On Tue, Feb 26, 2002 at 01:17:45PM +1300, Juha Saarinen wrote: Err... I need to disabuse you of the notion that NZ is a rich place. It isn't. NZ has slipped way back in national wealth charts (from 3rd place to 20th, IIRC). It's official, the government is finally recognising that it cannot let the slide continue. The riches I am talking about a not monetary. I'm well aware that the current and previous governments are doing their best to ruin the country though systematic ineptitude and mismanagement, some of them the government is almost completely to blame (ie. The People's Bank, ACC, the continuing reinvention of the social welfare system every few years) and others the public largely to blame (ie. everything the Green Party seems to be involved in and all GE/GM hysteria and misinformation). I'm choosing New Zealand for a vaction soon because what little money I have gets more than doubled when I visit. And I get to bludge of my folks for a couple of days. No doubt this is one reason why Internet access costs a lot in NZ. Indeed... it most certainly is. It significantly inflates the cost quite considerably, but a multi-billion dollar chunk of glass under the ocean is probably even more significant. --cw - To unsubscribe from nznog, send email to majordomo(a)list.waikato.ac.nz where the body of your message reads: unsubscribe nznog