The Virus Crisis

Let's start with the obvious subject, the one that dominated the world in 2020 and is showing no signs of easing up in 2021. What impact has it had on CAFCA? Very little (touch wood). Virtually all of us on the Committee and people playing other key CAFCA roles are in the "vulnerable elderly" demographic. None of us got sick or lost our jobs. The Committee was unable to meet for three months in 2020 and we had to scrub our annual strategy meeting (lockdown ended just days before the scheduled May date; it became too difficult to find another date on which everyone was available; and it was, by then, too far into the year to serve any useful purpose. It was rescheduled for March 2021, when it was duly held - for the first time in two years).

The whole lockdown experience demonstrated the strength of the work model that CAFCA (and the Anti-Bases Campaign) established for the CAFCA/ABC Organiser (me) way back in 1991. There is no office - I work from home and have done so, in splendid isolation, for nearly 30 years (it will be 30 years in late 2021). Any shock from losing the social aspect of the workplace is way in the distant past for me.

This model was not established with a global health crisis in mind but for purely economic reasons - CAFCA (and ABC) doesn't have to pay any rent, rates, power, insurance, maintenance, etc. The CAFCA/ABC Organiser Account does pay a chunk of my monthly Internet, e-mail and phone bills in addition to my actual pay. But that is still a lot cheaper than the full costs of renting and running an office.

So, for me (and CAFCA) the 2020 lockdown period was pretty much business as usual. I regarded it as a working holiday (I only noticed how strange everything was when I made my weekly visit to the supermarket). The key component of a one-man home office is a good computer set up and uninterrupted wi fi. Fortunately, that all worked (I did have to get the printer fixed by a technician using remote control - which was interesting to witness).

Shortly before lockdown, I had lost Internet connectivity for a whole week (a major motivation to finally transfer from copper to fibre broadband. The sad thing about that is that we have lost a proper landline i.e. one which works in the absence of power or the Internet. Our old landline was the only thing in the house which worked for the week after the February 2011 killer quake and was a godsend).

I'm not set up for Zoom or any other kind of online meetings. The monitor on the CAFCA computer is the oldest part of it (2010) and doesn't come with a Webcam, microphone or headphones. Maybe we'll invest in those, although there was no great enthusiasm among the Committee for Zoom meetings when we discussed the subject at our first post-lockdown meeting. We kept in touch by e-mail or phone during that period. The only time I personally missed having an online visual capability was when I had to remotely deal with my doctor by blind phone. "What's the matter with your knee"? "It's sore". "Ok, I'll prescribe some painkillers".

But everything we already do worked during lockdown. Indeed, we produced one of the biggest Watchdogs for several years (the April 2020 issue), at 116 pages. The whole process of receiving articles, finding illustrations, getting it to layout, proofreading and correcting it, then getting it to the printer was all done remotely - which is what we've routinely done for every issue for years now.

The only reason that April issue was a little bit late was because our printers had to wait for restrictions to be lifted before they could resume work in their building. Normally we collect the finished product from them - this time they personally delivered it to my home, on their way home after work (the only time that has happened). One of my colleagues volunteered to venture out of his bubble with me to get it to NZ Post.

Not Everything Was Smooth Sailing

NZ Post was not selling any stamps or anything else (to avoid contact with customers). Fortunately, we mail Watchdog in postage paid envelopes which we pre-buy in bulk (they cost thousands). Our handful of overseas members who receive a hard copy issue posed a special challenge - NZ Post asked me if we could provide our own stamps as they couldn't sell me any. CAFCA had had an unopened box of 100 standard stamps sitting in a drawer for years. That did the trick - I had to use 48 of them to pay postage for four overseas Watchdogs (two each to Australia and Germany).

Our snail mail, of which we now get very little, kept arriving during lockdown - which created its own issues. Those aforementioned two members in Germany sent, via ordinary mail, several hundred euros in cash to us (for subs and donations). Of course, no banks or other foreign currency exchange places were open. When banks did open to offer limited services for a limited time, I spent ages on the phone only to be told that foreign currency exchange was not an essential service.

I was stuck with the stuff until further notice. I consoled myself that if I did get burgled, the thieves wouldn't be able to change that foreign cash either. When the banks reopened, I went and stood in a queue with all the other people who had banking issues that couldn't be dealt with online. Eventually those euros were changed into hundreds more of NZ dollars cash, which I was finally able to deposit into the CAFCA account.

Kiwibank's decision to stop accepting cheques, as of the end of February 2020, turned out to be providential. From 2019 onwards, in preparation for this, CAFCA has paid everything by online banking. Previously, we needed to get two signatures on cheques at Committee meetings, which would have been impossible during lockdown. And we drummed it into members that they could no longer pay their subs by cheque.

The great majority of them have switched to paying us by online banking - a small number send us cash by snail mail or personally deposit cash into the CAFCA account at a Kiwibank branch. If we'd been receiving cheques during lockdown, we would not have been able to bank them. The next thing that banks are in the process of ditching is foreign currency cash. Two of the banks that CAFCA or I personally use have quit accepting and issuing it.

I was busy during the lockdown, so busy that I never once watched the Jacinda and Ashley 1 p.m. coronavirus briefings. I've always regarded watching daytime TV (except sport) as a portent of the end and I wasn't prepared to make an exception for lockdown. Twice in one week I was contacted by Northern Hemisphere journalists wanting information about Silicon Valley billionaires getting themselves New Zealand boltholes and/or bunkers to ride out the virus apocalypse. Boltholes CAFCA knows about; we can't help about bunkers. One of the journos actually rang me from Copenhagen for a 30+ minute chat (the other one was from a European-based Arabic news outfit).

With the Danish journo, we got into a general discussion and I told him that NZ will now be temporarily, if not permanently, rid of hordes of foreign tourists coming here taking selfies with bloody hobbits on their "Lord Of The Rings" pilgrimages. I told him that Kiwis have a standing joke about German tourists asking locals where they can find Mount Doom. The journo replied: "We like jokes about German tourists too".

Home Alone

I spent lockdown at home alone, which was no big deal. Actually, I wasn't entirely alone. Our next-door neighbour's black cat, who regularly comes and goes through the hedge, was good company during lockdown. He has included our place in his ever-expanding territory and has deigned to include me in his human whanau. He regularly intercepts me to demand attention and when he's sick of it he scratches me. We understand each other perfectly.

Our place is the arena for his nocturnal mixed martial arts and yowling contests against all comers (he's always got fresh battle scars). And, as it has been for generations of cats before him, our place is his happy hunting ground, what with the trees, hedges, derelict back shed and even the grape vine. I recently decided it was time to have a serious talk with him, man to cat. I stood over him, wagged my finger and told him: "Leave the dicky birds alone". His response? He bit my slipper and ran away, to resume his life of crime.

