On the one hand we have the shooting which is said to have taken place during a domestic incident on Sunday afternoon – perhaps in the heat of an argument – and on the other, there is the inevitable poverty that comes with young parents and children compounded by relentless cuts in benefits.

There will be many other factors – the 26-year-old man charged with the crime allegedly had no firearms licence, the 23-year-old victim had an ‘older’ son which suggests her parenting started when she was probably still in need of parenting herself.

In the week in which this story appeared in the media, Child Poverty Action Group economist Susan St John is reported to have said that the government has removed gift duty but introduced what is effectively a gift duty for the poor. The changes aim to protect the Working for Families (WFF) tax credit scheme from ‘well-off cheats hiding assets in trusts’. But if a grandmother regularly pays for daycare, this payment will affect the family’s ability to claim WFF.

At the same time the government has announced it will stop funding a self-defence course for girls in schools throughout the country. In the past 16 years, 77,000 12-year-olds have learned how to keep themselves safe from violence and sexual abuse. One teacher says a quarter of girls are abused before they reach 16; the percentage rises to 30 in Maori communities. Other cuts target adult education.

What are we doing to our families when we remove the aids that have helped level out the playing field. In 2005 police recorded a total of 56,000 incidents of family violence. Three years later this statistic had risen to 72,000.

Is it any wonder that New Zealand does so badly in terms of family violence alongside other OECD countries?

I feel for the young man who sobbed in his cell. He is probably just as much a victim as his dead partner.

A collective gasp greeted the news that police had taken into custody the other young father in this close-knit Manawatu family. This was the man who had been such a rock to the grieving family in the nine months since their son, brother and father was gunned down in his driveway.

As I reflected on the courage of this woman who, with her slain brother’s wife, had longed to know the identity of the killer so that they could again feel safe, I thought of the terrible sense of bewilderment and betrayal the family must have felt.

My heart went out to her as she talked compassionately of the man she loved. She did not say that he did not do it or that he was incapable. She merely stressed the qualities of the man she had known for the past 15 years. She was not judging.

I think too of the Passion of Our Lord which we remember at this time of year, how Jesus was betrayed by his closest friends, how quick Peter was to denounce their friendship and how lonely Jeaus must have felt knowing that his mates did not understand what was ahead. Yet Jesus continued to love Peter just as Anna Macdonald continues to love Ewen.

At 56 when he takes over from Sir Anand Satyanand, Lt Gen Mateparae is certainly the youngest governor-general in a long while and this could help him connect with young people – he himself has five children the two youngest still at school and home. His record is impeccable. He does not seem to have been out of step with the powers that be in the army since he joined nearly 40 years ago.

Apart from my concern over the fact that the appointment was made by a prime minister whose government has just rammed through legislation preventing Maori from seeking claim to the foreshore and seabed, I have another niggle. Forgive me if this seems a trifle churlish but I can’t find any reference, on the internet at least, to Jerry Mateparae’s whakapapa except for a hint in the biographical notes which say that he comes from Whanganui.

Now given that the British colonial government consistently disenfranchised Maori to the point of near extinction by 1900 – making it illegal to own land in common, suppressing the practice of an important figure in Maori health, the tohunga, and punishing children for speaking te reo at school to name a few repressive devices – it seems to me a bit rich to appoint a Maori to represent the queen, particularly one who clearly fails to identify his whakapapa. Could this be a serve for Maori who are grounded in their cultural heritage and who do speak as tangata whenua?

Reading this, I found myself wondering when they would start marketing breast milk.
This commodification of staple foods is the primary reason why people in
developing countries starve. The world produces enough food for the needs of
all its people but when food becomes a vehicle for making money, as has whole
milk powder become a most lucrative tool for Fonterra formerly the NZ Dairy
Board, people go hungry while a small group of traders grow rich.

In most supermarkets in New Zealand, a two-litre bottle of almost any soft
drink is cheaper than the equivalent of milk. Yet we are in the midst of an
obesity epidemic which threatens to put the health system under enormous
pressure.

Obesity is a symptom of poverty. Families are eating from the myriad fast-food
outlets available because many parents have not the time in between jobs to
prepare a meal. The nutritional value is relatively low and the high fat
content is stored in the body with the help of the sugars in preservatives.
This leaves children with little nourishment or energy for their growing bodies
which compromises their ability to learn.

Milk could be a saviour for such children but market prices, such as those
recently made on the commodity market, drive the retail price up. Babies are
therefore weaned straight onto soft drink instead of whole milk.
The basis for a lifetime of health problems for the child and for the country is set.

Without touching on the damage to the environment of so much land being
converted to dairy farms, this situation is dismaying.
Fonterra and the NZ Government could lead the way in ensuring the availability
of nourishing food for the world’s poor through the production of milk powder.
Sadly the preference is to make a small coterie of farmers and traders rich.

The Queensland floods, the Christchurch quakes, the Pike River tragedy, the Haiti quakes and the Pacific and Asian tsunamis have served to show us just how much of a global village we are, how easy it is to be in touch with the latest developments next door or on the other side of the world – to really care for one’s neighbour, to understand the essence of the gospel call to place the common good first.

Which is just as well because more and more this planet of ours is being pummelled by forces beyond our understanding and control. To what extent are the Queensland floods the result of climate change – of the increased human footprint?

