The week in good news
Philip Matthews looks on the bright side.
Murder trials, climate change, the Trump presidency ... the world can indeed be a dark and scary place. But there is good news, too, if you know where to look.
Birds of the week
Who could not be charmed by this story? In what appears to be a blatant grab for cute publicity during the hotly-contested Bird of the Year vote, a black-billed gull/ tara¯ puka colony has been found in a vacant lot in central Christchurch. As The Press reported this week, about 300 of the birds have put down around 130 nests in the half-demolished and flooded foundations of a former office block on Armagh St. Ever adaptable, they nest on the concrete beams and wash (and mate, the report says) in the flooded basement that looks like the ruins of an ancient Roman bath house. A secure fence keeps predators out. The gulls usually breed on islands in the South Island’s braided rivers so this is unusual. But they won’t be there forever: once the birds depart in February, property owner Philip Carter will set up measures to deter them from returning to breed next September. It’s a shame he can’t be persuaded to leave the ruin/colony as it is.
Catchphrase of the week
This one has to be explained to readers of a certain age. That’s most of us. But this week, Green MP Chloe Swarbrick went ‘‘viral’’ (ask your kids) when she dismissed a National Party heckler with the phrase ‘‘OK boomer’’ (ditto). The 25-year-old Swarbrick explained that the phrase is a ‘‘simple summarisation of collective exhaustion’’. Millennials like Swarbrick are tired of being seen as apathetic, materialistic, selfinvolved and so on, when they have inherited an environment destroyed by the baby-boomers. It’s a quick way of describing a massive concern. When Swarbrick’s roasting of a National MP was picked up by global media, it became the first Kiwi political quote to go international since Maurice Williamson’s legendary "big gay rainbow’’ in 2013.
Captain of the week
Even those resistant to rugby – yes, such people do exist in New Zealand – were moved by the story of Springboks captain Siya Kolisi, who led his team to victory in the Rugby World Cup last weekend. Kolisi was 16 in 2007, when the Springboks last won; unable to afford a TV set, he watched the game in a pub. In 2019, his father Fezakel took his first trip outside of South Africa to watch the final in Yokohama. A passport had to be rapidly arranged. And then there was the after-match speech. As Kolisi explained, this wasn’t just another victory. It really meant something: ‘‘We have so many problems in our country, but to have a team like this … we come from different backgrounds, different races and we came together with one goal and wanted to achieve it. I really hope that we’ve done that for South Africa to show that we can pull together and achieve something.’’
Mayor of the week
Good news for lovers of fossils and conservation. Dunedin’s newlyinstalled hitch-hiking Greenie Mayor Aaron Hawkins announced this week that his council intends to buy the controversial Foulden Maar site, which is about an hour out of Dunedin, near Middlemarch. The land was owned by collapsed mining company Plaman Resouces Ltd, which intended to mine it for diatomite. ‘‘We know that the Maar is considered by scientists to contain New Zealand’s richest trove of fossils, including plants, insects, spiders, fish and pollen,’’ Hawkins said. ‘‘For these reasons, it’s important we act to preserve this very special place and prevent any mining taking place.’’
Apology of the week
There’s no harm in getting something spectacularly wrong, even in public, but then you need to own it and apologise.
It’s good for your own wellbeing and that of the wronged party. Oranga Tamariki chief executive Grainne Moss fronted up this week, following the release of a review into its handling of the uplift of a baby in Hastings in May; the event, and the media coverage, made Oranga Tamariki a byword for a cold and indifferent state agency. Moss said: ‘‘Our job is to protect children – it is to help families and give them hope ... instead we have deeply hurt a family and people close to them – for that I am profoundly sorry.’’ Nga¯ ti Kahungunu representative Shayne Walker said he remained angry and hurt for the wha¯ nau but the case had arguably done Oranga Tamariki a favour as it highlighted a number of issues it needed to look at.