Word of the day

Oath - vocal affirmation of the truth of one’s statements, generally made by appealing to a deity; a solemn appeal to a deity, or to some revered person or thing, to witness one’s determination to speak the truth, to keep a promise; to testify upon oath;  a solemn, formal declaration or promise to fulfill a pledge, often calling on God, a god, or a sacred object as witness; a statement or promise strengthened by such an appeal; a formally affirmed statement or promise accepted as an equivalent of an appeal to a deity or to a revered person or thing; affirmation; the form of words in which such a statement or promise is made; an irreverent or blasphemous use of the name of God or anything sacred;

Only 6,000 members?

Is Chris Trotter right?

At 6,000 members, Labour is only slightly bigger than the Greens.

Does Labour really have so few members?

Even if they’re real, individual people and that figure doesn’t include unions as well, how can it continue to call itself a major party when it has so few people willing to sign up to belong to it?

National’s 2002 election result was worse than Labour’s this year but it’s membership at its very worst was several times better than 6,000 and has grown steadily since then.

It’s not very difficult to vote for a party. Membership requires more. It means at least a financial commitment and there are many other ways in which you can support and be involved with the party once you’ve joined up.

National’s membership, now many times more than that of Labour’s, is what provides its financial foundation and also the people who contribute to policy formation, fund-raising and who provide support for MPs.

In National, they are the ones who select electorate candidates and do so much to help them during campaigns.

Strong membership, strong finances and strong voter support are almost always linked.

But it’s not just the party which benefits from a wide and active membership, the country does too.

Without strong membership of political parties we don’t have a participatory democracy, we have politicians with very weak links to wide, grassroots support.

That results in parliament of the few by the few for the few which is the antithesis of democracy.

Woodhouse & Upston Nats new whips

Dunedin list MP Michael Woodhouse is National’s new senior Whip and Taupo MP Louise Upston is the new Junior Whip.

This makes Michael the highest ranked National MP ever to come from Dunedin.

There have been three previous National Party MPs in the city - the late Sir James Barnes served two terms from the      snap 1951 election until 1957, the late Richard Walls served one term in 1975-78, and Katherine Rich was a list MP from  1999 until 2008 when she retired from politics.

   Both Michael and Louise entered parliament in 2008.

Lockwood Smith has been elected unopposed as Speaker.

He is a candidate for the best Speaker in recent years, having done a lot to raise the standard of behaviour in parliament.

Some of his National party colleagues might think he went too far in holding ministers to account in a far stricter fashion than Labour ministers were held in the previous governments.

12 days before Christmas . . .

I’ve posted this before but have had a request to re-post it

Twelve days before Christmas my farmer said to me, “If the wind keeps up the lucerne should be fit by mid-afternoon so we’ll start making hay and there could be a few extra men for tea. But if there’s time when we finish I’ll get the Christmas tree.”

 

Eleven days before Christmas my farmer said to me, “I’m going through to a sale in Central. I should be back in time for the school concert, though probably not in time to get the Christmas tree.”

 

Ten days before Christmas my farmer said to me, “When you go into town this morning could you see if the spare part for the tractor has turned up yet, pick up some drench, drop a fewchequesinto the bank then pay these bills, there’s only two or three. While you’re doing that I’ll get the Christmas tree”

 

Nine days before Christmas my farmer said to me, “We’ll be shearing today, one of the men will be in the shed so he’ll want lunch early, the other should be in at the usual time and I probably won’t be in ‘til after one. But if we get the irrigator fixed this afternoon there might be time to get the Christmas tree.”

 

Eight days before Christmas my farmer said to me, “One of the rousies didn’t turn up so I’ve had to get another at short notice. Would you mind giving her lunch and could you throw something together for her morning and afternoon tea? If there’s no problems getting the sheep in I should have time to get the Christmas tree”

 

Seven days before Christmas my farmer said to me, “The farm advisor’s coming for a look round this morning and I’ll be working with cattle all afternoon, but if the phone’s quiet after dinner I’ll go and get the Christmas tree.”

 

Six days before Christmas my farmer said to me, “I’m going to the sale this morning and it’ll take most of the afternoon to draft the lambs. But they shouldn’t need dagging so when we’ve loaded the truck I’ll have time to get the Christmas tree.”

 

Five days before Christmas my farmer said to me, “If the rain holds off we’ll make a start on the silage this afternoon but it’s almost mid-summer’s day so  if it’s still be light enough to see when we knock off  I should be able to get the Christmas tree.”

 

Four days before Christmas my farmers said to me, “We’ll be making silage again today. It would save time if you could bring lunch out to the paddock and we’ll probably want dinner too – but if we finish early then I’ll go and get the tree.”

 

Three days before Christmas my farmer said to me, “Could you pick up the irrigator hose from the carriers? I won’t have time to do any shopping now so when you’re in town why don’t you choose yourself something and charge it up to me? And while you’re away I’ll get the Christmas tree.”

 

Two days before Christmas my farmer said to me, “Are you all organised for the staff party? When I’ve finished drenching those lambs I’ll have to shift the irrigator but I’ll be able to give you a hand after that if I get everything done quickly, oh and of course I will get the Christmas tree.”

 

One day before Christmas my farmer said to me, “The motorbike ran out of petrol in the back paddock. Could come up in the ute to pick me up and if you bring the chain saw with you we could detour on the way back to get the Christmas tree.”

 For the record, my farmer delivered a tree yesterday.

Election news not news for many

The last 15 months has had some very big news stories, and a survey by UMR Research shows that they overshadowed the election.

Five of the ten highest profile news stories since tracking began in 2003 have occurred in the last 15 months, including four of the top six.

•96% closely followed the Christchurch earthquake and its aftermath, making it easily the highest profile issue since the series started.

•The next two highest issues are the September 2010 Canterbury earthquake (followed by 92%) and the Pike River disaster (followed by 88%).

•The All Blacks’ victory in the Rugby World Cup was followed by 83%. This would have been high enough to be the highest profile story in five of the nine years we have been running this series of questions. The previous record for a sporting event was the 69% who followed Team New Zealand’s victory in the Louis Vuitton Cup in 2007.

•The fifth story which is in the all-time top 10 is the June aftershocks in Christchurch. 79% closely followed this story, putting it in 3rd place for 2011 and 10th place overall.

Disasters and rugby were far more engaging than politics:

•65% say that they followed the election closely, putting it in 12th place for 2011. It comes in behind stories like the Rena grounding, the Japanese tsunami and nuclear crisis, August’s polar blast and Queensland’s Cyclone Yasi.

•While this is comparable with 2005 (64%) and 2008 (69%), those elections ranked 7th and 8th in their respective years.

•This suggests that the low turnout at the 2011 election may reflect not so much declining interest in politics, but simply the number of other higher profile stories around this year.

But if people were interested in politics wouldn’t they follow news about the election as well as the other events?

We have far more ways to access news and it is updated almost as it happens. But we can still choose to read/watch/listen to coverage of any or all events and issues, or not, and this year more people chose not to follow the election.

No need to rush

New Zealand First MPs won’t be troubled with their caucus responsibilities until next year.

There’s no need to rush.

If roles were delegated this week the MPs might have to start thinking about them and at least give the appearance they would be earning their salaries.

Besides, just because John Key and David Shearer have already sorted out caucuses of 59 and 34 MPs respectively we shouldn’t expect Winston Peters to be able to sort out eight MPs any faster.

Rumours of sunset still premature

Labour wasn’t popular in the provinces in the 1980s as the government forced farmers to face the real world without subsidies.

Then Prime Minster David Lange did nothing to help matters when he said farming was a sunset industry, manufacturing and tourism would take its place and it wasn’t something farmers would want their sons and daughters getting into.

The party’s new leader David Shearer hasn’t gone that far but he did say:

The Government had the same vision as was used in the 1960s – selling protein off-shore.

Labour believed things needed to be more innovative, he said.

That cheap and unwarranted shot at the government which is firmly focussed on the importance of export-led growth,  is also a shot at primary production, processing and trade.

Where has this man been if he doesn’t understand just how much agriculture and the products we trade have changed since the 1960s?

Adolf at No Minister puts it more bluntly:

Someone needs to take him by the ear and firmly rub his nose in a few home truths about the difference between exporting butter, lamb carcases and sides of beef to Great Britain (1960s) and the vast myriad of value added products manufactured in New Zealand and exported by Fonterra; the remarkable development of luxury specialist cuts of beef, lamb and venison, sold all over the globe (2011.)

A man who’s worked with the world’s hungry should understand the importance of protein and anyone aspiring to lead New Zealand ought to understand just how good we are at converting grass to protein and that protein to export dollars.

Had it not been for that the world is demanding more of that protein and other primary products we’d have had an even tougher time weathering the natural and financial disasters that have hit us in the last three years.

Rumours of agriculture being a sunset industry are not just premature, they’re wrong. If anything the growing demand for food from the rest of the world makes what we produce even more valuable.

Agriculture isn’t the only thing we do well and the broader our export base the better the country will be.

But we need those other industries as well as agriculture not instead of them and we don’t need another Labour leader who shares Lange’s opinion of farming.

December 20 in history

69 – Vespasian, formerly a general under Nero, entered Rome to claim the title of emperor.

217 – The papacy of Zephyrinus ended. Callixtus I was elected as the sixteenth pope, but was opposed by the theologian Hippolytus who accused him of laxity and of being a Modalist, one who denies any distinction between the three persons of the Trinity.

1192  Richard the Lion-Heart was captured and imprisoned by Leopold V of Austria on his way home to England after signing a treaty with Saladin ending the Third crusade.

1522 – Suleiman the Magnificent accepted the surrender of the surviving Knights of Rhodes, who were allowed to evacuate. They eventually settled on Malta and became known as the Knights of Malta.

1803 – The Louisiana Purchase was completed at a ceremony in New Orleans.

1865 Elsie De Wolfe, American socialite and interior decorator, was born  (d. 1950).

1868 Harvey Firestone, American automobile pioneer, was born (d. 1938).

1894  Sir Robert Menzies, twelfth Prime Minister of Australia was born (d. 1978).

1901  Robert Van de Graaff, American physicist and inventor, was born  (d. 1967).

1907  Paul Francis Webster, songwriter, was born  (d. 1984).

1913 The Great Strike of 1913, which began in late October when Wellington waterside workers stopped work, ended when the United Federation of Labour (UFL) conceded defeat.

1927  Kim Young-sam, first civilian President of South Korea after a series of dictatorships, was born.

1944  Bobby Colomby, American musician (Blood, Sweat & Tears), was born.

1945 Peter Criss, American drummer and singer (Kiss), was born.

1948 Alan Parsons, British music producer and artist, was born.

1951 The EBR-1 in Arco, Idaho becomes the first nuclear power plant to generate electricy.  The electricity powered four light bulbs.

1955 – Cardiff was proclaimed the capital city of Wales.

1957  Billy Bragg, English singer and songwriter, was born.

1973 Spanish Prime Minister, Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco, was assassinated by a car bomb attack in Madrid.

1984 The Summit tunnel fire, the largest underground fire in history, as a freight train carrying over 1 million litres of petrol derails near the town of Todmorden in the Pennines.

1987 History’s worst peacetime sea disaster, when the passenger ferry Doña Paz sank after colliding with the oil tanker Vector 1 in the Tablas Strait in the Philippines  killing an estimated 4,000 people (1,749 official).

1988 The United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances was signed in Vienna

1989  United States invasion of Panama: The United States sent troops into Panama to overthrow government of Manuel Noriega.

