Hard News: The Honours
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This sucks, by the way. Row over cool store medals and compensation.
That comment from "JD" makes me so furious.
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Alcoholism runs in my family and it's heavily connected with the Scots ancestry *but* not all family members are affected by it, by any means. The genetic components are not inexorable determinants.
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Matthew - agreed. I'm not saying I wouldn't be pissed off either if I was still in recovery because of the fault of the coolstore in the way the operated.
To speed things up you're really wanting a "Purple Heart" for being wounded in battling the fire, which is fair enough, but that would be a new award.
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To speed things up you're really wanting a "Purple Heart" for being wounded in battling the fire, which is fair enough, but that would be a new award.
Not even that. The guys who were injured in the explosion and incapacitated, well, really, that's unfortunate but also a hazard of the job. The two who were able to retain their senses, rescue their colleagues, put in the priority message for assistance, and carry out some form of coordinating role of the emergent responders deserve a decoration. That is functioning above and beyond, particularly the one who had been seriously injured in the explosion but still kept it together - as I understand things he assumed command despite having been caught in the explosion, whereas the other fire fighter had been only slightly injured. There's a Fire Service-specific "Queen's Commendation for Brave Conduct", which may be appropriate, but one of the civilian bravery medals such as the NZ Bravery Medal also seems reasonable.
Also, the civilians who came to help despite not knowing if there could be another explosion. That is seriously gutsy, and they're being even more significantly short-changed with the ongoing lack of recognition.
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Why all this outrage over reporting that young women were the vast majority of the drunks that St John treated at R&V? St John said that it's historically been roughly even, but from last year to this it's gone to about 90% women. Is it actually that impossible for anything that makes women look bad to be an objective statement? The assumption that it's because women are more likely to take their friends to detox only works if, suddenly, men have become less likely to take their friends. After all, the last few years the numbers have been about equal. So something has changed with regard to the drinking habits of young women, be it seeking help, or how they're drinking. Or, and I don't consider it to be terribly likely, men are suddenly 80% (from about 50% to about 10%) less likely to see St John than in years past.
This is hardly the first reporting that indicates that young women are drinking just as poorly as their male counterparts. The police have been making the same observation for quite some time, about the ever-increasing numbers of females who're getting into trouble because of their drinking habits. Is it that they're drinking more? Behaving worse? Or just that society is becoming intolerant of drunk women behaving badly?
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That comment from "JD" makes me so furious.
Sorry, but since it was my link, which comment and who is JD?
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recordari, look at the comments at the bottom of the linked article.
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Ah, naruhodo, ne! Yes furious is an appropriate response. Still, if this is the quality of their editing abilities; little own important enough to receive a medal, perhaps we shouldn't be too hard in them.
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The doctor that accessed me for my ACC claim, deducted %10 of that claim, because my dad was an alcoholic.
Oh Steven, that's horrible. I can sympathise - I was sent to an immunologist at one point who, while ignoring the results of my blood tests, diagnosed my chronic fatigue as depression solely because I said my father was an alcoholic. Even after the psychiatrist contradicted him, it remains the most frustrating experience of my illness.
What I've been trying to say is that genes and environmental factors inter-relate in alcoholism as in so many other health issues. But being taught about alcoholism as a disease and an addiction at high school made a huge difference to the way I viewed my father. For me it was very constructive, but I can totally see the other side of it.
Matthew: I think you're contradicting an argument no-one is making. We're not saying that women aren't binge drinking, or that their drinking habits haven't changed over the last (it seems) fifty years or so. It's the "women are drinking like men = OMG PANIC!" I have a problem with.
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I mean on them... ;-D Damn! That's me done.
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It's the "women are drinking like men = OMG PANIC!" I have a problem with.
I think you actually mean "Women are drinking worse than men", based on the R&V evidence. And why not panic? It means that the messages about drinking responsibly are clearly not getting through, because a group that historically hasn't been known for significant public drunkenness is now surpassing males.
The tone I've taken from posts in here is "How dare they report that young women are displaying drinking behaviour that's worse than that of young men." The excuses for why the figures might be so skewed were a perfect example: It's not that the girls are drinking more, it's that the boys don't seek help.
Interesting comment from a friend who works for the police as an analyst, part of which role is collating information about the role of alcohol in behaviour that draws police attention: "the kind of stuff that drunk chicks do don't get them arrested the same way as men which is why there a 1:3 women to men ratio in all my stats.
They do get really aggro though.. most incidents involving bouncers is where drunk chicks have called up complaining of assault"
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Matthew, thanks for sharing the experience of your Police analyst friend. Interesting.
I believe the concern here is about the meta-messages being conveyed based on the experience at a single annual event (where we can't really know why the numbers are different because they're not gathered properly for that purpose). It's interesting to hear the interpretations that journos and commenters have tended to put on that raw data, and where it fits into the bigger discourse.
With the tone of coverage over the last year and the Alac advert debacle, a level of cynicism about that seems reasonable. It doesn't mean anyone's denying a basic problem with young women drinking too much, especially at Rhythm and Vines a few days ago.
I'm sure there's a simpler way of saying this, but am overcome by summer lethargy.
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__Danielle, if by moral you mean a responsibility to other people in society not to squander precious resources on binge drinking, then yes, moral.__
Woah, Dyan. Would you deliver the same sermon to, say, HIV victims? They cost heaps. Fact is, people don't always make good choices.
