Announce protest actions, general chit chat or give your opinion on issues we haven’t covered for the day.
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It was a bit sad to read of people struggling to maintain stable “housing” in Tokoroa in the papers. Not sad because boohoo it looks tough, but because the attitudes on both sides were rotten. Living in a camp ground caravan with failing health and approaching age-related limitations after owning your own home is quite a knock. This is what I mean when i say there are people right up near the line of being kicked to death by their own working class values. Even in dire straights, people were announcing that there was a class of “no hopers’ and they weren’t it, and “people who don’t want to work”, and people more deserving of assistance because “it wasn’t their fault they got sick”. On the other side there were the camp ground owners who naturally have to manage their livelihoods, and are subject to the illusion of loss just like anyone else. Here’s the thing. It isn’t anyone’s fault anymore. It hasn’t been the fault of any child born into a corrupted society or violent family for thousands of years. Anyone alive today and beatdown by the soceity they were summarily concieved into, and then abused by it all their life until they became completely demoralised or criminal, it didn’t come from them. I know where these widely believed “values” come from, and so do you. But we aren’t there anymore, are we. From the top down we have a culture in NZ that states emotions have no effect on anything, and we should repress them – better still, make other people repress theirs. It’s all in our heads, apparently. Well, it isn’t and emotions make a huge difference. This is where our collective eagerness for sadism comes from. Don’t belive me? Go find out how easy it is to get a prozac script. Then check out our suicide rate.
Without descending in metaphysics, it is still entirely possible to mount a political movement that identifies and supports the inherent worth of each person, whether they’re fresh out of prison clutching their $300 life grant, or a “pillar of society” planning how to lay off workers illegally without getting caught. I know as well as you how hard it is to find your own worth without deference to what we do, create, or contribute. But in these times of decline and threat from things we don’t understand, a virus that makes short work of our systems and values, it’s all the more important we accept we’re here together, and it’s enough. In the very least, could we treat ourselves as merely the animals we claim we are when we want an excuse for our own greed, stupidity and hatred? Go out in the field. Do you see sheep and cows bashing their young to death? Do you see one cow piling up the feed all for themselves in a corner of the paddock? If being an animal is an improvement, pick the one that best suits your limitations. If nothing else, begin the transition into a good animal.
For those of us ready to be humans, we need to accept a few things. If you have no money right now, you’re in a better position to build the future than an millionaire. What is the point of living a life of resentful graft and sadism against people you think are less than you? All through your sickness and old age that you think will come, living like that sounds like a waste of soul. That is what NZ lacks most of – soul. If you have no money right now you can’t be a tourist in your own life. You can’t escape to Queensland, or Hawaii, you can’t sit back in you home checking over your accounts and take a breather. It’s time to engage people with your idea about how things could be better. Do it constructively, a rally rather than a protest. Engage people in an open welcoming way, people you wouldn’t usually. Not for online type battles of wits, but actual conversations about life in general, the weather even. We are more human than we like to think. If your anger is fresh, take a leaf from existing activist groups and pick a known “enemy organisation” that isn’t currently at war with people, and hold a rally outside. Meet the people on the cusp of the line between Jacinda’s comfort and your reality. Pack your anger away for a moment, because remember, there is less than 30,000 people and two weeks of lockdown away from a new beginning. Behave as if the change has occurred.
If you’re middle class, or whatever is the moniker is for the safer classes, there is much you can offer too. The poors know about your blind spots, but the thing about the educated middle class is if they can put their superiority and insecurity to one side, its that they are capable of optimism when the realists need to be reminded of it. When the realists are slogging away at that coalface of transition, the optimists can remind them to take a break for their own good, and remind them why they’re bothering. They can see the purity in a constructive idea and hold to it, and be untainted by the dangers of personal pain. There’s a role for everyone moving forward. Let’s not wait for the next crisis, or election
As slowly as they build the houses and new developments, poor planning means they are knocking them down for more roads…
South Auckland’s $1.4b Mill Rd highway: Residents mixed on impact to homes
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/south-aucklands-14b-mill-rd-highway-residents-mixed-on-impact-to-homes/VSEWHRF7ZOXBVWZNC6YHCTEVUA/
“From what he knew, Catchpole said, the highway would have a big impact for homeowners in Papakura east, and was likely to affect a new subdivision at Twin Parks, where about 150 homes were completed in 2016, and a nearby early childhood centre.”
Good day to bury bad news.
Government dumps damning health report on last day of the year
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300188106/government-dumps-damning-health-report-on-last-day-of-the-year
What we already know, NZ is beating Covid via luck. We were lucky that other governments ensured that airlines were grounded and Covid could not get to NZ due to our Island location and people living in NZ worked together, rather than an excellent co-ordinated government led by the health ministry, response!
Hail to the doctors in NZ, but maybe let down by their own ministry.
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