Olivia Pierson: A Hikoi vs A Country

New Zealand’s history is messy, fascinating, and occasionally absurd. The Maoris weren’t exactly sitting around in a utopia when the Europeans turned up. They were busy having a go at each other in tribal warfare and, yes, usually eating the losers.

The British didn’t arrive with halos over their heads either, but they did bring literacy, a legal system and building standards for a life above the dirt. They also brought an uncanny knack for signing treaties which actually meant something substantial when they were signed. The representatives of Queen Victoria would never have signed a treaty in her name without guaranteeing her full sovereignty over that colony. To say otherwise is part of the 'occasionally absurd’ bit.

Lushington D. Brady: Is Their Savagery Really as Good as Our Civilisation?

Liberal democracy is a hard-learned process

For a while during the international occupation, Afghanistan hosted one of the most dangerous roads in the world. Not because of IEDs, but because American engineers spent billions building spanking new highways across the graveyard of empires. Afghanistan had just 80 kilometres of paved road in 2001; five years later, it had over 16,000 kilometres.