If we all were allowed only so many words to communicate annually...

people would measure their words more carefully
meter, metered and meted out

...after that we'd have to buy extra quota (if it's available to…

[task]
Seek clarification on Ben’s point. Illustrate my understanding of the topic to date, provide some triggering examples, restate the question. Promote discussion on this living parchment.…

aspie vs aspie.
nobody wins.

That’s a very liberal answer Ben, but I’d be interested as to where you draw the line. We’ve touched on a number of examples, triggered by Deyi “Stone” Shi, and the Companies Office left wanting, as Stephen R pointed…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9AjW7pC-BY

Well, it is Mothers' Day tomorrow...
:- )

(What about Michael Jackson's rat...?)

Yeah, it's a consonant cluster that doesn't exist in Mandarin. Neither sound on its own is a problem for Mandarin speakers, the Mandarin versions being close enough to their English equivalents.

And a way of serving eggs. I like the name. But I keep it in reserve, making sure people have earned it. Also, a short name is…

Shift the vowel to something closer to Southern California and pronounce in fourth (falling – start high and slide the pitch down as you say the word, as if you're angry) and it becomes bèn, which in Mandarin could mean stupid, clumsy, awkward. Or go straight towards, in which…

I’m glad to hear that Soon Lee. The thing that struck me in that Auckland University Business School study is that I’d be hard pressed to name a country without some form of this type of discrimination or similar, at least until multiculturalism really…

I am totally going to change my name to this.

Define "government name". One branch of the NZ government has dealth with me under four variations of my last name…

That's one reason it's common for refugees particularly to sit a basic qualification in NZ. The other being…

But the Companies Office wants your full "government name", and for good reason. Either Mr Shi has changed his name officially to "Stone" or "Stone De Yi" in which case he should put that…

One example I encountered when helping a refugee from Iraq – his birth certificate, his passport and his academic qualifications were in different names, so it took quite some effort for the relevant authorities to…

The instances where I encounter overt racism have pretty much vanished, from a high in the mid-90s (thank you so much Winston Peters). And I tend not to be complimented on my English anymore.

I also have coping strategies in place of preferring face-to-face…

Your post rather begs the question, how is your life going?…

There is a real cost to retaining one's given name as shown by this Auckland University Business School study (pdf) where a CV with an ethnic name (especially Chinese) has a significantly smaller chance of getting to the interview stage. I chose to…

Is it that many? I didn’t realise. But how does one get such a precise number of total languages…

Is it that many? I didn't realise. But how does one get such a precise number of total languages when there's still so much discussion of how the Sinitic languages and dialects fit together...... I'd imagine there's a similar amount of…

As China has opened further and as our window of understanding has expanded, I have noticed a decrease in the use of these alternative names.…

As I said:

Likewise my wife, reading your post stumbled on:

When she read your post, she responded. Looking back at it:

"Incidentally, and this is a pet gripe, I’m a little tired of Chinese giving…

You could read it that way, I suppose, as I/S said. Damn, thought I had something there. ;-)

He is at AUT…

reading your post

You really need to be careful with attribution, only you and Craig have mentioned white privilege – personally I think in both cases it was meant as an insult – which is disappointing.

Your questions
1 As I clearly said it was…

But paid by whom? And was it authorised? If Key is implying that Williamson took a bribe, that's a really fucking big deal and although Key is a charlatan I don't…

I agree, but the biggest problem now facing National is the web of informal power by which the establishment elites do business, and which largely favours National, has been partially exposed and is being questioned in the media.

That strains more than a straight answer from Key.

If Key said "only one minister has taken additional remuneration and that was Maurice", then money has been paid. But Liu's proposed construction venture never happened.…

Holyoake Industries, owned by rich-lister Noel Holyoake, is a large supplier of air conditioning and ventilation systems and is a big player in the construction industry. Liu was given citizenship at least partially on the basis of a proposed…

Which would open a whole other can of worms...

seems to be the key phrase there

Yeah, nah. I can't see how that relates to Donghua Liu.

seems unlikely unless they were somehow paying him to be a Minister?

