Random Politics

[Lightspeed]

Current account deficit shows New Zealand is living beyond its means - IMF

My guess is we'll keep on funnelling wealth to the rich instead of paying our bills. See if we can't "tough on crime" our way out of the consequences when the bill comes due.

[xor]

Shutting down the main road in Ōpōtiki for 2 hours and having police officers act as traffic control for a bunch of bikies to have a funeral.
#aroha

[Ab]

NZ tertiary education: yep, fucked.

https://i.stuff.co.nz/opinion/132315...w-could-fix-it

[xor]

All the people protesting in that Stuff video are white soooo....who cares?

#thefutureismaori

[Ab]

NZ officially enters economic recession

https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/132...firms-downturn

[StN]

Originally Posted by xor

Shutting down the main road in Ōpōtiki for 2 hours and having police officers act as traffic control for a bunch of bikies to have a funeral.
#aroha

Oh - if I get pinged with a speed camera ticket this week for maybe doing 60 in a 50 at 06:00 with no traffic, can I counter that I saw cops standing around doing nothing while un-seatbelted passengers were hanging out of utes barking??

[xor]

For you, cracker? Definitely

[Lightspeed]

I always appreciate large community events. It's a shame there aren't more.

What do we have right now? Fucking Santa Parade?

[StN]

Originally Posted by xor

For you, cracker? Definitely

[Lightspeed]

Why a big chunk of the government's climate fund hasn't been spent yet

Tens of millions of dollars earmarked for government climate change projects are yet to be spent, with funding being rolled over.

Treasury documents show about a third of the initiatives in the $3.6 billion Climate Emergency Response Fund (CERF) may not use all their allocated funding for this year.

It's an interesting dynamic that exists. Where as a government department you can't spend more money than you have, that's very bad. But you also must spend the money you do have. Otherwise why is that money left sitting while my special interest languishes?

It poses a challenge for long term projects and initiatives. I figure a great deal of loss occurs due to the constant start up and wind down of efforts vulnerable to the coming and going of political tides.

It's surely going to hinder our efforts to respond to climate change.

[Ab]

Who the fuck can believe anything on RNZ now anyway?

COVID will be the real black hole for govt spending. We'll never know how much was allocated, or spent, or has been mysteriously diverted to other projects.

[Lightspeed]

Who believes the news? It's information, not truth. I'll still take RNZ over NZ's other media organisations, actively and cynically shaping public narrative for the neolib cause.

Which of course RNZ is compelled to align with or be seen as biased.

Do we ever really know where government spends its money? No doubt we'll find squandered money wherever we look. Which is why we don't look, if I start looking at your stuff, maybe you'll start looking at mine and it all comes unravelled.

[xor]

It's almost as if the state shouldn't be trusted to spend the money we donate them in our taxes

[StN]

Why TF are the Nats so glib about using YikTok? Are they that open about being puppets of China?

[Lightspeed]

The state shouldn't be trusted to spend our taxes, however we keep voting in those who promise to cut red tape, get rid of wasteful bureaucracy.

When elected they inevitably get rid of what keeps them in check. 🤷

[DrTiTus]

You guys are still paying taxes?

lolol

[DrTiTus]

Originally Posted by StN

Why TF are the Nats so glib about using YikTok? Are they that open about being puppets of China?

I've sent many emails to political parties about not using stupid hosting sites like Facebook (the live streaming site of choice by terrorists), since we have parliament.govt.nz which could surely host everything they need, but they insist on being trendy (because social media milennials that they employ).

We are being run by idiots, supported by even bigger idiots who think that our leaders are somehow wise or knowledgeable simply because they were voted in, yet these people are my age or less. I don't know anyone my age who is wise enough to run a country. I'd rather it be run by people older than me, who have experience.

I welcome the end of the world. I've totally given up. Not in a "omg I'm going to commit suicide" way, but a "why the fuck you would even bother trying" kind of way. Fuck climate change, fuck trannies, and fuck the war. It's all a rich man's trick, and I'm not interested.

[xor]

Auckland surgeons must now consider ethnicity in prioritising patients for operations - some are not happy

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/auckla...LADSRR6VTGQWE/

Nice, instituionalised racism baked into policy.

