Posts by Chris Waugh
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
Hard News: Is that it?, in reply to Sofie Bribiesca,
Well, if, as some here are suggesting, this new youth unemployment policy is an experiment which, when proved successful, will be scaled up to all beneficiaries, then why not scale up Otorohanga's experiment to cover the whole country? It would seem many a mayor is trying precisely that at their local level, what's so hard about a bit of central government support?
And Otorohanga small? I live in a city with somewhere in the region of 5 times New Zealand's population. I struggle to see 4 and a bit million in an island group the size of an average Chinese province as "too big". Sounds to me like he's making excuses.
-
Hard News: Is that it?, in reply to Sacha,
Thanks for the link. I saw that mentioned in a related report somewhere. I don't know terribly much about it, but I find people going out and finding positive, practical solutions to problems a very welcome breath of fresh air after so many decades of the right preaching petty, narrow minded, grasping, short term greed, Labour half-arsedness, all sides bashing whoever's found themselves at the bottom of the heap, and negativity in general.
-
I was quite amused to see TV3 news the other night (night before last, I think... their "latest 6pm bulletin" goes online quite a few hours after 6pm NZ time, so by the time I get to see it, it's usually already yesterday's bulletin) follow up their report on National's new youth unemployment policy with a report on how Otorohanga has reduced youth unemployment to zero, cut back drastically on youth crime and other social problems related to youth unemployment, all while keeping their youth in Otorohanga instead of disappearing off to the Big Smoke. And how? By getting everybody working together creating jobs for the kids. Well, I'm sure there was a lot of quite complex work involved in getting this all together, but it seems like such a basic, common sense solution, the flip side to the devil making work for idle hands. Give the kids something to do, something in which they can take pride and through which they can make a genuine, valuable contribution and build up skills and experience for the future, and maybe, just maybe, they might behave themselves.
I like DeepRed's insertion of the word 'paternalism.' Nanny's are usually kind and cuddly, but the impression I got of this policy was quite definitely one of a stern "Father knows best" nature.
-
Hard News: Fixing Auckland, in reply to Sacha,
I've never heard of tax rates being a reason for people to move to China. In my case it's the simple fact it is much easier for a person with my education, skills, and experience to get a job here than in NZ. I'm hoping Auckland proves better than Wellington in that respect. As for moving back - environment and our daughter's education would be the two big reasons, and there are others. Tax rates? Never considered them, and happy to pay them if we're (as in society) is getting good stuff back for the privilege.
-
Hey Auckland, when we spent a couple of days in your fine town in February last year, my wife totally fell in love with your city, which says you must be doing something right, considering a) that was her first time ever outside China; and b) the circumstances - meeting my grandmother on her deathbed quite literally 5 hours after getting off the plane then returning for her funeral a few days later. In fact, when we sit around plotting our return to NZ in a couple of years time, or at the very latest, before our daughter is in need of a primary school, Auckland is top of the list (odd as it may sound to some, Hamilton comes second - something about wide open spaces and bucketloads of green really pleased my wife. Wellington, my hometown, has been ruled out. Somehow steep hills, houses packed tightly into narrow, damp valleys, and constant strong, dry winds didn't sit well with my wife. Blame the weather gods for her impressions of those 3 cities). All of which is a very, very roundabout (and unnecessary) way of getting to my point:
I have been quite happy to read of this Wynyard Quarter development and your mostly positive reactions to it, as I may well in the next couple of years be in need of cool places in Auckland to take my family.
So please, Auckland, keep the cool stuff coming and keep it working, because we'll be seeing you, and, hopefully, getting to know you fairly soon.
-
My memories of 1981 are all about starting school - walking down the hill, crossing the train tracks, then around to Tawa school. The Tour I became aware of later as something in the past that people preferred not to talk about, and when they did, it was always rather obliquely and the topic quickly changed to something nicer. So thanks for sharing these memories of the Tour, I find them really fascinating.
