My thoughts about the motherland

When the first expedition to the moon happened the famous photograph taken looking back at Earth over the grey rocky landscape altered the consciousness of humanity; the realisation that we are a little blue dot in the enormous space.

The Earth from the Moon

On a similar level leaving New Zealand has been my consciousness raiser. I cannot see the plushness green or long white clouds looming over the dull brick Belgian horizon. However little signifiers keep popping up where I least expect them, and they are giving me new ideas.

The strangest is that white Australians, South Africans and New Zealanders are very similar, globally speaking of course. The collective experience of colonisation means that the outlook and culture have many shared traits. There are elements of impermanence and the ability for positive change, guilt and reconciliation, and racism and segregation both geographically and economically. This similarity, especially with South Africans surprised me at first but it now makes sense to me.

Australian: a frozen yoghurt chainA more surprising thing is that I am very proud of Australians. As a single country Australia has a huge influence on American and European societies given its population size. There are far more references to Aussie than to New Zealand, whether it is the Billabong and Quicksilver stores in Santa Monica, the BBC paying for a new Australian soap because they lost Neighbours (which remains tremendously popular) or the Australian icecream stores throughout Amsterdam. Inside I cheer whenever I see Australian achievements and I claim ownership as an Antipodean.

Given that the National Party (0r the C.I.S.) keeps on going on about how New Zealand is brain draining or economically losing to Australia am I just reinforcing these views? Well yes I am, but I believe that the National Party cannot fix this nor should they bother trying. It is a fallacy to say that New Zealand should be better than Australia - New Zealand just cannot compete in size. So long as there are more Australians their markets will be bigger and their influence stronger. In Europe, small countries only excel by piggy-backing off larger institutions and selling on their differences. Ireland is a prime example. It joined the E.U. market, created some I.T. friendly policies and pow, due to its geographical location it has experienced an economic renaissance if you will.

We don’t have the luxury of a large trading bloc near us, except Australia. Rather than try and be better than Australia at what Australia does best (sport, looking beautiful in togs, owning banks), we should excel at being different. The comedy duo ‘The Flight of the Conchords’ are the perfect example of this. Australian comedy tends to be loud and a little bit crass: Rove is in the style of U.S. talk shows, not British panels. The Flight of the Conchords are funny due to their downbeat delivery, comradeship, wit and honesty. Maybe we need a national debate on whether owning the biggest Holden (or Ford) is what New Zealand culture is really about, and start to emphasise the things which are unique: Maori culture and history, our environment, egalitarianism (equality) and lifestyle. We don’t need to run to stand still, we can just go and sit at the beach to do that.

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Comments

  1. Marieke

    I’m inspired. Off to buy my budgie smugglers…

    116:225 23:39, Dec 13 2007

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