Time to wave the red flag

There’s an old story, popular back in the 1950’s, about a young British lad walking along the footpath when a Rolls-Royce passes and splashes him with water that had accumulated on the roads edge. As the car speeds away he shakes his fist and declares “One day I’m going to bring down the ruling class.” On the other side of the Atlantic a similar situation. A Cadillac speeds past a young man, drenching him with gutter water and the boy smiles and says, “One day I’m going to own a Cadillac.”

The Aesop-type fable was meant to illustrate the difference in attitudes between the two countries. Post-war America was enjoying audacious prosperity while Britain was being dragged down by the intransigent labour unions that held sway until iron lady Margaret Thatcher and her conservative colleagues took control of the treasury benches.

And so now it looks like a giant leap backwards for mankind if new British Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn can convince United Kingdom constituents to allow him to lead them to the Promised Land.

First up might be a name change.

Totally against the monarchy, presumably he would want to rule over a United Republic as opposed to the United Kingdom. He was criticised by Labour front benchers recently when he refused to sing the national anthem at the Battle of Britain memorial service in St Pauls Cathedral.

Also a conspiracy theorist, Corbyn believes 9/11 was “manipulated” to make it look like Osama bin Laden was responsible to allow the West to go to war with Afghanistan.

So the Rolls-Royce crowd will be looking on with fear and loathing, but so too are the Cadillac aficionados.

Hillary Clinton thought she was in for a stress-free ride to the Democratic nomination and subsequently becoming the first women president of the US of A. But then an extreme left-wing Democratic candidate pops up to make inroads into her initial lead and is drawing just as many enthusiasts to his rowdy rally’s as extreme right-wing Republican candidate Donald Trump.

America’s newest postulant is Bernie Sanders, a 74 year-old Senator from Vermont who describes himself as a democratic socialist and is taking the same tack as Corbyn, offering a progressive utopia of free higher education, health care for all, bolstered wages and chastened billionaires. Using the internet wisely and without beaming any TV ads he addresses huge audiences including a recent gathering of 28,000 faithful followers in Maine. Despite his age, commentators say his freshness beats incumbency and the perception of sincerity is appealing.

And so our two great allies are risking prosperity for a surprising return to a tired old order.

After failing miserably in Eastern Europe, Cuba and North Korea, Marx’s socialist nirvana could be resurrected by those who have learnt nothing from history

Meanwhile in New Zealand the left-wing luvvies, full of sound and fury, are demanding a strange new flag that signifies nothing and is about as far away from the corporate branded version that John Key had hoped for as you could get.

If the boring Red Peak becomes the chosen ensign, the Prime Minister will feel like he has been drenched by his own BMW.

“For us in Russia, communism is a dead dog, while for many people in the West, it is still a living lion.” - Alexander Solzhenitsyn

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The hand that rocks the cradle

One-time rugby league star Graham Lowe committed an unpardonable sin when he described Jacinda Ardern on the Paul Henry Breakfast as being “a pretty little thing” and “would look good as a prime minister.” The twitterati and other sections of the social media erupted and Graham sensibly laid low until the furore died down.

While the comments enraged many of her colleagues, Ms Ardern was not drawn to respond.

Mr Lowe was born in another era and while most have sought to cope with the times that Bob Dylan reminded us were a-changing, Mr Lowe may well have got too many bumps on the head during his stellar career to recognise the subtle amelioration.

There was a time when flattery got you everywhere when dealing with the fairer sex, but they’ve seen through the male veneer and now justifiably demand a level playing field in gender communication.

Last week, on the other side of the world, 27 year-old Staffordshire barrister Charlotte Proudman was incensed with a response from award-winning human-rights lawyer Alexander Carter-Silk to a Linked-in advertisement she had posted on the internet which included a head and shoulders photograph of herself.

Carter-Silk, many years her senior, posted that he was “Delighted to connect; I appreciate that this is probably horrendously politically incorrect, but that is a stunning picture”.

Ms Proudman, perhaps not as astute as Jacinda Ardern, was swift to respond. “I find your message offensive,” she shot back; “I am on Linked-in for business purposes, not to be approached about my physical appearance or to be objectified by sexist men. The eroticism of women’s physical appearance is a way of exercising power over women. It silences women’s professional attributes as their physical appearance becomes the subject. Unacceptable and misogynistic behaviour; think twice before sending another woman (half your age) such a sexist message.”

