Calling all Kiwis!! (New Zealanders)

Good Wolf of Southland calling here.

Fellow kiwis, what is going on in this country that needs to be talked about? I wouldn't mind hearing some details on Winston Peters money scandal but I dont want this thread to be exclusive about that.

What's you view of the state of the nation?




Also the first time you post in this thread, add at the bottom of the post your region, please. (I wanna see what kind of national cross section we have here)

In Gore and Southland in general, gangs are on the rise. "The Firm" are throwing their weight around, (although a mini riot recently showed them that they are not welcome here).




....... I really hope i'm not the only Kiwi on ATS.

[edit on 9/2/2008 by Good Wolf]

Hello my friend,

No I am not a New Zealander, nor have I ever visited, but this thread looked so lonely I thought I would put Google to work and find out what is wrong with New Zealand. I came up with the following assumptions.

1. You have a lesbian Prime Minister that looks more like a man than a woman. She engages in a sham marriage to hide her blatant raving homosexuality. Furthermore, after all the power and money she has horded one would think she would have been in contact with a good orthodontist.

2. The country is drowning in a “welfare mentality” with thousands of scroungers putting their hand out. These people are NOT indigenous, they are the first colonist, so they have no claim there. They need to get over themselves and get on with it. These people form ghettos anywhere they congregate and make the whole area into one big trailer park. They thrive on domestic violence, theft and boozing.

3. Your country has a week and pathetic economy due to a lack of working population (way too many on welfare). NZ lacks the industry to grow strong, so it will always be a lower middle class at best country (they don’t even have an Air Force!). Careful or Fiji will overtake your GDP.

4. Your only claim to fame seems to be a game called Rugby and extreme sports. These were born from a “need to make our own fun” prepubescent mentality that you have never snapped out of. Time to grow up methinks.

So I guess it should come as no surprise when Clark Helen, I mean Helen Clarkson finally announces to the whole country “Would the last person out please switch off the lights”

This, I guess, is as good a place to ask this question as any other.

Why is New Zealand abbreviated "Oz"? Anyone know?

Pretty much all of our economy is built on farm, fruit and veg and tourism, throw in some wine in as well.

Our dollar has been fairly high considering our economic history, to the point that it's cushioning the brunt of the fuel prices.


I could be wrong of course, my decerning studies in the last 8 months have been primarily on American Empire/911/neo-con/NWO affairs.

And yes, our country is run by a horse, but this cat-foo-too-be is smarter than most of our politicians, especially national parties who will drastically worsen our welfare by perpetuating it, helping more people to get on the govt' tit.

It isnt. 'Oz' is Australia! Australia and New Zealand have a sibling rivalry and a culture of competitiveness.


There are many kiwis who would respond to your error with a punch in the nose.

[edit on 9/2/2008 by Good Wolf]

Well, while you are looking at NWO and American policies and the neocons, check out the neolibs and Brzezinski. He wrote a book called "The Grand Chessboard," and was in Carter's administration. He is the Dems answer to Kissinger. He has also advised Obama.

I really came to this thread to ask- how come you guys are called kiwis? Do they grow there?

And I heard that you are not too friendly to tourists there. Is that true?

If you mean kiwifruit then yes, although thats just a contemporary name for Chinese Gooseberry.

Kiwi (plural and singular) is a small flightless bird native to and iconic in New Zealand.

Kiwis (plural0 is the people of New Zealand.

The are so special here that they are our international Icon especially in our military, as was the case in WWI & II. ANZAC (asutralian New Zealand Army coprs) had a close involvement together in the wars, and over time our soldiers became synonymous with the bird, this later became so with all New Zealanders. It was driven home by soldiers in WWI who carved a humongous kiwi in the chalk on Beacon Hill above the then-military town of Bulford on the Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire.

But in reality, if the Maori (the indigenous people in this country) haddn't hunted to extinction both the Moa and the Haast Eagle. NZ used to be another Madagascar, as it's bio had evolved in isolation, in which there were no predators apart from the Haast's eagle. The eagle and Moa were basically giant forms of their cousins; little eagle and ostrich respectively. The Haast's Eagle was so big and heavy that it didnt carry off its prey(moa) but ploughed into it and then break its neck. If it wanted to, it could carry off an full grown man, as it did once the maori had killed of it's food supply.

As for the tourist thing, I doubt it.

[edit on 9/2/2008 by Good Wolf]

Yes the whites love the Kiwi bird so much they have almost loved it to death as this bird is on the brink of extinction.

Just a quick correction – as I alluded to before, the Maori have only been in NZ for about 700 years, so they are hardly indigenous. They are thought to have come from Taiwan (Females) and Papua New Guinea (Males).

The kiwi have been killed of by the cats and rats in such that have been introduced here. "White man" is also bringing back up thier populations in environmental programs as is very much in fashion right now.



Ohh, I thought you meant us Europeans.

well they dont much like being called native's or anything else but they were here before us europeans. As a generalisation, they get touchy about such things.



we were taught all the maori culture and myths and legends in school. We brought written language to the maori (we gave them their own alphabet in such) so all thier history were oral stories; none of which elude to thier origins (as best as I understand them anyway).

[edit on 9/2/2008 by Good Wolf]

I've never been to NZ, even though I have relatives there - so someday I hope to go.

As a UK resident (of Irish descent) my feeling is that we have a similar relationship with NZ as we do with the ozzies, albeit a little friendlier.

