Author: Jane Shearer

Elastic people?

How far do people shift behaviour? Over what period of time? And how much pressure should be applied? This is relevant in COVID times when the government wants people to change their social behaviours, and their hand washing, to reduce transmission of disease.

Politics & people

Is there a ‘right’ political system? Democracy is seen as such but it has its own flaws. Our local democratically elected candidate just fell on his sword because he sent the media a list of people with COVID-19 provided by his party chair person. Few ‘right’ politicians, either.

Fool’s Paradise?

Media reactions were strong this week to a paper from Peter Gluckman, Helen Clark and Rob Fyfe saying we need to consider how and when NZ opens its borders. The media implied they thought this should be soon, which is in no way what they were suggesting, backed up by rising COVID cases worldwide.

Reactivity

When times are stressful, reactions can be out of proportion. A minor earthquake nearly sent me under my desk. And the general public is reactly hotly to the news AJ Hackett bungy has received a $5.1 million government handout.

Conspiracies in the corners

Could the government be dragging its feet on a trans-Tasman bubble because the surest way to lose the upcoming election would be a major COVID outbreak? And it’s dragging its feet by not paying attention to the slack state of quarantine procedures? Next I’ll be seeing communists in the cupboards!

Limits to compassion

Two people who were granted compassionate leave from quarantine after returning to NZ have been found to be infectious with COVID. How compassionate should we be in these circumstances? And how are our vaccines going to get us out of this situation?

Saving & fighting

Do we need to ‘save the economy’ in COVID times? Do we need to ‘save the planet’ in the face of climate change? I hypothesise that what we really want is to ‘save humanity’.