Stephen Fry once said it “only takes a room of Americans for the English and Australians to realise how much we have in common“; I would argue that the same is true for Australians and New Zealanders, except it’s also true when the room is full of literally everyone else.
Our rivalry with them is very real and our every waking moment is consumed by a deep loathing of their magnificently picturesque ‘Lord of the Rings‘-lookin’ country and their unceasing politeness, but we do share a core set of cultural values that make us distinct from the rest of the world. Specifically, the values of just generally being dickheads.
We love speaking truth to power, and we love doing it in the most direct, no-bullshit manner possible. Take, for instance, this iconic Australian hero:
In a similar vein, local residents weren’t shy about sharing their opinions about US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson when he rocked up in Wellington.
SecState Tillerson’s motorcade arriving New Zealand greeted by people signaling thumbs down & display of middle fingers for quitting Paris
— Andrea Mitchell (@mitchellreports) June 6, 2017
US media travelling with Sec of State Rex Tillerson surprised by the number of people flipping the bird at his motorcade in Wellington.
— Tracy Watkins (@tracy_watkins) June 6, 2017
Sure, you have a motorcade, you expect some people to give it the finger because why not – apparently Tillerson’s motorcade attracted so many Kiwi bird-flippers it astonished an attending correspondent from the ‘New York Times‘.
According to the ‘Sydney Morning Herald‘, Gardiner Harris said he’d never seen anything like it:
“I’ve been in motorcades for a couple of years now […] I’ve never seen so many people flip the bird at an American motorcade as I saw today.”
Beautiful areas all round, everyone.
Source: SMH.
Photo: Getty Images / Alex Wong.
