Open mike 08/03/2011

32 comments on “Open mike 08/03/2011 ”

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1. Jenny 1

   8 March 2011 at 6:12 am

   .
   Around 30 Sky city workers have been locked out. The bosses say they can
   come back when they sign individual agreements.

   Unite and the SFWU have called all members out in response. Their press
   release says 200 have walked out.

   All through yesterday they have maintained a serious picket to stop
   customers and scabs from getting through.

   A witness visited the picket twice in the afternoon, both times he saw pushing and
   shoving between unionists and security guards. A paddy wagon was arriving
   just as he left at just after 7 last night.

   Sky City is probably the biggest private sector union site in the central
   city. Workers there have been fighting to build and maintain their union
   for the last decade.

   This looks like being a crucial battle for unionization of low paid
   service workers.

   Joe Carolan a Unite organiser has asked for supporters to come down, to help.

   So spread the word.
   • David 1.1

     8 March 2011 at 9:47 am

     And the lockout is over. Presumably the staunch picketing was enough to management to the negotiating table. Hopefully this time they be prepared to offer something.
     • Vicky32 1.1.1

       8 March 2011 at 5:47 pm

       Wow, that’s good news that it’s over quickly…
       Deb
2. ZeeBop 2

   8 March 2011 at 6:46 am

   But think of the profits (sounding and loaded like ‘think of the kids’, ‘the children, the children’,
   the next generation will thank us if we are greedy for more profit).

   Rent seekers have been downplaying the thirty year glut of cheap oil so they
   could distort the way the wealth was use, i.e them not society (which temporariily
   no longer existed). This is the motivation for PPP at all costs and no analysis.

   So we see in ChCh, where half a city is shut down by natural phenomena – well
   at least the leaky building problems in that half of the city is solved. And we all
   know how an art gallery gets the investment to survive the quake but
   the people who would inhabit the emergency centre had no problems with
   letting leaky homes be built and now homes on land prone to liquefaction.

   You see all those years of wealth and profit, that increased inequality, was
   misdirected from better purposed spending, but also in the rush to do away
   with government governing and allow for profit, we see a general
   freeing up of the market to under-produce on sustainable and resilience.

   When tens of thousand flood out of ChCh, internal refugees, seeking government
   welfare centres and offices across the country – the welfare report is quietly
   shelved along with a misdirection on student union interest and WTF cuts.

   Even spin now is used to move National government to the left, the stark reality
   of petrol rises hitting home on the back of the ChCh tremor. Mining on, mining
   off. Asset sales full steam ahead, then watered down asset sales.

   National have a choice, drop their stupid policies and ideology or become
   unelectable, a loony party unable to keep up with changes that voters
   have to immediately respond to and are fed up having to wait on governing
   politicians who seem puzzled that we aren’t all cheering them on any more.
   They don’t get that the light never shined out of their behinds, it was all
   just cheap oil.
   • Draco T Bastard 2.1

     8 March 2011 at 11:21 am

     We really don’t want National to drop it’s loony policies. What we want, and need as a society, is for people to realise that their policies are loony so that National will never see the treasury benches again.
     • Colonial Viper 2.1.1

       8 March 2011 at 11:27 am

       While holding Labour to account to do the ‘right’ thing.
3. Salsy 3

   8 March 2011 at 8:01 am

   The UK Govt has started seriously panicking about oil. Strategy for electric cars by June, low carbon homes and a “green” bank..
   • Colonial Viper 3.1

     8 March 2011 at 8:42 am

     They got no money to do this with, and how are they going to justify the tens of thousands of job losses well on the way? Cameron explicitly declared the civil service the enemy of enterprise at the tory conference – just 2 days ago.

     I suppose soup kitchens could be low emissions.

