The land of the long white cloud.

New Zealand is not called ‘The Land of the Long WhiteCloud’ for nothing.  When you fly into New Zealand, the first thing you see is cloud, a long white cloud marking the land. And flying in on Tuesday, sure enough, right along the North Island and over Mount Egmont, there was the cloud.

New Zealand is made up of two main islands, both long and narrow with a spine of mountains running from the south of the south island to midway up the north island and into the sea. The country is basically built on a huge fault line in the earth, on the ‘ring of fire’ tectonic plate, and also known as ‘The Shaky Isles’, because New Zealand experiences many earthquakes.

Yesterday we drove from Masterton to Napier, along the east side of the main ranges. There were some interesting cloud formations along the ranges so I have put a couple here.

Cloud formation over the ranges east of Woodville.

We were also interested to see the expansion of the Woodville wind farm. There are many more of these wind turbines now. I’m not sure how much power they get off these, but it must be a bit.

 The rivers along the east of New Zealand are almost dry. We have been amazed to see what is normally a reasonably sized river practically non existent. Another sign of the drought.

The Tukituki river outside Waipukurau, practically non existent.

It is also very very dry along this way. Most of the North Island is now drought declared, and they say this is going to cost the country lots of money in lost milk etc. Production is falling and farmers are using their winter feed now. The short term forecast is for more dry weather although the long term is for rain during autum.  It is really interesting to listen to the radio and see the major differences. In New Zealand, rural matters predominate. In Australia, farming is important, but mining is high on the list of topics, along with satisfaction or dissatisfaction with how the country is being run.

Political correctness gone mad?

We know that political correctness now rules our lives, a great example being  no more chairwomen or chairmen, now we are a chair.

Job advertising is now fraught with danger. We are not supposed to specify who we want. We can't ask for a man or woman, old or young, fat or thin, brainy or dumb, and we most certainly are not allowed to ask for someone of a particular colour, race etc, even if our job is in a shop that sells oversized clothing in the middle of a black neighbourhood, asking for a fat black older woman, (who would really fit the bill), is, well,  you just can't do it.

So I really enjoyed this article from the Stuff New Zealand site. We get lots of really interesting articles here.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/small-business/7762511/One-honest-job-advert

So, yesterday they highlighted a job advertisement. Here it is.

 I have copied and pasted from their site.

"It was this advertisement that presents as fully complying with both the literal and philosophical intent of the act - the truth, the whole truth and no weasel speak.

"You will be Very fit Have a full driver's license Have a passion for conservation and the outdoors Be a NON-SMOKER Be prepared to work weekends (happily) [they could have said work happily full stop] Be prepared to work long hours (12 + a day) [good clear expectations] Be prepared to work away from home Mon-Fri Be prepared to sleep in huts, tents, woolsheds, under trees etc Able to wash, use deodorant and keep your personal hygiene to an acceptable level, this may mean washing/showering in cold water [reality; tell them how it's going to be].

"This job is not for wimpy, faint-hearted, soft, 'run-to-mummy' halfwits with pants halfway down their bottoms! [good specific person specification]. We only want staff that will do as they are told by their supervisors [how many of us wish we'd said that in our advertisement or in the employment agreement?], follow company rules and can put up with being wet, hot, cold, exhausted, hungry and thirsty, and you also need to be able to sit in a van for three hours and not complain to us [we don't listen & we don't care]. You need to be of a stature that you can walk around the hills and bluffs, and climb in and out small helicopters without terrifying the pilot. If this sounds like you, then you're probably completely mad and we would love to have you. Please phone . . . NO TEXTS."

What a relief. An employer who tells it like they want to see it.

There is no room to grizzle later that you didn't know what you were getting into.

This employer must have been to the latest "Employment Relations Act: briefing on good faith" and really taken it to heart. Good on them!

It is a salutary lesson though for everyone who drafts job advertisements. Keep to the truth, keep it in simple terms and don't say anything that isn't the truth. By telling the truth you can be humorous and present an advertisement that will only attract those you want to attract.

Try and produce an advertisement that avoids jargon where possible and doesn't use euphemisms.

"Handyman's Dream" may work in real estate but it has become so hackneyed and overused that it is just a euphemism for a "disaster site". People begin to take the mickey and you lose credibility. The same thing happens for job advertisements.

Don't call a person a manager if they don't manage. Don't call someone a consultant if they don't consult. Don't hide the reality.

Sometimes if you are honest and upfront it creates such a surprise that you get commended for it, and even better you don't fall foul of the "good faith" obligations placed on both employers and employees.

