Fortress America
On reading Bruce Morley’s letter (February 10), I was reminded of the joke about a guy on a train who, every so often, screwed up balls of paper and threw them out the window. When asked why, he replied that “it keeps the elephants off the tracks”. When it was pointed out that this was New Zealand and there were no elephants anywhere, he beamed: “Yes. Effective, isn’t it?”
Has the current US border policy indeed prevented further terrorist attacks? Alas, we may never know, as the statistics are probably classified. Certainly, the “war on terror” is earning defence and security contractors worldwide an awful lot of money. If they can also Be Seen to Be Doing Things, all the better – just don’t ask about the effectiveness of their balls of paper. You have to wonder who benefits from this particular war.
As for the thousands upon thousands who died in previous wars, most were fighting against countries which, to my knowledge, had no proscription against decorative footwear.
Perhaps I’m missing something.
—David Hirst (Papakura)
Life In Australia
I was somewhat surprised by an interviewee’s suggestion (“My big fat Australian dollar”, January 20) that the Australian Government is much more behind education than our government here.
While our government’s performance leaves much to be desired, Australia’s government has systematically undervalued public education and trust in public school teachers, so public education has become a choice of last resort.
In Australia, two-thirds of federal education funding goes to private schools, enabling them to offer much smaller class sizes and far better facilities than public schools.
Despite that, a recent study estimated that parents who send their children to private schools still fork out an average of A$272,000 over the course of compulsory education – out of reach of most middle and working class parents.
Australian public education funding is now lagging at 12th in the OECD, whereas New Zealand is eighth. The federal government is also planning a scheme that would connect teacher pay to students’ results. When most of the high achievers are concentrated in a few schools, that’s a sure way to increase social division.
If New Zealand is looking to another country for educational guidance, why not Finland, where 30 years ago the government decided to aim for improving performance and equitable outcomes for all. They made education free from preschool through to tertiary and provided free lunches with healthy menus. They also elevated the status of teaching, making a Masters-level degree the minimum requirement to get into primary or secondary education.
A recent survey of Finnish school leavers revealed that teaching is their most popular professional career choice. Only 15 percent of teacher applicants are accepted.
The naysayers will say that Finland is a homogenous society and its model can’t be replicated here, but none of the solutions had anything to do with culture. They were all about elevating the value placed on education. We should do the same.
—Robin Duff President, PPTA
John Key
John Key’s Burnside speech highlighted problems that were created by the restructuring of the 80s and 90s. Several of the National front bench were part of a Cabinet which slashed benefits, sold off state houses and introduced the Employment Contracts Act, which hammered workers. These failed policies contributed to the underclass we now see.
What does John Key plan to do that is any different from what National did last time?
—P G Hill (Parnell, Auckland)
Bashing Becks
I disagree with Paul Lewis’s claim (Sport, February 3) that David Beckham’s $US250m move to the US has brought out the worst in us.
However, it certainly has brought out the worst in Paul Lewis.
I’m not sure whether this shallow rant disguised as an article in a quality magazine is simply Lewis purging his envy at a man half his age earning several thousand times his salary, or if it’s just “if only the world was still flat” pining for the good old days when sportsmen were all “the quintessential man’s man” like Bobby Moore. Whatever its motives, it’s laced with ignorance, stereotypes, old-fashioned elitism and old-man bitterness, and has no place in the Listener.
What’s amazing about Beckham is that he has remained on top for so long, of both his sport and his celebrity status, despite the added pressure of bringing up a young family, a marriage subject to constant tabloid speculation and his years in the wilderness after the famous red card at the World Cup in France.
Despite all this, he went on to claim the England captaincy, score the goal that ensured England’s qualification for the subsequent World Cup, and under enormous pressure stepped up to score a crucial penalty.
Beckham is a celebrity because he is a young man with considerable talent and an incredible will. Not bad for a guy who has “the voice of a squeaking door and the apparent IQ of a twig.”
And I really don’t give a monkey’s what Lewis thinks of Beckham’s wife. If I want to read that drivel, I’ll buy Truth, not the Listener.
Wake up, Paul. The “quintessential man’s man” has for some time come in a variety of shapes and sizes, including men like Beckham. And McEnroe. And Lomu. And Agassi. And Maradona. Imagine sport without them.
