But in the 1970s, a professor of Psychology in Vancouver called Bruce Alexander noticed something odd about this experiment. The rat is put in the cage all alone. It has nothing to do but take the drugs. What would happen, he wondered, if we tried this differently? So Professor Alexander built Rat Park. It is a lush cage where the rats would have colored balls and the best rat-food and tunnels to scamper down and plenty of friends: everything a rat about town could want. What, Alexander wanted to know, will happen then?
In Rat Park, all the rats obviously tried both water bottles, because they didn’t know what was in them. But what happened next was startling.
The rats with good lives didn’t like the drugged water. They mostly shunned it, consuming less than a quarter of the drugs the isolated rats used. None of them died. While all the rats who were alone and unhappy became heavy users, none of the rats who had a happy environment did.
In the video he says (paraphrased): Something has gone wrong with us, as a society/group.
And he’s right. That which has gone wrong is capitalism and it’s attack on community and society itself. Thatcher and the neo-liberals say that there is no society because they understand that a society hanging together can’t be abused the way that a bunch of individuals cut off from their friends and neighbours can be.
I wanted to get the first comment / announcement in (since I intend to be asleep in the morning!) and it wouldn’t let me unless the post was published. (Lynn – think we used to be able to comment on a post in the queue?).
Something has gone wrong with us, as a society/group.
And he’s right. That which has gone wrong is capitalism…
This is why pre-capitalist western societies had no experience of drug abuse and addiction, right? And also why “really-existing socialism” societies never had the problem?
The clue is in understanding why different strata and classes of society today might have widely differing levels of response to addictive drugs and the prevalence of drug abuse.
Although I will say that capitalism + criminalism has made the drug trade into a huge trans-national trade worth the GDP of entire countries, and that major powers like the Americans (and the CIA) have supported that.
Western societies have always been capitalist right back to Sumer. Very little is known before then due to the lack of written records. It was out of Ancient Sumer that bans on usury and 7 year jubilees came.
Other societies that weren’t capitalist don’t seem to have the same problem with drugs as we do.
And also why “really-existing socialism” societies never had the problem?
Of course they had the same problem – they were still capitalist.
The societies without a drug problem are the ones that tended more to the communist state where people were looked after and had connections to those around them. All those things that the capitalist state removes as it concentrates on competition amongst people as it drives for ever higher profits.
Loving the earlyness of this Open Mike, catering to the overseas listeners. Also allows for ridiculous comments to be made and not be read for many hours.
Another day another broken promise to the good people of Christchurch.
Last year the Government and Christchurch Council signed the Christchurch Housing accord under which the Government promised to “establish a $75 million Christchurch Housing Accord Fund to develop these and other suitable sites that may be identified in future.”
But the money has been taken away by Smith and transferred to Auckland. From Stuff this morning:
“The Government has diverted $52 million of funding meant to help Christchurch’s housing problem to Auckland.
As part of the Christchurch Housing Accord, signed between the Government and the Christchurch City Council in September, the Crown agreed to invest $75m to construct 180 new homes on two council-owned sites in Sydenham.
The new Sydenham homes were expected to provide temporary accommodation for residents getting their earthquake-damaged homes fixed and would later be sold as affordable homes on the open market.
Treasury documents released to Christchurch East MP and Labour associate housing spokesperson Poto Williams this week show $52.2m of the $75m promised will instead be spent on housing in Auckland.
Williams said the re-allocation was outrageous and neglected Christchurch’s dire housing issues.
“It’s basically saying ‘we think the Auckland situation is so bad, we need to focus on that and everyone else can shoulder the costs’.””
The terms of the accord are perfectly clear. I wonder if the Council was consulted.
So BIg Pharma is using the TPPA to
1. bypass the necessity of having to contest US regulations
2. inflict their desired regulation changes on the rest of the TPPA members.
Bloomberg) — “The Obama administration is caught in a trap as it tries to bring home a trade deal with its Pacific Rim partners. Some of the chief beneficiaries may be big drug companies like Novartis AG, Roche Holding AG, and Pfizer Inc. while the losers could be consumers in both the U.S. and the region.
The administration says it’s bound by congressionally imposed instructions to try to get as much current U.S. law as possible into trade accords — including stringent protections for patented drugs that it’s repeatedly tried to ease at home to encourage more cost-saving generics.
The disconnect has put U.S. negotiators in the position of pushing provisions in the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership that would preclude the administration from making further attempts to win the legal changes.
It also has negotiators pressing the region’s developing countries to sign onto a schedule for adopting the stronger rules, reversing previous exemptions to allow them easier access to cheap medicines.
Even though U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman says the talks are “in a closing mode,” American proposals for tough intellectual-property protections for drugs are meeting resistance from Australia, New Zealand, Canada and other Pacific Rim nations. Chile’s foreign minister, for one, has said flatly that his country won’t accept some key provisions.”
Article about how the government is using accounting tricks to screw the Christchurch recovery (hence why the progress has been so slow) while performing a smoke-and-mirrors deception so they can still claim their 2014-2015 surplus.
I’m going to quote quite a few bits as I think it is a very interesting article and I recommend anyone who is interested in this government’s pitiful management of the economy should read it to get a glimpse at what they’re really up to.
However, what matters for the earthquake recovery is that it has left the Government permanently short of ready cash because every dollar spent is going to hammer that year’s surplus target.
Preston believes this is why he can see all sorts of accounting games being played when he looks at the Crown books.
Yet while the Government is being careful with its own money, Christchurch City Council (CCC) and Christchurch ratepayers are being pressed to spend every cent that can be scraped up on the recovery. Rates are being pushed to unheard of levels. Council debt is being stretched to its legal limit. The pressure is on to sell off the port, the airport, and every other asset the city owns. CCC finance spokesman Cr Raf Manji broadly agrees with Preston’s analysis, saying the council’s recovery spending will be around $6.5b in the end – but off a tiny revenue basis compared to the Crown.
So Manji says there is the impression being given of open-handed support for Christchurch, yet people can also see the puzzling slow-down of some of the anchor projects, the silence over what will happen to the residential red zone, and the likelihood of the city now being left with an expensive legacy of half mended roads and long-term land drainage problems.
Again the Government’s headline number, the one it always likes to quote, is that it is making a $16.5b investment in the Canterbury recovery. Yet the first thing to knock off that is the $8b which is simply EQC cash.
…
Preston says he finds it a bit much to count the natural disaster fund as a Crown contribution – especially as there is no word on how that particular pot is going to be refilled to pay for future earthquakes. And then scrutiny of EQC’s accounts reveals the $2b shortfall figure has been steadily shrinking.
Due to various savings being found – and he notes that the first line of the Minister’s letter of expectations to EQC states: “Returning to surplus in 2014-2015 is a key priority for the Government.” – the $2b has become $1b and now sits at around $500m.
So once a repair alliance, the Stronger Christchurch Infrastructure Rebuild Team (Scirt), was formed, it simply started mending every damaged pipe and street it came across.
But by late 2012, it was realised the bill was likely to be double the early estimates. The damage was always worse once the ground was dug. So the Government changed the rules.
Scirt was told to recost the repairs based on what it would take to get the infrastructure back to an average pre-quake level of service, not what it would require to fix completely. Brownlee said Christchurch shouldn’t expect the Government to pay for betterment.
This allowed the Government to cap its infrastructure contribution at $1.8b – a sharp reduction on the $2.3b CCC had been expecting.
Preston says what also catches his accountant’s eye is the way the Government used the cost share to capitalise as much of the Blueprint spending as possible.
That is, projects were treated not as operating expenditure – cash spending that would affect that year’s surplus calculation – but instead as a capital investment, something that was being bought by the state to produce an eventual financial return.
Once capitalised like this, the provision could be entered in a different column – rolled into the general national debt, the $80b of borrowings, to which no one was paying much attention.
As an accounting trick, Preston says the corporate world does this all the time. An expense becomes an asset. But it has consequences. It builds in assumptions that later have to be realised.
