Not at all, we have @ 4 million people over the age of 14 as of 2020. If we get to 90 percent double vaxxed that leaves @ 400000 people plus their children thats a significant number of people.
Putting them in a second tier class is a huge mistake that will have intergenerational consequences in terms of education, poverty, distrust in government etc etc.
Gypsy you should read your own links beyond the click bait headline.
Scoffed from AUT with out any evidence makes hysterical claims.
Which are rebutted by an actual public health expert professor Shaun Hendy who said scoffed is making up scenarios that don't exist. Gypsy your not very good at propaganda.
In that article he asked "Can we achieve [eradication]?" – in April 2020! And he replied to his rhetorical question, "The simple answer is no."
He was utterly and completely wrong. We did achieve it, and maintained it for a long period, likely saving many lives and avoiding many longterm illnesses. Our economy did better than most and socially we have been one of the most free societies in the world through the pandemic.
"We did achieve it, and maintained it for a long period, likely saving many lives and avoiding many longterm illnesses."
Where have you been?
We temporarily stopped Delta with draconian lockdowns and border controls that eventually and inevitably failed and Covid reappeared. Meanwhile, we are 100bn in debt, we have inflation at levels not seen in decades, and thousands of people taking to the streets.
ok, so you wanted the lots of dead and long covid people, along with overrun hospitals option?
You do know that the flu can have serious long-term effects, right? And we've already reduced life expectancy. I'm not sure when reducing life expectancy became a good thing.
Thus, the apparent kindness of locking down to limit Covid-19 deaths will, instead, be killing more people by making us poorer. Just as Douglas Allen concluded (for Canada), so too for New Zealand—lockdowns are one of our greatest peacetime policy failures.
It might well be their choice, but poverty and all that comes with it rapidly turns into societies problem and potentially an intergenerational one at that.
For other common vaccines, taking a vaccination or not hasn't put people in a "second tier". Surely it's the directive not their choice that's putting them in a second tier.
Yeah its a huge number of people I based my figures on NZ making it to 90 percent.
I really dont see how alienating the population of a large city from NZ society is a good idea if you think a little longer term than the next 6 months and as economic desperation sets in you will not doubt start seeing very extreme responses as previously productive members of society find themselves coming into contact with the likes of Winz.
Ivermectin is a member of the macrocyclic lactone class of endectocides which have a unique mode of action. Compounds of this class bind selectively and with high affinity to glutamate-gated chloride ion channels which occur in invertebrate nerve and muscle cells. This leads to an increase in the permeability of the cell membrane to chloride ions with hyperpolarization of the nerve or muscle cell, resulting in paralysis and death of the parasite. Compounds of this class may also interact with other ligand-gated chloride channels, such as those gated by the neurotransmitter gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA).
The margin of safety for compounds of this class is attributable to the fact that mammals do not have glutamate-gated chloride channels, the macrocyclic lactones have a low affinity for other mammalian ligand-gated chloride channels and they do not readily cross the blood-brain barrier.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
Yeah maybe you can send the Indian Council of Medical Research and the Tokyo Medical Association an email and tell them they're actually doing Vet Science 😆
Ivermectin has been used with great effect on humans since the 1980s.
<blockquote>There are few drugs that can seriously lay claim to the title of ‘Wonder drug’, penicillin and aspirin being two that have perhaps had greatest beneficial impact on the health and wellbeing of Mankind. But ivermectin can also be considered alongside those worthy contenders, based on its versatility, safety and the beneficial impact that it has had, and continues to have, worldwide—especially on hundreds of millions of the world’s poorest people.</blockquote>
Thalidomide is also used on humans, being a very effective drug against blood cancer.
Fuck me I hate this shit, Ivermectin is widely used in humans and has an excellent safety profile it has been so beneficial in treating parasite born disease it won the inventors a Nobel peace prize.
Whilst its efficacy against Covid is hotly contested it is not dangerous at the correct doses.
Another bonny young nephew welcomed to me Irish clan side around 7 am this morning. Took his time arriving but his granddad was a bit of a late arriver to some parties too.
Years ago Norm used to play for the Highland dancers and a pipe band, as did my grandfather on Mum's Scottish side. Irish pipes in my Father's family. However a heart problem made keeping the bag inflated rather a problem for hubbie Norm. He can still do the intricate fingering on the chanter so the guitar replaced all that.
Let us hope we beat this virus. I read briefly this a.m. that India have a possible better vaccine.? We also need better outcomes from COP. for your grand nephew and his peers. Did you read Andrea Vance on 3 waters? Cheers Gezza.
Norm used to play for the Highland dancers and a pipe band, as did my grandfather on Mum's Scottish side
Me too. Had to give up with a hiatus hernia. Keeping the bag inflated was just too much pressure on the diaphragm and the pain afterwards was just not worth the effort. Can't do much gardening for the same reason. 🙁
However Scottish Country dancing keeps me fit and feeds the cultural void.
Oh Macro thank you for a great laugh. We have been there many a time You must be a fit guy if you still do that.Pipes are not for everyone. As a friend said "I love pipes…over the water…. waaaay over the water.''
Hey Patricia I was out at the fence watching a new young male pukeko who was strolling past downstream & is trying to work out whether he should come closer when this thought suddenly occurred:
Do you mind asking Norm how Pipe Bands choose their tartan?
“New Zealand claims the highest number of pipe bands per capita in the world. ceilidh — are all are danced in New Zealand. The New Zealand Academy of Highland and National Dancing and the international Scottish Official Board of Highland Dancing run the competitive sport, with children dancing from as young as three.”
They built a new War Memorial, Red. I went to the opening. It was very moving. People spoke and read about Tawa residents from the Boer, First & 2nd World War times, & conditions in the Tawa.Flat district in those years, what happened to men (& women) who came back damaged, the 1918 flu etc.
They’ve re-landscaped & redeveloped Grasslees Reserve & the children’s playground adjacent to the indoor Swimming Pool too. Put in a big Japanese-style curving bridge linking the play area to the park area & installed a pay-for barbecue there.
Quite an impressive job. Might take & post you a pic here sometime.
I love living in Tawa. Close to Porirua Shopping Complexes (free parking & good access to everything), Kenepuru Community Hospital services (same deal with parking), hardly ever need to go into the city proper.
. The paper is being circulated in anti-vaccination groups and some online publications.
There are, however, numerous problems with the paper: It contains unfounded speculation, and ignores a considerable body of evidence on the vaccine’s safety. Its conclusions also appear to be at odds with the authors’ own explanations of their work.
published in a journal founded and edited by an American anti-vaccination campaigner,
Cherry-picking miscarriages to go antivax seems somehow worse than just championing disease spread before we had a vaccine. Appropriating others' grief when many are already over-analysing their choices to blame themselves is brutal.
This maybe so but the city I live in, Porirua, has one of the poorest communities and yet the highest rates in the country, higher than measured against Auckland mansions. This is because we pay the city rates for Porirua and a proportion for Wellington. Go figure. The last increase was some 4 months ago, a whopping 8%. If the city has to pay even more with those reforms you sure will see some boots on the ground and some votes going south.
Covaxin, a vaccine developed in India, has been proven to have 77.8 per cent efficacy rate against the coronavirus, a study in the medical journal The Lancet has revealed.
A statement by the manufacturer Bharat Biotech International said: “the Lancet peer review confirms the efficacy analysis that demonstrates Covaxin to be effective against Covid-19.”
It added: “Covaxin is the only Covid-19 vaccine to have demonstrated efficacy data from Phase 3 clinical trials against the Delta variant at 65.2 per cent.”
full article here https: //www.independent.co.uk/asia/india/covid-india-covaxin-vaccine-lancet-b1956438.html
Washington Post considers why some are vaccine hesitant. Makes sense to me and offers a solution for combatting reluctance.
Many people are afraid that they’ll make a bad decision. They’re influenced by the psychology of anticipated regret. ……..
……The psychology of regret can also help explain why coronavirus vaccine mandates have generally been so effective. Despite the many assertions that mandates would lead to mass resignations, the employees of many organizations ultimately got on board. Consider New York City’s largest police union, which fought such mandates in court and argued that the police department would lose thousands of officers. In the end, out of a force of about 35,000 officers, fewer than three dozen refused the vaccine. Similarly, of the 67,000 employees at United Airlines facing a mandate, only 320 refused to get vaccinated.
When people don’t feel the weight of making their own choice, they aren’t as tormented by the anticipated negative outcomes of their decision. Mandates externalize responsibility for getting vaccinated — shifting it from the self to others — making it easier to go forward with getting a shot. (Confronting the reality of losing a job surely also has a persuasive effect.)
"When people don’t feel the weight of making their own choice, they aren’t as tormented by the anticipated negative outcomes of their decision. "
Yeah well – we've spent 35 years being told that people are poor, sick, unhappy, etc. through making "bad decisions" – and that if they'd only made good decisions they'd see how fair, just, optimistic and sunny the world really is. This toxic, anxiety-inducing trash ideology is everywhere – and it drives people mad.
As opposed to benevolent corporations Redilogical so when we have a war against an enemy we all go our separate ways and let the enemy win.Your Exclusive Brethren,Brian Tamaki,Gloriavale anti govt rhetoric is waving a white flag / giving up cowardly caving in to a very small group of powerless people sabotaging the fight against covid not surprising from Clive Palmer country.
I do know some people who are indecisive about ordinary choices. Yet when someone else decides for them their doubts fade away usually with a shrug.
We are talking about the hesitant to get vaccinated group not decisive ones. Be interesting to see just how many teachers drop out of the workforce next week.
To be fair my not so good financial position is due to my shit decisions, of course why I made those shit decisions could keep a psychiatrists and social scientist going for a while I expect,
Yeah but sometimes one persons shit decision can be another's principled decision.
I have no doubt that if I had purchased the cheap properties I had been offered over the years I would now be extremely wealthy. I however stuck to my principle that one only needs one house to live in and I would never live off someone else's earnings.
I've stuck to that and still only own the house I live in – financially much poorer.
There are those who would clearly believe that those decisions were poor decisions and even that I cut off my nose to spite my face.
I understand perfectly the trade-off but I'm comfortable with that. A capitalist I'll never be. I've lost jobs, promotions and income for standing on principles – Sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do.
The thing I've learned over the years is to never regret the decisions you make – you don't know what would have happened if you had made a different one. I've had friends who chased the dollar – including renovating rental properties – some are millionaires, some lost their house and went bankrupt, I've had friends who went to better jobs who have done really well and friends who have had horrific on the job accidents in their first week leaving them permanently disabled.
What I do know is that luck plays an enormous part in what actually happens. It is never just about individual decisions. Even the family (and community) you were born into makes an enormous difference.
This individual self made man bullshit is so often just that.
Totally agree with your position DOS. My car is 21 years old. But we are wise and thoughtful. The "Indecisives" are an important group whose future in the community needs tolerance and understanding and hopefully a change of heart. Not you. Not me. They.
Yes but dont blame other people or "the system dude".
After my divorce I could have bought a cheap doer upper ,I had a brain fart bought a ute and stuck some in kiwisaver, if I'd been clever I'd own a house worth $100k more than what I paid for it ,even if I'd done nothing to last I less than 3 years, how I'll never own property again and hope the state will help me when I can no longer earn a roof over my head,
Yes but don't blame other people or "the system dude".
Of course other people and the system cause problems as well. Standing on principles means bucking the system often or disagreeing with people who are in leadership positions but are unaccepting of disagreement. Whether you get those people in charge of you is part of the "luck". I've had people try to help my career and others to destroy it – you're just trying to argue the self made man from the other side of the argument. What you are saying is that if you don't conform and support the system then you are responsible for the system spitting you out like a piece of trash – nah systems need changing – they are sexist and racist and classist – it is perfectly OK to put some responsibility for peoples circumstances, including your own, on those systems and on those people who make those decisions.
We are all products of the institutions and social paradigms we grow up with.
Funnily enough, I made shit decisions in my 20s that ended up me being employed in the same good place for a decade so far.
Plain luck that the (then) obscure stuff I did for enough points to qualify for allowances (rather than "studying for my career") cropped up in a vacancy that appeared just when I was looking to change careers.
That's one reason I put all this personal responsibility rhetoric in the bin.
Sure, if you choose to murder someone or embezzle, without any external coercion, that'll probably still screw you a decade from now. But most of the rest of it, most day to day choices, they don't do shit compared to the forces of luck and the forces of other people's decisions – government, corporate, inventors, dude who has a whim one day, branch that falls on your head.
But it's a great excuse to write people off and not help them: "poor decisions". As if everything one owns can't be lost overnight.
Given that there are some people who are reluctant to vaccinate, and we agree that vaccination is important, then I would have thought a possible solution could be reasonably considered.
Some people are scared of making a mistake by getting the jab.
If the helpers understood this and listened to the reluctant one explain why they feared making this mistake, maybe a few more might change their mind. Let's not cloud it with "let an always benevolent state do the thinking." Unhelpful.
"New Zealand won a Fossil award on the penultimate day of COP26, for Climate Change Minister James Shaw's refusal to update the country's National Determined Contribution to constraining global temperature rises."
The LGB Alliance UK was formed when some of the members of Stonewall who raised concerns about the obliteration of same sex attraction support within the organisation were ignored, and/or branded transphobic.
Stonewall, along with Mermaids attempted to brand this organisation a hate group, and opposed it receiving charitable status. They had their annual conference a couple of weeks ago.
For those interested, Allison Bailey's speech from the LGB Alliance has now been posted.
Yuk, can't even get past the first sentence. And it's not gender critical feminists that talk about sexual intimacy in terms of which hole to stick things in.
The big conversation yet to be had is whether society should majorly adapt language, concepts, laws, conventions around the mental illness of a small number of people. No idea if the author has gender dysphoria, but it's hard to not see the dehumanising language arising from a disturbed state in relation to human bodies and feelings.
Beyond that, there’s a question of why so many women want to do away with women’s culture, and the relationship between that and growing up and living in large scale misogyny.
Afraid to tell you but after a such promising start, the interweb degenerated into a disgusting, misogynistic place with a seemingly never ending stream of offensive vitriol and hate.
Aē, and part of the issue here is that social media in particular is rushing to uphold gender identity while at the same time actively practising misogyny. There are really good reasons why so many women are both afraid and really angry about the language changes being forced on women alongside that.
Talking about front holes and meat bodies was for a time completely acceptable in the pro-queer left. No idea if it still is or if they've come to their senses.
Yes, I'm afraid we have to turn taxonomy upside down , the old way of classifying plants and animals by the manner of their reproduction strategies,(binary sex)is not inclusive of how a minority of folk see themselves.
Bowdlerise the dictionaries, a new prudishness has come to town
Who we feel attracted to sexually has everything to do with sex organs
It's hardly fetishishism , it's how most of us work
Thanks,I set aside this morning to watch and very pleased I did.I'm in the process writing to Ingrid Leary Labour MP for Taieri,her electorate office Has suffered a graffiti attack,she purports it to be anti-transgender and when on to spread fur mis-information.I unable to link but it will be found in the November 4th edition of the ODT.
“All that was wrong with our system of justice was typified by the scene of a middle-aged, middle-class male Pākehā magistrate or judge sitting in judgement on a young Māori woman and deciding that her background and her family were so bad, so worthless, that she should be taken from them and locked up.”
A rather horrifying read. The worst is the final paragraph that makes clear that by still incacerating children the likelihood of continuing institutional racism is high. It also highlights the deepest dark side of democracy in that there is little to prevent a white majority turning on an ethnic minority and in particular, a minority that are our treaty partners. By always defending democracy as an absolute and without recognising its warts we give a free hand to the right to play the democracy card at any point where they consider Maori action is gaining too much. This is most evident at present in the 3 waters debate.
This deserves a post. But struggling to write coherent ones at present. I'll try.
Our “justice system” doesn’t work well for anyone. Even less well for Māori youth.
It would be good if we actually tried Democracy. Then we could sort out "the warts".
Minority rights are always dependent on the goodwill and fairness of the majority. No system of Government can fix that. Unless a repressive minority is in control. Who then tend to look after their own advantage, and not other minorities.
Noting that apart from a very vocal minority, most Pakeha New Zealanders have either accepted or supported Waitangi claims, amoung other things.
If we are looking after, all, our people, then the majority are much more likely to agree to extending rights to others. Very often poor people see that wealthy people are keen on extending rights to other people. But only if the poor, pay for it.
Pakeha that do not want three waters to be privatised or sold, may consider the fact that more Māori rights, may help prevent further selloffs.
I have always thought that Maori control of anything is the surest way to prevent selloff to foreign interests. The Treaty has been the only thing that has consistently stood in the way of indiscriminate foreign control. The right recognise this and fight tooth and nail to prevent it. They need everything to be for sale. Maori or Iwi control is the closest thing that NZ has to recreating a commons and we should therefore embrace and support it.
There’s a potential issue with tribal elites perhaps ending up replacing the old landed gentry or corporate rich listers & them actually flogging off or leasing previously common (state) property – but as Māori hapu iwi & marae Committees (& members themselves) become better informed & quakified & skilled in the actual management & development of Māori-controlled assets – and this IS happening – there’s an inbuilt control mechanism for those marae & hapu iwi whose rangatira authority is still strongly derived from ongoing nga tangata consent, & which can be removed should consent be denied by enuf of those who feel their collective mana is being harmed by unwise leadership decisions.
But ownership & kaitiakitanga in this Kiwiland of ours needs to be fairly shared betwen generations-resident Pākehā & we need to get much better at how Māori & Pākehā hui & kōrero to best achieve restoring & honouring the mana of the land, the forests, the beaches, fisheries, waterways, ngahere, & of all those who feel part of this land.
Brilliant article in todays Stuff, by two Gender Critical feminists. This is the first time since about 2018 -19 the msm have carried such article. This discussion needed to be had in the media well before bills such as BMDRR and Conversion Practices.
I would encourage anyone who rights off women with concerns about this bill as transphobic to read the article.
The Human Rights Commission has interpreted the Human Rights Act provisions that protected women as also applying to people observed male at birth who identify as women, effectively nullifying the provisions
Equal pay is now determined by gender identity, not sex; statistical data is likewise collected by gender identity instead of sex.
People born male who identify as women are being appointed to jobs previously designated by law as available only to natal women, such as roles in sexual abuse counselling.
Oh well, its a brave new world, and it pays to be a man or a man who identifies as a women, just have the good sense not to be born a non male or have the good sense to trans into a man for a chance of a career and decent pay.
Vote Labour/Green -we will protect you from the phobes. 2023
This is good news the MSM finally have a counterpoint published….but I think it will be the only one.
Coming from the UK, I see NZ turbo-charged on identity politics. The UK now has some pushback on Stonewall and other transgender activists in the mainstream. The US has a strong Republican power and alternative media (neither of which, for the record, I'm not a fan of – but simply highlighting their narrative disruption).
NZ is an echochamber of identity politics with no real institutional pushback and very very very little media counterpoints. As Bryce Edwards has said, the cultural institutions are dominated by the progressive Left.
A big part of me can't help but say – you earnt it. Transgender activism is the close cousin of applied-CRT in schooling, the mad rush to deify Maori culture and language and promote quite a radical interpretation of the Treaty, the unthinking spread of White Privilege as some beyond-debate fact, the demonisation of masculinity, the gleeful ignorance as humanities studies ever expanding into new areas of grievance by academics who see their primary role as left-wing activism.
These strands all have a common link in identity politics and critical theories that now dominate academic and mainstream discussions. They inhere in the basic concept that language (for example "woman") is all power, and society is either oppressed or oppressor.
So when gender-critical feminists now say, hold on, there are some serious issues now, you'll forgive me if I hear the crowing of roosters coming home.
Critical Race Theory. Currently a trigger point for some "Freedom Fighters" in the US. Currently travelling to our shores where it will be translated into 'Tribunal Gravy Train' and pushback against NZ history being taught in primary schools.
Currently travelling to our shores where it will be translated into 'Tribunal Gravy Train' and pushback against NZ history being taught in primary schools.
Regrettably so. Very pertinent article on The Guardian today – excerpt from a new book on this very problem and how social media has been fostering this transfer of nutty far right dis/mis information world wide.
the US is a shit show, with women and trans people alike being harmed.
