budget 2009

the budget has been delivered and it's not as bad as it could have been, which doesn't mean that it's good. the tax cuts are gone but they were never viable in the first place and that was clear in october last year. to promise tax cuts during that campaign, given the economic forecasts, were nothing short of duplicitous.

which takes us back to the 80s and 90s, when all sorts of promises were made during campaign time but the exact opposite was done within months after the election. hence the rt hon helen clark being extremely careful about what she promised. by sticking the rule of "underpromise, overdeliver", at least she brought some level of trust back to campaign promises.

there are a lot of hidden cuts in the budget as well as some pretty open ones. many others have talked about those. but i get very annoyed that all these cuts are being blamed on the recession. a lot of them can be blamed directly on the 1 april 2009 cuts, which should have been cancelled as well. that's money that could have been directed to social programmes, such as the sexual abuse help line, or the drug and alcohol rehabilitation programme at whaimarama youth complex which has just been told of a funding cut.

i was talking to the manager of budget advisory services in hamilton this morning. of course they are getting more clients than ever, but are facing a very uncertain future when it comes to their own funding. it looks like the "pathways to partnership" funding has been partly brought forward, and the rest may be cut.

at the same time, the modern apprenticeship scheme has been cut, as have various tertiary education scholarships. and the training component of the 9-day fortnight (which was the main point of the proposal in the first place) was never put in place. so at a time when investment should be made into upskilling nz'ers so that we are well placed when we come out of recession, all we get are cuts.

similarly in the area of research and development, particularly in the agricultural sector which surely needs it at a time of falling dairy prices, there is a total lack of investment. jim anderton gave a very good budget speech today, but i can't find it on-line just now. he spoke really well about R&D and about the superannuation fund.

all in all, pretty depressing response to the current economic situation.

resisting the drug companies

another night with no time for a decent post. i found this piece on morning report today quite interesting. it's about some australian & nz psychiatrists who are boycotting their main annual conference, because they don't believe such conferences should be funded by drug companies.

the person spoken to explained how they had put forward proposals for alternative funding models, and the possibility of psychiatrists paying a conference fee to cover the costs. he also mentioned that the conferences could be done significantly more cheaply.

i know that accountants don't get commercial sponsors paying the costs of our conferences. accounting firms pay the costs for their staff and partners/directors. given that CA's have to complete 20 hours of structured professional development each year, it's a significant cost. i'm sure if the accounting profession can wear the costs, then so can the psychiatrists.

what was more telling was this particular psychiatrist talking about the influence that drug company representatives have on prescriptions decisions. decisions that should be made based on scientific evidence, not on slick PR.

good on this group to try and break away from the influence of drug companies, and i hope it's catching!


and in the meantime, pity the poor of california as their governor chooses to cut programmes that will significantly impact on the vulnerable, rather than raise taxes on the wealthy who are better able to weather the cost. i seriously hope that we aren't going to see shades of this in the budget tomorrow.

more cuts to services

i've put up a couple of posts at the hand mirror today, one about research on political leanings of parents of daughters and the other on funding cuts to the sexual abuse crisis line.

campaigning in mt albert

i had to be in auckland this saturday, so took the opportunity to spend time on the mt albert campaign. i had a great time, and the campaign is very well-organised and vibrant. volunteers were coming through the door all day, and there was a really electric atmosphere.

i did some door-knocking on one of the nicer streets, and we got a reasonable response. there were some undecideds and a couple of i-don't-cares. funniest was one fellow who told me he was a definite nat, but would be voting for david shearer because of that melissa lee. and i think this is one the main problems she faces: she has alienated some of national's core support.

also did a spot of leafletting and got called a communist - well not directly. some middle-aged white guy said something along the lines of "are those pamphlets from that communist labour party?". yeah, really witty. i wish i'd asked him if his parents had smacked him when he was little.

it was certainly an interesting day, and it helped that it was bright and sunny. and once again, i have to hand it to the volunteers. all those people who put in countless hours for a cause they believe in and for no personal gain. it's so frustrating that the rest of the population don't realise the benefit they receive from these people who are basically the wheels of our democracy. there are the people who think about policy and put forward ideas and who debate the issues; those who work on fundraising; those who volunteer for the dull administrative work; those who pound the pavement, and plenty more.

