Day Twenty-one; Not a dunnock

A quiet morning at home obeying the lock down. And avoiding the rain. Just after 1100 I decided to take a walk to the most distant of the five supermarkets nearby; the Victoria Park New World is about two and a half kilometres going through Tuna Mau (Western Park), and zig zags on the streets. As it's also downhill I broke into a run a few times on the way there. 

I go there because I like the Muesli which that chain has an exclusive contract for. The New Zealand chef whose company makes the muesli won't sell through the Australian based rival chain. And although I've been enjoying the porridge I make with whole grain oats, blueberries and honey, rather more often recently, I'm nearly out of muesli. Hence the longer walk, which is still within my locality for exercise.

Stocked up with a couple of other items as well, and then headed back. Off to the side of the path in Tuna Mau, a group of small birds landed. I thought probably house sparrows, But at least one looked a bit different. Put down the bag and got the camera to work, and thought I might have got a photo of a hedge sparrow or Dunnock.  On closer examination, I believe it to be a female house sparrow. Rather pretty.

This afternoon, I have been reading some stuff that curls my hair. A long piece from the Atlantic setting out the steps taken by Ms London Breed (Mayor of San Francisco) and how much better that city is doing in dealing with the Covid19 pandemic. Yet again this is a story of a woman in a position of authority who has listened to the science and made decisions that are protecting the people she is responsible to. Really good to read a positive story, but the corollary is that she and her city are outliers in the US response.

And then I read another Atlantic piece. By a man who was a speech writer for George W Bush. David Frum. Not only did my hair curl, my blood ran cold. Male politics was never so naked in front of the people as this president has made it to be. Self serving arrogance and rejection of any sense of responsibility. He unashamedly believes all his lies, even when shown that he had lied, he blames others for misquoting him. 

To show that not all women are sensible, I read a piece by Fran O'Sullivan the head of business at NZME, a large conglomerate which owns much of NZ's media and entertainment providers. At the same time as NZME is asking staff to take a 12 week paycut, and  laid off 200 workers, she is backing a proposal to invite overseas millionaires to buy NZ residency by investing their millions (presumably at high rates of interest) to aid the recovery. We would not need them if they and their ilk just paid their tax and didn't steal the money that should go to their workers who actually produce whatever it is their company makes money from.