1995  NATO began peacekeeping in Bosnia.

1996 NeXT merged with Apple Computer, starting the path to Mac OS X.

1999 Macau was handed over to the People’s Republic of China by Portugal.

2007  Queen Elizabeth II became the oldest ever monarch of the United Kingdom, surpassing Queen Victoria, who lived for 81 years, 7 months and 29 days.

2007 – The painting Portrait of Suzanne Bloch (1904), by Pablo Picasso, was stolen from the São Paulo Museum of Art, along with O Lavrador de Café, by the major Brazilian modernist painter Candido Portinari.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia

Will the son follow his father?

North Korean dictator Kim Jong II is dead.

His son Jong-un, has been groomed to succeed him.

If he follows his father’s leadership style and political philosophy there is little hope of improvement for the impoverished country and its people.

 

 

Word of the day

Munted – broken, broken, bent, scraped, splintered, shattered, crashed, crushed, smashed, snapped, squashed, lascerated, punctured, peirced, cracked, destroyed, burst,  demolished, trashed, disintegrated, fractured, fragmented, pounded, pulverized, slammed, squashed, squished, or ruined; abnormal or peculiar  (of a person) ; drunk or intoxicated.

This was chosen as the Word of the Year by Public Address readers.

“The word ‘munted’ isn’t new,” said Public Address founder Russell Brown, “But it felt like this was the year it found its destiny. ‘Munted’, in spirit and in sound, was the natural word for what happened to parts of Christchurch in the February earthquake. And when Mayor Bob Parker told journalists ‘Our main sewer trunk is seriously munted. I believe that is the technical term,’ that destiny was settled.”

The top 10, chosen from 44, were:

1. munted

2. nek minnit

3. ghost chips

4. = #eqnz

= Occupy

6. liquefaction

7. Arab Spring

8. 99%

9. fuckeulogy

10. red-stickered

Fresh blood but none on floor

Labour’s new front bench includes some fresh blood and there doesn’t appear to be any on the floor, for now.

Political tragics excercise themselves about rankings.

While the number isn’t irrelevant, especially for egos, how MPs perform and what they achieve is far more important than where they’re ranked.

The full list is:

	MP	Portfolios
1	David Shearer	Leader Security Intelligence Service Science and Innovation
2	Grant Robertson	Deputy Leader Environment Tertiary Education, Skills and Training
3	David Parker	Finance
4	Jacinda Ardern	Social Development
5	David Cunliffe	Economic Development Associate Finance
6	Clayton Cosgrove	SOEs Commerce Small Business Trade Negotiations Associate Finance
7	Shane Jones	Regional Development Associate Finance Economic Development (Māori) Fisheries
8	Nanaia Mahuta	Education Associate Māori Affairs (Social)
9	Maryan Street	Health Disarmament and Arms Control Associate Foreign Affairs
10	Su’a William Sio	Employment Pacific Island Affairs Inter-Faith Dialogue Associate Foreign Affairs
11	Phil Twyford	Transport Auckland Issues Associate Environment
12	Trevor Mallard	Shadow Leader of the House Associate Finance America’s Cup
13	Charles Chauvel	Justice (incl Courts and Corrections) Attorney General Arts, Culture and Heritage
14	Lianne Dalziel	Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Civil Defence and Emergency Management Earthquake Commission Consumer Rights and Standards Associate Justice
15	Chris Hipkins	Senior Whip State Services Associate Education
16	Phil Goff	Foreign Affairs and Trade
17	Annette King	Housing Local Government
18	Darien Fenton	Junior Whip Labour Immigration
19	Damien O’Connor	Primary Industries Food Safety
20	Clare Curran	Communications and Information Technology Broadcasting Open Government Disability Issues
	Ruth Dyson	Conservation Senior Citizens Internal Affairs
	Parekura Horomia	Māori Affairs Treaty Negotiations
	Sue Moroney	Early Childhood Education Womens  Affairs
	Moana Mackey	Energy Climate Change
	Iain Lees-Galloway	Defence Transport Safety Veterans Affairs Associate Health (Alcohol and Drugs)
	Raymond Huo	Building and Construction Statistics Land Information
	Rajen Prasad	Ethnic Affairs Associate Social Development
	Kris Faafoi	Police Customs Associate Health
	Louisa Wall	Sport and Recreation Community and Voluntary Sector
	David Clark	Revenue Associate Tertiary Education
	Andrew Little	ACC
	Rino Tirikatene	Tourism
	Megan Woods	Youth Affairs Associate Science & Innovation
	Ross Robertson	Nominee for Assistant Speaker Racing Associate Disarmament (Small Arms)

