My first post, Happy Valentine's Day New Zealand, https://welcometohighonlifeandtravel.blogspot.com/2021/02/happy-valentines-day-new-zealand-3.html, was published on February 16 2021.
Two years later, on Valentine's Day, I am still posting, albeit I have not kept to my plans in general. 730 days since 2021 and 365 days from 2022, plus two days since that publication date. 732 and 367 days respectively. How do I feel about that? Good.
NZ's covid situation, one could argue, has improved since Valentine's Day 2022. Although the NZ Government did not eliminate covid-19 when the Delta variant came blasting through on 17 August 2021, which is what they seemed to be trying to do, and it's been over a year since the protests at Parliament started in February 2022, there are no more regular briefings, no more covid protection framework, basically no more travel/border restrictions to enter NZ, and one of the most significant news items, on July 30 2022, Dr Ashley Bloomfield was no longer the Director-General of the Ministry of Health. He resigned of his own volition and earlier than intended.
Still most likely one of the best responses in the World in containing covid-19 once it infiltrated the community, the NZ government and everyone living in Aotearoa joined the majority of governments and populations just over 19 months later: if you count 1 January 2020 as the beginning on an international level and 17 August 2021 when NZ really understood and experienced the impact of covid-19.
Now, NZ still has thousands of cases as the weekly updates from RNZ show, and internationally and nationally, most are the omicron variant, which was first identified in November 2021 in South Africa. Correct me if I am wrong about omicron being the most dominant variant internationally and nationally. Which for us Humans is good, the virus has not found a more efficient variant to infect us with without losing its power, it has to maintain longevity to keep influencing our everyday lives.
In early September 2021, a terror attack in New Lynn, Auckland, caused ripples. At the time, the whole country was in lockdown triggered by the Delta variant.
On 24 February 2022, Russia attacked Ukraine and in ten days' time, it will be one year since the invasion started. No one really knows why, and it is not absolutely necessary to know why to stop it. Inflation has increased as a consequence, possibly more so than it increasing as a result of covid, and possibly the impact has been more widespread than covid: food/petrol/power prices are up and they are billions of peoples' necessities. Only Russia can stop the attack and it does not seem to want to at all. NZ is currently around 7. something % inflation.
The Taliban took control of Afghanistan on 15 August 2021 and womens' and girls' rights have been severely restricted or one might say, completely and utterly taken away. The hold the Taliban have on women and girls is mentioned sometimes in the news because it has not stopped, it is on-going.
In late August 2022, Corporal Dominic Abelen who was in the New Zealand Defence Force, was killed in Ukraine on unpaid leave. He is a New Zealand Citizen and his body has not been returned to New Zealand at time of publishing of this post.
In September 2022, Mahsa Amini died in her homeland, Iran, and protests continue there.
Andrew Bagshaw was announced 'missing' in early January 2023 and his body was found in Ukraine some time later. He has UK and NZ citizenship. His body was included in a POW swap between Ukraine and Russia, but I don't think it has been returned to NZ as far as I know from media.
In late January 2023, Jacinda Ardern resigned and in less than a week, Chris Hipkins, known for being the Minister for Health and also the Minister for the COVID-19 Response, became New Zealand's next PM. In terms of talking to the media, he has experience from the covid-19 briefings.
Then on 27th January, Auckland's flooding began. Two days later, on 29th January, it was Auckland's anniversary and parts of it could be described as 'underwater'. Elton John's concerts were cancelled due to the flooding.
Waitangi Day was on 6th February.
On 8 February, RNZ announced New Zealand was sending $1.5m to Turkey and Syria for the damage caused by the earthquake.
Ed Sheeran took to the stage on February 10th and 11th at Eden Park in the aftermath of flooding. Eden Park had masses of water on its pitch.
Valentine's Day of course is today, the 14th.
Cyclone Gabrielle reached Aotearoa on the 10th or 11th of February and today at 8.47 am New Zealand time, the country's third National State of Emergency was declared. The first National State of Emergency was as a consequence of the Christchurch Earthquake on 22nd February 2011, the second on 25 March 2020 as a result of Covid-19. Less than three years later between the second one and this one.
Chris Hipkins has had to run to keep up with his duties and responsibilities as PM. Around three weeks into the job.
The already existing damage from the previous flooding will not help the impact of the flooding from Cyclone Gabrielle. The aftermath she will leave will be more widespread. So far, 3 deaths from flooding since 27th January, but one firefighter is categorized as 'missing'.
I may have missed news that should be mentioned. Mpox comes to mind, but I think its impact on the whole was minor to NZ. Flooding in Pakistan did not affect NZ much.
New Zealand, especially Auckland, has been through a lot. Right now, it has inflation and flooding as a main, with covid-19 sitting on a side plate. However, it is doing well in general, especially when you think of Afghanistan or Iran or even Turkey and Syria. Christchurch had its earthquake, which was horrible (I was living there and count myself as very lucky): 185 deaths total, a handful or less indirectly caused by the earthquake. Turkey and Syria have a total of over 30 000 deaths combined.
Of course, right now, Mother Nature is causing pain and damage on top of the existing shit. Many of you are at breaking point or broken or already broken prior to the flooding. One life is important, be it covid, flooding, or access to the mpox vaccine (I see you). Religion doesn't matter, race doesn't matter, the country you live in doesn't matter, most if not all of us are connected in some way, on a national and international scale.
I feel for you New Zealand. I hope you will have less to deal with soon. Not having flooding on your plate would be nice.
Russia stopping its attack on Ukraine would be great. But it is only thinking about itself.
Next Valentine's, what will be the relevant issues between 2023 and 2024?
With love, avec amour, abrazos,
-A.M.
Sources:
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/483664/ukraine-and-russia-trade-nearly-200-prisoners-of-war-in-swap
