March 30, 2005
March 22, 2005
Drain that brain
Every year, like a hardy perennial, the New Zealand media get themselves into a lather about the so-called "brain drain", i.e. the emigration of young people presumed endowed with more brain power than those they have left behind. An OECD report found 24% of all New Zealanders with a university degree now live overseas, a percentage that is closely matched by both Ireland and Luxembourg. The reasons are legion and almost self-evident: youthful wanderlust, overseas experience, career opportunities, dual citizenship - not that much different from any other small economy with a large market economy nearby.
Public Address has been collecting mails from NZ expats and returnees on their experiences and opinions regarding this issue. I'm an immigrant in this country and thus contributed to the brain drain of my country of birth, and it is an issue there too. So all this gnashing and self-flagellating needs to be put in a globalisation context, the freedom of movement and labour is not nearly matching the progress in freedom of trade: it's still far easier to trade with your overseas clients than to migrate yourself.
So here I was, draining my country of some brains, after expensively (but for me almost free) educating me. I first moved to Britain where I was an economic migrant, thanks to that wonderful institution, the EU, whom I am eternally grateful to for allowing me to spread my wings and fulfil some ambitions. Unfortunately, that freedom was (is) only extended to EU passport holders, so meeting my partner, who is a 5th generation New Zealander without paternal rights of abode in Blighty, did not leave us any choice but to migrate to New Zealand.
This was 1990, Jim Bolger was 2 weeks away from winning the election, and I was forced to come to terms with enormous culture shock. Trying to find a job that suited me and was within my work experience field was not all that easy (certainly a lot more difficult than in London where I walked into my job the day after I arrived, and kept it for 3 years). In New Zealand, potential employers looked askance at a male who could use a keyboard. Employment agencies told me not to expect any jobs because employers didn't want males who could type. It sounded like a "Carry On" scene. I did find a wonderful job eventually, and in exactly my field of expertise (even though the salary was just over half the London one). Oh, did I say I knew how to use a modem and WordPerfect? This was in the New Zealand technological stone age, where you needed to wait long for dial tone to call Europe at Christmas time, the internet was something in science fiction mags, and I was begging my European friends to send me their old newspapers so I'd be able to read something intelligent. Call me a snob, but call me, it was hideous.
But this was 15 years ago and, really, I have absolutely no regrets staying in New Zealand. This was largely due to personal reasons, I have still the same loving partner who dragged me all around the world. For most of my life I had lived within a 3-hour train journey radius to Paris, Amsterdam, Cologne and (later) London, so why the hell did I want to come to a country where the nearest "abroad" is just about the same as "home"? There are plenty of things that keep me here. You could play the "what if?" game with your own life and think about what might have happened if you took a different decision in your life. But that is not very fruitful. What I am certain of is that the opportunities here in NZ have been marvellous and they would never have presented themselves had I stayed in Europe. My dream job - everybody surely has got one - was to run Channel 4 Television, when it was headed by Sir Jeremy Isaacs and Michael Grade (not now!). That would, of course, never have happened. But now, here in NZ, I do a job not that dissimilar and I am perfectly content with that. Ambition realised, I'd say.
For being a country of immigration, New Zealand is not all that welcoming, especially if you're not part of the old boys club, a.k.a. the white countries of the Commonwealth, since there is a problem with recognising educational and work achievements. "Having NZ experience" in job vacancies is a ridiculous requirement, and is that why NZ companies are too stuck in their ways?
New Zealanders also need to get over their inferiority complex, such as asking visitors who just exited Auckland Airport "what they think of the country so far" and then be offended if said visitors want their money back - even in jest.
What do I really like about NZ? Being able to live on an island near the main city and have the beach almost to myself on most days; sharing a BBQ with the neighbour, who just caught 2 big snappers; enjoying and partaking in public issues; and moan like the Kiwis.
Public Address has been collecting mails from NZ expats and returnees on their experiences and opinions regarding this issue. I'm an immigrant in this country and thus contributed to the brain drain of my country of birth, and it is an issue there too. So all this gnashing and self-flagellating needs to be put in a globalisation context, the freedom of movement and labour is not nearly matching the progress in freedom of trade: it's still far easier to trade with your overseas clients than to migrate yourself.
So here I was, draining my country of some brains, after expensively (but for me almost free) educating me. I first moved to Britain where I was an economic migrant, thanks to that wonderful institution, the EU, whom I am eternally grateful to for allowing me to spread my wings and fulfil some ambitions. Unfortunately, that freedom was (is) only extended to EU passport holders, so meeting my partner, who is a 5th generation New Zealander without paternal rights of abode in Blighty, did not leave us any choice but to migrate to New Zealand.
This was 1990, Jim Bolger was 2 weeks away from winning the election, and I was forced to come to terms with enormous culture shock. Trying to find a job that suited me and was within my work experience field was not all that easy (certainly a lot more difficult than in London where I walked into my job the day after I arrived, and kept it for 3 years). In New Zealand, potential employers looked askance at a male who could use a keyboard. Employment agencies told me not to expect any jobs because employers didn't want males who could type. It sounded like a "Carry On" scene. I did find a wonderful job eventually, and in exactly my field of expertise (even though the salary was just over half the London one). Oh, did I say I knew how to use a modem and WordPerfect? This was in the New Zealand technological stone age, where you needed to wait long for dial tone to call Europe at Christmas time, the internet was something in science fiction mags, and I was begging my European friends to send me their old newspapers so I'd be able to read something intelligent. Call me a snob, but call me, it was hideous.
But this was 15 years ago and, really, I have absolutely no regrets staying in New Zealand. This was largely due to personal reasons, I have still the same loving partner who dragged me all around the world. For most of my life I had lived within a 3-hour train journey radius to Paris, Amsterdam, Cologne and (later) London, so why the hell did I want to come to a country where the nearest "abroad" is just about the same as "home"? There are plenty of things that keep me here. You could play the "what if?" game with your own life and think about what might have happened if you took a different decision in your life. But that is not very fruitful. What I am certain of is that the opportunities here in NZ have been marvellous and they would never have presented themselves had I stayed in Europe. My dream job - everybody surely has got one - was to run Channel 4 Television, when it was headed by Sir Jeremy Isaacs and Michael Grade (not now!). That would, of course, never have happened. But now, here in NZ, I do a job not that dissimilar and I am perfectly content with that. Ambition realised, I'd say.
For being a country of immigration, New Zealand is not all that welcoming, especially if you're not part of the old boys club, a.k.a. the white countries of the Commonwealth, since there is a problem with recognising educational and work achievements. "Having NZ experience" in job vacancies is a ridiculous requirement, and is that why NZ companies are too stuck in their ways?
New Zealanders also need to get over their inferiority complex, such as asking visitors who just exited Auckland Airport "what they think of the country so far" and then be offended if said visitors want their money back - even in jest.
What do I really like about NZ? Being able to live on an island near the main city and have the beach almost to myself on most days; sharing a BBQ with the neighbour, who just caught 2 big snappers; enjoying and partaking in public issues; and moan like the Kiwis.
March 18, 2005
When you got some spare time
My Japanese name is 原 Hara (wilderness) 拓海 Takumi (open sea).
I quite like it. Shall I have it tattooed on a sensitive part of my body?
From: Japanese name generator
I quite like it. Shall I have it tattooed on a sensitive part of my body?
From: Japanese name generator
March 17, 2005
The Greatest... of All Time
Over the last few years various countries have been holding plebiscites on their greatest citizen of all time. Apart from the rather dubious contest that pits diverse personalities, achievements and notorieties against each other, there have been some odd results: in the Netherlands, the organising TV company KRO tried to skew the voting because the frontrunner was embarrassing the Dutch thinking classes. But, in the end, Pim Fortuyn did win. I would have voted for Erasmus.
