Women in the Dáil

Ken writes: The Irish Times reports that the Fine Gael government has proposed a quota system requiring political parties to put forward a minimum of 30% women candidates in general elections or lose government funding.

Because the Irish system of proportional representation has multi-seat constituencies, an easy way to implement a quota system would be to mandate that each party stood at least one male and one female candidate in each constituency. That wouldn’t automatically translate into more women in parliament, but it would give voters a chance to vote for women.

I’m all for changing the law to make parliament more representative of the general population because I don’t think the normal argument against affirmative action applies in the case of politics. The normal argument is that decisions made in accordance with affirmative action policies tend to result in jobs going to people who are not the best candidates for the job. When that happens, the best candidate has been wronged, the health of the employing institution suffers and the successful candidate can endure the stigma of knowing they have someone else’s job just because they got a free pass for something they have no responsibility for (their sex). They didn’t personally deserve the position, but were successful because of an institutional need to make up the numbers.

I think the normal argument against affirmative action is convincing in most cases. Politics is different. In politics, unlike academia and the professions, it’s much less clear what counts as one’s qualifications for standing as a candidate. There’s no comparable skill that successful candidates should excel in. So there’s no way of determining merit or desert. Let me change that, politicians may have all sorts of skills, of course. But the job of a politician doesn’t involve the exercise of some special skill the way medicine or law or academic roles call for the exercise of a skill. Politicians don’t even have to be intelligent. They don’t have to have the people’s touch, as Bertie Ahern did. They don’t have to be charismatic (think of Gordon Brown, for example). Gordon Brown was emphatically a better than average politician despite not being a man of the people. The politician doesn’t have to have specialised knowledge of anything. Being a politician is not a technical profession at all. So for this reason there isn’t an objective way to rank candidates, internally related to the needs of the job they are candidates to fill, that would determine who has more merit or who deserves it more.

In fact, I think the way politics works in practice makes the disanalogy with true professions even starker. Politics is the classic place where it is who you know not what you know that matters. Over the years the many successful male candidates have been successful because they had the right background, the right family connections, the right friends, went to school with the right people and so on. None of these things should determine merit for the purposes of being a candidate for election because if it did it would lead to a self-perpetuating elite (when politicians from that background channel influence and money back to others with that background).

If there isn’t a way of measuring merit relevant to the job of the politician, then the normal argument against affirmative action doesn’t apply. And the reasons in favour of a more representational parliament are obvious, so there should be a quota system of some kind. A nice thing about the simple proposal above is that, if there were two exceptional male candidates, neither need miss out because the party could choose to stand two men and one woman. There is nothing stopping parties putting more than two candidates forward if they think they have the support in the constituency to sustain it.

Whanau

Dot writes: I asked Hugh what he liked most about New Zealand and he replied “Uncle Mat.” I asked him on a different occasion and he said “eating crisps”, but let’s stay with the first answer for the moment, because sunshine, greenery, leisure, wine, swimming, good food, presents, Otorohanga Kiwi House, beaches, shopping and hot tubs are all very well, but there’s nothing quite like the constant company of friends and family.

Back row: Mat holding Hannah, Ken, Ken’s dad; middle row: Auntie Sue, Ken’s mum, Jessie, Dot; front: familiar rascals. (Btw, click on the pictures for bigger versions.)

Mat and baby Hannah. Hannah’s mood rather less festive than her hat

Jessie and Hannah with Frank

Hugh has a story with Auntie Sue

A walk around Virginia Lake, Wanganui, with Ken’s mum

Reunion of flatmates: Ken with his friends Gareth and Lee

Jessie and baby Hannah

Murray with his son and grandsons – for posterity

Róisín Shortall: Minister against drink

Ken writes:

I am linking to an article in the Irish Times reporting recent comments by Róisín Shortall minister of state in the department of health that parents who allow their teenage children to drink at home, to teach them how to drink responsibly, may actually be doing more harm than good.

If what such parents are doing is wrong, that suggests Ms Shortall would favour a policy of total abstinence from alcohol before the legal drinking age of 18. That has the merit of consistency, since that’s what a legal age restriction means, but I think it’s bad policy socially. By allowing their children to drink at home, parents make it possible for young people to learn about alcohol in a safe supervised environment where level headed experienced people can stop them doing anything stupid. If young people’s first taste of alcohol comes when they’ve moved away from home, at university for example, and they’re trying it with other similarly inexperienced people, or slightly older but not very much more responsible people who may not have a parent’s concern for their child, the results are likely to be a lot darker.

