What are we, sheep?

Parents that is.
The convicted paedophile teacher working in a primary school from 2009 to 2011 is the subject of a ministerial enquiry, and has had his identity suppressed.
Most of the parents have been following instructions not to speak to the media. From The Herald:
The primary school has sent a number of newsletters home this week, explaining the situation as well as giving advice as to how they should speak with their children about it.

The high school has also sent a letter home to parents.

Yesterday as parents arrived to pick up their children at the Auckland primary school where the man had worked, many did not want to comment as they had been asked not to speak to media.

Stuff complying with any kind of gagging directive. You'd expect good parents to line up to have their say so other parents can learn from the mistakes of the Ministry of Education. You can guarantee that by the time the enquiry is complete, the resultant material will be watered down and filled with weasel words. Parents need to know how to protect their kids. Especially in light of these chilling words:

The mother, who did not want to be named, described him as an inspirational teacher and a role model who had the parents' full trust and was very much loved by students.

"Clearly this was a man who was good at hiding his tracks. He fooled a lot of people.

"We trusted him fully. We were like a family ... that's why it hurts so much.

John Key Takes It To Poor Women. Reliving 1991

The latest tranche of welfare reforms has now been announced. Predictably it has been met with acclaim on the right and cries of benefit bashing on the left.
And how did that No Hopey, Changey stuff work for you after 1991, National?

Widowed Kylee Guy and son following the murder of husband Scott Guy. Her future is tougher under National. Image TV3

The "Benefit Slashers" image was probably the single biggest factor in losing the 1999 election and  2002; in 2005 it was the second biggest factor after Don Brash and his mates: The Exclusive Brethren. 

Watch history repeat itself later in this decade. John Key could do a great big cakewalk down the middle of New Zealand; he could do a big cakewalk with Gerry through Aotea Square, down Lambton Quay, through the Octagon and pull Jesus out of a freshly resurrected Christchurch Cathedral and Shearer is still a shoe-in if the economy doesn't improve and hardship stories from kiwi battlers become pronounced. 

Every good conspiracy theorist who voted for Winston Peters "knows" that JK is the smiling assassin and was just biding time to take it to the poor. 

It's a little more complicated. No offense to anyone who voted Winston and I'm a conspiracy theorist myself but instead of inhaling the old vox pop stories offered up by the 'traditional' News Media, APN and Fairfax, I use my Housewife Logic to work out the "truth". 

One truth is, women did nothing for wonen in 1991 and they are doing nothing now. 

For overseeing the legendary welfare cuts of 1991 as Minister of Social Welfare, Jenny Shipley is  considered one of the most malignant women in the history of New Zealand to 50% of the population. She is surpassed only by Ruthanasia Ruth Richardson in the "Women Who Throw Other Women Under The Bus', stakes. I guess Paula is in line for the bronze. 

In 1991, huge social shifts had just occurred. Women were leaving their loser husbands in droves. Most of them had children and with little access to work and wage inequality, they were reliant on the DPB. They were just able to survive on this welfare and had the ground ripped from them when benefits were slashed. That's when, for a myriad of reasons from the political spectrum, New Zealand no longer became a great place to live. Instead of targeting the child-bashing losers, and supporting real life families with re-training, punishing women for the red-neck vote became a blood sport. Everyone was treated the same and every woman on the DPB became stigmatised. After all the ballyhoo, National did a tits job at creating placements for beneficiaries; socialism gained a greater toehold and National was eventually booted. 

I can't believe there were no other solutions to the universal policy of cutting entitlements and targeting women. Probably there was a benefit bubble where this group of babyboomer women could have raised their children and had access to re-training with free education. New Zealand would never have been exposed to divisive anti women baby-factory rubbish. And it should have been the women who pointed this out to the class of 1991. 

Same scenario, different generation and this time it is the children of those same baby-boomers who are now being targeted across the board as bludgers. 

From the Herald today: "Nothing arouses popular ire quite as much as the possibility solo mothers can have more babies on the domestic purposes benefit".

Me: This says to a certain element in society: "A woman's place isn't making mistakes or requiring help. A woman's place is cooking my eggs Biarch; on the back of my fist, or in the grave". 

And once again a woman is wheeled out to try and sell us what the same class of 1991 have prescribed. We know the current crop of women in the National Cabinet are just the fluffers for the main stars, but we love to hate them anyway. Perhaps we hate them because they have no real power. 

No matter how they are spun to us as Tuff Luvin, Green Hotcakes, we know they aren't doing it hard like some kiwi women and they seem to be ignoring the pain being caused by new policies. We know they wouldn't act anyway, because of some unseen greater cause. We tolerate the do-gooder younger breed who are just weaning and we have a xenophobic paranoia about the Bennett's and the Collins of politics. They have broken ranks with the sisterhood with across-th-board changes to benefits that treat a widowed 40 yr old; a divorced stay at home Mum, with the very few problematic young un's.
You should have staged the changes John and Co. Now you have several PR problems on your hands.

Anti Women PR Problem 1.
How does National sell canning the widows benefit? The widows get shifted over to the all-purpose benefit on a lesser rate. You know, so they can wait it out until they too die, or go on the super, on a bit more hardship. Big fail. Women alone tend to help in the community and whatever the savings, the PR cost for National will be great. Perhaps this benefit should be means tested (life insurance payouts can be substantial) but until women have similar pay and job prospects as men, it does no harm to retain it.
How many millions of dollars can the Kylee Guys of the world possibly cost? Maybe she will support herself. What if she has no education and her husband and her were planning to farm together. With no husband and no father for the children it may be at least 14 years before she can re-train. If you are in this bracket you inevitably fall through the cracks, and for no lack of hard work.

A Woman's Place is not in the Grave.

Shelley Bridgeman has much to say about the perception of women in society in this Herald article:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=10788386

 She discusses the case of Christie Marceau,  a perfect example where women's rights are trivialized by courts and the repercussions are visited violently upon unsuspecting victims.
On 7th November last year Christie Marceau was killed outside her parents home, allegedly by the same man who was bailed near to her home, after being charged for kidnapping and assaulting her. This mongrel has name suppression while 18 year old Christie lies in a grave. And she is not the first female victim murdered by a killer bailed to a close by address.  This TV3 news story details other cases:
http://www.3news.co.nz/Victims-and-Sensible-Sentencing-Trust-unite-for-Christies-Law/tabid/423/articleID/244385/Default.aspx

The judge David McNaughton who bailed the alleged killer appears as a daft menace at the very least. Perhaps he had no alternative to the decision to bail, working within the existing legal framework.
The legislation needs to be changed quicker than you can say:"Simon Powers' Exit Survey".
Greater transparency is required. The public needs to be able to see why judges make the decisions they do to maintain respect for the profession. We should be able to ream it home to them and the politicians if they don't give enough weight to victims rights. They interpret the law; they are not the law.
On another level, Judge McNaughton's sympathy for the alleged perpetrator outweighed his considerations of the rights of the victim.
 I imagine the perp had only one location as an option to be bailed to and that was near Marceau's home. The judge felt he had no alternative but to let him be bailed to be Marceau's neighbour. He concluded that the harm to the killer being kept in custody was going to be greater than the mental and possible physical harm to the victim. On this level he had an active hand in Marceau's death.

