![[dr. bob]](/dr-bob-sm.gif)
Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 11 to 35 of 35. Go back in thread:
Posted by sigismund on December 11, 2019, at 19:20:38
In reply to Re: the people of New Zealand, posted by alexandra_k on December 11, 2019, at 17:24:56
>they take international students money.
Students come here to study business or (god help me) even cooking, mainly perhaps to get into the country, based on some rather optimistic ideas about what Australia has to offer. So they work in bars part time and hopefully don't get murdered by the police as happened to some Brazilian kid in Sydney.
Posted by sigismund on December 11, 2019, at 20:28:26
In reply to Re: the people of New Zealand, posted by alexandra_k on December 11, 2019, at 17:33:20
When I was at university all the blokes seemed to have vasectomies, no one got married, let alone hens and bucks parties (!), and no one went to graduation.
Real respect went to the med graduates who had bothered to learn German so they could read Das Kapital in the original.
Posted by alexandra_k on December 11, 2019, at 21:48:49
In reply to Re: the people of New Zealand, posted by sigismund on December 11, 2019, at 19:20:38
Yes, I remember a while back reading an article in ''The Conversation'' or similar about a similar problem in Australia.
Macquarie seemed to be in a similar position. Concern about setting the bar low. Then concern about whether there even was a bar.
We don't often hear about how they fail out their most capable people. We lament the stupid they hail as the best -- but we don't often hear about how they fail out their most capable people.
Edu-tourism. Yeah. It is a way into the country. Then after you have resided for however long you are resident. Smooths / paves the way to citizenship. Especially if you add the possibility of marrying a local at some point during your studies.
New Zealand marketed itself as a destination for Edu-tourism. It is embarrassing really but (amongst other things) we marketed ourself as setting the bar for entry lower than any other English Speaking nation. Requiring less points. The value of the dollar made New Zealand attractive, too. One of the marketing ideas was to make it a destination ESL country. To basically say that we would take people who didn't speak English if they paid us to teach them English.
It started with home placements. So people got to live with a family maybe with a kid their age. Learn English by total immersion. But then it became about living in a high rise slum in a tiny (maybe even shared) room with 16 people to a bathroom or something equally atrocious. TO study English with people who don't speak it or know it. To be with a bunch of other students from ones home country so no opportunity to speak it with locals, at all. Then the exams are stupid exams that I (as a native English speaker) would no doubt fail.
So we intentionally marketed ourself as a desination launching pad here to learn English so people would have the points to aim higher -- to Australia or Canada or the UK or the USA. And of course a bunch of degenerates and terrorists and the like took us up on that.
And hard working honest people too, of course. And people who just wanted the OE and liked the idea of being rich in this country... And... Whatever.
I know things are bad in Australia. ANd in parts of the US. And so on. But it really really really really does seem to me that things are so very very very very very much worse here.
But maybe it was that other countries treated me better for the time I was in them. I didn't see the worst of it.
But New Zealand... Hasnt' had meaningful employment for me, at all. New Zealand... Has kept me in slum... Has refused to acknowledge the things I've done (while simultaneously stealing them and passing them off as the ideas of others)...
Doesn't listen to a f*ck*ng word I say...
Isn't capable of reading the reports of examiners external to the University.
Isn't capable of generating a true and accurate transcript of a students study...
But then I can walk by the Harbour... All the new housing (largely empty) that is built for the Americas cup. All the restaurants and bars and paved shared walkways and apartments... The people of New York or Connecticut or Rhode Island or f*ck*ng wherever wanted summer houses in the middle of their winter all the way down in this part of the world...
All the intellectual property they collect up from turnitin...
Sure...
Come get it.
It's there for the taking.
All the empty apartments.
And all the pretty suburbs surrounding the inner city ghetto.
All the pretty houses for all the pretty people who have all the money and the power and the jobs...
People seem to have it really good, here.
So many people seem to hvae it really really really very good here
So.
I don't know.
Apparently if you pay to see a specialist you even get to by-pass the wait list for timely public care. Of course, that's how that works. Did you now if you have health insurance then the St John's amubulance might even triage you to hospital ER. Instead of after hours medical clinic where you are sent a $50 or $70 dollar bill for the after hours medical care. Or maybe you have to pay St Johns $700 per year for the appropriate triage of your medical emergency, I can't remember. I think you can pay them a premium so you have door to door delivery for your hospital appointment. I mean they will literally come to your door and carry you and you can even lie on a stretcher and they will chat to you all the way there...
