I thought it mighty clever of the weather to turn to Winter overnight. Sitting pretty here in a house of brick. It wasn't always so easy.
Let's hear it for a budget tackling homelessness, let's hear it for a government trying to address mental health.
Sleep.
I spent parts of winter sleeping half at night, half in the day. This was in order to cope with the cold. From cars to windowless squats, beneath bridges and basements abandoned; the houses of homelessness are cold.
To sleep it helped to be inebriated so one's body (and head) would allow you some sleep. I'd curl up in a foetal position with covers over my head to recirculate the warm air, and hands tucked between my legs to try get them warm. It was enough for a while and I'd drift off, but by around 4 a.m. either my reserves or the temperature had dropped sufficiently that it woke me.
There were several hours till dawn and though many preferred to stay down, shivering as temperatures bottomed out, I had to move.
Morning calisthenics. 4 a.m. drills for the idle unemployed. Press ups, squats, burpees. Soon I'd be warm enough to stop shivering, warm enough that the ringing in my ears would subside, warm enough to roll a smoke without tearing the paper in half. The burning coal of a cigarette cupped in the palms of my hands.
I'd march. Off to the parks, to the coast and the dunes. Under lupins and round the river mouths. In the places fungi grew in abundance. Magical fungi, munchable fungi. From the city to the fields and back again.
We ate fungi, watercress, seafood, rustled sheep, pilfered fruit, garden raids, dumpster diving and homeless handouts. We never thought about how we were homeless, we were surviving. Mental health, abuse, alcoholism, addiction, abandonment. It was all there, and it was all intertwined. We absolved ourselves with three Fuck You's and a bottle of grog.
A portion of us were typically in prison. This was normal. Some were locked up for stealing liquor, others robbing chemists; I for picking mushrooms and growing weed. Whatever it takes means different things to different people, and survival trumped law in most cases. As society had done to us the things that were done to us, then fuck society. We would look after ourselves.
We were divided in attitudes between those of us who wanted to change the world, and those who wanted to burn it all down. There's too much time to think when you are homeless. To feel purpose it helps if one can move purposefully. To live amongst the hopeless it requires a special kind of strength to even dare to dream. We were young and we still dared, but for many it was a dream.
Overdose, car accident, murder, life. Slowly they vanished as if they'd never existed. Long forgotten by those purported to love them. Dead.
The eulogies I wrote were prosaic and deep. It was tragedy and tragedy then tragedy again. Absentee parents wailed soulfully upon the caskets of those they held dear. Too little and too late they'd turn up in their cars. Countenance grave; soft words finally spoken.
Thanks for sharing that. Such insights into our collective reality are essential, and a helpful antidote to the economic/political spin around the budget, reminding us what it's all about really. And resilience contains emotional intelligence as a social necessity…
Same as Dennis and HS; you've hinted at this before so it's not a surprise. But I am moved by the intensity of it. And not only have you journeyed through that dark, damp land … but you found the path out of it.
I for one await more of the story, if and when it's time to tell it.
I echo all of the sentiments by the rest on here WTB. A wonderful piece, and thank you for sharing. There are a few favourite places here in our town for some to find a bit of shelter. A convenient nook in an alleyway just off the main street makes an ideal spot. It's covered over and reasonably secluded, but it would be a bugger in a westerly! Behind the church is good too and just over the road from the pub. It's also sheltered from the wind and has soft grass. We have around 15 to 20 sleeping really rough here, and are about to get expanded accommodation for those nights when it really is too bad to be unsheltered.
WOW! A brilliant piece of writing WTB (1) … I'd like to say it was a great story. However, the story you told wasn't/isn't so great for far too many Kiwis.
Thanks for taking the time to share such a raw, gritty expose` of homelessness in NZ, through personal experience.
Lived experience speaks with an authentic voice. Thank you WTB for sharing, for keeping your sense of hope and for recognising the efforts made to change the way budgets are formed. May you enjoy your brick house and the winter warmth your home offers you for the rest of your days. Please write more.
"In Portugal and Spain, the incumbent governments of the centre-left were rewarded by voters. In Spain, voters rejected the far right populist party Vox, which collapsed back to 6% from the 10% high it achieved only a fortnight ago in the Spanish general elections."
"On the radical left, Podemos saw its support decline to 10%, a sharp fall from the 18% they’d scored in the last European Parliament elections. The decline of Podemos holds a cautionary message for the Green Party in New Zealand. Now that Podemos is no longer an outsider party but is actively propping up the Socialist government of Pedro Sanchez, much of its support has been bleeding back to Sanchez and his PSOE party, which has long been Spain’s neo-liberal Third Way party of the centre-left. In a further blow, radical left mayors in major cities (including the high profile administration of Ada Colau in Barcelona) lost their fights for re-election. In Spain as whole, the radical left is being marginalised by regional parties, and by the Establishment left."
As a life-long radical, I've always found the radical left amusing. I share their striving to attain an ideal world, while remaining baffled at their reluctance to learn from political experience. It makes no sense for the Greens to marginalise themselves on the extreme left. Too few voters support such idiocy.
Usually radical leftists reject centrism in favour of ideological purity. They refuse to admit that support for the underdog is more politically potent when it comes from a party that controls the political centre and selects governments. As Winston has proven. The GP needs leaders who are capable of learning the lesson.
Nuance. I made no blanket statement re the Greens, just advised against any leftist extremism. There's a ginger group (mainly idealistic youngsters) within the party which formed several years ago to lobby for such positioning. I've seen their spokespeople being explicit in calling for that partisan stance and alignment at our conferences. They are open, honest, and forthright in doing so.
Add to that is the unending nauseating way media professionals keep depicting the Greens as `to the left of Labour'. Hardly surprising that a popular view of the Greens being wild-eyed radicals has gained currency. Hopelessly unrealistic…
You fail to point out that since the emergence of centrist liberalisim as the dominating force in western left wing politics from the late 1970's, what was once just left is now framed as extreme or radical left.
The reason cenerism should and is being rejected is because it has failed to work, or work for the many and not just the few..or haven't you noticed.
Go and read WeTheBleeple’s piece at the beginning of today’s open mike, and think about the homeless families living in cars all over NZ, all the working poor in NZ who spend over half their wages on rent, that is free market centerism in action for you.
Green suit-wearers will be careerists, of course, but doesn't mean inability to grasp the big picture. Here we have the Values schism to teach us that the centrists are essential to the political success of the Green left (if they were able to learn the lesson) whereas in Germany the thirty years war between fundies & realos seems to have been resolved.
"A surge of support, helped by the Fridays for Future protest movement, propelled Germany's Greens to second place in Sunday's European Parliament elections, at the expense of the mainstream parties. Chancellor Angela Merkel's centre-right CDU/CSU bloc and their ailing junior coalition partners the Social Democrats (SPD) both suffered historic losses after being caught flat-footed on environmental policy."
The thing with all of this thinking, within multiple contexts/systems:
The edge is where the action occurs. New ideas, new genes, new philosophies.
The center is where most of the energy resides, but this is mostly used to maintain the status quo, broken or not. There is an illusion in the center, being the 'holders of power', that everything held in check belongs to the center and is of the center's doing.
But it came from an edge. The refusal to listen to the fringe is everyone's limitation.
I understand your position in trying to help more fringe lefties gain some ideas for relative longevity and a platform for their positions: but the center swallows the edge, it's very nature being conformity to the center.
Much better that we allow fringe political players to be their own entities (within reason and civility) as a think-tank for the center – as it has always been, but let's be honest about who's doing all the thinking.
The people with real problems to solve – or the well to do?
…who's doing all the thinking. The people with real problems to solve – or the well to do?
I don't find thinking and questioning and willingness to consider other less-materially-successful peoples viewpoint among the well to do. Not as a rule.
You have to step aside and view things objectively, wonder about how it is for others, listen to their tales and then wonder about what led them there. The amount of wondering that people do, of the different ways that people react to the same events and treatment, all helps to get a depth to relating to others. Most well to do are too busy managing their resources, and choosing ways to observe things or do things important to their group to sit and wonder.
Running in marathons is a perfect example. A totally unimportant activity, a personal challenge to skite about, and very much about self and proving yourself not lazy and meeting some herd convention. Why don't people raise to merit the groups going out to cut down old mans beard suffocating forest for instance. That requires all the fitness put into a marathon; that would be the wondering herd in action, not the stampeding herd off on some psychological desire to prove themselves as good as the old pioneers.
"Running marathons is a perfect example" greywarshark, the same idiocy is involved in climbing the same mountain 10 times.
Feck, the airfares the costs and the energy could have built several tiny homes.
Climbers are held up to us as heroes. Edmund Hillary was, because he followed up with meaningful humanitarian efforts. Now it is a mighty money churn and less than edifying.
Many who are well off do not see their wealth, because they "Don't have a ……." (put a toy in there).
The edge is where the action occurs. New ideas, new genes, new philosophies.
Agreed. But keep in mind that only a small fraction of new ideas turn out to be good ideas. Radicals always risk going too far in their search.
The center is where most of the energy resides, but this is mostly used to maintain the status quo, broken or not.
Again agreed, yet keep in mind that while the status quo is always flawed and imperfect, we still depend on it for our daily survival. Yet as you say when it refuses to listen, the centre stagnates and becomes tyrannical.
The edge is represents the new, the unknown and the unstable, while the centre is the opposite. While both domains have their natural inhabitants, they also both need each other. They need to trade.
When you're mixing ingredients preparing to cook something, you keep adding and blending, repeating that till the mix is in right proportions needed for a good outcome. We need better chefs, cooks and kitchen hands following better practices if we want to lift our standards and then share out the buns fairly. That way we wouldn't get egg on our own faces or want to decorate the faces of supposed smart leaders.
Difference between a chef and a cook is a chef knows how to shop better. Asians by far have a far superior cultural tradition of low end deliciousness because across the Asian continent food has been far more democratised than in the west. In Asia cooks don't have to make difficult choices because the produce is so cheap to source and buy. In Asia it is possible to pick up a delicious hot sit down meal for 50 cents served to your table. In the west the well housed and well fed have a far greater cultural tradition of deciding who gets to eat and who doesn't.
In the 80's jokes was the currency of the work place smoko room. In the 90's not so much and in the naughties the lunch room turned into a sour affair as work breaks became less and less and productivity up and up. No one has the instincts to tell a joke any more. The people that make up The Labour Party flow in and out of ministerial offices, they are no longer selected from the people who know something about society so Labour lacks those democtratic instincts and must rely on committee groups to come up with ideas and working groups to hold there hands as they run the country.
Even though Labour are after higher wages and higher health they recognise the injustice of what Māori went through because they still have a beating heart. That kind of Labour Party will serve New Zealand particularly well. If MPs can teach themselves the big things then they'll have the instincts to know how things are run and then those smarties won't need pollsters. Although we can't whined the economy back to the 80's we've got a changing industrial relationship and every one doesn't wear the old high school knock around shoes anymore. We do have a different economy today. The same instincts are around and we've got to have more of that in The Labour Party and we've missed doing that in the last 15-20 years.
Yes, I fully agree with your reasoning & analysis. I'm still on the edge, in respect of investigating new thinking continuously, but I plonked one foot in the establishment at the start of '75, to have a career, and ended up straddling both realms, uneasily.
I've always found most Greens too mainstream in their thinking, for instance. Yet to get consensus, I had to work constructively with them. Overcoming my natural distaste for compromising essential principles was always hard, yet the sustained effort got us into parliament, and the compromises our reps in parliament have had to make are similar to mine in those respects.
So nowadays I advocate a consensus praxis to overcome partisan divides, and am pleased that we finally have a government actually doing that. Still, we must keep pushing for more innovative thinking around governance. The world needs that, not just us here in Aotearoa!
The launch this week of the book Whale Oil understandably put Cameron Slater and his dirty blogging at the centre of attention. But he has been in some cases paid and aided, abetted and used by a number of accomplices.
Someone who has been closely associated with Slater in his sustained attacks on Matt Blomfield is an ex-business associate of Blomfield’s, Marc Spring. If anything he has done more for longer than Slater.
One way Spring has kept attacks going against Blomfield) is his use of many identities in his online activities.
How many identities? That’s hard to quantify, but it’s many. my guess is well over a hundred identities, if not many more.
I identified over 40 in an eight month period on just one blog.
There have probably been some here.
Use of multiple pseudonyms is deceptive, and is bad for the many people who legitimately and reasonably use a pseudonym, as id discredits the use of pseudonyms generally.
That is very informative and insightful pete george. Thank you. We do have to keep watch for the evil people that are round, sort of have sensitive traps in our minds that register particular types of thought and action; a bit like traps for insects and predators that can be so deadly for our food sources.
Having seen of some of his antics over the years your description sounds pretty right. You could have used the word 'multiple' in front of obsessive.
It's interesting describing the behaviour and the personality in proper scientific, psychological terms. The easiest thing would be to say things like 'dirty, lowdown, scumbag piece of shit."
Here are Marc Spring identities that have been used on various blogs and media comments forums.
ThreeMonkeys
SHAFT
The Ape
NOT MIKE
4077th
Gweg pwesland
pimp
phillip
DaveG
slicedcheesesandwich
Justice4Matt
BLOMFIELDS EX BIZ PARTNER
Harry ‘Gold Star’ Stottle
Harry Stottle
to HELL in a handbasket
The Assasin
David Jessop
CHEEKY DARKY
the MONKEYS RAINCOAT
Elton
Samantha Hays
The Barber
They Walk, they talk, they harm
THE PRIEST
Hannibal Lecters Psychologist
Inspector Clouseau
Rod
I HAVE THE HARD DRIVE
MARC NEVER FORGETS CUNT
I AM OWED TOO
THE WORST NIGHTMARE
When dies Bankrupt = Businessman
Jean
Bus Driver
LORD DONKEY
Harvey Specter
TYRANT/THE TYRANT
HUSTLER
BUCK WIT
Shagger
Gimp of Greenhithe
Spiderman wants his mask back
RAMBONE OF RAMBONIA
Reaper Crew
Gay Mo
Rolf Harris
Bill Brown
Reaper Crew
The last one is one of I believe a number he has used at LF.
Isn’t that one of those psychological word-association tests to unearth deep psychological trauma, damaged or stalled identity development, and psychopathic tendencies?
I suppose this has already been noted here. Amy Adams of National accusing Labour Coalition of playing 'petty politics' in changes to the convention of the pre-Budget practices. WTF when Simon B does it, it is okay – he is just testing the government by breaking reasonable agreements.
I should think that Labour Coalition was actually trying to prevent National doing more of their petty measures and turning what was a serious financial presentation into a Punch and Judy show.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA1905/S00287/government-playing-petty-politics-with-budget-day-process.htm
National’s Finance spokesperson Amy Adams says. 29 May 2019 “While media and other parties are given three and a half hours to examine the Government’s accounts before they are released, National is only allowed 60 minutes. Because of this we need a wide range of subject matter experts to review their areas. Last year we had 16 of our team present and to have this arbitrarily halved this year is unreasonable and petty, particularly when we are told this year’s Budget will look very different to previous years.
Ah but that can be played out as part of a Conspiracy against National.
And perhaps the room was further from the toilets – another form of harassment. Gnats are really sick in the mind, and it says something too about the people who keep voting them in, keep supporting them, keep listening to the diatribe from the bellicose broadcasters providing them with a comforting blanket of words for the day that the Right Crowd can repeat to prevent any uncomfortable thoughts from filtering through the Matrix.
I notice a lot of Rudyard Kipling’s poem ‘If’ is pertinent. If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:
And even that wording can be bent and used against you by the RW and some from the Left as well. And that is dealt with in those lines also. A meaningful poem. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46473/if—
Fascinating in-depth documentary on the influence of cannabis in the Bible. It seems the word cannabis was Scythian in origin and it was they who traded and spread it throughout Eurasia. The Greeks called it by the same name while the Jews called it Kaneh Bosm, each culture giving the plant a variation of the Scythian name. Like others, the Jews valued its ability to get high (restricted to the high priests, prophets and kings), nutritional value and use for hemp clothing.
Thanks for this john. I've been following this sad development and watching the entire fiasco unravel on every front. I used some strong language a few days back, and the light of this I don't resile from it one jot.
All I have is a voice
To undo the folded lie,
The romantic lie in the brain
Of the sensual man-in-the-street
And the lie of Authority
Whose buildings grope the sky:
There is no such thing as the State
And no one exists alone;
Hunger allows no choice
To the citizen or the police;
We must love one another or die.
I think what could help Assange is if someone from the RW speaks up who has perceptions of being decent and also concerned about USA keeping an appearance of having standards of behaviour that bear scrutiny. That person would suggest that it is a bad idea to not enable Assange's health so he can stand trial and not in the USA's best interests to allow Assange to fall seriously ill or worse.
The USA must try to keep its image alive of being a fair nation that behaves in a superior way to others and acts to keep the Peace in the World. So – something should be said and acted on in this manner and the UK can encourage that and show they have blood in their veins.
This?
'Though USA is very unhappy about the revelations of secrets that WikiLeaks supplied, it does not wish to harm the individual responsible as other lesser civilised countries would do. And so it is transferring Assange (to Australia, to a facility where he can recover his strength with wellbeing) until he is ready to face trial.'
That sort of thing. The USA won't have a high horse to look down from if they don't make an effort to repair their fraying image.
“They made him very ill by refusing him ANY access to life sustaining fresh air, exercise, sun/VitD or proper medical care for 6 YEARS of illegal Embassy detention
Kristinn Hrafnsson, WikiLeaks' editor-in-chief, wrote that "Julian's case is of major historic significance. It will be remembered as the worst attack on press freedom in our lifetime. The People need to voice their condemnation; it is their politicians, their courts, their police and their prisons that are being abused in order to leave this black stain on history. Please act now to avert this shame".
Unfortunately the mass campaign to vilify Assange has done its work.
Even on this supposedly progressive site, the attack lines are relentlessly repeated
"Melzer went on:
“In the course of the past nine years, Mr. Assange has been exposed to persistent, progressively severe abuse ranging from systematic judicial persecution and arbitrary confinement in the Ecuadorian embassy, to his oppressive isolation, harassment and surveillance inside the embassy, and from deliberate collective ridicule, insults and humiliation, to open instigation of violence and even repeated calls for his assassination.”
Trigger alert : sensitive souls may note this comes from Consortium News and includes information that may be contrary to dearly held beliefs
I looked at the letter writing to Assange at Belsem? Prison campaign, it advises to put in a plain sheet of paper and self addressed envelope with UK stamps for reply – of course he woud need a pen or pencil. I have not been able to find NZPost information about how to deal with pre-paid mail in other country's currency. At present I have a question placed yesterday about this but have received no email reply.
I asked about stamps or an international coupon which I imagine there should be available but who knows it seems to me that NZ Post is just managing down the business. If I could buy a pre-paid envelope rather than stamps – that would be practical. I thought they might have replied by now.
…deliberate collective ridicule, insults and humiliation… We have seen that on this site frequently and from people who one would expect to have been on the side of exposing the secrets of powerful people and countries willing to destroy others for their purposes.
For good people to do nothing…. Have I got time to be good, what with all the other things I give my time to, as well as my own living tasks for me, my family, friends and community? These sort of unworthy thoughts about my lack of action are I think echoed by quite a number.
We should be out in the streets for Assange, but the attention now is on climate change and receiving a living wage for those who are trying to hold society together and retain the advances that were gained by exhaustive social interaction last century.
Got to keep trying to do it all or the golden bulldozer driven by a robot with such a cheeky, lovable grin in such a cute hat, will scoop us all up. Ever looked at the photos of naked bodies being thrown into burial pits in Holocaust archives? That sort of thing has happened multiple times in even near history. Those images should be in everyone's minds; the reality of what we can do when we have our mind setting on the mark of Cold, Hard, Unfeeling, Uncaring, Unrespecting, Unloving, and Choose your level of Evil – Eager, Sometimes, Neutral, Not sure, Wrestling against it every day.
I'm sorry – I do go on. I understand if its tl:dr. But laying it out occasionally, how someone is feeling I think helps to understand what's going on in society for some people.
The problem is that life presently is so depressing – the constant flow of viciousness, unfairness, violence and the imbalance with meanness high and easy generosity so low; how to create a bright spot, some hope, some comfort takes mental energy, even requires mental exercises. And under austerity with a religious wash, joy is not allowed, unless it is preachy Joy in the Lord.
I am sure the Great Spirit-Creator would be satisfied to see us being just great humans showing respect and receiving it in return; trying to get on together and building a feeling of solidarity and strength to face off the nastiness. That's hard even when the basics of life are under control. I see this blog as a living personification? of what those here with goodwill are reaching for. That's why I get upset at repeat vicious put-downs and faux concerns that have a thorn in them. I can stand argy bargy from those who are trying like me to establish a buzzy beehive of ideas and co-operation to make up for the failings of the one in Wellington at present. I don't think though we will ever see a united group of all parties working for the good of NZ in Wellington. So I see it as important to keep talking about good things, and then doing something so that I don't end up feeling helpless and life a wet noodle. So will soon shut up and go and do something useful for me and have done something else already this morning so that's a tick for me.
We have to keep our eye on civility, honesty, kindness and practicality as these are needed in relationships all round the world. In NZ too many have been vaccinated with poisonous ideas, some sanctimonious, many adopting misanthropy and so finding it exciting to embrace robots (and possibly one day literally as well as figuratively).
On the contrary. I'd wager that every argument you've made this past 8 years that Assange's problems are 'self inflicted' is authoritatively debunked here:
Given that he starts with the "no charges" bullshit that is a mi-statement of the "no proceedings" argument that the british courts threw out of his original extradition hearings, that's a bold wager.
One of the hounds that pollute this site has unloaded another of his complacent, vicious, obscenity-larded tirades. The following captures his motivation just about perfectly…..
Abstaining from the witchhunt would have classed the dissenter as an enemy. Stalin was supported by fanatics, cynics, sadists and moral cowards.
—-Donald Rayfield, Stalin and His Hangmen: An Authoritative Portrait of a Tyrant and Those Who Served Him (Viking, 2004)
yeah the only reason I said anything was because it was just a matter of time before some self-important jerk wrote that people who have the unmitigated gall to suggest that people to be extradited for sexual assault proceedings shouldn't jump bail are "strangely silent".
So no, it changes nothing. He chose to abscond, that's his choice, he wears the consequences. If you're going to do that, copy Biggs or Papillon instead.
Ignoring the role Julian Assange has played in exposing America's misdeeds for some fantasy that Julian committed sexual assault probably has more evidence than the evidence against Julian Assange.
So you are still in denial about the bogus charges against Assange. We've got the rise in denial of routine law. A rise in denial about science, a rise in religious denial, and I'm talking about you, McFlock (lol) the amount of denial. The greater the denial> the greater the darkness.
You think the sexual assault investigation is bogus? Is that because you have any connection to the case, or just because google and confirmation bias have an unhealthy relationship in your mind?
It's because you excel at pointing at flaws in Julian Assanges arguments and are very quiet and deceptive about the flaws in the prosecutions arguments.
You are still only telling half of the truth. Consent laws was brought into Sweden so to charge adults with raping minors, not adults raping adults. If consent laws was punished as you would prescribe, McFlock 🙂 then the legal age of consent would be 30 or how ever old the victims you allege was raped by Julian Assange. That's it.
Because if your scenario has anything at all to do with Assange, my previous answer is sufficient. Otherwise there was no relevance to your comment at all and I incorrectly inferred the opposite.
In that case of course woman can say no condom no sex. What is unacceptable is a law intended for protecting minors against sex with out a condom because under Swedish law there had to be signs of physical harm, is then used to prosecute a crime from 7 years ago. And the definitions don't even fit current law.
You'd have to at least prove that your hypothetical occurred after the 2018 consent law changes. The rape allegations have already been thrown out of EU court once, woke lefties are just pleaing for them to be thrown out of a Swedish court a secound time.
I love Mezler's response to Jeremy Hunt's assertion that Assange had always been free to leave the Embassy.
After finding that Julian Assange displayed symptoms of “prolonged psychological torture,” UN Special Rapporteur Nils Melzer has traded barbs with the UK’s Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt over the WikiLeaks founder’s persecution.
This is wrong. Assange chose to hide in the embassy and was always free to leave and face justice. The UN Special Rapporteur should allow British courts to make their judgements without his interference or inflammatory accusations.
“The UN Special Rapporteur should allow British courts to make their judgments without his interference or inflammatory accusations,” Hunt added.
Melzer quickly fired back in a rather creative fashion, saying: “With all due respect, Sir: Mr Assange was about as ‘free to leave’ as someone sitting on a rubber boat in a sharkpool.” He also reiterated comments that the British justice system had failed to show the “impartiality and objectivity required by the rule of law.”
I'm equally sure that people here will still think his work with wikileaks should give him a free pass, even if they accept the verdict, if he's found guilty.
The charges are fantasy charges. The women with whom he had consensual sex were inveigled and bullied into this obscene travesty by the Swedish prosecutor, who was herself under duress from U.S. "diplomats."
If there were any credible charges against him, that would be another matter entirely. Your abuse of those who support this political dissenter and journalist is invalid.
Political asylum is a thing McFlock.Its not granted to avoid being charged with a crime.Unless there is strong suspicion the charges are politically motivated
They were criminals. Assange is a journalist, an exposer of and dissenter from official lies. Which makes him, of course, an extreme threat and a target for destruction.
He's a guy who jumped bail to avoid extradition to face allegations of criminal activity. Any journalism he might also have undertaken is irrelevant to that.
A bullshit argument that omits the crucial context. It's like blaming someone for breaking their leg jumping out of a third floor window and not mentioning the building was on fire.
Well, not mentioning that he claimed the building was on fire after the home-owners arrived home early and there were questions about whether he was legally permitted to be inside the room from which he jumped. Oh, and that so far the only fire discovered is in the fireplace, well-contained according to fire code standards.
By ambiguity I mean the woke have called Assage a rapist so such with out a conviction of rape that it's prejudiced any trail he may have. It's impossible for Assange to receive a fair trial now.
A bullshit argument that omits the crucial context.
I didn't mention the specific allegations or their context, but they're not exactly crucial to the point that he's a guy who jumped bail to avoid extradition to face allegations of criminal activity. Whatever claims Assange or anyone else has about the allegations being part of a dastardly if somewhat illogical conspiracy, they're just claims, and evidence-free ones at that.
Whatever claims Assange or anyone else has about the allegations being part of a dastardly if somewhat illogical conspiracy, they're just claims, and evidence-free ones at that.
So now you are claiming the Americans are only pretending to be making an extradition case against him?
The alleged conspiracy is that the Swedish extradition request was part of a plot to extradite Assange to the US. There's no evidence of such a plot, and it would have been a pointless plot anyway, as the US could have just requested his extradition from the UK – as it's now done.
Adrian, if you encountered someone so disgusting on the street, you'd probably ignore him. Don't expect a thoughtful or serious answer to your question.
Yes I know, but it can be amusing to try and follow their mental gymnastics in their convoluted answers sometimes, I guess I am saying they can some times be good for a cheap laugh….only if you are in the mood that is, otherwise they are just annoying and distasteful.
Kamenev and Smirnov walked to the execution chamber stoically. But Zinoviev clung to the boots of his guards and was taken down by stretcher. This was re-enacted several times at supper in Stalin’s dacha, the bodyguard Karl Pauker playing the part of Zinoviev—begging for Stalin to be fetched and then crying out “Hear, o Israel”—until even Stalin found the charade distasteful.
— Donald Rayfield Stalin and His Hangmen (Viking, 2004) page 270
Russian versions of McFlock, meanwhile, tut-tutted and said "Zinoviev inflicted it on himself."
Mprrissey better not to make the argument more distressing. This goes direct to a sensitive nerve of McFlock's and coughing up Stalin who was a mega maniac with a matching power complex is not helpful in the situation. Just disagree will you and not feed the fire. It upsets me my friend.
The point of comparison is the behaviour of Stalin’s henchmen. McFlock and several others on this forum are analogues of Karl Pauker, Lavrenty Beria and the other ghouls who delighted in the suffering of officially designated enemies.
Except that adding in "Russian versions of McFlock, meanwhile […]" shows that there is no "analogue" of me in the actual quote.
I get that you were trying to be a dick and compare Assange's self-chosen Ecuadorean Escapade with the deaths of twenty-odd million people in a totalitarian state run by a tyrant, but the English language (like the rest of reality) didn't quite fit your narrative.
Assange might have chosen most of his "Ecuadorean Escapade", but I doubt that he chose the ending, let alone subsequent events – these were imposed, and perhaps more difficult to foresee than the consequences of having "jumped off the bridge".
How the fuck did he think it was going to finish? Do cops stop chasing robbers once they reach "safe", all is forgiven? Would he get into a literal "diplomatic bag" and be put on a slow boat to Ecuador?
He had literal months to figure out his absconding plan, and that's what he came up with? No helicopter out to an Ecuadorian freighter 20 miles off shore? No yacht trip? No disguise, false identity, or escape tunnel from the embassy? No, let's take a car ride into the middle of London and stay there.
As well as repeatedly firing the word “rape” around, despite its complete inappropriateness, this tick "McFlock" keeps trying to associate a journalist and political dissident with robbers—yesterday he used the examples of Ronald Biggs and Papillon, for pity's sake.
I guess when you've chosen your line, no matter how wrongheaded and demonstrably false it is, you're committed to it. George W. Bush was like that. And his deputy Tony Bliar. And “Honest John” Howard.
Nah … rape is the bogus charge that was cooked up for political purposes. Every sane reading of the events around his association with the two Swedish women, both before and after, and during the initial interviews … absolutely do not suggest coercion or assault. The first investigator concluded 'no crime of any kind'.
It was only after he left Sweden that someone had the bright idea that what happened could be twisted into this disgusting charade.
Any sane reading suggests that the facts as reported indicate he was at the very least reckless as to whether either of his partners were consenting to him not using a condom.
But you know that's all bogus, so fucking yay, I guess courts are unnecessary, with such omniscient beings amongst us.
It's my impression the vast majority of people, including me, who support Assange have always said that ideally the allegations should be tested in Court.
But everything about this case tells us nothing is ideal, nothing is normal about how this case has been laid and prosecuted. If this was really about Assange's 'recklessness' … and nothing else … he would have done exactly what he said he has stated all along, and traveled back to Sweden to clear his name at Court.
And Steve Jobs should have gone for recognised medical treatments sooner.
People react oddly to things, and in different ways. Sometimes it's panic, or ego, or denial/avoidance. Sometimes people say stuff for so long that they end up believing their own hype.
Could be any of those, could be that a mole in the FBI/CIA secretly emailed him the full outline of a plot to use these allegations to gitmo him, and he panicked and ran to the embassy. Or maybe that was the plan – send him an invented plot so he does something stupid like jumping bail.
Bullshit. For years you've been deflecting from the obvious, that the USA would use any opportunity to extradite him if possible. Assange could not know in advance exactly how, but he had every good reason to suspect that these 'rape' allegations were bogus and a ploy to get him into a legal jurisdiction more amenable to American pressure.
For years you pretended this was just a paranoid fabrication to avoid facing trial in Sweden … yet now the Americans have indeed played their hand openly and you have been proven factually wrong.
For years I've been saying that if he genuinely believed it was all a US plot, why flee from Sweden into the jurisdiction of America's closest ally?
And yes, they showed their hand – in UK courts.
And it's one thing to pretend Sweden is more "amenable" to extradtition to the US than the UK (which is an arguable point full of opinions and maybes), it's another thing entirely to say the Swedes are "amenable" to fabricating rape proceedings in order to be in a position to extradite to the US.
And if it's a genuine sex crime investigation, then he needs to face it.
look at the ones where the asylum seekers were seeking asylum from the country the embassy was in.
The happy endings lower drastically in proportion.
And that's if you call the Mariel Boatlift a happy ending.
Not sure the Cardinal’s experience was too happy, either. Got there in the end, but after how long? He must have not had a cat.
Your “cat” reference lends credence to Brigid’s comment @8.3.2.
Your ‘but’ negated your previous word and displayed your faux concern.
Enough with your disingenuous utterances.
The linked page lists seven examples where "asylum seekers were seeking asylum from the country the embassy was in." All the asylum seekers apparently got what they asked for, some sooner than others. You believe this applies to Assange – lol, “sad“.
2012: "He left after six days, and subsequently was allowed to go to New York with his wife and two children."
1989: "Noriega surrendered 10 days later after being assured he would not face the death penalty in the United States." A one-time useful ally of the US.
1989: "They lived in the embassy for 13 months before being allowed to go to the United States."
1986: Howard 'escaped' to Russia via their Finnish embassy.
1980: From the information given, it seems likely that the six Cubans granted asylum in Peru's Havana embassy 'got out'.
1966: "She returned to the Soviet Union in 1984, saying she wanted to reunite with her family. Her Soviet citizenship was restored but she left a year later to go back to the U.S. following a family feud."
1956: "lived in the U.S. Embassy in Budapest from 1956 until 1971, when he was allowed to leave for Vienna." The only example in that list of an asylum that lasted (much) longer than Assange's. The US honoured that request for asylum until he was allow to leave.
I think you need to look up Noriega, and what happened to him, and relations with the US before they invaded Panama.
Howard ditched his tail in the US and went to Helsinki, where he claimed asylum in the Soviet Embassy there. He didn't go from the Soviets' Washington embassy. The Finns didn't want him, the yanks did. Similarly, Stalin went to the US embassy in New Delhi. The Indians didn't want here, the Soviets did.
Cuba was happy to get rid of them, and everyone else. And some occupants of its jail cells and mental asylums. Mariel Boatlift.
And the US had skin in the game to protect the Cardinal. He was a PR bonus. He could easily have been abandoned if the chips had fallen the other way.
Assange was fleeing the UK, so went to the Ecuadorian embassy in the UK.
I.e. the location of the embassy and the country being fled were the same country.
That applies to the two Chinese instances (diplomatic horse-trading likely involved), the Cardinal (same), and the Cubans (which Cuba used to clear the country of dissidents and prisoners).
You cited those seven examples in response to my question:
Once granted, how do cases of asylum typically end?Sadly?
In those seven examples, no asylum seeker was forcibly removed from the embassy that granted asylum. Only Noriega was subsequently incarcerated, after extracting a guarantee and surrendering voluntarily.
If those historical cases are anything to go by then it seems to me that the way Assange's ayslum ended, and his subsequent treatment, are atypical – I'm happy for readers to draw their own conclusions.
Like, outside my work, there's a pigeon that got hit by a car in the street and is now a flat streak of feathery grease. I'm not cut up about it or anything, but as I drive over it there is a sombre reflection on all that we are and become. There's no glee that a disease-encrusted rat of the sky is no more. It was a thing, and now it is a dead thing.
That sort of level of sad, I guess. Where you do that sort of inward "tch" sound, maybe slightly shake your head, and then get on with your day.
"Treasury hacking: The time I hacked WINZ – Keith Ng."
Remember the fuss when Keith discovered the "hole" in WINZ? He did the right thing by informing WINZ about the "hole." Bridges didn't did he?
Imagine if you only saw the last part of the process. Imagine you didn't see the first 200,000 times where the security system blocked access, and you just saw the 200,001st attempt. You would simply see the hacker walk in and succeed at accessing the information. You might think there was no security at all.
ANZ New Zealand tries to fob it off as a minor error that occurred. Maybe they can find an ‘emotional junior staffer’ to take the blame. It most certainly wasn’t the Board.
The point is made that this is a fundamental issue of incompetence:
"In my view … this failure indicates that the board was/is not competent and also raises serious questions about the bank's management and reinforces my concern with the competence of the boards of the banks generally," McDonald wrote.
"It indicates a lack of knowledge, capability and responsibility in relation to the bank's risk parameters, which must be at the core of any banks competence."
…
"In my opinion, reflecting the false attestations alone, the chairman and chief executive of the bank should resign or be removed from role, as well as heads of risk, legal and compliance and at least two other directors should be 'retired' as part of a board 'refresh' to improve the overall competence of the board," he said.
The RBNZ is working in a plan to force the banks in NZ to hold more capital as a bulwark against future financial shocks. The banks have embarked on a campaign of fear-mongering claiming that the RBNZ’s plan would act like “a handbrake” on our economy and ultimately lead to higher (borrowing) costs for customers.
The New Zealand Bankers Association's (NZBA) had commissioned a report by research organisation Sapere to counter the RBNZ’s plans.
The NZBA-commissioned report by Sapere said that the Reserve Bank's proposals focused on credit crisis, when generally in New Zealand when central authorities needed to step in to help the banking system, it tended to be because of poor management or governance, not an external shock. [my bold]
It seems to me that ANZ New Zealand is trying to have it both ways.
IRONY ALERT! Noelle McCarthy, who laughs at the suffering of political prisoners and sneers at human rights protestors, interviewed someone about "assholes" this morning.
RNZ National, Saturday 1 June 2019
After the 9 a.m. news the breathy, chirpy, Cork-accented Noelle McCarthy interviewed one John Walker, a Canadian who has made a documentary entitled Assholes: A Theory. According to his own publicity material, the film is "a direct response to psychology professor Aaron James' witty bestseller about why some people are assholes and how to deal with them – in an age when the trait seems to be on the rise."
The interview itself turned out to be neither particularly amusing nor insightful. At one point Noelle McCarthy chortled knowingly when he said: "Imagine the situation when one of these assholes is actually running your country!" Perhaps she was thinking of the situation in New Zealand from 2008 to December 2016.
