This memorial for our children who have died at the hands of someone who was supposed to be caring for them is simple,it does not cost BUT it will have huge impact.
I am asking you to spare 1 Toy/soft cuddly on September the 3rd and encourage everyone you can and know to do the same.
1 Toy to be placed at your towns local memorial statue or wall, in memory of our fallen heroes, the many children lost to child abuse.
Since our great soldiers passed there have been none other like them ever except for these Babies and I want a nation to accept awareness because for these children thats the very least we can be. AWARE.
Master Builders Federation cheer Labour’s apprenticeship initiative. So another traditional NACT support body gives the opposition the thumbs up, and more importantly, contradict the Minister Steven Joyce’s statements. (They simply don’t believe NACT).
And we have Joky Hen being economical with the truth again. Ultimately Garner and Espiner will ask him the right questions.
We are so lucky to have such an innovative and progressive government …
(Europe to remove all incandescent light bulbs by next year. New Zealand has already done that … wait a moment, we were going to but NACT reversed that policy as soon as they took office.)
@logie 97 The old light bulbs are great, the new ones don’t offer the light levels that their
display card promises, they change colour hues such as red, they are more expensive and they break more easily, it is doubtful whether they will last as long as they promise (who will know after a year), the present ones I do know have lasted six months of ordinary use. And then there is a disposal problem, and some problem about gas escaping if they are broken. And my friend has done a lot of research on them and has misgivings, but nobody can look past the low hanging fruit of eco friendly? light bulbs. Nobody wants to know either here in NZ or overseas.
If you first bought CFL bulbs when they came out 5-6 years ago then a lot of your concerns were valid. They weren’t bright, they didn’t last long.
The bulbs that are produced now are definitely of higher quality, though. If you buy cheap ones (Signature Range, Warehouse Red Stamp ones) then the brightness is a bit lower and in my experience these bulbs can sometimes die much sooner than they should.
However if you buy more expensive ones, eg Pihilips or GE or any well-recognised brand, you will get the brightness claimed as well as the life time. In fact consumer magazine did a product test on the bulbs and found that the majority of them were actually brighter than stated (sometimes by up to 20%). They also did a longevity test over a period of 8-9 months, which involved power switching the lights more frequently than you would normally do. At the time of publishing the article, not a single bulb had failed.
So your personal experience is either outdated, or seriously at odds with the normal experience for these bulbs.
Also the disposal problem is hyped out of all proportion. Anyone concerned about disposing of a CFL bulb every 3-5 years after they wear out better be recycling all of the regular disposable batteries they throw away as they’re far more toxic.
Speaking from personal experience, I have been using them since 2002. At the newly built house in Mt Eden, I replaced all 9 recessed/downlights (with standard E27, screw cap fitting) in the lounge/open-plan kitchen with GE 18W bulbs purchased for what was the astronomical price then of about $11 each, I think. These were the straight tube-like ones, unlike the new spiral ones available these days, and did stick out a bit like bright tongues. But they worked well.
I recall my cousin visiting and looking up, gasping and saying – you replaced them all! I tried to casually shrug my shoulders, grinned and said they would be justified over the long term despite the upfront costs. I said I was able to afford the ‘investment’ which I put ahead of other purchases.
All those 9 bulbs, and actually 4 more in my bedroom, lasted more than four years. I took them with me when I moved. And since around 2006 until today, I would have used another 7 energy-saving lightbulbs (eg in table- and floor-standing lamps which I have many around the house).
They have performed well, never given any problems, and lasted 4 years (or more with the ones that get switched on less often).
They are about $5 – 7 each if you keep an eye out for sales at supermarkets, Mitre10 or Bunnings.
My recent purchases have been for the Philips Tornado, Extra Bright ones, which work ok. One of them was for a 24W ( = 125W?) bulb.
I would like to see the latest research, thinking and action about proper disposal of the bulbs which contain a small amount of mercury. There does not seem to be much advice about what to do, or what we might need to look at doing, in the near future at: http://www.mfe.govt.nz/publications/waste/disposal-household-lamps/index.html
Except for cost/affordability (and if so, households can slowly phase them in by replacing only the ones used more often) I really didn’t and still don’t know what the fuss was about switching over.
Prism: here is a good reason to switch. This debates is a lot like the smoking in bars debate, except National made a big song and dance about the bulbs, now all the national dancing sheep are still dancing 3 years later, ‘Face Palm’ any wonder they are ahead in the polls.
More about the growing cult surrounding Julian Assange. There really is something creepy about the Wikileaks founder and the way he runs the organisation.
@TVOR I think that some people on this blog are creepy. But I may be wrong or just find their ideas different than the ones I’ve held for yonks. On the other hand –
“I was disturbed and conflicted. I still found the organisation’s aims were in many ways laudable, the financial and legal pressures unjust, and its publishing pattern far more responsible than it received credit for.
I couldn’t support its internal culture, its lack of accountability, willingness to lie publicly, and crucially its failure to condemn Shamir. I supported the organisation’s principles, but not its methods.
@lprent – Hi Editing time. Query – Why, when the clock is still going with as much as 1 and half minutes do I get refusal to edit sign? I could do much in that time. Maybe the edit time should be cut but with all the time available for change, with only the last 10-20 seconds if necessary being excluded? (Can’t communicate through Contact us)
The clock that appears is run off an individuals computer. Therefore it can still be counting down while the server clock has already timed out. It’s unlikely to be interference from someone replying to the comment, and more likely to be the commentators computer keeping an incorrect time or the administration making changes to the comment before the server clock has timed out.
@thejackal I don’t know about all that but I do get a message popping up every now and then saying I’m on a slow server. I leave all that to my son so haven’t done anything about that yet.
Those who are unfortunate enough to live in a house that has previously been used to manufacture the methamphetamine drug known as pure (P), have an uphill battle on their hands. P lab contaminated houses are a serious problem as the residual chemicals are highly toxic and exposure can cause illnesses related to immunodeficiency and serious diseases like cancer. Therefore you’d think the government was getting serious about the problem, unfortunately not…
Those bastards at the Dominion Post – so-called ethical journalists – either made up the headline themselves for the readers with the attention span of Nats or it was done by the foreign newspaper owners’ New Zealand editorial bum boys.
This is spectacularly sick. This headline and its contents must be saved for this election campaign by every person in New Zealand that actually cares about a society that holds children at its heart. The Dominion Post and its lackies have none of those people on its staff or they would have refused to write it, sign it off, print it, distribute it, sell it and worse still to BUY it.
When John Key and his jerkoffs front up to the New Zealand voter at this election we can front up to him with this article that would have been on every newsprint stand in Wellington as everywhere else. This media in New Zealand is the epitome of a neo-conservative government’s wishlist for closing down objective, truthful reporting.
Since when does a ‘drunken, aggressive’ adult male lunge out with a ‘slap’ to a 2-year old and an 11-month old. No mention in the heading about dragging said 2-year old off the couch by the hair. Even the judge used the word ‘hit’
Disgusting, immoral and unethical journalism in New Zealand. You newspaper harbingers of an authoritarian, lying pseudo-American NActU government to come in again this year unless New Zealanders get their fucking heads out of the sand.
S59 won’t be repealed Jum. From the wee bit of reading I’ve done, NZ was one of the last countries to legislate against child assault. In line with other countries they shied away from the ‘no physical reprimand’. Whether or not you agree with the compromise, it works.
Head lines like the one you linked to are no more effective than appeals to capital punishment. They sell copy and change nothing.
The headline is the Dom’s cynical and pathetic attempt to rekindle this debate. Other headlines that would have helped them sell papers: “Drunken father takes out anger on babies” or … “Police save baby and tot from violent drunk”
Judge Philippa must go to discharge a pedofile and then says this is disgusting. “He’s a talented New Zealander. He makes people laugh and laughter’s a good medicine that we all need a lot of.”
Did anyone in Wellington get to hear Polly Higgins on the environment yesterday. She was talking at the Spectrum Theatre in the city. She flew to Nelson and spoke in the evening to a small but enthusiastic group.
She seemed to feel happy with her time in the capital city and tweeted –
“Great day in Windy Wellington, meeting ministers, lawyers, campaigners – with big thanks. Now off to speak in Nelson”
She’s now off to Auckland. Good ideas on wings!
From someone (me) who has been conferenced out during the past 7 years, I need to say that if there is one event that some of us jaded ones must go to and lend an ear, it is Polly’s presentation.
Polly’s Auckland presentations tomorrow & Monday are confirmed at the following (prism and I have exchanged comments and I have double checked):
I can’t see the politicians going near a repeal of S59 either Jum. Homosexual law reform was a lot like this, once it passed the politicians didn’t go near it again [these are issues that are too hot to touch] and then over time people go “what was the fuss about?” as it becomes the new norm.
I didn’t like the headline either, it minimises a serious assault on small people, although the body of the text suggests that everybody in the system dealing with it was pretty unhappy. The sentence seemed a bit light but I am no expert on that. The paper has probably shot itself in the foot, most read more than the headlines, and will be thinking “What???”
I must admit I look at all these people still invested in getting s59 repealed, not forgetting the one who spent $0.5m on the Queen Street march where nobody turned up, and think ‘Just how sick are you if you get off on hitting people smaller than yourself” .
Of course she is now likely to be on a benefit, and according to the far right, should immediately go out to work, and have her benefit cut because she will be having a child while she is on that benefit.
All good things to her and the kids.
Coast Fm, being mainly a station that caters to older people, should be National’s bread and butter. Gratifying to see that the old timers keep up with the issues, even if us yoofs are apathetic.
Makes sense really… They’re the people who worked their whole lives, paying taxes to build up those assets and now National just wants to flog them off to the Chinese. If anybody should feel they already own New Zealand’s assets, it’s the elderly.
A lot of those old timer remember and understand why those assets were state owned in the first place. It’s only the hype that has accompanied the neo-liberal revolution over the last 30+ years that has caused people to either forget or never learn in the first place.
It’s more efficient and thus cheaper to do it as a community than to pay the capitalists to get around to it. It’s also far more reliable.
Taniana Turia said, on Think Tank this morning, that 50+% of Maori boys were leaving school unable to read or write. She blamed the education system and said that this was evidence of “systemic racism”.
Leaving aside her dumping all the blame on the system, no information was given on the actual mechanics on how the education system expresses “institutional racism”.
Perhaps someone who has looked at this subject could fill in the blanks for me.
Simple. The education system was constructed by privileged white people in order to cater for their needs.
Effectively then, the education system reflects the mind set of the white middle class and white middle class kids find it easier to interact with and negotiate.
And that’s what institutional racism is. It’s not particularily deliberate, but it’s real. Just like the class bias inherent to the education system isn’t particularily deliberate.
It doesn’t stop Maori from learning, but the environment is foreign. I can only relate to this from a working class perspective rather than a race perspective, but the same dynamics carry…there’s a ‘foreignness’ that is evident to those of us who come from a different cultural milieu to that represented by the education system. (Unless we seamlessly adopt and assimilate)
Culturally there are many ways to pass on knowledge. Some cultures use dance or oral traditions or … shit, I don’t know the term… but hands on direct experience.
The western education system is based on abstraction (understanding particular symbols) and theory. It also elevates particular cultural imperitives (heirarchy, middle class morality/expectations etc) and ignores or stomps on others (language, dialect, perspectives, morals etc).
edit. seems Adele already commented on most of this
I can only relate to this from a working class perspective rather than a race perspective, but the same dynamics carry…there’s a ‘foreignness’ that is evident to those of us who come from a different cultural milieu to that represented by the education system.
Do speak for yourself, mate! I am as working class as you are, but only in NZ does working-class equate to finding such things as schools a foreign environment! My sisters, brother and I had no such problems. (The only problems we had were the expectations of some school staff and our classmates’ parents, who assumed we’d want to go into factory work.)
My younger son’s best friends were a standard NZ white guy, and a very dark-skinned obviously foreign-looking Korean brought up in Germany by German adoptive parents. Guess which one of them got all the prizes? Hint – not the white guy…
yup. And I knew a brown crippled woman from a working class background who was far more succesful in the work environment than a white guy from an upper middle class background.
So obviously there is no racism, sexism or discrimination in the workplace. Jeez.
Sorry Bill for the first time on this site I feel I need to say “Bollocks”. Too simple an argument I am afraid.
The classroom environment and opportunities are totally supportive and conducive to all children’s learning – I suggest you read the School Curriculum and school charters – they are considerably changed since the 80’s.
There is an addage that “It takes a village to raise a child,” (school is only 6 hours of the child’s village) and unfortunately the street corners and domestic situations have a much bigger influence on the progress of learners.
The majority of schools are not supportive or conducive to learning for Maaori students. The only thing that has changed since the 1980s are the charters – otherwise its the same old same old. The following are words from Maaori academic Rawiri Taonui written in 2009.
“Maori fail in education because education fails Maori.
The destruction of pre-contact Waananga (schools), subjugation of tohunga (priests) and attempted obliteration of te reo nearly annihilated ancestral institutions for knowledge preservation and transmission. Based on false notions of intellectual, cultural and moral superiority, the assimilationist system that replaced them tried to Europeanise Maori into a menial under-class.
The seminal 1980 Royal Commission on Social Policy described it thus – “thousands of Maori are being subjected to a process of schooling that atrophies their potential because the majority of teachers are middle-class and monocultural; they know little of things Maori, speak only English, do not consider Maori language important, consider Pakeha culture superior to Maori culture, and hold low expectations for Maori”. These problems continue today.
While educators recognise prejudice in the outside world, they find it difficult to accept that their institutions reflect those same inequalities. They are therefore often well-intentioned and assume they know best, but they are patronising in ways that undermine the aspirations of the minority they believe they help.
Some argue Maori underperformance is purely socioeconomic – 35% of Maori who do well come from higher socioeconomic groups and 45% are from high decile schools, while only 20% of Maori from poor families and 18% from low decile schools do well.
However, socioeconomic status is not the sole determinant – Pakeha from higher and lower socioeconomic groups do better than their Maori equivalents.
Asinine ahistorical anti-Maori commentators blame Maori culture and parents.
There are issues of abuse and violence. Tamariki are five times more likely to be raised by single mums, and 40% of Maori women suffer partner abuse. However, rather than being endemic, these problems derive from cumulative inter-generational cultural alienation and impoverishment.
Maori mums and dads have in fact shown massive commitment to the education of their children.
Maori parents are 15% of the population but 19% of all school trustees.
They drove the rise of kohanga reo, tikanga reo rua (bilingual-lingual) kura kaupapa (primary immersion), whare kura (secondary immersion), wananga (Maori universities), te reo becoming an official language, the incorporation of the Treaty of Waitangi in the Education Act (1989) and the first Maori Education Strategy (1999).
Moreover, the maxim of brown people failing in white education has only ever changed under the advocacy of Maori parents. ………Maori do better in Maori immersion and bilingual units. Year 11 candidates at bilingual schools are more likely to meet NCEA 1 literacy and numeracy standards than Maori in English medium units and are also closing in on mainstream Pakeha.
However, there are not enough such units or teachers – 83% of Maori kids remain in non-reo units, 92% are in mainstream schools of which Ero says only 42% deliver effectively to Maori.
Maori also do better where schools have programmes like Aim-hi, a multicultural teaching programme in nine Auckland Schools; Te Kauhua, which bridges gaps between schools and Maori communities (30 schools in six years); and the Kotahitanga programme which addresses teaching practices and attitudes – Maori pass rates have improved up to 15% at NCEA 1, 22% at NCEA 2, and 30% at NCEA 3.
