With the Chinese economy looking like it is recovering a bunch faster than that of the United States and Europe, New Zealand needs a fresh wave of highly connected, wealthy, democratically-minded Chinese to immigrate here.
We should open our doors to those in Hong Kong who want to flee the brutal new Security Law that is requiring most of the human rights groups to shut their social media accounts, destroying the last vestiges of resistance to Xi Jinping's endlessly tightening totalitarianism.
Who knows, perhaps some of those pro-democracy protesters could come in under refugee status now that as of today New Zealand has increased its refugee intake to 1,500.
Auckland and New Zealand generally need a fresh generation of bilingual speakers to provide entrepeneurship, capital and cultural diversity to redouble that which they brought here in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
And it would be a great example for New Zealand to stand on the world stage and be proud as a democratic, open society by opening their doors to those of Hong Kong who wish to come and who qualify.
Yes.., and perhaps we could embrace Drury's idea and start building luxury homes for these downtrodden 'elites' in a place like Queenstown. That would be the kind thing to do and it would also help our construction sector…
The natural place for Hong Kong expats is Auckland – that's where Mandarin and Cantonese communities are already very strong. We sure need to keep our construction workers engaged here.
Aahh..good ol' Ad, King of the short term thinkers..guess thats why he is such a avid supporter of this neoliberal centrist freemarket Labour, yep they really are made for each other.
I think Ad may be outside the box that you are in Adrian. He is just being pragmatic. We have to try and manage our way out of the mess that we are in. Just black and white solutions are not suitable, what is the right medicine for our illness, in the right amount. The problem is that we may not be able to control the amount of medicine and how often taken.
Lets just hang on a bit, we already have 1 million Kiwis with an automatic right to walk right in and a fair few of them are thinking of doing just that. Can we even accommodate them even if only 250,000 came without real housing and job problems.
Think of what they can do for our GDP. It has been our national (lower case) MO for years. How to grow the economy? More milk powder and more immigrants. Keeps the wages down and unemployment up. Sell a few SOE’s, give middle NZ a tax cut and raise GST, and Bob’s your uncle. Home owners have been creaming it. Apparently, farmers are now having an anal aneurism because the Greens had the temerity of proposing a wealth tax; over their dead animals bodies.
Let's bring back estate duty and stamp duty too and spread that tax burden fairly over the country on a percentage basis. That would be a case where percentages are fair for the poorer people, they always work from a base sum. Estate duty should be also on deemed portions in trusts, valued at present valuation, or at part of those market prices before a present slump.
There is no reason that three-year marriages should result in good payouts to partners, but the tax department can be always a bridesmaid and never a bride when it comes to getting a proportion of the loot built up on the reasonable reliability of this country’s laws and stability.
And an interesting piece in stuff on some of the australian crowd who make up potential returnees. About two thirds are potential returnees and I feel sympathy for persons 1 and 3 who appear to have left after being slugged by over competition in entry level employee markets and the low wage economy here.
Person 3 was more interesting. The NZ passport was a second passport and I estimate that out of a 30 year working life around 14 years had been spent here and 9 years in Australia. The net cash assets from this work life appeared to be around $100k (low?) and no mention of property ownership. It was not clear if an australian passport had ever been applied for. Now he is thinking of returning (to collect our welfare I assume) along with an american wife who appears to have never set foot in New Zealand. They could of course choose to return to the UK or the USA
I can't help feeling there is something very wrong with this scenario and we are allowing ourselves to be taken for a ride..
And yes I do know about the work issues under the Clark government and no at the time I did not approve of the decision.
Ad:
I don't want to be unkind but Auckland is basically a slum with high-rise buildings and a small elite that desperately holds on to yesteryears way of society strata. Hardy a place that screams value, democracy, planning, equality, etc….
Those who are used to that environment will not find anything wrong with it. Naturally.
I realise Ad is trolling, but "wealthy, democratically-minded" is probably an unconscious oxymoron on his part. The rich will always use their wealth to influence the democratic process and tip the table in their direction. The best immigrants for the long term health of a society are highly technically skilled (i.e. not 'business skills') and not wealthy. And if we go into the contents of their minds at all, we might want to add 'equality' and ' environmentally' to 'democratically'.
It really is possible to walk and chew gum at the same time.
We need to dust off our histories of 1946. The worldwide migration this is going to force is going to make the post-Syrian European crisis look like a Mollie Woppie picnic.
I too assumed Ad was trolling – if only because he is suggesting that the "poor and huddled masses" who did all the hard work around the protests are going to be left behind to suffer. Very democratic not?
Plus I'd imagine that the wealthy have long since organised a bolt hole country. I certainly remember some coming here when Hongkong changed over staying just long enough for one of the couple to score residency, dumping their kids in the local schools and then bolting back to their real life in Hongkong. .
Colonel Comrade might be on the same page with you, he could 'liaise' with the new arrivals on behalf of the government (no, not our government). Just to maintain order.
Hong Kong Chinese – good idea Ad. They are keen, smart, good people, and more likely to be on our wavelength (outdated term) than many fleeing from CCP. Not a whole bunch though please at once, which will be impossible just now but include them by all means at the same time not forgetting to be ethical to other overseas people who have paid already, worked already, want to be NZs and are good ones. So the inevitable happens, we haven't been destroyed yet, and all those who can escape the shit of the big powers see us as a haven. (While many of the boofheads and the sweeties here want to throw that away and find the wealthy wonkers' lifestyles soo glamorous and desirable.)
I've been thinking along these lines myself, you more or less beat me to it Ad. Hong Kongers are different.
Most kiwis are fairly unaware of how China is not really a single coherent historic or cultural entity. In very broad terms it can be thought of in four major chunks, the bureacratic, military minded Han core in the northern Yellow River plain and centred in Beijing, the merchantile manufacturing minded groups of the Yangtze River represented by Shanghai as the largest city, the southern port cities of Hong Kong, Macau and Xian, and the fourth being the diverse ethnic groups of the central provinces.
The southern cities like Hong Kong were historically geographically isolated from Beijing and looked outward to the wider world, particularly in terms of trade and culture. Many Hong Kongers regard themselves as quite separate from the CCP run mainland and want absolutely nothing to do with it.. The passing of these new Security laws will prompt many to find ways to leave.
I've visited Hong Kong a few times, it’s a highly developed world city, full of surprises. Kiwis should welcome these people, they will bring much of real value with them.
… New Zealand needs a fresh wave of highly connected, wealthy, democratically-minded Chinese to immigrate here.
No we don't
Any Chinese that move here are likely to be sent by the Chinese government to fuck up our democracy
Auckland and New Zealand generally need a fresh generation of bilingual speakers to provide entrepeneurship, capital and cultural diversity to redouble that which they brought here in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
No, we need to settle what we've got into our own culture. Getting more of the same won't help.
Under the Key government heaps of property owners became millionaires overnight. So now Auckland is facing a housing crisis and a water crisis and record inequality. What does resident neoliberal Ad propose? More of the same.
I'm with you on this one DTB if Ad is serious. We've had these setting since the 90's and the one thing that really shows out is that our GDP per head has stayed static or gone backwards. Where are the factories and post processing plants and all the other benefits that were supposed to flow? Absolutely non existent.
Frankly for the average live out your life here citizen these policies have made their lives worse. The number of people that take part in a "global" workforce by having multiple passports and residency is tiny and over privileged. Yes houses may have gone up in value but if it's the only one you own then it's used for the basic service of "living in"
Hong Kong protesters would get a shock if they came here or say the UK, because they have better health system in HK They want freedom what, I saw a lot of American flags flying in those protest, a lot of NGO monies like NED funding anti mainland groups, there is more to life than HK dissidents money, no thanks, let them go to granny England or uncle Sam land.
The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) is a private, nonprofit foundation dedicated to the growth and strengthening of democratic institutions around the world. Each year, NED makes more than 1,600 grants to support the projects of non-governmental groups abroad who are working for democratic goals in more than 90 countries.
And Allen Weinstein, who helped draft the legislation establishing NED, declared in 1991: “A lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA.”
Yes, read that. About time we opt out of the 5 eyes bullshit that keeps us non independent from the capitalist spy network. Oops, sorry I forgot we are a crapitalist country.
You mean not just 5 eyes but ramping up to a ball with feelers like a Covid-19, or a 360o degree surveillance? Or have a dynamic ball chasing us like in Prisoner on tv? Why have only one eye per country – that's so limiting.
We should take all the doctors, nurses (and some health tech people) and teachers who want to leave (albeit they would be better paid in Oz).
And others in skilled worker areas (albeit …) engineers/construction to IT/finance etc
And the business owners who would base here and pay tax locally on their drawings/dividends from their Hong Kong activities.
Most however will just seek British passports (to be safe) and end citizenship activity. But if China acts against those who choose this route, we might get lucky.
Things might be heating up for the "two guys in a steam bath". Yep, those two guys are Pootee and his fascist-dictator-wannabe puppet. More and more is coming out about Pootee maybe paying bounties being paid on American soldiers, and Marmalardo getting briefed about it and being utterly uninterested.
I'm struggling to come up with any previous example anytime anywhere of a significant national leader being so objectively crap that they have come under this kind of sustained brutal attack across a huge number of topics, from respected senior members of their own party.
Yup. But it really just confirmed informed speculation about what resolution was possible just from the known size of spy satellites. Ie, what can you from a telescope of X diameter (2.4m from memory) orbiting Y kilometres up.
Then there was the time Don Dementia outed Israeli assets to Lavrov and Kislyak while getting all chummy in the Oval Office.
You a fan of the idea that two wrongs make a right, are you? Even in cases such as this, where the tangerine turdgoblin is deeply involved in the genesis of both wrongs?
No, just that for some reason your focusing on the bounty which Trump has sweet FA to do with rather than the one which he (and other members of the US administration including Pelosi) can actually do something about.
Oh, so it's simple whataboutery then. I had thought your cognitive processes had advanced beyond that kind of simple distraction tactic, but evidently not. My bad.
And since the point apparently needs to be spelled out for you in simple terms, the issue is about how Benedict Donald has responded to the possibility of Russia putting a bounty on US soldiers much more than about the bounty itself.
… the possibility of Russia putting a bounty on US soldiers…
You will, of course, be providing evidence of this dastardly crime. Something the entirely anonymous source of this wild and woolly story has yet to do.
We are awaiting your dump of verifiable and irrefutable “good stuff” with great anticipation, my good friend.
Uh, no, that's for those in the intelligence services to do to the satisfaction of their masters, if any follow-up appears likely.
But you too seem to have totally missed the point in your rush to indulge in another one of your displays of public political masturbation. Which is Emperor PalPutin's problematic response to being presented with the intelligence assessment, much more than whether or not the assessment is accurate.
Andre I applaud your word du jour for the orange tambourine – you bring expressive colour into the discourse, and may you do so till he goes to a better place – somewhere in the rust belt where they will treat him to unceasing religious ceremonies and don't believe in building big hotels, and playing with the stock market.
…the Hellenistic Age. The Macedonian King Seleucus (died 281BC) and his Persian wife Apame ruled a hybrid kingdom that mixed Greek, Persian, Jewish, Bactrian, Armenian, Sogdian and Aramaean cultures and religions.
With new cities, religions and cultures, this melting pot encouraged the rise of a thriving connectivity that linked urban centres in Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan and Syria (where many of the Hellenistic sites (such as Apamea) have been devastated in recent years by war and looting). The great city of Seleucia-on-Tigris/Ctesiphon, just south of Baghdad on the Tigris river in modern Iraq, became the western capital and centre for learning, culture and power for a thousand years…
…The Sasanians ruled a massive geopolitical entity from 224-751AD. They were builders of cities and frontiers across the empire including the enormous Gorgan wall. This frontier wall stretched 195km from the Caspian Sea to the mountains in Turkmenistan and was built in the 5th century AD to protect the Iranian agricultural heartland from northern invaders like the Huns….
Iranian cultural heritage has no one geographic or cultural home, its roots belong to all of us and speak of the vast influence that the Iranians have had on the creation of the world we live in today. Iran’s past could never be wiped off the cultural map of the world for it is embedded in our very humanity.
Could Iran be cleverer than today's western boofheads? Can we wonder why they got enraged at the west messing with them, brazenly killing one of their revered Generals, and previously installing a puppet figurehead – who they eventually abandoned ignominiously? Can we manage our way through to keep our heads above water now? 'We haven't much money so we'll have to think hard' Rutherford said or words to that effect.
