Mid-week Music

Still in Spain, still with Joaquin Sabina, this time with Ana Belen singing A La Sombre de un Leon (in the shade of a lion).

Churros

We heard people chatting, noticed a queue then smelt something frying.

It came from the churro van which operates on Sunday mornings and most summer evenings.

They’re made from dough which is piped into boiling oil and served with sugar or chocolate – a bit like long, skinny doughnuts.

Free elections key to Democratic Club membership

Travelling in Europe always reminds me how fortunate New Zealand was to have been settled by the British who came from a democracy and established another in their colony.

Europe is far older than us but many countries here are much newer to democracy than we are.

It’s only 34 years since Franco died and it was a couple of years later that democracy was established in Spain under a constitutional monarchy.

Further east democracies are much younger and some countries have yet to attain it.

Former British ambassador to Moscow, Tony Brenton, sees a role for established democracies  in fostering democracy in countries where it is incipient or endangered. He also sees a role for a Democratic Club and comes up with a simple requirement for membership:

A country must be willing to allow independent international observers to attend and report on its elections.

. . .  Even countries with such impeccable democratic qualifications as the UK might have to modify electoral law to allow observers full access to the balloting process. And the sourcing of observers would itself have to be watched. There are tainted sources, but also excellent ones such as the OSCE (Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe). The core concept, however, could not be starker. If you hold an election judged by international experts to be free and fair, you are a democracy. And if not, not.

It would have been interesting to see if a country with impeccable democratic qualifications such as New Zealand would have passed this test with last year’s election under the Electoral Finance Act.

We can be thankful it has gone but it would be a good guide to keep in mind this criteria when designing the legislation which will replace it.

Imagine the shame if we didn’t qualify! That and the desire to be part of an exclusive, albeit essentially toothless, club is one of the things which Brenton thinks might help foster democracy.

That is a worthy aim. The international community has a real interest in the spread of democracy to those places yet to gain it because ii is not only better for the people in the individual countries, it helps make the world a more stable place.

If a Democratic Club helps encourage democracy then it’s definitely worth promoting.

Motherhood pains

A British midwife reckons women should go through childbirth without pain relief because it helps them bond with their babies.

In an article for a medical journal, Professor Denis Walsh describes childbirth as being a rite of passage and is calling for maternity units to stop giving out pain relief and let expectant mothers “work with the pain”.

He says normal labour and birth prime the bonding areas of the mother’s brain more than caesareans or pain free birth.

Passing quickly over the observation that he’s a bloke and therefore won’t experience labour pains we get a woman’s point of view:

However Wellington obstetrician and mother, Anju Basu, disagrees.

“I don’t think that you have to experience immense pain to just be able to be a good mother,” she says.

On claims that epidurals can threaten the mother-child bond, Ms Basu questions how a father can bond with his child if that were the case.

Had it not been for an emergency casesarean my daughter and I would probably have died. My other two babies were also born by casearean and I find the idea that I loved them any more slowly or less because of that offensive.

Being dead would definitely interfere with the bonding process. Suffering intense, unrelieved pain might be more likely to interfere with your ability to bond at least as much if not more than pain relief too.

We can be thankful that maternity services have moved on from the days when women were told to lie back with their feet in stirrups, do what the doctor told them and drugged to the eyebalss while doing it.

But suggesting we go back to no pain relief at all is several steps too far.

Every birth is different, every woman has a different ability to manage pain, not all the pains of motherhood come before the birth.

Good ante-natal education and preparation can help women manage labour pains better but telling women they shouldn’t have pain relief at all and making them feel guilty for doing so is taking us back at least a century.

A TV3 news item on the issue is here. It’s worth watching for the expression on the announcer’s face as she points out the expert is a man.

Can you please members and voters?

Can  apolitical party keep its members and voters happy?

The question came after this comment by  Dutchie Down South prompted a lively discussion on the issue.

A party’s first responsibility is to its own principles and through them its members.

In a broad church party like National, there is a wide range of views on many issues, but if members disagree with the principles then they ought to look for another philosophical home.

A party must stand on a firm foundation of its principles if it is to attract and keep its members and if it is to last.

Having said that, it must also attract voters. Under MMP that requires an ability to be flexible with policies which may mean swallowing dead rats.

National has done this with Working for Families and interest free student loans.

WFF may be the only way to help low income wage earners but it’s bad policy to turn middle and high income earners into beneficiaries. I hope the party will come up with a way of offering a better alternative at the next election but accept that it was too risky to go into the last one saying they’d scrap it altogether.

National had a better policy for helping students for the 2002 election but we lost and that’s why the interest-free rat was swallowed. That doesn’t preclude the development of an alternative which could be attractive to voters and sits better with National’s principles which the party could offer before the 2011 election.