Take the $400m the Government has spent on compulsorily acquiring land for the anchor projects. That is money going out the door in any particular year. But because the land has been booked as a capital asset, it doesn’t come off the surplus figure. Rather it is something new the Crown owns as a positive investment.
Of course the expense will have to be reconciled one day when the anchor project actually gets built. If the Crown simply gives an anchor to the city as a gift – as people seemed to be getting the impression would be the case with the metro sports facility, the convention centre, the green frame – then suddenly that land investment will have zero value. Its purchase price has to be recognised as a cash out-going.
Or even if the Government has to acknowledge a write-down of the booked land value – as it very well might with the East Frame being sold now for apartment blocks having been bought originally at commercial building land prices – then again, ouch, a direct hit on the budget surplus column.
Preston says this is where some of the delays and secrecy that surround the anchor projects start to make more sense. The cost share shuffled a large chunk of the promised core Crown spend – he calculates $3.6b of the $8b non-EQC money – safely out of the surplus spotlight. The question is then when can the Government afford to take the hits involved in parking the expense?
For instance, it was an open secret that Fletcher Living had won the East Frame tender earlier this year. However the official announcement was bafflingly delayed until just the other week – a few days after the June 30 close of the 2014/2015 financial year.
Preston says tally it up and this is why there feels to be such a distance between the spending promises and the spending reality.
First that headline $16.5b contribution figure has to halved because $8b of it is EQC insurance money. Take out the red zone and AMI bailout and that gives you the $6.7b core Crown spend. Then because cash is precious, there are the capitalisation tricks to park the costs and his figure of $2b for actual operating spending up to 2014, the last available audited year.
Dividing up the $2b, Preston says it amounts to $571m for sewers and drains, $293m for roads, $397m for Blueprint land, $393m for schools, hospitals, law courts and other Crown buildings, $220m for the business support package, plus a collection of sundry amounts like $28m for the AMI temporary rugby stadium.
So certainly not nothing, Preston concedes. But is it actually that generous in light of what the Government will have been earning in taxes on a largely insurance-fuelled rebuild? And has it been travelling with the handbrake on for the past few years because there has always been that election surplus goal hovering in the background?
How would we know though if Treasury is ever likely to attain this elusive tax goal? It is something I don’t think they will, especially if the current economic crises overseas and our not so rock star economy combine to form a super crisis.
Another finely polished piece of trash from limping career politician Nick Smith.
Blame Labour for commenting on the high percentage of 40% Chinese names in the list of buyers of Auckland property. That is racist. Pointing out trends and facts must be discouraged by Notional. http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/regional/278491/labour-accused-of-playing-race-card
And an opportunity for Notional to strike a home run on a number of concerns – poor housing, lack of employment, bad health from overcrowding and/or unsuitable whares for the peeps. They could embark on a holy war on cold, damp, illness producing housing but they actually don’t want to do anything for the poor in the houses. Because they are going to shovel them off in Richard Prebble style (as in our railways).
He said he was so eager to get shot of railways that he would have given the system away. Now the gift in pass the parcel is state housing, rather dilapidated, like NZs standards for people’s lifestyle.
Nick Smith is the Minister, but he can’t alter very tight specifications required for rented houses, like having more than one electricity outlet in a room. Why can’t he divide the list of wants into two? One of needs, for immediate or sooner attention, and one for later to improve standards to those now considered basic for the 21st century?
Radionz reported – A survey of 400 Housing New Zealand homes carried out in April 2014 found only 4 percent passed the WOF with flying colours, while 80 percent needed urgent or high priority repairs...
The homes were checked against 49 criteria developed by an expert advisory panel, Housing New Zealand and the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment….
But the papers show 29 percent were not properly insulated, 28 percent were not safe or secure and 42 percent did not have the essential amenities like a working kitchen or bathroom sink….
Just under half (48 percent) of the homes needed urgent repairs – which is work required within two days or the tenants would have to move out. A further
32 percent needed high priority repairs done within 10 days…
The study estimated it would cost $230,492 to bring all the properties in the trial up to the WOF standard. Applying that across Housing New Zealand’s 60,000 homes, the repair bill swells to $34.5 million.
Nick Smith’s reply fudged the issues in his characteristic way. Dr Smith said…the scheme was not feasible.
“Other issues like window stays, glass visibility safety strips and hot water temperature are best improved by education.”
Dr Smith said the cost of regular inspections was also too high and many criteria were already covered by existing regulation.
He said most state homes were in better condition than their private sector counterparts. http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/278493/cost-of-rental-wofs-too-high-for-govt
Katherine Mansfield: Pissing people off since October 14, 1922.
Or so I thought.
(tl;dr – don’t worry, most of the writing below is not my opinion)
Do you like quotes? The kind you’ll find in the opening pages of books, or now more commonly, attached to motivational posters: out-of-context, edited, sometimes even misrepresented? It’s a travesty. On the first pages of Helen Brown’s book*, “In Deep: Tales from Over the horizon” (1996) there is a quote:
“Risk! Risk anything! Care no more for the opinion of others, for those voices. Do the hardest thing on earth for you. Act for yourself. Face the truth.”
Those words have been plucked from Katherine Mansfield’s Journal, an entry dated 14 October, 1922. Even though I tried to forget those words while I read about Helen and the people and places she visited, they pissed me off. Trite. The quote sounded trite. I hate having to read books to know what the book I’m reading it talking about; and waiting for books to arrive is like waiting the final 5 seconds for the microwave to heat a cup of instant coffee. I don’t have all second! Ping!
They sound quite authoritative, those words of Katherine’s, don’t they?
A directive from beyond what is now the grave, which you could imagine – if you didn’t know – are being made from some hotel room balcony on the Riviera, before see threw herself once more into another adventure of travel and thrills. As they are, they’re cold, dismissive, forcefully pushing you away to your own ends, practically masculine in outlook; or as vapid, elevated and distant as who we think collectively she might have been as an historical heroine.
Your self-assured Uncle might tell you something similar – that nothing that is not difficult is worth the effort, to face your fear – when you say, perhaps during a rare family dinner together, that you can’t decide which subject to major in at school. Or perhaps, if you’re about to write a book that reveals who you are to an audience you’ve never met, people who will judge you in ways you can’t control, and you know where your skeletons are and want to avoid them, it could be just the push you need as you close your eyes and take the metaphorical leap.
But Katherine Mansfield was a real person in her own right, complex and nuanced, just like you or me.
She once said, assertively and conclusively, that she was a writer first – and a woman second. Her journal is full of quotable claims. Life isn’t one line of words though, is it. Quotes can help you up, or point the way, but put them back into context and you’ll discover what was really being said. You see what the “hardest thing on Earth” really was, not for you, but for her. Is it right to appropriate her words as metaphors only? Want to know what we missed along with the context? Sweet Jesus, only the whole world as she saw it, as a woman and a writer, at the moment she felt she might depart!
If you’ve ever kept a journal of sorts, full of your thoughts, dreams or ideas, or just a plain diary of what you did each day… which milk you bought, who smiled at you on the train… you’ll begin to see patterns. Ideas and flashes of themes appear first as words and phrases and then later as central elements all of their own.
On September 30th, 1922, Katherine Mansfield’s journal said:
“‘Do you know what individuality is?’
‘No.’
‘Consciousness of will. To be conscious that you have a will and can act.’
Yes, it is. It’s a glorious saying.’”
This isolated thought shared with herself was the result of a discussion she had with an English social thinker and then Editor of The New Age, Alfred Orage, a month before.
People, she said, give up being complete people after their youth. They give up on themselves, lock away the passion and enforce their will on life, take control of anything and everything and “become adults”; swapping their hearts and imagination for smaller, fragmented, lesser wishes. Her view of New Zealand society was… unflattering… to say the least.
She was quite ill by then, separated from her lover while she sought remedies. Her comments on individuality would soon become a candid and beautiful piece of writing.
(Below is the complete context of her Journal entry.)
“October 14 Orage goes to Paris.
October 14 I have been thinking this morning until it seems I may get things straightened out if I try to write…. where I am.
Ever since I came to Paris I have been as ill as ever. In fact, yesterday I thought I was dying. It is not my imagination. My heart is so exhausted and so tied up that I can only walk to the taxi and back. I get up at midi and go to bed at 5:30. I try to ‘work’ by fits and starts, but the time has gone by. I cannot work. Ever since April I have done practically nothing. But why? Because, although Manoukhin’s treatment improved my blood and made me look well and did have a good effect on my lungs, it made my heart not one scrap better, and I only won that improvement by living the life of a corpse in the Victoria Palace Hotel.
My spirit is nearly dead. My spring of life is so starved that it’s just not dry. Nearly all my improved health is pretence –acting. What does it amount to? Can I walk? Only creep. Can I do anything with my hands or body? Nothing at all. I am an absolutely hopeless invalid. What is my life? It is the existence of a parasite. And five years have passed now, and I am in straiter bonds than ever.
Ah, I feel a little calmer already to be writing. Thank God for writing! I am so terrified of what I am going to do. All the voices out of the ‘Past’ say ‘Don’t do it’. Bogey says ‘M. is a scientist. He does his part. It’s up to you to do yours.’ But that is no good at all. I can no more cure my psyche than my body. Less it seems to me. Isn’t Bogey himself, perfectly fresh and well, utterly depressed by boils on his neck? Think of five years’ imprisonment. Someone has got to help me get out. If that is a confession of weakness –it is. But it’s only lack of imagination that calls it so. And who is going to help me? Remember Switzerland: ‘I am helpless.’ Of course, he is. One prisoner cannot help another. Do I believe in medicine alone? No never. It seems to me childish and ridiculous to suppose one can be cured like a cow if one is not a cow. And here, all these years, I have been looking for someone who agreed with me. I have heard of Gurdjieff who seems not only to agree but to know infinitely more about it.
Why hesitate?
Fear. Fear of what? Doesn’t it come down to fear of losing Bogey? I believe it does. But, good heavens! Face things. What have you of him now? What is your relationship? He talks to you – sometimes – and then goes off. He thinks of you tenderly. He dreams of a life with you some day when the miracle has happened. You are important to him as a dream. Not as a living reality. For you are not one. What do you share? Almost nothing. Yet there is a deep, sweet, tender flooding of feeling in my heart which is love for him and longing for him. But what is the good of it as things stand? Life together, with me ill, is simply torture with happy moments. But it’s not life. I have tried through my illness (with one or two disastrous exceptions) to prevent him facing wholly what was happening. I ought to have tried to get him to face them. But I couldn’t. The result is he doesn’t know me. He only knows Wig-who-is-going-to-be-better-some-day. No. You do know that Bogey and you are only a kind of dream of what might be. And that might-be never never can be true unless you are well. And you won’t get well by ‘imagining’ or ‘waiting’ or trying to bring off that miracle yourself.
Therefore if the Grand Lama of Thibet promised to help you –how can you hesitate? Risk! Risk anything! Care not for the opinions of others, for those voices. Do the hardest thing on earth for you. Act for yourself. Face the truth.
True, Tchehov didn’t. Yes, but Tchehov died. And let us be honest. How much do we know of Tchehov from his letters? Was that all? Of course not. Don’t you suppose he had a whole longing life of which there is hardly a word? Then read the final letters. He has given up hope. If you de-sentimentalize those final letters they are terrible. There is no more Tchehov. Illness has swallowed him.
But perhaps to people who are not ill, all this is nonsense. They have never travelled this road. How can they see where I am? All the more reason to go boldly forward alone. Life is not simple. In spite of all we say about the mystery of Life, when we get down to it, we want to treat it as though it were a child’s tale…
Now, Katherine, what do you mean by health? And what do you want it for?
Answer: By health I mean the power to live a full, adult, living, breathing life in close contact with what I love –the earth and the wonders thereof – the sea – the sun. All that we mean when we speak of the external world. I want to enter into it, to be part of it, to live in it, to learn from it, to lose all that is superficial and acquired in me and to become a conscious, direct human being. I want by understanding myself, to understand others. I want to be all that I am capable of becoming so that I may be (and here I have stopped and waited and waited and it’s no good –there’s only one phrase that will do) a child of the sun. About helping others, about carrying a light and so on, it seems false to say a single word. Let it be that. A child of the sun.
Then I want to work. At what? I want to live so that I work with my hands and my feeling and my brain. I want a garden, a small house, grass, animals, books, pictures, music. And out of this, the expression of this, I want to be writing. (Though I may write about cabmen. That’s no matter).
But warm, eager, living life –to be rooted in life – to learn, to desire to know, to feel, to think, to act. That is what I want. And nothing less. That is what I must try for.
I wrote this for myself. I shall now risk sending it to Bogey. He may do with it what he likes. He must see how much I love him.
And when I say ‘I fear’ –don’t let that disturb you, dearest heart. We all fear when we are in waiting-rooms. Yet we must pass beyond them, and if the other can keep calm, it is all the help we can give each other.
Suppose, if this worries you, you show it to Dunning? I trust Dunning in spite of my thinking he did not really solve your problem. Let him see that, too. He will understand.
And this all sounds very strenuous and serious. But now that I have wrestled with it, it’s no longer so. I feel happy –deep down. May you be happy too.
I’m going to Fontainebleau on Monday and I’ll be back here Tuesday night of Wednesday morning. All is well.
Doctor Young, the London man who has joined Gudjieff, came to see me to-day and told me about the life there. It sounds wonderfully good and simple and what one needs.
It won’t fit on a motivational poster, but why would you try? Katherine Mansfield died 10:30pm, January 9, 1923.
There was also a story in the Herald a couple of weeks ago about people living in cars. In both cases the media are good at presenting it as a lifestyle choice and not a fundamental societal issue that people literally do not have a home to go to.
It’s deeply disturbing how our MSM and much of the middle class like to frame homelessness as a “choice”. And it’s disturbing that they appear to actually believe it is!
They ignore that the rate of homelessness is a direct function of the wider economy. As is unemployment. When the economy does well… employment increases, unemployment decreases, homelessness decreases. When the economy is not doing well unemployment and homelessness increase. The relationship is constant and direct. It seems amazingly obvious and simple to me….
To reduce it to an issue of individual choice is convenient because then no one has to do anything about it. And particularly the government. They then don’t have to create an economic environment that creates enough jobs for citizens and enough housing for everyone.
Homelessness is pretty simple. People are homeless because they have no home!
There was an experiment done in London where they gave money to homeless people with zero strings attached. It actually worked, it reduced homelessness and was actually cheaper than the targeted interventions which are the norm.
Now, it was a small experiment. But the results are good enough for wider experiments to be done.
Some reading there Charles. She died of tuberculosis and I thought of George Orwell, Chekhov too, and did some reading on it. It was quite fashionable to die of it apparently! Such great thinkers, such a loss especially when Katherine was trying to plan for a new life and she was only 35 years, George Orwell 46 years.
But among the poor it wasn’t so elevated. And I’m thinking that NZ is developing the conditions for an outbreak of further illnesses of the 19th and 20th centuries from neglect by leaders of decent conditions similar to the circumstances referred to in the Wikipedia reports. .
White Plague
The tuberculosis epidemic in Europe, which probably started in the 17th century and which lasted two hundred years, was known as the Great White Plague. Death by tuberculosis was considered inevitable, and it was the principal cause of death in 1650.
The high population density, as well as the poor sanitary conditions that characterized most European and North American cities, created a perfect environment for its propagation….
In large cities the poor had high rates of tuberculosis. Public-health physicians and politicians typically blamed both the poor themselves and their ramshackle tenement houses (conventillos) for the spread of the dreaded disease.
eople ignored public-health campaigns to limit the spread of contagious diseases, such as the prohibition of spitting on the streets, the strict guidelines to care for infants and young children, and quarantines that separated families from ill loved ones.[55] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_tuberculosis
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This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Sarah SpengemanPeople wait to board an electric bus in Pune, India. (Image credit: courtesy of ITDP) Public transportation riders in Pune, India, love the city’s new electric buses so much they will actually skip an older diesel bus that ...
