Bare your soles for child poverty

Written By: - Date published: 9:53 am, December 12th, 2012 - 27 comments
Categories: activism, poverty - Tags: ,

From the Child Poverty Action Group:

Bare Your Soles For Child Poverty

The public, media and politicians are urged to “bare their soles for child poverty” in a rally on Parliament grounds at 1pm on 12 December.

The lunchtime rally is intended to raise awareness of child poverty in New Zealand, with attendees invited to go barefoot to show that its existence is unacceptable.  The event will feature interactive art, music from singer-songwriter Louis Baker, and speakers with varied and experienced insights into this issue.  It will be non-partisan and child friendly.   All New Zealanders have a stake in this issue and we encourage peoples of all ages and backgrounds to show their support.

The rally coincides with the release on 11 December of the Expert Advisory Group (EAG) on Solutions to Child Poverty’s final report.  … It is clear that urgent action is required. One in five New Zealand children live in poverty. Children are six times more likely to live in poverty than the elderly. The effects of poverty are most damaging in childhood, often affecting one’s development as an adulthood.  Solving child poverty needs to be the highest priority for our government and wider society. Not only are children morally blameless, they are also our future…

27 comments on “Bare your soles for child poverty ”

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  1. karol 1
    12 December 2012 at 10:12 am

    Metiria Turei took it to the PM yesterday on child poverty: transcript.

    Key claimed the moral high ground because of the way his mother helped him rise above his poor background, completely ignoring the social security and other state provisions that made it possible back then, while his government has been taking such support away. 

     Metiria Turei: Given that kids have no choice but he does, what dollar value would he put on the lost opportunities of a generation of Kiwi kids who are trapped in poverty and who may not grow up to be the doctors, and lawyers, and artists, and gardeners, and even the Prime Ministers of the future, because his choice is to help out wealthy adults at children’s expense?
     
    Rt Hon JOHN KEY: Firstly, I utterly refute the last point. Secondly, it is a well-known statement of fact that I actually came from a very economically poor household, and it did not stop me becoming Prime Minister. What made me Prime Minister was that my mother, who was a solo mother, had the foresight to ensure that I got a decent education. This Government is doing more about that than those people over there have done. When they had $20 billion over 3 years in surplus—

    Video of Turei taking it to the slippery one. 

    Hope the rally shows up the PM’s dishonesty over this issue, and the bared soles, highlight the NAct MPs lack of caring souls. 

  2. ak 2
    12 December 2012 at 10:48 am

    Take along an old pair or two. Or three. Might come in handy if any gormless gnatzy tries to snatch a photo-op…..

  3. BM 3
    12 December 2012 at 12:19 pm

    Child poverty is mainly caused by shit parents.
    Throwing more money at these losers will do fuck all.

    I would support a policy that encourages the undesirables to get the snip or have their tubes tied, if we can do anything to stop these losers breeding ,we as a country are on the way to getting rid of child poverty.

    • Te Reo Viper 3.1
      12 December 2012 at 12:26 pm

      Given your emotional and intellectual poverty, BM, its a shame your parents didn’t subscribe to the same German style philosophy as you.

    • Copperhead 3.2
      12 December 2012 at 12:28 pm

      Truth be told BM, you do raise a good point/idea. A lot of the child poverty is due to poor parenting, but the point I make to all counter arguments in regards to children, is that all the blame and vitriol can be aimed at these parents, but it will still not put food in the kids stomachs or shoes on their feet, it is that simple.

      Compared to some of the infrastructure and other problems NZ faces, feeding our children is an easy fix that we should all be ashamed hasn’t happened earlier.

      • BM 3.2.1
        12 December 2012 at 12:46 pm

        I have no issue spending money on kids that have crap parents.
        What I don’t want to see is these useless ferals being rewarded for their shit behaviour.

        If I was in charge, I would create numerous homes through out the country modelled on the IHC setup.
        Kids who have been neglected are removed from their “parents” care and placed into one of these homes.
        Mum and Dad are allowed to visit at set times and only after having completed vigorous parent training are the kids allowed back to live with Mum or Mum and Dad.

        • Te Reo Putake 3.2.1.1
          12 December 2012 at 12:53 pm

          Cool, its a shame Jimmy Savile is dead because he’d be an ideal manager for these homes. In the real world, modern societies understand that institutions like these are not the answer and, in fact, make life worse for kids. But, of course, you’re not actually interested in what’s good for families, just the brutal exercising of power over the powerless.

          • BM 3.2.1.1.1
            12 December 2012 at 1:00 pm

            Are you implying that the IHC homes are fill of child molesters and rapists?

