Bear's Blog New Zealand (Beta)

two for the price of one

Everyone likes bit of bargin (not just ladies), when there's a  two for the price of one deal, I would be more likely to purchase that item, especially if I really need them.

It's about this.

Botany voters can't go wrong - Vote Kenneth Wang, get Wang + Wong!

If you don't know what this is about, it's in Botany Electorate.

This ad has caused a bit of trouble because, according to  National's Pansy Wong office, it sort of endorse votes to go for Pansy, effectively making it an election campaign for Pansy Wong, without her financial agent's authorisation.

Kenneth completely rubbished the claim that he might breached the Elecoral Finance Act. I kind of agree. Kenneth is an electorate only candidate, a vote for him sure means no vote for Pansy. "get  ... and Wong" means get Wong through the National's party vote. The ad is more like a statement of fact, rather than a promotion for National.

But I was somewhat amused by Kenneth Wang's claim that this ad is offering voters 'two for the price of one' deal for the Botany electorate. Well I knew politicians are usually cheap, but I didn't know they are THAT cheap:)

Despite of that, politician is not something that you want more when IT IS at the half price.

Nah just joking. Botany electorate would be a very interesting spot to watch in the election. It's not just about who wins, it's more about how Asian, especially how Chinese vote.

Finally...

Just got rid of all the assignments at the moment, great.

Lots of interesting stuffs happened while I’m away, including the latest transport policy from National – a user pay system that charges around $5 for some sections of Motorway in Auckland. It is likely to increase the cost of an average Auckland commuter by $50 a week.

I usually refer people to this clip every time when National announces something. The user-pay system should nicely fit into that category too.

The system sounds fair, but it’s not, it only seeks fairness in the economic sense.

From a planning point of view, I’m more concerned about the accessibility issues, how to ensure that the low income people have the maximum accessibility to the opportunities provided by the CBD? Motorway is tolled; Dominion Road and Great North/South road are all in a miserable state and you cannot see a bus for half an hour in some area - well people need a way to move around a city?

Sure there’s no such thing as a free lunch, but you cannot force people to take one type of lunch or get them unfairly disadvantaged. The toll just shouldn’t go ahead without viable alternatives to people.

Finally...

Aaron Deng

As the name suppression is no longer in place, I can now name the kidnapper in the Cina Ma case.

The kidnapper's name is Aaron Deng, a 25 year old real estate agent from Ray White's Pinehill branch.

What I heard is that his family is also quite wealthy and fiancially supported his study here. I understand that he's working in Ray White not because of money to support his life, but to enable him to stay here.

So I don't think he kidnapped Cina Ma for ransom. In fact, what I heard is he didn't plan to hold Cina for that long, Mr Deng just want to "give the family a warning" by hold Cina for few hours, and then release her (that's why Cina was found only a street away).

You know the rest, the police was there most of the day, and his "plan" seems to be backfired.

It is still not yet clear on what kind of dispute between those "adults" triggered the kidnap.

Bounty on Rice.

as you may know, United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will be in Auckland this weekend.

Auckland University Students Association(AUSA) has offered a bounty of $5,000 for any student who can make a successful citizen's arrest of Rice.

I like this idea but this $5,000 bounty is unlikely to be claimed by anyone as it is very unlikely to make a "successful" citizen's arrest of a high level diplomat.

And for $5,000 it is really not worth to risk your own life, but I reckon there will be at least one attempt if there are students who actually work in the hotel where Rice stays.

Just hope no one gets hurt ...

BTW, when I was searching this news in AUSA's site, I accidentally found out that there is a large number of spam links hidden at the bottom of each page. Anyone know how to do this? I need a bit of PageRank boost as well, haha.

More on the Xin Xin Ma kidnap case.

The accused kidnapper reappeared in North Shore City District  Court today.  Nothing important, really.

However, I was expecting the name of the kidnapper being released today, but instead, the name suppression of the accused was extended to 4th August. It's a subject of huge public interest, well, at least most Chinese people I know are eager to find out the name of that guy.

Compare with other countries like America or Canada, Chinese in New Zealand is a small community, so if that real estate agent did his job well, it is likely that quite a lot of us may meet him before or knew him pretty well.

I hope the court got a good reason for the name suppression. At least now it seems that the rumours will keep flying around for another week or two. before we know the kidnapper's name.

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IUPDATE: I just obtained the personal details of the accused, including the name. However, as the suppression is still in place, I'm unable to publish all details here.

All I can say is, this case is not as simple as it may looks like.

So ... a real estate agent

A 25-year-old Chinese man appeared in North Shore District Court today and charged with kidnapping Cina Ma (Xin Xin Ma).

However, the court also granted him name supression so we still don't know much about him.

But as New Zealand Herald reported today, this man was a real estate agent. If that's true then it's not that difficult to figure out his motive to kidnap Xin Xin. Keep in mind that Cina's both parents work in the property development business.

Quite a lot of us regard real estate agents as "some kind of evil". I think this case may just another splendid example which could be used to illustrates this point.