The official term for piracy is now “taking control”
Israeli Navy boards Gaza-bound ship ‘Estelle’
by YAAKOV LAPPIN, The Jerusalem Post 10/20/2012 18:16
Navy seizes Swedish ship carrying 30 pro-Palestinian activists after it refused to change course, tows it to Ashdod. PHOTO: COURTESY IDF
The Navy took control of a Swedish ship carrying pro-Palestinian activists towards Gaza on Saturday, and towed the vessel to Ashdod instead.
The activists refused all Israeli requests to divert their course, and had declared that their intention was to violate Israel’s naval blockade on the Gaza Strip. ….
Ah, yes. But of course, there are always two sides (at least) to a story. I aw the Al Jazeera version on my TV this morning, as in the video here, aor with the print report here.
“The Estelle is now under attack – I have just had a message from them by phone,” Victoria Strand, a Stockholm-based spokeswoman for the Ship to Gaza Sweden campaign told the AFP news agency on Saturday.
According to Dror Feiler, another spokesperson, the SV Estelle, whose passengers included five parliamentarians from Europe and a former Canadian politician, was boarded at around 08:15 GMT.
“Five or six military vessels surrounded the Estelle. Soldiers wearing masks are now trying to board the ship. The attack took place on international water: N31 26 E33 45,” Feiler said. The Israeli military confirmed that the ship was boarded.
Thanks for that, karol. I posted a brief and polite response on the Jerusalem Post comments section. I wrote: “‘Taking control’—the new term for piracy.”
Instead of being immediately published, as no doubt all the racist and bloody-minded anti-Palestinian posts were, my comments were “put into moderation”.
No wonder their comment section is so overwhelmingly pro-government. And no wonder the Jerusalem Post is dismissed by thinking people as Israel’s Pravda.
Israel, politically, has long enjoyed the full backing of the United States. (I have no argument with the Israeli people as a whole). To his credit, Obama has been distancing the brutally minded Netanyahu in more recent times, especially on that man’s pressing desire to attack Iran. (It is Israel that possesses the nuclear weapons, not Iran). Now we should really worry with Romney looking a possibility for President. The Israeli government will welcome him with glee. With Romney the world would become, generally, in greater danger (not to mention the rich becoming richer and yet more powerful). This would be likely worse than the rule of George Bush. Yes, yet again, we have to bewail the short memories of human kind!
Thanks for this Morrissey, It must be terribly disappointing and possibly very frightening for the those aboard the Estelle, but when it comes to enforcing the siege on Gaza Israel is no longer all powerful.
While the sea going route to the territory of Gaza is still blocked by Israel and it’s allies.
Less widely reported in the Western media is their weakness in enforcing the siege on land. What has not been reported in the Western median media is that the internationall convoy movement has had much more success breaking the siege of Gaza by the overland route through Egypt and across the Sinai Desert.
Before the fall of Mubarak International aid convoys of trucks filled with medical and other aid were stopped by the Egyptian police and army at the border and turned back. If they refused to turn back they were beaten and arrested by by Mubarak’s riot police who enforced the siege on the territory at the border between Egypt and Gaza in agreement with and on behalf of Israel.
Despite this they persisted.
In one dramatic encounter in 2009 after being attacked by Egyptian riot police the international convoyers fought back and captured numbers of police and even one senior officer who they agreed to release if the police released all the arrested convoy members.
Unable to be moved on by the Egyptian authorities the convoyers through sheer persistence and determination and with the support of the Egyptian people forced the Mubarak regime to back down and let the International Aid convoy enter Gaza.
After this defeat for the Mubarak authorities Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit tried to play down this defeat in the Arab media describing the international aid convoys as “farcical” and said Egyptian authorities would no longer allow such solidarity convoys.[16]
Leading up to, and since the Arab Spring, despite continuing resistance from Egyptian authorities particularly within the army and the police who still hold loyalties to the old regime, several more land convoys have been able to break through the siege and successfully enter Gaza through the northen Egyptian border.
In defying the internationally illegal siege, New Zealand’s own Kia Ora Gaza headed by team captain Roger Fowler have since participated in two successful international overland convoys, one in 2011 in open defiance of Mubarak’s ban and one since his overthrow.
As in the overthrow of the apartheid regime in South Africa, through their courageous and defiant actions New Zealanders can also claim some small part in the overthrow of the oppressive Mubarak regime.
Though the land seige hasn’t been broken, the international convoy movement’s efforts have seriously weakened the enforcement of the siege at the Egyptian border allowing more and more people and goods to get through into Gaza across the Sinai.
Internationally renowned scholar Noam Chomsky is the latest person to defy the siege and enter Gaza through northern Egypt. In 2010 Chomsky was prevented from entering Gaza through the Israeli controlled border. Chomsky is due to defiantly deliver an address today at Gaza university his topic will be the significance of the Arab Spring.
No doubt like every other successful breach of the illegal Israeli siege of Gaza a media cone of silence will descend.
However a full report will be carried on the Kia Ora Gaza website when it comes to hand.
Thanks for this Morrissey, It must be terribly disappointing and possibly very frightening for the those aboard the Estelle, but when it comes to enforcing the siege on Gaza Israel is no longer all powerful.
While the sea going route to the territory of Gaza is still blocked by Israel and it’s allies.
Less widely reported in the Western media is their weakness in enforcing the siege on land. What has not been reported in the Western median media is that the internationall convoy movement has had much more success breaking the siege of Gaza by the overland route through Egypt and across the Sinai Desert.
Before the fall of Mubarak International aid convoys of trucks filled with medical and other aid were stopped by the Egyptian police and army at the border and turned back. If they refused to turn back they were beaten and arrested by by Mubarak’s riot police who enforced the siege on the territory at the border between Egypt and Gaza in agreement with and on behalf of Israel.
Despite this they persisted.
In one dramatic encounter in 2009 after being attacked by Egyptian riot police the international convoyers fought back and captured numbers of police and even one senior officer who they agreed to release if the police released all the arrested convoy members.
Unable to be moved on by the Egyptian authorities the convoyers through sheer persistence and determination and with the support of the Egyptian people forced the Mubarak regime to back down and let the International Aid convoy enter Gaza.
After this defeat for the Mubarak authorities Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit tried to play down this defeat in the Arab media describing the international aid convoys as “farcical” and said Egyptian authorities would no longer allow such solidarity convoys.[16]
Leading up to, and since the Arab Spring, despite continuing resistance from Egyptian authorities particularly within the army and the police who still hold loyalties to the old regime, several more land convoys have been able to break through the siege and successfully enter Gaza through the northen Egyptian border.
In defying the internationally illegal siege, New Zealand’s own Kia Ora Gaza headed by team captain Roger Fowler have since participated in two successful international overland convoys, one in 2011 in open defiance of Mubarak’s ban and one since his overthrow.
As in the overthrow of the apartheid regime in South Africa, through their courageous and defiant actions New Zealanders can also claim some small part in the overthrow of the oppressive Mubarak regime.
Though the land seige hasn’t been broken, the international convoy movement’s efforts have seriously weakened the enforcement of the siege at the Egyptian border allowing more and more people and goods to get through into Gaza across the Sinai.
Internationally renowned scholar Noam Chomsky is the latest person to defy the siege and enter Gaza through northern Egypt. In 2010 Chomsky was prevented from entering Gaza through the Israeli controlled border. Chomsky is due to defiantly deliver an address today at Gaza university his topic will be the significance of the Arab Spring.
No doubt like every other successful breach of the illegal Israeli siege of Gaza a media cone of silence will descend.
However a full report will be carried on the Kia Ora Gaza website when it comes to hand.
Well, well, well – will the opposition be able to level the “nanny-state” at this administration at last. There are clubs up and down the country that have as one of their door raffle prizes “An annual membership” which will be worth a lot more than this $500 limit.
Key is going to get an avalanche of correspondence on this one and watch him try to get it dropped immediately … his mates in golf clubs will be livid.
Now thats a shame as it just puts the kibosh an a great week end. Yes there’s some big prizes but everyone has the same chance. Unlike Pokies where the machine has the best chance, and will break up families. Yep thats the Anti Nanny state at work, break up the family, get more Pokies out there. Don’t allow the fishing comps to continue, they are against the Anti Nanny State.
I found myself totally in agreement with him. Rachel has a low key but direct approach to interviewing that IMHO produces much more information than otherwise.
I am just watching her discuss with a panel including Kennedy Graham and Federated Farmers William Rawlston discussing carbon credits. She effectively showed how shallow Fed Farmer’s rationale for opposing Farming being part of our system. Their rationale is if we make it more expensive for farmers production will flood overseas to countries with less carbon efficient farming techniques. There is no analysis of how much more expensive, or the relative cost of production in different countries compared to her, just a bald statement that if they have to pay a modest ETS price all farms will shut down.
Kennedy Graham had the perfect response. He said shocks have happened in the past and how some countries, notably the Social Democratic countries, are reducing emissions. In NZ they are growing. He talked about the need for behavioral modification change.
He also talked about how countries could be world leaders, fast followers, apathetic spectator or willful obstructionists. He thought NZ was somewhere in the middle. I believe he meant that NZ is between apathetic spectators and willful obstructionists.
Micky and what would you suggest we do about our 0.2% contribution, which won’t put further pressure on our major export industry, followed by higher consumer prices, which will hit those who are already struggling most?
Climate change isn’t the issue. NZ will do very well out of climate change, thank you very much. Liquid fossil fuel depletion is.
Its when diesel goes up to $4/L – $5/L which is the problem. Without massive socio-economic restructuring NOW, our transportation, farming and industrial systems grind to a halt and unstoppable pressure comes on to convert coal to diesel and go deep sea drilling.
No, tallow isn’t viable simply because raising that many cows isn’t viable. Electricity, on the other hand, is – except for the exporting, for that we’ll be using sail.
Um Muzza you are making the exact mistake Federated Farmers made.
The rationale you present is that if farmers have to pay for greenhouse gas emissions they will immediately become unprofitable and will have to flood overseas and defoliate large parts of the Amazon so they can set up farms under a more benign administration.
Whereas it seems to me that farming in NZ is extremely profitable and all that we will be doing is reducing private profit slightly.
And yes we only contribute .2% of the world’s GHGs. But we comprise only .06% of the world’s population.
Of course we should do our bit. If we do not then why should anyone in the world do “their bit”?
Of course we should do our bit. If we do not then why should anyone in the world do “their bit”?
Except they’re not going to do that are they, and if NZ does or does not is hardly an influence!