Like teh US maybe 30 or 40 years ago where they check your wallet to see your insurer so they ambulance knows whether to take you to hospital and which hospital to take you to... Whether to simply turn on the sirens and get the hell out of there...
I guess they know your area code when you call and ask for ambulance.
Like how they turn the power off to certain special areas of the country first. Where they decide the people matter the least.
Not because they contribute the least to the running of this country. Often time (seems to me) they actually contribute the most.
The people building the buildings. NO health insurance. No healthcare (triaged lower than everybody else I'd imagine). The people building the roads. All the aesbestos and chemicals poured on the roads... And so on...
While the idiots in charge collect up all the resources and have all the power (literally)...
While health, education, social and economic development everything everything everything swampy swamp swamp.
At least that's how it is for me.
I am not valued here.
It isn't fair that I was born to here. I am not valued here, at all.
Posted by alexandra_k on December 11, 2019, at 21:53:56
In reply to Re: the people of New Zealand, posted by alexandra_k on December 11, 2019, at 21:48:49
You want to live somewhere with a first class billings department.
Then when people cry awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww help me!!!!!!
You can go 'why, of course! go chat to billings and when you are ready we can get started'
And then you can do your job and trust that people really very good at their job know how to figure out a price that is fair.
Posted by alexandra_k on December 11, 2019, at 21:59:46
In reply to Re: the people of New Zealand, posted by alexandra_k on December 11, 2019, at 21:53:56
There is some White Island Volcanic Explosion terrible thing that happened. Killed a bunch of tourists.
New Zealand should look to Interlarken Sweden for precedent of what is fair.
Posted by alexandra_k on December 11, 2019, at 22:02:50
In reply to Re: the people of New Zealand, posted by alexandra_k on December 11, 2019, at 21:59:46
It killed my brother.
But I suppose the settlement was out of court and we signed something to say we wouldn't dislose what it was to third parties.
Posted by alexandra_k on December 11, 2019, at 22:53:02
In reply to Re: the people of New Zealand, posted by alexandra_k on December 11, 2019, at 22:02:50
Actually, apologies, the gown happens as a matter of fact to the be the correct color for the Otago PhD.
Posted by beckett2 on December 12, 2019, at 18:53:33
In reply to Re: the people of New Zealand, posted by alexandra_k on December 11, 2019, at 22:02:50
> https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/switzerland/1364737/Canyon-girls-hit-by-wall-of-water.html
>
> It killed my brother.
>
> But I suppose the settlement was out of court and we signed something to say we wouldn't dislose what it was to third parties.
I had read about this. I'm sorry Alex.
Posted by alexandra_k on December 12, 2019, at 19:50:19
In reply to Re: the people of New Zealand » alexandra_k, posted by beckett2 on December 12, 2019, at 18:53:33
Thanks, Beckett. It was years ago, now, but pretty hard to deal with at the time, for sure.
My brother was a really terrific human being. He did really well to put up with a kid sister 10 years his junior. I remember I loved playing with him. We would play cricket and kick around in swimming pools of various sizes. Splashing about or swimming underwater or diving or whatever. He was really very good to me.
I am going slightly mad because my motorcycle died. The motor can't run the headlight so it failed its warrant of fitness. My mother said she would help me out with another but then I got to thinking about bicycles... Anyway... She said it would help things with her if we waited until the end of this month. So I have no motorcycle and no bicycle and I'm going mad feeling stuck in the ghetto in the sweltering heat.
It's not sweltering -- but it it very warm. And with no air conditioning that means opening all the windows / door. And I am right by the ER so helecopters and sirens. And I am right by a hilly road with lights. So motorcycles revving and trucks revving (sounds like) from the lights to accelerate up the hill from a stop.
And waiting on Med. And feeling incredulous that Waikato is pretending to be too stupid to parse reports of examiners and incredulous that they haven't processed my Degree properly. And wondering if Auckland has the same planned for me for Med, again.
And I'm f*ck*ng livid that it feels engineered, somehow, for me to be like 'oh, maybe they will choose to fail me' so I am supplicant and help-seeking.
And I am angry that they would intentionally not do their jobs in order to induce that...
That if they don't see an expression of that then they would actually just refuse to process my Degree.
