Atrocities from all sides

Construction workers in Poland have uncovered a mass grave  believed to be of 1800 German civilians who disappeared during the Soviet Army’s march to Berlin.

That reminded me of a story my father told. He served in the 20th battalion in Egypt and was part of a group who took some German POWs. They were handed over to Polish troops and never seen again.

How sad is this?

Several families were camping on a farm near Lake Wanaka.

The weather was fine and sunny so they spent their days doing what families do at the lake.

The older children swam and played with lilos, a couple of younger ones dug a hole and filled it, bucket by bucket, with water; their parents were in the water playing too or engaged with them on the shore.

One afternoon some of the group wandered along the beach and came across another family – the parents engrossed in their books and the wee ones on a rug equally engrossed in a portable DVD.

The charitable corner of my mind realises it’s possible this was just a snap shot and the whole family had been playing together in and by the water for the rest of the day.

The rest just wonders why they’d  take any form of electronic entertainment to the lake.

Recession deepens milk surplus climbs

If the demand for widgets drops it’s not difficult for the factories producing them to reduce production.

It’s much harder with plants and animals so although the demand for dairy products has fallen farmers can’t turn off the milk tap and as the New York Times reports  that’s leading to stockpiles of milk powder.

As a breakneck expansion in the global dairy industry turns to bust, Roger Van Groningen must deal with the consequences. In a warehouse that his company runs here, 8 to 20 trucks pull up every day to unload milk powder. Bags of the stuff — surplus that nobody will buy, at least not at a price the dairy industry regards as acceptable — are unloaded and stacked into towering rows that nearly fill the warehouse.

Mr. Van Groningen’s company does not own the surplus milk powder, but merely stores it for the new owners: the taxpayers of the United States. To date, the government has agreed to buy about $91 million worth of milk powder.

. . .  Government price supports provide a price floor for agricultural products as a way of keeping farmers afloat during hard times and ensuring an adequate food supply.

. . . Some critics of farm subsidies argue that price support programs are antiquated and allow farmers to continue producing even when the economics make no sense, as taxpayers will always buy up the excess production.

The USA isn’t along in stockpiling milk powder. The EU is too and  it’s also happening in New Zealand although here it’s the farmer owned company Fonterra and not the government doing it.

Roarprawn asks whether Fonterra shareholders are getting the true picture when Agridata points out that stock piles mean milk isn’t selling.

I was at a meeting in December where we got a frank account of the state of the industry and while whitegold has lost the lustre it had just months ago, the long term outlook is positive.

That doesn’t mean the short to medium term will be easy, especially for those who converted recently when land, stock and building prices were at their peak.  And if dairy farmers are tightening their belts their employees and those who service and supply them will feel the pinch too.

In light of this, farmers who’ve put their efforts, and money, into expensive supplementary feeding systems designed to increase production would do well to remember New Zealand’s competitive advantage is the ability to grow grass which gives us a low cost, pasture based dairy industry.

As for Fonterra, the measure of a company is not how it handles a rising market but how well it does when prices fall and it will be some months until we can judge them on that.

And what would she do?

There’s no better illustration of the differences between the leadership of the current government and the previous one than than Helen Clark’s criticism of John Key because he’s having a holiday.

She was all-controlling, he trusts his ministers.

She thinks the government is the answer, he knows the last one was a big part of the problem.

Former Prime Minister Helen Clark, on holiday in Europe, criticised the Government for taking a “laissez-faire” approach to the economic crisis.

“The rest of the world is aware there’s an economic crisis on, they are aware there’s a huge international crisis in Gaza, and the New Zealand government is on holiday,” she said.

“At the end of the day, when you’re elected, you don’t have a 100 per cent holiday.”

Even without the hypocrisy shown by criticising Key for taking a break while she too is on holiday, this is more than a bit rich coming from the woman whose government left an economic mess for National to clean up; and whose election promises included a secret mini-budget to be announced before Christmas.

National made its policy and 100 day plan clear before the election, formed a government in record time and passed legislation to deliver on some key parts of its pledges before parliament went in to recess last month.

They were criticised  then for moving too fast and now they’re being criticised for not doing enough.

But what would she be doing if she was still in control? Cancelling the tax cuts, calling meetings, commissiong reports and reviews and achieving little or nothing as she did for nine years?

Key and his family have made significant financial and personal sacrifices so he can be Prime Minister. There is absolutely nothing wrong with them taking a rare opportunity to have a holiday together.

