New Zealand Is For Bigots Part II
The fact that 1/2 of the country is overweight hasn’t stopped New Zealand from barring overweight immigrants.
British citizens Rowan Trezise, 33, and Richie Trezise, 35, are living apart as she tries desperately to shed the pounds needed to comply with New Zealand guidelines that immigrants maintain a healthy BMI, or body mass index.BMI is a weight-height ratio that estimates percentage of body fat. The New Zealand Immigration Service requires all applicants to undergo a complete medical examination, which includes body size measures like “waist circumference.”
The regulations were supposedly put into place for budget reasons. The country’s health care system cannot afford to open its doors to overweight immigrants, a spokesman for New Zealand’s Fight the Obesity Epidemic explained to the Daily Mail.
A BMI requirement for immigrants? I could possibly understand it if we were talking an island nation filled with 4 million Kate Mosses, but for a nation of 2 million porkies?
I’ve written about New Zealand here and here. Apparently I’m one of the few people who actually pay attention to what those bigots are up to in their tiny corner of the planet.
Nicole Spiller:
I am sending this email in regardds to the above article. That is totally insane. Here in Chicago Illinois, Old Navy has taken out their Womens Plus Size dept. and now we can only shop on-line for our clothing. What kind of craziness is that. I call it discrimination! no doubt about that. How can you tell a person they can not move to your country because they are over weight? That couple should sue the whole damn country! This is the beginning of a bad situation, and it is going to get a whole lot worse.
20 November 2007, 9:16 amScott Kirwin:
Nicole
I was talking to the (svelte but shapely) Dr. Wife this morning. I said that first the Health Nazis targeted smokers; now smokers can’t even smoke in their own homes in parts of the country. Next on deck are the overweight.
There have already been some (mild) efforts to charge overweight people more for airline seats (considering the seats have gotten tinier while we have gotten larger, it’s not so easy to assess blame in my opinion). However this is only the beginning.
The difference between smoking and overeating is that the latter doesn’t hurt anyone else. There’s no “second hand effect” from sitting next to an overweight person eating. In fact the health nazis weren’t getting traction against smoking until the evidence began to appear that second-hand smoking could affect nonsmokers.
New Zealand is the epitome of the nanny state. It tends to go to extremes because it is isolated geographically and culturally. Even the Australians snort and make a sheep joke when you ask them their opinion of New Zealand.
20 November 2007, 9:29 amNicole Spiller:
Thak you Scott for supporting this issue. It is a travesty. I am going to take this as far as I can. Maybe someone should sue them, so then they can have an issue with and discriminate against “BANKRUPTCY”. I am doing the same thing here with Old Navy . Once again,I thank you so very much for taking the time to read my response, and reply to it.
20 November 2007, 9:47 ammgroves:
Also, New Zealand is now so worried about the cumulative erosion by ten billion visiting tourists a year that any net imbalance between the amount you eat and the amount you excrete while in the country is surgically removed from your body weight when you leave: so every time you go to the lavatory there, it is vitally important to get a receipt.
20 November 2007, 11:24 am