Would Winston Peters do better keeping out of the media spotlight? He sounds confused, and his policies are a mix of unlimited fund vote attraction and contradictions.
Pressed about other new policies to be considered at the conference, he says: “I haven’t got them all in front of me … I need to go and get the darned book. Did you get my press statement. I listed them all on the press statement?”
Later he says: “It will be an election-defining series of issues. If I say now I’m bound to put it in the speech.”
The darned book seems to be a problem.
He’s proposing to halve student debt as young vote bait. “We expect them to come in their droves.”
His worst proposal is:
“cutting the benefits of family members who withhold information on child abuse.”
“I want to know – not just [from] the nearest person to that child but the whole family and the wider family related to that child – I want to know that we have got admission and ownership and not silence. “
Who will decide how many benefits to cut? On what basis? And how will cutting all the benefits of all the wider family affect all the children?
Winston is hinting that he will stand in Te Atatu. The seat should, barring something extraordinary, be Phil Twyford’s but Peters could cause problems. Local support for Tau Henare is brittle and if there is a run of support then Peters could have a chance.
I wonder if there is an element of utu involved in trying to show up former NZFirster Henare.
If it occurs it also suggests that NZ First will want to cannibalise Labour’s vote, just as they did in 1995. That year Peters campaigned through the country sounding like Labour lite and all but promising coalition with Labour after the election.
Then over a few bottles of whisky with Bolger he sold out and went with the tories.
I prefer that Labour now takes Peters head on. It is unlikely that NZ First will make it. And policy formation with an ex torie leading a bunch of immigrant hating climate change deniers is problematic to say the least.
I think they should. Peters and NZF look more unreliable than ever.
It’s not just that he seems older and more cantankerous. He doesn’t appear to be anywhere near as sharp as he used to be. It almost seems he could be a few marbles short of a Colosseum.
Peters, banks, brash, Douglas show the sad sad state of politics in this country where troughing has beens could have a say in the direction of NZ when they should all be directing golf carts around retirement homes.
Three banking guys run this country for their international masters. John Key as the prime minister, Don Brash as the evil in the background linked to the new American Century Neocon boys and Michael Moore as the US ambassador and linked to the Bilderberg group and the trilateral commission. Everything else is just puppets playing political theatre in their usual venal and narrow minded way.
Here is a presentation by Edward G. Griffin on the origins of the privately owned Federal Reserve of New York.
I had the honour of meeting him in March 2008 and asked him what he thought of John Key and his history on Wall street and what it would mean if he was elected as NZ prime minister. He answered: “He will sell your country to the highest bidder and throw in his mother with the deal.”
When I asked him if he thought it was possible he had been groomed for the job of PM he said: “It has happened before.”
Things appear to be falling apart in Rusty Shackleford’s new Somalia.
Of-course he will blame the weather, not the fact there is no functioning Government.
“The current government has no control over a number of areas in the country. Even the capital of Mogadishu is partially controlled by militia groups, making it almost impossible to deliver relief supplies.”
It is a stain on the forehead of all Arabs and Muslims that Americans and Europeans have moved faster to provide urgent aid to the famine-stricken population in Somalia, one of the 22 members of the Arab League. Saudi Arabia has pledged $60 million, but it remains to be seen if it will fulfill its promise. The promise is considered a drop in the sea compared with what Western countries have pledged to save the lives of the Somalis.
The promise is considered a drop in the sea compared with what Western countries have pledged to save the lives of the Somalis.
Have you got any figures to show how much the “Western countries” have contributed to Somali famine relief compared to the daily amount they spend on bombing Libya?
Completely unrelated matters, Mozza. The fact is that the UN is co-ordinating the relief effort in Somalia in horrendously difficult circumstances and if it wasn’t for that humanitariam effort thousands would be dying.
The Libyan situation can be resolved instantly if Gaddafi accepts any of the repeated offers to generously fund his retirement in or out of the country. The West’s contribution there is also fantastic, really. A combination of aid, logistical support and remarkably accurate bombing of Gaddafi’s forces mean the Libyan people have a real chance of a democratic future. Maybe this coming holiday season will herald the Ramadan Revolution? I certainly hope so.
Completely unrelated matters, Mozza.
Actually, these matters are closely connected. The quote put up by Joe90 is a naked attempt to embarrass “all Arabs and Muslims”, and show that “the West” is morally superior. In fact, “the West” is waging war on three countries at the moment, and spending enormous amounts on it.
The fact is that the UN is co-ordinating the relief effort in Somalia in horrendously difficult circumstances and if it wasn’t for that humanitariam effort thousands would be dying.
True. That’s the UN. That’s not “the West”.
The Libyan situation can be resolved instantly if Gaddafi accepts any of the repeated offers to generously fund his retirement in or out of the country.
On what basis do you make that claim?
The West’s contribution there is also fantastic, really. A combination of aid, logistical support and remarkably accurate bombing of Gaddafi’s forces mean the Libyan people have a real chance of a democratic future.
For the sake of argument, I’ll leave aside for now your claims that “the West” has been “fantastic” and that its bombs are “remarkably accurate”. What’s really interesting is that you seem to believe that “the West” is interested in promoting a “democratic future” in Libya—or anywhere, for that matter. What has “the West” done in the middle east or South America or Southeast Asia to promote a “democratic future”?
Maybe this coming holiday season will herald the Ramadan Revolution? I certainly hope so.
Well then, if by a “Ramadan Revolution”, it’s a democratic revolution you want, you’re not in the same camp as “the West”. Have you any familiarity of “the West’s” history of promoting democracy in Egypt, Palestine, Iran and Saudi Arabia?
Sorry, but I remained convinced that they are completely unrelated matters. You say they are closely connected, but give no evidence. And you agree that the Somalian aid effort is run by the UN, not ‘the west’, which further strengthens my point that they are unrelated.
Gaddafi has been given many offers to step down over the last few months. It’s been in the all the news reports, so I’m surprised you aren’t aware of it. The sticking point has been whether he is allowed to stay in Libya. He wants to, the opposition will only accept exile.
I haven’t got the time to answer your question on what the west has done to promote democracy in the middle East in any detail, but I would suggest that writing democratic constitutions and then holding elections in both Afghanastan and Iraq suggests that the west has a commitment to democratising at least those countries. If you need a broader history lesson, I suspect you may be able to google some resources that will help you there.
And you agree that the Somalian aid effort is run by the UN, not ‘the west’, which further strengthens my point that they are unrelated.
The extract quoted by joe90 said that “Americans and Europeans have moved faster” to provide aid to Somalia. This implies that the U.S. and its obedient vassal continent are somehow superior to the Arab League countries. The fact is, of course, that the U.S. and Europe are spending a fortune on the bombing of Libya, and the arming of Israel with attack helicopters, (illegal) white phosphorus and (illegal) cluster munitions, all of which are used on civilian populations. The money contributed for famine relief by the U.S. and Europe is a derisory sum.
Gaddafi has been given many offers to step down over the last few months.
I’d like the dishonest, foolish and intellectually idle New Zealand prime minister to step down. I’d like the corrupt British prime minister to resign immediately. I think the Canadian prime minister is an embarrassment and should be removed forthwith. Why should Gaddafi have to “step down” before those three scoundrels do?
I haven’t got the time to answer your question on what the west has done to promote democracy in the middle East in any detail
Give me one example, please. Just one. I’ll help you avoid a few pitfalls, however: don’t mention the killing of democratic government in Iran, or the military and diplomatic support for Saddam Hussein, or the support of Egyptian dictatorships since the 1970s, or the contemptuous treatment of Palestinians after the free and fair elections of 2006.
Okay, now tell us how “the West” has SUPPORTED democracy in the middle east.
I would suggest that writing democratic constitutions and then holding elections in both Afghanastan and Iraq suggests that the west has a commitment to democratising at least those countries.
Nobody would deny the U.S. has a rhetorical commitment to democracy. Perhaps you need to listen to what Afghanis think about the American and European “commitment to democratising” their country….
So no answers to my original point then? Which was that the attempt to get rid of the Libyan dictator and the aid effort in Somalia are unrelated.
Btw, you do know that they had actual elections in Afghanistan and Iraq, don’t you? And in Palestine, for that matter. If they weren’t perfect it’s hardly surprising, but it’s an improvement on the previous arrangement. And democratic elections are the major difference between the PM’s of NZ, Canada and England, who, to the best of my knowledge, have never used tanks against their own civilian population, nor organised the bombing of civilian airliners.
Andthe British government certainly did deploy tanks on the streets of Glasgow following Bloody Friday in 1919
Government concerns about industrial militancy and revolutionary political activity in Glasgow reached new heights after the events of 31 January 1919. Fears within government of a workers’ revolution in Glasgow led to the deployment of troops and tanks in the city.
An estimated 10000 English troops in total were sent to Glasgow in the immediate aftermath of the Battle of George Square. This was in spite of a full battalion of Scottish soldiers being stationed at Maryhill barracks in Glasgow at the time. No Scottish troops were deployed, with the government fearing that fellow Scots, soldiers or otherwise, would go over to the workers side if a revolutionary situation developed in Glasgow.
Fair enough, Bill. It’s worth noting that Muldoon had the army on standby near Bastion Point during the last days of the (re)occupation too. And I imagine the ’51 blue had the troops itching to pull the trigger on their 303’s.
But Morrissey it was who referred to the 3 current PM’s, not me, and I replied to that comment in kind. Quite why I referred to Cameron as the “English’ PM, I don’t know. Perhaps something to do with the lack of Tory MP’s in Scotland and Wales?
So no answers to my original point then? Which was that the attempt to get rid of the Libyan dictator and the aid effort in Somalia are unrelated.
It was actually joe90 who posted the original absurd attempt to show that the U.S. and its obedient servants in Europe were morally superior to the Arab League states. I pointed out that that is a ridiculous position to hold when the U.S. and Europe are presently prosecuting THREE wars of choice, one of them without even the slightest moral or military justification.
Btw, you do know that they had actual elections in Afghanistan and Iraq, don’t you?
They had actual elections in occupied Vietnam in the 1960s too. And you do know that the United States supported the anti-democracy forces in both Iraq and Afghanistan throughout the 1980s?
And in Palestine, for that matter.
The U.S. and its vassal states have done nothing except express anger and contempt at the Palestinians for voting the wrong way in 2006. They even bank-rolled and armed a bloody Fatah coup attempt in 2007. The U.S. and Europe do not want democracy in Palestine, any more than they wanted it in Iran in 1954, in Egypt in the 1970s, in Algeria or in Iraq in the early 1990s.
…the PM’s of NZ, Canada and England, who, to the best of my knowledge, have never used tanks against their own civilian population, nor organised the bombing of civilian airliners.
All three of these mediocrities and yes-men continue to express support for the “mission” in Afghanistan and Iraq, with Key’s moronic “that’s why we’re in Afghanistan” comment after the Norwegian killings being perhaps the most craven. During and after Israel’s murderous 22-day rampage in Gaza in 2008-9, all three of them voiced “solidarity” and “support”—for the Israelis.
How are these three superior to any other national leader, either morally or intellectually?
Btw, you do know that they had actual elections in Afghanistan and Iraq, don’t you?
Hilarious! I am reminded of the 1960s joke that “they’re holding a general election in Greece – they’re going to elect another general. Anyone but you, finds it just a tad suspicious that the ‘elections’ in Afghanistan and Iraq chose rulers pre-approved by the filth, er Americans…
. And democratic elections are the major difference between the PM’s of NZ, Canada and England, who, to the best of my knowledge, have never used tanks against their own civilian population, nor organised the bombing of civilian airliners.
Not yet, anyway. But you think they haven’t done any other damage? Ah, yes, Randbot aren’t you…
Gaddafi has been given many offers to step down over the last few months. It’s been in the all the news reports, so I’m surprised you aren’t aware of it. The sticking point has been whether he is allowed to stay in Libya. He wants to, the opposition will only accept exile.
I haven’t got the time to answer your question on what the west has done to promote democracy in the middle East in any detail, but I would suggest that writing democratic constitutions and then holding elections in both Afghanastan and Iraq suggests that the west has a commitment to democratising at least those countries. If you need a broader history lesson, I suspect you may be able to google some resources that will help you there.
Oh unbelievable! Either you’re incredibly stupidly naive, or you’re a crazy Neocon! The actions of the ‘West’ (the USA) in Libya, stink on ice, and there are so many questions even my right-wing(ish) son is suspicious. You are an American, or you just have a general hate-on against Muslims, and here was I thinking it was only Christians you loathed! Oh, I have just remembered, you’re just a Rand-bot, hey?
@mikesh – No why should he. Gadaffi has been on top for over 30 years in an oil rich country. No, no we won’t go is an understandable chant. The idea that only one person can be found to run a country, or that man’s son, or his daughter indicates that there is a ruling elite sticking to their comforts and power.
Interesting in South Australia they are just trying to get rid of Premier Mike Rann who has been in for 9 years in a uranium mining state. He had been in the SA House of Assembly since 1985 and been South Australian Labor parliamentary leader since 1994. Same thing – he doesn’t want to go. Even in a democracy it is hard to get the incumbent to move on but the longer they stay the more difficult to get them out and the right person in.
