Here’s one Hone – you know you’re a Maori when your nanna has a better throwing arm then your old man – and you’re glad there’s no rocks around. Actually my nanna was an Irish holy terror but she had a lot of sense in her hot head. She used to shout things like, “Sure! Pray! But, while you’re at it, row away from the rocks!” Some recent and upcoming goings-on convince me that my nanna was right.
POWER OUTAGE:
On Saturday morning our Bishop called to give us a heads-up that the power was going to go off Sunday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. so it was time to break out the emergency supplies, check the gas bottle and radio batteries, prepare the kai and other things that would be needed on Sunday, and warn our neighbours.
Come Monday morning I felt kind of superior listening to the amuamu from all those who either got no or very late warning until I remembered that I’d not checked to see if my neighbours knew what was coming – sorry Bishop, and I hadn’t rung around the marae to pass on the warning to our whanau and hapu – sorry Ngati Kahu. I suspect that most of them coped alright because they’ve lived in the area long enough to know that our infrastructure is shonky. Let’s face it, our power, transport and communication systems are vulnerable because they and us are neither plentiful nor close to the source of supply and those things aren’t likely to change in the foreseeable future.
All power to those who lobby hard for improvement – you have my support. But I reckon that a bunch of big rocks getting accidentally blasted into high tension power lines is one of life’s little rocks. Rocks happen and the systems to deal with them are only as good as the people in them, including you and me.
How many of us who were warned then thought to warn our neighbours? What means did we use to get the message out? I didn’t hear anything on iwi or mainstream radio, nor on TV. And how prepared were we anyway? I know our marae are generally geared up for any emergency, but what about us in our homes? E hoa ma, are we rowing away from the rocks or are we just praying and petitioning the powers that be?
Come Monday morning I felt kind of superior listening to the amuamu from all those who either got no or very late warning until I remembered that I’d not checked to see if my neighbours knew what was coming – sorry Bishop, and I hadn’t rung around the marae to pass on the warning to our whanau and hapu – sorry Ngati Kahu. I suspect that most of them coped alright because they’ve lived in the area long enough to know that our infrastructure is shonky. Let’s face it, our power, transport and communication systems are vulnerable because they and us are neither plentiful nor close to the source of supply and those things aren’t likely to change in the foreseeable future.
All power to those who lobby hard for improvement – you have my support. But I reckon that a bunch of big rocks getting accidentally blasted into high tension power lines is one of life’s little rocks. Rocks happen and the systems to deal with them are only as good as the people in them, including you and me.
How many of us who were warned then thought to warn our neighbours? What means did we use to get the message out? I didn’t hear anything on iwi or mainstream radio, nor on TV. And how prepared were we anyway? I know our marae are generally geared up for any emergency, but what about us in our homes? E hoa ma, are we rowing away from the rocks or are we just praying and petitioning the powers that be?
PATHOLOGY SERVICES:
Remember my mate who told me about post mortems all heading south? I’ve done quite a bit of digging since then and found what seems likely to be the tip of a rapidly melting iceberg, which is just another kind of rock. There’s too much detail to report on in one column so I’ll start with the fact that the Coroners Act has been revamped and there are big changes in the wind that are going to blow into reality next July. One of those changes is that Coroner numbers are being drastically cut.
Coroners are the legal face of the “coronial process” that kicks into place whenever anyone dies. Coroners are VIPs. Literally every dead body belongs to them until they sign an “Order for the Disposal of a Body.”
Coroners are the legal face of the “coronial process” that kicks into place whenever anyone dies. Coroners are VIPs. Literally every dead body belongs to them until they sign an “Order for the Disposal of a Body.”
When their numbers are cut next year we are likely to lose the services of Robyn Fountain in the Far North, Heather Ayrton in the Mid North and Max Atkins in Whangarei. When you add to that the fact that Pathologists (the medical face of the process – the ones who actually do the surgery) are rare as hens’ teeth and hard to find, then it seems my friend was right, post mortems are almost all going to have to be done in Auckland from next July on. In fact, most of them are being done there already.
Did I forget to mention that Ngati Kahu and most iwi find post mortems generally abhorrent anyway? One of the few things that has made them barely tolerable has been the local knowledge, sensitivities and networks of our Coroners and Pathologists.
I predict storms and wrecks on this one koutou ma, and I can hear my nanna’s stentorian shout from here – ROW AWAY FROM THE ROCKS!
Hei konei. Hei kona.
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