Posts by Kumara Republic
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Here's part of a solution from an American venture capital background:
Lew Burton: On the hunt for a Kiwi GoogleIn regards to Fran O & others, NZ has had little or no trouble attracting foreign investment. The problem is, it's often been of the wrong sort - too few of the asset-building Heinz-Watties or Google variety, and too many of the asset-stripping FayRich variety.
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Sacha & DCRed:
I think it's fair enough to ask if any plans were revealed in passing yesterday to make up for canning the tax credits (which was by edict). Or do our new leaders think our economy consists of farms, banks and construction projects?
Yes, and real estate agents.
Everyone else is a non-frontline bureaucrat who produces no wealth.
So it sounds like it's about giving people more money to keep them keeping up with the Joneses, rather than making us into a Silicon Isles. That approach will just delay the visit by the repo men, the foreclosure agent, and maybe even the IMF.
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I should add that the business representatives form a coherant faction in the ways that others do not, with the result that their worldview and ideology is going to dominate the conversation. In a real sense, the others are simply window-dressing, there to make up the numbers and hide the fact that this is a right-wing talkshop.
Stephen Tindall, being a member of the NZBCSD, seems to be one of the minority independent voices at the summit. Other than that, are there any others of his ilk at the summit, or is he in there as a token representative?
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Keith:
Prominent right-winger says, that now is "obviously" not the time to be adding climate change-related costs to the economy. Gets shot down by the chair.
Could carbon footprints replace the nuke-free policy as a sticking point in US free-trade talks? Were that to happen, I'd be interested to see the reactions of pro-USFTA lobbyists over the past several years or so.
Rich:
If we confiscated the wealth of the NBR rich list ($44 billion), we could keep that going for 5 years.
The best possible solution would be to take a leaf out of Westminster's book and declare Fay Richwhite a terrorist organisation.
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I recoil a bit at the use of the word "lobby", frankly. It suggests a degree of sway that really isn't there.
Our system has long been underpinned by the the idea that every child has the right to an education. The practice doesn't match the theory; not nearly. I think it would be a matter of "fairness" if it did.
I sure as hell hope that it won't take a Seung-Hui Cho or a Dylan Klebold to pull the issue out from under the carpet.
And do I detect more than just a whiff of educational Darwinism with the impending NCLB-style regime? Furthermore in practice, voucher schemes and law-of-the-jungle zoning haven't led to parental choice but rather headmaster choice.
I.e., "Thanks for your interest. Unfortunately your child's application to our grammar college has been declined."
Translation: "Thanks for your interest. Unfortunately your child's application to our grammar college has been declined, because we think your child is a godless antisocial time-bomb who will threaten the safety of our students and our league table position."
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If these 'snob yobs' were South Auckland hoods, there'd be calls for the problem to be solved with a B-52 Stratofortress:
Rampaging youths trash cars, homes
Five teenagers arrested yesterday allegedly drove around Auckland on a six-hour vandalism rampage, causing more than $30,000 of damage to cars and property in some of the city's wealthiest suburbs.
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Sergeant Jason Lamont of Glen Innes police said the group - a 16-year-old and four 17-year-olds - were travelling in a white station wagon randomly targeting vehicles in Remuera, Newmarket, St Heliers, Kohimarama, Mission Bay, Orakei, Glendowie, Pakuranga, Half Moon Bay and Glen Innes.
...The arrested teens came from the suburbs affected, he said.
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Recruiters have a few cautionary words in regards to the credit crunch:
Granny Herald 17/2/2009 - Don't exploit staff in downturn, recruiter warns
By 'don't alter' he means 'don't weaken'. And certain segments of the (big) biz community sometimes wonder 'why do they hate us?':
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Prepare for a very hard landing that lasts for at least 10 years, probably longer.
How hard? Icelandic-hard?
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Government announces delay in 92A enactment until March 29. If no agreement by then, it will be suspended.
Hopefully this means the copyfight bomb will be defused, rather than the fuse being made longer.
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What would the two-wrongs-make-a-right brigade regard as the fence at the top? Conscription? Gakushu juku? Eugenics? Merging religion and the state? The DINA or BOPE? Or all of the above (Ingsoc)?