Ethnic Cleansing and New Zealand

Written By: - Date published: 3:54 pm, May 6th, 2021 - 108 comments
Categories: human rights, uncategorized - Tags:

Let’s start with the principles of the thing.

There’s a contest afoot about whether democracy and individual autonomy will out-compete autocratic state control of society. What is being attacked now are principles settled after World War 2. To refresh ourselves with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, here’s the preamble that puts New Zealand and others into fundamentally irreconcilable difficulty with China:

Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights has resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people,

Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law.

This contest New Zealand is in, then, is whether such universal rights for us all as humanity will be protected under autocracies or under democracies. President Joe Biden makes this threat repeatedly clear in his recent Presidential Address to the House: “We have to prove democracy still works. That our government still works – and can deliver for the people. In our first 100 days together, we have acted to restore the people’s faith in our democracy to deliver.”

That threat to democracy being the optimal state for sustaining and protecting human rights is provided directly by China. China is the presiding autocracy of the world we are in. During his first press conference in March, President Biden said: “It is clear, absolutely clear … that this is a battle between the utility of democracies in the 21st century and autocracies.”

And just before his Wednesday evening address, Biden told CNN’s Jake Tapper and other television presenters that historians would write about “whether or not democracy can function in the 21st century … The question is: In a democracy that’s such a genius as ours, can you get consensus in the timeframe that can compete with autocracy?”

Let’s argue about the inherent genius of US democracy another day. The fact that Biden has to spell it out shows that democracy is losing. Democracy in our world is under rapid retreat and outbreaks of its revival are slim.

With the decline in democracy goes our actual settled global acceptance of human rights are under attack. To this end, the road to Trumpian autocracy is getting wider and easier, and it leads to direct assault on Congress and election results. And the road to more countries around China just folding up their democracies entirely and resorting to martial order is also getting a lot easier: witness Nepal, Laos, Myanmar.

Can democratic states do a better job of overcoming ethnic cleansing and human rights than autocracies?

We are going to have to pick a side and say yes.

Ethnic Elimination and Genocide

Most countries across the world have experienced settler colonialism and within it the logic of elimination: not only the dissolution of native societies but also their expropriation through regimes of bicultural assimilation. Settler colonialism involves both effacement and replacement (Whether that aligns with a specific definition of genocide is another matter). We thought we could consign such savagery to history: we can’t.

In the United States the threat of domestic terror from race-hating groups is assessed as the highest internal threat that the United States now faces, with the entire intelligence community assessing that:

racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists (RMVEs) and militia violent extremists (MVEs) present the most lethal DVE threats, with RMVEs most likely to conduct mass-casualty attacks against civilians and MVEs typically targeting law enforcement and government personnel and facilities. The IC assesses that the MVE threat increased last year and that it will almost certainly continue to be elevated throughout 2021 because of contentious sociopolitical factors that motivate MVEs to commit violence.”

So the United States governmental intelligence order understands the deep damage to its society that Donald Trump’s movement (and before that the Tea Party, and before that the segregationists, and before that the Confederate supporters, and before that the actual slave economy) has done. Only democratic change and massive law enforcement will alter that – and even then Trump has irreversibly transformed the Republicans into nativist warriors who are still rising and are ever-more accepted into mainstream society and politics.

But China’s racist actions are state directed, not from local terror cells. There has already been multiple studies of China’s actions against the Uighurs, but the repression isn’t stopping and is getting worse.

Most post-colonial countries have records of mass deaths of native peoples in their histories, us included. Whether China’s actions against those peoples in the north-west are or are not defined as ‘genocide’ will continue to rage as it gets worse. Here’s one recent go at evaluating it.

The importance of the definition “genocide” being achieved is because following the Rwanda massacres in the mid-1990s, the United Nations provides genocide as a potential reason of “responsibility to protect” by at the endpoint invading a country with military force to stop it.

The expression “responsibility to protect” was first presented in the report of the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty (ICISS), set up by the Canadian Government in December 2001. The Commission had been formed in response to Kofi Annan’s question of when the international community must intervene for humanitarian purposes. Its report, “The Responsibility to Protect,” found that sovereignty not only gave a State the right to “control” its affairs, it also conferred on the State primary “responsibility” for protecting the people within its borders.

In January, the United States State Department declared that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and other ethnic and religious minority groups in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, later echoed by the Biden administration.

Subsequently the Canadian, Dutch, and British parliaments passed non-binding resolutions designating China’s actions a genocide, with calls for other governments to follow suit.

Our own Parliament will be debating something similar next week. The analysis of why that’s important to us when 30% of our entire trade goes to China is well spelled out this week by Professor Natasha Hamilton-Hart, which she cutely phrases the “ethics-economy dilemma”.

That human rights dimension defining genocidal acts is important in terms of international law, amongst other things.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ)2 has repeatedly stated that the Convention embodies principles that are part of general customary international law. Among those are the prohibition of genocide, as well as the obligation to prevent and punish genocide. As customary international law, such obligations are binding on all States, whether or not they have ratified the Genocide Convention.

The ICJ has also concluded that the obligation to prevent genocide contained in Article I of the Genocide Convention has an extraterritorial scope.

As such, States that have the capacity to influence others have a duty to employ all means reasonably available to them to prevent genocide, including in relation to acts committed outside their own borders.

China utterly rejects outside interference in its affairs. It did so this week to our Prime Minister’s face by the Chinese Ambassador, live before the most influential China-New Zealand audience we have here. So China actively resists is any international study that would provide evidence to confirm that genocide was being committed.

Were such evidence debated at the United Nations, there would be big calls for international intervention – of all kinds.

What this sets up is the really big contest going on about whether an open society that gets to examine and expose and rectify crime is actually better than an autocracy that hides it and does its work without scrutiny and evidence and accountability among nations.

The Framing of the Ethnic Cleansing Debate

The European roots of modern ethnic cleansing began after the breakup of the old Yugoslav state, and they are important here as precedents for the hard right who seek to replicate this elsewhere. By the 2010s, Bosnian genocide denial and the valorisation of nationalist war criminals because a staple of Western far-right discourses.

Serbian purity of old Orthodox Christian areas against the rise of Muslim populations became a pillar of hard-right political lexicon like the Confederacy, the third Reich, or the African apartheid regimes.

You could see anti-Muslim hate from Serbian conflicts in Anders Brevik’s attack in Norway in 2011, where his account made nearly 1,000 mentions of the Yugoslav wars (not linking to it).

The Christchurch mosque shooter, sentenced to life imprisonment for the 2019 Christchurch mosque killings here, covered his riples and munitions in the names of Serb and Monetenegrin historical figures and livestreamed himself playing a Serb nationalist ballad glorifying Karadzic’s genocide from the Bosnian War (nope not giving a citation for that either).

So it’s the framing of ethnically-driven massacres by madmen that tends to frame recent discourse about China’s approach to it’s north-western states. I think this is mistaken because they are different.

So What Is China Really Up To?

Aspects of China’s new policy direction are certainly destructive, yet their colonial intent is one we should recognise here. They seek to transform not exterminate the physical and social landscape of Xinjiang and other peripheral regions in their control. They work instead to actively alter the thoughts and behaviours of what Chinese authorities perceive as a “backward”, “deviant”, and innately “dangerous” sub-section of its population by lifting their “bio-quality”, and overseeing their rebirth as loyal, patriotic, and civilized Chinese citizens. Pretty similar to what was imposed here for about a century.

Beyond the semantics of debating ‘you say genocide, we say civilized’, China’s CCP under Xi Jinping is turbocharging assimilation across their colonial possessions from Kashgar to Hong Kong and Lhasa to Hohhot.

Resistance in Xinjiang against foreign control has been occurring since the dying days of the Qing dynasty. The program of settler colonialism through Han resettlement continued following the establishment of the Chinese Republic and intensified as state power grew in the post-Mao era, eventually attracting more than 10 million Han settlers to Xinjiang and sparking cycles of indigenous resistance. We’ve seen similar cycles play out across the South Pacific for many decades.

This settler colonialism involves both effacement and replacement, but doesn’t necessarily align with commonly accepted definitions of genocide.

As Xi came to power in late 2012, violent resistance escalated once again in Xinjiang, with a spate of deadly attacks across China. In response he announced a “people’s war on terror” and called on Xinjiang authorities to show “absolutely no mercy”.

So having said above that they are different, here’s where the supporters of Xi Jinping and Donald Trump meet pretty closely.

Ethnic Cleansing With Chinese Characteristics

The idea common to China, United States racists, and European racists is this: that Muslims and other minorities are waging demographic warfare against the majority, seeking to outbreed them, replace them and their civilisation, and sow discord within their newly established order. So in this logic it becomes the job of the great majority an their leaders to stop that by all means at their disposal.

The essence of the project across China’s periphery is replacement theory with Chinese characteristics. Defending that “civilisation”, as such, requires a confrontation with the “invaders”. Or as the Canadian reactionary Mark Steyn put it in a 206 New York Times bestseller:

“In a democratic age, you can’t buck demography – except through civil war. The Serbs figured that out, as other Continentals will in the years ahead: If you cannot outbreed the enemy, cull ‘em.”

If we want to be a part of retaining our human rights in the world supported by democracy – and stand with those countries who already see the damage of racist ethnic assimilation – we should continue to resist what China is doing in its north-west.

It’s the principle of the thing, and our Parliament as of Wednesday unanimously agrees.

108 comments on “Ethnic Cleansing and New Zealand ”

  1. Byd0nz 1

    The only moral ground we have as a Nation (and that's a bit shakey) is to go it alone. History is not kind to any of the Nations you want to align with, they all have and still do, have no clean slate when it comes to the question of genocide and human rights. Better to call out all Nations to get their own act together before accusing others of doing the same.

