Open Mike 10/03/2018

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, March 10th, 2018 - 51 comments
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51 comments on “Open Mike 10/03/2018 ”

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  1. patricia bremner 1
    10 March 2018 at 7:23 am

    My wait time to get hip Xrays was seven weeks.
    Now I am in the third week of waiting for the specialist to look at my Xrays and say where I am on the scale and the likely wait for an appointment.
    After this wait, I might be lucky and receive a date stamp assuring me of an operation within 4 months.

    Being 76 and due for an unpaid mammogram, I rang a private provider. A robotic voice asked me my name and address, and then asked me to confirm my phone number and place in the queue by pressing the hash key. Is this our future?
    We contact a department an get put in a queue for a future contact?

    Is this the new normal?

    • Antoine 1.1
      10 March 2018 at 8:07 am

      Hope everything proceeds more briskly & results are good

    • savenz 1.2
      10 March 2018 at 8:31 am

      Good Luck Patricia.

    • adam 1.3
      10 March 2018 at 10:36 am

      Has been the new normal for some time patricia bremner . Especially with the so called super ministries. IRD has been like that for an age.

      If I was being cynical, I’d suggest it’s so community agencies like age concern, citizens advice bureau , and community law can’t help people directly. If I was being cynical.

      Best of luck with the medical professions, these days you need a bucket load of luck, just to survive the bureaucracy in the health system.

    • alwyn 1.4
      10 March 2018 at 12:30 pm

      What DHB are you dealing with?
      A friend of mine, in Capital and Coast went through the whole thing, from referral by his GP to having the Op in less than 3 months last year, starting in June.
      My own experience from 2014 was about 4 months from referral to Op in the same DHB area. That was for both hips so it might have been a different set of priorities.
      I know the DHBs vary but yours seems ridiculously long just to get through the Specialist examination.
      When you do get it the main thing seems to be to complain about how painful it is. That seems to be the main criteria for how urgent it is.
      Am I being unduly cynical if I suggest that things seem to have got worse, not better since the change of Government?

      • patricia bremner 1.4.1
        10 March 2018 at 1:01 pm

        Hello Alwyn, Rotorua Lakes. They did have a fire in records late last year, so that may have caused a few more weeks delay. It is painful all the time, and the Xray radiologist said she could see why it was so painful. The Dr. tells me to watch weight bearing, (I now use a walker and a wheelchair for more than 20 metres as it is so painful). So apparently the hold up has to be the system. So waiting……..
        Thanks for the replies.

        • alwyn 1.4.1.1
          10 March 2018 at 2:11 pm

          I wish you the best of luck in getting the op soon.
          I never got quite as bad as to need a wheelchair but anything over 50 metres or not being on the flat hurt like hell.
          The consolation is that the pain in the joint goes immediately you have the op. You still have to get over it and rebuild the muscle but it won’t hurt the way it used to.
          It is like most ailments these days I think. Everyone seems to need hip or knee replacements, or cataract operations. I suspect it is simply because our bodies were intended for the Biblical three score and ten but we are all living a lot longer.

  2. Ed 2
    10 March 2018 at 7:24 am

    Patrick Cockburn reports on the little known atrocities in Afrin on the Kurds by the Turkish army and its associates.

    It is a story worth reading.
    He concludes the report.

    “I have been struck since 2011 by the unbalanced way in which the Syrian war has been reported by the media. Vast attention was given to the sufferings inflicted on the people of East Aleppo in 2016 under attack by Syrian government and Russian air strikes, but very little notice was taken of the almost complete destruction of Isis-held Raqqa, with massive civilian casualties, at the hands of the US-led coalition.

    I used to attribute such uneven coverage of the war to the greater skill and resources of the Syrian opposition in recording and publicising atrocities committed by the Syrian government and its allies. Isis had no interest in the fate of civilians under its control. But in Afrin there is no shortage of film of the suffering of civilians, but it simply is not widely broadcast or printed. In many respects, the role of the international media in the Syrian war has been as partial and misleading as the warring parties inside the country or their foreign sponsors without.”

    http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/syria-afrin-crisis-turkish-forces-civilians-deaths-eastern-ghouta-assad-a8247206.html

    • Bill 2.1
      10 March 2018 at 12:13 pm

      The “Free Syrian Army” was (or so we were told) defectors and rebels who weren’t Jihadists. Western governments claimed that meant they were worthy of funding and support.

      Now they are openly fighting alongside ISIS (as reported by liberal western media), other head-choppers and the Turkish army against non-government forces.

