what is a new zealander?

from the herald

Despite almost half a million people claiming their ethnicity as "New Zealander" in the last census, Statistics New Zealand is opposed to making the grouping official.

"Initial consultation and research suggests that including a New Zealander tick-box would alter the meaning of the question so it is more about nationality and less about ethnicity," statistician Geoff Bascand said. "This could affect the accuracy and usefulness of the data collected."

In the 2006 census 11.1 per cent of people gave New Zealander as their response when asked to which ethnic group they belonged.

It was the third largest grouping after New Zealand European and Maori, and jumped from 2.4 per cent in 2001. But New Zealander does not have its own category and falls under "other".

In 1996 Pakeha was bracketed next to New Zealand European but was dropped after some adverse reaction. A high-profile campaign in 2006 sought to get New Zealander its own tick-box, but the status quo remained.

A Statistics New Zealand discussion paper issued yesterday recommends no changes to the ethnicity question for the 2011 census.

It says that, of those who wrote New Zealander, 90 per cent would come under the New Zealand European group.

Academics say the desire to drop the "European" element shows a search for a new identity.

However, Auckland University geography senior lecturer Ward Friesen said that, if more people responded as being New Zealanders, ethnic data would become useless because it was non-specific.

The ethnic groups in the census include Maori, Pacific people, Chinese and Indians. The data is used particularly for planning health and social services.

But Dr Friesen said New Zealand European was not always the most appropriate term, especially for new migrants or those whose families had lived in New Zealand for generations.

Wellington School of Medicine associate professor Tony Blakely agreed: "We are in desperate need of a word that describes those who would fall under New Zealand European."

Statistics NZ is seeking public feedback until May 25.

there has been some discussion over this. what does it mean to be a new zealander. the term pakeha is actually becoming offesnsive to some people, being as it means, alternatly, foreigner, european, or (more offensivly) white pig.

the declamaton on the census of nz european is not suitable as many new zealanders have never been to europe. how many ancestors, they ask, have to have been born in this country before we become a race of our own?

interestingly, there are also some grumbles of another category-that of asian. indians are not the same as chinese and so on

i wonder whether this question is still appropriate. maybe it was a couple of generations ago, when much of the population were immigrants, but the fact that a number of people are identifying themselves as kiwis (myself included), perhaps this is no longer relevant.

what it does say is that maybe the population are starting to see themselves as one people.

FOR GOD'S SAKE, PANIC

its now quarter past six on a monday eveing and all 6pm new bulletin so far has been about the swine flu. the story has, of course dominated news throughout the day.

the goverment have asked that anyone who has been to mexico lately and are showing flu-like symptoms are to wander along to their g.ps and get tested

an expert from WHO has said that while there is no need to panic, this new strain of flu could decimate the human race

and yet, people seem remakably unconcerned. after all, the millenium bug, sars, bird flu, muslim terrorists and robot cockroaches from venus were also supposed to kill us all. the reaction to this new threat is being greeted with a sardonic "yeah, right"

after all this flu hasn't killed any new zealander yet. 14 people died in car accidents this weekend

rainy sunday in front of sky movies part two

second hand wedding

whereas there will be blood was quite heavy going, second hand wedding was a light easy watch. set in a new zealand suburbia of garage sales, fiances called darren,garden sheds and times when a cup of tea really is the solution to all problems, there is an easy connection to its audience. not even remotely ironic (not even the john rowles cameo) its a warm hearted watch

there is anice little sting at the end, though

actually, an ideal movie for a wet post-dialysis sunday afternoon

rainy sunday in front of sky movies part one

there will be blood

hmmm, a linear narrative from paul thomas anderson? well, not quite.

there is daniel day-lewis and some other people, but you really only notice day-lewis.

an impressive performance, but not an engaging one. i felt curiously uninvolved

lest we forget

tomorrow is anzac day

i won't make the dawn service, but i'll try and get to the mid-morning one at the domain, and pay respect to grandad's brother, whose name is carved in the memorial in the museum

i sometimes wonder what would have happened if he'd made it home. we could have had a whole bunch of cousins.

i've also sent a donation to the hamilton rsa in dad's name.

there is always someone ready to be offended

one thing that annoys me is the way some people say "its political correctness gone mad". its increasingly being used as a replacement for "i'm not racist, but..." as a preamble to saying something extraordinarily stupid.

nonetheless, there are times when a complaint just makes me roll my eyes and go "sheesh-get a life"

this week a canadian tourist made a highly publicised complaint about the marshmallow lollies known as eskimos. apparently eskimo is now an offensive word as it means something like "cannabilistic meat eater" given that the lollies are vaguely human shaped, its kind of understandable how the cannabalistic implications could be offensive. on the other hand, what does that say about jelly babies?

the race that used to be known as eskimaux (grammatically correct plural) are now known as innuits.