    Aligning yourselves with any of the major players makes you a hypocrite. Stay out of it.

    • Tiger Mountain 1.1

      Well put Byd0nz.

      ADVANTAGE has obviously put significant thought and effort into his piece…but really it still amounts to a backpat for US Imperialism. Ask the indigenous people of America about Genocide.

      The Non Aligned Movement (NAM) of 120 odd nations, still exists after the Cold War and a reinvigorated version of it might be a better way to honour the UN Founding Principles really than picking an existing “side”. Fascism is on the rise alright–Hungary, Poland etc., and it has to be dealt with at a local level in political struggle, rather than submitting to this or that “1984” style bloc.

    • Ad 1.2

      Only cowards "stay out of it". Real citizens engage and take moral risks, including that of intervention.

      Thankfully there are no such cowards in our Parliament.

  2. Gabby 2

    I'm just really impressed that the yankers have found a totalitarian regime they don't approve of. It's been a while.

    • In Vino 2.1

      Good cynical comment, Gabby.

      I as a retired teacher of language am annoyed about the misuse of the word 'genocide'.

      It means the slaughter of a race of people, not just oppression.

      Campaigners rush to extend the meanings of such words when it suits their cause, and soon they claim that examples of oppression become outrageous genocide, and they scream the word loudly.

      For genocide I think you need hundreds of thousands of corpses over the short period of time that this Chinese thing has been going on.

      Oppression; severe oppression; persecution – all these terms may be applicable yo what the Chinese are perpetrating.

      But 'genocide' is an obviously deliberate exaggeration.

      Where are the hundreds of thousands of corpses?

      I detest this Orwellian newspeak that people use when it suits their purpose.

        • In Vino 2.1.1.1

          My response is that those UN people may be good theorists about what they don't like, but they are not the linguistic arbiters about what a word means.

          Their extensions of what genocide originally meant is exactly what allows Orwellian Newspeak.

          • McFlock 2.1.1.1.1

            The UN literally did provide the current legal definition of genocide. In 1948, based on practical events immediately preceeding the creation of the UN.

            The Nuremberg Trials did include a more narrow definition:

            They conducted deliberate and systematic genocide, viz., the extermination of racial and national groups, against the civilian populations of certain occupied territories in order to destroy particular races and classes of people and national, racial, or religious groups, particularly Jews, Poles, and Gypsies and others.

            But then the guy who actually created the word applied a definition that is arguably more broad than the current one:

            By ‘genocide’ we mean the destruction of a nation or of an ethnic group. This new word, coined by the author to denote an old practice in its modern development, is made from the ancient Greek word genos (race, tribe) and the Latin cide (killing)…. Generally speaking, genocide does not necessarily mean the immediate destruction of a nation, except when accomplished by mass killings of all members of a nation. It is intended rather to signify a coordinated plan of different actions aiming at the destruction of essential foundations of the life of national groups, with the aim of annihilating the groups themselves. Genocide is directed against the national group as an entity, and the actions involved are directed against individuals, not in their individual capacity, but as members of the national group

      • Tricledrown 2.1.2

        In Vino Raphael Lemkin introduced the term genocide its literal translation is not its meaning.

        Also meaning the cause of bodily harm mental harm as well as killing people.

        Placing children other ethnicities.

        Looking at oranga tamariki ,All the Maori put downs mainly from right wing white supremacist colonialist perpetuating the propaganda of the conquering race of dehumanising Maori to keep Maori poor and unimpowered.

  3. Adrian Thornton 3

    "President Joe Biden makes this threat repeatedly clear in his recent Presidential Address to the House: “We have to prove democracy still works. That our government still works – and can deliver for the people. In our first 100 days together, we have acted to restore the people’s faith in our democracy to deliver.”

    If this were at all true then why didn't Biden and his fellow Democrats keep their main election promise of a $15.00 minimum wage that had 72% of the US population (62% of Republicans and 87% of Democrats) supporting it?..can't you see everything he says after not delivering this most basic citizen approved policy (that the Democrats used as the election spring board) while in control of both houses is to be taken with a grain of salt, if that.

    And further you have the gall to present the US and Biden as some sort of beacon of civility in the world..I am not even going to start listing all the countries with democratically elected leaders that the USA is today and have recently been negatively meddling in, because you know as well as anyone on TS that the USA is THE primary source of aggression in the world today..the USA are the biggest threat to democracy in the world today…if it were a democracy the people of the USA would have a reasonable minimum wage and free health care today, as that is what most of them want and have wanted for a long long time.

    BTW maybe the USA should start in their own back yard before pointing out state sanctioned mass murder…talk about class war!

    "Nearly 841,000 people have died since 1999 from a drug overdose.

    "In 2017 alone, there were 70,237 recorded drug overdose deaths, and of those deaths, 47,600 involved an opioid. A report from December 2017 estimated 130 people every day in the United States die from an opioid-related drug overdose."

    https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/data/statedeaths.html

  4. Stuart Munro 4

    The trail of contemporary genocide goes back a little further than Serbia, or Chechnya, or the ethnic peoples of the former Soviet Union, the holocaust camps, the Turkish concentration camps that were copies British camps for Boer prisoners of war, which in turn copied American civil war POW camps, and before that, to the trails of tears and reservations that marked the virtual extermination of US native peoples.

    Coercive actions against populations, even if they fall short of direct violence, are not to be blithely accepted, for all that a democracy parasitized by neoliberalism is going to follow that principle about as often as a stopped clock follows time.

    China likes to portray itself as a benign autocracy. International validation of that assertion rests on them refraining from actions like forced assimilation and erosions of the public franchise as seen in Hong Kong. We are obliged to dissent from their preferred interpretation. Whether further action is desirable rather depends upon how maturely they handle that kind of international criticism.

    • Byd0nz 4.1

      Yea, and the flattening of Korea in the 50's, and the American chemical war in Vietnam, etc, etc etc. Oh yea, let's play for that team.

      • Stuart Munro 4.1.1

        Tell us Byd0nz, who were the aggressors in Korea?

        Irrespective of your ill-judged factionalism, we should condemn genocide, even cultural genocide.

        • arkie 4.1.1.1

          Indeed.

          One of the worst incidents preceded the Korean War, in 1948, when the new Syngman Rhee government installed in Seoul by the United States ordered its army to suppress a leftist revolt on Cheju Island. About 30,000 local people were gunned down.

          By early 1950 Rhee had about 30,000 alleged communists in his jails, and had about 300,000 suspected sympathisers enrolled in an official "re-education" movement known as the Bodo League. When Kim Il-sung's communist army attacked from the North in June that year, retreating South Korean forces executed the prisoners, along with many Bodo League members.

          https://www.smh.com.au/world/south-korea-owns-up-to-brutal-past-20081115-gdt2yw.html

          • Stuart Munro 4.1.1.1.1

            Not the US's finest hour it's true.

            But whose troops crossed the border to take advantage of the power vacuum left by departing Japanese troops? It was Kim Il-sung's forces, some say at the instigation of Stalin.

            Conditions were harsh in Korea. Starvation and death from exposure was happening even in Seoul. In such circumstances, enemy combatants cannot expect a lot of clemency.

            Which is part of the reason NZ joined UN forces in defending the peninsula.

            • arkie 4.1.1.1.1.1

              These enemy combatants were South Korean civilians in 1948. They were imprisoned and 're-educated' for having communist sympathies. They were massacred by the South Korean state. It was covered up for 40 years.

              We should condemn genocide, but we should also be certain. Which sadly makes the determination of genocide largely academic and post hoc.

              • Stuart Munro

                Civil wars are invariably brutal. Was the North more humanitarian then, in the treatment of their prisoners? Were the Chinese, who lost getting on for 2 million troops by conducting human wave attacks, more sparing of their prisoners than of their rank and file?

                North Korea established a reputation for brutality which it maintains to this day. The South has gradually moved away from the oppressive militarism and built as enlightened a modern society as they could. They make a fairly good case for UN intervention.

                • arkie

                  I don’t have a faction in this, but I think it makes a pretty good case against war in general and in particular the proxy wars of greedy superpowers.

                • Pierre

                  When you say

                  The South has gradually moved away from the oppressive militarism and built as enlightened a modern society as they could.

                  I refer you to the previous point about the systematic killing of democrats, peace activists, trade unionists, and suspected communists. If it was a gradual transition, what happened in May 1980 in Gwangju? Why was Bak Jong-cheol tortured to death in 1987? The enlightened modern society you mention had to be dragged into being by determined protesters. It wasn't the UN which did that.

                  • Stuart Munro

                    True.

                    Now explain to us why the North has not made a comparable transition.

    • Gosman 4.2

      The concentration camps set up by the British during the Second Boer War were for civilians not Boer POW's.

      • Tricledrown 4.2.1

        Gosman it was a Guerilla war not just civilians how would the british troops how who were guerilla fighters they just incarcerated everyone then separated the men and sent them abroad to make sure they didn't re engage!

        Gosman you always fail to engage with the complete truth.Spinning white colonialist superiority at every opportunity.its time you took a few steps in others shoes to develop some empathy.

  5. Gosman 5

    NZ does not have examples of mass deaths of "native people". The Maori population declined between the early 19th century and the 1890's mainly as a result of the impact of new diseases (which would likely have happened regardless of colonisation). However to label it mass deaths is erroneous as it was more a steady decline as a result of higher mortality rates over decades.

    • Drowsy M. Kram 5.1

      The Maori population declined between the early 19th century and the 1890's mainly as a result of the impact of new diseases (which would likely have happened regardless of colonisation).

      That’s an intriguing Gosman reckon – what’s the evidence that the impact of new diseases would “likely have happened regardless of colonisation“?