—Michael Cranna (Devonport, North Shore City)
Paul Lewis responds: Gosh, and I thought I was defending Beckham. The point was pretty clear: Beckham has been made a figure of fun and criticised for allowing his football credentials to be overtaken by celebrity, for which we all – Beckham, the media and the people who buy celebrity-ridden publications – carry some responsibility. That was it. In 1000-plus words, three referred to Beckham’s wife. But I’ll certainly do a “bitterness” check from now on, to see if words like “I don’t begrudge him the money”, “fine player”, “best right foot in football” and the like are not enough. I don’t mind being berated – but let’s get it right, shall we?
—Paul Lewis
Rates Revolt
We’re not sure what our 85 councils have done to earn the wrath of Jane Clifton (Politics, January 27). Resident surveys consistently tell us that New Zealanders value the services their councils provide.
Clifton questions councils’ ability to focus on the basics. Analysis of councils’ 10-year plans shows that three-quarters of spending over the next decade is on infrastructure such as roading, water and wastewater. Council resources are focused on ensuring that all community assets are maintained, and other expenditure is therefore constrained. Our community participation, in the form of submissions or voting, is high by international standards.
Councils have to balance different and at times conflicting demands for services, frequently from the same people who then object to paying higher rates.
We are pleased Clifton has drawn attention to the local elections. I hope she takes time to study her council’s long-term plans and make an informed vote.
—Basil Morrison, President, Local Government NZ
Not So Old
The editorial (February 3) says “Humans have never lived in societies where there were more people above the age of 50 than below”. I don’t know if there is any country where this is the case now, but it is not true of New Zealand. The median age of the New Zealand population is under 36. The median age has risen by three years since 1996, so it is moving up, but it has a long way to go before reaching 50. Statistics New Zealand projects a median age of 46 for the year 2051.
—Alan Reid (Remuera, Auckland)
The median age is almost 43 in Japan, and over 40 in some European nations.
—– Ed
Resettling Refugees
It was gratifying to see the smiling faces of Hassan Adam and his family (“Fresh start”, February 3). RMS Refugee Resettlement recently appointed this talented and experienced former refugee to head its resettlement work in the Hutt Valley.
The article, however, raised some questions about the success of Somali resettlement in New Zealand.
The challenges of learning a new language and adapting to the customs and cultures of a new country are huge, even if you have chosen to move to another land. Refugees, however, are not “migrants of choice”, but victims of persecution who have been traumatised and forced to flee for their lives.
Yet after 63 years of refugee resettlement in New Zealand, there are tens of thousands of former refugees living successfully among us – doctors, dentists, nurses, plumbers, builders, painters, restaurant owners, government officials, university students and taxi drivers … not forgetting property developers and racehorse owners.
Oh yes, I almost forgot – Somali refugees, they’re just like you and me. Some of us are doing better than others. The hardest thing for many refugees is finding, or being offered, that first opportunity.
Reflecting on more than a decade of resettlement, it would be my assessment that most Somalis are continuing to settle and integrate very well into their new homeland. Those of us who have changed country know that developing a sense of “belonging” somewhere new is always dependent upon feeling welcome and accepted. It is the welcoming and generous nature of New Zealanders that continues to make refugee resettlement in our country so successful.
—Peter Cotton, CEO, RMS Refugee Resettlement
Crime Against Accuracy
Patricia Cornwell is not an English writer (“A cut above”, February 3) and to call her “that mother of all crime-writers” shows abysmal ignorance. Any aficionado of female crime writers would probably cite Agatha Christie, P D James, or even our own Ngaio Marsh, as the “mother” of such writers.
—D E Walker (Hornby, Christchurch)
Cornwell is, indeed, American.
—– Ed
Privatisation’s Payoff
Brian Easton (Economics, January 27) says “although privatisation might fund the government deficit, its macroeconomic impact is stagnation”. This is a very strange assertion, as a wide range of countries have been pursuing a policy of privatisation with the very aim of avoiding the stagnation brought about by their governments owning large organisations. Russia and its satellites are a case in point and France and other “Old Europe” countries have also privatised a range of businesses in an attempt to get their moribund economies up off the floor.
