New Zealand: " Earth rim walker seeks his meals Prepare the funeral pyres "

Radio New Zealand National reports

Therapist faulted over spiritual treatment

                                                          Stupid is as stupid does

A massage therapist has been asked to review her practice and apologise to a 16-year-old patient who she did not properly inform about a Maori spiritual treatment she was referring her for.

Excuse me " ..review her practice ..." Doctors, dentist's, optometrists or outside the medical field say architects have practices. Massage therapists... well I guess the honest ones offer extras that both parties understand at a mutually agreed rate.

Deputy Health and Disability Commissioner Theo Baker says the therapist should have been meticulous in the way she informed the girl.

The Deputy Health and Disability Commissioner should have declined jurisdiction and referred the incident to the appropriate authorities who might have had the ability to sanction the " therapist " (a power The Health and Disability Commission doesn't have ) like the police who deal with fraud.

The girl, who is not Maori, went to the massage therapist for help with migraines, period pains and sport injuries.

A GP would I am guessing would have cost a lot less and would have additional advantages such as medical training and the ability to refer to specialists.

 

A report says the therapist told the girl she had problems with her aura and contacted an iwi healer.

An aura from a medical perspective is: 

" Aura: A sensation perceived by a patient that precedes a condition affecting the brain. An aura often occurs before a migraine or seizure. It may consist of flashing lights, a gleam of light, blurred vision, an odor, the feeling of a breeze, numbness, weakness, or difficulty in speaking.."

Or in other words a reason to call an ambulance and get the person to a hospital ASAP.

The healer diagnosed the girl as having six spiritual entities in her and recommend that she come immediately to a nearby river to be cleansed.

I had no idea that traditional Maori health providers  fucking con men had the ability to diagnose what from this report would suggest such a complex medical condition and such a simple cure over the phone. This clown along with our " massage therapist " have impugned reputable Maori health providers and that is what really pisses me off.

The girl gave her consent and waded in the river, but reported feeling felt rushed and pressured. She has been having nightmares since the incident.

Let's have a real investigation. Invoices, payments and lets have a look at the financial arrangements of this " Massage therapist " particularly as they relate to the Iwi Healer.

The therapist is not registered with any professional body and has not been named in the report.

As I said the The Health and Disability Commission has no place investigating this. This is the problem though... who does ? The police I am sure are the obvious authority but " somebody got wet in a river and is having nightmares about it " is probably not going to inspire any cop to turn on the siren and lights.

Sound stupid ?

New Zealand: IRD. Can't be arsed in short.

Arguably  taxation is the most important function that a government has, without revenue there is nothing a government can do. Most governments seem to be aware of this, although it seems to have escaped the notice of the current New Zealand government. That is not surprising.

My daughter has decided that she would like to get a job after school and in the weekends, something my partner and I support and have encouraged her to do. That of course requires an IRD number.

Due to my daughter's personal circumstances  her identity documentation is not acceptable to IRD ( NZ taxation agency ) her African name on her A identity doesn't match her B identity that is her school ID, which is in her anglicised name. This is a pain in the neck because it means we can't use the services of an IRD agent such as NZ Post.

A call to IRD last night resolved the problem or so I thought, they advised me that I could get an appointment on Thursday at the office of the Waipareira Trust. I called the trust this morning only to discover that the IRD office hours are 10am - 12.00pm once a month on a Thursday. Further more the Trust is under instruction to make no more than 6 appointments for that 2 hour period. Until amalgamation Waitakere city was at least the 5th largest city in New Zealand.

Waitakere City is a former territorial authority district in the west of Auckland, New Zealand, which was governed by the Waitakere City Council from 1989 to 2010. It was New Zealand's fifth largest city, with an annual growth of about 2%. In 2010 the council was amalgamated with other regional authorities into one new Auckland Council. Population 2006 census 186,444 .

Unsurprisingly there are no available appointments a situation the trust informed me is standard. The trust advised me to complain to the local MP, something I suspect would be a total waste of time.

