Announce protest actions, general chit chat or give your opinion on issues we haven’t covered for the day.
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EDITORS NOTE: – By the way, here’s a list of shit that will get your comment dumped. Sexist language, homophobic language, racist language, anti-muslim hate, transphobic language, Chemtrails, 9/11 truthers, Qanon lunacy, climate deniers, anti-fluoride fanatics, anti-vaxxer lunatics, 5G conspiracy theories, the virus is a bioweapon, some weird bullshit about the UN taking over the world and ANYONE that links to fucking infowar.
I no longer use ‘reason’ ,,,, the user name.
There are a few reasons I decided to change it to something more unique, but basically it was time to move on to something more humorous ,,,, and there’s no logic/reason behind humor.
My opinions, way of writing and values have not changed and I stand behind every post I ever made as ‘reason’.
B Awakesky is not so much a user name rather a call for everyone to engage their own reasoning.
As @gey (below) says – put it into the mix.
I just recognise you from time to time by the 3-4 commas rather than by whatever handle you choose.
This is so employer v employee. Tactics and all! Who’s gunna lose?
We’ll see in the next poll!
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/473249/labour-mp-gaurav-sharma-s-fate-jacinda-ardern-says-time-to-get-on-with-meeting
Borderline credibility at stake by all the protagonists involved unfortunately. They probably all should be on the front lawn at parliament in the play pen throwing food at each other with the cadet journalists from various vagabond platforms deciding who are the rogues and which bubbles we all should join.
It really has become quite pathetic.
They’d better get in quick though because there’s one of those moi roits are more important than your rights protests going on at the moment – and rumour has it that they’ve really done their research AND without the aid of an enterage of ‘officials’ and their media advisors.
In my second life, I’ve decided I no longer want to be a jet pilot, but rather an influe wincer, or a disruptor, or maybe even an ontra prin ewahh. (Nursing or doctoring or teaching, or fire fighting are definitely out)
Good move B-Aw agree with your thinking , but do put your reasoning into the pot, and try to build on good reasoning from others, and vice versa, or we might get just more versions of vice! which seems to be the norm these days when the norm is examined.
What can this mean – a double rainbow?
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/473251/government-taking-direct-control-of-kiwibank
…The Crown is buying Kiwi Group Holdings, the company that owns Kiwibank and the soon-to-be-sold Kiwi Wealth, from the Superannuation Fund, ACC and NZ Post….
“While the Crown essentially owned KGH through Crown-owned entities, an ongoing shareholding in Kiwibank did not fit NZ Post’s and ACC’s long term strategic and investment plans,” Finance Minister Grant Robertson said.
“NZ Super Fund had been interested in purchasing a majority holding in KGH, but withdrew its interest as it did not align with the government’s commitment to public and New Zealand ownership.”
What do you think it means @ Grey?
My thinkings in this space, going forward, is that there’s been 10 or so years of what could have been ‘game changing’, neutered by a load of committed neo-liberals that royally fucked up what was intended when Kiwibank was set up.
Don’t get me started on NZPost – intentionally run into the ground when it could have become a public’s all points call interfae to gummint (central and local) – quite apart from being a moderating force to keep the big buggerised , foreign own banks in check.
The best we can hope is that all involved in these enterprises, NEVER hold public service positions again.
I think we might have to start naming them though. It’s a shame we can’t update some of their linkedIn claims to fame, or at least ask for proof of their achievements – there are some real charlatans in there (not that I want to give them performance anxiety that’d require an ACC claim for counselling)
You make good points especially the ACC idea OwT. Sir Michael Cullen was strong in NZ Post wasn’t he, but he’s above now isn’t he?
So much to think about, so fast moving. Can’t keep up. Some thoughts.
In Nelson we had a very nice building that housed both NZPost and Kiwibank. NZ Post had a lot of space which could have been lessened and divided off as befitted the diminishing role. But no it had to be kicked out and Kiwibank has the whole space, lots of forecourt like the other banks.
The Post Office was always a point of contact in a town, a reliable public spot. We now in our city of Nelson have a long counter at the back of a Paper Plus store in the main street. But still good service, I should point out. The same helpful pleasant staff.
There was a decision made by the government that NZPost was a losing business and too bad about its important role in the community. The gummint’s version of pragmatic was always to look at whether it made money. People are saying that their courier side is getting expensive – don’t know.
