Baby Sophia Stranded in Bangkok

Parents of surrogate born daughter battle to bring her home - Video

Little Sophia Anne is back home and well. Thank you to all those that supported us, you will always be in our thoughts.

After much stress and strain over the last 4 weeks Sophia is allowed to come home. Thank you to all those who commented, gave moral and practical help. We will be forever in your debt.

These buggers left it to the very last moment this Friday to make a decision which meant I had to rush across Auckland and Komla across Bangkok to put the finishing touches to it.

It was cruel, vile, petty, political, public and had Monty pythonesque moments when I thought we would continue with the same monotonous, dangerous, bureaucratic treadmill forever.

We pay these people to work for us but they work against us instead.

Not even a whisper of the word sorry was uttered.

Our country is truly in a mess when its citizens can be punished in this way.

I have really lost faith in our leaders over this and the other nonsense they are up to.

I haven't been able to write much lately about the usual financial topics because of my travels to Thailand and what I was doing there.

My wife and I are proud parents of a 2 and a half week old girl Sophia. Our first child. She was born using a surrogate.

The only problem is that my wife and child may be stuck in Bangkok because of bureaucracy at New Zealand Immigration and a couple of other government agencies.

What is supposed to be a time of joy has been turned into one of despair, loneliness anxiety and doubt as we have had to cope with dealing with New Zealand Immigration.

Instead of bonding with our girl we have been arguing with the state.

Sophia has a Thai passport and got it in less than 3 days. She is allowed to leave that country but NZ immigration will not give her a Visa to enter New Zealand.

I have done my best considering all the ambiguous, wrong information we have been given and have gone as far as the Immigration Minister, Jonathon Coleman but they have refused her entry.

We have done everything by the book but to no avail, we are stuck in a bureaucratic black hole where no law applies to our case and the minister will not rectify things by either using commonsense and setting a precedent for such cases by letting her in, or changing the law under urgency.

Our last port of call was the media, so if you want to see the detail of our case have a look at the Campbell Live video above, originally screened at 7.00pm Friday 28 to see my interview.

I would be grateful for any support with comments below, it just might help us.

There is something even more practical you can do to help us though. Email or phone your MP and ask them nicely to see sense. Tell your friends as well. You can find your local MP and their contact details here

All our love back at you all,

Darren & Komla

Kiwis breathe a sigh of frustration, not relief, over distant meagre tax cuts

c Tom Scott, Stuff.co.nz 2008


In a story in yesterday's NZ Herald Mr Cullen said tax cuts in October would bring "relief".

"From October 1 all New Zealanders will get a tax cut that should provide some relief from rising prices." Michael Cullen 16.7.08

Well, I don't get tax cuts from that date because I'm self employed and 10s of thousands of other Kiwis are as well.

It seems bizarre that Dr Cullen would trumpet "tax relief" when Kiwis need it now. They actually needed it years ago. Labour decided to stop taking as much tax off us in the budget this May but the 6 month wait makes Labour's decision political rather than any sort of benevolent government helping out the proletariat. On average the October cuts are equal to less than one block of cheese.

National would have brought their tax cuts in with urgency and unlike Dr Cullen's election bribe, tax cuts were something that the National Party have been pushing for years. Dr Cullen doesn't believe in tax cuts, he thinks the State should spend your money.

“We just don't believe in tax cuts - it's against our fundamental philosophy - after all we are socialists and proud of it.”— Dr Michael Cullen


We can however have a NZ$ 2 billion decision to buy 17th century technology, KiwiRail, made on the fly instantly, lose $1.5 billion of shareholder money by stopping the sale of the Auckland Airport, and increases in road user charges and an extra tax on petrol for all, both increasing cost to the average kiwi and more than wiping out any tax cut come October. But we cant have the meagre tax cut now?

In fact the amount of Government promised election spending so far announced by Labour puts the tax cuts in the shade. We will all be a least $30 pr week behind thanks to Cullen's "generosity" in the wake of an election.

Remember this when you cast your ballot this November:

My view is that tax cuts are largely offered as a political bribe, not because of beneficial economic or social effects.

— Dr Michael Cullen



Related Political Animal reading

Michael Cullen speaks with forked tongue
Cullen's history on tax cuts comes back to haunt him
Wednesday Political Soup: Edition 3 2nd story down - Let them eat cake
Labour and their last crusade



c Political Animal 2008