And the mistakes being made are by people swallowing copius loads of BS on all sides!
@ CV – Yeah about that liquid fossel fuel depletion – Making sure NZ loses access to its own oil/gas reserves, certainly assists in ensuring that NZ continues to be at the mercy of those who control those resources globally!
We need to restructure the dependancies, but thats not on the cards currently is it!
So you think that we should do nothing to save our planet from environmental ruin because we are only doing a bit of damage (albeit at the rate of three times as much as the rest of the people on the planet) and besides some others are not doing their share either?
So you think that we should do nothing to save our planet from environmental ruin because we are only doing a bit of damage (albeit at the rate of three times as much as the rest of the people on the planet) and besides some others are not doing their share either?
Many times I have repeated a stance on the pollution/destruction which is wrecking this planet, so ill say it again.
Absolutely it needs to stop, only it won’t, not under current systems/conditions that control all aspects of our lives, it should become very clear by now that TPTB are not especially interested, for the time being!
Especially as all those other farmers in the social democratic countries overseas are doing their bit, it’s a disgrace that our farmers are being let off.
Of course, focussing just on farmers is bullshit. As it is, only two more generations of farmers (max) will have access to large quantities of fert and the diesel needed to spread it with. One way or another, NZ farming is going back to its low intensity roots.
What I want to see is for more city dwellers to give up their personal transport. And to quit buying stuff which has to be made and shipped from 10,000 km away.
For all of these things to happen without major unpleasant disruption we need to seriously restructure our entire economy and economic infrastructure NOW.
Change our export industry to one that’s less damaging. Of course, we have to do that anyway as we have to cut down the number of farms so that we can clean up our rivers and lakes and bring NZ back to having a pristine environment.
You can stream parts of The Nation here
They usually have most of the show up in segments on saturday or sunday – Hone was on this week talking asset shares.
Bernard Hickey is onto the UK Starbucks’ tax evasion story today, and asks if we should be getting onto such evasions in NZ.
Google, for example, made losses for tax purposes in New Zealand in the last two years, despite advertising industry estimates that last year it made revenues from NZ of more than $100 million. Last year it paid just $109,000 in tax in NZ.
Perhaps it’s time NZ consumers and taxpayers targeted companies such as Google and Facebook that don’t pay their fair share of tax globally.
Meanwhile, speaking of Facebook and business, Dotcom shows he’s not really aligned with the left, but with making money out of social networking.
Hopefully no one mistook Dotcom to be “aligned with the Left”. We just need him to help hold crony politicians to account, whether they are Left, Centre or Right.
A really good colunn from Matt McCarten today about the destruction of our local communities by shopping corporations like the Warehouse. It reminded me how much has changed in the 20-odd years I’ve lived where I do. I particularly miss the little gardening shop in my local shopping centre. A mine of local and more general gardening information, and quite a social spot. It shut down about ten years ago, and since that time, other than the chain-shops, cheap import outlets, and the op-shops, very few retailers have survived. There are always a few empty shops at any given time. Businesses regularly start up, but sadly you know it’s probably not going to be long until the closing down sale, and it seldom is.
Recently, I started making more effort to buy from old-fashioned grocery, butchery, and fruit and vege shops rather than the ubiquitous supermarket. I have to admit the first thing I noticed was how much dearer pretty much everything was, and I wondered if I could afford to shop according to my conscience. Not without cutting back, anyway.
The problem is this very viscious circle in which, due to a variety of community-destructive practices, supermarkets, the Warehouse etc. are significantly cheaper, and out-compete and drive out community enterprises. At the same time wages are down and unemployment is up, many people are struggling, and those cheaper prices are an essential part of making ends meet. And the big chains employ fewer people the the old community shopping centres did, at reduced wages, in worse conditions………….. and so it continues.
In the closest main center to me, you simply cannot buy any hardware materials within any reasonable walking distance of the city center. And there was, until very recently, only one greengrocer’s…located in a suburb about an hour’s walk away. Things moved forward with the establishment of a single non-supermarket outlet for vegetables within walking of the city center.
And to think that in the township I live there used to a butcher, a baker, a post office, a general store…all gone bar the dairy. Thankfully, at least the dairy owner is committed to serving the locals and sourcing stock accordingly – as opposed to stocking the vastly overpriced tatt from the usual dairy store suppliers.
Lower priced peripheral land being exploitable due to a car culture won’t last forever!
As American suburb dwellers are being forced to discover. With no footpaths in many suburbs, no where to go even if there were, $5/gallon gasoline is going to be a real shock for them. (Even though I think we basically pay that in NZ now, the US has been sheltered from the true price of fossil fuels due to theirs being the oil reserve currency of the world).
Only observational : But it is here !!!
Ater the property bubble of the 2003-7 we experienced perhaps even a 10% rebalancing. Over the last 6 months + there has been a marked increase in properties (excluding mono plastered properties) Just review local Auckland property presses and the lack of properties with stated selling prices – Tender & Auctions dominate the means of addressing pricing. Banks have returned to past practices plenty of cheap money flowing into NZ reflecting in extremely low rates of NZ just above 5%. http://www.interest.co.nz/borrowing http://www.3news.co.nz/Housing-bust-could-be-looming/tabid/421/articleID/260837/Default.aspx
I have seen properties selling 20% above expectations Valuations/vendor and estate agents. I know Key struggles to remember what he voted on 2 months ago http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10841405
Yet here we are 5 years on and forgetting what happened last time. We worry about selling a few $ of SOE assets yet here we are indirectly selling so much more of NZ offshore, only here it is disguised in bank loans. Should the market collapse NZ equity is lost as the banks have 1st claims on any sales obtained and then able to repay their backers. And if times get really tough “To Big to Fail” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Too_big_to_fail
Labour’s Shane Jones and the Greens Gareth Hughes are on Q&A discussing New Zealand’s approach to declaring parts of the Ross Sea off limits for commercial fishing.
Murray McCully was invited to attend but said that he was too busy. His Government is in the unusual position where its proposal is less protective than the United States position.
The Government should not be too concerned, Jones is doing a good line of trotting out their lines and defending their position. Apparently the science is settled and reducing the number of tooth fish by about half is somehow “sustainable fishing”.
As Mike Smith said recently Jones needs to work out if he is a Labour Party MP or a sea lord MP.
October 21st 2015 is the day, the greatest
day in the History of Earth, no day on
earth will be happier for all the earth’s humans.
You see October 21 2015 is the day that (according
to the movie back to the future 2) we finally get
HOVERBOARDS!!!
Sure, here on October 21 2012, some physics
professors,such as Michio Kaku might say, “We
aren’t that advanced yet and we won’t have
Hoverboards by 2015”
Well I say “Not with that attitude”
I believe in Marty, Doc and Jennifer, I believe
the date October 21 2015 was picked for a
reason, I believe that on every corner of the
planet, we will have Hoverboards, some
might even have pitbulls, and the future
will be here.
We won’t have flying cars, or clothes that
dry themselves, or any other gadget like
that, but we will have HOVERBOARDS!
So to the world’s scientist’s, to the Geeks,
to the engineers, to the brainiest people
on earth, stop worrying about creating
what you have been creating, it is now, October
21 2012, you have three more years, three
more years, till you give the people of earth,
the greatest invention in HISTORY.
Kabbalah seems to be more exclusive than that, and tied to the Khazars who are possibily impersonating being “Jewish”.
Whatever it is thats going on, it gets played out in hollywood, on, and off the screens on a regular basis. The history of abuse, murder, and the overt in your face numerology, and paganistic symbolism in movies/tv, not to mention the satanic overtones which have become so blatant in the pop music industry of late!
Im still hopeful, maybe not like the movie, but maybe in 40 years time, some multi billion dollar theme park will create that controlled indoor environment.
Section 156A replaced (Minister may merge schools)
Replace section 156A with:
“156AMinister may merge schools
“(1)Subject to sections 156B and 157, the Minister may, by notice in the Gazette, merge 1 or more State schools (merging schools) that are not integrated schools with another State school (the continuing school) that is not an integrated school, if the Minister is satisfied that—
“(a)each board of a school concerned has made reasonable efforts to consult the parents of students (other than adult students) enrolled full-time at the school about the proposed merger; and
“(b)the consultation that has taken place has been adequate in all the circumstances; and
“(c)the creation of a single school by the proposed merger is appropriate in the circumstances.
supports the uptake of early childhood education by allowing a national student number to be allocated to children who are identified as being likely to benefit from attending an early childhood service, but who are unlikely to attend such a service;
The next time Monsieur Matthew Hooton gets on radio, he should be asked how deep Natz MPs will be reaching into their wallets and handbags to fund the next election.
“… the National Party has started to realise that potential donors and its traditional donors are not committing to its donor fund for its fighting fund … as it builds up towards the 2014 election.
“National party MPs have been requested by the party apparatus to contribute $30,000 over the next year – to contribute to the fighting fund for 2014. (Labour at its worst was – its MPs were asked to contribute around $5000.)
“These people [ie Natz] are running scared and that information is from the inside.”
But to continue with it as Banks and certain others did, a decade later, when Ellis and his legal team (with overwhelming public support), were pushing to have his named cleared, well frankly that defies political commonsense. Its a behaviour that just doesn’t add up; unless of course one factors in the possibility that there had been other powerful stakeholders with interests and agenda’s of their own in judicial mix….which, readers, is not that uncommon in New Zealand; a remarkably small group of people have held far to much power for far to long, and they’ve all been intent on selfishly protecting their thrones.
In cases of wrongful conviction in New Zealand there are always dangerous undercurrents hidden from sight. People and events that are concealed and protected from the public’s steely glare. We believe that in the Peter Ellis miscarriage of justice case, perhaps more than any of its contemporaries, this “protection racket” may be behind Mr Ellis’s inability to obtain justice. Post trial and Ellis’s release from prison (starting with the ‘Eichelbaum Report‘) the events, the officials attitudes, the politicking and the governments actions have never quite stacked up (at least in the minds of the intelligent Kiwi’s we’ve spoken with); the question is why?
And still these same people are wrecking lives, and still the apathy of Kiwis allows it to continue. Yet more excellent work from the LF Team, on “No Corruption NZ”
UHT milk tastes foul, I don’t blame the kids for not drinking it. Fonterra should maybe have done a bit of market research to see whether what they are offering is going to be palatable to those receiving the milk.
C73 you continue to prove new research showing right wingers have simplistic answers for complex problems while claiming at the same time to be better educated and more intelligent than the the rest of us.
Selfishness is all your up to nothing more!
