1,2,3 listen to me.
There is a bit of disagreement coming out today around the concept of charter schools.
Interestingly the PPTA is strongly against this idea and the thought of "unqualified" teachers getting hold of our kids.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U
In general I would agree with Sir Ken Robinson that modern schooling is outrageously outdated.
Instead of recognizing this and embracing a new concept why can't the PPTA embrace a new idea.
They admit on TV that many school kids are not receiving the education they require. It's easy to blame the kids.
I would be very happy sending a child to a charter school that had good links to entrepreneurs or business leaders where they are taught by a mix of qualified teachers as well as the unqualified with more world experience - as a side note the best teacher I had at school was in his late 30's and had stopped working in the city to teach.
The PPTA reaction seems only to support the evidence that they are the ones out of touch here.
Share owners...or should we just share more.
Share owner is a bit of a of a misnomer.
Share implies making joint use of a resource where as really our intention from share ownership is to increase our personal wealth, not the community or collective wealth.
I work for a publicly listed company.
My company has been sued in the US on a patent infringement.
The share price goes down.
To counter the share price fall, sales need to go up to get investor confidence back, projects and resources are cut back and I lose commissions because my sales targets are now too high. Over all sales go up slightly and the share owners are happyish again.
Similarly a global competitor to my company guarantees 10% growth for their shareholders EVERY YEAR.
In a mature market where you have a large share of the market how do you acheive that. Sales targets up, resources and innovation down, redundancies.
If the effort to keep a handful of shareholders happy was instead focused on the company and the wider community it interacts with would we not have better work places and maybe a more profitable society?
Who really wins though. The tax accountants and lawyers.
Share implies making joint use of a resource where as really our intention from share ownership is to increase our personal wealth, not the community or collective wealth.
I work for a publicly listed company.
My company has been sued in the US on a patent infringement.
The share price goes down.
To counter the share price fall, sales need to go up to get investor confidence back, projects and resources are cut back and I lose commissions because my sales targets are now too high. Over all sales go up slightly and the share owners are happyish again.
Similarly a global competitor to my company guarantees 10% growth for their shareholders EVERY YEAR.
In a mature market where you have a large share of the market how do you acheive that. Sales targets up, resources and innovation down, redundancies.
If the effort to keep a handful of shareholders happy was instead focused on the company and the wider community it interacts with would we not have better work places and maybe a more profitable society?
Who really wins though. The tax accountants and lawyers.
Politicians. Discuss.
I briefly watched one of those droning political programs on Sunday morning where the two new Labour leadership contenders were waxing lyrical about how they were the right candidate.
Me, me, me is all I heard.
I can do this, I'll be the best, I'll do that.
"I am the first servant of the state"
This quote is attributed to Frederick the Great.
How different would it be in this day and age to have a humble leader that took this view.
Me, me, me is all I heard.
I can do this, I'll be the best, I'll do that.
"I am the first servant of the state"
This quote is attributed to Frederick the Great.
How different would it be in this day and age to have a humble leader that took this view.
Losing your culture
I recently went to Rarotonga.
Such a beautiful place, friendly people and rich culture.
Just though...
It was interesting talking to the locals however to see the effect that the world is having on this small slice of paradise.
The local government (in a modern parliamentary form) was globally ridiculed as useless and run by drunks.
The local culture from the top down is still being eroded since the first arrival of the first Europeans.
Some locals were saying that the local tribal leaders were gaining more traction and respect from the locals.
Wouldn't that be great to see a small Island reclaiming its traditional leadership structure.
Looking at how the NZ Maori are treated compared to Rarotongan or Cook Island Maori also creates some interesting thoughts.
Firstly the whole Treaty of Waitangi settlements is really laughable when you consider that the NZ Maori are descendants of the Cook Islands, so what now of the CIM's decide to seek payment from the NZM's!!??
This doesn't even take into consideration the fact that when the Maoris got here they ate all the Moriori who were at the point the technical indigenous population...
The minimum wage in Raro is $5. A loaf of bread is around $4... And yet you can stay in a beach side resort for $800 or more a night in a hotel that pays minimal rent.
Add to that the fact that ALL the food that is not produced locally is imported by ONE PERSON (a foreigner) you can see why the natives are restless.
The NZ Maori want their cake, eat it and want more.
Raro seems to be in a perfect position to adopt a New Barbarian mindset.
First off they need to cut all the processed food from the menu. They have tuna, wahoo, mahi-mahi and numerous other fish on tap, fresh mango, banana and kumara out of their ears.
You don't need a car to survive on Raro, it's 32km around. Ditch the western "need" for all the extra stuff and get back to fishing and subsistence farming of crops.
If the tribes got organised they could easily demand more than $5 an hour from these foreign owned businesses.
All this done in a positive way would surely spread more wealth ultimately and secure the culture that is as under threat as ours is from the Coca Colas and others of the world.
Such a beautiful place, friendly people and rich culture.
Just though...
It was interesting talking to the locals however to see the effect that the world is having on this small slice of paradise.
The local government (in a modern parliamentary form) was globally ridiculed as useless and run by drunks.
The local culture from the top down is still being eroded since the first arrival of the first Europeans.
Some locals were saying that the local tribal leaders were gaining more traction and respect from the locals.
Wouldn't that be great to see a small Island reclaiming its traditional leadership structure.
Looking at how the NZ Maori are treated compared to Rarotongan or Cook Island Maori also creates some interesting thoughts.
Firstly the whole Treaty of Waitangi settlements is really laughable when you consider that the NZ Maori are descendants of the Cook Islands, so what now of the CIM's decide to seek payment from the NZM's!!??
This doesn't even take into consideration the fact that when the Maoris got here they ate all the Moriori who were at the point the technical indigenous population...
The minimum wage in Raro is $5. A loaf of bread is around $4... And yet you can stay in a beach side resort for $800 or more a night in a hotel that pays minimal rent.
Add to that the fact that ALL the food that is not produced locally is imported by ONE PERSON (a foreigner) you can see why the natives are restless.
The NZ Maori want their cake, eat it and want more.
Raro seems to be in a perfect position to adopt a New Barbarian mindset.
First off they need to cut all the processed food from the menu. They have tuna, wahoo, mahi-mahi and numerous other fish on tap, fresh mango, banana and kumara out of their ears.
You don't need a car to survive on Raro, it's 32km around. Ditch the western "need" for all the extra stuff and get back to fishing and subsistence farming of crops.
If the tribes got organised they could easily demand more than $5 an hour from these foreign owned businesses.
All this done in a positive way would surely spread more wealth ultimately and secure the culture that is as under threat as ours is from the Coca Colas and others of the world.
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