Wednesday, January 31, 2007

cyfs watch nz..........

after checking out today's posting on cyfs watch nz, i am becoming progressively more concerned about my afore mentioned issues.
naming and shaming cyfs social workers and care-givers. what is the govt up to? get your act together and put together a robust process for those who have been affected by these workers. surely they cannot be allowed to continue and not have to account for their actions!
i am uncomfortable with naming but remaining anonymous. if you accuse, you should stand up and be counted. if you cannot prove what you say, don't say it.
today's crop.

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Monday, January 29, 2007

name and shame gangs and community

dr pita sharples [maori party co-leader] would like to see communities own their own gang problems. he wants to see communities take the gangs by the horns. banning patches is one tool. naming and shaming another. he threatens to name schools, gangs, communities and gang leaders if they do nothing.
check it out here.

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Friday, January 26, 2007

our youngest killer

bailey junior kurariki (our youngest killer at 12) has been denied parole. he was one of several teens who murdered 40 year old pizza delivery dude michael choy in 2001. he was sentenced to 7 years. he is now 17 and still dangerous. the parole board recognise that more work needs to be done with him. no mention of the fact that he did the crime, now he should do the time.
check it out here.

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cyfs watch nz (the fight continues)

the current fight between cyfs watch nz and the government is really interesting. especially after the polls that were done that clearly express kiwis desire for cyfs watch to stay up and running at this point. i have the feeling that it might not be a good idea for the government to bully them off the net. cyfs watch has named 42 (cyfs) staff members. once again, i am torn between accountability (for both sides) and privacy issues. it smacks of the same stuff that made rate your teacher.com so lacking in taste. but, there is the issue of freedom. we in nz are supposed to be free, aren't we?
the government is currently trying to get google to remove the site. google are not (seemingly) convinced that cyfs watch are breaking their rules. i think that the sooner the government institute some accountability for the way cyfs workers perform, the sooner this will go away, and they do want this embarrassment to depart. read
this. go here and make up your own mind.

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good ol kiwi security (well done air nz)

six sikh priests managed to make it on to an air nz plane with their knives (kirpan) under their robes. it was ok though cause the passengers figured it out and made the officials aware (they told the cabin crew). evidently the passengers were quite concerned. "I did my post 9/11 paranoid citizen duty and informed the stewardess ... who informed the pilot. They both stood there for a while exchanging concerned glances, then the pilot bucked up the courage to go and talk to the gentlemen." said david anderson. since they weren't baddies, they handed them over.....
check it out here
well done air nz!

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Thursday, January 25, 2007

cyfs watch poll

TVNZ Poll Question:

do you think the website "naming and shaming" cyfs social workers should be taken down?

yes: 17%

no: 83%

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Wednesday, January 24, 2007

cyfs watch nz (the return)

if they want to name and shame social workers why don't we have an identical site naming and shaming families who have had their children removed and why? its only fair to have both sides to the story.
dave.
mmm, an interesting thought.....

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cyfs watch nz

i can understand the issues on both sides of the coin. on the one hand we have child, youth and family [cyfs]. for quite a while nz has been asking for more accountability. separating children from their parents and families is a drastic step. who makes the decision? who is held accountable for the decision? who checks the people who check us? who is making sure that everything is above board? why are children not safe once in cyfs custody? how come they [the children] are dying? sooner or later, in today's technological environment, it had to happen. it is called cyfs watch nz. they are brutal. they hold nothing back. people [kiwis] are now having their say with regard to cyfs and their activities. accountability by the people for the people. i am worried about the accuracy of some reports. one should have to prove what one says. however, even though we live in pc land. we are free, we should have freedom of speech. we should be able to hold cyfs accountable. shouldn't we?

check it out for yourself,
here.

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Tuesday, January 23, 2007

dangerous lies

feed a child nestle's milo cereal and the energy intake is right up there with pies or hot chips. the cereal is one of several snacks available in new zealand that a consumer magazine has "outed" for making children fat. choice, the australian consumers association's magazine, has included the cereal, ribena drink, and uncle toby's roll ups among its "foods that make kids fatter faster." despite often being enticingly tagged as "all natural", "low gi", and "real fruit", a single serving of some of the snack foods analysed by choice pack as much of a kilojoule punch as a big mac. check it out here
you have to read the labels!

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Thursday, January 18, 2007

tumeke [too much]

sometimes, when i have the emotional energy, i read "tumeke." this is a kiwi blog that is quite serious in it's intent. the blogger's name are tim and bomber, tim is currently in jail for "sedition." this charge created a fair stir in nz when it happened. i believe it was a political "fit up." the thing that bugs me the most is the attitudes being displayed by some of the people commenting on the blog. evidently, these people are kiwis. evidently. what a shocking bunch of unforgiving holier than thou slow wits some of you are. tim gives us a look into prison life that most of us wouldn't get. yeah, we can disagree on the appropriateness of his sentence. yeah we can disagree on the actual sentence itself. but, the sheer pridefulness, and smugness of some of the comments is shameful.

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

ms 15, if she can't see it, it's not there

ms 15 has this inbuilt ability to not see the things she is supposed to take care of. you know, bring the washing in, do the dishes, clean her room. not a huge amount to take care of while we, her mother and i, go to work. ms 15 is on her school break. after a serious day of eating junk and watching tv, ms 15 is too tired to take care of her chores. must be tough being a teenager. after a bit of a hard time, she has cleaned her room. i saw it! she has moved her pile of junk from one side of the room to the other. i guess she has decided not to look at the left side of her room now. that means the mess isn't there cause she won't look at it. bizarre!

Monday, January 15, 2007

nz cricket













says it all really.

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Sunday, January 14, 2007

i found out [revisited]

look at your friendships. they reflect the choices you have made in your life. that is worth thinking about.