Food for thought. Yes. I am filling my head with new information and it's getting full I think and pass it on in case someone else is interested. I have had an ordinary education and can see it wasn't satisfactory and now think that most of our education is directed away from learning about ourselves, the most important thing. That was said before 1744!
The proper study of Man, is Man. Alexander Pope
Author Profession: Poet
Nationality: English
Born: May 21, 1688
Died: May 30, 1744
In one odd sense the historic Iranian culture could be thought of as the USA of the ancient world, the two have a lot in common, but for quite different reasons.
Iran is geographically different to the USA in every conceivable way, but it all boils down to one factor: populated Iran is a fused, sprawling mountain system. Iran’s Zagros mountain chain fills the country’s entire southwestern third, while the Elburz dominates the northern third. The contemporary capital of Tehran sits on a plateau where the two chains meet. With an average peak elevation of 3000m, the two chains not only force out fairly reliable rainfall, but their valley floors tend to above 1000m. Unlike nearly everywhere else in the region, it actually rains in Iran where people live. Direct rainfall enables agriculture without necessarily requiring irrigation. Lower labor requirements free workers to do other things, like going to school, practicing a trade, composing a poem or waging war. Culture here has roots stretching back five thousand years.
Mountain living has other advantages. Anyone wanting to invade Iran must fight their way uphill into the Persian core and batter through every mountain line. This defensibility shapes Persia’s participation in international affairs. Iran isn’t a destination, but instead a knot of difficult territory that must be bypassed by those in Asia or Europe, it's just too hard to invade and hold. In this it's very much like the USA, it's geography has always made it secure.
Unlike the dozens of city-states and empires that have risen and fallen throughout the Middle East, the Persians have art, history and culture that isn’t short-lived, incidental or fused with foreign practice but instead anchored in millennia of continuity. The Persian language and Persian customs—conservatively—date back hundreds of generations.
But the same geography also forced them to become the first multi-cultural society. Each mountain valley had it's group and identity, making them a very heterogeneous society, but united in one thing … the terrain around them was even worse. This forced them develop an enduring Persian identity from all these disparate parts much earlier than anywhere else in the world.
Located on the Silk Road trade route the medieval Persians managed to sustain a remarkable medieval prosperity, but two things buggered this for them. One was the invention of deep water navigation by the Portuguese, enabling traders to completely bypass them. The other is more subtle; the thousands of mountain valleys and plateaus make internal transport very expensive, and there are few large centers with necessary pre-conditions to support industrialisation.
In many ways it's useful to think of the Persians as an ancient super-power, but one that has been sidelined by history and technology. They retain much of their cultural capital, but the nature of the land they live in has constrained their ability to adapt to the modern world.
A cosmopolitan culture for so long, yet that biodiversity got clamped into a binary theology, and most religious historians derive that of islam & christianity from Zoroaster. Here's non-academic recycling of that view:
Thus the binary syndrome that makes leftists hate Trump. Life is an
eternal struggle and combat with an evil Other
Now Abraham came from Ur, where the Akkadian civilisation had recycled the Sumerian pantheon of diverse gods & goddesses. So the Israelites went seriously off the rails in departing from their Hebrew progenitor. Historians who write about this usually blame the acquisition of monotheism from Akhenaton during the Hebrew settlement in the Nile delta centuries. Interesting how cultures long complex can shift into banal simplification!
Thanks Greywarshark, a great follow up of the series "The Silk Road" extract on Zorastrians the Muslims Persia and Iran cultures narrated by Joanna Lumley.
yes, welcome home, i hope you have enough money to last 6 – 12 month – cause on unemployment you will not even manage to rent a ditch, let alone eat.
welcome home honey, sadly i can't hire you, we are all gonna be shit outta luck once the wage subsidy subsides.
welcome home you and your whanau, hopefully you are not picky n choosy cause fruit picking might be your best bet, and for your wife/husband and the kids.
welcome home, to what ever you find here waiting for you.
Exactly. The returnees will fall roughly into three categories.
There was about 50,000 kiwis travelling short term, most of whom have gotten home, but there will be still a few who have been stuck in odd places who have not yet been able to organise a flight for one reason or another.
About 200,000 kiwis in Australia do not qualify for any support there. Eventually a fair fraction of them will be forced to return if they do not have secure jobs. Probably about 50% of them over the next six months. Most will be younger adults and will likely return to family here, but not a lot of other prospects.
Another large and hard to qualify chunk will be ex-pats who have been living and working all around the world. Many will have been earning a good income, and would return with capital and experience. How many is very hard to guess, because their decision points will all be unique based on their circumstances, but I would guess maybe another 100,000 or so over the next few years. A lot depends of just how turbulent the world becomes in that period.
interesting post redlogix. already people in the third category are spending money. houses are being bought and renovations happening at my beach, by cashed up kiwis returning. my real estate colleague confirms that sales and prices are up, mainly driven by incoming cash. dont think we are going to need to selloff any more kiwi citizenships for a while.
A fair few will be those who can do their work from anywhere in the world, and will return still employed in their current jobs. Safe trumps cosmopolitan for the next few years.
Others will become self employed contractors living here but applying for international jobs they can do on-line. Others will run on-line businesses and or offer themselves as consultants to local business in their industry sector.
Some will simply take the jobs that have been going to skilled migrants.
Some will simply spend a year holidaying here, or doing a post grad course, where it is safe.
As for the Oz Kiwi crowd who return, hopefully a lot are into construction/roading and building and truck driving – younger adults back to home with parents are ideal for seasonal work (camper van).
Then there are the jobs that semi-skilled migrants – couriers/service stations/IT/Chorus connections have been doing.
50,000 migrants coming in, not. The lack of 100,000 students this year eases the hospitality sector downturn impact on employment.
No they left in the first place because they could not get any jobs here. Cause the one thing NZ sucks are really is the creation of good jobs, future proof jobs with a pay above min wage that would allow them to pay life and student loans.
And now they are back here with no jobs, no real chance to get a job, and most of them don't come with truck loads of money because were ever they lived before they did so on a regular wage paying regular things like food, rent, insurance etc etc etc.
But yeah, nah nah, quite a few of them will do what ever they can as 250$ per week un-employemnt is too little to live and too much to die on. And so far i have yet to see a proposal from any of the empty suits to raise this to the level of the wage subsidy so as to prevent further hardship and misery. And i don't expect to see anything meaningful about unemployment to come anytime soon.
As for us being the Nr. 1, our wage subsidies are still keeping many afloat. Take that away and see what happens to our Society when you have somewhere between 10 – 20% unemployment (certain regions even higher – and i am being very charitable with the numbers as i would expect them to go into the high 20s low 30s) who can neither pay food or rent on the current benefit levels.
The current projection is unemployment at 9% below the original projection of 10%.
Some tourism economy regions of course will be around 20% – the question will be how many of those are residents/citizens and entitled to benefit support
There is a reason why the wage subsidy was extended – i think they call this flattening the curve.
I love all that pie in the sky wishful thinking. What ever gets people trhough the day.
But i will make sure to tell the people that are sending me their unsolicited CVs that they can just declare themselves contractors to get some 'work from home' jobs, or that they just start working in roading/building (skills and training is for suckahs), or that they just do a year living in a Van (Freedom camping with the whole family is fun 🙂 ) and so on and so forth.
the real number of unemployment will be known when the wage subsidy runs out and is replaced with nothing. Until then, you have no numbers to throw about.
the takeaway from this thread (apart from preparing for community resilience) is that worker rights is a big priority. If Ad and his peers' children end up fruit picking, best make sure they have better wages and work conditions than the economic migrants and working holiday crowd have had up until now. Fruit picking is honest work, about time we made it good work too.
While I don't know the profit margins involved, and with exports in 2019 worth $6.2B – An increase of $720M, and an industry valued at $9.5B, out of principle I wouldn't go fruit picking until the wages for the hard grafting workers reflected their real worth and value to the horticulture big boys.
When Moss was appointed, then Minister for Vulnerable Children Anne Tolley (pictured) dismissed questions in the media over whether she was the right person for the job. Photo: Lynn Grieveson
"The panel convened by Rennie to make the decision was an all-Pākehā lineup: deputy State Services Commissioner Debbie Power, secretary of education Peter Hughes"
Two of the creators of the highly toxic environment at WINZ – beggars belief that the current government (naively maybe) put anyone from that era of management back in there – or actually maybe it doesn't considering some of their actions to date towards the poorest in society – not increasing benefits as per the WEAG recommendations, making the homeless pay 25% of their benefit to pay for their motel rooms, getting rid of including underage partners in superannuation – all those things make poor peoples lives harder. I can see why she would appeal to them both – cut from the same managerial mould/(mold?). Fits nicely with the earlier comments about the managerial class that were made.
yeah, nah nah, not relevant at all to what i asked – the people sending me CVs have not lost jobs for bullying and chances are will not be hired for their bullying nature.
they are ordinary people who have come home to nothing much, if anything at all.
Sorry Sabine. You wrote "CV" and I'm afraid that forever those two letters will pull that image of Moss' CV into my mind.
What to do with the returning sons and daughters who thought their best futures were Overseas?
Sadly, not all will be of the 'highly trained and qualified in a specialist field' group that seem to have the welcome mat laid out. I'm not entirely convinced of the essentiality of making movies about virtual blue folk, but I do see the necessity of having experts dealing with the leaking shit pipes in Wellington.
So those who can't be gainfully employed in one of the multibillion dollar projects announced by Our Leaders over the past few weeks will have to 'pivot', I believe is the current parlance, and broaden their horizons or lower their expectations.
And perhaps consider voting for the Green party and their ending poverty policy.
Because it would go a long way towards mending the safety net.
If someone with a PhD in particle physics applies for an honestly advertised minimum wage casual job as a cleaner…hire them. Or not.
'pivot' has become so passe @Rosemary – everybody is pivoting and they need something new. There is a new word on the horizon. Forgot where I heard it, but immediately I did, "ultimately" I knew it'd become the new normal going forward (in that space).
"so"…….. the best creds for something like the position of OT CEO could be experience as a used car salesman, as long as you make it clear you're also "passionate" about what you do, AND "compassionate".
On the other hand, as Anne Tolley has reckons, being a mother might be sufficient, although I'm not sure how the likes of Jeremy Lambert could ever aspire to such an exceptional position of CEO of OT
I'm not entirely convinced of the essentiality of making movies about virtual blue folk,
Art is essential because it tends to reflect us.
If someone with a PhD in particle physics applies for an honestly advertised minimum wage casual job as a cleaner…hire them. Or not.
Most likely not. People who are over-qualified for a job don't get employed for that job and if there aren't any jobs around for what they're qualified for then they end up as long term unemployed. Its one of the ways that our present system wastes its people.
so people that are returning are starting to sending in CVs. What are we to tell them?
anyone got any ideas? Other then sorry mate you are overqualified for fruit picking?
tell them the truth. Tell them that we have no idea what NZ will be like in 12 months time, or the world. We might be ok-ish (think high unemployment but a still functioning economy). Or we might be in the middle of a major GFC and our main concern is to have enough food for the coming year. Or something in between, which is probably worse than the first two.
I'd suggest learning how to grow protein and carb crops if they don't already know. Also, get to know your neighbours and be kind to them. And get to know the people in your community that know how to build resilient communities and have been practicing this.
Yep, unemployment and not enough income sucks. That's been true for too many for too long already. Best we learn, fast, how to do things differently.
I told my kiwi friends that so long as they can stay overseas, i .e . still have their visas and jobs to stay overseas. Keep distance, wear a mask, shower in sanitizer and stay where you are. Nothing much to come here for unless you have oodles of cash which the people that i know overseas don't have. They went overseas in the first place because unemployment and under employment in NZ sucks and they were lucky enough to find employment elsewhere.
But to pretend that we are not going to have issues with high number of unemployment , people without the capacity to pay rent and food is foolish imo, and it seems that a lot of people like to rather be foolish then look at the world as it is. And maybe some people just hope that we can pretend it ain't that bad, (as generally it is done) but i doubt this time around we can.
