Open mike 11/03/2021

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, March 11th, 2021 - 24 comments
Categories: open mike - Tags:

Open mike is your post.

For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose.

The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy).

Step up to the mike …

24 comments on “Open mike 11/03/2021 ”

  1. Ad 1

    For those Bernie Sanders supporters out there still tracking this US, here's a wee shift in Nevada Democratic politics towards the Sanders team:

    https://www.politico.com/news/2021/03/10/bernie-sanders-nevada-harry-reid-474971

    Certainly sets up an interesting 2022 Senate race there.

  2. Peter 2

    I see a Herald headline has the Auckland guru sharing his wisdom about how the government has stuffed up, is stuffing up, the Covid response.

    The brazenness in spouting so certainly in a field where one has been proven so wanting, is a special quality.

  3. Sabine 3

    Oh well, i guess that is just nz and nothing much can be done about it, and certainly nothing much can be done about it by WINZ. I would like to point out that Carmel Sepuloni was apparently not of the watch party, but then she might be working from home wondering how to put 'value of work' in a speech about the poor and undeserving lazies.

    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/watch-harrowing-video-on-maternal-suicide-leaves-politicians-holding-back-tears/BWV22EH6ZHRACDY7A47NYTUVRM/

    i guess this article about the poor maternal care the poor receive let to this.

    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/maternal-suicide-gemma-mccaw-shares-heartbreaking-story-of-solo-mum-with-no-support/PTYWUT5QFXK2ZG4LG4YAJJR6KI/

    but then does anyone really care?

    • Foreign waka 3.1

      Yes, the neglect that starts right there will also have consequences in the later life of these children. My question is: where are the fathers? Why are they not held to task when we look at single mothers?

      I do know what the issue of post partum depression means having had that experienced in my family. Is not depending on social background. Serious effort and actual help is needed to make sure that every mother is well looked after. Perhaps a start could be made by not throwing women out of the maternity ward after 24 hours. I mean this is barbaric and in my view uncivilized. It was introduced and widely advertised as a good thing for new mothers – yeah right – but in reality was a cost cutting measure. You can see this in the south where mothers had not even a maternity ward to go to and gave birth at the side of the road.

      No wonder mothers feel that they are not valued. They are after all handled like cattle really. The "sophistication" leaves me breathless to be honest.

  4. arkie 4

    The market is fine, let the market do it's thing etc etc.
    /

    House prices hit new highs with busiest February market in 14 years

    House price growth continues unabated according to the latest numbers.

    Real Estate Institute figures for February show the median price rose was up 23 percent on a year ago, to $780,000.

    Reinz's house price index, which measures the changing value of property in the market, hit a fresh high, the annual gain 21.5 percent, the biggest annual rise since May 2004.

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/438136/house-prices-hit-new-highs-with-busiest-february-market-in-14-years

    • Siobhan 4.1

      An advert came up on my fb from Property Brokers. And as usual I was left absolutely appalled at the sheer gall of these people.

      The first line read….

      "Investors! Milk this property for all its worth. Potential $1200 per week rental income."

      It does concede that while "milking it" .."There is some work required to bring them up to the "Healthy Homes" standard,"….to which I say "No shit!!"

      I have included the link to the ad/photo of the bathroom ..with its bog standard gilding of black mold in the bathroom.

      The cherry on top is that this is an ex HNZ block…sold off as I guess its not 'fit for purpose"…to which I can only agree wholeheartedly. Though it would seem it is fit for the purposes of "milking it" in one of the poorest neighbourhoods in the country.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maraenui

      May be an image of indoor

      And before any potential investors on The Standard find their interest piqued by the prospect of "Milking it" from a property where there investment will be propped up by the Accommodation Supplement (among other things) I should warn you, as a resident of Marewa/the 'Nui this particular street doesn't just have the prerequisite one Mobster house ..it's a 2 min walk to "The Pad"…making it technicaly worse than the other streets..(though only just)

      https://www.realestate.co.nz/3959368/residential/sale/1824-percy-spiller-avenue-maraenui

      • Foreign waka 4.1.1

        And the banks are willing to play ball. Let alone the call for another 30 Billion quantitative easing to be released. You know money printing for housing investors and everybody else has to just shoulder the every increasing worthlessness of the kiwi dollar. Meanwhile, food is being rationed as we have issues with not only imports but seemingly also with supply of home grown. Commodity prices are up so we export …everything… just have the good folks starve a bit. oops lifestyle fasting….if you look at the bigger picture you know that it is not the government running the country.

