Rahmon | Favona
“I guess I’ve been, you kind of just take it for granted that there’s all these different people here from different countries.
But you know, there’s not a lot of interaction for many of us with them, and I guess the event in Christchurch has made me much more aware that these, there are people in New Zealand that have come from overseas that now call New Zealand home. Perhaps we need to be more interested in them and what they, what they bring with them and their stories, rather than always focussing on our own little world and our lives which are probably quite, in many cases, or in my case, quite tame compared to some of the stories and journeys that these people have had to come here.
I guess, just deep sorrow for what they’ve experienced and I just hope that there’s good that comes from it, and that we don’t experience anything like that again. I’d like to say that, there’s certainly a lot of sadness that comes with an event like this, and something that I guess forces us to again think about people that come to New Zealand, that we should be looking after and we’d like to think that they’re as safe in New Zealand as those of us that are from here. So, hopefully, they can grow; get strength from what, what the message is of love that they’re getting from New Zealanders. Hopefully that gives them strength and gives them comfort and a sense of safety and wellbeing, and know though, that there’s certainly, they hear and see things that perhaps the rest of us don’t, and I hope that in the future there’s less of that sort of undercurrent that we’re becoming aware of that does exist here.
I was born here in Auckland and grew up in Hawkes’ Bay, and I have a business here in Auckland these days, and that pretty much keeps me busy every day. I’ve got a wife and some children, and pretty much that’s my life basically at the moment, is just trying to survive and grow my business, and that’s basically it. Plaza Laundromat, just a little laundry in Panmure.”