The discussion was interesting, though, for what it left out: a sub-species of asshole who delights in the suffering of others. I sent the laughing hostess the following email….
You forgot the most disgusting assholes of all
Dear Noelle,
In your interview about "assholes" with John Walker this morning, neither of you mentioned a particularly noxious and heinous example of the genus, viz., those unspeakable individuals who laugh at the suffering of political prisoners.
Here's an especially repellent example of that kind of thing:
"Heh, heh, heh. Well someone else with not such a good view is Edward Snowden. [snicker] Looks like he’s STILL in the airport! … Y-y-y-y-yeeeeeessss, …. [snort] ….he he he! He’s still in hiding. He he he! …. He he he he he! Yes he is still in that terminal! …[snort]… He he he he he he! ….[snort]…. He’s got a choice! Venezuela, Bolivia or Ecuador! …. Bolivia would be hard with the altitude! …. "
Hopefully you can interview John Walker another time, and add that kind of vicious asshole to his list.
Thumbs down to Radionz for settling on ironic and cynical themes for one, and not promoting some of regular NZ journalists to the role of supporting workers which Noelle seems to be part of. Can we hear NZ voices more please, not all these British and other 5 Eyes imports who are lovely people except for one failing, they are taking a NZ place in their own country's media, and we must have better balance – aim for 80/20 perhaps.
"Political prisoner and outspoken critic of Kremlin boss Vladimir Putin, Yulije Asanjey has been locked up in one of Russia's worst prisons for many years and may now face death through deliberate neglect of his medical condition
Asanjey became famous in the 2000's through exposing Russian aggression and covert spy activities over several years
Initially imprisoned for what many regard as trumped up charges,Asanjey has been declared the victim of torture by leading UN rapporteurs and experts on torture.
Russia's notorious prison system has long had a deliberate policy of breaking down prisoners so that they either die or are rendered incapable of conducting an effective defence. Denial of access or very limited access to lawyers and medical attention is a common ploy
Journalists from all over the world have expressed their support of Asanjey.
Amnesty International , Human Rights Watch and press freedom campaigners have joined under the common banner Free Asanjey!
The US has applied far reaching economic sanctions on Russia, for its continued flouting of UN rulings and increasing crack down on the free press"
Aha got it. But it sounded so true, and is with a reversal of approach. I still think I should support Amnesty I but sometimes the way things are done is surprising. Is Amnesty British – they could pop up to No.10 and sort everything out quite quickly, no, now I think of it they are tied up in knots, choose your own version, over Brexit and also who will be the next Clown Jester for PM.
Here are some knots and how to tie them. This might be the most useful information that arises from the blog today.
Hi Jenny How. Another time that you rush off before telling us what it's about. I’ll set it up under a keyword presumed explanation but it’s discombobulated in it original transition to the post here.
Indeed, many a commenter here seems to think that TS is their personal playground in which they can play by themselves or have one-on-one fun & games. At the same time, they seem to be oblivious to the fact that they are being watched, so to speak, by many silent readers of the site.
Do Nations have the Right to protect their Citizens, their Laws, their Trade and their Freedoms. ?
Or do they have to put up with illegal and weird Hackers, and Uninvited camera men rumaging for so called "scandal reports" and free feeds day and night.
I think it is proper for a Nation to clean up its own numerous flaws, before pronouncing the wickedness of others.
One must say they are consistent though mustn't one! And apparently those with the 3 B's – Beach and bach, BMW and Boat – are quite happy to live in a sort of rotten borough.
I wouldn't be surprised if this has been up before but it sounds good., Stephen Fry on Brexit. Called Brexit: The End Game – The Hidden Money. It starts off with the info that Europe doesn't decide on how to spend UKs money.
He says "Britain can't take back control from the EU; because we never lost it. 99% of UK public expenditure is determined by the UK government." Immigration is different but Britain controls the major amount of immigration which is from outside the EU; 248,000 net migration compared to EU – 74,000 net migration.
We are embarrassingly unaware of how divided our societies are, and Brexit grew out of a deep, unexamined divide between those that fear globalization and those that embrace it, says social scientist Alexander Betts.
How do we now address that fear as well as growing disillusionment with the political establishment, while refusing to give in to xenophobia and nationalism? Join Betts as he discusses four post-Brexit steps toward a more inclusive world.
If anyone still believes there are adequate protections for people with disabilities within the End Of Life Choices Bill you really need to read Chris Ford's piece posted in Newsroom.
I know that this will put me in the same column as Christian conservatives who also oppose the legislation for moral reasons. Personally, this makes me feel very uneasy given that I hold otherwise progressively social liberal views on issues such as abortion and reproductive rights, LGBTI rights, women’s issues and indigenous issues, etc. Yet, I want to outline from a socialist, progressive and disability rights perspective as to why I have swung my support to the anti-euthanasia camp.
The turning point for me came about a month ago. I saw the report of a meeting hosted by disabled people’s organisation, People First (a group run by and for people with learning/intellectual disabilities) in the Central North Island. At that meeting, access to health care was discussed, as this is a key issue – particularly for people within this segment of the disability community – for whom find it difficult accessing care for many reasons, including attitudinal issues on the part of some medical professionals. This was exemplified by the stories shared at the meeting where some people – who had gone to hospital for treatment – had discovered upon reading their files that they had ‘no resuscitation’ orders attached to them. More problematically, these orders had not been requested by any of the disabled people or their families.
Rosemary, I'm sure your realize that there is no comparison between a decision not to prolong the artificial extension of a person's life and a decision to actively kill a patient.
I'm not sure the likes of David Seymour and Michael Laws appreciate the difference, which is a grave concern.
This passive euthanasia is happening at an ED near you.
My partner was bailed up by an ED supervising doctor with a clipboard a few weeks ago and was told in no uncertain terms that opting for the DNR option made perfectly good sense because, like, 'you know we'd probably break your ribs doing CPR, and you'd end up with pneumonia and its doubtful that ICU would take someone with your co-morbidities any way…' Sign here…
He had rather dramatically passed out. He was confused upon coming round. Yet two hours later and after a battery of health and cognitive function tests he was adjudged to be in tip- top health. They even noted that his leukaemia was so far in remission that heamatology considered him 'cured'. The only 'off' thing was strangely fluctuating blood pressure, which is so common as to be considered normal… for a C5 tetraplegic.
And it was the tetraplegia that tipped him into the 'we'd rather not bother resuscitating your sorry arse' category.
My man, by this time, had resumed normal function and proceeded to 'negotiate' with the clipboard carrying ED doctor with his sheaf of DNR forms that he expected them to try active resuscitation for at least 15-20 minutes.
Fashion needs to give way to having clothing and other goods to last decades and not mare minutes in in reality. I can remember when a new pear of jeans last 2 months and then split up the backside.
I say buying secondhand is were the NEW fashion trend needs to go it is all read happening in some Nordic Countries very cool trend that will help preserve our mokopuna futures.
I say making sure that the things we buy are made humanely and environmentally friendly ways that's is the way OUR future has to GO.
I say less is best we have heaps of consumer goods that we don't need that's bad for our future and environment juses blenders pie maker pancakes maker and many other goods that we actually do need.
The mental health and the health of our tamariki is of utmost importance.
I agree strongly with Mike's statement that thinking is taking to yourself.
I'm constantly examining past events finding the TRUTH of what occurred and why things occurred.
I agree that we need to give our tamariki confidence to nurture them tell them you love them every day and treating them with love also .I say disciplining correctly is giving them love if you can see tamariki making mistakes doing things wrong you must discipline them so they learn not to do dumb Shit and tell them you love them afterwards. conferdince is giving with aroha
Whanau Eco Maori did not like the way shonky was ruining Aotearoa I could see it a mile away his underarm plays.
This story proves it he is a cheat the 00.1 % cheat all the time as they know that a fraction of there money that they gain from cheating will buy them impunity
ANZ's board, led by the former leader of our country, had been signing off on an operational risk model (which works out how much capital the bank needs in case of a shock or economic downturn) that had actually been dumped in
The ANZ board is stocked with people who you might assume would know a thing or three about bank capital.
How did this come about? The Reserve Bank "had encouraged" ANZ to review its attestation process, through which bank directors assess whether the bank is complying with the conditions of its regulations. It was only after this nudge that ANZ discovered the problem.
But before you get hot about it, it's cool. The Reserve Bank made it hold more money in case of a rainy day rather than lend it out in profitable ways like mortgages.
When the Reserve Bank found out, it stripped ANZ of its right to calculate how much risk capital it will hold. Yes, it used to be able to decide this itself.
This means our biggest bank is required to hold a further $277 million, taking it to a total of about $760m in case of bad news.
Kerry McDonald was chairman of BNZ for 12 years until 2008 and also sat on the board of its owners, National Australia Bank from 2005 to 2008.
Ouchie.
Now, ANZ won't like this one bit. This ruling increases the minimum capital ANZ must hold by around 60 per cent.
As Simplicity founder Sam Stubbs has pointed out, one reason profits are so high here is the Australian owned banks have to provide less capital than locally owned banks to support their lending.
So this will hurt ANZ in the wallet. But with the chunky-profits these Aussie banks make here, I think ANZ (who earned a record profit a sniff under $2 billion in the last financial year just in New Zealand) will cope.
Unlike former BNZ chairmanKerry McDonald, who wrote to Reserve Bank governor Adrian Orr to call for heads to roll, I am neither amazed, nor surprised, at the penalty imposed on the bank. Thanks Dad.
He argues that Key, chief executive David Hisco, the highest paid bank executive in New Zealand who is currently off on sick leave, and several others, at ANZ should resign.
The bank's board had been signing this off for years, apparently without noticing if you give them the benefit of the doubt.
And it has to be said, Sir John Key wasn't there in 2014, 2015 or 2016 – joining the bank with his shiny new title smartly after leaving Parliament in 2017.
The board is stocked with people who you might assume would know a thing or three about banking. Ka kite ano p.s I smelt a korori
I agree with Sadiq Khan trump and his alt right m8 are shorting the world political they will make a big mess of our Papatuanuku and take human rights back a hundred years if the leftys don’t get up and stop them
Donald Trump is like a 20th-century fascist, says Sadiq Khan
The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has compared the language used by Donald Trump to rally his supporters to that of “the fascists of the 20th century” in an explosive intervention before the US president’s state visit to London that begins on Monday.
Writing in the Observer, Khan condemned the red-carpet treatment being afforded to Trump who, with his wife Melania, will be a guest of the Queen during his three-day stay, which is expected to provoke massive protests in the capital on Tuesday
Khan said: “President Donald Trump is just one of the most egregious examples of a growing global threat. The far right is on the rise around the world, threatening our hard-won rights and freedoms and the values that have defined our liberal, democratic societies for more than 70 years.
It’s un-British to roll out the red carpet for Donald Trump
Read more
“Viktor Orbán in Hungary, Matteo Salvini in Italy, Marine Le Pen in France and Nigel Farage here in the UK are using the same divisive tropes of the fascists of the 20th century to garner support, but with new sinister methods to deliver their message. And they are gaining ground and winning power and influence in places that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago
Donald Trump is a populist and a nationalist of the largest economy and still most powerful country on earth. Khan is the current Mayor of one city, and an outsider within his own Labour Party.
Trump is not a Nazi, despite all the protestations of Madeline Albright et al. He's just a self-interested thug making bank for his family for a few years before he's turfed next year.
The hard right had their chance in the EU elections last week, and they showed they didn't have what it takes to storm the castle and start dismantling.
The Youth Rainbow community needs to be shown respect as all people do.
I say that the airline should be included in the plan to mitigate climate change this will make them chase alternatives powers for planes.
trump has to remember that every word he says bounces around the world media I sort of know what that is like.
The foxglacia council should have cleaned up the dump mess I say that they have had enough money to clean it up.
It's a hard task getting whare at the minute I would not like to try and rent a whare with tamariki these days you would need to no the owner or have a wand.
That's the way Julain championing the poverty of the Ugandan people and tamariki is bad ka pai M8.
Eco Maori say those people who have thrown darts at the Rainbow community are only thinking about their public profiles and not the damage they have done to the people of the Rainbow community.
Te Whare tu is helping keep tangata whenua O Aotearoa cultural going strong ka pai I get a sore face knowing that OUR culture is getting te mana back.
I totally agree us Maori men are portrayed as violent thefting thugs that really PISSs Eco Maori off thanks for making films that show Maori men in a cleaner light.
Cool I tau toko you for encouraging Maori to seek a higher education .
These are the people who rule our Papatuanuku I hope they can see that most people want a better future for there tamariki and NOW is the time to embrace the change if they don't jump on the Climate Mitigation Waka they will be left in OUR dust time to dump CARBON.
Security at the wharf was drum tight. Amid a sea of secret service personnel, Pompeo was accompanied by the US ambassador to Switzerland, Ed McMullen. The pair looked keen to continue the geopolitical strategizing over canapés.
The secretary general of Nato, Jens Stoltenberg, was flanked by heavily armed bodyguards as he strode along the jetty. He has attended the last three Bilderberg meetings, turning up for “informal discussions” with a watchful squad of security and staff
Bilderberg has a keen and growing interest in high-tech and AI. Schmidt’s fellow Bilderberg insider Peter Thiel, the billionaire founder of PayPal and a director of Facebook, was seen arriving with the Swedish physicist and AI expert Sara Mazur ka kite ano link below.
Its thanks to people like Blomfield who have the mana to stand up to people like Slater and don't let Slaters intimidating tactics scare them into staying silent.
If it wasn't for people like Blomfield we would not have found out about the $40.000 double dip by a well known MP.
People like Blomfield are few and far between quite rear so Eco Maori is asking everyone to tau toko Blomfield and BUY HIS BOOK he deserves the leftys tau toko.
The case was never about defamation. It has been a way that Blomfield could force his tormenter to verify the fantasies being presented as fact on his now disgraced blog. Slater failed and was finally impaled by a harpoon that he had unleashed, ultimately on himself
As the stories dragged on and I got to know Blomfield better, I told him not to worry. The lies told about him were not as appalling as the truth frequently told about me. But the lies were having a toll and this unwanted fight with a cyber thug with connections to the highest offices in the land was taxing what was an otherwise irrepressible spirit.
Blomfield, it needs to be said, and I am pleased to say it, isn't a man to be dissuaded by slander, intimidation or a gunman discharging a shotgun in his face. For seven years he took Slater and his cohort of degenerates through the long and painful process of a defamation trial.
The case was never about defamation. It has been a way that Blomfield could force his tormenter to verify the fantasies being presented as fact on his now disgraced blog. Slater failed and was finally impaled by a harpoon that he had ka kite ano link below.
Ka pai Pio for championing tiny houses and sustainable live off the land + clean energy solar power we need more tangata like you to champion the cause.
Our Mokopuna futures depend on people like us never giving up the cause.
TV personality Pio Terei is hatching a tiny house plan.
It was a plan that needed some research first. So he hopped on his electric bike and headed off to seek out some of the country's most innovative home owners; Kiwis who've chucked caution and convention to the wind to live sustainably and build the life of their dreams on their own terms. And boy, did he find them, dwelling in everything from teepees to whare uke, from container houses to earth ships.
Those encounters became Off The Grid,an eight episode TV series from Māori Television that aims to inspire viewers to give sustainable living a go. There's the sharing of practical advice and a few laughs along the way. Talking to him a couple of months before the show is set to air, it seems to have the actor, singer and comedian all fired up for a tiny house of his own
Ka kite ano links below P.S I know what you're name means kia ora
Kia kaha to the Youth climate activist it is your futures WE are fighting for go hard it makes me happy to see that the climate is taking center stage now after all the Strikes you have staged.
Youth climate activists set for nationwide rallies ahead of landmark case
Students in Austin, Texas, want you to veg out. Kids in Westport, Connecticut will screen a film. And in rural North Carolina, activists will draw on a toxic spill to commemorate the environmental justice movement. The slogan refers to the landmark court case in Oregon in which 21 youths are suing the United States government over climate change.
Named for Kelsey Juliana, a 23-year-old activist and college student, the case was filed in 2015 and is headed back to court on Tuesday. The campaign to raise its profile – dubbed #IAmJuliana or #AllEyesOnJuliana – is the brainchild of Our Children’s Trust, the organization behind the lawsuit, and Future Coalition, the not-for-profit network forged to empower youth after the Parkland shooting.
A youth activist on the climate crisis: politicians won't step up.
What’s unique about the campaign is what it signals: the infrastructure behind the youth climate movement is growing, decentralizing, and gaining momentum, all while activists set sights on the 2020 election
All of these rallies will be part of an international campaign on Saturday to spotlight environmental issues. Their message: Ka kite ano link below
Its cool to see more Wahine receiving houners congrats Grame you deserve your tohu houner I remember when the Kiwi players of old going hard At the Sea Eagles Billaria.
The Aviation industry has to change to green fuels or everyone will just use skipe for business meetings they will save money and carbon being burned to protect their children futures.
Its not on that the Richmonds have to fight for custody of their mokopuna from the man who killed their daughter.
Its good that Ken got his houner for his mahi of looking after men who have been abused .
Kia ora Patsy's for your honorable recognition of your services to he tangata.
I agree the tabaco taxs are hurting Maori in the hip pocket but the amount of people at the hospital with respiratory problems has dropped dramatically we need programs to help our people quit smoking.
Redcross needs more donations to help cope with the huge numbers needing their good help dig deep Whanau you can find the Red Cross site online.
Ka kite ano P.S I will put up a link to Redcross site
The core claims of Jon Stephenson and Nicky Hager's Hit & Run are that the New Zealand SAS raided two villages in Afghanistan in search of "insurgents" who weren't there, and in the process killed six civilians including a three-year-old ...
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Statistics New Zealand is planning to track everyone through their cellphones "for statistical purposes":Stats NZ is partnering with cellphone companies to launch a new way of tracking people's movements every hour. The population density programme will launch next month and ...
Reaching Out For The Zeitgeist: Act Leader, David Seymour, and his neoliberal colleagues, have (perhaps unconsciously) grasped the multiple political implications of declaring ACT to be the “freedom party”. What they clearly have not grasped, however, is the fundamental incompatibility ...
Another major oil company has given up exploring in New Zealand: Chevron and Norwegian oil giant Equinor have opted to abandon their joint exploration efforts off the east coast of the North Island. The two firms have applied to surrender ...
When Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern hired a lobbyist to set up her government in 2017, she assured us that everything was above board and any conflicts of interest would be managed. She lied:The lobbyist who served as the prime minister’s ...
NZ has dethroned GDP as a measure of success, but will Ardern’s government be transformational? When you’re in politics, words are a high-stakes game. Voters and journalists hold you to them and there is a risk in using ...
