Local government politics in its truly lowest form: the Manuwatu District Council argues about Maori Wards, with the Mayor and Deputy Mayor repeatedly undercutting councillors and plotting vigorously to stop them, but then finally at the last minute folding under pressure … all set out in LGOIMA'd (political Darwin Award) emails …
Just that you don't write any thing else apart from a critic of the right. Your views seem very myopic and head in the sand stuff. The fact that I correctly called this adds weight to my point.
I write a fair bit about the right but only because they present such easy targets. Over the past month I have written about UK politics, Samoa, the budget, fair pay agreements, how I thought the Government’s public sector wage freeze was wrong and how Trevor Mallard overstepped the mark when he made allegations against a former staffer.
The sun will come up tomorrow, there I've predicted it. Aren't I clever /sarc
I would have been disappointed if MS hadn't written something about a long standing member of National losing his job under controversial circumstances. It was a headline news topic last night so very topical today. That's what authors here are expected to do.
There is plenty of critiquing of this Government on this site as well.
You have been commenting here for over four years, as far as I can tell, and your first comment here (https://thestandard.org.nz/daily-review-09032017/#comment-1308153) is perfectly aligned with your displeasure and misplaced criticism of MickySavage’s posts on this site. Why do you confirm and conform to stereotype RW whinger instead of offering something for robust debate, e.g. strong counter-views supported with good arguments? Your comments (AKA oeuvre) on this site have been paper thin, biased, and off-putting. So, please give me a break and take your complaint somewhere else, thanks.
Just a suggestion Pataua4life – you could well change your pseudo to GetaLife. We are discussing how we might get a better life for NZ if we can make changes in past and present thinking so that we end up with better results for all.
You just like to take a poke at what goes on here, showing your lack of concern about others and our country. I presume you are a person with money to spend and time to spare. Can you find something useful to write about with your time instead of going 'yahboo' at people's efforts to think, understand, devise forward plans that fit our needs.
"Morrison stepped in as wingman, saying he concurred with Ardern and then went on to indirectly blame China for that line of questioning.
“I think as great partners, friends, allies and indeed family, there will be those far from here who would seek to divide us, and they will not succeed.’’
“I have no doubt there will be those who seek to undermine Australia and New Zealand’s security by seeking to create … points of difference, which are not there,’’ he said."
One wonders if the Chinese have already infiltrated the Aussie media. Which is why they are shit stirring. Under orders from Beijing.
Please provide the link next time when you quote verbatim. It is common courtesy to the readers of this site who may want to know who wrote it (i.e. Jo Moir) and read the full article for context and further information. Thank you in advance.
Why biological sex matters. Four important points here:
women need separate spaces from men, based on biological sex, for safety reasons. Physical safety and mental health safety
women in prisons have few rights and access to political agency or change
Trans people can and should be supported in their own safety, without compromising the safety of women. Third spaces are a good idea.
Self ID allows any man to ID as a woman or female, whether trans/NB or not. In this piece the point is made that soon we will be unable to count biological females separate from makes, we literally won’t have the data to make policy decisions on. Stats NZ already takes the view that gender ID should take precedence over sex, and Labour want to pass self ID legit this year.
The women with whom I spoke – currently and formerly incarcerated at “Chowchilla” prison (as the Central California Correctional Facility is colloquially known), this state’s highest security women’s prison – are watching as biological males begin to self-identify as females and transfer in. Washington state, which has a similar policy, has already allowed a rapist and serial killer of women to transfer into the women’s prison. As is true in Washington state, California requires no sex reassignment surgeries or hormones for men to become eligible for transfer to the women’s prison. Self-identification is enough. With good reason, these women are terrified.
What is the danger to women from transpeople ? Women prisoners form their own hierachies long before trans people have been in incarcerated with women, where they would be a small minority anyway.
Unfortunately without good evidence to show 'dangers' are any greater than the normal confrontations that any prisoners face it would seem to be without justification.
When I lived in Melbourne a friend lived next to small pub which he said had a lesbian night every saturday and the revving motorbikes at closing time would keep him up. I saw for myself the fights between women at closing time, something you might expect at any pub on a saturday night. Woman only spaces arent as violence free as might be expected.
In US one of the reasons for racial segregation of residential areas was the supposed need to protect white women and families from the 'more violent blacks'
Or as in the UK where they rapidly opened a transgender prison, to respond to the fall out from inappropriately housing an offender in a womans prison.
That question is answered in the article weka linked to…which of course you read?
Nearly all women who commit violent crimes, they told me, do so under the influence of a brutal man (normally a domestic partner). That does not excuse their crimes, of course. Their victims deserved justice; the women deserved incarceration. But it does provide context to their understanding of their new roommates: men, in their experience, are frequently vicious and terrifying. Now, they will be trapped in close quarters with male bodies. Being terrorized in this manner was never part of their sentence.
Many of these women are victims of sexual abuse. Rochelle Johnson is currently serving a life sentence in Chowchilla for felony murder (she was not the killer, but participated in a robbery in which the victim was stabbed). “How are you going to force me to live with somebody when you don’t know what I went through as a child–you don’t know what I went through to make me dislike men?” she said.
Almost no one cares about these women. As convicted felons, many of them have lost their right to vote. Their social and political power is nearly non-existent. But when I sat down with them, I met women who spoke more sense about the reality of sex differences than I find almost anywhere.
I did that in comment 6. People don't have to read links, but if they then make arguments that ignore what is said in the link they risk appearing stupid (especially when the topic is ranging over a number of threads/days and the link answers questions that were raised) and it does tend to make debate messy when it's complex issues and hard held opinions on all sides.
Your question strongly indicated you hadn't even read what was quoted in the original post…never mind that you clearly lack sufficient interest to read the entire article.
Why did you bother replying? Did you just read "trans people" and make the usual kneejerk response we've come to expect from many here?
Unfortunately without good evidence to show 'dangers' are any greater than the normal confrontations that any prisoners face it would seem to be without justification.
Yes, let's allow women to be raped and assaulted while we gather data. We already know that males are dangerous in different ways than females. If you want to argue that trans women are less dangerous than other males, you'd need to produce some evidence.
fwiw, I think that most trans women aren't dangerous. I think the danger here is from a subset of trans women, and from men. Read the link, there's enough there to be concerned with.
There's also the issue of self ID. If all that is needed to be a woman is a statement of self ID, then how does society tell the difference between men pretending to be women, and trans women? This is a serious question.
I have no problem with gender self ID…whatever floats your boat and puts a smile on your dial. Although I do think its more than a little saddening that we still feel the need to identify as any gender. FFS, just be yourself and learn to be at least accepting of your own skin.
Sex self ID on the other hand…I'm going to put a stake in the ground and say stop with the 'sex assigned at birth' crap and follow the science. Whatever the chromosomes say, 98% of babies are clearly either male or female and the remainder are intersex. This is how it has been for many, many decades. There is no good reason to change this convention unless the actual biology has changed due to some seismic evolutionary event.
And it is "Sex" that is required for a birth certificate.
I thought they were already supposed to have a seperate section for any prisoner who posed a threat to other prisoners. Seems like a basic duty of care thing.
Fucks sake you two, you've been in this debate long enough to know these things:
1. putting males in women's prisons is a problem for rape and sexual abuse survivors irrespective of any future acts of violence. There's also the issue of pregnancy.
2. assessing for propensity for violence is already failing. Bear in mind that there are men with convictions for sexual assault being housed with women and raping them. This is already happening. Saying women can be collateral damage to gender ideology and prisons making mistakes is fucked up.
3. men as a class are overwhelmingly the perpetrators of sexual violence, and women the recipients. It doesn't matter if you analyse that via ideas about genitals or hormones or socialisation or whatever, we know that that is true.
And we're mixing up sex and gender again. I really can't be bothered with this if you cannot get the basics straight. It is obviously an emotionally-driven argument and those feelings are quite real and reasonable. The pretzel logic applied afterwards, not so much.
I'm not confused and I'm not mixing up sex and gender. I'm using the words men/women to apply to sex. Where I mean trans woman/trans man specifically, I will say.
If you accept that there is a such a thing as sex as a class (with some variation in intersex people), then what I described above is coherent. Males refers to biologically male people irrespective of gender ID. Women means biologically female.
