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tcpipAuckland - Palmerston North
Although I have been to Auckland, "the capital of Polynesia", three times in recent history, this is the first time I've really had a chance to look around. A genuine metropolis, with fine bays and cental parklands (especially around Auckland University and Auckland Institute of Technology), the city still could have done with some sensible planning in terms of building aesthetics. The functionalist towers of the International style mixes uncomfortably with Edwardian and deco, even with a smattering of Victorian industrial. It's like mixing chocolate with pickle (not offense to chocolatepickle, who is the obvious source of this ideal) - they are both fine, but separate.
Anyway, I stayed at Auckland City Backpackers, which of the industrial style, nestled near some parkland. Spent some time on Auckland harbour, which is quite pleasant, wandered around Devenport on the north shore, where sensible people with a bit of cash and taste obviously live, returned to the city proper and wandered down to the lively and artistic centre of town, Karangahape Road (otherwise just known as K Rd).
The following morning was a little more central city exploring, including a visit to the impressive sky tower which is also the complex where the intercity buses leave from. Whilst rather plain, it compares well to the tower in Kuala Lumpur and clocks in at 328m, making it the biggest erection in the southern hemisphere (I can't help avoiding using that term, because towers designed just for this purpose of being big strike me as rather silly). One impressive activity which seems to go with the New Zealand spirit of complete and utter fearlessness is that you can bungy-jump off the tower - a full 192m and 20 seconds of freefall.
It was then off for the ten-hour bus journey to Palmerston North. This includes journey through what is known as "King Country" (a place where the Maori tribes banded together to elect a King and take a particularly firm stand against the British invasion), through the very impressive central plateau region, dominated by Tongario National Park. The Park includes a number of hot springs, waterfalls, lakes, snow-capped (yes, even in summer) mountains and volcanoes, including the know very well known Mt Ngauruhoe, although it's probably better known by the pervy hobbit fancier name, Mt. Doom. No Severina_242, your ring is quite safe ;-)
One of the things I discovered in this journey, by visiting an appalling junk shop which the owner is using to masquerade as an "antiques" store, was that New Zealand has going to introduce a flatulence tax. Personally, I think it's a good idea of internalising external costs, and the farming community have been getting it good for years. But politics is ultimately determined by power, not reason (that's why revolutions are inevitable).
After the Central Plateau it was into the Wanganio and Manawatu region and the provincial town of Palmerston North, where most of my family live. A well-ordered town that appears larger than it is (about 70,000 people) it is saved from terminal boredom by the existence of Massey University. Since arrival we've visited the local art gallery and museum (which aren't too bad incidentally), dined and wined with my mother's work colleagues (real estate agents - *shudder*) and had a pleasant afternoon with my brother John and his partner Sarah. It's all been quite relaxing and pleasant, although I do feel like the odd one out sometimes, being the only member of the family who, with the advantage of a university education, has an interest in art theory, science and technology, politics and religion. Nope, they be simple folk, my family. Sort of like hobbits really.
Special thanks to chocolatepicklechocolatepickle for pointing me to the livejournal map. This is very fun. My LJ friends are scattered all over the world (with obvious concentrations in Melbourne and Perth, but that's like having concentrations in London and Moscow)...
Not feeling depressed enough yet? Well, welcome to the modern equivalent of bookburning.
Australia really doesn't like East Timor, do they?
Go the Inuit!
Oh, and as of ten minutes ago I'm gainfully employed again. The good people at connect.ie need to upgrade a disabilities website so it conforms to w3c accessibility. They're throwing several hundred Euro to me to do a weeks' work and there's plenty of follow-on as well. Just enough to pay for my holiday here...
And here's a little quiz that I composed for myself in a discussion with the fine Erudito.
What's the most
(1) Prosperous nation in the world?
(2) The most free?
(3) The most democratic?
(4) The most dynamic?
Prosperous?
That's Luxembourg...
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/rankorder/2004rank.html
Free?
Apparently Tuluva...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Tables/4_col_tables/0,5737,258329,00.html
Democratic?
Equal first of 30 in terms of institutions.
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph-T/dem_dem_ins_rat
But in terms of citizen participation and per capita representatives you'd be hard put to go past Switzerland.. I mean really, this people must love democracy.
http://www.vote.org/swiss.htm
Technologically Dynamic?
A bit of a tricky one to give an empirical result on... But if you're going for industrial production growth rate the most dynamic nation on earth at the moment is...
Equatorial Guinea..
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/rankorder/2089rank.html
Although I have been to Auckland, "the capital of Polynesia", three times in recent history, this is the first time I've really had a chance to look around. A genuine metropolis, with fine bays and cental parklands (especially around Auckland University and Auckland Institute of Technology), the city still could have done with some sensible planning in terms of building aesthetics. The functionalist towers of the International style mixes uncomfortably with Edwardian and deco, even with a smattering of Victorian industrial. It's like mixing chocolate with pickle (not offense to chocolatepickle, who is the obvious source of this ideal) - they are both fine, but separate.
Anyway, I stayed at Auckland City Backpackers, which of the industrial style, nestled near some parkland. Spent some time on Auckland harbour, which is quite pleasant, wandered around Devenport on the north shore, where sensible people with a bit of cash and taste obviously live, returned to the city proper and wandered down to the lively and artistic centre of town, Karangahape Road (otherwise just known as K Rd).
