religion and politics...

[topcat83]

Originally Posted by jawnbc

Funny kiwi vocabulary story. In 2001 I dragged my two best mates (friends) to NZ for a holiday. Air NZ had a sale on, so we hit the North island, as well as Raro and a bit of French Polynesia. We still talk about that trip--and now they promise to come visit me often in Auckland once I'm there.

But I digress...

I explained to them that the work "d1ckhead" doesn't' have the same connotation as it does in Canada. I also explained about how some kiwis have rather clipped vowels in their speech. And for the first couple of days they razzed me mercilessly about it all being BS.

We stopped in a tea house en route to Northland--empty in August except for us and the proprietor--and got some lovely tea and scones and enjoyed the views over the gulf. A mother and young daughter came in shortly thereafter--I'd guess the little girl was 6 or 7.

Mummy: Suh how wuz school today?
Girl: Jummy wuz bein' a deckhid.

The guys nearly sprayed their teas. After that we heard d1ckhead almost every day.

(I apologize if my attempts to orthographize a kiwi accent has offended)!

Beginning to love this thread!

Another thing to bear in mind - instead of an 'e' a Kiwi will pronounce an 'i'
So there's a radio advert over here where someone is 'scrubbing his dick' - actually he's referring to the wooden patio area out the back of his house!

[topcat83]

Originally Posted by scottjames84

You might want to change your diet if you move to nz, the things you mentioned like almond milk etc are criminaly expensive in new Zealand; I mean like getting a second mortgage expensive almost.

Organic foods in new Zealand is a very small market and so prices are crazy.
We already spend $300 a week on food in new Zealand and get less than what we got in USA for $100 and that isn't even buying good healthy foods.

My advice is - eat with the seasons.

Because we don't fly so much stuff in, prices are extremely seasonal. Tomatoes, peppers and salad are a lot at the moment, but carrots, parsnips and pumpkins are cheap.
So it can be really difficult to compare prices.

[USAGary]

Originally Posted by MrsRose

...blaming any one group for everything is far to massive of a generalization...

Normally it would be but in the USA it can decidedly be blamed on conservatives for creating the problems - and blocking popular solutions - in the USA (and possibly world) .

Seems to have spread to New Zealand in the form of the National Party and John Key - "NZ PM popularity sliding downwards."

[Dani6]

Originally Posted by MrsRose

It's hard to imagine that ANYWHERE on earth could have more overweight people than the US!

Our family doesn't drink milk. We drink almond milk. is there any of that in NZ?
And we make most of our food from scratch (raw, whole food ingredients) so I'm not super worried about not being able to find the same stuff as in the States.
Are things like produce, rice, beans, nuts, etc expensive there?

Almond milk is outrageously expensive, as is is cow's milk (pathetic when you think about how much is produced)

It's far cheaper to make your own almond milk, just soak the nuts to get the enzymes going and then blend with water. Finding honest to goodness organic food is very much trial and error as New Zealand's standards aren't as strict as more developed countries, neither is the testing regime. You're better off growing your own if you're able.

Most of the high quality food in New Zealand gets siphoned off for the export market and yes New Zealand food has just as much fat, sugar and useless ingredients added as other western countries. It is expensive because of location, population size and GST. Many British people complain about products like baked beans, ketchup etc. having too much sugar.

New Zealanders do have a love affair with their fast food shops and takeouts. I think it has one of the highest numbersof McDonald's restaurants in the world, then there's Wendys, Burger Fuel, KFC, hot dinner shops, Hell Pizza, fish and chips, Asian etc. etc. etc........

New Zealand has a problem with obesity and diabetes. 27.7% of males and 27.8% of females are obese, one in three adults are overweight. Approximately 31% of children aged 5 to 14 years are overweight/obese

Television use, buying school food from the dairy/takeaway shops, skipping breakfast, consumption of fruit drinks/soft drinks, and low physical activity were associated with BMI in analyses controlling for demographic characteristics among the total population. Buying school food from the dairy/takeaway (p=0.04) and skipping breakfast (p=0.007) retained significance when all nutrition behaviours and physical activity were analysed simultaneously. Significant interactions between ethnicity and bringing school food from home and buying school food from school were observed in relation to BMI.

