e=nz² ... an odyssey to open our minds

New Zealand Herald Editor-In-Chief Gavin Ellis explains the rationale behind the Our Turn series.

In every nation there is a rhythm, a beat that sets its approach to life and fortune. It is the sound of a pumping heart - strong and energetic, sedentary, or labouring against constricted arteries. In New Zealand, with the nation's heart rate below the normal 70 beats a minute, our coronary condition is being questioned.

Gatherings such as the Catching the Knowledge Wave conference are designed to submit the heart to scrutiny and to determine the necessary treatment to restore it to good health. And, like practitioners in the best forms of medical care, they will benefit from an international bank of knowledge and experience.

No two national hearts beat quite the same, and our coronary condition is subtly different from any other. So there is no standard tried-and-true treatment. However, international experience can provide this country with procedures and techniques that contribute to recovery.

The New Zealand Herald is playing an active part in that recovery process. Last year, we announced our intention to use our influence to contribute to moving New Zealand in a new economic and social direction. Columns of the newspaper have been dedicated to initiating and sustaining the debate on where the country should be heading and how it should reach that point. The newspaper also began one of the most ambitious editorial projects in its recent history - a global odyssey to paint a picture of the possibilities open to this country if it is prepared to undergo health-restoring surgery.

The result was a series of articles by writer Simon Collins and photographer Paul Estcourt published in the Herald between June 30 and July 7 under the title Our Turn.

The examples of enterprise and ingenuity they have drawn from seven countries provide valuable lessons for New Zealand.

The thousands of words that were written in the series described no aspirations that seemed manifestly beyond the abilities of New Zealanders. Indeed, a surprising number of our intelligent and inventive people were already involved in implementing solutions for other countries.

If this country has any problem in reaching such goals, it lies not in ability or potential but in resolve.

Each of the areas visited in the series had as its foundation a determination to bring about change and improvement. In many cases that resolve was born of necessity, a realisation that economies, and therefore social structures, were in jeopardy. Nothing leads to action faster than the realisation that you might be staring disaster in the face. In Queensland, Taiwan, Singapore, Ireland, Denmark and Israel it has worked wonders.

In New Zealand, by contrast, we have let ourselves believe that "things are not too bad", that the only change we need to make can be gradual or incremental. Such sentiments are not only wrong, they are dangerous.

We are faced with impending crisis, a slide down most of the "good" global indicator scales because we are failing to develop at a great enough rate.

There is no profit, however, in merely sounding an alarm. What is needed is a constructive approach to
crisis.

Within our editorial columns during the series we drew a number of conclusions or lessons that could
be drawn from what Collins and Estcourt saw: