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Thanks to thecontrail.com for this link
From odt.co.nz
Figures in a new report suggest the number of children living in serious poverty is greater than the population of Dunedin.
The 2019 Child Poverty Monitor also shows that those living in areas of high deprivation are three times more likely than other children to be admitted to hospital.
Children’s Commissioner Andrew Becroft said the affected children were often going without shoes, healthy food or easy public transport access to doctors and dental care.
“We have 254,000 children living in households with less than half the median income after paying for their housing.”
He said big and bold changes were required to support the 148,000 children needing help.
Stats NZ says Dunedin’s population is a little over 130,000,
“I want to see family incomes dramatically raised by increasing benefits and making the minimum wage a living wage,” Mr Becroft said.
“And the government needs to move much faster at increasing the supply of social housing – building, buying and repurposing – and working closely with community-based housing providers.”
The annual Child Poverty Monitor is the work of a partnership between the Office of the Children’s Commissioner, Otago University’s Child and Youth Epidemiology Service and the J R McKenzie Trust.
Mr Becroft was pleased with Child Poverty Reduction legislation, the Child and Youth Wellbeing Strategy, and linking benefits to wages.
“Government has made increases in Working for Families, Best Start for Children, and winter energy payments. This is a fantastic start.
“But we need to see significant and permanent changes to unlock opportunities for those doing it hardest. One-offs aren’t going to cut it anymore.”
He told Morning Report there were two aspects to be addressed.
“We need an increase in incomes, some courageous decisions about benefits. Secondly we need to massively increase state housing supply. Housing, income levels are crucial.”
He said benefit needed a 20 percent to 40 percent increase at the minimum – that’s a $2 billion spend.
“We’re playing catch up to make up when benefits were slashed in 1991. We’ve never recovered from that. The gap between benefits and wage growth has got wider and wider.”
‘We’ve got the money in the bank’
He suggested free lunches rolled out across more schools, free dental and mental care through to ages 18 or 21.
“We’re talking about families struggling on $400 to $500 a week, where over half of that – as it is for almost all beneficiaries – is on housing, the rest is left for essentials.”
He said there was usually next to nothing left for sports clubs registrations, music lessons, or birthday gifts for friends.
“We’ve got the money in the bank, we just need to commit ourselves to prioritising children.”
He said the minimum wage going up in the next year was a great step.
“There’s been great economic growth in New Zealand,” he said.
“We could spend pretty easily. We could do for the under 18s what we did for the over 65s if we had the will.”
Gerry Forde of the Spirit Army organisation in Invercargill that helps struggling families said while government agencies provided good support, it’s not the government or money that could solve poverty – it was the community.
Mr Forde said for many of the families they were helping, trauma was one of the biggest causes of their poverty.
“Money’s not the problem. The problem – and this is the reality for most of the problems in society – is these parents have been terribly and horrifically abused as children. And that has destroyed their sense of identity, their belief in themselves. This is exactly how all of them will talk to you,” he said.
“They fundamentally believe they are a piece of crap. And how can anyone who has that basic belief ever achieve anything in life?”
Spirit Army mentors have helped get beneficiaries off their benefits and back into the workforce, they’ve prevented parents from attempting suicide and have connected families to social groups for support.
Mr Forde said the path wasn’t always straightforward, but they’d seen a lot of people set free from some of their struggles.
https://www.odt.co.nz/news/national/more-kids-poverty-people-dunedin-report
“Denial of Justice: Dorothy Kilgallen, Abuse of Power, and the Most Compelling JFK Assassination Investigation in History”
Denial of Justice: Dorothy Kilgallen, Abuse of Power, and the Most Compelling JFK Assassination Investigation in History
by Mark Shaw
Post Hill Press (2018)
I found this book a big disappointment. Over the last decade Shaw has compiled a massive amount of evidence related to journalist Dorothy Kilgallen’s suspicious 1965 death (see The Dorothy Kilgallen Story/). His evidence includes the complete transcript of Jack Ruby’s trial, which mysteriously went missing for 50 years. That being said, Shaw sorely needs a editor. The style in which Denial of Justice is written is extremely convoluted, repetitive, and filled with maudlin, hyberbolic and sensationalist prose that has no place in an investigative expose.
