Te Harinui

When I looked for Te Harinui a couple of years ago there was only one on YouTube, last year there were a couple and now there are several.

This one from the Twyford Singers is the best musically, though it would have been even better had they upped the tempo a bit so it sounds more like a song of celebration than a dirge.

5/10

Only 5/10 in the Herald’s changing world quiz.

What’s the problem with paying more for better?

A post-grad year at teachers’ collge taught me that I was not cut out for teaching.

However, one thing I gained in that year was an admiration for good teachers.

That’s why I’ve always struggled with the idea promoted by teacher unions, and many teachers, that all teachers should be paid the same.

The suggestion made a couple of years ago by John Hattie, author of a study on education, that’s it’s time to revisit performance-based pay for teachers was met with the usual response from Kate Gainford, head of the secondary teachers’ union:

Gainsford says it would be “extraordinarily problematic … on so many fronts” to work out an excellence-based pay formula. She would like to see the focus on supporting “all kids, in all classes, in all schools”, rather than on a sorting mechanism for teachers.

This is one of the arguments that is being brought out again in opposition to the idea of charter schools which would have the ability to pay good teachers more.

I doubt if there is any profession which puts more time and effort into evaluation than teaching. If it works for their pupils, why not for teachers?

Their fears appear to be based on the mistaken belief assessment of teachers will be based solely on narrow criteria like exam results and the “excellence” of their pupils.

There is much more to being a good teacher than that. Helping a pupil who starts with disadvantages, be they intellectual, physical, emotional, cultural linguistic or social, take small steps could be much more an achievement than helping a more able pupil take giant leaps.

Then there are other factors like mentoring other staff and contribution to extra curricular activities.

With the current tenure-based system of pay rises teachers generally only get get paid more for promotions which take them out of teaching and into administration.

Wouldn’t it be better to pay good teachers more to stay in the classroom?

8/10

8/10 in the Herald’s political quiz.

Great summer shut-down getting longer

Christmas is used as a date by which we aim to get things done.

Sometimes it’s a self-imposed deadline, sometimes it’s because we know if it’s not done before Christmas it won’t be done until early January at best.

The requirement to get things done by or before December 24th is even more important now that the great summer shut-down is getting longer with many businesses staying closed for an extra week.

The norm used to be about a fortnight from Christmas Eve and most businesses were back at work by the second week in January.

Since annual leave entitlements were extended to four weeks it’s not uncommon for businesses to close for an extra week. It’s easier to shut the office or factory altogether than have people taking another couple of weeks at odd times through the year with resulting disruption and pressure that puts on remaining staff.

Research by Mercer shows New Zealand has among the highest levels of statutory holiday entitlement in the Asia Pacific region but fewer holidays than the majority of Western Europe.

Western European employees, on average, have access to the greatest amount of statutory paid holiday in the world, in contrast to employees in the Asia Pacific region, which has the lowest levels. Japan, Australia and New Zealand offer 20 days of statutory holiday entitlement. This compared to Hong Kong, Singapore, Vietnam and Pakistan which provides 14 days followed by India and Indonesia (both 12) and China (10), Thailand (6) and the Philippines (5) offer the region’s lowest holiday entitlement.

I wonder what part more generous leave entitlements play in the economic mess in Europe?

Everyone needs holidays for the sake of their physical and mental health. The five to 14 days offered by some of our Asian neighbours wouldn’t be tolerated here, and nor should it.

However, not all workers here want 20 days – four weeks – annual leave on top of the 11 statutory holidays to which they’re entitled and they can choose to take a week’s extra pay in lieu of the fourth week.

December 18 in history

On December 18:

1271  Kublai Khan renamed his empire “Yuan” (元 yuán), officially marking the start of the Yuan Dynasty of Mongolia and China.

1620 – The Mayflower landed in present-day Plymouth, Massachusetts with 102 Pilgrims on board.

1642  Abel Tasman and his men had the first known European encounter with Maori.

1707 Charles Wesley, English Methodist hymnist, was born (d. 1788).

1777 The United States celebrated its first Thanksgiving, marking the recent victory by the Americans over General John Burgoyne in the Battle of Saratoga in October.

