I usually go for a good ride to a different cafe in another place these days. My old cafe has decided to exclude unvaccinated people, and I wont support them because of their discrimination.
The new place is closer, and it’s a quieter ride there with less traffic. The cafe sits in a bush setting, so it’s a lot nicer than the old one, which was in a town.
Unfortunately, it’s not always open, and I’ve ridden there a few times to find it closed.
Luckily, I’ve been carrying a drink bottle around with me recently.
It is nice thou, to just relax in the shade, stare at the sky, and chill out…
Northland is home. As a former police officer, detective and small business owner, I understand the local issues. I had the privilege of serving as the MP for Northland from 2017-20, which allowed me to connect with people from all walks of life across the length and breadth of the electorate. While I am not a sitting MP this term, I am still deeply committed to our region and our people. In addition to the various roles I have held, I have been a farmer for more than three decades. I am an independent thinker, and I believe in having a strong voice to advocate for the issues that matter.
As 2021 draws to a close, we can reflect on what has been, and what could be in 2022 and beyond.
Since 2020, we have had five lockdowns in our commercial capital, thousands of businesses that have had to shut their doors across the country, hundreds of people who have missed important events with their loved ones due to COVID restrictions, one million Kiwis still overseas and wanting to come home, and a Government who holds the ultimate power – to the point that democracy has steadily been eroded. And all of this has happened with so few people noticing – or asking questions about how, why or for how long. Fear is a great way to control. If the pandemic ends, the control ends.
We have had front-row seats as the drama and chaos of COVID has unfolded. It has been nearly two years of confusion, frustration, heartache and despair for many, as we have seen so many professions lose competent and highly valued staff in areas already experiencing skills shortages, due to undemocratic and draconian measures.
This is far more complex than whether or not you wear your seatbelt every time you get in the car. What happened to personal responsibility and critical thinking – why are we not asking what the actual issue is and whether the mandates being enforced actually solve the problem? We should be able to look at scientific literature and data with a critical eye. The silence from the medical community in many countries – including New Zealand, has been deafening. There is a duty of care and an oath that is taken when entering the medical profession. Valid concerns are not to be labelled or silenced – they should be treated with respect, care and assessed with transparency and genuine concern.
If we follow the science, then let us ask why. Is the psychological and economic impact we will see really worth these harsh measures?
What has been most alarming, is the unquestioning compliance from so many as increasingly draconian, non-evidence-based and destructive virus control measures have been implemented.
When you have children unable to play sport or continue their team-based activities, is that really the isolation and division we want to teach our next generation as being accepted and normal? For something so apparently unchallengeable, it seems to shift and change uncomfortably from week-to-week, and for those of us looking beneath the surface to the plain data, we see the unchanging truth – COVID-19, as it turns out, has a much lower infection fatality rate than early predictions. It is less deadly than the seasonal flu in children.
So, as we look to 2022 and start thinking about new year’s resolutions, let’s consider this – let’s resolve to put the chaos and disruption of 2021 behind us. Let’s reconnect, reintegrate, and regain the ability to critically think and critically debate. Let’s scratch beneath the surface and always ask “why?”. Some of us will always stand up for what we believe is right, despite push-back and attempts to discredit, because we need to be the voice for those who are not being heard. This is our time in history, and we have to choose which side of history we want to be on. If we follow the science, it’s easy to resolve that the time has now come to put the pandemic behind us – put the fear behind us, and let’s move on. Here’s to a great 2022.
It’s a bit of an odd Xmas here in NZ, a lot of families are in conflict over that vaccine thing, and churches are even turning away unvaxxed members of their flock.
I could see all this conflict and uncertainty coming from a long way off, so I elected to work thru Xmas and just have the stat holidays off. This meant not catching up with my brother, and one of the last surviving Aunt’s as I originally intended to.
For Xmas day, we met up with a family, thats also been isolated by all this vaccine conflict at a local beach. It was sort of like a blind date as we had never met these people before, but their kids were the same ages as ours, so we had some stuff in common. It turned out to be really neat, as we had several kayaks and a surfboard between us, which for made for a very relaxed day.
The next day, the kids never got up until very late, then made a beeline for the playstation 4 that we had brought them for Xmas.
It was much later in the day, that I managed to get my oldest daughter back onto a motorcycle.
We ended up buying a bike for her to use, because it’s now too hard to hire one, like we used to, before all this covid stuff.
It’s been a year since she’s ridden a bike and she was a bit nervous at first, but after an hour she was quite confident again.
Santa brought me a skateboard… Some might ask, what is a 55 year old doing with a skateboard?
The answer is I’m just having fun, and I don’t know how to act my age, because I’ve never been this age before!
It’s been eerily quiet in New Zealand on the covid/political front.
As of last week, the double vaccinated people can visit cafe’s and libraries, etc, as long as they have a current vaccine passport Travel is now allowed out of Auckland for the next month. You need a current vaccine passpport, or if you are unvaccinated, a recent negative test for covid.
It doesn’t take much to work out thou, that the vaccinated are going to spread covid right throughout the country over Xmas, which will lead to an anti Auckland attitude. (vaccinated people can still transmit covid)
Meanwhile, there is currently a lot of confusion and weird stuff going on.
-Xmas parades are only open for families that are fully vaccinated and have the proper paperwork (vaccine passport), including the kids -Churches have been excluding unvaccinated members from church services. -Bussinesses and shops can’t work out the new rules, so they just over comply to any rules/ laws to stay out of trouble.
Throughout all this, I’ve been a member of a support group for unvaccinated people for the last few month’s.
In the last few weeks, I have met workers that have been laid off for not getting vaccinated, and others that have been excommunicated by their families and friends for even simply asking questions about the vaccine. Teenage girls in particular are struggling with the hatred out there.
There is a coming storm early next year thou…
-The borders around Auckland are only open until mid January
-The current narrative about the voluntary third jab will change and it will become ‘mandatory’ in order to keep that passport valid.
Parents were told to get double vaccinated, and that would be the end of it. A lot of adults then complied just to keep their jobs. They will think twice about a third one.
-They are going to put pressure on kids to get vaccinated, especially before school starts in February.
This could become a whole battle front all on it’s own. Parents are willing to get the jab for the sake of providing for their families, but are they willing to get their kids vaccinated for no good reason?. The Government has already signaled that unvaccinated children can’t compete in any event, like sports, music, etc, and organisations like Girl Guides are already intending to exclude unvaccinated children from events. This is all part of the overall coercion thats been applied to ‘do the right thing’
-Covid will be spread all over the country.
The rest of the country isn’t going to be impressed when lockdowns and restrictions are applied to them, due to the Auckland holiday makers been allowed to travel over the Xmas break.
2022 is going to be interesting. I’m not sure what I will be doing next year because of all this uncertainty. It’s possible I’ll be a stay at home Dad again, and will be home schooling the kids as I don’t want them to be treated as second class students at school.
I’m still working at the moment, but that can change at a moments notice. (it only takes a positive case at work and we are shut down for at least a week.)
Uncoffined 
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