Hon David Cunliffe: If the Minister believes in high standards, does he believe that paying for access to Government Ministers, including the Prime Minister, whether it is through a so-called charity golf game or undisclosed…

ROFL

My Chinese colleague at work chooses to use Luke because he is understandably unkeen to hear us…

like public servants, yes.

Or we can actually expect everyone making incredibly serious allegations of corruption under parliamentary privilege to be more than usually scrupulous about not only getting all their facts right, but to…

..and statements Key has made in her defence – oh and any non-faith-based reality.

Sure. Right after Judith Collins…

True, and having noted the flavourings issue first time round I should have remembered this time. But bear in mind that Oravida is Green Valley’s biggest customer – GV’s not going to…

Well, surely that shouldn’t be too hard to corroborate and if it turned out Grant omitted (quite unintentionally, I’m sure) that non-trivial context he will stand up in the House and publicly…

It’s an interesting one Bart, I wonder how he feels about native speakers of other official Chinese languages and dialects butchering the name his parents gave him and whether he requires ‘Luke’ from them too or…

Yes, there is more than one. Considering the one who works for Oravida did work for Bankers Trust and Lehman Brothers, I'd put my money on this one ( the plot thickens :)

Having delved into the sewer that is "Your Views" (we do it so you don't have to), I was pleasantly surprised at how most of the comments were heavily skewed…

She’s attached to Wilson McKay, where she specialises in “asset protection planning and taxation trusts and wills”.

I think I satisfied myself that the Julia Xu at Wilson McKay was for some reason named Julia (Zhu) Xu, perhaps I got confused with an actor,…

"It is actually a forum where people can be very abusive towards me and I'm just not doing it."

Of course, none of the stress she is under has anything to do with her corrupt behaviour or dishonesty....

On a personal level, my privilege would be having lived in China for a decade and being quite capable of pronouncing the limited array of names in use and still constantly encountering people introducing themselves to me using fake names…

meh. Labour, Robertson, MP. Close enough :D

Well, bully for you Chris. Perhaps you’d like to check that white privilege a notch or two, and consider…

Trouble being the Chinese govt is very large and complex and made more large and complex by having twin govt and Party systems working side by side, so figuring out precisely who in which offices where knew what is…

Dunno.

1: Yes, food safety, and foreigners are easy targets, and Oravida could easily be portrayed as a 假洋牌 (fake foreign brand) because it's owned by Chinese people and only sells…

I'd say the Chinese govt knew a very long time ago.

Coff, Ross Robertson, unless Grant's…

You reckon the "food safety" angle might be enough to get over the "A corrupt border official? *yawn*" factor?

Ah, yes, but all applicable to a different time and place, of course, just like 1984, a perfectly legal Chinese translation of which I could pick up for you at the campus newsagent.

Yes, Kansas already went bye byes.

Heh. It's an interesting take that the inhuman algorithm was the guy with the best job and perks. Social commentary right there. When the Rage Against the Machine came up at the end, did the Chinese credits accidentally list them…

Government jobs are much more stable and have better welfare.

Nobody wanted to be Neo?

Matthew: Having worked for MPs, I don't think I'm speaking out…

Maybe not. But judiciary officials with close ties to the private prison industry can. Such as Judges Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan.

When my sister was teaching English in China a few years back, at about the time that The Matrix series of movies was popular, most of the class chose the English first…

Press release from Grant Robertson:

There is further evidence Judith Collins’ assistance of Oravida resulted in her husband’s company getting its milk into China, Labour MP Grant Robertson says.

“Documents show that Oravida had its milk shipment accepted by Chinese border control in December, while milk from…

You might get more of the cutesy novelty love that way. I may not be best person to ask, personally I no longer accept anyone calling me by anything other than the standard western pronunciation of my name,…

The 毛面鹬鸵 comes because the beard draws so much (unexpected for me) attention there…

I quite agree. But you should have seen the guy I argued with on…

Hehe!

Personally I’d just go with Paul Campbell, But traditionally Paul is 保罗 Bǎoluó (which would suffice for interactions), and I think Campbell would be 坎贝尔 Kǎnbèi’ěr.

