New Zealand Listener Issue 6 2021

The escape from quarantine of the virulent South African strain of Covid-19 is a dramatic call to action for New Zealanders: scan, scan, scan. How lucky we were that the woman who emerged infected from her managed isolation was diligent in using the phone-app scanning system, enabling officials to contact all the venues she had visited and prevent or at least limit any community transmission. Make no mistake: this was a serious warning to both the Government and the majority of people who are failing to scan. Had the infected woman been as cavalier as many people, and had she displayed symptoms of coughing and sneezing rather than aches and fevers, parts of New Zealand could now be in lockdown. As we went to press, there was concern about two more…

The essence of racism is to believe in race and then divide people and treat them differently – to reject the universal idea that we are all born equal and should be treated equally, without discrimination. Race Relations Commissioner Meng Foon doesn’t understand that (“The ‘G’ word”, December 12). He supports the division by race written into New Zealand law and calls for even more, including prisons run by iwi for Māori offenders. This racial division is supported by stories to generate and affirm division, to insist on the allegation that we are two different people. A version of history is propagated that calls for inherited guilt on one side, with feelings of loss and demands for entitlement on the other. Claims of past wrongdoing are then held to justify an ever-widening…

Just recently, it snowed in London. It was one of those sudden drifts that transform the city into a postcard scene of glistening white rooftops and soft blankets of settled snow: cleansing, magical and strangely heartwarming. Pretty soon, people emerged from the lockdown to make virgin footprints and snowmen, throw snowballs and toboggan down park hills. The following day’s newspapers had photographs of two or three hundred people, many wearing masks, gathered on Primrose Hill, where children whizzed down the incline on makeshift sledges. The reports questioned the crowd’s maintenance of social distancing and whether the impromptu excursion broke lockdown restrictions. And from the squeezing perspective of long-lens cameras, the scene did look almost shockingly transgressive. People outside in loose proximity having fun? What were they thinking? I contrasted the image in my…

As the first month of 2021 draws to a close, there’s already been a lot to digest here in the US. An attempted coup, a mad surge of Covid in California and the threat of new strains of the virus on the horizon. All this juxtaposed against the incredible relief of a new president, initial distribution of vaccines and heavy rains washing the arid city of Los Angeles anew. Finally, the country has mandated masks and social distancing on all federal property. We have an administration that recognises the overwhelming challenges the country faces and has strategies in place to approach them. One of the remarkably potent shifts is the removal of former president Donald Trump from his social media platforms. His impeachment trial looms, but in the meantime, the impact of…

The refrain “Here we go again!” keeps echoing through my brain as I write this. Although, by the time you read it, the threat of another Covid-19 lockdown may have receded. Yet with our slightly porous borders, it is hard to see how we can avoid another outbreak of the virus over the next 12 months or more. We wait endlessly for a vaccine, standing in a long line with other nations, saying to everyone in a very Kiwi way, “No, you first. Go right ahead. Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine.” At this rate, it’ll be 2025 before our herd finally becomes immune and we can exit lockdown. Not that I’m worried. With me, it is hard to tell the difference between lockdown and normal life. Regardless of whatever level…

The new year has ushered in frightening times in which even Covid-19 is having to take a number. New Zealand’s capital city CBD is frightened to flush its toilets for fear its crumbling wastewater system will continue to pollute the streets, summoning forth more plagues. Judith Collins has promised to take up kindness and bipartisanship – which, coming from the Opposition leader known as “Crusher”, sounds very like a “Take cover!” notice. And there’s no knowing what the hundreds of thousands of aggrieved children with void Wiggles tickets will do if the Government continues to refuse their idols preferential quarantine access. Santa didn’t even have to do MIQ or get tested. Be warned – Nerf guns will be fired in anger. An easily overlooked facet of a year under pandemic rule is…