It is idyllic but as I sat for a while in the warm sunshine I thought about the houses and cottages below and wondered what violence, unhappiness and despair some of them hid. For some people living in idyllic surroundings isn't an idyll. New Zealand has many dark secrets.
Down below me I could see our road that runs along the bay.
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| Our road on the bottom left |
8 years ago a 14 y.o. girl hung herself in the garden of the house she lived in at the end of this road.
4 years ago a man sat on a bench beside the beach in the early hours of the morning and blew his head off with a shotgun.
Across the bay I could see Solomon's Point and the Tiger Mountain area.
Here, a few days ago a nutter shot dead two people and wounded another before dying himself in a house fire.
Nice surroundings don't necessarily equate with peace of mind it seems.
New Zealand ranks fairly low in murder statistics - 1.3 per 100,000 people p.a. vs 5 per 100,000 p.a for USA but ranks pretty high in suicides - 12.4 per 100,000 p.a vs 13.1 per 100,000 p.a. for USA being about in the middle of OECD figures.
It's sad that some people are not in a frame of mind to enjoy what is around them.
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4 comments:
Years ago this house was a surgery and we still get mail for it. One really good freebee are issues of "New Zealand Memories" for the waiting room. Issue 124 Feb 2017 relates the tale of Ernest Stackhouse from Canterbury who's farm folded and he left to fight in WW1. A grenade eventually got him but he lived to a good age be it minus a leg. Your poem reminded me of his story.
I like that magazine.
I read it in the library when I visit.
Do you receive free dug samples from the pharmaceutical companies?
I played my French bow on a gig tonight. Read all about it in my latest post.
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