Posts by mark taslov
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Hard News: Drugs, testing and workplaces, in reply to Farmer Green,
Sorry, it was just a link to the Government’s ambitious $2b plan to make some waterways swimmable by 2040 – highlighting a disconnect.
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Hard News: Drugs, testing and workplaces, in reply to Farmer Green,
All reversible for very little effort in an ” irreducibly pluvial” climate, without despoiling the waters. There is just no public will to do that
2040? Meanwhile on the ground.
On topic:
"It’s a combination of factors, I wouldn’t say it’s all about drugs, I think it’s alcohol also… I’ve heard some stories, which would suggest to me that alcohol is probably more of a problem than illicit drugs."
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Thank you for writing this Hilary. With regards to Trevor McGlinchey saying the move was a step towards a “surveillance society” that would “undermine people’s trust in non-government agencies”, I’m a little hesitant about the messaging, because many might agree that we already live in a surveillance society/state and that this depiction no longer has much cut through.
Thousands of us watch surveillance in the form of Police Ten 7, Recue 1, Border Patrol, Rapid Response, Road Cops, Fair Go. The CCTV cameras in the parking lots and stores and on the roads make us feel safer, many accept Snowden’s and Hager’s information with regards to XKeyscore.
The revelation In the biopic Snowden, whether accurate or otherwise, that one of the first things he did on acquiring access to XKeyscore was use it to spy on his girlfriend was powerful for me. Not dissimilar from what our Deputy Prime Minister did. Targetted data exploitation presents no less a threat than the drift netting of mass surveillance.
Pandora’s box has been opened for this technology. So given the very high probability that the Government is already in possession of the tools to do this, that we already are living in a surveillance state,then the word’s detractive value is compromised, like calling a tree a tree. Election 2017 is a match up between surveillance and surveillance.
What stands out for me here is the coerced disclosure of client information by functionaries upon whom complicity is imposed, collaboration mandatory. The tree digging it’s roots deeper into society and communities.
My best friend at high school was prone to extreme acts of violence and abuse, it made no sense to me at the time because his mother was a psychiatrist. They had an unlisted number which changed a few times.
In our midteens my friend informed me that he’d been through his mother’s files and described the mental health issues of various students at our school.
He was quite a big part of the reason I left school and when I decided to he referred me to his mother for depression, I attended the meetings, but it was difficult to speak openly about someone to their mother.
Diagnosis: “Mild Depression”. I didn’t take the Prozac. Speaking to another friend recently I found out he’d received the same referral 2 years later, attended the meetings. Diagnosis: “Mild depression”, hadn’t taken the Prozac. I don’t doubt that our mutual friend read those files too.
So a couple of years back I asked this friend – who is now much changed for the better – why he was so psychotic then, why he did all those things.
Turns out that they had suffered a home invasion by one his mother’s clients before I moved there. A seriously ill patient somehow managed to access her data.
Increased access to these data sets pose considerable risk to us as individuals, professionals and the integrity of our institutions and society.
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Hard News: If this was ever funny, it's…, in reply to Rich of Observationz,
supporting repealing our health and safety laws
I’ve found reference to an exemption but nothing about a repeal, links welcome Rich. I wonder how much more dangerous a Pike River recovery would be compared to other activities our military might engage in.
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Hard News: Drugs, testing and workplaces, in reply to Farmer Green,
I guess one could make the argument that ecologically it might be best that most of us left these islands in the hands of a few esteemed and noble custodians ;)
As much as immigration is lined up to become a key election issue, it’s but a symptom of poor governance. 4.5 million people is nowhere near capacity. Globally there are 46 cities with a higher population than New Zealand. We’ve got a housing crisis in cities while elsewhere in the regions people are struggling to sell homes for 80k. Hamish McDouall has the right idea.
Where you say “wide open and clean spaces”, one could also describe what we have here as hundreds of thousands of hectares of recklessly deforested land, substantial portions of it now drought prone as a result, being farmed unsustainably and inefficiently.
Lack of jobs, housing shortage, stretched infrastructure and services, too many people? All symptoms of a lack of aptitude for development.
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Hard News: Drugs, testing and workplaces, in reply to Farmer Green,
OSH
There’s some votes tied up with that, ripe for the picking.
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“I think propaganda needs to return to common parlance,” says Michael J. Socolow, a professor of journalism and communications at the University of Maine. “We have so many euphemisms today for propaganda. We have ‘native advertising,’ ‘sponsored content,’ ‘public diplomacy,’ ‘fake news,’ and ‘post-truth’ content: They’re all variations on propaganda, what they identified in the 1920s and 1930s.”
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He’s still at it:
"Drug use is common in New Zealand"
Perhaps he saw the poll?
Maybe he hasn’t been keeping up with the news?
"In some communities now, we’re starting to get a bit more concern about P again and its prevalence,"
Newshub last weekend:
Government figures show the number of Kiwis using amphetamines has stayed roughly the same over the past five years – 34,000 in the 2015/16 year.
No mention of immigrant workers, but…
In October 2016, nearly $15 million was announced to be spent on anti-drug initiatives, including a pilot prison treatment programme.
[…]
According to the 2016 New Zealand Drug Harm Index, there were an estimated 388,000 drug users in the country,
$38 per user.
Glad that someone's taking this seriously.
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Hard News: Mt Albert: Cooperating,…, in reply to Tom Semmens,
"in the safe hands of a younger generation"
That certainly allays any lingering concerns I might have had.
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