A note of appreciation and a changing of the guardFor the past over eight years Skeptical Science staff volunteer Ari Jokimäki has produced a weekly list of links to recent academic publications concerning the fundamental science of climate change, global ...
The article below first appeared in the April 7, 1978 issue of the fortnightly left-wing workers’ paper Socialist Action. The article is referred to in Maire Leadbeater’s new book on NZ and West Papua – we’ll be reviewing the book ...
If humanity is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and avoid making the Earth uninhabitable, we need to stop burning fossil fuels. Transport is a key emitter, so this means we need to stop using fossil fuelled vehicles. A number of ...
The government's Operation Burnham whitewash has become a farce, with the SAS's victims refusing to participate any further:Afghani villagers are turning their backs on a Government inquiry into allegations six civilians were killed and a further 15 injured in a ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Daisy Simmons SACRAMENTO, Calif. – The world’s oceans are deeply affected by climate change – and vice versa. But until recent years, ocean advocates throughout California had long tackled issues like over-fishing ...
There’s so much one could say about Key’s assessment of Hisco right now… Suffice to say it was definitely the following: A) Perfectly reflective of the ...
New Zealand's spy agencies are supposedly subject to the rigorous oversight of the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security, an independent watchdog appointed to keep an eye on them and ensure they don't break the law again. But that watchdog depends ...
. . This morning, a little after 4am, Sharlene lost her brave fight against cancer. Rest in peace, Sharlene. You were always one of my brightest stars… . . Advertisements ...
Just Following Orders: None of the awfulness associated with Family Court "Uplift" orders exposed by Melanie Reid and Newsroom would be possible without the active assistance and institutional protection afforded to Oranga Tamariki by the nation’s DHBs. These latter, through ...
A chronological listing of news articles posted on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week, i.e., Sun, Jun 9 through Sat, June 15, 2019 Editor's Pick Costa Rica Doubled Its Forest Cover In Just 30 Years! Costa ...
Conflicting Messages: With so few publicly available opinion polls being conducted in this country, we really do need to know how one reputable polling agency can put National on 46 percent, while the other puts it on 37 percent. Nine ...
The End Of Civilisation: Despairing of the major powers ever agreeing to take the steps necessary to slow global warming, The Daily Blog Editor, Martyn Bradbury, has drawn up what amounts to a survivalist agenda for New Zealand. Quite rightly, ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Jeffrey Kiehl Life makes us wake up to needed changes. A visit to the doctor’s office and accompanied tests indicate you have been diagnosed as pre-diabetic. Your doctor indicates two pathways to ...
New Zealand needs to decarbonise its electricity supply, while also increasing it to cope with the extra demand from electric vehicles. Wind energy is an obvious solution for this: we have an excellent wind resource, and its cheaper than fossil ...
by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh The coca issue has gained a new lease of life in Duque’s Colombia, although to be truthful it never really lost its importance to the state. Trump’s scolding of Duque for not doing enough to halt ...
Director-General of OPCW Fernando Arias Gonzales admits Douma engineers report was legit and he was part of the FFM – but attempts to justify suppression of the report. France 24 reports that the head of the Organisation for the ...
When teachers demanded more time and more money to do their jobs, Education Minister Chris Hipkins was adamant: there was no more money and they should expect disappointment. No, after a joint strike and facing five weeks of rolling stoppages, ...
Ecuador's Constitutional Court has legalised same-sex marriage:Ecuador's highest court has approved same-sex marriage in a landmark ruling in the traditionally Catholic country. The vote at the nine-member Constitutional Court came as they ruled on the lawsuits by two same-sex couples ...
Arundhati Roy is speaking at the Auckland Writers Festival on July 17. In this interview in The Guardian Roy discusses her writing and political activism. Gary Younge: One of the things I’m intrigued by at this moment is the way ...
This is a re-post from Carbon Brief by Daisy Dunne The record-breaking 2018 summer heatwave in Japan in which more than 1,000 people died “could not have happened without human-induced global warming”, a study finds. And the extreme heat felt in ...
I've had a bit to say of late about YouTube, its algorithms and the escalating allure of certain facile "creators" to young men. I worry about this stuff. But I think it's also important to acknowledge that the alt-lite and ...
OMV's application for resource consent for drilling offshore exploration wells has highlighted a major flaw in our environmental legislation. Climate change, caused by greenhouse gas emissions, is our most pressing environmental threat. But the EPA, which is deciding the application, ...
I saw an interesting article from FOIMan - a UK-based fredom of information site - on the subject of agencies googling requesters. This is apparently a common practice, but their short advice is "don't": its not just creepy and intimidating, ...
The article below is part of our ‘From the Vaults’ series and first appeared in the fortnightly left-wing NZ paper, Socialist Action, February 10, 1978. We hope to be expanding our Pacific coverage in future. The Republic of Vanuatu came ...
There are a number of ways of reading Sarah Gaitanos’s biography Shirley Smith: An Examined Life. In my view – I knew Shirley a little – she would want to you to read it as her struggle to be recognised, ...
Multiple motivations are behind my various attempts to reduce involvement in online life. The preciousness of time is a big one. The pointlessness of digital feuds is another. The inevitable temptation to meanness is a third.read more ...
Botswana's High Court has ruled that colonial laws outlawing homosexuality are unconstitutional:High court judges in Botswana have ruled that laws criminalising same-sex relations are unconstitutional and should be struck down, in a major victory for gay rights campaigners in Africa. ...
by Don Franks In his June 8th piece “Jacinda Ardern looks unbeatable” journalist Martin van Beynen appeared unbeatable himself – at fawning praise. This week I was reading about John F Kennedy, the American president assassinated in 1963, and saw ...
I am fortunate enough to be a citizen of three countries – New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and Ireland – which gives me the right to live in all three places. So, let’s imagine I am a very bad person. ...
We see regular stories from farmers and orchards complaining that no-one wants to work long hours in terrible conditions for poor pay in their shitty industry. And now, its fishers. But in the process, they neatly explain why:"It's a hard ...
New Zealand's largest city has just declared a climate emergency. And its not just a symbolic move:While the declaration is largely symbolic, it signals the start of a more urgent and focussed approach by councillors to curbing greenhouse gas emissions. ...
This is a re-post from Carbon Brief by Josh Gabbatiss Political lobbying in the US that helped block the progress of proposed climate regulation a decade ago led to a social cost of $60bn, according to a new study. Environmental economists Dr ...
The Wellbeing Budget opens with, “What is wellbeing?”, a question that has been widely posed and little understood. Treasury says “Wellbeing is when people are able to lead fulfilling lives with purpose, balance and meaning to them.” Long-term challenges facing ...
Who would have thought that so many different groups of public sector workers would have discovered at roughly the same time that they have been underpaid and under-resourced to such an extent? No one doubts that teachers of different kinds ...
by Don Franks Rocket Man is a glitzy spectacle, scooping up on the extravagant showmanship side of Elton John. Two hours of energy and flair. The relentlessly full on song and dance sequences mostly work, especially the fantasy sequence where ...
When National gutted the ETS in 2009, one of the ways they did it was to hand out huge subsidies to big polluters. Now the climate crisis is here, but the polluters want their subsidies to continue:The latest climate pleaders ...
School board of trustees elections were held last week. Unfortunately, NZ Post seems to have sabotaged them:Voting in the triennial elections for most school boards closed at noon on Friday, June 7. But Ponsonby Primary School principal Dr Anne Malcolm ...
Second Time Lucky? Perhaps it was the abject failure of his Destiny NZ Party (2003-2007) which lay behind Brian’s clumsy attempt to relaunch his “brand” by having "Coalition NZ" reach out to those he had so trenchantly attacked in the ...
A chronological listing of news articles posted on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week, i.e., Sun, Jun 2 through Sat, June 8, 2019 Editor's Pick White House Tried to Stop Climate Science Testimony, Documents Show Rod ...
Since March 30 2018 Palestinians have protested along the fenced border with Israel calling for a return to the lands they were expelled from in 1948. Israel maintains direct external control over the territory’s air and maritime space, most of ...
I was interviewed as part of an Al Jazeera documentary on the aftermath of the March 15 terrorist attacks in Christchurch. The program is well worth watching because it addresses subjects that most of the NZ media do not want ...
Our fishing industry is pervasively criminal, with widespread under-reporting, dumping, and other illegal behaviour. The most effective way of stopping this crime is to put cameras on fishing boats to watch catches as they are brought aboard, enabling under-reporting, dumping ...
One of the core ideas underlying the Zero Carbon Act is the idea of policy durability: that in order to be effective, climate change policy has to survive multiple changes of government. As a result, the Bill has been watered ...
Saving What We Could: Had the United States and the British Empire not intervened in June 1944, it is almost a certainty that the Red Army would have rolled on all the way to the English Channel. That was not ...
On the Friday morning previous to Budget Thursday, the Prime Minister gave what amounted to a pre-budget speech. It was not welcomed by the listeners, even though most New Zealanders may have found it promising But the audience was from ...
New Zealand is currently in the process of enacting legislation to set us on a pathway to carbon neutrality (except for cows) by 2050. Meanwhile, Chile - not a country we think of as being especially rich - is going ...
How bad is the threat of climate change? Existential risk to civilisation bad:A new climate report co-authored by a former fossil fuel executive has painted a bleak outlook for the future of human civilisation - including nuclear war. Existential climate-related ...
How are people reducing their ecological impact to deal with climate change? In Sweden, they're giving up flying:The number of Swedes taking the train for domestic journeys has risen as plane journeys inside the country have fallen, reflecting rapidly growing ...
The Labour Party has always been an uncomfortable alliance between those on the one hand who are content to seek a politics that declines to accept the infallibility of market-driven outcomes and accordingly seeks to achieve greater social justice within ...
“Keep things as they are,” is always the catch-cry of those who are happy with their lot. “Change is a waste of time” makes sense to those who are doing well and see no reason to disturb their privileged existence. ...
Last month, when the government released its Zero Carbon Bill, I highlighted how it contained an odious expansion of secrecy which throw a veil over practically all decisions made by the Independent Climate Change Commission. I wanted to see how ...
National leader Simon Bridges laid it on pretty think last week when he did his big reveal and showed that the supposed 'hack' of the Treasury website and early release of some Budget information nothing more than some Google searches ...
Inland Revenue is to gain greater oversight of land transfer information to ensure those buying and selling properties are complying with tax rules on property speculation. Cabinet has agreed to implement recommendation 99 of the Tax Working Group’s (TWG) final ...
The Government is taking action to expand and strengthen the protection for Māui and Hector’s dolphins with an updated plan to deal with threats to these native marine mammals. Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage and Minister of Fisheries Stuart Nash ...
Commercial fishing vessels at greatest risk of encountering the rare Māui dolphin will be required to operate with on-board cameras from 1 November, as the next step to strengthen our fisheries management system. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Fisheries Minister ...
A new record for the number of Police officers deployed to the regions in a single year has been created with the graduation today of Recruit Wing 326. Police Minister Stuart Nash says the graduation of 78 new constables means ...
New Zealand is pushing on with efforts to ensure multinational companies pay their fair share of tax, with the release of proposed options for a digital services tax (DST). In February Cabinet agreed to consult the public on the problem ...
As submissions closed last Friday on the Credit Contracts Amendment Bill, the clarion call from Ngā Tangata Microfinance , FinCap , budgeting services and poverty-focussed agencies throughout the country was unanimous: an interest rate cap must be a priority. ...
The NZ GDP for Q1 has just been released. The GDP for Q1 came in better than forecast overall: Adjusted GDP Q1/ Annual : GDP +0.6% / +2.5% Consensus +0.6% / +2.3% NZ GDP over the last 12 months has ...
Gross domestic product increased 0.6 percent in the March 2019 quarter, following a 0.6 percent rise in the December 2018 quarter, Stats NZ said today. ...
Te Tari Taiwhenua – the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) – is pleased to invite public consultation on the proposed Customer Nominated Services Approved Information Sharing Agreement (Customer Nominated Services AISA). ...
Yesterday Auckland-born euthanasia advocate, Sean Davison (58), appeared in the Western Cape High Court, South Africa, on three charges of premeditated murder. ...
The Aotearoa New Zealand Association of Social Workers (ANZASW) welcomes the announcement by the Ombudsman to conduct a wide-ranging inquiry into Oranga Tamariki, Ministry for Children’s practices and processes when removing new born children under court ...
A Research and Evaluation Team from the Ministry of Justice have just issued what they euphemistically call an ‘Evidence Based brief’ on New Zealands’ Three Strikes Law. ...
Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier is conducting his own wide-ranging and independent investigation into the steps Oranga Tamariki takes when newborn babies are removed. ...
Unite Union is asking for Restaurant Brands to pay annual leave entitlements back further than they have agreed to do with the Ministry of Business Innovation and Enterprise. ...
Across New Zealand this week, Caritas is marking the National Day of Prayer for Refugees and Migrants on Sunday, 23 June, the day is set aside each year to fall as close as possible to the internationally celebrated World Refugee ...
Wednesday, June 19: Oil majors Chevron and Equinor have abandoned their oil and gas exploration permits off the east coast of the North Island, leaving Austrian oil company OMV as the last remaining oil giant in New Zealand. ...
On 27 June, Extinction Rebellion Queenstown Lakes will present a deputation to QLDC requesting it declares a "Climate and Ecological Emergency". The council would be following the lead of more than 600 elected bodies representing some 74 million people ...
A series of short videos featuring local and international euthanasia experts will be released across the #DefendNZ social media channels on Facebook , Twitter and Instagram from today. They are being released in the lead up to the likely Second ...
New Zealand Police want to help prevent your loved ones falling victim to scams – and we need you to spread the word with your friends and families. ...
In Te Ao Māori, the child is born of its parents, but belongs to the entire whānau. They are a taonga, someone to be celebrated and supported into their adulthood, where they can continue to contribute to their whānau, hapū ...
DairyNZ chief executive Dr Tim Mackle is welcoming yesterday’s announcement of the Farm Debt Mediation Bill as an example of an initiative that will mean a lot to farmers who may be feeling financial pressure. ...
Christine Rose, Campaign Manager, World Animal Protection says: “The New Zealand Ministers for Conservation and Fisheries today (11/06/19) launched the long awaited Threat Management Plan (TMP) for Māui and Hector’s dolphins. But the consultation ...
On Thursday 13 June, Waimakariri Labour Electrorate Committee (LEC) hosted Dr David Clark, Health Minister for an update on the Governents progress on mental health support for the people of North Canterbury. ...
The Human Rights Foundation of Aotearoa New Zealand says the withdrawal of the villagers of Naik and Khak Khudday Dad from the Operation Burnham Inquiry is a sad indictment of the way the Inquiry has been conducted. The lawyers for ...
ALRANZ Abortion Rights Aotearoa said the abortion statistics released today by Stats NZ show little change in the general abortion numbers, but point to opportunities for improvement in health care if abortion law reform passes. ...
OSOF welcomes the public consultation of the Threat Management Plan Review for protecting Hector’s and Māui dolphins from fishing-related and other threats. ...
“Recent changes in Government Overseas Development Assistance ODA and its support of New Zealand International NGO’s is of concern” says Rotary’s Stuart Batty. Prior to past Foreign Affairs Minister Murry McCully taking office, about eight of ...
The International Whaling Commission is calling on the government to stop commercial fishing with set nets and trawling in the range of Maui dolphins. ...
New parent advocacy group Whanau First is calling for the Government to start looking seriously at the cause of the issues which have led to the crisis over state separation of children from their families. ...
The Independent Police Conduct Authority has found that an off-duty officer unnecessarily involved himself in a dispute between his friend, Mr V, and the friend's former partner, Ms S, in Christchurch in November 2015. When the dispute escalated, the officer ...
Fisheries New Zealand wants public feedback on proposals to change catch limits for 20 fish stocks around the country. The proposals are part of a rolling set of annual reviews to ensure sustainability for current and future generations, says Fisheries ...
Attempts to improve safety by banning the import of older vehicles may actually keep older vehicles on the road longer, says the car review website dogandlemon.com. ...
The government’s proposals to protect Maui and Hector’s dolphin are far too weak, are over- complicated, and do not include proposals for dolphin protection to the 100m countour that have been endorsed by many including international organisations, ...
"Self-appointed Bishop and prosperity-gospel confidence trickster of the poor and vulnerable, Brian Tamaki is using anti-Muslim racism to gain a political profile," says Sina Brown-Davis spokesperson for Tāmaki Anti Fascist Action (TAFA). ...
Open Letter to Prime Minister, Rt Hon Jacinda Ardern Re: Urgent need for a Royal Commission of Inquiry into New Zealand Family Court and Oranga Tamariki We are writing on behalf of the women and children of New Zealand in ...
The Health Committee is seeking submissions on the Support Workers (Pay Equity) Settlements Amendment Bill. The bill aims to address historical inequalities and ensure support workers receive fair pay. It seeks to do this by clearly defining the role of ...
Judith Collins talks to Jack Tame about what National would do about our housing affordability problem. It’s her first big interview since she took the lead over Simon Bridges in our preferred Prime Minister poll. ...
It's the even bigger inconvenient truth! Eating meat is killing our planet! Although Kiwis have reduced their red meat intake over the last 10 years, dropping from 85 to 72kg, p.a, it's still way above new world health guidelines which ...
New Zealand Maori Council calls Hobson’s Pledges claims that they would accept an invitation for a hui LIES – after the organisation declines mediation over Human Rights Commission complaint. ...
In early May 2019, and partly as a result of the accelerating impacts of climate change, a loose association of independent analysts determined that there was a need to highlight what we perceive to be significant national security risks and ...
“It’s time for change… The founder and Executive Chairman of NEW NZ, David Moffett, announced today that Marc Alexander has been appointed as the Leader of the party. ...
The Department of Conservation (DOC) is sending a strong message to tourism operators that they must comply with the law when operating on public conservation land. ...
Monday, 17 June: Greenpeace is calling the Government’s latest proposal to save Māui and Hector’s dolphins a "pathway to extinction for the world’s rarest dolphin species". ...
Family First NZ is repeating its call for a fully independent watchdog for Oranga Tamariki. Family First has been calling for such a watchdog since 2011, including 2018 , 2017 , 2015 , 2013 , 2012 , 2011 , and ...
Pacific Media Watch Newsdesk Papua New Guinea’s Police Minister Bryan Kramer has used social media to arrest a man accused of sexually abusing his granddaughter. Kramer wrote a Facebook post in which he described being notified of a post ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Larkin, Senior Lecturer in Musicology, University of Sydney Review: Indies & Idols, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Sydney Opera House “The most heterogeneous ideas are yoked by violence together”: what Samuel Johnson wrote ...
For anyone considering fixing up a bike, sourcing bike parts, or just has an interest in perusing a yard full of years’ worth of trash-turned-treasure, now is your time.Loop Groop – the Eden Terrace co-op that rescues and repairs old ...
