My man gets up early every Sunday and, much to my amazement, walks the dogs and heads to the weekly market. He has an obsession with small vege plants that never really yield too much and I am sure they are often planted in the wrong season but he loves admiring the fruits of his labour planted in small rows struggling against the now wintery conditions... ahhhhhh. But from small acorns mighty oaks grow… just not often in his case.
He doesn’t just stop at buying seedlings, oh no but I would be so happy if he did. No, he always buys a fresh loaf of sourdough; a favourite of his. Yep, he loves the fresh doughy taste of a thick slice smothered in butter (think he may have switched to a cardio preventing spread lately) and local honey.
Not so bad really but when Monday comes and the market bread has lost its fresh appeal and needs to be enjoyed as toast, this is where the problem starts. He thickly slices the two mandatory pieces and pushes them into the toaster. He's forgotten about the Vogel setting that the toaster remains on most of the time and, you guessed it, his toast burns. The smell drifts upstairs to my office and I erupt. Innocent enough, I can hear you thinking but no, I have been immersed in his burning toast smells for too long (and there are not a lot of smells that I dislike more). I have threatened, I have pleaded but to no avail, at 6am every Monday the toast burns and the house begins its week permeated with the disgusting smell. And this is where my point comes in. So last Monday when he burned the toast, no more threats, I simply removed the toaster, put it in the back of my car and took it to our Auckland house. Problem solved. And is he still having toast? Yep, but he's grilling it in the oven and guess what… he has to watch it when prepared this way and so far no mishaps or horrible smells.
Without any immediate accountability or consequence nothing changes. We simply go on doing as we always have, rightly or wrongly and in my man’s case the toast didn't affect him. He doesn't mind the smell and he simply scrapes the burnt bits off to eat it. But to me it was a huge problem, so I had to solve it!
I can think of so many similar scenarios in our immediate environment where we have failed to take action or the consequence is so insignificant that the behaviour continues.
Do any of us really think that the policy muted by Paula Bennett to offer voluntary reversible sterilization to women on a benefit will make a difference? I’m not so sure (purely because it is voluntary so how many women will elect to take this option?)
I do, however, applaud her as there is nothing so true as this country cannot continue to handout money that it simply doesn't have. So surely if you are already in a position that you have to be supported by the State it seems absurd that you can just keep adding to the financial problem by having more children that will also need support.
Analysts are forecasting our country's deficit to be at $14 billion for the fiscal year.
I know for one, that no commercial organization can continue to trade when they are that insolvent… it is not even legal.
Fact... we have a problem. Surely we can’t be that far from the Greeks and it is time we took our heads out of the sand and did something about it… each and every one of us!
We cannot afford the level of social welfare that is being paid out. We therefore must make a change.
Maybe we should consider capping the domestic purposes benefit going forward just as we have the universities and the number of students they can take. So for all new applications to the benefit there is a two child cap… sure you can have more children, there is just no entitlement to state support... food for thought?
I was watching a TV One reality show last week that was showcasing the work of the Perth police force. A section of the program shown was of a woman arriving to court about to face charges of driving while disqualified.
Not only did she drive to the court where she was sentenced to a further period of disqualification, she then hopped into her car and promptly drove off. She was of course stopped by the police, returned to court and placed before the magistrate that same day, where she was refined a sum total $900 and six months disqualification… hardly a deterrent... incredible! (And will that woman drive during the next six months? Hell yes!)
Let’s take a leaf from the Chinese rule book where they have zero tolerance to drink driving. If you drink then drive and get caught, you will get locked up (no negotiation) in a Chinese prison for three months. I bet that stops them… it certainly would stop me.
And following on with the same TV program, the police pick up a guy that is associated with a local crime ring, driving a car loaded with stolen stuff and weapons. He goes to court and is fined the same amount that I got for speeding last week. It simply gets more bizarre. Why is no one prepared to make the hard calls? Where the hell is this all heading?
Paula's attempt to provide solutions for what is one of this country's biggest problems has started an up roar. This is not unexpected in that we have become such a nanny-state that even logical and fair proposals to solve a very real problem are reacted to in the same way as if total sterilization was suggested. I’m sure many New Zealanders, if asked, would have gone further in proposing a suggested solution to this problem that would have been well in excess of this very mild and practical solution pitched by Paula!!
