We should feel safe

Grace Millane was the 15th woman to be murdered in New Zealand this year.

Visitors to this country need advice about personal safety, and not to believe the lie that New Zealand is safe. The tourism industry and immigration officials have a duty of care to communicate such messages.

A small minority of men are predators who don’t necessarily appear in wolves’ clothing.

If New Zealand is a safe place:

■ Why do I feel uneasy if I walk alone in the bush tracks near my home?

■ Why do women walk or run in pairs, or with a dog, when it’s nearly dark? Why at night after attending a concert do we feel the need to walk with another woman back to our transport?

■ Why did I advise a young Swiss woman not to walk alone through Central Park to her flat in Brooklyn in daylight?

■ Why do I know a young Kiwi woman who regularly walked alone from her workplace in central Wellington home to her flat in Kelburn talking on her cellphone to her mother, relaying where she was in case anything happened to her?

■ Why does New Zealand have an appalling rate of domestic violence? It is men we are frightened of. New Zealand women grow up knowing about vulnerability. We should feel safe. Please, all men, step up and help now to fix our violent society.

Lynette Buchanan, Tawa