Posts by Jackie Clark
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Do you know what I have just realised?
In the early days of PAS, I always felt less than. A bit stupid in comparison to all the brainy blokes.
Nobody ever really replied to any comment I made, and then slowly it happened.
It appears I have returned to this place of not being an expert or saying anything "sensible" so I either get patronised or ignored completely,
so I'll just bow out. I don't come here much anymore anyway - too many men (WMS) saying the same things, over and over and enjoying the sounds of their own voices.
And really, isn't that the way of the world anyway?
It's my birthday on Sunday, I'll be 52 years old. Life's too short for mansplaining.
So this isn't a flounce, it's one of my birthday presents to myself.
See you when the PAS Women's XV is given a bit more space. -
Why are we worried about policing food?
Is it because we are genuinely worried about "the children"?
Is it because we just don't like fat people?
Or is it because we all want to be healthy and live long lives? A matter which is greatly influenced less, in reality, by what you eat and more by genetics and in some cases, environmental factors - accidents, smoking, murder etc
Because at the moment, there is a conflation.
I would posit, if you're worried about "the children" that their families pose more of a risk to them.If it's because you just don't like fat people, well, never mind. There, there.
However, if you want to extend life and live a healthy one, that one is something we can talk about. At length. As long as you don't proselytise, or judge other people, and as long as you accept that for the common good of all of us, reducing sugar in our diets is a biggie but not bigger than the violence in our homes, or the poverty in our communities, or the social inequities that exist all around us.
These conversations become entirely moot unless we start to talk about the other things I have just mentioned.
If you're well off and middle class, you police your own intake of food, not other people's.
You don't get to do that. -
Speaker: Talking past each other:…, in reply to Sacha,
What I just said: what are the foods that do those things?
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Okay. I've had enough of this.
I work in Mangere. I hope to live there soon. I am a part of the community in a meaningful way through my teaching and my refuge work. There is a huge concentration of fast food outlets and some of the kids have shitty diets.
Poverty is a big one but also the fact that many parents work 2 jobs, or night shifts, and the kids are given money to fend for themselves, so a pie for breakfast, bugger all for lunch, and maybe a can of coke and some hot chips to keep them going till dinner.
Now. All of this is not necessarily connected to obesity. Of the hundreds of kids I see every day around the place, very few are obese. Why? Because they walk everywhere. Like, miles. Not just to get to school but to the town centre or wherever else they need to be.
I see very few, I teach very few, obese children, Not empirical evidence for sure, but a hell of a lot more connected to reality than empty policy and empty talk.
By all means, do something about the corporates. I agree there's too much sugar in our food.
But please. Spare me the waffle about the links to obesity. I've been teaching in these communities for 20 years, and I've never seen this obesity epidemic they claim is happening.
At my kindy, I tell the kids about the food that grows your brain, fills your tummy, makes your bones strong and builds your muscles. None of this bad food/good food shit. It's harmful, and like a tax on sugar, it's not helpful.
Don't @ me. -
I would just like to invite people to reflect on how fattist they may be.
And any time you’d like to speak to someone who actually works in one of the communities that these measures are aimed at, you just let me know.
That is all.
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Salutations Sistar Six.
Thanks for sharing that with us. I've been for a squizzy at your blog, and enjoying reading your words. Taking them onboard. Listening.
I'm sorry people keep misgendering you. -
Home. For 18 years, my home was a beautiful house by Lake Pupuke in Takapuna. Home was a huge family, beautiful summers, my mum and dad, winter holidays in the South Island. And then I left home, and wandered a bit, as you do, and mum and dad built a house in the country. That was their new home, but it was never mine. I went overseas, and NZ was always home. I pined for her, and breathed again when I returned. I met Ian shortly after, and his home became my home, and I've been here ever since.
But home, to me, is more about the people I love, and communities who have embraced me.. I found my first home, in that regard, in my friend Carol. For 33 years, I was at home in her heart. I found home in the community of Mangere, my place of work for the last ten years. And since Carol died, I have found my home in a small house in Mangere where there is an ever changing cast of characters, and some vital steady hearts. For me, home really is where the heart is. -
Nga mihinui, Claudia.
Thank you. -
Speaker: Are there opportunities within…, in reply to Katharine Moody,
I eat McDonalds because I choose to.
My diet is nobody else's business,
I'm fat.
I also make the lives of a lot of people bearable, and dare I say it, better.
So no, I don't need your advice.
Thanks for your concern. -
Speaker: Are there opportunities within…, in reply to Katharine Moody,
Then let's stick to that, shall we?
Sardines are foul.
I eat quite a lot of McDonalds.