Pike River Mine: The best & the Worst in People!

There wasn't a Southerner (nor a New Zealander for that matter) alive that didn't feel a knot in their gut when news came of the second blast in the Pike River mine yesterday (Link here for the latest update). For those under ground it spelt the end of hope and of course the full range of human emotion played out in our media. Sadness, rage, empathy, careful intrusion into the families lives, expert reflection. It was sad and a real kick for the West Coasters whom, although understand the risks of mining, never expected the scale of such a disaster. 29 blokes is a lot of people for any community to lose. It makes you realise the scale of some of those battles from the various World Wars when entire communities lost the majority of their young men all serving in the same regiments. Bloody horrible!

Of course this was beamed into our living rooms and over the internet. The people stories, the family interviews, the grilling of CEO Peter Wittall, the criticism of the boys in blue, the scrutiny over what should have happened and when. It seems everybody had an opinion and these were conveyed with "expert" status around our shores and beamed across the world. I don't know what happened or why down that mine but I guess most of us understand that miners face risk each day. Like our Defence people overseas, our Police, those working on highways and the many other vocations that are risky. But didn't we see the best and worst throughout this incident?

The worst would have to have been the Australian journalist Ean Higgens who underwhelmed us with his questions of the Police Superintendent (Gary Knowles) in charge of the operation. It was labeled as "disgraceful" by Police Minister Judith Collins (link here). What a gripper! Of course Gary Knowle is not an expert on mine disasters Ean you tool, but who does deal with this stuff every day? Someone has to lead the operation and make bloody tough decisions.

We have seen some pretty average "story making" largely the end result of dozens of journalists all hanging around a small town with the pressure of having to find some news. We have had the soft interviews, the accusations, the safety record rumours, the tears, the onlookers who know more than anyone running the operation. overall it has been balanced and respectful of families wanting privacy.

Without doubt the leaders involved have stepped up. Our Prime Minister has visited and been involved and so supportive, the local Mayor has been quite inspiring in his own way. Hell even big Gerry Brownlee has had some good things to add and has certainly filled the background of most camera shots nodding his big head at all the right times. We are seeing Members of Parliament, Cabinet Ministers and local leaders who now understand that as leaders they need to be there and involved. Refreshing after years of finger pointing!

Peter Whittall: CEO Pike River & Legend!

The stand out for me, without doubt is Pike River CEO Peter Whittall. What a tough job and boy could you feel he carried the responsibility of his guys on his shoulders. The long hours and the need to be so clear and careful in the messages he conveyed. The tough family meetings whilst so obviously emotionally attached himself. I think he did an outstanding job and was a fine example for all CEO's. You can feel his determination to get this right and it is not just for commercial gain. He cares for people!

Of course it is not over yet. The recovery of all 29 men is critical and there will be the endless scrutiny that comes from the inquiries. None of us know what will be discovered nor what the future holds those involved. I just felt compelled to recognise Peter's efforts. He stepped up under fire, remained professional, focused and stuck to his procedures, listened to the best advice and fronted every time it was needed. He was compassionate and knew his stuff. He led from the front!

Thanks Peter. Many of us could learn a lot from you about leadership and accepting responsibility.

Inspiring Stuff.......Get on With it....Own it!

This is a great little clip and reminds us all that most people who achieve, have a few hills in their paper run at some stage. It is better to stumble and fall, get up dust yourself off and learn from it than to never have a go! 

Just "own" your life, set some goals and bloody get on with it!

Where 's Paul Henry Off To?

People either loved or hated Paul Henry. There was no middle ground and he has left a big gap on Morning Breakfast TV. Will they fill the gap? Well yes they will in time. Was it right for Henry to go now all the dust has settled? In my view there was no choice, he became a liability with two major lapses in judgement, both involving race and both at a time when the Commonwealth Games" PR shambles" was on and things were not going so well for an India.

Sure he was edgy and controversial and had that cringe factor that increases TV ratings and TVNZ rode the highs (See link here). That they then dropped him like a hot potato is just show biz. Yes it lacked loyalty but lets face it is a fickle industry. Let us also remember he did piss off about one third of the worlds population with his comments which state owed TVNZ must have caused some grief. His comments about our NZ born Governor General were pretty untidy but he would have been forgiven. It was the piss take of India's Member of Parliament so close on its heels, the cringe factor and the timing of it all that went down like a cup of cold sick.

