Another day in John Key’s neo-liberal nightmare.
We have become a cruel, greedy, uncaring and selfish nation under his wretched leadership.
Yet there are people who still care and who are unselfish.
Te Puea marae represents the best of New Zealand.
Uncaring.
The present regime running WINZ and Housing NZ represents the worst.
‘Te Puea Marae steps up to find cancer teen and family a home
Her father, who previously worked as a painter in Hamilton, tried to find his family a home.
“He would go to Winz for appointments, he told them about me having cancer, about us.
“They did nothing. He went to Housing NZ, told them. They couldn’t find us a house. Too full, they said, too full.”
When things at her aunt’s “got really tense”, the family left and had stayed at the marae since.’
Another day in John Key’s neo-liberal nightmare.
We have become a cruel, greedy, uncaring and selfish nation under his wretched leadership.
Uncaring and incompetent.
Social Housing Minister Paula Bennett
‘Social housing and community agencies have not yet had approaches from clients wanting to take up a relocation grant, available from today, to move out of Auckland.
The grant of up to $5000 announced last month by Social Housing Minister Paula Bennett will be available from today. The money for relocation costs will not need to be paid back unless the person moved back to Auckland within a year.
Despite the scheme being launched today, the Ministry of Social Development could not tell RNZ News how many Housing New Zealand houses were available outside of Auckland, and where they were.
“It is too soon to answer this question. The grant is available for any vacant housing, including private rentals, or social housing,” the department said in a statement.
At the time she announced the grant, Paula Bennett said there were dozens of empty houses in other parts of New Zealand, such as Lower Hutt where there were 18 state houses ready to let, Palmerston North where there were 15 and Gisborne with four.’ http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/306790/'little-information'-on-grant-to-move-to-regions
or maybe instead of reading the future with the help of tealeaves and bones, they ‘Ministry of Social ‘Welfare” is waiting for Paula Bennett to drop a dump and then they gather around the turd and read the future out of that.
Nor does it say that $ 5000 is the amount anyone who moves is going to get. Firstly, its “up to”…, secondly knowing WINZ they will want quotes for everything, then pay out not a cent more, even if those quotes were a guess. Family and friends helping out won’t get anything for their efforts, but a moving company will.
If anyone hears of (and proves) a case where this offer was taken up and the person given $ 5000 to relocate at their leisure, I will eat my hat.
Another day in John Key’s neo-liberal nightmare.
We have become a cruel, greedy, uncaring and selfish nation under his wretched leadership.
Yet there are people who still care and who are unselfish.
Kai for Kids represents the best of New Zealand.
A government that rejected Mana’s Feed the Kids Bill 4 years ago represents the worst.
‘1200 school lunches in under an hour: Porirua community pitches in to help hungry kids
“Attendance is really low on Mondays and Tuesdays because Wednesday is benefit day.”
“Kids don’t come to school because they don’t have any food to bring.”
Two months later, Clifford and her volunteers now make 1200 lunches for a dozen Porirua schools.”
The fucking Herald must be being paid for this shit. It has run a piece on poor Paula as a victim ” I’ Ve been cyber bullied because of my size”. Well stop eating so many fucking pies then !.
its when National decamp from the chamber for Bellamys, as soon as question time in Parliament is over. I doubt they serve pies.
The media are getting irrelevant, from promoting social engineering like bullying ,oh poor me child Max Key, and reading his latest antics of his music video, to children of musico’s complaining they just get sex offers from men because their daddy is famous.
Nationals brighter future is the homeless sleeping in Aucklands Well lite CBD.
Unfortunately it doesn’t matter what large people do, they always attract abuse including in the form of people telling them there is something wrong with them for the way they eat. In other words the problem with fatphobia is that too many people have prejudices about fat.
Call Bennett out on her politics, her meanness and the atrocious government she works for. Plenty of material there without going for the prejudices about fatness.
“Call Bennett out on her politics, her meanness and the atrocious government she works for. Plenty of material there without going for the prejudices about fatness.”
+1
Same goes for Gerry Brownlee too. Call him out on his stubborn bullish authoritarian ways, not his size.
Prejudice against another’s body is unhelpful. We have no right to make judgements or assumptions about people’s diets, especially as we don’t know, and have no right to know their medical history, such as prescription medicine side effects, endochrinological/hormonal disorders and or injuries that prevent exercise that may have contributed to a person’s weight gain. It’s not all about food.
I called her out because she intimated that she couldn’t,t help being that big, I doubt that she has an endocrinological or hormonal problem because that only occurs in a very very small percentage of people, ( but it makes a good excuse for those unafficted ) and she was half that size when she entered politics and got introduced to the trough in all its permutations.
BTW, I’m overweight and I’m that way because I eat too much and if someone calls me fat I have to agree with them.
Your weight is irrelevant Adrian. It’s not about others agreeing whether you are over weight or not. You know that and so what. If you know you eat too much then that’s your buzz, it doesn’t mean EVERY other big person is big for the same reason as you.
Your weight doesn’t give you license to attack others for the same reasons.
Pullya Benefit is a nasty vindictive spiteful person who bullies others by disclosing sensitive and private information so she can put herself in a position of power.
Her size has got nothing to do with it, and we know nothing of her medical history and shouldn’t speculate on it either. That’s her business, not yours or mine.
Rosie I see where you are coming from, but she has been, not so long ago much smaller than she is now, she yo yo’s with her weight but she can obviously get smaller from eating less, so it probably isn’t a hormonal problem. I see it more as an emotional problem as being an eater for comfort because of the stress of her job and/or being out of her depth or just because she over eats because she enjoys her food. What I cannot understand is seeing she is seen as an intelligent women, surely she sees the health issues she is bringing on herself, heart problems and definitely diabetes because of all her “belly fat” which is what the medical profession call it. Its difficult not to criticise when there are many people who can lose weight and keep it off – self discipline plays a part and pride in one’s appearance is another. Now don’t bite my head off please.
Again. Some one else’s size is their own business. Why do we feel we have a right to criticise or even speculate about their supposed issues? What’s it got to do with us? It doesn’t matter if Pullya Benefit’s shape has changed in the time that we have seen her in parliament.
Speaking of “self discipline and pride in one’s appearance” is very much the line fatphobics use. What you are saying is fat people are ugly and lazy. That is highly prejudiced.
Another sign of fatphobia is faux concern for another persons health. And you do realise that not all heart disease is weight related don’t you? My father died at age 54 from heart disease and he was an average size man. Mr Dr tells me the biggest indicator for heart disease is genetics, even above and beyond smoking. Stress is a bigger killer than weight, so why aren’t we hating on all the stressed people? A person can be overweight but still be fit and healthy and live a long life.
Don’t get sucked into the hate Kate. You’re better than that.
I hope the NZ police are keeping an eye on this website, whose readers are celebrating the killing of Jo Cox and looking forward to similar acts here: https://yournz.org/2016/06/19/crusader-rabid/
Not really, I try to see things in a positive light and see no point in trying to bring everyone down with a daily dose of repetition. The sun is shining, it’s the shortest day onward and upwards.
Tarquin, how about the eye of the beholder thing? Winter solstice, I mourn because I love the cold, short dark days of winter – all moody and introspective as they are, yet cosy, safe and warm by the fire.
Like a true former teen goth I celebrate summer solstice as it’s marks the countdown to winter. Until Autumn comes it’s long wait through the drunken violence of summer (other’s, not me), water restrictions, insufferable heat, mozzies and flies, phoning noise control at 1am, and invites to hideous work xmas parties.
Very true, I’ve only just finished moaning about the heat and now I’m wishing it back again. Up here in Northland we don’t get a real winter, maybe a frost or two and it just rains all the time. I had a white Christmas in England a few years ago – that’s how winters should be.
