by Patrick H. Moore
It’s well-known that the U.S. has one of the world’s highest rates of obesity. Although this is probably not a good thing, to our credit, we do not condemn our citizens –whether native-born or part of our large immigrant population — for being obese. This is not the case in New Zealand where a South African chef, Albert Buitenhuis, was informed in May of this year that he is being expelled from the country, despite the fact that he has resided there legally since 2007, for being too fat.
The irony here is that poor Mr. Buitenhuis, who resides in Christchurch, currently weighs a full 66 pounds less that he did when he was originally permitted to enter the country. Thus, common sense suggests that the authorities should either pat him on the back and tell him to “keep up the good work,” or — at the very least — should simply leave him alone, particularly since New Zealand immigration officials said nothing about his weight problem when he was first accepted into the country.
New Zealand immigration officials stated that Albert, who currently weighs 130kg (286 pounds), did not have “an acceptable standard of health”. An immigration spokesman stated further that Mr. Buitenhuis’s application had been rejected because his obesity put him at “significant risk” of complications including diabetes, hypertension and heart disease:
“It is important that all migrants have an acceptable standard of health to minimise costs and demands on New Zealand’s health services.”
Yet when Albert was first accepted into the country, he weighed 160kg (352 pounds).
Albert’s wife Marthe stated that up until now, their annual work visas had been renewed with “very little problem”:
“We applied year after year and there were no issues. They never mentioned Albert’s weight or his health once and he was a lot heavier then.”
The couple has appealed this devlopment to New Zealand’s immigration minister, citing the chef’s recent weight loss.
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New Zealand’s recent sensitivity to the issue of Albert Buitenhuis’ weight may stem from the fact that it currently has one of the highest obesity rates in the developed world. Close to 30% of its citizens are obese, a rate that is slightly higher than the U.S. rate of obesity, which in 2012 was stable at 26.2%.
Although New Zealand has a higher rate of “pure” obesity than the United States, it has far fewer overweight people, when adjusted for percentages, than the U.S. In fact, if the figures can be trusted, the vast majority of New Zealand’s “overweight” people are technically “obese”, whereas the U.S. has a huge second group of “overweight” people (36.1%), in addition to our “obese” population. But whatever the figures actually are, it will be “a cold day in hell” before we start expelling our obese immigrant population. We, as a nation, admittedly have our faults, but discriminating against the obese and overweight segments of our population do not appear to be among them.