It’s now Sunday April 10^th, 2022. Kia ora!

This morning I continued being brave and went to church. It’s Palm Sunday, and there are services all week up until and including Easter Sunday, although I think gremlins have been at work and some of the dates are wrong and confusing. There aren’t many physically there; there’s no communal exchanging of the peace. Nevertheless, I’m pleased that I went.  The sermon talks about the war in Ukraine, amongst other things, and about religion being used to justify terrible deeds like Jesus’ crucifixion, and Christians killing Christians in Ukraine. The minister noted that the Russian Orthodox church, unlike most others, has not condemned this conflict. The time of Easter reminds us that death is not the end, however we die.  Palm Sunday points up the immense contrast between Jesus’ triumphal procession, and what then happens to him. There is beautiful organ playing today, and we sing All glory, laud and honour, At the Name of Jesus, and When I Survey the Wondrous Cross.

This morning I learnt that Boris Johnson had made a surprise visit to Kyiv and to President Zelensky, in a show of solidarity, promising more armaments. Ursula Von der Leyen of the EU has been there too, promising to fast-track Ukraine’s membership of the European Union. The Kremlin have acknowledged the number of casualties Russian forces have sustained; apparently Putin has appointed a new general to lead the next part of the invasion.

Meanwhile, in Pakistan, Prime Minister Imran Khan has been deposed – the confidence vote went ahead, against him. What does this mean? I gather  the military are again in charge of the nuclear-armed nation.  In France, Macron’s re-election is by no means a certainty, with opposers such as the left-wing Mélenchon and the far-right Zemmour (who is Jewish, but takes some strange positions), as well as his old rival, Marine le Pen.

Today’s Covid 19 report is mixed, with only 6,718 new cases. There are 604 people in hospital but 22 in Intensive Care. Sadly, there have been 12 further deaths.  It’s reported that eight of those who died were from the Auckland region, two from MidCentral, one from the Lakes DHB area, and one from Hawke’s Bay. One was aged in their 40s, one in their 50s, three in their 60s, two in their 70s, two in their 80s, and three over 90. Six were women and six were men. People are still dying from this virus – it certainly ain’t over yet, much as we would like it to be.

This afternoon I play Bach’s St Matthew Passion. I’m reminded of the time  when I took my eldest son to a live performance in Wellington’s Town Hall with its wonderful acoustics.  The Orpheus Choir were performing. It was memorable, and a solemn occasion.

It’s now Monday April 11^th.

Last night we met our son and his wife at a Thai restaurant in Porirua. This was a sudden invitation!  There were all food options there, both eat-in and takeaway, but the large restaurant we went to was very busy, with three birthday groups.  The food was beautiful, but I was a bit disconcerted by a man without a mask who entered with us, and the busyness!  Still, it was lovely to go out, and most unusual for us. The menu was quite complicated, different from other Thai restaurants I’ve been to.

This morning I listen to several podcasts, and among them I hear Fiona Hill speaking to Ezra Klein. She speaks about the image of Putin riding a horse, shirtless; and then she talks about the Four Horses of the Apocalypse:  War (conflict in Ukraine), Sickness (the coronavirus pandemic), Famine (Ukraine was a prime grain-growing area), and Death, (present and yet to come).  It’s a scary image.  There is a general air of fear of the coming battle in Donbas, where Russian troops are massing, there’s (another) huge tank convoy, Putin has appointed a new General Dvornikov, who commanded the brutal Russian operation in Syria, and Ukrainian citizens have been advised to evacuate. It feels as though we’re (they’re) gearing up for a major battle between good and evil; and meanwhile, in the French election, a run off between Macron and Le Pen is envisaged. The consequences of a Le Pen win are greatly feared: she is known to have been a friend of Putin, although she hasn’t supported his current military exercise; and perhaps France will leave NATO.  Will Macron be re-elected? His valiant efforts to prevent the invasion of Ukraine by speaking directly to Putin failed. On Ukraine’s side, Slovakia is providing an Air-defence system to Ukraine, and the UK and the US are promising more arms. I guess it’s frustrating for anyone who wants to do things in secret when every move on any side is photographed and analysed on multiple news and social media sites. It’s very powerful to have such images shown almost contemporaneously with the events being filmed and recorded.  It’s been pointed out, too, that whatever Dvornikov’s strengths, the troops he will command are demoralised and have demonstrated very poor form thus far, showing degrees of ignorance and brutality that remind one of the terrible stories of the Soviet army entering Berlin in 1945. It feels apocalyptic, and let’s hope the brave Ukrainians keep up their spirit and determination not to be dominated by Russia.

Back here, it’s reported that Hawkes Bay hospital in Hastings is really struggling with the coronavirus. Hawkes Bay has been very hard hit, and it still continues for them.  The 1 pm report follows a trend now, of fewer reported cases, but still an alarming number of deaths: back in the first wave, there were only 60-odd deaths in all, and they were all elderly folk. It was a big event when somebody died from Covid 19. Today there are 11 new deaths reported; a total of 7,582 new cases; there are 640 people in hospital, and 23 in Intensive Care.

Of those whose deaths were reported on Monday, three were from Auckland, three were from Waikato, one was from Hawke’s Bay, one was from Taranaki, one was from Wellington, and two were from Canterbury. It’s reported that vulnerable people have been left without care, given that so many support staff are sick themselves, or isolating.

There were new community cases reported in Northland (312), Auckland (1378), Waikato (667), Bay of Plenty (309), Lakes (150), Hawke’s Bay (284), MidCentral (350), Whanganui (138), Taranaki (248), Tairāwhiti (69), Wairarapa (89), Capital and Coast (549), Hutt Valley (332), Nelson Marlborough (270), Canterbury (1286), South Canterbury (153), Southern (937), West Coast (68), and three in unknown locations. In New York, mayor Eric Adams has tested positive for coronavirus.

This afternoon it’s reported that Prime Minister Ardern is to send 50 Defence Force staff and a C130 Hercules to Europe, to assist with distributing supplies. They will not enter Ukraine.

It’s now Tuesday April 12^th.

Today we had lunch with two of our sons at a café in Porirua. It was very busy out there, and we had trouble parking, but the café had plenty of room and we sat at a corner table with a bench. My daughter’s day 7 RAT test was negative, thankfully.  Evidently someone at the craft studio she goes to had tested positive for Covid 19.

Afterwards, I check the 1 pm Covid 19 report. Today there are reportedly 11,063 new community cases of Covid 19, and there have been 16 deaths.  A third person (a teenager) has died as a result of the vaccine. There are 622 people  in hospital, and 23 of them are in Intensive Care. There’ve now been 516 deaths from Covid 19. It’s worth remembering that while we may have passed peak Covid 19, in terms of numbers of new cases, many people and still very sick and some dying from it.  While some get it lightly, most speak of the shock of being very sick and utterly exhausted with it.

It’s reported that six of the deceased were from Auckland, one from Waikato, two from Whanganui, one from MidCentral, three were from Wellington, two from Canterbury and one was from the Southern district health board area. One was aged in their 30s, two were aged in their 50s, three in their 70s, six in their 80s, and four were over 90. Five were female and 11 were male.

There were new community cases in Northland (559), Auckland (1984), Waikato (965), Bay of Plenty (536), Lakes (214), Hawke’s Bay (474), MidCentral (534), Whanganui (225), Taranaki (370), Tairāwhiti (111), Wairarapa (137, Capital & Coast (683), Hutt Valley (355), Nelson Marlborough (404), Canterbury (1813), South Canterbury (250), Southern (1331), West Coast (108), and 10 in unknown locations.  So while the numbers are down, thankfully, from what they were, they’re still alarmingly high, and causing staffing difficulties in many care areas.

It was reported that there were an additional 47 cases at the border. ESR is genome sequencing cases detected at the border, and no cases of the new XE variant had been found so far.

The committee of my singing group are to have a meeting on Thursday morning to consider singing again (we cancelled singing in term one).  My son, over from the UK, suggests taking a RAT test before each event, as they do in the UK (and have been doing for some time). I’m not sure people would buy that, but I think it’s worth suggesting.  I feel that people will come if they feel it’s safe to do so, but for many of them it’s a social get-together as much as a singing session, and they’re unwilling to be very socially distant during morning tea.  The problem, as I see it, is we all have family and friends, and some of us are more immune-compromised than others.

In Shanghai, it was reported that there were 25,000 new cases, but the lockdown was being relaxed. There were reports of desperate folk in their apartments shouting that they had no food.

In Ukraine, the Chancellor of Austria has visited Putin in Moscow, and had a serious talk. He’s opposed to the war. The Ukrainians are still seeking more weapons.

That’s it for now. Slava Ukraini! Ngā mihi.

It’s now Friday April 8^th, 2022. Kia ora.

This morning was a toss up between going to Art Group or having someone from Access come and do some cleaning. I wasn’t feeling great, so opted for the cleaning, rather than going out. Because she had also come last Friday, I didn’t have to do so much preparation beforehand.

The situation in Ukraine is just devastating. It seems that while the Ukrainians are having great success in blowing up and damaging Russian equipment, especially tanks, and blowing up Russian helicopters – the British NLAWs are particularly effective here – the extreme brutality of Russian troops, in not just bombing cities like Mariupol, but cold-blooded killing, rape and torture more than matches the bombing of civilian sites like hospitals.  Putin has declared that Ukraine has no right to exist – and so must be destroyed. The irony of his using Nazi methods to root out Nazi elements in Ukraine – which now includes everyone, not just armed forces, is rationalised, by him, in some weird way.  The Nazis used similar methods to justify the Holocaust, by claiming Jews had no right to exist; they were dehumanised; thus, too Ukrainians have no right to exist.  It’s definite that war crimes have been committed; Zelensky’s claims of genocide takes this a step further. How many dead bodies count as a genocide?  While the Russian troops have yet to take a major Ukrainian city, it seems that in several towns near Kyiv they’ve committed major atrocities before withdrawing. It’s thought they’re preparing for an assault on the East of Ukraine. Any discussion of peace negotiations seems to be off, as the world wonders what Putin will do next. The UN has rejected Russia from its membership of its Human rights Council.

I’ve listened to a lot of Tim Snyder lately. He has a lot of useful things to say about this war, including the ability to speak two languages.  Many, like Zelensky, are fluent in both Ukrainian and Russian. Meanwhile, the US are supplying more equipment; Zelensky, still speaking well, is clearly frustrated with the West’s slow response. And it’s complicated: while sanctions have been effective to a degree, the Russian economy seems to have bounced back from its earlier demise, and there are still customers for its gas.  In Hungary, Viktor Orbán, an ally of Putin, has been re-elected. 

There are big fears about food shortages now; not only will there be a shortage of grain from Ukraine, given that there’s nobody much to harvest the existing crop, the next one needs to be planted, too. The world’s main suppliers of fertiliser are Russia and Ukraine; the effects of sanctions on Russia go far further than damaging the Russian economy. The effect on world hunger is likely to be extreme, in ways we haven’t thought about yet. There are many reasons for this war to be over quickly, and for Putin to give himself and his supporters some reason to declare victory and move on (and let the rest of the world get on with their lives).

