I am a NZer, part maori, part scots....my ancestors were from the chatham islands before the massacre in 1835 and intermarried with scots people in 1812 so thats 200 years of both sides of me living in NZ..... The invaders of the chatham islands were classed as indigenous because of 160 years of occupation..... YET some how, I am still considered a immigrant because I am part scots, indigenous because I am part maori and my ancestors settled NZ..... but I can not be both......So yes, don brash is right, one NZ, one people.... or I deny the scots part of me and claim only the maori side so I can say I am a NZer.... and in doing so, embrace the maori ancestry that almost wiped the chatham islands settlers off the face of the earth....... the trouble is history is that people only want to see one side of it and in doing so, deny the parts that do not fit their narrative
I am bi racial, it means I am part maori. I can fluently converse with you in scots gaelic and english. I can also converse with you in 7 other languages. I can fix your PC, I can build you a PC, I work in with international gaming companies, I help develop online browser games.Not learning te reo did not restrict me and in fact I helped build a marae as part of learning carpentry and building skills, even participating in welcoming native americans to the marae and they did not speak a word of te reo but were told in ENGLISH about the welcoming and what it meant because we did not speak their native tongue either.......My chatham islanders ancestors were near wiped out in 1835 and forbidden to speak their own language or practice their way of life and culture by the maori invaders so it was lost at the hands of maori..... yet people that are ignorant of that fact, push te reo as the most learn language of NZ, my answer is what version of te reo...... and why should I be proud of a language and culture that ended one of my own...... hence, I speak fluent scots gaelic and not te reo.
I am biracial... so I am unclear if the maori or scots side of me failed at school and left at 14 because of a undiagnosed mental illness, if it was the maori or scots side of me that kept having to fight winz and its other alter egos, when it came to getting training in different fields. If it was the maori or scots side that meant I did a number of years working in manual labour, if its the maori side that gets told it has white privilege or the scots side that is told that its got a harder deal in life by race.... but one thing is for sure, both the maori and the scots side both lost their land and heritage many many moons ago, the difference is that one side still lives in their country, while the other was ran out of scotland and forced to find a new home in NZ..... and they both immigrated to NZ..... now what was that again about only maori know what its like to lose everything... and whats that about white privilege ?.... I am biracial, what races are you, joel ? and why do you only favour one side....
Its creative but for people that are hearing impaired, linguistically challenged or rely on clear visual instruction, its not good.Its ironic that in NZ where a company can be fined for not clearly instructing people regarding safety and correct procedure, that a company can use a video such as this to educate people that may be first time flyers about procedures on a aircraft.......People in china love the video? ok thats fine, but give them a airplane safety survey and see how many of them learnt anything from the video
I would love to move into a modern, warm, insulated house.... its paying the rent that would be the problem as in my area, the rent is actually more a week, than I make..... so greenies, please also address that fact...... While you are at it, please address the shortage of rentals in my area and other parts of NZ..... the increased cost of insurance, rates and maintenance that is forcing rental costs up and making some places unaffordable..... and a better compensation system for landlords that have their properties damaged by tenants who then walk away leaving the landlord with bills running into $10,000s they are things that are affecting the rental market and need addressing urgently......
Cherry picking ? you mean ignore what maori did to maori, ie the chatham islands massacre and other iwi / tribes near erased or losing their land to other iwi, and only focus on what happened to maori at the hands of the government and europeans, and sites that are important to maori.....Before anybody tries to play the race card, I am biracial, descended from scots, cast out of scotland and chatham islands, it is both ancestors that assisted with the founding and building of dunedin... and helped keep the story and way of life of the chatham islands massacre survivors alive.... even tho up until the 1980s, there was ongoing attempts to rewrite history and erase the chatham islands peoples names and information...... This is NZ, we have a rich history.....but a good part of it is ignored intentionally and I am not talking about the bad, I am talking about the contribution of maori in the evaluation of NZ, the recording of the maori language and culture in text and images, the teaching of non maori about the maori culture......the names of many maori that assisted in that, are barely mentioned.......
You were doing fine until you had to take yet another dig at non maori....... my chatham islands ancestors lost their land and most of their rights, to maori which invaded the islands and near wiped them completely out and they were not the only group to face other maori invaders......I am part maori, bi racial..... I acknowledge that fact, it does not taint me or take away from either side of my ancestors but embraces them both equally.....its because I embrace the truth, maori worked along side non maori and helped build NZ into the country it is today, its why you and I exist today.....without that union of maori and non maori together, a lot of history and heritage would be lost....... and personally when you take a dig at the european / paheka, it actually reads as if you have the problem with european / paheka, not us, and are trying to distance yourself from that side of your own bloodlines
As far as I am concerned, #Metoo is a movement to call attention to the way women get treated but openly avoids addressing the way some women act. Having worked as a barman / doorman and watched drunken female flashing themselves at guys, flirting with guys, groping them, grabbing them etc... and that is never addressed by people unless its to say that we should not hold women responsible for their own actions or its labelled as victim shaming. Call for males to address the issues of other males by all means, ignore the fact that it can result in physical violence..... but ignore the behievour of women that is also fueling the problem = #metoo
Level playing field ? sorry... a level playing field to me, would be access to the same items from overseas or in NZ... instead of trying to get items through NZ outlets only to be told they do not exist, while I have websites and images on my phone showing the item I am wanting to source through NZ outlets.I purchased a PC from a wholeseller in NZ for $1300, the same PC over the counter at a NZ dept store,, just over $3000 and being told that was the cheapest deal in NZ for that PC.... I get that companies have overheads, bills, taxes and wages to pay, but it reads to me like they are more interested in fooling people into believing they are getting a good deal, than actually looking after their customers and helping them to get access to items that DO exist for better deals.as for the governments idea of level playing field ? sorry, thats more about tax for the governments overspending, in the same way the tax on smoking is more about filling the coffers than reducing smoking.
I am bi racial, some of my ancestors came from the chatham islands before most of them were wiped out by maori. My ancestors whom were scottish, helped protect the maori culture, language and way of life, because they were ran out of scotland by the english and fled to NZ, so they understood what it was like to lose everything. Both lots of my ancestors came to NZ by boat, maori and scottish.....When we talk about NZ and the people in it that have suffered, we need to stop saying maori suffered at the hands of the european as thats not exactly 100% 1, is it, maori also suffered at the hands of other maori, and were protected by some non maori. .so yes, lets be truthful about NZs history because its more than just Maori and european settlers....But until that happens, people will never move beyond using the past and race as ways to continue to divide NZ, rather than unite us as ONE people sharing NZ
Years ago, we had a cafe where I lived, every tuesday the place would be packed.... not so much with customers, but with pushchairs. Tuesday was solo parent benefit day. The seating was set up for walk in and sit down customers, as the place was very very popular for the elderly and different groups to meet, but come tuesday, it was a pushchair jungle, one day they counted 28 pushchairs in the place. The staff had a nightmare trying to get around the pushchairs to get to customers to get them their coffees. Finally the staff had to say we are sorry, we can not bring coffees to tables because we can not get near the tables.In the end the place had to ban pushchairs unless the person has a qenuine need such as disabled child...... if that had happened nowadays, they would have been rubbished on social media
Simple answer, if you disagree with what somebody says, arrange to debate it in a open setting, with guidelines and so a audience can hear both sides.Protestor logic : yell, scream, wave banners, disrupt, throw insults while others are trying to talk or try and stop others from talking.......while saying that their right to protest should not be infringed upon as its free speech.....Personally I do not know if I agree with what don brash said at the uni because he was not allowed to speak and therefore I could not hear what he had to say... only what others said he was going to talk about, but they never heard what he said any way, only went on what hes said in the past.....
The throwing of salt is a way of purifying the area, removing negative energy. It is not a symbol of disrespect as generally both sides would do it, IE sumo wrestlers and it is a gesture saying each side wants a good and fair match up without external influences interfering in the outcomeReading the article it appears that the white sox are foul hitting their balls over the fact that they expect other countries to know, understand and respect the haka while having no understanding of what the throwing of salt actually means and their lack of understanding resulted in the white soxs viewing it as a potential insult and show of disrepect.Looks like getting worked up over a lack of understanding and a second haka did not do the white soxs any favours.
Walk a mile in my shoes, see the world through my eyes, share the world with the same people, and see two very different worldsI have a incredible amount of respect for the people that have shared their stories, what they have seen, felt, experienced and understood, as they have done exactly that..... it is always easier to assume what its like for other people, a real eye opener to experience it.
I failed school and left at 14, and I know what the word means....the key difference for me is that I spent many many hours reading books.... you know those things, they have pages and words and ......Ok let me put it another way, it was one way of sharing ideas and opinions in text before the days of the net, ipads, pcs and smart phones..... ok, still confused, go look for books at the library, its the place where they have students reading and learning ....... SERIOUSLY ? quick, blame the education system because of your failure to learn !!!!!
Good on NZTA for using the right response which is we will not spend 100ks on replacing existing signs, we will replace them as needed. As for why it does not say line workers? You would need a much bigger sign or smaller text which would be harder to read..... linemen was easier to use as it was shorter, good sized text. But then came the days of all wording needs to be PC because somebodies feelings may be hurt and they will not be able to do their job properly because of what a advisory sign says.BTW person at work to replace men at work, would be more correct... the number of times I have seen one person at work while the others stand around and watch
As a LGBT person myself, yes I have ended friendships with people that have come out but it was not because they came out, its because of how they changed and started the whole everybody that does not agree with me is homophobic and transphobic....... or in simple times, life turned into a drama and and constant victimhood for them... and I really did not need a constant running update of everybody was wrong, society needs to change, woe is them....... quess that makes me trans and homophobic because I ended friendships because peoples attitudes got unbearable
I lost my partner 3.5 years ago, one thing I remembered was I was dealing with government depts and they have limited information because of privacy laws, they are also very much restricted in what they can say to a person as they are required to be polite and professional. They do not mean to upset or offend you, they are doing the job they are employed to do....Systems are limited in what information can be added to them and who can add or change records but they also have to have records such as estate of Mr XX because they are not dealing with MR XX who has died but his estate...banks, MSD, IRD all have very strict laws and rules because we demanded the laws and rules to protect our privacy, now people complain because the laws and rules create problems The reason I also know all this, is I used to work in CS and the level of abuse I got from people over the fact that we did not have a FB type personal history for people, was unbelievable so suddenly I was a insensitive, uncaring, unhelpful person who did not have any empathy for anybody else.... somehow being CS meant I was no longer a human that knew anything about loss of a partner, grief, heartache, pain, broken hearts......
As much as I dislike to say this, it can be disruptive in the workplace with having to find staff to cover for other staff at short notice...... which may impact on a persons chances of getting a job if the employer has concerns about a potential employee and the possibility that they may be taking extended periods off from work. This strikes me as a feel good move by the greens and labour but with no real emphasis on we have to deal with domestic violence in NZ and actually come up with a working law, justice system and support system to actually deal with domestic violence..... unless its women as victims, then its easier for them to change laws to support women... not victims of domestic violence whom can be female, male, trans......
As bi racial person, its interesting that somehow I am racist because I have no interest in learning Te Reo, and I am called that by people that are bi racial but only acknowledge one side of their ancestry. Ignore the fact that I am part maori, part scots and do not only refer to myself as maoriNo I co not speak Te Reo, but I am fluent in scots gaelic, something the majority of people can not speak and do not consider it to have any value, also that its a dead language. outside of scotland... and they are part scots, part maori people themselves, that only refer to themselves as maori.Thats why as a bi racial person I am sick of being called racist, white, old, privileged by people that act like part of their own heritage and bloodlines do not exist and somehow I am wrong, they are right.....I have no problem with people learning Te Reo, but drop the holier than thou attitude when you only embrace one side of your ancestry and ignore the other side as if it has no value or meaning
Maori were forced to learn english in school which is only partly 1, some actually embraced it, others fought against it and you choose to ignore the fact that there is a push on to make te reo compulsory in schools which is forced learning and exactly the same thing only with roles reversed......I suggest you also include learning more about NZs history and how some maori learned english to communicate with settlers and traders and also to help their own people.....We are either one NZ, one people with a shared and interesting heritage, culture and languages or we are one NZ, maori and other people with NZ maori culture, te reo etc...... I want the first because I am bi racial.... but it appears like a lot of people label themselves as maori and only want the second, even tho they are bi racial
When I took on the property I am in now, the letting agency wanted references from 2 landlords in the last 2 years, my answer was I do not change rentals every year.... a friend of mine that works in that area said, its a good part of how they make their money, on top of the property management feesWhile this move may make it easier to rent a property without a large one off cost, there was no way in hell that it was not going to increase rents for the majority of properties as the letting agencies are going to get their money one way or another and its easier to get it from the tenants than from the landlordsNow while jacinda has said it would be disappointing of rents go up, the greens are silent once again because their ideas have not panned out the way they envisioned, once again
as a responsible cat owner... I simply would not move there, because regardless of how well fed and lazy my cats are, they still have the hunting instinct.... or more correctly, the energy to make cat noises when they see birds but not the motivation or energy to get off the window sill cos they are sleeping in the sun......no I am not going to close up the place like a prison as I tend to perfer open doors and windows cos I love fresh air and sunshine in the house... not a prison cell with bars for me or the cats..... so its my loss, the kiwis gain.
I am male and bisexual, ex doorman and bouncer, currently head game master and admin.... I could go on and list the long list of reasons why I am at risk....... but its easier to include drunken people, aggressive people, people with an attitude, people with something to prove, people that do not think I was right to eject them, people that think they are always right, people that think my race, opinion, my attitude is wrong.......As a male I am more likely to be physically abused, assaulted, even killed, even if I am leaving a bar in the middle of town. I am more likely to be blamed by the justice system if there is a issue within my relationhip and my female partner is abusive, I am more likely to be ignored if I am sexually harassed or groped by a female...... and I even have the scar on my face from being hit by a drunken female whose advances I rejected at a bar one night.Regardless of gender, we all face risks, we also have the ability to limit the risks we face...... IE I am very careful about walking home at night at the weekends because I know the risks, and arguing that I should have the right to walk home without being assaulted, does not protect me from that risk of being assaulted
I do not fear being kicked out. I fear trying to find another place I can afford because of the local council rate increases, the increases in insurance and the increase in mortgages which are NOT the landlords fault. They have to put the rent up to cover the costs and that puts the cost of rent out of my range. It is the government that has pushed for insulation and other costs that the landlord also has to cover.....Its bad tenants that have put many landlords off low income tenants and people they may deem to be a property risk. My landlord would rather keep me on a cheaper rent because I look after the property and because he looks after the property, it is low maintenance and cost, but his wife still had to get a job to help cover the mortgage after a run of bad tenants and cost increases that cost them $1000s
You have my sympathy and my understanding. I was in an abusive relationship. where even witnessed assaults did not mean anything..... yet the one day I protected myself against her by pushing her against a wall so I could get outside, I got arrested and charged with common assault. One week later, she was punched in the face by another female, who got a warning.I am not the only person that suffered at her hands, there was also the guys that she accused of rape, all proven to be lies, but she was never charged with 0 complaints......I have also worked as a doorman / barman and seen the way females can act when drunk.... yet speak out and its victim blaming or abused males are the exception or males are more violent or any other number of excuses to not address the issue and make it purely about gender.
