Men Excluded From Publicly Funded Health Programme
The award winning public health programme ‘Appetite for Life’ Course is in its sixth year and expects to provide for 1,000 patients this year. It is a clinician referred programme for patient’s with lifestyle related behaviours affecting their health. Think diet, weight loss, heart disease, alcohol, depression. Issues that transcend all races and genders. Then think how many women have been provided with this programme that costs only $25. The answer is over 1,000 this year alone. Then think how many men have been provided with this programme since it began six years ago and who will be provided with it this year. The answer is zero. That’s right, if you are a man you are excluded from this women’s only publicly funded diet control course.
A Christchurch man says the Canterbury District Health Board’s (CDHB) refusal to allow men access this health course is discriminatory.
Don Rowlands, 62, complained to the Human Rights Commission after he was not allowed to use the Appetite for Life programme, which aims to improve lifestyle and eating habits.
Rowlands was diagnosed with dangerously high blood pressure last year and was told he needed to lose weight.
His doctor recommended he complete the Appetite for Life course, which is run by the board.”A letter came back telling me I wasn’t accepted because men weren’t eligible. They suggested I pay for a dietitian.”
The Appetite for Life course had not been tested with men and adapting it for them would require big changes, says CDHB planning and funding general manager Carolyn Gullery (whom I’m taking a shot in the dark here and guessing just might be a woman!)
Read more at
http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/5544157/Dismay-at-refusal-to-let-men-take-health-course
You can contact Appetite for Life at http://www.appetiteforlife.org.nz/contact-us
Gerry H for GerryMen
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Why am I not suprised-Sigh!
Its same shit i can olny see one answer leave this country this country took my father hoodn after 15 years and tryed to make me a criminal. I would like some layer proboneo to get me justuse ive been screewd can someone help or am i wasting my time on this site
Hay just go is place is what it is things arnt going to change if u are man get out while u can
Hi Danny,
Often we have to dig ourselves out of the shit.
Lawyers just add debt to the shit, hooking up with someone to help you and self represent may be a healthier alternative.
How does leaving change anything or improve anything?
You starve the beast by leaving taking as much as you’re able your intellectual, financial and cultural capital with you.
The beast then eats itself.
Some folks have already done this and know that leaving NZ has left NZ the poorer.
Read The Misandry Bubble and ask yourself a better question – Why stay on a sinking ship?
Hi Danny, This is my advice. No. 1 – As a non custodial child support paying father don’t even think about trying to achieve justice No. 2 – Priority 1 is to survive No. 3 – If you can see yourself living away from this country forever and not seeing your kids for many years then look at your professional skills and if there are big paying jobs in non reciprocal countries then go for it. Earn big, live cheap, you could last a lifetime living this life. Not ideal, but living on your knees in a rented shit hole and being walked over by local agencies ain’t a party either in my view No. 4 – Before you leave concot a scenario so that your child support payment is as low as possible. As far as what happens years down the track if you have accrued a large bill, deal with it then. No. 5 – Live as good a life as you can. Your life is yours, these agencies and the Govt have just assumed otherwise. If you don’t have the qualifications to make $$ overseas then jump into a low paying apprenticeship or go to uni. At least you will accruing skills so that once you are released from your virtual cell you will have skills to make some $$. I reiterate, just my own opinion and one which I should have paid more attention to years back.
Danny – Yes, your primary responsibility is to yourself and survival. You can’t help others if you cannot help yourself first. Leaving helps you survive and starves your country of your financial, intellectual and cultural capital. Then the SOB’s that screwed you over and defrauded you end up eating themselves (I hope I see this sooner than later). Unfortunately, in the US, we are not allowed to leave if we owe child support. The gov’t takes our passports away and seizes all our assets (seems like I’ve seen this before in history – hmmmmmm, where could it be?). Reminds me of the Soviet Union only worse. In the US, if you are sent to prison because you can’t afford to pay the excessive child support ordered and then get out and you can’t find a job because you were in jail for inability to pay child support, the authorities call your imprisonment “voluntary unemployment” and throw you back in jail. I’m really stuck myself as I live well below the poverty level but can’t afford to invest any assests or leave the country and go someplace else where the cost of living may be lower. I still have my passport to leave but it will expire soon and will not be renewed. So, anyplace I go I will be without a passport. I also will have few financial instruments with which to survive. That being said, staying in the US makes my stomach turn. I can honestly say the US will be far worse without me. It already is essentially without me and is worse.
