Moments after the eruption, our friendly local social media language police were on Twitter demanding the Māori name for White Island be used in any coverage of the tragedy.
I’m less interested in the Māori name for White Island and a tad more interested in rapacious tourism, Māori Capitalism and Public Union Safety Red Tape Managerialism vs a new Volunteer clause.
The deceased have been grieved, many buried and there are still two bodies missing presumed dead. As investigations begin, I believe three things demand our attention to try and understand why 19 died and 28 injured, many seriously.
Rapacious Tourism: The entire country is plagued by rapacious tourism. Our great walks are queues, our roads to the Auckland Airport that brings in 3 times the entire population of Auckland annually are gridlocked, Auckland’s waterfront is blocked 30% of the time when the bloated swine palace cruise ships waddle in, freedom camping is turning our countryside into a communal long drop and our collective ‘she’ll be right mentality’ which is cheerfully explained away as a relaxed and casual attitude to life really masks an anti-intellectual mindset that sees safety as an optional extra for those who think they’re better than us.
The Volcano had the maximum number of people allowed on it for the shortest period of time, the reason so many casualties occurred was because the operators were maxing out their limits. I think the investigation will call out why so many were on the Island at one time and why there weren’t better resources available when the eruption occurred. I think our rapacious tourism (which needs to be solved by increasing the tourist tax to $175 per tourist to fund the infrastructure to cope with this gridlock) will be part of the problem.
Have the State regulators (who are so often keen to bend over backwards for industry interests) failed us with lax oversight again? Look at how MPI lets the fishing industry off any real penalties for the terrible destruction they do to the environment, look at the supposed oversight here…
Worksafe sent expert to White Island/Whakaari two months before eruption
Worksafe sent one of its safety experts to visit White Island Tours just two months before the eruption which killed 17 people.
The individual was from Worksafe’s Maruiti/Safe Haven team, which was set up in a bid to reduce the disproportionate impact of workplace safety failures on Māori workers.
Worksafe would not comment on why it sent a safety expert to visit Ngāti Awa-owned White Island Tours, but confirmed the visit had happened.
Worksafe is the country’s workplace safety regulator, and is in charge of administering the adventure tourism regulations, which require companies such as White Island Tours to be safety audited at least once every three years.
The source who revealed the Worksafe visit said: “A Government Health and Safety Inspector was recently on the island and this gave everyone the impression the operation was safe. He didn’t raise a single concern.”
…have industry interests dictated the safety requirements?
Māori Capitalism: A romanticised view of Māori Capitalism is that it operates with cultural values that are more humane and empathetic but ever since the Slave Ships obscenity, that romanticised view has been shattered by the grim truth that Māori Capitalism can be just as exploitative as Pakeha Capitalism. Expect to see rapacious tourism’s ability to warp Māori Capitalism just as easily as it warps Pakeha Capitalism…
“Ngāti Awa stated he was there to look over their current safety systems and see if they provided for projected growth and expansion- getting more tourists to the Island,” the source said.
…look at the goals, more tourism, more growth, more tourists. How many tourists are too many? The maximum number of tourists on the island at any one time is 50, so 50 is the maximum number of people who can be killed in a matter of seconds. What did they want to expand that to? Because the higher the number = the total who can be harmed. Are those tourists well being getting traded for more money and whose values are shaping that debate?
Public Union Safety Red Tape Managerialism vs a new Volunteer clause: There has been a lot of criticism of the state responders as opposed to the private citizens who flew in immediately to help and I think there is something we need to consider moving forward regarding a Volunteer clause in our emergency services policy.
The debate pushed by Duncan Garner and Paddy Gower was that bureaucratic cowardice and ridiculous safety polices were strangling off any chance to recover bodies.
I think that perspective is ignorant and playing to the anguish of the audience. It’s a media trick by pundits desperate for attention.
Jack Tame critiqued this mindset in a well argued counter perspective that pointed out that the red tape Gower and Garner were raging against didn’t exist, and it is there that I think lies the truth.
The market itself will be found to be as unregulated as most of NZ operates under with some bullshit self reporting and self management structure that creaks in the wind, but the rigidity will come in when public servants themselves are being risked, when it comes to them it will find every possibility to retreat from a situation rather than advance.
We have a public service who are well skilled at protecting their own members from danger above and beyond the duties those public servants have towards the members of the public who pay them.
I think the criticism shouldn’t be aimed at the body recovery, because by all indications, that was a dangerous rescue that tested the upper limits of physical endurance, I think the criticism needs to come in the immediacy of the emergency, the rescue as it unfolded. We had a situation where emergency drs couldn’t directly go into the field because it breached those very protective safety standards. These emergency staff had to be helicoptered onto one of the other tourist boats.
We have a climate crisis future that will engulf us in catastrophic weather events and that climate crisis future extends to earthquakes. We face a future where natural disasters will be far more damaging and the question I think we need to ask is are our civil defence and emergency safety rules built for the members of those unions or the people those members are supposed to be saving?