Angry that they would think that that performance (not doing their job in a timely fashion) would have anybody want to join them.
It is a strange thing...
My sister said about my niece that she remembers being given quite a hard time when she was coming through (medical imaging). Many people were unnecesssarily mean. She is kind to the students because she remembers how that felt.
I said to my sister that it turns out that attitude is rare. Most people put up with the nastiness clinging to the thought that they will get to join them and inflict the same trauma on the next generation.
Awful people.
Sigh.
Posted by alexandra_k on December 12, 2019, at 19:54:43
In reply to Re: the people of New Zealand, posted by alexandra_k on December 12, 2019, at 19:50:19
Anyway, I am supposed to hear by the 20th whether I am in or not.
And I can't apply again anywhere in NZ (unless I appeal it in court, or whatever).
I was supposed to supply evidence of having completed a degree in the minimum time within the last 5 years from a NZ University by end November.
Only, people don't complete graduate research degrees in the minimum time because the Universities refuse to process the work and withhold the Degree until they have extorted additional fees.
Apparently this is totally normal or whatever.
So they can spend the year in many many many many meetings deciding whether they would have me join them or whether they would bully me out of the field by simply stealing my stuff (my intellectual property) and not giving me my degree.
I see my ideas are becoming old now, already.
Mainstream.You're welcome.
Posted by beckett2 on December 12, 2019, at 21:08:19
In reply to Re: the people of New Zealand, posted by alexandra_k on December 12, 2019, at 19:54:43
> Anyway, I am supposed to hear by the 20th whether I am in or not.
> And I can't apply again anywhere in NZ (unless I appeal it in court, or whatever).
> I was supposed to supply evidence of having completed a degree in the minimum time within the last 5 years from a NZ University by end November.
> Only, people don't complete graduate research degrees in the minimum time because the Universities refuse to process the work and withhold the Degree until they have extorted additional fees.
> Apparently this is totally normal or whatever.
> So they can spend the year in many many many many meetings deciding whether they would have me join them or whether they would bully me out of the field by simply stealing my stuff (my intellectual property) and not giving me my degree.
> I see my ideas are becoming old now, already.
> Mainstream.
>
> You're welcome.
>
>
>Have you had the interview you mentioned on the social page? (I read it today.)
I have my fingers crossed for you!
Posted by beckett2 on December 12, 2019, at 21:21:19
In reply to Re: the people of New Zealand, posted by alexandra_k on December 12, 2019, at 19:50:19
People here seem pleased with electric bicycles. Just mentioning. Sorry you can't get about.
Both my parents are gone, but I haven't lost a sibling. I imagine it's pretty tough. I'm the oldest of a small flock and have many memories of playing, bossing around and caring for my siblings.
Posted by alexandra_k on December 12, 2019, at 22:17:58
In reply to Re: the people of New Zealand » alexandra_k, posted by beckett2 on December 12, 2019, at 21:08:19
Yes, I had the interview.
It went better than I feared it would.
I did not feel / display anger at / to the interviewers, I don't think.
I was told last year that I did better than average for other applicants of my category (general graduate). They did not say how much better.
I think I did better this year than I did last year.
Last year I messed up the role play station. I was perhaps a little disconnected in the next couple because of it. Not because of feeling upset / emotion dysregulation but because I mis-interpreted the purpose / point of the role play station. I thought it was interpersonal skills / empathy / communication but it was how much you wanted to do Med. They wanted me to be more forceful, I mean to say. Not 'there there feel better' but 'you should never ever ever ever ever even think of dropping out of Med not for any reason at all'.
Sometimes questions just disconnect a little.
The next station, too. He wanted me to sign the praises of the NZ system of accreditation and I just couldn't do that. Fortunately recent events in NZ meant that topic wasn't on the agenda.
There was a nice seeming lady who said she was an anesthetist. I got to tell her I wanted to be a surgeon.
Otherwise it's hard because I feel like there is a huge push towards general practice / public health and you sort of aren't allowed to say that you want to do surgery or be a specialist. I feel that I was failed out of public health before because I was honest with them about how I wanted to be a surgeon. And they were all like 'we can't afford surgeons' and 'the people don't need surgeons they need mothers and you would make a good mother and then we won't have to pay you' and so on...
So it was nice to have her (whether she was an anesthetist or was role playing one makes no difference it gave me permission to speak).
I disconnected with the volunteering lady.