One of the main weaknesses of the book is its failure to incorporate the immense body of academic research into the JFK assassination. Calling Kilgallen’s investigation into the JFK assassination “the most compelling in history” is pretty silly…
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Disarm the people. Arm the Police … body armour, guns, armoured vehicles, home visits to inquire as to political views. Something is not right with this picture. Three people recently shot by Police in as many weeks. Think what could be achieved with all of that money. Alleviate growing poverty and homelessness for starters. EWR
From odt.co.nz
Police Commissioner Mike Bush has today revealed new improved body armour will be delivered to all officers over the next three years.
Police have signed a contract with Cooneen Protection for the manufacture and supply of the new gear. Cooneen also provide body armour for London’s Metropolitan Police force.
Police are spending $20.7m over four years to make the replacements.
“It’s a significant investment but the safety of our staff is paramount,” Bush said.
“To keep communities safe, first police must keep themselves safe.
“So today I’m proud to announce we are investing in a new body armour system that will help keep police safe.
“With more than a million interactions with the public every year, the vast majority is New Zealanders engage with us appropriately. However, it’s unfortunately the nature of police work that some people want to harm us.”
Existing body armour remained fit for purpose while the new armour was introduced over the next three years, he said.
Both current and new armour meet international safety standards for stab and ballistic resistance.
SOURCE
Tui ad here? … The question to be asked is why the homes of the poor and vulnerable? Why does the government not put sensors into wealthy homes? They are cloaking this sinister spying eye (let’s call it what it is) with a guise of benevolence & placing them in the homes of people who can’t really refuse them. Unless they want to join ranks of the 43K homeless. The rich & powerful of course would resist them quite successfully. And since when did Housing NZ morph into Kāinga Ora? It had all but disappeared when I attempted to find them all of four years ago (after Key had hocked off & land banked thousands of state homes sitting on prime real estate which is a large part of why we have a homeless problem… Key forgot he was raised in one). This ‘smart’ terminology is Agenda 21/30 technology. Can sniff it a mile away now. Sustainable is the other buzz word. There is nothing smart about sensors on your home. Since when did they care about the homeless, the warmth of your home or the standard of living you have? That ceased with Rogernomics and any rhetoric about caring is always a smoke screen for other agendas. I repeat they do not care. In this case it’s getting you under surveillance & control. Your smart meters do the same job ultimately which is why they have been vigilantly pushing them from day one. Add to that the led street lamps that are also surveillance tools … emitting radiation also, stand under them with an accoustimeter & see the high readings. So here we have it, pack and stack housing, the withering of the state housing stock with rebuilds further off on the horizon now, they are threatening mandatory vaccines, disarming you and arming the Police to the teeth ostensibly to protect you but I hear they’ve been calling on folk to question them on their political views. This is intimidating behavior as also is the placing of sensors on your house.
The corporation parading as a government would do well to spy on the corporate criminals in my opinion. But then they’d be spying on their own & they won’t be doing that any time soon.
And while they’re at it they need to tax themselves at the same rate as the real workers. EWR
Read the article at the link:
From Radio NZ
Plans to collect data by putting sensors in thousands of state houses could result in the information being used to cut benefit payments or even evict tenants, a charity familiar with the project says.
From next May, Kāinga Ora – Housing New Zealand’s successor – wants to begin installing multiple sensors in up to 2000 state houses as part of its Smart Homes project.
The sensors would measure internal humidity and temperature, carbon dioxide levels, light and air pressure, and external temperature and humidity. In some houses, sensors would also collect information about power consumption on up to six separate circuits in each house.
The data, which could be collected for as long as eight years, could be used to work out patterns as granular as when lights were switched on or off, when curtains were drawn, or how many people were in a room.
