Acclivity – an ascending or upward slope; incline.
Saturday’s smiles
April 5, 2014A preacher and his flock at a very poor church took up collections, baked cakes and washed cars for months to get enough money to buy paint for the church exterior which was bare and weatherbeaten.
Finally they went to Mitre 10 and bought enough paint for the building and all joined together on a Saturday morning to complete the job.
When they were about half-finished they realized that they were going to run out of paint before finishing. The preacher said, “It’s a water based paint, just thin it down with water.”
They continued painting and thinning until the color started losing its depth and when they finally finished it was dark green at the top, light green in the middle and a very light green (almost white) at the bottom.
The preacher and his flock were standing on a nearby hill admiring their work when a dark cloud appeared and the heavens opened up with a deluge of rain which washed all of the newly applied paint off the church. The preacher was in tears and the congregation was stunned at all the hard work they had done for nothing.
Just then there was a huge lightning flash followed by the roll of thunder and a loud voice from the heavens rang out, “REPAINT, REPAINT AND THIN NO MORE.”
$10.5m saved cutting benefits for travellers
April 5, 2014When the left accuse National of benefit bashing they show they have no affinity for hard working people on low incomes.
How galling it must be for them to know that their taxes help support people who could work but don’t and that some on benefits are able to enjoy luxuries like overseas travel which they can’t afford themselves.
Helping those in genuine need is the duty of a compassionate society, that help doesn’t mean indulging those who could be helping themselves. That is why initiatives like benefits cuts for overseas travellers are necessary.
Social Development Minister Paula Bennett says more than 21,000 people have had their benefit cut for travelling overseas since July last year.
“We tightened the overseas travel rules as part of welfare reform and have saved New Zealand more than $10.5 million in suspended payments for beneficiaries who still chose to travel.
“That’s a staggering number of people. More than 1,750 people have had their benefit suspended for multiple overseas trips. This includes 191 people who travelled three times and 1,555 who have travelled twice since last July.
“These figures don’t include those on Superannuation.
“The largest group of suspensions applied to nearly 11,200 people on job seeker benefits, followed by more than 4,800 sole parents.
“The new rules recognise that beneficiaries should be ready and available for work not prioritising travel.
“Since the changes 4,880 peoples’ benefits were cancelled because they failed to reconnect with Work and Income eight weeks after their departure from New Zealand.
“The rules, while tighter, still allow for overseas travel on compassionate or health grounds in certain cases for job seekers. People without work obligations may in most cases travel overseas for up to 28 days.
“These figures are the number of people who chose to travel knowing their benefit would be suspended. Every day we hear stories of how people cannot live on the benefit. Today you’re hearing that literally thousands can not only live on it but can afford to travel overseas as well,” said Mrs Bennett.
I don’t think the original architects of the welfare system intended support to extend to such luxuries and it’s not what the modern system should be covering either.
Fonterra fined $300,000
April 5, 2014Fonterra has been fined $300,000 for it failings in last year’s food safety scare.
Fonterra Cooperative Group, the country’s biggest company, was fined $300,000 for breaches of the Animal Products Act during last year’s whey protein concentrate incident.
Judge Peter Hobbs fined Fonterra $60,000 for three separate charges and $120,000 for a fourth charge in the Wellington District Court. The judge took a starting point of $375,000, before mitigating factors including Fonterra’s early guilty plea and steps it took to address the issue, though he lifted the penalty to reflect the company’s size.
“There’s no doubt the flawed reworking process and its fall-out had wide ramifications,” Judge Hobbs said. “I accept, however, the offending resulted from careless failure to follow proper procedure rather than a deliberate or reckless plan – things could have and should have been done better.” . . .
Every company which deals in food faces the risk of a safety problem. All should have better systems in palce to deal with it than Fonterra had.
It let its customers and suppliers down and it is the latter who will ultimately pay:
After accepting four Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) charges relating to the 2013 whey protein concentrate recall, Federated Farmers believes the $300,000 fine is proportionate.
“To a shareholder, $300,000 is much better than what the cooperative potentially faced,” says Willy Leferink, Federated Farmers Dairy Chairperson.
“Given the size of negative coverage relating to the non-botulism scare and the dent it put into the coop’s reputation, the size of the fine is proportionate.
“Especially given Fonterra did not contest the charges brought by MPI. Even the Crown Prosecutor acknowledges Fonterra has swiftly moved to put its house in order.
“As supplier shareholders and unit holders will ultimately meet the cost of the fine, we are certain Fonterra’s management has got the message loud and clear,” Mr Leferink concluded.
The company has implemented changes which show it has got the message.
This is vitally important because it’s not just Fonterra but the country’s reputation for food safety which would be damaged by another debacle.