Tag Archives: mental health

Ten years of stress in New Zealand: Update

Update: Looking at this visualisation from p. 2 of the latest Canterbury Wellbeing Index, it seems that it is accepted that ‘High Stress’ has indeed gone up in New Zealand – and more so in Canterbury – between 2008-2010 and … Continue reading

Posted in Earthquakes, Human Wellbeing, New Zealand Politics | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on Ten years of stress in New Zealand: Update

Ten years of stress in New Zealand

The 5th anniversary of Canterbury’s devastating earthquake on 22nd February, 2011 is looming. A recent after-shock of 5.7 magnitude quake has provided added stress to an already stressed population. There have been recent reports of increased suicides and suicide-related calls, depression and anxiety in … Continue reading

Posted in Earthquakes, Human Wellbeing, New Zealand Politics | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on Ten years of stress in New Zealand

Boaster roasting

[This comes with what is often called a ‘trigger warning’. Despite the tone I always try to adopt in my posts, the issues discussed here are not mere abstractions. People’s past and current suffering can be brought back to the … Continue reading

Posted in Human Nature, Media, New Zealand Politics | Tagged , , , | 18 Comments

Back to school in happy town

How are you feeling? If you’re in Christchurch, CERA thinks you’re doing really well. A media release cheerily announced that ‘Wellbeing Survey reveals positive outlook‘. Conducted for CERA by Nielsen Research from August to October, 2012, “2,381 residents completed questionnaires [of whom] … Continue reading

Posted in Democracy, Earthquakes, Freedom, New Zealand Politics, Welfare | Tagged , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

Getting ‘stuck in’ to employment

Recently, Rodney Hide related his experiences as a manual labourer, doing casual jobs for a builder, digger driver and retaining wall builder. Hide drew a lesson from his experience about the motivation of the unemployed. Basically, it amounted to the conclusion … Continue reading

Posted in Economics, Freedom, Human Nature, Human Wellbeing, Labour, New Zealand Politics | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

A better term than ‘breeding for a business’

  Back in 2002, some years before scaling the heights to the Prime Ministerial summit, John Key said that Labour’s Domestic Purposes Benefit policy had led to a situation “where people have been, for want of a better term, breeding … Continue reading

Posted in Economics, Human Wellbeing, New Zealand Politics, Welfare | Tagged , , , , , | 26 Comments

No ordinary day

Today has not been an ordinary day. But then neither was this day a year ago, nor many days in between. I went to the earthquake Memorial Service in North Hagley Park with my wife and daughter. We left early … Continue reading

Posted in Earthquakes, Human Wellbeing | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Soul Food

Back in the 1970s I remember reading an American TV reviewer who pointed out that, at the time, the only programmes dealing with serious issues were comedies. He used the example of ‘All in the Family‘ with its lead character … Continue reading

Posted in Economics, Human Nature, Human Wellbeing | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

On choices – good and bad

As the election draws near, it’s clear that ‘welfare reform’ will be one of the main areas of discussion and debate. It’s also, historically, an area littered with sloganesque arguments that fly around like empty cartridge shells at the OK … Continue reading

Posted in Human Wellbeing, New Zealand Politics, Welfare | Tagged , , , , , , | 7 Comments

The science and politics of the ‘politics of envy’

The release of Labour’s tax policies – which include a new top tax rate (39cents for income over $150,000), a Capital Gains Tax (at 15%), no GST on fresh fruit and vegetables and a tax free $5,000 threshold – have … Continue reading

Posted in Economics, Human Nature, Human Wellbeing, Labour, New Zealand Politics, Philosophy, politics of envy | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments