James Hogan's Personal Blog
Sunday 4 September was a glorious day, for no other reason than the sun was out for the first time in what felt like months. But I had another: the day before I had just brought a brand new carbon fibre mountain bike. So, of course, I had to take…
ADDENDUM: PROGRESS ON WAITING LISTS – August 2022 As predicted back in May, the expert committee’s action proved ineffective. Former DHBs were told by the Expert Committee they need to book everyone in for surgery (stellar advice!) (https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/473303/hospitals-directed-to-book-surgical-slot-for-thousands-of-patients-by-month-s-end) And… Not much else happened: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/ldr/473204/south-auckland-s-elective-surgery-backlog-up-251-percent-in-year ORIGINAL POSTING FROM MAY: I can’t…
Always take the opportunity to read signs. Here’s one I found on my travels. It’s a very functional sign, devoid of hyperbola or ceremony. It speaks nothing of the time this road took to make, the amount of labour effort which went into it, nor the loss of whatever it…
Singapore really is, for me, the Land of the Free. It’s big news is they’re just about to repeal Section 377A of the Penal Code which criminalises homosexuality. All good. But the Singaporeans are concerned about the impact of the change on its society and its culture. It’s not worried…
Productivity – how much output is created from a given volume of inputs – is one of economic’s most important metrics. Productivity captures everything about economic development and economic ordinance. Technological change, process change, labour skills improvement and capital improvement are all get captured in a productivity metric. Countries rise…
One of the reasons why market solutions are superior to centrally planned solutions is that there tends to be a better match between supply and demand when provision is left to the market. Scarcity or abundance, reflected through price change, is a far better and faster signal of shifts in…
Pinning New Zealand’s latest inflation figures on overseas factors misses a distinction between a temporary “price shock”, and an increase in “permanent” inflation. New Zealand is experiencing permanent inflation, and it was caused by the Reserve Bank of New Zealand. New Zealand’s inflation rate, back in March, was an annual…
From here: https://www.rnz.co.nz/programmes/hair-and-loathing/story/2018813537/culture-colonisation-and-the-short-and-curlies Firstly I heard from Ana Mcallister, she’s a artist writer, Instagram influencer and a body positive wahine Māori -@Nope.thank.you.very.much There has been a lot of mahi around wahine and the decolonisation of their periods. Ana said there isn’t the same focus on this in terms of body-hair but…
I’m currently watching an acquaintance doing the Tour of Aotearoa on bicycle (https://vicsefton.wordpress.com/). It’s a four week unsupported cycle from Cape Reinga down to Bluff.I tried it last year, but got into mechanical difficulties north of Auckland at exactly the time the government decided to put Auckland into lock down…
Of course, the government could just announce the next step in its Omicron response….But it would much rather announce its intention to announce the next step in its Omicron response, and get two sucks at the media headlining saveloy…
All of New Zealand is in “the red zone”. Everyone in Wellington is staying away. Here’s Lambton Quay, Wellington’s “Golden Mile”, at 12:15pm today … Businesses are struggling because economic demand is being strangled by the government locking New Zealand down
FROM THE HERALD – 16 FEBRUARY 2022 Dealing with Covid needs a mindset change Let’s keep calm, keep healthy and, more importantly, get vaccinated and boosted. In the end we will get there and back to our ‘new normal’. The New Zealand Herald Dr Bryan Betty is medical director at…
So, I’m sitting at the Lower Hutt COVID testing center, waiting to get a test. I’ve been here for over two hours now. The government coordinating this is a complete mess, and waste of time. The reason for the long time delay turned out not to be related to volume:…
CONTEXT: I WATCH TOO MUCH TV I’m watching a documentary on Netflix called, “The Tinder Swindler” about a con artist. The antagonist is an evil swine who stole what the documentary maker guesses was approximately $10 million dollars from innocent women whom he met over Tinder. My blood boiled. I…
Last year, Victoria Sefton was one of my regular blog readers while I was doing the Tour of Aotearoa. This year, she’s going to be pumping her own peddles and doing the hard kilometers. Follow her travels and support her: https://vicsefton.wordpress.com/home/vic-sefton-tour-aotearoa-blog/ Also, every tour rider contributes to a charity. Feel…
Today, in Wellington, thousands of normal people peacefully protested the government’s COVID-19 policies. The protest, reported by RNZ as having approximately 3000 protestors, was much larger, and filled Lambton Quay for 45 minutes, as the crowd marched to parliament. Unlike previous COVID protests, this march missed the usual kooks and…
I’m of the firm belief that at some stage (preferably during their youth),everybody needs to get in trouble with the law. It’s only when you butt up against authority do you really know the power and strength of authority and all the things it’s legitimised to do to you. And…
From https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/457811/regions-hit-hard-as-rents-increase-nationally Ardern ‘determined to see a change in housing’ “No one wants to see our housing market crash,” Prime Minister Ardern said at the post-Cabinet meeting press briefing this afternoon.