Saved by her bra

Wearing a bra may save your life .

Well, if the bullet aimed at you was deflected by the underwire  it would.

Today’s folly, tomorrow’s asset?

Did the people of North Otago protest about the money being spent on the buildings which are today valued for making Oamaru the whitestone capital of the country?

If the opposition which greeted the proposal to refurbish the town’s Opera House is anything to go by I am sure they did because one person’s vision is another’s folly and it almost always takes time before it becomes an asset.

I’m using the term asset loosely because Opera Houses don’t usually make money.  If it’s looked at on a strictly financial basis I suspect it could be regarded as a liability but money isn’t the only measure of value.

That’s not to say money isn’t important and that’s the main reason for the opposition to the stadium which is planned for Dunedin. People are concerned at not just the cost of building it but also the on-going costs it will impose on ratepayers. That debate has moved to the High Court after Stop the Stadium imposed on injunction on the project.

However, the affordability of the  project can’t be judged in isolation and I agree with the ODT editorial which said:

Alone, the stadium represents a relatively low level of risk for ratepayers and a handsome return in terms of city facilities. Its construction will provide considerable short-term benefits to the city for contractors and labour.

To deny that its existence will not enhance the city and benefit the region is simply absurd. But this project is not on its own. Both councils have several other very costly irons in the fire and their debt projections have quite pointedly illustrated the quantum of risk to the ratepayers. . .

In setting spending and debt priorities for the next 10 years or more at a time of a recession of unknown direction or depth, limited civic public works can be demonstrably beneficial but in a city the size of Dunedin – largely ignored in the Government’s plans for such a programme – these must be prioritised in terms of need, benefit, and cost to ratepayers. . .

. . . the city could defend proceeding with the stadium on this basis, because of the potential short and long-term economic benefits – particularly the association with the university – but if it chooses to do so, it must minimise the debt load on ratepayers by deferring other projects.

We can’t have everything we want and councils, like individuals, have to weigh up the costs and benefits of what they might do before choosing what they can do, knowing that saying yes to one project means no for others.

If the stadium goes ahead – and the Dunedin City Council decided on Monday that if the injunction fails it will – it will be at the cost of other projects which will have to be delayed or turned down.

But if it goes ahead it will be an asset for the city and the province, and not just for those of us here now, in much the same way that the Opera House has provided value for several generations.

If those who regarded the Opera House as a folly had prevailed it wouldn’t be here for us to enjoy today.

The foresight and work of people more than 100 years ago provided an asset for us now and the vision and work of those behind its refurbishment have ensured it will still be there providing value and being enjoyed by our children and grandchildren.

Women to challenege for Rural Bachelor of Year

The Rural Bachelor of the Year Competition has been one of the staples of entertainment at the Fieldays for several years.

If memory serves me right one of the motivations for starting it was concern over the growing difficulty men were having in finding women who were willing to follow them to the country, as it was for the Middlemarch Singles Ball.

That might explain why until now it’s been a competition for blokes only, but Julie at The Hand Mirror has alerted me to the news that this year women are being invited to compete for the title.

For the first time ever, eight single women from the rural sector will be invited to challenge the blokes; in a duel of gender wit and farming skill during the Friday bachelor heats on 12 June.

I wondered if this was striking a blow for equality but I gather from the Fieldays website  that the men will be competing over four days and the women won’t enter the fray until the final afternoon.

Does that mean that it doesn’t take women as long to show their prowess, or that rather than letting women show they’re equal to the challenge this might in fact be an unequal competition?

Ode

The choice of today’s contribution to poetry month was inspired by news about the cycle way .

 

Ode by Gillian Allnutt comes from All the Poems You Need to Say I Do, edited by Peter Forbes, published by Picador.

 

Ode

 

To depict a (bicycle) first you must come to love (it).

Alexander Block

 

I swear by every rule in the bicycle

owner’s manual

 

that I love you, I, who have repeatedly,

painstakingly,

 

with accompanying declaration of despair,

tried to repair

 

you, to patch things up,

to maintain a workable relationship.

 

I have spent sleepless nights

in pondering your parts – those private

 

and those that all who walk the street

may look at –

 

wondering what makes you tick

over smoothly, or squeak.

 

my trusty steed,

my rusty three-speed,

 

I would feed you the best oats

if oats

 

were applicable.

Only linseed oil

 

will do

to nourish you.

 

I want

So much to paint

 

You,

Midnight blue

 

mudgutter black

And standing as you do, ironic

 

At the rail

Provided by the Council –

 

beautiful

the sun caught in your back wheel –

 

or at home in the hall, remarkable

among other bicycles,

 

your handlebars erect.

