The cracks in the dam are showing

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The end of the Covid nightmare seems in sight. The sceptics are being proved right, and more and more people are waking up to the injustice of the government’s authoritarian response these last couple of years. The Convoy, and subsequent police brutality and politicians’ disdainful dismissal of genuine grievances has been the combustible material that will bring more to Wellington in support of the convoy and maintain the pressure on our corrupt and cowardly politicians.

Jacinda’s dismissal of the protestors as “not representative of the vast majority of New Zealanders” is only likely to push more enraged people into protests. We have seen with our own eyes packed motorway bridges. Our telegram channels have been inundated with videos from real people, not media with a set perspective to push. We are not 70-year old nanas ready and willing to believe what the nice people on the news serve up to us each night about those nasty anti-vaxxers who don’t care if everyone dies.

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Apartheid in New Zealand

Today is a shameful day for New Zealand. We now have two classes of citizens. Those who are permitted by Mother Jacinda to have a little bit more freedom for being good little boys and girls and obeying Mummy. Then there are those truculent and dirty children who have refused to do what they are told because they think of themselves as free people and not slaves. These remain in time out. No freedom for you.

Our media are celebrating this as ‘freedom day’. Somehow I think that we will look back on this day and it will be given another name. Once again our bought and paid for whore media prove to be utterly useless in holding an out of control and incompetent government to account.

Think carefully about how you act in these times. The courage or cowardice you show in your treatment of others will be remembered for a long time. Sadly too many Christians in positions of leadership have shown that pragmatism rules over principles as wide and easy roads of compliance have been followed rather than the difficult and treacherous path of justice and righteousness. While the road of compliance is endorsed and celebrated by the majority at present, the audience we ought to be thinking of is our king. Explaining away being complicit with injustice to him is another thing entirely.

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.