5 ms·

Agree it's cringe. The whole "little guy punching above his weight" thing is even worse in NZ.

ZephyrBlu 5y ago
Why do you find it cringe? In NZ I think it's even more true than Australia. It's a tiny, isolated country with a small population that isn't the hub of anything really. Aussie and NZ compared to the US are completely different worlds in my eyes. (I'm a Kiwi btw)
- BrissyCoder 5y ago
  I think it's a myth that NZ "punches above it's weight" is all. Show me some empirical evidence if you disagree. I'm a Kiwi too - but living in Aus.
  - ZephyrBlu 5y ago
    I think there are lower expectations of Aus/NZ because they're relatively small and out-of-the-way countries (Maybe less so for Aussie), so it's surprising how often they seem to excel in things. The obvious examples that come to mind would be sports. NZ excels in Sailing, Cricket and Rugby against much larger countries. Though it could be that in general, Aus/NZ have the same skill distribution as other countries, but they just stand out more because there are lower expectations or highly skilled people are rarer overall due to lower populations.
    - BrissyCoder 5y ago
      I knew someone was going to mention the sailing... suprised no one brought up Lord of the Rings.
    - oblio 5y ago
      > The obvious examples that come to mind would be sports. NZ excels in Sailing, Cricket and Rugby against much larger countries. Those are niche sports, very popular in that part of the world. They're not major sports, though. Cricket is sort of a major sport, but it's also very culturally concentrated. Outside of UK & some former UK colonies, almost nobody plays it/watches it. Does New Zealand have any famous footballers, basketball players, athletes, etc.?
      - Intermernet 5y ago
        Edmund Hillary?
        oblio 5y ago
        I guess that counts :-)
- BrandoElFollito 5y ago
  See, at least you realize you are a tiny country with a small population and the ego adapted to that. I am French and we are a country with a great past - but not looking ahead. We still assume that we radiate across the world and that our voice counts. It does not, and this has to be clear. There are countries that can influence events, but this is not ours. A typical example is how angry we were after the recent pirate act of Lukashenko (Belarus forced a EU plane flying form one EU country to another to land when above their territory to arrest an opponent of theirs). Our president said that there would be consequences and there are no consequences. This is not to spit on my contry but sometimes egos are much bigger than the reality. We are in good company there.
  - not2b 5y ago
    But there are consequences; Belarus is now cut off from air travel except with Russia. Flights are avoiding their airspace. They are a pariah.
    - lostlogin 5y ago
      Have you seen the coverage of the interview of Roman Protasevich? The visible injuries on his wrist and his recently adjusted attitude are alarming. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-57353413 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-57353413
      - kzrdude 5y ago
        That's why it's so disappointing that the plane ended up diverting. For Roman there is no way back after that. It's an atrocity, but ultimately Belarus authorities are responsible for those and the torturing. Europe needs to ensure its planes are not hijacked mid-air like this in the future, to protect all of us and foremost journalists and activists.
  - randoyt 5y ago
    Have you been to west and central Africa. Frances still has huge influence here. Like you can’t be President without their implicit backing. And you can’t last as one if you loose their support. May change with China coming, but only time will tell
- oblio 5y ago
  It's not a tiny country... it's about average for country size and when you consider that it's an archipelago, the area of the world it controls through territorials waters and such is basically continent sized. New Zealand is actually smack-bang (#75) in the middle of the list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_dependencies_by_area https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_dependen... I'd group countries in 4 categories: 1. Continent sized (Russia, Canada, China, US, Brazil, Australia). 2. Large countries: anything below 1 up to probably about 500k sqkm. 3. Middle of the pack countries: everything from 500k down to about 100-200k sqkm. 4. Small countries. Everything below 100k sqkm (200k sqkm if you want to stretch it out). The categories are somewhat fluid since for example Indonesia is not continent sized in landmass, but it's an archipelago that does stretch over the area of an entire continent, when you consider it end-to-end and include its territorial waters. Plus having a very high population for your group also moves you up. Germany is average in size but in population it's a large country. Same for Japan.
andi999 5y ago
Can you explain? Is "little guy punching aboce his weight" applied to the country level? It is the first time I hear it in connection to NZ or AUS.
toyg 5y ago
Have you ever been to the UK? That sort of mindset is widespread. In fact, there is basically an obligation that the country must, at all times, fight wildly above its level.

