The kiwi dream

[MotherBear]

[color=green:84c24ce895][b:84c24ce895]We want world peace and our own homes [/b:84c24ce895][/color:84c24ce895]
01.03.06
By Stuart Dye

New Zealanders would rather win a Nobel Peace Prize than the Rugby World Cup and say that home ownership remains the number-one dream. Almost everyone dreams of spending more time with families and friends, but very few care whether we win at soccer, basketball or cricket and hardly anyone wants to spend time with a movie star.

The insights are among findings from a Telecom-commissioned survey which aims to paint a picture of New Zealanders' dreams for the future. The survey, thought to be the largest outside the Census, involved interviews from almost 10,000 people. It revealed that safety, security, open spaces, family time, good health, and success on the world stage were top priorities for the average Kiwi.

Meanwhile, just under 80 per cent said home ownership was the ultimate Kiwi dream. Although that was the top answer overall, among the 15-29 age-group only 65 per cent said it was their dream. Telecom said that could indicate it was a less realistic option for the younger generation. The survey also revealed that New Zealanders are most proud of their beaches and empty spaces, of being nuclear-free and of the way New Zealand is often the first to accomplish important things in the world.

Sir Edmund Hillary also made an appearance in the survey when people were asked to vote for their top dream achievers. He topped the list with 75 per cent, followed by Peter Jackson (69 per cent) and Sir Peter Blake (60 per cent). Prime Minister Helen Clark made the list with 24 per cent, Rachel Hunter with 16 per cent and Scribe with 14 per cent.

And while many had the individual dream of winning a Nobel Peace Prize, rugby aficionados need not panic - to see the All Blacks win the World Cup was at the heart of sporting dreams for more than a third of people. The survey was carried out between November 1 and 21 last year, online and in shopping malls.

New Zealand has been voted the world's most honest country in a survey of national identity. The results are part of a "nation branding" survey of more than 25,000 people by global market research company Anholt-GMI. The Anholt Nations Brand Index was created to gauge perceptions of 35 countries in key areas including culture and heritage, people, governance, investment and sport.

The 2006 index shows New Zealand topping the honesty poll. Turkey is seen as the most dishonest. The British were seen as the most boring people on the planet, the Japanese as the most intelligent, the French as the most rude, Canadians as the most trustworthy and the Germans as the most skilful.

Asked which attribute best described Americans, most people said "ignorant".

Top dreams

* Remain safe and secure for our families.
* Best health system in the world.
* Own our own home.
* Continue to stand up for ourselves.
* Best education system in the world.
* 53 per cent dreamed of winning the Nobel Peace Prize - double those who wanted to win the Rugby World Cup.

[Pulsarblu]

Very informative post! Thanks MotherBear.

I like the title.."We want world peave and our own homes" It has been common that New Zealand is different from other countries and that difference is geared towards peaceful ambitions. Hopefully New Zealand will be a role model for many countries for years to come.

pulsarblu

[netchicken]

If we can't have world peace, can we have the biggest shitload of nucluer weapons on the planet instead please?

[Glenda]

[quote:4459c3d2e9="netchicken"]If we can't have world peace, can we have the biggest shitload of nucluer weapons on the planet instead please?[/quote:4459c3d2e9]

:icon_lol:

Reckon NZ might need them if the world keeps going on the way it does! I think Frank Skinner put it best:

"We'll have world peace when its a smoldering black ruin... it'll be very peaceful then"

[MotherBear]

[color=indigo:a230294676][b:a230294676]New Zealanders near top in national pride survey [/b:a230294676][/color:a230294676]
04.03.06

Americans and Venezuelans lead the world in national pride, but New Zealanders are not far behind and Maori are prouder of New Zealand than the rest of the population, a new report shows. The National Opinion Research Centre in the United States surveyed 33 nations for the report.

The researchers asked a series of questions related to general national pride, asking people to what extent they agreed with statements such as, "I would rather be a citizen of my country than any other country in the world," and "Generally speaking, my country is a better country than most countries".

On the general pride measure, people in Venezuela scored 18.4 out of a possible 25. Then followed the US (17.7), Australia (17.5), Austria (17.4), South Africa (17), Canada (17), Chile (17.1), New Zealand (16.6) and Israel (16.2).

A second set of questions was about national pride in specific areas, such as the nation's achievements in science and technology, the arts, sports and political influence in the world. The US led this with 4.0, followed by Venezuela (3.6), Australia (2.9), South Africa (2.7), New Zealand, (2.6), Chile (2.6), the Philippines (2.3) and Israel (2.3).

Within the surveyed countries, national pride was generally lower among minority groups - with the notable exception of the Maori in New Zealand and Muslims in the Philippines.

In the general national pride category Maori scored 17.5, compared to the rest of the population on 16.4.

In the specific category the Maori score was 3.6, ahead of the European score of 2.6.