But that helped me see what went wrong with Otago. The interview panel was anglican church. Hospice / St John volunteering. Things like that. The volunteering people don't like me. I don't think much of rattling a tin for a board of directors and the fact that in NZ charity is a way to avoid paying taxes is all. Our charities are multi million or billion or whatever dollar businesses. Helping themselves more than anybody else.
Not a bad disconnect... But there was a disconnect. Then near the end she tried to ask me something but couldn't ask... I don't know what it was.. Maybe it was for comment on my thoughts on volunteering overseas...
The last guy basically asked me my thesis question.
I said a few things that... May or may not be accepted.
We can agree to disagree...
But the fact that I said what I thought (when asked specifically)...
I don't know.
I think they went fairly well. Really well in a couple / few, at least. Not badly in any.
The other component is the UCAT. They did the UMAT before and told me I scored just a little below average. Which makes a mockery of the test, I think. ANyway... I don't know how well I did. I think they teased different skills / abilities out better than the UMAT. I think I did fairly well / very well on verbal comprehension and quite well in verbal reasoning. Not sure I got any of the maths questions correct. Maybe okay in data analysis. Completing the pictures... I don't know that I got a single one of those, either. I felt like I guessed them all.
I am supposed to feel like it is a matter of luck. I think that is the idea. I am supposed to feel like it is a matter of luck.
But it is about making people apply the maximum number of times...
Otago interviewed me because last minute flights and accommodation was a tourist boost to the region. I wouldn't have bothered interviewing at all if I had have known they would refuse to consider my GPA when they were deciding on places. I knew the 'alternative' category allowed for people to have other things factored in... VOlunteering experience. Marrying a doctor and so on... But I didn't realise that GPA wouldn' tbe considered at all (apparently because some people didn't have one therefore nobody's GPA was allowed to count because that wouldn't have been fair).
They just do whatever the f*ck they want.
Seems to be what they intentionally want to beleive about themselves / convey to others.
It just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Disgust.
But the interview was okay. It was okay last year, too. The people seemed decent. Good people. Stark contrast to the rest of the process...
I just feel like a f*ck*ng idiot that I came back here at all to do Med. I know people thought I was a fool -- but people didn't know my GPA. I didn't know that my GPA is actually irrelevant, though. They will just not consider it if they don't want to. And now the University of Waikato has set about generating false transcript after false transcript after false transcript for me... THey seem to be basically saying that they can just say 'no she didn't go here' if someone checks on my qualifications. That actually seems to be how corrupt things are, here.
THe theses aren't being lodged where the theses are supposed to go.
They aren't *burning* the books they are *refusing to bind and lodge the books*.
F*ck*ng anti-university.
F*ck*ng joke.
Posted by alexandra_k on December 12, 2019, at 22:31:38
In reply to Re: the people of New Zealand, posted by alexandra_k on December 12, 2019, at 22:17:58
There was ethics too. In the UCAT.
It was a lot easier for me to get behind / convey British ethical / moral sensibility than whatever it was the Australians wanted to see.
The cultural norm in NZ / Australia is that it is acceptable to basically say that you don't have a moral / ethical sensibility. People are very upfront open and honest about it. People don't feel that they need to conceal it, at all. People just say 'this is the way things are here it is our cultural norm' or whatever. What are you going to do about it? Just so long as someone else is worse than them they feel that they can just ride the slipstream. They just hide in packs or groups.
Medical students aren't any kind of exception. Are perhaps worse than the norm, even.
I think there is some truth to the idea that they intentionally select for psychopathy.
I think people here really truly and genuinely thought that we couldn't afford to train / hire specialists and there was a shortage of GPs. But it seems to me GPs have been holding back the development of medicine in NZ. They don't want to put forward capable people. They want the people to be chucked back and down... Back to them... Back to their secluded communities where they reign with all the money all the power all the resources and about .2 of a job.
To whinge and bitch and moan about how there aren't enough of them (with only .2 of a job).
To not process the applications of people wanting to become GPs...
Posted by beckett2 on December 13, 2019, at 0:25:21
In reply to Re: the people of New Zealand, posted by alexandra_k on December 12, 2019, at 22:31:38
> There was ethics too. In the UCAT.
>
> It was a lot easier for me to get behind / convey British ethical / moral sensibility than whatever it was the Australians wanted to see.
