Last Updated: Nov 19th, 2009 - 11:07:39 Newsletters : 2007 Newsletters : 27 April 2007 Thought for the Day Pamela Stirling, the Editor of the Listener, talked this week about "our heartfelt sense of what it is to be a New Zealander". You may not remember but in the last census we were asked to label ourselves with an ethnicity. New Zealander was not an allowed option. However the census results out this week show that quite a few people have had enough of being socially engineered and made their feelings known by labeling themselves under the "Other" category as New Zealander. The spirit of free thought is not yet entirely dead. Apr 27, 2007, 14:51 Newsletters : 2007 Newsletters : 27 April 2007 What a Strange Country. Our Social Engineering forces carry on. The latest statistics on our population show something intriguing happening to our people. Our ethnicity is changing dramatically. We now have 429,429 New Zealanders living in New Zealand. New Zealanders used to be labeled in with Europeans in previous censuses but now we are labeled in with "Other". If you want to know more it is all available on the statistics web site but here is the latest (deadpan) report about New Zealanders from the bureaucracy. I wonder what the Aussies will make of it? Apr 26, 2007, 12:43 Newsletters : 2007 Newsletters : 27 April 2007 OECD Provides Advice A recent OECD report created a flurry of interest; Michael Cullen and Roger Kerr share their thoughts with us. Were they reading the same report? Apr 24, 2007, 19:19 Newsletters : 2007 Newsletters : 27 April 2007 An Angel Flies Into Some Flak - Trouble at the OECD And since we are looking at the OECD it might be interesting to see how The Economist views it. Bureaucrats everywhere, it seems, are very interested in looking after themselves. Since this is a very basic part of human nature it is hardly surprising. How can we keep a burgeoning bureaucracy in check? Are there any lessons we can bring to our local public service or do we not need to worry? Apr 23, 2007, 14:13 Newsletters : 2007 Newsletters : 27 April 2007 Armies of Geologists We live as a tiny nation at the rim of the world. It is easy to lose perspective of the real world out there. China is developing fast and the numbers are impressive - very impressive. The largest nation on Earth needs resources and it is going to get them. Do you have any idea of how many geologists that China is training up to work on finding those resources? Neither did I. China is certainly not going to remain a "developing" country and in this century will probably become the dominating force on the world stage. Here is a story from a geologist attending a convention for Petroleum Geologists in California. This puts our attempts to educate Chinese students into perspective! Apr 19, 2007, 11:20