The Coal Spy story has been overwhelmed by the perfect media storm of Mrs Muliaga's untimely passing. Due to the timing, or perhaps lazy journalism, the circumstances of the former SOE headline has been unthinkingly transferred onto the latter. Unthinkingly? The Solid Energy spook spoke out and the company were caught in the act. The CEO refuses to admit wrongdoing. Contrast this with Mercury Energy, where no obvious fault has been demonstrated. The visibly shaken CEO has visited the grieving family and handed over $10,000.
What a difference a death makes. Sobbing relatives make better telly than snails and smelly hippies. As her family prepares for Mrs Muliaga's funeral, the media circus is gearing up across the road. The lions are being wheeled from their studios to the tent. The clowns are putting on their sad faces. Judy Bailey will probably be there, as well as the entire front bench of parliament.
The truth will go unmourned. No-one knows what killed the 44-year old mother of four yet. It is getting increasingly unlikely that the oxygen tank had anything to do with it. This straw is the single shred of evidence that the power suppliers had anything to do with the woman's death. This has not prevented widespread outrage from the MSM. Mind you, this is the same MSM who turned David Bain into the Britney Spears of psychotic dorkdom.
The much more plausible cause of death is the complication of various diseases Mrs Muliaga was dying from already:
"Mrs Muliaga was suffering from cardiomyopathy - a weakness in the muscle of the heart brought on by a lack of oxygen being carried to the organ. The illness, lung disease and associated breathing difficulties were related to her obesity. She had been admitted to Middlemore Hospital in April and was discharged on May 11."This was one very sick woman. She was on her way out. Having the power cut off might have led to her taking a turn for the worse in much the same way as arguing with a loved one, or some other bad storm might. As it was, it was some poor bastard with the procedural discretion of an ant sent to cut the power that will suffer the guilt for the rest of his days. Second-guessing the autopsy report, the family's lawyer has declared that the woman's illness was irrelevant. Any lawyer spotting a client with a massive company admitting guilt would have dollar signs in their eyes.
Surprisingly, Trevor Mallard has held off judgment until more details emerge. He appeared in the Agenda interview with a pained expression that suggested that someone had his balls in a vice. Kudos to the Minister for withstanding the pain on principle.
An absence of facts hasn't stopped the more strident agenda monopolisers from rushing to judgment. You can tell that Matt McCarten wasn't thinking on Eye to Eye because he wasn't stuttering. He just rattled off the standard Oppressed Masses litany in much the same way as Brian Tamaki farts out his sermons. Thank Dagg old school chum James Coleman was on the set to provide some rationality. Yeah, he got shouted down by the They-Are-Blameless Brigade for saying "strumming." Good on him for handling that.
Lest anyone think I'm being a racist cunt for all this, hear this. I know enough of Samoan culture to say that the Muliaga family are blameless. Mrs Muliaga died at home surrounded by her family, which is a better death than many. Her children sang hymns and strummed their guitars, instead of ringing an ambulance and having their Mum hospitalised and medicated, dying in the sterile environs of the hospital. But, from the information at hand, so Mercury Energy et al are blameless too. Neither the contractor nor the company did anything bad. Unfortunate timing yes, bad no.
This post was kindly inspired by Dave Gee blogging this.
