Challenging the Washington Consensus
Hugo Chavez and Me
by TARIQ ALI March 7, 2013
Once I asked whether he preferred enemies who hated him because they knew what he was doing or those who frothed and foamed out of ignorance. He laughed. The former was preferable, he explained, because they made him feel that he was on the right track. Hugo Chávez’s death did not come as a surprise, but that does not make it easier to accept. We have lost one of the political giants of the post-communist era. Venezuela, its elites mired in corruption on a huge scale, had been considered a secure outpost of Washington and, at the other extreme, the Socialist International. Few thought of the country before his victories. After 1999, every major media outlet of the west felt obliged to send a correspondent. Since they all said the same thing (the country was supposedly on the verge of a communist-style dictatorship) they would have been better advised to pool their resources.
I first met him in 2002, soon after the military coup instigated by Washington and Madrid had failed and subsequently on numerous occasions. He had asked to see me during the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil. He inquired: “Why haven’t you been to Venezuela? Come soon.” I did. What appealed was his bluntness and courage. What often appeared as sheer impulsiveness had been carefully thought out and then, depending on the response, enlarged by spontaneous eruptions on his part. At a time when the world had fallen silent, when centre-left and centre-right had to struggle hard to find some differences and their politicians had become desiccated machine men obsessed with making money, Chávez lit up the political landscape.
He appeared as an indestructible ox, speaking for hours to his people in a warm, sonorous voice, a fiery eloquence that made it impossible to remain indifferent. His words had a stunning resonance. His speeches were littered with homilies, continental and national history, quotes from the 19th-century revolutionary leader and president of Venezuela Simón Bolívar, pronouncements on the state of the world and songs. “Our bourgeoisie are embarrassed that I sing in public. Do you mind?” he would ask the audience. The response was a resounding “No”. He would then ask them to join in the singing and mutter, “Louder, so they can hear us in the eastern part of the city.” Once before just such a rally he looked at me and said: “You look tired today. Will you last out the evening?” I replied: “It depends on how long you’re going to speak.” It would be a short speech, he promised. Under three hours.
The Bolívarians, as Chávez’s supporters were known, offered a political programme that challenged the Washington consensus: neo-liberalism at home and wars abroad. This was the prime reason for the vilification of Chávez that is sure to continue long after his death.
Politicians like him had become unacceptable. What he loathed most was the contemptuous indifference of mainstream politicians in South America towards their own people. The Venezuelan elite is notoriously racist. They regarded the elected president of their country as uncouth and uncivilised, a zambo of mixed African and indigenous blood who could not be trusted. His supporters were portrayed on private TV networks as monkeys. Colin Powell had to publicly reprimand the US embassy in Caracas for hosting a party where Chávez was portrayed as a gorilla.
Was he surprised? “No,” he told me with a grim look on his face. “I live here. I know them well. One reason so many of us join the army is because all other avenues are sealed.” No longer. He had few illusions. He knew that local enemies did not seethe and plot in a vacuum. Behind them was the world’s most powerful state. For a few moments he thought Obama might be different. The military coup in Honduras disabused him of all such notions….
Once I asked whether he preferred enemies who hated him because they knew what he was doing or those who frothed and foamed out of ignorance. He laughed. The former was preferable, he explained, because they made him feel that he was on the right track.*
But how did his people see him?
……. it was not the coup attempt or the referendum. It was the strike organised by the corrupted oil unions and backed by the middle-classes that worried him because it would affect the entire population, especially the poor: “Two factors helped sustain my morale. The first was the support we retained throughout the country. I got fed up sitting in my office. So with one security guard and two comrades I drove out to listen to people and breathe better air. The response moved me greatly. A woman came up to me and said: ‘Chávez follow me, I want to show you something.’ I followed her into her tiny dwelling. Inside, her husband and children were waiting for the soup to be cooked. ‘Look at what I’m using for fuel … the back of our bed. Tomorrow I’ll burn the legs, the day after the table, then the chairs and doors. We will survive, but don’t give up now.’ On my way out the kids from the gangs came and shook hands. ‘We can live without beer. You make sure you screw these motherfuckers.’”
*A takeaway message for our leaders here.
(If you are being praised by the Herald, instead of being slighted and ignored, then you know you have made a terrible mistake in direction.)
wow, Hecate , so you are letting us know someone in an elitist position of power may have been involved in or knew of some dirty deals involving America, Money Death and Destruction and the MSM may not have been entirely forthcoming with what they know ?
this is not news and most people here can also use google,
but I imagine very few read Spanish ( do you? )
what people generally come here for is to share an opinion on said information . . .
what drift? fill us in Tiger. I am very keen to hear what your view on Francis is. The whole world knew about the rumours you have linked to within minutes of him being elected. Its not a scoop
Why should I take the time to click random links, if you don’t take the time to summarise them and demonstrate a contiguous thread of connection between them?
It might just be me, but I prefer to read assertions and check supporting links if I want to know more / disagree / want to check veracity. Rather than just clicking on URLs that might be to somewhere interesting in English, or possibly just to somewhere nutty in another language.
One interesting section in the first of Hecate’s links. On Argentina…
“Under the helm of Minister of Economy Jose Alfredo Martinez de Hoz, central bank monetary policy was largely determined by Wall Street and the IMF. The currency market was manipulated. The Peso was deliberately overvalued leading to an insurmountable external debt. The entire national economy was precipitated into bankruptcy.”
Shades of the National Ltd technocracy under John Key?
Been a lot of talk on this site about the new Popes bona fides….rather than add to this I am going to take an alternate approach. Tomorrow morning will be the first service most Catholics attend after the naming of the Pope, and I (as an agnostic non Catholic) am going to sit quietly in the back seat of the Cathedral and observe the congregations response, and listen to the Bishop. Could be interesting.
From their hard won leading role in our society, the Labour Party refuse to use their public declaration on the drought, to appeal to farmers and the rest of society that we really, seriously, need, to do something about climate change.
It’s just a reminder that Labour’s spokesman for the environment, Grant Robertson, is just like “Mr. Fuck It” described by Eddie here on TS today. He has a high caucus ranking but no accomplishments.
Correction: Robertson has an accomplishment. He’s been great for the Greens. They scoop Labour every time.
Here’s a frightening prospect. An election in which National is led by Stephen Joyce and Labour by Grant Robertson.
So, Slippery the Prime Minister modifies the truth claiming the past Chairman of the Board at the States coal miner Solid Energy asked the National Government to invest a billion dollars in Solid Energy’s diversification plans,
That past Chairman of the Solid Energy Board being questioned at the Parliamentary Select Committee denies ever having asked Slippery the Prime Minister for further investment from the Government,
In the latest bout of rewriting history the Prime Minister now claims that Solid Energy was asking the Government for 2-3 billion dollars annually which is simply bullshit,
The Treasury documents released by the Prime Minister as ‘proof’ of what He has been saying being correct simply point out that the Slippery little Shyster is lying through His teeth,
The 2-3 billion dollar cost of Solid Energy’s diversification are a Treasury estimate given to the Government after Solid Energy unfolded it’s expansion plans to Slippery’s Government and were not part of that submission given by Solid Energy, instead part of the advice sought by the Government from Treasury after talks with Solid Energy on it’s plans to diversify it’s business,
One thing about compulsive liars that i do know is that they seldom if ever admit their lies, when caught out on one lie they simply tell an even bigger lie in an effort to cover up the first one…
Lolz, welcome to it, the more people that realize that they are being cynically lied to with an ongoing litany from this Slippery little Shyster of a Prime Minister the less chance there will be that He continues to do so after November 2014…
The 2-3 billion dollar cost of Solid Energy’s diversification are a Treasury estimate given to the Government after Solid Energy unfolded it’s expansion plans to Slippery’s Government……
bad 12
An expansion and diversification in coal use, that as well as proving to be unaffordable would condemn us all to accelerating climate change.
Ummm well NO Jenny, if Solid Energy produced X amount of diesel from coal and X amount of bio-diesel then we as a country would be no more condemned to accelerating climate change than we will by importing and burning actual fuels from elsewhere,
Such accelerating climate change is a ‘theory’ which you may choose to believe or not, i am not discounting ‘climate change’ here i am simply not in a position to ‘know’ that the ‘theory’ of climate change’s acceleration will come to pass or such climate change may be far more benign than the ‘acceleration theory’ would have us believe,
Along with it’s intention to diversify into bio-diesel and coal to diesel Solid Energy was invested with an Australian firm CO2CRC into research and actual capture and sequesture of CO2,
As far as i can tell there is very little ‘intent’ from the major emitters of CO2 to radically rein in such production and given that as a country we do not occupy a ‘climate bubble’ then even if as a country our carbon emissions were reduced to zero this will have NO effect whatsoever on the eventual ‘climate out-comes’,
i prefer not to sit here on the Standard whining about that which i (or anyone else here), can markedly alter in the way of CO2 reduction and would therefore see accentuating moves where it is possible to remove from the atmosphere on an industrial scale amounts of carbon which negates what we as a country produces in a climate damaging manner as far more productive,
PS, isn’t the ‘the other’ barrow you push one of declining fuel production where fuel shortages are inevitable???, producing diesel from coal may be ‘unaffordable’ at the current market price of that product but in the future this will not necessarily be the case…
Fiordland is under threat, as many are aware, with 3 proposals to insert private toll transportation inside the conservation estate.
Environment Minister Nick Smith last month called the decisions for consent in for him to make “because the decisions are such a type that it is appropriate they are made by someone electorally accountable”. Well, excuse me, but doesn’t that make it more of a reason for NOT having a politician make the decisions? i.e. because long term decisions on what is best for the country need to be made, NOT short term on what will happen in the next election. (this type of shit gives me the shits with politicians).
The 3 projects are the tunnel, the monorail and the Haast-Hollyford road.
One of them, the tunnel, is headed by two Canterbury fullas, an Elworthy and a Gould. Would someone like to take a guess at the political patronage that is getting all hot and steamy under the National Party bedsheets over this?
What a fucking stink. Betcha the tunnel gets the go. Elworthy corrupt. Gould corrupt. Smith corrupt.
The more extreme this government gets (and it is extreme) the more extreme will be the reaction against their acts whence they are tossed onto the pyre.
Environment Minister Nick Smith last month called the decisions for consent in for him to make “because the decisions are such a type that it is appropriate they are made by someone electorally accountable”.
Hard to believe he gets to make this decision when so many in Queenstown are against it.. I read somewhere – oh, maybe it was on TV — that the tunnel is single lane only !! Disaster waiting to happen, according to experts who were asked about it .. must have been tv .. I’ll try and find a link.
Democracy in tatters everywhere in this our beloved land.
Found this by Mark Banham published in Wilderness magazine ..
“This ten-kilometre-long, five-metre-diameter tunnel is going to be an engineering marvel and although it’ll be a little spooky it’ll be completely safe, just like the Pike River Mine was and totally earthquake proof, just like Christchurch was.
So don’t worry kiddies there’s absolutely no chance it’ll ever make international headlines for all the wrong reasons like the Mont Blanc tunnel did back in 1999 when a margarine truck caught fire in it sending 39 people off to heaven.”
Yes it is a forgotten aspect of the tunnel proposal. 10 km is a very long tunnel. Recall one of Pike River’s problems was that they did not do enough pre-mining drilling to check what they had to tunnel through. They ran into unexpected (in their view) hard rock and it cost them dearly (we all know how dearly). This proposed tunnel is over 10 km (Pike River was about 2km). The unknowns are collosal. The risk of massive financial blowout are high. The risk of not even getting through are high. It would be as you say yeshe “an engineering marvel”.
Bomber has posted notice of a National Day of Action against asset sales, on TDB: Power to the People. 2pm Saturday April 27th.
Glad there’s sufficient notice for me to book a day off work.
Links on Bomber’s post at the above link for protests at various places around the country…. Problem is the Auckland-Britomart link takes me to a face book page, where I had to scroll down the page to a poster that says the protest is Sat 28 April…checked it, Saturday is 27 April. But eventually found this link that goes straight to the Britomart protest event page.
Did anyone listen to Kim Hill’s interview with Hordur Torfason?
Was it just me or did I sense a subtle attempt to undermine his arguments?
It just came over as quite a hostile interview.
Kim’s never been great at hiding her bias, she’s either gushing and fawning, undermining with her disruptive manner or just plain bored with her delivery.
Kim is good at mining the best infor usually and she tests for reality, I think she was interested in revealing the truth about Iceland’s recovery. She thinks a bit harder and with more critical thinking than the average joe dropping comments around with little world knowledge or mental exercise. She is very testing for people who are used to sycophancy all the time also. She may throw popular myths and opinions into the mix and lampoon them or question them and then find out her interviewee’s personal views.
Naughty me, i said i would post a link to Solid energy’s investment in removing CO2 from the atmosphere yesterday and didn’t, better late then never right,
Open the link yourself and then cut and paste from the address line on the webpage (I’m guessing you are trying to copy the link off the page instead).
Lolz, hell no i am way too much of a computer illiterate to copy’n’paste anything, Lolz i ploddingly write the link onto paper and then type it into the comment…
I was a slow learner bad12 and still haven’t got how to do audio links.
But if you find an interesting heading on google, you click on the heading to bring up that item in full, to read or manipulate it.
If you want to offer it for others edification, you highlight the address at the top of the page by putting your cursor there and pressing the right button on your mouse which should then give you a menu which includes Select All which you place your cursor on and then press left button to action it.
Then you go back to the highlighted address with your cursor, press right mouse button again and click on Copy on the menu window. Then you have the correct link address at your fingertips and you put it in the place you want with Right Mouse – Paste on menu with cursor and click left mouse button.
Thinking about that one, it would probably use less electricity just running the cars on electricity. On the process that they’re describing it sounds like there would be a huge amount of energy loss.
My take on what the Brits are saying about Air/Co2 to fuel is that they would not use much more energy in such production as what is now used refining oil to petrol and much of the same refinery processes could be used to enable the former as is used to produce the latter,
Interestingly or not, i also read an interesting ‘study’ into the means of capturing industrial amounts of CO2 from the atmosphere which the authors claim to be extremely cost effective,
It was all ‘theoretical’ and i will try and re-find the link to that later on, my view is the sooner that such ‘theory’ is proven as practical and economic the better as it is now obvious that there is little political will to alter current practices around CO2 emissions world-wide among the major emitters and if there is to be a climate saving ‘silver bullet’ it will be found by science/engineering producing a means of economically enabling the extraction from the atmosphere of CO2 on an industrial scale…
Have you listened to the Icelandic guy on radionz? 8:15 Hordur Torfason: Iceland and democracy
I made a note last night. He has been working on changing attitudes to gay rights and then when the money disaster overtook Iceland was involved in intelligent protests that has just enabled Iceland to not end up like the pictures they saw from USA with poor people lining up at soup kitchens.
Now he wants a new Constitution. He considers with resignation, that the Independent party, which reflects the wants of the rich, will win the next election for the nest 4 years and will change back most of what has been gained. But people will observe this and not approve he thinks so they will progress again.
I was thinking that we need a new constitution. It has to work for us not allow scandalous things to happen under sanction. I want to stop elected politicians considering that they have a mandate to do whatever comes out of their fevered minds. They would have the power to consult and explain with the people about their policy plans and have to get a definite okay of say 60% of a referendum then they can make changes. The changes that people want can be consulted about and introduced more easily with limitations, for a pilot period then to be monitored and altered to deal with failures and anomalies and reviewed again after another period say 5 years.
At present our country’s style is being so altered, so much loss and wasteful behaviour of introducing policies that get reversed when the opposing politicians get in or are so embedded that they cannot be changed without upheaval.
Yes Prism. A great story but clearly the battle is not won. I kept hearing parallels with NZ in that the rich elite twist the system, and lie to the population. The loss of Media is also a prime factor there and here. Hordur Torfason’s story is a mighty one but to move forward two steps and back one must need a huge degree of courage.
And Paul I think Kim was doing her job very well in sorting the popular myths re Icelandic survival from the realities. We need more interviewers like her. Yes?
I have heard two contradictory views, both from legal scholars. Some say we have a constitution in the form of historical precedent and others say effectively we don’t.
But both parties agree we do NOT have a constitution 99% of the population can understand and we should.
Amakiwi
I understand we have a constitution even though fragmented. But I want more than a joined-up consitution that is somewhat easier to understand. I want to change the elected governments power so that we can stop them rushing into policy reversals because some fast-talking jerk with fixed-ideological, upwardly mobile advisors want it.
So that’s just not getting a joined-up constitution, and it’s different from that of the USA that promises individual freedoms and yet doesn’t deliver good governance and support for community.
If Maori hadn’t persevered for their ideals and rights, I don’t know NZ would be now. Perhaps like a southern American state with self-interested white blokes and blokesses wanting everything their way and going for the crude, coarse financially advantageous option every time.