I'm doing trans women a favour there by implying that the men self IDing into women's prisons and raping women are in fact men pretending to be women. But let me change one word, in 2, so it's crystal clear,
"Bear in mind that there are men males with convictions for sexual assault being housed with women and raping them."
It's actually really clear. If you think I am wrong somehow there, it's on you to point out where and why. If you can't follow the logic, just ask for clarification and stop writing off the now huge body of work that gender critical feminists have produced.
And trans women have been sexually assaulted in men's prisons.
Maybe there might be some sort of security assessment based on an idnividual's case records to assess their tendency to target or be targeted by other prisoners, and their assigned space within a larger facility be controlled accordingly.
yeah, but no-one's actually arguing here that TW should be housed in men's prisons, are they.
revolutionary if you still consider women to be collateral damage I guess in this day and age. Assessment is always going to be flawed. I'd rather see the baseline being third space, with assessment being used to make exceptions eg a post-op, fully transitioned trans woman.
What's your argument against third spaces for trans women and men IDing as women? There's still the issue there of men who pretend, but it makes the issue the problem of the justice system, society and trans activists rather than women being the fall guys.
In a country as small as NZ, there are going to be issues. Trans women in women's prisons segregated from women will end up living in isolation. Third spaces will mean moving trans women to one or two parts of the country probably. Do trans women have particular cultural needs? I think so. Which is yet another reason why the no debate approach has been so damaging. Assuming that TWAW and acting on that is causing damage, when we could have been working through all these issues collaboratively.
My basic argument against third spaces is the same argument. Put transwomen and transmen together in this third space? There will still be the potential for harm between prisoners. Or are we up to four spaces now?
So it comes back to looking at each prisoner and minimising the harm they can do to others if they are assessed to be inclined to do so.
So you think trans men should be housed in men’s prisons. Doesn’t that put them at risk?
I’m think you are missing a critical point here. The problem raised is males in women’s prisons. This is not a problem for the opposite: men aren’t at risk from trans men being in male prisons.
It’s like saying men experience sexism too, as if sexism is some abstract oppression that affects both sides. Whatever prejudice men experience from women it requires a distinct analysis rather than treating it as the flip side of sexism against women.
So it comes back to looking at each prisoner and minimising the harm they can do to others if they are assessed to be inclined to do so.
translation: women are collateral damage.
women have good reasons to be protected from males, it’s regressive to remove that protection.
I mean, if we had any way of knowing which men are going to rape ahead of time the world would be a much safer place for women.
It’s more complex too,
But according to Tyrina Griffin —who served 20 years at Chowchilla for second-degree murder and whose wife, Rachelle Johnson, is currently serving a life sentence there—many of the men who are transferring there aren’t even on hormonal medication. “They’re getting a full erection,” she said. “So you’re locked in this room, 24/7, with a man and there’s nothing you can do about it. If you tell the police you don’t want to live with a man, or you’re afraid or whatever, you’ll get a disciplinary infraction. So you’re basically punished for being scared.”
Because female inmates are typically far less violent than male ones, women’s prisons like Chowchilla don’t separate inmates based on the severity of their crimes. “We’re all mixed together,” Ms. Ichikawa said. “The people who’ve murdered their children are in the same room as the people who’ve stolen boxers fromWalmart. ”
Also unlike men’s prison, inmates at Chowchilla are housed eight to a room, with a sink and toilet inside the cell and only a cowboy door for modesty. The California law specifically states that no inmate may be denied a housing request for “any discriminatory reason,” including “genitalia” or “sexual orientation.” According to some surveys, a majority of biological men who identify as trans women are sexually attracted to women. “How are you going to prevent these people from having sex?” Ms. Ichikawa said. “And how do you then decipher what’s sex and what’s rape?” The women told me—and studies confirm—that the vast majority of incarcerated women are sexual-assault survivors.
"The problem raised" is one of prisoner safety. To maintain your framing that leaves transwomen as collateral damage, you'd rather suggest an entire new class of prisons in which trans people could still be victimised.
Maybe bunking 8 people together with one toilet and no privacy isn't a particularly good thing in any prison.
Heck, maybe prisons should look at each prisoner and assess their risk criteria for causing or being the victim of violence, rather than just throwing them all together according to a general classification of "male" and "female". But no, let's build a prison for another general classification of person and hope that everyone in the "other" category gets on well together there.
The problem raised is the safety of women. If we are talking prisoner safety generally that includes men, it’s prison reform and a different conversation.
How would trans women be victimised by being housed in their own building?
It’s not a general classification of male and female as if for no reason. We have women’s prisons to protect women from men because men have really high levels of violence against women. You appear to be arguing that there is no particular reason why women in prison should be protected from men. Do you think this is true in general society?
as I said, if you have a way to predict which men will rape, let us know, most women on the planet will be very interested. In the meantime please stop treating women as collateral damage.
as also said, there are multiple reasons to have separate spaces for women in prison. Very high numbers of women in prison have been sexually assaulted, they shouldn’t be forced to share close and intimate space with males. And pregnancy (even if people don’t care about the well-being of women that one should be raising alarm bells).
if you have a way to predict which men will rape, let us know, most women on the planet will be very interested.
A "rapist and a serial killer of women", regardless of self-id, for a start should probably be declared a safety risk around women, be the woman a prisoner, a guard or other staff member, or a visitor, no? Regardless of prison type?
I think that's up to trans people to sort out. And NB, and the 3,000 genders or whatever it's up to now. Third space is about male/female/other. Other can be more than third, but as Milt points out, the argument has to be made for society. As far as I'm concerned, trans people have made the argument for their class, and there are plenty of trans people arguing for the third space approach. Maybe have a read of them.
More specifically, if we still accept that sexual violence is gendered (quaint term meaning sex), then it's biological males that need to be segregated from females for the sake of females. Whether testosterone confers problems for women in terms of trans men, I'm good with that being explored and solutions found. Obviously all trans people need to be protected from men including trans women. These are really not hard concepts to get to grips with if one doesn't try and erase sex. Throwing women under the bus from the get go undermines any credibility for arguing that trans people should be safe too. Unless one believes that women are lesser somehow, and there are certainly trans activists that do. It's a new version of garden variety misogyny.
Have women who do not want to mix with trans women considered setting up their own female-only spaces? Leaving all the other women's spaces to those who do not share the fear?
ok, this more than anything tells me you really don't know what is going on. I don't mean to be rude, but you are so far behind the curve on this.
If I put up post on TS arguing for what you just said, I will be called a transphobe and will experience various forms of blow back online. If I continue to post like that the ante will be upped. Women using their real life names risk losing their jobs, being banned from online and real life spaces.
Women HAVE been trying to have female only spaces and they are being ostracised, banned, fired, abused, and subjected to intimidation including via online sexualised violence. The TA agenda is to erase sex and remove single sex spaces. This is literally the centre of the battle in the UK, the push to change legislation.
Lesbians have been talking for *years about the disappearance of lesbian only spaces and what happens to them when they try and maintain female only space. Did you see this?
Women get banned on dating sites for saying biological female only.
Read the history of Michfest, one of the truly great female spaces and what happened to that over the fallout regarding trans women. Make sure you read the feminist versions as well so you get the bits about about how much penises figured in that. That was the 90s. None of this is new. Women have been talking about it a long time.
and, it's not just about fear. There are a whole ranges of reasons to value women's spaces. Women who are afraid doesn't deserve to be segregated from normal society.
There's a women's library in the UK that won't hire out spaces to groups that want female only events. It's ok to exclude men, but not trans women, or NB people including NB males. Please explain that last bit to me, because no-one has been able to.
There's been a lot of political chatter and posturing about the origins of the coronavirus pandemic. Here's a couple of science-oriented articles discussing the likelihood of various possible origins:
tl;dr: By far the likeliest origin remains a zoonotic origin – it transferred from wildlife to humans through some mechanism such as bushmeat, a human visiting a cave with lots of bats.This kind of zoonotic transfer happens very frequently. None of the features of SARS-CoV-2 cited as evidence of a non-zoonotic origin are in fact unusual in the wild, so they really are not evidence in favour of a lab origin hypothesis. The likelihood of proving a zoonotic origin remains very small – there are many many separated populations of animals that may have been the original source, so it's kind of a needle in a haystack search but much harder. Furthermore, the original source will also have been evolving in different directions to the human virus, so even if searchers come across it, it may be enough different by now to be unrecognisable as the source.
