Wally's tales

Mark has just fitted a wireless router linking my computer, this now allows me to use my lap top anywhere in the house, outside too I suppose. However switching it on, I quickly noticed that there were three similar systems in the street, so they are popular, but these were all protected from a casual would be outside user, as now is mine. Mark did make the statement, when he installed his own system many years ago, It wasn’t important, or even necessary to put in a pass word protection, as there was very little to protect it from. Recently, it‘s all different and changed, his monthly usage Zoomed up to 10 Gigs. Which is expensive as it has to be paid for. He suspected that kids in the street were busy downloading movies, or something else from the Internet that was a high user of Broadband, and they were using his system, probably something they weren’t allowed to do at home.

There are the odd ‘Free’ sites in the town such as libraries, and the various coffee bars who are also offering a service. Barbara was telling me it was noticeable at the end of the day, watching workers returning home, stopping briefly outside a coffee bar, while holding a laptop to answer and download their mail. Then move off without buying any coffee. How these sites are going to cope with the new regulations? I have no idea, but I guess many will just withdraw their service as it won’t be prudent to remain on line. There is no way of policing the system to see what your customers are up to, so the need to avoid the fines for any illegal down loading that they may get up to. These penalties have yet to be struck, but are reported to be around $15,000.

All this brings me to what the Government is up to now with their new Copyright bill, that they are hell bent in passing. People who can’t control the sale of their material are complaining that their material is being illegally taken. I suspect also that this is the big players calling the shots. They have the remedy in their own hands. They can build in protection. For a start, I’m not in favour of this bill at all. It seems at an initial glance just too draconian. The penalties are far too severe, and there are thousands of kids who are going to be caught in a net, that is going to treat them as criminals for downloading Games, programmes movies, music that are sitting exposed on the Internet without any protection. Another anomaly is that that you don’t even need to down load material, even looking at it, is now going to be deemed a crime. I don’t condone the practice that once these items are down loaded, then passed around amongst their mates, in a file sharing operations.

They are never going to stop this without a lot of tears and grief. My feelings over this matter is that it’s the vendors responsibility They should build in their own product, protection. Or find another way to sell their product. So that down loading can’t be done unless it’s paid for first.

There are so many anomalies. One that quickly come to mind. Many folk down load American TV shows, which are legal to do if you live in America. And this material is freely available on the Internet, so it can easily be accessed in New Zealand as well. But this for us is now deemed illegal, as this material hasn’t been purchased by New Zealand. How you are expected to know all these exceptions I don’t know. And further. I don’t think the politicians haven’t the slightest idea what will happen when they open this Pandora’s box. One thing I do know, is that they will make many of our young folk criminals for a victimise crime.

This bill will also encompass the copying DVD’s, but here in New Zealand this is largely under control. The sale of counterfeit Brand names such as Rolex Oyster watches, Gucci bags are not much of a problem here either, but sales are rampant in any other overseas country. Strangely it’s not a crime to buy a copy or fake, but it is a crime to sell the item. Just as well, as every New Zealander who has made a trip overseas, returns home proudly sporting a $10 Rolex fastened to their wrists.

How the Government was stupid enough to get sucked into the passing this bill into law defies belief, as it is going to be a very unpopular move and the public, once they get stung, will certainly be looking around for someone to vent their anger at.

I drive past Bishopdale most days, there is a Nursing Home close by, it’s most noticeable to see an old chap sitting outside, wet or shine in his motorised wheelchair, well rugged up, but he’s there every day and always puffing away at a fag. What makes it more noticeable, he is there regardless of the weather,. Poor sod, he is another who has a bad nicotine addiction, doing his best to operate under today’s PC behavioural rules. These people are treated very badly. To put it bluntly, he is being ostracised by the the zealots, who are leading the charge to rid us of the smoking habit. Had he been lucky enough to have a gambling, or alcohol addiction, even a hard drug habit, not a problem. This is acceptable today, and recognised as a problem. He would then be taken under the wing of one group or other to be looked after. For one thing he wouldn’t be shoved outside in the rain

To excuse themselves, those who are out in front of this campaign, they keep repeating the mantra, ‘Smokers are a financial burden on the state, and bleeding the health system dry’. We have all believed this nonsense for years, until a recent Australian University study has shown, it’s not the smokers that are the heaviest users of the Health monies later in their twilight years. Believe it, or believe it not, it’s the ‘Health Nuts’ by a wide margin. They in many cases, have physically worn their bodies out. So you don’t think that you can be addicted to something like a gym workout? Think again, there are some amongst us think their world would come to an end, if they didn’t get their daily fix from a gym visit, or a long distant run. Often when out for a drive we passed runners on the road. Their faces were contorted with pain, and yet they keep on coming back for more.