Ha ha. Well you’re living in the right part of the country if you like it warm.
Like wise, in winter in the southern hemisphere can you pull off an alright mid winter xmas, minus the snow unless you live somewhere really cold. I’ve done some good solstice parties over the years, around the fire.
As for Paul. What he is posting is politically and socially relevant. It IS the depressing truth. It’s really hard to jazz up our reality in any way that makes it palatable. Because of that I find it a bit much early in the morning myself so flick through. However I always read Paul’s posts he posts separate to the early wake up morning cup of depression. I guess we all have ways of expressing our anger and grief over our witnessing of our country going to the dogs.
You sound very much like National’s ex-party president Michelle Boag, who was on the panel of Q&A last Sunday. She appeared to be oblivious of the strive people were going through in this country, apparently in her eyes all was rosy;-)))
Funny how John Key only has time for a few minutes before 8am to be interviewed on RNZ.
By the time he blusters and confuses the issue under questioning the time pips sound. End of story.
Wonder if he chooses the time for the interview?
Guyon could record an interview that went past 8am and play the balance after 8.
Hone’s interview by Guyon would be more interesting but his attempt at humour, trying to be the ‘comeback kid’ in an analogy to a band with singers and bass players etc. is about as silly as his artificial dote com fiasco.
German Foreign Minister Steinmeier says NATO should not be inflaming the situation with Russia
Berlin (AFP) – German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier has criticised NATO for having a bellicose policy towards Russia, describing it as “warmongering”, the German daily Bild reported.
Steinmeier pointed to the deployment of NATO troops near borders with Russia in the military alliance’s Baltic and east European member states.
“What we should avoid today is inflaming the situation by warmongering and stomping boots,” Steinmeier told Bild in an interview to be published Sunday.
“Anyone who thinks you can increase security in the alliance with symbolic parades of tanks near the eastern borders, is mistaken,” Germany’s top diplomat added.
“It seems like we have waves of momentum, and then gaps. What can we do to fill the gaps or at least tide us over?”
Probably best if someone who has been in a leadership in activism for decades to answer this curly one. However my 2 cents worth centres around socialising. Yes, socialising, on and off line.
Personally though, I prefer the off line version. In meeting new people and growing bonds with those we know, in person, we don’t miss out on all the subtle non vocal expressions that create a depth to the relationship. We can create intellectual relationships on line and they can be enhanced as we, as a collective (I”m talking about the wider world, not us on TS necessarily) create and ride a wave, but energy falls a bit flat during the troughs does it not? EG, look at online conversation pre and post general elections.
Although, in saying that, I noticed the opposite on the Bella Caledonia site post Scottish indyref – the talk was flat out, soul searching, expressing feelings etc. They even had a guest post by a psychologist to analyse the results and fall out. Their response could be down to different cultural approaches to communication – The Scots might be better communicators than NZer’s, I don’t know. (but the Scots I know and have met are great talkers and listeners)
So, I see advantages in socialising as in holding momentum during trough periods. During these times we build loyalty, maintain bonds, maintain solidarity, and maintain the flow of ideas. New ideas can be discussed and existing ones reworked. The group’s mutual interest remains a living thing rather than it being sucked into a vacuum of loss. Socialising keeps an interest alive and when the time comes to ramp up activism the platform is stable and the group is already in synch to go to work on a project or campaign.
Wow, that is such a great comment Rosie, I wasn’t expecting it to go in that direction.
I completely agree. I’ve been in online communities where there is more relationship building than happens here or on places like FB or twitter, and so that social thing where you have something solid happens more. But still I agree that the place it needs to happen most is in the physical world. I don’t know how to make that happen in my own life because most people I know are really focussed on life outside of political realities. I guess that’s why I come here.
But it reminds me of something that Naomi Klein said last year, when asked how she keeps going, she said it’s really important to get in a room with people who are doing the same kind of work, struggling with the same kind of things. I think you’ve really nailed it there, where it needs to happen within normal community interactions if it’s going to be stable and resilient (maybe Klein was talking about something else).
I empathise with your situation of not being physically around others who are focused on political issues/emerging social realities. It’s the same for me.
I do believe group social meeting is what we are going to need, to strengthen us for the next election, just for starters, as we have far bigger ongoing threats to our very existence, in climate change, as well as maintaining momentum and influence.
I think a while back Bill set up a regular meeting in Dunedin, where people met in a park. Hows that going people? Is there a way for Standardista’s to meet in person in their regions?
As I thought about socialising being a key thing to strengthening a group committed to a similar goal I received mail in my inbox from the Labour Party gen sec. He was asking if you were a 20 – 30 something professional interested in socialising. A great move I thought, along the lines of what I’d been thinking about. If that wasn’t your thing, age wise or work wise there was a survey to fill in with your thoughts about doing something similar.
I would be interested to see how many people turn up to a party AGM compared to how many people turn up to a party social gathering, especially if it’s a low cost thing. $ is a barrier for some of us.
Personally, in light of the Lab/Green MOU, I’d like to see a seasonal social get together, to build solidarity and to forge ties at the grass roots, where it really counts.
I think a while back Bill set up a regular meeting in Dunedin, where people met in a park. Hows that going people? Is there a way for Standardista’s to meet in person in their regions?
Unconnected to the Standard, there are a few interested politically aware Dunedinites meeting in the next week as part of a Matariki event. I haven’t been involved in the organisation of the event but I would expect there to be 20-30 very politically interested minds show up.
In general terms I agree that face to face, in person political socialising is crucial to our future.
Endless war, endless greed: The Pentagon is lining its pockets with taxpayer dollars
Obama now plans to rebuild America’s nuclear weapons cache, the latest in a series of military enrichment schemes
Trump’s lies aren’t unique to America: Post-truth politics are killing democracies on both sides of the Atlantic
Voters no longer value truth, and Donald Trump and Boris Johnson are dangerously exploiting the new paradigm
You’ve been pretty harsh with a couple of my comments last couple day so i’m bringing it here to open it up and sort it.
Yep I made a couple boo boo’s, I retaliated too this
[deleted as irrelevant]
[lprent: This isn’t a negotiation, it is an observation of a continued pattern of behaviour and a demand for a permanent modification of some of those behaviours from a moderator. There is no point in various moderators continuing to point out deficiencies in your behaviour if you are too damn lazy or too thick or too self-entitled an arsehole to modify those behaviours.
1. Read the policy again. It is clear you haven’t understood it.
2. How you feel about it has absolutely no relevance and I suspect you don’t have sufficient experience with operating a blog to even be able to offer it. You are a guest on this site, your host is telling you to shape up or ship out.
This is a heart wrenching article. And in our back doorstep. Why do not NZ take the Nauru refugees – it is hard to see how these detention centres can be considered legal under human rights legislation – in particular for the unaccompanied children committing suicide.
“The worst I’ve seen – trauma expert lifts lid on ‘atrocity’ of Australia’s detention regime
Exclusive: In his 43-year career, Paul Stevenson has worked in the aftermath of the Bali bombings and the Boxing Day tsunami but says nothing he witnessed was as bad as the treatment of asylum seekers on Nauru and Manus”
How many people out there think mental illnesses equate to a lower intellect, or reduced mental capacity?
I have found here some resistance to my points of view based on the fact I am mentally ill.
I am in fact B-Polar, and I have an IQ of over 160 according the 2 of the Psychologists who treated me through Hep C treatment.
My illness caused a chemical imbalance in my brain which causes me to have periods of massive empathy/depression and periods of manic/sleepless, fast thinking, impusiveness.
if untreated.
Currently outlooks for Bi-polar people are good, it does take time to find the right chemicals and once a balance of chemicals has been restored we live completely normal lives.
I recently found the right medication , for me it was Effexor, I snapped out of depression in the time it took for the pill to get into my blood stream and have been stable for over two months now.
