Stereotypes

A while ago I wrote about the English. I claim no expertise in anything, and all i can do is speak from my mind, which some might say is not necessarily a good thing. I have been thinking about Nationality and national characteristics, and the more I do so, the more I realise where these stereotypes come from.

I have a niece, who, though born in this country, lived in New Zealand for much of her life. She cam back here a number of years ago however, and has lived and worked in London along with most of the rest of new Zealand youth, for years. She is a lovely girl but, there is always a but is there not?........... she has become a New Zealander, and by that I mean that she is arrogant and utterly insensitive to the feelings of people from other countries. Most New Zealanders consider themselves to be superior in every way to the rest of us, and i wonder why that is the case? They come from a small, remote, beautiful and utterly insignificant country, where nothing much happens that doesn't involve a rugby ball, and their participation in world events goes unrecorded, largely because there is little to record.

It is a country that lives in the past, it is a country with huge racial issues, few roads, less railways, lots of scenery, and an aging population because all the intelligent youth leave to come to London, New York, Paris etc. They call it God's own country, and yet they seem only too eager to leave it in their droves and then sit around in London pubs in the winter saying how awful London is and how wonderful it is back home. They go on ad nauseam about how they really want to go back but they never do. The temptation of the big money that they can earn here seems more powerful than the lure of the unmade road and the culture of 1950s Britain.

Their TV is appalling, radio stations not much better, and the Cultural scene is pretty backward. I attended a performance of a Midsummer Night's Dream in the National Theatre in Wellington, expecting something quite special. It wasn't, it was dire and probably the worst production of a Shakespeare play that I have ever seen.

Why am I slating New Zealand? I guess i am trying to establish the cause of the arrogance. Is it that underneath it all, they know that they come from the ass end of the world and rather than try to defend the indefensible, they feel the need to impress? For goodness sake, all they have is scenery- Oh and sheep, i forgot the sheep.

So whenever you hear a Kiwi, whining about how bad things are here, and that they would rather live anywhere else, ask them, why they are here and why indeed they are not sitting around in pubs over there whining about something else.

ps I forgot that they once had a good Rugby team, but they spent so much time telling everyone how wonderful New Zealand was, that they didn't notice the other sides scoring!