The infrastructure industry yesterday issued a “hurry up” message to the Government, telling it to get cracking on developing a pipeline of infrastructure projects.The hiatus around the change of Government has seen some major projects cancelled and others delayed, and there is uncertainty about what will happen with the new ...
Hi,Over the weekend I revisited a podcast I really adore, Dead Eyes. It’s about a guy who got fired from Band of Brothers over two decades ago because Tom Hanks said he had “dead eyes”.If you don’t recall — 2001’s Band of Brothers was part of the emerging trend of ...
Buzz from the Beehive The 180 or so recipients of letters from the Government telling them how to submit infrastructure projects for “fast track” consideration includes some whose project applications previously have been rejected by the courts. News media were quick to feature these in their reports after RMA Reform Minister Chris ...
It would not be a desirable way to start your holiday by breaking your back, your head, or your wrist, but on our first hour in Singapore I gave it a try.We were chatting, last week, before we started a meeting of Hazel’s Enviro Trust, about the things that can ...
Calling all journalists, academics, planners, lawyers, political activists, environmentalists, and other members of the public who believe that the relationships between vested interests and politicians need to be scrutinised. We need to work together to make sure that the new Fast-Track Approvals Bill – currently being pushed through by the ...
Feel worried. Shane Jones and a couple of his Cabinet colleagues are about to be granted the power to override any and all objections to projects like dams, mines, roads etc even if: said projects will harm biodiversity, increase global warming and cause other environmental harms, and even if ...
Bryce Edwards writes- The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. ...
Michael Bassett writes – If you think there is a move afoot by the radical Maori fringe of New Zealand society to create a parallel system of government to the one that we elect at our triennial elections, you aren’t wrong. Over the last few days we have ...
Without a corresponding drop in interest rates, it’s doubtful any changes to the CCCFA will unleash a massive rush of home buyers. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: The six things that stood out to me in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate on Monday, April 22 included:The Government making a ...
Sunday was a lazy day. I started watching Jack Tame on Q&A, the interviews are usually good for something to write about. Saying the things that the politicians won’t, but are quite possibly thinking. Things that are true and need to be extracted from between the lines.As you might know ...
In our Weekly Roundup last week we covered news from Auckland Transport that the WX1 Western Express is going to get an upgrade next year with double decker electric buses. As part of the announcement, AT also said “Since we introduced the WX1 Western Express last November we have seen ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 29 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Stats NZ releases its statutory report on Census 2023 tomorrow.Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivers a pre-Budget speech at ...
A listing of 29 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 14, 2024 thru Sat, April 20, 2024. Story of the week Our story of the week hinges on these words from the abstract of a fresh academic ...
The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. The Government says this will ...
This is a column to say thank you. So many of have been in touch since Mum died to say so many kind and thoughtful things. You’re wonderful, all of you. You’ve asked how we’re doing, how Dad’s doing. A little more realisation each day, of the irretrievable finality of ...
Identifying the engine type in your car is crucial for various reasons, including maintenance, repairs, and performance upgrades. Knowing the specific engine model allows you to access detailed technical information, locate compatible parts, and make informed decisions about modifications. This comprehensive guide will provide you with a step-by-step approach to ...
Introduction: The allure of racing is undeniable. The thrill of speed, the roar of engines, and the exhilaration of competition all contribute to the allure of this adrenaline-driven sport. For those who yearn to experience the pinnacle of racing, becoming a race car driver is the ultimate dream. However, the ...
Introduction Automobiles have become ubiquitous in modern society, serving as a primary mode of transportation and a symbol of economic growth and personal mobility. With countless vehicles traversing roads and highways worldwide, it begs the question: how many cars are there in the world? Determining the precise number is a ...
Maintaining a safe and reliable vehicle requires regular inspections. Whether it’s a routine maintenance checkup or a safety inspection, knowing how long the process will take can help you plan your day accordingly. This article delves into the factors that influence the duration of a car inspection and provides an ...
Mazda Motor Corporation, commonly known as Mazda, is a Japanese multinational automaker headquartered in Fuchu, Aki District, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. The company was founded in 1920 as the Toyo Cork Kogyo Co., Ltd., and began producing vehicles in 1931. Mazda is primarily known for its production of passenger cars, but ...
Your car battery is an essential component that provides power to start your engine, operate your electrical systems, and store energy. Over time, batteries can weaken and lose their ability to hold a charge, which can lead to starting problems, power failures, and other issues. Replacing your battery before it ...
In most states, you cannot register a car without a valid driver’s license. However, there are a few exceptions to this rule. Exceptions to the RuleIf you are under 18 years old: In some states, you can register a car in your name even if you do not ...
Mazda, a Japanese automotive manufacturer with a rich history of innovation and engineering excellence, has emerged as a formidable player in the global car market. Known for its reputation of producing high-quality, fuel-efficient, and driver-oriented vehicles, Mazda has consistently garnered praise from industry experts and consumers alike. In this article, ...
Struts are an essential part of a car’s suspension system. They are responsible for supporting the weight of the car and damping the oscillations of the springs. Struts are typically made of steel or aluminum and are filled with hydraulic fluid. How Do Struts Work? Struts work by transferring the ...
Car registration is a mandatory process that all vehicle owners must complete annually. This process involves registering your car with the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and paying an associated fee. The registration process ensures that your vehicle is properly licensed and insured, and helps law enforcement and other authorities ...
Zoom is a video conferencing service that allows you to share your screen, webcam, and audio with other participants. In addition to sharing your own audio, you can also share the audio from your computer with other participants. This can be useful for playing music, sharing presentations with audio, or ...
Building your own computer can be a rewarding and cost-effective way to get a high-performance machine tailored to your specific needs. However, it also requires careful planning and execution, and one of the most important factors to consider is the time it will take. The exact time it takes to ...
Sleep mode is a power-saving state that allows your computer to quickly resume operation without having to boot up from scratch. This can be useful if you need to step away from your computer for a short period of time but don’t want to shut it down completely. There are ...
Introduction Computer-Assisted Translation (CAT) has revolutionized the field of translation by harnessing the power of technology to assist human translators in their work. This innovative approach combines specialized software with human expertise to improve the efficiency, accuracy, and consistency of translations. In this comprehensive article, we will delve into the ...
In today’s digital age, mobile devices have become an indispensable part of our daily lives. Among the vast array of portable computing options available, iPads and tablet computers stand out as two prominent contenders. While both offer similar functionalities, there are subtle yet significant differences between these two devices. This ...
A computer is an electronic device that can be programmed to carry out a set of instructions. The basic components of a computer are the processor, memory, storage, input devices, and output devices. The Processor The processor, also known as the central processing unit (CPU), is the brain of the ...
Voice Memos is a convenient app on your iPhone that allows you to quickly record and store audio snippets. These recordings can be useful for a variety of purposes, such as taking notes, capturing ideas, or recording interviews. While you can listen to your voice memos on your iPhone, you ...
Laptop screens are essential for interacting with our devices and accessing information. However, when lines appear on the screen, it can be frustrating and disrupt productivity. Understanding the underlying causes of these lines is crucial for finding effective solutions. Types of Screen Lines Horizontal lines: Also known as scan ...
Right-clicking is a common and essential computer operation that allows users to access additional options and settings. While most desktop computers have dedicated right-click buttons on their mice, laptops often do not have these buttons due to space limitations. This article will provide a comprehensive guide on how to right-click ...
Powering up and shutting down your ASUS laptop is an essential task for any laptop user. Locating the power button can sometimes be a hassle, especially if you’re new to ASUS laptops. This article will provide a comprehensive guide on where to find the power button on different ASUS laptop ...
Dell laptops are renowned for their reliability, performance, and versatility. Whether you’re a student, a professional, or just someone who needs a reliable computing device, a Dell laptop can meet your needs. However, if you’re new to Dell laptops, you may be wondering how to get started. In this comprehensive ...