I've worked from home alone for nearly 30 years and routinely spend a chunk of every year by myself when Becky visits family in the Philippines. She left in December 2019 and was due home in March 2020. Whilst over there she accepted an invitation from friends to accompany them on a short trip to Japan, which involved postponing her NZ return.

The virus swept the globe, the Japan trip evaporated (no refund), her return flight was cancelled (no refund) and she was stuck indefinitely in one of the world's strictest and most militarised lockdowns. In April we got a few days' notice of an NZ government charter flight to repatriate NZ citizens and permanent residents out of the Philippines. Those few days were action-packed (even getting from her mother's home to Manila Airport was a major adventure) and the flight to Auckland cost us a fortune but she got out.

Becky thoroughly enjoyed her two weeks' managed isolation in a swanky central Auckland hotel (which was 100% free in those early days). Curiously, she was never tested once for the virus. She got home in May, after five months away. She was masked up and hyped up when she got back but within about a week had completely relaxed. Once the country went down to Level 1, we resumed living our normal life.

The biggest impact that Covid had on us in 2020 was that our 1990s'-vintage washing machine blew up (with a literal bang), and although we promptly bought a new one, we had to wait a month for it because of disruption of the supply chain from the Chinese factory. Ah, the "benefits" of globalisation. We had to make do, temporarily, with the local coin-operated laundromat.

Things aren't so light-hearted back in the Philippines. One of our brothers-in-law caught the virus and was at home with a nasty cough for weeks. Fortunately, he and his family are all OK. He caught it because he was the only one in the extended family still having to go out to work. He works in a call centre (the "business process outsourcing" industry is now the biggest sector in the Philippine economy) and his company's First World clients did not want their call centre staff to work from home. Once again - the "benefits" of globalisation, where First World corporations put profits ahead of the health (and lives) of their Third World workers. More recently the Philippines has become the first country to make compulsory the wearing of face shields (in addition to face masks).

Committee

Unchanged since my previous Report. There are seven members - Colleen Hughes, James Ayers, Jeremy Agar, John Ring, Murray Horton, Paul Piesse and Terry Moon. We continue to work with former Committee members - from both recent and long-ago times - in other campaigns. For example, Brian Turner and Denis O'Connor are very actively involved in Keep Our Assets (KOA).

Membership

It is around 315, which is down from the 330+ of my previous Report (and this is being written before the annual cull of members who haven't renewed). It has definitely dropped over the last few years (460 is the highest it has reached in recent years; it is quite a few years since it threatened 500; 550+ was our absolute zenith, many years ago). For any number of years now, the numerical trend has been gradually but steadily downwards.

Every year we remove non-payers but only after they have ignored two of the dreaded red slips and final, e-mailed, reminders. And every year we pick up new members, or former members re-join, so that we make up some, but by no means all, of the number lost. We lose members for a variety of reasons - death, old age, retirement, financial reasons, or simply deciding not to renew. That reflects the aging demographic of our membership.

There are other reasons: one or two resigned rather than having to use online banking to pay the annual sub (which, needless to say, was not CAFCA's doing but that of our bank). As I detailed in my 2019 Report, we lost our single biggest member - Trade Aid - at the end of 2019, when its sub ran out. It used to pay a sub for each of its 32 shops.

Gaining new members is a permanent project. We have some wonderfully evangelical members who set out to recruit others. And several members have responded to our request for donations to pay the subs of members who can no longer afford it. Members are very generous - falling membership does not equal falling finances. Quite the opposite.

We insist on a paying membership, because we have no other source of funds. We don't charge much and haven't reviewed or increased our sub for a very long time (at least 20 years, if not longer. However, in 2021, we are going to substantially increase the sub for those very few overseas members who get Watchdog by snail mail. The overseas postage rates are now astronomical, and the annual $30 we've charged them for decades no longer remotely covers it). If we had retained all those who stopped paying, we could claim a "membership" of thousands. We reach a much bigger audience than our actual membership.

Finances

Between them, our operating account and three term deposits, hold $62,000, in round figures, which is $11,000 less than in my last annual Report. There is a simple explanation for that apparent major drop in our financial situation. The CAFCA/ABC Organiser Account (which exists solely to provide my income) dipped too low and, so, CAFCA donated a total of $15,000 to it in 2020 (in two separate payments). Prior to this, CAFCA's only financial contribution had been the occasional loan and the gifting of the regular interest from our term deposits.

There are plenty of small organisations like ours who would give their eye teeth to have $62,000 in the bank (let alone the $73,000 we had in 2019). By contrast, the other group for which I am the Organiser - Anti-Bases Campaign - has $9,000 in round figures. So, this is a very good result, considering that we're not a business seeking to make a profit. Basically, CAFCA is financially independent. We continue to be in a very healthy financial situation and don't have to devote any energy or time to fundraising beyond our own ranks, being entirely financed by the annual subs and donations of our members.

Expenses & Donations

CAFCA has routine office expenses. But our single biggest cost every year is the postage for Watchdog. Every year NZ Post increases the price of the pre-paid big envelopes we use, so we stockpile a large quantity and lock in the current price, to keep our costs down for as long as possible. In 2020 we bought several thousand dollars' worth of envelopes, which will last us until well into 2021 (when the price will doubtless go up again).

We have no plans to change Watchdog to an online-only publication (although the option is there for members to get it that way and getting up towards 10% of them do). The great majority of members want a good old-fashioned hard copy Watchdog. By contrast, Anti-Bases Campaign has decided that it can no longer afford these relentless postage rate increases and, from 2021, is moving Peace Researcher (the other publication which I edit) to being mainly online. We have enough money to be able to make donations to other campaigns. For example, we make an annual $500 donation to the Anti-Bases Campaign for the Waihopai spy base protests.

CAFCA/ABC Organiser Account

The trend, for several years now, has been of a steady decline. So, in 2020, CAFCA decided to do something about it. Two somethings, actually. The first, as I've already detailed, was to donate $15,000 to keep the Account alive. The second was to widely distribute a special appeal (it was sent not just to members and supporters but to anyone on our various e-mail lists).

The response to that has been gratifying. Normally the Account goes down month by month, by more than $1,000. That is still the trend but in a couple of months it actually went up. In one case, it was greatly boosted by a $3,000 donation. This particular couple have donated nearly $35,000 over the past 20 years. A couple of regular pledgers increased their pledges. And two other people started a pledge.

To quote from the latest monthly bank statement (February 2021) at the time of writing: the balance was $8,319.60 (down $3,300 on the previous month. This was a much bigger monthly drop than usual and one explanation is that the statement covered three pays to me, not the usual two). Money in was $2,146.54; money out was $5,453.99. There were two online donations, totalling $130 plus a $100 cash donation. The Organiser Account still receives the odd cheque. Westpac still accepts cheques, though it has announced that it will stop doing so in mid-2021.

