Musings, perspectives, rants

I think not.  Just in the last couple of weeks there have been more attacks on tourists: for example - one guy being randomly beaten and now having to spend his two-week holiday in hospital; and a German hitchhiker being murdered.  Tourist websites and brochures really should stop pushing the 'safe' aspect.  It is NOT safe to hitchhike alone or even in pairs.  (A couple were murdered several years ago.)  And New Zealand isn't particularly friendly.  No more so than anywhere else.

I just wrote a long entry about New Zealand schools and the web ate it.  It disappeared after I pressed 'Publish'.  Fucked if I'm going to rewrite the whole thing.  However...

Essentially what I said was that NZ schools are still old-fashioned, conservative disciplinarian institutions.  The Human Rights Commission acknowledge that the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child has not been incorporated into NZ education law.  So the NZ child, and I'm thinking more of the secondary school student,  basically has no rights.  They are not encouraged to voice their views. There is no freedom of expression.  They are not permitted to argue with the teachers.  'Shut up and do as you're told' is the prevailing attitude.

New Zealand schools have a very high number of suspensions and expulsions.  It's purely the school's decision as to what they regard as 'bad behaviour'.  I'll give you two arbitrary examples.  A student will be denied his/her right to education if his/her hair is an 'extreme' colour and will be made to stay home until the hair is dyed to a more 'natural' colour. ( How is one to know what particular shade of red is acceptable?)  Isn't this just a little ridiculous, denying education because of the colour of ones hair?  The other example.  No piercings, even if you happen to have a nose piercing and you're Indian.   There's no point complaining to the Commission.  They do not have the power to rule over school's rules.  School rules outweigh human rights.  The Ministry of Education unquestioningly accepts the school's judgement over behaviour.

The schools seem to regard discipline as the highest priority.  So guess the result.  Kids resent their teachers and the arbitrary rules, are treated like young children, don't want to be at school, can't wait to leave, get bored.  New Zealand has a very high rate of youth suicide and a very low rate of teenagers in education.

I won't even begin to rant about the quality of education itself.  In an environment of petty rules and teachers shouting at you, who wants to learn anything?  Spelling is out the window.  It's rare to come across anyone who can actually spell properly.  In my line of work I deal with university students - supposedly the more intelligent young people.  I'm astounded at their lack of skills - in writing, in general knowledge, their narrow thinking.  NZ schools are not educating these people - they're just 'controlling' them.

Children and Youth in Aotearoa   www.acya.org.nz/LinkClick.aspx?link=ChildrenYouthAotearoa2003_Appendix15.rtf&mid=336

It's basically a myth, unless you count the artificially fertilised denuded grass paddocks full of sheep and/or cows.

A small article on page 8 of one of yesterday's newspapers illustrates my point:

Ngakawau is the site of the Stockton coal mine.  The worsening pollution has turned a once clear river into a lifeless, black flow, devoid of life.  3600 tonnes of coal and 1400 tonnes of dissolved aluminium infiltrate the waterways running through Stockton opencast coalmine and end up in the river.

"Every time it rains aluminium and coal fines wash down St Patrick's stream and Mine Creek and over the former (sic) scenic attraction of the Mangatini Falls".  Between the Conservation Department survey in 1998 and the Solid Energy survey in 2003 fish life disappeared.

This is just one example of pollution in New Zealand.  As I've said previously, the only reason it's not as bad as other countries is because of the small population of 4 million.  New Zealand in my opinion is proportionately no 'cleaner' or 'greener' than any other western country.

The government has had the audacity to propose starting up coal-powered power plants.  We do, thankfully, have some wind-powered turbines dotted around the country, but not without fighting the selfish locals who think they're 'an eyesore' or 'too noisy', and a threat to 'bird life'.  Bullshit.  There are some turbines near where I live.  The closer ones are rather large and hard to miss but when the evening sun shines on them I find them rather attractive.  They are not noisy at all - you can't hear them.  The number of birds killed would probably number less than one a year.  They're not so stupid or blind.  These people who moan about a green alternative when it might appear on their backyard really make me sick. 

Another briefer example, talking of rivers.  It's estimated that 95% of New Zealand rivers are too polluted to either drink from or swim in.  How is that 'clean'?

Don't believe the tourist brochures.  NZ is no better.  Money talks, as everywhere else.