Rex Tillerson - Asshole of the Week

It’s been great to see the frosty response to US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on his quick visit to New Zealand this week. The oil baron will leave without any doubt that Kiwi’s like most of the world don’t accept the Trump administration’s climate change denial and huge leap backwards into potential climate chaos.

Yesterday, Stuff reported:

US Secretary of State defends Trump on trade, climate change

Tillerson got a hostile reception from the locals, a reminder of our disagreements on issues like climate change from Prime Minister Bill English, and had to defend the US presence commitment to the region in the wake of isolationist policies enacted by the Trump administration.

But Tillerson's message for Kiwis was clear - the US is not retreating. On climate change, and trade, Tillerson defended the Trump administration's record.

Yeah! The Trump administration’s record… That’s a good one.

Not only did the former head of oil giant ExxonMobil, a company responsible for disasters like the Exxon Valdez, make excuses for why the US pulled out of the Paris Agreement, he also tried to justify Trump changing policy that will undoubtedly increase harmful CO2 emissions.

"I don't think anyone should interpret the US has stepped away from these issues, or is seeking to isolate itself. Indeed one of the reasons I'm in the region, one of the reasons Vice President [Mike] Pence has already been in the region, [defence secretary Jim]  Mattis has been in the region, is to reaffirm to everyone that the US views this region in the world as extremely important to our national security interests and our own economic and prosperity interests. And I think you can expect ...to see an elevated level of engagement to that which you saw in the past eight years.

What a load of waffle! I mean what exactly does Tillerson think will happen when the United States expands its oil production? Things like Trump allowing seismic testing and drilling for oil in the Atlantic Ocean is only going to result in more greenhouse gas emissions.

Not only will such environmentally irresponsible drilling be potentially disastrous, it will also mean more money for people like Rex bloody Tillerson that will be used to fund various Republican groups to try to keep Trump in power. Political corruption in other words.

Make no mistake, the Trump administration is working for the oil industry because it basically is the oil industry. The only value they see in New Zealand is our military strategic location and the potential to gain access to our resources for cents on the dollar.

On Tuesday, the NZ Herald reported:

Fact or fiction: Tillerson on the United States' 'unparalleled' climate change record

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson defended his country's record on climate change during a whistle-stop visit to Wellington today.

At a press conference following bilateral talks, Tillerson was challenged on the US decision to withdraw from the Paris accord on climate change.

What he said:

"The United States has an extraordinary record of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, possibly unparalleled by anyone else.

"Our greenhouse gas emissions are at levels that were last seen in the 1990s.

Obviously Barack Obama’s environmental legacy shouldn’t give Trump and his oily cronies a free pass to now increase oil production and pollution. That’s about the dumbest excuse for increasing CO2 emissions I’ve heard so far.

So for putting future generations at risk, multiple crimes against nature and being in charge of a company that actively funded climate change deniers for 27 years, Rex Tillerson wins this week’s Asshole Award. Let's hope the US listens to the world and votes these bastards out.

Children sicken under National

Nine years of a National led government hasn't been good for New Zealand. As well as more homelessness, incarceration and suicides in Aotearoa, the right wing's neoliberal agenda has caused Kiwi kids to become sicker, both physically and mentally.

Today, the NZ Herald (not online yet) reported:

Depressed kids: 15,000 on meds

The number of children and teenagers on Prozac-style antidepressants has soared 98 per cent in the past 10 years to a total of nearly 15,000 young people last year.

It's a similar article to this 2013 one, when Stuff reported:

Number of 'anxious' kids skyrockets

The rate of children diagnosed by a doctor with mental health conditions has almost doubled over the past five years.

Wow! That’s a huge increased in a very short time. I wonder what’s causing it?

A suicide prevention advocate has slammed the results as bad science and says the definition of a "normal child" has narrowed too far.

However, child psychology experts say the increasing rate could be a symptom of a more anxiety-driven society and improvements in the diagnosis of youngsters.

About 25,000 children have been diagnosed with behavioural and emotional problems, with anxiety the fastest growing condition, according to the Ministry of Health's latest children's health report.

Anxiety, ADHD and depression are the three most common disorders in children, and boys are twice as likely to be diagnosed with mental health problems.