Two-thirds of the country think that “New Zealand’s economy is rigged to advantage the rich and powerful”. They also believe that “New Zealand needs a strong leader to take the country back from the rich and powerful”. These are just two of a handful of stunning new survey results released ...
In today’s digital world, screenshots have become an indispensable tool for communication and documentation. Whether you need to capture an important email, preserve a website page, or share an error message, screenshots allow you to quickly and easily preserve digital information. If you’re an Asus laptop user, there are several ...
A factory reset restores your Gateway laptop to its original factory settings, erasing all data, apps, and personalizations. This can be necessary to resolve software issues, remove viruses, or prepare your laptop for sale or transfer. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to factory reset your Gateway laptop: Method 1: ...
“You talking about me?”The neoliberal denigration of the past was nowhere more unrelenting than in its depiction of the public service. The Post Office and the Railways were held up as being both irremediably inefficient and scandalously over-manned. Playwright Roger Hall’s “Glide Time” caricatures were presented as accurate depictions of ...
Roger Partridge writes – When the Coalition Government took office last October, it inherited a country on a precipice. With persistent inflation, decades of insipid productivity growth and crises in healthcare, education, housing and law and order, it is no exaggeration to suggest New Zealand’s first-world status was ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – In 2022, the Curriculum Centre at the Ministry of Education employed 308 staff, according to an Official Information Request. Earlier this week it was announced 202 of those staff were being cut. When you look up “The New Zealand Curriculum” on the Ministry of ...
Chris Bishop’s bill has stirred up a hornets nest of opposition. Photo: Lynn Grieveson for The KākāTL;DR: The six things that stood out to me in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate from the last day included:A crescendo of opposition to the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill is ...
Monday left me brokenTuesday, I was through with hopingWednesday, my empty arms were openThursday, waiting for love, waiting for loveThe end of another week that left many of us asking WTF? What on earth has NZ gotten itself into and how on earth could people have voluntarily signed up for ...
Hello! Here comes the Saturday edition of More Than A Feilding, catching you up on the past week’s editions.State of humanity, 20242024, it feels, keeps presenting us with ever more challenges, ever more dismay.Do you give up yet? It seems to ask.No? How about this? Or this?How about this?Full story Share ...
Determining the hardest sport in the world is a subjective matter, as the difficulty level can vary depending on individual abilities, physical attributes, and experience. However, based on various factors including physical demands, technical skills, mental fortitude, and overall accomplishment, here is an exploration of some of the most challenging ...
The allure of sport transcends age, culture, and geographical boundaries. It captivates hearts, ignites passions, and provides unparalleled entertainment. Behind the spectacle, however, lies a fascinating world of financial investment and expenditure. Among the vast array of competitive pursuits, one question looms large: which sport carries the hefty title of ...
Introduction Pickleball, a rapidly growing paddle sport, has captured the hearts and imaginations of millions around the world. Its blend of tennis, badminton, and table tennis elements has made it a favorite among players of all ages and skill levels. As the sport’s popularity continues to surge, the question on ...
Abstract: Soccer, the global phenomenon captivating millions worldwide, has a rich history that spans centuries. Its origins trace back to ancient civilizations, but the modern version we know and love emerged through a complex interplay of cultural influences and innovations. This article delves into the fascinating journey of soccer’s evolution, ...
Tinting car windows offers numerous benefits, including enhanced privacy, reduced glare, UV protection, and a more stylish look for your vehicle. However, the cost of window tinting can vary significantly depending on several factors. This article provides a comprehensive guide to help you understand how much you can expect to ...
The pungent smell of gasoline in your car can be an alarming and potentially dangerous problem. Not only is the odor unpleasant, but it can also indicate a serious issue with your vehicle’s fuel system. In this article, we will explore the various reasons why your car may smell like ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
The Government’s newly announced review of methane emissions reduction targets hints at its desire to delay Aotearoa New Zealand’s urgent transition to a climate safe future, the Green Party said. ...
The Government must commit to the Maitai School building project for students with high and complex needs, to ensure disabled students from the top of the South Island have somewhere to learn. ...
Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey and his Government colleagues have made a meal of their mental health commitments, showing how flimsy their efforts to champion the issue truly are, says Labour Mental Health spokesperson Ingrid Leary. ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson is speaking at the International Wool Textile Organisation Congress in Adelaide, promoting New Zealand wool, and outlining the coalition Government’s support for the revitalisation the sector. "New Zealand’s wool exports reached $400 million in the year to 30 June 2023, and the coalition Government ...
The Government is making legislative changes to make it easier for new early learning services to be established, and for existing services to operate, Associate Education Minister David Seymour says. The changes involve repealing the network approval provisions that apply when someone wants to establish a new early learning service, ...
Changes to the Resource Management Act will align consenting for coal mining to other forms of mining to reduce barriers that are holding back economic development, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The inconsistent treatment of coal mining compared with other extractive activities is burdensome red tape that fails to acknowledge ...
Trade, Agriculture and Forestry Minister Todd McClay has concluded productive discussions with ministerial counterparts in Beijing today, in support of the New Zealand-China trade and economic relationship. “My meeting with Commerce Minister Wang Wentao reaffirmed the complementary nature of the bilateral trade relationship, with our Free Trade Agreement at its ...
Asia Pacific Report Students and activist staff at Australia’s University of Sydney (USyd) have set up a Gaza solidarity encampment in support of Palestinians and similar student-led protests in the United States. The camp was pitched as mass graves, crippled hospitals, thousands of civilian deaths and the near-total destruction of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James B. Dorey, Lecturer in Biological Sciences, University of Wollongong Australian teddy bear bees are cute and fluffy, but get a look at that massive (unbarbed) stinger! James Dorey Photography Most of us have been stung by a bee and we ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jen Roberts, Senior Lecturer, School of Humanities and Social Inquiry, University of Wollongong Aussie~mobs/FlickrVictor Farr, a private in the 1st Infantry Battalion, was among the first to land at Anzac Cove just before dawn on April 25 1915. Victor Farr ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Senior Research Associate, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne Gregory Moore I had the good fortune to care for the sugar gum at The University of Melbourne’s Burnley Gardens in Victoria where I worked for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra BagzhanSadvakassov/Upsplash, CC BY-SA Australia’s inflation rate has fallen for the fifth successive quarter, and it’s now less than half of what it was back in late 2022. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rachel Ong ViforJ, ARC Future Fellow & Professor of Economics, Curtin University Just when we think the price of rentals could not get any worse, this week’s Rental Affordability Snapshot by Anglicare has revealed low-income Australians are facing a housing crisis like ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Meighen McCrae, Associate Professor of Strategic & Defence Studies, Australian National University American and Australian stretcher bearers working together near the front line during the Battle of Hamel in 1918.Australian War Memorial While the AUKUS alliance is new, the Australian-American partnership ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tracey Holmes, Professorial Fellow in Sport, University of Canberra When the news broke last weekend that 23 Chinese swimmers had tested positive to a banned drug in early 2021 and were allowed to compete at the Tokyo Olympic Games six months later ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cally Jetta, Senior Lecturer and Academic Lead; College for First Nations, University of Southern Queensland Australian War MemorialAboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this article contains names and images of deceased people, as well as sensitive historical information ...
RNZ News Melissa Lee has been ousted from New Zealand’s coalition cabinet and stripped of the Media portfolio, and Penny Simmonds has lost the Disability Issues portfolio in a reshuffle. Climate Change and Revenue Minister Simon Watts will take Lee’s spot in cabinet. Simmonds was a minister outside of cabinet. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Lindenmayer, Professor, Fenner School of Environment and Society, Australian National University laurello/Shutterstock Some reports and popular books, such as Bill Gammage’s Biggest Estate on Earth, have argued that extensive areas of Australia’s forests were kept open through frequent burning by ...
Analysis - Christopher Luxon framing the demotion of two ministers as the portfolios getting "too complex" is a charitable way of saying they weren't up to the job. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra With Jim Chalmers’s third budget on May 14, Australians will be looking for some more cost-of-living relief – beyond the tax cuts – although they have been warned extra measures will be modest. As ...