[fixed_truth]

A number of studies and reports show Māori and Pacific people are less likely to be referred or accepted for treatment in the first place, and once in the system generally get less treatment. The Auckland District Health Board’s own data show Māori and Pacific patients take longer after referral to have a procedure confirmed.

He said the equity adjuster waitlist score helps reduce barriers and inequities in the healthcare system, to ensure that people have equitable outcomes, regardless of their ethnicity, socio-economic circumstances or where they live.

“These adjustments are based on evidence which shows these groups often have inequitable health outcomes, which often begin at the start of their healthcare journey. Early analysis shows the tool is effective at helping to eliminate the existing inequities.”

There are real health inequalities related to current clinical triage frameworks that don't pick up some of the medical needs of Maori.

Including ethnicity in the algorithm is a bit blunt, but it is more accurate in assessing need, and so produces better and fairer outcomes than not including ethnicity in triaging.

[_indigo1]

Auckland surgeons must now (consciously recognise they) consider ethnicity in prioritising patients for operations - some are not happy

[Ab]

I wonder why Pasifika patients are prioritised; I don't remember them being covered by Te Tiriti.

[Ab]

National’s health spokesperson Dr Shane Reti has slammed the Government’s new policy which ranks ethnicities to determine who should get an operation first, calling it “offensive” and “wrong”.

As a medical doctor himself, Reti said race should have no place in surgical priorities and he is urging the Government to drop the criteria.

“While there has been historical inequity that has disadvantaged Māori and Pasifika people, the idea that any government would deliberately rank ethnicities for priority for surgery is offensive, wrong and should halt immediately.

“The way to improve Māori and Pasifika health is through better housing, education and addressing the cost of living, not by disadvantaging others.”

He said he would refuse to rank patients on their ethnicity.

“I completely side with surgeons who are alarmed and affronted by this priority tool implemented by Health New Zealand.”

[xor]

Originally Posted by fixed_truth

There are real health inequalities related to current clinical triage frameworks that don't pick up some of the medical needs of Maori.

Two wrongs don't make a right.

[Lightspeed]

Our medical institutions are some of the oldest organisations in the country. Our racist country. Populated by those who have most benefited from the racist way resources are allocated.

Of course they're fucking going to be offended at the idea of addressing racism.

It is offensive to people when they see the other enjoying resources that were once held by you and yours.

Growing up is recognising that your feelings aren't always paramount.

[xor]

[Lightspeed]

Classic NZ.

It's tragicomical how for a century we wrote rules to disadvantage Maori. We realised that's wrong and so we've changed things up so that now our rules disadvantage Maori.

[xor]

Good luck with the ethnic nationalism thing. I'm glad I'm not there.

[Lightspeed]

Racists are so eager to out themselves.

Grown ups: "Racism is terrible, it hurts people it needs to stop."
Racists: "What, no! We're the better ones, their hardship is their fault."

Grown ups: "We need to correct the disadvantages incurred by all this racism, it's better for all of us."
Racists: "What, no! You just said racism is bad, so it's bad! And it's STILL all their fault!"

[fixed_truth]

Originally Posted by xor

Two wrongs don't make a right.

What's the wrong here?

By adding ethnicity to the prioritisation algorithm (which also includes time spent on the waitlist, clinical priority, geographic location and deprivation level) it identifies medical needs that get missed previously. What would be wrong is continuing to incorrectly prioritize pacific people based in a lack of relevant health information.

Edit: ironically your legislation post affirms that this is the correct way to do things. There's a boat load of research showing that Maori & Pacifica are being discriminated against in the health system due to their ethnicity.

[Lightspeed]

"Teacher said racism is bad!" /huff, fold arms, angrily suppress childhood memories of shame at being called out for it

[xor]

Who doesn't want positive outcomes for Maori? What a long bow you're pulling. But, this is the disingenuous type of argument that socialists attempt to use in order to rationalize their racist rhetoric.

How vile and tribal of you.