Sensors in state house will collect data for as long as eight years. Photo: RNZ / Claire Eastham-Farrelly
According to the project’s Request for Proposals (RFP), the aim is to “better understand how [Kāinga Ora] customers use their homes and what barriers there may be to keeping their homes warm, dry and healthy for themselves and their whānau”.
However, the charity Whare Hauora, which provides similar sensors for whānau to use in their own homes, said the scope of the information the project proposed to collect was unnecessary and invasive.
“They’ve taken a technology that they think is cool and then they’re applying it to our vulnerable families whole-hog, and they’re not seeing the impacts,” Whare Hauora kaiwhakahaere (chief executive) Hīria Te Rangi said. “They’re just not thinking it though.”
Despite reassurances from Kāinga Ora, the charity feared the data could be misused by officials – including as evidence to evict families for overcrowding or cut benefit payments for sole parents who had someone sleeping over.
The charity’s concerns were so great that it had chosen not to tender for the project, Ms Te Rangi said.
It wanted the agency to hit pause on the project while it was re-designed with improved ethics and better engagement with tenants.
In a notice to RFP respondents, Kāinga Ora said it would not be using carbon dioxide to measure overcrowding.
Whare Hauora director Amber Craig said she was wary of that.
“To be honest, I’m a Māori woman who has been proven right time and time again not to trust the government with our data.
“Although they say at the moment that they’re not going to use the data in that way, my concern is that there is no visibility if they … suddenly then use that data in not very good ways.”
For that reason, tenants should retain ownership of the data, with full access to their own information and the ability to opt out of certain measurements or research projects, she said.
“[Currently] there’s no opt-in or opt-out, it’s a full, you opt into everything.”
Kāinga Ora did not respond to RNZ’s specific questions about the Smart Homes project or agree to an interview.
In a statement, national portfolio manager Monique Fouwler said the extra information from the sensors would help the agency to work with tenants “to improve and enhance their home’s performance, including trialling different or innovative products, components or services”.
“We will be clear that this information will not be used for other purposes, such as understanding overcrowding,” she said.
The first results of a pilot in Lower Hutt and Palmerston North had provided “valuable insights”, Ms Fouwler said.
“This has included actions they can take such as extra ventilation, or property remediation for us to carry out in some cases.”
Tenants would be provided with a detailed consent form and their relationship with Kāinga Ora would not be affected if they choose not to participate, she said.
They could access their data in accordance with the Privacy Act.
Hīria Te Rangi said anecdotal evidence from some tenants in the pilot study was that they had not yet seen any of their data, nor did they understand all the potential uses.
“Two actually came up to me and said they didn’t realise CO2 measurements could be translated into how many people at whatever time of night.”
University of Auckland senior lecturer Donna Cormack, who specialises in Māori health and data sovereignty, said it was important that everybody had the chance to live in a safe, healthy home.
However, she did not get the sense from the RFP that Kāinga Ora had properly considered all the implications of its project.
“It feels almost like there’s a technological imperative that’s driving it … because we can collect this data we should collect this data, rather than a more considered approach.”
Even if Kāinga Ora’s intentions were good, she was still concerned about “a creeping, increasing type of surveillance capacity being built … without mechanisms that allow communities to be really engaged in the process”.
“Any technology or research project where we’re introducing a device that allows for quite an intrusive level of surveillance … particularly where those technologies are controlled by government agencies or corporations, I think need to be approached very carefully.”
SOURCE
If you connect all the dots to the various United Nations (U.N.) Agendas, would you create a map of mass regionalization and an eventual Totalitarian State?
According to the author of Behind the Green Mask, Rosa Koire says that “U.N. Agenda 21 is an agenda for the 21st century. It is an inventory and control plan; inventory of all land, water, all minerals, all plants, all animals, all construction, all means of production, all food, all energy, all information, and all human beings in the world.” It’s about moving populations into concentrated city centers and clearing them out of rural areas under “Smart Growth.” Under the guise of “Sustainability,” Agenda 21 is the hijacking of the environmental movement.