She then posted the two-way transcripts on the internet and the response throughout Britain made Graham Lowe look like an amateur at offending women. Uncharacteristically, I thought she had a point. I have no argument with what she did. A young woman should be able to post an advertisement about herself and her professional attributes on a business networking site without having to suffer the unwanted attention of men commenting on her appearance. However it turned out that by publically shaming the over-enthusiastic flatterer meant the reaction was not necessarily to her liking.

Not even the sisterhood backed her unconditionally. Writing in the Daily Mail Jan Moir said “Ms Proudman had presented herself as equal part heroine and victim, something only Joan of Arc had successfully pulled off in the past. To prove what an excellent feminist she is Carter-Silk has been humiliated and she has been vindicated”

Ms Proudman regarded the critical judgement by many as demonising, but as one commentator put it “If you cover yourself with honey and climb into a sewer, don’t expect any sympathy if you come out covered in cockroaches.”

After 52 years of married bliss the female that rules the roost in our household is a half-poodle, half-shitzu called “Molly.” She’s a pretty little thing….

“There are three kinds of men, the handsome the caring and the majority” - George Coote

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Solving Auckland's problems

I’m full of admiration for the My Masterton campaign, launched in February by the Masterton District Council in partnership with the Wairarapa Times-Age to increase jobs and population in the district. The newspaper offered $100,000 of “in kind” advertising; presumably this will be in the northern regions where their parent company owns The New Zealand Herald.

The District Council has a large graphic sign on its building set to indicate job increases. To date it would seem none have been signified, but its early days yet and it would churlish for us all not to get behind the campaign to endeavour to depopulate Auckland.

If we don’t succeed in this, the city of sails has the propensity to bring us all down.

If you are a saver the latest interest rate decrease announced by the Reserve Bank Governor last week is not much of an incentive for you to maintain your frugality, but much of what happens in New Zealand’s financial sector is determined by what’s going on in Auckland.

A promotional TV commercial was filmed in Masterton last week which presumably will be played to the whole country with Auckland as its focus.

There was time when TV advertisements were regional. Now they are beamed to a NZ-wide audience and many of these promote Auckland-based stores or services. Are you ever going to get the opportunity to buy a half-price vacuum cleaner from Godfrey’s well-stocked carpark for instance?

As I see the overflown TV views of the new housing estates in Auckland I wonder if they’ve thought about the whole package of facilities that make up a community. Masterton can offer ready-access to handy well-established schools, medical centres, churches, supermarkets, crèche’s, live theatres and movie theatres, restaurants, an art and history centre, splendid parks and reserves and an adequate public transport system.

Passage to all of these is just a short unhindered drive - and for many, within walking distance.

If Aucklander’s made the switch they would be amazed at the spare time they suddenly found they had. Most currently have to get up at dawn to get to work on time and return well after dusk. Meanwhile their mortgage repayments on a modest three-bedroomed home costing in excess of a million dollars don’t bear thinking about.

What I fail to see though is any significant growth or demand for new housing happening in Masterton. The Wairarapa Property publication, posted in our letterboxes each week, seems to be offering more and more reasonably-priced local homes for sale, many of them at least half the price of a similar dwelling in Auckland. However there is little evidence that these bargains are being snapped up by enthusiastic outsiders.

To exacerbate the problem Masterton’s retail hub is struggling, caused in part by internet shopping sales and also large superstores with free car parking locating on the town’s fringes.

Given that shopping is now an essential form of entertainment for many, anyone contemplating a shift to the regions will want to see a thriving retail centre.

And living in a small town can have its drawbacks. Ever since I put a Neighbourhood Watch sign on our front gate every Tom, Dick and Harry comes in and wants to know the time!

“The higher the buildings, the lower the morals” - Noel Coward

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Taking refuge from the refugees

I read recently that on August the 19th in the American city of Baltimore police found a 28-year-old man wounded from a gunshot. He was taken to hospital, where he died later that night. The report said this was the city’s 212th homicide victim for the year.

Baltimore has a population of 600,000. Multiply that figure by 7 and you approximate New Zealand’s population. If we Western nations all sing off the same song sheet then to keep up with the good people of Baltimore New Zealand should have an 8 month murder rate of around 1484. Apparently New Zealand had just 41 murders for the whole of last year.

If you’ll pardon the expression, Baltimore is leaving us for dead.

While we quite rightly fear the horrendous potential outcome of a nuclear war, conventional weapons are doing a darn good job in the interim.

Take the Syrian civil war. Saudi Arabia is said to be equipping the rebels with weapons; Bashar al-Assad’s firepower is supplied by Russia. The Saudis buy most of their weapons from Britain and the US, but recently placed large orders with China. Global arms and military services by the 100 largest defence contractors continue apace with worldwide sales tipped to top $US500 billion this year.