      Colonisation, hauora and whenua in Aotearoa (JRSNZ, 2019)

      While acknowledging Cook’s estimate of the Maori population of 100,000 at contact, Pool and Kukutai put their assessment at 90,000 and argue that, in line with the pre-European trajectory, between 1769 and 1810, numbers grew to 95,000. The cultures of Aotearoa remained intact and adapting, their economies were vibrant and life expectancies were likely improving (Salmond 1991; Belich 1996).

      The Maori population began to contract between 1810 and 1825, falling to 90000 as infectious diseases in particular, took their toll on both birthrates and mortality rates.

      In this period the European population was small, although increasing ship visits meant transitory influxes at specific sites such as Kororareka in te Tai Tokerau (Salmond 1991; Belich 1996; O’Malley 2013) and exposure to new illnesses, guns, alcohol and tobacco. Maori population decline accelerated from 1825, falling to 80,000 by 1840, as infectious diseases spiralled into epidemics and changes to Maori economic activity (clustering for exportable resource exploitation) likely reduced life expectancy. By 1840 the European population had grown to about 2000 (Orange 1987), English life expectancy was about 40 years (Roser 2019) and the first significant acquistions of Maori land were under way.

      In the period from 1840 to the end of the nineteenth century, the Maori population fell to 42,000 as both increased mortality and and decreased fertility due to infectious disease, war, land alienation, malnutrition and mass immigration from Europe cut against growth. Settler numbers grew rapidly to outnumber Maori by 1860 (Statistics New Zealand 1861), reaching 770,000 by 1901 (Statistics New Zealand 1902). By the 1880s the life expectancy disparity between tangata whenua and settler was around 30 years (Pool and Kukutai 2018) as Maori longevity fell to the mid-20s and settler equivalents rose to mid-50s. Land confiscations, acquisitions and purchases saw Maori holdings fall to sixty percent by 1890 (Ministry for Culture and Heritage 2017). The period between between 1860 and 1890 was one of extreme trauma, loss and hardship for tangata whenua, especially those directly affected by the material, cultural and psychological ravages of war and the consolidation of the colonial state (Rusden 1974; Belich 1986).

      • Gosman 5.1.1

        Because Maori would not have been able to keep out infectious diseases. They were already struggling with them pre 1840.

        • Drowsy M. Kram 5.1.1.1

          Gosman, scholars have studied the deadly impact of diseases introduced by colonisation activities on Māori and other first people populations. I reckon the impact would have been less if colonisation had not occured. Your remarkable contention appears to be that the impact would have been the same regardless of colonisation, in which case we must agree to disagree.

          Aboriginal Housing Company
          With the arrival of the Europeans, the Gadigal population was virtually wiped. In 1789 and 1790 a smallpox epidemic swept through the Aboriginal population around Sydney killing literally thousands of people. It is probable that anywhere between 50-90% of all the Aborigines in the vicinity of Sydney died from this epidemic within the first three years of the European settlement. During this period, a large number of Eora were also killed during their resistance (led by Eora leader Pemulwuy) to the violent, dispossession and invasion of their land. Those who survived moved out of the area and joined neighbouring groups. Eora society as it had existed for so many millennia is believed to have been completely destroyed by the early 19th century. The events surrounding the Aboriginal resistance during the European invasion is analogous to the American Indian’s resistance against British colonial rule. During the French and Indian wars in the 1600’s, the British waged germ warfare against the American Indians and their leader Pontiac. The British strategically infected blankets with small pox and distributed them to the Indians. Small pox crippled the resistance and practically wiped out the American Indian Nation. Historians have revealed that dried smallpox scabs brought to NSW by surgeons for inoculating against the disease may have been used to start the epidemic among Aborigines. Two junior officers of a British commander who had approved using smallpox against Native Americans sailed with the First Fleet, so knowledge of germ warfare was possible. The timing of the Sydney small pox epidemic and the Aboriginal resistance would suggest that the British may indeed have used similar germ warfare tactics in Australia during colonisation.

          But we'll never know for sure.

          Biological warfare and bioterrorism: a historical review
          https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1200679/

          Smallpox epidemic kills 55 (8 April 1913)
          By the end of the year the epidemic had killed 55 New Zealanders, all of them Māori.
          https://nzhistory.govt.nz/page/smallpox-epidemic-kills-55

          • Gosman 5.1.1.1.1

            You use examples of a deliberate infection of populations in two other places as if that happened in NZ. It did not. There is no evidence the British engaged in such activity in NZ.

            • Drowsy M. Kram 5.1.1.1.1.1

              You use examples of a deliberate infection of populations in two other places as if that happened in NZ.

              Gosman, that seems an overly sensitive interpretation on your part – I made no effort to conceal the geographical locations of the examples that I cited.

              Nevertheless, infection of Māori populations in NZ with deadly diseases occured as a direct result of colonisation. It seems commonsense (to me) that the impact of diseases introduced to NZ by colonisation activities would have been less if colonisation had not occured, whereas you appear to believe that the impact would likely have been the same regardless of colonisation.

              The Maori population declined between the early 19th century and the 1890's mainly as a result of the impact of new diseases (which would likely have happened regardless of colonisation).

              And so we must agree to disagree; OK?

              • RedLogix

                Nevertheless, infection of Māori populations in NZ with deadly diseases occured as a direct result of colonisation.

                Really? After the past year or so and you still have so little idea of how infectious diseases spread?

                • Drowsy M. Kram

                  After the past year or so and you still have so little idea of how infectious diseases spread?

                  An intriguing question from someone who, in October 2020, confidently and repeatedly asserted (of the COVID-19 pandemic) "it's over".

                  And (23/3/2020): “The virus will likely take 4 – 12 weeks to overcome…laugh

                  Maybe we both still have a bit to learn about infectious disease spread.

                  Smallpox was probably introduced into China during the 1st century CE from the southwest, and in the 6th century was carried from China to Japan. In Japan, the epidemic of 735–737 is believed to have killed as much as one-third of the population.

                  Inoculation for smallpox appears to have started in China around the 1500s. Europe adopted this practice from Asia in the first half of the 18th century.

                  By the mid-18th century, smallpox was a major endemic disease everywhere in the world except in Australia and in small islands untouched by outside exploration. In 18th century Europe, smallpox was a leading cause of death, killing an estimated 400,000 Europeans each year.

                  Australia and New Zealand are two notable exceptions; neither experienced endemic smallpox and never vaccinated widely, relying instead on protection by distance and strict quarantines.

                  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smallpox

                  How times change!

                  • RedLogix

                    And now can we examine the origin of the Black Death – widely believed to have originated in China.

                    The point is that humans have always moved about, and inadvertently taken diseases with us. Trying to pin the blame on 'colonialisation' is a futile distraction from the fact that nothing was ever going to keep the modern world away from New Zealand. In that era there was no magical force-field bubble that was going to keep vulnerable populations isolated indefinitely. Hell we're having enough trouble achieving this today with all of our science and current methods.

                    Maori were inevitably going to be exposed to diseases they had no immunity to – exactly as isolated populations had suffered for millennia.

                    • Mark

                      According to a team of medical geneticists led by Mark Achtman that analysed the genetic variation of the bacterium, Yersinia pestis "evolved in or near China",[62][63] from which it spread around the world in multiple epidemics. Later research by a team led by Galina Eroshenko places the origins more specifically in the Tian Shan mountains on the border between Kyrgyzstan and China.[64]

                      LOL! trying to blame China for the black death carried by fleas is like blaming the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami on Indonesia (that's where the earthquake happened I think), hahahahahahahahahah

                    • Drowsy M. Kram

                      Dear Redlogix, as a beneficiary of colonisation, it would be hypocritical of me to want to wish it away. Fortunately, in these more enlighted times we can acknowledge both the historical and on-going benefits and disadvantages of colonisation, and note that the disadvantages tend to weigh more heavily on first people societies (or minority populations in general), even to this day.

                      Effects of colonisation on Māori
                      Pre- and post-contact life expectancy
                      Evidence suggests that Māori life expectancy at the time of Captain James Cook’s visits to New Zealand (between 1769 and 1777) was similar to that in some of the most privileged 18th-century societies. Māori may have had a life expectancy at birth of about 30. After European contact, however, there was a major decline in Māori life expectancy. By 1891 the estimated life expectancy of Māori men was 25 and that of women was just 23.

                      Population decline
                      The Māori population also declined steeply. It is estimated to have been about 100,000 in 1769. By 1840 it was probably between 70,000 and 90,000. At its lowest point in 1896 it was around 42,000.

                      Edit: In regard to your point about the inevitability of exposure of first peoples to diseases to which they had no immunity, I thought this was interesting.

                      Australia and New Zealand are two notable exceptions; neither experienced endemic smallpox and never vaccinated widely, relying instead on protection by distance and strict quarantines.
                      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smallpox

                      And yet smallpox outbreaks did occur in NZ, so it looks like ‘we‘ dodged a bullet there.

                       Smallpox epidemic kills 55 (8 April 1913)
                      By the end of the year the epidemic had killed 55 New Zealanders, all of them Māori.
                      https://nzhistory.govt.nz/page/smallpox-epidemic-kills-55
                      
                    • RedLogix

                      @Mark

                      It is of course idiotic to 'blame' anyone for the inadvertent spread of any disease. The obvious point I was making – and that you deliberately ignore – is that disease and it's movement between populations is one of our ancient enemies.

                      Still it would have been reflected much better on China if various CCP mouthpieces hadn't been shouting 'racism' back in February last year when we should have closed down global travel much sooner. I'm still struck by the fact of the CCP locking down internal travel with an iron-fist – while demanding the rest of the world remain open and thus ensuring the virus spread around the globe,

                      It's very tempting to think this was not an 'inadvertent' mistake at all.

