}

Tuesday, July 06, 2010

Celebrating the Fourth of July in Wellington

The US Embassy in Wellington posted this video to their YouTube Channel. I thought I’d share it because it’s the sort of thing most people never see, unless they attend an embassy event. The current US Ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa, David Huebner, is by far the most open US Ambassador in the decade and a half I’ve been in New Zealand. He’s taken advantage of the social media available—YouTube, Flicr, Facebook, Twitter and more—to make the embassy and its diplomatic mission more open and accessible.

It’s a shame more expat Americans in New Zealand don’t know about all this, because there’s certainly far more information that’s far more available than in the time of any of the other US Ambassadors I’ve seen here. Openness is good.

The video begins and ends with the Topp Twins, a New Zealand comedy duo. They’re twin sisters, both lesbian, and that alone makes them kind of unique. They’re also fabulous.

Update 7/7/10: For some unknown reason, the embassy has removed the video I originally included and talked about in this post. Maybe the embassy isn't really all that open and accessible after all.

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