At another level judge McNaughton could be that most dangerous of persons, someone working at the coalface who has no idea how the mind of a criminal works. Some are able to be rehabilitated and some are not. Only experience with the latter teaches you the difference. Ignorance in a judge causes lasting societal harm.
On yet another level, judge McNaughton is a male and has no idea of what it does to you being an abused female . A physically slight female who has been assaulted by someone trusted. She was a teenager who now lies in a grave. This was the worst of consequences. She might not have died. She may have lived on with the impact of the first offenses against her.
If you are assaulted as a teenage female by a male you trust, part of you remains stunted into adulthood. You retain a wariness. You both want to please and maintain the upper hand in your relationships with everyone. You tend not to hold the gaze of other people.
You might be proud and refuse help but wear an invisible "kick Me", sign.
And people being people, some of them do kick you; it is generally females who sense weakness like sharks circling in the water.
When you find you have broken covenant with both males and females, the universe is a lonely place. You're an actor with a normal life in one scene; in another you're a perpetual Gulliver. Breaking free of the restraints is a lifetime journey, one that Christie Marceau will never take.
I now refer back to another recent Shelley Bridgeman article: It suggests that harassment is the price of being female:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/shelley-bridgeman/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503061&objectid=10782348

At the end Ms Bridgeman states that she feels angrier, the more she thinks about it.
I say anger is a great place to start.

Strange Men Take Advantage of Lawless' Assets

It's a case of "Lucy in the sky with a Distended Bowel as the Greenpeace group that illegally boarded oil prospecting ship "The Noble Discover spends further nights up the tower.
  

Look at the following photo and consider the following question very seriously. What part of Lucy Lawless do you most admire? Is it her political acumen?

I suspect not. As I have said elsewhere I have plenty of respect for Lawless as an actor but none for getting on a ship and hiding behind slogans. This is what I mean by hiding behind slogans. From her twitter feed:

There is no logic or reasoning behind any of those statements. That naughty boat is off to despoil the Arctic, Lawless implies in this Herald Article:
"The fact is that if drilling is allowed to go ahead it's not a question of if there will be an oil spill in the Arctic, it's a question of when."
Using Housewife Logic, I replace the questionable technology in that stated conviction  with a different one and see if the same emotions are elicited:
" The fact is that if commercial flight is allowed to go ahead it's not a question of if there will be a plane crash, it's a question of when".
Here is the boat in question:

It's a terrible thing technology, it exposes you to all sorts of risks. But only when a large lump of ice is endangered, do we start to CARE in a warm, fuzzy, green kind of way.
With regards to the distended bowel and such fascinating matters. A bit of forward planning using an easily obtained emetic and you're all cleared out and ready to go. You don't need to sit on the crapper for days after a colonoscopy and they use the same compound to clean you out so they aren't pointlessly pushing the camera around crap in your bowel.
I take an empty bottle in car for my wee boys for emergency urine unloadings, similarly will the guys take take care of their wee-wees and Lucy will have tubing and a funnel. Easy peasy.
The feminist angle. What on earth is Lawless doing allowing others to exploit her assets? I'd be very surprised if the powers that be within Greenpeace, were not rubbing their hands in glee at the prospect of a bit of skirt with money being prepared to put herself on the line.
She is deluded if she thinks she'll be welcomed into any political inner circle, and if she relishes the prospect of being political and truly effective, she may well be very disappointed.

Lucy is a widdle bit uncomfortable. But all it takes is a bit of chocolate to put it right. She was purportedly ecstatic when the protestor that left also left his stash of chocolate.
What kind of message is that to send? Not one that will get anyone to take her seriously. FFS.
This is more an opinion piece than fact backed analysis with regards to drilling in the Arctic. I am applying Housewife Logic to matters political and otherwise. Others out there are committing acts of real journalism if you wish to investigate further with regards to the veracity of oil drilling. Just don't be fooled by Noises Off.
Politics these days is about sloganeering and brand abuse. This is why we have more ex TV presenters than people with disabilities in our Paliament.

Frack It Lucy Lawless

Lucy, Lucy, Lucy. Frack off out of my home province. Jobs are at stake.
Lucy Lawless is protesting by climbing up the tall part of a ship.  She wants to stop Shell for prospecting for oil and as part of a group of protestors has boarded a ship in Port Taranaki today.
Protestors including Ms Lawless climbed aboard prospecting ship The Noble Discoverer en route to the Artic at 7.am and are now refusing to leave. From the Taranaki Daily News.
Lawless: "As a mother and a human being I find that absolutely reprehensible. I believe we have to clean this up and take care of this burden so our children wont have to".
What a load of bunk you speak Xena. Oil has underpinned most of the scientific discoveries that has served modern civilisation. Running out of this useful substance would be frackin' awful. The climate change doomsayers would have us believe that we need to switch to sunshine power to save our souls as peak oil hit a decade ago and we are deluding ourselves by avoiding the inevitable.
I bet Lucy uses a car regularly and her kids have access to IPads.
Hypocrite.  Does she suggest that after she has had the best of 'Oil', others should forgo access to technology enabled by oil?
You know? Without oil, vibrators would've remained on the drawing board.
I admired you for your role in Xena Lucy. It's not often you see women in empowering roles. But now your message endangers the economy of my hometown.
I understand the imperative for Lawless; surely after participating in an ancient weapon wielding, primative tool utilizing filmset, everyday life must seem boring. An an opportunity to wage protest must be far more entertaining than sitting home embroidering ones knickers.
But Xena, what the frack about the environment do you know apart from Green slogans? They sound good, but are they substantiated?
Xena, It is only local jobs that you are hurting and sunshine power is nowhere near powering my car let alone my healthy skepticism. I know several people employed in the Taranaki oil industry and they will leave for Australia if the likes of you have your way.
And if oil were really that bad, God would have sent his thunderbolts to the ground well before man invented C.H.I.P.S. (The California Highway Patrol.)
A lot of the green information about oil is pure hysteria. I watched Gasland with some trepidation. If you see this movie it is impossible to dispel the image of tapwater going on fire allegedly because of fracking practices. This has since been debunked: the water went on fire because of the batural gas naturally ocuring in this water bore; the makers of Gasland knew this and refused to acknowledge it. Oil is a political, not a moral football. It pays to be sensible with our earth's environment. We live in a closed system. We don't want to be climate change enablers.  But we risk losing sight of the scenery:

CHIP'S Erik Estrada. Proof God approves of Fracking. 

Big Ups for Tania Wysocki

It appears Tania Wysocki has done everything possible to get herself out of her current position. Whaleoil fills the much needed gap for true journalism and has a different angle on the story.
When I wrote on this story on an earlier post, I questioned why would someone go to the media instead of 'just getting on with it'. I've never been a solo Mum but I've been disabled; in a wheelchair and unable afterwards to drive for a period of time, relying solely on public transport to get three kids to and from school and activities; I have sympathy for those parenting alone.
When you're in the poo you generally just get on with it. Whinging is a luxury for luxury problems. I notice this get-to-it attitude in many of my friends, as we near our naughty  40's most of us have had shite to deal with. Therefore I questioned her motives for going public. I was roundly told off by some commenters of the Kumbaya variety. Apparently I got through stuff so I want to kick the ladder out so others can't. A bit like how Paula Bennett got herself trained while parenting solo and doesn't want others to achieve her heights. What a load of rubbish. Where is this substantiated?  For me, I can say that when you've had stuff to deal with you're more than happy to pass on your experience. As for offering my opinion, well, New Zealanders  don't like that and lot of people, especially women will bully and brood instead of being honest.