Then stop complaining about what they eat (or lack of) if they were in such a bad way as Labour likes to crow about then drinking some UHT milk wouldn’t be such a hardship
You might have a point if none of the kids drank the milk.
As it is, it would seem at least some are hungry enough to drink milk that they don’t like.
Weak tory effort to pretend that if some are not in hardship, none are in hardship springs to mind. By your logic if someone quits a job, nobody is unemployed and really looking for a job.
Boo hoo if the milk they don’t pay for isn’t what they like. Its free, its good for them so maybe they should be a little more greatful
This is one of the problems of the left, a company gives out free milk (yes its good publicity but its still free milk) but some kids don’t like the taste because its not what they’re used to (now if it tasted like an energy drink…) so its blame the company
To paraphrase Bob Jones: If $50 dollar notes fell from the sky you lefties would complain it wasn’t $100 dollar notes
Hey chris73, I thought you liked the idea that the ‘customer was always right’ and that it was important to take feedback into account to ‘continuously improve the service that one provides’.
Good private sector values, you know. Try using them sometime.
Well, from my perspective is that an ill-suited corporate marketing ploy is being operated in place of any government efforts in the area. And that tories like you are arguing that a high dropout rate in this imperfect pilot scheme is evidence that there is no problem that the government should be addressing.
Of course, if you weren’t such a blinkered arsehole you’d know that the success of any scheme involves providing the good or service in a manner that is appropriate to the audience, not just in the manner that’s convenient for the supplier.
Don’t worry Chris73, some children are so hungry they really appreciate this horrible tasting milk, so please don’t scorn this initiative and perhaps stop it.If you had read further down the article you would have found this information and not needed to post such a sarcastic comment.
Several schools, although having seen numbers level off, consider the programme a massive success.
At Manaia View School at least 90 per cent of the children have milk every day.
“I’ve got lots of kids who ask for more as a reward,” said Ian Bird, the teacher in charge of milk.
At Kaitaia Primary School milk was reaching those most in need.
“We are decile 1C for a good reason.
“We have a number of families who struggle financially, and with the cost of fresh food and milk they just can’t afford it,” principal Brendon Morrissey said.
Chris73, please notice the sentence “We are decile 1C for a good reason.”
I knew a simple minded, cynical, wanna- play- Nact -mindset would pick this badly written, misleading, dogwhistle article up and try to present it’s headline and first part as ‘evidence’ that children are not hungry. Shame on you. Try and aim for higher morals Chris and a more becoming point of view. Perhaps the journalist who wrote this could think a little more too, rather than ‘muddy the waters and end up writing what I have heard are “coloured” articles. In this case, it was coloured navy blue and faded yellow.
I’m picking the whole thing is ‘a have’ that will not incidentally benefit Fontera on the publicity front. Y’know, roll out a system that is deliberately set up to fall over so that in the future, when somebody raises the issue of milk in schools, the finger can be pointed at the ungrateful ingrates who refused to drink the milk those nice guys at Fontera provided ‘last time we tried that’.
Meantime, why not Fontera’s best approximaton of real milk alongside the necessary refrigeration (which would cost sweet f.a. in the scheme of things) and whatever flavourings that might have been necessary in order that the kids considered it palatable or potable?
“I am beginning to wonder if kids are so used to sugar that they don’t want to drink milk anymore,” said principal Barbara Bronlund.
Or it could be just that milk is just really horrible to drink.
… putting recycling programmes in place for the packaging, which has also unexpectedly proved a problem.
No, it didn’t “unexpectedly proved a problem” it’s that the numbskulls putting the scheme in place didn’t think about the natural results of supplying more rubbish to the schools. Now, if we still had milk in glass bottles the recycling wouldn’t be such a problem.
When Josh Fattal and I finally came before the Revolutionary Court in Iran, we had a lawyer present, but weren’t allowed to speak to him. In California, an inmate facing the worst punishment our penal system has to offer short of death can’t even have a lawyer in the room. He can’t gather or present evidence in his defense. He can’t call witnesses. Much of the evidence—anything provided by informants—is confidential and thus impossible to refute.
2 good items in todays Sunday Star Times.
one says that kweewees diamond has lost its shine and the other is a large leader on the govt CEO pay.
it says that the justifications for the sums being payed to these presumed titans and would be captains of industry are just piffle.
what more can one say.
its our money and National is just handing it out to their mates for no good reason.
time to reign them in.
bring it up at the next Labour Party meeting you attend and dont let go.
Interesting that 3 News included this story in it’s 6pm bulletin tonight. And Dunne at the end acting all surprised..?!
New research reveals tax dodgers are ripping off the country at up to 150 times the rate of welfare fraudsters, but are being jailed much less often.
So why are our courts showing more tolerance to tax evaders? One is not giving what you should; the other is taking what you shouldn’t.
They also had a report on the anti-austerity demo in London this weekend. But why use a report from US TV and not one from the UK? Or even Al Jazeera?
Nurses, cleaners, librarians and ambulance drivers were among those who joined the march and a rally in London’s central Hyde Park, in one of the biggest anti-austerity protests this year. Organisers estimated that 150,000 people took part.
Marches also took place in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and Glasgow, Scotland. Police said the London march had passed peacefully and they expected to report a low number of arrests in a bulletin later.
Trade union leaders are trying to use the rally to pile more pressure on Cameron, telling protesters the government’s economic plan has failed and only prolonged Britain’s recession.
Its cause TV3 aim towards younger viewership. Older people lean towards the UK, younger people towards the USA.
In the end there is little difference. UK & USA are both imperialistic forces which shape our current form of liberal democratic capitalism. Ignoring that Fox News comedy channel, BBC and USA news are not that much different.
Al Jazeera and RT are worth a watch.
“Hey chris73, I thought you liked the idea that the ‘customer was always right’ and that it was important to take feedback into account to ‘continuously improve the service that one provides’.
Good private sector values, you know. Try using them sometime.”
I don’t think the customer is always right (I’ve spent a few years in customer service) I think the customer is generally a greedy, grasping moron.
But that aside a customer is defined as:
A customer (also known as a client, buyer, or purchaser) is the recipient of a good, service, product, or idea, obtained from a seller, vendor, or supplier for a monetary or other valuable consideration.
So unless the kids or schools are paying (I don’t think the free publicity counts) for the milk they ain’t customers.
If Fonterra was using “Good private sector values” they’d be charging the schools but they’re not
“If Fonterra was using “Good private sector values” they’d be charging the schools but they’re not”
Just shows your simple mind. See, what they did was identify a need that the government refuses to acknowledge. They use the “oh look, we’re being nice to the kiddies” to make its consumers feel better about being reamed by a near-monopoly.
Such a shame their programme is a bit off the mark. What’s the humanitarian equivalent of “greenwashing”, I wonder?
Images of US students (and others) protesting and setting up tent cities on US university campuses have been broadcast world wide and clearly demonstrate the growing rifts in US society caused by US policy toward Israel and Israel’s prosecution of … Continue reading → ...
Barrie Saunders writes – Dear Paul As the new Minister of Media and Communications, you will be inundated with heaps of free advice and special pleading, all in the national interest of course. For what it’s worth here is my assessment: Traditional broadcasting free to air content through ...
Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its arguments for such a bold reform. ...
Peter Dunne writes – The great nineteenth British Prime Minister, William Gladstone, once observed that “the first essential for a Prime Minister is to be a good butcher.” When a later British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, sacked a third of his Cabinet in July 1962, in what became ...
Ele Ludemann writes – New Zealanders had the OECD’s second highest tax increase last year: New Zealanders faced the second-biggest tax raises in the developed world last year, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) says. The intergovernmental agency said the average change in personal income tax ...
We all know something’s not right with our elections. The spread of misinformation, people being targeted with soundbites and emotional triggers that ignore the facts, even the truth, and influence their votes.The use of technology to produce deep fakes. How can you tell if something is real or not? Can ...
This video includes conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Simon Clark. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). This year you will be lied to! Simon Clark helps prebunk some misleading statements you'll hear about climate. The video includes ...
It is all very well cutting the backrooms of public agencies but it may compromise the frontlines. One of the frustrations of the Productivity Commission’s 2017 review of universities is that while it observed that their non-academic staff were increasing faster than their academic staff, it did not bother to ...
Buzz from the Beehive Two speeches delivered by Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters at Anzac Day ceremonies in Turkey are the only new posts on the government’s official website since the PM announced his Cabinet shake-up. In one of the speeches, Peters stated the obvious: we live in a troubled ...
1. Which of these would you not expect to read in The Waikato Invader?a. Luxon is here to do business, don’t you worry about thatb. Mr KPI expects results, and you better believe itc. This decisive man of action is getting me all hot and excitedd. Melissa Lee is how ...
…it has a restricted jurisdiction which must not be abused: it is not an inquisitionNOTE – this article was published before the High Court ruled that Karen Chhour does not have to appear before the Waitangi Tribunal Gary Judd writes – The High Court ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – One of reasons Oranga Tamariki exists is to prevent child neglect. But could the organisation itself be guilty of the same?Oranga Tamariki’s statistics show a decrease in the number and age of children in care. “There are less children ...
David Farrar writes: Graeme Edgeler wrote in 2017: In the first five years after three strikes came into effect 5248 offenders received a ‘first strike’ (that is, a “stage-1 conviction” under the three strikes sentencing regime), and 68 offenders received a ‘second strike’. In the five years prior to ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in politics. That’s refreshing and will be extremely ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the two days to 6:06am on Thursday, April 25:Politics: PM Christopher Luxon has set up a dual standard for ministerial competence by demoting two National Cabinet ministers while leaving also-struggling ...
Hi,Today I mainly want to share some of your thoughts about the recent piece I wrote about success and failure, and the forces that seemingly guide our lives. But first, a quick bit of housekeeping: I am doing a Webworm popup in Los Angeles on Saturday May 11 at 2pm. ...
It is hard to see what Melissa Lee might have done to “save” the media. National went into the election with no public media policy and appears not to have developed one subsequently. Lee claimed that she had prepared a policy paper before the election but it had been decided ...
Open access notablesIce acceleration and rotation in the Greenland Ice Sheet interior in recent decades, Løkkegaard et al., Communications Earth & Environment:In the past two decades, mass loss from the Greenland ice sheet has accelerated, partly due to the speedup of glaciers. However, uncertainty in speed derived from satellite products ...
Buzz from the Beehive A statement from Children’s Minister Karen Chhour – yet to be posted on the Government’s official website – arrived in Point of Order’s email in-tray last night. It welcomes the High Court ruling on whether the Waitangi Tribunal can demand she appear before it. It does ...