As a mentally ill person myself, yeah I can cook a pot of noodles and fry mince... and I can also go a couple of days without eating because mentally I just can not handle the idea of cooking.having support workers can help a mentally ill person cope with everyday like and normal life..... but often support is only 9-5 for people dealing with 24/7 mental illness...... and can be done by people that treat the role of support as a job where they are paid to look out for people, rather a role where they are a lifeline and support for people that are struggling to deal with mental challenges and difficulties with normal living.
The protest manifest, we will respect all equally, the right to freedom of speech needs to be respected, this is about having our voices and opinions heard. we will stand up and be seen.The protest guidelines: bang on windows to disrupt other peoples conversations, shout over the top of people with bullhorns and loud speakers to drown out other voices that may oppose us. Use blockades, sit ins, rush into buildings, be as difficult as possible with police then complain on social media about how we were not respected as people and protestors and our rights infringed upon..... and if it costs somebody else 10,000s or even 100,000s of dollars, so what? protestor motto. Our right to protest will not be infringed upon, other peoples rights do not matter.
This is nothing new, this has been ongoing for 20 years. Low wages, issues with accommodation, dead end jobs..... yes we have vineyards and more going in, which means even more RSE workers in a town struggling with limited accommodation.Lack of clean drinking water in seddon and renwick for many years, still waiting for a bridge into Blenheim that is suitable for two lanes with easy passing, buying hotels because there is a extreme shortage of rentable properties within price range......When you have a council hell bent on beautify Marlborough to attract aucklanders to come to Marlborough with deep pockets to buy up new homes then that will tell you right there, what is the core issue of the problem.... MONEY.
I am assuming that it also means consultation with the same groups that argued that people that wanted to marry the person they loved, should not have that basic human right to be marriedWhile I support the right of people not to be forced or obligated to work on easter sunday, I do not agree with certain groups to have the right to control what other people do on easter sunday..... and that is mostly going to be the basis of the churchs stance which is easter sunday has meaning to them so other peoples rights should be denied.
So my friends are calling me death ? oh how rude and outrageous and worthy of a FB rant.........OH wait my friends call me MATE, not MA TE... they are pronounced differently and only appear the same if written in english.... anybody that has listened to the haka will know that the maori are not saying mate as is bro or cruz or friend.This reads to me like an attempt to twist the meaning in context just to have more pseudo outrage
It encourages kids to think that that mixing a education environment with guns is ok Education is how we teach people about things....... educational environments is where people can learn about things......If my kids were at a school with guns, I would go along as a concerned parent who is educated in gun safety, raised in a military family, has hunted. so I could see that they were being educated in a safe situation by people trained in gun use and gun safety and if I saw a issue, I could address it quickly and quietly with the people involved. Not on FB with a rant or a rant in the comments section about how guns should be banned etc........ but I am a proactive parent that wants gun safety in schools so people learn in a safe environment and that way if my kids wanted to go on and join the army or get a firearms license, then they have a better understanding of why......... others may disagree and that is their right... but most of them can not come up with a logical and sound argument as to why guns should not be taught about in school, considering most kids and teens already play shooting games and thats where they learn the most about guns.
Wow.... never thought I would read something 1 and real, like this. Born with a depressive disorder that was not diagnosed until I was 37, after spending years asking, looking for, begging for help, 7 suicide attempts, multiple misdiagnosis... and passed from person to person like a parcel in a kids game. Then when I got the right diagnosis, all the doors shut in my faceEven with grief counseling after my mother died, I was told sorry the counseling is only for people that are depressed over the loss of a loved one, not people with depression that have lost a loved one.........I spent years trying to get help... and while its easy to suggest that you just get trying and trying and trying, I know the toll it took on me mentally and emotionally...... and how hard it was to get anybody to listen, friends, family, mental health etc....My advice is be careful and take each day at a time, not everybody that thinks they have an idea that will help you, has any idea what they are doing...... like when I wanted to quit smoking and I said clearly, I have depression, mental illness and history of suicide.... I was given champix... read the warning on it on who it should not be given to... people like me
Each case is different, some people can not afford to take unpaid leave in the event of a loss. You can and wanted to, so you could enjoy your holiday, that does not make the employer wrong. Now I do remember the backlash over the asking jacinda about her baby plans and how its none of a employers business and that the employer should treat them just like any other potential employee, not as a potential mother. Yet the bill for bereavement leave was crafted by a group of women that felt that as potential mothers that suffered a loss, they were not treated with compassion, support and sympathy as a miscarrying mother...... I can not help but be amused by the double standards in the way we expect to be treated like employers when it suits our needs.
Most of the teens I know, that are motivated and wanting work, are already in jobs because they are motivated to work, even if its a low end entry level job. What I want to know, is if this will be a repeat of the last time this scheme was ran, when employers would take on people for 6 months then claim there was no work for them and lay them off..... and despite assurances that if employers did that, they would not get sent any more people, one employer I worked for, did it 6 times...... it was all about making the numbers look good, not getting actual results like long term employment for people
I get it, I fully understand......how do you explain how depression affects you, when you feel like you are not connecting to people or they can not relate to what you are experiencing.and the other thing ? how many times have I explained to people what I deal with ? it runs into the 1000s and honestly I am sick of it, I sound like a broken record.... so I write it out on a word doc and end up deleting it, but being able to do that, makes it a lot easier, it means I do not have to deal with endless questions.....
I have been there with my own mother, I had to fight an anti euthanasia, mental health advocate who was adamant that even tho my mother was terminal, in extreme suffering and pain and had no quality of life left, was too young to die and had not really thought out her choice to withhold medical treatment with the doctors support because the treatment was not working........ even the doctors were disgusted that somebody would willingly advocate prolonged and extended suffering AGAINST the persons wishes..... I have watched people suffer in agony because families have used guilt tripping and accused them of not loving their families enough, so they suffered on in order to please their families...... and your comment reminds me of people that do that because they are so selfish, all that matters to them, is themselves......
I am a man, I was born with a penis, enuf said...... if other people want to say they are gender neutral even tho they were born with a penis, thats cool........If it makes me seem like I am refusing to change, compromise or adapt to be a better person, you are right..... because I am not the one creating a check list of male perfection or male faults that need to be changed to create a perfect world... you are...... manhugs, mansplaining, male bonding, male parenting, toxic masculinity, male priviledge ? snortsI hug you because you want or need a hug, I say something you do not agree with, try talking with me or listening better, friends are friends regardless of gender, parents are the same, toxic masculinity ? look in the mirror at the way you are acting........ male privilege? I do not want or expect extra rights based on my gender... i thought we were all to be treated equally
If there is one thing I have noticed... its that having a opinion is not the same as having facts. I am all for freedom of speech, the right to protect etc..... but the one thing I constantly notice, is the way that people twist something in order to give them a reason to have an opinion or protest.Or if they lack a reason to target people, they will resort to labels to devalue the person and their stance or opinion. Use the argument that by allowing somebody to use a council funded venue, that the council endorses the persons stance..... we can use the same argument that by using council venues for closed council meetings, the council endorses the stance of denying people access to facts, information and the right to express their own concerns at council meetings.
You are finding the same thing I am... history in NZ has been rewritten a number of times, facts and information excluded, altered and changed and its not always the english records that do not match up......My own chatham islands ancestors names were missing from a lot of post 1825 records, which made it hell to match the documents written by my scots ancestors which listed the correct names, dates of birth, deaths etc, including what land they lived on and which was taken from them by maori and sold to the european settlers....Thankfully some ngai tahu people also had the same records but said up until the 1980s there was repeated attempts to erase the information from the records.
I occasionally WALK into town... that thing using feet as a form of movement and exercise. And I will go to the supermarket unplanned, which is annoying as I am used to plastic bags which I use in multiple ways, despite them consistently being called single use bags...... and being told just to put the bags in the back of the car??? do people even read ????But when I see the mention of all the bags for lollies, nuts, fruit, vegetables and things and how wrong they are ? its us that asked for that so we could buy what we needed in the amount we needed. as for the wrapping around the meat, again, we wanted that because we viewed it as more hygenic and protected from airbourne germs and bacteria like people coughing over exposed meat or poking the meat and handling the vegetables..... If we want things to change then we need to come up with ideas that work, instead of blindly blaming the supermarkets for following all the laws and rules and guidelines that we demanded.
The maori party pushed for smokefree2025, John key said we can aim for 95% smokefree 2025 because that is realistic the greens said that increased prices would not lead to a increase in robberies for cigarettes.Winston says that the national party target of smokefree 2025 was bulldust.Goverment collects 1.7 billion in excise and customs taxes, + tax on tobbaco at point of saleThe NZ smoking public said that it would not work, there would be an increase in targeted crime, and that all that it would do is revenue collect for the government under the quise of helping people quit smoking...... This is why the government has overpaid consultants and commissions, they need somebody to tell them they are right,... and to blame when they get it wrong...... because what would the NZ public know about anything?
I have read the article by Charlotte Graham-McLay that is presented as research into gendered online abuse, it was actually harassment across digital platforms on high profile women in broadcast journalism. Not a report on online trolling and the differences between male and female targets.There is also a link to an article about clementine ford, an australian feminist and what she deals with with trolling..... the fact that she has posted things like kill all males and other offensive and troll based remarks on twitter and FB, while claiming to be a victim of trolling ? yet shes held up as a victim of trolling, not a person that also starts it herself. Can anybody see the problem ? the focus is on get MALES in court for online threats... not ANY person that crosses the line.... and thats why so many people are getting annoyed with the constant victim female threads and articles
Ok I have worked in a piggery so I have first hand experience. What is not mentioned is the reason why farrowing crates were originally used and that was to limit the morality rate from a sow laying on or eating her piglets.Yes free ranging sows have more room to move, they often also have a higher mortality rate. A sow drying up ? human mothers can have the same problem. We had a average 2-3 in every 500 births. Yes we also trialed open area sows. We had to deal with sow conflict which is when a sow is dominant and can bully other sows, we had to deal with sows laying on their piglets and we also had to deal with dominant sows attacking other sows piglets. Now the difference between what I post and what has been said in the article, is I am using my own experiences... the article is using what farmwatch illegally taped, and what 2 books say...... how much actual experience of being on a piggery does the author actually have ?
OK... we have two sides to the story so I am going to play sherlock holmes on this. The images show that the flats not as clean as made out.... cleaning is not just about wiping down benches and washing dishes, its also about pulling out appliances and cleaning behind them... which is clearly not happening based on the images..... if the roachs are in the microwave and cooking oil as claimed.... I am not even going to touch that one.....Black mould ? if the reporters saw black mould then clearly the place is not as clean as made out and the images support that theory cos thats not a couple of days of roach mess behind the fridge, thats a few months of messTry mint clean, its a organic spray, use that on the walls, black mould and also behind the fridge and other areas. you can spray it about once a month to clean down the walls, behind the fridge etc the roachs in the images are juveniles, not adults ... from egg to adult, takes 50-60 days, so they are clearly spawning somewhere in or close to the flat and using a inlet... my cockroaches come in from outside, using the holes in the wall for the heatpump.....
Growing up, there was no pc or console games, so I spent hours reading books, until my mother decided that I was spending too much time reading books, so I was stuck in front of the TV which simply drove me nuts... but they were the parent, they knew best and because they were the parent, they made the rules and decided that they were right. We are like the adams family version of the brady bunch....... btw, what do I do now ? I help design the games that your kids play, I help run an online gaming companyThe majority of our players log in for 2-3 hours a day, they socialize in guild chats and world chats, they talk to players from around the world, they make friends, some are even employed by me and trained up as Game Masters. They are players on a screen in game worlds where they are not bullied for being the odd kid out, wearing glasses, having ginger hair, not being in the cool crowd........ 30 minutes a day may sound really good for 13-18 year olds but what are you replacing it with ? that is really the problem, a lot of the kids are bored senseless at home because their parents have their face in FB or watching tv because thats the parents down time and they do not want to be disturbed by their kids.......
both sides ? I thought there was moreI do not think te reo is useless, I have no use for it, very big difference. I learnt other languages because of a need to converse with people that did not speak english as a primary language but as a secondary language. The reality is NZ is a mixed culture and many people speak two languages, their primary language from their own culture / country and english, te reo would be a 3rd language not a second.... The next time somebody says I am racist for not bothering to learn to correctly say maori place names then butchers the pronunciation of dunedin, they are going to get a mouthful of fluent scots gaelic, which is where the original scots name of dunedin came from..... English is not a single language, its a mixture of many and has many variations..... and te reo has more than one version...... now whats that about learning a second language ?
the ads to me, reflect my way of looking at funerals and end of life.....and if people are going to sit around with long faces, tears and tissues, I am going to come back and haunt the lot of them for ignoring my wishes, which is have a drink, a hug, spin some yarns and then move on with your lives.personally I love the salesman one because thats exactly what I found.... the price of a very overdone me steak meal differed by as much as $1000 and the cost of my will, by as much as $500... and the push to have the optional extras, pushed the cost of me being sent off, to close to $6000... the actual final cost I got down to $2300... People need to realise that a lot of things are not offensive in this world, they are just offended by far too much and take it personally...... they strike me as the type of people that would be offended by people they love, dying
I failed school and left at 14, I am a non maori. I had a diagnosed mental illness..... so I had no secondary school cert, I did not even get 2 years of secondary school education. I taught myself how to fix and build PCs, I have managed vineyard crews as head foreman, I have worked in bars as a bar tender, doorman / bouncer., I have done log and database analysing, developed pc games with big online companies, built websites, worked in piggeries with herd management.And near every step of the way, I dealt with constant opposition from winz and employment agendas because of the lack of paperwork and inability to get an apprenticeship cos of lack of 2 years secondary education. They even told me if I returned to school as a adult student they would cut my benefit....... but I never let that stop or or made excuses as to why I could not do somethingThe one thing I noticed with a lot of maori I worked with, is they did not want to move beyond the manual labouring roles, they were happy in their roles because while it was hard labour at times, they did not have to prove themselves with pieces of paper, school cert etc.... their work spoke for itself and there was plenty of work that others would not touch because it was actually physical work and not big paying jobs.