     Its madness and they have no hope of success.
     • ZeeBop 3.1.1

       8 March 2011 at 11:01 pm

       Sorry but your wrong, governments are about continuity, if they don’t have the money they
       print it. Look at the U.S. Of course this should mean inflation, or hyper inflation, since inevitable citizens have less value in the currency. The effect of a bout of inflation is to lower the value of the hoarders of financial wealth, unless they own something that makes money they become poorer faster. Now given that a lot of wealth is going to be lost from higher oil prices making a heap of business model unprofitable, there’s going to be more room not less for the UK government to print money and so stimulate a new generation of businesses geared to the new lifestyle possibilities of peak oil. So when the UK govt says austerity, it means more wiggle room, more warning to the current rich watch out your about to bleed, and massive social change. Now this doesn’t work in NZ because our debt is held by foreigners, as such we have no room to move because the people who own, who will hurt, who need to change, are not under the sovereign control of NZ. All government can do is rebuild the economy to serve the people rather than absent landlords – which Nat-Lab are not even discussing. So expect more inefficient waffle from politicians, looking like lame asses is all they have now.
4. joe90 4

   8 March 2011 at 8:25 am

   New Hampshire politician talks about disenfranchisement because there “are kids voting liberal, voting their feelings, with no life experience.”

   “They go into these general elections, they’ll have 900 same day registrations, which are the kids coming out of the schools and basically doing what I did when I was a kid, which is [vote liberal],” he said. “They don’t have life experience and they don’t have life experience and they just vote their feelings and they’re taking away the town’s ability to govern themselves, it’s not fair.”

   Previously.
5. pollywog 5

   8 March 2011 at 10:07 am

   Sideshow Bob, acclaimed mayor of Christchurch, has totally outdone himself in the irrelevent taking the piss stakes.

   Yesterday, on the telly, we were treated to the truly glorious sight of his majestic mayoralness pimping portable toilets and proclamating procedures re: how to engage them.

   Yes thats right, he’s now telling Churtown people how to take a shit. Sad thing is, there will now be thousands of earthquake affected getting round with dags and skidmarks, as he forgot to tell them how to also wipe their arses properly.

   or perhaps that’s the subject of today’s media briefing.
6. hellonearthis 6

   8 March 2011 at 11:25 am

   I hear Work and Income NZ are claiming that 8,000 beneficiaries went off welfare and into work in FEB. Isn’t that just the students start at University and Polytechnics. http://www.voxy.co.nz/politics/bennett-benefit-numbers-decrease-february/5/84846
7. todd 7

   8 March 2011 at 11:30 am

   Child Poverty in New Zealand

   http://thejackalman.blogspot.com/2011/03/child-poverty-in-new-zealand.html

   There is no question that child poverty is a major problem for New Zealand. Because of various Governmental policies over the last few decades, we now have an epidemic of one in five Kiwi children growing up in poverty…
8. Draco T Bastard 8

   8 March 2011 at 11:38 am

   An interesting non-article by Roubini. It merely points to a Truthout article about the ills of selling state assets and recommends that you read it.
9. Morrissey 9

   8 March 2011 at 12:22 pm

   Listeners to Radio New Zealand National were treated to Joe Bennett reading form Part 2 of his book Hello Dubai this morning (10.45 a.m. Tuesday 8 March 2011).

   Bennett delivers the reading in his distinctive sing-song, slightly lisping voice, sounding at every moment as if the mirthfulness of the world is going to overwhelm him at any moment. Most of what he reads is uninteresting observational stuff that’s been done much better by the likes of Peter Calder. Bennett affects to find whimsy and pathos all around him, and waxes philosophical about the great divide in Dubai between the blonde expat women joggers and the anonymous Asian workers ignored by everyone except the condescending and amused Bennett.

   If he left it at that unambitious level, Hello Dubai would quickly join the list of other deservedly ignored and soon forgotten sub-literary attempts at imitating Paul Theroux. But, foolishly, Bennett decides to comment on something way beyond his competence. He mentions that during his stay in Dubai, the papers are “full of coverage” of the Israeli military massacre in Gaza. Bennett is struck by the full- colour pictures of dozens of the victims: “These are pictures you would never see in a western newspaper,” he asserts. Then, without missing a beat, in the next sentence he states that the media in Dubai are “heavily censored. There are some things you cannot say and some things you must say, and one of those is ‘Boo to Israel'”.

   The Israeli destruction wrought on Gaza was denounced by the United Nations as a mission to “punish, humiliate and terrorize” the captive Palestinian population. To actually do one’s job as a journalist and reveal some of the consequences of Israel’s war crimes is not saying “Boo to Israel”, it’s called reporting. Dubai, unlike the United States and Britain and Australasia, freely shows the Arab broadcaster Al-Jazeera, which gives extensive, highly informed coverage to both Israeli and Palestinian viewpoints—in stark contrast to the BBC, the ABC and the American networks. If there is “heavy censorship and a keen awareness of what you must and must not say”, it is not the Arab media that are guilty.

