Posts by Bart Janssen
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Do you reckon we're going to nationalise all the farms if the going gets tought?
Nope, it will get messy. Global food prices will be all over the place. But what can't be sold elsewhere, will be sold cheap on the local market eg funny shaped kiwifruit. Cancelled export shipments of lamb taste just as good.
Bottom line, NZ grows more food than we eat here. That has its minuses but it has its pluses as well.
It won't be fun in NZ but we shouldn't starve and that may not be true elsewhere. That sounds big and scary but some people I trust say this POTUS is the worst thing they've ever seen economically. I don't know myself.
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On a slightly more serious note.
Yes we are lucky to live in NZ. Our economy, even when totally er, depressed, is still based around producing food. When you don't have enough money for a big screen iMAC you still spend money on food.
And if nobody buys our food, we can eat it ourselves, which sadly will not be the case for many countries.
cheers
Bart -
The Big Shitpile.
It seems a common theme so how about...
Pile Of Total Unmitigated Shit
Of course you'd have to use the acronym which is two syllables
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So I presume if MP members are associate ministers then there will also be a principle minister inside cabinet from the National party?
It's kind of an interesting structure. Doesn't it mean that essentially the minister gets to make most of the decisions? And also that MP can't dissent (in public?) on those portfolios or am I reading that incorrectly.
What is really interesting is the roles given to MP vs ACT. It almost looks like the MP have more responsibility and involvement in the major portfolios than ACT.
That would imply a National party that is much further from the Right than some of my friends were hoping would be the case. But it's very early still.
cheers
Bart -
Sorry Craig
The quotes were mostly because I couldn't think of quite the right word.
And very sorry for giving any impression that my comment was specifically about The Maori Party. Far from it. My comment (admittedly overly cynical) was aimed at them as politicians.
If I have any real disappointment in them it is that they are demonstrating that they are politicians wanting power rather than representing any constituency (not that I have any real knowledge of the real Maori constituency, if there is such a thing).
As I said, not aimed at Maori or the party as such, simply at the individuals in parliament.
cheers
Bart -
I think this is probably very canny for them.
Or, just possibly, they are unscrupulous sh!ts after as much power as they can get and hence will "collaborate" with whomever will give them the biggest piece of pie at the time.
Last election it was labour, this time it was national, perhaps if ACT were the major party they'd figure out a rationalisation for working with them.
But surely that is far too cynical
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"Obviously, it's only a small step from Minister of Zoos to Minister of Tertiary Education,"
Leaked documents recently indicated that ACT's plans for tertiary funding have been modeled closely on the the soon to be wildly successful Zoo model.
By replacing complex funding rounds full of detailed scientific and commercial analysis with three 3 minute rounds of no-hold-barred wrestling they expect to dramatically shorten the funding process. At they same time turning the costly process into a money earner by selling pay-per-view rights.
Sources in the tertiary sector support the idea saying "it will totally bust the myth of wimpy geeks in ivory towers" although a spokesperson from the school of fine arts expressed some concern that this could see a shift in funding towards the engineering school.
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Don't worry be happy(ish)
I have a good friend who is very happy that we have ditched this government that has created such an economic mess over the past 9 years. He operates at a different level of business to me and I find it hard to argue against his knowledge. My own perceptions of the economic situation in NZ are different to his and I voted accordingly.
He like most of NZ wanted a National/Act government - and got it.
Over the next 3 years we will have a dictatorship led by John Key. They can and will make any changes they like with no need to make any kind of deal with anyone. The Maori Party are largely irrelevant and it is extremely unlikely that Act will oppose anything National suggests.
After 3 years of that my guess (and hope) is NZ will want a more consultative government again.
The worst thing about this result is not that National/Act are the government, but that they can pass legislation without any need to compromise on ideology.
So don't worry, be happy - after 3 years of National/Act dictatorship they will be gone.
cheers
Bart -
Holy crap those tests were interesting.
I somewhat facetiously wrote good at faces and names but crap at putting them together. But on the unknown faces I got 67/72 and on the famous faces 12/30. I knew every one of the famous faces just could not find the name for them.
It almost certainly says something very important about how my brain is wired up - I just have no idea what it is.
Oh and @Stehpen #1 obviously
cheers
Bart -
Pretty good with names.
Pretty good with faces.
Really crap at connecting the correct name to the face.
But mostly I think the problem is I am not that worried about it, I don't mind looking like a dick because I have to ask someone's name - again.
Oh and really really bad at putting actors names to faces in movies and I know it's because I'm not interested in the actor at all, it's the character I'm interested in. For me, the better the actor the less likely I am to know who they are in real life.