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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 10 of 10. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by alexandra_k on August 16, 2018, at 20:10:23
I mean, if the government said tomorrow 'elections are a farce so we won't have them anymore' then it would make it f*ck*ng obvious to everyone just how bad things have gotten...
But the actual outcome of elections, here, at least, don't seem to make any actual difference.
We literally have this avatar of a Prime Minister. I mean, in this digital age, it's a digital creation. There was this Philip K Dick short story. I can't remember what it was called... But there was this guy and his family... And he would appear on TV and say this and that about sports or be drinking this or that and so on.
And the whole thing was the product of a team of people who knew that if he promoted (by way of strategic product placement) whatever, then sales of whatever would go up. Because people just genuinely liked him and wanted to be like him. Wanted their families to be like him. Wanted their wives to be like his and so on.
I'm not saying that she's not a real person in the sense of flesh and blood. I'm not saying she's a figment. A digital creation. But I'm saying her persona or image largely is. She appeared out of nowhere, honestly. That's what made it work. Made her seem viable. Because people didn't have a prior on her.
The hypocracy is obvious to me. SHe presents / portrays 'I am just like you'. No, she portrays 'I am what you want to be'. She tells us what we are supposed to want to be.
And people are just... Blinded to the hypocracy.
What early childcare centre does her kid get to be enrolled in and so on? No, it's okay, she's got a stay and home husband. What is going to be going on with breastfeeding? Fonterra... What kind of infant formula is she going to use.
She appears to be about the only person in this country with any kind of privacy.
To only have approved pictures of her kid shown in public. Not even Mike HOsking has that. He was told 'that's what you get for putting your kids in a public space'.
This whole survey, now...
I know, they think it is 'creating jobs' but it's just another case of people collecting the data they need to better exploit others.
Show me different. Because in my life... I just don't see...
Posted by alexandra_k on August 16, 2018, at 20:13:13
In reply to elections make no difference, posted by alexandra_k on August 16, 2018, at 20:10:23
I mean, the WHO stuff... Back in 1988 about housing conditions...
It's not like we don't know. It's not like we don't know about the effects of noise and unpleasant aesthetic, even. Quite aside from no-brainer stuff like visible mould and air particle pollution.
It's like... It's like the WHO wrote a cook-book on how to oppress groups of people. So governments of third world nations and the like could ensure their people stay poor and oppressed.
aw... we so poor. give us some of that foreign aid... so we can invest in foreign shares for our personal retirement.
There is stuff on how psychopathic strategy wins in the short term. what is hard to explain is how there ever managed to be any cooperation, at all.
Posted by alexandra_k on August 16, 2018, at 20:40:31
In reply to Re: elections make no difference, posted by alexandra_k on August 16, 2018, at 20:13:13
every time they build accommodation to house 300 they let in 600 more immigrants.
the universities are awful.
there are private residential halls (for accommodation) and they hire tutors etc. provide worked examples and little bits of this, that, and the other thing, for students to memorise...
there is this AskPublicUniversity online system where you ask a question and someone tells you the wrong answer. You know, you ask about accessing this or that and they say 'you can't access this or that' or you ask about parking and they say 'no parking for you' and so on.
I guess the system is a good way for people to ask questions PRIOR to arrival. that way we can be sure that we are only taking people who really don't have any other option because we are as upfront as we can be about how awful things are.
Here's brand new accommodation for, uh, refugees?
I always thought that when one was doing a Masters Degree or a PhD one should really choose to have a wife / husband and a newborn at that point. Newborns are prioritised for 1 bedroom apartment accommodation, you see. This isn't about housing couples who are both studying (two study desks would be provided) it's about providing a noisy environment where the focus is not academic, at all.
It's the whole push, thing, to encourage people to have babies...
I saw something... SOmething about post-irony. I'm having trouble understanding it according to the descriptions...
But irony. I guess that's what it's called when you have 'family friendly housing' which means 'it's impossible to work from home because of all the screaming children' and 'water care' which is precisely about dumping toxic seweage into the water systems and so on.
And someone asks you a question and the appropriate attitude is...
Post irony.
Beyond caring. Becaue you can't express an opinion or a point of view anymore. WHen everything is ironic one can say the opposite of what one means. But the avatar says things are getting better now...
What do you want me to say? I mean really.
Babble...
But the people on the university council get richer and their kids seem to do best in tehir private residential halls so...
and that's the ones who didn't do well enough for themselves to get their kids out. have them profit form the public education systems of other countries... France or wherever. That's where the last Prime Minister sent his son.
Not to the slums of here.
The world that he made.
Posted by alexandra_k on August 16, 2018, at 20:59:23
In reply to Re: elections make no difference, posted by alexandra_k on August 16, 2018, at 20:40:31
Sigh.
It's okay.
I'm in the 'things are a bit better' phase where you can relax a little and actually experience some of the traumas before moving forwards.
Like how sometimes you struggle to hold things together outside hospital then collapse on because... You actually have some space to do that.
My house here, is lovely. It could do with a central heating system, but aside from that, it really is terrific. It has so much potential to be developed, too, for someone who was staying here, long term. And the neighbourhood is pleasant. The people are peaceful and honest and so on. And nobody is a problem with loud music or whatever.
Worst case... It will be back to emergency accommodation, living out of a motel. Which is not ideal... But it's a 1 bedroom apartment sort of accommodation in a location that will be handy enough. Until something suitable comes through.
I didn't appreciate the role of emergency / motel accommodation, before, but I think I get it now. It provides a couple weeks for them to observe you. To see who comes visit / hang out with you. To see whether you blast TV / music. To see whether you keep communal (motel) laundry areas tidy. With housekeeping every day you get to see whether people are messy / likely to damage things, or whether people keep things nice etc.
You really could use that information for good. So that gang / drug / criminal connections are not brought forwards into neighbourhoods that we are trying... Really genuinely trying... To keep nice.
The trouble is using that information for bad. So that people are kept thrown back into awful situations because they genuinely would get out of them if they were given appropriate opportunity. When you see the lovely Pacific Family with the (despite everything) bright eyed kids who are so clearly brilliant... And you kick them back because they make the stupid kids of rich people look bad...
I know it seems that I've got something against the stupid kids of rich people... It's a bouncing back thing. After being kicked back... I realise... After being kicked back... You see what was maketed as being so very much more smart and accomplished and so on than you and you see that it simply ain't all that...
Well tee hee hee people wondered how long that would take to catch on.
Resiliant, or something.
Anyway...
I guess we see what a judge has to say about whether I can fill in the stats survey in paper / online myself or whether I am required by law to tell it to a stats nz employee so they can fill in the information for me.
I expect they will try and bully me into doing it in a legal aid room before appearing before a judge... That way I don't need to let them in the house so it's a compromise - see?
Only, it's not. People who are deaf shouldn't have to explain they are deaf and don't want to talk to a stats nz person. They shouldn't have to ask for an interpreter (probably that's not allowed either) and they shouldn't have to provide one. They should be allowed to do things in writing that can be done in writing, no questions asked. It makes no sense that it's because of resource limitations (the cost of being disabled) that they can't do this.
I am so TIRED of arguing with idiots abotu rubbish because it's fun for them and they don't see that there is anything better that they could be doing with their time... Maybe trying to figure some way to make the world better... For, uh, more people than simply themselves...
Posted by alexandra_k on August 16, 2018, at 21:22:30
In reply to Re: elections make no difference, posted by alexandra_k on August 16, 2018, at 20:59:23
I need to buy a lemon tree.
A spade to turn the garden.
I think a compost bin will be a bit much, but maybe I can dig a few scraps / weeds in to help the soil quality of the front garden...
A couple herbs.A lemon tree, at least. Because it's the kiwi thing. It's a unspoken rule of being a decent human being. You move into a place that has space for a lemon tree and there isn't a lemon tree: You f*ck*ng well plant one.
The place is better for having had you in it.
That's the rule. Of being a good neighbour.
I got some information about central heating systems... But that's the sort of major project you need to borrow equity against the house sort of project...
They got to observe me here over a year.
There are State Houses in the quieter, pleasanter, inner city suburbs of Auckland. Million dollar state houses... Not many. But there are some.
And they are careful about them, of course. Because they are quiet and pleasant neighbourhoods with people who need to work odd hours and so on... And you can't have people upsetting that, you just can't. And you do want people to appreciate what they have got and invest in making things that little bit better, where they can.
At least, you have to hope that that's how it goes down and there is an aspect / element to that.
