Why New Zealand?

A brief interlude from recounting my train journey to publish a post that I have been trying to complete for a few weeks. A piece in the new Atlantic (delivered to my Kindle Fire) helped me to finish it.

"Why New Zealand?" is obviously a question that I get quite often, from both sides of the Pacific, so I will see what I can do to answer it:

First, the utilitarian reason - Work. In the spring of 2010 I completed a Masters of City and Regional Planning (MCRP) and a Masters of Science in Architecture (MSArch - specializing in Urban Design) at the Georgia Institute of Technology. I also received a Graduate Certificate in Real Estate as part of a dual-enrollment program with Georgia State University (I've had a Georgia real estate license since 1999). After graduation I decided to move back to Savannah, since I own a house there, and most of my good friends live there as well. I did some freelance consulting and real estate work, while at the same time looking for a full-time position in urban planning and/or design. Didn't find one. I gave myself a year, then decided that I'd move elsewhere, and if I was moving elsewhere, why not make a BIG move? I can't remember what exactly first attracted my attention to the prospect of working in New Zealand, but early on while I was studying at Tech I went online to the Immigration New Zealand website and saw that "Urban and Regional Planner" was on their Long Term Skills Shortage List (LTSSL). This means that NZ is trying to attract professionals in this sector, and this was even before the big quakes that damaged a huge portion of Christchurch (great recent article on the rebuild opportunities here).

Second - New Zealand itself. It has a great quality of life, obviously, especially if you enjoy the outdoors. But it's also about the intangibles. A review by Benjamin Schwarz of the book Fairness and Freedom by David Fischer that appears in the new issue of The Atlantic sums it up quite nicely. Click here to read the whole thing (second review), but here is an excerpt:

New Zealand—where during the Second World War the Austrian emigré Karl Popper wrote his enormously influential The Open Society and Its Enemies, an excoriation of historicist totalitarianism and a defense of liberal democracy—is a particularly successful polity and society. In some ways its achievements seem all the greater when compared with those of the United States. In 2010, its unemployment rate was nearly half of ours. Our economic inequality is the highest of any developed country’s; New Zealand’s hovers much lower on the list. New Zealand ranks first in Transparency International’s global survey of government honesty; the United States ranks 22nd—just ahead of Uruguay! And comparable divergences, Fischer shows, are found “in trends and measures of political partisanship, legislative stalemate, judicial dysfunction, infrastructure decay, home foreclosures, family distress, drug consumption, and social violence.” Fischer’s rich cultural analysis leaves little doubt that New Zealand’s achievements are largely rooted in its “highly developed vernacular ideas of fairness,” a complex set of values that Kiwis prize and pursue earnestly. The result: by virtually every measure, New Zealand has a more just and decent society than ours—while resorting far less readily to legalistic and legislative remedies.

Third - America. I'm a bit worried about its future. Please don't read anything in regards to this election cycle into that. I'm thinking much more long-term, and in regards to macro trends that politicians have little to no control over. That said, one of our two parties it seems would rather collectively stick its head in the sand and hope that we can return to the 50s, rather than adapt to changing conditions. THAT said, the other party, while acknowledging changes, certainly isn't leading the nation down a path that will secure a sustainable future. If you'd like a primer on the kind of things I'm talking about, check out this episode (#191) of The Kunstler Cast - "Get Used to Being Uncomfortable". In fact, I recommend ALL of these podcasts, and his books, especially The Long Emergency.