[@mikesh – No why should he. Gadaffi has been on top for over 30 years in an oil rich country. No, no we won’t go is an understandable chant. The idea that only one person can be found to run a country, or that man’s son, or his daughter indicates that there is a ruling elite sticking to their comforts and power.]
Quite so. And the rebels would like to replace him as the “ruling elite”, and of course they’re prepared to turn the country to over to foreign capital in return for western support for the purpose of gaining power.
All he’s describing is the bog standard mechanisms of SAPs and the bog standard means of escalation/ follow up.
And then inserting a fiction of shadowy anti-hero hit men and jackals.
Which in some ways is okay, ’cause he’s essentially outlining a truth. And maybe he reckoned if ‘the story’ was ‘sexed up’ then Mr and Mrs Middle America would be hooked in as readers. Not to mention he stood to make a fair bit of money if his book sold.
Lord Winston’s prejudiced and ignorant comments
Sunday morning National Radio, Sunday 31 July 2011
Chris Laidlaw’s guest: ROBERT WINSTON
As long as Lord Winston speaks about genetic science and television presenting, he is plausible. Unfortunately, as anyone who has ever heard RICHARD DAWKINS blither ignorantly about the middle east, or listened to the New Zealand government’s science advisor PETER GLUCKMAN [1] will know, the seriousness and scientific approach of these people is often not carried into their politics.
As an example, witness Lord Winston’s incredibly naive and ignorant statements about Israel in the following talk….
LAIDLAW: Hrrrrumph. How important is your Jewish heritage?
LORD WINSTON: The Jewish tradition means that science and evidence are very important in forming an ethical standpoint.
LAIDLAW: Did your family have much consciousness about Israel?
WINSTON: No, not much at all. We never gave it a thought. My feelings on Israel came from when Israel was besieged on all sides.
LAIDLAW: Hrrrrumph.
WINSTON: The problem is that there is a deeply ingrained set of people who will not accept the fact that Israel exists at all. It’s an AGONIZING problem for Jews.
LAIDLAW: Hmmmmm?
WINSTON: In the House of Lords over the last year, theere have been ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY questions on Israel and TWO on Kashmir. [2] That gives you an idea of the focus. Israel has a lot to be proud of. Its development of high-tech industries is amazing! It’s got a lot to show New Zealand in that area of development!
LAIDLAW: Hrrrumph! We don’t have quite the same force of necessity do we! Hrrrumph!
WINSTON: Well, no, I suppose you’re right!
LAIDLAW: What do you have to say about homeopathic medicine?
WINSTON: Well, my wife uses homeopathic medicine and I tease her about it, but she persists! We need to expect the same standards of proof that we expect with conventional medicine.
LAIDLAW: Spoken like a scientist! Which we should have expected! Hrrumph!
WINSTON: [modestly] We-e-e-e-ll…
LAIDLAW: Television is an amazing medium, and you’ve used it SHAMELESSLY for good causes. Is there any evidence it’s had an effect on education?
WINSTON: That’s a very good question. We haven’t done the metrics on this….
LAIDLAW: Finally, Lord Winston, what would you like to be remembered for?
WINSTON: Oh Chris! Any personal achievement is trivial. My three children are the best thing I’ve done. For anyone, if you can produce children who contribute to society….
—————————————————————————————
Dismayed at Laidlaw’s failure to challenge anything this practised liar said, I sent off the following email…
FROM: Morrissey Breen
TO: sundays@radionz.co.nz
TOPIC: Lord Winston’s prejudiced and ignorant comments
Dear Chris,
You let Lord Winston get away with saying, with sinister smoothness, that Israel was “besieged” by all the countries around it, and that it is threatened by “ingrained” prejudice by people who “won’t even accept its right to exist”. Both statements are nonsense, and nothing more than hardline Israeli state propaganda.
His casting of an aggressor state as a victim is a perfect inversion of the truth: Israel is “surrounded and besieged” in the same way Germany was “besieged” by its neighbours in the 1930s.
His claim that Israel’s “right to exist” needs to be acknowledged is nonsense: Gandhi never accepted the “right to exist” of Pakistan, and human rights advocates all over the world never accepted the “right to exist” of the Soviet Union or of apartheid South Africa.
Yours sincerely,
Morrissey Breen
Northcote Point
[1]/open-mike-27032011/#comment-313255 [2] This is the sort of British parliamentary speech that angers worshippers of the Israeli state like Robert Winston….
Robert Lord Winston is whipped cream, smooth, rich, satisfying. He is deprecating about all his wonderful achievements. And he likes to be eased comfortably nto his set speech giving his experiences. And everyone loves him, which is just as well as the man is ubiquitious.
I won’t forget hearing Kim Hill interview him, after the facts as usual, with queries that should have been simple for him to answer, though perhaps tedious as he has advanced so far in so many fields that explaining to a new audience about past history must be boring. But it’s the price of good book sales and large TV audiences. She didn’t put on her velvet gloves and stroke his ego, but treated him as the man of science he claims he is. He didn’t like it and told her so.
She didn’t put on her velvet gloves and stroke his ego, but treated him as the man of science he claims he is. He didn’t like it and told her so.
David Suzuki reacted angrily to Kim Hill a few months back. I thought he was over-sensitive, as Kim’s questions hadn’t been disrespectful, or even especially provocative. I would have thought Suzuki was smarter than to allow himself to lose his temper so completely.
Two less than savoury interviewees who Kim has reduced to spluttering anger are Jeffrey Archer and William Shawcross. Archer screamed at her in 1993, snarling: “I was WARNED about you!” Shawcross was embarrassed and angry at being reminded of his past support for Saddam Hussein. I thought Shawcross was going to burst a blood vessel, he was so incensed.
Last year she keelhauled another dyed-in-the-wool liar, John Howard. While Howard licked his wounds in private, and decided to make no public statements about the humiliation, dear old witless Karl DuFresne decided to make a stand on behalf of the great statesman, and wrote a confused and woolly-minded attack on Hill in the Australian Spectator.
And did you see Kim Hill interveiw Brash on TV, this was after some chauvinistic comments he had made in the media, she destroyed him and by half time I was almost feeling sorry for him, almost, she could have let him off the hook, but to her credit continued to show him for what the sexist, shallow, old man he is.
Listened to precisely the same Laidlaw interview of Winston on Sunday morning and (much to the surprise of family members) let out one or two loud expletives.
Still, not at all surprising. I think I read about Winston’s lazy second-hand, Zionist-cliche-ridden views on Israel at least 5 or 6 years ago. It may have been in some sort of open letter to The Guardian. I seem to remember that both he and Melvyn Bragg were expressing some particularly ignorant Israeli apologetics in the British media either at the time of Israel’s murderous assault on the West Bank in 2002 (the so-called “Operation Defensive Shield” – Jesus, now there’s Orwellian absurdity for you !), or during the ultimately unsuccessful British attempt to boycott Israeli Universities in about 2005/2006. Or possibly on both occassions.
You’ve gotta love Laidlaw’s “Hrrrrumphs”. I think it’s his substitute for incisive/critical comment.
You’ve gotta love Laidlaw’s “Hrrrrumphs”. I think it’s his substitute for incisive/critical comment.
Actually, I think Chris Laidlaw is a well informed and deeply concerned interviewer. As well as all the Hrrrrumphing, he regularly voices a skeptical “Hmmmmm?” to show he is disturbed by what his guest is saying. On this occasion, he kept the interjections to the occasional neutral-sounding “Hrrrrumph”, and suppressed the disquiet I’m sure he felt.
Laidlaw believes in giving his guests a long rope. Often, as Lord Winston did on Sunday, the guest will hang himself by airing intolerant and ignorant views. It’s up to the rest of us to repeat and highlight this.
I am rereading Douglas Adams four book trilogy about an alternate future for the planet.
He refers to The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy which recommends a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster and says that the effect of drinking one is like having your brains smashed out by a slice of lemon wrapped round a large gold brick. (It has comprehensive coverage of this, the recipe, the price, ‘and what voluntary organisations exist to help you rehabilitate afterwards’.)
Well after listening to the never-ending-stoooooory of the USA great talkfest and stand-off over their economy which lies pathetically at their feet, along with any integrity and democratic standards that country ever had, I get a similar feeling. I think we need to resort to the odd evening off from trying to keep the whole thing on the rails, if we ever can find them. This Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster sounds like an experience that would take one’s full attention away from other considerations.
Try it when the RWC comes to our shores – a similar saga. Perhaps we could invent a colourful cocktail that echoes NZs spirits and charm. Something green but not with creme de menthe. Please could bloggers keep posting with news of interest to them while the ruggers on.. I anyway, am likely to miss many important events while trying to get shot of the rugby for a while.
USA citizens have found it easy to criticise other countries and not be objective about their own. I’m just looking at a book on Trade me, Russia – Broken Idols, Solemn Dreams. The blurb says ‘Probing beneath the usual surface observations, stereotypes, and official government rhetoric, the former Moscow bureau chief of The New York Times carefully analyzes the loss of faith and the bankrupt ideology that afflict the Soviet system and society today.’
Now that Communism is not so dominating, perhaps the USA can look at itself to see if the same applies to them.
Recently I wrote about National being in breach of privacy laws and abusing Parliamentary Services concerning them attaining the address details of pensioners, and targeting that group with electioneering material.
There’s a question mark missing from your headline, jackal. It should read ‘Police to investigate Key?’ if it’s just speculative, not a fact.
The article itself is excellent and you’ve done some great investigative work there. If Key does end up getting his collar felt by PC Plod because of your efforts, I’ll be the first to shout you a whiskey!
You’re right of course VOR. However under the Electoral Act the Electoral Commission is obliged to present the facts of the matter to the Police who are in turn obliged to investigate. Unless either of those bodies are going to disregard the law (a very small possibility), I think the headline is correct.
Well now your talking! I was visiting my in laws and I found a letter from “John Key” to them and I thought it was beyond the pale for a party to use these addresses from obviously a state data bank to target people like that.
Well done and the second shout is for me if you get them to investigate!
What’s more, my in-laws are both in their 80s, did not vote for John Key and had no idea how the National party had gotten hold of their addresses but are both to intimidated by “authorities” to make a stink so thanks on their behalf too (I sent them the link cause my father-in-law is very internet savy and will enjoy reading about it.
Cheers travellerev. It’s the Pensioners private details thing that I dislike the most. I’m not convinced that the information was gained in the way John Key’s Communications Manager has stated. I’m hoping any investigation will look into that discrepancy as well.
I’m glad you also posted the letter integrally as my parents in law were aghast at the idea that their name would start to float around the internet (They are up and running with my political activities and it petrifies them even though they agree that 911 could not have possibly been done as the OCT states) if they gave me the letter (as if I would ever do that to them but I respected their need for privacy and now I can read it better and read the stuff you wrote about it).
Lying in bed in the middle dark of night and feeling your entire city grind from one set of longitude and latitude to another set over a long period of minutes with virtually no shaking. Gives you a sense of scale and tinyness. And spookiness.
For some reason the 3.6M at 3:30 this morning had me out of bed and half way to the door within a second. When I actually woke up and realised what I was doing, the shaking had already stopped. So I got back into bed.
Seemed much sharper than usual. It was quite a bit closer to my house than most.
Yes I see it was close to central. But I swear that I could for some long time afterwards feel the great giant slabs of deep earth moving slowly past each other, for quite a while after the shake had stopped. I felt this near continuously after the Feb quake but have not felt it for some time. Need to be in a sensitive spot (which our hosue seems to be) and very quiet and still. Quite an astounding sensation. And the anecdote seems to be borne out by the colossal number of aftershocks which indicate constant movement with various bits catching occasionally.
More on this to follow. Just heard on newstalk zb that when Key was on the David Letterman show (think it was last year) it was not by invitation it was by request with a price tag of $10,000. Key’s position is that it is gold for NZ to get exposure.
What a try hard, devious bastard. Letterman might well have been thinking who is this shithead? And Shonkey said in parliament that beneficiaries need to budget better.
“As if it wasn’t embrassing enough already. Sheesh.”
Letterman even recieved footage of Key.
Key was on Letterman for 4 minutes.
A PR company was contacted because after 6 months of trying to get on Letterman this was unsuccessful.
Not lie – deflect. “We paid $10k to stroke your ego?!” “Well eckshooly, that is not at ah we never paid Letterman to appear on his ah show and really, well, I wouldn’t be that comfortable with that at all, it wouldn’t be a good look, in that circumstance I’d probably pay for an ego stroke myself”.
People will be surprised by this I suppose, but most people don’t think and live like them, you have to understand this is just another marketing campaign; it started the day they took office, I wish people would wake up to this and no amount of praying or we will do it the old fashion way will have any impact, Wake the fuck up, you are being sold every waking hour.
Thats why I don’t have a TV or get the paper , or listen to commercial radio or watch movies , I get my news when I want it where I want it, sure I still get some marketing but I understand these people and have friends still in the industry , you have know idea how these people operate, they are not evil they are just doing there job, the job being to sell you something you don’t need.
Well in a way, but I’m sure they don’t think of it like that, it’s a job/career and people compete, so want to win.
Calling Capitalism evil is easy, but for me the saying from Forest Gump “Stupid is as stupid does” says it all; we need education, education, education for the people. The right are not that smart and making money is easy, especially when you don’t have any compassion, and compassion comes from education for me.