I used to help a elderly couple with their shopping and she got abused for being a able bodied person in a disabled carpark even tho she was legally entitled to use it, the husband had memory issues and would sometimes forget to put it up, and he would get abused....My step father works at my local RSA as the welfare officer, he uses the mobility scooters to go from home to the RSA and back again 1-2 times a week, this is to test them and ensure that they are in 100% running condition so they can be passed to the next person...... and yes he gets abused for using a mobility scooter when other people need them......even showing a permit does not mean that you are going to be safe and thats a very scary thought.....
Waits for people to point out if a male does not want to get serious, he must be scared of commitment but if a woman does it, its ok......personally, I have had a few bad relationships... I am now contended to have a non serious connection with people because it removes the whole IF you loved me, argument or the right, you are my partner, here are is the rule book I expect you to follow, but they do not apply to me......Friends with benefits is one term that people may use.... but if the truth be known, my partner and I have been friends for 25 odd years, not having sex for most of them... and her, like me, is tired of bad partners, bad relationships but neither of us want or expect anything serious like marriage cos neither of us feel a need to be married......and that works for us......
reads 450k as needing to hire an architect from overseas to design the toilet, a overseas professional designer to design logos for the toilet, a overseas professional spin doctor to tell us how great the toilets will be, environmentally friendly and attracting visitors to blenheim to view the toilets... and out of region contractors to build the toilets because specialized tools are needed...but pay their council workers a living wage or hire locals ??? you have to be joking..... thats not how you spend council money......yes the toliets need updating, they have not changed that much since I was a kid and used them and I am near 50 now
If the government goes ahead with this move then legalises cannabis, I am simply going to view it as hypocrisy and a interest in trading the taxable income from e products and tobacco with the taxable income from cannabis....Most decisions said to be in the interests of NZers have a dollar sign in tax income for the government.As a person that has a mental illness that also causes an addictive disorder that runs in the family, I smoke tobacco, I occasionally drink, I am drug free, I would rather be addiction free, but the meds that help people with my type of addictive disorder, sorry, NZ does not fund that type of meds and its not like they are expensive, they are cheaper than the income the government would get from me in a week from smoking.... oh wait, there is my answer right there.... helping people deal with addiction does not generate a taxable income and while the government can say that they are using the taxable income to offset the cost of smoking related illness and disease, the reality is they are using the taxable income from peoples addictions to pay for their health care....Just like drug dealers rely on addiction to turn a profit
Fairer system ? I have one....MPs get a pay raise when other services get a payrise like nurses, teachers, police etc.all they are currently doing is not getting a 3% pay raise which for jacinda would be roughly requal to what I get a year on the assisted living benefit. I dare say that many police, nurses teachers etc also work a dammed sight harder than MPs.....
It reads to me like max wanted opposite to the petition.... that way it would raise awareness and give it a higher profile.As a LGBT person, I know about the conversion therapy, I am also a former christian because of that and other conflicts.... but I also oppose the way that alternative sexuality people are constantly pushed as having a higher rate of suicide because of sexuality related issues and problems...... and I base that on the fact that I was born with a depressive disorder and the pressure by LGBT groups to *admit * that it was because I struggled with my sexuality, which was not 1 at all..... I never struggled with my sexuality, I struggled with the pressure from LGBT groups to turn on and call out people that did not agree with the LGBT lifestyle......and to view others as the *enemy *
I have done pranks like supergluing the top of a milk container, it was expired and there was a fresh bottle of milk in the fridge but watching my flatmate try and open it, was comical.... because he refused to accept the fact he could not open it.or half sheeting his bed aka folding the bottom half up... it was old sheets so when he forced his legs through the sheet, it did not matter.......but I am very careful about pranks, what is funny to me, may cause serious issues for other people.... like the neighbor that would constantly swap peoples mail around, he nearly cost the local postie her job because of the constant complaints by people. He denied doing anything so people used CCTV to capture him in the act.... and he still argued he was doing nothing wrong, just having fun......
I am LGBT, my reaction is get over it. its acting. I judge people on their ability to portray a character on screen that is believable as the character, their sexuality in real life is in real life, not on screen.I remember when there was a uproar about gay males being portrayed as very camp, effeminate males, now its changed to gay actors are not portraying gay males as camp and effeminate males.
I have some great vegan / vegetarian friends but they took the time to get to know me and did not make remarks that I view as offensive and confrontational. But its interesting to note that they also feel the same way about personal attacks and trolling by BOTH vegan / vegetarians and meat eaters. BTW I need to be clear on one thing, I view vegan / vegetarian as separate to animal rights, one is a diet, one is a personal stance and ideology, in the same way that I eat meat but I will not intentionally or deliberately mistreat or abuse any animals in order to eat meat..... and for those critics that like to jump on that remark, do you actually know where and how I source my meat or do you just assume and then condemn based on your assumptions
Been there, done that. Did two winz schemes where they funded the employer for 6 months then the employer would take over, both times the employers said no work after 6 months and despite winz saying if employers did that, they would not refer people, both employers had a history of doing it.Also did community taskforce, $5 a day for a 8 hour day......, Other side of the coin, I busted a gut in a job playing $7.35 a hour because it was a job, while listening to people talk about how they would not get out of bed for less than $25 a hour.Doctor will not clear me to go back to work and if I do, I will lose my assisted living benefit, employers perfer not to employ me because I am mentally ill even tho my work history shows I am a very hard, dedicated worker.......so I can either ignore doctors orders, get a job, get hit with benefit penalties and secondary tax because I want to pay my rent and have a reasonable lifestyle.... or just rot on the benefit with my $30 in raises over the last 10 years, play 2/3rds of my benefit in rent, while 50% in rent is considered to be poverty level, paying 3/4 of the remainder on power while more than 10% of income in power is considered high..... and get ignored by MPs whose yearly payraises are often what I make in a year......... yeah being on a benefit is so much easier isnt it.
Think of it this way..... if you end a friendship with one friend that comes out as gay but stay friends with another that comes out gay, does that make you homophobic...??? the article would say yes you are, you have a fear or dislike of gay people because you ended a friendship with one that came out, while staying friends with others that came out......The question is so vague... I would have asked HAVE you ended a friendship with a friend that came out and second question would be sexuality or other reason..... and I never would have written an article labelling people as homophobic for saying yes... as that puts them in the same class as the type of people that abuse, insult and assault gay people because of disliking their sexuality..
At my local bin inn store, my ex flatmate would often recycle our bags to use there for everything he got.... I worked it out that if remove all the plastic bags, he would have to buy or find 28 plastic containers to take there... and we would need a new set of cupboards to put the dammed things in,,, and a car so he could do his shipping....Now with a law such as the removal of plastic bags, can we PLEASE have people that are not part of a working group, government committee, politicians etc, to actually make the rules so that way we have common sense laws that look at every option, every outcome and not end up with a law that needs to be redo to correct the issues it causes because the people that made the law, have brains like plastic bags, IE single use
Free speech is is when I open my mouth and have an opinion.... consequences of free speech is when others reach positively,, negatively or indifferent to what I say. its ok for other people to call me racist for not learning to say maori place names properly but not english, sexist because I do not support multiple female only rights, homophobic because I do not support same sex marriage... and thats other peoples right.... and some how its not hate speech, but free speech and the right to insult, offend and degrade me as a while, bi racial, bisexual male in NZ that wants everybody treated equally and not given special rights by way of race, gender or sexuality....... and some how I am the one guilty of hate speech ???what the hell is hate speech then ????
Forums and comment sections and articles empower us to make statements and post opinions, but protect us from others that may have the debating skills of a toastmaster and who can put out how flawed our opinion and stance is. for the majority of us, we would end up being shown up as people that actually have no idea what we are talking about.... a bit like the people that called Milo Yiannopoulos a racist, homophobic, white power supporter, but could not explain how a gay male with a person of color husband, that was hated by white power groups, was what they claimed..... yet the power of free speech gives them the ability to make accusations about milo without any supporting proof.....The problem is not with free speech, the problem is that we can say what ever we want to say and believe what ever we want to believe.......and how we do not want others to have the same right or to have the ability to defend themselves against what we say about them
A few years ago there was a short documentary story on NZ tv about a young couple with DS that wanted to have a relationship and be happy and the opposition to them doing that as OMG they may end up as parents of a child with DS.... they were limited to seeing each other for one hour every week and they were often sneaking around trying to see each other, the people that opposed the relationship ? the care givers.....I also remember the way that NZ overnight caregivers won their fight in court to be paid a fair wage and the same thing happened with the Ihc workers in the area where I live, as they worked the same hours as a normal person but paid a pittance.... and when concerns were raised, the IHC fought against paying them the rightfully deserved and correct payments....... and it came out that this had been going on for years....Yet a fictional program has a storyline about one parent talking about abortion of a DS foetus and immediately there is a quick response and outcry about how its insensitive and may upset DS people and how they are people with feelings and emotions and the right to live and be treated as people as well......
As a smoker who is slowly reducing the amount I smoke with the intention of stopping, vaping in a classroom is not something I would ever do. There is a time and a place to vape..... and a time and place for smoking......Change the law so that way vaping is limited to the same restrictions as smoking, with smoke free areas...... and while we are at it, can we have common sense people in parliament with a working brain that can create and amend laws as needed, using common sense and forward thinking. Its no use having people with common sense, talking to the law makers in government because common sense would mean more effective and updated laws faster and no 10K a day plus expenses working group to say we have talked with different groups over the last 3-4 months and we need to change the law regarding vaping and where it can be done
Taxing people for owning a house they are not renting out ? Sounds like a labour party candidate to me....Tax them for not renting the house out, if they rent the house out and the tenancy goes wrong, leaving the landlord out of pocket, thats their problem.. and while we are at it, lets look at a capital gains tax as well so if they are a investor, we can tax them there as well.......Jacinda will think that is a fair system for NZ and not unfairly penalizing anybody and would benefit NZ as a whole, just look at the tax dollars the government is now pulling in. Here is a better idea. Change the tenancy system so bad tenants can not just walk away from unpaid rent, damages etc, make rental, contents and house insurance compulsory so that way when the landlord gets stung by bad tenants, they do not regret ever being landlords, as the insurance will pay out and then go after the tenants and maybe we will have more landlords
In simple terms, a fetus does not have a choice, nor does a new born child, over the condition in which they were born, which may dictate the rest of their lives,,, and birth may result in negative conditions for the mother.I was born with a life long mental disorder which is hereditary, my younger sister was born with a damaged heart, our mother ended up dealing with internal damage that would cause her ongoing suffering for the next 38 years until her death.With pro life advocates, they say the childs right to live, supersedes the right of the parent but for parent and for child, the outcome can be less than desirable. What you call murder, as part of a emotionally laden statement, for me is perferable to the life sentence I now live.....but I never had a choice in that, my mother did.
The problem is not so much that people need support and help with housing, the issue is that state housing is now seen as a right and the role of the government to put people in housing.... and also provide funding for people that have had kids they can not afford to have, but did it anyway......It was a standing joke in the 1980s about how if you wanted a housing and the dpb, just have kids.... now we are near 2020 and there is constant cries of we have kids, give us a house and more money..... While I am eligible for state housing and have been for over 10 years, I still live in my private rental, dealing with a mental disorder every day that can make normal living very hard for me..... and getting told that sorry, people that have kids are deemed more important..... so nothing has changed much in the last 40 years as far as I can see.......
I was taught by a good friend, never to try and condition your body so it gets into a pattern of sleeping at certain times..... I thought that was a bit odd, until I realised the sense in it, by watching people with a set timed sleeping pattern, trying to drive during the hours they would normally sleep.... it was rather scary to say the least
I grew up in a living situation where my mother was a solo mother, limited funds and very little food in the house and the community gathered around her and supported her as my father was an abusive alcoholic which is why she left the marriage home. That was in the days before mcdonalds, pizza, junkfood and all the hand outs from the government and shock horror there was fat kids at school, active kids that played sports, ran around, got a lot of exercise.....Nowadays she would not have had a community around her, as much as she would have had a very judgemental, opinionated society telling her how she was a bad parent, us kids would have been labeled as poverty poor. the government would have used us to crow about how much they care about us while throwing money at the problem.... and we would have the ever present condemnation of fast food, junk food etc and grumbling about how much solo parents get hand outs and support and its not enough, give them more... and of course, the slamming of parents with fat kids, telling them how to feed their kids and how the kids should be more active.I am near 50 now and attitudes have changed, costs have changed, society has changed, parenting has changed but most worrying for me, is the change from reaching out a hand, helping, supporting and caring to finger pointing. blaming, condemning and judging....
Think of criminals as kids and the justice system as parents. Do not do that, do not touch that, do as you are told.... NO I will do what ever the hell I want, If I want to do something, I am going to do it. Now look at the way we bring up our kids. We are told not to smack our kids, talk with them and if need be, use time out.... Whats prison ? time out ....... and we are now seeing a reaction of time out is wrong and a form of abuse, we need to put those people back into the community just like we did with the mentally illness people when we closed down a lot of their facilities.... and look what happens, it ends up costing lives. The government is trying to act like a parenting expert, the type that never actually deals with troubled kids, they just read reports, shuffle papers and writes articles on how to be a better parent and what parents are doing wrong......
My advice is TRY not to feel guilty, it is easy to believe we could have, should have, would have been able to change the outcome but that is often because we believe that with foresight, we could have changed it......the truth is we often never know, but that belief can be very self destructive to people as it can become a never ending loop.....often we never know why, so we believe a person has done it because of depression, mental illness, bullying..... but there are other reasons such as overwhelming expectations on them or a struggle to cope with normal living, even sexual assault and abuse that is not know about..... in the case of me, I deal with suicidal tendencies and I am more likely to attempt suicide when I am calm, peaceful, relaxed which is at odds with what people are told, as that is seen as good signs... but for me it actually means my mind has shut off all emotions, influences and most thoughts and put me in a void of bliss..... the irony is many of my attempts were caused by meds that I should not have been given by experts that misdiagnosed my mental illness.......Time is said to be a healer, time eases the pain but the scars always remain on our hearts, I know because I have lost some dear people and until my last memory of them is lost, they will always be remembered by me... cherish the memories of the person you knew and loved.... because thats how we want people to remember us when we are gone.... our smiles, laughter, fun, happiness.... not as a person that was mentally ill or committed suicide, that was just an aspect of our lives
So they managed to import, transport and install them in NZ without anybody knowing about them. No electricians, plumbers, digger drivers, truck drivers, councils, in fact anybody has any proof or knows anything about any unusual activity....and of course nobody leaked any information or went running to social media asking questions about unusual activity or protested.......in this day and age of social media, I find that very hard to believe because we have a lot of people in NZ that are looking for the next 5 minute outrage on social media situation and having them miss something like this ?