Analysis: Melissa Lee has lost the media portfolio and her spot in Cabinet after multiple failed attempts to find solutions for a media industry in crisis. On Wednesday, the Prime Minister announced Lee would be losing her spot in Cabinet along with her media and communications ministerial portfolio. The job ...
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The Fairer Future coalition of anti-poverty groups say Whaikaha must be properly funded going forward, and that to argue that poor financial management of the new Ministry is a red herring by the Prime Minister. ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is today congratulating Hon. Paul Goldsmith on his appointment as Minister for Media and Communications and urges him to rule out state intervention in the private media sector. ...
Asia Pacific Report The West Papuan resistance OPM leader has condemned Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and US President Joe Biden, accusing their countries of “six decades of treachery” over Papuan independence. The open letter was released today by OPM chairman Jeffrey P Bomanak on the eve of ANZAC Day ...
Welcome to The Spinoff Books Confessional, in which we get to know the reading habits and quirks of New Zealanders at large. This week: writer and one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people of 2024, Lauren Groff.The book I wish I’d writtenIf I wish I’d written a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Fechner, Research Fellow, Social Marketing, Griffith University mavo/Shutterstock Imagine having dinner at a restaurant. The menu offers plant-based meat alternatives made mostly from vegetables, mushrooms, legumes and wheat that mimic meat in taste, texture and smell. Despite being given that ...
“Three Strikes is a dead-end policy proposed by a dead-end government. The Three Strikes law ignores the causes of crime, instead just brutalising people already crushed by the cost of living.” ...
By Don Wiseman, RNZ Pacific senior journalist An Australian-born judge in Kiribati could well face deportation later this week after a tribunal ruling that he should be removed from his post. The tribunal’s report has just been tabled in the Kiribati Parliament and is due to be debated by MPs ...
With its clear mandate for police use, political nuances, and nuanced public trust, Denmark's insights provide valuable considerations for Australia and New Zealand. ...
Books editor Claire Mabey reviews poet Louise Wallace’s debut novel. A famous poet once said to me that he’s always suspicious when a poet publishes a novel. I never really understood why but maybe it’s something to do with cheating on your first form. Louise Wallace is a poet. She’s ...
For a few months at the turn of the millennium, TrueBliss burned bright as the biggest pop stars in the country. Alex Casey chats to two superfans who still hold the flame. During a humble backyard wedding in Nelson, 1999, one of the cordially invited guests had to excuse themselves ...
How will the recent wave of job cuts impact ethnic diversity in the media? In November last year, I was working a very busy day in the newsroom of a large online news site, interviewing whānau about their concerns over the imminent closure of one of the few puna reo ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ruth Knight, Researcher, Queensland University of Technology Have you ever felt sick at work? Perhaps you had food poisoning or the flu. Your belly hurt, or you felt tired, making it hard to concentrate and be productive. How likely would you be ...
Despite heavy criticism and an ongoing select committee process, the Police Minister says the Government will forge ahead with a ban on gang patches. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sam Whiting, Lecturer – Creative Industries, University of South Australia Shutterstock Everyone has a favourite band, or a favourite composer, or a favourite song. There is some music which speaks to you, deeply; and other music which might be the current ...
A new survey says ‘outlook not great’ for those charged with building infrastructure, while RMA changes delight farmers and depress environmentalists, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. First RMA changes announced ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Olli Hellmann, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Waikato Getty Images When New Zealanders commemorate Anzac Day on April 25, it’s not only to honour the soldiers who lost their lives in World War I and subsequent conflicts, but also ...
A leaked document shows the Canterbury/Waitaha arm of health agency Te Whatu Ora is scurrying to save $13.3 million by July. The “financial sustainability target”, which was “allocated” to Waitaha, is consistent with what’s happening in other districts, says Sarah Dalton, executive director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists. ...
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Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[quiz],DIV[quiz],A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Wednesday 24 April appeared first on Newsroom. ...
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The Nation are teasing a big story for this morning…
https://twitter.com/TheNationTV3/status/619396131110281216
I don’t watch TV3 anymore. It has taught me to wait the additional minute before it is posted elsewhere.
Really? Open Mike at this time of night?
Oh well, I can work with that.
TED Talk: Everything you know about addiction is wrong
Huff Post article:
In the video he says (paraphrased): Something has gone wrong with us, as a society/group.
And he’s right. That which has gone wrong is capitalism and it’s attack on community and society itself. Thatcher and the neo-liberals say that there is no society because they understand that a society hanging together can’t be abused the way that a bunch of individuals cut off from their friends and neighbours can be.
Really? Open Mike at this time of night?
I wanted to get the first comment / announcement in (since I intend to be asleep in the morning!) and it wouldn’t let me unless the post was published. (Lynn – think we used to be able to comment on a post in the queue?).
+1 Draco
Yeah I am sure we did as well…. I’ll have a look when I have some time.
You can do it by publishing private, commenting, and then put it back into scheduled.
BTW: How did the install go?
I wouldn’t believe Johann Hari if he told me the sky was blue.
Rat….cage…isn’t that most of society nowdays?
Something has gone wrong with us, as a society/group.
And he’s right. That which has gone wrong is capitalism…
This is why pre-capitalist western societies had no experience of drug abuse and addiction, right? And also why “really-existing socialism” societies never had the problem?
Partly irrelevant.
The clue is in understanding why different strata and classes of society today might have widely differing levels of response to addictive drugs and the prevalence of drug abuse.
Although I will say that capitalism + criminalism has made the drug trade into a huge trans-national trade worth the GDP of entire countries, and that major powers like the Americans (and the CIA) have supported that.
Western societies have always been capitalist right back to Sumer. Very little is known before then due to the lack of written records. It was out of Ancient Sumer that bans on usury and 7 year jubilees came.
Other societies that weren’t capitalist don’t seem to have the same problem with drugs as we do.
Of course they had the same problem – they were still capitalist.
The societies without a drug problem are the ones that tended more to the communist state where people were looked after and had connections to those around them. All those things that the capitalist state removes as it concentrates on competition amongst people as it drives for ever higher profits.
Loving the earlyness of this Open Mike, catering to the overseas listeners. Also allows for ridiculous comments to be made and not be read for many hours.
not be read or moderated lol
What makes you think we’re not reading? Mwhaaa ha ha!
Well who would have thunk it aye……?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11478719
Especially since that nice Mr Key and numbers of the real estate chappies and chapettes all coining it hard have pooh-poohed the idea.
Then there’s this –
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11478720
“FO !” comes to mind. How many sweatshops need I own to entitle me to say what Mr Foreign Investor says ?
Another day another broken promise to the good people of Christchurch.
Last year the Government and Christchurch Council signed the Christchurch Housing accord under which the Government promised to “establish a $75 million Christchurch Housing Accord Fund to develop these and other suitable sites that may be identified in future.”
http://www.beehive.govt.nz/sites/all/files/Christchurch_Housing_Accord.pdf
But the money has been taken away by Smith and transferred to Auckland. From Stuff this morning:
“The Government has diverted $52 million of funding meant to help Christchurch’s housing problem to Auckland.
As part of the Christchurch Housing Accord, signed between the Government and the Christchurch City Council in September, the Crown agreed to invest $75m to construct 180 new homes on two council-owned sites in Sydenham.
The new Sydenham homes were expected to provide temporary accommodation for residents getting their earthquake-damaged homes fixed and would later be sold as affordable homes on the open market.
Treasury documents released to Christchurch East MP and Labour associate housing spokesperson Poto Williams this week show $52.2m of the $75m promised will instead be spent on housing in Auckland.
Williams said the re-allocation was outrageous and neglected Christchurch’s dire housing issues.
“It’s basically saying ‘we think the Auckland situation is so bad, we need to focus on that and everyone else can shoulder the costs’.””
The terms of the accord are perfectly clear. I wonder if the Council was consulted.
So BIg Pharma is using the TPPA to
1. bypass the necessity of having to contest US regulations
2. inflict their desired regulation changes on the rest of the TPPA members.