In Britain, a few years earlier, Sir Winston Churchill was anointed the Greatest Briton (in the international version, run by BBC World, Sir Isaac Newton came out tops, a far better choice in my opinion, even though I voted for Charles Darwin).
Germany went for the rather colourless conservative Chancelllor Konrad Adenauer. Surely Gutenberg or Albert Einstein would have been better choices?
In Belgium, Pater Damiaan, who tended leprosy patients on the Hawaiian island of Molokai, was considered the Greatest Belgian (even though he was Flemish). I agree with some critics that King Albert I should have gotten the title - he resisted the German invasion during WW1 and was socially progressive in an era between the wars not noted for its progressive ideas. But maybe I would have gone for either Rene Magritte or Victor Horta.
And now it's the turn of the French. Charles de Gaulle is the unmistaken frontrunner in the top 100 list, with Napoleon, Edith Piaf and Jeanne d'Arc far behind. For sheer international impact, you can't go far beyond Marie Curie and Louis Pasteur, really.
New Zealand can't be far behind now, since we've endured Big Brother, Idol, Extreme Makeovers and Apprentices already.
In Britain, a few years earlier, Sir Winston Churchill was anointed the Greatest Briton (in the international version, run by BBC World, Sir Isaac Newton came out tops, a far better choice in my opinion, even though I voted for Charles Darwin).
Germany went for the rather colourless conservative Chancelllor Konrad Adenauer. Surely Gutenberg or Albert Einstein would have been better choices?
In Belgium, Pater Damiaan, who tended leprosy patients on the Hawaiian island of Molokai, was considered the Greatest Belgian (even though he was Flemish). I agree with some critics that King Albert I should have gotten the title - he resisted the German invasion during WW1 and was socially progressive in an era between the wars not noted for its progressive ideas. But maybe I would have gone for either Rene Magritte or Victor Horta.
And now it's the turn of the French. Charles de Gaulle is the unmistaken frontrunner in the top 100 list, with Napoleon, Edith Piaf and Jeanne d'Arc far behind. For sheer international impact, you can't go far beyond Marie Curie and Louis Pasteur, really.
New Zealand can't be far behind now, since we've endured Big Brother, Idol, Extreme Makeovers and Apprentices already.
March 15, 2005
Gay rugby
You suddenly get the itch, watching all those multi-coloured thighs rubbing together on the paddock, to join in? Well, now you can by joining the Ponsonby Heroes Rugby Club for some hard rugby fun.
March 12, 2005
The pope's last stance
"A clothes company that presented a group of well-dressed women in a Last Supper style pose to promote their latest range has drawn a legal ban in the city of Milan.From: The Index on Censorship
The poster, by French fashion house Marithé and François Girbaud, is a version of Leonardo da Vinci's work with an almost all-female cast. The poster has appeared on billboards and in magazines in New York and Paris for weeks, but in Milan, where Leonardo da Vinci’s original fresco and religious sensitivities carry more political weight, it was banned. The city’s advertising watchdog ruled in January that the image "with a high concentration of theological symbols, cannot be recreated and parodied for commercial ends without offending the religious sensitivities of at least part of the population."
A Pierre & Gilles or a Jean-Paul Gaultier version of the poster would naturally star altar boys only, some under the table perhaps, dressed in lacy and sequined loincloths. So much more representational of a church thriving on male bonding. When are they going to get over this irrational fear of women?
March 10, 2005
Sex in the news
News item:
Addendum: I was thinking about it a bit more. If New Zealand advertising companies had any sense of humour, they should replace Michael Jones with Daryl Tuffey in their ads promoting milk drinking, and use the footage from the video him showing off his milk moustache. And the Beige Brigade could add a milk moustache to their outfits, celebrating NZ cricket through thick and thin, or should that be: milkshakes and calci-trim.
UPDATE: Tuffey has been fined $1,000 for his bedroom efforts. I'd give him a medal for promoting cricket as a sport that heterosexuals can play without being branded sissies by rugby players with an anger management problem.