   Bennett’s puerile, trivializing words stand in marked contrast to the writing of informed New Zealand journalists like Jane Young and Gordon Campbell. Yet while those two outstanding writers are largely unheard on our leading public broadcaster, an ignoramus like Joe Bennett is given the pulpit of a prime spot to spout his ignorant and prejudiced views.

   “Sounds like us”? Yeah right.
   • ianmac 9.1

     8 March 2011 at 12:42 pm

     But Joe is not purporting to be journalist or a political commentator. He is resonating to me as an observant tourist and just below the surface is a wry commentary on the pretensions of the new rich and the weird UAE contradictions. While you Morrissey may be commenting for Palestinians, which is fine, but to attack Bennets style and content is daft.
     Perhaps you could usefully explore what will happen at the border between New Egypt and Gaza, and leave Joe out of it.
     • Morrissey 9.1.1

       8 March 2011 at 1:12 pm

       1.) But Joe is not purporting to be journalist or a political commentator.
       Actually, that is exactly what he’s doing. It’s not the first time, either; a couple of years ago he wrote a particularly foolish and ill-informed opinion of Venezuelan politics, of which he knows about as much as he does about Middle Eastern politics.

       2.) …wry commentary on the pretensions of the new rich and the weird UAE contradictions.
       That “wry commentary” is fine as long as he sticks to what he’s good at—trivial and inconsequential things like getting all lyrical about the suntans on young women. When he brings that same vacuity to the arena of politics and war crimes, it’s a different matter.

       3.) …to attack Bennets style and content is daft.
       Do you understand the point of criticizing something? Style and content is exactly what you criticize.

       4.) Perhaps you could usefully explore what will happen at the border between New Egypt and Gaza…
       Well, with the overthrow of the dictator, hopefully democracy will come to Egypt. If it does, the illegal Israeli blockade will not be supported by Egypt like it was by the dictator. Who knows?—other than it can’t be any worse there than it is now.

       5.) …and leave Joe out of it.
       Joe Bennett knows nothing about politics. He’s neither a serious nor a critical commentator. Of course he will be left out of it.
   • Draco T Bastard 9.2

     8 March 2011 at 1:39 pm

     If there is “heavy censorship and a keen awareness of what you must and must not say”, it is not the Arab media that are guilty.

     Peace, Propaganda and the Promised Land covers the censorship that prevents Westerners from knowing the truth about Israel.
10. Draco T Bastard 10

    8 March 2011 at 1:35 pm

    Wonder why there is so much pressure for the RBNZ to cut the OCR? First we got the PM telling us that a cut in the OCR was expected and now we have a foreign national working for a foreign business telling us that it’s needed.
11. lprent 11

    8 March 2011 at 2:09 pm

    The server has been getting a bit loaded in the last couple of days due to the Christchurch quake black humor post. It was starting to falter due to RAM getting in short supply and the server starting to thrash. It hasn’t been helped by a number of search bots that seem determined to read the entire site.

    I removed some monitoring operations that were sucking up resources and rebooted it (last reboot was 42 days ago and there were some updates to apply as well).

    Took a bit longer than expected to come back up – mostly because two posts got published while the web server was going up.

    Looks a lot healthier now, but we’re nearly at upgrade time again.
12. mickysavage 12

    8 March 2011 at 2:13 pm

    Wow Key and Goff are speaking in Parliament on the Christchurch Earthquake. Key was wooden, read a prepared speech and spoke in a monotone. Goff was very personable, spoke of his personal experience and spoke with some emotion. He thanked everyone who was involved and named all the major groups.

    He nailed it.

    If course I could be accused of being biased …
13. Draco T Bastard 13

    8 March 2011 at 3:37 pm

    The end of the ‘Washington consensus’

    Before China “gets” Colombia, there is now a rallying cry that says the US must pass the US-Colombia Free Trade deal – which would make Colombia deregulate its financial services industry, scrap its ability to design innovative policies for development, and open its borders to subsidised farm products from the United States. According to a study by the UN, the agreement will actually make Colombia worse-off by up to $75m, or 0.1% of its GDP.