Job creation – after spending 45 minutes waiting to speak to someone (anyone!!!) at Kiwibank I think there is scope for more jobs in their call centre – better than building a cycle track IMHO.
Job creation – after spending 45 minutes waiting to speak to someone (anyone!!!) at Kiwibank I think there is scope for more jobs in their call centre – better than building a cycle track IMHO.
I have often wished that the person I was talking to had half a brain * – which would be more than they are displaying at the time! I’ve applied for call centre jobs (amongst others) for 2 1/2 years, and been refused for 2 1/2 years – I have no idea why! Interview # 140 today. “Uts a metter of futt” is what I am usually told (and I hear them thinking, what one woman actually said last week) “the boys don’t want to feel they’ve got their mother sitting there judging them”. I suppose the girls feel the same way! F*** capitalism.
*Studylink seem to be the only ones who have sufficient staff, with sufficient brain power, sadly
It’s more than likely your condescending attitude that’s putting them off hiring you. Call centre workers need to be able to communicate with people from all walks of life and intellects. Work on improving your attitude and you might do better. Good luck!
It’s more than likely your condescending attitude that’s putting them off hiring you. Call centre workers need to be able to communicate with people from all walks of life and intellects. Work on improving your attitude and you might do better. Good luck!
Wooh, arrogant much? I am an ESOL teacher and a basic requirement of being one, is “communicating with people from all walks of life and intellects”… I do that better than most, especially the smug South African woman at the City Council who tried to tell me that it was my responsibility to try to talk the Housing NZ maintenance chief into fixing the permanent puddle in our street. Turned out that she was so good at listening, that she hadn’t grasped that the puddle is on the pavement and not on my front lawn! But let me guess, she’s nicely middle class and you’d hire her, despite her superior attitude. Maybe I should have put on an American accent, or claimed to be a real estate agent trying to sell houses in the street?
I can be as ‘condescending’ as I like here, especially to 30-something men who think they know where every unemployed person is going wrong.. but that doesn’t mean I’d be that way to people making inquiries!
Anyone here on the news today that ACT are not standing anyone in New Plymouth to give National a better chance at winning that seat – more fiddling the electorates to gain seat – maybe National threatened a ‘if you want Banks to be unopposed….)
Also heard on the radio today, with the change to the driving age federated farmers et. al. are not happy because rural parents will have the expense of driving their kids to sport (and here was me thinking that farmers just used the business Holden and claimed the expense as a legitimate drive to RD1).
The funniest bit though was when they gave the stats – the evidence suggests the change in driving age may save up to FIVE lives.
So how come, when it comes down to things like children starving, national Standards, etc. the evidence is suddenly unimportant? (NB as a rural parent I am pissed off too, as my son cannot do his test till January next year, despite having had this booked for over a month)
William Shawcross explodes in a rage at Kim Hill
National Radio, Saturday 1 May 2004, from 8:30 a.m. Transcribed by MORRISSEY BREEN, Daisycutter Sports Inc.
The first half of the interview ambles along smoothly enough—but then the haughty Shawcross delivers a torrent of wandery, pompous cant about bin Laden’s “holy war”…
…
SHAWCROSS: In his assault on the US, bin Laden had this famous phrase, which was a sort of TAUNTING phrase: “When people see a strong horse and a weak horse they naturally gravitate towards the strong horse”, and I think, understandably enough, and none of these issues are easy, none of them are trivial, they are all very hard I COMPLETELY agree with you and understandably enough … And after 9/11 there was a feeling in Washington that it was possible to portray America as a weak horse and after 9/11 George Bush decided that could no longer be the case.
HILL: [laughing, incredulous] But you can’t, you can’t surely justify bombing a country like Iraq, at the cost of many, many civilian lives, as a kind of PR exercise to convince the world that the United States is not a “weak horse”.
SHAWCROSS: [icy] No I didn’t say that. You are twisting, very cleverly, my words.
HILL: Well, the reason—no no no no no, the reason I make that point is that, according to Bob Woodward’s latest book, Bush was secretly planning to go after not bin Laden, the man responsible for the 9/11 attacks, but Saddam Hussein!
SHAWCROSS: Well, I don’t think THAT’s true. I think that he was planning to go after BOTH. And I think, as I said to you, that the threat that Clinton saw in Saddam Hussein was deemed to be tolerable in the nineties – I think that’s a pity for Iraq and for the rest of the world that Saddam was not dealt with more firmly in the nineties. This was a man who had form, this was a man who’d not only murdered three hundred thousand or more of his own people, he was the man who killed more Muslims than any other leader in the world today, both in Iran in his war with Iran, in Kurdistan, and in Iraq itself. This was not a man who was a threat to Christians, he was a threat to Muslims and a threat to the entire region—
HILL: Of course.
SHAWCROSS: —and most of the countries in the region wanted to get rid of him and it’s a great PITY he wasn’t got rid of before.
HILL: And as you eloquently say in your book, a lot of Saddam Hussein’s atrocities were committed with the sanction of the United States.
SHAWCROSS: [exploding with rage] I did NOT say that! Come on, you’re absolutely— this is an ABSURD interview if you want to say that!—I did NOT say that! I did NOT say that! I said that in the 1980s, the greatest threat was seen to be the Ayatollah Khomeini and his version of fundamentalist Islam and it WAS a threat! The Ayatollah was murdering all Iranians who were in opposition to him he could get his hands on inside and outside the country, he wanted to DESTROY the western world, and it was a serious threat. His agents blew up three hundred marines in Lebanon in 1983, you could SEE why he was a threat, and on the rather sad principle but old principle that my enemy’s enemy is my friend, we decided that the greater threat of the two from Saddam Hussein and the Ayatollah Khomeini was not Saddam Hussein at that time.
HILL: So you’re not talking about Saddam Hussein when you say in the book: “but of course one has to take into account the fact that Western governments have for decades supported middle east regimes that may brutalise and impoverish the mass of the people—”
SHAWCROSS: Yes.
HILL: “—-but nonetheless provide stable oil supplies.”
SHAWCROSS: Yes, it’s one of the paradoxes and the dilemmas of our time.
HILL: Well I’m SORRY, but that was merely the point I was making, I don’t think it was an “absurd” point.
SHAWCROSS: [icy] Well don’t get ANGRY! Don’t get angry with me, it’s FOOLISH of you. You’re supposed to be a very highly professional interviewer.
HILL: I’m sorry, I thought you were taking offence. I’m merely trying to explain to you by looking at your book—
SHAWCROSS: I think some of the things you said WERE rather offensive—
HILL: Which things were offensive to you?
SHAWCROSS: —and incorrect. I didn’t say— [laughing] I don’t want to go back over it now…
HILL: Feel free!
SHAWCROSS: [momentarily disoriented] … but you maintained… No. Will you requote your question to me? The one that I, um, took offence to.
HILL: I think the one that you took offence to was the one where I suggested that Saddam Hussein had committed his worst atrocities while he was sanctioned by the United States and other western governments.
SHAWCROSS: Oh yeah that’s right. Well, I don’t think that he was SANCTIONED by the United States. I think that, as I said to you, often you have to deal in areas of darker shades of gray and at that time in the 1980s the Ayatollah Khomeini was seen as a very great threat to the world. Let me read something he wrote in 1984… [Shawcross reads piece of mad Khomeini rhetoric about need to wage war against “infidels”.] Now THAT was the inspiration for the Ayatollah Khomeini back in the 1980s and it’s the inspiration for Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda now. And what I think we do not fully understand is that this is a very serious war. Some people call it the third “ism”. We’ve got rid of nazism and Communism….
HILL: [reminds Shawcross of his former trenchant opposition to the Vietnam calamity, and his formerly excoriating writings about Dean Rusk’s absurd Domino Theory] Does that mean you are recanting from that view?
SHAWCROSS: [huffing impatiently] No, I don’t think I said that. [waffles on for several minutes, reproaching all who opposed the Vietnam invasion, and completely recanting his views, even quoting Lee Kuan Yew (“authoritarian, but in many ways very successful”) who, like the new-model Shawcross, enthusiastically endorses the US’s rape of Vietnam as somehow validating the Domino Theory.] All I’m saying is that we have to, errrrr, learn from history and—who was it?—John Maynard Keynes, who said that when the facts change it’s quite a good thing to change your opinion.
HILL: Does it ever occur to you that the impact of Sideshow may have helped create the cynicism with regard to U.S. foreign policy that you are arguing AGAINST in your latest book?
SHAWCROSS: Well that’s a very provocative and clever question. Yes, you may well be right and if so I’m sorry because I didn’t MEAN it to provoke cynicism. I think I said at the end of Sideshow, that Kissinger and Nixon had not governed in my view honestly enough, but America was the most vital democracy in the whole world, and I believed it then and I believe it even more so now. [PAUSE] You seem surprised by that…
HILL: It does seem that the United States is roundly loathed…
SHAWCROSS: [steaming with indignation] Why don’t you GO to Iraq then? That is certainly not the case….
HILL: [archly] I was going to say “in the middle east.”
Touche! Even this smooth dissembler is momentarily non-plussed. Shawcross utters some mealy-mouthed words about Israel. He knows Israel’s war of terror against the people of Palestine is indefensible, but on the other hand, he’s an apologist for the neoconservatives now, so he can’t mouth anything stronger than a contemptible bit of handwringing…
SHAWCROSS: Obviously the heart-breaking impasse between the Israelis and the Palestinians is an APPALLING sore. But Israel needs to defend itself. There are vicious and rotten governments—Libya, Egypt, Syria—all around it. To quote President George W. Bush: We have to encourage democracies and free the people of the region from their despotic torpor.
HILL: Do you think Henry Kissinger should be tried as a war criminal?
SHAWCROSS: [with extreme gravitas] I think he committed a lot of mistakes, but he is not a war criminal.
HILL: The trajectory of your views is compared to that of Christopher Hitchens…
SHAWCROSS: [laughs] Well Christopher is ADORABLE….
…………………………………………….
This weasel was here to flog a weaselish book supporting the rape of Iraq, viz., William Shawcross, Allies: The U.S. and the world in the aftermath of the Iraq War (Appallin’ and Unctuous, 2004)
So the deal is done and “Surprise! Surprise”! (as Gomer Pyle used to say) – there’s a thoroughgoing ‘cave in’ to the right. So much for Mr ‘I’m putting my presidency on the line over this’ Obama.
I’m rapidly tending to the view that this was no ‘cave in’ but a carefully “orchestrated litany of lies”. What a joke. And I see the ‘Super Congress’ of 12 good men and true will now be in session.
What should you do if you discover an anarchist living next door? Dust off your old Sex Pistols albums and hang out a black and red flag to make them feel at home? Invite them round to debate the merits of Peter Kropotkin’s anarchist communism versus the individualist anarchism of Emile Armand? No – the answer, according to an official counter-terrorism notice circulated in London last week, is that you must report them to police immediately.
Why should these peaceful people be reported to police you ask?
the City of Westminster police’s “counter terrorist focus desk” called for anti-anarchist whistleblowers stating: “Anarchism is a political philosophy which considers the state undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, and instead promotes a stateless society, or anarchy.”
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We know people are feeling anxious about COVID-19. While the situation is serious, New Zealand has a world-class health system and we’re well-prepared to keep New Zealanders safe. ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters is encouraging New Zealanders overseas to stay where they are amid the COVID-19 pandemic. "We are reaching a point where the best option for most New Zealanders offshore is to shelter in place, by preparing to safely stay where they are.” "This includes following the instructions ...
Rt. Hon. Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs Foreign Minister Winston Peters is encouraging the tens of thousands of New Zealanders travelling overseas to consider sheltering in place, in light of COVID-19. “Since 18 March, we have been warning New Zealanders offshore that the window for flying ...
The Sport and Recreation Minister Grant Robertson has announced that urgent maintenance of turf and care for plants in non-plantation nurseries will soon be able to go ahead under Level 4 restrictions. “The Government has agreed that urgent upkeep and maintenance of biological assets will be able to go ahead ...
E tangi ana a Taranaki iwi, e tangi ana te ao Māori, otirā e tangi ana te motu. Mōu katoa ngā roimata e riringi whānui ana, mōu katoa ngā mihi. E te kaikōkiri i te reo Māori, e Te Huirangi, takoto mai. Takoto mai me te mōhio ko ngā ...
Today is day 15 of Alert Level 4 lockdown. And at the halfway mark I have no hesitation in saying, that what New Zealanders have done over the last two weeks is huge. In the face of the greatest threat to human health we have seen in over a century, ...
All driver licences, WoFs, CoFs, and some vehicle certifications, that expired on or after 1 January 2020 will be valid for up to six months from 10 April 2020, Transport Minister Phil Twyford has announced. “People shouldn’t have to worry about getting fined for having an expired document if driving ...
The Government has today released the report from the Public Inquiry into the Earthquake Commission chaired by Dame Silvia Cartwright. Minister Responsible for the Earthquake Commission Grant Robertson says the Government wants to learn from people’s experiences following the Canterbury earthquakes and other recent natural disasters. “Dame Silvia’s report documents ...
