I was pondering as to the degree of behavioural elasticity people have demonstrated throughout COVID-19 changes in New Zealand. People are frequently elastic in the sense that you push them hard in one direction and their behaviour shifts, until they are released, then they bounce back to their original state. Elasticity seems like a desirableContinue reading “Elastic people?”
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Politics & people
It goes without saying that politics is fraught with people; my thinking on this has been driven by yesterday’s political fiasco around the disclosure of names of COVID-19 sufferers. Politics is no simple matter, just for a start there are many definitions of the word. They include “who gets what, when and how” (Lasswell), “theContinue reading “Politics & people”
Fool’s Paradise?
COVID news of this week was that three eminent New Zealanders think we should reopen the border and abandon our elimination strategy. Reactions, and reactions to the reactions, rebounded around the air and social media waves. However, what was reported wasn’t necessarily in the actual conversation piece provided by the previous Chief Science Advisor PeterContinue reading “Fool’s Paradise?”
Letters from Paradise
20 June 2022 Dearest Lou Here I am finally, in New Zealand, very relieved to be here. As you know, we got our first choice quarantine hotel, Millbrook Resort, and the location is truly stunning. There are mountains in every direction you look and we have a view out onto the golf course nearby. IContinue reading “Letters from Paradise”
Reactivity
Everyday events are highlighting my post lockdown levels of reactivity. Perhaps an earthquake doesn’t quite count as an every day event (though in Canterbury it certainly was an every day event for some number of years), but a slight shuddering type earthquake is hardly cataclysmic. My nervous system did not agree with the former statement,Continue reading “Reactivity”
Live for today, plan for tomorrow
There are many ways COVID-19 has affected the trajectories of people’s lives. One way is that a whole lot of people have got a first, or a a second pet. There is nothing like a civil emergency to make people want cute, fluffy animals. I am not alone in surmising that there will be aContinue reading “Live for today, plan for tomorrow”
Conspiracies in the corners
My brain took a loose turn this week when considering the New Zealand quarantine issues… There’s an election in New Zealand in September. The current Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, has a large fan club. However, that popularity won’t form a complete protection against campaign challenges. Her second tier parliamentarians are weak and the government isContinue reading “Conspiracies in the corners”
Limits to compassion
I, like many other New Zealanders, was pretty unhappy to hear yesterday about two new cases of COVID-19 in the country. It is expected that we will import cases as Kiwis return home, and people are granted special exemptions to come into the country. But it certainly isn’t expected that those people will get toContinue reading “Limits to compassion”
Saving & fighting
We are subject to a constant barrage of war analogies, particularly in the face of the current COVID-19 pandemic, and ongoing in relation to climate change. We must ‘fight the pandemic’ and ‘fight climate change’. Associated sentiments are that we must ‘save the economy’ and ‘save the planet’. Language is powerful and sways our thoughts,Continue reading “Saving & fighting”
Scales of loss
I lost an earring yesterday. I would hazard a guess that any male reading this statement is completely puzzled as to why I have bothered to write it. More women might understand the degree of annoyance that ensues from losing a favourite earring. I pondered why I can feel so annoyed at such a minorContinue reading “Scales of loss”