Comments from LPRENT such as..
“I really can’t be bothered dealing with commenter’s mental issues over and over again and having them disrupting a reasonably rational debate. I suspect you don’t understand yourself well enough to understand your own issues and therefore are unlikely to be able to control yourself. So any ban that I am forced to issue will be for some time”
and the other day you insulted me and my mental health just like someone who knows absolutely nothing and is predjudiced.
I am shocked at the way you talk to and treated me, uses my disabilty and mental health to question my intellect and integrity.
Hi Richard. I can’t comment on the exchange you’ve had with LPrent.
I can, whole heartedly support you in your recovery from depression and your belief (or what I see as fact) that mental illness is in no way related to intelligence.
I’m someone who struggles with depression and chronic insomnia to the point where I can no longer work/ or find suitable part time work, so I’m thrilled to hear you’ve found a medicine that works. That can be a really liberating feeling.
Thanks Rosie, after so many years trying it was super liberating to not dive into depression whenever a saw a animal run over or bad news.
I have 2 months of stress less life now and i’m chilling back out daily. I feel the tension relax and everyday gets better without having to worry if I was about to swing in moods.
Prozac, citalopram, epillim by the truckload, they give you the antidepressants and assume you’ll be fine come back in a month they say, it never did squat, they even thought I was lying and putting it on after all the tablets didn’t do much, it took me over ten years of that and a Hep C treatment that has side effects of making you suicidal, to find a brilliant new Dr who took me over from my old Dr and she cured me in one med change.
I had given up, never give up if the meds aren’t working change them don’t linger on non active antidepressants Rosie is all I can say.
Awesome to hear you’re doing so well Richard after years of suffering. That really is a breakthrough. Well done you! It’s a good feeling, I find, to be back to one true self and feeling safe and well.
It is hard for people in a clinically depressed state to cope with problems, bad news, and upsetting sights. You become sensitised to things and it spirals down. I’ve had to work with being overly empathetic to animal suffering but deal with it in different ways now.
I’m fine and dandy on the paroxetine now but still an insomniac. I use sleeping pills about 3 times a week to get by. I also try to keep a different future in mind too. Once the clouds lift you can see there are good things that ARE going on.
I’ve had to deal with acute depression a number of times in my life, and seem to have quite a few friends and family with various mental aliments – including bigotry. I expect to help and deal with issues to do with it as and when I need to.
But what I was referring to was your attitude and actions on this site. Here I’m not interested in dealing with, protecting or helping you. I’m interested in protecting and helping this site as a place for debate. The way we do to deal with bad behaviour for WHATEVER cause, is to warn about behaviour and (if required) to remove the ability to write comments.
The proportion of people commenting or authoring on this site with various afflictions (mental, physical, bigotry or addictive) probably isn’t that too dissimilar from society at large. However most of them manage to control their behaviour to the level that I don’t notice them. I can’t see any reason that I should treat you differently to them.
There are limits to the amount of time that I (or any other moderator or author) can be expend on this site. And after more than 8 years of doing it, I tend to push so that I don’t have to spend too much time dealing with someone acting like an arsehole. I find it is less of a problem to whack hard once so I don’t have waste time to play whack-a-mole with dickheads.
Respect Lprent, sorry you had too crack out the sledgehammer , but I respect your doing it, now that we had a chance to one to one, vs catching each other on a thread, and distracting from the thread.
Some of the odd comments were tongue in cheek and I have learned humour often gets taken literally here if your not super careful to announce how your inferring a comment.
My comments should tidy up as a I get more familiar with the morally accepted peer standards here.
Thanks again for posting this and allowing me to relate my concerns and have them answered.
Kind regards
Richard
[lprent: Ok, the warning has been heard. Removed from moderation. We will see how it goes. ]
Some of the odd comments were tongue in cheek and I have learned humour often gets taken literally here if your not super careful to announce how your inferring a comment.
Humour, more often than not, simply doesn’t come across in text. To indicate that you’re being humorous usually means that you have to add smileys and/or tags.
Humour, more often than not, simply doesn’t come across in text. To indicate that you’re being humorous usually means that you have to add smileys and/or tags.
Yes. I learnt the hard way in earlier days. Tongue-in-cheek comments were taken too literally by some and I ended up on the receiving end of a few unpleasant barbs. Even adding emoticons or plain language tags is not always a guarantee. Best to confine oneself to such comments when the post itself is humorous and/or satirical in content.
C’mon Stuart Munro. Just because we have a teeny wee bit of fun doesn’t mean we don’t feel strongly for those who are the victims of this heartless and horrible government. Some of us have even been there in one form or another.
There’s still room to lighten up and maybe even have a laugh at ourselves.
Yes… except that with a pretty vacuous and actively biased MSM there is little or no channel for normal outrage. A not too politically interested person who gets their news from TVNZ, stuff, and the Herald could be forgiven for thinking that Nick Smith was vaguely competent or Paula Bennett compassionate.
There is a need to roundly damn this government, in adition to dispassionately discussing alternatives. The trolls never sleep, and never miss an opportunity to paint this vicious and dysfunctional kleptocracy as marginally competent and technically human.
I agree that that part of Lynn’s statement was a form of prejudice in terms of mental health and I wish he hadn’t made it. I hope you can pull back a bit anyway, because I like your contributions on ts in general, and I think you bring perspectives that we don’t otherwise have and I find that valuable. There are rules though, and if you break them too often it’s easier for the site to give you time out.
I do think you are stepping over the bounds a lot at the moment, and you will get moderated for that. Different moderators have different ways of approaching that.
fwiw, Lynn is an equal opportunity moderator and will be abusive to everyone pretty much equally if they piss him off as a moderator. That’s the bit to understand, it’s not a personal thing so much as what is seen with a moderator hat on. It takes time to moderate, there is more involved than in just making a comment. And that time is time we don’t get to spend doing other things. One of Lynn’s trigger points is where he finds he is having to use a lot of time on one person when they’ve already been warned.
My own is people derailing threads (you’ve noticed I’m sure) either by posting off topic or by posting things that are inflammatory.
I’m really happy to explain where I think you are overstepping the bounds if that’s helpful. It is good to reread the Policy, and they still need to be understood in the context of the culture of ts. Lots of people don’t get that, and some of those people end up with bans.
Moderation has changed a bit in the last 6 months, and IMO there has been an improvement in the debate culture. There is less tolerance for bickering and troll derailments. Shutting them down early on keeps discussions much more focussed on the topic of the post, which is the point of the site.
I’d see two main things happening with you at the moment. One is taking personal grudges across multiple conversations. It just disrupts thread, so if you can let it go, or keep it in the thread it originated in if it’s appropriate, that’s going to cause less disruption and get less moderator attention. If all else fails, do what you have done today and take it to Open Mike.
The other is to focus more on the politics. You have interesting ideas and ones that are challenging to some here, so finding ways to communicate those without having a go at people will work better in the long run. Yes, lots of what happens here is unfair (e.g. someone is rude to you and doesn’t get called on it). But it’s on all of us to act within the rules as much as we can and lower the need for moderation in the first place.
edit, just seen Lynn’s comment above, which is a very clear explanation that behaviour will be moderated no matter what the cause.
I agree that that part of Lynn’s statement was a form of prejudice in terms of mental health…
Only in that I view the type of bigotry that he was displaying as being a type of mental illness. It is pretty damn hard to explain it any other way. I’ve talked to enough bigots on various subjects (including some very intelligent ones) to realize that in some people it appears to be hardwired well below any cognitive layer.
I think it was more just that thing of equating behaviour with mental illness when it’s pretty hard to know how much of anyone’s behaviour comes from that. And people with formal mental health diagnosis like bipolar already get stigmatised more than most, and attributing behaviour to their mental illness tends to make that even more so.
