After many days New Zealand finally tastes success at Beijing. Two gold medals a silver and two bronze. The most medals New Zealand has ever won at the Olympics on single day. Perhaps even more exciting is that they were across three different sporting events rowing, cycling and shot put. When you consider that there are only four million people in the country and it is difficult and expensive for New Zealand sports people to get international competition “it is no mean feat “ and the athletes are to be commended for their sacrifice dedication and achievements.
read more http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/4/story.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=10527486
Our day did not stop there the All Blacks beat South Africa and the Warriors our NRL team won their game. So there were many happy people and now doubt some very happy punters
-
New Zealand’s Golden Day at Beijing
@ 2008-08-17 – 20:29:33
-
Is that too much to ask?
@ 2008-08-12 – 15:58:52
The opposition are saying that if they become the government there will be an active programme to force people on benefits into paid work. The government has a scheme titled working for families where people with young families are paying reduced levels of tax. What people need to decide is……. do people respond better to incentive or to threat. The withdrawal of the benefits was advocated by the governments in the 90’s and had limited success and yet the opposition would see this “tried and failed” option as viable in the year 2009. The same opposition is suggesting that the public service needs to be reduced. An “off benefits and into paid work” would seem to be a very people intensive measure, and may in fact mean more public servants need to be employed. Other considerations might be if people have their benefits withdrawn because the fail to move into paid work what do they do?.... Turn to crime… We need to think carefully about our next votes and consider the big picture not just what is best for ourselves. Is that too much to ask?
-
Oil Prices Trend Down
@ 2008-08-11 – 21:59:50
For some time now oil prices have been trending down rather than up. It make a difference and with the grocery voucher worth between 6 cents and 10 cents per litre it seems too good to be true. Filling the car is still expensive but not as bad as it was. The question is will it stay down? The present conflict in Russia does not look good and could cause supply problems. Lets hope for the sake of the people who live in the conflict zone some solution can be found quickly and no more loss of life will result. We then may also benefit with continuity of supply to the European areas and consequently to the world.
-
Is there a Secret Agenda?
@ 2008-08-06 – 20:12:02
As the New Zealand election campaign hots up it seems that the opposition may not be revealing all that they intend to do if they are elected to government. Over the last week end the opposition held their annual conference. Some IT savvy individuals recorded parts of conservations that took place during the conference. The audio was made available to the main TV news links.
The audio was played on the news. Listening to the audio which was also captioned it was not difficult to infer that
• There will be major asset sales
• The opposition is not as unified as it purports to be
• Some of the present legislation currently in place may well be repealed.
All this despite giving many reassurances to the contrary in recent weeks. The spin doctors have been busy trying to counter the “damage”. The incident must leave a lot of doubt in the voters mind. -
Are tax cuts real?
@ 2008-08-04 – 15:40:51
The New Zealand general election is now only about 14 weeks away. The main parties are talking tax cuts. The government having already revealed their policy and the opposition inferring they will up the offer by the government. However the opposition states they will be borrowing money for infrastructure. It seems to me that they are “trying to hood wink the voters” there also seems to be a strong possibility they will sell Kiwi Bank one of only two New Zealand owned banks in the country. The voters of New Zealand will need to carefully consider how they will vote as this election may well be more important than most people realise. Will tax cuts give us more spending power or just be a way of getting us to pay more insidious forms of indirect tax
-
Insurance costs spiral to 50 million as third storm nears
@ 2008-08-02 – 17:02:23
The last thing an already stretched economy needed
read more
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10524882 -
New Zealand storm insurance claims now $25 million
@ 2008-08-01 – 20:40:11
Insurance claims have continued to rise to more than $25,000,000 after this week's storms, Arborists in the North Island have had to emloy extra people to meet the demand created by thousands of trees felled by high winds.
From Horowhenua to Upper Hutt dozens of trees fell on houses and other buildings and thousands of others are blocking roads and access to homes -
Floods and Devastation in New Zealand
@ 2008-08-01 – 00:07:05
Fifteen homes threatened as a hillside in Torbay slips away. One house condemned and the others regarded as seriously at risk. Many people in the South Island evacuated from their home because of flooding. Hundreds and hundreds of mature trees some more than 85 years old blown over. Roads closed by floods and slips. Schools closed. Roofs blown off windows blown in and water supplies disrupted. Five people drowned in the sea or flooded rivers. Seaside homes have been destroyed by the raging seas. A cruise ship has more that fifty people injured and is returning to NZ. Early insurance claims exceed ten million dollars. A big clean up begins..............
-
Repair cost above $10,000,000
@ 2008-07-31 – 17:54:55
During the recent storm in New Zealand the P&O cruises ship Pacific Sun was hit by 7 metre swells and 50 knot winds when it suddenly rolled 600km north of Auckland. Forty-two people on the cruise have received medical treatment.
The storm has continued to lash New Zealand as it has moved down the country towards the South Island. It has been confirmed that the person lost has drowned while trying to cross a river and it seems likely that her husband who is also missing may have also drowned. Some initial estimates of the damage caused by the storm put the costs at millions of dollars.
The weather is still stormy but hopefully the worst has passed. -
Extensive damage from second major storm
@ 2008-07-30 – 09:35:07
The second major storm in less than a week has caused a lot of disruption for many people. There are many fallen trees, slips and flooding blocking many roads. The far north is cut off from the rest of the island. Police have advised motorists in Northland, Auckland, Waikato and Coromandel to drive cautiously and stay off the roads if possible. There have been no reported causalities so far. Considerable damage has been done to property and the environment.