What I Dislike about Auckland

All of my previous posts have showed only the good side of Auckland, NZ. Baka isipin tuloy ng mga nakakabasa na perpekto ang lugar na ito. Sorry, Virginia, may mga kakulangan din ang New Zealand. For now, I’ll mention only one.

The thing I dislike the most here in Auckland is the high incidence of burglaries. About 90% of burglaries happen during the day. Mas madali kasi most people are working during the day kaya walang tao sa bahay. Stories of people coming home from work to find their homes empty or ransacked are common. I’ve known a lot of Filipino friends who have had their houses broken into. Their jewelries, cash, electronic appliances stolen. From personal experience, doon sa luma naming bahay, yung bike lang naman ni Fidez ang nakuha about 5 years ago. Walang mga rehas, gates or fences ang karamihan ng mga bahay kaya madaling pasukan.

Then NZ have stupid laws on tresspassing. Sa States pwede mong barilin and sino mang pumasok sa bahay mo. Sa Pilipinas, bugbog ang aabutin ng sino mang mahuling nagnanakaw. Dito, napakabait (to a fault) nila kahit sa mga home intruders. Kapag may nahuli ka nga sa aktong nagnanakaw sa loob ng bahay mo, hindi mo pwedeng saktan kung hindi ka naman niya ina-attack. Kapag hinabol mo at sinaktan mo, baka ikaw pa ang kasuhan ng physical damage. Ang pwede mo na lang gawin ay ang tumawag ng pulis. Parang illogical ano? Lalo na sa ating mga Pinoy na mahilig sa mga action movies. But the reasoning behind it is the belief that the burglar is basically only after material things and has no intention of harming anyone. To avoid any harm to the intruder or to yourself, the general rule is to avoid any confrontation at all cost. Para sa kanila, di baleng materyal lang na bagay ang mawala.

But it’s not all bad. Most burglars are just youth offenders, amateurs looking for kicks and are generally unarmed. There are very few cases of burglars harming occupants of a house. Then, like anywhere else, not all suburbs are the same. We’re quite lucky because the suburb we now live in is one of the safest areas in Auckland.