Posts by Rob Stowell
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Maori at the time of first contact, and well past the treaty, were strong. And very good at organised warfare. The first contact with Europeans ended in bloodshed, pakeha blood. And there are plenty of other examples of maori strength.
I'm a cycnic on this. (tho' there were undoubtably some with good intentions on all sides throughout). If Europeans had overwhelming military/violent superiority in 1840 (as the colonists did in Australia), they'd never have waltzed about here signing a treaty.
Similarly, if Europeans hadn't significantly out-numbered maori at the time of franchise, maori probably would have had to fight for the vote; and for some period we may well have had out won variety of apartheid.
I don't think we're better- I think we're luckier. Luckier because it's worked out better for NZ, and given us, however slow and unsatisfactory, a range of ways and means and skills for getting on. But most of the gains for maori have been hard-won, over a very long period. Harry Evison's "Te Waipounamu" tells the story from a Southern perspective very well. -
Michael's notion of citizenship is wildly wackly; lets not imagine anyone else subscribes to it. For that matter, there's a continual call for able-bodied types to crew on racing yachts in Lyttelton every weekend. Won't cost you more than the bus-fare over (heck odds on they'll give you a ride!)
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Yep. And they did it for money.
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It would sure be radical. And as long as everyone else stayed on course, it might just work. But then so might Bollard's "warning shot"- in the short term.
I'd like to see more controls/restrictions on bank lending either way. "The West" has a credit addiction and (in a strange reversal of the "opium wars") China is feeding it.
Not sure about hanging onto much US$ for more than the short term tho. Anyone else heard the "wild theory" that China is playing nice with the US dollar til after the '08 Olympics- which they are determined will put them centre stage?
After that: if the US keeps hassling them to float the yuan, they can pull the rug out from under the US dollar any day of the week. -
I've consulted my astrologer and he sez venus is in mars back-yard for a barbie of monkeybrains, jupiter popped over the road for some fags, RB is in vietnam, the moon is demi-ascendent in the watery personalities making accidents and rambling conversations with lunatics likely, the tide is slack on the firth of plausibility and- nuh, the stars are all agin it.
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For local news, I don't know where to go
Radio New Zealand. PAS and sometimes Scoop.
You're right, local TV news is not up to it.
Maybe in the wild new world of on-line content we'll get a new model- <wishful thinking> maybe a loose conglomeration of scoop/RB style/independent journos putting out/posting a kind've random (ie when somethings happened, not the relentless filling of a predetermined slot everyday) bulletin: "hard video news" we can rss on our set-top boxes and watch- whenever </wishful thinking>. -
Yeah, researching this recently, and while lamb has done ok at times, wool's really gone from hero to zero. In 1964 it made up approx 37% of our dollar exports. And we were in the -top few? (can't find figures on this) nations in the world in per capita income.
In 2004 wool made up 3% of our exports in dollar value. And it's slid since then.
And after all the clamour for diversity in the economy since '84 what're we doing? Betting the house on dairy prices. Hmmm. -
I'm just worried what David's gonna do. Every time the Guv gets on Mr Haywood's dark side, someone gets a Bollarding. An' I reckon he's .25% over the line now.
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Do parents ever consider how inventively vicious children and teenagers are when naming their hellspawn?
Parents do consider this. And one thing you consider is that human ingenuity is quite perverse and knows no bounds, so noone is safe. You might think, say, Haywood or Ranapia were "safe" names, but hand them to a bunch of 13-year-olds with time on their hands...
In a way the obviously unfortunate names just deny a child's peers the use of this ingenuity. I went to school with a Wayne Kerr, poor soul. And there was also a lad called Warrren Pierce, not funny you might think, but oh how we laffed. -
We await cute photos and complete recanting. It may not seem possible now, but nature is quite implacable about this. Familiarity doesn't breed contempt, it breeds families... ;-}