Open mike 18/02/2012

22 comments on “Open mike 18/02/2012 ”

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1. Bored 1

   18 February 2012 at 8:53 am

   This sort of relates to yesterdays posts on IT. Its my observations and expreience of the last month in the hiring a junior techo in a starter position. My ideal, a young keen learner with some known skils (certs / demonstrable experience), but most importantly good verbal communications.

   CVs flooded in, lots of “post learner” types from the whole of Asia, or from people resident in NZ looking for work to help them get permanent resident status. Some of the claimed skills were amazing, far too high for my requirements but bloody impressive. All wanting a start in NZ.

   Less favourable in terms of quantity and qulaity were from young local NZers. Some were good, but overall the standard far lower (however more in line with my requirements).

   Before making any conclusion let me state I dont care which of these categories will eventually be hired so long as they can do the job. So conclusions:

   1. NZ seems incredibly desirable to potential immigrants, they are willing to do anything just to get their foot in the door. And there are a very large number of these people shipped up here already doing work which is well below their skill set.
   2. Local youth unemployement is blooody high but the ones I saw dont have the qualifications to any comparison: we are not training them properly, getting law degrees etc does not help employers like me find good cures to local youth unemployment.

   Which all leads me to question both our immigration and education policies. What a mess.
   • Colonial Viper 1.1

     18 February 2012 at 10:07 am

     Strategic work force planning. We don’t do it as a country. We believe the markets will do it for us. And its exactly the model this government is using for Christchurch.
     • vto 1.1.1

       18 February 2012 at 10:28 am

       Yes it is the model currently running for Christchurch, at the moment. Chch is a fantastic illustration of the problem mr bored describes imo.

       Leaving it purely to market forces may work in some kind of manner, eventually, after a long time, and the result may not be as good as could have been. Similarly, being entirely prescriptive has its own failings. The best is quite clearly a mixture of the two, probably with a heavier weight to market forces.

       Using Chch as an example again, the money from property investors is leaving the city which will result in many many many bare sites and open slather for an organic re-growth of the city as genuine demand drives it. However, leaving it solely to this may not end up with the best result – for example, it will take an awful lot longer.

       So adding a pit of prescription from a central authority or other will assist in the timeframe example. Such as, the IRD being one of the first back into the central city (in a safe etc buildling of course). Similarly, the CCouncil making decisions on the likes of Convention Centre and Sports Centre locations and getting started would also assist the market and provide direction. Both of theae examples would ease the example problem which arises from pure market drive – the longer timeframe.

       The same also goes for insurance.

       Christchurch is a brilliant example of many things – the confluence of market forces and centralised prescription is one such. Being played out in a city near you – watch with interest.

       btw, bored, any salmon in the manawatu?
       • bored 1.1.1.1

         19 February 2012 at 12:12 pm

         Salmon? Never seen one in the Manawatu, I get the feeling that the salmon you hear about getting into the North island rivers are very confused and come one at a time. The water up here is to warm for a run. Wandered a couple of kms fo a Wairarapa river yesterday, was like a bath, fish had gone off to find a cooler patch.
   • KJT 1.2

     18 February 2012 at 11:33 am

     NZ business have always failed to train and remunerate skilled staff.

     The main reason is they know that bleating to the immigration department never fails to make up for their negligence.

     Won’t happen for much longer as practical skills become in demand worldwide and the social wage in NZ, built up by generations of NZ taxpayers, that makes us so desirable, is removed by shortsighted Neo_Liberal Government..

     Already see most of them in my work leave for Australia as soon as they can get residency.
2. phillip ure.. 2

   18 February 2012 at 9:00 am

   http://whoar.co.nz/2012/9-kick-ass-things-obama-should-do-in-a-second-term/

   “…The chances are rising for an Obama second term.

   But what do we really want him to do?..”

   phil-at-whoar.
3. Te Reo Putake 3

   18 February 2012 at 10:10 am

   More on the Rangers FC insolvency, but from the point of view of the blogger who exposed the pillaging of the club. It’s long article, but the main point isn’t about fitba, or tax cheats, but the role of blogs in a society where the msm are incentivised not to report the news.
   • willie maley 3.1

     18 February 2012 at 1:23 pm

     Thanks for this link, I have been following this website for close on a couple of years now. Funny thing was, every time I would mention things regarding Rangers which were first brought up by the RTC site, invariably people would roll their eyes at me.
     Not happening much nowadays though, as this guy has been proven correct time after time.
     Listening to a Celtic podcast yesterday and the hosts were hi lighting how the old media in Scotland has been left way in the past by the contributors the new media that we are all a part of now.
     This,in my opinion, is where sites like The Standard are showing up the failings of the MSM in this country.
     Finally, this weekend Hibs play Celtic (both clubs have an Irish background) both sets of fans have organised to have a jelly and ice cream party:)
4. Te Reo Putake 4

   18 February 2012 at 10:21 am

   I see the Senseless Sentencing Trust are marching in favour of a new law that would see recidivist liars and repeat offenders locked up and the key thrown away.
    
   To be called Garrett’s law, it would require organisations who fail to point out the hypocrisy of their own former staff repeatedly breaking the law while calling for the brown skinned poor to be incarcerated on suspicion to be made to dress in sheets and carry flaming wooden crosses through the streets of South Auckland until somebody knocks some fucken sense into them.
   • Kevin Welsh 4.1

     18 February 2012 at 12:17 pm

     The courts allow someone out on bail on a kidnapping charge to live in close proximity of his victim, who then murders her only a few weeks later?

     OTOH

     Someone charged with crimes relating to anti-piracy is denied bail.

     Pretty fucked up, if you ask me.
     • grumpy 4.1.1

       18 February 2012 at 1:25 pm

       +1
5. vto 5

   18 February 2012 at 10:54 am

   .

   Who owns an earthquake-prone building outside of Christchurch?

   Feel the warmth of the approaching fire-storm yet?
6. Salsy 6

   18 February 2012 at 11:15 am

   The Greens are well and truly out in front – excellent researching and questioning over the Crafar farms deal. Greens-Crafar-approval-politically-motivated

   The Overseas Investment Office’s job is to provide the best advice for New Zealand, instead they are meeting secretly with the Chinese government officials and then presenting this advice which we find out in court is legally, factually, completely incorrect.

   “I think that we have to ask the question about the impartiality of the Overseas Investment Office when they are secretly meeting with the Chinese government officials and not even notifying their minister.

   Norman frames this situation perfectly:

   “The problem actually isn’t with the Chinese government because they are just doing what’s in their best interests. The problem is with the New Zealand government which isn’t doing what’s in New Zealand’s best interest,” Norman said.
7. johnm 7

   18 February 2012 at 11:23 am

   With a nod to R. Atack and AFKTT Here we are again! A collapsing to a simpler level Global Civilisation. Due to resource decline.

   The”Great Lurch Downward: the arithmetic is fairly simple, and we can see that annual oil production will drop to half of its peak level by 2030.” This Macro reality is bound to affect us big time.

   Refer link:http://www.countercurrents.org/goodchild170212.htm

   Author’s point is we live in a cocooned existence relative to other parts of the World and though this is happening now we are not aware of it.
   • Colonial Viper 7.1

     18 February 2012 at 11:36 am

     Oil production dropping to half its peak level by 2030 is actually not that much of a problem. The fact that the drop relative to ever increasing demand from developing countries is going to be catastrophically higher than that – well, that is the real problem.

     EG Saudi Arabia might be able to keep its oil output in merely gradual decline over the next 20 years. The real problem is that its internal demand for oil is consistently growing so net remaining oil available for export will fall rapidly.
   • Lanthanide 7.2

     18 February 2012 at 11:41 am

     I actually honestly don’t believe we’ll be down to 50% by 2030. I know that that’s what all the models and maths say, but similarly I’ve been expecting the plateau to end suddenly at any moment since 2007 and it hasn’t. I think a range of 60-70% by 2030 is a safer bet. Assuming that everything will be BAU in 2025 after ~10 years of declining oil supply is a bit silly, and that’s essentially what the 2030 prediction is assuming.

     On the flip-side we could end up with massive infrastructure damage from wars that artificially caps production lower than it otherwise would be. But I don’t believe that is assumed in the models for 2030 because it’s impossible to predict with any rigour.
     • Colonial Viper 7.2.1

       18 February 2012 at 11:49 am

       total oil production declines will be gradual yes, but IMO declines in net oil available for export over that same time period will be catastrophic.
       • Lanthanide 7.2.1.1

         18 February 2012 at 2:05 pm

         Oh yes, definitely, that is the real thing to look out for.
   • gorj 7.3

     18 February 2012 at 6:56 pm

     What happened to AFKTT? Hasn’t been around these parts for a while.
8. KJT 8

   18 February 2012 at 11:27 am

   Fran O,Sullivan asks for mature consideration on the Crafer deal. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=10786311

   Mature consideration will show that foreign buyers such as China, USA and Germany will always be able to pay above New Zealanders, eventually leading to all land in NZ being in overseas hands.

   Their cost of capital is effectively negative, getting rid of soon to be worthless US dollars, while New Zealanders have to cover interest, and repayments.

   The interests of NZ would have been best served by the Government buying the land, splitting it up and lending the money for NZ sharemilkers to get their own farms.

   The returns to those selling farmland for capital gains should not be a consideration. Farmland is already overpriced compared to incomes, which, like overpriced residential land, only benefits banks and those who are flush with cash..

   I hope this brings a rethink of the desirability of allowing overseas interests to buy any land.

   You only have to look at the Bay of Islands to see we are fast becoming like Spain. The locals are restricted to the cheap unproductive land inland while wealthy foreigners own hotels and villa’s on the coast.

   A price drop for NZ land would be a good thing. I can sell my family home for a reasonable price, to someone starting out, without having to worry about paying a million for a retirement bach. Young farmers and business startups can buy land at prices commensurate with the likely returns.
9. blue leopard 9

   18 February 2012 at 2:54 pm

   “I d like to talk about the things that brings us together.
   Things that point out our similarities instead of our differences
   coz that’s all you will be hearing about in this country are differences,
   that all the media, the poli -tic- icans are talking about , the things
   that separate us, things that make us different from one another.
   That’s the way the ruling class operates in any society.
   They try to divide the rest of the people;
   they keep the lower and the middle classes fighting with each other;
   so that they, the rich, can run off with all the f*cking money (bailout),
   fairly simple thing happens to work.
   You know anything different that’s what they gonna talk about:
   race, religion, ethnic and national background, jobs, income, education, social status
   sexuality, anything that they can do to keep us fighting with each other,
   so that they can keep goin’ to the bank.
   You know how I describe the economic and social classes in this country :
   the upper-class keeps all of the money pays none of the taxes
   the middleclass pays all of the taxes and does all of the work
   the poor are there to just to scare the shit out of the middleclass, to keep ‘em showin’ up at those jobs
   SO stirrin’ up the shit is something Id like to do from time to time”

   George Carlin “The Ruling Class”
10. odysseus 10

    18 February 2012 at 9:26 pm

    Some Sat night music from the boss……

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWpG_ULYpr8&feature=player_embedded

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