Bigotry is a different thing IMO.
I’m glad you explained what you meant to Richard and that he gets it now. All good.
I don’t know if this has been posted today but its a weak and cowardly position of Andrew Little over this and its even more cowardly and weak of john Key in not picking this up as well
Basically every politician, no matter what party they’re with, that doesn’t support this is a gutless coward
Maryan Street is completely right about this, we at least need to start talking about it
“staunchly prolife” engenders a whole spectrum of political beliefs in of itself, starting with an understanding that life is sacred and it is not man’s place to play God with and take others’ lives.
Yes, for various reasons, I think that any Government Authorised Suicide programme is a bad idea.
There are hundreds of improvements which should be made to the care of terminally ill people before this measure is even considered.
BTW if NZ ended up performing euthanasia at the same rate that the Dutch do, we would have 1,450 Kiwis a year die under a Government Authorised Suicide programme.
Yes, that’s four times NZ’s annual road toll.
And we’d be investigating whether or not the programme should be extended to children under 16 years of age.
I doubt the National Party Board and their major funders consider Joyce as an electable leader for the National Party. So I do not think that he will have any support from that quarter. And without that support, any leadership coup attempt is going nowhere.
I’m just working on the idea that Slater doesn’t give an opinion without an ulterior motive – a comment above suggests that his “Catholic mafia” line could have been aimed at knobbling any number of contenders 🙂
Before you jump to conclusions about the Catholic Mafia you may want to read this interview (plus 2 comments) with Simon O’Connor who is the chairman of the Health Select Committee that is tasked with the inquiry. Mr O’Connor was almost ordained as Catholic Priest.
The fossil fuel industry’s business model is to externalize its costs by clawing in obscene subsidies and tax deductions—causing grave environmental costs, including toxic pollution and global warming. Among the other unassessed prices of the world’s addiction to oil are social chaos, war, terror, the refugee crisis overseas, and the loss of democracy and civil rights abroad and at home.
As we focus on the rise of ISIS and search for the source of the savagery that took so many innocent lives in Paris and San Bernardino, we might want to look beyond the convenient explanations of religion and ideology and focus on the more complex rationales of history and oil, which mostly point the finger of blame for terrorism back at the champions of militarism, imperialism and petroleum here on our own shores.
It’s an interesting history lesson that connects the dots of US imperialism for the last 60+ years.
How nice it would be for the Western Empire to have a Qatari pipeline going through Syria; it would ensure energy supplies to Israel and the EU could access a massive amount of gas while cutting Russia out of the loop.
Damn that Assad for not allowing the use of his country for this project. He’s simply got to go.
Although I went to the trouble of identifying the work and the man portrayed I managed to get myself involved in a rather unpleasant flame war with another blog host when he posted the image below.
But he didn’t seem to be able to understand why some would find the manipulation offensive.
What sort of cultural infant would even think to do that?
And as for the shower curtains!! 😒
I wonder if the descendants have made any representation to these unthinking idiots?
If NZ took a leaf from the yanks’ book we’d make reproductions of moko illegal, and then try to extradite the sellers for “money laundering” because the payments were transferred from one account to another.
I heard it. Not before time, although it took a bit to get him to shut up. Talk about verbal diarrhoea! Never heard Kathryn Ryan so exasperated. Can’t she turn him off or something ?
Key said the intention was not to go beyond two years and the mission would be reviewed in 12 months. At the initial deployment.
really,
Now he extends them for another 18 months.. that’s 18 months on top of the 2 years. Oh btw did he not mention we are at war now or is that coming later.
So John Key , how do you feel about people sleeping under bridges?
JK : We’ve had a bit of a discussion about that and we are quite comfortable with that really, I mean there is no real safety issue here as the vehicles are well above them and being under the bridge they shouldn’t pose a distraction for the motorist. If they want to live under a bridge then be my guest.
Arrr, I was more referring to the homeless problem.
JK: Well I haven’t had any homeless approach me directly about this, but we desperately need more roads and bridges and we are pushing that through so that should produce a win win situation with the extra bridges.
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 ...
Every day now just seems to bring in more fresh meat for the grinder.In their relentlessly ideological drive to cut back on the “excessive bloat” (as they see it) of the previous Labour-led government, on the mountains of evidence accumulated in such a short period of time do not ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Megan Valére SosouMarket gardening site of the Itchèléré de Itagui agricultural cooperative in Dassa-Zoumè (Image credit: Megan Valère Sossou) For the residents of Dassa-Zoumè, a city in the West African country of Benin, choosing between drinking water and having enough ...
Buzz from the Beehive Melissa Lee – as may be discerned from the screenshot above – has not been demoted for doing something seriously wrong as Minister of ...
Morning in London Mother hugs beloved daughter outside the converted shoe factory in which she is living.Afternoon in London Travelling writer takes himself and his wrist down to A&E, just to be sure. Read more ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – The recent announcement of the University Advisory Group, chaired by Sir Peter Gluckman, makes very clear where the Government’s focus and priorities lie. The remit of the Advisory Group is that Group members will consider challenges and opportunities for improvement in the university sector including: ...
Eric Crampton writes – The Reserve Bank of New Zealand desperately wants to find reasons to have workstreams in climate change. It makes little sense. They’ve run another stress test on the banks looking to see if they could find a prudential regulation case. They couldn’t. They ...
Rob MacCullough writes – Pundits from the left and the right are arguing that National’s Fast Track Bill that is designed to speed up infrastructure decisions could end up becoming mired in a cesspool of corruption. Political commentator ...
Looking at the headlines this morning it’s hard to feel anything other than pessimistic about the future of humanity.Note that I’m not speaking about the future of mankind, but the survival of our humanity. The values that we believe in seem to be ebbing away, by the day.Perhaps every generation ...
Swabbing mixed breed baby chicks to test for avian influenzaUh oh. Bird flu – often deadly to humans – is not only being transmitted from infected birds to dairy cows, but is now travelling between dairy cows. As of last Friday, Bloomberg News reports, there were 32 American dairy herds ...
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 ...
What is it with the mining industry? Its not enough for them to pillage the earth - they apparently can't even be bothered getting resource consent to do so: The proponent behind a major mine near the Clutha River had already been undertaking activity in the area without a ...
Photo # 1 I am a huge fan of Singapore’s approach to housing, as described here two years ago by copying and pasting from The ConversationWhat Singapore has that Australia does not is a public housing developer, the Housing Development Board, which puts new dwellings on public and reclaimed land, ...
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 National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
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 ...
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 ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
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Another day in John Key’s neo-liberal nightmare.
We have become a cruel, greedy, uncaring and selfish nation under his wretched leadership.
Yet there are people who still care and who are unselfish.
Te Puea marae represents the best of New Zealand.
Uncaring.
The present regime running WINZ and Housing NZ represents the worst.
‘Te Puea Marae steps up to find cancer teen and family a home
Her father, who previously worked as a painter in Hamilton, tried to find his family a home.
“He would go to Winz for appointments, he told them about me having cancer, about us.
“They did nothing. He went to Housing NZ, told them. They couldn’t find us a house. Too full, they said, too full.”
When things at her aunt’s “got really tense”, the family left and had stayed at the marae since.’
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11659501
Another day in John Key’s neo-liberal nightmare.
We have become a cruel, greedy, uncaring and selfish nation under his wretched leadership.
Uncaring and incompetent.
Social Housing Minister Paula Bennett
‘Social housing and community agencies have not yet had approaches from clients wanting to take up a relocation grant, available from today, to move out of Auckland.
The grant of up to $5000 announced last month by Social Housing Minister Paula Bennett will be available from today. The money for relocation costs will not need to be paid back unless the person moved back to Auckland within a year.
Despite the scheme being launched today, the Ministry of Social Development could not tell RNZ News how many Housing New Zealand houses were available outside of Auckland, and where they were.
