New Zealand Listener Issue 13 2020

Usually, no New Zealand government restricts civil liberties or jeopardises entire economic sectors lightly, let alone without compelling facts. Nor has any before undertaken such massive spending on artificial economic stimulus as was announced this week – equal to 4% of the economy and rising. So far, New Zealanders have submitted to the sacrifices the coronavirus outbreak has required of them, trusting that authorities know what they are doing. However, as the measures aimed at subduing the virus change daily, we should continue to ask questions. New Zealand and the rest of the world are plunging into a recession that could be as deep as it has been swift. That creates its own serious risks to public health, particularly mental health, including suicide. Authorities need to balance those concerns against the…

Although it’s understandable that health and safety have been at the fore in media coverage of the Covid-19 disease spread, it is curious that in discussing travel restrictions, no reports on the carbon-dioxide-limiting effects have appeared. I would expect that the global reduction in CO2 emissions has been significant and especially enlightening when comparing this emergency reduction with what a planned reduction in emissions might look like. Recall the reduction in CO2 emissions in the days following the 9/11 attacks in New York City. What a promising sign it would be if a planned reduction of that magnitude was on the agenda. Richard Keller(Lyall Bay, Wellington) I am always interested in Joanne Black’s view of life, but having read her latest instalment (Back to Black, March 21), I wish to point out that…

Anna Gray, Auckland FINALISTS Kane Williamson: “Sport is becoming a sticky wicket.” – Russell Nichols, Auckland Virat Kohli: “Waddaya mean, stand 2m away?” – Richard McKernan, Auckland Caption: “Neither captain shows his hand.” – Tony Clemow, Kamo Caption: “The captain’s handshake in the age of Covid-19.” – Elise Graham, Whanganui Williamson: “I’ve just had to tell the lads not to have any last-minute nerves. No toilet paper!” – Ellie Henderson, Motueka Williamson: “This straitjacket certainly helps to keep the run rate down!” – Owen McMahon, Auckland Kohli: “I have this recurring nightmare in which Kane Williamson appears in front of me!” – Hamish Barwick, Gisborne Kohli: “Ah, Kane, you’ve done it again!” – Hans Zindel, Palmerston North…

“I liked it more when Prince Harry moving to Canada was the biggest existential crisis we faced as a nation’.” – Gaby Hinsliff in the Guardian“Whenever you stereotype an entire generation, keep in mind Barack Obama and Donald Trump are both Baby Boomers.” – journalist David Heath“Just as we are asking our frail, vulnerable, easily confused old people to stay indoors, America is being asked to put them in the White House.”– UK Times writer Matt Chorley“I do not understand the elbow-bump greeting. Elbows are what we cough and sneeze into. It’s like saying hello by banging our dirty tissues together.” – comedian Michèle A’Court“Corona got to Tom Hanks. This man’s already been through so much. After the war he’s been through and that time his plane crashed.” – The…

1. The TV sitcom The Jeffersons began as a spin-off from which other show? ❑ The Brady Bunch ❑ Happy Days❑ The Mary Tyler Moore Show ❑ All in the Family 2. Which of these best describes the beignet, a New Orleans delicacy? ❑ Sausage ❑ Fried dough ❑ Sandwich ❑ Tart 3. Which poem begins: “Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary”? ❑ The Waste Land❑ The Raven❑ The Rime of the Ancient Mariner❑ Fire and Ice 4. Which of these is associated with psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross? ❑ Psychoanalytic theory❑ The hierarchy of needs❑ Emotional intelligence❑ Five stages of grief 5. Supporters of Parliament during the English Civil War were called what? ❑ Roundheads ❑ Cavaliers 6. Which medical advance came first? ❑ Penicillin discovered❑ First cancer chemotherapy❑ TB vaccine introduced❑ First organ transplant 7. Which movie…

IN BERLIN No face masks, no gloves, nobody coughing into their elbows as instructed by experts. It’s been an odd few weeks in Europe and not just because of the rapidly changing nature of the pandemic that the World Health Organisation says we are at the centre of. It’s because it feels like we’ve been living in two almost-separate, surreal realities. One takes place online and on TV via ever-changing live updates about the effects of the novel coronavirus, Sars-CoV-2. School closures, shuttered museums, cancelled sports games, quarantined celebrities and perturbed politicians speed into view, then away again, to be replaced by Italian shoppers queueing like well-spaced-out dashes on a page and by crowded hospital corridors. All that information can be anxiety-inducing. And then you go outside to another reality. Out on the streets…