Source:https://eclinik.net/the-united-nations-agendas-paints-a-totalitarian-map-for-corporate-dominion/
The tech corporations are colluding to destroy freedom of speech.
Source:
Independent journalist Ford Fischer has been temporarily banned from posting links on Facebook after he tried to post an article on the platform exposing censorship on YouTube.
Fischer explained in a Facebook post that this is the first time the platform has censored him in such a manner.
“I just tried to post a news story about YouTube censorship to Facebook. Facebook banned me from sharing links for 2.5 days without explanation. This is the first time FB has ever suspended any feature for me,” he wrote.
The
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From stopmandatoryvaccination.com
Kara Krause tragically lost her baby girl, Peyton, 12 hours after being injected with eight vaccines in 2008. Through the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (NVICP) and Special Master’s “Vaccine” Court, it was proven the DTaP, Hib, Hepatitis B, PCV, IPV, and Rotavirus vaccines killed her daughter. Kara describes her darling daughter, “She was a normal, happy, healthy baby. I still hear her little sounds so clearly. She was my first true love.”
Kara discloses her painful story below to educate others before they make a decision to vaccinate: “I’m hoping it will at least reach someone allowing them to do their own research and not rely on doctors alone.”
Kara: I lost my daughter Peyton at 6 weeks old, approximately 12 hours after receiving her two month vaccinations, when she was a month and 12 days old. She was given eight total vaccines, [DTaP/ IPV (Polio)/ Hep B (Pediarix), Pneumococcal conjugate (Prevnar), Hib, and Rotavirus (Rotateq)]. According to the autopsy report and medical examiner, her death was classified as “Sudden Unexplained Death in Infancy (SUDI).”
Almost two years after her death, I was told about the NVICP (National Vaccination Injury Compensation Program). This is a “non-fault” government-run program funded by a tax on the vaccines. It acts as an insurance policy to protect vaccine manufacturers from being sued for vaccination related deaths and injuries. Their cases go to trial as any other court cases, but they are overseen by a Special Master, not a jury. The Special Master hears both the victim and government’s arguments. If, and only if, proven scientific data or testimony (not a casual link or circumstance) is presented by the plaintiffs, the master then decides on the amount of compensation to be awarded to the victim or their family.
I was told by the lawyers who accepted Peyton’s case, (apparently VICP lawyers take very few of the cases submitted to them) that in order to be able to pursue a wrongful death or civil case, I had to go through the VICP process first. This was a complete lie. (I blame myself for not doing more research on the program.)
The VICP process took approximately 2-1/2 years. In that time, all my questions were answered. The medical experts found the evidence that proved that the DTaP, Hib, Hepatitis B, PCV, IPV and Rotavirus vaccines, were in fact, the cause of her death. I thought this was a great thing. I now had scientific proof, expert testimony, and a sum of money to be able pursue other suits, to bring awareness that vaccines actually do cause deaths. What I didn’t know, was filing with the VICP did not extend the statute of limitations (as I thought), in essence making it legally impossible to file for a wrongful death, medical malpractice, or any civil suit. But at least I had the medical evidence to educate others, right?? Instead what I’ve found is no one listens.
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Watch people on this one. The lamestream media is already onto this as was to be expected, with innuendos about the credibility of the scientist. Whore media. Little wonder he originally declined to be named. These people pull out all stops to defend their poisoning program. You need to ask yourself, what would this man have to gain, or the two environmental groups have to gain, concocting false evidence about why the wildlife was poisoned? Nobody makes any money in fact it costs them. DoC have unlimited resources. And the whole industry is a gravy train. I will be writing more on that soon. Tight for time at the moment. EWR
“Dr Wall also has serious concerns about the inadequate testing for pesticide residues in NZ Government-funded laboratories and is consulting with international colleagues on the issue“
“Dr Wall of Ideas Lab, a highly-qualified UK scientist of complex chemical analysis, who conducted the independent tests, runs successful international businesses that draw on high quality skills and cutting edge technologies. He initially wanted to remain anonymous due to receiving threats in the past; however his identity has since been made public. Dr Wall also has serious concerns about the inadequate testing for pesticide residues in NZ Government-funded laboratories and is consulting with international colleagues on the issue.”