these are the people who ensure the party functions and provides a vehicle for social democratic ideas to become part of government policy. i salute you all, you're doing a wonderful job.

winter show

i put up a post on the hand mirror last night about the impact of culture & environment on individual choices, and another one this morning about the so-called "no moan zone" idea that came out of an entrpreneurial summit.

tonight we went to the waikat winter show. i haven't been for years and wanted to take the kids. it was good night to be there, if you don't like crowds cos pretty much everyone else was at the rugby. so no queues for the rides, no waiting in line for your hot chips. but it was sooooo cold.

not much of a show though, not like i remember from my younger days. a lot of the stalls were empty, and there weren't many rides. i guess it's a testament to the fact that there are so many other forms of entertainment these days, and so many regular events where you can get similar types of entertainment. still, the girls went on something called "kamikaze" which looked pretty nasty but they claim to have enjoyed it. and of course we had to go on the dodgems, i absolutely love those!!!

but still, there was the feeling that the show was part of a bygone era and not likely to last too much longer. which seems sad really - even our leisure activities are increasingly being run by big business.

the things we do

tonight i've been busy preparing a lecture for 4th year finance students which i have to deliver on friday. apparently universities want lectures to have a quota of speakers from out "in the real world" (as if uni is some kind of fake or pretend world). but they don't want to pay for them any more - budget constraints and all that. scumbags.


but this is a favour for an acquaintance (i so have to learn how to say no), and so i'm treating it as part of my public service. unfortunately it's about a lot of accounting stuff (rather than say politics, or religion, or social issues), so i don't believe i'll be expanding their minds or anything remotely like that. sigh.


so in lieu of a proper post, i'll direct you to:
- here, an excellent post about how african americans are listening to the GOP much more attentively than they seem to think.
- here, for some light entertainment based on reporting gone bad (hat tip to a commentor at public address, whose name i can't remember, nor can i remember the post they commented. sorry!).
- here, where you'll find labour MPs blogging, and doing a fantastic job of it (have just added red alert to my blogroll as well).
- here, for an interview with mohammed hanif, commonwealth prizewinning journalist & author.

and that's it, i'm off to bed.

bullies

the verdict has just come in the "ear-flicking" case - the jury has just found returned a guilty verdict on the charge of jimmy mason punching his son in the face and flicking his ear. this would be one of the cases brought up by bob mcroskie and the pro-smacking crowd as an example of how terrible the new s59 was. but somehow it was always described as a flick-on-the-ear and not a punch-to-the-face. it'll be interesting to see how they describe this incident from here on in.


it's been a difficult few days fighting trolls over at the hand mirror. i also had one here last week, but since i moderate comments, he was pretty easy to deal with. i just ignored him and he went away. it's really just attention that they seem to be looking for, and when you deny it to them, they go looking for it elsewhere.

however the hand mirror trolls were something worse. when they couldn't get through our moderation, they'd send very nasty and threatening messages fulling of as much foul language as they could fit in. i'd delete them after reading the first couple of words, so spare myself from the worst of the nastiness.

i just don't understand the mentality of these people who have no other purpose but to destroy. and the rage they directed towards us when they failed to achieve that purpose was supposed to achieve what? it makes me wonder what kind of upbringing these people have had, that they don't have even the basic grounding of treating others with respect, of being able to argue an issue without disparaging the people they are arguing with, and of being able to withdraw in good grace.

that particular type of trolling seems to be nothing more than effort to silence a point of view they cannot agree with. i've seen a concerted troll attack on another blog, much more organised, much more vitriolic and seeming to be very calculated. maybe it's because i tend to read women's blogs more, but it appears to me that the nastiness is much more strongly directed at women. and it was no coincidence that the nastiest trolling at the hand mirror started when we put up a post about matthew johns.

that culture of intimidation and aggressiveness that is the hallmark of the current scandal in rugby league transfers itself directly to the internet, and we see online behaviour that is a direct translation of the physical violence in real life.

until we're prepared to recognise that violence for what it is, until we can stop apologising for it, until we can stop blaming victims for the violence, until we're prepared to change the culture, cyberbullying will be a major issue on the internet.