Let’s be clear, no one wants to put first responders lives in danger, and their safety is of course a huge determining factor in any public policy, B-U-T there are some amongst us who have courage beyond rule and regulation.
When we all saw those clouds of volcanic ash rise and rise and rise from the shoreline of the eruption in that video footage, didn’t every primal part of your brain scream to turn around and run away?
Every instinct built into our reptilian brain responds to those images by screaming ‘run’. For some however, they have a programming that over rides that scream. Remember the case of the massive fire on top of the Sky City Convention centre this year? Two things came out of that terrible blaze, the first was the shock of how poorly funded our fire service infrastructure has become and the second was the jaw dropping stamina of our firefighters who were so exhausted in some cases, they fell asleep on the fucking ladder!
That’s an incredible commitment, to fight until you are so exhausted you are falling asleep on a bloody ladder while still battling the fire.
I don’t want to argue for watering down a first responders safety policies, I’m arguing that there be a Volunteer’s clause added to all emergency, civil defence, first responder regulations that allows for those first on the scene in the immediacy of an event where lives can still be saved to make the call themselves as to whether or not they risk their own life to save others with the knowledge that those coming after them won’t be able to risk themselves to rescue them if they fail.
There will be those who refuse to risk their lives for others, and they can be protected from the decision with the existing safety policies, but there will be those amongst our public service whose experience in the field and whose drive to save others combine to become that special kind of human being who runs towards the danger rather than away from it, and for those few we should allow public policy to give them the agency to judge the risks in the field as they are occurring rather than safety over reach that protects the public servant and not the public.
With a future of natural disasters becoming the norm, this won’t be the last time our first responder culture is challenged between rescuing and protecting themselves.
Happy New Year Martyn and thanks for all your great columns in 2019, like this one
No need for the F word, wash your mouth with soap and water! Shows you have limited word power
I think Tina may have stumbled into the wrong blog.
Maybe this was the one? Paulas Page
No Tinas not stumbled into the wrong blog! She’s been brought up well and admire her for her stand. There’s no need for that F word in everything these days!!
I totally agree with You!
Tina – On the contrary, the F word may show a mastery of Old English – which is jolly difficult – and not nearly as yucky as ‘cunt’ – unless you’re a Greenie, to whom it may be mere common usage – and even then…
“a mastery of Old English”
I wonder if they’ve read any Chaucer? (Not that I’m recommending him – just, he wrote some pretty colourful stuff back in the 1300s.)
@ Tina. I think in many instances the use of the F… the word these days is to put a descriptive emphasis on a point, rather than being through a lack of English communication skills. It’s not going to change. It’s not a word I use, but I do accept it has become more part of the evolution of language now.
A case of sucking it up, getting over it and getting on with it!
You are kinder towards tourism than many NZ’ers are. I see it as the country too often being trashed and despoiled with little added value, except to bank balances.
“…regulations that allows for those first on the scene …where lives can still be saved to make the call themselves as to whether or not they risk their own life to save others with the knowledge that those coming after them won’t be able to risk themselves to rescue them if they fail…” This makes sense.
Currently, volunteers in NZ, even in seemingly innocuous areas like volunteering at the local op shop or the cop shop, are required to sign formal contracts indemnifying the relevant organisation against any personal injury or damage suffered by the volunteer, or others associated with them, during that volunteering process.
We have always had good and courageous persons prepared to risk their own lives and safety for others, and I, for one, salute them and wish them all well. They are all great people.
Given the gutless wonders who staff govt depts ( and people suburbs) unable, or unwilling, or too pathetic, to take moral or legal responsibility responsibility for even trifling matters, then they may be more than willing to extend current regulations and legally delegate crucial lifesaving decision-making to the heroic and the brave, rather than to the paid decision-makers far less concerned with others’ safety than with firmly ensconcing themselves as the country’s squeaky mice.
Ironically, your suggestion, could lead to better and safer outcomes, and that is the really important thing.
Well written, accurate detailed criticism that is long overdue.Here’s hoping some real change and regulation with teeth and more people trained to deal with these disasters result from this volcanic explosion. It was inevitable White Island would kill tourists .
Recently i did a road trip from Westland to Wanaka. On the return trip it was such a brilliant day i decided to take my time and make plenty of stops.
Every time there was a worn path into the bush with piss and shit on the ground.
The size and frequency of these areas was totally shocking. the ground was black, strewn with god knows what. Often you could smelll them just getting out of the vehicle. Welcome to our National Park.
Toilet services for travellers are few, poorly maintained and hard to find. No soap. Cold running water (often across the floor). Trashed by the locals, often.
There is no way either travellers or homeless could call in to one of these filthy places for comfort and a decent wash.
Basic infrastructure has a l-o-n-g way to go before it is fit to cope with the people we’re beckoning. Let alone the poor old Kiwi traveller.
It’s about time we aspired to the standards in Canada. Clean in every province.
THAT SAYS IT ALL MARTYN;
“Ngāti Awa stated he was there to look over their current safety systems and see if they provided for projected growth and expansion- getting more tourists to the Island,” the source said.
