(19-02-2022, 02:02 PM)C_T_Russell Wrote: If you want to make the protesters go away, just listen to them!
FFS, all they need to to is listen, even if the govt doesnt agree, just listen to their concerns and acknowledge them.
At least David Seymour talked to them like a civilised person.
Should be noted that there are several groups there with different agendas, but putting any crackpot beliefs aside, most of them are sharing the same anti-mandate views and thats something that should be worked on as a common interest.
Even Heather Du Plessis Allan agrees, the same person not long ago giving the unvaxxed a hard time for not taking the jab.
Pro-choice is the key here.
If there were no mandates, perhaps these people would still have a job and be at work rather than protesting outside parliament!
https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/heat...VASMXcGht4
I think the biggest problem is the word "mandate". I think all along we have had undue negativity from the words that came into our everyday language:
Lockdown. The country (and most of the western world) had to shut down. It was essential and understood by most people. But the word used was "lockdown" which had negative connotations. We were never "locked" down. We always had the right to go to the supermarket, to walk around block. To day "Hi" to the neighbour over the fence. But for the glass half empty people, the word "lockdown" was always there and made some people feel it was true.
Social distancing. It was personal distancing. We were able to stay reasonably social by email, phone or a 2m distant chat while out walking. We just had to maintain personal distance while doing so. And again, the widely used term of social distancing made some people feel isolated, whilst also allowing them to forget that when walking on the street they had to give others a wide berth. It was scary when I had to walk from my car to work and people on the footpath, eg walking their dog, totally failed to give an inch of space.
Now we have "mandates". An interesting word that. Being used here of course in the sense of a command having been made. But it also means the authority we have give to the government. We voted them in ("we" being the democratic election) and therefore gave them the responsibility to do the best they could for all of the people, including a mandate that allowed them to make the rules that will best keep us safe.
It's hard to find a softer word that has the same meaning as it is a legal directive however you look at it. But looking at these current "mandates" that have so many protestors fired up (not all of them of course, some are just "anti-gummint" no matter what), what is the problem?
- for some it's because it was important to be vaccinated in their jobs for their own safety or their customers', patients', or students' safety. The actual vaccination was voluntary and they made a choice not look after their own or others' safety so lost their jobs.
- for some it is what seems to me to be the sensible action of not congregating in large numbers. A differential was made between places where larger numbers of vaccinated people or smaller numbers including unvaccinated could gather. A good choice for those managing such events/places. There were options and it only affects those that want to go to those places. They usually don't actually need to. Mostly it's hospitality that is suffering and while I feel for people whose businesses are struggling, hospitality has always been a fickle high-risk business anyway. That's evidenced by how often they change hands and/or reinvent themselves trying to be the latest place where the people will go. It is far from essential.
- the requirement to wear masks at places of risk. Common sense. The mandate has to be because of the stupid people who won't (still allowing for the very few who can't). And ditto for the covid app. A useful way to track where you've been if you should find that you need to.
I thouight Heather du Plessis's article was rather naive and unhelpful. She reflected what some people feel. Fine, except that they are lacking that same awareness that she showed about the overall picture and the importance of the things that have had to ordered because of the people who simply wouldn't follow commonsense advice. And have now shown their true colours in their willingness to disrupt Wellington city in a way that is totally unacceptable.