One thing that hasn’t been mentioned in this article is the effects of a bad diet. When finances are stretched it’s often people’s diets that suffer and with more people becoming indebted and struggling to pay the bills, people are cutting back on buying healthy foods.

The effect of a bad diet on the nervous and mental system should not be underestimated. Here's an excerpt from a study done by the Indian Journal of Psychiatry:

Understanding nutrition, depression and mental illnesses

The most common mental disorders that are currently prevalent in numerous countries are depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). The dietary intake pattern of the general population in many Asian and American countries reflects that they are often deficient in many nutrients, especially essential vitamins, minerals, and omega-3 fatty acids. A notable feature of the diets of patients suffering from mental disorders is the severity of deficiency in these nutrients. Studies have indicated that daily supplements of vital nutrients are often effective in reducing patients' symptoms.

Most doctors in New Zealand will treat mental health issues as solely emotional or biochemical. They often don’t treat their patients holistically nor recommend particular nutrients or refer patients onto dieticians.

The other main issue is that healthy food costs more. If you’re on a fixed budget and have some bills to pay, a well balanced diet becomes a luxury that many Kiwi's cannot afford.

The government should therefore change this negative dynamic by taking GST of fruit and vegetables so that young Kiwi’s are more likely to get the nutrition they require. 

P policy should be based on science

With the meth epidemic in New Zealand at an all time high, you would expect the government would be launching some new initiatives to get people off this harmful illicit drug and reduce the associated crime and social harm it causes.

Yesterday, the NZ Herald reported:

Home buying and the meth mine-field 

Buying a home these days is fraught. First you have to find one you can afford (tricky in Auckland's market), and then - more often than you might think - ensure it is not contaminated by methamphetamine.

New Zealand has one of the highest rates of meth usage in the world (a 2015 world survey found us fourth just behind El Salvador, Philippines and Australia).

Meth (also referred to as P) can be made out of readily available household products plus one more ingredient, ephedrine.

So what exactly is the government going to do about it?

Dr Leo Schep, a toxicologist at the National Poisons Centre, at the University of Otago, is one.

He believes that when addressing problems associated with contaminated houses, there are two separate issues - "a house where someone smoked methamphetamine, or a house that was used to manufacture methamphetamine".

In a post on the science media website, he says that "people living in a laboratory environment risk suffering adverse cardiovascular, respiratory and dermal effects following the exposure to organic solvents, acids, alkalis and other chemicals.

However, people living in a house where previous tenants had smoked methamphetamine, and there is some evidence of low concentrations on surfaces, have minimal risks of toxicity."

The standards were reviewed last October by the Ministry of Health (MOH).

That resulted in a recommendation to increase the level of meth needed to warrant a clean-up by up to four times the previous guidelines. But that hasn't solved the issue.

To date the Standards New Zealand (now MBIE) process has not resulted in an outcome - one is expected later this month - but the presence of guidelines endorsed by MOH mean that players in the property market must pay attention to them.

Oh dear! It appears that because there are too many houses testing above the threshold and it’s very hard to prove toxicity in people, the government is likely to just triple the threshold so that more houses are deemed safe and can therefore be sold without any proper warning?

Just like National's wadeable rivers fiasco, this is pure madness!

National couldn’t be more unscientific and blinded by free market idealism if they tried. What Bill English et al needs to understand is that science doesn’t just conform because the government changes their god damn policy.

Keeping the housing bubble artificially inflated by selling off P contaminated houses without due process is clearly not a good idea. It will simply put more families at risk and put more people into hospitals.

I wonder what else this so-called meth expert recommends the government do?

Indeed Kim, in a 2016 paper, compares the traces of meth found on banknotes to those found in houses where the drug has been smoked.

"Internationally, detection of drug residues including methamphetamine on banknotes has not been interpreted as a direct cause for public health alarm, and there is no prospect of any jurisdiction requiring that banknotes be decontaminated between users.

"In a hierarchy of relative health hazards and risks, contaminated banknotes and houses where methamphetamine has been smoked would be at the low end of any scale."

I get the feeling Kim is busy downplaying the adverse effects of P contamination for a reason. Clearly comparing banknotes to houses is plain stupid! It’s not a scientific way to analyse the level of safety for a poison. You don’t prepare meals or eat off a bloody banknote for instance.