"how would you like it", she said, "if we made sweets called honkies?" (well, i'd try one)

it just goes to show that you can never do anything these days without considering the socio-policitacal ramifications of your actions. annoying, isn't it.

pscall (who make the lollies) are not planning on changing the name, but i understand the green party are asking that the lolly ggets a more appropraite name. they are suggesting "vaguely human shaped marshmallow, pumped full of sugar and terribly bad for your teeth."

he's frank (slight return)

its been really interesting watching a genuine military dicatorship right on our doorstep.

in december 2006, commodore frank bainiarama staged a military coup in fiji, ostensibly to root out corruption in the government and to improve racial equality between the indigenous fijians and the indian population.

nz and australian kicked up a fuss and starting pressing him to restore democracy, but frank was steadfast that he would not.

the former prime minister took frank to court and last saturday, the court found that frank's government was illegal

frank stepped down, but the president of the company sacked the judges, suspended the country's constitution and appointed an interim prime minister. go on, guuess who it was. yep, thats right, frank was out of office for less than 24 hours.

there has been a media crackdown, all foreign media have been expelled, all local media have been told that they are only to write positive stories (do journalists know how to do this?). the fijian media are used to this-after the initial coup, any journalists who wrote things that displeased frank were arrested, taken to an army camp and forced to exercise.

frank has also been quoted this week as saying that free speech is not condusive to getting a new constituion in place. on being asked whether he thought that a free press was crucial to civilised society, he responded "no, just ask me the questions and i will answer them"

on the other hand, he has also devalued the fijian dollar, so that holidays there are now cheaper

school for scoundrels

checked out the remake of school for scoundrels today. don't bother

the original, made in 1960 and starring ian carmicheal, terry thomas and alistar sim was actually quite funny (and i think i've still got it on vhs somewhere)

the new version stars billy bob thornton and jon heder and was made by people who have no idea how comedy works.

the original was based on the lifemanship books by stephen potter. it seems that the new version had never heard of stephen potter.

after it was over, i thought that there should have been a way to remake it well. with the profusion of management and self-help books, there was an opportunity to make a clever satire on corporate culture. instaed they settled for an insipid love story with random bits thrown in.

file under "dimension films owes me 90 minutes of my life back"

I smell winter

so, it's 1.30 and i'm sitting at my desk wondering whether to start one big job, or do a bunch of small ones when the dialysis unit rings me. they say that someone on the afternoon shift hasn't turned up, so do i want to take the early slot.

resisting the urge to ask if i can just not turn up too, i say that i will take it.

my estimation that i would be there is 45 minutes turned out to be a little optimistic; a combination of people leaving early for the long weekend and rain turned the motorway into a slow moving river, and once i got there, largely due to a blood pressure machine that just wasn't working properly (79/36 with a pulse of 240 my arse) i didn't get on until 3.

not a bad session, although the bottom needle wasn't sitting properly and so fell out when they took off the sticky tape, i got a good clearance-brief cramp but was nowhere close to going flat.

i got out at quarter past seven. the rush hour was just about over and the temperature had dropped so that when i breathed in, i could taste the oncoming winter.

ironic that the one thursday when it did't matter what time i came off, i got home early

have a happy easter

The writer's tale

Just finished reading "The writer's tale"
It is basically a years worth of e-mails and texts between journalist Benjamin Cook and writer Russell T Davies over the writing of Season 4 of Doctor Who.

Cook queries Davies on the hows and whys of writing while Davies tries to answer in between completing scripts for the show. There are draft scripts for the "Voyage of the Damned", "Partners in Crime" and the two episode finale and a lot of self pity from Davies about how he doesn't have time to write.

Its a fascinating book on the creative process and I thouroughlly recommend it

the greatest thing before sliced bread

Apparently, the answer is the toaster.

The first commercial toaster went on sale 100 years ago this week.
Originally called the D12, it only toasted one side of bread at a time, and you needed to watch it to prevent the toast from burning (I think we've all had a similar model at one time or another).

The toaster became popular because toast is an ideal way to keep stale bread edible for another couple of days, and this way, you didn't have to make a fire every time you wanted a slice

It soon appeared that it was diffiult to cut the bread to the right size for perfect toast-too thin and you got a mouthful of croutons, too large and the outside would be burnt black while the inside was still cold.

So, bakeries began to pre-slice bread so that they would be the ideal size for toast.

I love little bits of history like this.

hallelulla

Former brothel becomes a church
A former Queenstown brothel has a new owner - a Christian church group.
Queenstown Christian leaders Chris and Janet Barraclough have moved their
Vineyard Church into the former Candy's Gentlemen's Club in Shotover St.
The former brothel,which offered spas, sauna and massages, closed in December when the building's lease ran out.
The first Vineyard church was founded in California in 1974 and there are now more than 1500 churches globally.
A sign outside the building described Vineyard Churches as "orthodox and
evangelical in belief, while at the same time practising Pentecostal power

I suppose they can use the spa pools for baptisims