While the photos of Russian actions in Bucha are terrible (over 300 killed), it seems there are worse reminders in a town called Trostianets.  While terrible things happen in war, there’s a kind of code of half-way decent behaviour: of not targeting civilians; of allowing safe escape routes; of not using rape or torture; of course there will be killings and death, but it’s assumed that those who enlist to be in the armed forces recognise this as a risk. There’s talk of cyber attacks on Ukraine being prevented by western endeavours. While Russian troops have retreated from Kyiv, they are regrouping in the east, and people are warned to evacuate.

We’ve been watching the series Servant of the People starring Zelensky on Netflix. It’s a very good series, although I find the subtitles a bit annoying. It’s nice not to see displays of ostentatious wealth, and to see realistic people.

It’s now Saturday April 9^th.

This morning I heard of the dreadful rocket attack on a railway station in Ukraine – at Kramatorsk.  There were about 4,000 people there, desperate to get away. At least fifty people were killed, including 5 children, and a hundred injured. The bomb carried a chilling message: For the Children. The Kremlin initially claimed a successful strike, and then denied knowledge of it, and claimed the Ukrainians had bombed their own citizens to make the Russians look bad.   How dreadful this conflict is, and how tragic. It seems Putin is using starvation as a weapon of war, just as Stalin did causing the Holodomor (the man-made famine in Ukraine in the 1930’s). It seems Putin will do anything to sap the morale of people who in his view have no right to exist.

I decide to be brave and go to the movies this afternoon. I want to see the art film Napoleon: in the Name of Art, narrated and presented by Jeremy Irons. JD takes me to Brooklyn, and to our amazement we’re in a queue on the Wellington motorway, to go through the tunnel, and I get there just in time. But no worries – it’s shown in a large theatre, and I think there are 4 other people there.

I enjoy the film, although I can see why JD finds Jeremy Irons annoying.  It shows a lot of the beautiful cathedral in Milan, some of the Louvre, and not nearly enough of the Pinacoteca di Brera (which I’ve been to, by the way). It does show Mantegna’s The Dead Christ, which I remember seeing.  It shows film of Napoleon in Egypt, when the Rosetta stone was discovered; he was an avid reader, had good taste in art, and was probably ADHD.  He reminded me of Emperor Augustus, although this analogy is not drawn in the film. Generals he admired were Hannibal and Julius Caesar. There’s no doubt that while he did some good things, he caused many deaths, and there was a great deal of looting. One very large painting by Veronese, the Wedding at Cana, was cut into eight pieces so it could be transported to the Louvre. What sacrilege!  I listened to a podcast about Napoleon in Egypt; I must listen to it again (The Rest is History).  I did enjoy seeing the beautiful paintings and sculptures by Canova, who was one of Napoleon’s favourites (mine too), although Canova didn’t like his benefactor’s looting.  The score to a Te Deum had been found,  that was performed when Napoleon was crowned King of Italy in this magnificent Cathedral in Milan. He crowned himself, by the way – no modesty here! But he did wear a beautiful green velvet robe, and the crown was beautiful too. There was a wonderful soprano singing the Te Deum – what an instrument her voice is!

Afterwards I had a cup of coffee and a lamington.  It was not crazily busy there, just nicely busy. They apologised for being short staffed.  Afterwards I caught a bus to the Wellington Railway Station.  The next bus to the northern suburbs was cancelled, so I contacted JD and he picked me up. There’s a Super rugby match on at the Stadium, and lots of people are going. The Railway Station is quite busy. We went to New World in Thorndon.  Feeling slightly insecure about food, I bought lots of it, including salads for dinner, and Ukrainian biscuits (they’re the ones we used to call “fly cemeteries”; they taste good and come conveniently packed in packets of four within a larger package).

Today’s numbers are not too bad. There are 8,531 new community cases, and there’ve been 11 further deaths. 635 people are in hospital, and of these 15 are in the Hutt Valley and 16 in Wellington. It’s reported that four of the deceased were from the wider Auckland region, one from Waikato, one from the Lakes DHB area, one from Hawke’s Bay, one from Whanganui, two from the Wellington region and one from Canterbury.

On Friday (yesterday) there were 9,906 new cases reported and 10 deaths. The numbers are dropping, but there are still far too many deaths, and obviously some really sick people out there. Having heard from many people who’ve had it, most don’t dismiss it as a mild disease. There also seems to be a nasty kicker, in that many feel better after a day or two, but then feel far worse as the disease returns.  In the US Nancy Pelosi has it.  Many people who have evaded it up till now are now getting it. It’s too soon to let one’s guard down, I fear. In Australia there are still an alarming number of deaths. There’s frustration at airports, too, as people try to check in for Easter flights. Social distancing is ostensibly to blame – or people not being used to travelling? I suspect short-staffing, for whatever reason. People are probably still sick.

In the UK heaps of flights have been cancelled, due to sickness. There’s been some IT glitch causing huge queues at Dover for anyone wishing to cross the English Channel.

In Shanghai, in China 21,000 new cases were announced on Friday. Testing, and strict lockdown measures continued. There are stories of people being locked in their homes. There are also stories about old people dying in hospital because their carers have been diagnosed positive, and taken away.

On Sunday morning I listened to the podcast again entitled Napoleon in Egypt. So why did he go to Egypt? He wanted to invade Great Britain, and someone told him that was a really bad idea. Then he decided to take the ideals of the Revolution to Egypt. It’s most enlightening, making one’s way through art and history.  The podcast filled in many parts missing from the film’s record: the English (under Admiral Nelson) defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Alexandria, and as part of the reparations, demanded that they take the Rosetta Stone, discovered by Napoleon, to the British Museum. Ironically, it was deciphered by Champollion, a French man.  There was a lot of discussion in the podcast about colonisation as opposed to discovering culture, and the way Napoleon really opened up Egyptology and its marvels to a wider world. He was seriously into Arabic, too, taking an Arabic printing press to Egypt. Egypt was hot, and plague-ridden, and there’s talk that the Emperor’s touch could heal the sick, while the emperor himself did not get ill.

Last night we watched the movie The Duchess on Māori television, with Keira Knightley as the ravishingly beautiful duchess, and Joseph Fiennes as her very rich but seriously cruel and nasty husband, the Duke of Devonshire. He does not love her, despite her beauty and intelligence and interest in politics. Her mother is played by Charlotte Rampling, who keeps assuring her that she has very little in the way of choice: if she wishes to keep contact with her children, she must put up with whatever degradations he commands, whether it be caring for his illegitimate child, or putting up with his on-going affair with her best friend in her own house. She does bear him a son (and heir), as a result of his raping her; a reminder here, if one were needed, that women (i.e. daughters) could not inherit.

That’s it for now. Slava Ukraini! Ngā mihi.

It’s now Monday April 4^th, 2022. Kia ora.

This morning I walked up to the local supermarket. It’s fine and warm.  There is still no hand sanitiser in the container at the entry.  The stone fruit is all but gone – there are a few plums, but kiwifruit are back, both green and gold, and mandarins. There are feijoas, at a much more reasonable price, but after watching a woman handle and squeeze each one, I decide not to buy any. I buy strepsils for JD, and I go to buy croissants for lunch, but there are none baked today, so instead I buy Kaiser rolls.  Of course, I buy too much, and it’s quite heavy to carry home. At the supermarket two old dears stand far closer to me than I am comfortable with, while I am waiting for a free checkout, and then while I am at the checkout. They don’t have a trolley, either. I tell the chemist about my recent Covid 19 alert and test recording experience, but she is no help. I make bookings for us to have the flu vaccine, at the Johnsonville Shopping Centre, on Wednesday afternoon.

When I get home, it’s almost time for the 1 pm Covid 19 report.  Today there are 9 deaths, and 10,205 new cases, with 734 people in hospital and 25 in Intensive Care. Of the nine new deaths reported, one person was from Auckland, three were from Waikato, two were from Lakes, two were from the Wellington region, and one was from the Southern region. One person was in their 50s, one was in their 60s, one was in their 70s, two were in their 80s, and four were over 90. There are still 16 people in hospital in Wellington. We’re not told whereabouts the new cases are.

From 11.59pm on Monday there will be no requirement to use My Vaccine Pass, and the vaccine mandates will mostly be eased except for some public and healthcare sector jobs.

From Tuesday some government vaccine mandates for workers will also be removed. Those still covered include health and disability sector workers, including aged-care workers, along with prison staff and border and MIQ workers.

I had an email from Hōhepa, hoping for a Covid 19 update, but the “Good News” subject of the message indicates that they’ve won several awards for their wonderful cheeses.  That’s good news, although I’d be interested to hear how they’re coping with the coronavirus.  New Zealand is to remain in the Red traffic light setting until it’s reviewed again on April 14.

Overseas, the news isn’t good. The UK has coronavirus – now 1/13 people. And there is a new variant XE which is a combination of the BA1 and BA2 variants of the omicron variant of the coronavirus.  Apparently the XE variant is 10% more transmissible.  I think the government here is considering whether adults may need another booster; that would make two jabs to be vaccinated, plus two booster jabs. 

In Shanghai, a city of 25 million people and China’s largest city, there are two lockdowns (now a single lockdown) as authorities battle Covid 19. On Sunday  13,146 new cases were reported. The streets are eerily quiet, in what looks like a scary and complicated motorway system.  That’s the most new cases that have been reported since the initial outbreak in Wuhan, just over three years ago.

In Ukraine, the dreadful war drags on. Since we can see news within hours of its being reported, it seems like it’s been going on for ages, although it’s only a few weeks.  There are fears that Putin’s regrouping his troops; meanwhile, it’s apparent that the parts for fixing tanks and much Russian weaponry are made in Ukraine.  There are dreadful scenes in Bucha, a town near Kyiv, of dead bodies, apparently shot with their hands tied behind their backs. There are fears of mass graves there. It seems that the Russian troops are displaying some Nazi tendencies of their own. And there have been sexual assaults and rape as well. A Ukrainian journalist released 8 days after being taken by Russians talks about his ordeal, and his torture. And for the Russian troops things aren’t much better: evidently they’re shot if they desert, and there’s no medivac system to try to treat their injuries and keep them alive. There’s also a report of Russian soldiers being offered poisoned piroshki by Ukrainian villagers; I can’t find the story now, but at least one Russian died (two, actually), and almost three dozen were taken to Intensive Care in a nearby hospital.

I listened to a podcast this morning that discussed classical history – the Battle of Actium in 31 BC, where Octavian (later Augustus) defeated Antony and Cleopatra and became Emperor of Rome. I’ve also listened to some theorising about Putin, claiming that he’s not going after money now but wants to leave his mark on history by conquering Ukraine, and who knows what else? His war is against the US and NATO.  And it seem the sanctions are really hurting. While indeed they hurt the local people, at least they’re not being bombed in their beds, or attacked, threatened, or shot at.  Putin doesn’t really have a circle of advisers; he’s a dictator, and I guess his “mates” try to stay in favour.

