KSK

It is raining.  Again.  It is also the day that, once again, there is another lockdown/lockout/lockup in place.  In yet another diatribe from the lectern of lies, we have been berated by our stern arm-waving, head-rolling, eye-squinching Head Prefect, like wilful children for failing to prevent this situation by vaccinating and now we find ourselves back on the naughty step. And here we must remain until she deems we are to be released for a while – with conditions. 

It is enough to make me want to remain under my security blankets and stay in bed. It is, after all, raining and so a perfect excuse to cower with a book and pretend the madness is not happening.

But, of course, it is. The terrifying twins, Ardern and Robertson, continue to destroy the economy, the number of deferred or cancelled medical appointments and surgeries continues to rise, businesses are forced into bankruptcy, the erstwhile employed become unemployed, tourism has tanked, farmers are the devil and we are all supposed to follow the Labour party lie that this is all necessary. Indefinitely. With no forward planning. With modelling a five-year-old with Play-Doh could do better.

Nowhere have we heard about treatment options or immune-boosting practices to stop the all-seeing and highly intelligent virus from deliberately seeking out the new “reviled” of our so-called team of 5 million, the unvaccinated.

How dare people use their own intelligence and decision-making powers to decide against this highly contentious vaccine. A vaccine that unlike other vaccines the world over, fails to do the one thing that vaccines are supposed to do: Prevent infection. We used to have the freedom to choose. We have lost that, along with so many other liberties that this government has deliberately stolen from us.

And people like us are compliantly being jabbed for the simple reason that we were willing to do it. To travel to see our families. We clutch tiny pieces of limp purple paper, verifying our illustrious and compliant status.  But that is now jeopardised because the regime was too stupid to put in place the most rudimentary tracking and ID processes.  

They have mangled every separate yet inter-connected step of this Covid process.  It isn’t that difficult really.  There is plenty of know-how out there to have made every step link to the next in the chain but the Government is all-knowing; the captain’s calls trump science and commonsense and readily available non-Governmental intelligence.

Along with thousands like us, we are double-vaxxed. We can safely self-isolate on return. Ankle-bracelet us, but it will make no difference because we are compliant and, if it means we can reunite with friends and family, we will do whatever it takes. Gladly. Willingly. Happily. We can be trusted. That any meaningful personal connection is put on hold indefinitely is daily destruction of hope.

Our neighbours are of a Labour persuasion, and yet, at this point, even they have seen it all as a bridge too far, that the stealth and subterfuge of 3-Waters and He Puapua are too much, way too much even for them. The increased powers of the authorities and the decreased freedoms and rights of citizens are now a worry for them and for others like them.

We foresee that dinner parties will be more interesting now that politics is not off the menu as a dish too challenging to digest. However, it is an interesting observation to observe how many other Labour stalwarts are beginning to question the so-called Podium of Truth. Is the tide beginning to turn? Enough is definitely enough. We need a plan. A strategic plan.

And more than the philosophical challenge, is the issue of their despondency, depression, despair and feelings of helplessness. In our small corner of the world in rural New Zealand, we are feeling disconnected and dismayed. We used to understand a few certainties of life, but now there are none we can rely on. 

Our mental health is suffering. Does anybody care? No! Covid, in whatever form it decides, is with us. It has been in the past. It will be in the future, with our Head Prefect being completely deluded in thinking that she can, King Canute style, hold it back. The overwhelming difference is that the noble King demonstrated his piety and humility, his inability to control the elements.  Jacinda Ardern has no such humility.  Just an over-inflated sense of her own importance. 

It is still raining.

smoke glass window
Photo by Emma Trevisan. The BFD.

KSK has a Master of Management degree from the University of Auckland. She has a business management background following many years in the medical field. She is a former business mentor with Business...