What's Not To Like?
Olympic success, Ogre layers, Air NZ leads the world, and Mission Accomplished.
Heavy is the heart that wants to be a famous face
Sucking all the air out of the room
Fragile is the ego of the man that needs to win
'Cause he doesn't know how to lose
You think they're in the palm of your hand
But they're really under your skin
Just when I think that I understand
Then I find I don't know a thing
Good morning all, a few different topics to cover this morning. Some of which are less positive than others, but we’ll begin with something good.
Olympic medals
I haven’t seen a great deal of the games but enough to know that we’ve had some excellent performances, including two medals won to date.
That first one was pretty special eh? The Women’s Rugby Sevens, not just for their athletic prowess but for their positivity and charm. On the off chance that you missed it this clip shows the medal ceremony, the anthem, and the haka.
This topic isn’t really political but of course the PM was quick to congratulate the champions tweeting “A team full of the game’s greats. Well done to the New Zealand Women’s Sevens side - you did your country proud!”
Nothing much wrong with that tweet, but watching interviews with the players, that haka, and when they referred to our country as Aotearoa and used other words in te Reo I couldn’t help thinking - yeah nah, these aren’t your people.
These people represent our future, not the return to a more racist society that Luxon is doing more than perhaps any other Prime Minister of this country has, to achieve. Although in fairness at least one minister has been getting into the spirit of the games:
Then overnight Hayden Wilde competed in the triathlon in some pretty challenging conditions. His event having been moved a day later, and to a hotter part of the day, hardly the ideal preparation to peak at the right moment. As you’ve likely seen Hayden lead the race into the last kilometre, only to be run down at the end by his great rival, Alex Yee of the UK.
As reported in the Guardian:
Just before the start, Yee and Wilde shook hands and shared a quiet word. They used to be roommates when they were rookies on the World Series circuit and had little money between them. It was a classy moment, especially given they were about to slug it out for the biggest prize in their sport.
This is the image being shown on the other side of the world, a symbol of friendship and sportsmanship after a tough contest. As much to be proud of there as any medal.
“We got a battle that we both deserved,” Wilde said. “It was just everything that we had dreamed of. We might be rivals but we’re really good friends. It’s the Olympic spirit, I guess.”
Well done to both our Women’s Rugby Sevens team and to Hayden Wilde, you’ve done yourselves and us proud. Incredible role models for young Kiwis.
Ogres have layers
Right, so back to the other guy, and please don’t think this is just some cheap attempt to mock the Prime Minister because he looks a bit like Shrek - would I do that?
National have been complaining about the number of layers in the Health Service, as they prepare to take a scalpel to the sector, to trim those extra, unnecessary, back office bureaucrats.
The end goal presumably being to degrade the delivery of critical services, starving the health sector of the resources it needs, until Kiwis are happy to see the “For Sale” signs go up as they’re told the only way to save the system is to privatise it.
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