Saturday, September 03, 2011

The word 'poverty'


At 57:46 a Samoan 35 year-old female called Kathryn talks to Danny Watson about the word 'poverty'. What it means to her living in Mangere Central; what it means to her mates and why the rest of us should stop using it.

Have a listen. You won't regret it.
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7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I listened to this as Danny's call of the week yesterday and agree with the bloke who rang later and said it was the call of the decade.

I was talking to my daughters principal on Thursday and she was saying much the same. She has tought in decile one schools and has seen first hand the tradegy of some kids lives. They arrive at school not knowing what a bok is and have a mother who spends more time at the pub than with them. If mum is home more often than not she is sleeping off a hangover and the kids are left looking after themselves.

On the other hand there are the families, often large and not so well off, who may only have a couple of books in the house but they are read over and over again to the kids. When these kids arrive at school they can't believe what is on offer for them and they grasp the oportunity with bot hands.

There is no poverty in this country in a material sense but for too many kids there is a poverty of optimism in their futures. This can only be solved by the parents starting to see these kids as more than a meal ticket and something to be cherished as a gift.

10:12 AM
Oswald Bastable said...

A poverty of spirit, morality and imagination is what the real problem is.

12:01 PM
Anonymous said...

why the rest of us should stop using it.

to stop using the world 'poverty' - just stop using the word 'welfare".

to stop using the world 'welfare' just stop the welfare

it really, truly, is that simple.

4:12 PM
Frustrated S. Beast said...

The women "evicted" by HNZ, after two years (about 19 mins in) are now allowed to STAY??!! WTF?

As Danny said, HNZ are terrible managers of these assets. Why are they rewarding these people? It says in the audio that the 3 women are on the WAITING LIST for the new houses being built. WHAT?

10:31 PM
S. Beast said...

What Kathryn didn't mention is there is a segment of our society which I will call the "rich-poor".

They are the "poor" who reap tremendous benefits from paying only 25% of their income in rent to HNZ, they pay lower doctors fees because the area they live in has cheaper doctors (as compared to other beneficaries with the SAME LEVEL OF INCOME even with a community services card still pay more due to their area not being targeted as "poor" and paying 60-70% of income in rent in the private market).

The rich-poor also have social services that flock around them. An example of a "rich-poor" area would be Newtown in Wellington. It has the Wellington City Mission where cheap meals can be brought, lots of foodbanks, soup kitchen, outreach programs, heavily subsidied doctors, subsidised council housing, and of course HNZ housing.

10:54 PM
James said...

I heard that at the time...very good and to the point. Makes the left and their Spirit Level poverty dogma BS look a joke.

3:07 PM
Anonymous said...

I don't give a shit if the leftists Sprit Levellers are correct - that I'd be somehow better of if benefits were higher in NZ, or that I'd be worse of if the bludgers starved.

the bludgers should starve

It's really that simple.

7:09 PM

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