Keeping Out The Virus Of Racism.

Your Pathologies Are Not Wanted Here: In the face of Covid’s dangers, Pakeha New Zealanders have readily conceded the need to surrender many of the civil rights they would otherwise defend with vigour. They have done this to keep themselves and others safe. For iwi organisations to ask that their people be equally protected is, surely, not unreasonable?

FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT within the borders of one’s own country is an important human right – and not one to be revoked lightly. Erecting road-blocks on public highways, and subjecting travellers to close official scrutiny, is deemed tolerable by most citizens, but only for the purposes of preserving public safety.

Few people would object to the Police checkpoints set up to catch drunk drivers. Aware of the carnage caused by people driving while intoxicated, most of us are willing to endure a few minutes of inconvenience for the greater good. Likewise with those road-blocks set up in civil emergencies to protect travellers from fire, flood and earthquake. In such circumstances, with rescue services stretched to the limit, it is simply not rational to allow travellers to put themselves, and others, at unnecessary risk.

Why then are we hearing so many loud objections to the idea of road-blocks being erected jointly by the Police and iwi organisations to protect vulnerable Māori communities in Northland, Taranaki and Tai Rawhiti (the East Coast of the North Island)? What is it about this particular limitation of New Zealanders’ freedom to travel that generates such vociferous responses?

Apart from the depressingly obvious.

Perhaps the first point to make is that these Police/iwi roadblocks are legally mandated. Legislating under urgency in November, the Government changed Covid laws to grant iwi organisations the power to close roads and public places and stop vehicles. But only, it is important to note, with the co-operation and under the supervision of a Police officer or officers.

Clearly, the arguments put forward by Māori communities found attentive ears among New Zealand’s parliamentarians. With the awful precedent of the 1918-19 Influenza Epidemic before them, how could it be otherwise? The two thousand Māori fatalities attributed to the deadly “Spanish Flu” were out of all proportion to the indigenous population. Is it so surprising that, in the midst of another global pandemic, Māori are determined to avoid a similar catastrophe?

Why, then, are so many Pakeha so angry? Why, in particular, has the Act Party felt entitled to inflame matters? As someone who was in Parliament when the legislation was being passed, what has prompted the Act Party leader, David Seymour, to declare:

“Labour has snuck a law through Parliament letting iwi run checkpoints. Our weak PM has surrendered basic rights. The Police Commissioner, rather than upholding the law, has given into demands of iwi. Kiwis have a right to move around the country without being stopped by thugs.”

Let’s pick apart this extraordinary statement. Because, astonishingly, just about everything Seymour alleges is false. No basic rights have been surrendered by the Prime Minister. On the contrary, the right of Māori New Zealanders to be protected from possible infection by visitors to their isolated communities has been upheld. Nor is it the case that the Police Commissioner, Andrew Coster, has failed in his duty to uphold the law. As we have already established, these Police/iwi roadblocks, erected for the preservation of public safety, are entirely legal. And while it is perfectly true that “Kiwis have a right to move around the country without being stopped by thugs”, set in the context of the Act leader’s entire statement, that sentence can only be described as racially inflammatory.

Is it really the case that Parliament and the Police have “given in to iwi demands”? Doesn’t the Third Article of the Treaty of Waitangi confer upon Māori the same rights and privileges as all other “British subjects”. In the face of Covid’s dangers, Pakeha New Zealanders have readily conceded the need to surrender many of the civil rights they would otherwise defend with vigour. They have done this to keep themselves and others safe. For iwi organisations to ask that their people be equally protected is, surely, not an unreasonable “demand”?

To describe those operating these roadblocks as “thugs” is the final insult. As if any group of Māori daring to stop the driver of a monstrous SUV and question him concerning his intentions in their traditional tribal territories – their “rohe” – must ipso facto be common criminals – “thugs”.

Just pause for a moment and contemplate the extraordinary sense of racial entitlement behind such indignation: the brutal assumption of superiority; the shameless assertion of privilege.

Erecting roadblocks against all such intrusions of unabashed Pakeha racism is, surely, long overdue?

This essay was originally published in The Otago Daily Times and The Greymouth Star of Friday, 10 December 2021.

Delta Rocks Gibraltar: Lessons to be learned from Covid-19’s global resurgence.

Hard To Beat: Perhaps the most important lesson to be drawn from what is happening in Gibraltar is that vaccination is not a magic bullet. Yes, it makes it harder to contract the virus, and significantly ameliorates its worst effects, but it does not confer absolute immunity to Covid-19 – especially if you received your second jab four or five months back.

