STAND TALL, ISRAEL
Israel Adesayna I salute you; not just because you’re tough, brave, talented and scary, and I’m a wimp. Immigrants can often see things about their adopted country others chose to be blind to, such as tumbling tall poppies. Israel, you’ve seen them.
The insights of the UFC middleweight champion – named male sportsperson of the year at the Halberg Awards on Thursday night – insights are not an unusual phenomenon; in the United States the proportion of successful entrepreneurs whose parents were immigrants, is disproportionally high.
Why? Because their imported vision allows them to spot things ‘Americans’ could not see. Apple innovator Steve Jobs was one, Walt Disney another, as were the founders of YouTube, and one of the founders of McDonald’s.
As a weed in the New Zealand sporting garden, life down here is spent dodging the heads of falling poppies – athletes, coaches and administrations who achieve great things, yet tend to have the scales tilted in favour of their ‘failings’.
And yes, the news media is part of that. Failing and disaster is where the news friction lies – little old lady crosses the street is not a story, little old lady flattened on a pedestrian crossing is.
So let’s plant a few tall poppies, ones that are sliced off on social media, comments sections and the corners of Kiwi pubs every day of the week.
Sonny Bill Williams is an ultra talented rugby league player, he was an invaluable All Black with quite possibly the best offload seen in the game, a fair boxer and he’s an all-round nice guy. When the mosque shootings took place last year he took the time to visit Christchurch and offer comfort. He gave away his Rugby World Cup winner’s medal to a young rugby fan. He has raised the plight of Syrian children across the world, and recently took on the Chinese government to highlight the plight of the Uighur people in that country. Snip.
All Black Beauden Barrett, what a rugby player! He was part of two World Cup winning teams, twice he’s been named World Rugby Player of the Year. His speed and reading of the game are exceptional, and he’s scored 35 tries in tests. Snip. Julian Savea, an unstoppable winger in his prime, who was sensational at the 2015 World Cup (ask any French rugby fan). Then sports fans
went for the garden shears, ignoring the fertiliser and water options. He was out of shape, too slow, lacking motivation, and had an annoying wife who was always on social media. His downward spiral got as much attention as his upward career. Snip.
The Adams Family, the greatest female Olympic shot putter, and the most amazing basketballer New Zealand has produced? From the same family? Wow! Never is heard a disparaging word, right? Yeah, nah. Snip.
Raelene Castle, a prominent sports administrator who did an outstanding job with Netball New Zealand, then took on the toxic male culture at the Bulldogs, and has now led Rugby Australia through a difficult time. Snip.
Whatever your opinion is on that wee garden of red bobbing heads and whether they deserve water or herbicide, is likely more about your perceptions than their achievements, which are many and spectacular.
And Tall Poppy syndrome is a negative for us all, a 2015 University of Waikato study found, as it may result in a reduction in average performance of up to 20 per cent for an organisation.
As well, electronic cyberbullying can be considered a modern extension to physical assassinations, the university found.
Here’s an outsider’s view on we Kiwis, from a Reddit post by a Chilean: ‘‘I just got back from living in Chile for a long time and this is all I have to say about New Zealanders.
‘‘You’re a cold, hostile, passionless (excluding sport), unwelcoming, complacent, paranoid, fickle people.
‘‘I have never met a people so against sharing and passion. I think you call it ‘‘tall poppy syndrome’’ or something like that?
‘‘Man˜ osos culiaos (and your accent is terrible).’’
Oww, echoes of the 1976 dissection of New Zealand society, in the book The
Passionless People by the late Gordon McLauchlan.
Tall poppy syndrome is not new to sport. In the early 1970s, John Walker, Dick Quax and Rod Dixon were brilliant middle-distance runners, with a rockstar aura, and talked as fast as they ran.
‘‘Here come the black shadows,’’ BBC sports commentator David Coleman would say as the Kiwi trio loomed, but in New Zealand ‘‘shut up and run,’’ was a more common theme.
When Quax ran poorly at the 1974 Commonwealth Games, it was written he’d started the race as a proud Kiwi and ended it as ‘‘just another Dutch immigrant’’.
Quax was painted as a troublemaker at home. As a result of his fast tongue, he was a misunderstood, under-rated athlete, Walker has said.
In 1974, he was evicted from the Commonwealth Games village for writing an unsanctioned newspaper column.
And here comes Adesayna. Like Quax born overseas, like Quax outspoken, like Quax a supreme and captivating athlete.
Already he has moved sport into fertile new ground, which has – as he hinted – found only reluctant acceptance among followers of ‘traditional’ sports.
Let Adesayna grow as tall as he likes. He is inspirational on many levels.