The Musings Of An Opinionated Sod [Help Me Grow!]

So I was going for my daily walk when I passed a school in a posh part of Auckland.

By the gates, I saw this ad …

Now on one hand, I was quite impressed by the smarts of the real estate agents.

Putting an ad for a pricey home by the gates of the school pick-up zone is clever thinking.

As rich parents wait for their lucky kids, they have a captive audience to try and flog them another symbol of success.

But it’s also pretty appalling.

Not by the school – because even though it’s located in one of Auckland’s richest locations, its state run so likely needs the money like every other state school – but by the real estate agents.

Now I appreciate this may be a an ‘added benefit’ of them already donating money to the school. Plus, I acknowledge if they think the parents of the kids there can afford a piece of land – like the one on Waiheke Island – then maybe the school should be asking parents to contribute more to the education of their kids. But the fact Martin and Charles at Kellands Real Estate obviously negotiated this shows they don’t really care about the education of the kids, just the wallets of their parents.

I get this is how business operates these days.

I get it’s a very competitive market.

But just because you can, doesn’t always mean you should.

But this is how we operate … where everyone and everything is seen as a commodity waiting to be exploited by someone for personal gain.

No where demonstrates this as much as Linkedin with its endless unrequested ‘messages’ from strangers offering services that have nothing to do with what you do … but you kind-of expect that now, whereas this school ad caught me off guard.

Of course, the real people we should be aiming our anger at are the governments who continually under-invest in state education.

Conveniently forgetting that a smart nation is a strong nation … though some will claim that’s a very conscious reason why politicians do it.

Education and health are two of the most important things a nation can do for its people … that it’s become a pawn in the battle of politics is everything wrong with politics.

Which reminds me of the time someone said, “Democratic governments should be scared of its people. Ensuring they never forget who they represent and serve. When is the other way round, that’s when a nation has a problem”

While a real estate ad at a school in Auckland is something – in the big scheme of things – very small, in many ways it reveals, we have a problem.

Not an end-of-the World problem.

Not a call for revolution kind of a problem.

But a problem … because the focus is far more making a few people rich today, rather than helping an entire nation be better off tomorrow.

God, that’s waaaaaaaay too political for this blog. And on a Tuesday, no less.

I can assure you that tomorrow, things will be back to their bollocks best. Sorry.