How did the Budget affect your family?

It’s a simple enough question – how did the Budget affect your family?

It wouldn’t be silly for an opposition MP to run a poll asking it.

But it would be silly to do so a couple of days before the Budget is delivered, giving people who read Kiwiblog and Keeping Stock the opportunity to vote and give results he wouldn’t be expecting:

• Better off (87%, 297 Votes)
   
• Worse off (11%, 39 Votes)
   
• No change (2%, 8 Votes)
   

Total Voters: 341

 

Word of the day

Rancidification – chemical decomposition of fats, oils and other lipids; disagreeable odour or taste of decomposing oils or fats; rank; repugnant; nasty, rancid remarks.

Alf Grumble ruminates on rancidification and its political implications here.

Fonterra expects record production

Fonterra is expecting record production for the 2010/11 season after the best autumn weather in several years. 

Production is 4% ahead of the same time last year with a couple of weeks of the season still to go. This time last year drought resulted in lower milk production.

Steve Murphy, general manager milk supply said:

Fonterra last season collected 1,286 million kilograms of milksolids.

“Exceptionally favourable pasture growth conditions since January mean our farmer shareholders have enjoyed strong production around the country, particularly north of Taupo. This is a real turnaround from earlier in the season when many of our farmers were struggling with a cold and wet spring. This, coupled with an early December drought, depressed production levels dramatically.”

 “It was a tough start to the season due to the northern drought. Farmers then had to cope with more drought, floods and snowstorms. But the recent excellent pasture growth has meant herds are now in good condition, which bodes well for calving and the new season’s start.”

Mr Murphy said the additional milk would be welcomed in the market where supply remained tight.

He noted prices for globally traded dairy products, while off their highs of early March, were still at historically high levels.

“This means farmers are on track to enjoy another good season, which will flow through the economy and benefit every New Zealander.”

Farmers have been very cautious, paying off debt and containing costs in the expectation that next season’s payout will not be as high as this one’s.

But record production when international prices are well above the long term average is very good news not just for the company and its shareholders, employees and those who supply and service them but the wider economy as well.

Energy changes bring lower prices and dividend

The government will receive a special dividend of $520,996,030  from Meridian Energy following the sale of two hydro power stations on the Upper Waitaki.

The sale is part of a package of Government reforms aimed at improving the electricity sector. Meridian is selling Tekapo A and B power stations on the Waitaki Power Scheme to Genesis Energy.

In December 2009 the Government announced its decisions from the Ministerial Review that include a series of changes that support the overall Government objectives to improve retail competition in the industry, promote the reliability of electricity supply and improve governance in the sector through the establishment of the Electricity Authority.

I had my doubts about the wisdom of this policy when it was first mooted. But this dividend and the lower prices we’re seeing as a result of increased competition have changed my mind.

High lamb price cause for celebration not outrage

Phil Goff was reportedly outraged at the price of lamb during his weekend supermarket shop.

“We bought some chops, half a dozen chops – it was 15 bucks for that.”

Shock, horror, after several years of prices which barely covered the price of production, if that, farmers are getting a decent return. That’s coming from the demand for our meat on international markets and those prices are reflected in our supermarkets and butcheries.

The increasing price of food isn’t easy for people on low to middle incomes. But they’re boosting export income which is helping economic growth and that is the only sustainable way to boost jobs and wages.

It’s only three years ago that Federated Farmers’ T150 campaign which set a target of $150 for lambs was considered unrealistic. This season prices have been passing that - getting up to $199 at Temuka last week.

That is a cause for celebration, not outrage. Higher prices for primary produce are the seeds from which our much needed recovery will grow.

Public participation prerequisite for democracy

The Human Rights Commission is concerned that the lack of public participation in fundamental legal reforms is damaging parliamentary democracy.

 In the past five years fundamental human rights issues such as the lack of public participation in submission processes, diminishing collective deliberation about fundamental changes, rushed legislation, the by-passing of select committees, and what appears to be less respect for submitters in select committee proceedings have been of concern, says Commissioner Dr Judy McGregor.

In a submission to the Standing Orders Review, the Commission says that each of these on its own is a cause for concern but the aggregated effect warrants serious scrutiny so that parliamentary processes are not further weakened.

