What the panic buying shows us and how the Pandemic is far worse than you think it is

1. Fuck this bullshit. John Key, Bill English and Jonothan Colamn should be arrested and charged with screwing up the health system.

   • You are too kind Sam.
     Many have died unnecessarily because of the run down health system creating misery for thousands.
     We currently don’t have a retribution adequate for those three psychpaths and their private health industry lobbyists.

     • Charges always comes in threes. So first of all they’re traitors to there own people by colluding with transnationals who spy on their own people who’re just reporting the fact that kiwi soldiers are dying for no good reason.

       Second is war crimes from Afghanistan.

       And third is crimes against humanity for for choosing the profits of transnationals over the economic and environmental wellbing of their own people.

       By all rights that should have been enough to have them strung up by the neck at The Hague.

       • Sam & John W, what I can’t understand are the greedy NZ’ers who vote these mongrels in election after election. I personally don ‘t see any difference between National & Labour they all appear to be dancing to the same puppeteers – the 1%ers. So what do we do now? Have a good look at our selves, and start standing on our own two feet by bringing the work back to NZ’ers, and forget about Global Markets. We need to be independent. Care for our selves, we’ve done it before in the past – long before the Neoliberalists took charge. But will we – I think not.

         • In peace time the most important thing is to allocate money and resources. There will always be the problem that the pie is always small and everybody wants something.

           If The Military wants tanks, fighter jets and frigates then welfare can not exist.

           The Minsters in Charge of what ever Government Service, The Fire Deparrment, Police, Health, Welfare, who ever makes up the Corona Cabinet of the Government coordinates so they can all fight as one and WIN.

           Yknow it takes a tremendous man to be able to coordinate a symphony like the Corona Cabinet (my daughter calls it the Corolla cabinet, she’s 15 I don’t know why they call it that), one note out of place, one wobbly screw, and the whole show may fall over.

           It’s a very interesting balance working under such demanding circumstances which is different from the politics of kindness because the corona virus is forcing Jacinda to grow up fast.

           We have in parliament 120 super smart people and in the hierarchy of command that make up all the government departments we have tens of thousands of individually super smart people. So when you’re working with people who are super smart, you may be a boss but at the same time you must learn how to show their capabilities and allow the organisation the benefits of their abilities to do things and that is what we must do.

           Every one is brilliant! That makes me a diplomat, correct?

           If you are not capable whether they’ve got a PH.D. Or you’re a genius or what ever you will never get to be Prime Minister and you will never rise.

           We have scholars who fall by the wayside. Scholars we know who will never lead men into battle or business and command men. To be in command (in command of a real organisation that can coordinate across a nation or nations) and a leader requires more than pure sheer intelligence.

           Today we have leaders in the government, business and military leaders who are scholars or farmers (and I’m a farmer) I think the most important thing is that you must have the ability to be a good person, a good leader and a good commander to rise up the hierarchy.

           You must understand that 30 years ago we kiwis were very obedient people. It was what your job requires and the state wanted you to do so it was never easy to be the wife of someone so committed to working especially the wife of a politician.

           The demands on our time is only so much so the stay at home parent must handle the children Yknow and if you ask me if I would do things differently then I may do it differently. What I tell all the people under me every day is family first. Career is important but balanced.

2. Excellent piece.

   I’m sure that part of the panic here is being caused by people in China advising relatives here to “stock up”. Stats however and anecdotal evidence show we have had many many thousands of immigrants from China in the last decade especially. Many of those people have lived through the chaos and human rights abuses of previous viruses in the country of their birth where “forced restrictions” etc were the order of the day. They know what’s going to unfold here sooner or later as the numbers with the virus increase. Many felt the panic buying at Supermarkets when the first reported case occurred here was all out of proportion but it wasn’t to the Chinese. It was the alarm bell going off. The virus has arrived. Look after number 1…..NOW. The Ministry of Health are spouting bullshit and concealing facts to avoid a panic and feel they have some sense of control. We can now call out their bullshit and know the actions of the Chinese in Auckland are a much more reliable guide to what’s coming.

