"I won't dwell on the monarchy, because frankly they're an embarrassment and an irrelevance. Albeit an expensive one.,'' writes Hamish Bidwell.
"I won't dwell on the monarchy, because frankly they're an embarrassment and an irrelevance. Albeit an expensive one.,'' writes Hamish Bidwell.
I'll never forget being told what a knighthood was worth.
Of a person who coveted one, the lobbying that took place on their behalf and then finally the sum of money that was paid to the ruling party of the time.
It was the kind of story that didn't dowonders for my belief in the great and the good of this fine nation.
And nor has this past weekend, frankly.
Between the latest round of honours and the Queen's own Jubilee, we've seen a pretty decent advertisement for the republican movement.
I won't dwell on the monarchy, because frankly they're an embarrassment and an irrelevance. Albeit an expensive one.
I don't reckon a day goes by without news websites in this country running a story on one particular exiled prince and his wife. Someone must read that drivel, otherwise they wouldn't keep publishing it.
No, it's the upside-down honours system that always upsets me.
In an ideal world, we wouldn't have honours at all. Not the knights and dames, nor that other more confusing model Helen Clark championed while in office.
But this is a democracy and enough people appear to see value in these titles, so that's what we've got.
Hamish Bidwell: ''Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe those good folk, earning six and seven-figure salaries, complete with all the baubles in the world, are the real kiwi battlers.''
Yep, a system where the ruling elite are forever rewarded for their efforts.
A system where people are further praised and put on a pedestal for doing a job that was well-paid and well-recognised in the first place.
Never mind Joe and Jane Blow in Flaxmere or Wairoa or wherever, who are actually making the world a better place and doing it all off their own bat. These people who make sacrifices in their own lives so that others have a better chance in theirs.
This country is full of people doing good deeds for others. Starting clubs, programmes, providing meals, support, company, accommodation, counselling, transport, kindness, after-school care.
They seek nothing in return and, just as well, because the establishment doesn't know they're alive.
No, our elite are too busy recognising those whose service has largely been to themselves.
Have an honours system if you must, but at least venerate the right people.
To me, the word 'service' suggests that your efforts have been voluntary. That your service to arts or sports or science, business, the community and justice was unpaid and unseen.
But then I'm against awards full stop. Against the notion that anyone - be they an actor, musician, athlete, journalist, whoever - deserves a prize for doing their job.
How vain and needy can we be? Pretty, unfortunately.
So rather than a celebration of New Zealand and New Zealanders, honours days are cringeworthy to me. Days where we lavish unjustified praise upon people who've had more than enough already.
Days when doers of actual good deeds are overlooked because there's no celebrity element to their service.
But, hey, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe those good folk, earning six and seven-figure salaries, complete with all the baubles in the world, are the real Kiwi battlers.
The ones doing it tough on our behalf, so that this country can be a better place.