He goes on to say, “It was fraud, though, to pretend we could have lower taxes without lower public spending”. Has Easton not heard of the Laffer curve? This shows that reducing taxes stimulates people to work more and earn more and thus pay more tax from higher revenue. Ronald Reagan demonstrated this very clearly when he reduced taxes and increased government income. How can an economist promote such a distorted view of reality?
—Phil Scott, Foundation for Economic Growth Inc
Brian Easton responds: While professional economists differ on the case for privatisation, I know of none who favour it in order to fund an ill-disciplined government deficit. Nor do I know of any who think the Laffer curve is particularly relevant to modern economic management. The Reagan tax cuts of the 1980s – like the Kennedy cuts of the 1960s and the Bush cuts of the 2000s – were a crude deficit-increasing Keynesianism which generated extra tax revenue but not enough to pay for the cuts. Laffer was irrelevant. Just as the Kennedy cuts caused world economic problems in the late 1960s and the 1970s, the Reagan ones caused monetary instability in the 1990s, with a number of economies experiencing financial crashes as a result.
—Brian Easton
Cordon Bleu Revival
Anyone interested in food will be pleased to read about the opening of a Cordon Bleu cookery school in New Zealand (“Sacré bleu!”, February 3) but Marion McLeod seems to be unaware that this will not be the first appearance of the famous establishment in New Zealand.
In 1982 the London School of Cordon Bleu Cookery opened in Parnell, Auckland, and ran for about three years. It was staffed by graduates from the Cordon Bleu school.
A newspaper clipping from the time calls it “the first to be accredited outside England”, which sounds a bit surprising, but it was certainly here 25 years ago.
—Gretchen Leach (Mairangi Bay, North Shore City)
NCEA Failings
Forget the antics of some rogue NZ Post worker scrawling insults on students’ NCEA exam papers. That’s a sideshow. The real insult is the system itself.
Here’s just how gormless the NCEA method of assessment can be. Top boy in the class, intelligent, articulate, hard-working, can only score an “Achieved”, while the bottom boy in the same class, not too bright, lazy, can barely spell his own name, scores the same result in the same paper. Small wonder students call the system “lame”.
Every teacher knows just how crude and clumsy the scheme of grading is. That it lacks the discriminatory finesse of the old system, forces teachers to offer plus and minus grades in internal assessments, in a vain attempt to deliver a more accurate and fair account of students’ real abilities. These refinements, of course, can never appear on their reports.
NCEA also condemns students who have tried their best but failed to reach the standard, by giving them nothing in the external examination; a row of big fat demeaning N’s on their report. For all its faults, a “fail” (what a misnomer) under the old system at least gave the students something for their efforts: 20 percent, 40 percent, etc.
We have taken a flawed system and replaced it with an equally flawed system and spent an inordinate amount of time and money doing so.
I’m sure some students would like to scrawl “What a useless sack of poo” across the reports of bureaucrats and government officials who introduced NCEA into the education system.
—Peter Dornauf (Claudelands, Hamilton East)
Changing Stations
What on earth do Radio NZ management think they are doing? I’ve been listening to Radio NZ and CFM every day for years. It’s part of my life. I don’t need a bunch of overpaid corporate rebranders to tell me who I am or what radio station I’m listening to.
Tell them to spend the money on top quality programmes and stop treating listeners like a bunch of nincompoops.
—Judy Malone (Karori, Wellington)
“Radio New Zealand Concert”? What a silly title! Whoever thought that one up? It is ugly, incomplete, truncated and unnecessary. What was wrong with “Concert FM – a network of …”? That was perfectly self-explanatory and made sense to all but complete idiots.
Equally silly and intensely irritating are the little “sounds like us” interruptions inserted at regular and too-frequent intervals. Almost as annoying is the recent habit of presenters listing what is to be heard during the next segment.
But then, I’m just a grumpy old man and I totally dislike change!
—Roger Tindley (Bishopdale, Christchurch)
Icy Question
I wonder how many thousand litres of ice were melted from the Antarctic ice sheet as a consequence of our concerned Prime Minister’s recent eco (ego?) trip to the continent. I wonder whether she wonders.
—Pat Palmer (Prebbleton)
