New Zealand Third in World for Teenage Pregnancy and Child Maltreatment Deaths.

Many schools have recently refused to participate in a nationwide programme to vaccinate young girls against the human papillomavirus which protects against two main types of cervical cancer.

One of the reasons for their refusal to participate in the scheme are that young women may become sexually active at too young an age. Cervical cancer is the third most common cause of cancer in women aged 25-44 in New Zealand, every year 60 die will die from it.

Statistics on the Nationmaster website show that New Zealand has the dubious honour of being placed third highest in world tables of both teenage pregnancy and child maltreatment deaths.

Nationmaster, which pulls together data from sources such as the CIA World Fact Book, United Nations and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development shows that New Zealand has 1.2 child maltreatment deaths per 100,000 children. This places it joint third with Hungary. Only two countries have higher figures - Mexico and the USA both with 2.2. deaths per 100,000.

Figures for teen pregnancy places the USA in top slot with a staggering 52.1 per births per thousand women aged 15-19, with the UK second at 30.8 and NZ third with 29.8

New Zealand has no taught sex education lessons for children in its schools, which perhaps accounts for some of the high numbers of teenage pregnancies.

Kiwi Accents

Many think that there is only one, perhaps two types of Kiwi accent. This is a fallacy, there are many regional variation in both accents and dialects. As the country becomes more influenced by migration and international speech patterns further variations are bound to occur: For samples of recordings see Dialects and Accents of New Zealand

Here are some direct links to the 17 samples on that site:
Male, born 1977, restaurant manager, raised Christchurch
Female, European, born 1954
female, born 1956, Lower Hutt, academic assistant

Porirua On Tenterhooks As Criminal Released Back Into The Community

A potentially dangerous criminal has been released into the Porirua community after the parole board failed in its efforts to keep him imprisoned.

According to the Domion Post "The Parole Board exhausted all legal avenues to keep him in prison after deeming him likely to reoffend upon release. He is not considered sick enough to be held under the Mental Health Act."

The unnamed man was imprisoned for 10 years for kidnapping, indecent assault, aggravated robbery and arson.

Armed with a knife, he invaded a family home, tied up a couple and robbed their house while their two young children slept upstairs. He then severed a gas line and set fire to their home.

"The man had written to a judge threatening to kill a child for every year he was in prison, but said yesterday he had been sick when he wrote it."

Porirua's Deputy Mayor Litea Ah Hoi said

"He has a very violent criminal history but he has done his time. After 10 years everybody needs to be given a second chance."

Yes, but who wants to take the risk when even a parole board tried their best to keep him under lock and key. Now a whole community is to be imprisoned behind locked doors.

Should the rights of one individual outweigh the right of the many to feel safe in their own homes?

And what if Mr X were to forget to take his medication but remember his threat to kill 10 children. Who is going to take responsibility for keeping him under proper medical surveillance for the next 50 years?

Time for a change in the law.

Taranaki Backs Down on Tamiflu Restrictions

Taranaki DHB board has now lifted its restrictions.

From today Tamiflu may be sold over the counter by pharmacists to individuals displaying symptoms of influenza.