Letters: Setting refugees up to fail?

Looks like Whanganui is going to be one of the towns in New Zealand targeted for new immigrants to settle.

I am for immigration — none of us can really look in the mirror and say we are against it when we are all descended from immigrants or are immigrants ourselves. Yes, folks, our ancestors arrived here, sometimes generations ago, wondering "what the hell am I going to do now?", just like people do nowadays.

The difference with the new immigrants we are going to receive is that they are refugees from countries that are basically hellholes on Earth. They may have health issues, both physically and mentally, language issues, religion issues and a fear of living in a totally alien culture.

It is also reported by a refugee group in Auckland that they also have a fear of living amongst an overwhelmingly white population, for whatever reason. Of course the government in its wisdom has not bothered to consult the populations of the towns nominated nor, funnily enough, the refugee councils and organisations neither. All the towns nominated have a majority white population.

These people are going to need a lot of support from both professionals and others from their communities who have lived in New Zealand for a while, know English and can offer sound advice. Has there been any research to see if such people exist in Whanganui and the other small towns nominated?

Are these poor people being set up to fail? We are told they will have a job and a house to come to before moving to Whanganui. How is that going to happen when the local population has trouble getting housed and employed? What tensions will that cause if it is seen that refugees will get preference over locals in the job and housing stakes? Is this another pipe dream of Lees-Galloway, up there with his Sroubek debacle?

Do not get me wrong; I would welcome these refugees any time. It would be heartless of anybody not to, bearing in mind their backgrounds, but is this being done right?

As a cynical afterthought, how many of these nominated towns are held by Labour MPs?

ROB RATTENBURY
Whanganui

Key details missing

The recent Chronicle article on the Venezuelan leader Maduro blocking aid from the US "out of refusal to relinquish power", while preferring to starve "his own people" leaves key information out.

First, as FAIR, a US media watchdog group pointed out that it's not just Maduro — as the Western media are presenting it — who opposes the US aid convoy; it's the UN and Red Cross. Why do none of the above reports note this rather key piece of information, instead giving the reader the impression it's only the stance of a sadistic, power-hungry madman?"

The Red Cross has long been working with local authorities inside Venezuela to deliver relief, and just last week doubled its budget to do so.

Despite dozens of media outlets giving the impression (and sometimes explicitly saying) that the Venezuelan government shut down an otherwise functioning pathway into the country, the bridge in question hasn't been open for years. It's true the Venezuelan government appears to have placed an oil tanker and cargo containers on the bridge to prevent military incursion from the Colombian side, but the other barriers, as writer Jason Emery noted, have been in place since at least 2016. How can Maduro, as the BBC suggested, 'reopen' a bridge that was never open?

Additionally, the Venezuelan government "has an entirely rational reason to suspect the US would use humanitarian aid as a cover to smuggle in weapons to foment armed conflict". Trump's envoy to Venezuela, Elliot Abrams, literally did just that 30 years ago.

An August 17, 1987 AP/New York Times article on Elliott Abrams revealed that Abrams authorised a shipment of weapons on a humanitarian aid flight to Nicaraguan Contras.

Without getting into Maduro's blunders, the forged drama continues of an evil "socialist" government against the "free" Western World. Socialist? Venezuela's economy is 70 per cent in private hands ... including the same people who have helped make their economy scream by withholding investment and intentionally sending money overseas to devalue the peso. Real fake news.

BRIT BUNKLEY
Whanganui

Send your letters to: The Editor, Whanganui Chronicle, 100 Guyton St, PO Box 433, Whanganui 4500; or email editor@wanganuichronicle.co.nz