The Government has extended by two weeks till April 27 the amount of time priority groups, such as health workers and those aged over 65, have to get their flu vaccine before it is made available to the wider public. This year’s vaccination campaign is a key component of the ...
Communities stepping up to help New Zealanders stay at home to break the transmission of COVID-19 and save lives have received Government support, said Minister for Social Development Carmel Sepuloni. “Delivering groceries for the elderly who can’t shop online, providing data packs for low income families to keep them connected, and being ...
Across New Zealand 120 sites are taking samples to be tested for COVID-19. 68 community based assessment centres (CBACs) have been established to take samples from people with COVID-19 symptoms. Alongside this, 52 other centres including designated general practices, swabbing centres, and mobile clinics are now testing people for ...
The Ministry of Education is working with partners to develop a package of options so that students can learn at home when Term 2 begins on 15 April, Education Minister Chris Hipkins said today. Supports are also being prepared for households with children under five, to help parents and whānau ...
Māori Television to begin educational te reo programmes Ki te Ao Mārama – a new online learning space Thousands of hard copy learning packs ready for distribution Helpdesk and advice service for kōhanga, kura and wharekura Television, the internet and hard copy learning packs are some of the ways whānau ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters has announced an initial package of support to help the people and the Government of Vanuatu respond to the impact of Tropical Cyclone Harold. “Our Pacific neighbours have been hit by a Category 5 Cyclone at the same time as dealing with the economic impacts ...
Tourism New Zealand to lead work reimagining the way tourism operates in post-COVID-19 world. Ministers to review International Visitor Conservation and Tourism Levy investment plan. The Government, industry and business are working together to develop a plan for how tourism will operate in a post-COVID-19 world, Tourism Minister Kelvin Davis ...
More New Zealanders are taking up the chance to work in horticulture as the sector keeps New Zealanders fed and in jobs during the COVID-19 Alert Level 4 lockdown. “Our horticulture sector has long been one of New Zealand’s export star performers, contributing around $6 billion a year to our ...
The Provincial Development Unit is working through applications and projects to see where Provincial Growth Fund money can be repurposed for initiatives deemed more critical to fighting the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones says. “We need to be throwing everything we have at ...
The Government’s wage subsidy to protect jobs and keep workers and businesses connected during the lockdown has now supported over a million New Zealanders, with $6.6 billion already paid out. “We’re supporting businesses to pay wages, and stay connected with their workers so that we are all in a better ...
The Government is stepping up efforts to help protect New Zealand’s Pacific communities in the fight against COVID-19. Cabinet has agreed that $17 million will be allocated to support a COVID-19 Pacific Response Package, which will: Support Pacific health and disability services facing increased demand; Ramp up public health messaging ...
“Yesterday evening the Health Minister advised me of his trip to a beach during the lockdown and offered his resignation,” Jacinda Ardern said. “Under normal conditions I would sack the Minister of Health. What he did was wrong, and there are no excuses. “But right now, my priority is our ...
Last night as part of my preparation for the Epidemic Response Committee, I provided the Prime Minister with a complete picture of my activity outside my home during Alert Level 4. That included the fact that on the first weekend of the Alert Level 4 lockdown I drove my family ...
A range of support is being rolled out across New Zealand to help people look after their mental health during COVID-19 Health Minister David Clark said this morning. “COVID-19 has brought a lot of uncertainty into our lives and many of us will be feeling some level of distress or ...
The New Zealand Government has made arrangements to charter a flight for New Zealanders stranded in Peru to depart the country, following agreement with the Chilean government to allow the necessary transit through Chile, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters announced today. “Like many travellers around the world at the moment, ...
Hospital preparations for COVID-19 are well advanced says Health Minister David Clark. “Hospitals across New Zealand are repurposing buildings and training staff to get ready for COVID-19 patients. This gives me confidence that we are well prepared for any potential increase in COVID-19 patients needing hospital level care,” said David ...
The Government will be introducing legislation to make changes to the Companies Act to help companies facing insolvency due to COVID-19 to remain viable and keep New Zealanders in jobs. The temporary changes include: Giving directors of companies facing significant liquidity problems because of COVID-19 a ‘safe harbour’ from insolvency ...
The Government’s plan to cushion the blow of COVID-19 by supporting incomes, jobs and businesses, and position the economy to recover has been backed by another international report. International credit rating agency Moody’s today reaffirmed its highest Aaa credit rating on New Zealand, saying the economy is expected to remain ...
The Government has stepped in to support vital air links to our offshore islands, the Chatham Islands, Great Barrier Island and Motiti Island, Transport Minister Phil Twyford announced today. “As part of our $600 million support package to minimise the impacts of COVID-19 on the aviation sector, the Government has ...
National sports organisations have been given certainty of funding to ensure they can remain viable through the COVID-19 pandemic, Sport and Recreation Minister Grant Robertson announced today. “The global spread of COVID-19 has had a significant impact on sport and recreation in New Zealand, including the cancellation or postponement of ...
Changes have been made to allow butchers to process pork, only for supply to supermarkets or other processors or retailers that are open, Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor has announced. “We carefully weighed the risk of allowing butchers to open their shops for retail customers, but the risk of spreading COVID-19 ...
Essential workers who take leave from work to comply with public health guidance are being supported with a leave scheme to ensure they will continue to receive income, say the Minister of Workplace Relations and Safety Iain Lees-Galloway and Minister for Social Development, Carmel Sepuloni. A number of essential businesses ...
A Government WhatsApp channel has been launched to help make information more easily accessible and shareable in the fight against COVID-19. Govt.NZ, which is free to use on any mobile device, will carry information and news for the public, businesses, healthcare providers, not for profits and local government. It can ...
The Government has announced a plan to enable the safe, orderly exit of tens of thousands of stranded foreign nationals from New Zealand during the current COVID-19 Alert Level 4 restrictions, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Winston Peters has said. “When we moved into lockdown a week ago, the ...
Health Minister Dr David Clark says the Government is delivering on its commitment to support general practice doctors and nurses, and pharmacies on the front-line of our fight against COVID-19. "For us to overcome COVID-19, we need community health services such as general practice and community pharmacy to step up ...
Justice Susan Thomas has been appointed Chief High Court Judge, Attorney-General David Parker announced today. She replaces Justice Geoffrey Venning who has resigned from the position. David Parker paid tribute to Justice Venning, who he said had stewarded the High Court very capably over the last five years. “On behalf ...
Businesses can start applying to their banks for loans under the Business Finance Guarantee Scheme set up to support the New Zealand economy during the COVID-19 pandemic. “We’re moving quickly to protect New Zealand businesses, jobs and the economy during this unprecedented global economic shock,” Finance Minister Grant Robertson said. ...
Work is underway looking at measures to speed up consents for development and infrastructure projects during the recovery from COVID 19, to provide jobs and stimulate our economy. Environment Minister David Parker said the COVID-19 pandemic is a serious global crisis that will have a wide ranging and lasting impact ...
Advance payments will be made to transport construction industry contractors to retain the workforce and ensure it is ready to quickly gear up to build projects which will be vital to New Zealand’s COVID-19 economic recovery, Transport Minister Phil Twyford announced today. He said keeping the workforce required to build ...
The Government has tasked a group of industry leaders to seek out infrastructure projects that are ready to start as soon as the construction industry returns to normal to reduce the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Economic Development Minister Phil Twyford and Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones say. The Infrastructure ...
Work to scale up the health system in preparation for COVID-19 was today outlined by Health Minister David Clark, as he reported back to the new Epidemic Response Committee. “We are well placed to contain the spread of COVID-19. We have taken early and decisive action at our borders, and ...
The Government is refining its COVID-19 essential business guidance to include the distribution of news publications for communities which are hard to reach. The Minister of Broadcasting, Communications and Digital Media, Kris Faafoi, said the move was in recognition of the importance for New Zealanders who might be harder to ...
The Government is ensuring supermarkets can open on Easter Sunday so we can buy groceries, but stay closed on Good Friday allowing workers to take a break. This provides a balanced approach and ensures we avoid large queues that two days closure may cause. “Supermarkets will be able to open ...
Following the successful conclusion of the Building Partner Capacity (BPC) mission at Taji, New Zealand defence personnel are returning to New Zealand from Iraq, in accordance with the Cabinet decision made in June 2019, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Ron Mark announced today. “New Zealand is very ...
The State of National Emergency to help stop the spread of COVID-19 has been extended for a further seven days, Minister of Civil Defence Peeni Henare said. The initial declaration on March 25 lasted seven days and can be extended as many times as necessary. “Since we went into isolation ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joanne Orlando, Researcher: Children and Technology, Western Sydney University COVID-19 has left parents grappling with the challenges of online learning, entertainment and work. It’s natural the amount of time children spend using screens will now increase. But that’s OK. Screen time recommendations ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Sanderson, Professor and Inaugural Judith Neilson Chair in Architecture, UNSW The head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) has warned coronavirus poses “an existential threat to our continent”. Evidence from past crises shows not everyone is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gillian Triggs, Emeritus Professor, University of Melbourne Grandmothers as social activists? What a radical idea … but one that is increasingly true of today’s generation of grandmothers. Witness the determination and courage of Karen Nettleton in pulling out all the stops to ...
Holiday towns around the country have been on edge, fearing Easter visits from city folk going to their baches. But in one instance, the fears might have been over-stated. Tim Murphy reports. Truth is the first casualty of war, and we keep getting told we are in a war against ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle O’Shea, Senior Lecturer Sport Management, Western Sydney University Against a global backdrop of cancelled sports leagues, and as part of their season opening, National Rugby League (NRL) fans recently packed the stands of Townsville’s new Queensland Country Bank Stadium. Fortunately, professional ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dianne McGrath, Environmental Engineering PhD candidate; sustainability and food waste expertise, RMIT University As a food waste researcher, I’m interested in how humans prepare food, eat and manage leftovers. This interest is not just confined to Earth – it extends to other ...
For all The Spinoff’s latest coverage of Covid-19 see here. Read Siouxsie Wiles’s work here. New Zealand is currently in alert level four. The country is shut down, apart from essential services. For updated official government advice, see here.The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is funded by The Spinoff Members. To support this work, join The ...
Kayne Peters leaves his Auckland home to spend the lockdown in his whanau bubble in the King Country and help look after those most in need. Ka mate kainga tahi. Ka ora kainga rua. “One dwelling place is overcome, but the second is secure” This whakatauki or proverb well describes ...
The natural isolation of small Pacific islands set in the huge Pacific Ocean could prove to be the defining factor if these vulnerable nations manage to remain free of Covid-19. There is every reason to be optimistic if these small nations can keep rigid restrictions in place. Of course, the ...
How will we know when we’ve been successful in stopping Covid-19 within New Zealand? Farah Hancock reports. As the country moves into its third week of lockdown and the daily number of cases continues to drop, how can we be certain it's safe to move levels and how will we ...
Are we nearly in the clear? It's too early to tell and we can't take anything for granted, says Professor Nicholas Agar of Victoria University of Wellington. Our nation’s fight against Covid-19 seems to be going well. As a Kiwi, I’m enjoying the global applause for our “go hard and ...
The government yesterday announced it would step up its arrivals policy to mandate hotel quarantine or ‘managed self-isolation’ for all returning New Zealanders – people like Andrew Todd, who describes what it’s like to live in a Covid-19 quarantine zone.Four weeks ago, I was living in Canada, earning a meagre ...
Halfway through the lockdown, government restrictions to prevent the spread of coronavirus seem to be taking hold. But the latest suite of measures show the Prime Minister is awake to the dangers of overconfidence, Sam Sachdeva writes “This is going to be a marathon.” Jacinda Ardern’s choice of metaphor to ...
Christchurch’s arterial routes, and the air around them, are being transformed by the lockdown. David Williams takes a look As the days shorten, the nightly commute comes ever closer to sunset. That would normally mean thousands of cars lining up at busy Christchurch intersections, sending plumes of carbon monoxide into ...
A doctor's note from novelist Eileen Merriman, a haematologist at North Shore hospital. At the hospital where I work is a critically ill patient infected with Covid-19 in our intensive care unit – younger than me, with no pre-existing medical conditions. And today I overhead a couple of doctors discussing ...
Every Friday of lockdown, LockerRoom shares posts from Kiwi sportswomen who've caught our eye with novel ways of keeping on top of their game. This week, gymnasts put their own spin on the toilet paper challenge, the Black Sticks captain gets her pet in on lockdown training, and a triathlete ...
If you’re out on the road this weekend, be prepared to be stopped – and not just by the police. Kayne Peters reports on the official and unofficial roadblocks springing up all over the motu. Iwi across the country have stepped up efforts to secure their borders ahead of Easter ...
The Covid-19 challenge for disabled people is two-fold: keeping them safe, and ensuring disability support continues to be available to them. What's the plan for this? asks Samuel Murray. While we are rightfully focused on eliminating Covid-19, we need a specific plan that addresses the needs of both the disability ...
Although New Zealand-based e-commerce companies like TradeMe are toeing the line on non-essential sales, Facebook Marketplace remains a wild west where buying and selling hasn't stopped, Marc Daalder reports Want a pair of high-heeled Converse shoes to wear during lockdown? How about a cashmere scarf or new jigsaw puzzle? You're ...