Lab leak of unmodified virus: well, yes, it's possible. But unlikely. A smoking gun could possibly be found in records that have so far been concealed, or in retained blood sample from lab workers, or … But there really shouldn't be anything much read into the Chinese authorities' reluctance to unlimited open-slather access to the lab and records. No matter how much access is allowed, those that want to believe in a lab origin will always continue to believe something could still be hidden, and the Chinese authorities are well aware of that. There's just no upside for them in allowing open-slather access, particularly given their predisposition to secretiveness and authoritarianism.
Read the articles for the actual useful information.
I doubt we'll ever get convincing evidence one way or the other. I'm ok with that. We've been searching for the wild animal reservoir for ebola since the 70s and haven't found it yet.
And like I've said before, there have been plenty of systemic vulnerabilities identified that enable a bunch of potential different origins of the pandemic. I'm even a little worried that if a specific origin is actually identified, all the attention will go on just that one problem and all the other vulnerabilities forgotten about and just left there.
Agreed. As long as we keep hunting for the emotional junior lab worker who let the virus out, we will keep intruding into wildlife habitats and increase the chances of zoonotic transfer. In fact, we will keep doing the latter regardless.
Lab leak of unmodified virus: well, yes, it's possible. But unlikely.
More like,likely to more then likely,due to prior documented errors with SARS,and an absence of a natural reservoir (the bat that didn't ping).
This is the third outbreak of SARS to have been traced to a laboratory: small outbreaks occurred in Taiwan and Singapore last year. “The WHO may call for a containment policy for SARS to reduce the number of samples of the virus and the number of laboratories handling it,” said Dr Hall.
Although the authorities reacted swiftly once the alarm was raised, there was a delay of almost a month from the date of first infection to when the index case of infection was announced. By that time all the other cases of infection had already occurred.
The index patient received medical care in both Beijing and Anhui but was still allowed to travel while sick, despite her high risk occupation and the fact that her mother also had a fever. The mother subsequently died.
So because a different variant infected a worker each at two different labs outside of PRC, it's more than likely a global pandemic was cause by a lab outbreak rather than the wet market in the same area?
I think they meant conceptual evidence or proof of concept, which only shows that something is realistically possible, that it might have happened, but not that it did actually happen.
Context is not everything. Just because something happens in a region which also has a region-related aspect to it, does not mean there is any link between the two. That is nothing more than a conspiratorial response and such responses invariably turn out to be wrong.
Both historical and scientific conclusions thus far indicate the chance this virus was sourced from a wild animal jumping across the species chain to a human far outweighs the possibility it was the result of a manufactured event in a laboratory. It could be years before we have any substantive verification and until such a time conspiracy theories should be avoided.
Both historical and scientific conclusions thus far indicate the chance this virus was sourced from a wild animal jumping across the species chain to a human far outweighs the possibility it was the result of a manufactured event in a laboratory.
If you had read the many papers/articles written by internationally acclaimed professionals that have appeared in all the reputable newspapers and journals – many of which have already been linked to on this site including yesterday – then you wouldn't be making this demand.
Context is king, but is often selective and is always circumstantial.
Virus emerged at a wet market (US intel sources notwithstanding) in a city that had one of several labs looking at a variety of viruses that were of global interest because of their potential to cause a global pandemic, possibly including this exact variant. Or possibly not.
Read both articles carefully. Unimpressive, lots of misdirection and appeal to emotional argument.
In particular the article repeatedly points to the zoonotic origin hypothesis, yet fails to mention that it too remains without any confirming evidence. This remains the key point I was at pains to point out earlier, that while there is no confirming proof for either lab or natural origin, any reasonable assessment of the context cannot ignore the established facts of the location of the first outbreak, and the fact of WIV working with coronavirus' in what can only be called 'gain of function' research that could readily in principle produce SARS-COVID-2. This is established contextual evidence, confirmed by published papers from years prior.
We also know lab-leaks do happen, and may well be a lot more common than we have been led to believe. I have personally met while we lived in Tawa, two separate individuals who both fell seriously ill with infections they caught at their work in NZ's own ESR Institute in Porirua. Both people we met socially quite by random in a short five year period. And in both cases the ESR management went to a lot of trouble to cover the matter over as best they could.
The core problem here is that too many of these experts we are depending on for accurate information have a either a direct, or generally professional, conflict of interest which unavoidably taints their credibility. By contrast much of the discussion supporting the lab leak hypothesis is coming from qualified and competent people not directly involved as virologists, but in closely related fields who know enough to detect compromised narratives when they see it.
The problem here is obvious, this is potentially bio-tech's Titanic moment. If the lab-leak is generally agreed upon as the most likely cause, the blow-back on the people involved will be immense. And rightly so.
The likelihood of proving a zoonotic origin remains very small
Yet somehow within less than a year we managed to establish precisely the species involved for SARS1 and MERS. We even managed to do this decades ago with relatively primitive technology for HIV.
The strongest argument in favour of the zoonotic hypothesis is indeed there is good precedent for it – but if you're going to lean on that then you also have to accept the precedent that we also managed to find the intermediate host and prove the hypothesis in every recent case.
The reason for the bans on posters is the readerscomments are a large scale breach of standards. Has happened on Covid origins posts as well as the comments quickly turn a massive anti chinese racism
As there automated methods pick up the atrocious comments , they ban the whole lot rather than picking out the ones or the lead post taht are acceptable
You could be right as they do give this about facebook pages
'We define hate speech as a direct attack against people on the basis of what we call protected characteristics: race, ethnicity, national origin, disability, religious affiliation, caste, sexual orientation, sex, gender identity and serious disease.
We define attacks as violent or dehumanising speech, harmful stereotypes, statements of inferiority, expressions of contempt, disgust or dismissal, cursing and calls for exclusion or segregation.
so women wanting to have separate spaces from men is an attack?
disabled people wanting separate spaces from ables?
Maori wanting their own spaces?
Lesbian separatists?
Weird.
The social media giants were developed by a certain class of men who are basically socially inept. Along with the desire to make money, this has created online culture that is very unhealthy. It's no surprise that women aren't protected on reddit, FB, or twitter.
Tencent has a large stake in Reddit, make of that what you will
Reddit is just like any other social media, mostly utter trash, but harsh against any serious political movement that challenges official corporate dogma.
edit
Concerning a certain Oz Scombag I found this interesting little piece about him working for us and National last century. Hey-up – actually it was published in Feb. 2020!
ScoMo Dundee: A future Aussie PM's role in New Zealand's great tourism wars
…Within weeks of his arrival in Wellington in 1998, the future Australian prime minister had plunged headfirst into a messy political saga – dubbed by media at the time as 'the Tourism Wars'.
"Like a cross between Rasputin and Crocodile Dundee," was how former Dominion Post political editor Nick Venter described Morrison after the extent of his involvement in the scandal was revealed…
Darth-Ju in trouble again, this time for endorsing a tweet by a far right social media user who allegedly likened hongi with a head-butt.
'Our leader supports the hongi': National MPs defend Judith Collins amid backlash over controversial tweet
A controversial tweet by Judith Collins, which led many to believe she endorsed a view likening a hongi to a head-butt, has been brushed off by National as a misunderstanding.
The tweet in question was a response to a woman who advised Collins ahead of her meeting with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison to "treat him like a civilised human being and don't head-butt him".
Hard to say with this one. There is plausible deniability around the original tweet, and JuCo’s reply. But is does highlight that Collins cannot stay out of trouble. She didn't need to reply on Twitter to a person who is clearly a fringe nut job. I'm certain the account was known to her.
It's clear Judith has either very poor comprehension, or very poor discipline, and probably both. These are terrible attributes in a leader. She either accepted the possible hongi comparison and agreed with it, or she was too stupid to understand that others would make that connection.
She'll claim innocence and purity of mind on this, but really, another nail in the coffin.
Maybe Jude has been reading Chris Trotter – and thinks here is vast reservoir of anger at 'separatism' that she just needs to tap into to rocket back to 40%.
