Gisborne is 45 minutes away from our humble dwelling
which is slowly emerging from the devastation left in the wake of Cyclones Hale
and Gabrielle.
Our house is on a hill overlooking the moonscape of silt and debris that has, until recently, been a common sight on adjacent properties here in this river valley. However the signs of recovery evident from the front veranda gives one reason for hope that we are gradually returning to normal - whatever that might look like.
During the trip to town, we passed camping grounds on the
beautiful Coast road that had recently been full to overflowing but now only
littered with the odd tent of caravan as the holiday makers packed up and
returned to work after their well earned sumner break.
Another equally relevant observation was made as we
passed the car parks adjacent to the beaches north of Gisborne where the best
surf breaks host the hordes of University and polytechnic students for whom a
return to studies is still a month away.
The contrast in contributions being made to the Nation’s
coffers could not have been more stark.
I’m not criticising the modern day young adults who have
chosen to spend the early adult life gaining a degree in something that will
allow them to be self supporting in their old age. That is an attitude most
parents would want to see in their progeny but in order to acquire the said
“life changing qualification, there appears to be no accompanying sense of
obligation requiring the youngsters to make a contribution to the cost of their
studies.
I know l will be laughed at by many who regard my ideas
about responsibility to make these contributions, no matter how small, as being
archaic in the modern era.
I’m not bothered about being regarded as being a relic of
a different age because there is a certain truth to those “throw away” lines
that do have some relevance to this conversation.
However, there is also the inescapable truth that the
nation would be a whole lot better off and as a result, able to spend more of
our scarce financial resources on those who, through no fault of their own, are
experiencing hard times - if that notion were still part of who we are.
When l went to Varsity, it was expected that you spent
the whole summer holidays period sweating it out putting in long hours in some
of the most boring yet highly paid manual jobs on offer in order to cover the
cost of 3-4 years of adult education.
As a consequence the University students of the day put a
value on the opportunity to study because it was likely the end result would
enable them to avoid ending up on the scrap heap.
Sadly, not so today!
Because successive governments have made it possible for
students to book up almost the entire cost of their time at University to the
State, we appear to have lost that opportunity for character building that was
for so long an integral part of Nation building.
I believe we are the worse for it.
Clive Bibby is a commentator, consultant, farmer and community leader, who lives in Tolaga Bay.
8 comments:
It was much the same for me when I studied engineering in the UK. I chose to get my degree by doing a 'sandwich course' whereby I did 6 months stints at uni and then 6 months working at one of my sponsors factories obtaining 'industrial experience'.
With hindsight I would have been far better off doing a straight degree course because those who did worked on building sites and suchlike in the holidays earning a comparative fortune, often under the table, while I struggled along on my base pay of about 10 quid a week at the time. It also meant I never got time to revise the academic work or get a proper holiday.
i'm glad geriatric, irrelevant, curmugeonsly dickheads are increasingly falling by the wayside.
"young people should have to suffer" is a disgusting attitude, and i hope your kids remind you of it when they dump you in a substandard nursing home because they can't be fucked tolerating your shit anymore.
You are out of touch with the university situation in New Zealand Clive. It's incredibly expensive, no free ride anywhere, no garantees on graduation and what you can borrow doesn't cover living costs. More pressure now than in my day, not to mention the woke agenda throughout the sector and did I mention that it's all on the tick. Most students work their butts off during the summer holidays. They have to, to afford it all and still their personal debt grows.
If I were you I'd jump in my trusty old ute and go have a good old chin wag with a couple of those 'freeloading' surfers and hear from the horses mouth what it's like for them. Rather that than throwing that old judgmental know-it-all rock around. If you had branched into communication rather than judgement, you may have talked with my son who has been at the freezing works pulling sheep's guts out of carcasses as a summer job.
Interestingly, I think, that if he was at the local pub you wouldn't have given him a second glance.
Generational disconnect alright.
I didn’t like the unpleasant language at Waitangi and I don’t like the unpleasant language above. There are more than enough English words to express negative matters strongly and articulately. Any cheap attack with bad language rather proves the point that better execution is needed and it takes effort. A lot. Effort and commitment and hard work are not the same as suffering.
Not sure which Anonymous deserves a response.
I normally don’t bother with comments written by someone eager to criticise my views of the world but frightened of being identified with an alternative by using a real name. Rather cowardly don’t you think.
It suggests that he or she isn’t confident their comments will resonate with readers of whatever age group.
I am well aware that there are other generations of decent Kiwis who see things differently from me and if you read my piece again you will note l anticipated this type of response and accept it as coming from people with genuinely held opposing views to my own.
But my comments should be read as observations that are based on reality and l still say things would be very different for a lot of people if the system encouraged contributions according to individual ability to make it.
We can’t keep on expecting one sector of the community to do all the heavy lifting - that situation is simply unsustainable.
I agree with the comments of Anonymous@10:14 PM about the foul language of Anonymous@3:23 PM – unnecessary and unhelpful.
Clive, as for posting anonymously: some of us work at institutions where not holding the current ideological ‘correct’ political views can land you in hot water. Once upon a time, politics was kept out of the workplace, at least at the organisational level, but alas those days are gone for many of us.
When I comment, I endeavour to engage with the post and comment with respect, even if I hold a different position.
LFC
Clive - Two points, if I may add to your article.
1. - In a previous employment, which entailed me to visit different business operations, at one establishment my 'çontact' was young lady who was "deemed Duty Manager' and when entering into conversation, I found she was a University Student, in Her Forth Year (sorry time has dimed what Degree she was studying), the business she was employed in, was her part time job, had been for three years past, and when asked - "What she intended doing when Graduating", she replied - "Oh she had been offered fulltime employment in the business she worked in"- Bar Manager for a Pub.
Point - Four years at a University, on the Tax payer $ to gain a Degree, to end up working in a Pub. And she will not have been an isolated case.
2. - Yes many University students no doubt had jobs, during Term breaks, to earn money, but what people need to understand when reading Clive's comments, that most would have been at Uni on the Taxpayer $ = Student Loans, 'for University not a cheap education option' and having heard "tall tales" about some students NOT re-paying that Loan I can understand Clive's point of view, which in light of " other activities" they get involved in - which leads to enlightening News stories - I am sure that many other New Zealander's, of Clive's age, would certainly agree with him.
I take issue with Anonymous of 3.23.
S/he adds nothing but invective.
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