Teach your kids te reo by all means, be proud of that achievement, but teach them about their other heritage as well, least they lose sight of who they are and why..... otherwise they will become like the many people that have no idea about their ancestry until they go on something like an ancestry site......My kids are bi racial like me, part scots, part maori, they are pushed to embrace and respect the maori side by course tutors because its part of NZs heritage. When my daughter pointed out the tutors were getting place names wrong, calling them english instead of scottish, she was told to be quiet, she was wrong...my daughters scottish ancestors intermarried with maori and were among the original people that settled and created what NZ calls Dunedin... pronounced Don ed un, its a scots name, not english......This is why I taught my kids their scots hertiage and ancestry, in NZ to make sure its not lost, as its not lumped in with english and lost as part of NZs history and hertiage......
My biggest issue with brokeback mountain, was the fight over if the two male characters were gay, bisexual or seeing themselves as MSM aka men that have sex with men... and because it was 2 straight actors portraying gay males......As a bisexual male myself, it did not worry me, it was simply a movie with actors portraying fictional characters. And its the same with this, other actors may have felt that they could not being the realism to the roles, they may not support or agree with LGBT or they may have simply had other projects going on...... it does not really matter to me... ducks the accusations of not supporting LGBT actors or calling out assumed homophobia.....yes I watched the movie and came away feeling neutral about it because it was not some ground breaking movie, it was simply a movie about something that happens a lot in real life, it was the pro and anti stances that made the movie into more than what it was.
Yes and part of the reason why, is they avoided testing people they knew to be using drugs or applying for roles where drug tests were required. I offered to be drug tested to prove I was clean, some of my friends that were regularly users were told there was no reason to test them.
Sometimes a positive mood after a period of being down may indicate the person has made up their mind to take their own life, and feels relief that the decision has been madeFinally, somebody gets it...... people like me born with depressive disorders, live in constant state of depression... so yes a positive mood for me is not always a good thing, it can be a warning that I am at risk.... yet mention that to people and they look at me sideways because not being depressed means a person is getting better, just ask mike king.......This is why I get so angry about pushing a it gets better message without saying keep watching people even tho they appear to be better, they may not be better at allA large number of people have appeared happy and positive before they have committed suicide and its barely mentioned as a symptom of a at risk person.......
People talk about how euthanasia can be abused and I will agree..... so can the ability to deny people the right to euthanasia..... and so can the right to charge, convict and sentence people for abuse of animals, children, the elderly, criminals, hell just about anybody....... people have ended up in court and sentenced to very long jail sentences......Yet because of an ongoing refusal to change the law and allow people to have a right of choice, prolonged pain and suffering is inflicted on people in NZ every day..... by people that are quick to talk about how they care about NZers and the well being of NZers and the right of NZers to have dignity of life.... and because there is no accountability for that, there is no reason for the government to do anything about it... and if they vote no to legal euthanasia, in effect allowing the ongoing denial of a right of choice, there is also no comeback on them......
Now my question is... where do I put all the bags and containers when I am walking to town, as I live 5 minutes from town and its easier to walk, so no car to store containers and bags in ???I do not use a lot of containers, so I would have to buy more containers just to lower the amount of plastic from the supermarket.... when they get rid of the haha single use plastic bags, I need to buy in more bags to replace them.....So I am up to buy a car, buy more plastic and buy more plastic bags cos thats better for the planet.... ??? I think I will stick to my plan of no car, no extra plastic containers, perfer to use free supermarket bags and take a hybrid taxi home which costs me $4, so I save money and the planet
my simple answer, is tell the new guy that you are ok with making it official that you are dating.... I was very standoffish with one person for 6 months as I did not want to rush into another relationship, we were together for 8 years until she died and if she had not died, we would have been living overseas. And I know people that ended one relationship, straight into another and have been married for 20 years, very happily..... love is a very strange thing and its very difficult to know what is the right thing to do for each person, so we can only go on our own personal experiences. If there is one thing I have learnt, its that people often do not follow their own advice when it comes to love......
The remark by karola benton says it all When your partner asks you to research things like car seats or prams, shes saying to you that she needs help and these things are important to her. Snorts, its something both parents can do together, its part of being a parent Anyways, you may not be able to carry the baby but as long as there is good communication between you both, you can share the physical and mental load. The first thing my sisters partner does when he gets home from work, is tell her to go and get a couple of hours rest, he takes over with housework, cooking dinner, bathing their first child so he is bonding with both of their daughters. at the weekends, he will do work in the morning and then in the afternoon, family first... and hes working 55-60 hour weeks... the most important aspect is my sister did not make the pregnancy all about her so they talked on how to share the load out and his willingness to be involved as a father and parent
Or they can just donate it anonymously to charities. While the ability to refuse or give back a pay raise would be good, its more likely to be used as a look at me, see how good I am, move, that ends up in the public eye, rather than a private decision between councillor and council.
The research is out there and it has found that addiction to gambling is not always what drives people, that is flawed information by anti gambling outfits.... and the research has found that shutting down pokies and casinos can actually do more harm over all than good, because its not addressing the persons addiction issues, its merely removing a venue they may use.....Visible addicts are easier to see than ones at home playing online where they are invisible.
Part of the trouble is that people insist that the parents need to deal with that type of behievour, a quick and simple solution by people that have no idea that kids do not always play from home... they may be at a friends place, a cybercafe, school computers.. so keeping kids safe is not as simple as people think.... who am I? I am a experienced Head Game Master and senior admin for online gaming companies, I am the GM that just banned your teen for offering to send nude images to other players in exchange for in game currency, I am the GM that banned your teen for using your credit card in game without your knowledge. I am the GM that muted your teen for swearing excessively ... I am the person that knows your teen is also not logging in from your home IP but from school, friends places, cybercafes, using free wifi or other peoples net connections, where you can not see what they are doing......I am also the guy that will tell you that keeping your teens safe from other people is only half the issue, sometimes we have to keep other people safe from your teens......There is two sides to the story, not one... and yes its easy to tell you to watch what your teens do from home... but as parents, do you only use your cellphone at home where your kids can keep you safe from online predators on dating sites or scammers sending you emails.... do you log into your dating site at work ? think about it
Having worked in a piggery, thats something that never happened where I worked.....The pigs had shorter tails because of breeding, but even shorter tails did not stop other pigs eating each others tails. some pigs we had to segregate for excessive biting of other pigs.Its easier to see humans as cruel to animals and ignore the fact that animals can be worse
I am a male, ex hunter, worked on farms and piggeries, even had been first responder to car accidents..... but there is no video, article, book, speech that is going to prepare a person for dealing with the birth of a child. The emotions, the anxiety, the concern, the inability to do much to help your partner and the feelings of helplessness if anything goes wrong and the first thing you have to do is leave the room.......For people that suggest going to farms or pre natal.... it does not really work.... there is a difference between seeing a cow give birth or watching a video about child birth....... and your partner in pain, and hearing the doctor say we need to move her now, the heartbeats stopped......or watching your partner struggle through 36 hours of labour and knowing there is very little you can do to help......For the people that say things like if males had to give birth, there would be less kids in the world ?.... let me guess, you are also people that say that solo mothers get treated like they do not matter.....
OK I researched the black pins so I knew exactly what they are for.There are two listed, for members of the institute, one is for outstanding contribution, leadership and vision. The other is for lasting and valuable contribution to the design industry.Yet the argument used is that 70% of students are females...... however the rewards appear to have gone to design leaders in the industry, not male students. IE people that have taken small companies and built them up into global, far reaching companies. Two of the female recipients got their pins in the early days of the awards, including karen walker somebody who has made her mark in NZs design and fashion industry. I did computer studies as a student, it did not put me on the same level as bill gates.....
I am not angry or annoyed that there was the maori version of santa, its more the lack of notification for the community, it was done without letting anybody know....also the constant pushing of maori culture as NZ culture, I am bi racial with the non maori side coming to NZ 200 years ago, much of NZ culture is a mix of both and more but only one is being recognized and seen has having value in NZ..How that plays into this, is that xmas was banned in scotland until 1958, almost 400 years of not being celebrate xmas.... we are starting to do the very thing we have fought against and that is one culture making the rules
How dare western union stick their nose into my affairs, I am sending money to my gorgeous russian supermodel bride to be in nigeria because her lawyer lost his car keys and there is a 100 million dollar cheque in his brief case that she is going to use to come to NZ and marry me......My right to privacy supersedes them wanting to stop me being happy......and if we are talking about being scammed, watch out for the NZ government, they tell us they care but all they are after is our money, in the form of taxes
All I am reading is shortage of prison staff = real reason why reducing number of prisoners and prisons is something that the govt is trying to do because they can not throw money at the problem of lack of prison staff to fix it
Pansexual means in simple terms, that pans people can attracted to male, female, trans, gender neutral, gay, straight, les, bi, asexual etc..... where as other terms are more restrictive such as bisexual, gay, lesbian and straight...... Sexual orientation should not be relevant to anybody but the need to define ourselves is, a bit like people see two males kissing and say oh they are gay cos they are males, but they may be pansexual or bisexual... so they label themselves so others do not mistakenly call them the gay couple.....
Its not my fault, officer, I was doing the speed limit and the road turned while I was going straight ahead.Almost as bad as the sign is a distraction and affects my ability to keep my eyes on the road Or my all time favorite. I am a good driver, its the road that is the problem, not my driving. Kiwi driving motto, there are many idiots on the road, I am not one of them....
I am bi racial, and I perfer the general role...I see maori in parliament who got there the same as other non maori.... and while I get that the TOW refers to dedicated seats for maori, I use the maori party and the maori electorates as a secondary basis for my stance, the maori party were slammed for not representing maori but not all maori wanted ownership over the seabed and foreshore. With the maori electorates, they could be used for maori seats but the reality is that if the other parties butt out of it, labour will be scrambling for seats while national does not need to go near the electorates....
As a person with life long depression, I appreciate people showing concern however pseudo caring and kindness is something I can not stand in people..... Do not push me to get help, if I wanted help I would ask for it....and if people listened to me, they would find I spent years trying to get help, it took decades for the professionals to realise I was actually mentally ill......and fighting against professionals that have made up their mind that there is nothing wrong with you, only makes it harder to get help... the professional that diagnosed me admitted that in NZ, the chances of getting helped were very low, yet in the US, they would have immediately started therapy and treatment because of the high rate of suicides for people with my disorder.....lastly, so many people have their check lists of how to help, support and be strong for people with depression, yet they ignore one thing, most people are too busy with their own lives, issues and priorities, to help or support other people, including their family.....
if there is one thing that faith and religion has taught me, its that people are very good at hiding behind the bible when it comes to discrimination, judgement, condemnation of same sex people ...... I used to watch people in the church I went to, often say that they were only human and not perfect........Yet I walked with many people of faith and religion in support of equal rights for all, aka the fight for same sex marriage.... and their stance was we are only human, it is our role in life to treat others equally as gods children and walk with them in accordance to the teachings of jesus... god would judge us all equally.......for that is what the bible teaches
Saying that its a lack of driver education that is the problem, is easy to do...... some of my friends did defensive driving courses to become better drivers and still are drivers I will not get in a car with. The problem is that many of us can not see a issue with the way we drive....and if offered the chance to do defensive driving courses, would immediately find excuses as to why we can not, will not, do not need to do such courses. But if we really want to see what the issue is, we only have to look at stuff comments where people argue that speed cameras are just revenue collecting..... and that will show us how little, driver education will actually work.
I am pro euthanasia as a personal decision, meaning its one that I advocate only for myself, not for other people. The first thing I did, when reading this, is to stop and think what would I do, in this situation as a parent if my child have a condition that may adversely affect them and how would I feel if my child asked for euthanasia....It would be a heart breaking decision to support my kids and stand 1 to what I ask for myself, the right of choice over my own life.... and its too easy to sit as judge, jury and executioner on social media when its not me in that situation......and I can only assume how difficult it must be on the parents and how much strength of character it would take for them to say we accept and agree with our childs choice..... I say that as a child that agreed to their own mothers request to withhold medical treatment and her wish to end her own suffering......
When a person with extreme views defends free speech someone gets hurt
I am a NZer, part maori, part scots....my ancestors were from the chatham islands before the massacre in 1835 and intermarried with scots people in 1812 so thats 200 years of both sides of me living in NZ..... The invaders of the chatham islands were classed as indigenous because of 160 years of occupation..... YET some how, I am still considered a immigrant because I am part scots, indigenous because I am part maori and my ancestors settled NZ..... but I can not be both......So yes, don brash is right, one NZ, one people.... or I deny the scots part of me and claim only the maori side so I can say I am a NZer.... and in doing so, embrace the maori ancestry that almost wiped the chatham islands settlers off the face of the earth....... the trouble is history is that people only want to see one side of it and in doing so, deny the parts that do not fit their narrative
Parents, you're stunting your kid's potential by depriving them of te reo
I am bi racial, it means I am part maori. I can fluently converse with you in scots gaelic and english. I can also converse with you in 7 other languages. I can fix your PC, I can build you a PC, I work in with international gaming companies, I help develop online browser games.Not learning te reo did not restrict me and in fact I helped build a marae as part of learning carpentry and building skills, even participating in welcoming native americans to the marae and they did not speak a word of te reo but were told in ENGLISH about the welcoming and what it meant because we did not speak their native tongue either.......My chatham islanders ancestors were near wiped out in 1835 and forbidden to speak their own language or practice their way of life and culture by the maori invaders so it was lost at the hands of maori..... yet people that are ignorant of that fact, push te reo as the most learn language of NZ, my answer is what version of te reo...... and why should I be proud of a language and culture that ended one of my own...... hence, I speak fluent scots gaelic and not te reo.
Joel Maxwell: Let's hear it for Davidson's c-word and Brash's M-words
I am biracial... so I am unclear if the maori or scots side of me failed at school and left at 14 because of a undiagnosed mental illness, if it was the maori or scots side of me that kept having to fight winz and its other alter egos, when it came to getting training in different fields. If it was the maori or scots side that meant I did a number of years working in manual labour, if its the maori side that gets told it has white privilege or the scots side that is told that its got a harder deal in life by race.... but one thing is for sure, both the maori and the scots side both lost their land and heritage many many moons ago, the difference is that one side still lives in their country, while the other was ran out of scotland and forced to find a new home in NZ..... and they both immigrated to NZ..... now what was that again about only maori know what its like to lose everything... and whats that about white privilege ?.... I am biracial, what races are you, joel ? and why do you only favour one side....
Shane Jones attacks Air NZs hip hop safety video as trivialising safety
Its creative but for people that are hearing impaired, linguistically challenged or rely on clear visual instruction, its not good.Its ironic that in NZ where a company can be fined for not clearly instructing people regarding safety and correct procedure, that a company can use a video such as this to educate people that may be first time flyers about procedures on a aircraft.......People in china love the video? ok thats fine, but give them a airplane safety survey and see how many of them learnt anything from the video
Greens want a mandatory rental WOF, but National says it will force people into sleeping in cars
I would love to move into a modern, warm, insulated house.... its paying the rent that would be the problem as in my area, the rent is actually more a week, than I make..... so greenies, please also address that fact...... While you are at it, please address the shortage of rentals in my area and other parts of NZ..... the increased cost of insurance, rates and maintenance that is forcing rental costs up and making some places unaffordable..... and a better compensation system for landlords that have their properties damaged by tenants who then walk away leaving the landlord with bills running into $10,000s they are things that are affecting the rental market and need addressing urgently......