It appears Tania Wysocki was just getting on with it. In the course of 'just getting on with it she approached some M.P.s, one of which, Labour's Jacinda Ardern, got excited about how it seemed to fit with the "National is hooking off the poor, angle" and hooked her up with NZ Herald's Simon Collins.
Mr Collins chose the angle and Ms Wysocki feels he emphasized the prostitution angle, over the angle that she was experiencing frustration at the absurdity of not being able to obtain childcare for level 6 courses where it was freely available for those attending level 3 or under courses.
'Ware the mainstream media. There are only two stories that get enough publicity to sell papers. One is "National is Screwing the Poor".  The second is "The Poor are Hopeless". Thank god decent bloggers and those new video savvy variety of journos are performing this much needed function to keep the pollies honest.
As for Tania Wysocki, I hope she gets through it all and acts as a catalyst for change for other women in her position to access training.

Victoria Taylor Mother of the Week: Kelly Percy.

No shortage of child bashing losers in NZ.

Kelly Percy blubs in court because she is forced to face the truth somewhere in her brain that she isn't a fit member of the human race, let alone a mother. God forbid she should get back the toddler son taken off her by CYF's after she, or someone else she let into her home, bashed her daughter Hail Sage McClutchie to death.
Whatever the coroner finds, she is definitely guilty of being a bad Mum.
Ms Percy says a series of falls caused the traumatic brain injuries that Hail Sage suffered.
Rubbish, rubbish, rubbish. I've seen every kind of injury happen to a child at that age. Twenty two months is a notorious age for falling. My son wiped out on a tiled floor at 2yrs and the size of the egg on  his head caused other Mums to confront my Nanny at the local playground. That was pretty nasty looking and one of the worst we have had, but none of the doctors were worried. It takes real intentional damage by another car, a falling building as in the Christchurch Earthquakes, or another human being, to cause the fatalities inflicted on Hail Sage.
Brickbats to the other two losers of the piece, the first being the doctor who failed to be decisive about the nature of the injuries . He said so himself - the argument for accidental injuries failed to stack up.
The 2nd loser is the reporter who failed to point out how weak the blubberer's story sounded directly to her.

I almost didn't post the above photo in case conclusions were drawn that this was a racist piece. Let me just say that I have met as many white losers as I have brown. I can also say that they tend to cluster.
What this photo does say to me is that monsters don't necessarily appear that way. They can blub, show contrition and appear remorseful. What they also have that makes them a different breed entirely, is an ability to self deceive and compartmentalize.  At the very most Ms Percy knows perfectly well who murdered her child. At the very least she is somehow convinced that she wouldn't play pokies and neglect her child in the future. "She states that " if the same thing was to happen to another of her children she says they'd take them instantly to the doctors".
What the rest of us, normal compassionate empathetic humans mustn't ever do, is allow ourselves to be sucked into her deception without proof of her rehabilitation. Our humanity is at stake.

Brave, Brave, Christchurch.

It is hard to believe a year has passed since the most horrific natural disaster in New Zealand's recent history. I know a number of the displaced, but no-one who was killed.  Our thoughts are with everybody who lost someone and with those who continue to live through the debilitating aftershocks.

What we in the rest of New Zealand, or abroad cannot afford to forget is that, like an ancient Yurok myth below, Christchurch will feel like the "Last Town of Human Beings", to those that remain. We should not deny Christchurch the manpower, the resources or the legislation to rebuild Central Christchurch, wherever the people of Christchurch choose to erect it. And it is only they who can truly know where to transplant the big beating warm heart it requires to survive.

From the Washington Post:


The following myth is taken from the Online Archive of California. It was originally told by Tskerkr, a Native Indian of the Yurok. In it, Earthquake suggests he should tear up the Earth and wherever the ground tilts, (presumably the plates) he shall level it. Thunder sugests they should be companions, and wherever they go he shall scare them:
Then Earthquake came to Erkier, the last town of human beings. He was traveling at night; only once he had traveled by day. Then he tried to shake the earth again. He felt it was as if it did not move. He shook harder. Then he felt it move a little. He hardly heard Thunder. Then he wished to know, because he scarcely had heard Thunder run. He said, "What is wrong?" Thunder said: "This is as far as I come. I cannot go beyond, because the sky descends. He could not pass. But Earthquake looked at it. Thunder saw him nearly penetrate, tearing the earth. He said: "You will penetrate if you wish; but I, I cannot." Earthquake said: "Well, I shall see you again." Thunder said, "You will see me far off to hierkik.

"Very well," Earthquake said to him.

I cannot name the place because I do not know: but Earthquake passed through to it. Then he saw ocean. He thought: "That is a good place." The two told him: "No. You will see pretty places where we are going. This is not pretty." Now Earthquake was listening for Thunder but heard nothing. He went a little way, listened again, and heard nothing. He began to shake the ground. Then it was as if he nearly heard Thunder. He shook harder, and really heard him. He thought: "It is well. I have my companion with me. I shall try to go around the world."

e. Then he started: but the two continued to go with him.Then Thunder met them. He said: "I wanted to see you again before you went on, because I wanted to know if you would do that: level the earth if you see it slope; for if it tilts, it will kill all persons. But if you care for it, it will lie level. And I will do the same in the sky. That is why I came to see you, because perhaps I shall not see you again for some time. So we will talk here to agree what we will do." Earthquake said: "Let it be so."

Now that is the reason Earthquake goes to different places because in the beginning he did that, and did not encompass the world in one day. It is thus with him now: he cannot go entirely around in a day, so he goes part way, and as it were spends the night. In some places he shakes the earth hard, in some he shakes it a little. For he did that in the beginning and does it now.

Face-Off! Is Paul Holmes Arse?

Yes. But not for the reasons that Hone Harawira or Rawiri Taonui put forward.
He's a cocksure, leering, gleeful, lovable arse. The older he has got, the more he seems to play the buffoon and the more we grow attached to him. He's an aged champion we keep in pasture out of affection for previous legendary dressage performances. He employs the Queen's English to interesting effect. It's pure pleonasm. Redundant words are littered through his sentences like confetti at a first wedding. This is immediately obvious in his rant, "Waitangi Day A Complete Waste":
".Hatred rudeness and violence from a group of hateful hate-fuelled weirdos". The pure tautology is close to follow. Waitangi Day: "It's repugnant. It's a "ghastly affair".
Is there any other presenter to match him for the abundant use of tautology and inverted sentences.
I couldn't say if it is overly premeditated, but it serves to characterize him, acting as a technicolour frame out of which he communicates to the lowly parvenu.
 He's New Zealand's Peter Griffin with a nobby overlay. 