Mr Bombastic:Ironically, the media the academic experts wanted is, in many ways, the media they got. In place of the tyrannical editors of yesteryear, advancing without fear or favour the interests of the ruling class; the New Zealand news media of today boasts a troop of enlightened journalists dedicated to ...
It's hard times try to make a livingYou wake up every morning in the unforgivingOut there somewhere in the cityThere's people living lives without mercy or pityI feel good, yeah I'm feeling fineI feel better then I have for the longest timeI think these pills have been good for meI ...
In 1974, the US Supreme Court issued its decision in United States v. Nixon, finding that the President was not a King, but was subject to the law and was required to turn over the evidence of his wrongdoing to the courts. It was a landmark decision for the rule ...
Every day now just seems to bring in more fresh meat for the grinder.In their relentlessly ideological drive to cut back on the “excessive bloat” (as they see it) of the previous Labour-led government, on the mountains of evidence accumulated in such a short period of time do not ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Megan Valére SosouMarket gardening site of the Itchèléré de Itagui agricultural cooperative in Dassa-Zoumè (Image credit: Megan Valère Sossou) For the residents of Dassa-Zoumè, a city in the West African country of Benin, choosing between drinking water and having enough ...
Buzz from the Beehive Melissa Lee – as may be discerned from the screenshot above – has not been demoted for doing something seriously wrong as Minister of ...
Morning in London Mother hugs beloved daughter outside the converted shoe factory in which she is living.Afternoon in London Travelling writer takes himself and his wrist down to A&E, just to be sure. Read more ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – The recent announcement of the University Advisory Group, chaired by Sir Peter Gluckman, makes very clear where the Government’s focus and priorities lie. The remit of the Advisory Group is that Group members will consider challenges and opportunities for improvement in the university sector including: ...
Eric Crampton writes – The Reserve Bank of New Zealand desperately wants to find reasons to have workstreams in climate change. It makes little sense. They’ve run another stress test on the banks looking to see if they could find a prudential regulation case. They couldn’t. They ...
Rob MacCullough writes – Pundits from the left and the right are arguing that National’s Fast Track Bill that is designed to speed up infrastructure decisions could end up becoming mired in a cesspool of corruption. Political commentator ...
Looking at the headlines this morning it’s hard to feel anything other than pessimistic about the future of humanity.Note that I’m not speaking about the future of mankind, but the survival of our humanity. The values that we believe in seem to be ebbing away, by the day.Perhaps every generation ...
Swabbing mixed breed baby chicks to test for avian influenzaUh oh. Bird flu – often deadly to humans – is not only being transmitted from infected birds to dairy cows, but is now travelling between dairy cows. As of last Friday, Bloomberg News reports, there were 32 American dairy herds ...
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 ...
What is it with the mining industry? Its not enough for them to pillage the earth - they apparently can't even be bothered getting resource consent to do so: The proponent behind a major mine near the Clutha River had already been undertaking activity in the area without a ...
Photo # 1 I am a huge fan of Singapore’s approach to housing, as described here two years ago by copying and pasting from The ConversationWhat Singapore has that Australia does not is a public housing developer, the Housing Development Board, which puts new dwellings on public and reclaimed land, ...
Buzz from the Beehive Reactions to news of the government’s readiness to make urgent changes to “the resource management system” through a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) suggest a balanced approach is being taken. The Taxpayers’ Union says the proposed changes don’t go far enough. Greenpeace says ...
I’m starting to wonder if Anna Burns-Francis might be the best political interviewer we’ve got. That might sound unlikely to you, it came as a bit of a surprise to me.Jack Tame can be excellent, but has some pretty average days. I like Rebecca Wright on Newshub, she asks good ...
Chris Trotter writes – Willie Jackson is said to be planning a “media summit” to discuss “the state of the media and how to protect Fourth Estate Journalism”. Not only does the Editor of The Daily Blog, Martyn Bradbury, think this is a good idea, but he has also ...
Graeme Edgeler writes – This morning [April 21], the Wellington High Court is hearing a judicial review brought by Hon. Karen Chhour, the Minister for Children, against a decision of the Waitangi Tribunal. This is unusual, judicial reviews are much more likely to brought against ministers, rather than ...
Both of Parliament’s watchdogs have now ripped into the Government’s Fast-track Approvals Bill. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMy pick of the six newsey things to know from Aotearoa’s political economy and beyond on the morning of Tuesday, April 23 are:The Lead: The Auditor General,John Ryan, has joined the ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Sarah SpengemanPeople wait to board an electric bus in Pune, India. (Image credit: courtesy of ITDP) Public transportation riders in Pune, India, love the city’s new electric buses so much they will actually skip an older diesel bus that ...
The infrastructure industry yesterday issued a “hurry up” message to the Government, telling it to get cracking on developing a pipeline of infrastructure projects.The hiatus around the change of Government has seen some major projects cancelled and others delayed, and there is uncertainty about what will happen with the new ...
Hi,Over the weekend I revisited a podcast I really adore, Dead Eyes. It’s about a guy who got fired from Band of Brothers over two decades ago because Tom Hanks said he had “dead eyes”.If you don’t recall — 2001’s Band of Brothers was part of the emerging trend of ...
Buzz from the Beehive The 180 or so recipients of letters from the Government telling them how to submit infrastructure projects for “fast track” consideration includes some whose project applications previously have been rejected by the courts. News media were quick to feature these in their reports after RMA Reform Minister Chris ...
It would not be a desirable way to start your holiday by breaking your back, your head, or your wrist, but on our first hour in Singapore I gave it a try.We were chatting, last week, before we started a meeting of Hazel’s Enviro Trust, about the things that can ...
Calling all journalists, academics, planners, lawyers, political activists, environmentalists, and other members of the public who believe that the relationships between vested interests and politicians need to be scrutinised. We need to work together to make sure that the new Fast-Track Approvals Bill – currently being pushed through by the ...
Feel worried. Shane Jones and a couple of his Cabinet colleagues are about to be granted the power to override any and all objections to projects like dams, mines, roads etc even if: said projects will harm biodiversity, increase global warming and cause other environmental harms, and even if ...
Bryce Edwards writes- The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. ...
Michael Bassett writes – If you think there is a move afoot by the radical Maori fringe of New Zealand society to create a parallel system of government to the one that we elect at our triennial elections, you aren’t wrong. Over the last few days we have ...
Without a corresponding drop in interest rates, it’s doubtful any changes to the CCCFA will unleash a massive rush of home buyers. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: The six things that stood out to me in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate on Monday, April 22 included:The Government making a ...
Sunday was a lazy day. I started watching Jack Tame on Q&A, the interviews are usually good for something to write about. Saying the things that the politicians won’t, but are quite possibly thinking. Things that are true and need to be extracted from between the lines.As you might know ...
In our Weekly Roundup last week we covered news from Auckland Transport that the WX1 Western Express is going to get an upgrade next year with double decker electric buses. As part of the announcement, AT also said “Since we introduced the WX1 Western Express last November we have seen ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 29 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Stats NZ releases its statutory report on Census 2023 tomorrow.Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivers a pre-Budget speech at ...
A listing of 29 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 14, 2024 thru Sat, April 20, 2024. Story of the week Our story of the week hinges on these words from the abstract of a fresh academic ...
The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. The Government says this will ...
This is a column to say thank you. So many of have been in touch since Mum died to say so many kind and thoughtful things. You’re wonderful, all of you. You’ve asked how we’re doing, how Dad’s doing. A little more realisation each day, of the irretrievable finality of ...
Identifying the engine type in your car is crucial for various reasons, including maintenance, repairs, and performance upgrades. Knowing the specific engine model allows you to access detailed technical information, locate compatible parts, and make informed decisions about modifications. This comprehensive guide will provide you with a step-by-step approach to ...
Introduction: The allure of racing is undeniable. The thrill of speed, the roar of engines, and the exhilaration of competition all contribute to the allure of this adrenaline-driven sport. For those who yearn to experience the pinnacle of racing, becoming a race car driver is the ultimate dream. However, the ...
Introduction Automobiles have become ubiquitous in modern society, serving as a primary mode of transportation and a symbol of economic growth and personal mobility. With countless vehicles traversing roads and highways worldwide, it begs the question: how many cars are there in the world? Determining the precise number is a ...
Maintaining a safe and reliable vehicle requires regular inspections. Whether it’s a routine maintenance checkup or a safety inspection, knowing how long the process will take can help you plan your day accordingly. This article delves into the factors that influence the duration of a car inspection and provides an ...
Mazda Motor Corporation, commonly known as Mazda, is a Japanese multinational automaker headquartered in Fuchu, Aki District, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. The company was founded in 1920 as the Toyo Cork Kogyo Co., Ltd., and began producing vehicles in 1931. Mazda is primarily known for its production of passenger cars, but ...
Your car battery is an essential component that provides power to start your engine, operate your electrical systems, and store energy. Over time, batteries can weaken and lose their ability to hold a charge, which can lead to starting problems, power failures, and other issues. Replacing your battery before it ...
In most states, you cannot register a car without a valid driver’s license. However, there are a few exceptions to this rule. Exceptions to the RuleIf you are under 18 years old: In some states, you can register a car in your name even if you do not ...
Mazda, a Japanese automotive manufacturer with a rich history of innovation and engineering excellence, has emerged as a formidable player in the global car market. Known for its reputation of producing high-quality, fuel-efficient, and driver-oriented vehicles, Mazda has consistently garnered praise from industry experts and consumers alike. In this article, ...
Struts are an essential part of a car’s suspension system. They are responsible for supporting the weight of the car and damping the oscillations of the springs. Struts are typically made of steel or aluminum and are filled with hydraulic fluid. How Do Struts Work? Struts work by transferring the ...
Car registration is a mandatory process that all vehicle owners must complete annually. This process involves registering your car with the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and paying an associated fee. The registration process ensures that your vehicle is properly licensed and insured, and helps law enforcement and other authorities ...
Zoom is a video conferencing service that allows you to share your screen, webcam, and audio with other participants. In addition to sharing your own audio, you can also share the audio from your computer with other participants. This can be useful for playing music, sharing presentations with audio, or ...
Building your own computer can be a rewarding and cost-effective way to get a high-performance machine tailored to your specific needs. However, it also requires careful planning and execution, and one of the most important factors to consider is the time it will take. The exact time it takes to ...