                    • Drowsy M. Kram

                      I'm still struck by the fact of the CCP locking down internal travel with an iron-fist – while demanding the rest of the world remain open and thus ensuring the virus spread around the globe,

                      It's very tempting to think this was not an 'inadvertent' mistake at all.

                      It’s very VERY tempting. The Yellow Peril thinks they're inscrutable, but you see through them, eh Redlogix – you're not for 'veering'.

                      Trump said China may have started the coronavirus deliberately, as top advisers claim attacking Beijing may be the best way for the president to save his job
                      Trump’s approach to China has veered between blaming it for the coronavirus outbreak and seeking to strike a more conciliatory tone.

                      Trump repeats claim China may have deliberately spread virus, admits no evidence
                      There’s a chance it was intentional,’ US leader tells newspaper as Beijing battles new outbreak. ‘I don’t think they would do that, but you never know

                      Stamp it out, keep it out
                      Nah, a completely idiotic and in the long term, impossible dream. It will fail.

                      And yet here we are, seven prudent months later. Seems to me that "Stamp it out, keep it out" (elimination) has served NZ (and Australia) rather well, despite the on-going pressure to free-up international travel faster (do it now!)

                      Completely off topic (sorry) – we’re planning to visit Dad in Caloundra in September, COVID-willing! We really don't know how lucky we are.

        • Tricledrown 5.1.1.2

          Gosman I see you are sneaking in some dehumanising of Maori .

          In the history classes at the school I attended, Maori were classified as lower in intellect only good for shearing, strumming guitars,freezing workers.

          This has had a longterm damaging effect of the psychology of a complete race of people .Gosman you should know better but you are part of the problem where Maori were supposed to have equal rights under the Te Triti but have been undermined for 180 years ending up on the bottom of the heap.

          Where incidious odious people kick Maori while they are down.

    • Tricledrown 5.2

      Gosman Maori forced into clusters increasing transmission rates.

      A 50% to 60% decline in population is not mass in your hollow mindset Gosman.

      Your aloofness to others realities must be a good case study for your partner.

    • Ike 5.3

      11 deaths may not be genocide but given Samoa's small population this does not reflect well on NZ

      https://nzhistory.govt.nz/black-saturday-nz-police-open-fire-on-mau-protestors-in-apia-nine-samoans-killed

      Neither does this.

      https://nzhistory.govt.nz/people/erueti-te-whiti-o-rongomai-iii

  6. bill 6

    But China’s racist actions are state directed, not from local terror cells. There has already been multiple studies of China’s actions against the Uighurs, but the repression isn’t stopping and is getting worse.

    If there was serious oppression in Xinjiang there would be hordes of refugees, and camps springing up in the neighbouring countries (Mongolia, Russia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, India, Pakistan) – a bit like how victims of oppression flood up towards the southern border of the USA. But there is no outflow. Somewhat odd, no?

    Secondly, the terrorists in Xinjiang were pushing a foreign notion of Wahhabism onto the local Muslim populations. (As an aside, Uyghur Muslims have a long tradition of making and consuming wine, and the naqib isn't a part of Uyghur culture…) Anyway. The source of terrorist attacks was well documented even by liberal western media sources until (it seems) the word came down to change the script.

    China's response was different to that of 'the west' or Russia – rather than high levels of surveillance and jackboots, they threw high levels of surveillance and development at the problem, (I believe China has made plausible claims to have eradicated extreme poverty?) and there hasn't been a terrorist attack in Xinjiang for a year or two now.

    The USA is pursuing it's Middle East and N Africa strategy on the borders of China now….the creation of failed states by leveraging divisions in society and actively training, arming and funding selected factions to bring about chaos – basically exactly what liberal media accuses Russia of doing…but on steroids and with plenty of smoking guns for us all to see.

    Myanmar's shaping up to be quite a case study for anyone who can be bothered to move beyond the Washington talking points of liberal media outlets and avail themselves of quality and verifiable info. Just sayin'….

    My (probably forlorn) hope is that the bullshit about Xinjiang is so transparent, that the growing number of people who see through it for the cynical piece of State Dept propaganda that it is, will recognise the template (that of funding and promoting rabidly antagonistic "civil society" groups ) and tumble to the fact that it's essentially the same one that's being applied in the case of Myanmar, and that was applied to Libya, Syria, Ukraine, Hong Kong…

    Can I suggest people take note of the countries and regions that would be essential for a smooth roll out of the Belt and Road initiative and compare that list to a list of states and regions suddenly undergoing "out of the blue" upheavals? And go to the NED website and see what groups are being funded in what countries and regions by those regime change ghouls…

    Throw that information alongside the "scramble" scenario laid out in a study done by (I think) the petro chemical industry (Shell?) on likely future scenarios if climate change was not going to be tackled. It's an historical document now – climate change wasn't tackled.

  7. Pierre 7

    It's a bizarre argument to claim that 'Han' Chinese are concerned about Muslims as a demographic threat, considering how Uyghurs (along with various other ethnic minorities) were specifically exempt from the one child policy.

    Also, this post reads as if there's some kind of binary with 'the Muslims of Xinjiang' on one side and the Chinese Communist Party on the other. What about the many thousands of Chinese Uyghurs who are committed communists? Those who believe in a secular and progressive republic under the leadership of the working class, are they the racists in this scenario? Of course not.

    It would be useful for the left to produce critical and comradely analysis about what is going on in Xinjiang. At the same time it's difficult to have an honest discussion while rebuffing all the stuff abut genocide and ethnic cleansing being thrown around with intent to push some kind of regime-change agenda.

    I would assume everyone here does not support whatever Al-Qaeda franchise is currently in fashion, and we do not want to see Xinjiang turned over to an Islamic state. We all want peace, ethnic harmony, and the unity of the working class in this region. Yes? So start there. Uyghurs already have special protections for their language, their cultural practices are recognised and supported by the state. The CCP has obviously made various attempts to de-radicalise people and suppress terrorist elements. What is the overall strategy here, and is it showing much success?

    • Byd0nz 7.1

      Well researched and without hysteria.👍

    • Mark 7.2

      Good comment from Pierre. Measured, and facts based.

      The point is this. If the Chinese communists were really into genocide, after 70 years of Communist rule, there would hardly be any Tibetans, or Uighurs etc remaining – a billion Han Chinese could easily have extirpated all minority groups if that was their aim.

      But anyone who has visited Xinjiang, Tibet, Inner Mongolia etc, can see that the local cultures are thriving and intact to a far greater extent than that of indigenous people in any other part of the world. Bilingualism is sponsored by the state, and as Pierre said, minorities were exempt from the one child policy. They also benefit from massive affirmative action programmes (google it).

      There are real concerns over terrorism in Xinjiang: "The Syrian government reportedly informed Beijing there were 5,000 as of May, 2017 (Reuters, May 11, 2017). Another Dubai-based media outlet reported the number as 10,000 to 20,000 Uighurs, mostly in Idlib province (Asia Times, May 21, 2017)." Returning Uighur Fighters and China's National Security Dilemma – Jamestown

    • Ad 7.3

      The Chinese government's forced population of Uighur's is both effective and well attested.

      https://jamestown.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Zenz-Internment-Sterilizations-and-IUDs-REVISED-March-17-2021.pdf?x14952

      The Uighur language has been banned in a key Xinjiang prefecture. Mandarin is fully and resolutely implemented.

      https://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/language-07282017143037.html

      China's alignment of Islamic countries to support it is spectacularly obvious from its oil deals with those countries in Saudi Arabia and Iran: oil security and the money that flows from it trumps religious ethics.

      China has also been able to align its hostility toward its Muslim population with the antipathy of these countries toward particular forms of political Islamism — ranging from mainstream political groups that want their governments to expand democracy, cut corruption and protect human rights, to more radical Islamist groups that denounce governments as apostates and puppets of the West. You can see who China gets to mandate as Muslim through their official Chinese islamic Association. You will be familiar with the standard soft power routine at play there.

      https://www.mei.edu/publications/chinese-islamic-association-arab-world-use-islamic-soft-power-promoting-silence

      To be really clear: the strategy from my point of view is to denounce fools like you who attest opinions without sources, and to hold tyrant governments to account.

      • Mark 7.3.1

        One of your souces is Radio Free Asia, lol!!!

        Not ONE Muslim country has come out and condemned China. Many have supported China's actions.

        The fact is the world is changing. The views of a few angst ridden white supremacist Anglo Saxon countries worried about losing their centuries long dominance of the world simply don’t count for shit.

        More and more of the world are seeing the real threat to the well-being and happiness and indeed true democracy internationally is the USA. Not China or Russia.

        US seen as bigger threat to democracy than Russia or China, global poll finds | World news | The Guardian

        Genocide my ass.

        • Stuart Munro 7.3.1.1

          Pretty sure if the boot were on the other foot, and the Uighurs were reeducating Chinese people and making them give up their language and culture, it'd be genocide all right.

          Throwing mud at the US, however deserved, doesn't make China's hands clean.

          • Mark 7.3.1.1.1

            I'm sure if there were 5,000 to 15,000 former ISIS fighters, battle hardened wandering around California or New South Wales, the respective US and Australian governments would crack down very very very hard, and most people would support them for doing so.

            Indeed on a pretext of weapons of mass destruction on the other side of the world, the Western response is to bomb the shit out of a sovereign country causing upwards of a million deaths.

            • Stuart Munro 7.3.1.1.1.1

              False analogy.

              The Uighurs are in their own country, not invading.

              Love the red herring about the US though – yes, Bush was completely out of order – doesn't license China any more than WMDs licensed the US.