We need new and broader strategies. Increase the proportion of Maori principals, administrators and teachers to 30%. Maori are 20% of students but only 12% of principals and just 8% of staff.
Te reo Maori must be compulsory for students and teachers. The days of monolinguals in charge is over.”
To me this is the key phrase… and hold low expectations for Maori
If educators believed Maori should achieve at the same levels as pakeha, or better, then they might have strategies to ensure they do. But educators don’t believe this, so they don’t do anything to make it happen.
Yes – there are social problems, yes – that makes learning harder. But that is the same for all kids. Believing these kids can achieve, can maybe make educators achieve their goal of education for all.
It’s not the social problems that are the defining problem, it’s the inherent (massively myopic) nature of the educational institutions that’s the problem.
Maori children don’t tend to populate too many of the decile 10 schools where Tikanga Maori is largely ignored. Get out and visit some of lower decile schools and see how much Maori is incorporated across the curriculum. The schools can only do so much …
“…and see how much Maori is incorporated across the curriculum…”
But isn’t that the crux of the matter? It isn’t Maori (or anyone) who should be being ‘incorporated’ into a ‘one size fits all’ system; it’s the systems of education that should be adapting and devolving.
but of course that’s not going to happen. Because education is about ‘industrialising’ and ‘marketising’…about teaching rather than facilitating learning.
Because education is about ‘industrialising’ and marketising’…about teaching rather than facilitating learning.
Now that is something I can agree with. I get really pissed off when asked what sort of job I was after when I tell them what I’ve studied. I wasn’t after a job, I was after an education.
Seeing as how I got kicked out of school for asking questions….something about how light travelled was, from memory, the final straw…(summoned and issued an ultimatum) See education? See my arse!
Because education is about ‘industrialising’ and ‘marketising’…about teaching rather than facilitating learning.
Well in that case who cares about whether 50% plus of Maori boys leaving school cannot read or write to a standard required for the ‘industrialised’, ‘marketised’ world? Traditional tohunga knowledge should suffice perfectly well…no? None of this naasty whitey math, physics or chem for these special people…eh bro?
Nah. In my humble opinion, and backed with rather more extensive experience than you would expect, the main reason why Maori tend not to do so well at school… and much of the rest of their lives either… is low expectations from their own exceedingly class oriented, snobby people.
Never heard of the ‘brown aristocracy’ Bill? And never noticed how they make damn sure ‘their’ mokopuna get a pefectly fine education thank you very much.
Traditional tohunga knowledge should suffice perfectly well…no? None of this naasty whitey math, physics or chem for these special people…eh bro?
It’s not the maths or the physics per se that constitute the problem. It’s the manner and culture of the institutions that teach these things and the way knowledge is ‘meant’ to be constructed, understood and presented; it’s the denial of other knowledges and ways of understanding that those institutions propagate thats the problem.
As an example, take navigation. There was traditional knowledge throughout Polynesia that arguably produced navigational skills far and beyond that which can be obtained from instrument readings and calculations alone….a far better ability to read wave formations, clouds, wildlife, stars etc…valuable knowledges that are (probably) all gone now.
The colonial story is a tiresome one where drives to dominate trumped any concept of union; a story where subjegated cultures are routinely dismissed and discarded ‘wholesale’, resulting in a diminishing of the sum total of human knowledge/ experience, understanding or means of expression.
It was never ‘this’ ‘and’. Always ‘either’ ‘or’.
The education system reflects and propagates that false story of progress as linear and dismisses people and cultures that are not suitably aligned to the dominant ‘western’ culture and it’s market demands.
edit And in a world dominated by the market, then of course people being failed by eductional establishments is important.
Don’t agree with you red – I don’t blame Māori or even a subset of Māori – I blame the system because it is biased, as in the die are loaded. Who designed the education system and for whose benefit? Certainly Māori values around knowledge and how it is disemminated weren’t included or even considered.
To fix this requires a bit of a change in thinking and an actualisation of the partnership between Māori and the Crown – then we can work on solutions from more than one euro-centric angle, until then we will be stuck in this mire.
Certainly Māori values around knowledge and how it is disemminated weren’t included or even considered.
Absolute bs. Ever wondered why so many Maori who bugger off to Aussie, and away from the low expectations of the whanau back home, do so very well for themselves?
Or the Maori I worked with for some years, who got out from under the no-hoper crowd in his home town and worked his way into being a Regional Director for a major global corporate. His brother’s still pumping petrol.
Look I do get colonisation. It was in a sense the first round of globalisation that took place between roughly 1840 and ending in 1914; it was a massive challenge to cultures everywhere in the world and we still live with the echoes of it 100 years later. But we cannot undo history. Nor will endlessly pressing the ‘white liberal guilt’ button acheive much in the way of re-writing it’s consequences.
Environments change all the time; you either adapt to the new or perish. Notably it is societies that are deeply entrenched in tradition, hierarchy and privilege that are usually the least successful at adapation.
“Certainly Māori values around knowledge and how it is disemminated weren’t included or even considered.” says me
“Absolute bs.” says you
Oh really – so they were included and considered – nah didn’t think so.
I am suggesting improvements not attempting to activate your liberal guilt – I don’t care about anyone;s guilt, I care about equality and empowerment – you know – basic human rights.
“Environments change all the time; you either adapt to the new or perish.”
In the context of this discussion, that’s almost colonialism right there RL.
The environment we are talking about is one facet of a wider imposition of western values. Viewed as superior by the west…as progress… the social Darwinist arguments were trundled out as a ‘logic’ to explain away the destruction of other cultures and peoples. Adapt (to our environment), or perish. (sigh)
Good to see such ‘logic’ alive and well.
As for some Maori negotiating the education system well, so do some working class kids. But it doesn’t take away the fact that education is bias along lines of class and race.
The two aren’t mutually exclusive. There are points of intersection and interplay. So your class position might ameliorate the impact that race has on you in an educational system that promotes white, middle class values…or it might exaggerate it.
Must say. I’m more than a bit surprised at the stand you’ve adopted here, but hey.
The environment we are talking about is one facet of a wider imposition of western values. Viewed as superior by the west…as progress… the social Darwinist arguments were trundled out as a ‘logic’ to explain away the destruction of other cultures and peoples. Adapt (to our environment), or perish. (sigh)
Yes and sigh is all you can do about it now. The simple fact was that the colonising Europeans dominated by dint of numbers, technology and legal system. It was the same everywhere else and no amount of relitigating the past is going to change one jot of it.
Having said that, neither was the adaptation all one way traffic. The extraordinary degree of intermarriage alone has modified the colonists as well. Us white looking New Zealanders are no longer really Europeans either; we’ve changed substantially ourselves. Most modern-day British immigrants will tell you this; that it’s a huge mistake to come here thinking New Zealand is just a smaller, nicer version of mother England. It ain’t as they quickly discover.
The point is that adaptation was neither one way, nor avoidable. Social evolution is pretty much the same a it’s genetic cousin; being a process of retaining those features that prove useful and gradually allowing those that are ineffective to die out. But while genetic evolution is a mechanistic process, social evolution is a far more a consequence of human ideas and choices.
The only people who can determine what is useful to retain around ‘Maori values and ideas’ in the context of a globalised modern world… are of course Maori themselves. And while retaining identity and diversity has to be fundamental to that project, no culture is an island to itself. And no return to the pre-colonisation state is possible. For Maori, the past is no longer a safe guide to the future… and that concept alone is a challenge for all peoples.
Because when you devalue the European dominated education system and ‘industrialised and marketised’ … I could imagine you might rejoice that such a large portion of young Maori so emphatically reject the system by failing to so much as learn to read or write. Is that a victory to you? Because apparently it isn’t to Tariana Turia.
Pretty sure you’re aware my resignation was in relation to your (pretty close to) retreaded social Darwinism rather than the historical prevalence of it during colonisation.
The simple fact was that the colonising Europeans dominated by dint of numbers,
How many indigenous Americans were there in relation to Spanish colonisers? (I think there were many, many more.) But the Spanish had disease. As did the waves of Europeans who landed there and elsewhere afterwards. And local populations had no immunity.
technology
You mean guns and stuff, right? (Plus a rather peculiar concept known a ‘total war’?)
and legal system.
You really think colonised cultures had no system of law?
It was the same everywhere else and no amount of relitigating the past is going to change one jot of it.
Yup.
Having said that, neither was the adaptation all one way traffic.
The asymmetry of power determined who had to adapt to what and who got the benefits. So the English adapted their shipbuilding techniques to those used in India for example. Cause…well, the Indians had better technology. And they chose to. But were the Indian cotton workers allowed to emulate the printfields and cotton mills of Manchester, Paisley etc? Of course not. They had their thumbs removed. More ‘adaptation’.
The extraordinary degree of intermarriage alone has modified the colonists as well. Us white looking New Zealanders are no longer really Europeans either; we’ve changed substantially ourselves.
The dominant culture here is most assuredly European. More than that, it’s very English….the language, the legal system that you put so much store by in your comment as well as… dare I say it? …the basic foundations of the educational system.
Most modern-day British immigrants will tell you this; that it’s a huge mistake to come here thinking New Zealand is just a smaller, nicer version of mother England. It ain’t as they quickly discover.
I am an immigrant. And I found many more cultural differences in Portugal for example than I do with the dominant culture here.
The point is that adaptation was neither one way, nor avoidable. Social evolution is pretty much the same a it’s genetic cousin; being a process of retaining those features that prove useful and gradually allowing those that are ineffective to die out. But while genetic evolution is a mechanistic process, social evolution is a far more a consequence of human ideas and choices.
So Maori and other colonised peopleschose to lose their language and rules of law and religion and traditions of learning etc. I see. And the Europeans allowed these things to ‘die out’ and they ‘died out’ becasue they were ‘ineffective’.
Have you any idea how utterly racist what you are saying is, RL?
The only people who can determine what is useful to retain around ‘Maori values and ideas’ in the context of a globalised modern world… are of course Maori themselves.
Asymmetry of power again. Think about it. (Shit, I forgot. The ‘fading away’ of those things not aligned with the dominant culture [globalisation in this case] is a natural by product of progress.)
And while retaining identity and diversity has to be fundamental to that project, no culture is an island to itself.
Ever crossed your mind that if two cultures met on truly equal terms and took the better of each other’s traditions and values (as you seem to believe happened here) that both original cultures would essentially disappear? So that on these islands no-one would speak either Te reo nor English for example; but that some hybrid language would have would emerged? And that the same would count for all other facets of culture?
And no return to the pre-colonisation state is possible. For Maori, the past is no longer a safe guide to the future… and that concept alone is a challenge for all peoples.
But the European heritage is a safe guide to the future. Good O.
Because when you devalue the European dominated education system and ‘industrialised and marketised’ …
I didn’t say the education system was industrialised and marketised, I said it was about industrialising and marketising. A very different thing.
I could imagine you might rejoice that such a large portion of young Maori so emphatically reject the system by failing to so much as learn to read or write. Is that a victory to you? Because apparently it isn’t to Tariana Turia.
Don’t care what Tariana Turia’s personal opinion is. But if you’d actually read my previous comments you’d….fuck it, I’ll reiterate. That the education system systematically failing people (because of its cultural bias and class bias etc) in a world where it is necessary to interact with the market is a massive cause for concern.
“The only people who can determine what is useful to retain around ‘Maori values and ideas’ in the context of a globalised modern world… are of course Maori themselves.”
You have said the alpha and omega right there – do you believe what you wrote?
“For Maori, the past is no longer a safe guide to the future…” Um – that is rubbish – the past is the only safe guide to the future.
anyway I’ll let it go now because I have ‘debated’ with you before red, as have others on this topic, and it only goes downhill from here…
We’re talking at cross purposes again. Everything you say about our history is more or less true and I don’t disagree with you. Maori did not choose to have change thrust upon them, but then that is the nature of history everywhere. While I agree totally that history teaches us lessons, every now and then the environment does a step change on us… and some new is demanded in response.
The sense I get from both you and marty is that you’re both rooted in the past and keep thinking that by reinventing it we can somehow change the future.
And in that future Maori must determine for themselves how they want to participate in a world totally different to the one their ancestors knew prior to the globalisation of the 1800’s. Whatever that future looks like it is entirely up to Maori to determine what elements of their way of life they want to take forward and what to discard. And none of us yet know what entirely new things may yet appear. Moreover this process cannot occur in isolation from the rest of the world.
That is what I mean by social evolution. If you think Maori incapable of rising to this challenge then I’ll be next in line to play the r-word.
Nothing wrong with dynamic change. Nothing at all.
But you display a fantastic ability to be blind to the ‘drivers’ of change. To you it’s all natural and neutral…a level playing field.
But colonised people were seriously disempowered by brutally violent and deeply dishonest colonisation processes. And the empowerment of the colonisers, predicated on the relative disempowerment of the colonised, was established through (among other things) the imposition of laws detrimental to colonised peoples – at the point of a gun if necessary.
That power is maintained today (in large part) through the legacy of the loaded institutions that the colonisers imposed on the dispossessed.
See, I’d assume you’d consider it absurd if a kindly official at a race meeting offered crutches to a runner whose legs he’d previously shattered. And then blithely proclaimed ; “Jeez. I just don’t know why the cripple keeps complaining. He’s got as much opportunity to run as the next guy!”
Now sure. You can’t unshatter the legs. But you can surely see that the race isn’t fair and can probably never be fair given it’s historical context.
Some might advocate moves to ‘level such a playing field (by giving the cripple x yards of a start or whatever). I’m of the persuasion to abandon the race altogether ’cause it’s a crock of shit from ‘woe to go’ and develop altogether new and different modes of human interaction.
Again I have very little to quibble about your historic analysis Bill. Yes the globalisation of the 1800’s ‘shattered’ the traditional Maori way of life. As indeed it was shattered for peoples all around the planet.
But where I depart from you runner with the shattered legs analogy is this. The runner can never regain his fully functioning legs again. He literally cannot grow a new pair. But that is where the analogy breaks down; there is no reason why Maori cannot stage a recovery on their own terms. Sure history kicked them in the nuts, but ultimately it’s only the Maori themselves who are capable of determining and shaping their own future. To suggest otherwise is essentially insulting to all Maori.
Is the deck stacked against them? Certainly, but Maori don’t have that on their own; the deck is stacked against most of us. As you say the system itself is the root of this evil and it’s extirpation is the evolutionary step change I think we both have in mind.
Footling with band-aid patches stuck onto a rotting corpse is madness. Throwing money at elitist coporatised iwi while they contemptuously ignore ordinary young Maori men like our neighbours, is equally futile.
“ultimately it’s only the Maori themselves who are capable of determining and shaping their own future. To suggest otherwise is essentially insulting to all Maori.”
yet you pontificate on what you think Māori should do and think, such as “For Maori, the past is no longer a safe guide to the future…” what if the Māori Nation don’t agree – are Māori wrong? misguided? sucked in? … or maybe – Māori are capable of determining and shaping their own future and it is your views which are out of kilter – shit, bet you never thought of that.
How ironic, a Maaori with a PhD is rendered irrelevant to a discussion on the education system. If his voice cannot be heard or considered what chance do our tamariki have?
Our lives as Maaori living as Maaori precludes us from a life of smug intellectualism. We are connected to the reality of decile one schooling by whakapapa – our connections are whanau related and also experiential.
