How the system is set up

After growing up in America, New Zealand politics are a breath of fresh air. But it’s not Jacinda Ardern, or anything specific to the kiwi mindset. It’s the design of their system. And that’s tremendously inspiring. You can’t conjure up a great leader, and you can’t make your society think in a different way, but you can absolutely make a better system. And that’s what the kiwis did.

Back in the 90s, kiwis decided to redesign their political system to require collaboration. So instead of one party winning all the power, New Zealand ends up being run by coalitions. In this country, the green party gets about 5% and the party on the left (Labour, which in America would be the Democrats) polls below 50%. That means Labour can’t win on their own, meaning they need to play nicely with others.

The same is true on the other side of the ledger. The party on the right is called National, and they’re the New Zealand version of the Republicans. They too rarely poll above 50%, although they do poll higher than Labour. This means they too need to build coaltions with other parties. One is called NZ First, another is called ACT.

Let’s say you’re a left-leaning person deciding how to vote. In America, you might relate most with a far-left party like the Greens. But because there’s no concept of a coalition government, voting for them is mathematically the same as not voting at all. It makes no difference. But in New Zealand, you can proudly vote Green knowing that your vote will still help those on the left.

In this last election, Jacinda Ardern actually got fewer votes than her rival in the other major party. But because neither of them passed the 50% threshold, a party called NZ First got to play kingmaker. When their leader, a guy named Winston Peters, sided with Labour, some cried foul. Shouldn’t the party who got closest to 50% automatically get the coalition partner necessary to lead? No, you have to earn it. And that’s powerful!

So Jacinda Ardern set to work earning her coalition partner. She was forced to listen to the issues they cared most about, and give them appropriate representation in her cabinet and in policy discussions. The end result is a policy platform that is hard to recognise if you’re used to the American winner-take-all approach. The party did a bunch of things that are more left-leaning, but also did other things that you’d expect from a right-leaning platform.

In the states, that’s increasingly seen as selling out your base. A Democrat needs to go far left, a Republican needs to go far right, and if they do anything different they risk alienating their supporters. But here it’s not as tribal. If people think you’re doing a good job, you get higher approval ratings. Even from people not in your political party.

Imagine that!

Our Graduation Ceremony

When lockdown started, we decided to call our homeschooling program “Birdsong Academy.” Each day we used a whiteboard to describe what the day’s agenda was, and it was typically pretty low key. It usually went something like this:

Read for an hour
Break
Move your body for an hour
Break
Learn something for an hour
Draw, read, write, or jump on the trampoline
Play harp

We got into a pretty good routine over time. Kids like structure, who knew? But on Sunday we realised that Birdsong Academy was ending, so we put together a graduation ceremony. I printed out diplomas for each of the kids and each of us told each kid what we were proud of. Then I played graduation music and we watched a little movie about our time on lockdown.

Onward!

The Day the Kids Went Back to School

School has been out for about seven weeks. I think? What is time, anyway? Anyway, it’s Monday, and the kids went back to school today.

The principal and teachers sent an email explaining how things would work. No parents on school grounds, and the kids go into one of four different gates to the school, organised by age. Inside, the teachers had done their best to keep things similar while still allowing for social distancing measures.

My kids were a bit scared leading up to the day, but nothing too bad. They’d bring up that they were scared, we’d tell them it was ok, and that fear is normal. I told them that this is a once-in-100-years sort of event, which they thought was sort of fascinating.

They were most excited about seeing their friends, so it was good to see that their friends were all at school today. Some parents have been concerned about sending their kids back. I suspect our friends landed more on the “get the kids out of the house” side of the spectrum.

The First Day After the Lockdown

I live in New Zealand, a country that imposed a very strict lockdown about seven weeks ago. Our curve flattened, our cases went down, and on Monday this week we were informed we were going to “level 2” on Thursday, which means much of life would return to normal.

On Thursday and Friday, I had a few errands to do in downtown Wellington (what we call the CBD, or Central Business District). Most stores were open and doing business, but I didn’t see a lot of customers. The streets had a good number of people walking around, but it wasn’t congested.

Restaurants have been asked to follow “the three S’s” meaning you should be spaced, seated, and served by a single person. Bars have been asked to hold off one week before opening at all. I went to a brewery that serves food on Friday night, and got to see the process first-hand.

At the front of the restaurant, there was a notebook. I recorded my name, address, phone number, email address, and time I visited. Then I squirted some of the provided sanitiser on my hands and rubbed it in thoroughly. Seating was definitely spaced out. There were only two tables being served before us, so there was no risk of getting too close.

When I tried to get a glass of wine on its own, I was told I had to get food as well. Makes sense, since bars aren’t allowed yet. The food was delicious.

I asked how business had been, and the server said it had been slow but they were hoping for a pick-up over the weekend. And the following week, with bars opening back up, they were expecting an even bigger uptick.

It was a nice time out, and it was made better by our low numbers. In the last five days, we’ve only recorded one new case. And that case is a bit controversial because it’s from a person who had symptoms two months ago, had been in quarantine, and had tested negative since then. So technically it’s a case, but not particularly concerning.

We’ll wait to see if any of these restaurants will be able to stay open if they can only be 50% full at best. We’ll wait to see what our unemployment numbers end up hitting. All we can do is wait and figure out what passes for normalcy now.