Being Counted

I feel a little more like an official New Zealander after two bureaucratic actions. I registered to vote Saturday. And I was counted in their census today.

Residents are allowed to vote here, even if you're not a citizen. I remember our Kiwi friend Rick lived in America for 10 years but was never allowed to vote and he thought that was pretty cheesy. Here, we get to vote and we've only been here 2 months. I guess they figure that since we have to pay taxes, and we use their services, we should get a say in how they're run.

It's also Census time here in New Zealand. They do it every 5 years. I will be included in their statistics of 4,000,000 people telling how many drive to work, how much education you have, etc. There's a bit of a fuss in the news because of the choices allowed for ethnic group: You're either Maori, Samoan, Tongan, Cook Islander, Niuean, Chinese, Indian, or "New Zealand European" It's supposedly referring to the white people who live here, called Pakeha. I'm a white person. But I never know if that makes me a Pakeha because I'm also an American, not Kiwi. But I AM Caucasian, which is what the Pakeha are. See what I mean?

Our next bureaucratic action will be getting a NZ driver's license instead of using our Oregon license for ID. We're studying the manual so we can pass the test. Some of the rules are a little different. The one I have a hard time with is this one (I will translate it into American driving so you'll understand): If you are turning right (which is easy any ol' time) and someone across from you is turning left (which may be pretty difficult) onto the same street, you have to yield to the guy making a left. It's hard for me to get used to, but I have to agree it makes a certain amount of sense. That poor guy might have to wait ages if you don't let him go. Meanwhile, you won't have any trouble at all proceeding a few seconds later. These are the little things we have to master so we can pass our test.