Posts by Caleb D'Anvers
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Is there a copy of the actual paper online?
New Zealand Economic Papers is a Routledge journal, so you'd need an institutional subscription to Informaworld or Proquest to get the actual article. Here's a link to the abstract.
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Although McCann makes some good points (I think -- PowerPoint makes it hard to tell), his solutions seem a little underwhelming. Turn the upper North Island into a supercity centred on Auckland? Completely despoil and urbanize the natural environment north to Whangarei and south to Tauranga? Build more airports? Really?
But surely if, as McCann points out, Auckland has 15% less GDP now than Adelaide despite being the same size, simply expanding Auckland's borders won't on its own bring about this magical change of magicness. Will it?
And if Finland is the world's most competitive economy despite (McCann's word) having strong unions, high taxes, and a highly regulated economy, perhaps those things are, you know, somehow correlated with having a highly educated, productive work force that won't flee en masse as soon as they get their bachelor's degrees. (One of McCann's requirements for improved economic performance.) And it's not as though Finland is riddled with supercities either.
To give him credit, though, McCann does subtly indicate that the current government's policies will intensify the economic problems that are leading to NZ's decline -- outmigration due to a lack of acknowledgment that those who don't milk cows are people too; and an obsession with primary agricultural production at the expense of diversification.
This is what happens when you put Timaru in charge: they want to turn the entire country into, well, Timaru.
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Trotter's campaign is also a little weird considering the non-traditional identities (and, perhaps, sexualities) of some of the founding members of the Labour Party. They were hardly talkback-pokies-and-RSA-club types. I mean, has he not seen the Holland Memorial?
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I saw a Close Up viewers poll about the credibilty of Wishart's Air Con over Gareth Morgan's book and it came back at 77/23 in favour of Wishart!!! WTF!!!! This is what we're up against people. I find it hard to see this in a positive light...anybody???
George Monbiot wrote about that yesterday, providing some documentation on the global PR shenanigans responsible for turning climate change into just another part of the ongoing culture wars. It's interesting stuff.
How apt the tenth book is a guide to growing vegetables.
Specifically mushrooms, do you think? "Keep them in the dark and feed them shit" certainly seems to be an apt description for the attitude of broadcast media to their audiences in NZ lately.
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Amongst the Latta tweets was a link to a infant helmet called a Thudguard.
Man, one of those looks like it could seriously interfere with a parent's sacred right to impart "loving correction." This Latta fella is looking more and more PC every second.
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Sorry, he's otherwise engaged coming up with a press release on the role of slapstick orgasms in the decline and fall of civilization. :)
Don't tease me like that, Craig, or I'll be hanging out on Scoop pressing F5 every two seconds for the rest of the afternoon!
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It's mildly amusing to see the teabaggers now dissing Mr Latta as being in the pay of the Nanny State. When they sense they're backed into a corner, they typically reach for the big red button that reads 'DEFCON 1'.
Well, it's clear from Latta's Twitter feed that he really doesn't care about kids that much:
Is it wrong that I love my new iphone more than my children? After all, it has GPS and they don't. 4:05 PM Nov 25th from web
Quick! Someone ask for McCoskrie's take on that!
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Auckland Grammar students
GrammarNazi?
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excellent!
:)
I have to say, though, that "Icestralia" is genius. I'm going to do my darndest to work it into conversation today.
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Whanganui.