Another important point Been There makes is that your life is yours and you need to make the most of it NOW. Don’t worry about the child support now because, unless it is accruing interest as it does in the US (I know some places it does not but I don’t know about NZ), it will be eaten up by hyperinflation (a phenomenon called recessionary inflation – debts will dissolve with inflation). Our leaders hope that recessionary inflation will get them out of the mess they got us all into. Unfortunately, it has only been tested and worked on a small scale. Not a Nat’l or global scale (likely it will not work on such a large scale). So, for child support obligors, it has been shown to work.
Just a point about interest charges, these are applied to outstanding amounts in NZ. They charge this even on men who have lost their jobs in Christchurch due to the quakes.
To Darryl, seriously my heart breaks for you man. Even by harsh Oz and NZ standards your country takes it to the next level and beyond. One option might be to see if you can get some credit to get a first rate kit together and get a 1 way ticket to anywhere that won’t send you back. Cuba? Venuezuela, Peru? Ronald Biggs escaped the UK years ago and lived a reasonably decent existence in Brazil I believe. I rather take my chances in just about anywhere rather than waiting for the inevitable in the USA. I will say a prayer for you and don’t let them beat you.
What a surprise… NOT!
Thanks Been There. Cuba.
Skeptic, there is a great saying I heard a while ago that comes to mind.
Unfortunately, a “Titanic” is exactly what western civilisation has become. It doesn’t take too much to look at the West and realise that we are in the early stages of it sinking (more commonly known as societal collapse). The iceberg has already been struck, the water is already entering the hull, we are on a countdown to destruction, time is running out, and like the Titanic, there aren’t enough lifeboats and the water is freezing.
It won’t be long, and you will hear the screams of people who cannot get off the “Titanic” of Western civilisation, because like those people who were on the “unsinkable ship” of 1912 they will freeze in the water, but those same people will still be wiped out when the ship sinks.
I can however see one major difference between then and now. This time men won’t sacrifice their lives, not with the way women treat us. This time men will get on the life-boats and tell the women to go to hell.
Yeah I heard this quote for the first time just this year and love it – well said.
I agree with the leaving the country option – survival comes first. After 10 years of fighting my emotional state is nearing basket case level.
Here’s one men’s ‘health’ initiative that won’t go unfunded thanks to Helen Clark, Administrator of the United Nations Development Program, and Hillary Clinton’s zeal for ‘helping’ men.
…….read it and weep for our African brothers.
This is pretty much a US initiative as I understand it.
http://www.zimeye.org/?p=51308 -
A highly controversial United Nations program has seen the introduction of a special bloodless device to be used for the purpose of male circumcision in Zimbabwe.
PrePlex, a device that induces bloodless surgical operation is to be introduced in the country shortly. It also does not require the use of an anaesthetic injection as the process is virtually painless according to reports.
In a joint statement, the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare and the Zimbabwe Community Health Intervention Research Project (Zichire) said they are looking for men aged 18 years and above, who are willing to participate in this study.
Candidates should be willing to test for HIV and be able to go for repeated post procedure visits for two months, they added.
The circumcision process will take place at Zimbabwe National Family Planning Council (ZNFPC) Spilhaus Male Circumcision clinic adjacent to the Harare Hospital.
The national circumcision policy was launched three years ago in Zimbabwe.
The FDA approved PrePex just a few weeks ago. It was invented in 2009 by four Israelis, one a urologist who heard the plea for surgeons in Africa. Out of all similar devices, PrePex is so far the quickest, least bloody and least painful, said World Health Organisation.
Zimbabwe launched a massive circumcision campaign in 2009 targeting at least 1.2 million men by 2015 in a bid to stem the rise in new HIV infections across the country.
The government has targeted to circumcise 120,000 males by year end.
But the United Nations program has attracted much controversy as many western doctors blasted it as a mere US initiative meant to further American culture in Africa. One doctor told ZimEye that: circumcision is actually a dangerous because it induces promiscuous behaviour while giving a false sense security that an individual will not be infected afterwards.
