Musings, perspectives, rants

Sep 27, 2005 at 09:24 o\clock

New Zealand - 'safe' and 'friendly'

by: enzedder   Category: New Zealand

I think not.  Just in the last couple of weeks there have been more attacks on tourists: for example - one guy being randomly beaten and now having to spend his two-week holiday in hospital; and a German hitchhiker being murdered.  Tourist websites and brochures really should stop pushing the 'safe' aspect.  It is NOT safe to hitchhike alone or even in pairs.  (A couple were murdered several years ago.)  And New Zealand isn't particularly friendly.  No more so than anywhere else.

Comments for this entry:

  1. Sassy1 wrote at Sep 27, 2005 at 15:08 o\clock:I liked the entry about NZ schools, made me think about the school systems here in Aus. Really I think what we\'ve lost as a society is the ability for kids to think for themselves. I don\'t know that that was ever a strength in schools, lessons were always learned by rote, so no need for students to be able to think for themselves there, and definitely no reason to argue with the teacher.

    However, in the old\'n\' days, society taught the young person to think. Today, we rely on the schools to teach our children everything. And what they are doing is expanding the curriculum. They are responding in the only way they know how. Some schools here are working on very innovative new programs. Inclusiveness is all the rage, and it certainly doesn\'t matter what colour your hair is, or where you are peirced, or even if you wear makeup and jewellry (male or female). I really don\'t see what any of those things have to do with the learning experience, but there you go. One up for Aus!

    As for the tourist thing - if you look at the total number of tourists, and the total number of tourists killed I doubt that it would be a statistically significant figure. It is interesting how publicised these incidents are though. What is the benefit of publicising events such as these? Is it a tactic to control the thoughts of the public? Why would you wish to make your citizens feel unsafe in their own country? A variety of urban terrorism?
  2. enzedder wrote at Sep 28, 2005 at 08:15 o\clock:Just about anything in NZ is news, we\'re so insular. The news on tourist attacks includes a kidnapped English tourist and some breakins on campervans in the past couple of weeks. This spate of attacks drew media\'s attention probably. But I do notice that when one incident occurs, the media seem to search around for other incidences and try to make something of it - like it\'s an increasing trend. This happened when a teenage idiot threw a rock from an overpass which killed the passenger of a car beneath. Reports followed about other rock-throwing and everyone suddenly gets scared of driving. I think you\'re right about this fear-mongering. Way too much of it. And the US excel at it (remember all the phony \'terrorist\' alerts for about 2 years following 9/11).

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