University Accomodation is fairly awful. Housing mangers who think they don't need to treat for cockroaches because they are simply endemic, or whatever. Residential assistants who use swipe cards (not even any real keys for security) to enter whenever they like... Tee hee.. LIke walking into your brothers bedroom tee hee...
The State House thing will come through or I'll get put up in a 1 bedroom hotel which will be a bit ugh, but will be a place where I can get work done.
I just have to believe that...
I'm not going to be cowed into applying for awful cramped studio space, anymore, with people trying to conceal high rise construction they are just about to start next door (which will involve pile drivers working in the dead of the night because they needed to close off roads to get heavy machinery into the work space).
I don't know why I think I won't be culled at interview. And FASS at Waikato...
I suppose I didnt realise that, as an undergraduate in FASS before, things were fairly much set up to have their graduates marked as... Slow and unproductive. Overloading them on teaching work, primarily. Excessively liberal stance on deadlines and genuinely trying to teach them that deadlines are meaningless... Trying ot encourage them to stay as lowly paid teaching slaves for as long as possible...
I remember having a breakdown at one point. I said I had too much of a teaching / grading load and I needed to not take that much work on. Even though it was flattering to have been asked and I did enjoy teaching and the money was GREAT from the perspective of someone who was fairly much living off $2 takewawys chips per day... And they didnt' listen... Until I went into hosptial for a week and then they managed to distribute the teaching work amongst lecturers and the like... And I went on to get really good grades in my honours year.
But that was the only language they seemed to understand...
My mate quit the subject after that year because she didn't make the grades on the externally imposed essay deadline. Because they overloaded her / allowed her to be overloaded with teaching work. Yeah.
So there is some concern that if I actually complete this year (instead of taking the 5 years my student ID allows me) that it will be perceived as 'unfair' to the other students.
Well.. Maybe they should think about how fair they are to the other students.
I don't know why they won't focus on producing high quality graduates for the world. Sigh.
I have academic freedom this year. I suppose. I don't need to disclose financial remuneration from teh university or from the district health board. So i can feel freer to talk about these practices. About how much people on councils and boards earn while crying about how we don't have enough money to provide suitable housing / adequately pay post-docs / junior lecturers to, uh, do grading and so on.
Posted by alexandra_k on August 16, 2018, at 21:24:25
In reply to Re: elections make no difference, posted by alexandra_k on August 16, 2018, at 21:22:30
Because you have a manager on, say $250,000 per year.
Instead of, say, 3 or 4 junior lecturer positions.
Because the whole point of a university is incentivising managers to reduce the number of academics for theier own profits, yeah?
Posted by alexandra_k on August 16, 2018, at 21:26:52
In reply to Re: elections make no difference, posted by alexandra_k on August 16, 2018, at 21:24:25
and of course, on a simliar vein, you have junior doctors who are known to be incompetent and / or immoral... unregistered... unregisterable... fled their home country once people realised how uncompetent / immoral they were...
who will work for cheap.
so the managers can better accumulate wealth me-wards.
Posted by alexandra_k on August 17, 2018, at 17:36:33
In reply to Re: elections make no difference, posted by alexandra_k on August 16, 2018, at 21:26:52
and (more to the point) junior doctors who won't complain or speak up about unacceptable practices in the health system. because if they spoke up then the health board might look a little into their qualifications, or into whether they actually are the person they claim to be, and so on.
the colleges are withdrawing their accreditation all over the place. that means that they don't have registrars anymore. i think it means that. it means that someone who is trying to train to become a specialist doctor can't train in the new zealand hospitals, anymore. because the district health boards have allowed the hospitals to deteriorate to the point where they are not suitable for training (e.g., because they haven't purchased necessary equipment for radiology) or because they haven't hired enough trained people (three consultants for a specialist unit, apparently).
so... the only doctors who are working in radiology or anesthetology or whatever it is... are ones who are prepared to work lone cowboy (because they don't have enough to run a unit). are ones who are prepared to do the job without being registered in the speciality (because they are cheaper to hire). because they are prepared to do the job without the job contributing towards becoming registered in the speciality (because the hosptial isn't accrredited to train people in the speciality).
Waikato was going to lose psychiatry, I think. I'm not surprised. Every couple years it turns out someone employed as a psychiatrist is an impersonator and isn't a doctor at all, or is a doctor overseas but faked psychiatry credentials or whatever. I guess these are the people who will keep their mouths shut on the appalling practices that allow the district health board councillers and managers and so on to earn enough such that they can personally spend that money investing in personal health insurnace for themselves and investing in private hospital infrastructure.
