More proof that we are surely the stupidest species on the planet. Hurricanes increasing in frequency and severity due to AGW, so instead of mitigating AGW, let’s use more fossil fuels to try and maintain the facade that everything will be alright if we can just out-tech nature and our own mistakes.
Considering the number of wind turbines that they’re talking about I suspect most, if not all, fossil fuel generation in the US could be decommissioned.
Mr Hoffman determined to take a pretty substantial amount of a Class A drug, while having two young children. I think, after 23 years, what he did was spectacularly selfish.
Hmm, so far, Mr Hoffman’s herion overdose – of which he alone is responsible – is somehow also about smoking, bacon, alcohol consumption, children trapped in cars, and the Kiwi way. Stop flailing about. His use of heroin does not reflect on anyone but himself.
Mr Hoffman – particularly after 23 years – is responsible for taking heroin. And is responsible for the consequences. No one else.
Ad, that is a seriously stupid comment, there is only one other substance in the world that matches the addictive power of Heroin and that is Nicotine,
If you have no understanding of addiction you should get an education as addiction by definition is to use a substance or take actions,(as in the use of pokey machines), that no matter how ‘responsible’ you are in your other actions in life it becomes impossible for you to not use the products which are the subject of the addiction…
And how did he become addicted? Do you think he unwittingly started using Heroin without knowing its addictive reputation?
He is responsible for his own addiction, and his own death. Denying this worries me. We need to teach our children to take accountability for their own actions, our communities will be better off for it.
That may or may not be true, many people i know have become addicted to all sorts of things blissfully unaware of the literature screaming about the addictive nature of whatever it is they have become addicted to,
There is also the ‘i will try a little just once school of addicts’ along with some peoples personal ego which tells them that they will never become an addict to anything as they consider themselves far too strong,
Attempting to teach your children the risks of addiction while obviously the right thing to do also has in a small % the opposite effect, much like teaching children the do’s and don’ts of sex, that small % thus educated in the dangers will just have to go out and try it anyway,
There is another means of death that has killed many of those addicted to Heroin where the addict used to cooking X amount of the drug does so on that one occasion only to tragically find that the product has not been ‘stepped on’, diluted with another non-toxic product to the extent of what the addict has normally shot up their veins, which simply causes them an instant and fatal overdose…
Phillip, i think you will find that there is much clinical research about Heroin/Nicotine addiction that says exactly what i have just said in the comment above about Nicotine addiction,
All addictive substances effect individuals to a greater or lesser extent as far as the extent of the individuals addictions are manifested,
i know people in the 70,s when street level addiction to Heroin was at it’s height who could ping up on a regular basis, to the extent that you would consider them ‘junkies’ who could when supply run out withdraw from Heroin without a problem,
Other heavy users of the time i personally know could take or leave the drug having no addiction problem with it, does that make you as ‘weak as piss’???,
You should obviously do more research on the subject befor insulting anyone with an addiction to anything which seems to be your modus operendi,
Is ex-Prime Minister Helen Clark ‘as weak as piss’, She also described the addiction to Nicotine as i have…
Actually Phillip having considered your disjointed bullshit reply i think your whole problem is that you suffer from being not only totally ‘up yourself’ but also that you are a typical whining fucking junky too piss weal to kick the habit,
As i pointed out above, addiction to anything will effect those addicted in different ways, because your addiction took a while to establish means nothing, except to your overblown ego, many are addicted on their 1st, 2nd, or 3rd taste of heroin,(more fool them and you, having heard the story of the addictive nature of heroin from an older sibling at age 14 i decided not to indulge although all my friends of the time became jumkies),
As far as the comments of Helen Clark goes on the subject of Nicotine/Heroin addiction i should imagine that She got Her information from the likes of the US CDC or any one of the many universities that have conducted addiction studies into the relative effects of the two substances as opposed to you who seemingly only requires the information to come via your personally compromised drug addled junkies brain,
My experience is that nicotine is harder to kick than heroin. As this is different from Phil’s experience, it is obviously invalid.
I think you have hit on an important point, bad12. Many people stop using narcotics but spend the rest of their lives talking about how their drug experience changed their life, how they feel urges every day, etc, etc. While I will mention my experiences on the odd occasion that they are relevant, I’m glad to see the back of the shit, and of the lifestyle. As far as I’m concerned, anyone who carries on about it all the time, like Russel Brand, hasn’t taken back control of their own life.
I agree Murray – which is where my ‘street cred’ attempted humour came from above. There are a lot of addictions out there and i think in many ways our society endorses addictive personalities and their particular poison of choice as part of the neolib experiment – in a similar way to making everything a competition or popularity contest.
Phillip, seriously, you will have to try and contain yourself, such antagonism might have you via the fight or flight mechanism running full tilt into a serious drug relapse,
You know what they say Phillip, ”once a sniveling fucking junky, always a sniveling fucking junky”, put in a far more mild description and delivery Phillip, although you are by now possibly far to enraged and/or brain damaged to be able to comprehend this, all addicts are simply one small step away from their next relapse,(those of them that are not bald faced liars claiming to be ‘free’ while secretly indulging themselves that is),
Nope, smoking cigarettes is my addiction and i satisfy myself that while doing so might compromise the length of time my mortal self gets to spend on the planet in a negative way, as i grow all of my own the addiction doesn’t compromise me in any other way,
Your obsession with fat amuses me but under analysis the way in which you attempt to ‘use’ this s a means of battering/bettering other commentrs here is both childish,
For your info the only animal i eat is fish, BUT, shock-horror, once a week i go to the local take-away and have a yummy bacon and egg burger, oh god think of the poor piggy being badly raised in it’s sty just so i can consume a small part of it’s back leg, it just makes me want to sob…
AW Phillip, your remarks are just sooo cutting that they hurt, actually your latest effort at the English language which you also fail miserably at is akin to the well used wet bus ticket except of course in your case the arm swinging it is that of a true whimp,
Funnily enough having puffed on the baccy for the best part of 44 odd years 20+ a day and 20 of those smoking unfiltered boob weed you would think that i would be truly a candidate to be riddled with the big C,
Sorry to disappoint you tho Phillis recent blood tests and x-rays show nothing amiss, except the bizarre case of the missing osteophyte from the lip of L4 on the lumbar spine, bizarre being that as a piece of bone growth they don’t just disappear, especially ones as large as that one appeared to be,
Yes i know Phillis, 1 bacon and egg burger a week is so sacrilegious in your wee tiny world view you actually think that such can damage my or anyone’s health, perhaps it’s not so much a belief of yours Phillis but a wish because in your wee mind that craves those drugs so fiercely every day you transfer your self hate onto those around you who do not agree with your bizarre views or the heroic self image you attempt to portray by ‘pretending’ to be drug free,
As to your question of alcohol, no. fish, vege, brown rice, multi grain bread, whole wheat flour, fruit, that’s my diet,
With of course that fucking yummy bacon and egg burger once a week,Salurpies big time,
By the way Phillis, what exactly did you do with this masters degree, it seems you simply wasted the resources of the education system to get this degree and now you spend all your time online pontificating about shit very few people care about and if the truth was only known very few read either,
That masters degree certainly didn’t stop you driveling like the village idiot in barely understandable sentences and i would suggest all in all you might as well have remained a whining junky at least the smack would have shut you up on the odd occasion,
In conclusion you seem to have wasted your life first on being a junky and secondly on gaining a masters degree which you appear to have put to no good use whatsoever…
I think we need to understand why he went back to using heroin before we can make any judgement at all. After 23 years, I don’t think it was the addiction that had him going back.
Fair point Draco, and perhaps the question ties in with my comment below about the nature of the Afghan poppy crop,
Perhaps among His peer group use of the drug is more common than we know of and being subjected to ‘rave reviews’ of the latest Afghan originated product had Him curious enough to have a taste,
i have one friend, now a P head, who started using Heroin in His teens, He has been re-habbed a number of times in the past 30 years and while telling anyone who cared to listen that He was ‘drug-free’ continued to use whenever He could source the drug going to some quite extraordinary lengths at times trying to create the product out of other peoples flowers half inched from their gardens…
Ad, perhaps, then again this years supply out of Afghanistan might have hit the retail market in a far more pure form than previously,
There has to be a ‘reason’ why such a mountainous inhospitable country has been the target of invasion down through the centuries and in reality the only commodity of great value produced there being the opium poppy looks in my opinion to be ‘it’,
You could say that the logical reason for the refusal to leave Afghansitan by the US is to stop the Taliban from again taking control of the country,
Then again it was the Taliban along with it’s ‘other crimes’ who stopped the production from the poppy fields, creating a serious dent in the supply of the ‘best’ heroin to be produced anywhere in the world,
Under US occupation the production of heroin from the production of the Afghan poppy fields has grown exponentially the longer the US has remained, it’s a multi billion dollar industry with even the brother of the Afghan Prez,(looking after the Prez’s interests perhaps???),said to be involved,
Think the CIA’s Air America of the Indo-China wars with a rational decision having been made by those marketing the product to not have it flood the streets ‘it’ being reserved as the province of the elite…
Ad
What about Rob Hall who called his wife from Everest where he was going to die, leaving her with their children to bring up alone. Wasn’t he selfish, not giving up on his addiction to climbing high lumps of rock topped with snow, a dangerous, harsh climate and location? Once he had children wouldn’t a good man have denied himself that risk-taking activity?
True addiction (not pu’s obsession with veganism) is something that I’m incredibly glad I’ve not yet had on my back (even my involuntary tobacco-free periods are not overly painful). As I understand it, Hoffman was clean for 20-odd years and it still came back to bite him in the arse.
We aren’t talking about someone being selfish and ignoring people who love him – as I understand it from people close to me, addiction is a fog that blinds you to everything except your weakness, a fog that you need to constantly beat back and fight simply in order to function as a human being. And sometimes it envelopes you anyway, especially if you are tired or it can hide something painful to be aware of.
there but for the grace of quantum uncertainty, I guess 🙂
+1
And I have noticed in myself and others I know how we seem to have an addictive response to much in life. It is tremendously hard to change direction, stop eating too much, drinking, whatever seems to be the norm for us even when it is counter-productive.
And the way that others relate to us, some get strokes from succeeding in sport and will play with broken bits in the body, ruin their health immediately or later as they become aged. Some get a kick from stirring up others, and being different from the common herd, and some are committed to better ways and only addiction to that idea keeps them sacrificing their working and leisure time for
the big goal, rather than their own advancement.
Some people here will be interested in the radio report on residues in food. Safe food campaign – imported grapes with about 35 different detected residues – local watchdog says incredibly small amounts, just as safe to eat as organic food! This, says official outfit Ag something like Agcarm, is just scaremongering (by greenies).
I certainly believe in quality of life over quantity – quite the hedonist, me.
The trouble with addiction is that it drags you back even when you don’t feel good doing it – I know an alcoholic who normally keeps it within social limits, but every year or two slips into levels that are disgraceful. Now, I tend to be a dick when drunk, too, but this person has that “shame” thing going on, where they wake up the next day and are mortified, and periodically hit a sub-basement of behaviour (if not rock-bottom) that drives them sober for a while.
Me, not so much.
That person I would say is largely enslaved by their addiction. Me, I’m more of a dick, regardless of any chemical dependency. My level of addiction does not outweigh my sense of shame or what I would like for a better quality of life. Their level of addiction brings down their quality of life and their ability to function in society.
Phil, my point is that I’ve never tried to quit. To steal from Milton, I might be regarded as “To vice industrious, but to Nobler deeds Timorous and slothful”.
I embrace my lifestyle, all my habits are at a level where the cost is an acceptable exchange for the quality of life.
To compare that with people I know whose addictions do take an unacceptable toll on their quality of life yet they cannot stop that habit would be hypocritical sympathy-seeking. I’ve never mortgaged the family home to finance a habit, I’ve never destroyed relationships with people I love, and I’ve never ended up in jail, because of my addictions. I just roll along, chillaxed about most things and with not a care or responsibility in the world. In that I am very lucky.
Willingly partaking of a bad habit is not “addiction”. Addiction is when you can’t stop when you try. I almost certainly do have chemical dependencies on one or two things, but I’ve never felt them to any degree because my appetites for them are largely satiated at a socially and financially and personally acceptable level. Although the latest tax hike has tweaked my tobacco habits a touch, I’m not losing sleep over it.
Ad, you may be right, but what would you have done to help Mr. Hoffman stop using heroin? Unless you have a solution to discuss, your comment is not particularly helpful.
Philip …I find what you say interesting ie it does give an understanding of the terrible addiction factor…
Mallory Manning the beautiful young woman murdered by the Mongrel Mob in Christchurch was on the methadone treatment and was working as a prostitute….but refused to pay the Mongrel Mob a portion of her earnings for working on Manchester St ….the Mongrel Mob regarded this street as their patch and demanded money from all the prostitutes working here.
I have always thought that although prostitution should be legal for women self employed working from their homes or a house …..it should be illegal for pimps and illegal on the public streets…apart from being a public nuisance …..it is dangerous , even more dangerous without policing
Interesting changes ahead for RadioNZ National might help make the old favorite more listenable with hopefully a more robust debate on the issues of the day being the end result,
Pity ‘Nine to Noon’ isn’t suffering the same revamp as in my opinion it’s become a bland irrelevancy where issues of the day are treated with scant regard while ‘candy floss’ becomes topics of intense scrutiny, obviously the lack of National Government Ministerial involvement in the ‘hot’ issues of the day sadly devalue the content of the program, but, as a reason not to have intense political debate the non-show of the Government to put their views should never be a ‘reason’ not to have the political debate on air as an ongoing conversation,
Mora’s ‘movement’ a sign of abysmal ratings, or the pressure of the ongoing commentary of a critical nature much of which has been published right here???…
JS, Lolz, hopefully, an improvement that is, Mora on checkpoint for those horrified by the idea might not be too bad as checkpoint is more ‘straight news’ than magazine type program,
Shorter too which is a bonus, i usually listen to the first half hour of checkpoint and then switch to the TV news,(possibly just as brain damaging as listening to Mora all afternoon)…
Personally, I am happy to see Mercep off Morning Report as he annoys me intensely; but if he takes over in the afternoons from Mora that is just shuffling the deck chairs IMO.
The possibility of Mora on Checkpoint appals me ………..
I see the reasonaing is to soften or offset mary’s perceived interview technique.
That saddens me. I was hoping she was moving to morning report. I don’t care who the person is, they need to have their views drilled down, and Mary does that. Reminds of Kim Hill.
Mary is the best so why spoil it by including Mora – programme will soon go down.
What is he going to do that Mary has not been able to do.
Unless Mary is lined up for better things closer to the election.
Radio NZ announced these changes themselves via a news item I caught while driving home from work yesterday evening. I’m pleased that Susie Ferguson has been mooted for Morning Report. I can’t quite figure out how the hybrid Mora/Wilson The Panel/Checkpoint thing is going to work out?
Phillip, totally agree, i tune most of Ryan out where it becomes simply background noise, which is a pity because on the odd ocassion that there is something of interest being talked about i miss half of it,
Lolz, i have taken to doing silent penance all afternoon when Mora is on…
From the Herald link
* Geoff Robinson retiring from Morning Report, to be replaced by Guyon Espiner.
* Simon Mercep moving to Afternoons show. Current host Jim Mora joins Checkpoint with Mary Wilson.
* Susie Ferguson tipped to join Espiner on Morning Report.
I haven’t seen Guy Espiner lately. What do others know about him, his approach, and his leanings?
I have heard Susie Ferguson. Was it her that was critical of the Maori protests spoiling the Waitangi Day commemorations?
I don’t know why you bad12 are so hot against Ryan. We can’t have a pure news radio station. You are overlooking the fact that she has the sort of wide knowledge needed to interview the world, and is interested in so much, and the ability to sound pleasant and speak clearly for hours. She can and does ask hard questions and not that noticeably centre right, and is far superior to Jim Mora in this.
As for Checkpoint, Mary Wilson does it well and works her life around it. Going to those very early mornings, might have been a bridge too far. I wonder if she was asked?
And I can’t imagine that Mora will add anything that improves the output from that slot. The other way. He is good with people, chat about locations, interesting people, and appreciated for his support for musicians. Can’t he have an hour doing that in the afternoons, and perhaps a piece on Saturday or Sunday afternoon. Then he could get some work on commercial radio to bring his hours up.
