People power-- things could change if we all----

Fantastic--- when a group of thieves ran off with property that they had stolen from a Newmarket shop, they ran into (literally) a group of people who made a decision that the thieves would not get away with their booty.

Three people combined to make sure that the car the thieves were travelling in was going no further. Not only was it a ‘citizens’’ response, it was also an international effort. A huge Ukrainian weightlifter joined forces with the locals and when the thieves tried to run away, they met with more than they could handle. While one got away, the other two (they had the audacity to ‘complain’ about their rough treatment) were grounded and held until the police arrived.

What a refreshing story. We all end up paying more because of these useless low-lives. Let’s see more of this ‘grass-roots’ action and make NZ a better place.

Now I suppose the courts will smack them with a floppy bus ticket!

The rediculous spectre of Charter Schools recruiting kids at shopping malls

The PPTA (Post Primary Teachers’ Association) has raised the spectre of Charter Schools attempting to recruit students for their schools in South Auckland shopping malls. At a recent meeting the ire of the audience was raised at such a prospect. There were accusations of racism made and the Chair (A National MP) had to try to calm the participants down.

What’s the big fuss? I say let them. Are not many kids absent at any one time? I have heard some pretty high figures (around 18% plus on some days) for absenteeism. If these Charter School enthusiasts think that they can make a dent in these figures and reengage the students in education, then let’s see if they can succeed.

The argument that they will be taking resources from mainstream schools will be a transitory issue as the same kids start showing a similar reticence to attend school as they are doing now. Anything (although I would prefer to see the alternate education as we have it now, being tweaked and better resourced) that can be done to get these kids back into education is worth a go.

I see that some sections of the debate worry about such schools being called ‘McDonalds’ or some other name representing  other business sector. I know there are philosophical arguments against this practise and I do not trust the reasoning for their involvement as being anything other than wanting to increaser their market share, but----- let them do it and see what happens.

Instead of constantly trying to block these initiatives, let them flow on a small scale. If they take some kids off the streets, then that is good. I just don’t believe that they will achieve anything lasting.

I hope that my musings stimulate some feisty replies. We need this discussion --- so hit back, repudiate and shoot me down. If it helps to raise the level of discussion around Charter Fools---oops---- schools--- then good.  

When are they going to learn? Don't flee the police!

Call them what you like----‘boy racers,’ ‘fleeing joyriders,’ drunken idiots or just people trying to get away from police. Tragically, the results are so often the same when any of the above decides to flee the police and end up wrapped around a power pole or some other object. Unfortunately it can often be another car, compounding the tragedy by killing other innocent people.

Whether the drivers of these cars fleeing the police are being egged on by their passengers or they are acting under the influence of booze or drugs, the result is the same---death and carnage on our roads and grieving families left to deal with the results.

No one wants to see people die but it all comes down to a few salient facts. It is the drivers and occupants of these cars who must take the blame. The police are going about their jobs and they have policies about how they handle fleeing cars. There is a very delicate balancing act that they have to go through. Do they just let these people carry on driving; putting others at risk or do they decide to actively pursue the cars? It seems that they cannot win which ever decision they make.

There is a certain amount of risk involved when the police decide to chase a car that is trying to elude them. Often they have received reports about the said cars being driven in a dangerous or erratic manner. Once the driver of these cars decides to outrun the police then the blame has to rest on them for the resulting crashes. That they have partaken in drinking or other substances is their choice. They made the choice right from the time they took their first drink of the evening or when they decided to take a group of friends in the car ‘for a spin’ that involves dangerous driving.

I am sick of the public and the police being put at risk. The rest follows from that point. Run from the police and you set in motion a series of events that so often end up in death. STOP BLAMING THE POLICE!

Its nice to see people reading some of my old blogs

I was about to cull quite a few of my old blogs---- but I see that mnay of you are still reading them. Please give me some feedback, because having more than 460 blogs online, it may be making it hard to filter your way through them. I'm open to suggestions.

The end of the freebies for ROSKILL and TALK TO ME

I hope you have enjoyed my free release of ROSKILL and TALK TO ME. I do hope you will consider buying them from my website in a few weeks. http://www.authorneilcoleman.com/ will go live very soon. Roskill is about to go to print again (with a new cover and ISBN). It will be availbekl directly from that site and at a few outlets (to be advised) I am working closley with my website designer and my printer (The Colour Guy). All three books will be available soon.
THE RIVER ALWAY FLOWS is experimental and I shall keep releasing chapters, once I get the other books up and out there. I hope you can help me get my website to as many people as possible. Once it's live---please go for it. Doing this on my own, without a big publisher behind me is quite a task. I ain't gionna get rich, thats for sure.

If you choose to get pissed, then don't blame the police when they get a bit rough!

When I think back to my younger days and the parties I used to attend, I know that if the police came, we gave them a bit of ‘verbal stick’ but nothing much else. Yes the Springbok Tour brought out something in my compatriots and some violence did ensue, but something in me always took me away before things got too heated.

One of these scenarios was booze-driven while the other was ‘belief based’. Both have in common the fact that we chose to put ourselves in those situations. I guess it is easy to look back and in hindsight, say that things were different then.

They were. Parties got out of hand from time to time. I think we loosely used the term, ‘gate crashing.’ That was when we drove around looking for parties or we may have heard about one and just turned up without an invite. That sometimes led to problems and the police may have come. Usually, it only took their presence and things toned down and the party dispersed.

Now it seems that the police are regularly called out to disperse such gatherings. What is most noticeably different is the age of the ‘attendees.’ When you hear that young people, ranging in age from 12-17 are off-their- heads on drugs or alcohol (or a mixture of the two) you have to wonder at where things are going from here. What can the police do?

They can try to lessen the effects of these gatherings or arrest the worst of them---then what? --- Call in their parents? --- Take them to the cells?

Are we just going to standby and say---‘it’s normal for kids to let off a bit of steam?’ I say no. We must draw a line in the sand. It must be so hard for parents to know every move their kids make. They know that if they take a strong stand; one that is perilously close to using a physical response, that they will come a cropper re the law. It must be so frustrating for those parents who want to take back some control, yet they are hampered.

It takes a huge amount of consistent, flexible parenting to be able to lay down some ‘non-negotiable’ ground-rules that both parties adhere to. When it comes to D&A, well those rules can go out the window. Perhaps the ‘hard school of knocks’ is what it is going to take for some teenagers to get the message. It is better they ‘get it’ while they are still open to some sort of ‘persuasion’ than let their lives get so out of hand that every weekend becomes a test of wills between young people and the police.

One should look at less developed nations where there is a real fear of the police. It is difficult to find large groups of youths, ‘off their heads’ in some of these countries. Yes, the law is not loved or respected in those countries, and there is an element of corruption involved. We have a situation where we have to choose between, hard-hitting police actions and the complete bedlam we see on our streets. There’s got to be a better way.

It comes down to the ‘culture of drinking we have in NZ and other Western countries. It is normal for young people to challenge authority, but when that is mixed with D&A, then all bets are off. There is no ‘thinking and weighing up the possibilities’ when any of us are in an intoxicated or drug enhanced state.

We hear people saying that we need education in our schools. The fact is that we have that and there is little evidence to show that this works. I have seen some pretty ‘switched-on’ presentations from outside groups in secondary schools. It feels like they are getting through, but these same kids then go out in the weekends and get ‘loaded’ and anything they may have seen or heard, is way back in some hidden corner of their brains.

Are things just going to get even worse? Is what we are seeing now, a prelude to the behaviours we will see in the next few years? Has there ever been a time in history when the pendulum swings in the other direction?

For your own kids the best present oyu can give them is time. That is the one ‘gift’ that so many parents see as in the ‘too hard basket.’ You say you need that ‘time’ in order to pay for the ‘necessities’ you need to provide for your family. I know that just meeting basic needs, particularly in our bigger cities, takes a great deal of effort. It is these ‘necessities’ that has become problematic. Our belief that such and such is vital or we ‘need’ the next generation cell phone--- you get the picture.

Perhaps our desire to ‘live in a better suburb’ and then enjoy the so-called ‘higher decile school’ probably drains even more from us--- we need to work even longer hours and lout the window goes and real time with our kids--- right at the time when they need us most.

So it all comes down to the choices we make: about what and how much we drink, about what we think we ‘need’ and about how we spend our time.

There are some damned good examples of families out there who have made these choices and they aren’t all living in the top suburbs!

simple way to get rid of these drug selling parasites

The Government is sort of keeping up with these so-called new legal substances being sold in dairies and other places. They appear and in the next few days another one comes along. It really is quite simple--- ban these parasites from trading. Close them down. They cannot claim innocence about the substances they sell. They know bloody well that they are causing havoc in our communities and putting our young people’s lives at risk. Freedom of choice is fine, but not when it leads to the damage we are hearing about these new nasty drugs coming in under innocent sounding names like ‘bath-salts.’

How dare these ‘traders’ be allowed to go about their business. I am sick of the soft way we are treating them. Get tough Government, or they will continue to ply their evil trade.