Posted by alexandra_k on November 19, 2016, at 19:53:15
I went for a walk, today.
The roads are a lot worse than I appreciated. Or maybe I'm looking at them with different eyes, now... They are very steeply hilly and often sloped high in the middle. Lots of patches worn smooth... Lots of ill-positioned manhole covers, and the like. Also... Road cones. Cardboard boxes. Like... WTF?? It almost looks like people go around strategically placing hazards...
There was this case in the papers recently about someone who got caught taking videos of people showering naked in a public shower (e.g., gym). There was this sign up in the gym 'will you be next?' It sounded... Like they were issuing a challenge... Or warning people not to get caught... There are signs up in hospital car-parks: Have you set a trap today? Traps aren't just about you' (then pictures of hazard stuff). It looks like they are reminding people to set traps for others...
We are at the stage of pretty women driving tanks. A lot of new construction around the harbour. A lot of new 'science building' infrastructure across multiple blocks... Auckland had a gully ring to contain the harbour / city centre. We've got a river ring, here to contain the harbour / student ghetto. The lighting has just gone up (tall poles easy to tack a fence to) and the solid roads that could see a tank very swiftly patrolling the perimeter...
I think I feel a bit safer here because... Things are a bit behind... And because also... I'm on the other side of the fence, here.
It is a lot harder to get out further up and away than I thought, though. The next ring of barrier, perhaps. You have to get up and through the greenbelts with the strategically placed hazards... Keep thinking about what kind of natural disaster might take out the roads... What kind of earth shake would make the roads impassable. I think with that greenbelt it might be more about getting people back in...
It wouldn't surprise me at all if the new infrastructure is about building a... Bunker... Containment facility... Fallout shelter... Something like that... Blocks of it underground... Auckland's new health building had that feel to it... Only 2 entry / exit points... A huge concrete containment facility... Construction has just started on that here...
It's made me determined to get my licence. Because it will take a few years to be competent, most probably. I guess I think that I will get the best safety gear I can (skid time rated) and a fluorescent vest... I mean, nothing says 'I'm not trying to be cool or renegade just please don't f*ck*ng hit me' like a fluorescent yellow vest... Then apparently you plan your routes... Figure them all out beforehand and identify the hazards and so on. And then stick to the roads you know.
Not carefree the way I had supposed.
I'm trying to find housing... It is hard... Apparently you just need to keep your eyes open and see them because they come up and then go away again fairly continuously...
Everything is really very mixed... You really need to go view...
It is hard because it feels to me like anything nice is priced out of my range. Because you will always get 2 or 3 or 4 international students who will pack themselves into that same space. I guess in my case it really is about viewing the property... Probably owner managed rather than through a letting agency... And they like me and want me to take it... Without their wanting to be all up in my business...
What are the chances? Really?
There is a smell... I think it is pheromones... Some kind of scent marking... Some guys give off creepy smells... There are usually places like that... You can smell it as you walk past... Most flat blocks have at least one... At least one adjacent to every public park or school. Or something like a shared washing line area so people can steal your underwear and / or otherwise take your washing and hold it ransom because 'they thought it might rain' and now you owe them... 'Being friendly' it's called... It's just... Awful...
I walked past some houses... Large perimeter fences and, in some instances, garages right up to the perimeter. Or (nicer) metal pole barbed pickets around shady trees and greenery...
I remember when I was staying with my friends in Wellington... How one of them would say that she needed to insist that I eat with them every night, or whatever, because 'Otherwise we'd never see you'. Apparently that is justification for not giving someone their independence...
Whatever happened to 'if you love something set it free...'? People can't love me if they want to control me because they would know that what is most lovable about me is only there because I am free to... Do what it is that I need. Most people don't love me... I know that. Most people aren't capable of loving other people... I don't know that I am either, truth be told. That's partly why I don't want to have a kid. I don't think I'd be capable of loving it the way it needs to flourish... I most certainly can't afford things it needs since I can't afford things I need...
I'm worried they will relegate me to the ranks of fanboy, here. Because there are people who are more interested in being fanboys than anything else. Whether it be fanboy musicians (groupies) or fanboy academics or fanboy medical doctors. Often allied health... But perhaps sometimes not... I think I want to stop going to public health seminars... Here, anyway... They really are just awful... Exercises in... What? Keeping the fanboys happy since they are public seminars? I don't know... I don't understand them...
Someone said to me... Do you know why the junior docs (for example) don't complain more and get them to change this and that stupid policy (e.g., one wasting both time and money)? Answer: Because they just replace this and that stupid policy with this and that other equally stupid policy - or perhaps with an even stupider one that additionally requires a bunch more paperwork / some retraining. Anyone with any brains learns to keep their mouth shut...
It's pretty frightening, actually. That.
Apparently there is this totally brand new notion of 'collaborative care' that involves doctors actually working together with patients for health.
It's totally unrelated to the notion of informed consent that came out of the legal trials held in response to the experiments and treatments conducted by Nazi medical doctors and scientists.
The notion of 'collaborative care' is new...
Apparently in times of peace progress is made on human rights etc... In times of war... Those progresses get taken away.
I can't break 30% for an essay in public health.
What more do we need to know?
I made it out to the private hospital, here. There were about 4 cars there. It's all day surgery and nothing on a Sunday, clearly. You can't even pay for healthcare, here.
No, I'm sure you can. I'm sure one or more of those private houses...
I thought the reason why we were supposed to be happy about only doctors being able to prescribe medicines and perform surgeries etc was supposed to be because of their expertise. The expertise was the only thing that justified it. Insofar as the expertise goes out of the training program (e.g., too many student docs so it is impossible to teach them anything useful / insufficient rotation time to make it worth teaching them to do anything useful) then... There really isn't any justification for it.
Here... They focus on all the things that people could prevent... The harms from people who choose to smoke or eat rubbish or whatever. All these preventable things. And yes I understand there are often social factors blah blah blah blah blah. But what I don't understand is how focusing on all that... And focusing on hunting down and treating (against their will) people from traditionally underprivileged backgrounds (or whatever) instead of focusing on expertly treating the people who are doing what they can to look after their own health but need some expert assistance.... Somehow that is the face of medicine.
Looks an awful lot like bullying, to me.
Only interested in treating those who don't want to be treated.
Only interested in giving self-sufficiency to people who won't let other people alone.Please someone help me see this as a matter of perspective... Do I really need a perimeter fence outside my shady tree to see a little joy and life in this world?
poster:alexandra_k
thread:1093190
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20160906/msgs/1093190.html