The problem isn’t just a lack of engagement with parliamentary processes, it’s the low membership of and interest in political parties.

What does it say about the strength and stability of a party when someone who isn’t even a member can execute a coup and become its leader?

What danger does it pose when that party is in government and that person can have so much influence without even being in parliament?

MMP gives much greater power to parties at a time when membership is declining.

This isn’t confined to politics – many churches, sports clubs, service groups and other voluntary organisations have difficulty recruiting and retaining members too.

That is a concern because they are part of a strong and vibrant civil society. The declining interest and involvement in political parties is even more serious.

A party leadership change by a takeover of a small caucus supported by a low membership is the sort of thing that should only be possible in banana republics. Now that’s it’s happened once, what’s to stop it happening again with more serious consequences?

Without a resurgence in participation in parties and the political process, how long will it be before our version of democracy becomes of the few by the few for the few?

Good manners rule on marae

At last, board members of the Te Tii Marae have run out of patience with Titiwhai Harawira.

Titewhai Harawira faces a possible ban from Te Tii Marae after being accused of “rancidification of Maori protocols” at a recent Maori Party hui.

In an email to the Herald, seven board members from the lower marae at Waitangi said they were disappointed protocols such as manaakitanga (looking after people and agreeing to disagree), whanaungatanga (strengthening families) and kaitiakitanga (caring for resources or people) were becoming meaningless to “a pocket of Maori people”. . .

. . . The Te Tii email said the marae would not be a “dumping ground for personal agendas” any longer.

 “The political poncing and resultant rancidification of Maori protocols by bullies who want everything their own way by whatever foul means, are not traits that this particular board would wish to have our children and young adults perceive as being the Ngapuhi way forward.

 “The board’s priority is to preserve the dignity of the marae and trespass notices will be issued where the board considers it necessary to do so,” the trustees wrote.

 The best response to rudeness is good manners and reason, just like this.

Dear Don – can we trust you?

Dear Don

I read your letter to John Key with a heavy heart because I thought I could trust you.

I’ve always regarded you as a man of your word. But if you want John to break promises he made, then how can I trust you not to break yours?

You are right to oppose policies which give public money to people in want rather than in need. Working for Families, interest free student loans and Kiwisaver fall into that category to a greater or lesser extent.

But these were dead rats National swallowed before the last election and it would be electoral suicide to regurgitate them.

The party spent nine long years in opposition trying to win back public confidence after the Bolger government broke promises. (It was wrong to make some of those promises in the first place, but that’s another argument). Right or not, to make the promises, it broke them and paid dearly for it.

In 2008 National was deliberately moderate in what it promised to do this term. The party and its leadership had to show they could be trusted, and they have. .

That’s why any changes to WFF, student loans and Kiwisaver won’t take place until after the election. This is a principled position which gives voters information. If enough of them accept the need for the changes, National will then have a mandate to implement them. If they don’t, we’ll be in the unsteady hands of a Labour-Greens administration propped up by the likes of Winston Peters, Hone Harawira and whoever gets dragged into parliament in their wake.

National did argue for the abolition of Maori seats when it was in opposition and this was part of the party’s election manifesto. But when you enter a coalition agreement both sides have to give  at least a little and this was one area in which National gave way to the Maori Party.

That doesn’t mean that abolishing the seats isn’t still one of National’s aims, it’s just one it was prepared to park for three years.

National could have left the Maori Party out in the cold as Labour did after previous elections and had it done so the Maori seats would have gone. But by choosing to invite the Maori Party into coalition, National was able to form a stronger and more stable government not beholden to a single wee party to pass legislation.

This required compromise but that’s the reality of MMP politics. If you want to achieve anything if or when you return to parliament that’s something you’ll have to accept.

National inherited an economy in recession and has faced an unprecedented string of difficulties since then – the global financial crisis, finance company collapses droughts, floods, blizzards, the Pyke River explosion and two devastating earthquakes followed by continuing physical and financial after shocks . . .

The government’s response has been moderate and measured. It has managed to take the people with it as it turns the economy from one going backwards under consumption fuelled by borrowing to one going forwards, albeit slowly, on the solid and sustainable base of savings, investment and exports.

In doing so National has shown it can be trusted. This doesn’t guarantee a second term in government but had it gone back on its promises it would have guaranteed it had only one term.