   I’m going to own my stuff here. As a race / culture, I’m not a fan of the Chinese. Where do I start? Widespread human rights abuses. The diabolical treatment of almost all animals they come into contact with. Epic selfishness. Arrogance. Routine examples of diabolical incompetent driving putting more locals and their loved ones in danger. Inappropriate spacial awareness, total lack of respect for our laws and how Kiwi’s treat each other etc etc etc etc etc. To point this out makes me racist and xenophobic bla bla bla. Truth is we all have personal attributes in others that we gravitate toward or shy away from. The more boxes a person ticks, the more likely we will befriend them. The more negatives they have, the less likely you want them in your world. This is why I couldn’t possibly care less about being tagged a racist etc. That tag is now used and abused as a weapon to stop discussing growing issues and just “accept it”

   This is what my piece of paradise looks like on Auckland’s North Shore. Chinese family next door. Friendly, obliging, thoughtful and decent. Perfect neighbour. That is where the good stops here. Chinese developers / families have purchased four typical homes on our quiet cul de sac that has a primary school near the entrance to our road. Each home purchased over the last three years has been halved and removed. Each property has then had significant landscaping which has resulted in our street becoming increasingly difficult to access. Trucks and heavy moving equipment arriving on site prior to 6am has been routine regardless of an obvious sleeping neighbourhood. Same issues with all four properties. Many dozens of consent breaches on each property amounting to hundreds of complaints. Each property has had three imposing monstrosities built on them. Local MP involved but limited progress. Council and worksafe are utterly fucking useless. Indisputable that certain people are covered from within and know they will be gifted a free pass each time apart from the occasional perfunctory warning. Builders I know are incredulous at what they get away with. Things local trades are routinely nailed to the wall with and had work on their site halted. Routine parking on the footpath. Routine parking on yellow lines. Routine parking on peoples lawns and berms without asking and continuing to do it after being strongly advised not to. Driveways blocked. Berms torn up with foot deep trenches by workers and their deliveries. Refusing to acknowledge the damage caused and put it right despite there being compelling video evidence. Council as per usual, utterly fucking useless. I have confronted site manager at two of the sites. Arrogant bastards on an epic scale. Couldn’t possibly care less about the locals. When it suits “no speak da English”. I’ve seen two violent encounters between locals and these pricks. Everyone I know has had their fruit trees stripped by the usual suspects. Several have been filmed and I’ve caught them totally stripping our Black Doris plum tree two years in a row. Concrete cutters starting at 6.30am on a Saturday morning despite furious neighbours. Since day 1 the workers on all sites have left bottles and takeaway wrappers wherever they felt like it. Two examples I’m aware of where Chinese workers have taken a crap in the front garden of gardens in the area prior to portaloos arriving. Spitting wherever is routine. Our quiet street has been turned into an enormous noisy congested building site. I along with others I know have spoken to numerous other contacts who report very similar experiences in their hood. It’s all sunburn on sunburn now.

   Around the start of our street is a primary school. The roll there is now an incredible 70% Chinese. Up from 5% just five years ago. Welcome to NZ’s future. The area is best avoided at 8.30am and 3pm. You will witness a new level of bedlam even for schools. Arrogant, selfish and incompetent driving on an epic scale. Identical demographic every time. I know of dozens of examples of people leaving their vehicle in or blocking the driveways of locals while they walk their child to their classroom. This continues to occur despite warnings from exasperated school staff and locals.

   Anyone says anything, they are racist xenophobic etc. We’ve met some lovely Chinese but the overwhelming experiencing has been extremely negative. Arrogance and selfishness in huge never seen before helpings. It was no surprise to see the usual demographic leaving supermarket shelves empty. The people I most feel for are those who can only afford to purchase one item at a time. The usual suspects couldn’t possibly care less.

