Oh, MOW You Don't!

Ohhhh, the joys of a Council blow-out!
Christchurch City Council is considering asking residents to do the very jobs that the Council is charging rates for!!
Council has reduced the maintenance frequency for over a thousand parks and reserves to save costs, and is thinking about

getting ratepayers to mow their local park or reserve instead!
Naturally the peasants are revolting!
Cr Phil Clearwater says "People already mow their berms outside their houses. It's really just an extension of that"…but adds that the brilliant brain fart has not gone further than a discussion at this stage.
Cr Pauline Cotter adds "We're not talking about the big ones" (what, y'mean like Hagley Park, for instance?) "…just pocket parks and green spaces. It wouldn't be letting the city get to rack-and-ruin. It's to try and get people to take ownership. We've all got to step up and save some money here if we want our city fixed."
Fire Service Canterbury area commander David Berry says any long grass is a potential fire risk.
The council will spend $7.3 million this financial year maintaining its parks and reserves…and that's on the REDUCED mowing schedule!
But what do ratepayers think? Not at all surprisingly, 79% of those in The Press's strawpoll say NO F***ING WAY!!!
But I'm sure there'd be plenty of qualified ratepayers prepared to help Council with its book-keeping!

Students Are There To Learn

The clash between students and police in Auckland's CBD on Friday was...illuminating, to say the least.

Behavioural Science:101???

A protest over budget cuts got way outta control. Students barged into SkyCity casino, chanting "fuck the casino", as staff tried to remove them. Protesters yelled "free all political prisoners" outside the Central police station (wasn't aware we had any political prisoners): some officers were wrestled to the ground amidst jeering crowds. Then the future leaders of our country sat on Queen Street blocking traffic, chanting: "Bill English, we're all Greeks" (after earlier student protests, Finance Minister English had said they "need some Greeks to show them how to do it". The chant was a response to that flippancy: no complaints from the Greek Govt yet).

Everyone blames their parents.

The Blockade the Budget protests come after the Govt outlined changes to student loans. One protester moaned: "We planned a peaceful protest... we were going to rise above English's incitement to riot." (incitement to riot??!!) "But now the police've attacked people. They're the destructive party in all of this." Oh, grow up! As oft happens in large groups of immature sheep youth, the 'mob mentality' took over. The 43 arrests were a direct consequence...
So, let's analyse this, like good students should: this was a Blockade the Budget protest, right? But students chanted at the Central police station: "free all political prisoners". They chanted at SkyCity: "fuck the casino", and chanted in Queen St.: "We're all Greeks". See a pattern? Shades of the Occupy Wall Street protests - many agendas; everyone bitching about something but no cohesion, just a rabble. Likewise Friday had no coherant focus, just an intention to disrupt, be anti-social and juvenile pains-in-the-arse!
Sure, cutbacks do hurt - ask any working family. Life ain't easy right now. But during my recent uni studies, I found lots of students thought their degree would instantly deliver a 250K job!
Welcome to reality. Students aren't forced to go to university. They voluntarily choose to further their education. Obviously many of them have not learnt a damn thing yet.

04 June 2012 - Interesting post on The Standard, advising students to pick their battles very very carefully indeed...
05 June 2012 - Alf Grumble ponders students' ability to string together a coherent press release.

