The letter of the law versus the spirit of the law by Susan Grimsdell
The NZ Herald reports a South Island mayor urging farmers who have claimed the government wage subsidy during the shutdown, to repay the money. Prices have held, there has been no actual loss. One farmer with a conscience has given back $177,000 he said he had claimed “just in case”. The letter of the law The policy states that money is available if the claimant experienced an actual or “predicted” loss of revenue of one third in any month over the 6-month period January to June compared with last year. This is… Read More
Will a Change of Mind Lead to a Change of Heart? by Susan Grimsdell
Who would ever have guessed that hard-core deeply conservative people would overnight change their view of the world? Covid-19 could well accomplish what decades of argument and reasoning and appeals to fairness have failed to do. People who have insisted that the market should rule, supply and demand are king, and let those who aren’t up to it fall by the wayside, have experienced an epiphany. Suddenly, yes indeed government must step in when people are in trouble, yes indeed government must give handouts when things go wrong. Handouts from the State… Read More
Clothes maketh the man (and the woman) by Susan Grimsdell
The other day I read such a good demonstration of how our society is saturated with sexism. It’s this: if you had to choose, which would make you uncomfortable – seeing your 8-year-old son dressing up in a tutu while twirling a pink fairy wand, or your daughter wearing dungarees and playing with a wooden sword? I think almost everyone would say the former. There could be a few of us who would be perfectly happy and equally accepting of either, but realistically, I think not many would fall into that group… Read More
Reactions to Covid-19 by Susan and Trevor
Susan’s radical view My view of Covid-19 is this: as a 79-year-old, with every heart problem that can be had while still being alive, I am definitely in the high-risk group. However, I would far rather have let the disease rip and let the chips (or me) fall where they may, rather than have the world economy go down the drain, with all the terrible suffering that’s happening. It breaks my poor damaged heart to walk around the city seeing businesses closed, many of them forever, to hear stories of people losing… Read More
Acts of kindness by Susan Grimsdell
A couple of weeks ago two police officers from Hastings showed all of us how to help make society a better place in every way. Shoplifting to feed family They were called to a supermarket where a mother, with three small children in tow, had been caught stealing $50 worth of meat. She at once admitted taking it, and began to cry. She said she’d never done anything like that before, and she only did it because she just didn’t know any other way to get food for the family. The officers… Read More
