Posts by Tom Semmens
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For once, I feel a bit sorry for Tew - he had a clear agreement and now (some) unions have welshed on the deal.
However, it is also clear the NZRU lacked the guts to simply say "the four lowest teams at the end of the 2009 season will be relegated". To have done that would have drawn the fangs from most of the opponents. Instead, they put in place a whole pile of conditions that were clearly designed as a jackup to make sure none of the main centres lost teams. No wonder there was outcry, it fed directly into every anti-city (and specifically anti-Auckland) bias the provinces ever had. It was a dumb idea.
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When I said "unformed" what I meant was the observations were simply that: An observation of how aid gets best and quickest to people who need it.
They were "unformed" because the wider implications of unaccountable funding of overweight Samoan pastors or suicide bomber recruiting Hizbollah fighters have been left open. I think that what he is saying - that cash rapidly distributed by organic community organistions is the most effective form of aid delivery of all - is hardly open to dispute.
I think therefore the discussion he has left open is HOW we go about achieving that within an accountable framework that doesn't lead to chronic corruption, encourage violent milita or, dare I say it, require the need for mercenaries to make it happen.
When I used to be a commerical fisherman I well recall when sweeping changes were made to search and rescue. The whole organisation was centralised in a Wellington bunker and introduced all sorts of layers of authorisation and delay. At sea, like the "golden hour" they talk of in the ambulance service, the first hour of SAR is critical. The inevitable delay meant that while a well cordinated and cost-efficient search effort could be mounted the "rescue" aspect became increasingly academic.
My preferred method of SAR at sea was and shall always shall remain one of "overwhelming immediate response" with every available boat heading to the search area or searching (even if location and information is still uncertain) and the best equipped LOCAL VESSEL at sea taking charge of the immediate co-ordination and response. And that would include authorisation to, for example, scramble an Orion. Most fishing vessels and many private vessels have extensive comms suites and can easily coordinate and control SAR efforts if the training was provided to the crew. After the immediate critical period (1-3 hours) has passed, the C3 functions can be handed over to a centralised authority.
It seems to me that if my experiences at sea are any guide, then rapidly getting well trained people on the ground with the authority to spend money without bureaucratic interference is the best response in the critical first few days/weeks of a disaster. Then the larger agencies can take over the deliver of more accountable and long term aid.
Of course, the problem with with giving people the authority to get on with the job is it runs completely counter to our modern obssession with managerialist approaches to solving problems.
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Good thinking from David Shearer.
Crap thinking from David Shearer..
More like some unformed general observations on the operational practicalities of aid delivery.
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Old Likud loverboy over at Kiwiblog isn't going to be happy to see you praising Hizbollah. Why, just last week he was admiring the height of the wall that keeps all the Palestinians in the zoo.
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Prov 13:24: "He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes (diligently)."
Prov 19:18: "Chasten thy son while there is hope, and let not thy soul spare for his crying."
Prov 22:15: "Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him."
Prov 23:13: "Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die."
Prov 23:14: "Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell."
Prov 29:15: "The rod and reproof give wisdom: but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame."
The Lord has spoken.
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Hahahahahahahaha.
But I am reminded of some dialogue from the Jaquie Brown Diaries. Jaquie is on a celebrity reality TV show:Jaquie: "So why are you on the show?"
Contestant "I'm an All White?"
Jaquie: "Nah...."
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"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident."
Arthur Schopenhauer
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You do realise the only thing his employer cares about is ratings and he just guaranteed them a bigger audience.
Ummm... I would have thought this statement was implicit in my comment?
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You know, you can go about Paul Henry all day, but it wouldn't make any difference to him. He is an arrogant and nasty man who feels he is above ever having to say sorry and Christ like in his belief that he is above ever actually regretting anything he said.
I am more saddened by the complete loss of moral compass by his employer, TVNZ. It appears you can get away with just about anything as long as it delivers a few precious ratings points to your handlers in TVNZ management.
Paul Henry is allowed by choices made by his bosses to be the misogynist bully he is. It is his handlers and enablers who stand the most condemned.
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As I've said elsewhere, anyone with eyes to see can see the teachers are quietly building a mighty alliance to take on Tolley over national assessments next year. My bet is they'll wait until teachers, principals, parents, boards of trustees and every educationalist from the PM's favourite expert down is onside then sadlly say the refusal of the minister to see it the way everyone else does leaves them with no choice but to to refuse to implement the standards.
Anne Tolley will be be left high and dry with nowhere to go.
Maybe someone in the SSC is brighter than Tolley (not difficult, I would speculate the Yukka's in the foyer of the SSC are smarter than she is) and that is where this sudden need for a "little talk" over the Standards of Integrity and Conduct code has come from.