Posts by Geoff Lealand
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I believe that we need to know about such stuff, for it is naive to believe that religious activities and political stances are not interdependent...not to necessarily make judgements, but to better understand how Bill English and his ilk shape their world view.
To go off in another direction for a moment (I didn't want to distract people from the focus of the last post), I am very curious if anyone else heard the Jim Mora interview with John Pilger on NatRadio on Tuesday afternoon. If it was a battle, Pilger was the clear victor as Mora was very much out of his depth. I wonder if any NZ radio folk will dare to ring Pilger again.
I do admire Pilger but I wonder too if he ever has private moments of doubt..
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Russell: Hope the TVNZ7 launch went well (somehow I had a notion that it was next week!).
I have had a not-completely-satisfactory exchange of messages with Freeview and they hinted that the Freeview/MySky incompatibility problem will be solved 'later this year'. Do you have any more info/insights on this? -
About "social engineering". It is time such phraseology was turned back on its source. It is possible, for example, to argue that Christian schooling and home schooling is actively engaged in 'social engineering', in the endeavours to shape children as replications of adult value systems, or a set of rigid beliefs. The same could be said of that tedious old notion of "political correctness" (which I heard some children's author using yesterday). Through the 1990s, 'political correctness' meant subscribing to the ideology of the mystical free market, deregulation, unbridled greed.
So, one very effective strategy would be to throw the accusations back in the face of those who use them.
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Good on yer, Russell. You richly deserve such a break.
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This particular conversation is all over the shop,so I guess it is ok to introduce a new topic--or more correctly, go back to an earlier topic. I notice that Duncan Fallowell (our Favourite Tourist) is whinging on in the latest New Statesman (Feb 18) about his treatment by some much-offended Kiwis viz, " I was a snotty Brit whose one purpose in life was to insult them. The result was a tidal wave of Kiwi hate. One morning I went to open the webmail as usual and there they were, pages of curses and four-letter words shimmering in shocking pink, lime green, malevolent black. This has never happened to me before"
Poor dear! I would though that the newspaper coverage, and the particularly silly Listener cover story, would have shifted a few copies of his crappy book.
(Why 'malevolent black'? Is that worse than 'lime green'?) -
Points taken...but I still prefer a library where there is movement, conversation...even the aroma of coffee in the air. Maybe my attitudes were coloured by early exposure to stereotypical librarians. I still remember the chief librarian at the GA Library, who used to stand by the exit doors and glower at anyone who dared to take books out!
I agree that librarians are great at acquiring and sorting print materials (including so-called ephemera at the Turnbull) but I reckon they know diddly-squat about organising CDs/DVDs/computer games. They seem to have no clues about fan groupings or genres, and all should be taken on a compulsory tour of Real Groovy. Wellington PL may well be the sole exception.
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As someone who almost became a librarian (at the General Assembly Library), back in those dark old pre-computer days, I wonder if we really need them any more. At the uni, we used to have department secretaries--now that virtually all academics do their own word-processing, design etc, such wonderful people have to be found other roles. We have an excellent university library but I rarely ever go near it, other than to scan the new books/journals displays. Like most of my colleagues, I do all my own searching online or via data-bases and my only real contact with flesh-and-blood librarians usually involves arguments over overdue fines! Some uni libraries (Otago, for instance) are beginning to acknowledge that libraries can be social spaces, and not just hushed tombs.
Media Studies is taking the lead from librarians, in introducing students to the notion that all web content is not of equal value--that it needs to be selected, filtered and evaluated..But, as RB might say, these are fightin' words!
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Geez! I really must remind myself to preview before I post--of course, I mean ' hope I haven't wasted'!!
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I would make RB Honorary Consul to the World! (but it does remind of the embarrassing moment when I once mis-introduced the Hon Steve Maharey to a conference of teachers as 'The Honorary Steve Maharey'!)
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Just how much trade do we have with Monaco (other than swapping postage stamps)?
On a completely different topic, has anyone else tried to respond to the MCH Consultation Paper on the Broadcasting and New Digital Media: Future of Content Regulation (Jan 2008)? It has been a nightmare for me, as the response process is so computer unfriendly (or is it just Macs?). I hope I have just wasted 3 hours of my time on their questions as my responses disappear when I try and print off the document.