There is an excellent article over at the Daily Blog, where the conversation is about Climate Change, not identity politics.
“I think we need to be honest with ourselves.
Real action on climate change will require a political, social & economic revolution.
Currently, the Greens & Labour seem to believe being carbon neutral in 32 years time is anything close to being a ‘solution’.
Currently policy makers, too frightened to accept the realities of climate change, still write policy within the neoliberal free market framework that is exacerbating the climate change catastrophe.
Currently one of the largest climate change gas emitters is running ‘Open Gate’ propaganda to try and pretend they aren’t the problem and are getting away with it.
Currently sweet **** all is being done to prepare us for the adaptation we need to step up to deal with climate change.
The truth is that the vested interests that create the pollution and economic framework that is making climate change the catastrophe that it is will not do anything meaningful to disrupt their interests.
Unfortunately, we have run out of time to allow incremental change. I have followed the IPCC reports on climate change since their first one and the thing that is striking is that the worst case scenario is fast becoming the only scenario. What most don’t appreciate about the IPCC is that they are an incredibly conservative group and still don’t include many of the feedback loops that will make climate change faster and far more damaging, so when they say we have 10 years left to make the adaption, we are in far more danger than that claim suggests.”
“Politically we need a radical Green Socialist Party. The Middle Class Woke Identity Politics vehicle we have with the current Green Party is a sad joke that alienates more than it recruits. While they bicker about reclaiming the word ‘cunt’ and deciding which pronoun to use for Trans gender rights, the planet melts. Building every Millennial micro-aggression into a war crime doesn’t do a fucking thing to combat climate change.”
Absolutely agree. Greens have been dragged into petty political bickering trying to prove how inclusive they are. Meanwhile those PC types obsessed with their (or mostly other people’s) pronouns are doing NOTHING to help.
What I couldn’t stomach was the lack of gardeners. That is the first litmus test in practicing what you preach if you preach Green imo. The amount of so called woke households I’ve visited with nothing, or an average 1 m2 per person with a couple of tired lettuce and some parsley struggling in full sun and on bare ground…
I have olives, cherry guava, guava, feijoa x 2 (types), dill, fennel, mint, rosemary, sage, thyme, cilantro, parsley, blueberries x 3, strawberries, black raspberries, red raspberries x 2, thornless blackberry, rhubarb, celery, celeriac, orange berry, tomatoes x 5, zucchini, manglewurzel, beetroot, silverbeet, blackcurrants, macadamias, garlic, onions, spring onions, chives, sugar cane, corn, asparagus, potatoes x 3, kumara x 2, taro, bananas, macadamias, plums, peaches x 2, figs, avocadoes, coffee, pumpkins, cucumber x 2, lemonade, lemon, lime, cabbages, cauliflower, brocolli. Then there’s a few nitrogen fixers, many flowers, medicinals… Then there’s chickens, and the bunch of food plants I would have forgot…. e.g. Coffee!
So, when I talk about people starting a garden, I’m not talking about mucking around. You start small at your doorstep with herbs and greens. But the real deal is some years down the line having replaced useless oil guzzling lawns and landscaping with a slice of paradise. You get there by starting today.
Trees are a vote for the future. They are a hopeful gesture. The amount of people commenting ‘but you’ll have to wait ‘x’ years’ for fruit is nearly all of them. Instant gratification will not save the planet. Gardening might. Big Ag is one of the worst polluters.
The greens will get my vote when I hear more about CC than PC.
What I couldn’t stomach was the lack of gardeners. That is the first litmus test in practicing what you preach if you preach Green imo. The amount of so called woke households I’ve visited with nothing, or an average 1 m2 per person with a couple of tired lettuce and some parsley struggling in full sun and on bare ground…
You have visited the Green membership in their homes and done an audit of their gardening achievements??
I’m likely to renew my GP membership when Mercury goes direct. I do gardening most days. Pressure’s off for retired folk, but plants can spin on a dime so you have to be on the ball.
I was trained by father & grandfather Frank, compulsory garden training back when kids couldn’t escape. Permaculture gave me a new set of skills to graft on, and I’ve improvised that combination ever since.
Gratifying multiplication of pollinators in my second growing season onsite here (city/country margin, NP). Best soil I’ve ever worked, and more than I need. Only downside is salty rainfall, sometimes kills sensitive plants. I’m around two minutes walk up from the Tasman (high enough to be safe from a hundred-foot tsunami).
I thought solkta’s question was perfectly reasonable – I had wondered the same thing my self – WTB says he’s visited an “amount” of “woke households” and I wondered how that came about and how large was the number of such households he had visited. What interested me is how different his experience was from my own where every green household I visit has fabulous gardens, productive and well cared for. Must be a regional thing, I thought and am not trolling by saying so, I reckon. Accusations of trolling get thrown around in a pretty ad hoc manner here in Open Mike on TS, I reckon allowing the actual trolls to blend in more easily, which is a shame. Let’s just save it for James 🙂
Maybe it’s a city thing Robert. Though I’ve seen a lot more gardening lately, but that is a general population shift via food prices it has little if anything to do with the Greens.
I spent literal weeks knocking on doors getting signatures trying to stop asset sales. Doing this I met many Aucklanders and had many conversations. There were plenty of people claiming to be greens with nothing but manicured lawn.
Personally I think US needs Schwarzenegger in power. To deal with the AI threat obviously, and then to kick some ass.
But he wasn’t nominated.
Americans, they have no sense of Arnie…
I’ve been wrong before. Maybe what I said is a nonsense in the South. My post was meant to get up noses. To illustrate the glaring difference between a garden plot to and a garden project that takes over the section. To do your bit for the planet… half measures are not enough. Lip service is definitely not enough. And I want to generate thought/discussion.
I don’t mind pissing people off if it generates thought/discussion. I also don’t mind being wrong.
I’m devious like that. You should see me teach I’ll wind you right up, outrage you, make you mad, make you laugh. And you remember…
Think I’m testing the waters on communication also lately. What works, what doesn’t.
It’s a helluva conundrum. The notes I wrote on a talk yesterday I thought were most profound and thought provoking. Very little response only from Ed who originally posted the talk I wrote about anyway. Today I poke a jab at the greens and get people’s attention. Maybe this phenomenon is what is wrong with the news cycle, taking pot shots is more effective than writing that was actual hard work.
I do think you are on the right track with solution oriented posts however. The world seems starved for leadership, working examples, things they can do, actual progress.
I don’t know how ‘how to get there’ works yet. I’m just writing stuff. Waiting for it to start. There I will edit myself from being a provocateur. That’s what open mikes for.
Yeah, sorry, WTP, I’ve been rushed off my feet down here; tours of the forest garden, an “art bombing” in the village (beautiful), a woofer requiring tasks (potting up poroporo seedlings, planting anisotome etc. and a myriad of other things to do – plus grandchildren and a writing deadline (met! I wrote about Giant Hogweed 🙂 I’ll get onto “how to get there’ today and contact TRP as requested. It’s just that the weather’s been so nice…
Where do I find the notes you wrote…?
Re “US needs Schwarzenegger in power. To deal with the AI threat obviously, and then to kick some ass. But he wasn’t nominated.”
When I first wrote stuff here four years ago I also suggested he’d be a useful president. Got a response pointing out that immigrant citizens cannot run for the presidency. In the constitution, apparently.
Perhaps they were paranoid enough after the revolution to imagine a royalist agent being sent over to the United States to become president and take control…
Experimental communication is my life as an Aspie. Honestly I don’t have a clue I learn the hard way most every time. Will never stop me trying though.
No hurry up required Robert. I was trying to say I’m still not sure how it all works is all. I think greywarshark is keeping tabs if we write anything quality here. It will happen when it does.
I’m struggling with what I’m juggling too. But if there were not so many balls in the air I’d be bored.
Mollison’s teaching always sticks in my head. Then I realise it’s all the crazy stories he’s pushing buttons and included sexual and graphic imagery on purpose. Because we remember that stuff. It’s effective teaching, maybe needs context.
Poroporo – I’d love to hear more on that some time.
Yes, it must be a great shame that they put in, as Section 1 of Article 2 of the Constitution
“No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.”
Arnie would have been eligible if he had been born a bit earlier and had become a Citizen prior to September 17, 1787.
Arnie certainly looks old enough but I don’t think he quite qualifies.
Sorry didn’t get the pun. No reason Trump can’t make him minister of defense though. Perhaps offense would work better, eh?
However the mad dog seems to be working out okay. Trump was clever to combine his Putin-friendly foreign policy with a defense secretary choice that sent precisely the opposite signal.
“During his hearing, Mattis agreed with the assessment that debt was the greatest threat to national security. He placed Russia first among the “principal threats” facing the United States.” [Wikipedia]
WtB at 11.19am
Don’t know who Mollison is.
But you mentioned sex drawing attention to anything which seems universal.
Making being Green sexy, without distracting attention from the important matters, now there’s the rub.
I once bought a card with SEX in about 50 font size on the front and inside the words – Now I have your full attention!
But we don’t want to develop a one-track, horny-oriented types like Benny Hill do we? How do we make caring about being vital informed and socially connected people seem very enticing? This clip of Benny venturing into the community is rather instructive of what we don’t want; but with his own take on ‘gender awareness’ to the fore it seems appropriate at present. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTQTO1dj7qw
We want that to happen before it becomes obligatory, or necessary for survival, or too late to organise the people and find that the wealthy have secret plans in hand that they roll out to their own satisfaction and standards (which we know are not high and universal).
If we don’t wake up soon it is going to be like being Benny Hill here, very confusing and ultimately achieving little. We won’t end up with the pretty maids all in a row as he is hoping for.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJC4HvpWewM
I am trying to keep up with you people, mainly you two WTB and RG. I am sure the dedicated post is a way to go. I will contact you through email site put up. I was always keen to hear more from Robert as having relevant ideas, and having created useful stuff, and willing to pass it on and inspire and inform. Very needed. And now WtB has come along that’s double-bubble with activity
and brain energy that mustn’t be dispersed into thin air.
This blog is good to give people a chance to think things through but a lot of our ideas have to be hung on the line in sunlight to freshen up. So those who keep on with the same approach and bat on, and those that sneer and get malicious superiority from having a go at these stupid or personal money-blocking lefties, greens, traditionalists, backward….. are always going to come and poop in the sandpit. Like cats they don’t know better, are just doing what comes naturally.
And for archiving – Open Mike hasn’t new entries since 2012. And there is a mixture of stuff on OM, and the important future-facing things need to have their own tag which always goes first, before the headline of the day.
Should it be a sticky tag that goes up first every day? Trade me on their Trade Me Discussion community board headings has one like that. Or on The Standard could people wanting to add something when the tag subject is not being featured that day, go into archives and add it?
But then how do you stop lamebrains from adding crap? Would we have to have some cleaners/moderators check these out like office cleaners emptying rubbish bins and cleaning toilets!!
Some moderation might be required, but I’m the wrong person for it. I’m too reactionary on a bad day, and no real rhyme or reason when those might strike.
The very nature of the project (solutions based) might be anathema to trolls, or at least highlight them rather conspicuously.
I reckon the lawns were the tell that those folk, despite their claims, weren’t greens at all. You might have caught them in the middle of a role-play!
I see my Green (mostly young student) neighbours in role play nearly every day. (I live next to a number of student flats administered by a slum landlord)
Their notional credentials as to being green are impeccable.
The only problem comes when they have to remember which day of the week is collection day or how it is they should minimise their waste, or what it means to separate glass in the recycling from other non-glass crap, or chucking their shit on the pavement far and wide on the way home when they think no one is looking.
And the behaviour is usually around the end of the week….. thankfully in Winter, it’s usually only on a Saturday, but come Summer when they truly flower, it’s Thursday through to Sunday.
As for my own gardening, much of that was destroyed when ‘green minded’ (design) students decided the best place to dump their chemical shit was down an overflowing toilet connected to a blocked sewer. All that killing what was finally beginning to grow after years of trying to recondition some toxic urban city soil.
A role-play with a roller-mower? Is that like, practising at being a greenie? Then if people grow lawns are they Greens? Seems self-evident to me – growing, green stuff, making compost perhaps – nearly everyone in the ‘burbs is actually a greenie. What’s so special about the Greens then? /sarc
Good question. Some landlords wont even permit a traditional square of garden in the back yard. Scumbag gougers who charge you for expensive chemical treatments rending your yard an oil drinking poison repository, but it looks tidy.
Some landlords will let you garden. And can even be approached for more ambitious projects. A friend in the states did such a good job the landlords paid him to do the same to their section.
Container gardening is your best bet if landlords have zero but bills to offer you. That and get another landlord. Allotments are also available in some areas. Or you find land, other renters, and approach council for the land to use for allotments. These schemes only fall over when people fail to participate.
“Allotments are also available in some areas”.
Are there any of these in the Wellington area, to your knowledge?
I know that there are a dozen or so Community Gardens but they aren’t really the same thing. People I know who were involved have told me that they are often regarded as a free resource by local residents who simply strip the garden of anything useful and leave the people who did the work with nothing for themselves.
“regarded as a free resource by local residents who simply strip the garden of anything useful and leave the people who did the work with nothing for themselves”
That is unfortunate. Stealing food implies not enough money to feed themselves. Be much better if the poor learned to garden instead of steal. But thievery is very common nearly everyone rips off hotel soaps etc I don’t get it. Draw the line, don’t steal ever. They need some form of security I’d be inclined to place some strategic ponds to slip into, some cacti with barbed thorns, some with poison thorns, some that shoot thorns. A blackberry border, a decent gate, a security light, an angry dog that doesn’t warn it’s coming.
Make sneaking round in the dark there a nightmare.
Community garden/allotment: Excuse me sorry, the jargon I pick up is from all over the world and gets interchanged a bit too freely.
That said, I do plant fruit out front deliberately so kids can raid it. I hope it makes them want their own fruit trees. It worked for me those plum raids of childhood were magic, and now, my own big beautiful plum tree (hidden out back from marauding hordes of children).
Yeah that’s not a bad idea if it was activated by a motion sensor it’d fool you into thinking a real dog was on the grounds.
With gardening projects I try to design with pests in mind. Some of those pests in this instance are humans.
Shame that boxthorn is a rampant menace, it sure does work.
Here’s some historic boxthorn control
“Eventually, as machines such as tractors became more common good old Kiwi ‘Number eight wire’ ingenuity and inventive minds came into play. The first in Taranaki to develop a mechanical hedgecutter was Lou Butler of Inglewood. He stuck a Dodge engine on top of a 1928 Fordson steel-wheeled tractor, with a three metre steel propeller-like blade.
Later variations of the hedgecutter included several surplus WWII Bren gun carriers converted into hedgecutters and sweeps to clear up the resulting mess ready for burning.
Over the years a great array of ‘home-grown’ hedgecutters could be seen slowly marching their way along the district’s hedges. One in particular could have quite easily given small children nightmares. Bill Alexander from Te Roti converted a Valentine tank and named it Ruahine. Locals eventually got used to the sight of a huge tank trundling down the road off to the next hedge cutting job.”
I reckon exclusion and giving pain to, “visitors” to such spaces is doomed to failure. We humans can get past anything and when a barrier has been erected, it signals there’s something of value inside. Cunning ploys work better than electrified fences. Don’t plant watermelons or pumpkins in a community garden. They look like footballs. Even giant puffballs get there boot 🙂 Plant stuff that doesn’t look like food.
RobertG
I wonder if this is where mechanisation comes in. Lights come on the scarecrow sprays out that green insecticide Thuri…
and leave them stinky, easy to track with police dogs. And have an invitation to tell when caught as to how they would like to do something useful and help to take that up with some reward they would keep working towards.
And calling them lazy scum bags, is an oxymoron. The fact is that they have been doing something, not being lazy. They are being cunning Kiwis which follows in a long tradition of NZ behaviour which we tend to sympathise with, even lionise winners. Turn the energy and mischievousness to work somehow.
“won’t be kids…” pffffffft!
Won’t be kids…that’s a very naive comment, BM.
No experience with community gardens then?
Or are you just using the discussion as a platform from which to launch the same old bile you often spout? The topic doesn’t really interest you, does it.
What is possible with an organised tree and veg garden mixture. Obviously you can’t be digging into tree roots. But a circle around an apple tree – what diameter would be needed , it could grow mustard under and have it turned in to keep weeds down.
In Taranaki there is that big westerly that comes in. Would you plant some tagaeste nitrogen fixers on the bounday to take the buffeting. Then perhaps some dwarfed fruit trees with room under for clusters of crops sown with time breaks.
Tagasaste sounds really good I had to look it up. Decent fodder crop and winter bee food as well as hardy, drought tolerant, wind tolerant…
Coprosma robusta and feijoa are also hard and can join the wind screening among the Tagasaste. Get some Kowhai running too, seed’ll be ready before long… Get some bigguns and they can overshadow the tagasaste eventually making a higher windbreak if required. Over plant the nitrogen fixers and thin them out for mulch/fuel/to release soil nitrogen as food plants establish, but leave some to mature in the system. Coprosma berries are interesting to nibble on. Chooks love them. The foliage is cattle fodder, it’s fire resistant, salt tolerant… Cows are thick though, they have to learn to eat new stuff. Feijoas because wine.
Behind the wind tolerant multi species barrier, go nuts! If you can grow nuts. And fruits… Include nitrogen fixers here too, maybe something more ornamental, and/or some ground cover. I like red clover, much easier to control than the white. I have various nitrogen ground covers I don’t even know what they are. I’m sure a farmer would know at a glance.
Stone fruit trees all appreciate spring bulbs, the onion family, the carrot family, especially when they’re flowering. Always leave some to flower. You can lay out some mulch and plant into that with other things too. I try all sorts and see what works. Parsley are great if there’s clay to be drilled for shallow rooted trees like citrus. No root interference there rather a symbiosis, with shade in exchange for drainage and pest control. Put it right beside the tree and let it dig in and flower. Several shade and partial light tolerant species can go under trees, though a bit of low pruning can help where required. Kumara, cucurbits on compost mounds and let em climb the trees, especially thin nitrogen fixers that let in light, love those trees. Try passionfruit up one if you can grow it there. Sometimes beans and peas work the same way, sometimes not. My mate had peas in his manuka hedge last year. Not a great crop, but a crop 😀
I try annuals out in a number of circumstances as they’re quick and easy compared to trees, then I lose all my notes and do it again the next year.
If you are planning a fairly large planting and can get a landscaper to drop off a truckload of mulch I recommend you get it for mulching all trees – especially those you put in sandy soil. However, mulch won’t last without clay the sandy soil will burn through it, maybe too fast for the trees to establish. Add some clay to each hole, that will make all the difference. As the system matures it can make its own mulch.
And never dig a $10 hole for a $40 tree.
If you’ve got that rich black volcanic Taranaki soil – well yay! Put your fish scraps in a barrel of skanky water and water your veg with that. Keep it away from the house and with a lid That’s all it takes to grow veggies with bragging rights in Devon Street. 😀
Robert would have some shrewd observations for tree systems.
Wow that’s a really robust report. It is great that you don’t know everything that you have ie nitrogen fixers. We don’t have to be perfect but have an idea seems that the way it is. I think we would all feel a bit more relaxed approaching things that way.
It’s not either (climate change and class politics) or (social justice politics).
Bradbury has become a social conservative and upholder of patriarchal values in his middle age. He spends a lot of time putting the boot into feminists and LGBT+ activists whenever he gets the chance. He attacks the #metoo campaign and basically any movement or campaign that challenges his privileged status as a heterosexual, gender-conforming male.
I do think the Green Party could be more radical on many of their policies/platforms across social, economic and ecological justice issues.
There were two Climate Change posts here just last Thursday. If you truly believed it was both you wouldn’t start bitching every time someone wants to discuss something else.
Well that really would be Groundhog Day. I’m wondering how posters would start each morning. Perhaps something like:
Toady we are just as fucked as yesterday. Nothing specific has happened in the last 24 hours to fix things. Regardless though it is important that we address this issue every day…
Remember ‘disruption.’ Today’s norms need to be questioned and change prepared for in the business-driven world we attempt to find a living in. Dotcom is in the near past, but in that time large shifts have occurred. Bradbury’s experience over the decades may be more useful to us all than your certainties JohnSelway.
Disruption is good for business. … Disruption is massive, rapid, and most likely permanent change, and that can be difficult to go through. But disruptive innovation is important to stay vital, and any business needs to embrace innovation technology and the turbulence that goes with it.Dec 8, 2016
Why Disruption is Good for Business – IdeaScale https://ideascale.com/embracing-disruptive-innovation-why-its-important-for-your-busin…
In business, a disruptive innovation is an innovation that creates a new market and value network and eventually disrupts an existing market and value network, displacing established market-leading firms, products, and alliances. Wikipedia
Bomber is too much of a damaged brand. Outside of (even before) the Dotcom fail Bomber is a bit of a joke and isn’t really taken very seriously by, well, pretty much everyone.
Too much of a shrieking politic hack who disdains millennials and picks fights with feminists on twitter.
No doubt you are not lumped in with BMs stealing, lazy, feral scum when you have court appearances. The Jewish people are often quoted as aspiring that their children become doctors, but it seems that everyone now is talking about becoming a lawyer.
That must be an advantage to citizens as we are sure to have laws at least. But then if they are bad laws then there is a lot of time spent interpreting them.
What if we don’t need all these lawyers? Then perhaps we could have some more civil engineers properly trained. If we had better training all round there would be more people in jobs and not so many needing the law.
Certainly if there was more ‘summary’ process of low-level fraudsters, and short sharp internments in jail for not turning up at the hearings, or paying their fines and recompense orders. we would have a less stressed legal and justice system.
I don’t often need to be seen in court. Just one time some years back where I needed a stern telling off. But in my two appearances for something I did I wore a suit because I had respect for the office of the law. It would absolutely surprise me when I saw people before me and waiting outside the court would be wearing caps, singlets and flip-flops. At least try and look a little smarter.
Cripes, i was discussing a norm, heard often of Jewish people wanting to be doctors, as the acme to aim for, but at the moment it is lawyers. And why would you query me mentioning Jews. Why is it that people seem, to look for details that they can build something on? Perhaps the comment was too long and no-one reads more than one and a half paras.
