UPBEAT MUSIC Captions by Pippa Jefferies. www.able.co.nz Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2015 REFLECTIVE MUSIC When you think of the Auckland neighbourhood of Botany, many people will think it's a place of big shopping malls. Botany Town Centre, my favourite place for shopping, attracting people from all over Auckland. Botany was the first place I lived in when I came to NZ. It was a great introduction to life because of its diverse neighbourhood ` thrice as many Chinese NZers as the national average and twice as many Pacific Islanders. REFLECTIVE MUSIC In fact, Botany has got the highest percentage people born overseas of any other NZ neighbourhood. Let's find out about them. We will meet a Muslim man who is committed to building bridges between the people of different faiths. I talk about the Buddhism. I talk about the Hinduism or about Islam. All the religions, they want peace. They want love. A man born in Azerbaijan shares a story about the day his father gave up his children for love. Legally, my dad had to sign some documents to release us from his care to Mum. It reminds me that, uh, how much Dad loves us and how much he wanted us to be happy, safe. We will meet a man from Sri Lanka who wants to raise awareness about the plight of Tamil people in his home country. My childhood was very different from the childhood of the average Kiwi because I was always worried about bombing and, um, shelling and helicopters shooting as well. And we will enjoy the flavours of Egyptian cuisine at the Botany Night Market. When I first came here, I was really craving for it. And we never make it at home, we usually buy it, so I searched for a recipe and tried it so many times that I actually perfected the recipe. I am Jas, and this is my neighbourhood. UPBEAT MUSIC FUNKY MUSIC Uh, my family is from Delhi. When I was little, my dad travelled a lot, and I wanted to travel too. I left the house when I was 16 to study hospitality and cookery in UK. When I was 20, I moved to US and ended up being a corporate executive chef for a pretty ritzy place. Right now, I'm the deputy principal for a cookery school, and I like to invent recipes, teach new, upcoming chefs, and I love it. I owe a big thank you to my dad, who motivated me to follow my dreams. A Botany local also owes a debt of gratitude to his father to start a new life, even though it broke his father's heart. GENTLE PIANO MUSIC My name is Tofik ` Tofik Mamedov. I was born in a country called Azerbaijan, city Baku. It's a former republic of Soviet Union. I was born in '78. Uh, my sister followed me after two years, so it's, you know, a little family, yeah, like any other family. When I was 6 years old, my mum and dad separated, and Dad's mum, my grandmother, took us in, so did my auntie, and they brought us up for 10 years. Back in late 1980s, the people of Azerbaijan were talking about having independence and stuff. So all of a sudden we started having problems with our neighbouring country called Armenia, and they were claiming parts of our country. And after the collapse of the Soviet Union, there was a conflict, and there was a war between Azerbaijan and Armenia. A lot of people died because all they wanted to do is to be independent of the Soviet Union. We were under The Soviet Union for 70 years, and, uh, the country wasn't growing, you had no rights, and the people, all they did, they just went out and start marching and start screaming, 'Democracy, democracy, democracy!' GENTLE PIANO MUSIC It's funny we're standing here, and I can literally... see the 19th of January and the 20th ` it's almost like from here to that coastline over there; you can see the bullets flying ` a 12-year-old, witnessing. Amazing. I think my dad was` he was a man that he` he loved his family. And thinking back, now I know that, uh, he was thinking about us because he made that decision, early 1990s, to send me and my sister away from him. He... He understood the risks, and, uh, he didn't trust our country at the time and` and he sent us to NZ to reunite with Mum` with our mum but at the same time to have a better life. GENTLE PIANO MUSIC When we came to NZ, legally my dad had to sign some documents to release us from his care to Mum. These` These documents mean a lot to me, and, uh, every time when I look at it, it just kind of feels like he's beside me. And, um, his signature, his handwriting and the date, of course. Two documents, one in Russian, uh, because you had to have documents in Russian language and the second one translated from Russian to English. I remember saying goodbye, but, uh, as if I'm gonna come back about a week later, but I... didn't know the` you know, the distance and how long it would take. It just` It didn't hit me then. It only hit me when I landed in NZ. Um, it definitely... Yeah, I realised then he's far away from me, yeah. GENTLE PIANO MUSIC When we arrived, we called back home just to say, 'Hi. You know, we arrived. We're safe,' and I remember Grandma said to me that` and to my sister, 'When you guys left, about two days later, Dad had a stroke.' And, uh, he went through surgery and