Shelby
We are surely closing in on peak stupidity. Or should that be peak coercion or peak blackmail?
I am a golfer. I have played golf since I was 13 years old, and that was 54 years ago. I have loved the game all my life. There was a time when I was even moderately good at it. I have a few trophies to prove that but my time in golf is coming to an end because of this fascist government dictatorship.
I received an email today from my golf club. It says that while the board of the golf club has not made any final decisions for members as they await instructions from the national governing body Golf NZ, it is likely that soon we will not be able to play on the course or use the clubhouse and club facilities unless we can provide proof of Covid 19 vaccinations.
As my medical treatment is my business and nobody else’s, and certainly not my golf club’s, I have no intention of providing a golf club with my medical information. But why you may ask is a golf club, of all places, worried about players catching Covid? Why would a club where a sporting activity is carried out in wide-open spaces and where participants are usually not 2 metres apart but often 20 or more metres apart now be so worried about people catching Covid that it requires proof of vaccinations before play?
The answer comes back to the government. Golf NZ, like many national sporting organisations, receives annual funding from the government organisation Sport NZ. The money is used for, among other things, increasing participation in the sport. There’s nothing untoward about that because getting people involved in a sport is good for the health of a nation’s population.
According to the 2020 Annual Report, Sport NZ last year provided Golf NZ with $471,250 of its $7 million annual revenue. It appears that the continuing flow of government money into the coffers of Golf NZ is dependent now on all affiliated golf clubs ensuring that only vaccinated people can play golf.
The hell with them! The hell with golf and a 54-year love affair. The hell with government-imposed mandates which contradict utterly and completely the Bill of Rights Act, the Human Rights Act, the Privacy Act and the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. I will not be coerced into telling my golf club or anybody apart from my doctor what my medical treatments have been or will be.
Is there any case anywhere in the world where someone has caught Covid on a golf course? In more than half a century of golf, I can report knowledge of the following adverse health events: pulled muscles, bruises after being hit by a wayward ball, twisted ankles after walking in rough terrain, a fever after getting wet in the rain and countless examples of mental anguish after missing a 6 foot putt. I’ve even known of some unfortunates who just happened to die of a heart attack on the golf course. We are never warned about the likelihood of these occurrences yet the Wellington dictatorship is now depriving thousands of golfers of the chance to indulge in some harmless and physically beneficial sporting activity because they are besotted with the idea of everyone being injected. What’s more, they are blackmailing golf clubs, the heart and soul of a multi-million industry, into depriving many of their favourite pastime.
Sport NZ, Golf NZ and my own golf club can stick their sport in a very deep water hazard. I’m buying an E bike. Surely the government won’t stop me from riding that, will they? But then, in these times, who would know?
