Posts by mpledger

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  • Speaker: ‘Kiwimeter’ is a methodological…,

    @Andrew
    I think it's going to take a pretty special question (and analysis) to separate out the people who agreed to that question but think "different treatment is ok when it balances out advantage and is not inherently special" and "any treatment I can't get is special treatment and that's unfair and shouldn't be allowed".

    And because this is all probably analysed with factor analysis or principal component analysis, these two questions will have low correlation so it's unlikely they'll feature together anyway.

    Since Oct 2012 • 97 posts Report

  • Speaker: ‘Kiwimeter’ is a methodological…,

    Academics should have academic freedom but that comes with the understanding that their work is open to criticism. And the criticism doesn't have to come from people with letters after their name.

    It was a dumb question because it never defined special treatment. Person 1 could say Maori don't deserve special treatment but believe that the Waitangi Tribunal and Whanau Ora are not special treatment but fair treatment. - that Maori should get those things because it balances out the unfairness that happened to them before. But person 2 might think that the Waitangi Tribunal and Whanau Ora are special treatment and think Maori should not have them. So both people would answer "agree" but their perspectives would be radically different ... and that defeats the purpose of the question.

    The other reason the question was dumb was it's point of view (and that of the whole survey) was from a (male) European NZer perspective. I have done the NZAV Survey twice and I bridled each time because of the othering and demeaning nature of the questions about women.

    There are ways to ask questions about sensitive topics without reinforcing prejudice. Or subjecting the victims of that prejudice to it.

    Since Oct 2012 • 97 posts Report

  • Hard News: Media Take: Medical cannabis…,

    @Greg Soar
    Who pays for your sativex? Pharmac? Your DHB? The Ministry of Health? Or is it unclear?

    Since Oct 2012 • 97 posts Report

  • Hard News: Media Take: Medical cannabis…, in reply to bob daktari,

    @bob daktari
    A person need only apply to the Ministry of Health to get sativex. To get raw cannabis or any other cannabis product, that needs approval of the Minister of Health (but in effect it's delegated to Peter Dunne).

    Since Oct 2012 • 97 posts Report

  • Hard News: Media Take: Medical cannabis…,

    The Netherlands' "Cannabisbureau" might be an alternative. They seem willing to supply
    https://www.cannabisbureau.nl/english/import-and-export
    ... at a cost.

    I'm guessing it would take a lawyer to make it all water tight at both ends.

    Since Oct 2012 • 97 posts Report

  • Polity: Key Derangement Syndrome…,

    So if someone says John Key is ridiculous does that mean they have KDS.

    It must be really infectious then because it's spread to New York and infected John Oliver.

    Since Oct 2012 • 97 posts Report

  • Hard News: Helen Kelly's letter,

    She should give sativax a go. And there has been one case where it has been funded by pharmac.
    http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/76355498/medical-marijuana-funding-approved-for-northland-woman
    Although it looks like it took from at least October to January to get approval.

    Since Oct 2012 • 97 posts Report

  • Access: Zika and microcephaly: things to…,

    Hilary wrote:

    the main effect of Zika Virus infection seems to be the risk of microcephaly to babies born to infected mothers.

    Once a women is infected does that mean she is forever at risk of giving birth to a child with microcephaly?

    Since Oct 2012 • 97 posts Report

  • Hard News: Fix up, young men,

    I remember about 12ish years ago in Auckland when several women had been beaten up/raped in their homes during the day, during summer, and the police response was to tell women to not leave any doors or windows open in their homes when they were there ...

    The police honestly thought that women treating their homes like a prison cell was suitable advice.

    ~~~~~~~~~~
    I think this stuff happened always but it was more hidden, secret and sly and the women involved would be shamed into keeping it quiet.

    Three things I see that have changed - 1) women have been much more open about revealing their abuse and not allowing themselves to be shamed into silence or allow themselves to be demeaned by it, 2) American youth/young adult culture has infiltrated more into NZ and that has a more sexually aggressive edge and more of a culture of white male entittlement than NZ did i.e. that being rich makes people have greater social value - this is about he opposite of the old NZ values, and 3) the change in technology has meant there is less across age conversations but more within age conversations - and with it more posturing social interactions. The wise old men telling the young bucks to pull their oars in doesn't happen as often coupled with a social change to value "youthfullness" rather than value age acquired wisdom.

    Since Oct 2012 • 97 posts Report

  • Hard News: Kia kaha, Helen Kelly,

    Medsafe have application forms for sativex and information can be found here
    http://www.medsafe.govt.nz/profs/riss/sativex.asp

    Applications can be for "unapproved" use e.g. pain - not just for the approved use as "an add-on treatment for symptom improvement in patients with moderate to severe spasticity due to Multiple Sclerosis who have not responded adequately to other anti-spasticity medication and who demonstrate clinically significant improvement in spasticity related symptoms during an initial trial of therapy."

    Since Oct 2012 • 97 posts Report

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