Responding to sudden, shocking change requires a double lens, writes Fiona Farrell.Read more from the Lockdown letters here.My granddaughter has been making a newspaper. The Daily Chirp. It’s very small, as befits a newspaper designed for birds, but it contains news (a worrying rise in Tweet-19), “Adds” for birdseed medicine ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Education Minister Dan Tehan has warned non-government schools that if they fail to open for the next term they will face losing funding. He said on Thursday that “as part of the funding requirement” a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Remember how last year’s Easter felt bizarre because the country was in election-mode? How normal that seems, now everything is surreal, with the nation “holidaying” in this peculiar, unpleasant limbo. As we contemplate the grimness ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Michelle Grattan talks with MPs Tim Watts (Gellibrand, Victoria), Fiona Martin (Reid, NSW), Clare O’Neil (Hotham, Victoria) and Helen Haines (Indi, Victoria) about how they do their job during the pandemic. They discuss the operation ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nic Geard, Senior Lecturer, School of Computing and Information Systems, University of Melbourne; Senior Research Fellow, Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, University of Melbourne Following the emergence and rapid spread of COVID-19, several countries have succeeded in bringing local outbreaks under ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin Today’s chart shows the per capita level of testing performed in a number of countries. While the highest testing rate shown is Norway, we should note that Iceland has tested over eight percent of its population; too high to show on this chart. A ...
By RNZ News New Zealand has recorded just 29 new cases of Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, but the prime minister says a decision on changing the alert level will only be made two days before the lockdown ends. It is the fourth day in a row there ...
The Guardian’s Pacific Project disaster video.By the Pacific Project Tropical Cyclone Harold lashed the South Pacific island of Vanuatu, ripping off roofs and downing telecommunications, before moving towards Fiji and Tonga. The powerful cyclone made landfall on Monday in Sana province, an island north of Vanuatu’s capital Port ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elyse Methven, Lecturer in Law, University of Technology Sydney The message to everyone during the coronavirus pandemic is to stay at home and only leave if you really need to for, say, food, health care or exercise. Police now have powers to ...
Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand. This week he talks to Pat MacFie from Manaaki.This week we have another special podcast highlighting some of ...
NZ First leader Winston Peters today said he wants the election held on November 21, Radio NZ reported. He says he believes the health system would be under the pump in September with the winter flu season and the country potentially still dealing with the impacts of Covid-19. Prime Minister ...
New Zealand Rock Lobster (crayfish) are once again heading to China with the first small consignment being airfreighted last week. It was one of the first primary industry sectors in New Zealand to be affected by Covid-19, and as we now know, the sledgehammer that hit this industry was just ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lauren Bloomfield, Senior Lecturer, School of Medicine, University of Notre Dame Australia Lockdown measures aimed at limiting the spread of COVID-19 should actually help cut the cases of flu this year. That’s because keeping people apart to reduce the spread of coronavirus ...
New modelling from Te Pūnaha Matatini projects the impact of the lockdown, and what our next steps could be, Marc Daalder reports New figures from a team of mathematicians and scientists modelling the way Covid-19 could affect New Zealand indicate the lockdown has significantly dampened the spread of the virus. ...
Bernard Hickey talks to Kiwibank chief economist Jarrod Kerr about the latest retail spending data and the Reserve Bank's call for banks to step up as market-makers for corporate and local government bonds. In their latest daily 'Bernard Zooms out to lunch with Jarrod' video, Bernard Hickey and Jarrod ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Georgie Russell, Senior Lecturer, Deakin University This Easter will be especially challenging, with family isolation and many parents under financial strain, or other stressors. So, many parents will be looking to restore some sense of “normality” by welcoming the Easter bunny into ...
The Beths’ live-streamed concert yesterday showed that even in lockdown, music isn’t dead. Here’s why it worked, and where you can see Kiwis live streaming for the next week.Yesterday at 9am, Liz Stokes put a giant pineapple mask over her head and played the Animal Crossing theme on a trumpet ...
New Conservative Leader Leighton Baker has lived in and around the Waimakariri district since 1992 and is revelling in the opportunity to represent the electorate in Parliament after the 2020 general election. “Waimakariri is a diverse district with a strong ...
“Hard-hit councils, who oversee half this country’s public infrastructure, require financial support from central government that is tied to shared priorities through Urban Growth Partnerships,” says Paul Blair CEO of Infrastructure New Zealand. ...
Airways may close seven of its regional air traffic control towers because of a collapse in traveller numbers. The services under review are provided at Hawke's Bay, Gisborne, New Plymouth, Rotorua and Invercargill Airport as well as the airfield flight information services provided at Kapiti Coast Airport and Milford Sound ...
Proposals to expand the role of local councils into climate change mitigation under the Resource Management Act would add confusion, complexity and duplication, according to the Petroleum Exploration and Production Association of New Zealand (PEPANZ) and ...
As New Zealand enters its third week of Covid-19 lockdown, a just released set of modelling provides a flare of light at the end of the tunnel, reports Toby Manhire.On a day that the active case number decreased, it finds that “While New Zealand case numbers remain low, tracing, testing, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rachael L. Brown, Director of the Centre for Philosophy of the Sciences and Lecturer at the School of Philosophy, Australian National University As they released the modelling of the COVID-19 pandemic behind Australia’s social isolation policies this week, Prime Minister Scott Morrison ...
The latest in our new series of charts, graphics and data visualisations by Chris McDowall.This work is entirely funded by the generosity of The Spinoff MembersThese posts collate the most recent statistics and present them as charts and maps. The Ministry of Health typically publishes data updates in the early ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jim Tognolini, Director, Centre for Educational Measurement and Assessment, University of Sydney Following a meeting with states and territories, federal education minister, Dan Tehan said year 12 students were a priority, and were being sent a clear signal: “There will be no ...
The Council of Licenced Firearms Owners (COLFO) is calling for an equal extension to all licencing regimes, following the Government’s announcement today offering motorists a six-month licencing grace period. COLFO says that like motorists, licenced ...
Dear Minister Jones, Firstly, let me introduce myself. My name is Adrian. I am an employee in the forestry industry, a Future Forester, a graduate of Canterbury University and, albeit very small, a forest owner. ...
As countries in Europe plan a tightrope walk back out of lockdown, the World Health Organisation warns it is too early to relax strict suppression measures in the fight against Covid-19, writes Peter Bale Two weeks into New Zealand's aggressive and early lockdown to combat the spread of Covid-19, voices ...
Consumers dramatically changed their spending patterns last month because of Covid-19 and the government ordered lockdown. Official numbers show overall retail spending using electronic cards fell a record seasonally adjusted 3.9 percent on the previous month. Stats NZ senior manager Sue Chapman said spending on eating out and accommodation plunged ...
A new $200,000 business subsidy package is being launched in Christchurch to help those affected by Covid-19. The ChristchurchNZ business support subsidy will offer eligible businesses up to $1000 each to seek professional advice. The scheme - funded by ChristchurchNZ, the city's economic development agency, will support small to medium ...
Large retailers have been quick to apply for government wage subsidies during the Covid-19 lockdown. The Warehouse has received $67.7 million to cover the labour costs of the shutdown of its Red Shed, Torpedo, Noel Leeming, and Warehouse Stationery chains, which between them employ about 11,000 staff. "The receipt of ...
A new report Quantifying the wellbeing costs of Covid-19 by the New Zealand Initiative shows how an economic hit of about 6.1% of GDP would be justified if it meant saving 33,600 lives during the Covid-19 pandemic. The figures, compiled by research fellow ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dougal Sutherland, Clinical Psychologist, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington The COVID-19 pandemic has forced millions of people to live under strict lockdown conditions, but the psychology of human behaviour predicts they will find it harder to stick to the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luke Smillie, Associate Professor, University of Melbourne The coronavirus pandemic has caused tens of thousands of deaths around the world and pushed major economies into a tailspin. Beyond those impacts, almost all of us will face psychological challenges – trying to maintain ...
We asked Tony Baird, of Newsroom foundation supporter Vodafone NZ, to provide some insights into how New Zealanders have been using online and their smartphones during the first fortnight of lockdown. At Vodafone NZ, we entered new territory in this lockdown as New Zealanders have been turning to their smartphones and devices ...
The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union has launched a new campaign to temporarily reduce the remuneration of politicians, senior bureaucrats, and council bosses to match those voluntary and involuntary efforts in the private sector where pay is being ...
Analysis by Keith RankinWhat is Mercantilism?Keith Rankin. Mercantilism is the form of public policy that was dominant in Europe – especially Northern Europe – in the ‘early modern’ period; meaning in the period loosely between 1500 and 1800 (sixteenth to eighteenth centuries). In a political sense it ...
Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency says legislative changes to driver licensing and vehicle certification requirements coming into effect tomorrow (10 April) will help drivers and vehicle owners safely navigate through the COVID-19 lockdown period and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katie Woolaston, Lawyer, Queensland University of Technology Never before have we seen how the human use of wildlife can yield such catastrophe, as we have with COVID-19. The current available evidence indicates COVID-19 was first transmitted in a wildlife market in Wuhan. ...
In a week alone there was an increase of about 10,000 people now relying on welfare to get by. As the number of benefit recipients rapidly increases as a result of COVID-19, Auckland Action Against Poverty is calling on the Government to urgently lift benefits ...
CEAC stands alongside Forest & Bird, Greenpeace, WWF-New Zealand, Generation Zero, EDS and Ecologic letter to Jacinda Ardern calling on the Government to transform the New Zealand economy to tackle climate change, save native species, improve freshwater ...
Better Public Media welcomes the announcement that the Ministry of Education will fund Television New Zealand and Māori Television to provide up to six hours daily of educational content for our children and students, beginning next week. It is ...
It’s OK if you don’t come out of lockdown with abs.We are living through the worst global pandemic since the Spanish Flu in 1918 and the beginning of an economic calamity that has already claimed the jobs of millions of workers the world over. Hospitals are full, schools are closed and many countries are in ...
One thing is abundantly clear, when this lock down is over, many tourism related businesses will be reliant on Domestic Tourism to stay afloat. But what will that mean from a Freedom Camping point of view? While it has been true, that many towns ...
The Government has announced that all incoming travellers will be quarantined away from their homes and families for a 14 day period, after a public campaign that received widespread support The Government has bowed to a public campaign led by epidemiologists and the National Party to have all returning New Zealanders ...
How is Covid-19 spreading within the country? Newsroom is collating information as it's available to paint a picture of what's happening.The following charts are based on numbers shared at the daily press conference. These may vary from the full day's numbers released in the Ministry of Health's spreadsheet ...
New Zealand is has joined the ranks of countries experiencing a wave of sabotage attempts against mobile networks as false claims about 5G go viral, Marc Daalder reports Spark, 2degrees, Vodafone and the Rural Connectivity Group have all experienced threats or actual attempts of sabotage of cell towers in recent ...
Air traffic control closure sends COVID-19 shockwaves through regional airports Seven regional airports are shocked that Airways NZ, the national air traffic management organisation, wants to discuss the removal of air traffic control at their facilities ...
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters wants an election on November 21st. Peters told RNZ he fought for that originally as it's his long held position that summer elections are better. ...
The national lockdown was justifiable to protect the nation's intensive care capacity. But any prolonged lockdown and border closure will cause economic issues that lead to broader, indirect problems for our health and wellbeing, writes Professor Grant Guilford. In a caring society it is right that we do our utmost ...
She’s not a teacher or a fluent speaker – she just wants to practise with you. Join Leonie Hayden as she works through the first four weeks of Scotty Morrison’s Māori Made Easy.Yesterday we were counting things, today we’re counting people. We have different ways of counting each because people aren’t ...
A news item by Māni Dunlop, Māori News Director, has been posted on the RNZ website under the heading Government urged to put Māori at forefront of Covid-19 planning. “Forefront” means the position of greatest importance or prominence. One implication to be drawn from the headline, therefore. is that Māori ...
Women’s Rights Commissioner Saunoamaali’i Karanina Sumeo is encouraging women to seek help immediately if they find themselves in an abusive situation during the COVID-19 isolation. Often, people who were already in an abusive situation will likely ...
Open mike 01/08/2011 
2 hours ago
The pandemic has shown us how effective our public service is. They've pulled together a massive policy response, from a lockdown to economic support to healthcare to planning how to keep everything running when this is over, and done it in next to no time. They are heroes, who have ...16 hours ago
In 1968 Canadian sociologist Laurence Peter coined the phrase “Peter Principle” as a contribution to the sociology of organisations. It explains that in complex organizations people rise to the level of their own incompetence. That is, they get promoted so long as they meet or exceed the specified criteria for ...17 hours ago
The practice and business of music has been one of the sectors most gravely impacted by the virus sweeping the world. The emphatic nature of our government's response, necessary as it was, has slammed the industry and the people who work in it.There are New Zealand artists – Nadia Reid, ...18 hours ago
. . April 8: Day 14 of living in lock-down… The good news first: the downward trajectory of new cases appears to be a real thing. In the last four days, since Sunday, new infections have been dropping: Sunday: 89 new cases Monday: 67 Tuesday: 54 Today (Wednesday): 50 The ...20 hours ago
The anti-fluoride movement wants to restrict your reading to “just four studies.” They actively ignore or attempt to discredit other relevant studies. Image credit: Censorship in media. For earlier articles in this series see: ... 24 hours ago
52 Articles Physical science of global warming & effects Sensitivity of ice flow to uncertainty in flow law parameters in an idealized one-dimensional geometry (open access) Observations & observational methods of global warming & effects Will heat stress take its toll on milk production in China? Uncoupled El Niño ...1 day ago
We are seeing what has been termed “a greater challenge than the crash of 2008” by a growing number of economists and more rational, sane commentators, because whilst that was a shocking exposure of the levels to which hubris had sunk, right down to the blank cheque given those who ...2 days ago
It’s a beautiful autumn afternoon, we need to get out of the house, and so our bubble sets off on a bike ride around our local neighbourhood, Cambridge Park. The bikes come out of the garage, and, being really certain we have a front door key, close the garage door ...2 days ago
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Would Winston Peters do better keeping out of the media spotlight? He sounds confused, and his policies are a mix of unlimited fund vote attraction and contradictions.