Getting super duper expensive computer system making it a great opportunity to put out all of NZ at once, doesn't cheer me from Andrew Little. Neither does the lack of change in the way that nurses are trained so that it becomes part in hospital, with block tech courses. And perhaps some accolades to assist these hard working people who we rely on more than we rely on politicians. Perhaps we should be run by people with medical training and hospital work experience who understand people and how to lead them to better outcomes.
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It's hard times try to make a livingYou wake up every morning in the unforgivingOut there somewhere in the cityThere's people living lives without mercy or pityI feel good, yeah I'm feeling fineI feel better then I have for the longest timeI think these pills have been good for meI ...
In 1974, the US Supreme Court issued its decision in United States v. Nixon, finding that the President was not a King, but was subject to the law and was required to turn over the evidence of his wrongdoing to the courts. It was a landmark decision for the rule ...
Every day now just seems to bring in more fresh meat for the grinder.In their relentlessly ideological drive to cut back on the “excessive bloat” (as they see it) of the previous Labour-led government, on the mountains of evidence accumulated in such a short period of time do not ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Megan Valére SosouMarket gardening site of the Itchèléré de Itagui agricultural cooperative in Dassa-Zoumè (Image credit: Megan Valère Sossou) For the residents of Dassa-Zoumè, a city in the West African country of Benin, choosing between drinking water and having enough ...
Buzz from the Beehive Melissa Lee – as may be discerned from the screenshot above – has not been demoted for doing something seriously wrong as Minister of ...
Morning in London Mother hugs beloved daughter outside the converted shoe factory in which she is living.Afternoon in London Travelling writer takes himself and his wrist down to A&E, just to be sure. Read more ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – The recent announcement of the University Advisory Group, chaired by Sir Peter Gluckman, makes very clear where the Government’s focus and priorities lie. The remit of the Advisory Group is that Group members will consider challenges and opportunities for improvement in the university sector including: ...
Eric Crampton writes – The Reserve Bank of New Zealand desperately wants to find reasons to have workstreams in climate change. It makes little sense. They’ve run another stress test on the banks looking to see if they could find a prudential regulation case. They couldn’t. They ...
Rob MacCullough writes – Pundits from the left and the right are arguing that National’s Fast Track Bill that is designed to speed up infrastructure decisions could end up becoming mired in a cesspool of corruption. Political commentator ...
Looking at the headlines this morning it’s hard to feel anything other than pessimistic about the future of humanity.Note that I’m not speaking about the future of mankind, but the survival of our humanity. The values that we believe in seem to be ebbing away, by the day.Perhaps every generation ...
Swabbing mixed breed baby chicks to test for avian influenzaUh oh. Bird flu – often deadly to humans – is not only being transmitted from infected birds to dairy cows, but is now travelling between dairy cows. As of last Friday, Bloomberg News reports, there were 32 American dairy herds ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
What is it with the mining industry? Its not enough for them to pillage the earth - they apparently can't even be bothered getting resource consent to do so: The proponent behind a major mine near the Clutha River had already been undertaking activity in the area without a ...
Photo # 1 I am a huge fan of Singapore’s approach to housing, as described here two years ago by copying and pasting from The ConversationWhat Singapore has that Australia does not is a public housing developer, the Housing Development Board, which puts new dwellings on public and reclaimed land, ...
Buzz from the Beehive Reactions to news of the government’s readiness to make urgent changes to “the resource management system” through a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) suggest a balanced approach is being taken. The Taxpayers’ Union says the proposed changes don’t go far enough. Greenpeace says ...
I’m starting to wonder if Anna Burns-Francis might be the best political interviewer we’ve got. That might sound unlikely to you, it came as a bit of a surprise to me.Jack Tame can be excellent, but has some pretty average days. I like Rebecca Wright on Newshub, she asks good ...
Chris Trotter writes – Willie Jackson is said to be planning a “media summit” to discuss “the state of the media and how to protect Fourth Estate Journalism”. Not only does the Editor of The Daily Blog, Martyn Bradbury, think this is a good idea, but he has also ...
Graeme Edgeler writes – This morning [April 21], the Wellington High Court is hearing a judicial review brought by Hon. Karen Chhour, the Minister for Children, against a decision of the Waitangi Tribunal. This is unusual, judicial reviews are much more likely to brought against ministers, rather than ...
Both of Parliament’s watchdogs have now ripped into the Government’s Fast-track Approvals Bill. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMy pick of the six newsey things to know from Aotearoa’s political economy and beyond on the morning of Tuesday, April 23 are:The Lead: The Auditor General,John Ryan, has joined the ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Sarah SpengemanPeople wait to board an electric bus in Pune, India. (Image credit: courtesy of ITDP) Public transportation riders in Pune, India, love the city’s new electric buses so much they will actually skip an older diesel bus that ...
The infrastructure industry yesterday issued a “hurry up” message to the Government, telling it to get cracking on developing a pipeline of infrastructure projects.The hiatus around the change of Government has seen some major projects cancelled and others delayed, and there is uncertainty about what will happen with the new ...
Hi,Over the weekend I revisited a podcast I really adore, Dead Eyes. It’s about a guy who got fired from Band of Brothers over two decades ago because Tom Hanks said he had “dead eyes”.If you don’t recall — 2001’s Band of Brothers was part of the emerging trend of ...
Buzz from the Beehive The 180 or so recipients of letters from the Government telling them how to submit infrastructure projects for “fast track” consideration includes some whose project applications previously have been rejected by the courts. News media were quick to feature these in their reports after RMA Reform Minister Chris ...
It would not be a desirable way to start your holiday by breaking your back, your head, or your wrist, but on our first hour in Singapore I gave it a try.We were chatting, last week, before we started a meeting of Hazel’s Enviro Trust, about the things that can ...
Calling all journalists, academics, planners, lawyers, political activists, environmentalists, and other members of the public who believe that the relationships between vested interests and politicians need to be scrutinised. We need to work together to make sure that the new Fast-Track Approvals Bill – currently being pushed through by the ...
Feel worried. Shane Jones and a couple of his Cabinet colleagues are about to be granted the power to override any and all objections to projects like dams, mines, roads etc even if: said projects will harm biodiversity, increase global warming and cause other environmental harms, and even if ...
Bryce Edwards writes- The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. ...
Michael Bassett writes – If you think there is a move afoot by the radical Maori fringe of New Zealand society to create a parallel system of government to the one that we elect at our triennial elections, you aren’t wrong. Over the last few days we have ...
Without a corresponding drop in interest rates, it’s doubtful any changes to the CCCFA will unleash a massive rush of home buyers. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: The six things that stood out to me in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate on Monday, April 22 included:The Government making a ...
Sunday was a lazy day. I started watching Jack Tame on Q&A, the interviews are usually good for something to write about. Saying the things that the politicians won’t, but are quite possibly thinking. Things that are true and need to be extracted from between the lines.As you might know ...
In our Weekly Roundup last week we covered news from Auckland Transport that the WX1 Western Express is going to get an upgrade next year with double decker electric buses. As part of the announcement, AT also said “Since we introduced the WX1 Western Express last November we have seen ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 29 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Stats NZ releases its statutory report on Census 2023 tomorrow.Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivers a pre-Budget speech at ...
A listing of 29 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 14, 2024 thru Sat, April 20, 2024. Story of the week Our story of the week hinges on these words from the abstract of a fresh academic ...
The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. The Government says this will ...
This is a column to say thank you. So many of have been in touch since Mum died to say so many kind and thoughtful things. You’re wonderful, all of you. You’ve asked how we’re doing, how Dad’s doing. A little more realisation each day, of the irretrievable finality of ...
Identifying the engine type in your car is crucial for various reasons, including maintenance, repairs, and performance upgrades. Knowing the specific engine model allows you to access detailed technical information, locate compatible parts, and make informed decisions about modifications. This comprehensive guide will provide you with a step-by-step approach to ...
Introduction: The allure of racing is undeniable. The thrill of speed, the roar of engines, and the exhilaration of competition all contribute to the allure of this adrenaline-driven sport. For those who yearn to experience the pinnacle of racing, becoming a race car driver is the ultimate dream. However, the ...
Introduction Automobiles have become ubiquitous in modern society, serving as a primary mode of transportation and a symbol of economic growth and personal mobility. With countless vehicles traversing roads and highways worldwide, it begs the question: how many cars are there in the world? Determining the precise number is a ...
