WE were awarded the Rugby World Cup in November 2005.
Last week, Auckland mayors finally decided that the $97 million wharf revamp to build (cough) “Party Central” and a cruise ship berth would not go ahead.
It only took four years and the small matter of that halfwit MP from Wainuiomata wanting to build a stadium on the Auckland wharf site to make a decision.
While Wellingtonians will be laughing behind their hands, knowing their Party Central has been built for nearly 20 years, with very little public money (a bit of paving and some traffic lights notwithstanding), the whole SNAFU illustrates the wide malaise we have in this country.
While commentators bemoan the lack of initiative and culture of entitlement shown by Generation Y and the overseas drift of Generation X, I’ve got a bone to pick with the baby boomers.
From central government to local government, right down to the three-member croquet club, we see a general movement in that generation away from “let’s roll our sleeves up” to “here’s what we need to do”.
Unfortunately the “here’s what we need to do” is usually a unilateral idea, opposed by another group, and neither side is open to negotiation. The boomers aren’t interested in actually “doing” it either – they see themselves as the ideas people.  How jolly.  How wrong.  As someone once said, “An idea not coupled with action will never get any bigger than the brain cell it occupied.”
I could blame MMP.  Instead I prefer to think it’s a disengagement from reality.  From the idea that taking the vote away from prisoners is the most pressing issue the legislature needs to deal with to the inability to organise a central focal point for the 2011 World Cup, baby boomers seem to lack a grip on how shit works.
It might be related to advancing years.  Look at the single issue bloody-mindedness around such things as Auckland’s wharves, cutting four teams from the Air New Zealand Cup, SPARC funding and its confined focus and so on.
The boomers in charge of these organisations brook no argument. They will hang on to their claim until the bitter end, only overturning in the face of overwhelming public opposition – but even then only grudgingly, and with extreme sourness.
They also appear to have eschewed the key essentials to any good plan – preparation, research, and testing. A foolish idea (such as building a stadium in downtown Auckland) is raced out without any thought. Chopping teams from the domestic rugby competition is decided after an exercise in navel-gazing amongst vested interests.
And then there is the complete disregard for the resources required.  Is $97 million a good use of public money for a waterfront party place?  Did any one of the Auckland mayors ever ask this before the tide of public opinion turned against the project?
This is not a problem restricted to the higher levels.  Sit in on any sports meeting and you see the same thing.
One can only imagine it must be immensely frustrating to one of the few competent boomers around.  Martin Snedden, as head of Rugby World Cup 2011, must despair at ever holding any successful match in Auckland.
The only benefit with this level of disorganisation is that we won’t face any of the issues confronting the Commonwealth Games, because al-Qaeda won’t know where to attack.
The baby boomers have moved from being the action people of the 80s to the drooling dictators who refuse to die. Unfortunately Gen X is overseas and Gen Y doesn’t care.