We know he drinks fine wines with visiting cognoscenti and has a suitably appointed house and wife. They reek of good living, smiling at us from the pages of women's magazines.  But why we really like Paul Holmes is that we know he isn't too plutey to vent like one of us. To call a spade a spade without beating around the bush. Sorry.
I bet he swears like a navvy when someone screws up his paper delivery. And ignoring racist undertones, his latest vent reflects a level of feeling in the population. There is frustration with the feeling New Zealand is up against the Taniwha in the room: "When will IT end"?
Humans like certainty and it's unnerving knowing the same Waitangi events will roll around again next year like a lazy susan at a dim sum, serving up endless portions of self flagellation and dissatisfaction. It doesn't mean we're racist - I for one think the usual commentators such as Taonui are on the money. It was enjoyable to read Turia's eloquent missive with her Open Letter To NZ.
And Hone Harawira served Holmes up on a platter nicely. 
I couldn't say what the answer is, I am just a housewife. Too busy with kids for perfect grammar. I do know that it would be nice to feel welcome at a Marae on Waitangi Day. There is nothing my oldest loves more than putting down a hangi, as we did last year at his school. And maybe the answer for a better Feb 6th for the rest lies between the sheets:
A bit of sex. It's a kiwi tradition to 'get one over' on birthdays and anniversaries. It's a bonus at Christmas Time and I've heard of women thinking, "get me pregnant with the next baby J", at Easter Time. ANZAC is far too maudlin for a romp; Queen's B'day, who would dare?
On the next Waitangi Day, make it a tradition and drown out the protestors like patrons at a Christchurch brothel.

The Green Shifts. Or Why Broadband is an issue in NZ

Confessions of  Greenpeace dropout. A new book released by one of the Greenpeace founding fathers.

Great to see an expose of the crux of the Great Green Deception. Green Politics had laudable aims in it's inception, but has evolved very quickly into a thin veneer for promoting socialism.
Socialism has been enabled a new foothold by MMP type politics and also modern media, which allows the person who squeals the loudest to gain the most traction. All somebody needs to do is cast "the other guy", as a bully, or advancing the "cause of the rich", and they gain media time. We all know "the rich are pricks", and the worst thing you can be guilty of in New Zealand is: "not be caring". Fluffy bunny, woman's rights advancing, tree hugging, type caring".  Both Metira Turei and Winston Peters are masters of this type of politics.

I'm not saying all Green M.P.s are misguided arseholes. Gareth Hughes stands on his own merits, for one; many in the software industry applaud his illuminating speeches on A.C.T.A.
I am saying a number of Green M.P.s have a socialist agenda that is not environmentally principled. New Zealanders, especially the young, don't know this; we were never introduced to civics at school, as other countries are. Being uninformed, we may just vote Green because 'we care': "You can't have people if we bugger the earth". We vote Green because WE CARE.

There is only two "wings" of the political spectrum. I call the message of all parties on the political spectrum: "BUT WE REALLY CARE ABOUT YOU. ". Whoever squeals this the loudest pulls the most voters.
 On the right wing, we have the core belief in individualism: "We believe you have the tools to advance yourself, pay taxes and benefit society. You're a good person. We care ABOUT YOU". Fine for those who automatically have the tools to "make it". But what about those born to drug abusers, the selfish and the "plain hopeless"?
In some countries they live on the streets. I've certainly walked past enough of them in San Francisco. In the past I came very close to being one of them, spending a couple of nights fending for myself, as a 20 yr old booze-hag before I knocked a gargantuan alcohol and pill habit. Others aren't so lucky. I believe hapless individuals should be given a place in society - addicts kept safe, and square pegs tolerated or courted. Square pegs are often the artists or those who challenge societal constructs previously a "given truth". Just look at the legislative changes advancing civil right over the last 20 years: Homosexual Law Reform, Prostitution Law Reform, and:
 "We'd like you to talk to your kids before you Beat Them", Law Reform.
On the left wing, we have the thinking, that what is best for the collective is best for society: " If you can't do it for yourself, we'll have a very expensive safety net to make sure you don't fall through the cracks. We care ABOUT you". And it takes endless tinkering to provide the best, most accountable government so the size of the civil service swells. And the level of resentment in the shrinking middle class swells to a commensurate degree. The burden of support falls upon them, you see:
 The "cradle to the grave" Net requires taxes. It also means the low bottom trends upwards as less pay taxes to support the ever increasing individuals fallen through the safety net. Hence the unconscious tax thrust to level everyone off at the same height; a vicious circle shrinking our tax base. "Spirit Level", anybody? In New Zealand we call it the "Tall Poppy", syndrome. Other countries call it Socialism.
We have long been enmired in the belief that big and successful = bad. Since 1985 those who experience the most success within New Zealand have been the ones to uproot the tall oaks, giving everyone else the vicarious thrill of kicking the loser. Instead of admiring greatness we admire those who topple greatness. John Key with, "A Time For A Change", and WP with his "Teapottapes", foothold into government are recent examples of a long held tradition.
That Lange, what a dag eh? He gave it to Uncle Sam and now we don't get to lick the Great Country's balls on a regular basis. The world now listens to US rather than the U.S. We taught other countries how to CARE.
But the worst thing that happened to New Zealand in many ways was the passing of the nuclear free legislation.
WHAT!!! You say, in many ways that is the core of New Zealand's identity. Yes it has possibly kept us free of strife. I remember the feeling of relief at Clark's NZ government  keeping New Zealand out of Iraq, I consciously thought: "Phew", "We won't be terrorist targets".
There are plenty that will say the U.S. invited it upon themselves anyway with their oil-fancying ways  and why should we jump into the fray? I can't understand this myself, though I am not saying there is no corruption in politics. It's the Big Boi bribery ways that arguably gave Occupy a voice.
I am saying oil is great and is the heart of scientific progress.  It is Luddite to believe otherwise, but we happily chirrup bout the folly of peak oil. I am surprised the U.S. considers us as friendly as it does.
 And it is self evident that the good guys aren't the woman circumcising, Airplane Terrorist, type of  guys. Bad guys also tend not to hold democratic elections. However circa 2005, the widely held vew was that the U.S. had their sticky fingers in the Oil Pie, so maybe there was causality, and probably it wasn't our battle.
Our position of being a lily-livered fence-sitter, caring about everyone else but not caring about upholding democracy, or ensuring we advance the drivers of our economy, means we are not long from losing our economic sovereignty.
Case in point:
Think we just have to be nice and suck up to the U.S. and the big bad Republicans will "care enough" to let in our dairy?
It's a bit different from apples across the Tasman guys. We harbor socialist tendencies and while the U.S is relatively immune from this being a Republic and particularly with The First Amendment; the U.S. doesn't want to give the Spirit Level folk too much of a voice. New Zealand has two left leaning major "centre", parties. The U.S has two right leaning political parties. Neither wants  Occupy Oakland using the example of NZ to throw up a Mana party or a WP, to usher in MMP. I predict it will be a long time before NZ has open trade links with the great Uncle Sam. You see, open trade links means greater mingling of culture between the countries.

The implications of being a lone "caring" wolf aren't great for our tax base and eventually our economic sovereignty. No wonder Mr Fry is having trouble with his broadband.

Tania Wysocki

Klassy.