City of Girls is not a cautionary tale, but rather a celebration of what happens when women cease to be cautious, writes Scarlett Cayford. I’ve loved Liz Gilbert for a while now. It wasn’t Eat, Pray, Love that won me over, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alina Donea, Senior Lecturer, Monash Centre for Astrophysics, Monash University Curious Kids is a series for children. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to curiouskids@theconversation.edu.au ...
Concern about nitrates in Canterbury municipal water supplies emphasises the need for new ways to solve the nitrate problem, and Dr Anna Garden might be the scientist to do it.Dr Anna Garden is not your typical chemist. You won’t find ...
By RNZ Pacific One of Vanuatu’s leading journalists has said the right to information law has contributed to an air of openness in the country. The Right to Information Act was passed two years ago and will be extended ...
Public service chief executives are now more interested in making their mark than providing government ministers with decent advice – and it’s having disastrous consequences, a former senior Treasury official writes.Sometimes on a Tuesday morning you may hear a low, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Oliver Griffith, ARC DECRA Fellow, University of Melbourne Many women realise they are pregnant before they’ve even done the test – perhaps feeling a touch of nausea, or tender, larger-than-usual breasts. For ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jacki Montgomery, Lecturer, Advertising and Media, Western Sydney University Increasing numbers of women lack a safe and secure place to call home. But most women who are homeless are “invisible”. You don’t ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julaine Allan, Senior research fellow, Charles Sturt University A young man recently turned up at a rural drug and alcohol service in New South Wales seeking help because of an infection in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amy Graham, PhD Candidate, Charles Darwin University Many parents believe teaching their child to read is the best way to get them ready to start school, but teachers often disagree. Teachers generally ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Geoff Hanmer, Adjunct Lecturer in Architecture, UNSW Hundreds of residents in a Sydney apartment complex, the 122-unit Mascot Towers, were evacuated last Sunday when cracks began to appear due to a serious ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brendan Coates, Program Director, Household Finances, Grattan Institute It is often claimed that Australia’s superannuation system will ease the budgetary burden of an ageing population. It’s certainly the impression put about by ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Darren Paul Fisher, Head of Directing, Department of Film, Screen and Creative Media, Bond University “Elsa, the past is not what it seems.” The opening line from the latest Frozen II trailer ...
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Third Oranga Tamariki inquiry announced, Herald highlights iniquities in health sector, and significant new claims around Operation Burnham.A third inquiry into Oranga Tamariki has been announced, and this one looks like ...
Christopher Luxon may want to emulate John Key's path to the National Party leadership and the ninth floor of the Beehive. Bernard Hickey argues he will have to be careful to avoid copying Don Brash instead. ...
A mortar and pestle, a pair of scissors and a cooking pot are among the objects Cambodian refugees have kept with them since resettling in New Zealand.Kim Hak grew up in Cambodia just after the fall of the Khmer Rouge ...
We’ve heard a great deal about the Kiwi response to the Christchurch terror attack but less from inside the event. Historian Ann Beaglehole considers how we support victims to ensure the history is written from their perspectives.When outside forces attack, ...
It is going to be a long journey to rebuild communities where people feel safe after the Christchurch terror attack. But if we commit to working together, it’s possible, former refugee Dennis Maang writes on World Refugee Day. Following the ...
Wahida Zahedi’s love for Christchurch began with a postcard of the Port Hills, sent from almost 14,700km away. This World Refugee Day, she shares her journey from Afghanistan to her new home.Christchurch. How can I describe this magical city? The ...
John Key insisted that the CEO of the bank had been treated in the same way a junior teller would be. Can anyone take that seriously, asks Cat MacLennanWhen I was a lawyer at Manukau, we used to sit in ...
The Detail today looks at belated government action on the Fox River rubbish dump disaster, where three months after the storm, the clean up job is still nowhere near done. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Navjot Bhullar, Associate Professor – Faculty of Medicine and Health; School of Psychology, University of New England You might have noticed that being in nature can improve your mood. Whether it’s walking ...
This month marks the 20th anniversary of Driver, a game whose innovations pioneered some of gaming’s biggest present-day trends. Sam Brooks takes a look at the groundbreaking game’s launch – and the series’ unfortunate decline.The year is 1999. The first Super Smash ...
Farmland is not being gobbled up by forestry, and tree planting is moving the pendulum back after years of deforestation, Forestry Minister Shane Jones says. ...
Last week the Ministry for Children’s practices around uplifting children and putting them in state care were exposed in a harrowing investigation by journalist Melanie Reid. It’s no coincidence Māori are disproportionately targetted, writes Tina Ngata.If you venture into the ...
Waiheke Island’s favourite four-legged activist may soon be taking a road trip to protest the plans for a floating marina at Kennedy Point. Alice Burton reports.Sue Pawley and her sheep Multi have been an unstoppable force ever since the battle ...
Women are told that their artistic life ends when motherhood starts. But Anna Knox knows that isn’t the case.I was living in Saudi, trying to finish a novel I had started on the UEA (University of East Anglia) Creative Writing ...
IRD is contacting investors to correct their tax rate after an estimated $42 million was overpaid by around 950,000 New Zealanders in the 2019 tax year. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Frank Jotzo, Director, Centre for Climate Economics and Policy, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University When unveiling government data revealing Australia’s rising greenhouse emissions, federal energy minister Angus Taylor sought ...
The sudden departure of ANZ CEO David Hisco this week has been sold as the bank having high standards of accountability. The intention is obviously to reassure the public, customers, shareholders, regulators and the politicians that all is well, and ...
Other suburbs have their appeal, but one rises above them all. Hayden Donnell argues Mt Albert is the best place to live in Auckland.First, a terrible confession: I grew up on Auckland’s North Shore. For most of my life, all ...
So thick, so luscious, so versatile. Yes, it’s strained yoghurt, but readers, it’s so much more.Something wonderful happens when you put a sieve of yoghurt over a bowl and sit back and wait. Don’t hurry it: the more patient you ...
AliExpo 2019 proved New Zealand’s ‘clean, green’ image remains as strong as ever, reports Jihee Junn. At Alibaba’s e-commerce expo on Friday, ‘brand New Zealand’ was at its sales-pitch best.There were face masks, eye masks, hand creams and serums made ...
The scale of departing ANZ NZ CEO David Hisco’s public humiliation by his employer doesn’t fit the crime he’s said to have committed, Gareth Vaughan of interest.co.nz argues.ANZ New Zealand’s town square disgracing of David Hisco, its CEO of almost ...
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand.Today’s contentANZ, banking Bernard Hickey (Newsroom): The smiling assassin returns ...
Open mike 01/06/2019 
The core claims of Jon Stephenson and Nicky Hager's Hit & Run are that the New Zealand SAS raided two villages in Afghanistan in search of "insurgents" who weren't there, and in the process killed six civilians including a three-year-old ...1 hour ago
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One of the major issues which face a democratic nation is the challenge of keeping its bureaucracy accountable and responsive to the public. Over the years a variety of arrangements have developed with this objective.read more ...3 hours ago
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Another major oil company has given up exploring in New Zealand: Chevron and Norwegian oil giant Equinor have opted to abandon their joint exploration efforts off the east coast of the North Island. The two firms have applied to surrender ...1 day ago
NZ has dethroned GDP as a measure of success, but will Ardern’s government be transformational? When you’re in politics, words are a high-stakes game. Voters and journalists hold you to them and there is a risk in using ...1 day ago
A note of appreciation and a changing of the guardFor the past over eight years Skeptical Science staff volunteer Ari Jokimäki has produced a weekly list of links to recent academic publications concerning the fundamental science of climate change, global ...2 days ago
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This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Daisy Simmons SACRAMENTO, Calif. – The world’s oceans are deeply affected by climate change – and vice versa. But until recent years, ocean advocates throughout California had long tackled issues like over-fishing ...2 days ago
There’s so much one could say about Key’s assessment of Hisco right now…
Suffice to say it was definitely the following: A) Perfectly reflective of the ... 3 days ago
. . This morning, a little after 4am, Sharlene lost her brave fight against cancer. Rest in peace, Sharlene. You were always one of my brightest stars… . . Advertisements ...4 days ago
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A chronological listing of news articles posted on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week, i.e., Sun, Jun 9 through Sat, June 15, 2019 Editor's Pick Costa Rica Doubled Its Forest Cover In Just 30 Years! Costa ...4 days ago
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Director-General of OPCW Fernando Arias Gonzales admits Douma engineers report was legit and he was part of the FFM – but attempts to justify suppression of the report. France 24 reports that the head of the Organisation for the ...6 days ago
Arundhati Roy is speaking at the Auckland Writers Festival on July 17. In this interview in The Guardian Roy discusses her writing and political activism. Gary Younge: One of the things I’m intrigued by at this moment is the way ...6 days ago
This is a re-post from Carbon Brief by Daisy Dunne The record-breaking 2018 summer heatwave in Japan in which more than 1,000 people died “could not have happened without human-induced global warming”, a study finds. And the extreme heat felt in ...6 days ago
I've had a bit to say of late about YouTube, its algorithms and the escalating allure of certain facile "creators" to young men. I worry about this stuff. But I think it's also important to acknowledge that the alt-lite and ...7 days ago
Jonathan Bamber, Professor of Physical Geography, University of Bristol and Michael Oppenheimer, Professor of Geosciences and International Affairs, Princeton University This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Antarctica is further from ...1 week ago
This is a re-post from Carbon Brief by Josh Gabbatiss Political lobbying in the US that helped block the progress of proposed climate regulation a decade ago led to a social cost of $60bn, according to a new study. Environmental economists Dr ...1 week ago
The Wellbeing Budget opens with, “What is wellbeing?”, a question that has been widely posed and little understood. Treasury says “Wellbeing is when people are able to lead fulfilling lives with purpose, balance and meaning to them.” Long-term challenges facing ...1 week ago
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I thought it mighty clever of the weather to turn to Winter overnight. Sitting pretty here in a house of brick. It wasn't always so easy.
Let's hear it for a budget tackling homelessness, let's hear it for a government trying to address mental health.
Sleep.
I spent parts of winter sleeping half at night, half in the day. This was in order to cope with the cold. From cars to windowless squats, beneath bridges and basements abandoned; the houses of homelessness are cold.
To sleep it helped to be inebriated so one's body (and head) would allow you some sleep. I'd curl up in a foetal position with covers over my head to recirculate the warm air, and hands tucked between my legs to try get them warm. It was enough for a while and I'd drift off, but by around 4 a.m. either my reserves or the temperature had dropped sufficiently that it woke me.
There were several hours till dawn and though many preferred to stay down, shivering as temperatures bottomed out, I had to move.
Morning calisthenics. 4 a.m. drills for the idle unemployed. Press ups, squats, burpees. Soon I'd be warm enough to stop shivering, warm enough that the ringing in my ears would subside, warm enough to roll a smoke without tearing the paper in half. The burning coal of a cigarette cupped in the palms of my hands.
I'd march. Off to the parks, to the coast and the dunes. Under lupins and round the river mouths. In the places fungi grew in abundance. Magical fungi, munchable fungi. From the city to the fields and back again.
We ate fungi, watercress, seafood, rustled sheep, pilfered fruit, garden raids, dumpster diving and homeless handouts. We never thought about how we were homeless, we were surviving. Mental health, abuse, alcoholism, addiction, abandonment. It was all there, and it was all intertwined. We absolved ourselves with three Fuck You's and a bottle of grog.
A portion of us were typically in prison. This was normal. Some were locked up for stealing liquor, others robbing chemists; I for picking mushrooms and growing weed. Whatever it takes means different things to different people, and survival trumped law in most cases. As society had done to us the things that were done to us, then fuck society. We would look after ourselves.
We were divided in attitudes between those of us who wanted to change the world, and those who wanted to burn it all down. There's too much time to think when you are homeless. To feel purpose it helps if one can move purposefully. To live amongst the hopeless it requires a special kind of strength to even dare to dream. We were young and we still dared, but for many it was a dream.
Overdose, car accident, murder, life. Slowly they vanished as if they'd never existed. Long forgotten by those purported to love them. Dead.
The eulogies I wrote were prosaic and deep. It was tragedy and tragedy then tragedy again. Absentee parents wailed soulfully upon the caskets of those they held dear. Too little and too late they'd turn up in their cars. Countenance grave; soft words finally spoken.
Thanks for sharing that. Such insights into our collective reality are essential, and a helpful antidote to the economic/political spin around the budget, reminding us what it's all about really. And resilience contains emotional intelligence as a social necessity…
That's a stunning piece WTB, thank you for sharing.
Amazing writing. The lampooning of absentee parents is exquisite.
National are absentee parents. Wailing over the graves they create.
Same as Dennis and HS; you've hinted at this before so it's not a surprise. But I am moved by the intensity of it. And not only have you journeyed through that dark, damp land … but you found the path out of it.
I for one await more of the story, if and when it's time to tell it.
Wonderful writing BLP
And I want to hear more of this wonderful life
Ditto francesca (1.5)
Nice work there.
Gives your thoughts context.
I echo all of the sentiments by the rest on here WTB. A wonderful piece, and thank you for sharing. There are a few favourite places here in our town for some to find a bit of shelter. A convenient nook in an alleyway just off the main street makes an ideal spot. It's covered over and reasonably secluded, but it would be a bugger in a westerly! Behind the church is good too and just over the road from the pub. It's also sheltered from the wind and has soft grass. We have around 15 to 20 sleeping really rough here, and are about to get expanded accommodation for those nights when it really is too bad to be unsheltered.
WTB if TS don't make you an author, go to TDB. You owe it to all of us.
Thank you.
WOW! A brilliant piece of writing WTB (1) … I'd like to say it was a great story. However, the story you told wasn't/isn't so great for far too many Kiwis.
Thanks for taking the time to share such a raw, gritty expose` of homelessness in NZ, through personal experience.
Lived experience speaks with an authentic voice. Thank you WTB for sharing, for keeping your sense of hope and for recognising the efforts made to change the way budgets are formed. May you enjoy your brick house and the winter warmth your home offers you for the rest of your days. Please write more.
Gordon Campbell analyses the European election outcome (http://werewolf.co.nz/2019/05/gordon-campbell-on-europes-non-surrender-to-far-right-extremism/)and here's an interesting section:
"In Portugal and Spain, the incumbent governments of the centre-left were rewarded by voters. In Spain, voters rejected the far right populist party Vox, which collapsed back to 6% from the 10% high it achieved only a fortnight ago in the Spanish general elections."
"On the radical left, Podemos saw its support decline to 10%, a sharp fall from the 18% they’d scored in the last European Parliament elections. The decline of Podemos holds a cautionary message for the Green Party in New Zealand. Now that Podemos is no longer an outsider party but is actively propping up the Socialist government of Pedro Sanchez, much of its support has been bleeding back to Sanchez and his PSOE party, which has long been Spain’s neo-liberal Third Way party of the centre-left. In a further blow, radical left mayors in major cities (including the high profile administration of Ada Colau in Barcelona) lost their fights for re-election. In Spain as whole, the radical left is being marginalised by regional parties, and by the Establishment left."
As a life-long radical, I've always found the radical left amusing. I share their striving to attain an ideal world, while remaining baffled at their reluctance to learn from political experience. It makes no sense for the Greens to marginalise themselves on the extreme left. Too few voters support such idiocy.
Usually radical leftists reject centrism in favour of ideological purity. They refuse to admit that support for the underdog is more politically potent when it comes from a party that controls the political centre and selects governments. As Winston has proven. The GP needs leaders who are capable of learning the lesson.
while remaining baffled at their reluctance to learn from political experience.
It's less baffling if you contemplate their probable motives, the ones they never speak to directly.
Nonsense. The Greens are about as "Left" as Holyoak.
Extreme only in your dreams.
The extremists are those who think business as usual is even possible.
Nuance. I made no blanket statement re the Greens, just advised against any leftist extremism. There's a ginger group (mainly idealistic youngsters) within the party which formed several years ago to lobby for such positioning. I've seen their spokespeople being explicit in calling for that partisan stance and alignment at our conferences. They are open, honest, and forthright in doing so.
Add to that is the unending nauseating way media professionals keep depicting the Greens as `to the left of Labour'. Hardly surprising that a popular view of the Greens being wild-eyed radicals has gained currency. Hopelessly unrealistic…
@KJT +1 “The extremists are those who think business as usual is even possible.”
You fail to point out that since the emergence of centrist liberalisim as the dominating force in western left wing politics from the late 1970's, what was once just left is now framed as extreme or radical left.
The reason cenerism should and is being rejected is because it has failed to work, or work for the many and not just the few..or haven't you noticed.
Go and read WeTheBleeple’s piece at the beginning of today’s open mike, and think about the homeless families living in cars all over NZ, all the working poor in NZ who spend over half their wages on rent, that is free market centerism in action for you.
Turn Labour Left!
Cameron to get a software upgrade:
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/may/31/david-cameron-takes-job-with-us-artificial-intelligence-firm?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
Green suit-wearers will be careerists, of course, but doesn't mean inability to grasp the big picture. Here we have the Values schism to teach us that the centrists are essential to the political success of the Green left (if they were able to learn the lesson) whereas in Germany the thirty years war between fundies & realos seems to have been resolved.
"A surge of support, helped by the Fridays for Future protest movement, propelled Germany's Greens to second place in Sunday's European Parliament elections, at the expense of the mainstream parties. Chancellor Angela Merkel's centre-right CDU/CSU bloc and their ailing junior coalition partners the Social Democrats (SPD) both suffered historic losses after being caught flat-footed on environmental policy."
https://www.thelocal.de/20190527/the-perfect-storm-germany-feels-heat-of-climate-vote?utm_source=piano&utm_medium=onsite&utm_campaign=71&tpcc=de-just-rhs
The thing with all of this thinking, within multiple contexts/systems:
The edge is where the action occurs. New ideas, new genes, new philosophies.
The center is where most of the energy resides, but this is mostly used to maintain the status quo, broken or not. There is an illusion in the center, being the 'holders of power', that everything held in check belongs to the center and is of the center's doing.
But it came from an edge. The refusal to listen to the fringe is everyone's limitation.
I understand your position in trying to help more fringe lefties gain some ideas for relative longevity and a platform for their positions: but the center swallows the edge, it's very nature being conformity to the center.
Much better that we allow fringe political players to be their own entities (within reason and civility) as a think-tank for the center – as it has always been, but let's be honest about who's doing all the thinking.
The people with real problems to solve – or the well to do?
…who's doing all the thinking. The people with real problems to solve – or the well to do?
I don't find thinking and questioning and willingness to consider other less-materially-successful peoples viewpoint among the well to do. Not as a rule.
You have to step aside and view things objectively, wonder about how it is for others, listen to their tales and then wonder about what led them there. The amount of wondering that people do, of the different ways that people react to the same events and treatment, all helps to get a depth to relating to others. Most well to do are too busy managing their resources, and choosing ways to observe things or do things important to their group to sit and wonder.