        • Ad 7.3.1.2

          The countries who oppose China's actions in the Xinjiang are on the record as:

          Albania, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia,Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Haiti, Honduras, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Marshall Islands, Monaco, Nauru, the Netherlands, New Zealand, North Macedonia, Norway, Palau, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

          Those who support it according to their own joint statement to the United Nations are:

          Angola, Bahrain, Belarus, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, China, Comoros, Congo, Cuba,Dominica, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Gabon, Grenada, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Iran, Iraq, Kiribati, Laos, Madagascar, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nepal, Nicaragua,Pakistan, Palestine, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Syria, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, the UAE,Venezuela, Yemen, and Zimbabwe.

          It's democratic and open countries condemning China's action on the one side, and autocrats and China addicts supporting them on the other.

          There has been some movement to and from either camp, and a few notable neutrals. The fact that this is an open multilateral contest shows that China still views globally held values and international sanction to be real to their interests.

          They can deny it all they want, but the international pressure is only going to get worse until they change.

        • Brigid 7.3.1.3

          And more hilariously Ad's other source is Adrian Zenz, A born again christian who in an interview with the Wall Street Journal said "I feel very clearly to be led by god to do this. With Xinjiang things really changed. It became like a mission, or a ministry".

          In his spare time he denounces homosexuality, sexual equality and believes the rule against the punishment of children is anathema to Christianity.

          More on Zenz

          https://thegrayzone.com/?s=adrian+zenz

          • Mark 7.3.1.3.1

            Yep, the guy is a fruit-loop with a pre-set agenda who is a senior fellow in China studies at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation

            Zenz a fair and impartial observer? – ROFL!!!!!!!!

            • Bill 7.3.1.3.1.1

              …victims of communism to properly include all those who have died (and who will die?) from Covid….according to the mentioned foundation.

          • Mark 7.3.1.3.2

            Thanks for this Brigid – –I always thought there was something extremely dodgey about the guy!

      • Pierre 7.3.2

        There are very simple explanations for all these things though. The Uyghur population has grown quite steadily and consistently since 1949. The 1.1% of Uyghur women of childbearing age who requested IUDs are doing so because they do not want to have children, and indeed it's their right. It's not a nefarious plan for mass sterilisation, it's just the ordinary and fairly routine provision of birth control for women who ask for it.

        Mark is right, if there was a genocide you would see it happening. And yes as it happens if you go to China you see Uyghur language printed on the banknotes, in Xinjiang the road signs are written in both Uyghur and Chinese script, the language is taught in schools, there are museums, theatres, and television stations dedicated to the Uyghur culture. The Chinese Islamic Association organises the rituals, trips to Mecca, Islamic scholarship, upkeep of shrines and religious buildings, it's not just a front for soft power. Despite what Radio Free Asia might claim, Uyghur culture is alive and well.

        Since you mention it, the party does interfere in the Islamic Association, Imams and other figures of religious authority are politically vetted in order not to promote violence or ethnic hatred. That's also quite normal in the context. The Chinese government clearly has no problem with Uyghur culture or the Islamic religion, what it is trying to do is to combat a (US backed) jihadist insurgency.

  8. RedLogix 8

    Events in Xinjiang are but a prelude to the far more dramatic dissolution of the PRC as we know it.

    As for all those cretins here pretending that China perches on some kind of moral high ground compared to the US – you forget to ask exactly why the CCP is frantically building out a massive military capacity.

    It far exceeds anything necessary for a legitimate defense from any plausible threat. Either the CCP leadership never intend to use it, in which case they're nothing more than foolish preening bullies intimidating their region. Or they do, in which case you're going to have to make a choice between the PRC and the rest of the world.

    • Mark 8.1

      "you forget to ask exactly why the CCP is frantically building out a massive military capacity."

      The US spends three times that of China per year:

      • Ranking: military spending by country 2020 | Statista

      But I suppose that is for 'legitimate defense' whereas China's spending is not????

      "It far exceeds anything necessary for a legitimate defense from any plausible threat"

      The US has around 800 military bases around the world, whereas China has four or five.

      China has very legitimate security concerns:

      Declassified: Trump's Indo-Pacific Strategy – United World International

      • RedLogix 8.1.1

        So if the USA is an evil empire for having a large military – then by the same logic so is the PRC for rapidly building out the same capacity.

        You simply cannot have it both ways.

        • Mark 8.1.1.1

          "So if the USA is an evil empire for having a large military – then by the same logic so is the PRC for rapidly building out the same capacity."

          Not if the USA started it, in order to threaten other countries.

          Does China surround the USA with a noose of military bases. NO.

          Does the USA encircle China with the same? YES.

          Case closed.

          • RedLogix 8.1.1.1.1

            Did the USA help the Nationalists fight off Japan, (while the communists cowards skulked in the mountains) and help free China?

            The vast majority of these bases are in places like Europe (where they're part of NATO) and the others arose in the context of WW2 and the Cold War. Far from 'encircling China' they've served the purpose of creating a security environment in which modern China could arise and thrive as it has.

            Now that the CCP wants to bite the hand that fed it is completely characteristic of it's vile Maoist origins – which it has never repudiated.

            • Mark 8.1.1.1.1.1

              "The vast majority of these bases are in places like Europe (where they're part of NATO) and the others arose in the context of WW2 and the Cold War."

              usachinamil2.jpg (800×426) (unitedworldint.com)

              • RedLogix

                Here's another source that doesn't leave out the vast majority.

                Note that most of the significant bases in Asia are in Japan. The implication that the US has 800 massive bases all surrounding China is selective bullshit; the reality is they're spread around the world and that most are relatively small with fewer than a few hundred service people staffing them.

    • Mark 8.2

      "Or they do, in which case you're going to have to make a choice between the PRC and the rest of the world."

      Seems like the 'rest of the world' has more of a problem with the USA

      https://www.rt.com/news/522986-world-fears-us-influence-democracy/

      • RedLogix 8.2.1

        Anything from RT is rejected here. Out of hand.

        • Mark 8.2.1.1

          "Anything from RT is rejected here. Out of hand."

          Whereas RFA (Radio Free Asia) is all ok eh? LOL!

          OK then, how about Newshub?

          United States more of a threat to democracy than Russia, China – global poll | Newshub

          • RedLogix 8.2.1.1.1

            Same propaganda source. As you are part of the effort to defeat the West by undermining belief in itself.

            • Mark 8.2.1.1.1.1

              "Same propaganda source. As you are part of the effort to defeat the West by undermining belief in itself."

              LOL! Here is the report:

              The Democracy Perception Index 2021.pdf (hubspotusercontent00.net)

              Prepared by the "The Alliance of Democracies Foundation"

              Not sure how defending China relates to trying to 'defeat the West' – LOL

              • RedLogix

                You're the obvious propaganda tool here – all you ever do is act as a mouthpiece for the CCP.

                • Mark

                  You are an obvious propaganda tool for US imperialism. LOL!

                  • RedLogix

                    Nope. I comment on a very wide range of topics, and have been doing so here since the site was started in 2007. You on the other hand …you have but one agenda here as an apologist for the CCP.

                    As for this 'US Imperialism' line that you run. Here is the blunt reality; that the US provided the manufacturing and strategic backbone to win WW2 and the Cold War. In this they defeated both the fascists and communists, and then set most of the world on a path to free trade and the extraordinary prosperity of the modern world.

                    Indeed China remained a backward nation, prone to famine and economic dysfunction until the US explicitly determined to dismantle the Maoist Bamboo Curtain and bring the PRC into the world trading order the US had created. All you had to do was play by the rules that everyone else abided by and for the most part peace, development and prosperity was within reach.

                    And this is what was happening for China until your President for Life came along, with his dreams of re-shaping the world to restore the 'prestige and face' of the great dynasties of old.

                  • Incognito

                    You do your nickname justice.

        • Siobhan 8.2.1.2

          ..but why out of hand ..and who do you consider independent?

          personally I would recommend neither accepting nor rejecting any news source without due diligence

          take the BBC for starters…

          https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/ourbeeb/bbc-is-neither-independent-or-impartial-interview-with-tom-mills/

          https://www.bbc.com/aboutthebbc/governance/regulation

          (my bolds)

          " BBC World Service is not regulated by Ofcom. Instead the BBC is responsible for setting its overall strategic direction, the budget and guarding its editorial independence for World Service. It must set and publish a Licence for the World Service, which defines its remit, scope, annual budget and main commitments, as well as "objectives, targets and priorities" which are agreed with the Foreign Secretary."

          • RedLogix 8.2.1.2.1

            Until we see the free movement of a number of journalists into the region – who're able to investigate without fear or constraint – then I'm frankly disinclined to believe anything the CCP or it's mouthpieces tell us.

            It's my sense that what we're seeing is not so much what most people think of as 'genocide' in the sense of a lot of dead bodies, but more an exercise in extreme coercive social engineering. There are now some 400 of these re-education camps showing up on satellite (or at least absent on the ground verification this is what we think they are) and I doubt anything much good happens inside of them.

            • Mark 8.2.1.2.1.1

              "I doubt anything much good happens inside of them."

              What's wrong with de-radicalisation and vocational training?

              Similar to the same sort of de-radicalisation camps set up in the West and modelled off them:

              China: Xinjiang camps take similar approach to US, UK, France – POLITICO

            • Mark 8.2.1.2.1.2

              "It's my sense that what we're seeing is not so much what most people think of as 'genocide' in the sense of a lot of dead bodies"

              That is the impression and effect the Western propagandists such as yourself are trying to convey, lol!