   • well this scared me and I don’t doubt a word of it, we are to late to stop it so what can we do?

     • lostnspace,

       A bit of melting pot is healthy, but balance and pace is absolutely essential / critical.

       If I’d had anything to do with setting parameters etc for immigration previously, I would have put very strict criteria and conditions in place.

       1) Make sure you keep the population stable. If you allow the population to increase too quickly, you risk causing our underfunded infrastructure to become overwhelmed. There were already housing issues so even an absolute moron with a sultana sized brain could see that if you open immigration floodgates wide year after year, you will create an enormous problem for many “Kiwi’s” not already on the housing ladder. We must ensure we prevent a scenario evolving where we need to import a workforce from where ever as a desperate attempt to play catch up. The ratio of teachers to students was already an issue so we must ensure they don’t overwhelm schools, especially with new students where English is not their first language. Our hospitals have been under increasing pressure so we mustn’t have a sudden increase in potential patients as the population will have to wait longer, experience an inferior service and have hospital staff overwhelmed and working in unsafe conditions. That will inevitably result in our “kiwi” nurses going off shore only to be replaced on mass by a workforce from say China or India etc. Our motorways are already clogged to the point a petrol tax was needed to help address the situation so allowing tens of thousands more cars on our motorways would only make a bad situation worse etc etc etc.

       2) A slow “normal” increase in population over decades also allows our young country still finding it’s self to not be overwhelmed by other much older and powerful cultures and risk turning the NZ population into foreigners in their homeland.

       3) We must not allow mass immigration from countries that have very little in common with our western principles and the unique “Kiwi” way of living and getting the job done. English as a first language must be a prerequisite.

       4) We must avoid countries for immigration that are infamous for widespread human rights abuses and who see virtually every living thing as “food”. Who knows, that sort of thing could even create deadly and devastating viruses.

       5) We must avoid allowing countries for immigration that are well known around the globe for widespread fraud be it , immigration fraud, online fraud, telephone fraud etc.

       6) We must avoid allowing countries for immigration that are well known for appalling attitudes toward females. We must protect females in our population from that.

       7) We must avoid allowing countries for immigration where their chosen religion is incompatible to the way NZ citizens live and their freedoms. This is especially relevant when we look at other countries around the world that now have major permanent issues as a result of their immigration policy.

       8) We must not allow Governments to bungle our economy and then attempt to convince us we are in crisis and our rich country doesn’t have enough resources so they can justify any radical action.

       9) We must not completely ignore and obliterate the above conditions and parameters for any reason, especially expediency and money.

       10) Any Politician / Government official that breaches the above is immediately terminated from their position and a charge of treason against them is considered.

       11) Never allow any political party to do 1-9 and then the sudden false economy wealth gained be described as a “rock star economy”.

       12) If we value the above, our beautiful country will be in very safe hands and will continue to prosper for all of us and our future generations. Great being a “kiwi”.

       • Too many “must”s and indicative of authoritarian mindset.

         • Perhaps, but “must not” rather than must is indicative of a bottom line that won’t be compromised and are real commitments. Also reflects my general reluctance to use political nothing words such as “ought” and “should”. Words politicians use during election campaigns that amounted to zero and gave them a free pass from accountability when questioned about those “alleged commitments” later when in Government.

3. I’m going to ignore all this screaming excitement over viruses. I have been alarmed at everything going on around the world for so long that i am immunised against alarm. At present I am reading a book about the experiences of a Hungarian Jew who was not imprisoned in a centre where you faced ‘selection’. After reading and absorbing the story, part of the factory-run system intending to exterminate Jews, and the rarely heard of Gypsy decimation, I feel rather brutalised and rather cynical about people and politics going into regular crises. I think the object is to keep the world in panic and grievance mode so we never have time for reflection and harmony.

   All our thought and consideration about politics and human systems seems to lead to naught. I need a change from thinking and hearing about Trump and the pandemic, and how it is upsetting the Dow Jones, and probably the Dowager Jones, if there is one. The poor have been suffering denigration for a time as long as a piece of string. When talking about real problems and possible solutions we thinkers get ignored. So maybe the attention of those with agency can be drawn by concentrating on something that will amuse them.

   We used to describe politicians as muppets, now they are wombles. I object to this defaming of favourite positive children’s icons. This is taking free speech too far, and I feel I should complain on some legal point; it isn’t racism, is it slander? It is definitely bringing these estimable characters to calumny.

   By the way I have found a lovely new word – inspissate meaning to thicken or congeal. It might be good for describing the evolution of young politicians from eager and idealistic to a near-stop after learning how to cope within the political self-centred negative bureaucratic and traditional regime. (spissus from Latin – thick, dense)

4. Ironically, one of the reasons the hospitals are run off their feet is because of the great increase in levels of hospitalisation for infectious disease since the 1990s, due to poor housing conditions and overcrowding. This could be NZ’s great Achilles heel, akin to the work-while-sick / no sick leave culture in the USA.

   • poor housing conditions and overcrowding. This could be NZ’s great Achilles heel

     Yes, I have thought so too. The govt could enact emergency measures to deal with this, and imo they should do that soon, …well before winter.

     For example, there are some 40,000 empty homes or ‘ghost homes’ in Auckland, and around 200,000 in NZ. Many are owned by people who may not even be New Zealanders and who see these homes solely as ‘investment properties’.

     Under emergency measures, the worst of the housing problem could be solved quite fast.

5. I don’t want to be a party to spreading misinformation but I’m concerned about a dangerous contradiction.

   In the UK, respected medical professionals are stating there is evidence that people with the virus who are not yet displaying symptoms (pre-symptomatic) are in fact spreading the virus. This data has been known and accepted for at least 10 days.

   In NZ, our Ministry of Health are still advising the public as a cornerstone of our defence that you must have symptoms in order to spread the virus. If that is correct then respected health professionals in the UK are wrong. If however, it’s our Ministry of Health that’s incorrect, we are in deep deep shit. This situation is in urgent need of clarification and not by fluffy propaganda either.

   https://www.msn.com/en-nz/news/national/auckland-grammar-principal-slams-misinformation-about-the-schools-covid-19-scare/ar-BB10UPM2

   quote from link above.

   “”As I understand it from health officials, you need to be showing symptoms in order to spread it,” said O’Connor, saying there has been wrong information being spread, causing “unreasonable levels of fear and anxiety” amongst students and parents”

   Note: the word “slams” being used incessantly by our media at this time. They dislike using the word “disagree” as it’s not strong enough click bait.

   Also unsure about this principals advice regarding face masks.

   “”No. Do not turn up to school wearing a facemask,” said O’Connor.

   “Wearing a facemask is not a sensible preventative measure. The only time you would want to wear a facemask is one, you’d wear a viral facemask if you had coronavirus – and at that point in time, you should be self-isolated”

   Rangitoto College has 3200 students. Easily the biggest school in NZ. Students wearing masks there is very common. Some teachers even seen wearing face masks. Obviously, they didn’t get Mr O’Connor’s message or don’t value it. Same applies with big numbers of Aucklander’s elsewhere.

