It's a good thing, to do good things....

I've just come back from a trip to Europe - with two weeks in Croatia and Bosnia. They are part of what used to be known as Yugoslavia, which was torn apart with a civil war in the 1990s. Any war is a tragedy, but a civil war is surely the saddest. Neigbours fighting neigbours, colleagues fighting colleagues.....it leaves scars which will take centuries to heal. What is really impressive, is how people keep going. Even when your city was shelled for years, even when the economy tanks, even when you are confronted, on a daily basis, with the memories of what happened, people are still picking up the pieces, mending the broken buildings and repairing the damaged lives. What makes us special is our humanity. In our country of New Zealabd, which is rich in natural beauty, and offers opportunities some can't even dream of, it's easy to forget what really, really matters. "He tangata, he tangata, he tangata" - the Maori proverb says it all. "It is people, it is people, it is people". It is people that matter. And when faced with a choice of what to do: do good things. It really does make the world a better place.