As soon as any person or organisation is made responsible for deciding for other people whether it is safe enough for them to attempt a rescue in this sort of emergency, they must always err on the side of caution. So as long as there is legislation that makes someone arbitrarily responsible we will never save lives .
As you say Martyn volunteers who know what they are doing must be allowed to take risks to save people or we are not a caring society.
I have visited Whit Island a year or so ago. I understood that it had erupted violently a hundred years ago and that it was more and less active at times since but I did not understand that it had erupted twice since violently enough to have killed people if there had been anyone there at the time; which apparently it has.
Visitors have to be made aware of the risk they are about to take and especially that this volcano typically and unusually gives no warning of an impending eruption. they should have it pointed out that as it has been erupting for about 140 thousand years it is certain to continue to do so. And as there are people on it every day it is certain that people will be killed on it. So it is not a matter of if but of whether you are one of those present when it goes up. But knowing that people should still be allowed to choose if they want to take that risk. I don’t think it matters much how many at a time, the more you restrict it the more it will appeal.
Happy New year
D J S
Very on the nail Martyn. This Have the State regulators (who are so often keen to bend over backwards for industry interests) failed us with lax oversight again?
Bending over backwards reminds me of something I read about some forms of yoga recently. I draw a parallel with this story about how people who are wedded to a way of thinking can have their personal judgments over-ridden. A lot of people can’t understand thought processes or see similarities in different settings. This actual bending over backwards mirrors what we are doing in NZ with our system of giving up our culture and standards to the great god Mammon or, factually, to big business and over-riding technology. We are getting done over and the cost is apparent to those with active, enquiring minds and a desire for a functioning society fair to all.
https://gen.medium.com/yoga-guru-pattabhi-jois-sexually-assaulted-me-for-years-48b3d04c9456
Many of us have stopped thinking and critiquing the system we operate under; any criticism is fired at individuals who don’t conform to the mean, or in great outbursts of feeling that exhaust energies that should be conserved so that appropriate action and changes follow and are adequate to prevent a recurrence. Reaction Is Us! Only shock will startle us out of our technicoloured dream worlds. I am likely to be criticised for administering the shock with my link above. Which will illustrate another point I made above.
Sadly work safe like the commerce commission and most of the district councils, are more interested in small business enforcement woke overreaction, than actually getting off their arses and enforcing the much harder, big business with complex situations that they don’t understand.
Hence Pike River, and 29 dead, nobody in jail and the RMA that allowed the mine in the first place to be designed incorrectly, which was known to be a death trap.
This multinational majority owned Chinese company did not even get interviewed by work safe when they killed a child by a 10 ton waste management truck, and even the coroner noticed obvious discrepancies in the work safe report.
Apparently the driver knew there were blind spots, no sensors, expired traffic plan, and the driver drove off without noticing they hit the child.
In fact the official version seems to be, it was the child’s fault for scooting on their own driveway!
“The inquest heard from WorkSafe inspector Kim Severinsen, who had found no issues with the competence or training of the truck’s driver Sau Tulua Aliifaalogo and no issues with Waste Management.
He said he had not been able to talk to Aliifaalogo or other drivers as they declined to be interviewed, and he had no power to compel them.”
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/112756791/coroner-issues-warnings-about-alleged-threats-made-to-counsel-in-childs-inquest
https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/news-life/6yo-killed-by-truck-shouldnt-have-been-walking-alone-coroner-says/news-story/07fb8ae3df9ad8f843b9f1cd8252cc06
Again in the CTV building no issue with 115 deaths, even if you fake your engineering degree.
“In September 2012 it was discovered the man who supervised the building’s construction had faked his engineering degree. Gerald Shirtcliff had stolen the identity of a retired engineer based in the UK, William Fisher.[10] The pair had been friends in the 1960s, and Shirtcliff stole Fisher’s degree by adopting his name.[11] It was later discovered Shirtcliff’s father had done most of the work on his masters in highway engineering.[12]”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CTV_Building
Most probably the small local operators will be sanctioned for White Island safety, while the big business cruise ships will be exempt from regulations and fines from work safe.
The cheating, unsuitability and fake degree Ponzi’s in NZ, are bearing fruit and it ain’t good…
The blind are now leading the blind in the councils!
Building plans accepted by Christchurch City Council show one of its own structural engineers designed a new multi-storey office block that is unstable.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/405648/230-high-street-christchurch-council-distances-its-engineer-from-unstable-building
The faker’s coming to NZ from all around the world, NZ open for a top government job for fraudsters and global identity thieves, easily able to make anyone speaking out redundant or getting away with their crimes even resulting in deaths…
Now they can actually get the fake degree from NZ judging by the unstable CHCH building… progress for fraudsters and incompetence… sarcasm.
CTV builder’s lies exposed
http://www.stuff.co.nz/ipad-big-picture/7682854/CTV-builders-lies-exposed
Whistleblowers tell of ‘incredible’ day their jobs were axed
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/331250/whistleblowers-tell-of-incredible-day-their-jobs-were-axed
Good points. The chch eq is a good example. People wanting to rescue others known to be alive at the time in the ctv building but held back by police. In a third world country people would have all over it at no thought of their own safety saving others. It is what people do in a crisis.
