Mirrror, mirror on the wall...

By GILBERT WONG

We are small. We are distant from world centres. We are young: as a society barely out of adolescence. All this could conspire to
create an inferiority complex, which is an undeniable part of the national character. But just as undeniable are values that continue to underpin who we are.

Despite so much that would speak against it: corporations decamping offshore, troubled health and education systems, wide disenchantment with those in power— surveys suggest that the egalitarian ideals still hold; that this country remains a fine place to raise children, even if adulthood can easily be spent elsewhere; that we still retain a certain optimism.

On page 3 is a snapshot of where we are as a people. Herald journalists have sifted through reams of tables and tomes of social research to come up with a multifaceted picture of New Zealanders.

There is disturbing information: we have a bad plastic habit, running up more than $2.1 billion in credit card debt in the final days of 1999. Social welfare comes at a cost of $213 million a week. About one in six New Zealanders leave school without any qualifications. If you happen to be a Maori woman, you will on
average enjoy eight fewer years than your Pakeha counterpart.

A myth is overturned. Despite the open spaces, New Zealand is the fourth most urbanised country in the world. The heartland is empty.

This is a sample of an attempt to explain what shape New Zealanders were in before the millennium's end. This combined edition of Life and TimeOut is a keepsake, something to show the grandchildren so they can chuckle at the way things once were. May you laugh with them.