I remembered an excellent stationery store at Westgate the large Westfield shopping centre so made my way there. This was an old-fashioned type store where you could buy books, magazines, stationery, gift cards etc and was always well-stocked and well patronised. It was a definite asset to the area.
When I arrived there I had to do a double-take. It was gone.
In its place was yet another of those ugly, ubiquitous and unnecessary liquor stores that are blighting New Zealand's landscape. Thank you NZ MPs who allowed this.
I then went to The warehouse and, whilst they have a 'stationery' section couldn't find any refills and The Stationery Warehouse (I don't know if they are related) had only the most basic offerings that makes me think it is an offshoot of The Warehouse.
Now this got me thinking. In New Zealand, the country of my birth and my most favoured country to live in, we are being sold a pup.
I grew up believing that New Zealand was 'Godzone'. We had a reputation for being a country with one of the highest standards for education, health, social selfare, safety, lack of corruption and quality of living. What the fuck has happened in so few years?
In Auckland I see people sleeping in doorways (not all of them are chancers and drongoes); I see bastard capitalists stripping life savings from old age pensioners; I see National MP's wanting to make the education system run like commercial companies and I have seen caring community health operations closed down.
We are being bombarded with advertising telling us that big is better. In my experience this 'big' is actually less. Operations like The Warehouse, Warehouse Stationery and all the other big format retail stores have grown because they have ripped the hearts out of good, dependable small traders.
In the mid 1980's this train was set in motion by, I'm ashamed to admit it, the Labour Government. Admittedly it wasn't a totally convincing and convinced decision given the fall-outs between that bastard Douglas and the well-intentioned Lange which has given us this pale pink version of mighty Labour today, but that's where the rot set in. We've had the populace frothing at the mouth at the opportunity of buying cheap TVs, furniture, cars and clothing including bloody gumboots which has just overspent the hard won foreign currency that our exporters have bled to win.
Thank God (who really should be looking after Godzone - 'God's Own - anyway) the currency is finally coming down to hopefully 0.65US. This will be good news for those who actually make money for this country- the exporters, and, conversely bad news for all those bastards who are fucking up the country by importing cheap and inferior quality goods that undermine New Zealand manufacturing and retailing expertise.
Now, this brings me back to those ugly, socially dangerous liquor stores. What idiot thinks we need to have one of these on every street corner (and sometimes in the street between)?
Oh. that's right - your local MP.
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