“It is too soon to answer this question. The grant is available for any vacant housing, including private rentals, or social housing,” the department said in a statement.
At the time she announced the grant, Paula Bennett said there were dozens of empty houses in other parts of New Zealand, such as Lower Hutt where there were 18 state houses ready to let, Palmerston North where there were 15 and Gisborne with four.’
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/306790/'little-information'-on-grant-to-move-to-regions
making shit up as they go along.
or maybe instead of reading the future with the help of tealeaves and bones, they ‘Ministry of Social ‘Welfare” is waiting for Paula Bennett to drop a dump and then they gather around the turd and read the future out of that.
Oh look, she had sushi last week for dinner.
Apparently ( according to Tracy Watkins of Fairfax) Bennett was at the Field Days a lot last week.
Too busy to be dealing with the housing crisis…….
Apparently ( according to Tracy Watkins of Fairfax) Bennett was at the Field Days a lot last week.
Too busy to be dealing with the housing crisis…….
I wonder if she realises that $5000 isn’t actually enough to cover the expenses of moving a family.
Nor does it say that $ 5000 is the amount anyone who moves is going to get. Firstly, its “up to”…, secondly knowing WINZ they will want quotes for everything, then pay out not a cent more, even if those quotes were a guess. Family and friends helping out won’t get anything for their efforts, but a moving company will.
If anyone hears of (and proves) a case where this offer was taken up and the person given $ 5000 to relocate at their leisure, I will eat my hat.
+1
Another day in John Key’s neo-liberal nightmare.
We have become a cruel, greedy, uncaring and selfish nation under his wretched leadership.
Yet there are people who still care and who are unselfish.
Kai for Kids represents the best of New Zealand.
A government that rejected Mana’s Feed the Kids Bill 4 years ago represents the worst.
‘1200 school lunches in under an hour: Porirua community pitches in to help hungry kids
“Attendance is really low on Mondays and Tuesdays because Wednesday is benefit day.”
“Kids don’t come to school because they don’t have any food to bring.”
Two months later, Clifford and her volunteers now make 1200 lunches for a dozen Porirua schools.”
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/81198151/1200-school-lunches-in-under-an-hour-porirua-community-pitches-in-to-help-hungry-kids
http://www.maoritelevision.com/news/politics/feed-kids-bill-looks-doubtful
The fucking Herald must be being paid for this shit. It has run a piece on poor Paula as a victim ” I’ Ve been cyber bullied because of my size”. Well stop eating so many fucking pies then !.
its when National decamp from the chamber for Bellamys, as soon as question time in Parliament is over. I doubt they serve pies.
The media are getting irrelevant, from promoting social engineering like bullying ,oh poor me child Max Key, and reading his latest antics of his music video, to children of musico’s complaining they just get sex offers from men because their daddy is famous.
Nationals brighter future is the homeless sleeping in Aucklands Well lite CBD.
Unfortunately it doesn’t matter what large people do, they always attract abuse including in the form of people telling them there is something wrong with them for the way they eat. In other words the problem with fatphobia is that too many people have prejudices about fat.
Call Bennett out on her politics, her meanness and the atrocious government she works for. Plenty of material there without going for the prejudices about fatness.
“Call Bennett out on her politics, her meanness and the atrocious government she works for. Plenty of material there without going for the prejudices about fatness.”
+1
Same goes for Gerry Brownlee too. Call him out on his stubborn bullish authoritarian ways, not his size.
Prejudice against another’s body is unhelpful. We have no right to make judgements or assumptions about people’s diets, especially as we don’t know, and have no right to know their medical history, such as prescription medicine side effects, endochrinological/hormonal disorders and or injuries that prevent exercise that may have contributed to a person’s weight gain. It’s not all about food.
Drop the fatphobia folks. It’s discrimination.
I called her out because she intimated that she couldn’t,t help being that big, I doubt that she has an endocrinological or hormonal problem because that only occurs in a very very small percentage of people, ( but it makes a good excuse for those unafficted ) and she was half that size when she entered politics and got introduced to the trough in all its permutations.
BTW, I’m overweight and I’m that way because I eat too much and if someone calls me fat I have to agree with them.
You know, there are other reasons for people being fat than “endocrinological or hormonal problem[s]”, or “because [they] eat too much”.
Your weight is irrelevant Adrian. It’s not about others agreeing whether you are over weight or not. You know that and so what. If you know you eat too much then that’s your buzz, it doesn’t mean EVERY other big person is big for the same reason as you.
Your weight doesn’t give you license to attack others for the same reasons.
Pullya Benefit is a nasty vindictive spiteful person who bullies others by disclosing sensitive and private information so she can put herself in a position of power.
Her size has got nothing to do with it, and we know nothing of her medical history and shouldn’t speculate on it either. That’s her business, not yours or mine.
+1
+2
For what its worth, agreed
Noted, pr. I suppose we can all experience life’s little surprises now and then, like you and me agreeing on something 😀
Rosie I see where you are coming from, but she has been, not so long ago much smaller than she is now, she yo yo’s with her weight but she can obviously get smaller from eating less, so it probably isn’t a hormonal problem. I see it more as an emotional problem as being an eater for comfort because of the stress of her job and/or being out of her depth or just because she over eats because she enjoys her food. What I cannot understand is seeing she is seen as an intelligent women, surely she sees the health issues she is bringing on herself, heart problems and definitely diabetes because of all her “belly fat” which is what the medical profession call it. Its difficult not to criticise when there are many people who can lose weight and keep it off – self discipline plays a part and pride in one’s appearance is another. Now don’t bite my head off please.
Again. Some one else’s size is their own business. Why do we feel we have a right to criticise or even speculate about their supposed issues? What’s it got to do with us? It doesn’t matter if Pullya Benefit’s shape has changed in the time that we have seen her in parliament.
Speaking of “self discipline and pride in one’s appearance” is very much the line fatphobics use. What you are saying is fat people are ugly and lazy. That is highly prejudiced.
Another sign of fatphobia is faux concern for another persons health. And you do realise that not all heart disease is weight related don’t you? My father died at age 54 from heart disease and he was an average size man. Mr Dr tells me the biggest indicator for heart disease is genetics, even above and beyond smoking. Stress is a bigger killer than weight, so why aren’t we hating on all the stressed people? A person can be overweight but still be fit and healthy and live a long life.
Don’t get sucked into the hate Kate. You’re better than that.
I hope the NZ police are keeping an eye on this website, whose readers are celebrating the killing of Jo Cox and looking forward to similar acts here: https://yournz.org/2016/06/19/crusader-rabid/
Another day of Pauls impotent whining. Do us all a favour and stay in bed.
Sounds like you make a special effort to read Paul’s comments 🙄
Not really, I try to see things in a positive light and see no point in trying to bring everyone down with a daily dose of repetition. The sun is shining, it’s the shortest day onward and upwards.
desperately looking for that brighter future, eh?
Tarquin, how about the eye of the beholder thing? Winter solstice, I mourn because I love the cold, short dark days of winter – all moody and introspective as they are, yet cosy, safe and warm by the fire.
Like a true former teen goth I celebrate summer solstice as it’s marks the countdown to winter. Until Autumn comes it’s long wait through the drunken violence of summer (other’s, not me), water restrictions, insufferable heat, mozzies and flies, phoning noise control at 1am, and invites to hideous work xmas parties.
Can’t all see the world the same way eh?
Very true, I’ve only just finished moaning about the heat and now I’m wishing it back again. Up here in Northland we don’t get a real winter, maybe a frost or two and it just rains all the time. I had a white Christmas in England a few years ago – that’s how winters should be.
Ha ha. Well you’re living in the right part of the country if you like it warm.
