such a curious place

[Ken Gargett]

i know i spend a little more time in new zealand than some, including myself, consider healthy but it perhaps the most curious place on the planet. and not in a good way. beautiful country, fantastic trout, some wonderful wines, and some great individuals, but god help us when they congregate. they are the most paranoid nation on earth. you could understand paranoia of this magnitude between say, north and south korea, pakistan and india, cuba and the states but them and us? bizarre. they define themselves by a minor event 30 years ago and love nothing more to play the wronged victim, the loser, the downtrodden - they are, of course, all those things except wronged.

take this morning's paper. two articles. one of the major leading articles reported on the new broadband system that was apparently announced by our govt in the last few days. the nz report? australia has deliberately set out to trump the broadband system that the nz govt was putting in place. the entire, apparently quite serious article in one of their major papers, focused on how our entire reasoning was based on having a better system than nz. seriously. can any nation truly be that sad and pathetic? it is common knowledge that i have nothing but utter contempt for our pollies but even i would not think that whether our system was better or worse than that of nz played a single fraction of import in the decision. how paranoid can you be? who even knew nz had a system? sad.

then to the sports - headlines - 'an act of south african treachery'. not still banging on about the fact that every single kiwi seriously believes that the south african authorities arranged for the all blacks to get food poisoning the night before the 95 world cup final - they really do - but for something that happened on the weekend. in rugby, you can only take a quick throw for a line out if you use the same ball. a south african side in the super 14 used a different ball, the ref missed it and they scored. now, the fact that they won by a bucket didn't matter. this, according to the kiwis was a treacherous act of international incident magnitude. the yarpies were clearly cheats. for god's sake, the ref missed it. who gives a toss? deep in the article was the acknowledgement that a kiwi player had done exactly the same thing last year but that apparently was a clever use of an opportunity, not treachery. and these morons really believe it.

i could go on but....

[anacostiakat]

Well according to your reporting I suspect you will be on the Most Wanted List shortly. . .

[El Presidente]

Welcome back mate

[Ken Gargett]

Well according to your reporting I suspect you will be on the Most Wanted List shortly. . .

seriously, the only way you can tell the difference between the prosecutors and the rest of the population, aka defendents, is if the they are wearing a suit. and then they'd be up to their necks in dodgy white collar crime anyway.

[Ken Gargett]

Welcome back mate

not quite back yet. still in sydney. one more leg with the stumbling wombat. have only issued one complaint to their head office today so not a bad trip so far.

[Tampa1257]

Ken, share how you really feel....

and as Rob said, welcome back mate!

[stargazer14]

...maybe its something in the soil....

[smk819]

A country with more sheeo than people has to be a little off, don't they?

[ARRV]

It's like making Tasmania a country or a country church association a parliamnet and then wondering why all they do is look over their shoulders / across the sea. Small mindedness - I am surprised the under-arm bowling didn't get dredged up but I guess the cricket season is over

I am pretty sure NZ still remains part of NSW or at least there provision on both side to enable reunification = they know they want it

[Ken Gargett]

people and sheep - there is something like 25 to 30 times the sheep to people, and probably the same with possums, which we gave them and they have never shown due gratitude. a few got out and turned into millions and ravaged the countryside - you could apply that description to the kiwis that never stop moving here.

the underarm? every single day. they cannot help themselves. this minor stupid non event that happened 30 years ago is how they define themselves as a nation. the enormous hypocrisy that they display is breathtaking. they think they are a country of wronged victims fighting imaginary injustices. in reality, as i have pointed out to them many many times, it was the best thing that ever happened to them. it dragged them out of their 1950's stupor and dumped them in the 20th century. they have not got past that yet but if they ever grow up, they are welcome to seek admission to the 21st.

the underarm gave them a reason to live, they can get up each day and whinge about how unfair the world is, especially us.

and as for the welcome back, many thanks but i was only gone two days??