There are two reasons for the steady decline - firstly, the commitment to pay the Organiser (me) the Living Wage (which increased in 2020 to $22.10 per hour). And the drop in the number of pledgers and donors - for the same reason that CAFCA membership is dropping. People are retiring and can no longer afford it. In some cases, they have been doing it since the Organiser Account first started, back in 1991. I never cease to be amazed by their generosity. Again, I'd like to single out the late John Case who, uniquely, posthumously pledged to the Account for several years after he died (it stopped in 2020).

It is remarkable that it has lasted for nearly three decades without having been a drain on CAFCA finances (up until 2020). For nearly 30 years the Organiser Account was entirely dependent on the generosity of pledgers and donors. Recruiting new pledgers and soliciting more donations is a permanent project. The 2020 special appeal was the biggest push we've made for years to boost the Organiser Account and the response was very encouraging. I've written the Account off more than once in the past and it just keeps going. Once again, I thank James Ayers who does a very good job of looking after the Organiser Account.

Watchdog

I am the Editor; it is our flagship, our "face", our voice to our members and the world at large. To use the jargon, it is our "brand". It looks the best it ever has. The three 2020 issues were, respectively, 116, 80 and 108 pages. The 116-page April issue, partly produced during lockdown, was one of the biggest ever issues. Watchdog will always be a niche publication - we now have only one retail outlet, which regularly sells out of the copies it stocks. We don't have the resources to compete with mainstream magazines. Nor the intention.

Editing Watchdog takes plenty of my time but I also write some of each issue. In recent years I've usually written the lead article for each issue. Thanks are due - as they have been for more than 20 years - to Layout Editor Leigh Cookson. At the end of 2020 she gave us a maximum of 12 months' notice, because Watchdog is taking up too much of her time on top of her fulltime job. So, for the first time since the late 1990s, we had to look for a new Layout Editor. Thanks to a non-member supporter who circulated our appeal to her contacts, we found one too. As for Leigh, she joins Bill Rosenberg as CAFCA's second Life Member.

Ian Dalziel has provided the wonderfully quirky cover graphics for many years now. Jeremy Agar not only produces a prodigious number of high-quality reviews but was Watchdog's resident Trumpologist for the duration of that singularly inglorious Presidency. Linda Hill does a superb job writing up the monthly Decisions of the Overseas Investment Office (plus some other articles. Having told us she would write up those Decisions for five years, she has now given us notice as of the end of 2021). Dennis Small belies his name - he is very big in output.

The August 2020 issue was (I think) a first in one respect - of the nine writers, five were women and four were men. Some of our writers are well known - for example, Bryan Gould, Jane Kelsey, Catherine Delahunty, Mary Ellen O'Connor, Geoff Bertram, Prue Hyman, John Minto and Mike Treen were among those who wrote for us in 2020. And none of them gets paid anything. Readers have told us they appreciate the specialist articles, such as the August issue's ones on the role of the Reserve Bank and on private equity funds.

Watchdog is a journal of analysis, not a newspaper. The dangers of trying to analyse up to the minute political stories was demonstrated in the August issue, when Dennis Small wrote a detailed critique of the National Party leading into the election - with Todd Muller as Leader. I had to try to set things right by way of an Editorial Update at the start of his article.

This is not a new problem. I vividly remember being in the final stages of getting the December 2016 issue out of layout and off to the printer (producing the December issue is always a race against the country shutting down for Christmas) when the news broke of John Key resigning as Prime Minister with a week's notice. A hasty Editorial note had to be added.

Other CAFCA Publications

For more years than we can remember, Bill Rosenberg did a meticulously excellent job of researching and writing CAFCA's annual Who Owns New Zealand: Key Facts. He produced them in three formats each year: straight text, and graphs in both PowerPoint and PDF. You can access the current version here.

This enabled CAFCA to distribute the Key Facts both electronically and in hard copy (we sent out the latest hard copy leaflet with the April 2020 Watchdog). The release of the annual Key Facts has always elicited much interest from members, supporters and the mainstream media (more than once it has led to an article or column devoted to it). But, in late 2020, Bill told us he had decided to step down from the role, primarily for reasons of time.

CAFCA thanks him for his immense contribution to enabling New Zealanders to see the true extent of transnational corporate ownership of NZ businesses and land. We circulated an appeal seeking someone to take it on and got a taker within minutes. And, in 2020, I suggested that I start electronically compiling and distributing an irregular CAFCA Update (modelled on the same thing I've done for the Anti-Bases Campaign for a couple of years now). At the time of writing, I've produced two and they were well received.

Online Watchdog

This is available here. Terry Moon is in charge of this. She does a very good job and has introduced some innovations. Our online-only members receive each issue as a PDF but the actual online edition on the Website is a plain, text-only affair. We get free Web hosting for both Watchdog and CAFCA but the trade-off is that there is a size restriction on the total amount of cyberspace we can have free of charge. Courtesy of former Committee member Warren Brewer, you can read online the most recent issues as PDFs, on Watchblog.

Website

Terry Moon is also in charge of the CAFCA site (the Watchdog site is a more recent addition to her online responsibilities) and does a meticulous and very thorough job. In my previous Report l said that CAFCA is taking steps to upgrade and modernise our Website. This is being done by our Webhost (the only one we've had since we first went online in the 1990s). But it is taking an extremely long time to get implemented. Terry is our liaison person with the company (a small, local one). It will cost us serious money but, thus far, we haven't had to spend a cent.

In addition to the CAFCA site, we have the separate Watchdog one and the Historic Watchdog site, set up by former Committee member Lynda Boyd, which stores online all issues from the mid 1970s until 1999, when the actual Watchdog site was created. Warren Brewer runs the Watchblog site, plus CAFCA's Twitter account, and the Keep Our Assets (KOA) site.

The major digital change we made at our home (which is also my workplace) was to convert to fibre broadband (with a change in Internet Service Provider being a part of the process). This led to one pleasant surprise - Becky is the Layout Editor for the Anti-Bases Campaign's Peace Researcher, the other publication which I edit. She uses CAFCA's computer and layout software which belongs to ABC. In recent years, she has found it slower and slower. But, as soon as we got fibre, the process sped up dramatically. The layout software is in the cloud and fibre broadband connects to that much faster than the old copper wires.

Overseas Investment Office (OIO)

This is a continuous CAFCA campaign that dates back to the 1980s. Linda Hill has been writing up the OIO's monthly Decisions, both for Watchdog and CAFCA's Website, since 2017, and has done an excellent job. However, in early 2021, she gave notice, as of the end of the year. She had originally taken it on for a specified number of years and that time is coming up. Hopefully, we can find someone to replace her and do as good a job as she has done (as did her predecessors, James Ayers and Bill Rosenberg).

Courtesy of a deal brokered a few years ago between CAFCA and the Ombudsman (to eliminate the need for us to appeal every deleted detail of every Decision), the OIO now routinely sends us the previously suppressed details of individual Decisions - the purchase price, invariably - after a set period of time (one year).