The ctv building done its job in the first earthquake but was inspected by unqualified Council staff and it was deemed safe. Despite the occupants saying it was unsafe when allowed to use it it was not properly inspected. That requires partial dismantling to look at the structure and that was not done. The design engineer, who also was a professor at Canterbury university, was arrogant sob but that building collapse was his fault.
So the Council trying to pin the ctv collapse on the designer and construction is a smoke screen to cover up their failing. The building standard is only for people to get out safely in a certain level of quake. Not for it to be safe for occupation afterwards.
Yep, I lost count how many times on RNZ that Lisa Owen said Whakaari, more than 25 in the brief period I listened to her coverage on that day and that was about all the coverage I took in/could take. It was the “Whakaari” show.
Red tape stopping people from recovering bodies? Jesus wept, why risk lives recovering corpses that close to an eruption. Garner etc. are so awful, who gives a fuck if more died recovering death eh Dunky? What a story that would have made. Tool! If MediaWorks goes bust the one good thing will be he’ll be looking for real work.
Tourism. Its the last refuge of a scoundrel economy. Break-even money at the best of times, exploitation of most who work in it, most are struggling to make ends meet throughout the industry and the dividends just never seem to arrive for the host country. The few make a killing.
And I did find it so ironic that this must-have convention centre that saw taxpayers give away prime land and buildings to SkyCity in a mega shonky deal came undone in no small part because the Fire Service, like most other public services, was run down after 9 years of budget cuts and austerity and their much-needed equipment either didn’t exist or the older shitters they had were either broken or getting repaired. I am sure even John Key must have noticed that!
Rapacious “tourism”… there are hundreds of thousands of tourists residing in No Zealand who have been granted voting rights by both the malicious Wage Slave Labour and Transnational Capital Parties, Wokester 😉
I think the word you’re looking for is “Neo-colonialism” 😉
Norfolk Island restrict the numbers on the Island at any one time . Tourism is a huge source of income but wisely they are trying to balance numbers so locals are not overwhelmed. Samoa is the same and have leased property for resorts rather than selling so locals get a slice of the cake
. Why do we need the overseas freedom campers. This should be the right of locals so they can get a cheap break away.
Yesterday I was in Akaroa .A cruise ship was in with 4500 passengers coming ashore . Great for businesses but the public toilets are the same ones that were there 30 years ago.This is the same story in so many places that have not kept up with the growth in visitors
Money.
Money enables power freaks to become ever more freaky and we all know what else power does.
” Power corrupts. and absolute power corrupts absolutely. ”
And if all that power falls onto one person? It will all get very, very, very freaky indeed.
Now? Go to down town Auckland? Look around? What do you see? You see very, very, very freaky shit.
Homeless people scratching about in the gutters at the foundations of the massive bankster buildings towering over us. If you’re lucky, you might also find the big pipe they suck out our $5billion dollars in their net profit from our economy to feed the off-shore freaks with.
A trick question? Do you think that, that’s very, very , very freaky? Or do you think that’s fine. “Serves them right. They need to get a job.”
I saw a cartoon. I showed a fellow begging in rags. The caption read: “ Please help? Trying to buy bootstraps with which pull myself up by. “
The Freaks are in control and they’re not going to give that up without a struggle and things are only going to get freakier.
Do you know the best way to deal with a rich freak?
You tax the bastards.
But, you might ask, our minister of finance is about to spend $12 billion dollars on roading?
See? There you go. The reach of the rich freak is long and grasping because they’ve managed to reach well down the throats of our politicians to pull out tax payer pay dirt for the sundry developers, contractors, lawyers, accountants, surveyors, bitumen manufacturers and others to buy new Ford Rangers with. The one’s that look like military assualt vehicles with those absurd, bolt-on plastic mud guards that never see mud.
Do we see altruism, kindness, understanding, compassion and patience for our most at risk bro’s, ho’s and whanau? Or do we see a Dick-Out, high wankery of the most donald trump kind?
So? Who is the force behind such callous cruelty? What mind set is within the thick skulls of the Big Truck thus Big Dick driver as they look down and out through their tinted windscreens at the sick, unlovely, unloved, homeless, miserable, sad and lonely?
And what goes through my mind when I write the above?
I can tell you. It’s a sense of helpless, hopelessness.
That can’t be good for a fellow?
Do you, dear and patient reader, ask what can be done then, about the above?
I have a simple, and I think effective, answer.
Make.Our.Politicians.Do.Their.Fucking.Jobs.By.Focusing. On.Those.Most.At.Risk.FIRST!
Let the power-freaky riche try to suck out our money later.