In Hungary, the strong man Viktor Orbán (and Putin supporter) has been re-elected; in Pakistan, Imran Khan has somehow avoided a no-confidence vote. How fortunate we are to live here, where things are pretty quiet, on the whole, and our main worry is how our sports heroes perform, now that they can (mostly) play sport again. And what about the All Blacks? We haven’t heard of them in some time.  Meanwhile, in spite of woman’s liberation in some senses, many of them are desperate to play rugby, or learn ballet, or both.  Women, you don’t have to hurt yourselves doing these crazy things!

It’s now Tuesday April 5^th.

The world is outraged by photo of atrocities committed by Russian troops in Ukraine, specifically in the town of Bucha. There are photographs of Ukrainian citizens that have had their hands tied behind their backs, and then been shot. The scenes are horrifying, of atrocities committed when Russian troops occupied the towns. Now they have left.  There’s a feeling that this takes things to a new level of horror.  The Kremlin claims no one was ill-treated; that’s a lie, again; that the killings were staged. How do you believe anything Putin says?

The Covid 19 report today is not as good as yesterday. The official number of new cases is 14,120, and there have been 23 deaths. There are 692 people in hospital, with 30 of them in Intensive Care.  You get the feeling that Covid 19/omicron is hanging in there, and although we may have peaked, there’s still an alarming number of new cases each day.

It’s now Wednesday April 6^th.

This morning I went to hymn singing. It was lovely, as always. We sang My song is Love Unknown, There is Green Hill Far Away, and O Sacred Head Sore Wounded, to Bach’s beautiful Passion Chorale from his St Matthew Passion.  Afterwards I bought some scones for morning tea and went to the supermarket, where I met someone from my Thursday morning singing. Like me, she misses it and hopes we can sing together again soon.  I still quite nervous – having received a second Bluetooth alert on my phone. One of my hymn singing friends says that her daughter and her boyfriend live in a small flat, but one of them caught Covid 19 and the other didn’t.  Another hymn singing friend says he doesn’t have the Covid ap on his phone, and so doesn’t get alerts. Yesterday JD spoke to a friend in Hawkes Bay who has it and is isolating at home; his wife is just going back to work.  My friend at church says he only knows of three people who’ve had it and who are known parishioners.

We met my son and his wife at Kaizen Café in Porirua.  It’s quite mild today, so we were quite happy to sit at a table in the hallway – where it would often be draughty.  I had an omelette and my special – rhubarb shortcake.

I miss the 1 pm report, no doubt enjoying my cheese omelette. I learnt two major things: Dr Bloomfield is leaving his position as Director-General of  Health in July, and, in an interview, Trump admitted that he lost the presidential election in November 2020.  Not that it was his fault, of course; it was rigged. That would seem to be like a public admission of guilt. It’s a shame Dr Bloomfield is leaving before his term is up, but who can blame him? The stress must have been very difficult, over the past two and a bit years. Although he made mistakes, he earned the confidence and trust of most if not all New Zealanders, and he and Prime Minister Ardern made a great tag team, cheerfully fronting up to the podium most days to tell us the latest news, and to cheer us up, especially though the first scary lockdown.

The 1 pm report tells that there are 12,575 new cases reported, and there’ve been a further 15 deaths. There are 654 people in hospital, and 23 of them are in Intensive Care.  It’s reported that there were new cases of Covid-19 in: Northland (619), Auckland (2147), Waikato (1101), Bay of Plenty (604), Lakes (299), Hawke’s Bay (602), MidCentral (678), Whanganui (321), Taranaki (437), Tairāwhiti (128), Wairarapa (149), Capital and Coast (775), Hutt Valley (464), Nelson Marlborough (436), Canterbury (2108), South Canterbury (249), Southern (1368), West Coast (81), and nine in unknown locations.

On Thursday JD and I had our flu vaccinations at the Johnsonville Shopping Centre.  There weren’t many there, to my surprise, although there was plenty of room. The numbers at 1 pm were as follows: there were 11,364 new community cases, and 51 new cases at the border. There were 639 cases in hospital, and there were 13 deaths.  I was upset to get a call from Hōhepa to learn that my daughter had been exposed to someone who had subsequently tested positive for Covid 19.  Accordingly, she will have RAT tests on day 3 and day 7.   This is quite upsetting; Covid 19 is still very much with us. (To follow up: her RAT day 3 test was negative on Friday morning. DV).

On that note, I’ll end for now. Slava Ukraini! Ngā mihi.

Today is Saturday April 2^nd, 2022. Kia ora!

I checked my phone, and Daylight Saving in New Zealand ends at 3 am tomorrow morning.  I did not know this; usually it ends with Easter (or so I thought).  I also check when Easter is, and Good Friday is April 15^th. I needn’t have stressed about posting my daughter’s present after all.

Today’s Covid 19 report, is still better, in terms of new cases and hospitalisations inching downwards, but there are still an alarming number of deaths each day. There are officially 11,560 new cases today, but there have been 23 deaths. There are 678 people in hospital, and 30 in Intensive Care.

Among the cases, most – 1931 – are from Auckland region, followed by Canterbury, which is reporting 1866 positive cases on Saturday. Other regions reporting positive cases include Northland (521), Waikato (1004), Bay of Plenty (650), Lakes (285), Hawke’s Bay (588), MidCentral (663), Whanganui (293), Taranaki (428), Tairāwhiti (141), Wairarapa (97), Capital & Coast (820), Hutt Valley (479), Nelson Marlborough (480), South Canterbury (248), Southern (995) and West Coast (71).

Of the deaths, it’s reported that one person was 30, two were in their 50s, one in their 60s, one in their 70s, 13 in their 80s and five were over the age of 90. One was from Northland, seven from Auckland, two from Lakes DHB, two from MidCentral, seven from Wellington, one from the Nelson and Marlborough region, one from Canterbury and two from Southern. Twelve were male and 11 were female. This brings the total deaths in the outbreak to 378.

We watched a movie on the new free-to-view channel, Eden (formerly Choice).  It has some gems – this movie, Silver Linings Playbook, with Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence and Robert de Niro; they are also running an Australian series on Thursday nights called The Newsreader.  As I’ve already seen most of the movies on Māori Television, it’s quite nice to have another channel to watch, although the long ad breaks are really annoying and they’ve done something to the very intense primary colours used in the ads.

It’s now Sunday April 3^rd.

At 3 am this morning our time went back one hour. I haven’t changed my watch yet, but my computer and my phone tell me the correct time. This morning I zoomed into an online service with some St Anne’s parishioners – the last in this Lenten series.  Next Sunday, I will either go to church in person, or zoom into its service.  It has been a treat to zoom into St Anne’s services.

The Covid 19 report today is much better, again, apart from the still alarming number of deaths – 18 new deaths. But the new case numbers are down to 4 digits at 8,810; there are 690 hospitalisations, and 26 are in Intensive Care.

Of the deaths reported, two were from Northland, seven were from the Auckland region, three were from Waikato, one was from Whanganui, one was from Hawke’s Bay, one was from the Wellington region, two were from Canterbury, and one was from Southern. One person was in their 30s, three were in their 60s, eight were in their 70s, three were in their 80s, and three were over 90.

On Sunday the new community cases were in Northland (385), Auckland (1,555), Waikato (729), Bay of Plenty (414), Lakes (226), Hawke’s Bay (420), MidCentral (502), Whanganui (222), Taranaki (342), Tairāwhiti (102), Wairarapa (91), Capital and Coast (635), Hutt Valley (389), Nelson Marlborough (364), Canterbury (1,463), South Canterbury (172), Southern (735)and West Coast (57) – while seven were in unknown locations. That’s quite a drop for Wellington and Hawkes Bay.

There’s a stark warning, though: in New Zealand, experts said the second wave of Omicron infections could hit in the next two to three months, and cases could begin to rise again as early as May.

In the UK, almost 5 million people have Covid 19 – the BA2 variant of the omicron variant.  Will we ever escape this thing? 

In the US, Ginni Thomas’s (wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas) access to the White House when the former guy was president is alarming, as are her text messages. Someone in a podcast said he thought she was insane.  She may be, but the extent of her influence, and her access, and the identity of her spouse, is alarming. More of her texts are being revealed and analysed.  It seems that Trump’s involvement in the insurrection is becoming more and more certain as a White House phone log has a significant gap (7 hours 37 minutes), and it’s thought he used burner phones. More and more folk are spilling the beans about that event and the events leading up to it.  It’s all very concerning – and amusing; meanwhile another GOP Senator has echoed Trump’s request to Putin to dish dirt on Joe Biden.  Republicans: I see many off-ramps here. Won’t you take them?

The Ukraine situation is still terrible. The Ukrainians still seem too be amazingly brave, and loyal to their ever inspiring president, Zelensky.  It’s said the area around Kyiv has been liberated by Ukrainian troops, but the retreating Russian troops have left a huge trail of destruction behind them – dead bodies, mines, potholed roads, mines under dead bodies, and general destruction of any buildings.  As it was said in one podcast I listened to, if they surrendered Mariupol, then where would surrender stop?  Meanwhile, although safe passage out of Mariupol has been promised, it does not eventuate.  Shooting and bombings continue.  Putin has called for more conscripts, and it’s feared Russian forces are regrouping for a new attack. 

The Ukrainians seem to be amazingly well organised.  They’re still being supplied by the US, and they seem to be using the stuff they’re getting very wisely.  Every country has some crazy people, but if Ukraine has them, I’m not seeing them to date, despite the huge wave of violence and destruction unleashed by Putin. It was reported on Friday night that Ukrainian forces had struck an oil base in a Russian city; I would have cautioned against such retaliation, but then the irony struck me, of hurting the Russians where it really hurts, seeing that oil is their greatest export, reduced as it is through sanctions.  Not every country has imposed sanctions on Russia.

In most of my lifetime, we have enjoyed peace, or, in other words, no major conflicts. I am truly grateful for this. I was born during the Korean War, but the Great Depression of the 1930’s and the Second World War had had a huge effect on my parents.  For a long time I feared being bombed, until I was old enough to rationalise this fear and realise it was extremely unlikely to happen. Then there was the nuclear crisis and the Cuban Missile Crisis, the war in Vietnam, and much later, the dreadful wars in the Balkans. Then there was the Iraq War, the Syrian Civil War, and the latest war in Afghanistan. There were many other conflicts, of course.  Compulsory conscription ended here not long before we were married; JD was warned that if he joined the Territorials, he would undoubtedly be sent to Vietnam.  I am most grateful that I didn’t have to see any of my sons go to wars or conflicts, although I’m sure they’d have conducted themselves admirably. My father-in-law was in the British army, and the Normandy landings, and I’m sure he was greatly affected by his experiences.  So, by and large, conflict has been at a distance. A friend of one of my sons did two tours of duty in Afghanistan, and a nephew from Australia was there; thankfully none of mine were. That’s a particular grief and concern that I haven’t had to deal with.