Kiwibank was supposed to have been under-resourced compared to the other banks. Like we didn’t know how to do financial stuff and were lucky to ha have our own little bank. We were doing okay until there were nasty hiccups when Muldoon refused to hand over the keys to the safe so to speak. I liked that Lange quip about how all the overseas staff had to max out their credit cards to keep NZ floating and meet our commitments.
They say they are going to keep Kiwibank Kiwi. But there are different interpretations of everything even when we all have two of usual body parts and speak the same Kiwi lingo. If the gummint wanted to bolster NZ business they could meld Kiwibank with the TSB which apparently is wholly owned and contained, all Kwi. SBS is also Kiwi owned but is combined with Westpac as a clearing bank iI think it was called when cheques had to be cleared. Incidentally I didn’t notice if Kiwibank tried to keep that facility, which dropped another menas of independence from the great tentacles of the God Internet. But really it needed most of the banks to accept them and they were lessening in use. So watch out for money in the hand also. We used to be able to buy postal notes etc from the Post Office now there would be none of that. If you want to open a bank account you almost have to beg and they want to know whether you drink skim or wholemilk for breakfast and other personal details. It’s unfriendly really, especially now they have the right to take some of your deposits to help them keep floating if there is a run. And people open up too easily to give direct debits which they find surprisingly gives the receiver rights that supersede their own. The receiver can keep drawing money out and you can’t cancel the transaction, they have to do it and people are finding them unapproachable when they desire cancellation action from them. What a gravy train, they are the train and we are the gravy tied to the tracks ugh. I think these s..s, banks make the rules up as they go along.
The general public need to learn about how finance and money are different at school. This business of teaching you finance and budgeting when your money won’t stretch like a perished rubber band snapping. It is too late, and the fact that the government has deliberately acted to run wages down in order to keep inflation low didn’t stop Key putting up
GST to 15% as he vowed to bring wages down to compete for Australian business. It is one of the essential things, just as we should all learn about horticulture. Growing plants should be a basic skill before we start learning about how growing profits is a skill of magical, psychological creation needing artful, calculating dealing. Iregularly refer to Alex the Telegraph cartoon character by Peattie and Taylor, his mind is shaped into a Euro sign, and he always calculates the odds right.
https://www.alexcartoon.com/index.cfm?cartoon_num=5989
A happy song to keep us in mind of what life is about after all the mechanical political and financial maneouvring is put aside for a moment.
Love will keep us together from Captain and Tennille
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDWBUQNZ2Tc
By the way Don McLean is planning on coming to NZ next year I’ve heard. Just saying.
The thousand of workers coming into NZ will they be staying in motels or does the employer have an obligation to provide or help with accommodation. Thousands will definitely impact on the housing market and we all know who this will hurt the most so I say to our Labour Government they need to step up more so now than ever.
Now the reality strikes (of climate change). Ooof!
State Highway 6 from Blenheim through to Nelson and the alternative route through SH63, which had extensive damage, would be prioritised.
“The only way to get to Nelson and through the West Coast now is through the Lewis Pass which is a massive trip through almost to Christchurch and across that way. That’s not sustainable long-term.”
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/473262/timeframe-for-repairing-marlborough-roads-unknown-as-communities-remain-cut-off
We need a reliable central road route down SI and work done on the rail system which runs down the coast here and is vulnerable to weather and wave. A NZ engineer looking for practical ways to improve the situation working with railway experts with real experience would be good. And think wide – what would the Dutch do in these circumstances. Their
experience with vulnerable coastlines might offer useful perspective and some engineering smarts.
Can we forget bloody expensive stadia which are modern versions of the Colosseum? We need basic things maintained, money enough to both live and enjoy some diversions, and adequate paid work. Not just any work though. We don’t of course want to go back to getting children doing dangerous things or poor women down mines dragging stuff from ropes tied round their waists, but I can see that callous thinking building in the minds of people who are learning how to be fiends under the neoliberal re-education process!
Our education for the people now results in as much comprehension, enlightenment and understanding as Catholic people found when their religious texts were translated from Latin into English for them.