@Amakiwi,
The idea of an unwritten consitution would probably hold water if the NZ system didn’t come into existence by being “deemed necessary”, which effectively disconnected it from any lawful constitutional basis.
I suppose the challenge would be to highlight where this government has made cuts just to have the costs blow out as a result. The first that I can think of would be cutting public servants and then getting contractors in to do the same job for three times as much.
on the Auckland Unitary Plan; “we will run out of land by May or June” ???- Dick Quax
and slipped into the tele MSM; “manufacturing expansion”. IN- “food, beverage and tobacco products” (lot of “value-added” there)
Dom on the Drought; “more dry weather to come after light rain”. Oh look, they have broken the chain;
Stock sold early-Short-term slaughter spike followed by layoffs-Rural expenditure falls-City feels the pinch-Professionals suck it up-Cost of dinner (and milk) may increase (with the international commodity prices for protein)
Indian Skilled migrants overtake the British by canoe (some say that James, the brother of our Lord retired to the sub-continent and had a family).Predicted that a flow-on effect of the ChCh earthquake will be a further increase in Indian migration (bro is married to a lovely wee Indian lady, and from experience, they are worth checking out; they welcome a reprieve from male chauvinism)
Iran and Hizbollah are building a new para-military force comprising “tens of thousands” to protect their interests in a post-Assad Syria.
In addition,
according to “Western Diplomats”, another war between Israel and Hizbollah is “inevitable”
(Hizbollah have re-built an arsenal that includes 60,000 missiles) Man! it takes a freakin’ long time for current affairs to reach the daily broadsheets, unless the subject is America, the Pope or SBW.
For “muzza” (well, everybody deserves a break, sometimes)
“I had been through a great deal of emotional turmoil and privation during my travels and arrived at the port of Limassol (in Cyprus) with great relief at having left the scenes of my suffering behind me.
One evening I was gazing vacantly 😉 at the sea in the afterglow of sunset, having just finished a meal in a little Greek eatery, feeling very tranquil and relaxed, when I began to feel a strange pressure in my brain…
I felt a thrilling liquidity of being and an indescribable sensation, as if the whole universe was being poured into me, or perhaps rather as if the whole universe was welling up out of me from some deep centre. My “soul” thrilled and swelled and my consciousness passed out across the ocean and land in all directions, through the sky and out into space. Within moments I was among the stars and planets and strange entities of space. Somehow I was aware of great beings, millions of miles high, moving in space, through which the stars could be sen. Wave after wave of revelation swept through my whole being, too fast for my normal mind to record other than the joy and wonder of it.
-Muz Murray, “Sharing The Quest”
In short, our chief limitation lies in our assumption that our narrow, tightly-harnessed consciousness is normal and natural, whereas it is in fact highly abnormal and unnatural. The basic problem of human beings is simply and inability to “get it all together”. We possess all the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle but it is so huge that we rarely see it as a whole.
Oliver Sacks has described a pair of ‘subnormal” twins in a New York mental hospital who amuse themselves by swapping TWENTY-FOUR-FIGURE prime numbers. (the brain cannot be “wired” to perform such feats).
Sheee-it! Just had to close a window to stop some light rain coming inside. Raining in New Lynn? But will it be enough in the right places to be a drought-breaker?
I’ve done a shed load of mulching so It’s not so much the garden but the house supply that has me worried.I checked the tank this morning and we’ve around 6-8 days worth left so very soon I’ll have to make the call on buying water in.
Go early …and it’ll rain….. go late…. a long wait….and no water…sigh.
Well if people don’t like them, then I have three types more to try… Or they can feed a image to gravator. But I am finding them kind of amusing.
Mind you I was thinking earlier that an effective means of non-banning moderation (that would appeal to my crude sense of humour) would be to get the site to specify particular images or overlays for the identicons.. I was thinking of a puddle at the bottom of a flag……
lprent – will there be some “amensties” in future also, given that some may “repent” at some stage for having gone over board at times and having been banned?
It is a great idea by the way, to offer such “amnesty”. People change and most will over time “mature” and grow up, so to say. It would be fair to give the permanently or longer term banned commenters a chance now and then, to show they have learned out of past misdeeds or offensive steps.
From the first link about anti-biotic resistant bugs:
“We may have to work with the pharmaceutical companies in public-private partnerships, and we may have to do some development of antibiotics on a public basis,” she said.
Fuck the PPP – costs far too much. Full out government funded research.
From the second link about the US missile defense systems:
“We will strengthen our homeland defence, maintain our commitments to our allies and partners, and make clear to the world that the United States stands firm against aggression,” Hagel told a Pentagon news conference.
Ha, that’s funny. The most aggressive country in the world happens to be the US.
Almost as funny as Bush Junior’s castigation of “outrageous conspiracy theories”, with the official conspiracy theory being about as plausible as Osama bin Laden dying nine different times, as has been variously reported.
Not to disagree but the perception out there in the exploited nations is that there are a few more scary predators peeping through the blinds than there used to be
I want to know what people have been doing to save water?
Have some people just thought about what they could do?
I had to cut my smug self down to size as I have been wasting water by running the tap from the bathtub when the bathroom window is open so as not to offend the neighbours close by with obvious sounds. When I chucked up last week they could not close their windows quick enough!
Statement of the Argentine Socialist Workers Party on Pope Francis
(PTS, March 14, 2014) Myriam Bregman, lawyer of the Professional Center for Human Rights (CeProDH), also a militant of the PTS (Socialist Workers Party) and in charge of the accusation in the trial of the ESMA (Navy School of Mechanic), referred about Jorge Mario Bergoglio, recently chosen by The Vatican as Pope Francis I.
During one of the criminal trials against the military genocides of the ESMA (occurred between 2010 and 2011), Bregman represented Patricia Walsh, daughter of the disappeared journalist andwriter Rodolfo Walsh, and she had the chance to question Jorge Bergoglio, in that time archbishop of Buenos Aires. She was one of the lawyers who demanded the Tribunal to cite him to appear in court as a witness in connection with the demand made for the catechist María Elena Funes, who accused him of facilitate the kidnap of the Jesuit priests Francisco Jalics and Orlando Yorio, who were members of the same order as Bergoglio.
About that event, the lawyer said: “Unlike the image that today is given of him as a humble person, Bergoglio had no shame in using all the privileges that his investiture gave him, refusing to declare like an ordinary person in Court, so he claimed move the whole session to the Buenos Aires Curia headquarter, and we had to proceed in there. During his statement, the actual Pope avoided straight answers and he contradicted the previous witness. He tried to make a formal defense of his acting during the period that lasted the Jesuit’s priests kidnap by the militaries, standing that when he knew they had been kidnapped he informed to his superiors. He made some affirmations very serious as well, such as that two or three days later of the kidnapping he knew they were at the ESMA. Something that still today no many Mothers of Plaza de Mayo know about their own sons, despite of their intense search. How did he find out? He related that he interviewed Videla and Massera, but some time later. He also admitted that when Jalisc and Yorio were released they told him that there still were people kidnapped in the ESMA, and he didn’t do anything”.
But what Myriam Bregman remembers most vividly of that questioning is when she asked him about the misappropriation of babies during the dictatorship: “I will always remember Bergoglio’s face. He answered that he found out recently about that, about ten years ago, which is year 2000, when the whole society knew about Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo search from at least year 1983, and some of the relatives of La Plata assert that he knew about the case of Ana Libertad Baratti de La Cuadra from year 1977”.
Finally, Bregman pointed out that Bergoglio’s recent attitude and the brief answers by that time had consistency with silence and concealment adopted by the ecclesiastic hierarchy during the whole years after the dictatorship, systematically denying to provide files or documentation that they had. Is part of the Catholic Church policy that blessed and directly collaborated with dictatorship initiated in Argentina in 1976. It is not strange for me that priests as Christian Von Wernich, who are convicted for being authors of the genocide, of the plan of torture and extermination of the dictatorship, were not ever being excommunicated and they can still preside mass as any other priest. The same as father Grassi, convicted for child abuse, and for whose expulsion the Church that Bergoglio used to command till yesterday, didn’t move a finger. Nobody can deny that today Pope Francisco I covered up genocides and pedophiles in Church lines.”
Estela de la Cuadra, whose mother Alicia co-founded the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo in 1977 in hopes of identifying the stolen babies, said: ‘Bergoglio has a very cowardly attitude when it comes to something so terrible as the theft of babies.
‘He says he didn’t know anything about it until 1985.
‘He doesn’t face this reality and it doesn’t bother him.