For me, it’s not that I take this for granted:  goodness knows, we’ve got nuclear conflict, climate change’s devastation, and the coronavirus to be very concerned about, but the conflict in Ukraine does feel like one of those pivotal moments, which changes everything.  We’ve had rather too many lately, Brexit, Trump’s Presidency, and Megxit to name a few; but this latest needless conflict brings new challenges and shortages to an already challenged planet:  while the poor people of Ukraine watch their livelihoods totally upended, their homes destroyed, and many deaths, the rest of us give thanks and worry about the higher cost of fuel and food, and shortages (nothing, really, compared to the shortages in Russia).  It’s a great sadness, that this Easter, when we celebrate our Lord’s crucifixion and resurrection, we’ll also be thinking of, and praying for, those brave souls in Ukraine, and hoping they can piece their lives together again soon, in some kind of safety and security. 

How does Putin stop this conflict? At some point, he should declare victory and move on. 

It does seem strange to me that in this time when so many people want to relive past hurts, and apologies are seen to not go far enough, many are apparently so unforgiving.  Easter is a time of grace and forgiveness; prime Minister Ardern exhorted us all to be kind; how, then, is there so much unkindness in the world? I’m thinking immediately of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, and a certain young man (not so young as to not know better), not going to his grandfather’s memorial service.  I’m also thinking about all the criticism of Prince Andrew’s escorting his mother, Her Majesty the Queen, into Westminster Abbey for this service. Sadly, that became a focus of the service. I still haven’t seen a recording of the actual service, although there’ve been plenty of the British Royal Family arriving and departing. There are many other examples, alas, of such cruelty.

For many of us, Easter is a time that reminds us of the grace, love and forgiveness we have received.  I took a RAT test for Covid 19 this afternoon, and it was negative.  I’m thankful for that too. Peace be with you. Slava Ukraini! Ngā mihi.

It’s now Thursday March 31^st, 2022. Kia ora!

This morning I went to Tai Chi at Mana. It was the last session for the term. It was a lovely, fine, sunny day; yesterday’s fog has lifted.  JD had a RAT test this morning; thankfully, it was negative.  This Tai Chi group doesn’t meet again till May 5, after Easter, school holidays and Anzac Day.  I suspect I won’t be able to go then.

Afterwards, we decided to try out the new Transmission Gully motorway.  We drove north from Mana, on a largely deserted road (I don’t think I’ve ever seen it so deserted!) State Highway 59 (formerly State Highway 1). This morning the Dompost had a really nice lift-out about the new highway; I read most, but not all of it. We drive north to just past Paekakariki, where I assume that we can turn right to head south on the new road, but I am proved wrong: we can drive under the new road, and around a new roundabout, and then head north again, or south back the way we came. This entrance is not finished yet – I assume it will be, eventually.

We head north on the Expressway (Motorway Ends); what I wonder, is the difference between a motorway and an expressway?  We drive north, taking the Raumati Exit; this lets us turn around the roundabout and head south towards Wellington. We aren’t the only ones – several cars turned off at the QE2 Park/McKays crossing turn off; now I know why.

The new Transmission Gully road is amazing. It is quite steep in places; there are three lanes (or a slow lane) in steep uphill places.  It is quite wonderful, although it does need resealing in places.  There’s some confusion with the signage around the Raumati turnoff; but the new road is very pleasing. There’s quite a lot of traffic, but no queues.  Easter will be interesting! I assume there’ll be a queue somewhere, but perhaps not until you get to Otaki, now. A comment has been received: is it faster? What a stupid question. I’d say it would be, since it’s more direct, and there’s no stopping, although if it were really busy the old road might be faster.

We want to go to Nada in Tawa on the way home, so we don’t take the Porirua exit (although there is a sign saying Tawa this exit); I suspect this exit goes to Kenepuru, where, from the Kenepuru end, there is some very impressive construction.  We drive on and find ourselves on the old State Highway One, i.e. the new road (now SH1) merges with the old motorway between Wellington and Porirua. We take the old (existing) Tawa exit, and make our way to Nada.  While they were using a food truck for a few weeks, it’s evident that they’ve made some changes inside to the café, making it feel safer to buy takeaways, with more space for sitting down if you needed to (there are also tables outside).  It’s not a very attractive place to sit, but there is a coffee machine, and china cups, as well as takeaway cups.  There are no cheese scones today, or cream donuts, so I choose salmon and cucumber sandwiches instead.  It seems that eating fish, or taking an Omega 3 supplement, offers some protection against cataracts.

Apparently a police car got stuck in gravel on the new Transmission Gully road, after ticketing several drivers (presumably for exceeding the 100k speed limit.  You’re not allowed to stop on this road; and indeed, why would you? It’s separated, so no head-on collisions; now, the remaining SH1 between Linden and Johnsonville should surely be three lanes each way? There’s a very narrow stretch behind Johnsonville; I don’t know how you’d widen that.

Today’s Covid 19 report is much as we’ve come to expect, with still an alarming number of deaths, while there are fewer new cases overall, and fewer hospitalisations. There are 15,520 new cases, but there’ve been 22 deaths. There are 830 people in hospital, and 28 of them are in Intensive Care.  Today I’ve received no emails from Metlink to say that services are cancelled.

Of the people whose deaths were reported on Thursday, one was from Northland, ten were from Auckland, one was from Waikato, two were from Bay of Plenty, two were from Lakes, two were from Wellington, and four were from Canterbury. Two were in their 50s, four were in their 60s, three were in their 70s, six were in their 80s and seven were over 90. Fifteen were female and seven were male. Meanwhile, hospitalisations were declining, particularly in the Northern region. Apparently one third of those hospitalised are children or young people, while the average age of patients remains 56 – it has hovered around this mark. (Correction: about 1/3 of people with Covid 19 are children. Anecdotally, they can be quite sick).

It’s reported that there were new community cases in Northland (662), Auckland (2708), Waikato (1352), Bay of Plenty (825), Lakes (348), Hawke’s Bay (917), MidCentral (812), Whanganui (360), Taranaki (608), Tairāwhiti (201), Wairarapa (146), Capital and Coast (1009), Hutt Valley (587), Nelson Marlborough (729), Canterbury (2379), South Canterbury (305), Southern (1212), West Coast (77); and 13 in unknown locations.

JD and I walked up to the local store in the late afternoon, on this beautiful day. Imagine my shock, on returning, to get another Bluetooth alert on my phone, this time through the Covid tracer ap.  It said that someone had tested positive for Covid 19, and the exposure was on Tuesday 29 March. I checked my Covid 19 diary, and I hadn’t recorded any locations that day.  But I had been on a lovely picnic at a park in Porirua with two of my sons and two of my grandchildren. We were outside the entire time; I suspect my phone must have been close enough to an infected person’s phone to cause the alert. I contacted them both; one wasn’t pinged at all. I think of all the places I’ve been in the last few days – not many, mind, that I would think would be far more risky. The alert tells me to monitor symptoms for 10 days.  I’m already doing that! We all are!  I don’t have to isolate, or be tested this time, although I may take a RAT test. That is just so annoying; every time one thinks I should get out more, something like this happens.  I am missing out in the Pre-Easter Lenten rituals; I guess I am doing my own version of Lent, by not taking part in things I would like to take part in.

It’s now Friday April 1^st.

Someone from Access comes to do some housework. It seems as though it’s ages since anyone came, so that’s nice, although it just gets harder and harder to “prepare”: changing the towels and putting the soiled ones on to wash; changing the bedlinen and putting the soiled sheets on to wash; putting the other washing on; folding and putting away JD’s clean washing; emptying rubbish bins; checking the dirty dishes are loaded in the dishwasher, and general tidying up. Still, it’s good to have vacuuming done and the bathrooms cleaned and the kitchen floor cleaned.  I just find the whole business, which is meant to be a help, very tiring, and I wish it were easier.

The Covid 19 report is improving, in terms of numbers, apart from a continuing high death rate.  The total of new cases today is 13,475, but there have been 17 further deaths. There are 764 people in hospital (a welcome reduction, but 31 in Intensive Care. So that’s still mixed. It’s alarming that people are still dying with this illness. Today I get messages from Metlink to say that some services have been cancelled because of illness due to omicron.

Overseas, some interesting things are happening. Activities around the events of January 6 in the US are heating up, as more and more evidence emerges and the US Department of Justice gets more involved in investigations and perhaps trials. Madison Cawthorn has distinguished himself with his admission of invitations to orgies, and use of a key bump of cocaine. The latter had many of us rushing to google “key bump”. It seems that this has aroused Republican displeasure, and the need for Kevin McCarthy to have a chat with Cawthorn. Well, fancy that!  The head of the CIA has been diagnosed with Covid 19; President Biden has had another booster injection; I am worried that he’s been close to people with Covid 19; he must also be exhausted from his recent trip to Europe, finishing in Poland. Trump also asked Putin for information about  Joe Biden.  Really!  Many people are shocked, including some Republicans.

Meanwhile, with regard to the situation in Ukraine, both GCHQ in the UK and the White House claim that Putin’s not being given correct information about the failure of Russian troops in the war. Well, we’ve all seen that, but I guess it’s official now. It’s said that there’s safe transportation out of Mariupol for its citizens, but I read later that Russians had interfered with 25 buses taking Ukrainian citizens to safety. It seems there are attempts at negotiations, but no one trusts Putin.  Russian troops have evidently left Chernobyl, because the soldiers there were getting sick from the radiation.  Well after the nuclear catastrophe, the area (the “exclusion zone”) remains radioactive, all these years later. Apparently the Russian troops did not know about the nuclear disaster in Chernobyl in April 1986, and wore no protective clothing. It’s also said that Russian troops shot down some of their own planes.  Some Ukrainian areas have been “liberated” by Ukrainian forces, but they fear being re-captured by the Russians.  There are mines, too; in some areas, drones are being used to detect them.

I listen to Charlie Sykes on the Bulwark podcast most weekdays – although I avoid chats that are about how awful the Democrats are – but I have been appalled this past week to hear Charlie advertising cigars.  Surely smoking cigars is a health risk, but Charlie endorses them!  I do appreciate the “free” podcast, and I know most podcasts carry some advertising, some of it more annoying than others; you have to pay to avoid the ads; which I don’t intend to do. I just felt that Charlie had sunk to new depths. Counselling, cereals, vitamins, cheaper insurance etc I’m prepared to put up with.

That’s it for now. Slava Ukraini! Ngā mihi.

It’s now Saturday March 26^th. Kia ora!

This morning I listen to various podcasts about Russian history and US politics. I learn that in New Zealand Canterbury is under severe pressure from Covid 19. The 1 pm report is the worst for deaths so far – there have been 20 in the past 24 hours, including that of someone in their 40’s. The total of new cases is 14,175, and there are 841 people in hospital, with 27 of them in Intensive Care.

Of those who died, one was in their 40s, one in their 50s, three in their 60s, five in their 70s, six people in their 80s, and three in their 90s. Most of the deaths were from Auckland – with six deaths. Five were from Waikato and two were from Mid Central, while one death each was recorded in Northland, Bay of Plenty, Tairāwhiti, Hawke’s Bay, Wellington and Nelson Marlborough. We’re not given details of the locations of the new cases.

