Posts by Russell Brown
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Notes & Queries: Paul, in reply to Dylan Bland,
I think Paul should tell Paul’s story. That’s my point. Intimate aspects of someone’s life have been written about and published in a manner that I personally found a little uncomfortable.
Fair enough, and it takes some courage for you to say so. I just think you've missed the richness and importance of the story David tells here.
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Notes & Queries: Paul, in reply to Dylan Bland,
The author states that “I treat Paul as much as possible like I’d treat anyone” yet if Paul weren’t intellectually disabled, I doubt very much this article would be published on this blog.
Who else is going to tell Paul's story? Ben and I both have disabled kids, David is a stroke survivor; we're not strangers to this, or squeamish about it. What stands out for me is how much agency Paul has in his life. It's what we all want.
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Notes & Queries: Paul, in reply to Dylan Bland,
How do you mean, Dylan?
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Hard News: Media3: We have much to discuss, in reply to Ewan Morris,
Um, which lefties exactly? What I’ve been hearing is people saying the cartoons were unpleasant and unfunny – not that they should be censored, and particularly not that they should be “put down with the full force of law”.
I was thinking of Te Ururoa Favell and the Maori Council, both of whom seem to be saying that the bar be lowered for prosecutions under this part of the Human Rights Act 1993:
Part 6
Inciting racial disharmony
131Inciting racial disharmony
(1)Every person commits an offence and is liable on summary conviction to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 3 months or to a fine not exceeding $7,000 who, with intent to excite hostility or ill-will against, or bring into contempt or ridicule, any group of persons in New Zealand on the ground of the colour, race, or ethnic or national origins of that group of persons,—
(a)publishes or distributes written matter which is threatening, abusive, or insulting, or broadcasts by means of radio or television words which are threatening, abusive, or insulting; or
(b)uses in any public place (as defined in section 2(1) of the Summary Offences Act 1981), or within the hearing of persons in any such public place, or at any meeting to which the public are invited or have access, words which are threatening, abusive, or insulting,—
being matter or words likely to excite hostility or ill-will against, or bring into contempt or ridicule, any such group of persons in New Zealand on the ground of the colour, race, or ethnic or national origins of that group of persons.
(2)For the purposes of this section, publishes or distributes and written matter have the meaning given to them in section 61.Metiria Turei has also demanded a prosecution be brought under the act.
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Although my two boys are in nothing like Paul’s position, it remains quite possible that they’ll never really fit. I hope they find friends like you, David.
It strikes me that you’ve provided Paul with something no one in a formal position of care could – not just agency, but licence. The freedom to be wild and still have someone there. That’s a precious thing.
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Hard News: A plea for sanity on the…, in reply to Sacha,
If the Billion dollars for the inner city rail link was used on infrastructure then the UP might just work.
The Core Rail Link is infrastructure. And it’s for the entire region’s transport network, not just the “inner city”.
Well, quite. Good grief.
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This is beautiful and brilliant and it gives me much to think about.
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Hard News: A plea for sanity on the…, in reply to Pauline Anderson Albert Eden local board,
Thanks for engaging, Pauline.
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Hard News: Friday Music: Enter Audioculture, in reply to Mike O'Connell,
Great to see Bill Direen and the Gordons there already.
The funny thing is, it's been easier to get people to write about cult acts than it has been about some of the big pop bands.
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Hard News: Friday Music: Enter Audioculture, in reply to Jason Kemp,
You can turn off the stalking in Spotify preferences. You'd be mad not to.