It’s possible to learn a lot in a short time. For instance; if you wanted to learn about mass and gravity quickly you could drop a hammer on your toe: a very brief lesson, but one which you would remember.
I did the mental equivalent: listening to a podcast of an interview with our ‘Propaganda Queen’ Jacinda Ardern. I learned how she, allegedly, makes vital decisions, what an accomplished fibber she truly is, how abjectly hopeless some Stuff journalists are, and how the poor woman disintegrates without scripted answers to the slightest problematic question on:
“Inside Jacinda Ardern’s coronavirus bubble: What’s on the PM’s mind during Covid-19 crisis”.
I learned, at 5’17“, that she, apparently, didn’t hesitate for a second on tough border decisions:
“I have to say; the big moments for me, really, were making those decisions about what we were doing on our border, that felt huge, and I just remember thinking ‘a week ago we wouldn’t have thought we would be here, but here we are’ and it was just such a simple, obvious, decision, I thought this is what’s got to be done and we just didn’t hesitate, because, ah, those were our opportuniddies to do it differently.”
My, oh my, what a silky, well-practiced piece; Pinocchio would be proud. By way of contrast, we have Andrea Vance in yesterday’s Sunday Star Times:
“It’s still not clear why initial border controls were so haphazard and slow to be implemented”.
At 16’06” I learned that hers are all science-based decisions, apparently.
“I have always tried to make decisions on a very strong evidence base. So the science, uhm, the view of our scientific community, the role of my chief science advisor, the epidemiologist, the technical advisory group we have, has been absoludely key in our decisions.”
So: they’re all science-based decisions – except when they’re not? Good grief.
Compare those practised pitches with this: at 10’57“, a question she hadn’t rehearsed in front of a mirror. It was perfectly unremarkable but blew her diction and composure out of the water as if HMNZS Hardernurly had been hit amidships by a torpedo:
Stuff: “Have you talked directly with President Trump: at all?”
“No, but nor would I expect to, I mean that’s, ‘nm, th’, obviously, y’know, that’s, uhm, not a, a, connection that, ahm, between New Zealin and the Unided States, that, ahm, is, aah, quite at, at, that level, I would say, jus’ the abillidy to send a tex’, because that’s what I’m doing at the moment, it’s, by’ n large, it’s those people that I just have the abillidy to contact quickly and informally because everyone is so busy right now.”
Which (I think, it’s hard to know what she said with any certainty) is Ardernspeak for ‘You must be kidding, he wouldn’t bother to pick up the phone.’
Have a listen, or drop a hammer on your toe; they’re equally beneficial learnings.
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