Over the course of Jacinda Ardern’s time in office as New Zealand’s Prime Minister, one thing has become glaringly obvious – she is an expert when it comes to keeping her cool. Today, Jacinda Ardern proved that once again when her live TV interview was rudely interrupted by a magnitude 5.8 earthquake.
Ardern was being interviewed on TV channel Three when she was stopped in her tracks by a “decent” shake. Instead of panicking, the Kiwi Prime Minister calmly said “we’re just having a bit of an earthquake here, Ryan,” and smiled.
After taking a momentary pause, Ardern continued to smile and confirmed, “it’s just stopped,” before continuing with her chat.
According to 7News, the earthquake was centred 30km north-west of Levin, a town about an hour north of Wellington. GeoNet tweeted that the quake was 45km deep and they had registered nearly 37,000 felt reports from around the country.
Twitter has been quick to commend Ardern’s cool, calm and composed reaction to the quake. One user pointed out, “What’s a Wellington earthquake when, as prime minister, you’ve dealt with a massacre, an eruption and a pandemic.”
They’ve got a point. Over the past few years, Ardern has led New Zealand through the aftermath of the horrific Christchurch mosque shootings – enforcing strict gun laws as a result, and placed great focus on the country’s housing crisis, child poverty and social inequality. With each response, she remains cool as a cucumber, clear and decisive, but most importantly, she retains the kind of empathy that seems so rare in politics today.
Most recently, Ardern paved the way for other countries around the world when she worked quickly to lock down New Zealand amidst the pandemic. Her speedy decision not only garnered international praise and kudos from the World Health Organisation, but helped the country to completely eliminate COVID-19.
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Today was just another example of Jacinda Ardern’s professional attitude, and quite frankly, it’s a lesson in how to expertly keep your shit together.
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