Dr Saad Al-Harran
Email: drsaadalharran@yahoo.com
Dr Saad Al-Harran is a social scientist who specialises in social ills in New Zealand.
When we came back to New Zealand from Brunei Darussalam (House of Peace in the Arabic language) in May 2012 after six wonderful years spent there I obtained a senior lecturer post at the Faculty of Business, Economics and Policy Studies at the University of Brunei Darussalam (www.ubd.edu.bn). During our stay in the Sultanate of Brunei my beloved son (F) attended Jerudong International School (JIS) (www.Jerudonginternationalschool.com) a British International school in South East Asia. He excelled in his studies and my wife and I felt sure that our gifted son, who was born in Christchurch in September 1996, would one day become a medical doctor or well-known engineer when we come back home to New Zealand.
At JIS a student’s life is wonderful and he was independently enjoying a decent and safe learning environment where students respected each other. At that time we, as a small family consisting of a wife and husband and two children (son and daughter), had no worries about his bright pathway career future ahead of him.
But that honeymoon period that was the six most wonderful years of my entire life (since I left my beloved country of origin Iraq in 1974 to further my studies in the UK for my Master’s and Ph.D in Economics) was shattered because he was severely bullied in one of the public high schools in Palmerston North and became mentally ill and withdrawn from us as a family.
He suffered a lot since joining that school in May of 2012. As a Muslim family living in a liberal society (New Zealand) we paid very high taxes and still are. We had come back to New Zealand and decided to settle down in Palmerston North based on the advice I had received from a friend of mine who is a Palestinian and who has completed his PhD degree in Business at Massey University. He had been living in this city for three decades. He told me that Palmy is a wonderful safe and quiet city and I am sure you and your family will like it as well.
At that time my wife when we were living in Brunei was very worried and concerned because she thought something bad might happen to our son who is a very quiet young boy and does not harm anybody if we moved to an immoral society (New Zealand) where there is no respect among family and where many are from dysfunctional families. She asked me why do you not go to school every day and protect him so that he will be safe in school? I replied it is impossible to do that due to my health and age. Unfortunately, her prediction was correct, and I was wrong.
Our quiet son became like a football on the big playground in that school and those sick students who come from rotten and dysfunctional family backgrounds have done so much harm to my son that the pain and suffering will stay in his mind for many years to come.
One day after he left that school for good he told me, “Dad when I was crying in the classroom in that school the teacher continued teaching as if it was normal and he never asked me why you are crying and who hurts you?” I told him that his teacher has no heart or feeling toward other humans.
It was a very painful experience for all of us as a family who have lived in New Zealand for more than 25 years. Even my daughter who was also bullied in one of the intermediate schools in Christchurch said to me, “Dad, I do not like New Zealand and want you to go back to Malaysia where I had a wonderful time.” She said she started kindergarten in a peaceful, respectful and safe environment. Her first year of primary school was also spent there because I was lecturing in one of the leading high teaching universities from 1991-1996 but not as much as Brunei. She asked me why I had brought my family to this sick city (Christchurch) because we, as a Muslim family although we are NZ citizens do not feel welcome in the Garden City. I told her it was out of my control because Malaysia is not my country of origin (Iraq) and I am just a foreign lecturer. Once my contract ended then I had to leave the country for good.
To be continued.
