It finally happened; just as most people around New Zealand knew it would, COVID resurfaced.

The news didn’t shock me, didn’t even surprise me; like I assume most would have done, I simply swallowed the urge to yell something obscene and shook my head at our Government’s stupidity.

What did they expect would happen? Adept as one might be at playing with fire, do it long enough, you will end up with burns.

There were always two options that our beloved Jacinda, along with her fine coalition of losers, could have taken and in my opinion, because they chose the wrong option, the alternate option is now also lost.

Option 1: the Labour Government could have announced at, say, beginning of July that, at the beginning of August New Zealand’s borders would be closing; thereby upsetting a handful of citizens, currently overseas, hoping to come back one day but, ultimately, ensuring the Novel Coronavirus stayed abroad and importantly, preserving the health of the nation.

Option 2: the Labour Government could have left open the borders for anybody holding a New Zealand passport and currently abroad, for an indefinite period, basically just for as long as those people wanted to take; thereby bringing unto the nation a steady flow of the COVID-19 virus, which would inevitably, one day, find its way outside the quarantined zone, rekindling community transmission of the pandemic that New Zealand citizens have come to know and love.

As we are all aware, they picked Option 2.

Again, like most, I am confident that our, Coalition of Losers, Labour Government, with cooperation from the people, will be able to bring under control this recent run of infection; so, what then?

Presumably, in around 10 days, New Zealand will again be deemed ‘COVID free’; the people of Auckland will breathe a sigh and resume their lives as normal. So, what’s Labour’s next move?

Obviously, they’ll reopen borders. They’ll bring home more citizens. Bring home some more Coronavirus as if last time wasn’t fun enough.

The Cook Islands, bless their healthy lungs, along with their economy, subsist solely on a diet of tourism.

New Zealand was just days away from unleashing on the Cook Islands a, similarly healthy lunged, bought of tourism.

Now for the Cook Islands’ economy to stay afloat we’re going to have to help them the old-fashioned way; in the form of a Government-funded care package.

That’s to say nothing of our own economy which, struggling to recover after the last COVID-attack but doing very well and making some massive gains, will never be the same.

Hundreds of small businesses in New Zealand, following this recent viral relapse, will have found these additional two weeks of suffering insufferable.

 

 

Article by Tim Walker

Edited by Vera L Kim-Bach

Photography by Auckland Level 3

 

How great it is to see still more ‘New Zealand citizens’ dribbling across the border as their COVID-ravaged adopted-homelands suddenly lose appeal.

Interestingly, all genuine Kiwis, those people currently living in New Zealand who would never consider jeopardising the wellbeing of their countrymen by bringing unto these shores traces of a deadly and incurable epidemic, are now being implored to stock up on face masks, just in case we are hit with another outbreak of the Novel Coronavirus…?

Surely though, months since the last known community transmission of COVID-19, this virus can be considered dead throughout New Zealand’s airways…?

Oh, that’s right, I see; despite basically the entire world having been ordered to remain in one place to avoid further spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, we still have hordes of unfathomable shitheads bringing into the country their potentially diseased lungs.

Indeed, given also that selected unfathomable shitheads might attempt to abscond from their impending quarantine thereby potentially sharing their potentially contaminated selves with the national populous, or the potential of transmission to quarantine workers and potentially their families, I do understand the reaction by New Zealand health officials; what I do not comprehend is the potentially deadly actions of returning citizens.

Amid global crisis, often personal sacrifices will need to be made. This pandemic did not take hold of the world suddenly, our respective Governments gave us plenty of warning to get home if needed. Of course, this posed many problems for potential returnees – months ago, I was one who struggled – yet with assistance from New Zealand’s embassies, months after the official call has been made to get home, there is no excuse for just now deciding to come home.

Your choice to only come home now, months after the warning was delivered, is shitheaded and potentially life-threatening.

 

 

Article by Tim Walker

Edited by Shel Fitch

Photography by Ian Fathom Able