I was reading my local newspaper today, following a trip away, you know ‘the read every thing that had fallen into your letter box during your absence period’ and was saddened by comments from a failed mayoral candidate.
He was of the opinion that the older people of our valley were endowed with a spirit of meanness and older people were obsessed with the demand that rates be kept down. Having read in the Christchurch Press that the attitude of the their DHB and this Government towards older people (in this case those over 75 I understand) is resulting in many being taken off the orthopaedic operations lists and being told to go back to their medical practitioner to be re-put on the hospital lists. This will lengthen the time they have to wait for their urgent operations, for that is all the DHB done. The Doctor who exposed this rort pointed out that many elderly patients were taking out housing mortgages to get the needed operation by going privately to keep themselves mobile. Perhaps it is this attitude towards elderly people that makes them more than a little careful with their often very lowly pension as they wait for the same to be ‘done to them’. We are supposed to have a public health system that works. It would seem that the staff and medical practitioners within hospital facilities are willing to work but that the Government and this DHB are unwilling to pay for their services at the rate that these services are required
Perhaps for Mr Stratford the rates are not high and of no concern to him, but for people of fixed incomes they are always of concern. They certainly are to me.
Seems odd to me that in the ‘olden days’ people cared about older and retired people and how they survived in their retirement years, yet we have become a country of knockers, which 40 years ago was an absolute no-no in New Zealand and for many the marked difference between us and our cross Tasman neighbours. That spirit of fairness, that was an integral part of who we were as a nation has changed beyond belief for many older New Zealanders. No longer are we non-judgmental towards our neighbours and our nation as a whole but we have become uncaring about so much that what was good about New Zealand. We worked together not only in our paid work but in our neighbourhood, in our sporting endeavours whether for our children, their schools and our national sports people and we worked in our many communities to build and develop facilities and a community that cared.
Yes there were exceptions to these comments but the people who were racist, sexist, bullies, individuals who were generally always rude and disrespectful, people who were knockers and people who simply did not care about anything or anyone and of course people who broke the law at all levels of our society were the exception not the rule in New Zealand society then. This situation would now seem to be sadly the acceptable norm as seen in our newspapers, our radio and television stations and in conversations at the workplace and social tables of New Zealanders but remember ‘all generalities are lies’!
No one would seem to care that there are people in extreme poverty from a New Zealand perspective, children developing illnesses not seen since the last world war and that will certainly shorten their lives.
Our Politicians see it as a natural result of the country ‘getting on in the world’, ordinary people apparently see it as a reaction presented by churches who would seem to care, making hay when the perception is there is no problem and people who receive obscene salaries because that is what they would receive overseas and if they received less would not work so hard? But it does not cost as much to live in new Zealand as it does overseas though even that is fast disappearing if the costs for building a new home are anything to go by.
What on earth is happening in our beautiful but going down hill very fast country of ours then?
Perhaps we should all look at our navels and contemplate what it is we want, what we need and desire of ourselves, what we want for our businesses beyond humungous salaries and immense profits, what we want from our Government including, local government, and in and around our many and varied communities and finally how we get a 75 % involvement from all angles and from all peoples in our communities.
Let us not give placatory responses to these questions but think outside the square for the answers we want, just like New Zealanders used to until Roger Douglas came along.
How many of you remember when we all went on holiday at Christmas and the majority of us returned after Anniversary Weekend in Wellington? Those left to hold the fort in the businesses were often new employees and those who spent their winters skiing or those planning a trip to Northern climes in the middle to last quarter of the year!
How many people remember that school holidays were just that, a break from the daily grind of school for children of all ages and when care of these children was shared by the family and friends so that work and business did not grind to a halt?
Who remembers when the unemployed could be counted on the fingers of two hands?
Yes I know the big businesses of those days were all connected to rural communities. Meat works, shearing gangs, shepherding down from the tops and cattle drives and many communities moved around from the top of the North Island to the bottom of the South Island.
Yes life is different but people still need shelter, clothing and food work and education so what and how would you all think we should handle the present awful and unfair situations for a fair proportion of our low paid and middle income earners the!?