Posts by BenWilson
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
Hard News: Spring Timing, in reply to Phil Wallington,
You were also ignorant about the continuing existence of Tasmanian Aborigines
No, I really wasn’t. I was being glib because I didn’t want to lay out the really sorry history, which is starkly different to that of NZ. It would send this discussion south in no time at all.
I might value your opinions more if you lay off the name calling
If you’re offended by being called a wonk, I apologize. It’s a label that I’ve never encountered any offence before at, wonks are usually proud of it. It’s their hobby and they compete to be more wonky. But they can often make the mistake of thinking other people think like them.
Gave a few facts to back up you views
I’ve pointed out two massive points of difference between the government of NZ and the government of Tasmania.
1. NZ is a sovereign state. It’s parliament has near total control over NZers. This is totally not the case for Tasmania, which is subject to Australian laws, the Australian constitution, Federal taxes and is protected by the Australian Armed Forces
2. NZ has an extremely different history of interaction with the indigenous peoples, such that the demographic and political makeup of the country is very different. The politics work very, very differently. This seems to be very hard for a lot of Australians to understand.I’ve also pointed out that mining plays a much larger (like much, much larger) part in the Australian economy than it does in NZ.
If you want to make strong statements about the incompatibility of the NZ Greens with NZ Labour, then Tasmanian state government wrangling is not a particularly powerful example.
-
Hard News: Diverse Auckland: are we…, in reply to Russell Brown,
Also, the economic reasons are not some insignificant thing. Most rural people live in small towns, often in real poverty. Finding work can be difficult - a single business closure can destroy a town. Finding interesting work can be more difficult still. Being poor in the country can be a whole lot worse than in the city.
-
Hard News: Diverse Auckland: are we…, in reply to Sacha,
Monocultures, not so good.
Well, they're pretty good for mass production of food. That's how we're doing it here. So the "goodness" comes back to "good for what? Good for whom?" yet again. Of course it's not good for diversity - by definition.
I think it means living where there is a common bond with those around you
It's pretty much "Not living in cities". Which makes proving that cities erode the communal sense easy, but doesn't make a convincing argument in itself that diverse cities are bad places. Indeed, the hostility of tight knit communities to outsiders, in the sense you are describing, may be one of the main reasons that cities grow so large by comparison. They have to take all the "rejects". Which ends up being most people on the planet.
-
Hard News: Spring Timing, in reply to Joe Wylie,
but it’s a sadly common assumption
Sad all right. I don't want to get into it, really, it's so off topic, and worse, it's so depressing. The political differences are very stark between NZ and Tas.
-
Capture: Two Tone, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
Yes, it was like hacking the matrix. I've never owned actually polarized sunglasses before, just tinted ones. I've been walking in darkness.
-
Hard News: Diverse Auckland: are we…, in reply to jh,
Is community (in the sense you're referring to) good in itself, though? You're almost defining it as something that self-inoculates against diversity. So again the question: Good for whom, or for what?
I can see that highly coherent communities are probably stronger in wartime, for instance. Indeed, they've got a siege mentality going already.
It might be nice if you're in the community, and you like the community. If you can't tick either of those boxes, though, a tight community can be a living hell. And when it comes to "human nature", it's worth noting that most people on this planet choose to live in cities. Urban drift has been a constant thing in NZ, and most other countries too. Perhaps cavemen would have chosen to live in cities too, if there had been any around.
-
Hard News: Spring Timing, in reply to Phil Wallington,
Mate, I was Head of ABC News and Current Affairs in Tasmania for 10 years. Although born in Sydney I have worked in all states of Australia as a journalist. I have reported state politics extensively during the Franklin Dam crisis in Tasmania iand .covered the final years of Joh Bjelke Petersen in Queensland.
Mate, you could have summed that up with "I'm a wonk". Most people aren't wonks.
Tasmania is much like NZ relying on primary exports and tourism…. it has snow capped mountains, beautiful scenery and no air force
...or natives to deal with. I'm happy to leave this with "maybe things are different in Tasmania", since I've never been to Tasmania. My point wasn't really that state politics is irrelevant, just that comparing it with the way a sovereign government works is pretty suspect.
-
Hard News: Spring Timing, in reply to Paul Williams,
it’s wrong to compare States with local governments
I'm comparing my subjective evaluation of people's level of interest in them. Admittedly I was hanging with a younger crowd then, nobody had kids so the regulation of the school system was not a big concern to us.
-
Physics trick for the day: Why should I prefer polarized sunglasses?
Why can I see the chain hanging in the tree when the glasses are the right way up, but when they’re sideways all I can see is a shadow on my dashboard?
No, it's not just a focus problem. I took pains to lock the focal distance before turning the glasses sideways. But consider why I even had to do that, if with the glasses sideways it was not having trouble finding the chain to focus on.
Furthermore, I noticed this effect with my eyes first, reaching down to pick up my bag, with my head tilted, so it's really got little to do with the camera.
-
Hard News: Spring Timing, in reply to Tinakori,
Probably. It's what people do, when presenting a CV. You're not required in a CV to point out the negatives. You don't write "Graduated from Harvard, but only from the lowly public policy faculty". You just write "Graduated Harvard, Majoring in X".
Last ←Newer Page 1 … 279 280 281 282 283 … 1066 Older→ First