30 years…are you serious?

January 6, 2012 By

GNS scientists today released information that they believe that aftershocks could go on for 3 decades in Christchurch!

From TVNZ.co.nz

GNS Science seismologist Kelvin Berryman told ONE News that magnitude three aftershocks are likely to go on for a “number of years”, and that magnitude one and two aftershocks “could go for 30 years”.

Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority Chief Executive Roger Sutton said people should not be alarmed by the predictions.

Not to speak out of turn, when a Dorklander of all people shouldn’t be commenting on Christchurch, but seriously…30 years!!!

Lets flip this question then. How many people would move to a region that is being promised earthquakes for the next 30 years? I have to be honest and say I do know one, but they are moving there because of the earthquakes and to help the people suffering there.

People outside Christchurch…would you move there?

Filed Under: Christchurch, Earthquake, Economy, New Zealand, People who need their heads read

A City of ‘Destiny’

January 6, 2012 By

Last night TVNZ was scraping for news so as one of its lead stories brought importance to an issue…that isn’t an issue.

Destiny Church is buying some land and building a community there.

Sorry…is that it?

Like minded people since time immemorial have been living together, how is this…at its core…any different?

Ask the Catholics, Anglicans, Presbyterian in fact any other religious denomination how they would fund a new initiative from a present for their Vicar to a new swimming pool (I’m looking at you SHC), where do you think that money comes from…the members of the group.

I find it interesting that last night was TVNZ’t turn and today TV3 has it on their website and I am assuming that it’ll be a lead on 3News tonight.

I am sure John Campbell is a little annoyed that he is not on air at the moment to make the most of this non-story as usually Campbell Live embarrasses themselves by looking for issues that are not there when it comes to Destiny Church.

Now this is not to say that I am in full agreement or comfortable with everything that Destiny Church does, or everything they teach, but I have always been confused with the ferociousness at which the media sees a story when the words ‘Brian Tamaki’ or ‘Destiny Church’ are used.

Some ex-Destiny members are unhappy with their experiences there, others say that because of their experiences at Destiny they are alive today. That’s called life and everybody seeing things differently.

Whom would you rather live beside, a Destiny Church member, or a gang member? A Destiny Church member or a flat of 18 year olds? A Destiny Church member or a Satanic Church member?

To testify how this is a non-story, it was actually spoken about, according to TVNZ, on New Years Eve, and they only ‘broke’ the story last night. Surely if this was a real story of  interest and concern, it would have come out on Jan 1st…wouldn’t it?

TV3 has asked the question on their website Does Destiny Church’s influence concern you? of which most of the early comments are negative.

Why does TV3 ask these kinds of questions about Destiny, but not other areas of life…has anyone ever seen “Do the Greens influence concern you?” or “Does women’s influence concern you?” or “Does the Mongrel Mob’s influence concern you?” The answer is that those groups, or any other, are not as easy a target as Brian Tamaki and Destiny Church.

I am not concerned of the influence of Destiny Church, and I don’t think you should be either.

Filed Under: Brian Tamaki, Christianity, Destiny, Media, Money, Religion, The bible Tagged With:

General Debate: Waitangi Day

January 6, 2012 By

Each year I do a little something special on Waitangi Day, I have been choosing to celebrate it for a few years now and get frustrated with sectors of society that choose not to celebrate it.

I’ve had a bit of stick in the last 24 hours about questioning why people wouldn’t leave Christchurch, that’s fine I’m a big boy and can take it, but I’m left with this thought.

It seems that many people are more in love with their local area (Canterbury, Auckland, Waikato etc…) and celebrate it in many personal ways, but when it comes to celebrating the nation as a whole on Waitangi Day…lots of people ignore it. Why is that?

I’d love to hear your thoughts about Waitangi Day. What if means to you and how you are celebrating it this year. If you’re choosing not to celebrate it I’d like to understand that as well, why not?

Check out www.waitangiday.org.nz to see what we did last year.

One month to go…time to start planning your celebrations of this awesome country!

Filed Under: Celebration, New Zealand, waitangi day Tagged With:

What’s in a blog?

January 6, 2012 By

Since my post yesterday about people leaving Christchurch I have been thinking long and hard about what I want in this blog…and I’d like your thoughts.

One thing I find hugely annoying about blogs is that 99% of those that reply to the notions set before them, those that comment on the blogs, seem more to be fans than contributors, I’d love this place to be somewhere we can discuss different points of view, and disagree with each other. As long as it’s respectful I don’t have a problem with opposing positions.

I enjoyed all the comments from yesterdays post, when I was doing talkback it was the differing opinions that made the show interesting…there’d be nothing worse than people agreeing with each other all the time.

If you listened to me on Newstalk ZB you’ll already know this, but for those who have found me subsequently to my departure I love politics, religion and issues that are unique to NZ. I imagine I’ll be writing about those things frequently here and I hope you participate, both if you agree…and disagree with me and others who reply.

Please feel free to write anything that comes to mind in the comments section of this post about what you’d like to read about to make you a regular visitor…I’d like to know.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With:

God Bless America

January 6, 2012 By

I love these kinds of stories, the ones that for some reason could only happen in America.

From cbswashington.com

A Charlottesville-area elementary school has been accused of making students sing a pro-Occupy Wall Street movement song.

Written and performed in October as part of the Kid Pan Alley group at Albemarle County schools, “Part of the 99” has resulted in a backlash from parents nationwide, and has given the foundation reason to train its facilitators to steer students away from controversial subject matter in their songs.

And more…

Blogs such as Big Government have criticized the song as being “Marxist rhetoric.”

“The simplistic left wing economic nonsense of this ditty boggles the mind. But to an impressionistic third grader, it plants poisonous seeds at odds with long egalitarian American traditions that disdain class hatred,” the blog states.

I say God Bless America, because I love these kinds of stories, they always make me smile because American media so overplay things and everything has a sinister agenda.

Now would I like my kids singing a song in support of the occupiers…probably not, in fact it reminds me of a post I wrote on my old blog when one of my daughters came home with a sticker in support of the NZEI, I didn’t like that and let the school know about it, not that I was against the message necessarily, but kids at school should be kept out of being promoters of these sorts of things.

But back to the American media, my concerns voiced in that post are a pretty far way from making accusations like “Marxist rhetoric” like the article linked above.

The reaction, and overreaction of the American media is one of the things I love about America. It’s greatly entertaining to watch…just not that informative.

Filed Under: Education, Only in America Tagged With: ,
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