Author: Jane Shearer

Our stories

Telling stories to each other is a critical part of being human. We need to take the time and make the space to be able to tell our stories and listen to the stories of others.

A cleft stick

We have employed a water diviner. Why? As a household of scientists who think the right way to look at COVID-19 is to assess the data. In the case of the Swedish experiment, the data say a lot more people died as a result of their approach. What the economic outcome will be remains to be seen in the longer term.

Future insights

Cameron Bagrie has come clean and said he doesn’t know what is going to happen to NZ house prices. However, people don’t like, “I don’t know.” They want certainty from their fortune tellers.

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.