The “Regular” category migrated here from Tumblr, where the “regular” post type just captured all posts which did not focus on the other “types” such as photo, audio or video.
I have excess wardrobe to clear out. It’s all free but you can give Koha by bank transfer if you want to (more on logistics end of page).
Clothing is “women’s” sizes 14-24, mostly around size 18.
Dresses formal and casual, skirts, blouses, a lot of “smart casual” and tidy clothing. There’s a bin of clothes to look through in addition to this hanging stuff pictured.
Also available: handbags, a couple of pairs of shoes (women’s 10), document holders, a small spark cellphone & charger, old but working WACOM drawing tablet, some dress-up items (wigs), lots of costume jewellery, sunglasses, hair accessories.
I will open the garage door for you at the time we agree and assume you have about half an hour to browse, try things on and take what will serve you.
Ask first if you want to park in the driveway as it’s shared
Some things will be marked not to take (coat rack, room divider screen)
It’s best not to bring tamariki (children) with you, as there are things that can be knocked over etc
Nothing behind the screen is up for grabs but you can try things on back there
Ask if you want the (damaged, roughly repaired) coffee table
The folding picnic table and chairs are for sale
You can bring friends or family if you know someone who might benefit
anything left after the weekend will be donated to a charity shop
I won’t be hanging out due to covid risk, sorry.
Koha
A lot of this stuff could be sold, and although I could use the money I don’t have the time to co-ordinate that.
Here “koha” means giving what you are able to in exchange for what you have received. If you can’t pay anything, that’s totally fine. But if you want to give some money for what you take, you can make a bank transfer to:
On May 30 #ArmsDownNZ began to trend on Twitter as we learned that NZ Police’s trial Armed Response Team had not been reserved for incidents that posed “significant risk”, but had largely been doing normal Police work.
This news landed just 5 days after the horrifying murder of George Floyd at the hands of American Police, captured on video and broadcast around the world. Yet another abhorrent demonstration of racism and Police brutality against Black people in America. (Please seek out writing from Black people in America on this topic, I am here to write about my own experiences not theirs.)
There is a view of New Zealand as an idyllic island nation, remote and pristine, full of hope and promise, separate from the troubles of the world. Safe – not even the wildlife will kill you.
This idea of New Zealand as a safe land of opportunity is what brought many colonial settlers here in the first place, and what current residents of our country often turn to for comfort when there are problems overseas – “I’m so glad I live in New Zealand! That doesn’t happen here”.
George Floyd’s murder is another traumatic overseas event we are trying to make sense of. The horror of watching a man die beneath the unrelenting knee of a law enforcement officer induces us to seek out comfort and to make ourselves feel safe.
The revelation that our own Police force could soon be carrying out their normal Policing duties while also carrying firearms should rip away the comfort of “it wouldn’t happen here”.
If you think what happened to George Floyd could never happen in New Zealand, your head is in the sand. Our police force is also pushing the limits with very little resistance. #ArmsDownNZhttps://t.co/g7OpRrZSmY
More armed Police will lead to more people killed by Police, and those people are more likely to be brown. Research from JustSpeak released in February 2020 highlights racism within the NZ justice system.
Our research shows that when first encountering police, Māori who have had no prior contact with the justice system are 1.8 times at risk of a police proceeding and seven times more likely to be charged by Police, than Europeans. When someone is charged they are more likely to end up trapped in the justice system. Their chance of re-offending increases with negative outcomes for whānau and communities. More than half of Aotearoa’s prison population is Māori, despite Māori making up only 15% of the general population.
If the idea of New Zealand as a safe place is one that is dear to you, you must take action to ensure that it’s true. armsdown.nz has more information and resources for doing this, speaking with those around you about this issue is a really good start.
For consideration in regards to the Police Armed Response Team trial in New Zealand.
The news of this trial being undertaken at all was confronting for me as a Māori New Zealander concerned with the rates at which Māori people are involved with the Police in our country.
I fear that these high numbers become a self fulfilling prophecy - belief that Māori are our highest offenders leads to greater suspicion, investigation and involvement in Māori lives by the Police.
Firearms are lethal weapons and I am extremely uncomfortable with any person in our country being empowered to aim a lethal weapon at another human being for any reason.
The justifications for the trial were made, concerns were raised, and the trial has been run. I believe the trial has confirmed that arms are not necessary in day-to-day law enforcement in New Zealand and that our country would feel safer without firearms being guaranteed as a factor in any confrontation involving the police. I believe an increase in weaponry on the part of the Police will increase fear and the panic response from suspects who may escalate their own reactions leading to more use of weapons in confrontations.