Linda Hill takes the trouble to get those newly released details to Webmaster Terry Moon to be inserted into the online Decisions. But some applicants to the OIO fight tooth and nail to prevent any financial details of their transaction become public. In 2020 we had a complaint with the Ombudsman about the OIO acquiescing to an applicant not wanting to reveal the purchase price. The company concerned - Tait - used to be a household name in Christchurch. Ironically, its founder, the late Angus Tait, regularly vowed that his company would never be sold overseas.

But the Ombudsman sided with the foreign buyers of Tait and upheld their right not to reveal the purchase price. Furthermore, the Ombudsman said his Office couldn't and wouldn't tell us why. I thought this was such bloody ridiculous nonsense that I forwarded the Ombudsman's letter to the media. This led to me receiving a furious letter from the Ombudsman, saying that as I had "breached confidentiality", he was dropping his investigation into our complaint. Give me a break.

In recent times there has been evidence of the OIO actually taking its oversight and enforcement functions a bit more seriously. It has taken some foreign buyers to court, forced them to sell up and pay costs, for breaching the conditions of their OIO consent (or for not seeking it, in the first place). The OIO now has a Monitoring and Intelligence team and has a new publication called Enforcement Actions. This is all encouraging but there's still a long way to go.

Keep Our Assets (KOA)

I am the Convenor, and a number of other current or former CAFCA Committee members are also very actively involved with the KOA Committee - namely, Paul Piesse, Jeremy Agar and Brian Turner. Former Committee member Warren Brewer remains in charge of the KOA Website. And Denis O'Connor, a Committee member from the 1970s and 80s, is very actively involved with KOA. Other KOA Committee members include Steve Howard, Paul Broady, Mike Newlove, Dot Lovell-Smith and Jonathan Handley-Packham. Some - but not all - of them are also CAFCA members.

KOA had a quieter year in 2020 than when it was in the thick of the 2019 Minto For Mayor campaign (a re-run of the 2016 Mayoral contest). CAFCA kicked that off financially with a $2,500 donation (the largest single donation) and CAFCA people played a very key role at all levels of the campaign. And the campaign did not end with the October election. In December 2019, John Minto went public with the demand that Mayor Dalziel declare where her campaign donations came from (her declaration of donors was less than transparent).

She had to reveal that the biggest donors were Chinese businesspeople, with the money funnelled through a wine auction organised by her lawyer husband (who died in 2020). This definitely got the attention of the mainstream media and the Press ran it on the front page for days. In early 2020 the City Council's Electoral Officer passed John's complaint onto the Police. The cops, in turn, passed it onto the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), which launched an investigation.

This got the attention of the national mainstream media, because it coincided with the SFO launching an inquiry into the 2019 campaign fundraising by Auckland Mayor Phil Goff, and inquiries into, or criminal prosecutions arising from, fundraising by both the National and New Zealand First Parties. John Minto wrote this up in detail in the April 2020 Watchdog ("The Money Behind The Message"). But, in December 2020, the SFO announced that it wasn't going to do anything about it. See John's article about that, elsewhere in this issue.

KOA has plenty on the go. We've been actively involved in issues ranging from the use of the (since repealed) earthquake emergency laws to ram through changes at Hagley Oval cricket ground to current battles over the City Council proposing to charge householders for water (that was temporarily defeated in 2020 but is back on the agenda in 2021) to giving itself the power to flog off Council-owned Red Bus (which it has since done). KOA has campaigned strongly on the parlous state of Council social housing. It was a central theme of John's Mayoral campaign.

The current hot potato issue, which came completely out of the blue in 2020, is that of the Council-owned Christchurch Airport company covertly spending tens of millions to buy Central Otago land for a proposed new airport at Tarras. Obviously, those in power have not got their heads around the fact that, in the age of the Covid pandemic and climate change, big ticket items such as airports and convention centres have suddenly become white elephants. "Stranded assets" is the phrase.

Relations With Other Groups

Since 2018 we have developed a productive working relationship with Aotearoa Water Action (AWA), which is fighting the Chinese-owned water bottling plant in Christchurch. They have provided an update in virtually every Watchdog in that period. In the August 2020 issue we included a brief report from Sort Out The Dross, the Southland group fighting for the safe removal of the Bluff smelter's hazardous waste from their communities. And I attended a couple of Extinction Rebellion events in 2020 (in early 2021, I attended an Extinction Rebellion networking meeting, speaking on behalf of both CAFCA and KOA).

For decades we have been friends with Coromandel Watchdog and they usually provide an annual update in (our) Watchdog. The December 2020 issue included a detailed article by Geoff Bertram about their unsuccessful court case against the Crown on the "national interest" involved in the OIO approving a mining company's toxic waste dump at Waihi. We don't endorse any political parties but support them when they confront foreign control. That same December 2020 Watchdog contained an article by Social Credit's Leader on their unsuccessful court case against the Overseas Investment Office re the sale of the Westland dairy co-op to Chinese buyers.

CAFCA has had a long and ongoing productive national relationship with a number of unions and individual unionists. We have an ongoing very friendly relationship with FIRST Union, which is the only union to regularly pledge to the CAFCA/ABC Organiser Account. Not only that, it is the single biggest pledger. Other unions we work with, or have worked with, are the Maritime Union of NZ (MUNZ), Rail and Maritime Transport Union (RMTU), E Tū and Unite. Mike Treen of Unite has been a regular Watchdog writer over the years.

And we must not forget our very own Bill Rosenberg, CAFCA founder, veteran Chairperson and our first Life Member. Bill moved to Wellington in 2009 to work as the Economist and Policy Director for the Council of Trade Unions (CTU) and did an excellent job in that role. He retired at the end of 2019, after ten years in what he described as "the highlight of my working life".

So-called retirement didn't last long - in 2020 the Minister of Finance appointed him to the Productivity Commission. That should be interesting. In Watchdog 128 (December 2011) Jeremy Agar wrote an article titled "The Productivity Commission Is The Latest Name For Rogernomics. The Taliban Of New Zealand Capitalism". When I reminded Bill of this, he replied: "I wouldn't have accepted the position if I thought that things wouldn't change". See his article "Productivity And Wages", elsewhere in this issue.

Relations With Government & Political Parties

My Reports since the change of Government in 2017 have detailed CAFCA's involvement in the review and amendment of the Overseas Investment Act. I, and others, have regularly written about this in Watchdog, most recently in the December 2020 issue. I was invited to meet the relevant Minister (the Greens' Eugenie Sage - who is no longer a Minister after the 2020 election), been interviewed over the phone by Treasury, attended an official briefing on the Bill in Christchurch - all of those events were firsts for CAFCA - and put in a submission to the Treasury review.

In 2020 the Government rushed through the Overseas Investment (Urgent Measures) Amendment Act to protect NZ companies and assets from being snapped up by transnational corporate predators in the wake of the global economic crisis caused by the pandemic. CAFCA had no input into that but we did have into the substantive Overseas Investment Amendment Bill, which is the outcome of the years-long review of the current Act. In 2020 we put in a submission on it.