I have 3 experiences with Kiwi gungho-ism. We had a piece of land in Canterbury running some Herefords on. One day on a visit we found a long gouge in a paddock ending at the fence line where 2 wires had been sprung. UFO? No, we asked neighbours and a hot air balloon basket had dragged across the paddock and the driver had thrown out the anchors and caught our fence. Trouble was that barely 50m on, there was line of big old pines . Who knows what would have happened if our fence had not been there. This would certainly have been a result of them misjudging the NW winds. That was the direction from which the gouge came, and those winds are as common as muck in that region.
“I’m less interested in the Māori name for White Island and a tad more interested in rapacious tourism”
We can do both Martyn
Respecting Maori place names as well as addressing rapacioustourism should be on our agenda. Just as address homelessness, inequality and climate change
Its not an either-or
The issue of why so-called first responders hang back in Aotearoa, when firefighters, ambulance staff and even those whose primary occupation is ensuring everyone knows their place & stays in it, the coppers, in other nations tend to go in, rests with too many sheep-like kiwis acquiescence to police always being the ‘agency’ in control.
Fires when no copper knows anything about the subject, plane crashes when no member of the bill can fly, much less comprehend how a modern plane works, and even mine accidents, are all turned over to the charge of some bloke who expects everyone to do as he says on pain of arrest and imprisonment.
The most obvious example of this is in fire-arms incidents, where the cops shoot a lone gunman who is unconscious and/or bleeding out yet the copper in charge refuses to let an ambulance into the ‘crime scene’ to help the shot person for a lengthy time, frequently too long, so the person dies.
Look how long it took for the cops to discover one of the victims of the mosques horror – nearly 24 hours cos the victim was trapped under a mound of bodies and the coppers were too busy with tape measures & cameras to properly check for survivors. They were more interested in fulfilling their law enforcement task than concerning themselves with protecting and serving the public.
If an independent ‘incident manager’ or whatever had called the shots it is unlikely this would have occurred.
Every western culture has to wend its way through the tricky territory between OH&S issues for frontline staff and the welfare of an injured or at risk citizen and in most instances they have done so successfully.
Not in Aotearoa where successive governments of whatever ilk continue to defer to the police on issues where the Police have an obvious interest in competition with the interest/s of others.
The problem is further compounded by what should have been Norm Kirk’s greatest legacy, ACC.
Insurance lobbyists have succeeded in hiving off the low risk, high profit stuff to private insurers, leaving the commission with little choice other than to raise premium charges (which governments living in fear of ‘the business community’ refuse to consider), or cut payouts to injured & disabled citizens. The latter is easy since most sheep only notice, let alone care, when the time comes for them to make a claim.
I think we all know the negative stories that are going to appear in the SMH or The Age once the families learn that the best they can hope for is 50 or 60 thousand dollars in compensation for a lost family provider.
I imagine that there will be, (if they haven’t done so already), a quick whip around between the tourist industry greedies and the government – with the government ante-ing up the lion’s share. This will be organised on the QT.
Special offer -Just for tourists who have never paid a cent of tax in Aotearoa mind, nothing extra for the thousand of kiwis who are injured every year and who have paid taxes.
Just like when a toddler gets run over by some negligent tourist, the judge and defence lawyer quickly suss out a way for the tourist/murderer to escape sanction while the victims are ignored & left to suffer.
Meanwhile road accident statistics are juked this way & that to conceal the disproportionate road toll caused by ‘visitors’ – yet still the sheep lap up the sh1t.
I live up in the top of the South Island & IMO the sweep is on as to whether some local, angry at having to wade through sh1t knee deep cos so many campervans have emptied their tanks around every spot on the road a vehicle can stop, will assault a englander driver for racing at 11km/hour while waving his arms around talking nonsense to the captive audience in the van, ignoring the kilometer long queue behind them, or it will be yet another czech & his mates discovering grunge 30 years too late, who cops it for driving on the wrong side of the road for the nth time.
The greedies in the tourism game made such a killing courtesy of the naive hospitality of many kiwis unfamiliar with anyone from overseas who wasn’t a pom or a pacific islander, that they cannot see we’ve all had enough of this nonsense.
Where do we go for our holiday? If we don’t want to travel abroad, there is nowhere left that isn’t full of fat Germans forming pyramids in the swimming pools or whiny poms telling all and sundry that “really the weather was much better than this in Blackpool last summer”.
F++k ’em all. We want our country back.
Going on the lack of enthusiasm for tourists expressed in most of the above comments Whit island tours should be compulsory for all visitors, and more power to the volcano . ( As long as it doesn’t emit too much CO2).
D J S
“Where do we go for our holiday? If we don’t want to travel abroad, there is nowhere left that isn’t full of fat Germans forming pyramids in the swimming pools or whiny poms telling all and sundry that “really the weather was much better than this in Blackpool last summer”.
F++k ’em all. We want our country back.”
What a load of drivel.
So what about the very high number of New Zealanders who travel overseas, probably on a per capita basis higher than any other nationality in the world? Yet you begrudge tourists coming here, people who keep a very large number of kiwis in employment?
‘Keeping “kiwis in employment”..’