The New Zealand Curriculum Principles, and Teaching Inquiry of May 2011 undertaken by the ERO found that of the eight principles underpinning the revised NZ Curriculum (launched in 2007) the least evident (as in practise) were, ”Treaty of Waitangi, cultural diversity, coherence and future focus. Teachers took a range of actions to encourage bicultural understanding, but schools still need to strategically address, through the curriculum, the Treaty of Waitangi principle. Schools’ practice in addressing cultural diversity could also be improved, particularly with respect to making provision for students to express their cultural perspectives and views.”
@Rosy And for lower decile people whose children are not succeeding to learn there are various strategies that informed, advanced educators would use which have worked elsewhere and would work here too.
One is to bring the family into the learning process, maybe the mother could bring along younger children to a creche and work alongside the young student both doing the same course that she missed doing when at school herself. This brings the education circle back where it was broken. If the parent is keen then this will encourage the student. The school needs to have funds to set up for this. It is known that children follow parents examples, so broken education for parents means a likely lack of interest and commitment to education for their children. It is seen frequently that professional people have children that themselves become highly educated. Low skilled people tend not to set higher standards than their parents. No-skilled people have no role model to enable them to choose a different path.
Another is to bring in the father to help with homework, and offer him whatever education that he has missed out on, perhaps through night school. I like the idea of poor people being paid to help their children with homework. This could be incorporated into payments to all caregivers for their input so could be done without howls of protest about favouritism from the racist and classist types.
Another is to do something with the child’s peer group, such as sports training etc. – something they would enjoy and then get them to strive for goals and rewards. One of the reasons that Maori and probably PI students don’t do well at school is peer group pressure to not be better than the group, to not stay away to do the private thinking and learning needed, and the student may be forced out of the group because of becoming ‘other’, seeming to reject the group routine, thinking and behaviour.
Yes Prism, shaking up learning environments is essential. IMO however, none of the environments that kids can achieve in will be put in place as long as the powers-that-be expect certain groups to underachieve in the first place – e.g. believing boys to be troublemakers, so expect them to fail to meet girls achievements. Similarly expectations that kids from poor backgrounds will do poorly, expectations Maori will fail/withdraw from education. At best it’s a bit of liberal passiveness – these kids have everything against them, why pile the pressure on? At worst it’s institutional elitism/racism – the kids are useless because they’re in a particular social/cultural group and the families are useless.
If educators believe kids are capable of achieving they can put stuff in place to enable that to happen. At the moment there are a lot of people out there that simply don’t believe it, so don’t bother.
And no – national standards won’t help, they will simply perpetuate the belief that Maori cannot achieve in an educational environment…. when it is the educational environment (as well as the social/cultural environment) that perpetuates under-achievement.
And yes – I know there are a lot of really good teachers out there who believe in their students (I’d never have got through school and further education without a teacher like that at primary school) but I believe they’re isolated voices in the education system.
Also yes, RedLogix – the low expectations of family/social groups is up there as a major impediment to achievement. But not just for Maori.
@Adele – The quoted piece you give is interesting and raises some points that have to be included in the debate. However, it is what has become the tradition explanation that puts all the blame on post-colonial alienation and imposed culturally biased systems.
Asinine ahistorical anti-Maori commentators blame Maori culture and parents.
It is indeed asinine to blame Maori culture and parents as a single cause but it is equally asinine to try to minimize them and to point to cumulative inter-generational cultural alienation and impoverishment as single cause – as the author does.
IMHO, all of these are issues and there is only so much that be blamed on the affects of colonialism. I am sure that having more Maori involved in senior roles in education and undoing some of the alienation by reconnecting Maori to Te Reo etc is part of the mix but it seems that there must be more to this than the things the author portrays.
There are vast chunks of the Pakeha youth who are also under performing in schools and these seem to correlate on socio-economic markers. This is something that Taonui almost dismisses in one sentence but uses when talking of impoverishment in another.
I wonder if the malaise that is common to both groups (and to the rioting youth of England and Philadelphia) is not rooted in the very socio-economic melieu of low-wages, welfare dependency, poverty, low expectations of parents and themselves, alienation from the wealth in the economy, marginalised in the decision making promises, housing, ghetto-ising and the list goes on.
However, I am still looking to understand the very mechanics of what goes on in the school that is institutionally racist. How it manifests itself.
It seems to me that the new generation of movers and shakers in Maoridom have taken the best of Maori heritage and combined it “the institutionally racist education system” and used that combined skill set to work for their iwi and people. How did they do it?
Maori have always embraced knowledge acquisition as a means of securing the welfare of hapuu. We valued knowledge and maintained various institutions for its preservation and its dissemination at different levels. Whare waananga, and in some areas more advanced institutions known as whare kura, facilitated higher learning for those of high rank and standing. Whare waananga taught iwi and hapuu leaders advanced forms of knowledge essential to the welfare of their people.
Whare waananga related to a mental process of learning, rather than a physical institution where learning took place. When an individual undertook instruction at whare waananga, their classroom was the world they lived in and learning could take place anywhere, at any time. Waananga education focused on developing mental discipline and adeptness in several different fields of study.
On arrival of Te Paakehaa, Maaori were eager to participate in an exchange of knowledge and our past narrative is replete with Maaori demonstrably adapting new forms of knowledge for their own use, as well as incorporating ancient traditions with imported knowledge to improve their own situation.
The schooling of Maaori, facilitated by the Education Ordinance of 1847 and the Natives Schools Act of 1858 clearly represented a means for social control, assimilation and for the orderly establishment of British law. Mission schools were to replace traditional Maaori concepts with European concepts and ideals.
The structure of the native schools system served to promote Paakehaa knowledge as more important and valid than Maaori knowledge. Maaori cultural values and institutions were both consciously and unconsciously denigrated, while Paakehaa-dominant class ideas and values were promoted. Central to the native schools’ philosophy was the limitation of the curriculum, designed to restrict Maaori to the working-class. Maaori were being trained to become the domestics and labourers for Paakehaa.
In 1969 the natives schools were discontinued and Maaori were taught the national curriculum – albeit a curriculum still promoting Paakehaa ideals and values. In 1986, a Waitangi Tribunal enquiry into the Maaori language made the following observation:
When such a system produces children who are not adequately educated they are put at a disadvantage when they try to find work. If they cannot get work that satisfies them they become unemployed and live on the dole. When they live on the dole they become disillusioned, discontented and angry. We saw such angry people giving evidence before us.
They are no more than representatives of many others in our community. When one significant section of the community burns with a sense of injustice, the rest of the community cannot safely pretend that there is no reason for their discontent. This is a recipe for social unrest and all that goes with
So yes, colonisation and its aftermath of inter-generational cultural alienation are directly responsible for the state of Maaori underachievement today.
the comment of mine you responded to wasn’t even making an argument. I was simply making an observation regarding the foundational roots of the educational system.
Argument wise (and apart from what I’ve said in the past few minutes on other comments); education was set up because it was desirable to have at least some workers who could read written instructions and calculate certain weights volumes or lengths etc.
But a moment’s thought would reveal that the main incentive for developing a western educational system was so that the knowledge necessary for the maintenance of privilege was passed on to the appropriate people. (The engineer, medical professional or whoever wanted his son (not daughter) to enjoy the same advantage as himself and needed a mechanism to pass on a large, changing and ever growing body of theoretical knowledge pertaining to his profession.)
As a ‘by the by’ workers were taught how to read etc so that they could function in the new industrial environment. And they learned (perhaps most importantly of all) how to respect self appointed authority.
Guess the real issue is of government support for Maori pedagogy initiatives.
There should be total funding for initiatives and development of Maori pedagogy and building new Kura to provide enough places and the choice for all children wanting to attend.
Don’t waste time and energy though trying to radically change the traditional school as the place for that development.
One requirement of schools is to facilitate a public forum annually for local iwi / whanau / parents to seek their wants/desires/needs from the school and the system. These meetings can be well attended but sometimes not and are often just talkfests. Maybe the high-profile “committed” who make the claims / statements should make themselves available to attend these public meetings and assist their communities in determining what can be done locally.
Simple. The education system was constructed by privileged white people in order to cater for their needs.
Effectively then, the education system reflects the mind set of the white middle class and white middle class kids find it easier to interact with and negotiate.
Sorry, that’s arrant nonsense! I have been a part of that system and have also steered two sons through it. We are not and never have been middle class, (what a vile idea!) and my older son is part-Maori. If the system’s so institutionally racist, how come brown people who are not Maori, do fine? How come any of we working class people manage to get any qualifications?
In line with some other ‘noble’ defenders of the education system you are…look, nobody is saying all Maori or other non-dominant cultures or all working class kids will fail in the system. No more so than women will fail in the workforce.
Do you really believe that working class values and the values of non- European cultures were built into education systems?!
edit . Samoans achieve in the same ratios as middle class white kids, do they? You got sources for that contention of yours?
I have to agree with Vicky, our education system is one of the most Maori friendly institutions in the country, educators are doing one of the toughest jobs around and all that special interest groups can do is bitch and moan.
“our education system is one of the most Maori friendly institutions in the country” Yes but comparing with a very low base means that that means nothing. It might be friendly compared to other institutions out there but it is not serving Māori well – that is obvious. Māori are not a special interest group but partners to the Crown and the reason that many Māori feel let down is because the education system is just not good enough for Māori, not even close. That has nothing to do with teachers – good, bad or ugly – it is society, it is institutionalised.
Cameron Slater did another Fran O’Sullivan copy and paste post today about Nicky Hager’s new book called Other People’s Wars. The oily one says he’s not going to believe the information in a book he hasn’t even read because the source documents haven’t been revealed.
Nicky Hager should do exactly that. He can publish his source
documents without revealing his source. He should do it promptly.
Releasing source documents usually does exactly that… It reveals the organisation where the documents are located and the people who have access. If they are redacted to avoid this, they will just provide information already contained in the book. The RWNJ’s want a witch-hunt, because they can’t handle the truth.
Thanks to all who commented on the father who hit his toddlers. I certainly agree that those that read it will think WTF and also that so many people seem to think that many women deliberately go on the benefit with a second/plus child on the way. Have they ever bothered to consider that the woman had finally decided that maybe the child was more important than the marriage/partnership, in keeping with our interest in having children at the centre of our society’s policy-making?
I have calmed down now; if the person who had added the headline to that article was in front of me, now, maybe I could have impressed upon them how dangerous their manipulation of the written media has become.
We can all understand sudden welling up of anger. But let’s not pretend it is less than what it is – violence against someone smaller.
I know that in newspapers the headlines are thought up elsewhere. That suggests that Kiwis have lost control over their own information sharing. With the NZPA out of the way, Key and backers will control our very future.
The call by the RWNJs for total disenfranchisement of the poor been gaining momentum for awhile now. This is something we need to address and loudly. Make it clear to the majority of the people that the right are on a quest to stop them having a say in their community. To ensure that only the rich have a say in government policies, that government truly does become government of the poor, by the rich, for the rich.
Perhaps they both need hugboxes complete with a built in sound system playing a selection of some of ACT’s “special” policies.
And irony of ironies, Slater’s basically advocated stripping himself of his basic right to vote, even more pathetic is that they both fail utterly to understand democracies and somehow think a minority, with no money to fund extensive lobbying, can somehow have a major influence. On top of the other juicy stupidity Pagani noted of their own hypocrisy vis selfishness in voting for tax cuts or wanting a return the undemocratic FPP and it’s vile offspring.
Pagani calls Billshit on the use of obfuscatory English:
“The obfuscatory talk about ‘New Zealanders at the front of the queue’ to buy our power companies has been torn away with yesterday’s disclosure that foreigners will be able to buy parts of our state-owned enterprises. And if Kiwis do get a holding, why wouldn’t they then resell to foreigners for a quick buck?”
Congratulations to Kataraina O’Brien, New President, MWWL.
Putting whanau first, indeed!
“The Maori Women’s Welfare League has a new president: Kataraina O’Brien.
“Ms O’Brien, a Tauranga City Councillor who has been a member of the League since the late 60s, campaigned on a message of taking the organisation back to its roots of putting whanau first.
“Despite a nomination declared valid by a judge after a wave of controversy, Hannah Tamaki – wife of Destiny Church leader Bishop Brian Tamaki – failed to attract enough support to win the presidency.”
Hopefully that puts that nasty little affair to rest but maybe not.
Trouble is, with their protestant evangelical zeal for “manifest destiny” and “ordained to rule”, we may see a less obvious, less brute force, invasion of the league.
She did herself no favours bringing High Court action but now she can stack the vote stealthily over time.
I wonder if Owen Glenn is positioning himself to buy energy shares when the night mare begins (selling 49% of energy shares)?
This morning Glenn stated that he is going to sell his overseas company (not sure of the name) and he will announce this in October when he is back in the country.
Also on The Nation this morning he was not asked about the sale of state assests, (correct me if I am wrong as my hearing is impaired severly in one ear).
He gave Goff’s employment project for youth the thumbs up. What really surprised me is that he said he would put 100 million into youth education/employment and said it would be more if National was re-elected.
I said pre 2008 election that Owen Glenn was setting up Clark and Peters. Peters was popular and NAct wanted rid. Then they could attack Clark through the trumped up charges against Peters. I still believe that.
Parliamentary parties were happy to stab Peters in the back; they thought it would bring them more votes.
Owen Glenn the tobacco company agent – hardly the morally upright sort of person you would want to get too close to. He offered the money to Labour. Clark didn’t ask.
This was a giant set up by Glenn. He’s now back with Sean Plunket dribbling all over him and with Sean feeding him a question they both knew the answer to. What is in this for Plunket? He’s not even pretending anymore to be objective.
NAct is pulling the same crap they pulled last election. Are people so stupid they would believe this garbage again from people like you, Brett.
Glenn said that he would give the money if National and ACT won the election
The headlines should be…….
“Owen Glenn Tries to Buy NZ Election”
“NZ has the best democracy that Owen Glenn’s money can buy”
“Glenn offers to buy National a government”
“NZ Voters Get Hundreds of Million of Dollars if they elect National”
This is outrageous political vote buying by the rich!
Plunket asked him (and I’m paraphrasing) : so you will give hundreds of millions of dollars if National and ACT win the election?
Owen Glenn said yes.
You could be right about the 100 either way. I’ll watch again in the morning.
William Joyce you were correct that the offer was providing National/Act won the election. Please accept my apology. Just managed to see the relevant content again this morning. Glenn came across as being smug. First he states how he thinks Labour’s youth employment strategy has merit, then he states that he will put money into youth and education, then he hesitates on the amount, but specifies at least 100 million, and makes a conditiion on National/Act being re – elected.
I recall yesterday Glenn saying that the country was broke.
Yes the offer is generous and providing National don’t run the thing, youth will benefit because National have proved to be clueless when it comes to the future of those who have their whole working life ahead of them.
How about that Owen Glenn eh! Buying votes for National and Act by offering to give them $100 million if they win the next election. If he actually gave a damn about New Zealand, he would donate that money no-matter what side of the fence won. Besides, vote buying is against the law:
Owen Glenn actually won the election for NACT last time and seemed to enjoy the limelight, not to mention the intense and expensive “relationship building” from NACT that both preceeded and followed his effete knifing of Winnie’s back. Not surprising that any physically repugnant neanderthal would seek to repeat a serendipitous occurrance, let alone this particular vain, repulsive, moronic puppet.
Glenn always shows up around election time and he gets media attention.
If he is sincere about helping the desperate plight of youth he should be unconditional, however if he wants a project run a particular way he should be entitled to run the project that way providing it is lawful in every aspect and does not discriminate. The man turned a few thousand into half a billion, and the country is broke, NZ youth need all the help they can get.