An ‘Awakening the Dreamer’ symposium I attended last November suggested that there are just 10 more years before the planet starts to disintegrate as a result of the impact of humanity. But there are many signs of hope not least in the number of people who are attending symposia like these around the world and following such initiatives in their daily lives.
The symposium devised by some of the best scientific minds on the subject looks at the state of environmental, social and personal well-being, traces the root causes of the current imbalance, discovers new ways to relate with each other and with the earth and examines the emerging movement for change finishing with ‘where to from here?’.

It won’t be much consolation for young Jordan Rice facing a wall of water in Queensland but I suggest that long term the Queensland floods are yet another sign that humanity must, with the deepest respect for Planet Earth, review our footprint.

Here is a tale of children wanted and nurtured by loving parents backed up by a health system which is energised by their plight.

It saddens me, though, to think about the many children of beneficiaries of New Zealand’s welfare system who will not celebrate Christmas this year with anything more than the barest necessities of life.

The Alternative Welfare Working Group’s report from earlier this month told many stories of people who struggle with the small amount of money the benefit gives them in the face of a sceptical government whose social welfare minister seems driven to punish them for being who they are.

The report points to a punitive culture emerging in Work and Income offices throughout the country. ‘…staff must be focused on treating people with utmost respect and dignity and ensuring applicants receive their full entitlements accurately’ (Welfare Justice For All p 159).

New Zealand has one of the worst records among OECD countries for child victims of domestic violence. This violence is often a symptom of a lack of human dignity accorded to beneficiaries and those at the bottom of the heap.

Wouldn’t it be great if we could multiply the support given to the Edwards family to encompass all those children whose parents do not get the same help from the system. Then all we have to do is address this country’s cultural need to punish each other. Bah humbug!

I recall only one occasion when I hit a child. I was minding my eight-year-old nephew who has autism. At this time, he would spend long periods on the toilet, supervised because he had a fascination with water and would flush repeatedly. After about the 20^th flush and out of frustration at the lack of action down below, I slapped his face. Immediately I was horrified that I had hurt him and he was equally shocked.

On another weekend sleepover he flooded the kitchen, water cascading over the bench to three centimetres deep by the time I discovered it. I knew I had to separate the two of us to stop myself slaughtering him. After I’d mopped the worst of the flood and calmed my rage, I went to his bedroom where he was trying to open the door. We bargained – I wanted him to have a sleep, he wanted the door open. Everyone was happy because I then had time to finish cleaning up and to have a nap myself.

Though not a parent, I can imagine the frustration of trying to stop children doing stupid things in dangerous places. But I doubt there is ever a situation where violence is the solution. Is this about child correction or uncontrolled adult rage?

The thought of this family being split up simply because the parents at some stage in the past had omitted to apply for the necessary papers to stay does not square with Christ’s exhortation to look after those in need, especially the children, and to welcome the stranger.

I think of the New Zealand Government’s cynical manipulation of the welfare system which had means-testing for sickness and disability benefits starting well before the deadline for reform. With the latest rise in GST which will hit those on low incomes and benefits hardest because they will receive the least increase from tax reform, this blow to the lives of three children is absolutely untenable. It is hard not to see the bid to deport Sital and Usha Ram as yet another cynical government move to shore up its position with its high-income supporters who are most keen to look after themselves.What would it take for this once generous society to start thinking in terms of sharing its abundant gifts with the needy of the world for the common good of everyone? One thing is sure – the shift in cultural attitude that such a move would engender, would make us all much more open and accepting of the other. After all, we were all once strangers in this land.

Since, there have been numerous reports of bravery and resilience and a few of the usual opportunists looting in the most seriously damaged central business district. The saddest story has been the supermarket in Kaiapoi, forced to close because rebuilding will be a year away. Some 72 people have lost jobs in this small community. As well gastroenteritis has taken hold where broken water pipes have ceased to deliver enough for hygiene. A record number of people have also suffered heart attacks as aftershocks continue.

But on the good side, at least one school was able to welcome its pupils back at the end of the first week following the quake and they enjoyed sharing their stories and being in each other’s company again.

A friend wrote of how just minutes after the 4.36 Saturday morning quake neighbours had called each other to gather round a primus camp stove and begun to relax together with a cup of tea.

Everyone is jittery and nervous of the big one but my friend feels it is better to stay with the moment. She has given up leaping for the nearest doorway.

‘I felt it was less scary to just stay put – after all if the time has come well THAT WILL BE THAT – we have absolutely no control over the foibles of nature.’

My friend reflects on the big one showing ‘a very angry earth trying its best to shake us pesky humans out of its way’. WHY so much anger? And concludes that it is time to take stock of our relationships with each other and with the earth.

I was listening a few nights ago to a Christian Palestinian from Gaza where there is 80 percent unemployment, children go to school in shifts of just three hours a day, in classes of some 60 students where there are few resources. Miraculously some learn to write their names, many don’t. Their wealthy neighbour, Israel, is a major superpower in terms of nuclear capability, the recipient of the US’s largest annual aid allocation.

Constantine from Gaza said that if these children were educated and employed there would be less violence. ‘We want to see that the children of the country … the treasure of the nations (are safe) but they are being killed psychologically.’

My dream is that these American billionaires once they’ve divested themselves of their surplus wealth, might use their influence to address some of these questions with the world’s superpowers to allow people like the Palestinians to achieve a just, lasting and peaceful self-determination.