Kiwis – like 24 year old Tipane Maangi. Tipane had only been working as a tour guide for two months. It’s worth listening to what his nanny Ruka has to say about him, and about that day.. at this tvnz link
“He was a jovial person, he was a person that can talk to anybody, he made everybody happy,” she said. “He loved all his nannies – all his people – and he was the star of the show when they got together. He was the star of the show. Everybody liked being around him, like when they had their parties. He didn’t need a guitar for a party, he was the guitar himself.”
Tipene was among those recovered on Friday 13th, and his tangihanga is covered at this link
Kiwis like Jake Milbank. It was his 19th birthday.. on that day. (9th December.) The young tour guide was 80% burned. He’s still in Middlemore. Jake has been described as “Kind hearted”, “Passionate and energetic”, and has a “love for the ocean.” Photo of Jake here
Kiwis like Kelsey Waghorn, the beautiful 25 year old marine biologist who was also employed as a tour guide. Kelsey suffered third degree burns to 45% of her body. Third degree burns are when all layers of the skin are are burned off. The underlying tissue is also damaged. Kelsey was placed in an induced coma until recently. She has to be constantly monitored and has been having skin graft operations every few days. Her photo is here
Link for Jake – This one should work: Jake Milbank
Kiwis being “kept in employment”..
… included Hayden Marshall-Inman. Hayden and 17 year old Australian girl, Winona Langford, have not been recovered from the sea.
Hayden was “a very experienced guide” for White Island Tours. His brother told The Project that “He was a guy that would do anything for anyone. I read a post from someone on Facebook yesterday or last night, saying he leaves $5 in the local dairy for whoever can’t afford something, every week he goes in.” Guardian ref
Perhaps the best write-up of Hayden is this one from the ODT.
“I saw his face in the paper and thought, ‘if it wasn’t for you, my little fella wouldn’t still be here and there’s a good chance that I wouldn’t be here’.” – Brendan Patterson.
Paterson said he felt sick when he heard of the volcano’s devastating eruption, and hoped Marshall-Inman would be returned to his family soon. “I’m indebted to the lad after what he did that day,” he said. “He was incredibly nice to my little fella all day, he had the patience of a saint and then at the end of the day he rescued him.” (More at the ODT link.)
Drivel eh? I spent my life between 16 & 35 travelling this planet and I would cut my arm off before I pulled the stunts which are commonplace acts by bulk tourists. For a start I didn’t drive anywhere until I had spent long anough in country to fully comprehend the road culture of that place I was visiting. Why do that when you can pay someone to drive you around, someone who knows the places of interest much better than a visitor could.
We badly need rules on car hirage and driving which prohibit people with foreign licenses from driving here for the first 3 months of a visit. If a kiwi driver were employed to take these types around it would be a win win for everyone. Most tourists come from countries which drive on the right hand side of the road. Once again this morning I had to swerve to get out of the way of some foreign git who was heading straight for me. This happens at least twice a week round here during summer and the worst is most of em toot and wave as if I’m the one at fault for driving on the left hand side.
I never shat anywhere other than bogs when I traveled and yes that included the foul arrangements which were so common in France.
Tourists do a lot of this stuff here because they have no respect, they too feel as though they are being ripped off. Very few comprehend that the corporation burning them is the usual rapacious multi-national conglomerate that is burning kiwis as well.
All kiwis get is a few minimum wage casual gigs.
Sure a few greedy, selfish & uncaring small business types also try to get their snouts in the trough but those idjits have no idea how small the share for local business amounts to. There are selfish greedheads everywhere – that is the gig economy, but I reckon that sort of greedy who profits from the despoilation of his/her country doesn’t deserve jack-shit.
Yeah it is drivel, as is your rant….as if Kiwis that travel overseas are all well behaved and respectful of the local people. As if the average tourist here takes a dump where ever they like.
Kiwis are an embarrassment overseas…even in Australia. In Asia I have seen them treat locals like absolute shit.
I recently visited Hawaii. Wonderful place. Even could drive there, even though I have never driven on the right hand side of the road before. All I needed was my international license. If we prevent tourists coming from most places in the Americas, Europe, and Asia from driving here, look forward to the same for Kiwis when they go overseas.
This idea that Kiwis are the most innocent people in the world raped by outsiders jars completely with the facts.
No, this country was part of the British imperial project that plundered the yellow, black, and brown people of the world to become rich, and fought in all of Uncle Sam’s dirty wars to maintain white hegemony throughout the world.
About time Kiwis got real. The rest of the world does not owe them a living.
Mark – “Kiwis are an embarrassment overseas…even in Australia. In Asia I have seen them treat locals like absolute shit.”
Yes. NZ’ers are bad hooning it up like crude drunken yahoos in the civilised camping grounds of Europe too. We’re quite socially backward and insensitive.
French, and German, and other folk, may spend part of their summer camping in family groups, in well-run idyllic grounds, until van loads of revolting New Zealanders arrive, utterly insensitive to everyone and everything but their own loud selves. We – strictly rhetorical – have never been courteous and polite, and too many are totally disgusting in public.