Although, it won’t be ”100 per cent holiday” for him. He’s contactable by phone and email, he’ll be keeping up with news, reading and as many people in leadership roles do when supposedly on holiday, he’ll be making plans.

Hat Tip: Keeping Stock  and Kiwi Blog

P.S. – someone whose political memory is better than mine may correct me on this but didn’t Clark carry on with an overseas trip after the 9/11 attacks and wasn’t she not just out of the country but unreachable after the tsunami in Thailand?

The new three Rs

The three Rs used to be Reading wRiting and aRithmetic.

Now they stand for reduce, reuse and recycle.

As a child of children of the depression who had a Presbyterian upbringing I have no argument with the economic and environmental sense of reducing and reusing. But I am yet to be convinced that the enivronmental and economic benefits of recycling outweigh the costs.

There is no doubt recycling reduces the amount of waste put into landfills which in turn reduces the headache for councils which have to deal with ever growing mountains of waste.

But I’ve often wondered if the energy used in transporting and processing paper, plastic, glass and other recyclable materials justifies doing it. My doubts over whether recycling was better for the environment were compounded by a news story a few years ago, which I’ve never seen contradicted, about a plastic recycling plant in China which was causing huge air and water pollution and severe health problems for its staff.

Now the ODT reports that recyclable materials are piling up because the market for them has slumped. That may have nothing to do with the environmental costs and benefits but it is a sign the economic benefits are now outweighed by the costs.

Recycling is the easiest green initiative for individuals. If your town has kerbside recycling it’s just a matter of chucking things into the right bin with just a little more effort required to wash anything which is dirty.

It takes a bit more efforts in towns without the service and the country where you have to take your recyclables to a depot but that can usually be done enroute to somewhere else.

It’s not hard to make small gestures towards reducing and reusing – taking your own reusable bags to the supermarket does both;  and washing the empty vegemite jar and refilling it with homemade jam is easy.

But serious reduction and resuse requires restraint and effort.

However, unlike the old 3 Rs where all Rs were equal, the first two of the new 3Rs – reducing and reusing are almost certainly superior to the third – recycling.

Which do you believe?

Conspiracy theorists who think newspapers are overly influenced by advertisers might be relieved by evidence to the contrary in today’s Sunday Star Times.

The front page lead is a doom and gloom story headlined Top holiday house prices in freefall which contrasts markedly with an advertising feature in the property section talking up real estate on Waiheke Island.

And which carries more weight - the news story by Jenni McManus or the property ad?

How long should a gas cylinder last?

The bloke at the garage wouldn’t refill the gas cylinder for our barbeque because it was more than 10 years past its test date.

We could have sent it away to be tested but that would have cost a similar amount to the new one – $60 – and we had steak waiting to be cooked. 

So we bought  a new one even though there was only one available and  its test date was 01-08 which means we’ll get only nine years and not 10 out of it.

I wonder:

1) What is the safe life span of a gas cylinder?

2) How many people send them to be retested after 10 years?

3) How many of those are found to be safe?

Who’re you going to call?

It’s about four years since a shepherd on Glen Dene Station on the shores of Lake Hawea fell and broke his leg.

Because cell phone coverage was ify and his battery was nearly flat his companion called a mate with a helicoptor who knew the area rather than dialing 111 which he knew would involve a lengthy explanation of their whereabouts.

The chopper arrived quickly and the shepherd was taken to Wanaka for medical help but ACC refused to pay the bill because they hadn’t called emergency services.

Publicity after then-candidate for the Otago electorate Jacqui Dean intervened resulted in a backdown and ACC eventually paid up.

I understand the reason for protocols over rescues but when you’re in the wop-wops time is of the essence and the right way of doing things is often too slow for safety.

ODT journalist Philip Somerville discovered this after his pelvis was crushed by a boat on the shores of Lake Wanaka last year.

The delay in getting help could have cost him his life. 

Somerville writes about the accident  and about the aftermath  in Dunedin Hospital where he spent five weeks as a patient.

St John has admitted failings in the way the 111 call was handled and the ODT editorialises on the problems with the system.

We suspect this tail-chasing lies at least in part in funding: will the patient recovery/rescue – let alone any search – be paid from stretched ACC, health services or police budgets? Clearly, it can be foolish, expensive and wasteful for emergency services to respond to an incident before the true needs are clear.

