Labour and Greens pushed the ‘no plan’ plan in the eledction campaign and are continuing the theme, hoping it will stick by the next election? Both parties said Key’s goals announced yesterday wer absent any plans.
Pete, it is your scussy self serving little Dunne monster that will enable the Nats to achieve their plan of gifting themselves and their paymasters NZs assets. Yes they have a plan and it is very scummy, and you soil yourself with it by wiling association. Disgusting.
Not content to murder the English language, logic, reasoning and any measure of quality in their profession, the media are now attacking their sources!
A rare animal was killed last week by a camera man in Germany.
Who watched Campbells interview with the PM last night? Key was well rehearsed and his usual smooth as glass self when answering questions about the loss of jobs in the public sector. The ultimate snake oil salesman charm oozed.
Repeating the following mantras …”Salient point is outcomes not numbers (of public servants reduced)..dont need to know numbers….better product, outcome, and experience for NZers engaged with the public service…..all businesses innovate and change is a constant….we will target transparency, delivery of outcomes, results…”.
Sounds good until you break it down. It is the language of a sociopath.
People to Key are numbers and numbers dont matter, only outcomes matter. Ergo a public servant is a number who exists to the PM only as an outcome producing number.
We the NZers who engage with the Public Service are expected to recieve business outcomes, measured with us as the primary outcome (eg 85% of us getting NCEA L2), ergo we too are mere outcomes, mere numbers.
Keys language is the language of business, not of public service or community / citizenry. He kept as far as possible away from talking money but it was obvious that Key used business words such as efficiency, effectiveness to avoid the plain grubby fact that this is all about paying less to deliver less.
Keys sociopathology was there for all to see, his words said it all: is not about delivering service to citizens, its about delivering $ outcomes to our masters. And he is master number one, a number, devoid of humanity, a mere cypher.
.
…the plain grubby fact that this is all about paying less to deliver less.
Although words like ‘expenditure’ and ‘efficiency’ will be peppered throughout any explanatory justification for what’s happening, the truth of the matter is that whether services cost less or more is neither here nor there in the scheme of things. What matters – all that matters – is that the public service is diminished, unions knackered and that services are privatised.
A well-written article on the origins of the culture of poverty. 50 years ago Michael Harrington’s book ‘The Other American’ introduced the invisible poor, such as Appalachian cultures, the inner-city ghettos, farm workers and the poor elderly, amongst others, to middle America – disabusing them of the notion of a classless society. Harrigton described a the poor in terms difference:
“There is … a language of the poor, a psychology of the poor, a worldview of the poor. To be impoverished is to be an internal alien, to grow up in a culture that is radically different from the one that dominates the society.”
Harrington thought the poor were distinguished by a ‘culture of poverty’. This was in turn interpreted (apparently unintended by Harrington) in a way that meant although they should be helped, there was in fact, something wrong with them. The result of this thinking is a prevalence of victim-blaming and a belief that entrusting the poor with money, for instance, would only lead to a worsening of their condition:
By the Reagan era, the “culture of poverty” had become a cornerstone of conservative ideology: poverty was caused, not by low wages or a lack of jobs, but by bad attitudes and faulty lifestyles. The poor were dissolute, promiscuous, prone to addiction and crime, unable to “defer gratification”, or possibly even set an alarm clock. The last thing they could be trusted with was money. In fact, Charles Murray argued, in his 1984 book Losing Ground, any attempt to help the poor with their material circumstances would only have the unexpected consequence of deepening their depravity.
The author of this article finishes with the following observation:
Fifty years later, a new discovery of poverty is long overdue. This time, we’ll have to take account not only of stereotypical Skid Row residents and Appalachians, but of foreclosed-upon suburbanites, laid-off tech workers, and America’s ever-growing army of the “working poor”. And if we look closely enough, we’ll have to conclude that poverty is not, after all, a cultural aberration or a character flaw. Poverty is a shortage of money.
This interpretation of a ‘culture of poverty’ enables some people to contrast themselves as “disciplined, law-abiding, sober, and focused. In other words, not poor.” Whereas in reality the only culture of poverty is in their heads. Poor people are poor – that is all. Deal with poverty, not to the poverty-stricken.
I couldn’t agree more Rosy. Thanks for posting that.
It’s been all too easy for, particularly the smug, comfortably off, to pat themselves on the back believing themselves to have naturally risen to the top in a kind of moral, as well as intellectual “meritocracy”. They “know” that people get what they deserve and we shouldn’t interfere with the natural order because giving to the undeserving only further weakens them and hastens their decay. The compassionate thing is to be cruel to be kind, but make sure the children of the poor always have books available, in case the genes of the inferior, somehow throws up a potentially upstanding and worthy citizen.
Thanks JS, I think articles like this are really important in breaking down the narratives of difference that are accepted into common usage with no real understanding of how accurate they might be.
I agree with DH, below, that people lack empathy with the poor, I don’t agree that money doesn’t matter though. It does matter – money is what makes the non-poor see themselves as ‘different’ when they’re not. In my climb up the social ladder I’ve seen similar behaviours exhibited in a variety of social settings, but with different results, for example drunkeness, assaults, children having accidents while off playing ‘unsupervised’, taking financial risks and indiscriminate spending, but also a pride in work, family and achievement. The rich and poor are not different groups, they do however live in different contexts.
I also very much resent, as you suggest, how the non-poor see rewards, from a secure financial base as necessary to incentivise themselves but believe withdrawal of rewards, from an already financially precarious base will incentivise the poor. It simply can’t happen, for the majority of the poor, that their lot will improve without a stable base and positive reinforcement. The opposite is equally likely IMO – life will get worse and poorer decisions will be made. This is also where DH’s contention that money doesn’t matter falls down.
And in Uturns words
No one will fix poverty by standing back, hand out, just out of reach, calling, “Reach out, take my hand if you aren’t lazy!” Helping people help themselves involves stooping, picking people up, holding their hand, and then walking forward together. And while that happens, inside that person, they being to discover they can make steps themselves and they participate with you. And while you are with them you too are changed. Sometimes the person you assist lets go of your hand, sometimes they will always need a place to lean – but that does not mean things are not changing, that they are not growing and that each action is not a development from the last.
The sons of widows and teenage mothers climbing the socio-economic ladder, supported by a stable financial base and positive reinforcement, and then kicking the ladder away is the complete opposite to this.
I think it’s more than just money Rosy. Self respect is hugely important and it generally follows that when you’re poor you’re lacking in that area. We are social creatures & we all want to be accepted & respected in society. If you’re poor you feel like a social pariah; a lesser human being. Strip a man or woman of their pride and what have you got left?
I’ll always maintain that the poor don’t want charity or sympathy. They just want self respect and for that they need access to decent jobs before they build up so much baggage from being social outcasts that they’re irredeemable.
The word empathy comes up from time to time & I think that is what is lacking among us. To truly understand the poor we need to walk a mile in their shoes and most people seem incapable of doing that.
That’s not to disagree with you btw, just that money isn’t the solution it’s only a stopgap IMO.
“We are social creatures & we all want to be accepted & respected in society” – Speak for yourself, the acceptance of society to me, I take as an insult from a bunch of people who don’t know a thing about me…
Take your point though in regards to the social aspect, but as far as accepted by society….No thanks, Ill decide the personal acceptance criteria for myself!
In my opinion, the opposite of rejected, is appreciated.
Appreciation means knowing what something is and what it is used for. In the case of a human being, instead of “their use”, it means understanding how they relate to you, to others and their effect on the world. It is the begining of a respect for people that does not have to be earned through meeting arbitrarily enforced cultural rules.
By understanding that appreciation is the opposite of rejection, we move out of the binary accept/reject cycle which requires no thought, no rationality, no understanding. Anyone can like or hate something.
DH, good to see you are trapped into the 2 dimentional thought process..
Look at it this way, we have been shovelled into little boxes, which society like to be able to relate to in order to feel they are safe, secure and in control, when really this is far from the truth.
People who understand what life is a little more, and see the constraints that have been set around us, will see that the essence of a person is far more important than what they have, what they do for a job or any of that meaningless stuff, its a slave mindset to focus on the trivial, or only on ones ownself, without looking outward to those who most need assistance!
Society needs to get out of its collective coma, and see that they are making this place into a shitehole of their own making, and due to selfish arrogance, foolishly believe that because they perceive “society” to accept them, that they, and society are actually “right”
I’ll always maintain that the poor don’t want charity or sympathy. They just want self respect and for that they need access to decent jobs before they build up so much baggage from being social outcasts that they’re irredeemable.
That’s right, but in the interim, money is a solution! How can someone get a job with bad teeth, glasses from a $2 shop and no money for bus fares to interviews?
I’m pretty wary of the ‘money isn’t the solution’ meme too.
Using the anaolgy of a deficiency disease, you treat the deficiency with what is deficient eg vitamin C for scurvy and tackle the reasons that the patient became deficient. Too many people who like to tut tut about ‘fishing rods’ (and I’m not saying you are one of them DH) or, in the modern parlance, bollocks like “excellence in education”, are really advocating that we not provide what is deficient, and often use abhorrent quasi-moral arguments about supposed moral deficencies in the poor, in order to absolve themselves from any ethical obligation to help those in need.
