Ok, let’s be honest about what happens next with the pandemic in NZ

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This election won’t be decided on what we do next, it will be in part political loyalty generated by Jacinda when people who aren’t normally frightened felt scared and in part by who makes us feel safer, Jacinda or Judith.

Emotion and loyalty will decide the 2020 election.

When you think about it, there rarely are universal events that touch everyone. Our lockdown was one such event, and pundits inability to understand the tectonic shift that this pandemic has generated is why they aren’t comprehending the magnitude of what’s coming.

The negative is that we have some of the most crucial and pressing issues to deal with and because of the gratitude tsunami coming Labour’s way, none of those issues will get debated before October 17th.

So here are the realities confronting us with the pandemic.

Death Cult Capitalism will ask to kill thousands:

They will demand no more lock downs, they will demand less restrictions and they will demand looser borders, but here is the naked reality…

Covid-19: Herd immunity approach would lead to ‘thousands of avoidable deaths’

A researcher modelling Covid-19 death rates says 1300 Māori and Pasifika would die in the Counties Manukau district alone if community transmission was allowed to run rampant, reinforcing the importance of an elimination approach to the virus.

TDB Recommends NewzEngine.com

…so the poorest amongst us should sacrifice themselves for the economy and the wealthy who prosper most from that economy?

No one is going to accept that.

The reality of the Pandemic Infrastructure and reshaping of economy:

America’s economy fell 33%, the IMF are screaming into the void of bad economic data and our own domestic warnings are equally grim. The economic fall out of the pandemic hasn’t even begun to impact us yet and the need to build a quarantine infrastructure alongside reform of the International student market, migrant worker market and tourism industry either become a priority or become a haemorrhaging wound that kills the next Government.
To minimise virus transmission if it gets through the border we need a powerful track trace infrastructure alongside mandatory mask use and this will have to be the new normal until we get a vaccine and that isn’t likely until 2022.

The reality of doubling the size and capacity of the State:

National are offering deregulation, less funding for public services and reopening borders where as Labour have to understand that surviving the pandemic will require the State directly hiring more people and building structural capacity in our health care, defence force and community services. Labour need to not just add responsibilities to the State, it needs to build a bigger State.

The tsunami of social damage:

The domestic violence, the depression, the mental health impacts of social isolation, unemployment, suicide and crime are all going to erupt as financial pressures and stress take their toll. The community services that can heal and repair this damage have no capacity for what is coming. A vast new wellness industry must be adopted immediately and a tax debt amnesty for those small and medium businesses about to go under.

The promotion of conspiracy and death of public broadcasting:

We are seeing what happens when people just get their news from Facebook. The rise of conspiracy theorist politicians is a grotesque mutation that threatens the body politic with its toxicity to reason. To date, Chris Faafoi as Broadcasting Minister has been missing in action. He has not grasped the importance of public broadcasting and the urgent need to have trusted journalism that is open to a code of ethics. As a former broadcaster himself, Willie Jackson needs to become Broadcasting Minister and be given the room to implement real reforms so that conspiracy theorists can’t dominate the space where public broadcasting is failing.

The fundamental problem is that the advertising market has been bled dry by Google and Facebook. Here is a blueprint.

1 – Public Funded Media in the nations interest

The RNZ-TVNZ merger should be occurring immediately with the following inclusions.

      • TV1 commercial free (so existing advertising can go to Mediaworks).
      • RNZ launch a commercial free youth radio station.
      • RNZ/TVNZ launch a 24 hour news station on one of their existing Freeview+ channels.

2 – Tax Google & Facebook and ring fence that for direct funding of corporate journalism

Google & Facebook charged a percentage on all revenue from NZ, that money is specifically ring fenced to a contestable fund available to established Media to specifically provide Fourth Estate Journalism.