Why do you find it cringe? In NZ I think it's even more true than Australia. It's a tiny, isolated country with a small population that isn't the hub of anything really. Aussie and NZ compared to the US are completely different worlds in my eyes. (I'm a Kiwi btw)

BrissyCoder 5y ago
I think it's a myth that NZ "punches above it's weight" is all. Show me some empirical evidence if you disagree. I'm a Kiwi too - but living in Aus.
- ZephyrBlu 5y ago
  I think there are lower expectations of Aus/NZ because they're relatively small and out-of-the-way countries (Maybe less so for Aussie), so it's surprising how often they seem to excel in things. The obvious examples that come to mind would be sports. NZ excels in Sailing, Cricket and Rugby against much larger countries. Though it could be that in general, Aus/NZ have the same skill distribution as other countries, but they just stand out more because there are lower expectations or highly skilled people are rarer overall due to lower populations.
  - BrissyCoder 5y ago
    I knew someone was going to mention the sailing... suprised no one brought up Lord of the Rings.
  - oblio 5y ago
    > The obvious examples that come to mind would be sports. NZ excels in Sailing, Cricket and Rugby against much larger countries. Those are niche sports, very popular in that part of the world. They're not major sports, though. Cricket is sort of a major sport, but it's also very culturally concentrated. Outside of UK & some former UK colonies, almost nobody plays it/watches it. Does New Zealand have any famous footballers, basketball players, athletes, etc.?
    - Intermernet 5y ago
      Edmund Hillary?
      - oblio 5y ago
        I guess that counts :-)
BrandoElFollito 5y ago
See, at least you realize you are a tiny country with a small population and the ego adapted to that. I am French and we are a country with a great past - but not looking ahead. We still assume that we radiate across the world and that our voice counts. It does not, and this has to be clear. There are countries that can influence events, but this is not ours. A typical example is how angry we were after the recent pirate act of Lukashenko (Belarus forced a EU plane flying form one EU country to another to land when above their territory to arrest an opponent of theirs). Our president said that there would be consequences and there are no consequences. This is not to spit on my contry but sometimes egos are much bigger than the reality. We are in good company there.
- not2b 5y ago
  But there are consequences; Belarus is now cut off from air travel except with Russia. Flights are avoiding their airspace. They are a pariah.
  - lostlogin 5y ago
    Have you seen the coverage of the interview of Roman Protasevich? The visible injuries on his wrist and his recently adjusted attitude are alarming. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-57353413 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-57353413
    - kzrdude 5y ago
      That's why it's so disappointing that the plane ended up diverting. For Roman there is no way back after that. It's an atrocity, but ultimately Belarus authorities are responsible for those and the torturing. Europe needs to ensure its planes are not hijacked mid-air like this in the future, to protect all of us and foremost journalists and activists.
- randoyt 5y ago
  Have you been to west and central Africa. Frances still has huge influence here. Like you can’t be President without their implicit backing. And you can’t last as one if you loose their support. May change with China coming, but only time will tell
oblio 5y ago
It's not a tiny country... it's about average for country size and when you consider that it's an archipelago, the area of the world it controls through territorials waters and such is basically continent sized. New Zealand is actually smack-bang (#75) in the middle of the list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_dependencies_by_area https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_dependen... I'd group countries in 4 categories: 1. Continent sized (Russia, Canada, China, US, Brazil, Australia). 2. Large countries: anything below 1 up to probably about 500k sqkm. 3. Middle of the pack countries: everything from 500k down to about 100-200k sqkm. 4. Small countries. Everything below 100k sqkm (200k sqkm if you want to stretch it out). The categories are somewhat fluid since for example Indonesia is not continent sized in landmass, but it's an archipelago that does stretch over the area of an entire continent, when you consider it end-to-end and include its territorial waters. Plus having a very high population for your group also moves you up. Germany is average in size but in population it's a large country. Same for Japan.

andi999 5y ago

Can you explain? Is "little guy punching aboce his weight" applied to the country level? It is the first time I hear it in connection to NZ or AUS.

toyg 5y ago

Have you ever been to the UK? That sort of mindset is widespread. In fact, there is basically an obligation that the country must, at all times, fight wildly above its level.