Issue #964

by Paul Taylor, Lakes Weekly Bulletin

hard to see why when you look at the rest of the world, especially through the lens of X (formerly Twitter). Things tend to get a very heated during each USA election cycle but this time around it feels more explosive, almost insane, especially with the backdrop of the Russia v Ukraine war, attacks by Israel on Gaza, and race riots in the UK.

Last week, the world’s richest man Elon Musk shared some fake far-right propaganda on X claiming the new UK Prime Minister Kier Starmer is considering building ‘detainment camps’ on the Falkland Islands to house far-right rioters. A couple of clicks, or just half a nose for bullshit, and Musk would have known it was untrue. It was seen by two million people before he deleted it an hour later. The inference is that Starmer, leader of the Labour Party, is some sort of modern day Joseph Stalin, ready to send you to a Siberian gulag if you’re not woke enough. This ridiculous position has been repeated on X as UK police have moved to arrest the nationalist bigots involved in the riots earlier this month, and those who spread the toxic misinformation that fuelled them.

What’s all this got to do with Queenstown?! Well, last week Queenstown Lakes District Council launched the Welcoming Communities draft plan. You can read more about it in our Community Notes section on p8 and get involved on the council’s Let’s Talk website. The general idea is that the district provides a wonderful home for migrants of all nationalities, races and religions, providing easy pathways to services, such as health, social services, schooling, and the rest, not to mention connection to the community, both the migrant communities and the wider Queenstown community.

As a migrant myself, coming from the UK about 14 years ago, I can say I’ve always felt welcome and the joy and dynamism of such a multi-cultural community is one of the reasons I’ve stayed and become an NZ citizen. I’ve met awesome Kiwis, Brazilians, Argentinians, Malaysians, Singaporeans, Japanese, French, Indians, Chinese, fellow Brits ... even some of the Aussies are ok.

You look at Queenstown Primary School, where there are pupils of more than 30 nationalities, and it’s a world away from the toxic rhetoric on Twitter and on the streets of the UK, although it should be noted that tens of thousands of people turned out in counter anti-racism protests across the UK. New Zealand does have its problems with racism, not to mention misinformation, but thankfully in Queenstown, generally, the melting pot of cultures is celebrated.

People have always moved across the world. Even the most isolated cultures change, adapt and evolve. Our nationality, cultures and creeds should be celebrated but never used to divide humanity.