Maintaining a safe and reliable vehicle requires regular inspections. Whether it’s a routine maintenance checkup or a safety inspection, knowing how long the process will take can help you plan your day accordingly. This article delves into the factors that influence the duration of a car inspection and provides an ...
Mazda Motor Corporation, commonly known as Mazda, is a Japanese multinational automaker headquartered in Fuchu, Aki District, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. The company was founded in 1920 as the Toyo Cork Kogyo Co., Ltd., and began producing vehicles in 1931. Mazda is primarily known for its production of passenger cars, but ...
Your car battery is an essential component that provides power to start your engine, operate your electrical systems, and store energy. Over time, batteries can weaken and lose their ability to hold a charge, which can lead to starting problems, power failures, and other issues. Replacing your battery before it ...
In most states, you cannot register a car without a valid driver’s license. However, there are a few exceptions to this rule. Exceptions to the RuleIf you are under 18 years old: In some states, you can register a car in your name even if you do not ...
Mazda, a Japanese automotive manufacturer with a rich history of innovation and engineering excellence, has emerged as a formidable player in the global car market. Known for its reputation of producing high-quality, fuel-efficient, and driver-oriented vehicles, Mazda has consistently garnered praise from industry experts and consumers alike. In this article, ...
Struts are an essential part of a car’s suspension system. They are responsible for supporting the weight of the car and damping the oscillations of the springs. Struts are typically made of steel or aluminum and are filled with hydraulic fluid. How Do Struts Work? Struts work by transferring the ...
Car registration is a mandatory process that all vehicle owners must complete annually. This process involves registering your car with the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and paying an associated fee. The registration process ensures that your vehicle is properly licensed and insured, and helps law enforcement and other authorities ...
Zoom is a video conferencing service that allows you to share your screen, webcam, and audio with other participants. In addition to sharing your own audio, you can also share the audio from your computer with other participants. This can be useful for playing music, sharing presentations with audio, or ...
Building your own computer can be a rewarding and cost-effective way to get a high-performance machine tailored to your specific needs. However, it also requires careful planning and execution, and one of the most important factors to consider is the time it will take. The exact time it takes to ...
Sleep mode is a power-saving state that allows your computer to quickly resume operation without having to boot up from scratch. This can be useful if you need to step away from your computer for a short period of time but don’t want to shut it down completely. There are ...
Introduction Computer-Assisted Translation (CAT) has revolutionized the field of translation by harnessing the power of technology to assist human translators in their work. This innovative approach combines specialized software with human expertise to improve the efficiency, accuracy, and consistency of translations. In this comprehensive article, we will delve into the ...
In today’s digital age, mobile devices have become an indispensable part of our daily lives. Among the vast array of portable computing options available, iPads and tablet computers stand out as two prominent contenders. While both offer similar functionalities, there are subtle yet significant differences between these two devices. This ...
A computer is an electronic device that can be programmed to carry out a set of instructions. The basic components of a computer are the processor, memory, storage, input devices, and output devices. The Processor The processor, also known as the central processing unit (CPU), is the brain of the ...
Voice Memos is a convenient app on your iPhone that allows you to quickly record and store audio snippets. These recordings can be useful for a variety of purposes, such as taking notes, capturing ideas, or recording interviews. While you can listen to your voice memos on your iPhone, you ...
Laptop screens are essential for interacting with our devices and accessing information. However, when lines appear on the screen, it can be frustrating and disrupt productivity. Understanding the underlying causes of these lines is crucial for finding effective solutions. Types of Screen Lines Horizontal lines: Also known as scan ...
Right-clicking is a common and essential computer operation that allows users to access additional options and settings. While most desktop computers have dedicated right-click buttons on their mice, laptops often do not have these buttons due to space limitations. This article will provide a comprehensive guide on how to right-click ...
Powering up and shutting down your ASUS laptop is an essential task for any laptop user. Locating the power button can sometimes be a hassle, especially if you’re new to ASUS laptops. This article will provide a comprehensive guide on where to find the power button on different ASUS laptop ...
Dell laptops are renowned for their reliability, performance, and versatility. Whether you’re a student, a professional, or just someone who needs a reliable computing device, a Dell laptop can meet your needs. However, if you’re new to Dell laptops, you may be wondering how to get started. In this comprehensive ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
I was initially resistant to the idea often suggested to me that the Government should deliver an arts strategy. The whole point of the arts and creativity is that people should do whatever the hell they want, unbound by the dictates of politicians in Wellington. Peter Jackson, Kiri Te Kanawa, Eleanor ...
Pacific Media Watch Palestine solidarity protesters today demonstrated at the Auckland headquarters of Television New Zealand, accusing the country’s major TV network of broadcasting “propaganda” backing Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. About 50 protesters targeted the main entrance to the TVNZ building near Sky Tower and also picketed a side ...
Opinion by Lynley Hood. Forty years on from my 1985 Fulbright Grant, my disquiet over the war in Gaza evoked some troubling questions. The answer to my first question – What is the primary purpose of the Fulbright Programme? – was on the Fulbright NZ website. It says: US Senator, ...
The ministers responsible for green-lighting major projects need to be open about potential conflicts of interest, says Transparency International. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Powell, Professor, Family and Sexual Violence, RMIT University It has been a particularly distressing start to the year. There is little that can ease the current grief of individuals, families and communities who have needlessly lost a loved one to men’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Senior Research Associate, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne Lichen, the first described example of symbiosis.AdeJ Artventure/Shutterstock Once known only to those studying biology, the word symbiosis is now widely used. Symbiosis is the intimate ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kim Hemsley, Head, Childhood Dementia Research Group, Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute, College of Medicine and Public Health, Flinders University Olena Ivanova/Shutterstock “Childhood” and “dementia” are two words we wish we didn’t have to use together. But sadly, around 1,400 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Whiteford, Professor, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University The government’s Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee has just published its second report. It was set up by Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Minister for Social Services Amanda Rishworth in 2022 to provide: ...
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What are the odds on Mickey S writing a post about Nick Smith leaving parliament under some controversy?
Better that even I say.
Bingo
And your point is?
Analysis of the continued destruction of the main right wing party in Aotearoa I think is something that needs to be analysed and written about.
Just that you don't write any thing else apart from a critic of the right. Your views seem very myopic and head in the sand stuff. The fact that I correctly called this adds weight to my point.
I write a fair bit about the right but only because they present such easy targets. Over the past month I have written about UK politics, Samoa, the budget, fair pay agreements, how I thought the Government’s public sector wage freeze was wrong and how Trevor Mallard overstepped the mark when he made allegations against a former staffer.
The sun will come up tomorrow, there I've predicted it. Aren't I clever /sarc
I would have been disappointed if MS hadn't written something about a long standing member of National losing his job under controversial circumstances. It was a headline news topic last night so very topical today. That's what authors here are expected to do.
There is plenty of critiquing of this Government on this site as well.
You have been commenting here for over four years, as far as I can tell, and your first comment here (https://thestandard.org.nz/daily-review-09032017/#comment-1308153) is perfectly aligned with your displeasure and misplaced criticism of MickySavage’s posts on this site. Why do you confirm and conform to stereotype RW whinger instead of offering something for robust debate, e.g. strong counter-views supported with good arguments? Your comments (AKA oeuvre) on this site have been paper thin, biased, and off-putting. So, please give me a break and take your complaint somewhere else, thanks.
Just a suggestion Pataua4life – you could well change your pseudo to GetaLife. We are discussing how we might get a better life for NZ if we can make changes in past and present thinking so that we end up with better results for all.
You just like to take a poke at what goes on here, showing your lack of concern about others and our country. I presume you are a person with money to spend and time to spare. Can you find something useful to write about with your time instead of going 'yahboo' at people's efforts to think, understand, devise forward plans that fit our needs.
Quoting Newsroom here:
"Morrison stepped in as wingman, saying he concurred with Ardern and then went on to indirectly blame China for that line of questioning.
“I think as great partners, friends, allies and indeed family, there will be those far from here who would seek to divide us, and they will not succeed.’’
“I have no doubt there will be those who seek to undermine Australia and New Zealand’s security by seeking to create … points of difference, which are not there,’’ he said."
One wonders if the Chinese have already infiltrated the Aussie media. Which is why they are shit stirring. Under orders from Beijing.
