Posts by Russell Brown
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All that 8 tribes malarkey might be shallow, glib and as methodologically rigorous as a Deborah Coddington article, but I like one implication of what they're saying: there is no such thing as "the" Kiwi way. And I have to say that it's not only the right that's guilty of that: Russell's use of Keith Sinclair's "paganus" concept ("an attachment to the land, sea and sky seems a core part of what it is to be a New Zealander of whatever heritage. It's the thing we all (or nearly all) answer to.") seems almost as simplistic and "mainstreaming" as "the Kiwi way".
Ooh, that's a bit harsh. If you read the full essay (the introduction to Great New Zealand Argument), I've cited evidence for the idea, not least in the Expat Files project we did here on PA, where that idealised feeling for the land sea and sky came through more strongly than anything else. An attitudes survey in 2005 found the same thing, and attachment to the land is a recognised theme in our arts and literature and, of course, in Maori culture. I think it's a valid observation.
The same essay also explores less flattering elements of national character. By comparison, Key pulled "the Kiwi Way" out of his ass and made it mean what he wanted it to.
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members of our team have previously posted to publicaddress, and have experienced being censored from the site, hence our comment on this post.
I have no idea what this is about. My guess is that it's someone who once sent me an email which, like most such emails, wasn't published in the blog. With their "team" being anonymous and all, it's hard to tell ...
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But... probably due to the fact they reproduced a decent portion of RB's post, PA received fewer than 500 visits directly from Boing Boing yesterday it seems.
Yep, with maybe several hundred more from the likes of Netviibes (which has a feed froom BoingBoing as a default). So Star Wars mash-ups still win ...
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in another issue: someone at work pointed out to me that the policy of loading bureaucracy onto successful private programmes has the tendency to stifle them with 'deliverables' and onerous reporting. lest we forget the 1990s.
We've been discussing the far-less-accountable employment schemes of the 80s and 90s on Tze Ming's thread -- their looseness had its advantages. In comparison, the PACE scheme (ie: the "arts dole") is a favourite target for lazy Act MPs, but participants are almost painfully accountable for their income.
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Metiria Turei is Maori and has much better and more thought out policies, IMHO.
That's how I see it too. I like Sharples, but Turia sometimes says stuff I'd be appalled by no matter who said it. Her conspiratorial press release on the reviews of the dioxin studies being this week's example.
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Pita Sharples was interviewed on bFM this afternoon about his work-for-the-dole comments.
I think he's a decent man, and well motivated, but he really didn't seem to know what he was talking about.
At one point he said for it to work the dole would have to be brought up to the level of the minimum wage, and that's just not going to happen. Then he declared that there were too many jobs - he cited checkout work and cleaning - that were dehumanising and weren't real work. But someone has to do them, surely?
And he said there needed to be centres where unemployed people could go and be directed into real jobs. What does he think Work and Income does?
There have been some real successes with targeted schemes to help people into work in recent years - Work and Income's "Pacific Wave" scheme halved unemployment among Pacific Islanders in Auckland in two years. Unemployment among Pacific Islanders under 25 fell by nearly two thirds. W&I has similar targeted schemes for Maori.
He didn't reference National's WFD scheme at all. In the end, I think what he wants is much better resourced iwi-based employment projects. That might be a laudable goal. But it's got bugger-all to do with work for the dole.
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In the references to getting business involved in feeding kids at school and getting behind the voluntary sector he's, er, labouring a fairly thin point. But here's my prediction: this will be the point where National and the Maori Party will converge on a common interest. If the Maori Party can help divert money from state agencies to iwi-based organisations, that's a win for them.
The problem is that the organisations he's talking about don't presently have the capacity - or the will, probably - to do more than a little of the dirty, daily work that people in social agencies do. It all sounds good, but I suspect it's a lot harder than it sounds.
The speech itself is a wee bit banal, but in principle I think I like "the Kiwi Way" better than "mainstream New Zealanders" ...
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It's a foray into occupy territory trying to see how far they can liberate. And we know how well hearts and minds are won with that.
I think you're right - although "liberate" isn't the word I would choose ...
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4. Not all work experience programmes are mindless - but are more likely to have a positive outcone than task force green.
I've always had a soft spot for Taskforce Green, ever since a bunch of us used it to get off the dole and publish Planet magazine in the early 90s. It paid the same as the dole, but you could get on with doing stuff, and legitimately earn additional income. And it was so loosey-goosey at the time (National was desperate to cut official benefit numbers) that you could do pretty much anything.
It set me up to earn quite good money a couple of years later - I think I repaid my little handout from the taxpayer quite quickly - and it played a part in the growth of a new sector of retail advertising.
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Why bother, when you can slap a spurious DMCA Takedown Notice on Google as the hosting ISP and demand near-instant compliance? Time to register 'CYFS' as a trademark?
Funny you should mention trademarks:
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