Accepting the need to be flexible and stomach a few deceased rodents isn’t an argument for government at any cost. It’s accepting the reality of politics which means you may have to give a little to make some gains.

The Greens provide a good example of what happens when you don’t bend. They’ve marooned themselves on the far left and in spite of being the oldest of the wee parties in parliament have yet to make it in to government. Contrast that with the Maori Party which many thought would never coalesce with National but in just their second term in parliament are part of government and have already made some real gains.

A party which promotes independence and self reliance is always going to attract people with strong views which will not always be in accord. That’s a sign of strength rather than discord because it means there will always be healthy debate.

It also recognises that no-one member will always agree with absolutely everything his/her party does.

That applies as much to the leader as anyone else. Sir Keith Holyoake was asked how he coped with differences between his views and the party’s.

He said he was 100% behind 60% of his party’s views, there were about 30% that he was less enthusiastic about but they weren’t die-in-a-ditch matters and given that, he could agree to disagree over the other 10%.

If that was good enough for the Prime Minister, it’s good enough for me.

When all else fails, it helps to remember there are no miracles in politics and it’s better to achieve something in government than nothing in opposition.

July 15 in history

On July 15:

1914, English author Hammond Innes  was born.

1919 Irish writer Iris Murdoch was born.

1933: Jack Lovelock  ran a mile in 4:07.6, breaking the world record by 1.4 seconds.

 

 

 

 

If you’re happy and you know it . . .

 . . .  you might be a butcher.

An Australian study found that butchers are happiest and most satsified in their work.

Don Wilson who was the Queen’s butcher before he moved to New Zealand said:

“We listen to the radio all day. All butchers listen to the radio, so you sing along with the radio and you make yourself happy, basically.”

Wilson says butchers like to have a laugh with the customers, and it seems they are just as satisfied outside of work. The survey found butchers are having 60 percent more sex than other workers.

“Well, we’ll put that down to the red meat,” says Mr Wilson, “but that also depends on your Mrs as well.”

The survey found butchers are not only happy, but healthy. More than 50 percent of butchers said that they had not taken any sick leave at all in the past year.

Are they happy because they’re healthy, or healthy because they’re happy?

Tuesday’s answers

Monday’s questions were:

1. What is this crop?

2. Who said “A fanatic is one who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject”?

3. Who wrote the Alex quartet?

4. Which is the highest state highway in New Zealand?

5. What is an anaphora?

Tuesday’s answers follow the break.

Kaikoura Council sees sense on seaside BBQ

Businesses in Kaikoura have complained to the council about what they see as unfair competition from a Seaside Barbeque business.

But the council has sensibly sided with Kaikoura Seafood BBQ.

It’s not a council’s business to regulate competition, it’s their business to ensure food premises abide by hygiene standards and any other by-laws.

Instead of complaining, other eateries should be trading on their competitive advantages While eating al fresco has its attractions so to does dining inside: weather proor, comfortable seating, clean loos, no sand in your food  . . .

If the other eateries can’t cope with the heat from the BBQ’s competition they should leave the kitchens to those who can.

Profanity promotes pain relief

English researchers have discovered that swearing helps reduce the perception of pain.

That may be so, but my mother still wouldn’t approve of me doing it.

Where Fonterra goes farm prices follow

Farm prices followed the Fonterra payout up and now they’re following it down.

New Zealand farm prices have fallen by a quarter across the country in the last year
and taken an even heavier hammering in Southland where the dairy conversion boom has ground to a halt.

Rural lifestyle blocks, however, are continuing to sell, with sales volumes increasing over June 2008 figures, and the median price for lifestyle blocks falling a more modest 7.4% year to year.

This will be worrying for people who borrowed a large proportion of the purchase price because the fall in values could mean they lose their equity in their properties.

But it’s a necessary correction to a market in which land values were not necessarily related to its earning capacity and unless you’re needing to sell there’s no need to panic. Prices went up, they’ve come down and they will, eventually, go up again.

Sheep and beef prices went up last season and the outlook for the coming season is reasonably positive; and the fundamentals which drove drove property prices up in the wake of the dairy boom haven’t changed.

The world is short of food and growing middle classes in China and India want more protein.

New Zealand farmers are very good at converting grass to protein and those who do it with low cost systems will not only ride out the recession but prosper from it.

Bastille Day

The French Revolution started on July 14 ,1789, with the storming of the Bastille.

La Marsellaise is regarded as one of the better national anthems, however, if this translation is to be believed, I prefer the version I don’t understand.

Because of some silly treaty . . .

Can you pick and choose which parts of a treaty you abide by and which you don’t after you’ve signed it?

If you want to be trusted, as a country and government, I don’t think so without further negotiations. Sue Kedgley has another view:

. . . but she says we have to go ahead because of some silly treaty with Australia, . . .

