Daily review 21/07/2023

8 comments on “Daily review 21/07/2023”

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1. 1

   Damn Yanks
   1. 1.1

      Now do Brazil.

      And how many of these 10.7 million Africans were shipped directly to North America? Only about 388,000. That's right: a tiny percentage.

      In fact, the overwhelming percentage of the African slaves were shipped directly to the Caribbean and South America; Brazil received 4.86 million Africans alone! Some scholars estimate that another 60,000 to 70,000 Africans ended up in the United States after touching down in the Caribbean first, so that would bring the total to approximately 450,000 Africans who arrived in the United States over the course of the slave trade

      https://web.archive.org/web/20121017120159/https://www.theroot.com/views/100-amazing-facts-about-negro-0

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_Brazil#The_end_of_slavery
      1. 1.1.1

         Damn Brazilians
2. 2

   Is that moron Michael Wood still standing in Mt Roskill?
   1. 2.1

      Apparently yes – he'd already been nominated for the seat (this is typical for a sitting MP, who intends to remain in Parliament). And there is no indication that he's going to follow Nash and resign the nomination. Labour haven't released their final list yet, since they're doing re-selection to replace Nash and Whaitiri – and, I think another couple of seats are yet to be finalized.

      I don't think that there is any mechanism by which the party could get him to vacate the nomination – if he doesn't want to go.

      Wood, apparently, also believes he has a significant degree of support on the ground in Mt Roskill – time, no doubt, will tell.

      "I've spent the last couple weeks on the ground in Mt Roskill, and actually, I've had a really good response there," he said.

      "A lot of people have sort of said: 'Look, you silly goose, you got this wrong. You need to sort these things out, get back and get focused on the issues.' That’s what I’m doing."

      Wood, when questioned, said he was not playing down his issues.

      "I'm just reflecting the feedback from people on the ground, where they've acknowledged I made an error around these issues. They expect in New Zealand that you put these things right, that you get on with business, and that's what I'm doing."

      https://www.1news.co.nz/2023/07/18/embattled-labour-mp-michael-wood-referred-to-privileges-committee/
3. 3

   Bali Haque can be a divisive figure (or at least his opinions, can be).

   But I think he is absolutely right to sheet home much of the failure in education to the Ministry. It is profoundly dysfunctional in actually providing the environment to enable schools to operate and learners to succeed; and seems to be incapable of learning from it's mistakes.

   The issues to be resolved:

   • Dysfunctional MoE
   • Cross-party agreement – stop the political football around education.
   • Support teachers and principals through the necessary reforms.
   • Restructure the school board system – which has profoundly failed in many areas.

   https://www.stuff.co.nz/taranaki-daily-news/news/300930633/school-education-reforms–lots-of-churn-and-continued-decline
   1. 3.1

      Osbert Sitwell said he was educated during the holidays from Eton.

      Seems NZ school pupils are headed in the same direction.
      1. 3.1.1

         Perhaps the students will turn out like Isaac Newton.

         He was, apparently, an undistinguished student when he was an undergraduate at Cambridge from 1661 to 1665. When the University closed down in the 1665 – 1667 period because of the Great Plague he spent the time at home where he came up with Calculus, his theories of Optics and the Law of Gravitation.

         Not bad for a young chap wasn't it. What are the chances there is someone out there in the New Zealand community who will have been doing something like that?

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