Regional Council notes

Looking back over the years there has always been something in the news that called us to take action.  Long ago the three main drivers of unrest; the need for more resources, religion and inequality were deemed adequate reason for us to kill one another and take over the resources of the vanquished.  Of course all three still exist and still cause major unrest in some countries but here at home in our mostly peaceful country we have found other matters to get up-in-arms over.

A couple of governments ago it was personal safety.  Spurred on by a massive media campaign people reported that they no longer felt safe in their own homes, crime was out of control and police resources were stretched to breaking.  When those stories ceased to sell newspapers we moved on to mental health.  Prior to the last general election DHB’s were inundated with Official Information Act requests on the state of mental health services in their districts and media was littered with bad news stories about mental illness and addiction. … Continue Reading

Rotary Club of South Wairarapa 

October is the time of our AGM and Club Forum which is an opportunity for the membership to look at how we have done during the past year and to consider what we might do differently.

In his report our past president David Halford said that easily a third of our retained earnings were distributed to youth related activities. We were very pleased that this was in line with the results of a small community survey that we did recently to get an idea of where the community would like us to put our resources. 

This was not a fully representative sample, but it did give us some clear indications. Secondary school children and unemployed youth were considered to be the groups that would benefit most from more or improved community support in the South Wairarapa. In relation to the environment, survey respondents indicated that cleaning up waterways and rivers and restoring wetlands ranked highly. … Continue Reading

The Ruamahunga Health Trust is 15 years old!

In 2005, the Ruamahunga Health Trust was established and registered as an incorporated society.  It has eight trustees.  Six of the trustees are original members.  Five have retired from the Trust over the years and this year we welcome two new Trustees; Paula Jackson and Cynthia Maling.  Cynthia has had a long and successful career in the health sector.  Paula’s career has been in business, where she currently resides on several boards and has considerable marketing experience.

The main roles of the Trust are to maintain the Martinborough Health Centre to a high standard, to support the work of the health professionals, and in particular, to promote and support quality health services in the South Wairarapa.

How did the Trust begin? … Continue Reading

South Africa still has problems

Recently released figures show that there were 12,022 murders in South Africa during 2018 –  that is 53 a day. The number of serious sexual assaults was over double that. Sixty two of the murders were carried out on farms  and much was made of the fact the ‘only’ forty six of the victims were white farmers.

Meanwhile the World Bank  revealed that South Africa was the most financially unequal country in the world  with the vast majority of the nation’s wealth still held by  the white minority.