In 1988, things changed forever. For those of you who can remember back that far, you may recall the 1987 sharemarket crash.

I remember seeing empty house in Auckland for the very first time in my life, and was quite shocked.

House prices plummeted 15 per cent or more and everyone was looking at everyone else thinking ‘what's going on here?' It took more than three years to get back to ‘normal' but that's not the point of my story.

It was then we started to import people from South East Asia and other parts by the thousands.

I said to my wife at the time: ‘Do you how many of them there are?' She just looked at me.

Today more than one-third of our largest city is Asian, which is great if you like takeaways, or want to teach English to students, but it's also a fundamental shift inside the Kiwi culture.

Many will tell you they study hard, work hard and they keep out of trouble.

And mostly that's true.

And you know what? It isn't going to revert to what it was and never will. Wherever they speak English is high up their wishlist and you can't blame.

India and China are the two biggest countries on the planet, both with well over a billion people each.

The sheer numbers are hard for us to get our heads around but it's big, believe me.
And the queue to get into New Zealand and other so-called Western countries is never-ending.

So, how to survive and thrive in the 21st Century's new world, knowing the old world, the one we ran, is fading and it's the new world or bust, whether we like it or not?

This question is being asked in many capital cities in Western cultures today.

With plummeting birth rates, immigration is how we keep growing, and it's certainly the case here in New Zealand. So, I suppose there's nothing for it except to suck it up and get used to it. Or get out of it.

That's sometimes hard to accept when what we've created is the best there is to offer. How do we know that? Because they all want to come and live here.

In the 21st Century New Zealand is a completely different brand than the 20th Century one.

That's life.

So I've stopped being a racist and have accepted the fact this is the new normal and that's the way it is.

The 21st Century New Zealand is a mixing pot of all colours and cultures, just like the rest of the west.

I know there is concern in certain quarters but there are many who just love it. It's what the new in New Zealand stands for. Perhaps we need a new flag as well?

G Martin, Otumoetai.