However he’s done so without notifying his readers that he’s abandoning his traditional support for the Labour Party. Trying to have 50c each way, eh? Trying to seem like a traditional politician, in other words…
“Real action on climate change will require a political, social & economic revolution.” Yeah, that was obvious in the early nineties. What took him so long to figure it out??
“Politically we need a radical Green Socialist Party. The Middle Class Woke Identity Politics vehicle we have with the current Green Party is a sad joke that alienates more than it recruits.” Very true. Inclusion of minorities is essential – doesn’t require that the Greens have to treat them like a kindergarten forever though.
“What few Green Party voters even recognise is that the current Green Party is built upon free market economics”. Total crap. Someone ought to call his bluff. Has he even read the GP economic policy on the party website?
He then weaves a cocktail of policy that will have most imbibers spluttering: “this new political movement needs a populist economic manifesto that rejects free market globalisation and neoliberalism, supports 5 year economic planning, invests in economic self sufficiency and seeks real independence and sovereignty by rejecting open door mass immigration, foreign sales of our water and foreign ownership of any NZ land. We need to rapidly increase our military budget”.
So the RGSP will be radical/Green/populist/socialist/non-aligned/anti-immigrant, with strong defence forces thrown in. He doesn’t say which country we ought to buy the weapons from – funny, that. Once he comes down from the acid trip and takes another look at this design, could be a time to consider the how of it…
Just the general impression I formed via his endorsing various Labour leaders and other blogging for Labour. I joined the first TPPA protest – remember thinking 30 years had passed since I last marched in one (springbok tour ’81) – think it was then I was standing nearby as Martin, the organiser, shook David Shearer’s hand (lead speaker). It was clear they knew each other and Martin’s demeanour indicated his positive support for Shearer. But I did do at least one other TPPA protest as well..
If I remember correctly, Bomber has written several times that he votes Green, despite his fierce criticisms. Perhaps he sees them as the least of all the evils..
Indeed…he’s confessed many times to have been a vote Green.
That doesn’t stop him from calling them out when necessary.
It seems Bomber will shit in anyone’s nest when they go shitting in others.
Whatever you think, better a world with him than without him.
I see what Bradbury has written as more of a rallying cry rather than an absolute blueprint.
I share dismay with some of the green party’s actions.
I know it has been well debated, but the water bottling decision that minister Sage took was disappointing.
I suppose to get the levers of power the Greens had to drop most of their radicalism, only to find out there is no access to the throttle or steering wheel, they just get to pull preset levers.
I expect the clamour to get louder as we continue down this path of infinite growth on finite resources, as the $ accumulate up to fewer and fewer people.
As an aside, how much pressuree is NZF placing on the relationship?
How does a 5-6% party make Labour ditch it’s neo liberal roots and shift in a direction that will help us?
If they are too much of a sail in the water, hopefully someone has the ability to call them out on it.
Racing industry, fishing industry?
Blame games are a useful distraction and a good excuse for doing SFA. They also help to polarise people and dig ideological trench lines that are in reality minor but get magnified by MSM and others into Cook Strait proportions with stormy weather conditions.
I too was disappointing in Sage decision on water bottling, but I don’t see she could have made a different one under the law. Trade agreements, and the threat of litigation, are already affecting political decision making.
Pretty stupid of Mr Bradbury to be mouthing off perpetually unsatisfied when James Shaw is in the middle of cross-Parliamentary negotiations to get binding multi-generational carbon tax legislation across the line. That stuff is hard work, and it is stuff Mr Bradbury clearly knows little of despite decades of ranting.
How many countries in the world have actual Green Parties in government right now?
The current Greens here nearly went down the gurgler last election, and they are making the difference that they can.
Tempting to ask Martin what part of niche marketing doesn’t he understand, eh? I share his impatience by nature but to play the democracy game well you have to use the rules. Urgency may apply, but it doesn’t change the rules.
Andrew Little was musing the other day, suggesting a combination referendum with cannabis. The 4% threshold option may appear there, as may the 4-yr term. If so, I’d expect both to get approved.
The Radical Green Socialist Party, to get that 4% at the election after next, can only steal it from the existing GP support base. So the GP would have to get 5% from complacent Greens to survive. Not impossible!
I have some marketing advice for the bomber. Action, Activism, A. It’s missing from his prescription. Socialists just talk & write. Adding this missing link, rearranging, we get Green Radical Action Socialist Party. Ready to GRASP the levers of social policy, and GRASP that climate-change nettle!
The problems of the 1st Whurl eh?
Mine used to stink of the local fastfood takeaway.
Then I remembered….SURF and I had been together 35 years and things became really fresh again. It was transformational…alnost like COLGATE sinking in to a piece of chalk
“This demolition plan has polarized progressives between two camps. Some, reflecting on the brutality of the Washington Consensus, cheer on the challenge to international institutions, wishing them to crumble. Others, fearing the collapse of the “liberal” international order, leap uncritically to their defense.
Both are wrong. To achieve progressive goals on a global scale, from worker rights to climate justice, we must reclaim the international institutions and deploy them to deliver an International Green New Deal.”
There’s a choice in the Herald this morning. You can read HDPA opining on the China relationship in her usual megaphone, once-over-lightly style or you can turn to the paper’s Business Editor, Liam Dann for a more nuanced take on the difficult decisions NZ will need to make (more likely sooner than later). The difference is telling.
Yeah, HDPA had a formative experience: “The speaker at the lectern predicted what he thought would happen in the future. One day, he said, countries would have to publicly choose between the US and China.”
Establishment frontperson tells audience that folks must choose between evil A and evil B. Media & mainstreamers go `okay, will do’. Everyone else goes ‘nah, not into evil, don’t be daft’.
The former employee claimed Barry asked staff to keep files on political opponents, including Miriam Clements, a Logic Party member who contested North Shore and believes the area should be completely independent from the rest of the country.
Two bullies in the Public Service I came up against did this. Kept files on staff at home. A good way to ensure staff kept their mouths shut fearing what might be on the files.
I keep tabs on public servants. I also record every meeting and let them know I’m doing it. They walk on eggshells because after decades of their officious bullying I got wise. I also write and complain over every perceived slip or sleight directly to the person I have a complaint with so there is official record of their behavior and my expectations of how I am to be treated.
Sounds harsh, but if you’ve ever been at the mercy of these !##$@^&#%^**^& useless @#$@@#$&# you’d understand, and probably film them too.
They do not muck me around anymore. I also contest fees with companies and get discounts a lot. You think you are getting shafted – probably because you are.
It’s against the rules for any Public Service boss to keep staff files other than the official personal files which every staffer has the right to peruse at any time. To do so, by way of a threat to staff should they step out of line is a whole lot worse.
It worked. Everyone was too afraid of him to dare cross him. We should have collectively reported him to the PSA, but it was a time when the PSA had become too weak (after nine years of bully boy tactics by Muldoon ) to be effective.
I say fight fire with fire. Always record public servants. Keep correspondence, bury them with their own BS if they try it.
I’m sorry you worked under the auspices of a bully. Most of us have at some point. I had a gang member boss who singled me out as the only white boy. Torrents of abuse and physical threats daily.
He was a public servant. And he was completely f***ed.
A few thoughts Anne. When trying to heat up the share rush in Oz in 1970s fake surveyor’s slips would be dropped accidentally in the busy lobbies. They would say that so and so claim had shown traces of minerals of the sort that indicated gold or whatever would register with the punters. Someone would pick up show it round his associates and the price would start rising. No-one knew where they had come from.
In cases where there were problems with a dastardly manager, false information dropped, leaked, would be effective in raising awareness of the so and so. Anyone could make it up, and it couldn’t be traced back to anyone because it wouldn’t contain anything specific to the Department. Nothing could be pinned on anybody no matter how much suspicion there was. But it would start a focus on the person and his behaviour.
Aotearoa lives closer to Asia than to Britannia or America.
Both of which countries are extremely warlike. They have been for centuries. They both sell massive amounts of weapons to many nations. Neither nation has done anything for us in the last 80 years. Other than invite us to take part in one war after another..
I find it difficult to trust or praise the United States of America. Greed is their core.
As for England, it lives in its triumphant evil past. Good at Comedy though..
The thing about Asia, is that it is very gifted and intelligent. Highly productive too. I think you will find it hard to overlook Asia when making your Choice.
As for China, it loves to make useful things, little things and massive things, outstanding things – at low relative cost.
They are not a warlike race, but they do protect the lands thay have always held. They also have some domestic regulations that we do not particularly like. They have wonderful Energy and Principles from way back.
I would not count on Britain as a Choice for us. Nor their American offspring.
Observer
I was thinking about Britain and Brexit, and that it seems the outcome of a giant stupid mishandling in accepting that close referendum and only people with more self-interest than basic skills at management of the country could make. It is as if the upper class Brits were echoing Trump and they ‘Wanted to make the Empah great again”.
It reminds me of the irresponsible, poor decision by the British War Lords after the Battle for Britain. They and Churchill apparently decided that Dowding’s success had been slow and he had overplayed his approach in being careful with intensive planning to ensure resources were sufficient and available. They chose to believe that they could have dealt with Germany’s air force fast by setting up a mass attack, going head to head and finishing them off. They were in love with this idea and ignored the reality of their resources. It was easier to have aftersight.
It shows that British pride and a belief in the romanticism of their gallantry and skill has driven them to embrace their nostalgia and go for separation from the EU. How does this place them in Europe then; do they go back to the 1930’s. Who has thought it all out away from rooms filled with alcohol fumes, cigars?
Ed has a solution to climate change.
Radical Socialism.
He is upset the Greens have lost there way with Identity politics.
I to think the Greens have lost there way. In internal battles the actual greens were pushed out by the radical socialists. This is because the radical socialists tried to find a home in our political spectrum, and over time captured a party founded on protecting the enviroment.
Now it in the mind of voters it’s just a radical feminist/socialist party. Even good men in the party have walked away, the male voter is no different. While it proposes seperate courts for women’s employement. 50%+ property for motherhood, DV, alimony, maternity leave only, etc etc the party has cancer that will rot away until it no longer exists in parliament.
Radical Socialism is not the answer.
Voters want to hear. The Greens and company X have signed a agreement aimed at reducing emmisions by 50%. The greens agree not to oppose the project, accepting the project needs some environmental losses for the much bigger change to happen. The deal includes the company making small investments in unfunded green projects on an ongoing basis as a share of profits from the project.
We need System Change, not Climate Change.
If we are to mitigate the catastrophic effects of a warming planet, we must abandon capitalism.
You can’t have a system built on the principle of growth on a planet with finite resources.
We need a revolution.
If you abandon capitalism?
How are you going to get a person to want to acheive anything. You are advocating communism. How about ethical capitalism.
Who will invest in progress, answer nobody will.
Who will fund the socialism, answer nobody will.
Fail Ed.
We don’t need a revolution. We need solutions and the political will to enable those solutions. Some think big, without a revolution destroying society in the process.
BBC Newsnight’s Evan Davis interviews author and anti-globalisation campaigner Naomi Klein about her book, ‘This Changes Everything’, in which she argues that the threat of climate change should trigger a global movement to bring in a new, more just, economic order
Firstly Ed find a big cold lake and cool off for a second. You seem to think I’m ignorant and you know everything.
She is saying what I talk about. Ethical Capitalism, not age of exploitation capitalism.
Destroy is a vote getter Ed.
Revolution is a vote getter Ed. Especialy radical socialist ones.
Who’s lives do you intend to destroy in the revolution.
Do you have the green solution ready to go. So when you destroy something you fix it as well.
Have you built the electricity network already for your dream.
Have the EV vehicles been built, have you learnt to feed the people without fertilisers, jobs for the sacked workers.
Here she details how our neoliberal economic system and our planetary system are now at war.
With global emissions at an all-time high, Klein says radical action is needed.
“We have not done the things that are necessary to lower emissions because those things fundamentally conflict with deregulated capitalism, the reigning ideology for the entire period we have been struggling to find a way out of this crisis,” Klein writes. “We are stuck because the actions that would give us the best chance of averting catastrophe — and would benefit the vast majority — are extremely threatening to an elite minority that has a stranglehold over our economy, our political process, and most of our major media outlets.”
There is definately groups within Capitalism that have a lot to answer for.
Would a capitalist include a person who invests in a EV taxi service? With the intent to make a profit and reduce emmisions.
Would a capitalist include an inventor who risks his life savings on an idea to make renewables?
With the intent to make a profit and reduce emmisions.
Would a capitalist include a farmer changing to low emmisions farming while making a profit.
Should a person like Elon Musc be flogged into submission. For your idealism. His intent for ethical capitalism, his ideas crushed in the name of socialism or idealism or whatever ism your proposing.
I have a funny feeling Ed that that minority interest in Capitalism which you seek to destroy will result in destroying everything else as well.
If you can’t invest to make a profit who will invest in change?
As the 2 million Kiwi workers loose there jobs as capitalism is banned, what do you propose to do with them. Who now grows there food?
Collective farming?
Who provides the electricity, you have shut them down.
How do we get around, you have banned car production and sales.
How do I fix my home, nobody creates building products.
What do I watch, you have banned movies.
You made prostitution illegal again.
How do your unemployed by quality booze to drown there sorrows, you just banned Liqour stores.
The internet closed down, I can’t write letters to object as paper got banned along with Capitalism. Plus postal services closed when Ed banned stamps.
Since Knowledge with patents can be sold for profit Ed banned ideas as well.
Under the present system people share in a contract with the government. We pay taxes “share” and they provide services.
The sharing is organised. I might be happy sharing with one person or issue but not another. But I must share. I may see it as a person without genuine need or one with there hand out but never wanting to give. A may see a person who gets nothing who I think deserves some of that sharing. We all see it differently.
I think you envisage an idealism. That every person is like you in being a good and caring person. That unfortunately is not the human condition. Neither does it recognise modern society needs industry to function. How do you get areas with population crowding or food shortages to get some sharing. Do the urban dwellers have to go to the country every day to hope people share. Do you que up for car sharing day hoping you get picked today.
I share, I help strangers, I give things away in charity, I teach and pass on my knowledge, I pay my taxes.
What exactly is this global sharing culture going to be like.
It would be great to have, but how do we go from today’s society to your vision.
You are arguing about capitalism ( and to some extent liberal democracy )
The problem is not the now,but the future and the tyranny that arises from not addressing future problems such as AI ,where both jobs and democracy go extinct.
Borges (utopia of a tired man) predicted the end of government.
What happened to the governments? According to tradition, they were gradually falling into disuse. They called elections, declared wars, imposed tariffs, confiscated fortunes, ordered arrests, and tried to impose censorship, but no one on the planet abided. The press stopped publishing their collaborations and their effigies. Politicians had to find honest occupations.
Essentially government controls the treasury benches,which in the future (in principle) could see the finance minister replaced by an algorithm owned and operated by some obscure company.
Harari outlines a possible pathway to technology tyranny from the present.
in the 20th century, the masses revolted against exploitation and sought to translate their vital role in the economy into political power. Now the masses fear irrelevance, and they are frantic to use their remaining political power before it is too late. Brexit and the rise of Donald Trump may therefore demonstrate a trajectory opposite to that of traditional socialist revolutions. The Russian, Chinese, and Cuban revolutions were made by people who were vital to the economy but lacked political power; in 2016, Trump and Brexit were supported by many people who still enjoyed political power but feared they were losing their economic worth. Perhaps in the 21st century, populist revolts will be staged not against an economic elite that exploits people but against an economic elite that does not need them anymore. This may well be a losing battle. It is much harder to struggle against irrelevance than against exploitation.
Well I’m sorry but I’m going to have to agree with you on this (sorry because as a National voter my support means this post will be viewed with suspicion 🙂 )
From my side of the spectrum the Greens appear to be strongly red-green and the not the Green it claims to be
Theres always been talk of a mythical blue-green party but for the mean time a true green party would be a good idea but I doubt it’d get off the ground, I mean you’d need a leader with name recognition (whats Kennedy Graham up to these days 😉 ) and decent financial backing
Is it or have the supporters of the Green party just convinced themselves that this is so
The Green party have shown that they’re willing to compromise their ideals and beliefs for power so why not take it a step further and see what National could offer
Talking costs nothing and doesn’t guarantee anything so why not see whats out there
Have you any idea of what National think is “swimmable”? Obviously you don’t, because if you did, then you wouldn’t have posted such a laughable comment.
As regards the current govt, I’m with KJT. As regards the future, it’s wide open. The only obvious problem is the toxic combination of National Party culture and tradition. Since the former derives from the latter, the Nats are trending to the margin.
About a year has passed since I saw an interview with James Shaw & he was asked about the possibility of working with National. It was probably before the election. He replied that if he gets an offer from them, he’ll give it due consideration. We’ve heard of none since then. Ball’s in their court still.
It all depends if they try to work with NZF instead, and/or TOP. Next year they’ll have to pull one of those three rabbits out of their hat or go into the next election from a position of weakness.
National couldn’t be trusted to do things they talked about with apparent passion and truthfulness. They are so self-centred that they will manipulate, fudge, delay and deny. No party of integrity should be prepared to give them more than a hearing, for the sake of political intelligence. They have drunk the kool-aid and swallowed the hubris pill, and are willing to walk over hot coals to serve their ends and whichever power is prepared to carry on in the way that is increasing their assets.
Sauron proved to be Morgoth’s best lieutenant during the wars. This was partly because he was a shapeshifter, a sorcerer, and had control of dangerous beasts …
Manipulating our financial system, that changes every day – very similar to the idea of sorcery, and the shapeshifter watches his or her image being broadcast to see if it registers well with the people being enticed.
That capacity to shapeshift may enable them to morph into a better party. You get more nous about shapeshifting in politics from the practice of shamanism, btw, than from Tolkein. Even so, having read The Hobbit four times, first as a child in the mid-fifties, through to teenage years and fifth time as a hippie early ’70s, I’m not gonna deny his seminal influence!
Best contemporary practitioner is, I suspect, John Perkins. See Shapeshifting: Shamanic Techniques for Global and Personal Transformation (1997). You may have heard of his best-seller Confessions of an Economic Hit Man (2004). I’ve got those and two more by him as well. Despite having blown the whistle on the US govt more loudly than Snowden or Assange, he’s still alive at 73.
That’s interesting Dennis I am a book fancier and think I have Perkins about being a Hit Man which I got secondhand thinking it sounded interesting. I have only glanced at it so will have to get serious.
Definitely recommend doing so asap! I was too blasé, took me years to get around to it. JP is so worthy of respect I can’t recall any other American of similar stature. Remarkable man! Essential.
Does that mean that, like me, you thought it vastly better than LotR? Have a stack of copies to give away to those who haven’t read it?? I’ve only got the early seventies paperback and an original hard-cover with original art-work on the paper jacket (maybe first edition) that I found cheap in an obscure 2nd-hand bookshop some years ago. Fifteen is rather ott!
Be still, my beating heart! I’m collecting copies so that I can tutor groups of young readers through the tale and beyond. I’m trained and practiced as a teacher and found my best efforts were in topics I loved and with students wanting to know. I’ve already been reading The Hobbit to grandsons etc. of an evening, to be sure I’ve the pace and tone right for reading aloud – something I love to do and have had a great deal of practice in already, so when the children of families of my area, who have already asked my wife and I to begin a forest garden school, reach “hobbit” age, I’ll be ready. I’ve a range of copies, old and new and take pleasure in the variety of covers, illustrations etc. that exist. I don’t though, have a hard-backed copy 🙂 No matter, one will turn up. I’ve discovered trade me and the Tolkien section and have already purchased a couple of copies, though they’ve not yet arrived in my letter box. Last Friday I found a copy of “the Hobbit Companion” by David Day, which, while not the core book, looks interesting, exploring as it does, the derivations of the words Tolkien used: “hobbit”, “orc”, “ent” etc. Such things interest me greatly 🙂
Sounds like you could be a natural storyteller. You know about the Moomin books? Probably my favourite series as a child. If not, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tove_Jansson – tried them on my daughter in the early eighties & she loved them too.
I know Moomins, but have never cracked that nut. I think I’ve missed it. Orcs? Sure. Tolkien was an Englishman. Sometimes, we expect too much…
Do you know…Little Big? (Not “Little Big Man” 🙂
I have as many copies of The Hobbit as I can copy to devices from my Calibre server. It does seem to me to somewhat pointless in an era of digital copies to fixate on fire tinder.
I’m determined to have a “class set” that I can hand out to students so that they can read ahead or read again, as we shared the story as read aloud. I like the signs of previous ownership too: personal dedications, messages from aunts and uncles, that sort of thing. Even the date stamps and “this book belongs to…” in ex-library copies adds to my enjoyment of the books. Plus hard-copy/paperback differences and all that jazz…
Books are solid artifacts, skilfully made, creatively designed, beautiful examples of clever, imaginative minds. Treasure the books and the minds, they may be dying out!
Dennis Frank at 5.30pm
That mention about critiquing Tolkien and the orcs to discuss whether he shows with them a racist line brought
nit-picking to mind. And I thought about gorillas and chimpanzees going through each other’s hair to get rid of the pests. Perhaps this revisionism is human nitpicking at work? This is what we do, but with a negative bias rather than one of being helpful to each other and building community.
Don’t see any compromise of ideals and beliefs. I see Greens making as much progress as they can with the level of their vote, and the limitations of the system.
I support James Shaw in trying to get a consensus. Otherwise we will see all progress against AGW halt, when the Government next changes in 2026.
The Green party have shown that they’re willing to compromise their ideals and beliefs for power … [my bold]
This is true to a degree but for the Green Party political power is a means to an end and for the National Party it is the ultimate goal in its own right and essentially a Faustian pact without a noble goal in mind.
There’s a bit of sense there PR. CC is the greatest threat ever to face mankind and requires non-political direction because it is not a political matter. That is the trap way too many people have fallen into over the decades.
We need a governing body outside of the main political parties specifically for making the hard decisions required to play our part in combating CC and a statute requiring the government of the day to implement those decisions.
Sounds too hard? I don’t think so. There are a number of people well versed in Climate science and other necessary spheres of activity who are highly regarded by all political parties. Kennedy Graham could well be one of them. I guess it would be appropriate for each political party to have one of their members assigned to this governing body but they would not wield any more power than the other members.