Of the 100 companies on the list, 44 are based in the US. Seven of the top ten are American, one is British, one is Italian and one is a multinational European Union conglomerate.

Syrian citizens, to avoid being slaughtered by these western-world-made weapons are leaving the country in droves and heading for Europe. Perhaps they’ll find employment in the arms factories.

In a recent broadcast however the BBC questioned the legitimacy of those who are fleeing the war-torn country. Refugees are usually the aged and infirm, and almost always women and children, whereas the majority of those leaving Syria are mostly male and of fighting age.

The next question the BBC asked was why the refugees, almost exclusively Muslim, travel to Europe when there are extremely wealthy Muslim countries much closer - like Egypt and Saudi Arabia and even Turkey or the Gulf states like Dubai, Kuwait and Abu Dhabi.

Although those fleeing the Syrian crisis have for several years been crossing into Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey in huge numbers, entering Arab States - especially in the Gulf - is far less straightforward. Officially Syrians can apply for a tourist visa or a work permit in order to enter a Gulf state, but the process is costly, and there is a widespread perception that many Gulf states have unwritten restrictions in place that make it hard for Syrians to be granted a visa in practice, said the broadcaster.

Gordon McLachlan once wrote a book about New Zealanders calling us The Passionless People, so perhaps our prime minister’s initial reluctance to absorb more refugees was genetically-based. The well-spoken and well-dressed asylum seekers talk articulately of their plight on our nightly TV newscasts and look as though they will make worthy citizens, however we mustn’t lose sight of the fact that charity begins at home.

But at least the Syrians will be a lot safer here than in Baltimore.

“One is left with the horrible feeling now that war settles nothing; that to win a war is as disastrous as to lose one.” - Dame Agatha Christie

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The government is here to help

While Auckland expands and the regions stagnate the government has a grand scheme to encourage more migrants settle in the outer reaches of New Zealand. Like so many government initiatives this one is bound to fail. The problem is people like vibrant cities and the diverse culture they provide.

The Third Labour Government once came up with a plan to “decentralise” New Zealand. One of the first benefactors of this strategy was Masterton. In 1976 the Government Printing Office was relocated to a huge purpose-built structure in Ngaumutawa Road. It was initially to employ 150 workers which would be gradually increased to 600. The extra employment never occurred; the precious politicians wanted instant access to print and the operation inevitably went back to Wellington. This allowed Auckland tow-truck driver and panel beater Graham Hart to buy the building for a song which launched him on his journey to becoming New Zealand’s richest man.

Today the imposing building houses privately-owned company Webstar who employ 135 staff and operate 24 hour days, seven days a week printing telephone books and unaddressed mail.

So the outcome wasn’t all bad.

Assuming the influx of print workers to Masterton the government also purchased land in Manaia Road with an entrance off South Road to cope with the extra housing needed. No housing was required - or built - and the bare entrance land eventually became the site for Central School.

Another Third Labour Government initiative was suspensory loans, offered to overseas companies to locate here and export their products. In 1974 Phillip Morris took up the offer and built a huge cigarette manufacturing plant, again in Ngaumutawa Road. If the company stayed for ten years the loan didn’t have to be paid back. Phillip Morris upped sticks and went back to Australia not long after the ten years was up.

In 1980 the Masterton Rotary Club sponsored a Vietnamese refugee family to Masterton. I employed the hard-working couple for a decade, but they missed the opportunity to fraternise with people of their own culture so they shifted first to Melbourne and now reside in Austin in Texas.

When Ian Buchanan and I represented Wairarapa on the Greater Wellington Regional Council we frivolously suggested the council should relocate its head office to Greytown, which we calculated to be the dead centre of the region. Our colleagues laughed off our suggestion, though they agreed it was the dead centre, emphasising the word “dead.”

The regional council operated out of a shonkily-built multi-story mirror-glass edifice in the heart of Wellington which they had bought brand-new for $13 million in 1987 just prior to the sharemarket crash. It was valued at $9 million a year after the crash. It has since been assessed as a severe earthquake risk so the council have shifted to converted sheds on the Wellington waterfront and the glittering tower stands idle.

The moral of the story I guess is that you can’t force people to relocate where they don’t want to live. If we want Syrian refugees to come here then there will have to be lots of them so they can create their own community.

I know where there’s some bare land in Manaia Road.

“A simple way to take measure of a country is to look at how many want in, and how many want out.” - Tony Blair

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