    Considering that any FTA with the US will have the same policies why are we in talks to have such an agreement? We should be having the discussion about having one with all the facts laid out for everyone to see and, as the facts show that such an agreement is detrimental to us, then deciding not to have such an agreement.
14. the pink postman 14

    8 March 2011 at 4:06 pm

    Whatever happened to the excellent company Fisherand Paykel ? Not so long ago it was the pride of Aotearoa .A top class company that produced top class products , it also had a good record of fair employment . I wonder if that is the case now. One thing is sure its products ,now made in China are a disgrace.They can only be described as crap. For instance their stoves once a wonder now fall,apart , the fittings are poor and and they are liable to blow fuses ect at whim .I wonder if the same is happening to other firms who have moved to China.
    • Colonial Viper 14.1

      8 March 2011 at 5:50 pm

      Apparently the move to foreign manufacturing has been a disaster. Things like – minor fault with a new washing machine purchased by a customer, plant in Thailand or Mexico or wherever cannot source a spare replacement part to send to Service in NZ to fix the problem, months later pissed off customer has to be finally given a complete brand new washing machine to fill the conditions of the warranty.

      Many other “out of the brand new box” failure stories as well.

      Oh yeah, Haier (Chinese) now part owns F&P Appliances (but not Healthcare) but I didn’t think that they did any of the *F&P* manufacturing in China.

      (edit – though it wouldn’t surprise me)
15. Pascal's bookie 15

    8 March 2011 at 4:52 pm

    The first comment in this thread:

    http://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2011/02/a_quick_photoshop.html#comment-803583

    used to have a response from dpf tacked to the end of it.

    That response read:

    [DPF: The Police have obviously been reprimanded for their oversight. TV3 tonight showed another looter in court, and he looked like he had fallen down at least four sets of steps]

    I guess he thought better of it after what comes to light in this thread at PAS:

    http://publicaddress.net/hardnews/about-arie/

    ie, It does look like Arie Smith, the guy dpf was ‘joking’ about, was assaulted by Australian police before being perp walked in front of the media.

    I would have thought a front page retraction/apology might have been more in order than a discrete deletion in terms of bloggy etiquette, but hey, he’s just fomenting mischief right?
    • pollywog 15.1

      8 March 2011 at 5:00 pm

      As a whale in oil or a kate in cactus, he’s never more happy than when fomenting

      bless their mischievous little cottonsocks
16. Jum 16

    8 March 2011 at 9:19 pm

    Just listening to the debate on Legal Services Bill; a suspicious person must be wondering why Maori land is placed under disposable assets, when it is not allowed to be disposed of by individuals.

    To go one step further with that suspicion, maybe a later bill will pave the way for Maori land to be freed up for selling, which fits perfectly with my belief that National/Act never does anything that doesn’t benefit the rich and powerful. That is the reason, maybe, that Maori land is in the disposable assets listing as possible assets to sell to pay for legal advice. And Maori (Tariana Turia) don’t seem to mind or worry about this strange anomaly.
    • millsy 16.1

      8 March 2011 at 10:01 pm

      I belive, Jum, that the iwi elite will welcome a chance to ‘free up capital locked up to further the interests of our people’.

      On a seperate topic, I remember back in 1996, when the Works and Development Services Corporation (MOW’s emaciated SOE successor) was sold off, and one of the Alliance MP’s said something to the effect that we would miss all that expertise when a natural disaster occured.

      Guess what?
      • Jum 16.1.1

        8 March 2011 at 10:08 pm

        Millsy,
        So where does that leave the foreshore and seabed legislation – land to Maori, never to be sold off – what a lie…
17. todd 17

    8 March 2011 at 9:27 pm

    Asshole of the Week Award: David Farrar

    http://thejackalman.blogspot.com/2011/03/asshole-of-week-award_08.html

    Recently Parliament had its second reading of Nationals Foreshore and Seabed bill MK2, which has been highly controversial. Now Independent MP Hone Harawira strongly opposed the bill and the toll of trying to uphold the mandate given to him by his people is one he is undertaking with dignity…
18. logie97 18

    8 March 2011 at 9:59 pm

    In a Herald report this evening
    “One firefighter injured an Achilles heel…”

    Now what part of the anatomy might that be I wonder?
    • Vicky32 18.1

      8 March 2011 at 10:56 pm

      Once again, a reporter’s lack of general knowledge has bitten her/him on the bum. 😀

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