Well, it’s never going to change under the present political process as you say KJT, but there are wiser heads associated with all political parties who could redefine the parameters so that such a governing body was achievable.
One of the comfortable middle class, who think that action to prevent AGW consists of buying an electric car and banning plastic bags, the rest is business as usual while, other people bear the cost of change.
Like National’s “Blue Greens”..
Deliberately ignoring the fact that it is the “comfortable” who are responsible for most resource use, and emissions. Those of us who are “comfortable” and well off, have to drop some of our standard of living, such as jet flights overseas, horrors! So that the rest can survive.
This is because the radical socialists tried to find a home in our political spectrum, and over time captured a party founded on protecting the enviroment.
This is simply not true. The Green Party has always cared about people as well as planet and grew out of the Values Party who also cared about people as well as planet.
If you don’t like the Greens then fine, but please don’t tell lies about them.
Greens are hardly “radical socialists”. Being slightly to the left of Kieth Holyoak, who, I would suspect is turning in his grave over the present day National party.
Funnily enough I’ve always wondered what the leaders of parties from ye olde times would think of their parties today and where the disconnect (if any) started
MJ Savage and Kirk, not to mention JA Lee, who was never a Prime Minister but was a huge influence on the founders of our welfare State, I suspect would have been very upset with 1980’s to 2017 Labour. Especially the capture of the party, by ACT, in the 80’s.
Massey, et al. would be at home with present day National. Making it illegal to feed the families of striking workers, and sending farmers on horse back to beat up demonstrators. Many National backbenchers want those days back.
Muldoon was, of course rightly horrified, at the criminal devaluation of the dollar forced on him, and the fire sale of assets, which followed.
It is a job, and valuable to be able to do something well, and we should be prepared to pay for that. Jobs for humans, doing human things, that is what we need and right now. Even if we all spend half our time in the garden, and maintenance of our own resources, and the other half at our skilled jobs we might make it through. Let’s go and talk to Maori from this pov and the Aborigines who managed to live in an environment when it was harsh, and know the places where they could find seasonal living environments.
solkta
I don’t want to pay you eventually or now, to sit around and type comments on how you don’t want to think about the future for other people and don’t want to be part of a working community that everyone adds to in a positive way.
Oh good then you aren’t on an old age pension. I hope you are a useful, co-operative member of society because I don’t hear much in the way of positives on here.
And you will notice that I talked about divisions in lifestyles, for the self-sustaining capable person and whanau. Maori had been managing that for many centuries and were able to help many new white settlers, before
the incomers took advantage and tried to get hold of more land.
People need to recognise that there were real estate gougers then as now, and they had to get hold of land to hand to the people who had bought it London often bad faith contracts, which meant that it was fraud. When they were on their way to claim these purported plots it would become highly stressful for the hucksters. So tip Maori off the land somehow, anyhow, pay them a small recompense, and pocket the profit.
Maori have survived even if unhappily, and it is time we learned from them.
BBC news: “Mexico’s López Obrador pledges ‘radical’ change”. But Obrador the radical is being sensible…
“Obrador’s administration inherits a crisis caused by a recent surge of migrant caravans of mostly Central American nationals, fleeing poverty and violence in their home nations and flooding into Mexico to try to reach the US. To try to curb these migrant flows, Mr López Obrador has proposed an ambitious co-operation scheme involving Mexico, Canada, and the US that would pump aid and investment into Central America to create jobs and raise living standards.” https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-46404650
“I have spoken on two occasions with Trump [since the presidential election] and he has sent a delegation [to Mexico] and there are ongoing negotiations, and I must recognise that he has given us respectful treatment. You will see how we will maintain a good relationship with the US government,” he said in a recent press conference. And another consequence was announced late last week.
“President Trump and his Mexican and Canadian counterparts sought to put the acrimony of the past two years behind them on Friday as they signed a new trade agreement governing hundreds of billions of dollars in commerce that underpins their mutually dependent economies.”
“Meeting for the first time since the revised North American Free Trade Agreement was sealed, Mr. Trump, President Enrique Peña Nieto of Mexico and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada hailed the results as a boon for workers, businesses and the environment”. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/30/world/americas/trump-trudeau-canada-mexico.html
Trump sure does know how to get things done. I like it when a politician sees some bullshit and is willing to say it. The fact he made it clear he wouldn’t tolerate unfair trade anymore resulted in all three parties attempting to make things fair. If he didn’t throw his toys out of the cot nothing would have happened.
China is already under pressure and they too trade unfairly with the US, and pretty much everybody else.
The EU is no better. Africa would be a different place if trade barriers weren’t in place. Plus French wine, which RT tested as second to US wine.
Nah, I just watched them do some random (hopefully) blind testing in Paris and the locals picked the US wine. In response to Trump taking a swipe at the moron Nationalism comment, with French trade protectionism on wine.
I did have to look up that word, so thanks McFlock, I learnt something.
The yanks do make some good wines. And some French wines are complete crap. Seems more like an RT wind-up than a (brave) call that one contry has better wine than another.
We stop climate change by dropping fossil and adapting our ways of doing things to the new fossil free environment we’ll have created.
I can’t see what “Amish” or anarcho-primitivism or England crica 1456 has to do with anything.
Do you think humanity will somehow lose medical knowledge, engineering know-how or any accumulated scientific knowledge or agricultural ken just because we bin fossil?
I can see how all that and much more will likely be lost if we attempt to adapt to an environment raked by climate change rather than one absent fossil. In fact, I can see how not getting rid of fossil could make Amish and England circa 1456 look like unattainable goals.
What is it about the Amish way you are apprehensive about?
Is the thought of a lack of something?
I reckon a mix of how Maori were getting on, with a mix of technology that the settlers bought with them.
I was talking about this with mates the other night.
The context was hemp harvesting.
Hemp is hard on gear, because of it’s awesome qualities.
We came to a oversized scissor/secateur device that is used with horses.
(Sorry I forget the name of it)
What would be wrong with living sustainably, in harmony with the earth, eating locally and seasonally?
“What is it about the Amish way you are apprehensive about?”
Um, pitchforks? Having to wear 19th century clothes? Having to go to church regularly? Also, “they don’t believe that faith automatically guarantees salvation” which must be damned annoying most of the time. A religion that doesn’t automatically save the true believer?? Get real.
Thats disingenuous.
It’s not what gsays was referring to . I think we all know a simpler way less materialistic lifestyle is what we all need , and there’s absolutely no need to bring in the church or UN.
I think we have to transcend our competitive mindsets and become cooperative and a whole lot kinder.
We’ve done the talking primate on hind legs Desmond Morris thing (the naked ape competing for resources and tupping rights)
It’s no longer working for us
Time for the next evolutionary leap
In the short to medium term, because many of the things we need to live are not efficiently produced locally – medicine or vaccines, for example.
In the longer term, it would also shut down all higher-level research that requires electronic communication or analysis. Consumerism actually drives advancement and lowers costs (by increasing market size). Human technology would stagnate, and we’d just sit on this rock waiting for the true end to come. Fuck that.
Please can a moderator deal with James comment to me at 7.1.2.
I am over the non-stop verbal abuse I receive from this person every time I post on this site.
The comment at 7.1.2. is personal and repulsive.
I expect protection from such levels of bullying.
[lprent: Not enough for me to take action. It was a nasty side comment (and not abuse) while making his point – which was an assertion related to your assertions. ]
Hey Ed
The milk of human kindness is not really a feature of this site.
Just ignore the bile and malice and keep providing the links despite it all !
And incidentally TRP covered his butt with the “supposed”Gandhi quote.
Gandhi never said that
And what’s more he had the” h” in the wrong place
You made quite a few comments on the Rachel Stewart post, Ed. Did any of them condemn her racist abuse and offer me any solidarity? Nope, not one. So stick your selective morality where the sun don’t shine.
You’re a guest here at the Standard whare, Ed, and you get a fair crack. On occasions, you’ve led off some good discussions, including today’s Bomber thread. However, if the tit for tat between yourself and others becomes a problem, don’t assume the moderation will be limited to people you don’t like.
They take up too much time .Online bullies are usually face to face cowards
Yep , that was a foul comment, I agree, but he contaminates himself by making it , not you.
The unique futility of our thinking is evident in this youtube clip promoted as The Most Isolated Tribe in the World.
It is about the Sentilese? I think they were the ones killed off one of those pesky religious evangelisticals or the like who won’t fucking leave alone any uninformed-about-Christianity or Dominant Religion till they teach them their way and try and convert them. It’s a competitive thing, being first to gather them into the fold, and so dominating the disruptive new religion market.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7BNwmVvk6g
If we can form close supportive groups with high numbers, we may be able to survive in the short term when times get really competitive. But for advanced humans, we would hope that we don’t descend into constant raids and defence.
The ABC had a similar report to the RNZ, I put to the fact the Thai’s didn’t want or to be seen to lose face and the other is a little bit racist (Which you see now and again if you have travelled to the border areas of Thailand aka South North West/ Northern Regions) as the is that the young kids weren’t Thai’s “so why should I risk my life for those kids, who aren’t Thai.
The Thai’s, well most Asians are a funny lot sometimes especially if you get off the beaten track or turn up all of sudden where they don’t expect a Frang and the clash of cultures does play or could lead to misunderstanding than Authoritatarian attitudes.
Well, you don’t put John Bolton in the driver’s seat if you’re trying to avoid a war.
/
.@SecPompeo: Iranian regime just test-fired a medium range ballistic missile capable of striking Europe & the Middle East. This violates #UNSC Res. 2231. #Iran’s missile testing & proliferation is growing. We are accumulating risk of escalation if we fail to restore deterrence. pic.twitter.com/ZEKPpHI6Ij— Department of State (@StateDept) December 1, 2018
Yes I put Bolten in the McCain camp in that he creates fictional threats in his mind and lives in a paranoid state of mind as a result. Those who become his target realise the only end game for Bolten is there destruction. They act in response to his threat, portrayed as protecting freedom.
Never, Ever Forget The Guardian/Politico Psyop Against WikiLeaks
by CAITLIN JOHNSTONE, Dec. 1, 2018
For the first few hours after any new “bombshell” Russiagate story comes out, my social media notifications always light up with poorly written posts by liberal establishment loyalists saying things like “HAHAHA @caitoz this proves you wrong now will you FINALLY stop denying Russian collusion???” Then, when people start actually analyzing that story and noting that it comes nowhere remotely close to proving that Donald Trump colluded with the Russian government to steal the 2016 election, those same people always forget to come back afterward and admit to me that they were wrong again.
This happens every single time, including this past Tuesday when the Guardian published a new “bombshell” report saying that former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort had had secret meetings with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. When experts all across the political spectrum began pointing out that the story contained no evidence for its nonsensical claims and was entirely anonymously sourced, nobody ever came back and said “Hey sorry for calling you a Russian propagandist, Caitlin; turns out that story wasn’t as fact-based as I’d thought!” When evidence for a single one of the article’s claims failed to turn up for a day, then two days, then three days, nobody came back and said “Gosh Caitlin, I owe you an apology for mocking you and calling you Assange’s bitch; turns out WikiLeaks and Manafort are suing that publication and its claims remain completely unproven.”
And of course they didn’t. They weren’t meant to. They were meant to absorb the Guardian’s false claims as fact, add it to their Gish gallop mountain of false evidence for Trump-Russia-WikiLeaks collusion, and then be shuffled onward by the relentless news churn of the corporate propaganda matrix like always. But I’m never going to let them forget that this happened, and neither should you. …
As ever, you speak total sense .
The Guardian is a pillar of the neoliberal establishment.
Luke Harding is a traitor to the people of the UK and the world.
He took his 30 pieces of silver.
Assange is one of the greatest whistle-blowers of our time. Yet some among the ‘woke’ left align themselves with the far right as their useful tools . They are fed the identity politics issues that is the flavour of the month from the far right and go at it with a fervor matched only by those prosecutors of the Salem witch trials.
5 Facts You Didn’t Know About Julian Assange founder of … – YouTube
Leave it solkta. It – they – are just not worth it. I gave up with tryng to engage a long time ago. I would rather see you here than past tense and his sycophant, so just ignore them. You and I and others will not change them.
You seem to think everyone to the right of you is a traitor to the people, and should be prosecuted. Do you not understand the meaning of democracy and pluralistic society, where it is actually legitimate to hold views different to your preferred view?
More particularly, have you ever considered why all democratic societies have some form of market economy as their basic economic organising principle. The simple reason being choice. Most people want choice (in varying degrees).
I don’t think all people to the right of me are traitors.
I do think the politicians in New Zealand who changed our laws so this country could be sold to foreign corporations and interests are traitors, in the same way people betray their country in war.
Many of the traitors were in the Labour Party of the 1980s.
Luke Harding and the Guardian cabal betrayed us by aligning with the deep state in its war against us.
You should know all this, but as ex-war Minister of New Zealand, you are probably have insider knowledge of the demands of the deep state.
Just a few points , Wayne , to riegn in your simplistic overveiw of what in you mind, constitutes ‘democracy’.
First off ,…
Extremes, Wayne, extremes.
On both the left and right . There is a reason that Germany outlawed the National Socialists. And no matter how much one valued ‘democracy’ ,- the National Socialists remained banned in Germany. For good reason. On the flip side,… there is a reason why most sane people abhor Pol Pot, Stalin or Mao. Because they were ALL genocidal govts.
Those are all the EXTREMES , yes, we understand that. But the example proves that there ARE NO safe harbors in which to park ones allegiances in when extremes are concerned – either LEFT or Right.
NOW , THAT SAID… a moderate individual , one who seeks good will for themselves and others would be more inclined to seek an ideology /political movement that did just that. And , in the process of doing so ,… would find themselves inadvertently aligning themselves up with those individuals who are known as the ‘ GREAT GENERATION’… those stalwarts who went off to fight in World War Two , who came back having seen , witnessed and partaking of the bloody obscenity’s of humans murdering one another and were determined that those hideous conditions would not repeat themselves here.
They knew what poverty , deprivation and wholesale violence led to.
Thus, they adopted the ‘cradle to the grave ‘ welfare policy’s. They adopted Keynesian economics , wage award rates , full employment ,- and , – after having done so , – enjoyed the most prosperous and peaceful conditions in history that we in NZ have ever known. And per capita we ( NZ ) were among the most wealthiest in the world. We were 6th , – behind Denmark. The system we lived under was recognized by both Labour and National ( Muldoon was a staunch supporter of it and the working man.) and woebetide any who tried to tamper with it.
But then along came your hideous friends, Wayne, – your grubby little neo liberal buddy’s. The likes of Roger Douglas, Ruth Richardson, Mike Moore, Jenny Shipley and co and rode roughshod over the ‘ democratic’ process you like to trumpet about and pretend you uphold, and went completely against the democratic will of the people and proceeded to flog off the assets built up by the Great Generation , paid for through taxes and hard work , gut out forestry’s , electricity company’s , airports , rail systems and so on and so forth… not to mention passing the odious Employment Contracts Act 1991 to smash unions to please your 1%’er mates to increase their profits on the workers backs…
And you , Wayne, …. you dare to try and lecture us about what ‘democracy’ is.
It was radicals , Wayne,… radicals just like you we despised. You are not ‘Orthodox’ . You are not ‘C
Having been brought up into that state socialism, I see the benefits more clearly in retrospect, so I partly agree. However voters turned against it because under Muldoon it became obvious that it was no longer economically viable. Same realisation swung voters back to the 19th century in other western countries.
And Wayne is right that most people want cheaper stuff & consumer choice, so his framing of democracy is valid. These ideological pitches and critiques belong to the past, there’s points of merit on both sides and centrists just want a mix that works in the current social context.
What we’re seeking now is UBI to replace the welfare shambles, weaning off foreign trade dependency via judicious domestic enterprise development, smart tech, and any other suitable design feature to throw into the mix to replace neoliberalism. We don’t need any more complaining about the past. We need to provide for our future!
First off, – Wayne never mentioned ‘cheaper goods’. Neither for the consumers nor for ‘democracy’.
Your twisting things deliberately.
Second off,… no the voters didn’t turn against it because under Muldoon it became obvious that it was no longer economically viable. They were convinced by the same neo liberal cabal who were pushing for these deregulated markets.
————————————————–
A key point of the free-market cabal’s programme was to devalue the New Zealand dollar, an extremely sensitive issue.
Several weeks before the July, 1984 election, Douglas, Labour’s shadow finance minister, “accidentally” released a statement which signaled his intent to devalue.
Since it was a near certainty that labour, aided by the New Zealand Party’s drawing votes from the Nationals, would win, speculators began to dump the New Zealand dollar, planning, post-devaluation, to cash in each dollar of foreign currency for more New Zealand dollars than previously.
With Labour’s victory, the simmering foreign exchange crisis exploded. The Reserve Bank’s foreign Exchange holdings quickly ran dry, and Labour demanded, even before the end of the several-week transition period, that Muldoon devalue.
After a brief struggle, Muldoon capitulated, and devalued by 20%. Speculators made tens, if not hundreds of millions of dollars overnight.
———————————————————
AND THAT ,… sonny Jim, – was the REAL reason AND the devious methods used by the treasonous neo liberals to overturn NZ’s Keynesian system. They couldn’t do it in the open because at that time we had strong treason laws. So they had to resort to devious and ‘un democratic ‘ methods such as the above to affect it.
And in the meantime – stop being an apologist for people like Wayne and other odious neo liberals. Including, it seems, yourself. As for your ‘These ideological pitches and critiques belong to the past, ‘… that is , according to you and those like you. Yet with your radical neo liberalism you have presented NO WORKING MODEL that can take the former’s place. Barring more of the same poverty for hundreds of thousand’s of NZ’ers. You are a comfortable apologist using those same hundreds of thousands of NZ’ers as your retirement comfort plan.
Screw you.
UBI?… and to be determined by WHOM?
The same bald faced con men/women criminals like Jenny Shipley who set the welfare rates deliberately 20% under the actual survivable cost of living???
Yeah right. We’ve heard it all before , mate.
The same lies, the same rorts, the same perversions of the truth.
… [ weaning off foreign trade dependency via judicious domestic enterprise development, smart tech, and any other suitable design feature to throw into the mix to replace neoliberalism ] …
Yeah and Cindarella just got a new dress.
We’ve heard all that before as well.
And yes, – setting trade deals with Russia would be a smart move, :
——————————————————–
Winston Peters has offered a way out. Trade with the Russians. A brilliant tactical move that extricates us from Chinese and American imperialism.
And makes us rich.
Let the Chinese rail, let the Americans rail… let the Americans wring their hands at the smaller sibling who now trades with their ‘deadly rivals’. Let little NZ salute with the middle finger England who so promptly ditched us when they joined the EEC…
America, who use us as a gawking outpost on the Pacific and China with their 5 eyes system,…China, who use free trade deals as a way to implement soft power on us and our democracy…
Take them all down by trading big time with the Russians. Embarrass them all.
You might just find, that suddenly ,… those long sought after trading deals with America might just become very lucrative indeed all of a sudden as a sweetener … meanwhile,… no promises given as we happily trade wholesale with the Ruskies…
———————————————————
Anything wrong with that so far , cobber?
And maybe your dreamy little exercise about ” domestic enterprise development, smart tech, and any other suitable design feature ” would work a little better if we had such things as trade tariffs and protection of our own industry’s , – instead of open slather deregulation passing of industrial information that caused China to benefit from our dairy industry and horticulture industry ie : kiwifruit production.
Its called industrial secrets and intellectual property , mate.
And THAT … brings us right back round to how things were in NZ BEFORE the Roger Douglas TREASON.
IN OTHER WORDS – What I was talking about before you chimed in with your idealistic Pollyanna B.S idealized and unrealistic view of the world..
Just a few points , Wayne , to reign in your simplistic overview of what in your mind, constitutes ‘democracy’.
First off ,…
Extremes, Wayne, extremes.
On both the left and right . There is a reason that Germany outlawed the National Socialists. And no matter how much one valued ‘democracy’ ,- the National Socialists remained banned in Germany. For good reason. On the flip side,… there is a reason why most sane people abhor Pol Pot, Stalin or Mao. Because they were ALL genocidal govts.
Those are all the EXTREMES , yes, we understand that. But the example proves that there ARE NO safe harbors in which to park ones allegiances in when extremes are concerned – either LEFT or Right.
NOW , THAT SAID… a moderate individual , one who seeks good will for themselves and others would be more inclined to seek an ideology /political movement that did just that. And , in the process of doing so ,… would find themselves inadvertently aligning themselves up with those individuals who are known as the ‘ GREAT GENERATION’… those stalwarts who went off to fight in World War Two , who came back having seen , witnessed and partaking of the bloody obscenity’s of humans murdering one another and were determined that those hideous conditions would not repeat themselves here.
They knew what poverty , deprivation and wholesale violence led to.
Thus, they adopted the ‘cradle to the grave ‘ welfare policy’s. They adopted Keynesian economics , wage award rates , full employment ,- and , – after having done so , – enjoyed the most prosperous and peaceful conditions in history that we in NZ have ever known. And per capita we ( NZ ) were among the most wealthiest in the world. We were 6th , – behind Denmark. The system we lived under was recognized by both Labour and National ( Muldoon was a staunch supporter of it and the working man.) and woebetide any who tried to tamper with it.
But then along came your hideous friends, Wayne, – your grubby little neo liberal buddy’s. The likes of Roger Douglas, Ruth Richardson, Mike Moore, Jenny Shipley and co and rode roughshod over the ‘ democratic’ process you like to trumpet about and pretend you uphold, and went completely against the democratic will of the people and proceeded to flog off the assets built up by the Great Generation , paid for through taxes and hard work , gut our forestry’s , electricity company’s , airports , rail systems and so on and so forth… not to mention passing the odious Employment Contracts Act 1991 to smash unions to please your 1%’er mates to increase their profits on the workers backs…
And you , Wayne, …. you dare to try and lecture us about what ‘democracy’ is.
It was radicals , Wayne,… radicals just like you we despised. You are not ‘Orthodox’ . You are not ‘Conservative’. You are part of a renegade, out of control and dangerous cabal of piratical leeches who looked lustfully at the wealth of this land and when conditions were right ? – you, along with groups like the Business Roundtable and other traitors in both National and Labour, decided it was time to plunder it.
