Posts by ChrisW
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The Listener may again provide inspiration, in that its Editorial for next week ingeniously combines the subjects of your two last posts. Slipped in among ruminations on the ethics, morality and ambitions of WWII is this gem -
In any moral dilemma, the question to be asked is simple: what is the right thing to do? ...
Is it right, for example, to reserve on the Auckland super-council two seats to which only candidates of Maori ethnicity may be elected, because without that guarantee there is every possibility there will be no Maori representation at all? Or is it right to preserve the basic democratic tenet that race does not determine a person's eligibility for election? It is the latter claim that can make the stronger moral case. -
Craig, two days ago on p.4 -
But given Cabinet's rejection of the Commission's plan A, perhaps it would be for others such as yourself Craig to outline what good Maori representation might mean and how it might be achieved in super-Auckland. I'm just providing some data to indicate that a lot more would be necessary than a dismissive "Maori should get organised, stand for election and get elected on merit".
Fair challenge, Chris, but one I don't really want to attack superficially. I'm just unconvinced that reserved Maori seats are more than a sledgehammer taken to an egg. But I'll give your serious question some serious consideration.
That your serious consideration hasn't yet come up with a better way to crack that egg (in order to make an omelette for super-Auckland?) perhaps means plan A was a good idea. Doesn't seem like a sledgehammer to me.
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Giovanni -
Somebody please breathe new life into the phrase "gay badinage".
No. 1 on Google
- you have your wish, along with the medal. -
But the Listener article the subject of Emma's post is already well back in time - it acknowledges the source of one of its illustrations of the evils of drink with "Chart courtesy of Colonial Services, the Ministry of Justice and the Law Commission."
And if they're reprinting old life in NZ stuff of that error for for the women in particular, how about this one from the Evening Post of 7 Jan 1909, "Women in Print" -
The old-fashioned British breakfast is fast disappearing in English county houses. The women — who, like many of their sisters in other countries — never feel their best in the morning, and the men are keen to go fishing or shooting, and not at all inclined for gay badinage or chivalrous attentions, so that the majority of women guests at smart county houses have their breakfast served in their rooms, from whence they emerge, beautiful and in good humour, about lunch-time. Benson, in his “Bebe, B.A.," says: "There is something crude and raw about the air till lunchtime. It is necessary to get through the morning to arrive at the afternoon, but, by breakfasting late and lunching early, one could make it very short indeed.
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erring's OK round 'ere
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God bless Gizzie. :)
Agreed the story is weird, incomplete, and not entirely atypical of Gisborne politics. Yes I was trying to compress forty aspects into fewer.
But given Cabinet's rejection of the Commission's plan A, perhaps it would be for others such as yourself Craig to outline what good Maori representation might mean and how it might be achieved in super-Auckland. I'm just providing some data to indicate that a lot more would be necessary than a dismissive "Maori should get organised, stand for election and get elected on merit".
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a Maori constituency on Environment Bay of Plenty (one of two local government bodies with specific Maori seats, the other being Gisborne).
Belatedly for the record Mikaere and all, it seems the Bay of Plenty regional council is the only territorial local authority which has chosen to have specific Maori seats as provided for in legislation - Gisborne does not.
Gisborne District has about 45 percent of the population identifying as Maori (though the proportion of the adult population would be a little lower) and 4/14 councillors. The degree to which these councillors are representative of Maori has been a subject of local media discussion recently.
Gisborne votes in local wards, one "urban" one with 8 councillors and 6 rural ones, some of which have a substantial Maori majority of the adult population. The path to good representation of Maori views is difficult enough in Gisborne, let alone such places as Auclkland.
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Thanks Cecilia - that was interesting. I particularly appreciated seeing the quote from Green himself (not in someone else's minutes of a meeting but his words in a considered academic paper) -
He had clearly stated his aim in a 1970 paper: ‘to follow adequately diagnosed but untreated lesions indefinitely … to settle the question as to what happens to carcinoma in situ’.
as I've been trying to get hold of what I guess is his same 1970 paper, so far unsuccessfully, to see the full context.
There seems to be a school of thought that since Green's study (even as planned let alone as implemented) did not meet all the criteria to be a good reliable experiment by the standards of the 1980s or today, therefore it was not an experiment. This school of thought is clearly misguided. But on the other hand, his study being an experiment does not equate to he being a Nazi monster and National Women's of his day as Auschwitz.
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Isn't that the staus quo?
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There's a remarkable pattern or two in the referendum results by electorate, so I'll remark on it/them.
The proportionate Yes-vote and overall turnout are negatively correlated, very strongly so for the most part. So 'high' turnout low Yes, and low turnout 'high' Yes, and it's much more than just the non-voters dilution effect. The pinnacle of this trend is Wellington Central with 43.2% turnout and 35.9% Yes. (There must be something special about this electorate?)
But all 10 electorates with less than 43% turnout do not share in this trend at all - they each have Yes votes of 8-16%, around average. These 10 low-turnout electorates are all 7 Maori ones plus 3/4 of the general electorates starting with Man ... . OK they are Mangere, Manukau East and Manurewa, with their South Auckland location perhaps a more notable common factor.Interpretations?