JUST TAKE A LOOK AT THIS!

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This is the huge globe of the world at the entrance to Universal Studios.
Nice, isn’t it?
I wonder how many people have had their photo taken
beneath their own country as it turns overhead.
Too bad if you were one of the 25,000 people who worked on Lord of the Rings.
Too bad if you’re from New Zealand.
Too bad if you’re Peter Jackson making
Universal Studio’s next 100 million dollar feature
King Kong.

Why?
Because New Zealand has been omitted from the globe.
Completely left out.
Not even a speck!
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Now, I grant you, when this globe was made, New Zealand was a pretty quiet place,
but to tell the truth, baby sitting 50 million sheep gets too quiet, even for New Zealanders. Over the years many New Zealanders got motivated and did notable things:
Like being the first to climb Mount Everest, (Sir Edmund Hillary, 1954). And more currently, things like owning the America’s Cup, a prestigious sailing trophy
that didn’t leave America for over 100 years.
Other New Zealanders have worked hard developing a film business,
and earned numerous Academy Awards in the process.

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Academy Award Winners who are New Zealanders include:
Jane Campion, Director, for Piano
Russell Crowe, Actor for Gladiator
Anna Panquin, Actor for Piano
Peter Jackson, Director, Producer, Writer for Lord of the Rings

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Well known New Zealanders include;
Director Jane Campion, Actors Sam Neil, Russell Crowe,, Anna Panquin, Keisha Castle-Hughes, Lucy Lawless and others.

Well known New Zealand productions include:
The Piano, Once were Warriors, Hercules, Zena, Warrior Princess, Whale Rider, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy.

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American productions, like The Last Samurai, Vertical Limit,
Willow and The Bounty have been made there too.

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Universal Studios has also found New Zealand to be a great place to work,
making Midnight Run, 1988, The Frighteners, 1996,
and soon a 100 million dollar remake of King Kong
with Academy Award winning Director Peter Jackson.

I thought this indicated New Zealand had become a memorable country…
Until my friends, I came to that big blank spot on that globe.

I for one would not want to be the Universal Studio’s executive
sputtering an explanation to Peter Jackson
when he looks up at the Globe
and asks what has to be the world’s most embarrassing question,
“Why isn’t my country up there?”

HERE IS WHAT THE WORLD REALLY LOOKS LIKE