New Zealand Listener Issue 52 2018

It’s not quite the Madonna and Child theme we usually focus on this season, but the year’s most powerful imagery was surely David Attenborough’s footage of a mother albatross feeding her chick bits of plastic. This was a cut-through moment. No bird, let alone one as magnificent as an albatross, would feed plastic waste to her offspring by nature’s imperative. It is humankind that has created this cruel hazard. Even among the dwindling ranks of those who maintain a Three Wise Monkeys stance on global warming, there are no excuses for what plastic waste is doing to our fellow creatures. It’s possibly no coincidence that this December, the traditional shopping orgy has been slower than usual to get cracking. Increasingly, the world’s Christmas-build-up binges, “black Friday” and “cyber Monday” sales, are seen…

Now and then, observed the 20th-century French poet Guillaume Apollinaire, “it’s good to pause in our pursuit of happiness and just be happy”. Christmas is the perfect time for it. There’s no gain in allowing happiness to become a pressure; indeed, that creates its own hubris. That was evident this year in the rather wonderful headline in London’s Times: “Happiness Minister on run over Indian politician’s murder”. The first politician possibly anywhere in the world to be appointed to a portfolio to promote “happiness and tolerance”, along with “inner well-being”, was Lal Singh Arya of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. Alas, the minister has now been implicated in the murder of a rival politician and has gone into hiding. There are possibly better ways to model inner well-being. One is the…

“If you take Christ out of Christmas all you’re left with is M&S.”– Welsh broadcaster Aled Jones“On Desert Island Discs she chose as her luxury item the Crown Jewels, ‘because somebody would come to look for me’.” –Times obituary of British Conservative politician Baroness Trumpington“Hope is itself a species of happiness and, perhaps, the chief happiness that this world affords.”– Samuel Johnson“Santa Claus has the right idea. Visit people only once a year.”– comedian Victor Borge“Theresa May has asked Santa for a home makeover this year. First thing on the list was a new cabinet.”– Guardian Christmas cracker“The Supreme Court has ruled that they cannot have a nativity scene in Washington, DC. This wasn’t for any religious reasons. They couldn’t find three wise men and a virgin.”– US comedian Jay…

We should be congratulating, not condemning, the organisers of the Nelson Santa parade for having the balls to try to make Santa more inclusive. But how to make him all-inclusive? Would his skin be black, brown, white, red, yellow or something in between? What about eye colour, facial features and gender? The solution may be to disguise his identity with the traditional hat, beard and ruddy complexion. Then anyone in our free society – nudists and all – can depict him any way they like. Seriously, though, the issue has exposed a sharp divide in our much-vaunted reputation for toleration and inclusiveness. We’re clearly not there yet, especially as more migrants from very different cultures settle here. Is it time to promote these and the other values and mores that underpin our relatively…

Royal Heights Rest Home requires a part time RN. Must have good communication skills and an infinity with the elderly. Western Leader, 18/9/18 Health board working to clear bowel test backlog Nelson Mail, 29/8/18 “If you make the decision yourself, and you end up dying two years later, you’re going to blame yourself. But if someone else makes the decision, and you end up dying after two years, you don’t blame yourself.” Listener, 8/11/2018 The footpaths are wide enough as they are and the centre medium strip is handy for large trucks that want to buy lunch. Hibiscus Matters, 19/9/18 Stockdale wanted the Government to introduce signs warning motorists a speed camera was approaching. Dominion Post, 20/9/18 LIFE IN NEW ZEALAND: Entries must describe New Zealand events. The first sender of those accepted will receive a $5 Booksellers voucher. Enclose…

In DC, it often feels that the only reflecting going on is in rear-view mirrors when parallel parking. On a recent, cold, Washington DC night, my daughter, two of her friends and I joined several thousand others queuing for hours outside the Capitol to witness the lying-in-state of the late President George HW Bush. I was no great supporter of Bush when he was in office, but this occasion was an opportunity to reflect on a life of public service. In DC’s present political environment in which Donald Trump caustically tweets that his former Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, is “dumb as a rock”, it often feels that the only reflecting going on is in rear-view mirrors when parallel parking. By the time the line had snaked its way into the Capitol, we…