See the original press release and test results below:
A new video with clips of critical footage not available outside the UK shows that Sir David Attenborough and Netflix producers (who insisted earlier this year that climate change – not polar bears – were to blame for Russian walrus falling to their deaths) had deceived audiences around the world.
Falling Walrus: Attenborough Tacitly Admits Netflix Deception (Susan Crockford/GWPF).
As I explained last month, footage from the Attenborough/BBC TV series Seven Worlds, One Planet (Asia) showed conclusively that events precipitating the walrus tradegy porn sequence in the Netflix film was a deception. It means that Attenborough, director Sophie Lanfear, cameraman Jamie McPherson, WWF in Chukotaka, and scientific advisor Anatoli Kochnev all knew this to be so.
In case you missed it, another episode of the same BBC One Planet TV series falsely claimed that polar bears hunting whales from shore are unprecedented effects of climate change.
via polarbearscience
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Thanks to Rose at thecontrail.com for sending this brilliant link that examines and graphically illustrates aerially & on the ground, the recent Whakaari/White Island eruption. EWR
From abc.net.au
When tourists entered White Island, they walked into a crater that could erupt at any time. Here is a 360-degree look at the volatile volcano…
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Here you have it from the horse’s own mouth so to speak. This explains why the cure for cancer is so elusive & why the natural remedies folk have tried that really work are suppressed, whilst chemo for instance has a minuscule 4% success rate. EWR
From cnbc.com
“While this proposition carries tremendous value for patients and society, it could represent a challenge for genome medicine developers looking for sustained cash flow.”
Goldman Sachs analysts attempted to address a touchy subject for biotech companies, especially those involved in the pioneering “gene therapy” treatment: cures could be bad for business in the long run.
“Is curing patients a sustainable business model?” analysts ask in an April 10 report entitled “The Genome Revolution.”
“The potential to deliver ‘one shot cures’ is one of the most attractive aspects of gene therapy, genetically-engineered cell therapy and gene editing. However, such treatments offer a very different outlook with regard to recurring revenue versus chronic therapies,” analyst Salveen Richter wrote in the note to clients Tuesday. “While this proposition carries tremendous value for patients and society, it could represent a challenge for genome medicine developers looking for sustained cash flow.”
READ MORE
From uncensored.co.nz
Dubbed a “paranormal parody,” A Children’s Book of Demons aims to teach small children how to summon demons by telling them the names and sigils of demonic entities – sigils being the symbols used in magic, or the pictorial signatures of actual demons.
Published by Koyama Press, based out of Canada, A Children’s Book of Demons contains black and white images of demons that children can color, as well as cartoon images and other attractive elements designed to lure innocent kids into the world of the occult.
The book’s author, Canadian illustrator and occultist Aaron Leighton, describes himself as “a fan of all things occult.” The Toronto resident has written other occult books, including Spirit City Toronto, and says he likes to spend his free time “wrestling with a black cat,” which is pictured on his Facebook profile wearing a black, pointy hat.
A description of A Children’s Book of Demons on Amazon asks children:
“Don’t want to take out the trash tonight? Maybe you’re swimming in homework? Perhaps that big bully is being a real drag? Well grab your coloured pencils and sigil drawing skills and dial up some demons! This paranormal parody is filled to the brim with funny spirits more silly than scary!”
The targeted age range for this 48-page demonic book is 5-10 years, with grade levels ranging from kindergarten to fifth grade.
READ MORE
By Carol Sawyer
The signs at 1080 poison aerial drops tell you to contact the National Poisons Centre if you suspect poisoning, and they give you an 0800 number to ring. Just so you are clear about this… however, contacting the National Poisons Centre will get you absolutely nowhere!!
