Posts by Bart Janssen
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Speaker: Not even a statistic, in reply to Sofie Bribiesca,
It’s one of Labours policies Here is a bit of it.
Yup and I was aware of it.
But you know, I think, I really think, that if a political party chose to make it THE ISSUE, they could. Because when push comes to shove most of the rest of the policies are much of a muchness, a little more emphasis on housing or education, private this public that.
But this issue ... This utterly shameful issue that is a hideous evil part of our society now ... could actually be addressed ... with my tax dollars ... with real commitment ... with no dodging, no saying "yes yes how terrible but we have more important things to do ..."
We could actually fix this in New Zealand, we really could, but all of us would have to try.
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Speaker: Not even a statistic, in reply to Rosemary McDonald,
why in god’s name was there a trial? Surely, in a civilised society, such evidence would be sufficient to spare the victim from inquisition?
This is a very good question. The simplistic answer is that we have a legal system that dictates that all crimes will be dealt with under an adversarial system where all evidence is treated as suspect. You can think of it as a very large and complex hammer that lawyers use to deal with all crimes. To this hammer all things look like a nail.
Yet rape does not fit well with this system. The victim is already traumatised, yet the legal system cannot, will not, adjust itself to achieve justice. Instead lawyers and the entire legal system sit back and admire their hammer regardless of the fact that it fails to achieve justice for rape victims.
The lawyers will argue that their system, while flawed, is the best system possible. For me, it's simple, what we are doing now does not work. If we need to change the legal system to make it work, then I don't care and really neither should the lawyers if they really believe in justice. And to be fair there are many lawyers who seriously question the system.
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Speaker: Not even a statistic, in reply to Emma Hart,
“If he rapes somebody else, and he probably will, it’s your fault.”
If he rapes again it is the fault of every single person in NZ. It is the fault of the police, it is the fault of the lawyers, it is the fault of the legal system, it is the fault of the politicians, it is the fault of his parents, it is the fault of his mates, it is the fault of the newspapers, it is the fault of the whole news media, it is the fault of The All Blacks, it is the fault every single person and organisation in NZ. It is his fault.
WE allow this.
That a parent, rightly, gives this advice to their daughter, brings me to tears.
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For some reason people seem to think you can have the benefits of a city without having to pay for them. It's something that boggles the mind. I get that we don't like seeing bureaucratic waste and we don't like seeing our rates used on foolish ill-planned projects.
But when you look at the total budget the percentage that gets wasted is tiny. Some things could be done more efficiently that's true of any organisation.
So my simple answer to the question how do we pay for the things we want our city to provide - PAY MORE RATES. Put more money into the city so that we can have a city that is more efficient AND more enjoyable to live in.
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Somehow we, all of us, need to change. This isn't the only story like this. That there is even one story like this is a mark of shame for all of us in this country. That there are likely many more like this should be a national scandal. It is a catastrophic failure of our society.
Why is this not an election issue? Why are there not blue or red or green billboards around town proclaiming the intent to be "rape-free by 2020"?
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Hard News: Going solar?, in reply to Alfie,
Power companies have imposed a moratorium on new solar connections and want to impose a fee on people with solar installations of around $120 a year. In Arizona the PowerCos tried to impose a $50 per month “penalty” on solar powered houses
This is just the free market system at the stupid extreme. It makes perfect sense for the power company to try and increase its profits - that includes using political pressure to hamstring competitors. It isn't evil as such just "good business" - bearing in mind that's all they've ever learned.
Stepping back and considering the good of society as a whole is an utterly alien concept and very very hard for them to grasp.
So while it's worthwhile recognising the sillyness of their actions, heaping scorn on them is not worthwhile.
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Hard News: A wretched editorial, in reply to B Jones,
Ministers do a lot more than their parliamentary duties.
Of course they do. But key amongst all those duties is - being responsible for the successes and failures of their ministries. It's a bitch but if you accept the job and the salary then you accept the risk with the reward ... except most of this current bunch (and the previous lot weren't much different) are only willing to accept responsibility for success ... failure is always someone else's fault.
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Hard News: A wretched editorial, in reply to Lilith __,
can we please put some heat on the authorities who are supposed to keep us safe
But but but but John Key is such a nice man - sigh.
What really Fs me off about the politician's behaviour is that they are very quick to explain how hard they work and the tremendous weight of responsibility on their shoulders and all the very very hard work they have to do to prepare for the couple of weeks a year they spend in Wtgn sitting in the house or sitting on committees etc etc etc.
But the moment they are asked to take responsibility for the departments they are responsible for leading and managing it turns out it was always somebody else job to be responsible.
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Hard News: A wretched editorial, in reply to David MacGregor,
I'm really not sure what the point of your posting is. I could simply dismiss it as standard trolling but I kind of feel like you have a real point you are trying to make.
From your first post it seems as though you feel allowing the victim of an alleged assault an opportunity to speak on TV is of no value or interest to anyone in NZ. In this you are wrong - it was of interest to many including me.
Personally I'd rather hear from the alleged victim than from John Key and Murry McCully who spent the entire time trying to assign blame for a cock-up anywhere but on their on desks. But that's just me, oh and a significant audience on TV.
Whatever your point is/was you should understand that your dismissal of rape culture in New Zealand is a pretty nice example of rape culture in New Zealand, thanks for that.
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I guess I'm getting old. I actually remember when newspapers tried to be non-partisan. I also remember when editorials were reasoned, logical, well thought out essays.
The genuinely disgusting, yes at time physically revolting, diatribes that get into newspapers as editorials today makes me wonder what on earth is the point. Even if the only point is to sell papers at what depth do the writers of this stuff begin to feel ashamed.
And saying that makes me feel old - things used to be better yadda yadda yadda.
And in this instance a young, pretty, woman (who would've thought a woman would be the target of rape, let alone a young, pretty one) actually articulates an opinion and the neanderthal at the SST decides the appropriate response is to tell her to shut the F up. "Go back into the corner like a good little girl and let the adults, sorry scratch that, let the middle aged white men in suits decide your fate ..."
Yeah I'm old and grumpy and I'd love to see the person who wrote that have to stand in front of an audience of rape victims and defend their essay (although to be honest that might do the victims more harm so maybe not such a good idea). Wouldn't that be a fun episode of Media Take.