Murder Most Foul #5 – Scott Watson

Scott Watson who was convicted in May 1999 of the murders of Ben Smart and Olivia Hope on his boat Blade on 1 January 1998. The bodies of Smart and Hope have never been found.

Watson is serving a life sentence with a non-parole period of 17 years and is expected be released on 8 July 2016

On New Year"s Eve 1997, young holiday-makers Ben Smart and Olivia Hope dissapeared from a party at Furneaux Lodge in the Marlborough Sounds, and were last seen boarding a mystery yacht with a mystery man.

The boat that they were last seen boarding was described by witnesses as a 40ft wooden ketch (two masted yacht) with high freeboard. When Scott was photographed earlier in the evening before going ashore, he had short hair and was obviously clean shaven. His yacht "Blade' is a 26ft steel sloop (single masted yacht) with very low freeboard.

Doubts are explored here : http://www.freescottwatson.org/northandsouth/northandsouth.pdf

However you'll find assertions of guilt along the lines of "I found the DNA evidence along with the fact Watson scrubbed his yacht so thoroughly it was cleaner than a hospital ward the main indicators of guilt."

Couple of things.

• No bodies were found and are unlikely to ever be found


• There appears to be some level of doubt about the 'evidence' of hair and DNA


• There appears to be confusion over timelines, and locations


• Scott Watson, I've always had the understanding, is\was a bit weird

I also have a memory of a conversation with someone who asserted that he'd probably be in jail for something else if it wasn't for this.

As an aside: Watson married Coral Branch in Paremoremo Prison in 2004. They separated in 2007.

It's getting close to release time for Scott Watson. No closure would have been served to the parents, or friends of Ben and Olivia.

Scott Watson may well be free in a couple of years, however will always be walking with a shadow over him, and a bunch of people who will want answers and the elusive closure.

Scott Watson may also not be released, or released with some severe and strict conditions. It depends on how much 'remorse' he shows, and his likelihood of re-offending.

It'll be an interesting time, we're not known in NZ to let a sleeping dog lie, and living in the spotlight might have some interesting side effects.

 

Related articles

• Scott Watson takes legal action


• Watson files against Corrections


• Watson fights for cell visit


• Case may clarify prison media rules


• Call for case review body

 

Two Funerals and a wondering

To be honest it's been a few funerals,  but specifically I'm thrown off by axis by one of which was this week, the other from 1988.

This week the funeral of a friend, Des Tierney, a good bastard by any measure. If I end up half a good a bastard then I'll be spectacular. No one exemplified the meaning of community than Des. There won't be a million words or books written about Des, and that's a pity in some regards, but he'll be an oral legend, around these and other parts.

The other funeral, my Father. The one I didn't go to because I just moved to New Zealand, in 1987.

The thing that links them? Well in the sadness of things they both died before they were 60.

And why then would I be thrown into the funk that I have. Well I'm not getting any younger, and I'm now contemplating, as I did with some incredulity at 16, as being as old as my dad. Except now that the words "when he died" are added on the end.

So why should I panic about the age my father died? He was a heavy smoker with a sedentary lifestyle, it's not the way I am. And how does the passing of a friend conflate a story to make it a doom.

In a normal thinking they don't. But as your own mortality, and your own perception of that mortality changes you begin to fret. I spoke to a couple of of me friends about this, and they get it, what I'm feeling, they didn't laugh, they just compared theirs to mine, and we all agreed that it was a nothing. It is what it is, there is no binary thing going on, that event A does not meant that it will equal a similar event  A for me, or them.

So now here I am wondering why it is that I never owned a Lotus Elite Turbo, and E-Type Jaguar. A 1967 Mustang fastback , or a V8 anything, and it's not like that would define me in anyway. It might bring me immediate pleasure, and the added angst of maintaining and paying for it.

I'm now wondering why I never went home to England and abandoned almost everything to a new country, like no one ever did that, but I've not been home, not am I likely to go home, and I left in 1987. And yes it's still home. Go figure.

Do I think people will tell grand stories about me when I die? You're having a laugh, the most heroic I've been was when never.  Should I worry about that?

So a life just as ordinary. A fear and doubt. A surprise? There are many things in my head, and a weight on my shoulder that has descended for no reason other than self.

But if I had a motto to live by it would be "this too shall pass", and it will. Might get that as a tattoo.

One massive mistake - two stories - natural health.

 

Two stories in the media today outlining the lead up to the death of a woman from an invasive brain tumor having been under the care of a quack, charlatan, confidence trickster.

Naturopath failed cancer patient - National - NZ Herald News.

Natural Health Treatment For 18 Months, Despite... | Stuff.co.nz.

One story lays bare the facts, including names:-

A naturopath who treated a woman for 18 months while an invasive cancer ate through her skull has been heavily criticised for not deferring to doctors.

Te Horo iridologist Ruth Nelson may face Human Rights Tribunal action over her treatment of Yvonne Maine, who sought treatment for what she believed was a cyst on her head in 2008.

Mrs Nelson carried out a variety of natural health treatments over the next 18 months, as the invasive carcinoma grew to 10cm by 11cm in size.

The other skirts the issue:-

A natural health practitioner treated a woman with a lesion on her head for 18 months, even though the practitioner recognised from the beginning that the lesion "looked cancerous".

The provider did not retain any records of the care she provided and no other health practitioner treated the woman's lesion during that time.

Despite being aware that the lesion was likely to be cancerous, the provider did not inform the woman of her opinions about the severity of the woman's condition or that the lesion was worsening during the course of the treatment, the HDC said.

