I retired from personal blogging in July 2008.
But you can find me over at http://blog.xero.com.
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Going global from New Zealand |
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Going global from New Zealand |
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I retired from personal blogging in July 2008.
But you can find me over at http://blog.xero.com.
Contact:
Rod Drury
Wellington
New Zealand
rod @ drury.net.nz
blog
To be fair though, Ireland absolutely milked EU dry to get the stage where it’s at currently. Obviously that’s not taking away the huge tax incentives that the government brought in to encourage overseas to invest (and consequently became the European software center), but I don’t think that could have happened (easily) without the significant amount of EU money. NZ unfortunately doesn’t have that sugar daddy ;)
It’s a call to arms. Let’s respond. See http://jimdonovan.net.nz/2007/04/25/time-to-change-gear-and-change-direction/.
(I’m still figuring how how this all works, so if I’ve boken some blog protocol or there’s a way to link this, no doubt some one will put me right).
From TFA…
“By far the biggest culprits in this decline are me and you. We just don’t notice that we are getting poorer.”
Unless, that is, you used to be unemployed, have kids or own a property or two.
One of the interesting things about NZ is how little of our GDP is spent by the Government. I am in Spain right now and I think the Euro-zone GDP spend is about 47 to 48 % of GDP. It shows. Particularly in health which I am seeing a little bit more of than I would like to right now.
Under Labour the GDP relative spend has been around 38% increasing recently to just over 40%. This is all from memory, so feel free to correct me.
If we want to lift health, education and business investment and initiatives then we need to seriously consider what we want from our governments and how much we want them to spend.
I am not sure that MMP is the problem Vincent seems to think it is. After all, FPP gave us Muldoon and a bankrupt country. I like my governments to be a little fettered, thanks.
One thing last about being in mainland Europe…being in business in NZ is like a breath of fresh air. It is so easy and companies are generally very much more straight forward to deal with. I am glad that folks like Rod and Jim Donovan are taking issues of growth and relative wealth seriously and actually putting money where their mouths are…but let’s not forget some of the good things that we have here as well.
Heeringa is quite correct when he notes that some (but not all) of the leading lights involved with Knowledge Wave have headed back offshore to resume their careers. The momentum has been lost a little as a result. But whilst all these talented and busy people have a passion for seeing NZ succeed, they also have lives of their own to get on with. It probably says a lot about our lack of “transformation” that we don’t have sufficient opportunities to retain this talent.
So who was left to carry the mantle after all the hoopla died down and why aren’t we having a Knowledge Wave event every year? (OK - New Thinking Week is great, but how many lives does it touch?)
Transformative strategies require risk taking and a willingness to think outside the cube and even to fail sometimes. Those qualities are found amongst entrepreneurs and change agents, not public servants. Most importantly, calls for “transformation” must outlive electoral cycles.
Don - you are right. Whatever we do needs to recognise the good (no.. great) points of life in New Zealand and has to be done with sensitivity to those factors. No one would suggest giving up our core values. But let’s identify those values, get buy-in from various stakeholder groups and actually start going forward. You know the old adage …. if you’re not going forwards you’re going backwards. In relative terms NZ is going backwards and we need to halt the decline. Vincent has put us on our guard and rightly so. regards ben
benkepes.wordpress.com