KEY POINTS:
As I said to my mother early this week, "I don't look for trouble, it just follows me around."
Here I was, hoping to retreat from controversy and grow pinot noir in Martinborough, earning enough income through writing to keep my daughter at university for another year, and
suddenly I'm a "cynical racist", "brainless bimbo" and numerous other ad hominem attacks, including the accusation that I write whatever any passing man tells me to write. Strewth, my editors might take exception to that last one, since it reflects rather badly on their judgement.
My sin was to write a feature about how New Zealand has gone from a country which once regarded Chinese immigrants as hard-working, law-abiding, good kiwis to today's situation, where each week brings news of yet another major crime involving Asians.
In the strictest sense of the word, it might well be racist that we have an Asian Crime Unit in the police, but it was established because Asian immigrants were bringing serious, organised, profit-driven crime to this country. But we're paying for it.
While researching the story, I was surprised to find that anyone charged with an offence can apply for legal aid - you don't have to be a New Zealand citizen or permanent resident. Legal aid, in principle, is noble in that it allows poor people to access high-quality legal advice when they appear in court. However, in my opinion, the definition of poor people does not include major drug dealers who've made millions of dollars pushing methamphetamine - P - a drug fast becoming a scourge in this country.
Research also killed another assumption of mine - that international students are those aged between about 12 and 25 who are willing to come here and pay for a good-quality education before returning to their homeland. Not so. There's no age limit for starters, which is why a 66-year-old woman was able to rob the Auckland District Health Board of $50,000 in healthcare. And most international students come here hoping they'll get permanent residency when they graduate.
Tze Ming Mok - I'll be racist and assume this person is Asian - said I had dragged up "nearly every negative Asian stereotype you can find, and is not borne out by the facts".
Chief human rights commissioner Rosslyn Noonan (European?) said the article "tars a whole community with the misdeeds of a few".
In that case, why does Noonan not take issue with another story last weekend that reported an organisation trying to protect children when their mothers are being beaten by teaching them to chant "Run, run, run, dial one, one, one"?
According to the latest statistics, in 2004 there were more than 3100 convictions recorded against men for assaults on women. In the past 12 months, around 15 women have been killed by their partners or ex-partners. Noonan and Mok should be consistent and accuse this story of sexism, tarring all men by the actions of a few. I don't deny these two critics, and the insane bloggers with only a site for an audience, their opinions. But their views don't reflect most New Zealanders out in the heartland.
Aucklanders forget it's not the Gilda Kirkpatricks or the Kelly Swanson-Roes who drive the economy. The bulk of our wealth is still created by people in agriculture, fishing, viticulture, horticulture. Strange as it may seem to those who think power resides in socialising, there's a lot more to Chardonnay than flicking your fingers at the sommelier, and the trim milk for lattes doesn't come from an Italian espresso machine.
At a funeral in Bulls (small Rangitikei town) this week, chatting to locals over sausage rolls, ginger gems and neenish tarts, I was reminded of this by good folk with concerns about certain aspects of New Zealand life disappearing. What do I mean by that? Here's a disturbing fact: in 2003 four of every five pregnant Asian women aborted their babies. Do we keep abortion as a last-resort method of birth control, or accept it's a casual approach to contraception?
Another: Statistics NZ projections put the Asian population at 860,000 in 20 years, just 10,000 fewer than Maori. Is this what the tangata whenua envisage?
Perhaps we could try for mature debate on our immigration policy, skewed vastly in favour of those with money, rather than dumping trouble on anyone who dares point out that, contrary to what the PC brigade pretend, not every Asian is a good Asian.
If my article was racist, how come I've had so much positive feedback from Asian immigrants, sick of seeing fellow country men and women in the dock, and agreeing with the head of the Auckland Drug Squad when he says anyone who commits serious crimes within 10 to 15 years of coming to New Zealand should be sent straight back?
