Back Benches 31 August 2011
August 29th, 2011 at 10:36 am by Kokila PatelTHIS WEEK ON BACK BENCHES: IT IS THE SCIENCE & INNOVATION SPECIAL. Watch Wallace Chapman, Damian Christie, the Back Benches Panel and special guests!
“We’re a country of innovators. We’re known for and are proud of our No. 8 Wire mentality. It may get things done, but is it holding us back? Back Benches is answering your questions in this Science & Innovation Special on August 31st. Why is it important for us to move beyond the No. 8 wire? How do we transform the backyard inventor into a world class successful businessman?
How do we compete against countries like China and India where Sciences and Maths are a priority? What can teachers do to fight against the idea these subjects are boring? How do we make, as one Kiwi Scientist suggests, Science sexy?
How can innovations change our biggest industry—Agriculture? Improve Agriculture for the better—better for the environment, better for farmers, better for the bottom line, and most importantly better for our wallets? How do we become world-leaders?
National says their investing our dollars in Science & Innovation while Labour says it’s not enough. Is it about spending more money or spending it more efficiently? Or is it really about making a huge cultural shift? We’ll find out as only Back Benches can with our MPs, experts, and you the audience.”
Join us for a night of LIVE pub politics from the Backbencher Pub: Wednesday, 31st of August. Our Panel: ACT MP Heather Roy, Green Party MP David Clendon, Labour MP David Shearer and National MP Dr. Paul Hutchison.
Related posts:
- Back Benches 21 September 2011
- Back Benches – August 10 2011
- Back Benches August 17 2011
- Back Benches 14 September 2011
August 29th, 2011 at 11:20 am
HOw can we progress high tech high value innovation when Government endorses the view that “science/research as yet another weapon of colonisation” (of Maori).
The 1999 ERMA (Environment Risk Management Authority) publication, Working with Maori under the HSNO Act 1996 includes (inter alia) some of the many cultural outcomes identified as important to Maori and which must be addressed by anyone seeking consents under ERMA and now the EPA, and of course most District and Regional Plans:
• the protection of the mauri (spiritual integrity or life-force) of people
• the protection of the mauri of Māori culture, language and knowledge
• the protection of the mauri of valued flora and fauna
• the protection of the mauri of land
• the protection of the mauri of waterways (inland and offshore)
• the protection of the mauri of air and other taonga.
This is a daunting list for a scientist to cope with, and almost any other country must look more cost-effective and efficient by comparison. How can scientists report on the impact of a new pharmaceutical on all these “life forces” without sacrificing their own scientific integrity? The proposed Environmental Assessment Agency’s Cultural Impact assessments will consolidate these animist beliefs even further. (See Maori Environmental Management Hui, 2007, Terry Smith.)
International scientists are scared off by any regulations that require them to address the possible impact of their drugs or vaccines on mauri (the life force), given that modern science does not admit to the existence of a “life force”.
Probably the biggest turn-off is likely to be the open hostility to science, as expressed in panel 13 of the 2006 power point presentation on the Role of Maori Participants in Ethics Committees which includes the following list of “Ethical Issues for Maori”:
Vote:• language as the perfect tool of conquest and acquisition.
• science/research as yet another weapon of colonization.
• colonisation of the land, colonisation of our minds, colonisation of our bodies
• globalisation of culture and identity.
Which hardly encourages consultation between international scientists and Iwi, and surely discourages young Maori from entering careers in science and technology.
These Treaty Clauses are the reason why the clinical trials industry has collapsed in New Zealand since its heyday during the seventies.
August 29th, 2011 at 11:56 am
“We’re a country of innovators.We’re known for and proud of our No 8 wire mentality”
For starters get real.This is the TVNZ /Media mantra myth that is perpetually played and which the herd now seems to unquestioningly accept.
The same myth that NZ liberated South Africa and saved the world from nuclear holocaust.
The same people responsible for that thinking are the ones who are anti wealth and progress. No mining,no oil etc.Lead the world with business unfriendly ETS
No dairy,we are “clean and green” and must keep serving the tourists while remaining on poor wages.
I say get the resource sector going and science and wealth will follow.
Vote:August 29th, 2011 at 12:16 pm
kowtow beat me to it. Agree with the post at 11:56 am.
Vote: