News Archive 2001

Civilized, writ large is the word I repeated most often during this month of my visit to Aotearoa. This is the most civilized country I have ever been privileged to visit, and I have gotten around quite a bit on all five continents. "How civilized!" is what I called out upon arrival at Auckland airport, when, at 5.00 am, a lovely lady offered arriving passengers free coffee and tea, immediately after passport control.

The word "civilized" has many different shades of meaning, and I have been using it on many different occasions. One aspect of it is considerateness. Shortly before coming here I visited New York City and had to walk all over Manhattan from 42nd Street and 5th Avenue to 79th Street and Broadway in a futile search for a public loo. Any place in New Zealand would have offered a dozen clean toilets for half the effort—to say nothing of the Superloo, a veritable triumph of civilization, and Hundertwasser’s last word on the subject in Kawakawa.

The civic considerateness of well-marked, well-maintained public loos is matched by the civic manners of, say, an attendant at Te Papa Museum or on the ferry to Russell. Civilized behaviour sets a tone; it is contagious. A well-kept camp-ground invites users to keep it a clean as they found it. From the looks of camp sites, the system obviously works.

A civilized atmosphere is a refined one. Refinement is one of the striking differences between these islands on the one hand, Australia or the USA on the other. Generalizations of the kind I’m making here suffer from all the shortcomings of which generalizations always suffer. Still, I find among Kiwis more frequently than elsewhere the most admirable kind of refinement: no-fuss refinement, English refinement minus its frills and lace fringes.

Much of this must be part of a culture passed on through upbringing; it’s the kind of thing one learns at home, rather than at school. Yet, the school system seems to work more effectively here than in most parts of the world. A lecturer appreciates the response of audiences that are obviously well read and articulate in asking questions. Introductions before a lecture and words of thanks afterwards have consistently been a few notches above what I am used to in other English speaking countries––more carefully prepared, more intelligently crafted, more cultivated, and in this sense more civilized.

The Church faces serious problems from without and from within. To speak about this can be threatening, all the more so with a speaker from abroad. Readiness for a calm discussion is a rare kind of civilized behaviour and a most promising one. One of the special gifts to me on this lecture tour has been the fact that seven out of my eight lectures, so far, have been attended by Bishops. Their response, too, has been most encouraging.

There is one more area of civilized behaviour I need to single out, ecological awareness. As everywhere else on our planet, much remains to be done, especially on a large scale. Yet, small scale improvements are important steps. Here I am talking of concrete improvements like the widespread use of half-flush buttons on toilet tanks. But something else comes to mind: my joy at the many names of native plants and animals a typical Kiwi will know. It is from familiarity with nature that civilized behaviour towards nature springs.

Few parts of the globe can boast the natural beauty of Aotearoa. May it be preserved. I remember how proud I was to have friends here, when the eyes of the civilized world were focused on the Rainbow Warrior, how outraged people the world over were, when this country’s civilized stance clashed with the brute force of countries possessed by nuclear power.

In the two decades from my first visit here to this, my second one, greed and the rat-race have eroded some of the peace I found when I first came. But still, a woman who knows the roses in her small front yard by name remains the archetype I most associate with New Zealand. It is the archetype of making do with what you have got, of making the most of it, of getting great joy out of it through gratefulness.

ratefulness is the finest aspect of what I call a civilized attitude towards life. Daniel Uvanovic, the Co-ordinator of a brand-new, interactive website, http://www.gratefulness.org and I have received the most encouraging responses to this project, when we present it to audiences on this trip. When I am asked to give my opinion on how New Zealand/Aotearoa may best develop its abundance of natural and human resources my one word answer is: gratefully! Although I realize that nothing is perfect in this world and that staying longer I would surely become aware of cracks in the wall, I am profoundly grateful for all the memories which the civilized will from now on evoke for me. It is hard to leave, but it is good to know that if I will be able to stay in touch with old and new friends at a click through http://www.gratefulness.org