Up down under

By David MacGregor, September 21, 2007 @ 10:52 am

The School Journal holds a special place in my memory. As a relatively recent child migrant to New Zealand in the late 60s I soaked up my New Zealandness from this kind of material. I learned that Geraldine was heaven. I learned how to grow apples blessed by the sun for markets blessed by the Queen. I learned ‘we’ could work magic with No 8 wire. Of an evening we’d watch Keith Bracey presenting Town & Around. He was comfortingly like a Spitfire pilot from Biggin Hill. We’d watch Coronation Street in black and white: Ena Sharples and Hilda Ogden and Albert Tatlock, just like the people who huddled in the tube during The Blitz. New Zealand was Britain in remote microcosm. I didn’t meet a Maori kid (so far as I knew) until my parents moved from Mount Eden to their spec house on a quarter acre in a North Shore subdivision.

In high school they taught us that the sinking of the Prince of Wales and the Repulse off the coast of Singapore in the Second World War meant the days of Empire were over. From then on, we couldn’t rely on Britain. They abandoned us for that hussy, the European Community.

Don’t worry if none of this means anything to you, because it simply means nothing. It’s all in the past. Let it go—and everything else that happened more than ten minutes ago.

Let’s talk about the future. The past is really just the landfill of memory and the future a set of infinite possibilities. The present is the nexus where the two intersect and tough decisions have to be made.

That’s why I like New Zealand Unleashed. It has been published at the nexus. Now is the time to think about the future we want for our kids.

While the title promises some prescription for the future, I think you will be disappointed if you imagine you will find the answers to what we, collectively, must do.

Roger Kerr of the Business Roundtable criticised Carden’s use of ‘we’ in his review of the book. I think Carden is correct to use the collective term. The future of this country won’t depend on oligarchic, individualistic spheres of influence. I doubt Sam Morgan is a member of any establishment club in Wellington (I’d be disappointed if he were). He is a man at the nexus. Russell Brown’s capital is probably shared with the bank that owns his mortgage. Both will be more influential than the Roundtable. It depends on you ... us … we. Not yesterday’s men.

While Unleashed is a sweeping canvas of ideas it is important because it doesn’t beatify our past with saccharine nostalgia. It is non-partisan politically. It urges us to think about the future and let go of non-productive ideals: to adapt to contemporary realities.

I enjoyed the book. If you need some petty criticism: too much presentation theory (tell ’em what you’re going to tell ’em … tell ’em … tell ’em what you told ’em … coming up in chapter three). And, yes, there are errors but they fall under the heading of yada yada yada. Let’s focus on ideas rather than being pedants about form or execution.

New Zealand Unleashed is worth reading. More importantly, worth thinking about and talking about, because no matter what amazing things we can do with No 8 wire they will be about as relevant to our future as the little trinkets—aeroplanes and motorbikes—made from soda cans in Thailand and Bali for tourists.

Originally published in Idealog #11, page 86