2. it's not the progressive left in charge of institutions in NZ, it's liberals.
3. bloody maaris, there is no racism in NZ, what about the menz. When you put up some actual analysis rather than right wing talking points, you'll probably get some respect.
4. I take it you've not been a supporter of second wave feminism then. Colour me surprised.
Neo-liberals may head economic institutions, and old-school liberals may nominally head cultural institutions, but the progressive Left dominate the cultural institutions.
4. Actually, it's more complex. Largely, I support second-wave feminism. Every human, including women, should have the equal opportunity to freely fulfil their life and they sure as hell didn't have that opportunity (everyone should read The Bell Jar).
However, I can't help but feel the kids have taken over kindergarten now, and some of the adults (including gender-critical feminists, who aren't necessarily all second-wave) sat by or endorsed the Frankfurt school, identity politics, and Left-wing domination of academia happening but are now are facing the consequences and feel aggrieved that they are now the ones on the sharp end of the "bigot/oppressor/etc" stick. When you redefine "harm" in such a tortured fashion, don't be surprised when it comes back to bite your own actions in the bum.
But to be honest, I feel sick at what is happening and the idea a Women's Refugee would, for example, have to accept a man. But we can't pretend this all magically fell from the sky.
3. Left-wing tropes of how non-Left wing people think is also no substitute for analysis, But since you asked, I can provide a few stats I have researched previously to provide a counter-weight for some of that, including that for example, male life is not all honey and milk:
Men in NZ:
2.2 times more likely than a female to die of heart disease times more likely than a female to die in a car accident
7 times more likely than a female to die of a work injury (males were 87.5% of workplace deaths)
Worldwide, be 1.39 times more likely to die of COVID-19 worldwide and 2.84 times to more likely to admited to ICU, than a female
Live, on average, 3.4 years less than a female
Be 2.57 times more likely to commit suicide.
(In 2017) Have only 6 cents for every dollar of health funding researching that goes to female-only issues
Be less likely than females to leave school with University Entrance
Be less likely than females to hold a Bachelor’s Degree or higher
Be more likely than females to be without shelter or in temporary accommodation
Be more likely than females to be murdered (62% of homicide victims) and suffer injuries from an assault
For male perpetrators, consistently both in NZ and overseas, be treated significantly more harshly than females in the criminal judicial process, especially sentencing, and including for sexual assault offences.
I've got references to back all that up, largely from Stats NZ. The Covid-19 figures may be more different now as that was early this year, but as far as I've seen it still remains strongly a male-fatality virus – which we hear zero about. If had been females with exactly the same statistics on Covid-19 fatalities, you can guarantee we would have howl upon howl of "femicide".
2.2 times more likely than a female to die of heart disease – nothing to do with women, we don't make you eat bad shit, don't work out, don't go to the doctors, don't take care of yourselfs. Own your own bad habits.
times more likely than a female to die in a car accident – nothing to do with women, we don't make you drive fast, or drunk, or under the influence of medication etc. Own your own accidents and bad driving.
.7 times more likely than a female to die of a work injury (males were 87.5% of workplace deaths) –also not the fault of women, own your bad driving – logging truck accidents as an exapmple, nor any othe accidents that you might suffer at a workplace because either you as the worker don't abide by the rules and regulations or your boss don't give a shit and you don't do anything about it. BTW, there might be a good chance that prositution is the most dangerous profession of them all, but they don't really do OSH studies on that atm, but surely it will come soon enough when Prostitution is considered a career choice. https://theconversation.com/is-sex-work-still-the-most-dangerous-profession-the-data-suggests-so-81854
Worldwide, be 1.39 times more likely to die of COVID-19 worldwide and 2.84 times to more likely to admited to ICU, than a female – again, women are not responsible for men smoking, for men being obese for being heavy drinkers, or for otherwise not taking care of their bodies, which in many cases is what leads to more death for men. Women are equally not responsible for having a better immune system, or for being better at social distancing and mask wearing https://www.healthline.com/health-news/men-more-susceptible-to-serious-covid-19-illnesses
Live, on average, 3.4 years less than a female – again, women are not responsible for the bad choices of men leading to earlie death by accindents and failing health. Again, we are also not responsible for your weaker immune system, something that men seem to ignore.
Be 2.57 times more likely to commit suicide. – women are not at fault for the abysmal funding of mental healthcare the world over, feel free to donate to Gumbooths Friday as they are very much trying to help out there.
(In 2017) Have only 6 cents for every dollar of health funding researching that goes to female-only issues – please link to that so that we can read up on it.
Be less likely than females to leave school with University Entrance – Girls and women have been told for millenia that we can't be as smart as man, having been denied access to education until well the 1970 of the last century for many working class women and girls the world over and still being denied education in many countries altogether.
Be less likely than females to hold a Bachelor’s Degree or higher – see my point above, it is not the fault of women that actually they are not only cabable of learning, and higher learning ,but actually at outperforming men. Maybe that is the reasons why for millenia women were told they could not learn, that their little lady brains are only good enough to knit, sew, breed, n make sandwiches.
Be more likely than females to be without shelter or in temporary accommodation -again nothing that women have caused or are causing.
Be more likely than females to be murdered (62% of homicide victims) and suffer injuries from an assault – it must really suck for men to see that not only are they killed and maimed by mainly male violence, but that they die in greater numbers as women at the hand of men. Maybe have a chat with fellow men and ask them to not fight, not kill – men and women, and just maybe don't be so effn violent?
For male perpetrators, consistently both in NZ and overseas, be treated significantly more harshly than females in the criminal judicial process, especially sentencing, and including for sexual assault offences. – again, sorry for the suckitude that is male violence, but men kill more often, do more harm, commit most of violents crimes and thus get treated often times harsher then a women who gets to go to prison for benefit fraud. But rejoice, if male prison is too much for the poor misunderstood and abused male offender, he can now identify as a women and get locked up with women. Equity!
Sabine's points are the perfect example of why more recent, and more militant, feminism is problematic.
My examples were never to show:
– females are to blame for all men's problems (they're not)
– females don't also suffer (they do)
– men can't do better (they can)
They were to illustrate that a blanket view of males as inherently privileged and which is pervading current discourse is both wrong and unhelpful. History has shat on the vast majority of men AND women for centuries.
So we all face different struggles and I'm all for constructive ways to allow different groups to flourish. But Sabine is playing the zero-sum game of current feminism whereby if females are in a bad position, it must be 'because (sexist) men' and the way to lift up females is by putting down males.
I also find it hilarious that biological (brain?) differences now exist to explain disparity in secondary school achievement between the differences…..but, 'because (sexist) men/society' why there are more male CEOs, engineers, etc than females.
And even if its true there is a biological basis for differential educational achievement, why are we not considering offering a more male centred approach to schooling? Or do we not want young men to succeed? Or is because we are now bias against traits and behaviours generally associated with males, such as competition and physicality?
The funny thing about female educational and economic success is it can lead to more inequality as study after study show women are far less likely to marry with lower socio-economic stuatus.
Young men are so rarely given positive encouragement these days. The saying is "girls can do anything" – boys, well, you're all potential rapists who need to change.
(Also, I completely agree with the ridiculousness of Self-ID, but I can assure you it is not men like me demanding the right to magically identify as women.)
Sabine's points are the perfect example of why more recent, and more militant, feminism is problematic.
Feminism isn't a hive mind, just as I suppose your comment indicates that masculism isn't as well. (Don't worry, I had to look it up so I could put you under some largeumbrella of a term as well.)
You just put down a list of life events that men statistically are higher represented, as if that has no context.
Did I upset you by not taking any responsability for the things that man do to themselves and others. Oh well. I can't help that either.
Did I ever state that i am a feminist? heck no. But i am a women, in a female body, that has scars to proof of its own issues with the things men do to those that they can abuse.
Did I ever claim that you or any other man would identify themselves into a place where women – the natal ones – used to congregate without male supervision? No i did not. I am in fact quite open abut calling them 'opportunists', or bearded men in robes, or AGP, or Cross dressers or just well other words that may be considered banable.
Do i know that man can suffer from male violence, totally, my stepfather abused my brother with the same gusto that he abused me. 🙂 I think they call men like him now, "minor attracted person" or MAP in short.
The funny thing about female education is that they don't need to marry at all anymore just so that they have a roof over their head and a square meal to eat. They also don't have to perform marital duties anymore in order to have that roof over their heads and that meal to eat. Neither do these women with education and jobs need to ask their husbands for pin money. Nor do they need to suffer silently trough the beer infused friday night bash.
Young man get the same opportunities as women, they get teh same education, the same student loans and can then apply for the same jobs. And yet, the wage disparity is still there with women with the same education and doing the same job earning less.
But fear not dear James, these stats will soon be all meaningless as anyone who wants can opt into womenhood, you don't even need to put lipstick on, and then Equity! Men still don't need to hire women, they can now hire men who identify as women, and thus diversity and equity is achieved.
Maybe go out yourself, find yourself some young men and teach them about self respect, consent, conflict resolution that does not involve drugs, booze, or fights.
And lastly, women are not therapy for men. It is not our duty to affirm men either as men or as women just because they need affirmation.
We have our own lifes to life, our own human experiences to live, and we'd like to so without fear of rape and death, without having to worry about being filmed in dressing rooms and toilets, and without men in our womens only spaces. Not that that matters to anyone, clearly.
In fact i have had some really good discussion with Maori about violence, drug abuse, consent, further education, and the likes. And i have compared with Maori – women of course, our own stress reactions to certain situations. Heck, i don't watch Once we were Warriors anymore, did it one time, and needed a cry a shower and stiff drink half way through. The rape of the daughter in that movie is my rape – i just managed to survive.
Is it really that uncomfortable to understand that violence is everywhere, that people die of it, in large numbers, and that more often then not the violence comes from men, specifically the sexual violence.
Men are hard wired from 100 000 plus years of evolution to be aggressive risk takers when young, that's not an excuse btw, working out how to educate and raise them so its controlled or channeled to harmless area is what's needed, rugby is good for that.
Where did James say these bad stats are the fault of women, & if he didn’t, why are you so seemingly obsessed with pointing out for every one of them that these indicated problems are not the fault of women?
Nice to someone’s looking to address the downsides of being a man, something that often gets lost in the all men are bastards rhetoric of (some quite genuinely) oppressed women.
Some men oppress other men too. The pricks that have & like to wield power don’t just threaten & abuse females.
And there’ve been plenty of times & places where I wouldn’t venture into just carrying on walking on the same footpath past dodgy-looking males (or groups of them) at night too.
Seriously please do. Most of us here that discuss issues that center the male being of men above the well being of women – i.e. men in places were we consider us vulnerable, i.e. changing rooms – are quite careful to point out that not all the issues committed by all man, or by any random man at any random time , but that generally until we have an issue with a particular bloke we don't know if they are dangerous or not. See the women in England who got arrested, kidnapped, raped, killed and dumped by a senior Cop this year in March. And thus our threat assessment is that if i don't know you and i consider you a potential danger, i am crossing the street or alter may way home completely.
Women are also not responsible for holding men to account for the violence they inflict on men. Men should do that. Keep a lid on your own. Start raising boys to be less violent and find other means of conflict resolution and teach them the concept of consent.
And last but least, i would like to point out that if you cross footpath when you see dodgy guys, what do you think women do?
Sabine:
“please point to a ‘all men are bastards’ claim?”
G: I haven’t seen any such claim made here
“Seriously please do. Most of us here that discuss issues that center the male being of men above the well being of women – i.e. men in places were we consider us vulnerable, i.e. changing rooms – are quite careful to point out that not all the issues committed by all man, or by any random man at any random time , but that generally until we have an issue with a particular bloke we don’t know if they are dangerous or not. See the women in England who got arrested, kidnapped, raped, killed and dumped by a senior Cop this year in March. And thus our threat assessment is that if i don’t know you and i consider you a potential danger, i am crossing the street or alter may way home completely.”
G: Of course. That is completely understandable & sensible. Women have been forced to do that in numerous societies for millenia probably.
“Women are also not responsible for holding men to account for the violence they inflict on men. Men should do that. Keep a lid on your own.”
G: Sure. I’m a 55 kilo slim chap being monstered by a 200 kilo gang member gorilla who thinks I looked the wrong way at him and his thug mug mates. How do you reckon my telling him it’s not a good idea to be violent with me becos he’ll get into trouble & one day he might look back & regret being a bully is going to turn out?
“Start raising boys to be less violent and find other means of conflict resolution and teach them the concept of consent.”
G: Me & my late wife weren’t able to have any kids, sadly – & to our lifelong regret. But if I did I couldn’t have given birth to them. That requires a woman. I was raised not to be violent by a father AND a mother. 3 boys, 1 girl, the youngest, in our whanau. There were two rules we boys were all taught as toddlers – 1. Don’t fight, & 2. Boys, you NEVER hit a girl. Ever. Even if she hits you.
Boys learn at school, in the street, at various places yep, peaceful ways of conflict resolution are the absolute best way to go. But you learn pretty quickly also that if some prick starts to constantly insult & pick on you physically, sometimes the fastest & most permanent solution is to punch him in the nose. A bloody nose is still a good, fast way of concluding negotiations with bullies, I gather.
Can’t imagine ever wanting to have sex with a non-consenting woman. Where’s the mutual enjoyment in that?
“And last but least, i would like to point out that if you cross footpath when you see dodgy guys, what do you think women do?”
G: They do the same or they find another way home. I know I would, in their shoes.
Photographed on a wall in a corridor a few years ago at Welly Hospital. The other thing no one – including the victims – seems to want to talk about. Men who are subjected to regular violence by women.
Apparently the numbers are suprisingly large, but men of course don't want to admit it.
Maybe someone else will. It'd be an interesting, informative and possibly helpful discussion.
We have a young man living on our property who woke up to his female partner holding a newly boiled kettle over him. She was eventually treated for psychosis. He remains single.
Can’t imagine ever wanting to have sex with a non-consenting woman. Where’s the mutual enjoyment in that?
Gezza, I know you are probably just on a roll. But rape is an act of violence not intimacy. There is no mutual enjoyment, because that is not the point of a violation.
“And last but least, i would like to point out that if you cross footpath when you see dodgy guys, what do you think women do?”
G: They do the same or they find another way home. I know I would, in their shoes.
And they get raped anyway, like my friend and many others have been, with no evidence of 'mutual enjoyment'.
“Gezza, I know you are probably just on a roll. But rape is an act of violence not intimacy. There is no mutual enjoyment, because that is not the point of a violation.”
G:.Far canal, Molly. How frackin dense do you think I am? Of course it’s an act of blimmin violence, (or grossly disrespectful sexual assault based on selfish self-gratification, if she’s so drunk out of her tree she doesn’t know wtf’s really happening) not intimacy.
What I am saying is that the notion of raping a woman – having sex with without her cognisant consent – would never even enter my head. Like it wouldn’t for any normal, decent male with a good upbringing & no antisocial/sexual psychological or personality disorders.
““And last but least, i would like to point out that if you cross footpath when you see dodgy guys, what do you think women do?”
G: They do the same or they find another way home. I know I would, in their shoes.
And they get raped anyway, like my friend and many others have been, with no evidence of ‘mutual enjoyment’.”
G: I am very sorry that happened to your friend. I hope they caught the bastard & that he paid for it. It happens to men too, as several cases reported in the news have noted.
It was you who clumsily joined sexual intimacy with rapre.
Go back. Re-read.
Can’t imagine ever wanting to have sex with a non-consenting woman. Where’s the mutual enjoyment in that?
Consider this. Your first sentence is a definition of rape, why follow it up with any reference to enjoyment mutual or otherwise?
A related sentence might have been:
"Where does that idea of sexual violence come from for some?"
G: I am very sorry that happened to your friend. I hope they caught the bastard & that he paid for it. It happens to men too, as several cases reported in the news have noted.
You make the assumption my friend was female, and so are the many others. And of course you should know by now, rape victims of any sex do not often find justice in our legal system. It's a work in very slow progress.
@ Molly
“Frank Canal, Gezza. It was you who clumsily joined sexual intimacy with rapre.
Go back. Re-read. “Can’t imagine ever wanting to have sex with a non-consenting woman. Where’s the mutual enjoyment in that?”
G: Absolute BS, Molly. I made a simple statement in two sentences that indicated clearly that I enjoy sex with women who want to enjoy it too, thus consent. YOU read into that what you wanted to. And decided to harangue for reasons I have reason to want to know.
“Consider this. Your first sentence is a definition of rape, why follow it up with any reference to enjoyment mutual or otherwise? A related sentence might have been: “Where does that idea of sexual violence come from for some?””
G: Already covered. But. What would be the point of my making any comments if I were to seek your guidance beforehand on what points or questions I might address? Bizarre attitude.
“G: I am very sorry that happened to your friend. I hope they caught the bastard & that he paid for it. It happens to men too, as several cases reported in the news have noted.
You make the assumption my friend was female, and so are the many others. And of course you should know by now, rape victims of any sex do not often find justice in our legal system. It’s a work in very slow progress.”
Yes, I did, because Sabine’s comment – to which I was initially responding – was about women in that situation, & there was nothing in your comment to indicate that you had departed from that reference frame.
I’ll bid you good evening at this point, I think, Molly. There are other topics that interest me now far more than your bad attempts at mind-reading & directing the conversation to your requirements. .
I’ll bid you good evening at this point, I think, Molly. There are other topics that interest me now far more than your bad attempts at mind-reading & directing the conversation to your requirements. .
I asked you to consider maybe not discussing rape in the context of consensual sex. It muddies already difficult conversations. You are unwilling to do that, but it remains a problem in public discourse. I think we can do better if we take care to choose the right words to get our point across.
I asked you to change and said why, you considered it and said No.
“I asked you to consider maybe not discussing rape in the context of consensual sex. It muddies already difficult conversations. You are unwilling to do that, but it remains a problem in public discourse. I think we can do better if we take care to choose the right words to get our point across.
I asked you to change and said why, you considered it and said No.”
G: You did NO SUCH THING. Go back & re-read what you wrote. Had you said this earlier, then the conversation would have gone completely differently. I am no better a mind-reader than you are. I can only see & respond to what is written, I cannot try to divine some alternate or deeper meaning from the ether or the lines between what you wrote.
No harm done. I tend to post saying just what I mean & no more. If you ever find me unclear, or ambiguous, please just ask questions to get me to clarify my intention or meaning. I will answer asap to avoid misunderstandings.
Gezza, it sounds you and i area bout the same size. Can you understand why i am tired of trying to keep myself safe from men that you too would props not entertain? Can you understand that women are equally tired?
I also don't have children, can't, like so many. But i am aunty to many, and I talk abut consent, control of ones fertility – for men and women btw, and that is what we can do and should do more often, because violence is everywhere.
so here we are, both trying to just navigate a world that is violent.
Maybe that is what is needed to be understood. That this type of world is good for no one.
Yes, I can understand your situation & tiredness with it, Sabine.
But the solution doesn’t just lie with men, unfortunately, as some would seem to have it.
Women have contributed to this state of affairs with violent men being too prevalent in our society.
Until more women accept & understand that the problem will not be solved by #men#, because it’s not just caused by men, we are pissing into the wind trying to employ various male role models to mentor essentially fatherless violent adolescent & older males – probably the most potentially dangerous animal on the planet.
That’s how I see this problem at the moment anyway – based on observation & some direct whanau experiences.
Women have contributed to this state of affairs with violent men being too prevalent in our society.
Can you clarify that for me here, because i am not sure what you are saying.
Until more women accept & understand that the problem will not be solved by #men#,
and also can you clarify why you think that male violence will not be solved by men, and who do you think will solve the problem?
Or are we to go back to the good old times when women knew their place, their limitations, and were seen but not heard? And if they got the bash they know why?
I had a couple of her books and she had some practical, effective, workable solutions, particularly amongst the prison population where she had such success.
My only critique is that she had a fairly narrow idea of healthy male expression, which might have meant those who didn't fit within have to look elsewhere..
and one thing that i will add to this before its end of day procedures.
Not all man are violent of rapists.
Not all man are disrespectful to women or men for that matter.
But while not all man are rapists, Most rapists are men.
And these rapists are prolific, and in many cases serial offenders until they get stopped and locked up.
And pretending that this is not true, or just coming from a place of misandry is lazy thinking.
