Happy New Year 2022

Happy New Year 2022 and welcome to the first post of my substack.

During the 2021 lockdown I posted each day on Facebook my thoughts on Covid, how it was affecting my family, the events of the day, etc. I enjoyed writing those posts and based on the feedback it seemed quite a few people enjoyed reading them. So I figured in 2022 I’d do some more of that, hopefully no lockdown required.

Some commented that my posts were where they got the news of what was going on without the need to sit through press conferences, trawl through the media, etc. My take on the events of the day a, hopefully, easy to consume summary providing your basic needs - which made me think of the title The Daily Bread.

Hmm that title might suggest it is a Christian newsletter, I have no issue with those who are religious but I’m not and it doesn’t describe the contents well with that connotation – so flag that.

Perhaps something that makes clear my political views – the Daily Red? That suggests I’m a socialist, which I am, and although I might hope to convert you I don’t want to alienate those who are not – so yeah maybe not.

The Daily Read seemed to fit, it’s about things I’ve read, or thought or seen or felt, but mostly read. Some might read it differently as The Daily Read (rhymes with feed not fed), and that is good too – get your Daily Read.

Anyway the first post is about 2021, wonderful as it was, and really there is no where else to start than with Covid…

This time a year ago Aotearoa awoke bleary eyed but with a feeling that we were doing well, enjoying far more freedoms than most other countries, 2021 would mean vaccinations and perhaps after the team had done so well in 2020 the worst was behind us. Meanwhile 2021 said – hold my beer.

The Delta variant emerged causing a new wave of deaths around the world even as vaccination rates rose. It was picked up at the border here where it remained contained effectively for months before finally, inevitably, entering the community.

We all knew what that meant, hello lockdown my old friend, we eliminated it last time – we’ll do it again. Except this time the numbers didn’t really look like going back to zero and there came a point where the government had to be realistic that the strategy had to shift to containment in Tamaki Makaurau and elimination through the rest of the country at least until we reached high levels of vaccination. And they achieved that bloody well.

Lockdown in 2021 felt very different than it did in 2020. The novelty had gone, it wasn’t all sour dough baking and teddy bears in the windows this time. But we had also learned to live with it, many more businesses were delivering, people were used to working from home. While there was a sense in 2020 that we were all in it together in 2021 a new phenomenon emerged – the whinger.

The media, and the opposition, delighted in the whinger. It may have been that the vast majority were happy with government decisions, alert levels, border controls – but you wouldn’t know it because the voice of a single person complaining was given more prominence than those of the majority.

Those who wanted MIQ gone, business returned to normal, people who didn’t want to support health measures and get vaccinated, people who just wanted to buy a sausage roll, there were plenty of people who had a complaint. Some of which, particularly those from kiwis stuck overseas, may have been quite valid. But as the majority of us just got on with it in the interests of the country we grew to despise the whinger’s complaining and the prominence given to it by the media.

Speaking of which, another less than stellar year for the media. Many people watched the daily press conference, we saw what the government said, we heard the banal repetitive questions the media asked.

We saw Barry’s meltdown at being asked to wait his turn, Tova’s absurd accusations and resignation demands, Jason’s idiotic questions, and we rolled our eyes along with the Prime Minister. Then we saw the headlines on the news site or on the 6pm news, which bore little resemblance to what had actually occurred and we thought – what else are you spinning?

But it wasn’t all bad, there were two absolute highlights for me in the media this year.  David Slack’s substack “More than a Feilding” was always a good read; the posts on Kia Kaha primary school were absolute gold, genius level satire.

Gerrard Otto’s posts pointing out the absurdity and truthfulness, or lack thereof, in the media or from politicians was humorous and absolutely relentless. His post about the kind of man his father was found me sitting in my car with tears rolling down my cheeks such was the love and genuineness in those words.

So where are we as 2022 begins? As we all know compared to other countries we have very low case numbers, low hospitalization numbers, and a very low death rate. We also have high vaccination rates and enjoy most freedoms. All of which is deemed to be inadequate by large sections of the media and by the opposition - you gotta wonder what would be acceptable!

Tomorrow in The Daily Read a review of things political, and some predictions for the year ahead.

Take care all of you lovely people on this beautiful New Years day – use the sunscreen!