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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 25 of 32. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by alexandra_k on August 17, 2018, at 19:03:28
And, of course, it's because something has gone wrong with the balance of power.
There is suppose to be a balance of power between the people and the government and the law courts. And that balance of power is supposed to ensure that things stay on track for the good of most of us.
But the education system has deteriorated. People don't know their basic rights - or their basic duties.
The legal system has deteriorated. People don't have access to accurate basica legal advise.
People don't even know what politicians are supposed to do, anymore.
They are supposed to pass laws. For the protection of the people. In the face of potentially competing interests.
They are supposed to do things like set minimum wage laws. So when foreign film companies (for example) decide they want to shoot a film in New Zealand, the New Zealanders who are involved in the film production are paid a fair wage. Not exploited for cheap / free labour. They are supposed to do things like set building regulations so that landlords are required to lease houses that are fit for human habitation.
Instead they spend their days arguing about just how much of a pay raise they should approve for themselves... Whereas apparently the woman who cleans the Prime Ministers office (in 2013, at least) hadn't had a pay raise in the last 16 years.
I guess it is about where the money goes... But our judiciary seems to act more in collusion with government than as a regulator... Financial auditors... To see where the f*ck*ng money goes.
We have 20 district health boards and however many members on each earning well over $250,000 per year. There was some lady earning something absolutely ridiculous... Apparently it was 'only temporary' for a 1 year project or something (that was supposed to be the end of her career beause it was all whistle blowy or something) only... She still appears to be employed there.
But there's no money for nurses to be paid a fair wage.
Yeah, right.
Posted by beckett2 on August 17, 2018, at 19:39:32
In reply to balance of power, posted by alexandra_k on August 17, 2018, at 19:03:28
High school civics classes need revamping here. At least that's what classes on government and civic responsibility are called. Ah, and better history classes.
Hey, so you're swimming :)
Posted by alexandra_k on August 17, 2018, at 22:00:29
In reply to Re: balance of power » alexandra_k, posted by beckett2 on August 17, 2018, at 19:39:32
https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/health-board-heads-salary-70k
like the neurosurgeon they hired. they only hired one, so no neurosurgery unit, and no neurosurgery registrars. but now they can say they hired a senior doctor.
a senior doctor who has actually retired from neurosurgery. one to give talks on the history of neurosurgery, or whatever, to rich old people.
Posted by alexandra_k on August 17, 2018, at 22:01:51
In reply to Re: balance of power, posted by alexandra_k on August 17, 2018, at 22:00:29
because that's what you do when you retire from neurosurgery, you see. you talk about history and the arts and so on...
because people can't tell the difference between a quality historian and a has-been neurosurgeon who just spouts whatever and calls it 'history'.
Posted by alexandra_k on August 17, 2018, at 22:09:46
In reply to Re: balance of power » alexandra_k, posted by beckett2 on August 17, 2018, at 19:39:32
> High school civics classes need revamping here.
we don't have those.
we did a unit on the new zealand legal system (the role of parliament etc) when i was at intermediate. age 10 or 11. we did the fall of the berlin wall and the holocaust and the irish potato famine.
at high school social studies we did the US fronter(sp). medieval england.
history (optional) was either nz history land wars or england (kings and queens).
we had legal studies which I actually took. I don't remember learning anything at all of use in that class, though. it was largely... 'free learning' sort of a class. easy option for the kids whose parents would let them / didn't realise it was a way of offering them no education.
at university i did a couple law papers and learned some... not a lot... but some... i learned that politicians were supposed to pass laws and that our laws are seriously underdeveloped and there is next to no accountability in this country for politicians and the judicary doesn't have teh power that it has in the US, for example.
i went to a conference on rights... human rights...
and i've sought legal aid / advice. from the citizens advice place and from the free law advice place that is suppposed to have something ot do with the law school...
and they really didn't know anything at all. i mean, really, didn't know even the stuff that was available online.
and where are you supposed to find the laws that are actually supposed to be upheld in the courts so you know what you and others are and are not allowed to do? like physically where do you find such documents so you can look things up instead of needing to rely on 'word of mouth' of these supposed legal advisor people who don't know?
they didnt' even know that.
so...
Posted by alexandra_k on August 17, 2018, at 22:13:07
In reply to Re: balance of power » beckett2, posted by alexandra_k on August 17, 2018, at 22:09:46
yeah, i've been swimming.
i think the kids i was watching after school weren't around 13... just that they were wearing school uniform and from a distance... now i see them and they seem older. the boys, definately. i actually think they may be the A squad or maybe the under 15yrs A squad (not sure - I think some of the boys looked significantly older).
they really are very good.
littler kids, too. lengths and lengths and lengths of it.
i'm learning a lot. about slowing my stroke rate down and being more careful to stroke accurately. lots of miles at a much easier rate and careful placement and body co-ordination... and the speed will take care of itself.
i'm trying ot learn to dolphin better. i can do a couple strokes fly sort of, sometimes, and i'd like to get that properly.
i learn more watching the little kids, honestly. the drills they do to learn body position etc.
but it's fun, yeah.
Posted by alexandra_k on August 17, 2018, at 22:29:44
In reply to Re: balance of power » alexandra_k, posted by beckett2 on August 17, 2018, at 19:39:32
> Hey, so you're swimmingyes. not very many lengths, though. freestyle is very unnatural for me. I can do a few 25m lengths, with a minute rest betwee lengths lol.
i can do 100m breaststroke, short course.
i kicked on my back for 25 meters. that was hard for me, i don't tend to propel myself horozontally in the right direction, yet.
did you use to swim and swim and swim and swim and swim and swim and swim?
i just mean to say that i take back having said anything, if you were one of those. i'm still learning to blow bubbles ha.
Posted by alexandra_k on August 17, 2018, at 23:00:45
In reply to Re: balance of power » beckett2, posted by alexandra_k on August 17, 2018, at 22:29:44
you pay these people for 'free legal advice'
https://www.consumer.org.nz/topics/advisory-service
lmfao
Posted by alexandra_k on August 18, 2018, at 19:29:45
In reply to Re: balance of power, posted by alexandra_k on August 17, 2018, at 23:00:45
actually, we used to subscribe to that, when I was a kid. and it wasn't half bad, i remember.
consumer magazine... and this television program 'fair go' that used to follow up on consumer complaints. if it got a bunch about a particular person or business or product then they would do a bit of a filmed inquiry. try and interview relevant parties or demonstrate the product for themselves, or whatever.
you know, the sort of thing you might do when there isn't any actual legal protection or accountability. i suppose it's a good thing that consumer isn't free (aka government sponsored) because the government refuses to sponser anything that is actually in the public good...
i joined up. i see they do reviews of health insurnace and so on and i can read issue archives going back...
i guess it only works because they restrict to consumer law.
anyway...
Posted by beckett2 on August 18, 2018, at 22:52:10
In reply to Re: balance of power, posted by alexandra_k on August 18, 2018, at 19:29:45
Is NZ culturally isolated? We had a friend from NZ, and he never wanted to return with his kids. I was nonplussed because I think of it as a little paradise (although I've never been).
Ah, also, I thought your new PM was a positive change, but again, I don't really know.
Earlier today, under friendly circumstances, I told someone I didn't want to blemish the purity of their ignorance.
Posted by beckett2 on August 18, 2018, at 23:00:55
In reply to Re: balance of power » beckett2, posted by alexandra_k on August 17, 2018, at 22:29:44
For sometime I did swim and swim and swim. That became tedious, partially because the indoor pool was under fluorescents and was built in the 60's maybe, with a sort of dread and claustrophobia only felt in old school gymnasiums. And then the back started to go....
I bet you'll swim really well because you seem to know how to physically focus. Just from the impression I've gotten from your posts over the years, and that you seem to enjoy a challenge.
Right now I mostly laze about, doing a little breast or side stroke. Back stroke too. I never was able to do the dolphin kick or the butterfly.
Is the ocean near you warmish? Here it's always like ice. My legs would be numb when I got out.
Posted by alexandra_k on August 19, 2018, at 0:27:29
In reply to Re: balance of power » alexandra_k, posted by beckett2 on August 18, 2018, at 22:52:10
> Is NZ culturally isolated?
I'm not sure what that means / how to answer that.
I think that if you moved here from the US there are a lot of things that you would miss.
We don't have proper seasons. And our seasons are out of synch with our holidays so our holidays aren't there when we need them and there are long stretches of tedium in the year with nothing to break that up. And then things like movie release dates and televion series start and end dates and a whole heap besides don't really make any sense, anymore.
There's a routine, or familiarity in all of that that just works in the US. Thanksgiving. Superbowl. Stuff like that. There's a more... Routine... Way of going about things. People are more on schedules. Better organisation. It is clearer what is expected of you and when and so on. Even rules around dating and so on.
There is more freedom here. But that is because of a lack of organisation or a lack of structure.
I do think some of it is important. I was watching the swimmers, again, and their coach told them to swim their favorite stroke... Backwards. And they sort of collapsed for a while off task. And then sort of started making progress. After a few lengths they were looking quite a bit better. I could tell what they were up to, at least. Swimming backstroke and freestyle and breaststroke and butterfly feet first.
They probably hadn't felt like their bodies didn't know how to move to acomplish what they were trying to do in the pool since... They were about 4, or something.
There certainly seemed to be a renewed... Enthusiasm... For swimming the other way around, after that drill.
Freeplay and time for fun is important, yeah. But so is structure. Learning to persist and that steady wins the race and so on. I think NZ often gets things too much on the side of freedom. It's just more irony that we tell poor people. At least they are free. Free to not learn anything they like. Free to do anything they like so long as it isn't structured swimming after school or physics or chemistry or mathematics... So long as it does't involve reading, writing, or arithmetic...
> We had a friend from NZ, and he never wanted to return with his kids. I was nonplussed because I think of it as a little paradise (although I've never been).
Marketing.
There are some nice things here. There are some nice things most places.
> Ah, also, I thought your new PM was a positive change, but again, I don't really know.
She is better than the last guy, but that isn't saying much. Like how it would be hard to do the same or worse than Trump haha.
> Earlier today, under friendly circumstances, I told someone I didn't want to blemish the purity of their ignorance.
We've marketed that, too. The whole... I don't even remember what it was called... The two kiwi guys trying to make it big in New York comedy tv show thing.
That's the brand of innocence...
That you have promoting vaping - because at least it's not tobacco - right? Or promoting breeding the Ax proteins out of our cows - because we couldn't find a lucrative use for them - right?
Innocence... Or psychopathy... so innocent... they know not what they do. big eyes. awwwww. no jury would convict that. you have to *look* a certain way, for that. unappealling.
Posted by alexandra_k on August 19, 2018, at 0:31:55
In reply to Re: balance of power » alexandra_k, posted by beckett2 on August 18, 2018, at 23:00:55
> For sometime I did swim and swim and swim. That became tedious, partially because the indoor pool was under fluorescents and was built in the 60's maybe, with a sort of dread and claustrophobia only felt in old school gymnasiums. And then the back started to go....
Yeah. I feel sad that it's kind of boring watching the line on the bottom of the pool, but it kind of is.
> I bet you'll swim really well because you seem to know how to physically focus. Just from the impression I've gotten from your posts over the years, and that you seem to enjoy a challenge.
Haha. Well, yeah, I guess. I do like to train by myself so I can focus better. Most people are more socially focused, yeah. But I am gaining an appreciation of how many years of how much work goes into it.
> Right now I mostly laze about, doing a little breast or side stroke. Back stroke too. I never was able to do the dolphin kick or the butterfly.
> Is the ocean near you warmish? Here it's always like ice. My legs would be numb when I got out.
The ocean is swimmable, here, in the summer. The triathalon and even surf lifesaving people seem to be swimming in the indoor pool now, though. Only the hardiest of surfers out there, now, with full wetsuits with hood an boots. arctic breezes.
whereish are you?
Posted by sigismund on August 19, 2018, at 15:11:51
In reply to Re: balance of power » alexandra_k, posted by beckett2 on August 18, 2018, at 22:52:10
I dunno about NZ. It may be a colony thing. 60 years ago everyone wanted to leave. There was something about suburbia in Australia that many could not bear. It was a major subject in books......the deep ambivalence and sense of inferiority of a colonial society, something felt as soul destroying.
They wanted to go to England. That was another world.
Posted by sigismund on August 19, 2018, at 15:16:17
In reply to Re: balance of power » beckett2, posted by alexandra_k on August 19, 2018, at 0:27:29
> Is NZ culturally isolated?
No Murdoch press, and not too many minerals.
Posted by beckett2 on August 19, 2018, at 18:06:36
In reply to Re: balance of power, posted by sigismund on August 19, 2018, at 15:16:17
> > Is NZ culturally isolated?