And we can not fault women alone for the failure of men to control themselves. Women are not therapy. We do not exist to mother any man who has issues. We are not a therapeutic outlet for men.
“‘Women have contributed to this state of affairs with violent men being too prevalent in our society.’
Can you clarify that for me here, because i am not sure what you are saying.
“Until more women accept & understand that the problem will not be solved by #men#,”
and also can you clarify why you think that male violence will not be solved by men, and who do you think will solve the problem?”
……………………………..
G: Another day perhaps, Sabine. I can see it’s going to be a hard slog with potential for very terse & perhaps even angry exchanges as you seem to have a very narrow & fixed position on this / these issues.
“Or are we to go back to the good old times when women knew their place, their limitations, and were seen but not heard? And if they got the bash they know why?”
G: See what I mean? Do you seriously think my parents, & my equally-beloved “adopted” parents-in-law, lived their lives like THAT! We can possibly discuss this another time when you are in a less ridiculously hostile & silly mood.
And until if/when we do discuss this again, please have a think about why, if it’s men’s fault youths & men are so violent, then whose fault is it that young females are so viciously attacking each other these days – even on school grounds – & why some of them are even videoing these vicious head-kicking aassaults & putting it on social media so often that they’ve been reoorted &/ or commented on in msm print & tv media at times.
Deeply disturbing that this US style menacing of politicians and political opposites, prominent in the UK and Europe for awhile, is here and in Australia.
At a conservative rally in western Idaho last month, a young man stepped up to a microphone to ask when he could start killing Democrats.
“When do we get to use the guns?” he said as the audience applauded. “How many elections are they going to steal before we kill these people?” The local state representative, a Republican, later called it a “fair” question.
In Ohio, the leading candidate in the Republican primary for Senate blasted out a video urging Republicans to resist the “tyranny” of a federal government that pushed them to wear masks and take F.D.A.-authorized vaccines.
And in Congress, violent threats against lawmakers are on track to double this year. Republicans who break party ranks and defy former President Donald J. Trump have come to expect insults, invective and death threats — often stoked by their own colleagues and conservative activists, who have denounced them as traitors.
From congressional offices to community meeting rooms, threats of violence are becoming commonplace among a significant segment of the Republican Party. Ten months after rioters attacked the United States Capitol on Jan. 6, and after four years of a president who often spoke in violent terms about his adversaries, right-wing Republicans are talking more openly and frequently about the use of force as justifiable in opposition to those who dislodged him from power.
[…]
But historians and those who study democracy say what has changed has been the embrace of violent speech by a sizable portion of one party, including some of its loudest voices inside government and most influential voices outside.
In effect, they warn, the Republican Party is mainstreaming menace as a political tool.
Omar Wasow, a political scientist at Pomona College who studies protests and race, drew a contrast between the current climate and earlier periods of turbulence and strife, like the 1960s or the run-up to the Civil War.
“What’s different about almost all those other events is that now, there’s a partisan divide around the legitimacy of our political system,” he said. “The elite endorsement of political violence from factions of the Republican Party is distinct for me from what we saw in the 1960s. Then, you didn’t have — from a president on down — politicians calling citizens to engage in violent resistance.”
I'm not going to defend any noose talk or symbolism – for anyone, regardless of whether it's metaphorical or not. But one nutter doth not make a crowd nor doth establish the counter-point. And shall we talk about the Left too? Such as Hamish Keith's twitter in response to the very recent attempted cancellation (slash drowning?) of Bryce Edwards:
Hamish Keith: Could you pop Bryce Edwards in the bin with the other contrarian nutters
alex: Be a bloody big bin – I sort of like the idea of a chain an engine block and a lake
Hamish Keith: concrete shoes!
Joe90, I think you're falling for the US-style left-leaning media who parrot anyone protesting anything remotely Right-wing or centrist = bad and violent, and anyone protesting BLM or anything progressive-Left = good and non-violent. Just yesterday, Weka and others had good comments challenging Left-leaning US media obsession with (anti-)Trump and the bad journalism this bias and unthinking can lead to, aka the Steele Dossier.
Just as we defend the human rights of criminals, we can defend the rights and freedom of people whose views or actions we may otherwise disagree with. Stuff has let loose today on the protestors – I see a clear narrative framing being developed that they're all QAnon loonatics importing Trumpism violence directly to NZ and anybody anti-mandate is a rabid anti-vaxxer.
But actually no, there's a huge cross-section of teachers, parents, nurses, and ordinary people fed up with continual knee-jerk reaction of "more state coercion, more!". Take a look at France – the home of the Paris commune and socialist presidents – who has huge protests against mandates and lockdowns. Many other countries have also had significant, broad protests against mandates and passports.
It suits the desired narrative to gaslight such protests as reflecting only a weirdo, 5G-Is-Cancer fringe, and supported by only a tiny sliver of Kiwis. It suits the desired narrative to dismiss concerns that aren't articulated in the highly-educated vocabularly preferred by the chardonnay socialists of Labour.
I'm waiting for about 5 months time when the Government is "persuading" everyone to get a boost (or lose their vaccine passport) because the vaccine is no longer effective…..and then every says hold on, wasn't the vaccine mandated because it's so effective and you promised "freedom" in return? Just one example of the problems with the vaccine mandate and passports – but that's right, we're all just weirdos and violent loonatics to question it.
I said a huge "cross-section of teachers, parents, nurses, and ordinary people". Please don't purposely misquote me.
And yes, I believe there is a cross-section from what I've seen, first hand accounts, and interviews with people attending. For me, I'm an educated professional, non-religious, double vaxxed, but hugely against mandates and passports. I know of numerous people of different walks of life who feel the same, even if they didn't protest.
But the point is what is the right and best action? We have rights specifically to guard against the tyranny of the majority, and to requite strong and clear justification if we would seek to do so.
Except when it doesn't suit? 3 Waters should go ahead apparently, despite the majority of councils and voters strongly opposed, because the Minister of Local Government thinks its best.
So the minority is right sometimes…or only when it's a Labour-supporting minority?
3 Waters needs to go ahead in my burg because the farmer dominated regional council is unwilling or unable to enforce the conditions of a consent to dispose of dairy effluent.
The point of what is the right and best action? Is the right and best action what someone genuinely believes having weighed up multiple factors? Is that determined by polls and feedback?
The right action to deal with covid from the beginning according to some was whatever was different to what actions were decided on.
No border closures, no lockdowns, no MIQ would have been the choices of (probably) a minority. Those thinking that way certainly saw themselves as right.
If noisy protest groups and individuals through history 'bucking the system' were proven to be right in the long run and became lauded for their courage, is it possible a government acting against the demands of noisy protest groups might be proven to be right in the long run?
Three waters was polling about 50/50 before the well funded and very loud "anti" campaign started.
You have to wonder why the anti three waters campaign is getting so much money, if not from those with an eye on making money from future privatisation. Something which most New Zealanders tend to oppose. After our past experience. Privatisation which will be difficult if three waters goes ahead.
Over 80% opposed Keys asset sales, which National did regardless.
If you go by numbers protesting. TPPA, which also polled more than 80% against, asset sales, Generation zero etc, had a lot more people on the street than the latest Pro Pollution, anti-vacc and “freedom” protests.
Despite having LGNZ in it's pocket, despite spending large on dishonest propaganda, despite lying about Council's being able to 'opt out', 60 of 67 councils oppose 3 Waters, and only 19% of the public support it. If it barks like a dog…
No trickledrown, "less is not more in politics" I don't agree because…
We have been there where sweeping changes were made to laws to assist the rich, and when questioned "Akshually it creates jobs" Trouble was the low paid part time contract jobs… We were not even given a choice. Minister of Tourism Key "Huge earnings for NZ" That has been proven to be bunkim. 4000 000 visitors a year, stretching our infrastructure, and costing more than tourism earned the country.
Endless migrants and overseas students able to be brought in as "Cheap labour" which lowered wages even further.
Small Government meant poorly funded infrastructure to support all that, so poorly paid nurses teachers and state buildings in poor repair oh and tax cuts for the well off. We don't want more of that.
But I agree with the rest of your comment.
James 2 Tickledrown is saying you are inflating your case with generalisations. "A Labour supporting minority" is rubbish. The 3 waters was an election pledge. Labour got a majority. Polls have been held by Labour to check the majority were in favour of covid decisions. The press were allowed to ask endless questions. Now people are being asked to vaccinate to lower pressure on staff in hospital, and staff overseeing home self isolation. James2 mandates have been used since the 1940's. There is a choice. Nobody will hold anyone down. Some intelligent people are fearful for a number of reasons, some do not want the vaccine, many marched drove and protested for their own beef with the Government. 1080 argument, American gun Lobby, Right wing groups Religious groups. As nearly 90% of the eligible are vaccinated with one or two doses there is little resistance, and vaccinating children will bring our eligible to an excellent percentage. Civil disobedience is not new, what is new is the toxic nature of the exchanges through the internet. However listening to some exchanges in the Australian parliament.. we are a tame bunch. Quote "You are a lily livered snake with legs on your pot belly" being a colourful one that comes to mind. Finally marching or disagreeing does not always make the participants right. Boosters have also been around for a long time for obvious reasons. Take your blue glasses off James2.
Northwestern University researchers have developed a new injectable therapy that harnesses “dancing molecules” to reverse paralysis and repair tissue after severe spinal cord injuries.
In a new study, researchers administered a single injection to tissues surrounding the spinal cords of paralyzed mice. Just four weeks later, the animals regained the ability to walk.
By sending bioactive signals to trigger cells to repair and regenerate, the breakthrough therapy dramatically improved severely injured spinal cords in five key ways: (1) The severed extensions of neurons, called axons, regenerated; (2) scar tissue, which can create a physical barrier to regeneration and repair, significantly diminished; (3) myelin, the insulating layer of axons that is important in transmitting electrical signals efficiently, reformed around cells; (4) functional blood vessels formed to deliver nutrients to cells at the injury site; and (5) more motor neurons survived.
Thank you for this. If this therapy pans out it's will be a miracle.
I know full well the world is not perfect, and I have no expectation it ever will be. To some irreducible degree life is suffering. Every love story that goes on long enough will end in tragedy.
But perfections are without limit – we can take unconstrained hope from not only how far we have come, but how much further we might go.
My younger brother got a cochlear implant about a decade ago and he's still immensely grateful. So I'm reasonably sure that if this means disabled people get to have a life beyond their wheelchairs or beds – they won't regard it as 'ephemeral'.
I think the key things a parent should remember are, it’s not a choice and hardly ever a “phase”. You don’t have to be an expert you just have to be there; and that it is invaluable to love, be accepting, and provide a safe place.
Camden Council, after consultation with the public decided to replace ordinary pedestrian crossing with a transflag to celebrate Transgender Awareness Week.
As you can see from the replies below, they didn't consult with members of the public that also used the crossing that had special needs, or drivers that didn't understand what the new markings represented.
Instead of thinking through this and putting the flags on vertical public spaces, they came up with a stupid idea. Passed it by those within the trans representatives, and did not consider the impact on other road users.
Including police horses who although trained, do not like walking on unfamiliar markings…
Fortunately, "Doughnut" hung up her Sten long ago.
Wearing a military beret and a Polish wartime resistance armband, 94-year-old Wanda Traczyk-Stawska stunned the crowd at a pro-EU rally when she thundered "Be quiet, stupid boy! You lousy bastard" at a member of a far-right group attempting to disrupt the gathering over a loudspeaker.
Netherlands going in to a partial lockdown as cases surge past 16,000 a day!
But its not much of a lockdown.
"The new restrictions are not a hard lockdown; shops and restaurants will stay open but must adhere to curfews as well as social distancing and vaccine certificates while four guests are still allowed in the home. Cinemas and theatres will remain fully open."
And the local pro-pla*ue mob think they're hard done by.
Austria is to introduce a lockdown for unvaccinated people in two of Europe’s worst-hit coronavirus regions from Monday and could extend it across the country, the chancellor, Alexander Schallenberg, has said.
Millions of people not fully vaccinated against Covid in the regions of Upper Austria and Salzburg will be allowed to leave their homes only for reasons considered essential to life, such as going to work, grocery shopping or visiting the doctor, Schallenberg said – measures believed to be unprecedented in Europe.
I don't understand curfews – Netherlands aren't the only place to do them, as I recall.
I mean, how are they supposed to work to limit disease, getting everyone to rush out in the same 10 hour period? It just seems weird action for action's sake, while still spreading the disease.
But I guess actually controlling the disease and saving lives might put a hairdresser's into liquidation, and we can't have that.
Radio waves and mobile phone signals relies on electromagnetic radiation for communication but in a new development, engineers from Lancaster University in the UK, working with the Jožef Stefan Institute in Slovenia, transferred digitally encoded information using “fast neutrons” instead.
The researchers measured the spontaneous emission of fast neutrons from californium-252, a radioactive isotope produced in nuclear reactors.
Modulated emissions were measured using a detector and recorded on a laptop.
But, but, but I got one of those in my vaccination. The Slovene language was a bit difficult at first but my on arm language translator has been great. I won't bore you with the upside of this research in practice on my arm and inside me but hopefully some of the laggards will get this as well.
Canadian John Richardson looks at similarities and differences between Jules Verne's novel Paris in the Twentieth Century, which was unknown before his great grandson found the manuscript in 1989, and John Ralston Saul's Voltaire's Bastards, a book still as important as when it appeared in the early 1990s – more so now perhaps, if we still have time to learn.
Both Verne and Saul describe a world which has lost human meaning, in which individuals carry on within the system they’ve inherited, unquestioning, never imagining the possibility of a different way, let alone a better one, deriving little joy from their petty advancements. Verne’s novel is disturbing because it is at once absurd and prescient. Such a society in fiction seems impossible, but our own society is a pea in the same pod. Saul’s sensibly argued examination is terrifying because he is brutally correct. Modern society is an organism which serves only its meaningless self, not the humans who service it and are indifferently sloughed like so many skin cells or fingernail clippings.
A technocratic, systematic society always has answers, whether or not those answers are helpful. But, as Saul concludes of societies such as ours
If the Socratic question can still be asked, it is certainly not rational. Voltaire pointed out that for the Romans, sensus communis meant common sense but also humanity and sensibility. It has been reduced to only good sense, “a state half-way between stupidity and intelligence.” We have since reduced it still farther, as if appropriate only for manual labour and the education of small children. That is the narrowing effect of a civilization which seeks automatically to divide through answers when our desperate need is to unify the individual through questions. (p. 630)
"Act would change the law so setting health and safety measures, such as requiring vaccine certificates, is permitted, and cannot be subject to claims of a breach of privacy or discrimination. That could be done with a change to health and safety laws, though if it was possible through a public health order, it could be implemented more quickly."
Seymour said the Government, as any other employer, should be able to decide which public sector employees needed to be vaccinated, while private sector employers should decide for their workforces and clients.
This story will no doubt find itself quickly buried & forgotten … not least because it's at odds with the Upper-Middle Woke Establishment's preferred 'narrative' … but gives me at least a modicum of hope that the relentless nightmare of violent intimidation endured by neighbours (often very elderly, like my parents) of the new breed of underclass state house tenant (many so violently anti-social that no landlord would ever rent to them) … will finally, finally receive a much needed dose of sunlight.
But won't be holding my breath.
Housing crisis created by the Key Govt … then turned into a living hell for a swathe of Labour's core supporters [as well as more than a few Green voters, incidentally] by the Ardern Govt's tacit No Eviction policy.
Police ineffective, and actually less than useful as we later found out that their regular and continued breaking of lockdown was classed as anti-social behaviour that could be used for immediate eviction. The abuse, threats of violence, intimidating practices (chasing family members cars, sitting outside on a makeshift seat staring at our front door for several hours muttering and smoking), were not considered by the police to be anti-social unless they made physical contact. I think the description has been changed now.
Kainga Ora needs to update its policy. Living next to such neighbours is hellish.
A few years back we had a similar problem here in Australia – a woman neighbour in the complex started up all manner of intimidating behaviour toward my partner. Now my partner is no pushover but eventually it got to the point where we were starting to be worried whenever I had to work away from home for any period.
The cops were actually very good. They immediately took action and spoke with her, and then suggested we buy a little security camera – either real or fake – that recorded what was going on in the common area. They assured us this was entirely legal. The cop told us 'either she's mad or bad, if it's the latter the behaviour will stop'. And it did for almost a year.
Then she manipulated one of her sons into threatening us – and we immediately took the video evidence to the Police. Which very quickly landed up in the local Magistrates Court. In the end the landlord was issued a removal order by the Court and that was that. It was so smoothly handled I've more or less forgotten about it until now.
We've rented the entire 8 years that we've been living in Australia now – in general the business is much more closely regulated than NZ and there are very clear obligations on both landlords and tenants – that are enforced.
One of the really difficult things to witness was the coercive control this middle-aged (34 yrs) man had over his 17 year old partner. Leaving for days on end without telling her and with no transport, taking her phone, constant reprimanding – we could hear – that went on for several hours.
She was on the police register for a youth support programme, but they had nothing to offer. She needed a job.
An unpleasant experience, was witnessing his mother (who employed them both) using her employer status to also control this young woman, so that he would be placated. Almost like watching someone throw a treat to a rabid dog to get him to stop snarling.
I do believe that state housing has to be available, but there has to be a place where those unsuitable to be housed in neighbourhoods are provided with a place to stay, rather than a blanket ruling that all the obligation belongs to Kainga Ora.
It isn't unique. The article that originated the discussion was in regard to Kainga Ora's policy of not evicting tenants. IIRC, in this case the neighbouring couple who had resided in the area for years were offered a different tenancy as a solution, rather than Kainga Ora dealing with the disruptive behaviour.
As you have experienced, an abusive and disruptive neighbour can really damage the wellbeing of others, whether they are tenants or homeowners.
Bit much to be blaming this on National don't you think:
'The woman said a Kāinga Ora tenancy manager admitted the agency was powerless to evict antisocial tenants due to a "directive" that protected state housing clients.'
Who issued the directive and where did it come from?
I believe the policy is that once you are a tenant in a state home, you cannot be moved on unless they offer you another place. In a case such as this, they will be shifting the problem to another neighbourhood and have the same complaints.
If they want to maintain such a policy, then Kainga Ora needs to have a solution to these situations, that is not just that the neighbours put up with it. The accommodation offered may not be within a neighbourhood, but a specific accommodation unit for troublesome tenants. I don't know if that is a workable proposal.
The problem to be solved is either does Kainga Ora retain the policy or not?
If it does, how do we ensure tenants (even if troublesome) are not homeless, when they are removed from a tenancy where they are causing harm to the neighbourhood?
Do we solve that with a different type of accommodation for those tenants?
I just don't trust the government to do it in a way that improves things.
I can't even come up with an alternative proposal, so I'm of little help either. Just thought someone else might be able to.
Although I am happy that the abusive neighbour next door is gone, he still exists and needs somewhere to live, as does his partner. (I also think they both need support, particularly in regards to his mental health, aggression and drug use.)
For all the talk of wrap-around models, I can't think of how this has been practically rolled out, and maybe accommodation that includes such services nearby or on-site would be a start.
If that accommodation is located in a low residential density area, that might work. ie. on the edge of commercial or industrial zones but still close to transport and amenities.
No, not at all. Just Kainga Ora housing where the harm they can inflict on others is reduced, but still healthy homes standards. I would hope there would not be that many of them really, but I know that it only takes one badly behaved resident to impact on a street or neighbourhood.
The current approach is to leave them there, and that isn't working.
I know it wasnt your suggestion but there needs to be some serious consideration of how these types of issues are dealt with….regardless of the cause(s) there are some who have no desire to be 'helped'….the (limited) resources are better devoted to those who do.
I dont know how to deal with the damage already done but I do know that it makes sense not to continue to keep creating more damaged members of society….we need to do both at the same time, and that may mean conflicting approaches
Mental healthcare would be the most obvious help that would need to be provided.
We lived in social housing when i was a kid, and to be honest anti social behaviour was the norm in many households. Alcohol dependency was one big issue, over crowding another one. Drugs. Petty crime. Prostitution. All the issues that come with people having no money and the need for money.
So maybe a full wrap around service as a condition to a flat. So counseling, maybe some job training – to get people out of the property during the day, courses and such. But i don't think Winz would be able to provide any of these services.