The main rivalry with NZ and the UK is rugby, although cricket is keenly contested as well.

From the pics I've seen (relatives who visited) and the TV I've seen, NZ is a very beautiful and varied place, and I know from first hand they produce some good wines

I haven't ever really had a look at the economy or the politics, but it would be good to read some insights in this thread.

Man is thread a flop. and it seemed such a good idea.

reply to post by Good Wolf

---

Christchurch resident here . I'm not a fan of Clark or Key . Myself I much preferred Brash to Key . Key stands for nothing and is all about popularism which doesn't seem to bother the wider population . Key doesn't even have the guts to bring back the RNZAF combat wing little alone make any tough decisions about the country future . With China looking to increase its influence in the region more investment in the NZDF is needed .

Myself I am a part of the slowly growing minority that supports the use of Nuclear Power .Our health system is overloaded with bureaucrats and they are often elected in the form of District Health Boards . People from the private sector should run our hospitals . NCEA needs to be canned ASAP it is a fundamentally bad idea to teach kids that they cant fail or that failure as no consequences. One last thing I oppose any Carbon Emission trading scheme . Global Warming is without a doubt a enormous fraud .

That should give you some food for thought .

[edit on 6-9-2008 by xpert11]

Thanks for posting. I'm for nuclear too.

Where can I get some info on this global warming scheme.


I am ALWAYS VERY angry when global warming is peddled for new tax.

Do you remember the fart tax fiasco from a couple of years back?

Other then Google here is a ATS search on the matter .




It certainly rings a bell .
Didn't a National MP get into trouble with the law because he drove a tractor up the stairs of parliament in protest of the "fart tax " ?

Cheers xpert11.

[edit on 6-9-2008 by xpert11]

Hey GW, I lived and worked in NZ for a couple of months...

I loved your country, people and all!

I do remeber your PM... My mates over there would mess with me. I still don't know if its a man, woman or a sex change accident gone bad?

I do recall that there are a bunch of coconuts that love the government pay off.


I also remember the cartoon were the ethnic family would drive around on a forklift

SO I'm sorry I am out of the loop now but I would not worry to much about the government tit... I say this because I saw great function in your society.
THE US is secretly near civil war in my opinion. One group wants the government to help and the companies to pay a fair share. The other group wants to reduce the taxes on the companies in hopes that it will mean more jobs. HOWEVER the companies own our lives- information, time, bank accounts and will, there is not much more to give to these faceless gods of existence.

We are on the verge here even if it is not spoken of...

I think you guys should not try to fix something that is not completely broken. I believe that majority of most KIWIS love to work hard and play fair. This is a rare thing in any nation and more then enough to build upon (not limit or destroy- neocon way)

When my land goes up in a NEOCON fireball I will hopefully have made it back there to my home away from home.

stop it my sides are splitting

reply to post by mental modulator

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Glad you liked it here. But we certainly aren't a perfect small nation. New Zealand has striking problem that to me highlights a hidden far worse society problem

In 1999-2003 New Zealand had the worlds highest number of youth suicides (aged 15–24) and now we are second only to Finland. In Gore, there are no kids out on bikes or playing sports, but rather there are 'youths' loitering on the streets (much in the say way you hear in police radio reports), there is a very heavy gang presence and for those of you who have seen Little Britain the language of the youth today is nearing that of Vicky Pollard.

I'm 19 and I am an outlier of the trend (lang), I have also had a friend take their own life so I have first hand experience of the tragedy.

In our society, the destructive rebel image is apparently cool and all the teens adopt it and form gangs. After a while they look at themselves and get depressed. I think this is how we have got our notorious suicide statistics.

BTW, when I say gang, I mean full fledged gang territory wars and riots and all that lot. We recently saw a gang skirmish on the streets about 2 weeks ago.

Our societies value system has corroded away as a result (I think) of bad parenting and bad schooling. Someone mentioned above that NCEA needs to be binned.

Our teen-suicide problem is not talked about but I think it's NZ's biggest problem today

Interestedly New Zealand has something like the third highest teenage pregnancy rate in the world . One school of thought I have heard links the high rates of teen pregnancy to poverty . I admit that the link isnt entirely clear to me . To be honest other then not hiding the issue of suicide in the closet I don't have any ideas how the issue should be tackled at any age group level . I was against the criticism laid against the Fight for Life event and other measures taken to a raise awareness .

On another matter do you support MMP ?
I do and I think its time that we settled on our electoral system . I also think that the unicameral Parliament works well .

Hi Wolf ( what the Time Mr Wolf)

Have lurked here since Dec 2006. Do find this board is obsessed with UFO's and USA politics?????

Always found the Waihopai base thing interesting e.g. When America said they would put a trade Embargo on us after the ANZUS row blah blah... this never happened. My theory was that like pine Gap, Waihopai does a lot more down south than the government admits. Strategically NZ is in a good location for the US e.g the DEEP Freeze Base here in CHCH.

There's also that forest in the North Island The Kaimanawa Wall that the government has closed of to all archaeology digs etc.... allegedly dates pre Maori.... also this link Waipoua Forest

Tapanui Crater is always a good story... the Flu thing and also the fact many of the place names relate to strange events in the area.... also that you find Trinitite in the area... since NZ has never had nuclear weapons tested there....

Yes Helen Clark has always been a bit of a mystery to the sexes of NZ????

I always said I was from Godzone when I was back packing the world as per my avatar shows..............



[edit on 6-9-2008 by greenfruit]