not so smart

some not so intelligent things i've heard in the news today:

1. that business confidence is apparently up. i heard this on radio nz's on the hour news bulletins, so can't link, but there was some economist from some bank saying the biggest proof of this was the high level of people who believed that now was a good time to buy major household items. this is interpreted as economic recovery, yay!! um, did you economist people not hear about the gst rise in the last budget? does it not occur to you that people who need to buy major household items would prefer to do now, before prices rises in october which are almost certainly going to be higher than just the 2.5% increase in gst? the question is, will there be a short-term rise in consumer spending in the next couple of months, followed by huge lull that might even last through the christmas holidays? if the answer to that is yes, then things are looking quite as good as they seem. but this point wasn't considered at all in the news coverage.

2. winton reid's uncle, in amongst his happiness and gushing about mr reid's performance in the football match this morning, mentioned something about mr reid being an example for maori. well yeah, but isn't his success an inspiration for everyone? while i have no problem with mr reid or his uncle being proud of their maori heritage and wanting to emphasise it, i do get a little annoyed when people of colour who succeed in sport are somehow held up as shining examples that will somehow inspire all those other lazy, underachieving people of colour to succeed at something. or at least, that's the undertone i hear in comments like this. as if maori (or other peopel of colour) haven't been achieving wonderful things in all sorts of fields since forever. we got a lot of the same when that golfer (apologies for my ignorance) of maori descent won some major tournament. everyone benefits from having good, strong role-models, but two things: those role models shouldn't only be sporting heroes - can we please celebrate people who achieve well in other fields just as enthusiastically? and also, a maori person who succeeds can and should be a role model for white kids, asian kids, pasifika kids etc.

that's all.