I'm pretty sure this is the same story, with different spins by the media. One does not appear to hold back and name names, the other plays the story in a "we've heard" kind of way.

As far as I know anyone can be an Iridolgist - it's an alternative medicine technique whose proponents claim that patterns, colors, and other characteristics of the iris can be examined to determine information about a patient's systemic health. Practitioners match their observations to iris charts, which divide the iris into zones that correspond to specific parts of the human body. Iridologists see the eyes as "windows" into the body's state of health.

or  I might even  get into a bit of Naturopathy, or Naturopathic Medicine, is a type of alternative medicine based on a belief in vitalism, which posits that a special energy called vital energy or vital force guides bodily processes such as metabolism, reproduction, growth, and adaptation

How this isn't at one end manslaughter or even assault I can't figure out. If the "provider of care" couldn't provide care, but was taking money, not keeping records, and avoiding sending someone to a proper doctor with proper qualifications I don't know what it is you can be held responsible for. She may not have lived if she'd been a a qualified medical practitioner, but there would be records, and multiple opinions, not a quick glance in the eye, a fear of hospitals and some nonsense about "windows"

I'm convinced that there will be a lot of people who have faith and anecdotal evidence that looking in the eyes can cure you, that there is some "vital energy" that you can be tapped, the same people that think Reiki works, or that Acupuncture can clear your meridians, and that Ear Candles are effective in something or other. You all need to question why you have only "faith" and that you'll rely on an old wives tale as appropriate medicine.

Shame to you.

Related articles

• The insinuation of naturopathic quackery into law [Respectful Insolence] (scienceblogs.com)


• Iridology Update (theness.com)

 

Happy Families - the one with the recap #2

Anyways we crack on ....  There are many more things to tell

If you remember we had an aunt Peggy  - it turns out that she was not a relation at all. This came to light when Peggy needed proof of identity for her pension rights. Seems our nan took her in. Mum only said she was very upset and angry.

but a footnote clears it up somewhat:  Peggy is a relation, that's your Mum's "sister" on her birth cert. The father is named as your granddad ( Eva's dad ), but the mother isn't Harriet (grandmother), but is in fact your Grandads sister.  We presume that whilst married - the mother who's name evades us at present - and with her husband is  at war (or dead) she's become pregnant. Our Grandparents have taken Peggy as their own, hence Grandads name on the birth certificate, so Peggy was your Mums cousin and her "parents" we're her Aunt & Uncle.

In other stories

The bishop of Fulham is a relative! He came to visit us once.

Granddad had a  brother who lived just yards away they never spoke.

Took mum to see Albert SCRIVEN  -  he being a cousin -  his brother was a boxer and actually spared with the late Sir Henry Cooper, we have a letter from him telling us that.

Granddads father fell of the back of a horse and cart and died. He was born in Crewkerne  - that's Somerset.

granddad  served in WW I -  according to mum he was a stretcher bearer.  Had a finger knuckle shot off Clive may remember that twisted finger.

Uncle George who lived at the same house got shrapnel wounds in the back we have a photo of him in uniform with a military motorbike. Sadly he jumped in front of a train at Hither Green. There was a short story in the newspaper at the time. I talked to the head of British Railways about this but they don't keep records.

Then there is Uncle Jim. Uncle Jim took everything,  but he died a pauper at Bury St Edmunds.  The council cremated him, and put his ashes on nans grave.

The only relation alive is by marriage, and  is Uncle George's wife.  Mums brother, George was in the SAS.

Our older cousins are passing away,  cousin Tarn died , Cousin Sam (Clive will remember him he has cancer) is living in  somewhere like Thailand  -  sold his house to provide for himself as money goes further.

We have a relation there who as done much ancestry work,  I met him on the family tree. There is a soldier with the surname "Hicks" -  a war memorial statue, more than one, who posed for the sculpture  - we have a photo,  It's also the memorial statue near us, anyway we're sure there are more.

Our family tree goes back to 1604 I think but only on mums side.

We have relations in South NZ - Waimate. Might as well put this a relative played for the all blacks. a long time ago.

and Finally....

Uncle Syd was a  boxer -  using the name "Pat Crowley" in Ireland.  Not a good idea to be an Englishman with "the troubles" then. A record of 99 fights undefeated. The information came from a boxing historian who was very excited when we told him who Pat Crowley was. Also spoke to the owner of boxing magazine about George SCRIVEN, grandads son, he was an Olympic hopeful but liked women and a beer he's the one who sparred with Henry Cooper.

The Fleece Machine - Spiritual medium to meet with Pike River families

This made me a bit angry today  - " Spiritual medium to meet with Pike River families " via Spiritual medium to meet with Pike River families - National - NZ Herald News.

So to be clear as to where I stand on this - There are no spirits, ghosts, afterlife, angels, sky-god, demons, it's all made up bullshit nonsense to part you & your cash.

You can't talk to dead people, they do not talk to you.

Prayer does not work, the Bible is not the true word of anyone other than then person who wrote it.

There is no plan for your existence, there is no reward in some imaginary afterlife, you will not be rewarded in this life by some imaginary sky-being who watches over you, and there is no after-life.

If psychics were real then the stock market would use them, and lotto would be won at will - don't be taken in with the claims that "it does not work that way" - tell me in what way does it work.

