A conversation last week with a journalist friend formerly from these parts was the spark for this editorial:
Me: "Would you ever consider coming back here to write again?"
He: "Nope. Everyone here expects you to say nice things about them. The province acts like it's owed a favour".
For the next half hour we drank coffee and swapped a ton of examples. Living in Hawke's Bay, with its chorus lines of "C'mon the Bay"..."Backing the Bay" can, at times, smack of something out of a George Orwell novel. The cheerleading can be a little forced, like a type of subliminal conscription.
I once penned a piece about a subpar experience at a local cellar door. A spokesperson for the winery promptly shot me an anguished "please explain" email, stunned that the article ran. There was no issue with the points I'd raised, just vitriol that someone had the gall to speak out unfavourably.
I'd broken a silent code.
Last week Havelock North wine writer John "Mac" Macpherson penned something similar on his blog about the onerous task of critiqueing wine in Hawke's Bay. Telling winemakers their plonk was shonky, he said, was akin to calling their children ugly: "I was chastised for being openly critical ... I was a wine critic being critical".
At this point it's only fair to point out there are some reviewers who thrive on negative critiques. They're easy to write and their authors risk nothing compared with those they scribble about. But this should never curb an honest opinion. Like bad wine, truth has rough edges.
So what's my point?
Well, just that such defensiveness robs the word parochialism of any meaningful definition. In fact it precludes it. And that's a crying shame in a region where there's so much to like.
For every praiseworthy business, sporting, cultural or personal endeavour in this province, (and there are many), there's the odd dusty cage sitting in a corner begging for a sound rattling.
See John Macpherson's wine blog at www.advintageblog.co.nz