Running in marathons is a perfect example. A totally unimportant activity, a personal challenge to skite about, and very much about self and proving yourself not lazy and meeting some herd convention. Why don't people raise to merit the groups going out to cut down old mans beard suffocating forest for instance. That requires all the fitness put into a marathon; that would be the wondering herd in action, not the stampeding herd off on some psychological desire to prove themselves as good as the old pioneers.
"Running marathons is a perfect example" greywarshark, the same idiocy is involved in climbing the same mountain 10 times.
Feck, the airfares the costs and the energy could have built several tiny homes.
Climbers are held up to us as heroes. Edmund Hillary was, because he followed up with meaningful humanitarian efforts. Now it is a mighty money churn and less than edifying.
Many who are well off do not see their wealth, because they "Don't have a ……." (put a toy in there).
It get's cold at night so the mountaineers have to hold each other. It's still debatable to this day: who was on top first, Hillary, or Tensing. – Me.
Harry Holland's life confirms your analysis.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Holland
Cripes Jenny How – a second great Australian in the early Labour party, Holland Savage.
And I always sniggered at Muldoon's quip:
New Zealanders who leave for Australia raise the IQ of both countries · Robert Muldoon.
Now I'm laughing on the other side of my face.
Of course, then there was the Premier of Queensland.
Yes – but Queenslander's voted for him!
The edge is where the action occurs. New ideas, new genes, new philosophies.
Agreed. But keep in mind that only a small fraction of new ideas turn out to be good ideas. Radicals always risk going too far in their search.
The center is where most of the energy resides, but this is mostly used to maintain the status quo, broken or not.
Again agreed, yet keep in mind that while the status quo is always flawed and imperfect, we still depend on it for our daily survival. Yet as you say when it refuses to listen, the centre stagnates and becomes tyrannical.
The edge is represents the new, the unknown and the unstable, while the centre is the opposite. While both domains have their natural inhabitants, they also both need each other. They need to trade.
When you're mixing ingredients preparing to cook something, you keep adding and blending, repeating that till the mix is in right proportions needed for a good outcome. We need better chefs, cooks and kitchen hands following better practices if we want to lift our standards and then share out the buns fairly. That way we wouldn't get egg on our own faces or want to decorate the faces of supposed smart leaders.
Difference between a chef and a cook is a chef knows how to shop better. Asians by far have a far superior cultural tradition of low end deliciousness because across the Asian continent food has been far more democratised than in the west. In Asia cooks don't have to make difficult choices because the produce is so cheap to source and buy. In Asia it is possible to pick up a delicious hot sit down meal for 50 cents served to your table. In the west the well housed and well fed have a far greater cultural tradition of deciding who gets to eat and who doesn't.
In the 80's jokes was the currency of the work place smoko room. In the 90's not so much and in the naughties the lunch room turned into a sour affair as work breaks became less and less and productivity up and up. No one has the instincts to tell a joke any more. The people that make up The Labour Party flow in and out of ministerial offices, they are no longer selected from the people who know something about society so Labour lacks those democtratic instincts and must rely on committee groups to come up with ideas and working groups to hold there hands as they run the country.
Even though Labour are after higher wages and higher health they recognise the injustice of what Māori went through because they still have a beating heart. That kind of Labour Party will serve New Zealand particularly well. If MPs can teach themselves the big things then they'll have the instincts to know how things are run and then those smarties won't need pollsters. Although we can't whined the economy back to the 80's we've got a changing industrial relationship and every one doesn't wear the old high school knock around shoes anymore. We do have a different economy today. The same instincts are around and we've got to have more of that in The Labour Party and we've missed doing that in the last 15-20 years.
Yes, I fully agree with your reasoning & analysis. I'm still on the edge, in respect of investigating new thinking continuously, but I plonked one foot in the establishment at the start of '75, to have a career, and ended up straddling both realms, uneasily.
I've always found most Greens too mainstream in their thinking, for instance. Yet to get consensus, I had to work constructively with them. Overcoming my natural distaste for compromising essential principles was always hard, yet the sustained effort got us into parliament, and the compromises our reps in parliament have had to make are similar to mine in those respects.
So nowadays I advocate a consensus praxis to overcome partisan divides, and am pleased that we finally have a government actually doing that. Still, we must keep pushing for more innovative thinking around governance. The world needs that, not just us here in Aotearoa!
The launch this week of the book Whale Oil understandably put Cameron Slater and his dirty blogging at the centre of attention. But he has been in some cases paid and aided, abetted and used by a number of accomplices.
Someone who has been closely associated with Slater in his sustained attacks on Matt Blomfield is an ex-business associate of Blomfield’s, Marc Spring. If anything he has done more for longer than Slater.
One way Spring has kept attacks going against Blomfield) is his use of many identities in his online activities.
How many identities? That’s hard to quantify, but it’s many. my guess is well over a hundred identities, if not many more.
I identified over 40 in an eight month period on just one blog.
There have probably been some here.
Use of multiple pseudonyms is deceptive, and is bad for the many people who legitimately and reasonably use a pseudonym, as id discredits the use of pseudonyms generally.
The many identities of Marc Spring
It sounds to me like this man Spring is a pyschopath with obsessive disorders. Has he been investigated? He sounds dangerous.
That is very informative and insightful pete george. Thank you. We do have to keep watch for the evil people that are round, sort of have sensitive traps in our minds that register particular types of thought and action; a bit like traps for insects and predators that can be so deadly for our food sources.
Having seen of some of his antics over the years your description sounds pretty right. You could have used the word 'multiple' in front of obsessive.
It's interesting describing the behaviour and the personality in proper scientific, psychological terms. The easiest thing would be to say things like 'dirty, lowdown, scumbag piece of shit."
Be good to know his aliases here
Here are Marc Spring identities that have been used on various blogs and media comments forums.
ThreeMonkeys
SHAFT
The Ape
NOT MIKE
4077th
Gweg pwesland
pimp
phillip
DaveG
slicedcheesesandwich
Justice4Matt
BLOMFIELDS EX BIZ PARTNER
Harry ‘Gold Star’ Stottle
Harry Stottle
to HELL in a handbasket
The Assasin
David Jessop
CHEEKY DARKY
the MONKEYS RAINCOAT
Elton
Samantha Hays
The Barber
They Walk, they talk, they harm
THE PRIEST
Hannibal Lecters Psychologist
Inspector Clouseau
Rod
I HAVE THE HARD DRIVE
MARC NEVER FORGETS CUNT
I AM OWED TOO
THE WORST NIGHTMARE
When dies Bankrupt = Businessman
Jean
Bus Driver
LORD DONKEY
Harvey Specter
TYRANT/THE TYRANT
HUSTLER
BUCK WIT
Shagger
Gimp of Greenhithe
Spiderman wants his mask back
RAMBONE OF RAMBONIA
Reaper Crew
Gay Mo
Rolf Harris
Bill Brown
Reaper Crew
The last one is one of I believe a number he has used at LF.
https://yournz.org/2019/06/01/the-many-identities-of-marc-spring-include/
Isn’t that one of those psychological word-association tests to unearth deep psychological trauma, damaged or stalled identity development, and psychopathic tendencies?
Mad as a meat-axe . Threemonkeys and Rod ring a bell for me. Never frequented Whale Oil or Kiwiblog so suspect he used them here in times past.
I suppose this has already been noted here. Amy Adams of National accusing Labour Coalition of playing 'petty politics' in changes to the convention of the pre-Budget practices. WTF when Simon B does it, it is okay – he is just testing the government by breaking reasonable agreements.
I should think that Labour Coalition was actually trying to prevent National doing more of their petty measures and turning what was a serious financial presentation into a Punch and Judy show.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA1905/S00287/government-playing-petty-politics-with-budget-day-process.htm
National’s Finance spokesperson Amy Adams says. 29 May 2019
“While media and other parties are given three and a half hours to examine the Government’s accounts before they are released, National is only allowed 60 minutes. Because of this we need a wide range of subject matter experts to review their areas. Last year we had 16 of our team present and to have this arbitrarily halved this year is unreasonable and petty, particularly when we are told this year’s Budget will look very different to previous years.
From what I read in te newspaper, they had to move the whole lock-up process to a smaller room this year. That's all.
Ah but that can be played out as part of a Conspiracy against National.
And perhaps the room was further from the toilets – another form of harassment. Gnats are really sick in the mind, and it says something too about the people who keep voting them in, keep supporting them, keep listening to the diatribe from the bellicose broadcasters providing them with a comforting blanket of words for the day that the Right Crowd can repeat to prevent any uncomfortable thoughts from filtering through the Matrix.
I notice a lot of Rudyard Kipling’s poem ‘If’ is pertinent.
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:
And even that wording can be bent and used against you by the RW and some from the Left as well. And that is dealt with in those lines also. A meaningful poem.
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46473/if—
Fascinating in-depth documentary on the influence of cannabis in the Bible. It seems the word cannabis was Scythian in origin and it was they who traded and spread it throughout Eurasia. The Greeks called it by the same name while the Jews called it Kaneh Bosm, each culture giving the plant a variation of the Scythian name. Like others, the Jews valued its ability to get high (restricted to the high priests, prophets and kings), nutritional value and use for hemp clothing.
Assange showing symptoms of 'psychological torture': UN
Statement accuses the US, UK, Sweden and Ecuador of "ganging up" on Assange to "isolate, demonise and abuse" him.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/05/assange-showing-symptoms-psychological-torture-190531135445284.html
John Pilger: US Charges Against Julian Assange are RIDICULOUS!
Thanks for this john. I've been following this sad development and watching the entire fiasco unravel on every front. I used some strong language a few days back, and the light of this I don't resile from it one jot.
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2019/05/the-unrelenting-state/
WH Auden says it for Assange:'
I think what could help Assange is if someone from the RW speaks up who has perceptions of being decent and also concerned about USA keeping an appearance of having standards of behaviour that bear scrutiny. That person would suggest that it is a bad idea to not enable Assange's health so he can stand trial and not in the USA's best interests to allow Assange to fall seriously ill or worse.
The USA must try to keep its image alive of being a fair nation that behaves in a superior way to others and acts to keep the Peace in the World. So – something should be said and acted on in this manner and the UK can encourage that and show they have blood in their veins.
This?
'Though USA is very unhappy about the revelations of secrets that WikiLeaks supplied, it does not wish to harm the individual responsible as other lesser civilised countries would do. And so it is transferring Assange (to Australia, to a facility where he can recover his strength with wellbeing) until he is ready to face trial.'
That sort of thing. The USA won't have a high horse to look down from if they don't make an effort to repair their fraying image.
Julian Assange's mother condemns UK government for 'unlawfully slowly killing my son'
https://www.sott.net/article/414092-Julian-Assanges-mother-condemns-UK-government-for-unlawfully-slowly-killing-my-son?fbclid=IwAR0XS8Rm9JF-AaKNcjDTszhn9l7B14NGM7auC1QlT-1FfFVRt1dVvkxJVa8
“They made him very ill by refusing him ANY access to life sustaining fresh air, exercise, sun/VitD or proper medical care for 6 YEARS of illegal Embassy detention
Kristinn Hrafnsson, WikiLeaks' editor-in-chief, wrote that "Julian's case is of major historic significance. It will be remembered as the worst attack on press freedom in our lifetime. The People need to voice their condemnation; it is their politicians, their courts, their police and their prisons that are being abused in order to leave this black stain on history. Please act now to avert this shame".
Unfortunately the mass campaign to vilify Assange has done its work.
Even on this supposedly progressive site, the attack lines are relentlessly repeated
"Melzer went on:
I looked at the letter writing to Assange at Belsem? Prison campaign, it advises to put in a plain sheet of paper and self addressed envelope with UK stamps for reply – of course he woud need a pen or pencil. I have not been able to find NZPost information about how to deal with pre-paid mail in other country's currency. At present I have a question placed yesterday about this but have received no email reply.
I asked about stamps or an international coupon which I imagine there should be available but who knows it seems to me that NZ Post is just managing down the business. If I could buy a pre-paid envelope rather than stamps – that would be practical. I thought they might have replied by now.
"Abstaining from the witchhunt would have classed the dissenter as an enemy. Stalin was supported by fanatics, cynics, sadists and moral cowards."
—-Donald Rayfield, Stalin and His Hangmen: An Authoritative Portrait of a Tyrant and Those Who Served Him (Viking, 2004)
…deliberate collective ridicule, insults and humiliation… We have seen that on this site frequently and from people who one would expect to have been on the side of exposing the secrets of powerful people and countries willing to destroy others for their purposes.
For good people to do nothing…. Have I got time to be good, what with all the other things I give my time to, as well as my own living tasks for me, my family, friends and community? These sort of unworthy thoughts about my lack of action are I think echoed by quite a number.
We should be out in the streets for Assange, but the attention now is on climate change and receiving a living wage for those who are trying to hold society together and retain the advances that were gained by exhaustive social interaction last century.
Got to keep trying to do it all or the golden bulldozer driven by a robot with such a cheeky, lovable grin in such a cute hat, will scoop us all up. Ever looked at the photos of naked bodies being thrown into burial pits in Holocaust archives? That sort of thing has happened multiple times in even near history. Those images should be in everyone's minds; the reality of what we can do when we have our mind setting on the mark of Cold, Hard, Unfeeling, Uncaring, Unrespecting, Unloving, and Choose your level of Evil – Eager, Sometimes, Neutral, Not sure, Wrestling against it every day.
You're right Grey
Just the sheer numbing pressure of being under the hammer , the struggle to provide a roof and food, and pay the bills is all many can cope with
I'm sorry – I do go on. I understand if its tl:dr. But laying it out occasionally, how someone is feeling I think helps to understand what's going on in society for some people.
The problem is that life presently is so depressing – the constant flow of viciousness, unfairness, violence and the imbalance with meanness high and easy generosity so low; how to create a bright spot, some hope, some comfort takes mental energy, even requires mental exercises. And under austerity with a religious wash, joy is not allowed, unless it is preachy Joy in the Lord.
I am sure the Great Spirit-Creator would be satisfied to see us being just great humans showing respect and receiving it in return; trying to get on together and building a feeling of solidarity and strength to face off the nastiness. That's hard even when the basics of life are under control. I see this blog as a living personification? of what those here with goodwill are reaching for. That's why I get upset at repeat vicious put-downs and faux concerns that have a thorn in them. I can stand argy bargy from those who are trying like me to establish a buzzy beehive of ideas and co-operation to make up for the failings of the one in Wellington at present. I don't think though we will ever see a united group of all parties working for the good of NZ in Wellington. So I see it as important to keep talking about good things, and then doing something so that I don't end up feeling helpless and life a wet noodle. So will soon shut up and go and do something useful for me and have done something else already this morning so that's a tick for me.
We have to keep our eye on civility, honesty, kindness and practicality as these are needed in relationships all round the world. In NZ too many have been vaccinated with poisonous ideas, some sanctimonious, many adopting misanthropy and so finding it exciting to embrace robots (and possibly one day literally as well as figuratively).
They are trying to kill Julian Assange
Martha S. 1 day ago
The so-called journalists of the msm are presstitutes, they write what is expected from them. They sold their soul.
That Mike Who? is one of the best paid presstitutes infesting NZ airways and press.
Chris Marsden demands freedom for Julian Assange
Sad, but self-inflicted.
On the contrary. I'd wager that every argument you've made this past 8 years that Assange's problems are 'self inflicted' is authoritatively debunked here:
https://www.jonathan-cook.net/blog/2019-05-27/abuses-show-assange-case-was-never-about-law/
Given that he starts with the "no charges" bullshit that is a mi-statement of the "no proceedings" argument that the british courts threw out of his original extradition hearings, that's a bold wager.
One of the hounds that pollute this site has unloaded another of his complacent, vicious, obscenity-larded tirades. The following captures his motivation just about perfectly…..
yeah the only reason I said anything was because it was just a matter of time before some self-important jerk wrote that people who have the unmitigated gall to suggest that people to be extradited for sexual assault proceedings shouldn't jump bail are "strangely silent".
So no, it changes nothing. He chose to abscond, that's his choice, he wears the consequences. If you're going to do that, copy Biggs or Papillon instead.
Ignoring the role Julian Assange has played in exposing America's misdeeds for some fantasy that Julian committed sexual assault probably has more evidence than the evidence against Julian Assange.
Swedish prosecutors and british courts disagree.
So you are still in denial about the bogus charges against Assange. We've got the rise in denial of routine law. A rise in denial about science, a rise in religious denial, and I'm talking about you, McFlock (lol) the amount of denial. The greater the denial> the greater the darkness.
You think the sexual assault investigation is bogus? Is that because you have any connection to the case, or just because google and confirmation bias have an unhealthy relationship in your mind?
It's because you excel at pointing at flaws in Julian Assanges arguments and are very quiet and deceptive about the flaws in the prosecutions arguments.
What flaws are those?
Sex without consent = rape.
Removing the condom when the condom was requested negates previous consent.
Therefore, if the facts of the case are correct, there's at lease a case to make that rape occurred.
You are still only telling half of the truth. Consent laws was brought into Sweden so to charge adults with raping minors, not adults raping adults. If consent laws was punished as you would prescribe, McFlock 🙂 then the legal age of consent would be 30 or how ever old the victims you allege was raped by Julian Assange. That's it.
Are you arguing that rape is legal in Sweden as long as the person being raped is over a certain age?
I'm saying you can't come up with an argument why I couldn't or even shouldn’t mount a fertile red blooded woman laying next to me bareback.
Because she doesn't want you to.
That sentence only makes sense if I replace "she" with "McFlock."
Keep telling yourself that.
What makes you so sure that I would have violated a law in the situation that I outlined above?
Because if your scenario has anything at all to do with Assange, my previous answer is sufficient. Otherwise there was no relevance to your comment at all and I incorrectly inferred the opposite.
Either case is possible.
In that case of course woman can say no condom no sex. What is unacceptable is a law intended for protecting minors against sex with out a condom because under Swedish law there had to be signs of physical harm, is then used to prosecute a crime from 7 years ago. And the definitions don't even fit current law.
So if she did say "no condom, no sex", and he slying removes the condom or doesn't wear one, is that rape?
You'd have to at least prove that your hypothetical occurred after the 2018 consent law changes. The rape allegations have already been thrown out of EU court once, woke lefties are just pleaing for them to be thrown out of a Swedish court a secound time.
lol you might want to look at the original extradition case again. Well before 2018.
Good one
I love Mezler's response to Jeremy Hunt's assertion that Assange had always been free to leave the Embassy.
After finding that Julian Assange displayed symptoms of “prolonged psychological torture,” UN Special Rapporteur Nils Melzer has traded barbs with the UK’s Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt over the WikiLeaks founder’s persecution.
“The UN Special Rapporteur should allow British courts to make their judgments without his interference or inflammatory accusations,” Hunt added.