The proposed Bill does contain some features that CAFCA has been advocating for years - for example, the application of a national interest test (which is currently being applied across the board but that is only temporary because of the crisis. It will only apply to certain specified sectors. And the Bill does not define "national interest" - that is left up to the reviewing Ministers). Another example - the "good character" test will now be applied to the applicant companies themselves, not merely to the individuals owning and/or controlling them.

And, for the first time, "not of good character" is defined. So, the Amendment Bill does have some definite improvements but its main thrust is to "streamline" and "make more efficient" the application and oversight process for the foreign applicants. And despite being a priority piece of legislation since this Government came to power, the Bill did not go through before the 2020 election.

My 2020 election analysis was the lead article in the December 2020 Watchdog. This Government recognises that foreign control is not just an issue, it is a problem for New Zealand and they have to do something about that. In contrast, the previous National government did not see it as an issue, let alone a problem, and did nothing about it during its nine years in power.

What that "something" is that the Government plans to do, doesn't amount to very much but it's better than nothing and it presented CAFCA with a window of opportunity for the first three years it was in power. Let's see how it goes on the foreign control issue in its next three years as a single Party Government. I'm not holding my breath to be invited to meet Labour's new Minister in charge of the Overseas Investment Office (Damien O'Connor).

Wearing my Anti-Bases Campaign hat, ABC has had a close working relationship with the Greens since they first entered Parliament, in 1996. Green Co-Leaders to have spoken at ABC's Waihopai spy base protests are: the late Rod Donald, the late Jeanette Fitzsimons, Russel Norman, Metiria Turei and, in 2019, Marama Davidson (James Shaw is the only Greens Co-Leader not to have come to Waihopai).

Green MPs to have done likewise include Keith Locke, Steffan Browning and Golriz Gharahman (who spoke at the 2018 protest and was scheduled to do so again in 2020 but had to pull out at very short notice because of health issues. Golriz sent her speech to be read out at the protest. This was the first Waihopai protest since 1996 not to feature a current Green MP in person i.e., since the Party first entered Parliament).

Former MP Steffan Browning was present again in 2020 and spoke at the spy base gate. In 2021 Teanau Tuiono, one of the Greens' new MPs, spoke at Waihopai. Not only that, he joined others in climbing over the (outer) fence into the base and was quoted in the media using phrases like "American imperialism". It was his first time to see Waihopai, let alone take part in a protest there, and it obviously made an impression on him.

It is significant that, in 2018, 19, 20 and 21, we've had an MP and/or a Co-Leader of the Greens speaking (in person or via proxy) at an ABC protest that is against a policy of the Government of which the Greens are part. Labour is committed to: keeping Waihopai; NZ's membership of the Five Eyes spy alliance; and staying an active and loyal junior satellite of the US Empire. I refer you to my lead article in Peace Researcher 60, (November 2020, "A Deafening Silence On Foreign Policy, Defence & Intelligence").

Media Profile

This was very quiet in 2020 in the mainstream media in comparison to earlier years. My appearances in mainstream media outlets are not as frequent as in the past but they still happen. CAFCA has a national membership and deals with national issues, so we have a national media profile. Over the years I've been regularly sought out for comment by the New Zealand Herald.

In early 2020 a press release I put out about the scandal of Rio Tinto's toxic waste from its Bluff aluminium smelter led to an invitation from Stuff Business to write them an opinion piece on the subject. Which I duly did (it was the first such invitation from Stuff for years. The previous one was about the smelter also. You can read my February 2020 opinion piece here).

I have already mentioned the absolutely unique Northern Hemisphere media approaches I received during lockdown, wanting information about Silicon Valley billionaires getting themselves New Zealand boltholes and/or bunkers to ride out the virus apocalypse. I'd never done a phone interview with a Copenhagen journalist before 2020. It was all duly published in a lengthy feature, all in Danish, of course, (I got it translated). And I make media appearances in my Keep Our Assets capacity. KOA has been keeping the City Council on its toes on a variety of issues and that has led to our point of view (or soundbites therefrom) getting into the Press or onto commercial radio.

In my previous Report I mentioned that the most unique media gig I did in 2019 was to travel to Wellington to be filmed for an update of the seminal Vanguard Films' documentary "Islands of The Empire" - a mere 36 years after I was first filmed for it, in 1983, on location at two high altitude US military facilities (Mount John and Black Birch, both long gone, decades ago). It has been converted into a DVD, with a whole slew of accompanying update interviews (Nicky Hager, Keith Locke, Maire Leadbeater and me).

Vanguard Films decided that they wanted its premiere (and only cinema screening anywhere in the country) to take place in Christchurch - as the original premiere had been in Christchurch, in 1985.That plan got mucked up by lockdown but, ironically, it was during lockdown that I was able to get the venue sorted out.

In the course of one of my State-sanctioned solitary walks, on a deserted central city bridge, I passed a stranger using an expensive video camera with attached microphone. As I walked past, he called after me: "Excuse me, aren't you a campaigner"? (I've never been hailed by that particular phrase before). I pleaded guilty and he introduced himself as a prominent local filmmaker. I've never had any previous contact with him, nor seen any of his films. So, we had a good old long chat (keeping a suitable distance) about a whole range of topics of mutual interest.

That chat with a stranger on a street during lockdown (and on Easter Sunday, to boot) led to me immediately getting a confirmed Christchurch cinema venue for the premiere. That screening went ahead in July 2020, with a nearly full house and a great night was had by all. I was both a speaker and MC at the event. As for the film, it was a shock to see my 1983 and 2019 selves on screen. All I'll say is that I reckon I look younger now. To show how CAFCA's priorities have changed over the years - in 1983, I appeared in that film on behalf of Campaign Against Foreign Control In New Zealand (CAFCINZ, which was our name then); in 2019 it was on behalf of the Anti-Bases Campaign.

Of course, I am also ABC's media spokesperson, which always involves me in an intense burst of work around the Waihopai spy base protest. For example, see "Time's Up For GCSB Spy Base Following Terror Attack Report, Says Longtime Protester" (Stuff, 10/12/20) and "'The Waihopai Virus'. Covid Plays Heavily On The Minds Of Spy Base Protesters", (Stuff, 31/1/21).

CAFCA Priorities

Much the same as they were in 2020. As I've already mentioned, we are in the process of upgrading our Website (which will cost serious money, but we're in a healthy financial situation, so we can afford what will be money well spent). This is taking much, much longer than we expected. This is all part of a never-ending project to spread the word wider and build our membership and support base.

CAFCA has always worked best in partnership with likeminded groups, for example Keep Our Assets. KOA doesn't just spring into life during local body election years. There is no shortage of issues to keep it busy and the hardy perennial issue of asset sales keeps on raising its ugly head (in 2020, the City Council sold Red Bus).

