Interesting Times

There is an old saying: “may you live in interesting times”.

The month of February has certainly fitted the description of “interesting”. Our news channels seem to have been preoccupied with three or four news threads, continuing throughout the month. Firstly, pundits have thought the property market had reached its peak, and the only way forward was down. It’s hard to prove whether the market has peaked, because the sales figures refer to different properties, different samples of the market at any given time! Some vendors have dropped their prices during sluggish sales, and that step may have helped a sale or two. On the other hand, the original asking price may have been too high.

The rental property market has featured in similar comments. Upon looking at the Internet adverts For Rent, I see that some properties have stayed around for a while. Was it a case of the market dropping, or was the landlord asking a higher rent than the customer thought affordable and appropriate? Supply and demand! On this point - now that the borders are open, where do we think the planeloads of returning Kiwis are going to live?

The University year has started, and students are back in force. Parties in Dunedin’s Castle Street have hit the headlines, as have Wellington Halls of Residence, but for similar reasons: the spread of the Omicron version of Covid-19. Now that the country has gone from isolation levels to a traffic light system of managing the virus, there seems to be a factorial increase in daily case numbers. As I write this article, cases in Auckland seem to be hitting a “plateau”, whereas increases continue throughout the remainder of the country. Once again, one might ask whether case numbers are decreasing or whether they are simply being reported less. We are told that there are three types of untruth – lies, damned lies, and statistics!

Looking around Kapiti, I know at least three cases of Covid-19, all originating from different sources. There now appears to be a “lolly scramble” as to whether we catch or miss the virus. Some people are fatalistically saying “we’re going to get it anyway” and others are trying their best to comply with social distancing and mask-wearing. Some super-spreader events, like the recent occupation of Parliament grounds, seem to be the results of either ignorance or “don’t care” fatalism. Whatever your views on these matters, the divergence of views makes it frustrating and stressful for all sides! Perhaps it’s now time to “breathe through the nose” and be aware that there is another view held by at least some others!