      How does that western government dance of explanation and justification go I wonder?

      I don’t expect to see or hear anything on that front.

      As Cockburn points out, the peoples of Afrin are more or less invisible. Turkey’s refusal to acknowledge any kind of ceasefire is simply “not a thing”. And East Ghouta is Aleppo re-dux in terms of western propaganda. I wonder who the new Bana will be? 👿

      • adam 2.1.1
        10 March 2018 at 1:24 pm

        “Tweeter and King” – My favorite line in this piece. A conservative (traditional) voice on Syria. 19.30 minutes long.

      • Ed 2.1.2
        10 March 2018 at 3:07 pm

        As we discover more and more about the fraudulent white helmets.
        They sound more like actors than rescue workers.
        Film set needed.

      • Ed 2.1.3
        10 March 2018 at 4:00 pm

        The hypocrisy is jaw dropping

        ‘While MSM Screams About Eastern Ghouta, US Bombs Kill Over 100 Syrian Civilians’

        ‘During the month of February, US-led coalition air strikes killed at least 100 Syrian civilians, many of them children, in Deir Ezzor province, and the mainstream media has completely ignored the story. ’

        http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/48917.htm

        • Jenny 2.1.3.1
          11 March 2018 at 1:13 pm

          Ever wondered why the fascists at Charlottsville wore T shirts with Assad’s image? Or why the neo-nazi white supremacist who drove his car into anti-fascist protesters posted pro-Assad propaganda on his facebook page the day before he murdered, Heather Heyer and injured 35 others?

          Well wonder no more:

          https://web.archive.org/web/20180309225139/https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2018/03/09/multipolar-spin-how-fascists-operationalize-left-wing-resentment

          • Jenny 2.1.3.1.1
            12 March 2018 at 2:54 am

            You are known by your friends

            When the neo-Nazi who smashed his Dodge Charger into a crowd of anti-Nazi demonstrators in Charlottesville, Virginia – killing a woman and injuring many others – was found to have posted a Facebook photo supportive of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, more than a few lay observers were left scratching their heads.

            Adding to the confusion were videos from the scene showing fellow white supremacists in Charlottesville voicing sympathies for Assad (‘Assad’s the man, brother! Assad’s the man!’); one even wearing a t-shirt depicting a helicopter next to the words, ‘Bashar’s Barrel Delivery Co.’.

            That the fascist mob should be enamoured of President Trump seemed comprehensible enough. But why should they be keen on a non-Aryan, non-Christian – indeed, Arab and Muslim, no less – leader with ties to such notorious Islamist entities as Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Islamic Republic of Iran?

            ‘Syria’s Assad has become an unexpected icon of the far right in America’, declared a Washington Post headline, in a nod at the general puzzlement. This was a fine article but an unfortunate title, for it was only ‘unexpected’ for those unaware of Damascus’ open courtship of the global far-right stretching back many years now (the headline was later amended to remove the word ‘unexpected’). As this author put it in a Twitter thread:

            Alex Rowell
            ✔
            @alexjrowell
            Thread: Anyone surprised #Charlottesville Nazis (& fascists generally) admire #Assad hasn’t paid attention. Brief recap of recent history:

            4:19 AM – Aug 14, 2017
            405
            562 people are talking about this

            https://pulsemedia.org/2017/08/20/small-wonder-the-global-fascist-love-affair-with-the-assad-regime/

            After I tweeted the above, a number of people wrote back to ask if I might venture an explanation for what they evidently found a perplexing alliance. Why do fascists like the Assad regime? The simplest answer is that the Assad regime is a fascist regime. The brownshirts know a brother-in-arms when they see one.

            Utterly hostile to democracy of any but the most flagrantly fraudulent kind, the Syrian regime plasters its führer’s face on every public square and building and murders civilians with poison gas. One of the very few political parties tolerated alongside the ruling Baathists is the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (name remind you of anything?), founded in the 1930s by a professor of German, which brandishes a swastika-inspired flag and boasts of killing ‘the Jews of the interior’ and ‘the racist Jewish enemy’, its terminology for the Syrian rebels its militia fights. In its prisons, the regime tortures opponents using methods borrowed directly from the Third Reich, such as the so-called ‘German chair’ (indeed it was said to have been the aforementioned Herr Brunner who personally passed on this expertise). One of the dungeons not far from the presidential palace, Saydnaya, where Amnesty International says dozens are exterminated every week, now even has its own crematorium on-site for added Auschwitz effect.

            https://pulsemedia.org/2017/08/20/small-wonder-the-global-fascist-love-affair-with-the-assad-regime/

  3. Ad 3
    10 March 2018 at 7:28 am

    Does anyone remember the baby-faced billionaire of a pharmaceutical company who raised the price of a vital medicine from $13.50 to $750 a tablet? He also said he probably should have charged even more:

    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-08/martin-shkreli-s-journey-from-pharma-exec-to-inmate-87850-053

    Well, he’s going to jail for a good stretch for securities fraud.