That said he will reinvent himself and no doubt pop up in our media in some flavour in the future.

He could always become a share milker down south I suppose!

And who could forget his recent awards speech? (Link here)

Another Blog about Paul Henry: The world is a zoo: Time to drive fast down shingle roads!

Standing Up For What is Right.....Never easy!

Always a bit intimidating to have a camera in your face!

Well it has been an interesting week! I wrote my blog last week about the "incident" I experienced after taking a couple of photographs of my wee girl playing netball. (Link here: Political Correctness: Good Guys Don't Win). Well this was read and commented on all over the country and indeed in places like the USA, Afghanistan and the UK. As they say "it went viral!" Early in the week I was contacted by the Producer of "Campbell Live" about appearing on the show.

Feedback from my blog online and on Facebook  overwhelmingly was one of shock. Shock at our PC society which, on one hand bags fathers (at every opportunity) for not being involved enough in their kids lives, growth, sports and general upbringing, and then on the other hand makes them insecure about what they should or should not do.

Caetana bravely does her bit in front of the camera.

Astonishingly, the issue of parents taking photographs of their kids in public places and being verbally set upon or confronted is common place. Friends and readers relayed similar situations that have either occurred to them or that they have witnessed at sports and school events.

It is not easy thing to put yourself out there so publicly, but there is a time you stand up for what you believe is right. I felt strongly enough to write a blog about it so I reasoned I should be prepared to front the issue in person.

After all this incident had forced us as a family to have to explain the whole situation to Caetana. We'd had to help her understand why it was even an issue that Dad was "told off" by the Police for taking her picture at Netball. She was well aware of "stranger danger" (after Police school programs & Dad's warnings about getting into strangers cars etc) but explaining the issue around men taking kids photos for the wrong reasons is somewhat more complex I can assure you. We had to decide whether we exposed her to the media as well. We took the decision that it would be a lesson for her in standing up for what you believe in and for me this was one the best lessons that my parents taught me about life. Albeit they went about it outside the media!

My Grandmother was a wee sweetheart, yet as tough as woodpecker lips! She was born in the windswept Shetland Islands (Scotland) and lived by the saying "Be strong and of good courage".  It is on her headstone and it is something my mother resonates with and in turn I refer to during events in my life. My father always backs his kids in whatever situation "if it is the right thing to do."

But I guess it is one thing talking and writing about it, it is another actually putting yourself out there for national scrutiny (link here for the Campbell Live Interview). What have I learnt from it all;

• This is a common occurrence as the large amount of feedback shows,
• It is a touchy and emotive subject. The right to be a parent and do parent things clashes with those who feel it is their right to protect their kids no matter what.
• I think it is right to find out who is taking photos but a bit of common courtesy should be maintained and less confrontation and less absolute demands and threats of calling in the Police. How about a bit of common sense and less of the "all men have bad intentions".
• Most New Zealanders are seemingly unaware about the laws of photography. If you are in public you actually have no rights to privacy. That is how the media works. The test that courts have applied in the few cases coming before them uses the test "would this be deemed appropriate by a reasonable person".
• Overwhelmingly the response has been positive and supportive for making a stand for Dad's and parents who are not doing anything wrong. 
• The Police are the good guys. I'm glad they came, it defused what could have been a nasty situation, it reinforced to my daughter that they will help her if she needs them and they quickly summed up the situation and dealt with it a large helping of common sense.

Of course there are the detractors and those of opposing opinion and I accept there always will be but I'm glad I fronted up and said what needed to be said.

Now I can hopefully get back to being a Dad and teaching, growing and guiding a daughter that I am very proud of and one who will add positively to our community.

She was after all the player of the day........and I missed most of the game!

Political Correctness Gone Mad: Good Guys Don't Win!

As many parents do on the weekend, I dragged myself out of bed for kids sport and arrived in town for a 9am start at Indoor Netball. Week four of the competition and it is awesome to see the girls improve in skills each week. It is so much more structured than the outdoor Winter code. Its warmer for starters (why in NZ do we play outdoor in Winter and indoor in Summer?) and they have the same referees each week who also teach skills. All good stuff.


