Weekend social 24/07/2015

14 comments on “Weekend social 24/07/2015 ”

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1. Jenny Kirk 1

   24 July 2015 at 5:06 pm

   Well – not quite “political” – this is sort of “social” – a film – something to do in the weekend perhaps, or whenever this film gets around the country’s cinemas ….

   http://pacific.scoop.co.nz/2015/07/new-doco-takes-personal-look-into-how-raids-harmed-tuhoe-lives/

   ….a new documentary entitled The Price of Peace goes beyond the surface into the world of Tame Iti, and takes a different approach to telling the story of the Tūhoe raids. ………….. On a wider scope, the film (also) points towards the importance of reconciliation and the state of race relations in the country.
   The film screens once more at the New Zealand International Film Festival in Auckland, then tours around the country before airing on Māori Television on October 13.
2. vaughan little 2

   25 July 2015 at 7:33 am

   Some standout stuff in an essay on the history of Chinese government, by one Jack Dull:

   “From the Song dynasty on [960-] men spent years and sometimes decades studying the Confucian classics in order to prepare themselves for government service, whereas in the Han period [200BCish-200ADish] comparable aspirants to bureaucratic careers were in effect serving an apprenticeship in the lower reaches of the imperial order.

   “…I would suggest that Han local administration was of a higher quality than that of later periods in Chinese history. Han subbureaucratic officials hoped by establishing their merit as officials to be promoted to regular bureaucratic positions; late imperial subbureaucrats knew such upward mobility was impossible and sought, often through unscrupulous and corrupt behaviour, to exact as much as possible from the populace.”
3. Jim Nald 3

   25 July 2015 at 8:24 am

   Hi All

   Want warmer socks, mostly natural fibres, good pricing and also to keep NZ working?

   Check out these Alpsocks on sale at The Warehouse for the next few days to get for yourselves or for gifts:

   http://www.thewarehouse.co.nz/red/catalog/product/Alpsocks-Men%27s-Work-Socks?SKU=431232#base

   http://www.thewarehouse.co.nz/red/catalog/product/Alpsocks-Women%27s-Fleck-Socks?SKU=1764171#base

   http://www.thewarehouse.co.nz/red/catalog/product/Alpsocks-Men%27s-Thermal-Wool-Blend-Socks?SKU=285205#base

   Search The Warehouse website for others in the range.

   Description for the value 3-pack work socks:

   Made in New Zealand

   A traditional work sock in a value pack. Made from wool nylon for durability. Suitable all year round with light weight to heavy weight footwear.

   70% Wool. 30% Nylon.
   Nylon reinforced Heel and Toe.

   Alspsocks, PO Box 833, Timaru New Zealand

   I bought a pack and I enjoy wearing them during cold days/evenings.

   I do not get a commission!
   • greywarshark 3.1

     25 July 2015 at 3:53 pm

     This sunny morning down at the Nelson Flea Market I talked to Terry who travels over from Murchison each week to sell woollen socks. His are heavy flecked ones $14 a pair and I think $50 for four pair. So buy your socks in Nelson or Murchison and have a sunny, often, weekend away also. What could be better for our economy.

     Terry also promotes The Campaign for Wool to increase knowledge of its advantages and more use in NZ and the world.
     http://www.ruraldelivery.net.nz/2014/03/wool-expo/

     Prince Charles has led the initiative to lobby for wool and create new interest in it.
     (This I think underlines the advantage of committed and concerned royalty with an overview and concern for the country, compared to a president with a concern to accumulate personal wealth and position cf Bush and Blatter.)
     Research commissioned by HRH The Prince of Wales, who himself is the United Kingdom’s most significant sheep farmer, suggested that wool and its outstanding characteristics had been forgotten due to the rise in popularity of synthetic fibres and the rush to embrace all things new….

     Following on from his success in popularising mutton as a premium product, HRH The Prince of Wales then convened a meeting at Clarence House with a diverse group of stakeholders with a connection to wool – from sheep experts to wool marketers, wool traders to fashion designers and carpet manufacturers.

     http://www.campaignforwool.co.nz/the-campaign/
     • Jenny Kirk 3.1.1

       25 July 2015 at 8:57 pm

       Yeah – I’ve been wondering why our wool market has slumped – okay, new synthetics abound – but the quality and versatility of wool against plastic-oriented fleece surely should make wool into a competitive material ? Maybe it won’t be until we’re all in depression-era again that the quality and flexibility of long-lasting wool will make itself felt – and then maybe, we’ll have cheaper lamb to eat too – maybe, hopefully.
4. Atiawa 4

   25 July 2015 at 12:17 pm

   The somewhat controversial $11.5 million Len Lye Centre opens today in New Plymouth. A fantastic display of this world renown artists work featuring displays of kinetic energy.