And yes, I teach students from all over the world, UAE, India, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Thailand, Indonesia, Germany, France, Brazil, Argentina,…

While I completely agree with you about the whole transparency end of the thing (yes he should be in…

In the same way that Grant Robertson following the correct course of action and asking the Minister of Police about his police-officer-cum-Olympic-athlete child's options for getting additional leave was unrelated.…

I think this touches on it, but the spooky thing for me with government being treated as “a business” is that it’s automatically a “business” that’s empowered to write its own regulatory environment to suit itself, whether that involves financial reporting, fair trading,…

The chair of a school board, OTOH, should…

I actually don't see it as a problem at all. I consider it entirely proper for an MP, even a list MP, to raise with police management matters of concern regarding the management…

Although to be fair RB, he did say 'very few', he is talking through the NBR channel (which may or may not colour his response which coincidentally seems to be the most…

It'd be the equivalent of the US President reading Breitbart and WorldNetDaily.

[cough]Horseshit[cough]

Mr Key in [[http://www.nbr.co.nz/ask-the-pm#comment-653712|today's NBR Ask me…

> Well that’s the easy part to deal with , you make every dollar accountable

The problem is with giving services in kind e.g. suppose a rich guy jets in from England and dumps money on a polling company…

Asked whether Ms Collins' often aggressive presence had led her into stoushes on Twitter that had contributed to her stress levels, Mr Key it had been "one of the big factors".

"She's engaged with…

Asked this morning if she regretted the visit, Collins said: "Do you know I really do. I think, unfortunately, it has caused a lot of stress for a lot of people, particularly for the prime minister and my colleagues."

...and yes, I used Google to find that!

MPs are put there by their constituents to, amongst other things, investigate and advocate with public bodies on any issues they feel fit. The only thing they mustn't do is take a corrupt payment to do so. Ministers have authority over public bodies, and have to…

It also means, as [Rob] Salmond adds, that Collins was misleading both the Prime Minister and Parliament when she told Parliament that:

“I can only tell the Prime Minister what I know. I was being…

Only . . . we haven’t seen much of Crusher in the last two and a half years. We’ve seen a faltering MP who used to be Crusher attempting to live up to her own legend and damaging herself even further in…

As Brent Edwards noted on Checkpoint yesterday, believing the emails offer credence to Collins' account requires a very unusual reading of a couple of them.

But the same applies in business too – these clowns are sadly just a reflection of our national incompetence at governance across all sectors.

Buoyed by the release of Ministry of Foreign Affairs documents which give some credence to Collins' version of events during her fateful trip to China last October, Key is punting on the Opposition attack running out of steam by the time Collins…

This…

She probably shouldn't have written a letter as a school board of trustees chair on MP's letterhead, but apart from that I…

But Key has raised a question mark over her judgment, by suggesting she should take time out. He could be playing with fire.

Ambitious to succeed Key one day, Collins has built a faction in Parliament. And recent days underscore the fact that,…

you must have missed the Greens' proposal last week of substantive reform.

Key should be the one with the axe.

Fair enough. But you can't legislate for judgement, which…

...and the Blue Velvet Rope
is held with an Iron Hand
Gloves, Labour's lost...

} : – (

The weird part is the crossover with Auckland celebrity culture.

And here is the Online Editor at The NZ Woman’s Weekly chipping in with a puff piece in support of…

Absolutely positively 100% pure truth that, and I didn’t mean to say otherwise. But damn, let’s find the political will to sweat the (relatively) small stuff before it gets that bad, because cultures of corruption don’t just spring up fully…

We should of course be clear that anything that's happened under any government here is an order of magnitude shy of what…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5qbFfdlTDQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGPC-ZKrrtY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRhUv5XhbgU&list=RDYc9Us6qX-Ic

for Judith ’Justice, just is…' Collins!
(from one JC to another)

That…

No, but I'm pretty sure words like "sleaze" and "corruption" are going to be flung across the chamber with undisguised glee today, and as soon as there's no political points to be scored it's quietly back to the __status…

There…

I’d say that the Greens have already put their money where their mouth is on that score – at least with things like the Kedgely-Walker members bill, despite its shortcomings.

Labour however is a different story. There’s a deep cultural inertia within caucus with historically minimal oversight…

OK, Labour & Greens folks – I’m going to fucking double dog dare y’all to use every opportunity you have to challenge your respective leadership to hold a joint press…

It’s not only exaggerating spectacularly on the basis of a cursory examination of the historical record, but seriously unhelpful. There’s more than enough solid grounds to criticize Collins on, without red-lining the hyperbole.

