they are overwhelmingly negative of the perspective stuff is trying to push. You'd think they'd get the point and either stop or realise that maybe they are out of touch with the prevailing attitudes in the country. But no, here's another article.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/94875046/solo-mothers-say-they-understand-reasons-for-benefit-fraud-after-turei-bombshellSurely that should read one meal during the DAYTIME.
No. It is a Hobbit meal. eg Breakfast is a meal but it consists of first breakfast, second breakfast, late breakfast and final breakfast.
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@Rancid-Schnitzel said in NZ Politics:
@jegga said in NZ Politics:
Stuff keep running these sorts of articles and then they have to shut down the comments because they are overwhelmingly negative of the perspective stuff is trying to push. You'd think they'd get the point and either stop or realise that maybe they are out of touch with the prevailing attitudes in the country. But no, here's another article.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/94875046/solo-mothers-say-they-understand-reasons-for-benefit-fraud-after-turei-bombshellSurely that should read one meal during the DAYTIME.
I'm sure there are people on benefits who desperately need them, but they're far too proud to let the Herald or Stuff write a sob story about them.
I'm a strong believer in a strong safety net for those who fall between the cracks, but it shits me no end when people abuse the system and then brag about it. Just imagine how fucked we'd be if everyone had that attitude.
I expect her to drop some weight soon.
When she loses her feet to diabetes.
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Fuck it shits me when I see the years on the benefit/ages of the kids. If you can't make ends meet, last bloody thing you should be doing is bringing more kids into the world. And it's the babies who suffer, living in shitty conditions.
Must say, though...all the ones who won't move because of extended family nearby, what role is said extended family playing? Do they help with babysitting? Food? Bit of cash here and there? If they are, cool, but the mum should have it slightly better in that case. If the extended family isn't playing a role in their lives...then move south and stop paying bullshit Auckland prices.
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Caught this post on FB from one of my mates. Interesting when you think about how WINZ staff could/should present options to folks. Also wonder how involved the system is, and whether that makes training (WINZ have huge churn of staff) to a minimum level difficult....
Just a little anecdote that the news coverage of Metiria's 'admission' brings to mind - I spent quite a few years on the dpb. For most of them, I couldn't afford to rent without flatmates. However, I also couldn't afford to rent if I got accommodation supplement only for the portion of the rent I paid. Luckily for me, someone with experience navigating the system advised me that I could have boarders without losing any of my accommodation supplement. So basically the same living arrangement but in the latter scenario I get a significantly higher income. WINZ didn't tell me this, though they confirmed it was true when I asked. Without my 'boarders' I hate to think where the kids and I would have ended up living. The point of the story though, is that the difference between benefit fraud and surviving without breaking the rules is often a matter of knowledge. My experience with WINZ was that they didn't share that knowledge readily.
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@Paekakboyz being able to keep your benefit with boarders but not with flat mates is ridiculous. She still lied about it though and the baby's father who it's looking increasingly likely was one of the flatmates.
I'm glad she did this, all the attention has been diverted from Barclay and onto the greens condoning benefit fraud. Bravo.
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@Paekakboyz I think there are some big issues with the culture at WINZ and also some serious training issues. My experience is that it varies wildly depending on who you happen to get.
Tough one to fix, as I'm sure it is not a fun job so would be difficult to attract the ideal candidates. I imagine you'd deal with some pretty heartbreaking scenario's at times. Other times you'd get straight up abused by violent criminals demanding more money. And other times you'd get people that want to help themselves and a "feel good" from being able to assist. They would get wildly different experiences in the workplace on a day-to-day basis.
Instead of just pumping more money into welfare payments, a lot of that money would be better spent investing in the staff to ensure they are offering the best assistance possible, and have the required training to deal with conflict which would be a pretty regular occurrence for them.
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