Bloomberg) — “The Obama administration is caught in a trap as it tries to bring home a trade deal with its Pacific Rim partners. Some of the chief beneficiaries may be big drug companies like Novartis AG, Roche Holding AG, and Pfizer Inc. while the losers could be consumers in both the U.S. and the region.
The administration says it’s bound by congressionally imposed instructions to try to get as much current U.S. law as possible into trade accords — including stringent protections for patented drugs that it’s repeatedly tried to ease at home to encourage more cost-saving generics.
The disconnect has put U.S. negotiators in the position of pushing provisions in the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership that would preclude the administration from making further attempts to win the legal changes.
It also has negotiators pressing the region’s developing countries to sign onto a schedule for adopting the stronger rules, reversing previous exemptions to allow them easier access to cheap medicines.
Even though U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman says the talks are “in a closing mode,” American proposals for tough intellectual-property protections for drugs are meeting resistance from Australia, New Zealand, Canada and other Pacific Rim nations. Chile’s foreign minister, for one, has said flatly that his country won’t accept some key provisions.”
http://washpost.bloomberg.com/Story?docId=1376-NR4G50SYF01S01-00OGFB8ACUR6JDP696G4VA0G8N
Article about how the government is using accounting tricks to screw the Christchurch recovery (hence why the progress has been so slow) while performing a smoke-and-mirrors deception so they can still claim their 2014-2015 surplus.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/business/the-rebuild/70084887/how-much-is-the-government-really-spending-to-fix-christchurch
I’m going to quote quite a few bits as I think it is a very interesting article and I recommend anyone who is interested in this government’s pitiful management of the economy should read it to get a glimpse at what they’re really up to.
How would we know though if Treasury is ever likely to attain this elusive tax goal? It is something I don’t think they will, especially if the current economic crises overseas and our not so rock star economy combine to form a super crisis.
Can Fonterra representatives see the TPPA text?
If not – how can they be sure that Minister of Trade Tim Groser is acting in the best interests of the NZ dairy industry?
Penny Bright
Another finely polished piece of trash from limping career politician Nick Smith.
Blame Labour for commenting on the high percentage of 40% Chinese names in the list of buyers of Auckland property. That is racist. Pointing out trends and facts must be discouraged by Notional.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/regional/278491/labour-accused-of-playing-race-card
And an opportunity for Notional to strike a home run on a number of concerns – poor housing, lack of employment, bad health from overcrowding and/or unsuitable whares for the peeps. They could embark on a holy war on cold, damp, illness producing housing but they actually don’t want to do anything for the poor in the houses. Because they are going to shovel them off in Richard Prebble style (as in our railways).
He said he was so eager to get shot of railways that he would have given the system away. Now the gift in pass the parcel is state housing, rather dilapidated, like NZs standards for people’s lifestyle.
Nick Smith is the Minister, but he can’t alter very tight specifications required for rented houses, like having more than one electricity outlet in a room. Why can’t he divide the list of wants into two? One of needs, for immediate or sooner attention, and one for later to improve standards to those now considered basic for the 21st century?
Radionz reported – A survey of 400 Housing New Zealand homes carried out in April 2014 found only 4 percent passed the WOF with flying colours, while 80 percent needed urgent or high priority repairs...
The homes were checked against 49 criteria developed by an expert advisory panel, Housing New Zealand and the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment….
But the papers show 29 percent were not properly insulated, 28 percent were not safe or secure and 42 percent did not have the essential amenities like a working kitchen or bathroom sink….
Just under half (48 percent) of the homes needed urgent repairs – which is work required within two days or the tenants would have to move out. A further
32 percent needed high priority repairs done within 10 days…
The study estimated it would cost $230,492 to bring all the properties in the trial up to the WOF standard. Applying that across Housing New Zealand’s 60,000 homes, the repair bill swells to $34.5 million.
Nick Smith’s reply fudged the issues in his characteristic way.
Dr Smith said…the scheme was not feasible.
“Other issues like window stays, glass visibility safety strips and hot water temperature are best improved by education.”
Dr Smith said the cost of regular inspections was also too high and many criteria were already covered by existing regulation.
He said most state homes were in better condition than their private sector counterparts.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/278493/cost-of-rental-wofs-too-high-for-govt
This government works for Wall Street, not its people.
Katherine Mansfield: Pissing people off since October 14, 1922.
Or so I thought.
(tl;dr – don’t worry, most of the writing below is not my opinion)
Do you like quotes? The kind you’ll find in the opening pages of books, or now more commonly, attached to motivational posters: out-of-context, edited, sometimes even misrepresented? It’s a travesty. On the first pages of Helen Brown’s book*, “In Deep: Tales from Over the horizon” (1996) there is a quote:
“Risk! Risk anything! Care no more for the opinion of others, for those voices. Do the hardest thing on earth for you. Act for yourself. Face the truth.”
Those words have been plucked from Katherine Mansfield’s Journal, an entry dated 14 October, 1922. Even though I tried to forget those words while I read about Helen and the people and places she visited, they pissed me off. Trite. The quote sounded trite. I hate having to read books to know what the book I’m reading it talking about; and waiting for books to arrive is like waiting the final 5 seconds for the microwave to heat a cup of instant coffee. I don’t have all second! Ping!
They sound quite authoritative, those words of Katherine’s, don’t they?
A directive from beyond what is now the grave, which you could imagine – if you didn’t know – are being made from some hotel room balcony on the Riviera, before see threw herself once more into another adventure of travel and thrills. As they are, they’re cold, dismissive, forcefully pushing you away to your own ends, practically masculine in outlook; or as vapid, elevated and distant as who we think collectively she might have been as an historical heroine.
Your self-assured Uncle might tell you something similar – that nothing that is not difficult is worth the effort, to face your fear – when you say, perhaps during a rare family dinner together, that you can’t decide which subject to major in at school. Or perhaps, if you’re about to write a book that reveals who you are to an audience you’ve never met, people who will judge you in ways you can’t control, and you know where your skeletons are and want to avoid them, it could be just the push you need as you close your eyes and take the metaphorical leap.
But Katherine Mansfield was a real person in her own right, complex and nuanced, just like you or me.
She once said, assertively and conclusively, that she was a writer first – and a woman second. Her journal is full of quotable claims. Life isn’t one line of words though, is it. Quotes can help you up, or point the way, but put them back into context and you’ll discover what was really being said. You see what the “hardest thing on Earth” really was, not for you, but for her. Is it right to appropriate her words as metaphors only? Want to know what we missed along with the context? Sweet Jesus, only the whole world as she saw it, as a woman and a writer, at the moment she felt she might depart!
If you’ve ever kept a journal of sorts, full of your thoughts, dreams or ideas, or just a plain diary of what you did each day… which milk you bought, who smiled at you on the train… you’ll begin to see patterns. Ideas and flashes of themes appear first as words and phrases and then later as central elements all of their own.
On September 30th, 1922, Katherine Mansfield’s journal said:
“‘Do you know what individuality is?’
‘No.’
‘Consciousness of will. To be conscious that you have a will and can act.’
Yes, it is. It’s a glorious saying.’”
This isolated thought shared with herself was the result of a discussion she had with an English social thinker and then Editor of The New Age, Alfred Orage, a month before.
People, she said, give up being complete people after their youth. They give up on themselves, lock away the passion and enforce their will on life, take control of anything and everything and “become adults”; swapping their hearts and imagination for smaller, fragmented, lesser wishes. Her view of New Zealand society was… unflattering… to say the least.
She was quite ill by then, separated from her lover while she sought remedies. Her comments on individuality would soon become a candid and beautiful piece of writing.
(Below is the complete context of her Journal entry.)
“October 14 Orage goes to Paris.
October 14 I have been thinking this morning until it seems I may get things straightened out if I try to write…. where I am.
Ever since I came to Paris I have been as ill as ever. In fact, yesterday I thought I was dying. It is not my imagination. My heart is so exhausted and so tied up that I can only walk to the taxi and back. I get up at midi and go to bed at 5:30. I try to ‘work’ by fits and starts, but the time has gone by. I cannot work. Ever since April I have done practically nothing. But why? Because, although Manoukhin’s treatment improved my blood and made me look well and did have a good effect on my lungs, it made my heart not one scrap better, and I only won that improvement by living the life of a corpse in the Victoria Palace Hotel.