1778 Joseph Grimaldi, English clown, was born (d. 1837).

1849 Henrietta Edwards, Canadian women’s rights activist, was born (d. 1931).

1863 Franz Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria, was born (d. 1914).

1878 Joseph Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union, was born  (d. 1953).

1888 – Richard Wetherill and his brother in-law discovered the ancient Indian ruins of Mesa Verde.

1890 Edwin Armstrong, American inventor (FM radio) was born (d. 1954).

1898  Gaston de Chasseloup-Laubat set the new land speed record going 39.245 mph (63.159 km/h), in a Jeantaud electric car. This is the first recognised land speed record.

1900 The Upper Ferntree Gully to Gembrook Narrow-gauge (2 ft 6 in or 762 mm) Railway (now the Puffing Billy Railway) in Victoria opened.

1908  Celia Johnson, English actress, was born (d. 1982).

1910 – Eric Tindill, New Zealand cricketer and rugby player, was born  (d. 2010).

1912 The Piltdown Man, later discovered to be a hoax, was found in the Piltdown Gravel Pit, by Charles Dawson.

1913 Willy Brandt, Chancellor of Germany, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, was born (d. 1992).

1916  Betty Grable, American actress, was born  (d. 1973).

1935  Jacques Pépin, French chef, was born.

1938 Chas Chandler, English musician (The Animals), was born (d. 1996).

1943  Keith Richards, English guitarist (The Rolling Stones), was born.

1946  Steve Biko, South African anti-apartheid activist, was born  (d. 1977).

1946 – Steven Spielberg, American film director, was born.

1963 Brad Pitt, American actor, was born.

1966 Saturn‘s moon Epimetheus was discovered by Richard L. Walker.

1969  Home Secretary James Callaghan‘s motion to make permanent the Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act 1965, which had temporarily suspended capital punishment in England, Wales and Scotland for murder (but not for all crimes) for a period of five years, was carried by both the House of Commons and the House of Lords.

1973 Soyuz 13, crewed by cosmonauts Valentin Lebedev and Pyotr Klimuk, was launched.

1987  Larry Wall released the first version of the Perl programming language.

1997  HTML 4.0 was published by the World Wide Web Consortium.

1999 NASA launched into orbit the Terra platform carrying five Earth Observation instruments, including ASTER, CERES, MISR, MODIS and MOPITT.

2006 – The first of a series of floods struck Malaysia. The death toll of all flooding was at least 118, with over 400,000 people displaced.

2009 – The 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference closed with the signing of the Copenhagen Accord.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia.

Word of the day

Ergasiophobia -  an abnormal and persistent fear (or phobia) of work, finding work or functioning;  aversion to work; diffidence about tackling a job.

Too proud to work – or not

He’s in his 70s, had worked hard, saved and was enjoying the benefit of those savings his retirement.

Then the finance companies in which he had his money collapsed taking his savings and income with them.

He took a deep breath and got a job.

It’s not a glamorous one but it gives him a purpose and enables him to earn money to give him some choices and comfort he wouldn’t be able to have if he relied only on government superannuation.

Contrast that with former mayor and MP Georgina Beyer who is unemployed and too proud for some jobs:

Ms Beyer admits she has been told to “lower her sights”, but says some jobs are off the agenda.

“I do draw the line at being a crew member at McDonald’s. I’m a little bit past that sort of thing.”

Past it at 54? Only in her mind.

Most of us would do anything rather than rely on a benefit if we had the choice and those who turn down work for which they are capable, even if over qualified, can and should lose their benefits.

Welfare was designed for people in need, not those too proud to work.

You say tomato . . .

Blog post of the week:

English Pronunciation

If you can pronounce correctly every word in this poem, you will be speaking English better than 90% of the native English speakers in the world. After trying the verses, a Frenchman said he’d prefer six months of hard labour to reading six lines aloud.

Dearest creature in creation,

Study English pronunciation. I will teach you in my verse

Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse.

I will keep you, Suzy, busy,

Make your head with heat grow dizzy.

 Tear in eye, your dress will tear.

So shall I! Oh hear my prayer. . .

You’ll find the rest at Spelling

Hat Tip: Sharing the Love at The Lady Garden.