Joel Lund of Wanaka asked a GP the other day what he would do if someone presented with poisoning symptoms after an aerial 1080 poison drop. The doctor replied he would contact the National Poisons Centre. This sounds like a sensible response, one would have thought. Think again!!!
I had a number of questions for the National Poisons Centre about 1080 poisoning, given that so many of us live around 1080 drop zones and are potentially exposed to the substance many times over
I asked the person who answered the phone at the National Poisons Centre if she was the correct person to be talking to. She said she was.
I explained that we are about to experience another 1080 poison drop in our area (Wanaka) and asked if there were testing kits available here.
She replied “I don’t know, and I don’t know if I could find the answer”.
I asked how many methods there are for testing for 1080 poisoning.
She replied “I’m not too sure”.
I asked “How quickly can they test for 1080 and get a result?”
She replied, “They wouldn’t test the person. They would probably get some history. They probably wouldn’t do a blood test. I don’t know if there is a blood test.” She said they can’t test for every poison.
I asked how accurate the testing was. At this point she seemed to realize she was out of her depth and said she would talk to the resident toxicologist.
She came back on the line and said that there is a test available but it is not widely available. It is a urine test and is only any use within the first 24 hours after poisoning. She said it is “affiliated to a woman at Lincoln University” but wouldn’t/couldn’t tell me who that is. She said it is mostly used for testing workers’ urine levels when they have been working with 1080 poison.
She said that the toxicologist said “1080 doesn’t stay in your body very long”. We then had a discussion about whether it can be found in skin and bone and hair, as in animals including mammals, but she seemed stuck on the fact they only tested humans and seemed rather unreceptive to the idea humans are also mammals.
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(Ross & McCoskery (2012) found residues of 1080 in the bones of poisoned deer carcasses 213 days after death…the study ended then so no one knows how long 1080 stays in bone.
Ross, J, McCoskery, H 2012. Deer carcass breakdown monitoring. Report prepared for the Animal Health Board. Wellington, New Zealand. 7 pp.)
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She said if you get poisoned they will just treat the symptoms. They won’t be bothered with what kind of poison it is. She was a bit incoherent and I had to keep asking her to slow down.
Is that a worry or what?!!!
I asked for the name of the ‘resident toxicologist’.
“Michael” she said.
“Michael who? ” I said
“We’re not allowed to give out surnames”, she said.
I asked if I could speak to him please.
She said “No you can’t”
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So there we have it. If you get poisoned by 1080 do not expect the authorities to confirm it is 1080. Just hope you survive. If the Kochummen family who ate wild pork are anything to go by you will probably be treated for botulism.
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Sodium monofluoroacetate (1080) is a poison which is dropped indiscriminately from the air in New Zealand at the rate of approximately 4 tonnes of pure poison annually. (The baits contain 0.15% pure poison). It kills human beings at the rate of 0.5 to 2 mgs per kg bodyweight (LD50 – Negherbon).
THIS YEAR ALONE WE ARE THROWING ENOUGH 1080 POISON ON NZ TO KILL 85 MILLION PEOPLE – AND WE DON’T EVEN TEST OUR FOOD FOR 1080 RESIDUES!
NOR DO WE HAVE A READILY AVAILABLE TEST FOR 1080 POISON IN THE HUMAN BODY!!!
Photo: HeliOtago Rescue Helicopter, ZK-IME, loading 1080 from a Cromwell Transport truck in Westland
A father speaks out on certain issues that are not being told us about the recent measles outbreak in Samoa.
RELATED: Hilary Butler’s interview on topic, very thorough coverage of this issue
Believe it or not when I posted this article on Facebook the fact checkers showed up with one of their little warnings (Soros, Gates & their buddies). Fake information burning sage so they say. Mainstream (that has only been mainstream since the 1920s when the Rockefellers heisted the then mainstream which was natural healing methods, herbs, raw milk and the like) is not interested in herbal applications of any kind particularly if it improves your health. Might make a dent in Big Pharma’s profits. Also might slow down the depopulation agenda it’s not sustainable having too many people on the planet. Someone has to go & it’s not them. EWR
From myhighplains.com
The burning of sage has long been a spiritual ritual — but new research shows it can have more benefits than you might think.