Milk Price Just Got Creamed

Be surprised. Be very surprised.
Foodstuffs promised this week to pass on a reduction in the price of wholesale milk to The Great Unwashed - us!
New Zealand dairy giant Fonterra announced it was dropping the wholesale milk price from the end of this month...although it's not known how big the reduction will be or how long it will last.
But Foodstuffs, which owns the Pak'n'Save chain of supermarkets, has said any savings will be passed on to customers. No word yet from opposition Progressive Enterprises (which owns Countdown), about whether it will also pass the reduction on...but it would be very bad PR not to.
Fonterra says international dairy prices have softened since the highs of last year and, while they're on the rise again, it expects to see local prices come down slightly.
You'll recall after we moaned and bitched loudly last year about the rising retail milk prices, Fonterra froze the price of NZ wholesale milk.
What I find curious is the constant reporting that NZ's milk prices are at the whim of the international market, yet Fonterra supplies 30% of the world dairy market! 30%!! With that sort of control, WHY are we are the "whim of the international market"? Why is it not the complete reverse?
Being such a valuable source of nutrients for the young, I'd like to see milk a damn sight cheaper than it even is now. I know we'll never again see the "good old days" when it was just 4c a pint (true!) but surely there must be a place for some sort of government subsidy, out of the health budget perhaps? Or a trade incentive, to motivate Fonterra to reduce the price some more? Then after that, a return to glass bottles for easy recycling...oh yea, and home delivery too... See? I don't ask for much!
PS: 25 Jan.2012 - Finally! The govt.unleashes the Commerce Commission on Fonterra's pricing! 
PS: 07 Feb.2012 - Until the end of February, Nosh Food Markets have slashed 2L of milk to $2 (from $4.49)!! Go, Nosh! There's the challenge - do other supermarkets have the balls to match/better this?

National Identity Dies

Paddy the Wanderer was a ginger and brown Airedale terrier.
He achieved national celebrity status in New Zealand, due to his exploits on the Wellington waterfront (and beyond) during the 1930s. He was remembered as a 'little light in the dark days of the Depression'.
Paddy began life as Dash, the pet of a young girl who died in 1928. The girl's father was a seaman, so the dog spent a lot of time on the Wellington wharves when the family came to meet the father's ships. When the little girl died, Paddy (as he came to be called) began to wander the wharves. Some say he was searching for his lost playmate...
Paddy became a much-loved identity on the waterfront during those Depression years. Watersiders and harbour board workers, seamen and taxi drivers took turns at paying his annual dog licence. Wellingtonians got to know him well as he travelled throughout the city on trams and taxis. He was noted as being "extraordinarily intelligent", and would not cross a road until the traffic lights showed green. His national fame grew as he journeyed by sea to other NZ ports, as well as Australia. He was also rumoured to have made it to San Francisco and back. In December 1935 he took to the air in a Gypsy Moth biplane.
All of these adventures gained Paddy extensive media attention and his popularity with the public grew. Dianne Haworth, in her 2008 book, even notes a "dastardly attempt" by jealous Aucklanders to whisk him away up north!
The Wgtn.City Council awarded Paddy the 'Freedom of the City'. The Harbour Board made him 'Asst.Night Watchman responsible for pirates, smugglers and rodents'. But as he aged, Paddy wandered less: he was usually settled on the Tally Clerks' stand inside the Queen's Wharf gates. As his health deteriorated he was given a sickbed in a wharf shed, and many people visited to enquire about his health.
When Paddy died, today in history, 17th.July 1939, local papers carried obituary notices. A funeral cortege of black taxis escorted his coffin from Queen's Wharf to the city council yards for cremation. It was a scene more in keeping with the death of a high-profile public figure.
A drinking fountain near the Queen's Wharf gates commemorates Paddy's life. It was built in 1945 using stones taken from London's bombed Waterloo Bridge, and paid for with funds raised by the many friends of Paddy the Wanderer. When the drinking bowl overflows with water, it fills the two drinking bowls below, for any dog who pauses to quench a thirst.

Money, Money, Money...

...but is it worth ANYTHING?
We think WE've had problems, getting through the recession. Zimbabwe's inflation has been the highest in the world: at 100,000% in 2008!!
If that's hard to comprehend, then get this: one hundred billion Zimbabwean dollars... buys you three farm eggs!
Little wonder the chap holding the ten million dollar note is laughing his head off: he knows only too well how badly crippled his country is, and that - quite literally - ten million dollars ain't worth the paper it's printed on!

Own-Brands Have Value

Ok, I admit it: I sometimes buy supermarket own-brands.
*Shock! Horror! Probe!*
In these troubled economic times, it makes financial sense. Often the budget products are produced in the very same factories as the branded versions anyway: we're just not paying the same advertising and marketing costs.

