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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.
If you thought there was a war in Gaza, or Israel, the real war hasn’t even started yet. The Palestinian Authority has said they want Hamas as a junior partner with the PLO to run Gaza “after the war”. Before the PLO were somewhat subdued by politics toward the end of the Arafat years, they were doing exactly what Hamas do now. A perfect match, for endless conflict. The UN are warming to the idea, the Americans – a far more active and concerning force – will veto. I don’t have to repeat what Israel said. So now what has happened is that supposed professional diplomats for peace have done nothing but empower the Americans to act, encourage the Israelis to take no interest in civilian deaths, and all for no gain whatsoever. No increased aid coming into Gaza, no more hostages realeased. Look long and hard New Zealand, this is what happens when two opposing factions want superiority over the other. Now the fuse is lighted NZ politicians would do well to go silent and attend to the obvious pressing issues here. On one hand we’ll hear the usual people now openly support two terrorist organisations, on the other, the Fashionable Right will only see it as an encouragement to push harder in every way possible that doesn’t match their world view.
This is trivial besides Gaza but we ants do have to try to maintain a life between the toes of the ugly mammoths stamping all over the world.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/504346/hawke-s-bay-on-demand-bus-service-trial-in-hastings-swamps-council-staff
How can this be kept but less costly? Be more pragmatic – less wishful?
Seems we are getting national yo-yo dieting!
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/504331/nz-risks-becoming-laughing-stock-over-te-pukenga-change
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2023/12/09/maritime-union-of-new-zealand-media-release-success-at-port-of-auckland-shows-mayoral-flog-off-should-be-binned-2/
This sounds as if it is a success for hard thinking and good sense.
I’m concerned about the costs of consultation, They are often phony democracy, but really checking that the PTB on that project have a clear path to go forward. So cheaper paper for a start (not all on expensive colour friendly stuff) and stop throwing decision making apparently, at the citizens. Instead of asking us what we want or not – what about earlier show us the costings and outcomes of different approaches, and explain why thought necessary. Plus a page with request for at least 3 alternatives, numbered, explained in 3 sentences, and why in 5 sentenceswith reference to example if possible, and expected cost.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/on-the-inside/504082/the-government-hopes-private-investors-will-fund-social-services-the-evidence-isn-t-so-optimistic
There was criticism at the time of the policy’s unreliable forecasts of fiscal liability. And it was questioned whether long-term fiscal savings were even compatible with achieving positive social outcomes.
Political opponents wondered whether the kinder face of social investment was simply a cover for cutting back social services.
It remains to be seen whether the new government has adapted its social investment approach to address those doubts. The small amount of detail available suggests there may be a stronger emphasis on attracting private investors – with two initiatives deserving close scrutiny.
According to National’s campaign promises, a social investment fund will support social services that “intervene earlier and more effectively”. The government will provide initial funding and will reallocate money from services that receive “disappointing social impact evaluations”.
But the most radical idea is to open the fund to private investors: “If private capital can be better deployed to help change the lives of more New Zealanders, we will not be afraid to use it.”
Without more detail, it is hard to know how private investors might be motivated to contribute, beyond simply wanting to make a philanthropic donation. The non-profit Share My Super scheme already does exactly this.
But why would the government pay investors – even socially minded ones willing to accept below-market rates – a return on money it could borrow more cheaply itself?
In Canada, for example, the Social Finance Fund does not fund services directly. It pools government and private investor money, which is then lent to non-profits and other “social purpose organisations” on favourable terms. This is fundamentally different to National’s proposal.
Oh baby baby baby I loooove you I really do (despite whatever some proudfaced females might say). Who knows where they have come from? We know that there are large numbers of people in managerial positions who have over the years ignored the poor and vulnerable children while dispensing! their version of social welfare. But it doesn’t just happen to the poor. I heard of a four year old boy sent to board at one august NZ establishment when his parents had other more pressing interests.