How do we get from me saying individuals have a moral responsibility not to squander precious health resources on binge drinking to me sermonising to either HIV+ or AIDS patients who need medical assistance?
And why is the legitimate public health concern at a global trend that sees alcohol being marketed to younger and younger people - particularly women - dismissed as moral panic? The massive jump in alcohol consumption in young people in general and young women in particular is a global trend, and a very costly and depressing one.
There is a distinct parallel to the tobacco industry in the 1960s and 70s - when sales began to decline when the link between tobacco and disease was impossible to ignore, tobacco companies began marketing specifically to women, and the Virginia Slims "You've Come a Long Way, Baby" campaign was launched. Smoking and equal rights for women became inextricably linked in the global psyche. To this day, all over the developed world, far more girls than boys take up smoking. And if that can be done for tobacco, why not alcohol?
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Is it actually that impossible for anything that makes women look bad to be an objective statement?
Oh lord. Is that a serious question?
The tone I've taken from posts in here is "How dare they report that young women are displaying drinking behaviour that's worse than that of young men."
You might want to recalibrate your Tone-ometer 5000, because that isn't what anyone was saying.
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dismissed as moral panic
ARGH: we are not 'dismissing' binge drinking among young people, in general, as 'moral panic'. We were just noting moral-panic-ism in media *reporting* of young *women* drinking. Which is why I said that this putative moral panic was possibly going to be 'gendered'.
I am obviously not explaining my point very well, or something.
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I am obviously not explaining my point very well, or something.
heh...been drunking have we ?
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heh...been drunking have we ?
Dude, I *wish* I could blame my general incoherence on being intoxicated. I haven't had the merest whiff of alcohol since a pina colada last July in Rarotonga (after which I suddenly thought 'hey, hang on: there might be a particular reason I've been feeling vaguely nauseous every night of this holiday...')
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Danielle, here's the thing. This isn't a new "moral panic". The police and ED doctors have been saying for quite some time now that they're seeing increasing numbers of young women who've had too much to drink. For the police, as my friend outlined, men are three times more likely to get arrested for their behaviour while intoxicated as women, which masks the extent of the problem. For the doctors, it's not until you're really fucked that you'll see them, often after suffering an injury. Men are more likely to get injured by doing stupid things when drunk, so more likely to end up having to see a doctor.
Now, though, we have St John, who I think everyone will accept as being authoritative on the matter of how many people needed detox at R&V, suggesting that the issue of excessive drinking by young women is actually far more serious than previously suspected, potentially far more serious than excessive drinking by young men. Certainly the evidence, and it's based on five (six?) years of history, is quite clear that there's been a huge change in behaviour in the past year. Maybe guys are seeking help less. But 80% less? I've got a bridge to sell you. If it was 60:40 I'd be happy to write it off as a change in the habits of guys. 90:10, though, says that something's changed about the girls.
There's broad recognition that binge drinking by young men is an issue. ALAC's "Lisa" ad didn't do much more than get backs up about drinking behaviour in young women, though. Far more emphasis is put on advertising aimed at males and their drinking habits than on women and theirs. Is it such a terrible thing to report on data that suggests that the problem is far from limited to males? Because you're very definitely coming across that way. The implication is that you'll take offence at anything that's not impartial in its treatment of the genders, despite what's come out of R&V.
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Is it such a terrible thing to report on data that suggests that the problem is far from limited to males? Because you're very definitely coming across that way.
It's not the reporting. It's how we're reporting. (Hrm, why does that sound so familiar?)
Also: you're very definitely not reading what I'm writing if you think that's what I'm saying.
The implication is that you'll take offence at anything that's not impartial in its treatment of the genders
Oh, that's the implication, is it? Rad.
Let me re-explain. For the nine hundredth time. Discussing the ways in which young women are drinking more than they used to drink is not the same as noting a particularly gendered way of reporting on women drinking. One can, in fact, agree that specifically female binge drinking is a problem (I'm sure it is) while disagreeing with the ways in which that binge drinking is framed by media reports (I think I do, in many cases). These are *two different issues*. You're arguing with me about the first, which was never even in dispute, and I'm talking about the second.
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(and point out phenomenal things)
Hah! I think you should get some sort of retainer for that.
Let me re-explain. For the nine hundredth time.
This is screaming for a Power Point treatment. Honestly, think how many times you could recycle it. Also
It's not the reporting. It's how we're reporting.
Love it.
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screaming for a Power Point treatment
Like this perhaps?
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@Phil. Wonderful! I wonder how Martin Luther King or Winston Churchill might go..
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How does one not "gender" a story on the fact that 90% of the people seen by St John at R&V after drinking unsafely were women?
If you're taking umbrage at the various rent-a-quotes who're in there talking about the risks that excessive drinking poses to young women, when the stories are about young men they get quotes about getting into fights, DUI, and taking stupid risks. -
Do we have any sense of the gender balance of those attending R&V and whether this has changed over time?
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Henry, if the proportions seeking detox have historically been about equal, what do you think the likelihood is that the gender balance has altered in the space of a year to make 90:10 representative of the festival's wider attendance demographic?
Also, looking at photos online, it looks pretty even.
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