Brand decisions are emotionally driven - "mum always fed us X brand" - and our emotions get pulled every which way but loose by the advertising industry. That's their job: they're adept at tapping into our core values and pushing our buttons...fighting at school over whether a Vegemite kid was superior to a Marmite kid; "you''ll always be a kiwi when you love our Wattie's sauce"; "kiwi kids are Weetbix kids" (imagine my chagrin when I heard Oz had the same jingle singing "Aussie kids..."!!); discovering when you're overseas that nowhere in the world makes better icecream than Tip Top; etc etc. They use extensive research into product placement on shelves, paying supermarkets a premium to have their brand in a certain position, and of course these costs are passed on to consumers in higher prices.
I don't shop by reading ingredient labels, though I can appreciate some people must - like celiacs buying gluten-free products, or parents avoiding certain food colourings for their children. But there are some products I'll never buy eg: budget tinned spaghetti is totally inferior to Wattie's. Who would dunk a gingernut biscuit if it's not a Griffin's? And is there any Indian sauce to beat Patak's?
That's not snobbery, just good taste - literally. I'll sometimes choose a more expensive brand if the flavour is vastly superior. However, so often similar products do taste very much the same, so why pay a premium? eg: Pak'n'Save's 2L budget standard milk costs $3.59... while Woolworths own-brand standard milk 2L is $4.15 and Meadow Fresh Lite homogenised 2L is $4.79.
Yeup, there're definitely times when budget brands do have value.

Remove Petrol Tax Double-Dip

There are calls for the removal of the goods and services tax (GST) on fuel.
Late last week, unleaded petrol hit near-record levels of $2 a litre, and the Automobile Assn (AA) doesn't believe the government should be charging GST on top of the petrol excise tax as well. Hear! Hear! In many other circles, it's called 'double dipping' and - unless you're the government (that sets its own standards) - that activity would normally drop you deep into boiling water. 
The AA says by removing GST, motorists would save nearly eight cents a litre, offering some relief in the face of steadily-rising living costs and recessional effects.
Petrol prices hit a two-year high at the end of last year, with blame shared by the weakening NZ dollar, Europe's cold snap and an increase in demand as worldwide economies come out of recession. That jump means drivers are now paying an extra 14.2% for petrol!

Going up? 4th floor, poverty..

Compare that to some other changes post-GST-rise:
+Alcohol: up 5.4%.
+Electricity: up 5.8%.
+Milk, cheese and eggs: up 12.6%.
+Vegetables: up 15.4%.
+Cigarettes: up 17%.
+Butter and lettuce: up 50%.

NZ consumer prices rose 2.3% as expected in the three months ended Dec.30, the biggest quarterly gain since a 3.5% rise in Sept.'89, the last time GST was lifted. And bad weather around the world means already high prices have higher to go. Weather conditions have affected food production, and there's talk of the Aussie flood crisis upping food prices here in NZ. Brace yourself!

Recessional Reduce and Reuse

In October 2009 and April 2010, I blogged about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a huge floating mass of plastic in the middle of the North Pacific...
Someone asked: why can't "they" just filter it all out? Well (1): it wouldn't be possible to sift out the rubbish without also straining out every single scrap of marine life. (2): where would we put it? (3): as soon as it's taken out, more washes in. No point bailing out the bath until we turn off the taps: better to focus on keeping it out of the ocean in the first place.
We've all seen the three-arrowed green symbol and, for most, it means "recycle." But it's actually three Rs: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. The least of these is recycle - an expensive and wasteful process. Better to reduce consumption, and reuse what we already have.
The problem is..."the good driver syndrome." Everyone thinks they're a good driver. But if that's so, then who's having all the accidents? In reality, we can all improve our driving.
The same goes for the environment. Everyone thinks they're fairly green: even the guy who changes nothing about his lifestyle but buys some cloth carry-sacks instead of using plastic grocery bags. He bought 'em, even if he forgets to use 'em...so he must be “green”, right?
In an interesting way, "green" behaviour surged with the recession. More people are now trying to reuse items, if only to stretch their dollars further. And yet it was only a few years ago that the burning question was: how much is the public willing to pay for a "green premium" on a product? eg: if you could upgrade to a cell phone manufactured with zero carbon footprint, how much more would you be prepared to pay for it, compared to a conventional one?
Today, if you're serious about being "green", the answer is obvious: don't upgrade. Keep using the phone you've got.

