It's almost D-Day in my tiny speck of the world. If I turn up to work on Monday, I assume they'll call the cops and I'll get a $5k fine. The mandates are designed to be suitably vague (any employee that comes into contact with 'vulnerable people' and the definition of VP is pretty much everyone (kids, Aboriginal people...) so finding work elsewhere will be a challenge.
The conversations I've had with my bosses and colleagues over the last few days have been somewhat interesting. Earlier this week their body language suggested they just assumed I'd comply and had quizzical expressions that I interpreted as 'why aren't you just getting the damn shot, you fool?'.
Today my supervisor walked me out of the office, sobbing. Another colleague admitted she was ashamed for just following the rules without questioning. And the overweight old lady who I've sat next to for 5 and a half years and though I knew quite well, said fuck all.
I hate my job, but my wife seems to love hers and is devastated. My 17yo daughter has resisted extraordinary bribes from me, and what I thought were convincing arguments, to delay her v appointment, but she's adamant that she'll get it next week. I'd like to blame that on her being a dumb kid, but I've clearly failed as a parent and that hurts like hell.
I save all the regular Chief Health Officer Directions that are published here, just to keep a record. 81 and counting. Direction 77 is
no longer on the website, which is a shame, because it included these gems:
"An occupier of a place and the proprieter of a business in the Darwin lockout area must (a) check whether any person entering the place or premises is a vaccinated or exempt person or an unvaccinated person; and (b) refuse entry to the place and premises of the business to an unvaccinated person"
"A provider of activities or services in the Darwin lockout area must (a) check whether an person entering a place or premises where the activities or services are provided is a vaccinated or exempt person or an unvaccinated person; and (b) cease providing services and activities to unvaccinated persons"
Some are resisting, small business in particular. Interestingly enough, some of the very remote Aboriginal communities are refusing to get the needles. Not sure if that is because they've already had a couple hundred years of the white man forcing shit on them or because most of the communities were 'saved' by the Christians and don't want a drug with the devil's blood in it (a local community priest allegedly said this to his congregation). Whatever their reason, they are proving quite the roadblock for a Chief Minister who keeps claiming this is all to save the vulnerable.
The next few weeks will be interesting. For a town of just over 100k people, we get roughly 3-4000 to the weekly protests, which might not be much, but we make some noise. The cops and their pepper spray came out last week.
Under our mandates, if we don't get our second needle by 24 December, we can't go to work, even if we've had the first. Merry Christmas and all that.
I hear Melbourne and Sydney might be gearing up for some big protests this weekend. I hope so.
Have a good one, all.