A familiar metallic taste at the back of the throat, a deep and thorough swizzling of the nostrils - don’t forget to itch the brain. Two lines right away, no waiting a minute or two before it shows up, no peering - it that a line? No it’s a clear bold line saying you’ve got Covid again - bugger.
I went to the chemist the other day to get some tests, the chap behind the mask said they were flying off the shelf. I had a negative test Wednesday, but I’m definitely one of the current wave of cases.
I did that test yesterday lunchtime. I’d been reading about Christopher Luxon’s latest brain farts criticising School Principals and advocating Boot Camps for troubled kids.
Hmm the symptoms seemed to be worsening - I’d lost my appetite all of a sudden for reading about the Crime and Punishment fantasies he had to keep NZ First and ACT from siphoning off the more vindictive, less sympathetic, among his voter base.
“The schools are failing , it’s the parents, it’s the headmasters - we need more pressure on them, we need truancy officers. Schools have had it easy for too long they need to pull their socks up”, a blue ballon with a face painted on opined imagining he was Elon Musk and he’d just taken control of the education system. “Let that sink in” he laughed to himself - classic Elon. That’s what we need he thought - entrepreneurs showing these public servants how it’s done.
It was a change in tack for the balloon, normally he was happy just to bounce along as the wind took him, slagging the government off for the performance of the public sector. But he felt now that he needed to drop anchor. It would be much easier to slash budgets if the public thinks the people being funded are useless.
I know quite a few people who work in education, every one of them is passionate, dedicated, and paid less than they should be. After the last couple of years, and all the additional challenges of Covid, they must be exhausted at this point. Imagine then turning on breakfast TV to see the leader of the opposition, possibly the next Prime Minister admonishing you for not doing a good enough job.
Anyone with parents will know the pressure of the last couple of years on students and schools. My youngest boy basically missed Intermediate, which are really the fun years at school I reckon. My younger daughter switched to Te Kura, as her dance schedule wasn’t compatible with regular school hours, it meant her learning was interrupted far less than the others.
My middle boy is the one I really feel for, he missed a lot of his last three years of high school - pretty important years. His education is fine, he is a smart young man with a wicked sense of humour, but I really feel the loss for him of the social interaction. Pretty important those last three years of school growing up, and he won’t get them back again.
I retired to my sick bed and read this outstanding piece from Emily Writes on the issue of school attendance, the myriad causes, and the air we can hear escaping as if through the squeezed end of an over inflated balloon, highly recommend it:
I got into some trouble as a teenager, I’m not going to go into what - the fourth form is a long time ago! Suffice to say no one got hurt - we’re not talking Sam Uffindell type behaviour. As we all know fourth form males are quite possibly the most idiotic creatures on the planet.
Would my life have been better for being taken away to Boot Camp? I’m thinking not. But lets be realistic - middle class family who could afford a lawyer, wasn’t going to be me was it? The kids really going off the rails needed love, and not tough love.
The friendly but firm latex gas-bag was on the News with his Young Offender - Middle-class Outrage, Military Academy, or YO MOMA. Do you think he has to repress an erection when he talks “tough love” to the nation?
Sorry that is juvenile, although I imagine it aroused plenty of the voters the message was aimed at, as intended. Mr Seymour noticeably had his hands clasped in front of him as he grinned moronically during the bulletin at the fact National have yet again stolen one of their policies.
Seriously though - Boot Camps? This is the dire stuff they come up with in the South of the US, an industry that exists forever to imprison poor brown people for-profit. Are they really that worried about ACT stealing their right-wing rump? At least Seymour knows to grin gimp like to camera - what does it matter? A vote for National, a vote for ACT - it’s all the same outcome in the end.
A final soundbite escaped from the blackhole of the balloon’s spent remains recycling the old Brian Tamaki blackshirt slogan for the audience “Enough is Enough”. The representative from the Greens pondered what would be next for National - bringing back the cane? A bit of electro-shock therapy?
The whole thing is weird, surely the next election is a battle for the centre not the hard right flank? Do the swing voters in the middle really want to see 10 year olds in ankle bracelets?
On the one hand it is easy to get worked up about the policy, but the good news is we all know nothing is going to actually happen. National ran the same policy in both 2008 and 2017. After running it successfully in 2008 they then did nothing about it for nine years - almost as if it was just a soundbite for the news all along.
It’s easy, very easy, to get angry at the awful ideas escaping the empty blown up balloon. Putting the boot into the people working bloody hard to teach our children, or claiming that what a young kid who has gone off the rails needs is Boot Camp.
Mostly it makes me really sad, the sheer mediocrity and meanness of his vision for Aotearoa. That people would find it appealing is a pretty grim thought.
Thanks for all the kind wishes about Covid. The first time I had it was only really miserable for three days, hopefully it’s not worse this time.
The Daily Read might be a tad quieter in the next few days. Who knows what new, or recycled, ideas the disappointing dirigible will be steered towards by then?
Take care all of you lovely people.
We all know teenagers can be a bit scary, but let’s not lock them up eh.
Hope you feel better soon. So sick of the Natz old old "Laura Norder" policies resurfacing for the election. Always the rich old white guys wanting to put poor young men in prison or boot camp.
Take care Nick. And it's heartening to see so many others appalled at the truly awful stuff that came out of Luxon's mouth yesterday. He needs a month or three in the Black Fern's (boot) camp for an attitudinal shift.