Where is the Labour Party on this latest Glenn declaration? Sitting (as usual) with their hands folded beneath their backsides? This is blatant bribery and should be publicly denounced. This is the same pretentious creep who lied about the content of conversations he had with Helen Clark, Mike Williams, Winston Peters and sundry other individuals simply because he didn’t get his own way with them. He was never called out on it by the media of course.
To hell with his tainted $100 million dollars unless he is prepared to donate it without such political strings attached.
I can remember the time when rugby was the game for kiwis from all classes…. then came professionalisation.
This morning on RNZ several people were waxing lyrical about the business opportunities for NZ business people (probably mostly businessmen), when foreign business types are here for the Rubber Wool Cup. It’s all about building relationships, they said…. sounds like fertile ground for cronyism.
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NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi Acting Secretary Erin Polaczuk is welcoming the announcement from Minister of Workplace Relations and Safety Brooke van Velden that she is opening consultation on engineered stone and is calling on her to listen to the evidence and implement a total ban of the product. “We need ...
The Government has announced a 1.5% increase in the minimum wage from 1 April 2025, well below forecast inflation of 2.5%. Unions have reacted strongly and denounced it as a real terms cut. PSA and the CTU are opposing a new round of staff cuts at WorkSafe, which they say ...
The decision to unilaterally repudiate the contract for new Cook Strait ferries is beginning to look like one of the stupidest decisions a New Zealand government ever made. While cancelling the ferries and their associated port infrastructure may have made this year's books look good, it means higher costs later, ...
Hi there! I’ve been overseas recently, looking after a situation with a family member. So apologies if there any less than focused posts! Vanuatu has just had a significant 7.3 earthquake. Two MFAT staff are unaccounted for with local fatalities.It’s always sad to hear of such things happening.I think of ...
Today is a special member's morning, scheduled to make up for the government's theft of member's days throughout the year. First up was the first reading of Greg Fleming's Crimes (Increased Penalties for Slavery Offences) Amendment Bill, which was passed unanimously. Currently the House is debating the third reading of ...
We're going backwardsIgnoring the realitiesGoing backwardsAre you counting all the casualties?We are not there yetWhere we need to beWe are still in debtTo our insanitiesSongwriter: Martin Gore Read more ...
Willis blamed Treasury for changing its productivity assumptions and Labour’s spending increases since Covid for the worsening Budget outlook. Photo: Getty ImagesMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that matter in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Wednesday, December 18 in The Kākā’s Dawn Chorus podcast above ...
Today the Auckland Transport board meet for the last time this year. For those interested (and with time to spare), you can follow along via this MS Teams link from 10am. I’ve taken a quick look through the agenda items to see what I think the most interesting aspects are. ...
Hi,If you’re a New Zealander — you know who Mike King is. He is the face of New Zealand’s battle against mental health problems. He can be loud and brash. He raises, and is entrusted with, a lot of cash. Last year his “I Am Hope” charity reported a revenue ...
Probably about the only consolation available from yesterday’s unveiling of the Half-Yearly Economic and Fiscal Update (HYEFU) is that it could have been worse. Though Finance Minister Nicola Willis has tightened the screws on future government spending, she has resisted the calls from hard-line academics, fiscal purists and fiscal hawks ...
The right have a stupid saying that is only occasionally true:When is democracy not democracy? When it hasn’t been voted on.While not true in regards to branches of government such as the judiciary, it’s a philosophy that probably should apply to recently-elected local government councillors. Nevertheless, this concept seemed to ...
Long story short: the Government’s austerity policy has driven the economy into a deeper and longer recession that means it will have to borrow $20 billion more over the next four years than it expected just six months ago. Treasury’s latest forecasts show the National-ACT-NZ First Government’s fiscal strategy of ...
Come and join myself and CTU Chief Economist for a pop-up ‘Hoon’ webinar on the Government’s Half Yearly Economic and Fiscal Update (HYEFU) with paying subscribers to The Kākā for 30 minutes at 5 pm today.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream to watch our chat. Don’t worry if ...
In 1998, in the wake of the Paremoremo Prison riot, the Department of Corrections established the "Behaviour Management Regime". Prisoners were locked in their cells for 22 or 23 hours a day, with no fresh air, no exercise, no social contact, no entertainment, and in some cases no clothes and ...
New data released by the Treasury shows that the economic policies of this Government have made things worse in the year since they took office, said NZCTU Economist Craig Renney. “Our fiscal indicators are all heading in the wrong direction – with higher levels of debt, a higher deficit, and ...
At the 2023 election, National basically ran on a platform of being better economic managers. So how'd that turn out for us? In just one year, they've fucked us for two full political terms: The government's books are set to remain deeply in the red for the near term ...
AUSTERITYText within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedMy spreadsheet insists This pain leads straight to glory (File not found) Read more ...
The NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi are saying that the Government should do the right thing and deliver minimum wage increases that don’t see workers fall further behind, in response to today’s announcement that the minimum wage will only be increased by 1.5%, well short of forecast inflation. “With inflation forecast ...
Oh, I weptFor daysFilled my eyesWith silly tearsOh, yeaBut I don'tCare no moreI don't care ifMy eyes get soreSongwriters: Paul Rodgers / Paul Kossoff. Read more ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Bob HensonIn this aerial view, fingers of meltwater flow from the melting Isunnguata Sermia glacier descending from the Greenland Ice Sheet on July 11, 2024, near Kangerlussuaq, Greenland. According to the Programme for Monitoring of the Greenland Ice Sheet (PROMICE), the ...
In August, I wrote an article about David Seymour1 with a video of his testimony, to warn that there were grave dangers to his Ministry of Regulation:David Seymour's Ministry of Slush Hides Far Greater RisksWhy Seymour's exorbitant waste of taxpayers' money could be the least of concernThe money for Seymour ...
Willis is expected to have to reveal the bitter fiscal fruits of her austerity strategy in the HYEFU later today. Photo: Lynn Grieveson/TheKakaMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that matter in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Tuesday, December 17 in The Kākā’s Dawn Chorus podcast ...
On Friday the government announced it would double the number of toll roads in New Zealand as well as make a few other changes to how toll roads are used in the country. The real issue though is not that tolling is being used but the suggestion it will make ...
The Prime Minister yesterday engaged in what looked like a pre-emptive strike designed to counter what is likely to be a series of depressing economic statistics expected before the end of the week. He opened his weekly post-Cabinet press conference with a recitation of the Government’s achievements. “It certainly has ...
This whooping cough story from south Auckland is a good example of the coalition government’s approach to social need – spend money on urging people to get vaccinated but only after you’ve cut the funding to where they could get vaccinated. This has been the case all year with public ...
And if there is a GodI know he likes to rockHe likes his loud guitarsHis spiders from MarsAnd if there is a GodI know he's watching meHe likes what he seesBut there's trouble on the breezeSongwriter: William Patrick Corgan Read more ...
Here’s a quick round up of today’s political news:1. MORE FOOD BANKS, CHARITIES, DOMESTIC VIOLENCE SHELTERS AND YOUTH SOCIAL SERVICES SET TO CLOSE OR SCALE BACK AROUND THE COUNTRY AS GOVT CUTS FUNDINGSome of Auckland's largest foodbanks are warning they may need to close or significantly reduce food parcels after ...
Iain Rennie, CNZMSecretary and Chief Executive to the TreasuryDear Secretary, Undue restrictions on restricted briefings This week, the Treasury barred representatives from four organisations, including the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions Te Kauae Kaimahi, from attending the restricted briefing for the Half-Year Economic and Fiscal Update. We had been ...
This is a guest post by Tim Adriaansen, a community, climate, and accessibility advocate.I won’t shut up about climate breakdown, and whenever possible I try to shift the focus of a climate conversation towards solutions. But you’ll almost never hear me give more than a passing nod to ...
A grassroots backlash has forced a backdown from Brown, but he is still eyeing up plenty of tolls for other new roads. And the pressure is on Willis to ramp up the Government’s austerity strategy. Photo: Getty ImagesMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that matter in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
Hi all,I'm pretty overwhelmed by all your messages and emails today; thank you so very much.As much as my newsletter this morning was about money, and we all need to earn money, it was mostly about world domination if I'm honest. 😉I really hate what’s happening to our country, and ...
A listing of 23 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, December 8, 2024 thru Sat, December 14, 2024. Listing by Category Like last week's summary this one contains the list of articles twice: based on categories and based on ...
I started writing this morning about Hobson’s Pledge, examining the claims they and their supporters make, basically ripping into them. But I kept getting notifications coming through, and not good ones.Each time I looked up, there was another un-subscription message, and I felt a bit sicker at the thought of ...
Once, long before there was Harry and Meghan and Dodi and all those episodes of The Crown, they came to spend some time with us, Charles and Diana. Was there anyone in the world more glamorous than the Princess of Wales?Dazzled as everyone was by their company, the leader of ...
The collective right have a problem.The entire foundation for their world view is antiscientific. Their preferred economic strategies have been disproven. Their whole neoliberal model faces accusations of corporate corruption and worsening inequality. Climate change not only definitely exists, its rapid progression demands an immediate and expensive response in order ...
Just ten days ago, South Korea's president attempted a self-coup, declaring martial law and attempting to have opposition MPs murdered or arrested in an effort to seize unconstrained power. The attempt was rapidly defeated by the national assembly voting it down and the people flooding the streets to defend democracy. ...
National has only been in power for a year, but everywhere you look, its choices are taking New Zealand a long way backwards. In no particular order, here are the National Government's Top 50 Greatest Misses of its first year in power. ...
The Government is quietly undertaking consultation on the dangerous Regulatory Standards Bill over the Christmas period to avoid too much attention. ...
The Government’s planned changes to the freedom of speech obligations of universities is little more than a front for stoking the political fires of disinformation and fear, placing teachers and students in the crosshairs. ...
The Ministry of Regulation’s report into Early Childhood Education (ECE) in Aotearoa raises serious concerns about the possibility of lowering qualification requirements, undermining quality and risking worse outcomes for tamariki, whānau, and kaiako. ...
A Bill to modernise the role of Justices of the Peace (JP), ensuring they remain active in their communities and connected with other JPs, has been put into the ballot. ...
Labour will continue to fight unsustainable and destructive projects that are able to leap-frog environment protection under National’s Fast-track Approvals Bill. ...
The Green Party has warned that a Green Government will revoke the consents of companies who override environmental protections as part of Fast-Track legislation being passed today. ...
The Green Party says the Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update shows how the Government is failing to address the massive social and infrastructure deficits our country faces. ...
The Government’s latest move to reduce the earnings of migrant workers will not only hurt migrants but it will drive down the wages of Kiwi workers. ...
Te Pāti Māori has this morning issued a stern warning to Fast-Track applicants with interests in mining, pledging to hold them accountable through retrospective liability and to immediately revoke Fast-Track consents under a future Te Pāti Māori government. This warning comes ahead of today’s third reading of the Fast-Track Approvals ...
The Government’s announcement today of a 1.5 per cent increase to minimum wage is another blow for workers, with inflation projected to exceed the increase, meaning it’s a real terms pay reduction for many. ...
All the Government has achieved from its announcement today is to continue to push responsibility back on councils for its own lack of action to help bring down skyrocketing rates. ...
The Government has used its final post-Cabinet press conference of the year to punch down on local government without offering any credible solutions to the issues our councils are facing. ...
The Government has failed to keep its promise to ‘super charge’ the EV network, delivering just 292 chargers - less than half of the 670 chargers needed to meet its target. ...
The Green Party is calling for the Government to stop subsidising the largest user of the country’s gas supplies, Methanex, following a report highlighting the multi-national’s disproportionate influence on energy prices in Aotearoa. ...
The Green Party is appalled with the Government’s new child poverty targets that are based on a new ‘persistent poverty’ measure that could be met even with an increase in child poverty. ...
New independent analysis has revealed that the Government’s Emissions Reduction Plan (ERP) will reduce emissions by a measly 1 per cent by 2030, failing to set us up for the future and meeting upcoming targets. ...
The loss of 27 kaimahi at Whakaata Māori and the end of its daily news bulletin is a sad day for Māori media and another step backwards for Te Tiriti o Waitangi justice. ...
Yesterday the Government passed cruel legislation through first reading to establish a new beneficiary sanction regime that will ultimately mean more households cannot afford the basic essentials. ...
Today's passing of the Government's Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill–which allows landlords to end tenancies with no reason–ignores the voice of the people and leaves renters in limbo ahead of the festive season. ...
After wasting a year, Nicola Willis has delivered a worse deal for the Cook Strait ferries that will end up being more expensive and take longer to arrive. ...
Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick has today launched a Member’s Bill to sanction Israel for its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, as the All Out For Gaza rally reaches Parliament. ...
After years of advocacy, the Green Party is very happy to hear the Government has listened to our collective voices and announced the closure of the greyhound racing industry, by 1 August 2026. ...
In response to a new report from ERO, the Government has acknowledged the urgent need for consistency across the curriculum for Relationship and Sexuality Education (RSE) in schools. ...
The Green Party is appalled at the Government introducing legislation that will make it easier to penalise workers fighting for better pay and conditions. ...
Thank you for the invitation to speak with you tonight on behalf of the political party I belong to - which is New Zealand First. As we have heard before this evening the Kinleith Mill is proposing to reduce operations by focusing on pulp and discontinuing “lossmaking paper production”. They say that they are currently consulting on the plan to permanently shut ...
Auckland Central MP, Chlöe Swarbrick, has written to Mayor Wayne Brown requesting he stop the unnecessary delays on St James Theatre’s restoration. ...
Kiwis planning a swim or heading out on a boat this summer should remember to stop and think about water safety, Sport & Recreation Minister Chris Bishop and ACC and Associate Transport Minister Matt Doocey say. “New Zealand’s beaches, lakes and rivers are some of the most beautiful in the ...
The Government is urging Kiwis to drive safely this summer and reminding motorists that Police will be out in force to enforce the road rules, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“This time of year can be stressful and result in poor decision-making on our roads. Whether you are travelling to see ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says Health New Zealand will move swiftly to support dozens of internationally-trained doctors already in New Zealand on their journey to employment here, after a tripling of sought-after examination places. “The Medical Council has delivered great news for hardworking overseas doctors who want to contribute ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has appointed Sarah Ottrey to the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC). “At my first APEC Summit in Lima, I experienced firsthand the role that ABAC plays in guaranteeing political leaders hear the voice of business,” Mr Luxon says. “New Zealand’s ABAC representatives are very well respected and ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has announced four appointments to New Zealand’s intelligence oversight functions. The Honourable Robert Dobson KC has been appointed Chief Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants, and the Honourable Brendan Brown KC has been appointed as a Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants. The appointments of Hon Robert Dobson and Hon ...
Improvements in the average time it takes to process survey and title applications means housing developments can progress more quickly, Minister for Land Information Chris Penk says. “The government is resolutely focused on improving the building and construction pipeline,” Mr Penk says. “Applications to issue titles and subdivide land are ...
The Government’s measures to reduce airport wait times, and better transparency around flight disruptions is delivering encouraging early results for passengers ahead of the busy summer period, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Improving the efficiency of air travel is a priority for the Government to give passengers a smoother, more reliable ...
The Government today announced the intended closure of the Apollo Hotel as Contracted Emergency Housing (CEH) in Rotorua, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. This follows a 30 per cent reduction in the number of households in CEH in Rotorua since National came into Government. “Our focus is on ending CEH in the Whakarewarewa area starting ...