I read your post on the greens, and frankly it is neither bold nor future orientated. (again, the socialist in me is finding both the Greens and Labour timid in their approach)
The one things the wage subsidy has shown us in NZ is that it is the minimum one needs to 'live', not extravagantly but just subsistence level. So again the unemployment min income proposed by the Greens is already 150$ short at the very least. For 320 you may find a rental, but you wont' be eating, nor paying electricity nor food. So redundant. If this is not the time to talk honestly about what it costs to simply stay alive (food, shelter, warmth) then it will never be the time. As for growing food, lol. We might want to stop pretending that we are not in a country wide drought for a start. Water is vital to growing food, and in certain parts of the country water is an expensive good. Growing food is for those that have homes, stable homes. Growing a tomato in a pot is a nice supplement, but you don't want to try to survive on it.
So i really really hope that someone in our government will finally just be bold. If only for a refreshing change.
As for telling people how to vote, i won't. Never did, never will. I don't believe that parties lead, its the people that bring about the changes. The suits will follow when they have to and not a minute before.
thanks for a considerate answer tho, i was wondering if anyone here still gave a shit about others.
Though lifting the rates must go hand in hand with rent controls otherwise increase just become a revenue source for landlords. Even the US has rent controls in most places e.g. restrictions on how much you can increase rent on your rental property in a year – even when tenants change.
Maybe it's the difference in perspective for those of us that were locked out of the 'getting ahead' economy decades ago. It's not that I don't have empathy for people losing their jobs, it's more that I think the solution to that isn't to try and make things like they were before only better. If people still want a big house and a late model car and a new smart phone and an overseas holiday every year, sorry, but the ecologies we are utterly dependent upon just can't sustain that.
$325/wk is a minimum guaranteed income. Not a maximum, and there is no suggestion that this is what people should live on. You appear to have fundamentally misunderstood the policy.
Not recognising the radical and bold approach to disabled people in the policy is hardly surprising. Working people are the really important ones right? Who cares if the Greens are proposing to stop treating disabled people like third class citizens and give them a substantial increase income as well as a dedicated income support department of their own.
Growing tomatoes is not growing protein and carb crops. If you don't understand this, and who grows food in NZ and how and why, maybe take the time to learn. Not everyone has to grow food, those that can should. Not all of those people own or rent land they can garden on. If we think unemployment is bad wait until we're wondering where our years supply of food is going to come from.
Yes, parliament follows us, but we still need them to enact laws. Like minimum wages and work conditions, benefit rates and so on.
Drought in NZ is largely a human created disaster (I don't mean climate change, but local land use practices). We don't have a country-wide drought, we have water shortages in some places because humans are too stupid to adopt the systems and tech that already exist to farm/garden regeneratively and with respect for water as part of nature. Humans have been growing food for tens of thousands of years in places with lower rainfall than NZ has currently. It's not rocket science, we are just ideologically blind.
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem says the thousands of people who attend the July 3 celebration for Independence Day at Mount Rushmore with President Donald Trump will not be required to practice social distancing despite an increase in coronavirus cases across the country.
"We will have a large event at July 3rd. We told those folks that have concerns that they can stay home, but those who want to come and join us, we'll be giving out free face masks, if they choose to wear one. But we will not be social distancing," Noem, a Republican, said in an interview Monday night on Fox News' "The Ingraham Angle."
Rebooting Your Life: 6 Steps You Can Follow to Find a New You
He has found a way to get over that problem for the time, and take other along on the road with him. He sounds like a Forrest Gump character – giving other people a boost as well as himself.
He is advocating for himself and others in need of compassion, and has a website and the heading above tells about his ideas for 6 mins I think. I didn't read it because I'm in the elderly group and at present is trying to reboot my democracy and everybody's life, mine being on the end of the plank. I have my own version and just give some ideas here and around as I go about just keeping the old you in good repair, with some time for appreciation of what good you do already have.
(You can see I have just been rereading Pollyanna, who is glad, very glad about the good things that happen and she manages to pass that on. Honestly, I have just been reading it – what was the mindset of people going through hard times in the past I asked myself? Pollyanna's we know. Another seems to keep on, to relate to others and help yourself and others.)
When Jock Anderson and Mihi Forbes agree that Jacinda has it exactly right re the border and Covid19, as they did on The Panel last night, National should be very scared. Anderson is notoriously conservative.
Anderson is also old – and maybe has a sense of his vulnerability to Covid. Meanwhile Muller demonstrates in recent interviews that his leadership style is to demand a type of impossible clairvoyance from his subordinates – insisting that there must be a plan (with timings) for an unknowable future.
Talking to the 18 yr old in the house last night. He is a tad over what he perceives to be the highly sensitive nature of folk concerning comedy and racism. Part of this is finding his own way with leaving home and being with a building crew and their conservative attitudes.
I mentioned 'punching-up' with comedy rather than down.
I want to give a shout out to Mihingarangi Forbes for her explanation around blackface.
In the context of Chris Lilley and his character Jonah from Tonga. She said that a Tongan teen/adolescent's stories are for a Tongan teen/adolescent to tell. When Chris Lilley occupies that space, there isn't room for a Tongan teen to be.
This helps me understand Brotown, in that the stories are for Kightley, Fane etc to tell.
Still a bit lost about Super City, Madeline Sami 'whitefacing' for a couple of her characters Linda and Ray. I figure it is about Pakeha being the dominant culture.
So should we reinterpret tv shows like Fawlty Towers, The Office and Little Britain as not successful comedy, but simply unfunny and offensive to too many groups of people..?
I can't see that happening. People need to laugh at themselves, the Greeks were doing similar comedy thousands of years ago.
Of course it's still successful comedy. Some of it is brilliant.
But things like brownface are at best an intelligent, sensitive comedian having more opportunity to appropriate the expression of a minority experience (albeit in a sympathetic manner) than someone in that actual demographic has to express their own experience in mainstream media. It doesn't make it unfunny. It does raise the question "why not someone who didn't need the makeup?"
The Fawlty thing is slightly different – I suspect recognition of the full harm that language causes makes it over-egg the effect they were going for. Audiences change over time, words change meaning, gain or lose emphasis. It's that sort of situation, imo.
I read a few years ago that English is a second language for more that 50% of the population. Spanish a high proportion of first language. If so perhaps the White folk are nervous?
PS World: Of the approximately 1.5 billion people who speak English, less than 400 million use it as a first language. That means over 1 billion speak it as a secondary language
Looking at where english is the dominant language, there's the US(330M) UK(67M) Canada(37M) Oz(25M) plus rats and mice. So yeah, less than 400M worldwide being english-first speakers is plausible. The vast majority of those are in the US, then UK.
The idea of english being a second language for more than 50% of the US population is utterly implausible. Non-hispanic whites alone are 60%, and even the majority of non-whites will be US born or arrived at an early age so grew up speaking english as their primary language.
There may be some large pockets where english is a second language for more than half the residents – Puerto Rico being the largest example, but no doubt there's some fairly large pockets along the southern border.
But maybe that comment was just some snark from a UK pedant.
All that is true Andre that English is the most spoken. Not sure if it covers those who speak say Spanish first but have to speak English to survive. Anyway I surrender.
The question of Māori representation on the New Plymouth District Council is being debated again. But the debate all went pear-shaped with the representatives of all people should have their say at the NPDC Te Huinga Taumatua iwi committee meeting.
Poet and activist Sonya Taylor, shouted down from the gallery "racists do not deserve a fair say." The meeting was adjourned while she left the chamber. As she left she noted "Racism getting a fair say is why the oppression of Māori folks has been what it has been up to this point,"
"… the move was overturned in 2015 when a citizen-initiated referendum voted against it by 21,000 votes to 4285."
The accusation of structural racism is well-founded given the only CIR that is legally binding on the NPDC is the question of Māori representation and this situation exists nowehere else in the country.
Credit to the NPDC that they're trying to get this law removed, but hey there's not going to be much support for that it seems.
Well, as someone who did actually vote for at least one Maori candidate to the NPDC last time, I see that 5:1 ratio as a consequence of historical inertia. Take a look at this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_marae_in_Taranaki
Notice how the only marae in the city itself is in the outlying suburb of Bell Block – separated from the city proper by miles of countryside. There are three in/around Waitara a few miles further to the east, then just one each in Oakura & Inglewood a few miles to the west & south. Compare that to the list of maraes in south Taranaki to see the huge difference!
This population distribution is due to the original NZ company settlement in the year of the treaty, plus the genocide a generation earlier in which local tribes here were cleaned out by an invasion from Waikato tribes.
That structural racism doesn't accord with the dictionary definition (tacit, not overt) but I agree it does need to be flagged. A suitable political basis for that would be comparative analysis to maori representation in councils elsewhere – if that has been done on a treaty/quota basis. I've no idea what basis the protestors are using…
Many cities have a tenth set aside as fair from the takeover of land from Maori. They retained a tenth and that gives them their land by right or the right to have an argument if it starts being encroached on.
Taranaki got taken over by farmers and the Hawera blackface mentality is a carry-through. I don't know what era they are in, in their minds. Somewhere between post World War 2 and 1984 I'd say. Since then it's all been too confusing and there is a desire to retire to past highlights and memorials.
Yes, it's noticable to this day how proportionately-few Maori reside in New Plymouth compared to the rest of the district.
"a consequence of historical inertia"
Historical inertia alongside historical and current racism. People actually had to get themselves out of their chairs to instigate and vote in that referendum.
Structural racism can refer "to the ideologies, practices, processes, and institutions that operate at the macro level to produce and reproduce differential access to power and to life opportunities along racial and ethnic lines… embedded in societal-level institutions, policies, and practices"
I believe that definition covers what is going on with this.
"A suitable political basis for that would be comparative analysis to maori representation in councils elsewhere"
The articls states legally binding CIR only for Maori representation is unique to a NPDC. Even if the council and Maori agree on a representation model as in 2014. The people can vote it down. That's not a racist council, it's a racist act by the population.
One can read this most recent flurry of Russia, Russia, Russia paid the Taliban to kill GIs as an attempt to pre-empt the findings into Russiagate’s origins….
Of course the Taliban story was mindlessly parroted by RNZ this morning…seems as if fake news is fine at most mainstream news outlets just as long as it supports ones own narrative…no need for pesky things like…gasp! evidence or credible named sources.
“The intelligence assessment is said to be based at least in part on interrogations of captured Afghan militants and criminals.”
(my bold)
"How much of an unprincipled whore do you have to be to call yourself a journalist and uncritically parrot the completely unsubstantiated assertions of spooks while protecting their anonymity? How much work did these empire fluffers put into killing off every last shred of their dignity?
It really is funny how the most influential news outlets in the Western world will uncritically parrot whatever they’re told to say by the most powerful and depraved intelligence agencies on the planet, and then turn around and tell you without a hint of self-awareness that Russia and China are bad because they have state media."
Thanks, Brigid. Very good point. Our 'independent, privately-owned' press sometimes turns out to be even more bigoted and biased – but this must never be admitted.
Russiagate, that consumptive and sickly monstrosity conjured up from an ill-advised and disastrous mating of rogue CIA operatives and the discredited far right of the Democratic Party, is still wheezing and sputtering along, as can be seen by clicking on Comment No. 2 posted on this page at 8:41 a.m. today.
Dude Russian mercenaries are still Russians aren't they? Hell how is your memory? Was there not a time when Afganistan had a communist government and the USA supplied Osama Bin Laden with weaponry to kill soviet troops? I'm not talking morality-I 'm talking motivation – it seems like there's plenty to me……
Seems strange that the Pentagon chief Mark Esper says there's no corroborating evidence
U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said in a statement Tuesday night that while the Pentagon has “no corroborating evidence” to support the explosive report last week that the Russian military was offering Taliban-linked militants bounties to kill American troops, he will continue to make sure any potential threat is taken seriously.
National MP Alastair Scott is defending his wine company's claim of more than $170,000 from the Government wage subsidy during what has been called an outstanding season for winegrowers.
It might suit your anti-capitalism to see NZ go down the gurgler DTB but what about the children?
Actually, what about the country and managing to keep its head above water. It is hard enough keeping down the dream-sequence kiwis who still support National, the others would soon desert Labour if the economy went down. So it is good that the wine got picked, so that people could get paid, so that it could be sold, and so there is money flowing into the economy. Paid work at a living wage, that is the goal and making sure that people have good lives. That's a big one as the world goes down, ice floes melting faster than expected. Hell is people running away but going towards the edge and being powerless to stop them, and knowing it isn't a dream.
We still have hopes of being able to turn the tide at the present. A recession and things would only get worse. Let's make the most of this world-wide problem and pinch the government as much as possible to make changes while we have some advantage in the world. And also keep Labour in front to win again. Don't count on anything remaining stable, we have to help NZ as we won't get second chances from hereon in.
There are lots of basic improvements to be done, we won't be better off if facing a full-scale depression. Everybody who doesn't want to do anything until it is the 'Right Thing' is just continuing the same useless mindset that brought us to the present debacle.
It might suit your anti-capitalism to see NZ go down the gurgler DTB but what about the children?
Never said that.
So it is good that the wine got picked, so that people could get paid, so that it could be sold, and so there is money flowing into the economy.
Wine grapes, unlike eating grapes, are picked and then sold later (it says so in the article). In other words, the lockdown hasn't affected him at all. A drought would have affected him worse and I'd expect him to have plans for that eventuality as well.
And having money flowing into the economy is easy and doesn't need to have direct subsidies to businesses. Just give everyone $100/wk and local business would have kept going.
Nick Smith again today acting like a child in Parliament. His recalcitrant childish apologising should be compulsory viewing by the voters down his way. Hopefully the boundary change helps his demise.
For 45 years I manned polling booths and the worst anger I saw was directed at the orange felt tip pen that dried up. Aren't we lucky that our democracy is so benevolent.
Yes, but we can't sit back sleepily and take it for granted. It is slipping away, bit by bit starting even before 1984 but speeding up as time goes on.
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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. ...
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. ...
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. ...
The Government’s newly announced review of methane emissions reduction targets hints at its desire to delay Aotearoa New Zealand’s urgent transition to a climate safe future, the Green Party said. ...
The Government must commit to the Maitai School building project for students with high and complex needs, to ensure disabled students from the top of the South Island have somewhere to learn. ...
Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey and his Government colleagues have made a meal of their mental health commitments, showing how flimsy their efforts to champion the issue truly are, says Labour Mental Health spokesperson Ingrid Leary. ...
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 ...
Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson is speaking at the International Wool Textile Organisation Congress in Adelaide, promoting New Zealand wool, and outlining the coalition Government’s support for the revitalisation the sector. "New Zealand’s wool exports reached $400 million in the year to 30 June 2023, and the coalition Government ...
The Government is making legislative changes to make it easier for new early learning services to be established, and for existing services to operate, Associate Education Minister David Seymour says. The changes involve repealing the network approval provisions that apply when someone wants to establish a new early learning service, ...
Changes to the Resource Management Act will align consenting for coal mining to other forms of mining to reduce barriers that are holding back economic development, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The inconsistent treatment of coal mining compared with other extractive activities is burdensome red tape that fails to acknowledge ...
Trade, Agriculture and Forestry Minister Todd McClay has concluded productive discussions with ministerial counterparts in Beijing today, in support of the New Zealand-China trade and economic relationship. “My meeting with Commerce Minister Wang Wentao reaffirmed the complementary nature of the bilateral trade relationship, with our Free Trade Agreement at its ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon today paid tribute to Singapore’s outgoing Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Meeting in Singapore today immediately before Prime Minister Lee announced he was stepping down, Prime Minister Luxon warmly acknowledged his counterpart’s almost twenty years as leader, and the enduring legacy he has left for Singapore and South East ...
How will the recent wave of job cuts impact ethnic diversity in the media? In November last year, I was working a very busy day in the newsroom of a large online news site, interviewing whānau about their concerns over the imminent closure of one of the few puna reo ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ruth Knight, Researcher, Queensland University of Technology Have you ever felt sick at work? Perhaps you had food poisoning or the flu. Your belly hurt, or you felt tired, making it hard to concentrate and be productive. How likely would you be ...
Despite heavy criticism and an ongoing select committee process, the Police Minister says the Government will forge ahead with a ban on gang patches. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sam Whiting, Lecturer – Creative Industries, University of South Australia Shutterstock Everyone has a favourite band, or a favourite composer, or a favourite song. There is some music which speaks to you, deeply; and other music which might be the current ...
A new survey says ‘outlook not great’ for those charged with building infrastructure, while RMA changes delight farmers and depress environmentalists, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. First RMA changes announced ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Olli Hellmann, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Waikato Getty Images When New Zealanders commemorate Anzac Day on April 25, it’s not only to honour the soldiers who lost their lives in World War I and subsequent conflicts, but also ...
A leaked document shows the Canterbury/Waitaha arm of health agency Te Whatu Ora is scurrying to save $13.3 million by July. The “financial sustainability target”, which was “allocated” to Waitaha, is consistent with what’s happening in other districts, says Sarah Dalton, executive director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists. ...
A look at the state of the previous government’s affordable housing scheme, and what could come next.Remind me: What’s KiwiBuild again?First announced in 2012, KiwiBuild was a flagship policy of the Labour Party heading into both its 2014 and 2017 election campaigns. With Jacinda Ardern as prime minister, ...
Labour in opposition will be shocked to learn which party had six years in power but squandered any chance to make real change. Grant Robertson’s valedictory speech was a predictably entertaining trip down memory lane. The acid-tongued incoming Otago University chancellor administered a sick burn to the coalition government. He ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[quiz],DIV[quiz],A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Wednesday 24 April appeared first on Newsroom. ...
The following interview with former Green Party MP Sue Kedgley came about because she features in the new memoir Hine Toa by activist Ngāhuia te Awekōtuku; the two knew each other at the University of Auckland in the early 70s, when they were both took on leadership roles in the ...
Taiwan’s semiconductor industry is seen some as its ‘silicon shield’ against invasion – but how will overseas expansion affect that protection? The post The state of Taiwan’s silicon shield appeared first on Newsroom. ...
There’s relief for building owners bending under the weight of earthquake strengthening rules – and costs – that came into force seven years ago. Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk has announced a scheduled 2027 review of the earthquake-prone building regulations will now start this year. Owners will also get ...
Opinion: It has been announced that nine percent of roles at Oranga Tamariki will be disestablished, presumably to help fund the tax cuts promised by the coalition Government. I am reminded of the graphics used to illustrate pandemic events, where five thousand people are standing in a field and then ...
After more than two sleepless days, running through savage terrain, Greig Hamilton didn’t know if he was going to finish one of the most gruelling psychological assaults in sport. He was metres away from the finish line, a yellow gate made famous in a Netflix documentary; a race he’d dreamed ...
COMMENTARY:By Murray Horton New Zealand needs to get tough with Israel. It’s not as if we haven’t done so before. When NZ authorities busted a Mossad operation in Auckland 20 years ago, the government didn’t say: “Oh well, Israel has the right to defend itself.” No, it arrested, prosecuted, ...
NEWSMAKERS:By Vijay Narayan, news director of FijiVillage Blessed to be part of the University of Fiji (UniFiji) faculty to continue to teach and mentor those who want to join our noble profession, and to stand for truth and justice for the people of the country. I was privileged to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Three weeks from now, some of us will be presented with a mountain of budget papers, and just about all of us will get to hear about them on radio, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dan Lowry, Ice Sheet & Climate Modeller, GNS Science Hugh Chittock/Antarctica New Zealand, CC BY-SA As the climate warms and Antarctica’s glaciers and ice sheets melt, the resulting rise in sea level has the potential to displace hundreds of millions of ...
The government's plan to reintroduce a three strikes regime is being strongly opposed by lawyers, who argue there is no evidence it reduces crime or helps people rehabilitate. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dan Jerker B. Svantesson, Professor specialising in Internet law, Bond University Do Australian courts have the right to decide what foreign citizens, located overseas, view online on a foreign-owned platform? Anyone inclined to answer “yes” to this question should perhaps also ask ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Giovanni E Ferreira, NHMRC Emerging Leader Research Fellow, Institute of Musculoskeletal Health, University of Sydney Last week in a post on X, owner of the platform Elon Musk recommended people look into disc replacement if they’re experiencing severe neck or back pain. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Hayward, Emeritus Professor of Public Policy, RMIT University anek.soowannaphoom/Shutterstock NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey caught the headlines yesterday, courtesy of a blistering speech condemning the latest GST carve-up. New South Wales, he claimed, would be A$11.9 billion worse off over the ...
While police are "broadly in favour", the government's proposed anti-gang laws are facing pushback from lawyers, rights groups and former gang members. ...
While police are "broadly in favour", the government's proposed anti-gang laws are facing pushback from lawyers, rights groups and former gang members. ...
By Miriam Zarriga in Port Moresby Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has arrived at Kokoda Station, Northern province, at the start of his state visit to Papua New Guinea. Both Albanese and Prime Minister James Marape will meet with the locals and the Northern Provincial government before they begin their ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Chris Wallace, Professor, School of Politics Economics & Society, Faculty of Business Government & Law, University of Canberra Shutterstock An important principle was invoked by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese last week in defence of the government’s Future Made in Australia industry ...
By Patrick Decloitre, RNZ Pacific correspondent French Pacific desk Security forces reinforcements were sent from France ahead of two rival marches in the capital Nouméa today, at the same time and only two streets away one from the other. One march, called by Union Calédonienne party (a component of the ...
A poll last August found that just 16% of New Zealanders oppose bringing back the ‘Three Strikes’ law. The nationwide poll of 1,000 New Zealanders was commissioned by Family First NZ and carried out by Curia Market Research. ...
The solo show from Ana Scotney is both sprawling and intimate, and a must-see, writes Mad Chapman. In the opening moments of Scattergun: After the Death of Rūaumoko, writer and performer Ana Scotney lays out the groundwork, literally. Silently moving around the square stage, Scotney is not so much dancing ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Burridge, Professor of Linguistics, Monash University Who makes the words? Why are trees called trees and why are shoes called shoes and who makes the names? – Elliot, age 5, Eltham, Victoria Good question Elliot! Let’s start with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Duckett, Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice and Primary Care, The University of Melbourne at amRawpixel.com/Shutterstock Roles of health professionals are still unfortunately often stuck in the past. That is, before the ...
COMMENTARY:By Malcolm Evans Last week’s leaked New York Times staff directive, as to what words can and cannot be used to describe the carnage Israel is raining on Palestinians, is proof positive, since those reports are published verbatim here in New Zealand, that our understanding of the conflict is ...
In the case of New Zealand, the results confirm that there is no popular support for the vicious austerity program being imposed by the National Party-led government, which is backed in all fundamental respects by the opposition Labour Party. ...
The ‘Vampire’ singer has never visited our part of the world, but that might all be about to change. We assess the evidence.Olivia Rodrigo’s Guts World Tour is pulling in massive crowds as it whips around the US and Europe, even helping to catapult regular supporting act Chappell Roan ...
Testing of drinking water in rural Canterbury over the weekend by Greenpeace revealed that several public town supplies were reaching levels of nitrate above 5 mg/L - the threshold which a growing body of scientific evidence has linked to increased ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rohan Fisher, Information Technology for Development Researcher, Charles Darwin University It may come as a surprise to hear 2023 was Australia’s biggest bushfire season in more than a decade. Fires burned across an area eight times as big as the 2019–20 Black ...
Responding to the Government’s announcement of changes to resource management laws, Taxpayers’ Union Executive Director, Jordan Williams, said: “These changes are a step in the right direction in terms of removing ideological and unworkable ...
More than two years after the Human Rights Council called for the establishment of a national human rights commission, such a body has yet to be formed. ...
Comment:An emergency management system with wide variations in performance, significant capability gaps, funding shortfalls and above all a setup that is not meeting the needs of New Zealanders at times of crisis. The Government’s inquiry into the response to Cyclone Gabrielle and other severe weather events in the North ...
Welcome to the whirring wonders of one brain trying to align its actions with its beliefs within a system it thinks is evil. My brain has been spiralling in a woke conundrum ever since I found out a bookshop I’ve never been to was shutting down. Good Books, a bookshop ...
We repeat our call for criminal justice policy to be based on evidence, something the three strikes regime neglects to recognise – with no evidence that it either reduces crime or assists with rehabilitation. ...
By Koroi Hawkins, RNZ Pacific editor in Honiara With only four more seats in the 50-member Parliament yet to be officially declared, there is no outright winner in the Solomon Islands elections. As of Monday, the two largest blocs in the winner’s circle, independents and the incumbent Prime Minister Manasseh ...
