Thursday, June 30, 2016

I hope she has plenty more where that came from

Just what this country needs. A bleeding-heart pop star with more money than sense.

I recently wrote about the Upper Hutt man who had failed to sell his idea of the private sector funding school lunches to local businesses.

Seems he has since started up a give-a-little-page to fund his Fuel the Need sheme. And Lorde has donated $20,000 with a message that she is "passionate about all kids having access to food at school".

I'm passionate about parents taking responsibility for their children. Every time something like this happens we chip away at the societal expectation of 'responsibility' being the flip side of  'right'.

It is each person's right to have children but it is increasingly everybody else's responsibility to look after them. And this super role model has just given that attitude the stamp of approval.

If she wants to give away her money it'd be better spent funding a local community group that goes into the homes of these 'hungry' kids and finds out what's going wrong; what needs to change and shows the family how. And stays involved until the situation is resolved.

I applaud her generosity but she needs to think very hard about what comes next.

14 comments:

Mark Hubbard said...

I've been discussing your piece on the Twitter machine, Lindsay, and apparently your desire to get to causes and solve human misery for future generations, is heartless.

It's all emoting and umbrage taking I'm afraid, circa 2016

:)

Ryan said...

You sound like a pretty mean person, Lindsay. I agree parents *should* be responsible for their kids but, some people are just horrible, useless or just in really bad situations. In all of these cases (and many others) why should the child suffer through no fault of its own. Why punish the child when we can help them. Don't be heartless.

Mark Hubbard said...

See :)

Anonymous said...

Hard Bastard Hubbard eh? Well done. How much of the $20K will go on food is the next question.

3:16

DIRK said...

Ministry Of Social Development has recently withdrawn funding from the very successful and long running Parents As First Teachers programme which sent trained educators into the homes of first time parents helping them be good teaching role models for their children. The priority was "Families at risk" and over 20 years the programme has run, it has contributed to many thousands of parents making a positive difference in their childs life specifically and to the families generally .

Unfortunately, the need, has outstripped the supply so to speak and with election year looming, the government is looking at BIGGER, BETTER, FASTER, MORE answers to the problem and is hoping fresh ideas will rout the onslaught of needs and demands which plague the tax system.

The drug of Welfarism is the culprit and there ain't no social methadone programme for that, so its man the pumps and keep the tax dollars flowing and the families floundering.

DIRK

Redbaiter said...

A country degenerates in proportion to the amount of left wing politicians it elects to parliament.

The problems they cause are not just three year events though, they last for generations.

Which is why NZ and most of the West is going to get a lot worse before it gets any better.

Mostly because of the ignorance of poorly educated well indoctrinated millennials like Lorde and their inclination to drag the West further left & therefore further into disaster.

Once Was a Party Girl said...

I don't see there is anything wrong with wanting to help feed hungry children. Food is kinda necessary. I think Lorde should be app-lorde-ed.

Mark Hubbard said...

Quote: Which is why NZ and most of the West is going to get a lot worse before it gets any better."

I never took you for an optimist Red ;)

Noeline said...

The writer and many commentators seem to think that hungry kids only come from families where parents are no-hoper losers. POVERTY is surely a major reason there is no food for kids. When the prevailing economic rationale is to funnel more and more into the privileged few, this is what an effect is - some kids and some families suffer. There is no point in continually blaming people who are in dire straits, for we cannot know what the circumstances are that led to kids being unfed. We can only presume and assume

Lindsay Mitchell said...

I am not sure many commenters actually read my post. 1/ I applauded Lorde's generosity but 2/ suggested she spend her money on getting effective help to these kids instead of a band-aid.
We have a welfare system. We pay low-income parents Family Tax Credits(ranging weekly from $64-101 weekly per child) specifically for feeding and clothing their children. Beneficiary parents received an extra $25 in April. If they still can't feed their children something is significantly wrong and needs investigating. I worked as a volunteer for 5 years with families in hardship and they need more than simply having lunch responsibility taken off their hands.

Redbaiter said...

"something is significantly wrong and needs investigating"

The "progressive" state, as supported by Labour & National, has been driving a cultural wedge between children and their parents (and their grandparents) for decades.

Hence it should be no surprise that families are breaking down and so many parents today have very little idea regarding parenting, the need to pass on values that matter to their children, and social ideas that cement our community into a working and coherent entity.

The state (mainly through the school system) has usurped the role of parents, and imparts ideas to children that have the opposite results.

The West is degenerating fast, and the worst thing is, so much of it has been done deliberately by one group, while another group, who should have resisted, has been duped into aiding the first group in their destructive objectives.

Statistic relating to broken homes, marriage breakdown, crime and violence demonstrate that our society is starkly different to what it was in the fifties, yet the groups behind this decline remain free of blame, and still exist today with society's blessing while they continue the same destruction.

I used to think that lemmings must be really dumb animals until I met progressives/ socialists.

Mark: Good point. I guess the Romans too once said the same kind of things.

Anonymous said...

Poverty has nothing to do with kids having no food. Parents have a lot to do with it, but not poverty. I can give examples of plenty of meals that can feed a family of 4 for less than $15 - $4 per person. And please don't reply by saying families in poverty don't have $15. NZ has an extraordinarily generous benefit and welfare system.

Anonymous said...

POVERTY is surely a major reason there is no food for kids

Nope. Welfare.

The state (mainly through the school system)

state schools. state hospitals. state "super". and benefits benefits, benefits.

NZ has an extraordinarily generous benefit and welfare system

and there is the problem in a nutshell.

Anonymous said...

lol 38,000 views wow