Commercial Reality or Emotional Betrayal?

We will remember them.

Poppy Day is the Royal NZ Returned and Services' Assn's (RSA) major fundraiser - on the Friday closest to April 25th., Anzac Day, volunteers accept public donations in exchange for a red poppy.
The poppies themselves are no works of art - just flat red paper, green plastic stem and small RSA label - but they represent the sacrifices of thousands of Armed Services veterans over the years. They also represent income for the makers, Kilmarnock Enterprises which provides work for intellectually disabled people.
Last week the RSA announced that Oz company Cash's had won the tender to make the 1.2 million poppies annually from 2012: parts sourced from China and assembled in Oz. Sad news for Christchurch RSA, which has made the national supply since 1931. But the writing was on the wall: this year the Auckland region also contracted a separate poppy supplier.
The Chch Press had a field day, yelling "Revolt over poppies" [Kiwis threatening to boycott poppy sales...oh really? Are we??] and "Battle lines drawn over poppies".
Personally I've heard no-one who's overly concerned. This is after all the 21st.century, and the RSA has every right to maximise its returns, to gain most benefit for its members. Outsourcing the manufacturing will have as little impact on public support for the RSA, as the change years ago from the more realistic twirled poppy with wire stem, to the current flat plastic-stemmed model.
The indignant few should remember their donation to the RSA helps elderly veterans and their widows: a withdrawal of financial support merely hurts the welfare efforts. If people feel that strongly about the impact on Kilmarnock's intellectually disabled employees, perhaps a donation to them may be in order too.
[PS: see also last April's post about the Peace Movement trying to cash in on RSA Poppy Day...that's far worse!]

CNN: Road Is Still Rocky

A year ago, I mentioned CNN was running a Road To Recovery segment, to highlight positive news and be motivating in the midst of recession (not that there was much positivism around at that stage!).
I revisited the segment this week, to see how CNN views the world today. As you can read in its logo, the feature's been re-positioned to be less of an optimism upper and more as a knowledge slot: "Whatever happens, you'll understand it better here". This time the headlines read:
Dow Jones plunges almost 1,000 points... Anger in Athens, Mad in Munich... Debt roulette: is Portugal next?... Sovereign debt fears pushes euro lower... Criminal probe of Goldman... BP must pay for spill... Toyota's rating cut... Time runs out for US fishing town... Spanish unemployment tops 20%... Europe's debt crisis knocks global markets...
Oh dear. A year on - has anything really changed?

Tattoos For Tacos

Back in 1999, Martha Sanchez thought up a novel marketing idea for her family-run taco restaurant in San Francisco. She offered customers free lunches for life...if they got a tattoo of the restaurant's logo. It was so popular she had to cap the offer at 50 participants! (Here're some pics of tattooed customers).
Well, the deal's back again! The customer pays for a tattoo (around US$100) of Jimmy the Cornman—a sombrero-wearing kid riding a giant ear of corn like a rocket. The tattoo must be at least four square inches and can be anywhere on the body. It entitles the wearer to one free meal (anything off the menu) and a drink per day.
If the tattoo is in a less-than-public part of the body, customers don't necessarily need to show it in order to get their meal. But Martha says, for better or worse, most of them proudly do.
Some of the "originals" still dine there a few times a week - they say in these tough recessional times, it's nice to know they have a free meal up their sleeve (or under their shirt), just in case...
So when you're in San Francisco's Mission District, drop by the Casa Sanchez Taco Restaurant - let me know if you see anyone showing off their “free admission”! (it's at 2778 24th Street, just a block from SF General Hospital - that's not a dig at their food though: by all accounts, it's damn good!!)

