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2012 days ago

Kiwis need to 'stop living in denial' and acknowledge racism exists in Aotearoa

Brian from New Lynn

Less than 72 hours after the deadly terror attacks on two Christchurch mosques a Muslim community advocate has labelled the attacks a being "fuelled by white supremacist violence". Guled Mire came to New Zealand 22-years-ago as a refuge from Somalia with his mum and eight siblings and settled in Hamilton, he told today. One of his earliest memories in New Zealand is of his local mosque burning down, his mosque was the target of an arson attack. He told that since then he's experienced racism almost daily, been chased by skinhead, talked down to by teachers and patronised by his peers. He says the Christchurch attacks on Friday were no surprise. "I think it’s time that we stop living in denial about the very form of racism that has existed in this country for such a long time, it’s nothing new to us. I hope from here onwards we can start to recognise this." Mr Mire says attacks targeted on Muslim communities are "nothing new to us as a community". "We’ve had situations where the heads of pigs have been chopped off on moques and vandalism on mosques throughout the country. There’s multiple incidences that have been happening, so it’s nothing new." He says, "This was a terrorist attack fuelled by white supremacist violence extremist ideology and I think we need to acknowledge that. "I would like to see it actually come out of the mouths of people that are in positions of power because right now we need people to talk about it for what it is." Mr Mire says what the Muslim community needs now is continued support and time to grieve. "The community's grieving and we need time to grieve. We are still processing this and it’s not easy. "There’s mixed feelings right now there’s upset, there’s anger, there’s frustration, there’s so many questions," he says. "Everyone knows everyone and everyone... ...many of us in the community have been impacted by this."  ==========================================================

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3 days ago

Poll: Should drivers retake the theory test every 10 years?

The Team from Neighbourly.co.nz

Drivers get where they need to go, but sometimes it seems that we are all abiding by different road rules (for example, the varying ways drivers indicate around a roundabout).
Do you think drivers should be required to take a quick driving theory test every 10 years?

Vote in the poll and share any road rules that you've seen bent! 😱

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Should drivers retake the theory test every 10 years?
  • 49.5% Yes
    49.5% Complete
  • 48.6% No
    48.6% Complete
  • 1.9% Other - I'll share below
    1.9% Complete
2627 votes
15 hours ago

Here's Thursday's thinker!

Riddler from The Neighbourly Riddler

I am lighter than air, but a hundred people cannot lift me. What am I?

Do you think you know the answer to our daily riddle? Don't spoil it for your neighbours! Simply 'Like' this post and we'll post the answer in the comments below at 2pm.

Want to stop seeing riddles in your newsfeed?
Head here and hover on the Following button on the top right of the page (and it will show Unfollow) and then click it. If it is giving you the option to Follow, then you've successfully unfollowed the Riddles page.

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9 hours ago

Why make picking up reserved library books harder? What do you think? Challenge: Write the last stanza for the first poem attached below.

Alan from Titirangi

Once books are reserved in Auckland Libraries books, when they are available no longer go alphabetically by customer but instead go into a Holds pickup shelf number based presumably somehow on when each book needs to be picked up by.

I had two books reserved that arrived on two different days in the Blockhouse Bay Library and hence each book has a different shelf number. Hard to find unless you knew the shelf number in the notification email. Even if you knew the shelf number I found myself three books by the same author on the two shelf numbers.

More recently yesterday a book I reserved was on a different shelf number than was specified in my notification email (see image below).

Sadly it is clear from library staff that a numerical system for reserves is here to stay.

I suggest that so that all books for each person has the same shelf number, the shelf number becomes the last digit of a person's library card (0-9).

Within each shelf number a book is found under the day the reserve arrives in the library (01 to 31, hopefully the same date the email is sent).

Since a customer appears to have 10 days to pick up a book, ten days of the month would appear to be required at any time (for each digit 0-9).

Once there are 10 days used the next day's reserves could go back at the beginning of the shelf number after any remaining books not collected (hopefully none) are removed (along with the old day number and the new day number (01 to 31) inserted) after the last day available and future days' books remaining moved forward to make room.

Each day number (01-31) would appear once for each shelf number (0-9) before the first book on that day- perhaps cover an old withdrawn book with paper with each day number on the spine?

When a reserved book arrives in the library the last digit of the library card could be placed on a piece of paper in the book to be removed when it is put on the shelf, to be recycled the next day.

What do you think?

See the image below and page 3 below for a letter appearing in the Western Leader on 9 September:
www.neighbourly.co.nz...

PoemReservingBooks.pdf Download View