Beyond Embarrassing

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My unabridged letter to the Southland Times after realising how much is reported overseas regarding our internal politics:

When I first travelled overseas many years ago I was proud to proclaim my identity as a New Zealander. In those days we were respected as a principled country that championed human rights. Back then Australians and New Zealanders recognised and valued our shared history and our ANZAC relationship meant something.

How far we have fallen.

My European and American friends now know that our Prime Minister urinates in the shower and has an unusual attraction to long hair (why should this be public knowledge?).

We were once known as a great country for bringing up children but the OECD ranks us as 29th out of 30 countries for child health and safety (below Mexico).

When many countries are opening their doors to growing numbers of desperate refugees, New Zealand is ranked 90th in the world for the numbers we accept per capita.

Our Australian neighbours are not treating us friends any longer and yet our Government refuses to publicly denounce its human rights abuses as many other countries have done. The Prime Minister’s emotive description of the New Zealanders being detained under discriminatory laws as “rapists and murderers” was unnecessarily inflammatory, many aren’t even criminals.

A respected New Zealand soldier who served in Afghanistan (who has been charged with no crime) is currently being held in maximum security for being a member of a motorcycle club.

It was also reported around the world that John Key accused opposition MPs as supporting rapists and when female MPs (many of whom had experienced sexual assaults themselves) attempted to protest that slur they were evicted from the Parliamentary Chamber.


This is beyond embarrassing.

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