Snow White not all kiwis are an embarassment you need to use the word ‘some’
The main issue with White Island tragedy is it was a tragedy that was bound to happen.
Its an active volcano for fucks sake. It was always going to blow its stack like it did at some point in time.
Its like throwing a dice. Each throw you only have a 1/6 chance of getting a 6. But after a few throws the probability approaches 1.
That those who run tourism to White Island could not understand this basic principle shows them to be a bunch of thick cunts, completely reckless…..not surprising given the state of the schooling system in NZ
Cowboy operators thrive in NZ Inc., the laws are so loose on health and safety and on responsibilities when accidents happen (ACC, NO right to sue), NZ Inc. is a joke, when compared to other countries. Same applies to work and construction regulations, like Swiss Cheese with many holes you could drive a truck through.
Such ‘tours’ to White Island would not be allowed in the US, in most of Europe and not in many other places either.
But it is the great DOLLAR BILL that rules the minds and lost hearts of so many here, that forced the government years ago, to keep things laissez faire and easy, so nobody really crows much about what goes on.
Only hand-wringing and emotive sob stories are stuff the MSM engage in, it is their bread and butter, so the news were ruled by White Island and the poor tourist and operator victims for weeks, with reports on the severe burns, the low chance of surviving high degree burns and on the deaths of those that did not make it.
NZ is a kindergarten when it comes to running things, I note this every day I watch the news, or so called ‘news’.
@Mark,
However the tragedy of White Island, you are still more likely to be killed in your car (or kill someone else) as a tourist.
You can buy a fake identity, drivers license and so forth in many parts of the world.
Now of course you can buy one here too aa crime pays in NZ. Crime is highly profitable and helps your guns n girls videos sales when you get caught….
“Brar was involved in at least 107 corrupt transactions between 2014 and 2016. He received over $56,000 in bribes. More bribe money was passed on to his co-defendants.”
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/365583/punjabi-singer-gets-home-detention-for-drivers-licences-bribes
Appealing his deportation of course NZ loves to reward and go lightly on criminal activity…
https://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/114283545/bribes-for-driver-licences-deportation-order-issued-for-star-witness-and-youtube-sensation
Worldwide news.. (note the journo’s mistakenly think he got a prison sentence which might be what you would receive in other western parts of the world, but nope in little ol NZ years of corruption that results in massive social harm from unqualified drivers, just gets you home detention).
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7258975/amp/Gun-toting-YouTubeer-faces-deportation-role-driving-licence-scam-shoots-fame.html
‘You are still more likely to be killed in your car (or kill someone else) as a tourist.’
I really don’t think so. Being on an active andesitic volcano as small in areal extent as white island is statistically far far more dangerous than any road in new zealand.
Upset more tourists, send them off, learn to live off your own land, and save the environment, that is what is left of it! Let them do their mass tourism orgies elsewhere.
They DO go other places. Spain and the islands in the Med. How about Kiwis dumping there junk appliances and garbage in our ‘pristine’ countryside. Never caught, never fined
About the loathsome tourism addiction that’s got us by the throat:
Aotearoa is the most beautiful place on the planet. She is also our home, our parent, in effect. If we were to truly care for her and respect her, she would continue to provide for us, with food and shelter for all who are here (at this time).
Instead of feeling awe and respect, love, honour and thankfulness just to be here, …somewhere down the line we’ve begun to abuse this incredibly beautiful land. She’s been tarted up and pimped out, crapped on and prostituted for $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$s.
If I think about it too much I’ll fall into depression and despair. There’s no answer there, so I just try and focus on other things.
A lot of unhappiness here about the unmistakable holes in the fabric of our economy and society, with a too flexible government to forge ahead boldly. Martyn says about the stretched firefighters “they fell asleep on the fucking ladder!”. Many politicians seem to be sleep-walking into their positions, they don’t even try to climb ladders to see the future ahead and plot some Lao Tzu moves to confound the obstacles.
(Here are some goodies from him):
“Be careful what you water your dreams with.
Water them with worry and fear and you will produce weeds that choke the life from your dream.
Water them with optimism and solutions and you will cultivate success.
Always be on the lookout for ways to turn a problem into an opportunity for success. Always be on the lookout for ways to nurture your dream.”
― Lao Tzu
“The truth is not always beautiful, nor beautiful words the truth.”
― Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching
“Time is a created thing. To say ‘I don’t have time,’ is like saying, ‘I don’t want to.”
― Lao Tzu
“Care about what other people think and you will always be their prisoner.”
― Lao Tzu
As for the state services administrators who plan the implementation of things, this cautionary tale written by Chris Trotter about what he has noticed in their stance is helpful to read when feeling stale, mate!
https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/2017/05/our-path-to-future-is-blocked-by-past.html
I think the heaps on Colin the bricklayer were OTT. He was just expressing unhappiness with how things are, and disappointment with the lack of action on helping us get services that the government could and should provide, even if they do charge cost+ for it. Colin’s comment: “We’ve got a prime minister that hasn’t got time to look into child poverty, hasn’t got time to look into the housing crisis, and yet she’s got time to go and do all these fluff articles that seem to be pulled out whenever she’s in trouble,” he said.”