Of course there does need to be an actual standard, but even 0.50 micrograms is a very high level to be deemed unsafe. Most poisonous substances are deemed unsafe at levels well below that. 1.50 is going to ensure P contaminated houses adversely affect more Kiwi’s without them knowing about it.

I don’t mean to be alarmist, but when your neighbour's cat is probably sucking on the pipe, trying to change science with a short-sited policy at the behest of people with vested interests simply isn’t going to cut it.

We need a real solution from the government to get people off P… we need safe affordable housing in New Zealand and like most things in this fine country; only a change in government is going to provide it.

Honest Government Advert - Corporate Welfare

The Australian Government just released this advert about its $1b handout to Adani for his reef-killing, water-guzzling, climate-changing, ancestral land-desecrating mega coal mine - and it's surprisingly honest and informative.

National’s neoliberal experiment has failed

Just in case you needed anymore proof, have a look at the ever increasing numbers of homeless people in New Zealand to see that National’s neoliberal experiment has utterly failed.

Yesterday, Radio NZ reported:

Urgent housing need 'big concern going into winter'

The number of people registered as urgently needing housing has doubled in the past two years.

The Ministry of Social Development's Housing Register shows people in the at-risk category with severe and persistent housing needs have risen from a low of 1641 in June 2015 to a new high of 3422 in March this year, the latest available figure.

A further 1433 on the Priority B list have serious housing needs.

Emergency housing providers and support groups say government measures to tackle the problem have fallen short.

While the government can claim they’re putting more dollars into the health sector, all they’re really doing is wasting that money by putting more Kiwi’s into hospitals because they’re sick from living in cars or cold and damp houses.

'I think it's got worse'

The Council of Christian Social Services' Paul Barber said the people on the Priority A list were only a small fraction of those in severe housing deprivation.

"Their housing situation's regarded as unsafe or secure and unhealthy."

Some may be on the street, others were often in emergency housing, living in garages or severely overcrowded housing, Mr Barber said.

Clearly the National led government is just going to muddle along stealing a few policies here and there while the rental stock continues to decline and more Kiwi’s become homeless.

Thanks to a lack of proper policy and a government with their heads firmly buried in the sand we can expect increased social decay that will translate directly into a prison system that’s bursting at the seems. That's a good indication of a failing system that needs to change.

Despite the reality that there simply aren’t enough houses to go around, Bill English isn’t going to do anything about slowing immigration numbers either... mainly because National is relying on a false economy that has forgotten its moral values.

At what point will the people of this great country say enough is enough?

Noel Hilliam - Asshole of the Week

New Zealand is a culturally diverse country with a fantastic melting pot of different ethnicities. It would be nice then if our unique differences could be celebrated instead of routinely insulted by a bunch of intellectually challenged racists!

Yesterday, Stuff reported:

A Northland man is under investigation by Heritage New Zealand for tampering with historic burial sites

A self-proclaimed historian who has repeatedly claimed Maori were not the first inhabitants of New Zealand is being investigated for allegedly causing damage to archaeological sites.

Heritage New Zealand confirmed it will investigate Noel Hilliam for allegedly taking human remains without following correct protocols.

The Northland man recently claimed a race of White Celts pre-dated Maori and said he had found remains in what he called hangi pits as proof.

Such an obvious contradiction. The Celts boiled their food in large cauldrons or roasted meat on a spit over a central fire. They didn’t use hangi, which is something any good historian should know.

He said a visiting Scottish pathologist had confirmed his claims but also told Radio New Zealand that person had since died and wouldn't be available for interviews.

His most recent claims have been rubbished by the scientific community but were reported by his local newspaper.

A pathological liar more like. Clearly Noel Hilliam is just another racist prick! He is simply using the pretext of scientific study to promote his own bigoted views and easily disproven bullshit!

The problem really is that there are far too many morons like Noel Hilliam in New Zealand who will believe this old white guy's lies! Unfortunately they're often given way too much oxygen by the mainstream media.

So for being a blatant racist and trying to rewrite history, Noel Hilliam wins this week’s Asshole Award. Let’s hope this is the last we hear from the likes of him.