Posts by izogi
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Hard News: Winning the RWC: it's complicated, in reply to webweaver,
Domestic violence does not increase as a result of a team having a bad game or season. A bad game can be used as an excuse for domestic violence, but the abuse is always a choice made by the perpetrator.
No argument whatsoever.
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In the lead-up to the Cup, some of my liberal friends groused about the idea that the All Blacks are culturally important to New Zealanders. Of course they are. It’s silly to argue otherwise. I think that’s true not only because the All Blacks are historically world-beaters at what they do,
It's fine for it to be culturally important and I enjoy seeing a good game too. I'm just not sure how healthy it is when the entire national mood, election outcomes, crime rates and particularly (so I hear) domestic violence fluctuate depending on whether a particular rugby team is having a good season. It's great to enjoy a great game, but a few people out there just need to appreciate that there are other things to life, and I'm not convinced the way officialdom often pushes our rugby "culture" always helps things.
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Hard News: Where are the foreigners?!, in reply to BenWilson,
I tried the new fast kebab shop in Kingsland a month before the cup. The guy did that fucking annoying thing of rolling the tin foil into the kebab so it makes a fucking mess if you try to eat it in your hands.
I've had more than a few kebabs from random places that get very messy, but Abrakebabra in Wellington always do what you describe and I've rarely had a problem eating theirs. The foil's folded in but it slides out very easily. Maybe it's an artefact of precisely how they're doing it that doesn't match your eating style.
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Hard News: Where are the foreigners?!, in reply to Ngaire BookieMonster,
We've definitely seen a deluge of camper vans and foreign tourists in our region
Has anyone seen any word on how many instant fines have been issued under the Freedom Camping laws that were pushed through under urgency before all this, or any other measures to suggest how necessary it was?
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Hard News: The Politics of Absence, in reply to BenWilson,
I'm pretty sure there's an awful lot of people who would be satisfied that their kind of person was represented by the party of their choice, by a bunch of people who don't live anywhere near them, but share their views, or appeal to them in some other way.
This is true, and I don't think it's necessarily a requirement for me, at least, to have someone represent me in a local geographic way and solve my local problems for me. On the flip-side, however, I still think there's lots of value in ensuring that there's at least one MP in our House of Representatives who's systematically obliged to go and mix with each geographic community, get a feel for the effects of nationwide government policies and decisions on local people throughout the entire country, and be aware of all that stuff when taking part in government. Even if I don't care so much about having a local MP to talk to and sort out my local problems, I'd still like a guarantee that at least one MP will be taking an interest in what effect government policies will have on local issues.
List MPs can linger with the locals in specific places if their party deems it worthy of their time, but that doesn't guarantee engagement with and understanding of every place, even if the people there aren't very talkative or politically aware.
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Hard News: The Politics of Absence, in reply to Bart Janssen,
What I desperately wanted to see from Labour was an open understanding that they will have to co-operate with other parties who represent other viewpoints in order to lead this country. That would be a policy of co-operation and compromise to get the most representative government and not yet another simple elected dictatorship.
I agree completely, and I think it's a generational gap that will probably cause bigger parties to split into more specifically inclined smaller parties as long as MMP stays around, similar to what's already started happening to Labour's traditional supporters over the past decade, who've discovered they have so many other options for expressing what they want with a realistic expectation that it could form part of a government. I'm still struggling to think of a good metaphor to describe it that's more positive than a five headed monster, or whatever it was that was thrown around to frighten people in the past.
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Hard News: The Politics of Absence, in reply to Islander,
I have nothing to do with the local DHB and – very tellingly –he wasnt recognised by one of my neighbours who was part of the Mental Health Unit there until 3 years ago
Do you have any idea if they recognise any of your other local MPs or candidates? Many people I know wouldn't recognise their local MP unless they've had a need to get in touch, and definitely wouldn't have a clue of the potential alternatives until the hoardings go up.
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Hard News: Auckland, so much enormity to…, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
I had to laugh out loud at that piece of business acumen…
But it's okay, because they raised prices with the best of intentions! :)
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Hard News: Auckland, so much enormity to…, in reply to Russell Brown,
Ditto for the Wellington hotels in your story -- people have assumed they must be full.
I'm not sure I agree about this bit. There was only one hotel in that article (the Museum Hotel) complaining it was less full than usual. When I read that story, the "raising of prices well in advance [..] to make sure there were rooms available for last minute international guests" completely explained why the bookings had gone down.
Hotels often work by charging each individual visitor whatever they think they can get away with, and will happily charge a customer 3 times the going rate if that person walks in the door wanting a room for the night. (At least my wife was trained to try this for the short time she worked at a desk during student years.) This seems like just another time when a hotel took a gamble and lost.
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Speaker: Party Central, structures and silos, in reply to BenWilson,
Melbourne's [...] train system is well developed, and serves that area with 2 stops, one of which is Richmond Station, with ten platforms, designed as a major commuter hub/exchange. [...] To serve the sporting precinct is almost an afterthought to what it does every working day.
(I know I'm late, but) That's true. Melbourne has all sorts of recent public transport issues, especially with trains, but they still do a great job getting people into the sporting precinct. Richmond station only has a tiny obscured entrance to the outside world, but it's optimised for passengers to switch between trains very easily. And when there's an event on outside, as happens frequently, they'll open the floodgates onto the street at the western end of the platform. A small addition to the point about Richmond is that Melbourne also has a double-tracked line specifically for events at Flemington Racecourse and the Melbourne Showgrounds. It's barely used beyond a few days each year and otherwise for stashing trains during off-peak times, but when there's an event on they can have a 6 carriage train coming in and out every 4 minutes.