E2NZ: 12/30/07

Tuesday, January 1, 2008

"New Zealand has more coastline than the United States"

The above statement is often thrown around but is it true? According to the CIA World Fact Book New Zealand has 15,134 km of coastline, a lot less than the United States' 19,924 km. Australia, New Zealand's closest neighbour, has 25,760 km. Japan chalks up a pretty respectable 29,751 km but they're all left for dust by Canada with a staggering 202,080 km. That's a lot of fishing spots.

Coastlines
Canada 202,080 km

Indonesia 54,716 km

Greenland 44,087 km

Philippines 36,289 km

Japan 29,751 km

Australia 25,760 km

Norway 25,148 km

United States 19,924 km

Antarctica 17,968 km

Source CIA World Fact Book

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Welcome to E2NZ, A Campaign Poster Free Zone!

Welcome to our little blog.

Welcome to our little blog. A “Campaign Poster” free zone.
Are you considering a move to New Zealand? perhaps you’re thinking of living there long-term, going out to join family, or you want to sample the lifestyle for a while and then move on.

This is a blog dedicated to giving you as much information as possible to enable you to make an informed choice because it’s always better to go into these things with eyes wide open and rose tinted spectacles consigned to your back pocket.

There is a wealth of information on the world-wide web about the upsides of New Zealand. They centre mostly around the beautiful landscape, how pure it is, the laid back lifestyle and how great a place it is to raise kids. Whilst these things may have an element of truth how realistic are they? Usually when something sounds too good to be true it isn’t, perhaps a little balance and honesty is called for. The days of the New Zealand Company’s propaganda are long over but has anything changed since the 1840s?

“The immigrants’ dissatisfaction was compounded by the misleading propaganda that the Company’s London office had put out. They had been told that New Zealand was a fertile Eden; that economic prospects were unlimited for the hardworking man; and that almost every form of agriculture, manufacture, and commerce was possible, and would yield high returns. The Company had depicted the Maori race as eager for the white man’s ways and merchandise. They had glossed over the difficulties of pioneering, and suppressed all negative reports of New Zealand…

By the mid 1840s, the four New Zealand Company settlements all had similar problems. The immigrants were angry. Many regretted their decision to come to this country and damned the Company for its misleading propaganda. They began leaving the settlements in droves, and by 1848, only eighty-five of the original 436 Wellington colonists remained.”

This following extract is taken from Wikipedia – Pakeha Settlers

“Campaign posters advertising New Zealand in England did give many settlers false hopes, manipulating their reasons. These posters often described New Zealand as an island paradise, complete with white sandy beaches and coconut trees. This heavenly image also did a lot to attract settlers to New Zealand, as it was such a welcome contrast to the rain and cold weather in England. Many settlers also believed that the paradise New Zealand was presented as would be good for their families’ health as the warm weather as well as the small population in New Zealand could keep dangerous diseases that were rife in England to a minimum in New Zealand.

Another factor in attracting people to New Zealand was families who had already settled writing to their relatives back in Great Britain telling them what a wonderful place New Zealand was. Sometimes these letters were sincere and people truly had discovered a much better life in New Zealand and wanted their relatives to share in the spoils, but sometimes there were other motives. Pure loneliness and isolation could encourage people to write exaggerated letters to their relatives in the hope that they would make New Zealand sound so good that their extended families would come and join them thus providing them with some comfort. There were also settlers who were too afraid to admit to their families back home that they had made a mistake in coming to New Zealand and so, to save face they chose to exaggerate the positive sides of living in New Zealand and keep quiet about the negative factors. This writing of letters by settlers back to their families in the United Kingdom resulted in what’s called a chain reaction as more and more people were encouraged to come out and join their families.”

These days we have the benefit of the internet. Emails, blog journals and forums are replacing the letters home.

You may like to see how modern day marketing methods are presently being aimed at potential migrants from wealthy countries a comparatively short distance from New Zealand:

“The bait was better working hours, cheaper cars and housing – and in three weeks thousands from Singapore have registered their interest in living in New Zealand…”

Shame that the campaign didn’t first stop to find out the correct spelling for Singaporean: “New Zealand open arms to Singaporians.” It’s not a good overture from a country that’s marketing itself on the excellence of its education system.

But these hard sell messages are difficult to resist, New Zealand has gained an international reputation for being a leader in Nation Branding, a skill that has been honed to perfection ever since the 1840s. This is taken from the Korean Times

“A clean and green oasis, 100 percent pure, and the land of “Lord of the Rings” are some of New Zealand’s signature images that have been shaped over the years, transforming the southwestern Pacific dairy country into the world’s fourth most desired place to visit in 2006. How did this happen?

Competitive national branding, says the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA), adding that an equivalent tourism and trade boost would happen here if Korea benchmarked some of New Zealand’s winning points.
The trade group highlighted that the “all-natural” country has successfully positioned itself through an effective private corporation, thorough brand research and clear goal-driven strategies.

Starting in 1999, New Zealand _ well known for its environmental efforts _ campaigned with the catchy slogan “100% Pure” in all of its key markets for trade and consumer events, advertising and marketing…” read on

But one of the dangers of these campaigns is that if the country doesn’t live up to visitors’ expectations they are going to feel duped. Just take a look at any of our posts tagged 100% Pure Myth to see what we mean by this. It’s going to be even more difficult to maintain the 100% Pure advertising slogan now that pressure is on to open up the conservation estate to mining companies and release $140 billion worth of minerals and $100 billion in lignite.

Our aim is to try to cut through the hype and show you some of the present day issues. These include the problems that migrants are still having, the appalling poverty – especially as it impacts on children and young people, the high levels of crime, widespread drug abuse, the shocking numbers of deaths and injuries on the roads and those that arising from Adventure Tourism.

Whilst you’re here why not take a look at our “Migrant Tales“ “Vox Pop” and “Facts and stats“ pages, get the inside scoop and see what both migrants and locals are saying about New Zealand.
We hope you get something out of it and a desire to find out more for yourself.
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