Of politics and bureaucracy

What did I do this weekend? I went to Hunterville to the opening of a friend's Art Gallery.

I had arranged for the local National MP, Simon Power, to do the opening bit. I was appointed to be the Master of Ceremonies. Dunno why...

Anyway, there was only about 30 people at the opening so, to introduce Simon, I stood up and said:

"Officially opening the gallery tonight is Simon Power MP for Rangitikei.

Simon just scraped into Parliament a couple of elections ago but he roared in this year. That, of course, was because he did the hard yard campaigning,

The rumour is that, to reach the country electorate he rode around on a draft horse called Gertrude. But he soon stopped doing that as all his constituents confused the horse with Helen Clark.

Well, that's to be expected really because when he first went into Parliament he told everyone that he'd always be on Helen Clark's back.

Yep. Simon got elected the hard way, going around meeting people, shaking them by the hand. I suspect that there are times he would have liked to have shaken them by the throat, but that's political life for you.

So, without further ado I'd like to invite Simon to come and do the ceremonial opening bit."

I'm not sure whether he took it all that well actually. He complained that the ribbon he had to cut was a red one and the National Party colours are blue...

Anyway, I got home yesterday and it's been one of those days today when one is unmotivated and can't seem to get down to work and everything goes wrong.

I must have PMT!

And I am beginning to think that New Zealand is rapidly going under in a sea of bureaucracy.

A week or more ago, I had to apply for a Customs Client Code to import my books. I was told I would be notified what the Customs-required code was within a day. A week later, I had received nothing.

Today I asked Customs what was going on. Apparently, because I have no fax number, I wasn’t advised what the number was. This is despite the fact that I had included an email address in the place of the fax number. It appears that people working in Customs don’t have the initiative to send a reply to an email address in the place of a fax….

I also found out on Friday that, in order to export anything over $1000, one has to fill out something called an Export Entry (even though the goods are exiting, and not entering…)

An Export Entry is, apparently, a form solely used for governmental statistical purposes … yet one is required to pay $5.50 for the privilege of filling it in!

Worse still, this form is required not because I am exporting anything but because I am sending back to a customer some motorcycle leathers that were repaired (for free).

I’m gobsmacked! Why the heck is New Zealand placing this sort of stupid obstacle in the way of people wanting to export and earn overseas currency? If Kiwis didn’t earn overseas currency, New Zealand would be in serious trouble. Indeed, right at the moment New Zealand is spending more on imports that it is earning through exports.

Personally, I’ve decided that all this export stuff is just too much hassle. New Zealand will have to do without any overseas funds I could earn through exporting.

I wonder how many others decide the same.

And my bad day continued.

I got a scam email from a man on msn.com

So I included the scam message in an email I sent off to the abuse section of msn.com to get them to close the account of the scam artist.

The msn.com server refused to accept the message because it contained spam...

However, just to prove that life goes on, my pet duck arrived today and demanded food. Her mate was nowhere to be seen. Probably sailing the oceans of the world. I gather Drakes do that.

So I fed the duck and she went away.

Then she came back again and demanded more food. I told her I wasn’t made of bread, so she stopped pecking my foot.

But, I gave her another couple of slices of bread, anyway. So she had her fill and left with nary a kiss for me. Women are so fickle.

They leave their mate behind for another guy who can give ‘em the goodies then, when the new male runs out of goodies, they nip off back to their mate for a bit of the old feather ruffling.

But enough of my sad day. I think tonight I will go zombie with a DVD. I have a choice of one with an M rating or a PG rating. Geez, decisions, decisions.

Hey, you have a good day tomorrow.