Obama Health Reforms Go-ahead

The breaking news is that the Democratic drive to push wide-sweeping health reforms has narrowly squeaked through 219 votes to 212 in the House of Representatives. The reform is reported to cost a whopping $US940 Billion, which unsurprisingly is a tad unpalatable to those Republican objectors worried about a pretty shakey economy as it is.

What might be seen as a reverse of economic decision-making orthodoxy is that we are seeing a move away from the market driven policies to a state intervention model to help the aged, poor and needy in order to reduce inefficiencies. Market driven inefficiencies? Surely not, guv! Wasn't the market meant to sort them out? And as for the return to "'Soviet-style socialism'" - yikes, the world is being turned on its head.

Of course, all this might be a bit beyond a 12-14 year old studying social studies. Or is it? At least it may offer an interesting debate about the responsibilities of government, and brings in an ethical dimension to learning about society.

It may also dovetail into the privatisation, marketisation, privatisation (and who know's, possibly some more marketisation?) of Godzone's Kiwi Rail.

UPDATE: A Fulbright scholar from NZ has recently given a lecture about the first 16 months of the Obama presidency. Watch it here.

What's in a name?

Wellington City has come in for some legal attention from the custodians of the 'HollyWood' letters. A tongue in cheek exercise that celebrates the 'creative capital' or a feeble attempt at self promotion? Whatever your thoughts, this would make a nice starting point for the idea of 'Identity' for a primary level social studies class. The readers of the Dom Post have been quick to exercise their markers of Wellington here. Note that the Wellywood Sign Generator here leads to the Facebook Gallery which are less family friendly :-(

For Wellington in particular, this could be furthered by an examination of the public art related to the windy city tag, that Wellington probably (certainly?) deserves. Older children may also like to explore the many pieces of NZ creativity that we identify with Kaikoura, Methven, Taupo, Ohakune, Paeroa, Taihape, Tekapo, Te Puke.....

Survey for NZ Youth: Save the Children/Global Focus Aotearoa

A big Kia Ora from the desk of Dr Fi
Sorry for any cross posting but I need your help to get this survey out to NZ youth.
Save the Children NZ and Global Focus Aotearoa are presenting a youth report to the United Nations in July this year on young people’s perspectives of their rights in NZ. We need you to pass on the link to the Article 12 website to all your networks of young people so that they can participate in the survey. Please pass it on – without your help, we lack the resources to get the ultimate voice to the UN.

We also have some slots for digital story telling focus groups and have surveys for young people in organisations working with under 16s. If your organisation is interested in doing a digital story (we have five slots left - two outside the greater Wellington Area for organisatons and schools able to complete the story by the end of March) or the survey please contact Sara at Global Focus Aoteaora. Let’s get together to get our youth voice heard at the UN.
Dr Fi (Fiona Beals) and Spex (Sara Tamati)Go to http://a12aotearoa.ning.com/ to see some of the stories created so far, participate in forums and take the survey (any one any age can join the site)Email sara@globaled.org.nz for information on project