A twenty pack of cigarettes today costs around $30 or so. The real value somewhere between only 25 Cents or a dollar. So tobacco must be one of the most heavily taxed item in the shopping basket. With people paying so much for cigarettes, and when these tax monies are taken into the equation, they well and truly pay their medical bills. When the TV people present their slanted programmes, it always seems to feature beneficiaries complaining of how they can’t make ends meet. You don’t get a look into their shopping basket and see what they are actually buying. The tobacco and alcohol tax would in many cases, be the one of the reasons why these folk are not able to balance their budget.

‘You, who is writing this blog, You must be a smoker talking this way’? True, I was a smoker when I was young, but I stopped smoking some 45 years ago. It was a struggle, but I did it without patches or any other aid. You need to understand too, I started smoking as a very young serviceman when I was inducted into the Army. But back then we could purchase our cigarettes for 35 cents a 200 carton, We didn’t know then, about all the the health hazards that came with the habit, as well you were more than likely to become addicted, then it would be hard to quit, What can I say in my defence is. If you are going to conscript an 18 year olds into the Army, Away from the protection and parental control of his family, it was not only smoking that posed a threat, there were many other dangers out there. ‘I could have ended up as an alcoholic, as many of my fellow servicemen did.’ Youth at this age still requires the guidance of his parents. Unfortunately at that time, the needs of our country came first. With some others I started smoking as a boy. For those who didn’t stop, or were unable to, the Country now owes them a duty of care.

For some what they have done to enforce the stop smoking campaign it’s not enough. The increase in tax, The sales limited to eighteen year olds and above. Plain packets only, no advertising anywhere. (One was even demanding, that cigarettes could only be obtained with a doctors prescription from a Chemist). Forbidden to smoke in public Buildings, Hotel Bars, Aircraft, Trains, Restaurants. It’s most noticeable outside big institutions like hospitals, there are so many cigarette butts outside the back doors, the foot paths look like a carpet.

I can see that they haven’t stopped people smoking, but they have stopped them from where they smoke. They have however as a consequence succeeded in making the poor very much poorer.

The one good thing the recent earthquakes have done, and that’s sharpened up the average persons perception of what’s the best materials to rebuild with. For me, brick, block, and stacked stone are not even on the considered list. A wooden frame is a must, and the wood must be treated to the highest standard to avoid the leaky home syndrome. As well, the land beneath must be solid, and free of any signs of liquefaction. The pad or building platform must be reinforced and the roof ‘long run’ iron. I have definitely left out everything that I noticed from my immediate area that has failed. By just looking around. Bricks, concrete blocks or roof tiles are materials definitely to be avoided, as they didn’t stand up well to the prolonged shacking. In lieu of this normal cladding that I have rejected, even though over time they are of low maintenance. However there is a cement board that looks good and stood up to all the shaking. It also seemed to add to the structure integrity where ever it was used.

The Christchurch quakes should have been a wakeup call for the rest of New Zealand, but whether they wish to take notice of what has happened to many of us, is over to them. I did notice when we were in the middle our our misery, and you spoke to anyone from the North on the phone, it was obvious they hadn’t the slightest idea of what was going on down South. They couldn’t believe that we hadn’t put it all behind us, and gotten on with our lives. The fact that many of us were still locked out from where we normally conducted our business, or what we called home. And that we were still awaiting repairs to thousands of houses to be made liveable again. With call centres established in any town in New Zealand, more often than not the caller is too far away to be interested in what has happened to Christchurch.

Anyway I hope with the object lesson we have been dealt, that all the other local bodies will now take a hard look at their building codes before it’s too late. If they don’t they are being incredible stupid. Christchurch folk considered themselves ‘safe’, and an earthquake was something that was furtherest from their minds. We were really were blind sidelined, as they considered that if were were to suffer an earthquake, it’s epicentre would have been centred in or around the main divide fault. Certainly not plumb centre of the business area.

Much of our damage was confined to our heritage buildings which were a compromise between beautiful buildings, and a minimum adherence to the building code. These buildings are a latent hazard and sustained a lot of damage, we were lucky that they didn’t kill more. Many of the Heritage buildings fell are on the cheaper end of rental market and when buildings are replaced the new rent may now be too high for the former tenants. These were in the past mainly ethnic restaurants which for the last couple of decades, gave Christchurch much of it’s colourful character.

It’s going to take several long years before this city is restored to it’s former glory.