Melzer quickly fired back in a rather creative fashion, saying: “With all due respect, Sir: Mr Assange was about as ‘free to leave’ as someone sitting on a rubber boat in a sharkpool.” He also reiterated comments that the British justice system had failed to show the “impartiality and objectivity required by the rule of law.”
@McFlock I'm sure he'll get more support once he's faced and beaten the rape charges in a court of law.
If that happens.
I'm equally sure that people here will still think his work with wikileaks should give him a free pass, even if they accept the verdict, if he's found guilty.
It certainly seems that way.
The charges are fantasy charges. The women with whom he had consensual sex were inveigled and bullied into this obscene travesty by the Swedish prosecutor, who was herself under duress from U.S. "diplomats."
If there were any credible charges against him, that would be another matter entirely. Your abuse of those who support this political dissenter and journalist is invalid.
If there were and credible evidence of what you claim, the extradition bid would have failed in 2012.
It's that sort of baseless but categorical claim of Assange's innocence that brings forth the description "rape apologist".
We don't know he's guilty, but nor do we know he is innocent. That is what the courts are for.
Political asylum is a thing McFlock.Its not granted to avoid being charged with a crime.Unless there is strong suspicion the charges are politically motivated
Prominent people asking for asylum are political pawns. Bargaining chips.
... copy Biggs or Papillon instead.
????
They were criminals. Assange is a journalist, an exposer of and dissenter from official lies. Which makes him, of course, an extreme threat and a target for destruction.
He's a guy who jumped bail to avoid extradition to face allegations of criminal activity. Any journalism he might also have undertaken is irrelevant to that.
A bullshit argument that omits the crucial context. It's like blaming someone for breaking their leg jumping out of a third floor window and not mentioning the building was on fire.
Well, not mentioning that he claimed the building was on fire after the home-owners arrived home early and there were questions about whether he was legally permitted to be inside the room from which he jumped. Oh, and that so far the only fire discovered is in the fireplace, well-contained according to fire code standards.
Nope, there's enough ambiguity in your argument to call bulshit. Assanges rape allegations was just a tool for the U.S. to persecute Assange.
Or he's a rapist.
Or every possible permutation, interpretation, or misunderstanding, in between.
By ambiguity I mean the woke have called Assage a rapist so such with out a conviction of rape that it's prejudiced any trail he may have. It's impossible for Assange to receive a fair trial now.
I'm sure his legal team will make that argument, and the courts will consider it.
A bullshit argument that omits the crucial context.
I didn't mention the specific allegations or their context, but they're not exactly crucial to the point that he's a guy who jumped bail to avoid extradition to face allegations of criminal activity. Whatever claims Assange or anyone else has about the allegations being part of a dastardly if somewhat illogical conspiracy, they're just claims, and evidence-free ones at that.
Whatever claims Assange or anyone else has about the allegations being part of a dastardly if somewhat illogical conspiracy, they're just claims, and evidence-free ones at that.
So now you are claiming the Americans are only pretending to be making an extradition case against him?
The alleged conspiracy is that the Swedish extradition request was part of a plot to extradite Assange to the US. There's no evidence of such a plot, and it would have been a pointless plot anyway, as the US could have just requested his extradition from the UK – as it's now done.
Your 'but' negated your previous word and displayed your faux concern.
Enough with your disingenuous utterances.
http://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/msg/1559337637.html
A “sad” case of “self-inflicted” psychological torture?
What could Assange do now to minimise further “self-inflicted” psychological torture?
Not much. How do you change your mind after you jumped off the bridge?
"One little push, and over he went – he made quite a 'splash'." Sad indeed.
@ McFlock , 'self-inflicted'…really how so?
He chose to be a political pawn for Ecuador. Should have jumped on a yacht.
Adrian, if you encountered someone so disgusting on the street, you'd probably ignore him. Don't expect a thoughtful or serious answer to your question.
Yes I know, but it can be amusing to try and follow their mental gymnastics in their convoluted answers sometimes, I guess I am saying they can some times be good for a cheap laugh….only if you are in the mood that is, otherwise they are just annoying and distasteful.
Still hanging on brother. Trump is trying to shake you off and you are still hanging on.
Russian versions of McFlock, meanwhile, tut-tutted and said "Zinoviev inflicted it on himself."
Mprrissey better not to make the argument more distressing. This goes direct to a sensitive nerve of McFlock's and coughing up Stalin who was a mega maniac with a matching power complex is not helpful in the situation. Just disagree will you and not feed the fire. It upsets me my friend.
The point of comparison is the behaviour of Stalin’s henchmen. McFlock and several others on this forum are analogues of Karl Pauker, Lavrenty Beria and the other ghouls who delighted in the suffering of officially designated enemies.
Yeah i just think your exagerrated point might be dropped being a regular here and knowing a bit about the site commenters.
Except that adding in "Russian versions of McFlock, meanwhile […]" shows that there is no "analogue" of me in the actual quote.
I get that you were trying to be a dick and compare Assange's self-chosen Ecuadorean Escapade with the deaths of twenty-odd million people in a totalitarian state run by a tyrant, but the English language (like the rest of reality) didn't quite fit your narrative.
And my gulags will be safe with you around brother. Extra portions of cabbage soup for you.
See, now you're the one claiming to be a totalitarian. Which is the opposite of what mozza was claiming. Try to keep up, Sam, there's a good lad.
No cabbage soup for you is a naughty boy.
Assange might have chosen most of his "Ecuadorean Escapade", but I doubt that he chose the ending, let alone subsequent events – these were imposed, and perhaps more difficult to foresee than the consequences of having "jumped off the bridge".
Still “sad“.
How the fuck did he think it was going to finish? Do cops stop chasing robbers once they reach "safe", all is forgiven? Would he get into a literal "diplomatic bag" and be put on a slow boat to Ecuador?
He had literal months to figure out his absconding plan, and that's what he came up with? No helicopter out to an Ecuadorian freighter 20 miles off shore? No yacht trip? No disguise, false identity, or escape tunnel from the embassy? No, let's take a car ride into the middle of London and stay there.
As well as repeatedly firing the word “rape” around, despite its complete inappropriateness, this tick "McFlock" keeps trying to associate a journalist and political dissident with robbers—yesterday he used the examples of Ronald Biggs and Papillon, for pity's sake.
I guess when you've chosen your line, no matter how wrongheaded and demonstrably false it is, you're committed to it. George W. Bush was like that. And his deputy Tony Bliar. And “Honest John” Howard.
And our friend Wayne.
Rape is what he remains accused of.
Other escaped criminals are resonable "analogues" for someone who absconded from bail for the better part of a decade.
Nah … rape is the bogus charge that was cooked up for political purposes. Every sane reading of the events around his association with the two Swedish women, both before and after, and during the initial interviews … absolutely do not suggest coercion or assault. The first investigator concluded 'no crime of any kind'.
It was only after he left Sweden that someone had the bright idea that what happened could be twisted into this disgusting charade.
Any sane reading suggests that the facts as reported indicate he was at the very least reckless as to whether either of his partners were consenting to him not using a condom.
But you know that's all bogus, so fucking yay, I guess courts are unnecessary, with such omniscient beings amongst us.
It's my impression the vast majority of people, including me, who support Assange have always said that ideally the allegations should be tested in Court.
But everything about this case tells us nothing is ideal, nothing is normal about how this case has been laid and prosecuted. If this was really about Assange's 'recklessness' … and nothing else … he would have done exactly what he said he has stated all along, and traveled back to Sweden to clear his name at Court.
And Steve Jobs should have gone for recognised medical treatments sooner.
People react oddly to things, and in different ways. Sometimes it's panic, or ego, or denial/avoidance. Sometimes people say stuff for so long that they end up believing their own hype.
Could be any of those, could be that a mole in the FBI/CIA secretly emailed him the full outline of a plot to use these allegations to gitmo him, and he panicked and ran to the embassy. Or maybe that was the plan – send him an invented plot so he does something stupid like jumping bail.
Bullshit. For years you've been deflecting from the obvious, that the USA would use any opportunity to extradite him if possible. Assange could not know in advance exactly how, but he had every good reason to suspect that these 'rape' allegations were bogus and a ploy to get him into a legal jurisdiction more amenable to American pressure.
For years you pretended this was just a paranoid fabrication to avoid facing trial in Sweden … yet now the Americans have indeed played their hand openly and you have been proven factually wrong.
For years I've been saying that if he genuinely believed it was all a US plot, why flee from Sweden into the jurisdiction of America's closest ally?
And yes, they showed their hand – in UK courts.
And it's one thing to pretend Sweden is more "amenable" to extradtition to the US than the UK (which is an arguable point full of opinions and maybes), it's another thing entirely to say the Swedes are "amenable" to fabricating rape proceedings in order to be in a position to extradite to the US.
And if it's a genuine sex crime investigation, then he needs to face it.
"How the fuck did he think it was going to finish?" – you sound upset.
Once granted, how do cases of asylum typically end? Sadly?
Normally, people requesting asylum do so after they are in the country in question, or walk into the embassy of the save haven in a third country.
Fleeing into an embassy in the country you are fleeing from seems to have very mixed results.
IMHO the 7 examples in that 2012 list all had 'happy' endings for the asylum seekers. Most of the examples are at least 30 years old.
Assange’s "Escapade" seems an outlier wrt duration and outcome.
“Sad“.
look at the ones where the asylum seekers were seeking asylum from the country the embassy was in.
The happy endings lower drastically in proportion.
And that's if you call the Mariel Boatlift a happy ending.
Not sure the Cardinal’s experience was too happy, either. Got there in the end, but after how long? He must have not had a cat.
Your “cat” reference lends credence to Brigid’s comment @8.3.2.
The linked page lists seven examples where "asylum seekers were seeking asylum from the country the embassy was in." All the asylum seekers apparently got what they asked for, some sooner than others. You believe this applies to Assange – lol, “sad“.
2012: "He left after six days, and subsequently was allowed to go to New York with his wife and two children."
1989: "Noriega surrendered 10 days later after being assured he would not face the death penalty in the United States." A one-time useful ally of the US.
1989: "They lived in the embassy for 13 months before being allowed to go to the United States."
1986: Howard 'escaped' to Russia via their Finnish embassy.
1980: From the information given, it seems likely that the six Cubans granted asylum in Peru's Havana embassy 'got out'.
1966: "She returned to the Soviet Union in 1984, saying she wanted to reunite with her family. Her Soviet citizenship was restored but she left a year later to go back to the U.S. following a family feud."
1956: "lived in the U.S. Embassy in Budapest from 1956 until 1971, when he was allowed to leave for Vienna." The only example in that list of an asylum that lasted (much) longer than Assange's. The US honoured that request for asylum until he was allow to leave.
I think you need to look up Noriega, and what happened to him, and relations with the US before they invaded Panama.
Howard ditched his tail in the US and went to Helsinki, where he claimed asylum in the Soviet Embassy there. He didn't go from the Soviets' Washington embassy. The Finns didn't want him, the yanks did. Similarly, Stalin went to the US embassy in New Delhi. The Indians didn't want here, the Soviets did.
Cuba was happy to get rid of them, and everyone else. And some occupants of its jail cells and mental asylums. Mariel Boatlift.
And the US had skin in the game to protect the Cardinal. He was a PR bonus. He could easily have been abandoned if the chips had fallen the other way.
BTW, I misphrased it.
Assange was fleeing the UK, so went to the Ecuadorian embassy in the UK.
I.e. the location of the embassy and the country being fled were the same country.
That applies to the two Chinese instances (diplomatic horse-trading likely involved), the Cardinal (same), and the Cubans (which Cuba used to clear the country of dissidents and prisoners).
You cited those seven examples in response to my question:
In those seven examples, no asylum seeker was forcibly removed from the embassy that granted asylum. Only Noriega was subsequently incarcerated, after extracting a guarantee and surrendering voluntarily.
If those historical cases are anything to go by then it seems to me that the way Assange's ayslum ended, and his subsequent treatment, are atypical – I'm happy for readers to draw their own conclusions.
Even 14% is not an unexpected return. It happens.
Would you agree that ‘forcible removal’ was unprecedented, and could therefore be regarded as atypical?
No idea.
Maybe if he’d considered his diplomatic worth versus an IMF loan after a change in president, he’d have avoided the embassy in the first place.
"Sad"
It is sad.
Like, outside my work, there's a pigeon that got hit by a car in the street and is now a flat streak of feathery grease. I'm not cut up about it or anything, but as I drive over it there is a sombre reflection on all that we are and become. There's no glee that a disease-encrusted rat of the sky is no more. It was a thing, and now it is a dead thing.
That sort of level of sad, I guess. Where you do that sort of inward "tch" sound, maybe slightly shake your head, and then get on with your day.
Got it – let 'justice' take its course, nothing to see here, just one more “disease-encrusted rat of the sky“, etc.
“Oh dear, how sad, never mind.”
"right".
"Treasury hacking: The time I hacked WINZ – Keith Ng."
Remember the fuss when Keith discovered the "hole" in WINZ? He did the right thing by informing WINZ about the "hole." Bridges didn't did he?
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12236128
Report on clever hacking from African sources this time, not Russian! Through email phishing.
Nelson family nearly lose home deposit to African hackers
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/113115596/nelson-family-nearly-lose-home-deposit-to-african-hackers
I https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/113169105/former-bnz-chair-calls-for-sir-john-key-to-be-forced-to-resign-from-anz
Hmmm.
ANZ New Zealand tries to fob it off as a minor error that occurred. Maybe they can find an ‘emotional junior staffer’ to take the blame. It most certainly wasn’t the Board.
The point is made that this is a fundamental issue of incompetence:
The RBNZ is working in a plan to force the banks in NZ to hold more capital as a bulwark against future financial shocks. The banks have embarked on a campaign of fear-mongering claiming that the RBNZ’s plan would act like “a handbrake” on our economy and ultimately lead to higher (borrowing) costs for customers.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/112832162/reserve-bank–plan-has-significant-negative-consequences-for-our-country-banks?rm=m
The New Zealand Bankers Association's (NZBA) had commissioned a report by research organisation Sapere to counter the RBNZ’s plans.
It seems to me that ANZ New Zealand is trying to have it both ways.
IRONY ALERT! Noelle McCarthy, who laughs at the suffering of political prisoners and sneers at human rights protestors, interviewed someone about "assholes" this morning.
RNZ National, Saturday 1 June 2019
After the 9 a.m. news the breathy, chirpy, Cork-accented Noelle McCarthy interviewed one John Walker, a Canadian who has made a documentary entitled Assholes: A Theory. According to his own publicity material, the film is "a direct response to psychology professor Aaron James' witty bestseller about why some people are assholes and how to deal with them – in an age when the trait seems to be on the rise."
The interview itself turned out to be neither particularly amusing nor insightful. At one point Noelle McCarthy chortled knowingly when he said: "Imagine the situation when one of these assholes is actually running your country!" Perhaps she was thinking of the situation in New Zealand from 2008 to December 2016.
The discussion was interesting, though, for what it left out: a sub-species of asshole who delights in the suffering of others. I sent the laughing hostess the following email….
You forgot the most disgusting assholes of all
Dear Noelle,
In your interview about "assholes" with John Walker this morning, neither of you mentioned a particularly noxious and heinous example of the genus, viz., those unspeakable individuals who laugh at the suffering of political prisoners.
Here's an especially repellent example of that kind of thing:
Hopefully you can interview John Walker another time, and add that kind of vicious asshole to his list.
Yours sincerely,
Morrissey Breen
Northcote Point
https://morrisseybreen.blogspot.com/2018/01/chris-trotter-reckons-zimmerman-jury.html
https://morrisseybreen.blogspot.com/2018/08/noelle-mccarthy-is-doggedly-reigning-in.html
https://morrisseybreen.blogspot.com/2017/12/possibly-most-repellent-panel-pre-show.html
Thumbs down to Radionz for settling on ironic and cynical themes for one, and not promoting some of regular NZ journalists to the role of supporting workers which Noelle seems to be part of. Can we hear NZ voices more please, not all these British and other 5 Eyes imports who are lovely people except for one failing, they are taking a NZ place in their own country's media, and we must have better balance – aim for 80/20 perhaps.
Remembering Flanders and Swann in reverse:
"Political prisoner and outspoken critic of Kremlin boss Vladimir Putin, Yulije Asanjey has been locked up in one of Russia's worst prisons for many years and may now face death through deliberate neglect of his medical condition
Asanjey became famous in the 2000's through exposing Russian aggression and covert spy activities over several years
Initially imprisoned for what many regard as trumped up charges,Asanjey has been declared the victim of torture by leading UN rapporteurs and experts on torture.
Russia's notorious prison system has long had a deliberate policy of breaking down prisoners so that they either die or are rendered incapable of conducting an effective defence. Denial of access or very limited access to lawyers and medical attention is a common ploy
Journalists from all over the world have expressed their support of Asanjey.
Amnesty International , Human Rights Watch and press freedom campaigners have joined under the common banner Free Asanjey!
The US has applied far reaching economic sanctions on Russia, for its continued flouting of UN rulings and increasing crack down on the free press"
Oh those wicked Russians!
Thank god we're not like that!
Thanks fransesca I have just thought again about doing something through Amnesty International. So will help with Free Asaney.
Have they a continuing campaign for Assange?
Amnesty International Get Involved
No.
Amnesty's only support of Assange has been this
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2012/09/sweden-should-issue-assurance-it-won-t-extradite-assange-usa/
Thats why my inclusion of them in the mock news report is ironic
Aha got it. But it sounded so true, and is with a reversal of approach. I still think I should support Amnesty I but sometimes the way things are done is surprising. Is Amnesty British – they could pop up to No.10 and sort everything out quite quickly, no, now I think of it they are tied up in knots, choose your own version, over Brexit and also who will be the next Clown Jester for PM.
Here are some knots and how to tie them. This might be the most useful information that arises from the blog today.
https://www.outdoorlife.com/photos/gallery/hunting/2012/02/essential-knots-how-tie-20-knots-will-keep-you-alive#page-4
useful link!
Another useful link:
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/05/31/us-figure-casualties-iraq-and-syria-hides-true-devastating-scale-civilian-deaths?cd-origin=rss&utm_term=US%20Figure%20of%20Casualties%20in%20Iraq%20and%20Syria%20Hides%20True%2C%20%27Devastating%20Scale%27%20of%20Civilian%20Deaths%2C%20Says%20Amnesty&utm_campaign=Ocasio-Cortez%20and%20Ted%20Cruz%20Agree%20%7C%20News%20%2526%20Views&utm_content=email&utm_source=Daily%20Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&cm_mmc=Act-On%20Software-_-email-_-Ocasio-Cortez%20and%20Ted%20Cruz%20Agree%20%7C%20News%20%2526%20Views-_-US%20Figure%20of%20Casualties%20in%20Iraq%20and%20Syria%20Hides%20True%2C%20%27Devastating%20Scale%27%20of%20Civilian%20Deaths%2C%20Says%20Amnesty
Hi Jenny How. Another time that you rush off before telling us what it's about. I’ll set it up under a keyword presumed explanation but it’s discombobulated in it original transition to the post here.