>
> No Murdoch press, and not too many minerals.Off to a good start.
Posted by beckett2 on August 19, 2018, at 18:13:23
In reply to Re: balance of power » beckett2, posted by alexandra_k on August 19, 2018, at 0:27:29
> There is more freedom here. But that is because of a lack of organisation or a lack of structure.
>
> I do think some of it is important. I was watching the swimmers, again, and their coach told them to swim their favorite stroke... Backwards. And they sort of collapsed for a while off task. And then sort of started making progress. After a few lengths they were looking quite a bit better. I could tell what they were up to, at least. Swimming backstroke and freestyle and breaststroke and butterfly feet first.Ah, ok. I understand a bit more. As I mentioned, I think as NZ as a paradise, but then I read about the high youth suicide rates, and I can compare this to more rural areas where there is a lack of social services. So I try to reconcile these.
I'm on the pacific coast--very cold water!
Posted by sigismund on August 19, 2018, at 18:45:40
In reply to Re: balance of power » alexandra_k, posted by beckett2 on August 19, 2018, at 18:13:23
Gold may have been found near Dunedin?
Cold weather being rare for me, I went to see this....
Posted by alexandra_k on August 20, 2018, at 18:25:51
In reply to Re: balance of power » alexandra_k, posted by beckett2 on August 19, 2018, at 18:13:23
> As I mentioned, I think as NZ as a paradise, but then I read about the high youth suicide rates, and I can compare this to more rural areas where there is a lack of social services. So I try to reconcile these.
We have lack of social services in our urban centres, too.
We post security guards outside Work and Income etc to decline entry to people who might want to apply for Welfare.
We increasingly have online forms that must be submitted. And the forms are buggy such that they are impossible to complete. You either can't complete the form because there is internal incoherancy built in, or because you are forced to lie (because there is no selectable option that is truthful). Passwords are unnecessarily long and convoluted so re-logging is next to impossible. You need to submit your unnecessarily complicated email to be then sent a text code which is also unnecessarily complicated that needs to be entered (no mistakes) within 2 minutes...
But, sure, we have relatively low numbers of people on welfare... And so on... Sure, sure, sure we do.
People go blind or die on public waiting lists because the DHB didn't hire the staff needed to get through the lists. I don't think they care, particularly, I think they want to scare people into purchasing private health insurance so they can pay personally for all the things that used to be covered publically.
It's just another way of drawing a ring around a group of people and saying: 'Not for you'.
I think every country is the same - aren't they? They draw a ring around an ever-increasing proportion of their population (and an ever-increasing number of people) and they declare that there will not be jobs for them (or there will only be jobs f*ck*ng over their own people for them) and they will not have the funds to purchase health care or education or much of anything else in the market, either.
Segments who simply are not provided with basics such as clean drinking water and adequate sanitation.
There are communities like that in NZ and Australia and the USA and England and so on... Aren't there? Every country likes to keep a certain amount of their people treated as scum. OUtside prisons, I mean. People who haven't done anything wrong. People smart enough to ask for help and fill out forms before they started rendering them impossible... And so on...
> I'm on the pacific coast--very cold water!
Hmm... I can do west and east and south and north... Do you mean north of the west coast? I hear it is pretty up there... Fall. Pretty colours in the fall.
Posted by alexandra_k on August 20, 2018, at 18:40:36
In reply to Re: balance of power, posted by sigismund on August 19, 2018, at 18:45:40
that is the clocktower building at the university, here. it is pretty. it's where the university council members hang out. senior management people.
that's where i went to have this lady guffaw at me that i was going to do / wanted to do graduate research in *philosophy*, of all subjects.
it is a lovely building. there are lovely, historic buildings like that, scattered around the university. and around the town more broadly. some lovely churches and the like that were built early on -- becuase of the gold rush, yeah. and because of otago stone, which is a bit harder to come by these days and plenty expensive.
it is perhaps interesting that some of these older buildings have central heating systems installed. i don't know the dates of the central heating installation, honestly, but it's been around for quite some time.
i don't know when they managed to find it covered with snow, though. it snows up on the hills around the town (where I am - maybe 6 days per year?) but i've never seen it snow where the university is, down in the valley. icy, sure, but not snow.
