Harmony and Fury

The BBC’s Sydney correspondent Nick Bryant “reflects on New Zealand’s mix of controlled fury, subtle charm and social harmony, and asks why the rest of the world can’t be more like it” in an article for the BBC’s Radio Four. Bryant writes that New Zealand offers “fabulous food and wine, some of the most flavoursome coffee that you will find anywhere in the southern hemisphere — if not the world — and the sharp freshness of the air, all of which make it one of the great lifestyle superpowers of the world.” For “its televised coverage of Test cricket, where the commentators convene during the tea interval at a picnic table on the boundary and with quaint fastidiousness, enjoy a pot of tea, in other ways, though, New Zealand can be edgy and forward-thinking. It’s just about to launch the world’s most comprehensive emissions trading scheme to curb greenhouse gases, and some of its most senior civil servants are so with it, they look like they should be running organic supermarkets rather than the country.” Bryant concludes with his “usual parting thought: Why can’t the rest of the world be more like New Zealand?”