Strong Words

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It seems the ordinary people are over Jacinda. May this movement grow and swell. She’s got to go.

“Dear Jacinda, you can threaten me all you like

You won’t break my will, I won’t join your reich

I won’t do as you say, won’t forsake my rights

Won’t betray my heritage my ancestor’s fight

The freedom that they bled for I won’t let that die

Make me take that jab you’d have to take my life.”

Warning – Strong language.

Disturbing Events in NZ

There have been some disturbing developments in NZ lately, and as Christians we ought to be aware of them and think carefully about their significance. Cam Slate of the BFD has highligrhted them in a post provocatively entitled “It’s Official, New Zealand Is Now a Dictatorship“. He highlights disturbing things that have happened in the last week. I quote:

  1. The entire country was locked down under Level Four rules.
  2. The Government passed regulations to enforce mandatory masking.
  3. The Government passed regulations to require compulsory tracing.
  4. The Government via the Police abrogated Health exemption cards to compulsory masking.
  5. People who were protesting were arrested, charged and placed under house arrest with no access to internet capable devices
  6. The Government sets up and encourages people to use a snitch line to dob in neighbours, friends and family
  7. Media are operating as Government snitches
  8. The Prime Minister and her un-elected Health Czar have suspended parliament unilaterally.

To that, I would add the government’s anti-parent approach as demonstrated in the conversion therapy bill and the Ministry of Health’s advice that children between 12-15 do not need parental consent for the vaccine. Go and read Cam’s whole article on the BFD.

Also check out the press releases from Judith Collins and David Seymour. Suspending Parliament at such a time is unconscionable.

Masculine and Feminine Approaches to Loving Neighbour

I think it was C.S. Lewis who once compared masculine and feminine approaches to love. Men tend to think of it as leaving your neighbour alone and letting him get on with his life, whereas a more feminine approach seeks to do neighbour active good. There does seem to be an element of truth to this generalisation. My wife is more likely to think of making Christmas cookies for the neighbours than I am!

Lewis, I think (and I can’t remember the exact place he makes this point), argues that the woman’s approach to loving neighbour is better. In general, I am inclined to agree. Love is not a lack of action toward someone, but a positive action.

However, the feminine approach to love of neighbour is a dangerous thing when taken into government, and as our government becomes more feminised, a live and let live approach is replaced by the tyranny of moral busybodies. There’s a reason we call it a Nanny State.

Who can forget Prime Minister Ardern’s daily television appearances during the COVID pandemic? We were talked down to as if we were children. We were restricted from normal activities so we could be kept safe, and we were told to ‘be kind’. It was like being seven years old again.

Then we had Siouxsie Wiles of the fluro pink hair who ended up becoming New Zealander of the Year. She berated Aucklanders who left the city before the 2021 lockdown. “Hey, all you Aucklanders leaving the city during the night to spend the week at your bach… you better bloody well take Level 3 with you,” and “You do realise this is a s****y thing to do? If you are incubating the virus you run the risk of spreading it outside Auckland #COVID19nz.”

It makes one wonder whether there is something about a woman’s nature that suits her more to governing the domestic sphere and looking after children rather than governing adults.

Ardern’s Leadership

Prime Minister Ardern has pulled out of her weekly appearance on the Mike Hosking breakfast show. The reason given is that she is rearranging her interview schedule. Yet one can’t help wondering whether she was tired of being asked difficult questions. As many are now pointing out, Ardern seems more at home with patsy questions and friendly interviewers. She’s loved overseas, and her daily performance during COVID rallied many New Zealanders, despite feeling a little patronizing at times. Unfortunately, she struggles when facing a more seasoned interviewer who pushes back.

In his explanation of the situation, Hosking said, “The number of times she’s fronted on this programme with no knowledge around the questions I’m asking is frightening. Reports I read, she hadn’t. The time I asked whether they’re replacing the Tauranga City Council, she replied they didn’t do such things. Clearly, not having the slightest clue, in a month or so, they were going to do exactly that. Those occasions are too many to be comfortable.”

To anyone who has heard Ardern and Hosking spar, it’s clearly an uncomfortable experience for Ardern. She seems to be struggling. She might be able to present well at the daily COVID briefings. She might be good at spouting platitudes, but despite promising us transparency, she doesn’t seem to deal well with grown-up questions pertaining to her government’s performance. She seems to feel much more at home with fawning and sycophantic supporters who would never dream of asking a question of their hero. Is this true leadership?

Barry Soper, one of the few decent journalists we have in New Zealand, observed, “The questions were too direct, they got under her thin skin but, more importantly, she didn’t know the answer to many of them. She was exposed on a weekly basis and it simply all became too much for her.” His final line in his editorial, “She’s treading water.” is about right.

It seems she’s fallen into leadership before she was ready. Without COVID, she’d probably be gone. To ensure a third term, one would imagine she will have to deliver on some of the grandiose promises she’s made. Unless COVID saves her again.