If circumcision truly helped prevent HIV, then circumcised men would not need to worry about other methods of HIV prevention. The false sense of security that circumcision provides could increase the incidence of HIV. Already reports are coming out from Africa about men who think they cannot get HIV because they have been circumcised. One Reuters story reports the comments of young men in Africa undergoing circumcision. “”All I know
is that when I am circumcised, it will not be as easy for me to get infected with HIV/AIDS,” said one young man, Kizeja Michael, as he lined up for the operation. “People who are circumcised are not able to get AIDS,” said his friend, Peter Kibatsi.
It is ill advised for circumcision to be championed for large numbers of men when 98.15% of the men in the African studies’ control group who were not circumcised did NOT contract HIV after 24 months. Circumcision did nothing to protect the 22 circumcised men who acquired HIV in the Rakai, Uganda study. In addition, researchers made no attempt to determine the HIV status of the female partners of the men in these studies, a glaring omission that negates the findings.
An intact (not circumcised) male who does not engage in risky sexual behavior is far less likely to acquire HIV/AIDS than a circumcised male who engages in risky sexual behavior.
Behavior is the key component in preventing HIV, not circumcision.
The United States has a long history and experience with circumcising millions of men in the past century under hygienic medical conditions. This has NOT prevented circumcised males from acquiring HIV. Instead, the United States has one of the highest rates of HIV in the developed world, despite the fact that male circumcision in the U.S. has been widespread here. This is in contrast to Europe and other locations around the world where male circumcision is rare and HIV rates are relatively low.”
“This is pretty much a US initiative as I understand it”.
Yes, so let’s sidestep the fact that this is an initiative which Helen Clarke Socialist-Feminist icon of New Zealand as Administrator of the United Nations Development Program is deeply involved in it too shall we?
Hi Skeptic,
The UN is a multi-headed beast.
I was in Africa last year when Obama announced the US funding to UNAIDS for this work.
Helen is the Administrator for UNDP which is a parallel agency to UNAIDS.
She and Sidibe (Head of UNAIDS)are both Under Secretary-Generals at UN.
Status in the UN is huge and they are both at the same level although Helen does have a co-ordicnation role chairing a committee of Heads of Agencies for development.
UNDP’s work, and especially that of Helen herself, is at a higher level facilitiating development planning and capacity building rather than implementation stuff like this which is UNAIDS role.
However I’m sure UNDP is happy to accept the reflected “glory” for this work but the programme itself is coping significant flack on the ground in Southern Africa. This is both from within medical professionals and from cultural pressures. I was involved in negotiating a UNFPA project relating to HIV/AIDS education in Zimbabwe from 1990-1995 and learnt a little about the working of the UN then.
Hi Allan,
I have no doubt your description of the UN is factually correct – on the surface.
I’m equally sure it’s an organization where much of the business is conducted behind closed doors and away from the glare of public scrutiny – something which Helen Clarke is masterful at. Think of a firm of lawyers and all the wheeling and dealing that goes on there.
Be thankful Uber-socialist Sue Bradford doesn’t have a gig with the UN too.
On this basis I think it’s safe to conclude that your socialist sister Helen is deeply involved in all ‘development’ work carried out by the UN, including the genital mutilation of 28 MILLION South African men.
The whole highly dubious affair is being closely watched with keen interest by folks in the Men’s Rights Movement.
Here is a link to a whole Men’s Rights radio show devoted to the issue (This week on AVFM News and Activism we will be focusing mainly on the drive currently under way in Africa to circumcise 28,000,000 men by 2015. To date there has been almost no coverage of what is arguably the biggest effort to curb the spread of AIDS in Africa by the main stream media in the U.S. We will be discussing the reasons for this as well as the possible negative outcomes resulting from this program.
We invite all interested in what is happening in Africa to call in as well as any intactivists who might be listening. This topic is extremely important as it encompasses the ethical, legal and medical quagmire that is the circumcision issue. Most importantly, there very well could be a major humanitarian disaster as a result of the World Health Organization’s efforts in Sub Saharan Africa)
Reply to Skeptic #18
Tongue in Cheek…I am sure Feminist Helen Clark and Feminist Hilary Clinton will inform those 28 MILLION South African men the pure joy of been liberated by Feminism..Am I correct Allen..???
Kind regards John Dutchie …Free at long last from western european Feminist society…..