Today. Right now. Literally 'now' as I write this, there is a massive traffic jam (into its 3rd day) on the Auckland motorway network because the Harbour bridge has some problem or other.
It is election season in New Zealand (and elsewhere! haha!) whereby vast numbers of people are out knocking on doors, making phone calls, handing out leaflets, shoving leaflets in letterboxes, putting up signs on the front lawns of supporters, crisscrossing the country making speeches, and all the other things which comprise a General Election campaign. They endure long days, abuse from supporters of the other party, lack of sleep, lack of food; it's all rather a hassle.
What I have never understood is.....why do they do it? 
The job of a Member of Parliament is actually incredibly boring most of the time, the pay is a joke ($3200 per week pfft!), there is enormous amounts of nastiness and backstabbing; and all for what, exactly? I simply do not understand.
Take the title of this blog - Who was Sidney Holland's Minister of Transport? does anybody know? can anyone remember? anyone care to hazard a guess? no?
He is a man who undertook the decision to build motorways in New Zealand and by doing so had a profound effect upon the lives of almost everybody in New Zealand; literally today - right now - an awful lot of people in Auckland are feeling the effects of his decision (albeit not in a good way). There is an argument to say he had by far the greatest effect on this country than any other politician in the postwar era; any other politician in our modern history except Sir Roger.
And nobody has the slightest idea who he was.
Picture the scene; he spent a lot of time campaigning for office, spent an enormous amount of time away from his family, did himself out of the best part of a million quid by going into politics (he owned a transport company) rather than focusing on his business. And he was a great champion of building motorways and people owning cars. Only to disappear into obscurity and be long forgotten about when his policies come home to roost.
Can't help feeling there is something sad about that. If I had had a fundamental impact on everybody in the entire country for several generations I would expect them all to know who I am - (would have named every Motorway after myself haha!) - and what a God-like Sex Warrior I was. Someone for the little people to look up to 3 or 4 generations down the track. Not a long forgotten non-entity that even National Party historians would be hard pushed to name.
Let's take the argument even further - move away from a man who had a profound effect on the entire population - and ask:
Who was Norm Kirk's Minister of Customs? (don't ask me! haha!)
Who was Muldoon's Minister of Internal Affairs? (ditto)
Who was Sir Keith's Minister of Defence? (ditto)
Who was Lange's Minister of Earthquakes and War Damage Commission? (yes, there was such a portfolio)
Who was John Key's Minister of Fisheries?
No one knows, no one cares; but I can bet those men made huge sacrifices - lost income, lost family time, stress etc - in order to fart around in Parliament for years thinking they were incredibly important. But they weren't.