OPINION
Last year, encouraged to speak out by the 2023 NZDSOS conference, we sent a unique type of Christmas letter far and wide to family and friends. It included the customary season’s greetings and messages but also incorporated a carefully written raw perspective on an unvaccinated couple handling the aftermath of the COVID-19 debacle.
There was silence from some. There were a few unexpected reactions. Some fully agreed. Others asked genuine questions. This new audience exposed to new truths, like most of us, had always trusted doctors. They never gave the Prime Minister’s solution to this ‘dangerous’ virus a second thought. They willingly had the jabs. Their responses were revealing. Quite innocent. They simply could not understand why anyone would refuse this ‘important protection’.
One reply was particularly astonishing. This person had no idea that if you had a potentially dangerous medical condition, you could be refused a vaccine exemption by the NZ Director-General of Health. Surely not!
Is the New Year a time to look afresh at what an unvaccinated comeback could be? Some critics, family, friends, and bosses were downright vicious and do not deserve reconnection. That’s their decision, not ours. They are better out of our lives. But what of those who were hoodwinked by a ‘lovely’ Prime Minister and a Director-General of Health who seemed to be a ‘gracious knowledgeable gentleman’? Their heartfelt reaction made it obvious that if you didn’t do your own research and look elsewhere, you would have no understanding of what was going on and how unfair and savage it had all become. The thought of remaining isolated from these naïve family and friends deserves some consideration.
Jacinda Ardern did her darndest to rip relationships apart during her prime ministership. She happily divided Kiwis into different camps. She set families, friends, and neighbours against one another.
She was the most popular PM in 2020, winning a landslide victory, then went down rapidly to become the most despised, resulting in her resignation and her party plummeting to the lowest-ever Roy Morgan poll. As Dr Muriel Newman says in her article An Iron Fist in a Velvet Glove, republished on the popular BFD, “She wooed the world with talk of kindness and compassion while at home ruling like a dictator.”
New Zealanders, by the thousands, began to question her soft voice and the squishy, huggy, smiley behaviour. It came across as faux and unreal. Kiwis are known to be genuinely down-to-earth nice people but seeing a Prime Minister obviously faking it became alarming.
Ardern used a saying to describe her leadership. She appeared on the cover of Time magazine which features the words ‘KNOW US BY OUR DEEDS’, from a speech she gave in 2020 at the Big Gay Out. She thought her deeds were wonderful successes. Unfortunately for her, it was an own goal. This biblical quote by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount tells us how to distinguish between false and genuine prophets – by what they produce.
Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. [or deeds] Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they? So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then, you will know them by their fruits
(Matthew 7:15–20).
Ardern’s deeds were division and lies. Her dictatorship was harsh and unbounded. Her prime ministership produced nothing of value. In biblical terms, Jacinda fulfils the definition of a false prophet. ‘Beware’ said Jesus.
The Christmas letter took a chance and described what unvaccinated people had experienced. A BFD article by a mandated school principal was included. It described the rejection, the loss of income and the abrupt end of a fulfilling career.
The many damaged relationships were of no concern to Jacinda. She would not even speak to people at a peaceful protest who were hurting.
It is incredible to find out three years down the track that there are people who still have no concept of how much harm was caused. They got caught up in a blinding fog of fear and were fooled by a clever manipulator on a grand scale. They had not been nasty to anyone.
Maybe it is the right time to reach out to those who are genuinely pleasant but uninformed. People who simply trusted the narrative. We can sleep at night knowing we have bigger, kinder hearts than Jacinda. Restoring relationships where possible is one way of not letting Jacinda win.