Public Address - Hard News (Home)

The Best Country in the World: Selling fast! | Dec 17, 2007 10:49

If you could spare a moment from teaching your kids to play cricket on the back lawn, smoking fish in the back yard of your rustic cottage, paying no capital gains tax and just plain marveling that a place like this, with its low crime rate and friendly, contented people could even exist, there is an opportunity to which you may wish to alert your friends.

It is the Live and Prosper in New Zealand Seminar -- and boy do they have a country for you.

Did you know that in this blessed land, you'll still find homes, "and we mean proper houses you can move into -- for less than US$50,000!"?

Sure, the houses are in Tokanui -- but the people of rural eastern Southland are even friendlier that the people who live in cities. And budding sugar daddies should know that solo mums, who live in Tokanui at twice the national rate, are the friendliest of all! [NB: Two different Tokanuis there -- the first the the Southland one, the second in Waipa district.]

Not that life is ever grimy or difficult in the cities. They're paradise too:

Summertime in New Zealand—and the living is beyond easy. Music (opera, jazz, classical and rock) spills into the parks of Auckland, Wellington and numerous smaller cities and towns.

Yachts tack their white-sailed passage through the cobalt blue waters of Auckland's island-studded gulf and the mazy waterways of the Marlborough Sounds. Around the Bay of Plenty, fishing enthusiasts are hauling in trophy standard marlin. Grapes ripen on vines and vegetable plots overflow with avocados, tomatoes and sweet-corn.

Cottage gardens are in full rose and lavender bloom. Friends are hiking, families are picnicking and lovers are punting along willow-hung rivers. The sound of a lazy-day afternoon? It's the drone of honey-bees, the chink of glasses outside a shady inn and the thwack of ball against cricket bat.

Ah, those Kiwis. You just try and stop them getting up a friendly game of cricket. Not for nothing did Conde Nast Traveller call Aotearoa "The Best Country in the World".

And it just gets better: the New Zealand government just extended summertime by three weeks! When did your crappy foreign government last do you a favour like that!?

But you'd best be quick:

We've often heard it mentioned that New Zealand today is like Hawaii was 40 to 50 years ago. Back in those days, visitors were few and lots on the big island sold for chump change. Not any more.

New Zealand could be set to go the same way. Pacific beachfront is getting scarcer, and the more people who discover New Zealand's seascapes, the more prices are like to increase. We won't pretend you'll find oceanfront lots for US $10,000 like in Hawaii in the 60s, but there are still deals around.

There are still places at the seminar, where your friends can hear a lineup of speakers including ANZ Bank chief economist Cameron Bagrie, who totally won't be bumming anyone out by saying that New Zealand is "extremely vulnerable to the down turn in the global economy," like he did the other week. And Dan Denning, who, like doesn't actually live in New Zealand but totally rates the place. (Dan will be giving a bonus guest session on opportunities in Australia.)

Thanks to Craig Walls for the link.

So here are the Public Address Word(s) of the year for 2007. Not a bad list: topped by a genuine word-from-the-wild in "Te Qaeda". I talked to Sean Plunket about it on Morning Report today.

I haven't been able to find a $500 post in the Word of the Year thread, so I've decided to retain the Ezi-Pay Gift Station voucher and divvy the proceeds amongst the Public Address crew, who haven't had much from me late. Hope that's okay: think of it as a sub you didn't even have to pay. But Heineken kegs go to Felix Marwick for the lovely coinage "demagogcracy", and to Alastair Jamieson for being the first to suggest "Te Qaeda". Get in touch guys, and I'll have them delivered to your door.

And finally, a heads-up for a prolific and substantial newish blog by an anonymous Wellington "media professional": Poneke, it's called.

Already of interest: a farewell to The League of Rights, a look at the story behind the "Helen Clark attacks journalists" headlines (Mediawatch also had a useful report on that last issue) and the promise of an interesting publication on the Peter Ellis case at noon today.

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Word of the Year 2007: Te Qaeda | Dec 16, 2007 14:45

Word the Year 2007: Te Qaeda
For immediate release
December 17, 2007

The ironic coinage "Te Qaeda" is the Public Address readers' Word of the Year for 2007.

Readers of the award-winning group blog site Public Address (publicaddress.net) ranked their top five words or phrases from a list of 22 finalists generated in a discussion thread on Public Address System, the community section of the site.

Although Flight of the Conchords' iconic "It's business time" was ranked number one more than any other finalist, when the ranking points were totalled, Te Qaeda was a clear winner.

"Sub-prime", meanwhile, just edged out "It's business time" for the silver medal spot.