6. S’funny.
   We, that is my family with myself reluctantly in tow, left our beautiful farm near Mataura and moved to a significantly larger property up in the hills near Fairlie.
   One of the main arguments for doing so was the Southland weather. The weather changed over a few decades and surprisingly quickly toward the end to a more aggressive sou west pattern then it blew like fuck. For weeks. Grey skies, freezing cold and strong winds, day in, day out…
   As a kid, I once put on a big old musty oilskin coat of my dads I found and was nearly able to gain flight on a ridge line just outside the house paddock. I must have looked like a spotty little mad eyed gap toothed Bat Man bastard child as my tip toes where the only things holding me back from a quick flight out over Gore. ( Years later I bought and flew a hang glider. Was awesome and oh! The memories! )
   So, off we went Hi Ho.
   I think it was the following spring? In the very early spring of 1972 that we had five feet ( 1.5m ) of snow. Straight down and completely blanketing our 4.5 sq mile property ( 1200.00 hectare). None of your fancy drifting. It was soft as fluff and extremely difficult to move around on/in. We lost about 800 sheep to starvation. None of your fancy snow mobiles.
   After about 5 weeks, we were getting a little bored with things. To relieve that boredom, an army helicopter swooped in, dropped off beer and gumboots, I kid you not, I have photos, then left us to it. We never wore gumboots because they’re the most useless footwear God ever created and none of us drank. So, yay.
   Army? Next time? Pot? Cocaine for the exhaustion, and I’ll have a troupe of Russian dancing girls thanks?
   My mum would’ve loved a two ton box of Chocolate Crispies with just a sprinkling of opium. So, cheers.
   The Canterbury Nor Wester is like the drunken uncle at the Christmas party of winds. All noise and bawdy jokes, while the sou wester sits in a corner and harrumphs and glowers at the kids. Think a Presbyterian Scots with gout. No pleasing them. Never will be.
   A gale nor wester rose like a vampire from a coffin and howled and wailed and whipped the snow to there, then back. And as we cowered inside listening to our brave little concrete block house shudder and rattle as the glass in the windows bowed in, then out again, it started to rain. Oh blessed Jesus! A warm speck or two, then a shower.
   But it stopped! Just when the fucking hideous snow was shrinking down and in retreat… the rain stopped! WTF? Right? Thanks God. Thanks very fucking much.
   The snow was now at a meter deep and soggy and vile.
   Then it froze solid. I mean, s.o.l.i.d.
   It froze like a bastard for weeks. Do you believe the temperature dropped to -45 F? That’s -42 c ? You believe me? I don’t care if you don’t, but it did.
   True fact. When me and my imaginary friend, Ook Nook of the South, went to get sausages from our deep freeze kept outside, the air in the deep freeze felt nice and warm compared to the air temperature in the great outdoors.
   We could , at least, drive our Land-rover about on it. It was like driving on a tarseal road.
   And as the snow sunk, weighted by rain, the weight of it pulled out our fence posts and broke down trees and power lines.
   We were at 2000 ft above sea level and the above story is why I love massive, hot, steamy Asian cities.
   Going into the ‘high country’ today gives me fits and starts. I’d have a fit if my car didn’t start. Ba Ha!
   The corona-V should be a warning to us all. While we have our fancy do-dads and hi falootin’ ways it doesn’t take much to skew things into a script for a horror film.
   The reason for that, is that we’ve allowed ourselves to be sold the idea that ‘business’ will save us all. That by doing ‘business’ we can be safe from the unforeseen and unforeseeable.
   That, is a lie. They lied to you and me and continue to do so daily. There is a plague of liars let lose upon our houses and all it takes is the flu to bring down the house.
   Our government is beset by lying liars who pretend to know this and that when in reality, they have no idea and could care less so long as the stocks and bonds of their riche mates are secured by you, the tax paying public.
   You read the latest post by Mike Treen? Is awesome. Read it.
   Here it is.
   https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2020/03/08/must-read-a-crisis-is-coming-we-need-a-green-new-deal-to-confront-it/
   When your partner’s just died in your sweaty, tangled bed and your kids are getting sick and there’s no food in the house shit starts to get fucking real man and where are the rich people when you need them? In a bunker in South Westland with your money? Hawaii? On a space station? ( Yeah. “Haw-haw” it up Chuckles. )
   I say, lets dig them up and eat them! ?
   Instead of a rich country like AO/NZ drowning in personal debt we should be swimming in a cash surplus, the rewards of being an agrarian economy trading our goods with the UK and Europe. ( God. I can’t stop! I need a nice cup of tea laced with MDMA! )
   But seriously, the liars fucked us. Are fucking us. Without the kissing and they have complete control of OUR government and by extension of us, what’s worse.
   Any of you right wingers like to pick a fight and start tapping on about money over humanity?
   Anyone? In keeping with your classless crassness the crematoriums will soon be making ‘good coin’ I suppose? $5 Use-then-return Urns?
   I can see the advertising!
   “Three for $12? Sob ‘N’ Sprinkle recyclable Urns for the modern, environmentally aware business person on the go? ”
   A drive through?
   A side-line for Mac Donalds? ‘ Window one for the double cheese and fries, Window two for the recyclable Family pack Urn with free sprinkling spoons. Just add *ashes. ‘
   *Random ashes can be provided at a low, low additional cost. Inquire at check out for today’s specials in available ashes. Please note. Ashes not necessarily of human origin.
   Was your Aunt ‘barking’ mad? Perfect. We may have just the right ashes for you.

   Art gave us ‘culture’.
   Money gives us ‘Idiocracy’.
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idiocracy

   • the air in the deep freeze felt nice and warm

     I believe it – Have had winters hovering too long in front of an open fridge door to raise the temp a bit.

     Best thing to bring your body temp up fast, …rum. Straight shots seep through fast to every cell and fibre. Think sailors in the arctic-temp north sea storms.

     And you all might need it this winter, unless you’re off the grid. Coronavirus will take out some of the workforce for sure, so power outages across AO/ NZ will likely last longer. Perhaps much longer. In the coldest, meanest weather, that’s no joke.

7. Who let all these people into our country and who will end up suffering the most if there is a pandemic.
   Many of us ( especially brown people/Maori ) can’t even get a funken scan to get a proper diagnosis when we need it most and so to say our health system is world class, world class my arse. We pay taxes and we are getting shafted I am really pissed of.

8. My concessions to the coming pandemic so far have included buying a couple of thermometers, which I never had before. At the moment they’re still for sale for just over $10.00 each, but when or if those ones sell out, the next one’s up seem to be around $80.00.

   Apart from that, – I already have stocks of basic foods as I live in a rural area and only go to town every few weeks. But there are a couple of items I want to be sure of having on hand, so stocked up. For me it was coffee (a great cheerer-upper in dark times 🙂 and a drum of honey (I don’t use sugar much if can help it). Still need to get small cans of gas for the cooker and to stock up on torch batteries, both for power outs.

   I hope everyone else is going okay with their calm-and-steady-as readiness stuff. Also for your wider family/ whanau. Especially the older and youngest ones, and anyone who’s unwell.

   • Who says that all this buying up of food etc is panic buying. It looks like callous investment to me. Buy a tin of chopped tomatoes at 80c today and it will be worth twice that much next year, without even passing its use-by date.
     Is this what we have come to now, where we are speculating on food? Its time for the Government to introduce rationing. Thats what governments do in war time and this is war.

     • You do not live in Aotearoa, do you.

       Or if you do, you’re spouting complete gobbledegook.

     • Bonash, I apologise for my earlier reply to you. I did not think that food rationing would be a possibility. The idea seemed daft, here in the land of plenty. Now, I read where “food limiting” is in fact being brought in, over in Aus, of certain foods at this time. If it is happening there, then I guess it will happen over here in due course. Supermarkets Limit Purchases

9. The expectation of a vaccine for COVID19 should be tempered somewhat. Remember the common cold virus is in the corona family of viruses and despite many years of research there has been no vaccine. We can only hope that the “prize” associated with a cure is sufficient to break through whatever has stopped progress to date.

   • How do you know CONVID19 takes on aspects of the host as the common “cold” does?

10. Just contract one of those Cruise Ships for 6 months or so! Turn it into a hospital.
    They’ll be cheap as, because with this coronavirus.They’ll all be out of business soon!

    • That seems to make good sense, Denny. The only problem is that putting so many into such a confined space is virtually a death sentence.

    • Turn it into a hospital.

      Seriously good idea.

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