Big pictures of a nasty evil Ford Fairlane next an alternative, a Skoda (for God's sake), exemplifies the looney tunes path this country has been bent on for years. Unfortunately the supercharger has been turned on (or not as the eco-friendly case maybe) in the last forty eight hours and we are careering towards Basket Case Country status at flank speed. We are going to end up with Morris Dancing (the Greens really do this at their conferences) as our national sport as it is much safer than rugby, we will be forced to plant trees at the weekend instead of going gamefishing, Eric Clapton and Pink Floyd will be banned to be replaced with compulsory singing of Cumbaya outside the Collective Tofu Bar. All this would be amusing if some of the cold hard facts that this sort of thinking of the total nutcases running the place has brought upon this country were not examined. There is yet another report from someone international that puts New Zealand firmly on the bottom of all sorts of child welfare statistics. You cannot convince me that this is unrelated to all the crap we have to put up with from the liberal policies of succesive administrations. The principal cause, in my opinion of course, is the official acceptance, even encouragement, of the breakup of the traditional nuclear family. You know the sort of thing, a mother (female) married (not a 'civil union') to a father (male) with children (male and/or female) living in the same house (paid for or in the process of being so) all the time (not alternate weekends if there is an R in the month). It may not be 'the modern way' but it has stood the test of time for centuries.
I was taken out to dinner the other evening. I lived in Singapore for many years and the providers of the free groceries were Singaporean friends. We went to Portofino in the Viaduct Basin and very nice it was as well. Friend tried to book a table - no need, he was told, just front up. Thus, I expected it to be very quiet (it was a Tuesday night). But no it was throbbing. My Singapore friend's eyes lit up - 'Very smart, don't take bookingsand risk turning people away. Be confident of your turnover and be sure you can always fit people in'. This was the first reminder of a pragmatic way of thinking that this country has been trying to rid me of for over a decade. The New Zealand way (read Government way) would be to take bookings so that it was fair and no one lost out. Crap. We then had four hours of chat about old times but more about the future directions of two countries very similar in population but oh so different in attitude and, dare I say it, future prospects. The pragmatic versus the nutty idealist.
Similar populations? Not for long. Singapore has planned that its current 4 million people will be (I chose my words carefully) 6.5 million by, wait for it, 2030. This to be achieved by an agressive migratoin policy. A greater than fifty percent increase in twenty three years. Why? Because 4 mill is not enough to sustain a viable economic model. Where are all these extra people going to live in a country the size of Lake Taupo? High rise flats. They already have an island full of those you might quite reasonably say. Not high rise enough. They have started pulling down loads of the seventeen storey models (some only ten years old) to replace them with the forty storey numbers. No resource consent hearings, no relocating snails, just in with the wrecking balls and pile drivers. What about the people who get their dwelling roused? They get a bag of cash, temporary accommodation and told to shut the f**k up. I love it.
This is not perfect of course. There is agreat deal of discontent about what the government there is up to and the gap between the super rich (and there are plenty of those) and the poor is in fact increasing, but it is worth remembering that there are different ways of approaching a problem. This country cannot ignore the horrible fact that before we can afford to go all gaga over native trees we have to actually get the place runnning as a viable economic concern. Putting getting rid of Ford Fairlanes as a top priority is not doing this to an almost negligent degree. Now I am not saying that a system that works well for one country, and Singapore certainly'works', can or should be imported lock stock and compulsion to another totally different country, but it is tempting isn't it?
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