Expat Exposed

Replied by email

Mail Bag — Thu Feb 26, 2009 4:18 pm

Author: Mail Bag

Posted: Thu Feb 26, 2009 4:18 pm

Guy, chill. I don't even know what everything Kiwi is.

If you mean I got something against New zealand or older people, no I don't. Never been there, don't plan to, and I'm gonna be old someday if I stay alive.

Just trying to help because people are getting mad at you. Try saying thanks, don't be so chip on the shoulder, n00b.

I run a sport board, don't give a rats' ass about Kiwi. Only connection to Expat Exposed is it uses the same software as mine.

Hey admin, better lock this thread, it's pretty fucked now.

Re: An Eventful Week.

khar59 — Thu Feb 26, 2009 8:48 am

Author: khar59

Posted: Thu Feb 26, 2009 8:48 am

Well obviously you are feeling mean and spiteful and lashing out at everything Kiwi!

Nothing like being rational once in a while!

Right now you are acting like juveniles!

By email

Mail Bag — Thu Feb 26, 2009 1:40 am

Author: Mail Bag

Posted: Thu Feb 26, 2009 1:40 am

!! Ignore this if I'm stepping on your toes, no problems !!

Hey, I got your board from the phpBB forum, few of us are following your no deletion modding experiment wiht interest. I think I'm a believer now.

I wanted to offer $0.02 on a new guy you have there, khar59.

My guess is he's just old.

Not saying cut him slack but something to think about.

Either he's "59" or born in "1959", that explains a lot of things like the dumb mistakes about the Admin persecuting him and not understanding half of everything people write him.

I know 50, 59 isn't old but if they're Internet n00bs too they may as well be 80. Some older n00bs can't parse text on the monitor, I've seen this, it's called situational dyslexia.

{edited by mailer request}

Re: An Eventful Week.

seraphinianus — Wed Feb 25, 2009 9:14 pm

Author: seraphinianus

Posted: Wed Feb 25, 2009 9:14 pm

khar59 wrote:
I could pretty much guarantee that nothing awful has happened in that suburb!

Google would tend to disagree. But what do they know...

khar59 wrote:
So based on your personal experiences you will be moving back here soon then? Seems to be the only place that good things happened for you.

I'm trying *really* hard not to say something mean to you, but you're making it very difficult...

As nice as I can muster, can you PLEASE read things before replying, and quit posting these long-winded, nonsense-filled, off-topic rants? If you've got great things to say about Christchurch and Des Moines, go ahead and say them IN A NEW THREAD!

Re: An Eventful Week.

khar59 — Wed Feb 25, 2009 5:55 pm

Author: khar59

Posted: Wed Feb 25, 2009 5:55 pm

Well if Des Moines was so wonderful why didn't you stay? Why is it that you and your husband are constantly on the move?

Hagley Park, the Cultural Precinct! Well, okay then, and since when did they begin calling it that? I just call it Hagley Park, downtown, fringes of Fendalton where the genteel folk supposedly lived. Then as Hagley covers acres of land, you could have been anywhere from Fendalton, Riccarton, downtown, Lincoln Rd area!

You make it sound as though 4 million people are responsible for what happened to you. The reason I suggested Ilam/Avonhead is because that' where I was brought up and that is where many Asians live. It's a very nice suburb of Christchurch full of good, ordinary folk with a fair amount of money! The right side of Memorial Avenue!

I could pretty much guarantee that nothing awful has happened in that suburb! Hagley Park which is virtually the centre of Christchurch and which attracts many and all kinds of citizens and tourists day and night and isn't suburbia!

Yes, here in Des Moines we put bad people in jail. We wouldn't just take their wheels off them. We do have our hoons here, the ones that like to drive around and around the downtown streets. Teenagers looking for something to do!

So where are you living now?

I have Chinese and Filipino relatives living in Christchurch, I wonder how many times they've been mistreated?

