On busy mode again

I was struggling to write something here in recent weeks, but I just could not find enough time to do so. It's that usual end of a semester busy mode again, and I'm currently having 3 assignments and at least 1 presentation on the to do list. Plus other personal commitments I have to make, the priority of update my blogs isn't that high any more.

I'm expecting that I could finish most of the works before or after Queen's Birthday, so I'll be back around that time, but before that, the update of this blog is halted. HOWEVER, you will still be able to find me in other places. I am still present on Twitter, and I have increased the number of tweets on current affairs in English.

The other thing is, I have made some of my RSS subscription categories publicly available for quite a while now, although I didn't post the links on this blog:). Most of my information and ideas came from those nice bloggers, so I just think these pages might be helpful if you are not a very into reading via RSS:

• blogs-china-politics (in Chinese)
  
• blogs-china-english
• blogs-new-zealand
• Magazines (mix of two languages)

Well, then, have a happy, safe Queen's birthday if I failed to make myself back on time.

Napier Shooting

I am quite busy this month so I expect more time between updates in this blog. However, I still had enough time to watch the incident in Napier unfold.

Unlike a lot of backseat drivers who have never been to the site, I have no problem with how the police handled the inccident.  It is more than obvious that police wanted the gunman Jan Molenaar alive, otherwise AOS would storm the house before we know it. Unlike the Aramoana massacre, Molenaar snapped, but he poses no immediate threat to the public, therefore it's best to talk it out rather than end it with another life lost and put the Police in further danger.

The real problem of this tragedy, I think is the internal police procedures. I still prefer the polic to not carry any guns in daily patrols, but this incident was to carry out a search warrent, but the police failed to foresee the danger of such activity so failed to carry guns. It's the police authority failed to protect the safety of police force.

This was also the case in the death of Don Wilkinson. His fate was sealed when they decided not to carry guns.

Mt Albert By-election

Local issues tend to get magnified in by-elections, but I cannot see that in this election yet. All two major parties have announce its candidate for the by-election, but non of them really know the area well - Labour''s David Shearer was a International aid worker; National's Melissa Lee, there's very little known about her stand on local issues.

This is more of a party contest now.

Unlike a lot of tories dreaming of getting an extra seat but have no vote in this, I happen to actually live in the electorate. You have to admit this is a very red seat, National never took it before, the last close call I could remember was in the 1990 election, but Clark still managed to hold on the seat despite Labour's poor showing nation-wide. If this is a National-Labour contest, I could see no chance for National.

But this is more than a two party contest, so National may got a chance, but just. It will depend on:

• Performance of Russell Norman, his ability to split hard left votes.
• How successful Nats could brand Shearer as the "national-lite".
• Turn out rate.
• Development of the supercity proposal.

It's still too early to call but I understand Labour does felt a bit nervous right now, many of residents got Labour polling phone calls recently, but that's understandable, given that the party has just lost an election, and Shearer is a relatively new face, therefore there are a lot of uncertainties.

For me, I do admire Shearer's career as a international aid worker, for that, I think he deserves this seat, as his skills of managing refugee camps would come quite handy as some parts of this electorate do give you a refugee camp kind of feeling. Although Clark was a successful Prime Minister, I do feel she owes quite a lot to her electorates, some areas didn't gain a lot from the economic development in the last few years.

Swine flu

I have been watching this lately. It's very unfortunate that New Zealand students contracted the virus in Mexico, and brought it back to the country. However, New Zealand is still very lucky so far, just a few isolated cases, not a full pandemic.

Also although for most of the time I was very critical of the government here, this time I have to say, the health authority has done quite a a good job. The response was fast, open and transparent, it gave people confidence and assurance so they got no reason to panic.

However, I was totally shocked to see the ignorance of some people here in the country (quite a lot of them in the Herald discussion forum). "This is just a media hype", "it's fuelled by pharmaceutical companies", "normal flu kills more than this". They are demonstrating the total lack of knowledge on ..everything. That's fine, no one knows everything but the important thing is, those people got no interest to learn, but choose to remain arrogant - they just don't know how lucky they really are.

Although there is no reason to panic right now, people need to be aware and closely watch the development of the situation. This is a new H1NI strain (same as the Spanish flu) and most of us got no immunity.It may appears to be mild and not that pathogenic right now but if we just sit and let the virus spread, it is almost certain that this strain will mutate and who knows how this virus may evolve.

However, even to adapt the conservative version of death number, the overall mortality rate is about 5%, which is still significantly higher than normal flu mortality rate - I don't have the number here but if my memory serves, that number should be around 0.4%. Now you start to see why this thing needs to be controlled.

First it was the air force

Now is the whole defence force. While I was away, National's Defence Minister Wayne Mapp just told NZ public his "philosophy":

"We have 105 of them (Light Armour Vehicles), mostly parked in garages where they are in long-term storage. My own philosophy is Defence should have things they use and don't have things they don't use."

I immediately started to wonder how he got that post - by that logic, New Zealand's whole defence force is simply a waste of money, nobody is going to invade us as far as we could tell, and all our forces sent oversea are largely non-combat forces. Defence is like a life insurance, you buy it, and hope that you or someone else will never use it (well in this case, some needed to be used for training purposes).

His comment worries me quite a bit, but the associate minister, ACT's Heather Roy, is even worse:

"The Defence Force doesn't necessarily need to own everything. It could work in a partnership where somebody else owns the land or owns the buildings and they lease it back."

Well, I have an idea for this government since they are in the mood of privatisation (where's the election promise?), how about ...  let's privatise parliament buildings, at least the debating chamber. Here is my reasoning:

1. The debating chamber is rarely used - no more than half of the year, so ... what a waste.
2. ... and Parliament doesn't have to own everything it uses.
3. so the chamber could be used to host picnics, or give a private company to run tours.
4. it costs less to tax payers - as tax payers only pay for the building when it is actually in public use.
5. it's also more efficient - if every minute use of the chamber costs money, I hope parliamentarians would keep their debate and squabbling succinct - although I know I put my hope a bit too high.
6. ... the current debating chamber is too much of luxury for politicians. A large garage would do anyway. or we can have the British house of the commons style, let the MPs squeeze in the seats.

So what are we waiting for, let's do it! I look forward to have my picnic on the speaker's seat.

Yet another break from this blog

I know it's bit sad to take two breaks from my blog within quite a short period. This time is different though, I'm not just being lazy, I need some time to deal with my personal difficulties. It's about my personal issue, so as usual I won't discuss it publicly.

I don't know when will I be capable to start this blog again, but, at least a week.