EXTREMIST RADICALS , Wayne.
Don’t try and preach to US about the virtues of democracy when your own ideological history and those who you consort with show blatant contempt for the same.
If you think palm oil that’s grown for food is the problem, think again.
Most of the plantations around us were new, their rise a direct consequence of policy decisions made half a world away. In the mid-2000s, Western nations, led by the United States, began drafting environmental laws that encouraged the use of vegetable oil in fuels — an ambitious move to reduce carbon dioxide and curb global warming. But these laws were drawn up based on an incomplete accounting of the true environmental costs. Despite warnings that the policies could have the opposite of their intended effect, they were implemented anyway, producing what now appears to be a calamity with global consequences.
Baa fucking hum bug .
I’ve had a quick scroll (shepherds be busy in December)
And the usual we need to change bullshit still prevails.
The greens ain’t green enuff. Labours not doing enuff.
We need to reduce . We need trains blah blah blah .
What you lot need is to fucking realise is that humans ain’t going to change .
Science is the only fix .
Carbon removal is the only answer .
Removal is part of the answer, but will never be the whole answer unless someone figures out how to synthesize long carbon nanotubes from CO2. But then we’ll have a super-strong plastics problem in the Pacific Gyre.
Nats back on top despite doing nothing! Contradicts those internal poll results reported by both parties recently too. You know, Labour ten points ahead…
Well, it indicates the voters are back into contradictory mode. On the one hand the Nats have increased their vote (looks like at NZ First’s expense) and Labour is down from the last CB poll, yet the economic outlook under the Lab led govt has increased. Can’t have it both ways voters.
We haven’t been seeing too much of the Prime Minister of late. I don’t know whether that is intentional or whether the media have decided to ignore her. Whatever… it shows in the outcome of this poll.
I agree the PM’s recent presentation could be a factor. Also, as MS pointed out, could just be random fluctuations within the margin of error for Colmar Brunton. But the discrepancy with the recent internal poll that rated Labour ten points ahead raises a question about how valid polling methodology is.
“We haven’t been seeing too much of the Prime Minister of late”.
I would have said that Winston had been quite vocal and frequently on display lately. If anything we have been seeing rather to much of the old sot.
There’s a reason why Peters is our senior politician,…and why hes earned that position. Because in a young govt hes needed. His senior , wise and unflappable confidence is warranted. Moreover his life experience and prior diplomatic expertise is needed.
This is not something from a decade ago, but something right here and now.
Peters has shown him self over and over to be more than just some temporal appendage , some new boy on the block, – but rather as a seasoned , battle hardened old campaigner. And a wise and steadfast tactical , strategic diplomat.
When idiots from all walks of the political spectrum spurn him,… we all suffer.
Shut up!… just shut up !…. and let the senior politicians speak.
We are tired of the young upstarts, the new inexperienced blood. It is time for wisdom of age and experience to speak !!!! They have the backdrop of time and
life experience to lend authority to their words.
For those who the think Chinese tourist dollar is great for NZ Tourism, well this article from ABC may’ve wroken up a few up that Chinese Tourist dollars are a myth and as my dad said to me when he was taking me around CHCH l(showing me the Pie eater’s and DonKey handiwork) last yr the Chinese tourists are ripping off NZ Tourism companies blind.
This is interesting on Chinese tourism from above link.
Thanks exkiwiforces. Thailand and Indonesia are cracking down on “zero-dollar” tours — all-inclusive travel packages sold at bargain basement prices that usually sound too good to be true — which have allegedly exploited the lack of local regulations.
Mandatory shopping stops at stores and factories are built into the itinerary, and tourists are urged — and sometimes pressured — to make purchases at marked-up prices.
Many of the shops have large parking lots packed with buses, but the public are usually not welcome.
Travel packages from China to Bali can be bought for as cheaply as $60, which includes everything you need for a five-night stay, according to Indonesia’s National Organisation for Tours and Travel (ASITA)…
Chinese tourists account for 21 per cent of global travel spending this year so far, according to the United Nations World Tourism Organisation.
These numbers can greatly benefit a local economy, but analysts argue it can also be used by the Chinese Government as “global leverage”.
University of Melbourne expert on Chinese foreign relations, Sow Keat Tok, said this power has been used by Beijing to rapidly generate “hostage situations” with countries it has political or diplomatic differences with — showing China’s “willingness to wield the tourism card”.
Travel packages from China to Bali can be bought for as cheaply as $60, which includes everything you need for a five-night stay, according to Indonesia’s National Organisation for Tours and Travel (ASITA).
“The shops are [illegally] owned by Chinese nationals; selling Chinese-produced items which are usually paid for with Alipay or WeChat,” said the head of ASITA Bali, I Ketut Ardana…
He said tour operators were able to sell travel packages cheaply because they work with Chinese operators in Bali who take them to Chinese-owned shops and tourist attractions that do not incur an entry fee.
The practice takes revenue away from the local economy because the income goes directly into the pockets of the people involved, he said…
“Sometimes they emotionally motivate these people to do it, sometimes they violently force them to buy it.
On my last trip to Laos and Nth Eastern Thailand I notice a few of those shops popping up. Before that some 5 yrs ago I was on a Sway Tour through Laos up in the Plain of Jars and taking to an expat Australian who was running the Q& A management of Sway’s Laos operations about Chinese tourism and economic clout in Laos. He went on to say that the proposed Chinese high speed/ freight railway from Kuming in China to Pattaya in Thailand via Laos, that the Chinese wanted own (not lease as most people think) land either side of the Right of Way up to a depth of 10km for their own purpose and a lot local Lao’s were only starting to realise what that meant to the local Lao economy.
Was hoping to head back next yr for some NGO work as I have mate in Laos, but it’s the 20th Anniversary of when INTERFET went into Timor-Leste and they come first.
Dad’s experience with Chinese tourism sector in NZ is all bad words to put it mildly, when compared to the Japanese, Singapore, Thai’s, Malaysian, Taiwan and Sth Koreans tourists. The Chinese pretty much ripped off a number of NZ companies, in other words pinch all their ideas and products and in some cases brought out NZ firms or put pressure on them to shut out other tourist companies. The list goes on and on the underhand tactics that the Chinese tourist operators are doing in NZ, but no one doesn’t really want to come down hard the Chinese because of the damage they could do to other parts of the NZ economy.
Interesting – i an not surprised. Did i mention colin cotterill to you. in case i didn’t he hasd= qriien crime books that are different – in one an old lao couple outwit all comers and solve crimes along with a great bunch of supporting characters.
I believe you did, but I can’t remember when as I have Colin Coterill’s name written down on my list to buy books when someone here on the “The Standard” mentions a particular author or book worth reading. Mind you some books and authors do to get scrubbed if i do some further research or avoid them like the plague or I want to read them out of curiosity, especially on why they went down a particular route.
I’ve just finished one book on “Mad on Radium, New Zealand in the Atom Age” by Rebecca Priestley. Which someone here mentioned it.
I knew some stuff on NZ’s involvement in Nuclear Science/ Research and prospecting for Uranium on the Coast , but I didn’t know just how far or in depth it was NZ was involved and was I blown away by it all as NZ was up to it’s neck in it. As I said to dad last night about it, NZ wasn’t all that far behind Australia either IRT to Nuclear Power at one stage the Aussies got as far laying the foundations for its first nuclear power station before it was knocked on the head and is now a carpark (Joking known as the worlds most expensive carpark) for the local surfers at Jervis Bay (The Tasman side) NSW.
“One example was provided last week by a UN report that revealed attempts to ensure fossil fuel emissions peak by 2020 will fail. Indeed the target will not even be reached by 2030. Another, by the World Meteorological Organization, said the past four years had been the warmest on record and warned that global temperatures could easily rise by 3-5C by 2100, well above that sought-after goal of 1.5C. The UK will not be exempt either. The Met Office said summer temperatures could now be 5.4C hotter by 2070.”
If you watch just one tv episode this year, make it the 2 Dec episode of The Hui.
Mad respect to all involved, especially Mike King.
We hear snippets of his work, but to hear and watch his presentation to the high school kids, profoundly moved me, deeply emotional, incredibly confrontational.
If you have children, watch it with them, watch it with your friends, your partner, your family open up the communication channels.
Word’s can’t describe, so grateful for such efforts from Mike King and The Hui for this piece, kudos and thank you.
ALIEN WEAPONRY – Kai Tangata (Official Video) | Napalm Records …
Video for alien weaponry kai tangata▶ 7:17
Yeah , Norse / Scots…. but respect to all these gorgeous people. My geologies goes back a thousand years,… so bloody what. So what if they were Dane or Norse.
The protectors , the providers…the lovely women who nurtured the children, who protected the young children….A family group. This is what society is all about.
Gotta say ….. the men …had a strong part to play. There was no dilatation, you all had a part to play…. you’ve lost that strong leadership,…. you’ve lost the woman’s vote of confidence.
He was brilliant on Hui; he can stand on a stage and students won’t believe him to be some sort of fake, talking down, righteous type. He means what he says.
The reason I took a much earlier interest in him, though, was the day he came out and told us what was happening to pigs. Originally acting as front man for the pig meat sellers, he discovered the intensity factory housing of them. It was a gotcha moment for me too, because I honestly believed our animals – our pigs, our chickens, our dairy cows – lived life on the grass in the sunshine, just like we have access to the outside.
Thanks for that Mike King. It changed how I eat and to support those activists far more clever than me to stop factories blotting our landscape.
This is not the New Zealand we want.
People and animals are damaged by these practices.
This is full circle stuff; people then are treated like factory animals. It’s ugly and greedy.
Kia ora the Am Show well what the wealthy should do is buy electric cars Duncan to help mitigate climate change .
The plastic problem we can use paper bags and glass and aluminum containers .
Did simon just land maggie barry in it lol the fiery lady statement from him.
Well the inquiry into bulling in Parliament will change the culture of Parliament NO.
Looks like the Maori Santa has brought out some true feeling if thing’s did not evolve we would be still stuck in the dark ages I don’t see what the problem is with a maori Santa the children have internet now they know he is a fictional character .
I hope there is not to much carnage in the bush fires in Australia .
Its cool that Mexico is going to set in place a policy to create more job creation’s in central America so the people don’t have to leave there home country for a better life. Yes we have to come up with more initiatives to keep our elderly mind’s and body’s active we need to be more grateful of our elderly contributions to our society RESPECT.
Ka kite ano
Eco Maori has observed climate change for 25 years I know we all have to make sacrifices to battle the carbon barons for a better future for our DECENDENTS.
On Sunday morning hundreds of politicians, government officials and scientists will gather in the grandeur of the International Congress Centre in Katowice, Poland. It will be a familiar experience for many. For 24 years the annual UN climate conference has served up a reliable diet of rhetoric, backroom talks and dramatic last-minute deals aimed at halting global warming. in 2100. Although most discussions use the year as a convenient cut-off point for describing Earth’s likely fate, the changes we have already triggered will last well beyond that date, said Svetlana Jevrejeva, at the National Oceanography Centre, Liverpool. She has studied sea-level rises that will be triggered by melting ice sheets and expanding warm seawater in a world 3-5C hotter than it was in pre-industrial times, and concludes these could reach 0.74 to 1.8 metres by 2100. This would be enough to deluge Pacific and Indian Ocean island states and displace millions from Miami, Guangzhou, Mumbai and other low-lying cities. The total cost to the planet could top £11trillion.Vast tracts of prime real estate will be destroyed – at a time when land will be needed with unprecedented desperation. Earth’s population stands at seven billion today and is predicted to rise to nine billion by 2050 and settle at over 11 billion by 2100 – when climate change will have wrecked major ecosystems and turned farmlands to dust bowls.Scientists warned more than 30 years ago that such a future lay ahead, but nothing was done to stave it off. Only dramatic measures are now left to those seeking to save our burning planet, and these can have grim political consequences. In France, for example, President Macron’s new levies on fossil fuels, introduced to cut emissions and to fund renewable energy projects, triggered riots. Had only modest changes been enacted a few decades ago there would be no trouble today, say analysts.
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But the most telling example is provided by the US, which has emitted about a third of the carbon responsible for global warming. Yet it has essentially done nothing to check its annual rises in output. Lobbying by the fossil fuel industry has proved highly effective at blocking political change – a point most recently demonstrated by groups such as the Competitive Enterprise Institute and the Heartland Institute, which helped persuade President Trump to pull out of the Paris agreement, thus dashing the planet’s last hope of ecological salvation. “The coalition used its power to slow us down precisely at the moment when we needed to speed up,” said the environmentalist Bill McKibben in the New Yorker.Florida
No region of the US has more to lose from climate change than southern Florida. If scientists’ worst predictions are realised, an entire metropolitan area, currently inhabited by more than six million people, is likely to be swamped by a 1.5-metre sea-level rise before the end of this century, a rise that could see the tourist mecca of Miami simply disappear. Ka kite ano
Trade tariff’s hurt the common people the most as they pay the bill not goverment’s.
he tangata he tangata that count the most in any country some don’t get IT.
donald trump has delayed for 90 days his threatened imposition of 25% tariffs on most Chinese imports after a dinner meeting with Xi Jinping, to give time for negotiations on longstanding trade disputes between the two countries, the White House has said.The two presidents agreed that the two sides can and must get bilateral relations right,” Wang Yi, China’s lead diplomat, told reporters in Buenos Aires. “Discussion on economic and trade issues was very positive and constructive. The two heads of state reached consensus to halt the mutual increase of new tariffs.”China has agreed to start purchasing agricultural product from our farmers immediately,” the statement said. Since trade tensions have escalated under Trump, China has radically reduced its import of US soy beans and other farm products, with direct impact on farmers in the US mid-west where Trump has drawn much of his political support.We suspect that since he negotiated this deal himself, Trump will be much more reluctant to torpedo it when his own personal reputation is on the line,” Ashworth added. Ka kite ano.
Lets hope that we have learned that war’s is not the correct way to change who leads the World here is a video and what I get out of it is cultures that have much in-common did not go to war over leadership of the world .The world leader need to learn to pass the baton on in this relay .Eco Maori says that America & China have a lot in-common now so PEACE is what is needed for the people to have a happy healthy life we need to work together to fight climate change and not each other for the grandchildren sake .
Is war between China and the US inevitable? | Graham Allison
Ka kite ano
I hope OUR World leader’s can lead us all on a journey away from climate disaster to a World binding agreement to protect our descendants and mother earth future.
We are last generation that can stop climate change’ – UN summit .
Big cuts in carbon emissions and a rise in protection from extreme weather urgently needed . We are clearly the last generation that can change the course of climate change, but we are also the first generation with its consequences,” said Kristalina Georgieva, the CEO of the World Bank. The bank announced on Monday that its record $100bn (£78bn) of climate funding from 2021-2025 would for the first time be split equally between projects to cut emissions and those protecting people from the floods, storms and droughts that global warming is making worse. Ka kite ano links below .
Kia ora Newshub That was a big thunder & lightning strike at that Hamilton school.
I totally agree with his views we need to reduce reuse and stop producing waste not just plastic all waste need to be recycled .
The fuel company’s are in a dominate position to manipulate the market excuse we are so far away from the export market does not cut it anymore thats the line most retailer use to have there price higher difference justified when compared to other countrys .
That really cool that more tracks have been closed in Auckland to protect Tane Mahuta
Ka pai to all the people protesting about the need to battle climate change.
I see some one was not impressed with trump refusing to include America in the Parsh
agreement
Well come to Aotearoa to South Korean President Moon Jae in I say we will be good respectful host.
The housing corp meth testing scam Cleo I feel for all those people who lost there house’s and who was running the meth testing retired WHO.
At least they are getting compensation from the Coalition Government if the old one was still in the gravy train would have still been running and ruining peoples lives.
Ka kite ano
Kia ora The Crowd Goes Wild James & Mulls good fight the boxing well The Gypsy had a good fight he had a good come back fight I like his waiata I get knocked down and I get up again the rematch will get the punters going ka pai.
The soccer call looked as bad as the basket ball calls.
Sam the man he had a good long UFC courier all the best in your retirement .
The Lonsdale Awards Cup looks like a good event Anna.
I’m not scared of heights but I don’t like the Idea of jumping out of a plane unless its crashing good footage
Ka kite ano
After a hiatus of over four months Selwyn Manning and I finally got it together to re-start the “A View from Afar” podcast series. We shall see how we go but aim to do 2 episodes per month if possible. … Continue reading → ...
In 2008, the UK Parliament passed the Climate Change Act 2008. The law established a system of targets, budgets, and plans, with inbuilt accountability mechanisms; the aim was to break the cycle of empty promises and replace it with actual progress towards emissions reduction. The law was passed with near-universal ...
Buzz from the Beehive Local Water Done Well – let’s be blunt – is a silly name, but the first big initiative to put it into practice has gone done well. This success is reflected in the headline on an RNZ report:District mayors welcome Auckland’s new water deal with ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate ConnectionsA farmworker cleans the solar panels of a solar water pump in the village of Jagadhri, Haryana Country, India. (Photo credit: Prashanth Vishwanathan/ IWMI) Decisions made in India over the next few years will play a key role in global ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – The Children’s Minister, Karen Chhour, intends to repeal Section 7AA from the Oranga Tamariki Act 1989 because it creates conflict between claimed Crown Treaty obligations and the child’s best interests. In her words, “Oranga Tamariki’s governing principles and its act should be colour ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – The gloves are off. That might seem to be the undertone of surprisingly tough talk from New Zealand’s foreign and trade ministers. Winston Peters, the foreign minister, may be facing legal action after making allegations about former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr on Radio New Zealand. ...
Brian Easton writes – This is about the time that the Treasury will be locking up its economic forecasts to be published in the 2024 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) on budget day, 30 May. I am not privy to what they will be (I will report on them ...
TL;DR:Winston Peters is reported to have won a budget increase for MFAT. David Seymour wanted his Ministry of Regulation to be three times bigger than the Productivity Commission. Simeon Brown is appointing a Crown Monitor to Watercare to protect the Claytons Crown Guarantee he had to give ratings agencies ...
The gloves are off. That might seem to be the undertone of surprisingly tough talk from New Zealand’s foreign and trade ministers. Winston Peters, the foreign minister, may be facing legal action after making allegations about former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr on Radio New Zealand. Carr had made highly ...
I could be a florist'Round the corner from Rye LaneI'll be giving daisies to craziesBut, baby, I'll wrap you up real safe Oh, I can give you flowers At the end of every dayFor the center of your table, a rainbowIn case you have people 'round to stay Depending on ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to May 12 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Finance Minister Nicola Willis will give a pre-budget speech on Thursday.Parliament sits from Question Time at 2pm on ...
The price of the foreign affairs “reset” is now becoming apparent, with Defence set to get a funding boost in the Budget. Finance Minister Nicola Willis has confirmed that it will be one of the few votes, apart from Health and Education and possibly Police, which will get an increase ...
A listing of 26 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 28, 2024 thru Sat, May 4, 2024. Story of the week "It’s straight out of Big Tobacco’s playbook. In fact, research by John Cook and his colleagues ...
Yesterday I received come lovely feedback following my Star Wars themed newsletter. A few people mentioned they’d enjoyed reading the personal part at the beginning.I often begin newsletters with some memories, or general thoughts, before commencing the main topic. This hopefully sets the mood and provides some context in which ...
April 30 was going to be the day we’d be calling Mum from London to wish her a happy birthday. Then it became the day we would be going to St. Paul's at Evensong to remember her. The aim of the cathedral builders was to find a way to make their ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Can’t remember the last book by a Kiwi author you read? Think the NZ government should spend less on the arts in favor of helping the homeless? If so, as far as Newsroom is concerned, you probably deserve to be called a cultural ignoramus ...
Eric Crampton writes – Grudges are bad. Better to move on. But it can be fun to keep a couple of really trivial ones, so you’re not tempted to have other ones. For example, because of the rootkit fiasco of 2005, no Sony products in our household. ...
A new report warns an estimated third of the adult population have unmet need for health care.Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāHere’s the six key things I learned about Aotaroa’s political economy this week around housing, climate and poverty:Politics - Three opinion polls confirmed support for PM Christopher Luxon ...
Today is May the fourth. Which was just a regular day when my mother took me to see the newly released Star Wars at the Odeon in Rotorua. The queue was right around the corner. Some years later this day became known as Star Wars Day, the date being a ...
Buzz from the Beehive Much more media attention is being paid to something Winston Peters said about former Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr than to a speech he delivered to the New Zealand China Council. One word is missing from the speech: AUKUS. But AUKUS loomed large in his considerations ...
Is the economy in another long stagnation? If so, why?This is about the time that the Treasury will be locking up its economic forecasts to be published in the 2024 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) on budget day, 30 May. I am not privy to what they will be ...
The annual list of who's been bribing our politicians is out, and journalists will no doubt be poring over it to find the juiciest and dirtiest bribes. The government's fast-track invite list is likely to be a particular focus, and we already know of one company on the list which ...
In the weeks after the October 7 Hamas attacks on Southern Israel I wrote about the possible 2nd, 3rd and even 4th order effects of the conflict. These included new fronts being opened in the West Bank (with Hamas), Golan … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – It is one of the oldest truisms that there is never a good time for MPs to get a pay rise. This week’s announcement of pay raises of around 2.8% backdated to last October could hardly have come at a worse time, with the ...
David Farrar writes – Newshub reports: Newshub can reveal a fresh allegation of intimidation against Green MP Julie-Anne Genter. Genter is subject to a disciplinary process for aggressively waving a book in the face of National Minister Matt Doocey in the House – but it’s not the first time ...
The Treasury has published a paper today on the global productivity slowdown and how it is playing out in New Zealand: The productivity slowdown: implications for the Treasury’s forecasts and projections. The Treasury Paper examines recent trends in productivity and the potential drivers of the slowdown. Productivity for the whole economy ...
Winston Peters’ comments about former Australian foreign minister look set to be an ongoing headache for both him and Luxon. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for subscribers features co-hosts and , along with regular guests on Gaza and ...
These puppet strings don't pull themselvesYou're thinking thoughts from someone elseHow much time do you think you have?Are you prepared for what comes next?The debating chamber can be a trying place for an opposition MP. What with the person in charge, the speaker, typically being an MP from the governing ...