Bill, The Economy... and "those Aussies"

I for one will be rather relieved when Bill English's ad for TVNZ7's Focus On The Economy programme finishes its run.
Is it appropriate for NZ's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister Of Finance to actually front a TV promo (other than featuring via a clip from a press conference or other such event)? While the programme aims to translate the recession into plain English, the title chosen is curiously also the title of Mr.English's personal newsletter! As the Labour Party has screamed, it smells of a National Party political broadcast.
But my concerns are more from my perceptions of the promo.
QUOTE: "We've underperformed compared to the per capita income growth of Australia." So? Some countries are surviving far better than others. Why specifically compare ourselves to Oz? Perhaps the Wizards of Oz have been a bit more effective than you, Toto?
QUOTE: "Y'know, we can beat those Aussies!" Ah-ha! So is this an Oz-bash? And doesn't that line illustrate a poor-little-us hung-dog mentality? Digging out of the recession is not about beating “those Aussies” – since when did they become an enemy or an economic threat?
And finally, QUOTE: "Us kiwis can do it!" That attempt at motivation merely highlights Bill's regularly fumbling grasp of English (excuse the word play). "Us kiwis?" Surely this learned Member of Parliament means "We kiwis"???
(Mind you, this is the same chap who saw no problem claiming accomodation expenses from the taxpayer, for a property he rarely lived in. Maybe he has a limited grasp on a lot of things...)
PS: 18 Nov.2009 - TVNZ discovers hindsight: read on...

Car Cookery...?

In these tough recessional times, many folk are trying to stretch their $$$$$ further...but is this going a bit too far?
Recently I found a site detailing how to bake cookies in your car!
We all know how hot a car's interior can get, when sitting in the sun for hours. Some bright spark has thought to utilise this free heat for baking! All you need: •hot car •reflective sun shade •baking tray •favourite cookie recipe •time
Step 1: Park your car facing the sun. Place your reflective sun shade flat along the dashboard, shiny side up. Roll up the windows and close the door.
Step 2: Prepare your favourite biscuit/cookie recipe and place mixture on a baking tray as usual. Take the tray to the car (by now you should get a nice blast of hot air when you open the doors). Place baking tray on top of the reflective sun shade, making sure the cookies do not touch the windscreen or slid over the edges of the baking tray. Close the car.
Step 3: Check your cookies after an hour or so to see if they are done (do that quickly so you don't lose all the heat). Once cooled, you can enjoy fresh baking without any power used! And the next day, enjoy that fresh baked cookie smell in your car on the drive to work!
PS: 29 July 2009 - I've heard from a guy in America who did this successfully. Baking a tray of cookies took him about 2½ hours, the end-product had slightly crispy edges with a delicious soft centre, pale in colour because of the different cooking method...but he wished he'd made more because his tasters finished them off very quickly!

Savings' Double-Edged Sword

Economists say the only way we can get our finances in better shape is to save more and spend less.
Economists also tell us that the way to get the country's economy stronger is to have people spend more - and therefore save less.
So basically we should all be spending more AND saving more.
Yeah, right…what a wonderful mixed message: the government encourages us to save, though its incentive-loaded KiwiSaver scheme – while at the same time wanting us to fuel the “return to the black” by buying stuff.
Call me a cynical ol' basket (you won't be the first!), but I don't feel it's my responsibility to spend and spend for the sake of the country's economy. I'm being very careful with my dollars, for the sake of my own economy: I do not intend to be a casualty of the recession.
Sadly, if the economy really does rely on people continually buying stuff they don't need, something seems wrong.
Or have I simply missed the point?

The Road To Nowhere...

Reality check: yes, there is a global recession. Same want to call it a depression. But there're individuals and companies around us, trying their best to stay positive and buoy up others at the same time.
Not far from me is a motor vehicle outlet, Albany Toyota, which until recently displayed a sign saying it was not participating in a recession. Nice motivation...10/10...then some vandal sprayed out the word "not". How puerile is that? How senseless!
Global news agency CNN is also trying to be positive, publishing it's Top "Road To Recovery" Stories. Again, a nice idea...unfortunately though, here's a snapshot of the positive stories for May 12th:
'US economy worse than expected''Billions wiped off UK rich list fortunes'

'Spain unemployment tops 17%'

'Reality hits with earnings angst'

'UBS to cut 9,000 more jobs''Asian economic outlook bleak'
'Global downturn is WWII-like'
'UK jobless figures hit 2-million'
'Dire economy shaking Zimbabwe'
'Police fear summer of recession rage'...
Gee, if that's the most positive news CNN can find, maybe I'll just exit the road and go strolling along the beach...looks like a far nicer view there!