I suppose to me it's a loyalty issue. Although, I'm at an advantage, I don't have to leave America for opportunities. Living on the Islands, you sometimes have to go elsewhere.
> I suppose to me it's a loyalty issue. Although, I'm at an advantage, I don't have to leave America for opportunities. Living on the Islands, you sometimes have to go elsewhere.
I can see where you're coming from. And the best analogy I can explain it with is this: think "Puerto Rico" and baseball.
It's precisely *that* sort of relationship, with the Islands and New Zealand. Every one of those kids dreams about being an All Black. It's the equivalent of the American Dream for them.
Nationalism as the USA understands the term does not feature, much.
For many thousands of years, the South Sea islanders roamed these waters. They did not actually see alot of difference between being on this island or on that island: the whole South Pacific was their playground.
And it still is. The national borders we have imposed are entirely artificial to their way of thinking. At least, that's how I'm led to believe.
These are big, beefy guys whose ancestors could chop down trees with stone-age implements, hollow them out, devise outrigger technology aeons ahead of its time, then row and sail the darn things for thousands of miles across some of the most dangerous water on this planet, navigating to the next island somewhere unseen over the horizon. And then get home again.
They *own* the Pacific, and always have. That's how they think. We choose to call it "New Zealand" or "Samoa" or "Tonga" and they'll pretend that it matters, to humor us. In fact, it's all their own back yard.