It’s reported that today is the first day of the relaxed rules, including no gathering limits for outdoor activities and events, as well as an increased 200-person limit for indoor gatherings. There is also no longer any requirement to scan in or for a business to display a QR code poster. Some of us felt a degree of protection given by these rules.

Yesterday was Sunday March 27^th, a day of rest.

I woke up early and then went back to sleep, not waking until 9:10 am. That’s late for me! Although I was very glad of the extra sleep, I felt quite discombobulated. At 10 am I zoomed into St Anne’s service. It was lovely, and I feel I’m getting to know some of the lovely people there. 

I made some notes, but other than that, I didn’t blog. China Covid 19 cases in Shanghai. UK 1 m cases today. Kherson taken back. Russian troops from Georgia.

On Sunday there were only 10,239 new case reported, and 4 deaths.

In the early evening I learnt that my daughter’s second RAT test was negative, as were the RAT tests for all the residents, so that’s a big relief.

Monday’s Covid 19 figures weren’t so bad: there were officially 12,882 new community cases of Covid-19, 861 hospitalisations and 11 deaths reported.

It’s now Tuesday March 29^th.

I’ve been distracted (by family!)  Today’s Covid 19 is quite bad, after not so bad reports for the last two days – so much so that some organisations are starting up their activities again. Today there are officially 17,148 new cases, and there have been 34 deaths (over the past 10 days). There is now a total of 303 deaths. There are 842 people in hospital, and 26 of them are in Intensive Care. That figure of 34 deaths seems much higher than we’ve been used to. 24 of these people were over 70. It seems that Christchurch is taking over from Auckland as the Covid 19 capital of New Zealand.  I get a newsletter from Radio New Zealand each day, but sometimes Covid 19 is not even mentioned. Schools are still being badly affected by Covid 19.

In Victoria, it’s reported that Daniel Andrews, the Premier, has tested positive for Covid 19.

This morning I learn from the UK’s Guardian that Roman Abramovich, one of the negotiators, thinks he and a Ukrainian counterpart have been poisoned (not in Russia). This story is very confusing – I read the reporting several times, and I’m still confused. Another new website (the NZ Herald) says that Abramovich jetted between Moscow, Istanbul and Kyiv. Well, I doubt if you can fly to Kyiv, even in a private jet, at present; and why would Istanbul (Turkey) be involved? There are more questions than answers here.

It’s now Wednesday March 30^th.

This  morning I went to hymn singing. It was lovely, as always. We sang, amongst other things, O for a closer walk with God, and Love Unknown.  I went to the supermarket afterwards, but there are still several things not available there, so it was a bit frustrating.  It was very foggy in Northern Wellington this morning.

It’s reported that the Prime Minister of Israel, Naftali Bennet, has Covid 19. I listened to a report from Dr John Campbell, where he is alarmed at the increase of Covid 19 cases in the British Isles: in England, 1/16 people is positive; in Scotland, it’s 1/11.  I watched various recordings of Prince Philip’s Memorial Service at Westminster Abbey, and I saw no masks worn there, although Dr Campbell saw one. The odious Prince Andrew escorted the Queen into the church, although he did not sit beside her. Hey, whatever one may think, Prince Philip was his father too.  The person who wasn’t there was Prince Harry (and Prince Philip walked beside him and his brother Prince William at princess Diana’s funeral). The attendance which did shock me was that of the UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson. He showed up as shambolic as ever. He hadn’t even bothered to comb his hair. And what was he doing last year, when Prince Philip died, and only 30 people could attend his funeral? Oh, he was having a party at Downing St. I’m sure he doesn’t recall it – oh wasn’t there an apology to Her Majesty?  A very poor show, if you ask me.

In Shanghai, a city of 26 million people, there are partial lockdowns and the authorities plan to test the entire city for Covid 19. It was reported on Tuesday that there were more than 2,600 new infections, after just a handful in early March. On the strength of this lockdown, the price of oil fell.

In New Zealand, today, there are 15,918 new cases of Covid 19, and a further 14 deaths. There are 817 people in hospital, and 24 in Intensive Care.  The numbers of new cases were much reduced at the weekend, prompting some organisations to restart their (paused) activities again; but the number of deaths is still alarming, as is the numbers not at school at present. JD and I both got texts inviting us to make appointments to have our free flu vaccinations; I’m wondering where they will hold them, this year. Perhaps in the Johnsonville Mall? Of the deaths, four were from the Auckland region; four from Waikato; one from Lakes, one from Wellington, one from Nelson Marlborough, one from Canterbury, one from South Canterbury and one from Southern. Five people were in their 70s, six in their 80s and three were in their 90s. One was female and 13 were male.

There were new community cases in: Northland (634), Auckland (2691), Waikato (1508), Bay of Plenty (987), Lakes (438), Hawke’s Bay (892), MidCentral (851), Whanganui (399), Taranaki (649), Tairāwhiti (183), Wairarapa (152), Capital & Coast (1054), Hutt Valley (599), Nelson Marlborough (605), Canterbury (2535), South Canterbury (293), Southern (1386), West Coast (55); and seven in unknown locations.

After all the fuss, the new Transmission Gully route is now officially open. A Māori blessing has been performed, and I assume we’re good to go, until the complaints start coming through.  I must admit I find some of the blessings of inanimate objects a little strange (and perhaps unnecessary, to me, anyway).

I’ve been insisting on watching The Gilded Age on Tuesday nights, but there wasn’t a new episode last night – there are just 9 episodes in Series One; apparently. I should have realised. Instead, we watched the movie 9 Minutes to Midnight, a preposterous story but evidently based on true events. Really, Dame Judi Dench, why, one wonders, do you lower yourself to do this kind of thing?  On Sunday evening we watched The Straight Story on Māori television, directed by David Lynch.  I had not seen it when it was on release.  What a strange film! Again, it was based on true events, just going to prove that reality really can be stranger than fiction.  The colours were odd, in a Stanley Kubrick kind of way; what upset me the most was the dreadful poverty, especially of Alvin’s brother Lyle. 

I have finished reading The Suitcase again. It’s been nice to borrow the book from the library; I read three excerpts in the LRB, but it’s much nicer (and less confusing) to read the actual book.  What a story it is!  It reminds me how chaotic some European lives were during the two World Wars and afterwards.

This brings me back to the dreadfully sad situation in Ukraine, where, although the Russian forces are demonstrably failing against the Ukrainians, Putin has “won”, in that he holds dreadful weapons – nuclear, chemical, thermobaric – and threatens to use them.  I sincerely doubt that he’s going to rebuild the homes and facilities that he’s destroyed.  So – even if he doesn’t get everything he wants, he’ll no doubt get some of it, and will at some stage declare victory and move on.

There seems to be no doubt that his armed forces were seriously unprepared for what has eventuated: were his people  telling him lies, because that’s what he wanted to hear? He’s lost several generals (6?) and senior commanders; you have to wonder what they were doing, being in harm’s way.  Much of the equipment has been damaged by Ukrainians, and it seems much of it wasn’t in good shape to start with. Evidently there’ve been problems with supplies, food and fuel, and the Russians aren’t even repatriating their dead servicemen, unless they’re generals, of course.  Other nations around Ukraine are worried –  who’ll be next?  And there’s a huge refugee problem.  So how do you stop this machine?  President Zelensky still makes daily broadcasts begging the West to do more to help, but it seems, while suffering is dreadful, the Ukrainians are doing all right against the Russian bear.  It seems the Russians are putting out peace feelers –  and the west is duly sceptical, as well they might be. Last night it was reported that Putin was sending 1,000 mercenaries to Ukraine.

That’s it for now. Slava Ukraini! Nga mihi.

It’s now Thursday March 24^th, 2022. Kia ora!

This morning I listened to a NY Times podcast (The Daily) which argued that while sanctions against Russian oligarchs have not really hurt them in the past, this time is different. I must listen to it again; sometimes I’m half-listening when I really want to get back to sleep: I tend to miss the really interesting bit, and have to re-hear the whole thing.  I look up ABC news, and there is an alarming headline, along the lines of Russia regarding peace-keeping forces in Ukraine as an attack by NATO?  It sounded ominous, whatever it was. It’s gone now, so I may have mis-interpreted it. A senior Kremlin official, Anatoly Chubais, has resigned over the invasion of Ukraine. Putin is now insisting on what he terms as “unfriendly countries” paying for gas in roubles. What does this mean? I’ll have to ask an economist.  He says they have to “buy” roubles to make payment.  That’ll be better for Russia.

I listened to the Bulwark podcast this morning, in which Charlie Sykes was taking to David Corn, bureau chief of “Mother Jones”, and co-author with Michael Isikoff of the book “Russian Roulette”. This book, which I have read, was published during Robert Mueller’s time as Special Counsel, and explores some of Trump’s links to Russia. He’s just written an article called “How Trump and his Crew Boost Putin’s Disinformation”. Here’s a link:

How Trump and His Crew Boost Putin’s Disinformation

He also broke the story about Russian television requesting replaying of Tucker Carlson’s praise for Putin on Fox News.

I glance at this morning’s newspaper. Others, like me, are concerned about the mandates being lifted. But I feel that I’m living in an alternate universe. Dr Bloomfield claims there is no mental health crisis. 

This morning I went to Tai Chi out at Mana. It was raining, but warm, and there was a great turn out. It was the penultimate class of Term One!  It was lovely, as always. I’m always glad that I’ve made the effort to go. Even the Dr Lam form makes sense to me now.  I see a friend there, who has a daughter at Hōhepa in Otaihanga. Some of the staff there have been affected by Covid 19, and she’s frustrated that family members aren’t allowed to visit at present. Afterwards I wait outside for JD to pick me up. It’s only drizzling now, but the outside seats are too wet to sit on, so instead I lean against a railing while checking my phone for news.

Everyone here is affected by Covid 19.  The 1 pm report is – well- slightly better than yesterday’s; there are officially only 18,423 new cases,  and there have been a further 11 deaths. There are 913 people in hospital, and 28 are in Intensive Care. Of the deaths, two were in their 50s, one person was in their 70s, four people were in their 80s, and four people were in their 90s. Six were men and five were women. Two were from the Auckland region, two from Bay of Plenty, six from Waikato, and one from the Wellington region.

The new community cases were in Northland (674), Auckland (3629), Waikato (1643), Bay of Plenty (987), Lakes (483), Hawke’s Bay (1055), MidCentral (876), Whanganui (313), Taranaki (655), Tairāwhiti (326), Wairarapa (249), Capital & Coast (1200), Hutt Valley (627), Nelson Marlborough (709), Canterbury (3150), South Canterbury (319), Southern (1459), West Coast (57); and 12 in unknown locations. Wellington and Hawkes Bay continue to be very hard hit.