WHAT ARE WE TO MAKE of what Delta is doing in Gibraltar? This tiny British toe-hold at the very tip of the Iberian Peninsula has the distinction of being the most Covid-19 vaccinated community on Earth. Thanks to the fact that many of the people who work in Gibraltar every day, return to their homes in Spain every night, fully 118 percent of Gibraltar’s 32,000 inhabitants have been inoculated. That’s pretty impressive – or, so you might think. But the truth is that Covid-19 is once again surging through the tiny Crown colony. Its daily count of community cases is about the same as ours, which, given its size, is pretty damn scary.

Also frightening are the obvious domestic implications of Covid-19’s global resurgence. For months now, we’ve been told that getting vaccinated is they very best thing New Zealanders can do to defeat the virus. But, if a vaccination rate of 118 percent can’t stop Delta in its tracks – then what can? What lessons we are supposed to draw from Gibraltar’s experience?

The first lesson to learn is that statistics should never be taken at face value. That figure of 118 percent, for example, is derived from the number of Gibraltans aged over 16 who have received a full dose of the vaccine. The true percentage of fully vaccinated Gibraltans must, therefore, be considerably less than 118 percent. While children and teenagers under the age of 16 remain unvaccinated, Covid will always have plenty of vulnerable human-beings to prey on.

Another lesson to be drawn from Gibraltar’s experience is that booster shots of the vaccine are essential. The waning effectiveness of the initial jab/s means that those particularly vulnerable to infection will need to be vaccinated again. If we’re talking about the Pfizer vaccine, that means giving the elderly and those suffering from chronic illnesses a third jab as soon as they approach six months since their second injection – maybe even sooner. Like the flu, Covid-19 is shaping-up to be one of those viruses that must be battled constantly. Getting your Covid shot seems likely to become an annual event.

It would also seem prudent to inoculate the nation’s children. The United States Centre for Disease Control has found that inoculating the over-5s would be both prudent and safe. Reducing sharply the number of potential Covid targets is, obviously, a key strategy for curbing its spread. New Zealand should, therefore, start protecting its children – and the families they live with – as soon as possible.

Perhaps the most important lesson to be drawn from the Gibraltan experience, however, is that vaccination is not a magic bullet. Yes, it makes it harder to contract the virus, and significantly ameliorates its worst effects, but it does not confer absolute immunity to Covid-19 – especially if you received your second jab four or five months back.

What’s happening in Gibraltar – and the Netherlands – and Singapore – and South Korea – is a timely reminder that all those other anti-Covid measures: social distancing; strictly limiting your indoor human interactions; and, most importantly, wearing a mask whenever random human contact is likely; remain vitally important weapons for keeping the virus at bay.

Unsurprisingly, New Zealanders (and Aucklanders especially) are looking forward to enjoying a kick-ass summer holiday. It has, after all, been a bloody awful year! Unfortunately, in facilitating this heartfelt wish, the Labour Government has set up the conditions for Delta’s rapid spread across the country. Undoubtedly, a number – perhaps quite a large number – of the vaccinated will, nevertheless, contract the virus. Some of them – hopefully a very small number – will get quite sick.

Just because you have printed-off your Vaccine Pass and/or downloaded it to your phone, does not mean you are now officially bulletproof. All those other instructions about wearing your mask, sanitising your hands, and keeping 2m distant from your fellow citizens, offer vital additional protection – alongside the Pfizer vaccine. They should not be treated as afterthoughts.

For the unvaccinated, however, the nationwide spread of the Delta Variant is promising the Summer from Hell. While the immune systems of those who are double-jabbed are fighting off the virus’s invasion force, unprotected immune systems will soon find themselves overwhelmed. In communities where the vaccination rate is low, the results are not likely to be pretty. The Delta Variant of Covid-19 is a killer. Many unvaccinated New Zealanders are going to die of it before Autumn.

If not for their own sake, then for the sake of those who love them, and rely upon them, I implore the vaccine resistant to give themselves a fighting chance.

The fate of heavily vaccinated Gibraltar should not be taken as proof of the inefficacy of the vaccine, but of the deadly efficiency of the Delta Variant. This thing is a Terminator every bit as deadly as Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Cyborg assassin. Remember Kyle Reese’s chilling words from the movie:

“Listen, and understand! That Terminator is out there! It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop... ever, until you are dead!”

This essay was originally posted on The Daily Blog of Friday, 19 November 2021.