Well money is certainly the solution to the problem of not having money. But giving people more money doesn’t address the problem of why they don’t have money in the first place. Giving more money in the form of decent jobs solves both problems IMO.
Present thinking from both the Nats & Labour seems to be that poverty in NZ is caused by poor education; the solution being to make sure everyone is well educated and poverty & unemployment will disappear because there’s always a shortage of skilled workers. So they pump more & more dosh into the education system. That we’ve been trying this for a good twenty years now with little success doesn’t seem to sway the pundits of this…. just chuck more money at it, has to work sooner or later.
Another line of thinking is that if beneficiaries had enough income to get by on they’d sort their own problems out. It does have some merit but I don’t subscribe to it as a solution per se; jobs don’t appear out of thin air and the real problem is we don’t have enough decent jobs for people. Take Vicky’s example above. IMO she’s right, some more dosh would help that person with bad teeth get a job. But they’d get the job at the expense of someone else. The underlying problem would still be there.
“Harrington thought the poor were distinguished by a ‘culture of poverty’. This was in turn interpreted (apparently unintended by Harrington) in a way that meant although they should be helped, there was in fact, something wrong with them. The result of this thinking is a prevalence of victim-blaming and a belief that entrusting the poor with money, for instance, would only lead to a worsening of their condition.”
This is the problem of social commenters forgetting the bias trained into psychologists, well, the good ones at least: You cannot observe something in its natural state. The limitations of being an observer include interpreting the subject/object by your own values. You change the subject/object every time you interact with it. These limitations can only be reduced by investigating yourself first and knowing your own bias and the many ways a mind will trap you, unconsciously. Of course, stopping to investigate yourself costs time and is very inconvenient to business that wants immediate results. But I’ll not go that way in this comment. The point that you highlight and that we see in action from Shearer’s speech yesterday below, is that the epidemic of forgetting the influences of your upbringing and culture is spreading:
“Now, what happens if we put this in the New Zealand context?
The first thing we can say is this: we have some very high-achieving children and some high-achieving schools.
The best and the brightest do very well and I am proud of them.
But I’m not just interested in the bunch that leads the marathon into the stadium.
Some of them are outstanding and the very best of them finish their race in world record time.
They’re an inspiration for the others.
But if you track back along the rest of the field, it doesn’t look so world class.
Many of them are coming in hours later.
Many of them are giving up before the finish.
And too many of them aren’t even turning up at the starting line.
We have a long tail of failure.
We have to fix it.”
We have to fix it? Listen to him praise “success”, that is, money, coming first, beating others, individual effort. Listen to him talk of inspiration, pride and admiration like they are, inherently, desirable concepts for the psyche – some kind of peaceful clearing in a forest where nothing happens – and morally correct states. Listen to him proclaim that life is a competition. That time is a factor, an inconvenience – to him. That we must be “world class”, no choice. And that if we don’t hurry up, we will assumedly lose the race. Listen to him say that “giving up”, leaving the race, having an alternate view is “wrong”. We must fix what is “Wrong”. Good rich kids will freely join the race; bad poor kids are wrong and need fixing. They will be fixed.
Now to be fair, though I hate to be fair right now, Shearer failed to define any of his points. They were empty vacuous statements, so wide in parameters that they could mean anything, but where they did link up, as in the marathon example, we begin to see what beliefs Shearer supports.
His ideas cater to those infatuated with themselves, with a small world view and limited understanding of who they are in relation to the outside world.
“Inspiration” is a personal experience, felt by the individual, usually pleasurable. It generally doesn’t last and historically can even be the beginning of a series of incidences leading into schizophrenic episode. Admiration is a projection of one man’s fantasy wish – he sees something he wants, imagines the value of it above all other traits, his mind departs for the future when he too might possess those traits. He’d like to be the acclaimed Hero, too – neglecting the present and who he is right now and how his own qualities might be developed and expressed in the world.
Admiration tricks the mind into another state of infatuation: a good athlete is admirable, look at him score tries; surely he would also be a good business man, a great husband, a sober driver, of sound mind and worthy of political comment and influence? Every few months, from the stories of stupidity from our national level athletes, we discover that one thing does not mean another.
Is life a competition or have we made it a competition? In Shearer’s brave new, New Zealand, will anyone be allowed to drop out of the money race of infatuation fantasy to find out? Will poverty and social exclusion be the price they pay? How much time should Shearer allow an explorer to search? Whose measure will he use? That of the Boomers, who rarely look outside the last sixty years to understand just how fragile the material gains of free-market economics really are? Will he take a longer view and realise that a man could spend his whole life searching, pass incomplete information to his colleague and that person pass it to another before a clearer understanding is reached? Will they too have to live in an increasingly hostile society, because of their now enforced poverty? Will the crowd in the marathon stadium have gone home by then?
Will he take an Eastern View, and simply sit and wait, comfortable in the unknowable unexplained, the Tao? Probably not. Will he frown on and ridicule the Buddhist athlete, who will not eat meat, or participate in farming animals, or the construction of electronic materials used for things that are not “mindful”. How does the blatant dismissal of alternative culture in NZ set us up for the multitude of friends here now that are not Christian, and are not interested in Shearer’s marathon? Could it be that Shearers marathon is so utterly morally flawed, it is actively divisive? And all this to court 10% swing voters – a group that will never stay put because self interest has no loyalty to anything but it’s owner. And right at the bottom, children being forced into holes that don’t fit them, being destroyed mentally, labeled as wrong, and condemned to poverty.
Shearer has forgotten the impact of his own viewpoint. Poverty is not “wrong”, though it certainly is a painful reality. Poverty is no more wrong than cancer is wrong. Cancer exists, poverty exists – understand and intervene as necessary. Poverty is a symptom of a problem we create by impatiently believing wrong ideas. We fail to observe our environment in the present, see who is here and who they are and we certainly do not live with them each day, letting time be a coincidental measure of what happened instead of a distance between now and our impatience to see a future that we do not understand.
No one will fix poverty by standing back, hand out, just out of reach, calling, “Reach out, take my hand if you aren’t lazy!” Helping people help themselves involves stooping, picking people up, holding their hand, and then walking forward together. And while that happens, inside that person, they being to discover they can make steps themselves and they participate with you. And while you are with them you too are changed. Sometimes the person you assist lets go of your hand, sometimes they will always need a place to lean – but that does not mean things are not changing, that they are not growing and that each action is not a development from the last.
What people forget with their focus on imagining the future is that no two days are the same, they don’t know the future and there is more to learn in the present than the past can tell us. If life was all about past experiences defining our futures, we’d all be completely satisfied by now! Life would be easy, no surprises, just follow the official recipe.
Helping people to help themselves is a matter of participation in the moment and for the long term, realising that that the time measure of how long you are together is irrelevant to the discoveries and developments made. It is not a case of reading a magazine about the activities of the Red Cross, deciding you want to help – from the position of your privileged white middle class existence – parachuting into a ravaged country with aid structures already in place and when you get tired, going home to general applause.
Stay home and fix the messes we’ve created. Learn about yourself and your people in the face of the hatred from your family, your friends and society that will pour on you when you try, from nothing, with nothing, to make a change. Then you’ll see your own culture in a different light, it will start to crumble, and you’ll comprehend it a little like those from a position of poverty would. What good is charity and assistance when it is just the comfortable helping the poor on the weekends while during the week they vote in regimes that maintain and create more hobby problems for them to attend?
There’s a unattributed story that talks about true assistance and what it can do:
A master and his disciple were walking in the garden and the young monk asked, “Master, in the old days men often saw God. Why is it so hard to see him now?” The master replied, “No one now is prepared to stoop low enough”.
A plan that is based around infatuation with material success will discourage people not just from stooping, not just from bending their knees, but even glancing below waist height.
From Rosy’s post:
“ The author of this article finishes with the following observation:
Fifty years later, a new discovery of poverty is long overdue. This time, we’ll have to take account not only of stereotypical Skid Row residents and Appalachians, but of foreclosed-upon suburbanites, laid-off tech workers, and America’s ever-growing army of the “working poor”. And if we look closely enough, we’ll have to conclude that poverty is not, after all, a cultural aberration or a character flaw. Poverty is a shortage of money.”
And here is another proof of cultural bias from that author. Poverty, as has been outlined here from various commenter’s recently, is not just about money, it effects resources, minds, perspectives. That author believes that somehow, those that ran in Shearer’s marathon were superhuman from the start. They did not suffer flaws. The identities of those people were not humans first, professionals second, but professionals first and only. Well, those now out of work professionals find out pretty fast that human identity is not anything to do with what you do for money. Sometimes the shock leads them to suicide.
Our nation is sick, mentally, philosophically, spiritually. Instead of facing that fact, Shearer and others like him, have done the equivalent of offering free cigarettes to those with self induced emphysema; cheap proof alcohol to cirrhosis suffering drunks; and live-in slaves to sociopaths. Then gone further to encourage children into the cycle. I’m pretty pissed of about that.
…parachuting into a ravaged country with aid structures already in place and when you get tired, going home to general applause…
Add in a one percenter salary and pension scheme and you’ve described Shearer.
