August Newsletter : New Blood
Sorry these newsletters have become so infrequent – my new policy is to wait till I have something worth saying that I haven’t said before. And I haven’t been short of words in the past. Check the newsletter index or the commentaries index if you’d like to see what's holding me back.
In the course of my work I’ve recently met some new migrants to New Zealand – people who have come here because they’ve liked the place a long time and because they’re wealthy enough to [a] step off whatever ladder they’ve been on and [b] be attractive to us as migrants.
Now they’re starting or investing in new businesses – not ‘taking our jobs’ – in fact they’re ‘making our jobs’.
Bill Payne – the ‘grandfather of angel investing’, who has been in residence at Icehouse in Auckland for some months this year, makes the point that most new jobs are the direct result of innovation and new investment.
That stands to reason - once an industry becomes mature, competitive pressures tend to lead to the shedding or re-distribution of jobs rather than their creation.
So these new migrants with their entrepreneurial perspectives and pro-New Zealand attitudes seem to me to be almost like a blood transfusion for an anaemic.
Not only do they offer the promise of new jobs and access to international networks, they are everything I could wish for in terms of their ability to pierce our self-deceptive myopia. Bring us more!
I like that they see us clearly – not green enough, not big enough, not close enough, not necessarily as smart as we’d like to think we are. But they came here anyway – because of the important advantages of New Zealand.
These are the things we take for granted. It does measure up internationally as a great safe place to bring up children [especially if you’re rich and white]. It’s an equable place with few of the extremes that create antagonism and uncertainty elsewhere. Even our class warfare is muted – despite growing inequality.
Other boxes ticked by New Zealand:
- it’s likely to avoid the worst of the potential future shocks – resource wars, global warming effects,
- it’s a beautiful place – if not as pure as it’s painted.
- And great people. Really good people. Well, in between the fits of self-deception.
I’m particularly interested in how we deceive ourselves over our use of the environment.
Especially for people from other Anglo-Saxon countries, New Zealand sits alongside Scandinavia as a bastion of clean and green-ness. But even recent migrants can see that we don’t seem to value that attribute in reality as much as we do in sentiment.
If kaitiakitanga implies an active and holistic view of the environment, then kaitiaki we ain’t.
Yes we can rally ourselves to stop miners spoiling unique landscapes – but we’ll also rush to stop wind farms being sited in [really] the middle of nowhere. Is our clean green sentiment only postcard-deep?
At the same time we close our eyes to the chronic use of agricultural chemicals and chicken barns and sow crates. Sales of free range and organic products in New Zealand are miniscule compared to the industrial agricultural products we consume.
Why do we tolerate pesticide-contaminated vegetables in our supermarkets and rivers polluted by farm effluent? Do we just close our eyes to the dirty bits for reasons of efficiency?
Or is it blind trust in the agricultural heartland? Compared to Australians we New Zealanders are very relaxed about our food sources. Thanks Mr Wattie – that’ll be fine.
Though I’ve never ever voted National [daddy issues] I do think John Key presents as an intelligent leader, one with a mission to bolster New Zealand’s economy.
Unfortunately most of the economic ideas promoted by his party so far seem to reflect 19th Century rather than 21st century thinking. But the only way is up – right?
It seems to me that these new migrants do reflect 21st century realities and they see where New Zealand can fit into the world at the premium ‘added value’ level we need for continued prosperity.
If we had even 100 more and integrated them properly, I think we’d really notice the difference in the vibrance of our business environment – especially the export sector.
I remain convinced that ultimately New Zealand’s future success depends on the culture it creates and the kind of conversations people have with each other.
Like an athlete whose glory days are behind him, we’ve become flabby and unadventurous – thinking we’ll never matter again. Most of our conversations are trivial and repetitive.
So it’s time for one of those feel-good Hollywood stories where the hero rides again and saves the world in the process. Or at least, does some retraining and upgrades his CV. Maybe meets some new people and gets a new perspective of life.
That’d be a good start.
Cheers
Jill
Jill Caldwell is Director of Windshift Ltd. Click Here to contact Jill directly This is a free monthly newsletter provided to direct subscribers and legitimate Windshift contacts only. No further use is made of subscriber information. [Copyright Windshift Ltd 2010]
Distribute [unchanged] with impunity. Quote with attribution.
