Bear's Blog New Zealand (Beta)

New 2008 Beijing Olympics cartoon

I felt unable to laugh on this one like the one before

It is unclear that who is the author of this cartoon therefore I'm unable to provide the original source.

I have a very grave concern about author's personal safety if he is living in China.

EXAM

My last one is at 1st November(Thursday).

I'll reappear here after that day. But before it, there is hell lot of works to do.

Are we going too fast on battling Climate Change?

The New Zealand Institute issued a weird looking (at least to me) report today.Prepared by Daviding Skilling, the report suggests that New Zealand should be a "fast follower" rather than a leader in Climate Change, and delay meeting its emission reduction targets under the Kyoto Protocol to 2020. That target deadline is currently set on 2012 and we are very likely to fail to meet it. Read more »

It's Labour Day today...

... But do you know that this year's New Zealand Labour Day coincides with International Stuttering Awareness Day?

Started in 1998, this day is aiming to "recognizes the growing alliance between speech-language professionals and consumers, who are learning from each other and working together to share, give support, and educate one another and the general public on the impact that stuttering has on individuals' lives."

I'm very open about this. I suffered from stutter since the day I started to talk (in Chinese), and still, today, though significantly improved.

In early years I was laughed by nearly every people in my life, even my relatives. I never lable those laughters "discrimination" because it's not their fault: there was very little public awareness on stutter, and people don't treat it as a clinical disorder, especially in a Chinese society where most eldlies (including my grandparents) believe that give their children a slap on the face everytime they stutter will cure the disorder.

This sort of things happended in my life in just about 15 years ago.

I settled right here in New Zealand around 2003. What I really enjoyed about New Zealand society you feel far less discriminated because of your speech difficulty. Most people will wait quietly to let you to finish the sentence without any laughter.

But in most of the cases, people who waitted me to finish the sentence are not awared of that I'm a stutter; based on my Asian apperance, most of people thought that I just have a very bad English.

This International Stuttering Awareness Day is not well observed in New Zealand. Stutter happens only in less than 1% of population. In a small population such as in New Zealand, this 1% can be easily ignored.

However, I'm very grateful that I had the experience of being ignored and discriminated. Because of this, I treat every person in my life, whether they are physically or mentally disabled, fairly, and in the same respect that I would give to everyone else.

Eden Stadium funding

John Banks seems to be bit too excited about his re-election to Auckland's mayoralty. In the news today, he said that he would pull out ratepayers' fund from Mt Eden Statdium upgrade.

We don't live in a world where things just happens without cash, so who should pay for the 2011 World Cup?

I'm bit left, but I also like right wing sometimes: they do things on common sense, not "social values" . My version of common sense is that, people and groups who will benefit from the stadium upgrade should pay. Based on that, here is the list of people and groups that I think should pay, from the biggest payer to smallest.

Central Government -Rugby world cup and Mt Eden statdium are the issues of national importance. The cup will bring benefit to the whole country, and central government should come up with the largest share of funding to represent the benefit that it will receive (increased tax, tourism...)

NZRU - no explanation needed.

Businesses in Auckland - clearly, some businesses will benefit from the cup.

and, lastly, I cannot see any benefit that an average Aucklander can get from this. An increased wage? Possibly, but that also means more taxes paid. In fact, people are more likely to get annoyed by increased amount of car and pedestrian traffic.

If interests of people are harmed by an activity or a building upgrade, what is the proper way to compansate those people? You pay them.

That concludes my opinion.

Welcome Back, Mr Banks.

In 98% of vote counted, the former Auckland Mayor John Banks, has a clear lead of more than 11,000 votes to the current mayor, Dick Hubbard.

In council and community board elections, right wing groups overturned their defeat in 2004.

Citizens & Ratepayers has a 2 seats majority in Auckland City Council. That puts Mr Banks in a comfortable position to implement his policy and purposals in his three year term.

Citizens & Ratepayers has also won the majority in most community boards in Auckland.

I hope this mayor can stay longer than just one term. We have three one term mayors already, there is no need to add another one.