One of the things I hope we will do as a nation in the post pandemic economy is to focus on being more self-sufficient as a country. There are lots of things we once made – like shoes and garments which companies outsourced to places like China and Vietnam where labour was cheaper.
The thing is, if we buy local we keep someone in our country employed and prices, while initially a bit higher , may soon level out .
It may be that we can’t make everything we want to use. I was thinking cellphones and computers, for example,would be pretty hard to make because we don’t have rare earths to create some of the essential bits like the screens. But then I thought – well maybe we could bring in the components we need to make a Kiwiphone or a Kiwcomputer.
People who work in the electronics field would know far better than I what’s possible and impossible – my point is I would like to see us importing less stuff, fixing what we have when it breaks down (wherever possible) instead of throwing things away . In short, seeing if we can make as many of the things we really need by ourselves and for our selves.
And who knows – maybe,just maybe, we CAN even make a cellphone 
🙂
I really had to smile when I Googled How to Make A Cellphone and came up with this little beauty from a 2013 article.And yep apparently it really works. Here’s the reference all you whizz kids.
Now someone, somewhere in a garage in our wonderful island nation must be able to make something like this wouldn’t you think
I wonder what a kiwi designed cellphone would look like?
A bit like the one in the photo perhaps ?
Or do you have a better design idea?
Let your imaginations flow! Maybe the kids could draw one for me.
Stay safe.
Look after each other
See you tomorrow
Bryan Bruce is one of NZs most respected documentary makers and public intellectuals who has tirelessly exposed NZs neoliberal economic settings as the main cause for social issues.
My sister worked for a while in a PYE factory in Waihi . They made all sorts of electronic equipment then and would still be doing so if the philosophy of government had not changed.
D J S
I hope so, but in dumbed down, corporate sponsored NZ, where we have the highest brain drain in the world https://www.telegraph.co.uk/expat/expatnews/7973220/New-Zealand-brain-drain-worst-in-world.html and now stop even gathering statistics on it https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2019/03/statistics-new-zealand-no-longer-measuring-brain-drain-to-australia.html, can’t even produce a census, and rely on big business and other nationals for everything to do with our wellbeing, is well on it’s way to throwing out the numbers 8 wire mentality, to being an obese nation full of precariat consumers unable to have critical thinking selling degrees for residency, under the thumb of the big business.
Seriously the grocery business seems to be a big player in NZ news! Possibly why we are so obese! As well as dirty politics https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/81194202/public-health-researchers-fighting-back-against-lobbyists
I’m not kidding this is news hub this morning with a bonanza of grocery news! Wonder why everyone has to read other news sites for real news!!! I wonder!
Coronavirus: Kiwis wake early to queue for McDonald’s as alert level 3 begins
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2020/04/coronavirus-kiwis-wake-early-to-queue-for-mcdonald-s-as-alert-level-3-begins.html
Poll: Will you get takeaways today?
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2020/04/28/guest-blog-the-lockdown-with-bryan-bruce-day-33-how-much-can-we-go-it-alone/
Kids will love these healthy affordable ‘fakeaway’ favourites
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/lifestyle/2020/04/kids-will-love-these-healthy-affordable-fakeaway-favourites.html
Finding fast-food in alert level 3: Locations, dates, opening times
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/lifestyle/2020/04/finding-fast-food-in-alert-level-3-locations-dates-opening-times.html
(So little journalists in NZ, even OZ ‘cafe’ news gets a mention!)
Melbourne cafe owner ‘lost for words’ after stranger donates $750 during COVID-19 pandemic
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/lifestyle/2020/04/melbourne-cafe-owner-lost-for-words-after-stranger-donates-750-during-covid-19-pandemic.html
BAKING
What to bake in lockdown
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2020/04/28/guest-blog-the-lockdown-with-bryan-bruce-day-33-how-much-can-we-go-it-alone/
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