July 9th, 2022.
I see that Monkeypox has arrived in New Zealand. As 85% of cases internationally are found in the gay communities will Jacinda close the borders to gays? Or will they have to have a certificate signed by their mums or a medical professional certifying that they are free of Monkeypox? Will they have to be quarantined on arrival in New Zealand and must they wear a pink star on their lapels for 21 days or something similar after arriving in New Zealand?
But that is a digression from today’s thoughts. As Nicola Sturgeon continues her push for devolution in Scotland its economy and social services go down the toilet. Scotland has a reducing life expectancy, the highest drug addiction rate in Europe, declining educational achievements and large companies, especially financial services confirming that they will quit Scotland if independence occurs.
The devolution of powers to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland was achieved under the leadership of Tony Blair and is currently causing festering divisions within UK society.
In an interview with Independent Television, last year Tony Blair said
“Where I think we were wrong was in believing that devolution would end the argument of independence – it hasn’t ended it… I agree it has proved to be a tougher fight than we anticipated.”
Last year the current prime minister reportedly called devolution a “disaster”. There are others who agree, arguing that it has only strengthened calls for independence, by demonstrating the ability of nations to go their own way.
During the pandemic, the profile of the devolved administrations has never been higher – daily press conferences have spelt out the separate policies like never before.
Mr Blair denies this has fuelled the fire of independence. Instead, he blames Brexit, and in Scotland, a lack of political opposition to the SNP.
In 1997 the then PM Tony Blair established the Referendums (Scotland and Wales) Act, which allowed the countries to vote on devolution.
But he admits that while his administration poured huge effort into creating governments, parliaments and assemblies, there was not enough focus on what would tie them together as one United Kingdom.
“I do think one of the weaknesses in the way we approached devolution was not to build real cultural ties and emphasise the enormous things that the different countries in the United Kingdom have in common.”
That is something the current government is now attempting to correct, though not without controversy.
Mr Blair dismisses a recent policy to fly the union flag on government buildings as a “gimmick”.
Source ITV News 27th April 2021.
This policy, to which Jacinda Ardern was exposed (when she worked for Tony Blair), has caused immense dissent in the UK, providing a focal point for these causes. Indeed, one wonders if this was a deliberate policy outcome planned by Blair, to encourage the dissolution of the UK’s internal boundaries and to strengthen the regional ties with the European Union.
Meanwhile, back in New Zealand/Aotearoa, taking the Blair statement into account, I believe the Labour party’s targets and social engineering projects are deliberate. The shifting of power away from the status quo to undue influence by ethnic entrepreneurs is intentional, but its implementation has been incompetent. In short, the government has botched it.
Looking at the political, societal and economic changes occurring in New Zealand, it can be argued that New Zealand is exhibiting the precursors to becoming a failed state.
Weak states typically harbour ethnic, religious, linguistic, or other intercommunal tensions that have not yet, or not yet thoroughly, become overtly violent. Urban crime rates tend to be higher and increasing. In weak states, the ability to provide adequate measures of other political goods is diminished or diminishing. Physical infrastructural networks have deteriorated. Schools and hospitals show signs of neglect, particularly outside the main cities. GDP per capita and other critical economic indicators have fallen or are falling, sometimes dramatically; levels of venal corruption are embarrassingly high and escalating. Weak states usually honour rule of law precepts in the breach. They harass civil society. Weak states are often ruled by despots, elected or not.
The ruling cadres increasingly oppress, extort, and harass the majority of their own compatriots while privileging a more narrowly based party, clan, or sect.
Another indicator of state failure is the growth of criminal violence. As state authority weakens and fails, and as the state becomes criminal in its oppression of its citizens, so lawlessness becomes more apparent. Criminal gangs take over the streets of the cities. Arms and drug trafficking become more common.
High rates of urban crime and the rise of criminal syndicates testify to an underlying anarchy and desperation.
Failed states offer unparalleled economic opportunity—but only for a privileged few. Those around the ruler or the ruling oligarchy grow richer while their less fortunate brethren starve. Immense profits are available from an awareness of regulatory advantages and currency speculation and arbitrage. But the privilege of making real money when everything else is deteriorating is confined to clients of the ruling elite or to especially favoured external (and ethnic, Dr LR) entrepreneurs. The nation-state’s responsibility to maximize the well-being and personal prosperity of all of its citizens is conspicuously absent.
This state of affairs can be indicated by how far have GDP and other economic indicators fallen? How far does the ambit of the central government reach? Has the state lost legitimacy? Most important, because civil conflict is decisive for state failure, can the state in question still secure its borders and guarantee security to its citizens, urban and rural?
They end judicial independence, block civil society, and suborn the security forces. Political goods become scarce or are supplied to the leading class only. The rulers demonstrate more and more contempt for their peoples, surround themselves with family, clan, or ethnic allies, and distance themselves from their subjects. The state becomes equated in the eyes of most citizens with the particular drives and desires of a leader and a smallish group.
If violence is rising it shows that a society is deteriorating and that the glue that binds a new (or an old) state together is becoming fatally thin.
(Rotberg 2003). Rotberg, R.I., 2003. Failed states, collapsed states, weak states: Causes and indicators. State failure and state weakness in a time of terror,
In addition to all this, the biggest contributor to a failing state is the lack of a transparent, unbiased mainstream media. Failure happens quicker in a state where there is little or no calling to account by the media, especially if the media is directly or indirectly controlled by the state.
All this is very depressing and New Zealand seems to be sleepwalking into something from which it will take years to recover. The divisions are rapidly increasing in New Zealand, not just along ethnic lines but unusually for New Zealand along economic and regional lines. The gap between town and country is increasing with what was the economic power of New Zealand, its food sector, becoming traduced and increasingly put under pressure by government action.
Is Jacinda Ardern to blame? Well, it wasn’t me that did it and she has been in control exercising ever onerous state control.
God help New Zealand.