The Government will reshape vocational education and training to return decision making to regions and enable greater industry input into work-based learning Tertiary Education and Skills Minister, Penny Simmonds says. “The redesigned system will better meet the needs of learners, industry, and the economy. It includes re-establishing regional polytechnics that ...
The Government is taking action to better manage synthetic refrigerants and reduce emissions caused by greenhouse gases found in heating and cooling products, Environment Minister Penny Simmonds says. “Regulations will be drafted to support a product stewardship scheme for synthetic refrigerants, Ms. Simmonds says. “Synthetic refrigerants are found in a ...
People travelling on State Highway 1 north of Hamilton will be relieved that remedial works and safety improvements on the Ngāruawāhia section of the Waikato Expressway were finished today, with all lanes now open to traffic, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“I would like to acknowledge the patience of road users ...
Tertiary Education and Skills Minister, Penny Simmonds, has announced a new appointment to the board of Education New Zealand (ENZ). Dr Erik Lithander has been appointed as a new member of the ENZ board for a three-year term until 30 January 2028. “I would like to welcome Dr Erik Lithander to the ...
The Government will have senior representatives at Waitangi Day events around the country, including at the Waitangi Treaty Grounds, but next year Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has chosen to take part in celebrations elsewhere. “It has always been my intention to celebrate Waitangi Day around the country with different ...
Two more criminal gangs will be subject to the raft of laws passed by the Coalition Government that give Police more powers to disrupt gang activity, and the intimidation they impose in our communities, Police Minister Mark Mitchell says. Following an Order passed by Cabinet, from 3 February 2025 the ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Justice Christian Whata as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Whata’s appointment as a Judge of the Court of Appeal will take effect on 1 August 2025 and fill a vacancy created by the retirement of Hon Justice David Goddard on ...
The latest economic figures highlight the importance of the steps the Government has taken to restore respect for taxpayers’ money and drive economic growth, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Data released today by Stats NZ shows Gross Domestic Product fell 1 per cent in the September quarter. “Treasury and most ...
Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds and Associate Minister of Education David Seymour today announced legislation changes to strengthen freedom of speech obligations on universities. “Freedom of speech is fundamental to the concept of academic freedom and there is concern that universities seem to be taking a more risk-averse ...
Police Minister, Mark Mitchell, and Internal Affairs Minister, Brooke van Velden, today launched a further Public Safety Network cellular service that alongside last year’s Cellular Roaming roll-out, puts globally-leading cellular communications capability into the hands of our emergency responders. The Public Safety Network’s new Cellular Priority service means Police, Wellington ...
State Highway 1 through the Mangamuka Gorge has officially reopened today, providing a critical link for Northlanders and offering much-needed relief ahead of the busy summer period, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“The Mangamuka Gorge is a vital route for Northland, carrying around 1,300 vehicles per day and connecting the Far ...
The Government has welcomed decisions by the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) and Ashburton District Council confirming funding to boost resilience in the Canterbury region, with construction on a second Ashburton Bridge expected to begin in 2026, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Delivering a second Ashburton Bridge to improve resilience and ...
The Government is backing the response into high pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in Otago, Biosecurity Minister Andrew Hoggard says. “Cabinet has approved new funding of $20 million to enable MPI to meet unbudgeted ongoing expenses associated with the H7N6 response including rigorous scientific testing of samples at the enhanced PC3 ...
Legislation that will repeal all advertising restrictions for broadcasters on Sundays and public holidays has passed through first reading in Parliament today, Media Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “As a growing share of audiences get their news and entertainment from streaming services, these restrictions have become increasingly redundant. New Zealand on ...
Today the House agreed to Brendan Horsley being appointed Inspector-General of Defence, Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Mr Horsley’s experience will be invaluable in overseeing the establishment of the new office and its support networks. “He is currently Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security, having held that role since June 2020. ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government has agreed to the final regulations for the levy on insurance contracts that will fund Fire and Emergency New Zealand from July 2026. “Earlier this year the Government agreed to a 2.2 percent increase to the rate of levy. Fire ...
The Government is delivering regulatory relief for New Zealand businesses through changes to the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act. “The Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Amendment Bill, which was introduced today, is the second Bill – the other being the Statutes Amendment Bill - that ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed further progress on the Hawke’s Bay Expressway Road of National Significance (RoNS), with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) Board approving funding for the detailed design of Stage 1, paving the way for main works construction to begin in late 2025.“The Government is moving at ...
The Government today released a request for information (RFI) to seeking interest in partnerships to plant trees on Crown-owned land with low farming and conservation value (excluding National Parks) Forestry Minister Todd McClay announced. “Planting trees on Crown-owned land will drive economic growth by creating more forestry jobs in our regions, providing more wood ...
Court timeliness, access to justice, and improving the quality of existing regulation are the focus of a series of law changes introduced to Parliament today by Associate Minister of Justice Nicole McKee. The three Bills in the Regulatory Systems (Justice) Amendment Bill package each improve a different part of the ...
A total of 41 appointments and reappointments have been made to the 12 community trusts around New Zealand that serve their regions, Associate Finance Minister Shane Jones says. “These trusts, and the communities they serve from the Far North to the deep south, will benefit from the rich experience, knowledge, ...
The Government has confirmed how it will provide redress to survivors who were tortured at the Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital Child and Adolescent Unit (the Lake Alice Unit). “The Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care found that many of the 362 children who went through the Lake Alice Unit between 1972 and ...
It has been a busy, productive year in the House as the coalition Government works hard to get New Zealand back on track, Leader of the House Chris Bishop says. “This Government promised to rebuild the economy, restore law and order and reduce the cost of living. Our record this ...
“Accelerated silicosis is an emerging occupational disease caused by unsafe work such as engineered stone benchtops. I am running a standalone consultation on engineered stone to understand what the industry is currently doing to manage the risks, and whether further regulatory intervention is needed,” says Workplace Relations and Safety Minister ...
Mehemea he pai mō te tangata, mahia – if it’s good for the people, get on with it. Enhanced reporting on the public sector’s delivery of Treaty settlement commitments will help improve outcomes for Māori and all New Zealanders, Māori Crown Relations Minister Tama Potaka says. Compiled together for the ...
Mr Roger Holmes Miller and Ms Tarita Hutchinson have been appointed to the Charities Registration Board, Community and Voluntary Sector Minister Louise Upston says. “I would like to welcome the new members joining the Charities Registration Board. “The appointment of Ms Hutchinson and Mr Miller will strengthen the Board’s capacity ...
More building consent and code compliance applications are being processed within the statutory timeframe since the Government required councils to submit quarterly data, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “In the midst of a housing shortage we need to look at every step of the build process for efficiencies ...
Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey is proud to announce the first three recipients of the Government’s $10 million Mental Health and Addiction Community Sector Innovation Fund which will enable more Kiwis faster access to mental health and addiction support. “This fund is part of the Government’s commitment to investing in ...
New Zealand is providing Vanuatu assistance following yesterday's devastating earthquake, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. "Vanuatu is a member of our Pacific family and we are supporting it in this time of acute need," Mr Peters says. "Our thoughts are with the people of Vanuatu, and we will be ...
The Government welcomes the Commerce Commission’s plan to reduce card fees for Kiwis by an estimated $260 million a year, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says.“The Government is relentlessly focused on reducing the cost of living, so Kiwis can keep more of their hard-earned income and live a ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour has welcomed the Early Childhood Education (ECE) regulatory review report, the first major report from the Ministry for Regulation. The report makes 15 recommendations to modernise and simplify regulations across ECE so services can get on with what they do best – providing safe, high-quality care ...
The Government‘s Offshore Renewable Energy Bill to create a new regulatory regime that will enable firms to construct offshore wind generation has passed its first reading in Parliament, Energy Minister Simeon Brown says.“New Zealand currently does not have a regulatory regime for offshore renewable energy as the previous government failed ...
By Emma Andrews, Henare te Ua Māori Journalism Intern at RNZ News The New Zealand fuel company Z Energy is swapping out street names for “correct” kupu on service stops around the country, with the help of local hapū. When Z took over 226 fuel sites from Shell in 2010, ...
Summer reissue: Was it a false measurement, a full-blown conspiracy or just some mild incompetence? Mad Chapman uncovers the truth of Maddi Wesche’s final throw. The Spinoff needs to double the number of paying members we have to continue telling these kinds of stories. Please read our open letter and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julie Old, Associate Professor, Biology, Zoology, Animal Science, Western Sydney University Dmitry Chulov, Shutterstock At this time of year, images of reindeer are everywhere. I’ve had a soft spot for reindeer ever since I was a little girl. Doesn’t everyone? ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Grozdana Manalo, Career Services Manager (Education), University of Sydney hedgehog94/Shutterstock Getting casual work over summer, or a part-time job that you might continue once your tertiary course starts, can be a great way to get workplace experience and earn some extra ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ty Ferguson, Research associate in exercise, nutrition and activity, University of South Australia Peera_Stockfoto/Shutterstock It’s never been easier to stay connected to work. Even when we’re on leave, our phones and laptops keep us tethered. Many of us promise ourselves we ...
The NZ Media Council upheld the complaint under principle four: comment and fact On 5 September 2024, The Spinoff published a brief article titled Made in Palestine, found in 1970s Hastings, which highlighted an upcoming art exhibition featuring photographs of vintage cosmetic products labelled “Made in Palestine.” The piece, described ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kasey Symons, Lecturer of Communication, Sports Media, Deakin University We are well and truly in cricket season. The Australian men’s cricket team is taking centre stage against India in the Border Gavaskar Trophy series while the Big Bash League is underway, as ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Woods, Lecturer, Nursing, Faculty of Health, Southern Cross University FTiare/Shutterstock Summer is here and for many that means going to the beach. You grab your swimmers, beach towel and sunscreen then maybe check the weather forecast. Did you think to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Saman Khalesi, Senior Lecturer and Discipline Lead in Nutrition, School of Health, Medical and Applied Sciences, CQUniversity Australia Dean Clarke/Shutterstock The holiday season can be a time of joy, celebration, and indulgence in delicious foods and meals. However, for many, it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ari Mattes, Lecturer in Communications and Media, University of Notre Dame Australia Late Night With The Devil. Maslow Entertainment Marketing is critical to the success of commercial films, and companies will often spend half as much again on top of the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Francisco Jose Testa, Lecturer in Earth Sciences (Mineralogy, Petrology & Geochemistry), University of Tasmania The Conversation As a kid, it was tough for me to grasp the massive time scale of Earth’s history. Now, with nearly two decades of experience as ...
Te Pāti Māori has had to adopt a new way of debating, operating and even thinking in Parliament in response to the Government’s “onslaught” against te ao Māori, co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer says.In an end-of-year interview with Newsroom, the Te Tai Hauauru MP reflected on how 2024 has differed from her ...
Opinion: The latest Trends in International Mathematics and Science report was announced earlier this month, yet it didn’t get the flurry of media attention and political hand-wringing that typically accompanies these announcements. This might be because it presented good news, or you could argue, no news; the results paint a ...
NewsroomBy Dr Lisa Darragh, Dr Raewyn Eden and Dr David Pomeroy
At long last, The Spinoff shells out for a nut ranking. The Spinoff needs to double the number of paying members we have to continue telling these kinds of stories. Please read our open letter and sign up to be a member today.It recently came to The Spinoff’s attention ...
I was one of hundreds of people who lost my government job this week. Here’s exactly how it played out. The Spinoff needs to double the number of paying members we have to continue telling these kinds of stories. Please read our open letter and sign up to be a ...
Summer reissue: One anxiously attentive passenger pays attention to an in-flight safety video, and wonders ‘Why can’t I pick up my own phone?’ The Spinoff needs to double the number of paying members we have to continue telling these kinds of stories. Please read our open letter and sign up ...
Summer reissue: Why do those Lange-Douglas years cast such a long shadow 40 years on? The Spinoff needs to double the number of paying members we have to continue telling these kinds of stories. Please read our open letter and sign up to be a member today. First published June ...
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The Government’s social housing agency has backed out of a billion-dollar infrastructure alliance that would have built about 6000 new homes in Auckland – less than 18 months after signing a five-year extension.Labour says the decision to rip up the contract and sell off existing state houses could lead to ...
An unrelenting faith in “swift transition” has driven Tauranga Whai to their first Tauihi Basketball Aotearoa championship. At a boisterous Queen Elizabeth Youth Centre, the visiting Tokomanawa Queens were blown away 90-71 in the final.Whai led by 20 points at halftime as their urgent movement and unflinching faith in three-point shooting from anywhere ...
ByKoroi Hawkins, RNZ Pacific editor New Zealand’s Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) says impending bad weather for Port Vila is now the most significant post-quake hazard. A tropical low in the Coral Sea is expected to move into Vanuatu waters, bringing heavy rainfall. Authorities have issued warnings to people ...
Cosmic CatastropheThe year draws to a close.King Luxon has grown tired of the long eveningsListening to the dreary squabbling of his Triumvirate.He strolls up to the top floor of the PalaceTo consult with his Astronomer Royal.The Royal Telescope scans the skies,And King Luxon stares up into the heavensFrom the terrestrial ...
Spinoff editor Mad Chapman and books editor Claire Mabey debate Carl Shuker’s new novel about… an editor. Claire: Hello Mad, you just finished The Royal Free – overall impressions? Mad: Hi Claire, I literally just put the book down and I would have to say my immediate impression is ...
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Find a NARK memorial location near you and drop off a small soft toy today between noon and 3pm today – event map.
You going to help with the clean up afterwards, Pete? Hate to think of our war memorials covered in furry litter.
Master Builders Federation cheer Labour’s apprenticeship initiative. So another traditional NACT support body gives the opposition the thumbs up, and more importantly, contradict the Minister Steven Joyce’s statements. (They simply don’t believe NACT).
And we have Joky Hen being economical with the truth again. Ultimately Garner and Espiner will ask him the right questions.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10749150
We are so lucky to have such an innovative and progressive government …
(Europe to remove all incandescent light bulbs by next year. New Zealand has already done that … wait a moment, we were going to but NACT reversed that policy as soon as they took office.)
@logie 97 The old light bulbs are great, the new ones don’t offer the light levels that their
display card promises, they change colour hues such as red, they are more expensive and they break more easily, it is doubtful whether they will last as long as they promise (who will know after a year), the present ones I do know have lasted six months of ordinary use. And then there is a disposal problem, and some problem about gas escaping if they are broken. And my friend has done a lot of research on them and has misgivings, but nobody can look past the low hanging fruit of eco friendly? light bulbs. Nobody wants to know either here in NZ or overseas.
All of which is incorrect – except the changing colour bit.
@DTB Not so, I speak from personal experience.
So do I.
If you first bought CFL bulbs when they came out 5-6 years ago then a lot of your concerns were valid. They weren’t bright, they didn’t last long.
The bulbs that are produced now are definitely of higher quality, though. If you buy cheap ones (Signature Range, Warehouse Red Stamp ones) then the brightness is a bit lower and in my experience these bulbs can sometimes die much sooner than they should.
However if you buy more expensive ones, eg Pihilips or GE or any well-recognised brand, you will get the brightness claimed as well as the life time. In fact consumer magazine did a product test on the bulbs and found that the majority of them were actually brighter than stated (sometimes by up to 20%). They also did a longevity test over a period of 8-9 months, which involved power switching the lights more frequently than you would normally do. At the time of publishing the article, not a single bulb had failed.