Sleep mode is a power-saving state that allows your computer to quickly resume operation without having to boot up from scratch. This can be useful if you need to step away from your computer for a short period of time but don’t want to shut it down completely. There are ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Asia Pacific Report From France to Australia, university pro-Palestine protests in the United States have now spread to several countries with students pitching on-campus camps. And students at Columbia and other US universities remain defiant as campuses have witnessed the biggest protests since the anti-Vietnam war and anti-apartheid eras in ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards, Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)New Zealand Government’s Fast Track legislation. Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government ...
Tara Ward talks to presenter Naomi Toilalo about the new TV show that turns food waste into a three course feast. Naomi Toilalo is standing in the warehouse at Good Neighbour Tauranga, helping unpack the two-and-a-half tonnes of rejected food that will arrive at the community support hub that day. ...
Scout is our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Scout’s human, Avril, for her support. Dog name: Scout (named after the little girl in To Kill a Mockingbird – she inherited the independent spirit ...
Megan Alatini takes us through her life in TV, including ‘terrible’ daytime TV, the class of Carol Hirschfeld and her most embarrassing TrueBliss moment. When she responded to a vague newspaper ad asking “do you have what it takes to be a popstar?” 25 years ago, Megan Alatini never guessed ...
A new exhibition in Wellington showcases the faces behind your local goods and services. Back in 1977, when I was a fine arts student at the University of Canterbury, I took a series of photographs of Christchurch shopkeepers. The photos were for a calendar – a project for my end ...
Toomaj and his resistance to tyranny through his songs have become an icon for the youth of Iran, so his sentence has hit the nation hard. Toomaj Salehi is not the first artist to pay the price for standing with the people. ...
My cousin Dylan and I spotted these big eels under the bridge that summer. We watched them lounging under the dark weed, facing into the flow of water, their mouths frozen open. Dylan and I couldn’t stop thinking about those eels. The night we went down to the creek, we ...
Newsroom, home of satire. My long-running weekly satirical series The Secret Diary has moved to Newsroom and will appear every Saturday, with Victor Billot’s wildly popular satirical Odes continuing to appear every Sunday. Diaries, Odes – while serious political columnists toil at meaningful opinions and stroke their chins to an ...
Tara Ward unravels the many nuanced layers of a cartoon about talking dogs.This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. It’s not often an episode of a children’s cartoon has adults sobbing into their sleeves, but that’s exactly what happened this week when ...
Working as a doctor in developing countries to help communities achieve better health outcomes is nothing short of a life goal for Jessica Tater. The University of Otago medical student has her sights firmly set on joining the international humanitarian organisation Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) when she qualifies ...
There’s an island in the far reaches of Auckland’s territory, sitting off the tip of the Coromandel Peninsula, 30 minutes by air from the city or four hours on the slow boat. Aotea Great Barrier is off-grid, it has a population of fewer than a thousand people … and most ...
Asia Pacific Report An Australian author and advocate, Jim Aubrey, today led a national symbolic one minute’s silence to mark the “blood debt” owed to Papuan allies during the Second World War indigenous resistance against the invading Japanese forces. “A promise to most people is a promise,” Aubrey said in ...
Asia Pacific Report The Freedom Flotilla is ready to sail to Gaza, reports Kia Ora Gaza. All the required paperwork has been submitted to the port authority, and the cargo has been loaded and prepared for the humanitarian trip to the besieged enclave. However, organisers received word of an “administrative ...
Pacific Media Watch Palestine solidarity protesters today demonstrated at the Auckland headquarters of Television New Zealand, accusing the country’s major TV network of broadcasting “propaganda” backing Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. About 50 protesters targeted the main entrance to the TVNZ building near Sky Tower and also picketed a side ...
Opinion by Lynley Hood. Forty years on from my 1985 Fulbright Grant, my disquiet over the war in Gaza evoked some troubling questions. The answer to my first question – What is the primary purpose of the Fulbright Programme? – was on the Fulbright NZ website. It says: US Senator, ...
The ministers responsible for green-lighting major projects need to be open about potential conflicts of interest, says Transparency International. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Powell, Professor, Family and Sexual Violence, RMIT University It has been a particularly distressing start to the year. There is little that can ease the current grief of individuals, families and communities who have needlessly lost a loved one to men’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Senior Research Associate, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne Lichen, the first described example of symbiosis.AdeJ Artventure/Shutterstock Once known only to those studying biology, the word symbiosis is now widely used. Symbiosis is the intimate ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kim Hemsley, Head, Childhood Dementia Research Group, Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute, College of Medicine and Public Health, Flinders University Olena Ivanova/Shutterstock “Childhood” and “dementia” are two words we wish we didn’t have to use together. But sadly, around 1,400 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Whiteford, Professor, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University The government’s Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee has just published its second report. It was set up by Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Minister for Social Services Amanda Rishworth in 2022 to provide: ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne The Queensland state election will be held in October. A YouGov poll for The Courier Mail, conducted April 9–17 from a sample ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Naeni, PhD candidate at Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University There’s been much talk in recent months about what a possible second Donald Trump presidency in the United States could mean for Europe, Russia’s war in Ukraine, the ...
A brief round-up of submissions on the controversial proposed law. This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. Last week, submissions on the controversial Fast-track Approvals Bill closed just hours after the government released a list of stakeholder organisations who were sent letters advising how they could ...
A poem from Robin Peace’s new collection Detritus of Empire: feather / grass / rock. Cereal giving I see a woman’s hands, see her curious hands break a stalk as she walks through the tall prairie, the savannah, the steppe, wherever it was. See her idly bite the grass that ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Hemingway’s Goblet by Dermot Ross (Mary Egan Publishing, $38)A handsomely produced (debossed cover, lovely ...
The Commissioner's decision validates the longstanding efforts of the local community and ensures that Awataha Marae will be managed to serve the needs of the local community, particularly for hosting tangihanga. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tristan Salles, Associate professor, University of Sydney Examples of Australian landscapes.Unsplash Seventy thousand years ago, the sea level was much lower than today. Australia, along with New Guinea and Tasmania, formed a connected landmass known as Sahul. Around this time – ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Felicity Castagna, Lecturer, Creative Writing, Western Sydney University Day Day Market, ParramattaPhoto: Garry Trinh I live on the edge of Parramatta, Australia’s fastest-growing city, on the kind of old-fashioned suburban street that has 1950s fibros constructed in the post-war housing boom, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Ryan, Teaching Fellow in Economics, University of Waikato GettyImagesfatido/Getty Images There is an ongoing global debate over whether the high inflation seen in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic can be lowered without a recession. New Zealand is not ...
The ‘Wicked Game’ heartthrob is in his late 60s now. That didn’t stop him putting on a lively, goofy and very sparkly show. Apart from ‘Wicked Game’, which graces a sultry playlist of mine simply called 💋, my last sustained Chris Isaak listening session took place when I was about ...
Analysis - Two ministers were stripped of portfolios in a warning to Cabinet, drama broke out at the Waitangi Tribunal, and the gang patch ban bill ran into opposition. ...
Tara Ward makes an impassioned plea for some vital pop culture merch. In April 1999, I became obsessed with a new reality television show called Popstars. Every Tuesday night, five strangers transformed into music royalty before my very eyes as Joe, Keri, Carly, Erika and Megan were chosen to form ...
PNG Post-Courier In the early hours of ANZAC Day, aerial photographs captured an impressive gathering of Australians and Papua New Guineans at Isurava in the Northern (Oro) Province. The solemn dawn service yesterday was held at a site steeped in history, where some of the fiercest battles of World War ...
The PSA is shocked that Oranga Tamariki has used the cost cutting drive to downgrade its commitment to Te Ao Māori and remove many specialist Māori roles. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Kemish, Adjunct Professor, School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry, The University of Queensland There can be no more powerful symbol of the relationship between Australia and Papua New Guinea than the prime ministers of these neighbouring countries walking together on the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sharon Robinson, Distinguished Professor and Deputy Director of ARC Securing Antarctica’s Environmental Future (SAEF), University of Wollongong, University of Wollongong Andrew Netherwood Over the last 25 years, the ozone hole which forming over Antarctica each spring has started to shrink. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Viktoria Kahui, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Economics, University of Otago Getty Images/Amy Toensing Biodiversity is declining at rates unprecedented in human history. This suggests the ways we currently use to manage our natural environment are failing. One emerging concept focuses on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Timothy Colin Bednall, Associate Professor in Management, Swinburne University of Technology marvent/Shutterstock Finding the best person to fill a position can be tough, from drafting a job ad to producing a shortlist of top interview candidates. Employers typically consider information from ...
Wondering where to host your next BYO? Whether its a small gathering or a massive party, we’ve got some recommendations. I was first introduced to the concept of BYOs at Dunedin’s India Gardens, a legendary but sadly defunct establishment, which purveyed enormous quantities of mango chicken to Aotearoa’s drunkest future ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julien Cooper, Honorary Lecturer, Department of History and Archaeology, Macquarie University Julien Cooper The hyper-arid desert of Eastern Sudan, the Atbai Desert, seems like an unlikely place to find evidence of ancient cattle herders. But in this dry environment, my new ...
The sector says it’s hopeful her replacement Paul Goldsmith will be able to throw it a lifeline, after six months with a minister deemed missing in action, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign ...
The government can't just rely on axing public sector jobs and has to do more to cut spending, says the chief economist at a free market think tank. ...
Rock The Vote NZ, known for its advocacy for minor party unity and its role within the Freedoms NZ Coalition during the 2023 General Election, celebrates this merger as a strategic enhancement of its operational strength and outreach. ...
Nearly everyone has experienced the frustration of something you use breaking and being difficult or expensive to fix. Proposed legislation could change that. It’s been raining on and off all Sunday afternoon but people are lining up outside a building in a corner of Gribblehirst Park in Sandringham, Auckland. In ...
What does a forever relationship look like when you don’t believe in marriage? And how do you celebrate it? This essay is part of our Sunday Essay series, made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.I’m going to do it, right now. I’m going to say ...
It’s not that long ago Eliza McCartney was seriously wondering if the Paris Olympics would be her pole vaulting swansong. After years of being hounded by injury after injury, the Rio Olympics bronze medallist was still confident she would compete at her second Olympics in Paris in July, unless something ...
FICTION 1 Take Two by Danielle Hawkins (Allen & Unwin, $36.99) There’s commercial fiction, like this book, and then there’s quality fiction, quality writers, quality literature; the forthcoming Auckland Writers Festival is full of quality, and ReadingRoom has two tickets to give away to the following events: Paul Lynch (Dublin ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[quiz],DIV[quiz],A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Friday 26 April appeared first on Newsroom. ...
