Posted by alexandra_k on December 11, 2019, at 21:48:49
In reply to Re: the people of New Zealand, posted by sigismund on December 11, 2019, at 19:20:38
Yes, I remember a while back reading an article in ''The Conversation'' or similar about a similar problem in Australia.
Macquarie seemed to be in a similar position. Concern about setting the bar low. Then concern about whether there even was a bar.
We don't often hear about how they fail out their most capable people. We lament the stupid they hail as the best -- but we don't often hear about how they fail out their most capable people.
Edu-tourism. Yeah. It is a way into the country. Then after you have resided for however long you are resident. Smooths / paves the way to citizenship. Especially if you add the possibility of marrying a local at some point during your studies.
New Zealand marketed itself as a destination for Edu-tourism. It is embarrassing really but (amongst other things) we marketed ourself as setting the bar for entry lower than any other English Speaking nation. Requiring less points. The value of the dollar made New Zealand attractive, too. One of the marketing ideas was to make it a destination ESL country. To basically say that we would take people who didn't speak English if they paid us to teach them English.
It started with home placements. So people got to live with a family maybe with a kid their age. Learn English by total immersion. But then it became about living in a high rise slum in a tiny (maybe even shared) room with 16 people to a bathroom or something equally atrocious. TO study English with people who don't speak it or know it. To be with a bunch of other students from ones home country so no opportunity to speak it with locals, at all. Then the exams are stupid exams that I (as a native English speaker) would no doubt fail.
So we intentionally marketed ourself as a desination launching pad here to learn English so people would have the points to aim higher -- to Australia or Canada or the UK or the USA. And of course a bunch of degenerates and terrorists and the like took us up on that.
And hard working honest people too, of course. And people who just wanted the OE and liked the idea of being rich in this country... And... Whatever.
I know things are bad in Australia. ANd in parts of the US. And so on. But it really really really really does seem to me that things are so very very very very very much worse here.
But maybe it was that other countries treated me better for the time I was in them. I didn't see the worst of it.
But New Zealand... Hasnt' had meaningful employment for me, at all. New Zealand... Has kept me in slum... Has refused to acknowledge the things I've done (while simultaneously stealing them and passing them off as the ideas of others)...
Doesn't listen to a f*ck*ng word I say...
Isn't capable of reading the reports of examiners external to the University.
Isn't capable of generating a true and accurate transcript of a students study...
But then I can walk by the Harbour... All the new housing (largely empty) that is built for the Americas cup. All the restaurants and bars and paved shared walkways and apartments... The people of New York or Connecticut or Rhode Island or f*ck*ng wherever wanted summer houses in the middle of their winter all the way down in this part of the world...
All the intellectual property they collect up from turnitin...
Sure...
Come get it.
It's there for the taking.
All the empty apartments.
And all the pretty suburbs surrounding the inner city ghetto.
All the pretty houses for all the pretty people who have all the money and the power and the jobs...
People seem to have it really good, here.
So many people seem to hvae it really really really very good here
So.
I don't know.
Apparently if you pay to see a specialist you even get to by-pass the wait list for timely public care. Of course, that's how that works. Did you now if you have health insurance then the St John's amubulance might even triage you to hospital ER. Instead of after hours medical clinic where you are sent a $50 or $70 dollar bill for the after hours medical care. Or maybe you have to pay St Johns $700 per year for the appropriate triage of your medical emergency, I can't remember. I think you can pay them a premium so you have door to door delivery for your hospital appointment. I mean they will literally come to your door and carry you and you can even lie on a stretcher and they will chat to you all the way there...
Like teh US maybe 30 or 40 years ago where they check your wallet to see your insurer so they ambulance knows whether to take you to hospital and which hospital to take you to... Whether to simply turn on the sirens and get the hell out of there...
I guess they know your area code when you call and ask for ambulance.
Like how they turn the power off to certain special areas of the country first. Where they decide the people matter the least.
Not because they contribute the least to the running of this country. Often time (seems to me) they actually contribute the most.
The people building the buildings. NO health insurance. No healthcare (triaged lower than everybody else I'd imagine). The people building the roads. All the aesbestos and chemicals poured on the roads... And so on...
While the idiots in charge collect up all the resources and have all the power (literally)...
While health, education, social and economic development everything everything everything swampy swamp swamp.
At least that's how it is for me.
I am not valued here.
It isn't fair that I was born to here. I am not valued here, at all.
poster:alexandra_k
thread:1107163
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/poli/20190413/msgs/1107206.html