Two/fiftyseven is a multi-purpose space hidden in the heart of Wellington that is paving a way for sustainable building and responsible landlording in Aotearoa and beyond.By 2060 the world is predicted to double its entire building stock, which equates to building an entire New York City every 34 days, ...
Popstars wasn’t just a reality television revolution, it was also a huge moment for Y2K fashion.It’s 25 years since girl group TrueBliss was formed on New Zealand national television, breaking new ground for both the reality television industry and the shiny clothing industry. With the first episode on NZ ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christopher Pepping, Associate Professor in Clinical Psychology, Griffith University Marvin / Shutterstock Are all single people insecure? When we think about people who have been single for a long time, we may assume it’s because single people have insecurities that make ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By William Geary, Lecturer in Quantitative Ecology & Biodiversity Conservation, The University of Melbourne Trismegist san, Shutterstock Landscapes that have escaped fire for decades or centuries tend to harbour vital structures for wildlife, such as tree hollows and large logs. But these ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rebecca Gladstone-Gallagher, Lecturer in Marine Science, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau Shutterstock/S Curtis Why are we crossing ecological boundaries that affect Earth’s fundamental life-supporting capacity? Is it because we don’t have enough information about how ecosystems respond to change? Or ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Matthew Crocker, PhD Student in Economics, Deakin University Here’s something for the board of the Reserve Bank of Australia to ponder as it meets next month to set interest rates. It has pushed up rates on 13 occasions since it began its ...
As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a charity director outlines how she’s saving for retirement and buying secondhand. Want to be part of The Cost of Being? Fill out the questionnaire here.Gender: Female Age: 45 Ethnicity: Pākehā Role: Charity director, mum of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sophie Yates, Research Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Many Australians with disability feel on the edge of a precipice right now. Recommendations from the disability royal commission and the NDIS review were released late last year. Now a ...
It’s been called a failed experiment and a judicial straightjacket but the government says the revised three strikes law will be a more workable regime, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. Three ...
New Zealand’s Palestinian community and Palestinian Youth Aotearoa are voicing alarm and disappointment with the lack of factual rigour present during the Israeli Ambassador’s appearance as a guest on TVNZ’s Q+A With Jack Tame Sunday (21/04). ...
Both ACT leader David Seymour, who played a key role in drawing up the assisted dying law, and hospice leaders say it's time the legislation was changed. ...
Public submissions on proposed gang control laws are being heard today. Rising gang membership has been cited as rationale for a crackdown – but what do we actually know about how many people belong to gangs in New Zealand?What’s all this then?A rise in the number of gang ...
Climate activists are setting their sights on an unpopular target, and hoping to bring lots of the public with them. It’s hard to miss the Majestic Princess: the enormous cruise ship, docked at Auckland’s Prince’s Wharf, looms over the nearby buildings. The ship, which can fit nearly 6,000 people, ...
Opinion: Making sure developers, local and central government, and landowners are all on the same page makes sense The post A new kind of city deal appeared first on Newsroom. ...
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The following korero between Ngāhuia te Awekōtuku, author of the newly published memoir Hine Toa, one of the year’s most important books, and Dale Husband from e-tangata, was first published in October. It traverses her involvement with the activist group Ngā Tamatoa at Auckland University in the early 1970s, her ...
In the 16 years since it was bought by the government for $690 million, KiwiRail has had several overhauls and turnaround plans worth billions of dollars. Its ambitions as a successful, profitable operator of tourism, freight and ferries have often been derailed by disasters from earthquakes to cyclones, mine explosions ...
With the Chinese economy looking like it is recovering a bunch faster than that of the United States and Europe, New Zealand needs a fresh wave of highly connected, wealthy, democratically-minded Chinese to immigrate here.
We should open our doors to those in Hong Kong who want to flee the brutal new Security Law that is requiring most of the human rights groups to shut their social media accounts, destroying the last vestiges of resistance to Xi Jinping's endlessly tightening totalitarianism.
Who knows, perhaps some of those pro-democracy protesters could come in under refugee status now that as of today New Zealand has increased its refugee intake to 1,500.
Auckland and New Zealand generally need a fresh generation of bilingual speakers to provide entrepeneurship, capital and cultural diversity to redouble that which they brought here in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
And it would be a great example for New Zealand to stand on the world stage and be proud as a democratic, open society by opening their doors to those of Hong Kong who wish to come and who qualify.
It's all dirty money though, isn't it. That's what cause the housing crisis in the first place so going back there can't be a good idea.
Racist much? Hardly just Hong Kong citizens who drove house prices upward.
Ad’s made a worthwhile point, and a stand In support of a nations democratic right
Let's sacrifice the poor and send even more Kiwis into the precariat so that we can boost our property portfolios. While claiming a cloak of virtue.
All money is dirty. Everything in the money-system is dirty.
Tell them this:
Welcome home.
"All money is dirty", but some monies are more dirty than others.
Yes.., and perhaps we could embrace Drury's idea and start building luxury homes for these downtrodden 'elites' in a place like Queenstown. That would be the kind thing to do and it would also help our construction sector…
The natural place for Hong Kong expats is Auckland – that's where Mandarin and Cantonese communities are already very strong. We sure need to keep our construction workers engaged here.
Aahh..good ol' Ad, King of the short term thinkers..guess thats why he is such a avid supporter of this neoliberal centrist freemarket Labour, yep they really are made for each other.
Good to see you're standing with the hard-right Trumpites and European xenophobes.
Chinese have been here for over a century and have proven to be an exceedingly hard-working, productive and culturally rich addition to New Zealand.
We are effectively in a 1946 moment, and it's about to roil the entire world.
This is where the real left get to stand up for people.
Er plenty of migrants have been hard working and productive. Should we assign particular characteristics to a race country or ethnic group?
I think Ad may be outside the box that you are in Adrian. He is just being pragmatic. We have to try and manage our way out of the mess that we are in. Just black and white solutions are not suitable, what is the right medicine for our illness, in the right amount. The problem is that we may not be able to control the amount of medicine and how often taken.
Proposing a stupid idea that will likely bring harm is not pragmatic.
ATM, that means leaving our borders closed.
Lets just hang on a bit, we already have 1 million Kiwis with an automatic right to walk right in and a fair few of them are thinking of doing just that. Can we even accommodate them even if only 250,000 came without real housing and job problems.
Think of what they can do for our GDP. It has been our national (lower case) MO for years. How to grow the economy? More milk powder and more immigrants. Keeps the wages down and unemployment up. Sell a few SOE’s, give middle NZ a tax cut and raise GST, and Bob’s your uncle. Home owners have been creaming it. Apparently, farmers are now having an anal aneurism because the Greens had the temerity of proposing a wealth tax; over their dead
animalsbodies.https://www.stats.govt.nz/news/net-migration-high-but-down-from-peak
Let's bring back estate duty and stamp duty too and spread that tax burden fairly over the country on a percentage basis. That would be a case where percentages are fair for the poorer people, they always work from a base sum. Estate duty should be also on deemed portions in trusts, valued at present valuation, or at part of those market prices before a present slump.
There is no reason that three-year marriages should result in good payouts to partners, but the tax department can be always a bridesmaid and never a bride when it comes to getting a proportion of the loot built up on the reasonable reliability of this country’s laws and stability.
And an interesting piece in stuff on some of the australian crowd who make up potential returnees. About two thirds are potential returnees and I feel sympathy for persons 1 and 3 who appear to have left after being slugged by over competition in entry level employee markets and the low wage economy here.
Person 3 was more interesting. The NZ passport was a second passport and I estimate that out of a 30 year working life around 14 years had been spent here and 9 years in Australia. The net cash assets from this work life appeared to be around $100k (low?) and no mention of property ownership. It was not clear if an australian passport had ever been applied for. Now he is thinking of returning (to collect our welfare I assume) along with an american wife who appears to have never set foot in New Zealand. They could of course choose to return to the UK or the USA
I can't help feeling there is something very wrong with this scenario and we are allowing ourselves to be taken for a ride..
And yes I do know about the work issues under the Clark government and no at the time I did not approve of the decision.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/300045314/homeward-bound-struggling-kiwis-in-oz
[Link fixed]
Ad:
I don't want to be unkind but Auckland is basically a slum with high-rise buildings and a small elite that desperately holds on to yesteryears way of society strata. Hardy a place that screams value, democracy, planning, equality, etc….
Those who are used to that environment will not find anything wrong with it. Naturally.
It'd certainly bring in the Yankee dollar
Heh. Indeed.
I realise Ad is trolling, but "wealthy, democratically-minded" is probably an unconscious oxymoron on his part. The rich will always use their wealth to influence the democratic process and tip the table in their direction. The best immigrants for the long term health of a society are highly technically skilled (i.e. not 'business skills') and not wealthy. And if we go into the contents of their minds at all, we might want to add 'equality' and ' environmentally' to 'democratically'.
It really is possible to walk and chew gum at the same time.
We need to dust off our histories of 1946. The worldwide migration this is going to force is going to make the post-Syrian European crisis look like a Mollie Woppie picnic.
I too assumed Ad was trolling – if only because he is suggesting that the "poor and huddled masses" who did all the hard work around the protests are going to be left behind to suffer. Very democratic not?
Plus I'd imagine that the wealthy have long since organised a bolt hole country. I certainly remember some coming here when Hongkong changed over staying just long enough for one of the couple to score residency, dumping their kids in the local schools and then bolting back to their real life in Hongkong. .
Colonel Comrade might be on the same page with you, he could 'liaise' with the new arrivals on behalf of the government (no, not our government). Just to maintain order.
Hong Kong Chinese – good idea Ad. They are keen, smart, good people, and more likely to be on our wavelength (outdated term) than many fleeing from CCP. Not a whole bunch though please at once, which will be impossible just now but include them by all means at the same time not forgetting to be ethical to other overseas people who have paid already, worked already, want to be NZs and are good ones. So the inevitable happens, we haven't been destroyed yet, and all those who can escape the shit of the big powers see us as a haven. (While many of the boofheads and the sweeties here want to throw that away and find the wealthy wonkers' lifestyles soo glamorous and desirable.)
good news about the refugee numbers.
Would be interesting to see our immigration settings changed to include democratically-minded 😈
I've been thinking along these lines myself, you more or less beat me to it Ad. Hong Kongers are different.
Most kiwis are fairly unaware of how China is not really a single coherent historic or cultural entity. In very broad terms it can be thought of in four major chunks, the bureacratic, military minded Han core in the northern Yellow River plain and centred in Beijing, the merchantile manufacturing minded groups of the Yangtze River represented by Shanghai as the largest city, the southern port cities of Hong Kong, Macau and Xian, and the fourth being the diverse ethnic groups of the central provinces.
The southern cities like Hong Kong were historically geographically isolated from Beijing and looked outward to the wider world, particularly in terms of trade and culture. Many Hong Kongers regard themselves as quite separate from the CCP run mainland and want absolutely nothing to do with it.. The passing of these new Security laws will prompt many to find ways to leave.
I've visited Hong Kong a few times, it’s a highly developed world city, full of surprises. Kiwis should welcome these people, they will bring much of real value with them.
No, we need to settle what we've got into our own culture. Getting more of the same won't help.
Under the Key government heaps of property owners became millionaires overnight. So now Auckland is facing a housing crisis and a water crisis and record inequality. What does resident neoliberal Ad propose? More of the same.
https://twitter.com/DIorioNathaniel/status/1278117381466984448?s=20
I'm with you on this one DTB if Ad is serious. We've had these setting since the 90's and the one thing that really shows out is that our GDP per head has stayed static or gone backwards. Where are the factories and post processing plants and all the other benefits that were supposed to flow? Absolutely non existent.
Frankly for the average live out your life here citizen these policies have made their lives worse. The number of people that take part in a "global" workforce by having multiple passports and residency is tiny and over privileged. Yes houses may have gone up in value but if it's the only one you own then it's used for the basic service of "living in"
Hong Kong protesters would get a shock if they came here or say the UK, because they have better health system in HK They want freedom what, I saw a lot of American flags flying in those protest, a lot of NGO monies like NED funding anti mainland groups, there is more to life than HK dissidents money, no thanks, let them go to granny England or uncle Sam land.
Byd0nz Which group do you belong to that uses acronyms as an in-group – NED? I looked on Wikipedia – guess it doesn't mean No evidence of disease.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NED
Under Organisations.
I guess it is a US term of which I remain as ignorant as they are of democracy. So –
.