In politics you can’t get everything you want when you want it. The fullsteam-ahead in one direction with previous adminsitrations followed by a fast reversal hasn’t served us well.

Slower and steadier, keeping promises and taking the public with them is much more likely to result in change for the good and the long term.

It also builds trust which gets me back to the start. If you are exhorting John to break his promises – which of yours can we trust you to keep?

Yours sincerely,

May 17 in history

152 Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham, was executed for treason.

 

1536  George Boleyn, Viscount Rochford and four other men were executed for treason.

1590  Anne of Denmark was crowned Queen of Scotland.

1642 Paul Chomedey de Maisonneuve  founded the Ville Marie de Montréal.

1673  Louis Joliet and Jacques Marquette began exploring the Mississippi River.

 

1749 Edward Jenner, English medical researcher was born (d. 1823).

1775  American Revolutionary War: the Continental Congress banned trade with Canada.

1792 The New York Stock Exchange was formed.

1805 Muhammad Ali became Wāli of Egypt.

1809 Napoleon I of France ordered the annexation of the Papal States to the French Empire.

1814  Occupation of Monaco changed from French to Austrian.

1814 The Constitution of Norway was signed and the Danish Crown Prince Christian Frederik was elected King of Norway by the Norwegian Constituent Assembly.

1849 A fire threatened to burn St. Louis, Missouri to the ground.

1860 German football club TSV 1860 München was founded.

1863 Rosalía de Castro published Cantares Gallegos, her first book in the Galician language.

1865 – The International Telegraph Union (later International Telecommunication Union) was established.

1868 Horace Elgin Dodge, American car manufacturer, was born (d. 1920).

1873 El Paso, Texas was established by charter from the Texas Legislature.

Flag

1875  Aristides won the first Kentucky Derby.

1877 The Victorian Football League was founded.

189– The first Omonoia station of the Athens metro was inaugurated in Greece.

1900  Second Boer War: British troops relieved Mafeking.

 

1902 Greek archaeologist Valerios Stais discovered the Antikythera mechanism, an ancient mechanical analog computer.

 

1911 Maureen O’Sullivan, Irish actress, was born (d. 1998).

1914  The Protocol of Corfu was signed recognising full autonomy to Northern Epirus under nominal Albanian sovereignty.

1915 The last British Liberal Party government (Herbert Henry Asquith) fell.

 

1919 War Department (UK) ordered the use of National Star Insignia on all airplanes.

1927 U.S. Army aviation pioneer, Major Harold Geiger, died in the crash of his Airco DH.4 de Havilland plane.

 

1933  Vidkun Quisling and Johan Bernhard Hjort formed Nasjonal Samling — the national-socialist party of Norway.

1935  Dennis Potter, English writer, was born (d. 1994).

1936 Dennis Hopper, American actor and director, was born  (d. 2010). 

1939 The Columbia Lions and the Princeton Tigers played in the first-ever televised sporting event, a collegiate baseball game.

1939 Gary Paulsen, American author, was born.

1940 World War II: Germany occupied Brussels.

1940 World War II: the old city centre of the Dutch town of Middelburg was bombed by the German Luftwaffe, to force the surrender of the Dutch armies in Zeeland.

1943 The United States Army contracted with the University of Pennsylvania’s Moore School to develop the ENIAC.

 

1943 – World War II: the Dambuster Raids by No. 617 Squadron RAF on German dams.

1949  Bill Bruford, English musician (Yes), was born.

1954 The United States Supreme Court handed down a unanimous decision in Brown v. Board of Education which declared that state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students and denying black children equal educational opportunities unconstitutional.

1956 Sugar Ray Leonard, American boxer, was born.

1961 Enya, Irish singer and songwriter, was born.

1962 George Wilder escaped from New Plymouth prison.

1963  Bruno Sammartino defeated Nature Boy Buddy Rogers in 48 seconds in Madison Square Garden for the WWWF Heavyweight Championship. It begins the longest heavyweight championship reign in professional wrestling history.

1967 Six-Day War: President Abdul Nasser of Egypt demanded dismantling of the peace-keeping UN Emergency Force in Egypt.

1969 Venera program: Soviet Venera 6 began its descent into the atmosphere of Venus, sending back atmospheric data before being crushed by pressure.

