Daily Review 22/01/2018

Written By: - Date published: 5:30 pm, January 22nd, 2018 - 30 comments
Categories: Daily review - Tags:

Daily review is also your post.

This provides Standardistas the opportunity to review events of the day.

The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy).

Don’t forget to be kind to each other …

30 comments on “Daily Review 22/01/2018 ”

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  1. ianmac 1
    22 January 2018 at 7:16 pm

    “Activist Penny Bright’s house could be sold to recover unpaid rates and penalties on the house.

    Auckland Council has asked the High Court to proceed with the sale of her Kingsland house.

    The sale would seek to recover unpaid rates and penalties dating back to 2007.”

    Oh Penny! You need a roof!
    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11979811

    • McFlock 1.1
      22 January 2018 at 7:36 pm

      Not a done deal yet, but yeah – I hope she has a decent contingency plan.

      • Stunned Mullet 1.1.1
        22 January 2018 at 7:58 pm

        Well if it is sold she’ll still walk away with several hundred thousand dollars in the bank.

        • McFlock 1.1.1.1
          22 January 2018 at 8:12 pm

          Which, even if accurate (e.g. no other personal debt on it) might still get a hefty dent in auckland.

    • Rosemary McDonald 1.2
      22 January 2018 at 7:37 pm

      Oh, Penny! You do need a roof, but respect for making a stand.

      I began a began a rates strike against the Waikato Regional Council back in 2011…I chickened out, and have regretted it ever since.

      I don’t know how you’re going to deal with this, but all the best.

    • gsays 1.3
      22 January 2018 at 7:43 pm

      I can’t help but sense a link between these circumstances and Bill’s solidarity post.

      Brighter minds than mine will suggest ways that we can assist.

    • Stunned Mullet 1.4
      22 January 2018 at 7:57 pm

      Whether you agree with Penny or not you have to admire her steadfastness in putting her money where her mouth is.

    • James 1.5
      22 January 2018 at 10:11 pm

      Good on Auckland council bringing her to account.

      She could have stopped this years ago – about time she pays her fair share.

  2. Ed 2
    22 January 2018 at 7:29 pm

    With apologies to German Lutheran pastor Martin Niemöller

    First they came for the Socialists, and the middle classes did not speak out—
    Because they were not Socialists.

    Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and the middle classes did not speak out—
    Because they were not Trade Unionists.

    Then they came for the middle classes.
    And there was no one left to speak for them.

    Because the middle class had betrayed everyone else
    And so the plutocrats swallowed them up.
    And increased their profits.

    Insurer tipped to move more than 100 jobs overseas

    The country’s largest insurance company is tipped to be moving more than a hundred jobs overseas.

    The Herald understands IAG, which has about 40 per cent of the general insurance market, could be set to shift 55 jobs from its NZI insurance business and a further 77 from the parent company.

    The roles are currently based in Christchurch but would be done by overseas partners, according to an unnamed source.

    An IAG New Zealand spokesperson said an “operational partnering project” was under way affecting approximately 141 positions involving some parts of its Christchurch operation. Positions affected by the project could be moved to the Philippines.

  3. Herodotus 3
    22 January 2018 at 7:29 pm

    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11979552
    “In the UK, a loaf of the bread sells for just over £1.50 ($2.86) at British supermarket chain Sainsbury’s and $4.50 on average here in New Zealand. At Countdown a loaf of Vogel’s bread can be bought for $4.50 or $7 for two, and at New World it sells for $4.49.”
    “New Zealand Food & Grocery Council chief executive Katherine Rich said the price difference was due to a number of factors, including that there was no tax on bread in the UK.
    For a start, there’s no VAT [tax] on bread in the UK, while in New Zealand there’s GST of 15 per cent. That will account for most of the difference,” Rich said.
    Note to Katherine GST on a $4.50 loaf of bread is $0.59 so the exclusive price is $3.91 still a difference of $1.05. Me thinks there is something rotten here.
    Just confirms our low wage high cost economy.

    • Graeme 3.1
      22 January 2018 at 10:54 pm

      A bit of a beat-up really, it’s a function of New Zealand being a small country with a really shitty geography for doing things cheaply.

      Ms Rich sort of redeemed herself with this,

      “”Also, UK Vogel’s is made by a different company to Vogel’s in New Zealand, so there will be different manufacturing cost structures and specifications.

      There model of “economies of scale” was also a contributing factor, she said.

      “You can produce more items for less in a market of 65 million people, due to longer production runs, than you can in a market of 4.7 million people.”

