Open mike 27/12/2010

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, December 27th, 2010 - 18 comments
Categories: open mike - Tags:

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18 comments on “Open mike 27/12/2010 ”

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  1. Anne 1
    27 December 2010 at 9:09 am

    Helen Clark interview – recorded last Tuesday – about to start on Radion NZ.

  2. Anne 2
    27 December 2010 at 9:47 am

    That is the Helen Clark I knew in the 1970s and 80s. “Funny and warm” and immensely knowledgeable. As for her choice of song? Perfect.

    • mickysavage 2.1
      27 December 2010 at 8:49 pm

      Yep. Competent and entertaining. Able to speak intelligently without notes or warning but knows her subject back to front. And very principled. How things have gone down hill …

  3. millsy 3
    27 December 2010 at 1:18 pm

    Enrolment for adults @ canterbury uni tightens

    If we are going to start restricting entry to uni, then I think that there is going to have to be some quid pro quo in terms of fees, loans and allowances.

    • jcuknz 3.1
      27 December 2010 at 1:59 pm

      It looks as if they are trying to reduce the number of students who waste public money, and the small portion of their own, by starting and not seeing through the commitment of university study. A good thing at last as I see it, should apply to the under 21yo’s too.

      • mcflock 3.1.1
        27 December 2010 at 2:40 pm

        The uni doesn’t give a damn about public money any more than kiwirail does when buying offshore wagons. It’s concentration on one’s own bottom line.

        In the mid-90s govt funding solely rewarded “bums on seats”, so universities actually removed academic progression regulations. They realised that people who didn’t waste the lecturer’s time or submit exams for marking were money for nothing. Unfortunately it A) stuffs their academic reputation quite a bit; and b) some of the people at university as a substitute for “community care” take up more time than ghost students are worth. At Otago some departments faced with particularly disruptive students brought in their own regulations that you couldn’t take the same paper 3 times in a row!

        Over the last five years or so, as I understand it, the university funding model has been progressively tweaked to include course completion rates by undergrad and especially postgrad students, with just this objective in mind. There’s more money in successful students than in just allowing people to dodge the unemployment line.

        • Bored 3.1.1.1
          27 December 2010 at 4:38 pm

          JC and MC, I dont think we would be posting comments on University enrolments, fees, costs etc if there was not such an extreme level of youth unemployment.

          • mcflock 3.1.1.1.1
            27 December 2010 at 5:20 pm

            I was part of the lot in the 90s who went into tertiary education just to get winz off my back after school finished, so I agree.

            The big issue is that the out I had (uni) has been closed by this government who have decided to restrict loans if you fail more than half your course. So ongoing harassment by WI or go-nowhere minimum wage employers that WI bully you into is all that people are left with.

            This government are a bunch of sour abusive pricks, as far as I’m concerned.

            • Bored 3.1.1.1.1.1
              27 December 2010 at 9:07 pm

              You wont get any argument on that from me, the NACT bunch of scheisters have resurrected that old right wing shibboleth, the “beneficiary”, the no good loser who bludges and is to blame for all the ills of the rich tax payers….now the bastards are creating the conditions for more to be so accused.

  4. M 4
    27 December 2010 at 3:46 pm

    CV & Bill

    Interesting discussion in yesterday’s Open Mike re pooling activities to save energy and for want of a better description intentional communities.

    Don’t know if the Mondragon way of life would float anyone’s boat but it seems to have a fairer distribution of wealth and a smaller disparity between the top and the bottom levels of their communities:

    http://www.justpeace.org/mondragon.htm

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mondragon_Corporation

    The importance of community for the future is my favourite Youtube clip for the year:

    • Bill 4.1
      27 December 2010 at 5:57 pm

      To its credit, Mondragon doesn’t have the same disparity in income between labours and managers as other companies. But there’s the flaw right there. There’s still a vertical division of labour with those in managerial positions only undertaking managerial tasks and by dint of their position, they are in possession of the knowledge required to make informed decisions.

      I can see two possible consequences of such a scenario.

      1. The managers control the matters that decisions are sought on. I’ll assume (I stand to be corrected) that workers then ‘vote’ on proposition a) or proposition b). But these parameters (propositions a and b) are set by management and workers can only operate on the selective knowledge the managers have made available to them.

      In other words, there is an inevitable narrowing down of possible debate and the potential for democracy is diminished in direct correlation to that.

      2. And I’m guessing that the bulk of workers probably wind up not participating or voting at all since they are operating on partial knowledge or are being asked to choose between pre-selected options. In other words, managerial decisions are subject to a ‘rubber stamp’ process. And what’s the point in taking part in that?

      I’d be interested to know the participation rates of workers in any voting options and the criteria employed to determine what issues or matters should be put up for vote or discussion and how knowledge pertaining to those options is disseminated. Obviously, workers will have little avenue for compiling their own knowledge or knowing what knowledge to seek in lieu of knowledge they already possess because of the preservation of managerial layers in the company’s operating environment.

    • Colonial Viper 4.2
      27 December 2010 at 6:56 pm

      Thanks, M.

  5. Colonial Viper 5
    27 December 2010 at 6:58 pm

    Just saw John Key’s big wide smiling face staring at me from the latest Listener (Jan 1-7).

    the tag line “The Best Advice I Ever Received”

    Gah, gorge rising.

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