Friday, August 29, 2014

Labour and its friends can win this election!

The election campaign is hotting up, hopefully re the real reason for us voting---the policies that are going to lead to a 'fairer' and more equal New Zealand. I am so sick of reading about the increasing gaps between the rich and poor; it's totally time to address that vexing issue. I am not talking about 'driving the Capitalists' offshore, nor am I talking about 'killing off the cow,' to the point that she 'don't wanna give us no more milk,' as some on the hard left tend to wish for. No---I am talking about a New Zealand where there is a 'living wage,' and that may vary region by region, because if you live in some of NZ's expensive parts, simply because you have no real choice (being on the benefit in a region with no jobs is not an answer!)then the figures touted about just what that living wage should be---don't meet the need. Please put the 'Dirty Politics' saga behind us, even though it will be remembered as the 'plinth' that shoved some politicians towards oblivion. For that, maybe that phase was necessary, in exposing something extremely worrying about how far some politicians and their allies are prepared to go in order to keep that balance in their favour. Now is the time to hear about a real vision for this better New Zealand. We must hear about how we are going to tackle child poverty, how we are going to improve the health of a huge sector of NZ society, where 'third world' diseases abound, where we have streets where most of the inhabitants are on some sort of benefit. We must seek to 'clean up NZ, and really live up to that 100% pure label, because right now it is a lie. We need to look at new ways to teach our kids, so that they are prepared for the 21st century and steer away from failed policies; ones that have been proven to be failures overseas. We need a government that sees beyond the three year election cycle, merely holding the 'Treasury Benches,' for their own needs. Listen to the policies of the parties in this final three weeks of the campaign and ask yourself---will that party bring about a New Zealand whereby selfishness is not the byword for behaviours that only serve the select few? Let's turn our backs on the 'Dirty Politics of the recent past and move on--to a better and fairer New Zealand! I believe that David Cunliffe along with the Greens represent the best choice, along with the support of Mana (minus KDC) and perhaps the New Zealand First Party, if only they could stop their fence -sitting King-making tendencies. There may even be National Party MPs who deep down, know that things need to change! Start that process by tipping out some of those who lead you! www.authorneilcoleman.com

Concrete floors---thank goodness! AND a leaking shower connection.

It's a pain in the arse not being one of those 'blokes' who can do----everything. You know the ones on the adverts who proudly strut their stuff, displaying an almost arrogant confidence about how well they can 'fix tings' make repairs to faulty bits and pieces and even contend with a spot of plumbing. Well---I am not one of those dudes. Yeah I can hear you laughing! So when something goes buggered in a house, I am at a loss. I panic, I worry and fall to pieces, wondering how I am going to afford to pay for the said 'breakdown' of a piece of essential home thingy. Shite--I don't even know the names for most of the elements that make up a house. Don't even attempt to get me to correctly label such devices that are needed to fix the misbehaving components of a house that suddenly goes 'bad.' Well something did go bums up in my home. I kept hearing this strange noise, somewhere in the vicinity of the bathroom. My hearing is such that directional identification is nigh on impossible. Hell---when kids call me at school, it sometimes sounds like the voice of God, calling to explain an imagined sin! Eventually---- that is after three days I decided to investigate a little more formally. I listened in great detail and figured out that water was escaping to regions unknown and that potentially---I was in deep poo---well, not quite, but unwanted water ---where it shouldn't be. I called upon my very knowledgeable neighbour---the most excellent man who built my office for an indeed economical and most certainly skilful manner. He quickly concluded that I had a slow leak behind the wall where the shower thingy connected to the water inflow. He set about testing it by doing this and that and we decided that it needed fixing. I took the opportunity to request a more modern type of showering device--you know the ones that slide up and down and can be taken off the wall. Yeah I know---not a very good description. Unfortunately he could not do the job until the following week. In the meantime I have had to live like an inhabitant of a third world city where the water is only available for a few hours a day. For three days now it has been a matter of turning the water off so that the leak does not cause damage to the home. We eventually found out where the escaping water was going---firstly just into the area near the shower, coming up through the tiles, but on the third day it rose again and I saw little patches on the carpet in the hallway. I had blamed Perdy--thinking that she was just excited to see me come home. How very unfair and wrong of me! By now I was starting to think that many thousands of dollars would be needed to fix the damage and issues, something I don't need right now, as I launch the final stage of my book launch. I had a phone call tonight from my incredible neighbour. He is coming in the morning---two days earlier than I had expected---he is going to fix it all. Two more days of wondering what the damage would be, even though I have a concrete floor, was more than enough to keep me awake at night. Please be a simple, job. I shall keep you posted. Damn, I have to turn the water on for a few minutes----nature calls!