Please provide the link next time when you quote verbatim. It is common courtesy to the readers of this site who may want to know who wrote it (i.e. Jo Moir) and read the full article for context and further information. Thank you in advance.
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/scott-morrison-kills-any-notion-of-china-rift
Sorry, will do in future.
Thank you 🙂
..
"a wealthy literary dilettante"
synonyms:
dabbler · potterer · tinkerer · trifler · dallier · amateur · non-professional · non-specialist · layman · layperson
a person with an amateur interest in the arts.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
Insert inappropriate jokes about Ashburton being cut off from the world.
More a case of south island cut in two
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/443786/canterbury-flooding-ashburton-bridge-on-state-highway-1-closes
bet that was fun 😳
Hmmm….fortunately it held together until closed.
https://twitter.com/cortychenery/status/1399479980988370944
Lol…inland route should be open in a day or so, thatll cut down the distance a wee bit…still one hell of a detour.
Rubbish, Thompson's Track is open. A better route than SH1
Ta Grumpy. I did ask RNZ to do an explainer with the names of roads and bridges. The council has details on their website which is mostly in localese
Bridge over north branch at Forks closed last I heard
https://www.ashburtondc.govt.nz/news/notices-and-advisories/30-may-2021-weather-event-updates
Why biological sex matters. Four important points here:
https://abigailshrier.substack.com/p/incarcerated-women-brace-for-influx
Seem good points to consider weka. Fairness for all should be the outcome.
Indeed. No good reason we can’t protect women and trans people.
What is the danger to women from transpeople ? Women prisoners form their own hierachies long before trans people have been in incarcerated with women, where they would be a small minority anyway.
Unfortunately without good evidence to show 'dangers' are any greater than the normal confrontations that any prisoners face it would seem to be without justification.
When I lived in Melbourne a friend lived next to small pub which he said had a lesbian night every saturday and the revving motorbikes at closing time would keep him up. I saw for myself the fights between women at closing time, something you might expect at any pub on a saturday night. Woman only spaces arent as violence free as might be expected.
In US one of the reasons for racial segregation of residential areas was the supposed need to protect white women and families from the 'more violent blacks'
There have already been a small number of sexual assault cases in the UK following self id transfer to womans prison.
Prisons have existing methods to deal with prisoners who are danger to other prisoners on a case by case basis.
After all they are prisons and have special wings for violent prisoners and different ways of segregating them from the general population.
Low security prisons are that because the prisoners are almost no danger.
Or as in the UK where they rapidly opened a transgender prison, to respond to the fall out from inappropriately housing an offender in a womans prison.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-47434730.amp
What is the danger to women from transpeople ?
That question is answered in the article weka linked to…which of course you read?
Nearly all women who commit violent crimes, they told me, do so under the influence of a brutal man (normally a domestic partner). That does not excuse their crimes, of course. Their victims deserved justice; the women deserved incarceration. But it does provide context to their understanding of their new roommates: men, in their experience, are frequently vicious and terrifying. Now, they will be trapped in close quarters with male bodies. Being terrorized in this manner was never part of their sentence.
Many of these women are victims of sexual abuse. Rochelle Johnson is currently serving a life sentence in Chowchilla for felony murder (she was not the killer, but participated in a robbery in which the victim was stabbed). “How are you going to force me to live with somebody when you don’t know what I went through as a child–you don’t know what I went through to make me dislike men?” she said.
Almost no one cares about these women. As convicted felons, many of them have lost their right to vote. Their social and political power is nearly non-existent. But when I sat down with them, I met women who spoke more sense about the reality of sex differences than I find almost anywhere.
why bother listening to women, or even reading links.
Im not a student in a classroom who has to comment or reply on all of the statements or links in order to get a 'pass grade'
Isnt the blog process supposed to be summarise lengthy links to show its relevancy ?
I did that in comment 6. People don't have to read links, but if they then make arguments that ignore what is said in the link they risk appearing stupid (especially when the topic is ranging over a number of threads/days and the link answers questions that were raised) and it does tend to make debate messy when it's complex issues and hard held opinions on all sides.
Your question strongly indicated you hadn't even read what was quoted in the original post…never mind that you clearly lack sufficient interest to read the entire article.
Why did you bother replying? Did you just read "trans people" and make the usual kneejerk response we've come to expect from many here?
This might help for the future…https://careersure.co.nz/effective-reading
"What is the danger to women from transpeople ?"
Not trans people. Males. You know what rape is.
Yes, let's allow women to be raped and assaulted while we gather data. We already know that males are dangerous in different ways than females. If you want to argue that trans women are less dangerous than other males, you'd need to produce some evidence.
fwiw, I think that most trans women aren't dangerous. I think the danger here is from a subset of trans women, and from men. Read the link, there's enough there to be concerned with.
There's also the issue of self ID. If all that is needed to be a woman is a statement of self ID, then how does society tell the difference between men pretending to be women, and trans women? This is a serious question.
I have no problem with gender self ID…whatever floats your boat and puts a smile on your dial. Although I do think its more than a little saddening that we still feel the need to identify as any gender. FFS, just be yourself and learn to be at least accepting of your own skin.
Sex self ID on the other hand…I'm going to put a stake in the ground and say stop with the 'sex assigned at birth' crap and follow the science. Whatever the chromosomes say, 98% of babies are clearly either male or female and the remainder are intersex. This is how it has been for many, many decades. There is no good reason to change this convention unless the actual biology has changed due to some seismic evolutionary event.
And it is "Sex" that is required for a birth certificate.
A separate section for transgender prisoner seems to be a better idea.
I thought they were already supposed to have a seperate section for any prisoner who posed a threat to other prisoners. Seems like a basic duty of care thing.
Yes, imagine if they segregated based on actual propensity to violence rather than genitals or sexual attraction?
Like conviction for sexual assault?
Fucks sake you two, you've been in this debate long enough to know these things:
1. putting males in women's prisons is a problem for rape and sexual abuse survivors irrespective of any future acts of violence. There's also the issue of pregnancy.
2. assessing for propensity for violence is already failing. Bear in mind that there are men with convictions for sexual assault being housed with women and raping them. This is already happening. Saying women can be collateral damage to gender ideology and prisons making mistakes is fucked up.
3. men as a class are overwhelmingly the perpetrators of sexual violence, and women the recipients. It doesn't matter if you analyse that via ideas about genitals or hormones or socialisation or whatever, we know that that is true.
And we're mixing up sex and gender again. I really can't be bothered with this if you cannot get the basics straight. It is obviously an emotionally-driven argument and those feelings are quite real and reasonable. The pretzel logic applied afterwards, not so much.
And we're mixing up sex and gender again.
Excellent Sacha! You've created an opening for me to ask you to define "sex" and "gender".
Take your time.
heh.
I'm not confused and I'm not mixing up sex and gender. I'm using the words men/women to apply to sex. Where I mean trans woman/trans man specifically, I will say.
If you accept that there is a such a thing as sex as a class (with some variation in intersex people), then what I described above is coherent. Males refers to biologically male people irrespective of gender ID. Women means biologically female.
I'm doing trans women a favour there by implying that the men self IDing into women's prisons and raping women are in fact men pretending to be women. But let me change one word, in 2, so it's crystal clear,
"Bear in mind that there are
menmales with convictions for sexual assault being housed with women and raping them."It's actually really clear. If you think I am wrong somehow there, it's on you to point out where and why. If you can't follow the logic, just ask for clarification and stop writing off the now huge body of work that gender critical feminists have produced.
And trans women have been sexually assaulted in men's prisons.
Maybe there might be some sort of security assessment based on an idnividual's case records to assess their tendency to target or be targeted by other prisoners, and their assigned space within a larger facility be controlled accordingly.
Revolutionary idea, for sure. /sarc
yeah, but no-one's actually arguing here that TW should be housed in men's prisons, are they.
revolutionary if you still consider women to be collateral damage I guess in this day and age. Assessment is always going to be flawed. I'd rather see the baseline being third space, with assessment being used to make exceptions eg a post-op, fully transitioned trans woman.
What's your argument against third spaces for trans women and men IDing as women? There's still the issue there of men who pretend, but it makes the issue the problem of the justice system, society and trans activists rather than women being the fall guys.