Why are all these spirits hanging about to tell you they are ok, and that you should be ok, and they watch over you. Which is all they do. Is that, in fact, all you do for ever and ever and ever, just hang about watching. Can these "spirits" only tell of the past, of things that you knowingly or unknowingly communicate with your "medium"

What happens when all your immediate family die, and you're a spirit, joined by all your relatives, good and bad? Do you start watching over strange people just for the crack?

Do the dead outnumber the living ?

• Number of people who have ever been born: 107,602,707,791


• World population in mid-2011 : 6,987,000,000

That's an awfully big ratio.

Finally let me confess to tell you, I did once get a freebie to watch one Kelvin Cruickshank  at work in Takapuna, and was amazed at his skill and the way he dealt with the audience. I was impressed and confused as to how he did what he did, but let me state again - he wasn't talking to dead people, spirits, ghosts, angels, demons or anything other than his own thoughts, and his interpretations of the feedback from the audience.

I'm prepared to be made to look a fool and have someone tell me something that they can't know about me but that a "spirit" told them, both my Mother and Father are dead, and all my GrandParents, so you should be able to get something recent, unless they've disowned me.

Do it for free to prove you can do it, if you have a gift why do you need to monetize it?

Related articles some of them Comedic Value only and not an endorsement

• Medium bare: Psychic 'told women to strip naked to increase their spiritual powers' (mirror.co.uk)


• Mediumship is defined (figsandgrapes.wordpress.com)


• Is there a life after death? (healthy-spirit.org)


• Wales News: Psychic Karl Lang found guilty of conning young women into stripping (walesonline.co.uk)


• Christian Spiritualists to offer readings in Erie (goerie.com)

Unhappy Families – at least you can pick your friends – part the third.

I make no apology for the airing of dirty laundry and tawdry family behaviour in what follows. I'm as amazed and amused as you might be;

The cast, a family of 8;  5 boys, 3 girls :

#1 Son - Australia / #2 Son - England /  #3 Son (#6 child)  - New Zealand #4 Son (#7 child) England #5 Son (#8 child) - unknown
#1 Sister - England (#3 child) / #2 Sister (#4 child) - Norfolk / #3 Sister (#5 child) - Derby

The prequel....

• My mother died suddenly and unexpectedly, and without a will.


• There are 8 children, and we all live in dispersed places through the world, I'm in New Zealand, I have a brother in Australia. The rest of the family are salted throughout England.


• Only one child, #1 sister lived in proximity to where the mother was living, in a sheltered accommodation (granny ghetto), and spent a fair amount of time with her.


• That we were from a poor background led us to assume that the 'estate', such as it was, consisted only of a small amount of money in a Post Office account.


• It was suggested, by #2 Son, and it was a good suggestion, that should the mother die then that fund should cover the cost of the funeral and anything left to go to the #1 sister.

And it turns out that on her death we know that there was at least a HSBC banking account with some money in it.

Part the Second - the waiting bit  - And this is where it went a bit wrong.......

We have a brother who for whatever reason has decided to go awol. He's been unheard of for a few years. His choice. #1 Sister decided to tell the HSBC that there were only 7 children, which raised a few eyebrows, and caused some discussion between us, we all by consensus acknowledge his fair entitlement to inclusion in the family (As if that's not the law anyway).  #4 son was volunteered to take things in hand and to take legal steps to become the administrator of the estate, since settling with the HSBC would have been impossible with only 7 of 8 signatures required.

A year or so (quickly) went past and I, in a fit of pique, decided to contact the family (Actually rather un-tactfully I put a post on FB) about how I was getting a bit miffed about not knowing what was happening. I got a fair old mouthful of feedback from the brothers (and wives of brothers) about how I needed to take a chill pill.

#4 son then starts to pursue vigorously the steps to become an administrator, which means swearing something or other in front of a judge or some such. Very important, and clearly it comes with a bunch of requirements and obligations, such as accounting for all the estate money, and assigning it to the right places.

#1 sister is asked, politely, to provide a statement or receipts of the money spent from the post office account (As mentioned above), as part of that. Also a general enquiry was made to the banking system to discover any other banking accounts that may have been active.

#1 sister sends a letter and at the end turns on the family

"May I remind all my family that on mum’s birthday it was agreed that as I had looked after mum for many years that when she died I would get everything when she passed. The agreement made still stands.
I do not want anything to do with anyone in my family. So you can take all the bank a/c money & stick it where the sun does not shine. Please do not bother me again."

The list of expenses was a mish-mash of things, but included some items of dubious veracity, and an admission that about 50% of the money that was left had been taken by her for personal expenses and "by this agreement".

Part the third - the bit where you go mmmm...

That's ok. That  there are some dubious expenses listed Is fine, it's nit-picking to go over it with a fine tooth comb and be picky to the Nth degree, but does raise the hackles of the family who want at this point to have a completely fair an open understanding of what is what.

And all this is ok except for a couple of things,

1. Not all the family made this agreement (not that it's not a sensible and fair sounding thing).


2. Turns out from the general enquiry to the banking system that there was another building society account ! Who knew?!

Indeed who knew? #1 sister knew and had produced a statutory declaration signed by her which stated she was legally entitled to the money, and had been paid out in full. #4 son has requested a copy of the declaration as part of his administrator status.

Follows though is a bit of  response from me and fury from #1 Son, #2 Son, and #4 Son. Along the lines that "Any agreement that was made only covered the post office account" and that a building society account was in place was unknown at the time (but not by everyone it seems). The #2 and #3 sisters have been silent on this issue so far between the whole family, they may have or may offer something to #4 son in due course.