So your personal experience is either outdated, or seriously at odds with the normal experience for these bulbs.
Also the disposal problem is hyped out of all proportion. Anyone concerned about disposing of a CFL bulb every 3-5 years after they wear out better be recycling all of the regular disposable batteries they throw away as they’re far more toxic.
http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/cfl.asp
Interesting.
Speaking from personal experience, I have been using them since 2002. At the newly built house in Mt Eden, I replaced all 9 recessed/downlights (with standard E27, screw cap fitting) in the lounge/open-plan kitchen with GE 18W bulbs purchased for what was the astronomical price then of about $11 each, I think. These were the straight tube-like ones, unlike the new spiral ones available these days, and did stick out a bit like bright tongues. But they worked well.
I recall my cousin visiting and looking up, gasping and saying – you replaced them all! I tried to casually shrug my shoulders, grinned and said they would be justified over the long term despite the upfront costs. I said I was able to afford the ‘investment’ which I put ahead of other purchases.
All those 9 bulbs, and actually 4 more in my bedroom, lasted more than four years. I took them with me when I moved. And since around 2006 until today, I would have used another 7 energy-saving lightbulbs (eg in table- and floor-standing lamps which I have many around the house).
They have performed well, never given any problems, and lasted 4 years (or more with the ones that get switched on less often).
They are about $5 – 7 each if you keep an eye out for sales at supermarkets, Mitre10 or Bunnings.
Surf online for comparison of brands, etc, for eg
http://www.consumer.org.nz/reports/cfl-bulbs/we-recommend
My recent purchases have been for the Philips Tornado, Extra Bright ones, which work ok. One of them was for a 24W ( = 125W?) bulb.
I would like to see the latest research, thinking and action about proper disposal of the bulbs which contain a small amount of mercury. There does not seem to be much advice about what to do, or what we might need to look at doing, in the near future at:
http://www.mfe.govt.nz/publications/waste/disposal-household-lamps/index.html
Except for cost/affordability (and if so, households can slowly phase them in by replacing only the ones used more often) I really didn’t and still don’t know what the fuss was about switching over.
You both can be right. If the batch they sold cheap because it was up to thelightening standard.
Its a fact of living in NZ, that manufactures dump their smelly bke bean, sad
light bulbs and poor cuts of meat onto the local market.
Prism: here is a good reason to switch. This debates is a lot like the smoking in bars debate, except National made a big song and dance about the bulbs, now all the national dancing sheep are still dancing 3 years later, ‘Face Palm’ any wonder they are ahead in the polls.
More about the growing cult surrounding Julian Assange. There really is something creepy about the Wikileaks founder and the way he runs the organisation.
@TVOR I think that some people on this blog are creepy. But I may be wrong or just find their ideas different than the ones I’ve held for yonks. On the other hand –
“I was disturbed and conflicted. I still found the organisation’s aims were in many ways laudable, the financial and legal pressures unjust, and its publishing pattern far more responsible than it received credit for.
I couldn’t support its internal culture, its lack of accountability, willingness to lie publicly, and crucially its failure to condemn Shamir. I supported the organisation’s principles, but not its methods.
@lprent – Hi Editing time. Query – Why, when the clock is still going with as much as 1 and half minutes do I get refusal to edit sign? I could do much in that time. Maybe the edit time should be cut but with all the time available for change, with only the last 10-20 seconds if necessary being excluded? (Can’t communicate through Contact us)
I don’t know. But it sounds like a clock issue somewhere. I’ll check the server and the code
@lprent Thanks for looking at it.
I’ve had this happen several times and can’t make much sense of it either.
My only guess is if someone else has replied to your post already, but you haven’t seen it because you haven’t refreshed the page yet.
The clock that appears is run off an individuals computer. Therefore it can still be counting down while the server clock has already timed out. It’s unlikely to be interference from someone replying to the comment, and more likely to be the commentators computer keeping an incorrect time or the administration making changes to the comment before the server clock has timed out.
@thejackal I have noticed it particularly when I want to go back and tweak or correct for a second time that its then I get the Clear orf notice.
Sounds like a slow-running query. Can either be a slow connection or problems with the physical database design.
@thejackal I don’t know about all that but I do get a message popping up every now and then saying I’m on a slow server. I leave all that to my son so haven’t done anything about that yet.
All of New Zealand is on a slow server.
P-lab Contaminated Houses Ignored
Those who are unfortunate enough to live in a house that has previously been used to manufacture the methamphetamine drug known as pure (P), have an uphill battle on their hands. P lab contaminated houses are a serious problem as the residual chemicals are highly toxic and exposure can cause illnesses related to immunodeficiency and serious diseases like cancer. Therefore you’d think the government was getting serious about the problem, unfortunately not…
This is the sort of headline you use when you want to change the S59 bill back to hitting children:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/5555783/Petone-father-sentenced-for-slapping-sons
Read it, PLEASE.
Those bastards at the Dominion Post – so-called ethical journalists – either made up the headline themselves for the readers with the attention span of Nats or it was done by the foreign newspaper owners’ New Zealand editorial bum boys.
This is spectacularly sick. This headline and its contents must be saved for this election campaign by every person in New Zealand that actually cares about a society that holds children at its heart. The Dominion Post and its lackies have none of those people on its staff or they would have refused to write it, sign it off, print it, distribute it, sell it and worse still to BUY it.
When John Key and his jerkoffs front up to the New Zealand voter at this election we can front up to him with this article that would have been on every newsprint stand in Wellington as everywhere else. This media in New Zealand is the epitome of a neo-conservative government’s wishlist for closing down objective, truthful reporting.
Since when does a ‘drunken, aggressive’ adult male lunge out with a ‘slap’ to a 2-year old and an 11-month old. No mention in the heading about dragging said 2-year old off the couch by the hair. Even the judge used the word ‘hit’
Disgusting, immoral and unethical journalism in New Zealand. You newspaper harbingers of an authoritarian, lying pseudo-American NActU government to come in again this year unless New Zealanders get their fucking heads out of the sand.
S59 won’t be repealed Jum. From the wee bit of reading I’ve done, NZ was one of the last countries to legislate against child assault. In line with other countries they shied away from the ‘no physical reprimand’. Whether or not you agree with the compromise, it works.
Head lines like the one you linked to are no more effective than appeals to capital punishment. They sell copy and change nothing.
Aye Jum. The headline is a shocker.
It should have said “Petone father sentenced for assaulting sons and police in a drunken rage”.
The headline is the Dom’s cynical and pathetic attempt to rekindle this debate. Other headlines that would have helped them sell papers: “Drunken father takes out anger on babies” or … “Police save baby and tot from violent drunk”
Judge Philippa must go to discharge a pedofile and then says this is disgusting. “He’s a talented New Zealander. He makes people laugh and laughter’s a good medicine that we all need a lot of.”
Did anyone in Wellington get to hear Polly Higgins on the environment yesterday. She was talking at the Spectrum Theatre in the city. She flew to Nelson and spoke in the evening to a small but enthusiastic group.
She seemed to feel happy with her time in the capital city and tweeted –
“Great day in Windy Wellington, meeting ministers, lawyers, campaigners – with big thanks. Now off to speak in Nelson”
She’s now off to Auckland. Good ideas on wings!
From someone (me) who has been conferenced out during the past 7 years, I need to say that if there is one event that some of us jaded ones must go to and lend an ear, it is Polly’s presentation.
Polly’s Auckland presentations tomorrow & Monday are confirmed at the following (prism and I have exchanged comments and I have double checked):
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-02092011/#comment-370809
I can’t see the politicians going near a repeal of S59 either Jum. Homosexual law reform was a lot like this, once it passed the politicians didn’t go near it again [these are issues that are too hot to touch] and then over time people go “what was the fuss about?” as it becomes the new norm.
I didn’t like the headline either, it minimises a serious assault on small people, although the body of the text suggests that everybody in the system dealing with it was pretty unhappy. The sentence seemed a bit light but I am no expert on that. The paper has probably shot itself in the foot, most read more than the headlines, and will be thinking “What???”
I must admit I look at all these people still invested in getting s59 repealed, not forgetting the one who spent $0.5m on the Queen Street march where nobody turned up, and think ‘Just how sick are you if you get off on hitting people smaller than yourself” .
Of course she is now likely to be on a benefit, and according to the far right, should immediately go out to work, and have her benefit cut because she will be having a child while she is on that benefit.
All good things to her and the kids.
Coast FM poll
The National Government is looking at asset sales if it wins the election in November. Do you agree with their strategy?
Coast Poll Results
Yes (13.46%)
No (82.69%)
Don’t care (3.85%)
http://www.thecoast.net.nz/
Coast Fm, being mainly a station that caters to older people, should be National’s bread and butter. Gratifying to see that the old timers keep up with the issues, even if us yoofs are apathetic.
Makes sense really… They’re the people who worked their whole lives, paying taxes to build up those assets and now National just wants to flog them off to the Chinese. If anybody should feel they already own New Zealand’s assets, it’s the elderly.
ok I admit it – I’m 50 but I look a lot younger (I wish lol)
The polls been going for about an hour.
A lot of those old timer remember and understand why those assets were state owned in the first place. It’s only the hype that has accompanied the neo-liberal revolution over the last 30+ years that has caused people to either forget or never learn in the first place.
It’s more efficient and thus cheaper to do it as a community than to pay the capitalists to get around to it. It’s also far more reliable.
Poll breakdowns suggest that the over 60s are, indeed, the most opposed to Asset Sales.
‘No’ has gone up by another percent
Wonder how many make up that 82%?
It’s a meaningless poll unfortunately. You can vote as many times as you like and watch the numbers change…
Taniana Turia said, on Think Tank this morning, that 50+% of Maori boys were leaving school unable to read or write. She blamed the education system and said that this was evidence of “systemic racism”.
Leaving aside her dumping all the blame on the system, no information was given on the actual mechanics on how the education system expresses “institutional racism”.
Perhaps someone who has looked at this subject could fill in the blanks for me.
Simple. The education system was constructed by privileged white people in order to cater for their needs.
Effectively then, the education system reflects the mind set of the white middle class and white middle class kids find it easier to interact with and negotiate.
And that’s what institutional racism is. It’s not particularily deliberate, but it’s real. Just like the class bias inherent to the education system isn’t particularily deliberate.
But how does that prevent Maori from learning while they’re at school?
It doesn’t stop Maori from learning, but the environment is foreign. I can only relate to this from a working class perspective rather than a race perspective, but the same dynamics carry…there’s a ‘foreignness’ that is evident to those of us who come from a different cultural milieu to that represented by the education system. (Unless we seamlessly adopt and assimilate)
Culturally there are many ways to pass on knowledge. Some cultures use dance or oral traditions or … shit, I don’t know the term… but hands on direct experience.
The western education system is based on abstraction (understanding particular symbols) and theory. It also elevates particular cultural imperitives (heirarchy, middle class morality/expectations etc) and ignores or stomps on others (language, dialect, perspectives, morals etc).
edit. seems Adele already commented on most of this
Do speak for yourself, mate! I am as working class as you are, but only in NZ does working-class equate to finding such things as schools a foreign environment! My sisters, brother and I had no such problems. (The only problems we had were the expectations of some school staff and our classmates’ parents, who assumed we’d want to go into factory work.)
My younger son’s best friends were a standard NZ white guy, and a very dark-skinned obviously foreign-looking Korean brought up in Germany by German adoptive parents. Guess which one of them got all the prizes? Hint – not the white guy…
yup. And I knew a brown crippled woman from a working class background who was far more succesful in the work environment than a white guy from an upper middle class background.
So obviously there is no racism, sexism or discrimination in the workplace. Jeez.
Sorry Bill for the first time on this site I feel I need to say “Bollocks”. Too simple an argument I am afraid.
The classroom environment and opportunities are totally supportive and conducive to all children’s learning – I suggest you read the School Curriculum and school charters – they are considerably changed since the 80’s.
There is an addage that “It takes a village to raise a child,” (school is only 6 hours of the child’s village) and unfortunately the street corners and domestic situations have a much bigger influence on the progress of learners.
The majority of schools are not supportive or conducive to learning for Maaori students. The only thing that has changed since the 1980s are the charters – otherwise its the same old same old. The following are words from Maaori academic Rawiri Taonui written in 2009.
“Maori fail in education because education fails Maori.
The destruction of pre-contact Waananga (schools), subjugation of tohunga (priests) and attempted obliteration of te reo nearly annihilated ancestral institutions for knowledge preservation and transmission. Based on false notions of intellectual, cultural and moral superiority, the assimilationist system that replaced them tried to Europeanise Maori into a menial under-class.
The seminal 1980 Royal Commission on Social Policy described it thus – “thousands of Maori are being subjected to a process of schooling that atrophies their potential because the majority of teachers are middle-class and monocultural; they know little of things Maori, speak only English, do not consider Maori language important, consider Pakeha culture superior to Maori culture, and hold low expectations for Maori”. These problems continue today.
While educators recognise prejudice in the outside world, they find it difficult to accept that their institutions reflect those same inequalities. They are therefore often well-intentioned and assume they know best, but they are patronising in ways that undermine the aspirations of the minority they believe they help.
Some argue Maori underperformance is purely socioeconomic – 35% of Maori who do well come from higher socioeconomic groups and 45% are from high decile schools, while only 20% of Maori from poor families and 18% from low decile schools do well.
However, socioeconomic status is not the sole determinant – Pakeha from higher and lower socioeconomic groups do better than their Maori equivalents.
Asinine ahistorical anti-Maori commentators blame Maori culture and parents.
There are issues of abuse and violence. Tamariki are five times more likely to be raised by single mums, and 40% of Maori women suffer partner abuse. However, rather than being endemic, these problems derive from cumulative inter-generational cultural alienation and impoverishment.
Maori mums and dads have in fact shown massive commitment to the education of their children.
Maori parents are 15% of the population but 19% of all school trustees.
They drove the rise of kohanga reo, tikanga reo rua (bilingual-lingual) kura kaupapa (primary immersion), whare kura (secondary immersion), wananga (Maori universities), te reo becoming an official language, the incorporation of the Treaty of Waitangi in the Education Act (1989) and the first Maori Education Strategy (1999).
Moreover, the maxim of brown people failing in white education has only ever changed under the advocacy of Maori parents. ………Maori do better in Maori immersion and bilingual units. Year 11 candidates at bilingual schools are more likely to meet NCEA 1 literacy and numeracy standards than Maori in English medium units and are also closing in on mainstream Pakeha.
However, there are not enough such units or teachers – 83% of Maori kids remain in non-reo units, 92% are in mainstream schools of which Ero says only 42% deliver effectively to Maori.
Maori also do better where schools have programmes like Aim-hi, a multicultural teaching programme in nine Auckland Schools; Te Kauhua, which bridges gaps between schools and Maori communities (30 schools in six years); and the Kotahitanga programme which addresses teaching practices and attitudes – Maori pass rates have improved up to 15% at NCEA 1, 22% at NCEA 2, and 30% at NCEA 3.
We need new and broader strategies. Increase the proportion of Maori principals, administrators and teachers to 30%. Maori are 20% of students but only 12% of principals and just 8% of staff.
Te reo Maori must be compulsory for students and teachers. The days of monolinguals in charge is over.”
To me this is the key phrase… and hold low expectations for Maori
If educators believed Maori should achieve at the same levels as pakeha, or better, then they might have strategies to ensure they do. But educators don’t believe this, so they don’t do anything to make it happen.
