Speaker: Low-quality language on immigration
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Lynn Yum, in reply to
I think it was pointed out at the time already, but Labour's methodology is completely flawed if they want to use THAT to show foreign buyers are buying up all the house. What about non-Chinese sounding foreigners?
If Labour simply cut-and-pasted their research methodology from Vancouver, then they should have know there was a backlash in Vancouver as well, where some people tried to bury the problem by crying racism and then keep on pretending everything is fine. (Kind of like what National is doing, really.)
The right way to demonstrate foreign ownership is driving up property price is to first find official, credible statistics on foreign ownership of property. Take the government to task on that, or find some better way to measure it.
So Labour either is too lazy to refine the methodology used in Vancouver, or they just want to point the finger at certain people and demonise them. I don't know which is worse.
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Sorry to be unclear, I was stating that Labour's horrible piece of racism was about property ownership rather than immigration.
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mark taslov, in reply to
looked to specifically be about racism to me.
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william blake, in reply to
Mark do you blame the housing shortage on immigration, overseas property investment or racism?
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mark taslov, in reply to
Thanks Steven. and if I may also append.
I won’t pretend not to understand why liberal Labour voters might want to distract from the party’s appeal to racists, especially now the white supremacists have been effectively mobilised in the US. Perhaps like Jacinda Ardern they feel “not comfortable” about the racist rhetoric, but that’s the line in the sand the party drew, and as strongly worded or adequate as “not comfortable” might sound to pale ears, it’s a world away from “give nothing to racism”.
Anti-racists condemn racism without a second thought – certainly without need to couch their actions in apologism and distraction, others seem to be more equivocal, highlighting the difficulty some have condemning racism. I’d wager even some of the lowest of Labour’s ‘low quality immigrants’ could explain this to William.
So for now we'll keep pretending that every time a Labour MP blows the dog-whistle that it's them being "careless" and just treat everything else they say as kosher.
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mark taslov, in reply to
Sorry for my slow reply there, I'm still quite busy getting through the works of Sheila Jeffreys whose aggressive transphobia was recommended to me as an antidote to Gloria Steinem's less pronounced transphobia. Steven covered what needed to be said I felt.
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I find it very hard to take Labour's "Chinese-sounding names" episode as motivated by anything other than racism, or as anything but one incident in a series of Yellow Peril-style outbursts. This is one reason I find it very hard to trust Labour.
James Shaw's apparently sudden enlightenment on issues of racism and xenophobia is also difficult to accept given the Greens have also often jumped on that same Yellow Peril bandwagon.
I have very big doubts about TOP's immigration policy, but points 5 and 6, refugees and exploitation of migrant workers, seem good, if somewhat vague and lacking in detail. I have talked to their Ōhāriu candidate at Johnsonville Market*, and I have been somewhat reassured. There are lots and lots of ways that policy could go really wrong, but what Jessica said about refugees and our refugee quota was good, and, well, the conversation generally was positive. Of course, she wants my vote...
What bugs me about the immigration issue is that whether we're repatriate Kiwis or new immigrants or any other kind of migrant (we have three kinds of migrant in my family), we seem to be getting the blame for a whole bunch of social and economic ills we couldn't possibly be responsible for. We were overseas when all these issues developed. International students didn't set up dodgy PTEs, and migrants wouldn't be so vulnerable to exploitation if they could see more viable options. But bashing migrants is easy, finding real solutions to the problem takes more work.
*which I mention because I have only seen two Ōhāriu candidates there. Both have talked about how they like the cultural diversity at the market and throughout the electorate - yet one represents a party that wants to drastically cut immigration.
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simon g, in reply to
James Shaw's apparently sudden enlightenment on issues of racism and xenophobia is also difficult to accept given the Greens have also often jumped on that same Yellow Peril bandwagon.
Can you give examples of this? It's certainly a gross misrepresentation of James' own views. I think he deserves an apology, frankly.
