If ever we needed an example of people too full of their own importance it’s what’s now playing out in the Employment Court. I refer to the case where Siouxsie Wiles of Covid fame is suing her employer, the University of Auckland, for failing to protect her from threatening messages on social media. I’m not sure whether the lady in question is sincere in her claim or rather sees an opportunity to again try to hog the headlines. People like Wiles certainly display a sense of self-worth and tend to have an air of the VIP.
I don’t intend to explore the rights and wrongs of what is before the Court but rather explore the opinion people of Wiles’s ilk have of themselves. From my perspective, regardless of the argument as to whether her Covid work was part of her employment duties at the University, it was obvious that Wiles was enjoying the notoriety that her appointment brought her.
To my mind, a person who decides to colour her hair pink must surely have an ambition to stand out in a crowd. The lady of course did more than that. She managed to become a first-class hypocrite by breaking her own rules sitting, unmasked, with a friend at a beach. Not only unmasked but in close proximity to the other person. In reality doing everything she was advising the rest of us plebeians not to do.
This is typical behaviour of those who feel in some way entitled: ‘Do as I say, not as I do’. She then criticised Jacinda Ardern for taking a selfie with a group of people all unmasked. Even the PM was not following the rules. Supposedly Wiles felt she was quite able to handle adverse comments aimed at her. Now, with nobody taking any notice of Covid or the lady herself, we find she evidently couldn’t handle the abuse and is suing her employer for failing to adequately protect her.
I’m not sure of her politics and while not having attended a university I can probably give an educated guess that she, like most in academia, leans left. Like many in the previous Labour Government, Wiles appears to be ego-driven. The same applies to many in the news media. These types are as puffed up as a packet of Ricies but not as beneficial to one’s health. A good example of this is the person who gave evidence in her defence in Court – none other than the voice of sanctimony, John Campbell.
It’s a pretty good bet that this VIP, in his head, thought that his vital testimony would swing the balance in favour of the plaintiff. According to this household name (Campbell), Wiles was ‘invaluable’ to New Zealand during Covid. He testified that Wiles could “distil the theoretical into the human and the relevant”. In other words, a motormouth like Ardern. Someone you instantly turn off on hearing their voice to avoid the risk of high blood pressure.
However, it must have been galling to Mr Campbell, who evidently was an ‘expert’ witness, that nobody was particularly interested in what he had to say. Apparently neither the defendant’s nor the plaintiff’s counsel decided to cross-examine him, for which he, being someone of great importance, naturally expressed disappointment. An opportunity for further column inches of notoriety was thereby denied. These people who, at the end of the day, are human beings just like the rest of us, really do need to get over themselves.
These minor birds (I dislike the mynahs too) like to think their squawking has a major impact on our lives. They regard themselves as high fliers doing a lot of tweeting and not just on X. They’re not quite so chirpy when incoming tweets are not to their liking, and they go looking for someone other than themselves to blame.
The three people mentioned in this article, for various reasons, I detest. Whenever their faces appear or their voices are heard I’m very thankful for my remote. I find it a very effective and private means of imposing my own ‘cancel culture’ on these types of insufferable individuals. My wish is they’d nest elsewhere.
