Roger Handford
Many of the writers and respondents to letters to the editor seem to live in a peculiarly distorted version of the real world — a world in which factuality and rationality have no place.
Those who respond with comments on letters quite frequently brush aside and ignore the points made in those letters.
Some the editor chooses to be printed are nonsense, totally unrelated to the actual issues.
Others are merely snarky tit-for-tat cattiness by and among a group of regular commenters.
With an election nearing, the state of the nation and government policy on Covid have come in for a fair bit of bad-mouthing.
I find it hard to reconcile these remarks with the fortunate country I live in!
For instance, the claim that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) likened New Zealand to Cyprus and Greece — implying we are some sort of basket-case.
The IMF made no such statement. The writer has cherry-picked data from a comparative list of 200 countries to suit his blinkered outlook.
The list showed Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per head of population, adjusted by exchange rates and purchasing power parity (PPP), as at April 2023.
However, the IMF cautions that many other factors make up how well a country is doing, and stresses that one of the important measures is the amount of equality in a society.
Here is the part of the chart showing New Zealand and Cyprus — as well as a number of countries we would consider in good shape. (Data expressed in international dollars, GDP per capita at purchasing power parity) starting at place 28 out of 200 countries:
28 Canada $60,177; 29 France $58,828; 30 South Korea $56,706; 31 United Kingdom $56,471; 32 Israel $54,997; 33 Cyprus $54,611;
34 Italy $54,216; 35 New Zealand $54,046; 36 Kuwait $53,037; 37 Slovenia $52,641; 38 Japan $51,809 . . .
See: www.gfmag.com/global-data/economic-data/worlds-richest-and-poorest-countries
I may point out that Cyprus has had years of civil unrest and been a divided country; and Greece had to be rescued from bankruptcy.
Greece placed 57 on the list, with a GDP figure of $39,478, but should not be sneered at — it has the third largest merchant fleet in the world behind China and Japan.
Looking at other important ratings of how well a country is doing, one should consider political stability, and government effectiveness, as assessed by independent agencies.
Political stability: www.theglobaleconomy.com/rankings/wb_political_stability/
Liechenstein is rated the most politically stable (1.64 points) out of 194 countries, while New Zealand comes in at 5th on 1.44 points.
Cyprus is 77th at .44 points, while Greece is 86th and .15 points.
Effectiveness of Government: https://power.lowyinstitute.org/data/resilience/institutional-stability/government-effectiveness/
The Lowy Institute rates New Zealand at No.1 for political stability, and No.4 for government effectiveness, behind only Singapore, Australia and Japan.
Similar figures indicating how highly New Zealand rates across a number of factors can be easily accessed from many agencies who put research on the internet.
As in sport, New Zealand punches above its weight in many areas relating to lifestyle.
Proof of this is in the number of people around the world who wish to come and live here.
Kiwis should be proud to have made one of the most liberal and democratic countries in the world, and are working to do even better.
I have no time for those who have sour and distorted views of the country’s performance — to steal a phrase: “We don’t know how lucky we are, mate!”