MAYOR SAYS PROBLEM PARENTS SHOULD BE PAID NOT TO BREED.

Pay problem parents not to breed, mayor says.
Some people just shouldn't have kids, he says

AN outspoken Kiwi politician has proposed a new solution to the country's child abuse problem - pay the "appalling underclass" not to breed.

Michael Laws - who stirred up controversy by calling the late Tongan King a "bloated brown slug'' - has again hit the headlines.

"That there is a group within our society who give their children no hope nor opportunity from the moment that they are born," the regional mayor wrote on the New Zealand radio website where he broadcasts as a talkback DJ.

"That these ‘parents’ are known to authorities ... and yet the authorities can only intervene after children have been harmed."

Mr Laws goes on to write: "it would be far better for this appalling underclass to be offered financial inducements not to have children, given the toxic environment that they would provide for any child in their care."


"There are too many people who should not have children."

Mr Laws said a report in New Zealand's Dominion-Post newspaper yesterday had incorrectly attributed the view to him that all those who got welfare should be sterilized.

Mr Laws wrote on the website "that most welfare beneficiaries are good parents" but it was the problem ones who should be offered money not to breed.

Yesterday's Dominion-Post newspaper quotes him as saying: "If we gave $10,000 to certain people and said 'we'll voluntarily sterilize you' then all of society would be better off,'' he told the .

"There'd be less dead children and less social problems.''

He was commenting on the latest death of a toddler, two-year-old Karl Perigo-Check, who was the son of a convicted murderer and gang member.

New Zealand is placed third among OECD nations for child deaths due to maltreatment, four spots ahead of Australia, according to UNICEF.

It is ranked fifth for both child beatings and sexual abuse, again several places ahead of its antipodean neighbour.

Mr Laws argued that "liberal methods'' of beating the problem had failed.

But his "solution'' has been branded "draconian'' and "totalitarian'' by the country's child health advocates who are calling for him to stand down as a city mayor.

"I just find it such a disgraceful attitude,'' Child Poverty Action Group director Janfrie Wakim said.

"It's hard to comprehend that an intelligent man who's leading a city is making such reprehensible suggestions.''

THE UN ANNUAL REPORT : DEATH TOLL OF AIDS VICTIMS PASSES 25 MILLION

AIDS has now killed 25 million people around the world but the number of new infections is slowing sharply,according to the report.

Almost 60 million people have been infected by the HIV virus since it was first recorded but prevention programs are having a significant impact.

About two million people died of the disease in 2008, bringing the overall toll to about 25 million since the virus was first detected three decades ago. In 2008, about 2.7 million were newly infected.

Michel Sidibe, UNAIDS executive director, said the number of new HIV infections has been reduced by 17 per cent over the past eight years, with some of the most notable progress reported in Africa.

HIV incidence has fallen by 25 per cent since 2001 in East Africa, while the figure for sub-Saharan Africa as a whole was about 15 per cent - equating to around 400,000 fewer infections in 2008, the report says.

"However, the findings also show that prevention programming is often off the mark and that if we do a better job of getting resources and programs to where they will make most impact, quicker progress can be made and more lives saved."

The new report showed that more people than ever, about 33.4 million, are now living with the virus as people live longer due to the beneficial effects of antiretroviral therapy

"International and national investment in HIV treatment scale-up has yielded concrete and measurable results. We cannot let this momentum wane," said Margaret Chan, head of the UN's World Health Organisation.

"This tells us that we must work for a unified health approach bringing maternal and child health and HIV programs as well as tuberculosis programs together to work to achieve their common goal."



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OBAMA WILL NOT SIGN AN INTERNATIONAL BAN ON LANDMINES

State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said that the administration recently completed a review and decided not to change the Bush-administration era policy.

More than 150 countries have agreed to the Mine Ban Treaty's provisions to end the production, use, stockpiling and trade in mines. Besides the United States, holdouts include: China, India, Pakistan, Myanmar and Russia.

Kelly said that the United States would send an observer group of mine experts to a review conference on the treaty in Cartegena, Colombia next week.

NINE PEOPLE MAKE 2,678 EMERGENCY ROOM VISITS IN ONE YEAR.

In Texas, one of the people made 100 visits to the emergency room. With the free clinics that are taking place around the states, some sort of health care plan is needed. The average cost of an emergency room visit is about 1,000 dollars.

Most people hold out to the last minute before going to the hospital because of lack of money.Some people refuse ambulance transport because of the expense.

SHARING A DOCTOR'S VISIT WITH TEN OTHER PEOPLE

Shared medical appointments are a new way of handling your doctor appointments. Now as many as 15 patients can schedule an appointment with one doctor for a 90-minute session. What about privacy concerns ? It does not seem like a good idea. But is does get a patient more than a ten minute time with the doctor.

HOSPITAL ISSUEING PAPER GOWNS AND SOCKS TO PATIENTS

A friend was admitted to surgery at a large hospital in California and was shocked at being issued a paper gown and some socks upon being admitted. She had asked for the skid proof vinyl and terrycloth slippers and they gave her the socks.

When she got to the hospital bed it was so flimsy it was like a dolly on wheels. And she said when she got to the operating room, she was transferred to an operating table that looked like a lawn chair. she sat up and she almost flipped over. They had her slide back as far as she could.

I sure would like to see the charges for the gowns and the socks and see if the charges are the same as they before when they had cloth gowns and slippers ! What's next, will they ask you to bring in your own nighties and will they have you go to the OR naked under a sheet ?

ARE THE TEA PARTY GOERS MISGUIDED ?

It seems that they are being taken for a ride by those who will benefit from the failure of health care reform. Since most of the people have not been affected by the health care system, they don't have a clue. You only have to look at the scandal at Walter Reed Hospital and the deplorable conditions there. Imus got behind the movement to improve care for vets.

One would only have to view the Francis Ford Coppola's movie, "The Rainmaker" based on the book by John Grisham. The movie starred Matt Damon and Danny Devito.People are being told to vote against anything that Obama is for.

I think it is going to backfire on them. Things they are being told that will happen in the future, are happening now. I think we need reform but it shouldn't be shoved down our throats. And the lawmakers are not even reading the bill. And I think there are a lot of blank pages in the bill that will be filled in later.

TUNISIA HAS SUSPENDED THE HAJJ BECAUSE OF THE SWINE FLU

Minister of Religious Affairs Boubaker Akhzouri announced that the hajj had been postponed in order to" preserve human life".

The risk of the spread of swine flu and the impossibility of vaccinating candidates for the annual pilgrimage to Mecca was the reason.

This was an unprecedented decision that affects about 10,000 Tunisians