In Hawkes Bay, health services are under extreme pressure, with 1,000 new cases each day, and presently 40 in Hawkes Bay Hospital, with 4 in Intensive Care.  This is “worst case scenario” stuff, with staff being redeployed as needed to cover for others. Taranaki has its first Covid death as cases pass 600 per day. Access were supposed to provide some home help tomorrow morning, but they’ve cancelled, so I’ll go shopping instead.

It’s reported that Tump has rescinded his endorsement of GOP candidate Mo Brooks, saying that he was “too woke”; Evidently Mo Brooks was polling poorly, so Trump dropped him. Brooks got his own back by saying that Trump asked him to rescind the November 2020 election, in September 2021!  I guess that explains the pillow guy’s seemingly absurd claims that Trump would return to the White House.  That has caused some excitement in US politics – Trump had few more ardent supporters than Mo Brooks, who addressed the crowd at the Stop the Steal rally on January 6, turning up in battle gear, and vowing they were going to “kick ass”.  That’s quite a turnaround. His main sin, other than being a loser, was to say it was time to move on from the 2020 Presidential Election.

This morning I listened to some very depressing podcasts, about Putin/Xi alliance, and the US’s belief that Ukraine will lose, they don’t want to start a nuclear war, and a thesis that they could have supplied so much more useful equipment.  It reminds me of so many American tragedies such as mass shootings, where they weep and grieve – they’re such kind people on the whole – but absolutely won’t back any gun control legislation; in fact, they are freeing it up. I know there are loud voices against such moves, but they’re defeated in most places. In the US, they’re free to live with ever-present death, and the so-called “pro life” people are not prepared in any way to improve the quality of the lives they’re determined to “save” by denying abortion rights. This makes me very sad.

Another beef: Israel has an Iron dome, to protect it from Palestinian attacks. Why doesn’t Ukraine have an Iron Dome?  Given that President Zelensky is Jewish, you’d think Israel would be out to help.  But they don’t want to annoy Russia; there are still many Russian Jews, so they’re reluctant to help, fearing worse reprisals.  They’re conflicted, it seems. So are  India and Pakistan, and so is Senator Bernie Sanders.         

It seems that, unlike previously, the current sanctions have more teeth and thus more effect.  Countries are coming up with creative ways to deal with Russian oligarch’s super yachts. But I guess it often becomes an economic issue for those who would service these yachts.  The Russian economy is feeling the pinch (ha! Ha!) since there’s a shortage of sugar.  14,000 Russians are in prison for protesting against the invasion. There’s a story in the New Yorker magazine about many Russians (intellectuals) who left Russia in disgust, only to be greeted with disdain because they’re Russian! 

Russian ship was destroyed by the Ukrainians at Berdyansk! It made quite a spectacle.

This morning we went shopping at New World in Thorndon. It was quite busy there. We bought salad, raspberries, coffee beans, potato gratin, washing powder, tonic water, and bread.  On the way home I picked up a book I’d had on reserve at the library for ages: The Suitcase, by Frances Sarah Stoners. It looks new!  I am looking forward to reading it, after 3 excerpts were published in the LRB. It’s taken a long time for Wellington City Library to buy a copy.

The 1 pm report is better and worse: there are 15,871 new cases reported, but there have been 13 further deaths, bringing the official death total to 234. One of today’s deaths was a person in their 30’s. It’s reported that the new cases are in Auckland (2982), Northland (558), Waikato (1,432), Bay of Plenty (1,024), Lakes (420), Hawke’s Bay (873), MidCentral (814), Whanganui (330), Taranaki (591), Tairāwhiti (224), Wairarapa (251), Capital and Coast (1,063), Hutt Valley (567), Nelson Marlborough (519), Canterbury (2,659), South Canterbury (251), Southern (1245), West Coast (59), and 9 cases where the location is unknown. There are 899 people in hospital, and 27 are in Intensive Care. So the numbers of new cases reported and hospitalisations are slowly reducing, but there is still an alarming number of deaths.

This afternoon new.com.au reports that Russia says that if NATO peace-keeping forces enter Ukraine, that would mean nuclear war.  This echoes a headline in ABC news yesterday.

It has become apparent that Ginni Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Judge Clarence Thomas, had a text message exchange (29 messages) with Trump’s then chief of staff, Mark Meadows, in which she urged him to overthrow the presidential election, to use one of Trump’s lawyers, Sidney Powell (whose now been disciplined herself), sent a Q-Anon video, said the Biden crime family should be sent to Gitmo, and invoked the name of the Lord (King of Kings) in seeing that this fine work should continue.  She not only had this text message exchange, but also attended the January 6 Stop the Steal Rally. This news has many Americans spluttering. Clarence Thomas did not recuse himself from the appeal to the Supreme Court about the White House records being withheld from the January 6 Select Committee – in fact he was the only dissenter, all his colleagues ruling that such documents should be released.  You would think that of all people, a Supreme Court Justice would understand the legal ramifications of his situation, and when it would be appropriate to recuse himself. People were already shocked at how US GOP Senators had treated KBW’s Senate hearing, by asking her all kinds of ridiculous questions; and, by the way, DJT is suing Hillary Clinton et al for claims that they rigged the 2016 Presidential Election (Hillary should be very afraid), but news of Ginni’s text messages has really knocked all that out of the water. US politics is indeed very messy; let’s get back to more normal partisan bickering (when was that, by the way?)

 In Ukraine, the Russians have bombed a theatre in Mariupol where people were sheltering, and there have been 300 casualties. Apparently Mariupol was originally settled by Greek people! Putin claims that Russia is a victim of “cancel culture”. It’s reported that many Russians are leaving Russia, taking the train from St Petersburg to Helsinki. It’s reported that a Russian soldier was overheard boasting to a mate that his tank had driven over his commander (presumably on a stolen call phone).  It seems, despite all the bombing, that Ukrainian morale is still high (except in Mariupol) and that of Russian troops is severely lacking. I listen again to a podcast about the Barbarossa invasion of Russia by the Germans in June 1941, and all the problems with that, including a lack of morale on the part of the German invaders as they grew colder, realised they were under-supplied, and did not replicate the initial successes of Blitzkreig. It seems that Putin’s forces are now replicating te difficulties faced by German troops when they invaded Russia in 1941. For all the terrible suffering of the Russian people, the Germans did not prevail.

That’s it for now. Slava Ukraini! Ngā mihi.

It’s now Tuesday March 22^nd, 2022. Kia ora.

It’s now early afternoon on Tuesday. The 1 pm Covid 19 report is out, and it’s pretty dire. There are almost 21,000 (20,907) new community cases reported, (that would be an increase over the last few days), and there have been 15 further deaths, 8 men and 7 women. There are 1,016 people in hospital, and 25 of these are in Intensive Care. It’s reported that of the 15 people who died with Covid, nine were from Auckland, three from Waikato, and three were from Wellington. One of these people was in their 50s, three in their 60s, six in their 70s, and five were in their 80s. That makes 199 deaths from Covid 19. It’s reported that today’s community cases are in Northland (802), Auckland (4291), Waikato (1882), Bay of Plenty (1218), Lakes (594), Hawke’s Bay (1243), MidCentral (954), Whanganui (399), Taranaki (636), Tairāwhiti (382), Wairarapa (323), Capital and Coast (1377), Hutt Valley (808), Nelson Marlborough (683), Canterbury (3,488), South Canterbury (318), Southern (1439) and the West Coast (50). The locations of 20 of today’s reported cases were unknown. There were 34 Covid-19 cases detected at the border.

The 1016 people hospitalised with Covid-19 are at Northland (28), North Shore (170), Middlemore (227), Auckland (210), Waikato (79), Bay of Plenty (39), Lakes (10), Tairāwhiti (4), Hawke’s Bay (43), Taranaki (11), Whanganui (7), MidCentral (19), Hutt Valley (23), Capital and Coast (45), Wairarapa (8), Nelson Marlborough (12), Canterbury (56), South Canterbury (2) and Southern (23) hospitals.

I watch a video of Mehdi Hasan talking about Putin’s philosopher, a man called Ilyin.  He advocated fascism, and was an admirer of the Nazis. I also watched another one in Democracy Now! about a professor seeing great danger in the Russia/ China alliance, finalised during the Beijing Winter Olympics. I am wary of this too, but JD laughs off my fears saying the Chinese economy is in a very bad way.

Last night I watched another episode of The Gilded Age on Neon. Those dresses and bustles must be so uncomfortable, and the hats are ridiculous, the wealth is obscene, but the atmospheres are dark, and it’s fascinating in a morbid kind of way. I did see one overweight woman in last night’s episode. How “fashion” must have been extremely uncomfortable, at times. All this time people in the South were owning slaves, and treating them very poorly, in most instances.

There was an alarming thunderstorm – first in the early evening, then there was a break, and then another storm. It was quite warm during the night.

It’s now Wednesday March 23^rd.

I got up early this morning and went to Hymn singing. It was great, as always: we sang “How Sweet the Name of Jesus sounds” (a hymn I remember asking for when we first sang again after coming out of the first lockdown in 2020), and “Glorious Things of Thee are Spoken”, another of my favourites. I found out that while we were told that someone had diagnosed positive with Covid 19 after the Sunday service on Sunday March 13, apparently another couple caught Covid 19 from that person. The organist and I agreed that we wouldn’t mind people knowing if we were positive, so that they could take precautions if they thought they may have been exposed. Privacy be damned!  I thought I was “safe” at church.

Afterwards I got a message from the house where my daughter lives saying that her RAT test was negative, as were those of all her house mates. What a relief that it, and a relief that she took the test!  Some refuse, as is their right. You can’t make them. They’re to be tested again on Sunday.

I didn’t sleep very well last night, and listened to lots of podcasts. The Americans are currently obsessed with Biden’s nomination of a black woman to be on the Supreme Court (excuse me, isn’t Clarence Thomas a black man? I suppose that’s different). And how come the Supreme Court makes such major decisions?  They’re also obsessed with the coming mid-term elections, how awful the candidates are, and who’s been endorsed by DJT. Well, their politics is just awful, in my view; meanwhile there’s a terrible war going on, quite needlessly, and they’re arguing about the use of nuclear weapons and how you can’t possible have a no fly zone to guarantee safe passage out of Ukraine.  Meanwhile, Russian troops are in Mariupol, and the Russians have kidnapped 2,389 children from Mariupol.   This is just so terrible! Think of the anguish, of the children, and of their parents!  This is just so cruel!  Those who have it in their power to stop this should do so.  There are voices saying the US is right not to have troops there – when have the US ever helped?  Perhaps in the Korean War in the 1950’s? Perhaps at the end of World War 1 and World War 2 when they finally got involved?  I think we need President Franklin Roosevelt’s Lend-Lease here.  The Americans are not, by and large, heartless people, but they can be very preoccupied with their own affairs. I fear that the US will become less and less relevant to being a force for good in the world. 

