Posts by Rosemary McDonald
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As a twelve year old, I left rural Derbyshire to live in extremely rural Far North, NZ.
This was 1973, the height of the "punch a pom a day" campaign. I very quickly lost much of my pommie accent, and my acquired NZ accent was heavily influenced by Te Reo....spoken widely at the time in the Far North, including at the local school.
This influence was so great that when we moved to the Eastern Bay of Plenty in 1976, I was often accused of being a "bloody Nga Puhi".
Our family had travelled in Scandanavia whilst living in the UK, and we made a real effort to speak at least some words in the language of the country we were in.
Largely forgotten, many years down the track there must be some residue left as I impressed a Norwegian family on a camping holiday in NZ by being able to converse at a very rudimentary level in their own language.
It's only good manners to make an effort to speak another's language, shows respect.
I cringe at some pakeha Kiwi's pronounciation of Te Reo. It is disrespectful, rude in the extreme. There was a woman being interviewed a while back regarding the Whangarei City Council deciding not to build the Hunterwasser Gallery. She must have said" Wangaray" some half a dozen times in her rant about the Council voting to kill "culture" in the North. Oh, the irony!
Te Reo in school? Hell yes, compulsory up to form 3.
I tried to get No. 1 son into Kohanga Reo in 1988. Sadly, this excellent initiative was in its infancy and a blond pakeha boy would "be out of place", so it didn't happen. There was talk that it was not right for him to take up a place that should go to a Maori child.
However, much of his language acquisition phase was spent in an environment where Te Reo was regulary spoken, and he always answers the phone with a cheery Kia Ora!
I suspect it is too late for me to learn Te Reo, but I would like to think my mokos will be fluent.
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Access: Power to (all) the people!, in reply to Hilary Stace,
Not on facebook anymore Hilary...believe it or not, somehow we survive.
Excellent initiative by Tiaho Trust, and if they can get a broard cross section of the Northland disabled community involved, all the better.
I read Jonny Wilkinson's statement about the Family Carers Case, and it seems he is on the same page as the president of DPA NZ who strongly advised the Human Rights Review Tribunal not to allow payment of family carers.
http://tiaho.org.nz/service/whanau_ora/
Oh dear!
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Access: Power to (all) the people!, in reply to George Darroch,
As someone on the outside who would like to be supportive, I’d like to see a few clear messages and demands that crystalise political action.
As someone on the fringes...ie, the partner and fulltime carer of a person with a disability...I would definately concur.
There needs to be clear policy statements, bottom lines. Any difference of opinion between individuals or groups WILL be exploited by the Powers That Be.
We saw that with the Family Carers case.
Active opposition from the President of DPA NZ at the Human Rights Review Tribunal in 2008, delivering a petition to parliament today when it all went to shit...claiming that the rights of disabled people have been set aside by the PHDAct amendment. WTF?
This may be a deviation from your post Ezekiel (and I would like to hear more about d4d), but it is relevant.
There are some credible and creditable disabled people who should be in Parliament, to keep Mojo company....better rattle your collectve dags.
Sacha..".We ran out of volunteer energy to continue what was intended as an...." , could you expand on that?
If it was a lack of ABs help....?
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Speaker: Not even a statistic, in reply to ,
PS: I am aware that my small group of theatrical scenarios are just that,
Rape on the stage, comic musical theatre from the 50s. Repopularised by the now outed dirty old man Rolf Harris in the 70s.
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Access: Paying Family Carers - What was…, in reply to Chris Waugh,
This was the last active Access thread, so….
"active" might be a bit generous Chris....more like twitching in its death throes...
However...funny you should post that, someone else asked me about this the other day.
I don't know much about this particular venture, but its sounds very much like the Local Area Coordination program, evolving from the New Model....see here
http://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/disability-services/new-model-supporting-disabled-people
I'd be interested to know a bit more about it too.
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Speaker: Not even a statistic, in reply to Sacha,
She meant respecting what people with actual experience
Ask a child, taken into care because of violence in the home, what they feel, what they want....
They will talk about the anger and frustration that is always simmering, always a look away. One wrong move.....one more can of beer.
Fear is what they feel, feeling safe is what they want.
And they want the grown ups to sort their shit out.
But the grown ups don't/can't/won't.
So the child grows up to be frustrated and angry. And on we go.
Now, the social scientists will call that anecdotal...not evidence based research..can't form a policy without data.
More statistics.
We have enough of those.
How do rape survivors want to be treated? What do they need to feel able to heal?
Ask offenders why they do it. What do they need in order to change.
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Speaker: Not even a statistic, in reply to Sofie Bribiesca,
http://blog.greens.org.nz/2014/07/17/in-defence-of-strong-women-and-freedom-of-speech/
Yep, I'd go along with that Jan,
"So many of our community organisations have been silenced by gagging clauses in their contracts, or just by the knowledge that some organisations have lost funding for doing too much advocacy."
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Speaker: Not even a statistic, in reply to Sofie Bribiesca,
I think we have Louise Nicholas to thank there
Heartbreaking to see the look on her face when the police buggered up the Roastbusters case. All those years trying to get justice, then she voluntarily enters the lions' den to try and educate....then realises nothing much has changed. Just a fleeting look...but spoke volumes.
."....that should be the Lawyers job to take up if they think the Judge is out of line."Seems to me that nobody is expected to do their job properly anymore.
No real expectations.
No responsibility.
No accountability. -
Speaker: Not even a statistic, in reply to Bart Janssen,
In particular it requires change from two groups that are very resistant to change, the police and the legal system.
So, how do we change these two groups?
Our family used to watch the telly news and hear complaints about the police and the legal system and actually, to our shame, tended to sympathise with the poor hard working copper and the overloaded court system.
Dear oh dear how a couple of incidents can change one's opinion.
The police? Either stupid or corrupt, or most likely a combination of the two...with a large dose of arrogance to make them truly dangerous. We will NEVER trust them again. Ever.
The Court/Justice system. A lottery. What can I say, I got a Judge with an operating bullshit detector...so many others have gone to jail innocent. Others get judges who MUST be corrupt, or members of the same peadophile ring or some damn thing because for the life of me I cannot find any justification for the sentences they hand down nor the comments they make.
And we all know which ones I'm referring to.
How to change this so we can have confidence in these agencies?
Hold them up to REAL scrutiny. Hold them accountable when they get it wrong.
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