My own political memories start with the anti-nuke law and the Rainbow Warrior. I remember finding it absurd and incredibly rude that big, faraway countries would presume to dictate to us what we do in our own country, then even go planting bombs. Opposition to nuclear weapons seemed so natural and obviously right to me. That was what got me radicalised. It would be nice to think my political views have matured somewhat since then (though I'm not always sure of that), but my feelings about those events haven't changed at all.
And because somebody already mentioned Herbs and nzonscreen is a cool site (though it would be nice if the videos loaded a little quicker over here), I decided to get my daughter started early and showed her the video of French Letter. So she's only four months old and had no idea what she was watching. And she was born in a country that has nukes. But it's a great song, great video, and footage of the Rainbow Warrior and nuclear tests at Mururoa still elicit that exact same raw gut emotive response as they did way back then.
-
I can't help but think the best way would be to take the French/Chinese system of the only legally recognised union being the civil ceremony and marry it (yes, fully intended) with the NZ situation. Make it so that all legally registered unions are civil unions and open to all couples composed of consenting adults, and marriage is legally defined as a cultural/religious ceremony with no legal status.
-
Hard News: What the kids do, in reply to Russell Brown,
OTOH, ethnic Chinese in New Zealand generally drink far less than European New Zealanders.
I'd be curious to know why. Is it that doing the drinking over a meal means there's less time to drink as much? Or are they just better behaved in general?
There’s a superb documentary called The World’s Biggest Chinese Restaurant, which captures the Chinese bingeing style basically as you describe it. The owner – a middle-aged woman – goes from table to table greeting guests and, because it seems to be expected, knocking back large glasses of wine with each group. She ends up absolutely slaughtered.
Sounds like some kind of special occasion, and yes, it would be expected for the host to at least pour drinks for guests, if not toast them too. More everyday normal would be a bunch of mates around a table piling up empties. But yes, that's pretty much the Chinese bingeing style, and it's generally done in a period of a couple of hours.
-
I'm inclined to agree with Chris' China comparison re availability, although I think he downplays the smoking issue. Certainly, there is plenty of booze and cigarettes available, and so long as you're in at least a village, you're never more than a five minute walk from a drink or smoke. I've seen very young kids buying a bottle of booze and some cigarettes for Daddy from their neighbourhood store, and nobody bats an eyelid. The young people stumbling drunk down the street late at night are generally expats.
As for smoking, what I've seen seems to be what the WHO and Chinese MoH statistics Russell posted are describing. Smoking seems to start in high school, and having worked in a couple of high schools, I've seen more than a few 15, 16, 17 year old boys smoking on fire escapes, in toilets, in secluded corners of buildings, down narrow lanes, and other areas they think we don't notice. Smoking rates are much higher in men than women, although it does seem more and more young women are smoking. But given the traditionally rather negative view of women smokers here, young women tend to be a lot more discrete about their smoking.
But here comes the socialisation thing: China and New Zealand are both binge drinking cultures, but Chinese do their binge drinking in a very different way. Traditionally Chinese drink over a meal, and the men will often drink to get hammered, but when the meal ends, the drinking ends. It is true that more and more younger Chinese from urban affluent backgrounds are embracing more Western styles of socialising and getting wasted, but they account for a very tiny proportion of what is really a very conservative country.
So for me the China-New Zealand comparison bolsters my suspicion that politicians and moral panickers waffling endlessly about drinking ages, availability, restrictions and bans is all a collossal waste of time and resources - and possibly quite a deliberate waste. The real problem, which very few politicians and moral panickers seem willing to talk about, lies in the parenting (or apparent lack thereof in some cases) that many have talked about in this thread.
-
Hard News: Bishop Brian: It's worse than…, in reply to andin,
So where in that rosy little scenario, can I question their belief in a personal god without them getting biblical on me?
I'm not sure I understand the problem. I don't see anything wrong in discussing matters of personal belief even with people I strongly disagree with, so long as the usual standards of common courtesy and basic respect are maintained.