  5. Treetop 5

    but then does anyone really care?

    For any mother who has recently given birth to not have shelter and support something has gone terribly wrong. Immediate resources and an organistation who can pair up a practised mum or a person who has skills in caring for a newborn with an isolated mum is required for as long as needed. This also applies to fathers.

    All parents caring for a young baby struggle when it comes to disruption of sleep. Without secure housing, having someone there to help take the pressure off and if not feeling well a person is going to struggle until their needs are met.

  6. Anker 6
    • Shocking
  7. greywarshark 7

    Business and work in NZ for New Zealanders must be a major consideration for people who want to see us as a nation getting on our feet, not knee-capped all the time by events and machinations of the rich and wannabes.

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/programmes/the-detail/story/2018786934/new-zealand-s-mills-are-in-trouble

    Since 2008 log shipments to China have surged from one million tonnes a year to around 20 million this year.

    But at the same time our value-add wood exports have stagnated.

    Turner says the government has a "delusional idea that we'll be able to attract foreign capital because the fundamental issue is lack of capital. There's no lack of capital, there's a lack of environment to make that capital efficient and successful".

    Wood, we need it for building houses, heating and keeping trees as part of our attempt to reduce carbon. Good stuff. But to make life more difficult, as it does each day – here's a new factor: Climate change is rapidly pushing temperatures to the point it’s affecting photosynthesis, she says. [Dr Katharyn Duffy, Northern Arizona University earth systems scientist]

    “Every time we put out one tonne of carbon dioxide, plants pick up 30 percent. Plants are currently mitigating climate change and giving us an ecosystem service that is slowing global warming.

    “What we published in this paper is showing that we are rapidly entering climate spaces where plants may slow that discount on carbon emissions and or reverse it, because that carbon they store in their trunks and soils is vulnerable to release.” https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/saturday/audio/2018786407/forests-reach-temperature-tipping-point

  8. greywarshark 8

    Interested in having a relatively transparent public radio? We have one but for how long? Do you care? This is important Labour, if you have backbone, then protect our government-owned, honest radio station that is a true public service, with little commercial involvement (it may share news and information reciprocally if appropriate to the public interest).

    Tom Frewen has been watching cautiously, concerned about the agenda that is obviously ideological and pleasing to the present management of RadioNZ which has no commitment to reliable public radio and treat their positions as Czars in Radio to do as they please and work the system to amuse themselves. I listened this morning to some youf walking to secondary school who would be big listeners to youth radio one would suppose. They made light-hearted talk as they went, listening to some reggae, such as ‘Suck ya balls’ and ‘Fuck you’.

    And while I support young people and music, I think they already get a fair dose on Saturday afternoon. Broadcasting can’t make up for getting rid of the Helen Young Studio in Auckland 2004, by making another pratfall brought on by ideas too rotund for their boots.
    https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/nat-music/audio/2018733951/goodbye-helen-young-studio

    They prepare the report of meetings before they even happen. Talk about the Wizard of Oz and green smoke confabulating everything! Sack them – the RadioNZ Board and CEO and accompanying cabal Labour, before they do further harm to your 1984-damaged former value-based brand which seems to be determined to debase itself!

    The minister’s response last Thursday 4 March was, to say the least, confusing. A letter, presumably written by an adviser in the Ministry for Culture and Heritage, was accompanied by a copy of an aide-memoire prepared by a senior policy adviser in the Ministry for Culture and Heritage (MCH). Arming Faafoi with “speaking points” on “spectrum allocation” for the Cabinet meeting on Monday 10 February, in the week after RNZ revealed its new music strategy to staff and two days before the proposal was withdrawn, the paper is titled: “RNZ is planning a Youth FM channel on the RNZ Concert spectrum.” Dated 3 February 2020, it records an event that did not occur until two days later. https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL2103/S00025/classic-blunder-the-sequel-part-6.htm

  9. McFlock 9

    meme doing the rounds on facebook:

    It's only "Cancel Culture" if it comes from the Cancella region of France,
    otherwise it's just "Sparking Consequences"

    Tickled my fancy…

  10. Morrissey 10

    This could only happen in a depraved and lawless regime.

    https://twitter.com/benabyad/status/1369668471043284993

  11. Andre 11

    Apparently some of them come out Soros instead of Gates.

    https://twitter.com/freedominguez/status/1367646641403006983