Posts by Chris Waugh
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Capture: Wellington? Well, I Would., in reply to JacksonP,
I went hunting for proof of Wellington life in 1989.
But of course it did! It had colour, too! At the time I was living in Petone and in Form 2.
Thanks for the nostalgia trip.
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Looking East from Kilbernie. Is that East?
Yes, indeed it is. And in that photo or very slightly to the right (it ends just as Rongotai College begins) is most of my fourth form to seventh form years. Memories like, for example, French classes put on hold while a pre-hush kit 737-200 took off. Or the day we had a tsunami drill and had to assemble on one of the fields and then do roll call before we trundled up that little bump to line up again in our classes outside the control tower. Something seemed a bit off with that tsunami drill....
Finding any of my photos of Wellington might take a bit of searching through old bits and pieces, though...
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Really? Geez, if you stretch it it might get almost as long as my Suzuki Gazelle, and that's a long way from limodom.
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Hard News: Friday Music: Love Cat Power, in reply to AndrewD,
Brass bands still need something extra to be really cool.
Brass bands are incapable of being cool. Big band, on the other hand, is incapable of not being cool.
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Capture: Two Tales of a City, in reply to Gudrun Gisela,
Afternoon light giving it a peaceful atmosphere.
Beautiful
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Capture: Spring is Like a Perhaps Hand, in reply to Islander,
Well, yes, short sighted and astigmatism and wearing glasses. Didn't know that would stop me getting the 3D effect.
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Capture: Spring is Like a Perhaps Hand, in reply to Jos,
Actually, Jos, I just can't persuade my eyes to go 3D on your shots. I think I almost got it with the last one you posted, but not quite. Probably just my eyes, though, there's been many a similar ocular trick I've failed at.
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Hard News: We ... WHAT!?, in reply to Paul Williams,
Can I offer the view that the kiwi accent can be very strong in some individuals?
Of course! But Key's accent is not the issue here. In that recording, he pronounced some words (e.g. "that context") very clearly, while others he jumbled together into a barely coherent mess. At no point did his accent change, he simply failed to enunciate some words clearly, and it was his enunciation, and certainly not his accent, that caused his failure to communicate.
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Hard News: We ... WHAT!?, in reply to Richard Aston,
I don't expect Key to lose his Kiwi accent, but to be capable of speaking clearly when the situation demands. He wasn't enjoying a cold beer with his mates in his backyard, he was communicating to an international audience in a formal situation. This context demands a shift in register and an effort to speak clearly. This is something competent Glaswegians and Middle Easterners - indeed, competent people generally - are perfectly capable of.
Why did they transcribe it in the first place it sounded like he was reading a prepared speech which could have been given to the US people .
Poor decision making by whoever was charged with getting a copy of his speech online? An oversight from Key's team? A combination thereof? Something broken in State Dept policies or procedures? Who knows?
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Consider me firmly in the camp that blames equally both John Key's diction and the State Dept transcriber - and considering the American fascination with getting machines to do everything for them, I wouldn't be surprised if they were using some kind of transcription software, in which case the State Dept's systems are to blame rather than an individual transcriber.
I can understand the appearance of (inaudibles) because there are several points where Key mashes words together in the back of his throat replacing all the vowels with that Kiwi 'uh' that gets us in so much trouble and barely making a minimal effort at enunciating any consonants. That's just straight out lazy speech and there's no excuse for it in somebody whose job involves so much oral communication.
Having said that, there really is no excuse for "in the next conflicts", as the recording makes clear that there was a pause timed the way one usually times these things to indicate the end of a sentence, as would be represented by a full stop then space in writing, followed by intonation indicating the start of a new sentence, as would be represented by a capital letter in writing, and 'context' is one of those words Key actually bothers to enounce as if he's talking to the public and expecting to be clearly understood rather than just muttering to himself as he paces the floor of the 9th floor of the Beehive plotting the next step in the privatisation of the government.