Posts by George Darroch
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These are child rapists, doing it in public.
I'm all for interesting sex lives, but this isn't it - it's child rape. This is a massive police failure. I believe a complaint to the IPCA is entirely justified.
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This is the week both my computer and headphones have given up on me, so I'll wait to listen to this wonderful selection.
That Yeke Yeke mix reminds me - the best musical experience I had this week was Afrika in Wellington. We saw Amiria Grenell do a delightful soulful country set at Poquito (the name is accurate), and then headed out to the capital's only Ethiopian bar (with a friend who lived there in the 2000's). Not 'authentic' and not a place for beard stroking, but it's certainly a good time. I loved hearing the exact same pop, hip hop and reggaeton songs I'd danced to for the last year in Timor Leste, with a good serve of contemporary African pop. Where else do you dance with joyful geriatric men?
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The impacts aren't well explored.
While medicine and IT have well-stated objections, the effects will be felt across all areas of society.
In my new day job I'm reading quite heavily about pokie machines. As you might expect, the global industry is led by the United States, with Nevada being the testing ground for innovation. Machines are designed by teams of engineers and psychologists, whose criterion of success is maximising revenue per available customer (RPAC). How much money a person loses, in other words. They use a large number of tricks to keep the person on the seat, and have them spending money in a way which is not controlled by the user. Similarly, the spaces these inhabit are well designed, to make the user lose their normal sense of control and to make them extremely comfortable.
The harm from pokie machines is substantial, and they're the cause of most problem gambling. If New Zealand's Government was to regulate the design of imported machines, or restrict how casinos and pokie-bars were allowed to situate machines, there is a very high likelihood, based on the information we have about the TPPA so far, that New Zealand would be in violation of the agreement.
I'm still trying to get a meeting with Phil Goff, to have him hear my concerns. (Does he listen to anyone?) I think more lobbying of the unions is needed to get them to come on side and force him to take a stand closer to that of his party and New Zealanders.
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Hard News: No Red Wedding, in reply to Gareth Ward,
Exactly how Kevin Hague’s “access to therapies with no proven benefit” plays out will be very interesting though…
That’s fair. At the same time though, evidence is starting to show that a supportive palliative environment, often with less aggressive treatments, is important to both quality and quantity of life. It’s a complex issue.
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As for Cunliffe, it doesn’t surprise me that there’s been a poll bump. People are generally low-information participants in the political process, and he conveys a number of attributes that place him well to assert leadership. He’s tall, confident, sharp, well-dressed, and has a face that conveys neither too much hardness and threatening masculinity nor too much softness (not coincidentally, these are all attributes Key possesses). People are superficial, because we are animals and respond psychologically to a range of cues – which can be overcome with work, but that work is difficult even in normal circumstances. Helen Clark lacked in some, but used incredible political skills over 6 years as leader to overcome these and even turn them into strengths (before they became weaknesses against Key).
Already we’ve seen that National have sought to overcome these by attaching a strong set of negative attributes to Cunliffe, in the form of dishonesty and arrogance. So far they’ve bounced off, but I expect the personality-flaw attack to continue and intensify in the next year. It’s difficult win it on policy, as Labour is able to announce a large set of voter-friendly policies which will put National on the defensive trying to rebuff. The television political-entertainment group are torn between two competing objectives; wanting to turn intra-party politics into emotionally-laden high drama, and the desire to see a competitive and exciting horse-race between the two major parties. There’s one television in presenter in particular whose MO is highly tilted towards the former, but the rest can switch easily. It’s a good thing he’s out of the country right now.
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As someone participating in the Greens rewrite of health policy (although not leading it, we have very experienced and skilled policy convenors facilitating the process), I can say that Kevin Hague's response is an accurate characterisation of the process right now. There is a tension between existing recognised medical practice and non-recognised practices, and the way to resolve these is through evidentiary processes. Kevin's right to highlight that much of medicine has not passed through the level of scrutiny that new practices and drugs are receiving; the concept of 'evidence based medicine' (EBM) is actually a rather new one. The upside is that as a whole the discipline has strongly embraced EBM in the last 15 years, and that its impossible to go forward without making it the core of practice.
While many Greens still have reflexive shock against things which fall outside the naturalistic fallacy (if it occurs in nature with minimal human intervention it is better for humans), the strong outside criticism of the party on science has strengthened the resolve of science and evidence advocates within the party. Closing that gap is important to us.
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I just voted. Including for Len Brown, before I read this (sorry Craig - though unfortunately if it's not Len, it will be Palino who is unlikely to be better).
I'm not a fan of the DHB electoral system. I'm immersed in both health and politics, and the document I filled out left me hoping I'd made the right choices rather than confident I was putting in place people who would improve the health of Manukau.
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I'm sorry to hear this, and I'm sure you're being quite diplomatic about what must be a trying process. I hope very good things come out of the skills and experience you and your team have demonstrated.
There's a very strong case for public broadcasting. A half hour about people painting and hammering suburban houses might suit advertisers, but when that's the only thing that's being paid for and produced we have a problem.
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Don’t feed the…
I was looking for a Hooton column about AC/DC, but it appears to have disappeared. Whether cock up or conspiracy, I'm not sure.
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Mr. Cunliffe, who yesterday successfully defeated a gay man and your rowdy uncle in a hotly-contested leadership election, has struggled to receive media acknowledgement of his accomplishment, due to ongoing coverage of two multibillion-dollar companies driving yachts around obstacles for the entertainment of journalists.
The Civilian takes up the theme.
Cunliffe will have a better time of it tomorrow if at least one of the races is lost, otherwise whatever question time performance he makes, he'll be a footnote to a major television event.