Scoop Feedback: Schools, Traitors, Tall Masts & NZ

Tuesday, 4 March 2003, 8:40 am
Opinion: Scoop Feedback

Scoop Feedback: Schools, Traitors, Tall Masts & NZDF

In This Edition: Schools Are Failing Industry - What A Joke - Tall Mast Syndrome - The Sorry State Of NZ Defence

Scoop welcomes Feedback. Please send your news and views to editor@scoop.co.nz.

Schools Are Failing Industry

Sir,

New Zealand's manufacturers are spending millions educating their workers - half of whom can't read, write and speak well enough to do their jobs.

"In the EMA study - involving a random sampling of 60 manufacturing firms - 85.7% of respondents said completing documents sometimes resulted in missing or inaccurate data while only 56% of workers were found to always follow verbal instruction." "Another 30% didn't understand workplace safety hazards, which could expose employers to "painful and unbudgeted expenses if an accident occurs."

"Recent results from the National Certificate of Educational Achievement showed concerning levels of performance in literacy and numeracy, with 40% of fifth form students unable to produce formal writing to the minimum standard and 49% unable to estimate and determine probabilities."

"The situation is exacerbated by the high number of manufacturing workers from Asia and the Pacific Islands, many of whom speak English as a second language. Literacy goes beyond reading and writing. It includes speaking, listening, problem solving, creative thinking and numeracy."

The long-term agenda of Labour and the intellectual left over the past 20-30 years is now showing its true colours.

That is:

* dump the tried and true educational policies and methods which, while they had their failings, did provide for an education that gave people good literacy and numeracy skills;

* offer instead a system and methods of true Stalinist fashion which ensured the "dumbing down" of those who could challenge them the most;

* and finally endorse and implement immigration policies which ensure English is the second and least conversant language of those wishing to immigrate.

All this adds up to ensuring that the masses can well and truly be confused by both Labour and the intellectual left, thus ensuring once in power, lethargy, illiteracy and innumeracy will also ensure they stay there.

Role on the proletariat.

Mirek Marcanik

Wellington

What A Joke

I visited your website today for the first time and about threw up!! You print lies and feed anti-American sentiment, which is your mission obviously. There is NO fair and balanced opinion on your website nor do you care. In the article titled: "Vigorous Anti-War Protests will greet John Howard," it states, "The huge majority of the world's population are opposed to his warmongering plans which are illegal and immoral." HAHAHA, it's obvious your blinded to the truth and you're wrong, wrong, wrong!

The HUGE majority of the world's population you talked about accounted for only four one-hundredths of one percent. That's a huge number; what are you a bunch of stupids? What about the atrocities Saddam Hussein has committed? What about the thousands of his own people he gassed? What about the torture chambers and open rape to teach the towns folks a lesson? You people are hypocrites and only show your true nature of what you really are, communists. What the hell, fascisms and communists has only killed millions of people why not give it another chance! Sincerely,

Andy Binder

U.S. Citizen

P.S. If it wasn't for democracy you would be feeding sheep on a hillside wiping your ass with banana leaves.

Tall Mast Syndrome

Letter to the Editor

The somewhat empty and plithy platitudes that have bombarded the pages of the NZ media urging our yachting team to win against near impossible odds causes me to question as to whether NZ'ers as a people are grounded in any sort of reality.

No amount of "ra, ra, go team, go" seems to have made any difference to the results. Instead, the opposition is attacked by the locals for being successful in their endeavor. I see a parallel in how our best and brightest are often treated by their own in other disciplines besides sport. I wonder if the loss of the Americas Cup is a solemn and concrete example of why it is important to truly value those who excel in our country.

To not do so is to allow their true worth to be recognised by others who will attribute both proper respect for their talent, and sufficient remuneration for the use of it. Barker & Co. didn't "lose" the Cup, and Alingi didn't "win" it; we as a nation gave it away. If only we would learn from the consequences of our own wrong-headed actions.

Yours faithfully

Steve Taylor

The Sorry State Of NZ Defence

Sir,

Just when the Defence Force was under the impression all its Christmases had come at once, we find that the government has cancelled an Orion upgrade and the Navy finds that both its Anzac frigates will be in port being overhauled at the same time.

In the event, an Orion was assigned to the Gulf resulting in an emergency upgrade of one aircraft at the same cost it was going to be for all three.

We now have the situation where the only frigate left to patrol our shores is going to be the ageing HMNZS Canterbury.

Defence must now be wondering where on earth the money is going to come from to manage the upgrade of the two remaining Orion's so that all three have the same capability, and what happens to our coastal defences should the Canterbury breakdown during the prolonged maintenance required for the two Anzac frigates.

This is a very sorry state indeed.

Mirek Marcanik

Wellington

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