It has been interesting to observe how different people cope with directions from Governments. I’m somebody who normally resists being told anything is compulsory, but I reckon the Government has got the Covid19 thing about spot on.
A day before his death, Jessica Wallace posted that her husband “was an imperfect man but he loved his family and his little girls more than anything”.
“To those who wished him death, I’m sorry his views and opinions hurt you. I prayed he’d come out of this with a new perspective and more appreciation for life. I can’t say much more than that because I can’t speak for him.”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/aug/29/texas-caleb-wallace-anti-mask-protests-freedom-dies-covid-19.
It is essential that the media and the opposition keep the Government to account for all their actions during this period of lockdown. However, the lockdown must not be seen as a chance for normal political point scoring. I can’t for the life of me understand why Judith Collins has demoted Chris Bishop who is one of the most effective opposition spokesmen I can recall for some time. However, I guess even in times like these, some people insist on playing old fashioned politics. I wonder if it’s the way we train our lawyers.
In Stuff recently there was a good article by Ian Powell and Michael Baker. They were refuting the writing of a researcher from the Adam Smith Institute who was critical of NZ’s response to Covid19. I guess they would feel that the way the New South Wales Government has responded is the idea. Here is the link to the article:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/300396343/covid19-heres-why-jacinda-arderns-british-critics-are-wrong
Finally, here’s a poem from South Auckland:
Lockdown life, in South Auckland
A poem from Level 4 Mariner Fagaiava-Muller is a journalist with RNZPacific.
How nice it must be
to pocket applause and special mentions
for contracting Covid-19 in Devonport
and mapping a trail to the Coromandel
oh the paradisical Coromandel
Devonport darling
while South Auckland
signs away deliveries for yoga mats
stocks those cheeky Farro Fresh shelves you panic buy from
swabs the nostrils that sit plump in your leather SUV
for we also wait in long queues
disproving your scuttlebutt
sanitisies the smack talk you leave always
sitting pretty on our shoulders
yet you resign your ‘ofa
for a hood you couldn’t survive in for 2 secs
g
surely it’s a colour-of-our-skin thing right?
because if one is to breakdown every shade of brown
dig up church genuflectors
keeping safe distance of course
you tiptoe around accountability
for a system that was fraught for us to function within to begin with
look at them!
yes, you!
good job for getting tested!
you aren’t a vaccination priority group though!
no, stay put!
you have a place, yes!
thaaattt’sss not at the top!
sorry?
where’s our place?
oh!
where we only feel sorry for you!
never sorry for what we doooo to you!
leading the newshour tonight
we start with what’s happening in South Auckland
looookkkk aat theeeem!
headlining
every
single
news
bulletin
because you think South Auckland
needs your well-intentioned, unwelcome
“well those Samoans have it rough”
pity party
that prefaces clinking of the champers
a year ago to the day
of hard work it took to trash us
South Auckland says
what’s a sorry without substance
please just
stop treating us different from everyone else
or leave us the fuck alone
tulou
Signed, South Auckland
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