In a country as small as NZ, there are going to be issues. Trans women in women's prisons segregated from women will end up living in isolation. Third spaces will mean moving trans women to one or two parts of the country probably. Do trans women have particular cultural needs? I think so. Which is yet another reason why the no debate approach has been so damaging. Assuming that TWAW and acting on that is causing damage, when we could have been working through all these issues collaboratively.
My basic argument against third spaces is the same argument. Put transwomen and transmen together in this third space? There will still be the potential for harm between prisoners. Or are we up to four spaces now?
So it comes back to looking at each prisoner and minimising the harm they can do to others if they are assessed to be inclined to do so.
So you think trans men should be housed in men’s prisons. Doesn’t that put them at risk?
I’m think you are missing a critical point here. The problem raised is males in women’s prisons. This is not a problem for the opposite: men aren’t at risk from trans men being in male prisons.
It’s like saying men experience sexism too, as if sexism is some abstract oppression that affects both sides. Whatever prejudice men experience from women it requires a distinct analysis rather than treating it as the flip side of sexism against women.
translation: women are collateral damage.
women have good reasons to be protected from males, it’s regressive to remove that protection.
I mean, if we had any way of knowing which men are going to rape ahead of time the world would be a much safer place for women.
It’s more complex too,
https://www.wsj.com/articles/male-inmates-in-womens-prisons-11622474215
"The problem raised" is one of prisoner safety. To maintain your framing that leaves transwomen as collateral damage, you'd rather suggest an entire new class of prisons in which trans people could still be victimised.
Maybe bunking 8 people together with one toilet and no privacy isn't a particularly good thing in any prison.
Heck, maybe prisons should look at each prisoner and assess their risk criteria for causing or being the victim of violence, rather than just throwing them all together according to a general classification of "male" and "female". But no, let's build a prison for another general classification of person and hope that everyone in the "other" category gets on well together there.
The problem raised is the safety of women. If we are talking prisoner safety generally that includes men, it’s prison reform and a different conversation.
How would trans women be victimised by being housed in their own building?
It’s not a general classification of male and female as if for no reason. We have women’s prisons to protect women from men because men have really high levels of violence against women. You appear to be arguing that there is no particular reason why women in prison should be protected from men. Do you think this is true in general society?
as I said, if you have a way to predict which men will rape, let us know, most women on the planet will be very interested. In the meantime please stop treating women as collateral damage.
as also said, there are multiple reasons to have separate spaces for women in prison. Very high numbers of women in prison have been sexually assaulted, they shouldn’t be forced to share close and intimate space with males. And pregnancy (even if people don’t care about the well-being of women that one should be raising alarm bells).
Except we don't agree on the definition of "women".
Edit:
if some transwomen are such a danger to women, those individuals might pose a danger to other transwomen, no?
And are transmen left in womens’ prisons, are they in a combined “trans” facility, or are we up to four prison categories now?
I don’t know what that’s in reply to, can you be more specific?
A "rapist and a serial killer of women", regardless of self-id, for a start should probably be declared a safety risk around women, be the woman a prisoner, a guard or other staff member, or a visitor, no? Regardless of prison type?
Third spaces? Are you saying it is OK for trans women to be around trans men, but not around non-trans women?
Is 'transperson' a separate gender now?
I think that's up to trans people to sort out. And NB, and the 3,000 genders or whatever it's up to now. Third space is about male/female/other. Other can be more than third, but as Milt points out, the argument has to be made for society. As far as I'm concerned, trans people have made the argument for their class, and there are plenty of trans people arguing for the third space approach. Maybe have a read of them.
More specifically, if we still accept that sexual violence is gendered (quaint term meaning sex), then it's biological males that need to be segregated from females for the sake of females. Whether testosterone confers problems for women in terms of trans men, I'm good with that being explored and solutions found. Obviously all trans people need to be protected from men including trans women. These are really not hard concepts to get to grips with if one doesn't try and erase sex. Throwing women under the bus from the get go undermines any credibility for arguing that trans people should be safe too. Unless one believes that women are lesser somehow, and there are certainly trans activists that do. It's a new version of garden variety misogyny.
Have women who do not want to mix with trans women considered setting up their own female-only spaces? Leaving all the other women's spaces to those who do not share the fear?
ok, this more than anything tells me you really don't know what is going on. I don't mean to be rude, but you are so far behind the curve on this.
If I put up post on TS arguing for what you just said, I will be called a transphobe and will experience various forms of blow back online. If I continue to post like that the ante will be upped. Women using their real life names risk losing their jobs, being banned from online and real life spaces.
Women HAVE been trying to have female only spaces and they are being ostracised, banned, fired, abused, and subjected to intimidation including via online sexualised violence. The TA agenda is to erase sex and remove single sex spaces. This is literally the centre of the battle in the UK, the push to change legislation.
Lesbians have been talking for *years about the disappearance of lesbian only spaces and what happens to them when they try and maintain female only space. Did you see this?
https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-01-06-2021/#comment-1795885
And the follow up
https://twitter.com/Matt_Zeleo/status/1399523723208658944
Women get banned on dating sites for saying biological female only.
Read the history of Michfest, one of the truly great female spaces and what happened to that over the fallout regarding trans women. Make sure you read the feminist versions as well so you get the bits about about how much penises figured in that. That was the 90s. None of this is new. Women have been talking about it a long time.
and, it's not just about fear. There are a whole ranges of reasons to value women's spaces. Women who are afraid doesn't deserve to be segregated from normal society.
There's a women's library in the UK that won't hire out spaces to groups that want female only events. It's ok to exclude men, but not trans women, or NB people including NB males. Please explain that last bit to me, because no-one has been able to.
Sweet. Less than five minutes on 0800 to book a covid vaccination.
That is good. From what I understand, most of the C19 call centre workers are doing it from home, using their own PC's.
Bugger, wrong Kissinger.
https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1398006124545200128
That guy is a cockroach.
Sacha.. What does "guy” mean.
Besides it's species supremacist to assume cockroaches are in any way inferior in dignity and moral stature to humans.
There's been a lot of political chatter and posturing about the origins of the coronavirus pandemic. Here's a couple of science-oriented articles discussing the likelihood of various possible origins:
https://www.sciencealert.com/the-lab-leak-theory-of-covid-19-may-be-possible-but-that-doesn-t-make-it-likely
https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/the-origin-of-sars-cov-2-revisited/
tl;dr: By far the likeliest origin remains a zoonotic origin – it transferred from wildlife to humans through some mechanism such as bushmeat, a human visiting a cave with lots of bats.This kind of zoonotic transfer happens very frequently. None of the features of SARS-CoV-2 cited as evidence of a non-zoonotic origin are in fact unusual in the wild, so they really are not evidence in favour of a lab origin hypothesis. The likelihood of proving a zoonotic origin remains very small – there are many many separated populations of animals that may have been the original source, so it's kind of a needle in a haystack search but much harder. Furthermore, the original source will also have been evolving in different directions to the human virus, so even if searchers come across it, it may be enough different by now to be unrecognisable as the source.
Lab leak of unmodified virus: well, yes, it's possible. But unlikely. A smoking gun could possibly be found in records that have so far been concealed, or in retained blood sample from lab workers, or … But there really shouldn't be anything much read into the Chinese authorities' reluctance to unlimited open-slather access to the lab and records. No matter how much access is allowed, those that want to believe in a lab origin will always continue to believe something could still be hidden, and the Chinese authorities are well aware of that. There's just no upside for them in allowing open-slather access, particularly given their predisposition to secretiveness and authoritarianism.
Read the articles for the actual useful information.
I’ll know the truth when I see it and I’ll see it when I believe it; I’m a believer
Yeah, nah.
I doubt we'll ever get convincing evidence one way or the other. I'm ok with that. We've been searching for the wild animal reservoir for ebola since the 70s and haven't found it yet.
And like I've said before, there have been plenty of systemic vulnerabilities identified that enable a bunch of potential different origins of the pandemic. I'm even a little worried that if a specific origin is actually identified, all the attention will go on just that one problem and all the other vulnerabilities forgotten about and just left there.
Agreed. As long as we keep hunting for the emotional junior lab worker who let the virus out, we will keep intruding into wildlife habitats and increase the chances of zoonotic transfer. In fact, we will keep doing the latter regardless.
Lab leak of unmodified virus: well, yes, it's possible. But unlikely.
