I once said to myself if I write a book it should be called, ‘State of Grief’.

That was more than 2 decades ago but is as relevant today as it was then.

You could approach that in so many ways as an individual depending on your circumstances.

But as a society as with any culture it comes back to basic anthropology where the piazza needs a commonsense.

This is what we lack in New Zealand. We’ve never developed our culture. We can’t agree on that.

What we have done though, is develope our identity, whether that is Kiwi-can-do, clean green, cheese makers or sailors.

The one big eyesore is that we don’t respect our children.

One side beats them to death before they are born and the other after.

This is the significant defining obstacle to one people that may be as deliberate as it is consequential.

There is a simple truth here, that a society that lacks respect for its children doesn’t deserve a future.