I’m back in Wellington, having spent a few weeks in the South Island. Last time I was here, we were in Level 1, and life was pretty much as normal, but not now. In spite of there being no cases in Wellington, and absolutely none in the South Island, both places are at Level 2… and it is driving me nuts.
Last week, I had to go to Wellington Hospital, to visit a family member who had been urgently admitted. There was little queuing, and no masks. I asked about the hospital’s policy on masks and was told there was none. Sure enough, apart from there being hand sanitiser everywhere, the most frustrating part of the entire visit was the Newtown traffic. Boy, that was chronic. But the hospital visit was uneventful, with no overreaction on the part of any of the hospital staff, all of whom know, presumably, how to deal with infectious diseases.
It is a shame that the same cannot be said about Queensgate mall.
One of the mall’s entrances leads both into the mall itself and into a supermarket. As it leads from a car park, people use the entrance for access to both areas, and there is a dedicated corridor for those who do not want to buy groceries. But the entrance to the mall was a ‘Controlled Entrance’, so was manned by a very officious security guard, standing by a sign that said “No More Than 60 People in Countdown At One Time”. I tried to tell her that I wasn’t going into Countdown, but was told it made no difference, and I was sent to the back of the supermarket queue. I stood there and fumed. I tried remonstrating with the man behind me, reminding him that Wellington has no COVID cases, but he was too busy fiddling with his COVID tracer app to take any notice. Finally, I got to the front of the queue, walked straight through the alleyway to the mall and started my shopping.
Each and every store had a staff member monitoring people coming in, telling them to scan or sign in and use hand sanitiser. This is in a city which has not had a case of the virus since May. I refuse to sign into anywhere and have not downloaded the tracer app, but I seem mostly to get away with this. About 50% of shoppers were wearing masks, even though they are not mandatory, in a city that has not had a case since May. It is madness.
I know I have said it before, but New Zealanders really are a bunch of sheep. Everyone just falls into line, without asking questions. Everyone I talk to looks at me blankly when I point out that we have no cases in Wellington. It seems everyone is just brainwashed and does what they are told, without ever thinking about it.
As I walked back out of the same entrance, my accountant’s brain started working. As I left, the Nazi at the entrance allowed one person in. But that person might have been going to the supermarket whereas I had not been in there. This might have meant that there were 61 people in Countdown at once. Holy hell. How will we cope? Will an alarm go off? Will everyone have to drop to the floor? Realising that this probably still only meant four or five people in each aisle, I resisted the temptation to point this out. It was tough though. I would have enjoyed watching them do a headcount, or to clear everyone out and start again.
I met my neighbour as I was leaving. I told her I had had enough. When I pointed out that there hasn’t been a case in Wellington since May (yes, I know I am labouring the point, but I do think it is relevant) she seemed resigned. She said we all know what is coming. I wasn’t sure I did, but she elaborated, telling me that all these Aucklanders were escaping and heading south, and the disease would become rampant very soon. I visualised a scene from The Walking Dead, but she was serious. Get your masks and COVID app ready. The world as we know it is about to end.
The world as we know it seems to have already ended. I saw how easy it would be for a dictator to just take over and run riot. I can see how Venezuela turned out the way it did. People just comply with the most stupid rules and ask very few questions. They either have implicit faith in those who govern us, even those who are capable of little other than the most severe incompetence, or they just don’t think about it. They just do as they are told. If they were told to jump off a cliff, I assume they would do it. If Jacinda told them to do it, they definitely would.
Yes, yes, there may be a case floating about in Wellington, currently undiscovered that could cause the death of 80,000 people. But there could be someone in Wellington with Ebola or bubonic plague as well. That is the risk you take in being alive. As they say – life’s a bitch and then you die… of something anyway.
But that is it for me. The stores in the mall were mostly empty. I will do almost anything to help local businesses, but I am no longer prepared to be subjected to all this madness. Apart from food, there is very little that I need that cannot wait until all this stupidity is over. If everyone thinks this way, of course, then the prospects for local businesses, even in Wellington, are fairly grim, but there really is only so much I can take. Everyone is in siege mode.
I did observe that I was the only one who walked all the way through to the mall. Everyone else just went to the supermarket. In most people’s heads, it seems, we are back to Level 4. Everyone is acting as if we are anyway. I’m beginning to wonder if people actually enjoyed it when life was like that. It made them feel safe. But this type of thinking is just disastrous, and it has been brought on by the government. It is going to result in an economic downturn that might take a decade to resolve. And none of it, at least the second outbreak, was necessary at all.
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