1970 – Thor Heyerdahl set sail from Morocco on the papyrus boat Ra II to sail the Atlantic Ocean.

 

1971 Princess Máxima of the Netherlands was born.

1973 – Watergate scandal: Hearings begin in the United States Senate and are televised.

1974 Andrea Corr, Irish singer (The Corrs), was born.

1974 Police in Los Angeles raided the Symbionese Liberation Army‘s headquarters, killing six members, including Camilla Hall.

1974  Thirty-three people were killed by terrorist bombings in Dublin and Monaghan.

1980 General Chun Doo-hwan of South Korea declared martial law in order to suppress student demonstrations.

1980 – On the eve of presidential elections, Maoist guerrilla group Shining Path attacked a polling location in the town of Chuschi, Ayacucho, starting the Internal conflict in Peru.

1983 U.S. Department of Energy declassified documents showing world’s largest mercury pollution event in Oak Ridge, Tennessee (ultimately found to be 4.2 million pounds), in response to Appalachian Observer’s Freedom of Information Act request.

1983 Lebanon, Israel, and the United States signed an agreement on Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon.

1984 Prince Charles calls a proposed addition to the National Gallery, London, a “monstrous carbuncle on the face of a much-loved and elegant friend,” sparking controversies on the proper role of the Royal Family and the course of modern architecture.

1987  An Iraqi fighter jet fired two missiles into the U.S. warship USS Stark (FFG-31), killing 37 and injuring 21 of her crew.

1992 Three days of popular protests against the government of Prime Minister of Thailand Suchinda Kraprayoon began in Bangkok, leading to a military crackdown that resulted in 52 officially confirmed deaths, many disappearances, hundreds of injuries, and more than 3,500 arrests.

1994  Malawi held its first multiparty elections.

1995  After 18 years as the mayor of Paris, Jacques Chirac took office as President of France.

1997 – Troops of Laurent Kabila march into Kinshasa. Zaire is officially renamed Democratic Republic Of Congo.

2004 Massachusetts became the first U.S. state to legalize same-sex marriage.

2006 The aircraft carrier USS Oriskany was sunk in the Gulf of Mexico to be an artificial reef.

2007 Trains from North and South Korea crossed the 38th Parallel in a test-run agreed by both governments. This was the first time that trains crossed the Demilitarized Zone since 1953.

2009 Dalia Grybauskaitė was elected the first female President of Lithuania.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia.

Word of the day

Palinoia – compulsive repetition of an act until it is perfect.

Do I need an iPad, is android better?

A visiting teenager had an iPad (the original model, not the new one).

I asked him to tell me why I needed one and he was a very good salesman.

He talked me through its features and convinced me I wanted one: it’s smaller and lighter than a notebook making it more convenient for travel; it could provide easier access to the internet for email, blogging and news;  being able to download books would reduce weight when travelling . . .

But want isn’t need and I had questions the teenager couldn’t answer.

The biggest of these is: what happens if you haven’t got an iPhone – can you use a t-stick or android phone to get internet access from an iPad?

I went to a shop and the salesman there wasn’t nearly as good as the teenager and couldn’t answer my questions either.

Then I started reading and found out there were Android alternatives to the iPad which might be better.

So, if I found I needed a tablet (and the jury is still out on that) which is better – iPad or Android?

Push

Push  by David Gregory was  Tuesday Poem’s featured poem last week.

Offerings from other poets linked from the sidebar included:

Conversation Overheard on the Road to Salem by Laura Solomon

A Mothers Day Collage from Elizabeth Welsh

The Museum of Stones by Carolyn Forché

Love the Glove by Mary McCallum

Daughter dobs in drunk mother

As we age the parent-child relationship starts reversing and the offspring begin to look after the parents.

It’s not usually when both parties are this young:

An 18-year-old who dobbed in her allegedly drink-driving mother was a “life-saver”, police say.

The young woman was a passenger in a car being driven by her mother from Alexandra to Roxburgh on Friday night and was so concerned about her mother’s level of intoxication she persuaded her to stop the car, “bailed from the vehicle and contacted police”, acting Central Otago police sub-area commander Sergeant Ian Kerrisk said.

The driver, a 47-year-old Alexandra woman, was processed for drink-driving and recorded a breath-alcohol level of 928mcg.