Here, things are strange, politically.  There’s Covid 19 (mostly omicron) at large, which makes us all slightly strange – wary, distrustful, and feeling a desperate need to throw caution to the winds and enjoy stuff we’d normally enjoy again.  I fear that I won’t travel again, seeing it’s always an ordeal, and potentially will be even more risky in future. Back in the pre-Covid times, I was scared of catching something, of falling over, vomiting, or otherwise disgracing myself; now we are all older, and more afraid, if that were possible.  Every time we’ve been overseas, something fairly major has happened: in the 1970’s it was the oil crisis and terrorism at Rome’s Fiumicino Airport, where a jumbo jet was blown up; in 2008, we came back to a bird-flu scare, which we didn’t really know about till we were back in New Zealand; in 2016, there had been another spate of terrorist events before we went, and then there was the Brexit referendum; as we were due to leave, there was another incident with a car being used as a weapon in Nice, and a coup in Turkey, forcing airlines to change their flight paths. In 2017 we went to the US and there were three big things: Harvey Weinstein’s arrest, the Las Vegas shootings, and wildfires in California. In New Zealand, the outcome of the general election hung in the balance, and we heard just before we left the US that Winston Peters had decided to go with the Labour Party, and its leader, Jacinda Ardern, would be Prime Minister. It’s always a wild time when we travel, but at least now I don’t have dependent children, and it doesn’t really matter what happens to me.

Politics is so weird here, now.  There are virtually no rules, everyone knows people who are sick; many services and cafés can’t operate because so many of their staff are sick or isolating.  So the protections are mostly gone, and yet Prime Minister Ardern and the Labour Party are struggling in the polls against the likes of Christopher Luxon and David Seymour. Really?  I cannot see either of those guys as Prime Minister, and I seriously hope neither becomes PM. They’ve called for all restrictions to be relaxed, and they almost are; yet I feel a duty to support Labour, but it’s increasingly difficult, since I (and I suspect many others) really miss feeling protected. Now, it’s everybody for themselves.

Apparently vaccine passes and mandates will go from midnight Monday 4^th April.  I struggled to get vaccinated!  Oh, the irony!  What will we do without the kerfuffle of scanning and entering a secret code for my vaccine pass? On, and there’ll be no need to scan. Masks, anyone?

In Ukraine, it’s reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s forces are increasingly concentrating their air power and artillery on Ukraine’s cities and the civilians living there. Moscow’s invasion has driven nearly 3.5 million people from Ukraine, according to the United Nations, with another 6.5 million displaced inside the country. The UN has confirmed over 900 civilian deaths while saying the real toll is probably much higher. Estimates of Russian deaths vary, but even conservative figures are in the low thousands.

Ukrainian forces are fighting hard in Mariupol.  Hillary Clinton has tested positive for Covid 19. BIden’s wonderful press secretary, Jen Psaki, has tested positive (again!)

I am waiting for today’s Covid 19 report.  Today there are 20,087 new cases, and 11 further deaths. There are 960 people in hospital, and 33 of them are in Intensive Care. There’ve now been 210 deaths. It’s reported that of the 11 deaths reported on Wednesday, two people were from Northland, five from Auckland, one from Bay of Plenty and three from Wellington. Of the 11 deaths reported on Wednesday, two people were from Northland, five from Auckland, one from Bay of Plenty and three from Wellington. It’s reported that the new community cases were in Northland (727), Auckland (4122), Waikato (1726), Bay of Plenty (1290), Lakes (505), Hawke’s Bay (1064), MidCentral (919), Whanganui (388), Taranaki (679), Tairāwhiti (339), Wairarapa (276), Capital & Coast (1259), Hutt Valley (720), Nelson Marlborough (584), Canterbury (3468), South Canterbury (319), Southern (1631), West Coast (56); and 15 in unknown locations.

In Ukraine, the military conflict rages on.  There is news that a Ukrainian town has been retaken. There is fierce fighting, and continuous bombing, in Mariupol. People describe it as “hell on earth”, with no power and no water. The battle for Mariupol continues.  The 2,389 children who were deported to Russia were evidently from an orphanage. That’s still awful, but I guess fewer parents will be agonising over their future now.  There have been desperate scenes of wounded people, children as well as soldiers, and, of course, there’ve been many very sad casualties.  One thinks, in this situation, of the elderly, the inform, the sick, the so-called “feeble minded”, the people who cannot get away, for whom getting to some kind of shelter would be an ordeal in itself.

I listened to Tim Snyder, an historian from Yale University, talking to a BBC interviewer. What he said was depressing. It seemed to me that he argued that Putin’s world view is to distrust the west, always; and tell lies about Ukraine. Then he invades Ukraine. He doesn’t really need to “win” the war there – what is winning, anyway? He’s just going to wreck the place, and hopes to install a puppet regime obedient to Moscow and whatever it dictates. Snyder points out that Ukraine is bearing the brunt of Putin’s cruelty, on our behalf. He also pointed out that totalitarian governments are generally stable, without the inherent messiness of democracy, with its unpredictable (and sometimes hard fought over) elections, and the need for someone to concede defeat. In Putin’s view, that’s why they’re inherently better; no opposition is tolerated. To Putin, the West remains decadent and out to get him, for some reason. Does anyone really want Siberia? (My comment).

That’s it for now. Slava Ukraini! Ngā mihi.

It’s now Monday March 21^st, 2022. Kia ora.

Well, there’re all kinds of things going on at present.  As usual, these days, my two main concerns are the conflict in Ukraine and the covid 19 war here, against the invisible enemy.

At present I’m reading a thrilling novel by Robert Harris called Archangel. It’s set in Russia after the break up of the USSR, when things are pretty crazy and chaotic, Boris Yeltsin is President (an embarrassment),, with extreme wealth, danger, violence, and distrust, and all kinds of societal dysfunction. It’s very exciting. This time is compared to that of the Weimar republic in Germany, before Hitler came to power. It’s very scary, though; although it was published in 1998, it feels very relevant, reading it alongside the current military operation being conducted by the Russians in Ukraine, and Putin acting more and more like Stalin, continuing to terrorise millions, and speak in a very Orwellian fashion.  During the Holodomor, Stalin deported two million Ukrainian kulaks to Archangel, to a nuclear site; there wasn’t much to live on in that northern area. Apparently they were locked in churches, and then they were gone. They were thought by the locals to be disease-ridden. I fear I’m seeing a pattern here. Stalin, too, had lists of people who he thought might threaten him.  Back then, Nazi-style terrorism was in vogue; someone said the mysterious “Z” painted on Russian tanks is a kind of modern swastika.  Putin claims to be ridding the Ukrainian military of Nazi elements; I suspect he learned from his most ardent US fan, Donald Trump, even more tricks of terminology and hypocrisy: accuse your opponents of doing what you plan to do yourself. Evidently Ukrainians were blamed for some assassination, I don’t remember which, and then Ukrainians were blamed for interfering in the 2020 US Presidential election.  Ukraine is a very corrupt country, claims Congressman Madison Cawthorn, while failing to acknowledge that Russia is far more corrupt than Ukraine (as exposed by Alexei Navalny). Zelensky accuses Russia of wanting a “final solution” for Ukraine, in much the same way that Hitler wanted a “final solution” for his Jewish problem. That turned out to be the Holocaust.

The US President, Joe Biden, has spent two hours on the phone with his Chinese counterpart, President Xi, trying to persuade him not to help Vladimir Putin. This was after a six hour talk between two lesser beings a day or two ago. China has termed the West’s sanctions against Russia “outrageous”, and Xi has said, enigmatically, that China will be on the right side of history (whatever he means by that).

In Covid news here, there’s also lots to say. But apparently Wellington’s water supply hasn’t been fluoridated since May last year! Lack of fluoride was initially blamed on employee sickness, but it goes further back than that. Wellington’s sewage woes continue. The mayor, Andy Foster, has a lot to answer for. 

This morning I heard that a staff member at the house where my daughter lives in Napier has diagnosed positive for Covid 19. I got an email last night saying that Hōhepa were holding it together, but under serious staffing pressure,  with some folk recovered, one resident still with Covid 19, but several staff either having covid 19 themselves or needing to isolate as close contacts. I spoke to the cluster manager, and am somewhat reassured;  they are carrying out RAT tests, and, amazingly, most residents will let them put a taper up their nose.  So far, so good; but we remain very wary. My daughter has a serious heart condition; I don’t know how she’d cope with having Covid 19. There is always the fear that it would further damage her heart.

Today’s report says there are 14,463 new cases, with a new total of 1,000 people in hospital and 9 further deaths, including a person in their 20’s. 33 of those in hospital are in Intensive Care. It’s reported that of the deaths, five were from the Auckland region, two from Waikato, one from Wairarapa and one from Bay of Plenty. One of these people was in their 20s, one in their 60s, one in their 70s, two in their 80s and four in their 90s. Five were men and four were women.

On Monday, there were new Covid-19 cases in Northland (422), Auckland (3279), Waikato (1401), Bay of Plenty (893), Lakes (457), Hawke’s Bay (796), MidCentral (657), Whanganui (209), Taranaki (473), Tairāwhiti (259), Wairarapa (222), Capital & Coast (951), Hutt Valley (583), Nelson Marlborough (404), Canterbury (2267), South Canterbury (191), Southern (950), West Coast (39); and 10 in an unknown location. The Northern region (Auckland and Northland) continued to see the majority of Covid-19 hospitalisations, comprising 627 of the 1000 hospitalisations on Monday.

Epidemiologist Rod Jackson says: “We know if you are unvaccinated you are three times more likely to transmit the virus to other people, you are more than twice as likely to have it right now, you’re more than five times likely to be in hospital right now, so there are lots and lots of good reasons to maintain our vaccine passes.” He cautions the government against dropping its Covid 19 mandates too soon.

Back to Ukraine, now.  There are, as usual, conflicting reports. I saw a video of crowds cheering as Russian tanks left Kherson. It looked authentic, but who knows?  I saw another video about Russian equipment being destroyed – gear replacing gear that had already been destroyed by Ukraine, being sent to the same place. Zelensky was said to have joked that Russia itself is demilitarising itself. The Guardian reports that Russians seek the surrender of Mariupol, having bombed it relentlessly, and deported thousands of citizens. The deportations, while shocking, have been confirmed by other reputable news agencies such as Reuters and CNBC.  This is really next level stuff – surely this can’t be allowed to continue? There’s a lot of flagellation about the West’s continued efforts to appease Putin, which, in retrospect, look terrible. I’m sure they seemed like a good, if cynical, idea at the time. But the deportations are really something else, I think; a very dangerous move.

A fifth Russian general has been killed (confirmed? David Petraeus thinks so). Street fighting is reported in Mariupol.  Zelensky confirms that the Ukrainians won’t surrender at the deadline. I listened to a podcast this morning by a New Zealand journalist who spoke about the difficulty of being somewhere to report what’s happening, and diving for cover at the sound of an air-raid siren; in any event, there’s very little sleep, or food. She also spoke about desperate refugees getting on crowded trains, and trying to keep their families together. This would be so sad if it were a natural disaster, like flooding, a tsunami, or an earthquake, but it is totally unnecessary! Totally needless!