Greywarbler,ok then seeing as i have not been specific i will do so, my main complaint regarding Ryan, besides the ‘candyfloss’ which seems to be the hallmark of Her show is that on a number of occasions when discussing political matters of the day,(not with Hooton and Williams), there has been blah blah about the issue,
Then, we get a statement from Ryan that X National Government Minister was invited to speak to the issue but refused,
End result, the issue is not further discussed which leaves Ryan as the ‘enabler’ of the National Government’s killing of issues that either their Ministers cannot stand up to scrutiny over and/or are of an embarrassing nature to the present Government,
My view is that Ryan should have simply invited opposition MP’s to also discuss the issue and if the National Government Ministers still refuse to front tough on them,
To be fair perhaps i am only looking at the symptoms and it may now be that stations policy that if the relevant Government Minister declines to appear then the issue is allowed to die…
Good point Bad12 I noticed that bit about them – the NACTs not turning up – so we’ll go onto the next item.
I agree they should have them both lined up. And go on with the one that is left. That would make the shy ones more inclined to find the time!
I wish you would write that down and respectfully send it to Radionz pointing out that you are a politics junkie and a connosieur of interviews and think this would be the appropriate measure to ensure that the subject gets aired in a timely fashion. And don’t tell me to do it as I do write the odd email suggestion myself, can’t always be at it.
For you other anti-Mora people, I fell over laughing at this Twitter thread by Giovanni Tiso yesterday re Mora (hope the link works as I am only just coming to grips with Twitter)
Unfortunately Ryan is a ‘3rd Wayer’ thru’ and thru’ . It’s often a trendy leftie’s way of coming across as ‘fair and balanced’. (Shades of Rosemary McLeod). Ryan, I suspect (along with producer) is not above recommending spots for mates and accomplices.
Politically – she’s becoming really tiresome – never forgetting to mention, on occasion, her time in ‘the Gallery’ – as if that were some badge of honour.
She’s obviously managed to negotiate very generous leave entitlements – I only wish it was permanent so that the usual locum (Lyn Freeman) could take over – except that would take her away from “Standing Room Only”
..and to my mind the biggest buzz from these online radio streams (that you choose/tweak at will..and simple as to set up..even i could do it..)..
..you rediscover the delights of/from finding music that you really dig..
..that you didn’t know existed..
..and that is pretty cool..
..(bless those little algorithms..!..eh..?..)
..another great feature of these streams..(i have 35 different genre-streams..that i have on shuffle..)…is that there is a thumbs-down button on yr screen..
..so..should a song play you don’t like..you can down-thumb it..
..and the next song will then start..
..and..(once again..those clever algorithms)..that track will never play again on yr stream..
phillip ure….”the relentless neo-lib-defence/fox-talking-points trotted out by ryan”
…um no you are wrong!!!!
….interviewers can not simply do a doctrinaire party political broadcast
….interviewers have to ask questions from the other side…… and the Neo Lib side… as that is most predominant ‘other side’ ( devil side) in society under NACT
… interviewers have to ask questions from the opposing point of view …..particularly the side they dont agree with personally…..in order to elicit the information for the listener….who then makes up their own mind.
……listen carefully to Katherine Ryan’s programme and you pick up a lot of useful information
…as regards Matthew Hooton(right) versus (left)Mike Williams( which is no real ‘versus’ at all)….there does need to be a stronger voice articulating the Left viewpoint….a Hone Harawira or Jim Anderton or Sue Bradford or Jane Kelsey for example
….that said, I quite like Mike Williams as a soft left liberal
Kathryn Ryan is a very good interviewer…very subtle and allows her interviewees to speak freely in a warm environment
like Kim Hill also …different interview style…more confrontational but great
….in the end no one radio person can satisfy all listeners…..and in the end I even came to appreciate Jim Mora’s style…even although he is a tad too conservative and middle of the road for my tastes
Christ! – I hope you’re not putting Ryan in the same category as Hill are you?
Whilst I agree Ryan “allows her interviewees to speak freely in a warm environment”, that environment is often very warm and cosy to some, whilst not others.
You should go back (way way back) over some of those “From the Right, and From the not-so-Right” spots and do a content analysis some time. It’s only when a Hooter throws a complete hissy fit does she pull it up and allow a “not-so-Right” to get a word in edgeways or anyways.
But ……. no doubt she’ll be a future candidate for an ONZ for services to narrowcasting.
You don’t happen to know her do you Chooky? It’s just that I’m surprised at your appraisal of her.
Tim
You make some points I agree with. But I wonder are you an armchair interviewer? Or perhaps you think she is not as good as she should be after all her time in the job.
But the political pair – which goes pear-shaped for me – I think that she sees her role as to move through the topics set for the day, and not to be interfering, to be in the background. I think that is why she lets them go, they are to be free to discuss and she stops them when they go too long or get over-heated!
no i dont know her…and i dont know Kim Hill…and i dont know anybody …i live far ,far away across many hills and mountains ….us chooks only know chooks
….if you listen to Ryan’s programme you can hear some pretty interesting and occasionally very radical stuff…..at least as radical and thought provoking as Kim Hill…(.i am not talking about Hooton versus Williams…she just lets Hooton run at the mouth….and I have to say i like listening to Possum because he gives you an idea how he and the Right are spinning ….but he does need a sharper Left opponent … maybe Jane Kelsey or Sue Bradford or Jim Anderton? ( dont know that you can blame Ryan for Williams…maybe she didnt choose him )
Chooky – I agree her interviewing skills aren’t too shabby and I find her guests interesting – RIGHT up until the time politics become involved.
E.G. – very interesting stuff on caving (for example) recently, OR her dealing with the ‘Countdown’ issssyooo.
It’s just that her ‘3rd way ‘bent’ (aka prejudice) begins to show when politics are involved.
I think (as far as I can work out, I’m perhaps 2 or 3 degrees removed). NOT bloody far enough.
I’m just really tired of our so called ‘MSM’ generally – which with a few exceptions is increasingly a band of hacks who’ve engineered a certain comfort zone that no longer keeps them on their toes and doesn’t do much for what we expect. PSB should, by its very nature, challenge the status quo, investigate, AND take risks – whether it’s in news and current affairs, the arts, or in providing educational material.
RNZ does quite a good job on weekends – weekDAYS its become trite/hackneyed/boring/comfortable.
I’m sorry, but her (Rinny RyRy) ‘space’ in the media has come about by what we would once have called an ‘old boy network’ which has allowed her a very generous position in public service broadcasting, AND which is also increasingly letting old boys to roll out their spin. (Sorry Geoff R – but same shit different stink with Yawning Report too)
I’m somewhat encouraged, and SURPRISED at recent changes (long overdue) at RNZ btw – they leave ninetonoon unaffected – but I suspect that’s Stage 2.
The BBC of course is going through much of the same. Unfortunately we’re slightly worse off in that we only have ONE PSB radio network and nothing on TV (aside from Maori TV with which I had some involvement before it went to air)
Funding is of course an issue.
But …..
we should have
…. a news and current affairs network along with programmes of general interest
—- Concert FM delivering more than it does
…… something LIKE ‘the Wireless” delivering what it does over the airwaves along with NZ and indigenous music
AT THE VERY LEAST.
Same with TV
….. TVNZ7 plus more over more than 1 PSB network and NOT simply Maori TV – as good as it is (and btw – TVNZ could get some ‘learnings’ (:p) from the way it manages to deliver on the size of its budget.
BUT…..
….. when was the last time you saw the NZSO, or the NZ Opera or Ballet on Air (TV), OR NZ bands, and up and coming musicians and artists being represented – given live airtime, OR even a roundup of news headlines from our P.I. neighbours (given Auckland’s demographic), OR local/regional news and info other than that provided by (say SIT).AND I mean on Free-to-Air.
I’m getting side-tracked I know – but I sincerely hope when there is a change of gubbamint, and a wee way down the track, those occupying those comfy little pozzies don’t feign surprise when they get necked. Flogging off publicly funded intellectual property (for example) for pay TV profit (e.g. Heartland); allowing monopolistic and anti-competitive broadcast behaviour…. (actually very EASILY fixed)
anyway …. change is in the queue and I’m hoping it becomes a priority. The ‘in crowd’ aren’t going to be too happy – but fuck ’em – the medium exists for the public and NOT as a platform for taking various egos for a walk.
@ Tim…I think i agree with you wholeheartedly….the media could be so much, much, more than it is….and therefore the populace could be lifted to new levels
..i think you should write a post on it
…i guess i gave up on tv.long ago ..generally watch videos/tv drama series from videos/documentaries/music from video …i dont even watch tv news …so i dont get angry about tv any more ( i do watch tv at election times however)
….as regards radio…K Ryan, Kim Hill, Chris Laidlaw , Morning Report, mid-day news, Checkpoint and nothing else
…K.Ryan is not too bad…she walks a fine line…..eg.from one of her interviews I learned that Goldman Sachs was reviewing /evaluating Kiwi Bank…..this was well before it was discussed on this site ( in fact i brought it up here, because I wanted to know what other’s knew about it ….and they didnt)….. there are a lot of gems underneath the easy listening patina of nine to noon…and I dont think K.Ryan is at all conservative.
Fascinating to do such restructuring in an election year.
Am reading Hager’s Hollow Men” again.
He has some interesting evidence of the right’s attitutde toward the media. It’s not a conspiracy to suspect manipulation. Admittedly Hager never suggests (so far that I can recall) that media were complicit in it per se. Obviously Joyce’s networks in private radio would be large.
“In my book The Hollow Men, when the ACT Party campaign manager Brian Nicolle was privately coordinating a leadership coup for Don Brash within the National Party, he identified private radio as especially sympathetic to the right. “We need to target key talkback hosts in [Newstalk] ZB and [Radio] Pacific,” he wrote to Brash, “there are plenty sympathetic.” The plan was to “produce some common lines that become the ‘mantra’ on your journey to become leader of National and the country” (p. 47)”
I like the diverse styles of Kathryn, Kim, Jim, Brian and Mary and the diverse content and am even getting used to Simon’s feverish style. Much better than the shock dicks on commercial (retard) radio, and Paul Henry Z z z z z z yawn!
Don’t think I’d like to be married to Mary and her interrogations though..she’s frightening.
David Cunliffe good on National Radio this morning….sounded strong and confident!
….talking about Charter Schools receiving a hell of a lot more money than State Schools of equivalent size or larger
….and why all the closures of small State Schools( because they cost too much or were inefficient) to be replaced by small Charter Schools?….which will end up poaching from neighbouring State Schools….causing more decline in State Schools..(.that was the gist I think)
…not an innocent political sideshow either….but a deliberate piece of social engineering designed ultimately to undermine State secular free high quality education …..and in the end subvert New Zealand democracy
….cunning plan by Neo Lib Capitalists originating in USA to privatise NZ education
Can’t disagree with you there, the other point of note is that education being heavily unionized is simply a target for Tories,
But as you say the wider plan is to insert the ‘private sector’ as ticket clippers in some way shape or form into all aspects of the Governments ‘spend’, the obvious result of that is taxpayers will pay more to receive less…
Ad ignorance is bliss .
Some people have highly addictive personalities.
With multipule addictions like Seymore Hoffman.
These personality types tend to be able to get rid of one addiction only to be taken over by other addictions.
Money addiction ie hoarding money can be an addiction never satisfied with how much you have.
In my work helping with fostering children and helping street children parental multipule addictions are very common are virtually impossible to sort out.
..many narcotics users turn to alcohol when/if they kick the junk..
..(and debatable which is worse..)
..i myself have been addicted to tobacco/alcohol/heroin/cocaine/mandrax/downers/crack-cocaine/animal-flesh/fat/bye-products..(‘jonesing’ for cheese..?..anyone..?..)..
..i am currently a non-user of all the above..
(and am fast becoming addicted to sit-ups etc..perhaps the healthiest of all the other addiction-options on offer..i feel..)
..but i also have to say that of all the above..
..that the only one i still have to maintain vigilance/personal-dialogue/arguments about..
..is heroin..
..(the thought of a cocaine-bender just makes me feel like a cup of tea and a wee lie-down..
..it’s a very ‘tiring’ drug..that one..
..and crack-cocaine..?..whoar..!..the most scary/obsessive of all of them..)
..and of course..all those reading this who ‘jones’ for any of the above..
..(just sallivate at the thought of that cold beer..or six..eh..?..
..or a cheesy-whatever..?..)
..all those people are in denial about their current health/life-threatening addictions..
..so really..
..who reading this is not addicted to multiples of the above..?
Careful Phil! I mean switching bad addictions for good ones is not necessarily a bad thing, but just be careful that at anytime it can jump up and bite you in the bum – that’s if a tumor or cancer doesn’t get you first.
I’m just glad you didn’t find religion – altho’ if that works for you, all good too!
Big Huey
The traditional non-vote in Europe is as likely to benefit the radical right as the centre-left. This analysis of Norway’s election suggests the radical right message resonates with the working class.
The centre-left can’t rely on pulling these traditional non-voters. I guess there are two options – ignore the non-voters – hope they stay at home and try to grab more of the centre (the Shearer option), or head further to the left to create a more radical message that resonates a least as much as that of the far right. Such as the radical left in Greece.
Obviously NZ has its unique make-up, but the voter dissatisfaction with the status quo is similar. National’s Waitangi whistles can also be interpreted as a grab for the traditional working class non-voter, imo.
Exactly. Nothing short of a real alternative is ever going to work for people who are most cynical about the status quo.
Look at the working class support for the tea-party. It may be a case of turkeys supporting an early christmas, but at least it’s not supporting more of exactly the same bullshit. “Deer hunting with Jesus – dispatches from America’s Class War” is well worth a read, imo.
Average household debt fell slightly from 2008 to 2011, but has increased again in the past two years.
And that would be the reason for the “improving” economy – more debt means more money and thus more spending. Obviously this is just as sustainable as it was before the GFC and so we can expect another crash sometime in the future driven by the private banks reckless lending and which we will have to bailout once again.
The “average wage” is usually said to be almost $1100 a week, or $57,000 a year, but this year the Salvation Army says the best figure to use is the average for employees only, excluding employers and the self-employed.
No, the best one to use is the median income which was, according to StatsNZ, $844 (salary and wage earners) and $575 from all sources.
The headline is misleading – with almost everything getting a C rating or less about the best that could be said was that things were staying about the same – maybe.
The book is published by McGill University, so the author is quite likely to be Canadian. If so his focus on the five eyes countries is not surprising.
Which just goes to show how young democracy is, and how short a time, if any, it has actually involved genuine freedom.
Or more accurately….it shows how young the governance structures we use are and yet they have routinely descended into overt authoritarianism. (1930s Germany, Chile 1970s, Spain 1930s…a list as long as a toilet roll if we were to exhaustive. And then those wonderful little ‘markers’, such as the Red Scares of the early 1900s and the 50s in the USA, tanks on Scottish streets post WWI, 50s lockout in NZ….basically another list as long as a toilet roll )
edit – I totally misread your comment, aye? Oh well, as a short illustrative list to underscore your point then 😉
whoa – Germany, yeah maybe. Chile? Outright coup d’etat that destroyed the democratic governance structures. Spain I’d need to look into to see if Franco got elected before letting loose with his army.
This is why privately nats and their supporters pretend they are joking when they say a dictatorship is much more efficient than a democraccy.
We saw a bit of it in Henry’s patronisingly elitist comment about dumb people not being aallowed to votes. Funny thing is NACT supporters assume it could never include them.
I heard the Salvation Army spokesperson speaking on child poverty this morning. When they speak they should hone in on comments from pollies and point out the woolliness of the comment, and then give the facts about the poor conditions they want addressed by the pollies. What a contrast that would be woolly PR puff and gritty reality and a mention of a success already achieved that needs to be replicated. They can even talk about real people as long as they remain anonymous and are not identifiable.
After Poorer Benefit’s little puff piece about NZ being one of best and most generous in the world for welfare, and far better than most of the world, he could have said ‘Which parts of the world are those exactly?’
And ‘I can’t agree with that on the information that I have.’
This morning he just made the general comment, correctly, that it is not the amount of money that is given, it is what you can buy with it. But there were too many indirect comments that could have fitted into a ‘blame the beneficiary for bad management’, if that was the attitude of the listener.
From Scoop : “But The Salvation Army remains deeply concerned at the lack of progress in reducing child poverty, family violence, the harmful use of alcohol, and the failure to address criminal re-offending and serious crime.”
I don’t think the radio interview came up with enough. There has to be more than just a constant repetition of – looking at the ‘underlying causes of poverty’ and talking about child abuse.
The bigoted go straight to – ahha that’s all those feckless breeders having babies when they can’t make enough effort to get a job so they take the easy way out and get pregnant, and then can’t do a decent job of that and it ends in child abuse from their latest boyfriend, and they are incapable of getting out of poverty because of their own slackness and then they get into fights and fall out with their boyfriends and then there is domestic violence.
The worth and value of most female beneficiaries never gets recognised also the fact that so much opportunity is withheld from them, which would change much of the above if offered.
These would be largely polytechnic courses or the like where they could learn with their children in a playgroup in the room. Studying NCEA units in helpful stuff, then later the former training incentives where they either learn, or maintain their useful employment skills ie word processing, computer program use, phone and reception communication, and trade skills, and they would gain more benefit with each new NCEA unit.
Helping in a practical way with transport – having a small bus doing a circuit picking up mothers and children to go to class and returning them. Or having a large taxi with a contract to do it. Bringing in medical checks for the family while training.
The emphasis would be to lift the self-expectations, the skills, the life training, and limit the loneliness and the isolation and drudgery of poverty with little joy and hope, that can result in a peer group of people with no ideas on how to better that.
There needs to be an emphasis on loss of potential to society, on the way these women would achieve all the things society wants from them, if given the assistance while their children were small and to find the steps to volunteer or part-time work, with income top-ups.
The bulk of them have been in relationships for some years, are older, had the children in those relationships and have then been left holding all the responsibility for both parents. I don’t know that you can assume they are undereducated or less able and it may be patronising to do so.
Given the workload that many carry, the amount of money they provide for their children’s needs-most, the successful relationships they have with their families, the lack of any serious criminal offending (ACT & Nact MP’s provide more criminals % wise) and lack of addictions, they are in fact among the most successful adults in our society.
The basic problem is that they are trying to do what two parents do, face highly conflicting objectives (work but don’t leave the kids home alone), while being harried by the welfare. None of this of course applies to the adult who dodges their responsibilities and their must be a good case for turning WINZ loose on them..
Or we could just give them a bit more money and stop making their choices for them. Most of them were competent adults before they became single parents and they didn’t lose that overnight.
The British police have apparently adopted or trialled body cameras and have referred to domestic incidents as where they are useful. NZ police are thinking of them too. If the economy and sharing of the wealth of our nation more fairly, does not improve, there will be more domestic incidents as people have to carve out a lesser sort of life from the unpromising hard-faced society that encloses them.
It could happen, if the country is going to slide further into increased poverty and under-privilege, that some areas will undertake to police themselves. This was the case in the poor area of Naples which Thomas Belmonte studied. And also Harlem in New York. Taxis would not go there.
A band of men who are under contract to police for the state, and if that state has no concept of service to all the people, will be people who become a burden and source of anguish and anxiety to those people as they operate. Their interest will be mainly in serving the wealthy, and they will be biased towards property protection (as I understand they already are). The poor people may well find a way to effectively bar them from some suburban enclaves, which has probably happened already with gangs to some extent.
Quick thinking for self-preservation? The man in control of hang-gliders’ safety at a departure point in Canada, when he saw his last ‘pilot’ plummet, swallowed his video memory card! She fell 300 metres because he did not ensure she was properly shackled, and he did not find that because he did not do a safety check before flight. It might be that anyone embarking on some hazardous activity where a small company has great responsibility, should say ‘what are the safety check practices you carry out’ and then ensure each one has been done.
+1 😀
Perhaps sausages (and pies) coming to the fore in NZs minds says something about how entwined they are into our psyche.
Could have a scoring system as to who deserves the most bad marks, with sausages or pies denoting different classes of transgression. ‘That was a cream pie’ winner, or definitely a Double Brat-worst for that pollie’. We could get quite inventive with the fillings too and make it a discriminating feast of insults.
but it seems to me that, rather than making a trade-off between realism and tractability, modern macroeconomics has simply made an a priori decision that coordination problems are not a relevant macroeconomic concern.
As I read through this link from DTB, I thank God that I was able to take some late-in-life university papers which brought my reading ability to a higher level so that a collection of multi-syllable words in a discussion about the abstruse argument that is economics, did not immediately set me running to the backyard with a crushing sense of inferiority and redundancy. Instead I am sitting still typing this at the computer. But my ability has now improved to the extent that I believe that I am justified in feeling irritability.
As I read more about economics I begin to understand the mind of man is very good at working in the abstract which is ‘so’ economics. You understand this when reading about one who measured the circumference of the planet in 276BC, about. Economics was something they ate for breakfast.
Some of them:
Eratosthenes of Cyrene (Ancient Greek: Ἐρατοσθένης, IPA: [eratostʰénɛːs]; English /ɛrəˈtɒsθəniːz/; c. 276 BC[1] – c. 195/194 BC[2]) was a Greek mathematician, geographer, poet, astronomer, and music theorist.
He is best known for being the first person to calculate the circumference of the earth, which he did by applying a measuring system using stades, or the length of stadiums during that time period.
(So he knew about stadiums and can be said to be the father of Dunedin’s Forsyth Barr, what an eminent patron.)
And:
Thales (624-547 B.C., Ionian) was a Greek philosopher who traveled widely in Mesopotamia and Egypt, and brought astronomical records from these cultures back to Greece. He believed that the Earth is a disk floating on an endless ocean. Legend has it that he correctly predicted a solar eclipse in the year 585 B.C.
(This idea has been shamelessly boot-legged by Terry Pratchett, but it is possible that Thales connections will soon be filing for an intellectual property infringement.)
There was –
Omar Khayyam (1048-1131, Persian) was a great scientist, philosopher, and poet. He compiled many astronomical tables and performed a reformation of the calendar which was more accurate than the Julian and came close to the Gregorian. An amazing feat was his calculation of the year to be 365.24219858156 days long, which is accurate to the sixth decimal place!
(He set an early record which still stands proud today even if we have invented another few numbers!)
Hmm.
So if the stade was a measurement of length, did Eratosthenes have an economic unit based on the cost vs benefits of a stadium? Because if we extrapolate from the dunedin FoBar stadium, it might explain why macroeconomics is so fucked. 🙂
It might be more chicken and egg…..maybe the economists knew about the Eratosthane stadium cost v benefit unit, and allowed the whole thing to go ahead knowing that because they had never been right about anything, well it did not really matter. Priests are after all nothing unless seen and heard. The rest is gullible faith.
@DTB
Never fear the evangelists will be out in force if there is a whiff of apostasy. See what happens when the Greens dare to challenge economic orthodoxy even when evidence and reason contradict orthodoxy.
(Forwarded in the public interest – there are a number of tenants in Tamaki who are currently facing 90 day eviction notices):
_______________________________________________________________________________
HOUSING AND PROPERTY ISSUES FACING TAMAKI
NZ FIRST and MOUNTAINSIDE FM invites you to hear
NZ FIRST MP Denis O’Rouke, Spokesperson for Housing
discuss the housing issues, including the real concerns of the property owners and tenants of Tamaki including the state house sell off.
* THE SOCIAL HOUSING REFORM ( Affects all tenants).
* HOUSING NZ WITHIN THE COMMUNITY
* EFFECT OF PRIVATE PROPERTY VALUES
THIS SATURDAY, 15 FEBRUARY
11am – 1pm
Glen Innes Primary School
40 East View Rd Glenn Innes
Enquiries: Mountainside FM (09) 528 5616 or 0274 582 099
“….bennett does ‘not know’ how many working-families are in poverty..(ed:..seriously..?..w.t.f.is her brief..?..if not to know basic facts such as that..?.)
..ardern notes at the current rate it would take 160 yrs to fix poverty..
..bennett is reduced to babbling serial-cliches..”
The system is not fixable because it is not broken. It is working, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, to give the insiders their royal prerogatives, and to shove the regulations, the laws, and the debt up the asses of everyone else.
Shane Jones has earned his parliamentary salary for the year by bringing up the Oz supermarket debacle in Parliament. That is a very informative piece from nz Herald Ad, and in the little voice bite from Key was illuminating.
He thinks that the matter should actually be regarded as an Australasian one. This is our PM. And he doesn’t really care if we are being shafted by Australia!!!! Have a listen to this pantwaist.
I have alwys felt his “Great Moving Right Sow, on Thatcherism and its impact, was a very important article.
In the Politics of Thatcherism (1983), he insisted that the left’s traditional statism was in part responsible for creating the conditions that had allowed the Thatcherites to win ascendancy, pointing to the degree to which Thatcherism had rooted itself in authentically popular sentiment – something he believed the left had failed to do. This generated fierce controversy among those who might otherwise have been among his political allies. His conviction that Thatcherism would define the politically possible, long after Thatcher herself had departed, proved enormously prescient, providing a key to understanding the politics not only of New Labour, but also of the subsequent coalition.
Buzz from the Beehive Transport Minister Simeon Brown dutifully issued advice to all road users to keep safe on our roads during the Easter weekend. He encouraged them to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. ...
Oliver Hartwich writes – New Zealanders recently learned about a new feature film. It will be about former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern – and taxpayers will subsidise it to the tune of NZ$800,000. Ardern had nothing personally to do with either the film or the subsidy. But her government’s ...
TL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above that was recorded yesterday afternoon above between and The Kākā’s climate correspondent : An independent review panel into the emergency response to Cyclone Gabrielle in Hawkes Bayconcluded “that ...
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Open access notables A survey of interventions to actively conserve the frozen North, van Wijngaarden et al., Climatic Change:The frozen elements of the high North are thawing as the region warms much faster than the global mean. The dangers of sea level rise due to melting glacier ice, increased ...
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Buzz from the Beehive Waves of rain are set to lash much of the North Island during Easter Weekend as a low-pressure system forms east of New Zealand, according to a weather forecast published in the past day or so. Niwa was warning of a “moisture-laden” long weekend, with rain expected ...
Look around us…Nicola Willis’ promises of balancing the books, of cutting spending without reducing services, and of delivering game changing tax cuts are disappearing before her eyes.Everyday we see stories of violent crime ending in horrific injuries, or worse. The cost of living worsens, whereas the PM claimed renters would ...
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This story by Naveena Sadasivam and Kate Yoder was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. The long-awaited jobs board for the American Climate Corps, promised early in the Biden administration, will open next month, according to details shared exclusively ...
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Budget tensions are becoming evident within the Coalition Government. Winston Peters made numerous political points in his speech to the NZF annual conference. But the attack on his own government’s fiscal policies raised issues of substance. ‘Today in the Sunday Star Times, journalist and former advisor to the Labour ...
Buzz from the Beehive The media – sure enough – have been binging on Finance Minister Nicola Willis’ release of the Budget Policy Statement and a statement headed Government announces Budget priorities This assures us – or rather, this parrots the Luxon team mantra – that the Budget “will deliver ...
The Ides of March brought me COVID followed by a bereavement. No wonder they tell you to be careful of them.I’m home now and have resumed the interrupted recuperation. Very much looking forward to getting back to regular things. Meanwhile, some thoughts…OneThis new Prime Minister guy just keeps getting more dire. ...
News that the Chinese ATP 40 cyber-hacking unit penetrated parliamentary internet networks in 2021 has renewed concerns about the PRC’s malign intentions in Aotearoa. But is the hack that significant given the length of time that has passed since its … Continue reading → ...
When Parliament passed the Intelligence and security Act in 2017, they assured us all that it was full of safeguards. Any intrusive surveillance of New Zealanders would be subject to a "triple lock", requiring the approval of the Minister and (supposedly independent) Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants, as well as post-facto ...
Eric Crampton writes – Richard Harman’s Politik newsletter provides a bit of the context that ought to have been showing up in other media reports on potential reductions in public service staffing. Media has been reporting on staffing cuts on the order of about 7%. Is that ...
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Don Brash writes – As everybody who is not blind and deaf is aware, there is a huge political preoccupation with climate change at the moment, a widespread (though by no means unanimous) belief that global temperatures are rising mainly as a result of the greenhouse gases created ...
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On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
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Robert MacCulloch writes – The Reserve Bank has doubled staff numbers in five years to 510, with personnel costs rising to $80 million in 2023 from $32 million in 2018 – up by a whopping 150%. I guess when you print $50 billion and flood markets with liquidity, ...
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For 20 years or more, the case for a meaningful capital tax gains has been mulled over and analysed to death, including by the tax working group chaired by Sir Michael Cullen. More than once, the International Monetary Fund has said a CGT would be a good idea for New ...
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This story was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. This story is part of a collaboration with Grist and WABE to demystify the Georgia Public Service Commission, the small but powerful state-elected board that makes critical decisions about everything from raising ...
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Bob Edlin writes – A High Court judge has decided miscreants who have mana – or who claim to have mana – should be treated differently from miscreants who have none. It’s a ruling that suggests indigenous law-breakers have a better chance of securing a discharge without conviction ...
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Roger Partridge writes – My earlier column this month, New Zealand’s highest court could be facing a turning point, prompted a flood of feedback from business readers and lawyers alike. A common query was what Parliament can do to restrain an overreaching judiciary. This week I discuss two steps Parliament ...
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Peter Dunne writes – Nearly three decades after the introduction of MMP and multiparty governments there should be a greater level of understanding about their finer points than often appears to be the case. The reaction to the despicable outburst from the Deputy Prime Minister at the weekend highlights ...
The sweet kisses from fruit of summerHave slowly been turning dullerYou say, "those times"And "remember the daysWhen we went outside and there still was the shade?"Taking no reason into play…Autumn. Clear, blue days shortening to longer nights, growing colder. Aotearoa.That’s us. The temperature dropping, the looming car crash - so ...
Bryce Edwards writes – “It is often said that behind every great man is a great woman”. This is the pitch by the National Party Botany electorate branch to attend their “Ladies Afternoon Tea with Amanda Luxon”. For $110 including GST, you can turn up on Saturday 20 April ...
David Farrar writes – The Electoral Commission has published the expense returns for political parties for the 2023 election. I’ve put them in a table with how many votes a party got so we can see the spend per vote. National only spent $3.34 for every vote they got, almost ...
Winston Peters’ headline-making actions over the past week may have been a show of political power intended to strengthen his hand in Budget negotiations. It was no accident that his State of the Nation speech was as it was. He made it as New Zealand First Leader, not as Deputy ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:Former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson bowed out of politics this week, giving a series of exit ...
Graham Adams writes — If you love the law or sausages, as the saying goes, best not to look too closely at how they are made. And after watching the orgy of self-pity when Newshub’s closure was announced on February 28, television journalism should definitely be added to the list of those ...
Venerable New Zealand political commentator, Chris Trotter (https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/), is a sad creature these days. Once one of the most reliable Leftist writers out there – Economic Left at that – Trotter seems to have absorbed the worldview of Auckland culture-war obsessives. It is not for me to categorise what he ...
The cruelty of short-term memory loss is that each time you ask where she is, you get the fresh shock and grief of the news. That was Dad's day yesterday.Comfortingly, it seems to be less so today. Last night he looked crumpled, today he seems more settled. There's a card ...
The Coalition Government’s plan to ‘get Auckland moving’ is a cuts cover-up that will ultimately cost Aucklanders more to move around the city, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Slashing the Ministry of Pacific Peoples by 40% will have a devastating impact on pacific communities and further highlights how little this government cares about anything other than cutting taxes for the wealthiest few. ...
Labour has proposed an urgent inquiry to investigate the ever-increasing profits of supermarkets, aiming to lower costs for shoppers and food producers alike, says Labour Spokesperson for Commerce and Consumer Affairs Arena Williams and Primary Production Spokesperson Cushla Tangaere-Manuel. ...
With 14% of jobs on the line at the Ministry for Ethnic Communities, the responsible Minister Melissa Lee is failing to stand up for the very communities she’s meant to be representing. ...
COURT OF APPEAL: TRIFECTA OF VICTORY FOR NZ FIRST, TRIFECTA OF FAILURE FOR OPPONENTS For the third time since April 2020, New Zealand First has defeated the Serious Fraud Office and all those complicit in a malicious attack against a political party going about its lawful business in a lawful ...
The Green Party stands with people who live in public housing, people in dire housing need, experts and advocates in demanding better than the Government’s archaic approach to housing those who need our support the most. ...
New Zealand has recently lost the hosting rights of some major international sporting events including the America’s Cup, the Rugby Championship, Netball World Cup, and the Wellington Sevens. We are now at a huge risk of losing SailGP as well. And it won’t stop there. The recent issues with SailGP ...
A Member’s Bill drawn this week would modernise insurance law and make things fairer and more transparent for consumers, Christchurch Central MP Duncan Webb said. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues has confirmed she was aware of funding issues in mid-December and did nothing to stop it. On 14 March, she signed off on changes that were announced and implemented on 18 March without any consultation with disability communities. ...
Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter says her members' bill is an opportunity for the coalition government to plug the gap in electric vehicle incentives. ...
The National Government continues to talk about irresponsible tax cuts that will only drive up inflation, despite the country entering a technical recession. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues must act urgently to reinstate flexibility around the funding for disability support and apologise to disabled carers. ...
This story has been initiated by a leftie shill reporter who proactively sought to call a member of a former band, which disbanded twelve years ago, give their biased appraisal of what was said in my speech, and concocted a ham-fisted attempt at a story that does nothing but show ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Many in the mainstream media have taken what was said in New Zealand First’s State of the Nation Speech in Palmerston North on Sunday and deliberately, deceitfully, and ignorantly misrepresented what I said and why I said it. The headlines and commentary on the news stated that I compared ‘co-governance ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
Good afternoon. Thank you for, in your very busy lives, turning up to this meeting today. On October 14th last year New Zealanders overwhelmingly voted for change. That is exactly what this new government is bringing. New Zealand First campaigned to ‘take back our country’ and stop the disastrous economic ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed the passing of legislation to move light electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) into the road user charges system from 1 April. “It was always intended that EVs and PHEVs would be exempt from road user charges until they reached two ...
New Zealand is strengthening its ability to combat illegal fishing outside its domestic waters and beef up regulation for its own commercial fishers in international waters through a Bill which had its first reading in Parliament today. The Fisheries (International Fishing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2023 sets out stronger ...
Economists Carl Hansen and Professor Prasanna Gai have been appointed to the Reserve Bank Monetary Policy Committee, Finance Minister Nicola Willis announced today. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is the independent decision-making body that sets the Official Cash Rate which determines interest rates. Carl Hansen, the executive director of Capital ...
Apartment owners and buyers will soon have greater protections as further changes to the law on unit titles come into effect, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “The Unit Titles (Strengthening Body Corporate Governance and Other Matters) Amendment Act had already introduced some changes in December 2022 and May 2023, and ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters will travel to Egypt and Europe from this weekend. “This travel will focus on a range of New Zealand’s traditional diplomatic and security partnerships while enabling broad engagement on the urgent situation in Gaza,” Mr Peters says. Mr Peters will attend the NATO Foreign ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown is encouraging all road users to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. “Road safety is a responsibility we all share, and with increased traffic on our roads expected this Easter we ...
About 1.4 million New Zealanders will receive cost of living relief through increased government assistance from April 1 909,000 pensioners get a boost to Superannuation, including 5000 veterans 371,000 working-age beneficiaries will get higher payments 45,000 students will see an increase in their allowance Over a quarter of New Zealanders ...
Ensuring social housing is being provided to those with the greatest needs is front of mind as the Government restarts social housing tenancy reviews, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. “Our relentless focus on building a strong economy is to ensure we can deliver better public services such as social ...
The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary will not go ahead, with Cabinet deciding to stop work on the proposed reserve and remove the Bill that would have established it from Parliament’s order paper. “The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary Bill would have created a 620,000 sq km economic no-go zone,” Oceans and Fisheries Minister ...
Dam safety regulations are being amended so that smaller dams won’t be subject to excessive compliance costs, Minister for Building and Construction Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on reducing costs and removing unnecessary red tape so we can get the economy back on track. “Dam safety regulations ...
The coalition Government is expanding the medium-scale adverse event classification to parts of the North Island as dry weather conditions persist, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced today. “I have made the decision to expand the medium-scale adverse event classification already in place for parts of the South Island to also cover the ...
The passing of legislation giving effect to coalition Government tax commitments has been welcomed by Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “The Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill will help place New Zealand on a more secure economic footing, improve outcomes for New Zealanders, and make our tax system ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins and Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds today announced plans to transform our science and university sectors to boost the economy. Two advisory groups, chaired by Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, will advise the Government on how these sectors can play a greater ...
The Budget will deliver urgently-needed tax relief to hard-working New Zealanders while putting the government’s finances back on a sustainable track, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The Finance Minister made the comments at the release of the Budget Policy Statement setting out the Government’s Budget objectives. “The coalition Government intends ...
The coalition Government will look at options to address a zoning issue that limits how much financial support Queenstown residents can get for accommodation. Cabinet has agreed on a response to the Petitions Committee, which had recommended the geographic information MSD uses to determine how much accommodation supplement can be ...
Cabinet has agreed to a short extension to the final reporting timeframe for the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care from 28 March 2024 to 26 June 2024, Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says. “The Royal Commission wrote to me on 16 February 2024, requesting that I consider an ...
The coalition Government is delivering an $18 million boost to New Zealanders needing to travel for specialist health treatment, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says. “These changes are long overdue – the National Travel Assistance (NTA) scheme saw its last increase to mileage and accommodation rates way back in 2009. ...
The Government is recognising the innovative and rising talent in New Zealand’s growing space sector, with the Prime Minister and Space Minister Judith Collins announcing the new Prime Minister’s Prizes for Space today. “New Zealand has a growing reputation as a high-value partner for space missions and research. I am ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed New Zealand’s concerns about cyber activity have been conveyed directly to the Chinese Government. “The Prime Minister and Minister Collins have expressed concerns today about malicious cyber activity, attributed to groups sponsored by the Chinese Government, targeting democratic institutions in both New ...
Independent Reviewers appointed for School Property Inquiry Education Minister Erica Stanford today announced the appointment of three independent reviewers to lead the Ministerial Inquiry into the Ministry of Education’s School Property Function. The Inquiry will be led by former Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully. “There is a clear need ...
State Highway 1 across the Brynderwyns will be open for Easter weekend, with work currently underway to ensure the resilience of this critical route being paused for Easter Weekend to allow holiday makers to travel north, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Today I visited the Brynderwyn Hills construction site, where ...
Introduction Good morning to you all, and thanks for having me bright and early today. I am absolutely delighted to be the Minister for Infrastructure alongside the Minister of Housing and Resource Management Reform. I know the Prime Minister sees the three roles as closely connected and he wants me ...
New Zealand stands with the United Kingdom in its condemnation of People’s Republic of China (PRC) state-backed malicious cyber activity impacting its Electoral Commission and targeting Members of the UK Parliament. “The use of cyber-enabled espionage operations to interfere with democratic institutions and processes anywhere is unacceptable,” Minister Responsible for ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced New Zealand will provide logistics support for the upcoming Solomon Islands election. “We’re sending a team of New Zealand Defence Force personnel and two NH90 helicopters to provide logistics support for the election on 17 April, at the request ...
The European Union Free Trade Agreement Legislation Amendment Bill received Royal Assent today, completing the process for New Zealand’s ratification of its free trade agreement with the European Union. “I am pleased to announce that today, in a small ceremony at the Beehive, New Zealand notified the European Union ...
Public consultation on the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into COVID-19 Lessons has concluded, Internal Affairs Minister Hon Brooke van Velden says. “I have been advised that there were over 11,000 submissions made through the Royal Commission’s online consultation portal.” Expanding the scope of the Royal Commission of ...
Hardworking families are set to benefit from a new credit to help them meet their early childcare education (ECE) costs, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. From 1 July, parents and caregivers of young children will be supported to manage the rising cost of living with a partial reimbursement of their ...
A specialised Independent Technical Advisory Group (ITAG) tasked with preparing and publishing independent non-binding advice on the design of a "green" (sustainable finance) taxonomy rulebook is being established, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “Comprising experts and market participants, the ITAG's primary goal is to deliver comprehensive recommendations to the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins has thanked the Chief of Army, Major General John Boswell, DSD, for his service as he leaves the Army after 40 years. “I would like to thank Major General Boswell for his contribution to the Army and the wider New Zealand Defence Force, undertaking many different ...
25 March 2024 Minister to meet Australian counterparts and Manufacturing Industry Leaders Small Business, Manufacturing, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly will travel to Australia for a series of bi-lateral meetings and manufacturing visits. During the visit, Minister Bayly will meet with his Australian counterparts, Senator Tim Ayres, Ed ...
Government commits almost $3 million for period products in schools The Coalition Government has committed $2.9 million to ensure intermediate and secondary schools continue providing period products to those who need them, Minister of Education Erica Stanford announced today. “This is an issue of dignity and ensuring young women don’t ...
Good morning, it’s great to be here. First, I would like to acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of Building Surveyors and thank you for the opportunity to be here this morning. I would like to use this opportunity to outline the Government’s ambitious plan and what we hope to ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti has announced the Government’s commitment to the Auckland Secondary Schools Māori and Pacific Islands Cultural Festival, more commonly known as Polyfest. “The Ministry for Pacific Peoples is a longtime supporter of Polyfest and, as it celebrates 49 years in 2024, I’m proud to ...
Before moving onto the substance of today’s address, I want to recognise the very significant and ongoing contribution the Breast Cancer Foundation makes to support the lives of New Zealand women and their families living with breast cancer. I very much enjoy working with you. I also want to recognise ...
New Zealand has notched up a first with the launch of University of Canterbury research to the International Space Station, Science, Innovation and Technology and Space Minister Judith Collins says. The hardware, developed by Dr Sarah Kessans, is designed to operate autonomously in orbit, allowing scientists on Earth to study ...
Introduction Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today and I’m sorry I can’t be there in person. Yesterday I started in Wellington for Breakfast TV, spoke to a property conference in Auckland, and finished the day speaking to local government in Christchurch, so it would have been ...
The Coalition Government is contributing more than $1 million to support the establishment of an emergency multi-agency coordination centre in Northland. Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell announced the contribution today during a visit of the Whangārei site where the facility will be constructed. “Northland has faced a number ...
New Zealanders have enjoyed a broader range of voices telling the story of Aotearoa thanks to the creation of Whakaata Māori 20 years ago, says Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka. The minister spoke at a celebration marking the national indigenous media organisation’s 20th anniversary at their studio in Auckland on ...
Commercial catch limits for some fisheries have been increased following a review showing stocks are healthy and abundant, Ocean and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The changes, along with some other catch limit changes and management settings, begin coming into effect from 1 April 2024. "Regular biannual reviews of fish ...
Opposition MPs and unions are criticising a proposal by New Zealand’s Ministry of Pacific Peoples to cut staff by 40 percent. The country’s largest trade union — The Public Service Association — says the ministry has informed staff that it is looking to shed 63 of 156 positions. Opposition MPs ...
A poem by Poetry Aotearoa Yearbook 2024 featured poet Carin Smeaton. Daughtr of the 90s when she gets promoted to usherette a baby blu eel carries her all the way up to mothership she’s hovering high she lets the underaged in to see keanu reeves she lets the only lonely ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Keith Rankin, trained as an economic historian, is a retired lecturer in Economics and Statistics. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand. My earlier article – Can ‘Good’ be the Greater Evil? – looked at the issue of how wars should end, and how Good versus Evil ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 AMMA by Saraid de Silva (Moa Press, $38)A stunning debut novel reviewed by Brannavan ...
From Steve Martin to Ricky Stanicky, a pick’n’mix of things worth watching and listening to this long weekend. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. If you’re at a loss for something to occupy yourself with this Easter, don’t panic: The Spinoff’s got ...
Jesus had dinner with his 12 disciples right before he died. Noted historian Madeleine Chapman finds out who really deserved to be there.First published in 2018 but let’s be honest, the subject is timeless. As you sit on your couch this Easter Sunday, eating a chocolate egg you know ...
The newly-promoted Northern League club is on a mission to return to the National League for the first time in two decades. Plenty about domestic football in New Zealand has changed in that time – but the sense that this amateur competition is not an entirely level playing field remains. ...
Comment: Every year on February 2, a dozen men in tuxedos and top hats approach the burrow of a groundhog in Gobbler’s Knob, Pennsylvania and entice the beaver-like rodent to emerge and predict the weather. If the groundhog, named Punxsutawney Phil, sees its own shadow when it is summoned, legend ...
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Auckland Council has put a deadline on new weather-impacted property owners applying for categorisation as government funding looks set to run out. Councillors have voted to support a deadline of September 30 for property owners who haven’t accessed support to come forward and engage with the council’s recovery office. It ...
NONFICTION 1 BBQ Economics by Liam Dann (Penguin Random House, $40) “It’s official,” wrote Dann nine days ago in the Herald, where he works as business editor at large, “we’re in recession.” Yeah, great. He delivered the bad stats: “GDP fell 0.1 percent in the December 2023 quarter, compared with ...
By Anneke Smith, RNZ News political reporter A petition urging the New Zealand government to provide urgent humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people has been tabled in the House. More than 200 people gathered on Parliament’s forecourt today and they were met by MPs from Labour, the Greens and Te ...
Pacific Media Watch The Paris-based global media freedom watchdog RSF (Reporters Without Borders) has appealed for information about the “disappearance” of Palestinian journalist Bayan Abusultan. She was reportedly last seen on March 19 among people “sequestered” in this week’s raid and siege of Al Shifa hospital by Israeli troops in ...
EDITORIAL:The Jakarta Post It happens again and again; indigenous Papuans fall victim to Indonesian soldiers. This time, we have photographic evidence for the brutality, with videos on social media showing a Papuan man being tortured by a group of plainclothes men alleged to be the Indonesian Military (TNI) members. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robyn J. Whitaker, Director of the Wesley Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Policy & Associate Professor, New Testament, Pilgrim Theological College, University of Divinity A strange and eclectic range of activities takes place across these few weeks of the year. Some ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University It’s Easter weekend, which means many of us will be kicking back with the greatest hits on repeat. But whether you’re a boomer, or an ‘80s or ’90s kid, you might be ...
RNZ Pacific Fiji’s Acting Public Prosecutor has filed an appeal against the sentences of former prime minister Voreqe Bainimarama and suspended police chief Sitiveni Qiliho in their corruption case. Bainimarama was granted an absolute discharge for attempting to pervert the course of justice while Qiliho received a conditional discharge with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Arosha Weerakoon, Senior Lecturer and General Dentist, School of Dentistry, The University of Queensland Casezy idea/Shutterstock How does toothpaste work? What did people use before toothpaste was invented? – Amelia, age 7, Meanjin (Brisbane) Thanks for your ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brett Hallam, Associate professor, UNSW Sydney IM Imagery/Shutterstock Solar SunShot is well named. The Australian government announced today it would plough A$1 billion into bringing back solar manufacturing to Australia, boosting energy security, swapping coal and gas jobs for those ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Dix, Research Fellow in Nutrition & Dietetics, The University of Queensland Easter is the time for chocolate. The shops are full of fantastically packaged and shiny chocolates in all shapes and sizes, making trips to the supermarket with children more challenging ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Felton, Adjunct Senior Researcher, University of South Australia Even in a stubborn cost-of-living crisis, it seems there’s one luxury most Australians won’t sacrifice – their daily cup of coffee. Coffee sales have largely remained stable, even as financial pressures have ...
Mining company Trans-Tasman Resources has unexpectedly withdrawn its application for a consent to suck the valuable metals vanadium and titanium from the Taranaki seafloor, as it apparently wagers on the Government’s new fast-track process. It had spent two-and-a-half days putting its case to the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision-making committee, at ...
Contrary to the Associate Minister of Education’s claims, analysis of Healthy School Lunches Programme - Ka Ora, Ka Ako assessments has revealed it provides excellent value for the taxpayer dollar, as a groundswell of public opposition to Government ...
Greenpeace says wannabe Taranaki seabed miner Trans-Tasman Resources is likely banking on Christopher Luxon’s fast-track process to side-step proper scrutiny of its Taranaki seabed mining proposal by bailing out of the Environmental Protection Agency hearing ...
Kiwis Against Seabed mining today slammed Australian owned would-be seabed miner Trans Tasman Resources (TTR) for abandoning its application to the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) to mine the seabed of the South Taranaki Bight. The company ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katie Attwell, Associate Professor, School of Social Sciences, The University of Western Australia Ground Picture/Shutterstock Months after COVID vaccines were introduced in 2021, governments and private organisations mandated them for various groups. Health and aged care workers were among the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Dzurak, Scientia Professor Andrew Dzurak, CEO and Founder of Diraq, UNSW Sydney Diraq For decades, the pursuit of quantum computing has struggled with the need for extremely low temperatures, mere fractions of a degree above absolute zero (0 Kelvin or ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne A national Essential poll, conducted March 20–24 from a sample of 1,150, gave the Coalition a 50–44 lead including undecided, a reversal ...
The Taxpayers’ Union has today made a formal request under the Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Open Government Information () for information held about how New Zealand Members of Parliament are spending taxpayer ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robert Nelson, Honorary Principal Fellow, The University of Melbourne A Byzantine depiction of the Eucharist in Saint Sophia Cathedral, Kyiv.Jacek555/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA A nasty quarrel arose in the 11th century over what kind of bread should be used in holy ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Patrick Hesp, Professor, Flinders University Patrick Hesp In some parts of Australia, coastal dunes are retreating from the ocean at an alarming rate, as waves carve up the beach and wind blows the sand inland. But coastal communities are largely ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luke Heemsbergen, Senior Lecturer, Digital, Political, Media, Deakin University With an impressive 60% of the US smartphone market, Apple is undeniably big, but not a clear monopoly. Yet, years of innovation by Apple have effectively given the company its own exclusive ...
Whether you’re facing layoffs or are just an emotional junior staffer, it’s always a good idea to scout out a good crying place before you need it. It’s an incredibly hard time for Wellington. Across the city, thousands of public servants are hearing tough news about redundancies and layoffs. Government ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Miller-Jones, Professor, Curtin University Nuclear explosions on a neutron star feed its jets. Danielle Futselaar and Nathalie Degenaar, Anton Pannekoek Institute, University of Amsterdam, CC BY-SA How fast can a neutron star drive powerful jets into space? The answer, it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daryl Adair, Associate Professor of Sport Management, University of Technology Sydney Earlier this week, independent MP Andrew Wilkie accused the AFL of conducting “off the books” illicit drug testing to identify players using substances of abuse, then inappropriately withdrawing them from matches ...
The Government’s announcement that it will scrap plans for a vast marine sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands is ‘shameful’ and will make it impossible for Aotearoa New Zealand to meet its international commitments, says the World Wide Fund for Nature ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Quiggin, Professor, School of Economics, The University of Queensland Shutterstock The federal government has bowed to pressure from the car industry, announcing it will relax proposed emissions rules for utes and vans and delay enforcement of the new standards ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Suzanne Rutland, Professor Emerita, University of Sydney In his latest book, Jewish Life in Medieval Spain, Jonathan Ray focuses on the tumult of the 14th century in Spain – a time of the plague, civil strife and war between the two largest ...
While creating a slate of world-class shows, Whakaata Māori also developed a generation of world-class creatives. Television is an odd word. It mixes the Ancient Greek and Latin languages, and its most literal meaning is “far-off sight”. In the contemporary and living language of te reo Māori, “whakaata” as a ...
Yesterday the UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza. This significant step and the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza prompted an urgent debate in the New Zealand Parliament. Leader ...
The Government’s decision to reduce access to continuous glucose monitors (CGM) not only threatens the lives of children with type 1 diabetes and increases the potential for ‘Dead in Bed’ syndrome, but also threatens the health of their parents an ...
Apples are available year-round, but the wide variety on offer involves intensive scientific research – and large-scale commercialisation. What’s beautiful, red, sweet and crunchy? Tony Martin’s favourite kind of apple: Sassy. The CEO of apple and pear breeding organisation Prevar, Martin’s fondness for Sassy represents professional success as well as ...
Family violence specialist service Shine is calling on employers to stop asking for proof of domestic violence in order for employees to access domestic violence leave. The call comes five years after the introduction of the Domestic Violence ...
The Deputy Chairperson of the Finance and Expenditure Committee is calling for public submissions on the Budget Policy Statement 2024. The Budget Policy Statement 2024 (BPS) sets out the Government's priorities for the 2024 Budget. It explains the approach ...
Brutal government spending cuts that will see the size of the Ministry for Pacific Peoples slashed by 40% will hit Pasifika communities hard, the PSA says. The Ministry has told staff that it is seeking voluntary redundancies, and to redeploy and reassign ...
I live with five people I mostly love, but our different ideas about generosity are starting to really irk me.Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzDear Hera,This is a bit of a random one but here goes. I’m 22 and work an OK job (OK meaning I get paid ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Maria Nicholas, Senior Lecturer in Language and Literacy Education, Deakin University Earlier this month, the New South Wales government announced it would roll out programs for gifted students in every public school in the state. This comes amid concerns gifted school ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christopher Rudge, Law lecturer, University of Sydney Massachusetts General Hospital In a world first, we heard last week that US surgeons had transplanted a kidney from a gene-edited pig into a living human. News reports said the procedure was a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Tombs, Howard Paterson Chair of Theology and Public Issues, University of Otago The 5th-century Maskell panel showing Jesus in a loincloth.British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA When Jesus is shown on the cross, he is almost always depicted wearing a loincloth around ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University Shutterstock When you think about a red object, you might picture a red carpet, or the massive ruby in the Queen’s crown. Indeed, Western monarchies and marketing from brands such ...
COMMENTARY:Jewish Voice for Peace The UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza on Monday — and for the first time since the beginning of the Israeli military’s genocide of Palestinians, the United States abstained rather than vetoing it. Security Council resolutions are legally binding, ...
Asia Pacific Report A New Zealand investigative journalist and author says the US spy system hosted by the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) appears to be a controversial intelligence system used in global capture-kill operations. Writing a commentary for RNZ News today, Nicky Hager, author of Secret Power, a 1996 ...
While Nicola Willis wouldn’t give any details on its size, she said a package of tax cuts is definitely still coming in this year’s budget, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming the investigation into the Department of Internal Affairs after it was revealed that the Department’s Chief Executive personally reached out to expedite a DJs passport application. Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns ...
Finance minister Nicola Willis delivers her first budget statement, and unwittingly helps Joel MacManus save his relationship. Nicola Willis strode into the Beehive Theatrette. Around me, on the green foldout seats, were the country’s top business and political journalists. They were all here to see her announce the Budget Policy ...
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Tauranga, Rotorua, Wellsford, Onehunga, Westhaven marina – Gavin Strawhan walks the meanish streets of New Zealand in his entertaining debut novel The Call, almost sure to roar into the number 1 position on the Nielsen bestseller chart, its front cover bearing a rave from somebody: “A really good and genuinely ...
On a Thursday in February, at Wellington’s Conservation House, the Conservation Authority, a statutory body advising the eponymous department and minister, Tama Potaka, opened its 195th meeting. Under consideration that afternoon was an agenda item written by Tim Bamford, chief advisor in the Department of Conservation’s biodiversity, heritage and visitors ...
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More expensive than emissions reductions, but could save lives as Superstorms become more devastating.
Geo engineering anyone?
http://www.earthtechling.com/2013/12/can-offshore-wind-turbines-slow-hurricanes/
More proof that we are surely the stupidest species on the planet. Hurricanes increasing in frequency and severity due to AGW, so instead of mitigating AGW, let’s use more fossil fuels to try and maintain the facade that everything will be alright if we can just out-tech nature and our own mistakes.
/facepalm
Considering the number of wind turbines that they’re talking about I suspect most, if not all, fossil fuel generation in the US could be decommissioned.
“..The mind of a heroin addict: the struggle to get clean and stay sober..
.For a heroin addict – recovery is a life-long process.
Philip Seymour Hoffman had been clean for 23 years before he relapsed in 2013 –
– and died from an apparent overdose last week.
To many people who have never grappled with addiction –
– it can be difficult to comprehend the desperate desire to use –
– even after so many years sober.
To gain deeper insight into drug addiction –
– we asked recovering heroin users to share their experiences with us.
Nearly 300 people responded –
– describing their struggle to get clean –
– and the ongoing battle to stay sober.
Here we publish a selection of those responses..”
(cont..)
http://www.theguardian.com/society/interactive/2014/feb/11/heroin-addiction-recovery-readers-response-interactive
phillip ure..
Mr Hoffman determined to take a pretty substantial amount of a Class A drug, while having two young children. I think, after 23 years, what he did was spectacularly selfish.
@ ad..
..and you are an ignorant/judgmental-fool..
..(so that’s that sorted..)
..and how is that cancer-causing flesh/fat-addiction you have going on..going..?
..and passing it on to yr children..eh..?
..how both ignorant and ‘spectacularly-selfish’ is that..?
..and..can’t stop it/give it up..?
..how piss-weak is that..?
..and you sneer at heroin addicts..?
..you ignorant fool..
..(you want bacon with that..?..)
phillip ure..
No sneering other than from you on another tiresome righteous roll.
Mr Hoffman should be evaluated both for what he did, and for the consequences of what he did.
@ ad..and yrslf..?
..with yr flesh-fat-addiction..?
..just in denial..are we..?
..and what do you think the ‘consequences’ are of you passing on yr flesh/fat-addiction to yr children..?
..the ‘normals’ in yr life..will be looked upon in the future with as much horror as we now view children trapped in cars with cigarette-smokers..
..but you are too pig-ignorant to have the slightest awareness of that..
..and..like the booze..?..do we..?
..it/that’s..the kiwi-way..
..eh..?..
..and a little fucken medical-fact/quizz for you..
..two people..
..one uses (medicinal-quality/clean) narcotics for 20 yr..then stops..
..other drinks heavily for 20 yrs..then stops..
..guess which one will be most longterm fucked-over by their 20 yr addiction..?
..whose liver will be most rooted..?
..eh..?
..(d’ya want a beer with that bacon..?..)
..phillip ure//
Hmm, so far, Mr Hoffman’s herion overdose – of which he alone is responsible – is somehow also about smoking, bacon, alcohol consumption, children trapped in cars, and the Kiwi way. Stop flailing about. His use of heroin does not reflect on anyone but himself.
Mr Hoffman – particularly after 23 years – is responsible for taking heroin. And is responsible for the consequences. No one else.
Ad, that is a seriously stupid comment, there is only one other substance in the world that matches the addictive power of Heroin and that is Nicotine,
If you have no understanding of addiction you should get an education as addiction by definition is to use a substance or take actions,(as in the use of pokey machines), that no matter how ‘responsible’ you are in your other actions in life it becomes impossible for you to not use the products which are the subject of the addiction…
@ bad..hate to disagree with someone who is agreeing with me..
..but..having undergone withdrawals from both..
..on a scale of severity running from one to ten..
..tobacco is one..
..heroin is nine..
..that heroin/tobacco-line is usually trotted out by self-excusing tobacco-addicts..
..personally..i view those still addicted to tobacco..
..and trotting out that excuse..
..as weak as piss..
..on the scale of things..
..tobacco was no big thing to give up..
..phillip ure..
And how did he become addicted? Do you think he unwittingly started using Heroin without knowing its addictive reputation?
He is responsible for his own addiction, and his own death. Denying this worries me. We need to teach our children to take accountability for their own actions, our communities will be better off for it.
That may or may not be true, many people i know have become addicted to all sorts of things blissfully unaware of the literature screaming about the addictive nature of whatever it is they have become addicted to,
There is also the ‘i will try a little just once school of addicts’ along with some peoples personal ego which tells them that they will never become an addict to anything as they consider themselves far too strong,
Attempting to teach your children the risks of addiction while obviously the right thing to do also has in a small % the opposite effect, much like teaching children the do’s and don’ts of sex, that small % thus educated in the dangers will just have to go out and try it anyway,
There is another means of death that has killed many of those addicted to Heroin where the addict used to cooking X amount of the drug does so on that one occasion only to tragically find that the product has not been ‘stepped on’, diluted with another non-toxic product to the extent of what the addict has normally shot up their veins, which simply causes them an instant and fatal overdose…
ad = mono-view..
..he/she lives in a simple world..
..absolutely chocka-block with absolutes..
..eh..?..ad..?
..are you addicted to absolutes..?
..d’yareckon..?
phillip ure..
Phillip, i think you will find that there is much clinical research about Heroin/Nicotine addiction that says exactly what i have just said in the comment above about Nicotine addiction,
All addictive substances effect individuals to a greater or lesser extent as far as the extent of the individuals addictions are manifested,
i know people in the 70,s when street level addiction to Heroin was at it’s height who could ping up on a regular basis, to the extent that you would consider them ‘junkies’ who could when supply run out withdraw from Heroin without a problem,
Other heavy users of the time i personally know could take or leave the drug having no addiction problem with it, does that make you as ‘weak as piss’???,
You should obviously do more research on the subject befor insulting anyone with an addiction to anything which seems to be your modus operendi,
Is ex-Prime Minister Helen Clark ‘as weak as piss’, She also described the addiction to Nicotine as i have…
in the street cred addiction Olympics you didn’t medal mate 🙂
umm..!..
..a fact about heroin addiction you may not be aware of..
..is that it actually takes quite a long time to get yr first ‘habit’..
..the honeymoon-period with that drug is longer than most would expect..
..but the key difference with nicotine is that a nicotine habit is a nicotine habit..
..end of story..
..whereas each succeeding heroin habit you get..kicks in sooner..is even more addictive..
..and the withdrawals also increase in intensity..
..so i quite believe yr tales of people seemingly using for a while..heavily even..
..and not going thru that heavy a withdrawal..
..and that increasing severity is what made me finally pull the plug..
..and is what keeps me away to this day..
..’cos i didn’t finally stop thru any great exercise of moral-willpower/or the like..
..having gone thru more nasty withdrawals than i care to remember..
..i hadn’t used for a number of years…(and had been travelling..)
..and i returned to sydney..and ran into an old drug-buddy and his wife..on the street..
..and went to their house..where i was offered smack..
..i thought..’one night..what the hell..!’..
..so i indulged..slept on their sofa..
..and woke in the morning with an overwhelming urge to have more heroin..now..!
..and within one week of using..i was where a one to two yr habit wd have had me in the past..
..and that scared the hell out of me..
..so i ran away..and locked myself into a room for a few days..
..to go thru the severe withdrawals such a small amount after so long had left me with..
..and after that..i knew i had reached the tipping-point..
..where the ensuing pain so overwhelmed that initial/transitory pleasure..
..to such a degree..
..i knew i couldn’t go there again..
..(and re yr clark-comment..?..seriously..?
..and really..bad..on this particular subject..
..don’t you think i may have a tad more experience/knowledge..
..than that shown in some throwaway comment from clark..?..)
..and as i originally said..nicotine one…heroin nine..
..you..and most others..really have no fucken idea what that experience is like..
phillip ure..
.
Actually Phillip having considered your disjointed bullshit reply i think your whole problem is that you suffer from being not only totally ‘up yourself’ but also that you are a typical whining fucking junky too piss weal to kick the habit,
As i pointed out above, addiction to anything will effect those addicted in different ways, because your addiction took a while to establish means nothing, except to your overblown ego, many are addicted on their 1st, 2nd, or 3rd taste of heroin,(more fool them and you, having heard the story of the addictive nature of heroin from an older sibling at age 14 i decided not to indulge although all my friends of the time became jumkies),
As far as the comments of Helen Clark goes on the subject of Nicotine/Heroin addiction i should imagine that She got Her information from the likes of the US CDC or any one of the many universities that have conducted addiction studies into the relative effects of the two substances as opposed to you who seemingly only requires the information to come via your personally compromised drug addled junkies brain,
Here’s a little reading for you,
http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/quit-how-to-quit/you…/nicotine
http://www.nytimes.com/…/nicotine-harder-to-kickthan-heroin-habit.html
http://www.whyquit.com/whyquit/A-henningfield-benowitz.html
http://www.independent.co.uk/…/why-nicotine-is-as-addictive-as-heroin...
If, as usual my ‘links’ don’t work i found all those links by Googling: ”Nicotine considered as addictive as heroin”…
Don/t hold back bad12. There is a lot to be said for you, one is that your ‘column inches’ are a lot more fact-packed into them than phillip u’s.
Lolz, why thank you greywarbler, tho i must admit to straying into the realm of bullshit on the odd occasion…
My experience is that nicotine is harder to kick than heroin. As this is different from Phil’s experience, it is obviously invalid.
I think you have hit on an important point, bad12. Many people stop using narcotics but spend the rest of their lives talking about how their drug experience changed their life, how they feel urges every day, etc, etc. While I will mention my experiences on the odd occasion that they are relevant, I’m glad to see the back of the shit, and of the lifestyle. As far as I’m concerned, anyone who carries on about it all the time, like Russel Brand, hasn’t taken back control of their own life.
I agree Murray – which is where my ‘street cred’ attempted humour came from above. There are a lot of addictions out there and i think in many ways our society endorses addictive personalities and their particular poison of choice as part of the neolib experiment – in a similar way to making everything a competition or popularity contest.
“..but also that you are a typical whining fucking junky too piss weal to kick the habit..”
really..?…i haven’t used since the late 80’s.
..so what the fuck are you banging on about..
..you fucken fool….
..and still smoking ciggies..are we..?
..seriously hooked on flesh/fat..?..
..body crapping out from it..?
..and fucken sneer on..eh..?
..i offer my experience/knowledge gained..
..over 20 yrs of fucken heavy using/withdrawing…
..(as opposed to the many weekend warriors..who ‘just got a bit fluey’ when they stopped..
..but i already explained the accelerated-effects from each habit..
..what can’t you fucken understand about that..?)
..i have nothing more to say..
..you can either fucken accept it or not..
..i’m not gonna play tag with yr self/serving/apologising/aggraindising/boo-hoo!-bullshit…about nicotine..
..except..’really..?..’
“..as opposed to you who seemingly only requires the information to come via your personally compromised drug addled junkies brain…”
..really..?..there..bad..?..
..well..after i kicked the junk..
..i went to university..and got a masters degree..
..so..basically..fuck you..eh..?..
..what have you done lately..?
..and..what’s yr poison..?..(aside from the ciggies..)
..hic..!
..on ‘nerve-pills’..?
..how about you list yr current addictions..
..phillip ure..
Phillip, seriously, you will have to try and contain yourself, such antagonism might have you via the fight or flight mechanism running full tilt into a serious drug relapse,
You know what they say Phillip, ”once a sniveling fucking junky, always a sniveling fucking junky”, put in a far more mild description and delivery Phillip, although you are by now possibly far to enraged and/or brain damaged to be able to comprehend this, all addicts are simply one small step away from their next relapse,(those of them that are not bald faced liars claiming to be ‘free’ while secretly indulging themselves that is),
Nope, smoking cigarettes is my addiction and i satisfy myself that while doing so might compromise the length of time my mortal self gets to spend on the planet in a negative way, as i grow all of my own the addiction doesn’t compromise me in any other way,
Your obsession with fat amuses me but under analysis the way in which you attempt to ‘use’ this s a means of battering/bettering other commentrs here is both childish,
For your info the only animal i eat is fish, BUT, shock-horror, once a week i go to the local take-away and have a yummy bacon and egg burger, oh god think of the poor piggy being badly raised in it’s sty just so i can consume a small part of it’s back leg, it just makes me want to sob…
gee bad..
..yr ignorances are as wide as they are deep..eh..?
..and seeing you are so liberal with the ad homs..
..a fat unhealthy fuck..aren’t ya..?
..and which decade are you in..?
..in yr to-be-fore-shortened life..
..’cos if the baccy doesn’t get you..
..the bacon/cheese/fat will..
..and the combination..?
..washed down with a few beers..eh..?
..puff-puff-glug-glug-chew-chew..eh..?
..(and you sneer @ vegan health-freak ex-junkies..?..seriously..?..)
..bad..this is yr life..
..and that is kinda sad..
..got diabetes yet..?
..heading there..?
..phillip ure..
AW Phillip, your remarks are just sooo cutting that they hurt, actually your latest effort at the English language which you also fail miserably at is akin to the well used wet bus ticket except of course in your case the arm swinging it is that of a true whimp,
Funnily enough having puffed on the baccy for the best part of 44 odd years 20+ a day and 20 of those smoking unfiltered boob weed you would think that i would be truly a candidate to be riddled with the big C,
Sorry to disappoint you tho Phillis recent blood tests and x-rays show nothing amiss, except the bizarre case of the missing osteophyte from the lip of L4 on the lumbar spine, bizarre being that as a piece of bone growth they don’t just disappear, especially ones as large as that one appeared to be,
Yes i know Phillis, 1 bacon and egg burger a week is so sacrilegious in your wee tiny world view you actually think that such can damage my or anyone’s health, perhaps it’s not so much a belief of yours Phillis but a wish because in your wee mind that craves those drugs so fiercely every day you transfer your self hate onto those around you who do not agree with your bizarre views or the heroic self image you attempt to portray by ‘pretending’ to be drug free,
As to your question of alcohol, no. fish, vege, brown rice, multi grain bread, whole wheat flour, fruit, that’s my diet,
With of course that fucking yummy bacon and egg burger once a week,Salurpies big time,
By the way Phillis, what exactly did you do with this masters degree, it seems you simply wasted the resources of the education system to get this degree and now you spend all your time online pontificating about shit very few people care about and if the truth was only known very few read either,
That masters degree certainly didn’t stop you driveling like the village idiot in barely understandable sentences and i would suggest all in all you might as well have remained a whining junky at least the smack would have shut you up on the odd occasion,
In conclusion you seem to have wasted your life first on being a junky and secondly on gaining a masters degree which you appear to have put to no good use whatsoever…
I think we need to understand why he went back to using heroin before we can make any judgement at all. After 23 years, I don’t think it was the addiction that had him going back.
Fair point Draco, and perhaps the question ties in with my comment below about the nature of the Afghan poppy crop,
Perhaps among His peer group use of the drug is more common than we know of and being subjected to ‘rave reviews’ of the latest Afghan originated product had Him curious enough to have a taste,
i have one friend, now a P head, who started using Heroin in His teens, He has been re-habbed a number of times in the past 30 years and while telling anyone who cared to listen that He was ‘drug-free’ continued to use whenever He could source the drug going to some quite extraordinary lengths at times trying to create the product out of other peoples flowers half inched from their gardens…
Ad, perhaps, then again this years supply out of Afghanistan might have hit the retail market in a far more pure form than previously,
There has to be a ‘reason’ why such a mountainous inhospitable country has been the target of invasion down through the centuries and in reality the only commodity of great value produced there being the opium poppy looks in my opinion to be ‘it’,
You could say that the logical reason for the refusal to leave Afghansitan by the US is to stop the Taliban from again taking control of the country,
Then again it was the Taliban along with it’s ‘other crimes’ who stopped the production from the poppy fields, creating a serious dent in the supply of the ‘best’ heroin to be produced anywhere in the world,
Under US occupation the production of heroin from the production of the Afghan poppy fields has grown exponentially the longer the US has remained, it’s a multi billion dollar industry with even the brother of the Afghan Prez,(looking after the Prez’s interests perhaps???),said to be involved,
Think the CIA’s Air America of the Indo-China wars with a rational decision having been made by those marketing the product to not have it flood the streets ‘it’ being reserved as the province of the elite…
Ad
What about Rob Hall who called his wife from Everest where he was going to die, leaving her with their children to bring up alone. Wasn’t he selfish, not giving up on his addiction to climbing high lumps of rock topped with snow, a dangerous, harsh climate and location? Once he had children wouldn’t a good man have denied himself that risk-taking activity?
good call.
True addiction (not pu’s obsession with veganism) is something that I’m incredibly glad I’ve not yet had on my back (even my involuntary tobacco-free periods are not overly painful). As I understand it, Hoffman was clean for 20-odd years and it still came back to bite him in the arse.
We aren’t talking about someone being selfish and ignoring people who love him – as I understand it from people close to me, addiction is a fog that blinds you to everything except your weakness, a fog that you need to constantly beat back and fight simply in order to function as a human being. And sometimes it envelopes you anyway, especially if you are tired or it can hide something painful to be aware of.
there but for the grace of quantum uncertainty, I guess 🙂
+1
And I have noticed in myself and others I know how we seem to have an addictive response to much in life. It is tremendously hard to change direction, stop eating too much, drinking, whatever seems to be the norm for us even when it is counter-productive.
And the way that others relate to us, some get strokes from succeeding in sport and will play with broken bits in the body, ruin their health immediately or later as they become aged. Some get a kick from stirring up others, and being different from the common herd, and some are committed to better ways and only addiction to that idea keeps them sacrificing their working and leisure time for
the big goal, rather than their own advancement.
Some people here will be interested in the radio report on residues in food. Safe food campaign – imported grapes with about 35 different detected residues – local watchdog says incredibly small amounts, just as safe to eat as organic food! This, says official outfit Ag something like Agcarm, is just scaremongering (by greenies).
I certainly believe in quality of life over quantity – quite the hedonist, me.
The trouble with addiction is that it drags you back even when you don’t feel good doing it – I know an alcoholic who normally keeps it within social limits, but every year or two slips into levels that are disgraceful. Now, I tend to be a dick when drunk, too, but this person has that “shame” thing going on, where they wake up the next day and are mortified, and periodically hit a sub-basement of behaviour (if not rock-bottom) that drives them sober for a while.
Me, not so much.
That person I would say is largely enslaved by their addiction. Me, I’m more of a dick, regardless of any chemical dependency. My level of addiction does not outweigh my sense of shame or what I would like for a better quality of life. Their level of addiction brings down their quality of life and their ability to function in society.
“there but for the grace of quantum uncertainty, I guess”
love it!
so..mcflock..you are addicted to tobacco..?
..but you have never had a ‘true-addiction’..?
..who are you trying to kid..?..yrslf..?
..and i’ll bet the thought of not being able to eat flesh/fat makes you break out in a cold-sweat..
..eh..?
..you do know what defines ‘addiction’..don’t you..?
..and..like a beer..?..do we..?
.philip ure..
Phil, my point is that I’ve never tried to quit. To steal from Milton, I might be regarded as “To vice industrious, but to Nobler deeds Timorous and slothful”.
I embrace my lifestyle, all my habits are at a level where the cost is an acceptable exchange for the quality of life.
To compare that with people I know whose addictions do take an unacceptable toll on their quality of life yet they cannot stop that habit would be hypocritical sympathy-seeking. I’ve never mortgaged the family home to finance a habit, I’ve never destroyed relationships with people I love, and I’ve never ended up in jail, because of my addictions. I just roll along, chillaxed about most things and with not a care or responsibility in the world. In that I am very lucky.
Willingly partaking of a bad habit is not “addiction”. Addiction is when you can’t stop when you try. I almost certainly do have chemical dependencies on one or two things, but I’ve never felt them to any degree because my appetites for them are largely satiated at a socially and financially and personally acceptable level. Although the latest tax hike has tweaked my tobacco habits a touch, I’m not losing sleep over it.
re.. ‘the quality of life’..
..from smoking/drinking/gorging on fat/flesh..?
..preferably all @ once..?
..this is a ‘good time’..eh..?
..and you call that a ‘quality’ life..?
..really..?
..you haven’t lived yet..eh..?
..on so so many levels..
..and yes..i’ve been where you are now..
..but maybe more so..
..and seriously..!
..get a life..!..eh..?
..phillip ure..
I eat the babies of sheep and drink rich liquors, and when finish inhale the smoke of burning leaves, and yes that is delightful to me.
And dude, if you’d found a higher state of being you wouldn’t be such a sanctimonious prick.
By the way, the topic was addiction. Learn to focus. I’m drunk – what’s your excuse?
Lolz mac, that’s funny…
This “whoar” thing could be spelt “war” sometimes..
Ad, you may be right, but what would you have done to help Mr. Hoffman stop using heroin? Unless you have a solution to discuss, your comment is not particularly helpful.
Philip …I find what you say interesting ie it does give an understanding of the terrible addiction factor…
Mallory Manning the beautiful young woman murdered by the Mongrel Mob in Christchurch was on the methadone treatment and was working as a prostitute….but refused to pay the Mongrel Mob a portion of her earnings for working on Manchester St ….the Mongrel Mob regarded this street as their patch and demanded money from all the prostitutes working here.
I have always thought that although prostitution should be legal for women self employed working from their homes or a house …..it should be illegal for pimps and illegal on the public streets…apart from being a public nuisance …..it is dangerous , even more dangerous without policing
@ chooky..
..i think the cops were somewhere else..
..on the night..
..chasing pot..
..probably..
..that’s so much easier than protecting prostitutes from mob-stand-over..
..eh..?
..phillip ure..
They should have been chasing meat and flesh addicts..
..eh?..
Phil I thought you might like this – it seems once again Marijuana is a wonder drug that can fix the irrecoverable.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/11/marijuana-hiv_n_4767901.html?ncid=txtlnkushpmg00000037&ir=Politics
Let not get into a discussion on the environmental aspects of growing hemp.
Instead, lets just look at how good it is as a drug in medicine.
chrs 4 that adam..i have used it @ whoar..
..here is the headline in adams’ link..
“..Marijuana May Stop The Spread Of HIV – Study Finds..”
..phillip ure..
Interesting changes ahead for RadioNZ National might help make the old favorite more listenable with hopefully a more robust debate on the issues of the day being the end result,
Pity ‘Nine to Noon’ isn’t suffering the same revamp as in my opinion it’s become a bland irrelevancy where issues of the day are treated with scant regard while ‘candy floss’ becomes topics of intense scrutiny, obviously the lack of National Government Ministerial involvement in the ‘hot’ issues of the day sadly devalue the content of the program, but, as a reason not to have intense political debate the non-show of the Government to put their views should never be a ‘reason’ not to have the political debate on air as an ongoing conversation,
Mora’s ‘movement’ a sign of abysmal ratings, or the pressure of the ongoing commentary of a critical nature much of which has been published right here???…
Interesting.
Where did you find this bad12?
JS, sorry my linking is really ‘bad’, the ‘movements’ at RadioNZ National were detailed on the Herald On-line this morning…
Ta,
Sounds like an improvement.
JS, Lolz, hopefully, an improvement that is, Mora on checkpoint for those horrified by the idea might not be too bad as checkpoint is more ‘straight news’ than magazine type program,
Shorter too which is a bonus, i usually listen to the first half hour of checkpoint and then switch to the TV news,(possibly just as brain damaging as listening to Mora all afternoon)…
Here you are
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11200279
And here is RNZ’s own item on the changes
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/235854/changes-at-radio-new-zealand
Personally, I am happy to see Mercep off Morning Report as he annoys me intensely; but if he takes over in the afternoons from Mora that is just shuffling the deck chairs IMO.
The possibility of Mora on Checkpoint appals me ………..
@ veuto..
..+ 1..
..phillip ure..
Ta. Still the fact that there will be significantly less of Mora has got to be a boon.
I see the reasonaing is to soften or offset mary’s perceived interview technique.
That saddens me. I was hoping she was moving to morning report. I don’t care who the person is, they need to have their views drilled down, and Mary does that. Reminds of Kim Hill.
I think the reasoning is mostly to lighten the load for Wilson on CP. It’s got to be hard yakka.
I doubt it will ‘soften’ the show much. Good cop, bad cop is tougher than bad cop.
who will be the good cop?
@ tracey..
..yeah..mary’s good at her job..
..phillip ure..
+1 Tracey. Mary the best.
Mary is the best so why spoil it by including Mora – programme will soon go down.
What is he going to do that Mary has not been able to do.
Unless Mary is lined up for better things closer to the election.
Radio NZ announced these changes themselves via a news item I caught while driving home from work yesterday evening. I’m pleased that Susie Ferguson has been mooted for Morning Report. I can’t quite figure out how the hybrid Mora/Wilson The Panel/Checkpoint thing is going to work out?
Nine to Noon is great…..Katherine Ryan is great!
@ chooky..
um..!..no..!
..the relentless neo-lib-defence/fox-talking-points trotted out by ryan..
..have driven me to pandora for those hours..
..in fact..national radio is close to losing me..
..i will try breakfast again when the new combo starts..
..but i haven’t been able to listen to mercep..
..and with both ryan and mora..
..i will have a listen as to what they are doing..
..and less and less..are they keeping me there..
..and that panel-discourse has..most days..
..just gone from merely bad/simplistic/relentlessly far-rightwing..
..to almost cartoonish..
..it is all so tired/cliched/well-worn/endlessly-repeated..
..you could almost have a drinking-game..
..guessing the exact words of the nominated panelists’ answers..
..phillip ure..
Phillip, totally agree, i tune most of Ryan out where it becomes simply background noise, which is a pity because on the odd ocassion that there is something of interest being talked about i miss half of it,
Lolz, i have taken to doing silent penance all afternoon when Mora is on…
i turn off Mora but listen to Ryan
From the Herald link
* Geoff Robinson retiring from Morning Report, to be replaced by Guyon Espiner.
* Simon Mercep moving to Afternoons show. Current host Jim Mora joins Checkpoint with Mary Wilson.
* Susie Ferguson tipped to join Espiner on Morning Report.
I haven’t seen Guy Espiner lately. What do others know about him, his approach, and his leanings?
I have heard Susie Ferguson. Was it her that was critical of the Maori protests spoiling the Waitangi Day commemorations?
I don’t know why you bad12 are so hot against Ryan. We can’t have a pure news radio station. You are overlooking the fact that she has the sort of wide knowledge needed to interview the world, and is interested in so much, and the ability to sound pleasant and speak clearly for hours. She can and does ask hard questions and not that noticeably centre right, and is far superior to Jim Mora in this.
As for Checkpoint, Mary Wilson does it well and works her life around it. Going to those very early mornings, might have been a bridge too far. I wonder if she was asked?
And I can’t imagine that Mora will add anything that improves the output from that slot. The other way. He is good with people, chat about locations, interesting people, and appreciated for his support for musicians. Can’t he have an hour doing that in the afternoons, and perhaps a piece on Saturday or Sunday afternoon. Then he could get some work on commercial radio to bring his hours up.
Greywarbler,ok then seeing as i have not been specific i will do so, my main complaint regarding Ryan, besides the ‘candyfloss’ which seems to be the hallmark of Her show is that on a number of occasions when discussing political matters of the day,(not with Hooton and Williams), there has been blah blah about the issue,
Then, we get a statement from Ryan that X National Government Minister was invited to speak to the issue but refused,
End result, the issue is not further discussed which leaves Ryan as the ‘enabler’ of the National Government’s killing of issues that either their Ministers cannot stand up to scrutiny over and/or are of an embarrassing nature to the present Government,
My view is that Ryan should have simply invited opposition MP’s to also discuss the issue and if the National Government Ministers still refuse to front tough on them,
To be fair perhaps i am only looking at the symptoms and it may now be that stations policy that if the relevant Government Minister declines to appear then the issue is allowed to die…
Good point Bad12 I noticed that bit about them – the NACTs not turning up – so we’ll go onto the next item.
I agree they should have them both lined up. And go on with the one that is left. That would make the shy ones more inclined to find the time!
I wish you would write that down and respectfully send it to Radionz pointing out that you are a politics junkie and a connosieur of interviews and think this would be the appropriate measure to ensure that the subject gets aired in a timely fashion. And don’t tell me to do it as I do write the odd email suggestion myself, can’t always be at it.
For you other anti-Mora people, I fell over laughing at this Twitter thread by Giovanni Tiso yesterday re Mora (hope the link works as I am only just coming to grips with Twitter)
https://twitter.com/gtiso/status/433039033304772608
PS – you have to click on the link in the comment re Rachel’s comment to see it. IT was “Burn the house down”.
Says it all!
Unfortunately Ryan is a ‘3rd Wayer’ thru’ and thru’ . It’s often a trendy leftie’s way of coming across as ‘fair and balanced’. (Shades of Rosemary McLeod). Ryan, I suspect (along with producer) is not above recommending spots for mates and accomplices.
Politically – she’s becoming really tiresome – never forgetting to mention, on occasion, her time in ‘the Gallery’ – as if that were some badge of honour.
She’s obviously managed to negotiate very generous leave entitlements – I only wish it was permanent so that the usual locum (Lyn Freeman) could take over – except that would take her away from “Standing Room Only”
@ tim..
..aye..freeman is also ‘good’
..she is mistress of the the use of ‘the silence’..
..is quite relaxed about using a mini-sound vaccuum to spur the interviewer to reveal/say more..
..unlike ryan..who seems to sit there waiting for her opportunity to interrupt..
..freeman lets interview subjects say/finish what they are trying to say..
..it is a skill that is rare amongst interviewers..
..and i listen to nine-to-noon..if freeman is relieving..
..phillip ure..
@ bad..
..end yr ‘silent-penance’..
..go seek pandora/spotify..
..it’s free..
..and to my mind the biggest buzz from these online radio streams (that you choose/tweak at will..and simple as to set up..even i could do it..)..
..you rediscover the delights of/from finding music that you really dig..
..that you didn’t know existed..
..and that is pretty cool..
..(bless those little algorithms..!..eh..?..)
..another great feature of these streams..(i have 35 different genre-streams..that i have on shuffle..)…is that there is a thumbs-down button on yr screen..
..so..should a song play you don’t like..you can down-thumb it..
..and the next song will then start..
..and..(once again..those clever algorithms)..that track will never play again on yr stream..
..how cool is that..?..eh..?
phillip ure..
.
phillip ure….”the relentless neo-lib-defence/fox-talking-points trotted out by ryan”
…um no you are wrong!!!!
….interviewers can not simply do a doctrinaire party political broadcast
….interviewers have to ask questions from the other side…… and the Neo Lib side… as that is most predominant ‘other side’ ( devil side) in society under NACT
… interviewers have to ask questions from the opposing point of view …..particularly the side they dont agree with personally…..in order to elicit the information for the listener….who then makes up their own mind.
……listen carefully to Katherine Ryan’s programme and you pick up a lot of useful information
…as regards Matthew Hooton(right) versus (left)Mike Williams( which is no real ‘versus’ at all)….there does need to be a stronger voice articulating the Left viewpoint….a Hone Harawira or Jim Anderton or Sue Bradford or Jane Kelsey for example
….that said, I quite like Mike Williams as a soft left liberal
@ chooky..
..i fully understand the oppositional-interview…
..but ryan lacks subtlety using that..(and the fox-talking-points are a step too far..)
..and ryan also has a problem letting interviews take on their own lives..and maybe going in directions not predicted by the question-list..
..(something hill is the mistress of..)
..and a conversation/interview will be getting really interesting..
..and ryan will miss all those signals..
..and will just blunder on in with her next prepared-question/fox news talking-point..
..and i like yr bradford/kelsey call..
..and totally disagree with you re williams..
..the man is drenched/soaked in hubris..
..phillip ure..
Kathryn Ryan is a very good interviewer…very subtle and allows her interviewees to speak freely in a warm environment
like Kim Hill also …different interview style…more confrontational but great
….in the end no one radio person can satisfy all listeners…..and in the end I even came to appreciate Jim Mora’s style…even although he is a tad too conservative and middle of the road for my tastes
Christ! – I hope you’re not putting Ryan in the same category as Hill are you?
Whilst I agree Ryan “allows her interviewees to speak freely in a warm environment”, that environment is often very warm and cosy to some, whilst not others.
You should go back (way way back) over some of those “From the Right, and From the not-so-Right” spots and do a content analysis some time. It’s only when a Hooter throws a complete hissy fit does she pull it up and allow a “not-so-Right” to get a word in edgeways or anyways.
But ……. no doubt she’ll be a future candidate for an ONZ for services to narrowcasting.
You don’t happen to know her do you Chooky? It’s just that I’m surprised at your appraisal of her.
Tim
You make some points I agree with. But I wonder are you an armchair interviewer? Or perhaps you think she is not as good as she should be after all her time in the job.
But the political pair – which goes pear-shaped for me – I think that she sees her role as to move through the topics set for the day, and not to be interfering, to be in the background. I think that is why she lets them go, they are to be free to discuss and she stops them when they go too long or get over-heated!
no i dont know her…and i dont know Kim Hill…and i dont know anybody …i live far ,far away across many hills and mountains ….us chooks only know chooks
….if you listen to Ryan’s programme you can hear some pretty interesting and occasionally very radical stuff…..at least as radical and thought provoking as Kim Hill…(.i am not talking about Hooton versus Williams…she just lets Hooton run at the mouth….and I have to say i like listening to Possum because he gives you an idea how he and the Right are spinning ….but he does need a sharper Left opponent … maybe Jane Kelsey or Sue Bradford or Jim Anderton? ( dont know that you can blame Ryan for Williams…maybe she didnt choose him )
Chooky – I agree her interviewing skills aren’t too shabby and I find her guests interesting – RIGHT up until the time politics become involved.
E.G. – very interesting stuff on caving (for example) recently, OR her dealing with the ‘Countdown’ issssyooo.
It’s just that her ‘3rd way ‘bent’ (aka prejudice) begins to show when politics are involved.
I think (as far as I can work out, I’m perhaps 2 or 3 degrees removed). NOT bloody far enough.
I’m just really tired of our so called ‘MSM’ generally – which with a few exceptions is increasingly a band of hacks who’ve engineered a certain comfort zone that no longer keeps them on their toes and doesn’t do much for what we expect. PSB should, by its very nature, challenge the status quo, investigate, AND take risks – whether it’s in news and current affairs, the arts, or in providing educational material.
RNZ does quite a good job on weekends – weekDAYS its become trite/hackneyed/boring/comfortable.
I’m sorry, but her (Rinny RyRy) ‘space’ in the media has come about by what we would once have called an ‘old boy network’ which has allowed her a very generous position in public service broadcasting, AND which is also increasingly letting old boys to roll out their spin. (Sorry Geoff R – but same shit different stink with Yawning Report too)
I’m somewhat encouraged, and SURPRISED at recent changes (long overdue) at RNZ btw – they leave ninetonoon unaffected – but I suspect that’s Stage 2.
The BBC of course is going through much of the same. Unfortunately we’re slightly worse off in that we only have ONE PSB radio network and nothing on TV (aside from Maori TV with which I had some involvement before it went to air)
Funding is of course an issue.
But …..
we should have
…. a news and current affairs network along with programmes of general interest
—- Concert FM delivering more than it does
…… something LIKE ‘the Wireless” delivering what it does over the airwaves along with NZ and indigenous music
AT THE VERY LEAST.
Same with TV
….. TVNZ7 plus more over more than 1 PSB network and NOT simply Maori TV – as good as it is (and btw – TVNZ could get some ‘learnings’ (:p) from the way it manages to deliver on the size of its budget.
BUT…..
….. when was the last time you saw the NZSO, or the NZ Opera or Ballet on Air (TV), OR NZ bands, and up and coming musicians and artists being represented – given live airtime, OR even a roundup of news headlines from our P.I. neighbours (given Auckland’s demographic), OR local/regional news and info other than that provided by (say SIT).AND I mean on Free-to-Air.
I’m getting side-tracked I know – but I sincerely hope when there is a change of gubbamint, and a wee way down the track, those occupying those comfy little pozzies don’t feign surprise when they get necked. Flogging off publicly funded intellectual property (for example) for pay TV profit (e.g. Heartland); allowing monopolistic and anti-competitive broadcast behaviour…. (actually very EASILY fixed)
anyway …. change is in the queue and I’m hoping it becomes a priority. The ‘in crowd’ aren’t going to be too happy – but fuck ’em – the medium exists for the public and NOT as a platform for taking various egos for a walk.
@ Tim…I think i agree with you wholeheartedly….the media could be so much, much, more than it is….and therefore the populace could be lifted to new levels
..i think you should write a post on it
…i guess i gave up on tv.long ago ..generally watch videos/tv drama series from videos/documentaries/music from video …i dont even watch tv news …so i dont get angry about tv any more ( i do watch tv at election times however)
….as regards radio…K Ryan, Kim Hill, Chris Laidlaw , Morning Report, mid-day news, Checkpoint and nothing else
…K.Ryan is not too bad…she walks a fine line…..eg.from one of her interviews I learned that Goldman Sachs was reviewing /evaluating Kiwi Bank…..this was well before it was discussed on this site ( in fact i brought it up here, because I wanted to know what other’s knew about it ….and they didnt)….. there are a lot of gems underneath the easy listening patina of nine to noon…and I dont think K.Ryan is at all conservative.
Fascinating to do such restructuring in an election year.
Am reading Hager’s Hollow Men” again.
He has some interesting evidence of the right’s attitutde toward the media. It’s not a conspiracy to suspect manipulation. Admittedly Hager never suggests (so far that I can recall) that media were complicit in it per se. Obviously Joyce’s networks in private radio would be large.
“In my book The Hollow Men, when the ACT Party campaign manager Brian Nicolle was privately coordinating a leadership coup for Don Brash within the National Party, he identified private radio as especially sympathetic to the right. “We need to target key talkback hosts in [Newstalk] ZB and [Radio] Pacific,” he wrote to Brash, “there are plenty sympathetic.” The plan was to “produce some common lines that become the ‘mantra’ on your journey to become leader of National and the country” (p. 47)”
@ tracey..+ 1..
..there is also the fact that the right media help each other/work in unison..
..whereas the left-media that does exist..
..largely..is so shit at acknowledging each others’ work/efforts..
..eh..?
..that is getting a little better..but not much..
..phillip ure..
I like the diverse styles of Kathryn, Kim, Jim, Brian and Mary and the diverse content and am even getting used to Simon’s feverish style. Much better than the shock dicks on commercial (retard) radio, and Paul Henry Z z z z z z yawn!
Don’t think I’d like to be married to Mary and her interrogations though..she’s frightening.
David Cunliffe good on National Radio this morning….sounded strong and confident!
….talking about Charter Schools receiving a hell of a lot more money than State Schools of equivalent size or larger
….and why all the closures of small State Schools( because they cost too much or were inefficient) to be replaced by small Charter Schools?….which will end up poaching from neighbouring State Schools….causing more decline in State Schools..(.that was the gist I think)
Yes a good point from David Cunliffe this morning, Charter schools $40,000 per pupil per year, State schools $7000 per pupil per year,
National/ACT robbing the public purse to splash out largesse on the Political Sideshow of Charter schools…
…not an innocent political sideshow either….but a deliberate piece of social engineering designed ultimately to undermine State secular free high quality education …..and in the end subvert New Zealand democracy
….cunning plan by Neo Lib Capitalists originating in USA to privatise NZ education
Can’t disagree with you there, the other point of note is that education being heavily unionized is simply a target for Tories,
But as you say the wider plan is to insert the ‘private sector’ as ticket clippers in some way shape or form into all aspects of the Governments ‘spend’, the obvious result of that is taxpayers will pay more to receive less…
FTFY
we’re already there. Been feudal again since about 1992.
Ad ignorance is bliss .
Some people have highly addictive personalities.
With multipule addictions like Seymore Hoffman.
These personality types tend to be able to get rid of one addiction only to be taken over by other addictions.
Money addiction ie hoarding money can be an addiction never satisfied with how much you have.
In my work helping with fostering children and helping street children parental multipule addictions are very common are virtually impossible to sort out.
@..tricledown..
..aye..
..many narcotics users turn to alcohol when/if they kick the junk..
..(and debatable which is worse..)
..i myself have been addicted to tobacco/alcohol/heroin/cocaine/mandrax/downers/crack-cocaine/animal-flesh/fat/bye-products..(‘jonesing’ for cheese..?..anyone..?..)..
..i am currently a non-user of all the above..
(and am fast becoming addicted to sit-ups etc..perhaps the healthiest of all the other addiction-options on offer..i feel..)
..but i also have to say that of all the above..
..that the only one i still have to maintain vigilance/personal-dialogue/arguments about..
..is heroin..
..(the thought of a cocaine-bender just makes me feel like a cup of tea and a wee lie-down..
..it’s a very ‘tiring’ drug..that one..
..and crack-cocaine..?..whoar..!..the most scary/obsessive of all of them..)
..and of course..all those reading this who ‘jones’ for any of the above..
..(just sallivate at the thought of that cold beer..or six..eh..?..
..or a cheesy-whatever..?..)
..all those people are in denial about their current health/life-threatening addictions..
..so really..
..who reading this is not addicted to multiples of the above..?
..phillip ure..
Careful Phil! I mean switching bad addictions for good ones is not necessarily a bad thing, but just be careful that at anytime it can jump up and bite you in the bum – that’s if a tumor or cancer doesn’t get you first.
I’m just glad you didn’t find religion – altho’ if that works for you, all good too!
Big Huey
High voter turn-out may increase votes for the right
The traditional non-vote in Europe is as likely to benefit the radical right as the centre-left. This analysis of Norway’s election suggests the radical right message resonates with the working class.
Similarly in Austria the young voted far right in big numbers in the 2013 election.
The centre-left can’t rely on pulling these traditional non-voters. I guess there are two options – ignore the non-voters – hope they stay at home and try to grab more of the centre (the Shearer option), or head further to the left to create a more radical message that resonates a least as much as that of the far right. Such as the radical left in Greece.
Obviously NZ has its unique make-up, but the voter dissatisfaction with the status quo is similar. National’s Waitangi whistles can also be interpreted as a grab for the traditional working class non-voter, imo.
Exactly. Nothing short of a real alternative is ever going to work for people who are most cynical about the status quo.
Look at the working class support for the tea-party. It may be a case of turkeys supporting an early christmas, but at least it’s not supporting more of exactly the same bullshit. “Deer hunting with Jesus – dispatches from America’s Class War” is well worth a read, imo.
More Bullshit spin from the MSM.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11200232
How do we counter this rubbish being printed ona a daily basis.
start your own broadsheet.
look no further than ‘The Clinic’ from Chile for inspiration and get right to it!
Daily basis? The Salvation Army’s annual ‘state of the nation’ report?
Are you objecting to the report itself or the Heralds’s presentation of it?
MSM
Which bits are objectionable?
the bits owned by fairfax, for a start.
You answered your own question.
And that would be the reason for the “improving” economy – more debt means more money and thus more spending. Obviously this is just as sustainable as it was before the GFC and so we can expect another crash sometime in the future driven by the private banks reckless lending and which we will have to bailout once again.
No, the best one to use is the median income which was, according to StatsNZ, $844 (salary and wage earners) and $575 from all sources.
The headline is misleading – with almost everything getting a C rating or less about the best that could be said was that things were staying about the same – maybe.
My comments re the Paul Henry Show and the interview with Dean Barker (I put it on the wrong post) is now up online Herald anyway.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=11200293
Did barker really blame dalton for agreeing to a lay day?
Looks like a good read whatever your politics…
http://www.mqup.ca/democracy-in-decline-products-9780773543508.php
A bit disturbing grumpy. I wonder how much the super multinationals restrict our NZ democracy. Or the big Banks for that matter.
Interesting that the author (deliberately or inadvertently) picked the “Five Eyes” members.
Looks like a pretty even handed approach. Note he also covers things like international trade agreements etc.
I have ordered my copy.
The book is published by McGill University, so the author is quite likely to be Canadian. If so his focus on the five eyes countries is not surprising.
” five of the world’s oldest democracies – the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand. – See more at: http://www.mqup.ca/democracy-in-decline-products-9780773543508.php#sthash.6Ro4jrh4.dpuf
Which just goes to show how young democracy is, and how short a time, if any, it has actually involved genuine freedom.
Or more accurately….it shows how young the governance structures we use are and yet they have routinely descended into overt authoritarianism. (1930s Germany, Chile 1970s, Spain 1930s…a list as long as a toilet roll if we were to exhaustive. And then those wonderful little ‘markers’, such as the Red Scares of the early 1900s and the 50s in the USA, tanks on Scottish streets post WWI, 50s lockout in NZ….basically another list as long as a toilet roll )
edit – I totally misread your comment, aye? Oh well, as a short illustrative list to underscore your point then 😉
whoa – Germany, yeah maybe. Chile? Outright coup d’etat that destroyed the democratic governance structures. Spain I’d need to look into to see if Franco got elected before letting loose with his army.
“Social and political decisions, Allan argues, must be based on counting every adult in a nation state as equal . – See more at: http://www.mqup.ca/democracy-in-decline-products-9780773543508.php#sthash.6Ro4jrh4.dpuf”
This is why privately nats and their supporters pretend they are joking when they say a dictatorship is much more efficient than a democraccy.
We saw a bit of it in Henry’s patronisingly elitist comment about dumb people not being aallowed to votes. Funny thing is NACT supporters assume it could never include them.
Looks like an interesting book – asked Auckland Libraries to get it.
Found this – thought is was good
Be warned this clip is not-for-the-pc inclined.
https://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=404516989568534
Brings the realities of fanciful ideologies back to earth eh?
What’s politically incorrect about that?
I think you are getting ‘not PC’ mixed up with ‘Nor Safe For Work’
Enjoyed it.
I heard the Salvation Army spokesperson speaking on child poverty this morning. When they speak they should hone in on comments from pollies and point out the woolliness of the comment, and then give the facts about the poor conditions they want addressed by the pollies. What a contrast that would be woolly PR puff and gritty reality and a mention of a success already achieved that needs to be replicated. They can even talk about real people as long as they remain anonymous and are not identifiable.
After Poorer Benefit’s little puff piece about NZ being one of best and most generous in the world for welfare, and far better than most of the world, he could have said ‘Which parts of the world are those exactly?’
And ‘I can’t agree with that on the information that I have.’
This morning he just made the general comment, correctly, that it is not the amount of money that is given, it is what you can buy with it. But there were too many indirect comments that could have fitted into a ‘blame the beneficiary for bad management’, if that was the attitude of the listener.
Was a good interview
From Scoop : “But The Salvation Army remains deeply concerned at the lack of progress in reducing child poverty, family violence, the harmful use of alcohol, and the failure to address criminal re-offending and serious crime.”
I don’t think the radio interview came up with enough. There has to be more than just a constant repetition of – looking at the ‘underlying causes of poverty’ and talking about child abuse.
The bigoted go straight to – ahha that’s all those feckless breeders having babies when they can’t make enough effort to get a job so they take the easy way out and get pregnant, and then can’t do a decent job of that and it ends in child abuse from their latest boyfriend, and they are incapable of getting out of poverty because of their own slackness and then they get into fights and fall out with their boyfriends and then there is domestic violence.
The worth and value of most female beneficiaries never gets recognised also the fact that so much opportunity is withheld from them, which would change much of the above if offered.
These would be largely polytechnic courses or the like where they could learn with their children in a playgroup in the room. Studying NCEA units in helpful stuff, then later the former training incentives where they either learn, or maintain their useful employment skills ie word processing, computer program use, phone and reception communication, and trade skills, and they would gain more benefit with each new NCEA unit.
Helping in a practical way with transport – having a small bus doing a circuit picking up mothers and children to go to class and returning them. Or having a large taxi with a contract to do it. Bringing in medical checks for the family while training.
The emphasis would be to lift the self-expectations, the skills, the life training, and limit the loneliness and the isolation and drudgery of poverty with little joy and hope, that can result in a peer group of people with no ideas on how to better that.
There needs to be an emphasis on loss of potential to society, on the way these women would achieve all the things society wants from them, if given the assistance while their children were small and to find the steps to volunteer or part-time work, with income top-ups.
The bulk of them have been in relationships for some years, are older, had the children in those relationships and have then been left holding all the responsibility for both parents. I don’t know that you can assume they are undereducated or less able and it may be patronising to do so.
Given the workload that many carry, the amount of money they provide for their children’s needs-most, the successful relationships they have with their families, the lack of any serious criminal offending (ACT & Nact MP’s provide more criminals % wise) and lack of addictions, they are in fact among the most successful adults in our society.
The basic problem is that they are trying to do what two parents do, face highly conflicting objectives (work but don’t leave the kids home alone), while being harried by the welfare. None of this of course applies to the adult who dodges their responsibilities and their must be a good case for turning WINZ loose on them..
Or we could just give them a bit more money and stop making their choices for them. Most of them were competent adults before they became single parents and they didn’t lose that overnight.
This article about charter schools by Pat Booth should be emailed to all Right Wing MPs, especially to the dirty rat Banksie, Hekia and ShonKey:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/local-news/local-blogs/off-pat/9703915/Whos-done-the-homework
The British police have apparently adopted or trialled body cameras and have referred to domestic incidents as where they are useful. NZ police are thinking of them too. If the economy and sharing of the wealth of our nation more fairly, does not improve, there will be more domestic incidents as people have to carve out a lesser sort of life from the unpromising hard-faced society that encloses them.
It could happen, if the country is going to slide further into increased poverty and under-privilege, that some areas will undertake to police themselves. This was the case in the poor area of Naples which Thomas Belmonte studied. And also Harlem in New York. Taxis would not go there.
A band of men who are under contract to police for the state, and if that state has no concept of service to all the people, will be people who become a burden and source of anguish and anxiety to those people as they operate. Their interest will be mainly in serving the wealthy, and they will be biased towards property protection (as I understand they already are). The poor people may well find a way to effectively bar them from some suburban enclaves, which has probably happened already with gangs to some extent.
Quick thinking for self-preservation? The man in control of hang-gliders’ safety at a departure point in Canada, when he saw his last ‘pilot’ plummet, swallowed his video memory card! She fell 300 metres because he did not ensure she was properly shackled, and he did not find that because he did not do a safety check before flight. It might be that anyone embarking on some hazardous activity where a small company has great responsibility, should say ‘what are the safety check practices you carry out’ and then ensure each one has been done.
Over 200,000 signatures for the Today we fight back effort.
Degrees of bratwoorst ne c’est pas?
Judith Collins called Metira Turei a “sensitive wee sausage” over her reaction to the clothing issue.
Yesterday I thought Collins appeared more as a “very angry snarler” when asked by journalists about the opposition’s discussions with KDC.
+1 😀
Perhaps sausages (and pies) coming to the fore in NZs minds says something about how entwined they are into our psyche.
Could have a scoring system as to who deserves the most bad marks, with sausages or pies denoting different classes of transgression. ‘That was a cream pie’ winner, or definitely a Double Brat-worst for that pollie’. We could get quite inventive with the fillings too and make it a discriminating feast of insults.
lol
Economists with hurt feelings
It seems that some macro-economists are upset that the BS that they’re peddling isn’t being taken as gospel any more.
but it seems to me that, rather than making a trade-off between realism and tractability, modern macroeconomics has simply made an a priori decision that coordination problems are not a relevant macroeconomic concern.
As I read through this link from DTB, I thank God that I was able to take some late-in-life university papers which brought my reading ability to a higher level so that a collection of multi-syllable words in a discussion about the abstruse argument that is economics, did not immediately set me running to the backyard with a crushing sense of inferiority and redundancy. Instead I am sitting still typing this at the computer. But my ability has now improved to the extent that I believe that I am justified in feeling irritability.
As I read more about economics I begin to understand the mind of man is very good at working in the abstract which is ‘so’ economics. You understand this when reading about one who measured the circumference of the planet in 276BC, about. Economics was something they ate for breakfast.
Some of them:
Eratosthenes of Cyrene (Ancient Greek: Ἐρατοσθένης, IPA: [eratostʰénɛːs]; English /ɛrəˈtɒsθəniːz/; c. 276 BC[1] – c. 195/194 BC[2]) was a Greek mathematician, geographer, poet, astronomer, and music theorist.
He is best known for being the first person to calculate the circumference of the earth, which he did by applying a measuring system using stades, or the length of stadiums during that time period.
(So he knew about stadiums and can be said to be the father of Dunedin’s Forsyth Barr, what an eminent patron.)
And:
Thales (624-547 B.C., Ionian) was a Greek philosopher who traveled widely in Mesopotamia and Egypt, and brought astronomical records from these cultures back to Greece. He believed that the Earth is a disk floating on an endless ocean. Legend has it that he correctly predicted a solar eclipse in the year 585 B.C.
(This idea has been shamelessly boot-legged by Terry Pratchett, but it is possible that Thales connections will soon be filing for an intellectual property infringement.)
There was –
Omar Khayyam (1048-1131, Persian) was a great scientist, philosopher, and poet. He compiled many astronomical tables and performed a reformation of the calendar which was more accurate than the Julian and came close to the Gregorian. An amazing feat was his calculation of the year to be 365.24219858156 days long, which is accurate to the sixth decimal place!
(He set an early record which still stands proud today even if we have invented another few numbers!)
Hmm.
So if the stade was a measurement of length, did Eratosthenes have an economic unit based on the cost vs benefits of a stadium? Because if we extrapolate from the dunedin FoBar stadium, it might explain why macroeconomics is so fucked. 🙂
McFlock
You’re brilliant, masterly, showy….
It might be more chicken and egg…..maybe the economists knew about the Eratosthane stadium cost v benefit unit, and allowed the whole thing to go ahead knowing that because they had never been right about anything, well it did not really matter. Priests are after all nothing unless seen and heard. The rest is gullible faith.
re: dunedin stadium, it just looked to me like one or two councilors were after a nice piece of the pi…
it is by dr Mapp and he peddles it here whenever he can.
@DTB
Never fear the evangelists will be out in force if there is a whiff of apostasy. See what happens when the Greens dare to challenge economic orthodoxy even when evidence and reason contradict orthodoxy.
(Forwarded in the public interest – there are a number of tenants in Tamaki who are currently facing 90 day eviction notices):
_______________________________________________________________________________
HOUSING AND PROPERTY ISSUES FACING TAMAKI
NZ FIRST and MOUNTAINSIDE FM invites you to hear
NZ FIRST MP Denis O’Rouke, Spokesperson for Housing
discuss the housing issues, including the real concerns of the property owners and tenants of Tamaki including the state house sell off.
* THE SOCIAL HOUSING REFORM ( Affects all tenants).
* HOUSING NZ WITHIN THE COMMUNITY
* EFFECT OF PRIVATE PROPERTY VALUES
THIS SATURDAY, 15 FEBRUARY
11am – 1pm
Glen Innes Primary School
40 East View Rd Glenn Innes
Enquiries: Mountainside FM (09) 528 5616 or 0274 582 099
________________________________________________________________________________
(Forwarded in the public interest).
q-time commentary..
http://whoar.co.nz/2014/new-zealand-parliament-list-of-questions-for-oral-answer-wednesday-12-february-2014/
(excerpt..)
“….bennett does ‘not know’ how many working-families are in poverty..(ed:..seriously..?..w.t.f.is her brief..?..if not to know basic facts such as that..?.)
..ardern notes at the current rate it would take 160 yrs to fix poverty..
..bennett is reduced to babbling serial-cliches..”
phillip ure
Burnit’s brief… is not to know basic facts such as that, FIFY.
I reckon the author’s right.
The system is not fixable because it is not broken. It is working, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, to give the insiders their royal prerogatives, and to shove the regulations, the laws, and the debt up the asses of everyone else.
Burn it to the ground.
Burn it to the ground.
Burn it to the ground.
Merry Christmas.
http://www.popehat.com/2013/12/23/burn-the-fucking-system-to-the-ground/
Shane Jones in the House gets Labour on side with the farmers for the first time since SMPs:
“It’s the Countdown shakedown”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11200838
Shane Jones has earned his parliamentary salary for the year by bringing up the Oz supermarket debacle in Parliament. That is a very informative piece from nz Herald Ad, and in the little voice bite from Key was illuminating.
He thinks that the matter should actually be regarded as an Australasian one. This is our PM. And he doesn’t really care if we are being shafted by Australia!!!! Have a listen to this pantwaist.
He also leads tonight on TV1
Stuart Hall left wing cultural theorist – thought to have coined the term “Thatcherism” – died on the 10th UK time, 82 years.
Not keen on Ed Miliband. Critiques of the media and “race”; and on moral panics and “race”..
A founder of the New Left review – Guardian obit.
I have alwys felt his “Great Moving Right Sow, on Thatcherism and its impact, was a very important article.
Interesting (at least as much as “Stuff” ever is or ever can be) …..
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/9723130/Looks-like-Slater-is-Keys-Peters-source
“Oi dun heffa tell ya” says key – in response to a Jonolist’s request as to who the sauce was regarding Winnie the Poo’s visit to the KDC Manse.
Quelle Surprise ….. Blubber boy and not – they would have us know – NOT Joi Soi Ess Boi.
Neither is something I’d have wished a sleepy hobbit pubic to know if I were a John Koi.
Let’s watch 3 News tonight to see how BukToofPaddy spins it! No doubt he’ll be desperate to put it in the contex of a SKLOOOSIV