Importables

As I'm leaving for the States in a little over a week, I've been thinking more and more about things that we should import. Now, Kiwis should be importing many things from the US. The two most immediate things are, to my mind, fixed heating units in housing and closets. Closets are a good thing, and not that hard to make. But they're hard to find here, amazingly. And there are other things we could use: our cable TV is the equivalent of US cable TV in the early 1990's (pre-digital), the service isn't as good, etc. But Americans could also learn a thing or two from Kiwis. Here are a few:

• Roundabouts. You'll occasionally come across these in the US (NW 25th St. in Portland comes to mind, although there they seem more like speed restrictors than traffic-flow enablers). But they're all over here. I thought I'd find them difficult to navigate (in addition to the other problems of driving on the left), but it turns out that they are great, mostly because they eliminate the need for stop signs and traffic lights at smaller intersections, where in the US you'll wait for 2 minutes even though no one's going in the other directions.

• Two-flush toilets. Here's one for the aspiring entrepreneurs out there. My guess is that Americans prefer to be environmentally conscious when there is little or no sacrifice in doing so. The two-flush toilet--that is, a toilet with two flush buttons, one for the full flush and one for the half-flush--is perfectly suited for such an attitude. There are no one-flush toilets here, at least none that are newer than 20 years old. I can't explain why they're not ubiquitous in the States.

• Festivals. Last night I went to a Diwali festival, which--if I understand properly--is roughly the Indian equivalent of what Christmas is in the US (in terms of significance and celebratory enthusiasm). It was great--tons of awesome Indian food, crafts, dance, music, etc. Obviously the central constituency of this event was Wellington's sizeable Indian population, but it was set in Civic Square, and like most things here was widely integrated. In July, there was a month-long, world class film festival. Just up the road, the Martinborough Wine Festival is coming next month. This weekend is a small but good-looking Jazz Fest. Americans, of course, have their festivals, but most cities tend to do only one or two major, community-wide festivals a year (putting aside niche festivals, like one at an art museum or such). That's a mistake. Full-on festivals are fun, community-enriching, and horizon-broadening.