Allow me to depict

 

you thus. And though I can’t do justice

to your true opinion of the surface

 

 

of the road –

put into words

 

the nice distinctions that you make

among the different sorts of tarmac –

 

still, I’d like to set the record of our travels straight.

I’d have you know that

 

not with three-in-one

but with my own

 

heart’s spittle I anoint your moving parts.

 

Gillian Allnutt.

 

A Scottish Soldier

Adam Smith has a series of musical and poetic posts for Anzac Day at Inquiring Mind including:

Kipling’s Tommy, Kipling’s Recessional , Siegfried Sassoon’s poem The Troops and They were only playing leapfrog

The Scottish Soldier about whom Andy Stewart sings fought in an earlier war.

I post it in memory of my father who was a Scottish soldier in the New Zealand Army’s 20th Battalion during World War II.

Autumn or spring?

February’s rain has painted the pastures spring green but a cold southerly a couple of weeks ago brought snow the the Kakanuis to remind us it’s autumn.

The Indian summer which followed melted the snow but frosts every monring suggest winter isn’t far away.

However, when I came across this on my morning walk this week I wondered:

Someone who knows more about swans than I do may correct me, but I thought they layed their eggs towards the end of winter and the cygnets hatched in spring.

The Farming Nation

This poem seemed an appropriate choice for Earth Day’s contribution to poetry month.

The Farming Nation by Eileen Duggan is another from NZ Farm & Station Verse, published by Whitcombe & Tombs.

              The Farming Nation

 

I am glad that New Zealand lives by cattle.

I am glad that my country musters sheep.

There is honesty in woolsheds and in cow-bails,

And a working farmer earns his bit of sleep.

 

He and weather have a meaning for each other.

In a city, rain lies barren in a street,

But a farmer’s rain is married to his paddocks,

And a farmer’s sun is mid-wife to his wheat.

 

He drinks milk and knows it from the udder.

He wears wool and knows it from the fleece.

If his cows test richly, he is happy.

If his lambs drop safely, he has peace.

 

I am glad for another, deeper reason,

For to folk like these, the angel came,

Swinging down with great strokes one night in winter

With the first of the tidings and the Name.

 

               - Eileen Duggan –

Storm in a lolly jar

My support  for the Canadian woman who was offended by marshmellow Eskimos puts me in the minority.

Keeping Stock launched a Save the Eskimos  campaign and Whale Oil wants to keep eating Eskimos and  has set up a Facebook Group.

Cadbury/Pascal which makes the sweets and Tip Top which makes Eskimo pies are standing firm too.

But Cadbury Australia and New Zealand communications manager Daniel Ellis said Cadbury/Pascall did not intend to rename or remove the product.

“Pascall Eskimos are an iconic New Zealand lolly and have been enjoyed by millions of New Zealanders since they first hit shop shelves way back in 1955,” he said.

“They continue to be incredibly popular today. Last year, we produced almost 19 million individual Eskimos, making it one of our most sought after Pascall products.

“It has never been our intention to offend any member of the public, and whilst we are disappointed to learn that this traditional New Zealand product has caused any concern, this is only the second time in the product’s 54-year history that we have received such a complaint. . .

“We have no intention to rename, reshape or remove the product, and trust that consumers will continue to enjoy Pascall Eskimos.”

That’s given me something to chew on, but I’m not going to swallow the argument that a name change would alter the taste.

Foreshore and seabed about property rights

Michael Cullen has done a mea culpa and admitted Labour got the Foreshore and Seabed Act  wrong.

Treaty Negotiations Minister Chris FInlayson has responded graciously with an acknowledgement on the importance of a non-partisan approach:

“I agree completely with Dr Cullen’s sentiment that the review of the Foreshore and Seabed Act needs to be approached in a non-partisan way, and that the issue should not be used as a political football.

“I welcome his assurance that the Labour Party will engage constructively with the review. Our goal is to reach the best possible outcome for Maori and all the people of New Zealand, and it is important that the voices of all parties in Parliament are heard.”

I am pleased he’s done that because it’s the right thing to do and because National didn’t get its stance on the issue right either.

The issue is one of property rights and the case should have been  heard in court. If the result found in the Maori’s favour it wouldn’t have meant anyone was barred from beaches, but it would have meant the legal owners would have been owed compensation for any compromise of or interference with their property rights.

This is an issue farmers ought to have a lot of sympathy for because similar principles are involved in access to and through farmland.

