A Personal Manifesto for Better Worlds Through Better Business
“Some deaths don’t get funerals.
Some just get forgotten.”
I wasn’t going to share this.
Not because I don’t stand by it. But because for a long time, I wasn’t sure what it would do. I wrote it on November 21, 2021 — the day something in me broke. The day I finally saw what most people were too afraid to name:
New Zealand didn’t just lose its way during Covid.
It died — of Covid.
Not the virus.
The fear. The division. The silence.
The compliance without thought.
The shaming without question.
The lie that this was kindness.
What you’re about to read is what I wrote that day. I didn’t write it for anyone else. I wrote it because I had to get it out of my system. The anger. The grief. The disbelief. The betrayal. It was a letter to no one and everyone. A scream into the void of a country I no longer recognised.
I nearly deleted it. I never sent it. Until now.
Because I believe we all need to remember where we were, so we can better decide where we’re going next.
21 November 2021 — Original Entry:
(Shared in full, exactly as written)
“Stop the bus.
I want to get off!!
NZ has agreed to not wanting those of us who are not vaccinated to be a part of society anymore.
My wife has been told by her mother “no jab, no stay” … and … “I love you”. She cried.
My daughter has been told she cannot attend her dance classes anymore. The same dance classes she has attended since she was three. She cried so much her nose started bleeding.
I am so angry!
I am angry at our politicians for making this happen – they built the fear of Covid; they approved the vaccine as safe and effective (even when Pfizer hasn’t said its safe and effective and no one can say its safe and effective because it hasn’t been tested properly yet); they censored anything and everything that isn’t what they say regardless of whether it is true or not; they instigated the finger pointing at those who are not vaccinated; they instigated the no jab no job mandates; they instigated the vaccine certificates AND the traffic light system that requires them. Sure, they didn’t make the vaccines compulsory. They just put something in the middle that they control so if you want to earn income you have to get jabbed.
I am angry at the New Zealanders who have blindly let this happen.
I am angry at the New Zealanders who blame me and my family for their lack of freedoms and putting them at risk by not being vaccinated.
- How dare all of you point the finger at me and my family for your insecurities?
- How dare any of you try to shame me, try to push me and my family out of society … a society I contributed to for 53 years both with the taxes I pay and helping others in business?
- How dare you scare my wife’s mother so much she has basically disowned my wife unless she gets jabbed? So much for motherly love.
- How dare you treat my 12 year old daughter so badly?
This is the NZ you want? A New Zealand where you can point the finger at someone or some group for your own frailties, your own insecurities, your own lack of strength to do the right thing. So the unvaccinated are your enemy today? Who is it going to be next year when it’s mostly the vaccinated in the hospital? Maybe it will be the vaccinated but not fully vaccinated (i.e. haven’t taken the 2nd or 3rd boosters)?
The last time I looked, we were all humans. We were all Kiwis. They were us. Remember that??
I guess not so much anymore.
Well …
If you don’t want me or my family to be a part of your new New Zealand. Congratulations.
I’m out.
I will not take part in this social experiment anymore. I refuse to get caught in any fight over what’s right or wrong until people start thinking for themselves again and stop following people who have no right to be telling us what to do.
The world is not binary. Covid is not binary. The vaccine is not binary.
Get your vaccinations like the good little sheep you all are. Remember it was your choice.
And when the Government adds more and more boosters to the requirement to remain vaccinated … further bastardising the unvaccinated (including the previously vaccinated who now haven’t got their required boosters), maybe you will wake up.
And if not then, maybe you will wake up when the Government decides its best for the population if they add some other public health issue emergency vaccine to the covid vaccine (some sort of enzyme that consumes fat because people don’t make healthy food choices; or some sort of aggression reducing enzyme to reduce hate speech or violent protests …). After all you all just gave the Government permission to jab you for a virus that’s no deadlier than the flu.
And if not then, maybe you will wake up when you realise all the problems we’re currently facing – climate change, poverty, housing, inflation … was ALL because of our Government (whether that was Labour or National or NZ First).
When (and if) enough people wake up, I’ll be waiting to have proper conversations.
In the meantime, consider me ‘out’ and gladly so. Enjoy your movies, bars, cafes and concerts.
I will help any and all (vaccinated or not) with doing better.
And to everyone else … I wish you all the best of luck. You’re going to need it.”
In Hindsight
I share this now, not to re-fight a battle — but because I never want to see us go through that again. Not just the policies. But the way we turned on each other. The way we silenced our own doubts. The way we waited for permission to feel what we already knew deep down: something wasn’t right.
There’s a Government inquiry underway. Phase One is done. Phase Two won’t report until November 2026.
I’m not waiting until 2026 to find out what I’ve already lived.
I don’t need a commission to tell me what was done to families like mine.
I don’t need a report to tell me what we lost.
I don’t need permission to say: we deserve better.
From Ashes: A Phoenix, Not a Protest
This isn’t a protest piece.
It’s a beginning.
Because from that day in 2021, something else started forming in me. Quietly. Unshakeable.
A promise.
If we want better, we have to build it.
Not complain about the old world, but construct the new one.
Not shout at the darkness, but become a beacon others can see.
Not fight the system — but step outside it and make something better.
A Better World Through Better Business
This is my new direction.
My new stand.
My sandpit.
Not just as an accountant. But as someone who’s seen how small business owners — the ones who hold up this country quietly — were pushed aside, overlooked, and burdened most during all of this.
No more bandaids. No more bullshit. No more pretending.
I’m building something real.
Not a movement. Not a pitch.
A way of doing business — and life — that actually respects truth, choice, integrity, and humanity.
If you want that too, then welcome.
And if not, that’s okay. But don’t say no one warned you.
Your Invitation
This is my line in the sand.
My enough is enough.
My signal flare to anyone else who felt the same but didn’t know what to do next.
You don’t need to agree with everything I wrote.
But if something in you stirred as you read it — even quietly — then you already know.
It’s time to stop waiting.
And start building something better.
I’ll go first.
Come with me if you’re ready.