Like wise, in winter in the southern hemisphere can you pull off an alright mid winter xmas, minus the snow unless you live somewhere really cold. I’ve done some good solstice parties over the years, around the fire.
As for Paul. What he is posting is politically and socially relevant. It IS the depressing truth. It’s really hard to jazz up our reality in any way that makes it palatable. Because of that I find it a bit much early in the morning myself so flick through. However I always read Paul’s posts he posts separate to the early wake up morning cup of depression. I guess we all have ways of expressing our anger and grief over our witnessing of our country going to the dogs.
You sound very much like National’s ex-party president Michelle Boag, who was on the panel of Q&A last Sunday. She appeared to be oblivious of the strive people were going through in this country, apparently in her eyes all was rosy;-)))
By the sounds of things you should be the one staying in bed. You obviously need the rest as you’re getting overly stressed-out.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/cyber-bullying/news/headlines.cfm?c_id=1504076
PB oinks about bullying this morning, does anyone else find this ironic?
Funny how John Key only has time for a few minutes before 8am to be interviewed on RNZ.
By the time he blusters and confuses the issue under questioning the time pips sound. End of story.
Wonder if he chooses the time for the interview?
Guyon could record an interview that went past 8am and play the balance after 8.
Hone’s interview by Guyon would be more interesting but his attempt at humour, trying to be the ‘comeback kid’ in an analogy to a band with singers and bass players etc. is about as silly as his artificial dote com fiasco.
We have enough clowns in parliament already.
enough clones also
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11659634
A new, to me, Herald news summary online with visuals. Like TV I guess.
German Foreign Minister Steinmeier says NATO should not be inflaming the situation with Russia
https://www.yahoo.com/news/germany-slams-nato-warmongering-russia-115515814.html?ref=gs
So weka, back to answer your question, you raised here:
http://thestandard.org.nz/kiaora-matariki-puaka/#comment-1190406
or at least attempt to.
“It seems like we have waves of momentum, and then gaps. What can we do to fill the gaps or at least tide us over?”
Probably best if someone who has been in a leadership in activism for decades to answer this curly one. However my 2 cents worth centres around socialising. Yes, socialising, on and off line.
Personally though, I prefer the off line version. In meeting new people and growing bonds with those we know, in person, we don’t miss out on all the subtle non vocal expressions that create a depth to the relationship. We can create intellectual relationships on line and they can be enhanced as we, as a collective (I”m talking about the wider world, not us on TS necessarily) create and ride a wave, but energy falls a bit flat during the troughs does it not? EG, look at online conversation pre and post general elections.
Although, in saying that, I noticed the opposite on the Bella Caledonia site post Scottish indyref – the talk was flat out, soul searching, expressing feelings etc. They even had a guest post by a psychologist to analyse the results and fall out. Their response could be down to different cultural approaches to communication – The Scots might be better communicators than NZer’s, I don’t know. (but the Scots I know and have met are great talkers and listeners)
So, I see advantages in socialising as in holding momentum during trough periods. During these times we build loyalty, maintain bonds, maintain solidarity, and maintain the flow of ideas. New ideas can be discussed and existing ones reworked. The group’s mutual interest remains a living thing rather than it being sucked into a vacuum of loss. Socialising keeps an interest alive and when the time comes to ramp up activism the platform is stable and the group is already in synch to go to work on a project or campaign.
Hope that makes sense.
Wow, that is such a great comment Rosie, I wasn’t expecting it to go in that direction.
I completely agree. I’ve been in online communities where there is more relationship building than happens here or on places like FB or twitter, and so that social thing where you have something solid happens more. But still I agree that the place it needs to happen most is in the physical world. I don’t know how to make that happen in my own life because most people I know are really focussed on life outside of political realities. I guess that’s why I come here.
But it reminds me of something that Naomi Klein said last year, when asked how she keeps going, she said it’s really important to get in a room with people who are doing the same kind of work, struggling with the same kind of things. I think you’ve really nailed it there, where it needs to happen within normal community interactions if it’s going to be stable and resilient (maybe Klein was talking about something else).
Take it from a pro, Naomi Klein would know. 😀
I empathise with your situation of not being physically around others who are focused on political issues/emerging social realities. It’s the same for me.
I do believe group social meeting is what we are going to need, to strengthen us for the next election, just for starters, as we have far bigger ongoing threats to our very existence, in climate change, as well as maintaining momentum and influence.
I think a while back Bill set up a regular meeting in Dunedin, where people met in a park. Hows that going people? Is there a way for Standardista’s to meet in person in their regions?
As I thought about socialising being a key thing to strengthening a group committed to a similar goal I received mail in my inbox from the Labour Party gen sec. He was asking if you were a 20 – 30 something professional interested in socialising. A great move I thought, along the lines of what I’d been thinking about. If that wasn’t your thing, age wise or work wise there was a survey to fill in with your thoughts about doing something similar.
I would be interested to see how many people turn up to a party AGM compared to how many people turn up to a party social gathering, especially if it’s a low cost thing. $ is a barrier for some of us.
Personally, in light of the Lab/Green MOU, I’d like to see a seasonal social get together, to build solidarity and to forge ties at the grass roots, where it really counts.
That should read “Naomi Klein’s a pro, she would know”. Just so there’s no confusion about who the pro actually is. 😀
Unconnected to the Standard, there are a few interested politically aware Dunedinites meeting in the next week as part of a Matariki event. I haven’t been involved in the organisation of the event but I would expect there to be 20-30 very politically interested minds show up.
In general terms I agree that face to face, in person political socialising is crucial to our future.
That’s really good to hear CV. Off the keyboards and exercising the vocal chords instead of the fingers. Hope it’s a fruitful event 🙂
Endless war, endless greed: The Pentagon is lining its pockets with taxpayer dollars
Obama now plans to rebuild America’s nuclear weapons cache, the latest in a series of military enrichment schemes
http://www.salon.com/2016/06/18/the_pentagon_is_soaking_us_all_partner/
Trump’s lies aren’t unique to America: Post-truth politics are killing democracies on both sides of the Atlantic
Voters no longer value truth, and Donald Trump and Boris Johnson are dangerously exploiting the new paradigm
http://www.salon.com/2016/06/19/trumps_lies_arent_unique_to_america_post_truth_politics_are_killing_democracies_on_both_sides_of_the_atlantic/
_LPRENT
You’ve been pretty harsh with a couple of my comments last couple day so i’m bringing it here to open it up and sort it.
Yep I made a couple boo boo’s, I retaliated too this
[deleted as irrelevant]
[lprent: This isn’t a negotiation, it is an observation of a continued pattern of behaviour and a demand for a permanent modification of some of those behaviours from a moderator. There is no point in various moderators continuing to point out deficiencies in your behaviour if you are too damn lazy or too thick or too self-entitled an arsehole to modify those behaviours.
1. Read the policy again. It is clear you haven’t understood it.
2. How you feel about it has absolutely no relevance and I suspect you don’t have sufficient experience with operating a blog to even be able to offer it. You are a guest on this site, your host is telling you to shape up or ship out.
3. Your only viable alternative to changing your behaviour here is contained in the last section of the about.
4. The only reason I’m bothering with this tedious exercise is because you haven’t been a particularly obnoxious
pestguest until recently.5. I really don’t care what you decide to do. So I won’t waste any more time on it. ]
This is a heart wrenching article. And in our back doorstep. Why do not NZ take the Nauru refugees – it is hard to see how these detention centres can be considered legal under human rights legislation – in particular for the unaccompanied children committing suicide.
“The worst I’ve seen – trauma expert lifts lid on ‘atrocity’ of Australia’s detention regime
Exclusive: In his 43-year career, Paul Stevenson has worked in the aftermath of the Bali bombings and the Boxing Day tsunami but says nothing he witnessed was as bad as the treatment of asylum seekers on Nauru and Manus”
http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/jun/20/the-worst-ive-seen-trauma-expert-lifts-lid-on-atrocity-of-australias-detention-regime
How many people out there think mental illnesses equate to a lower intellect, or reduced mental capacity?