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Saturday, January 13, 2007

training on saturday

there has been an interesting change at the gym. i am enjoying the recent catch up in attitude from the athletes. they are making quite an effort. it was interesting to note one girl who has had two sessions with me, has decided she wants to train with me full time. she trained well today. i call her phil.

little big guy is training real well. coming along nicely. shapework is starting to pay off. can see it in her handstands. pleasing. it would be good to see cc commit to training. we shall see. she has started to notice the others moving ahead. a good day today.

ms 15 and her mum are off for two weeks R an R. i am in serious danger of having a tidy lounge!

dunno if i'll cope.

Friday, January 12, 2007

training has improved

training has turned a corner. the girls are working out positively. they are getting to grips with the concept that they must not only do the work. they must do the work in a tidy manner. today's session was quite satisfying. they are also applying themselves to technique. things are most definitely looking up.

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i found out

i have been thinking about friendship. it seems to me, that there are levels of friendship.
like a fool, i gave a much higher level [in terms of my regard] to someone who has proven not to be what i thought they might be [expectations are dumb]. bugger. as it turns out, lots of promises, no delivery. the most frustrating part is, i know this about "my friend" but i continually place what i know to the side and hope that i was wrong. i wonder how many times i will face the disappointment knowingly? make no mistake, it is knowingly.
our true friends can be numbered on one hand. they deliver when they say they will. they truly give a damn. they don't demand, they give.
i am in the wrong place.

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Tuesday, January 09, 2007

learning

i was working away, preparing for the days work, i was in the lounge. i had the radio on softly while i was working when suddenly ms 15 decides to turn on the tv. it didn't occur to her that she should ask, is it is ok to disturb me when i am working? i asked her if she would like me to turn off the radio. she said yes. i then discussed the fact that she had been rude to an adult. she wasn't keen on that. she said that tomorrow would be ok as she wouldn't be there. i said that i am working now, not tomorrow and that she needed to give what she did some thought. oh well, she has been warned. next time i might not be as understanding. we'll see how much she got out of it. won't we.

needled duck dodges helpers

an elusive duck with a needle through its neck continues to elude palmerston north's spca staff this week. more than 40 phone calls have reached the animal welfare headquarters wanting the duck to be caught and freed of its neck-piercing needle. but, try as they might, spca staffers cannot nab the duck to perform the removal procedure. "we have made four or five attempts, but the duck is just too fast for us," palmerston north spca senior inspector val gilbert says. "we have used cat biscuits and a net, and have got within two metres, but we still haven't caught it." despite the needle protruding through both sides of its neck, the duck appears happy enough, and was swimming in the duck pond in the square yesterday afternoon. "the duck is moving around, it's eating, it's flying, and that's why we can't catch it," mrs gilbert says. duck watcher tina phillips, who was feeding ducks in the square, says other ducks were picking on it. "obviously it's because he is different and has got a pin in his neck. the offending person who inflicted the damage is sick." it was unknown who needled the duck. but bystanders agreed the feathered victim had pluck. after initially avoiding capture at centennial lagoon, where it became increasingly wary of humans with each failed capture attempt, it flew to the square. admitting defeat, the spca has now asked fish and game staff to catch the duck. unless the needle is removed, the duck may die, mrs gilbert fears. "whoever did this to the duck is a disgusting little blighter. i don't think they would like it done to them."
gee there are some miscreants on this planet!

Monday, January 08, 2007

nude female haka stirs controversy.....

an english women's rugby team have had a strip torn off them after performing a nude haka. the girls from the canterbury women's rugby team in kent went topless in their version of the sacred war dance for their raunchy 2007 calendar.
"it looks like misuse of the haka to me," dr poia rewi, senior lecturer in the school of maori studies at otago university, told sunday News. "i think maori would be offended by this," he said.
it has been noted, that, the nude morice dancing group in taranaki, has yet to be commented on by the english. mind you, getting their collective heads up and out of each other's butts is always difficult.
we thought we might do it [nude morice dancing] at the next women's world cup when we thrash their shit again.

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Saturday, January 06, 2007

full day out

the first full day out of hospital has been interesting. i went for a drive out to sumner and taylor's mistake. beautiful places. i'd like to live out at taylor's mistake. the beach looks wonderful.

i blew the thermostat in the car today. lucked upon this mechanic dude who fixed it and only charged $60 for the job. some people are just very cool.

after this morning's big adventure, i had me a good snooze this arvo. most enjoyable. i think i'll go to the movies tonight.

mrs reynalds

mrs reynalds was in the room next to ours at the hospital. she was 83 years old. the second to last night there for me, i suddenly heard mrs reynalds in distress. she was frightened. she was becoming increasingly short of breath. the emergency resuss team in the ward went to work on her, trying to calm her down, trying to get her breathing at a better rate, the doctors and nurses worked hard. i hope they injected her with something to knock her out and save her the aggravation while she passed over. i can't see the plan in what happened so i'll just have to believe that, that terrifying time mrs reynalds had was for a reason. i just can't see it. faith.

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Friday, January 05, 2007

back

i haven't been in for a while. i ended up back in hospital on christmas eve and have just arrived home [5th jan 2007], 12kg lighter [fluid loss]. i went in because i could feel another bout of heart failure coming on. saved myself lots of aggravation by going in before it became dangerous. they [the cardio team] became quite serious about sorting out the fluid on my body. hence the 12kg loss. now my clothes are baggy, a nice problem to have. i can also walk without becoming breathless [yes] which allows me to get back to a life.
a huge thanks must go out to the team in ward 26 chch hospital. also, a shout out to amanda [gissy girl] and sue [nurses] who are wonderful. well, time for a ..........

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