Zombie issue needs reframing

Central government policies do little for regional prosperity. PHOTO/FILE

By one definition, an expert is a person who knows more and more about less and less until he knows everything about nothing.

I wouldn't completely endorse that view, especially as I've been granted that mantle myself on occasion. But, as in many jests, there is some truth therein as a common failing of specialisation is a tendency toward the myopic, with a loss of broader vision.

That's what came to mind as I read the Chronicle front page story of August 30 about the visit to Wanganui of economist Shamubeel Eaqub to promote his book on regional economies.

Some people must have taken it very personally when this young man suggested on TV3 that provincial towns might soon become the walking dead or "zombies". Perhaps our losses of quite a few jobs as the National Government moved positions elsewhere in the name of "efficiency" alarmed people enough for them to look to economist Mr Eaqub for answers.

After reading Mr Eaqub's quoted comments, I remain puzzled.

What I found risible in the analysis and the inscrutable prescription offered is its dubious applicability in the face of the current central government policies of redistribution of wealth from our region to the bigger cities.

Reading Mr Eaqub's comments, I've been trying to understand what was said, how it relates to Wanganui, and how we are supposed to create the "prosperity" that will tackle regional decline. I've been wondering what is the "new way of thinking" that will lead us there and how we are to "get across to people that there is hope and that outlook can be really good".

Especially when the Department of Conservation was cut back, the NZ Transport Agency was moved, our court personnel cut despite our local National MP holding the Courts portfolio. How does that lead to hope for prosperity?

I don't get it. Mr Eaqub's comments on regional economies leave me uncomprehending.

There are several possibilities. Maybe I'm just not deciphering the code - after all, economists are known for speaking in oracular phrases. Alan Greenspan, long-serving chairman of the US Federal Reserve, admitted that in his role "you soon learn to mumble with great incoherence". Of course, some blame his mumbled, incoherent advice as a contributing factor to the financial meltdown of 2008.

There's the charitable possibility that the transcription as offered in the paper was inexact (as are all translations) and, thus, rendered incomprehensible.

Or. Or there's no "there" there - often described as the Emperor's New Clothes phenomenon.

Where I take issue is with someone coming here with a preconceived thesis packed in a book to provide a solution to our unique predicament.

Let's take a look at our city and its region.

We have a billion-dollar economy, and any assay of our future needs to respect our past and acknowledge the beating heart of the river that runs through us.

A proper balance sheet needs to take account of our diversity of peoples, and the talented, educated workforce we are. It needs to endorse the importance of the iwi and the recent settlement of the Treaty claims with great potential significance for the city's future.

There exists potential for creativity in the arts, in education, and in business in Wanganui. But despite our best will, expressed through local effort and leadership, that potential cannot be fully realised if central government is not supportive of it.

In the past, both major parties have been remiss but this past six years under National's policies suggest a future of our going it alone and pushing our waka against the tide of policies favouring the urban centres.

We can go it alone to create a prosperous future as a united city - but why should we have to?

This zombie issue needs reframing. We are being bled of jobs by policies of redistribution to our neighbours, especially Palmerston North, while our taxes go to improve the lifeblood of Christchurch and Auckland.

Does that make them vampires? What does that make us?

Jay Kuten is an American-trained forensic psychiatrist who emigrated to New Zealand for the fly fishing. He spent 40 years comforting the afflicted and intends to spend the rest afflicting the comfortable.