Posts by HenryB
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
Russell, my sympathies too. It is nearly 20 years since I experienced something similiar.
It is interesting how the pain can make one both unreasonable and irrational. As I lay on the living room floor, curled up in the only position that would bring a slight relief to the pain, our GPs nurse turned up with a syringe full of an antispasmodic. I took one look at the needle and groaned "No, not that". My wife and she looked at me as if I had lost my senses - which I had, of course, except for the one in the back. The nurse then said: "Well, it's up to you. It is either this or I can just get you a bottle of beer and a skipping rope".
Needles to say I took the syringe (ouch).All this talk of gall stones made me go and read the Wikipedia entry about them. The last sentence is intriguing:
Much as in the manner of diamond mines, slaughterhouses [in China] carefully scrutinize offal department workers for gallstone theft.
What happens to gall stones here?
-
Just in case this government thinks it is setting some kind of record in passing bills it should be noted that the Indian government recently (23rd Dec 2008) was credited with passing 8 bills in 17 minutes, even whilst, "some Congress MPs were seen hurling their underwear at the BJP MPs while ululating furiously".. Well, actually, the reporter was moved to add that to the report given what else was going in the house at the time.
-
... and a thanks from me too, Russell. I discovered blogs for the first time this year and it has been a pleasure to come to this site on a regular basis. And thanks, too, to those posting comments: they, too, have been very good reading.
... and a merry Christmas and happy New Year to all.
-
Simon: that link from Felix in yr blog of john Key as Tourism Minister talking up NZ as a wonderful holiday destination - come on down, folks! - is pretty bloody stunning
I couldn't agree more. It is almost as priceless as this.
-
On a personal note, I have three children: the first found schooling a breeze, was an academic high achiever and is now nearly finishing a PhD; the second also found schooling a breeze up to a point, went to University, discovered Social Life 101 and muddled through to a BSc and is now a happy highly paid ($100,000pa) consultant; the third loved primary school but hated academic work - and this turned to pure hell in secondary school, with school refusal, school phobia, etc and ended up dropping out just before 15!....but has now, without even NCEA 1, been employed full time in two different jobs for 5 solid years and has a reputation for hard, steady, conscientitous labour. And, by the way, this record has stuff all to do with IQ. As part of the attempt to deal with the problems of the third, we did get a professional IQ evaluation - and, what ever these things mean, the score was in the high 120s.
I tell you what: the first two would have done alright under any government. The third, on the other hand, found a job because we have lived with a government for whom "jobs, jobs, jobs" has been the mantra. Would testing numeracy and literacy have made the slightest difference? Give me a break. Would fining us for his truancy have helped us get him to school? If you think that you need to take some pills. Smacking? Good grief. Was it fault of the teachers? No - we had deal with so many: most very good, others OK, one or two pretty mediocre but, in general, they tried their best.
The problem is that, for the Anne Tolleys of this world, the issues are pure abstractions and they think they can solve them by imposing `standards'and fining parents. I am afraid the world is far too messy to be so easily changed by stupid legislation like this. And it doesn't help to have the studidity compounded by rushing it through.
-
Graeme:
The law already makes truancy, for good reasons, illegal. This law just doubles the penalties, and allows the Ministry of Education, rather the schools(!) to bring prosecutions. It doesn't change the offence - exactly the same actions will be illegal after it as before it. You weren't prosecuted under the identical offence when it carried a $15 fine (max $150), why are you concerned that you would be now that it carries a $30 fine (max $300)?
Fair point - though the figures you give are wrong if the news reports are anything to go by: add another 0 to all of them.
However, if as AS has already said, this is only going to affect 87 prosecutions, presumably of parents who don't "give a f$&k", my guess would be that even if you put yet another 0 on the end if not two, it would not make the slightest difference to truancy figures. I don't see this as a revenue gathering device because I doubt that those prosecuted and convicted would have the wherewithal to pay the fines any way. If it is, on the other hand, meant to send a shiver down the spines of those parents whose children are truants in spite of their efforts then I am sure it has succeeded.
But,again, I am sure - and certainly hope! - that all of this is just impression management - and perhaps, for some, to give themselves a feeling of righteousness. If it is more than that then we really, really should be worried that it has all been carried out under urgency.
-
sagenz:
The fines are aimed at those parents who just do not give a f&*k.
One of the points of a select committee process is to ensure that legislation does in fact end up doing what it is supposed to. If the goal here is to target parents "just dont give a f&*k" the process would have ended up with a robust defintion of what this might mean (and I'd have to say it ain't patently obvious to me with my experience of parents who have had children who have been truants).
As people are pointing out, most of all this `urgency' is about impression management at the expense of democratic process.
-
Their crowning achievement is that they drove NZ into a recession a good year to 6 months before the GFC.
Well, DexterX, it was a `technical' recession ... and according to Bollard is now technically over. Bollard says:
"Those numbers in New Zealand can jump around and historically they tend to improve rather than getting worse. You may find that in a couple of years Statistics NZ says we didn't have a recession. That's quite within the bounds of statistical probability," he said.
It will be interesting to see what this lot will do the economy now.
-
I can't quit make it out but was Paula Oliver responsible forthe two part hagiography of John Key that appeared earlier in the year in the Herald?
-
The incoming National government will completely review the emissions trading scheme (ETS) - possibly including the science that says humans are to blame for climate change - as part of its support deal with Act....A draft terms of reference for the review attached to the agreement, includes hearing "competing views on the scientific aspects of climate change"
It may not be "nice" but I can see that the fun has already begun. I am really looking forward to JK managing this.