I find it interesting that Shearer went to Papatoetoe High School (I believe he was head boy) at a time that the lower middle class, such as made up the majority of people in Papatoetoe at that time, never had it better. Among fellow students were those from the deprived state-housing suburb of Otara, they were poor, often hungry and generally despised by Papatoetoe Pakeha. Shearer would have been exposed to daily incidences of racism from teachers and students alike. He left school and aspirationally voted National in that Labour stronghold. Like many of his peers (such as Phil Goff), he made excellent use of his education and natural advantages, and moved up the socio-economic staircase.
It wasn’t until he was overseas that he was suddenly moved by poverty and oppression. Like so many middle-class warriors, poverty and injustice is so much easier to get angry about when it’s happening somewhere else, and doesn’t entail any reflection on one’s own place in perpetuationg the causes.
Nobody wants to read continuous vexation built on speculation, we want a functional and truthful rightwing commentary, which is unfortunately largely lacking from New Zealand’s blogosphere…
Beautiful descriptions of Cactus…another overblown by her own importance has been….. Catcus is such an old windbag full of hollow threats…. a discredited and defunct commentator who hides behind a barbed wire fence, too afraid of her own shadow to step out into the light.
(My Local Government) OIA request to UNELECTED Auckland Council CEO – Doug McKay
(15 March 2012)
“WHO GOVERNS THIS AUCKLAND $UPERCITY COUNCIL?
ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES OR THE UNELECTED COMMITTEE FOR AUCKLAND?
What is driving this Ports Of Auckland dispute has been the Auckland Council Investment Limited’s ‘Key Performance Indicator’ (KPI) that ‘POAL’s ROE (Return On Equity) increases from 6.3% to 12% over the following 5 years by 30/06/2016″.
Councillor Richard Northey, Chair of the Auckland Council Accountability and Performance Committee asked the Chief Executive of Auckland Council Investments Ltd (ACIL), Gary Swift in a letter dated 20 January 2012 asked:
“2. What was the origin and justification for the above KPI? …”
The answer from the Chief Executive of Auckland Council Investments Ltd (ACIL), Gary Swift in a letter dated 27 January 2012 :
” I’m not exactly sure where the return on equity target of 12% originated…..
I think Doug McKay may have suggested 12% when he met with the POAL Board.
……”
KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS IN STATEMENTS OF INTENT ARE ‘GOVERNANCE’ MATTERS – TO BE DECIDED BY ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES – NOT THE UNELECTED CEO OF AUCKLAND COUNCIL, DOUG MCKAY, WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR ‘OPERATIONAL’ MATTERS.
Please provide the following information which confirms:
1) IN WHAT LAWFUL CAPACITY, AND ON WHOSE LAWFUL AUTHORITY DID YOU, UNELECTED CEO FOR AUCKLAND COUNCIL DOUG MCKAY MEET WITH THE POAL BOARD AND ‘SUGGEST’ A 12% RETURN ON EQUITY (ROE) KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATOR?
2) PLEASE PROVIDE THE MINUTES OF ALL/ANY MEETINGS BETWEEN THE POAL BOARD/ THE ACIL BOARD AND YOURSELF AS CEO OF AUCKLAND COUNCIL WHERE A 12% RETURN ON EQUITY (ROE) KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATOR WAS DISCUSSED.
3) PLEASE CONFIRM WHETHER A 12% RETURN ON EQUITY (ROE) KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATOR WAS EVER DISCUSSED BETWEEN YOURSELF AS A MEMBER OF THE UNELECTED PRIVATE LOBBY GROUP – THE COMMITTEE FOR AUCKLAND – AND THE CEO OF PORTS OF AUCKLAND, TONY GIBSON, ALSO A MEMBER OF THE COMMITTEE FOR AUCKLAND.
4) PLEASE PROVIDE THE INFORMATION WHICH CONFIRMS HOW MANY CONTRACTS HAVE BEEN AWARDED TO COMPANIES WHICH ARE MEMBERS OF THE COMMITTEE FOR AUCKLAND, FOR THE PROVISION OF GOODS, SERVICES OR PEOPLE, SINCE THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE AUCKLAND TRANSITION AGENCY (ATA); THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE AUCKLAND COUNCIL, AND/OR ANY OF THE FOLLOWING ‘COUNCIL CONTROLLED ORGANISATIONS’ (CCOs):
ACIL
RFA
ATEED
ACPL
Auckland Transport
Waterfront Auckland
Watercare
Hey, Penny, I heard you stuffed up MUNZ’s chance to talk with the AK council yesterday by constantly interrupting proceedings to the point where the meeting was shut down. Is that true?
From what I saw at union meetings Voice, MUNZ did not even know what the ROE/SOI/PBE even were
These documents, and the employment contracts and legal freamework should have been the core of the strategy, and it looks as if they were not!
Can’t comment on yesterdays meeting as I was not there, but MUNZ should actually be thanking others who have handed to them on a plate, information that MUNZ were clueless about!
Thank you for attempting to seeki TRUTH from FACTS Te Reo Putake.
The FACTS are that – yes – I did make some interjections.
(It is VERY difficult to just sit there and listen to information which is factually incorrect – whether it comes from Auckland Council ‘in-house’ lawyers, or the Mayor of Auckland.)
The meeting was closed down after I asked if I could speak, (and was refused) after hearing the Mayor get it completely wrong by comparing the situation of State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) – which are PROFIT-ORIENTED ENTITIES, with this POAL situation – where the Council Controlled Organisation (CCO) – Auckland Council Investments Ltd (ACIL) is a PUBLIC BENEFIT ENTITY.
I waited until just before the vote was to be put – before I asked to speak and was declined.
So – as I have done on many othe occasions – ‘when people’s rights are under attack – stand up fight back!’ – that’s what I did on this occasion.
I pointed out the FACTS and the LAW.
(Given that I have been previously arrested on 22 occasions in Auckland City Council days, and it has been 21 – 1 to me – that I know that the legal advice upon which Council has been relying, hasn’t been reliable.)
I also knew once the Mayor had stated that he was not going to support the motion – that there wouldn’t be the numbers for it to pass.
The normal situation under ‘Standing Orders’ is that ‘DEPUTATIONS’ are heard BEFORE the Council or Council Committee starts items of business set down for that meeting.
So – if MUNZ had applied for ‘speaking rights’ they would have already been heard.
(I arrived about 15 minutes late, because I had widely distributed by email the above-mentioned ‘Local Government) OIA request to UNELECTED Auckland Council CEO – Doug McKay
(15 March 2012)
“WHO GOVERNS THIS AUCKLAND $UPERCITY COUNCIL?
ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES OR THE UNELECTED COMMITTEE FOR AUCKLAND?”
Please be advised that I have raised the issue of ‘Public Benefit Entities’ and broader issues regarding opposition to ‘contracting out’ , at Council meetings for quite some time.
That’s only because you don’t know much, and to compound that, you are incurious.
If you had a clue, you would know that the people on this film have been chosen carefully to present a stereotypical picture of southerners as illiterate, superstitious, toothless fools. The woman asking the questions is the daughter of Nancy Pelosi, and she has a vested interest in doing that.
These guys say some hair-raisingly ignorant things, for sure, but they are no worse than what you’ll hear from the likes of Whaleoil, David Farrar—and more disturbingly, John Key.
The only reason you have to laugh at these guys is that they are dirt-poor, and they have funny southern accents. At least they’re funny to the minds of sniffy insiders like the Pelosi family.
You really think I didn’t realise they went and picked the most backwards people possible with extreme views.
That doesn’t stop it being amazing that people in America still hold those views. If you really think that the views expressed on there are the same as those held by Whaleoil David Farrar and John Key then it is who doesn’t know much and is incurious.
Today’s New Zealand Roy Morgan Poll shows increasing strong support for Prime Minister John Key’s National Party 48.5% (up 3% since February 27-March 11, 2012). Support for Key’s Coalition partners has changed little with the Maori Party 1% (down 0.5%), ACT NZ 0.5% (unchanged), and United Future 0.5% (unchanged).
Support for Labour has fallen 1.5% to 30%, Greens 12.5% (down 0.5%), New Zealand First 5% (unchanged), Mana Party 0.5% (down 0.5%) and Others 1.5% (unchanged).
If a National Election were held today the National Party would be returned to Government.
If you really think that the views expressed on there are the same as those held by Whaleoil David Farrar and John Key
It’s not a matter of whether I think so or not; the fact is that they do. Their anti-democratic statements are just as extreme; they are just more affluent, and their accents don’t sound funny to the likes of Alexandra Pelosi.
then it is who doesn’t know much and is incurious.
I know a lot more than you do about American politics, and obviously a lot more about New Zealand politics.
So the Chinese government are very aggressive, calling me and other kiwis racist and laying out bare threats, while at the same time being racist themselves about who can buy their land.
The very fact they have done this requires heavy resistance.
An extemely well written article about how increasing use of private health care is wrecking the public health system:
Expanding the pay-for-treatment sector may wreck the free one, writes Tim Parke
New Zealand’s world-class hospital care depends on extremely well motivated senior medical staff.