luckily we have a strong team at the hand mirror. as anna pointed out, we're activists and not so easily put off. and for now, it seems we have our blog back. no doubt the trolls will be back in the future, if we dare to challenge another of their icons. which is all the more reason to continue speaking out.

an emotional story

maori tv does it again. last night they had a documentary film about the pull-out from gaza by the israeli government. i'll get on to that in a moment, but i just want to make the point that the maori tv model shows what properly funded public sector broadcasting can bring us. this film would never have aired on the other channels.

the film itself was very moving, and was presented from the point of view of the police and army who had the responsibility of removing settlers and demolishing settlements in gaza. there was no vocie over of any kind, the film didn't seek to make any judgements as such. i saw it as a means for people to see the pressure that was put on these people in authority, the abuse they had to suffer and the patience they showed, in carrying out a task that they did not necessarily agree with.

from that perspective, it was extremely effective. it showed decent people who were simply carrying out their jobs. it showed extremely young people who struggled with the curses and the angry tirades, the pleading and the tears that were directed at them. it showed the cost of peace in the middle east, and the entrenched positions of some of the players.

the only problem i had, and it isn't a criticism of the film as such, was the absence of palestinians in the story. the reason i say it isn't a criticism is because the film was very focussed on what it was bringing to the viewer, and palestinians really weren't part of the story. the point i want to highlight, though, is that the palestinians must feel exactly the same way as the settlers did when the land was taken from them, and is being taken still.

as i watched one of the settlers crying because she was being evicted from a home that she had lived in for 20 years, i wondered if she could possibly identify with palestinians who had lost land that had been in their family for hundreds of years. i wonder if she would understand and sympathise with their tears. i think of all the home demolitions, the wall, the inability to farm their own land or use the water, the continually increasing number of settlements encroaching on the occupied territories. all of these are losses that are deep and painful, and cause much heartbreak.

this piece on radio nz gave a pretty good understanding of settler thinking, as well as the thinking of the current israeli prime minister. frankly, it will be a miracle if the rate of growth of illegal settlements in the west bank slows; forget about dismantling them.

there is so much emotion tied to this land. and i don't mean to give the impression that i'm insensitive to the grief of the people who were taken from gaza. that's far from the case, and i especially feel for the younger ones who have known nothing else.

products of our environment

i'm sitting here watching the debate in the house, and the opposition valiantly trying to delay the supercouncil bill for as long as they can. of course it will pass in the end, but at least the delaying tactics highlight just what a nasty piece of legislation this is.


the media have been pretty full of melissa lee today, as have most of the blogs. i must say that i almost felt sorry for her during paul henry's badgering on close-up - even the other candidates were clearly uncomfortable with his behaviour. but really, it's the underlying thinking behind the remark that's the most concerning. as a commentor on AEN pointed out today:

One of the quotes I've used in my PhD ... is by Patti Lather (1991, page 1), who says: "...all researchers construct their object of inquiry out of the materials that their culture provides, and values play a central role in this linguistically, ideologically, and historically embedded project that we call science."

Applying the quote to this context I think we are products of our environments and the discourses that are available to us. What makes me most sad, is that what Melissa said and the values underlying it are much much more pervasive and deeply embedded in this society..that's what is really scary.

i've heard similar attitudes as displayed by ms lee by other members of minority communities in nz. it seems that minority status and the experiences that come with it don't always confer greater understanding of the suffering of others. in fact, it can lead to a higher degree of intolerance, particularly if the person has achieved some degree of success.

that intolerance tends to be centred around class, which can be often represented by race. it's not a coincidence that poverty and race are intermingled, as exclusion on the basis of race is a cause of poverty. as is exclusion on the basis of disability, gender, marital status etc. there are individuals who are able to succeed despite that exclusion, but most will not be able to do so. and it is common to blame those who are excluded for the effects of their exclusion.

whether or not ms lee learns from this experience - and i mean learns to respect and empathise with others, rather than just learning to keep her opinions to herself in future - is entirely up to her.

kiss pay equity goodbye...

i've just put up a post at the hand mirror about the death of the pay and employment equity unit at the department of labour.