Posted by alexandra_k on August 17, 2018, at 17:48:39
In reply to Re: elections make no difference, posted by alexandra_k on August 17, 2018, at 17:36:33
because you had all these people who decided they wanted to be managers. and they decided that it didn't matter what they managed, it was all about people, really, about being all up in their business and in their faces and so on... and it didn't matter whether it was about health or education or about milk products or about infant formula or... it was about collecting up the money me-wards.
and got in there and had a go, they did.
Something about the 'low road' to economic growth. where you aim to mass produce a great volume of product as cheaply as possible. that somehow that's for the good of us all. that's why the poor people having large families of vermin children is supposed to be the thing. the councillers go 'wah! we only earn $250 NZD per year! because Dunedin only has a population of around 250,000 people. If we had a population of around 1 million (more like Auckland) then the councillers would earn more like $1 million). But then, wait, why can't we be more like Sydney... Or New York... Or Hong Kong...)
But we can't even look after the things we've got.
and the whole money things just phoney, really. The point is, these places are priced out of range of the people in charge of here. That's the point. And always will be. Same old same old of trying... Trying... To keep the psychopaths out.
I am ambivalent because people have had PLENTY of opportunity to have assessed me, by now. In my time back from Australia there has been plenty of time for me to have been given a quiet place where I can work on my thesis. I mean, when I first came back that was what I wanted. My plan was initially to actually finish that up. But noisy accommodation and noisy accommodation and pooh pooh rubbish rubbish you have everything you need... We are talking years and years and years later... So I kind of don't trust things, actually.
I do get a sense of guarding against greed... And (as always) what makes me different from them? But I do drive around and realise I'm always forced to live with the lower 1/4 of the population... Typically lower than that, still.
And I think about how I'm not a criminal. THough they've been doing there best in recent years to charge people wtih assault if they insist on going into a public building to ask for helpl and so on... Even around university if you try and find a quiet stairwell to sit in security will get you to move along -- like you are not allowed to be in a public space without a herd...
That's actually how bad things are, here.
And I do wonder why it is that I'm always targetd for being treated so much worse than everybody else.
I really do.
Posted by alexandra_k on August 17, 2018, at 18:49:49
In reply to Re: elections make no difference, posted by alexandra_k on August 17, 2018, at 17:48:39
I guess because I was supposed to keep my head down and suck up and suck up and suck up... And eventually (after taking 5 or 10 years to do a PhD at a New Zealand university) they might have decided to employ me... But probably not. They probably would have desired to hire someone from a differnet country instead.
There are different things about theories of power...
One of them is about their being an elite. And about how becoming one of them is the way. And I guess that's the idea. That's what people like to think. People like to think they are in charge on an elite and they have gatekeeping control over who gets to be part of that... And sometimes they can't veto people out because of who their parents are... And that's upsetting... But they can make up for that by being particularly unpleasant to people who don't have the, uh, adequate, 'social supports' I think we call them.
I don't think it was malevolence from the Department during my honours year with the teaching overload. Just their not taking appropriate care. I needed to have been pushier about it, I suppose. About what I needed. Whatever. Done now.
But, yeah, I guess people want to select forwards people 'just like them'. People who take special delight in people going 'sessir nosir anything you saysir' because they think they need to suck up to the gatekeepers in order to go forwards...
Why can't we be a meritocracy? Where we try and bring forth the best in everyone?
Why do people always have to hijack whatever enterprise there is in order to play stupid games?
We are starting to develop NZ royal colleges... But from what I've seen...
I don't know. At least with the US and Australia there is a breadth so you can apply for lots of things and the odds... Whereas here the way the odds work is you applying for the same f*ck*ng thing from the same 2 f*ck*ng places again and again and again which takes years...
There used to be controversy over whether managing health and education was different from managing something which was solely for profits. I guess the answer to that was 'no'. And our health and education systems have been ruined accordingly.
But still the migrants come so...
And in a country where people don't have adequate housing how bad does hospital need to be before people won't present looking for a bed for the night?
Sure. The Prime Minister is going to have her baby in teh public hospital in an open ward with all these people... with the methhed and her baby and so on...
Sure she is.
This is the end of the thread.
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