Tony Orman: "Boot Camps” Negative Misnomer - Outdoors Youth Training is the Path

It’s difficult to understand the inward looking attitude of Police Minister Ginny Anderson to youth training camps. The title “boot camps” that she negatively uses is derogatory and distorts the intention and what they should be.

I’m of dinosaur age and did 18 year old compulsory military training (CMT) in 1950s. Initially reluctant on entering, I  soon realised and observed this was great for youngsters, dissolving arrogance in some entrants but importantly for all, developing skills and building self esteem and respect for others.

It instilled self esteem and made for better apprentice citizens and we were physically fit.

Why not reinstate CMT but adapt it to be like an Outward Bound course?

Brian Giesbrecht: Happy New Zealand’s Suicide Problem

New Zealand is a country that is consistently rated on the U.N. “Happiness Index” as a country that has one of the happiest populations on the planet. And yet, amidst all this happiness there is very deep unhappiness as well – because New Zealand is now also the teenage suicide capital of the world.

How can this profoundly unsettling anomaly be explained?

In fact, the answer becomes apparent when the racial backgrounds of the suicidal teenagers are examined. Just as in Canada, where Indigenous youth account for a tragically disproportionate number of suicides, so it is in New Zealand, where their Indigenous population, the Maori, are disproportionately represented in the suicide numbers.