If on occasion you feel the whole world is against you, you are mistaken. There are still a half dozen small nations that remain neutral.
I wanted to wait until the highway was open before submitting this, so there could be an end to it. I wonder will there ever be an end to it? State Highway 1 through the Brynderwyns opened, we are told, permanently on May 1. However, it is still a mess and a little work combined with much activity continues while government agencies muddle along with much ado.
The only winners are the road cone companies. Our private access ways and council roads, friends’ and neighbours’ roads were open weeks ago solely due to private individuals. My own entryway, whilst not pretty, is serviceable. The nation’s main highway is broken. The whole post-cyclone fiasco has at least served to further illustrate that this Government and its various publicly funded agencies continue to brazenly lie to the people whom they rob on the pretext of service. Our public service is broken.
On February 27th, 2023 at 7am, RNZ disseminated Labour Government disinformation, stating that State Highway 1 through the Brynderwyns would re-open the following day. I live around these parts and knew it was impossible so I gave it another couple of days before trying to use a highway that all New Zealanders had been told was now serviceable. It was not. Our media are broken. I expect the government wanted to give the impression that they were attending to things and getting the job done. They weren’t and they aren’t.
I went on the net to find what alternative routes could be used to travel northbound. There was much contradictory information. Cove Road was listed as closed and also listed as ‘open but must be used with “Caution”‘. The Gorge Road was listed as closed due to “Slips, Underslips and Dropouts” which suggests images of high school failures blocking the road. Which as it turned out wasn’t far from the truth. I could find no other definition of what, in post-cyclone roading terms, a dropout actually is. I rang Whangarei Council for clarification. After a half hour of getting connected to the appropriate department, they had no idea but directed me back to the website with the contradictions. Our local councils are broken.
Readers may wish to listen to this as you read:
This Government censored and continues to censor various media regarding the Covid hoax, and the vaccine failure. We (including myself), turned out to be correct. They propagated panic-ridden propaganda about an ill-defined, unseen virus and pushed a questionable therapy as ‘safe and effective’ which now appears to be neither. Now they will not even disseminate real information about an actual observable physical reality. We are used to the fact that politicians of all stripes are dishonest charlatans. What worries me more is that they are such incredibly incompetent liars and charlatans.
I was directed to use the Paparoa Oakley road, adding about 80km to a usually ten-minute trip with gas at $2.54 a litre and New Zealand’s only oil refinery shut down. At what point does stupid become too stupid to be simple incompetence and must be necessarily intentional?
Taking what was literally the path of least resistance I went north. On the return journey, I called into a friend’s place. Her son in post-modern parlance might be called a bogan. You know: a mullet and trousers worn halfway down the buttocks. He’s a decent kid, though, with a pretty cool ute that I wouldn’t mind owning myself. He didn’t hear me pull up as he had just installed a sound system loud enough to make your ears bleed. I confided to him that I was thinking about giving the Gorge Road a go to get back south as I suspected the government was lying to me again.
“The Gorge Rd is good to go,” he informed me. “Just drive around the cones,” he advised.
“How do ya know?” I asked sceptically.
“I went down there last night,” he replied. “I didn’t have enough gas to go round the other way.” My cynical view of modern youth was somewhat mitigated.
The Gorge Road was fine. I haven’t seen it so good in years with the added bonus that I was the only vehicle using it. I emailed the Mayor asking why thousands of northbound New Zealanders were being deviated miles out of their way whilst the Gorge Road was perfectly serviceable. He said he’d look into it. The road was open a couple of days later.
On May 1, after being opened for Easter then promptly closed again, State Highway 1 over the Brynderwyns is now open. We are told for good, but given their track record, who knows?
Remember you should dance without thinking but think before speaking. Think twice before taking action and three times before posting anything on the internet.
Thanks for reading look forward to your comments. profworzel@gmail.com
The Fiddlers Ball
The writers talk in riddles
And the lawyers play the fiddle
Everybody’s dressed up to the nines
We can all relax today
Because there’s nothing left to pay
It really is the best and worst of times
The salesmen play a hunch
Try and beat ya to the punch
Staggeringly drunk with their success
Till they curl up in a corner
Takin’ drugs by doctors order
Tryin hard to manage their distress
Consuming lies, the lunch is free
For just deserts, there is a fee
And everybody’s moving in a trance
got so much ‘n wanting more
paying court to Babylon’s whore
And she leads them in a very merry dance
There’s mutton dressed as lamb
Lining up to taste the ham
But they know that hunger’s never gonna go
Just fillin in the time
With the music and the wine
Don’t ya know ya reap just what ya sow?
They’re all actors by vocation
shooting on location
Simply players tryin’ to play a part.
And finding consolation
with adulterous fornication
The sticky sweetness of a jamy tart.
It’s one for one, and none for all
Dancing at the fiddlers ball
The dancers stumble clumsily around
there’s lots of steps they can’t recall
And pride comes before the fall
that puts em – six foot underground
Still the party rages on
There’s no end until the dawn
And everyone is taken for a ride
With broken dreams and facial creams
Busting seams, with silent screams
Laughing when they really should have cried
Just like Sodom and Gomorrah
There’s no thought about tomorrow
It’s a fracas that is on for one and all
Seems like no one will behave
As they dance toward the grave
And before they go, to Hell, they’ll trash the hall
Drunk to beat the band
It can be hard to make a stand
But everybody knows they should be leaving
Cause It’s been going on for years
And it’s bound to end in tears
As they get tangled in the web they have been weaving
When the dancing’s over
and the piper must be paid
Ain’t nobody getting drunk,
no-one getting laid
Things aren’t looking quite so good in the harsh clear light of day
sitting with a sore head
and a little bit of shame
wondering why they feel like death
and where to place the blame
Its time to face the music and they cannot get away
Cannot feel with a heart of stone, or run with feet of clay.