The darned book seems to be a problem.
He’s proposing to halve student debt as young vote bait. “We expect them to come in their droves.”
His worst proposal is:
Who will decide how many benefits to cut? On what basis? And how will cutting all the benefits of all the wider family affect all the children?
It sounds like Sippenhaft.
Who would want to try a coalition with Winston Peters and confusion?
Winston is hinting that he will stand in Te Atatu. The seat should, barring something extraordinary, be Phil Twyford’s but Peters could cause problems. Local support for Tau Henare is brittle and if there is a run of support then Peters could have a chance.
I wonder if there is an element of utu involved in trying to show up former NZFirster Henare.
If it occurs it also suggests that NZ First will want to cannibalise Labour’s vote, just as they did in 1995. That year Peters campaigned through the country sounding like Labour lite and all but promising coalition with Labour after the election.
Then over a few bottles of whisky with Bolger he sold out and went with the tories.
I prefer that Labour now takes Peters head on. It is unlikely that NZ First will make it. And policy formation with an ex torie leading a bunch of immigrant hating climate change deniers is problematic to say the least.
I prefer that Labour now takes Peters head on.
I think they should. Peters and NZF look more unreliable than ever.
It’s not just that he seems older and more cantankerous. He doesn’t appear to be anywhere near as sharp as he used to be. It almost seems he could be a few marbles short of a Colosseum.
Peters, banks, brash, Douglas show the sad sad state of politics in this country where troughing has beens could have a say in the direction of NZ when they should all be directing golf carts around retirement homes.
Three banking guys run this country for their international masters. John Key as the prime minister, Don Brash as the evil in the background linked to the new American Century Neocon boys and Michael Moore as the US ambassador and linked to the Bilderberg group and the trilateral commission. Everything else is just puppets playing political theatre in their usual venal and narrow minded way.
Here is a presentation by Edward G. Griffin on the origins of the privately owned Federal Reserve of New York.
I had the honour of meeting him in March 2008 and asked him what he thought of John Key and his history on Wall street and what it would mean if he was elected as NZ prime minister. He answered: “He will sell your country to the highest bidder and throw in his mother with the deal.”
When I asked him if he thought it was possible he had been groomed for the job of PM he said: “It has happened before.”
Things appear to be falling apart in Rusty Shackleford’s new Somalia.
Of-course he will blame the weather, not the fact there is no functioning Government.
“The current government has no control over a number of areas in the country. Even the capital of Mogadishu is partially controlled by militia groups, making it almost impossible to deliver relief supplies.”
link
What Do Wealthy Arabs Really Care About?.
It is a stain on the forehead of all Arabs and Muslims that Americans and Europeans have moved faster to provide urgent aid to the famine-stricken population in Somalia, one of the 22 members of the Arab League. Saudi Arabia has pledged $60 million, but it remains to be seen if it will fulfill its promise. The promise is considered a drop in the sea compared with what Western countries have pledged to save the lives of the Somalis.
The promise is considered a drop in the sea compared with what Western countries have pledged to save the lives of the Somalis.
Have you got any figures to show how much the “Western countries” have contributed to Somali famine relief compared to the daily amount they spend on bombing Libya?
Completely unrelated matters, Mozza. The fact is that the UN is co-ordinating the relief effort in Somalia in horrendously difficult circumstances and if it wasn’t for that humanitariam effort thousands would be dying.
The Libyan situation can be resolved instantly if Gaddafi accepts any of the repeated offers to generously fund his retirement in or out of the country. The West’s contribution there is also fantastic, really. A combination of aid, logistical support and remarkably accurate bombing of Gaddafi’s forces mean the Libyan people have a real chance of a democratic future. Maybe this coming holiday season will herald the Ramadan Revolution? I certainly hope so.
Completely unrelated matters, Mozza.
Actually, these matters are closely connected. The quote put up by Joe90 is a naked attempt to embarrass “all Arabs and Muslims”, and show that “the West” is morally superior. In fact, “the West” is waging war on three countries at the moment, and spending enormous amounts on it.
The fact is that the UN is co-ordinating the relief effort in Somalia in horrendously difficult circumstances and if it wasn’t for that humanitariam effort thousands would be dying.
True. That’s the UN. That’s not “the West”.
The Libyan situation can be resolved instantly if Gaddafi accepts any of the repeated offers to generously fund his retirement in or out of the country.
On what basis do you make that claim?
The West’s contribution there is also fantastic, really. A combination of aid, logistical support and remarkably accurate bombing of Gaddafi’s forces mean the Libyan people have a real chance of a democratic future.
For the sake of argument, I’ll leave aside for now your claims that “the West” has been “fantastic” and that its bombs are “remarkably accurate”. What’s really interesting is that you seem to believe that “the West” is interested in promoting a “democratic future” in Libya—or anywhere, for that matter. What has “the West” done in the middle east or South America or Southeast Asia to promote a “democratic future”?
Maybe this coming holiday season will herald the Ramadan Revolution? I certainly hope so.
Well then, if by a “Ramadan Revolution”, it’s a democratic revolution you want, you’re not in the same camp as “the West”. Have you any familiarity of “the West’s” history of promoting democracy in Egypt, Palestine, Iran and Saudi Arabia?
Sorry, but I remained convinced that they are completely unrelated matters. You say they are closely connected, but give no evidence. And you agree that the Somalian aid effort is run by the UN, not ‘the west’, which further strengthens my point that they are unrelated.
Gaddafi has been given many offers to step down over the last few months. It’s been in the all the news reports, so I’m surprised you aren’t aware of it. The sticking point has been whether he is allowed to stay in Libya. He wants to, the opposition will only accept exile.
I haven’t got the time to answer your question on what the west has done to promote democracy in the middle East in any detail, but I would suggest that writing democratic constitutions and then holding elections in both Afghanastan and Iraq suggests that the west has a commitment to democratising at least those countries. If you need a broader history lesson, I suspect you may be able to google some resources that will help you there.
And you agree that the Somalian aid effort is run by the UN, not ‘the west’, which further strengthens my point that they are unrelated.
The extract quoted by joe90 said that “Americans and Europeans have moved faster” to provide aid to Somalia. This implies that the U.S. and its obedient vassal continent are somehow superior to the Arab League countries. The fact is, of course, that the U.S. and Europe are spending a fortune on the bombing of Libya, and the arming of Israel with attack helicopters, (illegal) white phosphorus and (illegal) cluster munitions, all of which are used on civilian populations. The money contributed for famine relief by the U.S. and Europe is a derisory sum.
Gaddafi has been given many offers to step down over the last few months.
I’d like the dishonest, foolish and intellectually idle New Zealand prime minister to step down. I’d like the corrupt British prime minister to resign immediately. I think the Canadian prime minister is an embarrassment and should be removed forthwith. Why should Gaddafi have to “step down” before those three scoundrels do?
I haven’t got the time to answer your question on what the west has done to promote democracy in the middle East in any detail
Give me one example, please. Just one. I’ll help you avoid a few pitfalls, however: don’t mention the killing of democratic government in Iran, or the military and diplomatic support for Saddam Hussein, or the support of Egyptian dictatorships since the 1970s, or the contemptuous treatment of Palestinians after the free and fair elections of 2006.
Okay, now tell us how “the West” has SUPPORTED democracy in the middle east.
I would suggest that writing democratic constitutions and then holding elections in both Afghanastan and Iraq suggests that the west has a commitment to democratising at least those countries.
Nobody would deny the U.S. has a rhetorical commitment to democracy. Perhaps you need to listen to what Afghanis think about the American and European “commitment to democratising” their country….
So no answers to my original point then? Which was that the attempt to get rid of the Libyan dictator and the aid effort in Somalia are unrelated.
Btw, you do know that they had actual elections in Afghanistan and Iraq, don’t you? And in Palestine, for that matter. If they weren’t perfect it’s hardly surprising, but it’s an improvement on the previous arrangement. And democratic elections are the major difference between the PM’s of NZ, Canada and England, who, to the best of my knowledge, have never used tanks against their own civilian population, nor organised the bombing of civilian airliners.
Minor point VoR, but there is no PM of England.
Andthe British government certainly did deploy tanks on the streets of Glasgow following Bloody Friday in 1919
http://gdl.cdlr.strath.ac.uk/redclyde/redclyeve14.htm
Fair enough, Bill. It’s worth noting that Muldoon had the army on standby near Bastion Point during the last days of the (re)occupation too. And I imagine the ’51 blue had the troops itching to pull the trigger on their 303’s.
But Morrissey it was who referred to the 3 current PM’s, not me, and I replied to that comment in kind. Quite why I referred to Cameron as the “English’ PM, I don’t know. Perhaps something to do with the lack of Tory MP’s in Scotland and Wales?
Okay. Whatever. But while I’m railing against your naivity, what about Iran Air Flight 655 (IR655)?
Sure, it wasn’t an act of Canada or NZ or the UK. T’was the US. But a valid example to signpost in light of your comment methinks
Sorry, didn’t realise you were railing against my naivety. I’ll take notes from here on in. Can’t wait for the exam!
As for IR655, what has the mistaken shooting down of that plane 20 years ago got to do with Somalia, Libya or anything current? Er, nothing?
You said that ‘the good guys’ haven’t deliberately targeted civilian airliners.
Unlike Libya (presumably). As though Libyan involvement in ‘the Lockerbie bombing’ is a given, which it isn’t.
The fact that the US claims that the shooting down of flight IR665 was ‘a mistake’ is very much contested.
So no answers to my original point then? Which was that the attempt to get rid of the Libyan dictator and the aid effort in Somalia are unrelated.
It was actually joe90 who posted the original absurd attempt to show that the U.S. and its obedient servants in Europe were morally superior to the Arab League states. I pointed out that that is a ridiculous position to hold when the U.S. and Europe are presently prosecuting THREE wars of choice, one of them without even the slightest moral or military justification.
Btw, you do know that they had actual elections in Afghanistan and Iraq, don’t you?
They had actual elections in occupied Vietnam in the 1960s too. And you do know that the United States supported the anti-democracy forces in both Iraq and Afghanistan throughout the 1980s?
And in Palestine, for that matter.
The U.S. and its vassal states have done nothing except express anger and contempt at the Palestinians for voting the wrong way in 2006. They even bank-rolled and armed a bloody Fatah coup attempt in 2007. The U.S. and Europe do not want democracy in Palestine, any more than they wanted it in Iran in 1954, in Egypt in the 1970s, in Algeria or in Iraq in the early 1990s.
…the PM’s of NZ, Canada and England, who, to the best of my knowledge, have never used tanks against their own civilian population, nor organised the bombing of civilian airliners.
All three of these mediocrities and yes-men continue to express support for the “mission” in Afghanistan and Iraq, with Key’s moronic “that’s why we’re in Afghanistan” comment after the Norwegian killings being perhaps the most craven. During and after Israel’s murderous 22-day rampage in Gaza in 2008-9, all three of them voiced “solidarity” and “support”—for the Israelis.
How are these three superior to any other national leader, either morally or intellectually?
So, still no answer to my original point, Morrissey? The relationship or otherwise between Somalia and Libya?
Hilarious! I am reminded of the 1960s joke that “they’re holding a general election in Greece – they’re going to elect another general. Anyone but you, finds it just a tad suspicious that the ‘elections’ in Afghanistan and Iraq chose rulers pre-approved by the filth, er Americans…
Not yet, anyway. But you think they haven’t done any other damage? Ah, yes, Randbot aren’t you…
Oh unbelievable! Either you’re incredibly stupidly naive, or you’re a crazy Neocon! The actions of the ‘West’ (the USA) in Libya, stink on ice, and there are so many questions even my right-wing(ish) son is suspicious. You are an American, or you just have a general hate-on against Muslims, and here was I thinking it was only Christians you loathed! Oh, I have just remembered, you’re just a Rand-bot, hey?
Unlike the western supported thugs who are rebelling, Gadaffi doesn’t want to sell his country down the river.
@mikesh – No why should he. Gadaffi has been on top for over 30 years in an oil rich country. No, no we won’t go is an understandable chant. The idea that only one person can be found to run a country, or that man’s son, or his daughter indicates that there is a ruling elite sticking to their comforts and power.