The research shows that burning sage, also referred to as smudging, in a room for an hour reduced airborne bacteria by 94 percent.
It also showed that the room stayed almost entirely bacteria-free for 24 hours. Some strains of harmful bacteria could not be detected for up to 30 days.
Sage user Natalie Allery says she notices a difference when she burns sage. “If one of my children gets sick, we are not all getting sick. It seems to at least eliminate some of it once it is already in our house, and it does it lifts the energy,” Allery says. “You can feel inside you that there is something that just needs to be done and opening the windows just isn’t enough.”
Crystal Rock is a local store that sells sage. Fargo store manager Susan Anderson says when people try it out, they keep coming back. “They come they get the sage. They come back to get more sage and they give reports about how much better they feel and how much lighter it feels.”
Allery adds, “It’s like we do the best that we can do explain to them, but its once they feel it and see it and go through that experience, that’s what keeps them coming back and yes that really works.”
READ MORE
Thanks to reader Jo Blogs for this link… (for background info read this post):
“Those nearby, and back on the mainland, reacted instantly and humanely. They ran, flew, and sped by boat toward the danger. Politicians and officials have praised these as “first responders”. Their use of the phrase was a dishonest attempt to hide that these people were not official first responders, but ordinary people. “
From stuff.co.nz
OPINION: The tragedy at Whakaari/White Island last week exposed a growing institutional cowardice among emergency services, particularly police, that affects their usefulness to citizens.
When the eruption occurred, and the emergency calls started on Monday afternoon, police and rescue services decided that they would not head to the island to help.
It was left to my fellow citizens to respond with māia (courage). Those nearby, and back on the mainland, reacted instantly and humanely. They ran, flew, and sped by boat toward the danger.
Politicians and officials have praised these as “first responders”. Their use of the phrase was a dishonest attempt to hide that these people were not official first responders, but ordinary people.
READ MORE:
* Finding answers for grieving families
* Recovery plan under way as ash threatens to entomb bodies
* Recovery teams leave island empty handed after search for bodies
Mark Law, a helicopter pilot with Kāhu NZ, heard that emergency services were not heading to White Island. He and others, including Tim Barrow and colleagues from Volcanic Air, flew out and landed on the island. They rescued some survivors – particularly members of the group that had been closest to the erupting crater.
Law hauntingly describes the island soon after the eruption as “silent”. The air permeated by gases and ground dusted with ash. Survivors, their burns awful to comprehend, weakly called for help. Our untrained heroes were there for them. Our trained rescue services were not.
When police finally got their act together, they used their authority to prevent further private rescues or body recovery.
Let’s assume that, as some people seem to be arguing, it is OK for state professionals, trained for, paid for, and possibly even keen to respond to emergencies, to refuse to attend one.
It does not follow that they can prevent others from assessing risk differently and taking it. But I believe that the official cordon was a kind of post-incident justification for managerial cowardice.
Police also used an official flight over the island, and brief landing on it, to provide “evidence” justifying their decisions. These flights usefully allowed officials to claim there were no signs of life, and that conditions on the island were not conducive to a rescue.
The flight did not see all the bodies. The helicopter crew that landed and concluded unsafe conditions was clearly wrong, as brave people had already landed and effected a rescue.
The state made a big deal about the risk in recovery of bodies. GNS estimated the risk of a second eruption at higher than 50 per cent. Police used that percentage, and the GNS risk zone maps, to justify the decision not to recover bodies. Neither of these are go/don’t go assessments. The complexity of the volcano, and the uncertainty built into those numbers, means they are not thresholds for action.
Despite the risk and continued “level 2” status, daring Defence Force teams finally undertook a speedy recovery of most of the bodies. Then the police claimed the same conditions meant there could be no further recovery action.