You can’t have missed the Gallipoli story as the movies, documentaries, essays and books capture what it was like for New Zealand troops in their eight-month campaign on the Peninsula. But this Anzac Day the Auckland War Memorial Museum has published a book that sheds light on a little-known aspect of the ...
The Prime Minister has committed to resuming direct flights to Thailand. But it’s not a promise he will be able to deliver on anytime soon. The post Prime Minister jumps the gun in Thailand appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra In the free-for-all between the Australian government and Big Tech boss Elon Musk this week, the government had to be on a winner. Most people would have little sympathy with Musk’s vociferous opposition to ...
Asia Pacific Report Chief Mandla Mandela, a member of the National Assembly of South Africa and Nelson Mandela’s grandson, has joined the Freedom Flotilla in istanbul as the ships prepare to sail for Gaza, reports Kia Ora Gaza. Mandela is also the ambassador for the Global Campaign to Return to ...
http://www.jpost.com/Defense/Article.aspx?id=288598
The official term for piracy is now “taking control”
Israeli Navy boards Gaza-bound ship ‘Estelle’
by YAAKOV LAPPIN, The Jerusalem Post 10/20/2012 18:16
Navy seizes Swedish ship carrying 30 pro-Palestinian activists after it refused to change course, tows it to Ashdod. PHOTO: COURTESY IDF
The Navy took control of a Swedish ship carrying pro-Palestinian activists towards Gaza on Saturday, and towed the vessel to Ashdod instead.
The activists refused all Israeli requests to divert their course, and had declared that their intention was to violate Israel’s naval blockade on the Gaza Strip. ….
Read more from Israel’s Pravda by clicking here….
http://www.jpost.com/Defense/Article.aspx?id=288598
Ah, yes. But of course, there are always two sides (at least) to a story. I aw the Al Jazeera version on my TV this morning, as in the video here, aor with the print report here.
Thanks for that, karol. I posted a brief and polite response on the Jerusalem Post comments section. I wrote: “‘Taking control’—the new term for piracy.”
Instead of being immediately published, as no doubt all the racist and bloody-minded anti-Palestinian posts were, my comments were “put into moderation”.
No wonder their comment section is so overwhelmingly pro-government. And no wonder the Jerusalem Post is dismissed by thinking people as Israel’s Pravda.
Democracy in Israel has long long since gone. And a lot of Israeli’s are very unhappy about it.
Israel, politically, has long enjoyed the full backing of the United States. (I have no argument with the Israeli people as a whole). To his credit, Obama has been distancing the brutally minded Netanyahu in more recent times, especially on that man’s pressing desire to attack Iran. (It is Israel that possesses the nuclear weapons, not Iran). Now we should really worry with Romney looking a possibility for President. The Israeli government will welcome him with glee. With Romney the world would become, generally, in greater danger (not to mention the rich becoming richer and yet more powerful). This would be likely worse than the rule of George Bush. Yes, yet again, we have to bewail the short memories of human kind!
Interesting .that many Jewish people world wide now refer to Jews who live in Isareal as Israelies.
Thanks for this Morrissey, It must be terribly disappointing and possibly very frightening for the those aboard the Estelle, but when it comes to enforcing the siege on Gaza Israel is no longer all powerful.
While the sea going route to the territory of Gaza is still blocked by Israel and it’s allies.
Less widely reported in the Western media is their weakness in enforcing the siege on land. What has not been reported in the Western median media is that the internationall convoy movement has had much more success breaking the siege of Gaza by the overland route through Egypt and across the Sinai Desert.
Before the fall of Mubarak International aid convoys of trucks filled with medical and other aid were stopped by the Egyptian police and army at the border and turned back. If they refused to turn back they were beaten and arrested by by Mubarak’s riot police who enforced the siege on the territory at the border between Egypt and Gaza in agreement with and on behalf of Israel.
Despite this they persisted.
In one dramatic encounter in 2009 after being attacked by Egyptian riot police the international convoyers fought back and captured numbers of police and even one senior officer who they agreed to release if the police released all the arrested convoy members.
Unable to be moved on by the Egyptian authorities the convoyers through sheer persistence and determination and with the support of the Egyptian people forced the Mubarak regime to back down and let the International Aid convoy enter Gaza.
After this defeat for the Mubarak authorities Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit tried to play down this defeat in the Arab media describing the international aid convoys as “farcical” and said Egyptian authorities would no longer allow such solidarity convoys.[16]
Leading up to, and since the Arab Spring, despite continuing resistance from Egyptian authorities particularly within the army and the police who still hold loyalties to the old regime, several more land convoys have been able to break through the siege and successfully enter Gaza through the northen Egyptian border.
In defying the internationally illegal siege, New Zealand’s own Kia Ora Gaza headed by team captain Roger Fowler have since participated in two successful international overland convoys, one in 2011 in open defiance of Mubarak’s ban and one since his overthrow.
As in the overthrow of the apartheid regime in South Africa, through their courageous and defiant actions New Zealanders can also claim some small part in the overthrow of the oppressive Mubarak regime.
Though the land seige hasn’t been broken, the international convoy movement’s efforts have seriously weakened the enforcement of the siege at the Egyptian border allowing more and more people and goods to get through into Gaza across the Sinai.
Internationally renowned scholar Noam Chomsky is the latest person to defy the siege and enter Gaza through northern Egypt. In 2010 Chomsky was prevented from entering Gaza through the Israeli controlled border. Chomsky is due to defiantly deliver an address today at Gaza university his topic will be the significance of the Arab Spring.
No doubt like every other successful breach of the illegal Israeli siege of Gaza a media cone of silence will descend.
However a full report will be carried on the Kia Ora Gaza website when it comes to hand.
Thanks for this Morrissey, It must be terribly disappointing and possibly very frightening for the those aboard the Estelle, but when it comes to enforcing the siege on Gaza Israel is no longer all powerful.
While the sea going route to the territory of Gaza is still blocked by Israel and it’s allies.
Less widely reported in the Western media is their weakness in enforcing the siege on land. What has not been reported in the Western median media is that the internationall convoy movement has had much more success breaking the siege of Gaza by the overland route through Egypt and across the Sinai Desert.
Before the fall of Mubarak International aid convoys of trucks filled with medical and other aid were stopped by the Egyptian police and army at the border and turned back. If they refused to turn back they were beaten and arrested by by Mubarak’s riot police who enforced the siege on the territory at the border between Egypt and Gaza in agreement with and on behalf of Israel.
Despite this they persisted.
In one dramatic encounter in 2009 after being attacked by Egyptian riot police the international convoyers fought back and captured numbers of police and even one senior officer who they agreed to release if the police released all the arrested convoy members.
Unable to be moved on by the Egyptian authorities the convoyers through sheer persistence and determination and with the support of the Egyptian people forced the Mubarak regime to back down and let the International Aid convoy enter Gaza.
After this defeat for the Mubarak authorities Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit tried to play down this defeat in the Arab media describing the international aid convoys as “farcical” and said Egyptian authorities would no longer allow such solidarity convoys.[16]
Leading up to, and since the Arab Spring, despite continuing resistance from Egyptian authorities particularly within the army and the police who still hold loyalties to the old regime, several more land convoys have been able to break through the siege and successfully enter Gaza through the northen Egyptian border.
In defying the internationally illegal siege, New Zealand’s own Kia Ora Gaza headed by team captain Roger Fowler have since participated in two successful international overland convoys, one in 2011 in open defiance of Mubarak’s ban and one since his overthrow.
As in the overthrow of the apartheid regime in South Africa, through their courageous and defiant actions New Zealanders can also claim some small part in the overthrow of the oppressive Mubarak regime.
Though the land seige hasn’t been broken, the international convoy movement’s efforts have seriously weakened the enforcement of the siege at the Egyptian border allowing more and more people and goods to get through into Gaza across the Sinai.
Internationally renowned scholar Noam Chomsky is the latest person to defy the siege and enter Gaza through northern Egypt. In 2010 Chomsky was prevented from entering Gaza through the Israeli controlled border. Chomsky is due to defiantly deliver an address today at Gaza university his topic will be the significance of the Arab Spring.
No doubt like every other successful breach of the illegal Israeli siege of Gaza a media cone of silence will descend.
However a full report will be carried on the Kia Ora Gaza website when it comes to hand.
http://kiaoragaza.wordpress.com/2012/10/20/us-academic-noam-chomsky-visits-gaza-for-conference/
Oh, why am I not surprised? 🙁
Well, well, well – will the opposition be able to level the “nanny-state” at this administration at last. There are clubs up and down the country that have as one of their door raffle prizes “An annual membership” which will be worth a lot more than this $500 limit.
Key is going to get an avalanche of correspondence on this one and watch him try to get it dropped immediately … his mates in golf clubs will be livid.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10841884
And aren’t the hunting lobby United Future’s constituency?
Now thats a shame as it just puts the kibosh an a great week end. Yes there’s some big prizes but everyone has the same chance. Unlike Pokies where the machine has the best chance, and will break up families. Yep thats the Anti Nanny state at work, break up the family, get more Pokies out there. Don’t allow the fishing comps to continue, they are against the Anti Nanny State.
Where is there any evidence of involvement from the government in this? Just seems like a department enforcing laws already on the books.
Owners of pokie machines complained. Government Department protecting the interests of pokie machine owners. Corporate Fascism.
The Wynne “Sensible” Gray Award for Pretentious Writing
Entry No. 1: JACK TAME
Jack Tame: Slow down that war
It was as quiet and calm as a cliche. Somewhere distant a train click-clacked in steady rhythm. Birds hopped between leafy old trees. ….
Read more, if you can bear it, here…
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=10841827
Brian Edwards yesterday posted praising the interview ability of Rachel Smalley on TV3’s the Nation.
I found myself totally in agreement with him. Rachel has a low key but direct approach to interviewing that IMHO produces much more information than otherwise.
I am just watching her discuss with a panel including Kennedy Graham and Federated Farmers William Rawlston discussing carbon credits. She effectively showed how shallow Fed Farmer’s rationale for opposing Farming being part of our system. Their rationale is if we make it more expensive for farmers production will flood overseas to countries with less carbon efficient farming techniques. There is no analysis of how much more expensive, or the relative cost of production in different countries compared to her, just a bald statement that if they have to pay a modest ETS price all farms will shut down.
Kennedy Graham had the perfect response. He said shocks have happened in the past and how some countries, notably the Social Democratic countries, are reducing emissions. In NZ they are growing. He talked about the need for behavioral modification change.
