Hard News: Make you crazy like datura
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Well, I've always voted left, but I can't quite commit to labour at the moment.
The corrupt use of parliamentary money and the way they reacted to the Auditor General's report "How DARE he tell us we've been naughty! Doesn't he know who we are?" - that didn't impress me at all.The EFB - yes, we need electoral finance reform, but this is just a self-serving dog of an act. So Greens are out, any party that supported it.
But just who to vote for instead? That's the issue.
And which big city doesn't have people drinking and drugging too much? Not denying what he's seen, but you know, isn't this sort of worldwide?
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But just who to vote for instead? That's the issue.
Sure is. Your choices on the left are slim if you rule out Labour and the Greens :-)
And which big city doesn't have people drinking and drugging too much? Not denying what he's seen, but you know, isn't this sort of worldwide?
Bali, maybe? Don't know, but that's where Simon's Avatar says he is. That's why I asked him about the drug scene there. But maybe it's something you don't talk about on the net under a real name when you live in Indonesia.
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I think that for some people their dream may actually be to live in a city with an abundance of quality shared spaces. They may actually dream about dwelling in a well designed inner city apartment, it may also be better for the environment (urban and ecological) if people aspire to living this way rather than letting urban sprawl and a nostalgia for the quarter acre section limit our national conversation about how we want to live.
I don't want to minimise the importance of livable spaces for families but we don't all want to live on a quarter acre.
Excellent points, and speaking as someone who has been involved in two sci/med conferences on obesity (one at AUT the other at SOPH) the importance of providing urban spaces that are not "obesogenic environments" is becoming more essential by the day.
Urban inner city spaces and recreatonal spaces for families should not be mutually exclusive, if developers can be required to made to make specific provisions.
I am not sure if this is true, but I am told in Vancouver developers are required to provide for 1) green space/gardens/unimpeded pedestrian access 2) public art 3) drinking water fountains 4) playground/recreation facilities 5) protect at least a corridor of views for other buildings 6) not take up more than a percentage of the actual space they occupy, i.e. make provisions for open space to remain on the site, rather than allowing the footprint of the entire development to take up the whole site.
Recreation space is essential in a city, and whether you have children or not, the presence of facilities that are aimed at families are a good thing for society in general.
Certainly in Vancouver there seems to be a more effortless blend of public access/recreational facilities/art etc than in Auckland.
I have been trying (for more than a year, gosh they're busy) to get someone at Auckland City Council, North Shore City Council and SPARC to have a look at some of the photographs/running costs of the incredibly popular water parks that are studded around Vancouver (both the city and the suburbs).
These are free, safe, relatively cheap to run and encourage a fair amount of physical activity. They would also make a hell of a lot more sense here in Auckland where it is hot sometime, as in Vancouver they have to be closed most of the year.
Canada being Canada (i.e. freezing even in summer sometimes) there is even a huge "kid dryer" at the big Lumbermans' Arch Water Park so that soaked children can be blow dried before the chilly walk home along the sea wall. All of this is provided for free by the city.
The parks usually involve equipment that reqires a fair investment of energy in return for a highly charged water cannon, sprinkler pumping roundabouts, sensor activated jets etc.
There is one water park that doubles as a public art/fountain on the swanky Coal Harbour sea wall, and it is positioned so that the adults can have a coffee or a beer at a cafe and admire both the North Shore Mountains and the harbour, while keeping an eye on their kids playing in the sensor-activated fountain. There are grassy lawns with dogs playing frisbee and a huge number of pieces of art, walkways and playground equipment that is in a setting that is not some dusty suburban reserve, but a more successful and green version of what the Viaduct tried (and failed miserably) to be.
At the Auckland Viaduct here was a Buzzy Bee therre for a while, and it had a sign on it saying "DO NOT CLIMB ON THIS STRUCTURE" ... I saw at least 2 full-scale toddler and parent melt-downs a propos of this. Honestly, if you are going to put a Buzzy Bee in the middle of what must be a kind of Toddler Hell, it just seems gratutiously cruel (to both toddler and parent) to make it off limits....
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Canada being Canada (i.e. freezing even in summer sometimes) there is even a huge "kid dryer" at the big Lumbermans' Arch Water Park so that soaked children can be blow dried before the chilly walk home along the sea wall.
Do Want!
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But maybe it's something you don't talk about on the net under a real name when you live in Indonesia.
Not at all Ben, I simply missed the question. Bali, and Indo in general have substantial issues relating to illicit drug use, in particular shabu-shabu (=speed). I'd advance the thought that the ongoing use of such across South East Asia is a fairly strong argument that the draconian laws in the region don't work. Myself I've not encountered any real drug use in the non-Indonesian community beyond finding myself at party two years back with several hundred Italians, French and Spanish, all of whom were clearly on another planet. Not being in a similar state we had a drink or three (there are no drink driving laws here..any no real problem with that beyond the odd drunken ocker tourist) and left.
This place can be surreal enough without the need for stimulants, so I'll happily pass.
Then, of course there are idiots like Ms. Corby and the so named Bali 9, all of whom took a calculated punt and the house won; and the odd tourist caught in a police sting buying pot on the beach, but most of those get a slap on the wrist and an exit visa.
However my point was not that Auckland is more or less messed up but a comment based on personal experience and a note of personal concern. I do admit being bemused by the rush to defence...here and elsewhere. The "I don't know anyone like this" thing in particular is perhaps best answered by "you don't think you know anyone".
There is an insecurity in NZ that has always frustrated me.
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The "I don't know anyone like this" thing in particular is perhaps best answered by "you don't think you know anyone".
Heh heh. I still remember being at a Staff Xmas party 2 years ago and launching into a spiel about how I knew a few people who happily took E every weekend during the 90s without any problems, but when they got onto P they (and their lives) got severely fukt up. At which point a client (nice young chap in a suit who looked a good sort) argued back that there was nothing wrong with P and that he had tried it and he didn't turn into some drug crazed addict. And lots of his friends had tried it too and they were also OK. That really made me chuckle.
I haven't seen him since, and definitely wonder how he coped with it. Anyone else got any "I did P and I'm OK" stories?I have been trying (for more than a year, gosh they're busy) to get someone at Auckland City Council, North Shore City Council and SPARC to have a look at some of the photographs/running costs of the incredibly popular water parks that are studded around Vancouver (both the city and the suburbs).
How blind to the possibilities can those councillors be? They've all holidayed in Cairns at some point haven't they?
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Anyone else got any "I did P and I'm OK" stories?
I know quite a few people with this story. I do also know a few who are not OK.
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Anyone else got any "I did P and I'm OK" stories?
I tried it a couple of times in the US about ten years ago and thought it was no fun at all. So I never bothered with it after that.
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However my point was not that Auckland is more or less messed up but a comment based on personal experience and a note of personal concern. I do admit being bemused by the rush to defence...here and elsewhere.
Quite. NZ doesn't have to be the only drug and booze addled place for it to be concern.
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