THE EDITOR
be up before they could convene a meeting. I am going to approach them for support to allow this to be done this week.
Mangonui error. The WHO did make favourable comments about Sweden’s early Covid-19 response way back in April. Newman gnaws this bone to the marrow in disapproval of our own government’s response, while no doubt calling herself a patriot. She needs to be vigorously challenged (if not prosecuted under hate-speech laws. SARC).
Around June 26 the WHO labelled Sweden the only northern European country at “special risk” of a coronavirus resurgence.
At August 21 only a tiny proportion of Sweden’s population had developed antibodies, dashing hopes of herd immunity, and 5860 people had died, one of the highest per capita mortality rates in the world. Sweden’s economy has not been hit as hard as her neighbours’ though, down 8.6 per cent to June, compared to Spain’s 13.8 per cent, with 30,000 dead.
Opinion is wildly divided about Sweden’s Covid-19 response along the lines of money versus human life, massively weighted against it. Spain’s is considered disastrous.
Had Aotearoa New Zealand responded like Sweden, I wonder how Muriel Newman would feel if her own elderly mother or father had fallen victim to coronavirus?
We can reinvent economics. Social Credit already has. We can’t bring people back from the dead.
Kohukohu sportspeople and their partners. The partners are tired of being labelled as WAGs, Wives and Girlfriends, as they consider it demeaning, and want to be labelled as SOs, Significant Others. To many this seems a rather silly request given the realworld problems of Covid and numerous conflicts and natural disasters.
The two terms could be combined to SWAGs, although that might not be flattering, as in Australia that refers to a form of bedding.
There should be some recognition of other labelling options with the LGBTQI communities, although none of the top-level male players have admitted to being a member of these communities. A number of the players in the women’s competitions are more honest. The only acronym that I could find that uses most of the letters is GASLIT, and that seems appropriate, as many of them may be gaslit by the media after their SOs career is over.
What a lot of football WAGS or SOs forget is that there are literally about 3,000,000,000 other SOs out there in the world, and not many of them have sponsorships or companies wanting to give them cars and expensive clothes. As many of them do have a public voice and a social media presence, at least for a few years, they could make better use of their voices and help with many social issues. It’s time for a bit of SOS - Save our Sanity.
Melbourne