"What Are You Doing In OUR Town?"

A group of visitors to Kawakawa’s iconic Hundertwasser toilets got rather more than a ‘traditional Kiwi welcome’ as they visited the facility late Tuesday afternoon. A couple of (local?) thugs decided to beat and rob them.

The assault was covered by the Northern Advocate, which said that the group was on a scavenger hunt, for which one of the tasks was to be photographed outside of the ‘world famous’ public convenience.
As the photo was being snapped a man and woman approached the group of Auckland university students and began to harangue them.

One of the local police officers told the press:

“Both asked the group, “What are you doing in our town?”, before the man held one of the male victims up by his T-shirt and punched him in the head.
Meanwhile, the woman took the camera from one of the female students and pushed another to the ground, where she kicked her several times. She then turned her attention to the last female in the group and punched her twice in the head.
The male offender then tried to punch the second male student, which was followed by a scuffle on the ground, Mr Raitt said…
One was described as a male Maori, about 18 to 20-years-old, skinny and with short black hair. The other was a 16 to 18-year-old female Maori, also described as skinny, with long black hair tied up in a pony tail…” more here

Police are appealing to the public for help in catching the two thugs.

We note that the identities and nationalities of the victims has not been released to the press, from this we infer that they were probably international students and the local authorities may be keen to minimise any global interest the muggings may attract.

Of course, this isn’t the first time that innocent tourists have been attacked and robbed whilst visiting Northland, as any reader of this blog will know. Other posts about crime in the ‘lawless north’ may be found here.

You may recall that in May three young French tourists were beaten and robbed as they camped on the roadside in near Mangamuka, east of Kaitaia, by two men posing as police officers.

We hear that little progress has been made in apprehending those responsible and the trail seems to have gone cold since the victims returned to France. Is the message getting out that international visitors are a soft target in Northland?

At the time of the Mangamuka assaults we said that Northland seemed to be a particularly risky place for visitors, with many of the aggravated robberies on tourists  overly violent and aggressive. See French tourists thought they were going to die.

See also:

“The Land Of Misadventure” – …”Northland has a high level of unemployment, a lot of low- income people and there are criminal groups targeting tourists at popular spots. Locals get robbed as well, but the tourists offer richer pickings for the criminals.
Though locals may lose their shoes, cellphone and the small sum of cash in their pockets, tourists were known to carry a lot more money, have expensive cameras and sometimes iPods and laptops. The latest attack and robbery of the three Frenchmen was typical…” Dom Post

Related posts “Tourist Beaters Up Un-Maori” and “French Tourists Back in Northland to Help Catch Attackers“

A good reason perhaps to give the region a wide berth until its crime problem is sorted out once and for all?

Also in the news today – Unemployed Kaitaia teenager Jameel Job, 17 is to be sentenced today for the brutal murder of semi-retired school teacher Barbara Julian, whom he bashed to death during a home invasion in Kaitaia, Northland, in November 2009.

News reports at the time stated that the 70 year old grandmother had told her niece she was thinking about leaving town because people in the street were frightening her. See also: “It could have happened at any house” 

f you’re planning to take a holiday, or migrate to New Zealand be sure to find out about the risks before you leave. If you are British you may wish to read the travel advisory issued about New Zealand by the Foreign and Commonwealth office here.

Some other recent tourist attacks and robberies in Northland include:
A family of Swiss tourists that were assaulted and racially abused in Kaitaia

Anke Kuballa and Marc Busch from Germany who were robbed in Whangarei
Two German tourists attacked in Paihia
Two American tourists were robbed at Shipwreck Bay in Northland

Asian woman, (probably Japanese) age 22, raped in her room by 2 teenagers in a home invasion in Opotiki

Three Chinese tourists attacked and robbed at Te paki, 90 Mile Beach, Northland
French tourist Anthony Cressend, beaten and robbed at campsite in Ahipara
French tourist (male) raped at gunpoint near Opotiki,

American campers Patrick Dykstra and Kelsey McGinley beaten and robbed at Whangarei Falls

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International Students "Only Seen As Cash Cows"

You've got to hand it to the professor of Asian studies at Auckland University**. She isn't afraid to say what a lot of us have known for some time, it's just refreshing to see it spoken about so frankly. What makes her statements so much more credible is that she is in the position to know more about these these things than the rest of us.

From another excellent article by the migration affairs reporter in the New Zealand Herald, Lincon Tan, we learn that:

"International students are worth $2 billion annually to the economy. "If you want to put it crudely, they are seen only as cash cows," said Professor Manying Ip, a professor of Asian studies at Auckland University."

$2 Billion, who'd have thought it was that much. This is a major earner for the country where the GDP is $115 Billion.

So what other benefits, besides the obvious, do international students have for New Zealand? Not many it seems and local students are feeling uneasy about having so many 'foreigners' in their classes:

"New Zealanders' attitudes towards international students today is very different to the days when we had the Colombo Plan, when they really wanted to share the benefits of New Zealand education with the developing world."

International students support 45,000 jobs, pay more than $600 million in direct fees and the travel and tourism industry further benefits from their visiting friends and families.
Professor Ip says the value of international students are being equated by schools to getting a new IT room or a swimming pool, rather than any of the non-monetary benefits they bring.
Even local students feel uncomfortable in the presence of too many international students, another academic says."

In Canterbury why do only the Pakeha (Caucasian) students take umbrage and leave when the international students turn up, where do they go we wonder?:

"Last year, head of Elam Art School Jonathan Mane-Wheoki, said: "I know from my time in Canterbury, you can have too many international students and the Pakeha students take flight."
Professor Ip says although her colleague's comments were regrettable, it was not an unknown kind of feeling.

"I try to convince my colleagues of the other benefits, like international connections and cultural awareness, to a university in an isolated country like New Zealand, but it has been a struggle."

A new swimming pool is so much more tangible.

The article ends with a judicious application of PR salve from the university, no doubt mindful that somewhere in NZ the funding of a new IT suite could be in jeopardy:

"This year, Auckland University has 908 new international students, who will be paying tuition fees of more than $20 million. 

Vice-chancellor Stuart McCutcheon says it is grossly inaccurate to say international students are being treated as cash cows.

Dr Christopher Tremewan, the university's international pro vice-chancellor, said issues sometimes arose because professors failed to distinguish between international students and immigrant students, who did not have to take strict language tests to enter the university and often struggled with the English language."

One has to ask why strict language tests aren't required. Surely for the sakes of the students who are investing thousands of dollars in their education it would be advisable to ensure that they can at least understand what they are being taught? Is the international language of cold, hard cash is all that's needed?

** "Dr Ip is a respected advocate for Chinese communities living in New Zealand. She was awarded a Suffrage Centennial Medal in 1993 and was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 1996.  In 2004 she co-directed New Faces Old Fears, a television documentary exploring racism, multiculturalism and social cohesion in New Zealand. In late 2008, she was elected a Fellow of the New Zealand Academy of Humanities (FNZAH) in recognition of her distinction in research and the advancement of the humanities." (source)

See also: blog posts tagged 
Blog posts tagged Education 
"Principals divided over Asian studies":  "Palmerston North secondary school principals are divided over whether students should be taught more about Asia to boost future chances of doing business with countries such as China and India.

All but one Palmerston North high school have Asian international students enrolled and have sister schools in Asia, but only half of the principals think it is relevant to include more Asian content in the school curriculum. None offers Mandarin as a language..."




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