Posts by Simon Grigg
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Hard News: "Orderly transition" in #Egypt, in reply to Neil Morrison,
The army is currently playing a moderating role, co-incidence perhaps
Perhaps, but it's also worth reflecting in the fact that this is a conscription based army. These are their brothers and sisters and a non-voluntary military is often less reliable in domestic circumstances.
The Egyptian military is not a part of the security regime - its target remains Israel even though they are at peace.
The police is a different beast.
The troubles in Thailand benefited from the same stabilizing factor (although the government here was clearly far less inclined to use deadly force than the Egyptian leadership who seem eager once the lights are out to do so).
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Hard News: "Orderly transition" in #Egypt, in reply to Rich of Observationz,
The online media narrative "it's about Twitter" is simply a reflection of the traditional media narrative
And to assume it's not at all is perhaps a failure to understand how much these communication networks have penetrated much of the third world via the mobile phone. New Zealand seems completely unwired when put next to places like Indonesia, Thailand, and Cambodia (which are my immediate experience) - and from what I understand Egypt.
When the cost of going online via your phone is almost nothing (an alien concept in NZ) and you spend half of every day messaging and tweeting - crisscrossing between the three phones that you always carry linked to the couple of dozen competing networks - then these things provide some voice.
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Hard News: "Orderly transition" in #Egypt, in reply to Sacha,
In places like Egypt, Twitter is used mainly on mobile phones, isn't it? Think of it as the social layer that helps route messages to groups. Like a telephone tree on steroids.
100% correct. In much of the developing world the phone has become the key internet tool, and in the last 24 months the big phone companies have put vast sums into Egypt (and many other countries at that level). Facebook use in particular has exploded. The most recent figures I can find online are a year old and put the number of FB users in Egypt at 4m. I would be very surprised if that hadn't doubled since then. Twitter as well. If you have a phone it's very likely you have both especially in the urban areas and under 30.
These have become very, very empowering. It's hard to overstate how much they mean in nations where the people have never had such a voice before.
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Hard News: Only what we would expect a…, in reply to Stephen Judd,
apparently the most newsworthy thing about Egypt
The Herald and international news mostly maintain a distance determined by the space more important stuff requires.
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Hard News: Because it's about time we…, in reply to Patrick Reynolds,
do you remember all of A Certain Bar staggering down Albert St at closing time and swamping the Diner? AK was soooo small....
Countless times. We'd worked out that John could be persuaded to offer the odd 'special coffee' if the moment was right.
I do remember standing outside with 50 odd people who had tumbled up Albert Street from ACB only to find it closed. There wasn't even an Alfies to go to in those days.
Next door of course, was the Ralph E Boy office which also doubled briefly as the Propeller office in mid '83, where a mohawked Patrick 'Dubhead' Waller also used to make chicken-bone jewellery.
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Hard News: Because it's about time we…, in reply to Patrick Reynolds,
John's Diner on Albert St 1981-83.
Now I'm getting a little shaky. Those huge fabulous burgers too........
And Francis Hooper behind the counter as well if I recall.
Markman Ellis
is a professor now? Wow.... I had no idea.
Am I right in thinking Domino's in Lorne St also operated an espresso machine in the early 80s?
There was the Expresso [sic] Love place in Ponsonby too, plus a large mirrored joint between Milnes & The Herald in Queen and a downstairs place between the two pubs in Vulcan with pinballs, all with machines. I'm thinking Judith Barragwanath's place in Vulcan also served espresso.
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Hard News: Because it's about time we…, in reply to Russell Brown,
FROM OUR KICKARSE ESPRESSO MACHINE
Gotta take a stand and say that coffee from Chez Rae-Brown is an Auckland highlight for me
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Hard News: Because it's about time we…, in reply to Russell Brown,
Although I'd still have to say I don't really like the sweetened milk thing
It's a style that I can take only irregularly but it is but one of many variants. Deep, very full bodied (unsweetened) black coffee is another and it tends to be my poison.
I love the coffee I find in New Zealand but I don't miss it in SEA and never feel the desire to find a western styled coffee shop, unless I'm in Central Singapore where it feels right.
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Hard News: Because it's about time we…, in reply to Dismal Soyanz,
Well that does get esoteric.
No I don't think so. I don't think the countless coffee carts of Yogyakarta, Ipoh and Vientiane arrived in response to Starbucks. Nor the coffee houses of Jakarta and the Yum Char traditions of Guangdong.
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Hard News: Because it's about time we…, in reply to Dismal Soyanz,
Obviously we have different experiences. I found it notoriously difficult to find a decent coffee in several Asian cities. Maybe now there are decent alternatives but when Starbucks first went into Asia there were none.
Perhaps we define good coffee differently. If you mean good espresso in the style and surroundings many people in New Zealand would expect, I agree - but good coffee is another whole argument.
Coffee is the one thing I've always found easy in Asia.