Well Done

[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.