So based on your personal experiences you will be moving back here soon then? Seems to be the only place that good things happened for you.

Re: An Eventful Week.

Wintersmith — Wed Feb 25, 2009 4:46 pm

Author: Wintersmith

Posted: Wed Feb 25, 2009 4:46 pm

khar59 wrote:I read it

Nope, you didn't. Not when this:

Wintersmith wrote:I spent a number of periods, anywhere from a few days to 6 months, in Des Moines between 1998 and 2006.

...gets answered by this:

khar59 wrote:Well then you should come rushing back to Des Moines and see how much it has changed in the last 10 years!

khar59 wrote:You'll be amazed at how much more there is to offer! Speak to other Americans that have moved from other states! They'll tell you the same!

Take the 30 seconds to actually read my post, instead of assuming you know what it's asking. That big passel of questions you see? Those are rhetorical. As in I already know it doesn't happen in Des Moines. No, there are no neo-Nazis walking around Gray's Lake. Your house is double-glazed, insulated and has central heating. If hoons were burning rubber in West Des Moines, their wheels would be auctioned and they'd be taking the bus.

The questions are statements, lucky resident of a City Where I Never Got Shoved, Called Chop Suey Or Told To Grunt Like A Pig*. It's what happened to me personally in your fair home city or to others on this board throughout New Zealand.

And it's no use trying to pretend we all lived in the wrong neighborhood. It doesn't become you, as someone who's indicated she's ready to confront the ugly aspect of her own country. It's never those "few bad apples", that's the truth. I lived near Hagley Park, in the so-called Cultural Precinct. Want to hear the experience of someone who had children at Burnside? Search for Trisha.

Now, I'm going to suggest that in order to keep the threads fresh, you think of what you'd really like to ask us, and start a new thread (use the green button at top in forums like "The Square").

* Yes.

Re: An Eventful Week.

khar59 — Wed Feb 25, 2009 9:47 am

Author: khar59

Posted: Wed Feb 25, 2009 9:47 am

I happen to like the Register! They are about as liberal as you can get here. Rekha Basu is my favourite journalist. Her husband was another favourite of mine.

So, tell me all you Christchurch dwellers, what part of ChCh did you live in or do you live in? Sounds to me that some of you lived in the Cashmere, Hoon Hay areas.

Did anyone live in Avonhead or Ilam? Did anyone send their kids to Westburn Primary School or Burnside High? Or maybe a private school that was non-catholic?

Re: An Eventful Week.

khar59 — Wed Feb 25, 2009 8:43 am

Author: khar59

Posted: Wed Feb 25, 2009 8:43 am

I read it, what did you want me to address?

Re: An Eventful Week.

Wintersmith — Wed Feb 25, 2009 7:18 am

Author: Wintersmith

Posted: Wed Feb 25, 2009 7:18 am

khar59 wrote:Well then you should come rushing back to Des Moines and see how much it has changed in the last 10 years!

Hey, how about reading my post before replying to it?

Re: An Eventful Week.

khar59 — Wed Feb 25, 2009 5:45 am

Author: khar59

Posted: Wed Feb 25, 2009 5:45 am

Well then you should come rushing back to Des Moines and see how much it has changed in the last 10 years!

You'll be amazed at how much more there is to offer! Speak to other Americans that have moved from other states! They'll tell you the same!

Re: An Eventful Week.

Wintersmith — Wed Feb 25, 2009 4:34 am

Author: Wintersmith

Posted: Wed Feb 25, 2009 4:34 am

khar59 wrote:Yes, we do live in Des Moines and the place has grown alot in the ten years I've been here. More immigrants coming in and more people from out of state. The place needed to change, it was so backward before that.

You're from Christchurch, right? Lived there for decades before moving to Des Moines, IA, if I remember your other posts correctly.

I spent a number of periods, anywhere from a few days to 6 months, in Des Moines between 1998 and 2006. My husband grew up there. His parents live there part-time, and his sister and her family full-time.

