The Indian Weekender, Friday 6 November 2020
Weekly Kiwi-Indian publication printed and distributed free every Friday in Auckland, New Zealand
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Editorial<br />
Mainstream media’s obsession<br />
with Raveen Jaduram’s salary:<br />
Is “unconscious bias” against<br />
ethnic-migrants into play?<br />
<strong>The</strong> mainstream media’s relentless obsession with Raveen Jaduram’s salary, even after being<br />
cornered to resign from his leadership position at Watercare New Zealand’s largest water<br />
utility is an ignominious reminder of the “unconscious bias” that ethnic migrants have to<br />
face in this country.<br />
For uninitiated, Raveen Jaduram – an <strong>Indian</strong>-New Zealander – was Chief Executive Officer of<br />
Watercare for the last six years and was facing an enhanced media-scrutiny after Auckland plunged<br />
into a historic drought and water-shortage few months ago.<br />
<strong>The</strong> initial public scrutiny around Watercare’s overall preparedness to deal with Auckland’s<br />
water shortage soon deviated into a full-blown frontal attack on its CEO’s unusually high salary,<br />
forcing him to resign from the position last week.<br />
Such was the intensity of the personal attack on Jaduram’s salary that one of the latest reporting<br />
by NZ Herald this week emphasised that the incumbent had received a salary hike in recent months<br />
even after intense media-scrutiny in recent months.<br />
To put it subtly, this was much in poor-taste and more an expression of “war of attrition” between<br />
what can be broadly defined as the privileges explicitly reserved only for white-men that were so<br />
undeservingly enjoyed by a seemingly less deserving person of colour.<br />
Indeed, the level of reporting in the story was so erroneous that except for the fact that outgoing<br />
Watercare CEO’s salary was further increased to $800,000 mark, there was not a single value<br />
addition to the facts that were already in the public domain and had been already intensely reported<br />
and debated in mainstream media.<br />
In fact, more than anything else, it reflects an expression of “disbelief” that the outgoing CEO’s<br />
salary increased despite relentless personal scrutiny of his salary – something which he did not<br />
choose himself.<br />
It’s not clear that that “disbelief” was a reflection of the individual journalist or can be attributed<br />
as the worldview of the entire newsroom.<br />
However, it is indeed a sorry state of affair that needs to be rebutted resolutely for the simple<br />
reason that if this can happen so blatantly to an ethnic migrant worker who has reached to the<br />
higher echelons of decision making in a big public organisation - then the fate of the ordinary low<br />
to medium level ethnic migrant workers who face unconscious bias to casual racism on a daily<br />
basis in this country could only be imagined.<br />
To be fair, every credible media outlet has a responsibility of holding those in power to account,<br />
including Watercare – the largest Council Controlled Organisation and its - CEO without any fear<br />
or favour. In that regard, New Zealand’s mainstream media has done well in reporting and offering<br />
public scrutiny in every aspect of this important issue around water-shortage facing in our biggest<br />
city. However, the rules of engagement that it follows when reporting and scrutinising on issues<br />
that involve white European-New Zealanders and everyone else, particularly ethnic-migrant-New<br />
Zealanders, are starkly different.<br />
<strong>The</strong> mainstream media’s reporting for ethnic-migrant communities continue to remain<br />
sensational, contemptuous, voyeuristic, disrespectful and in some cases erroneous.<br />
Not long ago, mainstream media sought sensationalism in reporting of the number of imported<br />
Covid cases arriving on flights from India, while choosing to remain gloriously silent in the number<br />
of Covid cases arriving from traditionally white countries such as the United States, the United<br />
Kingdom, Australia or Canada.<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Indian</strong> <strong>Weekender</strong> had then also called out the mainstream-media’s unconscious bias against<br />
New Zealand’s ethnic migrant communities by reporting actual facts that India as a source of<br />
imported Covid cases remained distant fifth – far below the US, UK, Dubai and Australia – a fact<br />
erroneously not reported in their repeated stories on the issue.<br />
Similarly, in this instance, the level of personal attack on an <strong>Indian</strong>-origin high paid head<br />
honcho’s salary, which in no way advanced or enriched the public debate around Watercare’s<br />
ability to pre-empt or deal with Auckland’s water shortage crisis is not only unprecedented but<br />
purely outrageous.<br />
Make no mistake; the <strong>Indian</strong> <strong>Weekender</strong> fully condones the public scrutiny of individuals who<br />
are in public roles and have a duty and responsibility to uphold vis a vis their respective positions.<br />
However, what it absolutely rejects is the voyeuristic pleasure that some mainstream media<br />
reporting indulges in while reporting on issues related to the ethnic migrant community.<br />
It has been absolutely clear in mainstream media’s own reporting that Jaduram has been at the<br />