But the existing arrangements, especially for the southern lakes region where patient recovery from remote locations is often a comparatively lengthy business, are clearly unsatisfactory, as this specific case has demonstrated, and they must be sorted out at senior levels.

When medical emergencies are involved the response must be focused on patient’s needs, not on an erratic and inadequate bureaucratic emergency response system.

When we called 111 when our baby stopped breathing the phone was answered at the local hospital 20 kilometres from home by someone with decades of local knowledge. If we had to summon help now it would be answered in Christchurch by someone who almost certainly wouldn’t know our locality.

When you need help the last thing you want is to be slowed down by bureaucratic hurdles and inadequate training.

Centralising emergency call centres no doubt saves money but it sometimes takes time that could cost lives and that’s why people outside towns aren’t always confident that the best way to summon help is to dial 111.

Safety up to individual

We admired Fox Glacier from the distance enforced by safety barriers when we we there 18 months ago and thought about ignoring the warning signs to have a closer look.

We wondered if the warnings were to protect the business of the guides or if they were really about safety because it didn’t look dangerous.

But we’ve done a bit of tramping and know enough about the dangers of unstable ice to be wary. We’d also read reports of people who’d been injured when they ventured where they’d been warned not to go so we did the sensible thing and kept our distance.

Not everyone does and this morning’s ODT has photos and comments from a former guide showing the risks people take in spite of very clear warnings about the dangers.

Most of them escape injury because the danger is about ice falls which could happen but don’t always so those who take the risk usually return unharmed. But sometimes the ice does fall with fatal consequences for those in its path and that’s why two young Australians died this week.

It’s tragic and DOC is right to review its safety proceedures but I can not see how they are at fault nor that there is anything else they can do to prevent such an accident happening again.

As Conservation Minister Tim Groser very tactfully said: 

“There is always a degree of decision-making involved in accessing and managing the risks of the outdoors. . . “

 No matter what we do and where we do it, our safety is ultimately our own responsibility.

Pukeko

Is it my imagination or has there been an explosion of the pukeko population?

The increase in the number of live ones could be a result of irrigation providing more watery habitats for them.

The number and variety of those made for house and garden is no doubt due to an increasing number of artists who, like me, are intrigued by these bright, comical birds:

While searching for this Friday’s poem I discovered Janet frame shared my fascination.

Puekeko is from Janet Frame stories and poems, published by Vintage.

Pukeko

 

Pukeko, swamp hen

unescorted

is wearing junior navy

a pillarbox beak

burnt orange casual claws.

 

If a shadow violates

will spear the dark

the damp lonely dark swamp

with hatpin scream

 - Cree Cree!

 

- Jane Frame-

Why not more WiFi?

Internect connection in Argentina was better and faster in 2003 than anything we could get at home at that time.

We’ve got broadband since then and although the rural connection (through Orcon) is much slower than we’d get in a city it’s an improvement on dial-up - fine for emails, net surfing and blogging but slower than desiarable for up or downloading lots of data.

But it doesn’t work on the laptop so when we’re on the road we use a Telecom mobile connection which operates at a similar speed to the home connection.

That’s pretty dismal comapred with many other places and last month’s visit to Argentina showed us their technology has overtaken ours again with the proliferation of free WiFi services which were available in most cafes, bars and hotels.

Bernard Hickey  found a similar level of service in the USA and Fairfacts Media notes free WiFi is offered by British pubs as a way to attract business.

We’re a long way from widespread availability of WiFi in New Zealand although the government has promised a boost to internet services as part of its investment in infrasturcture.

The wee Otago town of Lawrence isn’t waiting for the government though. The ODT reports  the locals are already setting up free wireless internet in the town centre.

More and more people, especially overseas visitors and business people, had laptops with them as they travelled, so it made sense to try to offer them free Internet access so they would stay longer in the town. . .

Quite – it’s good for travellers and it’s good for business and there’s no need to wait for the government to do it.

Self-defeating self-help titles

North & South challenged readers to come up with titles for self-help books that are superfluous or self-defeating.

A Bluffers Guide to Honesty got a mention but the winning titles came from J and K Thoughton for:  Cry Yourself Happy, A Lehman’s Guide to Making Your first Billion, Finding Me Time; A Guide for Narcissists, The Wit and Wisdom of Peter Dunne (abridged) and Starting for Beginners.

It’s too late for the challenge but I suggest: Read Less Do More.

