Posts by Sacha
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Labour points to Maritime NZ budget freeze.
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Hard News: Dropping the Bomber, in reply to Miche Campbell,
you'll start a war with that sort of talk, comrade
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Hard News: Dropping the Bomber, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
a cheap political drive by
I believe he was expressing sympathy.
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Health risks from oil spills.
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Hard News: Dropping the Bomber, in reply to 3410,
Heard some of the reason is to avoid traipsing hydrocarbons all over the rest of the place. Simpler to clean up if it stays mainly on the sand, though I understand it has been blowing further inland anyway.
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Hard News: Dropping the Bomber, in reply to Sacha,
Ah. Apparently face masks don't work.
University of Otago Professor of Epidemiology Julian Crane, who is also the director of the Wellington Asthma, Allergy and Respiratory Group, said he expected any health risks related to the fuel to be minimal.
People with healthy respiratory systems would likely feel little effect from the fumes, but those with asthma or other similar ailments should stay away from the area.
Issuing face masks would be of little use, Mr Crane said. "The first thing is if they're those little plastic face masks that just fit to your face it won't do anything ... even a proper mask, even then some of these particles will be very small so I don't know if it will keep them out."
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Hard News: Dropping the Bomber, in reply to 3410,
Masks are essential, apparently. MNZ should be spelling that out, rather than just saying "don't do it".
Their CEO was saying "we might hand them out" on the tv news a couple of nights ago. You'd think that would be an early part of the developed-beforehand plan for such predictable emergencies. Like communicating with the public.
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Hard News: Dropping the Bomber, in reply to hamishm,
the worst earthquake, the worst oil spill and the worst mining accident for nearly 100 years all on his watch
Crap luck to some extent, yes, but ironically also the inevitable legacy of previous bursts of free-market madness, putting short-term profit and convenience for lazy managers above broader long-term wellbeing. The linked article is a bit one-eyed, but it's a valid point that the marine, mining and building industries were all "deregulated" in NZ's neolib nuttiness of the 1980s and 90s.
Recall that Christchurch also had a protracted battle with developers and building owners resisting spending money on safety upgrades even with a healthy dose of socialised risk on the table.
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Hard News: Dropping the Bomber, in reply to Paul Williams,
IMO, this has been a different scenario where the damage done may have been reduced had there been an immediate, comprehensive response from across all levels of government.
That's when PMs are essential, they can command resources and co-ordination.
Being able to activate emergency laws is valuable. People also look for moral leadership and encouragement in times of crisis. We know that's not going to come from the Board or exectitives of a government department. Peter Whittall at Pike River was filling a vacuum. An ideologically-preferred one for this current government.
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Hard News: About Occupy Wall Street, in reply to DCBCauchi,
just paste the whole link (including the http) but without any of those square brackets, and it will embed automagically, thus..