Gold in Otago ground and bottle

Oceana Gold reports promising finds of higher quality gold after test drilling  at its Macraes goldfield.

Mining and associated work by Oceana Gold  has revitalised the wee East Otago town of Palmerston (NB that’s just Palmerston, not to be confused with the slightly bigger settlement in the other island which requires a North in its name).

Further inland, a British honeymoon couple must have thought they’d found gold when they discovered a bottle of Gibbston Valley’s 2000 pinto noir at Gantley’s Restaurant in Queenstown because they paid $1000 for it.

Restaurant co-owner Brent Rands said yesterday the last bottle he sold was last year for $750 and with very few bottles remaining he increased the price to $1000 in January. “I thought, it’s getting so scarce now if it’s gonna go it’s gonna go …”

Let’s see, $1,000 for 750 mls equals . . .  a lot per litre.

Some Earth Day initiatives off the planet

When you work on the land, every day is earth day.

Even when you don’t, but live with someone who makes a living from the land, every day is earth day.

For everyone involved in primary industry on land or sea, the environment isn’t an academic concept, it’s where we live and work and the majority of us regard our responsibility for doing as much as we can to make a positive, and lessen any negative, impact on it seriously.

But today is not every day earth day, it’s capital E capital D Earth Day.

That’s when we’re all supposed to save the world but some of the calls to action have come from people who seem to be not so much for the earth as from another planet.

The most deluded of these had to be European Green MP Caroline Lucas who compares people who fly with those who stab others (Hat tip: Kiwiblog ) 

Then Alf Grumble spotted PETA’s media release calling on Environment Minister Nick Smith to turn vegetarian and saw an opportunity for Busted Blonde.

She wasn’t impressed  about that, and also took exception  to the suggestion that fat people contribute more CO2 than thin people.

Deborah reacted with justifiable ire to the same story from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine  with a cross post on fat hatred at In A Strange Land and The Hand Mirror.

And now I’ve come across to be green eat less red.

Conventionally raised livestock generates 18 percent of the planet’s greenhouse gas emissions, according to a report released by the United Nation Food and Agriculture Organization in 2006. That’s more than the emissions created by all the world’s cars, trains, planes and boats combined. In comparison, transportation is responsible for 13 percent of the emission problem.

 I’m not sure what conventional means;  and whether this is just the emissions from the animals or from the total production chain from paddock to plate because there is a big difference in the environmental footprint of free range, pasture raised stock like the majority of animals farmed in New Zealand and those reared in feedlots as many are overseas.

Regardless of that, this might not be as off the wall as comparing flying to murder, linking obesity with climate change  and PETA’s call to go vegetarian, but it’s still misguided.

Eating moderate amounts of lean meat is recommended for personal health but I’m not convinced that in itself it would be any better for the planet. If people chose high fat, high sugar, low fibre alternatives to meat their diet would be less healthy and the impact on the environment might be  worse too.

It’s silly to take just one behaviour in isolation, everyone’s total impact on the environment is what matters and if someone chooses to eat a bit more meat but use less petrol it would be difficult to say that they were treading less gently on their patch of the earth than a vegetarian who drives an old, inefficient vehicle.

We have only one world and all have a responsibility to look after it, but let’s base our policies and practices for doing that on science not half-baked emotion.

P.S.

For every action there is a reaction and the reaction to Earth Day is Exploit the Earth Day about which Not PC has a comprehensive post.

One year old today

It’s a year today since I launched Homepaddock with a post on Doc Cutting Staff.

Blogging started slowly with just 10 posts from April 22 until the end of the month, climbed to a peak of 390 in October when I was in serious danger of having an unhealthy attachment to my computer. I calmed down after the election and a holiday in Argentina in December when I spent several days at a time without internet access put things back in perspective.

The first comment was made on a post about the farmers’ slice of food  prices on May 15. The first link was made, by The Hive on a post about Phil Goff admitting Labour might lose, five days later. Even though The Hive is no longer live, it’s not unusual to get several visitors a day from there.

Homepaddock entered the Tumeke! rankings  at 115 for May and leapt to 21 in June. It was at 16 the following month and has stayed in the top 20 since then.

Open Parachute’s view isn’t quite so flattering and the Halfdone stats are usually a little more generous.

However, it doesn’t matter which of those you look at, the gap between Kiwiblog  ,which is always number one, and the rest of the New Zealand blogs is huge and one indication of his popularity is the way visitor numbers soar if he links to one of my posts. If blogging was education, he’d be a university professor, those which come next would be close to graduating and I’m still at kindy

While Kiwiblog links generally result in a surge in visitors, the blog which consistently refers most visitors is No Minister. Most visitors, most days come from there.