    • AsleepWhileWalking 3.1
      10 March 2018 at 8:00 am

      Such is the power of our capitalist system.

      All those who participated in ICOs that weren’t what was claimed will join him shortly. That may include celebrities who endorsed the fake ICOs (aiding and abetting securities fraud).

      Given the number of people that involves the may need a new jail.

      • patricia bremner 3.1.1
        10 March 2018 at 1:04 pm

        Good to see “white collar” criminals convicted. Often well paid defence teams protect them.

    • joe90 3.2
      10 March 2018 at 1:33 pm

      I try to be a good person and not be guided by notions of vengeance or a desire to see someone, anyone, hurting.

      But my dark side just spent ten minutes trying to find video of Martin Shkreli blubbing as he was being sentenced.

      https://mashable.com/2018/03/09/martin-shkreli-cries-sentencing/

    • Macro 3.3
      10 March 2018 at 1:43 pm

      Good Riddance!

  4. eco maori 4
    10 March 2018 at 7:32 am

    ECO MAORIs Kiwi Bank ac 389019048573100 Please help me to sort the nz police out
    I decided against trying to use PayPal to receive donations .I decided to copy
    Thestandards safe way of appealing and receiving donations I set up a Kiwi Bank AC
    So he tangata the people of Aoteraoroa New Zealand who support ECO MAORI can use internet banking to make donations and know that there bank accounts are safe after they have made a donation . ECO MAORI will use the donations to SUE the nz police for all the breaches to mine and my Whano Privacy Rights & Human Rights a lot of people can see this has been happening to ECO MAORI when I win my case I will set up a
    Charitable Trust and I will pay the money that I used and any extra donations into this Trust account and appeal to anyone else in Aoteraoroa who need help with finance to SUE the nz police for there in justices I will copy bank statements on this site to let he tangata the people know that ECO MAORI has Honest Honorable and transparent intentions to use your hard earned Putea Money. .
    Kia Kaha Ka kite ano

  5. eco maori 5
    10 March 2018 at 8:31 am

    The New Zealand justice systems have a bad culture of covering up there colleges bad behavior of sexual harassment and what the covering up of this behavior does .
    The bad behavior becomes the norm it is acceptable to do bad things treat our ladys like a piece meat a object I certainly would not like to think anyone could treat my Mokos like that and they get away with it because it the norm.
    This bad behavior within the professions of justice business management is the reason OUR ladies are not represented equally in Management theres good news
    Andrew Little is going to sorte it out Ka pai ka kite ano here the link.

    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12009785

    • eco maori 5.1
      10 March 2018 at 9:22 am

      Te Labour Party is treating and giving the 3 member’s of the tpp 11 that have retained the right to sue New Zealand like I use to when I was young and NAIVE .
      I use to have a illusion that everyone thought like me they were honest I could trust everyone they won’t lie and steal from me . Now that Im a silver back and with help from my wife I know that some people will do all of above to get more putea money.
      They are leaving our mokos future to fiat that theses 3 countrys won’t end up with a person like trump running them .Or in the future these country’s running out of there resources and looking at Aotearoa New Zealand and stripping our mokos of there resources if they are blocked from doing what they want they sue come on wake up New Zealand we can not trust over countrys with our mokos future thats a fact surely we are intelligent enough to work that REALITY OUT Ana to kai ka kite ano

      https://www.smh.com.au/business/careers/new-trade-agreement-could-expose-taxpayers-to-financial-risk-20180302-p4z2kw.html

      • eco maori 5.1.1
        10 March 2018 at 10:09 am

        This is human influenced Warming of our Climate on Papatuanuku warming caused by all the carbon being spewed into Papatuanuku environment .
        This is reality that some people are trying to hide from te tangata the people heres another link. Ka kite ano

        http://www.news.com.au/national/queensland/disaster-declaration-ingham-prepared-as-town-is-ripped-in-two-by-floodwaters/news-story/2c1a0bec3cd26ffbd3eb3a472ac1c1a3