What is needed instead is educational programmes to change people’s attitudes to drink. I would promote drink education in schools. They should say first that alcohol is a poison, so it can only be safely consumed in moderation. (Note: As paracelsus said, ‘the dose makes the poison’. Things are harmful or toxic to humans or not only in sufficient doses. Even water is fatal if consumed in excess (see here and here)). There should be lots of education on the harmful effects of excessive alcohol on the body because young people take that sort of thing in. Next they should promote taking pleasure in the quality of what we drink rather than the quantity. If people were better at talking about tastes and smells, they might eat a more healthy and varied diet too as a consequence. There should be practical tastings in schools, so people learn how to appreciate wine and beer in a supervised environment. Finally, the education should challenge the prevailing misconception, if Kate Fox is right, that it is the alcohol itself that lowers inhibitions and affects our behaviour and not the social settings where alcohol is consumed. As the man says in ‘the Guard’ you only have to worry about drinking too much because you’re not to be trusted when you do. Young people need to be taught that they can drink responsibly. They need to learn that they can still control themselves after they’ve had a few drinks and should’nt expect to get a free pass for whatever they get up to on a night out. But these are things that you need to learn. I don’t think it is humane for Ms Shortall to insist that young people learn these lessons ‘the hard way’, through bad experiences, when they can be taught and a great deal of hurt and misadventure saved on all sides.

One thing I do agree with the minister on, however, which is also mentioned in the article, is that it would be good to close the loophole allowing retailers who sell alcohol below cost to claim back the sales tax (VAT). Below cost selling of alcohol only encourages bad drinking patterns and retailers pouring oil on the flames shouldn’t get a hand out from the state.

Circ-imbibing New Zealand in 34 varieties of beer or so

Ken writes:

As some of you know, I harbour ambitions to start a microbrewery in Dublin, so one of the things I was keen to do on our recent trip was to research what New Zealand craft breweries have to offer. Cue some impromptu documentation. Unfortunately, the photos are none too good (thanks to the limitations of my phone’s camera–although there may have been occasions when my eyesight was equally blurry).

As you might expect, overall it was a case of the good the bad and the ugly. The standout brewers for me were the Stoke Brewery, Mike’s, and the Hallertau range. By ‘ugly’ I really only mean interesting. I tried a couple of extremely highly hopped beers, Epic brewery’s Pale Ale and Mike’s Imperial India Pale Ale, the last of which was practically hallucinatory. There was a memorable smoked ale (Smokin’ Bishop) and a manuka blossom infused ‘Captain Cooker’, that was delicious but too rich to drink in large measures.

Emerson's 1812 India Pale Ale

Emerson’s 1812 was the first beer I tired. Unfortunately, it suffered from being too warm when I tried it, both the beer and the day, and I don’t think I got a full sense of it’s potential. My rule of thumb is that the brightness of the beer best matches the brightness of the day. It’s hard to appreciate the complexities of something dark and malty on a hot sunny day and a bright crisp and dry lager is merely gassy and unsatisfying on a cold winter’s night. Emerson’s 1812 says it’s a hoppy pale ale, but it really didn’t taste especially hoppy to me.

Next I tried Tuatara Brewery’s light lager ‘Helles’.

Tuatara brewery's Helles

Later I tried their Hefeweissbier ‘Hefe’.

cloudy wheat beer from Tuatara brewery

I’m afraid neither beer appealed to me. The lager was a little on the sweet side for my taste. And while I really like cloudy wheat beers, perhaps for their sweetness, I didn’t think the wheat beer flavour came through very strongly in this example and it wasn’t strongly carbonated enough.

Aotearoa brewery's Mata Manuka golden ale

This apparently award winning beer didn’t appeal to me either.

NZ craft beer collaboration beer

I was really looking forward to trying this collaborative effort brewed under the leadership of Auckland’s Epic Brewing Company. Unfortunately, Like Epic’s own pale ale, I found it too bitter to be genuinely enjoyable.

Cassels & Sons ESB

The interesting thing about this brewery is that they brew in a wood-fired copper. I have no idea if that affects the taste at all, but it sounds cool. Yum.

Kaimai Brewing Company's Golden Rye Ale

Kaimai Brewing specialises in brewing with Rye; the only New Zealand brewery to do so. Yum.