What is clear that #1 Sister may have made a bit of a mistake. She's clearly done something that has upset the family and gone against any spirit of agreement or understanding. It might not even be strictly legal.

From the ensuing emails the ongoing consensus seems to be at this point that

• It's not about the money (as if it ever was - the amounts are in reality small).


• It's about fair, and everyone being given the chance to say what happened to the money, and not have some arbitrary "you said in passing I could have it all".


• Those that have an opinion don't think that the money is recoverable from #1 sister.


• Those that have an opinion seem to agree that a legal recourse might be required to make a point.

I'm glad we live so far disbursed from each other, reasoned and judged emails, I think, are the way we're going to resolve this, and resolve it we will. Can you imagine this as an afternoon meeting that you wouldn't want to be at. I have to point out too that MrsPdubyah is convinced that there are more skeletons to uncover, such as the insurance policies that are yet to come to light.

Unhappy Families – at least you can pick your friends - it continues.

I was all "Woe is me" recently, it'd been about 15 months since the mother died, and coming from a widely dispersed family settling the estate was proving a problem. The first problem was that there wasn't a will.

The death was sudden and without suffering, and the fact that there was no will shouldn't be a surprise. If you knew the family you'd know there was no surprise.

So as one of the furthest away from home  I'm also the one who makes the most noise. As you do.

Some of the family were so self absorbed as to be able to say "we don't need the money it'll work it's way out", and this is fine but alas things don't just happen. I was a bit pointed when I remarked that the fact that although money might not be needed by them, it might be useful to someone else, like an old people's refuge, or a injured service mans charity, for instance. Bit of a cad really.

I got a rightful serve by the family, who thought I was picking a fight and making an accusation of lazy, or worse. I felt a bit down about it to be honest. All I wanted was to resolve the estate and to let everyone get on with their disparate lives.

We're not a  close family and despite a few attempts we are never going to have a reconciliation or a get together, just ain't going to happen.

But wait.... since then, younger brother has got his wriggle on, and has sworn an allegiance to the queen or whatever it is you have to do in front of a judge, and has managed to secure a deed of probate which essentially means he is in control. FTW!

So the Letters of Administration will be issued and he will be in a position to make the Bank give up their secrets and allows him the power to withdraw the funds and that, essentially close the estate and divvy up the proceeds.

Except..... #1 sister is playing hard to get. This is the sister who spent a lot of time with the mother, and has made a big effort to make the funeral happen and to tidy up the edges. But at the same time #1 sister made some huge judgment calls about trinkets and trivia that benefitted those close. Don't get me wrong these might have been the right calls and I'm not disputing or going to question it.

But there is some paperwork and some forms that need to be sent from A to B, and so far that hasn't happened. Which is a can't or won't thing.  I'm not  saying that there is nefariousness or underhand at play, and I think that whatever is afoot is played out daily with family estates everywhere. nothing new, no new stories.

But what it does mean is that the mothers estate might only be a couple of months away from settled, and then the family can settle down to it's own life again.

Related articles

• Unhappy Families - at least you can pick your friends. (pdubyah.com)


• Wills and Estates are not for the deceased, but the family left behind. (sassinannasworld.wordpress.com)


• Avoid these 4 awkward issues when drafting a will (business.financialpost.com)

Unhappy Families - at least you can pick your friends.

My mother died just over a year ago March 2011, and despite her age suddenly, and without a will.

I'm from what would now be considered a large family of 8 children (5 boys, 3 girls) and I count myself as Number Six.

#3 child, the eldest sister and her daughter remained the closest, geographically, and spent a lot of time with mother through the years.

The rest of the family dispersed itself to parts afar and wide, myself in New Zealand,  #1 Son in Australia, others to Derby, others to Norfolk, a bit all over the place really. There is even a missing person, the youngest of the family Stewart who one day just stopped talking to #3 sister( #5 child) and hasn't been heard of since.

To say we're not a close family is a bit of an understatement. And I bet this has never happened to anyone who lost a parent;

"When we all arrived at your mums on the day of her funeral <...>  had already cleared the property and all that was left were photographs and bric-a-brac.  Anything of any alleged monetary value was gone"

It's difficult being so far away to be judgemental, but the anger and angst that that causes is palpable and drives a wedge in the family that doesn't need to exist.

Trying to get even a guesstimate on the remaining monetary value of the estate (bank accounts, insurances etc) has proved impossible, everyone has a figure in mind, and they're all different. If someone knows then they're not saying, and trying to get a bank to disclose anything is a mission.

I know it's only a year, and I know that resolution of someone who has dies intestate may take time to resolve. The will of the family however appears to be questionable. We're not close (did I mention that) and by-and-large it seems that at least 5 out of the 8 children (can't speak for the missing one) are financially not challenged enough to want to pursue this more vigorously.

My points of contention and - if you like - anger are around who's doing what? and why are we all waiting for someone else in the family to do something?. And that someone else, why don't they email the rest of us to tell us what's going on? To which a couple of answers, one of which I already mentioned, financially it makes no difference.

Secondly there is a thing called "life" that gets in the way, the birthdays, the holidays, the parties. the getting on with life in general. A day becomes a week, becomes a month, becomes 3 months, it just happens. No one is to blame.

However, whilst a few hundred or a thousand pounds/dollars might not make a difference one way or another to me (or at least 4 others in the family) it might make a difference to the other 3. IT might make a difference to a charity organisation, a sheltered accommodation group, a women's refuge. It's just in the way you look at it as to how to decide if if makes a difference.