The land around Lyme Regis, where Meryl Streep once stood, in a hood, on the Cobb, is falling into the sea.MerylThe land around Lyme Regis, around the Cobb that made it rich, has always been falling slowly but surely into the sea. Read more ...
Buzz from the Beehive Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters was bound to win headlines when he set out his thinking about AUKUS in his speech to the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. The headlines became bigger when – during an interview on RNZ’s Morning Report today – he criticised ...
The Post reports on how the government is refusing to release its advice on its corrupt Muldoonist fast-track law, instead using the "soon to be publicly available" refusal ground to hide it until after select committee submissions on the bill have closed. Fast-track Minister Chris Bishop's excuse? “It's not ...
As pressure on it grows, the livestock industry’s approach to the transition to Net Zero is increasingly being compared to that of fossil fuel interests. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / Getty ImagesTL;DR: Here’s the top five news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above ...
The New Zealand Herald reports – Stats NZ has offered a voluntary redundancy scheme to all of its workers as a way to give staff some control over their “future” amidst widespread job losses in the public sector. In an update to staff this morning, seen by the Herald, Statistics New Zealand ...
On Werewolf/Scoop, I usually do two long form political columns a week. From now on, there will be an extra column each week about music and movies. But first, some late-breaking political events:The rise in unemployment numbers for the March quarter was bigger than expected – and especially sharp ...
David Farrar writes – The Herald reports: TVNZ says it is dealing with about 50 formal complaints over its coverage of the latest 1News-Verian political poll, with some viewers – as well as the Prime Minister and a former senior Labour MP – critical of the tone of the 6pm report. ...
Muriel Newman writes – When Meridian Energy was seeking resource consents for a West Coast hydro dam proposal in 2010, local Maori “strenuously” objected, claiming their mana was inextricably linked to ‘their’ river and could be damaged. After receiving a financial payment from the company, however, the Ngai Tahu ...
Alwyn Poole writes – “An SEP,’ he said, ‘is something that we can’t see, or don’t see, or our brain doesn’t let us see, because we think that it’s somebody else’s problem. That’s what SEP means. Somebody Else’s Problem. The brain just edits it out, it’s like a ...
Our trust in our political institutions is fast eroding, according to a Maxim Institute discussion paper, Shaky Foundations: Why our democracy needs trust. The paper – released today – raises concerns about declining trust in New Zealand’s political institutions and democratic processes, and the role that the overuse of Parliamentary urgency ...
This article was prepared for publication yesterday. More ministerial announcements have been posted on the government’s official website since it was written. We will report on these later today …. Buzz from the BeehiveThere we were, thinking the environment is in trouble, when along came Jones. Shane Jones. ...
New Zealand now has the fourth most depressed construction sector in the world behind China, Qatar and Hong Kong. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 8:46am on Thursday, May 2:The Lead: ...
Hi,I am just going to state something very obvious: American police are fucking crazy.That was a photo gracing the New York Times this morning, showing New York City police “entering Columbia University last night after receiving a request from the school.”Apparently in America, protesting the deaths of tens of thousands ...
Winston Peters’ much anticipated foreign policy speech last night was a work of two halves. Much of it was a standard “boilerplate” Foreign Ministry overview of the state of the world. There was some hardening up of rhetoric with talk of “benign” becoming “malign” and old truths giving way to ...
Graham Adams assesses the fallout of the Cass Review — The press release last Thursday from the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls didn’t make the mainstream news in New Zealand but it really should have. The startling title of Reem Alsalem’s statement — “Implementation of ‘Cass ...
This open-for-business, under-new-management cliché-pockmarked government of Christopher Luxon is not the thing of beauty he imagines it to be. It is not the powerful expression of the will of the people that he asserts it to be. It is not a soaring eagle, it is a malodorous vulture. This newest poll should make ...
The latest labour market statistics, showing a rise in unemployment. There are now 134,000 unemployed - 14,000 more than when the National government took office. Which is I guess what happens when the Reserve Bank causes a recession in an effort to Keep Wages Low. The previous government saw a ...
Three opinion polls have been released in the last two days, all showing that the new government is failing to hold their popular support. The usual honeymoon experienced during the first year of a first term government is entirely absent. The political mood is still gloomy and discontented, mainly due ...
National's Finance Minister once met a poor person.A scornful interview with National's finance guru who knows next to nothing about economics or people.There might have been something a bit familiar if that was the headline I’d gone with today. It would of course have been in tribute to the article ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Throughout the pandemic, the new Vice-Chancellor-of-Otago-University-on-$629,000 per annum-Can-you-believe-it-and-Former-Finance-Minister Grant Robertson repeated the mantra over and over that he saved “lives and livelihoods”.As we update how this claim is faring over the course of time, the facts are increasingly speaking differently. NZ ...
Chris Trotter writes – IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in acknowledgement of electoral victory: “We’ll govern for all New Zealanders.” On the face of it, the pledge is a strange one. Why would any political leader govern in ways that advantaged the huge ...
Bryce Edwards writes – The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 10:06am on Wednesday, May 1:The Lead: Business confidence fell across the board in April, falling in some areas to levels last seen during the lockdowns because of a collapse in ...
Over the past 36 hours, Christopher Luxon has been dong his best to portray the centre-right’s plummeting poll numbers as a mark of virtue. Allegedly, the negative verdicts are the result of hard economic times, and of a government bravely set out on a perilous rescue mission from which not ...
Auckland Transport have started rolling out new HOP card readers around the network and over the next three months, all of them on buses, at train stations and ferry wharves will be replaced. The change itself is not that remarkable, with the new readers looking similar to what is already ...
Completed reads for April: The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Carnival of Saints, by George Herman The Snow Spider, by Jenny Nimmo Emlyn’s Moon, by Jenny Nimmo The Chestnut Soldier, by Jenny Nimmo Death Comes As the End, by Agatha Christie Lord of the Flies, by ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Have a story to share about St Paul’s, but today just picturesPopular novels written at this desk by a young man who managed to bootstrap himself out of father’s imprisonment and his own young life in a workhouse Read more ...
The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill English, Simon Bridges, Steven Joyce, Roger Sowry, ...
Newsroom has a story today about National's (fortunately failed) effort to disestablish the newly-created Inspector-General of Defence. The creation of this agency was the key recommendation of the Inquiry into Operation Burnham, and a vital means of restoring credibility and social licence to an agency which had been caught lying ...
Holding On To The Present:The moment a political movement arises that attacks the whole idea of social progress, and announces its intention to wind back the hands of History’s clock, then democracy, along with its unwritten rules, is in mortal danger.IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in ...
Stuck In The Middle With You:As Christopher Luxon feels the hot breath of Act’s and NZ First’s extremists on the back of his neck and, as he reckons with the damage their policies are already inflicting upon a country he’s described as “fragile”, is there not some merit in reaching out ...
The unpopular coalition government is currently rushing to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The clause is Oranga Tamariki's Treaty clause, and was inserted after its systematic stealing of Māori children became a public scandal and resulted in physical resistance to further abductions. The clause created clear obligations ...
Buzz from the Beehive The government’s official website – which Point of Order monitors daily – not for the first time has nothing much to say today about political happenings that are grabbing media headlines. It makes no mention of the latest 1News-Verian poll, for example. This shows National down ...
It Takes A Train To Cry:Surely, there is nothing lonelier in all this world than the long wail of a distant steam locomotive on a cold Winter’s night.AS A CHILD, I would lie awake in my grandfather’s house and listen to the traffic. The big wooden house was only a ...
Packing A Punch: The election of the present government, including in its ranks politicians dedicated to reasserting the rights of the legislature in shaping and determining the future of Māori and Pakeha in New Zealand, should have alerted the judiciary – including its anomalous appendage, the Waitangi Tribunal – that its ...
Dead Woman Walking: New Zealand’s media industry had been moving steadily towards disaster for all the years Melissa Lee had been National’s media and communications policy spokesperson, and yet, when the crisis finally broke, on her watch, she had nothing intelligent to offer. Christopher Luxon is a patient man - but he’s not ...
Chris Trotter writes – New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Key’s flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMP’s five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
Ministers must front up about which projects it will push through under its Fast Track Approvals legislation, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
New Zealand Sign Language Week is an excellent opportunity for all Kiwis to give the language a go, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. This week (May 6 to 12) is New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) Week. The theme is “an Aotearoa where anyone can sign anywhere” and aims to ...
Six tertiary students have been selected to work on NASA projects in the US through a New Zealand Space Scholarship, Space Minister Judith Collins announced today. “This is a fantastic opportunity for these talented students. They will undertake internships at NASA’s Ames Research Center or its Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), where ...
New Zealanders will be safer because of a $1.9 billion investment in more frontline Corrections officers, more support for offenders to turn away from crime, and more prison capacity, Corrections Minister Mark Mitchell says. “Our Government said we would crack down on crime. We promised to restore law and order, ...
The OECD’s latest report on New Zealand reinforces the importance of bringing Government spending under control, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The OECD conducts country surveys every two years to review its members’ economic policies. The 2024 New Zealand survey was presented in Wellington today by OECD Chief Economist Clare Lombardelli. ...
The Government has delivered on its election promise to provide a financially sustainable model for Auckland under its Local Water Done Well plan. The plan, which has been unanimously endorsed by Auckland Council’s Governing Body, will see Aucklanders avoid the previously projected 25.8 per cent water rates increases while retaining ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters discussed the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and enhanced cooperation in the Pacific with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during her first official visit to New Zealand today. "New Zealand and Germany enjoy shared interests and values, including the rule of law, democracy, respect for the international system ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
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There is an excellent article over at the Daily Blog, where the conversation is about Climate Change, not identity politics.
“I think we need to be honest with ourselves.
Real action on climate change will require a political, social & economic revolution.
Currently, the Greens & Labour seem to believe being carbon neutral in 32 years time is anything close to being a ‘solution’.
Currently policy makers, too frightened to accept the realities of climate change, still write policy within the neoliberal free market framework that is exacerbating the climate change catastrophe.
Currently one of the largest climate change gas emitters is running ‘Open Gate’ propaganda to try and pretend they aren’t the problem and are getting away with it.
Currently sweet **** all is being done to prepare us for the adaptation we need to step up to deal with climate change.
The truth is that the vested interests that create the pollution and economic framework that is making climate change the catastrophe that it is will not do anything meaningful to disrupt their interests.
Unfortunately, we have run out of time to allow incremental change. I have followed the IPCC reports on climate change since their first one and the thing that is striking is that the worst case scenario is fast becoming the only scenario. What most don’t appreciate about the IPCC is that they are an incredibly conservative group and still don’t include many of the feedback loops that will make climate change faster and far more damaging, so when they say we have 10 years left to make the adaption, we are in far more danger than that claim suggests.”
Read the whole article here.
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2018/12/01/a-new-political-movement-lets-just-be-honest-real-climate-change-will-require-a-political-social-economic-revolution/
It presents political solutions.
“Politically we need a radical Green Socialist Party. The Middle Class Woke Identity Politics vehicle we have with the current Green Party is a sad joke that alienates more than it recruits. While they bicker about reclaiming the word ‘cunt’ and deciding which pronoun to use for Trans gender rights, the planet melts. Building every Millennial micro-aggression into a war crime doesn’t do a fucking thing to combat climate change.”
Read the 4 political recommendations here.
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2018/12/01/a-new-political-movement-lets-just-be-honest-real-climate-change-will-require-a-political-social-economic-revolution/
and once he has his radical Green Socialist Party all he will have to do is find a country with a public prepared to vote for one.
Isn’t that sand you’ve got your head buried in getting a bit suffocating?
Absolutely agree. Greens have been dragged into petty political bickering trying to prove how inclusive they are. Meanwhile those PC types obsessed with their (or mostly other people’s) pronouns are doing NOTHING to help.
What I couldn’t stomach was the lack of gardeners. That is the first litmus test in practicing what you preach if you preach Green imo. The amount of so called woke households I’ve visited with nothing, or an average 1 m2 per person with a couple of tired lettuce and some parsley struggling in full sun and on bare ground…
I have olives, cherry guava, guava, feijoa x 2 (types), dill, fennel, mint, rosemary, sage, thyme, cilantro, parsley, blueberries x 3, strawberries, black raspberries, red raspberries x 2, thornless blackberry, rhubarb, celery, celeriac, orange berry, tomatoes x 5, zucchini, manglewurzel, beetroot, silverbeet, blackcurrants, macadamias, garlic, onions, spring onions, chives, sugar cane, corn, asparagus, potatoes x 3, kumara x 2, taro, bananas, macadamias, plums, peaches x 2, figs, avocadoes, coffee, pumpkins, cucumber x 2, lemonade, lemon, lime, cabbages, cauliflower, brocolli. Then there’s a few nitrogen fixers, many flowers, medicinals… Then there’s chickens, and the bunch of food plants I would have forgot…. e.g. Coffee!
So, when I talk about people starting a garden, I’m not talking about mucking around. You start small at your doorstep with herbs and greens. But the real deal is some years down the line having replaced useless oil guzzling lawns and landscaping with a slice of paradise. You get there by starting today.
Trees are a vote for the future. They are a hopeful gesture. The amount of people commenting ‘but you’ll have to wait ‘x’ years’ for fruit is nearly all of them. Instant gratification will not save the planet. Gardening might. Big Ag is one of the worst polluters.
The greens will get my vote when I hear more about CC than PC.
What I couldn’t stomach was the lack of gardeners. That is the first litmus test in practicing what you preach if you preach Green imo. The amount of so called woke households I’ve visited with nothing, or an average 1 m2 per person with a couple of tired lettuce and some parsley struggling in full sun and on bare ground…
You have visited the Green membership in their homes and done an audit of their gardening achievements??
Predictably you come to the rescue. Yes, I have visited many greens. Some garden, most pay lip service.
Soltka is a troll
That hardly adds to the conversation does it Ed?
One line simply calling another commentator a name?
Raise your game.
James always uses at least 2.
I’m likely to renew my GP membership when Mercury goes direct. I do gardening most days. Pressure’s off for retired folk, but plants can spin on a dime so you have to be on the ball.
I was trained by father & grandfather Frank, compulsory garden training back when kids couldn’t escape. Permaculture gave me a new set of skills to graft on, and I’ve improvised that combination ever since.
Gratifying multiplication of pollinators in my second growing season onsite here (city/country margin, NP). Best soil I’ve ever worked, and more than I need. Only downside is salty rainfall, sometimes kills sensitive plants. I’m around two minutes walk up from the Tasman (high enough to be safe from a hundred-foot tsunami).
I thought solkta’s question was perfectly reasonable – I had wondered the same thing my self – WTB says he’s visited an “amount” of “woke households” and I wondered how that came about and how large was the number of such households he had visited. What interested me is how different his experience was from my own where every green household I visit has fabulous gardens, productive and well cared for. Must be a regional thing, I thought and am not trolling by saying so, I reckon. Accusations of trolling get thrown around in a pretty ad hoc manner here in Open Mike on TS, I reckon allowing the actual trolls to blend in more easily, which is a shame. Let’s just save it for James 🙂
Maybe it’s a city thing Robert. Though I’ve seen a lot more gardening lately, but that is a general population shift via food prices it has little if anything to do with the Greens.
I spent literal weeks knocking on doors getting signatures trying to stop asset sales. Doing this I met many Aucklanders and had many conversations. There were plenty of people claiming to be greens with nothing but manicured lawn.
Be polite, take signature, move on…
Too much focus on lawn’order in the cities…
Haha nice wordplay.
Personally I think US needs Schwarzenegger in power. To deal with the AI threat obviously, and then to kick some ass.
But he wasn’t nominated.
Americans, they have no sense of Arnie…
I’ve been wrong before. Maybe what I said is a nonsense in the South. My post was meant to get up noses. To illustrate the glaring difference between a garden plot to and a garden project that takes over the section. To do your bit for the planet… half measures are not enough. Lip service is definitely not enough. And I want to generate thought/discussion.
I don’t mind pissing people off if it generates thought/discussion. I also don’t mind being wrong.
I’m devious like that. You should see me teach I’ll wind you right up, outrage you, make you mad, make you laugh. And you remember…
Ah, a self-confessed troll (new breed).
Doh, now you put it like that….
Think I’m testing the waters on communication also lately. What works, what doesn’t.
It’s a helluva conundrum. The notes I wrote on a talk yesterday I thought were most profound and thought provoking. Very little response only from Ed who originally posted the talk I wrote about anyway. Today I poke a jab at the greens and get people’s attention. Maybe this phenomenon is what is wrong with the news cycle, taking pot shots is more effective than writing that was actual hard work.
I do think you are on the right track with solution oriented posts however. The world seems starved for leadership, working examples, things they can do, actual progress.
I don’t know how ‘how to get there’ works yet. I’m just writing stuff. Waiting for it to start. There I will edit myself from being a provocateur. That’s what open mikes for.
Yeah, sorry, WTP, I’ve been rushed off my feet down here; tours of the forest garden, an “art bombing” in the village (beautiful), a woofer requiring tasks (potting up poroporo seedlings, planting anisotome etc. and a myriad of other things to do – plus grandchildren and a writing deadline (met! I wrote about Giant Hogweed 🙂 I’ll get onto “how to get there’ today and contact TRP as requested. It’s just that the weather’s been so nice…
Where do I find the notes you wrote…?
Re “US needs Schwarzenegger in power. To deal with the AI threat obviously, and then to kick some ass. But he wasn’t nominated.”
When I first wrote stuff here four years ago I also suggested he’d be a useful president. Got a response pointing out that immigrant citizens cannot run for the presidency. In the constitution, apparently.
Perhaps they were paranoid enough after the revolution to imagine a royalist agent being sent over to the United States to become president and take control…
Did you both miss that AMAZING PUN? 😀
“Americans, they have no sense of Arnie.”
Experimental communication is my life as an Aspie. Honestly I don’t have a clue I learn the hard way most every time. Will never stop me trying though.
No hurry up required Robert. I was trying to say I’m still not sure how it all works is all. I think greywarshark is keeping tabs if we write anything quality here. It will happen when it does.
I’m struggling with what I’m juggling too. But if there were not so many balls in the air I’d be bored.
Mollison’s teaching always sticks in my head. Then I realise it’s all the crazy stories he’s pushing buttons and included sexual and graphic imagery on purpose. Because we remember that stuff. It’s effective teaching, maybe needs context.
Poroporo – I’d love to hear more on that some time.
Yes, it must be a great shame that they put in, as Section 1 of Article 2 of the Constitution
“No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.”
Arnie would have been eligible if he had been born a bit earlier and had become a Citizen prior to September 17, 1787.
Arnie certainly looks old enough but I don’t think he quite qualifies.
Sorry didn’t get the pun. No reason Trump can’t make him minister of defense though. Perhaps offense would work better, eh?
However the mad dog seems to be working out okay. Trump was clever to combine his Putin-friendly foreign policy with a defense secretary choice that sent precisely the opposite signal.
“During his hearing, Mattis agreed with the assessment that debt was the greatest threat to national security. He placed Russia first among the “principal threats” facing the United States.” [Wikipedia]
Regarding the pun, I think you have to pronounce ‘honour’ with a strong American drawl..
WtB at 11.19am
Don’t know who Mollison is.
But you mentioned sex drawing attention to anything which seems universal.
Making being Green sexy, without distracting attention from the important matters, now there’s the rub.
I once bought a card with SEX in about 50 font size on the front and inside the words – Now I have your full attention!
But we don’t want to develop a one-track, horny-oriented types like Benny Hill do we? How do we make caring about being vital informed and socially connected people seem very enticing? This clip of Benny venturing into the community is rather instructive of what we don’t want; but with his own take on ‘gender awareness’ to the fore it seems appropriate at present.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTQTO1dj7qw
We want that to happen before it becomes obligatory, or necessary for survival, or too late to organise the people and find that the wealthy have secret plans in hand that they roll out to their own satisfaction and standards (which we know are not high and universal).
If we don’t wake up soon it is going to be like being Benny Hill here, very confusing and ultimately achieving little. We won’t end up with the pretty maids all in a row as he is hoping for.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJC4HvpWewM
I am trying to keep up with you people, mainly you two WTB and RG. I am sure the dedicated post is a way to go. I will contact you through email site put up. I was always keen to hear more from Robert as having relevant ideas, and having created useful stuff, and willing to pass it on and inspire and inform. Very needed. And now WtB has come along that’s double-bubble with activity
and brain energy that mustn’t be dispersed into thin air.
This blog is good to give people a chance to think things through but a lot of our ideas have to be hung on the line in sunlight to freshen up. So those who keep on with the same approach and bat on, and those that sneer and get malicious superiority from having a go at these stupid or personal money-blocking lefties, greens, traditionalists, backward….. are always going to come and poop in the sandpit. Like cats they don’t know better, are just doing what comes naturally.
And for archiving – Open Mike hasn’t new entries since 2012. And there is a mixture of stuff on OM, and the important future-facing things need to have their own tag which always goes first, before the headline of the day.
Should it be a sticky tag that goes up first every day? Trade me on their Trade Me Discussion community board headings has one like that. Or on The Standard could people wanting to add something when the tag subject is not being featured that day, go into archives and add it?
But then how do you stop lamebrains from adding crap? Would we have to have some cleaners/moderators check these out like office cleaners emptying rubbish bins and cleaning toilets!!
Some moderation might be required, but I’m the wrong person for it. I’m too reactionary on a bad day, and no real rhyme or reason when those might strike.
The very nature of the project (solutions based) might be anathema to trolls, or at least highlight them rather conspicuously.
I’ll try not to troll myself, again…
There were plenty of people claiming to be greens
Right, so its not like you started from an actually membership list or joined the Greens and got to know the local active people.
Oh do tell!
They were obviously fraudulent Greens, cos everyone wants to be one.
I reckon the lawns were the tell that those folk, despite their claims, weren’t greens at all. You might have caught them in the middle of a role-play!
I see my Green (mostly young student) neighbours in role play nearly every day. (I live next to a number of student flats administered by a slum landlord)
Their notional credentials as to being green are impeccable.
The only problem comes when they have to remember which day of the week is collection day or how it is they should minimise their waste, or what it means to separate glass in the recycling from other non-glass crap, or chucking their shit on the pavement far and wide on the way home when they think no one is looking.