Yes – there are social problems, yes – that makes learning harder. But that is the same for all kids. Believing these kids can achieve, can maybe make educators achieve their goal of education for all.
It’s not the social problems that are the defining problem, it’s the inherent (massively myopic) nature of the educational institutions that’s the problem.
Visit some classrooms and get a little “real world” handle on it people. Academic hogwash doesn’t cut it I am afraid.
Maori children don’t tend to populate too many of the decile 10 schools where Tikanga Maori is largely ignored. Get out and visit some of lower decile schools and see how much Maori is incorporated across the curriculum. The schools can only do so much …
“…and see how much Maori is incorporated across the curriculum…”
But isn’t that the crux of the matter? It isn’t Maori (or anyone) who should be being ‘incorporated’ into a ‘one size fits all’ system; it’s the systems of education that should be adapting and devolving.
but of course that’s not going to happen. Because education is about ‘industrialising’ and ‘marketising’…about teaching rather than facilitating learning.
Now that is something I can agree with. I get really pissed off when asked what sort of job I was after when I tell them what I’ve studied. I wasn’t after a job, I was after an education.
Seeing as how I got kicked out of school for asking questions….something about how light travelled was, from memory, the final straw…(summoned and issued an ultimatum) See education? See my arse!
Because education is about ‘industrialising’ and ‘marketising’…about teaching rather than facilitating learning.
Well in that case who cares about whether 50% plus of Maori boys leaving school cannot read or write to a standard required for the ‘industrialised’, ‘marketised’ world? Traditional tohunga knowledge should suffice perfectly well…no? None of this naasty whitey math, physics or chem for these special people…eh bro?
Nah. In my humble opinion, and backed with rather more extensive experience than you would expect, the main reason why Maori tend not to do so well at school… and much of the rest of their lives either… is low expectations from their own exceedingly class oriented, snobby people.
Never heard of the ‘brown aristocracy’ Bill? And never noticed how they make damn sure ‘their’ mokopuna get a pefectly fine education thank you very much.
@ RL
It’s not the maths or the physics per se that constitute the problem. It’s the manner and culture of the institutions that teach these things and the way knowledge is ‘meant’ to be constructed, understood and presented; it’s the denial of other knowledges and ways of understanding that those institutions propagate thats the problem.
As an example, take navigation. There was traditional knowledge throughout Polynesia that arguably produced navigational skills far and beyond that which can be obtained from instrument readings and calculations alone….a far better ability to read wave formations, clouds, wildlife, stars etc…valuable knowledges that are (probably) all gone now.
The colonial story is a tiresome one where drives to dominate trumped any concept of union; a story where subjegated cultures are routinely dismissed and discarded ‘wholesale’, resulting in a diminishing of the sum total of human knowledge/ experience, understanding or means of expression.
It was never ‘this’ ‘and’. Always ‘either’ ‘or’.
The education system reflects and propagates that false story of progress as linear and dismisses people and cultures that are not suitably aligned to the dominant ‘western’ culture and it’s market demands.
edit And in a world dominated by the market, then of course people being failed by eductional establishments is important.
Don’t agree with you red – I don’t blame Māori or even a subset of Māori – I blame the system because it is biased, as in the die are loaded. Who designed the education system and for whose benefit? Certainly Māori values around knowledge and how it is disemminated weren’t included or even considered.
To fix this requires a bit of a change in thinking and an actualisation of the partnership between Māori and the Crown – then we can work on solutions from more than one euro-centric angle, until then we will be stuck in this mire.
Certainly Māori values around knowledge and how it is disemminated weren’t included or even considered.
Absolute bs. Ever wondered why so many Maori who bugger off to Aussie, and away from the low expectations of the whanau back home, do so very well for themselves?
Or the Maori I worked with for some years, who got out from under the no-hoper crowd in his home town and worked his way into being a Regional Director for a major global corporate. His brother’s still pumping petrol.
Look I do get colonisation. It was in a sense the first round of globalisation that took place between roughly 1840 and ending in 1914; it was a massive challenge to cultures everywhere in the world and we still live with the echoes of it 100 years later. But we cannot undo history. Nor will endlessly pressing the ‘white liberal guilt’ button acheive much in the way of re-writing it’s consequences.
Environments change all the time; you either adapt to the new or perish. Notably it is societies that are deeply entrenched in tradition, hierarchy and privilege that are usually the least successful at adapation.
“Certainly Māori values around knowledge and how it is disemminated weren’t included or even considered.” says me
“Absolute bs.” says you
Oh really – so they were included and considered – nah didn’t think so.
I am suggesting improvements not attempting to activate your liberal guilt – I don’t care about anyone;s guilt, I care about equality and empowerment – you know – basic human rights.
“Environments change all the time; you either adapt to the new or perish.”
In the context of this discussion, that’s almost colonialism right there RL.
The environment we are talking about is one facet of a wider imposition of western values. Viewed as superior by the west…as progress… the social Darwinist arguments were trundled out as a ‘logic’ to explain away the destruction of other cultures and peoples. Adapt (to our environment), or perish. (sigh)
Good to see such ‘logic’ alive and well.
As for some Maori negotiating the education system well, so do some working class kids. But it doesn’t take away the fact that education is bias along lines of class and race.
The two aren’t mutually exclusive. There are points of intersection and interplay. So your class position might ameliorate the impact that race has on you in an educational system that promotes white, middle class values…or it might exaggerate it.
Must say. I’m more than a bit surprised at the stand you’ve adopted here, but hey.
The environment we are talking about is one facet of a wider imposition of western values. Viewed as superior by the west…as progress… the social Darwinist arguments were trundled out as a ‘logic’ to explain away the destruction of other cultures and peoples. Adapt (to our environment), or perish. (sigh)
Yes and sigh is all you can do about it now. The simple fact was that the colonising Europeans dominated by dint of numbers, technology and legal system. It was the same everywhere else and no amount of relitigating the past is going to change one jot of it.
Having said that, neither was the adaptation all one way traffic. The extraordinary degree of intermarriage alone has modified the colonists as well. Us white looking New Zealanders are no longer really Europeans either; we’ve changed substantially ourselves. Most modern-day British immigrants will tell you this; that it’s a huge mistake to come here thinking New Zealand is just a smaller, nicer version of mother England. It ain’t as they quickly discover.
The point is that adaptation was neither one way, nor avoidable. Social evolution is pretty much the same a it’s genetic cousin; being a process of retaining those features that prove useful and gradually allowing those that are ineffective to die out. But while genetic evolution is a mechanistic process, social evolution is a far more a consequence of human ideas and choices.
The only people who can determine what is useful to retain around ‘Maori values and ideas’ in the context of a globalised modern world… are of course Maori themselves. And while retaining identity and diversity has to be fundamental to that project, no culture is an island to itself. And no return to the pre-colonisation state is possible. For Maori, the past is no longer a safe guide to the future… and that concept alone is a challenge for all peoples.
Because when you devalue the European dominated education system and ‘industrialised and marketised’ … I could imagine you might rejoice that such a large portion of young Maori so emphatically reject the system by failing to so much as learn to read or write. Is that a victory to you? Because apparently it isn’t to Tariana Turia.
Pretty sure you’re aware my resignation was in relation to your (pretty close to) retreaded social Darwinism rather than the historical prevalence of it during colonisation.
How many indigenous Americans were there in relation to Spanish colonisers? (I think there were many, many more.) But the Spanish had disease. As did the waves of Europeans who landed there and elsewhere afterwards. And local populations had no immunity.
You mean guns and stuff, right? (Plus a rather peculiar concept known a ‘total war’?)
You really think colonised cultures had no system of law?
Yup.
The asymmetry of power determined who had to adapt to what and who got the benefits. So the English adapted their shipbuilding techniques to those used in India for example. Cause…well, the Indians had better technology. And they chose to. But were the Indian cotton workers allowed to emulate the printfields and cotton mills of Manchester, Paisley etc? Of course not. They had their thumbs removed. More ‘adaptation’.
The dominant culture here is most assuredly European. More than that, it’s very English….the language, the legal system that you put so much store by in your comment as well as… dare I say it? …the basic foundations of the educational system.
I am an immigrant. And I found many more cultural differences in Portugal for example than I do with the dominant culture here.
So Maori and other colonised peopleschose to lose their language and rules of law and religion and traditions of learning etc. I see. And the Europeans allowed these things to ‘die out’ and they ‘died out’ becasue they were ‘ineffective’.
Have you any idea how utterly racist what you are saying is, RL?
Asymmetry of power again. Think about it. (Shit, I forgot. The ‘fading away’ of those things not aligned with the dominant culture [globalisation in this case] is a natural by product of progress.)
Ever crossed your mind that if two cultures met on truly equal terms and took the better of each other’s traditions and values (as you seem to believe happened here) that both original cultures would essentially disappear? So that on these islands no-one would speak either Te reo nor English for example; but that some hybrid language would have would emerged? And that the same would count for all other facets of culture?
But the European heritage is a safe guide to the future. Good O.
I didn’t say the education system was industrialised and marketised, I said it was about industrialising and marketising. A very different thing.
Don’t care what Tariana Turia’s personal opinion is. But if you’d actually read my previous comments you’d….fuck it, I’ll reiterate. That the education system systematically failing people (because of its cultural bias and class bias etc) in a world where it is necessary to interact with the market is a massive cause for concern.
I tautoko Bill and add
“The only people who can determine what is useful to retain around ‘Maori values and ideas’ in the context of a globalised modern world… are of course Maori themselves.”
You have said the alpha and omega right there – do you believe what you wrote?
“For Maori, the past is no longer a safe guide to the future…” Um – that is rubbish – the past is the only safe guide to the future.
anyway I’ll let it go now because I have ‘debated’ with you before red, as have others on this topic, and it only goes downhill from here…
We’re talking at cross purposes again. Everything you say about our history is more or less true and I don’t disagree with you. Maori did not choose to have change thrust upon them, but then that is the nature of history everywhere. While I agree totally that history teaches us lessons, every now and then the environment does a step change on us… and some new is demanded in response.
The sense I get from both you and marty is that you’re both rooted in the past and keep thinking that by reinventing it we can somehow change the future.
And in that future Maori must determine for themselves how they want to participate in a world totally different to the one their ancestors knew prior to the globalisation of the 1800’s. Whatever that future looks like it is entirely up to Maori to determine what elements of their way of life they want to take forward and what to discard. And none of us yet know what entirely new things may yet appear. Moreover this process cannot occur in isolation from the rest of the world.
That is what I mean by social evolution. If you think Maori incapable of rising to this challenge then I’ll be next in line to play the r-word.
We’re not talking at cross purposes at all RL.
Nothing wrong with dynamic change. Nothing at all.
But you display a fantastic ability to be blind to the ‘drivers’ of change. To you it’s all natural and neutral…a level playing field.
But colonised people were seriously disempowered by brutally violent and deeply dishonest colonisation processes. And the empowerment of the colonisers, predicated on the relative disempowerment of the colonised, was established through (among other things) the imposition of laws detrimental to colonised peoples – at the point of a gun if necessary.
That power is maintained today (in large part) through the legacy of the loaded institutions that the colonisers imposed on the dispossessed.
See, I’d assume you’d consider it absurd if a kindly official at a race meeting offered crutches to a runner whose legs he’d previously shattered. And then blithely proclaimed ; “Jeez. I just don’t know why the cripple keeps complaining. He’s got as much opportunity to run as the next guy!”
Now sure. You can’t unshatter the legs. But you can surely see that the race isn’t fair and can probably never be fair given it’s historical context.
Some might advocate moves to ‘level such a playing field (by giving the cripple x yards of a start or whatever). I’m of the persuasion to abandon the race altogether ’cause it’s a crock of shit from ‘woe to go’ and develop altogether new and different modes of human interaction.
Again I have very little to quibble about your historic analysis Bill. Yes the globalisation of the 1800’s ‘shattered’ the traditional Maori way of life. As indeed it was shattered for peoples all around the planet.
But where I depart from you runner with the shattered legs analogy is this. The runner can never regain his fully functioning legs again. He literally cannot grow a new pair. But that is where the analogy breaks down; there is no reason why Maori cannot stage a recovery on their own terms. Sure history kicked them in the nuts, but ultimately it’s only the Maori themselves who are capable of determining and shaping their own future. To suggest otherwise is essentially insulting to all Maori.
Is the deck stacked against them? Certainly, but Maori don’t have that on their own; the deck is stacked against most of us. As you say the system itself is the root of this evil and it’s extirpation is the evolutionary step change I think we both have in mind.
Footling with band-aid patches stuck onto a rotting corpse is madness. Throwing money at elitist coporatised iwi while they contemptuously ignore ordinary young Maori men like our neighbours, is equally futile.
poor impulse control i have
“ultimately it’s only the Maori themselves who are capable of determining and shaping their own future. To suggest otherwise is essentially insulting to all Maori.”
yet you pontificate on what you think Māori should do and think, such as “For Maori, the past is no longer a safe guide to the future…” what if the Māori Nation don’t agree – are Māori wrong? misguided? sucked in? … or maybe – Māori are capable of determining and shaping their own future and it is your views which are out of kilter – shit, bet you never thought of that.
How ironic, a Maaori with a PhD is rendered irrelevant to a discussion on the education system. If his voice cannot be heard or considered what chance do our tamariki have?
Our lives as Maaori living as Maaori precludes us from a life of smug intellectualism. We are connected to the reality of decile one schooling by whakapapa – our connections are whanau related and also experiential.
The New Zealand Curriculum Principles, and Teaching Inquiry of May 2011 undertaken by the ERO found that of the eight principles underpinning the revised NZ Curriculum (launched in 2007) the least evident (as in practise) were, ”Treaty of Waitangi, cultural diversity, coherence and future focus. Teachers took a range of actions to encourage bicultural understanding, but schools still need to strategically address, through the curriculum, the Treaty of Waitangi principle. Schools’ practice in addressing cultural diversity could also be improved, particularly with respect to making provision for students to express their cultural perspectives and views.”
@Rosy And for lower decile people whose children are not succeeding to learn there are various strategies that informed, advanced educators would use which have worked elsewhere and would work here too.
One is to bring the family into the learning process, maybe the mother could bring along younger children to a creche and work alongside the young student both doing the same course that she missed doing when at school herself. This brings the education circle back where it was broken. If the parent is keen then this will encourage the student. The school needs to have funds to set up for this. It is known that children follow parents examples, so broken education for parents means a likely lack of interest and commitment to education for their children. It is seen frequently that professional people have children that themselves become highly educated. Low skilled people tend not to set higher standards than their parents. No-skilled people have no role model to enable them to choose a different path.
Another is to bring in the father to help with homework, and offer him whatever education that he has missed out on, perhaps through night school. I like the idea of poor people being paid to help their children with homework. This could be incorporated into payments to all caregivers for their input so could be done without howls of protest about favouritism from the racist and classist types.
Another is to do something with the child’s peer group, such as sports training etc. – something they would enjoy and then get them to strive for goals and rewards. One of the reasons that Maori and probably PI students don’t do well at school is peer group pressure to not be better than the group, to not stay away to do the private thinking and learning needed, and the student may be forced out of the group because of becoming ‘other’, seeming to reject the group routine, thinking and behaviour.