recovery and this and that, so it was really difficult for him. It's` It's even hard for me to speak about it, yeah, but... So that shows how much he loved us. And, um, it was quite hard times, for him and` and for us as well. That document today, it only means to me a lot after 2001, because Dad passed away in 2001. It reminds me that how much Dad loves us, me and my sister, and how much he wanted us to be happy, safe. It is a symbol. It's a symbolic document, and, um` and again... I can't even express how important this document is for me. Yeah. REFLECTIVE MUSIC Well, I live in the Botany area now. I love this area. I have a beautiful partner, Gina, a beautiful son. I simply don't want to be in that position, the position that my dad was, just because of the political reasons, to give your children away. It's very hard. No, I didn't get a chance to thank my dad. I thank my mum a lot but never had a chance to thank Dad. I would have thanked him, first of all. I would have given him a huge hug. He's actually shorter than me. He was shorter than me. Uh, my mum is tall; Dad is short. (LAUGHS) So I would have given him a hug, lift him up and tell him, 'Let's go to, uh, Botany Shopping Centre and go have a coffee and a muffin.' Yeah. REFLECTIVE MUSIC One thing I loved when I lived in Botany was coming to the Buddhist temple. It's so peaceful here. It transcends the religious creed. My parents always taught me to enjoy and celebrate the little moments in life. They are very spiritual in many ways. I think that is what has helped me to understand and connect to people when I travelled the world. Dr Ali Boorooni came from Iran to give spiritual guidance to Shia Muslim community here and also he made his mission to foster understanding between all religions. REFLECTIVE MUSIC We are in the Islamic centre, and it is the centre for immigrants from the Middle East. Regularly, we have some classes with them about some fundamental principles of Islam. As you know, as a human, we have some powers in ourselves and we can feel it. < Who can name the first power that we have in ourselves? Intellect. Intellect. Well, we focus on the next generation, the youth, because if you look at the extremists in the Middle East, most of them are the youth. So what is the meaning of it? It means that they have some misunderstanding about their religion. They have some misunderstanding about their beliefs. And the fourth one, who can say the fourth one that we feel inside? Pure nature. Pure nature. Pure nature means that we know ourselves better than the others. 'I was a professor when I was in Iran. I have a PhD in comparative religion and mysticism.' Actually, the Shia community here, they invited me to come here as the minister of religion, and after that I made my decision and I came here. Even in my teaching, I talk about the Christian because this is my major ` comparative religion. So I talk about the Buddhism, I talk about the Hinduism or about Islam, about all religion, and then I tell them that, 'Look, all the religions, they want peace. They want love.' Dr Boorooni, yeah, he's a great teacher and, uh, influence your world view and the way you view everything, the whole creation and God and people and everything, in a positive way. We are really really lucky, I would say. We're very lucky to have him here. He's a gem of a person. GENTLE GUITAR MUSIC This society is not established by one. This society was established with people, and love and peace are the two main ideas of a society, and all the religions believe on it. Or even the atheists believe on love and peace. Bruce works with the Christians in his church, and sometimes Bruce invited me to go to the church, and he found out that we were at the same page and we want to help the others to know about the communication between the religions. And we started with the Shia community and Anglican community in the Howick and Pakuranga because they are our neighbours, and then according to the Bible and Koran, we started from the neighbour. I know you. You are my friend. Even if I were wanting to make a stereotype, a negative stereotype about Islam, I cannot because of you. I think the conversation, the dialogue, between people of different faiths is incredibly important. It can be at the formal level of theological dialogue, but what is perhaps more important is ordinary people speaking over the garden fence to ordinary people. REFLECTIVE MUSIC In my free time I paint; I draw in charcoal. I think that these kinds of creative works shows us the` the beauty of the creatures through their eyes because the eyes of the pupil are the windows to the heaven. Look at the hug here. The hug means the peace and love together. If this boy feels the peace, then he is in the bosom of his grandfather, and the grandfather shows the love. I think that when we want to talk to the next generation, it's better to talk to them indirectly, not directly. In one hour of lecture, I just want to tell them that what is the peace. But when they look at the portrait, they can find it. I am very proud to talk to the new generation, to teach them, because this