The daughter did the right thing – for the sake of her mother, herself and others on the road, but it wouldn’t have been  easy to do it.

It’s not clear from the story if the daughter had a licence or if she’d been drinking too.

I’ve had several conversations with young people about whether or not they should learn to drive. My advice is that having a licence helps you be independent, gives you choices and makes you safer in situations like this.

Freedom camping a bit less free

Some much needed restraint will be placed on freedom campers will new laws and policy to better manage freedom camping announced by Environment Minister Nick Smith and Conservation Minister Kate Wilkinson:

“Freedom camping is an important part of our tourism industry and great Kiwi lifestyle but we cannot tolerate irresponsible campers spoiling our most iconic areas with human waste and litter,” Dr Smith said.

“The number of freedom campers has doubled over the past decade to 110,000 international visitors and more than 40,000 New Zealanders. The existing system where each of our 67 districts has its own bylaws is not working for the responsible freedom camper wanting to do the right thing or for councils wanting to protect their local environment.”

A new Freedom Camping Bill will be introduced to Parliament this month that will enable councils to determine where camping is allowed, where it is restricted to campervans with self-containment, and where it is prohibited. The Department of Conservation will be able to make similar rules on the reserves it manages. There will be nationally consistent signage and practical enforcement provisions. A website will be provided outlining where people can and cannot camp nationally.

“We need some national consistency because most freedom campers are unaware of what district they are in one day to the next, but we also want to protect the rights of local communities to decide where freedom camping is to be allowed. We also want to encourage self-contained campervans by having restricted areas that don’t have toilets, as the most serious problems arise from freedom camping without sanitary facilities,” Dr Smith said.

Irresponsible freedom campers are no longer only a problem in remote country areas. Wayside stops on main roads and urban streets are also being used by people without self-contained loos.

The new law will provide for a $200 instant fine for illegal camping that may be imposed on the camper or the vehicle. New regulations will require campervan hire companies to record and disclose details so fines can be enforced. Fines up to $10,000 may be imposed by courts on a successful prosecution for illegally discharging a campervan’s sewage.

Instant fines for relatively minor breaches are far better than charges which lead to court, especially for people from overseas. Being able to impose the fine on a vehicle will put more onus on companies which hire them to educate visitors about where they may and may not camp.

Restrictions will add to costs for visitors but user-pays is better than having the costs of irresponsible freedom campers fall on us and our environment.

No Maori Party in Nat govt no Maori seats?

Hone Harawira has criticised the Maori Party for being in coalition with National, even though he was a member of it at the time. He’s also criticising the party for contemplating entering a coalition with National again after the election.

One of National’s campaign policies was the abolition of the Maori Seats. If it hadn’t been in coalition with the Maori Party it would have followed through and done that. But this was one of the policies National gave way on during coalition negotiations.

 As far as I know it is still National policy to get rid of the seats. It’s definitely Act policy.

If there’s a National led government after this year’s election with Act as a coalition partner and without the Maori Party it’s a safe bet the seats will go.

May 16 in history

On May 16:

1204  Baldwin IX, Count of Flanders was crowned as the first Emperor of the Latin Empire.

 

1527 The Florentines drove out the Medici for a second time and Florence re-established itself as a republic.

1532  Sir Thomas More resigned as Lord Chancellor of England.

1568 Mary, Queen of Scots, fled to England.

 

1770 14-year old Marie Antoinette married 15-year-old Louis-Auguste.

 

1771  The Battle of Alamance between local militia and a group of rebels called “The Regulators.

1777 Lachlan McIntosh and Button Gwinnett shot each other during a duel.

 

1811  Peninsular War – The allies Spain, Portugal and Britain, defeated the French at the Battle of Albuera.

1815  The Governor of New South Wales, Lachlan Macquarie, officially named the town of Blackheath in the upper Blue Mountains.

1822 Greek War of Independence: The Turks captured the Greek town of Souli.

1836  Edgar Allan Poe married his 13-year-old cousin Virginia.

1843  The first major wagon train heading for the Pacific Northwest set out on the Oregon Trail with one thousand pioneers from Elm Grove, Missouri.