            • Siobhan 8.2.1.2.1.3

              …you must have replied to the wrong person here RedLogix as this doesn't in anyway address the issue I was following up on…

              however, I tend to agree with your second point…and in that regard there are a number of slow moving 'genocides' in the world ..which makes the idea that the West are going to war over this particular issue (rather than geopolitical maneuvering and power plays) all the more ridiculous…

        • Ike 8.2.1.3

          11 deaths may not be genocide but given Samoa's small population this does not reflect well on NZ

          https://nzhistory.govt.nz/black-saturday-nz-police-open-fire-on-mau-protestors-in-apia-nine-samoans-killed

          Neither does this.

          https://nzhistory.govt.nz/people/erueti-te-whiti-o-rongomai-iii

          • RedLogix 8.2.1.3.1

            What exactly is your point here? This kind of mistake happened over and again in our history.

            It happened just last year when the CCP loudly protested back in February that it would be 'racist' to stop travel in and out of China – while at the same time dramatically locking down their own internal travel. Thus ensuring COVID spread around the world. How well does that reflect on them do you think?

            Or am I just engaging in the same whattaboutism as you are?

        • Ike 8.2.1.4

          RT is a state sponsored Media outlet. So are the BBC, Radio NZ TV1, Most private media organisations in the western world are owned by 9 corporations. These 9 are controlled by 2 corporations Vanguard Inc. and BlackRock. Most of them get their news from Reuters and APN. These are also owned by the same corporations.

          https://www.bitchute.com/video/5gSH1K3sOmez/. About 20min mark for newsmedia

          And you think our news service is somehow better than RT.

          I beg to differ.

          • RedLogix 8.2.1.4.1

            I read RT daily – but I don't pretend to use it as a source because it's so closely entangled with the Russian govt that it's hard to tell what is reliable and what isn't. For the same reason most people here would reject Fox as a source.

            The reality is that there are no 100% reliable sources, even the ones you like. Hell I've caught out The Guardian often enough in blatant lies that I no longer trust them.

            My solution is to read widely and then construct a narrative from the plausible common elements. And be willing to read material that challenges your thinking.

            • Adrian Thornton 8.2.1.4.1.1

              Why wouldn't you use a piece of information from RT if was obviously correct and no other sources were covering that story?..is it because you are inherently biased yourself?

              "My solution is to read widely and then construct a narrative from the plausible common elements. And be willing to read material that challenges your thinking."

              From your own statements this does not seem to be the case at all.

              "Anything from RT is rejected here. Out of hand."

              • Stuart Munro

                …RT if was obviously correct and no other sources were covering that story?

                We'll let you know if that ever happens. Most of us used to read RT until they showed objectivity and professionalism the door.

                FYI “Anything that Causes Chaos”: The Organizational Behavior of Russia Today (RT) | Journal of Communication | Oxford Academic (oup.com)

                • Adrian Thornton

                  Human Rights Watch April 27, 2021
                  A Threshold Crossed
                  Israeli Authorities and the Crimes of Apartheid and Persecution

                  "In certain areas, as described in this report, these deprivations are so severe that they amount to the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution."

                  Right, and if the wests news is so much more reliable and deeply concerned with the welfare of oppressed, subjugated people getting fucked over in their own countries, then why wasn't this front page news across all their front pages?…where was the moral outrage? where are all the op-eds? why are we not talking about sanctioning Israel? why wouldn't the wests news liberal outlets seize on this report and use it as a springboard to help alleviate the plight of the Palestinian people and pressure Israel?…I will tell you why, because the wests news is as biased and as unreliable as everyone, seriously open your eyes man.

                  https://www.hrw.org/report/2021/04/27/threshold-crossed/israeli-authorities-and-crimes-apartheid-and-persecution

                  • Stuart Munro

                    I will tell you why, because the wests news is as biased and as unreliable as everyone, seriously open your eyes man.

                    Why address this to me Adrian – I get my news on Russia from people on the ground, not these news agencies that you are at such pains to vilify.

                    You should do the same – and then you would not be an ignorant and facile tool for a murderous genocidal kleptocrat.

                • mauī

                  Yeah they can't be trusted… probably because they have show after show of dissenting Western voices.

                  I mean they can hardly compare to Hosking and Garner in the mornings, and a bit of Q+A on the weekends 🙄

                  • Stuart Munro

                    Well of course I don't watch them – but judging by the ignorance coming from their fans, they aren't drilling down to any real issues. No surprises there of course – a candid journalist in Russia will go the way of Politkovskaya.

                    Actually they're very comparable to Hosking and Garner – neither of which are worth a moment of anybody's time.

            • Ike 8.2.1.4.1.2

              Fine as long as you read the BBC etc with the same circumspection. Frankly I don't think you do or you would have a more cynical attitude as to why China's alleged mistreatment of the Uighurs has come up at this particular time. Why for instance is this not front page news?

              https://twitter.com/wallacemick/status/1390380851809030147

              Perhaps it is better to rely more on personal commentary from people who have been to Xian Xiang and appear to not be strongly idealogical as well.

              https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MO2jqDQfeko

          • joe90 8.2.1.4.2

            And you think our news service is somehow better than RT.

            Yup, totally convincing vid from a channel boosting all manner of conspiratorial, pro-plague, anti semetic NWO claptrap.

            /

            • Adrian Thornton 8.2.1.4.2.1

              oh thats right because it's not like western media hasn't been pushing an evidence free conspiracy in the most mad, outlandish and bat shit crazy ways in the shape of 'Russiagate' four nearly five years…

              ..though, at least we can all laugh at it together now, that’s something I suppose…

              https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cr2SmniV0HY&t=48s

              • Stuart Munro

                We realize that you and your fellow dupes have swallowed this story without a pinch of salt, much less a healthy chewing – but many of us here at the Standard find your slavish adherence to Putin's third rate propaganda something of an intellectual failing – it really isn't something that you should wish to advertise.

                • Adrian Thornton

                  Mate you are priceless…thanks for just being you LOL!!!

                  I love the way that you and your pals have to keep on contorting and distorting your logic into pretzels to keep from admitting that you were played like violins (out of tunes one though!) by the Liberal press/Democrats/CIA and the FBI….what a chump.

                  There may not have been Russian bounties on US troops in Afghanistan after all

                  https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2021/04/15/there-may-not-have-been-russian-bounties-on-us-troops-in-afghanistan-after-all/

                  • Stuart Munro

                    If only you were priceless, rather than that malleable dross that, through your permeability to disinformation, empowers corrupt pretenders like Trump, and destroys the value of democracies around the world.

                    As for bounties on US troops – why address this to me? Have I made such a claim? – No, it is a straw man, no doubt to divert attention from your peculiar and unseemly love for totalitarian kleptocrats. I fail to see the attraction myself.

