> > That's a very common phrase and concept in New Zealand too. I was always led to believe it was *solely* a New Zealand thing. Maybe part of the syndrome is believing your own country is the only one that's lame enough to have such a syndrome.
>
> Nah, I think it's pretty cool that you have a kind of "cultural Cautionary Tale," warning against the effects of envy and spite directed at people in the spotlight.

It would be, but that's not what the whole "tall poppy" thing is about. What it refers to is society's strange need to denigrate anybody who manages to be better than others at something. It also has to do with our irrational and deeply held national belief that nobody from this country could ever really do anything as well as people from Overseas. Another name for it here is the "cultural cringe".

I think it's partly a holdover from colonialism, but mostly from the obvious truth that whenever we've produced a world-class talent, he or she has quickly left the country, simply because we have neither the population nor the facilities to support high performers in most fields. It's a vicious circle, since it also means few people in the rest of the world associate our talented expatriates with New Zealand. Not to mention how Australia ends up claiming credit for all of our really good rock bands...

Brunnen-"can't count how many textbooks I've read that describe Ernest Rutherford as an Englishman"G