Interesting in South Australia they are just trying to get rid of Premier Mike Rann who has been in for 9 years in a uranium mining state. He had been in the SA House of Assembly since 1985 and been South Australian Labor parliamentary leader since 1994. Same thing – he doesn’t want to go. Even in a democracy it is hard to get the incumbent to move on but the longer they stay the more difficult to get them out and the right person in.
[@mikesh – No why should he. Gadaffi has been on top for over 30 years in an oil rich country. No, no we won’t go is an understandable chant. The idea that only one person can be found to run a country, or that man’s son, or his daughter indicates that there is a ruling elite sticking to their comforts and power.]
Quite so. And the rebels would like to replace him as the “ruling elite”, and of course they’re prepared to turn the country to over to foreign capital in return for western support for the purpose of gaining power.
VoR.
When you made that comment at 10:56, were you able to maintain a straight face as you typed?
I think this gives pause for thought – the western powers using “Economic Hit Men”
Hit man schmit man. Jackal schmackal.
All he’s describing is the bog standard mechanisms of SAPs and the bog standard means of escalation/ follow up.
And then inserting a fiction of shadowy anti-hero hit men and jackals.
Which in some ways is okay, ’cause he’s essentially outlining a truth. And maybe he reckoned if ‘the story’ was ‘sexed up’ then Mr and Mrs Middle America would be hooked in as readers. Not to mention he stood to make a fair bit of money if his book sold.
Gosh you know how to take the romance out of a moment.
Low taxes and the lack of government red tape rewards entrepreneurial effort. It will surely bring a Somalian economic boom any time now, MrSmith.
Lord Winston’s prejudiced and ignorant comments
Sunday morning National Radio, Sunday 31 July 2011
Chris Laidlaw’s guest: ROBERT WINSTON
As long as Lord Winston speaks about genetic science and television presenting, he is plausible. Unfortunately, as anyone who has ever heard RICHARD DAWKINS blither ignorantly about the middle east, or listened to the New Zealand government’s science advisor PETER GLUCKMAN [1] will know, the seriousness and scientific approach of these people is often not carried into their politics.
As an example, witness Lord Winston’s incredibly naive and ignorant statements about Israel in the following talk….
LAIDLAW: Hrrrrumph. How important is your Jewish heritage?
LORD WINSTON: The Jewish tradition means that science and evidence are very important in forming an ethical standpoint.
LAIDLAW: Did your family have much consciousness about Israel?
WINSTON: No, not much at all. We never gave it a thought. My feelings on Israel came from when Israel was besieged on all sides.
LAIDLAW: Hrrrrumph.
WINSTON: The problem is that there is a deeply ingrained set of people who will not accept the fact that Israel exists at all. It’s an AGONIZING problem for Jews.
LAIDLAW: Hmmmmm?
WINSTON: In the House of Lords over the last year, theere have been ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY questions on Israel and TWO on Kashmir. [2] That gives you an idea of the focus. Israel has a lot to be proud of. Its development of high-tech industries is amazing! It’s got a lot to show New Zealand in that area of development!
LAIDLAW: Hrrrumph! We don’t have quite the same force of necessity do we! Hrrrumph!
WINSTON: Well, no, I suppose you’re right!
LAIDLAW: What do you have to say about homeopathic medicine?
WINSTON: Well, my wife uses homeopathic medicine and I tease her about it, but she persists! We need to expect the same standards of proof that we expect with conventional medicine.
LAIDLAW: Spoken like a scientist! Which we should have expected! Hrrumph!
WINSTON: [modestly] We-e-e-e-ll…
LAIDLAW: Television is an amazing medium, and you’ve used it SHAMELESSLY for good causes. Is there any evidence it’s had an effect on education?
WINSTON: That’s a very good question. We haven’t done the metrics on this….
LAIDLAW: Finally, Lord Winston, what would you like to be remembered for?
WINSTON: Oh Chris! Any personal achievement is trivial. My three children are the best thing I’ve done. For anyone, if you can produce children who contribute to society….
—————————————————————————————
Dismayed at Laidlaw’s failure to challenge anything this practised liar said, I sent off the following email…
FROM: Morrissey Breen
TO: sundays@radionz.co.nz
TOPIC: Lord Winston’s prejudiced and ignorant comments
Dear Chris,
You let Lord Winston get away with saying, with sinister smoothness, that Israel was “besieged” by all the countries around it, and that it is threatened by “ingrained” prejudice by people who “won’t even accept its right to exist”. Both statements are nonsense, and nothing more than hardline Israeli state propaganda.
His casting of an aggressor state as a victim is a perfect inversion of the truth: Israel is “surrounded and besieged” in the same way Germany was “besieged” by its neighbours in the 1930s.
His claim that Israel’s “right to exist” needs to be acknowledged is nonsense: Gandhi never accepted the “right to exist” of Pakistan, and human rights advocates all over the world never accepted the “right to exist” of the Soviet Union or of apartheid South Africa.
Yours sincerely,
Morrissey Breen
Northcote Point
[1] /open-mike-27032011/#comment-313255
[2] This is the sort of British parliamentary speech that angers worshippers of the Israeli state like Robert Winston….
Robert Lord Winston is whipped cream, smooth, rich, satisfying. He is deprecating about all his wonderful achievements. And he likes to be eased comfortably nto his set speech giving his experiences. And everyone loves him, which is just as well as the man is ubiquitious.
I won’t forget hearing Kim Hill interview him, after the facts as usual, with queries that should have been simple for him to answer, though perhaps tedious as he has advanced so far in so many fields that explaining to a new audience about past history must be boring. But it’s the price of good book sales and large TV audiences. She didn’t put on her velvet gloves and stroke his ego, but treated him as the man of science he claims he is. He didn’t like it and told her so.
She didn’t put on her velvet gloves and stroke his ego, but treated him as the man of science he claims he is. He didn’t like it and told her so.
David Suzuki reacted angrily to Kim Hill a few months back. I thought he was over-sensitive, as Kim’s questions hadn’t been disrespectful, or even especially provocative. I would have thought Suzuki was smarter than to allow himself to lose his temper so completely.
Two less than savoury interviewees who Kim has reduced to spluttering anger are Jeffrey Archer and William Shawcross. Archer screamed at her in 1993, snarling: “I was WARNED about you!” Shawcross was embarrassed and angry at being reminded of his past support for Saddam Hussein. I thought Shawcross was going to burst a blood vessel, he was so incensed.
Last year she keelhauled another dyed-in-the-wool liar, John Howard. While Howard licked his wounds in private, and decided to make no public statements about the humiliation, dear old witless Karl DuFresne decided to make a stand on behalf of the great statesman, and wrote a confused and woolly-minded attack on Hill in the Australian Spectator.
Thanks for that Morrissey. Good old Karl – he’ll never run out of work when he supports people of John Howard’s ilk.
And did you see Kim Hill interveiw Brash on TV, this was after some chauvinistic comments he had made in the media, she destroyed him and by half time I was almost feeling sorry for him, almost, she could have let him off the hook, but to her credit continued to show him for what the sexist, shallow, old man he is.
Listened to precisely the same Laidlaw interview of Winston on Sunday morning and (much to the surprise of family members) let out one or two loud expletives.
Still, not at all surprising. I think I read about Winston’s lazy second-hand, Zionist-cliche-ridden views on Israel at least 5 or 6 years ago. It may have been in some sort of open letter to The Guardian. I seem to remember that both he and Melvyn Bragg were expressing some particularly ignorant Israeli apologetics in the British media either at the time of Israel’s murderous assault on the West Bank in 2002 (the so-called “Operation Defensive Shield” – Jesus, now there’s Orwellian absurdity for you !), or during the ultimately unsuccessful British attempt to boycott Israeli Universities in about 2005/2006. Or possibly on both occassions.
You’ve gotta love Laidlaw’s “Hrrrrumphs”. I think it’s his substitute for incisive/critical comment.
You’ve gotta love Laidlaw’s “Hrrrrumphs”. I think it’s his substitute for incisive/critical comment.
Actually, I think Chris Laidlaw is a well informed and deeply concerned interviewer. As well as all the Hrrrrumphing, he regularly voices a skeptical “Hmmmmm?” to show he is disturbed by what his guest is saying. On this occasion, he kept the interjections to the occasional neutral-sounding “Hrrrrumph”, and suppressed the disquiet I’m sure he felt.
Laidlaw believes in giving his guests a long rope. Often, as Lord Winston did on Sunday, the guest will hang himself by airing intolerant and ignorant views. It’s up to the rest of us to repeat and highlight this.
Laidlaw is such a lightweight and just provides a soapbox. I listened to it thinking how he’d go up against Mary Ryan. Another isreali apologist.
Mary Ryan is another shit overbearing interviewer, one who is far more pleased at the sound of her own voice than…well, anyone elses.
Mary Ryan is another shit overbearing interviewer, one who is far more pleased at the sound of her own voice than…well, anyone elses.
Mary Ryan? Or Mary Wilson?
I am rereading Douglas Adams four book trilogy about an alternate future for the planet.
He refers to The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy which recommends a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster and says that the effect of drinking one is like having your brains smashed out by a slice of lemon wrapped round a large gold brick. (It has comprehensive coverage of this, the recipe, the price, ‘and what voluntary organisations exist to help you rehabilitate afterwards’.)
Well after listening to the never-ending-stoooooory of the USA great talkfest and stand-off over their economy which lies pathetically at their feet, along with any integrity and democratic standards that country ever had, I get a similar feeling. I think we need to resort to the odd evening off from trying to keep the whole thing on the rails, if we ever can find them. This Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster sounds like an experience that would take one’s full attention away from other considerations.
Try it when the RWC comes to our shores – a similar saga. Perhaps we could invent a colourful cocktail that echoes NZs spirits and charm. Something green but not with creme de menthe. Please could bloggers keep posting with news of interest to them while the ruggers on.. I anyway, am likely to miss many important events while trying to get shot of the rugby for a while.
Aye Prism. I think I will spend this week trying to find the closest substitute for a Pggb …
Keep your towel handy is all I can say.
USA citizens have found it easy to criticise other countries and not be objective about their own. I’m just looking at a book on Trade me, Russia – Broken Idols, Solemn Dreams. The blurb says ‘Probing beneath the usual surface observations, stereotypes, and official government rhetoric, the former Moscow bureau chief of The New York Times carefully analyzes the loss of faith and the bankrupt ideology that afflict the Soviet system and society today.’
Now that Communism is not so dominating, perhaps the USA can look at itself to see if the same applies to them.
The debt limit increase they voted on today basically allows the US Govt to add another US$7000 of debt on to each man woman and child in the country.
EVERYONE (except the banks and the wealthy) are unhappy with this.
Goff hints at new Kiwisaver policy:
http://www.interest.co.nz/kiwisaver/54642/goff-hints-universal-savings-policy-goes-further-kiwisaver-which-was-universally-ava
Police to Investigate John Key
Recently I wrote about National being in breach of privacy laws and abusing Parliamentary Services concerning them attaining the address details of pensioners, and targeting that group with electioneering material.
There’s a question mark missing from your headline, jackal. It should read ‘Police to investigate Key?’ if it’s just speculative, not a fact.
The article itself is excellent and you’ve done some great investigative work there. If Key does end up getting his collar felt by PC Plod because of your efforts, I’ll be the first to shout you a whiskey!
You’re right of course VOR. However under the Electoral Act the Electoral Commission is obliged to present the facts of the matter to the Police who are in turn obliged to investigate. Unless either of those bodies are going to disregard the law (a very small possibility), I think the headline is correct.
Excellent work.
Thanks.
Well now your talking! I was visiting my in laws and I found a letter from “John Key” to them and I thought it was beyond the pale for a party to use these addresses from obviously a state data bank to target people like that.
Well done and the second shout is for me if you get them to investigate!
What’s more, my in-laws are both in their 80s, did not vote for John Key and had no idea how the National party had gotten hold of their addresses but are both to intimidated by “authorities” to make a stink so thanks on their behalf too (I sent them the link cause my father-in-law is very internet savy and will enjoy reading about it.
Cheers travellerev. It’s the Pensioners private details thing that I dislike the most. I’m not convinced that the information was gained in the way John Key’s Communications Manager has stated. I’m hoping any investigation will look into that discrepancy as well.
I’m glad you also posted the letter integrally as my parents in law were aghast at the idea that their name would start to float around the internet (They are up and running with my political activities and it petrifies them even though they agree that 911 could not have possibly been done as the OCT states) if they gave me the letter (as if I would ever do that to them but I respected their need for privacy and now I can read it better and read the stuff you wrote about it).
Unexpected Eartyquake Observation #491.3;
Lying in bed in the middle dark of night and feeling your entire city grind from one set of longitude and latitude to another set over a long period of minutes with virtually no shaking. Gives you a sense of scale and tinyness. And spookiness.
For some reason the 3.6M at 3:30 this morning had me out of bed and half way to the door within a second. When I actually woke up and realised what I was doing, the shaking had already stopped. So I got back into bed.
Seemed much sharper than usual. It was quite a bit closer to my house than most.
Yes I see it was close to central. But I swear that I could for some long time afterwards feel the great giant slabs of deep earth moving slowly past each other, for quite a while after the shake had stopped. I felt this near continuously after the Feb quake but have not felt it for some time. Need to be in a sensitive spot (which our hosue seems to be) and very quiet and still. Quite an astounding sensation. And the anecdote seems to be borne out by the colossal number of aftershocks which indicate constant movement with various bits catching occasionally.
