Question: What do Leo Fernandez, Laurence Mossman and Tania Dawson have in common? Answer: they are all Filipino Kiwis.
Fernandez, was runner up NZ Master Chef in 2015, while Dawson, whose family is from Pangasinan, was New Zealand’s entrant in the Miss Universe contest this year. They are among the 50,000 Filipino Kiwis resident in my country. Indeed, the Filipino community is the fastest growing ASEAN community in New Zealand, accounting for more than one percent of New Zealand’s total population.
For his part, Mossman is a young actor and entertainer who has come to Manila in search of fame and fortune. I called on his help late last year when I opened a Philippines Red Cross (PRC) warehouse in Leyte which was part of a much bigger disaster risk management project that New Zealand Aid has had with the PRC.
I wanted to inject something a little different into the opening ceremony, conscious that listening to Ambassadorial speeches are understandably not everyone’s cup of tea. As it transpired, it was one of my better ideas. Laurence sang two songs which evoked a magical reaction with the audience; “The Prayer,” by Josh Groban and a Tagalog number “You are My Song,” by Martin Nievera. The best way I could “add value” was by simply introducing Laurence!
That event caused me to reflect on the most potent weapon in diplomacy – people-to-people links. It is this factor that is transforming the Philippines-New Zealand bilateral relationship. Twenty years ago if you sat a Filipino down on a coach and mentioned New Zealand, he or she might have said “60 million sheep and three million people.” Today the Filipinos I speak to are more likely to respond to the same prompt with the words “Lord of the Rings” and “Hobbits.” We pride ourselves on being a modern, creative and innovative country.
Today New Zealand is a mosaic of multi-culturalism, ethnic and religious diversity. As a boy who grew up in the deep south of New Zealand, my country today is a far cry from the monocultural, insular country of my childhood. We have come a long way also in coming to terms with our bicultural heritage. Successive governments have done much over the last 30 years to come to terms with the wrongs of the past. New Zealand is a much better country for it.
Auckland, our largest city, is 23 percent Asian. There is a large Filipino community there. Indeed, Filipinos can be found all over New Zealand – engineers helped rebuild Christchurch, our second largest city after devastating earthquakes. Filipinos are valued workers on our dairy farms, and nurses are making a wonderful contribution to our health sector.
As Ambassador, I am lucky to be here at a time of an upsurge in people-to-people contact across the board. Last year the Philippines was New Zealand’s fastest growing market in the world for tourism, and the numbers of New Zealanders visiting the Philippines is similarly growing on a positive trajectory. Philippine Airlines, which commenced a service to Auckland via Cairns in late 2015, has played no small part in that growth.
Another promising dynamic in the relationship has been the huge increases in Filipino students choosing New Zealand for their tertiary education. There was an 83 percent increase in student numbers from the Philippines in 2015.
Each year the New Zealand Government offers the Philippines 24 postgraduate scholarships in renewable energy, disaster risk management and agri-industries. This year I am leading efforts in our Embassy to encourage high calibre students outside of Luzon to apply for these awards. That includes Moro and Lumad students from Mindanao. What better way for a small country like New Zealand to help promote peace and stability in conflict zones than to offer young people a means of having a stake in their own future?
At a time when New Zealand sees itself as an important participant in the future of the Asia Pacific region, we want to do what we can to support the peace efforts of the Administration in Mindanao. That makes good sense, not just for all Filipinos, but for broader peace and stability in our region.
(David Strachan is New Zealand’s ambassador to the Philippines.)