Both Watchdog and our OIO work are major and ongoing long-term projects in their own right. We need to get our message out to more people, using both traditional media and social media (we've picked up new members from both). We have an aging, indeed aged, membership, so recruiting new - hopefully, younger - members is a constant project.

Since the 2017 change of Government CAFCA has operated in a different political environment, one in which the Government has actually set out to address some of the problems arising from the ever-increasing foreign control of the New Zealand economy and, indeed, New Zealand society. It has set out to do something about it - namely, to review the overseas investment regime and amend the Overseas Investment Act.

It has recognised the threat posed to NZ's sovereignty by a post-pandemic bargain bin buy up of NZ companies and assets by transnational corporate predators and passed emergency legislation to address that. These are all steps in the right direction but they don't mean that CAFCA can put our feet up just yet. We've got plenty to keep us busy.

Anti-Bases Campaign (ABC)

I am, of course, also the Organiser for ABC. And I am the Editor of ABC's Peace Researcher. Becky is the Layout Editor, so it's a family business. PR shares some features with Watchdog - e.g., Ian Dalziel covers, articles by me and Dennis Small, Jeremy Agar is its Reviews Editor. But there is also material that only appears in PR, such as Warren Thomson's regular Spooky Bits series. PR has much more international material than Watchdog. It is the nature of ABC's issue. And PR covers events and issues that don't appear in Watchdog. You can read the most recent issue (November 2020) here. But we only publish two PRs a year.

To fill in the gaps, since 2019 I've been putting together and distributing short, irregular, electronic ABC Updates, which are simply a collection of links to online material. They have been very well received. You can read them here. They provided me with the inspiration for the online CAFCA Updates (finding material is not the issue - finding the time is). The launch of ABC Updates shows the value of ABC's annual strategy meeting (they arose from the 2019 one). Unlike CAFCA, ABC was able to hold a 2020 strategy meeting before the country shut down just weeks later.

ABC's major project in any year is the Waihopai spy base protest. You can read my report on the 2020 one in PR 59, June 2020. There was only one journalist present, from the Marlborough Express, but she gave it extremely generous coverage on Stuff (26/1/20, "Waihopai Spy Base 'Does Nothing' To Prevent Terrorism, Say Protesters"). The article included lots of photos.

The star speaker was supposed to be Green MP Golriz Ghahraman but she had to pull out at the last minute, due to a serious health problem (it was so last minute that Golriz herself had publicised that she was going to be there, just days beforehand). This was a great disappointment to the Blenheim reporter - no matter, her article included a video of Golriz speaking at the 2018 Waihopai protest.

And Golriz's office sent us her intended 2020 speech, so the journo was able to include extracts in her article. The speech itself was delivered on Golriz's behalf by Dot Lovell-Smith, an ABC Committee member and veteran Christchurch Green activist. ABC has since held the January 2021 Waihopai protest - our first post-Trump one - but I haven't yet written that up for PR.

ABC's other major 2020 activity was to organise and host the cinema screening (the only one in the country) of Vanguard Films' updated 1980s' documentary "Islands Of The Empire". As I have already mentioned, above, when I was originally interviewed for it in 1983, it was on behalf of CAFCINZ (Campaign Against Foreign Control In New Zealand - CAFCINZ. It pre-dated both CAFCA and ABC by several years). But my appearance in the updated sections was on behalf of ABC.

ABC's role was to find the venue, publicise and host the screening (I was sceptical as to how many people, particularly the "vulnerable elderly", would come out on a Christchurch midwinter weeknight, during a pandemic, to watch a 1980s' film. I was delighted to be proved wrong). That screening went ahead in July 2020, with a nearly full house and a great night was had by all.

I was both a speaker and MC at the event. Vanguard's Alister Barry, Rod Prosser and Russell Campbell all came down from Wellington and spoke (the same three guys who had made the original, back in the 80s. It was a great pleasure working with them again, when I did my update interview in Wellington in 2019). The whole thing didn't cost ABC a cent - Vanguard paid for the lot. Admission was by koha, there were no ticket sales.

I'll leave the last word to Russell Campbell: "Yes, a great success! Gorgeous venue, full house, interesting characters, high-spirited MC, the film looked good on the screen, gratifying reception, generous koha, lots of DVD sales (with more coming via Internet), choice beer, camaraderie. What more could one want?". Sales have continued since the screening.

For several years now, building on the excellent work by Dennis Small, I have been writing about Rocket Lab in both Peace Researcher and Watchdog, alerting people to its function as a privatised US base on NZ soil, dragging NZ into the American militarisation of space. Its launch pad is in a remote location (Mahia Peninsula) but its assembly plant and HQ are in Auckland.

So, ABC has been trying to get Auckland activists galvanised to campaign against this US military/intelligence presence in their city. We are attracting international interest. I was invited to write about Rocket Lab in Space Alert, a US peace movement publication. My article can be read here (page 6). Most gratifyingly, a campaign focusing on Rocket Lab has been set up in 2021, with activists in both Auckland and the Gisborne/Wairoa/Mahia area. Mainstream media in the latter area are starting to cover the opposition to Rocket Lab. Check this out.

Philippines Solidarity Network Of Aotearoa (PSNA)

I worked for this on a voluntary basis for decades. In this Report I usually say: "It is basically just ticking over". But that was not the case in 2020. No, the clock actually stopped ticking at all. The PSNA Committee stopped meeting in November 2019 and, apart from Becky, I've only actually seen my fellow Committee members a couple of times since then. That wasn't intentional, it just happened.

We dithered around setting up our first 2020 meeting, until we finally set a time and date - 7.30 p.m. on Wednesday March 25. That date might ring a bell - the country went into lockdown at 11.59 that night. We decided not to proceed with the meeting. And once the country got back to Level 1, we just never got around to meeting again. Let's call it a gap year (or 18 months).

So, there is nothing really to report for PSNA in 2020. We did collect a modest amount of money for a couple of appeals to help out Filipinos adversely affected by the virus. This was all collected and sent online - as PSNA also banks with Kiwibank, we can't accept cheques any more. And there was not a lot on the horizon in 2021. PSNA had pointed out to our Auckland Philippines Solidarity (APS) friends that Auckland was scheduled to host the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders' Summit for a week in November 2021 (NZ is APEC host nation for all of 2021).

The term for the Philippines' murderous President, Rodrigo Duterte, runs until 2022, so he would have been there (along with a host of other Asia/Pacific villains). PSNA suggested that we and APS be part of any activity against APEC in November, specifically Duterte's presence in NZ. But the virus has put an end to APEC being a physical thing. NZ is still hosting all APEC events throughout 2021 but they're all online. Duterte is not coming, nor is anyone else. And the closed border means that NZ activists can't go to the Philippines.

Finally, in February 2021, PSNA met once again. There was only one item on the agenda - whether to come out of hibernation or call it quits. We unanimously decided to call it quits. At the time of writing, we are working through the process of finding a good home for PSNA's money (several thousand dollars) and other resources.

