NZ farmers’ protest by Susan Grimsdell
Taking to the streets Hundreds of farmers recently took to the streets in their expensive tractors. The vehicles are big bullying things, and that makes me think the drivers are too. Sitting way up high, big wheels, the whole rig shouting – “I’m big and powerful and rich so get out of my way.” As far as I could make out, that was the essence of their protest – “This government is telling me what to do. I won’t have it. It’s my land, and I’ll say what happens to it.” Farmers… Read More
Skin cancer in NZ by Susan Grimsdell
We all know that skin cancer is the most prevalent cancer in New Zealand, and that we have the highest incidence of melanoma – the worst, most deadly kind of cancer – in the whole world. We slip slap slop on ourselves and our children, we use the top level of SPF, renewing it every two or three hours, as per instructions. We do our best to protect ourselves and our families. Sunscreen fraudster However, what we didn’t know was that there is a man in the USA, Gabriel Letizia Jr, who… Read More
Helping those who can easily help themselves by Susan Grimsdell
Helicopter rescue I searched on Google but could not find the cost of operating the Westpac Helicopter service. However, I did discover that for Greymouth and Christchurch the total is $10 million a year. Let’s estimate that for the whole country it’s $100 million a year. Westpac takes a billion dollars from New Zealand in profits every year, year after year. $100 million is 10% of that. Westpac gets incalculable benefit from the advertising associated with its helicopters. Very positive advertising too – nothing negative about running a rescue helicopter service! Why… Read More
Fair pay by Susan Grimsdell
The concept of fairness It always surprises me when there’s a huge angry uproar at the notion of introducing policies designed to make things more equal. Recently the Labour government announced it will introduce fair pay legislation for the first time since the Employment Contracts Act overturned employees’ rights in the 1990s. The word is “fair”. Have you noticed that one of the first phrases children use once they’re old enough to speak, is “It’s not fair!” We seem to be born with a notion of fairness, yet as adults, this seems… Read More
More guns more shootings by Susan Grimsdell
Recently, after yet another mass shooting in the USA, I heard a commentator say that people are “struggling to understand” how these things can happen again and again. Well, hello, it’s not that hard. Guns are made to kill Defining a mass shooting as someone killing at least 4 victims at the same time and location, excluding the perpetrator, there have been 2,128 such events since 2013, about one a day. The rate at which public shootings occur has tripled since 2011. One third of the world’s mass shootings between 1966 and… Read More