Project Uplift provides boost for Pacific women

Like Busted Blonde I’ve boobed with bra purchases.

Unlike her it happens to me even when I try before I buy. I look, I jump, I bend and twist and decide the bra fits perfectly but when I get home I discover the cup is running over.

I don’t know how to stop making the boob purchases, but Project Uplift does at least provide an outlet for those underworn items of underwear.

It’s an initiative by Rotary and Inner Wheel to provide bras for Pacific Islanders who suffer from skin problems under their breasts.

New Zealand women are being asked to dig out the unwanted lingerie which is languishing in their wardrobes and donate it to their Pacific sisters because giving them a lift lets the skin breathe and prevents absceces and infections.

Mastercan’t

When we were in Europe 27 years ago my farmer found he couldn’t use his Mastercard in several places which were happy to accept my Visa.

Our daughter and the friend travelling with us found the same problem with Mastercard in Argentina last month.

Another New Zealander we met there said she found she couldn’t use her Mastercard for electronic transactions either and when she’d queried it with her bank had been told she could still use it for manual transactions.

Try explaining that in a shop, petrol station or cafe when neither you nor the people serving you speak the same language.

A card which can’t be used for electronic transactions when and where you need it, isn’t worth having.

White gold tarnished

At the start of last year sheep and beef farmers looked enviously at the returns dairy farmers were enjoying and aimed to get prices for meat, wool and other by-products which matched those from milk.

The gap between sheep and beef returns is closing on those from dairying but that owes more to the fall in the price of milk than improved prices from cattle and sheep.

Fonterra has already announced a drop from its opening forecast of $6.60 a kilo of milk solids for the season to $6 and is expected to announce a further fall at the end of the month.

The average price the company got at its internet auction  on Tuesday was $US2017 ($NZ3420) per tonne which was 9.3% less than the average in December.

The only glimmer of hope is a small rise in spot prices which might indicate prices are reaching the bottom of the cycle but that’s small comfort when the global price for milk, which peaked at the end of 2007, has fallen sharply  since September last year. 

The state of global commodity markets isn’t the only problem facing Fonterra which just 12 months ago was being held up as the example the sheep industry should follow as the benefits from the white gold flowed through rural communities and into the wider economy.

The on-going fallout from its investment in Sanlu, one of the company’s hardest hit by China’s poisoned milk scandal continues. Sanlu was declared bankrupt  by a Chinese court on December 24th and the way the company has handled the issue doesn’t give me any confidence that it has learnt enough to ensure success in any future investment in China.

However, the financial losses from the Sanlu investment have already been taken into account and disappointing as Fonterra’s payout is expected to be it’s unlikely to fall as far as that of Westland Dairy Co-operative. It’s  reduced its forecast payout   for the season from the $5.20 to $5.60 a kilo of milk solids announced in November to $4.10 to $4.50.

Making matters worse is Westland’s decision to backdate the forecast meaning suppliers have to pay back money already received.

The reduced payout will mean suppliers will receive $180 million less than expected.

To bring that down to an individual farm: the owner of a 350-cow herd received $90,000 for his milk from Westland last month and had budgeted on getting $120,000 for January but is now expecting just $30,000.

Lincoln University professor Keith Woodford  said that given Westland’s position that Fonterra is unlikely to to achieve a payout of more than $5.

Westpac economist Doug Steel has a more positve view and thinks Fonterra could still achieve a $6 payout.

However, the company could do well to follow the advice given to politicians to under promise and over deliver because a lower forecast might help to stabilise or even reduce some of the production costs which rose further and faster than last season’s record payout.

The whitegold has tarnished but most commentators are still confident that the longterm outlook for dairying is positive for those who are able to farm there way through the current lower returns.

Established farmers with good equity will be disappointed by the drop in income and may have to tighten their belts but it shouldn’t threaten their businesses and they’ll be helped by the fall in interest rates and the cost of fertiliser and fuel.

Those most at risk are the ones who have just converted or are in the process of converting for next season who bought land and stock at peak prices; and sharemilkers who bought cows in the middle of last year when values were highest.

However, while the payout obviously has a big impact on financial performance it’s not the only factor to affect profitability.

A speaker at a SIDE (South Island Dairy Event) conference a couple of years ago said he’d had a better result for the year when the payout fell to $3.60 than he had the previous season when it was above $5 because he’d kept a tighter rein on costs when the payout was lower.

