Spending concerns blind to needs of public safety

It's one of the most famous experiments in perception. In 1999, Daniel Simons and Christopher Chabris of Harvard University showed subjects a short video of two basketball teams, one in white shirts, the other wearing black. Subjects were asked to count the number of passes made by the team wearing white.

Halfway through the video, a woman wearing a full-body gorilla suit walks slowly to the middle of the screen, pounds her chest, and then walks out of the frame. If you are just watching the video, it's the most obvious thing in the world. But when asked to count the passes, about half the people miss it.

The phenomenon, inattentional blindness, illustrates the brain's vulnerability with regard to perception, attention, and consequently, memory. It underlies what we see (or don't) in stage magic and what we are led to believe we know (or don't) by politicians.

For decades America's Republicans have been steadily eroding a woman's right to choose. The attacks on women's control of their bodies go far beyond opposition to abortion, but include legal requirements for intra-vaginal ultrasounds, and laws against mammograms for the poor and even contraception.

This year's Republican platform is so anti-abortion it carries no exceptions for rape or incest. Hardly anyone would have noticed but for a 200lb gorilla in the form of Todd Akin, Republican candidate for Senate from Missouri and current member of the House Science Committee.

"Legitimate rape," he said, rarely results in pregnancy, since "the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down." After those illuminating thoughts the abortion debate has become non-stop.

New Zealand has its own issues with life and death. Drownings are the third highest cause of unintentional death. While we are blessed with our beautiful river and we have recently been encouraged in its increasing use for recreational and commercial purpose, these advantages incur a potential price.

Most drownings are preventable if proper safety is followed. Dave Feickert, a safety expert, recommended that Horizons Council install a harbour master to provide for safety, at estimated cost of $50,000. Horizons is responsible for the river from the port to beyond Hipango Park.

Horizons councillors Greg Cox and Bob Walker opposed the idea, the latter with derision and a personal attack on Feickert.

Mr Cox, who runs a jet-power boat business on the river, has every reason to be concerned for safety and needs to rethink his opposition.

Mr Walker cited the need for responsibility in costs, saying the idea of a harbour master was "empire building".

Sadly, Mr Walker resorts to the personal to distract from his own history and to avoid a genuine debate about river safety. When it comes to careful superintendence of public funds, Walker would like to have Harry Potter's invisibility cloak, but it won't fit.

As chairman of the Vision Party, he sponsored the local he-who-must-not-be named, who ran a one-vote district council.

The Vision team tripled our debt from $35 million to $100 million, producing our current fiscal crisis and the resultant rates debt levy.

As to empire building, how about the millions in unnecessary legal fees? Or the $48,000 party for the world premiere of the forgettable River Queen movie, memorable only for its few scenes of our fine, wild river.

Now Mr Walker, in the guise of fiscal responsibility, opposes the estimated $50,000 of Horizons money, that it would cost for a harbour master to ensure against tragedy on the river.

Too often when politicians talk about responsibility they mean it for other people to bear.

The responsible approach to river safety includes looking to maintain order and following the proper rules to avoid tragedy.

That's what harbour masters are there to ensure.

To see that expense as frivolous or excessive is short-sightedness at its worst.

Or inattention blindness.

The real gorilla on this river would be a tragedy that none of us want to see.