‘The question is how to save his name, save himself. But he can’t keep these allegations from reaching the public. The people know how he is.’
lprent wrote on one post tonight that all this is just for one day, the “monster day” or whatever, some day to remember something, so he will switch us all back to “normal” tomorrow, I presume today then. Let us be patient, we may get our usual ids back.
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Treasury’s first report on the economy since the change of government presents a damning indictment of Labour’s economic management. The problem for National is that it is so damning that logically, coupled with a rapidly slowing economy, Finance Minister Nicola Willis should respond to it by postponing or even cancelling ...
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 ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – It’s becoming increasingly apparent that many perceive free speech to have become the preserve of the politically right wing, the religiously conservative, the libertarian fringe, the anti-trans, the anti-Māori and…. well, just fill in with whatever groups or individuals you don’t like and don’t ...
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 ...
TL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy on Wednesday, March 27 include:Chris Bishop laid out his vision for filling Aotearoa-NZ’s $100 billion infrastructure deficit in a speech yesterday, emphasising user pays and private funding, but failed to say how to achieve bipartisanship on population, public borrowing and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Former Finance Minister Grant Robertson and former Prime Minister Chris Hipkins have been conveying how unhappy they are with the tax system. Last week in his valedictory speech, Robertson called for the introduction of a wealth or capital gains tax. And this week Hipkins ...
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 ...
Buzz from the Beehive China has loomed large in Beehive considerations over the past 24 hours, largely because of that country’s mischief-making in the cyber espionage department. Two media statements emerged on that subject hard on the heels of the PM baulking at questions put to him on RNZ’s Morning ...
Chris Trotter writes – WHY IS THE NATIONAL PARTY doing so much for landlords, property developers, trucking, and construction companies, and so little for everybody who isn’t already pretty well-off? It’s as if protecting landlords’ investments and building apartments and roads now constitute the whole of National’s ...
Bryce Edwards writes – When she was campaigning to be Minister of Finance last year, Nicola Willis pledged that she would resign from the job if she failed to deliver tax cuts in her first Budget. Now, it’s that pledge, along with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s ...
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, ...
The furore. In case you didn’t notice there was a controversy in the weekend involving dolphins in a little town off the South Island. Don’t panic, they haven’t declared independence and resumed whaling, this was simply a sailing event.The problem began when racing was cancelled on the opening day of ...
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 ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: The Public Health Communications Centre (PHCC) call for urgent preventive action and a risk assessment survey of long covid in this briefing noteLocal scoop: NZ road deaths surpass OECD rates, so why is the govt reversing safety plans? ...
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 ...
This is a guest post from Robert McLachlan Global warming is accelerating; 2023 was off the charts. We need to stop burning fossil fuels. In New Zealand, transport accounts for half of all fossil fuels burnt. In the Emissions Reduction Plan, transport emissions fall 41% by 2035. As the ...
Labour productivity has been receding rapidly over the past two years, reversing a post-lockdown rise. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy as at 6:26am on Tuesday, March 26 include:Workers have been treading water in output per hour worked for 12 years, ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 2 include:Today, Parliament resumes sitting at 2pm for the second week of a two-week session. Officials for SIS and GCSB report their annual reviews in public to the Intelligence and Security Select Committee from 5.10pm.Tomorrow, ...
Faced with a barrage of criticism over the promised tax cuts from usually supportive commentators, Finance Minister Nicola Willis yesterday reaffirmed her intention to include them in this year’s Budget. The Government is up against it over the cuts just about every way it turns. Commentators like Fran O’Sullivan, Matthew ...
Here’s my pick of today’s substack posts as of 6:26pm on Monday, March 25: writes via his substack that Market-rate housing will make your city cheaper writes via his substack about the problems talking to double-cab ute (truck) drivers about their vehicles. today about moments of radicalisation in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Just before Christmas, Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivered something that was pitched as a mini-budget and brayed about the decisive action being taken to repair the Government books and support income tax relief in Budget 2024. In a statement headed Fiscal repair job underway. she introduced ...
My sister Belinda asked Dad yesterday what one word would describe Mum best. He said: vivacious.If you only knew her from the photos on the slideshow we've made for today,you might wonder about that, because the camera tended to lie with Mum.If ever she saw a camera pointed at her, she ...
There are two major public consultations closing in the next week, Auckland Council’s Long Term Plan (LTP), and the draft Government Policy Statement on Land Transport (GPS). Closing dates and times: LTP closes Thursday 28 February, at 11.59pm – a minute to midnight! GPS closes Tuesday 2 April, at 12pm noon – note that’s ...
From Kiwiblog’s David Farrar – Bryce Wilkinson writes: Senior Fellow Bryce Wilkinson’s analysis reveals that since March 2009, New Zealand has spent $158 billion more overseas than it has earned, but its NIIP has only fallen by $32 billion.Statistics New Zealand shows that receipts from overseas reinsurers have ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition? Brian Easton writes – The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could ...
Dear Nicola Willis,Right now you’ve probably got lots of competing demands coming at you. Ministers who’ve inherited quite a mess, or so you’ve told us, looking for money in the budget to improve things. I imagine that’s why they came to parliament - to make things better.You’ll have to make ...
The Local Government, Transport and Auckland Minister hasthreatened councils with intervention if they don’t merge water assets to take them off balance sheet, just as the now-repealed Three Waters plan directed. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things of note this morning for Monday, March 25 include:Simeon ...
A listing of 36 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 17, 2024 thru Sat, March 23, 2024. Story of the week Thanks to John Mason having the stamina to sit down to watch "Climate - the Movie" ...
This morning the Q&A programme had Simeon Brown on to talk about National’s replacement for Three Waters. In case anyone’s forgotten the three are - drinking water, waste water, and sewerage. It’s quite important not to get them mixed up. In much the same way that you wouldn’t want to ...
Today’s newsletter comes with a mini-podcast conversation between me and my buddy Liv Tennet, talking about her time as a child actor in Lord of the Rings. It’s a conversation with a lot of giggles as she talks about falling off a horse, and becoming a meme. Read ...
The Desmog Climate Disinformation Database documents, "individuals and organisations that have helped to delay and distract the public and our elected leaders from taking needed action to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and fight global warming." It's a who's who of the organised climate change denial movement, in other words. In ...
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 ...
Welcome to the first, and possibly last, edition of Brickbats, Bouquets and Bull’s Wool. In which I’ll take a look at the events of the last week or so, and rate them.In such ratings the numbers usually have more to do with the opinions of the reviewer, than the actual ...
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 ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.16pm on Friday, March 22: writes about New Zealand's Building Boom—And What the World Must Learn From It over at his substack. challenges the Auckland Council’s use of a 3.8 degrees of warming forecast to oppose a wave-park and data centre project ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition?The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could deliver her promised income tax cuts. Appointed minister, she ...
Buzz from the Beehive Ministers of the Crown have drawn attention to one sector of the science sector which is unlikely to be subjected to heavy spending cuts, a state-funded broadcaster which is doing nicely, thank you, and a sporting event that had $5.4 million from the public purse puffed ...
Abbott’s Freestyle Libre sensors allow continuous glucose monitoring (CGM). The sensor is applied to the back of the patient’s arm, with a thin filament under the skin measuring glucose levels constantly. But it costs around $100 per sensor and must be replaced once every 14 days. Photo by BSIP/Universal Images ...
The Inspector General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) recently released a report in which he exposes the existence of a foreign intelligence partner-controlled technological “capability” inside the headquarters of the GCSB, NZ’s 5 Eyes-affiliated signals intelligence collection and analysis agency. … Continue reading → ...
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 ...
Photo by Alvan Nee on UnsplashIt’s that new day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when and I co-host our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm. Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news ...
Buzz from the Beehive One minister is talking tough while a colleague – whose ministry had acted tough and drawn a barrage of flak – has shown an official softening. Some ministers are doing what Labour was good at, which is distributing public funds to causes regarded as worthy or ...
A ballot for 4 Member's Bills was held today, and the following bills were drawn: Insurance Contracts Bill (Duncan Webb) Income Tax (Clean Transport FBT Exclusion) Amendment Bill (Julie Anne Genter) Crimes (Increased Penalties for Slavery Offences) Amendment Bill (Greg Fleming) Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) ...
One of the strongest narratives about "our" spy agencies is that they are basically institutional traitors, working for foreign powers (or just themselves), without any control or oversight by the elected government. And today, we have yet another report from the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security which explicitly confirms this. ...
“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 to meet the Prime Minister’s ...
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 ...
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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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Challenging the Washington Consensus
Hugo Chavez and Me
by TARIQ ALI March 7, 2013
Once I asked whether he preferred enemies who hated him because they knew what he was doing or those who frothed and foamed out of ignorance. He laughed. The former was preferable, he explained, because they made him feel that he was on the right track. Hugo Chávez’s death did not come as a surprise, but that does not make it easier to accept. We have lost one of the political giants of the post-communist era. Venezuela, its elites mired in corruption on a huge scale, had been considered a secure outpost of Washington and, at the other extreme, the Socialist International. Few thought of the country before his victories. After 1999, every major media outlet of the west felt obliged to send a correspondent. Since they all said the same thing (the country was supposedly on the verge of a communist-style dictatorship) they would have been better advised to pool their resources.
I first met him in 2002, soon after the military coup instigated by Washington and Madrid had failed and subsequently on numerous occasions. He had asked to see me during the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil. He inquired: “Why haven’t you been to Venezuela? Come soon.” I did. What appealed was his bluntness and courage. What often appeared as sheer impulsiveness had been carefully thought out and then, depending on the response, enlarged by spontaneous eruptions on his part. At a time when the world had fallen silent, when centre-left and centre-right had to struggle hard to find some differences and their politicians had become desiccated machine men obsessed with making money, Chávez lit up the political landscape.
He appeared as an indestructible ox, speaking for hours to his people in a warm, sonorous voice, a fiery eloquence that made it impossible to remain indifferent. His words had a stunning resonance. His speeches were littered with homilies, continental and national history, quotes from the 19th-century revolutionary leader and president of Venezuela Simón Bolívar, pronouncements on the state of the world and songs. “Our bourgeoisie are embarrassed that I sing in public. Do you mind?” he would ask the audience. The response was a resounding “No”. He would then ask them to join in the singing and mutter, “Louder, so they can hear us in the eastern part of the city.” Once before just such a rally he looked at me and said: “You look tired today. Will you last out the evening?” I replied: “It depends on how long you’re going to speak.” It would be a short speech, he promised. Under three hours.
The Bolívarians, as Chávez’s supporters were known, offered a political programme that challenged the Washington consensus: neo-liberalism at home and wars abroad. This was the prime reason for the vilification of Chávez that is sure to continue long after his death.
Politicians like him had become unacceptable. What he loathed most was the contemptuous indifference of mainstream politicians in South America towards their own people. The Venezuelan elite is notoriously racist. They regarded the elected president of their country as uncouth and uncivilised, a zambo of mixed African and indigenous blood who could not be trusted. His supporters were portrayed on private TV networks as monkeys. Colin Powell had to publicly reprimand the US embassy in Caracas for hosting a party where Chávez was portrayed as a gorilla.
Was he surprised? “No,” he told me with a grim look on his face. “I live here. I know them well. One reason so many of us join the army is because all other avenues are sealed.” No longer. He had few illusions. He knew that local enemies did not seethe and plot in a vacuum. Behind them was the world’s most powerful state. For a few moments he thought Obama might be different. The military coup in Honduras disabused him of all such notions….
Read more….
http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/03/07/hugo-chavez-and-me/
Thanks for this Morrissey
Tariq Ali on Chavez
http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/03/07/hugo-chavez-and-me/
But how did his people see him?
*A takeaway message for our leaders here.
(If you are being praised by the Herald, instead of being slighted and ignored, then you know you have made a terrible mistake in direction.)
I’m testing a new backup system this early morning. So if you hit a slow patch – then that is what it is.
completed at 0736. Turning off tests and heading back to bed.
Settle down now and have a cup of tea and perhaps a late snooze..
Juat dosing off now. Got up at 0330 to test the backup systems so I’d only disrupt the bots.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/new-pope-tied-to-argentinas-dirty-war/53265816?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=new-pope-tied-to-argentinas-dirty-war
http://www.globalresearch.ca/washingtons-pope-who-is-francis-i-cardinal-jorge-mario-bergoglio-and-argentinas-dirty-war/5326675
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/South_America/Chile_Miracle_Pinochet.html
http://www.elmundo.es/america/2010/11/08/argentina/1289232137.html
http://www.irishtimes.com/news/former-argentinian-dictator-says-he-told-catholic-church-of-disappeared-1.542154
http://elperiodistaonline.cl/globales/2013/03/prensa-argentina-vincula-a-bergoglio-con-el-secuestro-de-dos-jesuitas-en-1976/
http://memorialmagro.com.ar/node/982
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB185/index.htm
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2013/03/vatican_blasts_anti-clerical_c.html
http://blog.thehumanist.org/2011/01/life-sentence-for-gen-videla/
Yawn, and your point is???, besides getting the kick as soon as possible again that is…
Documentation
sentences please Hecate. What the fuck is your opinion
I have met some of the mothers of ‘the disappeared’.
http://memorialmagro.com.ar/node/982
might give you something of a clue of their desolation.
‘Met’ them where??? in your wet dreams perhaps…
When they toured the Antipodes. Perhaps you missed them ..
wow, Hecate , so you are letting us know someone in an elitist position of power may have been involved in or knew of some dirty deals involving America, Money Death and Destruction and the MSM may not have been entirely forthcoming with what they know ?
this is not news and most people here can also use google,
but I imagine very few read Spanish ( do you? )
what people generally come here for is to share an opinion on said information . . .
Si, pacito .. but people can generally the the drift.
what drift? fill us in Tiger. I am very keen to hear what your view on Francis is. The whole world knew about the rumours you have linked to within minutes of him being elected. Its not a scoop
Have you ever travelled in a non-english speaking country ? It is not that difficult, given good will on both sides. My purpose is documentation.
Francis ? I presume you mean Bergoglio. I have never met him, but I think his record speaks for itself. See above.
Rumours ? I suggest you read it. Ignorance is no excuse.
Why should I take the time to click random links, if you don’t take the time to summarise them and demonstrate a contiguous thread of connection between them?
It might just be me, but I prefer to read assertions and check supporting links if I want to know more / disagree / want to check veracity. Rather than just clicking on URLs that might be to somewhere interesting in English, or possibly just to somewhere nutty in another language.
Good point, but to put it in context it has to do with something which happened on another thread on The Standard. Yesterday ..
That was impressively devoid of context.
How about this ..
http://www.opendemocracy.net/democracy-protest/catholicchurch_2709.jsp
Hecate, what about chemtrails?
Que ? Please explain ..
documentation?
odd mix…. award winning investigative journalist and try-hard conspiracy theorist
Yes, but which one is which ? You tell me ..
One interesting section in the first of Hecate’s links. On Argentina…
“Under the helm of Minister of Economy Jose Alfredo Martinez de Hoz, central bank monetary policy was largely determined by Wall Street and the IMF. The currency market was manipulated. The Peso was deliberately overvalued leading to an insurmountable external debt. The entire national economy was precipitated into bankruptcy.”
Shades of the National Ltd technocracy under John Key?
That is interesting and, yes, it does sound like what this government is doing to our currency.
Methinks that is exactly what NAct are doing to our country and I bet that just like Argentina the perpe-traitors will escape with the loot.
Been a lot of talk on this site about the new Popes bona fides….rather than add to this I am going to take an alternate approach. Tomorrow morning will be the first service most Catholics attend after the naming of the Pope, and I (as an agnostic non Catholic) am going to sit quietly in the back seat of the Cathedral and observe the congregations response, and listen to the Bishop. Could be interesting.
Labour Party treachery betrays humanity itself.
From their hard won leading role in our society, the Labour Party refuse to use their public declaration on the drought, to appeal to farmers and the rest of society that we really, seriously, need, to do something about climate change.
Not one mention, of the two words, on everyone’s mind.
What even was the point of this statement?
It’s just a reminder that Labour’s spokesman for the environment, Grant Robertson, is just like “Mr. Fuck It” described by Eddie here on TS today. He has a high caucus ranking but no accomplishments.
Correction: Robertson has an accomplishment. He’s been great for the Greens. They scoop Labour every time.
Here’s a frightening prospect. An election in which National is led by Stephen Joyce and Labour by Grant Robertson.
chuckle
from doing commentaries on q-time for some time/years now..
..i have noted that tho’ much vaunted in many circles..
..that robertson has pretty much failed as opposition spokesperson..
..he didn’t succeed against ryall in health..
..and now joyce is just waving him away with a lazy hand in economic development..
..so i guess i am still waiting for examples of that much talked of vaunt..
..phillip ure..
What do we need to do? Pay more tax ?
So, Slippery the Prime Minister modifies the truth claiming the past Chairman of the Board at the States coal miner Solid Energy asked the National Government to invest a billion dollars in Solid Energy’s diversification plans,
That past Chairman of the Solid Energy Board being questioned at the Parliamentary Select Committee denies ever having asked Slippery the Prime Minister for further investment from the Government,
In the latest bout of rewriting history the Prime Minister now claims that Solid Energy was asking the Government for 2-3 billion dollars annually which is simply bullshit,
The Treasury documents released by the Prime Minister as ‘proof’ of what He has been saying being correct simply point out that the Slippery little Shyster is lying through His teeth,
The 2-3 billion dollar cost of Solid Energy’s diversification are a Treasury estimate given to the Government after Solid Energy unfolded it’s expansion plans to Slippery’s Government and were not part of that submission given by Solid Energy, instead part of the advice sought by the Government from Treasury after talks with Solid Energy on it’s plans to diversify it’s business,
One thing about compulsive liars that i do know is that they seldom if ever admit their lies, when caught out on one lie they simply tell an even bigger lie in an effort to cover up the first one…
Yep, Key is all at sea with his lies.
He is becoming known as the lying prime minister. Most everyone agrees that I speak to – even nat supporters.
nicely put bad12
i stole para 3,4,5 as part of a rant elsewhere – credited tho’ 🙂
Lolz, welcome to it, the more people that realize that they are being cynically lied to with an ongoing litany from this Slippery little Shyster of a Prime Minister the less chance there will be that He continues to do so after November 2014…
An expansion and diversification in coal use, that as well as proving to be unaffordable would condemn us all to accelerating climate change.
vto @ 5.1 above:
“I don’t have any recollection of that.” “I don’t remember.” “I can’t recall.”
Ummm well NO Jenny, if Solid Energy produced X amount of diesel from coal and X amount of bio-diesel then we as a country would be no more condemned to accelerating climate change than we will by importing and burning actual fuels from elsewhere,
Such accelerating climate change is a ‘theory’ which you may choose to believe or not, i am not discounting ‘climate change’ here i am simply not in a position to ‘know’ that the ‘theory’ of climate change’s acceleration will come to pass or such climate change may be far more benign than the ‘acceleration theory’ would have us believe,
Along with it’s intention to diversify into bio-diesel and coal to diesel Solid Energy was invested with an Australian firm CO2CRC into research and actual capture and sequesture of CO2,
As far as i can tell there is very little ‘intent’ from the major emitters of CO2 to radically rein in such production and given that as a country we do not occupy a ‘climate bubble’ then even if as a country our carbon emissions were reduced to zero this will have NO effect whatsoever on the eventual ‘climate out-comes’,
i prefer not to sit here on the Standard whining about that which i (or anyone else here), can markedly alter in the way of CO2 reduction and would therefore see accentuating moves where it is possible to remove from the atmosphere on an industrial scale amounts of carbon which negates what we as a country produces in a climate damaging manner as far more productive,
PS, isn’t the ‘the other’ barrow you push one of declining fuel production where fuel shortages are inevitable???, producing diesel from coal may be ‘unaffordable’ at the current market price of that product but in the future this will not necessarily be the case…
Fiordland is under threat, as many are aware, with 3 proposals to insert private toll transportation inside the conservation estate.
Environment Minister Nick Smith last month called the decisions for consent in for him to make “because the decisions are such a type that it is appropriate they are made by someone electorally accountable”. Well, excuse me, but doesn’t that make it more of a reason for NOT having a politician make the decisions? i.e. because long term decisions on what is best for the country need to be made, NOT short term on what will happen in the next election. (this type of shit gives me the shits with politicians).
The 3 projects are the tunnel, the monorail and the Haast-Hollyford road.
One of them, the tunnel, is headed by two Canterbury fullas, an Elworthy and a Gould. Would someone like to take a guess at the political patronage that is getting all hot and steamy under the National Party bedsheets over this?
What a fucking stink. Betcha the tunnel gets the go. Elworthy corrupt. Gould corrupt. Smith corrupt.
The more extreme this government gets (and it is extreme) the more extreme will be the reaction against their acts whence they are tossed onto the pyre.
Then it should be put to local referendum.
Hard to believe he gets to make this decision when so many in Queenstown are against it.. I read somewhere – oh, maybe it was on TV — that the tunnel is single lane only !! Disaster waiting to happen, according to experts who were asked about it .. must have been tv .. I’ll try and find a link.
Democracy in tatters everywhere in this our beloved land.
Found this by Mark Banham published in Wilderness magazine ..
“This ten-kilometre-long, five-metre-diameter tunnel is going to be an engineering marvel and although it’ll be a little spooky it’ll be completely safe, just like the Pike River Mine was and totally earthquake proof, just like Christchurch was.
So don’t worry kiddies there’s absolutely no chance it’ll ever make international headlines for all the wrong reasons like the Mont Blanc tunnel did back in 1999 when a margarine truck caught fire in it sending 39 people off to heaven.”
http://markbanham.blogspot.co.nz/
N.B. Need to scroll halfway down his blog to find ‘Welcome to Fiordland’, written April last year.
Yes it is a forgotten aspect of the tunnel proposal. 10 km is a very long tunnel. Recall one of Pike River’s problems was that they did not do enough pre-mining drilling to check what they had to tunnel through. They ran into unexpected (in their view) hard rock and it cost them dearly (we all know how dearly). This proposed tunnel is over 10 km (Pike River was about 2km). The unknowns are collosal. The risk of massive financial blowout are high. The risk of not even getting through are high. It would be as you say yeshe “an engineering marvel”.
Welcome to Fiordland
Thank you DTB !
Have these guys actually stopped to think about what the purpose of a national park is?
Not too sure that building roads and tunnels for fat rich tourists to ‘make their rides easier’ fits into that purpose.
It really is no different to mining there.
Like vto, im guessing Smith will rubber stamp it.
Bomber has posted notice of a National Day of Action against asset sales, on TDB: Power to the People. 2pm Saturday April 27th.
Glad there’s sufficient notice for me to book a day off work.
Links on Bomber’s post at the above link for protests at various places around the country…. Problem is the Auckland-Britomart link takes me to a face book page, where I had to scroll down the page to a poster that says the protest is Sat 28 April…checked it, Saturday is 27 April. But eventually found this link that goes straight to the Britomart protest event page.
Did anyone listen to Kim Hill’s interview with Hordur Torfason?
Was it just me or did I sense a subtle attempt to undermine his arguments?
It just came over as quite a hostile interview.
Kim’s never been great at hiding her bias, she’s either gushing and fawning, undermining with her disruptive manner or just plain bored with her delivery.
Top journalism RNZ styles
Kim is good at mining the best infor usually and she tests for reality, I think she was interested in revealing the truth about Iceland’s recovery. She thinks a bit harder and with more critical thinking than the average joe dropping comments around with little world knowledge or mental exercise. She is very testing for people who are used to sycophancy all the time also. She may throw popular myths and opinions into the mix and lampoon them or question them and then find out her interviewee’s personal views.
Agreed prism. A brilliant interviewer. The best and most intelligent we’ve got.
I can’t agree with you Paul. She came across to me as probing but not hostile or undermining.
oh Kim (lets burn together)
Naughty me, i said i would post a link to Solid energy’s investment in removing CO2 from the atmosphere yesterday and didn’t, better late then never right,
http://www.solidenergy.co.nz>…>newdevelopments>carbonmanagement
http://www.solidenergy.co.nz/…and…/native-forest-carbon-sink-trial
And on a related but not quite topic there is this CO2 from the atmosphere and back into fuel science,
http://www.imeche.org/news/…/uk_engineers_create_petrol_from_air.asp...
None of those links work bad12.
Faaaaaark!!!, Lolz now you know why i don’t put up links that often, F-ing things never seem to work for me…
Open the link yourself and then cut and paste from the address line on the webpage (I’m guessing you are trying to copy the link off the page instead).
Lolz, hell no i am way too much of a computer illiterate to copy’n’paste anything, Lolz i ploddingly write the link onto paper and then type it into the comment…
I was a slow learner bad12 and still haven’t got how to do audio links.
But if you find an interesting heading on google, you click on the heading to bring up that item in full, to read or manipulate it.
If you want to offer it for others edification, you highlight the address at the top of the page by putting your cursor there and pressing the right button on your mouse which should then give you a menu which includes Select All which you place your cursor on and then press left button to action it.
Then you go back to the highlighted address with your cursor, press right mouse button again and click on Copy on the menu window. Then you have the correct link address at your fingertips and you put it in the place you want with Right Mouse – Paste on menu with cursor and click left mouse button.
that is funny bad
Thanks bad, but the carbon management one doesn’t work. This is the correct link (I hope).