Stoke Brewery's smokey Ale

Stoke Lager

Stoke's Oatmeal Stout

I also had their Stoke Bomber Kiwi Pale Ale.

Stoke brewery are the outfit that was formerly Mac’s ales before that name was sold to the big multinationals. I found myself having more and more of their beer. All very yummy.

Hawke's Bay Independent Brewery Pilsner

Yum. (This photo also appears to display what lovely youthful skin I have on my left hand).

Yeastie Boys

Great name. The beer, well, it was interesting. These guys contract their brewing out to the Invercargill Brewery, which seems like a very canny way to start a brewery. All you do is come up with the recipes on your regular set up at home, then have it brewed and hope it sells well enough to cover everyone’s costs.

Wanaka Beerworks Old Flemish Dark

These were seasonal creations only available until the end of 2011, so I’m glad I got to try them before they ran out. The Old Flemish dark in particular was very yummy indeed. The other interesting thing about these guys is that they will brew bespoke beers for special occasions wedding anniversaries and the like and bottle them up for you as souvenirs etc. That’s very clever. It’s a service only the ‘little guy’ can provide.

Renaissance Brewing Company American Pale Ale

Renaissance's Stoncutter Scotch Ale

Renaissance's Pale Ale

Doesn’t this last one look especially delicious? I think these beers are beautifully presented and I note that they’ve gone for large 500ml bottles where most of the other beers I’ve tried in NZ are around 330ml or so. All the renaissance beers were yum, but the APA didn’t strike me as especially characteristic of the style.

Hallertau Schwarzbier

Hallertau Porter Noir

Halletau Kolsch

Hallertau Red Ale

These guys vie with Stoke’s for my vie for best New Zealand microbrewery. I only tried the four pictured beers but they were all. really. satisfying. yummy. beers.

Green Man Pils

Green Man Lager

I confess I don’t really know what the difference is between a lager and a pils. I think a pils is a kind of lager, but I don’t know how it’s supposed to differ from the other kind. You can’t readily see from the picture but they are different beers.

Epic Lager

A hoppy lager

Epic Pale Ale

Epic Pale Ale is a mouth-puckeringly bitter hop bomb. I could barely drink it. The other insanely hoppy beer I had over here was Mike’s Double India Pale Ale.

Mike's India Pale Ale

Without a doubt I preferred the Mike’s beer which had very heavy hop aromas, which for me are the reward for drinking a very highly hopped beer, as well as an enormous amount of malt to stop it getting too bitter. I also recommend (but neglected to photograph) the standard mike’s ale.

Moa blanc wheat beer

Yum. Pretty funny website too (I only said ‘pretty funny’).

3 boys oyster stout

The day was too hot when I drank this, so I missed the best it had to offer. It wasn’t as nice as the Porterhouse’s oyster stout in Dublin, though this could be due to the tasting conditions.

Boundary Road Lager

I tried this and the ‘flying fortress‘ Kiwi Pale Ale. The lager was perfectly satisfying if that’s your thing, but the pale ale was quite tasty. yum.

smokin' bishop

Captain Cooker Manuka beer

Delicious in small doses. It’s an interesting idea. The beer attempts to recreate the first beer brewed in New Zealand by Captain Cook. I don’t know if it contains hops, I expect it does, or if it’s made with a sort of manuka gruit.

So that’s about it. Lots of yummy beer and lots of ideas for small breweries. I’ve got my thinking cap on.

First of many

Dot writes: we’re doing quite well with the jetlag, I think – up at 4am but wrenched the boys out of their afternoon nap to go swimming and achieve a normal bed-time – but I am definitely too tired still to contemplate the intricate decision-making process of posting photos from our trip. However, here’s a little comparison: Hugh visiting Hamilton Gardens in December 2008:

and, with Frank, in January 2012:

Strange how the fountain seems to have shrunk, isn’t it?

And here’s some more of the latter occasion:

we’re back

We’re back in Dublin. Prepare to be amazed with tales of our amazing exploits in the future when we’ve had a chance to recover from the flight and write them up.

Last day in NZ

Dot writes: as tends to happen, our stay has zoomed by and today is our last day in NZ. Since I last posted we’ve spent some more time in Raglan with Ken’s Dad and then come back for the final week to Ken’s brother in Titirangi (which is a suburb of Auckland). We have resisted my tendency to programme a relentless round of outings and have spent a lot of time chatting with friends and relatives, but we have also done the following
- visits to various beaches
- Hamilton Zoo, quite early in the morning in a gap between showers of rain
- Auckland War Memorial Museum, which has dinosaurs (hoorah!)
- more swimming
- a couple of short bush-walks
- a day of shopping for me, while Ken and his brother took the boys to a homebrew shop.