Cleangreen might be interested in this one –
"New Engine Desperado", a type of UK railfan, see Glossary of United Kingdom railway terms
The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) is a private, nonprofit foundation dedicated to the growth and strengthening of democratic institutions around the world. Each year, NED makes more than 1,600 grants to support the projects of non-governmental groups abroad who are working for democratic goals in more than 90 countries.
[Fixed typo in user name]
Well we are sure to help that then?
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/in-depth/420210/nz-broke-into-embassies-for-cia-and-mi6
https://williamblum.org/chapters/rogue-state/trojan-horse-the-national-endowment-for-democracy
The classic quote
Yes, read that. About time we opt out of the 5 eyes bullshit that keeps us non independent from the capitalist spy network. Oops, sorry I forgot we are a crapitalist country.
Agree , but instead I think the whole 5eyes thing is ramping up
https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO1710/S00213/five-eyes-governments-on-encryption.htm
You mean not just 5 eyes but ramping up to a ball with feelers like a Covid-19, or a 360o degree surveillance? Or have a dynamic ball chasing us like in Prisoner on tv? Why have only one eye per country – that's so limiting.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6Ffr1U7KMY
I'm pretty sure that the USians should stay out of other people's countries and their governance just like they want others to stay out of theirs.
If they still stick their nose in then they don't get to complain about Russia influencing their politics.
We should take all the doctors, nurses (and some health tech people) and teachers who want to leave (albeit they would be better paid in Oz).
And others in skilled worker areas (albeit …) engineers/construction to IT/finance etc
And the business owners who would base here and pay tax locally on their drawings/dividends from their Hong Kong activities.
Most however will just seek British passports (to be safe) and end citizenship activity. But if China acts against those who choose this route, we might get lucky.
Things might be heating up for the "two guys in a steam bath". Yep, those two guys are Pootee and his fascist-dictator-wannabe puppet. More and more is coming out about Pootee maybe paying bounties being paid on American soldiers, and Marmalardo getting briefed about it and being utterly uninterested.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-putin-approval-calls-us-cnn-steam-bath-a9593111.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nytBEWbwOkw
I'm just loving this Lincoln Project series. Such concision!
The interviews with the Project founders are also excellent.
Such a cornucopia of rich targets.
I'm struggling to come up with any previous example anytime anywhere of a significant national leader being so objectively crap that they have come under this kind of sustained brutal attack across a huge number of topics, from respected senior members of their own party.
I liked Pelosis theory, the intelligence agencies don't tell Trump because Trump would get on the phone and tell Putin.
Bound to be some of that going on. There's going to be a huge amount of fascinating stuff coming out in Darth Drumpfski's post-presidency.
via twitter – didn't he "declassify" a sat photo a while back, at much higher resolution than anything previously released?
Yup. But it really just confirmed informed speculation about what resolution was possible just from the known size of spy satellites. Ie, what can you from a telescope of X diameter (2.4m from memory) orbiting Y kilometres up.
Then there was the time Don Dementia outed Israeli assets to Lavrov and Kislyak while getting all chummy in the Oval Office.
How much is that bounty the US government has out on the Venezuelan president again?
You a fan of the idea that two wrongs make a right, are you? Even in cases such as this, where the tangerine turdgoblin is deeply involved in the genesis of both wrongs?
No, just that for some reason your focusing on the bounty which Trump has sweet FA to do with rather than the one which he (and other members of the US administration including Pelosi) can actually do something about.
Oh, so it's simple whataboutery then. I had thought your cognitive processes had advanced beyond that kind of simple distraction tactic, but evidently not. My bad.
And since the point apparently needs to be spelled out for you in simple terms, the issue is about how Benedict Donald has responded to the possibility of Russia putting a bounty on US soldiers much more than about the bounty itself.
… the possibility of Russia putting a bounty on US soldiers…
You will, of course, be providing evidence of this dastardly crime. Something the entirely anonymous source of this wild and woolly story has yet to do.
We are awaiting your dump of verifiable and irrefutable “good stuff” with great anticipation, my good friend.
Uh, no, that's for those in the intelligence services to do to the satisfaction of their masters, if any follow-up appears likely.
But you too seem to have totally missed the point in your rush to indulge in another one of your displays of public political masturbation. Which is Emperor PalPutin's problematic response to being presented with the intelligence assessment, much more than whether or not the assessment is accurate.
The Taliban dont need outside incentives to kill American soldiers
I have it on impeccable authority that it was Truthful Woodhouse who was the source, so there’s the evidence!
Andre I applaud your word du jour for the orange tambourine – you bring expressive colour into the discourse, and may you do so till he goes to a better place – somewhere in the rust belt where they will treat him to unceasing religious ceremonies and don't believe in building big hotels, and playing with the stock market.
Fair's fair.
https://twitter.com/ihatealexj/status/1277575886028574720
Edit
Hah. Iran was one of the smartest places in the world once, may be again.
https://theconversation.com/irans-cultural-heritage-reflects-the-grandeur-and-beauty-of-the-golden-age-of-the-persian-empire-129413
…the Hellenistic Age. The Macedonian King Seleucus (died 281BC) and his Persian wife Apame ruled a hybrid kingdom that mixed Greek, Persian, Jewish, Bactrian, Armenian, Sogdian and Aramaean cultures and religions.
With new cities, religions and cultures, this melting pot encouraged the rise of a thriving connectivity that linked urban centres in Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan and Syria (where many of the Hellenistic sites (such as Apamea) have been devastated in recent years by war and looting). The great city of Seleucia-on-Tigris/Ctesiphon, just south of Baghdad on the Tigris river in modern Iraq, became the western capital and centre for learning, culture and power for a thousand years…
…The Sasanians ruled a massive geopolitical entity from 224-751AD. They were builders of cities and frontiers across the empire including the enormous Gorgan wall. This frontier wall stretched 195km from the Caspian Sea to the mountains in Turkmenistan and was built in the 5th century AD to protect the Iranian agricultural heartland from northern invaders like the Huns….
Iranian cultural heritage has no one geographic or cultural home, its roots belong to all of us and speak of the vast influence that the Iranians have had on the creation of the world we live in today. Iran’s past could never be wiped off the cultural map of the world for it is embedded in our very humanity.
Could Iran be cleverer than today's western boofheads? Can we wonder why they got enraged at the west messing with them, brazenly killing one of their revered Generals, and previously installing a puppet figurehead – who they eventually abandoned ignominiously? Can we manage our way through to keep our heads above water now? 'We haven't much money so we'll have to think hard' Rutherford said or words to that effect.
Thanks for the informative history lesson Greywarshark, certainly food for thought.
Food for thought. Yes. I am filling my head with new information and it's getting full I think and pass it on in case someone else is interested. I have had an ordinary education and can see it wasn't satisfactory and now think that most of our education is directed away from learning about ourselves, the most important thing. That was said before 1744!
one of the hardest quests in life is knowing yourself and peeling back the layers… good on ya m8
If they can shake off the iron foot of the theocrats, maybe.
In one odd sense the historic Iranian culture could be thought of as the USA of the ancient world, the two have a lot in common, but for quite different reasons.
Iran is geographically different to the USA in every conceivable way, but it all boils down to one factor: populated Iran is a fused, sprawling mountain system. Iran’s Zagros mountain chain fills the country’s entire southwestern third, while the Elburz dominates the northern third. The contemporary capital of Tehran sits on a plateau where the two chains meet. With an average peak elevation of 3000m, the two chains not only force out fairly reliable rainfall, but their valley floors tend to above 1000m. Unlike nearly everywhere else in the region, it actually rains in Iran where people live. Direct rainfall enables agriculture without necessarily requiring irrigation. Lower labor requirements free workers to do other things, like going to school, practicing a trade, composing a poem or waging war. Culture here has roots stretching back five thousand years.
Mountain living has other advantages. Anyone wanting to invade Iran must fight their way uphill into the Persian core and batter through every mountain line. This defensibility shapes Persia’s participation in international affairs. Iran isn’t a destination, but instead a knot of difficult territory that must be bypassed by those in Asia or Europe, it's just too hard to invade and hold. In this it's very much like the USA, it's geography has always made it secure.
Unlike the dozens of city-states and empires that have risen and fallen throughout the Middle East, the Persians have art, history and culture that isn’t short-lived, incidental or fused with foreign practice but instead anchored in millennia of continuity. The Persian language and Persian customs—conservatively—date back hundreds of generations.
But the same geography also forced them to become the first multi-cultural society. Each mountain valley had it's group and identity, making them a very heterogeneous society, but united in one thing … the terrain around them was even worse. This forced them develop an enduring Persian identity from all these disparate parts much earlier than anywhere else in the world.
Located on the Silk Road trade route the medieval Persians managed to sustain a remarkable medieval prosperity, but two things buggered this for them. One was the invention of deep water navigation by the Portuguese, enabling traders to completely bypass them. The other is more subtle; the thousands of mountain valleys and plateaus make internal transport very expensive, and there are few large centers with necessary pre-conditions to support industrialisation.
In many ways it's useful to think of the Persians as an ancient super-power, but one that has been sidelined by history and technology. They retain much of their cultural capital, but the nature of the land they live in has constrained their ability to adapt to the modern world.
A cosmopolitan culture for so long, yet that biodiversity got clamped into a binary theology, and most religious historians derive that of islam & christianity from Zoroaster. Here's non-academic recycling of that view:
Thus the binary syndrome that makes leftists hate Trump. Life is an
Now Abraham came from Ur, where the Akkadian civilisation had recycled the Sumerian pantheon of diverse gods & goddesses. So the Israelites went seriously off the rails in departing from their Hebrew progenitor. Historians who write about this usually blame the acquisition of monotheism from Akhenaton during the Hebrew settlement in the Nile delta centuries. Interesting how cultures long complex can shift into banal simplification!
Thanks Greywarshark, a great follow up of the series "The Silk Road" extract on Zorastrians the Muslims Persia and Iran cultures narrated by Joanna Lumley.
My friend, I have a bridge you might be interested in buying. Where could we meet?
I might be interested. Who did you buy it from and how much did you pay?
so people that are returning are starting to sending in CVs. What are we to tell them?
anyone got any ideas? Other then sorry mate you are overqualified for fruit picking?
Tell them this Sabine:
Welcome home.
yes, welcome home, i hope you have enough money to last 6 – 12 month – cause on unemployment you will not even manage to rent a ditch, let alone eat.
welcome home honey, sadly i can't hire you, we are all gonna be shit outta luck once the wage subsidy subsides.
welcome home you and your whanau, hopefully you are not picky n choosy cause fruit picking might be your best bet, and for your wife/husband and the kids.
welcome home, to what ever you find here waiting for you.
welcome home. You are on your own.
is that what you are talking about Ad?
Ours is now one of the most coherent, intact, and functioning civil societies on earth.
It's good if they brought money with them – and they usually bring it in by the truckload. That's why they went overseas in the first place.
The newcomers wont be picking fruit. More than likely our children will be.
Exactly. The returnees will fall roughly into three categories.
There was about 50,000 kiwis travelling short term, most of whom have gotten home, but there will be still a few who have been stuck in odd places who have not yet been able to organise a flight for one reason or another.
About 200,000 kiwis in Australia do not qualify for any support there. Eventually a fair fraction of them will be forced to return if they do not have secure jobs. Probably about 50% of them over the next six months. Most will be younger adults and will likely return to family here, but not a lot of other prospects.
Another large and hard to qualify chunk will be ex-pats who have been living and working all around the world. Many will have been earning a good income, and would return with capital and experience. How many is very hard to guess, because their decision points will all be unique based on their circumstances, but I would guess maybe another 100,000 or so over the next few years. A lot depends of just how turbulent the world becomes in that period.
New Zealand can cope with this.
interesting post redlogix. already people in the third category are spending money. houses are being bought and renovations happening at my beach, by cashed up kiwis returning. my real estate colleague confirms that sales and prices are up, mainly driven by incoming cash. dont think we are going to need to selloff any more kiwi citizenships for a while.
The internationalistas
A fair few will be those who can do their work from anywhere in the world, and will return still employed in their current jobs. Safe trumps cosmopolitan for the next few years.
Others will become self employed contractors living here but applying for international jobs they can do on-line. Others will run on-line businesses and or offer themselves as consultants to local business in their industry sector.