If Rob…

couldn't agree more. the last thing we need is for the country to be run as a business.…

Which suggests that she might actually be crucified by the Privileges Committee. It'll be a close-run thing, with National+Act being five members of 11. If Winston and Tariana sided with Labour+Green it'd be six-to-five, but if…

Which brings us to the constant refrain of '... minister X was invited to appear but declined the invitation'. Does anyone keep a tally of the stats for these non appearances? Could make interesting reading.
National MP's always seem to be available for…

And established boardroom practice – especially in some of the more dysfunctional corporations in this country – is that boards eventually start indulging in the worst forms of…

...is this thing on ?

hello?

On the basis of what’s just aired on Checkpoint – Key attributing a different meaning to a…

apparently she has to attend those tomorrow and Wednesday before her relaxing time off. Guess the PM's department will be coaching her to avoid saying anything.

The almost-certain complaint to the Privileges Committee for misleading the House repeatedly will suffice, no?

She's lied long, loud, and consistently, and she's done so to Key, to the media, to the voters and, most unforgivably (as far as MPs are concerned), in answering questions…

My sense is that the majority of the party is furious with her, but her Auckland luvvies continue to love her strong.…

Oh dear a feeding frenzy , that could get ugly

I'd say it's because Collins is too big to fail for them. If she sinks to Watergate-level depths, the others will quite possibly be dragged down with her.

That way, the Dark Side lies.

The truth is, her story about what she was doing in China with Oravida has completely collapsed. She has lost all credibility. What started as a pop-in cup of milk and a private dinner turns out to be a turbo-blasted official dinner involving both Governments, their officials, a senior…

I'm guessing the line is 'The Cabinet Office has already looked into that allegation and completely cleared the Minister of any wrongdoing.'

Gone before the 6pm news, I'd expect.

The origin of the term "loose cannon" comes from…

She's misled Parliament. There's no way…

Who up until recently was on the board of the Financial Markets Authority, and holds a strongly anti-PC worldview to boot. In fairness, he’s held a lot of sub-par company directors to account.

Frank Macskasy has more on Oravida’s mastery of disguise.

The self employed and partners in partnerships would be limited to giving any amount they like up to 1% of the minimum wage just like everyone else

The third director, Julia Xu, has been described as a co-founder of Oravida, and has [[http://tvnz.co.nz/q-and-a-news/julia-xu-rebuilding-brand-nz-in-china-video-5584592|spoken to media…

What about the self-employed? What about partners in a non-limited partnership?

Well that's the easy part to deal with , you make every dollar accountable – no more secret trusts – if you support a party and give it $1 you should do it in public with the whole world watching -…

It's a…

Companies Office says a third. I'd heard he was the sole director, so there's clearly a lot of murk. The Companies Office is, however, the final word in terms of legal standing.

Unfortunately the top floor of the Beehive is currently occupied by a money manager on temporary leave from Wall St.

It shouldn't be at all surprising that he and his Cabinet will wish to govern in accordance with established…

You have to wonder about her choice of acolyte. If she really has a high regard for Slater then this says some rather disturbing things about her judgement.

They'll still do it. They'll just hide it better.

While they all do it... National seem to be the most blatant in regard to "buying favours" but also, I feel, the most understandable in their response to donors – its business,…

According to that MFAT briefing above, he’s *half* the board. I’d heard a third, but either way that’s significant influence (and fees, I’d imagine).

Just like Tony Abbott, then. Or even a Vogon. Prostetnic Vogon Joyce.

It would be a warning note in a background investigation for a high-level security clearance. Wondering if the same…

Commies to start with obviously.

Blame-shifting – the last refuge…

Not sure if those two are linked. Are you part of Morning Report Mark?

To me that's the real story here, the Nats are for sale and no one seems to much care

He never returned and his…

Steven Joyce who hardly puts a foot wrong in public
apparently he smokes (or recycles OP packets)…
Joyce is calling on Labour to say how much…

God help us.

"Very unpleasant and unattractive and effective"