        2 very good candidates for the Green Party Co Leadership on the Nation I am keep my opinion to my self on this one
        ka pai

        • eco maori 5.1.1.1
          10 March 2018 at 10:24 am

          Lisa Owen trump has just taken a dump on his nation and most of other nations on Papatuanuku just to try and cling to the power of the American President with his steal & aluminium tariffs
          enough said ka kite ano

          • eco maori 5.1.1.1.1
            10 March 2018 at 10:45 am

            I got SKY connected now I can tautoko Maori TV only problem is you people make me hungry for kai moana .Kawekorero show kia kaha ka kite ano P.S I strongly agree with what Ella Henry views on Maoris reality in Aoteraroa at the minute

            • eco maori 5.1.1.1.1.1
              10 March 2018 at 11:15 am

              Kawekorero the situation we find 1/4 of OUR Mokopunas in is a direct result of suppression of a minority indigenous culture thats a fact cast your eyes around the rest of Papatuanuku and you will find the proof its in our books as well I just don’t get it why everyone is throwing there arms up in the air and saying we don’t know whats wrong the problem is right in front of OUR noses . Opra Winfrey is a great Lady whom is a excellent role modle for all the Mokopuna on Papatuanuku she knows what challange ECO MAORI wants her to take on . kia kaha ka kite ano
              Actually this happens with the suppression of any culture

              • eco maori …
                10 March 2018 at 11:47 am

                I have been busy washing my truck good on Simon Bridges for being intreviewed on Maori TV P.S my reo need heaps of work ka kite ano

                • eco maori …
                  10 March 2018 at 6:39 pm

                  News Hub on 3 it was a excerlint day in Vags today I finally tidy up the paint job on my truck Eco knows the sandflys will use anything to attack my Mana at least they are giving me some space now but they are still throwing actors under the bus they are to scared to get to close to ECO MAORI Ana to kai .
                  Sir David Attenborough is a assume person who advocates for the well being of all Papatuanukus creatures Ka pai ka kite ano

  6. savenz 6
    10 March 2018 at 9:06 am

    ‘A national disgrace’: fury over £100m aid deal between UK and Saudi Arabia

    “The fact that we have the head of state of a government that has been operating such a blockade – Saudi Arabia – recently invited to Buckingham Palace and Downing Street while the military … is orchestrating what will potentially become the worst famine in the last 50 years, I think speaks volumes.”

    Noting a “growing sense of impunity surrounding crimes against children”, Watkins added: “The fact that you can rape, murder, kidnap, bomb schools, bomb clinics with no consequence, speaks I think to the heart of the deeper challenge.”

    “Downing Street defended Bin Salman’s visit, saying trade deals worth £65bn had been agreed.”

    https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2018/mar/09/national-disgrace-fury-over-100m-aid-deal-between-uk-and-saudi-arabia

    (I guess the take home here, is that money from trade deals is more important that human rights such as raping and starving children, and a trip to Buckingham palace is now decided by money to be made, rather than reputation.)

    • Draco T Bastard 6.1
      10 March 2018 at 10:08 am

      and a trip to Buckingham palace is now decided by money to be made, rather than reputation.

      Hasn’t changed then.

    • greywarshark 6.2
      10 March 2018 at 2:02 pm

      Britain is regressing, becoming more shoddy year by year, showing itself different to its professed nobility of standards and beliefs.

      Arab money has been big investing in London for yonks. Apparently the Russians have big investment there also, just to spread their risks I suppose. International finance is a big part of Brit GDP. The USA flew out leading people from Arab countries very soon after the plane attack on the Towers. Some relationships transcend the professed country relationships that the folks on the street see, and exist despite any transgressions in the home country of the connections.

      A commenter, Jonathan Jones, makes a disparaging comment on Britain in February 2017 thinking of how a fall in British visits to their museums visits can be interpreted. Visitors to Britain’s main museums were down in 2014-15 from 49 million to 47.6 and participation by the under 18’s is down by 6.9%.

      The decline in school trips is surely a direct result of increasing economic and other pressures on schools under the coalition and, now, Conservative governments. You can see how financial constraints and radical curriculum reforms might make that museum trip something all too tempting to slash.

      These figures reveal how Britain is failing its young people, and losing the passion for self-improvement that our free public museums used to nurture. A nation that loses interest in museums has not just lost its head. It has lost hope….

      Is Brexit Britain losing brain power? Has The Great British Bake Off addled our minds even before our mental borders are permanently closed to European influence? Would a generation of screen-addicted teenagers rather play video games?