A big case of Special-itis from a woman who is old enough to know better but has instead gone to the media and cosied up with the Greens in the ongoing saga of Prossie-wannabe Tania Wysocki.
The truly impoverished would love to be on her income. $43,000 falls short of poverty level; to me a person can exist on $14,000 a year. I have. She has this for her and her three children; she doesn't have to work so can spend this time learning how to improve her prospects. When I had two children I had spare time for volunteering and other malarky.
Reduce rent costs and move away from Auckland, sweetheart. The provinces, especially Hamilton and Taranaki are better for vet work, unless you want to specialise in handbag size dogs that double as BMW seat warmers.

She also has the option of searching for a job without paying fees. Studying as a mature student is a waste of time and makes you poor. Poor and depressed. Poor, depressed and old, due to all the younger students. Get on and make the best of what experience you've got, is my advice. Heaps of vet nurse positions are currently being advertised on Trade-Me. Some of them may require no qualification or employers may be willing to take her on while she trains. She is not the only solo Mum who has ever found herself in this position. Full credit to those strong women that don't run and bleat to the media but get on with the unenviable task of weighing up their options and making the most of things.
She seems resourceful, if misguided, rather than a straight up loser. I was initially skeptical about her choice of study - animal vet nurse seems a bit niche and the latest trendy replacement for media studies. However she has experience in a stable so it may be a logical career path. If she is canny she will now try and sell her story off to Woman's Day or similar agency.

I doubt she'll ever take a sex client. It's a bit like threatening self-harm. If she was serious about joining the oldest profession she'd be already be knees deep in black satin sheets.
No aspersions on the industry. Apart from some scatty seventeen year olds druggies, I have always found such professionals to be lovely woman, female to the bottom of their capable warm hearts and paid mostly for the ability to accommodate mens ego's rather than any personal or physical sacrifice.
It is amazing how many you meet as a landlady.

V Day the Penguin Way. Post Coital Synopsis

Don’t forget your valentine, this penguin didn’t

And spare a thought for those recovering from the great annual Valentines Day pillow fight.

As reported: Hundreds Battle in Valentines day Pillow Fight.

see you next year Casper. This Valentines day my twins turned one year of age, having been delivered unexpectedly on Valentines Day last year. I imagine every Valentines Day from now on will get easier until I'm in my rocking chair on the porch, shooting spitballs at my husband.

Only 6 more NZ public holidays till Christmas.

Creating more jobs in Silicon Valley

I hope the Opposition are all over the "Sun King" with this.
Stuff reports how John Key wants to upgrade the Behemoth that is the IRD technology system. He is  targeting the online interactive systems to reduce back office support. The Herald has also recently reported on this - referring to this announcement as  a "computer upgrade".
Note to the peeps at The Herald: This nomenclature is outmoded.

It is an alarming announcement; any technical upgrade in any public department is invariably a matter of drywalling shit-bricks. Years of squabbling between department heads in the Ministries means outmoded systems are rejigged with new functions tacked on to old. There is ongoing conflict between in-house  technical employees and outsourced contractors; the government being a great source of business for these businesses. Most privately employed programmers in Wellington have puddled around in ACC and IRD source code at one time or another in the past 20 years; to the frustration of all parties. Enormous and excessive amounts of money are spent on contractors due to reluctance to retain people on the Ministry payroll. Open wallet, hold upside down over toilet.

It all seems to smell of Transmission Gully Fatigue; new systems are never employed because of the upfront cost; public money continues to gush into these systems when the correct course of action would be to ram the full replacements through and reap the economic benefits. Time will tell if the Solar Monarch intends a visionary full system replacement, or another $1B pigs ear overlay.
Why oh why is Key tea-bagging my neighbours down the road in Palo Alto? There is no need to approach Google with regards to any deployment and cloud data warehousing requirements. All this knowledge can be found in Wellington and Auckland. Google do search engines well - it this doesn't mean their expertise translates to what the IRD might require.
This is of greater concern than the Crafer ClampettGate business. Watch the jobs pour out of Wellington and into San Jose. More of my tech friends, (those very guys Key should be consulting), will be heading Silicon Valley way. Nice for the Yankiwi culture; not so good for the NZ economy.
Key could have asked what Xero's Drury thought, for starters. However, said entrepreneur may be too busy selling off his shares in order to build the next Chrisco mansion.

I'm not one for the concept of gutting the public service without replacement employment. Too many of my Administration Queen friends have found it hard to find employment in the last 5 years. Redundant public servants soak up the best private sector admin jobs leaving the rest of the unemployed to take their talents overseas. In this process, NZ loses more of it's contributing citizens for good to Oz culture, before new jobs are created. This is where Shearer could take a leadership role, by using New Zealand talent to create jobs for NZers by cutting their teeth on our infrastructure then selling to the rest of the world.

I'm not a Techie. When I met my husband at varsity, I was trying to decide if my first computer should be a "386" or a "486". He very kindly said to me: "You might want to think about a new-fangled Pentium processor.

16 Valentines Days later and he is still over-clocking my processor.

Lesson learned: Embrace new technology instead of Korean end-of Line Warehouse fodder and check out the in-house talent first.

Finally, somebody should be asking what expenditure has been chalked up in ACC over the last 20 years. That will shed some light on the nature of "The Beast".

More busybodies getting between Mums and babies

And note how in that title I capitalized the Mum and lower cased "baby". These days given many prominent health stories you could be forgiven for thinking that "baby led anything" is the way to go and Mums are by-and-large, parenting criminals, standing in the way of an infant's optimal health. I wish to go against this perception by capitalizing the role of Parents. As odd as that may sound.
The latest bullshit out from the medical profession suggests feeding your baby with a spoon (as opposed to letting them wean themselves), is akin to bottle-feeding with formula. And we all now know how bad formula is now the Piri Weepu's have been outed in the smokefree coalition filming debacle.
Parents are ignorance incarnate. Parents insist on feeding infants formula despite the well established research that the composite elements of formula can be similar to a combination of: fracking fluid; scrapage from the walls of p-labs and the houses of recidivist smokers and the blood of West Nile River Virus infected bats. So it is entirely to be expected that parents will ignore the latest research showing that we are spoon-feeding our kids obesity instead of allowing them to wean themselves with finger food.
the university of Nottingham School of Psychology research is titled "baby knows Best".
Stop Right There.
I would beg to disagree. I have five children currently at many stages of development from infancy to 8yrs. To be blunt, compared to me and their father, they know SFA.
Take my twins who will be one year of age on Valentine Day. I have been spoonfeeding them since they were three months of age. That's right, totally against the Plunket recommended introducing solids at 6 months. My premature twins needed the boost that only food could provide, as their tiny bodies desperately tried to make up for missed in-utero development. No freaking expert needed to give me permission to do what was right there. I am still spoon-feeding them. Their best attempts at feeding themselves mean they are more likely to score a hole in one in a U.S open than manage to consistently get a reliable source of nutrition into their hungry maws without assistance.
Take this quote from the article by "dietician" Lea Stenning":
"If mothers are forcing feeding times or manipulating the bottle by making the hole in the teet bigger for a faster flow rate, they can intefere with a child's ability to regulate."

Subtext: "Mothers are the enemy and would not be the enemy if they were to follow what we experts know is best. Mothers are always interfering. They are always manipulating things to their own advantage. Mothers are not to be trusted.
Lea Stenning is an idiot.  And the University School of Psychology Research is not to be trusted by presupposing every outcome with the title of the research unit, regardless of what their research might suggest.

