Overweight South African allowed to stay in New Zealand

Earlier this year a South African chef by the name of Albert Buitenhuis applied to have his work permit renewed for the 6th year in a row. Albert (50) and his wife Marthie (47) had been living and working in New Zealand since 2007 but what he thought would be a simple documentation renewal landed up becoming a 5 month nightmare when his visa application was denied on the basis that he was overweight!

His story gained worldwide publicity with most saying that the NZ authorities should never have approved his visa application in the first instance if his weight was an issue and many others were commenting on the fact that year after year his application was approved with no issues ever being brought up about his weight.

When the Buitenhuis' arrived in New Zealand in 2007 Alberts weighed a whopping 160kg but at the time of his latest renewal application he was down to 126kg. In an interview in July 2013 Albert said that he understood why a government would want to protect it's taxpayers against high healthcare costs but he said that if they did not want him there he he would have liked to have been told this much sooner.

Albert and Marthie followed the appeal process but without a valid working visa the couple have not been working for 5 months which has obviously resulted in no income. They sold some of their possessions in order to pay for their new application but they could no longer stay in the house they rented. Finally their appeal against the decision was successful and they went to Facebook to break the good news to the world. Their application to stay in NZ had been approved and Albert said he was:

“Relieved, excited, grateful, scared. I can’t describe how many emotions can run through your mind simultaneously.” "I'm not sure where we'll start to pick up the pieces because they're all over the place".

Shark On A Train

Strange and wonderful things happen in New York - if you have never been there to experience it first hand then I am sure you have watched enough movies to know that anything is possible in the Big Apple.

Wednesday 7, August 2013 saw a new first on NY subway.... a Train Riding, Red Bull drinking, Cigarette smoking, Shark. No one knows how he got there or who was responsible and why - was it a statement of some sort, a stunt by the Discovery Channel to promote Shark Week or just someone who had accidentally left their daily catch behind? 

Discovery has denied any involvement and released a statement saying:  "Shark week is all abut conservation, so it deeply saddens us that someone would think this was funny or in any way connected to our celebration of sharks." 

We like to think that someone caught the 4ft shark, took him home for their supper but forgot him on the tube. Regardless of how he got there, it looks like he had a good ride with many of the commuters amusing themselves with 'Weekend at Bernie's' style antics. Some say it was cruel and not right but what do you expect people to do when seeing a dead shark on a subway? No one I know would even attempt giving a shark mouth-to-mouth and there is just no ways someone wonders around with a fish tank rescuing stranded marine life.

Photo's have begun appearing on Social Networking sites but authorities have said they have no interest in finding out who posted the photo's because they have better things to do with their time.... I think what they are really trying to say is: "We have BIGGER FISH TO FRY!"