      No – it is not because minds are shrinking. It is because the same economic pressures that have uprooted politics around the world are destroying the aspirations we express when we go to galleries. There is nothing more aspirational than visiting a museum or art gallery. It is an expression of hope and self-esteem. Just as lying in bed all day binge-watching TV and eating crisps is probably a mark of melancholy. Going out to an exhibition or taking your kids to the Natural History Museum is surely a symbol of belief in your family and the future.
      https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2017/feb/02/drop-uk-museum-attendance

      Britain wants to be great and do this alone. But if the world co-ordination breaks down and its every country for itself piracy will grow and become a really serious problem, instead of just a problem as now.
      https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/empire_seapower/white_slaves_01.shtml
      (I only had heard of slaves taken from Africa, not Britain and Ireland.)

      I think Britain will drop more ethically outside the EU and without constraints will suddenly soar up on an inflated balloon from the real world as the USA did when communism was overcome in Russia.

      A little eye candy.
      A little jingle for modern Britain.
      (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dd0aFj9iBJ8

      This is how its likely to end as they try working together in perfect synchronisation, uneven and uncertain results.
      (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDvIo_LRIZ4&t=5s

  7. savenz 7
    10 March 2018 at 9:11 am

    UK defies EU over Indonesian palm oil trade, leaked papers show
    UK is pushing for a deal that would boost imports linked to deforestation despite EU moves to ban unsustainable palm oil, diplomatic papers reveal

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/mar/09/uk-defies-eu-over-indonesian-palm-oil-trade-leaked-papers-show

    • patricia bremner 7.1
      10 March 2018 at 1:06 pm

      Disgusting.

      • Macro 7.1.1
        10 March 2018 at 1:40 pm

        The May Govt is appalling and has no moral compass whatsoever. They are turning a blind eye to all manner of humanitarian and ecological abuses in a desperate effort to shore up the declining trade that is resulting from their stupidity over BREXIT.

  8. savenz 8
    10 March 2018 at 9:15 am

    28-hour week gains momentum in German unions’ push for flexible rights
    Key union’s achievement of new work-time model spearheads shift in how to face challenges of 21st century workplace

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/mar/09/28-hour-week-gains-momentum-in-german-unions-push-for-flexible-rights

    • cleangreen 8.1
      10 March 2018 at 10:30 am

      Yes savenz;

      While the TPP11 will drive our wages down by us having to compete in our own country with competitive countries we have now signed up to who use child labour!!!

      Well done “dopey David Parker”

      Why were you given the job of Environment Minister???

      The mind boggles as to what harm you will bring to the Environment next!!!!!

      • Loop 8.1.1
        10 March 2018 at 1:30 pm

        Hi there cleangreen. The previous Labour government had already sign a FTA with a country with human rights and child labour issues. Thanks dopey helen clark.

        As far as environment minister, job will be gone once TPP11 comes into it’s own. corporates are going to ride rough-shod over ecologically sensitive tracts to get that last little bit of gold/fossil fuel/coal.
        I voted Labour to oust national and have ended up with Labour wearing blue.(bugger)

        Greens need more voice and support as does Forest And Bird.

        • savenz 8.1.1.1
          10 March 2018 at 2:25 pm

          Maybe a vote for Green instead of Labour is a vote for a more Green Labour government of the future, who is more careful with trade deals!!!

          Those unhappy with Labour can still switch to Green and then with the coalition hopefully stop National while controlling the neoliberals who have taken over Labour.

          • savenz 8.1.1.1.1
            10 March 2018 at 2:28 pm

            Of course people like Parker who are virtually unelectable in an electorate seat are put high up to get them into Labour , otherwise if the public had their way, he would be out there earning an ‘honest’ ha ha living being a lawyer or for agri-biotechnology industry, if he can still remember how.

  9. adam 9
    10 March 2018 at 1:58 pm

    As I’m trying to bring a good news union story a day here. Here is an old one worth repeating.

    AFLW, well done the players union in negotiating up the women’s wages by a whooping 23%.

    https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/aflw-players-to-share-an-extra-500000-next-season-20171102-gzdoh3.html

  10. fustercluck 10
    10 March 2018 at 5:02 pm

    Trump tweets that steel and aluminium tariffs will not affect Australia. This is the result of adult diplomacy. Petulance about refugees (which if successful will only result in drownings at sea) is the opposite of this which is why we have not seen similar overtures for NZ.

    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/donald-trump-tweets-he-will-not-impose-tariffs-on-the-great-nation-of-australia-20180310-p4z3qp.html