Patriotism, Regionalism And Getting Past Our Geographic Biasis.

I’d like to introduce you to another great Daniel. Now this man is remembered as a great, a great in his sport and a great in New Zealand. Here he is playing in the jersey of the Worlds most successful rugby franchise, consistently the best team in New Zealand also. You can all appreciate just how good he is particularly playing for the Crusaders. [I have a slide of rugby great Dan Carter in his Crusaders playing gear getting ready to kick a goal].

Now the reaction you just had was because he was wearing that beautiful red and black jersey, and while there’s a few of us one eyed Canterbury Crusaders supporters here, you might not be able to appreciate him as much as I can because you support some other lesser team possibly the Hurricanes. No accounting for taste, that support comes about due to a geographical preference.

However, if we see the great Daniel Carter in this jersey, [Now in an All Blacks jersey, our national team] we can all admit that Daniel was the best at what he did in the world, especially kicking goals. Again, we sit in the place of geographical preference if we were South African, our heroes would be Naas Botha, ‘Nasty Booter’ as he was nicknamed by the British Press, another geographic bias or the great Morne Steyn. Living in the world we do we are influenced by the world around us.