Midday Update: Here are The Daily Blog Top Posts from the midday edition.
TDB Morning Lead Item:
Laila Harré’s post: Sky City A Rigged Bet “According to AUT’s Gambling and Addiction Research Centre, of 992 new Gambling Hotline gambler clients 811 were pokie victims and 57 casino table or card gamblers; leaving just 124 to all other gambling forms. 7 of these cited Lotteries Commission Products as their primary gambling mode.
There is no shortage of evidence linking pokies and gaming tables to serious gambling harm.” Read More
TDB Must Read Item:
Burnt Out Teacher’s post: We are so over talking about kids, right?! – “Did you also know that if you work in a particular type of school, in addition to your shitty salary, you may also get what is colloquially known among teachers as ‘danger money?’
It’s an extra thousand bucks a year which you end up spending entirely on muesli bars and sandwich stuff for your class but is to theoretically make up for when (not if) you get assaulted by kids or parents, or for when you get nits, impetigo/school sores, scabies or meningitis or whooping cough or tuberculosis or rheumatic fever or other diseases, which teachers quite often contract from New Zealand kids who live in overcrowded, damp homes.” Read More
Auckland deputy mayor Penny Hulse’s post: Talkin’ Bout A Housing Revolution “The Unitary Plan is attempting to fix this. For example, good quality urban design will be consent criteria in any new development and there is proposed character and heritage protection for all pre-1944 settlements across Auckland. This has never been delivered before.
“The Unitary Plan cannot solve everything. Fixing the issues facing our young people who can’t afford to stay in Auckland and for families who are struggling to find housing that is safe, warm and close to jobs is a complex task.” Read More
Aaron Hawkins’ post Dunedin’s Mayor Our Very Own Karma Chameleon “It is a relief that Mayor Cull has apologised for offending Dunedin’s Buddhist community, but disappointing that he has left other issues raised by his comments unaddressed. He has refused to say whether he would meet the Dalai Lama had his crucial meeting in Wellington not been scheduled, instead saying that it was important for us to recognise Chinese sensitivities.
“After a recent business trip to Shanghai, Cull returns to Dunedin to tell us that decisions about who we host and meet in our own city should defer to China.” Read More
Martyn Bradbury’s post: John Key’s Poker Face Is No Where As Good As Lady Gagas’“What really churns the stomach is that this is all a deal for a stinking filthy casino. Of all the least deserving organizations in NZ for any charity, Sky City would have to be near the top.
“To cut such a one sided deal for such an eye sore of a convention centre built upon the addiction of gamblers is a low point in politics that everyone who voted for National should regret.” Read More
Chris Trotter’s post: A Modest Proposal Concerning Affordable Housing “Look around you… What do you think has been happening in this country since the mid-1980s? What, exactly, did you think income inequality would look like? Did you think the obscene polarisation between the rich and the poor in New Zealand would not be manifested in the places where people live? In the jobs they do? In the opportunities they can – or cannot – offer their children?” Read More
Martyn Bradbury’s post: Apparently Gilmore was victim of autocorrect – text was about U2 not Utu “You know, with a Government cutting disgusting deals with SkyCity and ramming through the largest erosion of civil liberties NZ has seen since the waterfront lock out in the 50s, the mainstream media might want to dominate its focus on those issues.
“But no. The dark lord of the Sith, Cameron Slater, posts a text message from Gilmore and the mainstream media dutifully follow and suddenly we are all talking about bloody Gilmore and not filthy gambling and the GCSB spying on citizens.” Read More
TDB Reposts’: Canadian Redefines Astronaut Celebrity Genre With Space Oddity Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield has redefined the Astronaut celebrity genre with his rendition of David Bowie’s Space Oddity. After nearly five months on board the International Space Station, Hadfield recorded this video. Later he said floating around in space alone for five months made him feel closer to humanity. Read More
