Well Done

[James Deuce]

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3867475a11,00.html

Maybe there's less wrong with NZ than you lot seem to think.

[Coyote]

Wow, you may be right there

[bistard]

Yes,I saw that article in the paper & was impressed,I take back all those things I have said about the youth of today,well most of them anyway

[James Deuce]

We spend so much time looking at the floating poo in the toilet bowl that just won't flush, that we forget to look at the rest of the mansion we live in.

Most people do the right thing every day, but all we hear about is a tiny minority of losers, and significant events that have a negative impact for those involved.

[Coyote]

Yes,I saw that article in the paper & was impressed,I take back all those things I have said about the youth of today,well most of them anyway
Yeah, some of us are real bastards

[yungatart]

It's human nature I guess, but we seem to like to read bad news rather than good.
Well done to that young man and good luck to his family, they are lucky to have him.

[bobsmith]

Most people do the right thing every day, but all we hear about is a tiny minority of losers, and significant events that have a negative impact for those involved.


Don't you mean to say, "most people do the wrong stupid thing everyday and we're surrounded by so many losers that we've forgotten to celebrate those minority who do the right thing"?

[Blackbird]

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3867475a11,00.html

Maybe there's less wrong with NZ than you lot seem to think.


Greetings Mr Walsh

"You lot" is a bit of a sweeping statement mate. I've travelled pretty much all over the world and am still of the opinion that Kiwis have a greater concern for their fellow man than anywhere else I've been. As an ex-Pom but having been proud to be a Kiwi for over 30 years, I reckon that some of the biggest grizzlers are Kiwis who presumably haven't travelled much. Every country has aspects which need improving but there needs to be a sight more pride in this country than there appears to be.

Rant over

Geoff

[Paul in NZ]

Yes - I agree with you Jim but we cannot ignore to toilet either because it may just overflow and the mansion becomes uninhabitable.

Personally - I wish the media would be a bit more positive and hold up role models for us to appreciate without feeling the need to then rip them to shreds in front of our eyes at a later date. I'm sure this young man will fuck up at some stage (and it will be reported) but I'll bet all the hard work and sacrifice will not be..

Good on him I say...

[James Deuce]

Greetings Mr Walsh

"You lot" is a bit of a sweeping statement mate.

Yeah it is, but the amount of abuse dished out on KB when one refutes that a single news article indicates the decadent collapse of NZ society has made me a bit gun shy of late.

I thought it needed to be pointed out that this chap has made the sort of choice that earns respect and for every one of him there are 10 who've done the same thing without any publicity.

The NZ press reports every case of GBH, manslaughter, murder, sexual offending, gross negligence, and excessive fraud. There are more countries who have it so bad that only the murder of a publicly visible figure will be mentioned in the press than there are places like NZ.

You are right when you point out that those with limited life experience seem to hoot the loudest.

I can't wait for one of the 20 somethings to pop in here and tell me I'm talking out my arse and there are more machete weilding lunatics in NZ than people who want to live in a "society" of like minded individuals.

[James Deuce]

Yes - I agree with you Jim but we cannot ignore to toilet either because it may just overflow and the mansion becomes uninhabitable.



We employ and vote for people who are supposed to support the framework that we want.

We have a method for modifying their behaviour, but very few NZers take the political choices they make seriously enough for it to work.

I'm not suggesting that we ignore the toilet. We just need to pop in and sort it, instead of contemplating the passage of the poo on the surface of the water and then concentrating on the legislation required to stop the poo from ruining the mansion. There's other stuff going on.

Interesting too, that these kids have been brought up in a de facto relationship and obviously a "merged" family.

[Hitcher]

The thing that scared me most about that story was how young the "grandfather" in the photo looked...

I suspect young Toshi's "engagement" with bureaucracy is about to begin. I wish him every success.

[Grahameeboy]

We employ and vote for people who are supposed to support the framework that we want.

We have a method for modifying their behaviour, but very few NZers take the political choices they make seriously enough for it to work.

I'm not suggesting that we ignore the toilet. We just need to pop in and sort it, instead of contemplating the passage of the poo on the surface of the water and then concentrating on the legislation required to stop the poo from ruining the mansion. There's other stuff going on.

Interesting too, that these kids have been brought up in a de facto relationship and obviously a "merged" family.

I support you Jimbo.....a Kiwi actually prepared to take on some responsibility and not rely n the Govt.............

[MSTRS]

A quiet hero - obviously this guy had excellent role models in his own upbringing.

[xwhatsit]

Good on the guy for taking some responsibility.

Regarding the perceived negativity of the media, well, it's doing it's job. We actually need the press to be showing us these parts of society. If they don't, then you end up with a situation like they had in Soviet Russia, or to a lesser degree in China these days, where only the good parts of the country are ever shown, and any bad parts are somehow twisted to support the great People's Democracy. The US seems to be heading the same way these days, with greater interference in the press.

We need to be shown the bad parts of our society, so we don't forget our boundaries, and we don't stop trying to improve our country. It's social reinforcement of our values, and what they are not. As an extreme example, if we'd never heard of the crime of murder before, how would we know it is wrong? Most of us would know, but there are many who would not.

In Jim2's words, if the media were not there to constantly remind us of the floating turds in the toilet that just won't flush, all the other toilets in the mansion would end up with floating turds too.

[onearmedbandit]

The thing that scared me most about that story was how young the "grandfather" in the photo looked...

I suspect young Toshi's "engagement" with bureaucracy is about to begin. I wish him every success.


What photo is that Mr H?

[James Deuce]

In Jim2's words, if the media were not there to constantly remind us of the floating turds in the toilet that just won't flush, all the other toilets in the mansion would end up with floating turds too.

The problem I have is the consistently cynical people who use every news article as "proof" of the decay of NZ society.

They also decry statistics compiled by Statistics NZ as being "twisted". The agencies that use those stats will definitely spin them to their advantage, but the raw data analysis by Stats NZ, while not utterly uncompromised, is pretty much just crunched numbers. The people that work there are statisticians, not politicians, media analysts, or Police Association analysts.

Violent crime per head of capita has been on a steady decrease in NZ.

Crimes of dishonesty are on the increase.

The gap between high earners and average wage earners is increasing, but the only thing that has changed in NZ IMO, is the successive campaigns of fear around such diverse topics as immunisation, stranger danger, and the campaigns against legally available stimulants and depressants.

In other words, "right thinking" vocal minorities telling us how to live, and using a position of privilege or near privilege to access a news media hungry for tabloid sensation to show how stupid the people who don;t live like them are.

This has lead to a big chunk of NZ society, more than adequately reflected in KB, formulating "opinions" based on the ideals and values of a minority of NZers that aren't reflective of society at large.

The values of rich Socialists and rich Tories are suspect in the extreme.

This kid is doing what most people I know would do in the same situation. Standing up for the people he cares for.

With the constant focus on the turds of NZ, we all lose sight of just what good bastards the rest of us are.

[Hitcher]

What photo is that Mr H?

You'll have to buy a DominionPost to see it, I suspect. There's a great cover photo of Toshi with his assorted siblings and "grandfather", who looks younger than me. Concerning, when Toshi's late father was 38 years old.

[onearmedbandit]

Oh, thanks.