I have found here some resistance to my points of view based on the fact I am mentally ill.
I am in fact B-Polar, and I have an IQ of over 160 according the 2 of the Psychologists who treated me through Hep C treatment.
My illness caused a chemical imbalance in my brain which causes me to have periods of massive empathy/depression and periods of manic/sleepless, fast thinking, impusiveness.
if untreated.
Currently outlooks for Bi-polar people are good, it does take time to find the right chemicals and once a balance of chemicals has been restored we live completely normal lives.
I recently found the right medication , for me it was Effexor, I snapped out of depression in the time it took for the pill to get into my blood stream and have been stable for over two months now.
Comments from LPRENT such as..
“I really can’t be bothered dealing with commenter’s mental issues over and over again and having them disrupting a reasonably rational debate. I suspect you don’t understand yourself well enough to understand your own issues and therefore are unlikely to be able to control yourself. So any ban that I am forced to issue will be for some time”
and the other day you insulted me and my mental health just like someone who knows absolutely nothing and is predjudiced.
I am shocked at the way you talk to and treated me, uses my disabilty and mental health to question my intellect and integrity.
Hi Richard. I can’t comment on the exchange you’ve had with LPrent.
I can, whole heartedly support you in your recovery from depression and your belief (or what I see as fact) that mental illness is in no way related to intelligence.
I’m someone who struggles with depression and chronic insomnia to the point where I can no longer work/ or find suitable part time work, so I’m thrilled to hear you’ve found a medicine that works. That can be a really liberating feeling.
Go well and stay well.
Kia Kaha!
Thanks Rosie, after so many years trying it was super liberating to not dive into depression whenever a saw a animal run over or bad news.
I have 2 months of stress less life now and i’m chilling back out daily. I feel the tension relax and everyday gets better without having to worry if I was about to swing in moods.
Prozac, citalopram, epillim by the truckload, they give you the antidepressants and assume you’ll be fine come back in a month they say, it never did squat, they even thought I was lying and putting it on after all the tablets didn’t do much, it took me over ten years of that and a Hep C treatment that has side effects of making you suicidal, to find a brilliant new Dr who took me over from my old Dr and she cured me in one med change.
I had given up, never give up if the meds aren’t working change them don’t linger on non active antidepressants Rosie is all I can say.
Awesome to hear you’re doing so well Richard after years of suffering. That really is a breakthrough. Well done you! It’s a good feeling, I find, to be back to one true self and feeling safe and well.
It is hard for people in a clinically depressed state to cope with problems, bad news, and upsetting sights. You become sensitised to things and it spirals down. I’ve had to work with being overly empathetic to animal suffering but deal with it in different ways now.
I’m fine and dandy on the paroxetine now but still an insomniac. I use sleeping pills about 3 times a week to get by. I also try to keep a different future in mind too. Once the clouds lift you can see there are good things that ARE going on.
Take care. Rosie
I’ve had to deal with acute depression a number of times in my life, and seem to have quite a few friends and family with various mental aliments – including bigotry. I expect to help and deal with issues to do with it as and when I need to.
But what I was referring to was your attitude and actions on this site. Here I’m not interested in dealing with, protecting or helping you. I’m interested in protecting and helping this site as a place for debate. The way we do to deal with bad behaviour for WHATEVER cause, is to warn about behaviour and (if required) to remove the ability to write comments.
The proportion of people commenting or authoring on this site with various afflictions (mental, physical, bigotry or addictive) probably isn’t that too dissimilar from society at large. However most of them manage to control their behaviour to the level that I don’t notice them. I can’t see any reason that I should treat you differently to them.
There are limits to the amount of time that I (or any other moderator or author) can be expend on this site. And after more than 8 years of doing it, I tend to push so that I don’t have to spend too much time dealing with someone acting like an arsehole. I find it is less of a problem to whack hard once so I don’t have waste time to play whack-a-mole with dickheads.
Respect Lprent, sorry you had too crack out the sledgehammer , but I respect your doing it, now that we had a chance to one to one, vs catching each other on a thread, and distracting from the thread.
Some of the odd comments were tongue in cheek and I have learned humour often gets taken literally here if your not super careful to announce how your inferring a comment.
My comments should tidy up as a I get more familiar with the morally accepted peer standards here.
Thanks again for posting this and allowing me to relate my concerns and have them answered.
Kind regards
Richard
[lprent: Ok, the warning has been heard. Removed from moderation. We will see how it goes. ]
Thanks for that.
Humour, more often than not, simply doesn’t come across in text. To indicate that you’re being humorous usually means that you have to add smileys and/or tags.
Yes. I learnt the hard way in earlier days. Tongue-in-cheek comments were taken too literally by some and I ended up on the receiving end of a few unpleasant barbs. Even adding emoticons or plain language tags is not always a guarantee. Best to confine oneself to such comments when the post itself is humorous and/or satirical in content.
Try being humorous on here if you’re seen as a tory 🙂
Right wingers with a sense of humour are usually given credit on this site. Just remember to add the smiley or a humour tag so we know… 😉
Or a /sarc tag so I (and others) don’t take what is said literally.
You have to remember that in this environs we can’t see the puckish smile (wasn’t he a rodent in one of williams plays ?) /sarc .
… we can’t see the puckish smile (wasn’t he a rodent in one of williams plays ?) /sarc .
No, he was fairy. 😀
I played him once in a high school play.
It doesn’t come across as puckish when a policy hurts someone – making a joke of their pain is provocative.
C’mon Stuart Munro. Just because we have a teeny wee bit of fun doesn’t mean we don’t feel strongly for those who are the victims of this heartless and horrible government. Some of us have even been there in one form or another.
There’s still room to lighten up and maybe even have a laugh at ourselves.
Yes… except that with a pretty vacuous and actively biased MSM there is little or no channel for normal outrage. A not too politically interested person who gets their news from TVNZ, stuff, and the Herald could be forgiven for thinking that Nick Smith was vaguely competent or Paula Bennett compassionate.
There is a need to roundly damn this government, in adition to dispassionately discussing alternatives. The trolls never sleep, and never miss an opportunity to paint this vicious and dysfunctional kleptocracy as marginally competent and technically human.
I agree that that part of Lynn’s statement was a form of prejudice in terms of mental health and I wish he hadn’t made it. I hope you can pull back a bit anyway, because I like your contributions on ts in general, and I think you bring perspectives that we don’t otherwise have and I find that valuable. There are rules though, and if you break them too often it’s easier for the site to give you time out.
I do think you are stepping over the bounds a lot at the moment, and you will get moderated for that. Different moderators have different ways of approaching that.
fwiw, Lynn is an equal opportunity moderator and will be abusive to everyone pretty much equally if they piss him off as a moderator. That’s the bit to understand, it’s not a personal thing so much as what is seen with a moderator hat on. It takes time to moderate, there is more involved than in just making a comment. And that time is time we don’t get to spend doing other things. One of Lynn’s trigger points is where he finds he is having to use a lot of time on one person when they’ve already been warned.
My own is people derailing threads (you’ve noticed I’m sure) either by posting off topic or by posting things that are inflammatory.
I’m really happy to explain where I think you are overstepping the bounds if that’s helpful. It is good to reread the Policy, and they still need to be understood in the context of the culture of ts. Lots of people don’t get that, and some of those people end up with bans.
Moderation has changed a bit in the last 6 months, and IMO there has been an improvement in the debate culture. There is less tolerance for bickering and troll derailments. Shutting them down early on keeps discussions much more focussed on the topic of the post, which is the point of the site.