Here's to employers writing "non-fiction" rather than "fiction" in their advertisements.

- Brian Richardson is an employment and human resources adviser at Preston Russell Law. Email questions to:  brian.richardson@prlaw.co.nz."

This job was advertised in a Southland newspaper. For those of you who don't know New Zealand here is a map.

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/maps/pacific/new-zealand/

Southland, as would seem to be accepted is at the very south of New Zealand, so from about Dunedin down. The weather there in the winter is cold, snowy, with winds straight from Antarctica, bleak, miserable, and often quite foul. On the other hand, it is a land of the most beautiful scenery and mountains, so on a good day, its pretty special. Below is Queenstown as evening settles on the lake and The Remarkables range.

experiencequeenstown.com


So, the article really appealed to me. In my humble view, political correctness has long since over taken common sense. What do you think?

Earthquake drill in New Zealand.

New Zealand is not called the 'shaky isles' for nothing. There are earthquakes all the time, often small ones that no one feels, but often big enough to shake the house, and sometimes some real doozies. I have been through a few whoppers in my time. Once living in Napier, around 1970, there was a really big one. I had a baby in the cot and I rushed in to get her out if necessary. As I looked out the window the power lines were banging into one another, sparking and spitting. My sister said she watched the road and it was moving in waves, you could see the waves coming along the road.

So New Zealanders are very well educated about earthquakes. I think that if the Japan earthquake or the big one off Indonesia in 2004 had happened in New Zealand, everyone would head for the hills, we know the signs of the tide receding before a tsunami.

However there is no way of foretelling accurately when an earthquake is going to hit, so you just have to wait til it comes, see how big it is and react accordingly.

We know about the big earthquake that his Christchurch last year. It has caused massive damage, and the aftershocks are still rolling around. We have friends there and keep up to date with how things are going.

So, New Zealand decided to have an earthquake drill today.  This is the article from Stuff.co.nz, a news website we often use to get NZ news. Here is the link:

www.stuff.co.nz/national/7728746/Kiwis-get-set-for-morning-throwdown


"Kiwis get set for morning throwdown
Last updated 05:00 26/09/2012

Nearly 1.3 million people will drop, cover and hold this morning in
New Zealand's biggest emergency drill.

The New Zealand ShakeOut will start at 9.26am, with people in offices, schools and homes around the country sliding quickly under the nearest table.

Civil Defence director John Hamilton said the Canterbury quakes had showed that many people still did not know how to respond during a quake.

"People don't always do what the best practice indicates they should," he said. "By doing this en masse we can capture those people on the fringes."

Civil Defence was hoping for more than 1 million participants but by yesterday nearly 1.3 million people had already registered.

"It has been an absolutely fabulous response across the country."

Civil Defence had based the ShakeOut on similar drills in California, where as many as 8 million people participated, he said.

Wellington has emerged as a huge supporter of the drill, with more than 170,000 residents in the area registering.

A mass drill will be held at Wellington International Airport.

Quake-weary Cantabrians were less enthusiastic, with only 15 per cent of Christchurch residents signing up.
Many Wellingtonians who spoke to The Dominion Post said they would participate despite not registering, meaning that the final number taking part could be much higher.

However, others said they would not be joining in, either because they would be asleep or working.
Surprisingly, while many people said they'd be participating in the drill, few had taken other safety measures such as having emergency kits or stored water.

QUAKE REFUGEE READY FOR DRILL
Sam Etheredge left Christchurch to escape the quakes but this morning he will be braced against the doorway again.

After the February 2011 quake struck, Mr Etheredge packed his car and abandoned his damaged central Christchurch home.

"I just couldn't really live there. You can't sleep because of the shaking, thinking it might be another big one," he said.

More than a year later, he is taking part in the nationwide earthquake drill, New Zealand ShakeOut, from his Wellington home.
"I just feel it's something I should do."

When the earthquake struck last year, Mr Etheredge was working at Christchurch casino and watched dozens of people flee outside, contrary to prevailing wisdom that you should never leave a building during an earthquake.

"The place just emptied. I ran out of the building too."

This time around, he is planning to do it right - "although I still don't have water stored away".

WHAT TO DO IN AN EARTHQUAKE

DROP on to your hands and knees (before the earthquake knocks you down). This position protects you from falling but allows you to still move if necessary.

COVER your head and neck under a sturdy table. If there is no shelter nearby, get down near an interior wall (or next to low-lying furniture that won't fall on you), and cover your head and neck with your arms and hands. If you are outside move no more than a few steps away from buildings, trees, or power lines, then drop, cover and hold. If you are driving, pull over to a clear location, stop and stay there with your seatbelt fastened until the shaking stops.

