Many thanks for posting Nigel Cox's address from last year's Going West. Fascinating and stimulating stuff. I don't want to get into a discussion over his views of NZ - we'd be here forever - and will confine myself to his references to Germany (Berlin essentially). On the whole his comments were fair but one or two facts were wrong. Germany's homicide rate is about half of NZ's and while the rules on things like sorting garbage do seem excessive at times, often Germans care about getting it right. It's thoroughness rather than obsessiveness. For example, despite the volume of traffic and open speed limits on the autobahn, road deaths there are at least 20% fewer than here per capita, despite our big reductions recently. Why? Because the engineering of both roads and cars is high quality and driver training is much more rigorous. Air pollution levels have vastly improved in Berlin since I first went there 20 years ago and, rather than always being faced with a building and no sky, I've always been impressed by Berlin's green and open spaces - not like London, for example. One final comment reflecting on social conditions - with the hysteria here about the safety of young kids making their own way to and from school ringing in my ears, I was astonished to see primary school girls in Berlin happily walking home alone or in pairs. And Nigel forgot to say that Berlin is incredibly laid back these days - ask all those young artists flooding in from USA and UK.

Yes indeed thank you - just read Nigel's speech and enjoyed it immensley - interesting perspective from someone returning to NZ after five years away - the problem with "is it good for business?", is that we are such a backwater (yup, even the Germans think we're too far away)... and without more enterprise/business intiatives, the other more important things like "art, literature, culture..." have less economic space in which to flourish (no...) (Mr Glen Shaefer is a good example of business funding the arts and he aint from little old NZ). And then there were the essays funded by Montana (no longer). Anyway, I'm just popping up to speak because I miss the postings on the front end of Leafsalon, now that we're all chatting on/in the forum. I have to agree about the magazines though and much as I still love the Listener... I miss Steve Braunias.

Wonderful to have the Nigel audio available. Disappointing and niggardly post, I thought, from Philip Temple. What's up, Philip? There are many reasons to regret that Nigel is no longer around but I'm not sure a conversation about Berlin's air pollution is one of them. Yes, facts matter. Your post, however, has the effect of misrepresenting Nigel's piece, which is deliberately impressionistic and personal. On close inspection so is your ticking off. You're 'impressed' by the green spaces of Berlin compared to London; 'astonished to see' kids walking to school alone; and you find that Germans are thorough rather than obsessive. Feeling and impression. Nigel may not have agreed with you. I think we can file such differences under 'human variety' rather than factual error. Is your Berlin closer to the actual place? I can't judge but I'm convinced that Nigel's Berlin was Nigel's Berlin. The vividness in his reporting and in his speculations owes everything to an individual sensibility alert to the recognisable world. I suppose if you don't recognise that world, that Berlin, then you're going to disagree. What I find disagreeable in your comments is the implication that your version is the final word.

For one thing, whenever I'm in London I'm always struck by the number of parks and tree-lined squares compared to Wellington! But I'll let you have your London.

Dear Damien: Even my partner does not agree with some of my views about Berlin/Germany, so she finds them disagreeable, too. And that’s all right. The free exchange of views and expressions of opinion are what makes the world go round, especially, I would have thought, on a website such as this: its click box is titled, ‘Have your say’. It enables a progression towards some kind of reasoned judgement.
Thank you for letting me have my London. Its central parks were refuge for me as a child, an escape from the heavily built environment, unending traffic and pollution. You were struck by the number of parks etc.. there compared to Wellington and I would not disagree with you. But having spent a great deal of time in Berlin, cycling all over it (try that in London) I’m pretty sure it has a greener and more open cityscape. What is most disagreeable about this little discussion - in the sense of discordant or unpleasant - is that Nigel is no longer around to argue the toss - as we did once or twice in Berlin.