I think you would have more chance getting funds holding a fundraiser.
But i think the worst cases before they are being housed in public housing need to stay in housing that will offer wrap around services, and then find appropriate housing for them. Not just assign a house, but appropriate housing near a supportive community. And make it clear that housing is also a privilege and that sometimes you have to evict someone if they terrorize their community.
I'm sure it must have been John Key. After all, according to the idiots who claim to be our Government he is responsible for everything, Ignore the fact that he left the job 5 years ago.
I heard a rumour that they are looking at all the CCTV footage at the Whangarei Hospital to find images of him diverting the main sewer pipe to put it into the walls.
Did you whisper that rumour into your cupped hand so that you could hear it?
I thought the policy was a state housing policy since inception, and has remained under successive changes of government, but I could have this all wrong. Just what I understood to be true from growing up in a state housing neighbourhood back in the day.
The Black Caps play their third cricket final in quick succession this morning.
Win, lose or draw this a team that everyone can be proud of, from the spirit in which they play the game to the results they earn they have proven the adage of the whole is greater than the sum of its parts
But is this fair, after all a 50 over final loss, a test match final win and a T20 final can't be all down to luck or a fluke?
I think not, this team can stand head and shoulders with the other great teams of world cricket (yes really)
Overall the finest team NZ has ever fielded, a team that defines the virtues of NZ and an example for everyone to aspire to
One more game to go and my moneys on the Black Caps, can we do it?
Of course wing nut pro-pla*uers are treating this as proof of something…
Facts First: The viral video is a staged scene from a professional film. The tantrum-throwing woman is an actor, as is the supposed pilot who challenges her at the end of the video. The video was produced by a man known as Prince Ea, an entertainer and creator of online content who has a history of using authentic-sounding titles about hot-button social issues to get people to watch his scripted footage.
Prince Ea added a vague three-word disclaimer, "For entertainment purposes," to his initial Nov. 1 Facebook post of the plane tantrum video — under the title "SHE MUST HAVE BEEN HAVING A BAD DAY." But through at least November 11, he kept posting additional versions of the video, under titles like "WHEN THE PILOT CAME OUT" and "WHEN SHE ASKED FOR HIS VACCINE CARD," that included no disclaimer.
New Zealand now has the fourth most depressed construction sector in the world behind China, Qatar and Hong Kong. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 8:46am on Thursday, May 2:The Lead: ...
Hi,I am just going to state something very obvious: American police are fucking crazy.That was a photo gracing the New York Times this morning, showing New York City police “entering Columbia University last night after receiving a request from the school.”Apparently in America, protesting the deaths of tens of thousands ...
Winston Peters’ much anticipated foreign policy speech last night was a work of two halves. Much of it was a standard “boilerplate” Foreign Ministry overview of the state of the world. There was some hardening up of rhetoric with talk of “benign” becoming “malign” and old truths giving way to ...
Graham Adams assesses the fallout of the Cass Review — The press release last Thursday from the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls didn’t make the mainstream news in New Zealand but it really should have. The startling title of Reem Alsalem’s statement — “Implementation of ‘Cass ...
This open-for-business, under-new-management cliché-pockmarked government of Christopher Luxon is not the thing of beauty he imagines it to be. It is not the powerful expression of the will of the people that he asserts it to be. It is not a soaring eagle, it is a malodorous vulture. This newest poll should make ...
The latest labour market statistics, showing a rise in unemployment. There are now 134,000 unemployed - 14,000 more than when the National government took office. Which is I guess what happens when the Reserve Bank causes a recession in an effort to Keep Wages Low. The previous government saw a ...
Three opinion polls have been released in the last two days, all showing that the new government is failing to hold their popular support. The usual honeymoon experienced during the first year of a first term government is entirely absent. The political mood is still gloomy and discontented, mainly due ...
National's Finance Minister once met a poor person.A scornful interview with National's finance guru who knows next to nothing about economics or people.There might have been something a bit familiar if that was the headline I’d gone with today. It would of course have been in tribute to the article ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Throughout the pandemic, the new Vice-Chancellor-of-Otago-University-on-$629,000 per annum-Can-you-believe-it-and-Former-Finance-Minister Grant Robertson repeated the mantra over and over that he saved “lives and livelihoods”.As we update how this claim is faring over the course of time, the facts are increasingly speaking differently. NZ ...
Chris Trotter writes – IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in acknowledgement of electoral victory: “We’ll govern for all New Zealanders.” On the face of it, the pledge is a strange one. Why would any political leader govern in ways that advantaged the huge ...
Bryce Edwards writes – The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 10:06am on Wednesday, May 1:The Lead: Business confidence fell across the board in April, falling in some areas to levels last seen during the lockdowns because of a collapse in ...
Over the past 36 hours, Christopher Luxon has been dong his best to portray the centre-right’s plummeting poll numbers as a mark of virtue. Allegedly, the negative verdicts are the result of hard economic times, and of a government bravely set out on a perilous rescue mission from which not ...
Auckland Transport have started rolling out new HOP card readers around the network and over the next three months, all of them on buses, at train stations and ferry wharves will be replaced. The change itself is not that remarkable, with the new readers looking similar to what is already ...
Completed reads for April: The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Carnival of Saints, by George Herman The Snow Spider, by Jenny Nimmo Emlyn’s Moon, by Jenny Nimmo The Chestnut Soldier, by Jenny Nimmo Death Comes As the End, by Agatha Christie Lord of the Flies, by ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Have a story to share about St Paul’s, but today just picturesPopular novels written at this desk by a young man who managed to bootstrap himself out of father’s imprisonment and his own young life in a workhouse Read more ...
The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill English, Simon Bridges, Steven Joyce, Roger Sowry, ...
Newsroom has a story today about National's (fortunately failed) effort to disestablish the newly-created Inspector-General of Defence. The creation of this agency was the key recommendation of the Inquiry into Operation Burnham, and a vital means of restoring credibility and social licence to an agency which had been caught lying ...
Holding On To The Present:The moment a political movement arises that attacks the whole idea of social progress, and announces its intention to wind back the hands of History’s clock, then democracy, along with its unwritten rules, is in mortal danger.IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in ...
Stuck In The Middle With You:As Christopher Luxon feels the hot breath of Act’s and NZ First’s extremists on the back of his neck and, as he reckons with the damage their policies are already inflicting upon a country he’s described as “fragile”, is there not some merit in reaching out ...
The unpopular coalition government is currently rushing to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The clause is Oranga Tamariki's Treaty clause, and was inserted after its systematic stealing of Māori children became a public scandal and resulted in physical resistance to further abductions. The clause created clear obligations ...
Buzz from the Beehive The government’s official website – which Point of Order monitors daily – not for the first time has nothing much to say today about political happenings that are grabbing media headlines. It makes no mention of the latest 1News-Verian poll, for example. This shows National down ...
It Takes A Train To Cry:Surely, there is nothing lonelier in all this world than the long wail of a distant steam locomotive on a cold Winter’s night.AS A CHILD, I would lie awake in my grandfather’s house and listen to the traffic. The big wooden house was only a ...
Packing A Punch: The election of the present government, including in its ranks politicians dedicated to reasserting the rights of the legislature in shaping and determining the future of Māori and Pakeha in New Zealand, should have alerted the judiciary – including its anomalous appendage, the Waitangi Tribunal – that its ...
Dead Woman Walking: New Zealand’s media industry had been moving steadily towards disaster for all the years Melissa Lee had been National’s media and communications policy spokesperson, and yet, when the crisis finally broke, on her watch, she had nothing intelligent to offer. Christopher Luxon is a patient man - but he’s not ...
Chris Trotter writes – New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Key’s flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMP’s five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is ...
Luxon will no doubt put a brave face on it, but there is no escaping the pressure this latest poll will put on him and the government. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political ...
This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler In the wake of any unusual weather event, someone inevitably asks, “Did climate change cause this?” In the most literal sense, that answer is almost always no. Climate change is never the sole cause of hurricanes, heat waves, droughts, or ...
Something odd happened yesterday, and I’d love to know if there’s more to it. If there was something which preempted what happened, or if it was simply a throwaway line in response to a journalist.Yesterday David Seymour was asked at a press conference what the process would be if the ...
Hi,From time to time, I want to bring Webworm into the real world. We did it last year with the Jurassic Park event in New Zealand — which was a lot of fun!And so on Saturday May 11th, in Los Angeles, I am hosting a lil’ Webworm pop-up! I’ve been ...
Education Minister Erica Standford yesterday unveiled a fundamental reform of the way our school pupils are taught. She would not exactly say so, but she is all but dismantling the so-called “inquiry” “feel good” method of teaching, which has ruled in our classrooms since a major review of the New ...
Exactly where are we seriously going with this government and its policies? That is, apart from following what may as well be a Truss-Lite approach on the purported economic “plan“, and Victorian-era regression when it comes to social policy.Oh it’ll work this time of course, we’re basically assured, “the ...
Hey Uncle Dave, When the Poms joined the EEC, I wasn't one of those defeatists who said, Well, that’s it for the dairy job. And I was right, eh? The Chinese can’t get enough of our milk powder and eventually, the Poms came to their senses and backed up the ute ...
Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is higher than for any other mayor ...
Buzz from the Beehive Pharmac has been given a financial transfusion and a new chair to oversee its spending in the pharmaceutical business. Associate Health Minister David Seymour described the funding for Pharmac as “its largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff”. ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its ...
TL;DR: Here’s my top 10 ‘pick ‘n’ mix of links to news, analysis and opinion articles as of 10:10am on Monday, April 29:Scoop: The children's ward at Rotorua Hospital will be missing a third of its beds as winter hits because Te Whatu Ora halted an upgrade partway through to ...
span class=”dropcap”>As hideous as David Seymour can be, it is worth keeping in mind occasionally that there are even worse political figures (and regimes) out there. Iran for instance, is about to execute the country’s leading hip hop musician Toomaj Salehi, for writing and performing raps that “corrupt” the nation’s ...
Yesterday marked 10 years since the first electric train carried passengers in Auckland so it’s a good time to look back at it and the impact it has had. A brief history The first proposals for rail electrification in Auckland came in the 1920’s alongside the plans for earlier ...
Right now, in Aotearoa-NZ, our ‘animal spirits’ are darkening towards a winter of discontent, thanks at least partly to a chorus of negative comments and actions from the Government Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on ...
You make people evil to punish the paststuck inside a sequel with a rotating castThe following photos haven’t been generated with AI, or modified in any way. They are flesh and blood, human beings. On the left is Galatea Young, a young mum, and her daughter Fiadh who has Angelman ...
April has been a quiet month at A Phuulish Fellow. I have had an exceptionally good reading month, and a decently productive writing month – for original fiction, anyway – but not much has caught my eye that suggested a blog article. It has been vaguely frustrating, to be honest. ...
A listing of 31 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 21, 2024 thru Sat, April 27, 2024. Story of the week Anthropogenic climate change may be the ultimate shaggy dog story— but with a twist, because here ...
Hi,I spent about a year on Webworm reporting on an abusive megachurch called Arise, and it made me want to stab my eyes out with a fork.I don’t regret that reporting in 2022 and 2023 — I am proud of it — but it made me angry.Over three main stories ...
The new Victoria University Vice-Chancellor decided to have a forum at the university about free speech and academic freedom as it is obviously a topical issue, and the Government is looking at legislating some carrots or sticks for universities to uphold their obligations under the Education and Training Act. They ...
Do you remember when Melania Trump got caught out using a speech that sounded awfully like one Michelle Obama had given? Uncannily so.Well it turns out that Abraham Lincoln is to Winston Peters as Michelle was to Melania. With the ANZAC speech Uncle Winston gave at Gallipoli having much in ...
She was born 25 years ago today in North Shore hospital. Her eyes were closed tightly shut, her mouth was silently moving. The whole theatre was all quiet intensity as they marked her a 2 on the APGAR test. A one-minute eternity later, she was an 8. The universe was ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park in collaboration with members from our Skeptical Science team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is Antarctica gaining land ice? ...
Images of US students (and others) protesting and setting up tent cities on US university campuses have been broadcast world wide and clearly demonstrate the growing rifts in US society caused by US policy toward Israel and Israel’s prosecution of … Continue reading → ...
Barrie Saunders writes – Dear Paul As the new Minister of Media and Communications, you will be inundated with heaps of free advice and special pleading, all in the national interest of course. For what it’s worth here is my assessment: Traditional broadcasting free to air content through ...
Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its arguments for such a bold reform. ...
Peter Dunne writes – The great nineteenth British Prime Minister, William Gladstone, once observed that “the first essential for a Prime Minister is to be a good butcher.” When a later British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, sacked a third of his Cabinet in July 1962, in what became ...
Ele Ludemann writes – New Zealanders had the OECD’s second highest tax increase last year: New Zealanders faced the second-biggest tax raises in the developed world last year, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) says. The intergovernmental agency said the average change in personal income tax ...
We all know something’s not right with our elections. The spread of misinformation, people being targeted with soundbites and emotional triggers that ignore the facts, even the truth, and influence their votes.The use of technology to produce deep fakes. How can you tell if something is real or not? Can ...
This video includes conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Simon Clark. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). This year you will be lied to! Simon Clark helps prebunk some misleading statements you'll hear about climate. The video includes ...
It is all very well cutting the backrooms of public agencies but it may compromise the frontlines. One of the frustrations of the Productivity Commission’s 2017 review of universities is that while it observed that their non-academic staff were increasing faster than their academic staff, it did not bother to ...
Buzz from the Beehive Two speeches delivered by Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters at Anzac Day ceremonies in Turkey are the only new posts on the government’s official website since the PM announced his Cabinet shake-up. In one of the speeches, Peters stated the obvious: we live in a troubled ...
1. Which of these would you not expect to read in The Waikato Invader?a. Luxon is here to do business, don’t you worry about thatb. Mr KPI expects results, and you better believe itc. This decisive man of action is getting me all hot and excitedd. Melissa Lee is how ...
…it has a restricted jurisdiction which must not be abused: it is not an inquisitionNOTE – this article was published before the High Court ruled that Karen Chhour does not have to appear before the Waitangi Tribunal Gary Judd writes – The High Court ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – One of reasons Oranga Tamariki exists is to prevent child neglect. But could the organisation itself be guilty of the same?Oranga Tamariki’s statistics show a decrease in the number and age of children in care. “There are less children ...
David Farrar writes: Graeme Edgeler wrote in 2017: In the first five years after three strikes came into effect 5248 offenders received a ‘first strike’ (that is, a “stage-1 conviction” under the three strikes sentencing regime), and 68 offenders received a ‘second strike’. In the five years prior to ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in politics. That’s refreshing and will be extremely ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the two days to 6:06am on Thursday, April 25:Politics: PM Christopher Luxon has set up a dual standard for ministerial competence by demoting two National Cabinet ministers while leaving also-struggling ...
Hi,Today I mainly want to share some of your thoughts about the recent piece I wrote about success and failure, and the forces that seemingly guide our lives. But first, a quick bit of housekeeping: I am doing a Webworm popup in Los Angeles on Saturday May 11 at 2pm. ...
It is hard to see what Melissa Lee might have done to “save” the media. National went into the election with no public media policy and appears not to have developed one subsequently. Lee claimed that she had prepared a policy paper before the election but it had been decided ...
Open access notablesIce acceleration and rotation in the Greenland Ice Sheet interior in recent decades, Løkkegaard et al., Communications Earth & Environment:In the past two decades, mass loss from the Greenland ice sheet has accelerated, partly due to the speedup of glaciers. However, uncertainty in speed derived from satellite products ...
Buzz from the Beehive A statement from Children’s Minister Karen Chhour – yet to be posted on the Government’s official website – arrived in Point of Order’s email in-tray last night. It welcomes the High Court ruling on whether the Waitangi Tribunal can demand she appear before it. It does ...
Mr Bombastic:Ironically, the media the academic experts wanted is, in many ways, the media they got. In place of the tyrannical editors of yesteryear, advancing without fear or favour the interests of the ruling class; the New Zealand news media of today boasts a troop of enlightened journalists dedicated to ...
It's hard times try to make a livingYou wake up every morning in the unforgivingOut there somewhere in the cityThere's people living lives without mercy or pityI feel good, yeah I'm feeling fineI feel better then I have for the longest timeI think these pills have been good for meI ...
In 1974, the US Supreme Court issued its decision in United States v. Nixon, finding that the President was not a King, but was subject to the law and was required to turn over the evidence of his wrongdoing to the courts. It was a landmark decision for the rule ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
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. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
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. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
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. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
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. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
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 Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
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 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nick Chartres, Senior Research Fellow, Faculty of Medicine & Health, University of Sydney shutterstockAhmet Misirligul/Shutterstock You go to the gym, eat healthy and walk as much as possible. You wash your hands and get vaccinated. You control your health. This is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jacqueline Hendriks, Research Fellow and Lecturer, Curtin University Children and young people may be seeing news headlines about men murdering women or footage of people rallying to call for action. Perhaps they or their friends have even gone to the protests. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jessica Balanzategui, Senior Lecturer in Media, RMIT University ABC “Bluey mania” shows no sign of abating. Bluey’s season finale, The Sign, was the most viewed ABC program of all time on iView. A “hidden” follow-up episode, aptly named The Surprise, created ...
Labour market figures came in softer than the Reserve Bank had forecast, but they won’t be enough to move the needle on interest rates, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. Unemployment ...
The campaign will engage the community and encourage submissions on the bill to the New Zealand government by the closing submission deadline of Friday 31st of May 2024 4pm. ...
The paper raises concerns about declining trust in New Zealand's political institutions and democratic processes, and the role that the overuse of Parliamentary urgency plays in that. ...
The Urban Habitat Collective was an attempt to built an innovative new form of apartment building in Wellington. Here’s why it failed, and why the idea could still work, writes co-founder Bronwen Newton. When we started the Urban Habitat Collective in November 2018, we thought we were starting a revolution, ...
Two decades ago this week, a controversial law that attempted to define ownership of the foreshore and seabed prompted a formidable display of outrage and kōtahitanga as 15,000 marched to parliament. Jamie Tahana looks back.‘Hīkoi, hīkoi,” they chanted by the thousands as the biggest Māori march in a generation ...
Terence O’Brien had the rare and no doubt undesired distinction of rising to one of the most exalted positions in New Zealand diplomacy, then being unceremoniously recalled to Wellington without explanation just when his career was at its zenith. What is perhaps more surprising is that he appears to have ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A,DIV,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, Thursday 2 May appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Why has New Zealand slipped from third to 12th on Quality of Death Indexes over the past decade or so? Hospice New Zealand Chief Executive Wayne Naylor has a list of reasons. “We don’t have a current national strategy – the Government hasn’t renewed our 2001 strategy, so we don’t ...
While women’s sport is exploding in Aotearoa and around the world, you still don’t hear a lot of talk about athletes and their periods, RED-S, breastfeeding and visible panty-lines. SASS (Suze and Sez Sports)Talk isn’t afraid to have that kōrero.LockerRoom founder Suzanne McFadden and Olympian broadcaster Sarah ...
On an unusually hot night in January 2019, a little boy’s lifeless body was found face up in a small town’s sewage oxidation pond. To the police, it was an open and shut case: three-year-old Lachlan Jones had run away from his home in the Southland town of Gore, climbed ...
A Labour Party Member’s Bill aims to plug a culpability gap between manslaughter and health and safety breaches The post New push for corporate killing laws appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Rongotai MP Julie Anne Genter has apologised in Parliament after National accused her of intimidating and attacking one of its ministers in the House. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Prime Minister and state and territory leaders met on Wednesday as the national cabinet to discuss a crisis gripping Australia – the horrific number of women murdered this year. The killings have shocked ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Radhika Raghav, Teaching Fellow, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Otago Netflix Indian director Sanjay Leela Bhansali is known for his big-budget Bollywood production, featuring grand sets, star casts, meticulously choreographed dance sequences and lavish costumes, jewellery and furnishings. ...
Sir Robert devoted his life to disability rights after living in institutions in his younger years, says Kaihautū Tika Hauātanga | Disability Rights Commissioner Prudence Walker. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Powell, Professor, Family and Sexual Violence, RMIT University Violence against women is not a women’s problem to solve, it is a whole of society problem to solve; and men in particular have to take responsibility. Those were the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jessica Allen, Senior Lecturer in Chemical and Renewable Energy Engineering, University of Newcastle Snapshot freddy/ShutterstockPlans to revive an old coal-fired power station using bioenergy are being considered in the Hunter region of New South Wales. Similar plans for the station ...
Responding to the long-awaited release of judges’ special allowances, including free air travel and hotels for spouses, generous sabbaticals, and access to limousines, Taxpayers’ Union spokesman Alex Murphy said: “In what world does your employer ...
Analysis - The United States has unveiled plans to boost the weapons trade with Australia and the UK, on the same day that Winston Peters is expected to sketch NZ's position on AUKUS. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrea Carson, Professor of Political Communication, Department of Politics, Media and Philosophy, La Trobe University Since Australia’s First Nations Voice to Parliament referendum in October 2023, diverse commentaries have sought to explain why it failed. But what does an analysis of media ...
Lawyers representing two iwi as well as the Māori Women’s Welfare League on Wednesday asked the Court of Appeal to overturn last week’s High Court decision on the Waitangi Tribunal’s decision to summons Children’s Minister Karen Chhour. The Tribunal is currently investigating the Government’s decision to repeal section 7AA of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Albanese government will introduce legislation to ban deepfake pornography and provide more funding for the eSafety Commission to pilot age-assurance technologies. The contribution of internet sites to gender-based violence was one major issue ...
Average ordinary time hourly earnings, as measured by the Quarterly Employment Survey (QES), increased 5.2 percent in the year to the March 2024 quarter, according to figures released by Stats NZ today. Annual wage cost inflation, as measured by the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dimitrios Salampasis, FinTech Capability Lead | Senior Lecturer, Emerging Technologies and FinTech, Swinburne University of Technology Clem Onojeghuo/Unsplash In the digital era, the job market is increasingly becoming a minefield – demanding and difficult to navigate. According to the Australian Bureau ...
As of the March 2024 quarter, we can now look back on 20 years of data related to youth not in employment, education, or training (NEET), as collected by the Household Labour Force Survey (HLFS), according to figures released by Stats NZ today. "The ...
Thousands of workers attended public events in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch today to celebrate International Workers’ Day (May Day), but union representatives are urging caution and vigilance over the Government’s blatantly "anti-worker" ...
The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 4.3 percent in the March 2024 quarter, compared with 4.0 percent in the previous quarter, according to figures released by Stats NZ today. ...
The PSA is warning the Government that the sensitive information of New Zealanders held by various agencies will fall into the wrong hands if the latest round of proposed cuts goes ahead. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Talitha Best, Professor of Psychology, CQUniversity Australia Victoria Rodriguez/Unsplash How do sugar rushes work? – W.H, age nine, from Canberra What a terrific question W.H! Let’s explore this, starting with some of the basics. What is sugar? ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Karinna Saxby, Research Fellow, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne MART PRODUCTION/Pexels Increasing income support could help keep women and children safe according to new work demonstrating strong links between financial insecurity and domestic violence. ...
ANALYSIS:By Olli Hellmann, University of Waikato When New Zealanders commemorate Anzac Day today on April 25, it’s not only to honour the soldiers who lost their lives in World War I and subsequent conflicts, but also to mark a defining event for national identity. The battle of Gallipoli against ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark A Gregory, Associate Professor, School of Engineering, RMIT University The telecommunications industry faces a major shakeup following the release of the post-incident report on last November’s 12-hour Optus outage. Telecommunications companies will have to share more information with customers during future ...
Welcome to The Spinoff Bookseller Confessional, in which we get to know Aotearoa’s booksellers. This week: Eden Denyer, bookseller at Unity Books Auckland.Weirdest question/request you’ve had on the shop floorA mother came in looking for anything we might have on Alaskan bison as that was her little boy’s ...
NZCTU Economist Craig Renney said new data released by Statistics New Zealand shows the need for Government to act now, with unemployment rising from 3.4% to 4.3%. ...
The outpouring of anger over Maiki Sherman’s hyperbolic presentation of this week’s ‘nightmare’ poll is itself an overreaction, argues Stewart Sowman-Lund. Politicians love nothing more than to pretend they don’t care about polls. This week, deputy prime minister Winston Peters said he didn’t give a “rat’s derriere” about a TVNZ ...
Asia Pacific Report Ngāti Kahungunu in Aotearoa New Zealand’s Hawkes Bay region has become the first indigenous Māori iwi (tribe) to sign a resolution calling for a “ceasefire in Palestine”, reports Te Ao Māori News. Reporter Te Aniwaniwa Paterson talked to Te Otāne Huata, who has been organising peace rallies ...
By Dale Luma in Port Moresby “We want grants and not concessional loans,” is the crisp message from Papua New Guinea businesses directly affected by the Black Wednesday looting four months ago. The businesses, which lost millions after the January 10 rioting and looting, say they need grants as part ...
Happy May Day. Join a union. Q: What’s worse than a staff break room where the only place to sit and have a cup of tea is on a teetering stack of old pornography magazines? A: Your boss replacing the magazine stacks with chairs that are “heartily encrusted with ...
By Koroi Hawkins, RNZ Pacific editor Former opposition leader Matthew Wale has been announced as the second prime ministerial candidate ahead of the election in Solomon Islands tomorrow. He will face off against former foreign affairs minister Jeremiah Manele, who was announced by the Coalition for National Unity and Transformation ...
We get but one birthday a year – why not make it last as long as possible by scheduling as many meals with friends and family as you can? This is an excerpt from our weekly food newsletter, The Boil Up. How do you celebrate your birthday? Do you celebrate at ...
A Koi Tū discussion paper released today proposes sweeping changes to New Zealand’s media industry. The principal’s key author, Gavin Ellis, explains how journalists have a key role to play in making others value their role in society. This is an abridged version of a piece first published on knightlyviews.com ...
The Government’s spending cuts are again targeting support for Māori with proposed reform of the agency charged with advising on Māori wellbeing and development. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Douglas, Honorary Senior Lecturer, UNSW Aviation., UNSW Sydney The history of budget jet airlines in Australia is a long road littered with broken dreams. New entrants have consistently struggled to get a foothold. Low-cost carrier Bonza has just become the industry’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rosalind Dixon, Director, Gilbert + Tobin Centre of Public Law, UNSW Sydney Australia is finally having a sustained conversation about violence against women and what we can do about it. It is more than time. Australian women and girls continue to experience ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Duckett, Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice and Primary Care, The University of Melbourne stockfour/Shutterstock Preliminary bulk billing data released this week shows a 2.1% rise in bulk billing up to March. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Samantha Schulz, Senior Lecturer, University of Adelaide Australia is once again grappling with how we can stop gendered violence in our country. Protests over the weekend show there is enormous community anger over the number of women who are dying and National ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University AnastasiaDudka/Shutterstock What if the government was doing everything it could to stop thieves making off with our money, except the one thing that could really work? That’s how it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Erin Harrington, Senior Lecturer in English and Cultural Studies, University of Canterbury The Conversation It seems to be a time of old favourites. This month our experts have recommended two new seasons – the second season of Alone Australia (although ...
There are over 1 million unvaccinated kiwis, probably more than "a few thousand" there who don't like being treated as cattle.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
The vast bulk of whom are children under 12.
Not at all, we have @ 4 million people over the age of 14 as of 2020. If we get to 90 percent double vaxxed that leaves @ 400000 people plus their children thats a significant number of people.
Putting them in a second tier class is a huge mistake that will have intergenerational consequences in terms of education, poverty, distrust in government etc etc.
Wide spread mandates are just not worth it.
Well said.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/covid-19-delta-outbreak-vaccine-mandates-cause-harm-and-division-public-health-expert-claims/OXW3B6IFZSJ5J46GEU6WF7TBGE/?fbclid=IwAR3wu6u1Vm1NEQNKXLb474UOfNr5reCGqTvOwxw2bDEiHy31sOIuwnEKKlY
Gypsy you should read your own links beyond the click bait headline.
Scoffed from AUT with out any evidence makes hysterical claims.
Which are rebutted by an actual public health expert professor Shaun Hendy who said scoffed is making up scenarios that don't exist. Gypsy your not very good at propaganda.
I recommend you always fact check Hendy.
"But University of Auckland Professor and Covid-19 modelling expert Shaun Hendy said only a small proportion of the population was not vaccinated."
.https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-14-11-2021/#comment-1833344
This public health expert (Grant Schofield) is/was a "Plan B" proponent – likely would be a lot more people dead already under his recommendations.
Uncooked in that article scoffed makes false claims about the accuracy of the PCR test.
He asks this question: "So can we achieve this?"
His response: "The simple answer is no."
Time has proved him to be correct, but only after a world of social and economic pain.
In that article he asked "Can we achieve [eradication]?" – in April 2020! And he replied to his rhetorical question, "The simple answer is no."
He was utterly and completely wrong. We did achieve it, and maintained it for a long period, likely saving many lives and avoiding many longterm illnesses. Our economy did better than most and socially we have been one of the most free societies in the world through the pandemic.
I'd give him about 0/10 for that one.
"We did achieve it, and maintained it for a long period, likely saving many lives and avoiding many longterm illnesses."
Where have you been?
We temporarily stopped Delta with draconian lockdowns and border controls that eventually and inevitably failed and Covid reappeared. Meanwhile, we are 100bn in debt, we have inflation at levels not seen in decades, and thousands of people taking to the streets.
Schofield was right then and he's right now.
The article was written in April, we didn't have delta then.
Sorry, meant to say "covid". Argument still applies.
ok, so you wanted the lots of dead and long covid people, along with overrun hospitals option?
"All in the name of eradicating Covid-19. Unite against Covid-19!"
I don't think we've ever had a goal of eradicating covid. Elimination was the goal.
It seems to me there's always been some confusion around the terminology.
ok, so you wanted the lots of dead and long covid people, along with overrun hospitals option?
You do know that the flu can have serious long-term effects, right? And we've already reduced life expectancy. I'm not sure when reducing life expectancy became a good thing.
Thus, the apparent kindness of locking down to limit Covid-19 deaths will, instead, be killing more people by making us poorer. Just as Douglas Allen concluded (for Canada), so too for New Zealand—lockdowns are one of our greatest peacetime policy failures.
https://www.bassettbrashandhide.com/post/john-gibson-lockdowns-again
@ross:
really? Citation, pls. And then tell statsnz.
And? You want covid in addition to that?
how have we reduced life expectancy?
Putting them in a second tier? That's one perspective.
Another is that they have elected to go into a different tier.
If a golf club says only vaccinated can enter their clubrooms the individual chooses whether they are in or out.
Removing the ability to access employment does very quickly put people in a second tier.
Not when all they have to do to "access employment" is have a vaccination. Being in the "second tier", is entirely "their choice".
It might well be their choice, but poverty and all that comes with it rapidly turns into societies problem and potentially an intergenerational one at that.
you do realise that the egalitarian society has gone in NZ and even tho we desire it it ain't coming back.
For other common vaccines, taking a vaccination or not hasn't put people in a "second tier". Surely it's the directive not their choice that's putting them in a second tier.
Actually, your choice to avoid other vaccines can already prevent you from travelling to some countries, prevent you from studying most health related subjects at Otago University, prevent you from training to be a nurse at Auckland University.
Plumbing, too.
http://www.nzpdg.org.nz/news/details/do-your-plumbers-have-the-necess.html
A little different from having your (successful) career and livelihood ended and effective removal from society.
Nope.
Population of NZ = 5,084,000
Eligible Population = 4,210,000
Fully vaxxed as of today = 80% of eligible population.
So, under vaxx age = 874,000.
Vaxx eligible, not vaxxed = 20% of 4,210,000 = 842,000.
So there are 1,716,000 unvaxxed kiwi's, of which the children are only just over half.
Yeah its a huge number of people I based my figures on NZ making it to 90 percent.
I really dont see how alienating the population of a large city from NZ society is a good idea if you think a little longer term than the next 6 months and as economic desperation sets in you will not doubt start seeing very extreme responses as previously productive members of society find themselves coming into contact with the likes of Winz.
And yet! They would rather take a drug (which acts like a nerve agent ) used as a cattle pour on drench.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
Yeah maybe you can send the Indian Council of Medical Research and the Tokyo Medical Association an email and tell them they're actually doing Vet Science 😆
Team can we PLEZE not do vaccine bullshit on this post.
There's over a dozen good links provided about economic change and impact to go through first.
Ta.
And yet! They would rather take a drug (which acts like a nerve agent ) used as a cattle pour on drench.
Ivermectin has been used with great effect on humans since the 1980s.
<blockquote>There are few drugs that can seriously lay claim to the title of ‘Wonder drug’, penicillin and aspirin being two that have perhaps had greatest beneficial impact on the health and wellbeing of Mankind. But ivermectin can also be considered alongside those worthy contenders, based on its versatility, safety and the beneficial impact that it has had, and continues to have, worldwide—especially on hundreds of millions of the world’s poorest people.</blockquote>
Thalidomide is also used on humans, being a very effective drug against blood cancer.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3043740/
[RL: This is off topic. Any further comments in this direction will be moved to OM. Be more careful.]
This is not the post for more bullshit about vaccines.
Take it elsewhere.
Warned
Fuck me I hate this shit, Ivermectin is widely used in humans and has an excellent safety profile it has been so beneficial in treating parasite born disease it won the inventors a Nobel peace prize.
Whilst its efficacy against Covid is hotly contested it is not dangerous at the correct doses.
[RL: Not the thread for this discussion.]
Ireland!
When my wife asked "Who won?" I replied "We did." "Who's we?" she asked. Mac1 just smiled…..
I dare not look, lest the grief & post-match autopsies of the sportswriters are too overwhelmingly gruesome.
What was the score?
As expected COP26 against fossil fuels is down to the wire.
COP26 latest: India and China push back on fossil fuels | Financial Times (ft.com)
India and China quite rightly wondering how all he concrete and steel the world demands is going to get made if they can't use coal.
On the other hand, the Saudis appear to back the current text.
Wait for Russia and Australia to weigh in within minutes.
We should do this more often. Just for the moral scrumming.
Good to see those moral leaders the Saudis such have a high regard for humanity; shame about Jamal Khashoggi tho. 😠
🙄 *have such
On the button…
What about someone with a …'split personality'?
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
Another bonny young nephew welcomed to me Irish clan side around 7 am this morning. Took his time arriving but his granddad was a bit of a late arriver to some parties too.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=bxguidIvTcQ
All well. Texts n pix will be flyin round te whanau today. 😊
Warm congratulations.
Kia ora for that, e kuia.
I should have said another grand-nephew added to the clans – he’s of Irish & Scottish heritage.
Any kilt-wearers there yesterday, Patricia?
Any pipes?
Years ago Norm used to play for the Highland dancers and a pipe band, as did my grandfather on Mum's Scottish side. Irish pipes in my Father's family. However a heart problem made keeping the bag inflated rather a problem for hubbie Norm. He can still do the intricate fingering on the chanter so the guitar replaced all that.
Let us hope we beat this virus. I read briefly this a.m. that India have a possible better vaccine.? We also need better outcomes from COP. for your grand nephew and his peers. Did you read Andrea Vance on 3 waters? Cheers Gezza.
Yep – have read Andrea’s excellent OP.
Even commented on it below.
Me too. Had to give up with a hiatus hernia. Keeping the bag inflated was just too much pressure on the diaphragm and the pain afterwards was just not worth the effort. Can't do much gardening for the same reason. 🙁
However Scottish Country dancing keeps me fit and feeds the cultural void.
Oh Macro thank you for a great laugh. We have been there many a time You must be a fit guy if you still do that.Pipes are not for everyone. As a friend said "I love pipes…over the water…. waaaay over the water.''
.
.
Drat. Hopefully this time…
Norm says "The Battle's O'er" Very good.
A Scottish Soldier's comparatively contemporary I guess, but I love how they play that here, personally.
Hey Patricia I was out at the fence watching a new young male pukeko who was strolling past downstream & is trying to work out whether he should come closer when this thought suddenly occurred:
Do you mind asking Norm how Pipe Bands choose their tartan?
Not sure Gezza. Norm says 'probably by committee' lol
“New Zealand claims the highest number of pipe bands per capita in the world. ceilidh — are all are danced in New Zealand. The New Zealand Academy of Highland and National Dancing and the international Scottish Official Board of Highland Dancing run the competitive sport, with children dancing from as young as three.”
https://www.pressreader.com/new-zealand/weekend-herald/20131123/283558038367960
https://www.mackilts.com/tartan_questions.htm
https://wellingtonredhackle.co.nz/a-bit-of-history
Tawa Pipe Band’s name is now the Wellington Red Hackle Pipe Band
Their tartan is Red Hackle
Ha. That's a tad nostalgic – I recognise the exact location being not very far at all from our building site.
They built a new War Memorial, Red. I went to the opening. It was very moving. People spoke and read about Tawa residents from the Boer, First & 2nd World War times, & conditions in the Tawa.Flat district in those years, what happened to men (& women) who came back damaged, the 1918 flu etc.
Were you still here when it was built?
No. We lived in Tawa from 2002 to 2009, and left for Aus in 2013.
They’ve re-landscaped & redeveloped Grasslees Reserve & the children’s playground adjacent to the indoor Swimming Pool too. Put in a big Japanese-style curving bridge linking the play area to the park area & installed a pay-for barbecue there.
Quite an impressive job. Might take & post you a pic here sometime.
I love living in Tawa. Close to Porirua Shopping Complexes (free parking & good access to everything), Kenepuru Community Hospital services (same deal with parking), hardly ever need to go into the city proper.
Gezza. Norm says you are right. He asked to hear it again and the 1st 3 notes are the same, and a similar tune. lol He is quite nonplussed
Tell Norm he’s a real man. Real men have no probs having another think & deciding they were wrong becos their egos don’t get in the way.
From what you’ve posted recently, Norm sounds like my kind of bloke. 👍🏼
Well worth read
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/126906088/covid19-a-paper-on-vaccination-in-pregnancy-coauthored-by-simon-thornley-has-been-panned-by-experts-around-the-world
. The paper is being circulated in anti-vaccination groups and some online publications.
There are, however, numerous problems with the paper: It contains unfounded speculation, and ignores a considerable body of evidence on the vaccine’s safety. Its conclusions also appear to be at odds with the authors’ own explanations of their work.
published in a journal founded and edited by an American anti-vaccination campaigner,
Thornley and Brock’s paper is said to be a reanalysis of an influential study published in April by the Centre for Disease Control (CDC), which was based on a database of pregnant people given an mRNA Covid-19 vaccine between December 2020 and February 2021.
That study found the rate of miscarriages among the vaccinated group was within the expected range.
That article in Stuff is detailed and explains things well.
Thornley is a key "Plan B" person – thank heavens we didn't follow their advice.
Yes i thought that too US
Dude's almost gone full Wakefield, huh.
Cherry-picking miscarriages to go antivax seems somehow worse than just championing disease spread before we had a vaccine. Appropriating others' grief when many are already over-analysing their choices to blame themselves is brutal.
Andrea Vance even handed and sensible about 3 Waters Reform.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/126933172/three-waters-opposition-sees-some-of-the-worst-political-impulses-to-leak-out
Kia ora for that, Stephen.
You’re right. An excellent, informative, measured & thoughtfully-constructed article.
100%
I had to double check the author of that article. Bryan Cadogan, Clutha Distict Mayor, also wrote about the rhetoric . .
https://www.stuff.co.nz/southland-times/opinion/300452405/rancid-racial-rhetoric-mean-were-missing-the-actual-problem-with-three-waters
This maybe so but the city I live in, Porirua, has one of the poorest communities and yet the highest rates in the country, higher than measured against Auckland mansions. This is because we pay the city rates for Porirua and a proportion for Wellington. Go figure. The last increase was some 4 months ago, a whopping 8%. If the city has to pay even more with those reforms you sure will see some boots on the ground and some votes going south.
And here comes a new vaccine from India.
full article here https: //www.independent.co.uk/asia/india/covid-india-covaxin-vaccine-lancet-b1956438.html
peer reviewed results : https://www.thelancet.com/action/showPdf?pii=S0140-6736%2821%2902000-6
Washington Post considers why some are vaccine hesitant. Makes sense to me and offers a solution for combatting reluctance.