Today I thought I'd take my camera and get a few pictures of Caetana in action. I had taken two photos when out of left flank a particularly nasty and assertive woman rapidly approached and virtually yelling, informed me that she was "not comfortable with me taking photos of all the girls playing netball and wanted me to delete them all". Indeed she was adamant that it was "illegal to take pictures of children playing sport without the permission of all parents". It took me off guard to be honest. I informed her that I was taking some "photos of my daughter". I thanked her for her opinion and left it at that. "Weirdo" I thought. It annoyed me to say the least and there was disbelief amongst my fellow attendee parents. Did it end there? Hell no! This was the drama that just kept giving!


Back came the wee ball of anger to issue me a "final warning to delete all my photos or she was calling the Police". I informed her that I'd prefer to deal with the Police. I could see there was no winning this and at least the Police would apply some common sense. I was sure that a father taking some photos of his daughter playing sport was hardly going to be up there in crimes against the state. Surely....? Next it was the Manager of the sports complex who came up to advise that she had fielded a complaint about me taking pictures and that she had to inform me that the rules of the complex were such that no photography was allowed. I advised I was "unaware of that rule" and that "I had stopped taking photos". I also went on to say that it was "f**king ridiculous that such a complaint had been made". She was apologetic and I felt for her obvious discomfort at being hauled into this situation.


(I have since hit their website and looked at all their rules and whilst there are rules about racist comments, swearing and what shoes you can wear, I could find no mention of a photography ban! I have e-mailed a question to them seeking clarification on this policy.)


The game finished (although funnily enough I missed a big chunk of it dealing with all the drama). There were a whole lot of people I didn't know looking at me as though I had tried to kidnap someone. My wee girl got player of the day for an outstanding game and after an upbeat team talk we gathered our things and went to leave. 


I was lucky enough to have this angry woman follow me, sniping at me all the way about how I had broken the law and that the Police were on their way. It was my "arrogance" and "failure to do as I was asked" that had left her no option but to call in the Sweeny, evidently! She followed me to the car and stood behind it making a huge scene as she loudly took down my registration. As I backed out she refused to move letting the world know that I was going to run her over. At this point Caetana was getting upset and I was really beginning to get annoyed. I was thankful that at that moment the Police did show up! Two of her Majesty's finest. Getting out of the car one of them (having been immediately and duly informed of my crime), asked me what the story was.


Explaining that I took two photos of my daughter playing netball, he asked to see my photos. Showing him the two digital images, he duly showed the woman who announced that she was not happy with the one photo that showed the back of the head of one of her team. The officer, bemused by it all just wanted me to crop it! I just deleted them, all too hard. The officer said to "just avoid her". The other officer advised that I "needed some air in my back tyre!" That summed it up really.


 As I left the car park and the gathered crowd listening to my new found "concerned citizen" apologising loudly to the Police for "having to waste tax payers money, but better safe than sorry, never can be too careful these days" I felt like I had done something bad!


Is this right? Is it really illegal to take photos of your kids playing sport without getting every parents permission? Is it right as a father that you can be made to feel like a criminal just because someone has either had a bad life experience, is paranoid or just a weirdo? Would she have felt "uncomfortable" if it was a woman taking the pictures? I was made to feel "uncomfortable" but I didn't have to have a Police patrol show up to deal with it? Is it legal for someone to stand behind your car and prevent you from leaving a car park?


Interestingly enough (after a google search) in New Zealand, there is no strict guarantee of privacy, particularly when it comes to photography. Instead, restrictions on photography come into play when it may be construed as “offensive” to a reasonable person. How offensive is defined as been a point of argument amongst the courts. I wonder how this woman would react if her child was photographed at say the Santa parade and made it onto the front page. She would flip out!


No, the whole thing was bloody ridiculous, I missed the game and it made me angry all morning! I was made out to be some sort of bad parent for an everyday act because an unreasonable person felt "uncomfortable". The world has indeed gone mad!


Sorry but I have no photo to accompany this blog funnily enough. LOL! Thanks too to those  Policemen for quickly summing up the situation for what it was!


I hope I never see her again and wish her all the best in her future endeavours!