Politics can be undemocratic and list MPs can gain seats in parliament without anyone actually voting for them. There is no upper house to moderate the the ruling party so it can basically do what it wants, including rail roading legislation under urgency as it pleases. Many a bad law has been made in haste (Hobbit, Skynet etc and now probably asset sales) and passed without going through proper public consultation and committee stages.

There are many accusations of cronyism going on around the Canterbury reconstruction, with allegations of contracts going to people who have links to staff working for the EQC

prompted by the discovery of "a number of staff" with interests in businesses involved in the rebuild.

In one example investigated by The Press, a company owned by assessor Nikki Kettle and estimator Grant Todd quoted for the repair of a St Martins house this year.

Kettle, the daughter of claims manager Gail Kettle, was one of three EQC staff identified last year by The Press - the others were Zac Stiven, the 19-year-old son of EQC Canterbury events manager Reid Stiven, and Matt Searle, the son of senior manager Barry Searle – whose employment prompted allegations of nepotism and conflicts of interest.

Kettle formed a company called Re-Built Project Management in January with Todd. The Press understands Todd knew the owner of the St Martins house through sporting connections and then helped the owner to opt out of the EQC process.

Anything else you want to know just fire away.

(I did try to show the sources for all the above but the forum software won't let me post links yet)

[topcat83]

Originally Posted by Dani6

....
(I did try to show the sources for all the above but the forum software won't let me post links yet)

with over 5 posts you should be able to now.

[USAGary]

OCCUPY WELLINGTON!

[Song_Si]

Originally Posted by Dani6

Politics can be undemocratic and list MPs can gain seats in parliament without anyone actually voting for them.

The electoral system allows a voter to select their local candidate, and the party whose they support. Pick your local Member of Parliament who you believe will best represent your electorate, plus the party whose policies you support; may be the same of course, but gives the option for voting for eg Party X locally while supporting Party Y nationally.

What is undemocratic about that?

A national referendum was held about 20 years ago, voters had the choice, and chose MMP (mixed member proportional) which was used from 1996. Last year there was a review, and voters again had the choice of retaining or rejecting that electoral system. They chose to retain it.

All seems very democratic to me. It gives smaller parties a voice in Parliament they would not otherwise have and was I believe a welcome break from the previous two-party system. There are now eight parties represented in Parliament — ACT New Zealand, Green Party, Labour Party, Mana Party, Māori Party, National Party, New Zealand First, and United Future.

[jawnbc]

Exactly. It's democratic, even if it's not one's preferred voting system.

Undemocratic is not voting or one's vote not being counted due to corruption or tyranny.

[Weta]

I find the politics overall to be petty and childish and you're more likely to see a debate in the House about the colour of someone's hair, rather than any of the real issues of the country.

I have found that people are a lot more churchy than I am used to and I am very often made to feel like a heathen for being a non-believer. Personally I would never bring up the subject of religion among strangers but here I have been questioned at length in the workplace about my beliefs. I feel this is inappropriate but it's seen as a fast track way on how to win friends and influence people. When you work here you soon spot how some get to the top of the ladder and church plays a big part in this 'who you know' culture. If you know someone and they know someone else who goes to your church, then you're in. Its a bit of a closed shop, if you ever get invited to go to Church by a work colleauge then woebetide you if you don't go.

[Weta]

Originally Posted by Song_Si

A national referendum was held about 20 years ago, voters had the choice, and chose MMP (mixed member proportional) which was used from 1996. Last year there was a review, and voters again had the choice of retaining or rejecting that electoral system. They chose to retain it.

Its way too complicated. How many of them that chose to retain it didn't understand the question and then left wondering how the heck we end up with the likes of Winston Peters and John Banks in Parliament.