Last year a read a wonderful story about the Kiwi identity. It was written by John McCrone and published in the Your Weekend magazine. Here are a few snippets.
Gallic flair, Yankee ‘drive , ltalian passion, Aussie mateship, Chinese industry, Kiwi..Aerr…purity? Yes, for New Zealanders, the question of national identity seems ill-defined. Are we just Aussies with an inferiority complex, Poms cut adrift by the mother country, a bicultural experiment on the fringe of Asia, or a small nation that punches above its weight yet still gets flattened when the fight proper starts?
New Zealanders can be summed up by six characteristics: ingenious, fair, restrained, modest, earthy and informal. The core American attributes are speed, self-reliance, law and order, equality, speaking up and capitalism. For the Chinese, it is face, family, social networks, prosperity, harmony and nationalism. The swiss emphasise consensus, order, following the plan, slow but sure, Swiss-made. The English go for privacy, singularity, evolution not revolution, fair play, pragmatism and revealing a recent shift in the British psyche, social mobility. It is remarkable how little counties overlap. And even where there are similarities, there are telling differences. Take Australians. The Aussie cultural DNA stress the fair-go, Jack’s as good as his master, and live and let live. In a general way, as fellow colonial settlers escaping the constraints of the old country, they share idea’s about being unpretentious and egalitarian.
But there is a twist, where Kiwi’s are encouraged to be diffident – team players, modest to a fault, a people who don’t skite, don’t impose – Aussies demand an assertive expression of mare-ship and classless-ness. Australians value forthrightness call a spade a bloody shovel mate. New Zealanders are more indirect in their communication, more restrained We are friendly, but beyond that is a reserve, a caution. `So New Zealanders will think of Australians as being a bit brash, a bit pushy a bit loud, and Australians will think of New Zealanders as being a bit too PC ‘ Falconer says the two countries really are at opposite ends of the spectrum on this score New Zealanders will duck confrontation while the Aussies are out there with the South Africans, Israelis and Dutch for blunt speaking.
Bill Watson of Access Asia, another intercultural consultant, agrees that restraint is a defining Kiwi characteristic . Certainly Kiwi business people know to keep their heads down. Only here would a semi-billionaire, like South Canterbury Finances Allan Hubbard, continue to drive around Timaru in an old Volkswagen Beetle We may have a few big-noting millionaires driving around in Porsches and swanning about on yachts but they may as well be Australians as far as the rest of us are concerned.
This national reticerice can be a drawback and an asset, says Watson What foreign employers like about Kiwis is that we are instinctively team players eager to collaborate And our modesty can be an appealing trait, especially in a world lands increasingly dominated by strident self· promotion.
What about the other key ingredients in the New Zealand recipe: ingenuity, practicality and informality?
The resourceful side of the Kiwi character is the No 8 wire story Watson says it is indeed something that comes through strongly even when we are compared with Australians and Canadians.
A practical problem-solving streak is a powerful selling point if we are talking a national brand, Watson believes Look at how the world has responded to characters in our history like Burt Munro, Richard Pearse and Edmund Hillary lisa quality in great demand as the world economy becomes increasingly dependent on smart ideas and effective thinking.
 Andy
