thoughts

As you may or may not know (though probably don't know because I kept it relatively to myself), I got COVID during March. I am (mostly) recovered after testing positive just over 2 weeks ago, and let me tell you, it was not an enjoyable experience. I want to talk today about COVID in our lives, getting COVID, and its impacts on New Zealand right now. Let's go back to the beginning of the pandemic, COVID was pretty scary as a concept, and especially last year I struggled a lot with the fear of what COVID would do to me. Especially as for the majority of 2020-2021 in New Zealand, COVID was a foreign concept that we did not have to deal with in our lives. We had no cases in the community, no fear of transmission, it was this big scary virus that existed in other countries where it maimed and murdered almost what seemed indiscriminately. There was a lot of caution on the part of our government to ensure that we could keep this COVID free life, which was, looking back on, something ...

Don’t get me wrong, I love my friends and family and the memories of Auckland, but our infrastructure is slowly sucking my will to live. Now I know, you’ve heard this sentiment one thousand times over this year. It’s an election year; everything that is wrong gets dredged up, and we’re all reminded of how much everything is an issue. But it’s so goddamn frustrating how there has been a lack of any meaningful change in how the city is planned. The way that regional and central government wants to deal with Auckland’s housing and transport issues is laughable. Lack of housing? Build settlements in Kumeu and Pokeno! Because that won’t further burden the snail race of the southern motorway. Need better train systems? Build a loop around the CBD, that will shut them up! There are so many things that I think Auckland needs to prevent it from seriously imploding within the next decade. We need to accept that we must build up and increase our housing density (sorry central Aucklanders...

This has been brewing in my mind for some time now, and what better time to share than Waitangi weekend. I am shocked, like so many others, at the recent (and past, let's not forget his behaviour on the campaign trail and even before) actions of the US president. Every morning I wake up and read the news, and for the past week I keep thinking to myself as the BBC news loads 'what does Donald Trump have in store for me today?' I am absolutely disgusted by his rhetoric, the idea of "alternative facts", the absolutely abhorrent refugee and migrant executive order. But then I think, 'well I'm in New Zealand. My life goes on.' And sure, that's true for me in my own little bubble. But then it also is completely false, because like it or not, what the US does has severe implications for the rest of the world. The mere event of his election gives credence to those in New Zealand who hold similar beliefs, an affirmation that the most powerful country in...