1866 The U.S. Congress eliminated the half dime coin and replaces it with the five cent piece, or nickel.

1866  Charles Elmer Hires invented root beer.

 

1868  President Andrew Johnson was acquitted in his impeachment trial by one vote in the United States Senate.

1874  A flood on the Mill River in Massachusetts destroyed much of four villages and kills 139 people.

1877  May 16, 1877 political crisis in France.

1905 Henry Fonda, American actor, was born (d. 1982).

1910 The United States Congress authorised the creation of the United States Bureau of Mines.

1914  The first ever Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup final wass played. Brooklyn Field Club defeated Brooklyn Celtic 2-1.

1916 Ephraim Katzir, 4th President of Israel, was born (d. 2009.

1918 The Sedition Act of 1918 was passed by the U.S. Congress, making criticism of the government an imprisonable offense.

1919 Liberace, American pianist,was born (d. 1987).

1919 A naval Curtiss aircraft NC-4 commanded by Albert Cushing Read left Trepassey, Newfoundland, for Lisbon via the Azores on the first transatlantic flight.

1920   Pope Benedict XV canonised Joan of Arc.

 

1929 The first Academy Awards were handed out.

1943  Holocaust: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising ended.

1948  Chaim Weizmann was elected the first President of Israel.

1951 Christian Lacroix, French fashion designer, was born.

 

1951  The first regularly scheduled transatlantic flights began between John F Kennedy International Airport  and Heathrow operated by El Al Israel Airlines.

1953 Pierce Brosnan, Irish actor, was born.

1960 Nikita Khrushchev demanded an apology from U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower for U-2 spy plane flights over the Soviet Union, ending a Big Four summit in Paris.

1960 Theodore Maiman operated the first optical laser, at Hughes Research Laboratories in Malibu.

1965 The Campbell Soup Company introduced SpaghettiOs under its Franco-American brand.

1966 Janet Jackson, American singer, was born.

1966 The Communist Party of China issued the ‘May 16 Notice‘, marking the beginning of the Cultural Revolution.

1969 Venera program: Venera 5, a Soviet spaceprobe, landed on Venus.

1970 Gabriela Sabatini, Argentine tennis player, was born.

1970 Danielle Spencer, Australian singer and actress, was born.

1974 Josip Broz Tito was re-elected president of Yugoslavia.

1975  India annexed Sikkim after the mountain state holds a referendum in which the popular vote was in favour of merging with India.

  

1975  Junko Tabei became the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest.

1982 The All Whites won 2-0 against Australia  on the way to the World Cup in Spain.

1983 Sudan People’s Liberation Army/Movement rebelled against the Sudanese government.

 

1986  The Seville Statement on Violence was adopted by an international meeting of scientists, convened by the Spanish National Commission for UNESCO.

1988 A report by United States’ Surgeon General C. Everett Koop stated that the addictive properties of nicotine were similar to those of heroin and cocaine.

1992  STS-49: Space Shuttle Endeavour lands safely after a successful maiden voyage.

2003  Casablanca terrorist attacks: 33 civilians killed and more than 100 people injured.

2004 The Day of Mourning at Bykivnia forest, just outside of Kiev to commemorate that here during 1930s and early 1940s communist bolsheviks executed over 100,000 Ukrainian civilians.

2005 Kuwait permitted women’s suffrage in a 35-23 National Assembly vote.

• Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia

Crowds rally to support spending cuts

Hundreds of people rallied yesterday in support of government spending cuts in Britain.

The rally was organised in response to a march opposing the cuts earlier this year which attracted thousands.

The difference in numbers shows how difficult it is to sell the need for austerity.

Taxpayers Alliance which helped organise the rally reports on it with quotes from participants:

Matthew Sinclair, Director of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said:

 It would be awful to see more and more of our money going to pay for interest on the debt instead of sustaining public services, and it would be immoral to leave the next generation with the bill for services today. . .

Annabel, 16, said:

 It’s my generation that will have to pay. I’m glad to see that people are concerned about the size of the national debt. Yes, cuts are difficult, but we are in a bad situation and we need to face up to it. If you have a problem and you put off dealing with it, it gets worse.

That point is often lost on people who oppose the cuts – every cent borrowed today has to be paid back some time.

It is immoral to spend money on luxuries today when it will make it more difficult to provide necessities tomorrow.

Word of the day

 Obganiate – to cause irritation by reiteration.