Title ‘dissident’ must be earned

Quote of the day:

“The noble title of ‘dissident’ must be earned rather than claimed; it connotes sacrifice and risk rather than mere disagreement …”

“Do bear in mind that the cynics have a point, of a sort, when they speak of the ‘professional naysayer’.” “To be in opposition is not to be a nihilist. And there is no decent or charted way of making a living at it. It is something you are, and not something you do.” – Letters to a Young Contrarian, 2001

It was written by journalist and writer Christopher Hitchens who died yesterday.

I didn’t share many of his views but he  I admired his intelligence, wit and writing.

You can find more of his bon mots here (for which I hat tip Beattie’s Book Blog).

Whole of government approach saves $s

The whole of government approach to goods and services is resulting in big savings.

New all-of-Government contracts for air travel and external legal services will save the Government $178 million over the next six to seven years, Economic Development Minister Steven Joyce announced today.

The new contracts include all public sector agencies, councils and up to 2500 schools.

“The contracts we are announcing today will mean we have achieved a total saving to the Government of $293 million from the six contracts that have been completed to date in the Government Procurement Reform Programme,” Mr Joyce says.

“Saving more than $108 million on legal costs over the next six years shows the negotiating power of the whole of government when contracting services. We’ve shaved an average of 18 percent off the $100 million annual external legal services bill which is a great result.” . .

The bigger an organisation the greater its purchasing power and there is probably no organisation bigger than the government and public sector agencies.

The only question is, why one earth wasn’t this whole of government approach taken years ago?

Dawn Sangster wins place on Alliance Board

Alliance Group’s shareholders have elected Dawn Sangster from the Maniototo to replace retiring director Owen Buckingham.

She was one of eight people standing for two places. One was created by the retirement of long-serving board member Owen Buckingham. The other was created through rotation and sitting board member John Lindsay, who was up for re-election was returned which is a vote of confidence in him and the company.

The voting power for Alliance is in Southland and all else being equal they tend to vote for Southlanders which meant Sangster started at a disadvantage.

Mrs Sangster, who has a bachelor of agricultural commerce degree in farm management from Lincoln University, has a  25-year farming career and experience and training in commercial and community leadership and governance.   

She is actively involved in a family company comprising two sheep and beef properties running 10,000 stock units. She      also runs one of New Zealand’s largest flocks of angora  goats. 

She is also a graduate fo the Agri-Women’s Development Trust’s inaugural Escalator course aimed at developing rural leadership and governance skills in women.

AWDT executive director Lindy Nelson was thrilled with Mrs  Sangster’s success, saying she had been a “fantastic”      participant in the programme.   

She had a “fantastic strategic mind” and was a “thoroughly  prepared” person.   

She was probably the first participant who had gone on to become a director, although there were other directors on the programme. About 12 women will take part in the Escalator programme next year.  

You can read more about the trust here.

Who said poverty not core concern?

Misconception  of the day:

Poverty is not a core concern of National supporters. Colin James

Where on earth did he get that idea?

It certainly wasn’t in the party’s vision which says:

The National Party seeks a safe, prosperous and successful New Zealand that creates opportunities for all New Zealanders to reach their personal goals and dreams.

It is probably fair to say most National supporters aren’t in favour of spending more money on benefits which trap people in dependence. But that doesn’t mean we’re not concerned about poverty and determined to help people get out of it.

We want a healthier, wealthier, better educated and safer country. That won’t be achieved without addressing the causes of poverty and helping people help themselves out of it.

 

 

December 17 in history

942 Assassination of William I of Normandy.

1398 – Sultan Nasir-u Din Mehmud‘s armies in Delhi were defeated by Timur.

1531 – Pope Clement VII established a parallel body to the Inquisition in Lisbon, Portugal.

1538  Pope Paul III excommunicated Henry VIII.

1577  Francis Drake set sail from Plymouth on a secret mission to explore the Pacific Coast of the Americas for Queen Elizabeth I.

1583 – Cologne War: Forces under Ernest of Bavaria defeated the troops under Gebhard Truchsess von Waldburg at the Siege of Godesberg.

1586 – Emperor Go-Yozei became Emperor of Japan.

1600 – Marriage of Henry IV of France and Marie de’ Medici.

1637 – Shimabara Rebellion: Japanese peasants led by Amakusa Shiro rose against daimyo Matsukura Shigeharu.