            • One Tāne Viper 3.2.1.1.1.1
              12 December 2012 at 1:03 pm

              That isn’t what I took from TRP’s comment. I think he’s saying you are motivated by hatred, greed and fear. It certainly seems that way to me.

              • BM …
                12 December 2012 at 1:06 pm

                Bull shit, there’s no other way you could take that comment.
                I’ve spent quite a bit of time working within the IHC setup, the care givers would be wild if they knew they were being compared to some child rapist.

                Next time I’m on site I’ll have to mention it, be interesting to see their reactions.

                • One Tāne Viper …
                  12 December 2012 at 1:11 pm

                  And what do they say if you explain your suggestion that we create a network of poor houses orphanages for people with living parents?

                  PS: The symptom is not the cause, but you’re ignoring that.

                  • BM …
                    12 December 2012 at 1:26 pm

                    For fuck sake, you’re a blinded idealogical wanker.
                    No wonder Shearer wants to purge you Alliance fuckwits from the Labour party.

                    • One Tāne Viper …
                      12 December 2012 at 1:29 pm

                      Temper temper. When you settle down from your little tanty, consider the notion that poor parenting might be a symptom of the problem rather than its cause.

                      Edit: Oops, I asked what they would say to you. Would they really call you names like that? Oh, and it’s “ideological”, but your misspelling is quite a common error.

              • Sweetd …
                12 December 2012 at 2:57 pm

                Then why the feck mention Jimmy Savile if it wasn’t to imply child molestation?

        • Robert Atack 3.2.1.2
          12 December 2012 at 9:53 pm

          “If I was in charge,”

          I would sterilize everyone over 2 years old, and keep the under 2’s on different sides of the planet, then in about 30 years time, we will all have a clear idea of what sort of shit hole we had created, and could decide if it was smart to start having children again. I’m sure child poverty would clear up overnight, as society suddenly decided they could all look after the last of the children.

    • One Tāne Viper 3.3
      12 December 2012 at 12:34 pm

      Bullshit BM. Poor parenting is a symptom. The symptom is not the cause.

      • DJ 3.3.1
        13 December 2012 at 12:36 pm

        You’re 100% right. Poor Parenting is a sympton.
        A sympton of poorly bred, poorly educated, selfish molly coddled parents.
        There is your cause.
        On another note, we need more organisations like Kidscan. They take the view of the child. Feed the child, educate the child, break the cycle.
        There is the answer.

        • One Tāne Viper 3.3.1.1
          13 December 2012 at 12:46 pm

          “Poorly bred” – what a piece of shit. Eugenics is it now?

          “Poorly educated” – reality check, you piece of shit – NZ has one of the best education systems in the world.

          “Molly-coddled” – yes, because poverty is a breeze, you piece of shit.

  4. vto viped 4
    12 December 2012 at 12:53 pm

    Bad attitudes to fellow manwoman, as evidenced by BM’s typically shallow post above, are caused by shit parents and bad upbringings. BM’s parents must have been bigotted themselves and spouting all kinds of hateful shit when they were raising this moron. They need to stop slurping on the booze, rorting the tax system and mindlessly abusing their neighbours.

    Listening to losers like this does fuck all. For anyone. They are what is commonly called a waste of space.

    I would support a policy which involves these tossers being thrown into the same circumstances as those who they despise so much. This would benefit the nation as a whole in educating these ignorant people about the lives of people around them.

  5. Robert Atack 5
    12 December 2012 at 9:30 pm

    In 1999 I was referred to a website called http://www.vhemt.org , from there I went to http://www.dieoff.org , and then I read – for about 3 months (slow learner), at the end of that I worked out that if I had a child back then, be the time it reached my age (40) the planet would be unsurvivable, and that to get from then to that point was going to get bloody ugly, we are on the cusp of the die off, and unfortunately for the children they are at the bottom of the heap. In the 60’s in China some children were asking their parents not to eat them, as 30 million starved to death ….
    So yeah we ain’t seen nothing yet !!!!
    Something like 2/3 of the global grain crop is under threat, mainly from drought. Things are not looking good for the 7 billion of us.

    • Copperhead 5.1
      12 December 2012 at 10:47 pm

      A largely agarian society that is isolated from the world at large, with a smaller population may survive longer in times of drought etc… But we would not be able to cope with the rampant greed for the resources we have left. The real sad thing is that we have the technology to solve most of these problems in a sustainable manner, if money was not an issue.

  6. Fisiani 6
    13 December 2012 at 12:03 am

    Soles is not souls.
    Seems like some idiot cannot spell. Baring soles is like a clip from The Life of Brian.

    Also is it meant to be bearing or baring?
    It will probably win the prize for the most pedestrian protest of the year. They will have the slogan ” Lets show poverty a clean set of heels.”
    most likely they will be written off as just some are soles.