A mature nation owns its history - the good and the bad
Cherry picking ? you mean ignore what maori did to maori, ie the chatham islands massacre and other iwi / tribes near erased or losing their land to other iwi, and only focus on what happened to maori at the hands of the government and europeans, and sites that are important to maori.....Before anybody tries to play the race card, I am biracial, descended from scots, cast out of scotland and chatham islands, it is both ancestors that assisted with the founding and building of dunedin... and helped keep the story and way of life of the chatham islands massacre survivors alive.... even tho up until the 1980s, there was ongoing attempts to rewrite history and erase the chatham islands peoples names and information...... This is NZ, we have a rich history.....but a good part of it is ignored intentionally and I am not talking about the bad, I am talking about the contribution of maori in the evaluation of NZ, the recording of the maori language and culture in text and images, the teaching of non maori about the maori culture......the names of many maori that assisted in that, are barely mentioned.......
Joel Maxwell: Kaua e pukuriri ki te reo - don't be angry at the language
You were doing fine until you had to take yet another dig at non maori....... my chatham islands ancestors lost their land and most of their rights, to maori which invaded the islands and near wiped them completely out and they were not the only group to face other maori invaders......I am part maori, bi racial..... I acknowledge that fact, it does not taint me or take away from either side of my ancestors but embraces them both equally.....its because I embrace the truth, maori worked along side non maori and helped build NZ into the country it is today, its why you and I exist today.....without that union of maori and non maori together, a lot of history and heritage would be lost....... and personally when you take a dig at the european / paheka, it actually reads as if you have the problem with european / paheka, not us, and are trying to distance yourself from that side of your own bloodlines
Sean Penn fires again at #MeToo: Its spirit is 'to divide men and women,' he says
As far as I am concerned, #Metoo is a movement to call attention to the way women get treated but openly avoids addressing the way some women act. Having worked as a barman / doorman and watched drunken female flashing themselves at guys, flirting with guys, groping them, grabbing them etc... and that is never addressed by people unless its to say that we should not hold women responsible for their own actions or its labelled as victim shaming. Call for males to address the issues of other males by all means, ignore the fact that it can result in physical violence..... but ignore the behievour of women that is also fueling the problem = #metoo
Amazon warns NZ on internet shopping tax change
Level playing field ? sorry... a level playing field to me, would be access to the same items from overseas or in NZ... instead of trying to get items through NZ outlets only to be told they do not exist, while I have websites and images on my phone showing the item I am wanting to source through NZ outlets.I purchased a PC from a wholeseller in NZ for $1300, the same PC over the counter at a NZ dept store,, just over $3000 and being told that was the cheapest deal in NZ for that PC.... I get that companies have overheads, bills, taxes and wages to pay, but it reads to me like they are more interested in fooling people into believing they are getting a good deal, than actually looking after their customers and helping them to get access to items that DO exist for better deals.as for the governments idea of level playing field ? sorry, thats more about tax for the governments overspending, in the same way the tax on smoking is more about filling the coffers than reducing smoking.
NZ Made/NÄ NÄ«u TÄ«reni: The unsettling truth about the Treaty
I am bi racial, some of my ancestors came from the chatham islands before most of them were wiped out by maori. My ancestors whom were scottish, helped protect the maori culture, language and way of life, because they were ran out of scotland by the english and fled to NZ, so they understood what it was like to lose everything. Both lots of my ancestors came to NZ by boat, maori and scottish.....When we talk about NZ and the people in it that have suffered, we need to stop saying maori suffered at the hands of the european as thats not exactly 100% 1, is it, maori also suffered at the hands of other maori, and were protected by some non maori. .so yes, lets be truthful about NZs history because its more than just Maori and european settlers....But until that happens, people will never move beyond using the past and race as ways to continue to divide NZ, rather than unite us as ONE people sharing NZ
Prams in cafes: let's use our common sense
Years ago, we had a cafe where I lived, every tuesday the place would be packed.... not so much with customers, but with pushchairs. Tuesday was solo parent benefit day. The seating was set up for walk in and sit down customers, as the place was very very popular for the elderly and different groups to meet, but come tuesday, it was a pushchair jungle, one day they counted 28 pushchairs in the place. The staff had a nightmare trying to get around the pushchairs to get to customers to get them their coffees. Finally the staff had to say we are sorry, we can not bring coffees to tables because we can not get near the tables.In the end the place had to ban pushchairs unless the person has a qenuine need such as disabled child...... if that had happened nowadays, they would have been rubbished on social media
"Belated Brash university talk 'victory for free speech'",
Simple answer, if you disagree with what somebody says, arrange to debate it in a open setting, with guidelines and so a audience can hear both sides.Protestor logic : yell, scream, wave banners, disrupt, throw insults while others are trying to talk or try and stop others from talking.......while saying that their right to protest should not be infringed upon as its free speech.....Personally I do not know if I agree with what don brash said at the uni because he was not allowed to speak and therefore I could not hear what he had to say... only what others said he was going to talk about, but they never heard what he said any way, only went on what hes said in the past.....
Official warnings issued after Chinese Taipei softballers throw salt after NZ White Sox haka
The throwing of salt is a way of purifying the area, removing negative energy. It is not a symbol of disrespect as generally both sides would do it, IE sumo wrestlers and it is a gesture saying each side wants a good and fair match up without external influences interfering in the outcomeReading the article it appears that the white sox are foul hitting their balls over the fact that they expect other countries to know, understand and respect the haka while having no understanding of what the throwing of salt actually means and their lack of understanding resulted in the white soxs viewing it as a potential insult and show of disrepect.Looks like getting worked up over a lack of understanding and a second haka did not do the white soxs any favours.
Do men really have it easier? These transgender guys found the truth was more complex
Walk a mile in my shoes, see the world through my eyes, share the world with the same people, and see two very different worldsI have a incredible amount of respect for the people that have shared their stories, what they have seen, felt, experienced and understood, as they have done exactly that..... it is always easier to assume what its like for other people, a real eye opener to experience it.
Students launch petition after being flummoxed by word trivial in NZQA exam
I failed school and left at 14, and I know what the word means....the key difference for me is that I spent many many hours reading books.... you know those things, they have pages and words and ......Ok let me put it another way, it was one way of sharing ideas and opinions in text before the days of the net, ipads, pcs and smart phones..... ok, still confused, go look for books at the library, its the place where they have students reading and learning ....... SERIOUSLY ? quick, blame the education system because of your failure to learn !!!!!
NZTA to change 'line men' signs to 'line crew' after inquiry from 7-year-old girl
Good on NZTA for using the right response which is we will not spend 100ks on replacing existing signs, we will replace them as needed. As for why it does not say line workers? You would need a much bigger sign or smaller text which would be harder to read..... linemen was easier to use as it was shorter, good sized text. But then came the days of all wording needs to be PC because somebodies feelings may be hurt and they will not be able to do their job properly because of what a advisory sign says.BTW person at work to replace men at work, would be more correct... the number of times I have seen one person at work while the others stand around and watch
Urinal survey suggests homophobia and transphobia issues among Christchurch male pubgoers
As a LGBT person myself, yes I have ended friendships with people that have come out but it was not because they came out, its because of how they changed and started the whole everybody that does not agree with me is homophobic and transphobic....... or in simple times, life turned into a drama and and constant victimhood for them... and I really did not need a constant running update of everybody was wrong, society needs to change, woe is them....... quess that makes me trans and homophobic because I ended friendships because peoples attitudes got unbearable
How an unsympathetic bureaucracy makes the death of a loved one worse
I lost my partner 3.5 years ago, one thing I remembered was I was dealing with government depts and they have limited information because of privacy laws, they are also very much restricted in what they can say to a person as they are required to be polite and professional. They do not mean to upset or offend you, they are doing the job they are employed to do....Systems are limited in what information can be added to them and who can add or change records but they also have to have records such as estate of Mr XX because they are not dealing with MR XX who has died but his estate...banks, MSD, IRD all have very strict laws and rules because we demanded the laws and rules to protect our privacy, now people complain because the laws and rules create problems The reason I also know all this, is I used to work in CS and the level of abuse I got from people over the fact that we did not have a FB type personal history for people, was unbelievable so suddenly I was a insensitive, uncaring, unhelpful person who did not have any empathy for anybody else.... somehow being CS meant I was no longer a human that knew anything about loss of a partner, grief, heartache, pain, broken hearts......
Domestic violence victims able to take a new form of leave
As much as I dislike to say this, it can be disruptive in the workplace with having to find staff to cover for other staff at short notice...... which may impact on a persons chances of getting a job if the employer has concerns about a potential employee and the possibility that they may be taking extended periods off from work. This strikes me as a feel good move by the greens and labour but with no real emphasis on we have to deal with domestic violence in NZ and actually come up with a working law, justice system and support system to actually deal with domestic violence..... unless its women as victims, then its easier for them to change laws to support women... not victims of domestic violence whom can be female, male, trans......
Te reo naysayers: build a bridge, and don't be the troll under it
As bi racial person, its interesting that somehow I am racist because I have no interest in learning Te Reo, and I am called that by people that are bi racial but only acknowledge one side of their ancestry. Ignore the fact that I am part maori, part scots and do not only refer to myself as maoriNo I co not speak Te Reo, but I am fluent in scots gaelic, something the majority of people can not speak and do not consider it to have any value, also that its a dead language. outside of scotland... and they are part scots, part maori people themselves, that only refer to themselves as maori.Thats why as a bi racial person I am sick of being called racist, white, old, privileged by people that act like part of their own heritage and bloodlines do not exist and somehow I am wrong, they are right.....I have no problem with people learning Te Reo, but drop the holier than thou attitude when you only embrace one side of your ancestry and ignore the other side as if it has no value or meaning
No-one's forcing you to learn te reo, give it a go though bro
Maori were forced to learn english in school which is only partly 1, some actually embraced it, others fought against it and you choose to ignore the fact that there is a push on to make te reo compulsory in schools which is forced learning and exactly the same thing only with roles reversed......I suggest you also include learning more about NZs history and how some maori learned english to communicate with settlers and traders and also to help their own people.....We are either one NZ, one people with a shared and interesting heritage, culture and languages or we are one NZ, maori and other people with NZ maori culture, te reo etc...... I want the first because I am bi racial.... but it appears like a lot of people label themselves as maori and only want the second, even tho they are bi racial
Visa rejected after Australian man told his wife is his sister
Get a second dna test done by a independent outfit and rule out the possibility of a error or mistake.
Rental agency suggests upping rents by $6 a week to recoup lost letting fees
When I took on the property I am in now, the letting agency wanted references from 2 landlords in the last 2 years, my answer was I do not change rentals every year.... a friend of mine that works in that area said, its a good part of how they make their money, on top of the property management feesWhile this move may make it easier to rent a property without a large one off cost, there was no way in hell that it was not going to increase rents for the majority of properties as the letting agencies are going to get their money one way or another and its easier to get it from the tenants than from the landlordsNow while jacinda has said it would be disappointing of rents go up, the greens are silent once again because their ideas have not panned out the way they envisioned, once again
Call to lift kiwi-protection ban on pet cats and dogs in the Far North
as a responsible cat owner... I simply would not move there, because regardless of how well fed and lazy my cats are, they still have the hunting instinct.... or more correctly, the energy to make cat noises when they see birds but not the motivation or energy to get off the window sill cos they are sleeping in the sun......no I am not going to close up the place like a prison as I tend to perfer open doors and windows cos I love fresh air and sunshine in the house... not a prison cell with bars for me or the cats..... so its my loss, the kiwis gain.
I'm a woman, the world is a dangerous place for me
I am male and bisexual, ex doorman and bouncer, currently head game master and admin.... I could go on and list the long list of reasons why I am at risk....... but its easier to include drunken people, aggressive people, people with an attitude, people with something to prove, people that do not think I was right to eject them, people that think they are always right, people that think my race, opinion, my attitude is wrong.......As a male I am more likely to be physically abused, assaulted, even killed, even if I am leaving a bar in the middle of town. I am more likely to be blamed by the justice system if there is a issue within my relationhip and my female partner is abusive, I am more likely to be ignored if I am sexually harassed or groped by a female...... and I even have the scar on my face from being hit by a drunken female whose advances I rejected at a bar one night.Regardless of gender, we all face risks, we also have the ability to limit the risks we face...... IE I am very careful about walking home at night at the weekends because I know the risks, and arguing that I should have the right to walk home without being assaulted, does not protect me from that risk of being assaulted
Long-time renter calls for greater security in rental law overhaul
I do not fear being kicked out. I fear trying to find another place I can afford because of the local council rate increases, the increases in insurance and the increase in mortgages which are NOT the landlords fault. They have to put the rent up to cover the costs and that puts the cost of rent out of my range. It is the government that has pushed for insulation and other costs that the landlord also has to cover.....Its bad tenants that have put many landlords off low income tenants and people they may deem to be a property risk. My landlord would rather keep me on a cheaper rent because I look after the property and because he looks after the property, it is low maintenance and cost, but his wife still had to get a job to help cover the mortgage after a run of bad tenants and cost increases that cost them $1000s
I'm a man, abused by a woman - but my story is ignored
You have my sympathy and my understanding. I was in an abusive relationship. where even witnessed assaults did not mean anything..... yet the one day I protected myself against her by pushing her against a wall so I could get outside, I got arrested and charged with common assault. One week later, she was punched in the face by another female, who got a warning.I am not the only person that suffered at her hands, there was also the guys that she accused of rape, all proven to be lies, but she was never charged with 0 complaints......I have also worked as a doorman / barman and seen the way females can act when drunk.... yet speak out and its victim blaming or abused males are the exception or males are more violent or any other number of excuses to not address the issue and make it purely about gender.
Mentally ill asked to cook noodles to prove they can live on their own
As a mentally ill person myself, yeah I can cook a pot of noodles and fry mince... and I can also go a couple of days without eating because mentally I just can not handle the idea of cooking.having support workers can help a mentally ill person cope with everyday like and normal life..... but often support is only 9-5 for people dealing with 24/7 mental illness...... and can be done by people that treat the role of support as a job where they are paid to look out for people, rather a role where they are a lifeline and support for people that are struggling to deal with mental challenges and difficulties with normal living.
Cost of policing Wellington protests is skyrocketing
The protest manifest, we will respect all equally, the right to freedom of speech needs to be respected, this is about having our voices and opinions heard. we will stand up and be seen.The protest guidelines: bang on windows to disrupt other peoples conversations, shout over the top of people with bullhorns and loud speakers to drown out other voices that may oppose us. Use blockades, sit ins, rush into buildings, be as difficult as possible with police then complain on social media about how we were not respected as people and protestors and our rights infringed upon..... and if it costs somebody else 10,000s or even 100,000s of dollars, so what? protestor motto. Our right to protest will not be infringed upon, other peoples rights do not matter.
Head scratching in Marlborough as spare jobs spark survey
This is nothing new, this has been ongoing for 20 years. Low wages, issues with accommodation, dead end jobs..... yes we have vineyards and more going in, which means even more RSE workers in a town struggling with limited accommodation.Lack of clean drinking water in seddon and renwick for many years, still waiting for a bridge into Blenheim that is suitable for two lanes with easy passing, buying hotels because there is a extreme shortage of rentable properties within price range......When you have a council hell bent on beautify Marlborough to attract aucklanders to come to Marlborough with deep pockets to buy up new homes then that will tell you right there, what is the core issue of the problem.... MONEY.
Failure to consult properly with Christians sees Napier's Easter trading policy thrown out
I am assuming that it also means consultation with the same groups that argued that people that wanted to marry the person they loved, should not have that basic human right to be marriedWhile I support the right of people not to be forced or obligated to work on easter sunday, I do not agree with certain groups to have the right to control what other people do on easter sunday..... and that is mostly going to be the basis of the churchs stance which is easter sunday has meaning to them so other peoples rights should be denied.
"Coke's New Zealand blunder: Hello, death",
So my friends are calling me death ? oh how rude and outrageous and worthy of a FB rant.........OH wait my friends call me MATE, not MA TE... they are pronounced differently and only appear the same if written in english.... anybody that has listened to the haka will know that the maori are not saying mate as is bro or cruz or friend.This reads to me like an attempt to twist the meaning in context just to have more pseudo outrage
School students banned from touching army guns
It encourages kids to think that that mixing a education environment with guns is ok Education is how we teach people about things....... educational environments is where people can learn about things......If my kids were at a school with guns, I would go along as a concerned parent who is educated in gun safety, raised in a military family, has hunted. so I could see that they were being educated in a safe situation by people trained in gun use and gun safety and if I saw a issue, I could address it quickly and quietly with the people involved. Not on FB with a rant or a rant in the comments section about how guns should be banned etc........ but I am a proactive parent that wants gun safety in schools so people learn in a safe environment and that way if my kids wanted to go on and join the army or get a firearms license, then they have a better understanding of why......... others may disagree and that is their right... but most of them can not come up with a logical and sound argument as to why guns should not be taught about in school, considering most kids and teens already play shooting games and thats where they learn the most about guns.
How to be the person your depressed friend needs
Wow.... never thought I would read something 1 and real, like this. Born with a depressive disorder that was not diagnosed until I was 37, after spending years asking, looking for, begging for help, 7 suicide attempts, multiple misdiagnosis... and passed from person to person like a parcel in a kids game. Then when I got the right diagnosis, all the doors shut in my faceEven with grief counseling after my mother died, I was told sorry the counseling is only for people that are depressed over the loss of a loved one, not people with depression that have lost a loved one.........I spent years trying to get help... and while its easy to suggest that you just get trying and trying and trying, I know the toll it took on me mentally and emotionally...... and how hard it was to get anybody to listen, friends, family, mental health etc....My advice is be careful and take each day at a time, not everybody that thinks they have an idea that will help you, has any idea what they are doing...... like when I wanted to quit smoking and I said clearly, I have depression, mental illness and history of suicide.... I was given champix... read the warning on it on who it should not be given to... people like me
My boss treated my miscarriage like it was a holiday
Each case is different, some people can not afford to take unpaid leave in the event of a loss. You can and wanted to, so you could enjoy your holiday, that does not make the employer wrong. Now I do remember the backlash over the asking jacinda about her baby plans and how its none of a employers business and that the employer should treat them just like any other potential employee, not as a potential mother. Yet the bill for bereavement leave was crafted by a group of women that felt that as potential mothers that suffered a loss, they were not treated with compassion, support and sympathy as a miscarrying mother...... I can not help but be amused by the double standards in the way we expect to be treated like employers when it suits our needs.
Government introduces scheme to encourage employers to hire unemployed youth
Most of the teens I know, that are motivated and wanting work, are already in jobs because they are motivated to work, even if its a low end entry level job. What I want to know, is if this will be a repeat of the last time this scheme was ran, when employers would take on people for 6 months then claim there was no work for them and lay them off..... and despite assurances that if employers did that, they would not get sent any more people, one employer I worked for, did it 6 times...... it was all about making the numbers look good, not getting actual results like long term employment for people
Depression: The black dog lurking in the shadows
I get it, I fully understand......how do you explain how depression affects you, when you feel like you are not connecting to people or they can not relate to what you are experiencing.and the other thing ? how many times have I explained to people what I deal with ? it runs into the 1000s and honestly I am sick of it, I sound like a broken record.... so I write it out on a word doc and end up deleting it, but being able to do that, makes it a lot easier, it means I do not have to deal with endless questions.....
No dignity in euthanasia? Suffering is not dignified
I have been there with my own mother, I had to fight an anti euthanasia, mental health advocate who was adamant that even tho my mother was terminal, in extreme suffering and pain and had no quality of life left, was too young to die and had not really thought out her choice to withhold medical treatment with the doctors support because the treatment was not working........ even the doctors were disgusted that somebody would willingly advocate prolonged and extended suffering AGAINST the persons wishes..... I have watched people suffer in agony because families have used guilt tripping and accused them of not loving their families enough, so they suffered on in order to please their families...... and your comment reminds me of people that do that because they are so selfish, all that matters to them, is themselves......
Men talk to men about being men
I am a man, I was born with a penis, enuf said...... if other people want to say they are gender neutral even tho they were born with a penis, thats cool........If it makes me seem like I am refusing to change, compromise or adapt to be a better person, you are right..... because I am not the one creating a check list of male perfection or male faults that need to be changed to create a perfect world... you are...... manhugs, mansplaining, male bonding, male parenting, toxic masculinity, male priviledge ? snortsI hug you because you want or need a hug, I say something you do not agree with, try talking with me or listening better, friends are friends regardless of gender, parents are the same, toxic masculinity ? look in the mirror at the way you are acting........ male privilege? I do not want or expect extra rights based on my gender... i thought we were all to be treated equally
Let's listen to controversial Canadian, then judge
If there is one thing I have noticed... its that having a opinion is not the same as having facts. I am all for freedom of speech, the right to protect etc..... but the one thing I constantly notice, is the way that people twist something in order to give them a reason to have an opinion or protest.Or if they lack a reason to target people, they will resort to labels to devalue the person and their stance or opinion. Use the argument that by allowing somebody to use a council funded venue, that the council endorses the persons stance..... we can use the same argument that by using council venues for closed council meetings, the council endorses the stance of denying people access to facts, information and the right to express their own concerns at council meetings.
NZ Made/NÄ NÄ«u TÄ«reni: The unsettling truth about the Treaty
You are finding the same thing I am... history in NZ has been rewritten a number of times, facts and information excluded, altered and changed and its not always the english records that do not match up......My own chatham islands ancestors names were missing from a lot of post 1825 records, which made it hell to match the documents written by my scots ancestors which listed the correct names, dates of birth, deaths etc, including what land they lived on and which was taken from them by maori and sold to the european settlers....Thankfully some ngai tahu people also had the same records but said up until the 1980s there was repeated attempts to erase the information from the records.
Bagging a bargain - supermarkets reward customers who bring their own bags
I occasionally WALK into town... that thing using feet as a form of movement and exercise. And I will go to the supermarket unplanned, which is annoying as I am used to plastic bags which I use in multiple ways, despite them consistently being called single use bags...... and being told just to put the bags in the back of the car??? do people even read ????But when I see the mention of all the bags for lollies, nuts, fruit, vegetables and things and how wrong they are ? its us that asked for that so we could buy what we needed in the amount we needed. as for the wrapping around the meat, again, we wanted that because we viewed it as more hygenic and protected from airbourne germs and bacteria like people coughing over exposed meat or poking the meat and handling the vegetables..... If we want things to change then we need to come up with ideas that work, instead of blindly blaming the supermarkets for following all the laws and rules and guidelines that we demanded.
Government divided over national smokefree target
The maori party pushed for smokefree2025, John key said we can aim for 95% smokefree 2025 because that is realistic the greens said that increased prices would not lead to a increase in robberies for cigarettes.Winston says that the national party target of smokefree 2025 was bulldust.Goverment collects 1.7 billion in excise and customs taxes, + tax on tobbaco at point of saleThe NZ smoking public said that it would not work, there would be an increase in targeted crime, and that all that it would do is revenue collect for the government under the quise of helping people quit smoking...... This is why the government has overpaid consultants and commissions, they need somebody to tell them they are right,... and to blame when they get it wrong...... because what would the NZ public know about anything?
So dropping a c-bomb isn't OK, but rape threats are?
I have read the article by Charlotte Graham-McLay that is presented as research into gendered online abuse, it was actually harassment across digital platforms on high profile women in broadcast journalism. Not a report on online trolling and the differences between male and female targets.There is also a link to an article about clementine ford, an australian feminist and what she deals with with trolling..... the fact that she has posted things like kill all males and other offensive and troll based remarks on twitter and FB, while claiming to be a victim of trolling ? yet shes held up as a victim of trolling, not a person that also starts it herself. Can anybody see the problem ? the focus is on get MALES in court for online threats... not ANY person that crosses the line.... and thats why so many people are getting annoyed with the constant victim female threads and articles
Farrowing crates a form of torture
Ok I have worked in a piggery so I have first hand experience. What is not mentioned is the reason why farrowing crates were originally used and that was to limit the morality rate from a sow laying on or eating her piglets.Yes free ranging sows have more room to move, they often also have a higher mortality rate. A sow drying up ? human mothers can have the same problem. We had a average 2-3 in every 500 births. Yes we also trialed open area sows. We had to deal with sow conflict which is when a sow is dominant and can bully other sows, we had to deal with sows laying on their piglets and we also had to deal with dominant sows attacking other sows piglets. Now the difference between what I post and what has been said in the article, is I am using my own experiences... the article is using what farmwatch illegally taped, and what 2 books say...... how much actual experience of being on a piggery does the author actually have ?
Hamilton man stuck in cockroach limbo
OK... we have two sides to the story so I am going to play sherlock holmes on this. The images show that the flats not as clean as made out.... cleaning is not just about wiping down benches and washing dishes, its also about pulling out appliances and cleaning behind them... which is clearly not happening based on the images..... if the roachs are in the microwave and cooking oil as claimed.... I am not even going to touch that one.....Black mould ? if the reporters saw black mould then clearly the place is not as clean as made out and the images support that theory cos thats not a couple of days of roach mess behind the fridge, thats a few months of messTry mint clean, its a organic spray, use that on the walls, black mould and also behind the fridge and other areas. you can spray it about once a month to clean down the walls, behind the fridge etc the roachs in the images are juveniles, not adults ... from egg to adult, takes 50-60 days, so they are clearly spawning somewhere in or close to the flat and using a inlet... my cockroaches come in from outside, using the holes in the wall for the heatpump.....
How to ensure your child grows up a 'healthy gamer'
Growing up, there was no pc or console games, so I spent hours reading books, until my mother decided that I was spending too much time reading books, so I was stuck in front of the TV which simply drove me nuts... but they were the parent, they knew best and because they were the parent, they made the rules and decided that they were right. We are like the adams family version of the brady bunch....... btw, what do I do now ? I help design the games that your kids play, I help run an online gaming companyThe majority of our players log in for 2-3 hours a day, they socialize in guild chats and world chats, they talk to players from around the world, they make friends, some are even employed by me and trained up as Game Masters. They are players on a screen in game worlds where they are not bullied for being the odd kid out, wearing glasses, having ginger hair, not being in the cool crowd........ 30 minutes a day may sound really good for 13-18 year olds but what are you replacing it with ? that is really the problem, a lot of the kids are bored senseless at home because their parents have their face in FB or watching tv because thats the parents down time and they do not want to be disturbed by their kids.......
Te reo or Mandarin? Learning a second language should be compulsory
both sides ? I thought there was moreI do not think te reo is useless, I have no use for it, very big difference. I learnt other languages because of a need to converse with people that did not speak english as a primary language but as a secondary language. The reality is NZ is a mixed culture and many people speak two languages, their primary language from their own culture / country and english, te reo would be a 3rd language not a second.... The next time somebody says I am racist for not bothering to learn to correctly say maori place names then butchers the pronunciation of dunedin, they are going to get a mouthful of fluent scots gaelic, which is where the original scots name of dunedin came from..... English is not a single language, its a mixture of many and has many variations..... and te reo has more than one version...... now whats that about learning a second language ?
Cheeky funeral ads on London Underground offend
the ads to me, reflect my way of looking at funerals and end of life.....and if people are going to sit around with long faces, tears and tissues, I am going to come back and haunt the lot of them for ignoring my wishes, which is have a drink, a hug, spin some yarns and then move on with your lives.personally I love the salesman one because thats exactly what I found.... the price of a very overdone me steak meal differed by as much as $1000 and the cost of my will, by as much as $500... and the push to have the optional extras, pushed the cost of me being sent off, to close to $6000... the actual final cost I got down to $2300... People need to realise that a lot of things are not offensive in this world, they are just offended by far too much and take it personally...... they strike me as the type of people that would be offended by people they love, dying
Work to close the $2.6b income gap for MÄori begins
I failed school and left at 14, I am a non maori. I had a diagnosed mental illness..... so I had no secondary school cert, I did not even get 2 years of secondary school education. I taught myself how to fix and build PCs, I have managed vineyard crews as head foreman, I have worked in bars as a bar tender, doorman / bouncer., I have done log and database analysing, developed pc games with big online companies, built websites, worked in piggeries with herd management.And near every step of the way, I dealt with constant opposition from winz and employment agendas because of the lack of paperwork and inability to get an apprenticeship cos of lack of 2 years secondary education. They even told me if I returned to school as a adult student they would cut my benefit....... but I never let that stop or or made excuses as to why I could not do somethingThe one thing I noticed with a lot of maori I worked with, is they did not want to move beyond the manual labouring roles, they were happy in their roles because while it was hard labour at times, they did not have to prove themselves with pieces of paper, school cert etc.... their work spoke for itself and there was plenty of work that others would not touch because it was actually physical work and not big paying jobs.
