Posts by Kyle Matthews
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... but this is more defensible.
Nevertheless, I like the Amartya Sen line on democracy. India hasn't had a famine since independence. It has had real hunger, but not famine, because under a democracy governments are held to account.
Also, y'know Dwarf Wheat, which led to the doubling of wheat yields in the region.
And India suffered famine in the mid-1960s while it was battling away with Pakistan, which delayed the widespread introduction of the wheat. Democracy's useful, but it doesn't directly make food.
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Except for that... y'know, world cup thinger.
Does anyone know who's showing coverage of that by the way? Anyone apart from sky? Or am I going to be stuck with websites and radio again?
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If you ask me, legislating parenting is a mighty slippery slope. After all, your definition of 'behaviour which adversely affects the development of children' (ensuring they are not exposed to violence and enjoy proper nutrition) might be awfully different to some future governments definition (parents must ensure their children attend one hour of religious education each day to ensure proper moral upbringing).
Parenting legislation is classic 'Road to Serfdom' stuff - it sounds great in principle, but how are you going to monitor it? Should parents inform on each other? Should teachers inform on parents?
OK, well we're already on that 'slippery slope'. You can already report some of these things to the police, and Child Youth and Family, or whatever it's name is this week. I'm fairly confident that the debate that we have in this country about where the line is between what government can do and can't do is robust enough.
Anyway, my point wasn't that you should legislate to tell parents what they're not allowed to do, but that you should make positive efforts to improve the standard of parenting across the whole country. Particularly in the obvious target areas - low socio-economic, single parent, history of violence or sexual abuse - but generally across the whole society.
I'm no expert on the field, but I would have thought throwing a few million dollars at that problem would probably raise the standard of parenting across the board. The impacts in terms of outcomes of youth, and their future in terms of education, health, employment, crime, and just not being little shits, hell, I'd guess that's a good investment of tax money. Good parenting at the top of the cliff stops a heap of ambulances at the bottom I say.
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I 'm super-glad that I've been able to sit down with my kids and research stuff that is, in the scheme of things, trivial: yes, it's good that there's a place where every pokemon is named. And where porn stars have articles.
I have to ask the obvious question... you research porn stars with your kids? You don't want to leave that until after they've gone to bed?
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I'm not sure I'd like a government that could "do" something about Thursday night post pub parties to be honest.
Except, turn that around.
Because I'd like "A government that would do something about parenting behaviour which adversely affects the development of children."
If it becomes about positive steps like helping families have enough money to provide breakfast, and helping educate families about positive parenting and giving parents who are struggling support and skills, then it's not a bad thing.
Personally I'd be annoyed if my neighbours had a party noisy enough to keep my kids awake on a Thursday night, let alone what it might be doing for their own kids.
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How good is a real-time, daily Daily Show?
Looks as if it is one ...mebbe two days in arrears.
It's behind a calendar day, but only because we're 18 hours ahead of EST here in NZ, so when it plays on USA TV at 11pm EST Monday, it's 5pm Tuesday here. So we get it 5 hours after it's broadcast there.
So it's about as good as we'll get. So yes, yay for C4.
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Completely shifting the topic to a related amusing news story:
Canadian town to immigrants: you can't stone women
Highlights:
Immigrants to the small Quebec town of Herouxville must not stone women in public, burn them alive or throw acid on them, according to an extraordinary set of rules made public by the local council.
"We wish to inform these new arrivals that the way of life which they abandoned when they left their countries of origin cannot be recreated here," said the declaration, which also says women are allowed to drive, vote, dance, write checks, dress how they want, work and own property.
"Therefore we consider it completely outside these norms to ... kill women by stoning them in public, burning them alive, burning them with acid, circumcising them etc."
Andre Drouin, the councillor who came up with the idea of the declaration, told the National Post newspaper that the town was not racist.
"We invite people from all nationalities, all languages, all sexual orientations, whatever, to come live with us, but we want them to know ahead of time how we live," he said.
The regulations say girls and boys can exercise together and people should only be allowed to cover their faces at Halloween. Children must not take weapons to school, although the Supreme Court of Canada has already ruled that Sikh boys have the right to carry ceremonial daggers.
Obvious questions that come to mind:
1. Is there a problem with people coming to Herouxville and stoning people? Or indeed, anywhere in Quebec?
2. If there is a problem, is posting rules saying you can't stone women and burn them in acid, likely to reduce the incidence? Are the criminals unaware of this being 'outside the norm'?
3. They've banned covering the face, such as veils, but allowed ceremonial daggers? I don't especially mind the daggers, but aren't they at least dangerous, whereas covering the face is... just cultural/religious fashion?
It's a strange world...
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1 Lou Vincent
2 Peter Fulton
3 Stephen Fleming
4 Ross Taylor
5 Scott Styris
6 Jacob Oram
7 Brendan McCullum
8 Daniel Vettori (c)
9 James Franklin
10 Mark Gillespie
11 Shane Bond
12 Andre AdamsAlso, given that Oram and Styris can both potentially bowl 10 overs, you've got 7 bowlers there, and you strictly need 5, but maybe six to cover it. So you'd drop either Franklin or Gillespie and probably put in McMillan (whose form is on and off, but so is just about every other batsman). Probably Mills would come back so both would go.
I'm getting the impression James Marshall should be in the team ahead of his brother. He's hit some form domestically, I think Hamish has forgotten what it's like to score runs, and it's bad for his confidence to keep him there as a professional 12th man.
And, remember that Fleming isn't an opening batsman, he only took over the job when there was no one else to do it. Neither was Astle - he got promoted from 5 or 6 to open the batting at one day level years ago, and was so successful at it he's been there since. The opening combination in both forms of the game has been NZ's weak point since... Wright?
Best to keep thinking of it as something else and put in a slugger. Recycle the Greatbatch idea - we just need someone who can see the ball well, and hit it over the infield, because there's no fielders out there in the first ten overs.
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The percentages seem a little misleading to me: 41% on is $14,800 (Maori) is about $6,100, while 31% on $18,600 (Pakeha) is about $5,800. So, the gap has closed $300 rather than 10%. Not to be sniffed at but but also hardly overwhelming.
I found this one:
Maori incomes have risen faster than average across the board. The proportion earning at least $70,000 a year has doubled from 1.7 per cent of all Maori in 2001 to 3.4 per cent, while the proportion in the total population rose only from 5.1 per cent to 8.1 per cent.
even less overwhelming. Russell you've put it as doubling, when the total population percentage didn't double. That's great, but if you look at the percentage increases, 1.7 is a lot less of an increase than 3% - slightly over half.
Linking the increase back to the original 1.7% would have meaning to me if there was a strong link between "how many there used to be" and "how many there are now". But there's no strong link there. Maori are continuing to fall behind in this figure, which you've put forward as a positive. Seems to be a negative to me - Maori are increasingly unlikely, relative to the general population, to earn at least that amount of money.
I didn't see what Turia said, but you're probably right about the bigger picture of what she said.
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Does that count his performances versus Sri Lanka? I get his average as 40.09? Anyway I love Astle. He was one of our best batsmen. I have his 200 on tape and love watching it. But he can't see the ball anymore. I guess I don't know if he will get that back but to me at the moment he just isn't good enough. And while I hope I'm wrong (because I don't believe for a second he will be dropped) I don't really think we will ever again see the kind of form from Astle that made him great.
I'm picking that with this full-on one day season ahead of us, he'll struggle to keep his test spot next season. At 35, I think he might play next season as a one day player, and then he'll retire from international cricket at least.
My pick for the world cup. An emergency call for Chris Harris, who has definitely still got it from what I've heard. And you know he'd play a blinder over there too.