KEY POINTS:
New Zealand, we have embarrassed ourselves. After repeated invitations, our Prime Minister chose not to officially welcome the Dalai Lama to our shores, playing political sleight of hand with one of the world's most respected religious leaders.
While our Prime Minister throat-cleared her way into political expediency, the long arm of Beijing reached into Wellington's living room. Helen Clark found a way to tap dance for China and keep talk of free trade agreements pirouetting in a textbook political pas de deux, hoping we'd all ignore the giant panda in the room.
After all, it must have been karma when the Prime Minister managed to accidentally run into the Dalai Lama in the Brisbane airport last week. She was quick to assure us publicly "it was pure chance" and that they did not discuss any political issues.
I wish the shadow dancing had stopped there but there was a whole queue behind her playing jack-in-the-box when it came time to say hello.
Winston Peters met the Dalai Lama but only in the capacity of New Zealand First's leader. Murray McCully, National's foreign affairs spokesman, endeavoured to meet the Dalai Lama but his party leader John Key only managed to drop in to say hello as he would be "busy chairing the caucus".
The Dalai Lama's visit had been scheduled for months. Why was everyone suddenly busy washing their hair?
This is no big deal, right? Our capable Prime Minister was just showing us the intricacies of tightrope walking the fine political line. We usually admire her for it.
But now is not the time to be feathering her resume for the United Nations job she richly deserves someday - not when her actions dilute what defines a vital part of this country's national character, respect and independence.
I've heard there's an orange-clad Nobel Peace Prize-winning monk nearby who seems to know something about that.
Welcome to the club, New Zealand. We've now joined a dubious list of international no-show leaders who have also bowed to the pull of Sino purse strings. John Howard was about to do the same dance just last week until domestic political pressure trumped Beijing's.
The defining difference for us is that we are standing at the head of the Chinese free trade queue, hoping to be the first out of the block. We can't have a bit of Green Party righteous indignation about human rights ruin a perfectly good piece of paper still within our grasp.
We're a clever bunch. We know what facing political realities means. Isn't this just the unattractive pragmatics of political manoeuvring? The consequences of weighing what's best for New Zealand's pocket book in the long run versus the rubber-stamping of a controversial religious dignitary right now?
Clark and Key both must have thought so. National Party trade spokesman Tim Groser sounded every bit the realist when talking about a free trade agreement with China.
He told the Herald it would be naive to believe New Zealand could effectively pressure a country the size of China to change its behaviour. It would also be self-defeating to withdraw from a trade deal on the basis of moral principle.
"The point is only First World countries can afford First World labour standards and that's a reality some idealists just want to gloss over."
He's right, extend the concept and swallow the pill, His Holiness, sorry. You can't start setting unrealistic moral standards based on human decency when you're just a small nation. Tough luck if you're a tiny fish in the big cruel pond.
But we were a small country 20 years ago when New Zealand decided to stand up against another behemoth that wanted to bring nuclear ships into our ports. There was a lot at stake - military protection and economic chest beating, their King Kong to our Lilliputian damsel in the palm of the US paw.
Our efforts managed to send a ripple through the South Pacific, despite the odds. Nuclear free policy helped to define who this nation would become in the two decades that followed - a country whose independent moral spirit defied its size.
I'm not willing to spend the cost of our character to pay for China's golden ticket. Small countries struggling in the palm of power certainly deserve our respect. We've got a mirror to prove it.
Greeting a shaved Buddhist monk who hugged Michele Hewitson like a "Teletubby in a maroon pashmina" may not be the defining issue of our time, but treating him like one on the world stage certainly can be.
Ten thousand New Zealanders sold out the Vector Arena on Sunday to embrace the Dalai Lama's message of compassion. So tell me, who were our leaders representing when they quietly ran in the other direction?