On my way to Shakyvile tomorrow and with the run of luck I’m having at the moment>>>////<<< anything could happen.
More on this to follow. Just heard on newstalk zb that when Key was on the David Letterman show (think it was last year) it was not by invitation it was by request with a price tag of $10,000. Key’s position is that it is gold for NZ to get exposure.
That would explain the incredibly lame appearance, then.
Doesn’t bode well for his image of just wanting photo ops, though.
A retainer of $10,000 to look stupid is what I remember. Key appeared in late September 2009.
Bet you Key has got a great scrapbook photo posing with Letterman backstage.
And whoever the actual guests were that night. Gotta get yourself paparazzied as much as possible!
I wonder if that makes him a pap-smear?
Mcflock 😀
Possibly and an autograph to go with it, and a personal charge as well.
ZB story: http://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/newsdetail1.asp?storyID=201589
As if it wasn’t embarrassing enough already. Sheesh.
What a try hard, devious bastard. Letterman might well have been thinking who is this shithead? And Shonkey said in parliament that beneficiaries need to budget better.
“As if it wasn’t embrassing enough already. Sheesh.”
Letterman even recieved footage of Key.
Key was on Letterman for 4 minutes.
A PR company was contacted because after 6 months of trying to get on Letterman this was unsuccessful.
Key was just on Prime News First refuting that a payment had been made to Letterman. It appears that the Prime Minster can’t even lie properly.
Not lie – deflect. “We paid $10k to stroke your ego?!” “Well eckshooly, that is not at ah we never paid Letterman to appear on his ah show and really, well, I wouldn’t be that comfortable with that at all, it wouldn’t be a good look, in that circumstance I’d probably pay for an ego stroke myself”.
We paid other people to get Key on Letterman.
People will be surprised by this I suppose, but most people don’t think and live like them, you have to understand this is just another marketing campaign; it started the day they took office, I wish people would wake up to this and no amount of praying or we will do it the old fashion way will have any impact, Wake the fuck up, you are being sold every waking hour.
Thats why I don’t have a TV or get the paper , or listen to commercial radio or watch movies , I get my news when I want it where I want it, sure I still get some marketing but I understand these people and have friends still in the industry , you have know idea how these people operate, they are not evil they are just doing there job, the job being to sell you something you don’t need.
And that job is to support an evil system – capitalism.
Well in a way, but I’m sure they don’t think of it like that, it’s a job/career and people compete, so want to win.
Calling Capitalism evil is easy, but for me the saying from Forest Gump “Stupid is as stupid does” says it all; we need education, education, education for the people. The right are not that smart and making money is easy, especially when you don’t have any compassion, and compassion comes from education for me.
Job creation – after spending 45 minutes waiting to speak to someone (anyone!!!) at Kiwibank I think there is scope for more jobs in their call centre – better than building a cycle track IMHO.
I have often wished that the person I was talking to had half a brain * – which would be more than they are displaying at the time! I’ve applied for call centre jobs (amongst others) for 2 1/2 years, and been refused for 2 1/2 years – I have no idea why! Interview # 140 today. “Uts a metter of futt” is what I am usually told (and I hear them thinking, what one woman actually said last week) “the boys don’t want to feel they’ve got their mother sitting there judging them”. I suppose the girls feel the same way! F*** capitalism.
*Studylink seem to be the only ones who have sufficient staff, with sufficient brain power, sadly
It’s more than likely your condescending attitude that’s putting them off hiring you. Call centre workers need to be able to communicate with people from all walks of life and intellects. Work on improving your attitude and you might do better. Good luck!
Wooh, arrogant much? I am an ESOL teacher and a basic requirement of being one, is “communicating with people from all walks of life and intellects”… I do that better than most, especially the smug South African woman at the City Council who tried to tell me that it was my responsibility to try to talk the Housing NZ maintenance chief into fixing the permanent puddle in our street. Turned out that she was so good at listening, that she hadn’t grasped that the puddle is on the pavement and not on my front lawn! But let me guess, she’s nicely middle class and you’d hire her, despite her superior attitude. Maybe I should have put on an American accent, or claimed to be a real estate agent trying to sell houses in the street?
I can be as ‘condescending’ as I like here, especially to 30-something men who think they know where every unemployed person is going wrong.. but that doesn’t mean I’d be that way to people making inquiries!
Anyone here on the news today that ACT are not standing anyone in New Plymouth to give National a better chance at winning that seat – more fiddling the electorates to gain seat – maybe National threatened a ‘if you want Banks to be unopposed….)
Also heard on the radio today, with the change to the driving age federated farmers et. al. are not happy because rural parents will have the expense of driving their kids to sport (and here was me thinking that farmers just used the business Holden and claimed the expense as a legitimate drive to RD1).
The funniest bit though was when they gave the stats – the evidence suggests the change in driving age may save up to FIVE lives.
So how come, when it comes down to things like children starving, national Standards, etc. the evidence is suddenly unimportant?
(NB as a rural parent I am pissed off too, as my son cannot do his test till January next year, despite having had this booked for over a month)
William Shawcross explodes in a rage at Kim Hill
National Radio, Saturday 1 May 2004, from 8:30 a.m.
Transcribed by MORRISSEY BREEN, Daisycutter Sports Inc.
The first half of the interview ambles along smoothly enough—but then the haughty Shawcross delivers a torrent of wandery, pompous cant about bin Laden’s “holy war”…
…
SHAWCROSS: In his assault on the US, bin Laden had this famous phrase, which was a sort of TAUNTING phrase: “When people see a strong horse and a weak horse they naturally gravitate towards the strong horse”, and I think, understandably enough, and none of these issues are easy, none of them are trivial, they are all very hard I COMPLETELY agree with you and understandably enough … And after 9/11 there was a feeling in Washington that it was possible to portray America as a weak horse and after 9/11 George Bush decided that could no longer be the case.
HILL: [laughing, incredulous] But you can’t, you can’t surely justify bombing a country like Iraq, at the cost of many, many civilian lives, as a kind of PR exercise to convince the world that the United States is not a “weak horse”.
SHAWCROSS: [icy] No I didn’t say that. You are twisting, very cleverly, my words.
HILL: Well, the reason—no no no no no, the reason I make that point is that, according to Bob Woodward’s latest book, Bush was secretly planning to go after not bin Laden, the man responsible for the 9/11 attacks, but Saddam Hussein!
SHAWCROSS: Well, I don’t think THAT’s true. I think that he was planning to go after BOTH. And I think, as I said to you, that the threat that Clinton saw in Saddam Hussein was deemed to be tolerable in the nineties – I think that’s a pity for Iraq and for the rest of the world that Saddam was not dealt with more firmly in the nineties. This was a man who had form, this was a man who’d not only murdered three hundred thousand or more of his own people, he was the man who killed more Muslims than any other leader in the world today, both in Iran in his war with Iran, in Kurdistan, and in Iraq itself. This was not a man who was a threat to Christians, he was a threat to Muslims and a threat to the entire region—
HILL: Of course.
SHAWCROSS: —and most of the countries in the region wanted to get rid of him and it’s a great PITY he wasn’t got rid of before.
HILL: And as you eloquently say in your book, a lot of Saddam Hussein’s atrocities were committed with the sanction of the United States.
SHAWCROSS: [exploding with rage] I did NOT say that! Come on, you’re absolutely— this is an ABSURD interview if you want to say that!—I did NOT say that! I did NOT say that! I said that in the 1980s, the greatest threat was seen to be the Ayatollah Khomeini and his version of fundamentalist Islam and it WAS a threat! The Ayatollah was murdering all Iranians who were in opposition to him he could get his hands on inside and outside the country, he wanted to DESTROY the western world, and it was a serious threat. His agents blew up three hundred marines in Lebanon in 1983, you could SEE why he was a threat, and on the rather sad principle but old principle that my enemy’s enemy is my friend, we decided that the greater threat of the two from Saddam Hussein and the Ayatollah Khomeini was not Saddam Hussein at that time.
HILL: So you’re not talking about Saddam Hussein when you say in the book: “but of course one has to take into account the fact that Western governments have for decades supported middle east regimes that may brutalise and impoverish the mass of the people—”
SHAWCROSS: Yes.
HILL: “—-but nonetheless provide stable oil supplies.”
SHAWCROSS: Yes, it’s one of the paradoxes and the dilemmas of our time.
HILL: Well I’m SORRY, but that was merely the point I was making, I don’t think it was an “absurd” point.
SHAWCROSS: [icy] Well don’t get ANGRY! Don’t get angry with me, it’s FOOLISH of you. You’re supposed to be a very highly professional interviewer.
HILL: I’m sorry, I thought you were taking offence. I’m merely trying to explain to you by looking at your book—
SHAWCROSS: I think some of the things you said WERE rather offensive—
HILL: Which things were offensive to you?
SHAWCROSS: —and incorrect. I didn’t say— [laughing] I don’t want to go back over it now…
HILL: Feel free!
SHAWCROSS: [momentarily disoriented] … but you maintained… No. Will you requote your question to me? The one that I, um, took offence to.
HILL: I think the one that you took offence to was the one where I suggested that Saddam Hussein had committed his worst atrocities while he was sanctioned by the United States and other western governments.
SHAWCROSS: Oh yeah that’s right. Well, I don’t think that he was SANCTIONED by the United States. I think that, as I said to you, often you have to deal in areas of darker shades of gray and at that time in the 1980s the Ayatollah Khomeini was seen as a very great threat to the world. Let me read something he wrote in 1984… [Shawcross reads piece of mad Khomeini rhetoric about need to wage war against “infidels”.] Now THAT was the inspiration for the Ayatollah Khomeini back in the 1980s and it’s the inspiration for Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda now. And what I think we do not fully understand is that this is a very serious war. Some people call it the third “ism”. We’ve got rid of nazism and Communism….
HILL: [reminds Shawcross of his former trenchant opposition to the Vietnam calamity, and his formerly excoriating writings about Dean Rusk’s absurd Domino Theory] Does that mean you are recanting from that view?
SHAWCROSS: [huffing impatiently] No, I don’t think I said that. [waffles on for several minutes, reproaching all who opposed the Vietnam invasion, and completely recanting his views, even quoting Lee Kuan Yew (“authoritarian, but in many ways very successful”) who, like the new-model Shawcross, enthusiastically endorses the US’s rape of Vietnam as somehow validating the Domino Theory.] All I’m saying is that we have to, errrrr, learn from history and—who was it?—John Maynard Keynes, who said that when the facts change it’s quite a good thing to change your opinion.
HILL: Does it ever occur to you that the impact of Sideshow may have helped create the cynicism with regard to U.S. foreign policy that you are arguing AGAINST in your latest book?
SHAWCROSS: Well that’s a very provocative and clever question. Yes, you may well be right and if so I’m sorry because I didn’t MEAN it to provoke cynicism. I think I said at the end of Sideshow, that Kissinger and Nixon had not governed in my view honestly enough, but America was the most vital democracy in the whole world, and I believed it then and I believe it even more so now. [PAUSE] You seem surprised by that…
HILL: It does seem that the United States is roundly loathed…
SHAWCROSS: [steaming with indignation] Why don’t you GO to Iraq then? That is certainly not the case….
HILL: [archly] I was going to say “in the middle east.”
Touche! Even this smooth dissembler is momentarily non-plussed. Shawcross utters some mealy-mouthed words about Israel. He knows Israel’s war of terror against the people of Palestine is indefensible, but on the other hand, he’s an apologist for the neoconservatives now, so he can’t mouth anything stronger than a contemptible bit of handwringing…
SHAWCROSS: Obviously the heart-breaking impasse between the Israelis and the Palestinians is an APPALLING sore. But Israel needs to defend itself. There are vicious and rotten governments—Libya, Egypt, Syria—all around it. To quote President George W. Bush: We have to encourage democracies and free the people of the region from their despotic torpor.
HILL: Do you think Henry Kissinger should be tried as a war criminal?
SHAWCROSS: [with extreme gravitas] I think he committed a lot of mistakes, but he is not a war criminal.
HILL: The trajectory of your views is compared to that of Christopher Hitchens…
SHAWCROSS: [laughs] Well Christopher is ADORABLE….
…………………………………………….
This weasel was here to flog a weaselish book supporting the rape of Iraq, viz., William Shawcross, Allies: The U.S. and the world in the aftermath of the Iraq War (Appallin’ and Unctuous, 2004)
So the deal is done and “Surprise! Surprise”! (as Gomer Pyle used to say) – there’s a thoroughgoing ‘cave in’ to the right. So much for Mr ‘I’m putting my presidency on the line over this’ Obama.
I’m rapidly tending to the view that this was no ‘cave in’ but a carefully “orchestrated litany of lies”. What a joke. And I see the ‘Super Congress’ of 12 good men and true will now be in session.
The entire last month has been a Congressional show of Kabuki Theatre. What a farce.
None of this is going to change the big dip coming up.
Anarchists should be reported, advises Westminster anti-terror police
Why should these peaceful people be reported to police you ask?
Because they’re anti-state.