Posts by Jim Welch
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Hard News: Friday Music: History, motherfuckers, in reply to Russell Brown,
Is she really going to read everything written about her? She's on her way to becoming a global pop star. She's going to have to develop a thick skin. I wouldn't have been able to handle it at 16, but then again, I wouldn't have been able to handle singing to a packed Vector Arena at 16 either (or now, for that matter).
And I still don't think this is tall poppy syndrome. It's one nasty review. Let's not make it a referendum on NZ culture.
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Hard News: Friday Music: History, motherfuckers, in reply to Danielle,
What it tells us is that he’s one of those annoying dudes (for some reason they are invariably dudes) obsessed with “authenticity” and other forms of purity
Yeah, maybe. Or maybe he doesn’t like her music because it’s not that interesting and he is over-reacting against the flood of Lorde-love in the media. Plus he put that weird shit about wanking to Farmers catalogues in which wasn’t really going to get many people on his side. Frankly I don’t really care about Sweetman or Lorde. I just have a hobby-horse about people saying “oh, that’s the tall poppy syndrome” every time a NZer says something critical about another NZer. It’s lazy, it's anti-intellectual, and it discourages honest debate.
Sorry, rant over.
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Hard News: Friday Music: History, motherfuckers, in reply to Lilith __,
judging by the quotes you have presented here, this time he has gone way too far. NZ’s tall poppy syndrome lives on, sadly…
I totally agree.
I totally disagree. This ain’t “tall poppy syndrome” at all. In fact, can we retire the phrase now. It tells us nothing about NZ culture in the 21st century.
If this were tall poppy syndrome, we’d all be tearing down Lorde because as a culture we can’t handle success. The exact opposite is happening here. Someone gave her a negative review, and the critic himself is being torn to shreds.
Criticise Sweetman, by all means, but don’t generalise about our (my) culture by saying that the fact that he doesn’t like Lorde tells us much about anything other than what he thinks of Lorde. And do you really think Lorde cares? She has bigger fish to fry.
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Cracker: Johnny Foreigner & the Auckland…, in reply to FletcherB,
no real way to tell they are not kiwis unless you demand everyone produce a passport to purchase
I keep seeing this, like giving your passport to your lawyer along with the million pieces of paper you have to provide to complete a property purchase is such an outrageous idea. It seems to me a small, easily satisfied requirement. If you don't have a passport, I'm sure a copy of your birth certificate would do it.
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Cracker: Johnny Foreigner & the Auckland…, in reply to WH,
Wonga?
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Cracker: Johnny Foreigner & the Auckland…, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
a sudden influx of cashed-up Americans,
heading west, looking for something like a democracy?Yeah, doubt it. If you are "cashed up" you can pretty much already buy your way into living here. And if they wanted to buy without living here they already could.
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Cracker: Johnny Foreigner & the Auckland…, in reply to Damian Christie,
Rents in Auckland are such that for a long time you can rent in Ponsonby, as most of my younger studenty friends do, but when you buy, you end up in the burbs. Rents increase by $10 or so a year.
True that is easier to rent somewhere like Ponsonby rather than buy but I don't think renters have it easy. Everyone I know who rents has to move frequently for one reason or another. Rental properties are often cold and damp and badly maintained. Better protections for renters would make renting more palatable--not just for students but for people with families--and take some pressure off the housing market, I reckon.
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Cracker: Johnny Foreigner & the Auckland…, in reply to BenWilson,
sez Wiki
CGT operates by having net gains treated as taxable income in the tax year an asset is sold or otherwise disposed of.
Yeah, sorry, I meant primary residences--they're not taxed in Oz
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Cracker: Johnny Foreigner & the Auckland…, in reply to BenWilson,
I think you're thinking of stamp duty which is applied to home sales in Aus, not CGT.
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Cracker: Johnny Foreigner & the Auckland…, in reply to JonathanM,
Maybe a CGT should apply to the family home, but politically this would never fly. It doesn't apply in Aus at all (I think) and in the US only if you re-sell within a short timeframe. Maybe there are other countries where residential homes are subject to CGT, I'm not sure.