Posts by Rob Stowell
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Hard News: If wishing made it so ..., in reply to Russell Brown,
words now failing. just going outside to kick something (inanimate) :-)
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There’s also the big ‘target’ of getting 20,000 people off unemployment benefits.
The article parrots a bit of moaning about how expensive these unemployed people are:Currently 12 per cent of New Zealand’s working age population is on a main benefit and more than 230,000 children live in benefit-dependent homes.
The annual cost of working age benefit payments is more than $8 billion.
And after a little concern-trolling, we get to the great mechanism for reducing unemployment:
Being out of work increases the risk of poverty and the longer a person is out of the workforce the harder it is to re-enter, Social Development Minister Paula Bennett said.
“Welfare reform will require more working age people to look for work and the Government is targeting those who can work but have been on a benefit long term."
More people will have to look for these ‘ghost jobs’, and will be ‘targeted’ when they fail to find them.
From the State Sevices Commission page:What are we doing to achieve this result?
As part of Welfare Reform, the Government will actively promote participation in paid employment and give people the support they need to take on paid employment.
In addition to a stronger work-focus for more people, achieving this result will require an integrated cross-agency approach that addresses the causes of long-term welfare dependence.
We have three overarching strategies for reducing long-term welfare dependence:
we will work with a wider range of clients to break the pattern of welfare dependence
we will invest our resources smarter to get the best results
we will improve the model of service delivery.
A more detailed action plan will be released in the coming weeks.
Brilliant ideas keep leaping forth from the top-notch thinkers in our govt, eh? Can't wait for the details.
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Hard News: Friday Music: When there were…, in reply to Joe Wylie,
In fairness though they wrote two of the most genuinely stupid songs ever (Paranoid and Iron Man).
I had to check :)
Black Sabbath Paranoid Lyrics
Songwriters: ANTHONY IOMMI, WILLIAM WARD, TERENCE BUTLER, JOHN OSBOURNE
Finished with my woman 'cause she couldn't help me with my mind
People think I'm insane because I am frowning all the time
All day long I think of things but nothing seems to satisfy
Think I'll lose my mind if I don't find something to pacify
Can you help me occupy my brain?
Oh yeah
I need someone to show me the things in life that I can't find
I can't see the things that make true happiness, I must be blind
Make a joke and I will sigh and you will laugh and I will cry
Happiness I cannot feel and love to me is so unreal
And so as you hear these words telling you now of my state
I tell you to enjoy life I wish I could but it's too lateEven without the music- that is some stupid! :)
Why is NZ so prudish now?
I was wondering too. Skinny-dipping is the best way to swim.
And: where have the (other) hippies gone! (and why did they all leave without telling me:)) -
Hard News: Friday Music: When there were…, in reply to Nora Leggs,
Those are ‘double-brown’ cans holding up the mini.
The aluminium was thicker than most cans, if I remember rightly. A flatmate and I once collected a bunch, cut the ends off, and made flat strips of aluminium which we used to fix rusted-out V-gutters in the ‘gables’ of our flat’s roof. Double-brown cans were definitely the best :) -
Moving right along then – Value for money:
http://tvnz.co.nz/breakfast-news/value-money-in-new-zealand-education-video-4939848
I hope this is playing in Ms Parata’s dreams tonight :)
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understand and value the essence of that curriculum. So that they see the power in the key competencies. That they see and embrace the holistic nature of learning, the value of life-long learning. The need to actively support and value that nature, across our society.
Another dreadful aspect of National Standards- it killed the real buzz around the new curriculum.
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Hard News: Women and their representations, in reply to Hebe,
I wonder if 20c a story would work?I could probably do something like that for PA; or a fiver a month sub for my faves.
Free-lance rates in NZ being so ridiculously lucrative, you'd need at least half-a-dozen subscribers to break even :)
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Hard News: Women and their representations, in reply to Hebe,
I’ve been thinking something like that this week. The newspapers are dying!
It’s a little scary, but is it so bad? Newspaper ownership is so concentrated- often in the hands of such hard-ass right-wing fanatics :) – it’s hard to mourn their financial demise.
Except we know many good journalists will be out of work, and important stories won’t be heard.
Internet media is almost bound to be more diverse, with more distributed ownership. A small group – or an individual- can do a lot of journalism and publishing.
Where the $ will come from is still the big issue.
I look at Werewolf from time to time, but I haven’t been big-hearted enough to dip into the credit card. (Partly because they ask for a regular payment, and auto payments make me squirmy. I can never guarantee there’ll be money in an account at some random time, for a start. I’d really like a system that encourages micropayments- $1-$6 bucks, what you might pay for a paper or magazine, with a couple of clicks, when I choose.)
NZ is unlikely to get the number of eyeballs that’s allowed TPM to prosper on advertising alone (or mostly).
So subscription or some form of payment? Buuuut- can’t see myself paying to access stuff or Teh Harald. And (as all the experiments have shown) paywall = no links…. because it’s almost discourteous to link to something people can’t see without paying. And no links = less readers and…
So we are entering (backwards) a new era for journalism. And the one thing I feel sure of- it makes good public broadcasting- that’s you, RNZ!- much much more important.
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Hard News: Moving from frustration to disgust, in reply to Russell Brown,
What is being threatened for education is much more frightening than asset sales.
They are part of the same package of beliefs- but yes!
And while it’s more ‘under-the-radar’ Stephen Joyce’s vision for tertiary education in NZ is every bit as narrow and ideological. Watch him try to get rid of university governance by elected councils.
Govt appointed councils, stacked with the usual suspects from business boards, will be so much more ‘flexible’ and ‘able to respond to changing educational needs and priorities in the 21st century’.
First three years: prepare the soil, swallow a few dead rats....
Now it's 'business time'* :(
*apologies to the Conchords. This time it's NZ getting f**ked, right? -
Hard News: Moving from frustration to disgust, in reply to Scott Chris,
You can’t efficiently identify and assist under-performing students if you can’t measure them objectively.
Seriously: you think this “long tail” of “under-achievement” in NZ schools is something we don’t know enough about and can’t identify?
Jeepers. That’s almost as blind as thinking the Govt has a ton of money and smart initiatives to throw at assisting “under-performing students” as soon as they are identified. Try finding that in the budget :(