He also talked about how countries could be world leaders, fast followers, apathetic spectator or willful obstructionists. He thought NZ was somewhere in the middle. I believe he meant that NZ is between apathetic spectators and willful obstructionists.
Absolutely right, John key and his bunch or traitors are ruining this country.
Why can’t we have an ETS for our farmers when all those other countries have got one in place.
Why can’t we have a government who is actually prepared to do something about climate change when all those other countries have one.
Exactly.
There’ll come a time in the near future when key and his gang will be put on trial for their crimes against NZ and the environment.
Micky and what would you suggest we do about our 0.2% contribution, which won’t put further pressure on our major export industry, followed by higher consumer prices, which will hit those who are already struggling most?
Climate change isn’t the issue. NZ will do very well out of climate change, thank you very much. Liquid fossil fuel depletion is.
Its when diesel goes up to $4/L – $5/L which is the problem. Without massive socio-economic restructuring NOW, our transportation, farming and industrial systems grind to a halt and unstoppable pressure comes on to convert coal to diesel and go deep sea drilling.
We should be thinking about alternatives now.
http://www.esrla.com/pdf/tallow.pdf
No, tallow isn’t viable simply because raising that many cows isn’t viable. Electricity, on the other hand, is – except for the exporting, for that we’ll be using sail.
Um Muzza you are making the exact mistake Federated Farmers made.
The rationale you present is that if farmers have to pay for greenhouse gas emissions they will immediately become unprofitable and will have to flood overseas and defoliate large parts of the Amazon so they can set up farms under a more benign administration.
Whereas it seems to me that farming in NZ is extremely profitable and all that we will be doing is reducing private profit slightly.
And yes we only contribute .2% of the world’s GHGs. But we comprise only .06% of the world’s population.
Of course we should do our bit. If we do not then why should anyone in the world do “their bit”?
Except they’re not going to do that are they, and if NZ does or does not is hardly an influence!
And the mistakes being made are by people swallowing copius loads of BS on all sides!
@ CV – Yeah about that liquid fossel fuel depletion – Making sure NZ loses access to its own oil/gas reserves, certainly assists in ensuring that NZ continues to be at the mercy of those who control those resources globally!
We need to restructure the dependancies, but thats not on the cards currently is it!
So you think that we should do nothing to save our planet from environmental ruin because we are only doing a bit of damage (albeit at the rate of three times as much as the rest of the people on the planet) and besides some others are not doing their share either?
You go girl.
When the greens and labour get back into power we’ll show the filthy farmers and Key and his mates how to lead the world in clean green living.
Many times I have repeated a stance on the pollution/destruction which is wrecking this planet, so ill say it again.
Absolutely it needs to stop, only it won’t, not under current systems/conditions that control all aspects of our lives, it should become very clear by now that TPTB are not especially interested, for the time being!
Especially as all those other farmers in the social democratic countries overseas are doing their bit, it’s a disgrace that our farmers are being let off.
Of course, focussing just on farmers is bullshit. As it is, only two more generations of farmers (max) will have access to large quantities of fert and the diesel needed to spread it with. One way or another, NZ farming is going back to its low intensity roots.
What I want to see is for more city dwellers to give up their personal transport. And to quit buying stuff which has to be made and shipped from 10,000 km away.
For all of these things to happen without major unpleasant disruption we need to seriously restructure our entire economy and economic infrastructure NOW.
Change our export industry to one that’s less damaging. Of course, we have to do that anyway as we have to cut down the number of farms so that we can clean up our rivers and lakes and bring NZ back to having a pristine environment.
Attempted to watch The Nation on TV3 this morning but they seem not to be broadcasting today. Neither are 4, 9 and 8. What gives?
I had to re-scan the channels to get them back (couple of times this week)
You can stream parts of The Nation here
They usually have most of the show up in segments on saturday or sunday – Hone was on this week talking asset shares.
Bernard Hickey is onto the UK Starbucks’ tax evasion story today, and asks if we should be getting onto such evasions in NZ.
Meanwhile, speaking of Facebook and business, Dotcom shows he’s not really aligned with the left, but with making money out of social networking.
Hickey is a damn good guy.
Hopefully no one mistook Dotcom to be “aligned with the Left”. We just need him to help hold crony politicians to account, whether they are Left, Centre or Right.
Well said CV, “Good Civilised” is party independent …..
The fact that he generously contributed to John Banks’s mayoral compaign should give people a litttle clue about his poltical views.
That should have been fairly obvious from the fact that he donated to Banks.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10841815
A really good colunn from Matt McCarten today about the destruction of our local communities by shopping corporations like the Warehouse. It reminded me how much has changed in the 20-odd years I’ve lived where I do. I particularly miss the little gardening shop in my local shopping centre. A mine of local and more general gardening information, and quite a social spot. It shut down about ten years ago, and since that time, other than the chain-shops, cheap import outlets, and the op-shops, very few retailers have survived. There are always a few empty shops at any given time. Businesses regularly start up, but sadly you know it’s probably not going to be long until the closing down sale, and it seldom is.
Recently, I started making more effort to buy from old-fashioned grocery, butchery, and fruit and vege shops rather than the ubiquitous supermarket. I have to admit the first thing I noticed was how much dearer pretty much everything was, and I wondered if I could afford to shop according to my conscience. Not without cutting back, anyway.
The problem is this very viscious circle in which, due to a variety of community-destructive practices, supermarkets, the Warehouse etc. are significantly cheaper, and out-compete and drive out community enterprises. At the same time wages are down and unemployment is up, many people are struggling, and those cheaper prices are an essential part of making ends meet. And the big chains employ fewer people the the old community shopping centres did, at reduced wages, in worse conditions………….. and so it continues.
In the closest main center to me, you simply cannot buy any hardware materials within any reasonable walking distance of the city center. And there was, until very recently, only one greengrocer’s…located in a suburb about an hour’s walk away. Things moved forward with the establishment of a single non-supermarket outlet for vegetables within walking of the city center.
And to think that in the township I live there used to a butcher, a baker, a post office, a general store…all gone bar the dairy. Thankfully, at least the dairy owner is committed to serving the locals and sourcing stock accordingly – as opposed to stocking the vastly overpriced tatt from the usual dairy store suppliers.
Lower priced peripheral land being exploitable due to a car culture won’t last forever!
As American suburb dwellers are being forced to discover. With no footpaths in many suburbs, no where to go even if there were, $5/gallon gasoline is going to be a real shock for them. (Even though I think we basically pay that in NZ now, the US has been sheltered from the true price of fossil fuels due to theirs being the oil reserve currency of the world).
Only observational : But it is here !!!
Ater the property bubble of the 2003-7 we experienced perhaps even a 10% rebalancing. Over the last 6 months + there has been a marked increase in properties (excluding mono plastered properties) Just review local Auckland property presses and the lack of properties with stated selling prices – Tender & Auctions dominate the means of addressing pricing. Banks have returned to past practices plenty of cheap money flowing into NZ reflecting in extremely low rates of NZ just above 5%.
http://www.interest.co.nz/borrowing
http://www.3news.co.nz/Housing-bust-could-be-looming/tabid/421/articleID/260837/Default.aspx
I have seen properties selling 20% above expectations Valuations/vendor and estate agents. I know Key struggles to remember what he voted on 2 months ago
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10841405
Yet here we are 5 years on and forgetting what happened last time. We worry about selling a few $ of SOE assets yet here we are indirectly selling so much more of NZ offshore, only here it is disguised in bank loans. Should the market collapse NZ equity is lost as the banks have 1st claims on any sales obtained and then able to repay their backers. And if times get really tough “To Big to Fail”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Too_big_to_fail
When the property owning middle class feel richer again, as in the midst of a housing asset bubble, incumbents are returned to power.
Cullen used the same tactic.
Labour’s Shane Jones and the Greens Gareth Hughes are on Q&A discussing New Zealand’s approach to declaring parts of the Ross Sea off limits for commercial fishing.
Murray McCully was invited to attend but said that he was too busy. His Government is in the unusual position where its proposal is less protective than the United States position.
The Government should not be too concerned, Jones is doing a good line of trotting out their lines and defending their position. Apparently the science is settled and reducing the number of tooth fish by about half is somehow “sustainable fishing”.
As Mike Smith said recently Jones needs to work out if he is a Labour Party MP or a sea lord MP.
Perhaps he fancies himself as something of a spokeslord?
Three more years.
October 21st 2015 is the day, the greatest
day in the History of Earth, no day on
earth will be happier for all the earth’s humans.
You see October 21 2015 is the day that (according
to the movie back to the future 2) we finally get
HOVERBOARDS!!!
Sure, here on October 21 2012, some physics
professors,such as Michio Kaku might say, “We
aren’t that advanced yet and we won’t have
Hoverboards by 2015”
Well I say “Not with that attitude”
I believe in Marty, Doc and Jennifer, I believe
the date October 21 2015 was picked for a
reason, I believe that on every corner of the
planet, we will have Hoverboards, some
might even have pitbulls, and the future
will be here.
We won’t have flying cars, or clothes that
dry themselves, or any other gadget like
that, but we will have HOVERBOARDS!
So to the world’s scientist’s, to the Geeks,
to the engineers, to the brainiest people
on earth, stop worrying about creating
what you have been creating, it is now, October
21 2012, you have three more years, three
more years, till you give the people of earth,
the greatest invention in HISTORY.
HOVERBOARDS!
THREE MORE YEARS!!
THREE MORE YEARS!!
THREE MORE YEARS!!!
UNTIL…..
HOVERBOARDS!!!!
Theoretically possible today, some kind of Magno repeller board.
Scary power requirements, would have to enclose the magnetised floor space.
Probably cost upwards of $10million for a small hall space … But possible Bud 🙂
If they can do it with a commuter train they can do it with a “HoverBoard” M8
You should take up surfing instead bud !
Wouldn’t mind the hydrateable pizzas myself…
Again theoretically possible, might taste like styrofoam though 🙂
Two words: Power Supply
The day you can fit a couple of megawatts of generation onto a skateboard without vaporising the rider is the day you can have hoverboards.
Actually according to the worlds leading physics’s professor Michio Kaku that is incorrect, there are other ways.
The important part of the date is to do with the numbers: 21 2015 = 2 +1+2+0+1+5 = 11
Hollywood or the people behind it are seriously into numerology, among other things!
Hope you get that hoverboard sometime!
Kabbalah numerology and Jewish dominance of Hollywood!
Hi Jim,
Kabbalah seems to be more exclusive than that, and tied to the Khazars who are possibily impersonating being “Jewish”.
