Mountain Tūī's 1 & Taking A Break
Plus: Jacinda Ardern's period saw significant Russian Interference - changing our culture forever
Friends,
I have not been well, and am going to take a few days off from the Substack to recuperate.
If I can, I will take the full week - I don’t think I’ve taken that long since I started writing…
Who knows?
Maybe I’ll grow up with a break!
Maybe there will be some improvements or changes - for, example a less verbose writing style or less grammatical errors that I only detect after publishing!
(I wouldn’t hold my breath :-) but one can hope)
Without even realising the milestone, it’s been 1 year of writing, 287 articles, 288 video clips…and learning to use social media like an 8 year old, clumsily, awkwardly, but passionately.
Without an editor, proof reader, or anyone to help in any way, it has often taken too much time to write, and create, so I need to figure it all out - and I know there is still plenty of scope for improvement.
Still there is much hope - it feels like there is burgeoning community, there’s a lot of encouragement, and that’s made even more meaningful when there’s so much turbulent news around us.
So thank you for being here. For what it’s worth, I read every message I receive, and am always grateful for the support that is shown.
If you want to bring me a 1st birthday present, please consider referring my publication and/or sharing my articles, because I’ve always believed information is our superpower against misinformation, and the more the merrier!
I’m also always grateful for those that already do so, and you who choose to power my work and time here - for that, I have no words, but sincere thanks..
Before leaving for a short while there is one article I’ve been meaning to share, so I’ll do it now. It’s two excerpts from the New Yorker on how NZ turned on Jacinda Ardern1
i.e. Having missed the worst of Covid, of bodies piled up on streets, doctors and nurses dying in their quest to save lives, dead relatives, long Covid epidemics…and in having 20,000 lives saved, of having missed the worst of the reality - well Kiwis became some of the most angry in the world…2 -
And,
Yes - New Zealand consumed 30% more Russian disinformation3 from troll farms than the United States during that time.
I find this extraordinarily important.
Our culture reflects this, and is worse for it.
Who knew it could be so easy for bad faith players? (Actually, they did — because they’d already tried it on during Brexit, Voice Australia, and the US elections4)
So a lot of what we see in NZ now builds on that division, misinformation, anger, populist rhetoric, and the grievance culture.
That should chill all of us - and the reason why I focus so much on misinformation, corruption, deceit, character and systems - is because once mis-configured, that can destroy countries and people….it destroyed America before our eyes.
Once you de-humanise others as part of a propaganda drive, and focus people enough into fear/anxiety/hate, anything is possible.
With our combined attention, awareness, and sharing though, I’m confident we will overcome this turbulence; we will overcome the will of bad faith operators, and we will come together again.
Your light and intelligence inspires me.
May you be well,
Tūī
PS
Reflecting on the removal of Proud Boys from NZ’s terrorist list, reminded me of David Seymour and National refusing to ban Nazi insignia as part of the controversial gang patch ban.
What a curious government we have that appears to systematically exclude certain extremist groups from our laws.
I honestly wonder why.
PPS More on Jacinda Ardern and Covid
Her approach represented an existential threat to their interests.
There’s a reason almost every property developer donated to National-ACT-NZ First, and there’s a reason Labour didn’t receive any substantive business donations for years when they were in government. There’s a reason farmers support National and ACT, and not any of the left leaning parties.
As well, why Rupert Murdoch used his global reach - from Fox News in America to The Australian in Australia - to demonise and belittle one young female leader in a small, small country, far far, far away.
Don’t get me wrong.
I was no fan of Ardern, in that I was never political and only saw her on morning shows, and scanned headlines. I sometimes groaned at Ardern too because I represent the lack of deep diving of many voters. But the more I learn, the more I feel sorry that a country and people treated her in the manner we did. Where she is no longer safe with her child.
She doesn’t deserve that, and I am grateful that she tried despite the significant pressure they exerted on her to bend to their will. Coming from one person, I’m sorry what we did to you, Ms Ardern, and thank you for continuing to speak up.
Grant Robertson in the House - 4 April 2023 - after David Seymour calls Ardern “too dumb to be part of a global conspiracy” and “PM”
“I am extremely proud of the record of this Government through the COVID-19 pandemic. Around the world, we saw countries where thousands and thousands of people were dying, where they were needing to put up emergency morgues all around.
I can recall talking to friends and relatives in the United States, one of whom was staring out their window at the temporary morgue set up in the car park where thousands of people were going because they were dying.
Mr Seymour, what we did saved tens of thousands of lives. You might not think that's important, Mr Seymour; I do.
Alongside that, we know that the actions that we took also saved thousands of businesses, Mr Seymour, and I'm interested to see now that the National Party has joined with the ACT Party in deciding that it's all, in hindsight, wrong, that we shouldn't have put the money and the resources. Mr Bayly used to ask me to put more money in to make sure that we did more for businesses in the COVID period. I am proud of what we did. It saved lives; it saved livelihoods.
It was also a pandemic where every Government in the world was operating without a playbook, where we went into this not knowing what was going to happen. So was every single decision that we took at every moment perfect? No, it wasn't, Mr Seymour, but, in total, did it save thousands of lives? Yes, it did. And did it save businesses? Yes, it did, Mr Seymour.
Mr Seymour, I think it's interesting today that you've taken the stance that you have here, and I'm going to offer you something, Mr Seymour, because it was extremely hard governing through COVID. I think if you talk to any leader in the world, the kinds of life and death decisions that needed to be made, the kind of support that needed to be provided, the kind of understanding to predict the future when we didn't have the modelling, all of that was extremely challenging work.
I wonder whether Mr Seymour might want to reflect on the comments that he has made today, or have been reported today, where he described Jacinda Ardern as being too dumb to be the Prime Minister.
That's the kind of man you are, Mr Seymour, and I don't want to give you any more airtime.”
Take care, friends.
With thanks to The New Yorker’s Rachel Morris for these two excerpts
No, it was not perfect. I don’t believe anywhere was perfect. And hindsight is always a great teacher, but not a reliable guide, therefore I evaluate on intention and motivation. It doesn’t mean there weren’t mistakes, but that the effort and imperfections were real.
If you’re wondering about the Russian disinformation point, one of my first articles last year was called “The folly of retreat in the face of defeat”. It looked at, among other issues, the connections of Russian state operators, UK Tories, and the Trump campaign - and how they started to “win”.
See my article in footnote 3 above
Mountain Tui, please rest and get well. We appreciate all you do.
We have a huge fight coming in the dis/misinformation sphere leading up to the Elections.
You have done a mighty job and we need you doing this research. Patricia and Norman Bremner.
Take time to care for yourself, we need you now more than ever. I am very grateful to have found you as you have saved my sanity, made me realise there are people that do care and want to publish the facts, and do the hard mahi to get them out to us. Forever grateful for your work and proud to support you.