Edge Message #24 from Brian Sweeney, producer NZEDGE.COM
TO NZEDGE.COM COMMUNITY
We’ve been cooking, and are pleased to serve you up NZEDGE HOT. When Taupo erupted nearly 2000 years ago in the biggest eruption in history, people in Rome and China witnessed deep red sunsets and darkened skies. Two millenniums later NZEDGE HOT profiles Kiwis continuing to generate and inspire heat around the world in the arts, sciences, media, sport, style and business. Meet the Trans Tas-Man, The Edge Warrior, The War Eye, The Green Chemist, The Gene Revolutionary, The Woodsman, The Player, The V12 Rower and The Femme Designer.
These essays/profiles by Paul Ward of NZEDGE and designed by Carla Hofler are another attempt by us to define New Zealand in an international context not simply through scenery and sport, but through the grit, guts and genius of our people.
HOT is also the latest expression of our attempt at NZEDGE to create a meaningful network of the overseas New Zealanders. In the current anxiety about the brain drain there has been little serious attempt to build the bridge to the million “lost” Kiwis living internationally who want a literate, emotional (and in many cases, a financial) relationship with home-down-on-the-edge.
There can’t be many countries that have about 20 per cent of their population living outside of the borders. We are one such place (we New Zealanders number about 5 million people on the planet) and now is the time to build the global community based around a shared understanding of who we are, what we are, and indeed why we are. We can’t legislate for people to stay in New Zealand; people actually have to want to be here. A clear and believable sense of identity, belief and vision is a key need. This is what this work-in-progress – The New Zealand Edge – is fundamentally all about.
We also feature today in NZEDGE HOT an essay on te Maori ki te Ao, focussing on the Moko, an extraordinary private/public act which is reaching deep into the international heartland.
Kevin Roberts sends regards to you all, you can read an interview Fast Company magazine has done with Kevin on a “beyond-branding” phenomenon called “Lovemarks“. You read about it first here.
Best regards
BRIAN SWEENEY
executive editor, THE NEW ZEALAND EDGE
brian@nzedge.com
PS: a special hello from the edge to Chris Nixon, a registered engineer from Henderson who is presently working as the Reconstruction Co-ordinator for the Danish Red Cross in Pristina. There are New Zealanders right around the world working in peacekeeping, relief, crisis management, reconstruction, and the world is a better place because of them.
Thumbnail: Nape Nape, where the Hurunui River meets the sea, North Canterbury. Photo copyright: Sarah Connor.