helm of affairs for the last six years and has inherited a fully -functional system with an inherent<br />
capacity to decide on the salaries of its staff, including the CEO.<br />
It is also clear that everyone in Auckland Council, including Mayor Phil Goff has been<br />
found napping on the important issue of regulating the salaries of CEOs of Council Controlled<br />
Organisations. It is a paradox that while there has not been enough outrage or public scrutiny on<br />
why Auckland Council and its incumbent had failed to act proactively much before the issue had<br />
flared up in media, the interest continues to remain on the incumbent receiving that high salary.<br />
It is unavoidable to see a clear case of unconscious bias, where the traditional privileged white<br />
man’s worldview refuses to come to terms with a person of colour - an ethnic migrant New<br />
Zealander – who in their world view seems to be undeserving of getting that high salary – is found<br />
to be enjoying that privileged position.<br />
<strong>The</strong> media scrutiny in this instance could have easily been equally bold and ferocious as it has<br />
been so far now, albeit minus the unwarranted focus on the salary of the person in the position,<br />
which clearly does not serve any purpose except for exposing the “unconscious bias” that ethnic<br />
migrant minorities have to face on a daily basis in this country.<br />
Thought of the week<br />
“Don’t limit yourself. Many people limit themselves<br />
to what they think they can do. You can go as far as<br />
your mind lets you. What you believe, remember, you<br />
can achieve.” —Mary Kay Ash<br />
6 <strong>November</strong> – 12 <strong>November</strong> <strong>2020</strong><br />
Fri Sat Sun Mon Tues Wed Thu<br />
On-and-off<br />
rain and<br />
drizzle<br />
16°<br />
9°<br />
Partly<br />
sunny<br />
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<strong>Indian</strong> <strong>Weekender</strong> : Volume 12 Issue 34<br />
Publisher: Kiwi Media Publishing Limited<br />
Content Editor: Sandeep Singh | sandeep@indianweekender.co.nz<br />
Chief Reporter: Rizwan Mohammad | rizwan@indianweekender.co.nz<br />
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Sr Graphics and Layout Designer: Mahesh Kumar | mahesh@indianweekender.co.nz<br />
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Editor at Large: Dev Nadkarni | dev@indianweekender.co.nz<br />
Views expressed in the publication are not necessarily of the publisher and the publisher<br />
is not responsible for advertisers’ claims as appearing in the publication<br />
Views expressed in the articles are solely of the authors and do not in any way represent<br />
the views of the team at the <strong>Indian</strong> <strong>Weekender</strong><br />
Kiwi Media Publishing Limited - 133A, Level 1, Onehunga Mall, Onehunga, Auckland.<br />
Printed at Horton Media, Auckland<br />
Parlty<br />
sunny<br />
Clouds and<br />
sun<br />
14°<br />
10°<br />
A touch o<br />
dafr<br />
This week in New Zealand’s history<br />
15°<br />
10°<br />
Copyright <strong>2020</strong>. Kiwi Media Publishing Limited. All Rights Reserved.<br />
Sunshine<br />
and pactcy<br />
clouds<br />
6 <strong>November</strong> 1908<br />
Last spike completes North Island main trunk railway<br />
16°<br />
9°<br />
A few<br />
morning<br />
showers<br />
Prime Minister Sir Joseph Ward ceremonially opened the North Island main trunk railway line<br />
by driving home a final polished silver spike at Manganuioteao, between National Park and<br />
Ohākune.<br />
7 <strong>November</strong> 1848<br />
<strong>The</strong> Acheron arrives to survey New Zealand waters<br />
<strong>The</strong> paddle-wheel sloop was one of the first steamships in New Zealand waters. Under the<br />
command of Captain John Lort Stokes, Acheron surveyed the coastlines of Cook Strait<br />
and the South Island until March 1851. Its 170-horsepower engine was especially valuable on<br />
dangerous shores such as the West Coast of the South Island.<br />
7 <strong>November</strong> 1912<br />
Public Service Act passed into law<br />
<strong>The</strong> Public Service Act was passed into law, creating a framework for New Zealand’s<br />
bureaucracy that was to endure until 1988. <strong>The</strong> Act was the brainchild of lawyer Alexander<br />
Herdman, a senior minister in the new Reform Party government.<br />
7 <strong>November</strong> 1970<br />
Last unclimbed face of Aoraki/Mt Cook conquered<br />
Long-haired Christchurch mountaineers John Glasgow and Peter Gough became the first<br />
people known to have scaled the 2000-m Caroline Face of Aoraki/Mt Cook. <strong>The</strong>y declared<br />
it a ‘triumph for the hippies’.<br />
8 <strong>November</strong> 1936<br />
New Zealanders march into besieged Madrid<br />
New Zealanders Griff Maclaurin and Steve Yates were part of the International Column of<br />
anti-fascist volunteers which marched into Madrid to bolster the city’s defences against the<br />
assault of General Francisco Franco’s rebel armies.<br />
8 <strong>November</strong> 1939<br />
New Zealand Centennial Exhibition opens<br />
More than 2.6 million people visited the New Zealand Centennial Exhibition, which ran for<br />
six months at Rongotai, Wellington. It was the centrepiece of the centennial of the signing<br />
of the Treaty of the Waitangi.<br />
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