Paywalled but https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/11/11/vaccine-hesitancy-psychology-regret/
"When people don’t feel the weight of making their own choice, they aren’t as tormented by the anticipated negative outcomes of their decision. "
Yeah well – we've spent 35 years being told that people are poor, sick, unhappy, etc. through making "bad decisions" – and that if they'd only made good decisions they'd see how fair, just, optimistic and sunny the world really is. This toxic, anxiety-inducing trash ideology is everywhere – and it drives people mad.
+1
Yeah – just STFU and let an always benevolent state do the thinking.
As opposed to benevolent corporations Redilogical so when we have a war against an enemy we all go our separate ways and let the enemy win.Your Exclusive Brethren,Brian Tamaki,Gloriavale anti govt rhetoric is waving a white flag / giving up cowardly caving in to a very small group of powerless people sabotaging the fight against covid not surprising from Clive Palmer country.
I do know some people who are indecisive about ordinary choices. Yet when someone else decides for them their doubts fade away usually with a shrug.
We are talking about the hesitant to get vaccinated group not decisive ones. Be interesting to see just how many teachers drop out of the workforce next week.
To be fair my not so good financial position is due to my shit decisions, of course why I made those shit decisions could keep a psychiatrists and social scientist going for a while I expect,
Yeah but sometimes one persons shit decision can be another's principled decision.
I have no doubt that if I had purchased the cheap properties I had been offered over the years I would now be extremely wealthy. I however stuck to my principle that one only needs one house to live in and I would never live off someone else's earnings.
I've stuck to that and still only own the house I live in – financially much poorer.
There are those who would clearly believe that those decisions were poor decisions and even that I cut off my nose to spite my face.
I understand perfectly the trade-off but I'm comfortable with that. A capitalist I'll never be. I've lost jobs, promotions and income for standing on principles – Sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do.
The thing I've learned over the years is to never regret the decisions you make – you don't know what would have happened if you had made a different one. I've had friends who chased the dollar – including renovating rental properties – some are millionaires, some lost their house and went bankrupt, I've had friends who went to better jobs who have done really well and friends who have had horrific on the job accidents in their first week leaving them permanently disabled.
What I do know is that luck plays an enormous part in what actually happens. It is never just about individual decisions. Even the family (and community) you were born into makes an enormous difference.
This individual self made man bullshit is so often just that.
Totally agree with your position DOS. My car is 21 years old. But we are wise and thoughtful. The "Indecisives" are an important group whose future in the community needs tolerance and understanding and hopefully a change of heart. Not you. Not me. They.
to DOS at 10.1.4.1 : I applaud the frame-of-reference on which you make your decisions. How different society would be if more worked from same.
At least you can live and rest in peace with yourself.
Regarding advancement, I heard my father (pressed to apply for promotion by peers) say he could never do that on backs of others.
Yes but dont blame other people or "the system dude".
After my divorce I could have bought a cheap doer upper ,I had a brain fart bought a ute and stuck some in kiwisaver, if I'd been clever I'd own a house worth $100k more than what I paid for it ,even if I'd done nothing to last I less than 3 years, how I'll never own property again and hope the state will help me when I can no longer earn a roof over my head,
But it certainly isnt the systems fault.
Yes but don't blame other people or "the system dude".
Of course other people and the system cause problems as well. Standing on principles means bucking the system often or disagreeing with people who are in leadership positions but are unaccepting of disagreement. Whether you get those people in charge of you is part of the "luck". I've had people try to help my career and others to destroy it – you're just trying to argue the self made man from the other side of the argument. What you are saying is that if you don't conform and support the system then you are responsible for the system spitting you out like a piece of trash – nah systems need changing – they are sexist and racist and classist – it is perfectly OK to put some responsibility for peoples circumstances, including your own, on those systems and on those people who make those decisions.
We are all products of the institutions and social paradigms we grow up with.
well said +1000
At one point in my teaching I had a pupil who would totally stress until we could bring the decision to a binary. This? or that?
Funnily enough, I made shit decisions in my 20s that ended up me being employed in the same good place for a decade so far.
Plain luck that the (then) obscure stuff I did for enough points to qualify for allowances (rather than "studying for my career") cropped up in a vacancy that appeared just when I was looking to change careers.
That's one reason I put all this personal responsibility rhetoric in the bin.
Sure, if you choose to murder someone or embezzle, without any external coercion, that'll probably still screw you a decade from now. But most of the rest of it, most day to day choices, they don't do shit compared to the forces of luck and the forces of other people's decisions – government, corporate, inventors, dude who has a whim one day, branch that falls on your head.
But it's a great excuse to write people off and not help them: "poor decisions". As if everything one owns can't be lost overnight.
In the end, out of a force of about 35,000 officers, fewer than three dozen refused the vaccine.
The simpler explanation is they had bills to pay next week.
So. Obviously not that anti.
Or they would stick to "their choice" to refuse the vaccine and abandon their job.
Given that there are some people who are reluctant to vaccinate, and we agree that vaccination is important, then I would have thought a possible solution could be reasonably considered.
Some people are scared of making a mistake by getting the jab.
If the helpers understood this and listened to the reluctant one explain why they feared making this mistake, maybe a few more might change their mind. Let's not cloud it with "let an always benevolent state do the thinking." Unhelpful.
Wrong 'fossil fuel' for NZ
"New Zealand won a Fossil award on the penultimate day of COP26, for Climate Change Minister James Shaw's refusal to update the country's National Determined Contribution to constraining global temperature rises."
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/pro-talks-nz-awarded-humiliating-fossil-status-at-cop26
.
Eek❗️
Embarrassing for Shaw & The Greens, caught between a rock & a hard place by political pragmatism. ☹️
Having a campfire will win you an earth murderer award from that lot. Wouldn’t worry too much about it
"that lot"are aligned with the Green Movement….Shaws constituency.
The LGB Alliance UK was formed when some of the members of Stonewall who raised concerns about the obliteration of same sex attraction support within the organisation were ignored, and/or branded transphobic.
Stonewall, along with Mermaids attempted to brand this organisation a hate group, and opposed it receiving charitable status. They had their annual conference a couple of weeks ago.
For those interested, Allison Bailey's speech from the LGB Alliance has now been posted.
https://youtu.be/Otbfv45TRK0
This is the kind of ideology that inspired the LGB Alliance formation:
The Diary of a Hole.
I'm struck by the lack of self-awareness, the coercive language, and the dismantling of the sex classes even while discussing genitals.
I have no hesitation in saying that I would not seek an intimate physical relationship with a transman, as a heterosexual women.
Yuk, can't even get past the first sentence. And it's not gender critical feminists that talk about sexual intimacy in terms of which hole to stick things in.
The big conversation yet to be had is whether society should majorly adapt language, concepts, laws, conventions around the mental illness of a small number of people. No idea if the author has gender dysphoria, but it's hard to not see the dehumanising language arising from a disturbed state in relation to human bodies and feelings.
Beyond that, there’s a question of why so many women want to do away with women’s culture, and the relationship between that and growing up and living in large scale misogyny.
Afraid to tell you but after a such promising start, the interweb degenerated into a disgusting, misogynistic place with a seemingly never ending stream of offensive vitriol and hate.
And links like that get passed around constantly.
/
Aē, and part of the issue here is that social media in particular is rushing to uphold gender identity while at the same time actively practising misogyny. There are really good reasons why so many women are both afraid and really angry about the language changes being forced on women alongside that.
https://twitter.com/ariana_erbon/status/1459248111575080960
Talking about front holes and meat bodies was for a time completely acceptable in the pro-queer left. No idea if it still is or if they've come to their senses.
Andreia Nobre had posted a good thread back in 2020 about the global reality of women. It's a good thread but too long to post here directly.
Yes, I'm afraid we have to turn taxonomy upside down , the old way of classifying plants and animals by the manner of their reproduction strategies,(binary sex)is not inclusive of how a minority of folk see themselves.
Bowdlerise the dictionaries, a new prudishness has come to town
Who we feel attracted to sexually has everything to do with sex organs
It's hardly fetishishism , it's how most of us work
@Molly,
Thanks,I set aside this morning to watch and very pleased I did.I'm in the process writing to Ingrid Leary Labour MP for Taieri,her electorate office Has suffered a graffiti attack,she purports it to be anti-transgender and when on to spread fur mis-information.I unable to link but it will be found in the November 4th edition of the ODT.
Haven’t read this yet, posting for later.
https://twitter.com/reutersfacts/status/1444036349015826435?s=21
Oliver Sutherland: Justice and Race – E-Tangata
“All that was wrong with our system of justice was typified by the scene of a middle-aged, middle-class male Pākehā magistrate or judge sitting in judgement on a young Māori woman and deciding that her background and her family were so bad, so worthless, that she should be taken from them and locked up.”
Thanks for posting. The article is a worthwhile read.
A rather horrifying read. The worst is the final paragraph that makes clear that by still incacerating children the likelihood of continuing institutional racism is high. It also highlights the deepest dark side of democracy in that there is little to prevent a white majority turning on an ethnic minority and in particular, a minority that are our treaty partners. By always defending democracy as an absolute and without recognising its warts we give a free hand to the right to play the democracy card at any point where they consider Maori action is gaining too much. This is most evident at present in the 3 waters debate.
This deserves a post. But struggling to write coherent ones at present. I'll try.
Our “justice system” doesn’t work well for anyone. Even less well for Māori youth.
It would be good if we actually tried Democracy. Then we could sort out "the warts".
Minority rights are always dependent on the goodwill and fairness of the majority. No system of Government can fix that. Unless a repressive minority is in control. Who then tend to look after their own advantage, and not other minorities.
Noting that apart from a very vocal minority, most Pakeha New Zealanders have either accepted or supported Waitangi claims, amoung other things.
If we are looking after, all, our people, then the majority are much more likely to agree to extending rights to others. Very often poor people see that wealthy people are keen on extending rights to other people. But only if the poor, pay for it.
Pakeha that do not want three waters to be privatised or sold, may consider the fact that more Māori rights, may help prevent further selloffs.
I have always thought that Maori control of anything is the surest way to prevent selloff to foreign interests. The Treaty has been the only thing that has consistently stood in the way of indiscriminate foreign control. The right recognise this and fight tooth and nail to prevent it. They need everything to be for sale. Maori or Iwi control is the closest thing that NZ has to recreating a commons and we should therefore embrace and support it.
That’s food for thought, there, Subliminal.
There’s a potential issue with tribal elites perhaps ending up replacing the old landed gentry or corporate rich listers & them actually flogging off or leasing previously common (state) property – but as Māori hapu iwi & marae Committees (& members themselves) become better informed & quakified & skilled in the actual management & development of Māori-controlled assets – and this IS happening – there’s an inbuilt control mechanism for those marae & hapu iwi whose rangatira authority is still strongly derived from ongoing nga tangata consent, & which can be removed should consent be denied by enuf of those who feel their collective mana is being harmed by unwise leadership decisions.
But ownership & kaitiakitanga in this Kiwiland of ours needs to be fairly shared betwen generations-resident Pākehā & we need to get much better at how Māori & Pākehā hui & kōrero to best achieve restoring & honouring the mana of the land, the forests, the beaches, fisheries, waterways, ngahere, & of all those who feel part of this land.
That’s how I see things at this point, anyway.
@Sub..
I hope the penny will drop (for a number around here)with that last sentenence.
La Nina persists.
https://twitter.com/BOM_au/status/1459398829141282816?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1459398829141282816%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fpublish.twitter.com%2F%3Fquery%3Dhttps3A2F2Ftwitter.com2FBOM_au2Fstatus2F1459398829141282816widget%3DTweet
https://www.stuff.co.nz/opinion/300453493/gender-selfid-raises-complex-questions-its-not-transphobic-to-ask-them
Brilliant article in todays Stuff, by two Gender Critical feminists. This is the first time since about 2018 -19 the msm have carried such article. This discussion needed to be had in the media well before bills such as BMDRR and Conversion Practices.
I would encourage anyone who rights off women with concerns about this bill as transphobic to read the article.
Oh well, its a brave new world, and it pays to be a man or a man who identifies as a women, just have the good sense not to be born a non male or have the good sense to trans into a man for a chance of a career and decent pay.
Vote Labour/Green -we will protect you from the phobes. 2023
This is good news the MSM finally have a counterpoint published….but I think it will be the only one.
Coming from the UK, I see NZ turbo-charged on identity politics. The UK now has some pushback on Stonewall and other transgender activists in the mainstream. The US has a strong Republican power and alternative media (neither of which, for the record, I'm not a fan of – but simply highlighting their narrative disruption).
NZ is an echochamber of identity politics with no real institutional pushback and very very very little media counterpoints. As Bryce Edwards has said, the cultural institutions are dominated by the progressive Left.
A big part of me can't help but say – you earnt it. Transgender activism is the close cousin of applied-CRT in schooling, the mad rush to deify Maori culture and language and promote quite a radical interpretation of the Treaty, the unthinking spread of White Privilege as some beyond-debate fact, the demonisation of masculinity, the gleeful ignorance as humanities studies ever expanding into new areas of grievance by academics who see their primary role as left-wing activism.
These strands all have a common link in identity politics and critical theories that now dominate academic and mainstream discussions. They inhere in the basic concept that language (for example "woman") is all power, and society is either oppressed or oppressor.
So when gender-critical feminists now say, hold on, there are some serious issues now, you'll forgive me if I hear the crowing of roosters coming home.
CRT in schooling?
I bet the farming lobby is pleased.
Critical Race Theory. Currently a trigger point for some "Freedom Fighters" in the US. Currently travelling to our shores where it will be translated into 'Tribunal Gravy Train' and pushback against NZ history being taught in primary schools.
Regrettably so. Very pertinent article on The Guardian today – excerpt from a new book on this very problem and how social media has been fostering this transfer of nutty far right dis/mis information world wide.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/nov/14/qanon-how-the-far-right-cult-took-australians-down-a-rabbit-hole-of-extremism
IFAIK CRT is an academic theory exclusive to higher education.
Clueless nazi fucks label any attempt by schools to examine the role of inequities in outcomes with a catchphrase.
https://twitter.com/TheGoodLiars/status/1455243036795998212
When did that ever stop those who abhor any reference to historical injustices?
2. it's not the progressive left in charge of institutions in NZ, it's liberals.
3. bloody maaris, there is no racism in NZ, what about the menz. When you put up some actual analysis rather than right wing talking points, you'll probably get some respect.
4. I take it you've not been a supporter of second wave feminism then. Colour me surprised.
4. Actually, it's more complex. Largely, I support second-wave feminism. Every human, including women, should have the equal opportunity to freely fulfil their life and they sure as hell didn't have that opportunity (everyone should read The Bell Jar).
However, I can't help but feel the kids have taken over kindergarten now, and some of the adults (including gender-critical feminists, who aren't necessarily all second-wave) sat by or endorsed the Frankfurt school, identity politics, and Left-wing domination of academia happening but are now are facing the consequences and feel aggrieved that they are now the ones on the sharp end of the "bigot/oppressor/etc" stick. When you redefine "harm" in such a tortured fashion, don't be surprised when it comes back to bite your own actions in the bum.
But to be honest, I feel sick at what is happening and the idea a Women's Refugee would, for example, have to accept a man. But we can't pretend this all magically fell from the sky.
3. Left-wing tropes of how non-Left wing people think is also no substitute for analysis, But since you asked, I can provide a few stats I have researched previously to provide a counter-weight for some of that, including that for example, male life is not all honey and milk:
Men in NZ:
times more likely than a female to die in a car accident
I've got references to back all that up, largely from Stats NZ. The Covid-19 figures may be more different now as that was early this year, but as far as I've seen it still remains strongly a male-fatality virus – which we hear zero about. If had been females with exactly the same statistics on Covid-19 fatalities, you can guarantee we would have howl upon howl of "femicide".
I'm off to play tennis now. Enjoy your day.
"Identity Politics" is bad, except if your identity is White Dude.
My comments in cursive 🙂
Well done Sabine. I hope James 2 gets to read your reply when he gets back from tennis.
Sabine's points are the perfect example of why more recent, and more militant, feminism is problematic.
My examples were never to show:
– females are to blame for all men's problems (they're not)
– females don't also suffer (they do)
– men can't do better (they can)
They were to illustrate that a blanket view of males as inherently privileged and which is pervading current discourse is both wrong and unhelpful. History has shat on the vast majority of men AND women for centuries.
So we all face different struggles and I'm all for constructive ways to allow different groups to flourish. But Sabine is playing the zero-sum game of current feminism whereby if females are in a bad position, it must be 'because (sexist) men' and the way to lift up females is by putting down males.
I also find it hilarious that biological (brain?) differences now exist to explain disparity in secondary school achievement between the differences…..but, 'because (sexist) men/society' why there are more male CEOs, engineers, etc than females.
And even if its true there is a biological basis for differential educational achievement, why are we not considering offering a more male centred approach to schooling? Or do we not want young men to succeed? Or is because we are now bias against traits and behaviours generally associated with males, such as competition and physicality?
The funny thing about female educational and economic success is it can lead to more inequality as study after study show women are far less likely to marry with lower socio-economic stuatus.
Young men are so rarely given positive encouragement these days. The saying is "girls can do anything" – boys, well, you're all potential rapists who need to change.
(Also, I completely agree with the ridiculousness of Self-ID, but I can assure you it is not men like me demanding the right to magically identify as women.)
Sabine's points are the perfect example of why more recent, and more militant, feminism is problematic.
Feminism isn't a hive mind, just as I suppose your comment indicates that masculism isn't as well. (Don't worry, I had to look it up so I could put you under some largeumbrella of a term as well.)
You just put down a list of life events that men statistically are higher represented, as if that has no context.
Here's one for you.
https://twitter.com/ariana_erbon/status/1212427311083130880
Did I upset you by not taking any responsability for the things that man do to themselves and others. Oh well. I can't help that either.
Did I ever state that i am a feminist? heck no. But i am a women, in a female body, that has scars to proof of its own issues with the things men do to those that they can abuse.
Did I ever claim that you or any other man would identify themselves into a place where women – the natal ones – used to congregate without male supervision? No i did not. I am in fact quite open abut calling them 'opportunists', or bearded men in robes, or AGP, or Cross dressers or just well other words that may be considered banable.
Do i know that man can suffer from male violence, totally, my stepfather abused my brother with the same gusto that he abused me. 🙂 I think they call men like him now, "minor attracted person" or MAP in short.
The funny thing about female education is that they don't need to marry at all anymore just so that they have a roof over their head and a square meal to eat. They also don't have to perform marital duties anymore in order to have that roof over their heads and that meal to eat. Neither do these women with education and jobs need to ask their husbands for pin money. Nor do they need to suffer silently trough the beer infused friday night bash.
Young man get the same opportunities as women, they get teh same education, the same student loans and can then apply for the same jobs. And yet, the wage disparity is still there with women with the same education and doing the same job earning less.
But fear not dear James, these stats will soon be all meaningless as anyone who wants can opt into womenhood, you don't even need to put lipstick on, and then Equity! Men still don't need to hire women, they can now hire men who identify as women, and thus diversity and equity is achieved.
Maybe go out yourself, find yourself some young men and teach them about self respect, consent, conflict resolution that does not involve drugs, booze, or fights.
And lastly, women are not therapy for men. It is not our duty to affirm men either as men or as women just because they need affirmation.
We have our own lifes to life, our own human experiences to live, and we'd like to so without fear of rape and death, without having to worry about being filmed in dressing rooms and toilets, and without men in our womens only spaces. Not that that matters to anyone, clearly.
Maori are higher than all white man in most of those negatives your screeched out of your keyboard, do you say the same about them Sabine??
Yes I do, i am pretty much outspoken that way.
In fact i have had some really good discussion with Maori about violence, drug abuse, consent, further education, and the likes. And i have compared with Maori – women of course, our own stress reactions to certain situations. Heck, i don't watch Once we were Warriors anymore, did it one time, and needed a cry a shower and stiff drink half way through. The rape of the daughter in that movie is my rape – i just managed to survive.
Is it really that uncomfortable to understand that violence is everywhere, that people die of it, in large numbers, and that more often then not the violence comes from men, specifically the sexual violence.