And the behaviour is usually around the end of the week….. thankfully in Winter, it’s usually only on a Saturday, but come Summer when they truly flower, it’s Thursday through to Sunday.
As for my own gardening, much of that was destroyed when ‘green minded’ (design) students decided the best place to dump their chemical shit was down an overflowing toilet connected to a blocked sewer. All that killing what was finally beginning to grow after years of trying to recondition some toxic urban city soil.
A role-play with a roller-mower? Is that like, practising at being a greenie? Then if people grow lawns are they Greens? Seems self-evident to me – growing, green stuff, making compost perhaps – nearly everyone in the ‘burbs is actually a greenie. What’s so special about the Greens then? /sarc
How often did you go around the back of the house?
At the back I let the white clover grow and all day there are honey bees and in the evening the bumbles are still going
plum trees and all sorts of other stuff around back of mine.
Yeh mate, lots of great Green green gardens here in Northland.
What about renters?
Good question. Some landlords wont even permit a traditional square of garden in the back yard. Scumbag gougers who charge you for expensive chemical treatments rending your yard an oil drinking poison repository, but it looks tidy.
Some landlords will let you garden. And can even be approached for more ambitious projects. A friend in the states did such a good job the landlords paid him to do the same to their section.
Container gardening is your best bet if landlords have zero but bills to offer you. That and get another landlord. Allotments are also available in some areas. Or you find land, other renters, and approach council for the land to use for allotments. These schemes only fall over when people fail to participate.
The planet needs you to get your hands dirty.
Kitchen-bench microgreens and sprouts for those who are really short of space.
“Allotments are also available in some areas”.
Are there any of these in the Wellington area, to your knowledge?
I know that there are a dozen or so Community Gardens but they aren’t really the same thing. People I know who were involved have told me that they are often regarded as a free resource by local residents who simply strip the garden of anything useful and leave the people who did the work with nothing for themselves.
“regarded as a free resource by local residents who simply strip the garden of anything useful and leave the people who did the work with nothing for themselves”
That is unfortunate. Stealing food implies not enough money to feed themselves. Be much better if the poor learned to garden instead of steal. But thievery is very common nearly everyone rips off hotel soaps etc I don’t get it. Draw the line, don’t steal ever. They need some form of security I’d be inclined to place some strategic ponds to slip into, some cacti with barbed thorns, some with poison thorns, some that shoot thorns. A blackberry border, a decent gate, a security light, an angry dog that doesn’t warn it’s coming.
Make sneaking round in the dark there a nightmare.
Community garden/allotment: Excuse me sorry, the jargon I pick up is from all over the world and gets interchanged a bit too freely.
That said, I do plant fruit out front deliberately so kids can raid it. I hope it makes them want their own fruit trees. It worked for me those plum raids of childhood were magic, and now, my own big beautiful plum tree (hidden out back from marauding hordes of children).
Just a recording of a barking dog – on a loop with silence and then motion and/or light activated.
Yeah that’s not a bad idea if it was activated by a motion sensor it’d fool you into thinking a real dog was on the grounds.
With gardening projects I try to design with pests in mind. Some of those pests in this instance are humans.
Shame that boxthorn is a rampant menace, it sure does work.
Here’s some historic boxthorn control
“Eventually, as machines such as tractors became more common good old Kiwi ‘Number eight wire’ ingenuity and inventive minds came into play. The first in Taranaki to develop a mechanical hedgecutter was Lou Butler of Inglewood. He stuck a Dodge engine on top of a 1928 Fordson steel-wheeled tractor, with a three metre steel propeller-like blade.
Later variations of the hedgecutter included several surplus WWII Bren gun carriers converted into hedgecutters and sweeps to clear up the resulting mess ready for burning.
Over the years a great array of ‘home-grown’ hedgecutters could be seen slowly marching their way along the district’s hedges. One in particular could have quite easily given small children nightmares. Bill Alexander from Te Roti converted a Valentine tank and named it Ruahine. Locals eventually got used to the sight of a huge tank trundling down the road off to the next hedge cutting job.”
http://pukeariki.com/Learning-Research/Taranaki-Research-Centre/Taranaki-Stories/Taranaki-Story/id/482/title/prickles-and-all-taranaki-boxthorn
The “barking dog” tape would work for a very short time only. Human’s are clever. That’s how we got to this point.
I reckon exclusion and giving pain to, “visitors” to such spaces is doomed to failure. We humans can get past anything and when a barrier has been erected, it signals there’s something of value inside. Cunning ploys work better than electrified fences. Don’t plant watermelons or pumpkins in a community garden. They look like footballs. Even giant puffballs get there boot 🙂 Plant stuff that doesn’t look like food.
RobertG
I wonder if this is where mechanisation comes in. Lights come on the scarecrow sprays out that green insecticide Thuri…
and leave them stinky, easy to track with police dogs. And have an invitation to tell when caught as to how they would like to do something useful and help to take that up with some reward they would keep working towards.
And calling them lazy scum bags, is an oxymoron. The fact is that they have been doing something, not being lazy. They are being cunning Kiwis which follows in a long tradition of NZ behaviour which we tend to sympathise with, even lionise winners. Turn the energy and mischievousness to work somehow.
That is unfortunate. Stealing food implies not enough money to feed themselves
Nah, Just lazy scum.
Far easier to steal someone else’s hard work than do that work yourself.
Could be children, who aren’t able to earn money to buy their own food and aren’t fed well enough at home, but to BM, they’re, “lazy scum”.
Charming.
WTB said:
” It worked for me those plum raids of childhood were magic”.
BM responded as above.
Charming.
Won’t be kids, stealing vegetables from community gardens.
It will be lazy feral scum.
“Won’t be kids, stealing vegetables from community gardens.”
In this case, from a Whanganui berry business, it appears to be middle class tossers with an inflated sense of entitlement:
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12162243
“won’t be kids…”
pffffffft!
Won’t be kids…that’s a very naive comment, BM.
No experience with community gardens then?
Or are you just using the discussion as a platform from which to launch the same old bile you often spout? The topic doesn’t really interest you, does it.
“lazy feral scum”? That’s a bit harsh, BM. Get out on the grumpy side of the bed today?
This series might give some ideas.
What is possible with an organised tree and veg garden mixture. Obviously you can’t be digging into tree roots. But a circle around an apple tree – what diameter would be needed , it could grow mustard under and have it turned in to keep weeds down.
In Taranaki there is that big westerly that comes in. Would you plant some tagaeste nitrogen fixers on the bounday to take the buffeting. Then perhaps some dwarfed fruit trees with room under for clusters of crops sown with time breaks.
“What is possible” Sheesh, broad topic 😀
Tagasaste sounds really good I had to look it up. Decent fodder crop and winter bee food as well as hardy, drought tolerant, wind tolerant…
Coprosma robusta and feijoa are also hard and can join the wind screening among the Tagasaste. Get some Kowhai running too, seed’ll be ready before long… Get some bigguns and they can overshadow the tagasaste eventually making a higher windbreak if required. Over plant the nitrogen fixers and thin them out for mulch/fuel/to release soil nitrogen as food plants establish, but leave some to mature in the system. Coprosma berries are interesting to nibble on. Chooks love them. The foliage is cattle fodder, it’s fire resistant, salt tolerant… Cows are thick though, they have to learn to eat new stuff. Feijoas because wine.
Behind the wind tolerant multi species barrier, go nuts! If you can grow nuts. And fruits… Include nitrogen fixers here too, maybe something more ornamental, and/or some ground cover. I like red clover, much easier to control than the white. I have various nitrogen ground covers I don’t even know what they are. I’m sure a farmer would know at a glance.
Stone fruit trees all appreciate spring bulbs, the onion family, the carrot family, especially when they’re flowering. Always leave some to flower. You can lay out some mulch and plant into that with other things too. I try all sorts and see what works. Parsley are great if there’s clay to be drilled for shallow rooted trees like citrus. No root interference there rather a symbiosis, with shade in exchange for drainage and pest control. Put it right beside the tree and let it dig in and flower. Several shade and partial light tolerant species can go under trees, though a bit of low pruning can help where required. Kumara, cucurbits on compost mounds and let em climb the trees, especially thin nitrogen fixers that let in light, love those trees. Try passionfruit up one if you can grow it there. Sometimes beans and peas work the same way, sometimes not. My mate had peas in his manuka hedge last year. Not a great crop, but a crop 😀
I try annuals out in a number of circumstances as they’re quick and easy compared to trees, then I lose all my notes and do it again the next year.
If you are planning a fairly large planting and can get a landscaper to drop off a truckload of mulch I recommend you get it for mulching all trees – especially those you put in sandy soil. However, mulch won’t last without clay the sandy soil will burn through it, maybe too fast for the trees to establish. Add some clay to each hole, that will make all the difference. As the system matures it can make its own mulch.
And never dig a $10 hole for a $40 tree.
If you’ve got that rich black volcanic Taranaki soil – well yay! Put your fish scraps in a barrel of skanky water and water your veg with that. Keep it away from the house and with a lid That’s all it takes to grow veggies with bragging rights in Devon Street. 😀
Robert would have some shrewd observations for tree systems.
Wow that’s a really robust report. It is great that you don’t know everything that you have ie nitrogen fixers. We don’t have to be perfect but have an idea seems that the way it is. I think we would all feel a bit more relaxed approaching things that way.
We will get in touch all soon.
It’s not either (climate change and class politics) or (social justice politics).
Bradbury has become a social conservative and upholder of patriarchal values in his middle age. He spends a lot of time putting the boot into feminists and LGBT+ activists whenever he gets the chance. He attacks the #metoo campaign and basically any movement or campaign that challenges his privileged status as a heterosexual, gender-conforming male.
I do think the Green Party could be more radical on many of their policies/platforms across social, economic and ecological justice issues.
I agree – it is both.
Only by being more equitable and less consumerist, shall we lower our carbon footprint.
Capitalism has to be dismantled.
I agree – it is both.
If you truly believe this Ed then why do you feel the need to start with this dig?
Because climate change trumps everything else.
There were two Climate Change posts here just last Thursday. If you truly believed it was both you wouldn’t start bitching every time someone wants to discuss something else.
We should be talking about it every day.
We need to change the country’s complacency.
Well that really would be Groundhog Day. I’m wondering how posters would start each morning. Perhaps something like:
This pretty much describes Bill’s posts
A.
Ed – climate change may “trump” everything else, but it doesn’t render “everything else” unworthy of discussion.
Time for Mr Bradbury to put his money where his mouth is, launch this party he wants, and stand at an election.
There’s a local government one coming up next year – that’s always a good place to start.
Oooo @Ad. You are awful! But I like you
;p
He knows he’d lose badly. He threw his lot in with Dotcom remember which backfired spectacularly
Remember ‘disruption.’ Today’s norms need to be questioned and change prepared for in the business-driven world we attempt to find a living in. Dotcom is in the near past, but in that time large shifts have occurred. Bradbury’s experience over the decades may be more useful to us all than your certainties JohnSelway.
Disruption is good for business. … Disruption is massive, rapid, and most likely permanent change, and that can be difficult to go through. But disruptive innovation is important to stay vital, and any business needs to embrace innovation technology and the turbulence that goes with it.Dec 8, 2016
Why Disruption is Good for Business – IdeaScale
https://ideascale.com/embracing-disruptive-innovation-why-its-important-for-your-busin…
In business, a disruptive innovation is an innovation that creates a new market and value network and eventually disrupts an existing market and value network, displacing established market-leading firms, products, and alliances. Wikipedia
Bomber is too much of a damaged brand. Outside of (even before) the Dotcom fail Bomber is a bit of a joke and isn’t really taken very seriously by, well, pretty much everyone.
Too much of a shrieking politic hack who disdains millennials and picks fights with feminists on twitter.
His sense of fashion would be another major obstacle.
Mustard sweater vests with a tie and sports coat….yeah..
He looks like he is on a fox hunt
Did someone say “fox hunt”?
http://media.beam.usnews.com/1d/47/d7f5a173446899808909a5efb751/170202-donaldtrump-editorial.jpg
Is that rhyming slang morrie?
What vest do you lot wear? A high viz to make people look and appear as if you are doing something material for the community?
I don’t wear a vest at all. While I own good tailored suits I mostly dress casually.
Suits for meetings, job interviews, conferences and court appearances 😉
No doubt you are not lumped in with BMs stealing, lazy, feral scum when you have court appearances. The Jewish people are often quoted as aspiring that their children become doctors, but it seems that everyone now is talking about becoming a lawyer.
That must be an advantage to citizens as we are sure to have laws at least. But then if they are bad laws then there is a lot of time spent interpreting them.
What if we don’t need all these lawyers? Then perhaps we could have some more civil engineers properly trained. If we had better training all round there would be more people in jobs and not so many needing the law.
Certainly if there was more ‘summary’ process of low-level fraudsters, and short sharp internments in jail for not turning up at the hearings, or paying their fines and recompense orders. we would have a less stressed legal and justice system.
I don’t often need to be seen in court. Just one time some years back where I needed a stern telling off. But in my two appearances for something I did I wore a suit because I had respect for the office of the law. It would absolutely surprise me when I saw people before me and waiting outside the court would be wearing caps, singlets and flip-flops. At least try and look a little smarter.
I not sure why you mention Jews though
Cripes, i was discussing a norm, heard often of Jewish people wanting to be doctors, as the acme to aim for, but at the moment it is lawyers. And why would you query me mentioning Jews. Why is it that people seem, to look for details that they can build something on? Perhaps the comment was too long and no-one reads more than one and a half paras.
I wear plain dark coloured waistcoats. People look at me funny. But fuck those guys, because I’m not building a brand as a politician.
If a fellow in a polkadotted bowtie and a poodle coiffure can get elected, I shouldn’t think a beige pullover would alienate the electorate.
You think Buffoon Bradbury should run in Ohariu?
Just following up on Ed’s report last night. The bomber has gone radical: https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2018/12/01/a-new-political-movement-lets-just-be-honest-real-climate-change-will-require-a-political-social-economic-revolution/
However he’s done so without notifying his readers that he’s abandoning his traditional support for the Labour Party. Trying to have 50c each way, eh? Trying to seem like a traditional politician, in other words…
“Real action on climate change will require a political, social & economic revolution.” Yeah, that was obvious in the early nineties. What took him so long to figure it out??
“Politically we need a radical Green Socialist Party. The Middle Class Woke Identity Politics vehicle we have with the current Green Party is a sad joke that alienates more than it recruits.” Very true. Inclusion of minorities is essential – doesn’t require that the Greens have to treat them like a kindergarten forever though.
“What few Green Party voters even recognise is that the current Green Party is built upon free market economics”. Total crap. Someone ought to call his bluff. Has he even read the GP economic policy on the party website?
He then weaves a cocktail of policy that will have most imbibers spluttering: “this new political movement needs a populist economic manifesto that rejects free market globalisation and neoliberalism, supports 5 year economic planning, invests in economic self sufficiency and seeks real independence and sovereignty by rejecting open door mass immigration, foreign sales of our water and foreign ownership of any NZ land. We need to rapidly increase our military budget”.
So the RGSP will be radical/Green/populist/socialist/non-aligned/anti-immigrant, with strong defence forces thrown in. He doesn’t say which country we ought to buy the weapons from – funny, that. Once he comes down from the acid trip and takes another look at this design, could be a time to consider the how of it…
Can u xpand on his trad support of the Labour Parte @Dennis?
Jiss curious
Just the general impression I formed via his endorsing various Labour leaders and other blogging for Labour. I joined the first TPPA protest – remember thinking 30 years had passed since I last marched in one (springbok tour ’81) – think it was then I was standing nearby as Martin, the organiser, shook David Shearer’s hand (lead speaker). It was clear they knew each other and Martin’s demeanour indicated his positive support for Shearer. But I did do at least one other TPPA protest as well..
Ok
Btw….we probably need another interweb acronym (a la DNFTT)
My comment was a question not a judgement
Maybe /QNJ
If I remember correctly, Bomber has written several times that he votes Green, despite his fierce criticisms. Perhaps he sees them as the least of all the evils..
Indeed…he’s confessed many times to have been a vote Green.
That doesn’t stop him from calling them out when necessary.
It seems Bomber will shit in anyone’s nest when they go shitting in others.
Whatever you think, better a world with him than without him.
Sounds like he should be targeting NZF and getting them to improve their environmental and social policy.
I see what Bradbury has written as more of a rallying cry rather than an absolute blueprint.
I share dismay with some of the green party’s actions.
I know it has been well debated, but the water bottling decision that minister Sage took was disappointing.
I suppose to get the levers of power the Greens had to drop most of their radicalism, only to find out there is no access to the throttle or steering wheel, they just get to pull preset levers.
I expect the clamour to get louder as we continue down this path of infinite growth on finite resources, as the $ accumulate up to fewer and fewer people.
As an aside, how much pressuree is NZF placing on the relationship?
How does a 5-6% party make Labour ditch it’s neo liberal roots and shift in a direction that will help us?
If they are too much of a sail in the water, hopefully someone has the ability to call them out on it.
Racing industry, fishing industry?
How does a 5-6% party make Labour ditch it’s neo liberal roots
It can’t, the best it can do is round off the worst of the edges. It is really up to Labour people to change Labour.
I do agree with this sentiment. While greens piss me off the blame for how labour is lies entirely with labour.
Blame games are a useful distraction and a good excuse for doing SFA. They also help to polarise people and dig ideological trench lines that are in reality minor but get magnified by MSM and others into Cook Strait proportions with stormy weather conditions.
Point taken.
Yep fair enough, solkta and wtb.
Probably got a little comfortable on the high horse/soapbox.
What I was getting at was probably more about the not-negotiables the Greens had at bargaining time, what concessions they gained from labour.
Possibly filed under none of my business.
+1
And unfortunately they’re still having to learn how to dirty their hands when it comes down to having to ‘pull levers’ (going forward)
I too was disappointing in Sage decision on water bottling, but I don’t see she could have made a different one under the law. Trade agreements, and the threat of litigation, are already affecting political decision making.
Pretty stupid of Mr Bradbury to be mouthing off perpetually unsatisfied when James Shaw is in the middle of cross-Parliamentary negotiations to get binding multi-generational carbon tax legislation across the line. That stuff is hard work, and it is stuff Mr Bradbury clearly knows little of despite decades of ranting.
How many countries in the world have actual Green Parties in government right now?
The current Greens here nearly went down the gurgler last election, and they are making the difference that they can.
Tempting to ask Martin what part of niche marketing doesn’t he understand, eh? I share his impatience by nature but to play the democracy game well you have to use the rules. Urgency may apply, but it doesn’t change the rules.
Andrew Little was musing the other day, suggesting a combination referendum with cannabis. The 4% threshold option may appear there, as may the 4-yr term. If so, I’d expect both to get approved.
The Radical Green Socialist Party, to get that 4% at the election after next, can only steal it from the existing GP support base. So the GP would have to get 5% from complacent Greens to survive. Not impossible!
I have some marketing advice for the bomber. Action, Activism, A. It’s missing from his prescription. Socialists just talk & write. Adding this missing link, rearranging, we get Green Radical Action Socialist Party. Ready to GRASP the levers of social policy, and GRASP that climate-change nettle!
I think he is grasping the wrong lever at the moment.
We will grow weapons silly.
I hear the cabbages are revolting.
The brocoli certainly is when it is pressuree cooked till grey, as was served up to me not so long ago.
Still trying to get the smell out of the curtains….
The problems of the 1st Whurl eh?
Mine used to stink of the local fastfood takeaway.
Then I remembered….SURF and I had been together 35 years and things became really fresh again. It was transformational…alnost like COLGATE sinking in to a piece of chalk
I was advised by an older person at the supermarket that cabbage cooked for 15 minutes is about right.
MNZGA
Too hard, even though the country’s name is obvious, so spell it out for us huh?
Come on Dennis, use your imagination!
This obviously refers to a Trumpian MO; the G can stand for Great or Green, whichever one you prefer.
Someone has to pick up the TOPS itchy voters and run with them.
“This demolition plan has polarized progressives between two camps. Some, reflecting on the brutality of the Washington Consensus, cheer on the challenge to international institutions, wishing them to crumble. Others, fearing the collapse of the “liberal” international order, leap uncritically to their defense.
Both are wrong. To achieve progressive goals on a global scale, from worker rights to climate justice, we must reclaim the international institutions and deploy them to deliver an International Green New Deal.”
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/dec/01/liberal-world-order-new-international-yanis-varoufakis-david-adler
If its not too late
There’s a choice in the Herald this morning. You can read HDPA opining on the China relationship in her usual megaphone, once-over-lightly style or you can turn to the paper’s Business Editor, Liam Dann for a more nuanced take on the difficult decisions NZ will need to make (more likely sooner than later). The difference is telling.
Yeah, HDPA had a formative experience: “The speaker at the lectern predicted what he thought would happen in the future. One day, he said, countries would have to publicly choose between the US and China.”
Establishment frontperson tells audience that folks must choose between evil A and evil B. Media & mainstreamers go `okay, will do’. Everyone else goes ‘nah, not into evil, don’t be daft’.
Ae!
But let’s not be too hard on the Heather. There’s a Barry in control not too far behind
If she slips up she can blame the Soapy.
Further to the Maggie Barry affair. This from the HoS
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12169635
Two bullies in the Public Service I came up against did this. Kept files on staff at home. A good way to ensure staff kept their mouths shut fearing what might be on the files.
I keep tabs on public servants. I also record every meeting and let them know I’m doing it. They walk on eggshells because after decades of their officious bullying I got wise. I also write and complain over every perceived slip or sleight directly to the person I have a complaint with so there is official record of their behavior and my expectations of how I am to be treated.
Sounds harsh, but if you’ve ever been at the mercy of these !##$@^&#%^**^& useless @#$@@#$&# you’d understand, and probably film them too.
They do not muck me around anymore. I also contest fees with companies and get discounts a lot. You think you are getting shafted – probably because you are.
It pays to be vigilant.
Not the point WTB.
It’s against the rules for any Public Service boss to keep staff files other than the official personal files which every staffer has the right to peruse at any time. To do so, by way of a threat to staff should they step out of line is a whole lot worse.