The solution to rising healthcare costs in tough economic times is not, as some vested interests would increasingly have you believe, to maximise the number of people using the private health sector. As a public hospital emergency specialist, I fear that expanding private healthcare may instead fragment and irretrievably damage an effective public system, resulting in the country as a whole paying more for potentially worse healthcare
Well worth reading in full.
He concludes:
So, if a mainly public hospital healthcare system is cheaper, fairer, less divisive, and produces good outcomes on international comparisons, why encourage the use of alternatives? Instead of spending money on private health insurance, perhaps a lesser sum invested in the public system through taxation could make up for some of its current deficiencies and protect it for the future. It certainly has the best chance of delivering comprehensive health protection to all – even if they get old, lose their job or get sick with something unprofitable.
* Tim Parke is clinical director, Adult Emergency Department, Auckland
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Hi,Today I mainly want to share some of your thoughts about the recent piece I wrote about success and failure, and the forces that seemingly guide our lives. But first, a quick bit of housekeeping: I am doing a Webworm popup in Los Angeles on Saturday May 11 at 2pm. ...
It is hard to see what Melissa Lee might have done to “save” the media. National went into the election with no public media policy and appears not to have developed one subsequently. Lee claimed that she had prepared a policy paper before the election but it had been decided ...
Open access notablesIce acceleration and rotation in the Greenland Ice Sheet interior in recent decades, Løkkegaard et al., Communications Earth & Environment:In the past two decades, mass loss from the Greenland ice sheet has accelerated, partly due to the speedup of glaciers. However, uncertainty in speed derived from satellite products ...
Buzz from the Beehive A statement from Children’s Minister Karen Chhour – yet to be posted on the Government’s official website – arrived in Point of Order’s email in-tray last night. It welcomes the High Court ruling on whether the Waitangi Tribunal can demand she appear before it. It does ...
Mr Bombastic:Ironically, the media the academic experts wanted is, in many ways, the media they got. In place of the tyrannical editors of yesteryear, advancing without fear or favour the interests of the ruling class; the New Zealand news media of today boasts a troop of enlightened journalists dedicated to ...
It's hard times try to make a livingYou wake up every morning in the unforgivingOut there somewhere in the cityThere's people living lives without mercy or pityI feel good, yeah I'm feeling fineI feel better then I have for the longest timeI think these pills have been good for meI ...
In 1974, the US Supreme Court issued its decision in United States v. Nixon, finding that the President was not a King, but was subject to the law and was required to turn over the evidence of his wrongdoing to the courts. It was a landmark decision for the rule ...
Every day now just seems to bring in more fresh meat for the grinder.In their relentlessly ideological drive to cut back on the “excessive bloat” (as they see it) of the previous Labour-led government, on the mountains of evidence accumulated in such a short period of time do not ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Megan Valére SosouMarket gardening site of the Itchèléré de Itagui agricultural cooperative in Dassa-Zoumè (Image credit: Megan Valère Sossou) For the residents of Dassa-Zoumè, a city in the West African country of Benin, choosing between drinking water and having enough ...
Buzz from the Beehive Melissa Lee – as may be discerned from the screenshot above – has not been demoted for doing something seriously wrong as Minister of ...
Morning in London Mother hugs beloved daughter outside the converted shoe factory in which she is living.Afternoon in London Travelling writer takes himself and his wrist down to A&E, just to be sure. Read more ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – The recent announcement of the University Advisory Group, chaired by Sir Peter Gluckman, makes very clear where the Government’s focus and priorities lie. The remit of the Advisory Group is that Group members will consider challenges and opportunities for improvement in the university sector including: ...
Eric Crampton writes – The Reserve Bank of New Zealand desperately wants to find reasons to have workstreams in climate change. It makes little sense. They’ve run another stress test on the banks looking to see if they could find a prudential regulation case. They couldn’t. They ...
Rob MacCullough writes – Pundits from the left and the right are arguing that National’s Fast Track Bill that is designed to speed up infrastructure decisions could end up becoming mired in a cesspool of corruption. Political commentator ...
Looking at the headlines this morning it’s hard to feel anything other than pessimistic about the future of humanity.Note that I’m not speaking about the future of mankind, but the survival of our humanity. The values that we believe in seem to be ebbing away, by the day.Perhaps every generation ...
Swabbing mixed breed baby chicks to test for avian influenzaUh oh. Bird flu – often deadly to humans – is not only being transmitted from infected birds to dairy cows, but is now travelling between dairy cows. As of last Friday, Bloomberg News reports, there were 32 American dairy herds ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
What is it with the mining industry? Its not enough for them to pillage the earth - they apparently can't even be bothered getting resource consent to do so: The proponent behind a major mine near the Clutha River had already been undertaking activity in the area without a ...
Photo # 1 I am a huge fan of Singapore’s approach to housing, as described here two years ago by copying and pasting from The ConversationWhat Singapore has that Australia does not is a public housing developer, the Housing Development Board, which puts new dwellings on public and reclaimed land, ...
Buzz from the Beehive Reactions to news of the government’s readiness to make urgent changes to “the resource management system” through a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) suggest a balanced approach is being taken. The Taxpayers’ Union says the proposed changes don’t go far enough. Greenpeace says ...
I’m starting to wonder if Anna Burns-Francis might be the best political interviewer we’ve got. That might sound unlikely to you, it came as a bit of a surprise to me.Jack Tame can be excellent, but has some pretty average days. I like Rebecca Wright on Newshub, she asks good ...
Chris Trotter writes – Willie Jackson is said to be planning a “media summit” to discuss “the state of the media and how to protect Fourth Estate Journalism”. Not only does the Editor of The Daily Blog, Martyn Bradbury, think this is a good idea, but he has also ...
Graeme Edgeler writes – This morning [April 21], the Wellington High Court is hearing a judicial review brought by Hon. Karen Chhour, the Minister for Children, against a decision of the Waitangi Tribunal. This is unusual, judicial reviews are much more likely to brought against ministers, rather than ...
Both of Parliament’s watchdogs have now ripped into the Government’s Fast-track Approvals Bill. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMy pick of the six newsey things to know from Aotearoa’s political economy and beyond on the morning of Tuesday, April 23 are:The Lead: The Auditor General,John Ryan, has joined the ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Sarah SpengemanPeople wait to board an electric bus in Pune, India. (Image credit: courtesy of ITDP) Public transportation riders in Pune, India, love the city’s new electric buses so much they will actually skip an older diesel bus that ...
The infrastructure industry yesterday issued a “hurry up” message to the Government, telling it to get cracking on developing a pipeline of infrastructure projects.The hiatus around the change of Government has seen some major projects cancelled and others delayed, and there is uncertainty about what will happen with the new ...
Hi,Over the weekend I revisited a podcast I really adore, Dead Eyes. It’s about a guy who got fired from Band of Brothers over two decades ago because Tom Hanks said he had “dead eyes”.If you don’t recall — 2001’s Band of Brothers was part of the emerging trend of ...
Buzz from the Beehive The 180 or so recipients of letters from the Government telling them how to submit infrastructure projects for “fast track” consideration includes some whose project applications previously have been rejected by the courts. News media were quick to feature these in their reports after RMA Reform Minister Chris ...
It would not be a desirable way to start your holiday by breaking your back, your head, or your wrist, but on our first hour in Singapore I gave it a try.We were chatting, last week, before we started a meeting of Hazel’s Enviro Trust, about the things that can ...
Calling all journalists, academics, planners, lawyers, political activists, environmentalists, and other members of the public who believe that the relationships between vested interests and politicians need to be scrutinised. We need to work together to make sure that the new Fast-Track Approvals Bill – currently being pushed through by the ...
Feel worried. Shane Jones and a couple of his Cabinet colleagues are about to be granted the power to override any and all objections to projects like dams, mines, roads etc even if: said projects will harm biodiversity, increase global warming and cause other environmental harms, and even if ...
Bryce Edwards writes- The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. ...
Michael Bassett writes – If you think there is a move afoot by the radical Maori fringe of New Zealand society to create a parallel system of government to the one that we elect at our triennial elections, you aren’t wrong. Over the last few days we have ...
Without a corresponding drop in interest rates, it’s doubtful any changes to the CCCFA will unleash a massive rush of home buyers. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: The six things that stood out to me in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate on Monday, April 22 included:The Government making a ...
Sunday was a lazy day. I started watching Jack Tame on Q&A, the interviews are usually good for something to write about. Saying the things that the politicians won’t, but are quite possibly thinking. Things that are true and need to be extracted from between the lines.As you might know ...
In our Weekly Roundup last week we covered news from Auckland Transport that the WX1 Western Express is going to get an upgrade next year with double decker electric buses. As part of the announcement, AT also said “Since we introduced the WX1 Western Express last November we have seen ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 29 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Stats NZ releases its statutory report on Census 2023 tomorrow.Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivers a pre-Budget speech at ...
A listing of 29 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 14, 2024 thru Sat, April 20, 2024. Story of the week Our story of the week hinges on these words from the abstract of a fresh academic ...
The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. The Government says this will ...
This is a column to say thank you. So many of have been in touch since Mum died to say so many kind and thoughtful things. You’re wonderful, all of you. You’ve asked how we’re doing, how Dad’s doing. A little more realisation each day, of the irretrievable finality of ...
Identifying the engine type in your car is crucial for various reasons, including maintenance, repairs, and performance upgrades. Knowing the specific engine model allows you to access detailed technical information, locate compatible parts, and make informed decisions about modifications. This comprehensive guide will provide you with a step-by-step approach to ...
Introduction: The allure of racing is undeniable. The thrill of speed, the roar of engines, and the exhilaration of competition all contribute to the allure of this adrenaline-driven sport. For those who yearn to experience the pinnacle of racing, becoming a race car driver is the ultimate dream. However, the ...
Introduction Automobiles have become ubiquitous in modern society, serving as a primary mode of transportation and a symbol of economic growth and personal mobility. With countless vehicles traversing roads and highways worldwide, it begs the question: how many cars are there in the world? Determining the precise number is a ...
Maintaining a safe and reliable vehicle requires regular inspections. Whether it’s a routine maintenance checkup or a safety inspection, knowing how long the process will take can help you plan your day accordingly. This article delves into the factors that influence the duration of a car inspection and provides an ...
Mazda Motor Corporation, commonly known as Mazda, is a Japanese multinational automaker headquartered in Fuchu, Aki District, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. The company was founded in 1920 as the Toyo Cork Kogyo Co., Ltd., and began producing vehicles in 1931. Mazda is primarily known for its production of passenger cars, but ...
Your car battery is an essential component that provides power to start your engine, operate your electrical systems, and store energy. Over time, batteries can weaken and lose their ability to hold a charge, which can lead to starting problems, power failures, and other issues. Replacing your battery before it ...
In most states, you cannot register a car without a valid driver’s license. However, there are a few exceptions to this rule. Exceptions to the RuleIf you are under 18 years old: In some states, you can register a car in your name even if you do not ...
Mazda, a Japanese automotive manufacturer with a rich history of innovation and engineering excellence, has emerged as a formidable player in the global car market. Known for its reputation of producing high-quality, fuel-efficient, and driver-oriented vehicles, Mazda has consistently garnered praise from industry experts and consumers alike. In this article, ...
Struts are an essential part of a car’s suspension system. They are responsible for supporting the weight of the car and damping the oscillations of the springs. Struts are typically made of steel or aluminum and are filled with hydraulic fluid. How Do Struts Work? Struts work by transferring the ...
Car registration is a mandatory process that all vehicle owners must complete annually. This process involves registering your car with the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and paying an associated fee. The registration process ensures that your vehicle is properly licensed and insured, and helps law enforcement and other authorities ...
Zoom is a video conferencing service that allows you to share your screen, webcam, and audio with other participants. In addition to sharing your own audio, you can also share the audio from your computer with other participants. This can be useful for playing music, sharing presentations with audio, or ...
Building your own computer can be a rewarding and cost-effective way to get a high-performance machine tailored to your specific needs. However, it also requires careful planning and execution, and one of the most important factors to consider is the time it will take. The exact time it takes to ...
Sleep mode is a power-saving state that allows your computer to quickly resume operation without having to boot up from scratch. This can be useful if you need to step away from your computer for a short period of time but don’t want to shut it down completely. There are ...
Introduction Computer-Assisted Translation (CAT) has revolutionized the field of translation by harnessing the power of technology to assist human translators in their work. This innovative approach combines specialized software with human expertise to improve the efficiency, accuracy, and consistency of translations. In this comprehensive article, we will delve into the ...
In today’s digital age, mobile devices have become an indispensable part of our daily lives. Among the vast array of portable computing options available, iPads and tablet computers stand out as two prominent contenders. While both offer similar functionalities, there are subtle yet significant differences between these two devices. This ...
A computer is an electronic device that can be programmed to carry out a set of instructions. The basic components of a computer are the processor, memory, storage, input devices, and output devices. The Processor The processor, also known as the central processing unit (CPU), is the brain of the ...
Voice Memos is a convenient app on your iPhone that allows you to quickly record and store audio snippets. These recordings can be useful for a variety of purposes, such as taking notes, capturing ideas, or recording interviews. While you can listen to your voice memos on your iPhone, you ...
Laptop screens are essential for interacting with our devices and accessing information. However, when lines appear on the screen, it can be frustrating and disrupt productivity. Understanding the underlying causes of these lines is crucial for finding effective solutions. Types of Screen Lines Horizontal lines: Also known as scan ...
Right-clicking is a common and essential computer operation that allows users to access additional options and settings. While most desktop computers have dedicated right-click buttons on their mice, laptops often do not have these buttons due to space limitations. This article will provide a comprehensive guide on how to right-click ...
Powering up and shutting down your ASUS laptop is an essential task for any laptop user. Locating the power button can sometimes be a hassle, especially if you’re new to ASUS laptops. This article will provide a comprehensive guide on where to find the power button on different ASUS laptop ...
Dell laptops are renowned for their reliability, performance, and versatility. Whether you’re a student, a professional, or just someone who needs a reliable computing device, a Dell laptop can meet your needs. However, if you’re new to Dell laptops, you may be wondering how to get started. In this comprehensive ...
Two-thirds of the country think that “New Zealand’s economy is rigged to advantage the rich and powerful”. They also believe that “New Zealand needs a strong leader to take the country back from the rich and powerful”. These are just two of a handful of stunning new survey results released ...
In today’s digital world, screenshots have become an indispensable tool for communication and documentation. Whether you need to capture an important email, preserve a website page, or share an error message, screenshots allow you to quickly and easily preserve digital information. If you’re an Asus laptop user, there are several ...
A factory reset restores your Gateway laptop to its original factory settings, erasing all data, apps, and personalizations. This can be necessary to resolve software issues, remove viruses, or prepare your laptop for sale or transfer. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to factory reset your Gateway laptop: Method 1: ...
“You talking about me?”The neoliberal denigration of the past was nowhere more unrelenting than in its depiction of the public service. The Post Office and the Railways were held up as being both irremediably inefficient and scandalously over-manned. Playwright Roger Hall’s “Glide Time” caricatures were presented as accurate depictions of ...
Roger Partridge writes – When the Coalition Government took office last October, it inherited a country on a precipice. With persistent inflation, decades of insipid productivity growth and crises in healthcare, education, housing and law and order, it is no exaggeration to suggest New Zealand’s first-world status was ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – In 2022, the Curriculum Centre at the Ministry of Education employed 308 staff, according to an Official Information Request. Earlier this week it was announced 202 of those staff were being cut. When you look up “The New Zealand Curriculum” on the Ministry of ...
Chris Bishop’s bill has stirred up a hornets nest of opposition. Photo: Lynn Grieveson for The KākāTL;DR: The six things that stood out to me in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate from the last day included:A crescendo of opposition to the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill is ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
The Government’s newly announced review of methane emissions reduction targets hints at its desire to delay Aotearoa New Zealand’s urgent transition to a climate safe future, the Green Party said. ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
I was initially resistant to the idea often suggested to me that the Government should deliver an arts strategy. The whole point of the arts and creativity is that people should do whatever the hell they want, unbound by the dictates of politicians in Wellington. Peter Jackson, Kiri Te Kanawa, Eleanor ...
Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson is speaking at the International Wool Textile Organisation Congress in Adelaide, promoting New Zealand wool, and outlining the coalition Government’s support for the revitalisation the sector. "New Zealand’s wool exports reached $400 million in the year to 30 June 2023, and the coalition Government ...
The government can't just rely on axing public sector jobs and has to do more to cut spending, says the chief economist at a free market think tank. ...
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Labour and Greens pushed the ‘no plan’ plan in the eledction campaign and are continuing the theme, hoping it will stick by the next election? Both parties said Key’s goals announced yesterday wer absent any plans.
Shearer said yesterday “Everyone in this room knows the difference between a woolly plan”. ‘No plan’ plan – plainly plonkers.
(Maybe MOM is not a plan that’s worth highlighting).
Pete, it is your scussy self serving little Dunne monster that will enable the Nats to achieve their plan of gifting themselves and their paymasters NZs assets. Yes they have a plan and it is very scummy, and you soil yourself with it by wiling association. Disgusting.
Why is it that ALL the Links you use, are to your own bloody website? Where nothing of any substance is done.
Not content to murder the English language, logic, reasoning and any measure of quality in their profession, the media are now attacking their sources!
A rare animal was killed last week by a camera man in Germany.
“…it was a direct hit…”
http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,821389,00.html
Who watched Campbells interview with the PM last night? Key was well rehearsed and his usual smooth as glass self when answering questions about the loss of jobs in the public sector. The ultimate snake oil salesman charm oozed.
Repeating the following mantras …”Salient point is outcomes not numbers (of public servants reduced)..dont need to know numbers….better product, outcome, and experience for NZers engaged with the public service…..all businesses innovate and change is a constant….we will target transparency, delivery of outcomes, results…”.
Sounds good until you break it down. It is the language of a sociopath.
People to Key are numbers and numbers dont matter, only outcomes matter. Ergo a public servant is a number who exists to the PM only as an outcome producing number.
We the NZers who engage with the Public Service are expected to recieve business outcomes, measured with us as the primary outcome (eg 85% of us getting NCEA L2), ergo we too are mere outcomes, mere numbers.
Keys language is the language of business, not of public service or community / citizenry. He kept as far as possible away from talking money but it was obvious that Key used business words such as efficiency, effectiveness to avoid the plain grubby fact that this is all about paying less to deliver less.
Keys sociopathology was there for all to see, his words said it all: is not about delivering service to citizens, its about delivering $ outcomes to our masters. And he is master number one, a number, devoid of humanity, a mere cypher.
.
Although words like ‘expenditure’ and ‘efficiency’ will be peppered throughout any explanatory justification for what’s happening, the truth of the matter is that whether services cost less or more is neither here nor there in the scheme of things. What matters – all that matters – is that the public service is diminished, unions knackered and that services are privatised.
So true Bill, these bastards are so cock arrogant that they think the blarney Shonko comes up with will trump our poor little minds.
The poor: always with us, necessarily not us
A well-written article on the origins of the culture of poverty. 50 years ago Michael Harrington’s book ‘The Other American’ introduced the invisible poor, such as Appalachian cultures, the inner-city ghettos, farm workers and the poor elderly, amongst others, to middle America – disabusing them of the notion of a classless society. Harrigton described a the poor in terms difference:
“There is … a language of the poor, a psychology of the poor, a worldview of the poor. To be impoverished is to be an internal alien, to grow up in a culture that is radically different from the one that dominates the society.”
Harrington thought the poor were distinguished by a ‘culture of poverty’. This was in turn interpreted (apparently unintended by Harrington) in a way that meant although they should be helped, there was in fact, something wrong with them. The result of this thinking is a prevalence of victim-blaming and a belief that entrusting the poor with money, for instance, would only lead to a worsening of their condition:
The author of this article finishes with the following observation:
This interpretation of a ‘culture of poverty’ enables some people to contrast themselves as “disciplined, law-abiding, sober, and focused. In other words, not poor.” Whereas in reality the only culture of poverty is in their heads. Poor people are poor – that is all. Deal with poverty, not to the poverty-stricken.
I couldn’t agree more Rosy. Thanks for posting that.
It’s been all too easy for, particularly the smug, comfortably off, to pat themselves on the back believing themselves to have naturally risen to the top in a kind of moral, as well as intellectual “meritocracy”. They “know” that people get what they deserve and we shouldn’t interfere with the natural order because giving to the undeserving only further weakens them and hastens their decay. The compassionate thing is to be cruel to be kind, but make sure the children of the poor always have books available, in case the genes of the inferior, somehow throws up a potentially upstanding and worthy citizen.
bah
Thanks JS, I think articles like this are really important in breaking down the narratives of difference that are accepted into common usage with no real understanding of how accurate they might be.
I agree with DH, below, that people lack empathy with the poor, I don’t agree that money doesn’t matter though. It does matter – money is what makes the non-poor see themselves as ‘different’ when they’re not. In my climb up the social ladder I’ve seen similar behaviours exhibited in a variety of social settings, but with different results, for example drunkeness, assaults, children having accidents while off playing ‘unsupervised’, taking financial risks and indiscriminate spending, but also a pride in work, family and achievement. The rich and poor are not different groups, they do however live in different contexts.
I also very much resent, as you suggest, how the non-poor see rewards, from a secure financial base as necessary to incentivise themselves but believe withdrawal of rewards, from an already financially precarious base will incentivise the poor. It simply can’t happen, for the majority of the poor, that their lot will improve without a stable base and positive reinforcement. The opposite is equally likely IMO – life will get worse and poorer decisions will be made. This is also where DH’s contention that money doesn’t matter falls down.
And in Uturns words
The sons of widows and teenage mothers climbing the socio-economic ladder, supported by a stable financial base and positive reinforcement, and then kicking the ladder away is the complete opposite to this.
I think it’s more than just money Rosy. Self respect is hugely important and it generally follows that when you’re poor you’re lacking in that area. We are social creatures & we all want to be accepted & respected in society. If you’re poor you feel like a social pariah; a lesser human being. Strip a man or woman of their pride and what have you got left?
I’ll always maintain that the poor don’t want charity or sympathy. They just want self respect and for that they need access to decent jobs before they build up so much baggage from being social outcasts that they’re irredeemable.
The word empathy comes up from time to time & I think that is what is lacking among us. To truly understand the poor we need to walk a mile in their shoes and most people seem incapable of doing that.
That’s not to disagree with you btw, just that money isn’t the solution it’s only a stopgap IMO.
“We are social creatures & we all want to be accepted & respected in society” – Speak for yourself, the acceptance of society to me, I take as an insult from a bunch of people who don’t know a thing about me…
Take your point though in regards to the social aspect, but as far as accepted by society….No thanks, Ill decide the personal acceptance criteria for myself!
The opposite of accepted is rejected muzza. Would you prefer to be a social reject that no-one wants anything to do with?
In my opinion, the opposite of rejected, is appreciated.
Appreciation means knowing what something is and what it is used for. In the case of a human being, instead of “their use”, it means understanding how they relate to you, to others and their effect on the world. It is the begining of a respect for people that does not have to be earned through meeting arbitrarily enforced cultural rules.
By understanding that appreciation is the opposite of rejection, we move out of the binary accept/reject cycle which requires no thought, no rationality, no understanding. Anyone can like or hate something.
DH, good to see you are trapped into the 2 dimentional thought process..
Look at it this way, we have been shovelled into little boxes, which society like to be able to relate to in order to feel they are safe, secure and in control, when really this is far from the truth.
People who understand what life is a little more, and see the constraints that have been set around us, will see that the essence of a person is far more important than what they have, what they do for a job or any of that meaningless stuff, its a slave mindset to focus on the trivial, or only on ones ownself, without looking outward to those who most need assistance!
Society needs to get out of its collective coma, and see that they are making this place into a shitehole of their own making, and due to selfish arrogance, foolishly believe that because they perceive “society” to accept them, that they, and society are actually “right”
#couldnotbemorewrongiftheytried
That’s right, but in the interim, money is a solution! How can someone get a job with bad teeth, glasses from a $2 shop and no money for bus fares to interviews?
I’m pretty wary of the ‘money isn’t the solution’ meme too.
Using the anaolgy of a deficiency disease, you treat the deficiency with what is deficient eg vitamin C for scurvy and tackle the reasons that the patient became deficient. Too many people who like to tut tut about ‘fishing rods’ (and I’m not saying you are one of them DH) or, in the modern parlance, bollocks like “excellence in education”, are really advocating that we not provide what is deficient, and often use abhorrent quasi-moral arguments about supposed moral deficencies in the poor, in order to absolve themselves from any ethical obligation to help those in need.
Well money is certainly the solution to the problem of not having money. But giving people more money doesn’t address the problem of why they don’t have money in the first place. Giving more money in the form of decent jobs solves both problems IMO.
Present thinking from both the Nats & Labour seems to be that poverty in NZ is caused by poor education; the solution being to make sure everyone is well educated and poverty & unemployment will disappear because there’s always a shortage of skilled workers. So they pump more & more dosh into the education system. That we’ve been trying this for a good twenty years now with little success doesn’t seem to sway the pundits of this…. just chuck more money at it, has to work sooner or later.
Another line of thinking is that if beneficiaries had enough income to get by on they’d sort their own problems out. It does have some merit but I don’t subscribe to it as a solution per se; jobs don’t appear out of thin air and the real problem is we don’t have enough decent jobs for people. Take Vicky’s example above. IMO she’s right, some more dosh would help that person with bad teeth get a job. But they’d get the job at the expense of someone else. The underlying problem would still be there.
From Rosy’s post:
“Harrington thought the poor were distinguished by a ‘culture of poverty’. This was in turn interpreted (apparently unintended by Harrington) in a way that meant although they should be helped, there was in fact, something wrong with them. The result of this thinking is a prevalence of victim-blaming and a belief that entrusting the poor with money, for instance, would only lead to a worsening of their condition.”
This is the problem of social commenters forgetting the bias trained into psychologists, well, the good ones at least: You cannot observe something in its natural state. The limitations of being an observer include interpreting the subject/object by your own values. You change the subject/object every time you interact with it. These limitations can only be reduced by investigating yourself first and knowing your own bias and the many ways a mind will trap you, unconsciously. Of course, stopping to investigate yourself costs time and is very inconvenient to business that wants immediate results. But I’ll not go that way in this comment. The point that you highlight and that we see in action from Shearer’s speech yesterday below, is that the epidemic of forgetting the influences of your upbringing and culture is spreading:
“Now, what happens if we put this in the New Zealand context?
The first thing we can say is this: we have some very high-achieving children and some high-achieving schools.
The best and the brightest do very well and I am proud of them.
But I’m not just interested in the bunch that leads the marathon into the stadium.
Some of them are outstanding and the very best of them finish their race in world record time.
They’re an inspiration for the others.
But if you track back along the rest of the field, it doesn’t look so world class.
Many of them are coming in hours later.
Many of them are giving up before the finish.
And too many of them aren’t even turning up at the starting line.
We have a long tail of failure.
We have to fix it.”
We have to fix it? Listen to him praise “success”, that is, money, coming first, beating others, individual effort. Listen to him talk of inspiration, pride and admiration like they are, inherently, desirable concepts for the psyche – some kind of peaceful clearing in a forest where nothing happens – and morally correct states. Listen to him proclaim that life is a competition. That time is a factor, an inconvenience – to him. That we must be “world class”, no choice. And that if we don’t hurry up, we will assumedly lose the race. Listen to him say that “giving up”, leaving the race, having an alternate view is “wrong”. We must fix what is “Wrong”. Good rich kids will freely join the race; bad poor kids are wrong and need fixing. They will be fixed.
Now to be fair, though I hate to be fair right now, Shearer failed to define any of his points. They were empty vacuous statements, so wide in parameters that they could mean anything, but where they did link up, as in the marathon example, we begin to see what beliefs Shearer supports.
His ideas cater to those infatuated with themselves, with a small world view and limited understanding of who they are in relation to the outside world.
“Inspiration” is a personal experience, felt by the individual, usually pleasurable. It generally doesn’t last and historically can even be the beginning of a series of incidences leading into schizophrenic episode. Admiration is a projection of one man’s fantasy wish – he sees something he wants, imagines the value of it above all other traits, his mind departs for the future when he too might possess those traits. He’d like to be the acclaimed Hero, too – neglecting the present and who he is right now and how his own qualities might be developed and expressed in the world.
Admiration tricks the mind into another state of infatuation: a good athlete is admirable, look at him score tries; surely he would also be a good business man, a great husband, a sober driver, of sound mind and worthy of political comment and influence? Every few months, from the stories of stupidity from our national level athletes, we discover that one thing does not mean another.
Is life a competition or have we made it a competition? In Shearer’s brave new, New Zealand, will anyone be allowed to drop out of the money race of infatuation fantasy to find out? Will poverty and social exclusion be the price they pay? How much time should Shearer allow an explorer to search? Whose measure will he use? That of the Boomers, who rarely look outside the last sixty years to understand just how fragile the material gains of free-market economics really are? Will he take a longer view and realise that a man could spend his whole life searching, pass incomplete information to his colleague and that person pass it to another before a clearer understanding is reached? Will they too have to live in an increasingly hostile society, because of their now enforced poverty? Will the crowd in the marathon stadium have gone home by then?
Will he take an Eastern View, and simply sit and wait, comfortable in the unknowable unexplained, the Tao? Probably not. Will he frown on and ridicule the Buddhist athlete, who will not eat meat, or participate in farming animals, or the construction of electronic materials used for things that are not “mindful”. How does the blatant dismissal of alternative culture in NZ set us up for the multitude of friends here now that are not Christian, and are not interested in Shearer’s marathon? Could it be that Shearers marathon is so utterly morally flawed, it is actively divisive? And all this to court 10% swing voters – a group that will never stay put because self interest has no loyalty to anything but it’s owner. And right at the bottom, children being forced into holes that don’t fit them, being destroyed mentally, labeled as wrong, and condemned to poverty.
Shearer has forgotten the impact of his own viewpoint. Poverty is not “wrong”, though it certainly is a painful reality. Poverty is no more wrong than cancer is wrong. Cancer exists, poverty exists – understand and intervene as necessary. Poverty is a symptom of a problem we create by impatiently believing wrong ideas. We fail to observe our environment in the present, see who is here and who they are and we certainly do not live with them each day, letting time be a coincidental measure of what happened instead of a distance between now and our impatience to see a future that we do not understand.
No one will fix poverty by standing back, hand out, just out of reach, calling, “Reach out, take my hand if you aren’t lazy!” Helping people help themselves involves stooping, picking people up, holding their hand, and then walking forward together. And while that happens, inside that person, they being to discover they can make steps themselves and they participate with you. And while you are with them you too are changed. Sometimes the person you assist lets go of your hand, sometimes they will always need a place to lean – but that does not mean things are not changing, that they are not growing and that each action is not a development from the last.
What people forget with their focus on imagining the future is that no two days are the same, they don’t know the future and there is more to learn in the present than the past can tell us. If life was all about past experiences defining our futures, we’d all be completely satisfied by now! Life would be easy, no surprises, just follow the official recipe.
Helping people to help themselves is a matter of participation in the moment and for the long term, realising that that the time measure of how long you are together is irrelevant to the discoveries and developments made. It is not a case of reading a magazine about the activities of the Red Cross, deciding you want to help – from the position of your privileged white middle class existence – parachuting into a ravaged country with aid structures already in place and when you get tired, going home to general applause.
Stay home and fix the messes we’ve created. Learn about yourself and your people in the face of the hatred from your family, your friends and society that will pour on you when you try, from nothing, with nothing, to make a change. Then you’ll see your own culture in a different light, it will start to crumble, and you’ll comprehend it a little like those from a position of poverty would. What good is charity and assistance when it is just the comfortable helping the poor on the weekends while during the week they vote in regimes that maintain and create more hobby problems for them to attend?
There’s a unattributed story that talks about true assistance and what it can do:
A master and his disciple were walking in the garden and the young monk asked, “Master, in the old days men often saw God. Why is it so hard to see him now?” The master replied, “No one now is prepared to stoop low enough”.
A plan that is based around infatuation with material success will discourage people not just from stooping, not just from bending their knees, but even glancing below waist height.
From Rosy’s post:
“ The author of this article finishes with the following observation:
Fifty years later, a new discovery of poverty is long overdue. This time, we’ll have to take account not only of stereotypical Skid Row residents and Appalachians, but of foreclosed-upon suburbanites, laid-off tech workers, and America’s ever-growing army of the “working poor”. And if we look closely enough, we’ll have to conclude that poverty is not, after all, a cultural aberration or a character flaw. Poverty is a shortage of money.”
And here is another proof of cultural bias from that author. Poverty, as has been outlined here from various commenter’s recently, is not just about money, it effects resources, minds, perspectives. That author believes that somehow, those that ran in Shearer’s marathon were superhuman from the start. They did not suffer flaws. The identities of those people were not humans first, professionals second, but professionals first and only. Well, those now out of work professionals find out pretty fast that human identity is not anything to do with what you do for money. Sometimes the shock leads them to suicide.
Our nation is sick, mentally, philosophically, spiritually. Instead of facing that fact, Shearer and others like him, have done the equivalent of offering free cigarettes to those with self induced emphysema; cheap proof alcohol to cirrhosis suffering drunks; and live-in slaves to sociopaths. Then gone further to encourage children into the cycle. I’m pretty pissed of about that.
…parachuting into a ravaged country with aid structures already in place and when you get tired, going home to general applause…
Add in a one percenter salary and pension scheme and you’ve described Shearer.
I find it interesting that Shearer went to Papatoetoe High School (I believe he was head boy) at a time that the lower middle class, such as made up the majority of people in Papatoetoe at that time, never had it better. Among fellow students were those from the deprived state-housing suburb of Otara, they were poor, often hungry and generally despised by Papatoetoe Pakeha. Shearer would have been exposed to daily incidences of racism from teachers and students alike. He left school and aspirationally voted National in that Labour stronghold. Like many of his peers (such as Phil Goff), he made excellent use of his education and natural advantages, and moved up the socio-economic staircase.
It wasn’t until he was overseas that he was suddenly moved by poverty and oppression. Like so many middle-class warriors, poverty and injustice is so much easier to get angry about when it’s happening somewhere else, and doesn’t entail any reflection on one’s own place in perpetuationg the causes.
Odgers vs Bomber
Nobody wants to read continuous vexation built on speculation, we want a functional and truthful rightwing commentary, which is unfortunately largely lacking from New Zealand’s blogosphere…
Beautiful descriptions of Cactus…another overblown by her own importance has been….. Catcus is such an old windbag full of hollow threats…. a discredited and defunct commentator who hides behind a barbed wire fence, too afraid of her own shadow to step out into the light.
FYI Brian Rudman’s view of yesterday’s Auckland Council’s decision on the Ports of Auckland issue.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/brian-rudman/news/article.cfm?a_id=1&objectid=10792426
(My Local Government) OIA request to UNELECTED Auckland Council CEO – Doug McKay
(15 March 2012)
“WHO GOVERNS THIS AUCKLAND $UPERCITY COUNCIL?
ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES OR THE UNELECTED COMMITTEE FOR AUCKLAND?
What is driving this Ports Of Auckland dispute has been the Auckland Council Investment Limited’s ‘Key Performance Indicator’ (KPI) that ‘POAL’s ROE (Return On Equity) increases from 6.3% to 12% over the following 5 years by 30/06/2016″.
Councillor Richard Northey, Chair of the Auckland Council Accountability and Performance Committee asked the Chief Executive of Auckland Council Investments Ltd (ACIL), Gary Swift in a letter dated 20 January 2012 asked:
“2. What was the origin and justification for the above KPI? …”
The answer from the Chief Executive of Auckland Council Investments Ltd (ACIL), Gary Swift in a letter dated 27 January 2012 :
” I’m not exactly sure where the return on equity target of 12% originated…..
I think Doug McKay may have suggested 12% when he met with the POAL Board.
……”
KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS IN STATEMENTS OF INTENT ARE ‘GOVERNANCE’ MATTERS – TO BE DECIDED BY ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES – NOT THE UNELECTED CEO OF AUCKLAND COUNCIL, DOUG MCKAY, WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR ‘OPERATIONAL’ MATTERS.
Please provide the following information which confirms:
1) IN WHAT LAWFUL CAPACITY, AND ON WHOSE LAWFUL AUTHORITY DID YOU, UNELECTED CEO FOR AUCKLAND COUNCIL DOUG MCKAY MEET WITH THE POAL BOARD AND ‘SUGGEST’ A 12% RETURN ON EQUITY (ROE) KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATOR?
2) PLEASE PROVIDE THE MINUTES OF ALL/ANY MEETINGS BETWEEN THE POAL BOARD/ THE ACIL BOARD AND YOURSELF AS CEO OF AUCKLAND COUNCIL WHERE A 12% RETURN ON EQUITY (ROE) KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATOR WAS DISCUSSED.
3) PLEASE CONFIRM WHETHER A 12% RETURN ON EQUITY (ROE) KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATOR WAS EVER DISCUSSED BETWEEN YOURSELF AS A MEMBER OF THE UNELECTED PRIVATE LOBBY GROUP – THE COMMITTEE FOR AUCKLAND – AND THE CEO OF PORTS OF AUCKLAND, TONY GIBSON, ALSO A MEMBER OF THE COMMITTEE FOR AUCKLAND.
4) PLEASE PROVIDE THE INFORMATION WHICH CONFIRMS HOW MANY CONTRACTS HAVE BEEN AWARDED TO COMPANIES WHICH ARE MEMBERS OF THE COMMITTEE FOR AUCKLAND, FOR THE PROVISION OF GOODS, SERVICES OR PEOPLE, SINCE THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE AUCKLAND TRANSITION AGENCY (ATA); THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE AUCKLAND COUNCIL, AND/OR ANY OF THE FOLLOWING ‘COUNCIL CONTROLLED ORGANISATIONS’ (CCOs):
ACIL
RFA
ATEED
ACPL
Auckland Transport
Waterfront Auckland
Watercare
or any subsidiaries thereof …..”
Penny Bright
Who is REALLY running Auckland Council and the Auckland region?
In my considered opinion – the UNELECTED Committee for Auckland.
Check it out for yourself:
http://www.committeeforauckland.co.nz/membership/member-organisations
Penny Bright
‘Anti-Corruption Campaigner’
Hey, Penny, I heard you stuffed up MUNZ’s chance to talk with the AK council yesterday by constantly interrupting proceedings to the point where the meeting was shut down. Is that true?
From what I saw at union meetings Voice, MUNZ did not even know what the ROE/SOI/PBE even were
These documents, and the employment contracts and legal freamework should have been the core of the strategy, and it looks as if they were not!
Can’t comment on yesterdays meeting as I was not there, but MUNZ should actually be thanking others who have handed to them on a plate, information that MUNZ were clueless about!
Thank you for attempting to seeki TRUTH from FACTS Te Reo Putake.
The FACTS are that – yes – I did make some interjections.
(It is VERY difficult to just sit there and listen to information which is factually incorrect – whether it comes from Auckland Council ‘in-house’ lawyers, or the Mayor of Auckland.)
The meeting was closed down after I asked if I could speak, (and was refused) after hearing the Mayor get it completely wrong by comparing the situation of State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) – which are PROFIT-ORIENTED ENTITIES, with this POAL situation – where the Council Controlled Organisation (CCO) – Auckland Council Investments Ltd (ACIL) is a PUBLIC BENEFIT ENTITY.
I waited until just before the vote was to be put – before I asked to speak and was declined.
So – as I have done on many othe occasions – ‘when people’s rights are under attack – stand up fight back!’ – that’s what I did on this occasion.
I pointed out the FACTS and the LAW.
(Given that I have been previously arrested on 22 occasions in Auckland City Council days, and it has been 21 – 1 to me – that I know that the legal advice upon which Council has been relying, hasn’t been reliable.)
I also knew once the Mayor had stated that he was not going to support the motion – that there wouldn’t be the numbers for it to pass.
The normal situation under ‘Standing Orders’ is that ‘DEPUTATIONS’ are heard BEFORE the Council or Council Committee starts items of business set down for that meeting.
So – if MUNZ had applied for ‘speaking rights’ they would have already been heard.
(I arrived about 15 minutes late, because I had widely distributed by email the above-mentioned ‘Local Government) OIA request to UNELECTED Auckland Council CEO – Doug McKay
(15 March 2012)
“WHO GOVERNS THIS AUCKLAND $UPERCITY COUNCIL?
ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES OR THE UNELECTED COMMITTEE FOR AUCKLAND?”
Please be advised that I have raised the issue of ‘Public Benefit Entities’ and broader issues regarding opposition to ‘contracting out’ , at Council meetings for quite some time.
Hope this helps.
Penny Bright
‘Anti-corruption campaigner’.
http://gordoncampbell.scoop.co.nz/2012/03/16/gordon-campbell-on-the-speeches-by-key-and-shearer/#more-1992
Gordon Campbell’s take on yesterday’s speeches.
You’d think after Sheare’s grand speech yesterday his fan clubs would be all over it, but it seems like they are already over it. http://yournz.org/2012/03/16/hey-david-the-troops-arent-listening/
Once again John Key gets the attention.
I know not many here like Whaleoil but you really should watch this:
http://www.whaleoil.co.nz/2012/03/the-redneck-south/
It amazed me.
What amazes you about it?
Nothing said in that video would be out of place in the average kiwiblog or whaleoil comment thread.
Thats funny Felix, I always imagined that you came from a similar place.
It amazed me.
That’s only because you don’t know much, and to compound that, you are incurious.
If you had a clue, you would know that the people on this film have been chosen carefully to present a stereotypical picture of southerners as illiterate, superstitious, toothless fools. The woman asking the questions is the daughter of Nancy Pelosi, and she has a vested interest in doing that.
These guys say some hair-raisingly ignorant things, for sure, but they are no worse than what you’ll hear from the likes of Whaleoil, David Farrar—and more disturbingly, John Key.
The only reason you have to laugh at these guys is that they are dirt-poor, and they have funny southern accents. At least they’re funny to the minds of sniffy insiders like the Pelosi family.
You really think I didn’t realise they went and picked the most backwards people possible with extreme views.
That doesn’t stop it being amazing that people in America still hold those views. If you really think that the views expressed on there are the same as those held by Whaleoil David Farrar and John Key then it is who doesn’t know much and is incurious.
How can this be true?
Today’s New Zealand Roy Morgan Poll shows increasing strong support for Prime Minister John Key’s National Party 48.5% (up 3% since February 27-March 11, 2012). Support for Key’s Coalition partners has changed little with the Maori Party 1% (down 0.5%), ACT NZ 0.5% (unchanged), and United Future 0.5% (unchanged).
Support for Labour has fallen 1.5% to 30%, Greens 12.5% (down 0.5%), New Zealand First 5% (unchanged), Mana Party 0.5% (down 0.5%) and Others 1.5% (unchanged).
If a National Election were held today the National Party would be returned to Government.
Another rogue Roy Morgan……
If you really think that the views expressed on there are the same as those held by Whaleoil David Farrar and John Key
It’s not a matter of whether I think so or not; the fact is that they do. Their anti-democratic statements are just as extreme; they are just more affluent, and their accents don’t sound funny to the likes of Alexandra Pelosi.
then it is who doesn’t know much and is incurious.
I know a lot more than you do about American politics, and obviously a lot more about New Zealand politics.
So the Chinese government are very aggressive, calling me and other kiwis racist and laying out bare threats, while at the same time being racist themselves about who can buy their land.
The very fact they have done this requires heavy resistance.
It is an indicator moment everybody …
Very true. Until they start selling theirs, they should keep their hands off ours…..
The volume of political comnmentary will speak volumes.
Just like the voluminous nature of the Chinese governments comment.
Care to comment anybody?
What you on about VTO?
Fracking program on 60 Minutes Sunday evening TV3.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=10792353
An extemely well written article about how increasing use of private health care is wrecking the public health system:
Expanding the pay-for-treatment sector may wreck the free one, writes Tim Parke
New Zealand’s world-class hospital care depends on extremely well motivated senior medical staff.
The solution to rising healthcare costs in tough economic times is not, as some vested interests would increasingly have you believe, to maximise the number of people using the private health sector. As a public hospital emergency specialist, I fear that expanding private healthcare may instead fragment and irretrievably damage an effective public system, resulting in the country as a whole paying more for potentially worse healthcare
Well worth reading in full.
He concludes:
So, if a mainly public hospital healthcare system is cheaper, fairer, less divisive, and produces good outcomes on international comparisons, why encourage the use of alternatives? Instead of spending money on private health insurance, perhaps a lesser sum invested in the public system through taxation could make up for some of its current deficiencies and protect it for the future. It certainly has the best chance of delivering comprehensive health protection to all – even if they get old, lose their job or get sick with something unprofitable.
* Tim Parke is clinical director, Adult Emergency Department, Auckland
So taxation, clearly not a Labour man then 🙂
I wonder if the healthcare system as Tim Parke describes would have the same effect on ACC?
Dismantling State Unions – the blueprint for our future is currently in the UK.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2116214/Budget-2012-End-sight-public-sectors-national-pay-deals-Osborne-confronts-unions.html