I fear that getting to a resolution is going to cause more rifts than it cures, and for an already estranged family it might yet get just that bit stranger.

I need to say that if my  family are reading this - it's not about you, it's about the way I feel about it, remember offence is taken not given, and you can choose.

Contemplation on a middle aged life.

It's not like I ever thought I would have some understated life, a bohemian devil may care existence.  But it gets to a point when all around you it's gone a bit squiffy,

At the moment:

1. Mother in Law was in hospital with suspected clotting, however it turns out that it was only bakers cyst. That and the osteoarthritis. Which for a golfer isn't helpful.


2. I have a close friend in hospital awaiting corrective surgery on a neck surgery that sort of didn't go to plan.


3. There is a close family friend who is undergoing surgery at the moment to remove some tumors he has.


4. There is a close family friend who has the C thing.


5. Mrs Pdubyah, well her manager not only has her father in hospital having suffered a stroke but she's been told that he's on a DNR notice. (Do Not Resuscitate), and if that wasn't bad enough today her brother died of basically being an alcoholic.

It apparently it not enough having to had to go to three funerals in the last year, but right now, this week it just seems to be stacking up, like some weird cosmic bottle-neck. I get that as you get older that life catches up, but heck it's not like I'm zimmer frame old, so just stop alright.

Bizarrely then with a frozen shoulder I'm possibly the fittest person I know. And that's a scary thought in and of itself. (and it's clearly not true). But somehow the circle of life appears to be on the homeward journey and I might have mentioned it before that I'm just a bit not ready.

So tonight a beer or two, and some quiet reflection is in order. As for this feeling of hopelessness and puzzlement, I'm hoping that this too shall pass.

Why George Best's death is the worst thing that's ever happened to me.

"When I heard the terrible news that George Best had passed away I cried and cried and cried. I cried and cried more than I have ever cried in my whole life.

I cried and cried and cried because more than anyone else I have never met George Best represented something important. Important to me.

As a schoolboy huddled on the grainy, black and white football terraces of the past, his dazzling football skills opened my says to a Technicolor world that was limitless and free and beautiful.  A world that was limitless. A world that was free. And, yes, a world that was beautiful.

George Best was all those things and more. He was limitless. He was free. And, yes, he was beautiful. Before George the Saturday afternoon football match was a dismal, grey experience. Drab grey men would pass a lumpy grey leather ball to each other on a cold, churned up, muddy, grey bomb site whilst the crowd of  black and white, grey men in dull, flat, lumpy, grey caps smoked Woodbines, yawned and looked at their feet.

When George appeared on the scene it was like being struck by  lightning, sticking your fingers in a socket and being struck by some more lightning all rolled into one. It felt like seeing Jimi Hendrix, the Beatles and Elvis Presley all rolled into one. Every time he touched the ball he literally defied the laws of gravity. I can still recall the trill of seeing him on the news yesterday doing things with a football that no-on else on earth would ever have attempted, let alone tried.

With every effortless kick, he taught us more about wisdom than ten Confuciusses. With every graceful swerve around a defender he taught us more about freedom than a hundred Mandellas. With every sublime header, he taught us more about artistry than a thousand Michelangelos. With every picturesque indirect free kick, he taught us more about beauty than a million Marilyn Monroes.

By any measure you care to choose George Best was the most perfect and flawless human being who ever lived.

And yet, he wasn't perfect. Far from it. Like all of us he had his flaws"

... and so it goes on.  I found this in a comic book that I have. Viz, and it's written under a byline of Tony Parsehole.

I found it humorous and I wonder if it's a template for any near future obituaries that we're about too see, and if it had been used as and previous ones.

I'm not big on forced faux grief. On forced empathy and sympathy, of forced and faux mourning, If you're affected be affected, don't try to get me to join in with that, it's not going to happen.

Related articles

• United greats: George Best

Under the Auckland Harbour Bridge #1

I was as about as underneath the Auckland harbour bridge as you could be  today and I saw this. It was beyond a fence line.

[caption id="attachment_1031" align="aligncenter" width="300"] The Plaque to Shanlee Maree Haggerty[/caption]

Curiosity and all that I googled the name with no results. It's an unusual name, and I would have thought that there might have been something. But then it goes to show that you have to have been on the internet somewhere to be on the internet somewhere. I wonder why there is a monument at that place, something that is so permanent and a reminder. Their quiet place, their reflective place, I don't know. Well I do know that I found a reminder to them, and that's got to make you wonder, just a bit.

So Shanley Maree Haggerty, whoever you were clearly you mean something to someone given that the garland of flowers was present, and you'll have to trust me that you have to know where this is to know where it is, it's not a place that many Auckland people would even consider there being access too, let alone a park.

My curiosity about the undersides of the Harbour bridge let me to seek out access, I wasn't expecting to find this nor the memorial that I found either, it's not a welcoming place, it's shaded, noisy from traffic, and there are not a lot of redeeming features, no beach, no access to the shore line, just the undersides of a steel girder bridge. But it is wonderful.

[caption id="attachment_9012" align="aligncenter" width="200"] A monument to the 3 who died in construction on the bridge[/caption]

 

11th January Update :

I’ve had someone let me know that they think that Shanley Haggerty was someone who died during the construction of the clip-on lanes. Which could be right, but seems a little odd considering that the monument to the other construction workers isn’t close and is somewhat grander

There is some conflicting history about the number of deaths widely reported as 3 but sometimes as 4. The monument lists just the three names. None of the documents that I’ve skim read (to be fair) mention any names of the dead workers. And they are all mentioned as “men”, and although I don’t think Shanley Maree Haggarty is a man’s name it could be that Maree is a family name that has some significance.

