Tuesday, September 27, 2005

Hey, this is my edukashin your stuffing a round with!

My daughter starts school next month. As parents, my wife and I are naturally concerned where she starts her real learning. We considered a private school but at the end of the day believed that a new entrant at a public school or an integrated school will probably do okay. We will certainly look at private schooling later on because private services (whether they are schools, hospitals, telephone systems) are almost always more efficient and provide better service than public ones. This article proves me correct.

The first sentence is all you need to read really:

"Continuing under-resourcing of schools is creating an undesirable atmosphere in education that the incoming government needs to address urgently, teachers say."
But don't stop there:

"Schools were struggling to make ends meet on their operations grant alone and the decline in the overseas student market was demonstrating the folly of relying on foreign fee-paying students to address the shortfall".
"Ms Te Whaiti said recent studies by the Council for Educational Research (NZCER) confirmed that many schools simply needed more money."
What is causing the struggle?

"...the far greater costs that schools incur today because of health and safety, administration, assessment and compliance."
Yep. Not educational costs. OSH, administration and bureaucracy.

Of course the answer from the PPTA is not to reduce the bureaucracy, or to actually have teachers teaching but to give more money. The answer to everything - MMP. More Money Please.

What about NCEA?

"NCEA's introduction was a "sad story" that did no credit to the politicians and agencies of state responsible."
Does PPTA want a better education system? No.
"There are financial implications to making things work better that simply have to be faced if we are to have the whole system run fairly."
It's all about fairness. Of course life isn't fair but the PPTA don't understand that. Instead of focusing solutions towards what works, the unions would rather feather their own nests. Private school, here I come.

Linked article

Monday, September 26, 2005

Winston should stop horsing around

I like this. It is from the valedictory speech of Ian Ewen-Street.

Then there was a time I asked Doug Woolerton what it is like working with Winston Peters. Perhaps I should not tell this one. Doug said 'Look, he's like a racehorse. For 10 minutes every day, his eyes are bright, his ears are pricked, and his nostrils are flaring. He races around the track and just hates to be beaten. But after the roar of the crowd dies down, for the rest of the day he's just like the other horses. He's back in the stalls, snoring and farting and rolling in the hay'.

Monday, September 19, 2005

The Election, Post from Walking the Right Path

I am yet to post on this as I have been reading everyone else opinions so I am going to post quite a long post, with every possible combination no matter how likely, and we will see I will post them and then look into an order I think is most likely.

Seats first (as they stand before Specials)

Labour 50
National 49
NZ First 7
Greens 6
Maori 4
United 3
ACT 2
Jim 1 (From now on part of LABP)

So we have definite coalitons of:

LABP 51
NAT/ACT 51 (Now known ast NACT)

Way too close to call at this point, UF and NZF could go either way

LABP/GRE 57 (Still short, but as a problem UF or NZF wouldn't go with the greens)
therefore the only chance would be this
LABP/GRE/MAO which is still only 61/122 and this is not enough as they cannot pass a budget with this.

How bout NZF and UF joining either side

LABP/UF/NZF 61
NACT/UF/NZF 61

Neither of these can govern either, so how bout the possibility of Maori joining either

LABP/UF/NZF/Maori 65
NACT/UF/NZF/Maori 65

or the same without UF

LABP/NZF/Maori 62
NACT/NZF/Maori 62

But this would be a bloody hard combination to keep together.
My only real comment on all of this would be that I think Labour is going to give the Greens the big FU......unless....

LABP/Greens/Maori/UF 64, this combination could govern, but hard to work with 5 parties involved.

So there we go those are the real combinations as UF and NZF won't work with the greens, but there is a possibility they could to be in power I think this is them in order. I don't think we can get a Centre right government unless another seat comes over or the Maori Party gain one and Labour loses one.

So the List

LABP/Maori/NZF 62
LABP/Maori/UF 58 with NZF or Greens on Conf and Supply
LABP/UF/NZF 61 with Greens and Maori Conf and Supply
LABP/UF/MAO/GRE 64
NACT/NZF/UF 61 with Maori keeping Status quo on Maori issues
LABP/NZF/UF/MAO 65 but why bother with UF
LABP/Maori 55 with 3 parties on Conf and Supply

I think these combinations are the only ones that could even work, so I am going to quickly put a poll together and put it up on here as soon as I can.
I think the last option is quite likely, but it is lower as I believe they would prefer to have a clear majority and not have to work with 3 parties for conf and supply.

Friday, September 16, 2005

No comments

Dear All, including Jono and Franki (whom I've tried to email but it has bounced back at me!).

I've disabled comments here until after polling day as it's possibly unlawful. Jono & Franki - please, no posts about the election until after 7pm Saturday 17 September.

As the TV says, full coverage will resume after then. Thanks. Go the Nats/Act gummint!

Wednesday, September 14, 2005

More Matchfixing???

There are claims of Match-fixing in the recent tri-series between India, New Zealand and Zimbabwee. This story states that there are rumors of players from all three teams being involved, but Daniel Vettori denies these claims here. It is interesting to see his answer to the question of whether Match-fixing had occured was not "No" but was "not to my knowledge" well maybe it was to someone elses knowledge. I actually agree with Vettori though, it appears that everytime that NZ wins something in cricket it seems match-fixing allegations come into play. And it seems even more so when we beat India, I don't think that the Indian media believe that NZ can actually beat their team fairly. Oh well I guess we will see.

The Black Cocks

No this isn't a story about the male genitalia, I am talking about the New Zealand Badminton team. They are thinking about changing their name. The story is here.
"They don't want to see the game lose its composure for the want of a gimmicky name," Skelt said, "If you're over in China and you get introduced as the Black Cocks, it raises some issues." This was a comment made about the name, I actually quite liked the name myself thought it was quite catchy.

Oh well maybe they can become the Black Shuttles instead.(How boring)

I think they should just grow some balls and go with the name they thought of first.

Teachers push politics down students throats

This story shocks me how can a teacher from a school encourage this sort of thing. How would have a student in the class felt if they were likely to support National and here was there teacher sitting there encouraging two students to attack a National billboard, yes teachers are allowed an opinion, but they really shouldn't be pushing it on their students.

Same old Shit



This Cartoon says it all really, I don't think I will comment on it.

Tuesday, September 13, 2005

New Members

Hey all I am looking for some new members to join this group blog, If you are keen post in the comments below or send my an email to newton_jono@hotmail.com and I will get back to you as soon as possible, I would actually be interested in a few people joining the team.

This has to be said

England loses to Northern Ireland
Oh this is way too funny for me, after all my mates mocked me when my Beloved Netherlands team missed out on the last world cup I have to now say something about thier beloved team having to win all their games to make it through bugger for them if they drop another one then I will be laughing all the way to the bank :D

It would really serve them right for being so cocky

Oh and Congrats to those from Northern Ireland "GOOD ON YA MATES"

The Ashes

I have to Congratulate the England Cricket team for finally subduing those bloody aussies and winning the ashes for the first time since 1989, this is an awesome effort. A draw in the final test was all that was needed to create the victory and they managed to bat on for long enough to be able to fight their way to the draw.

But they may have been saved by the grace of a New Zealander in the form of Umpire Billy Bowden who gave Pietersen not out when he first came to the crease, after the ball appeared to bounce off his arm and was caught in the slips, but Bowden proceded to give him not out and he went on to score 158 and was the deciding factor in the match.

But Congrats to England.

Monday, September 12, 2005

Back up and running

Woohoo this blog is now running again I will beign to post here again 2moro.

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