In the words of one of my favourite movies… Something’s gotta give!!!!
He doesn’t just stop at buying seedlings, oh no but I would be so happy if he did. No, he always buys a fresh loaf of sourdough; a favourite of his. Yep, he loves the fresh doughy taste of a thick slice smothered in butter (think he may have switched to a cardio preventing spread lately) and local honey.
Not so bad really but when Monday comes and the market bread has lost its fresh appeal and needs to be enjoyed as toast, this is where the problem starts. He thickly slices the two mandatory pieces and pushes them into the toaster. He's forgotten about the Vogel setting that the toaster remains on most of the time and, you guessed it, his toast burns. The smell drifts upstairs to my office and I erupt. Innocent enough, I can hear you thinking but no, I have been immersed in his burning toast smells for too long (and there are not a lot of smells that I dislike more). I have threatened, I have pleaded but to no avail, at 6am every Monday the toast burns and the house begins its week permeated with the disgusting smell. And this is where my point comes in. So last Monday when he burned the toast, no more threats, I simply removed the toaster, put it in the back of my car and took it to our Auckland house. Problem solved. And is he still having toast? Yep, but he's grilling it in the oven and guess what… he has to watch it when prepared this way and so far no mishaps or horrible smells.
Without any immediate accountability or consequence nothing changes. We simply go on doing as we always have, rightly or wrongly and in my man’s case the toast didn't affect him. He doesn't mind the smell and he simply scrapes the burnt bits off to eat it. But to me it was a huge problem, so I had to solve it!
I can think of so many similar scenarios in our immediate environment where we have failed to take action or the consequence is so insignificant that the behaviour continues.
Do any of us really think that the policy muted by Paula Bennett to offer voluntary reversible sterilization to women on a benefit will make a difference? I’m not so sure (purely because it is voluntary so how many women will elect to take this option?)
I do, however, applaud her as there is nothing so true as this country cannot continue to handout money that it simply doesn't have. So surely if you are already in a position that you have to be supported by the State it seems absurd that you can just keep adding to the financial problem by having more children that will also need support.
Analysts are forecasting our country's deficit to be at $14 billion for the fiscal year.
I know for one, that no commercial organization can continue to trade when they are that insolvent… it is not even legal.
Fact... we have a problem. Surely we can’t be that far from the Greeks and it is time we took our heads out of the sand and did something about it… each and every one of us!
We cannot afford the level of social welfare that is being paid out. We therefore must make a change.
Maybe we should consider capping the domestic purposes benefit going forward just as we have the universities and the number of students they can take. So for all new applications to the benefit there is a two child cap… sure you can have more children, there is just no entitlement to state support... food for thought?
I was watching a TV One reality show last week that was showcasing the work of the Perth police force. A section of the program shown was of a woman arriving to court about to face charges of driving while disqualified.
Not only did she drive to the court where she was sentenced to a further period of disqualification, she then hopped into her car and promptly drove off. She was of course stopped by the police, returned to court and placed before the magistrate that same day, where she was refined a sum total $900 and six months disqualification… hardly a deterrent... incredible! (And will that woman drive during the next six months? Hell yes!)
Let’s take a leaf from the Chinese rule book where they have zero tolerance to drink driving. If you drink then drive and get caught, you will get locked up (no negotiation) in a Chinese prison for three months. I bet that stops them… it certainly would stop me.
And following on with the same TV program, the police pick up a guy that is associated with a local crime ring, driving a car loaded with stolen stuff and weapons. He goes to court and is fined the same amount that I got for speeding last week. It simply gets more bizarre. Why is no one prepared to make the hard calls? Where the hell is this all heading?
Paula's attempt to provide solutions for what is one of this country's biggest problems has started an up roar. This is not unexpected in that we have become such a nanny-state that even logical and fair proposals to solve a very real problem are reacted to in the same way as if total sterilization was suggested. I’m sure many New Zealanders, if asked, would have gone further in proposing a suggested solution to this problem that would have been well in excess of this very mild and practical solution pitched by Paula!!
In the words of one of my favourite movies… Something’s gotta give!!!!
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