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    The Detail this morning highlights the police's asset forfeiture case against convicted business criminal Ron Salter, who stands to have his business confiscated for systemic violations of health and safety law. Business are crying foul - but not for the reason you'd think. Instead of opposing the post-conviction punishment and ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    58 mins ago
  • Misremembering Justinian’s Taxes.
    Tax Lawyer Barbara Edmonds vs Emperor Justinian I - Nolo Contendere: False historical explanations of pivotal events are very far from being inconsequential.WHEN BARBARA EDMONDS made reference to the Roman Empire, my ears pricked up. It is, lamentably, very rare to hear a politician admit to any kind of familiarity ...
    2 hours ago
  • Bryce Edwards: Scoring 4.6 out of 10, the new Government is struggling in the polls
    It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just show a minimal amount of flux in public support for the various parties in ...
    Democracy ProjectBy bryce.edwards
    2 hours ago
  • Bishop scores headlines with crackdown on unwelcome tenants – but Peters scores, too, as tub-thump...
    Buzz from the Beehive Housing Minister Chris Bishop delivered news – packed with the ingredients to enflame political passions – worthy of supplanting Winston Peters in headline writers’ priorities. He popped up at the post-Cabinet press conference to promise a crackdown on unruly and antisocial state housing tenants. His ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    3 hours ago
  • Will it make the boat go faster?
    Ele Ludemann writes – The Reserve Bank is advertising for a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion advisor. The Bank has one mandate – to keep inflation between one and three percent. It has failed in that and is only slowly getting inflation back down to the upper limit. Will it ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    6 hours ago
  • Bryce Edwards: Is Simon Bridges’ NZTA appointment a conflict of interest?
    Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi The fact that a ...
    Democracy ProjectBy bryce.edwards
    6 hours ago
  • Is Simon Bridges’ NZTA appointment a conflict of interest?
    Bryce Edwards writes – Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    7 hours ago
  • Bernard's Top 10 @ 10 'pick 'n' mix' at 10:10am on Tuesday, March 19
    TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Gavin Jacobson talks to Thomas Piketty 10 years on from Capital in the 21st Century The SalvoLocal scoop: Green MP’s business being investigated over migrant exploitation claims Stuff Steve KilgallonLocal deep-dive: The commercial contractors making money from School ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    7 hours ago
  • Bernard's six newsy things on Tuesday, March 19
    It’s a home - but Kāinga Ora tenants accused of “abusing the privilege” may lose it. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The Government announced a crackdown on Kāinga Ora tenants who were unruly and/or behind on their rent, with Housing Minister Chris Bishop saying a place in a state ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    8 hours ago
  • New Life for Light Rail
    This is a guest post by Connor Sharp of Surface Light Rail  Light rail in Auckland: A way forward sooner than you think With the coup de grâce of Auckland Light Rail (ALR) earlier this year, and the shift of the government’s priorities to roads, roads, and more roads, it ...
    Greater AucklandBy Guest Post
    9 hours ago
  • Why Are Bosses Nearly All Buffoons?
    Note: As a paid-up Webworm member, I’ve recorded this Webworm as a mini-podcast for you as well. Some of you said you liked this option - so I aim to provide it when I get a chance to record! Read more ...
    David FarrierBy David Farrier
    11 hours ago
  • Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6.06 pm on March 18
    TL;DR: In my ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.06pm on Monday, March 18:IKEA is accused of planting big forests in New Zealand to green-wash; REDD-MonitorA City for People takes a well-deserved victory lap over Wellington’s pro-YIMBY District Plan votes; A City for PeopleSteven Anastasiou takes a close look at the sticky ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    23 hours ago
  • Peters holds his ground on co-governance, but Willis wriggles on those tax cuts and SNA suspension l...
    Buzz from the Beehive Here’s hoping for a lively post-cabinet press conference when the PM and – perhaps – some of his ministers tell us what was discussed at their meeting today. Until then, Point of Order has precious little Beehive news to report after its latest monitoring of the ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    1 day ago
  • Labour’s final report card
    David Farrar writes –  We now have almost all 2023 data in, which has allowed me to update my annual table of how  went against its promises. This is basically their final report card. The promise The result Build 100,000 affordable homes over 10 ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    1 day ago
  • “Drunk Uncle at a Wedding”
    I’m a bit worried that I’ve started a previous newsletter with the words “just when you think they couldn’t get any worse…” Seems lately that I could begin pretty much every issue with that opening. Such is the nature of our coalition government that they seem to be outdoing each ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    1 day ago
  • Wang Yi’s perfectly-timed, Aukus-themed visit to New Zealand
    Geoffrey Miller writes – Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    1 day ago
  • Gordon Campbell on Dune 2, and images of Islam
    Depictions of Islam in Western popular culture have rarely been positive, even before 9/11. Five years on from the mosque shootings, this is one of the cultural headwinds that the Muslim community has to battle against. Whatever messages of tolerance and inclusion are offered in daylight, much of our culture ...
    1 day ago
  • New Rail Operations Centre Promises Better Train Services
    Last week Transport Minster Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre. The new train control centre will see teams from KiwiRail, Auckland Transport and Auckland One Rail working more closely together to improve train services across the city. The Auckland Rail Operations Centre in ...
    1 day ago
  • Bernard's six newsy things at 6.36am on Monday, March 18
    Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson said in an exit interview with Q+A yesterday the Government can and should sustain more debt to invest in infrastructure for future generations. Elsewhere in the news in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 6:36am: Read more ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    1 day ago
  • Geoffrey Miller: Wang Yi’s perfectly-timed, Aukus-themed visit to New Zealand
    Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. It is more than just a happy ...
    Democracy ProjectBy Geoffrey Miller
    1 day ago
  • The Kaka’s diary for the week to March 25 and beyond
    TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to March 18 include:China’s Foreign Minister visiting Wellington today;A post-cabinet news conference this afternoon; the resumption of Parliament on Tuesday for two weeks before Easter;retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson gives his valedictory speech in Parliament; ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    1 day ago
  • Bitter and angry; Winston First
    New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters’s state-of-the-nation speech on Sunday was really a state-of-Winston-First speech. He barely mentioned any of the Government’s key policies and could not even wholly endorse its signature income tax cuts. Instead, he rehearsed all of his complaints about the Ardern Government, including an extraordinary claim ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    2 days ago
  • 2024 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #11
    A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
    2 days ago
  • 2024 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #11
    A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
    2 days ago
  • Out of Touch.
    “I’ve been internalising a really complicated situation in my head.”When they kept telling us we should wait until we get to know him, were they taking the piss? Was it a case of, if you think this is bad, wait till you get to know the real Christopher, after the ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    2 days ago
  • Bring out your Dad
    Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    2 days ago
  • Bring out your Dad
    Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    2 days ago
  • Bring out your Dad
    Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    2 days ago
  • The bewildering world of Chris Luxon – Guns for all, not no lunch for kids
    .“$10 and a target that bleeds” - Bleeding Targets for Under $10!.Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.This government appears hell-bent on either scrapping life-saving legislation or reintroducing things that - frustrated critics insist - will be dangerous and likely ...
    Frankly SpeakingBy Frank Macskasy
    3 days ago
  • Expert Opinion: Ageing Boomers, Laurie & Les, Talk Politics.
    It hardly strikes me as fair to criticise a government for doing exactly what it said it was going to do. For actually keeping its promises.”THUNDER WAS PLAYING TAG with lightning flashes amongst the distant peaks. Its rolling cadences interrupted by the here-I-come-here-I-go Doppler effect of the occasional passing car. ...
    3 days ago
  • Manufacturing The Truth.
    Subversive & Disruptive Technologies: Just as happened with that other great regulator of the masses, the Medieval Church, the advent of a new and hard-to-control technology – the Internet –  is weakening the ties that bind. Then, and now, those who enjoy a monopoly on the dissemination of lies, cannot and will ...
    3 days ago
  • A Powerful Sensation of Déjà Vu.
    Been Here Before: To find the precedents for what this Coalition Government is proposing, it is necessary to return to the “glory days” of Muldoonism.THE COALITION GOVERNMENT has celebrated its first 100 days in office by checking-off the last of its listed commitments. It remains, however, an angry government. It ...
    3 days ago
  • Can you guess where world attention is focussed (according to Greenpeace)? It’s focussed on an EPA...
    Bob Edlin writes –  And what is the world watching today…? The email newsletter from Associated Press which landed in our mailbox early this morning advised: In the news today: The father of a school shooter has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter; prosecutors in Trump’s hush-money case ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    3 days ago
  • Further integrity problems for the Greens in suspending MP Darleen Tana
    Bryce Edwards writes – Is another Green MP on their way out? And are the Greens severely tarnished by another integrity scandal? For the second time in three months, the Green Party has secretly suspended an MP over integrity issues. Mystery is surrounding the party’s decision to ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    3 days ago
  • Jacqui Van Der Kaay: Greens’ transparency missing in action
    For the last few years, the Green Party has been the party that has managed to avoid the plague of multiple scandals that have beleaguered other political parties. It appears that their luck has run out with a second scandal which, unfortunately for them, coincided with Golraz Ghahraman, the focus ...
    Democracy ProjectBy bryce.edwards
    3 days ago
  • Bernard’s Dawn Chorus with six newsey things at 6:46am for Saturday, March 16
    TL;DR: The six newsey things that stood out to me as of 6:46am on Saturday, March 16.Andy Foster has accidentally allowed a Labour/Green amendment to cut road user chargers for plug-in hybrid vehicles, which the Government might accept; NZ Herald Thomas Coughlan Simeon Brown has rejected a plea from Westport ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    3 days ago
  • How Did FTX Crash?
    What seemed a booming success a couple of years ago has collapsed into fraud convictions.I looked at the crash of FTX (short for ‘Futures Exchange’) in November 2022 to see whether it would impact on the financial system as a whole. Fortunately there was barely a ripple, probably because it ...
    PunditBy Brian Easton
    4 days ago
  • Elections in Russia and Ukraine
    Anybody following the situation in Ukraine and Russia would probably have been amused by a recent Tweet on X NATO seems to be putting in an awful lot of effort to influence what is, at least according to them, a sham election in an autocracy.When do the Ukrainians go to ...
    4 days ago
  • Bernard’s six stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15
    TL;DR: Shaun Baker on Wynyard Quarter's transformation. Magdalene Taylor on the problem with smart phones. How private equity are now all over reinsurance. Dylan Cleaver on rugby and CTE. Emily Atkin on ‘Big Meat’ looking like ‘Big Oil’.Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15Photo by Jeppe Hove Jensen ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago
  • Buzz from the Beehive Finance Minister Nicola Willis had plenty to say when addressing the Auckland Business Chamber on the economic growth that (she tells us) is flagging more than we thought. But the government intends to put new life into it:  We want our country to be a ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    4 days ago
  • National’s clean car tax advances
    The Transport and Infrastructure Committee has reported back on the Road User Charges (Light Electric RUC Vehicles) Amendment Bill, basicly rubberstamping it. While there was widespread support among submitters for the principle that EV and PHEV drivers should pay their fair share for the roads, they also overwhelmingly disagreed with ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    4 days ago
  • Government funding bailouts
    Peter Dunne writes – This week’s government bailout – the fifth in the last eighteen months – of the financially troubled Ruapehu Alpine Lifts company would have pleased many in the central North Island ski industry. The government’s stated rationale for the $7 million funding was that it ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    4 days ago
  • Two offenders, different treatments.
    See if you can spot the difference. An Iranian born female MP from a progressive party is accused of serial shoplifting. Her name is leaked to the media, which goes into a pack frenzy even before the Police launch an … Continue reading ...
    KiwipoliticoBy Pablo
    4 days ago
  • Treaty references omitted
    Ele Ludemann writes  – The government is omitting general Treaty references from legislation : The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last Government in a bid to get greater coherence in the public service on Treaty ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    4 days ago
  • The Ghahraman Conflict
    What was that judge thinking? Peter Williams writes –  That Golriz Ghahraman and District Court Judge Maria Pecotic were once lawyer colleagues is incontrovertible. There is published evidence that they took at least one case to the Court of Appeal together. There was a report on ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    4 days ago
  • Bernard's Top 10 @ 10 'pick 'n' mix' for March 15
    TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Climate Scorpion – the sting is in the tail. Introducing planetary solvency. A paper via the University of Exeter’s Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.Local scoop: Kāinga Ora starts pulling out of its Auckland projects and selling land RNZ ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago
  • The day Wellington up-zoned its future
    Wellington’s massively upzoned District Plan adds the opportunity for tens of thousands of new homes not just in the central city (such as these Webb St new builds) but also close to the CBD and public transport links. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Wellington gave itself the chance of ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago
  • Weekly Roundup 15-March-2024
    It’s Friday and we’re halfway through March Madness. Here’s some of the things that caught our attention this week. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt asked how we can get better event trains and an option for grade separating Morningside Dr. On Tuesday Matt looked into ...
    Greater AucklandBy Greater Auckland
    4 days ago
  • That Word.
    Something you might not know about me is that I’m quite a stubborn person. No, really. I don’t much care for criticism I think’s unfair or that I disagree with. Few of us do I suppose.Back when I was a drinker I’d sometimes respond defensively, even angrily. There are things ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    4 days ago
  • The Hoon around the week to March 15
    Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:PM Christopher Luxon said the reversal of interest deductibility for landlords was done to help renters, who ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago
  • Labour’s policy gap
    It was not so much the Labour Party but really the Chris Hipkins party yesterday at Labour’s caucus retreat in Martinborough. The former Prime Minister was more or less consistent on wealth tax, which he was at best equivocal about, and social insurance, which he was not willing to revisit. ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    5 days ago
  • Skeptical Science New Research for Week #11 2024
    Open access notables A Glimpse into the Future: The 2023 Ocean Temperature and Sea Ice Extremes in the Context of Longer-Term Climate Change, Kuhlbrodt et al., Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society: In the year 2023, we have seen extraordinary extrema in high sea surface temperature (SST) in the North Atlantic and in ...
    5 days ago
  • Melissa remains mute on media matters but has something to say (at a sporting event) about economic ...
     Buzz from the Beehive   The text reproduced above appears on a page which records all the media statements and speeches posted on the government’s official website by Melissa Lee as Minister of Media and Communications and/or by Jenny Marcroft, her Parliamentary Under-secretary.  It can be quickly analysed ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    5 days ago
  • The return of Muldoon
    For forty years, Robert Muldoon has been a dirty word in our politics. His style of government was so repulsive and authoritarian that the backlash to it helped set and entrench our constitutional norms. His pig-headedness over forcing through Think Big eventually gave us the RMA, with its participation and ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    5 days ago
  • Will the rental tax cut improve life for renters or landlords?
    Bryce Edwards writes –  Is the new government reducing tax on rental properties to benefit landlords or to cut the cost of rents? That’s the big question this week, after Associate Finance Minister David Seymour announced on Sunday that the Government would be reversing the Labour Government’s removal ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • Geoffrey Miller: What Saudi Arabia’s rapid changes mean for New Zealand
    Saudi Arabia is rarely far from the international spotlight. The war in Gaza has brought new scrutiny to Saudi plans to normalise relations with Israel, while the fifth anniversary of the controversial killing of Jamal Khashoggi was marked shortly before the war began on October 7. And as the home ...
    Democracy ProjectBy Geoffrey Miller
    5 days ago
  • Racism’s double standards
    Questions need to be asked on both sides of the world Peter Williams writes –   The NRL Judiciary hands down an eight week suspension to Sydney Roosters forward Spencer Leniu , an Auckland-born Samoan, after he calls Ezra Mam, Sydney-orn but of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • It’s not a tax break
    Ele Ludemann writes – Contrary to what many headlines and news stories are saying, residential landlords are not getting a tax break. The government is simply restoring to them the tax deductibility of interest they had until the previous government removed it. There is no logical reason ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • The Plastic Pig Collective and Chris' Imaginary Friends.
    I can't remember when it was goodMoments of happiness in bloomMaybe I just misunderstoodAll of the love we left behindWatching our flashbacks intertwineMemories I will never findIn spite of whatever you becomeForget that reckless thing turned onI think our lives have just begunI think our lives have just begunDoes anyone ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    5 days ago
  • Who is responsible for young offenders?
    Michael Bassett writes – At first reading, a front-page story in the New Zealand Herald on 13 March was bizarre. A group of severely intellectually limited teenagers, with little understanding of the law, have been pleading to the Justice Select Committee not to pass a bill dealing with ram ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • Gordon Campbell on National’s fantasy trip to La La Landlord Land
    How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast TV, the original ”rock solid” $2.1 billion cost he was ...
    5 days ago
  • Bernard's Top 10 @ 10 'pick 'n' mix' for March 14
    TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Jonathon Porritt calling bullshit in his own blog post on mainstream climate science as ‘The New Denialism’.Local scoop: The Wellington City Council’s list of proposed changes to the IHP recommendations to be debated later today was leaked this ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    5 days ago
  • No, Prime Minister, rents don’t rise or fall with landlords’ costs
    TL;DR: Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said yesterday tenants should be grateful for the reinstatement of interest deductibility because landlords would pass on their lower tax costs in the form of lower rents. That would be true if landlords were regulated monopolies such as Transpower or Auckland Airport1, but they’re not, ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    5 days ago
  • Cartoons: ‘At least I didn’t make things awkward’
    This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Tom Toro Tom Toro is a cartoonist and author. He has published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010. His cartoons appear in Playboy, the Paris Review, the New York Times, American Bystander, and elsewhere. Related: What 10 EV lovers ...
    5 days ago
  • Solving traffic congestion with Richard Prebble
    The business section of the NZ Herald is full of opinion. Among the more opinionated of all is the ex-Minister of Transport, ex-Minister of Railways, ex MP for Auckland Central (1975-93, Labour), Wellington Central (1996-99, ACT, then list-2005), ex-leader of the ACT Party, uncle to actor Antonia, the veritable granddaddy ...
    Greater AucklandBy Patrick Reynolds
    5 days ago
  • I Think I'm Done Flying Boeing
    Hi,Just quickly — I’m blown away by the stories you’ve shared with me over the last week since I put out the ‘Gary’ podcast, where I told you about the time my friend’s flatmate killed the neighbour.And you keep telling me stories — in the comments section, and in my ...
    David FarrierBy David Farrier
    5 days ago
  • Invoking Aristotle: Of Rings of Power, Stones, and Ships
    The first season of Rings of Power was not awful. It was thoroughly underwhelming, yes, and left a lingering sense of disappointment, but it was more expensive mediocrity than catastrophe. I wrote at length about the series as it came out (see the Review section of the blog, and go ...
    6 days ago
  • Van Velden brings free-market approach to changing labour laws – but her colleagues stick to distr...
    Buzz from the Beehive Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden told Auckland Business Chamber members they were the first audience to hear her priorities as a minister in a government committed to cutting red tape and regulations. She brandished her liberalising credentials, saying Flexible labour markets are the ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    6 days ago
  • Why Newshub failed
    Chris Trotter writes – TO UNDERSTAND WHY NEWSHUB FAILED, it is necessary to understand how TVNZ changed. Up until 1989, the state broadcaster had been funded by a broadcasting licence fee, collected from every citizen in possession of a television set, supplemented by a relatively modest (compared ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    6 days ago
  • Māori Party on the warpath against landlords and seabed miners – let’s see if mystical creature...
    Bob Edlin writes  –  The Māori Party has been busy issuing a mix of warnings and threats as its expresses its opposition to interest deductibility for landlords and the plans of seabed miners. It remains to be seen whether they  follow the example of indigenous litigants in Australia, ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    6 days ago
  • There’s a name for this
    Every year, in the Budget, Parliament forks out money to government agencies to do certain things. And every year, as part of the annual review cycle, those agencies are meant to report on whether they have done the things Parliament gave them that money for. Agencies which consistently fail to ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    6 days ago
  • Echoes of 1968 in 2024?  Pocock on the repetitive problems of the New Left
    Mike Grimshaw writes – Recent events in American universities point to an underlying crisis of coherent thinking, an issue that increasingly affects the progressive left across the Western world. This of course is nothing new as anyone who can either remember or has read of the late ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    6 days ago
  • Two bar blues
    The thing about life’s little victories is that they can be followed by a defeat.Reader Darryl told me on Monday night:Test again Dave. My “head cold” last week became COVID within 24 hours, and is still with me. I hear the new variants take a bit longer to show up ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    6 days ago
  • Bernard's Top 10 @ 10 'pick 'n' mix' for March 13
    TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Angus Deaton on rethinking his economics IMFLocal scoop: The people behind Tamarind, the firm that left a $500m cleanup bill for taxpayers at Taranaki’s Tui oil well, are back operating in Taranaki under a different company name. Jonathan ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    6 days ago