I don't usually take issue with individual poster's comparative characterizations. But I plead the jaw-dropping dissonance of a Christchurchian calling Des Moines "backward" in making an exception.

Does your home manage to keep out the -20C cold of Iowa winter? How about -10C? Is your broadband package 'capped" at 5G? 1G? How many hours do you have to work before you can pay for your monthly broadband fee? Do you have people drag-racing on your block at night, without the police impounding their souped-up cars or taking away their licenses?

Did you have to strike education and experience off your resume, to get a job? Were you promised a certain salary when hired, then arrived in Des Moines to be told 'nope, we're not giving you that much, take it or leave it'? Did anyone ever put a Kiwi flag in a noose above your desk as a joke?

Do you see young men with shaved heads, swastika tattoos and white supremacist rock band T-shirts on the promenade of Gray's Lake, without anyone standing up to them? Are your Asian neighbors called "Chink" on the street and hit with water balloons? Does the Des Moines Register (15 Pulitzers) consistently describe Muslim or Asian Iowans—and only them—by their faith or ethnicity for no discernible journalistic reason? What would happen to your professional and social life if you said "Never trust anyone you can blindfold with a shoelace"? How about "you can always tell an Asian's house by the dirty grease stain"?

I will take Des Moines over New Zealand any day, in a heartbeat, faster than you can say "5 hour drive to Chicago". The suggestion that Minnesota Nice/Iowa Stubborn can even begin to compare to what Christchurchians in particular and many Kiwis in general dished out to me shows how wide the gulf is between us.

I don't know what kind of an introduction you had to this board. I hope you've looked at the older, more substantive threads, which detail the kind of deception and abuse migrants—skilled migrants from privileged countries at that—have endured in New Zealand. The older threads in "Weekly Topics" would be a good place to start, as are threads in "Features" and "My Stories". But speaking as a co-founder of the board and the official target for the media ire, I don't think you understand the kind of extremes that forced the creation of this high-maintenance project.

So first, let me introduce myself. My name is Agness Kaku. Every kind of convenient invalidation that the critics of this site have thrown at me, I don't fit. I've traveled to over 30 nations and have lived in 11 cities in 8 countries. I've walked the walk of "cultural differences" and "when in Rome" since birth, unlike a vast majority of these critics. People were always looking at our family, because except in 2 of those countries, we looked too different. People sometimes stared, and occasionally they were cruel. Fair or not, how we—a couple with 3 young children—behaved would be the impression of Japan and Asia for many of the Europeans, South American and Africans watching us. I remember standing up straight in the wilting sun and keeping the heels of my navy-blue Mary Janes together, mindful that (whether we liked it or not), we were representing our country. That was in Rome, 1984. I was 10.

I didn't go around advertising the downsides of Italy. Or Tanzania. Or Denmark. Or Brazil. Or even Canada, where I spent 5 years eating my heart out in a Prairie city whose claim to fame is several rock stars who left for good as soon as they had enough antifreeze in the engine and strings on their guitars.

Accept it or not, New Zealand held enough nasty surprises for someone like me to withdraw from a lifelong "cultural differences" compact. I will offer it again when NZ cares, or is forced by consumer opinion, to honestly present itself as an underperforming economy with desperately outdated infrastructure, hemmed in by a brain drain, racial tensions and culture of laddishness. When it chooses to abandon the spin and just ask all the hardworking migrants "please, will you move here and turn this country around?"

Re: An Eventful Week.

khar59 — Sun Feb 22, 2009 9:11 am

Author: khar59

Posted: Sun Feb 22, 2009 9:11 am

Yes, I have to say that I have seen many a successful Kiwi that lives overseas saying they would never come back to live. However, none of my adult kids will move out of NZ.

Yes, we do live in Des Moines and the place has grown alot in the ten years I've been here. More immigrants coming in and more people from out of state. The place needed to change, it was so backward before that. It's a good place to bring up kids!

I joined WFF just after I arrived here as it was the only international bank that I could find. We get good service from them. I like anything that is accessible on the internet. You can do everything online. The employee benefits are good and we are just in the process of refinancing our mortgage with them. Very easygoing attitude toward employees and loans.

I would go home tomorrow just to be with my kids and grandchildren. You can't replace family and I hate missing out on the grandkids. I think that financially I am better off here. But then life was pretty good for me in NZ as well. We'd owned 3 homes and built the last one. The cost of insurances and things are alot cheaper in NZ.

Re: An Eventful Week.

daninnz — Sun Feb 22, 2009 8:13 am

Author: daninnz

Posted: Sun Feb 22, 2009 8:13 am

Quote:Khar59 stated: I'm kind of trying to point out here that immigrants anywhere in the world probably experience the same things

That is just NOT the case. I have been an "immigrant" a few times and NZ is the worst experience I have ever had. The NZ move was not economic, or employment related but rather out of love and respect for an aging mother-in-law - who has since been killed by the healthcare system in NZ. Mind you, due to that ACC did pay for the funeral, but I do wish I could have sued a few sorry a**es - if for no other reason but to ensure the rampant incompetence is made public. Unfortunately, incompetence is defined in NZ as "she'll be right" and/or a "#8 wire fix-up"." In plain english Kiwi's expect and almost demand incompetence in everything IMO.

My next move is back to the USA and thru organizations I belong to I have folks emailing and calling me now asking when will I be there. This is a move to somewhere I have NEVER lived before yet folks are waiting to welcome me and use my skills and abilities! Further, as you may have guessed, I am not American and as such I am clearly defined as being culturally different and an immigrant.

You may want to note 2 things Khar59; those being:

1. My wife, a kiwi, lived 30+ years in North America. In that time we knew many succeessful Kiwi's who tried to return to NZ to live. Of those who actually moved, NONE STAYED, and all are more harsh about NZ that I am.

2. My Kiwi wife is more harsh about NZ being 3rd world than I am. Mind you, she was educated (undergrad degrees in North America - not the NZ boxtop variety) and was successful in North America.

NZ is not a nice place for anyone to come to and interestingly 1 of 4 people born in NZ leave never to return. It is the most polluted place I have lived and the best example I have ever seen of incompetence run rampant in every sphere of endeavour.

As an aside, I deal with WFF and their service is great. Offshore I also deal with HSBC and their service nowhere near matched WFF. As for NZ institutions, they fall into my description in the paragraph preceding this one.

Re: An Eventful Week.

Little Turtle — Sat Feb 21, 2009 10:58 pm

Author: Little Turtle

Posted: Sat Feb 21, 2009 10:58 pm

khar59 wrote:
I have no Iowan friends except for my husband's as most Iowans keep their friends from school and don't open their homes to new comers. There have been articles about this from other Americans moving to Iowa for work.

Where you live in Iowa makes a difference. By WFF I'm guessing you may mean Wells Fargo Financial. If so, I suspect you may live in or near Des Moines. I moved to Des Moines Iowa for a while many years ago. I found folks in Des Moines like most other folks from the Mid West. In general, they organize friendships around work, family, school connections, religion, and special interests. If you don't establish friends through work and you are religious, your church ought to provide a network. If you aren't religious, I suggest joining one or more special interest organizations. If you like to sew or quilt, join something like a quilting club. If you like photography, join a photography club. If you have time and interest, volunteer with a charity. Maybe you might like joining a square dance club. If you can make common interest, you should be able to make good friends.

Iowa is a slightly liberal island near the coast of a large sea of conservative thought.

Re: An Eventful Week.

g.d.zone — Fri Feb 20, 2009 8:57 pm

Author: g.d.zone

Posted: Fri Feb 20, 2009 8:57 pm

I have gotten some serious perspective on that too, living here. I now go out of my way to make friends with people I might not have bothered with back home, and it has been very rewarding.