The endurance of snapshot moments of nationalistic fame engendered by young sportsmen never ceases to amaze, especially if the athlete is the product of a nation with questionable qualification for its United Nations seat. Russell Coutts, Chris Dickson and Bruce Farr (and a spate of other Kiwi ex-Pats) while born on sheep-dung fertilized soil, acquired their true fame on faraway shores and elected to settle down elsewhere, than to pay their taxes, raise families and live their lives on said dung-soil. Indeed, these folks of Kiwi origin have elected to avoid the brutality practiced in the "Land of the Wrong White Crowd." This decision, you see, is easy to understand given New Zealand's observance of the "Tall Poppy Syndrome," akin to the animal world's "eating its own," in which achievers are summarily cut-down to size.

While these guys might carry NZ passports, they are no more New Zealand nationals than they are Swiss, Italian, American or wherever their temporary AC abode may be. Bad? I don't think so, especially when they are the product of a country that treats their native world-class athletes like indentured servants, while allowing business slicksters and promoters free run of the bank.

Get real New Zealanders! Maybe these hotshots were born Antipodean but they are now free citizens of the world making their lives and fame everywhere other than Auckland and its environs. Your only entitlement as a Kiwi is to feel temporarily proud for the few remaining months the Cup remains in New Zealand after which the country will once again be ignored with singular attention given to those sailors who happened to have been born there.