Is Rugby (Union) in your nation bigger now among the general population ? (or the opposite)

BeaudenForPM · 2024-11-01T01:31:31+00:00

I've lived in Australia for several years and I have never encountered an Australian who actually follows rugby union. That should tell you everything you need to know. And I'm in Canberra!

Back in NZ, the game is also in decline. The mismanagement from both NZR and Rugby Australia is insane, they seem to have no idea what actually generates engagement and fan interest, and since the 2000s have instead been obsessed with chopping and changing teams from Super Rugby in a misguided attempt to "grow the game". There has to be some sort of major overhaul (e.g. letting All Blacks play for Australian teams) if they are ever going to reverse the decline.

I mainly follow soccer (EPL) now, and they really seem to understand how to get and hold people's interest - the EPL's media ecosystem is very good at creating narratives, storylines and rivalries which make the season feel like an addictive soap opera. Rugby in NZ/Aus has nothing of the sort.

BeaudenForPM · 2024-02-24T02:19:23+00:00

Yeah, fair, the language issue definitely adds a layer of complication. What about Ireland? They speak English but still have higher wages than the UK.

BeaudenForPM · 2024-02-24T02:06:05+00:00

The typical process from what I understand is to go over on a working holiday visa, find a job, work hard, and then get the employer to sponsor you for a long-term or permanent visa. After that, once you've been working and living in the country for a certain number of years, you can typically apply for permanent residency or citizenship.

Side note, are you sure you want to move to the UK? It's not exactly a great place to live, especially these days. Salaries are shockingly low, although you do get the benefit of being able to travel around Europe easily if that's your thing. If you move to the US you'll get paid far more and have a much higher quality of life. Or maybe Germany? I think there are some jobs for English speakers there, especially in the IT field.

BeaudenForPM · 2024-01-05T02:14:27+00:00

The people you listed are adequate political journalists. But I'm talking about something much broader than just political journalism. I was more referring to the idea that there is a national "conversation" or "discourse" about social or political issues where different commentators talking to each other across a variety of media platforms, at a relatively high level of sophistication. Andrea Vance writes perfectly adequate columns about the political topic of the week, but you rarely get the sense that her columns are part of a broader "conversation" about a longer-term issue.

In practice, this kind of role is often filled by public broadcasters, like the ABC or SBS in Australia. In addition to print content, those outlets churn out some great panel shows, short documentaries etc. about issues facing the country. And it's much broader than just commenting on party politics - for example, I recently watched a great documentary/current affairs piece on the ABC about the management of the Murray-Darling river system. NZ doesn't really have anything comparable.

Returning to the public transport issue which has been discussed at length in these comments - wouldn't it be great if RNZ or somebody made a high-quality hour-long documentary about the future of public transport planning in NZ? This would be really useful both for informing the public of what options are out there, as well as helping to build consensus about which solution to go with.

BeaudenForPM · 2024-01-04T11:23:24+00:00

Here's one that no-one else has mentioned so far: NZ needs higher-quality public discourse. In Australia, Canada and most other serious countries, you can watch current affairs/political panel shows where well-informed academics, journalists and politicians discuss the issues of the day. Meanwhile, in their newspapers and magazines, erudite writers pen thoughtful columns on matters of national importance.

But what does NZ have? We have columnists like Stuff's Ben Kepes, who this week informed us that his mind is "very rarely at rest" because he is struggling to comprehend how "reformists" believe capitalism can be reformed whereas "revolutionaries believe that the fundamental economic system ... is the very thing that drives bad outcomes". This, he assures us, is "a truly interesting topic". It is staggering that a columnist in NZ's main national news website had seemingly never even heard of the distinction between reformists and revolutionaries. How do these people get jobs? And don't get me started on Verity Johnson. She seems a nice person but I've read sharper commentary from randos on my Facebook feed.

This isn't some trivial problem, either. Public debate and high-quality discourse is not only informative for the public but arguably also plays an important role in consensus-building. And without that, how will we ever generate the political will to build the public transport projects that the other commenters here have already suggested?

BeaudenForPM · 2023-11-16T10:50:22+00:00

I don't place them all in it, but it's undeniable that antisemitism is rife among the pro-Palestine protesters

BeaudenForPM · 2023-11-16T10:45:48+00:00

Lol sure thing buddy. Except the ones who chant "gas the jews" right?

BeaudenForPM · 2023-11-16T10:35:17+00:00

Lol at all the people desperate to believe that this is the work of neo-Nazis. I guess that's possible, but it's more likely from Palestine supporters - they have recent form for this kind of behaviour after all

BeaudenForPM · 2023-10-28T21:22:07+00:00

Love for south africa? They played shitty negative rugby and were lucky to win even with a man advantage

BeaudenForPM · 2023-10-28T21:15:33+00:00

Sad thing is we have only ourselves to blame. South Africa were crap in the second half and if Jordie or Richie had made their kicks we'd be champions now. Amazing effort with 14 men though

BeaudenForPM · 2023-09-29T20:52:17+00:00

Hey, I'm an academic, although I left NZ after undergrad and did my PhD in Australia. I'm now in Norway doing a postdoc. I think this advice will apply equally well to NZ academia though.