24th January Update :

Google eventually coughs up a bit of information as:

Shanley Maree McGowan –
Birth: 7 Aug 1967 in Auckland.
Death: 29 May 1993 in Auckland Harbour Bridge.
Burial: Body Not Recovered
Sex: F.
Father:  is not listed
Mother:  is not listed
She was a Teacher who Married  on the 27th Oct 1990 in Our Lady Of The Mount, Titirangi to Malcolm James Haggerty.

And now I’m saddened even more, because I know why there is a reminder, but more because it's not a way to end a life.

What Atheists Have to Believe.

I got listening to a couple of podcasts and the subject of atheism comes up now and again.

But the answer to "What atheists HAVE to belive" can be summed up in a couple of words. Well no that's not true, the answer is not in the question which isn't worded particularly well. The thing that I, an atheist, has believe in,  and this is all, is that "There is no God".

That is it. I don't have to not belive in the Christian God, any God will do not to belive in.

I dont have to believe in  Zeus, Hermes, Hades, Hera, Aphrodite,
or Iuppiter, Mors,  Terra,
or Odin, Thor, Loki, Njordr,
or Krishna,  Vishnu, Kali, Ishvara,
or Shangdi, Mazu, Shou  Xing, Tu Di Gong,
or Izanagi-no-Mikoto,  Izanami-no-Mikoto,
or Cernunnos, Damona, Epona,
or Ra, Isis, Anubis, Osiris,
or An, Ki,  Enlil, Enki,
or Sin, Marduk, Ishtar, Nabu,
or Simurgh, Rostam, Gaokerena,
or Bunyip, Kurreah, Mutjinga etc

not a one do I have to belive in. There is no God.

Being an Atheist does not mean I have no moral standards, or moral code of right and wrong, I don't find it odd to help my fellow-man, nor do I covet my neighbour's wife or oxen most of the time.

I have one thing as an atheist to belive in. That is all.

I don't have to apologise for evolution, I don't have to explain the uncausable cause of the big bang, I don't have to belive in an eternal after-life anywhere for any reason. I don't have to belive that what I think or what I do has any repercussion other than to me and those my actions affect. I don't have to belive in a judgement book.

Mostly however I don't have to belive that I will vilify you, ridicule you or otherwise insult your belief in something. If you have personal experience of a God then good for you!, but that's you and what you saw, I can't measure it, you can't replicate or prove it, but I'm not about that you prove it to me, especially not with a Bible of doubtful origin and content, that would be circular reasoning.

Should a God come visit with me and prove they are God then I'll happily change my mind.  In the meantime I believe that you have a right to what you think, even if you have no basis for that belief, and I'll continue with mine, based on what I've reasoned to be a reasonable position. After all "God did it" is not a reasonable excuse for anything that happens to you, anyone you know or any event in the world that you are too ignorant to think through an explain. Is it?

Related articles

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Suicide and punishing the dead by punishing the living.

This from the National Newspaper today Maori MP: 'Condemn' suicide victims

Q.How far up your own arse does your head have to be to not think like Waiariki MP Te Ururoa Flavell?

Waiariki MP Te Ururoa Flavell suggested a "very hard stand" should be made on suicide. "If a child commits suicide, let us consider not celebrating their lives on our marae; perhaps bury them at the entrance of the cemetery so their deaths will be condemned by the people," he wrote. "In doing these things, it demonstrates the depth of disgust the people have with this. Yes it is a hard stance, but what else can we do?"

What the heck has remembrance of a dead person have to do with punishing the relatives and friends by making them suffer indignities?

How does making an example of a dead body by castigation and lack of respect improve things?

How does condemnation and shunning someone aid, assist or promote suicide or suicide prevention?

What cockery is it that denying someone dignity is the cure for suicide?

Any free-thinking, forward thinking society should be able to come to terms that we fail people. We fail young people. As parents we are failing children who commit suicide, as peers we are failing children who commit suicide, as a community we are failing children who commit suicide. Feel free to substitute the world children for people.

Taking your own life, by design or by accident, is horrific and confusing to us. It tortures our own beliefs and boundaries, and causes us to question many things about ourselves, whilst at the same time questioning the motives, mindset and reasons that someone has chosen to end their life.

If you're of a religious bent then you're more than horrified, you're mortified by the sin of it. A ridiculous place to find yourself in, and leaving you to punish the relatives, friends, peers and memory of the deceased.

The continued stupidity of 'leaders' who stick blindly to dogma and 'protocol' are doing themselves and the people they represent no favours. It's not the 17th century where we can make a blood sacrifice to your own deity, it isn't.

For you,Te Ururoa Flavell, it's about punishing the dead by punishing the living, and in the end it makes not one blind bit of difference if you bury a person outside the gates, whether you mourn only for 1 day not 2 or 3, and if you deny the dead person the dignity of remembrance, in the end it's about how you've let that person down by not caring enough to prevent their death.

And that Waiariki MP Te Ururoa Flavell is the bottom line.

Things that never occurred to me #2 - Psychic Fraud

These are the people who think they can talk to the dead, get cryptical messages from the beyond, can pass on messages and give guidance on where to find things that are lost. For realsies. 