I’d see two main things happening with you at the moment. One is taking personal grudges across multiple conversations. It just disrupts thread, so if you can let it go, or keep it in the thread it originated in if it’s appropriate, that’s going to cause less disruption and get less moderator attention. If all else fails, do what you have done today and take it to Open Mike.
The other is to focus more on the politics. You have interesting ideas and ones that are challenging to some here, so finding ways to communicate those without having a go at people will work better in the long run. Yes, lots of what happens here is unfair (e.g. someone is rude to you and doesn’t get called on it). But it’s on all of us to act within the rules as much as we can and lower the need for moderation in the first place.
edit, just seen Lynn’s comment above, which is a very clear explanation that behaviour will be moderated no matter what the cause.
Only in that I view the type of bigotry that he was displaying as being a type of mental illness. It is pretty damn hard to explain it any other way. I’ve talked to enough bigots on various subjects (including some very intelligent ones) to realize that in some people it appears to be hardwired well below any cognitive layer.
I think it was more just that thing of equating behaviour with mental illness when it’s pretty hard to know how much of anyone’s behaviour comes from that. And people with formal mental health diagnosis like bipolar already get stigmatised more than most, and attributing behaviour to their mental illness tends to make that even more so.
Bigotry is a different thing IMO.
I’m glad you explained what you meant to Richard and that he gets it now. All good.
Equally understood, Weka, again sorry for the trouble.
I replied to Lprent and the same curtesy and sentiment is given to you.
Nice one Richard, glad you sorted it out 🙂
Rant begins
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/81219380/renewed-calls-for-euthanasia-debate-as-petition-submissions-set-to-break-record
I don’t know if this has been posted today but its a weak and cowardly position of Andrew Little over this and its even more cowardly and weak of john Key in not picking this up as well
Basically every politician, no matter what party they’re with, that doesn’t support this is a gutless coward
Maryan Street is completely right about this, we at least need to start talking about it
Rant over
I’ve seen Whaleoil mention the Catholic Mafia within National as being the main block in the euthanasia debate.
Same probably applies to Labour,
Didn’t think the Catholic Church still had that amount of power today
I’d say Bill English is staunchly prolife.
“staunchly prolife” engenders a whole spectrum of political beliefs in of itself, starting with an understanding that life is sacred and it is not man’s place to play God with and take others’ lives.
So you’d be against euthanasia, CV?
http://thestandard.org.nz/voluntary-euthanasia/#comment-1124288
Yes, for various reasons, I think that any Government Authorised Suicide programme is a bad idea.
There are hundreds of improvements which should be made to the care of terminally ill people before this measure is even considered.
BTW if NZ ended up performing euthanasia at the same rate that the Dutch do, we would have 1,450 Kiwis a year die under a Government Authorised Suicide programme.
Yes, that’s four times NZ’s annual road toll.
And we’d be investigating whether or not the programme should be extended to children under 16 years of age.
Bill English, Michael Woodhouse ,Chris Finlayson, Chester Borrows and probably quite a few others.
Well that’s depressing
Yes, there’s always a chance that joyce might make a tilt at the top job at any time. Slater needs to head that one off at the pass for his mate.
I think Steven Joyce prefers to be the power behind the throne.
as an imminent grease
I doubt the National Party Board and their major funders consider Joyce as an electable leader for the National Party. So I do not think that he will have any support from that quarter. And without that support, any leadership coup attempt is going nowhere.
I’m just working on the idea that Slater doesn’t give an opinion without an ulterior motive – a comment above suggests that his “Catholic mafia” line could have been aimed at knobbling any number of contenders 🙂
Before you jump to conclusions about the Catholic Mafia you may want to read this interview (plus 2 comments) with Simon O’Connor who is the chairman of the Health Select Committee that is tasked with the inquiry. Mr O’Connor was almost ordained as Catholic Priest.
Syria: Another Pipeline War
It’s an interesting history lesson that connects the dots of US imperialism for the last 60+ years.
How nice it would be for the Western Empire to have a Qatari pipeline going through Syria; it would ensure energy supplies to Israel and the EU could access a massive amount of gas while cutting Russia out of the loop.
Damn that Assad for not allowing the use of his country for this project. He’s simply got to go.
horrible misappropriating bastards
http://fineartamerica.com/shop/shower+curtains/lindauer
so culturally wrong but someones got to make money somehow //bangs head on anything…
gosh.
That entire site is Trump-tacky-ular…
shower curtains, I mean bloody hell!!!
Although I went to the trouble of identifying the work and the man portrayed I managed to get myself involved in a rather unpleasant flame war with another blog host when he posted the image below.
But he didn’t seem to be able to understand why some would find the manipulation offensive.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BD0t7ELvUV-/
that one made me sick joe
What sort of cultural infant would even think to do that?
And as for the shower curtains!! 😒
I wonder if the descendants have made any representation to these unthinking idiots?
If NZ took a leaf from the yanks’ book we’d make reproductions of moko illegal, and then try to extradite the sellers for “money laundering” because the payments were transferred from one account to another.
Might even get a helicopter raid on their home…
Am I the only one who heard Kathryn Ryan shout down Matthew Hooton this morning? First good moment in bloody years…
Ah that kind of explains felix’s somewhat obscure tweet today,
https://twitter.com/bsidebeats/status/744673898101248001
Off to have a listen now.
*shock*
I heard it. Not before time, although it took a bit to get him to shut up. Talk about verbal diarrhoea! Never heard Kathryn Ryan so exasperated. Can’t she turn him off or something ?
I wonder – she never stops him normally, but this time she was defending RNZ’s integrity..
I wonder if she has wanted to do the same in the past, but only today did she feel that she would have the backing of her own bosses?
Can’t she turn him off or something ?
That’s what I kept yelling out to her to do. She couldn’t hear me.
Kiwi troops to stay in Iraq for another 18 months. No one saw this coming.. then again I remember various spokespeople from the left saying this is exactly what would happen.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/81265744/kiwi-troop-deployment-to-iraq-has-been-extended-by-18-months
Yep deployment to now extend beyond the next election
Key said the intention was not to go beyond two years and the mission would be reviewed in 12 months. At the initial deployment.
really,
Now he extends them for another 18 months.. that’s 18 months on top of the 2 years. Oh btw did he not mention we are at war now or is that coming later.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11659951
Last line of that article:
Wtf!
Yes, amusing. I don’t know how poor Gerry can sleep at night, knowing that so many swords of Damocles are swaying and hovering above our heads…
vino
The only imminent threat NZ is experiencing is the National party, led by John Key they are doing far more damage to people than ISIL have in NZ.
Sadly that’s actually a fact.
Reminds me of this tweet from the Economist:
My reply:
Nice 1 DTB.
When will John Key speak out against this scofflaw regime?
http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/jun/20/the-worst-ive-seen-trauma-expert-lifts-lid-on-atrocity-of-australias-detention-regime
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=11660016
Now don’t bust your mouse furiously following this link nor froth so much your unable to offload your love of all things Paula Bennet.
However Barry Soper’s lovely post on PB just popped up and what do you know a comments section on her is open.
Good luck guys let her and Soper know we know, if you know what I mean.
She does not care, she’s a bully, you know the truth.
The $5000 is in part to be given to the removal Company and just $2000 given to the people as a start up grant, they said on Morning report today.
So John Key , how do you feel about people sleeping under bridges?
JK : We’ve had a bit of a discussion about that and we are quite comfortable with that really, I mean there is no real safety issue here as the vehicles are well above them and being under the bridge they shouldn’t pose a distraction for the motorist. If they want to live under a bridge then be my guest.
Arrr, I was more referring to the homeless problem.
JK: Well I haven’t had any homeless approach me directly about this, but we desperately need more roads and bridges and we are pushing that through so that should produce a win win situation with the extra bridges.