Quickie consumer report
Reconstituted chicken on a stick. Three of them for $8.40. The price of convenience is nearly $3 each. Hold on, here’s some maths: These Tegal GoGo packs are 100g, so that’s 33g a stick. In the same supermarket, chicken breast was $15.50 a kilo (that’s 1000g and, no, I did not have to Google that Standard 3 maths fact). This means only 50c worth of poultry has gone into that chicken on a stick. Is it catering to the keto crowd, greedflation or a really expensive stick? (Also, chicken thighs are nearly double the bosoms at $27 a kilo; wait, but why?)
Recruitment masterclass from medical mag
For the weary job seeker, there’s nothing so wonderful than a job ad that was written by a human with a personality and not ChatGPT. Spotted on Seek, NZ Doctor is looking for a digital wrangler … “Sex, drugs and rock’n’roll – that pretty much sums up writing for national medical newspaper New Zealand Doctor Rata Aotearoa …To be honest, this role is not for the faint-hearted. There’s a whole world of acronyms, specialties, statutes, controversies and more that will leave you gasping – and that’s just the policy stuff. The disease side is even more deadly. With medical writers’ hypochondria, you will never view abdominal bloating in the same way again.”
Tell me I’m wrong.
The nonsense narrative of goodies and baddies plays out every election year when the politicians start surfing the crime wave. To be honest, the “hard on crime” vs “soft on crime” makes me think of male sexual function – not longer prison sentences. But all the parties will do it if they think it’ll get them votes. In 1972, Labour wanted to impound motorcycles to address crime. Labour’s Phil Goff and Helen Clark suggested chain gangs and longer prison time in 1999.
Three Strikes was Rodney Hide’s last big idea in 2008. More police on the streets has always been a popular refrain with everyone from Geoffrey Palmer to John Banks. John Key had his eye on the gangs, and Labour’s Stuart Nash wanted to smash them in 2017. And now, Luxon points his punitive finger at teenage ram raiders and wants to fill our prisons with them. Rising above the partisan haze, the late National MP Chester Borrows shared his thoughts on this in 2019.
“The reason why this button is always pushed hardest in Opposition is because the public, despite their suspicion of politicians, especially in campaign mode, keep rewarding those who promise to be most punitive. Kiwis are addicted to punishment. He writes in the Spinoff: “Nobody votes for principles with an evidence base in law and order policy. Such a level-headed approach would be a vote loser, not a vote winner.”
I was one in the 80s
Your lunch is being made fun of in China
Chinese social-media users are recreating and reviewing Western-style packed lunches. The trend was dubbed “lunch of suffering” after a Chinese tourist in Switzerland uploaded a video of a European woman on a train eating a lunch that consisted of slices of ham and a bag of lettuce. The trend is satirising the plainness of the meals, compared with the Chinese more complex use of ingredients. A Chinese TikTok user breaks down “white people food” into three parts. First, it has no spices (“zero feeling to your food”) because it does not prioritise enjoyment. Second, it involves as little preparation as possible: “Eat it raw, eat it as a whole piece.” And third, it is eaten at work or school. “The idea is when you get off work, you go back to eat your normal food and you feel the life come back.” Another blogger suggested that these lunches are “not for enjoyment, but to find guilt”.
High-five that human
You may not know the Clutha District Council mayor, but I am proud to say I used to run through his backyard as a shortcut to school in the 80s. Turns out this sheriff made a stand in his one-horse town of Balclutha. According to a petition, which has squeezed out 650 signatures, Bryan Cadogan must apologise for rebuffing an advance from real estate agent and Christian evangelist Julian Batchelor, who approached him in a cafe to chat about his travelling Roadshow of Racialist Rhetoric. Cadogan allegedly turned, swiped Julian’s hand away and told Julian to “get out of town, you are not welcome here!” Cadogan said it was a five-second encounter, and he would not be apologising.
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