      Pretty much everything I eat has done at least 500 km in the back of a truck, that doesn’t do much good to the price.

  4. Ed 4
    22 January 2018 at 7:43 pm

    Testing….

  5. Muttonbird 5
    22 January 2018 at 8:24 pm

    Great image in the post. Really highlights the hypocrisy of privileged whites.

  6. Whispering Kate 6
    22 January 2018 at 8:31 pm

    Would crowd funding work?

  7. adam 7
    22 January 2018 at 8:36 pm

    I’m really enjoying the intercept it has some really thoughtful pieces. This is a long piece, and is quite involved. But well worth the effort, and the analysis is first class.

    https://theintercept.com/2018/01/21/isis-defeated-syria-iraq-islamic-state/

    • Brigid 7.1
      23 January 2018 at 12:57 am

      I cant agree that it’s first class actually. No where has the author explained where Isis et al got their funding. No where does he give credit to those who have removed (mostly) these head choppers from Iraq and Syria. Are we suppose to believe US,UK, NATO, Saudi, Turkey, Quatar facilitated their removal? They were funding them ffs!!

      As one commenter said:
      JeffD
      15 hours ago
      This is such a clueless, superficial, out-of-context column that I stopped reading after a few paragraphs. The Intercept should do a lot better than this.

      First and foremost, the tyrannical regimes in the Middle East would have been thrown out of power long ago if not for huge sums of money and military equipment & support, mainly from the U.S. and secondarily from western Europe.

      Second, it was the U.S. that created the Islamic fanatic groups, starting with the Mujahideen that they used to fight the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. ISIS and Al Qaeda are their babies and they have no one else to blame for them.

      So, when it came to the Arab Spring, the only country where there was any success was the original one, Tunisia. Egypt was the most well-covered one in the U.S., and the U.S. made sure that no one good like Mohamed ElBaradei would take power. The rulers in the Middle East knew that they could count on U.S. support to crush any movement or potential leader who did not fall in line with the U.S./Israel program.

      • adam 7.1.1
        23 January 2018 at 1:25 am

        The people who removed ISIS/Isil/Daesh were the Kurds on the whole.

        A people more committed to a left wing solution to the problems for people. You know the democratic, freedom embracing, equality and talk about economics crowd.

        The group who at this moment are being bombed by the Turks.

        Come on are you saying there was no agency in this, that this warped type of Islam that ISIS/Isil/Daesh promoted was/is just a USA creation?

        By your summary, and you might just be right, the Kurds are dead. And the USA will make it happen. I’m hoping it is not the case.

        • Brigid 7.1.1.1
          23 January 2018 at 11:03 am

          ‘The people who removed ISIS/Isil/Daesh were the Kurds on the whole.”
          Actually no. That isn’t correct. The Kurds, most of whom are immigrants, inhabit the north east of Syria. It was the Syrian, Russian, and Hezbollah armies who removed Isis from Damascas, Aleppo etc.
          The Kurds at this time are being funded by the US not realising that they’re only being used by the US to divide Syria.
          The US has just instralled some thousand of troops across the border of Syria – which constitutes an invasion.
          I suggest you read articles by Vanessa Beeley, Eva Bartlett, Janice Kortkamp, Tim Anderson, Pierre Le Corf. These are people who actually went to Syria and spent time talking to Syrians and members of the Syrian Arab Army. Not one of them is aligned to any establishment media.

          It’s not that I disagree with what the author of this article says, it’s that he chooses to tell only half the story and in satisfying his urge to for intellectual analyses insults the thousands and thousands and thousands of victims of this western created and funded scourge.

  8. Pat 8
    22 January 2018 at 9:08 pm

    “The era of “private good, public bad” is drawing to a close. Unshakeable faith in Margaret Thatcher’s privatisation creed is being killed off not just by counter-ideology, but by the sheer irrationality, expense and failure of so many private contracts. Carillion’s spectacular collapse makes big headlines, but out of the spotlight local councils, under extreme stress from cuts, are cancelling contracted-out services. Why? Because it saves them money and improves services. I have been talking to councils around the country where in-sourcing is how they best cope with savage budget reductions.”

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jan/22/carillion-privatisation-myth-councils-pfi-contracts

    You can fool some of the people some of the time……..

  9. Rosemary McDonald 9
    22 January 2018 at 9:18 pm

    I’ll add another ‘activist’ into tonight’s discussion.

    Titewhai Harawira.

