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Francesca Rudkin: Let's hope for a proper Christmas

Author
Francesca Rudkin,
Publish Date
Sun, 31 Oct 2021, 10:48AM
Photo / Getty Images
Photo / Getty Images

Francesca Rudkin: Let's hope for a proper Christmas

Author
Francesca Rudkin,
Publish Date
Sun, 31 Oct 2021, 10:48AM

This week I’ve been reading Jane Goodall’s new book called The Book of Hope. It’s the kind of book you reach for when you hit week 11 in a slow-moving lockdown.  

In the book Goodall talks about the nature of hope, why she remains hopeful, and how we can stay hopeful when everything seems hopeless.  

Jane Goodall calls hope a survival trait. Hope, she says, “is what enables us to keep going in the face of adversity. It is what we desire to happen, but we must be prepared to work hard to make it so.”  

This is something the Government should keep in mind as we count down to Christmas - to keep on hoping we need to see some reward for our hard work. Announcements about announcements doesn’t cut it any longer.  

There’s no end of actions that could keep our hopes up - vaccination certificates ready to go, the MIQ system refined so double-vaxxed, negative testing returnees from low-risk areas can self-isolate at home, a date to open hair salons and internal borders, and Medsafe begin the process of approving vaccination for 5 to 12 year olds.  

For many of us, Christmas is where we’re now focused.  

Many of us are looking forward to travelling the country, see family and friends, and rejuvenate after a hellish year.  

For others the priority may be hoping Christmas gifts get to our loved ones in time.  

Yesterday, NZ Post Chief customer officer Brian Dobson said it was the busiest they’d ever been.  

In response, they’ve hired 800 extra staff and leased 400 additional vans. Even this is not enough to process and deliver the 2 million parcels in circulation at present - around 4 parcels per second.  

So we’re still spending, and that’s something. Aucklanders spent more than $700 million online over the last three months - $122 million more than the same quarter last year.  

So if your greatest hope, right now, is to make sure your pressies arrive before Christmas, it’s time to take action. That’s something we can do ourselves.  

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