{"id":135581,"date":"2021-08-14T17:41:48","date_gmt":"2021-08-14T17:41:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/?p=135581"},"modified":"2021-08-14T17:41:48","modified_gmt":"2021-08-14T17:41:48","slug":"liam-dann-the-worst-thing-about-the-covid-era-in-nz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/world-news\/liam-dann-the-worst-thing-about-the-covid-era-in-nz\/","title":{"rendered":"Liam Dann: The worst thing about the Covid-era in NZ"},"content":{"rendered":"
OPINION:<\/strong><\/p>\n Who knew the worst thing about a pandemic would turn out to be the insufferable complaining of people unable to accept that there can be no certainty in a pandemic.<\/p>\n Initially I thought the<\/span> worst part of this thing would be widespread illness and death as Covid-19 overwhelmed our health system and swept through New Zealand.<\/span><\/p>\n But that didn’t happen here.<\/p>\n Then, after the borders were secured, my fears turned to the collapse of the domestic economy.<\/p>\n I thought the worst thing about the pandemic might be high unemployment and widespread business failure.<\/p>\n But then that didn’t happen.<\/p>\n It turns out the domestic economy was a lot stronger than we thought it was – even if we allow for the ultra-low interest rates and billions of government spending.<\/p>\n So here we are living in an open and thriving economy -with sports events, theatre, music and all the rest.<\/p>\n GDP and unemployment have returned to pre-Covid levels.<\/p>\n I don’t mean to be glib about it all.<\/p>\n Of course there are people struggling in this country. There are plenty of areas where government performance isn’t good enough.<\/p>\n But the issues that need attention aren’t getting much.<\/p>\n They are being drowned out by the Covid complainers – whingers stuck in a feedback loop of false expectation about plans and timing that simply can’t be realistically met.<\/p>\n So, sorry for the rant, but honestly the worst thing about living in New Zealand right now is the relentless negativity.<\/p>\n Last week the Prime Minister outlined plans for reopening New Zealand’s borders.<\/p>\n It was all solid stuff from a political point of view, although it struck me as mostly a case of stating the obvious.<\/p>\n We will vaccinate as fully a we can. Then we’ll start to loosen border restrictions and open up in a safe and measured way.<\/p>\n Any detail on how we open up remains highly dependent on what happens with the virus in the rest of the world.<\/p>\n As all great generals know: no plan survives first contact with enemy.<\/p>\n Now more than ever we need policymakers to be flexible and adjust rapidly to cope with sudden changes in circumstances.<\/p>\n We need to a culture that encourages this and enables leaders to back-down or u-turn as and when events require.<\/p>\n I’m deeply suspicious of anyone who claims any great degree of certainty about what needs to be done.<\/p>\n They are almost always pushing a political agenda.<\/p>\n Those blaming Jacinda Ardern andthe Labour Party for the big challenges facing New Zealand give them far too much credit.<\/p>\n You can find almost every issue we face being debated furiously in the pages of the New York Times or the Financial Times.<\/p>\n There’s Inflation, houses prices, angry anti-vaxxers, people who think that Covid restrictions are some kind of a front to their a personal freedom, people who don’t like new initiatives to address climate change. None of it is unique to us.<\/p>\n The only significant difference is we’re not counting Covid deaths.<\/p>\n Clearly there is considerable anger in a segment of the population that feels overwhelmed by the rapid pace of social and economic change.<\/p>\n I’d like to be able to reassure those people. But, I’m sorry, the pace of change is not going to slow. It is going to accelerate.<\/p>\n That will happen regardless of which political party is running this tiny Pacific nation.<\/p>\n I’ve never seen anything like this in my lifetime.<\/p>\n But then, the world is racing headlong into the middle-decades of the 21st century.<\/p>\n What did we expect?<\/p>\n Those of us who have lived most of our lives in the 20th century are going to have to change too – or accept that it is not our world anymore.<\/p>\n I missed the social revolution of the 1960s but, from what I gather, the youth of that era wasn’t particularly forgiving of an older generation that tried to hold on to the old order.<\/p>\n So how should we cope with all this mind-melting uncertainty?<\/p>\n We should, I think, breath deeply and try to focus more on what is happening in our daily lives.<\/p>\n For most of us the real world of face-to-face daily interaction remains relatively sane and constant.<\/p>\n We need to pay more attention to that and less to the aggressive, hyper-real online world.<\/p>\n We need to hone our own response to the most relevant issues we face, those that really intersect with our lives.<\/p>\n Sadly, I think the absence of strong party political opposition has created a vacuum for much of the angry and fringe commentary clogging up our collective pashas.<\/p>\n To put it in rugby terms, the National Party gives the appearance of a rattled team, down by a wide margin and throwing the ball around, trying to run it out from their own goal line.<\/p>\n But we’re still only in the first half of this electoral cycle.<\/p>\n This is when great captains calm the team, remind them there is time to do the hard yards, tell them to keep it tight and set a platform.<\/p>\n It is, to be fair, a very tough ask. Not just for opposition politicians but for all of us.<\/p>\n The pandemic is unfair, it is infuriating and it is seemingly never ending.<\/p>\n But it will pass. And we have, at the very least,a choice to make about how live through it.<\/p>\n