The following morning was a little more central city exploring, including a visit to the impressive sky tower which is also the complex where the intercity buses leave from. Whilst rather plain, it compares well to the tower in Kuala Lumpur and clocks in at 328m, making it the biggest erection in the southern hemisphere (I can't help avoiding using that term, because towers designed just for this purpose of being big strike me as rather silly). One impressive activity which seems to go with the New Zealand spirit of complete and utter fearlessness is that you can bungy-jump off the tower - a full 192m and 20 seconds of freefall.
It was then off for the ten-hour bus journey to Palmerston North. This includes journey through what is known as "King Country" (a place where the Maori tribes banded together to elect a King and take a particularly firm stand against the British invasion), through the very impressive central plateau region, dominated by Tongario National Park. The Park includes a number of hot springs, waterfalls, lakes, snow-capped (yes, even in summer) mountains and volcanoes, including the know very well known Mt Ngauruhoe, although it's probably better known by the pervy hobbit fancier name, Mt. Doom. No Severina_242, your ring is quite safe ;-)
One of the things I discovered in this journey, by visiting an appalling junk shop which the owner is using to masquerade as an "antiques" store, was that New Zealand has going to introduce a flatulence tax. Personally, I think it's a good idea of internalising external costs, and the farming community have been getting it good for years. But politics is ultimately determined by power, not reason (that's why revolutions are inevitable).
After the Central Plateau it was into the Wanganio and Manawatu region and the provincial town of Palmerston North, where most of my family live. A well-ordered town that appears larger than it is (about 70,000 people) it is saved from terminal boredom by the existence of Massey University. Since arrival we've visited the local art gallery and museum (which aren't too bad incidentally), dined and wined with my mother's work colleagues (real estate agents - *shudder*) and had a pleasant afternoon with my brother John and his partner Sarah. It's all been quite relaxing and pleasant, although I do feel like the odd one out sometimes, being the only member of the family who, with the advantage of a university education, has an interest in art theory, science and technology, politics and religion. Nope, they be simple folk, my family. Sort of like hobbits really.
Special thanks to chocolatepicklechocolatepickle for pointing me to the livejournal map. This is very fun. My LJ friends are scattered all over the world (with obvious concentrations in Melbourne and Perth, but that's like having concentrations in London and Moscow)...
Not feeling depressed enough yet? Well, welcome to the modern equivalent of bookburning.
Australia really doesn't like East Timor, do they?
Go the Inuit!
Oh, and as of ten minutes ago I'm gainfully employed again. The good people at connect.ie need to upgrade a disabilities website so it conforms to w3c accessibility. They're throwing several hundred Euro to me to do a weeks' work and there's plenty of follow-on as well. Just enough to pay for my holiday here...
And here's a little quiz that I composed for myself in a discussion with the fine Erudito.
What's the most
(1) Prosperous nation in the world?
(2) The most free?
(3) The most democratic?
(4) The most dynamic?
Prosperous?
That's Luxembourg...
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/rankorder/2004rank.html
Free?
Apparently Tuluva...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Tables/4_col_tables/0,5737,258329,00.html
Democratic?
Equal first of 30 in terms of institutions.
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph-T/dem_dem_ins_rat
But in terms of citizen participation and per capita representatives you'd be hard put to go past Switzerland.. I mean really, this people must love democracy.
http://www.vote.org/swiss.htm
Technologically Dynamic?
A bit of a tricky one to give an empirical result on... But if you're going for industrial production growth rate the most dynamic nation on earth at the moment is...
Equatorial Guinea..
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/rankorder/2089rank.html
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no subject
Date: 2003-12-20 01:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-12-21 09:18 am (UTC)It's the growth rate for "industrial production".
no subject
Date: 2003-12-21 09:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-12-21 10:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-12-21 07:40 pm (UTC)So, the old primary industry of mining is now classified as a secondary industy? In a closed economy I suppose it would make sense that oil mining (and coal, etc) would be included as manufacturing, or at the very least, premanufacturing - after all, oil and coal aren't exactly a big deal for growing crops in a subsistence/feudal sense. But in this instance, what is clear as day is that EG is producing oil for someone else's consumption.
Excluding such "cash-crops" from the equation, Cambodia is probably the most industrially dynamic countries in the world.... Interesting.
no subject
Date: 2003-12-21 09:57 pm (UTC)Of course there is a certain degree of technological dynamism in both these cases - in the sense that a bunch of people have learned to do things that they didn't do before. The real issue is whether there are any spillover effects that spread the dynamism to other sectors.
Part of what you are observing is also just a statistical effect of starting from a low base. Going from 1 to 2 is a lot easier than going from 10,000 to 20,000.
no subject
Date: 2003-12-21 11:09 pm (UTC)Indeed. It also raises interesting questions about the long term viability of manufacturing in an already industrialized economy. I have doubts about the so-called "tertiary industry" (most of it seems to be equivalent of un- and semi-skilled hired help that doesn't really aid productivity) which means (shock horror) have we reached the end of work? And if so, then what?