Yes Prism, shaking up learning environments is essential. IMO however, none of the environments that kids can achieve in will be put in place as long as the powers-that-be expect certain groups to underachieve in the first place – e.g. believing boys to be troublemakers, so expect them to fail to meet girls achievements. Similarly expectations that kids from poor backgrounds will do poorly, expectations Maori will fail/withdraw from education. At best it’s a bit of liberal passiveness – these kids have everything against them, why pile the pressure on? At worst it’s institutional elitism/racism – the kids are useless because they’re in a particular social/cultural group and the families are useless.
If educators believe kids are capable of achieving they can put stuff in place to enable that to happen. At the moment there are a lot of people out there that simply don’t believe it, so don’t bother.
And no – national standards won’t help, they will simply perpetuate the belief that Maori cannot achieve in an educational environment…. when it is the educational environment (as well as the social/cultural environment) that perpetuates under-achievement.
And yes – I know there are a lot of really good teachers out there who believe in their students (I’d never have got through school and further education without a teacher like that at primary school) but I believe they’re isolated voices in the education system.
Also yes, RedLogix – the low expectations of family/social groups is up there as a major impediment to achievement. But not just for Maori.
@Adele – The quoted piece you give is interesting and raises some points that have to be included in the debate. However, it is what has become the tradition explanation that puts all the blame on post-colonial alienation and imposed culturally biased systems.
It is indeed asinine to blame Maori culture and parents as a single cause but it is equally asinine to try to minimize them and to point to cumulative inter-generational cultural alienation and impoverishment as single cause – as the author does.
IMHO, all of these are issues and there is only so much that be blamed on the affects of colonialism. I am sure that having more Maori involved in senior roles in education and undoing some of the alienation by reconnecting Maori to Te Reo etc is part of the mix but it seems that there must be more to this than the things the author portrays.
There are vast chunks of the Pakeha youth who are also under performing in schools and these seem to correlate on socio-economic markers. This is something that Taonui almost dismisses in one sentence but uses when talking of impoverishment in another.
I wonder if the malaise that is common to both groups (and to the rioting youth of England and Philadelphia) is not rooted in the very socio-economic melieu of low-wages, welfare dependency, poverty, low expectations of parents and themselves, alienation from the wealth in the economy, marginalised in the decision making promises, housing, ghetto-ising and the list goes on.
However, I am still looking to understand the very mechanics of what goes on in the school that is institutionally racist. How it manifests itself.
It seems to me that the new generation of movers and shakers in Maoridom have taken the best of Maori heritage and combined it “the institutionally racist education system” and used that combined skill set to work for their iwi and people. How did they do it?
Maori have always embraced knowledge acquisition as a means of securing the welfare of hapuu. We valued knowledge and maintained various institutions for its preservation and its dissemination at different levels. Whare waananga, and in some areas more advanced institutions known as whare kura, facilitated higher learning for those of high rank and standing. Whare waananga taught iwi and hapuu leaders advanced forms of knowledge essential to the welfare of their people.
Whare waananga related to a mental process of learning, rather than a physical institution where learning took place. When an individual undertook instruction at whare waananga, their classroom was the world they lived in and learning could take place anywhere, at any time. Waananga education focused on developing mental discipline and adeptness in several different fields of study.
On arrival of Te Paakehaa, Maaori were eager to participate in an exchange of knowledge and our past narrative is replete with Maaori demonstrably adapting new forms of knowledge for their own use, as well as incorporating ancient traditions with imported knowledge to improve their own situation.
The schooling of Maaori, facilitated by the Education Ordinance of 1847 and the Natives Schools Act of 1858 clearly represented a means for social control, assimilation and for the orderly establishment of British law. Mission schools were to replace traditional Maaori concepts with European concepts and ideals.
The structure of the native schools system served to promote Paakehaa knowledge as more important and valid than Maaori knowledge. Maaori cultural values and institutions were both consciously and unconsciously denigrated, while Paakehaa-dominant class ideas and values were promoted. Central to the native schools’ philosophy was the limitation of the curriculum, designed to restrict Maaori to the working-class. Maaori were being trained to become the domestics and labourers for Paakehaa.
In 1969 the natives schools were discontinued and Maaori were taught the national curriculum – albeit a curriculum still promoting Paakehaa ideals and values. In 1986, a Waitangi Tribunal enquiry into the Maaori language made the following observation:
When such a system produces children who are not adequately educated they are put at a disadvantage when they try to find work. If they cannot get work that satisfies them they become unemployed and live on the dole. When they live on the dole they become disillusioned, discontented and angry. We saw such angry people giving evidence before us.
They are no more than representatives of many others in our community. When one significant section of the community burns with a sense of injustice, the rest of the community cannot safely pretend that there is no reason for their discontent. This is a recipe for social unrest and all that goes with
So yes, colonisation and its aftermath of inter-generational cultural alienation are directly responsible for the state of Maaori underachievement today.
@ logie 97.
the comment of mine you responded to wasn’t even making an argument. I was simply making an observation regarding the foundational roots of the educational system.
Argument wise (and apart from what I’ve said in the past few minutes on other comments); education was set up because it was desirable to have at least some workers who could read written instructions and calculate certain weights volumes or lengths etc.
But a moment’s thought would reveal that the main incentive for developing a western educational system was so that the knowledge necessary for the maintenance of privilege was passed on to the appropriate people. (The engineer, medical professional or whoever wanted his son (not daughter) to enjoy the same advantage as himself and needed a mechanism to pass on a large, changing and ever growing body of theoretical knowledge pertaining to his profession.)
As a ‘by the by’ workers were taught how to read etc so that they could function in the new industrial environment. And they learned (perhaps most importantly of all) how to respect self appointed authority.
Guess the real issue is of government support for Maori pedagogy initiatives.
There should be total funding for initiatives and development of Maori pedagogy and building new Kura to provide enough places and the choice for all children wanting to attend.
Don’t waste time and energy though trying to radically change the traditional school as the place for that development.
One requirement of schools is to facilitate a public forum annually for local iwi / whanau / parents to seek their wants/desires/needs from the school and the system. These meetings can be well attended but sometimes not and are often just talkfests. Maybe the high-profile “committed” who make the claims / statements should make themselves available to attend these public meetings and assist their communities in determining what can be done locally.
“Guess the real issue is of government support for Maori pedagogy initiatives.”
Or, more expansively explore such educational initiatives as A S Neill’s ‘Summerhill’.
http://www.summerhillschool.co.uk/
Sorry, that’s arrant nonsense! I have been a part of that system and have also steered two sons through it. We are not and never have been middle class, (what a vile idea!) and my older son is part-Maori. If the system’s so institutionally racist, how come brown people who are not Maori, do fine? How come any of we working class people manage to get any qualifications?
In line with some other ‘noble’ defenders of the education system you are…look, nobody is saying all Maori or other non-dominant cultures or all working class kids will fail in the system. No more so than women will fail in the workforce.
Do you really believe that working class values and the values of non- European cultures were built into education systems?!
edit . Samoans achieve in the same ratios as middle class white kids, do they? You got sources for that contention of yours?
I have to agree with Vicky, our education system is one of the most Maori friendly institutions in the country, educators are doing one of the toughest jobs around and all that special interest groups can do is bitch and moan.
“our education system is one of the most Maori friendly institutions in the country” Yes but comparing with a very low base means that that means nothing. It might be friendly compared to other institutions out there but it is not serving Māori well – that is obvious. Māori are not a special interest group but partners to the Crown and the reason that many Māori feel let down is because the education system is just not good enough for Māori, not even close. That has nothing to do with teachers – good, bad or ugly – it is society, it is institutionalised.
Cameron Slater did another Fran O’Sullivan copy and paste post today about Nicky Hager’s new book called Other People’s Wars. The oily one says he’s not going to believe the information in a book he hasn’t even read because the source documents haven’t been revealed.
Releasing source documents usually does exactly that… It reveals the organisation where the documents are located and the people who have access. If they are redacted to avoid this, they will just provide information already contained in the book. The RWNJ’s want a witch-hunt, because they can’t handle the truth.
nah. They’re right. There is no Bradbury Manning person. Never existed.
I take it you mean Bradley Manning..
Thanks to all who commented on the father who hit his toddlers. I certainly agree that those that read it will think WTF and also that so many people seem to think that many women deliberately go on the benefit with a second/plus child on the way. Have they ever bothered to consider that the woman had finally decided that maybe the child was more important than the marriage/partnership, in keeping with our interest in having children at the centre of our society’s policy-making?
I have calmed down now; if the person who had added the headline to that article was in front of me, now, maybe I could have impressed upon them how dangerous their manipulation of the written media has become.
We can all understand sudden welling up of anger. But let’s not pretend it is less than what it is – violence against someone smaller.
I know that in newspapers the headlines are thought up elsewhere. That suggests that Kiwis have lost control over their own information sharing. With the NZPA out of the way, Key and backers will control our very future.
The call by the RWNJs for total disenfranchisement of the poor been gaining momentum for awhile now. This is something we need to address and loudly. Make it clear to the majority of the people that the right are on a quest to stop them having a say in their community. To ensure that only the rich have a say in government policies, that government truly does become government of the poor, by the rich, for the rich.
lawl@ Slater’s and Kate’s epic whining.
Perhaps they both need hugboxes complete with a built in sound system playing a selection of some of ACT’s “special” policies.
And irony of ironies, Slater’s basically advocated stripping himself of his basic right to vote, even more pathetic is that they both fail utterly to understand democracies and somehow think a minority, with no money to fund extensive lobbying, can somehow have a major influence. On top of the other juicy stupidity Pagani noted of their own hypocrisy vis selfishness in voting for tax cuts or wanting a return the undemocratic FPP and it’s vile offspring.
“Front of the queue”?
Pagani calls Billshit on the use of obfuscatory English:
“The obfuscatory talk about ‘New Zealanders at the front of the queue’ to buy our power companies has been torn away with yesterday’s disclosure that foreigners will be able to buy parts of our state-owned enterprises. And if Kiwis do get a holding, why wouldn’t they then resell to foreigners for a quick buck?”
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/blogs/john-pagani-left-leaning
Congratulations to Kataraina O’Brien, New President, MWWL.
Putting whanau first, indeed!
“The Maori Women’s Welfare League has a new president: Kataraina O’Brien.
“Ms O’Brien, a Tauranga City Councillor who has been a member of the League since the late 60s, campaigned on a message of taking the organisation back to its roots of putting whanau first.
“Despite a nomination declared valid by a judge after a wave of controversy, Hannah Tamaki – wife of Destiny Church leader Bishop Brian Tamaki – failed to attract enough support to win the presidency.”
http://home.nzcity.co.nz/news/article.aspx?id=135950&fm=psp,tst
Hopefully that puts that nasty little affair to rest but maybe not.
Trouble is, with their protestant evangelical zeal for “manifest destiny” and “ordained to rule”, we may see a less obvious, less brute force, invasion of the league.
She did herself no favours bringing High Court action but now she can stack the vote stealthily over time.
I wonder if Owen Glenn is positioning himself to buy energy shares when the night mare begins (selling 49% of energy shares)?
This morning Glenn stated that he is going to sell his overseas company (not sure of the name) and he will announce this in October when he is back in the country.
Also on The Nation this morning he was not asked about the sale of state assests, (correct me if I am wrong as my hearing is impaired severly in one ear).
He gave Goff’s employment project for youth the thumbs up. What really surprised me is that he said he would put 100 million into youth education/employment and said it would be more if National was re-elected.
On again at 8 am tomorrow on TV 3.
Generous offer, but fuck me he must despise Labour.
Can’t blame him though the way he was treated by Clark was just bull shit.
Brett,
I said pre 2008 election that Owen Glenn was setting up Clark and Peters. Peters was popular and NAct wanted rid. Then they could attack Clark through the trumped up charges against Peters. I still believe that.
Parliamentary parties were happy to stab Peters in the back; they thought it would bring them more votes.
Owen Glenn the tobacco company agent – hardly the morally upright sort of person you would want to get too close to. He offered the money to Labour. Clark didn’t ask.
This was a giant set up by Glenn. He’s now back with Sean Plunket dribbling all over him and with Sean feeding him a question they both knew the answer to. What is in this for Plunket? He’s not even pretending anymore to be objective.
NAct is pulling the same crap they pulled last election. Are people so stupid they would believe this garbage again from people like you, Brett.
Glenn said that he would give the money if National and ACT won the election
The headlines should be…….
“Owen Glenn Tries to Buy NZ Election”
“NZ has the best democracy that Owen Glenn’s money can buy”
“Glenn offers to buy National a government”
“NZ Voters Get Hundreds of Million of Dollars if they elect National”
This is outrageous political vote buying by the rich!
William I thought that Glenn said he would give 100 million either way, but much more were National to win. Not his actual words but content.
Plunket asked him (and I’m paraphrasing) : so you will give hundreds of millions of dollars if National and ACT win the election?
Owen Glenn said yes.
You could be right about the 100 either way. I’ll watch again in the morning.
It’s our democracy, not his kleptocracy
William Joyce you were correct that the offer was providing National/Act won the election. Please accept my apology. Just managed to see the relevant content again this morning. Glenn came across as being smug. First he states how he thinks Labour’s youth employment strategy has merit, then he states that he will put money into youth and education, then he hesitates on the amount, but specifies at least 100 million, and makes a conditiion on National/Act being re – elected.
I recall yesterday Glenn saying that the country was broke.
+1
Seems that business people expecting to buy our government is becoming normalised.
Yes the offer is generous and providing National don’t run the thing, youth will benefit because National have proved to be clueless when it comes to the future of those who have their whole working life ahead of them.
How about that Owen Glenn eh! Buying votes for National and Act by offering to give them $100 million if they win the next election. If he actually gave a damn about New Zealand, he would donate that money no-matter what side of the fence won. Besides, vote buying is against the law:
Somehow I don’t think the corrupt cretin is going to be charged.
Owen Glenn actually won the election for NACT last time and seemed to enjoy the limelight, not to mention the intense and expensive “relationship building” from NACT that both preceeded and followed his effete knifing of Winnie’s back. Not surprising that any physically repugnant neanderthal would seek to repeat a serendipitous occurrance, let alone this particular vain, repulsive, moronic puppet.
Glenn always shows up around election time and he gets media attention.
If he is sincere about helping the desperate plight of youth he should be unconditional, however if he wants a project run a particular way he should be entitled to run the project that way providing it is lawful in every aspect and does not discriminate. The man turned a few thousand into half a billion, and the country is broke, NZ youth need all the help they can get.
Where is the Labour Party on this latest Glenn declaration? Sitting (as usual) with their hands folded beneath their backsides? This is blatant bribery and should be publicly denounced. This is the same pretentious creep who lied about the content of conversations he had with Helen Clark, Mike Williams, Winston Peters and sundry other individuals simply because he didn’t get his own way with them. He was never called out on it by the media of course.
To hell with his tainted $100 million dollars unless he is prepared to donate it without such political strings attached.
I can remember the time when rugby was the game for kiwis from all classes…. then came professionalisation.
This morning on RNZ several people were waxing lyrical about the business opportunities for NZ business people (probably mostly businessmen), when foreign business types are here for the Rubber Wool Cup. It’s all about building relationships, they said…. sounds like fertile ground for cronyism.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/sunday/20110904
Tonight on One News, reporters were gushing about all the private jets arriving in NZ, bringing celebs for the RWC.
And where will the many less well-off Kiwis be while all this schmoozing and brown nosing is going on?
e.g. all the obvious and hidden homeless in Wellington, with several families living in a small flat or house?
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/5558310/Housing-crisis-sees-hidden-homelessness
Too many of these journos seem totally out of touch with the lives of many ordinary Kiwis and battlers.