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*Price complete with PENTAX standard single vision lenses with scratch resistant coating. Progressives and bifocals also available at an extra cost. Second pair must be from same price range of frames and lens range or below. Must be same prescription. Extra options not included. Price correct at time of print. Frames available while stocks last. COMPLETE WITH LENSES 2 PAIRS 169 * $ FROM Complete with PENTAX standard single vision lenses Hornby – The Hub: 349 5193, Papanui – Northlands Mall: 354 1435, Riccarton Westfield: 343 1499, Riccarton – Windmill Centre: 348 5657, Shirley – The Palms S/C: 385 2780. Visit specsavers.co.nz to find out more. OPEN SUNDAYS Check online for details Purge poison from politics Chris Trotter Forty years ago . . . the political smear campaign was the speciality of the Right. I ’m writing this column on the 40th anniversary of Norman Kirk’s death. As someone who cast his first vote in 1975, it is tempting to eulogise the New Zealand of 40 years ago and to compare it, favourably, with the scandal-ridden country of today. Certainly ‘‘Big Norm’’ was an extraordinary political leader against whom very few – if any – of today’s politicians could hope to measure up. One has only to watch his 1973 interview with David Frost (available online at NZ On Screen) to realise just how much the New Zealand electorate once demanded of their prime ministers. We must, however, be cautious, and not only because, as L P Hartley wrote: ‘‘The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.’’ Beset as we are with a rapidly spreading and intensifying political scandal, we would do well to bear in mind that although the New Zealand of 40 years ago was very different from the New Zealand of today, it was also, in ‘‘dirty politics’’ terms, surprisingly similar. Hartley’s caution notwithstanding, they did many things the same. Forty years ago, far from being the preferred weapon of the Left (as today’s Prime Minister, John Key, alleges) the political smear campaign was the speciality of the Right. When the newspaper Truth (the Whaleoil blog of its day) published a front-page story alleging Kirk’s involvement in a sinister plot to socialise the New Zealand economy, it was written in exactly the same belligerent style as Cameron Slater’s postings. Another instantly recognisable aspect of ‘‘dirty politics’’ 1970s-style was the Security Intelligence Service’s leaking of sensitive information to right-wing editors and journalists. Then, as now, they needed no further instruction on how to put such material to good use. Most of all, however, the period leading up to and following Kirk’s death was characterised by a sense of powerful yet unidentified forces moving unobserved behind the scenes. A very similar characterisation of the political zeitgeist was one of the most memorable parts of Nicky Hager’s speech to a packed hall of interested Aucklanders last Wednesday. In explaining his reasons for writing Dirty Politics he referenced exactly the same feeling of unease about the way politics was being conducted; the same conviction that apparently isolated political events were, in some unrevealed and sinister way, connected. The anxieties of the ‘‘screaming Left- wing conspiracy theorists’’ of the mid- 1970s concerning the malignant political machinations of the ‘‘Kirk Years’’ were eventually proved right. Fortunately, Hager has not had to wait 40 years to have his worst fears confirmed. Thanks to the intervention of a ‘‘White Hat’’ hacker known as Rawshark, New Zealand’s foremost investigative journalist has been able to demonstrate that the dark arts of attack politics are being applied in 2014 with no less devastating effect than in 1974-75. The unfolding revelations, in which so much of the action has been concentrated in the offices of the Prime Minister and the Minister of Justice, have inevitably invited comparisons with the Watergate Scandal. That story also reached its crescendo in August 1974 when, for the first and only time in US history, a serving President was forced to resign his office. It is worth recalling, given the proximity of our own general election, that the exposure of the Watergate burglary in June 1972 had no impact whatsoever on the outcome of the presidential election held in November of that year. Indeed, President Richard Nixon was emphatically re-elected – winning 49 of the US’s 50 states. The slow unravelling of the scandal and its subsequent cover-up did, however, transform Nixon’s second term into a political and constitutional nightmare. As a result his administration was effectively paralysed and the US gravely weakened. The only positive aspect of Watergate was the way in which the venerable US Constitution was able to defuse what could have exploded into a full-blown ‘‘legitimation crisis’’. Democracies, much more than other political systems, depend upon their citizens’ belief that the people they elect to public office are decent, conscientious and law-abiding. If high ethical standards are not maintained; if citizens become convinced that their elected representatives are engaged in large-scale and largely unreproved corruption; then the legitimacy of both the government and the state is called into question. Is New Zealand’s unwritten and historically untested constitution capable of rising to the challenge of this present political scandal as effectively as America’s rose to the challenge of Watergate? Can the Prime Minister and his Cabinet be relied upon to pass judgement on themselves? Nixon resigned on August 9, 1974. Norman Kirk died 22 days later on August 31. That’s when it began: 40 years ago; that’s when the poisons currently disfiguring our body politic first entered the nation’s bloodstream. In the polling booths on September 20 can we purge ourselves of those poisons? Will we vote to impeach? THE PRESS, Tuesday, September 2, 2014 A11 WE SAY: The tragedy is a dark day for the public service ... and a dark day for Ashburton. You read it @press.co.nz You said it @press.co.nz Hager’s relationship with hacker revealed ‘‘So ... Hager is in it for the money, but the right-wing business interests he has embarrassed are in it for the public good?’’ Clown pioneer: Thomas Petschner is the founder of the Clown Doctors programme in New Zealand. Photo: STACY SQUIRES/FAIRFAX NZ The benefits of clowning around Laughing can block pain, increase circulation, decrease blood pressure, relax muscles, overall making you feel better. Medical response team: The Clown Doctors get together before visiting patients. Christchurch’s Clown Doctors celebrate five years of medical laughter this week. They would like to do more, but they need help, writes Professor THOMAS PETSCHNER. I t has been five years since I first put on my red nose and began spreading joy and laughter in Christchurch and Princess Margaret hospitals. I’m so proud of what our Clown Doctors have achieved since then. We’ve spread to Auckland and Wellington and are helping to revolutionise the environment in which healthcare is being delivered. We’ve come so far in the last five years, and yet there’s still so much more we can do. People still ask me if there really is a connection between laughter and your health. That’s like asking whether the Earth is actually flat. Even the Ancient Greeks knew the healing effects of laughter. Now there are 40 years of hard scientific evidence proving the positive effects of smiling and laughing on the human body and mind. But you don’t have to read academic journals, just watch a child who is distracted by a Clown Doctor and not noticing the nurse taking blood. Who can question the benefits after seeing a previously depressed, uncommunicative elderly patient suddenly get up and join in with others singing and dancing around the room? I’m privileged to have witnessed this and so much more. It’s easy to stay motivated when my job deals in smiles and laughter and yields results like these. But it doesn’t mean things are always easy. As I performed medical clowning relief work around Christchurch in the days immediately after February 22, 2011 you could feel the tension everywhere. It was a heavy presence over the whole city. People needed permission to laugh because there was absolutely nothing to laugh about. I’m honoured to have shared smiles and laughter with the brave men and women in our emergency services, and those who answered the international cry for help. After spending an afternoon in ‘‘Camp Hollywood’’ with some firefighters from Los Angeles, an Australian search and rescue team came over to ask if they could have a Clown Doctor visit next. Three years on, the 2014 All Right survey shows 64 per cent of us are still grieving and 35 per cent have more health issues than before the quakes. There is a real need for Clown Doctors in Christchurch, arguably more than anywhere else in New Zealand. Many people are still trying to find reasons to laugh. Children are arriving in hospital with compromised immune systems. They’ve dealt with earthquakes, aftershocks, flooding, and many are still living in damaged homes, all of which increase the risks of infection and disease. According to the University of Canterbury, as many as one in five kids has signs of post-traumatic stress disorder. Stress wears you down, diminishes your immune system, and puts pressure on your cardiovascular system, which can increase your chances of suffering a heart attack. There’s a high demand for our services from hospitals like Burwood, where we don’t visit, while Princess Margaret and Christchurch hospitals want us to come more often. There’s more to it than just having a laugh. Laughing can block pain, increase circulation, decrease blood pressure, relax muscles, overall making you feel better. If you’re de-stressed, you recover faster and require less pain medication, regardless of the underlying illness. If patients are relaxed, the hospital staff benefits. Families feel better knowing their loved ones are happier and receiving some extra care, so the whole community benefits because your friends and family are out of hospital sooner, allowing for more efficient use of health resources. The results of medical clowning are backed up by science and moving personal testimonies, the need is very real, and hospitals want us. The only thing holding us back is a lack of funding. Fundraising in Christchurch has been difficult since the earthquakes as there are so many demands and increased needs to support our community. Many businesses are rebuilding and don’t have large reserves for sponsorship. On the other hand, some are booming and have never been so busy. Lots of charities are doing great work, but there’s only so much grant money to go around. Nationally, we have a successful operation. In Auckland and Wellington our Clown Doctors are visiting hospitals several times a week, but in five years we haven’t been able to similarly expand our programme in Christchurch. It’s my dream to start visiting a new hospital each year, but we can’t do it alone. Clown Doctors are professional artists specially trained in the art of medical clowning, and we’re proud to not charge hospitals for our service. On April 7, we celebrated New Zealand Smile Day by visiting extra hospitals who don’t usually receive our services. They all loved having us and want regular Clown Doctor visits. However, where we get funding determines where we can extend our programme. Given the great need in Christchurch, it’s our hope that we can expand our services here, to help share a smile with those who have gone through so much. Your support would be the best fifth birthday present I could imagine and ask for. ● ●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●● ● ❯❯ Professor Thomas Petschner is the founder and chief executive of the Clown Doctors New Zealand Charitable Trust, and a director of the International Institute for Medical Clowning. For more information see clowndoctors.org.nz.