 

December needs another week

At this time every year I wonder if the end of the year would be easier to manage if there was another week between the end of November and Christmas.

In spite of the major efforts people wanting to sell me things make, Christmas stays firmly off my radar until well in to December.

The earlier the decorations and other reminders of the festive season appear, the more resolute I am about ignoring it until it’s almost upon me.

Our family has simplified Christmas – we don’t exchange gifts with siblings, stop giving to nieces and nephews when they get to 21; and we share the cooking so no-one has too much to do on the day.

But even so I find myself looking at the week ahead and wondering if it’s long enough for my list of things-to-do.

Having another week in December might make a difference, or then again it could just mean that I’d have another seven days ignoring the exhortations to prepare and still find Christmas approaching at a gallop.

Why bad theories never die

Quote of the day:

Why do I spend so much time arguing against such obvious rubbish, which should be both self-refuting and auto-satirizing the moment someone utters it? Why not just go and read a good book?

The problem is that nonsense can and does go by default. It wins the argument by sheer persistence, by inexhaustible re-iteration, by staying at the meeting when everyone else has gone home, by monomania, by boring people into submission and indifference. And the reward of monomania? Power. Theodore Dalrymple.

Taking democracy seriously

Radio New Zealand reports that voting irregularities, uncovered in the judicial recount in Waitakere, are not uncommon:

Chief Electoral Officer Robert Peden says un-enrolled voters account for about 10% of all special votes and this occurs in every electorate in every election.

Mr Peden also says duplicate votes are also unfortunately quite common, with 480 dual votes recorded in the 2008 elections.

He says 58 people have been referred to the police.

It wouldn’t be difficult to vote more than once, or to use someone else’s easy-vote card and vote in their place. But this report shows such actions are taken seriously, as they should be.

Our consistent reputation for lack of corruption doesn’t mean there’s no wrong-doing, it means that when there is those who do it are held to account.

PSA could have come in pollen

MAF has commissioned an independent review of its  its importing rules as part of ongoing work into how the kiwifruit vine disease Psa entered New Zealand.

Director General Wayne McNee says the review is a sensible step to ensure that MAF’s systems are as good as they can be and will be welcomed by the kiwifruit industry which had requested such an inquiry.

The review follows a series of investigations that MAF has undertaken since the outbreak of Psa in Bay of Plenty orchards.

He says in order to help the kiwifruit industry manage the disease’s spread, MAF has looked into a number of possible ways the bacterium could have entered New Zealand and has produced a report summarising the results of those investigations.

“The report does not identify a definite means of introduction, but does find there are a number of potential pathways, including people, equipment, and pollen.

It wasn’t known that pollen could carry Psa when rules were changed in 2007 to allow it to be imported.

MAF’s importing rules at the time of the Psa outbreak permitted imports of overseas kiwifruit pollen by the kiwifruit industry and others under strict conditions.

Any imported pollen had to have been sourced from unopened flowers to avoid any issues of bacterial contamination. At the time of granting pollen import permits, there was no internationally published science that indicated pollen was able to spread Psa.

“Given the new information that has emerged on the potential for pollen to spread the disease, I want to review our processes for assessing risk, and incorporating changing science. We still cannot categorically say that Psa in pollen can infect healthy vines – there’s more work to be done to prove that – so we still cannot definitively say that pollen was the way that Psa entered New Zealand,” Mr McNee says.