"Overall, the Top 10 washes up as a fairly good summary of the year's issues," says Public Address founder and editor, Russell Brown. "The so-called terror raids commanded the headlines late in the year, the sub-prime crisis has shaken world financial systems, and, of course, Flight of the Conchords got cultural cut-through.

"Looking down the list, we can see the environment, the Rugby World Cup, smacking and family violence -- and technology, in the form of Xtra's abysmal migration into its Bubble."

The original provenance of the "Te Qaeda" phrase isn't known, but it turned up in blog discussions without hours of the news breaking of the October 15 police raids. The first mention Google can find is in a post to Kiwiblog at 4.08pm on the day of the raids, in which a user called Seamonkeymadness said: "This just in - NZ 'terrorist ' group named - Te Qaeda."

The Top 10 Word(s) are:

1. Te Qaeda
2. Sub-prime
3. It's business time
4. Sustainability
5. Reconditioning
6. Rotation
7. Smacking
8=. Not okay
8=. Carbon
10. Xtra Service

Readers were also able to write in further suggestions, and "Peak Haka", "First Life" and "underwhelming" all featured.

Public Address (publicaddress.net) is a New Zealand group weblog site. It was been named Best Blog Site in the NetGuide Web Awards in 2003, 2005, 2006 and 2007, and features Russell Brown's Hard News, which was named Best Blog in the 2007 Qantas Media Awards.

Contact:

Russell Brown

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Nurturing Capitalism | Dec 14, 2007 10:39

What with being personally responsible for blogosphere diversity and the fate of The Left, as well as fangin' it on my new Broil King barbecue, I have rather carelessly neglected to try and sell you anything. Well, It's Business Time …

Because it's Christmas, and nothing says you care like e-commerce does. First up, there's …

The Public Address Big Stereo Bundle Volume 2

We're All Lions -- Coshercott Honeys
Starry Eyes --White Birds and Lemons
Her Hairagami Set -- The Brunettes
Those Great Big Puppy Eyes - Chris Knox and the Nothing
High Five -- Sola Rosa
Outside - Cocoa Electro w/ The Soul Agent
Alab-Jazz -- Bhakti P
Broadcast O.R. -- Newmatics
Sunshine Science Dub - B-Side All Stars
Tele ia Ole Sami -- Bill Sevisi featuring the Yandall Sisters

It's another mix of old and new MP3 downloads that you'll struggle to keep on one playlist. You've got the new young sound of Devonport with the Coshercott Honeys and and White Birds and Lemons, delectable pop from the Brunettes, and that Chris Knox song you can't get out of your head. There are two selections ('Outside' and 'Sunshine Science Dub' from the folks at B-Side records in Raglan (check out their website for good free stuff) and Sola Rosa's mood classic 'High Five'. There's Bhakti P's Asian fusion and the title track from the Newmatics long out-of-print 'Broadcast O.R.' and just to be representing, a lovely tune from Bill Sevisi and the Yandall Sisters.

And it'll all cost you only $15 for $20 of culture. 60% of that goes to the artist, and we share the balance, after transaction costs, with the good people at Amplifier. Get it here.

But wait! There's more!

I'm offering you some hot new pricing on books by Public Address bloggers.

Great New Zealand Argument: Ideas About Ourselves (still the only place you can buy important works by Robin Hyde, Bill Pearson, David Lange and Tze Ming Mok new in print) is now $24.95, and David Slack's more-relevant-than-ever Civil War and Other Optimistic Predictions is a scorching $20. Or you might choose to buy both of those plus Graham Reid's Postcards from Elsewhere in the Bloggers' Triple Pack for only $60. That's like getting one whole book for free!

Shop here for these great bargains.

Elsewhere in the blogosphere -- and proving that Deborah Coddington will be right about something if you just wait long enough -- Steven Price is now officially a blogger. His Media Law Journal is excellent. His most recent post is an account of Dominion Post editor Tim Pankhurst's address to the Jeanz conference, in which he discussed the paper's decision to run with the 'Terrorism Files' story.

People will doubtless differ on the merits of that decision, but as Steven points out, Pankhurst's willingness to discuss it stands in contrast to "the appallingly craven refusal of the editorial team at the NZ Herald to front up and answer questions about their campaign against the Electoral Finance Bill."

Our friends at Spare Room have quite the prize: a trip for two to the Gold Coast. You'll need to sign up to their mailing list to enter. Go here for details.

Public Address also has a daily mailing list you can subscribe to too. No prizes, but.

We also have a bevy of PA bloggage for you today. Jolisa discusses recent debates about, well, us; Keith despairs of the flaming political rhetoric to which he has returned; Fiona picks the Shorty killer; and David Haywood is turning gay for Public Address.

