The land of the short, sharp mood swing
Somewhere out there, between smugness and heads will roll, it seems to our team like another staple of the national mood – she’ll be right – has got a look-in.
It’s amazing how quickly our mood swings. As a nation, I mean. From an air of slightly smug celebration, to heads must roll, in a matter of a few hours.
Those ends of the pendulum swing both feel like staples of the national mood. At the happier end, the satisfaction had eased off a little from the high of no new cases of Covid-19, then no active cases, then level 1. After 24 days with no new cases, a hint of smugness was probably fair enough.
Then the two cases, the announcement at lunchtime on Tuesday, the sisters’ road trip, the compassionate early release from quarantine.
We didn’t have all those details right away, but that was the start. The mood swing didn’t feel instantaneous to me, though that may have been because it wasn’t until after work that I caught the mood on social media, but it was a few hours at most.
I didn’t see the letters until the morning, though the evening was when the first ones were written, but by the time I did, I’d seen plenty of tweets.
‘‘Who’s responsible?’’ ‘‘Someone must be held accountable.’’ ‘‘The Government is incompetent and I always knew it.’’ ‘‘Ashley who?’’ I’m paraphrasing towards the end there, embellishing. I never saw an ‘‘Ashley who?’’, though I started to hear the odd comment, a headline that suggested that road trip had taken him from ‘‘hero to zero’’. That seems borderline ridiculous, and I’m not one of those who had tried to turn him into Super Ash over the previous month.
But it’s in our nature to want a scapegoat, isn’t it? It doesn’t take very long for what’s in the air to have the feel of a witch-hunt, like the tinder-dry wood is being stacked around the stake.
‘‘What does it take to fire a minister?’’ asks Todd Muller, predictably quick to paint the whole situation as shambolic. But in all honesty, with David Clark’s recent stumbles absolutely acknowledged, what would firing a minister here actually do, in a practical sense? It’s plainly at the operational level where the mistakes have been made.
But it’s an opportunity for the Opposition and Michael Woodhouse is quick to point out that it wouldn’t have happened if he was the minister. We only have his word on that, of course. Salt it away for future reference.
Winston Peters weighs in a little later that he wants to find ‘‘those at the coalface responsible’’ for the stuff-up. Everyone wants a trophy, it seems, as if that’ll somehow make things better, apart from his boss, who emphasises that this is not about staging a witch-hunt but ensuring our borders are secure.
However heads must roll is one of our national sports, though it’s by no means unique to us.
It was a lot easier in 2007 when everyone knew it was all that bloody Wayne Barnes’ fault for not picking up that blatant French forward pass, and we could yell and shake our fists and some enterprising Kiwis even jumped on his Wikipedia page and called him rude names.
It’s a difficult situation because we’ve all done it tough over the last few months, not like previous generations did, but in a 21stcentury New Zealand context, it’s been a struggle, and people are worried, justifiably.
We’ve all been so impressed with how the Team of 5 Million we’re part of has pulled together to bring this thing under control. So the thought that somewhere on the paddock our defence has been breached because a few defenders took their eye off the ball is, as two letters describe it, like ‘‘a kick in the guts’’.
I wonder, briefly, if the ad agency who came up with Team of 5 Million is the same one that created the Stadium of 4 Million for the 2011 Rugby World Cup? Just an aside. Things are getting heated.
Somewhere out there, between smugness and heads will roll, it seems to our team like another staple of the national mood – she’ll be right – has got a look-in.
It seems so obvious to all of us, because how could it not be, how things should have been done.
The letters come in one after another, with explicit instructions on how it should have happened and how it must be managed from here on out.
People are venting. Compassion is great, but sometimes people have to deal with difficult circumstances, for the good of all of us.
Why weren’t they tested? Why were people in quarantine reportedly told tests were voluntary?
As slightly-less-super Ash fronts the media on Thursday, there seems to be a little more clarity about the legal position on testing. The law on matters surrounding the lockdown has been tested in recent months. I think there are cases still before the courts.
You can’t force people to be tested, it seems. But you can keep them in quarantine for up to 28 days if they refuse. Somehow that has been lost in translation.
So here we are. Day 3, as I write. More questions than answers.
And while we wait, which we’re not so good at, it’s time to remind ourselves this thing isn’t over. More scares were always likely.
Remember 2011, the agonising closing minutes? How we willed the All Blacks to keep possession? Of course you do.
We have to keep calm, and make sure we don’t lose sight of that ball again.