Other visitors get directed here after doing searches and some of the terms they use suggest they’ll be disappointed when they find that anything blue is of the political rather than the pornographic kind.

Every now and then I’m asked why I call the blog Homepaddock. The home paddock is the one closest to the house where the pet lambs live and in the days before motor bikes it was the where the farm horses were usually kept. It’s supposed to show I’m on a farm though don’t claim to be a farmer.

Part of the fun of blogging is the feedback, thank you for popping in and thank you especially to those of you who link and leave comments.

Write On!

Today’s contribution to poetry month is late in the day, and short.

Write On!  by Martin Hall is from  The Big Book of Little Poems by Roger McGough, Gyles Brandeth and friends, publishe by Andre Deutsch Classics.

Write On!

 

I’ve been writing this poem

for two hours solid,

and I’ve only done three lines.

 

Oh, four.

 

- Martin Hall –

Does it matter who owns our farms and factories?

Should we be concerned about the possibilty of Chinese investment (and therefore a measure of Chinese control) in NZ dairy farms and factories?

This question came from Farmer Baby Boomer , in response to yesterday’s post on Fonterra’s investment in China.

I answered a month ago in  it doesn’t matter who owns what when I said . . . who owns what isn’t important, it’s what they’re permitted to do with it that matters.

What they’re permitted to do depends on our culture and our laws. Overseas investors might need education about the former and definitely need respect for and to adhere to the latter.

As long as our laws protect workers, customers, creditors, contractors, the environment and anyone or anything else connected with the enterprises foreigners invest in we have nothing to worry about. If the laws don’t work for overseas owned businesses they won’t work for New Zealand owned ones either in which case it’s the law which is at fault not the owners and investors.

If it’s acceptable for New Zealanders and New Zealand companies to invest in other countries then we have to accept investment from foreign nationals and companies.

“Ladies” should dress for men

Russian designer Alexander Terekhov says women should dress to impress men.

The Russian designer – who recently showcased his label Terexov at New York Fashion Week – insists ladies look best when they shun comfortable clothes in favour of figure-hugging dresses and heels.

He said: “I like that in following the trends Russian women dress more for men than for themselves. They like to look feminine – to dress up in heels and dresses. I think every woman should own a classic cocktail dress, a clutch bag and a lot of shoes – that is true wherever you are.”

What do comfort and practicality matter, as long as the blokes are happy?

Field trial on hold because jurors can’t afford the time

The trial of former Labour MP Phillip Field has been delayed because too many potential jurors said they couldn’t afford to serve.

The trial against former Government minister Taito Phillip Field is in “limbo” after half the jury was discharged this morning.

Seven jurors – five women and two men – were stood down by Justice Rodney Hansen at the High Court at Auckland this morning after they indicated the trial would have placed them in too much hardship.

The trial has been set down for three months.

Even three days off work could be too costly for some people unless employers were prepared to bridge the gap between the compensation jurors get and normal pay.

When trials stretch into weeks and, in this case, possibly months it puts a strain on people’s finances and also impacts on their workplaces which are left to cope without a staff member or forced to employ a temporary replacement.

Some employers are prepared to top up the pay for their staff while they’re on jury service so they’re not out of pocket but not all can afford to do this, especially for prolonged trials; and if they have to employ a stand-in they end up paying twice.

Few if any self employed people could afford more than a very short time off work either and parents of young children or other fulltime care-givers would find it difficult if not impossible to arrange alternative care for any length of time too.

Unless there is a change in the system, including recompense which matches, or nearly matches, wages forgone, juries will comprise only unemployed and retired people.

Banana campaign is bananas

An Australian wasn’t happy when she discovered a foreign banana in the breakfast Qantas served to her on a flight home from New Zealand.

Toni Rogers says she’s shocked the national carrier is serving bananas from the Philippines given the amount of media coverage the imports issue has had.. . . 

“It was also the fact that it was Qantas, if it was Air New Zealand I probably wouldn’t have given it a second thought,” Ms Rogers says. . .

“That’s probably what concerned me more than anything else, Qantas was serving Filipino bananas in preference to our local growers,” Ms Rogers says.

She was also worried about how the bananas are disposed of and the potential quarantine threat they may posse people get them through airprot quarantine systems.

The Australian banana industry says it’s comfortable with the checks and balances in place to ensure fresh fruit doesn’t breach border biosecurity.

It’s more concerned about why the national carrier isn’t serving Australian bananas on trans-Tasman flights.