Tah much Karol, i had better keep adding the Google with my hopeless lack of being able to put up correct links,
Lolz, i am not sure which is worse my bad habit of non-provision or my inability to provide a correct link…
and this would be the PDF link.
And the air-fuel link.
Thinking about that one, it would probably use less electricity just running the cars on electricity. On the process that they’re describing it sounds like there would be a huge amount of energy loss.
My take on what the Brits are saying about Air/Co2 to fuel is that they would not use much more energy in such production as what is now used refining oil to petrol and much of the same refinery processes could be used to enable the former as is used to produce the latter,
Interestingly or not, i also read an interesting ‘study’ into the means of capturing industrial amounts of CO2 from the atmosphere which the authors claim to be extremely cost effective,
It was all ‘theoretical’ and i will try and re-find the link to that later on, my view is the sooner that such ‘theory’ is proven as practical and economic the better as it is now obvious that there is little political will to alter current practices around CO2 emissions world-wide among the major emitters and if there is to be a climate saving ‘silver bullet’ it will be found by science/engineering producing a means of economically enabling the extraction from the atmosphere of CO2 on an industrial scale…
Have you listened to the Icelandic guy on radionz? 8:15 Hordur Torfason: Iceland and democracy
I made a note last night. He has been working on changing attitudes to gay rights and then when the money disaster overtook Iceland was involved in intelligent protests that has just enabled Iceland to not end up like the pictures they saw from USA with poor people lining up at soup kitchens.
Now he wants a new Constitution. He considers with resignation, that the Independent party, which reflects the wants of the rich, will win the next election for the nest 4 years and will change back most of what has been gained. But people will observe this and not approve he thinks so they will progress again.
I was thinking that we need a new constitution. It has to work for us not allow scandalous things to happen under sanction. I want to stop elected politicians considering that they have a mandate to do whatever comes out of their fevered minds. They would have the power to consult and explain with the people about their policy plans and have to get a definite okay of say 60% of a referendum then they can make changes. The changes that people want can be consulted about and introduced more easily with limitations, for a pilot period then to be monitored and altered to deal with failures and anomalies and reviewed again after another period say 5 years.
At present our country’s style is being so altered, so much loss and wasteful behaviour of introducing policies that get reversed when the opposing politicians get in or are so embedded that they cannot be changed without upheaval.
Yes Prism. A great story but clearly the battle is not won. I kept hearing parallels with NZ in that the rich elite twist the system, and lie to the population. The loss of Media is also a prime factor there and here. Hordur Torfason’s story is a mighty one but to move forward two steps and back one must need a huge degree of courage.
And Paul I think Kim was doing her job very well in sorting the popular myths re Icelandic survival from the realities. We need more interviewers like her. Yes?
@ prism
I have heard two contradictory views, both from legal scholars. Some say we have a constitution in the form of historical precedent and others say effectively we don’t.
But both parties agree we do NOT have a constitution 99% of the population can understand and we should.
It’s time we wrote one.
Amakiwi
I understand we have a constitution even though fragmented. But I want more than a joined-up consitution that is somewhat easier to understand. I want to change the elected governments power so that we can stop them rushing into policy reversals because some fast-talking jerk with fixed-ideological, upwardly mobile advisors want it.
So that’s just not getting a joined-up constitution, and it’s different from that of the USA that promises individual freedoms and yet doesn’t deliver good governance and support for community.
If Maori hadn’t persevered for their ideals and rights, I don’t know NZ would be now. Perhaps like a southern American state with self-interested white blokes and blokesses wanting everything their way and going for the crude, coarse financially advantageous option every time.
we have much to be thankful to te tangata whenua for
+1
+1
@Amakiwi,
The idea of an unwritten consitution would probably hold water if the NZ system didn’t come into existence by being “deemed necessary”, which effectively disconnected it from any lawful constitutional basis.
Another Dispatch from the U$K class war. The artist taxi driver:
“Comic Relief the BBC and David Cameron what an absolute disgusting”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tzM4cqEluo&list=UUGThM-ZZBba1Zl9rU-XeR-A&index=2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvXKZByY6Sw&list=UUGThM-ZZBba1Zl9rU-XeR-A&index=1
“Blind in one eye, partially deaf and facing major spinal surgery but Thalidomide mother is STILL found fit to work”
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2293974/Blind-eye-partially-deaf-facing-major-spinal-surgery-Thalidomide-mother-STILL-fit-work.html
Republicans cut funding to family planning, costs blow out $200m.
I suppose the challenge would be to highlight where this government has made cuts just to have the costs blow out as a result. The first that I can think of would be cutting public servants and then getting contractors in to do the same job for three times as much.
on the Auckland Unitary Plan; “we will run out of land by May or June” ???- Dick Quax
and slipped into the tele MSM; “manufacturing expansion”. IN- “food, beverage and tobacco products” (lot of “value-added” there)
Dom on the Drought; “more dry weather to come after light rain”. Oh look, they have broken the chain;
Stock sold early-Short-term slaughter spike followed by layoffs-Rural expenditure falls-City feels the pinch-Professionals suck it up-Cost of dinner (and milk) may increase (with the international commodity prices for protein)
Indian Skilled migrants overtake the British by canoe (some say that James, the brother of our Lord retired to the sub-continent and had a family).Predicted that a flow-on effect of the ChCh earthquake will be a further increase in Indian migration (bro is married to a lovely wee Indian lady, and from experience, they are worth checking out; they welcome a reprieve from male chauvinism)
Iran and Hizbollah are building a new para-military force comprising “tens of thousands” to protect their interests in a post-Assad Syria.
In addition,
according to “Western Diplomats”, another war between Israel and Hizbollah is “inevitable”
(Hizbollah have re-built an arsenal that includes 60,000 missiles) Man! it takes a freakin’ long time for current affairs to reach the daily broadsheets, unless the subject is America, the Pope or SBW.
For “muzza” (well, everybody deserves a break, sometimes)
“I had been through a great deal of emotional turmoil and privation during my travels and arrived at the port of Limassol (in Cyprus) with great relief at having left the scenes of my suffering behind me.
One evening I was gazing vacantly 😉 at the sea in the afterglow of sunset, having just finished a meal in a little Greek eatery, feeling very tranquil and relaxed, when I began to feel a strange pressure in my brain…
I felt a thrilling liquidity of being and an indescribable sensation, as if the whole universe was being poured into me, or perhaps rather as if the whole universe was welling up out of me from some deep centre. My “soul” thrilled and swelled and my consciousness passed out across the ocean and land in all directions, through the sky and out into space. Within moments I was among the stars and planets and strange entities of space. Somehow I was aware of great beings, millions of miles high, moving in space, through which the stars could be sen. Wave after wave of revelation swept through my whole being, too fast for my normal mind to record other than the joy and wonder of it.
-Muz Murray, “Sharing The Quest”
In short, our chief limitation lies in our assumption that our narrow, tightly-harnessed consciousness is normal and natural, whereas it is in fact highly abnormal and unnatural. The basic problem of human beings is simply and inability to “get it all together”. We possess all the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle but it is so huge that we rarely see it as a whole.
Oliver Sacks has described a pair of ‘subnormal” twins in a New York mental hospital who amuse themselves by swapping TWENTY-FOUR-FIGURE prime numbers. (the brain cannot be “wired” to perform such feats).
from “Beyond The Occult” by Colin Wilson.
Welcome To The Pleasure Dome (a Community of Sensation) http://www.answers.com/topic/community-of-sensation
we’re all nuts in here 🙂
Sheee-it! Just had to close a window to stop some light rain coming inside. Raining in New Lynn? But will it be enough in the right places to be a drought-breaker?
Radar doesn’t look too flash at the moment but the three day forecast animation looks promising.
http://www.metservice.com/maps-radar/rain-radar/all-new-zealand
http://www.metservice.com/maps-radar/rain-forecast/rain-forecast-3-day
Yeah – let’s hope. That little shower didn’t even last long enough for me to go outside and do a celebratory rain dance.
Drizzle.
http://www.wunderground.com/tropical/tracking/sp201320.html
http://www.usno.navy.mil/NOOC/nmfc-ph/RSS/jtwc/satshots/20P_151732sair.jpg
http://www.usno.navy.mil/NOOC/nmfc-ph/RSS/jtwc/ab/abpwsair.jpg
http://tropic.ssec.wisc.edu/real-time/imagemain.php?&basin=austeast&sat=gms&prod=irn
I’ve done a shed load of mulching so It’s not so much the garden but the house supply that has me worried.I checked the tank this morning and we’ve around 6-8 days worth left so very soon I’ll have to make the call on buying water in.
