Posts by Hansel Dunlop
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
I think Emma Hart has it exactly right. People need to take ownership of their own health. The assumption that this piece of regulation will improve the situation seems fallacious and both sides are pushing their agenda on a purely commercial basis.
If you visit a GP without doing your homework first you are quite likely to have a negative outcome or be dosed with an unnecessary drug. If you visit a homeopath at least you are just getting a placebo.
My last visit to a GP, for an ingrown facial hair, she insisted on giving me a course of antibiotics and became really snarky when I told her that I didn't want them and thought they were completely unnecessary in this situation. She even had a colleague come in and give me a little lecture that concluded with "A hundred years ago we didn't even have antibiotics!" (wtf?) but he just huffed at my rejoinder which was "and in a hundred years we won't have any effective ones if you keep on prescribing them for no reason"
You have to wonder what their agenda is and how much of their post university training is subsidised by pharmaceutical manufacturers.
Not everyone who creates a natural health product is a quack. The focus of this discussion seems to be on those who are. However they won't be affected by this legislation anyway. Those people who just make up bogus claims can always sell you magic water.
-
Despite having a family member in the natural health business I'm also ambivalent about this bill. Her product is topical, i.e ya rub it on, but it will still be affected.
However what you didn't talk about Russell is that pretty much everyone, on both sides of the debate, has a huge vested interest . The pressure coming from the Australian government is very strong and that reflects lobbying from Australian companies who see it as a very easy way to pick up another 4 million consumers. It has nothing to do with their concerns for the NZ user.
The flip side is that New Zealand companies that embrace the regulation will also have access to a much larger market. As long as they have the capital necessary to register and test their ingredients. Otherwise that's it for them game over, time to start a new business importing sofa covers from China.
Also you can't mention some deaths from people taking supplements while not also mentioning this. It just comes off as a little disingenuous. Because you are making the argument to regulate an industry which kills a few people every now and again and not mentioning another, hugely regulated industry that kills thousands globally. So one cannot assume that regulation will fix any of the problems. What I know regulation will do though is concentrate the manufacturing of these products to a much smaller group of companies. And I don't know if that is a good thing. Should we really just regulate these sole traders out of existence?
-
Meh,
I personally appreciate having a name that is completely unique in NZ. I get a bit of low grade hassling from people when I first meet them and any woman I'm with inevitably has to put up with being asked if "she's Gretel" but I wouldn't give it up for anything.
And I'm so glad that I'm not called David Haywood Jnr the 3rd or whatever boring (if it 'aint in the bible I'm not using it!) label everyone else thinks would be most appropriate for your soon to be bundle of joy.
Go and listen to "A Boy Named Sue" and tell me there 'aint some truth in it. It's taught me to have a thick skin and a (very, very, very small) understanding of what it might be like to be actually different than the majority of people around you.
I must also give some kind of big ups to whoever wrote the script to Zoolander: "That Hansel, he's so hot right now", is a way better conversation starter than "Where's Gretel".
-
Sad to think how many great parties I probably just can't remember now. I remember waking up numerous times thinking: "Wow, that was the time of my life". But I'm fuzzy on the details.
One that I do remember all the details of, because it was my 20th, occurred in 2000. There was a few people, in that flat on Symonds St (193a - Now some goth hang out), turning various ages so we thought we would have the mother of all parties. We organised five bands to play. Basically they were the bands that used the space to rehearse. One of them was called the Rolling Red Knuckles and I can't remember the rest.
Being poor and entreprenurial I thought -let's get sponsored. So I spent a couple of afternoons calling up marketing managers for booze companies to see if I could con anyone into giving us free stuff. One conversation I had with the Marketing Manager for British American Tobacco was funny: "Hansel, I'm sorry but we can't just give you cigarettes, we would love to be able to just give cigarettes away. They're addictive it'd be great for sales, but we aren't legally allowed to". There went the plan to have trays full of cigarettes lying around.
I had this patter going about how the whole thing was going to be live on some television station that I'm not sure actually existed, that this Japanese film crew were recording the Knuckles for a live action video game, that that. It really didn't work so well because then I had no idea about how to approach corporate marketers. However I did get lucky when I talked to the guy that ran Auckland Breweries (Since purchased by the guys that own the Cock & Bull taverns) who said yeah why not. We'll give you some posters, half price on the kegs and some bottled product.
Now this flat was basically a concrete rectangle with windows at both ends, overlooking the streets, and some badly constructed bedrooms in the middle. Most surfaces were concrete so nothing really mattered. The place was impossible to damage. The day of the party was fairly relaxed. Bands organised themselves, I had to go pick up our five kegs. By about 12pm things just went nuts. Bands were playing, beer was flowing, everywhere. One of my friends, who arrived late, asked me why he had to pay $5 on the door. I had to go down and tell these two random girls to stop charging people money to get into our mutual birthday party. I reckon they made $50 each in twenty minutes but they gave me $20 and came upstairs. The stairs in that place are lethal. Smooth molded concrete. 10 steps, a small landing, and then another 10. Our neighbour was too drunk and was trying to leave, said good bye and walked backwards into thin air hitting each step on the way to the landing. Where he stopped in a heap moaning about being broken. When he tried to stand up again he stumbled and did the remaining ten in about 3 backwards somersaults. The next day his body was covered in perfect stripy bruises. Zebra like if you will.
At some point there were way too many people and eventually I passed out in my own bed. Each of the other bedrooms was a small private party which had evolved complicated knocks in order to gain entry.
I think what was most impressive was the mess in the morning. The main toilet looked like a punk had exploded. You could actually identify the half digested bits of food stuck to the ceiling. Aside from all the broken glass there was a 1 cm puddle of beer that extended throughout the west facing half of the flat. Nothing in the house had not been used to drink out of. Even the little thing that the toilet brush usually sat in. Even that. We never did manage to properly clean the floor. We eventually just painted over it.
Funny thing about reading these stories is the sense of pride that comes through. And you know what I think? Fair enough, because spending time and effort on creating a completely unique/crazy/stupid event that some people will never forget is something you should be proud of. I've never had the energy to try anything on such a large scale again. Maybe one day