I am used to governmental incompetence / indifference but I would have thought that IRD might have been an exception given its importance to the functioning of the government.

New Zealand: The Spiders from ?

The Civillian reports

There are spiders everywhere,’ reports stoned Duncan Garner

Duncan Garner smokes synthetic cannabis brand Juicy Puff, which he says has “absolutely nothing” to do with his fear of a global spider caliphate

Television host and RadioLIVE presenter Duncan Garner has filed an in-depth report for 3 News about spiders, which he says are “practically everywhere right now.”

Garner, who has been smoking synthetic cannabis brand Juicy Puff to demonstrate the dangers of the product, burst into the TV3 newsroom yesterday with a wastepaper bin stuck to one foot.

“Shit!” declared Garner. “Ohhh fuck. Shit! I’ve got a fuckin’, a fuckin’ huge story. Stop the press.”

After being told there was no press, Garner showed the newsroom an eight minute video report he’d made that afternoon, which featured him lying in bed squirming and running his hands over his naked body. It then cut to several short clips of him screaming at his children.

“We need to air this immediately,” Garner told them.

The report was not run on 3 News last night, and Garner has this morning lodged what he calls a “formal complaint” against the network for not airing his story. He charges that TV3 owners MediaWorks are engaged in a sinister conspiracy to protect the spiders.

MediaWorks news director Mark Jennings said he wasn’t concerned about the complaint.
“We’ve seen Duncan’s complaint,” he said. “As far as we can tell, it’s just a crayon drawing of a penis. We’ve been informed by our lawyers that it has no substance.”

After the experience, Garner said he’d concluded that synthetic cannabis was “pretty fun,” and that he would “definitely do it again,” perhaps even as early as two hours ago.

Hilarious.

An interesting Juxtaposition

An interesting piece from the Afghanistan Ambassador in Stuff  that compounds the ignorance of Barbara Sumner Burstyn 

 KILLED KIWI SOLDIERS: (From top left) Richard Harris, Luke Tamatea, Jacinda Baker, Pralli Durrer, Rory Malone, Douglas Hughes, Leon Smith, Doug Grant, Kirifi Mila, Tim O'Donnell.

OPINION: Arriving at Auckland for my first visit as Afghanistan's new Ambassador to New Zealand, I immediately noticed the half-mast flag flying over a building at the airport.

The half-mast flag was to honour the services of three brave soldiers, Lance-Corporal Jacinda Baker, Private Richard Harris and Corporal Luke Tamatea, who had been killed by a Taleban roadside bomb in the northeast part of Bamiyan province in Afghanistan.

These brave soldiers - two young men and a young woman - and seven other service personnel killed since 2001, left the comfort of family and friends and decided to provide security and extend their helping hand to their fellow human beings over thousands of kilometres away in a remote region of central Afghanistan.

Every single day, since the removal in 2001 of the Taleban regime and their al Qaeda supporters in late 2001, the Afghan people, our National Security Forces and the international contingent of which New Zealand is a member, have been serving shoulder-to-shoulder in a very challenging environment. Their mission is to protect the world from the menace of al Qaeda and violent extremism and to make sure that Afghanistan will not fall back to the dark days of the Taleban regime which took the country and its people hostage and deprived them of basic human needs and rights. 

This is a noble cause and this, for anyone who is still not clear, is the real reason why the presence and sacrifices of the people and government of New Zealand are for the good of peace and security and democracy in Afghanistan and peace and security in the region and the wider world. And that’s precisely why we the Afghan people honour the dedication and sacrifices of the Kiwi soldiers and acknowledge their exemplary bravery in action, devotion to service and love for fellow human beings. Specifically, New Zealand’s support for the  mission in Afghanistan and its PRT in Bamiyan have contributed to stability and the provision of humanitarian assistance as well as access to health care, education and clean water for thousands of vulnerable people living in the rugged valleys of central Afghanistan. It is the true spirit of good citizenship demonstrated and seen in practice.