That is a pretty mild protest and got quite an outraged backlash. Reaction Is Us again. PM Ardern is great, but what we really want is Superwoman, with unfashionable pants over her tights. Maybe we are being unrealistic! Let’s keep learning what is happening and being vocal activists plus hands-on. There is plenty to do if we can make time.
Well said the Government and local Councils have to take a go look at themselves in all aspects we are a small country that thrives on visitors,and yet when i stop in a nice spot near a river what do i see human faeces on the river bank, as first response fire, ambulance,police ,mountain rescue, helicopter crews, take great risks i to was a volunteer firefighter very demanding, I’m also retired military you do what others will not do with fellow soldiers next to you or other emergency responders next to you and at great risk, do people forget in Auckland of the firefighter that stayed underneath a burning fuel tanker with a girl as he promised not to leave her as the car was trapped, we are New Zealanders not this race or that race New Zealanders lets start doing and not pointing fingers thank you to the people that help others…
Thank you Robert – and thank you all the support and search and rescue people who do so many things which others would not dare. You are all heroes.
Robert, … What Snow White says. Yes. “Thank you.”
When I grew up on the Thames coast there was a loo at every spot where people liked to camp all along the coast. Not flash but adequate . it has been all over the country a concerted movement by all local bodies in tourist areas to close them down, Even where in towns they are still there they are mostly locked at night.
This has been a deliberate policy to herd all holiday makers and Tourists into camping grounds and motels to collect more money from them. It’s called greed.
The solution to the piles of shit the attitude so richly , poetically , deserves is to replace the dunnies around the countryside so people have somewhere to shit. It isn’t rocket science.
D J S
David Stone: “The solution to the piles of shit the attitude so richly , poetically , deserves is to replace the dunnies around the countryside so people have somewhere to shit. It isn’t rocket science.”
Yup. You’ve summed it up very neatly here.
Couldn’t have said it better myself
Who cares a SHIT about what you think or are interested in?!
A pro Jacinda BS blog this is. Censored!
Police policy should allow for officers to use their good judgement in rescues and help when they can.
Rather than current police policy which seems to be for police to contain the scene and ask for lengthy advice and help, (Pike river) instead of immediately trying to help rescue people. In addition the police often do not understand the conditions and so should allow the local people to step in and rescue people.
In other countries with difficult rescues aka Thai cave boy rescues, many overseas mining rescues etc, where in spite of danger, the official response is always to save the people trapped not stop the rescuers rescuing people because of safety concerns, which has become the NZ way.
If police don’t want to risk their lives they should NOT join the police, fire fighters or what have you. It is an inherently risky job and only people who can handle that should be recruited into that field.
Not rescuing people for fear of safety reasons, is bureaucracy out of control because the job itself is known to be risky.
The police have now lowered the physical entry tests for police officers so that the police can recruit more paper pushers who do nothing, corrupt individuals, and have no physical ability from the onset are now going to be the norm going into training.
So it sounds like in the future police will be trained and recruited to be ticket revenue gatherers and “policy” makers and spies and corrupt officials, while criminals get free reign over NZ.
This is one comment where I have to agree with you 100%
We entrust the police to take calculated risks to carry out their duties to defend the public.
Sort of like the army. If you join the army you expect to be called up and risk your life. You can’t say you are not going into battle because it is risky, although of course officers have a responsibility not to take reckless stupid actions.
“The entire country is plagued by rapacious tourism.”
Of course it is. Aside from the usual suspects, NZ has nothing to offer by way of exports which the rest of the world wants. Rogernomics made sure of that, did it not? All that’s left is scenery and the indigenous culture, both of which the rest of the world wants to see. Including the volcanic areas….
And because of the interest in Maori culture, naturally enough Maori are very involved in the tourism industry here. The local iwi owns White Island Tours: bought the business with some of its Treaty settlement money, I believe. And it employs local Maori.
“A romanticised view of Māori Capitalism is that it operates with cultural values that are more humane and empathetic….”
In virtue of what would anybody think that Maori capitalism would be in-principle different from capitalism as practised by any other ethnic group? Of course it isn’t. Some years ago, Elizabeth Rata pointed this out:
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10409060
“Her PhD was in the philosophy of education, her thesis was an investigation of Maori revival and retribalisation. Which is when she realised the policies were back-firing. The results astounded her.
“My research threw up the opposite of what I thought I’d find – that retribalisation would serve the interests of social justice – so disproving my original argument.”
Rata discovered the emergence of what she calls “neotribal capitalism”. In other words, once Maori tribes were given back assets, they behaved just like white New Zealanders. The aggressive and adventurous grabbed the spoils, the rest remained as poor as ever.”
And this is exactly what we’re seeing now.
I disagree with much of what Bomber says and thinks most of the time but this sums up my feelings on the white Island explosion and aftermath beautifully, well done.
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