Men are hard wired from 100 000 plus years of evolution to be aggressive risk takers when young, that's not an excuse btw, working out how to educate and raise them so its controlled or channeled to harmless area is what's needed, rugby is good for that.
Where did James say these bad stats are the fault of women, & if he didn’t, why are you so seemingly obsessed with pointing out for every one of them that these indicated problems are not the fault of women?
Nice to someone’s looking to address the downsides of being a man, something that often gets lost in the all men are bastards rhetoric of (some quite genuinely) oppressed women.
Some men oppress other men too. The pricks that have & like to wield power don’t just threaten & abuse females.
And there’ve been plenty of times & places where I wouldn’t venture into just carrying on walking on the same footpath past dodgy-looking males (or groups of them) at night too.
🙄 * Nice to see…
please point to a 'all men are bastards' claim?
Seriously please do. Most of us here that discuss issues that center the male being of men above the well being of women – i.e. men in places were we consider us vulnerable, i.e. changing rooms – are quite careful to point out that not all the issues committed by all man, or by any random man at any random time , but that generally until we have an issue with a particular bloke we don't know if they are dangerous or not. See the women in England who got arrested, kidnapped, raped, killed and dumped by a senior Cop this year in March. And thus our threat assessment is that if i don't know you and i consider you a potential danger, i am crossing the street or alter may way home completely.
Women are also not responsible for holding men to account for the violence they inflict on men. Men should do that. Keep a lid on your own. Start raising boys to be less violent and find other means of conflict resolution and teach them the concept of consent.
And last but least, i would like to point out that if you cross footpath when you see dodgy guys, what do you think women do?
Gezza,me and many others are probably unaware of your unique…
'
It's Sabine employing rhetoric. Don't take it literally and get to know her style, because she's saying important things.'
Sabine:
“please point to a ‘all men are bastards’ claim?”
G: I haven’t seen any such claim made here
“Seriously please do. Most of us here that discuss issues that center the male being of men above the well being of women – i.e. men in places were we consider us vulnerable, i.e. changing rooms – are quite careful to point out that not all the issues committed by all man, or by any random man at any random time , but that generally until we have an issue with a particular bloke we don’t know if they are dangerous or not. See the women in England who got arrested, kidnapped, raped, killed and dumped by a senior Cop this year in March. And thus our threat assessment is that if i don’t know you and i consider you a potential danger, i am crossing the street or alter may way home completely.”
G: Of course. That is completely understandable & sensible. Women have been forced to do that in numerous societies for millenia probably.
“Women are also not responsible for holding men to account for the violence they inflict on men. Men should do that. Keep a lid on your own.”
G: Sure. I’m a 55 kilo slim chap being monstered by a 200 kilo gang member gorilla who thinks I looked the wrong way at him and his thug mug mates. How do you reckon my telling him it’s not a good idea to be violent with me becos he’ll get into trouble & one day he might look back & regret being a bully is going to turn out?
“Start raising boys to be less violent and find other means of conflict resolution and teach them the concept of consent.”
G: Me & my late wife weren’t able to have any kids, sadly – & to our lifelong regret. But if I did I couldn’t have given birth to them. That requires a woman. I was raised not to be violent by a father AND a mother. 3 boys, 1 girl, the youngest, in our whanau. There were two rules we boys were all taught as toddlers – 1. Don’t fight, & 2. Boys, you NEVER hit a girl. Ever. Even if she hits you.
Boys learn at school, in the street, at various places yep, peaceful ways of conflict resolution are the absolute best way to go. But you learn pretty quickly also that if some prick starts to constantly insult & pick on you physically, sometimes the fastest & most permanent solution is to punch him in the nose. A bloody nose is still a good, fast way of concluding negotiations with bullies, I gather.
Can’t imagine ever wanting to have sex with a non-consenting woman. Where’s the mutual enjoyment in that?
“And last but least, i would like to point out that if you cross footpath when you see dodgy guys, what do you think women do?”
G: They do the same or they find another way home. I know I would, in their shoes.
And last I looked the every single one of these boys that apparently so badly need 'fixing' – has a mother.
While at the same time one of the most reliable predictors of a being in prison is fatherlessness.
Really…'immaculate conception!
Citation needed.
Photographed on a wall in a corridor a few years ago at Welly Hospital. The other thing no one – including the victims – seems to want to talk about. Men who are subjected to regular violence by women.
Apparently the numbers are suprisingly large, but men of course don't want to admit it.
@Gezza
Apparently the numbers are suprisingly large, but men of course don't want to admit it.
No-one is allowed to admit it.
This is not tongue-in-cheek suggestion, but I'm sure many would support a men's only post talking about this if you men wanted to discuss it.
@Molly
I accept you've made that suggestion in good faith, but I'm not in a position to accept it.
Maybe someone else will. It'd be an interesting, informative and possibly helpful discussion.
We have a young man living on our property who woke up to his female partner holding a newly boiled kettle over him. She was eventually treated for psychosis. He remains single.
Came across this googling, Red. Of relevance, imo.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/domestic-violence-campaigners-accused-of-bias/T3P6Z7OWF2AJDG6VBCNKXC7BHM/?c_id=1&objectid=10410452
@Gezza.
That study is often cited.
There are some justified criticisms of their use of the CTS (Conflict Tactics Scale) which measures all acts of violence as equal.
eg. A violent act that puts someone in hospital is weighted equally with that patient having thoughts of revenge.
I looked into this with some time a few years back, but a quick search today found a good starting point is this article:
Not All Domestic Violence Studies Are Created Equal
I think their criticisms hold up to scrutiny, you may too if you look.
Yes, and were are the fathers?
In prison? Why is that? Who is at fault for that?
The mother? Really women are at fault for men behaving badly?
Gezza, I know you are probably just on a roll. But rape is an act of violence not intimacy. There is no mutual enjoyment, because that is not the point of a violation.
And they get raped anyway, like my friend and many others have been, with no evidence of 'mutual enjoyment'.
“Gezza, I know you are probably just on a roll. But rape is an act of violence not intimacy. There is no mutual enjoyment, because that is not the point of a violation.”
G:.Far canal, Molly. How frackin dense do you think I am? Of course it’s an act of blimmin violence, (or grossly disrespectful sexual assault based on selfish self-gratification, if she’s so drunk out of her tree she doesn’t know wtf’s really happening) not intimacy.
What I am saying is that the notion of raping a woman – having sex with without her cognisant consent – would never even enter my head. Like it wouldn’t for any normal, decent male with a good upbringing & no antisocial/sexual psychological or personality disorders.
““And last but least, i would like to point out that if you cross footpath when you see dodgy guys, what do you think women do?”
G: They do the same or they find another way home. I know I would, in their shoes.
And they get raped anyway, like my friend and many others have been, with no evidence of ‘mutual enjoyment’.”
G: I am very sorry that happened to your friend. I hope they caught the bastard & that he paid for it. It happens to men too, as several cases reported in the news have noted.
Frank Canal, Gezza.
It was you who clumsily joined sexual intimacy with rapre.
Go back. Re-read.
Consider this. Your first sentence is a definition of rape, why follow it up with any reference to enjoyment mutual or otherwise?
A related sentence might have been:
"Where does that idea of sexual violence come from for some?"
You make the assumption my friend was female, and so are the many others. And of course you should know by now, rape victims of any sex do not often find justice in our legal system. It's a work in very slow progress.
@ Molly
“Frank Canal, Gezza. It was you who clumsily joined sexual intimacy with rapre.
Go back. Re-read. “Can’t imagine ever wanting to have sex with a non-consenting woman. Where’s the mutual enjoyment in that?”
G: Absolute BS, Molly. I made a simple statement in two sentences that indicated clearly that I enjoy sex with women who want to enjoy it too, thus consent. YOU read into that what you wanted to. And decided to harangue for reasons I have reason to want to know.
“Consider this. Your first sentence is a definition of rape, why follow it up with any reference to enjoyment mutual or otherwise? A related sentence might have been: “Where does that idea of sexual violence come from for some?””
G: Already covered. But. What would be the point of my making any comments if I were to seek your guidance beforehand on what points or questions I might address? Bizarre attitude.
“G: I am very sorry that happened to your friend. I hope they caught the bastard & that he paid for it. It happens to men too, as several cases reported in the news have noted.
You make the assumption my friend was female, and so are the many others. And of course you should know by now, rape victims of any sex do not often find justice in our legal system. It’s a work in very slow progress.”
Yes, I did, because Sabine’s comment – to which I was initially responding – was about women in that situation, & there was nothing in your comment to indicate that you had departed from that reference frame.
I’ll bid you good evening at this point, I think, Molly. There are other topics that interest me now far more than your bad attempts at mind-reading & directing the conversation to your requirements. .
🙄 And decided to harangue ME for reasons I have NO reason to want to know.
Apologies for the poor proof-reading; I’m trying to watch the news on tv.
I asked you to consider maybe not discussing rape in the context of consensual sex. It muddies already difficult conversations. You are unwilling to do that, but it remains a problem in public discourse. I think we can do better if we take care to choose the right words to get our point across.
I asked you to change and said why, you considered it and said No.
Happy to leave it.
“I asked you to consider maybe not discussing rape in the context of consensual sex. It muddies already difficult conversations. You are unwilling to do that, but it remains a problem in public discourse. I think we can do better if we take care to choose the right words to get our point across.
I asked you to change and said why, you considered it and said No.”
G: You did NO SUCH THING. Go back & re-read what you wrote. Had you said this earlier, then the conversation would have gone completely differently. I am no better a mind-reader than you are. I can only see & respond to what is written, I cannot try to divine some alternate or deeper meaning from the ether or the lines between what you wrote.
Good evening, Molly. I suggest we leave it there.
@Gezza Did go back and look, and you are right I did not ask you to change, just stated I had a problem with it.
Any suggestion during this thread was not implicit.
It might have gone better, and I'm sorry it didn't.
Thank you Molly.
I appreciate your response.
No harm done. I tend to post saying just what I mean & no more. If you ever find me unclear, or ambiguous, please just ask questions to get me to clarify my intention or meaning. I will answer asap to avoid misunderstandings.
I better go get my dinner.
Gezza, it sounds you and i area bout the same size. Can you understand why i am tired of trying to keep myself safe from men that you too would props not entertain? Can you understand that women are equally tired?
I also don't have children, can't, like so many. But i am aunty to many, and I talk abut consent, control of ones fertility – for men and women btw, and that is what we can do and should do more often, because violence is everywhere.
so here we are, both trying to just navigate a world that is violent.
Maybe that is what is needed to be understood. That this type of world is good for no one.
Yes, I can understand your situation & tiredness with it, Sabine.
But the solution doesn’t just lie with men, unfortunately, as some would seem to have it.
Women have contributed to this state of affairs with violent men being too prevalent in our society.
Until more women accept & understand that the problem will not be solved by #men#, because it’s not just caused by men, we are pissing into the wind trying to employ various male role models to mentor essentially fatherless violent adolescent & older males – probably the most potentially dangerous animal on the planet.
That’s how I see this problem at the moment anyway – based on observation & some direct whanau experiences.
An NZ expert who understood this:
Can you clarify that for me here, because i am not sure what you are saying.
and also can you clarify why you think that male violence will not be solved by men, and who do you think will solve the problem?
Or are we to go back to the good old times when women knew their place, their limitations, and were seen but not heard? And if they got the bash they know why?
I had a couple of her books and she had some practical, effective, workable solutions, particularly amongst the prison population where she had such success.
My only critique is that she had a fairly narrow idea of healthy male expression, which might have meant those who didn't fit within have to look elsewhere..
and one thing that i will add to this before its end of day procedures.
Not all man are violent of rapists.
Not all man are disrespectful to women or men for that matter.
But while not all man are rapists, Most rapists are men.
And these rapists are prolific, and in many cases serial offenders until they get stopped and locked up.
And pretending that this is not true, or just coming from a place of misandry is lazy thinking.
And we can not fault women alone for the failure of men to control themselves. Women are not therapy. We do not exist to mother any man who has issues. We are not a therapeutic outlet for men.
“‘Women have contributed to this state of affairs with violent men being too prevalent in our society.’
Can you clarify that for me here, because i am not sure what you are saying.
“Until more women accept & understand that the problem will not be solved by #men#,”
and also can you clarify why you think that male violence will not be solved by men, and who do you think will solve the problem?”
……………………………..
G: Another day perhaps, Sabine. I can see it’s going to be a hard slog with potential for very terse & perhaps even angry exchanges as you seem to have a very narrow & fixed position on this / these issues.
“Or are we to go back to the good old times when women knew their place, their limitations, and were seen but not heard? And if they got the bash they know why?”
G: See what I mean? Do you seriously think my parents, & my equally-beloved “adopted” parents-in-law, lived their lives like THAT! We can possibly discuss this another time when you are in a less ridiculously hostile & silly mood.
And until if/when we do discuss this again, please have a think about why, if it’s men’s fault youths & men are so violent, then whose fault is it that young females are so viciously attacking each other these days – even on school grounds – & why some of them are even videoing these vicious head-kicking aassaults & putting it on social media so often that they’ve been reoorted &/ or commented on in msm print & tv media at times.
Sorry for typos in there. Too tired from my condition. Time for me to retire from this arena.
Thanks to KJT's post above, have spent sometime reading articles from E-Tangata, which should be a regular activity.
Catherine Delahunty's October 10th article "Fighting Poison", brought to mind the 2011 Green Chain documentary. Available to watch on NZ on Screen.
Both article and documentary are a recommendation for a rainy Sunday morning.
yes, they are consistently a good resource.
Deeply disturbing that this US style menacing of politicians and political opposites, prominent in the UK and Europe for awhile, is here and in Australia.
https://twitter.com/byroncclark/status/1457901902264365056
https://twitter.com/Sarah_Alice_X/status/1459399421565669382
At a conservative rally in western Idaho last month, a young man stepped up to a microphone to ask when he could start killing Democrats.
“When do we get to use the guns?” he said as the audience applauded. “How many elections are they going to steal before we kill these people?” The local state representative, a Republican, later called it a “fair” question.
In Ohio, the leading candidate in the Republican primary for Senate blasted out a video urging Republicans to resist the “tyranny” of a federal government that pushed them to wear masks and take F.D.A.-authorized vaccines.
And in Congress, violent threats against lawmakers are on track to double this year. Republicans who break party ranks and defy former President Donald J. Trump have come to expect insults, invective and death threats — often stoked by their own colleagues and conservative activists, who have denounced them as traitors.
From congressional offices to community meeting rooms, threats of violence are becoming commonplace among a significant segment of the Republican Party. Ten months after rioters attacked the United States Capitol on Jan. 6, and after four years of a president who often spoke in violent terms about his adversaries, right-wing Republicans are talking more openly and frequently about the use of force as justifiable in opposition to those who dislodged him from power.
[…]
But historians and those who study democracy say what has changed has been the embrace of violent speech by a sizable portion of one party, including some of its loudest voices inside government and most influential voices outside.
In effect, they warn, the Republican Party is mainstreaming menace as a political tool.
Omar Wasow, a political scientist at Pomona College who studies protests and race, drew a contrast between the current climate and earlier periods of turbulence and strife, like the 1960s or the run-up to the Civil War.
“What’s different about almost all those other events is that now, there’s a partisan divide around the legitimacy of our political system,” he said. “The elite endorsement of political violence from factions of the Republican Party is distinct for me from what we saw in the 1960s. Then, you didn’t have — from a president on down — politicians calling citizens to engage in violent resistance.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/12/us/politics/republican-violent-rhetoric.html
https://archive.li/QDzTX
I'm not going to defend any noose talk or symbolism – for anyone, regardless of whether it's metaphorical or not. But one nutter doth not make a crowd nor doth establish the counter-point. And shall we talk about the Left too? Such as Hamish Keith's twitter in response to the very recent attempted cancellation (slash drowning?) of Bryce Edwards:
Hamish Keith: Could you pop Bryce Edwards in the bin with the other contrarian nutters
alex: Be a bloody big bin – I sort of like the idea of a chain an engine block and a lake
Hamish Keith: concrete shoes!
Joe90, I think you're falling for the US-style left-leaning media who parrot anyone protesting anything remotely Right-wing or centrist = bad and violent, and anyone protesting BLM or anything progressive-Left = good and non-violent. Just yesterday, Weka and others had good comments challenging Left-leaning US media obsession with (anti-)Trump and the bad journalism this bias and unthinking can lead to, aka the Steele Dossier.
Just as we defend the human rights of criminals, we can defend the rights and freedom of people whose views or actions we may otherwise disagree with. Stuff has let loose today on the protestors – I see a clear narrative framing being developed that they're all QAnon loonatics importing Trumpism violence directly to NZ and anybody anti-mandate is a rabid anti-vaxxer.
But actually no, there's a huge cross-section of teachers, parents, nurses, and ordinary people fed up with continual knee-jerk reaction of "more state coercion, more!". Take a look at France – the home of the Paris commune and socialist presidents – who has huge protests against mandates and lockdowns. Many other countries have also had significant, broad protests against mandates and passports.
It suits the desired narrative to gaslight such protests as reflecting only a weirdo, 5G-Is-Cancer fringe, and supported by only a tiny sliver of Kiwis. It suits the desired narrative to dismiss concerns that aren't articulated in the highly-educated vocabularly preferred by the chardonnay socialists of Labour.
I'm waiting for about 5 months time when the Government is "persuading" everyone to get a boost (or lose their vaccine passport) because the vaccine is no longer effective…..and then every says hold on, wasn't the vaccine mandated because it's so effective and you promised "freedom" in return? Just one example of the problems with the vaccine mandate and passports – but that's right, we're all just weirdos and violent loonatics to question it.
"There's a huge cross section of teachers?" Is there? How do you know?
I said a huge "cross-section of teachers, parents, nurses, and ordinary people". Please don't purposely misquote me.
And yes, I believe there is a cross-section from what I've seen, first hand accounts, and interviews with people attending. For me, I'm an educated professional, non-religious, double vaxxed, but hugely against mandates and passports. I know of numerous people of different walks of life who feel the same, even if they didn't protest.
But the point is what is the right and best action? We have rights specifically to guard against the tyranny of the majority, and to requite strong and clear justification if we would seek to do so.
Except when it doesn't suit? 3 Waters should go ahead apparently, despite the majority of councils and voters strongly opposed, because the Minister of Local Government thinks its best.
So the minority is right sometimes…or only when it's a Labour-supporting minority?
3 Waters needs to go ahead in my burg because the farmer dominated regional council is unwilling or unable to enforce the conditions of a consent to dispose of dairy effluent.
The point of what is the right and best action? Is the right and best action what someone genuinely believes having weighed up multiple factors? Is that determined by polls and feedback?
The right action to deal with covid from the beginning according to some was whatever was different to what actions were decided on.
No border closures, no lockdowns, no MIQ would have been the choices of (probably) a minority. Those thinking that way certainly saw themselves as right.
If noisy protest groups and individuals through history 'bucking the system' were proven to be right in the long run and became lauded for their courage, is it possible a government acting against the demands of noisy protest groups might be proven to be right in the long run?
Three waters was polling about 50/50 before the well funded and very loud "anti" campaign started.
You have to wonder why the anti three waters campaign is getting so much money, if not from those with an eye on making money from future privatisation. Something which most New Zealanders tend to oppose. After our past experience. Privatisation which will be difficult if three waters goes ahead.
Over 80% opposed Keys asset sales, which National did regardless.
If you go by numbers protesting. TPPA, which also polled more than 80% against, asset sales, Generation zero etc, had a lot more people on the street than the latest Pro Pollution, anti-vacc and “freedom” protests.
You've nailed it.
"Three waters was polling about 50/50 before … "
What Poll was that? I'm sure you will provide a link, won't you.
Despite having LGNZ in it's pocket, despite spending large on dishonest propaganda, despite lying about Council's being able to 'opt out', 60 of 67 councils oppose 3 Waters, and only 19% of the public support it. If it barks like a dog…
James2 France is a completely different country to NZ same with the US.
If your not happy with NZ why not just move to a country that suits your agenda.
Your long winded rant was more of a reflection of your disappointment that not everything goes your way in our democracy.
Less is more in politics.