>
> The cultural norm in NZ / Australia is that it is acceptable to basically say that you don't have a moral / ethical sensibility. People are very upfront open and honest about it. People don't feel that they need to conceal it, at all. People just say 'this is the way things are here it is our cultural norm' or whatever. What are you going to do about it? Just so long as someone else is worse than them they feel that they can just ride the slipstream. They just hide in packs or groups.
>
> Medical students aren't any kind of exception. Are perhaps worse than the norm, even.
>
> I think there is some truth to the idea that they intentionally select for psychopathy.
>
> I think people here really truly and genuinely thought that we couldn't afford to train / hire specialists and there was a shortage of GPs. But it seems to me GPs have been holding back the development of medicine in NZ. They don't want to put forward capable people. They want the people to be chucked back and down... Back to them... Back to their secluded communities where they reign with all the money all the power all the resources and about .2 of a job.
>
> To whinge and bitch and moan about how there aren't enough of them (with only .2 of a job).
>
> To not process the applications of people wanting to become GPs...
>
>
>
>
>An ethics part? If someone is a psychopath, they know what to say. You seem to actually have ethics. That can make things more difficult.
I'm glad your interview went better this time.
Posted by alexandra_k on December 13, 2019, at 3:34:39
In reply to Re: the people of New Zealand » alexandra_k, posted by beckett2 on December 13, 2019, at 0:25:21
Thanks.
I think sometimes they intentionally select for psychopaths. Because they think they know what motivates them and they think they can control them / control that. Or hold that over them as leverage. Something like that.
I thought Otago was intentionally selecting for that.
I see now it was about politics. Political places. Anglican church (only God decides when it is time for you to go and the minister is Gods representative on earth, of course, the minister will come and read you your last rights after you have signed your estate to the church maybe God will grant you a peaceful death).
And hospice. Multi million dollar charity involved in end life care. Some... Very controlling people are attracted to that kind of work. To work with people and see them suffer and believe that that must play out. That they are required to suffer for the end of their days. To have control. To have control of the pain medication and so on... And of course with the wills thing, again, and the timing of the peaceful death. Whether there will be a peaceful death, at all.
And I am sure that there are many good people in both of those organisations. But I am also sure that many psychopaths are attracted to that kind of work.
More recently (over the last year) there have been incidents where people have been called into account. Medical students particularly. A doctor who was found guilty of murdering a teenage / young adult girl after she threatened to expose him as a sexual predator. Students who would ask / tell students sitting tests later what questions were on the test. Students who lied about their work placements (not attending for the full 10 weeks) to holiday around exotic locations.
Apparently all of these things are culturally normal.
But over the last year the people with power finally said publically 'actually no, this is not okay'.
The students didn't graduate. They still have their work placements to do.
But then I didn't get to graduate either. And where is the justice for me?
I think they delayed me a year so they could inflate the GPA of the next cohort. I think they are in the process of changing the way they calculate GPA because they don't like that I have the GPA I do according to their calculation.
In other words: To keep me (people like me) out.
I don't see how else to see that.
Posted by alexandra_k on December 13, 2019, at 3:51:28
In reply to Re: the people of New Zealand, posted by alexandra_k on December 13, 2019, at 3:34:39
It is because they sneak their children through (with low GPAs) while not giving the places to the other people with higher GPAs etc.
They just say 'awwwwwwwww it is really competitive, there were lots of really really really really great applicants and you just didn't make it -- sorry' to those who miss out.
And people believe them.
Because they trust them.
Because they believe they are honest people with integrity.
Because we want to believe them. We don't want to believe there is widespread corruption in the hospitals, our doctors, our universities.
And then it turns out that the truth of it is that they just didn't process their application. Because they wanted to give the place to their kid. Because they thought it would make their kids look bad.
I wasn't sure if I should apply for disability (as a special admission category) or not. I don't need accommodations. I am ambivalent about whether I have disability or not. My envirnoment in NZ is disabling, however. I live off of disability because this country refuses to provide me a living wage unless other people are paid to micro-mis-manage me in some way or another. Apparently the only thing you get if you apply as a disability candidate is that they will consider your application if your GPA is low.
They don't say what that means. Perhaps they mean they will offer you an interview if you wouldn't be offered an interview otherwise. Then the hope is that your guide dog or your ESL interpreter or your three heads will ensure you a low interview score so you can be told 'awwww sorry there were many really great candidates but your interview score wasn't good enough'.
