Now, I’m no expert on unemployment, and certainly no expert
on employment (always doing my best
to avoid it whenever possible, as I do), and I have to admit that the Minister lost me a
little as he effortlessly floated across the parallel bars, but it seems to me
that a different kind of unemployment has to be a good thing. It is surely irrefutable
that if being normally unemployed means not having a job, then being
differently unemployed must, by an act of inescapable logic, mean that you
mustn’t not have a job, although at the same time it obviously doesn’t mean
that you do have a job. It’s a sort
of employment limbo, if you will, or a purgatory where you pay penance for your
sins (no doubt the normal unemployment was the consequence of some kind of sin,
so it’s only fair some kind of penance is paid). I might be hopelessly wrong on all this –
I’m no expert as I said – and perhaps the Minister will enlighten us at some
point as to the details, but in the meantime, it’s nice to think that all those
people without a job have finally had some good news.
A column about anything and everything, from politics to philosophy to science to religion to literature and, most importantly, to football.
Thursday, 8 November 2012
A different kind of unemployment
As news broke today that the number of those without work in
New Zealand has increased for the third quarter running, there was yet a
glimmer of light in the darkness. The Minister of Economic Development announced that
what these people are experiencing is a ‘different kind of unemployment’. In a
display of political gymnastics so dynamic the likes of it surely hasn’t been seen
since the virtuoso performance put on by Donald Rumsfeld (‘…as we know, there are known knowns; there are
things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say
we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown
unknowns -- the ones we don't know we don't know….’), the Minister
danced around the issue majestically. Here he was pirouetting on a series of figures
and statistics rattled off at mind-numbing speed, then without a pause, he was
deftly vaulting across a raft of principles and promises before nailing a perfect
landing right on top of the opposition parties. It was breath-taking.
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Well said, or should I say, well queried? I too have wondered as to the nature of this different type of unemployment. It will be interesting to find out more.
ReplyDeleteYour columns need more publicity...somehow!
Mother