Hard News: Friday night road warrior
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How many accidents caused by drivers just under the limit?
Once again, from afar, I drove, at what I assume would have been over the limit in NZ terms last night, simply because there are no drink driving laws here. I do it rarely. But, it happens (and I was in no way drunk).
However, drink driving is not a problem (apart from the odd drunken expat, but these are the same people who career around the roads sober too), and Balinese (and many Javanese) do like to drink, so I can't help thinking that there is something else in the psyche, missing here, that relentlessly testing, and lowering the limit misses. It's the same question that is raised by the fact that drinking seems to lead to excessive violence in Western cultures but not in the East (at least in my experience).....
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Just following up on what Simon said...
it reminded me of when I came back to NZ after 15 months in Japan in the mid-80s. As an avid clubber I went out a lot in Auckland and Tokyo around this time. The first time I went clubbing in Auckland after arriving back was a huge shock to the system. I had forgotten the level of aggression that seems to be always just under the surface in NZ. If you look at someone the wrong way you could end up with a rearranged face pretty quickly. But this kind of attitude had been completely absent in Tokyo, there was plenty of drinking but almost never fights and no one had ever threatened me with violence. But in Auckland this kind of thing seemed to be a regular occurance. -
It is so frustrating when you see dodgy statistics coming out of Govt particularly reported with breathless credulity by the media. Often these stats are used to support marginal policies that are going to cost you and me big dollars. The recent house insulation rules are one example. Completely bogus numbers but the policy is 'bold' - your bold is my 'overly expensive'
it usually only takes 10-15 minutes with Google to seriously undermine their credibility, but it seems much easier to cut and paste the media release. What are our news editors doing? Not enough are saying "this is rubbish, go ask a few hard questions". What's the point in having a round if you don't learn enough to ask those hard questions.
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