Posts by Rosemary McDonald
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Access: Disability as a wicked policy problem, in reply to Sacha,
as the utter inability of health agency managers to handle distributed risk let alone risk/benefit.
They should, perhaps, consult their fellow bureaucrats over at Corrections...
A "high risk" sex offender housed metres from a Auckland school...
Corrections consider the man "a very high risk of imminent violent offending" and applied for a public protection order to make him live on prison grounds after his compulsory release from prison.
That was turned down by a High Court judge, who instead imposed an extended supervision order for seven years, including one year of intensive monitoring.
"A significant amount of preparation goes into approving a suitable address. No address would be approved if we considered it presented an unmanageable risk to the safety of the community."
Security measures included a 2m fence, locks and alarms, and alerting five school principals and immediate neighbours, Cave said.
The manager told him the arrangement was permanent and the man was under 24-hour guard by two people and monitored by a bracelet.
I don't understand how and why it is that someone who has committed a really nasty violent crime...potentially ruined the lives of others...can have such resources devoted to establishing and maintaining their right to 'freedom'.
To my knowledge, Ashley has not been convicted of any crime, and yet...
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Access: Disability as a wicked policy problem, in reply to Hilary Stace,
Dave says he is fearful his son will give up hope of leaving Tawhirimatea.
"He's lost control. He's had everything stripped from him. His dignity taken from him. Our dog is treated better at the kennel. I think most people would have committed suicide."
Occasionally, he stills asks about getting out. "We say, 'we're still trying, Ashley'. But you feel pretty shit about it."
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Speaker: I am a Really Useful Engine, in reply to Sacha,
or by subsistence living and forgoing retirement savings. I’d love to see a special extra pension for such folk.
Ta, Sacha.
Seriously though...having no retirement savings nor any prospects of same is not too bad...until some expert on the radio tells me how important savings are for my future security. Pictures of miserable, decrepit old age subsisting in my rusting old Bus parked up in some grotty little campground because the gearbox has shit itself and I can't afford to get it fixed and travel....
Even more seriously....
This is something that Himself and I have spoken about. Me caring for Him is by far the bestest option all round. Me not being able to do the caring thing...alternative (of residential care facility because the Miserly of Health too stingy to fund home based care) too awful to contemplate.
Bring on the blue juice.
Likewise me left bereft, having now to find paid work and having to account for the 17 (so far, may there be many more) years out of the (paid) workforce.
Double blue juice.
(Sacha...having said all that...I have read of some country that does have special pensions for those who have been out of the paid workforce due to caring commitments. This would be one of those countries that actually provides real support to carers while they are actually caring. The same country that has livable allowances to those unable to do paid work owing to ill health of permanent impairment.
It might be Sweden...but I am damn certain it isn't New Zealand.)
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Hard News: Crowded houses, in reply to Marc C,
simply ignored or treated with a kind of condescending attitude.
Yep.
Credibility outweighs integrity.
Had Danielle the appropriate degree or qualification...who knows?
The fact that what she does and how she does it works is immaterial...to many she'll be nothing more than a well intentioned amateur.
Likewise the Anglican Action missioner...Karen Morrison Hume...she can speak the 'language'...but at heart she is solid grassroots.
There may be hope.
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Access: The Universal Basic Income and…, in reply to Hilary Stace,
Best description of potential implementation of UBI I've read. Thanks Hilary.
Question. One of the reasons the old Family Benefit was dumped (I heard, anyway) was that families were cashing up and using that money for a deposit on a home. Many families did this, enabling the security of home ownership for many who would otherwise be shut out. (this was in the days when one bought a home, rather than take the first step on the property ladder.)
(By the time I gave this serious thought...the FB was goneburgers) The 'system' was unable to cope with folk cashing up on future entitlements, so I guess it was funded on a 'pay as you go' scheme.Have proponents of UBI considered this may happen, and would it be permitted?
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Polity: Decrypting “social investment”, in reply to Joe Wylie,
Rarely if ever does he respond.
Hey...I asked if Labour had a Plan...(back up the page somewhere) and voila! An email arrived in our inbox from from Andrew himself with ...a Plan!
Heartwarming. (I hear that the Cetacean's Bride got a similar one, and here was I thinking it was just little old moi...)
Do better Rob Salmond.
Get with the PA program...you can't just post...and not come back and engage.
Else we'll think you think we're not worth your time.
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Hard News: Crowded houses, in reply to Moz,
Translation “government funding to mitigate homelessness should go to wealthy parasites”.
Interesting speech at the March for Moko event in Hamilton yesterday from the missioner from the local Anglican Action. Karen Morrison Hume spoke about the "village" and the "village" being "pillaged" by material and corporate greed. She had more than a little dig at the Chief Executive Officers that have the power.
I was bursting into spontaneous applause, while most seemed to miss her point.
This is from a paper she gave to the prison forum...
In order to re-image, re-frame and re-create a new prophetic vision of the work that is done in the community, post-prison, we need to determine to change the language in describing community-based organisations.
Anglican Action does not talk about itself in “non” terms. We are not an NGO (non-government organisation). To use this description immediately talks about what we are not, rather than what we are.
Anglican Action is a “justice through service” mission. This makes a positive identity statement about who we are and what we are committed to. Claiming a positive and substantive identity immediately positions us as an entity, a subject, and in turn makes it possible to be considered as a potential legitimate collaborator rather than an object that simply co-operates.
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and this....
I've been ridiculed, put down, advised by consultants that my trust is not corporate enough for government funding. But they just don't get it. Government should be funding these small grassroots trusts. They are the lifeblood of society.
The consultants want flash signs at the gate, a reception area with serenading fish tank, and cold glass-tabled boardrooms. They see the smaller rooms, tattooed clients and the high-risk neighbourhood as flaws.
We need to stop contracting consultants on huge retainers. We need to listen to and encourage those at the frontline who have the skills and knowledge to contribute solutions.
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Natrad this morning....interview with Danielle Bergin,
and Danielle's own homeless to advocate story.
Respect.
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Hard News: Crowded houses, in reply to ,
laborers who work the Pukekohe land are not going to get a look in. N
We stopped off at the petrol station in Pukekohe a couple of weeks ago. Lots of lush growth in the rich soil....but also lots of lifestyle blocks peppering the foothills.
As an indication of the socioeconomic status of the area....a two litre flagon of non Anchor milk was twice the price we would have paid at the petrol station at Drury, and more than twice what we'd pay at our local dairy in Hamilton.