Glenn Greenwald does an admirable job in highlighting but a few of the Wikileak Cablegate headline grabbing revelations. In New Zealand, the US embassy cables are written in condescending, even glib, prose, and their authors appear to ready to take hearsay at face value.
The Dominision Post editorial Editorial: US diplomats need to get out more nicely summarises this.
The cables sent from Wellington to Washington offer a remarkably narrow view of this country. If the embassy is to be believed, gangs of pickpockets roam the streets waiting to prey on unsuspecting American visitors, New Zealand is “depressive”, our politicians are particularly devious and untrustworthy and the population can be divided neatly into two categories.
One – the first worlders – is composed of military, intelligence, foreign affairs and business professionals and a few politicians. The second – the other worlders – contains most politicians, the media, academics and much of the public. The first group is rational, recognises that New Zealand is too small to influence events on its own, but is keen for the country to do its share internationally.