is my duty as a minister of religion, to work on it and to try. And now my idea is to be here for a long time, but I don't know. God knows. (LAUGHS) GENTLE GUITAR MUSIC I still love cooking Indian food, and I'm quite blessed because I have the knowledge of spices. A lot of chefs would feel overwhelmed, but I'm not scared. I've been cooking since I was a little girl. My mum is a fantastic cook, and I do have the memories of the Sunday long lunches where I and my sister would sleep in late and my mum would wake up early and cook us goat curry, and the house would smell and the fragrance of spices was beautiful. At the Botany Night Market, we too can smell and taste all the cuisines of the world, and it's given an opportunity for an Egyptian man to fulfil his lifelong dream. JAUNTY MUSIC My name is Ahmed Sanad. I was born in Egypt. I first came to NZ in July 2007. We are at the Botany Night Market. Uh, my stall is called Little Egypt. We make, uh, traditional Egyptian food. It's been going great. People are actually` Lots of people are actually, like, curious what is Egyptian food, so they come out and try, and, yeah, it's been going great so far. Today is the first time we're actually doing the sweets. Uh, it's called basbousa. This is the Arabic name for it, basbousa, but to make it easier for people, we call it sweet bites. It's very interesting, and, yeah, it's very close to my heart, this dish. I` I serve it here because I actually` when I first came here, uh, I was really craving for it and we never make it at home. We usually buy it, so I searched for a recipe and tried it so many times till I actually perfected the recipe, until this came out. I hope that, actually, people will like it. So people, hopefully they try` they will try the food, like if they will eat somewhere else and come and dessert here, it will be fantastic. Can I try some of these, please? Oh yeah, sure. Yeah. What are they? Uh, these ones are called basbousa. It's a traditional Egyptian dessert. The texture is really interesting. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks. JAUNTY MUSIC That is really nice. Excuse me, but, yeah, that is good. Really good. Good? Yeah. Yeah, thumbs-up? GENTLE GUITAR MUSIC I love this because it's sweet. The texture` I love the texture. The texture is quite coarse. And the syrup that I put at the end has rose water in it, so the taste is quite significant. And` And it reminds me of home, and this is the main point of cooking and making dessert and everything. GENTLE GUITAR MUSIC The main ingredient in basbousa is semolina flour, so the texture is quite, uh, different than cake. My mum taught me how to cook. She teach me, like, little by little how to do this how to do this, how to do that, then, well, I kind of picked it up and, yeah, do it by myself. It's actually very unusual for a man to cook in Egypt. It's quite strange. Usually` Usually the woman, uh, whether it's a wife or a mum or a sister is the one doing the cooking. I finished high school in` in Egypt, and I got into the first year of civil engineering. And then I came here to visit and I` I really liked it, the environment, and I really loved the country, so I decided to stay and continue my studies here. I worked for a very short time as a civil engineer. I didn't like it that much, so I didn't want to regret this later on and I'm still young, so I thought, like, 'Why not just, like, stop this and then, like, think about what I should do, 'and then, yeah, do something that I'm really passionate about?' I was talking to my partner, and she told me, 'Since you really like cooking, why don't you just, you know, do something with it?' So the idea came from her, actually, and then we took steps, like, towards that. FUNKY MUSIC I have, uh, four of my friends coming over to try the dessert tonight. MUSIC CONTINUES I am actually a mixture between confident and nervous. I am confident because, like, I like it, my family likes it and, like, most of the Egyptian population likes it, but I'm nervous because it's a different taste for them. FUNKY MUSIC Hi, guys. Here is the dessert. GUESTS: Wow! MAN: That looks nice. What's it called? Uh, its name is basbousa. Thinking about it, I wouldn't actually think I would be able to do something like this in Egypt, because` because if I was there, I would actually finish my engineering degree, find a job, get married, have kids and get old. This is` This is the scenario for everyone. But` And no matter whether you are happy or not with your life, it doesn't really matter much because, you know, this is the track that you need to be on. That's really nice. Oh, thanks. Mmm. Do you put coconut in it? Yes, I put coconut. Oh, OK. You can taste it. That's great. My general plan now is just to serve really good food and people really like it, and then from there I want to expand to, like, different night markets, and then from there I can open a restaurant, and hopefully from a restaurant to chains of restaurants. And, yeah, who knows, like, where it can go from there. GENTLE PIANO MUSIC Some of the fond memories of growing up were the parties my parents