Swallowing black holes
BLACK holes are living proof that there’s almost no limit to how bad things can get.
And as if we don’t have enough to occupy ourselves on Earth, scientists have just discovered two more black holes way out in space. My crude understanding of black holes is that they’re like vast, voracious force-fields that swallow everything they come across [stars, planets, moons, comets], including light particles; any light that comes visiting just disappears down their throats and then the gluttonous party goes on unabated in the darkness. Black holes are obscene monuments to non-stop feeding. Think of our massive Sun. Well, one of the black holes they’ve just discovered weighs the same as 21 billion Suns. You’d think they’d run out of things to eat, but they never seem to.
In much the same way, I have been increasingly amazed at the way New Zealand is able to lose so many people every year, or disengage so many, without it ever becoming a political issue. I’m sure it harms us as a culture and as an economy. I’m thinking of the 200,000 Kiwis who permanently left New Zealand in the past three years. Or the near 2000 Kiwis who took their own lives in that time. And just recently, the over one million Kiwis who were entitled to vote who chose not to. Stats like these offer fundamental challenges to our political thinking. But, like the poor people behind the stats, they seem to disappear into a mysterious black hole in our consciousness. We all just trudge goofily on as if nothing has happened.
Which is why I was delighted to see a wonderful new development here in Wellington at the end of last week. Mayor Celia Wade-Brown and her councillors voted in a Wellington economic strategy covering the next ten years. And what a positive, enterprising strategy it is. It shows you where we’re going, how we’re going to get there, and how people are going to benefit from it. Of most note is its belief in people and the creation of 10,000 new jobs over the next four years.
And you can sort of see it happening due to how it’s described. Making Wellington a place people want to live in, do business in, come back to; increasing direct flights from Asia; fostering an environment where knowledge-intensive businesses can flourish; doubling the number of projects supported by foreign investment; and turning the inner city into an “economic engine room” [don’t you love that?] of the region. And, at last, a goal to get tertiary and research institutions to work more closely with business. Amen, amen.
I think Celia has always shown promise of being a positive, transformative type of Mayor capable of leading Wellington into a new space. But we’ve been standing around waiting for proof. This economic strategy is evidence we’re all on the same bike now and the wheels are turning. And I can’t see any black holes in the road ahead.
And as if we don’t have enough to occupy ourselves on Earth, scientists have just discovered two more black holes way out in space. My crude understanding of black holes is that they’re like vast, voracious force-fields that swallow everything they come across [stars, planets, moons, comets], including light particles; any light that comes visiting just disappears down their throats and then the gluttonous party goes on unabated in the darkness. Black holes are obscene monuments to non-stop feeding. Think of our massive Sun. Well, one of the black holes they’ve just discovered weighs the same as 21 billion Suns. You’d think they’d run out of things to eat, but they never seem to.
In much the same way, I have been increasingly amazed at the way New Zealand is able to lose so many people every year, or disengage so many, without it ever becoming a political issue. I’m sure it harms us as a culture and as an economy. I’m thinking of the 200,000 Kiwis who permanently left New Zealand in the past three years. Or the near 2000 Kiwis who took their own lives in that time. And just recently, the over one million Kiwis who were entitled to vote who chose not to. Stats like these offer fundamental challenges to our political thinking. But, like the poor people behind the stats, they seem to disappear into a mysterious black hole in our consciousness. We all just trudge goofily on as if nothing has happened.
Which is why I was delighted to see a wonderful new development here in Wellington at the end of last week. Mayor Celia Wade-Brown and her councillors voted in a Wellington economic strategy covering the next ten years. And what a positive, enterprising strategy it is. It shows you where we’re going, how we’re going to get there, and how people are going to benefit from it. Of most note is its belief in people and the creation of 10,000 new jobs over the next four years.
And you can sort of see it happening due to how it’s described. Making Wellington a place people want to live in, do business in, come back to; increasing direct flights from Asia; fostering an environment where knowledge-intensive businesses can flourish; doubling the number of projects supported by foreign investment; and turning the inner city into an “economic engine room” [don’t you love that?] of the region. And, at last, a goal to get tertiary and research institutions to work more closely with business. Amen, amen.
I think Celia has always shown promise of being a positive, transformative type of Mayor capable of leading Wellington into a new space. But we’ve been standing around waiting for proof. This economic strategy is evidence we’re all on the same bike now and the wheels are turning. And I can’t see any black holes in the road ahead.
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