Posts by Paul Rowe
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Sophie, no matter what the original ideal of the Olympics, they now stand more for the self aggrandisement of national leaders rather than any unifying principal.
The Tlateloco Massacre of 1968 prior to the Mexico City Olympics, the SuperPower pissing contests of 1980 and 1984, obviously Hitler's Olympics of 1936. I'd also include the boycott caused by our sporting contact with South Africa in 1976 and the blatant corruption of the Salt Lake City winter games. The Olympics is about power & money before it's about sport.
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Dr Cullen did(later on) actually produce an article that backed his comment ( re Pol Pot).Keith Locke had supported the new regime. Admittedly it was written in 1975, but it was written by Keith Locke.
Shoot, I hope that if I ever lose my mind and run for parliament that no-one digs up the expository essay I wrote in 6th form (1987)denying the right of the worker to withdraw their labour in order to get a better deal.
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BW - exactly. Either Ralston doesn't know about how the contemporary media works (in the manner you describe), or he doesn't care.
He only has to look at today's issue of the Herald where two substantial articles on the Bear Sterns collapse come from the Independent. In fact content on both of the relevant pages (pages 2-3 of the Business segment) are sourced from the Indy, Reuters and AP. Does Ralston criticise Granny for doing this?
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but to me it's obvious the co-op's owners aren't going to invest in R&D to the level other global companies can.
Jason, I think you make an excellent point about Fonterra's ownership. What's your take on the proposed restructuring and partial float?
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And we haven't had a decent student riot in years :(
Yes, Morris Street seems so long ago.
(egads, it was long ago - 1991!)
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Gareth, not awfully, so much as averagely (if averagly is a word).
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Craig, are you some sort of lefty 5th columnist? That campaign slogan is brill, why didn't someone come up with it earlier?
"So, yes, I think a bit of B&W about the weather isn't totally out of order from people whose livelihoods are intimately connected with it."
Very true, but it's not news! (and I agree, moaning about power cuts etc is tiresome too)
DC, the stat is for the Waikato region in general, yes. But I would suggest that the drivers of Hamilton's growth are proximity to Auckland and a successful agriculture industry in the Waikato.
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Yes, but it took a trip to Asia last year to bring home to me how bloody big Fonterra is, and what it's doing to open new markets, especially in terms of creating products targeted to those markets. It is genuinely important.
I find Fonterra a perplexing company - it brings in billions of overseas earnings, which is good, but it's suppliers/owners canbe notorious polluters, and its use of water is highly suspect (I once read it takes a thousand litres of water to make a litre of milk - that can't be right can it?), which is bad.
Despite its promises when it was created, Fonterra's payout to farmers has been mostly awful ($3.63 to $4.59 kg/MS range from 2003-2007. This year will be a bumper payout - currently estimated at $6.90 - but not a result of Fonterra adding value, just the world explosion in milk prices. It doesn't appear that the mega-merger has had any real benefits for farmers, something sheep & beef farmers should keep in mind during the proposed PPCS & Alliance merger. Fonterra's ability to grow returns to shareholders through its brands (like chocolate cheese) are hampered by the high commodity milk price. It's efforts in China are realatively small-scale - San Lu is a major regional player, not a Nationwide player in China, Fonterra needs to keep an eye on the likes of Nestle & Danone who have the capital backing to move in China big time. Farmers' returns can only grow by expanding significantly overseas, something its management understands, but farmers seem unwilling to accept.
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Now admittedly some of these "urban areas" are actually rural service towns, but it would be nice to see some recognition that, at least, the "Big 6" urban regions (Akld, ChCh, Welly, Hamiltron, Burka Bob Land, and Dunners) have societies and economies that are diverse and not dependent on growing grass.
DC, I agree with you for the most part, but the Tron is a funny one. According to the Hamilton City Council Economic Development Strategy for Hamilton 2005 (http://hamilton.co.nz/file/fileid/217)
"Meat and dairy processing make up approximately 50% of regional GDP"
I haven't done much in depth work on Dunedin, but my impression is that Queenstown's massive growth comes from the viticulture industry and expanding dairying into the lower South Island.
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because in my experience farmers are rather pragmatic
Yes, they'll moan & bitch about anything.