A friend from Christchurch asked me to post this newspaper article here for the purpose of general reading and educational. Not meant to offend anyone here. This attached news article was published in early Sept. 2005.
http://newpaper.asia1.com.sg/news/st...,94117,00.html
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Why I stand up to the skinheads
By Lincoln Tan (from Christchurch)
September 07, 2005
WATCHING my 5-year-old son, Ryan, mimic the national rugby team, All Blacks, sing 'God Defend New Zealand', the country's national anthem, the thought hit me - this is now home for me. My two children, Ryan and Megan, 3, are New Zealand citizens by virtue of birth, and they have been the deciding factor for my wife and I making New Zealand our adopted homeland.
Singapore, the country I left in 1997, will be to them what China was to our forefathers. New Zealand is where they will grow up and grow old.
Therein lies an issue of colour - race.
In Christchurch, where Asians make up only 7 per cent of the population, my kids look obviously different from others.New Zealand may be considered by many to have one of the best race relations in the world, but all is not well in the Land of the Long White Cloud.
It portrays a '100 per cent' pure clean and green image. But we in Christchurch suffer nights of smog for up to five months in the year.
The reality of its race relations also has two sides.
Recently, the wife of a Sikh immigrant wrote to a local paper to say: '(We) have been subjected to eggs being thrown at us along with the racist yelling of 'rag head' and various other malicious vocabularies focused on ethnicity and religion.'
Last month, a Chinese, who has lived in New Zealand for 17 years, was assaulted by a group of local whites, one of whom said she did it because she 'hates gooks'.
The fact that this is election year in New Zealand does not help, as politicians play the race card to win votes.
Asians have been accused of forcing up house prices, clogging up roads, stealing jobs and abusing the welfare system.
The day-to-day realities of racial discrimination against Asians become even more obvious in my line of work.
I edit an Asian community newspaper and am a volunteer chairperson for the Asian Youth Trust - a body supporting young Asian migrants and students.
Last year, a Vietnamese girl was kicked and beaten to the ground at the Christchurch bus interchange by two shaven head New Zealanders. Witnesses just looked on.
I decided that enough is enough.
I agreed to work with a Malaysian lawyer and a Muslim university lecturer to organise a march against racism in May last year. The call was for stronger law against race-hate crimes.
The skinheads decided to hold a counter rally, and were quoted in a newspaper report as saying, 'Asians who cannot fit in deserve to be abused'.
The local mayor denied racism exists in Christchurch: 'It's only people getting to know each other,' he said, calling the organisers 'extreme' and 'naive'.
The mayor of Christchurch asked the Asian organisers to back down and said the local council would support the rally only if Asians don their national costumes and turned the march into a street parade.
I considered this an insult. I did not migrate to New Zealand to become a court jester to entertain the Lord Mayor.
It was a little more encouraging that 2,000 people were at our rally, and about 20 were at the skinheads'.
The massive media coverage sparked more talk on racism and race relations.
But in not having a multicultural past, New Zealand is struggling to find something workable to help racial integration. The 2 1/2 years I spent in national service in Singapore made me realise that whether we are Malay, Indian, Chinese or Eurasian, we shared similar problems. Under our different coloured skins, we were the same.
I came out of the army having more friends from other races than before.
So, no matter how much fish and chips or pavlova (a popular Kiwi dessert) I eat, I will still be a Singaporean deep down.
It is different for my children though, and I have made it my mission to try and make New Zealand a better place for them.
Ryan will probably never make the All Blacks, and Megan will never be a Rachel Hunter - but they are New Zealanders. That's why I do stupid things like standing up to the skinheads.
I want my kids to grow up in a place where they are valued, no matter what their colour - just like in daddy's Singapore.
Originally Posted by Moorf
It always looks perfect in my head, but by the time it gets on the screen - its gibberish. Im surprised anyone can tell what im gabbling on about!
) - I would probably be as nervous as I was with the driving one!!