Things are typically dire in the Philippines. Duterte, who makes Trump look like a sensitive new age guy, basically used the 2020/21 virus crisis to ramp up his systematic human rights abuses which includes having anyone who crosses him - real or imagined - murdered, disappeared or locked up. Duterte has continued his rule by death squad under the pretext of a "war on drugs". Tens of thousands have been killed in an overt State policy of mass murder, one in which the murderers operate with total impunity (the Philippines has always had death squads that operate with impunity but Duterte has ratcheted it up by a considerable order of magnitude).

The Filipino people have endured one of the longest lockdowns in the world. The country became the first to make compulsory the wearing of face shields, on top of face masks. My in-laws there are, of course, seriously impacted by all this (Becky's 87-year-old mother has basically been housebound since early 2020) but, apart from one brother-in-law, have all dodged the virus (he recovered).

My Ancient Past

There is always something that brings back the memories and 2020 was no exception. I have already mentioned that it was a quiet year for me in terms of dealings with the mainstream media. But I did have one major interaction with them, one which involved an incident which pre-dated the existence of CAFCINZ/CAFCA.

In late 2020, out of the blue, I got a call one night from a Press reporter. Over the decades I've dealt with umpteen Press reporters but he was a stranger to me (he is 21 and in his first year at the paper. So new, in fact, that when we met at my local cafe I paid for his coffee because he hadn't yet activated his company credit card).

His first words to me over the phone got my attention: "I want to talk to you about a 1973 Christchurch incident that was classified as 'domestic terrorism'". He explained that he was referring to the August 1973 firebombing of Christchurch's then US Consulate by Neil Riethmuller and Marg Matheson. They were caught in the act and sent to prison - Marg got three years; Neil got four years, followed by deportation to his native Australia.

I hasten to add that I wasn't involved. I only found out about it after the event. It happened not long after I'd returned from my first ever overseas trip, a July 1973 student delegation to China, so I'd been out of the loop. Marg and Neil were both people that I knew at the time, although not well. I still hear from Neil in Aussie; I've lost all contact with Marg for decades, although she's in Christchurch.

The young reporter said he wanted to meet me soon to discuss it. We met a week later at our local cafe. I asked him why this sudden interest in ancient history. It is hardly news or a cold case (Marg and Neil pleaded guilty). He told me that he'd been interested in history at school and was particularly interested in NZ's Vietnam War protest movement (I've had several such approaches in recent years, from both news media and schoolkids).

Between his phone call and meeting him, I'd had a look to see what I have that could shed any light on the subject. So, I took along my bound volume of the complete set of 1974 Canta, the University of Canterbury student paper of which I was the Editor that year (it has survived nearly 50 years intact, including being flung to the floor from my office top shelf during some of the more violent of Christchurch's 18,000 earthquakes). I took along my collection of 1960s & 70s' protest photos that I inherited from the late photographer decades ago.

I still have folders of carbon copies of some of my typewritten articles from the 70s. One is a very detailed account of Marg and Neil's case. I have no memory of who I wrote it for (possibly the short-lived NZ edition of Rolling Stone) or whether it was published. I gave the reporter a copy of that. He'd done his homework - when we met at the cafe he said "I understand there was an incident where a goalpost was sawn down at (the former) Lancaster Park. Were you involved with that?". I was happy to confirm that I was (it was in protest at the All Blacks' 1970 tour to apartheid South Africa).

All of this involved the Christchurch branch of the Progressive Youth Movement (PYM), the first radical activist group to which I belonged - although it was pretty much defunct by 1973 (a short attention span is one of the defining characteristics of youth activist groups throughout the generations). The two-page Press feature has since been published (23/1/21, "The Student Firebombers Who Targeted Christchurch's US Outpost", Steven Walton). I was listed as one of three people interviewed, Marg and Neil being the others. And Canta was listed among the sources.

Here's an extract from the Press feature: "In Christchurch, the anti-war movement was spearheaded by the city's branch of the Progressive Youth Movement (PYM), founded in 1969. The local Leftist group was spontaneous and vague, but demonstrations were regular. They cut down goalposts at Lancaster Park, disrupted Anzac Day services, burnt US flags, and protested outside military recruiting offices".

"The group never had a stated manifesto, but the PYM tended to oppose the Vietnam War, American imperialism, and apartheid in South Africa. It had mostly faded away by 1972, but the city still had a Resistance Bookshop, which became a meeting place for those aligned with the PYM's rough goals. In 1972, Matheson and Riethmuller, both students at the University of Canterbury, began moving in the same circles as former PYM members and the bookshop crowd".

"Matheson, from Lincoln just outside Christchurch, had been introduced to the group after Murray Horton, a prominent PYM member, spoke to her high school liberal studies class. 'He didn't really talk about the PYM much, it was more about the Springbok tour which was going to happen in 1973', Matheson says". I obviously made an impression on schoolgirl Marg. I can remember giving my PYM talk to those Lincoln High kids but I definitely can't remember what I talked about half a century ago.

Neil has been back to Christchurch a couple of times since he was deported from NZ in 1975. Each time he required special permission from the Government, as a deportee and former prisoner, to enter the country. The first time was 2009 when he came over for his son's wedding. He asked my advice on where to stay. As a joke, I told him that the old Victorian Addington Prison (where he'd spent weeks on remand) is now a backpackers' - so, that's where he stayed. He gave us an insider's tour of the old jail.

He and I went for a walk to the old US Consulate building (there hasn't been a US Consulate in Christchurch for decades). He showed me the back alley from where entry was gained through a window and the place set on fire. I said to him: "Let's go round the front and see who's in this building now". We did and burst out laughing - it was a major transnational security firm. That building did not survive the quakes. The site is now occupied by a brand new hub for rental car companies.

I had a letter published in the Press (26/1/21) about the feature's claim that PYM "spearheaded" Christchurch's anti-war movement. "This gives a misleading impression. PYM was simply one small part of a huge anti-war movement, not only in this city and country but globally. PYM was happy to have done its bit in the campaign to end that murderous war and to get this country onto the right side of history. The campaign to do the latter continues to this day, which is why I and others will be protesting at the Waihopai spy base this Saturday. La luta continua!"

Death In The Family

I received another, sadder, reminder of that PYM period, in 2020. I was rung by an old expat friend in Aussie to tell me that her former partner, Trevor Wall, had died in Sydney. Sadly, he had actually died back in 2017 (aged only 64) but none of his former friends in Christchurch or Sydney knew. His former partner didn't find out until 2020. We'd all lost touch with him.

Trev and I were both PYM comrades and good mates back in the day. We were both early members of it, joining in 1969. As a student I was the exception in the group - the rest were young workers, as was Trev. He was a Maoist - I was an anarchist - and the only person that I knew (outside of Communist Party members) who received English language publications from China. He was involved in all of PYM's activities for the few but highly memorable years of its existence. When we were both still living at home we lived in the same part of town. I knew his mum, Norma, for decades (I never called her Norma - she was always Mrs Wall to me).

