Fat chef can't live in New Zealand

  •   #1  
    ForMyRoo's AvatarForMyRoo , 07-27-2013 04:17 PM
    Interesting bit from CBC News (Canada):

    Quote:
    A South African chef has been told by authorities in New Zealand
    that's he's too fat to be permitted to live in the country.

    Albert Buitenhuis, who weighs 130 kilograms, faces expulsion from the
    country he's called home since 2007.

    Buitenhuis said immigration officials told him he did not have "an
    acceptable standard of health" and his work visa would not be renewed,
    Fairfax NZ News reported...
    Full story at

    http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2...w-zealand.html
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  •   #2  
    EagleRiverDee's AvatarEagleRiverDee , 07-29-2013 01:51 PM
    Ok- the article says he weighed 352 when moved to NZ, and weighs 286 now. But now their expelling him? He's lost quite a lot of weight. That makes no sense.
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  •   #3  
    Creativian's AvatarCreativian , 08-13-2013 09:08 AM
    Good God. I never heard of such a crazy thing.
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  •   #4  
    Creativian's AvatarCreativian , 08-13-2013 09:11 AM
    Here's an interesting comment I found under the article:

    Quote:
    Incidentally, the BMI scale was I believe, a scale used to select the smallest possible human males to become fighter or bomber pilots during WW2. Most were under 5'8" and 130 lbs....or they couldn't fit into the seat of a fighter or get out of the cockpit to manually eject themselves...It wasn't intended for anything else...but it has been abused by applying it to everyone else.
    Who knew? That explains why BMI doesn't take fat percentage or muscle mass into account. I always thought it was a pretty flawed indication of overweight. Still fun to watch it go down on my ticker though.
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  •   #5  
    diamondgeog's Avatardiamondgeog , 08-13-2013 01:33 PM
    There are some other crazy examples of BMI being used. You have to be under a certain BMI to adopt from China. I know. Before we adopted our awesome daughter from foster care which was always our fist choice we had a placement go back to relatives. It's a devstating experience after you fall in love.

    In any case at that point I did briefly look into international adoption. China cuts you off after a certain BMI. I guess there reasoing is health related...but still.

    Yeah BMI is very crude. Feel very sad for this gentleman especially as he is heading in the right direction. Hopefully it gets reconsidered.
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  •   #6  
    Lolo70's AvatarLolo70 , 08-13-2013 04:09 PM
    NZ immigration follows one rule only and that is to make the most money out of immigrants. If need be, migrant workers are discarded. He should have gotten permanent residency and then citizenship as a protection. The health requirements for immigration are ridiculous and impossible to conform to with an aging body. BMI is just one requirement.
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  •   #7  
    ShyHeather's AvatarShyHeather , 08-13-2013 05:52 PM
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by diamondgeog
    There are some other crazy examples of BMI being used. You have to be under a certain BMI to adopt from China. I know. Before we adopted our awesome daughter from foster care which was always our fist choice we had a placement go back to relatives. It's a devstating experience after you fall in love.

    In any case at that point I did briefly look into international adoption. China cuts you off after a certain BMI. I guess there reasoing is health related...but still.

    Yeah BMI is very crude. Feel very sad for this gentleman especially as he is heading in the right direction. Hopefully it gets reconsidered.
    Wow! I did not know this. That is devastating to know... let me guess. I need to be like a 19? 20? Even if I hit my main goal weight, I'd be at 23% BMI according to the ticker.

    As for NZ, that is stupid. I guess I'll never visit there and give them any hard earned money!

    Edit - BMI of 40 ... that is not as bad as I thought it would be. I was thinking they wanted tiny people only x.x
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  •   #8  
    Lolo70's AvatarLolo70 , 08-13-2013 08:08 PM
    NZ BMI exclusion is actually 35. But I think the problem is more that NZ has no proper rules regarding visas. It is all up to the immigration officers. At least the US has more open procedures. NZ has the NHS system of health care where you get more or less free care as your taxes are supposed to cover health care. That is why they are afraid immigrants might actually profit from the system. Of course, I guess the cook paid his taxes. So, it may just be a case of populism or maybe the immigration officer did not like the cook's food.
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