used to throw. They were all themed of what we wore, to the food we made, and it was so much fun. Birthdays are a big deal for me, especially my own, because I share one with my god Guru Nanak. Not all of us have a fond memory of their childhood. Dhaya Haran, who grew up through a civil war in Sri Lanka, is now committed to raising awareness for the next generation. REFLECTIVE MUSIC I live in Botany with my wife, my daughter ` 2 years old daughter ` and our neighbourhood is very friendly and a very safe place. I was born in Jaffna in the northern province of, um, Sri Lanka. I haven't seen peaceful times in Sri Lanka since I was born. It's always been, uh, a war situation and never a calm situation. Uh, I live in the north, which is a Tamil-dominated area. And, um, south-west is Sinhalese. Since the independence of Sri Lanka, there has always been issues with, um, Tamil and Sinhalese, because we are the minority; we will never, uh, get to change how the majority decides to run the country. When I look back at it, I can see that my childhood was very different from a childhood, say, of an average Kiwi. I couldn't go out and play in the evenings with, um, friends and so on because I was always worried about, um, bombing and shelling and helicopter shooting as well. SOMBRE MUSIC I have, um, two elder brothers and an elder sister. This is my house in Jaffna that all of us were brought up in, and it's got a lot of fond memories, but it's kind of destroyed by the military after this, and now it has been renovated. But it still not the same, because all of the furniture, everything has gone there, including all of the photos, and these are some of the rare photos that survived. This is my first year birthday, and my father is overlooking. Yeah, it was probably a very very difficult time, because I was not, um, yeah, just not able to mingle with many people at all, so it was just quite frustrating. Nowadays I don't like to be by myself at home or anything like that. I always want to be with people. Um, yeah, it is probably one of the worst times of my life, I think. I was lucky enough to have, uh, my brot` both brothers overseas at the time, so my parents, uh, must have talked within themselves and decided that I should go. I'd just turned 16 when I arrived in NZ, and initially because I had my family there that I was, um` I kept an interest with what was happening in Sri Lanka, and then probably during my university time that's when I started to take a more, uh, political view of things, I guess. The National Council of Tamils is the organisation that I belong to, which is pretty much a political advocacy organisation for the NZ Tamil population. REFLECTIVE GUITAR MUSIC At the moment, we are working with some of the human rights organisations and also with the Green Party and the School of Law at the University of Auckland in organising this event at the University of Auckland. Trevor Grant is, um, a known cricket and sports journalist in Melbourne, Australia, but at the moment he has moved on to doing human rights issues and refugee issues, and so he had recently written a book called Sri Lanka's Secrets: How the Rajapaksa Regime Got Away With Murder. And, um, because of that, we thought that he might be a good person to invite to NZ. I was driving a van around the south-east of Melbourne mostly, delivering food, delivering, um, kitchenware, furniture, all those things to refugees, and as I was doing it, I was hearing story after story of tragedy and terror, and so much of it came from the Tamil group. Currently, there are quite a high military presence in the Tamil area, so they're not only just occupying, but they are also taking over land, which means that the Tamil people's livelihood is still disturbed. Uh, going to school and things like that are hard. There are a lot of sexual harassment going on. Um, and also a lot of disappearance of people. Uh, if anybody speaks out, they will be gone missing and you will not hear of them. So things are still going on. Nothing has changed for the Tamil people. If anything, it has actually gotten worse. Dhaya is, uh, typical of so many good young Tamils who are spreading the message. He has, uh, got together a lot of very good young Tamils, and they're carrying the torch from the older Tamils, so we can be assured that something will be done, at least via the next generation. So since I am away from the Tamil land, uh, I won't be able to do anything else, really, like any kind of aid work or anything of that kind of stuff. Especially with this kind of regime in Sri Lanka, you can't really do anything else, anyway. So I think in the end, this is the best thing that I could do with my life, I think. UPBEAT MUSIC Botany is a terrific neighbourhood. It's away from the city; still close to everything you need right here. There's no way you can feel out of place. You are surrounded by a diverse mix of people. Living here was a great start to my life in NZ, and, yes, I am happy that I have made this country my home. UPBEAT MUSIC Captions by Pippa Jefferies. www.able.co.nz Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2015