But of all the deluded people who think they can why is it that there is not one instance of a psychic fraudster? One that has used their "powers" of "seeing" to gather information about you. Say your bank account number, or credit card details or even your eftpos card and pin number. Ok so getting your eftpos card is plain old theft, and I'm sure there are plenty of instances of fraudulent and thieving psychics that have used their conniving ways to get money out of people.

But you're telling me that of all the criminals in the "afterlife" are reformed, and that not a one of them is willing to torment and wreak havoc on the living by passing this type of message to the "seer"

Of course not. They can't talk to the dead.

On death, dying and the ever after.

Personally speaking aside from brief moments of fear there isn't much else but death. Death in it's finality. The end.

We're on the earth to make more of us. That's all. More of us by procreation. Ensuring the existence and continuation of the species. That is all.

No big plan, no grand design. And no ever-after.

We're remembered if we're lucky for a few years or so, by an large, unless you're someone famous, and then your name and deeds may live on in folklore.

However ashes to ashes and all that, and that's all there is. There is no other place we go to, no afterlife where we hang around handing out cryptic messages to dodgy people who claim to be able to talk to the dead, none of that.

We stop, it's over. We lived we died, we laughed, we cried. That's all there is.

And I think that's where we hang our hat on the after-life or reincarnation or whatever our personal belief system is. We think we're more significant, special, and that means that there must be more right? Nope.

I get the need to believe that there is more, I get that some people think they can talk in cryptic to the dead, I do. However you're all having a laugh, and you need to exercise you're imagination a little to ponder why it should be that after your four score and ten on the earth you get a couple billion years in some other place?

Oh of course I could be wrong, but then it'll be that's pleasantly surprised and if I'm right we'll never know.

Faux outrage, Faux compassion and chipping in!

or slamming and damning, counselling and group grieving and how I learned to react in a group.

Led mostly by media snippets and reporting (often poorly repeated, and incomplete, inaccurate and angled for spin) the collective 'we' is often to quick to anger. Twitter is the new benchmark, Facebook pages would be next. You never hear of a TXT based outrage campaign though.

The hive mind is quick to pounce on indiscretion and verbalise their thoughts. Woe to anyone who swims against the tide. Someone often leads the charge and will whip a horse to death, but then we all have a 'thing' that does that to us (that's a whole new subject).

We're morally indignant about infidelity, as if we're all whiter than white, we're dumbfounded by misogyny, as if men have never leered at a woman of used a stick mag, and we can't belive that a school would add a computing device to the compulsory list for stationery.

We definitely cannot belive  that the Israeli's in Christchurch are tourists, although this seems to be a media hobby-horse and not a hive mind collective.

Anything the Government of the day announces can be negative, mostly negative. The twitterverse will be abuzz with the newly disenfranchised in minutes, spreading like a wildfire, it is to behold!

Similarly with a death. the hive mind seems to get it into its head to want to grieve. Mostly for people they never met, didn't know and didn't much care for before their death. particularly but not limited to children, young pretty females and young males. This is more a Facebook thing. But we're all hectored and badgered into having to be part of a group that mourns, without really understanding why. Hey it's a young person they died in some way or other and we should all feel some collective guilt.

Sure death is tragic, children dying is tragic, young people getting into situations where they kill themselves and others is tragic. It happens daily, worldwide, a lot. Old people die too, but then they had a life already get over it. I don't need to join a Facebook group or have some faux emotion based on an out of context picture in the press or on Facebook. Ge over yourselves.

As for counselling. What an industry that is, we have to take into personal consideration the thoughts and actions of everyone. This will and does and can lead to sheeplike behaviours and group feelings. Individually no, group yes. Naturally I'm not a psychiatrist or behaviours expert but I'm happy to bet cash on this being true.

So Faux Outrage and Grief, the latest big thing, or just the big thing.

Makes it sound like I'm not on any bandwagon, trust me I get on them, and then I get off most of the, some I just sit on for the ride.

Not beliving in...

Many things.

I'm an atheist. I think I've always been one. It's always been obvious to me that god isn't watching from the sky. And he doesn't talk to people. All of that.

The bible. Either you believe it, in toto, or you don't. You can't believe bits of it. You have to belive in creation, adam, eve, the talking snake, burning bushes, pillars of salt, arks and all that begetting. It's the rules.

You also have to belive it's the whole and only true word of either god or jesus, depends on where you start.

I can't. It's ludicrous to think that the words therein have remained the same, since writ. There are 'standardised' versions of course, but these can be shown to have been changed to fit current dogma.

I can't belive in miracles that have left no evidence. I can't belive that there was light in the east and the wide men from the east followed it, that's a fantastically awkward journey.

I can't belive that the bible is, as is, a self enclosed document, not plagiarised, or lifted from other sources or beliefs, I just can't.

But I can belive that the basic fundamentals of the teachings are collected wisdom. Don't kill someone, that seems reasonable. Don't steal from someone, pretty much dead on the money. Don't lie, again I'm down with that.

Can't agree with the first 4, about belive only in the one god, make no images, don't work on the weekend and don't use god or jesus as an epithet.  And #10 the bit about coveting, that just destroyed the consumer society, so no.

Pasta Rune Enoe kindly says this about the ten commandments and what you can expect if you break any of them, the pastor even questions the order they are given, he's a bit of a wag.  http://www.landoverbaptist.net/showthread.php?t=16785

Anyway for instance
Thou shalt have no other gods before me. , the punishment is "severe" which  means that you'll be up for Genocide. Entire cities with men, women, children and animals
must be killed. (Deuteronomy 2:33-34, Numbers 21:34-35, 1 Samuel 15:2-3, Joshua 6:21. Joshua 10:40) In some cases you can keep the girls alive for raping. (Numbers 31:15-18)

So that's why I can't belive in the whole thing, some of it is patent nonsense, fiction and shambolic. Am I worried about death? Aren't we all. And when I'm dead you'll remember me and then one day you won't.  And that's the bottom line.

