Worzels World - Another year of it

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When I first signed up to write this column – and I am not sure if signed up is the right term – I didn't sign anything, and after nine years I am still not sure what I am up to. I had in mind a humorous satirical commentary on life, the universe and politics. And there has been a fair few along these lines. It was, and is, what I most enjoy writing.

Yet lately I have felt the need to engage in general reportage and analysis of contemporary events. I have also penned what might best be described as morally indignant diatribes opposing the accepted but intolerable status quo. I have felt that I have had to do this because it is something that needs to be done but which mainstream media are failing miserably in doing.

Playing the watchdog is a sort of long-honoured contract between readers and the fourth estate, and at present very few others are performing that duty. The press, like the politicians and the industrialists, have all sold out to corporatism and are too occupied reporting celebrity gossip and towing a politically correct line to engage in actual journalism. Thankfully the Mangawhai Focus is not owned by either Fairfax or NZME and I do not get paid sufficiently for towage. So I tow nothing.

Looking back with the clarity of hindsight does not make the recent past look any less ridiculous.

Propaganda tries to persuade us that we are all equal and that everyone’s opinion is valid. We should know that this is demonstrably not so. The opinions of the dishonest, the ignorant, the hypocritical and the foolish, of which there are many, should be disregarded immediately. Seriously considering the words of such people can only lead, at best, to a waste of time and, at worst, to disaster.

I heard a news report on the burning oil wells left behind by ISIS. It described the smoke from the fires as ‘toxic black filth‘. It is true enough. Oil itself is toxic black filth at the best of times and burning it hardly improves matters. The crazy thing is that we have been running the planet on it for over a hundred years. When we breathe in the very same stuff on the traffic-bound highways of Auckland, and quite understandably end up developing lung cancer, it is invariably blamed on tobacco smoke.

These days media spend less time reporting on what has happened than playing the role of prophet and predicting what is going to happen. This is not news, it is idle speculation. After the circus that was the US presidential election, when it became obvious that the corporate media had got the outcome completely wrong, they really should have apologised. As yet they have not.

Ratepayers of Kaipara District were, through the council, ripped off by all and sundry to the tune of many millions of dollars. No remedial action was taken and no one was prosecuted. I withheld alleged rates of around $6000 of my own money and despite debt of over $78 million dollars, Kaipara District Council were able to hire one of Auckland's most expensive

legal firms to prosecute me. They prosecute those they are paid to serve. Yet criminals who rip them off go free and, what's more, get to keep the dosh.

Over many years billions of tax dollars and thousands of police and helicopter hours were committed to a failed attempt to eradicate cannabis cultivation. Now all of a sudden it's a medicine and we are importing it from overseas.

John Key inexplicably resigns and the media hail his tenure as a resounding success? During his time we have seen increased poverty, surveillance, national debt, taxation, centralisation, corporatism, property prices, and prison populations. Decreased freedom, egalitarianism, real income and social values? Any reasonable, objective evaluation would show unequivocally that Key's time at the helm has been a resounding failure yet mainstream 'fake news' says otherwise.

The amazing thing is that many are fooled by all this nonsense. They think everything is okay, that wise and intelligent people are in charge and working hard for our greater good. Perhaps all the mercury in the vaccines and fluoride in the water have diminished intellectual capacity to such a degree that most people believe almost anything.

So thanks for reading and thanks too, to those who have emailed over the year. If at any time what I have written has upset you or made you angry, if I have provoked, bored or confused you, if I have convinced you that I am a fool or that you yourself are one, you can thank me later.

I will accept your unspoken thanks anyway, and of course in this Christmas season we should remember that it is more blessed to give than to receive. In this I am eminently able to assist in your blessing and will be happy to receive any gift you wish to send to PO Box 33, Maungaturoto. Wishing you all a happy Christmas, and for those not so under the economic hammer as to take a break, have a good holiday.

As we head into what I know is an uncertain future but which I hope will not prove to be anywhere near as bad as it looks, please remember that just because the world is going down the toilet doesn't mean we shouldn't enjoy the swim. I just hope neither the Ruskies nor the Yanks are inclined to flush. Cheers.

n prof_worzel@hotmail.com

If at any time what I have written has upset you or made you angry, if I have provoked, bored or confused you, if I have convinced you that I am a fool or that you yourself are one, you can thank me later.

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