Posted by alexandra_k on October 9, 2018, at 17:27:21
In reply to Re: Today's Dominion Post » alexandra_k, posted by beckett2 on October 8, 2018, at 12:11:55
> I'm sorry Alex, I mixed that up. Only one NZ company has adopted a four day week. But that might convince other companies.
Ok. I don't know about that. Depends on the nature of the job and the nature of the people. Some people prefer to work independently (and can't actually get a lot done with other people hanging over their shoulders). Other people prefer to work someplace public (and can't actually get a lot done without feeling like other people are hanging over their shoulders).
I think it is a shame we aren't better at letting people work however is best for them.
I suspect it is beause the independent workers are the ones the group workers most want to work with so conflict of interest.
> is that what you mean, keeping your record clean as a way to preserve privacy.
The example you describe wasn't how I was thinking of it, but now that you have raised it, that is part of it, yes. In the US juvenile records are expunged (I think that is word) to allow that kids can have brief periods where they are having trouble adjusting to something - but this is normal and they bounce back if we will let them.
Maybe it is tied in more to the idea of not discrimating against them / making negative and harmful assumptions about them further down the track.
I didn't realise that we have a bunch of jobs (medicine, paramedics etc) where on application people are asked to fill out disclosure forms stating they have not been abused, witnessed abuse, etc. If you say that you have (or the police check results in the police saying that you have) then your application is culled. If you say that you haven't...
Well, then, you keep your mouth shut about it, don't you. If you say anything to the effect that you have been then you can have your lisence to practice revoked and so on.
I wonder if that is what they intentionally do to try and bond people to stay here. Refuse to register them down the track on the grounds that... That wouldn't surprise me. People have been doing some very nasty things high up in our institutions. Treating people as subhuman. I think I might be starting to see some positive changes... But it's too soon to tell...
I can sort of see how the idea was that people without a history of these things have very high burnout rates. So they genuinely think they are doing people a favor by excluding some for their own good.I can also sort of see how they don't want / can't have sort of... Mass hysteria... Group discussions about people's experience of abuse during paramedicine training or medicine training or... We don't know what to do about it so just keep your mouth shut and pretend it never happened. I guess having a history is okay so long as you repress it, deny it, never talk about it. Though... I am concerned they state they retain the right (or whatever) to not register you down the track if they discover you do have history that you didn't disclose. They are trying to retain the right to... Violate people's rights. To discriminate against them on the grounds they have witnessed abuse. I mean... I thought we were making progress on human rights. Things in this country are so backwards... So backwards...
Every now and then they have these 'speak up' sorts of campaigns. But I guess they are just tests. They see how many people do in fact 'speak up' at which point they get to put them on a list somewhere of 'things this person is no longer allowed to do in our society'. I mean, eventually you have a 0 days working week. You are removed from the workforce. Whether you are enrolled in some useless training program, or put on disability. I wonder what percentage of our population actually is employed with a living wage. I bet it is less than 1/4. I wonder on average how many other people 1 living wage is meant to support, in this country.
> Any positives changes to come from your new PM may take a little time. I loved that in her UN address, she held kindness highly and included the First Nation population.
I'm not sure how I feel about her. I will need to wait and see whether positive changes do, in fact, come about, or whether she's just an avatar concocted in some foreign laboratory to momentarily placate us for another few years while things continue on their tragectory of worse and worse and worse and worse (and worse). Her whole image is significantly improved on the last guy -- but It's clearly an image. It's clearly (to me) very carefully crafted.
I don't know who these people are who they are digging up, recently. For a variety of things. I don't know that they were at the NZ Universities when they said they were. I don't know that they are actually New Zealanders, at all, (yes this country really is that small)... I do know they have spent a significant amount of time overseas and it is looking more like they have been... Drafted... Back here to do things for a while.
That's not necessarily a bad thing, though. Something like that is probably what is needed.
But that makes here only an exit strategy for me, for example. Things are too awful, here. It will take generations.
> Is there a high level of domestic/child abuse in NZ?
Yes. It really is endemic, here. Mostly it's not considered abuse it's 'playing' or 'teasing' or whatever, too. Rates of suicide (particularly teen) are higher than rates of road injury (which is strange because killing yourself by way of motor vehicle is a fairly obvious suicide solution, I would have thought). I'm not the only person to wonder incessantly why I'd even been born. People have a tendancy to treat each other really very badly indeed, in this country.
University residential halls (maybe not the elite one/s) but generally university residential halls feel like refugee camps. All the abused children. Only, we don't consider them children. We consider our kids to be adults at 16 so violence at / after then would not be considered 'child' abuse. Teen drinking is also endemic. The kids are self-soothing... With alcohol and sex... Sexual relationships between High School students and their teachers is also pretty common and we don't consider it abuse since 16 is the age of consent. Alcohol is legal at 18 but 16 year olds don't have trouble obtaining it from their 18 year old friends. The police don't police marajuana for personal use (if you have less than an ounce or two for distribution / dealing they will fairly much always turn a blind eye). The lawyers don't convict for any of these things because (recent rulings) these things are culturally / socially normal in this country (I think one or two were overturned on appeal - where the judge came out and said it was the victims fault). Women are also abusers in these parts. We do have strong women, and there are many cases of women abusing male husbands or partners or their own children.