1773 At Wharehunga Bay, Queen Charlotte Sound, 10 men who were with James Cook’s navigator Tobias Furneaux died at the hands of Ngati Kuia and Rangitane, led by their chief, Kahura.

1819  Simón Bolívar declared the independence of the Republic of Gran Colombia in Angostura (now Ciudad Bolívar in Venezuela).

1834 The Dublin and Kingstown Railway, the first public railway in Ireland opened.

1865 First performance of the Unfinished Symphony by Franz Schubert.

1889 New Zealand’s Eifel tower opened at the South Seas Exhibition.

1904 Paul Cadmus, American artist, was born.

1915 André Claveau, French singer, was born.

1918 Culmination of the Darwin Rebellion as some 1000 demonstrators march on Government House in Darwin.

1935 First flight of the Douglas DC-3 airplane.

1936  Tommy Steele, English singer and actor, was born.

1937 Kerry Packer, Australian businessman, was born.

1938  Peter Snell, New Zealand runner, was born.

1939  Battle of the River Plate – The Admiral Graf Spee was scuttled by Captain Hans Langsdorff outside Montevideo.

1944 Major Major, No. 1 Dog, 2NZEF, and member/mascot of 19 Battalion since 1939, died of sickness in Italy. He was buried with full military honours at Rimini.

1947  First flight of the Boeing B-47 Stratojet strategic bomber.

1961 Sara Dallin, English singer (Bananarama), was born.

1967  Prime Minister of Australia Harold Holt disappearsed while swimming near Portsea, Victoria and was presumed drowned.

1969 The SALT I (Strategic Arms Limitation Talks) began.

1969  Project Blue Book: The United States Air Force closed its study of UFOs, stating that sightings were generated as a result of “A mild form of mass hysteria, Individuals who fabricate such reports to perpetrate a hoax or seek publicity, psychopathological persons, and misidentification of various conventional objects.”

1983 The IRA bombed Harrods Department Store killing six people.

1989 Pilot episode of The Simpsons aired in the United States.

2003  SpaceShipOne flight 11P, piloted by Brian Binnie, made its first supersonic flight.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia.

Westie wins Waitakere

Proud Westie and Social Development Minister, Paula Bennett has reclaimed Waitakere in a judicial recount.

She won the seat on election night from Carmel Sepuloni by 45 votes, lost it in a recount by 11 and has reclaimed it by nine.

This means Sepuloni is out of parliament and Labour list MP Raymond Huo is in.

Business speaking with one voice

The Business Round Table and New Zealand Institute are combining to form a new independent policy think tank.

“Our view is that the New Zealand business sector is not large enough to support two separate, independent, CEO-based public policy think tanks, and we see many synergies between the two organisations.

“Both the Business Roundtable and the Institute comprise primarily chief executives of major New Zealand firms and some are members of both organisations.

“While there have been some different emphases in the past, we both share a vision of a competitive, open and dynamic economy, a flourishing business sector and a free, prosperous, fair and cohesive society.

“We also both share the view that the development and promotion of sound, high quality public policy is fundamental to achieving this”, the joint statement said.

This is a sensible move.

It will be better for the development of public policy to have business speakign with one voice.

 

Private enterprise noble endeavour

Quote of the day:

 On business: please remember private enterprise is still a noble endeavour. Be proud of what you do. After all, it is still all about making neat stuff and meeting people’s needs. But business, like everything in life, is a mind game. Whatever problem you’re grappling with, it all comes back to loving and approving of yourself. If you don’t feel deserving, you will sabotage your own success.  Deborah Hill Cone -who is giving up her column to study psychology.

I’ll miss her writing.

Fonterra putting milk back in schools

School milk was not one of the happy memories of my childhood.

A half pint was too much for me to drink at a time and it was usually warm. Besides, like most of my contemporaries we had plenty of milk at home.

Ample milk and adequate diets are no longer the norm for too many children and Fonterra CEO Theo Spierings has announced a plan to put it back in schools.

Mr Spierings says New Zealand has the potential to be the dairy nutrition capital of the world, and this should start at home with Kiwis drinking milk.

“When I took over this role I made a promise to take a fresh look at how we could make milk more accessible in New Zealand,” says Mr Spierings.