Oh, and welcome to the 300+ visitors to this blog after googling Tuffey.
"New Zealand cricketer Daryl Tuffey's career appears to be on a knife-edge after two British tourists allegedly filmed him having sex with a Christchurch woman.Shouldn't that read: The Cricket board was charged with bringing consensual sex into disrepute? If a guy can't perform, on camera, hot, loving, hetero sex with a woman who actually likes him, without affecting his sporting career, should he just stick to bashing his woman instead, because then you can get away with it plus be granted name suppression?
Tuffey appeared before the New Zealand Cricket disciplinary board in Christchurch yesterday charged with bringing the game into disrepute.
New Zealand Cricket is revealing few details about the misconduct charge but The Press understands it relates to a video tape filmed by two British men, Paddy Curtis and Archie Brookbank, both aged 19, and shows Tuffey having sex with a Christchurch woman.
Sources told The Press yesterday that the sex was consensual."
Addendum: I was thinking about it a bit more. If New Zealand advertising companies had any sense of humour, they should replace Michael Jones with Daryl Tuffey in their ads promoting milk drinking, and use the footage from the video him showing off his milk moustache. And the Beige Brigade could add a milk moustache to their outfits, celebrating NZ cricket through thick and thin, or should that be: milkshakes and calci-trim.
UPDATE: Tuffey has been fined $1,000 for his bedroom efforts. I'd give him a medal for promoting cricket as a sport that heterosexuals can play without being branded sissies by rugby players with an anger management problem.
Oh, and welcome to the 300+ visitors to this blog after googling Tuffey.
Hahahahahaha
I'm a Macho Faggot! There’s nothing I like more than a well polished codpiece, some leather chaps, and a place to park my beast. I probably watched too much Full House when I was younger. Also I have a strange penchant for misshapen moustaches. MACHO MACHO MAN. I WANNA BE A MACHO MAN.
What kind of Faggot are you?
Brought to you by Pushing Through
March 09, 2005
When the state should get out of the bedroom
[Interesting] issues were raised [The Herald reported] during debate in Parliament yesterday over the Relationships (Statutory References) Bill, the legislation designed to amend laws in the wake of the passing of the Civil Union Act. [The Bill] was returned to the House retaining distinctions in some laws between de facto couples and those who had opted to formalise their relationships - through marriage or civil unions. This followed Opposition and, belatedly, Government recognition that some de facto couples - heterosexual and same-sex - did not want to be legally treated as if they were married.Interesting, indeed, but hardly surprising. The fault actually lies with the Social Security Act rather than with people who happen to live under same roof. If you are not allowed a benefit if you live in a relationship (hetero, homo, whatever) then you need a policed and enforced definition of a relationship. This is a recipe for disaster: a snooper's and blackmailer's charter against closeted couples. And a licence for the state to come rummage through your bedroom arrangements. The solution is, of course, to make social security eligibility on personal rather than relationship grounds. But this will cost $10 million, and the Government counted on this saving in social security payments by snaring more couples and used it as an argument for the Civil Union Bill.
I have thus far no intention to register my relationship and this should be no cause for discrimination.
Sex in the news
News item:
"A teacher who lay on top of a pupil and exposed his genitals to his class has been struck off the teachers' register. [...] A pupil complained that the teacher pulled her between his legs, jumped on her and tried to kiss her, touched her bottom and exposed his genitals. It was also alleged that he lay on top of a pupil "when there was no proper reason to do so" and that he slept in class and beside the school swimming pool while pupils were in it."Homework assignment: 200 word essay on "when there is a proper reason for a teacher to lay on top of a pupil".
It's those teenage brains
Was it unconscious coincidence or a way to please viewers who were awake and thinking? The PBS News Hour last night ran an item on the differences between teenagers' brains and adults' in terms of development and abilities to process information and make decisions in particular situations. It found that teenagers take far longer than adults to ponder over a situation where they are asked to choose, e.g. Is eating a cockroach a good idea? Adults took decisions far more rapidly and correctly.