Child cruelty has many forms

The beauty pageant industry borders on child cruelty at the best of times.

Injecting an eight year old with botox to improve her chances crosses the line for both physical and psychological reasons.

The unrealistic expectations placed on adults to attain an idealised standard of beauty are bad enough. Subjecting children to them too is sick.

Rural round-up

Devastation on the Hawkes Bay Coast – Karl du Fresne posts:

The coastal strip of Central Hawke’s Bay that was devastated by a freak storm recently is very familiar to me. In my childhood and teenage years, the line of sandy beaches that stretches from Kairakau in the north to Porangahau in the south was something of a summer playground.

One of my earliest memories is of a summer holiday in the shearers’ quarters on the sheep station at Kairakau, which were made available to my family out of gratitude for my father’s work in supervising the building of the electricity transmission line that connected the area to the national grid. Most remote properties on that coast had previously depended on generators.

Frankenmilk – Witty Knitter wrties at SkepticLawyer:

From China, the intriguing news that scientists have genetically modified cows to produce milk with human proteins in it. This is not the same things as genetically modifying cows to ‘produce human milk’, as it has been reported.

To me, this is a truly bizarre story. Presumably, this project was the result of several appalling events that have been reported (and maybe more we haven’t heard about) in which babies have become seriously ill and even died from drinking formulas that their parents believed would be nutritious: here, here and here, for example. This makes the comments of Prof Campbell at the end of the first article linked above (asking why people would put poison into food) a little disingenuous. . .

Prime lambs just shy of $200 – Farmers Weekly reports:

Heavy prime lambs fell just shy of the $200 mark as values lifted up to $4/head at Temuka while store lambs also lifted in the market by $2-$4/head, PGG Wrightson livestock representative Rod Sands reported.
Good heavy lambs made from $158 to $$199 and heavy butcher ewes made up to $220. Forward store lambs fetched up to $125. Bull and beef cow prices rose 10-15c/kgLW.
At Tinwald heavy lambs made $190 and store lambs to $120.
The sheep market caught “lamb fever” at Frankton, Allied Farmers agents reported with prime lambs going to $175. . .

Farm award adds to excellent year: Helen de Reus writes:

Third-generation Hillend farmer Stuart Hallum will receive his New Zealand Century Farm Award at Lawrence tonight.

The 65-year-old farms sheep and cattle at Hillend with his wife, Annette, and is now semi-retired. . .

Passion for trials undimmed – Sally Rae reports fro the South Island dog trails:

Geoff Allison has been dog-trialling for more than half a century and his passion for the sport is still as strong as ever.

Born in South Otago, Mr Allison (67) was 9 when his family shifted to South Canterbury.

He started trialling when he was 15, following in the footsteps of his father. . .

X-factor apparent in dogs’ monikers - Sally Rae again:

 It’s all in a name. Forget the usual dog monikers of Bill, Queen and Jess at the South Island sheep dog trial championships – Greg Metherell has been more creative.

Mr Metherell, from Kenmore Station, at Otekaieke, has a huntaway dog simply called X. . .

Major merger sees birth of $50m animal feed firm – Tim Cronshaw writes:

 A national animal feed business with a starting point revenue of $50 million will arise from major fertiliser co-operative Ballance Agri-Nutrients buying into a partnership with Mid Canterbury and Morrinsville firms.

Ballance will own the majority share with 51 per cent of Seales Winslow with the Carr family’s Winslow Feeds and Nutrition, from Ashburton, holding 24.5 per cent and a similar-sized share taken by feed mill firm Seales Ltd. . .

A place fit for man, beast, frogs and kids – Jon Morgan writes:

When Ray and Lyn Craig entered dairying 20 years ago they wrote a list of goals. At the top, along with a production target long since surpassed, was to own an “aesthetically pleasing” farm.

They have their wish. Their 550-cow farm on the outskirts of Carterton is criss-crossed with streams and drains, all planted with willows, flaxes and a variety of other natives. Three small wetlands have also been created and their flaxes, toetoe and other natives are home to tui, kingfishers, herons and an assortment of ducks.

So impressed were the judges in the Greater Wellington region’s Ballance Farm Environment Awards that they awarded the couple the supreme title and remarked that the riparian plantings were among the best they had seen on a dairy farm. . .