North Canterburys shame on you parking warrior comes forward
I used to help a elderly couple with their shopping and she got abused for being a able bodied person in a disabled carpark even tho she was legally entitled to use it, the husband had memory issues and would sometimes forget to put it up, and he would get abused....My step father works at my local RSA as the welfare officer, he uses the mobility scooters to go from home to the RSA and back again 1-2 times a week, this is to test them and ensure that they are in 100% running condition so they can be passed to the next person...... and yes he gets abused for using a mobility scooter when other people need them......even showing a permit does not mean that you are going to be safe and thats a very scary thought.....
Why it's OK that my current relationship won't be long-term
Waits for people to point out if a male does not want to get serious, he must be scared of commitment but if a woman does it, its ok......personally, I have had a few bad relationships... I am now contended to have a non serious connection with people because it removes the whole IF you loved me, argument or the right, you are my partner, here are is the rule book I expect you to follow, but they do not apply to me......Friends with benefits is one term that people may use.... but if the truth be known, my partner and I have been friends for 25 odd years, not having sex for most of them... and her, like me, is tired of bad partners, bad relationships but neither of us want or expect anything serious like marriage cos neither of us feel a need to be married......and that works for us......
Time to go: Council to spend a pretty penny on new toilet block
reads 450k as needing to hire an architect from overseas to design the toilet, a overseas professional designer to design logos for the toilet, a overseas professional spin doctor to tell us how great the toilets will be, environmentally friendly and attracting visitors to blenheim to view the toilets... and out of region contractors to build the toilets because specialized tools are needed...but pay their council workers a living wage or hire locals ??? you have to be joking..... thats not how you spend council money......yes the toliets need updating, they have not changed that much since I was a kid and used them and I am near 50 now
Plan to ban vaping in bars, restaurants, schools and workplaces in New Zealand
If the government goes ahead with this move then legalises cannabis, I am simply going to view it as hypocrisy and a interest in trading the taxable income from e products and tobacco with the taxable income from cannabis....Most decisions said to be in the interests of NZers have a dollar sign in tax income for the government.As a person that has a mental illness that also causes an addictive disorder that runs in the family, I smoke tobacco, I occasionally drink, I am drug free, I would rather be addiction free, but the meds that help people with my type of addictive disorder, sorry, NZ does not fund that type of meds and its not like they are expensive, they are cheaper than the income the government would get from me in a week from smoking.... oh wait, there is my answer right there.... helping people deal with addiction does not generate a taxable income and while the government can say that they are using the taxable income to offset the cost of smoking related illness and disease, the reality is they are using the taxable income from peoples addictions to pay for their health care....Just like drug dealers rely on addiction to turn a profit
Government stamps out performance bonuses for public sector bosses
Fairer system ? I have one....MPs get a pay raise when other services get a payrise like nurses, teachers, police etc.all they are currently doing is not getting a 3% pay raise which for jacinda would be roughly requal to what I get a year on the assisted living benefit. I dare say that many police, nurses teachers etc also work a dammed sight harder than MPs.....
Petition to ban gay conversion therapy presented to Parliament
It reads to me like max wanted opposite to the petition.... that way it would raise awareness and give it a higher profile.As a LGBT person, I know about the conversion therapy, I am also a former christian because of that and other conflicts.... but I also oppose the way that alternative sexuality people are constantly pushed as having a higher rate of suicide because of sexuality related issues and problems...... and I base that on the fact that I was born with a depressive disorder and the pressure by LGBT groups to *admit * that it was because I struggled with my sexuality, which was not 1 at all..... I never struggled with my sexuality, I struggled with the pressure from LGBT groups to turn on and call out people that did not agree with the LGBT lifestyle......and to view others as the *enemy *
How I freak out my neighbours and make them think bad things are happening
I have done pranks like supergluing the top of a milk container, it was expired and there was a fresh bottle of milk in the fridge but watching my flatmate try and open it, was comical.... because he refused to accept the fact he could not open it.or half sheeting his bed aka folding the bottom half up... it was old sheets so when he forced his legs through the sheet, it did not matter.......but I am very careful about pranks, what is funny to me, may cause serious issues for other people.... like the neighbor that would constantly swap peoples mail around, he nearly cost the local postie her job because of the constant complaints by people. He denied doing anything so people used CCTV to capture him in the act.... and he still argued he was doing nothing wrong, just having fun......
Social housing provider bubble wraps windows after tenant complains of cold
cheapest option? sounds about right for a council.....yet if its one of their pet projects its normally no expense spared.
British comic Jack Whitehall faces backlash over Disney LGBTQ character casting
I am LGBT, my reaction is get over it. its acting. I judge people on their ability to portray a character on screen that is believable as the character, their sexuality in real life is in real life, not on screen.I remember when there was a uproar about gay males being portrayed as very camp, effeminate males, now its changed to gay actors are not portraying gay males as camp and effeminate males.
Why do vegans have such bad reputations?
I have some great vegan / vegetarian friends but they took the time to get to know me and did not make remarks that I view as offensive and confrontational. But its interesting to note that they also feel the same way about personal attacks and trolling by BOTH vegan / vegetarians and meat eaters. BTW I need to be clear on one thing, I view vegan / vegetarian as separate to animal rights, one is a diet, one is a personal stance and ideology, in the same way that I eat meat but I will not intentionally or deliberately mistreat or abuse any animals in order to eat meat..... and for those critics that like to jump on that remark, do you actually know where and how I source my meat or do you just assume and then condemn based on your assumptions
MSD report shows half of unemployed return to Work and Income 18 months after gaining employment
Been there, done that. Did two winz schemes where they funded the employer for 6 months then the employer would take over, both times the employers said no work after 6 months and despite winz saying if employers did that, they would not refer people, both employers had a history of doing it.Also did community taskforce, $5 a day for a 8 hour day......, Other side of the coin, I busted a gut in a job playing $7.35 a hour because it was a job, while listening to people talk about how they would not get out of bed for less than $25 a hour.Doctor will not clear me to go back to work and if I do, I will lose my assisted living benefit, employers perfer not to employ me because I am mentally ill even tho my work history shows I am a very hard, dedicated worker.......so I can either ignore doctors orders, get a job, get hit with benefit penalties and secondary tax because I want to pay my rent and have a reasonable lifestyle.... or just rot on the benefit with my $30 in raises over the last 10 years, play 2/3rds of my benefit in rent, while 50% in rent is considered to be poverty level, paying 3/4 of the remainder on power while more than 10% of income in power is considered high..... and get ignored by MPs whose yearly payraises are often what I make in a year......... yeah being on a benefit is so much easier isnt it.
Urinal survey suggests homophobia and transphobia issues among Christchurch male pubgoers
Think of it this way..... if you end a friendship with one friend that comes out as gay but stay friends with another that comes out gay, does that make you homophobic...??? the article would say yes you are, you have a fear or dislike of gay people because you ended a friendship with one that came out, while staying friends with others that came out......The question is so vague... I would have asked HAVE you ended a friendship with a friend that came out and second question would be sexuality or other reason..... and I never would have written an article labelling people as homophobic for saying yes... as that puts them in the same class as the type of people that abuse, insult and assault gay people because of disliking their sexuality..
Government confirms single-use plastic bags will be gone in six months
At my local bin inn store, my ex flatmate would often recycle our bags to use there for everything he got.... I worked it out that if remove all the plastic bags, he would have to buy or find 28 plastic containers to take there... and we would need a new set of cupboards to put the dammed things in,,, and a car so he could do his shipping....Now with a law such as the removal of plastic bags, can we PLEASE have people that are not part of a working group, government committee, politicians etc, to actually make the rules so that way we have common sense laws that look at every option, every outcome and not end up with a law that needs to be redo to correct the issues it causes because the people that made the law, have brains like plastic bags, IE single use
Uni students tell us what they really think about free speech
Free speech is is when I open my mouth and have an opinion.... consequences of free speech is when others reach positively,, negatively or indifferent to what I say. its ok for other people to call me racist for not learning to say maori place names properly but not english, sexist because I do not support multiple female only rights, homophobic because I do not support same sex marriage... and thats other peoples right.... and some how its not hate speech, but free speech and the right to insult, offend and degrade me as a while, bi racial, bisexual male in NZ that wants everybody treated equally and not given special rights by way of race, gender or sexuality....... and some how I am the one guilty of hate speech ???what the hell is hate speech then ????
Too often so-called hate speech is simply distasteful or offensive
Forums and comment sections and articles empower us to make statements and post opinions, but protect us from others that may have the debating skills of a toastmaster and who can put out how flawed our opinion and stance is. for the majority of us, we would end up being shown up as people that actually have no idea what we are talking about.... a bit like the people that called Milo Yiannopoulos a racist, homophobic, white power supporter, but could not explain how a gay male with a person of color husband, that was hated by white power groups, was what they claimed..... yet the power of free speech gives them the ability to make accusations about milo without any supporting proof.....The problem is not with free speech, the problem is that we can say what ever we want to say and believe what ever we want to believe.......and how we do not want others to have the same right or to have the ability to defend themselves against what we say about them
Shortland Street's 'insensitive' Down syndrome baby storyline controversy
A few years ago there was a short documentary story on NZ tv about a young couple with DS that wanted to have a relationship and be happy and the opposition to them doing that as OMG they may end up as parents of a child with DS.... they were limited to seeing each other for one hour every week and they were often sneaking around trying to see each other, the people that opposed the relationship ? the care givers.....I also remember the way that NZ overnight caregivers won their fight in court to be paid a fair wage and the same thing happened with the Ihc workers in the area where I live, as they worked the same hours as a normal person but paid a pittance.... and when concerns were raised, the IHC fought against paying them the rightfully deserved and correct payments....... and it came out that this had been going on for years....Yet a fictional program has a storyline about one parent talking about abortion of a DS foetus and immediately there is a quick response and outcry about how its insensitive and may upset DS people and how they are people with feelings and emotions and the right to live and be treated as people as well......
Student challenges school's smokefree vaping policy, or lack of it
As a smoker who is slowly reducing the amount I smoke with the intention of stopping, vaping in a classroom is not something I would ever do. There is a time and a place to vape..... and a time and place for smoking......Change the law so that way vaping is limited to the same restrictions as smoking, with smoke free areas...... and while we are at it, can we have common sense people in parliament with a working brain that can create and amend laws as needed, using common sense and forward thinking. Its no use having people with common sense, talking to the law makers in government because common sense would mean more effective and updated laws faster and no 10K a day plus expenses working group to say we have talked with different groups over the last 3-4 months and we need to change the law regarding vaping and where it can be done
Opinion: Tax ghost houses and pour the money back into affordable housing
Taxing people for owning a house they are not renting out ? Sounds like a labour party candidate to me....Tax them for not renting the house out, if they rent the house out and the tenancy goes wrong, leaving the landlord out of pocket, thats their problem.. and while we are at it, lets look at a capital gains tax as well so if they are a investor, we can tax them there as well.......Jacinda will think that is a fair system for NZ and not unfairly penalizing anybody and would benefit NZ as a whole, just look at the tax dollars the government is now pulling in. Here is a better idea. Change the tenancy system so bad tenants can not just walk away from unpaid rent, damages etc, make rental, contents and house insurance compulsory so that way when the landlord gets stung by bad tenants, they do not regret ever being landlords, as the insurance will pay out and then go after the tenants and maybe we will have more landlords
Vote on abortion law reform could happen in NZ Parliament next year
In simple terms, a fetus does not have a choice, nor does a new born child, over the condition in which they were born, which may dictate the rest of their lives,,, and birth may result in negative conditions for the mother.I was born with a life long mental disorder which is hereditary, my younger sister was born with a damaged heart, our mother ended up dealing with internal damage that would cause her ongoing suffering for the next 38 years until her death.With pro life advocates, they say the childs right to live, supersedes the right of the parent but for parent and for child, the outcome can be less than desirable. What you call murder, as part of a emotionally laden statement, for me is perferable to the life sentence I now live.....but I never had a choice in that, my mother did.
Over 8700 Kiwi families waiting 137 days for a public house
The problem is not so much that people need support and help with housing, the issue is that state housing is now seen as a right and the role of the government to put people in housing.... and also provide funding for people that have had kids they can not afford to have, but did it anyway......It was a standing joke in the 1980s about how if you wanted a housing and the dpb, just have kids.... now we are near 2020 and there is constant cries of we have kids, give us a house and more money..... While I am eligible for state housing and have been for over 10 years, I still live in my private rental, dealing with a mental disorder every day that can make normal living very hard for me..... and getting told that sorry, people that have kids are deemed more important..... so nothing has changed much in the last 40 years as far as I can see.......
Try this old US military trick to fall asleep in two minutes
I was taught by a good friend, never to try and condition your body so it gets into a pattern of sleeping at certain times..... I thought that was a bit odd, until I realised the sense in it, by watching people with a set timed sleeping pattern, trying to drive during the hours they would normally sleep.... it was rather scary to say the least
Michelle Duff: Malnourished kids are our responsibility
I grew up in a living situation where my mother was a solo mother, limited funds and very little food in the house and the community gathered around her and supported her as my father was an abusive alcoholic which is why she left the marriage home. That was in the days before mcdonalds, pizza, junkfood and all the hand outs from the government and shock horror there was fat kids at school, active kids that played sports, ran around, got a lot of exercise.....Nowadays she would not have had a community around her, as much as she would have had a very judgemental, opinionated society telling her how she was a bad parent, us kids would have been labeled as poverty poor. the government would have used us to crow about how much they care about us while throwing money at the problem.... and we would have the ever present condemnation of fast food, junk food etc and grumbling about how much solo parents get hand outs and support and its not enough, give them more... and of course, the slamming of parents with fat kids, telling them how to feed their kids and how the kids should be more active.I am near 50 now and attitudes have changed, costs have changed, society has changed, parenting has changed but most worrying for me, is the change from reaching out a hand, helping, supporting and caring to finger pointing. blaming, condemning and judging....
Alison Mau: New Zealand needs to shut down its prisons – or blow them up
Think of criminals as kids and the justice system as parents. Do not do that, do not touch that, do as you are told.... NO I will do what ever the hell I want, If I want to do something, I am going to do it. Now look at the way we bring up our kids. We are told not to smack our kids, talk with them and if need be, use time out.... Whats prison ? time out ....... and we are now seeing a reaction of time out is wrong and a form of abuse, we need to put those people back into the community just like we did with the mentally illness people when we closed down a lot of their facilities.... and look what happens, it ends up costing lives. The government is trying to act like a parenting expert, the type that never actually deals with troubled kids, they just read reports, shuffle papers and writes articles on how to be a better parent and what parents are doing wrong......