[fixed_truth]

Someone here recommended the book Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men, good read. What I took out of it is that different people have different needs specific to their sex, gender, disability, religion, culture & ethnicity for example. Often people with different life experiences don't see this need. From this when we are designing a world that is meant to work for everyone we need a women in room (or Maori in this case). Otherwise (and what we have traditionally seen) is that public spaces become male spaces by default, in this case Pakeha spaces.

And then when we do get some of these voices in the room you get this temper tantrum from those who the status quo was designed for.

[Ab]

Yeah, that was me. TBH I'm not sure if the book's message can really be stretched to "public spaces become Pakeha spaces"; IMHO the strongest aspects of the book were plainly quantitive observations like "women are more likely to die in car crashes because airbags are set for the head height of a male driver".

[DrTiTus]

It's Agenda 2030, the globalist diktat. When leaders of governments promote a "collective journey" as prescribed by an unelected German, we don't get utopia, we get communism. Notice there is a war on capitalism among the easily influenced youth? Hmm. What's the solution to capitalism?

We are resolved to free the human race from the tyranny of poverty

We had the war on drugs, the war on terror, the war on COVID... now we begin the war on poverty and inequality.

None of these wars were won - in fact they were all spectacular failures - and life got worse every time. But the point is not to win - the point is just to tell you what to do and take your money (or as LS says, your resources).

Applaud and celebrate at your peril. The future ain't looking good, boys. Eat ze bugs. Remember, it's one big club, and you ain't in it.

How we do eradicate poverty? With hard work and rations, and you have been chosen to do it - without pay, because pay leads to inequality, and that's pretty much racism. You wouldn't want to out yourself as a racist would you? Think of your socialist credit score.

It's not just about this one particular decision. It's about all the decisions all being pushed, that all align with the Agenda, that no one asked for, but ze German is using them to guilt you into obedience. It's social conditioning. I've done the cult thing, I know how this shit works. Obey or be excluded [cancelled/ostracised/called an anti vaxer]. The pot is getting hotter, but you haven't yet noticed. We're going to start to simmer, and you'll be blaming "climate change". The fact we have people amongst us that swear until they're blue in the face that men are women should be alarm bells that the human mind is weak and repeats bullshit - "take da vaccine so my vaccine works duh". A critical mass of idiots is all that it takes to sway other well-meaning but gullible fools that going along with it is "the right thing to do". "For the good of society!" We've played this game before. Get good.

[Lightspeed]

I'm in no position to say whether or not Maori feel like they're represented in public spaces or services.

What I do know from growing up in a community fairly evenly split between Maori and Pakeha, from spending time in both Pakeha and Maori spaces, is that these are different places with different ways of being.

I've also subsequently be trained in understanding how people find themselves in spaces, how humans exist not only within their bodies but also within spaces their bodies occupy. How our ability to thrive depends on that space, its conditions, what's been made of it.

And this knowledge is broadly shared amongst academic and clinical communities across the world. It's not radical or edgy. It's not just in healthcare we make use of this understanding.

The more exceptional claim to be demonstrated would be that Maori aren't impacted by a one-size-fits-all healthcare system.

[fixed_truth]

Originally Posted by Ab

Yeah, that was me. TBH I'm not sure if the book's message can really be stretched to "public spaces become Pakeha spaces"; IMHO the strongest aspects of the book were plainly quantitive observations like "women are more likely to die in car crashes because airbags are set for the head height of a male driver".

Heard of colonisation?

Here's Russell Brown calling out the inflammatory media and blatant politicizing of the issue https://twitter.com/publicaddress/st...403561984?s=20

[blynk]

Originally Posted by xor

Not sure what you are trying to get at here?
Because if you are saying that we shouldn't be including race as a factor, then we better take off age as well.

Its unfair that a 45 yo women get to have free mammograms when under 45 have to pay.
That's Ageism.
/s

[blynk]

More /s

We don't have to worry about have race a factor, because we probably already have socioeconomy as a factor, and we all know that we have screwed Maori and they are more likely to sit very low in that

[xor]

How have you screwed over Maori, blynk?

[xor]

Originally Posted by fixed_truth

Heard of colonisation?

I love how patronizing this is. A white fella making a patronizing comment about colonization to someone who is Maori.