lardyl

Ok then lets re-title the thread to something more accurate.......

Alliance and Leicester want ex-Pats money, check out their hottest places to emigrate to........

Having said all that how many South African immigrants to NZ do you know that would place their country "as a place to live" in mid-table and above the UK, Florida, etc........I know about 30 very well and none of them would......

Also the sweeping generalised comments this "study" makes about some rather important aspects of life here, such as tax, benefits and working conditions are just that and not very accurate......might be OK on bare numbers or some reported statistics but what they need is a "poll" where people with experience of the country can comment and put it all together with some statistical significance, not this re-working of old data.....again my 2 cents......

Jokerman

Have a look at one of their "sources" and it turns out it's Lonely Planet.

I would delve deeper but I can't be bothered - it's a load of old bs.

lardyl

yeah I said that before but if you try to criticise or point out the shortcoming of anything around here then someone leaps to the defence of their beloved NZ........whether or not it is the thing being criticised......
TBH I just see this "defend at all costs" attitude to be the litmus test of how a nation lives with itself.
So NZ is not that high on my own personal study......
That's a pity cause in many ways its a great place to live.
Just fails to meet fully some of the basic criteria.........still it's the place we are in and where we are meant to be at the moment.

sr71

I don't think many 'defend at all costs' , certainly no worse than many British people. I'd hope to be able to back up any of my opinions of the place.

What is annoying though, really annoying in fact, is that the British that come here (and remember they have a much superior education ) tens of thousands of kilometers from home and they expect it to be utopia. And when they get here they whinge and complain as if the UK is perfect. They can't even get their basic research right.

And perhaps it is also the sheer nastiness and vitriol, let alone the exaggeration and hypocrisy, that accompanies many of these opinions that gets peoples defences up.

I think the truth is they are angry at themselves for screwing up so take it out on NZ.

lardyl

yep and it is so easy to look at that opinion completely the other way around without all the snide, defensive, and downright unpleasantness added to it, but then that would not be the "Kiwi is best" way......

and believe me I have heard for worse criticism from other non-British ex-Pats of New Zealand, its health/education services, New Zealanders and their attitudes to work, life and the rest of the world, than from people on here, more commonly than you Kiwis would think. But as many of the locals around here could not take any of this "criticism and vitriol" then those people keep their tones hushed and suss you out before they spill out their guts......

Of course they are poorly educated, badly researched and a totally bitter about making their journey from the other side of the world to this paradise of free thinking, outward looking, liberal spirits.......

What - this is the most defensive country I know of. Where else would you get natives coming on to forums devoted to ex-Pats to defend the indefensible? As many, many others have said, its just little brother syndrome on a national scale.....

lardyl

right on Kiwi brother - they are in the wrong, Kiwis are right and shouldn't have to take all of this ciricism......pity you all have to take it as a personal affront.....learn from the Brits, become a lit more self-effacing and a little less "little brother"-ish.

if you don't want to come over as defensice then you really should read your own post again......

most of the Brits here will admit that parts of the UK stink and lots of British things are falling to bits. Not many Kiwis on here seem to be able to ride with a comment that could suggest that New Zealand is also in a bit of a state.....

waynepfry

Careful - Lardyl - if you keep putting in your two cents worth you'll have nothing left out of your Kiwi $ after tax.

Just to balance things out a bit though - some people are so anti-NZ it's quite unbelieveable. That's the beauty of a good forum - people can put their opinions across and somewhere between it all you can get a decent balance amongst all the debates.

I bet a lot of people winceswhen they post a new thread because they may come 'under attack' from the pro/anti-NZ lobby or just becasue their personal opinion/research doesn't agree with everyone's sentiments.

NZ's a great place (for me) though it's far from a utopia and has it's fair share of problems just like anywhere else. Having only lived in England and NZ I can't say if it's the best place to live but it's pretty damned good and does seem to finish high up ona lot of surveys/polls/studies/piles of bs or whatever you want to call them.

Anyway I just got PR granted on Friday so (10 months of frustration and close to $5000 later) I'm all made up.

sr71

I don't think any Kiwis have come on here deliberately to defend their country. I have lived in the UK for the last 8 years, in that time I have gotten married and had children. I have had pretty much the same emigration issues as anyone else on here. Or do you think it should be a little club for British born people only?

A lot of criticism is valid, of any country, but the fact remains there are a few hardcore people on here that are really so anti-NZ it makes you wonder why they bother.

southerner

Whats the issue with somebody publishing their view of the best <<insert your own favourite list here>> in the world. Its just trying to sell stuff and as always it should be buyer beware.

For example, just because some magazine says Vegas or Florida are in the top tourist destinations in the world still doesn't change the fact there's zero chance of me ever going to those places of my own free will. If somebody is silly enough to migrate to NZ because it tops a list by a small Spanish owned bank, then that's their problem, isn't it?

lardyl

I say good on ya....well done and I will not whinge about the extra few hundred it cost us to get the work, etc visas whilst our PR came through.

Personally I like NZ...a lot....some things I still hate but almost all of them are less of a problem for me than they were a year ago.....

What I do defend is people's rights to moan and offer criticism as long as there is something constructive in them or in their bringing it out.

Hence I can live with people who always post about phat exhausts (as at lest it gives the casual broweser a heads up on a problem of nz) but the totally negative, "shut up or get lost *home*" drives me totally mad as I find it hard to get anything constructive out of it (apart from the sort of contructiveness that comes from a sharp blow to the head......to clear the thinking), but even that is really marginal as most people won't see it that way at all.......

Anyway sorry to all that I may have offended I just want to speak up for the right to moan on here and elsewhere.......

lardyl

Yep.....however, the thread title does not say that and the first posts just amble along with the assumption being that this "poll" changes something.
All anyone was trying to point out was the poor data that these people who did the "study" relied on - and it was not only me........anyway I can't be doing posting the obvious for everyone else to come back and ask why.......

Genesis

A lot of criticism is valid, of any country, but the fact remains there are a few hardcore people on here that are really so anti-NZ it makes you wonder why they bother.[/QUOTE]

Here here.

I agree with the above. Why on earth do they bother with their vitriol when they have zero interest in the place? I was REALLY shafted by my colleagues whilst in Plod. I do not go on to Plod sites berating plod. Plod is my past, I have no regrets and do not feel the need to warn anyone of what I suffered in plod land.

No one else is me and thus they may well have an awesome time in said organisation. Nought wrong in constructive criticism as I think we all agree, but some poster and their tone are a tad outrageous.

southerner

Actually the first few posts were immediately cynical of the information. Then somebody had a go at the OP, and then it all got even more aimless.


Maybe we should pose the question, does the average Brit have an idealised view of what living in NZ must be like? Like Neighbours without the snakes and spiders.

Bo-Jangles

Yes, in the first instance they probably do Southerner, they get fed a constant stream of 'A place in the Sun' and airy, fairy stories about happy migrants in women's magazines. Life is portrayed as perfick, with blue skies, fluffy white clouds, cheaper cost of living sunshine and BBQs. There initial look at emigrating will possibly be from seeing such press releases as given by our man from the Alliance and Leicester.

janek

Well they haven't heard of this forum have they?

Are people really so gullible they would migrate to a country where life is portrayed as perfick? I don't think migrants are so stupid. A country is what you make it, some are better at making it than others... they don't need some bank to tell them where to live