3 – NZ on Air ‘Read between the Flags’ Kiwi journalism 

In a world of disinformation, we need journalism we can trust. We all get the ‘swim between the flag’ model of surf life saving, NZ on Air should be given extra funding for ‘Read between the flags’ Kiwi Journalism. This money is to break the current elite opinion NZ on Air circle jerk and provide revenue for smaller blogs and citizen journalism who become eligible if they agree to a set of Journalistic Principles. If you do agree and sign up, you are entitled to funding and must have a Kiwi Journalism flag on your site to show you are obliged to the Journalistic Principles Code of conduct. You would have an awareness campaign to urge NZers to ‘read between the flags’ for trusted information.

 

 

New Zealand has some of the biggest issues ever confronting us to debate and I fear they simply won’t gain much air time because Labour’s stratospheric rise will eclipse all other narratives as confused pundits struggle to explain a majority result under an MMP structure.

Unfortunately these issues are so pressing they will be felt the day after the election regardless of whether or not we’ve debated them.

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9 COMMENTS

  1. ” …so the poorest amongst us should sacrifice themselves for the economy and the wealthy who prosper most from that economy ”
    But that forms the structural foundation of neoliberalisim doesn’t it and we accepted that economic sacrifice a long time ago.
    The fact that the already exploited could die as a result of our own pure free market ideology just shows how expendable a lot of us actually are in this economy.
    This will be an acceptable price many right wing supporters would be willing to countenance in the name of profit and protecting their own interests.
    If we do indeed get a Labour majority administration after the general election i have no confidence that we will get “transformation ” because there is no one in the Labour party or caucus who supports backing away from the status quo.
    There is no Sanders or Corbyn with the guts to take the system on and make the structural changes needed to make us just a little less expendable and restore the human rights of many of our citizens taken away in the name of profit , greed and the bottom line.

    • I don’t think that even neoliberals would hesitate to abandon their principles in the face of war, or a health crisis or other natural disaster of sufficient magnitude. Persons calling for restrictions would be businessmen and, perhaps, workers who see themselves as being disadvantaged by lockdowns and other measures; also, epicureans who dislike restrictions on their normal freedoms.
      These people probably belong to varied economic religions.

      • Maybe it’s because I’m only starting
        That I think it won’t take too long
        Maybe it’s because I can see you laughing
        That I think you’ve got it wrong

        Maybe I could be like Robin Hood
        Like an outlaw dressed all in green
        Someone said what’s he gonna turn out like
        And someone else said never mind

        Well I was big and bold and more than twice as old
        As all the cats I’d ever seen
        I grew my hair and bought a suit
        Of shiny white or was it cream
        I shook and shivered danced and quivered
        And stood on a mountain top

        No one came from miles around and said
        Man your music is really hot

        WELL I KNEW WHAT THEY MEANT BECAUSE I WAS A FREAK
        My throat was tired and worn
        My pretty face just looked out of place
        AS THEY POURED ON THE SCORN

        I wrote on yellow paper from a man who was the king
        He said my boy we’ll have some crazy scenes
        There weren’t any scenes at all like he was talkin’ about
        He must’ve been the king of queens

        Well I could write a million songs about the things I’ve done
        But I could never sing them so they’d never get sung
        THERE’S A LAW FOR THE RICH AND ONE FOR THE POOR
        and there’s another one for singers

        It’s die young and live much longer
        Spend your money and sit and wonder
        No one came for miles around
        And said man your music is really funky

        I believe that I must tell the TRUTH
        And say things as they really are
        But if I told the TRUTH and nothing but the TRUTH
        Could I ever be a star ?

        Nobody knows who’s real and who’s fakin’
        Everyone’s shouting out loud
        It’s only the GLITTER AND SHINE that gets through
        Where’s my Robin Hood outfit

        Well I’ve come and I’ve gone before you wink an eye
        No one ever cared enough to say goodbye
        The money’s good and the time you have
        Fun and games galore
        But you spend your money and lie in bed forgotten
        And you wonder what you did it for

        No one came from miles around
        And said man who’s he?

        ———————————
        Here it is again. Have a think.
        ———————————

        Deep Purple – No One Came
        https://youtu.be/luVXf9UpCiM?t=3

    • I believe you are right, mosa.

      The ‘mission’ is to extract as much wealth as possible from land, the seas and the activities of the people, and to transfer as much of that wealth as possible into the bank accounts of the few at the top of the economic pyramid. The ‘mission’ is to resist the fundamental changes that would provide far better living conditions for the general populace, since redistribution of resources would mean less for those at the top.

      Labour and National have slightly different approaches to the agenda of wealth extraction and transfer, but ultimately nothing will change until the money system -creating money out of thin air and charging interest on it- is changed. Also, rewarding destruction of the future via so-called development has to be abandoned.

      Labour don’t have the balls to even talk about such matters, let alone do anything about them, so it’s ‘off the cliff’ whoever forms the next government -the only difference being the degree of suffering of the populace likely to be somewhat higher under National than Labour.

      Of course a lot is going to happen before the election, in terms of the unravelling of globalised financial and economic arrangements, with the ‘wheels falling off’ all over the world and environmental catastrophes of unprecedented magnitude adding to the financial-economic woes of both governments and ordinary folk.

      It’s the electricity grid failing or water no longer coming out of taps and empty supermarket shelves that will trigger the real panic.

      For the moment, with food, water and electricity still generally available, apathy and complacency continue to prevail.

      It’s the electricity grid failing, or water not coming out of taps, or empty supermarket shelves that will shake the general populace out of their apathy and complacency, and demolish their belief in ‘the system’.

  2. Tony Abbot says out loud what other conservative right wing politicians all around the world are all thinking.

    Let elderly die from virus to cut lockdown cost, says Abbott
    2 Sep, 2020 2:42pm

    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=12361632&&ref=topbox&fbclid=IwAR0cvnIf_PT3niudsLyS-eUc7ggFWefqUWx4N0eY7R84VtuDGizgH46raQ0

    Tony Abbot’s Australia would have been witness to scenes of mass graves, of overflowing morgues, of bodies stacked on top of each other inside refrigerated containers, scenes from places like New York and Italy where the virus got out of control.

  3. I like what you are writing Martyn – one of the problems is that without a government that has goodwill towards the people and shows it with real moves and physical provisions, the grey hopelessness of never being able to have a brighter future will envelop many. Our governments have dug us into a trench, and if we arent careful the sides will fall in and suffocate us. Most of the changes you note are essential. If we give our pollies a firm hold on their perch will they be smart enough to do the necessary tricks? Or are we going to get a repeat of the Dead Parrot Sketch? The lovely Norwegian Blue wasn’t kipping, it was nailed to the perch. The unhappy customer’s replacement option was a slug. Practically parallels our case.

    I am already feeling uneasy at the images in the constant stream of flyers for retirement homes showing white old people looking prosperous, usually happily laughing, sitting in attractive rooms looking out onto gardens. I am white and know lots of white people who haven’t a hope of achieving that setting, so what about other racial groups with great numbers on low incomes? Social welfare, has a certain scent of sulphur in some people’s minds similar to having a social disease. Yet it has been a basic requirement in our failed-enterprise state, and has now become mainstream.

    It could however be used with huge amounts of Green Taskforce Teams and creative ideas being dreamed up, acquiring seed funding; housing, work on preparing for drought and wildfires etc. We could be making lemonade out of our lemons and getting by on basic incomes for many but with bright moments thrown in to look forward to. But the haters administrating society who really don’t want the poor to ever be happy could wreck our renaissance before it starts. We must think of a way to affect the psychology of our civil servants and their contractors and sub-contractors. Because the private approach can now not be unlike the old public approach which at worst was take-it-or-leave-it. How can we incentivise good attitudes and a will to help the public in the minds of the administrators? A start would be a career pathway within the public service right up to home-grown, capable CEOs – not change-agent, shape-shifters helicoptered in from past the Green Wizard of Oz curtain so effective at masking the ROP (Rather Ordinary People) behind.

  4. “…so the poorest amongst us should sacrifice themselves for the economy and the wealthy who prosper most from that economy?

    No one is going to accept that.”

    Plenty of Nat voters would happily accept that, sadly.

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