Posts by Tom Semmens
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Here is a nice Xmas story:
Archaeologists digging in the Valley of the Kings have uncovered a hidden tomb. inside, they have found an un-robbed chamber with an intact mummy inside. The mummy is richly decorated chocolate, nuts and gold foil. Experts believe it to be tomb of the fabled Pharaoh Roche.
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Taupo for the biggest family gathering since Mum and Dad died, but then my big adventure begins – I decided I was totally fed up with John Key’s selfish NZ, so I am going to live in Spain from whence I plan to sit out this National government by reading all Hemingway’s works in the towns where they were written.
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Lord knows what goes on in his mind.
And even the Lord has to shower with a steelo pad afterwards.
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Collin's faction had a go with Pallino last time, now it is Boag's factions turn to pick a potato.
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Speaker: The Spirit Level, in reply to Steve Withers,
I’m still trying to work it why this government having a surplus meant there was enough money for a flag referendum, but not enough money for Pharmac to fund life-saving melanoma treatments.
For the same reason that while we all nod our heads at the need to do something about child poverty, the free to air media branch of the ideological state apparatus happily proclaimed, with beaming smiles on the presenters faces, it could be tax cuts for all in 2016.
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Hard News: Change for the Better, in reply to Jim Cathcart,
OTOH, I’ve seen some appalling etiquette among cyclists in Auckland, particularly the MAMIL weekend warriors...
Inapproprite speed is as dangerous on a bike on a cycleway as it is in a car on the road. A lot of MAMILs are old school cyclists who are used to neglected and unused cycleway segments that were basically deserted and their playspaces. The increasing popularity of cycling is causing some cultural adjustment issues for these people as well.
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I guess driving is regarded by many drivers as not just a way of getting around, but a moral good and a human right - a triumph of western civilization which countless TV shows and advertisments tell them is an important status symbol in a values system they've totally brought into. Cyclists are seen as moral outsiders challenging their value system. On top of that, two other factors feed road rage against cyclists IMHO. First of all, cyclists are not just moral outliers, they are a highly visible minority moral outlier. Secondly, they are egged on by the public 2-minute hates of Hoskings, or Jeremy Clarkson, or any of a plethora of anti-cyclists.
The dehumanising combination of being seen as moral outliers, having a minority status and public rabble rousing is a particularly lethal one throughout human history.
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“…“Every person, whatever his level of academic ability, whether he be rich or poor, whether he live in town or country, has a right, as a citizen, to a free education of the kind for which HE IS BEST FITTED”
You need to calm down sometimes bro, your hater gonna hate routine affects your comprehension.
My emphasis added above. No one is saying no to free education, just an end to the idea the only education that counts is a costly tertiary one that goes on forever.
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I’m slightly sceptical of MOOCs as a solution…
We’ve already discovered that to much education simply leads to a qualifications arms race that the middle class is better equipped and funded to capture in their interests than the lower middle class, the working class, the working poor or the just plain poor. I also question whether or not people dropping out of higher education is a failure of the education system, or simply a reflection of human nature. A huge number of people – probably the majority of the population – are not particularly academically gifted, hated school, and are not that interested in the drudgery of continuing education. They just want a decent vocational job with a bit of on the job skill up-dating and training and some job security. A huge number of people would happily be an employed tradie or a teacher or a nurse all their lives. The governments jobs policy shouldn’t be focused creating opportunities for the already gifted to transition between careers. The smart and the gifted can take care of themselves. It should rather be about ensuring there is meaningful and reasonably paid work for everyone. As far as I can see, this probably means higher taxes, a UBI and a bigger government sector employing more doctors, teachers, nurses, social workers, community organisers and the like.
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I think there’s an unwillingness of some employers (going up the value chain to corporate purchasers of IT) to (a) pay the rate for the job and (b) develop staff skills rather than expecting to hire people with a 99% fit to their tech of the day.
Employers ruthlessly use the “skill shortage” to force wages and conditions down by the wholesale importing of low cost IT labour from (current flavours de jour) India and the Phillipines. These workers come with stellar CVs chock full of impressive qualifications, but in my experience they are 50-50 propositions on actual ability and/or workplace nous, and anyway usually require at least as long as retraining/skill development would in order to come up to speed with NZ workplaces and culture.