Milk is an important building block for good nutrition. We want Kiwi kids to grow up drinking milk because it is good for them.

We are looking to introduce a Fonterra Milk for Schools programme. We want all New Zealand primary school children to have access to dairy nutrition every school day. For some New Zealanders this initiative will bring back memories of the  Government programme which operated in New Zealand primary schools between 1937 and 1967. We’ll ensure this time that the milk is cold and tastes great.

The company is staring with a regional pilot for primary schools in Northland, covering 110 schools and 14,000 children, starting during the first term next year.

 It will be a voluntary programme for schools to opt into so we can get a fix on likely demand from schools for such a programme.   “We don’t want kids having to drink warm milk in summer like the old days, so we will look at installing refrigerators in schools, and also explore options for recycling the milk packaging,” Mr Spierings says.

Results from the Northland pilot will be monitored during the first three terms of the 2012 school year with the intention of progressing with a nationwide programme for the start of the new school year in 2013. Mr Spierings said Fonterra would welcome support from other partners for a nationwide programme, including the Government.

As a supplier and  shareholder in Fonterra I can see social, health, marketing and PR benefits from this scheme but it comes at a cost.

The company announced an increase in the forecast payout this week and even without that expected returns this year were reasonable. But what happens when the price of milk, and therefore returns to farmers, go down? Once the provision of  ”free” milk is established it will be difficult to take it away again.

I’m definitely not keen on the government getting involved in the provision of school milk, especially if it’s not being aimed at only those in genuine need. Its money would be better spent on initiatives which address the causes of ill-nourished children.

The company has been criticised for the high price of milk on the domestic market and is continuing to review it.

Our motivation is to have more New Zealanders drinking more milk because it is important for basic nutrition. To achieve this, we have to make it available and affordable.

In recent years we have seen a major lift in international dairy prices which effectively doubled in 18 months. This has pushed up the cost of milk prices locally and we have seen consumption decline, with New Zealanders drinking less milk.

Traditionally milk consumption in New Zealand has been increasing around 1-2 per cent per year but it is currently declining by a similar rate.

“We are exploring a range of options to turn around the consumption decline by making milk more consistently affordable and will report back in the first quarter of next year,” Mr Spierings says.

Fonterra will also trial milk sales in its RD1 rural supply stores.

Anchor is our flagship brand and it makes sense to have it available in the 64 RD1 rural stores around New Zealand which we now own 100 per cent. “Initially we will be focusing on smaller towns that don’t have supermarkets nearby. From here we can measure the demand and decide whether to roll this out further,” Mr Spierings says.

Customers of RD1 stores are predominantly farmers. But if the stores sell milk well below supermarket prices they will broaden their customer base and the competition will probably force supermarkets to reduce their mark-ups.

Friday’s answers

Thursday’s questions were:

1. Who said: “The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.”?

2. It’s cadeau in French, regalo in Italian and Spanish and perehana in Maori, what is it in English?

3. What are Ilex and  Hedera helix? 

4. Who is believed to have led the first Christmas service in New Zealand?

5. Name four of Santa Claus’s eight reindeer.

Points for answers:

James got 3 1/4.

Andrei got three with a bonus for quoting the relevant bit of the poem.

Grant wins an electronic Christmas cake with four – and a bonus for not following the crowd, even though this time it would have been right.

PDM got 2 and a bonus for wit.

Adam got three.

Gravedodger also wins an electronic Christmas cake with four.

Answers follow the break.

Shearer fails first test

The first big test for David Shearer was to get his caucus line-up sorted in-house and without trouble.

He’s failed.

An embittered David Cunliffe is refusing to rule out quitting Parliament altogether as leader David Shearer moves to finalise his front bench.

It is understood Mr Cunliffe has been offered a front bench seat and a senior portfolio but has balked at his proposed ranking.

It doesn’t reflect well on Cunliffe that he’s gone public just a couple of days after pledging his loyalty to the new leader.

But if Shearer had managed to organise his caucus well he wouldn’t have provided the opportunity for any toy-tossing from his disgruntled rival.

The man who prides himself on his international experience, ought to have known, and heeded, the words of Chinese general and military strategist Sun-tzu: Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.