Overcrowding and Poverty

Everyones an expert these days. Auckland doctor Peter Didsbury sees the effects of poverty every day:

Ultimately, he says, lifting health outcomes requires lifting low-end incomes. "If we really want to solve some of the disparities our communities experience, it has to be about education, employment and income."


Rubbish, rubbish, rubbish. 
He's a soft touch who has no idea about culture other than his own bog-standard white variety. 


To refer back to a previous paragraph:
He sees extended families crowding into one house to save money. "Mum and Dad are often in the garage while the grandparents and kids have taken over the main house," he says.
Of course: The family will be Samoan and they'll all be tithing off their pay packet or benefits to the church; most of it will be going back to Samoa and the rest to Whatsisname Ponytail for Christ-town.
Someone will have just died back in Samoa and they'll be in hock up to their eyeballs because of the extortionate amount charged for funerals back there. 
So they can't afford disinfectant and cleaning products; they may wash once a week to save on power. 


I'd like to know how overcrowding is defined. There are seven in our house and the kids are all clean (relatively), well fed and have never had cellulitis in their lives. We have a bit more coin now, but even when we were tithing off a lot more to the bank, hygiene levels were maintained.
With regards to respiratory illnesses: This is New Zealand. Over last winter which stretched from July to the end of December, there were always sick people in our house. We had the norovirus three times, a hospital admission for bronchiolitis; the vicks and mops were out constantly. It was the same for many other people in our humid, cold and wet neighborhood.


To my mind we're importing socialism from other ares of the Pacific. I'm not Samoan bashing; I know what can happen through Samoan friends. And Samoans have a great sense of family where whiteys cut the cord. We just have to be realistic about the causes of some of the "poverty" seen and work on education and help within the community instead of handouts.  


  

Private Information Release Occupy Oakland

This from Occupy Oakland:

Stop bothering me old woman.

The recent own goal by the LL League and the Maternity Council continues to develop further with this from today's NZ Herald

Ignore the bleating from the old biddies brigade.
 The following is a real display of empowerment by women for women:

40% of all millionaires in China are women who are training other women as bodyguards  to keep them safe from kidnapping:


http://www.rightthisminute.com/video/chinese-women-millionaires-looking-women-bodyguards

Pass the Sugar, Sugar.

Looks like the fun police are world wide:

http://healthland.time.com/2012/02/02/should-sugar-be-regulated-like-alcohol-and-tobacco/?iid=hl-article-mostpop1

The charming Socialists in Sugar-tax drag need to mosey into the 2teens.
It is 2012 and taxing an unavoidable substance is counterproductive and not something that will work in the fight against obesity.

What will work is education around how many calories individuals should consume in a day and calorie counters on food wrappers, as the main fast food chains are doing.
Sugar addiction is a personal battle and gastric banding should be available for the losers of this fight. For the rest of us, education plus exercise is the prescription.

Proposition 8 ruling

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals will issue its ruling today on whether Proposition 8 which overturned legalized same-sex marriage in California in 2008, stands or falls:
http://www.mercurynews.com/samesexmarriage/ci_19905426
Prop 8 was challenged by two Californian gay couples. One couple interviewed on a local TV station looked the picture of domestic bliss. The two middle-aged females with teenage twins have the normal challenges of any married couple. It is hard to see how anybody could cast this arrangement in the "death to the foundation of society", light that proponents of Prop8 have. 
In August 2010, U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker ruled the ballot measure a violation of the equality guarantee in the constitution. That decision is the focus of the appeal, brought by proponents of Prop 8.in his words:
"A private moral view that same-sex couples are inferior to opposite sex couples is not a proper basis for legislation"
And this classic line: "Believers, it's not about you".  
Judge walker is under the heat lamp of public opinion for being gay and his supposed conflict of interest. This is like saying judges who are parents shouldn't rule on matters regarding child welfare.

Face-off

Threats from the Maori Party to walk out on its pledged support for the National Government over the removal of a Treaty of Waitangi clause in state asset sales plans were issued last week.


Eddie at The Standard  has a theory that this was deliberately orchestrated by John Key to inflame racial tension in advance of the 2014 election.
Key's intention was not to inflame racial dissent; that approach would only ever play into the lap of the Mana Party and WP. However it is disingenuous to suggest that Key could not see the issue as a flashpoint in advance. He will have been very well aware of s9 and I agree with this: from The Standard post:
"Of course, National already has a modified version of s9 ready to put into the asset sale legislation that will allow the Maori Party to save face without quitting the government but, for now, a whole lot of pissed off Maori suits Key very nicely".
  
The supply and confidence agreement between National and the Maori Party are based on the foundation of recognition of treaty principles. Click here to see the supply and confidence between National and the Maori party.
The Treaty is a main cementing principle between the two parties as per this statement from the agreement:
"The National Party and the Māori Party will act in accordance with Te Tiriti o Waitangi, the Treaty of Waitangi. The Treaty is our country’s founding document. It created a nation based on diversity and shared aspirations for future success and prosperity. Both National and the Māori Party are committed to working together to ensure Māori and all New Zealanders can enjoy a successful and more prosperous future". 
So whatever Treasury might have advised, (pity the knucklehead who posted the advice to just remove or ignore s9 references from any asset sale agreements), this suggested course of action was never going to happen. Key now gets to play the saviour of the day with his 'elegant solution'. Tariana Turia  has reiterated the position of the Maori party with this, stateswoman like open letter. She'll provide stark relief to the Treaty stirrers while reminding iwi that the Maori Party was founded on meaningful protest and staying true to the principles of the Treaty.  
However due to the instability taint, there is a very real possibility from now, the Maori Party will get their arses handed to them on a platter in 2014 by either Mana or National. The best path to seeing this doesn't happen, is ensuring there is a clear choice to replace the Maori Party leaders. 

Thoughts on the Actual Day from an Expat.

A few people have commented that I sound quite grumpy about NZ in my blog. Perhaps I do.
New Zealand, I want to shake you out of your divisiveness and complacency.
If you were a child of mine I would probably call you "Griselda",and I would try and give you some firm re-parenting. As I told my 7 year today: No matter what annoys you, you are never going to win any arguments with tantrums, tears or blackmail.
I say this, because you can be quite stroppy and divisive. If the 'other side', wins in election year, the propaganda rolls out. Haters and wreckers from all ends of the political spectrum emerge from the woodwork. New Zealand, you have to learn to debate the issue and not the ideology.
On other occasions you can be quite passive and will gleefully accept a mass of political contradictions that is handed to you on a platter. Start looking for the truth that is right for you; for a more peaceful coexistence and racial harmony into the future.
You have no feeling of nationalistic pride, New Zealand, and it threatens you when you see demonstrations of might by the more powerful.
Always remember: Those nations that you have long standing relations with, and who you wish to trade freely with have a long standing history of tried and tested democracy. There are those who would seek to profiteer by subjugation, and these bodies sometimes co-exist within a free nations' borders.  The danger is very real.
Be wary of collective action, New Zealand, while always working to protect workers rights. The trouble with collectivity is that it spins off cultish factions that can bend the ear of the media to the same degree as the most relentless corporate. Be wary of glib patter, from whatever quarter it hails.
Stop tugging the forelock, New Zealand. What is more important? Arse kissing on the national stage, or reclaiming a day for some true expression of National identity. Try for some grown up discussion around becoming a republic. Just having a true National Day to hang your hat off may help the very inequality that you bemoan so vocally.


