Comments on: Positive Identity Reinforcement

By: Matthew

Matthew — Sun, 16 May 2010 08:12:32 +0000

Heh. On the flipside, 99.6% of people outside New Zealand (out of those who’ve actually heard of the place) will respond to you saying you’re a kiwi with ‘Oh that’s such a beautiful country – I wish I could go there – What is it like to live there?’.. To which you should always reply ‘It’s shit’. @matthewjctalbot

By: Enquiring Kiwis Want to Know « Amy’s Jocuteca

Enquiring Kiwis Want to Know « Amy’s Jocuteca — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 09:44:16 +0000

[...] New York or London. On snarky Kiwianarama, local bloggers point out that Kiwis need constant positive identity reinforcement “because, deep down, most Kiwis have a niggling fear that it might actually be a bit shit.” [...]

By: chui

chui — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 05:59:58 +0000

Your article so true! and when asked ‘how do you like new zealand’ immigrants must never use the kiwi expression ‘its not bad’!!

By: Fiona from Melbourne

Fiona from Melbourne — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 22:37:25 +0000

A Kiwi friend Tweeted Selwyn’s article and this “blind, flag-waving, cock-sure” Aussie felt motivated to respond.

Selwyn says Kiwis suffer from a post-colonial lack of confidence in their country and their place in the world – but I reckon those of us on the other side of the ditch (dutch?!) are pretty much the same.

Sure, our country is bigger and maybe sunnier, but we’re only 200-odd years out from colonisation, and I think there’s still a bit of an inferiority complex going on at some level, because we’re a very outward-looking country.

Up until the 1960s, Aussies looked towards England as the mother country, and in recent years this focus has turned towards the US.

Our media is saturated with US sitcoms, dramas and crime shows, and our journo’s constantly cover US events. Barack Obama’s recent gaffe about a police arrest got as much coverage as if it was our own PM in the hotseat.

Our young people leave Oz in droves to tour and work overseas, and a sizeable proportion don’t come back.

In recent years, Aussie films have died at the box office because not enough of us want to see stories about our own country.

Sure, you’ll get a fair bit of blind patriotism and flag waving at big sporting events (and maybe on Australia Day – which is, ironically – a celebration of colonisation) but apart from that, I don’t see the kind of cock-suredness that Selwyn talks about.

Whilst I rail against the Aussie fixation with mediocrity in any endeavour outside sport, I don’t believe we’re a blindly patriotic or cock-sure country. That crown, surely, must belong to good ole’ Uncle Sam.

By: Everybody Hates Auckland « (Manifesto of Nothing.)

Everybody Hates Auckland « (Manifesto of Nothing.) — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 07:37:16 +0000

[...] allowing comfortable, slow-pace big-city living. Yet for a country that has clear issues with positive identity reinforcement, we choose to treat our gateway city as a punching [...]