In Europe, Germany has agreed a gas deal with Qatar to end dependency on Russian gas.  Evidently Jared Kushner has told the Saudis (MBS) not to make a deal with President Biden, (although Saudi Arabia is an ally of the US), because that might hurt his father-in-law’s chances of becoming president again. Really, honestly, this is unbelievable. President Zelensky is Jewish, and is pleading for American help! 

It’s now Tuesday March 22^nd.

Last night I tried to finish Archangel, which has held me spellbound, but sadly it turned into a Hollywood blockbuster kind of story, with real excitement leading up to a crucial point; more hard-to-believe events, and we’re not quite finished yet. I have still to finish it. Starting anything else seems lame in comparison, I always need an interval between reading a book that holds my attention, and starting the next one (it’s not that I’m short of reading matter).

The news this morning is not good.  Putin is seeking to break off diplomatic relations with the US, because Biden called him a war criminal. Even during the Cold War diplomatic relations were maintained. The Russians have bombed a mall in Kyiv, killing eight people. The reports of mass deportations have not been confirmed. Ukrainians continue to destroy Russian equipment. The Russians continue bombing, making it really difficult for civilians to get away to safety – so where’s safe? It seems that the so-called rules of war are gone, they’re not being observed any more. A US commentator is calling Russian troops terrorists. There’s no medevac, no rescuing of Russian dead. I gather there’s not much in the way of information for their families, either. If you’re sent to Ukraine, you’ll be in a bad way.  People are scared on both sides. The war has reached a stalemate, where no one will surrender. It reminds me again of the Orwell novel 1984, where there is always a war on, there is always military conflict.  Russia seems to waver between being like the Weimar republic in Germany of the 1930’s, being like Hitler’s Nazis, and being Orwellian. Who is Vladimir most modelling himself on: Peter the Great, Josef Stalin, or Adolf Hitler?  Probably all of them. There are no rules, there is no guiding principle, but cruelty. Terrorism versus sabotage. But no matter how much matériel Ukraine’s brave forces destroy, there is always more bombing. Apparently Russia has slowed down internet response times in Australia, because they acted against it. How, one wonders? What is the West/the US/NATO/the EU to do to stop this aggressor?  What indeed.  As with the Freedom Protest here in Parliament’s grounds, which was eventually broken up by police, one wonders how much provocation is required before Something Is Done about it. Of course, it’s easy for me to pontificate. Slava Ukraini! Ngā mihi.

Today is Saturday March 19^th, 2022. Kia ora.

This morning I awoke to the news that Putin’s address to a rally at a stadium crowded with flag-waving fans (remember Trump’s rallies?) had been interrupted on live television by something else – some singing.  Putin was praising Russian unity! Meanwhile, the Russians were bombing the beautiful city of Lviv. There’s a wonderful book about Lviv (Lemberg, Lvov) by Philippe Sands, called East West Street. Most of his family came from there; his parents escaped, but others perished in the Holocaust.  He’s a lawyer, and went there initially for a conference. Lviv was in Poland during World War II; it had Hans Frank as Hitler’s Governor – general. He was found guilty at the Nuremberg trials, and consequently executed.  Lviv is now in Ukraine, and has been a gathering point for shelter for refugees, on their way to safety.  

After the rally, Putin seemed to walk stiffly, and had trouble with the stairs, it’s reported; he quoted the Bible (one of the ten commandments is Thou shalt not kill, by the way), and talked about Crimea, Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova as being part of Russia. He has no intention of stopping at Ukraine, assuming he’s successful. So what does that mean?  Success on one side assumes that the other side admits defeat.  Sadly, in this needless war, that’s not happening yet.

Meanwhile, the Ukrainians have attacked Kherson Airport (not long ago a destination for Ryan Air).  Kherson was the only major city in Ukraine to be taken by the Russians, but the scenes of devastation look horrifying.  Evidently the Russians had set up a military base there, from which to operate, but it appears that the Ukrainians may have destroyed 10 (others say 6) helicopters. 

As it goes on, Russian troops continue bombing, and make it very difficult for sheltering Ukrainians to escape.  Meanwhile, Ukrainians continue to sabotage Russian equipment, and the photos are portrayed on line. (The website I referred to yesterday is oryx.com).  So what is winning?  There’s a terrible line from the Vietnam War being quoted, about needing to destroy the village to save it.  Meanwhile, Ukrainian lives have been totally disrupted, people have been hurt, killed, or rendered homeless, they don’t have power or water (or food?), there’s a refugee crisis, and there’ll be widespread hunger because Ukraine is a fertile area for growing grain.  The Russians bombed a food store  yesterday!  Why? Programs and podcasts go on about Putin’s imperial ambitions (Peter the not so Great is his hero, evidently), and how to topple Putin (or not), and the bravery of the Ukrainians and the Russians who resist Putin. Still the dreadful destruction continues, although the US has supplied much more weaponry. Somehow this is different from putting “boots on the ground”.  Putin is reportedly calling in his favour to Syria, asking for their help in his military operation in Ukraine. What a surprise, that no one wants to go there. Uzbekistan has turned him down, apparently.

Here in New Zealand there is cautious optimism that new cases of covid 19/omicron may have peaked.  I guess if we have both BA1 and BA2 at the same time, that’s a win of sorts, seeing that another wave of omicron (BA2) is sweeping some parts of the world: the UK has more cases than it’s ever had! Luxon recommends relaxing Covid 19 rules: what rules are still in place?  There are limits on numbers at gatherings – you can have more people if they’re fully vaccinated, but really and truly, you’d be a brave person to go to any gathering at present.  The church I normally go to is going to continue with Sunday services, despite having someone test positive for Covid 19; I think that with disappointment, I’ll be zooming. At Kenepuru Hospital, they’ve diagnosed more Covid 19 cases; a bit of an outbreak there, then. Wellington Hospital has cancelled most non-urgent surgery (I thought they had already).  The Milk Crate Café in Wellington’s Ghuznee St is to join the growing list of those closing.

Today’s Covid 19 report shows 18,514 new cases, and 10 deaths, there are 939 people in hospital, and 24 of them are in Intensive Care; there are 45 new cases at the border.

This afternoon the NZ Herald reports this afternoon that one of Putin’s top military commanders has been killed in Ukraine. Kyiv and state tv in Moscow have confirmed the death of Colonel Sergei Sukharev and his deputy. Evidently the colonel masterminded a massacre in the 2014 conflict, when 1,000 Ukrainian soldiers were not allowed to leave safely the city of Ilovaisk in Donbas.

During this time, prosecutions continue for the January 6 insurrection in the US, but there isn’t a great deal of reporting on them or the work of that committee, given that the conflict in Ukraine is taking up all the oxygen, the Prime Minister of Ireland has diagnosed positive for Covid 19; he was with President Biden and Nancy Pelosi, and it’s hoped that they haven’t been infected.

It’s now Sunday March 20^th.

This morning I zoomed into a friend’s service for the Catholic parishioners of South Wellington.  It was lovely, and nice to do something, since I don’t feel comfortable about going to my usual church at present.  Yesterday afternoon we went for a walk at Oriental Bay. It was lovely, and there were lots of people out.  Chloe Swarbrick has diagnosed positive with Covid 19, with what she describes as “gnarly symptoms”.  Everyone who writes about having this disease claims it hit them quite hard; certainly it seems to be not a light flu. Heard of man flu, anyone?  I read somewhere that half the people still to get Covid 19 don’t know they will get it.

Last night I watched the movie Quartet again on Māori television. I have seen it before, at least twice, but it is worth watching again for the great acting (Dame Maggie Smith, Billy Connolly, Tom Courtenay and others), and the magnificent quartet from Verdi’s Rigoletto at the end. I have a very good recording on Youtube, with Maria Callas and Giuseppe di Stefano. My only beef with the movie is that old people are sometimes presented as being quite agile!  This doesn’t ring true.  I’ve been watching Inventing Anna, The Tinder Swindler, and Bad Vegan on Netflix, much to JD’s annoyance.  There’s a morbid fascination with these stories, but one wonders how can women be so gullible, and have so much money?  The sums they give away are absolutely mind-boggling to someone like me. And surely if you’re forming a relationship with someone you’d do more to find out what they do for a living (probably work hard at ripping you off!), what their family and friends are like, what faiths and values they hold, and what kind of future you might have together.  It seems like a huge risk to throw your lot in with someone just because you like their online photo. The mind games played are quite disturbing, too. How gullible are people?  Cults prey on people’s emotions, too. There are several horrible series about cult involvement, and there’s a ghastly kind of consistency to the believe that you always have to do more to show your commitment.  This is really quite the opposite of a basic belief in grace and forgiveness. Why do things have to be so complicated?

The dreadful tragedy in Ukraine grinds on.  It’s said that four Russian generals have died in Ukraine, but that doesn’t stop the cruelty of continuous bombing raids.  Apparently Putin said the breakup of the Soviet Union (the USSR) in the early 1990’s was the greatest tragedy of the 20^th century.  Really! Well, there are several contenders for truly horrible acts, where millions of people died: WW1, the Russian Revolution in 1917, the Holodomor, Mao’s Cultural Revolution, the Balkan Wars, and, of course, the Second World War and the Holocaust, which would probably come top of my list. This of course does not include the Syrian Civil War, the war in Vietnam, and various other conflicts, including human rights abuses in many places, and great suffering and oppression in places like Myanmar and present day China.

China has reported its first deaths (two) from Covid 19 in a year.

Today’s Covid 19 report again shows a trend: there are fewer new Covid 19 cases at 12,020, but there have been 9 more deaths and there are 957 people in hospital. 26 of them are in Intensive Care. It’s reported that new cases detected by PCR and RAT tests overnight are in Northland (416), Auckland (2,768), Waikato (1,093), Bay of Plenty (804), Lakes (330), Hawke’s Bay (676), MidCentral (540), Whanganui (169), Taranaki (373), Tairāwhiti (210), Wairarapa (146), Capital and Coast (795), Hutt Valley (443), Nelson Marlborough (308), Canterbury (1,897), South Canterbury (171), Southern (840), West Coast (22) and nine are unknown. Of the nine who died, four were in Auckland, three in the Bay of Plenty and one each in Capital and Coast and Waikato. The eight men and one woman were aged between their 50s and 90s. I would have to say that’s a welcome reduction in the Wellington and Hawkes Bay areas. Perhaps we have peaked, in terms of new cases, but the number of deaths is still disturbing. More than 110 aged care homes are battling coronavirus, and 27 residents have died after catching the virus. They are also short-staffed. Meanwhile, epidemiologist Michael Baker says it will take a long time for cases to drop in schools especially.

In the afternoon I learn of two ominous developments. The UK Defence Ministry claims that the Russians have used a thermobaric weapon; and thousands of Ukrainian citizens have been deported from Mariupol to northern Russia. This is next level stuff.  After all, refugees in Poland or Hungary or other parts of Europe can expect to return to Ukraine after the conflict; it will be very much harder if they’re in Russian territory.  Slava Ukraini! Ngā mihi.