Over the past 10 years we Afghans have gained a tremendous amount of experience and trust in working together with our international partners in a very challenging region of the world. We had remarkable successes in dismantling and degrading the terrorist networks, taking away their planning and executing capabilities and removing their top level leadership, including Osama bin Laden who was killed in an operation in Abbottabad, Pakistan in May 2011.

These 10 years have been a truly unique chapter in the history of our country. After decades of strife and violence, we took steps re-build state institutions, create a vibrant civil society, nurture and expand freedom of media and ensure the basic rights of women and men. We have sought to lay the foundations of a young democracy.  Our social and economic accomplishments have been remarkable, greater by comparison than in any other period in our country’s recent history. The progress we are making is undoubtedly the result of tireless efforts by brave man and women of our two great nations and many other international partners.

After almost a decade of a joint effort, at the NATO summit in Lisbon in November 2010 we agreed on a time table for orderly withdrawal of the International Security Assistance Forces (ISAF). We have also agreed that the Afghanistan National Security Forces (ANSF) will gradually take over responsibility for securing the country

The progress we are making is undoubtedly the result of tireless efforts by brave man and women our two great nations and many other international partners. Though the recent upsurge of violence and terrorist attacks on Afghan cities and villages, including yesterday’s brutal killing of 17 men and women by the Taleban at a wedding party in Helmand, have tempered the sense and pride we feel at our achievements, we remain firmly committed to realising the aspiration of the Afghan people for a peaceful and prosperous lives.

The people of Afghanistan have suffered from too much violence and too much despair over the past decade since the Soviets invaded our peaceful and stable country in 1979. We have seen too many of our young men and women lose their lives as a result of war and conflict. Our people crave and deserve sustainable peace, stability and security not only 'til 2014 but for many years to come.

New Zealand has given us a strong helping hand in our journey so far since 2001 for which we’re ceaselessly and genuinely filled with appreciation and gratitude. Our close partnership over the past decade and our shared sacrifices have also laid down the foundations of long-term, enduring friendship and cooperation between our two nations. We keenly look forward to sustaining this spirit of friendship, partnership and cooperation for many years to come.

* Nasir A Andisha is the ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan in Australia and New Zealand. We can be reached at nasirandisha@gmail.com

It is a shame Burstyn will probably never read it and thus remain ignorant.

South Pacific Fishing

FIS reports 

New convention introduced to manage South Pacific fisheries

" Friday, August 24, 2012, 23:00 (GMT + 9)

Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully and Primary Industries Minister David Carter have announced a new convention to manage fisheries across the South Pacific.

The convention establishes the South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organisation (SPRFMO), which will manage waters from Western Australia to South America, including the Tasman Sea and South Pacific Ocean.

“This is the culmination of six years of work by the New Zealand Government,” McCully says. New Zealand co-sponsored the negotiations, alongside Chile and Australia."

Good to see a result.

" New Zealand was also the first country to sign the convention and the fifth country to ratify it. The other nine states party to the convention are: Australia, Belize, Chile, the Cook Islands, Cuba, the European Union (EU), Denmark (in respect of the Faroe Islands), Korea and Russia, with other countries expected to join in due course."

Only one Asian nation mentioned above. That is a concern.

" Carter says the new convention will manage all fish species in the South Pacific apart from highly migratory ones, which are managed separately. The species under SPRFMO jurisdiction include the commercially sought-after orange roughy, blue nose and jack mackerel."

I guess that whales are twice excluded  not being fish and being highly migratory so no respite from the Japanese with this.

“The new organisation has a big job ahead. Now the convention is in force, the next job is agreeing legally binding controls to manage the fisheries, help ensure their long-term sustainability and address any adverse effects on the environment,” Carter says."

Can't argue with that.

" The Ministers say New Zealand’s leadership is set to continue, with Auckland hosting the first SPRFMO Commission meeting in late January 2013."

At the height of the whaling season. What a great opportunity to draw attention to the Japanese illegal activities in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary.