,,, Elizabeth Kerekere says $NZ7k was a good investment. I guess she would say that. I know how important pictures are, so this has gotta quell the demand.
Posted on 03/18/2004 12:06:51 PM PST by shaggy eel
[New Zealand] taxpayers paid $7000 for two women to travel to the United States to study ways of encouraging more gay and lesbian Maori and Pacific Islanders to take part in sport and cultural activities.
Elizabeth Kerekere of Porirua attended the Federation of Gay Games annual meeting in Chicago in November with her partner Alofa AioNo.
She said it was a good investment as she found new ways of encouraging gays and lesbians to participate in sport, art and cultural events and that her research could help any group wanting to encourage participation in its events.
But the government agency that funded the trip is under fire from National's social services spokeswoman Katherine Rich, who questioned whether more than $23 million administered by the Labour Department for community employment and development is being spent wisely.
The projects are funded by the department's Community Employment Group (CEG), which last year gave grants to about 1300 applicants. It is charged with developing sustainable "enterprise and employment opportunities" among disadvantaged groups.
Mrs Rich first criticised the CEG after it was revealed two women received $26,000 to travel to the US, Fiji and Samoa to study hip-hop music and culture. The money for that trip came from the $750,000-a-year social entrepreneur fund, one of several administered by the CEG.
Other CEG-funded projects include:
$14,000 for two women to travel to the netball world champs in Jamaica to lobby for the inclusion of a Maori team in future tournaments.
$15,000 for a Buddhist group to conduct a feasibility study into meditation and education camps.
$1971 to pay for 12 people to attend a hip-hop summit in Auckland.
$1800 to develop teamwork in a darts and cultural society.
Mrs Rich was concerned some projects may have provided little value to the taxpayer and that a number of funding recipients might not have met their project objectives.
"The net benefit for some of these projects is pretty hard to justify – some have received funding to help them apply for funding," she said.
"I support the general principles behind community development but I think that the organisation is going into areas that most New Zealanders would wonder about."
CEG general manager Charlie Moore defended its funding decisions yesterday and said the group had made good investments, which benefited the whole community.
Investments in the community had been effective and the group monitored funding recipients, sometimes retrieving grants.
"We are certainly not in the business of giving away money for the sake of giving it away."
People hoping to get funding had to pass a number of checks and CEG rejected their application if was not up to scratch.
Big bucks there for the pay-per-view companies.
International Professional Naked Lesbian Pillowfights.I would pay to study that.
,,, I'll never sing "It's my kind of town" again.
,,, Elizabeth Kerekere says $NZ7k was a good investment. I guess she would say that. I know how important pictures are, so this has gotta quell the demand.
,,, it seems the US is mecca for what these gals went for.
Riiiiiiight...
..and all positions are shortstops?
(Every lesbian I've ever met has been a shortstop. Statistical fluke or stereotype?)
That sounds like the Saturday Night Live skit where a bunch of guys got some wishes. Their last wish was to see a couple lesbians make out, and they forgot the word "hot". Yikes.
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