Jenny’s Mystery Link is Something to do with Amnesty
Indeed, many a commenter here seems to think that TS is their personal playground in which they can play by themselves or have one-on-one fun & games. At the same time, they seem to be oblivious to the fact that they are being watched, so to speak, by many silent readers of the site.
Indeed. Many dozens for each of us who speak. All part of the community.
Jenny, as a general rule you can cut off anything after the question mark: https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/05/31/us-figure-casualties-iraq-and-syria-hides-true-devastating-scale-civilian-deaths
Shamnesty, you mean.
https://professorsblogg.com/2014/05/11/swedish-amnesty-international-voted-for-reject-support-to-human-right-issues-on-assange-snowden-and-guantanamo-prisoners/?fbclid=IwAR3oHLkw9dNCUPUPQ339vP93fFLwjtM1t1VzmynLOVefkU28mRneTz5oWg8
In 1969, Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In predicted that the Berlin Wall would be torn down in 1989, and that Reagan would be President in 1988.
Starts at the 4:30 mark….
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEK8vZlzR1tPg2WOlZ59r8w
Click the following link to see another outlandish prediction that came true….
https://morrisseybreen.blogspot.com/2018/01/who-will-be-lead-mourner-at-obamas.html
Sovereign Nations
Do Nations have the Right to protect their Citizens, their Laws, their Trade and their Freedoms. ?
Or do they have to put up with illegal and weird Hackers, and Uninvited camera men rumaging for so called "scandal reports" and free feeds day and night.
I think it is proper for a Nation to clean up its own numerous flaws, before pronouncing the wickedness of others.
Can't seem to find this on The Standard:
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12236522
BUSINESS
Former bank director calls for Sir John Key to be forced to resign from ANZ
1 Jun, 2019 12:44pm
Here: https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-01-06-2019/#comment-1623499
And here: https://thestandard.org.nz/bene-bashing/#comment-1623572
Thank you Incognito; I should have known it would be.
Yup. The Nats' current leader is flat-out dodgy, and their four previous were crooked too:
Shipley Corrupt dealings resulting in the collapse of Mainzeal – in court for $6M.
Brash The Hollow Man – had the Exclusive Brethren campaign for him. Also probably a white supremacist.
Key Where the hell do you start???
English Paid his mates $1.7B in the dead of the night.
Bridges Cash for list seats, and now data thief.
What about the next one..?
Collins Happily used Slater to intimidate public servants, ffs.
A shit-show since 1997.
One must say they are consistent though mustn't one! And apparently those with the 3 B's – Beach and bach, BMW and Boat – are quite happy to live in a sort of rotten borough.
I wouldn't be surprised if this has been up before but it sounds good., Stephen Fry on Brexit. Called Brexit: The End Game – The Hidden Money. It starts off with the info that Europe doesn't decide on how to spend UKs money.
He says "Britain can't take back control from the EU; because we never lost it. 99% of UK public expenditure is determined by the UK government." Immigration is different but Britain controls the major amount of immigration which is from outside the EU; 248,000 net migration compared to EU – 74,000 net migration.
Edit:
And TED talk from 2016 – Why Brexit Happened.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcwuBo4PvE0
Alexander Betts (British!) 18 mins
We are embarrassingly unaware of how divided our societies are, and Brexit grew out of a deep, unexamined divide between those that fear globalization and those that embrace it, says social scientist Alexander Betts.
How do we now address that fear as well as growing disillusionment with the political establishment, while refusing to give in to xenophobia and nationalism? Join Betts as he discusses four post-Brexit steps toward a more inclusive world.
That's very good. It’s always ‘follow the money’
Onya, girls.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/5/31/1861668/–These-School-Girls-Just-Aren-t-To-Take-It-Anymore-Jail-The-Molester?
If anyone still believes there are adequate protections for people with disabilities within the End Of Life Choices Bill you really need to read Chris Ford's piece posted in Newsroom.
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2019/05/27/602948/why-i-changed-my-mind-on-euthanasia#
I know that this will put me in the same column as Christian conservatives who also oppose the legislation for moral reasons. Personally, this makes me feel very uneasy given that I hold otherwise progressively social liberal views on issues such as abortion and reproductive rights, LGBTI rights, women’s issues and indigenous issues, etc. Yet, I want to outline from a socialist, progressive and disability rights perspective as to why I have swung my support to the anti-euthanasia camp.
The turning point for me came about a month ago. I saw the report of a meeting hosted by disabled people’s organisation, People First (a group run by and for people with learning/intellectual disabilities) in the Central North Island. At that meeting, access to health care was discussed, as this is a key issue – particularly for people within this segment of the disability community – for whom find it difficult accessing care for many reasons, including attitudinal issues on the part of some medical professionals. This was exemplified by the stories shared at the meeting where some people – who had gone to hospital for treatment – had discovered upon reading their files that they had ‘no resuscitation’ orders attached to them. More problematically, these orders had not been requested by any of the disabled people or their families.
Rosemary, I'm sure your realize that there is no comparison between a decision not to prolong the artificial extension of a person's life and a decision to actively kill a patient.
I'm not sure the likes of David Seymour and Michael Laws appreciate the difference, which is a grave concern.
This passive euthanasia is happening at an ED near you.
My partner was bailed up by an ED supervising doctor with a clipboard a few weeks ago and was told in no uncertain terms that opting for the DNR option made perfectly good sense because, like, 'you know we'd probably break your ribs doing CPR, and you'd end up with pneumonia and its doubtful that ICU would take someone with your co-morbidities any way…' Sign here…
He had rather dramatically passed out. He was confused upon coming round. Yet two hours later and after a battery of health and cognitive function tests he was adjudged to be in tip- top health. They even noted that his leukaemia was so far in remission that heamatology considered him 'cured'. The only 'off' thing was strangely fluctuating blood pressure, which is so common as to be considered normal… for a C5 tetraplegic.
And it was the tetraplegia that tipped him into the 'we'd rather not bother resuscitating your sorry arse' category.
My man, by this time, had resumed normal function and proceeded to 'negotiate' with the clipboard carrying ED doctor with his sheaf of DNR forms that he expected them to try active resuscitation for at least 15-20 minutes.
The 'Slippery Slope' arguments in practice, real life.
Peter Singer and the rest of the Utilitarian ethicists would feel so proud.
Kia ora R&R.
Fashion needs to give way to having clothing and other goods to last decades and not mare minutes in in reality. I can remember when a new pear of jeans last 2 months and then split up the backside.
I say buying secondhand is were the NEW fashion trend needs to go it is all read happening in some Nordic Countries very cool trend that will help preserve our mokopuna futures.
I say making sure that the things we buy are made humanely and environmentally friendly ways that's is the way OUR future has to GO.
I say less is best we have heaps of consumer goods that we don't need that's bad for our future and environment juses blenders pie maker pancakes maker and many other goods that we actually do need.
Ka kite ano
Kia ora hui.
The mental health and the health of our tamariki is of utmost importance.
I agree strongly with Mike's statement that thinking is taking to yourself.
I'm constantly examining past events finding the TRUTH of what occurred and why things occurred.
I agree that we need to give our tamariki confidence to nurture them tell them you love them every day and treating them with love also .I say disciplining correctly is giving them love if you can see tamariki making mistakes doing things wrong you must discipline them so they learn not to do dumb Shit and tell them you love them afterwards. conferdince is giving with aroha
Ka kite ano
Whanau Eco Maori did not like the way shonky was ruining Aotearoa I could see it a mile away his underarm plays.
This story proves it he is a cheat the 00.1 % cheat all the time as they know that a fraction of there money that they gain from cheating will buy them impunity
A sense of unfairness, and wanting to see power held to account, I think has contributed to the explosion of interest in the call for former prime minister Sir John Key, chairman of our biggest bank, to resign.
ANZ's board, led by the former leader of our country, had been signing off on an operational risk model (which works out how much capital the bank needs in case of a shock or economic downturn) that had actually been dumped in
The ANZ board is stocked with people who you might assume would know a thing or three about bank capital.
How did this come about? The Reserve Bank "had encouraged" ANZ to review its attestation process, through which bank directors assess whether the bank is complying with the conditions of its regulations. It was only after this nudge that ANZ discovered the problem.
But before you get hot about it, it's cool. The Reserve Bank made it hold more money in case of a rainy day rather than lend it out in profitable ways like mortgages.
When the Reserve Bank found out, it stripped ANZ of its right to calculate how much risk capital it will hold. Yes, it used to be able to decide this itself.
This means our biggest bank is required to hold a further $277 million, taking it to a total of about $760m in case of bad news.
Kerry McDonald was chairman of BNZ for 12 years until 2008 and also sat on the board of its owners, National Australia Bank from 2005 to 2008.
Ouchie.
Now, ANZ won't like this one bit. This ruling increases the minimum capital ANZ must hold by around 60 per cent.
As Simplicity founder Sam Stubbs has pointed out, one reason profits are so high here is the Australian owned banks have to provide less capital than locally owned banks to support their lending.
So this will hurt ANZ in the wallet. But with the chunky-profits these Aussie banks make here, I think ANZ (who earned a record profit a sniff under $2 billion in the last financial year just in New Zealand) will cope.
MORE FROM
REBECCA STEVENSON • NATIONAL BUSINESS EDITOR
rebecca.stevenson@stuff.co.nz
But no-one has been held to account.
Unlike former BNZ chairman Kerry McDonald, who wrote to Reserve Bank governor Adrian Orr to call for heads to roll, I am neither amazed, nor surprised, at the penalty imposed on the bank. Thanks Dad.
He argues that Key, chief executive David Hisco, the highest paid bank executive in New Zealand who is currently off on sick leave, and several others, at ANZ should resign.
The bank's board had been signing this off for years, apparently without noticing if you give them the benefit of the doubt.
And it has to be said, Sir John Key wasn't there in 2014, 2015 or 2016 – joining the bank with his shiny new title smartly after leaving Parliament in 2017.
The board is stocked with people who you might assume would know a thing or three about banking. Ka kite ano p.s I smelt a korori
https://i.stuff.co.nz/business/113182741/when-rules-are-merely-suggestions-youre-probably-rich-or-powerful
I agree with Sadiq Khan trump and his alt right m8 are shorting the world political they will make a big mess of our Papatuanuku and take human rights back a hundred years if the leftys don’t get up and stop them
Donald Trump is like a 20th-century fascist, says Sadiq Khan
The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has compared the language used by Donald Trump to rally his supporters to that of “the fascists of the 20th century” in an explosive intervention before the US president’s state visit to London that begins on Monday.
Writing in the Observer, Khan condemned the red-carpet treatment being afforded to Trump who, with his wife Melania, will be a guest of the Queen during his three-day stay, which is expected to provoke massive protests in the capital on Tuesday
Khan said: “President Donald Trump is just one of the most egregious examples of a growing global threat. The far right is on the rise around the world, threatening our hard-won rights and freedoms and the values that have defined our liberal, democratic societies for more than 70 years.
It’s un-British to roll out the red carpet for Donald Trump
Read more
“Viktor Orbán in Hungary, Matteo Salvini in Italy, Marine Le Pen in France and Nigel Farage here in the UK are using the same divisive tropes of the fascists of the 20th century to garner support, but with new sinister methods to deliver their message. And they are gaining ground and winning power and influence in places that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jun/01/donald-trump-like-20th-century-fascist-says-sadiq-khan
Donald Trump is a populist and a nationalist of the largest economy and still most powerful country on earth. Khan is the current Mayor of one city, and an outsider within his own Labour Party.
Trump is not a Nazi, despite all the protestations of Madeline Albright et al. He's just a self-interested thug making bank for his family for a few years before he's turfed next year.
The hard right had their chance in the EU elections last week, and they showed they didn't have what it takes to storm the castle and start dismantling.
Kia Newshub.
The Youth Rainbow community needs to be shown respect as all people do.
I say that the airline should be included in the plan to mitigate climate change this will make them chase alternatives powers for planes.
trump has to remember that every word he says bounces around the world media I sort of know what that is like.
The foxglacia council should have cleaned up the dump mess I say that they have had enough money to clean it up.
It's a hard task getting whare at the minute I would not like to try and rent a whare with tamariki these days you would need to no the owner or have a wand.
That's the way Julain championing the poverty of the Ugandan people and tamariki is bad ka pai M8.
Ka kite ano
Kia ora te ao Maori news.
Eco Maori say those people who have thrown darts at the Rainbow community are only thinking about their public profiles and not the damage they have done to the people of the Rainbow community.
Te Whare tu is helping keep tangata whenua O Aotearoa cultural going strong ka pai I get a sore face knowing that OUR culture is getting te mana back.
I totally agree us Maori men are portrayed as violent thefting thugs that really PISSs Eco Maori off thanks for making films that show Maori men in a cleaner light.
Cool I tau toko you for encouraging Maori to seek a higher education .
Ka kite ano
These are the people who rule our Papatuanuku I hope they can see that most people want a better future for there tamariki and NOW is the time to embrace the change if they don't jump on the Climate Mitigation Waka they will be left in OUR dust time to dump CARBON.
Security at the wharf was drum tight. Amid a sea of secret service personnel, Pompeo was accompanied by the US ambassador to Switzerland, Ed McMullen. The pair looked keen to continue the geopolitical strategizing over canapés.
The secretary general of Nato, Jens Stoltenberg, was flanked by heavily armed bodyguards as he strode along the jetty. He has attended the last three Bilderberg meetings, turning up for “informal discussions” with a watchful squad of security and staff
Bilderberg has a keen and growing interest in high-tech and AI. Schmidt’s fellow Bilderberg insider Peter Thiel, the billionaire founder of PayPal and a director of Facebook, was seen arriving with the Swedish physicist and AI expert Sara Mazur ka kite ano link below.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jun/02/bilderberg-pompeo-kushner-nato-stoltenberg
Its thanks to people like Blomfield who have the mana to stand up to people like Slater and don't let Slaters intimidating tactics scare them into staying silent.
If it wasn't for people like Blomfield we would not have found out about the $40.000 double dip by a well known MP.
People like Blomfield are few and far between quite rear so Eco Maori is asking everyone to tau toko Blomfield and BUY HIS BOOK he deserves the leftys tau toko.
The case was never about defamation. It has been a way that Blomfield could force his tormenter to verify the fantasies being presented as fact on his now disgraced blog. Slater failed and was finally impaled by a harpoon that he had unleashed, ultimately on himself
As the stories dragged on and I got to know Blomfield better, I told him not to worry. The lies told about him were not as appalling as the truth frequently told about me. But the lies were having a toll and this unwanted fight with a cyber thug with connections to the highest offices in the land was taxing what was an otherwise irrepressible spirit.
Blomfield, it needs to be said, and I am pleased to say it, isn't a man to be dissuaded by slander, intimidation or a gunman discharging a shotgun in his face. For seven years he took Slater and his cohort of degenerates through the long and painful process of a defamation trial.
The case was never about defamation. It has been a way that Blomfield could force his tormenter to verify the fantasies being presented as fact on his now disgraced blog. Slater failed and was finally impaled by a harpoon that he had ka kite ano link below.
https://i.stuff.co.nz/opinion/113082451/cameron-slaters-thuggish-ways-stymied-after-long-and-painful-defamation-case
Ka pai Pio for championing tiny houses and sustainable live off the land + clean energy solar power we need more tangata like you to champion the cause.
Our Mokopuna futures depend on people like us never giving up the cause.
TV personality Pio Terei is hatching a tiny house plan.
It was a plan that needed some research first. So he hopped on his electric bike and headed off to seek out some of the country's most innovative home owners; Kiwis who've chucked caution and convention to the wind to live sustainably and build the life of their dreams on their own terms. And boy, did he find them, dwelling in everything from teepees to whare uke, from container houses to earth ships.
Those encounters became Off The Grid,an eight episode TV series from Māori Television that aims to inspire viewers to give sustainable living a go. There's the sharing of practical advice and a few laughs along the way. Talking to him a couple of months before the show is set to air, it seems to have the actor, singer and comedian all fired up for a tiny house of his own
Ka kite ano links below P.S I know what you're name means kia ora
https://i.stuff.co.nz/life-style/homed/celebrity-homes/113111219/off-the-grid-pio-tereis-building-a-tiny-house-and-reckons-you-should-too
https://e-tangata.co.nz/korero/pio-terei-im-meant-to-be-here-bro/
Kia kaha to the Youth climate activist it is your futures WE are fighting for go hard it makes me happy to see that the climate is taking center stage now after all the Strikes you have staged.
Youth climate activists set for nationwide rallies ahead of landmark case
Students in Austin, Texas, want you to veg out. Kids in Westport, Connecticut will screen a film. And in rural North Carolina, activists will draw on a toxic spill to commemorate the environmental justice movement. The slogan refers to the landmark court case in Oregon in which 21 youths are suing the United States government over climate change.
Named for Kelsey Juliana, a 23-year-old activist and college student, the case was filed in 2015 and is headed back to court on Tuesday. The campaign to raise its profile – dubbed #IAmJuliana or #AllEyesOnJuliana – is the brainchild of Our Children’s Trust, the organization behind the lawsuit, and Future Coalition, the not-for-profit network forged to empower youth after the Parkland shooting.
A youth activist on the climate crisis: politicians won't step up.
What’s unique about the campaign is what it signals: the infrastructure behind the youth climate movement is growing, decentralizing, and gaining momentum, all while activists set sights on the 2020 election
All of these rallies will be part of an international campaign on Saturday to spotlight environmental issues. Their message: Ka kite ano link below
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/may/31/i-am-juliana-climate-protests-youth-activism
Kia ora Newshub.
Its cool to see more Wahine receiving houners congrats Grame you deserve your tohu houner I remember when the Kiwi players of old going hard At the Sea Eagles Billaria.
The Aviation industry has to change to green fuels or everyone will just use skipe for business meetings they will save money and carbon being burned to protect their children futures.
Its not on that the Richmonds have to fight for custody of their mokopuna from the man who killed their daughter.
Its good that Ken got his houner for his mahi of looking after men who have been abused .
Alex I think there's snow on te monga
Ka kite ano
Kia ora te ao Maori News.
Congratulations for your win in the Netball.
Kia ora Patsy's for your honorable recognition of your services to he tangata.
I agree the tabaco taxs are hurting Maori in the hip pocket but the amount of people at the hospital with respiratory problems has dropped dramatically we need programs to help our people quit smoking.
Redcross needs more donations to help cope with the huge numbers needing their good help dig deep Whanau you can find the Red Cross site online.
Ka kite ano P.S I will put up a link to Redcross site