"My sister's death triggered PTSD and my own suicide attempt",
My advice is TRY not to feel guilty, it is easy to believe we could have, should have, would have been able to change the outcome but that is often because we believe that with foresight, we could have changed it......the truth is we often never know, but that belief can be very self destructive to people as it can become a never ending loop.....often we never know why, so we believe a person has done it because of depression, mental illness, bullying..... but there are other reasons such as overwhelming expectations on them or a struggle to cope with normal living, even sexual assault and abuse that is not know about..... in the case of me, I deal with suicidal tendencies and I am more likely to attempt suicide when I am calm, peaceful, relaxed which is at odds with what people are told, as that is seen as good signs... but for me it actually means my mind has shut off all emotions, influences and most thoughts and put me in a void of bliss..... the irony is many of my attempts were caused by meds that I should not have been given by experts that misdiagnosed my mental illness.......Time is said to be a healer, time eases the pain but the scars always remain on our hearts, I know because I have lost some dear people and until my last memory of them is lost, they will always be remembered by me... cherish the memories of the person you knew and loved.... because thats how we want people to remember us when we are gone.... our smiles, laughter, fun, happiness.... not as a person that was mentally ill or committed suicide, that was just an aspect of our lives
Mystery surrounds secret Kiwi survival bunker claims
So they managed to import, transport and install them in NZ without anybody knowing about them. No electricians, plumbers, digger drivers, truck drivers, councils, in fact anybody has any proof or knows anything about any unusual activity....and of course nobody leaked any information or went running to social media asking questions about unusual activity or protested.......in this day and age of social media, I find that very hard to believe because we have a lot of people in NZ that are looking for the next 5 minute outrage on social media situation and having them miss something like this ?
She's PÄkehÄ, but raising her children with te reo MÄori
Teach your kids te reo by all means, be proud of that achievement, but teach them about their other heritage as well, least they lose sight of who they are and why..... otherwise they will become like the many people that have no idea about their ancestry until they go on something like an ancestry site......My kids are bi racial like me, part scots, part maori, they are pushed to embrace and respect the maori side by course tutors because its part of NZs heritage. When my daughter pointed out the tutors were getting place names wrong, calling them english instead of scottish, she was told to be quiet, she was wrong...my daughters scottish ancestors intermarried with maori and were among the original people that settled and created what NZ calls Dunedin... pronounced Don ed un, its a scots name, not english......This is why I taught my kids their scots hertiage and ancestry, in NZ to make sure its not lost, as its not lumped in with english and lost as part of NZs history and hertiage......
Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio refused Brokeback Mountain - Gus Van Sant
My biggest issue with brokeback mountain, was the fight over if the two male characters were gay, bisexual or seeing themselves as MSM aka men that have sex with men... and because it was 2 straight actors portraying gay males......As a bisexual male myself, it did not worry me, it was simply a movie with actors portraying fictional characters. And its the same with this, other actors may have felt that they could not being the realism to the roles, they may not support or agree with LGBT or they may have simply had other projects going on...... it does not really matter to me... ducks the accusations of not supporting LGBT actors or calling out assumed homophobia.....yes I watched the movie and came away feeling neutral about it because it was not some ground breaking movie, it was simply a movie about something that happens a lot in real life, it was the pro and anti stances that made the movie into more than what it was.
Government introduces scheme to encourage employers to hire unemployed youth
Yes and part of the reason why, is they avoided testing people they knew to be using drugs or applying for roles where drug tests were required. I offered to be drug tested to prove I was clean, some of my friends that were regularly users were told there was no reason to test them.
"Suicide warning signs - what to look for
Sometimes a positive mood after a period of being down may indicate the person has made up their mind to take their own life, and feels relief that the decision has been madeFinally, somebody gets it...... people like me born with depressive disorders, live in constant state of depression... so yes a positive mood for me is not always a good thing, it can be a warning that I am at risk.... yet mention that to people and they look at me sideways because not being depressed means a person is getting better, just ask mike king.......This is why I get so angry about pushing a it gets better message without saying keep watching people even tho they appear to be better, they may not be better at allA large number of people have appeared happy and positive before they have committed suicide and its barely mentioned as a symptom of a at risk person.......
No dignity in euthanasia? Suffering is not dignified
People talk about how euthanasia can be abused and I will agree..... so can the ability to deny people the right to euthanasia..... and so can the right to charge, convict and sentence people for abuse of animals, children, the elderly, criminals, hell just about anybody....... people have ended up in court and sentenced to very long jail sentences......Yet because of an ongoing refusal to change the law and allow people to have a right of choice, prolonged pain and suffering is inflicted on people in NZ every day..... by people that are quick to talk about how they care about NZers and the well being of NZers and the right of NZers to have dignity of life.... and because there is no accountability for that, there is no reason for the government to do anything about it... and if they vote no to legal euthanasia, in effect allowing the ongoing denial of a right of choice, there is also no comeback on them......
Supermarkets hold the line despite new call to allow BYO containers
Now my question is... where do I put all the bags and containers when I am walking to town, as I live 5 minutes from town and its easier to walk, so no car to store containers and bags in ???I do not use a lot of containers, so I would have to buy more containers just to lower the amount of plastic from the supermarket.... when they get rid of the haha single use plastic bags, I need to buy in more bags to replace them.....So I am up to buy a car, buy more plastic and buy more plastic bags cos thats better for the planet.... ??? I think I will stick to my plan of no car, no extra plastic containers, perfer to use free supermarket bags and take a hybrid taxi home which costs me $4, so I save money and the planet
Dear Mrs Salisbury: Is a week too soon to move on with new lover?
my simple answer, is tell the new guy that you are ok with making it official that you are dating.... I was very standoffish with one person for 6 months as I did not want to rush into another relationship, we were together for 8 years until she died and if she had not died, we would have been living overseas. And I know people that ended one relationship, straight into another and have been married for 20 years, very happily..... love is a very strange thing and its very difficult to know what is the right thing to do for each person, so we can only go on our own personal experiences. If there is one thing I have learnt, its that people often do not follow their own advice when it comes to love......
My wife is pregnant and I don't know how to feel
The remark by karola benton says it all When your partner asks you to research things like car seats or prams, shes saying to you that she needs help and these things are important to her. Snorts, its something both parents can do together, its part of being a parent Anyways, you may not be able to carry the baby but as long as there is good communication between you both, you can share the physical and mental load. The first thing my sisters partner does when he gets home from work, is tell her to go and get a couple of hours rest, he takes over with housework, cooking dinner, bathing their first child so he is bonding with both of their daughters. at the weekends, he will do work in the morning and then in the afternoon, family first... and hes working 55-60 hour weeks... the most important aspect is my sister did not make the pregnancy all about her so they talked on how to share the load out and his willingness to be involved as a father and parent
Auckland local board member unable to stop salary while on six-week jaunt through Europe
Or they can just donate it anonymously to charities. While the ability to refuse or give back a pay raise would be good, its more likely to be used as a look at me, see how good I am, move, that ends up in the public eye, rather than a private decision between councillor and council.
Claim lives 'destroyed' by gambling as casino seeks licence renewal
The research is out there and it has found that addiction to gambling is not always what drives people, that is flawed information by anti gambling outfits.... and the research has found that shutting down pokies and casinos can actually do more harm over all than good, because its not addressing the persons addiction issues, its merely removing a venue they may use.....Visible addicts are easier to see than ones at home playing online where they are invisible.
The dark side of gaming: Why child gamers are at risk from predators
Part of the trouble is that people insist that the parents need to deal with that type of behievour, a quick and simple solution by people that have no idea that kids do not always play from home... they may be at a friends place, a cybercafe, school computers.. so keeping kids safe is not as simple as people think.... who am I? I am a experienced Head Game Master and senior admin for online gaming companies, I am the GM that just banned your teen for offering to send nude images to other players in exchange for in game currency, I am the GM that banned your teen for using your credit card in game without your knowledge. I am the GM that muted your teen for swearing excessively ... I am the person that knows your teen is also not logging in from your home IP but from school, friends places, cybercafes, using free wifi or other peoples net connections, where you can not see what they are doing......I am also the guy that will tell you that keeping your teens safe from other people is only half the issue, sometimes we have to keep other people safe from your teens......There is two sides to the story, not one... and yes its easy to tell you to watch what your teens do from home... but as parents, do you only use your cellphone at home where your kids can keep you safe from online predators on dating sites or scammers sending you emails.... do you log into your dating site at work ? think about it
Bugger! MPI tightens dog-on-ute law
Having worked in a piggery, thats something that never happened where I worked.....The pigs had shorter tails because of breeding, but even shorter tails did not stop other pigs eating each others tails. some pigs we had to segregate for excessive biting of other pigs.Its easier to see humans as cruel to animals and ignore the fact that animals can be worse
The fathers still traumatised by the birth of their children
I am a male, ex hunter, worked on farms and piggeries, even had been first responder to car accidents..... but there is no video, article, book, speech that is going to prepare a person for dealing with the birth of a child. The emotions, the anxiety, the concern, the inability to do much to help your partner and the feelings of helplessness if anything goes wrong and the first thing you have to do is leave the room.......For people that suggest going to farms or pre natal.... it does not really work.... there is a difference between seeing a cow give birth or watching a video about child birth....... and your partner in pain, and hearing the doctor say we need to move her now, the heartbeats stopped......or watching your partner struggle through 36 hours of labour and knowing there is very little you can do to help......For the people that say things like if males had to give birth, there would be less kids in the world ?.... let me guess, you are also people that say that solo mothers get treated like they do not matter.....
Feminist 40/3 protesters demand action at design awards in Auckland
OK I researched the black pins so I knew exactly what they are for.There are two listed, for members of the institute, one is for outstanding contribution, leadership and vision. The other is for lasting and valuable contribution to the design industry.Yet the argument used is that 70% of students are females...... however the rewards appear to have gone to design leaders in the industry, not male students. IE people that have taken small companies and built them up into global, far reaching companies. Two of the female recipients got their pins in the early days of the awards, including karen walker somebody who has made her mark in NZs design and fashion industry. I did computer studies as a student, it did not put me on the same level as bill gates.....
Hana KÅkÅ might have worked with a bit more warning
I am not angry or annoyed that there was the maori version of santa, its more the lack of notification for the community, it was done without letting anybody know....also the constant pushing of maori culture as NZ culture, I am bi racial with the non maori side coming to NZ 200 years ago, much of NZ culture is a mix of both and more but only one is being recognized and seen has having value in NZ..How that plays into this, is that xmas was banned in scotland until 1958, almost 400 years of not being celebrate xmas.... we are starting to do the very thing we have fought against and that is one culture making the rules
Western Union changes ways, but still popular with 'romance scammers'
How dare western union stick their nose into my affairs, I am sending money to my gorgeous russian supermodel bride to be in nigeria because her lawyer lost his car keys and there is a 100 million dollar cheque in his brief case that she is going to use to come to NZ and marry me......My right to privacy supersedes them wanting to stop me being happy......and if we are talking about being scammed, watch out for the NZ government, they tell us they care but all they are after is our money, in the form of taxes
Prisons across the country are short hundreds of staff, Corrections reveals
All I am reading is shortage of prison staff = real reason why reducing number of prisoners and prisons is something that the govt is trying to do because they can not throw money at the problem of lack of prison staff to fix it
Petition to ban gay conversion therapy presented to Parliament
Pansexual means in simple terms, that pans people can attracted to male, female, trans, gender neutral, gay, straight, les, bi, asexual etc..... where as other terms are more restrictive such as bisexual, gay, lesbian and straight...... Sexual orientation should not be relevant to anybody but the need to define ourselves is, a bit like people see two males kissing and say oh they are gay cos they are males, but they may be pansexual or bisexual... so they label themselves so others do not mistakenly call them the gay couple.....
Auckland man fed up with number of crashes on road takes matters into his own hands
Its not my fault, officer, I was doing the speed limit and the road turned while I was going straight ahead.Almost as bad as the sign is a distraction and affects my ability to keep my eyes on the road Or my all time favorite. I am a good driver, its the road that is the problem, not my driving. Kiwi driving motto, there are many idiots on the road, I am not one of them....
MÄori succeeding in Parliament just fine without need to entrench seats
I am bi racial, and I perfer the general role...I see maori in parliament who got there the same as other non maori.... and while I get that the TOW refers to dedicated seats for maori, I use the maori party and the maori electorates as a secondary basis for my stance, the maori party were slammed for not representing maori but not all maori wanted ownership over the seabed and foreshore. With the maori electorates, they could be used for maori seats but the reality is that if the other parties butt out of it, labour will be scrambling for seats while national does not need to go near the electorates....
Here's what I want you to know about depression
As a person with life long depression, I appreciate people showing concern however pseudo caring and kindness is something I can not stand in people..... Do not push me to get help, if I wanted help I would ask for it....and if people listened to me, they would find I spent years trying to get help, it took decades for the professionals to realise I was actually mentally ill......and fighting against professionals that have made up their mind that there is nothing wrong with you, only makes it harder to get help... the professional that diagnosed me admitted that in NZ, the chances of getting helped were very low, yet in the US, they would have immediately started therapy and treatment because of the high rate of suicides for people with my disorder.....lastly, so many people have their check lists of how to help, support and be strong for people with depression, yet they ignore one thing, most people are too busy with their own lives, issues and priorities, to help or support other people, including their family.....
Splinter group splits from Anglican church over same-sex blessings
if there is one thing that faith and religion has taught me, its that people are very good at hiding behind the bible when it comes to discrimination, judgement, condemnation of same sex people ...... I used to watch people in the church I went to, often say that they were only human and not perfect........Yet I walked with many people of faith and religion in support of equal rights for all, aka the fight for same sex marriage.... and their stance was we are only human, it is our role in life to treat others equally as gods children and walk with them in accordance to the teachings of jesus... god would judge us all equally.......for that is what the bible teaches
After the Waverley crash, will NZ change its entitled attitude to driving?
Saying that its a lack of driver education that is the problem, is easy to do...... some of my friends did defensive driving courses to become better drivers and still are drivers I will not get in a car with. The problem is that many of us can not see a issue with the way we drive....and if offered the chance to do defensive driving courses, would immediately find excuses as to why we can not, will not, do not need to do such courses. But if we really want to see what the issue is, we only have to look at stuff comments where people argue that speed cameras are just revenue collecting..... and that will show us how little, driver education will actually work.
Children are being euthanised in Belgium
I am pro euthanasia as a personal decision, meaning its one that I advocate only for myself, not for other people. The first thing I did, when reading this, is to stop and think what would I do, in this situation as a parent if my child have a condition that may adversely affect them and how would I feel if my child asked for euthanasia....It would be a heart breaking decision to support my kids and stand 1 to what I ask for myself, the right of choice over my own life.... and its too easy to sit as judge, jury and executioner on social media when its not me in that situation......and I can only assume how difficult it must be on the parents and how much strength of character it would take for them to say we accept and agree with our childs choice..... I say that as a child that agreed to their own mothers request to withhold medical treatment and her wish to end her own suffering......
Japan v Scotland: Hosts hold their nerve to secure Rugby World Cup quarterfinal spot
I do not watch rugby and I have not been following the world cup... but well done japan, fantastic ..... and good luck against SA