Allowing firearms to be on our streets ensures more people will die by shooting.
I think a more impactful statement to the public would be to engender trust - largely the people of New Zealand do care for each other, why not continue to generally trust the people of this country?
Tasers are sufficient day to day weapons for the assistance of subduing offenders if necessary. Situations which would be argued to require firearms should be deferred or stalled until a special unit can be involved, disengage if necessary to protect officers.
The solution won’t be mine or come from me, but I did not want to remain silent when this trial seems to have confirmed my worst fears - that police would be carrying arms more often, have the opportunity to use them more often, and that the targets would most likely be minority cultures like my own.
Please do not carry forward to arming officers permanently in New Zealand.
Anthea Whittle
I’m a dual resident of Papa Aroha north of Coromandel, and Auckland. Through the COVID-19 crisis I have relocated to Papa Aroha to be with my family, and have had more first hand experience of the constant struggles they have in regards to internet connectivity.
I recently wrote a personal blog article about this, with further context of our experience and relating to Government funded infrastructure projects: Rural Broadband Initiative 2011, Rural Broadband Initiative Phase 2, Mobile Black Spots Project and the Ultra Fast Broadband Initiative. The latter was most recently announced in April by Minister Faafoi to have more funding allocated.
We are still left out of all of these initiatives. With a commitment to 99.8% of New Zealand having coverage by 2022, we are excluded according to all information I have found from Crown Infrastructure Partners. The blog post elaborates on this, but since writing that piece I have been in conversation with my community on this matter, and they have encouraged me to reach out to you for assistance.
Just last week we experienced a major outage from Wednesday evening until Saturday afternoon which left us unable to fulfill our work obligations and my neighbour disconnected from his healthcare providers after having major knee surgery. I travelled to Auckland in order to be able to service my clients.
We don’t lay blame at the feet of our provider, they are a small business here in response to our desperate calls for help and are trying their best to provide internet services. Unfortunately, they do receive anger and abuse from frustrated people who are fed up with being disconnected and the frustration and expense of trying to gain that connection.
Members of our community have met with Chorus in the past to ask when we will have reliable connectivity, essentially to be told that due to low population and cost, “it’s not going to happen”.
There must be a point at which further investment into improving the connection of people who already have reliable access must come second to providing reliable service to those of us who are presently excluded from connection at all.
We have been waiting long enough, and our health, businesses and relationships are suffering. Land in our area is currently being sold, so we expect demand here to rise further. It’s insulting that users of local tourist facilities will have connection before we in our homes and businesses do.
How can we work together to have our community connected to the same services that the rest of the country have access to?
I am available to meet with you, prepared to travel to Thames as required and am very keen to make progress in this area on behalf of our community.
The trials of connectivity in “remote” New Zealand.
Our home was connected to the internet for the first time in 1998, when Dad brought home a Gateway PC and my aunty set up our dial-up connection.
I was ten. I loved messing around with computers, trying things out to see what I could do – even just typing into a basic word processor was exciting. In 1998, our connectivity was on a par with anyone else connected to the internet, and it’s been a race to the bottom of the hill since then.
Ironic, since we live atop a hill with an enviable view across Tikapa Moana (the Hauraki Gulf). I can see the lights of the Sky Tower in Tamaki Makaurau (Auckland) at night, and all the way north to Hauturu (Little Barrier Island) on a good day.
View from our home at sunset this week.
In the new millenium, Telecom (now Spark) extended 3G service out to our area and we were able to buy a gadget with a SIM card which would allow us to create a WiFi network connected to the internet via 3G – which was patchy at best.
20 years after we first connected via dial-up it was still necessary to maintain that connection. Mum runs a small business and needs a reliable connection to respond to her customers. The last time I used dial up was in 2018.
In 2010, under a National Government, Steven Joyce announced the Rural Broadband Initiative, recognising that connectivity is “important” for modern life and endeavouring to improve broadband access for rural New Zealanders. Of course, Aotearoa is “geographically challenging” and so someone would always be left out. The Centre for Public Impact shared some analysis on progress on the RBI in 2016.
Our home is north of Coromandel town, in a tiny settlement called Papa Aroha between Colville in the north (pop. 1,485 2018 census) and historic Coromandel township (pop. 1,743 2018 census) a 15 minute drive south. We aren’t big enough to be reported on as a community ourselves.
