I don’t think we appreciate yet how damaged we’ve all been because of the unique universal experience of the Covid lockdown.
It has distorted us, twisted us, damaged us all in very idiosyncratic ways. It has exposed not only the material impacts of poverty and inequality, it has also exposed the brittleness of our collective social contract from those already on the fringes of our society.
We need an urgent injection of money into welfare infrastructure or risk allowing the isolation to rot our shared concept of reality to a point that makes our country ungovernable.
Here are 4 silver bullets.
Refund night schools – One of the worst things Key did when he entered Office was destroy Helen Clark’s night school budgets. Sure that Italian Cooking class wasn’t generating Chefs, but the free night school classes allowed lonely disconnected people to have a social life. It allowed Schools to be used as community hubs and if well designed could become social health hubs and distribution points for community health outreach. We urgently need our people to have places where they can mix and mingle and engage because isolation sends them down fucking rabbit holes.
Free school breakfasts and lunches – Our truancy rate is going to cause a tumour of social cancer that will stunt this nations development. Feed all the kids in every school free Breakfasts and Lunches so that young peoples first experience of the State is kindness and not shit. Nothing will attract students from vulnerable communities like knowledge of Breakfast and Lunch. This policy would do more to put money back into the pockets of the poorest than any other single policy and lift educational achievements. Hungry kids don’t learn!
4 year terms – Government is hopelessly compromised by the shortness of our electoral terms, give them an extra year to get the structural stuff done.
Tax Facebook/Google – Use the people causing the disinformation to pay for the journalism to correct them! State funded journalism has the reek of bias, a journalism fund funded by ring fenced tax from the media industry is a solution to counter the mad extremism being grown by social media hate algorithms. Treasury doesn’t want to ring fence the tax, Grant should step in and tell them otherwise.
Refund the social infrastructure of night schools to give communities spaces to interact with one another. Bring free nutritious food into every school to bring back truant students and keep the ones schools already have well fed. Give Government longer to fix the deep problems we have and tax the disinformation corporations to fund the journalism that brings people out from the rabbit holes.
If we don’t actively plan and fund ways to heal, the only options are a vast expansion of the surveillance state and criminalisation of free speech.
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icannot argue with any of the points made. We would be a better country if this ideas were implemented .We have to get the children back to school Smaller classes would help to sort out those that need assistance.
icannot argue with any of the points made. We would be a better country if this ideas were implemented .We have to get the children back to school Smaller classes would help to sort out those that need assistance.
Agree regarding school lunches. You have circumstances where one school 200m down the road has ‘free lunch s’ going to waste…and another school on the same street has no tuck shop. Any parent knows it is hard to provide a fresh cooked lunch. Most of it kids pick at
My work colleague a retired 76 year said, we don’t have the resilience our older generation had cause they went through 2 world wars, a depression and various outbreaks of diseases. Some NZers are worn out and sick and tired of wearing masks. It has not been easy this Covid epidemic nor has it brought the best out in many. And to make matters worse we now have environmental issues with excessive rain causing river and streams to burst their banks and houses at risk of falling down hills with excessive flooding. All I can say is there is always someone or others worse of so losing a house is not as bad as losing a life.
Saw the get back to school add tonight. It was played during the 5.30pm news on Prime, so not sure who they are targetting. Don’t imagine it will work. Breakfast and lunch at school sounds good.
Why would any sane person want to give the likes of Roger Douglas, Luxon, Collins, or Seymour four years to do damage without the brake, of an election.
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