    Touted to be escorting the PM onto Waitangi this year.

    http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/te-manu-korihi/348656/titewhai-harawira-to-escort-pm-on-waitangi-marae

    Now some of us have long memories….http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10864470

    and allowing for the possibility of bias from the Herald…this part of the biography is true…

    “In 1988 Harawira, her daughter Hiniwhare, son Arthur and two others were found guilty of beating a Carrington Hospital patient. At the time Harawira was head of the Whare Paia Maori health unit. The jury also found Harawira guilty of a charge of threatening to kill. She was jailed for nine months.

    The sentencing judge said that the five had carried out a “vicious and violent” attack on the patient and that the offences were “an arrogant and frightening abuse of authority and power”.

    He described Harawira’s role as “outrageous”.Imposing a longer prison sentence on Harawira, the judge told her “You were in a position of authority, you ought to have prevented what occurred.””

    I vividly remember this, and vividly remember the member of the whanau I was working with at the time of the investigation into Whare Paia defending Titewhai’s actions claiming it was the Maori way. I was working in the sector at the time.

    For shame…and by all rights she should have scuttled off into silent obscurity…

  10. Ed 10
    22 January 2018 at 9:25 pm

    Today in the news…..

    1% own 30% of NZ’s wealth
    Tauranga and Auckland are extremely unaffordable cities.

    And now this.
    Small town NZ is slowly dying.

    http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2018/01/are-the-regions-are-dying-in-new-zealand.html

    Tinkering won’t end the neoliberal nightmare.
    Radical reform will.

  11. Ed 11
    22 January 2018 at 10:01 pm

    Plain speaking from Steve Cowan

    “The plain fact of the matter is that New Zealand as a country has moved on and Jacinda Arden’s pregnancy is a non issue with most people. It is some Labourites, ironically, who have tried to make it an issue. It would be better for all concerned if they turned their attention to the policies that their government is pursuing. Because, whether they care to admit it or not, Jacinda Ardern – even pregnant- is leading a government that is still pursuing the policies of neoliberalism.”

    http://nzagainstthecurrent.blogspot.co.nz/2018/01/baby-talk.html

  12. eco maori 12
    22 January 2018 at 10:14 pm

    We should be investing heavily in researching Science and Tech renewable energy sector this is one way we could minimise carbon emissions and generate export dollars.
    Peter Becks Rocket lab is a Great feet one of the greatest feets of any Kiwi and he respects Maori he got the site blessed by Maori ka pai Peter .

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/100766610/rocket-lab-will-make-life-on-earth-better-no-need-to-move-to-mars

    Video Games market is worth 100 billion surely we could easily get a couple of those billions I won’t say too much because I have ideas on this subject

    https://www.google.co.nz/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=13&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjI8vqZluvYAhWHVLwKHW_CBScQFghjMAw&url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FList_of_best-selling_video_games&usg=AOvVaw3xKQ6_PFmhJVQpZtVoegy9

    Clean energy sector is 330 billion eazy 5 billion here A if we invest in this we will benefit immensely.

    https://www.google.co.nz/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=6&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwio-Z_SmuvYAhXKurwKHewFDicQFghLMAU&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffortune.com%2F2016%2F01%2F14%2Frecord-funding-clean-energy%2F&usg=AOvVaw3qjw4fr8OkSiOLF-U2XcUn.

    We produced Ernest Rutherford it must be in the wai/water Ka pai

    https://www.google.co.nz/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjc3amQnOvYAhUCwbwKHQsyCpcQFggpMAA&url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FErnest_Rutherford&usg=AOvVaw1DVFpYd3zlxLq215I_dvkJ.

    Ka kite ano

  14. eco maori 14
    23 January 2018 at 12:43 am

    We need big changes in our justice systems Equality will be a starter.
    I know most of our civil servants read my posts when I put a good post up the sirens start up lol I feel for my neighbours. Many thanks to all our truck drivers I know a lot of you know about ECO Maori Ka pai.
    Civil construction /Road workers Alot of you know about ECO Maori Ka pai don’t listen to the bullshit lies of the sandflys and watch out for there shiney object they will use it and there viruses as that will turn you into the gullable people be warned.
    To all our Maori leaders don’t go biting the hand that feeds the people it the people that count in my view Ka pai. Yes WAI/WATER is a very important issue lets make wise choices when dealing with the issue There are many ways to solve the problem the wise people find the best way to a positive answers to our water questions.
    To all the that are not Maori cultured you don’t have to worry about Maori getting to much Mana/power with all the treasure of NZ. As when the settlers were in need Maori help them. Maori are a kind caring people who will share with other kiwis. It is neoliberals that one has to be worried about getting control of NZ Treasures they will bleed us dry for there dollar they wership this is fact Ana to kai