In 2011 the RBI objective was to “improve coverage of fast broadband to enable 80% of rural households and businesses to access services of 5Mbps or better, and the remaining 20% to achieve speeds of at least 1Mbps”. And, to “connect 97% of schools to fibre enabling speeds of at least 100Mbps with the remaining remote schools able to achieve speeds of at least 10Mbps”. (Source: P9, from the Commerce Commission). UFB1 was completed early and on budget, according to a statement from Labour Minister Kris Faafoi in November 2019.
As small as our settlement in Papa Aroha is, we have had low expectations of connectivity and have always known we’d fall outside of thresholds for a longer period of time than the rest of the country.
In 2018 (yes, the same year we still listened to our dial-up modem sing the song of connectivity…) Ministers Kris Faafoi and Shane Jones announced the Rural Broadband Initiative Phase Two/Mobile Black Spots Fund to take coverage to 99.8% of the population (source). That excludes just 0.02% of the entire country.
This latest extension is set to be finished in 2022. Crown Fibre Holdings/Crown Infrastructure Partners who manage the 1.7 billion investment to realise the RBI/RBI2/MBSF and UFB (Ultra Fast Broadband) initiatives state fibre-to-the-premise for 87% of New Zealanders by 2022.
Screengrab from Crown Infrastructure Partners’ website, click for source.
On the 29th of April 2020, Minister Kris Faafoi announced further investment in the rural network via the Ultra Fast Broadband Initiative (UFB), which is different to the Rural Broadband Initiative (RBI). Though the coverage maps on the Crown Infrastructure Partners website don’t have any additional coverage in our area.
The best we can currently do is satellite service provided by Gulf Internet. This came about when fed-up local businesses and residents looked at how other remote areas were connected, and found Waiheke Wireless provided by Gulf internet. Land access was provided by locals for a satellite tower to be installed, and those of us with line of sight to the tower signed up. On a good day, we can get connection speeds around 15-18Mbps down and up.
Gulf Internet do their best, but since I’ve relocated to Papa Aroha from the city during the COVID-19 response, I’ve been experiencing first-hand unexpected days without any connection whatsoever, and unexpected drops of connection during work calls and during anything else we might be doing.
When we struggle, calls to our provider are answered but not always followed up. We apologise to our employers or clients, cross our fingers and hope, or take a drive with our cellphones to find 4G reception and hotspot our laptops.
We are grateful for the efforts of Gulf Internet and some kind people there, especially during the current pressures, but we should have been elevated from this situation years ago with the improvement of national infrastructure circa 2011 – not necessarily via fibre, but it should not have fallen on locals to instigate a satellite tower.
The local schools in Coromandel, Harataunga (Kennedy Bay), and Colville were all connected as part of the first cut at the RBI, with the fibre laid not being linked back to Coromandel through Papa Aroha which would service our community.
My rough drawing on a map (source: openstreetmap.org) showing where our nearest schools are, the fibre connection run under the RBI phase 1, and where the Papa Aroha settlement is.
RBI2 new coverage maps from Crown Infrastructure Partners show new connections nearest to us in Whangapoua (about 30km away), Kuaotunu, and Matarangi (all between Coromandel and Whitianga), and north of us, two tourism locations: Coromandel Coastal Walkway and Port Charles.
At this point, Papa Aroha residents (who are also business owners) and visitors to our area are all deemed less of a priority for stable connectivity than being able to connect while taking a scenic walk.
Excerpt from CIP New Coverage Map showing new connection points in our area by 2022. Click image for full map.
Of course, the tourism industry is essential to the economy of Coromandel as our largest industry with 16.6% of GDP in 2019, and I love a good travel pic on Instagram as much as the next millenial. It would just be great to be able to access that reliably from home at the same standard as the rest of the country and its manuhiri (guests), if not the rest of the world.
Since COVID-19 is set to choke the tourism industry for international guests at least, reliable connectivity is essential for economic development (and social development, and so much else) in all areas of our country. This is not a piece on why the internet is important, but on our own experiences trying to be reliably connected in our rural area. There seem to be many other rural New Zealanders with a similar tale.
Internet NZ are seizing the example of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on New Zealanders with regard to internet access, to highlight the importance of digital inclusion.
Their five point plan for digital inclusion covers more than just the infrastructure limitations that my family experiences, it takes the necessary steps to consider the education, devices and financial support that are also real current barriers to people in Aotearoa getting online. We will be adding our business names in support of their plan, please add yours.
With the most recent announcement of further investment, perhaps our community might finally be considered for infrastructure, but it looks like we are set to be part of the 0.02% of New Zealanders left in the “too hard” kete.
If you’re reading from a stable connection, take a moment to appreciate it and know that too many fellow Kiwi’s don’t yet enjoy that same privilege.