   Check out an interesting association between this new public good asset and Serco.

   http://www.stuff.co.nz/taranaki-daily-news/opinion/70505453/ross-henderson-what-do the-len-lye-centre-and-mt-eden-prison-have-in-common
5. greywarshark 5

   25 July 2015 at 4:34 pm

   Further on Margaret Thorn, early Labour activist.
   ..moving on to Palmerston North. There at 16, working as a waitress, Margaret immediately identified herself with the Red Feds and the next year met James Thorn, freshly returned to NZ from five years as a journalist and labour activist in Britain. With shared socialist and anti-war convictions their friendship evolved into courtship through an election campaign, WEA classes, ostracism at work and a year of ingeniously informative letters from Margaret to Jim, in prison for seditious utterances. They married on his release. She was 20, he was 35….

   Margaret never accepted a system where a well-read skilled artisan like her father could find no work and ended up pulling a bitumen roller …where her mother, despite keeping hens and a cow to have and to sell eggs, milk and butter, had also to get up at 5.30 am to clean Dalgety’s offices….

   In the 1920.s [she] was starting and running the Miramar branch of the Labour Party while bringing up three children on a shoestring and the produce of their garden, writing herself for the womens and childrens pages of the Maoriland Worker, feeding ideas and challenges and book reviews to Jim, who was its editor for ten years. In the early 1930s it was doing something about unemployed women and girls in the slump..[and she and others] ..spoke fearlesly battling for the claims of this neglected or exploited group in the face of the patronising or reactionary mind-set she found in the Mayoress’ Relief Committee.

   Jim was elected Labour MP for Thames at the end of 1935 and they had to move house….Accompanying Jim to the ILO conference in Geneva [was where] Fascism and war threatened. But she came back to the 1938 victory and the implementation of the Social Security Act.

   In 1947 …Jim was appointed NZ High Commissioner in Canada..also a member of NZ United Nations delegation in New York and Paris. Margaret remained in Ottawa, speaking as public ambassador for NZ and its achievements…She was distanced from the growing conservative cast of the Labour administration at home, while becoming very aware of the implications of the Cold War, the Berlin blockade and the Un-American Activities Committee in world politics. Back in NZ on a limited income, she built another garden in Lower Hutt while Jim wrote a biography of Peter Fraser, and tried to revive flagging support for the UN Association.

   After Jim’s death in 1956 Margaret had a severe nervous breakdown with several courses of electric shock treatment and drug therapy. …Yet in the 60s – hers and the century’s – she came back with renewed vigour and vigilance [concerning] the devastation threatened by modern war and the wrongs still suffered by women.
   • Jenny Kirk 5.1

     25 July 2015 at 8:52 pm

     Is this written down officially somewhere – Greywarshark ? re Margaret Thorn ?
     • greywarshark 5.1.1

       25 July 2015 at 10:05 pm

       Sorry Jenny I should put the source. I had the ‘thorn’ in my mind of some book about some woman with something about keeping left, and at last was helped – got the word from one of our knowledgable writers and got a copy at last. That’s the long story.

       The book is Stick Out, Keep Left an autobiography by Margaret Thorn.
       Edited by Elsie Locke and Jacquie Matthews
       Bridget Williams Books 1997
       Auckland University Press
       • Jenny Kirk 5.1.1.1

         26 July 2015 at 8:22 am

         Thanks GWS.
6. ianmac 6

   25 July 2015 at 4:44 pm

   On a lighter note just been to Joe Bennett at the Writers Festival. A very energetic enthusiastic speaker on a range of topics. Hilarious. He hopes that some his writings be a Truth which not quite the same as factual. Truths last longer and are more universally viable.
   • b waghorn 6.1

     25 July 2015 at 7:52 pm

     I’m reading a collection of his articles at the moment, he’s a clever funny bugger alright.
     • ianmac 6.1.1

       25 July 2015 at 9:57 pm

       I think that for Joe beneath all the hilarity, beats a philosophical humanistic belief. He quoted someone who said that he liked Joan and Bill and Helen but did not like mankind. Paraphrased of course but I get the drift
       • b waghorn 6.1.1.1

         26 July 2015 at 8:19 am

         Yes humans on there own are quite a likable bunch but as a species I’m not so sure.

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