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noddy wrote:.
very true azari, around the world, , its the old english colonies that live at the highest standards of multiculture and peaceful organisation.
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Yes, true, agree, noddy
British lead the colonies to independence with peace .. non of British colonies went the bloodshed route .. South Africa, Rodesia .. non .. master of all that was letting go of INDIA , later , HongKong.
Nobody else could do it .. all other colonial powers would not let go, killing 100s of 1000s if not millions , Kongo, Indonesia, Vietnam, Algeria and and
Although I no fan of Brits, but , have to admit, they special breed of politicians
The new member of parliament is having her Twitter feed documented by
National archive as a testimony of the country’s 2017 election
“My Twitter feed is going into the national archive, it will be interesting for others to see what happens when for the first time a Middle-Eastern woman, a refugee, ran for parliament here,” says Ghahraman.
“Both the support and the attacks.”
Iranian-born Ghahraman’s Twitter page is a fascinating testimony to love and loathing in 2017.
There are the vile, racist attacks on her background and heritage. The suggestion that a terrorist has been elected to parliament, that she may enforce sharia law, smuggle a bomb into the debating chamber, or push back against New Zealand’s socially progressive culture.
Then, to balance it, there is the love. The outpouring of support from elated New Zealanders. The words of encouragement from admiring Australians, worn down by years of that country’s “Pacific solution”, cheers and congratulations from Brexit escapees and Trump survivors. All rallying around a woman who has proven the value and potential of every refugee life.
For Ghahraman the social media abuse was a reminder of what brought her into politics, and the Green party, in the first place – a life-long interest in protecting human rights, whether they be her own, or those of persecuted strangers on the other side of the world.
In 2012 Ghahraman shifted back to New Zealand after working as a prosector for the United Nations Khmer Rouge tribunal in Cambodia.
“I could see something had changed in NZ and it wasn’t for the better,” she remembers. “We were having our child poverty statistics criticized by the United Nations. We were doing things like prospecting for coal in our national reserves. Democratic institutions were eroding. Things like that kind of started to catapult me into wanting to be much more politically active.”
Ghahraman arrived in New Zealand at the age of nine after her family fled Iran. They sought asylum at the airport after arriving on a plane from Malaysia.
I had a very good Kiwi friend, very nice man, married to a French lady .. good friend of mine .. passed away 3 yrs ago .. miss Graham
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