The media in their usual slap-dash manner have all reported Microbiologist Siouxsie Wiles as the New Zealander of the Year.
She is no such thing.
Our smallest trading bank has made that declaration and has no more legitimacy to do so than Joe’s Patea Piecart.
This is not a criticism of Dr Wiles.
Having a New Zealander of the Year is a nice idea but it should be an accolade chosen by a committee of notables and carry government sanction. And like the Honours system it should be open to public suggestions.
20 Comments
I initially thought it was a April fools joke.
Sadly it wasn’t.
Well I missed out again. That’s 49 Years in a row
Sir Bob, this is Cindy’s sick idea of an April Fools joke.
Without doubt Wiles is the biggest and most successful self promoter on the country – if not the world !
Festooned with her horrible bright pink hair , on a huge civil service salary she has successfully weaseled her way into one of the “ go to” people for the hapless MSM.
She is no more qualified to speak on the topic of COVID-19 than you or I.
She is not an epidemiologist – nor ever will be.
Would you go to a vet for a brain operation ?
No, but Wiles has successfully talked a ton of bovine manure on a topic on which she is unqualified to speak on – and the suckers have believed every word she has said.
Beyond pathetic.
She’s also a top tsunami expert 🙂 https://www.stuff.co.nz/science/300250513/tsunami-evacuations-better-safe-than-sorry
I share your dislike of the mutual admiration society of leftists awarding meaningless accolades to their approved favourites. I believe ophthalmologists up and down the country have reported queues of patients assembling at their clinics suffering from facial muscle damage due to excessive eye-rolling after this announcement. If it was an award for disseminating state propaganda and fuelling public fear and hysteria, the award would be well deserved but this seems like nothing more than a shallow PR agency media concoction.
I initially thought it was a very funny April fools joke.
Sadly it wasn’t.
The hair issue should have automatically disqualified her, regardless.
There is a massive failure on the part of “expert” officials all over the world, concerning the reality that Covid has spread mostly via aerosols, not “contact” and droplets and surfaces. There has been abundant evidence and findings, and a growing chorus of dissent from experts below the top officials, or outside officialdom. There should be a major reckoning and holding people accountable over this because the damage has been considerable, both in lives not saved (especially in rest homes), and in the cost of mitigation strategies that were wrongly targeted. The officials have been in backside-covering mode for some time now, the public interest takes second place to them saving face and their positions, perks, and totally undeserved public hero status.
Siouxsie Wiles and her colleagues who are undeserved heroes in NZ to date, personify this failure just as much as Tedros et al at the WHO, Fauci et al, Whitty et al, etc. These people deserve more than the sack.
Bob, you are the best.
Its a joke, I think Mike Hosking would be way higher up the list in fact I can’t actually think why Siouxie is on it.
How sadly predictable.
Lionised by the Pravda emulating NZ media,
“look at me” name and hairstyle, and a total purveyor of the establishment party line,
sharing the public stage with darling Jacinda for the last year,and now a Kaitaka Huaka cloak.
Wow!
What’s not to like?
Beam me up.
Unsure about now but originally it was introduced to NZ by an small private Australian (marketing) company . It was a standalone profit center for them here , with one or two staff . They stayed until they had fleeced all they could have out of it. They arranged Kiwibank as the main sponsor. They organised a panel of kiwis to sort through and pick the recipients of the prizes at a glamorous black tie function. I went to some early ones and they were fine events with some worthy recipients.
I suspect if as you suggest, the government set this up it would have been hijacked by the many special interest groups, who each would have demanded a award and sub category award of their niche interests , have taken 15 years to actually start the first one (as peer reviews of peer reviews do take time) , culminating in a award ceremony that was moved around NZ so as to truly represent this country, requiring buses and hotels as most recipient strangely live where the other 30% live (Auckland ) all at a cost of $75m per year. For a event as dreary and long winded as Dr Ashleys daily Covid announcements. Probably far longer as each special interest group would have demanded their own presenters and translation into each of our multi cultural countries languages , with extra cost for specialised sign speakers for each language (all 6 on stage at once gesturing behind each speaker I expect) . The food requirements for every group would have required another logistical triumph, especially the event when it was Eketahuna’s time. Its in the bag mixed with the local cosy club function for vegetarians . Seems a fair summation.
Apparently, Wellington cat Mittens was also one of the candidates.
To have any meaning, a New Zealander of the Year should be chosen by a popular plebiscite, not by some mutual admiration society.
NZer of the year is a completely commercial run operation, owned and run by an Australian couple funnily enough.
Well said thank you
I’m sure she is a well motivated & pleasent individual. But yes But does anybody remember she is just doing her job like thousands of other NZers. Anybody associated with Coved 19 seems to be immediately eligible for social glorification. Cut out the PC.
It’s a bloody sad choice. For what? Parroting the govt line re Covid. What has she actually achieved of note? It should have gone to someone who has done something real, such as Peter Burling, for clinching us the much prized America’s Cup. What a sad and undeserving result. Fluff!
The award should have gone to every man , woman and child in New Zealand for putting up with all the BS we have had to listen to from the likes of Jacinda , Sir Ashley and all the other self proclaimed Covid 19
” Experts ” over the last year.
Must make all the other recipients of this award now question their own gong. And denigrates future recipients to the point OF WGARA!!!!
Cindy and Ash must have declined the “honor”.
A fairly hollow award. Speaks volumes of the people who voted; of which I am not one.
What about the thousands of people who donate/volunteer their time, to bring good to the masses. Must be plenty associated with the Americas cup, or the foodbanks; which would rank way ahead of a paid public servant.