The rich can pay to go to covered stadia and enjoy their privileges, and the poor are left to their own devices which become self-harming or other-harming in the end usually. Bugger that. that’s not the outcome that my birth-father died in WW2 for. I don’t want marches and memorials and salutes to honour him and the others whose efforts and sacrifices saved us so that we had something left to fight for in the next bloody wars.
I want a thriving and citizen-based NZ that works for the people here, and is careful about not being overrun by others in civil times or times of armed conflict. The thinkers amongst us have to be clear-eyed about the type of government we have and the warped visions of many of those with the power to get things done and affect the public mind.
Take your medicine and we might keep affordable medical help and stop business interests with munchausen syndrome or straight-out charlatans at bay
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/473245/pressures-profits-and-patients-debate-rages-around-ethics-of-private-medical-scanning
Doctors have gone to court to block surgeons from owning medical imaging services, saying it is “dangerous” for them to be able to refer patients for scans to practices they have a stake in, when that referral would benefit them financially.
Their action at the High Court, Commerce Commission and Medical Council aims to get the new radiology businesses barred and broken up.
RNZ can reveal the bitter fight has broken out since more than a billion dollars began pouring into private radiology a year ago, even as crushing pressure on public services has ramped up.
https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/AK2208/S00415/long-term-closure-of-sh1-through-mangamuka-gorge-likely.htm
What are things like in the Far North Tiger Mountain?
This is a big problem if Kaeo is going to get flooded.
Get a load of this – an agency with money to spend on selling idealistic pipedreams. If Jehovahs Witnesses come to the door and want to sell me a Watchtower with allegorical illustration of heaven with lions lying down with lambs. well I’m able to say thanks but no thanks. But Zero for a perfect goal, even the AllBlacks can’t win all the time, and reality brings them to earth. But agencies are all about aiming higher when improvement, and good enough is what’s needed and wanted. And the PR can always fill the gap when they don’t succeed to reach the target; usually it will be the public’s fault – for doing what humans are known for, messing up perfect plans. Oh dear they sigh, now we’ll have to spend another $million’s on a different plan. The Simpson’s showed the Springfield Monorail Plan decades ago, in a secret sales education plan, but we are so reliable at not getting the point and getting distracted by the colour of the cap that person is wearing etc. If you like watching trains on tracks here’s the Springfield one winding ets expensive way around. And don’t forget the fun of planning with the Sim City
game. Anyone can do it though it does cost – free is basic.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCW1Jti7T-8
https://www.nzta.govt.nz/safety/what-waka-kotahi-is-doing/nz-road-safety-strategy/
Zero deaths and injuries – how stupidly wasteful as an achievable goal. It would be laughable if it wasn’t so pitiful to hear the unachievable zero so repeatedly.
With these damn agencies that have executive powers separate from the government we’re in hot balloon territory. They want to soar over our heads, along with our own personal agency and lovely budgets to bestow on their favoured projects and people.
Budget and nudge-it sound so similar they could be confused.
I look for new ways of thinking, responding to each other and life which I think is needed if we are to have a future. Looking for a better way without doing that will lead a lot of people into cult like religion – was Centrepoint etc, Gloriavale, Exclusive Brethren, Destiny Church and other prosperity churches (increasing while tax-free).
.There is a lot of negativity and sneering around and justified, but for some it seems to be the default setting – or fault-finding. The Greeks had some good thoughts centuries ago, how come we didn’t remember them and disseminate them. On love for instance they identified about 7 different terms for different emotions.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love
7 Greek Words for Love: Which Have You Experienced?
https://www.wellandgood.com › greek-words-for-love
The 7 Greek words for different types of love
Eros: romantic, passionate love. …
Philia: intimate, authentic friendship. …
Erotoropia or ludus: playful, flirtatious love. …
Storge: unconditional, familial love. …
Philautia: compassionate self-love. …
Pragma: committed, companionate love. …
Agápe: empathetic, universal love.
WH Auden in poem 1 September 1939
uses the name Eros to refer to our common humanity and huwomanity (cf Searle)
Defenceless under the night
Our world in stupor lies;
Yet, dotted everywhere,
Ironic points of light
Flash out wherever the Just
Exchange their messages:
May I, composed like them
Of Eros and of dust,
Beleaguered by the same
Negation and despair,
Show an affirming flame.
https://poets.org/poem/september-1-1939