HOLD on to your shelter until the shaking stops. Be prepared to move with your shelter if the shaking shifts it around.

BE READY FOR THE BIG ONE

Every earthquake kit should at least contain:
Torch and radio with spare batteries
Wind and waterproof clothing, sun hats, and strong outdoor shoes.
First aid kit and essential medicines
Blankets or sleeping bags
Pet supplies
Toilet paper and large rubbish bags for your emergency toilet
Face and dust masks
Non-perishable food for three days
Food, formula and drinks for babies and small children
Water for drinking for three days, with three litres a person, a day
Water for washing and cooking
A primus or gas barbecue
A can opener
- © Fairfax NZ News"

I thought the whole idea was really good. I lived in Wellington for some time and worked in a nine story building and we had a 6.3 quake one day. I was surprised at how well the building coped, but they are forecasting a 'big one' one day, and that would not be a nice place to be.

True blue, ridgy didge, and all that.

One of the backbones of  Australian culture is the mateship, the true blue behaviour, the ridgy didge honesty, and according to one of our previous prime ministers, having a fair shake of the sauce bottle. You know what I mean? Up-front, above board, fair go and all that.

Well, those dratted Olympics are still on, and nowhere else is it more blatantly obvious that us Ozzies are true blue and ridgy didge. We get behind our athletes, channel 9 TV spends hours covering their exploits, (mind you it covers far more ads than sports), interviewing them, and generally giving those of us who are more housebound, and certainly those of us who don't have paid TV,  a balanced overview of the Olympic world.

NOT!

Sitting in my comfortable leather armchair yesterday the TV presenter made a hurried comment about New Zealand doing better than Aussie in the medal count, but not to mention that! As I have said in other posts, Peter browses the newspapers daily, and guess what he found yesterday.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/olympics/7415429/New-Zealand-races-up-alternative-medal-tables

If you want good, (I won't say unbiased, because I don't think any newspaper is unbiased) but certainly wide coverage of anything, Stuff.co.nz is pretty good. Even when we lived in China we used to get more info about China from this site than anywhere else. But, back to the games. Here is a direct copy/paste from the NZ paper.

"New Zealand's gold medal rowers have pushed the country to the top of the population-based Olympic medal ranking table, and Australia's not too happy about it.

Victory in the rowing pairs and single events overnight, along with a cycling bronze for the men's pursuit team, took the Kiwi medal tally to three gold and three bronze medals.

In contrast to the joy in this country at the performance of our athletes, many Australians are glumly contemplating their meagre - for them - haul of one gold, nine silver and four bronze.
 
So deep is the despair that official free-to-air Australian Olympic broadcaster Channel 9 avoided showing New Zealand's charge up the medal table, which took this country to tenth at one stage before settling at 12th by the end of the day."

Now, if you are watching channel 9, when they show the medal tally, they absolutely do show only the top few medal winning countries, then they plonk Aussie at the bottom.

Now the rub:  Here is a further quote from that newspaper,

"According to an alternative ranking system, New Zealand is first when calculated on a population basis, 11th when the table is based on GDP, and 22nd when based on team size.

The alternative tables are a co-production of the Royal Statistical Society, statisticians from Imperial College in London, and The Guardian's Datablog section.

Apparently these guys did not want to make anything too easy, so they say they have worked out how many medals each country would have won based on a weighted count.
 
Using that approach, when the medal count is population based, New Zealand would have won 21 gold medals by now and 12.6 bronze for a total medal haul of 33.6, while Slovenia would be second with 14.9 gold and 17.9 bronze for a total of 32.8."    End of quote.

So, someone decided they would work things out on a population based method. This would put NZ first, and China way down the bottom.

At the end of the day, I don't worry too much about how many medals anyone has got. I know for a fact that I won't be getting any, nor any of my friends or family. So that takes away the immediacy of the problem.

But at the same time, when living in Australia, a country whose news generally refuses to admit that NZ actually exists, (except for the times the NZ apples bring in some bugs of some sort), it's really hard to get any good up to date news on the NZ Olympic efforts. As for those poor souls from other obscure countries, they will  never get any news of their Olympic exploits, the TV stations wouldn't dream of telling us.

Anyway, the method of giving us the medal tally,  I thought, was a really good example of the good ole true blueness of living in a ridgy didge country where the sauce bottle gets the hole glugged up from underuse.