This remote island country in the South Pacific Ocean has a scant population of 4.5 million and is home to the unbeatable All Black Rugby team. New Zealand may be small but the ‘Kiwis’ lead the world on many human rights issues.
In 1840 the Waitangi Treaty was signed giving Maori and the European alike equal rights. It was the first country in the world to give women the vote in 1893 and in 1899 the first country to introduce the 8-hour day.
The youngest nation in the world spawns pioneers. It is the scene of possibly the first flight ever made by man – Richard Pearce flew his homemade aircraft 150 yards in early 1903.
Legendary Auckland born Sir Edmund Hillary was the first man to reach the summit of Mount Everest in 1953.
Lesser known but just as remarkable is the achievement of Ernest Rutherford, known as the father of nuclear physics, who won the Nobel prize for chemistry in 1905 and more recently 28 year old Eleanor Catton the youngest woman ever to win the prestigious Man Booker Prize for her second novel ‘The Luminaries.’
New Zealanders credit their innovation and successes to their country’s isolation and their ‘can-do’ attitude. The term ‘Number 8 Wire’ is common usage in the New Zealand vernacular. It is Kiwi shorthand for a bloke or a ‘blokess’ who can turn his/her hand to anything. It is believed that with a length of a Number 8 baling wire and some string anything can be fixed.
But all this innovation and cleverness is now a mere eccentricity compared to the nation’s most powerful reaction to a terrorist act that so grievously targeted a minority faction of their nation.
For a little country, the size of California, their stance of unity in the face of hatred echoes in the phrase ‘We are one,’ (coined by their PM Jacinta Arden) which, is reaching out around the world. And the world is listening. Once again New Zealanders are leading way this time with demonstrable displays of humanity, tolerance and love.