[MotherBear]

[color=limegreen:4987230b8f]Considering the previous post, where's all the kiwi pride now?[/color:4987230b8f]

[b:4987230b8f][color=darkblue:4987230b8f]Kiwis flocking to Oz yet again [/color:4987230b8f][/b:4987230b8f]
21.03.06
By Simon Collins

The flight of Kiwis to Australia is on the rise again - and this time it's looking like a long-term exodus rather than another short-term migration. The net outflow of people across the Tasman has doubled in the past two years to 21,439 in the year to January and is heading towards the peak losses of just over 30,000 a year reached in the late 1980s and again five years ago.

National leader Don Brash highlighted the trend in his Orewa speech citing 600 people a week leaving for Australia, although the net effect - taking into account New Zealanders who leave and Australians who come here - is 400 a week, still enough to empty a city the size of Taupo every year. But this exodus is different from previous migrations, which coincided with economic slumps at home. New Zealand is losing people despite recent boom conditions and the world's lowest unemployment.

The trend is also different because the exodus is led by people who have immigrated here and can't get jobs in their professions, even though employers are short of skilled labour. Both native-born Kiwis and immigrants are leaving a country where unemployment has fallen to just 3.6 per cent and are competing for jobs in a new land where unemployment is still 5.2 per cent. But they are being lured by incomes which are persistently higher even when the Australian economy, like ours, is slowing.

Electrician Grahame Boyd, made redundant by a former star of New Zealand industry, Ion Automotive, has doubled his wages from $18 to A$33.70 ($38.70) an hour by shifting to a mining construction site in Queensland. Eileen Ruka earned $10.50 an hour at an Avondale plastics factory but expects to earn A$19 an hour as a bar manager in Melbourne.

On average, after adjusting for prices and the exchange rate, real incomes in Australia are now 32 per cent higher than here. The gap is widening with a 7.4 per cent drop in the kiwi dollar against the Australian dollar so far this year. Migrant groups said the exodus of immigrants was no surprise given the number of well-qualified migrants working at Auckland's petrol stations and supermarkets because they can't get jobs in their own professions.

"An engineer working at a petrol station will get depressed. His self-esteem is down in the dumps," said Shankar Nair, a retired major-general in the Indian Army who chairs the Migrants Support Services centre in Onehunga.

[Pulsarblu]

What about the folks on the ground, do you see that kind of exodus?

pulsarblu

[MotherBear]

[color=green:ab405639c7][b:ab405639c7]Jobs luring young Maori across Ditch [/b:ab405639c7][/color:ab405639c7]
22.03.06
By Simon Collins

More than a third of Maori may be living in Australia by the second half of this century if present trends continue. The number of Maori living across the Tasman more than trebled from 27,000 in 1986 to 90,000 at the 2001 Census. That was a jump from 8.4 per cent to 14.6 per cent of the total Maori population in Australasia. A policy manager for the Ministry of Maori Development Te Puni Kokiri, Paul Hamer, said the ministry could no longer ignore the fact that one in every seven Maori are now in Australia. "If the trends continue, in 50 years time it will be 35 per cent, " he said.

Maori are fleeing their ancestral homeland at a faster rate than Pakeha New Zealanders, in line with a higher emigration rate of people in lower-paid jobs who cannot make ends meet on New Zealand incomes. Overall, the number of NZ-born people in Australia increased by 56 per cent from 218,100 at Australia's 1986 Census to 340,355 in 2001. The Australian Bureau of Statistics estimates that this number kept rising to 442,189 by June 2004. Those claiming Maori ancestry jumped by 233 per cent in the 15 years to 2001 and are now likely to number well over 100,000. The figures are not precisely comparable because the Australian Census asks people to state their "ancestry", whereas the New Zealand Census asks for their "ethnic group". Both allow people to list multiple groups.

In Australia's 2001 Census, 90,350 people gave Maori as one of their ancestries. However, this figure included an unknown number of people of Cook Island Maori ancestry, so demographers estimate the true 2001 figure for people of NZ Maori ancestry conservatively as "at least 90,000". A study by Waikato University Professor Dick Bedford and others found that Maori at that time were less likely to be unemployed in Australia than they were in New Zealand. Two-thirds were born in New Zealand, but 28 per cent were born in Australia and a further 4 per cent were either born elsewhere in the world or did not state a birthplace. More than half (54 per cent) were in the prime childbearing age group of 15 to 44, compared with 46 per cent of the Maori still in New Zealand. A further 31 per cent were aged under 15, compared with 37 per cent in New Zealand

Mr Hamer, who is studying the Maori population from a Brisbane base for nine months, said this young population meant the number of Maori Australians would keep growing rapidly even if migration from the homeland changed in the future. "If the birth rates are the same in both countries, and if Australia continues to take much of the out-migration from New Zealand, then it won't take much for the relativities in the population to start to alter quite quickly," he said. "What you can see is an upward trend that will just go on so long as there are economic differences between the two countries. And now you hear stories of one person in the family coming and then all the whanau coming over because that person will set up a house and they will all come over and get jobs."