Some will simply take the jobs that have been going to skilled migrants.
Some will simply spend a year holidaying here, or doing a post grad course, where it is safe.
As for the Oz Kiwi crowd who return, hopefully a lot are into construction/roading and building and truck driving – younger adults back to home with parents are ideal for seasonal work (camper van).
Then there are the jobs that semi-skilled migrants – couriers/service stations/IT/Chorus connections have been doing.
50,000 migrants coming in, not. The lack of 100,000 students this year eases the hospitality sector downturn impact on employment.
Yes dear, also Lol. Lol. Lol.
No they left in the first place because they could not get any jobs here. Cause the one thing NZ sucks are really is the creation of good jobs, future proof jobs with a pay above min wage that would allow them to pay life and student loans.
And now they are back here with no jobs, no real chance to get a job, and most of them don't come with truck loads of money because were ever they lived before they did so on a regular wage paying regular things like food, rent, insurance etc etc etc.
But yeah, nah nah, quite a few of them will do what ever they can as 250$ per week un-employemnt is too little to live and too much to die on. And so far i have yet to see a proposal from any of the empty suits to raise this to the level of the wage subsidy so as to prevent further hardship and misery. And i don't expect to see anything meaningful about unemployment to come anytime soon.
As for us being the Nr. 1, our wage subsidies are still keeping many afloat. Take that away and see what happens to our Society when you have somewhere between 10 – 20% unemployment (certain regions even higher – and i am being very charitable with the numbers as i would expect them to go into the high 20s low 30s) who can neither pay food or rent on the current benefit levels.
The current projection is unemployment at 9% below the original projection of 10%.
Some tourism economy regions of course will be around 20% – the question will be how many of those are residents/citizens and entitled to benefit support
think unemployment will turn out to be a bitter disappointment for the nats.
some tourism areas will be well above that.
There is a reason why the wage subsidy was extended – i think they call this flattening the curve.
I love all that pie in the sky wishful thinking. What ever gets people trhough the day.
But i will make sure to tell the people that are sending me their unsolicited CVs that they can just declare themselves contractors to get some 'work from home' jobs, or that they just start working in roading/building (skills and training is for suckahs), or that they just do a year living in a Van (Freedom camping with the whole family is fun 🙂 ) and so on and so forth.
the real number of unemployment will be known when the wage subsidy runs out and is replaced with nothing. Until then, you have no numbers to throw about.
the takeaway from this thread (apart from preparing for community resilience) is that worker rights is a big priority. If Ad and his peers' children end up fruit picking, best make sure they have better wages and work conditions than the economic migrants and working holiday crowd have had up until now. Fruit picking is honest work, about time we made it good work too.
While I don't know the profit margins involved, and with exports in 2019 worth $6.2B – An increase of $720M, and an industry valued at $9.5B, out of principle I wouldn't go fruit picking until the wages for the hard grafting workers reflected their real worth and value to the horticulture big boys.
New Zealand horticulture exports grow to $6.2 billion
Your reply was to a misrepresentation of what I wrote. Not your best work.
As to unemployment figures, prepared to make a bet?
They send in a Grainne Moss CV… https://www.newsroom.co.nz/1248845/get-your-handbag-its-not-going-to-be-pleasant …problem solved.
Yep ……….. As I just sent to Bradbury's Open Mike:
Just another example of how good people get shat on in our neo-liberal public service
http://www.newsroom.co.nz/1270488/the-brave-new-world-of-oranga-tamariki
All the good intentions in the world result in SFA
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/sunday/audio/201845427/hoani-jeremy-lambert-listening-to-our-kids
Jeremy looks pretty intense in that Newsroom photo.
Sweet fuck all indeed.
I wandered over to Newsroom for the link and found part 2…became so engrossed I damn near neglected my other duties.
Why the hell Moss is still there….I reckon this issue warrants it's own post.
PS…I have never heard of NUPE until today. Why is that?
Interesting that she was A tolley appointee (against advice).
Yes it was an engrossing read.
Tolley or Bennet?
When Moss was appointed, then Minister for Vulnerable Children Anne Tolley (pictured) dismissed questions in the media over whether she was the right person for the job. Photo: Lynn Grieveson
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/the-brave-new-world-of-oranga-tamariki
"The panel convened by Rennie to make the decision was an all-Pākehā lineup: deputy State Services Commissioner Debbie Power, secretary of education Peter Hughes"
Two of the creators of the highly toxic environment at WINZ – beggars belief that the current government (naively maybe) put anyone from that era of management back in there – or actually maybe it doesn't considering some of their actions to date towards the poorest in society – not increasing benefits as per the WEAG recommendations, making the homeless pay 25% of their benefit to pay for their motel rooms, getting rid of including underage partners in superannuation – all those things make poor peoples lives harder. I can see why she would appeal to them both – cut from the same managerial mould/(mold?). Fits nicely with the earlier comments about the managerial class that were made.
yeah, nah nah, not relevant at all to what i asked – the people sending me CVs have not lost jobs for bullying and chances are will not be hired for their bullying nature.
they are ordinary people who have come home to nothing much, if anything at all.
Sorry Sabine. You wrote "CV" and I'm afraid that forever those two letters will pull that image of Moss' CV into my mind.
What to do with the returning sons and daughters who thought their best futures were Overseas?
Sadly, not all will be of the 'highly trained and qualified in a specialist field' group that seem to have the welcome mat laid out. I'm not entirely convinced of the essentiality of making movies about virtual blue folk, but I do see the necessity of having experts dealing with the leaking shit pipes in Wellington.
So those who can't be gainfully employed in one of the multibillion dollar projects announced by Our Leaders over the past few weeks will have to 'pivot', I believe is the current parlance, and broaden their horizons or lower their expectations.
And perhaps consider voting for the Green party and their ending poverty policy.
Because it would go a long way towards mending the safety net.
If someone with a PhD in particle physics applies for an honestly advertised minimum wage casual job as a cleaner…hire them. Or not.
'pivot' has become so passe @Rosemary – everybody is pivoting and they need something new. There is a new word on the horizon. Forgot where I heard it, but immediately I did, "ultimately" I knew it'd become the new normal going forward (in that space).
"so"…….. the best creds for something like the position of OT CEO could be experience as a used car salesman, as long as you make it clear you're also "passionate" about what you do, AND "compassionate".
On the other hand, as Anne Tolley has reckons, being a mother might be sufficient, although I'm not sure how the likes of Jeremy Lambert could ever aspire to such an exceptional position of CEO of OT
Art is essential because it tends to reflect us.
Most likely not. People who are over-qualified for a job don't get employed for that job and if there aren't any jobs around for what they're qualified for then they end up as long term unemployed. Its one of the ways that our present system wastes its people.
Oh, I don't know. I'd pay a wee bit extra for a Thesis in Three with my double shot mocha.
Fruit picking season has been and gone in our region.
I hear farmers are in demand should they wish to farm.
anyone can be a farmer? Great. I will tell people to just be a farmer, i was told they are in high demand. lol.
There are already training programs underway
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/121989572/slow-start-to-35m-course-setup-to-fill-1000-vacant-dairy-jobs
Miss 15 wants to sign up when she is a bit older, it looks fantastic.
tell them the truth. Tell them that we have no idea what NZ will be like in 12 months time, or the world. We might be ok-ish (think high unemployment but a still functioning economy). Or we might be in the middle of a major GFC and our main concern is to have enough food for the coming year. Or something in between, which is probably worse than the first two.
I'd suggest learning how to grow protein and carb crops if they don't already know. Also, get to know your neighbours and be kind to them. And get to know the people in your community that know how to build resilient communities and have been practicing this.
Yep, unemployment and not enough income sucks. That's been true for too many for too long already. Best we learn, fast, how to do things differently.
Also, tell them to vote Green.
I told my kiwi friends that so long as they can stay overseas, i .e . still have their visas and jobs to stay overseas. Keep distance, wear a mask, shower in sanitizer and stay where you are. Nothing much to come here for unless you have oodles of cash which the people that i know overseas don't have. They went overseas in the first place because unemployment and under employment in NZ sucks and they were lucky enough to find employment elsewhere.
But to pretend that we are not going to have issues with high number of unemployment , people without the capacity to pay rent and food is foolish imo, and it seems that a lot of people like to rather be foolish then look at the world as it is. And maybe some people just hope that we can pretend it ain't that bad, (as generally it is done) but i doubt this time around we can.
I read your post on the greens, and frankly it is neither bold nor future orientated. (again, the socialist in me is finding both the Greens and Labour timid in their approach)
The one things the wage subsidy has shown us in NZ is that it is the minimum one needs to 'live', not extravagantly but just subsistence level. So again the unemployment min income proposed by the Greens is already 150$ short at the very least. For 320 you may find a rental, but you wont' be eating, nor paying electricity nor food. So redundant. If this is not the time to talk honestly about what it costs to simply stay alive (food, shelter, warmth) then it will never be the time. As for growing food, lol. We might want to stop pretending that we are not in a country wide drought for a start. Water is vital to growing food, and in certain parts of the country water is an expensive good. Growing food is for those that have homes, stable homes. Growing a tomato in a pot is a nice supplement, but you don't want to try to survive on it.
So i really really hope that someone in our government will finally just be bold. If only for a refreshing change.
As for telling people how to vote, i won't. Never did, never will. I don't believe that parties lead, its the people that bring about the changes. The suits will follow when they have to and not a minute before.
thanks for a considerate answer tho, i was wondering if anyone here still gave a shit about others.
Though lifting the rates must go hand in hand with rent controls otherwise increase just become a revenue source for landlords. Even the US has rent controls in most places e.g. restrictions on how much you can increase rent on your rental property in a year – even when tenants change.
Maybe it's the difference in perspective for those of us that were locked out of the 'getting ahead' economy decades ago. It's not that I don't have empathy for people losing their jobs, it's more that I think the solution to that isn't to try and make things like they were before only better. If people still want a big house and a late model car and a new smart phone and an overseas holiday every year, sorry, but the ecologies we are utterly dependent upon just can't sustain that.
$325/wk is a minimum guaranteed income. Not a maximum, and there is no suggestion that this is what people should live on. You appear to have fundamentally misunderstood the policy.
Not recognising the radical and bold approach to disabled people in the policy is hardly surprising. Working people are the really important ones right? Who cares if the Greens are proposing to stop treating disabled people like third class citizens and give them a substantial increase income as well as a dedicated income support department of their own.
Growing tomatoes is not growing protein and carb crops. If you don't understand this, and who grows food in NZ and how and why, maybe take the time to learn. Not everyone has to grow food, those that can should. Not all of those people own or rent land they can garden on. If we think unemployment is bad wait until we're wondering where our years supply of food is going to come from.
Yes, parliament follows us, but we still need them to enact laws. Like minimum wages and work conditions, benefit rates and so on.
Drought in NZ is largely a human created disaster (I don't mean climate change, but local land use practices). We don't have a country-wide drought, we have water shortages in some places because humans are too stupid to adopt the systems and tech that already exist to farm/garden regeneratively and with respect for water as part of nature. Humans have been growing food for tens of thousands of years in places with lower rainfall than NZ has currently. It's not rocket science, we are just ideologically blind.
Exactly Weka
Just like there is wealth enough to go around if its equitably distributed, there's enough water if its not squandered in non essential car washes etc
Community gardens are a valuable and initial step in providing food and building community.
We really do need to have a different mind set , insread of weeping and wailing we need to get in and start doing and helping where we can
6 months paid parental leave, starting today.
Top work Labour.
Come on you post-lockdown couples, get to work.
They're so fucked.
https://twitter.com/BLaw/status/1278000620214063109
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem says the thousands of people who attend the July 3 celebration for Independence Day at Mount Rushmore with President Donald Trump will not be required to practice social distancing despite an increase in coronavirus cases across the country.
"We will have a large event at July 3rd. We told those folks that have concerns that they can stay home, but those who want to come and join us, we'll be giving out free face masks, if they choose to wear one. But we will not be social distancing," Noem, a Republican, said in an interview Monday night on Fox News' "The Ingraham Angle."
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/s-dakota-gov-noem-says-we-will-not-be-social-n1232507
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRRR-exVhs4&feature=youtu.be
Pro-life repugs got their death panels.
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https://twitter.com/stevenspohn/status/1278096633406906369
Has the guy in the image got an alien in his neck? He doesn't sound as if he'd be glad to see one though.