She was referring to Food Safety Minister Kate Wilkinson during the Q & A discussion on adding folic acid to bread.

The possible risks of adding folic acid to everyone’s diet have been highlighted.  This post by Macdoctor  puts another side to the story and Otago University specialist in human nutrician, Professor Murray Skeaff says there’s no evidence adding folate to bread will increase the risk of cancer.

However, the opposition is likely to be based at least as much on emotion as science.

Regardless of the emotion and science there is also opposition to mass medication in general. I have a great deal of sympathy with that view, especially when it is aimed at a very small percentage of the population – women who are pregnant or about to be.

If taking extra folic acid can prevent birth defects it should be encouraged, but education for those who need it rather than medication of us all would be my preferred strategy.

I hope Wilkinson does everything she can to at least delay the compulsorary addition of folic acid to our bread.

However, if New Zealand signed a treaty with Australia, that may not be easy because we can’t just pick and choose which bits of a treaty we adhere to, even if it was a previous government which signed it.

If there’s a problem with its effect, there’s a process the government will have to go through to resolve it.

Disregarding the treaty because it’s “silly” isn’t an option because that would call into question New Zealand’s commitment to every other treaty it has signed.

July 14 in history

On July 14:

 1789 French citizens stormed the Bastille.

Prise de la Bastille, by Jean-Pierre-Louis-Laurent Houel

1853 New Zealand’s first general election began.

1865 Edward Whymper made the first ascent of the Matterhorn

1950 Sir Apirana Ngata died.

Sir Apirana Ngata, circa 1905. (Photo: Wikipedia)

Obviously obvious #2

A juror wrote to a judge and the  general manager of  high courts calling for better screening of English comprehenion in potential jurors after serving on a jury, most members of which didn’t speak English as a first language.

Some people speak and understand English better as a second language than others do as a first so not being a native English speaker should not rule people out of jury duty altogether.

But whether English is your first language or not, a good grasp of the language and listening comprehension skills ought to be a pre-requisite for jurors.

Monday’s quiz

1. What is this crop?

2. Who said “A fanatic is one who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject”?

3. Who wrote the Alex quartet?

4. Which is the highest state highway in New Zealand?

5. What is an anaphora?

Obviously obvious

If you were paid an allowance for tools would that money have to be spent on tools which were work related and not already supplied by your employer?

Most people would think so but not the Eastern Bay  Independent Industrial Workers Union.

The union said that the clause should be read literally and Pedersen could not impose any conditions, as long as it was for the purchase of tools.

Pedersen replied that it was implicit in the agreement that the tools had to be work-related and secondly they had to be tools not already provided by the company.

Chief Employment Court judge Graeme Colgan said in his March judgment that the implied conditions were so obvious, “they really go without saying”.

Obviously obvious to almost everyone  with the obvious exception of the union.

Sigh.

This is the sort of silly behaviour which gives unions a bad name.

Eat less and live longer

A US study found that monkeys fed restricted calorie diets had improved intellectual ability and physical health as they aged.

Researchers think people would find similar benefits from similar diets.

Sigh.

What do you do with rubbish?

When temeratures range from 20ish to nearly 40 every day you don’t want to have rubbish sitting around.

But when you live in a small house, with little or no outside space and no garden for compost what do you do with it?

The answer in Vejer de la Frontera is hang it on the hooks beside your door, too high for dogs or cats to reach, and sometime between 8 and 11 every night from Sunday to Friday the rubbish fairies will pick it up and take it away.

Blogs subject to same legal restraints as other media

Media law was an important part of Canterbury University’s  journalism course and we were fortunate to have one of New Zealand’s top specialists, Professor John Burrows, lecturing us.

The dangers of defamation, contempt of court and prejudicing a trial were repeated many times, with precautionary tales of journalists who had crossed the line to reinforce the seriousness of breaching the law. 

Those lessons have helped me resist any temptation I might have had to write posts on trials while they are under way.

Blogging may be a much more informal method of communicationt than other media, but it is subject to similar legal constraints.

The ODT reports on the issue and quotes Otago University law professor, Mark Henaghan:

“If it [blogging] is outside the law it would be ridiculous.”It would be a good idea if the solicitor-general brought contempt proceedings, as it would be a test case, he said.

“We’ve pussyfooted around blogging too much – it is part of communication.”Any interference with court proceedings was contempt of court.

Whether comments were made in blogs or yelling it out in court, it was still contempt.

“It’s a serious matter,” Prof Henaghan said.

Bloggers don’t have the safety net of sub editors to save us from ourselves and it’s not just what we post but what people may say in comments which could fall foul of the law.

For these reasons I’ll stick with my policy of playing safe.  I’m rarely tempted to post on criminal matters but if I am I’ll be waiting until after the case has been concluded.