Ed Said - How could this possibly happen?

 

Are we talking about one single ticket that won Lotto’s $44 million?

Are we talking about the Chicago Cubs winning the American Major League Baseball for the first time in their 141 year history?

Are we talking about the first win by Ireland over the All Blacks in over 100 years, ironically also in Chicago?

Are we talking about the Trump win in the race for American Presidency?

Or are we talking about the passing of two musical greats, Leonard Cohen and Leon Russell, both in the past week?

Depending on our interests, what we see, read and hear, each of these events bring varying degrees of surprise, dismay or disgust. A huge Lotto win is the stuff of dreams and though many of us take a ticket in the hope of landing the big one, it’s really only faint hope though, of course, with a terminating jackpot, some lucky person or persons must win.

For sports fans the win by the Chicago Cubs was the stuff of dreams. Alternatively the defeat of the All Blacks by the Irish after a hundred years of trying was equally mind-boggling but by the law of averages it will happen SOMETIME – so why not this time?The fact of the matter is when two teams go head to head – baseball, rugby, politics - invariably one will win and the other will lose. It’s a fairly simple equation. This is probably though the only New Zealand representative team to lose when the entire nation didn’t cry for the coach to be sacked. By the time this goes to print I expect our boys in black will have effected their revenge in no uncertain termsand normal transmission will be resumed.

As for American politics, how could the political “experts” get it so wrong? Experts, in this case, fiddle with numbers. Starting with a figure pulled out of the air they push and pull equations – also pulled out of the air - but give no credence whatsoever to the foibles of human nature. That old saying ‘it matters not if you win but how you play the game’ has been well and truly ‘Trumped’ this time. Could Donald Trump necessarily do a worse job than his most recent predecessors? Only time will tell. As an aside, banners waved at rallies read Trump – Pence (Mike Pence, running mate). Trumpence is actually a real word. It means ‘the amount of return on investment on a con job.’ Some irony there perhaps?

Quite apart from those listed above we are always surprised, shocked or saddened by such things as earthquakes especially on our own doorstep and with memories of Christchurch still relatively fresh in our minds the Kaikoura quake early hours of Monday 14th November was a jolt felt throughout the country. Nature doing her thing again. Most of us believe that sun, moon and tides have some effect on the workings of the world. A week earlier a prediction was made that the appearance of the Supermoon could bring storms and earthquakes. I was a little surprised that Geotech later completely discounted this theory saying that only their scientifically gathered data should be considered. Such an event gives geo-tech people, seismologists and the like an abundance of information after the event which has claimed lives and brought towns to a standstill but they cannot give us one moment of fore-warning. No blame can be attributed to the actual earthquake but as people and businesses jostle for priority no doubt some part of society will be blamed for moving too little, too late in helping those in need – probably the Government, then insurance

companies – and throwing money about won’t necessarily fix trauma though this time we must be thankful that human casualties were few. Oh, the frailty of mankind.

Just my opinion.

Rob