Sunday 27 November 2016

Are all university students, party animals?

Dunedin, New Zealand. For people from New Zealand, what image does Dunedin have in your mind?

If you said students, that would be the same image that I have.

This video probably shows accurately the image that you and I have about the university town in the south of New Zealand.


However is it all like this? Is this an accurate portrayal of MOST of the students in Dunedin?

 I'll give you an analogy. Is Islamic State an accurate portrayal of the roughly 1.6 billion Muslims in the world? I think you know the answer to that. No, of course not. 99.9999999% of Muslims are law abiding, respectful, nice people. Why? Because that is what the Koran has taught them. However we focus on the small number of people who paint Islam in a bad light.

So, how about Dunedin students? Are all of the students in this city the party loving, urinating in the streets, binge drinking party animals as portrayed in the above video? Sure some of them are, as we can see, but I'm willing to bet that it is a smaller percentage than you think. Why? Because the quieter majority are just that, they are quiet and they don't attract the spotlight as the people in this video do.

The reason I am writing about this today was that my mother said that my cousin was planning to go to Dunedin next year for university. I'm immediately thought of the kind of scene in the video and thought that she isn't one of those people at all. But then I realised that there are people who are in Dunedin primarily for study and there are going to be groups that like to participate in philosophical discussions over cups of tea and coffee instead of imbibing cans of beer in one gulp.

What I am trying to say is to be careful painting people with the same brush because of a small number of people.

Not all Muslims walk around cutting people's heads off.

Not all Chinese tourists are loud, pushy individuals.

Not all New Zealanders like rugby.

Not all Dunedin students are beer swilling, noise making party animals.

You can't judge everyone in these groups by the noise of a few people.

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