And this is your last chance to vote for The Public Address Word(s) of the Year 2007.

And that's it. Should I cook a butterflied chicken tonight? Seared tuna? Or just the sausages?

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What to make of the spray | Dec 13, 2007 12:00

The Ombudsman's report on complaints arising from the aerial spraying campaigns of 2002-2004 isn't quite the wholesale vindication being hailed by spray opponents -- it's much more measured than that -- but it is an important heads-up for government agencies on the importance of being level with the public from day one.

It is not the case that officials used a product they knew to be dangerous. Indeed, they had a peer-reviewed study conducted for the Auckland District Heath Board that found no significant health effects associated with the use of the Foray 48B spray. But the Ombudsman found fault with the way that information was communicated to the public.

25. In relation to health issues, it is recorded that many stakeholders said MAF made a big error early on in the spray programme by giving the impression that the spray had no health effects. This resulted in a big credibility gap for MAF with the public and stakeholders who saw or heard that the spray was indeed causing health problems in the community. Seeing these reactions and hearing MAF's denials about it made the public think MAF was not disclosing harmful elements of the spray.

While some of these matters were corrected at later stages and well after the public had experienced allergic reactions, "many people had become unnecessarily suspicious about the health risks posed by the spray and did not believe MAF's assertions to the contrary when the information was provided. MAF's apparent denial regarding the health effects of the spray gave protest groups unnecessary credibility with the public because these groups had maintained all along that the spray was not safe."

I can testify that the spray was not entirely benign. Every time the plane went over in Point Chev, I got a sudden headache and a sharp pain in the back of my throat; neither of which lasted more than a few minutes. We were pretty pleased when the flights ceased. But over the same period I was driven mad by hysterical campaign material from some of the spray opponents.

The Ombudsman most firmly bags MAF for not revealing the contents of the spray, for being slow to acknowledge public concern and playing down new research claims (from Dr Meriel Watts) that did not suit its goals, and for making a claim about the absence of long-term health effects that it could not necessarily sustain; suggesting that "the absence of such evidence was due to two factors, namely that the events had just recently occurred, and secondly, that no research into long-term effects had been conducted."

In a way, this is as much a story about psychology as it is about physiology. This extract is interesting:

28. To this may be added some brief extracts from the document "A Study of Presentations of Householder Concerns to the Painted Apple Moth Health Service and Auckland Summer Symptom Survey" (June 2005),10 part of which is set out fully in Appendix 1. Under the heading "Patterns of Presentation to the PAM Health Service" it is said:

"The complexity of concerns voiced by householders contacting the health service, reflected the spectrum of frustration and anxiety of the general population in perceiving harm and loss of control by a change of environment. This was evident in the subsequent enquiries by householders following every major media release and in reaction to information released by a well organised protest lobby....

"The proportion of householders contacting the health service displaying irritability, frustration, anger and anxiety, outweighed those who suffered pre- existing mental illness...

"Whilst the spray programme caused disruption to the daily life of those relocating, whether on their own accord or with the support of the PAM health service, the effects of relocation varied according to situational and individual differences in adapting to such disruption."

An Auckland University study published in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine in 2005 found that the strongest indicator for reporting of symptoms and subsequent health effects from the spray campaigns was the level of individuals' pre-existing "modern health worries". That is, the people who worried most about environmental toxins were the people most likely to get sick from the spray:

In recent years, there has been a rise in media interest in aspects of modernity and environmental issues affecting health. This seems likely to encourage a schema that increases sensitivity to symptoms and the attribution of normal physical complaints to environmental causes.

Evidence shows articles in the media concerning health tend to disproportionately highlight aspects of modernity, toxic and environmental issues, in contrast to more mundane lifestyle factors, such as smoking, that are more closely associated with illness.

Media stories that encourage worries about modern and environmental threats to health may result in an overreporting of symptoms in groups that may have no exposure and undermine an individual's perceptions of his own health … the study suggests that people's worries about modern life affecting health can strongly influence the reporting of symptoms after environmental incidents. Interestingly, worries about modernity do not only affect perceptions of personal health; they also affect behaviors in response to environmental threats, as well as perceptions of the health of children and even pets.

I'm in no position to know what to make of the case of Sally Lewis, as reported in the Herald today. She does appear to have suffered very serious health effects, which she believes stem from the day she stood out under the spray, breathed it and let it fall on her skin.

