A quick little aside for The Creature. If your going to make a choice between the UK and NZ in the wake of the next Republican being elected US President – go NZ. If the current 100% Pure New Zealand television advertisement is anything to go by, it seems pretty remote and fabulous and it appears they have managed to have got their rampant Hobbit and Orc infestations under control at last… so they’ll probably take on some non-Republicans if push came to shove.
Actually NZ is top of the list. According to the World Peace Index, it’s ranked number one – http://www.visionofhumanity.org/gpi/results/rankings/2009/
There are also some things to consider like exchange rate (current rate is US$1 = NZ$1.56), the ability to continue doing there what we are doing here and of course things like health care.
While Ireland and Scotland are both very lovely places to live and offer the kind of ‘history’ that we both love, practicality-wise NZ far outweighs them. Interesting to see that even after nearly 40 years when my parents made the decision to move there from England, it still has the elements to be the number one drawcard. That says a lot.
The political situation here is quite tense actually, as there is a growing backlash against Obama, and not just from the right either. The problem isn’t that he hasn’t done anything yet, rather it’s the things he HAS done that during the campaign he specifically said he wouldn’t do, or the situation to that effect.
He said he would get the troops out of Iraq in 14 months, that got deferred, and now it’s unlikely to happen as he’s talking abut keeping them there for ‘years’. He railed against FISA, then voted to give telecoms retroactive immunity from complicity in wiretapping, he declared he was going to repeal Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, instead he has chosen to continue it, he was going to close Guantanamo, but when the right used the fear card again he buckled, and despite being against torture and claiming that when he took power there would be accountability for past discretions, he has indicated there will be no investigations or prosecutions.
So, the right is having a field day of course, touting not only Palin as a 2012 contender, but now throwing the name of Michelle Bachmann around too, and if you have never heard of her, go check out YouTube – she’s a certifiable nutjob.