CEO Tony Heidrich says given the publicity surrounding the Philippine banana imports, this could be potentially damaging to Qantas. . .

“I think any Australian would like to see our national carrier supporting Australian industries, just as Australians try and support Qantas on the routes they operate.”

If the banana industry isn’t concerned about biosecurity breaches the issue isn’t fear of pests and disseases it’s nationalism.

The national airline should carry the nation’s produce, right? Not necessarily, there are other factors to keep in mind including cost and the trade implications.

If Australian bananas are more expensive would passengers still want them to be supplied in preference to bananas, or any other fruit, from elsewhere? And if they want Australian bananas on Australian planes will they accept that airlines from other countries favour produce from their own producers rather than from Australia?

New Zealand and Australia have the strictest biosecurity border controls I’ve encountered and for very good reaons. We’re both surrounded by sea with no very close neighbours which should make it easier to keep out unwanted pests and diseases, and primary industry is very important to our economies.

But we both need to be very careful about pretending to play the biosecurity card when what were really doing is playing the protectionist one.

Buying local pulls the heartstrings, but it’s not necessarily best.

Hat Tip: Larvatus Prodeo   , go on click on it because something which starts with: Everyone knows that Kiwis constantly try to subvert our Australian way of life. They did it, for example by sending us Jo Bjelke-Petersen back in 1913 and then again with Russell Crowe. . . . is worth reading

Eskimo lollies leave sour taste

A Canadian Inuit touring New Zealand has been offended by one of the staples of the Kiwi lolly mixture, the marshmellow Eskimos .

Seeka Lee Veevee Parsons, 21, an Inuit of the Nunavut Territory in Canada, says the Eskimo lolly, manufactured by Cadbury/Pascall, is an insult to her people.

The word Eskimo is unacceptable in her country and carries with it negative racial connotations, she said.

She intends sending packets of the iconic confectionary to the Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and her grandfather, a Inuit tribal elder in the Nunavut Territory.

A name change by the manufacturer will no doubt be called a PC over-reaction, but would we say that if we came across a marshmellow caricature called a Hori in another country?

Is this very different from the name change for the wee white sticks with the pink ends we called cigarettes when I was a child? They’re now known as space sticks because the attitude to smoking has changed and it’s, correctly, seen as silly to associate smoking with sweets.

Now that the insult has been pointed out, Cadbury/Pascal will have to have a rethink and when they act on that I’m sure we’ll find that marshmellow lollies by another name will taste as sweet.

UPDATE: Alf Grumble  has a different view.

UPADATE 2: Keeping Stock  is on Alf’s side.

Good call

The walkout from the UN racism conference in Geneva confirms that New Zealand’s decision not to send attend was a good call.

I wonder if the hand wringers who were lamenting the decision yesterday will admit they were wrong?

UPDATE: Keeping Stock  posts that Joris de Bres, our Race relations Comissioner is attending the conference. Wonder if he walked out too?

Getting the numbers

Commentators seem to be agreed that Melissa Lee is the favourite to win the National nomination for the Mount Albert by-election.

I have no inside knowledge of her, any other candidates or the views of members in the electorate.

But I do know the party rules and that some favourites have been overtaken in the past by nominees who had a better understanding of what was required -  support from more than 50% of members or voting delegates, in the electorate.

Progressive voting is used so if a nominee doesn’t get at least half the votes in the first ballot the name of the lowest polling nominee is removed and everyone votes again, and if necessary, again until someone crosses the 50% threashold.

Providing an electorate has more than 200 members, and I think  Mount Albert does, it is only the members from the electorate who vote.  The members decide at their AGM if voting will be by universal suffrage or if it’s to be done by delegates with one for every set number of members.

Some high flyers in previous selections have either not understood this or have understood but still failed to win over enough delegates and missed out. David Kirk didn’t get the selection for Tamaki after Rob Muldoon’s retirement because Clem Simich had the numbers

But it’s quite simple. Candidate selection in the National Party, unlike other parties which give at least some of the power to its hierachy,  is grass roots democracy. The winning nominee is the one who wins the support of at least half the members or voting delegates in the electorate and that’s done the old fashioned way by letting them get to know you and convincing them you have the skills and abilities to be a good electorate MP.

John Key has announced the by-election date. It’s June 13th which is also the date Simon and Garfunkel will be playing in Auckland and the All Blacks have a test match in Dunedin., not that either will be relevant becasue both will take past after polling closes.

UPDATE: Lou taylor at No Minister  has another perspective on the by-election