Give up your addiction to serfdom, New Zealand. 
The relations of a rather wise but elderly lady will be visiting later in the year. Apart from the Babyboomers, who cares?
Dedicate a day to the young and the hearty by replacing the defunct Queen's Birthday with a day of National Pride. Allow Maoridom to reclaim Waitangi Day, and demonstrate to the world your inroads on interracial harmony.
Good luck in your emergence from your young nation status. If you can negotiate favored nation strading status with one of the world's most closed-border countries, and prove unbiased referee to all, you can really hold your own on the world stage. These are a massive achievements that none of the larger nations have been able to emulate.
New Zealand, I have left for the time, but I wish you all the best.


PS I love you.

Hullo Waitangi Day. Then Goodbye New Zealand.

Two stories based on the same information but with different spin:

From the Sydney Morning Herald: The angle is that the equivalent population of a New Zealand city has relocated to Australia over the past year.

''There is some concern about the loss of 45,000 people [in a year],'' said Statistics New Zealand spokesman Nicholas Thomson. ''With our population of about 4.4 million, that's the equivalent to the population of a lot of our cities.


I'm horrified. A sizable town or city left New Zealand in the past year! Seriously? This sounds like an enormous problem. Surely this will appear on the front of our daily newspapers and our politicians be urged to act with urgency. But no. Population shrinkage is a myth on this side of the Tasman.

From the New Zealand Herald:

"The much vaunted brain drain to Australia is no worse than it has ever been, and is actually smaller as a proportion of New Zealand's total population than it was 40 years ago, a major study by the Department of Labour has found.

I had already blogged how this was wishful thinking and that Statistics NZ will not have the full picture on NZ departures.

I'm now wondering if all our good thinkers have already left for 'Australia Fair', be they journalists or analysts. Come on guys, wake up.
Time has moved on and technology in particular has advanced tremendously; if people leave, they may not feel the same pull to return home as they did in the 1970's. We can skype, call and fly home to visit cheaper than ever before. The problem of a disappearing population is very real.
The ditch has shrunk, but the economic benefits of training New Zealanders are going to Australia, as many more New Zealanders leave to call Australia home.
I don't believe the Christchurch Earthquakes are solely to blame, though the constant aftershocks have taken a toll on some nerves. In times of crisis we tend to hunker down and are more called to our familiar home and hearth.
Of course the opposition will blame National for the mass exodus. The chickens are coming home to roost under the watch of National however it is both sides of the house that are to blame.
I believe the wild ideological swings of the previous two decades are to blame.

Whatever the reasons people are emigrating, the trend must be reversed soon. A country with over 1/4 of it's population residing overseas with more leaving is not a nation.
It is a few scattered islands in the stream.

Howzat!!

Finally. A method of birth control that requires males to assume responsibility.
It can really only be adequately described as a Testicle Taser.

New Zealand. The new Pitcairn of the Pacific. Part 2

Another bit of evidence that our name suppression laws work in the favour of perverts:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/6365113/Sex-dentists-name-stays-suppressed
The particular patient that the story refers two was 24 at the time of the incident. The Dentist was found guilty of offending against her and four other individuals by the Dentists Disciplinary Tribunal by way of what is effectively indecent assault. However because he was originally tried and not found guilty by the high Court, the tribunal will not be releasing his name as that will bring them in breach of the High Court name suppression order.
From the article:
A Canterbury dentist found guilty of making a patient touch him sexually while she was sedated under his care has been granted permanent name suppression by the High Court.

But the dentist has given the High Court an assurance that he will tell patients of the convictions if he is asked.

The dentist was found guilty by the Dentists Disciplinary Tribunal last May of causing a patient to touch his penis while she was sedated in 2001.

The dentist was acquitted in 2002 after a court trial prompted by the 2001 incident.

If the tribunal cannot act with autonomy to protect patients by removing the name suppression order then lgislation should be drafted to close this particular loophole. 

David Shearer Backs Waitangi Day

According to a press release from his office:

Waitangi Day should be a time when we come together as a nation to celebrate our cultural diversity and everything that’s so great about New Zealand, says Labour Leader David Shearer.

“It’s a special day when we celebrate the birth of our nation. We should take the opportunity to appreciate all the things that make us unique – our clean, green environment, our relaxed way of life, our innovation and our creativity.

“Often we don’t realise how lucky we are until we are on our OE or travelling offshore on holiday,” David Shearer said. “We should use Waitangi Day as an opportunity to stop, join together with others in our community, and appreciate the country we live in.

“I’m proud of New Zealand. I’ve seen a lot of desperate countries in the world. We are one of the lucky ones and that’s something we should celebrate.

Ie: A bit of solidarity would be nice. 

I recently became an expat. I do indeed feel the urge to gather in honor of Waitangi Day with other expats and talk Neu Ziland together. But that is more because I like a good party with the people from my 'hood, rather than any real belief that New Zealand is that great. 

New Zealand is okay. Currently I am finding America to be Great. So far, America seems like New Zealand in the 1980's. The mood is buoyant and everyone is '"in it together". 

Just after arriving in San Francisco one month ago, I stood in the massive Golden Gate Park and felt very protected. That whatever might be thrown at her shores, America's traditions and culture as enshrined in the Constitution would withstand anything that was hurled at her from afar. A statue of the author of the "Star Spangled Banner", stood there proudly; I felt more patriotic at that moment than any in NZ apart from a few tanked up moments during the Rugby World Cup. 

I can't wait for the 4th of July. 

Before we left on our travels, I envisaged America to be bunker-like and impenetrable. That the nation that runs Guantanamo Bay would be militaristic and intolerant beyond redemption. That I would be marking time in America with five children without any sense of community and purpose; two of the values that are dear to me. Only the drive from SFX that first morning to central San Francisco, where we were housed for the1st month was like that. My tired, bloodshot and frightened eyes saw ghettoes everywhere and an alien stadium that housed some team called The Giants. It just felt wrong. Things changed once the jet lag passed and I got used to my brain screaming: "Something's wrong Monique, magnetic North has been displaced. The  sun is wrong, wrong, wrong, start looking for a second moon Monique"!

My perceptions softened towards the positive over the following days. I very quickly became a regular at our local Safeway supermarket. I patronized Starbucks incessantly and found here to be the only that didn't get my accent. I couldn't order a latte, try as I might, but that was the only real incident. It's amazing the quality of service you get when you gesture anyway.  I think some 'bad' New Zealand gestures mean something positive over here.
I have now been adopted by several locals of the opposite end of the spectrum to Blanket Man- bless his deceased oily loin cloth. These folks are friendly affable and more than willing to engage. A lot like the kiwi perception of people visiting the NZ shores, however that may be a misplaced sense of hospitality.
I do wonder how the Chinese within New Zealand are feeling right about now. And Muslims are currently a bit persona non grata because of the actions of a few, I understand. Over here in la la land it's merely the 1% copping the flak. Culturally we're all sitting pretty.   I'm not naive and I know that it isn't all rosy here in America, and some of the local news has been unsettling. However the incidents are isolated and more to due to the scale of population than any particular nascent tension. 
I got acquainted with the 'bad' part of town one day after navigating by accident to McDonald's Oakland. Even that was no worse than when I used to get off the bus for a stay in Otahuhu. Kind of comforting really. Wherever you go, there you are.