It's a tracheostomy tube.
https://twitter.com/stevenspohn/status/1071127811484737536
http://stevespohn.com/
Edit
http://stevespohn.com/rebooting-your-life/
Rebooting Your Life: 6 Steps You Can Follow to Find a New You
He has found a way to get over that problem for the time, and take other along on the road with him. He sounds like a Forrest Gump character – giving other people a boost as well as himself.
He is advocating for himself and others in need of compassion, and has a website and the heading above tells about his ideas for 6 mins I think. I didn't read it because I'm in the elderly group and at present is trying to reboot my democracy and everybody's life, mine being on the end of the plank. I have my own version and just give some ideas here and around as I go about just keeping the old you in good repair, with some time for appreciation of what good you do already have.
(You can see I have just been rereading Pollyanna, who is glad, very glad about the good things that happen and she manages to pass that on. Honestly, I have just been reading it – what was the mindset of people going through hard times in the past I asked myself? Pollyanna's we know. Another seems to keep on, to relate to others and help yourself and others.)
Darwinism at work.
When Jock Anderson and Mihi Forbes agree that Jacinda has it exactly right re the border and Covid19, as they did on The Panel last night, National should be very scared. Anderson is notoriously conservative.
Anderson is also old – and maybe has a sense of his vulnerability to Covid. Meanwhile Muller demonstrates in recent interviews that his leadership style is to demand a type of impossible clairvoyance from his subordinates – insisting that there must be a plan (with timings) for an unknowable future.
Talking to the 18 yr old in the house last night. He is a tad over what he perceives to be the highly sensitive nature of folk concerning comedy and racism. Part of this is finding his own way with leaving home and being with a building crew and their conservative attitudes.
I mentioned 'punching-up' with comedy rather than down.
I want to give a shout out to Mihingarangi Forbes for her explanation around blackface.
In the context of Chris Lilley and his character Jonah from Tonga. She said that a Tongan teen/adolescent's stories are for a Tongan teen/adolescent to tell. When Chris Lilley occupies that space, there isn't room for a Tongan teen to be.
This helps me understand Brotown, in that the stories are for Kightley, Fane etc to tell.
Still a bit lost about Super City, Madeline Sami 'whitefacing' for a couple of her characters Linda and Ray. I figure it is about Pakeha being the dominant culture.
So should we reinterpret tv shows like Fawlty Towers, The Office and Little Britain as not successful comedy, but simply unfunny and offensive to too many groups of people..?
I can't see that happening. People need to laugh at themselves, the Greeks were doing similar comedy thousands of years ago.
Of course it's still successful comedy. Some of it is brilliant.
But things like brownface are at best an intelligent, sensitive comedian having more opportunity to appropriate the expression of a minority experience (albeit in a sympathetic manner) than someone in that actual demographic has to express their own experience in mainstream media. It doesn't make it unfunny. It does raise the question "why not someone who didn't need the makeup?"
The Fawlty thing is slightly different – I suspect recognition of the full harm that language causes makes it over-egg the effect they were going for. Audiences change over time, words change meaning, gain or lose emphasis. It's that sort of situation, imo.
I think of the Carry On movies I watched as a kid , hopelessly unfunny now .They
relied on repressed sexuality,stereotypes about women and homosexuality and provided "naughty" thrills.
Viewed now on vintage TV they are just puzzling, but a great social history lesson
What could possibly go wrong in a country where everybody and their dog has a weapon of war.
https://twitter.com/ThePlumLineGS/status/1277974548441214976
http://archive.li/kpQgS
I read a few years ago that English is a second language for more that 50% of the population. Spanish a high proportion of first language. If so perhaps the White folk are nervous?
PS World: Of the approximately 1.5 billion people who speak English, less than 400 million use it as a first language. That means over 1 billion speak it as a secondary language
Looking at where english is the dominant language, there's the US(330M) UK(67M) Canada(37M) Oz(25M) plus rats and mice. So yeah, less than 400M worldwide being english-first speakers is plausible. The vast majority of those are in the US, then UK.
The idea of english being a second language for more than 50% of the US population is utterly implausible. Non-hispanic whites alone are 60%, and even the majority of non-whites will be US born or arrived at an early age so grew up speaking english as their primary language.
There may be some large pockets where english is a second language for more than half the residents – Puerto Rico being the largest example, but no doubt there's some fairly large pockets along the southern border.
But maybe that comment was just some snark from a UK pedant.
2017 stats in wikipedia say english well out in front in USA.
All that is true Andre that English is the most spoken. Not sure if it covers those who speak say Spanish first but have to speak English to survive. Anyway I surrender.
Nervous about being a minority because they know just how poorly minorities are treated, or something?
The question of Māori representation on the New Plymouth District Council is being debated again. But the debate all went pear-shaped with the representatives of all people should have their say at the NPDC Te Huinga Taumatua iwi committee meeting.
Poet and activist Sonya Taylor, shouted down from the gallery "racists do not deserve a fair say." The meeting was adjourned while she left the chamber. As she left she noted "Racism getting a fair say is why the oppression of Māori folks has been what it has been up to this point,"
Recall 2014 when then Mayor Andrew Judd called himself a recovering racist and supported the Māori ward proposal. And in this day and age, who wouldn't?
Well, the answer is here:
"… the move was overturned in 2015 when a citizen-initiated referendum voted against it by 21,000 votes to 4285."
The accusation of structural racism is well-founded given the only CIR that is legally binding on the NPDC is the question of Māori representation and this situation exists nowehere else in the country.
Credit to the NPDC that they're trying to get this law removed, but hey there's not going to be much support for that it seems.
Utterly shameful.
Well, as someone who did actually vote for at least one Maori candidate to the NPDC last time, I see that 5:1 ratio as a consequence of historical inertia. Take a look at this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_marae_in_Taranaki
Notice how the only marae in the city itself is in the outlying suburb of Bell Block – separated from the city proper by miles of countryside. There are three in/around Waitara a few miles further to the east, then just one each in Oakura & Inglewood a few miles to the west & south. Compare that to the list of maraes in south Taranaki to see the huge difference!
This population distribution is due to the original NZ company settlement in the year of the treaty, plus the genocide a generation earlier in which local tribes here were cleaned out by an invasion from Waikato tribes.
That structural racism doesn't accord with the dictionary definition (tacit, not overt) but I agree it does need to be flagged. A suitable political basis for that would be comparative analysis to maori representation in councils elsewhere – if that has been done on a treaty/quota basis. I've no idea what basis the protestors are using…
Many cities have a tenth set aside as fair from the takeover of land from Maori. They retained a tenth and that gives them their land by right or the right to have an argument if it starts being encroached on.
Taranaki got taken over by farmers and the Hawera blackface mentality is a carry-through. I don't know what era they are in, in their minds. Somewhere between post World War 2 and 1984 I'd say. Since then it's all been too confusing and there is a desire to retire to past highlights and memorials.
Yes, it's noticable to this day how proportionately-few Maori reside in New Plymouth compared to the rest of the district.
"a consequence of historical inertia"
Historical inertia alongside historical and current racism. People actually had to get themselves out of their chairs to instigate and vote in that referendum.
Structural racism can refer "to the ideologies, practices, processes, and institutions that operate at the macro level to produce and reproduce differential access to power and to life opportunities along racial and ethnic lines… embedded in societal-level institutions, policies, and practices"
I believe that definition covers what is going on with this.
"A suitable political basis for that would be comparative analysis to maori representation in councils elsewhere"
The articls states legally binding CIR only for Maori representation is unique to a NPDC. Even if the council and Maori agree on a representation model as in 2014. The people can vote it down. That's not a racist council, it's a racist act by the population.
[Fixed typo in e-mail address]
Russiagate’s Last Gasp
One can read this most recent flurry of Russia, Russia, Russia paid the Taliban to kill GIs as an attempt to pre-empt the findings into Russiagate’s origins….
https://consortiumnews.com/2020/06/29/ray-mcgovern-russiagates-last-gasp/
Of course the Taliban story was mindlessly parroted by RNZ this morning…seems as if fake news is fine at most mainstream news outlets just as long as it supports ones own narrative…no need for pesky things like…gasp! evidence or credible named sources.
Thanks Adrian
For others, tl;dr?
“The intelligence assessment is said to be based at least in part on interrogations of captured Afghan militants and criminals.”
(my bold)
"How much of an unprincipled whore do you have to be to call yourself a journalist and uncritically parrot the completely unsubstantiated assertions of spooks while protecting their anonymity? How much work did these empire fluffers put into killing off every last shred of their dignity?
It really is funny how the most influential news outlets in the Western world will uncritically parrot whatever they’re told to say by the most powerful and depraved intelligence agencies on the planet, and then turn around and tell you without a hint of self-awareness that Russia and China are bad because they have state media."
Thanks, Brigid. Very good point. Our 'independent, privately-owned' press sometimes turns out to be even more bigoted and biased – but this must never be admitted.
Russiagate, that consumptive and sickly monstrosity conjured up from an ill-advised and disastrous mating of rogue CIA operatives and the discredited far right of the Democratic Party, is still wheezing and sputtering along, as can be seen by clicking on Comment No. 2 posted on this page at 8:41 a.m. today.
Russian agents offering bounties on US soldiers …why would they do that ?
https://www.newsweek.com/total-f-russian-mercenaries-syria-lament-us-strike-killed-dozens-818073
Maybe?
Russian mercenaries and not actually Russia.
Dude Russian mercenaries are still Russians aren't they? Hell how is your memory? Was there not a time when Afganistan had a communist government and the USA supplied Osama Bin Laden with weaponry to kill soviet troops? I'm not talking morality-I 'm talking motivation – it seems like there's plenty to me……
Indeed
Seems strange that the Pentagon chief Mark Esper says there's no corroborating evidence
Fun facts…. vineyards were still able to harvest, wine was still sold in the supermarkets and it was a bumper grape crop this year.
As Blinglish of Dipton proved, the rich will always take any money that they can scheme to get their hands on – no matter how immoral that scheme.
It might suit your anti-capitalism to see NZ go down the gurgler DTB but what about the children?
Actually, what about the country and managing to keep its head above water. It is hard enough keeping down the dream-sequence kiwis who still support National, the others would soon desert Labour if the economy went down. So it is good that the wine got picked, so that people could get paid, so that it could be sold, and so there is money flowing into the economy. Paid work at a living wage, that is the goal and making sure that people have good lives. That's a big one as the world goes down, ice floes melting faster than expected. Hell is people running away but going towards the edge and being powerless to stop them, and knowing it isn't a dream.
We still have hopes of being able to turn the tide at the present. A recession and things would only get worse. Let's make the most of this world-wide problem and pinch the government as much as possible to make changes while we have some advantage in the world. And also keep Labour in front to win again. Don't count on anything remaining stable, we have to help NZ as we won't get second chances from hereon in.
See Susan St John on TDB – https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2020/07/01/when-will-labour-get-it-right-for-the-worst-off-children/
There are lots of basic improvements to be done, we won't be better off if facing a full-scale depression. Everybody who doesn't want to do anything until it is the 'Right Thing' is just continuing the same useless mindset that brought us to the present debacle.
Never said that.
Wine grapes, unlike eating grapes, are picked and then sold later (it says so in the article). In other words, the lockdown hasn't affected him at all. A drought would have affected him worse and I'd expect him to have plans for that eventuality as well.
And having money flowing into the economy is easy and doesn't need to have direct subsidies to businesses. Just give everyone $100/wk and local business would have kept going.
Actually, a recession is likely to do more for slowing climate change than keeping business going as per normal.
O O
The House sitting calendar still shows 1 July as the last sitting day?
Nick Smith again today acting like a child in Parliament. His recalcitrant childish apologising should be compulsory viewing by the voters down his way. Hopefully the boundary change helps his demise.
Meanwhile, in democratic Russia.
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https://twitter.com/ASLuhn/status/1277964917551685640
(sound off if you're squeamish)
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/ussia-journalist-david-frenkel-attack-police-video-mediazona-election-a9594351.html
The police stayed down a long time giving him the treatment!
For 45 years I manned polling booths and the worst anger I saw was directed at the orange felt tip pen that dried up. Aren't we lucky that our democracy is so benevolent.
Yes, but we can't sit back sleepily and take it for granted. It is slipping away, bit by bit starting even before 1984 but speeding up as time goes on.