Public Address | Cafe | Speaker: Banning begging will be about as effective as banning breathing

Kumara Republic

Mon, 11 Apr 2016 13:22:23 +1200

I'm struggling to think what possible new regulation a so-called centre-right candidate thinks begging needs beyond the current restraints under the Crimes Act and common law. Sounds like nanny state to me.

Or paternalism, to put it another way. The desperate need to be seen to be doing something, otherwise…

Euan Mason

Mon, 11 Apr 2016 13:06:53 +1200

They are trying to treat the symptom rather than the disease. We didn’t have begging, or at least not so pervasively, before Douglas & Richardson did their dirty work.

It’s the same in London; I was shocked at the level of deprivation I witnessed during the 90s after having seen a…

Matthew Hooton

Mon, 11 Apr 2016 10:32:36 +1200

Ian Dalziel

Sun, 10 Apr 2016 09:20:10 +1200

Anxiety, empathy, it’s a deep animal thing.
This may be tangential, but an interesting read and insight...
http://mosaicscience.com/story/australia-traditional-bush-healers-ngangkari
Treating social and mental health issues is a cultural activity as much as a medical one. For tens of thousands of years, the ngangkari have played a significant role in their communities,…

Sistar Six

Sun, 10 Apr 2016 04:14:27 +1200

That's an amazing story Joe.

X Six

Sistar Six

Sun, 10 Apr 2016 04:06:56 +1200

All indicators imply an increase in homelessness.

Auckland City Mission and Lifewise are overwhelmed and unmotivated.

We are seeing older people, younger people, more women, educated people and even employed people sleeping rough.

It is a sub culture. Almost invisible.

There is an economy.

Their is a power system, enforcers,…

Sistar Six

Sun, 10 Apr 2016 03:59:24 +1200

Thank you Lilith,

You can't keeping just taking things away from people, without some sort of reciprocal action.

It is basic physics.

Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.

If you ban begging, then pan-handlers start doing what?

; ) Six

Kumara Republic

Sat, 09 Apr 2016 21:56:18 +1200

Banning begging is basically an admission of being too embarrassed to confront the root of the problem. What then if there were thousands of homeless, instead of just dozens?

william blake

Sat, 09 Apr 2016 19:16:56 +1200

Toi Ora live art in Putiki St along Gt Nth Rd from Karangahape Rd.

Craig Young

Sat, 09 Apr 2016 10:05:43 +1200

Shades of Elizabethan England. What next? I know, let's bring back the pillory, whipping and the poorhouse!

Joe Wylie

Sat, 09 Apr 2016 08:43:25 +1200

I remember one day in the mid 199os when Martan was running some weather boards thru the table saw, someone in the other room was making screeching noises to possibly reduce anxiety.

One very still evening I was sharpening an axe before cutting firewood. After each stroke of the stone…

Stephen R

Sat, 09 Apr 2016 08:01:57 +1200

I had a brief discussion with Cr Sarah Free in Wellington about the whole "text this number to donate money to the council instead of giving to beggars" campaign WCC was running, and my position was that a lot of the people begging on the street are doing so because…

Ian Dalziel

Sat, 09 Apr 2016 07:21:15 +1200

It's a place that homeless people can drink cups of tea with art students.
Kind of like a cat cafe?
Those art students are awfully cuddly...
;- )

Chchch used to have a similar set up called Floyds, which was struggling to get back on its feet and the earthquakes…

Hilary Stace

Fri, 08 Apr 2016 16:56:25 +1200

Begging has also become a Wellington City Council election issue with clear differences between the left and the right.

http://wellington.scoop.co.nz/?p=87762

Lilith __

Fri, 08 Apr 2016 16:55:52 +1200

Thank you Six. Couldn't agree more. And hell, you'd be in a position to know.

Russell Brown

Fri, 08 Apr 2016 16:27:21 +1200

The council document relating to Six’s adjunct.

Public Address

Fri, 08 Apr 2016 16:27:21 +1200

Discussion from blog post.