A short spoken monologue by Raf Manji (as transcribed) arguing that some so-called third world countries display a stronger sense of civic purpose and forward momentum than New Zealand. He suggests New Zealand (and perhaps other Anglo-Saxon societies) has become socially unstuck—losing civic glue, purpose and community—and poses a leadership problem: reconnecting people top-down.
You know, when people talk about New Zealand, oh, it's like a third world country now. Well, that's a bit mean to third world countries who are actually moving forward and they have a better sense of purpose, you know, and the politics is all very different, but people have a sort of an understanding of structures, rules, what they're supposed to be doing, how they're supposed to be doing it. And yeah, different levels of freedom, but generally people are moving ahead and it feels like we're stuck. And this could be just an Anglo Saxon problem that we've reached the end cycle of a system which has kind of denuded us a little bit of these other things like purpose, like civic engagement, like community. And we've got it all here, but we're just losing it. Sort of the glue is becoming a little bit unstuck and to me that comes back to, okay, it's top down. So how do we get the leadership mindset to actually connect us again?
