Letter to the Editor Thursday July 18, 2013

Soaring with eagles

An American mate sent an email alerting me to a boat race in San Francisco Bay. I replied that it's not just a boat race, it's who we are. Of course I know about it, since we get more America's Cup coverage than is healthy.

We are world champions in four international sports: rugby union, softball, rugby league, and soon again the America's Cup. We are sports mad here, so whenever we are competing on the international stage, that's what we watch.

We just collected our third successive Southern Hemisphere basketball championship, thanks to our Black imports. We can boast a few Olympic gold medal winners and we root for an ageing Samoan heavyweight contender who just keeps on fighting.

Our sports heroes remind us to eat loads of Weet-Bix. Everyone knows just who is winning at what and when. Since I can watch three rugby games at a sitting and then surf for a replay, it works for me. I hold out hope that with our increasing Indian and Chinese population, cricket and ping pong may be in our grasp.

We are so driven to win that our government gives millions to support our teams and our contenders. To be re-elected, each MP must front up: Do we build a new high school or win the America's Cup?

We even sold our Air Force to fund our international forays. If some country attacks us, we could challenge them to rugby or a boat race or the woman's shot, put which could prove to be a possible breakthrough in attaining world peace.

Also, our women (when they feel like it) are left to run the country, our gays hold Hero parades and public celebrations, but we men are mostly content to just drink lots of beer, go fishing, and hunker down for rugby. Oh, and guess what we talk about?

We have the population of a medium-sized American city, but we are posing as a country. We punch way above our weight especially when it comes to paddling canoes and bike racing.

When we regain the America's Cup, the whole place will go bananas.

Having a flightless, defenceless bird as our national mascot sort of sums it up. We are Kiwis trying to be eagles.

It's just too cute when my adopted country of four million puffs out its collective chests and challenges the world to "BRING IT ON!"

MIKE WARD Mangonui