We are not the center of the universe

I've been in New Zealand for the past month with no chance to update this blog. But I'm back and looking at my country and situation with new eyes. We are not the center of the universe, we from the United States of America. I had been prepared to be apologetic about the sorry state we are in. But no one asked, there was no news on t.v. or in the daily papers about the richest and most influential country in the world. No one wanted to engage us in debates or discussion about American policies.

New Zealanders, Kiwi, as they call themselves, have a lovely and friendly society. To us they seem quite delightfully naive where we are jaded. The national newspapers have headlines about crimes that would not get a mention here. New Zealand is tiny by any standard (smaller in size than California) and has only 4 million population, and way more than that in sheep. The social contract is strong and respected. One always feel safe wherever you go. Teenagers and kids greet you everywhere.

I was so impressed with the policies of treasuring the young. The schools are wonderful and creative places, spilling out creative products in art and science and music and physical education (Many elementary schools have swimming pools!) and without such things as the NOCHILDLEFTBEHIND, they manage to produce kids who can read and write and wonder on a level far ahead of ours. These schools are pretty small compared to ours. They reflect neighborhood needs.

If a child has any developmental problems there are very good options for help for anyone. We visited a family whose child had a language problem at an early age. They were able to get, in a timely fashion, the help this kid needed. The speech therapist came to their home, no stress, to help not only the child but the parents. The child is now prospering and on target.

The people I met and envisioned through the local papers, are cheerfully willing to tax themselves to make this all happen. I never read about whining for tax cuts.

Going anyplace and wanting to understand the culture is always like the blind men and the elephant: you only see a little piece of it. Hard to extrapolate intelligently from it. I need to go back repeatedly!

Of course, this place is the most beautiful in the world, so varied and intriguing in all its aspects
of alps, fiords, glaciers, rain forests, amazing birds and penguins, and millions of sheep!

Travel is indeed the power of experience.