For more than a century New Zealanders liked to think of themselves leading the world, mainly as a result of employment and welfare reforms introduced by the late 19th century Liberal government.

But the attitude persisted long after the Second World War, and this was not solely the preserve of patriots but often people from overseas. I vividly recall reading the section on my country in the set of Encyclopedias I had as a child in the 1970’s. It was not the famous Britannica series but some competitor, rather US-centric and dated from the early 1960’s I’d guess. Lots of glossy colour photos (the fabulous one of the Mike H-Bomb test was there).

About New Zealand it said right up front that we were “perhaps the best governed nation in the world“. Even at a tender age I felt some pride upon reading that and the culture around me often reinforced the idea that we were world leaders in many ways, with Public Healthcare reforms in the 1930’s, the MOW, dam building, and stories of Hamilton jetboats, the flying farmer Richard Pearse, physicist Earnest Rutherford, and JPL scientist Bill Pickering. This cultural pride even continued with the Rogernomics reforms of the 1980’s; even though it was actually following in the trail of Reagan and Thatcher, we held ourselves to have been bolder and gone further, as revolutionary leaders do.

The funny thing is that a good chunk of New Zealanders suddenly decided that they didn’t like us being revolutionary and leading the world, at least when it came to reducing the size, power and control of government. People began to mutter that perhaps we should lag the world!

However, the World Leader stuff, especially from those opposed to Rogernomics, returned with things like Gay Marriage laws; it seems that reducing the size, power and control of government is acceptable only when it comes to bedroom issues of sex and drugs.

Everything else in one’s life is up for grabs by the government, as is increasingly the case with every passing year.

Which brings us to our government’s response to Covid-19. The local Left have of course gloried in the sunny praise that has poured down upon Jacinda from around the world as she danced with baby Neve at the news that our L4 Lockdown had “crushed” the virus.

But there was also, once again, vast and ongoing approval from the Left for increasing the size, power and control of government. Funny that.

Sadly for Jacinda and her acolytes, reality has caught up with the limits of government power and control, and in the second wave caused by the ever-mutating little beastie, the idea of “crushing” it has been officially scrapped. There has been much wailing (Dreams and their deaths), crying (Surrendering to the virus) and gnashing of teeth (Delta’s Week Of Doom).

But perhaps this is a good thing as it allows us to look around the world at nations that are ahead of us in moving through this pandemic and its consequences.

Sweden is back to normal, having departed from it very little. Much is made of their “thousands of Covid deaths”, but the politicians, epidemiologists, and most importantly the people of that nation don’t seem to think they did wrong (aside from not sufficiently protecting rest homes early on), and given the praise they’ve had over decades for their caring culture, society and welfare systems, it’s rather hard to say that they’re monsters who didn’t care if granny died.

Lithuania has shown us another possible Covid future and it’s a dystopia.

There are other stories of course.

Disruptive weather? ATC (Air Traffic Control) issues? The main focus was the airport of Jacksonville in Florida and people quickly established that temperatures there were in the mid-70’s (F) with sunny skies and winds at 5mph. Not likely a reason for cancelling 1800 flights. Southwest is possibly the best run domestic airline in the USA. Known for flying only Boeing 737’s (R&M and training made simple), staff and pilots who crack wise over the intercom with passengers, no seat booking (yet no fights as people board and grab what’s available), efficient, reliable and low cost.

What could possibly have gone wrong?

Airline travel blog, One Mile at a Time, had the inside scoop:

It seems that there could be something further going on. It’s my understanding that a huge number of Southwest pilots have called in sick this weekend, much more than usual. It’s anyone’s guess what the cause of that is, but it follows the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association (SWAPA) on Friday asking a court to block the airline from requiring vaccination, in anticipation of an upcoming federal mandate.

But if you think it’s just those shitty Southern parts of the USA (controlled by Republicans) well…

Oregon Nurses Get Ready to Walk Over Forced Covid Vaccines:

While [Oregon Nurses Association board president Lynda] Pond said more than 90% of ONA nurses are vaccinated, in recent weeks large health care systems like Kaiser Permanente and Legacy Health have put thousands of staff across the country on leave because of they don’t want to get the COVID-19 vaccine.

“85% of the nurses at OHSU have indicated that they are unable to use vacation time or take a mental health day because there are not enough nurses to cover for those requests. 92% of nurses at OHSU report experiencing mental exhaustion,” said Calzia.

Perhaps the most concerning statistic, Calzia said, was that 60% of OHSU’s nurses are considering leaving the profession. He said that percentage is reflected at the national and state levels too.

While the ONA union is likely using this argument to bargain for wage increases, there is no doubt that the departure of even 10% of nurses is putting a huge strain on the Oregon healthcare system, not to mention trying to entice people into the profession to replace those retiring. And it should be noted that the ONA is downplaying the number of Oregon nurses walking out and citing national figures so as not to show up their best friend, Governor Kate Brown, who imposed these mandates in August and is already facing consequences in her state’s police and firefighters.

Of the three futures, Sweden, Lithunania, and the USA, I regard Lithuania as the likely one for New Zealand because of our frightened, compliant people (aside from the criminals). Decades ago the historian Keith Jackson tagged us as “the Prussians of the South Pacific”, something the 60’s Left used as scathing disparagement. We’re about to find out how true that is and how much the same Left approve of it.