More like,likely to more then likely,due to prior documented errors with SARS,and an absence of a natural reservoir (the bat that didn't ping).
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC416634/
So because a different variant infected a worker each at two different labs outside of PRC, it's more than likely a global pandemic was cause by a lab outbreak rather than the wet market in the same area?
Not so sure on that.
Given that most of the contextual evidence that has come out so far points towards the lab, and not towards the wet market. Yes
"Contextual evidence" is it? Good-oh.
I think they meant conceptual evidence or proof of concept, which only shows that something is realistically possible, that it might have happened, but not that it did actually happen.
Context is everything… virus emerged from one of the very few places in the world that does work on bat coronaviruses.
Context is not everything. Just because something happens in a region which also has a region-related aspect to it, does not mean there is any link between the two. That is nothing more than a conspiratorial response and such responses invariably turn out to be wrong.
Both historical and scientific conclusions thus far indicate the chance this virus was sourced from a wild animal jumping across the species chain to a human far outweighs the possibility it was the result of a manufactured event in a laboratory. It could be years before we have any substantive verification and until such a time conspiracy theories should be avoided.
Just because something happens in a region which also has a region-related aspect to it, does not mean there is any link between the two.
Exactly. Remember this…https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/wet-market-coronavirus-racist_ca_5ebad4bec5b6dd02e421a876
Both historical and scientific conclusions thus far indicate the chance this virus was sourced from a wild animal jumping across the species chain to a human far outweighs the possibility it was the result of a manufactured event in a laboratory.
Link, please.
Link please.
If you had read the many papers/articles written by internationally acclaimed professionals that have appeared in all the reputable newspapers and journals – many of which have already been linked to on this site including yesterday – then you wouldn't be making this demand.
Play your games elsewhere.
Context is king, but is often selective and is always circumstantial.
Virus emerged at a wet market (US intel sources notwithstanding) in a city that had one of several labs looking at a variety of viruses that were of global interest because of their potential to cause a global pandemic, possibly including this exact variant. Or possibly not.
Perception is everything, it even trumps reality and the truth.
Read both articles carefully. Unimpressive, lots of misdirection and appeal to emotional argument.
In particular the article repeatedly points to the zoonotic origin hypothesis, yet fails to mention that it too remains without any confirming evidence. This remains the key point I was at pains to point out earlier, that while there is no confirming proof for either lab or natural origin, any reasonable assessment of the context cannot ignore the established facts of the location of the first outbreak, and the fact of WIV working with coronavirus' in what can only be called 'gain of function' research that could readily in principle produce SARS-COVID-2. This is established contextual evidence, confirmed by published papers from years prior.
We also know lab-leaks do happen, and may well be a lot more common than we have been led to believe. I have personally met while we lived in Tawa, two separate individuals who both fell seriously ill with infections they caught at their work in NZ's own ESR Institute in Porirua. Both people we met socially quite by random in a short five year period. And in both cases the ESR management went to a lot of trouble to cover the matter over as best they could.
The core problem here is that too many of these experts we are depending on for accurate information have a either a direct, or generally professional, conflict of interest which unavoidably taints their credibility. By contrast much of the discussion supporting the lab leak hypothesis is coming from qualified and competent people not directly involved as virologists, but in closely related fields who know enough to detect compromised narratives when they see it.
The problem here is obvious, this is potentially bio-tech's Titanic moment. If the lab-leak is generally agreed upon as the most likely cause, the blow-back on the people involved will be immense. And rightly so.
The likelihood of proving a zoonotic origin remains very small
Yet somehow within less than a year we managed to establish precisely the species involved for SARS1 and MERS. We even managed to do this decades ago with relatively primitive technology for HIV.
The strongest argument in favour of the zoonotic hypothesis is indeed there is good precedent for it – but if you're going to lean on that then you also have to accept the precedent that we also managed to find the intermediate host and prove the hypothesis in every recent case.
I am struck by the similarity between the Covid origin debate and the octopus origin one – both await determinative data.
More on the continuing housing movement.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/443785/public-housing-councils-say-more-new-builds-not-achievable-without-support
Why sex matters, part two
https://twitter.com/matt_zeleo/status/1362878554711621635?s=21
The reason for the bans on posters is the readers comments are a large scale breach of standards. Has happened on Covid origins posts as well as the comments quickly turn a massive anti chinese racism
As there automated methods pick up the atrocious comments , they ban the whole lot rather than picking out the ones or the lead post taht are acceptable
yeah, nah. If that were true across the board and there was no women hating going on, all those objectification of women boards would be gone too.
You could be right as they do give this about facebook pages
'We define hate speech as a direct attack against people on the basis of what we call protected characteristics: race, ethnicity, national origin, disability, religious affiliation, caste, sexual orientation, sex, gender identity and serious disease.
We define attacks as violent or dehumanising speech, harmful stereotypes, statements of inferiority, expressions of contempt, disgust or dismissal, cursing and calls for exclusion or segregation.
Calls for exclusion or segregation are defined as 'attacks'
https://www.facebook.com/communitystandards/hate_speech
so women wanting to have separate spaces from men is an attack?
disabled people wanting separate spaces from ables?
Maori wanting their own spaces?
Lesbian separatists?
Weird.
The social media giants were developed by a certain class of men who are basically socially inept. Along with the desire to make money, this has created online culture that is very unhealthy. It's no surprise that women aren't protected on reddit, FB, or twitter.
Its calls for exclusion or segregation based on a persons gender identity.
The safety is just a cover story in my view, which unfortunately has been used for discrimination reasons in other settings.
Aimee Challenor was abusing her power as a Reddit admin.
Tencent has a large stake in Reddit, make of that what you will
Reddit is just like any other social media, mostly utter trash, but harsh against any serious political movement that challenges official corporate dogma.
edit
Concerning a certain Oz Scombag I found this interesting little piece about him working for us and National last century. Hey-up – actually it was published in Feb. 2020!
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/119419731/tourism-wars-1m-payouts-and-an-arrogant-future-australian-pm-at-the-centre-of-a-very-kiwi-scandal
ScoMo Dundee: A future Aussie PM's role in New Zealand's great tourism wars
…Within weeks of his arrival in Wellington in 1998, the future Australian prime minister had plunged headfirst into a messy political saga – dubbed by media at the time as 'the Tourism Wars'.
"Like a cross between Rasputin and Crocodile Dundee," was how former Dominion Post political editor Nick Venter described Morrison after the extent of his involvement in the scandal was revealed…
Why sex matters part 3
https://twitter.com/ladyduckpojok/status/1399359780616130568
Darth-Ju in trouble again, this time for endorsing a tweet by a far right social media user who allegedly likened hongi with a head-butt.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2021/06/our-leader-supports-the-hongi-national-mps-defend-judith-collins-amid-backlash-over-controversial-tweet.html
Hard to say with this one. There is plausible deniability around the original tweet, and JuCo’s reply. But is does highlight that Collins cannot stay out of trouble. She didn't need to reply on Twitter to a person who is clearly a fringe nut job. I'm certain the account was known to her.
It's clear Judith has either very poor comprehension, or very poor discipline, and probably both. These are terrible attributes in a leader. She either accepted the possible hongi comparison and agreed with it, or she was too stupid to understand that others would make that connection.
She'll claim innocence and purity of mind on this, but really, another nail in the coffin.
Maybe Jude has been reading Chris Trotter – and thinks here is vast reservoir of anger at 'separatism' that she just needs to tap into to rocket back to 40%.
I have a little sympathy with Collins on this one having never ever heard anyone refer to a hongi as a headbutt.
The lady in question has obviously never experienced a 'Liverpool kiss' to know the difference!
I once heard MC Beaton refer to a Glasgow Kiss and it didn't sound ladylike at all though she was referring to a critic about her romance books.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/443788/struggle-to-hire-nurse-raises-concerns-about-wider-issue-of-exhaustion
Getting super duper expensive computer system making it a great opportunity to put out all of NZ at once, doesn't cheer me from Andrew Little. Neither does the lack of change in the way that nurses are trained so that it becomes part in hospital, with block tech courses. And perhaps some accolades to assist these hard working people who we rely on more than we rely on politicians. Perhaps we should be run by people with medical training and hospital work experience who understand people and how to lead them to better outcomes.