I will post photographs and so on when we get back. In the meantime, wish us luck for the journey…

Resolution

Dot writes: it did rain an awful lot in Wanganui, and it must be said that Wanganui is not a place bursting with indoor attractions. There was a plus-side to this, however: not just convivial time with the family (an extended gathering including Ken’s aunty Sue, who is a lovely person and great fun), but an opportunity to ignore said family and raid Ken’s mum’s bookshelf. I read A Change of Climate by Hilary Mantel and then, because the book is set partly in my own county of Norfolk and partly in South Africa and Botswana, I moved on to Nelson Mandela’s autobiography. It is hard to think of a bad word to say about Nelson Mandela and I won’t: his astonishing intelligence, his ability to preserve himself and his beliefs and even his compassion for his oppressors over many years of persecution and prison – all these were humbling, and as always when reading this kind of thing I wondered if I could ever have that kind of moral courage. It also led me to reflect on all the white people of South Africa who were mostly not bad people by their own lights, but simply content to accept the bounty that fell to them from being on the fortunate side of an unjust society, or, if not content, unable to go further towards righting those wrongs than dinner-table talk among the sympathetic, and maybe being as nice as they could to the black people they knew.

It strikes me that westerners like us are in a similar situation to those white South Africans, and even more able to ignore it, with respect to our over-consumption of resources and the global injustices of both trade and climate change. The lifestyle I enjoy is not just one I’m unwilling to give up but one I don’t know how to give up. I don’t have the skills to look after myself without hot running water, imported grain, cheap manufactured clothing etc etc. I’ve made resolutions before about trying to live a more environmentally-friendly life, but they have tended to fizzle out (though I think we are pretty careful of water and we do recycle as much as we can). In recent years as our income has contracted things like ecover washing-up liquid or organic vegetables have seemed just too expensive. I’m not a very crafty person and don’t spend my evenings knitting; with small children to help us, we make a frightening amount of rubbish including a lot of wasted food. But I think this year my resolution is going to be to try to become just a little bit more self-reliant. Now we have a garden we have the opportunity to grow some of our food, but this is going to be Ken’s sphere rather than mine. I need to pick something to learn, something that will make us that little bit less reliant on industrial processes and fossil fuels and so on and so forth. Right now the thing that occurs to me is bread. Home-made bread is delicious, and it’s not especially difficult: it just takes a little planning because of the time taken for the process. For me, however, finding the time and being organised are quite a challenge, given the demands of work and of the children. So that’s my resolution: when we get home from New Zealand, I’m going to start making bread, in the interests of global justice. Laugh if you like.

Bye-bye 2011

Dot writes: we are finishing 2011 in a Quaker settlement in Wanganui. I can fairly say that I had no inkling of this at the start of the year. It is also absolutely pouring with rain with no forecast of a let-up. Never mind. There is a good local swimming pool. We will start 2012 in a spirit of make-do, and happy to have Ken’s family around us. Best wishes to all for a fortunate New Year.

Update

Dot writes: here are some things that are not typically part of an Irish Christmas: getting sunburnt on Christmas Day (and I was wearing suncream; it’s just there’s a bit in the middle of my upper back I seem to have missed); eating the roast dinner outside on the deck; Hugh playing on the slip’n'slide, with Uncle Mat demonstrating the correct technique for sliding along on one’s belly; walking along the pavement a few days later and seeing all the cracks highlighted with a deposit of fine red strands from the disintegrating pohutakawa flowers.

We’ve adequately trashed Ken’s brother’s house and have temporarily moved on to Ken’s Dad’s house in Raglan, before moving the demolition team to Wanganui for New Year. I walked down to the shops to buy nappies this morning and thought the day quite cool – I was comfortable in a t-shirt but feeling the breeze on my arms. Ken says that he thinks a proper frosty northern Christmas is best really, and he has a point: the lights and the hot rich food are more satisfying in the dark and cold. But I am quite happy to trade a bit of Christmas sparkle for sunshine and warm, at least once in a while.

I went to church on Christmas Day and found that, in a congregation of maybe forty (it was a little tin-shack church on a wooded road in Titirangi), the woman next to me and the woman in front of me were both immigrants from Ireland.