Now immediately afterwards, they ran a discussion on the shooting of the Italian secret agent in Baghdad by US soldiers manning a checkpoint. Many of the US soldiers are teenagers, so you might have expected that military boffins were au fait with the brain research by having a few more mature soldiers doing sensitive work like making decisions on life and death at checkpoints, but no:
Now immediately afterwards, they ran a discussion on the shooting of the Italian secret agent in Baghdad by US soldiers manning a checkpoint. Many of the US soldiers are teenagers, so you might have expected that military boffins were au fait with the brain research by having a few more mature soldiers doing sensitive work like making decisions on life and death at checkpoints, but no:
Paul Rieckhoff (Operation Truth): These are young kids who are in tremendously difficult areas. Many of them are probably retrained in the last few months to do these jobs. So you've probably got a young guy who is 19 years old on that checkpoint who may have been a truck driver a few months ago.Another instance of intelligent television, which didn't have to lead you by the hand, but engages you to join the dots.
March 08, 2005
Reply from the Waiheke Bus Company
Hi Hans,
I have received a copy of the email you had sent to enquiries@fullersakl.co.nz as has gone through the process so far.
The bus that you mention has arrived at Matiatia approximately fifteen minutes late on the Sat 26th Feb due to a series of events compounding each other.
The driver involved is a new driver at Waiheke Bus Company and has recently undergone four weeks of training before being able to drive a scheduled service with the last week of that training being under the supervision of the Waiheke Bus Company senior staff.
I felt that the drivers training was to a satisfactory level.
Though with the events that occurred on the morning of the 26th (being this drivers first day unsupervised) I feel that these would have delayed even some of our more efficient staff. The driver concerned was unaware that they were able to contact the ferries and ask for them to wait for the bus to arrive at Matiatia.
The driver concerned has now been instructed on this and now knows what to do if something similar should happen in the future.
I understand the possibilities of the situations that could arise from such an incident and would be happy to explain the situation for anyone that requires myself to do so (ie: employer, doctor, etc).
Chad Callander, Manager, Waiheke Bus Company, FULLERS GROUP LTD
March 05, 2005
Belgian fashion
World famous, and rightly so.
The latest sports fashions by Dirk Bikkembergs. I must polish my pair of Bikkembergs boots I bought 20 years ago. They still look absolutely fantastic.
The latest sports fashions by Dirk Bikkembergs. I must polish my pair of Bikkembergs boots I bought 20 years ago. They still look absolutely fantastic.
March 04, 2005
Public annoucement
Tomorrow, Saturday, the city centre will be taken over by red-blooded, heterosexual, properly married-with-children, black t-shirt wearing, income tithing people who call themselves Christians.
Since beige is best reserved for cricket lovers and black for rugby fans, we recommend you join the Celebrate Diversity activities downtown and in the University Quad.
End of public announcement.
Since beige is best reserved for cricket lovers and black for rugby fans, we recommend you join the Celebrate Diversity activities downtown and in the University Quad.
End of public announcement.
March 03, 2005
March 02, 2005
Some men, and their products, just smell good naturally
From the endless pursuit of happiness, also called capitalist consumerism, comes the new fragrance named Cumming.If you thought spraying their product (called Cum?) all over yourself was not enough, there are future products in the pipeline (Cumming Soon, as it were), such as Cumming Clean, Cumming All Over and Cumming Off Buff, but I dread to think what Cumming Of Age is. (Oh, I know: it's a.k.a. Old Spice!)
Surely this is a spoof or a cock up in the PR department, because wearing Cum - on the body part of your choice - is best reserved for parties of the wilder variety, in my opinion.
Thank you, Sideswipe for usefully alerting us to its existence. How did we ever manage to get a life without cum?
More from the ad department:
"A scent that is all about Sex, Scotch, Cigars and Scotland."Good grief. Have these people ever sniffed a real Scotsman's cum? (I have, and I know that's too much information for a lot of you already, sorry 'bout that)
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