Cross-Cultural Language Difference Appreciation

Interesting day! Quietly loving how the Broadcasting Standards Authority (BSA) operates šŸ™‚The BSA is a New Zealand government body created under the Broadcasting Act 1989. Their function is to “receive and determine complaints from persons who are dissatisfied with the outcome of complaints made to broadcasters”, and to encourage the…

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Sustainable Development Seen Through an Economics Lens

When we think about environmental resources what do we mean by ā€œsustainableā€ development? Economic growth is the change over time in the volume of goods and services which are available for investment or consumption. With increased production comes higher incomes, wealth, and improved living standards. Economic development, the reward from…

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Heat, Spiders and Crashed Aeroplanes

Last week I boldly and deftly led from the back a small, but hardy group, of timid (but brave!) adventurous thrill-seeking explorers into the mountains of New Caledonia. Our quest: we searched for the final resting place of a World War 2 United States Airforce Douglas R4D-1 supply plane that…

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Omagosh! Asia is Angry with Donald Trump

BTW: a gentle plug for Pressreader.com, my source of truth, alternative truth, and the most likely thing that occupies the middle.Is he good? Is he bad? Does he care? Is he strong? Does he love America and hate war? Or does he love power, and hate freeloaders..Frequent readers of my…

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Thank you

CAUTION: GORY PHOTOS IN BLOGWith sepsis and streptococcus infection to my leg, I could have died.Merci beaucoup Doctors Sylvain Rouches and Lisa McIlwraith. Merci New Caledonia’s health system, Allianz Insurance and SPC.Merci beaucoup to Rebecca for her care, my friends and everyone in the health care system who saved my…

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Pay Equity Laws and “Structural Gender Discrimination”: Economics Component

As an Economist, this REALLY annoys me: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/560417/opposition-ramps-up-to-government-s-pay-equity-moveThe whole concept that you can look across different industries and try to equate remuneration rates without looking at the demand and supply pressures on the industries themselves is economic ignorance and massively annoying!For Economists, its like people claiming the Earth is flat…

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The Mighty Bedouin 2

I’ve sold my boat, which I brought with John Wood and John Andrews.Here’s some happy snaps. I’m feeling all nostalgic… There’s nothing more certain in this world than the fact that everything around you that you know and love will change.… queue sad song  

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A Smooth Sea Never Made a Skilled Sailor

Its been almost two months weeks since I moved to Noumea. It’s time for a bit of retrospection: what’s gone well, what hasn’t, what have been the obstacles, lessons learned, and the rewards gained. What has gone really well The Organisation of Opportunity The Pacific Community (SPC) is such an…

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Night at the Sassy Kava

So there I was…It’s not every day you find yourself in Fiji. Especially when this morning you were getting your kitchen installed, after your wife had just melted down about how bad the kitchen was.I bagged my stuff and tools of my trade and shuffled out the door of a…

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Eugenie Sage: Our Most Regressive Politician

Before she, thankfully, stood down from re-election in October, Eugenie Sage from the Greens already ranked highly on my shit-list of worst political decision-makers ever.She was the “brains” behind the outlawing of single use disposable plastic bags. A Really Bad Decision-makerShe wasn’t alone in her left-wing appetitite for using public…

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The Best Stories are Economic

I’m watching These Final Hours. All the best movies are grounded in economics.This wasn’t a Wall Street movie. It wasn’t about money, or greed. It was about economics: choice, constraints, outcomes and uncertainty. It was an apocalypse story based on economics. Wasn’t this an Australian Sci-fi?That’s the thing about sci-fi…

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