Whatever it is thats going on, it gets played out in hollywood, on, and off the screens on a regular basis. The history of abuse, murder, and the overt in your face numerology, and paganistic symbolism in movies/tv, not to mention the satanic overtones which have become so blatant in the pop music industry of late!
another capitalisation and distortion of Abrahamic Monotheism (not spoken to; spoke to themselves)
😯
🙂
Im still hopeful, maybe not like the movie, but maybe in 40 years time, some multi billion dollar theme park will create that controlled indoor environment.
http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/flexible-timetabling-cards-schools-5143830
Another bad case of the Derps from the Ministry of Education.
Why build more class rooms and hire more teachers when you can just run schools like factories instead?
AND add this from the education amendment bill
Section 156A replaced (Minister may merge schools)
Replace section 156A with:
“156AMinister may merge schools
“(1)Subject to sections 156B and 157, the Minister may, by notice in the Gazette, merge 1 or more State schools (merging schools) that are not integrated schools with another State school (the continuing school) that is not an integrated school, if the Minister is satisfied that—
“(a)each board of a school concerned has made reasonable efforts to consult the parents of students (other than adult students) enrolled full-time at the school about the proposed merger; and
“(b)the consultation that has taken place has been adequate in all the circumstances; and
“(c)the creation of a single school by the proposed merger is appropriate in the circumstances.
AND this in a Cambell blog
http://gordoncampbell.scoop.co.nz/2012/10/17/gordon-campbell-on-secrecy-about-charter-schools-and-dotcom/
Oh, and each child under six will be assigned “a national student number.”
But I cant work out if it is a serious comment
Can anyone say if a national student number is in the bill?
yep found it
supports the uptake of early childhood education by allowing a national student number to be allocated to children who are identified as being likely to benefit from attending an early childhood service, but who are unlikely to attend such a service;
How are they gonna pull that one off?, other than retrospectively classifying them.
They’ll be “Testing” 2 year olds next.
Promoting elitism in 2-5 year olds, start them early M8!
I suspect it is to tie in with the children at risk data base.
Which already exists, it just needs appropriate interpretation.
These policies are so stupid is daunting, the people trying to force them on us are morons.
Abuse/Hiding of this data in the community will be the only result.
The next time Monsieur Matthew Hooton gets on radio, he should be asked how deep Natz MPs will be reaching into their wallets and handbags to fund the next election.
*Thanks to ‘fatty’ pointing out the link to Citizen A (http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-20102012/comment-page-1/#comment-537069):
@ 25:48
“… the National Party has started to realise that potential donors and its traditional donors are not committing to its donor fund for its fighting fund … as it builds up towards the 2014 election.
“National party MPs have been requested by the party apparatus to contribute $30,000 over the next year – to contribute to the fighting fund for 2014. (Labour at its worst was – its MPs were asked to contribute around $5000.)
“These people [ie Natz] are running scared and that information is from the inside.”
I thought the parties with MPs ran a tithing system already so would this $30k be over and above that?
Christchurch, New Zealand; A City Possessed and the travesty that simply refuses to die
And still these same people are wrecking lives, and still the apathy of Kiwis allows it to continue. Yet more excellent work from the LF Team, on “No Corruption NZ”
Is it apathy, ignorance, information overload or a combination of all three?
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/7844135/Milk-giveaway-goes-sour-as-kids-drop-out
This is a shame
UHT milk tastes foul, I don’t blame the kids for not drinking it. Fonterra should maybe have done a bit of market research to see whether what they are offering is going to be palatable to those receiving the milk.
At various times I’ve had to drink UHT and powdered milk but then the cost came out of my own pocket.
C73 you continue to prove new research showing right wingers have simplistic answers for complex problems while claiming at the same time to be better educated and more intelligent than the the rest of us.
Selfishness is all your up to nothing more!
I see free milk being rejected because “it tastes different”, simple as that.
So the recipients of corporate marketing largesse can’t be choosers.
It’s such a shame that primary school kids don’t conform to your expectations, C73.
Then stop complaining about what they eat (or lack of) if they were in such a bad way as Labour likes to crow about then drinking some UHT milk wouldn’t be such a hardship
First world problem springs to mind
You might have a point if none of the kids drank the milk.
As it is, it would seem at least some are hungry enough to drink milk that they don’t like.
Weak tory effort to pretend that if some are not in hardship, none are in hardship springs to mind. By your logic if someone quits a job, nobody is unemployed and really looking for a job.
Boo hoo if the milk they don’t pay for isn’t what they like. Its free, its good for them so maybe they should be a little more greatful
This is one of the problems of the left, a company gives out free milk (yes its good publicity but its still free milk) but some kids don’t like the taste because its not what they’re used to (now if it tasted like an energy drink…) so its blame the company
To paraphrase Bob Jones: If $50 dollar notes fell from the sky you lefties would complain it wasn’t $100 dollar notes
Hey chris73, I thought you liked the idea that the ‘customer was always right’ and that it was important to take feedback into account to ‘continuously improve the service that one provides’.
Good private sector values, you know. Try using them sometime.
Well, from my perspective is that an ill-suited corporate marketing ploy is being operated in place of any government efforts in the area. And that tories like you are arguing that a high dropout rate in this imperfect pilot scheme is evidence that there is no problem that the government should be addressing.
Of course, if you weren’t such a blinkered arsehole you’d know that the success of any scheme involves providing the good or service in a manner that is appropriate to the audience, not just in the manner that’s convenient for the supplier.
Don’t worry Chris73, some children are so hungry they really appreciate this horrible tasting milk, so please don’t scorn this initiative and perhaps stop it.If you had read further down the article you would have found this information and not needed to post such a sarcastic comment.
Chris73, please notice the sentence “We are decile 1C for a good reason.”
I knew a simple minded, cynical, wanna- play- Nact -mindset would pick this badly written, misleading, dogwhistle article up and try to present it’s headline and first part as ‘evidence’ that children are not hungry. Shame on you. Try and aim for higher morals Chris and a more becoming point of view. Perhaps the journalist who wrote this could think a little more too, rather than ‘muddy the waters and end up writing what I have heard are “coloured” articles. In this case, it was coloured navy blue and faded yellow.
I’m picking the whole thing is ‘a have’ that will not incidentally benefit Fontera on the publicity front. Y’know, roll out a system that is deliberately set up to fall over so that in the future, when somebody raises the issue of milk in schools, the finger can be pointed at the ungrateful ingrates who refused to drink the milk those nice guys at Fontera provided ‘last time we tried that’.
Meantime, why not Fontera’s best approximaton of real milk alongside the necessary refrigeration (which would cost sweet f.a. in the scheme of things) and whatever flavourings that might have been necessary in order that the kids considered it palatable or potable?
Or it could be just that milk is just really horrible to drink.
No, it didn’t “unexpectedly proved a problem” it’s that the numbskulls putting the scheme in place didn’t think about the natural results of supplying more rubbish to the schools. Now, if we still had milk in glass bottles the recycling wouldn’t be such a problem.
A good alternative would be a segment of edam cheese, the only down side would be the sodium.
This’ll make ya laugh LPRent ….
The cursor in my edit windows stops working when I have Windows Media Center on watching TV.
Only happened to iexplore of course, Good old Windoze 🙂
Shane Bauer, one of three Americans who were detained in Iran in 2009, writes:
Solitary in Iran Nearly Broke Me.Then I Went Inside America’s Prisons.
When Josh Fattal and I finally came before the Revolutionary Court in Iran, we had a lawyer present, but weren’t allowed to speak to him. In California, an inmate facing the worst punishment our penal system has to offer short of death can’t even have a lawyer in the room. He can’t gather or present evidence in his defense. He can’t call witnesses. Much of the evidence—anything provided by informants—is confidential and thus impossible to refute.
That was a disturbing article to read. The sheer deprivation that US prisoners are forced to submit to are barbaric.
I followed US prisons for a year; Supermax etc; just freakin evil
You guys are going to love this. Britain and US use of forced renditions, secret prisons and torture over many decades.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2012/oct/19/torture-uk-britain-blood-government
This stuff did NOT just begin with 9/11.
Indeed.
http://www.historynet.com/the-history-of-torture%E2%80%94why-we-cant-give-it-up.htm/1
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/04/17/britain-destroyed-records-of-colonial-crimes/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/aug/04/uk-allowed-interrogate-tortured-prisoners
2 good items in todays Sunday Star Times.
one says that kweewees diamond has lost its shine and the other is a large leader on the govt CEO pay.
it says that the justifications for the sums being payed to these presumed titans and would be captains of industry are just piffle.
what more can one say.
its our money and National is just handing it out to their mates for no good reason.
time to reign them in.
bring it up at the next Labour Party meeting you attend and dont let go.
Interesting that 3 News included this story in it’s 6pm bulletin tonight. And Dunne at the end acting all surprised..?!
They also had a report on the anti-austerity demo in London this weekend. But why use a report from US TV and not one from the UK? Or even Al Jazeera?
That’s what 3 News always does. Never do they air any reports from the UK, only the USA, for some strange reason!
Its cause TV3 aim towards younger viewership. Older people lean towards the UK, younger people towards the USA.
In the end there is little difference. UK & USA are both imperialistic forces which shape our current form of liberal democratic capitalism. Ignoring that Fox News comedy channel, BBC and USA news are not that much different.
Al Jazeera and RT are worth a watch.
“Hey chris73, I thought you liked the idea that the ‘customer was always right’ and that it was important to take feedback into account to ‘continuously improve the service that one provides’.
Good private sector values, you know. Try using them sometime.”
I don’t think the customer is always right (I’ve spent a few years in customer service) I think the customer is generally a greedy, grasping moron.
But that aside a customer is defined as:
A customer (also known as a client, buyer, or purchaser) is the recipient of a good, service, product, or idea, obtained from a seller, vendor, or supplier for a monetary or other valuable consideration.
So unless the kids or schools are paying (I don’t think the free publicity counts) for the milk they ain’t customers.
If Fonterra was using “Good private sector values” they’d be charging the schools but they’re not
“If Fonterra was using “Good private sector values” they’d be charging the schools but they’re not”
Just shows your simple mind. See, what they did was identify a need that the government refuses to acknowledge. They use the “oh look, we’re being nice to the kiddies” to make its consumers feel better about being reamed by a near-monopoly.
Such a shame their programme is a bit off the mark. What’s the humanitarian equivalent of “greenwashing”, I wonder?
The Fonterra/National Milkwash PR programme.