Here's to the big hearts of the little guys

I love reading the bios of New Year's Honour recipients. It's wonderful that so many clever, talented, hardworking and selfless individuals are getting the recognition they deserve.

The recipients provide a snapshot of New Zealanders - every year there are artists and entrepreneurs, educators and scientists, community workers and health professionals and volunteers and emergency service personnel.

Some people are shoo-ins for honours - Helen Clark was always going to get a gong, given that an honour appears to be part of the retirement package for politicians, along with the free air travel.

The work Lesley Max has done to try to stop the cycle of underachievement among young people and under-privileged families had to be recognised at a national level, and it would have been very wrong if Peter Jackson hadn't received a medal given all that he has done for the film industry.

Some people who appeared in this year's list surprised me. I thought they already had gongs - like many people, I thought Doug Myers had been a Sir for years. He certainly looks like a titled one. But it's the little guys I like reading about.

The fact that we can all nominate people we consider deserving of merit means that all those unsung heroes, such as the Tuhoros of Hamilton, who've fostered almost 400 kids over the years, and Rita Marlow of Dunedin for services to gymnastics, get a public slap on the back.

It makes a change from reading about all the human flotsam and jetsam that usually make up the headlines in our daily papers and I think one day of the year we can celebrate all that is good and wonderful about the people in our multicultural, diverse and fantastic country.