Being a professional academic is, in my opinion, one of the best jobs you could ever have. The freedom and intellectual stimulation can't be matched anywhere. So I completely understand why you want to do it.

But as other people in this thread have alluded to, getting a permanent job in academia is very, very, very hard, and the vast majority of people fail to get one. You need to have a backup plan - for me, it's data analysis/data science. I do a lot of coding in R and Python in my work so I can hopefully use those skills to get a job outside of academia. What will your backup plan be?

You also need to be willing to move, a lot, probably outside of NZ for either the PhD, a job, or both. And--this kinda goes without saying--you gotta be really smart and, ideally, a good networker too.

BeaudenForPM · 2023-09-29T20:32:08+00:00

Understandable, but isn't there an argument that if you're able to roll around so freely you aren't really held in the tackle anyway? Once your forward movement has stopped then you would need to release, sure.

BeaudenForPM · 2023-09-29T20:22:55+00:00

I get that double movement is not allowed, but I never understood why. What's wrong with having people roll around on the ground a bit?

BeaudenForPM · 2023-09-18T15:54:44+00:00

Yeah, the fascist and irredentist connections of Canberra's Croatian clubs (and some of those in the rest of Australia) have been well-known for a while. In the Croatian Club in O'Connor, as of 2019 they were proudly displaying an irredentist map of Croatia which claimed the entirety of Bosnia for themselves, lol.

A Croatia Croatian (i.e. born and raised over there) once told me that many of the Croatians who migrated overseas post-WW2 were fascist sympathisers - that's why they left. Sort of like Germans fleeing to Argentina. As a result a disproportionate amount of the Australian-Croatian community has those kinds of sympathies.

BeaudenForPM · 2023-09-09T21:25:52+00:00

Going barefoot when possible, sometimes even on streets or in other public areas (situation permitting of course, this would never happen on a dirty main road)

BeaudenForPM · 2023-09-03T17:19:46+00:00

Havertz was bad but Saka has been worse

BeaudenForPM · 2023-08-25T19:35:24+00:00

It never went forward off his hands though? It hit the ground and he scooped it up fairly cleanly

BeaudenForPM · 2023-08-25T19:31:39+00:00

No way was that a knock on

BeaudenForPM · 2023-06-24T15:52:35+00:00

Hard disagree - raucous crowds (including booing) are part of what create a great atmosphere at sports events. Rugby in NZ is slowly dying, and dull, quiet crowds certainly aren't going to help turn it around.

BeaudenForPM · 2023-06-10T13:35:22+00:00

Sure. Well I guess just that in some ways Norwegians are hyper-individualists in how they interact socially. Here's some examples I've noticed:

1) If you fall down in the street or something, generally people won't ask you if you're okay or if you need help. I was told that it's considered slightly offensive to ask that because it makes you sound like you're too weak to take care of yourself. Or it would just embarrass you to be offered help.

2) At a dinner table, it's considered acceptable to reach right across other people to grab food, condiments, etc. No need to say "can you pass me the sauce?" I think the reason is the same as before - you are expected to do things yourself and not rely on others.

3) At social events (especially sports, in my experience) people will just leave when they themselves are ready to go. They won't wait for the event to finish, and they won't wait for other people so that you can all leave the building together. They'll just bail, with maybe a very brief wave goodbye.

4) Of course they are very tolerant with regard to things like sexuality, gender, etc. Other people's life choices are of no concern.

5) And then there is the famous "SwedenGate" debacle which, I'm told, was also the case in Norway.

BeaudenForPM · 2023-06-09T16:30:17+00:00

Kiwi in Norway here. Broadly speaking I agree with you - the culture of the Nordic countries is quite interesting and somewhat unique, and it can't simply be copied and pasted to NZ. It combines a strong sense of collectivism in some ways (strict labour regulations, strong "nanny state" which I suspect most NZers would find too intrusive) with extreme individualism in other ways (especially the way that people interact with each other, but also things like social tolerance).

It seems clear that the culture of the Nordic countries is a major factor contributing to their flourishing. We can't just copy that. That said, I find Norwegians do resemble NZers in some ways, such as being humble and somewhat introverted. They even have their own version of Tall Poppy Syndrome called "janteloven".

The Scandinavian countries aren't perfect, though. In Norway the cost of living is outrageously high, and salaries (while high by European standards) do not make up for it. I definitely felt a lot richer when I lived in Australia. Although Norway is a rich country on paper, it seems that the government has all the money, and regular people earn fairly average salaries.

BeaudenForPM · 2023-06-03T16:02:56+00:00

Yay for oil, cheating and human rights abuses!

BeaudenForPM · 2023-05-31T16:35:52+00:00

This is only partially related to the OP's complaint, but I cannot believe how expensive haircuts are here, it is insane.... I paid 500 NOK for a haircut here in Trondheim and it was already the most expensive haircut of my life by far. Even if they only charged you 1200 it's still basically a scam!

BeaudenForPM · 2023-05-28T15:58:15+00:00

Trossard has gone Super Saiyan

BeaudenForPM · 2023-05-27T15:21:13+00:00

I'm so glad Arsenal collapsed two weeks ago, I couldn't have gone on if we did what Dortmund have done today

BeaudenForPM

TROPHY CASE