As popstar Elton John so profoundly sang, and his co-creator Bernie Taupin wrote, 'sorry' does indeed at times 'seem[.] to be the hardest word' It ain't here, though I do nevertheless need to be devouring some rather serious humble pie. So perhaps it's just as well that apparently next to nobody at all (especially here in NZ) reads my blogposts. A terrible admission, I well realize, but nonetheless quite true, and as I say, just as well, or I could be in for some serious defamatory/libel action - by local authorities. Again, that is, if anyone even cared less, which perhaps they don't or wouldn't!
Nevertheless, in the interests of that wonderful and increasingly lonely 'thing' known as journalistic integrity - something I've ever tried to maintain since my high school days in the dim, distant past as reporter upon and later Chief Editor and finally Editor of our once famous *KVHS school newspaper 'Mercury', let me say the following:
In this day and age of 'fake news', though I wouldn't go as far as to put my offering several days ago quite into that invidious category - although who needs facts when one's opinions can carry the day (and everything in their path)?; and we've all heard at some time that old saying about 'My mind is made up; I won't let the facts get in the way of a good opinion!' - how very easy it really is to get half the (particular) story, from a partially reliable source, and then go off half-cocked to share it with one and all, supposing you've got a real scoop in your precious little lap.
And so I was misled, no, not so much perhaps by Jim Mora's **weekday Panel discussion - though I do now upon reflection feel and believe that Jim et al got mighty exercised over what was really the proverbial storm in a teacup. But quite clearly I simply wasn't paying proper attention at the time (to the aforementioned radio chat), that's all I can conclude.
But none of that gets me off the hook from not having done my proper research and background investigation for my strongly-worded opinion piece about the recent Ed Sheeran concerts in my hometown of Dunedin. Essentially paragraphs three through six are out of order...in that evidently local workers of all sorts were apparently not required to work over the special Easter 'holy-days' (as some would see them), i.e. Good Friday and Easter Sunday in particular...which as I stressed (to the nth degree) in said article/blogpost would've indeed been a violation of those peoples' (and their families') right to observe (away from work, with their loved ones) such annual days of special spiritual significance (to many people).
No, I discovered today (at the local library, since we stopped getting the ODT delivered probably a good decade ago now) that the only real fuss over Ed Sheeran's concerts was over the cost of a mural done in his honour (about which I won't comment, even if it indeed was a gross mis-expenditure of local council monies, as some might justifiably claim). In terms of my own pointed remarks, however, I frankly care not about the particular hours purveyors of death and destruction (i.e. local liquor shops and bars) were allowed to open on either of the two major days, since this is an ongoing saga of musical chairs effectively each and every year throughout New Zealand: vis-a-vis opening hours and days for Good Friday and/or Easter Sunday, and prosecutions undertaken - or not as the case may well be - as a consequence of outfits across the land or at least in special tourist hotspots often openly (and without repercussions) flouting such laws.
Sadly such alcohol-fuelled carnage and mayhem - filling hospital emergency departments on a regular basis - seems likely to continue unabated, irrespective of rather arbitrary limitations essentially 'around the edges'...and hey, since supermarkets became 'open slather' vis-a-vis alcohol sales two decades ago or so, what difference if certain places have certain restrictions placed upon them on what are essentially 'bits' n' bobs' of the greater picture? And after all we're hardly likely to see prohibition revisited in our lifetime; though I did chance upon an interesting bit of historical info awhile ago in which it was stated how there had been no-one before the courts one year (a hundred years ago or so) in Invercargill due to its being one of several 'dry areas' in NZ.
But more majorly, as I've already alluded to, locals were not required to work on those two days...unless bus drivers and other transport operators (such as shuttle drivers to and from the airport etc) were indeed required to. However, the ODT seemed to indicate that Good Friday was not involved for transport providers (and indeed there was no concert then), and local bus operators were only slotted on Easter Sunday afternoon, though of course that could well have posed issues for some workers and their families, I have little doubt (and am not denying that).
*Kaikorai Valley High School, now Kaikorai Valley College, in Dunedin.
**Unfortunately I've also long since 'lost' the date that that particular discussion took place.
Post Script: Please, somebody, help (as the Beatles once famously requested)...I need somebody, help! So any and every opinion will be well considered and seriously reflected upon - just give me some, a little feedback, d'ya hear?!?!?! That's what the 'Comments' section is all about. No, I mean, really!
Especially - pretty please - if you happen to share the same name as a pen-pal I once had by the name of Toni...
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