As part of our drive to keep our comment section the best in New Zealand we showcase each week an example of a top-notch comment that adds value to The BFD.
Today’s comment was written by idbkiwi Thank you idbkiwi for taking the time to craft such an interesting comment.
I wish Mr Hipkins well, it’s not pleasant having the flu, any flu, at any time. But I do wish a pox on his house, metaphorically speaking. The House of Parliament, and the Labour Party. The worst government this commentator has experienced in a lifetime.
Covid is, or was, deadly. Taking the lives of 2101 New Zealanders over the course of its run so far:
Or, put another way, responsible for the deaths of (about) 10.5 souls per 100,000 of our population per annum. That’s a lot higher than average for this century where the rate of deaths attributed to influenza and pneumonia has bobbled along at (about) 6.5pa. It’s close to the 1999 tally of 10.1 but dwarfed by the figures of the early 90’s average of 22.3pa, while the early 80’s death rates for influenza and pneumonia statistically were (nearly) quadruple the current Covid fatalities.
No death is a good one, especially if it’s yours, and we’d all like to prevent one, especially if it’s ours, or a loved one’s. However, for this government as a whole, and its individuals in particular, their oversight in claiming to ‘protect’ our lives from this coronavirus was inept, draconian, excessive, expensive, ridiculous and amateur. But particularly draconian.
I can’t wait to see the end of this era, but this era doesn’t show any sign of ending. There will be a change in government; yes, but the die is deeply set. Western society has shifted from individualism to socialism and our politics have shifted with them. A collective amnesia has seized the populace, a belief is apparent that good government can take the place of good parenting; it can’t, it never has, and it never will.
And we seem to have forgotten that the worst despots and dictators see, or saw, themselves as benign parent figures and the masses as their children, lapping up the attention as mother or father of the nation while the lie was always apparent: a good parent coaches a child to independence, amplifies their opportunities, it is a very bad parent that coaches a child to reliance and amplifies their neediness.
Get well soon; Mr Hipkins but, please, don’t darken the doorstep of government again. And may the incoming government remember, and remind us all, that good government is in the scaffold, not the structure.