What do you do about all that?
I was better off on my own / looking after myself at 16. It's not a psychopath thing, it's reality. I was less likely to be abused by others if I kept my distance away from them. But I did incessantly call for help from the mental health system. And what I wanted was a relationship. A Mother, primarily. I suppose. Its not something you can get from friends. Not without ruining the friendship.
Anyway...
The pediatrics thing... I just mean that in these parts you see abused kid after abused kid after abused kid. I mean succession of broken bones and shaken children. Children who have been fed alcohol to get them to shut up. Neglected children. If you love children it must be really hard to patch them up and send them right back into the household that is only going to do that again. Add to that that the kid might have 1 caregiver (who is powerless to do anything) who is... Pleading for help. Only... There is no help. There might be a women's refuge, but often the Mother is the primary abuser. There really isn't any help. What are you going to do? Call he police? They can add it to some list... Take the kid away from the family? Where are you going to put the kid? Best case in some institution with all the other... Harry Harlow kind of kids. So the head psychiatrist can do 'love experiments' on them and observe the effects of child abuse...
Patch them up and send them on. If you loved kids... Wouldn't that break your heart?
I think if you loved kids... You would rather work with kids who had parents who loved their kids. Misfortune strikes. Rather than Mother strikes. Predictably.
I guess there is something wrong with most of the people who choose to stay here.
I think people are starting to work on the intrastructure so that good people can stay and work here. That's needed. But it's slow...
I will look into things... I guess I'm starting to realise just how little I will learn here / how much what it is that I will learn from here will have no application (only harmful application) in the developed world. I mean... What they will teach us about obtaining consent... Will more likely harm me than help me learn how to obtain consent... These sorts of things... I feel like if you could see someone good do these things then you could imitate that and it wouldn't be a big deal. I don't know that we have exposure so such role models in these parts, though. So people don't know how to go about it... So the kids (the medical students) straggle themselves up as best they can... But mostly consent is not obtained.
There have been very bad abuses in our recent past. For example, some guy taught his medical students how to do vaginal examinations on non-consenting women who were anesthetised for unrelated surgeries. Probably because he / they didn't know how to obtain consent and things seemed... Easier... This way. Cervical smears were also taken from newborns by one guy... Becuase he thought there would be abnormal cells present from birth (they were observing the natural course of cervical abnormalities because they thought the abnormalities would right themself without surgical intervention / becuase it was cheaper that way for the DHB). and then all the stuff on 'this particular clinic' or 'this particular region' (typically Maaori or Pacific Islander) doesn't get generic antibiotics because we are worried about breeding superbugs and they don't take their antibiotics anyway (so simple infections become rheumatic fever become faulty heart valves become faulty hearts). While simultaneously having extremely high levels of prophylactic antibiotics in our chicken farming industry (particularly).
There are bound to be countless more... Today...
Sigh.
I think I need to become a Medical Student.... And then it will be about limiting my exposure to the... Uncivilised... As much as possible. Becuase it would be nice to be in the position to help. And that's limited. I think it would be nice to do what I saw my p-doc do in Aussie... Work a bit in public and work a bit in private. I think the idea of mixed clinics and mixed demographics is important. I think NZ is heading towards.... Heading towards... Discovery that segregation is not good for Maaori rights. The issue is that currently Maaori want segregation because they believe (some small minority group of them) that Maaori will take better care of Maaori than non-Maaori would. Given that they want that... You kind of do have to let them...
(Let individuals choose).
I'm concerned about the segregation aspect... Maaori clinics are an obvious 'target' to be 'control group' or 'observational study' group or 'it's cheaper for the DHB to sit back and do nothing and observe the natural course of whatever ails you'. Insofar as Maaori think they are being treated (that they will be informed if they would be better of getting lab tests, or informed of their test results e.g., for cancer screenings).... These things need to happen. Or if they don't want to know then they should be able to choose which clinic they go to (the observation clinic or the treatment clinic). Rather than being told they should go to the Maaori clinic because the non-Maaori clinic is racist.
Anyway...
Let them take several generations to discover that segregation isn't working for them. Or... Maybe they will make segregation work out for them. Maybe they will.
We gotta let them develop how they want.
I... Can only watch so much of what feels like a train wreck of a situation, though.
I... I wouldn't want to rule out pediatrics. But there is only so much abused / neglected kid I could deal with. I certainly wouldn't consider it here. I wouldn't consider psychiatary either. Cancer surgery. Yeah. It'll be generations before we get medications etc to prevent the need for surgery. We're still sending the tissue biopsy samples... Somewhere... Somewhere... Somewhere... I feel strongly about informed consent. That's why we owe these medications more widely... Contributing biopsy samples is contributing to the process of discovery. Our people are worth more than that...
I'm glad she said 'some of our people could spot a bad trade offer'. We are not decent people. Most of our people could not spot a bad trade offer. Our previous government really wanted to take that bad trade offer. We don't have natural resources. But, that doesn't change the fact that our people are not decent, mostly. We are a culture of bullies. I'm glad I came back here because I have seen it's not restricted to Maaori. They learned much of their awful from the white people. White people are just as bad. That's good. I thought I was becoming racist before. I'm not racist. You get nasty people off all races.
poster:alexandra_k
thread:1100838
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/poli/20180816/msgs/1101274.html