"A South African man is facing deportation from New Zealand - for being overweight. Albert Buitenhuis weighs 20 stone and six pounds, 66lbs lighter than when he moved to NZ six years ago.
But he has now been told his weight may place demands on New Zealand's health services.
At 5ft 10in tall, Albert has a body mass index of 40, making him clinically obese.
His wife Marthie says his weight has never stopped him from working 40 hours a week as a chef, and has not been a problem with gaining their annual visas every year since 2007.
According to Miami Newsday, Marthie said: "We applied for [them] 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."
Well it was the headline that caught my attention, which was of course exactly what the writer wanted. More and more the word 'fat' grabs the headlines. We all know that if you are overweight this can lead to serious health problems. The issue of what we eat, and what we should eat, always makes for an exchange of views and much discussion.This man has not been 'kicked out' yet, should he be kicked out? From the article he has been working and making a life for him and his family and contributing to the NZ tax, welfare system etc.
I'm sure our readers have their own views, please feel free to share.
All the best Jan
More on this story here.
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3 comments:
as we all know, there are unhealthy skinny people too, as well as very healthy fat ones. if this man fits the second category, it would be an outrage to cause his deportation. talk about senseless prejudice....
Hi Tess
Many thanks for your comment. I agree with you. How far do we want to take this? Are the authorities going to say that unless someone is perfect they don't want to know? Who are we to say what is perfect? Of course the only details we have is what is being told in the article...
All the best Jan
Very saddening and this unfortuanate mans mis- treatment shows some scary (although not nowhere the same attrociousness) similarities to a rather sinister ethos that existed in a 'certain' european countries leadership mindset in the late 1930's..{sigh}
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