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Farmer Green, in reply to
we've failed to educate residents to fill those roles.
I think that NZ, like many "Western " nations, has quite deliberately dumbed-down the schooling system. The lowering of standards so that everyone can have a degree , and a debt to go with it, seems to have been the policy.
If the purpose was a docile , dull , distracted , and deluded populace, the better to rob the people of anything and everything, and ultimately to render common folk expendable . . . . well, nice work so far. -
Farmer Green, in reply to
I blame not the housing shortage, but house price inflation, on greedy people. They are competing to borrow huge amounts of money from foreign banks. They are importing debt. And then they work stupid hours to service it, at the expense of spending time with their children, in the hope of making money from capital gain
You only used the word "stupid" once. Stupid is . . . .
:-) -
Ian Dalziel, in reply to
dumbed-down the schooling system. ....
If the purpose was a docile , dull , distracted , and deluded populace, the better to rob the people of anything and everything, and ultimately to render common folk expendable . . . . well, nice work so farDidn't Nikki Kaye just scrap the 'docile system'?
Oh hang on, I need a vowel movement... -
Farmer Green, in reply to
I am heartened to hear murmurs coming from educationalists, . . . . .
Perhaps the acquisition of literacy and numeracy could be considered as a "resource" in teaching how 1s and 0s work.
Just a thought.
Without wishing to appear disheartening , I am sure that thinking "educationalists" have been murmuring for several decades, but they seem to have had no effect in halting the decline . . . . the "education" system is not run by educationalists. -
Farmer Green, in reply to
cash for a shitty little house in Auckland,
What I don't understand is why any young NZer would claim to want such a thing, to the point where they think they are missing out on something that ought to be theirs by right. I agree that we all have bestowed upon us , by society at large, the right to lose our shirts, but this just seems ridiculous.
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WH,
Apropos nothing, this Hillary Clinton speech about the dangers of enabling cranks and extremists is going viral.
David Duke was a wizard.
Say no to wizards.
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Farmer Green, in reply to
I gotta stop reading these "conspiracy theory" commenters. Half of them are optimists, thinking a collapse will be good , and the other half live in fear of it.
Too confusing! -
Farmer Green, in reply to
Say no to wizards.
Especially economic wizards.
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WH, in reply to
Ceterum censeo wizards esse delendam.
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Sacha, in reply to
they think they are missing out on something that ought to be theirs by right
cos that is what all the older folk they hear from claim is so.
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Numerical system diversity
What does that include? Unit conversions should be straightforward enough (though not doing them has resulted in several expensive accidents). Are there any other tricks to handling American-sourced data (oh, other than their idiosyncratic date order convention)?
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Farmer Green, in reply to
all the older folk they hear from
I guess that we are all allowed to listen to whoever we choose . . . .aren't we?
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Joe Wylie, in reply to
Are there any other tricks to handling American-sourced data (oh, other than their idiosyncratic date order convention)?
Duhhh, 2d animation standards are specified in decimal inches, i.e. 10 inches between background registration peg centres. Hollywood never really felt the need for the metric system. Most US art supply stores can do a ruler graduated in tenths of an inch, though they'll fall about laughing if you mention a rubber when you mean an eraser.
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Farmer Green, in reply to
Those ft-lbs come in handy. I think the Founding Fathers didn't know that there were 20 oz. in a pint.
And look at the resulting mess :-) -
Farmer Green, in reply to
A classical education , NZ- style was still available in the 1970s. Maths , Science and three languages , usually Latin, French or German , and English was standard.
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Farmer Green, in reply to
It seems to be about that time . . . creative destruction it is sometime called.
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Ian Dalziel, in reply to
A classical education , NZ- style was still available in the 1970s....
It seems to be about that time . . . creative destruction it is sometime calledSignal to noise goes out of whack, mass media,
new technology enables unprecedented access,
which swamps the receptors and dilutes the focus
...too much information!
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