Tiger
Tiger, a tenacious, surprisingly well-educated animal, living and working in the real world. Having to come up with staff wages every week sharpens the senses.
A favourite childhood book of mine is Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. It was made into a couple of movies, one with Gene Wilder, and the later, more saccharine version with Johnny Depp as the inventive confectionery tycoon, Willy Wonka. One character that held my interest was Mr Arthur Slugsworth, one of Willy Wonka’s industry rivals. His sneaky asides to the Golden Ticket winners changed their motivation for the visit to the Wonka factory from one of glorious excitement to nefarious intent, that of stealing the secret to the everlasting gobstopper.
This theme seems to be repeating with our leaders in New Zealand and Australia. One moment they were going to “flatten the curve”, now they want to eliminate the assault on our health by the “deadly” variants through a yoyo strategy of everlasting lockdowns. Just like the Golden Ticket winners changed their motivation, Ardern, Andrews, Gladys, Anna, McGowan and co have changed theirs.
The question I have is, who is their Mr Slugsworth? Is it the chief medical officers (none of whom I’d invite around for a barbeque)? Is it the media, fomenting a global elitist groupthink? Is it Neil Ferguson, the charlatan Professor of Bed-hopping?
The reality is, you cannot have a first-world health system without a first-world economy, something our leaders are in the process of destroying. Not to mention the delayed medical procedures, mental health impacts and other consequences from their everlasting lockdowns.
Who is the figurative Mr Slugsworth whispering in the ear of these out of depth professional politicians, motivating them to make impractical, dangerous and tyrannical decisions? For those of us in the real world, we have a lot more than the everlasting gobstopper to lose.
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