Country-Wide December 2020

Page 13

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A flowering coastal pohutukawa.

Our time to give thanks While traditional Thanksgiving has been a hollow event in the United States, Nick Loughnan reckons we have much to be thankful for here in New Zealand.

A

s an extraordinary year draws to a close, we in New Zealand have so many reasons to feel grateful. We are one of the few countries on the planet to have asserted a credible level of control over Covid-19, our economy has weathered a substantial check without too much collateral damage, and our political system of democracy has reflected the wishes of our nation’s majority at our recent election. We have a lot to give thanks for. Meanwhile, 2020’s Thanksgiving in the United States has been a hollow event. Falling on the fourth Thursday of November, it has long been a national holiday where families have traditionally gathered to celebrate kinship and all that is wholesome about the American way of life. But this year sees that nation finding so little to celebrate, amongst widespread economic hardship, sickness and death. I remember America’s Thanksgiving for rather different reasons. 15 years ago, we were growing export peonies in a couple of our paddocks, and the most lucrative blooms to grow were a large

Country-Wide

December 2020

white variety, especially when they could reach the US by air freight in time for Thanksgiving Day. At that same time 15 years ago, America was waking up to the decadelong mess it had made in Iraq by overthrowing Saddam Hussein’s regime. This conflict was simply following an historic pattern that America had benefited from since World War 1. ALEXANDRA The supplying of armaments and weaponry has always been highly profitable for the US, and the international contracts awarded to American companies in rebuilding infrastructure destroyed through warfare have been equally so. For most of the 20th century, world conflicts have underpinned so much of America’s economic power base. In its 242 year history as a nation, it has only enjoyed 16 years of peace, making it the most combative nation in the history of the planet. But just as the British ruled the 19th century, France the 18th, the Dutch in

the 17th, and Spain in the 16th, we are watching America slide from its 20th century superpower status, and with startling speed. There is a socially corrosive inequality within it where its three wealthiest men own more than 160 million of their poorest countrymen. Their children are compulsive screen watchers, becoming ever less active and contributing to an alarming childhood obesity epidemic. Americans consume two thirds of the world’s antidepressant drug supply, and opioid prescription drugs are the leading cause of death for their under 50s. However, it is Covid which has finally tipped America over. It’s current administration simply failed to react to the threat, and the price for this lax strategy is now doubly high. Economic survival for businesses and households is perilously difficult, while the odds of biological survival for older Americans in the face of this raging pandemic aren’t encouraging. America’s national debt is more than US$26 trillion – that’s 26 thousand billion dollars, and yet they can’t afford to provide basic health care for anyone who doesn’t have expensive medical insurance. Their population, now so poorly led, sadly divided and frighteningly well armed, has the appearance of being capable of descending into widespread civil strife. And how does that impact on Nick in Central Otago? He’s been trying to buy his usual 5000 round ‘brick’ of .22 ammunition for his ongoing war on rabbits. And for three months it has been virtually unobtainable, because the American manufacturers cannot keep pace with the demand from within their own country, let alone trying to export to the rest of the world. So let us surely give thanks for our place on the planet. As December leads us towards Christmas, the flowering coastal pohutukawas, family gatherings, a relatively robust economy, stable democracy and lawful political leadership, we know we are very fortunate. And the whole world it seems now wants to come and live here for a myriad of very ordinary reasons. Enjoy it all. Count yourselves lucky!

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Articles inside

The right balance

2min
page 89

Emissions analysis beneficial

2min
page 88

Caring for their mates

6min
pages 65-71

Hemp trial leads to skincare export

1min
pages 88-89

Zoom without the gloom

3min
page 86

A whole new wilderness

4min
pages 84-85

More photos from Country-Wide

1min
pages 90-92

Selling the fine wool story

3min
page 87

Selling stock takes good relationships

4min
pages 82-83

Regional council seeks collaboration

4min
pages 80-81

Wean earlier and heavier

10min
pages 54-57

Concern over stock exclusion rules

7min
pages 78-79

Ram buying - what’s your genetic plan?

3min
pages 58-60

Looking back and forward

4min
pages 62-64

Lows and highs in a year of Covid-19

1min
page 64

Wiltshires get the nod

16min
pages 44-51

Stock Check: Farming’s sustainable gains poorly marketed

3min
page 61

Weaning for a successful tupping

4min
pages 52-53

Wool or meat – A bet each way?

7min
pages 40-43

Focusing on forages

9min
pages 34-37

Tips from top performers

5min
pages 38-39

Contracts give certainty for buyers, sellers

2min
pages 31-32

Opportunity knocks for strong wool

8min
pages 28-30

Produce products consumers want

3min
page 33

My challenge to you...

3min
pages 25-27

Going online for work and workers

1min
page 24

The meaning of being a ‘co-operative

6min
pages 22-23

Tragedy on the farm

3min
page 21

Great expectations

3min
pages 14-15

Shepherding, when I’m 64

3min
page 11

Snow hits tailing figures

3min
page 12

Chris Biddles has a few words of thanks for Winston

3min
page 10

Our time to give thanks

3min
page 13

Half-hearted on water

1min
page 8
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