My GPA would have been one of the highest they had seen. So. No point applying for disability. Even when the point of the category is supposed to increase representation.
Only it turns out the point of the category is to increase discrimination actually.
They were taking the piss.
I said 'I don't need to be consdiered as a disability equity candidate thanks'.
So they decline my application.
When I query why they declined it it turned out they miscalculated my GPA.
I wonder if the only GPA miscalculation was the disability equity candidate.
I am actually not making this sh*t up.
So... What will their excuse be this year? There always is an excuse.
I imagine that the UCAT was introduced becuase it provided 5 metrics. They said as much. So now they can make up an arbitrary cut off threshold each year that is just below the last candidate they have already decided gets a place for each of the scales.
They are soooooooooo cleeeeeeever, you see.
They don't seem to understand / care how f*ck*ng obvious they are.
It is just astounding how hell bent they are on ruining things for us all.
Posted by alexandra_k on December 13, 2019, at 3:56:51
In reply to Re: the people of New Zealand, posted by alexandra_k on December 13, 2019, at 3:51:28
But of course they don't have to offer me a place because I wasn't able to complete a qualification in the minimum time in NZ in the last 5 years.
Becuase the University of Waikato chose to give jobs to people who are incapable of understanding university regulations / incapable of parsing the reports of examiners.
Because the Ombudsman of NZ chooses never to see corruption. That would mean people would need to be offered whistle blower protection and queens council would prosecute.
Instead the Ombudsman pretends to be too stupid to identify corruption when it is handed to him on a silver platter.
Instead they point to ministry of justice templates provided so that people with no law degree can represent themselves in the high court for judicial review of administrative action.
The embarrassing truth of it is likely to be that they would do a better job of it than the people they chose to give law degrees to. Maybe even the people they chose to promote to queens council.
Apparently a measure of corruption is how much money that they manage to recover.
All the student theses retained by examiners.
All the additional billing for re-enrolments before the Universities will sign off on people's degrees.
What a f*ck*ng joke.
I don't understand why the f*ck people can't just do their job. No.. Just do their job properly.
Why people are so hell bent on ruining things for us all.
Posted by sigismund on December 13, 2019, at 19:00:31
In reply to Re: the people of New Zealand, posted by alexandra_k on December 12, 2019, at 19:50:19
>Most people put up with the nastiness clinging to the thought that they will get to join them and inflict the same trauma on the next generation.
In some of the better English schools the prefects, maybe even the seniors, had the right to cane the younger boys for their misdeeds. I recall being given the power to assign detentions. 'Write out Psalm 101 (or whatever) twice.' One of the psalms is very long. This was such obvious crap even then. And no fun.
Posted by alexandra_k on December 13, 2019, at 20:23:54
In reply to Re: the people of New Zealand, posted by sigismund on December 13, 2019, at 19:00:31
Yeah.
Crap like that, still.
I need to remember it is the people without the capacity to do their job. That is why they don't do their job. They don't have the capacity to do it.
I think they probably could do their job if the infrastructure was better. But it isn't.
The only infrastructure I need, here, is for the people who have taken so very much of my money over so very many years (I will be around $100,000 in student loand when I'm done)... All that money I paid so they could give scholarships that pay for the fees of the wealthiest and most advantaged. All the 'equity redistribution' they did to further profit the most advantaged. All I need them to do is to f*ck*ng well give me the qualification that I paid for. I did MORE than the work that was required. Because they bullied me and harrassed me and made false promises and then sent out letters of extortion.
Good people cannot do business with them.
I really do think that we should shut it down.
Overseas should assess which of our people have capacity to contribute to grading / teaching and they should be paid to do that so at least some of our students (gee, how about the ones with capacity) can get to learn things like medicine and law and engineering... You know... So we actually end up with people who can do these things.
Instead of ending up with nothing.
A 'University' that is just a warehouse where people straggle themselves up any old how. Where their work is simply handed over to who cares who and where nobody grades it properly and where nobody is paid to grade it properly and where the only point of them being there at all is to take their money so their money can be given to...
Second year students to do summer research?
Well of course.
Why wouldn't you pay second year students to do summer research.
While refusing to sign off on the work your graduate research students have done until they have paid up another few thousand of dollars in fees.
I mean if the kids of the administrators and the like can't get an all expenses paid medical degree...
Well...
That wouldn't be fair.
Clearly.
