Long live the King. By default, we have sworn allegiance to the Crown but what are we going to do when all our handshakes and financial donations are called into play?

Long live the King. The new monarch of the Commonwealth started his new official reign in the rain. Well, maybe not so much him as he was inside the abbey dressed in all his gold and finery while the masses stood in the pouring spring rain waving their red, white and blue flags.

Was there a coronation fever here? I didn’t notice any, if there was to be any it would definitely be directed towards gaining access to re-runs of Coronation Street more I imagine than watching the pomp and ceremony for Charles III.

I was excited to see the 70^th Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II in June 2022 and very saddened watching her funeral procession in September. For some reason it seemed more colourful and engaging, Charles’ special day seemed a bit dum-dee-do for me to bother watching. I was more in line with the young Prince Louis who was caught on camera yawning and staring up at the ceiling before being removed in a planned intervention to give him time to run amok out the back and get it out of his system (he is only five years old after all) before returning to watch the newly crowned King, his grandpappy walk out with his newly crowned Queen.

I saw a couple of friends having a right royal party with caricature masks and Spice Girl union jack dresses, but the only alignment I saw to us with the Coronation was it rained here too. 

Will the changing of guard mean anything more or less for us? I heard our Prime Minister missed out on getting another stamp in his passport or adding a new contact to his Facebook page of friends. As a part of the New Zealand realm countries, we are not a Commonwealth nation in our own right, so our KR Sir Tom Marsters and his beautiful wife were invited to represent instead which was fitting. 

I am not sure that the crowning of Prince to King would be a good time to bring up poverty in the islands but from the reports coming in from wherever Mark Brown seems to be in the world, Washington, South Korea, Japan, or whomever he is entertaining here in the Cook Islands – Saudi Arabia, China, Australia, India and more – he has managed to sneak in financial woes of our country and the need for funding.

I wonder what they think when they come here and see we are not walking around in grass skirts and using banana leaves as protection from the rain?

Do these donors of millions look at all the large trucks driving on our roads and the over robust size of our bodies think – well if we are not starving or lacking disposable income in the community where exactly does all the loans go into?

The roads have definitely improved surrounding the central business district outwards which is money saving for our car’s suspension. All roads lead to Rome and very soon there will be the start of the $70 million project to combine all the government departments under one expensive roof that will no doubt blow out to another $100 million.

Forget ChatGPT, having everyone together should mean better communication and let’s hope the need for less over paid Ministry heads. What am I saying silly me of course we will have plenty of chiefs and lots of AI installed to replace the working- class minions.

Progress is progress, but is it? Do we really need a three-story building right on the roadside? Is this the new benchmark that all buildings will be this high? It is better than the eyesore it has replaced. Other countries put up wooden poles to indicate the size and height of new builds so the community can have an input. The speed from notice to the public and the build given the kitset materials are here ready to go, leaves little room for comment. Will this allow and encourage fast development without thought and planning? Does the government have a plan of how our town will look in the future? Or will we have a random collection of buildings we end up regretting?

The coronation cost the British public $200 million in the middle of their cost-of-living crisis. Our government is building a large facility to rival the Beehive while accepting our $246 million debt is okay while not doing anything to improve our income earning through exports like agriculture. Instead, they are investing in and relying on a future pipe dream of nodule mining.

By default, we have sworn allegiance to the Crown but what are we going to do when all our handshakes and financial donations are called into play? For instance, who do we agree with in regards to Taiwan?