Posts by Susannah Shepherd
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Hard News: What the kids do, in reply to Russell Brown,
And the rejoinder was salient too. 13 and 14 year-olds coming smack-bang into a pretty serious high won’t have the skills to tell what’s going on, or to help each other.
I can vouch for that, having been inadvertently sent on a very bad trip by the medical profession at the age of 13. Full-on lucid paranoid hallucinations are not fun, or even trippy. It was easily the most frightening 8 hours of my life, and if I hadn't already been in hospital, I (or the people around me) would have been looking for one pretty quickly.
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Hard News: Christchurch: Square Two, in reply to David Haywood,
Also I’d note that not all areas are sinking. We’re at 5 metres altitude and we’ve had no ejecta in our vicinity – and any compaction will soon reach a finite limit. Furthermore, it’s not beyond the bounds of possibility that any future earthquakes might generate some upthrust…
It’s complicated.
Speaking from a position of complete ignorance, I can imagine why the government might not want to be making some pretty final and significant decisions about whether land/suburbs can be remediated until the risk of further major aftershocks has diminished.
That doesn't reduce the cruelty of politicians dropping hints along the way.
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Hard News: Bishop Brian: It's worse than…, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
And more to the point, I suspect most faith-based or church affiliated social service contractors are scrupulous about their legal obligations and survive being audited up the wazoo -- as they should.
Yes, I think that's likely.
I haven't worked on the issues for the community and voluntary sector for many years now, but certainly back in the mid '00s I know there was plenty of disgruntlement in the sector because the staffing component of any contract was always way less that it would have cost the government in payroll to do the job itself.
Even if these service providers are turning modest profits, I doubt many are making big bucks out of it. That's the territory of consultants...
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Hard News: Bishop Brian: It's worse than…, in reply to Rob Stowell,
Putting it another way: would you think it ok if the Battersea Dog's Home or the NZ Govt hired you on the basis of your willingness to give them back 10% of your gross pay?
Not really, particularly if it were the government... But the original point was about whether it was OK for Destiny to make some profit out of a government contract, not whether they are exploiting their members. The answer is still yes (to both). If Destiny members are dumb enough to pay thousands each to keep the bish in hair gel, suits and McMansions and are doing it willingly, that's not the contracting organisation's problem.
It could only be an issue for the government as contracting agency if there's evidence the staff are being coerced to pay tithes in return for a job, but my assumption is that if they've chosen to join Destiny, they've pretty much signed up to hand over their cash regardless of where they work.
Your scenario is an employment issue between employer and employee, and I'd be very surprised if Destiny is the only third-party provider of government services (religious charity, iwi organisation, family business etc.) that preferentially employs its own. And I'll bet some of those other religious organisations also expect tithing, although the level of social pressure might be somewhat lower.
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Hard News: Bishop Brian: It's worse than…, in reply to giovanni tiso,
Er, uhm. Shall we go over the Donation of Constantin again?
I was raised a Presbyterian. I got the impression many in the church don't count anything pre-Knox as actually Christian...
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Hard News: Bishop Brian: It's worse than…, in reply to Dave Waugh,
Yes 0.5% plus of course the “wages” they mentioned which of course get a nice big wet bite taken out of them by Destiny….. Unless you think that Destiny won’t be hiring Destiny members to do the work?
That’s not the point – so long as the costings for the project haven’t been padded by paying staff above market rate to take tithing into account, what the Destiny members do with their pay packet is no business of the government.
The government pays me too, and whether I spend my salary on tithes, a 52” plasma TV, my mortgage or the Battersea Dogs Home is up to me and not my employer. I also negotiate contracts on behalf of the government, and I don’t enquire into (or care) where the “labour” element of the money goes once we’ve established a price for the job, so long as we’re getting what we’ve paid for. Contracting is almost always done through an open tender process for a job this size, although I get the impression the social sector is a little more fluid about contestability than some other parts of government.
Don’t get me wrong, I think Destiny Church is creepy and exploitative, and the Enough is Enough march is the most despicable thing I’ve seen on the streets of Wellington. But Destiny are entitled to the same treatment as every other provider when they provide government-funded services.
The more interesting part of this for me is the barefaced lies that were told on TV about Destiny’s access to government contracts. I ditched the church thing very young, but I do recall telling the truth being quite high on the list of stuff good Christians were supposed to do.
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Hard News: Bishop Brian: It's worse than…, in reply to 3410,
Destiny’s actually claiming profits from its Community Max projects.
That’s not normal, is it?That was my gut reaction, too, but it depends on how the contracts were written. If it was a fixed price contract and they delivered everything they promised (quantity and quality), then there's not a problem - especially as the 'profit' was only 0.5% of the total funding.
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Hard News: Here's one I prepared earlier, in reply to Lilith __,
I think vaccination has some value, but not when you're sick !
Yes, I went years without boosters and 'flu shots when I was ill because my immune system was in overdrive - the doctor wasn't willing to take the risk of me getting way sicker (or alternatively, the vaccination being completely ineffective with me thinking I was protected).
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Mind you, I was disappointed that Sue Kedgley didn’t seem to know any of this when she got a opportunity to respond.
My assumption, watching the programme at the time, was that she was so gob-smacked and/or overwhelmed by a descending red (green?) mist that she was unable to respond coherently.
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Add another vote for Thunderpants. They may well be ’90s style, some of mine are probably that old – and still sound in fabric, elastic and comfort. Plus very comfy for those of us with thunder thighs...