I mean, all the work they've got coming their way. For hospice. For the anglican church. For the people of Samoa.
ffs.
Posted by alexandra_k on December 13, 2019, at 20:37:33
In reply to Re: the people of New Zealand, posted by alexandra_k on December 13, 2019, at 20:23:54
The solution is actually very simple and actually very obvious.
You make engineering, medicine, and law graduate entry only degrees.
And you make undergraduate degrees 4 years with a depth component and a breadth component.
And you make courses 'upper level' and 'lower level' (2 levels only with either no pre-requisite or with pre-requisite) so you don't get a stage 3 bottleneck where basically one person gets the power to choose whether they like your face enough to ruin your future career or not because you said something they disapproved of in your laboratory report (e.g., that you did not elicit the dive reflex in your laboratory because the dive reflex is defined as a phenomenon that occurs when heart rate drops below I forget what -- which is as you would expect since in untrained subjects it will only be elicited under conditions of extreme duress).
I see that many US institutions have stopped grading their students.
Or made the course 'satisfactory' or 'unsatisfactory'. The idea is that you have worked really hard to get to go to the University at all... So they trust that you are there because you want to be there and you are learning and working... And they give you (in that manner) space to try differnt things and not have to do the 'stupid lecturer / dodgey grading schedule' course dodge to avoid people who will unthinkingly (or fully knowing what they do) ruin your future prospects / intentionally close things off for you.
Otherwise you end up with a awful system where the kids are terrified of their lecturers / the graders failing them just because... Because the kid wasn't supplicant enough.
Maybe because the kid didn't go to a meeting when requested.
Maybe because the kid didn't perform sexual favors in the meeting when requested.
For whatever reason.
The Universities here decided the best way to make money for the board of directors / the university council was to close as many subjects as they could. Basically the aim seemed to be to close everything except teh absolute bare minimum. That is to say, students need to do 7 or 8 courses in their first year. So... Why not have all the students do all the same courses. Why not have only 1 lecturer to teach 1/7 or 1/8 of the entire first year curriculum across the whole of the... Degree? Or why not just close down the Degree programs one by one and then we can have only 1 lecturer teaching 1/7 or 1/8 of teh entire first year currculum across the entire university.
And people can go to class to watch the tv screen where the lecturers face is presented.
But why do that?
Why not just stay home.
The lecturer can teach from home.
Teh students can watch tv from home.
But why teach it at all.
The lecture can be replayed from the previous year.
Turnitin can grade the work.
We don't need to hire graders.
We end up with buildings...
But nobody goes unless you make them for credit.
They just gutted the university. That was the plan.
That's been what's been happening since I got back.
Everything progressively gets shut down.
Because people decided everybody should do the same thing always.
First year is designed to be horrible enough for the 'chosen few' to be terrified that they will not get to join the ruling class / that they will be 'unchosen'.
First year is designed to be horrible enough for the unchosen to be terrified that they will nto get to join the ruling class / that they will not be 'chosen'.
The money from the 'unchosen' is distributed to the 'chosen'.
The chosen get the second year places in the professional degrees...
They get the professional degrees...
We then spend the next however many generations lamenting the fact that our professional degree people only seem to be working to profiteer themselves at the expense of everybody else and aren't contributing to the development of society at all.
But that's what we selected for.
No surprises, there.
No surprises, at all.
Posted by alexandra_k on December 13, 2019, at 20:47:25
In reply to Re: the people of New Zealand, posted by alexandra_k on December 13, 2019, at 20:37:33
And what the 'upper and lower level only' thing does it it encourages all the different subjects to develop a lower and an upper level course.
All the subjects.
Because all the students need to take a range of subjects.
So now the way to help your chosen students is to help sensible curriculum develop across a range of subjects.
Of course it doesn't change the fundamental problem of people not grading things. Or of employing stupid grading criteria...
There are still basic things that can be done... Making people blind grade student work.
I don't understand this. When I started grading I was instructed to blind grade. There was oversight. Things really have gone backwards, here, in the way the grading schedules have been developed. Weirdly. By people who don't have the vocubulary to understand synonyms. Who don't have the cognitive capacity to grasp the concepts or whatever that the students are supposed to demonstrate understanding of.
You take people who aren't capable of summarising what the journals have said and they aren't able to teach others to summarise what the journals have said. Or... Worse... People don't seem to know it when they see it. Only I don't htink that is it. I think they do know it when they see it. They intentionally flunk that out.
