Do Words Matter?
New Zealand’s Foreign Minister was in the news recently after he launched a verbal tirade in Parliament at Xu-Nan, an opposition MP and a New Zealander of Chinese descent. He told him to “go back to where you come from, you loudmouth!” and that ” you only came here five minutes ago!”
The outburst garnered international attention as well as concern at home amongst immigrant communities.
Did these words matter and if so, why? The Waikato Independent went along to Hamilton’s Refugee Orientation Centre (ROC) to ask the question.
Liaqat Changezi is the Executive Director at ROC , a trust that looks after the affairs of Refugees in Kirikiriroa/Hamilton.
Sitting in his small office under neon lights, Changezi said “words can be very hurtful, words can be violent, all wars start from tiny words, slowly it becomes more acceptable, and then it becomes more extreme.”
Changezi said his mind is still fresh with similar words being spoken, before the mosque murders in Christchurch, “The Christchurch incident happened and we were scared, we thought we had come to a safe country, away from extremism.”
The Changezi whanau/family came from Quetta in Pakistan, two hours away from Kandahar the capital of Afghanistan.
Changezi worked as a producer for CNN from 2007 until 2013 after they set up headquarters in Quetta after the September 11th, 2001 tragedy.
He started receiving death threats from the Taliban and applied for refugee status.
The Changezi family were granted asylum in 2013 and spent five years in a refugee camp in Indonesia, until they were eventually granted permission to come and live in Aotearoa/New Zealand.
“Words can be very hurtful, words can be violent, all wars start from tiny words, slowly it becomes more acceptable, and then it becomes more extreme.”
Liaqat Chengazi
Changezi said,” When we were in the refugee camp, my son was asking, Papa, what is heaven? I said, heaven is where there’s peace. where there’s justice.”
The Changezi family includes Liaqat, his wife Fatima and four children. His daughters are Maliha, who is living in Sydney and Madiha, a well-known lawyer living in Auckland. The couple also have two sons, Fazeel who works at the University of Waikato as a sports organiser and Farij who is about to graduate.
As well as his work with the ROC, Changezi would like to set up a night food market in the central city where people could get to know one another better through food and music and said, “it’s about humanity, all humanity.”
For more info on the Refugee Orientation Centre – https://www.roctrust.org.nz/