“The Midwifery Council of New Zealand’s capitulation to gender ideology is a perfect case study for future students of ideological institutional capture in the early 21st century.” Sarah Henderson
This article by Sarah Henderson is a brilliant and comprehensive analysis of some of the disturbing changes taking place within the Midwifery Council – who with their new Scope of Practice have decided that the words “mother” and “baby” are no longer required.
This controversial Scope of Practice has to get the green light from Parliament before being enacted so watch this space for ways you can help to ensure that it fails at the final hurdle! Speak Up for Women NZ
Just working out who Penny Simmonds, the new education minister, is. Encountered her at the Southland Institute of Technology 20 years ago as a journalism student . The ‘Soviet Socialist Republic of Invercargill’, that being abandoned by central govt, fought for itself, including free fees, so, ironic, she appears again now on the National Party side.
In my incredibly laborious investigation ( why I’m not a reporter) of the student representative election for the SIT council, despite her blocking, I learnt, finally, only 3 students voted in it.
This is a little serendipity but I started wondering about mind-bending and pass on findings.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/504407/nomophobia-is-the-fear-of-being-without-your-phone-and-many-of-us-have-it
…No (no) mo (mobile) phobia (fear) is the anxiety or discomfort of not being connected to the digital world.
It’s a very modern phenomenon, given the rise of smartphones in the last two decades and their ever increasing integration into daily life.
Phones have become not just a means of calling and texting, but also a payment method, a way of accessing government services and a source for entertainment – to name a few.
Research by Deloitte found that about 20 percent of us check our phones more than 50 times per day….
The study found nomophobia and sleep deprivation were positively correlated and both negatively affected people’s physical and mental health.
Interestingly, responders who used one app deeply, rather than many apps lightly, were more likely to have poor sleep.
“The user is more deeply captured by a specific activity within the phone that actually causes the individual to sacrifice sleep for that,” Lim said…
It seems that this is equivalent to a Pavlovian experiment on people in a mass way. It seems dangerous to me for individuals to be so attached to such devices. And it is so common; people at rest get out their phones and shut off to life around them. On a pavement as they approach one has to stand aside to avoid the clash of bodies as they are as unaware of others as sleep walkers. It reminded me there were developments last century in artificial attachment of girl children to a device, a toy doll. This became a psychological concern because of the anxieties and obsession it became to young girl children who owned these dolls. How easy is it to fix our minds in ways we don’t realise?
https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/624667/tamagotchi-facts – Tamagotchi dolls.
They blooped and beeped and ate, played, and pooped, and, for ‘90s kids, the egg-shaped Tamagotchi toys were magic. They taught the responsibility of tending to a “pet,” even though their shrill sounds were annoying to parents and teachers and school administrators. Nearly-real funerals were held for expired Tamagotchi, and they’ve even been immortalized in a museum (of sorts). Here are 11 things you should know about the keychain toy that was once stashed in every kid’s backpack.These were Japanese.
Also in the USA; When the idea of a doll that could “eat” was circulating at Kenner in the early 1970s, then-president Bernie Loomis knew it could be a big hit. But there was an urge to go further—to present the reality of spoon-feeding…As Baby Alive’s popularity grew, so did Kenner’s keen marketing sense. If a girl had a Baby Alive doll, she would obviously need to keep it fed, which meant parents were constantly returning to stores for the food packets. And if the doll kept fulfilling the diaper’s purpose, it would need more of those, too. In this way, Baby Alive resembled nothing so much as an analog Tamagotchi, another toy creation whose sole purpose in life involved eating and pooping…
By 1992, Baby Alive no longer needed Kenner to be a mouthpiece. The doll began speaking on its own, notifying girls when it had detonated yet another Sweet Pea bomb in its increasingly sagging pants. Mercifully, Kenner added a potty to the line, where Baby Alive could presumably unwind…
Baby Alive is still on sale, though now under the Hasbro umbrella.
It seemed to me that on the internet I found few studies on the psychological and philosophical issues of this. This one in Canada was only partly relevant.
* https://yorkspace.library.yorku.ca/server/api/core/bitstreams/36d538f3-b2bc-4a98-b456-a9d9edece979/content