By Melanie Taylor
People are dying. The emergency services are stretched to their limits and beyond, and remain in a major state of distress. You only have to read the information on the Professional Firefighters Union NZ website to see the crisis they are facing.
The hospitals and medical centres throughout the country are not coping, due to understaffing. A lot of which can be attributed to the mandates. Rural medical centres are at crisis point. They simply do not have the staff or resources to meet the demand.
Criminal activities have been all over the news for some time now. More and more victims are being created daily, not to mention the long term effects of trauma those victims will have to deal with, due to the escalation of crime.
Mental illness continues to become more prevalent. Mental Health services are stretched beyond their limits, with many referrals from doctors now being declined.
The cost of living is getting out of control, putting undue pressure on families and relationships which becomes a destructive cycle. Good people cannot find housing while many motels nationwide are being filled with homeless people, where addictions and negative behaviours are enabled by this current government.
In my opinion, New Zealand is in a state of emergency.
Government has its head in the sand and cannot seem to action any of those famous ‘kindness quotes’ that our Jacinda Ardern has spouted over the years:
It takes courage and strength to be empathetic, and I’m very proudly an empathetic and compassionate leader. I am trying to chart a different path, and that will attract criticism but I can only be true to myself and the form of leadership I believe in.”
Jacinda. Tell that to those people who have lost their jobs to your mandates. To those who deserved the freedom to choose and would love to return to their job as a nurse/doctor/health. To return and help lessen the risk of death relating to staff shortages in the health sector. Tell that to the families who have lost beloved ones due to not having the urgent medical care they desperately needed and deserved.
Tell that to the firefighters, exhausted, overworked and screaming out for help.
Tell that to the people struggling with anxiety, depression, suicidality, who cannot get the help they need due to the broken mental health system.
Another Jacinda ‘kindness quote’, this one on Covid:
The worst-case scenario is simply intolerable. It would represent the greatest loss of New Zealander’s lives in our country’s history. I will not take that chance. The government will do all it can to protect you. None of us can do this alone.” – at the UN General Assembly
And later:
What if we no longer see ourselves based on what we look like, what religion we practice, or where we live, but by what we value? Humanity. Kindness. An innate sense of our connection to each other.”
Behind the smiles, in a video interview, the reporter stated “You’ve basically said, and you probably don’t see it like this, but two different classes of people if you’re vaccinated or unvaccinated. If you’re vaccinated you have all these rights” to which Ms Ardern responded while nodding,
That is what it is, so yep, yep.”
There are mainstream media outlets worldwide who have created ‘lists of our Prime Minister’s quotes, labelling those quotes as everything from ‘inspirational’, to ‘what a good leader looks like’, to ‘feminist quotes by Jacinda Ardern that will empower you.’
I beg to differ. In fact, I would go so far as to say that the lists of famous quotes by Ms Ardern have proven to be hollow and meaningless to many New Zealanders who are struggling with exactly what New Zealand has become.
We are not ‘one’. We do not get treated like ‘one’, and in fact, I would say that the complete opposite is true. You only have to look at all the court cases against government / judicial reviews being sought by multiple groups.
So, what’s the solution?
Look carefully at political parties and their policies, and make sure to cast an informed vote in the next election. Pray for our leaders and government. Write/email/phone your local MP and let them know what is going on for you, and what you believe they need to do to action change. Encourage others to do the same. We all have a voice, so let’s keep having our say wherever possible.
Think and speak up before those become illegal.
