Archive for the ‘News Log’ Category
About ... the Cina Ma kidnap case
It has been two and half days since the kidnap and there's still no words from the kidnapper(s).
However, there are lots of rumours in the Chinese Community though.
Most people suspect that the kidnap was as the result of a "bad business deal". This was also reported by most major media in the country.
The rumours I gathered seem to be confirming this. The parents of Cina Ma were described by many as "penny-pinching to the extreme", "cunning" or "out of all reasons" in business deals.
I don't want to go into specific examples here, as they are currently unverifiable. However, it was said that only the new immigrants want to do business the them because they haven't experience "how bad they are".
Rumours are rumours. Even if they are all true, it would still never be accepted to me, and all good members of Asian community, that any business dispute should ever been dealt in this way.
People who commit crime on innocent children are despicable. They should not be tolerated and should receive the maximum punishment available. They are the thugs of our society we want to remove before any others.
The recent protest shows that we will not stand any crime, regardless of the ethnicity of the criminals. We will not stand for crimes against our community.
My heart goes with the Cina and her family. Hope we will see Cina back home soon.
...again?
A five years old girl, Cina Ma, of Chinese descendent, was abducted outside her North Shore house around 12.30pm today.
Asians were targeted in South Auckland, but now this really starts to worry me.
The abductor was masked and there was no other known witness apart from the girl's 8 years old cousin.
However, it doesn't look like the usual "gangsters" who just want some quick cash - no ransom demand, or any other kind of news regarding the girl have been made by the abductor at all.
Ma's home is located off the main street in a new subdivision, where there is very little traffic normally; so it is quite unlikely that the abduction/kidnap is a random action. The family must been targeted for a long time.
I'll be closely monitoring the media (and the Chinese ones) in the following days.
Truck blockade
If you don't know what I'm talking about, here's the chance to catch up the news.
People are expecting total chaos in tomorrow morning's commute hours, and starting to blame the truckies.
I agree that we are a democratic society and people do have the right to protest and I totally respect truckies' right to protest.
However, those truckies should also keep the purposes of a protest in mind:1) to threat somebody(or an organisation), 2) to win more support.
Clearly, the blockade tomorrow is more like a threat to government, with little or no consideration to the people who want to support them.
Yes, every protest will inevitably create some inconvenience to other people, it should be minimised for the sake of those people.
I supported bus driver strike. One of the reasons for that is because they didn't drive the buses on the road to protest, instead, they stopped driving and protesting at bus stops and depots.
Sure that made some of us unable to go to work, but that is quite understandable - you can't expect them to drive buses while on a strike?
Life is hard for every one of us already, so next time when you want to do something, please, minimise the impact on others. Why not just park all the trucks in an open ground and have a all day loud shouts + BBQ?
Softly, softly
The wave of crimes happened in South Auckland ([1],[2],[3]) are, yes, very sad, especially when all three victims are ethnic minorities.
However, I have no reason to panic.
If my memory serves me right, the crime rate have been gradually decreasing since the abolishment of capital punishment. Read more
shocked
I am absolutely shocked to see ban on sex selective fertilisation is recommened by the Bioethics Council, a ministerial advisory committee to be loosen.
Whether this happens in mother's womb, or in vitro fertilisation, the practice is highly unethical, and very wrong to allow people playing god, unless it is necessary treat a genetic disorder or disease.
What fundamentally wrong about this, is that all the reasoning for this recommendation is based on the assumption that a child is the property of his/her parents so parents have the right to choose between a boy or girl, just as the freedom of choice people exercised in clothing colours when they are shopping around.
It doesn't take a moment to realise that this is very wrong.
If every one wants to exercise the freedom of choice, then the unborn babies are also human being, they also should have the right to choose whether he/she wants to be born as the child of such parents, or choose not to be born.
But babies cannot speak. So at end of the day it's the group who cannot stand for themselves suffer.
Apart from ethical issues, this will also create gender imbalance in our population.
One of the reasoning the bioethical council used to justify this selective fertilisation is that parents who had three boys or girls should have the right to have a opposite sex baby.
I have serious question on those councillors' professionalism in this field. Yes that is the fact, but the larger fact is that if I got three boys, it is very likely that a family somewhere else in New Zealand also got three girls, thus maintaining an overall natural balance.
If every one who got three boys or girls go for sex selective fertilisation, the gender balance would not become a problem. But the problem is, not everyone will act in this selfish way.
This issue has to be consulted properly, not just a report or 700 people's opinion. Any rush on rule changes will cost us our country's future.
Sex selective fertilisation should only be allowed if it is for the well-being of the child, not parents.
About ... the oil price
Caltex raised the petrol price at NZ $2.06 per litre for #91 in Auckland earlier today. This price is simply mad, and more people are now really feeling the pinch.
When I first settled in New Zealand, that price was around 90 cents.
I started to commute by bus around the time when the price of oil was somewhere around $1.80. The fuel cost simply does not justify the benefits of our car dependent lifestyle. I now need around $100 to fill up the tank, however, the monthly bus ticket, which costs just about the same.
If you are that sort of people who work in one place, and live in another place 50km away, I think it’s the time to change your lifestyle. Next time when you are on the move, try to move somewhere close to your workplace, or at least close to a public transport.
Yes, it is a little sacrifice of freedom of moving around, but it saves you a considerable amount of money, and our environment.
That’s also why we need to buy back the railway system, make it a not-for-profit service.
However, our daily commuting is only a small part of adverse effect resulted by this high oil price. Nearly everything in this society is sort of oil related. Food, daily commodities ... nearly everything we use was transported by oil-dependent transportation like Airplane or ships at some stage.
High oil price fuels inflation, especially on basic commodities like food.
Dr Cullen may has his point on not to cut the tax on petrol, but something has to be done to save suffering families, otherwise what’s the point to have a finance minister receives his salary from tax payer’s money, but doing nothing?
May I suggest removal of GST on basic food like milk and bread. It’s not major source of government income, yet it is important for the survival of families.
Also, taxing food is something that’s simply very wrong anyway.Right to life is one of the essential human rights in Universal Declaration of Human Rights, so why should any form of government or authority has the power to tax on my survival?
I also have serious concerns on what kind of roles oil companies have played. When the oil price increased oversea, they usually reacted by a price hike in very next day, regardless of the fact that the oil they purchased oversea need about a week or two to be transported to New Zealand.
But when the price oversea is down, those international oil companies suddenly all start to remember the fact that the oil we use here were purchased when the price was still high, so no price cut.
I read about this somewhere a long time ago, it was said that government was monitoring the profit margin of those oil companies, and the margin was quite consistent.
I have found it very hard to believe.
Anyway, we are in the middle of a crisis. My prediction is that the #91 price will peak about $3.5~4 a litre before any relief from international market.
No matter where the price will peak, it is very unlikely that the oil price can every be reduced the “good time” level, i.e. 90 cents per litre.
Unless ... one day we suddenly discovered a large reservoir of oil below Southern Alps or Auckland Islands, or genetic modifications enable us to grow a pair of wings on everyone’s back.
Unfortunately, both are very unlikely to happen in a near future.
So a total lifestyle change is the way to go.