Shearer continues:“Protest around Waitangi Day has become a tradition. But I think focusing on grievance devalues the significance of the occasion. There’s certainly always more we can do to improve our relationships with each other. But let’s spend time looking forward, not backward.

“There are issues we all want to protest about, including the Government’s asset sale plan. Labour, along with most other Kiwis, is strongly opposed to that plan.

“But there are 364 other days when we can make our point,” David Shearer said. ”Let’s set aside our differences on Waitangi Day and celebrate being New Zealanders with joy and pride.”

Some would disagree. Waitangi Day as we know it has become a flashpoint for increasing tension. Not overt tension either. No-one I know is racist. Well, no-one I know of my generation is racist. But there is a underlying feeling in many circles that 'someone else' is getting a better deal than we are. This feeling coalesces at his time of the year for some. For others it is just another day off. Expect ructions this year, as I suspect Waitangi Day is to the Occupy movement, as white is to rice. Or wool is to sheep. 
Personally I believe Waitangi Day should just be about the celebration of Maoridom and Rangatiritanga. Good on Wellington City Council for flying the Tino Rangatiratanga flag. However the reasoning that Celia Wade Brown has put up on her Facebook page is:
"If the Aussies can fly the Aboriginal flag on Australia Day, why wouldn't we use this symbol"
Hmm I thought we were markedly more advanced than the Aussies when it came to inter-racial tension. Rather than looking to other nations we should be establishing unique traditions that befit a young country emerging from the chrysalis of Treaty Settlements. 
We should have a separate day of clebration for all of New Zealand, Maori, Pakeha, chinese, muslim etc et al.  
Let's replace Queen's Birthday (or, as I call it:The Peons Day off), with a day that is meaningful to all New Zealanders.  If this gives us some feeling of Nationalism and pride in being a New Zealander, then maybe then we could have a grown up discussion about becoming a republic. 

Death. After a birth.

After having a rant over the following story at Kiwiblog, I have allowed a couple of days cooling off period before commenting here.  The conclusions that I have arrived, at after good dose of the mantra "think, think, think", are the same as I inferred originally. It's a bollocks story intended to whip women with their reproductive choices.

The Melbourne Age reports  the sad story of a maternal death in childbirth. Talk about hoisting someone with their own petard. The woman was an active advocate of homebirth who subsequently died of heart failure after (shock, horror) a home birth  As yet, it is unknown if atempting a home birth contributed to her demise.  With a cursory glance it is obvious the journalist is hopelessly incorrect with the sensationalist head line and introduction:

"Mum Dies in Home Birth Tragedy."
A mother who died while giving birth to her daughter at her Melbourne home was a strong advocate for home-births, declaring in a government submission that she would be have no choice but to have an unassisted birth at home if midwives were not legally protected.
Wrong, wrong, and more wrong. The mother did not die while giving birth to her daughter at her Melbourne home. she went into cardiac arrest during or after birth and died in hospital 24 hours later. 

That the baby was fine immediately suggests it wasn't a botched or risky home birth. The baby generally suffers first from lack of blood supply, unless it is pumping directly from the mother as in most Placenta Praevias.  It is also possible the woman had an undiagnosed heart condition that may have proved fatal even if she had birthed in hospital.
Death in or after childbirth happens. This article used the irony that she previously advocated home birth in a submission supporting home birth, to whip the poor dead woman over her own choice of place to birth. I have submitted on various education issues in my time. If I were to expire in an education related incident, the two events would be totally unrelated. As this woman's submission is unrelated to her death by cardiac arrest.

I believe this story is a kind of cheap shot journalism pioneered by women against women. Some botox filly journalist spots the irony and pulls together the resultant headline, without checking if the conclusions she has drawn hold water. Of course the blogosphere erupts into debate about the selfishness or otherwise of women to want to give birth at home away from medical intervention, should it be required.

There is a portion of society that thinks it's madness to want to birth at home. Understandable. On the face of it, our sterile hospitals are reasonably fail-safe, and why would you take risks? However, that birth trauma and dramas that can accompany interrupted breastfeeding can occur from being in a high intervention hospital setting is well documented.
Hormones that regulate our every well being and that are responsible for the begetting in the first place,  have an enormous role to play in bonding and breast-feeding during and following birth.
The mechanisms of these hormones can be interfered with hospital processes.
Hormones schmormones you might say.  Get baby out safely. However a mother and her baby should be completely bonded for the complete safety and well-being of the infant.This is a factor that should be examined in our dreadful child abuse epidemic. There is a well-known set of twins who ended up dead because the Mother did not protect them. With a strong bond, you protect your children at all costs. NCGBMAMK.
Some women wish to birth at home, because in the ideal world it is ideal for the period following birth. It is a valid choice. I have friends who have birthed at home. Good on 'em. I couldn't, but it is nice to know that it is done.
Like any other situation we take relevant data and personal accounts to make an informed decision for ourselves and our loin-fruit. Not necessarily the "right" decision either. Anytime, any day we make decisions based on relevant data and gut instinct, any of these could lead to "tragedy". Usually though the tragedy of a babies death during home birth results from other factors, not from distance from an operating theatre. Error occurs in every industry. We should not go on a midwife witchhunt because of some rare individuals that choose midwifery instead of a more suited profession with less horrendous consequences.
Another more positive angle could have been inferred in this story. To my mind, it is lucky that cases like this are assisted. No-one would be there if things went wrong, if midwives were not legally protected and therefore not able to accompany woman during a home-birth. (Though presumably all women would then be good brood mares and deliver in hospitals.
This is more or less the case these days, anyway. We're all birth in hospital "just in case" something goes wrong, "we're in the right place". You know, if we need to draw upon the expertise of the "Superior Caesarean Fairies".
It may not make much of a difference to outcome, if you live within driving distance of a hospital. If something goes wrong there is generally wait time on the operating theatre equal to a 20 minute / half an hour driving time, regardless. The cases in which they have to get baby out NOW (ie within 15 minutes) are few and far between; there is plenty of warning and most women are on the antenatal ward for weeks.
In my last pregnancy I was in a situation where they had to get babies (twins) out NOW and I had been on the antenatal ward for weeks. Suddenly I was in Delivery Suite and I was looking at a litre and 1/2 of blood on the floor. That was 6pm, when they made the call for a Caesarean under general anesthetic.
Baby A (Thing One) was born at 9.13pm and Baby B (Thing 2) was born at 9.14 pm. "NOW" is generally stretched out to ensure optimum conditions for the babies birth, particularly when they are premature as mine were.
It's not M*A*S*H boys and girls where you're wheeled into triage, successfully operated on immediately, and leave thanking your lucky stars you were in the right place and gosh darn bless that nice Colonel Potter. It's dirty old childbirth. Mine is one story among many, and regardless if you are for or against home birth; we and our children are here because of the vigilance that everyone employs, mother or professional.
After a short stint in the Neonatal unit, both Thing One and Thing Two were fine.