The story reports that she was formerly a "keen yachtswoman and hiker", suggesting she was in good physical condition before the spray, but not that she was a 30-year chronic asthma sufferer, or that MAF notified her ahead of spray runs and relocated her and her husband it its own expense. Nonetheless, the symptoms seemed to escalate alarmingly. Lewis also formed an "anti spray health group" called GASP, which issued statements like this in 2002:

I have two main concerns at the moment - the silent ones who have no say. Yes these are the animals that are getting sick from this spray, what do animals, like cats and dogs do when they are feeling ill? Yes you guessed it, they eat GRASS only to get worse as they are poisoning themselves by ingesting the spray particles that are on the grass - so please keep an eye out on your pets as they are part of your family as well.

My second concern - is a press release from the Herald stating that people who cover their vegetable gardens, fruit trees etc with tarpaulins to protect them from the spray will be prosecuted, (effective from 10th December). If this is the case I will be standing at my gate waiting for the hand cuffs to be applied as I wont have any bureaucratic imbecile telling me what I can or can't do in my own PRIVATE BACK YARD. When is this harassment going to STOP as I take umbrage to threats, are they prepared to pay for all our vegetables and fruit for the next three years? As I would not be prepared to eat them after they have been sprayed on. But oh it washes off so they tell us, does it also wash off any thing that has been absorbed, I think not, so please take care of your food supplies.

Sorry to be so morbid at this time of the year but I am really concerned.

The readiness of some of those who became involved in the spray protests to attribute any medical condition, in human or animal, to the spraying is quite staggering. This newsletter from NoSprayZone attributes cancer cases, motor neurone disease, the death of two white rhinos at on the zoo and -- not joking -- Paul Holmes' urinary tract problems to the spray. Conventional public health surveys have not, as you might have guessed, backed up these claims.

Lewis has given somewhat different accounts of her first spray exposure. In today's paper she describes it as a sort of gentle rain accompanying a free air show. On other occasions she has testified to the "disgusting cat pee smell". I'm not sure what to make of that either, but if there's a lesson here, it's that a chronic asthmatic should not have been standing out letting the spray fall on her skin as if it was nothing. And, whatever her subsequent state of mind, a public health campaign that failed to effectively communicate that to her must be counted a serious failure.

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Quite the Two-Step | Dec 11, 2007 09:34

What do you call it when a lobby group knee-jerks in two different directions at once? A jig? The Ombudsman's call for a Royal Commission inquiry into the criminal justice system is "doomed to failure" says Sensible Sentencing Trust spokesman Garth McMcVicar. And the same call is "long overdue" says Sensible Sentencing Trust spokesman (and new National Party candidate for Wigram) Marc Alexander.

To add to the mirth -- and someone must have chuckled at Scoop -- the two statements were published exactly one minute apart on Friday. It's classic conservative rent-a-quote action in stereo. Why bother waiting to form a considered view when you can rush out a press statement based on the first thing that comes into your head?

An unexpected side effect of the stoush over the Electoral Finance Bill: party pills for Christmas! With the EFB dragging on, it looks like there won't be time this week to pass the BZP ban legislation. You've got till after the Big Day Out, kids.

The US presidential race, meanwhile, is endlessly diverting, especially on the Republican side. Giuliani (startlingly corrupt) and Romney (wrong kooky religion) are beginning to tank, but the new frontrunner, Mike Huckabee, has been somewhat derailed as (presumably with the assistance of one or more opponents) the story of Wayne DuMond swings around.

As governor of Arkansas in 1996, Huckabee ignored urgent testimonies and helped secure the release of convicted rapist DuMond -- who was eventually paroled in 1999 and raped and murdered two women the following year.

The backstory is beyond bizarre. DuMond was convicted of the 1985 rape of a teenager who was a distant relative of Bill Clinton. But he became a cause celebre as angry conservatives claimed he had been framed by Clinton supporters. They weren't the only ones to feel sympathy for DuMond at the time. The Village Voice's Ward Harvarky wrote a story describing how, long-before he got to court, DuMond had been hog-tied and castrated by two men who broke into his home. One of them forced DuMond to give him a blow job first. The local corrupt cracker sheriff displayed DuMond's testicles in a jar, but never found anyone to charge with the grotesque assault, or for the arson of DuMond's house. Um, wow. Let's move on.

Meanwhile, Huckabee has told an audience that his surge in the polls is the work of God. As was, he told an NRA meeting, his miracle shot on an antelope in a hunting contest in Wyoming. They have antelopes in Wyoming?

Just to repeat: this man is the Republican frontrunner for the most powerful job in the world.

On the other side of the race, Hilary's in some trouble.

In the interests of ending on a cheery note, Harry Hutton has reappeared.

PS: And don't forget to vote for the Public Address Word(s) of the Year 2007.

PPS: This just in: Conrad Black gets six and a half years in prison. Good.

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