Losing your mother

Not like at the mall or anything, or in a carpark, but the death of a parent.

In context I left the UK in 1987 and spent a goodly amount of money on a 3 months stay in the US of A.

My father died in 1988 of a long overdue fatal stroke, due to smoking and a sedentary job.

My mother endured many tribulations, including a physically abusive drug addicted brother, and of course seeing her siblings pass away as the years went past.

She ended up in a sheltered accommodation, a granny ghetto, which by all accounts was pretty awesome and very communal, suited my mother to a T

I'd call her 3-4 times a year (I kid myself of course it was more like  twice a year), and send amounts of money as she carped on about shoes or coats or frocks, any little to helped

It was clear that she was older and increasingly frail, with a number of small operations to fix bits of her that were falling off, and had had minor corrective sugary on a hernia.

I spoke to her on the Monday, after the February Earthquake in Christchurch, making sure she understood that Christchurch was the other island, and that she'd been there on a previous visit, and that everyone was fine and dandy and in no dangers.

She had a massive stroke that night, never awoke and died a week or so later.

Closure is a difficult thing to define, and I'll never have a real sense that I said all I wanted to, you never do.

Somebody died I feel sad.

It's nobody I know, knew or would have ever had a chance to meet. Never spoke to them or knew anything about them, their likes, dislikes, hates, peeves, loves, hopes or ambitions.

Didn't know if they liked tea, coffee or juice. Sugar? Milk or cream?

But they died. And I feel sad.

They were world-famous (even if only in New Zealand), or they may have been truly world-famous. I read about them in the weekly gossip and rumor rags, or the broadsheets, or even perhaps on E!. Maybe they were guest-spotting on a show and paraded their talents. Probably they hung around with other faux-celebrities and caught my attention that way.

But they died. And I feel sad.

Why? Well they sang nicely. Or was it dancing. Singing and Dancing perhaps. Wrote a song, made a million. Perhaps they were a paperback writer. Whatever they were I assisted their fame, spent some money and they got rich/fat/lazy and more famous.

"How could you possibly understand how I feel?"

What is it you feel?

You could put anyone on TV/Radio/ in a Newspaper/Magazine and they'd achieve celebrity status and a fan-club. For some it is fleeting, for some it's their employment, it's what they do - Sing/Dance/Write/Perform.

Just like you do 9-5, just that you're not on TV.

But they died and collectively, or individually, we wring our hands and shake our heads solemnly. As if we had an impact in their lives (mostly only financially beneficial), and that the least we can expect is an invite to the funeral (will it be in TV or in the glamour mags?)

I read that this worship of stardom, this celebrity worship thing replaces, at least in western society, the religious idols we used to admire. We love/hate admire/revile applaud/boo with great abandon anyone that we're told is famous. Even for being famous.

Whats tragic really is that you full well know that in some hospice, in some car, at some place of work, someone is about to die. A lonely death. No less tragic, but less visible, and then less important. No matter that they touched the lives of a few people close to them, in a true and genuine way, not news, not important.

The biggest tragedy is we're all going to die. One day, some way. Even those we admire but have never met, spoken to, seen, etc. But when they die we'll be sad.

Of course.

See Also : http://wp.me/p1FL5z-mg

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Somebody died I feel sad.

It's nobody I know, knew or would have ever had a chance to meet. Never spoke to them or knew anything about them, their likes, dislikes, hates, peeves, loves, hopes or ambitions.

Didn't know if they liked tea, coffee or juice. Sugar? Milk or cream?

But they died. And I feel sad.

They were world famous (even if only in New Zealand), or they may have been truly world famous. I read about them in the weekly gossip and rumor rags, or the broadsheets, or even perhaps on E!. Maybe they were guest-spotting on a show and paraded their talents. Probably they hung around with other faux-celebrities and caught my attention that way.

But they died. And I feel sad.

Why? Well they sang nicely. Or was it dancing. Singing and Dancing perhaps. Wrote a song, made a million. Perhaps they were a paperback writer. Whatever they were I assisted their fame, spent some money and they got rich/fat/lazy and more famous.

"How could you possibly understand how I feel?"

What is it you feel?

You could put anyone on TV/Radio/ in a Newspaper/Magazine and they'd achieve celebrity status and a fan-club. For some it is fleeting, for some it's their employment, it's what they do - Sing/Dance/Write/Perform.

Just like you do 9-5, just that you're not on TV.

But they died and collectively, or individually, we wring our hands and shake our heads solemnly. As if we had an impact in their lives (mostly only financially beneficial), and that the least we can expect is an invite to the funeral (will it be in TV or in the glamour mags?)

I read that this worship of stardom, this celebrity worship thing replaces, at least in western society, the religious idols we used to admire. We love/hate admire/revile applaud/boo with great abandon anyone that we're told is famous. Even for being famous.

Whats tragic really is that you full well know that in some hospice, in some car, at some place of work, someone is about to die. A lonely death. No less tragic, but less visible, and then less important. No matter that they touched the lives of a few people close to them, in a true and genuine way, not news, not important.

The biggest tragedy is we're all going to die. One day, some way. Even those we admire but have never met, spoken to, seen, etc. But when they die we'll be sad.

Of course.