Christchurch
Mar. 23rd, 2019 03:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jawnbcIt's been a rough week. But in a paltry sense compared to the folks in Christchurch.
I was overseas last week; after a night of restless sleep, I awoke to a PM from Himself "Have you seen the news?" I hadn't. When he said "mosque shootings in Christchurch, 40 dead"...no words.
Thank gawd for VPNs. I was able to get the live stream of TVNZ. Every country has its iconic broadcasters, and two of our best--Hilary Barry and John Campbell--were at the core of the TVNZ coverage. Both manage to be entirely professional and entirely empathetic at the same time.
Later than night, I tuned into Radio New Zealand for what was the Saturday morning broadcast. RNZ had brilliantly brought in the "weekday" team of broadcasters for both Saturday and Sunday mornings. In the months between accepting my role here in NZ--whilst waiting for my visa to be processed--I started following a bunch of podcasts from RNZ. By far the most helpful, in terms of getting a sense of the Kiwi psyche--was Nine to Noon, hosted by Kathryn Ryan. Just hearing her voice for 3 hours was incredibly reassuring and made me feel a bit more connected. But when she began to lose the ability to keep it together in the last 15 minutes of the show, I couldn't either. Which was a very good thing for me.
My flight home was Sunday night (Monday morning NZ time) and the journey was around 30 hours (I like long connections where I can grab a shower). To be honest, I was looking forward to a couple of nights of knock-out sleep (yay zopiclone!) on the two red-eye flights. I arrived home feeling about as decent as one can after 30 hours in the back of the (air)bus.
I could write thousands of words about this week. About racism and Islamophobia. About white supremacy. I might eventually. Following the coverage from overseas initially, it was rather bizarre for NZ to lead all the news shows on BBC World, Al-Jazeera, DW, CNN, France Télé, France 24, Euronews. But the solidarity from around the world has been awesome.
And then there's Jacinda Ardern, our Prime Minister. Full disclosure: I am a paid-up member of the NZ Labour Party. I'm also a trade unionist. When Jacinda (NZ is a first name country) was successful in negotiating a coalition government despite finishing second at the election, I was thrilled. As a social democrat--despite having lived in Canada and Australia (and the US), this was the first time ever my team had ever won a national election. I'm 55 years old and have been voting since I was 18. That's a lot of elections. Never miss them. Mom would come down from heaven and beat me with a wooden spoon if I ever did. So I was pleased with our PM before any of this happened.
But after this week, I am so deeply, profoundly grateful for Jacinda's leadership. Strong, assertive, unambiguous. Kind, healing, supportive. Decisive. Eloquent. A week ago I was despairing for New Zealand and our lost innocence. I'm not now. I'm still sad--and angry--but hopeful.
In the next few weeks, as the shock wears off a bit, there are political decisions to be made and difficult conversations to be had. We will ban the weapons (easier to do in an island nation), but we can't delude ourselves: the assailant might have been an Aussie, but everything he needed to plan and commit this terrorist attack was available in NZ. We need to sort things.
I was overseas last week; after a night of restless sleep, I awoke to a PM from Himself "Have you seen the news?" I hadn't. When he said "mosque shootings in Christchurch, 40 dead"...no words.
Thank gawd for VPNs. I was able to get the live stream of TVNZ. Every country has its iconic broadcasters, and two of our best--Hilary Barry and John Campbell--were at the core of the TVNZ coverage. Both manage to be entirely professional and entirely empathetic at the same time.
Later than night, I tuned into Radio New Zealand for what was the Saturday morning broadcast. RNZ had brilliantly brought in the "weekday" team of broadcasters for both Saturday and Sunday mornings. In the months between accepting my role here in NZ--whilst waiting for my visa to be processed--I started following a bunch of podcasts from RNZ. By far the most helpful, in terms of getting a sense of the Kiwi psyche--was Nine to Noon, hosted by Kathryn Ryan. Just hearing her voice for 3 hours was incredibly reassuring and made me feel a bit more connected. But when she began to lose the ability to keep it together in the last 15 minutes of the show, I couldn't either. Which was a very good thing for me.
My flight home was Sunday night (Monday morning NZ time) and the journey was around 30 hours (I like long connections where I can grab a shower). To be honest, I was looking forward to a couple of nights of knock-out sleep (yay zopiclone!) on the two red-eye flights. I arrived home feeling about as decent as one can after 30 hours in the back of the (air)bus.
I could write thousands of words about this week. About racism and Islamophobia. About white supremacy. I might eventually. Following the coverage from overseas initially, it was rather bizarre for NZ to lead all the news shows on BBC World, Al-Jazeera, DW, CNN, France Télé, France 24, Euronews. But the solidarity from around the world has been awesome.
And then there's Jacinda Ardern, our Prime Minister. Full disclosure: I am a paid-up member of the NZ Labour Party. I'm also a trade unionist. When Jacinda (NZ is a first name country) was successful in negotiating a coalition government despite finishing second at the election, I was thrilled. As a social democrat--despite having lived in Canada and Australia (and the US), this was the first time ever my team had ever won a national election. I'm 55 years old and have been voting since I was 18. That's a lot of elections. Never miss them. Mom would come down from heaven and beat me with a wooden spoon if I ever did. So I was pleased with our PM before any of this happened.
But after this week, I am so deeply, profoundly grateful for Jacinda's leadership. Strong, assertive, unambiguous. Kind, healing, supportive. Decisive. Eloquent. A week ago I was despairing for New Zealand and our lost innocence. I'm not now. I'm still sad--and angry--but hopeful.
In the next few weeks, as the shock wears off a bit, there are political decisions to be made and difficult conversations to be had. We will ban the weapons (easier to do in an island nation), but we can't delude ourselves: the assailant might have been an Aussie, but everything he needed to plan and commit this terrorist attack was available in NZ. We need to sort things.