Go early …and it’ll rain….. go late…. a long wait….and no water…sigh.
It’s Monster-id day.
http://blog.gravatar.com/2008/04/22/identicons-monsterids-and-wavatars-oh-my/
Was wondering where all the changed Gravatars had come from.
Much preferred the geometric shapes for those without gravatars, rather than the little monsters.
Snap!
I will put them back tomorrow. But it is the day of the amnesty… Monster day seemed appropriate.
hi Lynn; attempting to “cycle” up with Gravatar and a new e-mail. (could you please see that it gets past mods. Thanks) gr888
It is all automatic response after you get your email address set up at gravatar
Excellent!
Well I’ve enjoyed them 1prent. Some of them almost seemed a bit appropriate. 😀
Well if people don’t like them, then I have three types more to try… Or they can feed a image to gravator. But I am finding them kind of amusing.
Mind you I was thinking earlier that an effective means of non-banning moderation (that would appeal to my crude sense of humour) would be to get the site to specify particular images or overlays for the identicons.. I was thinking of a puddle at the bottom of a flag……
I quite like them. And Random got it right by throwing a pink monster my way…. v.cool.
I always knew you were easy on the eye.
blushing… 😉
++1
I have not felt inspired to comment today, but now I feel I must, just to see the monster. I think I like them.
lprent – will there be some “amensties” in future also, given that some may “repent” at some stage for having gone over board at times and having been banned?
It is a great idea by the way, to offer such “amnesty”. People change and most will over time “mature” and grow up, so to say. It would be fair to give the permanently or longer term banned commenters a chance now and then, to show they have learned out of past misdeeds or offensive steps.
Typing on a nexus7. Still getting used to the keyboard and the predictive stuff.
I give a thumbs up for the monsters.
I kind of thought a geometric shape was appropriate for my handle though a potato head with badly applied lipstick will do fine 🙂
RT : Reborn
Dont know about anyone else, but I didnt think that Solid Energy’s plans to become what was more or less a national oil company sounded too bad.
Elder should really be applauded for his vision, not denigrated.
ashpyrational
keep your powder dry
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/technology/news/article.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10871643
might need a broader umbrella
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10871635
From the first link about anti-biotic resistant bugs:
Fuck the PPP – costs far too much. Full out government funded research.
From the second link about the US missile defense systems:
Ha, that’s funny. The most aggressive country in the world happens to be the US.
Almost as funny as Bush Junior’s castigation of “outrageous conspiracy theories”, with the official conspiracy theory being about as plausible as Osama bin Laden dying nine different times, as has been variously reported.
http://www.corbettreport.com/the-last-word-on-osama-bin-laden/
Not to disagree but the perception out there in the exploited nations is that there are a few more scary predators peeping through the blinds than there used to be
I want to know what people have been doing to save water?
Have some people just thought about what they could do?
I had to cut my smug self down to size as I have been wasting water by running the tap from the bathtub when the bathroom window is open so as not to offend the neighbours close by with obvious sounds. When I chucked up last week they could not close their windows quick enough!
Statement of the Argentine Socialist Workers Party on Pope Francis
(PTS, March 14, 2014) Myriam Bregman, lawyer of the Professional Center for Human Rights (CeProDH), also a militant of the PTS (Socialist Workers Party) and in charge of the accusation in the trial of the ESMA (Navy School of Mechanic), referred about Jorge Mario Bergoglio, recently chosen by The Vatican as Pope Francis I.
During one of the criminal trials against the military genocides of the ESMA (occurred between 2010 and 2011), Bregman represented Patricia Walsh, daughter of the disappeared journalist andwriter Rodolfo Walsh, and she had the chance to question Jorge Bergoglio, in that time archbishop of Buenos Aires. She was one of the lawyers who demanded the Tribunal to cite him to appear in court as a witness in connection with the demand made for the catechist María Elena Funes, who accused him of facilitate the kidnap of the Jesuit priests Francisco Jalics and Orlando Yorio, who were members of the same order as Bergoglio.
About that event, the lawyer said: “Unlike the image that today is given of him as a humble person, Bergoglio had no shame in using all the privileges that his investiture gave him, refusing to declare like an ordinary person in Court, so he claimed move the whole session to the Buenos Aires Curia headquarter, and we had to proceed in there. During his statement, the actual Pope avoided straight answers and he contradicted the previous witness. He tried to make a formal defense of his acting during the period that lasted the Jesuit’s priests kidnap by the militaries, standing that when he knew they had been kidnapped he informed to his superiors. He made some affirmations very serious as well, such as that two or three days later of the kidnapping he knew they were at the ESMA. Something that still today no many Mothers of Plaza de Mayo know about their own sons, despite of their intense search. How did he find out? He related that he interviewed Videla and Massera, but some time later. He also admitted that when Jalisc and Yorio were released they told him that there still were people kidnapped in the ESMA, and he didn’t do anything”.
But what Myriam Bregman remembers most vividly of that questioning is when she asked him about the misappropriation of babies during the dictatorship: “I will always remember Bergoglio’s face. He answered that he found out recently about that, about ten years ago, which is year 2000, when the whole society knew about Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo search from at least year 1983, and some of the relatives of La Plata assert that he knew about the case of Ana Libertad Baratti de La Cuadra from year 1977”.
Finally, Bregman pointed out that Bergoglio’s recent attitude and the brief answers by that time had consistency with silence and concealment adopted by the ecclesiastic hierarchy during the whole years after the dictatorship, systematically denying to provide files or documentation that they had. Is part of the Catholic Church policy that blessed and directly collaborated with dictatorship initiated in Argentina in 1976. It is not strange for me that priests as Christian Von Wernich, who are convicted for being authors of the genocide, of the plan of torture and extermination of the dictatorship, were not ever being excommunicated and they can still preside mass as any other priest. The same as father Grassi, convicted for child abuse, and for whose expulsion the Church that Bergoglio used to command till yesterday, didn’t move a finger. Nobody can deny that today Pope Francisco I covered up genocides and pedophiles in Church lines.”
Some links on the Pope and the Dirty War
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/pope-francis-election-stirs-up-argentine-dirty-war-allegations-biographer-calls-it-unfair/2013/03/14/3363e006-8c71-11e2-adca-74ab31da3399_story.html
http://www.globalresearch.ca/pope-francis-i-bergoglio-has-ties-to-a-dark-period-for-the-catholic-church/5326656
http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/espanol/2013/03/14/eleccion-papal-agita-pasado-de-la-guerra-sucia/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/13/francis-first-pope-from-americas_n_2869332.html
http://www.kaosenlared.net/america-latina/item/50276-argentina-causa-esma-bergoglio-hoy-francisco-i-declar%C3%B3-que-pidi%C3%B3-a-massera-y-videla-por-la-liberaci%C3%B3n-de-los-sacerdotes.html
http://aangirfan.blogspot.com.ar/2013/03/italian-fascist-pope-francis.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/mar/15/pope-francis-argentina-military-era
http://www.ktvu.com/news/news/religion/argentine-jorge-bergoglio-elected-pope-francis/nWq5W/
http://life.nationalpost.com/2013/03/13/who-is-jorge-mario-bergoglio/http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/u-s-world/new-pope-argentinas-cardinal-mario-bergoglio-selected-as-pope-francis-first-jesuit-pope
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/popebio-article-1.1287994
+1
Estela de la Cuadra, whose mother Alicia co-founded the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo in 1977 in hopes of identifying the stolen babies, said: ‘Bergoglio has a very cowardly attitude when it comes to something so terrible as the theft of babies.
‘He says he didn’t know anything about it until 1985.
‘He doesn’t face this reality and it doesn’t bother him.
‘The question is how to save his name, save himself. But he can’t keep these allegations from reaching the public. The people know how he is.’
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2293302/Pope-Francis-I-accused-turning-family-Argentinas-Dirty-War.html
What is with the new icons?
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-16032013/#comment-604593
The new pope has stirred up the rage of the monsters, perhaps?
Oh ta Draco T & Xtasy,
Now how do I get rid of this idiotic green triangle. I want an angry monster, not one that looks like a give-way sign…..ROAR…
Is it that penile droop which offends you ?
lprent wrote on one post tonight that all this is just for one day, the “monster day” or whatever, some day to remember something, so he will switch us all back to “normal” tomorrow, I presume today then. Let us be patient, we may get our usual ids back.
Never forget and adhere to the truth: “El pueblo unito jamas sera vencido”!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhpSwSBbdxM
This is serious stuff, and I only hope enough of gen X and Y will learn this!
The emoticons have returned ..