He and I were room-mates in my very first flat in 1969. All that I'll say about that place was that we (there was a whole lot of us) were those neighbours from hell that you've heard about. As a riotous party house, it had a short but action-packed life. We were flatmates in my second flat (after that I went off with my then partner and we spent many years living by ourselves as a couple, with only a brief interlude of more group flatting).

Trev and I worked together on a short-term job clearing weeds from the banks of a river outside Christchurch (we only fell in once). Our employer was the former Drainage Board. We used to have to go into its central city building to collect our pay. In 2011 (decades after the Drainage Board was shut down) the killer quake flattened that building, producing the second highest death toll (after the CTV building).

Trev was out of politics before CAFCINZ (now CAFCA) came into existence. He and his then partner moved to Sydney in the late 70s and he remained there for the rest of his life. We stayed in touch for the first decade or so. I regularly stayed with him and his then partner whenever I was in Sydney. In 1989 I organised a 20th anniversary for PYM and Trev was one of a number of Sydneysiders to come to Christchurch for that. That gathering served as a forum for a documentary ("Rebels In Retrospect") to be made. But, typically, Trev didn't come to any of the filming sessions and doesn't appear in the film. He always shunned the limelight.

I last saw him when I was last in Sydney (1992) and then lost all contact with him. Trev took another path in life, one which I didn't follow, and one which took its toll on him. But we were very good mates once, starting from when we were both teenagers more than 50 years ago, and news of his death saddened me greatly. Rest in peace, Trev. Gone but not forgotten.

My Health

I had an issue with my right knee in 2020 and on into 2021. I injured it twice (a strain, then a sprain) which resulted in two separate ACC claims and 16 ACC-funded physiotherapy sessions (I'd never had physio before). This all started in April 2020. The injuries are now gone and I'm back to walking as per normal, albeit a bit slower. I go for daily walks around our neighbourhood, punctuated by a coffee stop (and we regularly go for beachside or clifftop walks at Scarborough and Sumner). But the knee remains stiff and clicks and creaks (and the other one is starting to do the same).

I suspect it is something like arthritis (for months I wore a knee wrap on my right knee, to help support it). An X ray revealed "a bit of arthritis". And I've noticed the muscle tone going in both my thighs. I suspect the explanation is that, since I bought my e-bike in 2019, I haven't ridden my pedal bike (I don't need to pedal the e-bike. That's the reason I bought it).

Incidentally, a couple of knee-related visits to Christchurch's 24-hour medical centre were the only occasions on which I wore a mask during this whole virus saga (and then only because you couldn't get into the building without one). By contrast, recent visits to my GP and to hospitals for routine check-ups have been completely mask-free and all very up close and personal. My new GP is young and keen. He asked to see me in February 2021, based on routine blood tests weeks earlier. Without warning, he sprang a bowel cancer test on me there and then (he found nothing of concern).

I remained fully healthy, mentally and physically, during lockdown. Breaking the virus transmission chain worked so well that I didn't even get a cold in winter 2020, let alone the nasty asthma that I get every few years. I'd be lying if I didn't say that I worried occasionally about getting Covid during that period (my main point of contact with people was my weekly supermarket shopping. Friends offered to do it but I was quite capable of doing it myself).

There was one particular mild evening on the couch when I suddenly started sweating for no apparent reason. I thought: "Here we go". But it just as suddenly stopped and didn't reoccur. Being alone did not bother me. I've worked by myself at home for nearly 30 years. And I'm an only child with no kids (by choice), so I'm very comfortable with my own company.

I positively enjoyed some aspects of lockdown. What was the best thing about it? No bloody junkmail. Nor did I spend it doing house renovations. When I got really bored, I got on the turps (not what you might think). I found the bottle of turpentine, got down on my hands and knees and cleaned ancient paint spots off the lino (you know, one of those "I must do that one day" jobs). That was the extent of it.

I'm 70 now, one of life's major milestones. I look back at my youth 50 and more years ago and reflect that I had the body shape of the Pak'n Save Stickman. Now, I'm afraid, it's more akin to Homer Simpson (with a very similar hairstyle, too). And every time I look in the bathroom mirror, I acknowledge the reality that as the human male grows older, he devolves into a hairy ape.

Still, although my body may be starting to betray me (but not yet in any major life-altering or life-threatening way), my mind still seems to be working just fine. My Dear Old Dad lived to 86 and one of the last things he said to me was: "At least I've still got my marbles". That was his priority and I agree with him. And it's never too late to try something new. Due to Becky's recently fling with veganism, I got to eat something called furkey. I'll reserve my comment.

Work/Life Balance

It is certainly not all work with no play. In 2020, along with a couple of old friends, I went to every Crusaders' home game, both before and after lockdown. And I must say that it was highly enjoyable to be among big crowds again and watching games in the day time. We or I go to a movie nearly every week. and, I must say, I consider this to be a golden age for the sorts of movies we like.

The blockbuster superhero extravaganzas are nowhere to be seen and the multiplexes are struggling (so much so that one accepted, without demur, a discount ticket that had been stuck on our fridge door for more than three years). A lot of movies that screened in the smaller cinemas in 2020 and 2021 would never have seen the light of day in normal times. Sometimes I have comprised 100% of the audience; on other occasions we couldn't get a ticket because it was sold out.

In my previous Report I said that we'd never pay for TV. Well, that went by the by in 2020. I didn't spend lockdown watching Netflix (which was the stereotype). I put up with whatever dross was on free to air TV - although I drew the line at Paul Henry. But after Becky returned, we belatedly decided to make use of the Netflix feature on the new TV we'd bought in 2019. And once we'd switched to fibre broadband mid-year, we were away. We watched all four series (40 one-hour episodes) of "The Crown", which we both found fascinating.

Watching the early episodes plunged me straight back into my 1950s and 60s' childhood. My Dear Old Mum lived on a diet of the Australian Woman's Weekly and the New Zealand Woman's Weekly, the covers of which always seemed to feature either the Queen or the Queen Mother (wearing one of her hideous hydrangea hats). Mum used to get terribly upset that "Princess Margaret was forbidden to marry the man that she loved". As a schoolkid in first Wellington and then Christchurch, I was among thousands compelled to line up and wave at various members of the Royal Family as they swept by.

I've always said that I will keep on as the Organiser as long as the members want me to continue, and subject to my health continuing to be good. People ask me when I plan to retire. Look at it the other way around. I actually got "retired" (via redundancy) in 1991 and have been getting paid to do my retirement hobby ever since. I'm both a worker and an old age pensioner.

I have an active social life with friends, both local and from out of town (and I keep in touch with friends and colleagues around the world). In short, life and work remain both stimulating and interesting. Not to mention that the work is very important. So, I have no plans to chuck it in the foreseeable future. Why give up something that is both immensely worthwhile and enjoyable?