Friday, July 02, 2004
There's life in them old bones yet
A striking characteristic of the current job market, says the latest Jobs Letter, is that new jobs have increasingly been taken up by older people. Employment for Kiwis 60 years and older has grown 138% between 1991 and 2003. In contrast, employment growth for people 15-39 years was 10%. The Department of Labour offers several reasons for this, including the rising percentage of the population in the older age bracket, the abolition of compulsory retirement, and the raising of the age of eligibility for superannuation. It also surmises that due to changes to the tertiary education funding, more parents are having to support their children longer, resulting in parents having to continue working after they might have retired.
A striking characteristic of the current job market, says the latest Jobs Letter, is that new jobs have increasingly been taken up by older people. Employment for Kiwis 60 years and older has grown 138% between 1991 and 2003. In contrast, employment growth for people 15-39 years was 10%. The Department of Labour offers several reasons for this, including the rising percentage of the population in the older age bracket, the abolition of compulsory retirement, and the raising of the age of eligibility for superannuation. It also surmises that due to changes to the tertiary education funding, more parents are having to support their children longer, resulting in parents having to continue working after they might have retired.
There's life in them old bones yet
A striking characteristic of the current job market, says the latest Jobs Letter, is that new jobs have increasingly been taken up by older people. Employment for Kiwis 60 years and older has grown 138% between 1991 and 2003. In contrast, employment growth for people 15-39 years was 10%. The Department of Labour offers several reasons for this, including the rising percentage of the population in the older age bracket, the abolition of compulsory retirement, and the raising of the age of eligibility for superannuation. It also surmises that due to changes to the tertiary education funding, more parents are having to support their children longer, resulting in parents having to continue working after they might have retired.
A striking characteristic of the current job market, says the latest Jobs Letter, is that new jobs have increasingly been taken up by older people. Employment for Kiwis 60 years and older has grown 138% between 1991 and 2003. In contrast, employment growth for people 15-39 years was 10%. The Department of Labour offers several reasons for this, including the rising percentage of the population in the older age bracket, the abolition of compulsory retirement, and the raising of the age of eligibility for superannuation. It also surmises that due to changes to the tertiary education funding, more parents are having to support their children longer, resulting in parents having to continue working after they might have retired.
The spell checker's lament
Do you get frustrated with your computer's spell checker? You're in good company, as the following poem by that ubiquitous poet Anon testifies:
I found this poem at the homepage of The Grammar Goddess, Diane Sandford, who dispenses very helpful advice on things grammatical.
On the topic of computers driving you mad, incidentally, I can recommend a wonderful book called The Inmates Are Running the Asylum. Author Alan Cooper says when you feel like putting an axe through your computer screen out of frustration, IT IS NOT ACTUALLY YOUR FAULT. The problem is that computer software is designed by computer geeks, who do not think like you and me (ie, the people who have to use the things). It's an easy read, and will salve your soul no end. The Christchurch public library has a copy, so your local library probably does, too.
Do you get frustrated with your computer's spell checker? You're in good company, as the following poem by that ubiquitous poet Anon testifies:
Eye halve a spelling chequer
It came with my pea sea
It plainly marques four my revue
Missteaks eye kin knot sea.
Eye strike a key and type a word
And weight four it two say
Weather eye am wrong oar write
It shows me strait a weigh.
As soon as a mist ache is maid
It nose bee fore two long
And eye can put the error rite
Its rarely ever wrong.
Eye have run this poem threw it
Iam shore your pleased two no
Its letter perfect in it’s weigh
My chequer tolled me sew.
I found this poem at the homepage of The Grammar Goddess, Diane Sandford, who dispenses very helpful advice on things grammatical.
On the topic of computers driving you mad, incidentally, I can recommend a wonderful book called The Inmates Are Running the Asylum. Author Alan Cooper says when you feel like putting an axe through your computer screen out of frustration, IT IS NOT ACTUALLY YOUR FAULT. The problem is that computer software is designed by computer geeks, who do not think like you and me (ie, the people who have to use the things). It's an easy read, and will salve your soul no end. The Christchurch public library has a copy, so your local library probably does, too.
Thursday, July 01, 2004
Vengeance is mine, says Hollywood
One of the climactic moments of the Mel Gibson film, The Passion of the Christ, is when Jesus cries out "Father, forgive them" as he hangs on the cross.
Not so Hollywood, which preaches the gospel of vengeance. This message came through particularly loud and clear during a single week recently, in which the studios released three films about grim, determined vigilantes who seek brutal revenge against their enemies. While those who take the law into their own hands are usually anything but heroic in real life, the protagonists in Kill Bill, The Punisher, and Man on Fire are all presented in more or less sympathetic terms. All of their violent vendettas are portrayed as at least somewhat justified, and there even seems to be a hint of divine sanction hanging over their efforts. All three of them have lost a child, and sometimes other friends and family too, and all three of them have been shot and left for dead by the villains who deprived them of their loved ones. Thus, when all three of them recuperate and set out on their quests for vengeance, it is as though they have risen from the dead to set wrongs right.
For a thoughtful analysis of the three films, click here.
One of the climactic moments of the Mel Gibson film, The Passion of the Christ, is when Jesus cries out "Father, forgive them" as he hangs on the cross.
Not so Hollywood, which preaches the gospel of vengeance. This message came through particularly loud and clear during a single week recently, in which the studios released three films about grim, determined vigilantes who seek brutal revenge against their enemies. While those who take the law into their own hands are usually anything but heroic in real life, the protagonists in Kill Bill, The Punisher, and Man on Fire are all presented in more or less sympathetic terms. All of their violent vendettas are portrayed as at least somewhat justified, and there even seems to be a hint of divine sanction hanging over their efforts. All three of them have lost a child, and sometimes other friends and family too, and all three of them have been shot and left for dead by the villains who deprived them of their loved ones. Thus, when all three of them recuperate and set out on their quests for vengeance, it is as though they have risen from the dead to set wrongs right.
For a thoughtful analysis of the three films, click here.
Wednesday, June 30, 2004
I'm going to take your money!
Bill Clinton's wife Hillary may not have done the Democrat's presidential campaign any good when she told wealthy supporters the government will need to take money away from them for the "common good."
Traveling with her husband on his book tour, Clinton said: "Many of you are well enough off that ... the tax cuts may have helped you," Clinton said, according to the Associated Press. "We're saying that for America to get back on track, we're probably going to cut that short and not give it to you.
"We're going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good."
At the very least, Hillary revealed her Marxist leanings.
Bill Clinton's wife Hillary may not have done the Democrat's presidential campaign any good when she told wealthy supporters the government will need to take money away from them for the "common good."
Traveling with her husband on his book tour, Clinton said: "Many of you are well enough off that ... the tax cuts may have helped you," Clinton said, according to the Associated Press. "We're saying that for America to get back on track, we're probably going to cut that short and not give it to you.
"We're going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good."
At the very least, Hillary revealed her Marxist leanings.
Monday, June 28, 2004
Bride famine arrives in India
There's a powerful unwritten law of government called "the law of unexpected consequences". It is now being exacted in India, where they are reaping the consequences of a high abortion rate.
Indian social scientists are predicting a rise in sexual violence and wife-sharing because 40 million aborted girls are missing from the population. It is estimated that 5 million girls are aborted each year. "In Haryana [state] a whole generation of young men is failing to find wives because a quarter of the female population has simply disappeared," says the London Times.
"All over India, since the 1980s when the country was flooded with cheap ultrasound technology, this mobile killing machine, wielded by doctors with no ethics, has been doing its lethal work," the Times reports. "Villages may not have clean drinking water or electricity, but they have access to ultrasound tests. Some clinics in towns load the machine onto a van, along with a generator, and go to remote towns offering sex-selection services. In some villages no girl has been born for years."
Women's groups have reported cases of fraternal polyandry. A
young woman is formally married to one man but shared with his
brothers. Police in Uttar Pradesh also say that there have been five cases of fratricide in the past year motivated by sexual jealousy or rivalry. (London Times, Jun 22 2004. This article is unfortunately only available online by subscription.)
The United Nations has been urging all countries for years to make abortion more readily available, and has heavily criticised those which have held back. Now we are starting to see the results.
Nearly every developed country is having a population crisis, as the fertility rate plummets. In New Zealand, it is down to 1.9, which is 10% below replacement level, and falling. The impact of this will start to be felt in another 30 years, when Statistics NZ expects deaths to outpace births for the first time. Last year, I asked Stats NZ what the fertility rate would be if we had not aborted 17,400 babies. The answer was : 2.5
In another article on the same day, The Times notes that in China and India there are now 150 million more men than women, a situation which poses dangers for the world that stem from a testosterone-heavy society.
Five years ago the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing calculated that one Chinese man in six was unlikely to find a female partner. That's about 111 million unattached males. The excess of young men over women in India is almost as vast. In China now, 120 male babies are born for every 100 females. In some Indian villages the figure is nearer 150. The average figure around the globe is 105. In short, large areas of Asia seem to be going through a vast demographic shift that is unprecedented in history. A new book which looks at the potential problems, Bare Branches, has the subtitle, "The Security Implications of Asia's Surplus Male Population", which has caused a real stir. It hints ominously at the main thrust of the argument -that "the masculinisation of Asia's sex ratios" is likely to lead to "inherently unstable" societies that are high in crime and violence and a potential threat to neighbouring countries as well.
There's a powerful unwritten law of government called "the law of unexpected consequences". It is now being exacted in India, where they are reaping the consequences of a high abortion rate.
Indian social scientists are predicting a rise in sexual violence and wife-sharing because 40 million aborted girls are missing from the population. It is estimated that 5 million girls are aborted each year. "In Haryana [state] a whole generation of young men is failing to find wives because a quarter of the female population has simply disappeared," says the London Times.
"All over India, since the 1980s when the country was flooded with cheap ultrasound technology, this mobile killing machine, wielded by doctors with no ethics, has been doing its lethal work," the Times reports. "Villages may not have clean drinking water or electricity, but they have access to ultrasound tests. Some clinics in towns load the machine onto a van, along with a generator, and go to remote towns offering sex-selection services. In some villages no girl has been born for years."
Women's groups have reported cases of fraternal polyandry. A
young woman is formally married to one man but shared with his
brothers. Police in Uttar Pradesh also say that there have been five cases of fratricide in the past year motivated by sexual jealousy or rivalry. (London Times, Jun 22 2004. This article is unfortunately only available online by subscription.)
The United Nations has been urging all countries for years to make abortion more readily available, and has heavily criticised those which have held back. Now we are starting to see the results.
Nearly every developed country is having a population crisis, as the fertility rate plummets. In New Zealand, it is down to 1.9, which is 10% below replacement level, and falling. The impact of this will start to be felt in another 30 years, when Statistics NZ expects deaths to outpace births for the first time. Last year, I asked Stats NZ what the fertility rate would be if we had not aborted 17,400 babies. The answer was : 2.5
In another article on the same day, The Times notes that in China and India there are now 150 million more men than women, a situation which poses dangers for the world that stem from a testosterone-heavy society.
Five years ago the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing calculated that one Chinese man in six was unlikely to find a female partner. That's about 111 million unattached males. The excess of young men over women in India is almost as vast. In China now, 120 male babies are born for every 100 females. In some Indian villages the figure is nearer 150. The average figure around the globe is 105. In short, large areas of Asia seem to be going through a vast demographic shift that is unprecedented in history. A new book which looks at the potential problems, Bare Branches, has the subtitle, "The Security Implications of Asia's Surplus Male Population", which has caused a real stir. It hints ominously at the main thrust of the argument -that "the masculinisation of Asia's sex ratios" is likely to lead to "inherently unstable" societies that are high in crime and violence and a potential threat to neighbouring countries as well.
