Home to this beautiful country after five weeks overseas and why does it feel like someone inserted a crummy made-for-television movie in the nation’s main channel and pressed constant replay?
MPs know the public hates pettiness yet they’re still throwing their toys out of the cot and calling each other puerile names.
Calling Hide a Buffoon was great though. It was great to see a politician say it as he saw it, honesty at its best.
For crying out loud – Henare, Hide and Harawira are supposed to be on the same side of the House. These boys need to get out more.
Here’s a question for the Act Party: If its leader would sacrifice his ministerial portfolio for his “one law for all” policy, why does this party of principle advocate a different law for children when someone accused of perpetrating violence against a child comes before the court?
Deborah Coddington used to be a MP for the ACT Party so it is interesting to see such a public smack down of ones own party.
I cringe when I read overseas headlines proclaiming that despite New Zealand’s dreadful reputation for child abuse, we want to defy international trends and bring back pro-smacking legislation.
How to explain why we’d do this, especially if you talk about child murders like James Whakaruru or Nia Glassie?
Commentators who sneer Sue Bradford’s law change hasn’t saved a child from death miss the point.
It’s illegal to hit an adult but that doesn’t stop adults from murdering each other. Perhaps a smartypants will start a petition to permit reasonable force against wives who don’t cook their husbands’ eggs. We could call it “Jake’s Law”.
Oh can someone please start the petition. It would be fantastic just for a laugh.
The rest of the story continues on about NZ’s reputation overseas – it is a must read. Unfortunately the wake up call is probably falling on the wrong ears.
The words money making rip off come to mind when reading about it. I am currently traveling on around 20 – 30 flights per year and I am never over my baggage weight allowance, in fact 90% of the time I am more then 50% under it. Although I do occasionally travel with two bags – always underweight.
I think Air New Zealand have figured out that not many people traveling domestically actually go over the baggage weight limit and have found another way to squeeze them for money. Only a few days ago it was announced that fairs would also increase.
To put it bluntly Air New Zealand want you to pay more for you ticket. Pay more for your bags. Provide less people behind the desk and expect more from you (ie you have to put your own bags on the baggage trolley).
What is next? A $1000 per ticket cost to fly to Wellington where you create your own ticket, act as your own security screener, fly the plane yourself, be baggage handler, air traffic controller, and ground crew. Customer Service yeah right!
I was asked by a fellow student President today about what defines me.
Well my immediate response was:
Computers/Programming
Tramping
Church
I was then asked how much of that I was doing this year given how busy I was.
My response was very muted because all three have been essentially zero. I have started on a computer science project but haven’t touched it in about two months. I have been tramping twice but that is it all my outdoors exercise this year. And church, well I have been twice, I have been to youth group three times as well but given that a quarter of the year has gone by I have not done much of the things that define me.
I was just reading something someone else I know had written, it was a list of goals. The only problem I noticed with this list of goals was that the majority of them actually had nothing to do with the definition of this person and instead were most of the things that this person’s friends define themselves through. So that made me think. Should we be defining ourselves in who we are or who we could pretend to be by copying the acts of others?
I don’t think we would achieve much more then heartache by trying to take the defining aspects of others and stuff them into our lives. Because at the end of the day we are all unique and all different. If we were all the same we would be boring!
Now I am not saying that we should not have goals and not have role models. However, what I am saying is our goals should be what we can achieve and our role models should be people that we want to be like; not clone.
Life. It is a celebration of diversity not of similarity.
The state of having little or no money and few or no material possessions
With this in mind I have to ask is the following quote poverty?
From now on, I am deemed poor… coz I have money I can’t touch…
Is having you can’t touch poor? I don’t think so. If you put up a barrier to money that you have that is your that is your problem. You are not poor. You are simply acting.
Say I was to have $10,000 and I decided to lock $9,900 away into a six month term deposit. I only have $100 left. Can I honestly claim that I am poor. NO. I am not poor I have simply decided to be stubborn with my money to try and claim some sympathy. It is Disgusting Behavior. NOT because you have money. But because that you have money and at the same time you are trying to claim that you don’t. It is deceitful and lying to say that you are poor.
Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Proverbs 30:8 NIV
A man charged over the theft of items from a Canadian family staying at an Auckland hotel has been granted bail.Peter Malcolm Black, 42, who has the same surname as the Canadian family, was bailed to a South Auckland address when he appeared in the Auckland District Court yesterday.
This move seriously weakens my trust in the New Zealand justice system. Earlier in the week we have 6 Police Officers turn up to stop a parent from flicking his son on the ear once. But, on the other hand, we have a serious fraudster who brought disgrace to this country being bailed.
This isn’t the only serious criminal granted bail yesterday.
The 16-year-old appeared in the Youth Court and was granted bail.
A 16 year old who was a part of a gang of four who violently beat 4 adults is also granted bail. What is this country coming to? Do you have to be a violent offender in order to be free? Are the police to afraid to deal with serious crime? Something needs to be done here.
I see it as another move by the totalisation state to control us.
More people injure themselves in cars everyday, should we ban cars? No.
How about alcohol? No.
Smoking? No.
But a bit of fun, oh absolutely not, we can’t have people having fun.
Sure there are some idiots out there; but you get that with any activity. 9 people injured across 4 million come on, you do the maths, it is just scare tactics from those who want to control you, the Government.
Remember, Remember, the 5th of November, the Gunpowder treason and plot, I see of no reason why it should ever be forgot.
$1 Million for a triangle? You have to be kidding me. And what is it meant to represent? The old logo was distinctly Auckland now we have a triangle? Awesome, great artistic creativity there.
Seriously, if we didn’t think that the current logo was up to scratch then why didn’t we pool the local artistic community. The council throws lots of money into places like Art Station and various events for artists every year, but the once chance that they really have to show their true talent gets wasted by a chief executive who remembered how to draw a triangle from his primary school days.
A square would of been better, because we are obviously not thinking outside of it.
For comparison here is the current logo:
And for those people who cannot see the symbolism in the logo it is simple. Two yachts with Rangitoto Island in the background.
