Will’s Word: Greece taught me not to take Aotearoa for granted

So I’ve just returned from a two-week holiday in Greece.

What better place for a politics and history nerd to start his European adventure than in the birthplace of Western democracy.

I’ve always been fascinated by democracy, how governments work, how societies develop, so going to the place where so many of those ideas first took shape was pretty special.

Athens is such a fascinating place, because you have this incredible ancient history sitting right alongside a very modern, very complex country.

And I think the thing that surprised me most was how much the global financial crisis of 2008 still hangs over Greece.

Before going over, I had a general idea of the Greek debt crisis. I’d read about the austerity measures, the government debt, and the bailouts.

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But nothing quite prepares you for actually being there.

And I found that quite sobering.

Because this is Greece, the birthplace of democracy, one of the great civilisations of the ancient world and yet, in the space of a few years, the country found itself in an incredibly vulnerable economic position.

Now, before anyone accuses me of comparing New Zealand to Greece, I’m absolutely not.

We’re in a very different position.

But it did make me think about some of the conversations we have here about debt, spending, deficits and whether governments should be running surpluses.

I’ll admit, those conversations aren’t sexy.

But seeing what happens when a country doesn’t have much room to manoeuvre when a huge external shock comes along makes the argument for economic resilience feel a lot more important.

Because you never know what’s around the corner.

And we’re seeing that right now with the fuel crisis.

New Zealand is a small country. We’re a long way from most of the world’s major markets, we’re exposed to what happens overseas, and we don’t get to decide what happens in the global economy.

So having some room to absorb those shocks is important.

And perhaps that was the unexpected thing I brought home from Greece.

I went to Europe thinking I’d come back feeling like New Zealand was tiny.

But actually, I came back feeling quite lucky to live here.

The stability we have. The institutions we have. The fact that, for the most part, we can trust that the system is going to keep functioning.

You don’t necessarily think about those things when you’re living here every day.

But travelling made me realise how easy it is to take them for granted.