Posts by izogi
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Hard News: About Chris Brown, in reply to Sue,
Kelvin Davis raised this on Radio NZ saying one of his family who did screw up when young can’t even get a transit visa for 2 hours in la to get to the UK. if you want to go to america, make sure you’ve never broken the law.
On a tangent, the latest twist to come from Australia is that young children born to parents with NZ citizenship are now actively in line to be deported from Australia, even though they’ve lived in Australia their entire lives with parents who live there legally. Aside from the obvious immediate problems and however they and their families might end up getting through it, I guess this means they’ll have to tick the Yes box, for having been deported, on every international arrival card from now on.
Their crime? Being born in Australia to parents with NZ citizenship by descent, and so having no citizenship status with either country, thus being in Australia unlawfully. Predictions are that 1500 children are in similar circumstances.
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Thanks for an interesting post, Graeme. It’s always refreshing to see good attempts at digging up real numbers instead of just having people saying stuff.
A few things which come to mind:
* Is there any way to know if courts are now reacting differently when strike offences come up? Is it possible for lawyers to barter with each other to avoid strike offence prosecutions when they mightn’t previously have bothered? [Edit: I see @MPH already raised this question.]
* As David Hood said a couple of hours ago, it’d also be good to know that this isn’t just a peak/trough thing caused by separate events affecting the two periods which have nothing to do with strikes. Maybe that requires a wider range of data over a longer period, in both directions to prove that a sudden drop at 3 strikes introduction is retained.
* Also crunching numbers is great, but for more understanding has anyone around here been in a position to actually talk to people who’ve been warned, and had an opportunity to gauge if and how it affects them?
I still dislike the three strikes thing. Wherever there’s a possibility of rehabilitating someone then I’d much prefer they could have a pathway to return to the outside and contribute to society and the economy, very possibly what’s left of their family, rather than be locked inside and remain a drain on everyone else if they don’t need to be. I can’t shake the belief that context is important, and three strikes, to me, has always seemed a really ugly arbitrary way of deciding that there’s no chance of rehabilitating someone.
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Field Theory: It's about time, in reply to BenWilson,
They should, although when they’re pretty much representatives of a professional organization, they should consider the extent to which their pronouncements associate that organization positively.
Maybe to a point, but for another context, how about scientists who get told to stand in line with their employer’s comms department? That’s effectively what happened to Jim Salinger a few years ago when, in his capacity as a fully qualified scientist, he was fired by NIWA for (after several warnings about similar incidents) giving his opinion to media about shrinking glaciers, without authorisation.
I find it annoying when players start blabbing about politics I disagree with, but as Haydn said it’s probably just because it gives me reasons to dislike them.
I cringe, however, when I see the NZRU overtly aligning itself politically, or otherwise doing nothing to discredit or distance itself from the political figures who have been seeking it out. That’s not just an individual player risking a public backlash. It risks the image of the entire game, and the people who run the NZRU should know better.
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Hard News: The positive option of Red Peak, in reply to Sofie Bribiesca,
Breaking up the Hypno Flag momentum should bring Johnny’s silver fern right through the middle.
Wouldn’t that depend on how people rank their choices in the preferential vote? If everyone who ranks either flag first ranks the other immediately after (possibly not a reliable assumption), then all of those votes flood to the other one as soon as either is eliminated.
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Field Theory: It's about time, in reply to Sacha,
I’m not sure it matters who initiated it. That the NZRU chose to do it, given the option, just seems shortsighted to me with everything that had been brewing up until then. Immediately afterwards there were predictably even more accusations flying about political partisanship in the game, to the point that the PM was out in the media defending them in another showing that could only possibly inflame things!
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Hard News: The positive option of Red Peak, in reply to Dinah Dunavan,
I feel the whole Red Peak saga has been an exercise in mass manipulation. I wouldn’t have selected it from the short list. I get the feeling that we’re supposed to think that getting it onto the votting papers is a ‘win’.
Early on I wasn’t averse to debating and possibly changing the flag, but after all this I feel the entire flag selection process has been an exercise in politically motivated cronyism, long before the latest development. That may not be true, but with the way the whole thing’s been conducted, helped by the PM not being able to shut up about his own preferences, it’s created a perception that everyone was simply going to be asked “which rendition of the PM’s favourite silver fern do you like most for the national marketing logo?”
The method for adding Red Peak is what it is, but so many people rallied around it as a direct consequence of the mess that preceeded it. Apart from giving voters another choice which is less of a corporate logo and at least resolving an argument that everyone’s been wasting lots of effort on (I hope), I’m struggling to imagine how it’s made things any worse.
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Hard News: The positive option of Red Peak, in reply to ,
They used my personal details to phone spam me trying to get money. And they would not easily take no for awnser.
I guess it's the professionalisation of this stuff. I had a Forest & Bird collector come to the door once. I stated outright that I wasn't going to sign up to anything he had with him, or give any money direct through him, and at best might choose to donate via other means in my own time. He still worked at me for a good 30 minutes of his time, maybe because I hadn't shut the door in his face, and during which we had some fascinating discussions about any number of things. After that he seemed fairly rattled that I wasn't offering any money. Hopefully he learned something, though.
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The more the All Blacks align themselves with John Key the more I hate them.
I could sometimes overlook youthful individuals saying stuff. Whatever. What gets me is All Blacks and NZ Rugby Management seeming to have a complete disinterest in what the players say when associated with the team and its brand, and at times outright enabling political alignment.
Maybe you can’t always stop Dan Carter from blabbing about his favourite guy on twitter, or Richie McCaw for answering a question about his favourite flag, but why is the PM allowed into the dressing rooms for obviously politically motivated photos? Why is a rugby magazine allowed to use the AB’s brand and player photos in clearly politicised image? Why is the team announced on the steps of parliament?? These are all the things which NZ Rugby can and should be in control of. It seems high risk management for the brand in such a highly polarised political environment, so what do they expect to get for it?
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Hard News: The positive option of Red Peak, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
Thanks. I'm not a subscriber to The Australian, but so far the others just seem to be newswire adaptations or reports describing NZ's politically charged paranoia about itself, as opposed to international outrage of the design which NZ's adding to the list.
I'd be keen to know if real people globally would even notice or care about NZ having a flag which, for those with a suitable imagination, could be perceived as a quarter of a swastika. Are we going to be afraid of straight lines next?
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Hard News: The positive option of Red Peak, in reply to Tom Semmens,
I am pretty sure that is the end of any talk of “Red Peak"….
*sigh* Yeah, probably.
I noticed that and I guess I was concerned for a moment. Then I wondered if this is something that anyone globally is going to notice or care about besides New Zealanders who are paranoid about being mis-perceived by someone else's manipulation of their flag. Is it?