No trickledrown, "less is not more in politics" I don't agree because…
We have been there where sweeping changes were made to laws to assist the rich, and when questioned "Akshually it creates jobs" Trouble was the low paid part time contract jobs… We were not even given a choice. Minister of Tourism Key "Huge earnings for NZ" That has been proven to be bunkim. 4000 000 visitors a year, stretching our infrastructure, and costing more than tourism earned the country.
Endless migrants and overseas students able to be brought in as "Cheap labour" which lowered wages even further.
Small Government meant poorly funded infrastructure to support all that, so poorly paid nurses teachers and state buildings in poor repair oh and tax cuts for the well off. We don't want more of that.
But I agree with the rest of your comment.
James 2 Tickledrown is saying you are inflating your case with generalisations. "A Labour supporting minority" is rubbish. The 3 waters was an election pledge. Labour got a majority. Polls have been held by Labour to check the majority were in favour of covid decisions. The press were allowed to ask endless questions. Now people are being asked to vaccinate to lower pressure on staff in hospital, and staff overseeing home self isolation. James2 mandates have been used since the 1940's. There is a choice. Nobody will hold anyone down. Some intelligent people are fearful for a number of reasons, some do not want the vaccine, many marched drove and protested for their own beef with the Government. 1080 argument, American gun Lobby, Right wing groups Religious groups. As nearly 90% of the eligible are vaccinated with one or two doses there is little resistance, and vaccinating children will bring our eligible to an excellent percentage. Civil disobedience is not new, what is new is the toxic nature of the exchanges through the internet. However listening to some exchanges in the Australian parliament.. we are a tame bunch. Quote "You are a lily livered snake with legs on your pot belly" being a colourful one that comes to mind. Finally marching or disagreeing does not always make the participants right. Boosters have also been around for a long time for obvious reasons. Take your blue glasses off James2.
Long winded is what I am criticising less is more a more focused argument is more effective.
Oh I misunderstood my bad
Good news.
Northwestern University researchers have developed a new injectable therapy that harnesses “dancing molecules” to reverse paralysis and repair tissue after severe spinal cord injuries.
In a new study, researchers administered a single injection to tissues surrounding the spinal cords of paralyzed mice. Just four weeks later, the animals regained the ability to walk.
The research will be published in the Nov. 12 issue of the journal Science. The study is now available online.
By sending bioactive signals to trigger cells to repair and regenerate, the breakthrough therapy dramatically improved severely injured spinal cords in five key ways: (1) The severed extensions of neurons, called axons, regenerated; (2) scar tissue, which can create a physical barrier to regeneration and repair, significantly diminished; (3) myelin, the insulating layer of axons that is important in transmitting electrical signals efficiently, reformed around cells; (4) functional blood vessels formed to deliver nutrients to cells at the injury site; and (5) more motor neurons survived.
https://news.northwestern.edu/stories/2021/11/dancing-molecules-successfully-repair-severe-spinal-cord-injuries/
Wonderful news and could be life changing. The repair of the myelin may be great for pain relief as well. Real breakthrough territory.
Thank you for this. If this therapy pans out it's will be a miracle.
I know full well the world is not perfect, and I have no expectation it ever will be. To some irreducible degree life is suffering. Every love story that goes on long enough will end in tragedy.
But perfections are without limit – we can take unconstrained hope from not only how far we have come, but how much further we might go.
An ephemeral moment.
All we need to do is get through to the end of this century…and all will be..well..according to?-Uncle Sam?
My younger brother got a cochlear implant about a decade ago and he's still immensely grateful. So I'm reasonably sure that if this means disabled people get to have a life beyond their wheelchairs or beds – they won't regard it as 'ephemeral'.
Love trumps fear. https://www.stuff.co.nz/pou-tiaki/300453090/let-transgender-people-know-we-belong-thats-really-all-we-want
Sacha, most people love and support their children. Most members of the public support transgender people.
The discussion is not about acceptance, it is about the foreseeable but not discussed negative impacts of legislative and institutional change.
(I find this comment somewhat disingenuous, since you have repeatedly and publicly removed yourself from this discussion).
Given that it's Transgender Awareness Week tomorrow, it seemed relevant. No discussion needed.
Why bother then!
Not everybody who visits here feels the urge to discuss things.
Why do you think they come here..then?
To read. Like a really large proportion of people have always done on all blogs. #lurkers
Smooth.
What is your problem?
I thought it was a smooth reply to my original comment, that's all.
They'd have 0 to read if people weren't here to discuss.
Some of us have always posted stuff without expecting a discussion. For years. Nothing new.
*some stuff.
where did the edit option go?
Camden Council, after consultation with the public decided to replace ordinary pedestrian crossing with a transflag to celebrate Transgender Awareness Week.
https://twitter.com/CamdenCouncil/status/1458037122632388614?s=20
As you can see from the replies below, they didn't consult with members of the public that also used the crossing that had special needs, or drivers that didn't understand what the new markings represented.
Instead of thinking through this and putting the flags on vertical public spaces, they came up with a stupid idea. Passed it by those within the trans representatives, and did not consider the impact on other road users.
Including police horses who although trained, do not like walking on unfamiliar markings…
https://twitter.com/i/status/1446541868246908934
and certainly Trump does fear love
Fortunately, "Doughnut" hung up her Sten long ago.
Wearing a military beret and a Polish wartime resistance armband, 94-year-old Wanda Traczyk-Stawska stunned the crowd at a pro-EU rally when she thundered "Be quiet, stupid boy! You lousy bastard" at a member of a far-right group attempting to disrupt the gathering over a loudspeaker.
https://news.yahoo.com/still-fighting-wwii-warsaw-uprising-062707290.html
Netherlands going in to a partial lockdown as cases surge past 16,000 a day!
But its not much of a lockdown.
"The new restrictions are not a hard lockdown; shops and restaurants will stay open but must adhere to curfews as well as social distancing and vaccine certificates while four guests are still allowed in the home. Cinemas and theatres will remain fully open."
And the local pro-pla*ue mob think they're hard done by.
Austria is to introduce a lockdown for unvaccinated people in two of Europe’s worst-hit coronavirus regions from Monday and could extend it across the country, the chancellor, Alexander Schallenberg, has said.
Millions of people not fully vaccinated against Covid in the regions of Upper Austria and Salzburg will be allowed to leave their homes only for reasons considered essential to life, such as going to work, grocery shopping or visiting the doctor, Schallenberg said – measures believed to be unprecedented in Europe.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/nov/12/austria-province-to-place-millions-of-unvaccinated-people-in-covid-lockdown
I don't understand curfews – Netherlands aren't the only place to do them, as I recall.
I mean, how are they supposed to work to limit disease, getting everyone to rush out in the same 10 hour period? It just seems weird action for action's sake, while still spreading the disease.
But I guess actually controlling the disease and saving lives might put a hairdresser's into liquidation, and we can't have that.
Wait until the 5g loons hear about this.
Engineers have successfully transferred digitally encoded information wirelessly using nuclear radiation instead of conventional technology.
Radio waves and mobile phone signals relies on electromagnetic radiation for communication but in a new development, engineers from Lancaster University in the UK, working with the Jožef Stefan Institute in Slovenia, transferred digitally encoded information using “fast neutrons” instead.
The researchers measured the spontaneous emission of fast neutrons from californium-252, a radioactive isotope produced in nuclear reactors.
Modulated emissions were measured using a detector and recorded on a laptop.
https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/news/nuclear-radiation-used-to-transmit-digital-data-wirelessly
But, but, but I got one of those in my vaccination. The Slovene language was a bit difficult at first but my on arm language translator has been great. I won't bore you with the upside of this research in practice on my arm and inside me but hopefully some of the laggards will get this as well.
If it's a rainy Sunday where you are, or if it isn't, this is good:
https://behindthehedge.wordpress.com/2013/10/24/saul-verne/
Canadian John Richardson looks at similarities and differences between Jules Verne's novel Paris in the Twentieth Century, which was unknown before his great grandson found the manuscript in 1989, and John Ralston Saul's Voltaire's Bastards, a book still as important as when it appeared in the early 1990s – more so now perhaps, if we still have time to learn.
Both Verne and Saul describe a world which has lost human meaning, in which individuals carry on within the system they’ve inherited, unquestioning, never imagining the possibility of a different way, let alone a better one, deriving little joy from their petty advancements. Verne’s novel is disturbing because it is at once absurd and prescient. Such a society in fiction seems impossible, but our own society is a pea in the same pod. Saul’s sensibly argued examination is terrifying because he is brutally correct. Modern society is an organism which serves only its meaningless self, not the humans who service it and are indifferently sloughed like so many skin cells or fingernail clippings.
A technocratic, systematic society always has answers, whether or not those answers are helpful. But, as Saul concludes of societies such as ours
October Seymour:
Dictate the mandate …
"Act would change the law so setting health and safety measures, such as requiring vaccine certificates, is permitted, and cannot be subject to claims of a breach of privacy or discrimination. That could be done with a change to health and safety laws, though if it was possible through a public health order, it could be implemented more quickly."
Seymour said the Government, as any other employer, should be able to decide which public sector employees needed to be vaccinated, while private sector employers should decide for their workforces and clients.
NZ Herald link
But …
November Seymour:
https://twitter.com/David_Cormack/status/1459720581977284608
A great response too.
https://twitter.com/Sapphire__Steel/status/1459698070212337669
National flip flops.
ACT flop flips.
Both floundering!
NZ study on people's relationship with misinformation over time: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/study-to-track-why-kiwis-fall-down-conspiracy-misinformation-rabbit-hole/YFCKU44AUF7NO64T6QKRVYXCCY/
.
This story will no doubt find itself quickly buried & forgotten … not least because it's at odds with the Upper-Middle Woke Establishment's preferred 'narrative' … but gives me at least a modicum of hope that the relentless nightmare of violent intimidation endured by neighbours (often very elderly, like my parents) of the new breed of underclass state house tenant (many so violently anti-social that no landlord would ever rent to them) … will finally, finally receive a much needed dose of sunlight.
But won't be holding my breath.
Housing crisis created by the Key Govt … then turned into a living hell for a swathe of Labour's core supporters [as well as more than a few Green voters, incidentally] by the Ardern Govt's tacit No Eviction policy.
Death threats and abuse: Whangārei pensioners terrorised by gang member, Kāinga Ora neighbours – NZ Herald
Thought of your parents straight away when I read that.
It's almost the same damned story but for the names and addresses changed.
We had a similar case during lockdown last year.
Police ineffective, and actually less than useful as we later found out that their regular and continued breaking of lockdown was classed as anti-social behaviour that could be used for immediate eviction. The abuse, threats of violence, intimidating practices (chasing family members cars, sitting outside on a makeshift seat staring at our front door for several hours muttering and smoking), were not considered by the police to be anti-social unless they made physical contact. I think the description has been changed now.
Kainga Ora needs to update its policy. Living next to such neighbours is hellish.
A few years back we had a similar problem here in Australia – a woman neighbour in the complex started up all manner of intimidating behaviour toward my partner. Now my partner is no pushover but eventually it got to the point where we were starting to be worried whenever I had to work away from home for any period.
The cops were actually very good. They immediately took action and spoke with her, and then suggested we buy a little security camera – either real or fake – that recorded what was going on in the common area. They assured us this was entirely legal. The cop told us 'either she's mad or bad, if it's the latter the behaviour will stop'. And it did for almost a year.
Then she manipulated one of her sons into threatening us – and we immediately took the video evidence to the Police. Which very quickly landed up in the local Magistrates Court. In the end the landlord was issued a removal order by the Court and that was that. It was so smoothly handled I've more or less forgotten about it until now.
We've rented the entire 8 years that we've been living in Australia now – in general the business is much more closely regulated than NZ and there are very clear obligations on both landlords and tenants – that are enforced.
One of the really difficult things to witness was the coercive control this middle-aged (34 yrs) man had over his 17 year old partner. Leaving for days on end without telling her and with no transport, taking her phone, constant reprimanding – we could hear – that went on for several hours.
She was on the police register for a youth support programme, but they had nothing to offer. She needed a job.
An unpleasant experience, was witnessing his mother (who employed them both) using her employer status to also control this young woman, so that he would be placated. Almost like watching someone throw a treat to a rabid dog to get him to stop snarling.
I do believe that state housing has to be available, but there has to be a place where those unsuitable to be housed in neighbourhoods are provided with a place to stay, rather than a blanket ruling that all the obligation belongs to Kainga Ora.
Why does everyone assume the problem is unique to poor people, and/or State house tenants.
After two lots of extremely abusive neighbours, who owned their homes. Second in an area that was well into the upper class side……
To the extent we had to move from the second.
It isn't unique. The article that originated the discussion was in regard to Kainga Ora's policy of not evicting tenants. IIRC, in this case the neighbouring couple who had resided in the area for years were offered a different tenancy as a solution, rather than Kainga Ora dealing with the disruptive behaviour.
As you have experienced, an abusive and disruptive neighbour can really damage the wellbeing of others, whether they are tenants or homeowners.
Highlights the issue…what is to be done about the dysfunctional/anti social while any policy change takes a generation or two to take effect?
Bit much to be blaming this on National don't you think:
'The woman said a Kāinga Ora tenancy manager admitted the agency was powerless to evict antisocial tenants due to a "directive" that protected state housing clients.'
Who issued the directive and where did it come from?
I believe the policy is that once you are a tenant in a state home, you cannot be moved on unless they offer you another place. In a case such as this, they will be shifting the problem to another neighbourhood and have the same complaints.
If they want to maintain such a policy, then Kainga Ora needs to have a solution to these situations, that is not just that the neighbours put up with it. The accommodation offered may not be within a neighbourhood, but a specific accommodation unit for troublesome tenants. I don't know if that is a workable proposal.
I agree.
Tenants shouldn't have to put up with this behaviour.
"The accommodation offered may not be within a neighbourhood, but a specific accommodation unit for troublesome tenants."
AKA prison?
No. That wasn't my suggestion.
The problem to be solved is either does Kainga Ora retain the policy or not?
If it does, how do we ensure tenants (even if troublesome) are not homeless, when they are removed from a tenancy where they are causing harm to the neighbourhood?
Do we solve that with a different type of accommodation for those tenants?
ghetto?
your idea makes sense to me, I just don't trust the government to do it in a way that improves things.
Maybe Māori know what to do?
I can't even come up with an alternative proposal, so I'm of little help either. Just thought someone else might be able to.
Although I am happy that the abusive neighbour next door is gone, he still exists and needs somewhere to live, as does his partner. (I also think they both need support, particularly in regards to his mental health, aggression and drug use.)
For all the talk of wrap-around models, I can't think of how this has been practically rolled out, and maybe accommodation that includes such services nearby or on-site would be a start.
If that accommodation is located in a low residential density area, that might work. ie. on the edge of commercial or industrial zones but still close to transport and amenities.
No, not at all. Just Kainga Ora housing where the harm they can inflict on others is reduced, but still healthy homes standards. I would hope there would not be that many of them really, but I know that it only takes one badly behaved resident to impact on a street or neighbourhood.
The current approach is to leave them there, and that isn't working.
effectively would need to be houses that had no neighbours.
Yes. It would really depend on how many you are talking about I guess, in terms of coming up with a workable solution.
I know it wasnt your suggestion but there needs to be some serious consideration of how these types of issues are dealt with….regardless of the cause(s) there are some who have no desire to be 'helped'….the (limited) resources are better devoted to those who do.
Thanks, pat. I read that wrong.
I was wondering if there was a solution that someone here could come up with. For some reason I still retain faith in the collective brain…
I dont know how to deal with the damage already done but I do know that it makes sense not to continue to keep creating more damaged members of society….we need to do both at the same time, and that may mean conflicting approaches
Mental healthcare would be the most obvious help that would need to be provided.
We lived in social housing when i was a kid, and to be honest anti social behaviour was the norm in many households. Alcohol dependency was one big issue, over crowding another one. Drugs. Petty crime. Prostitution. All the issues that come with people having no money and the need for money.
So maybe a full wrap around service as a condition to a flat. So counseling, maybe some job training – to get people out of the property during the day, courses and such. But i don't think Winz would be able to provide any of these services.
Good ideas, and I agree that WINZ not likely to be a good provider,
Possibly local community provider framework funded by government?
I think you would have more chance getting funds holding a fundraiser.
But i think the worst cases before they are being housed in public housing need to stay in housing that will offer wrap around services, and then find appropriate housing for them. Not just assign a house, but appropriate housing near a supportive community. And make it clear that housing is also a privilege and that sometimes you have to evict someone if they terrorize their community.
I think that's a workable solution.
I'm sure it must have been John Key. After all, according to the idiots who claim to be our Government he is responsible for everything, Ignore the fact that he left the job 5 years ago.
I heard a rumour that they are looking at all the CCTV footage at the Whangarei Hospital to find images of him diverting the main sewer pipe to put it into the walls.
Did you whisper that rumour into your cupped hand so that you could hear it?
I thought the policy was a state housing policy since inception, and has remained under successive changes of government, but I could have this all wrong. Just what I understood to be true from growing up in a state housing neighbourhood back in the day.
Maybe the government could come up with a plan to Build more houses for Kiwis…
put the gang houses in a paddock so there are no neighbours?
I'd be ok with that
people would get jealous.
Not the paddock I'm thinking…
I know some pretty nice paddocks. But yeah, I was thinking the space and the tranquility.
Just because he talked a lot of crap doesn't mean it ended up at the Whangarei Hospital.
lol.
Positivity time
The Black Caps play their third cricket final in quick succession this morning.
Win, lose or draw this a team that everyone can be proud of, from the spirit in which they play the game to the results they earn they have proven the adage of the whole is greater than the sum of its parts
But is this fair, after all a 50 over final loss, a test match final win and a T20 final can't be all down to luck or a fluke?
I think not, this team can stand head and shoulders with the other great teams of world cricket (yes really)
Overall the finest team NZ has ever fielded, a team that defines the virtues of NZ and an example for everyone to aspire to
One more game to go and my moneys on the Black Caps, can we do it?
Yes we can!
Please don't get too upset if they lose. It really doesn't matter as it is just some silly game of no real importance.
It isn't as if it is a Rugby match. Some of them are really important. Not the Test of course. I mean to say, who cares?
No the true disaster of the weekend was Hawkes Bay being robbed by that lot from Tasman. How could that have happened?
Doesn't matter if they lose, making three finals in a row in three different disciplines is winning enough
Showing kids a different, better and successful way to play sport is winning enough
Earning the respect of the cricketing world is winning enough
Upset about the result, not at all. Its how you play the game and the Black Caps play like winners
'No the true disaster of the weekend was Hawkes Bay being robbed by that lot from Tasman. How could that have happened?'
The South is superior, in all aspects. Especially rugby coaches.
Well, they did lose, PR, but I agree with your comments. Absolutely.
"Be humble in victory and gracious in defeat'
Couldn't be more proud of the Black Caps right now, sometimes you just come up against a better team on the day.
I guess you wouldn't be a fan of Vince Lombardi then? The great NFL Coach, after whom the Super Bowl trophy is named put it quite succinctly.
"Show me a good loser, and I'll show you a loser."
Vince Lombardi only had to prepare for one variation.
The Black Caps had to prepare for three different variations and made all three finals.
Of course wing nut pro-pla*uers are treating this as proof of something…
Facts First: The viral video is a staged scene from a professional film. The tantrum-throwing woman is an actor, as is the supposed pilot who challenges her at the end of the video. The video was produced by a man known as Prince Ea, an entertainer and creator of online content who has a history of using authentic-sounding titles about hot-button social issues to get people to watch his scripted footage.
Prince Ea added a vague three-word disclaimer, "For entertainment purposes," to his initial Nov. 1 Facebook post of the plane tantrum video — under the title "SHE MUST HAVE BEEN HAVING A BAD DAY." But through at least November 11, he kept posting additional versions of the video, under titles like "WHEN THE PILOT CAME OUT" and "WHEN SHE ASKED FOR HIS VACCINE CARD," that included no disclaimer.
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/11/13/politics/fact-check-vaccinated-plane-tantrum-video-prince-ea/index.html.
Big Matthew energy.
https://twitter.com/mtgreenee/status/1459506721718734855
https://twitter.com/SHEsus__Christ/status/1459643419039567872