Hekia Parata--'Should I go or should I stay?'

Dearest Hekia,

‘Do you stay or do you leave?’

Well luvvy---that’s a curly one.  Who AM I to tell you, eh? I mean, there’s been some real stuffups and those bloody teachers have been one step ahead of you all year. Then you went and got that Pommy lady—yeah the one who knew how to fix up New Zealand’s education fiasco. Damn it mate, she didn’t last long. What did she do eh? Did she piss you off big time? Maybe she saw through all the Government’s BS eh. Maybe she found out that NZ ain’t like the UK eh. Maybe people care more here about their schools and they don’t like being bullied by someone who doesn’t listen.

Yeah, I guess I feel I bit sorry for you all the same. You got handed the poisoned chalice, didn’t you. Key saw you coming and handed you the portfolio from hell. You should have looked at the history of various Ministers of Education over time and you would have seen the train charging at you along a one-way track.

Did you think that you would make your mark and then be rewarded with a ‘nice’ posting? The trouble with that is that people don’t forget so easily and the snake-pit you have inhabited for the last year or so has very slippery sides.

I’m going to say it again. Yes, I feel sorry for the way you have been used by Key and Co. If you have really learnt from this experience, I believe that you could make a good Minister: of what I’m not so sure. Whatever it is, how about being a little more humble and listen to a wider range of ‘advisors.’ Therein lays the reason for your imminent downfall.

I wish you a Merry Xmas and I hope you come back to the ‘Beehive’ with less sting in your tail.

Italy---Kia ora and Merry Xmas.

So nice to see Italy reading my blogs. I am always happy as you all know to see another country come aboard. I shall try to send a few blogs your way that are of interest to you. There is one issue that comes to mind and that is the possibility of that 'used by date' politician, considering a return to a high position. DON'T LET HIM! Surely he knows that Italy doesn't need him. So Mr 'B,'---take a hike.

Kenya----fantastic to see you.

TALK TO ME

I love to see a new country reading my blogs. I guess it's almost a game for me, to see ever more nations on the stats. Kenya, keep reading and I shall keep writing. Feel free to respond and check out my webiste and books.

COASTAL YARNS

ROSKILL

www.authorneilcoleman.com

I'm not having 'Barbaric' surgery,silly---it's Bariatric---

Was there some sort of hidden criticism of my decision to have Bariatric surgery next April, by calling it ‘Barbaric surgery?’ Anyone who knows me and has witnessed my various attempts to get on top of my Achilles heel, understand where I am coming from. Hell, it’s not like I have suddenly come to this important decision. It comes after years of fighting, loosing, and gaining and continually yo-yoing. Some people smoke, others drink and I eat---simple. Something inside me destroys all attempts to ‘portion control.’ I don’t see myself as weak or less as a person. I have actively sought solutions and spent countless dollars on those ‘down the dunny’ programmes. From what I have read and been told by ‘experts, very few people over 40 who are overweight manage to take off and keep off the weight. Maybe 10% manage, while the rest of us just increase the bank balances of various authors and purveyors of ‘miracle programmes. If there was a successful programme out there that lived up to its claims, then we would all know about it.

So, thank you for your concerns but not for your misinformation about my intents. I shall continue to ‘put myself’ out there in the hope that I can engender discussion about the terrible obesity scourge that plagues NZ and many other nations. I would so like this to be different and I acknowledge that ‘prevention’ is a far better option than the ‘knife.’ Please send feedback. I don’t give a hoot if you disagree, but it would be nice to have the ‘pros and cons’ about my (and many others’) journey I am about to begin. What am I going to do in the next three months? Why, I shall walk my dog and try practice what is going to be a way of living that differs from past pathways.

Pakistan's Government has suspended the Polio vacination programme!

The Taliban has won, at least for now. The Pakistani Government’s suspending of the Polio Vaccination programme shows just how far the Taliban has managed to weave itself into the very fabric of society in Pakistan. That is incredibly worrying for this proud nation. What will the Government do from here?

They cannot give in to the demands of the Taliban. If they do, they are taking their country back into a dark past, where children will die or be deformed by this insidious disease. Surely there is a way of getting the vaccinations out to the children. Why not do it in army bases, or are they too compromised by the Talban? If the Government does not win this battle, then the country is doomed to become a Taliban dominated Sharia Law throwback nation, where opportunity to experience all that life offers will be determined by a few men with beards and a book.

That is not what the founders of this nation had in mind all those years ago when the ‘Partition’ occurred. Somehow, the people of Pakistan are going to need to wake up and see what is happening, and come together against the sad vision that is held for them by the Talban. Dig deep Pakistan!

Five Pakistani female health workers murdered by the Taliban.

Pakistan is in need of a peoples’ movement, against the Taliban. Until the vast majority of Pakistanis get out on the streets and support the moderate forces of Islam, then they will continue to be held ransom by the evil Taliban.

The five women health workers were trying to vaccinate babies against Polio, a disease that may be on the rise again in Pakistan after it had been virtually wiped out. The Taliban have been promulgating rumours that the vaccinations are an American tool to destroy Pakistan. Such is the ignorance a stupidity of the Taliban. They wish to turn the Islamic world to a society resembling the Middle-Ages. Of course the Islamic world at that time was one that proudly supported the arts, education and knowledge in general so their avowed policies are ignorant of their own history.

Pakistan is in danger of being longed into a civil war, not unlike that we have seen in Iraq and Syria. This suits the purposes of the Taliban. The weary population of Pakistan will turn to those who they perceive as keeping them safe; both from corruption and war. At some stage the ‘tip point’ comes and that is when the Taliban will be ready and able to take over.

We shall then see the position of women and girls deteriorate and any gains they have made over the past decades will dissolve under the yoke of feudalistic and ignorant rulers.

This is not a time for the USA and its allies to intervene, because we have seen that this simply does not work. Change that lasts and represents the majority of the populace must come from within. Pakistan is capable of moulding its own future but the signs indicate that time is running out if they don’t act soon. The West can support Pakistan if or when such a call is made----from Pakistan.

Calling Russia, China, UK, Australia, India, Canada-

You get the picture? Do 'you' all need lots of guns in private ownership? Of course you don't even though you may have good reason to defend yourselves against the Government. But the USA does! Sad eh, because the vast majority of Americans are just like everyone else in the world---peace loving and familly orientated and good people. They just have this fatal flaw. We still love the people of the USA though eh.