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Re: new zealand: it's not working » rjlockhart37

Posted by alexandra_k on August 16, 2020, at 20:48:41

In reply to Re: new zealand: it's not working, posted by rjlockhart37 on August 13, 2020, at 21:56:53

I am in Auckland (around 1 million people) and we are just starting to get community transmission. A handful or two of cases per day. We are in level 3 lockdown which means most businesses (except pharmacy / chemist / drugstore and supermarket and corner-store / dairy / mini-mart) are closed. There are police on the roads and 'non-essential' travel in and out of Auckland is not allowed. What is essential and what is non-essential is a bit up in the air... They are letting most people through.

We are asked to wear masks in public -- but they aren't mandatory yet. They likely will be soon.

For all we go on about 'first in the world' the reality is that we are last in the world. This isn't a 'second wave' for us. This is just the very tip of the start of the first wave. We haven't experienced a first wave, yet. We are only just starting to have community transmission, now.

I think about how when a loved one dies people say 'things will never be the same'. And things aren't the same, ever again. But that doesn't mean that things won't be good ever again. It doesn't mean there can't be good experiences going into the future.

I hear you on the cultural thing about face covering, though. How alien it is to have ones face covered in public. And for that to be a requirement by law in the USA. It is the last place on earth you would expect that to happen. And also remembering the media footage of the bodies being lined up in public spaces in NY because there were too many bodies to be processed... And the riots in the US that looked like the riots of HOng Kong with civilians wearing gas masks and the police firing at civilians and releasing tear gas... Civilians toppling statues and other monuments... That's not life in the USA... Only it is. Momentarilty. It feels like things can't ever be the same, again.

'New normal' is a phrase that has a bit of traction. How we need to learn to find a new normal. Partly it's about sustainability. What we need to do as a species to be sustainable. If we don't want nature to do a mass culling for us then there are things we need to learn to do. It is about carrying capacity. Over-crowding. Inequalities of distribution...

The college thing...

It's a tough one. College means different things to different people and different people want different things from their college experience.

College has largely been overtaken by people wanting social advantage of meeting a who's who of people. Nepotism. Bribery.

If there is to be an aspect focused on education and meritocracy then you need to limit the time spent... Work from home... Stay away from the bullies and sexual abusers...

Limiting the time the people get to spend with the students. So they can better focus on grading their work on it's merits.

Make college too boring for the people who are presently ruining it for everyone.

Sigh.

We don't have freedom of speech or anything, here.

Apparently the lecturer of 'critical reasoning' told students not to talk about the Tiannamen Square massacre if they didn't want to get into trouble with the Chinese authorities.

What is this? A New Zealand lecturer employed by a New Zealand University threatening studnets enrolled in a New Zealand University not to talk about something (in a class for 'critical reasoning, no less) or... Threatening them that they would be in trouble with the Chinese Government.

I mean... Best comply with what a Critical Thinking lecturer in New Zealand tells you the Chinese Government wants you to do (or not do) -- right?

 

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