The Wish List as Testament of a community leader for her country of birth
Baljit Kaur
Auckland, March 12, 2022
Standfirst: To hundreds of people who have known Baljit Kaur, Manager of Waitakere Ethnic Board and Member of the Ethnic Advisory Board of the Waitemata District Police and many other organisations, the news of her state of health about a month ago came as a rude shock. No man or woman is immortal and yet the cruelty of fate is unfathomable- even unfair, when it strikes noble people like Baljit. We pray for her recovery as she battles with that terrible thing called Cancer but we know that she is a brave human being- gutsier than all of us. She wrote the following message that was read out at the launch of a Report on the Contributions of Ethnic Communities to New Zealand in West Auckland on March 11, 2022. A separate story on the Report follows. Baljit’s message is touching- it was for all New Zealanders and Aotearoa, where she was born and raised.
My Love of Aotearoa – Truly Grateful
First and foremost, I would like to thank and acknowledge my parents: my father, who became the first generation of my family to be born in New Zealand – Tej Singh Khaila in Whanganui, 1932. And my Mother: Chanan Kaur (a new immigrant to New Zealand), for being that homely Indian Woman that many households still embody three generations later.
I am proud to say that I am a daughter of migration and of the beginning of a movement that helped raise New Zealand’s economic profile to where it is today.
The Universality of God
I would like to take a moment to share a small excerpt from the teachings adapted from the Sikh Faith that I belong to. It is one of the sayings of my Guru Gobind Singh Ji the 10th and last Disciple of Sikhism:
Karta (The Creator) and Karim (The Beneficent) are the names of the same God.
Razak (The Provider) and Rahim (The Merciful) are also the names given to him.
Let no man in his error wrangle over differences in Names.
Worship the one God who is the Lord of all. Know that this form is one and the One Light diffused in All.
Those who call me God will fall into deep pit of hell. Regard me as one of his slaves and have no doubt about this. I am a servant of the Supreme Being and have come to behold the wonderful drama of life.
I take from these words great meaning and these sentiments are also echoed by what most of my core wrap-around group also believe in.
People who are my Specials
These special people that I would like to acknowledge include:
My husband, Manmohan Bains, my children Karamjit Singh Bains and Malvindar Kaur Bains. My younger brother Azad Munjit Singh Khaila and his partner Nirmala Devi. My niece, Revinder Singh. My Punjabi younger sister Mandeep Kaur Sidhu and younger Punjabi brother Gurdeep Talwar. One of my best friends of more than ten years Mandy Spencer. As well as my other adopted daughters Nasim Mehrabi and Zahrah Ali. Thank you all for being my core wrap around helpers in every way.
I have been associated with the Waitakere Ethnic Board (WEB) for the past ten years and I was recently appointed to the post of Manager. I wish to acknowledge these wonderful people who have inspired me throughout this progression: 1. Dr Camille Nakhid (Former WEB Member) 2. Monica Sharma 3. Mary Dawson 4. Mandy Spencer (again for being my office buddy) 5. Sam Farquhar 6. Nanette Nathoo 7. Venkat Raman 8. Rizwaana Latiff 9. Michelle Clayton 10. Sofia Kaur 11. Chris Carter 12. Zara Fazel 13. Tayyaba Khan (the first WEB Coordinator) and 14. Bobby Arora, owner of Little India Restaurant who has selflessly always donated amazing food to the events of Waitakere Ethnic Board.
I also wish to acknowledge WEB Past Presidents Amial and Boaz Habib, Kudakwashe, Shirley Freeman and Naveen Prakash as well some influential past Board Members Zahra Atai, Zaif Khan, Sunil Kaushal, Thakur Ranjit Singh and Anne-Degia Pala.
As a token of my appreciation (if you are present today) could you please come forward and accept a set of flowers just to say a huge thank you for your collective wise words of wisdom and some of you for being part of the WEB from the years that have gone by.
Contributions of Ethnic Communities: A Report
Now to the launch. I appreciate very much that the launch of the Report on the contributions of the Ethnic Minorities has finally happened, as it was something that we wanted to present back in late October/ November 2021.
But Auckland was in lockdown until December 2021 and this made it quite difficult to execute.
Although I am not present today due to health reasons, my desire for this event to commence has come true and I am sincerely grateful to all of you who are attending especially at such short notice.
An appeal to Immigration New Zealand
These are a few thoughts that I would like to relay to you all that are present today:
Can I request that immigration please fast track all permanent overseas backlog applications that are outstanding as soon as possible?
That the future government policy will look into only accepting future applications of the highly skilled migrants with their family support as New Zealand certainly needs more of these kinds of people. This has been proven to be even more obvious to me in the hospital setting where the majority of my care has been primarily made up of migrant health professionals.
Kudos to these wonderful highly skilled migrants that work so very hard and with such dedication and skill beyond being measured by a dollar value from the Philippines, India, China, the Middle East and African Continent to name a few. I thank you all so much.
Funding boost imperative
I have been personally pushing for nearly eight years that we needed not a token Office of Ethnic Communities. I think that funding to assist our communities at that time was $500,000. Is that a fair representation to assist the ever-evolving Multicultural great contribution that migrants have given to this country? We needed to be acknowledged in a rightfully fulfilling manner.
So of course, I was so happy that our communities now have a Ministry for Ethnic Communities with a fairer portion of funding available to assist all migrants since we currently makeup 20% of the population and growing.
It was a great victory, privilege and joy to attend the official launch of this Ministry in Wellington back in June 2021.
And lastly, to the fantastic Man of the Day; thank you Shamubeel Eaqub (Economist at Sense Partners, Wellington) for your excellent report that we hope the government acknowledges and anyone else who is interested in the future of how New Zealand is a fast-changing multicultural paradise.
Using this Report, we can assist with future planning of everything from infrastructure to town planning and many other possibilities.
Personally, looking into the future, I would love for the WEB to have a proper Multicultural Support Hub set up in Henderson for all people, not just ethnic populations but for everyone. Let us see what happens in the future.
Thank you.