P.S. – Cactus Kate, Macdoctor  and Inquiring Mind have posts on Fonterra and Sanlu; and Fran O”Sullivan  is not impressed by the way the company has handled the issue.

Too much water dilutes flavour?

Almost every area has produce of which it can be proud and one of North Otago’s culinary treasures is its new potatoes.

There is a happy mix of climate and soils which produces potatoes with a distinct and delicious taste.

So good are they that others have tried to trade on their reputation.

A couple of years ago a Kakanui grower saw boxes purporting to contain North Otago new potatoes while visiting Nelson in October. Knowing his own crop was still some weeks away from harvest he did a little detective work and discovered they weren’t North Otago potatoes but Nelson ones pretending to be their superior southern cousins.

When the first new potatoes of the season appear in the supermarket we resist them. Knowing they come from further north and never measure up to those grown in North Otago we wait to enjoy the local ones.

This season, however, I reluctantly admit that the Kakanui and Totara spuds didn’t live up to my expectations.

In light of the discussion by JC and Fran O’Sullivan four posts back  about too much water diluting the flavour of tomatoes, I wonder if that applies to potatoes too because the one major difference in the production of this season’s crop and those of previous years is irrigation.

Commodity prices down again

Apples were the only commodity not to drop in the ANZ international commodity price index  last month.

The ANZ’s index of international commodity prices last month recorded its broadest fall in prices since the series started more than 20 years ago.

Every commodity, except apples, recorded a fall in December, ANZ economist Steve Edwards said today.

. . .  The ANZ commodity price index recorded a 7.4 percent fall in the price of the basket in December, the fifth consecutive monthly drop in the series. The index is now 27 percent below its peak last July.

Pelt prices recorded the largest drop in December, slumping 62 percent from November to a new record low, Mr Edwards said.

Aluminium prices fell 20 percent to a five-year low, while wool and dairy prices both fell more than 12 percent.

Dairy prices were now at the level they were two years ago, before the start of the much heralded surge 18 months ago.

Wool prices had dropped for six successive months and were now only 2 percent above the lowest level recorded by the series since 1986, Mr Edwards said.

Log prices were down 4.4 percent, wood pulp prices down 3.7 percent and sawn timber prices down 2.2 percent.

Seafood and lamb prices both eased 2.4 percent, while venison and beef prices each dropped 1.4 percent.

In New Zealand dollar terms the index fell 6.1 percent last month, but is just 8.1 percent down on its peak of four months ago, and is now back to its level of a year ago.  

Lunch at Fleurs Place

There is more to life, and this blog, than food.

But we had lunch at Fleurs Place  yesterday and I thought this deserved to be shared:

Chocolate therapy

If you’re suffering from PHAtS (Post Holiday Addiction to Sugar) there is medicine available:

Murray Langham says lots of people feel guilty about eating chocolate and has produced a self-help CD to address this problem.

Langham is the co-owner of chocolate factory and shop “Schoc” says he is only referring to expensive chocolate – the cheap stuff has too much sugar.

“Good choc has the phenyl’s that make you feel good, they make you feel happy,” says Langham.

The same chemicals are released when you have feelings of love according to the “chocologist”.

Langham believes that any weight gain is the product of latent guilt surrounding the eating of chocolate.

“If you are satisfied and eat with ecstatic rapture in your food then you’ll feel a lot fuller quicker and your body will be satisfied so you don’t need to snack.”

. . .  The self-professed chocolate therapist says there is a proper way to taste chocolate.

“If you take a piece of chocolate, break it in half because you don’t want it too big. Now just put it in your mouth and let it sit for a bit,” he says.

After a while you can bite and try to decipher some of the 6000 tastes that make up each chocolate.

 

 

Schoc is one of the Wairarapa’s culinary attractions and it offers on-line help  for those who need a chocolate fix but can’t get there in person.

Double-Decker bus for sale

If you have a spare $50 to $55,000 and a penchant for double decker buses, former Waitaki mayor Alan McLay has a deal for you.

The double-decker Bristol he’s owned for seven years is on the market.

He’s used it for transporting community groups and private parties around the district one of which was our staff Christmas party a few years ago. That I’ve refused to go on another such tour is a reflection on the behaviour of some of the passengers on that trip and not on the bus or its very capable driver.

Sally Rae has the story of the bus in the ODT  (from where I copied this photo):