My spirit is nearly dead. My spring of life is so starved that it’s just not dry. Nearly all my improved health is pretence –acting. What does it amount to? Can I walk? Only creep. Can I do anything with my hands or body? Nothing at all. I am an absolutely hopeless invalid. What is my life? It is the existence of a parasite. And five years have passed now, and I am in straiter bonds than ever.
Ah, I feel a little calmer already to be writing. Thank God for writing! I am so terrified of what I am going to do. All the voices out of the ‘Past’ say ‘Don’t do it’. Bogey says ‘M. is a scientist. He does his part. It’s up to you to do yours.’ But that is no good at all. I can no more cure my psyche than my body. Less it seems to me. Isn’t Bogey himself, perfectly fresh and well, utterly depressed by boils on his neck? Think of five years’ imprisonment. Someone has got to help me get out. If that is a confession of weakness –it is. But it’s only lack of imagination that calls it so. And who is going to help me? Remember Switzerland: ‘I am helpless.’ Of course, he is. One prisoner cannot help another. Do I believe in medicine alone? No never. It seems to me childish and ridiculous to suppose one can be cured like a cow if one is not a cow. And here, all these years, I have been looking for someone who agreed with me. I have heard of Gurdjieff who seems not only to agree but to know infinitely more about it.
Why hesitate?
Fear. Fear of what? Doesn’t it come down to fear of losing Bogey? I believe it does. But, good heavens! Face things. What have you of him now? What is your relationship? He talks to you – sometimes – and then goes off. He thinks of you tenderly. He dreams of a life with you some day when the miracle has happened. You are important to him as a dream. Not as a living reality. For you are not one. What do you share? Almost nothing. Yet there is a deep, sweet, tender flooding of feeling in my heart which is love for him and longing for him. But what is the good of it as things stand? Life together, with me ill, is simply torture with happy moments. But it’s not life. I have tried through my illness (with one or two disastrous exceptions) to prevent him facing wholly what was happening. I ought to have tried to get him to face them. But I couldn’t. The result is he doesn’t know me. He only knows Wig-who-is-going-to-be-better-some-day. No. You do know that Bogey and you are only a kind of dream of what might be. And that might-be never never can be true unless you are well. And you won’t get well by ‘imagining’ or ‘waiting’ or trying to bring off that miracle yourself.
Therefore if the Grand Lama of Thibet promised to help you –how can you hesitate? Risk! Risk anything! Care not for the opinions of others, for those voices. Do the hardest thing on earth for you. Act for yourself. Face the truth.
True, Tchehov didn’t. Yes, but Tchehov died. And let us be honest. How much do we know of Tchehov from his letters? Was that all? Of course not. Don’t you suppose he had a whole longing life of which there is hardly a word? Then read the final letters. He has given up hope. If you de-sentimentalize those final letters they are terrible. There is no more Tchehov. Illness has swallowed him.
But perhaps to people who are not ill, all this is nonsense. They have never travelled this road. How can they see where I am? All the more reason to go boldly forward alone. Life is not simple. In spite of all we say about the mystery of Life, when we get down to it, we want to treat it as though it were a child’s tale…
Now, Katherine, what do you mean by health? And what do you want it for?
Answer: By health I mean the power to live a full, adult, living, breathing life in close contact with what I love –the earth and the wonders thereof – the sea – the sun. All that we mean when we speak of the external world. I want to enter into it, to be part of it, to live in it, to learn from it, to lose all that is superficial and acquired in me and to become a conscious, direct human being. I want by understanding myself, to understand others. I want to be all that I am capable of becoming so that I may be (and here I have stopped and waited and waited and it’s no good –there’s only one phrase that will do) a child of the sun. About helping others, about carrying a light and so on, it seems false to say a single word. Let it be that. A child of the sun.
Then I want to work. At what? I want to live so that I work with my hands and my feeling and my brain. I want a garden, a small house, grass, animals, books, pictures, music. And out of this, the expression of this, I want to be writing. (Though I may write about cabmen. That’s no matter).
But warm, eager, living life –to be rooted in life – to learn, to desire to know, to feel, to think, to act. That is what I want. And nothing less. That is what I must try for.
I wrote this for myself. I shall now risk sending it to Bogey. He may do with it what he likes. He must see how much I love him.
And when I say ‘I fear’ –don’t let that disturb you, dearest heart. We all fear when we are in waiting-rooms. Yet we must pass beyond them, and if the other can keep calm, it is all the help we can give each other.
Suppose, if this worries you, you show it to Dunning? I trust Dunning in spite of my thinking he did not really solve your problem. Let him see that, too. He will understand.
And this all sounds very strenuous and serious. But now that I have wrestled with it, it’s no longer so. I feel happy –deep down. May you be happy too.
I’m going to Fontainebleau on Monday and I’ll be back here Tuesday night of Wednesday morning. All is well.
Doctor Young, the London man who has joined Gudjieff, came to see me to-day and told me about the life there. It sounds wonderfully good and simple and what one needs.
It won’t fit on a motivational poster, but why would you try? Katherine Mansfield died 10:30pm, January 9, 1923.
*Cheers, greywarshark.
Not sure if anyone saw this on TV1 news tonight. It was a surprise for me to actually see that TV1 had attempted to cover this story:
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/auckland-council-cracking-down-on-freedom-campers-in-central-city-q01021
There was also a story in the Herald a couple of weeks ago about people living in cars. In both cases the media are good at presenting it as a lifestyle choice and not a fundamental societal issue that people literally do not have a home to go to.
It’s deeply disturbing how our MSM and much of the middle class like to frame homelessness as a “choice”. And it’s disturbing that they appear to actually believe it is!
They ignore that the rate of homelessness is a direct function of the wider economy. As is unemployment. When the economy does well… employment increases, unemployment decreases, homelessness decreases. When the economy is not doing well unemployment and homelessness increase. The relationship is constant and direct. It seems amazingly obvious and simple to me….
To reduce it to an issue of individual choice is convenient because then no one has to do anything about it. And particularly the government. They then don’t have to create an economic environment that creates enough jobs for citizens and enough housing for everyone.
Homelessness is pretty simple. People are homeless because they have no home!
There was an experiment done in London where they gave money to homeless people with zero strings attached. It actually worked, it reduced homelessness and was actually cheaper than the targeted interventions which are the norm.
Now, it was a small experiment. But the results are good enough for wider experiments to be done.
Some reading there Charles. She died of tuberculosis and I thought of George Orwell, Chekhov too, and did some reading on it. It was quite fashionable to die of it apparently! Such great thinkers, such a loss especially when Katherine was trying to plan for a new life and she was only 35 years, George Orwell 46 years.
But among the poor it wasn’t so elevated. And I’m thinking that NZ is developing the conditions for an outbreak of further illnesses of the 19th and 20th centuries from neglect by leaders of decent conditions similar to the circumstances referred to in the Wikipedia reports. .
White Plague
The tuberculosis epidemic in Europe, which probably started in the 17th century and which lasted two hundred years, was known as the Great White Plague. Death by tuberculosis was considered inevitable, and it was the principal cause of death in 1650.
The high population density, as well as the poor sanitary conditions that characterized most European and North American cities, created a perfect environment for its propagation….
In large cities the poor had high rates of tuberculosis. Public-health physicians and politicians typically blamed both the poor themselves and their ramshackle tenement houses (conventillos) for the spread of the dreaded disease.
eople ignored public-health campaigns to limit the spread of contagious diseases, such as the prohibition of spitting on the streets, the strict guidelines to care for infants and young children, and quarantines that separated families from ill loved ones.[55]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_tuberculosis
For a social democrat Bernie is all right
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LsY_guWy68&src_vid=uStFvcz9Or4&feature=iv&annotation_id=55848e39-0000-2e82-8bba-94eb2c08e7be