Posts by Joe Wylie
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
Speaker: Are there opportunities within…, in reply to Rosemary McDonald,
Its about education and awareness...http://www.nzherald.co.nz/northern-advocate/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503450&objectid=11539761</q>
Which is a bit like claiming that the grotesque disproportion of Maori prison inmates is all due to their lack of "awareness" of good old middle-class busybody values. This from the link you've provided:
"Sam Bartrum, acting chief executive of Northland DHB, said the statistics were directly related to the social and economic determinants for health, and reflected that many Northland Maori tend to reside in the poorest communities. "Non-Maori in Northland are more advantaged than Maori across all socioeconomic indicators such as employment, income, education and housing, as well as health outcomes," he said."
-
Access: How many agencies does it take…, in reply to Hilary Stace,
Yes as far as Otaki and the Wairarapa. Great tradition of the Free Ambulance Service. They also give free advice and come and attend to accidents in the home all no charge. Wellingtonians fundraise hard to keep the service though.
A little bit of background here. A civic dignitary who seems to have left the world a better place.
-
Access: How many agencies does it take…, in reply to Ross Mason,
What did the people of Chch who were in this predicament do apre boom boom crash bang?
Good question. Unlike enlightened places like Wellington, Chch doesn't have a free ambulance. Even if you've made your way to the doc via your own transport, if you're deemed to be hospital fodder the rule is you'll travel by meatwagon, with an $85 bill from St John to follow. That's a flat charge, regardless of whether or not they run red lights or sound the siren on your behalf.
Recovering your vehicle can be a minor nuisance. When I got caught that way my GP let me stash my bike in her practice's storeroom.
-
Polity: The pantheon of sporting dominance, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
Heck they still seem to give more coverage to Tiger Woods' ex-caddy!
Ah yes. I must have skimmed over that headline several times before realising that it wasn't Robbie Williams who'd been "'a slave' for Tiger Woods "
-
Hard News: A Stand for Quaxing, in reply to Sam F,
The downside with rolltop panniers is that they generally don't have external pockets, so I'm considering getting one of those little packs for my handlebar stem to hold keys, wallet, swipe cards for the office etc.
I have a basket on front too. I know it's a bit Mary Poppins, but you can't beat the convenience.
-
Hard News: A Stand for Quaxing, in reply to Geoff Lealand,
Makita electric bike. It is sort of a cross between a Raleigh 20 and a power tool.
Oh good on you, great to hear that it's proving useful. I was kind of tempted by those, before deciding that a full-sized ebike would be better suited to hauling me and my groceries.
As the bike comes with a couple of lithium batteries and a nice fast charger you could extend your capabilities for minimal outlay with Makita's 'bare tools". Their little vacuum cleaner, intended for tidy tradies, is way better than any dustbuster, and has proven to be a seriously useful bit of kit here in messy post-quake Chch. Like many of their cordless drills I believe it runs on the same battery type as your bike.
P.S. After a certain age, any electric assist bike is probably a form of mobility scooter.
-
Hard News: A Stand for Quaxing, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
a pannier in the ass...
...faffing about trying to find stuff in panniers.
Those reusable supermarket bags fit into the basket to a T.Claire J endorsed these on the previous page. You can stick 'em in a supermarket trolley and do the use your own bag thing. Got mine for less than half new price on TradeMe. Faffing-B-Gone.
-
Access: Social media, disability…, in reply to Hilary Stace,
I don't like to criticise the choices of parents who currently have the day to day care of their disabled children with high and complex needs. But non-therapeutic interventions without consent are an extremely ethically fraught area. We have a nasty and dark history of eugenics, so need to be very careful and aware of the values, attitudes and implications of such actions, and be honest about whose benefit they are for.
My heart goes out to this family. I can only assume that they've exhausted all alternatives before settling for what appears to be such a drastic solution.
-
Up Front: Fringe of Darkness, in reply to Rosemary McDonald,
Ohu
I remember someone commenting at the time that Kirk's use of the word "kibbutz" when explaining the ohu concept probably helped sell it to the wider electorate. There seemed to be an awful lot of advertising copywriters around in the 80s who claimed to have been speechwriters for Norman Kirk.
-
According to John Potter's creepy apologist piece for his father, Bert Potter spent time at the self-proclaimed guru Bhagwan Sri Rajneesh's "ashram" in Poona, India. Like Rajneesh, Potter's appeal appeared to be to those of a certain generation who, for whatever reasons, had held back from joining the cultural revolution of their youth.
Becoming a sanyasin, or joining Centrepoint, seemed to offer a packaged version of a second chance, with the guru, in return for total obedience to their teachings, underwriting the risks that had deterred faint-hearted prospective hippies the first time around. All they had to do was surrender responsibility for their own lives.