The GNS risk measurements were a prop. The decision to go in was based on very human factors: personnel who are ready to volunteer, families who are waiting, international attention, and politicians not enjoying the public pressure.
When, in 2012, I criticised police prevention of rescue of workers at Pike River mine, I blamed the insidious creep of “managerialism”; a preference for process over action. Cultural trends, such as fixations on health and safety, infect management systems with an endless loop of passing responsibility.
The response to the White Island tragedy is a stark insight into the continued creep of managerialism. It undermines the ability of state services to help citizens, but empowers it to infantilise us.
We’re discouraged from acting on our own, and forced to bow to experts. Yet systems and fancy talk prevent experts taking substantive action for fear of career, safety, or arbitrary consequences for taking the “wrong” action. In these environments, there are no career prospects for heroes.
What White Island tells you is that, when disaster occurs, you really are on your own. It may be time for citizens to make private provision for security and emergency; collectively or commercially purchasing or organising policing, rescue and fire response.
The state’s sophistication has cemented inaction. The police and government are turning cowardice into a professional duty. I see no value in paying for it through my taxes. It certainly makes them unfit to tell us what to do.
As citizens, it is down to us to help ourselves. To paraphrase our brave pilot Mark Law: “We must take care of our own business.”
* Mark Blackham is a director of Wellington-based BlacklandPR.
SOURCE
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/118219897/after-whakaariwhite-island-its-up-to-us-to-save-ourselves
This 5 December 2019 video says about itself:
France grinds to halt in the biggest strikes: ‘everyone is on the streets’
Rail workers, air-traffic controllers, teachers and public sector staff staged walkouts and took to the streets across France to protest against proposed changes to the pension system.
The strike is the biggest in Emmanuel Macron‘s presidency and 90% of regional trains were cancelled on 5 December.
From daily News Line in Britain:
THE MASS strikes and demonstrations throughout France today mark the sharp escalation of the confrontation between French workers and the ‘bankers’ government of president Emmanuel Macron.
This confrontation started 13 days ago with a massive strike wave against the drive to push up the retirement age and slash pensions for millions of workers and has now become a revolutionary showdown between the working class and the Macron government.
Details of this plan…
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Source: Breitbart News
More than 2,500 dead Americans remain on the voter rolls in Detroit, Michigan, according to a federal lawsuit filed this week.
The Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) filed a lawsuit in federal court this week against the city of Detroit for allegedly failing to maintain their voter rolls, including keeping more than 2,500 dead Americans aged 85 and older on the rolls.
After obtaining voter data from the state of Michigan earlier this year, PILF researchers said they discovered that a number of registered voters had either “impossibly old” or “disqualifying young” date of births. In one case, for example, PILF researchers said they found that a registered voter stated they had been born in the year 1823.
In addition to dead voters remaining on the voter rolls, PILF alleges that Detroit’s voter registration rate as of 2016 for the citizen voting-age population stands at 106 percent…
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16 December 2019 — Global Research
As we transition into 2020, our World is in the grip of a deliberate attempt to destroy the fundamental values upon which all civilised life depends.
Humanitarian values of love, kindness, compassion and mutual support – are being deliberately blocked, distorted and down-graded as part of a global propaganda regime designed to indoctrinate the people of this planet into selfish, materialistic and essentially passive ‘convenience’ life styles.
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The measles outbreak in Samoa sets an important precedent for global public health policy. Despite high vaccination rates, this outbreak has spread like wild fire. In this episode Hilary Butler joins me to give us a view of what it’s like on the ground there.
We tackle a number of pressing questions (many of which have no concrete answers yet):
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Similar episodes include:
LISTEN AT THE LINK BELOW:
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This 14 December 2019 video from the USA is called YouTube ADMITS To Suppressing Independent News, Pushing [corporate] CNN & [Rupert Murdoch‘s] Fox News.
YouTube is owned by the censoring Google corporation.
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