This is a group photo of the present cabinet of Egypt from June 2018.  There are 12 women out of the 32 — and how many hijabs are visible?  None.

But this is how Jacinda sees it should be, a photo taken at the Zayed College for Girls in Auckland’s Mangere:

A total of 10 hijabs out of 12 women — including Jacinda’s.

If she did this in Egypt, it would result in some trenchant criticism.  But NZers can’t express it now without being put on the radar of the Thought Police.  That doesn’t stop those in other countries from saying what they think:

“A Muslim women’s rights advocate in Malaysia told the Thompson Reuters Foundation: “I wish she hadn’t (wore it)”… She is not a Muslim and not from a Muslim majority country.”

“This is what women in the West call ‘empowering’ Our suffering, our oppression, our subjugation, our dehumanization, our misogyny…is not empowering.”  #FreeFromHijab #HijabIsRapeCulture

Tuesday 27 August at 7.30 pm

·      Kapiti Uniting Church Meeting Room (Enter via the main church door)

·      10 Weka Road, Raumati Beach

·      Gold coin koha, thanks. All welcome.

·      Supper follows talk.

Mike Alexander on

A History of Environmental Conservation in South Kapiti

Karina Gould — all we know is in the post, you should contact the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development directly.

Blanche Charles — editorial pieces are by an editor (Geoffrey/Eva Churchman), often in conjunction with a contributor. Not all contributors want to be identified for legitimate reasons.

A very recent relatively small house in the Waikanae North development which is owned by a Czech couple; the colour choice is common in parts of Europe, but less usual in NZ. On the roof above the garage is a solar water heater.

The budget for the 2019/20 year for the purchase of new books was cut from $402k to $211k. It was done through the Annual Plan process to reduce capital expenditure. —Mayor K Gurunathan

A decision they will regret?

By Roger Childs

Councillor Elliott and her fellow councillors  unanimously supported reducing the library book budget by 47.57%. For those who are up for re-election in October this could be a decision that comes back to bite them. 

There was no warning or consultation about slashing spending on books and magazines, and the 90% plus of voters who are library users may well punish the perpetrators at the ballot box.

The Mayor states above that the cut was to reduce capital expenditure. Clearly the library book budget was seen as a soft target – but the voters may not see it that way.

The Elliott theses

Councillor Elliott issued a press release justifying KCDC budget cuts for the purchase of new books on the following grounds: 

• Lack of shelf space.
• There has been a permanent loss of shelving space.

• There can be few new books because of lack of shelving.

• Most new book bought this year will have to be stored.

• There is a controlled atmosphere storage unit where 20,000 new books remain in their packaging as there is no room for displaying them.

• KCDC purchases its new books at an average price of $12.00 per book.

• KCDC has had to rent storage space to store all last year’s new books.

There was a footnote, but this basically repeated most of the above points. However, it did also refer to the aftermath of the Council’s Waikanae Library debacle. It states that books that can’t fit in the new pop-up library will go into storage. [The stock will, however, be rotated —Eds]

Unconvincing responses

The Councillor refers to a permanent loss of shelving space – is she saying that Waikanae will never get a new library? The Waikanae closure is surely a short term loss, however the situation in Otaki, Paraparaumu and Paekakariki remains unchanged. The biggest library at Paraparaumu has plenty of space for additional shelving, especially if room upstairs is taken into consideration.

There is also an assumption that any new books will just be added to the existing stock on the shelves. Surely the Council knows that every school and public library in the country has a regular culling process. Books and magazines which are old, damaged and past-their used-by date are removed from the shelves and library users can pick up bargains from the tables of culled volumes.

The statement about buying new books at an average price of $12 per book stretches credulity. You would be very hard pressed trying to buy a new book in Paper Plus or Whitcoulls for $12. Libraries may well get discounts when purchasing, but hard-backs in particular are often $30 — $50 and sometimes more.

What has happened as a result of the fiasco in Waikanae should not be factored into the slashing of expenditure on new books. Library users should not have to suffer because of Council negligence over more than a decade.

Christopher Ruthe sums up the overall impression of many to Cr Elliott’s theses: None of your comments address the central issue – the failure of KCDC Council to have an adequate book purchasing budget. Your smokescreen fails to convince.

Furthermore all the comments made by Cr Elliott, if true, would have been known when the original budget allocation of $402,500 was struck.

It is no wonder that a number of concerned citizens have recently established ROBB – Restore Our Book Budget.

Details and more pics here

Parkrun organise free, weekly, 5 km timed runs around the world. They are open to everyone free, and are safe and easy to take part in. —Parkrun New Zealand

Measuring progress

By Roger Childs

If you are already very fit or just getting underway, it’s good to be able to measure how you are doing. Timing how long you are riding, swimming, walking or jogging is a good idea and something to record in your fitness record. 

And, if you are doing the same course regularly, you can quickly see if you are improving. However, you shouldn’t become a slave to the stopwatch, as everyone has stronger and weaker days.

However doing a particular course or distance once or twice a week does give you the incentive to improve. Parkrun is fit for this purpose. 

Parkrun is free, regular friendly

If you can run or walk 5 km you can do Parkrun.  In Kapiti the venue is Otaihanga Domain every Saturday at 8.00 am. You go for 2.5 km along the south bank of the Waikanae River, turn around and then head back to the Domain. 

What is this world-wide movement all about?

• It began at Bushy Park in England back in 2004.
• 21 countries and more than 1900 parks are now in operation.
• Worldwide there are more than 3,900,000 runners/walkers registered!
• New Zealand started in 2012.
• There are 29 New Zealand locations and over 50,000 people are registered.

Give it a go!

Parkrun provides a personal challenge: to run, or walk 5 km.  You can race it, jog it, go with your kids, push a stroller, start at the back with the dog, whatever. And it’s free thanks to business sponsorship.. It’s also a very supportive institution as you get plenty of encouragement and soon make new friends.

It’s easy to register: go to  https://www.parkrun.co.nz/register/ 

Once you’re registered, the key thing to remember is to take your bar code to the event!  You’ll receiver six. However, if you leave it at home, it doesn’t matter as your name and time will still be recorded.

Tip: Laminate your bar code so it will last longer.

About two hours after the event you’ll receive an e-mail telling you what your official time was and you can see how everyone else did. Your Parkruns are counted and when you’ve done 50 you get a free t shirt.

Park run is a great way to get fitter, lose weight and feel better. You also get to know plenty of interesting people. It’s got to be good for you and may become addictive!

A photo we took this morning; and below a couple that the KCDC posted on its Facebook page of what one or more hoons did with their cars yesterday.

Fortunately, this stupidity is more annoying than damaging and can be put right with a roller and maybe some grass-seeded soil.  However, those who walk past the area should keep a lookout for any cars engaged in any repeat of it and report details to authorities.