  • Positive progress for social worker workforce
    New Zealand’s social workers are qualified, experienced, and more representative of the communities they serve, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “I want to acknowledge and applaud New Zealand’s social workers for the hard work they do, providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable. “To coincide with World ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 hours ago
  • Minister confirms reduced RUC rate for PHEVs
    Cabinet has agreed to a reduced road user charge (RUC) rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. Owners of PHEVs will be eligible for a reduced rate of $38 per 1,000km once all light electric vehicles (EVs) move into the RUC system from 1 April.  ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    7 hours ago
  • Trade access to overseas markets creates jobs
    Minister of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McClay, says that today’s opening of Riverland Foods manufacturing plant in Christchurch is a great example of how trade access to overseas markets creates jobs in New Zealand.  Speaking at the official opening of this state-of-the-art pet food factory the Minister noted that exports ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    7 hours ago
  • NZ and Chinese Foreign Ministers hold official talks
    Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Wellington today. “It was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017. Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    21 hours ago
  • Kāinga Ora instructed to end Sustaining Tenancies
    Kāinga Ora – Homes & Communities has been instructed to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework and take stronger measures against persistent antisocial behaviour by tenants, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Earlier today Finance Minister Nicola Willis and I sent an interim Letter of Expectations to the Board of Kāinga Ora. ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 day ago
  • Speech to Auckland Business Chamber: Growth is the answer
    Tēna koutou katoa. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the Honourable Simon Bridges for hosting this address today. I acknowledge the business leaders in this room, the leaders and governors, the employers, the entrepreneurs, the investors, and the wealth creators. The coalition Government shares your ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 days ago
  • Singapore rounds out regional trip
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