Imports of pollen were suspended at the time of the Psa outbreak.

The impact of PSA on the kiwifruit industry is as devastating as foot and mouth disease would be to livestock farming.

It is a reminder of how vulnerable agriculture and horticulture are and the importance of tough biosecurity rules.

Working out how Psa got here won’t help those affected but it could help prevent other incursions of pests and diseases.

Is the greener grass here?

Higher wages in other countries are attractive, but there’s more to being better off than what you earn.

Ed Sims, chief executive of Airways New Zealand, said that his research showed that the cost of lending rates, GST (or VAT in the UK), income tax, healthcare and schooling overseas meant that he would need roughly a 30 per cent increase in salary to justify leaving.

That might not be the case for everyone but friends who crossed the Tasman bought a business and discovered it was much harder than they’d anticipated. The mining sector is booming but the rest of the economy isn’t doing as well.

Other business people they talk to say the same thing but as newcomers they are facing additional problems, including customers who won’t deal with them because they’re not locals.

Young friends in Britain are finding jobs harder to get or more precarious when they get them. Several say they’re looking back to this part of the world where the grass appears to be greener.

Some concerned about the outlook here might find that difficult to believe, but the world’s demand for the food we’re so good at producing and our free trade agreements with Australia and China should offer some protection against the economic gloom in the Eurozone.

December 19 in history

1154  Henry II was crowned at Westminster Abbey.

1606  The Susan Constant, the Godspeed, and the Discovery left England carrying settlers who found, at Jamestown, Virginia, the first of the thirteen colonies that became the United States.

1683  Philip V of Spain, was born (d. 1746).

1820 Mary Livermore, American journalist and women’s rights advocate, was born (d. 1905).

1906 Leonid Brezhnev, leader of the Soviet Union, was born (d. 1982).

1915 The evacuation of troops from Sulva Bay .

1915 Édith Piaf, French singer and actress, was born  (d. 1963).

1920  King Constantine I was restored as King of the Hellenes after the death of his son Alexander I of Greece and a plebiscite.

1923  Gordon Jackson, Scottish actor, was born  (d. 1990).

1924  The last Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost was sold in London.

1925 Robert B. Sherman, American songwriter, was born.

1932  BBC World Service began broadcasting as the BBC Empire Service.

1934  Pratibha Patil, President of India, was born.

1941 The Royal Navy cruiser HMS Neptune struck enemy mines and sank off Libya – more than 750 men lost their lives including 150 New Zealanders.

1941 Adolf Hitler became Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the German Army.

1941 – Maurice White, American singer and songwriter (Earth, Wind & Fire), was born.

1944 Zal Yanovsky, Canadian guitarist (The Lovin’ Spoonful), was born.

1946  Start of the First Indochina War.

1972  The last manned lunar flight, Apollo 17, crewed by Eugene Cernan, Ron Evans and Harrison Schmitt, returned to Earth.

1983  The original FIFA World Cup trophy, the Jules Rimet Trophy, was stolen from the headquarters of the Brazilian Football Confederation.

1984 The Sino-British Joint Declaration, stating that the People’s Republic of China would resume the exercise of sovereignty over Hong Kong and the United Kingdom would restore Hong Kong to China with effect from July 1, 1997 was signed in Beijing by Deng Xiaoping and Margaret Thatcher.

2001  A record high barometric pressure of 1085.6 hPa (32.06 inHg )was recorded at Tosontsengel, Khövsgöl Province, Mongolia.

2001 – Argentine economic crisis: December 2001 riots – Riots erupted in Buenos Aires.

2009 – A 6.4 magnitude earthquake occurred off the coast of Hualian, Taiwan.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia.

Word of the day

Edacious – devouring; voracious; consuming.

5/10

Oh dear, only 5/10 in Stuff’s Biz-Quiz.

7/12

7/12 in NZ History Online’s Kiwi Christmas quiz.