A380

I am often caught reflecting on the huge differences between the two places I have lived in over the past twenty five years, Singapore and The Peoples Republic of Aoteoroa. Populations much the same, Singapore with a land area that could easily be swallowed up by Lake Taupo and not much else the same. Food in Singapore is the best in the world, food here very patchy unless you want to spend an arm and a leg or go to a restaurant run by South East Asians.



National approach to life? You couldn't ask for a greater difference. The Singapore pragmatic, business orientated way of running the country like a corporation and the good of the whole outweighs the rights of the individual. NZ the complete opposite. Ideology to the fore with individual bloody 'rights' paramount over everything. Theoretical ideals hold sway over the practical business of running a viable small country in the real world. Equality and respect are the sacred cows that cannot be touched. The vocal minority hold sway over the silent majority. The answer to any hard question that crops up here is to have a an enquiry involving all stakeholders. This goes on for an undefined period of time (the default unit of measurement is blocks of nine months) and it is hoped that when the report is delivered (this can be delivered in a flax basket to make it more acceptable to more stakeholders) the problem has gone away. If it has not then a second phase enquiry is ordered and we start all over again.



I lived in Singapore when in 1983 it was announced that the MRT (Mass Rapid Transit - underground railway) was to be built. The first passenger was carried in 1987. By contrast Auckland's transport woes are addressed with time lines measured in decades. The four years to build the first bit of the MRT would be taken up with arranging the RMA hearings - not having them but arranging them. We need a second harbour crossing and there might be one in twenty years time. We are destined to be left behind in the real world as this strupid approach pervades everything we do. We need a benign (or not) dictator of my choosing to run this country.

Where does the A380 fit into all this? The first one to fly commercially landed in Sydney yesterday in, surprise surprise, the Singapore Airlines livery. New Zealand is current thinking about extending the runway at Auckland so it might land here at some time in the future.

Hopeless.

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