Posted by sigismund on August 22, 2018, at 16:47:42
In reply to Re: balance of power » sigismund, posted by alexandra_k on August 20, 2018, at 18:40:36
There is also the train station. The foyer is lovely.
It's very Presbyterian. No Catholic cathedral in the Octagon. Is it in Wellington I saw a plaque for Edwin Gibbon Wakefied? (There is something to be said for being a prisoner island, it makes the criminal enterprise more transparent.) I had not known that Dunedin is a contraction of the Gaelic for Edinburgh.
Posted by beckett2 on August 22, 2018, at 18:46:41
In reply to Re: balance of power, posted by sigismund on August 19, 2018, at 18:45:40
Was there snow? :) Haven' seen that for years. Smokey haze still, worse today. Unable to see the furthest mountains (more like big hills).
Our summer has been cool, thank goodness, but we have a fierce Indian summer Sept-Oct. Last year it was 111° f.
And my sweet Kauai! An hurricane predicted to cause significant damage :(
Posted by beckett2 on August 22, 2018, at 18:55:23
In reply to Re: balance of power » beckett2, posted by alexandra_k on August 20, 2018, at 18:25:51
>
> Segments who simply are not provided with basics such as clean drinking water and adequate sanitation.We have all that, too. Although the official word is that we're 'great'. Or can be 'great again'? Urban or rural.
I'm near San Francisco. The fires are usually inland, although in Southern California they have been at the coast, too. Unfortunately, and this isn't my usual pessimism, parts of CA will become largely unlivable. Some cities are exploring new water processing plants, saline or wastewater reclamation.
>
> There are communities like that in NZ and Australia and the USA and England and so on... Aren't there? Every country likes to keep a certain amount of their people treated as scum. OUtside prisons, I mean. People who haven't done anything wrong. People smart enough to ask for help and fill out forms before they started rendering them impossible... And so on...
>
> > I'm on the pacific coast--very cold water!
>
> Hmm... I can do west and east and south and north... Do you mean north of the west coast? I hear it is pretty up there... Fall. Pretty colours in the fall.
>
>
Posted by alexandra_k on August 23, 2018, at 18:20:32
In reply to Re: balance of power » alexandra_k, posted by sigismund on August 22, 2018, at 16:47:42
> There is also the train station. The foyer is lovely.
Hmm. Perhaps I should take a look.
> It's very Presbyterian. No Catholic cathedral in the Octagon.
That never occurred to me. I guess... That's how Presbyterian I am. I forget a about them Catholics.
> Is it in Wellington I saw a plaque for Edwin Gibbon Wakefied? (There is something to be said for being a prisoner island, it makes the criminal enterprise more transparent.)
I don't know about that. I remember learning about him in Law. The New Zealand Company. I was surprised to learn that England took a rather more laid back approach to, uh, 'intefering' or regulating New Zealand than I had been led to believe before. It seemed to me on the basis of readings that it was costing England more than anything else. Trying to regulate the activity of their own criminals. E.g., before land sales needed to go through the crown there were even more dodgey sales. Maaori didn't really have a conception of selling land. They didn't really have a conception of people having land that they were not able to access / range over. They weren't agricultural (despite us hearing about kumara plantations - the ones I"ve seen looked like places you conveniently throw your scraps and stuff just grows there). They didn't have this idea of people building fences around their personal property. Of grazing livestock or crops that wasn't there for others to simply take what they wanted from it.
Perhaps. I'm no scholar on NZ history.
> I had not known that Dunedin is a contraction of the Gaelic for Edinburgh.
Yeah. Scottish colony was Dunedin. New Edinburgh. So, the University. New Zealand's first University. So the training of Medical Doctors and, I guess, maybe even the whole Medical System, here, is more Scottish than English.
Posted by alexandra_k on August 23, 2018, at 18:23:59
In reply to Re: balance of power, posted by beckett2 on August 22, 2018, at 18:55:23
There may have been snow, one year. I don't know.
I think quite a few places feel reminscent about the glory days. And are hopeful that the best is yet to come.
I didn't realise San Francisco had such a temperate / cool climate. I thought Costal california was all about mostly naked people on beaches. Actually, I had some idea that it was much cooler, further north, but I didn't realise San Francisco has further north than I thought.
I have visited the airport. I was very sad not to get to visit the city properly.
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