I was reading in the paper something about a 10 year old doing engineering in... Amsterdam? He wanted to be the youngest person to get the degree. The University changed his examination schedule because they said he was 'too young' and he 'couldn't demonstrate ability in creative' or something...
It was just a little blurb.
But it make no sense at all.
But it describes what happens all the time.People decide that they know better than the examination process so they refuse to apply the examination process. They refuse to give people what the examination process says they should have... They enroled him. Why can't he graduate with his cohort? Did they only enrol him because they thought they would be able to flunk him out earlier in the Degree?
Waikato only enroled me because they thought I lacked the capacity to do the Degree.
They thought I was slow.
Other Universities...
Nobody would have agreed to supervise me.
Why? BEcause they knew / know I had the capacity to do the Degree. So they never would have agreed to supervise me because we don't sign our students off.
Our graduate research Degrees are given to people at the END of their career. So we don't have to pay them.
Or let them go.
We can just market them as slow and stupid and needing to be institutionalised to be forever micro-mis-managed by others.
It is about incompetent people being promoted or hired into jobs they are not competent for.
They become accustomed to the money.
Then they become devoted / committed to seeking out those who are more competent than they and ending them.
It is not a very nice environment to work in.
Unless you are not very competent.
But enjoy passing yourself off as rich and important.
Sigh.
Posted by sigismund on December 18, 2019, at 18:06:50
In reply to Re: the people of New Zealand, posted by alexandra_k on December 13, 2019, at 3:34:39
>Political places. Anglican church (only God decides when it is time for you to go and the minister is Gods representative on earth, of course, the minister will come and read you your last rights after you have signed your estate to the church maybe God will grant you a peaceful death).
The Church of England had the temerity to erect a church in the Octagon, and the protestants saw them off.Western Australia and Victoria have passed laws permitting euthanasia under limited circumstances.
Posted by alexandra_k on December 20, 2019, at 2:50:21
In reply to Re: the people of New Zealand, posted by sigismund on December 18, 2019, at 18:06:50
> Western Australia and Victoria have passed laws permitting euthanasia under limited circumstances.
Interesting... I learned yesterday the VC of UWA is becoming the VC of the University of Auckland from mid-March next year. That is a considerable change in leadership style / approach. I am... Speechless...
I need to attend special interviews, I think. Under the rubric of 'appeals' that they didn't process my MBChB Application. Or my MPhil.
There was an article in the Herald yesterday about someone saying the Christmas Party of the Office of the Health and Disability Commissioner was someplace not accessible by wheelchair. One of the attendees needed her work colleagues to carry her inside if she wanted to attend at all. That people would just stop coming to work. Bullying. Public shaming. If you spoke up you were out.
Yes. There has been a lot of that kind of thing.
Things are changing.
The quality of journalism has improved immensely over the last year. Sensible statistics. Sensible articles.
They put up a Christmas tree or two in the FMHS building.
The blades torture sculpture has gone. There are plants.
There are 'Auckland Metro' ambulances (for routine patient transport) so routine patient transport doesn't need to happen with ambulances fully kitted out with emergency response equipment staffed by highly trained emergency responders.
There was a volcano explosion and many people (tourists mostly I think) were killed / severely injured. Severe burn injuries. Some... Charity? Agency? Some people? Started rattling a tin and calling for donations. The PM visited the hospital and asked them to tell her to her face what they needed money for. And what the money they got from the public was going to be spent on. She called them on their sh*t, in other words.
Things are changing here.
Posted by sigismund on December 20, 2019, at 17:33:43
In reply to Re: the people of New Zealand » sigismund, posted by alexandra_k on December 20, 2019, at 2:50:21
In Japan many public toilets are 'stoma friendly'. The streets are specially marked with raised points to help blind people, and there is braile everywhere.
Where I live there are fewer public toilets than there were 30 years ago, and the population has grown more than 30 fold in that time. The toilets are over-engineered to say the least. Turkey and Peru have far better public toilets. They did try to privatise the rain in Cochabamba but the public would not cooperate. From Cochabamba came the support for the latest Bolivian coup, Christian colonial fascism. I guess they will try it again.
We were travelling on the big ring line around Tokyo, and a man stood up and did something with what looked like a fob watch. 2 stations later he went to the train door and a guard was there with his hand stretched out to help him off.
This is the end of the thread.
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