It worked. Everyone was too afraid of him to dare cross him. We should have collectively reported him to the PSA, but it was a time when the PSA had become too weak (after nine years of bully boy tactics by Muldoon ) to be effective.
I understood what you said.
I say fight fire with fire. Always record public servants. Keep correspondence, bury them with their own BS if they try it.
I’m sorry you worked under the auspices of a bully. Most of us have at some point. I had a gang member boss who singled me out as the only white boy. Torrents of abuse and physical threats daily.
He was a public servant. And he was completely f***ed.
A few thoughts Anne. When trying to heat up the share rush in Oz in 1970s fake surveyor’s slips would be dropped accidentally in the busy lobbies. They would say that so and so claim had shown traces of minerals of the sort that indicated gold or whatever would register with the punters. Someone would pick up show it round his associates and the price would start rising. No-one knew where they had come from.
In cases where there were problems with a dastardly manager, false information dropped, leaked, would be effective in raising awareness of the so and so. Anyone could make it up, and it couldn’t be traced back to anyone because it wouldn’t contain anything specific to the Department. Nothing could be pinned on anybody no matter how much suspicion there was. But it would start a focus on the person and his behaviour.
Anne @ 5…..
Maggie’s attitude of entitlement comes through in terms of how you treat the hired help……..
The files sound like the top drawer documents sir slippery eluded to.
Hopefully this behaviour is going extinct along with the irrelevant politicians that practice it.
Difficult Choices
Aotearoa lives closer to Asia than to Britannia or America.
Both of which countries are extremely warlike. They have been for centuries. They both sell massive amounts of weapons to many nations. Neither nation has done anything for us in the last 80 years. Other than invite us to take part in one war after another..
I find it difficult to trust or praise the United States of America. Greed is their core.
As for England, it lives in its triumphant evil past. Good at Comedy though..
The thing about Asia, is that it is very gifted and intelligent. Highly productive too. I think you will find it hard to overlook Asia when making your Choice.
As for China, it loves to make useful things, little things and massive things, outstanding things – at low relative cost.
They are not a warlike race, but they do protect the lands thay have always held. They also have some domestic regulations that we do not particularly like. They have wonderful Energy and Principles from way back.
I would not count on Britain as a Choice for us. Nor their American offspring.
Observer
I was thinking about Britain and Brexit, and that it seems the outcome of a giant stupid mishandling in accepting that close referendum and only people with more self-interest than basic skills at management of the country could make. It is as if the upper class Brits were echoing Trump and they ‘Wanted to make the Empah great again”.
It reminds me of the irresponsible, poor decision by the British War Lords after the Battle for Britain. They and Churchill apparently decided that Dowding’s success had been slow and he had overplayed his approach in being careful with intensive planning to ensure resources were sufficient and available. They chose to believe that they could have dealt with Germany’s air force fast by setting up a mass attack, going head to head and finishing them off. They were in love with this idea and ignored the reality of their resources. It was easier to have aftersight.
It shows that British pride and a belief in the romanticism of their gallantry and skill has driven them to embrace their nostalgia and go for separation from the EU. How does this place them in Europe then; do they go back to the 1930’s. Who has thought it all out away from rooms filled with alcohol fumes, cigars?
Our partners in this part of the world? This is a talk from someone who has lived in China for some time. What he has noticed.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuwSkVeCGOU
Ed has a solution to climate change.
Radical Socialism.
He is upset the Greens have lost there way with Identity politics.
I to think the Greens have lost there way. In internal battles the actual greens were pushed out by the radical socialists. This is because the radical socialists tried to find a home in our political spectrum, and over time captured a party founded on protecting the enviroment.
Now it in the mind of voters it’s just a radical feminist/socialist party. Even good men in the party have walked away, the male voter is no different. While it proposes seperate courts for women’s employement. 50%+ property for motherhood, DV, alimony, maternity leave only, etc etc the party has cancer that will rot away until it no longer exists in parliament.
Radical Socialism is not the answer.
Voters want to hear. The Greens and company X have signed a agreement aimed at reducing emmisions by 50%. The greens agree not to oppose the project, accepting the project needs some environmental losses for the much bigger change to happen. The deal includes the company making small investments in unfunded green projects on an ongoing basis as a share of profits from the project.
We need System Change, not Climate Change.
If we are to mitigate the catastrophic effects of a warming planet, we must abandon capitalism.
You can’t have a system built on the principle of growth on a planet with finite resources.
We need a revolution.
If you abandon capitalism?
How are you going to get a person to want to acheive anything. You are advocating communism. How about ethical capitalism.
Who will invest in progress, answer nobody will.
Who will fund the socialism, answer nobody will.
Fail Ed.
We don’t need a revolution. We need solutions and the political will to enable those solutions. Some think big, without a revolution destroying society in the process.
You should read Naomi Klein’s ‘This Changes Everything.’
And educate yourself.
We need to destroy capitalism.
And rebuild society and community, which capitalism has destroyed.
https://thischangeseverything.org/book/
BBC Newsnight’s Evan Davis interviews author and anti-globalisation campaigner Naomi Klein about her book, ‘This Changes Everything’, in which she argues that the threat of climate change should trigger a global movement to bring in a new, more just, economic order
Firstly Ed find a big cold lake and cool off for a second. You seem to think I’m ignorant and you know everything.
She is saying what I talk about. Ethical Capitalism, not age of exploitation capitalism.
Destroy is a vote getter Ed.
Revolution is a vote getter Ed. Especialy radical socialist ones.
Who’s lives do you intend to destroy in the revolution.
Do you have the green solution ready to go. So when you destroy something you fix it as well.
Have you built the electricity network already for your dream.
Have the EV vehicles been built, have you learnt to feed the people without fertilisers, jobs for the sacked workers.
No, Naomi Klein is advocating the end of capital.
Here she details how our neoliberal economic system and our planetary system are now at war.
With global emissions at an all-time high, Klein says radical action is needed.
“We have not done the things that are necessary to lower emissions because those things fundamentally conflict with deregulated capitalism, the reigning ideology for the entire period we have been struggling to find a way out of this crisis,” Klein writes. “We are stuck because the actions that would give us the best chance of averting catastrophe — and would benefit the vast majority — are extremely threatening to an elite minority that has a stranglehold over our economy, our political process, and most of our major media outlets.”
There is definately groups within Capitalism that have a lot to answer for.
Would a capitalist include a person who invests in a EV taxi service? With the intent to make a profit and reduce emmisions.
Would a capitalist include an inventor who risks his life savings on an idea to make renewables?
With the intent to make a profit and reduce emmisions.
Would a capitalist include a farmer changing to low emmisions farming while making a profit.
Should a person like Elon Musc be flogged into submission. For your idealism. His intent for ethical capitalism, his ideas crushed in the name of socialism or idealism or whatever ism your proposing.
I have a funny feeling Ed that that minority interest in Capitalism which you seek to destroy will result in destroying everything else as well.
If you can’t invest to make a profit who will invest in change?
As the 2 million Kiwi workers loose there jobs as capitalism is banned, what do you propose to do with them. Who now grows there food?
Collective farming?
Who provides the electricity, you have shut them down.
How do we get around, you have banned car production and sales.
How do I fix my home, nobody creates building products.
What do I watch, you have banned movies.
You made prostitution illegal again.
How do your unemployed by quality booze to drown there sorrows, you just banned Liqour stores.
The internet closed down, I can’t write letters to object as paper got banned along with Capitalism. Plus postal services closed when Ed banned stamps.
Since Knowledge with patents can be sold for profit Ed banned ideas as well.
You ask: “Would a capitalist include a person who invests in a EV taxi service? With the intent to make a profit and reduce emmisions.”
Yes, and yes to your other examples.
It seems like you lack the imagination of a future without a ‘profit’ as the means to an end.
Try sharing as a concept.
Not barter, not trade, sharing.
Where your neighbours need is your concern.
How do you envisage everybody being the same?
Under the present system people share in a contract with the government. We pay taxes “share” and they provide services.
The sharing is organised. I might be happy sharing with one person or issue but not another. But I must share. I may see it as a person without genuine need or one with there hand out but never wanting to give. A may see a person who gets nothing who I think deserves some of that sharing. We all see it differently.
I think you envisage an idealism. That every person is like you in being a good and caring person. That unfortunately is not the human condition. Neither does it recognise modern society needs industry to function. How do you get areas with population crowding or food shortages to get some sharing. Do the urban dwellers have to go to the country every day to hope people share. Do you que up for car sharing day hoping you get picked today.
I share, I help strangers, I give things away in charity, I teach and pass on my knowledge, I pay my taxes.
What exactly is this global sharing culture going to be like.
It would be great to have, but how do we go from today’s society to your vision.
You are arguing about capitalism ( and to some extent liberal democracy )
The problem is not the now,but the future and the tyranny that arises from not addressing future problems such as AI ,where both jobs and democracy go extinct.
Borges (utopia of a tired man) predicted the end of government.
What happened to the governments? According to tradition, they were gradually falling into disuse. They called elections, declared wars, imposed tariffs, confiscated fortunes, ordered arrests, and tried to impose censorship, but no one on the planet abided. The press stopped publishing their collaborations and their effigies. Politicians had to find honest occupations.
Essentially government controls the treasury benches,which in the future (in principle) could see the finance minister replaced by an algorithm owned and operated by some obscure company.
Harari outlines a possible pathway to technology tyranny from the present.
in the 20th century, the masses revolted against exploitation and sought to translate their vital role in the economy into political power. Now the masses fear irrelevance, and they are frantic to use their remaining political power before it is too late. Brexit and the rise of Donald Trump may therefore demonstrate a trajectory opposite to that of traditional socialist revolutions. The Russian, Chinese, and Cuban revolutions were made by people who were vital to the economy but lacked political power; in 2016, Trump and Brexit were supported by many people who still enjoyed political power but feared they were losing their economic worth. Perhaps in the 21st century, populist revolts will be staged not against an economic elite that exploits people but against an economic elite that does not need them anymore. This may well be a losing battle. It is much harder to struggle against irrelevance than against exploitation.
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/10/yuval-noah-harari-technology-tyranny/568330/
George Monbiot explains how capitalism is destined to push us towards catastrophe.
Never gonna happen Ed.
Not in our or our children’s lifetimes. (Assuming someone bred with you).
I’d bred with Ed, he’s switched on, intelligent and passionate. JS
[lprent: Ummm we never put anything in the policy about it not being a dating site. 😈 ]
Love your work Iprent.
Well I’m sorry but I’m going to have to agree with you on this (sorry because as a National voter my support means this post will be viewed with suspicion 🙂 )
From my side of the spectrum the Greens appear to be strongly red-green and the not the Green it claims to be
Theres always been talk of a mythical blue-green party but for the mean time a true green party would be a good idea but I doubt it’d get off the ground, I mean you’d need a leader with name recognition (whats Kennedy Graham up to these days 😉 ) and decent financial backing
Your National brain is giving you away here, Pucky; your suggestions for a “Real Green Party” are, get a celebrity leader and money.
*sighs
C’mon old fella you know I didn’t say celebrity 🙂
A Green party, is incompatible with National, and many of the senior Labour party Parliamentary wing.
Socialism, and social justice are just as important on getting workable action on AGW, as are direct Green actions.
Unless., like National, and ACT, you expect the less well off to pay all the costs, while it is business as usual for their bribers, sorry, funders.
Therein lies the “pitchforks”.
Is it or have the supporters of the Green party just convinced themselves that this is so
The Green party have shown that they’re willing to compromise their ideals and beliefs for power so why not take it a step further and see what National could offer
Talking costs nothing and doesn’t guarantee anything so why not see whats out there
Is National going to drop it’s opposition to clean and and water laws?
No?
Then forget it.
“Is National going to drop it’s opposition to clean and and water laws?”
https://www.national.org.nz/90_of_rivers_and_lakes_swimmable_by_2040
As I said before some people have just decided what the answer is and won’t be swayed
Have you any idea of what National think is “swimmable”? Obviously you don’t, because if you did, then you wouldn’t have posted such a laughable comment.
As regards the current govt, I’m with KJT. As regards the future, it’s wide open. The only obvious problem is the toxic combination of National Party culture and tradition. Since the former derives from the latter, the Nats are trending to the margin.
About a year has passed since I saw an interview with James Shaw & he was asked about the possibility of working with National. It was probably before the election. He replied that if he gets an offer from them, he’ll give it due consideration. We’ve heard of none since then. Ball’s in their court still.
It all depends if they try to work with NZF instead, and/or TOP. Next year they’ll have to pull one of those three rabbits out of their hat or go into the next election from a position of weakness.
National couldn’t be trusted to do things they talked about with apparent passion and truthfulness. They are so self-centred that they will manipulate, fudge, delay and deny. No party of integrity should be prepared to give them more than a hearing, for the sake of political intelligence. They have drunk the kool-aid and swallowed the hubris pill, and are willing to walk over hot coals to serve their ends and whichever power is prepared to carry on in the way that is increasing their assets.
Reminds me of Sauron in The Lord of the Rings.
25 Powerful Facts About Sauron – Factinate
https://www.factinate.com/things/24-powerful-facts-sauron/
Sauron proved to be Morgoth’s best lieutenant during the wars. This was partly because he was a shapeshifter, a sorcerer, and had control of dangerous beasts …
Manipulating our financial system, that changes every day – very similar to the idea of sorcery, and the shapeshifter watches his or her image being broadcast to see if it registers well with the people being enticed.
That capacity to shapeshift may enable them to morph into a better party. You get more nous about shapeshifting in politics from the practice of shamanism, btw, than from Tolkein. Even so, having read The Hobbit four times, first as a child in the mid-fifties, through to teenage years and fifth time as a hippie early ’70s, I’m not gonna deny his seminal influence!
Best contemporary practitioner is, I suspect, John Perkins. See Shapeshifting: Shamanic Techniques for Global and Personal Transformation (1997). You may have heard of his best-seller Confessions of an Economic Hit Man (2004). I’ve got those and two more by him as well. Despite having blown the whistle on the US govt more loudly than Snowden or Assange, he’s still alive at 73.
That’s interesting Dennis I am a book fancier and think I have Perkins about being a Hit Man which I got secondhand thinking it sounded interesting. I have only glanced at it so will have to get serious.
Definitely recommend doing so asap! I was too blasé, took me years to get around to it. JP is so worthy of respect I can’t recall any other American of similar stature. Remarkable man! Essential.
I echo the endorsement of Perkins Hitman book.
Heartily recommended.
Ha! I have 15 copies of The Hobbit (it isn’t a competition!).
Does that mean that, like me, you thought it vastly better than LotR? Have a stack of copies to give away to those who haven’t read it?? I’ve only got the early seventies paperback and an original hard-cover with original art-work on the paper jacket (maybe first edition) that I found cheap in an obscure 2nd-hand bookshop some years ago. Fifteen is rather ott!
Be still, my beating heart! I’m collecting copies so that I can tutor groups of young readers through the tale and beyond. I’m trained and practiced as a teacher and found my best efforts were in topics I loved and with students wanting to know. I’ve already been reading The Hobbit to grandsons etc. of an evening, to be sure I’ve the pace and tone right for reading aloud – something I love to do and have had a great deal of practice in already, so when the children of families of my area, who have already asked my wife and I to begin a forest garden school, reach “hobbit” age, I’ll be ready. I’ve a range of copies, old and new and take pleasure in the variety of covers, illustrations etc. that exist. I don’t though, have a hard-backed copy 🙂 No matter, one will turn up. I’ve discovered trade me and the Tolkien section and have already purchased a couple of copies, though they’ve not yet arrived in my letter box. Last Friday I found a copy of “the Hobbit Companion” by David Day, which, while not the core book, looks interesting, exploring as it does, the derivations of the words Tolkien used: “hobbit”, “orc”, “ent” etc. Such things interest me greatly 🙂
Sounds like you could be a natural storyteller. You know about the Moomin books? Probably my favourite series as a child. If not, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tove_Jansson – tried them on my daughter in the early eighties & she loved them too.
Dunno if you’re aware of it, Robert, but there’s been a bit of a kerfuffle around whether Tolkein’s description of orcs is racist. https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/thepanel/audio/2018673444/is-lord-of-the-rings-racist-towards-orcs
I know Moomins, but have never cracked that nut. I think I’ve missed it. Orcs? Sure. Tolkien was an Englishman. Sometimes, we expect too much…
Do you know…Little Big? (Not “Little Big Man” 🙂
I have as many copies of The Hobbit as I can copy to devices from my Calibre server. It does seem to me to somewhat pointless in an era of digital copies to fixate on fire tinder.
I’m determined to have a “class set” that I can hand out to students so that they can read ahead or read again, as we shared the story as read aloud. I like the signs of previous ownership too: personal dedications, messages from aunts and uncles, that sort of thing. Even the date stamps and “this book belongs to…” in ex-library copies adds to my enjoyment of the books. Plus hard-copy/paperback differences and all that jazz…
Books are solid artifacts, skilfully made, creatively designed, beautiful examples of clever, imaginative minds. Treasure the books and the minds, they may be dying out!
Dennis Frank at 5.30pm
That mention about critiquing Tolkien and the orcs to discuss whether he shows with them a racist line brought
nit-picking to mind. And I thought about gorillas and chimpanzees going through each other’s hair to get rid of the pests. Perhaps this revisionism is human nitpicking at work? This is what we do, but with a negative bias rather than one of being helpful to each other and building community.
Don’t see any compromise of ideals and beliefs. I see Greens making as much progress as they can with the level of their vote, and the limitations of the system.
I support James Shaw in trying to get a consensus. Otherwise we will see all progress against AGW halt, when the Government next changes in 2026.
This is true to a degree but for the Green Party political power is a means to an end and for the National Party it is the ultimate goal in its own right and essentially a Faustian pact without a noble goal in mind.
Well put.
So you get it in writing…and not trust another party to negotiate for you
Some sort of written memorandum just to make sure both parties understand their respective positions and areas of cooperation?
Good idea. The Greens and Labour should do that sometime lol
There’s a bit of sense there PR. CC is the greatest threat ever to face mankind and requires non-political direction because it is not a political matter. That is the trap way too many people have fallen into over the decades.
We need a governing body outside of the main political parties specifically for making the hard decisions required to play our part in combating CC and a statute requiring the government of the day to implement those decisions.
Sounds too hard? I don’t think so. There are a number of people well versed in Climate science and other necessary spheres of activity who are highly regarded by all political parties. Kennedy Graham could well be one of them. I guess it would be appropriate for each political party to have one of their members assigned to this governing body but they would not wield any more power than the other members.
Sustainability in resource use, addressing climate change, is not going to happen, without sustainability in our society.
Unfortunately for the right wing, present day capitalism and constant growth, is incompatible, with the survival of human civilisation.
Well, it’s never going to change under the present political process as you say KJT, but there are wiser heads associated with all political parties who could redefine the parameters so that such a governing body was achievable.
We gotta but try otherwise we’re goners.
Unfortunately with 5% of the vote, politics is the art of the possible.
But then there is this. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/nov/30/climate-change-strike-thousands-of-students-to-join-national-protest
I only mention Kennedy because he seems to be really intelligent and able to facilitate cross party cooperation
Just seems a shame someone like him isn’t where he could, or should, be
A compromiser, you mean?
One of the comfortable middle class, who think that action to prevent AGW consists of buying an electric car and banning plastic bags, the rest is business as usual while, other people bear the cost of change.
Like National’s “Blue Greens”..
Deliberately ignoring the fact that it is the “comfortable” who are responsible for most resource use, and emissions. Those of us who are “comfortable” and well off, have to drop some of our standard of living, such as jet flights overseas, horrors! So that the rest can survive.
“requires non-political direction because it is not a political matter. That is the trap way too many people have fallen into over the decades”
Guilty as charged. Very thought provoking, thank you.
This is because the radical socialists tried to find a home in our political spectrum, and over time captured a party founded on protecting the enviroment.
This is simply not true. The Green Party has always cared about people as well as planet and grew out of the Values Party who also cared about people as well as planet.
If you don’t like the Greens then fine, but please don’t tell lies about them.
Greens are hardly “radical socialists”. Being slightly to the left of Kieth Holyoak, who, I would suspect is turning in his grave over the present day National party.
Funnily enough I’ve always wondered what the leaders of parties from ye olde times would think of their parties today and where the disconnect (if any) started
MJ Savage and Kirk, not to mention JA Lee, who was never a Prime Minister but was a huge influence on the founders of our welfare State, I suspect would have been very upset with 1980’s to 2017 Labour. Especially the capture of the party, by ACT, in the 80’s.
Massey, et al. would be at home with present day National. Making it illegal to feed the families of striking workers, and sending farmers on horse back to beat up demonstrators. Many National backbenchers want those days back.
Muldoon was, of course rightly horrified, at the criminal devaluation of the dollar forced on him, and the fire sale of assets, which followed.
New Zealand Under 17 women are third in the world at football.
https://i.stuff.co.nz/sport/football/nz-teams/109024022/new-zealand-beat-canada-to-bronze-at-fifa-under17-womens-world-cup
First goal gained in 15 seconds.
Across so many out our national teams, the women are growing in stature and in rank.
Just maybe this is the new era for women and sport.
NZ womens’ sport is great
Something to be proud of
A.
NZ womens’ sport may be ‘great’ entertainment/recreation, but is it carbon neutral?
Those wretched things keep breathing out carbon dioxide
> NZ womens’ sport may be ‘great’ entertainment/recreation, but is it carbon neutral?
I don’t care!!
A.
It is a job, and valuable to be able to do something well, and we should be prepared to pay for that. Jobs for humans, doing human things, that is what we need and right now. Even if we all spend half our time in the garden, and maintenance of our own resources, and the other half at our skilled jobs we might make it through. Let’s go and talk to Maori from this pov and the Aborigines who managed to live in an environment when it was harsh, and know the places where they could find seasonal living environments.
Not sure who you mean by “we” but i certainly don’t want to pay people to play sport. If people want to pay to watch it then that’s up to them.
The Maori population before European contact has been estimated at 100 to 200,000. I don’t think things work the same with 4,000,000.
solkta
I don’t want to pay you eventually or now, to sit around and type comments on how you don’t want to think about the future for other people and don’t want to be part of a working community that everyone adds to in a positive way.
If we had a UBI and individuals chose to be poor and play sport then then that is one thing, but specifically paying people to play sport is another.
I haven’t asked you to pay me and you don’t.
Oh good then you aren’t on an old age pension. I hope you are a useful, co-operative member of society because I don’t hear much in the way of positives on here.
Soltka comes on this site to nitpick, grumble and gripe at people
Games and competitions featured large in pre-european Māori life.
https://teara.govt.nz/en/traditional-maori-games-nga-takaro/page-1
http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-BesGame-t1-body-d1.html
And you will notice that I talked about divisions in lifestyles, for the self-sustaining capable person and whanau. Maori had been managing that for many centuries and were able to help many new white settlers, before
the incomers took advantage and tried to get hold of more land.
People need to recognise that there were real estate gougers then as now, and they had to get hold of land to hand to the people who had bought it London often bad faith contracts, which meant that it was fraud. When they were on their way to claim these purported plots it would become highly stressful for the hucksters. So tip Maori off the land somehow, anyhow, pay them a small recompense, and pocket the profit.
Maori have survived even if unhappily, and it is time we learned from them.
BBC news: “Mexico’s López Obrador pledges ‘radical’ change”. But Obrador the radical is being sensible…
“Obrador’s administration inherits a crisis caused by a recent surge of migrant caravans of mostly Central American nationals, fleeing poverty and violence in their home nations and flooding into Mexico to try to reach the US. To try to curb these migrant flows, Mr López Obrador has proposed an ambitious co-operation scheme involving Mexico, Canada, and the US that would pump aid and investment into Central America to create jobs and raise living standards.” https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-46404650
“I have spoken on two occasions with Trump [since the presidential election] and he has sent a delegation [to Mexico] and there are ongoing negotiations, and I must recognise that he has given us respectful treatment. You will see how we will maintain a good relationship with the US government,” he said in a recent press conference. And another consequence was announced late last week.
“President Trump and his Mexican and Canadian counterparts sought to put the acrimony of the past two years behind them on Friday as they signed a new trade agreement governing hundreds of billions of dollars in commerce that underpins their mutually dependent economies.”
“Meeting for the first time since the revised North American Free Trade Agreement was sealed, Mr. Trump, President Enrique Peña Nieto of Mexico and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada hailed the results as a boon for workers, businesses and the environment”. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/30/world/americas/trump-trudeau-canada-mexico.html
Trump sure does know how to get things done. I like it when a politician sees some bullshit and is willing to say it. The fact he made it clear he wouldn’t tolerate unfair trade anymore resulted in all three parties attempting to make things fair. If he didn’t throw his toys out of the cot nothing would have happened.
China is already under pressure and they too trade unfairly with the US, and pretty much everybody else.
The EU is no better. Africa would be a different place if trade barriers weren’t in place. Plus French wine, which RT tested as second to US wine.
RT are oenophiles, now?
Nah, I just watched them do some random (hopefully) blind testing in Paris and the locals picked the US wine. In response to Trump taking a swipe at the moron Nationalism comment, with French trade protectionism on wine.
I did have to look up that word, so thanks McFlock, I learnt something.
Got some mates who are really into it.
The yanks do make some good wines. And some French wines are complete crap. Seems more like an RT wind-up than a (brave) call that one contry has better wine than another.
So how do we stop climate change without adopting an Amish-like lifestyle? No one has bee able to provide an answer to that question.
I don’t fancy going back to the days of horse and cart, or adopting anarcho-primitivism. England, circa 1456 isn’t the ideal life style in my opinion.
We stop climate change by dropping fossil and adapting our ways of doing things to the new fossil free environment we’ll have created.
I can’t see what “Amish” or anarcho-primitivism or England crica 1456 has to do with anything.
Do you think humanity will somehow lose medical knowledge, engineering know-how or any accumulated scientific knowledge or agricultural ken just because we bin fossil?
I can see how all that and much more will likely be lost if we attempt to adapt to an environment raked by climate change rather than one absent fossil. In fact, I can see how not getting rid of fossil could make Amish and England circa 1456 look like unattainable goals.
What is it about the Amish way you are apprehensive about?
Is the thought of a lack of something?
I reckon a mix of how Maori were getting on, with a mix of technology that the settlers bought with them.
I was talking about this with mates the other night.
The context was hemp harvesting.
Hemp is hard on gear, because of it’s awesome qualities.
We came to a oversized scissor/secateur device that is used with horses.
(Sorry I forget the name of it)
What would be wrong with living sustainably, in harmony with the earth, eating locally and seasonally?
“What is it about the Amish way you are apprehensive about?”
Um, pitchforks? Having to wear 19th century clothes? Having to go to church regularly? Also, “they don’t believe that faith automatically guarantees salvation” which must be damned annoying most of the time. A religion that doesn’t automatically save the true believer?? Get real.
“Amish grant primary authority to the church and reject any civilian authority that contradicts it.” So the state and local govt are of negligible relevance. Forget the UN. Civil rights? The law? No way.
https://www.newsmax.com/fastfeatures/amish-protestant-beliefs-apart/2015/04/02/id/635785/
Thats disingenuous.
It’s not what gsays was referring to . I think we all know a simpler way less materialistic lifestyle is what we all need , and there’s absolutely no need to bring in the church or UN.
What is the philosophy to other people as well as to food and the earth?
I think we have to transcend our competitive mindsets and become cooperative and a whole lot kinder.
We’ve done the talking primate on hind legs Desmond Morris thing (the naked ape competing for resources and tupping rights)
It’s no longer working for us
Time for the next evolutionary leap
Heh, thanks francesca, cooperative and kinder, in a nutshell.
For me the next evolutionary step is sharing.
A bonus is that it resonates with our nature.
In the short to medium term, because many of the things we need to live are not efficiently produced locally – medicine or vaccines, for example.
In the longer term, it would also shut down all higher-level research that requires electronic communication or analysis. Consumerism actually drives advancement and lowers costs (by increasing market size). Human technology would stagnate, and we’d just sit on this rock waiting for the true end to come. Fuck that.
Please can a moderator deal with James comment to me at 7.1.2.
I am over the non-stop verbal abuse I receive from this person every time I post on this site.
The comment at 7.1.2. is personal and repulsive.
I expect protection from such levels of bullying.
[lprent: Not enough for me to take action. It was a nasty side comment (and not abuse) while making his point – which was an assertion related to your assertions. ]
Yeah, nah. On OM today you’ve called one contributor a troll and another ignorant. As Ghandi is supposed to have said ‘Be the change you want to see’.
You have never defended my position.
James has just been empowered to write even more personal attacks.
This is not a safe place to make one’s points.
> This is not a safe place to make one’s points.
When has the Standard ever been sold as a safe place?
A.
[lprent: It has always been ‘sold’ as a place for robust debate. That severely limits how ‘safe’ it can be made. ]
Hey Ed
The milk of human kindness is not really a feature of this site.
Just ignore the bile and malice and keep providing the links despite it all !
And incidentally TRP covered his butt with the “supposed”Gandhi quote.
Gandhi never said that
And what’s more he had the” h” in the wrong place
So I just ignore James’s comment ‘assuming someone bred with you.’
If we do not stand up to bullies, they win.
> So I just ignore James’s comment ‘assuming someone bred with you.’
Exactly! You got it.
For bonus points, ignore all James’ comments.
A.
“If we do not stand up to bullies, they win.”
You made quite a few comments on the Rachel Stewart post, Ed. Did any of them condemn her racist abuse and offer me any solidarity? Nope, not one. So stick your selective morality where the sun don’t shine.
You’re a guest here at the Standard whare, Ed, and you get a fair crack. On occasions, you’ve led off some good discussions, including today’s Bomber thread. However, if the tit for tat between yourself and others becomes a problem, don’t assume the moderation will be limited to people you don’t like.
They take up too much time .Online bullies are usually face to face cowards
Yep , that was a foul comment, I agree, but he contaminates himself by making it , not you.
Thank you.
I appreciate your kindness.
The unique futility of our thinking is evident in this youtube clip promoted as The Most Isolated Tribe in the World.
It is about the Sentilese? I think they were the ones killed off one of those pesky religious evangelisticals or the like who won’t fucking leave alone any uninformed-about-Christianity or Dominant Religion till they teach them their way and try and convert them. It’s a competitive thing, being first to gather them into the fold, and so dominating the disruptive new religion market.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7BNwmVvk6g
If we can form close supportive groups with high numbers, we may be able to survive in the short term when times get really competitive. But for advanced humans, we would hope that we don’t descend into constant raids and defence.
Our future? Howling hyenas against the Big One – a Lion, fit and strong.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvhuzoqsshY
The Thai caves success after debacle. Can we wanting change from rigid authoritarian attitudes learn from this.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/377293/it-was-utter-chaos-inside-the-thai-cave-rescue
The ABC had a similar report to the RNZ, I put to the fact the Thai’s didn’t want or to be seen to lose face and the other is a little bit racist (Which you see now and again if you have travelled to the border areas of Thailand aka South North West/ Northern Regions) as the is that the young kids weren’t Thai’s “so why should I risk my life for those kids, who aren’t Thai.
The Thai’s, well most Asians are a funny lot sometimes especially if you get off the beaten track or turn up all of sudden where they don’t expect a Frang and the clash of cultures does play or could lead to misunderstanding than Authoritatarian attitudes.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-12-02/thai-cave-boys-wild-boars-rescue-the-book-thailand-diving/10514970
Well, you don’t put John Bolton in the driver’s seat if you’re trying to avoid a war.
/
Yes I put Bolten in the McCain camp in that he creates fictional threats in his mind and lives in a paranoid state of mind as a result. Those who become his target realise the only end game for Bolten is there destruction. They act in response to his threat, portrayed as protecting freedom.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/the-wireless/377177/watch-when-big-shot-artist-hundertwasser-moved-to-northland
Many Germans have liked something about NZ enough that they have stayed and given much back to us.
He was Austrian.
It’s a confusion that happens every so often…
Never, Ever Forget The Guardian/Politico Psyop Against WikiLeaks
by CAITLIN JOHNSTONE, Dec. 1, 2018
For the first few hours after any new “bombshell” Russiagate story comes out, my social media notifications always light up with poorly written posts by liberal establishment loyalists saying things like “HAHAHA @caitoz this proves you wrong now will you FINALLY stop denying Russian collusion???” Then, when people start actually analyzing that story and noting that it comes nowhere remotely close to proving that Donald Trump colluded with the Russian government to steal the 2016 election, those same people always forget to come back afterward and admit to me that they were wrong again.
This happens every single time, including this past Tuesday when the Guardian published a new “bombshell” report saying that former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort had had secret meetings with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. When experts all across the political spectrum began pointing out that the story contained no evidence for its nonsensical claims and was entirely anonymously sourced, nobody ever came back and said “Hey sorry for calling you a Russian propagandist, Caitlin; turns out that story wasn’t as fact-based as I’d thought!” When evidence for a single one of the article’s claims failed to turn up for a day, then two days, then three days, nobody came back and said “Gosh Caitlin, I owe you an apology for mocking you and calling you Assange’s bitch; turns out WikiLeaks and Manafort are suing that publication and its claims remain completely unproven.”
And of course they didn’t. They weren’t meant to. They were meant to absorb the Guardian’s false claims as fact, add it to their Gish gallop mountain of false evidence for Trump-Russia-WikiLeaks collusion, and then be shuffled onward by the relentless news churn of the corporate propaganda matrix like always. But I’m never going to let them forget that this happened, and neither should you. …
Read more….
https://ahtribune.com/culture-media/2664-guardian-politico-psyop-against-wikileaks.html
As ever, you speak total sense .
The Guardian is a pillar of the neoliberal establishment.
Luke Harding is a traitor to the people of the UK and the world.
He took his 30 pieces of silver.
Assange is one of the greatest whistle-blowers of our time. Yet some among the ‘woke’ left align themselves with the far right as their useful tools . They are fed the identity politics issues that is the flavour of the month from the far right and go at it with a fervor matched only by those prosecutors of the Salem witch trials.
5 Facts You Didn’t Know About Julian Assange founder of … – YouTube
Identity politics is a very convenient place to be.
One looks busy.
Yet it saves one fighting the class war.
There is that either or thing again.
One only has so much time.
Fuck, make your mind up. Is both or either or?
Ed does not answer to you.
No, but most people here have enough self-respect to not continuously contradict themselves.
Leave it solkta. It – they – are just not worth it. I gave up with tryng to engage a long time ago. I would rather see you here than past tense and his sycophant, so just ignore them. You and I and others will not change them.
Kia kaha e hoa.
Absolutely correct Ed.
The right feeding identity politics to the left?
That is a new one on me
Has Assange had a shower yet
Probably a fair few more than you judging by the opinions you post . Have a nice day.
Ed,
You seem to think everyone to the right of you is a traitor to the people, and should be prosecuted. Do you not understand the meaning of democracy and pluralistic society, where it is actually legitimate to hold views different to your preferred view?
More particularly, have you ever considered why all democratic societies have some form of market economy as their basic economic organising principle. The simple reason being choice. Most people want choice (in varying degrees).
I don’t think all people to the right of me are traitors.
I do think the politicians in New Zealand who changed our laws so this country could be sold to foreign corporations and interests are traitors, in the same way people betray their country in war.
Many of the traitors were in the Labour Party of the 1980s.
Luke Harding and the Guardian cabal betrayed us by aligning with the deep state in its war against us.
You should know all this, but as ex-war Minister of New Zealand, you are probably have insider knowledge of the demands of the deep state.
Just a few points , Wayne , to riegn in your simplistic overveiw of what in you mind, constitutes ‘democracy’.
First off ,…
Extremes, Wayne, extremes.
On both the left and right . There is a reason that Germany outlawed the National Socialists. And no matter how much one valued ‘democracy’ ,- the National Socialists remained banned in Germany. For good reason. On the flip side,… there is a reason why most sane people abhor Pol Pot, Stalin or Mao. Because they were ALL genocidal govts.
Those are all the EXTREMES , yes, we understand that. But the example proves that there ARE NO safe harbors in which to park ones allegiances in when extremes are concerned – either LEFT or Right.
NOW , THAT SAID… a moderate individual , one who seeks good will for themselves and others would be more inclined to seek an ideology /political movement that did just that. And , in the process of doing so ,… would find themselves inadvertently aligning themselves up with those individuals who are known as the ‘ GREAT GENERATION’… those stalwarts who went off to fight in World War Two , who came back having seen , witnessed and partaking of the bloody obscenity’s of humans murdering one another and were determined that those hideous conditions would not repeat themselves here.
They knew what poverty , deprivation and wholesale violence led to.
Thus, they adopted the ‘cradle to the grave ‘ welfare policy’s. They adopted Keynesian economics , wage award rates , full employment ,- and , – after having done so , – enjoyed the most prosperous and peaceful conditions in history that we in NZ have ever known. And per capita we ( NZ ) were among the most wealthiest in the world. We were 6th , – behind Denmark. The system we lived under was recognized by both Labour and National ( Muldoon was a staunch supporter of it and the working man.) and woebetide any who tried to tamper with it.
But then along came your hideous friends, Wayne, – your grubby little neo liberal buddy’s. The likes of Roger Douglas, Ruth Richardson, Mike Moore, Jenny Shipley and co and rode roughshod over the ‘ democratic’ process you like to trumpet about and pretend you uphold, and went completely against the democratic will of the people and proceeded to flog off the assets built up by the Great Generation , paid for through taxes and hard work , gut out forestry’s , electricity company’s , airports , rail systems and so on and so forth… not to mention passing the odious Employment Contracts Act 1991 to smash unions to please your 1%’er mates to increase their profits on the workers backs…
And you , Wayne, …. you dare to try and lecture us about what ‘democracy’ is.
It was radicals , Wayne,… radicals just like you we despised. You are not ‘Orthodox’ . You are not ‘C
Would be nice if the mods could delete this one. Somehow double posted.
Having been brought up into that state socialism, I see the benefits more clearly in retrospect, so I partly agree. However voters turned against it because under Muldoon it became obvious that it was no longer economically viable. Same realisation swung voters back to the 19th century in other western countries.
And Wayne is right that most people want cheaper stuff & consumer choice, so his framing of democracy is valid. These ideological pitches and critiques belong to the past, there’s points of merit on both sides and centrists just want a mix that works in the current social context.
What we’re seeking now is UBI to replace the welfare shambles, weaning off foreign trade dependency via judicious domestic enterprise development, smart tech, and any other suitable design feature to throw into the mix to replace neoliberalism. We don’t need any more complaining about the past. We need to provide for our future!
Load of jargonese cobblers.
First off, – Wayne never mentioned ‘cheaper goods’. Neither for the consumers nor for ‘democracy’.
Your twisting things deliberately.
Second off,… no the voters didn’t turn against it because under Muldoon it became obvious that it was no longer economically viable. They were convinced by the same neo liberal cabal who were pushing for these deregulated markets.
————————————————–
A key point of the free-market cabal’s programme was to devalue the New Zealand dollar, an extremely sensitive issue.
Several weeks before the July, 1984 election, Douglas, Labour’s shadow finance minister, “accidentally” released a statement which signaled his intent to devalue.
Since it was a near certainty that labour, aided by the New Zealand Party’s drawing votes from the Nationals, would win, speculators began to dump the New Zealand dollar, planning, post-devaluation, to cash in each dollar of foreign currency for more New Zealand dollars than previously.
With Labour’s victory, the simmering foreign exchange crisis exploded. The Reserve Bank’s foreign Exchange holdings quickly ran dry, and Labour demanded, even before the end of the several-week transition period, that Muldoon devalue.
After a brief struggle, Muldoon capitulated, and devalued by 20%. Speculators made tens, if not hundreds of millions of dollars overnight.
———————————————————
AND THAT ,… sonny Jim, – was the REAL reason AND the devious methods used by the treasonous neo liberals to overturn NZ’s Keynesian system. They couldn’t do it in the open because at that time we had strong treason laws. So they had to resort to devious and ‘un democratic ‘ methods such as the above to affect it.
New Right Fight – Who are the New Right?
http://www.newrightfight.co.nz/pageA.html
Do some homework.
And in the meantime – stop being an apologist for people like Wayne and other odious neo liberals. Including, it seems, yourself. As for your ‘These ideological pitches and critiques belong to the past, ‘… that is , according to you and those like you. Yet with your radical neo liberalism you have presented NO WORKING MODEL that can take the former’s place. Barring more of the same poverty for hundreds of thousand’s of NZ’ers. You are a comfortable apologist using those same hundreds of thousands of NZ’ers as your retirement comfort plan.
Screw you.
UBI?… and to be determined by WHOM?
The same bald faced con men/women criminals like Jenny Shipley who set the welfare rates deliberately 20% under the actual survivable cost of living???
Yeah right. We’ve heard it all before , mate.
The same lies, the same rorts, the same perversions of the truth.
… [ weaning off foreign trade dependency via judicious domestic enterprise development, smart tech, and any other suitable design feature to throw into the mix to replace neoliberalism ] …
Yeah and Cindarella just got a new dress.
We’ve heard all that before as well.
And yes, – setting trade deals with Russia would be a smart move, :
——————————————————–
Winston Peters has offered a way out. Trade with the Russians. A brilliant tactical move that extricates us from Chinese and American imperialism.
And makes us rich.
Let the Chinese rail, let the Americans rail… let the Americans wring their hands at the smaller sibling who now trades with their ‘deadly rivals’. Let little NZ salute with the middle finger England who so promptly ditched us when they joined the EEC…
America, who use us as a gawking outpost on the Pacific and China with their 5 eyes system,…China, who use free trade deals as a way to implement soft power on us and our democracy…
Take them all down by trading big time with the Russians. Embarrass them all.
You might just find, that suddenly ,… those long sought after trading deals with America might just become very lucrative indeed all of a sudden as a sweetener … meanwhile,… no promises given as we happily trade wholesale with the Ruskies…
———————————————————
Anything wrong with that so far , cobber?
And maybe your dreamy little exercise about ” domestic enterprise development, smart tech, and any other suitable design feature ” would work a little better if we had such things as trade tariffs and protection of our own industry’s , – instead of open slather deregulation passing of industrial information that caused China to benefit from our dairy industry and horticulture industry ie : kiwifruit production.
Its called industrial secrets and intellectual property , mate.
And THAT … brings us right back round to how things were in NZ BEFORE the Roger Douglas TREASON.
IN OTHER WORDS – What I was talking about before you chimed in with your idealistic Pollyanna B.S idealized and unrealistic view of the world..
Just a few points , Wayne , to reign in your simplistic overview of what in your mind, constitutes ‘democracy’.
First off ,…
Extremes, Wayne, extremes.
On both the left and right . There is a reason that Germany outlawed the National Socialists. And no matter how much one valued ‘democracy’ ,- the National Socialists remained banned in Germany. For good reason. On the flip side,… there is a reason why most sane people abhor Pol Pot, Stalin or Mao. Because they were ALL genocidal govts.
Those are all the EXTREMES , yes, we understand that. But the example proves that there ARE NO safe harbors in which to park ones allegiances in when extremes are concerned – either LEFT or Right.
NOW , THAT SAID… a moderate individual , one who seeks good will for themselves and others would be more inclined to seek an ideology /political movement that did just that. And , in the process of doing so ,… would find themselves inadvertently aligning themselves up with those individuals who are known as the ‘ GREAT GENERATION’… those stalwarts who went off to fight in World War Two , who came back having seen , witnessed and partaking of the bloody obscenity’s of humans murdering one another and were determined that those hideous conditions would not repeat themselves here.
They knew what poverty , deprivation and wholesale violence led to.
Thus, they adopted the ‘cradle to the grave ‘ welfare policy’s. They adopted Keynesian economics , wage award rates , full employment ,- and , – after having done so , – enjoyed the most prosperous and peaceful conditions in history that we in NZ have ever known. And per capita we ( NZ ) were among the most wealthiest in the world. We were 6th , – behind Denmark. The system we lived under was recognized by both Labour and National ( Muldoon was a staunch supporter of it and the working man.) and woebetide any who tried to tamper with it.
But then along came your hideous friends, Wayne, – your grubby little neo liberal buddy’s. The likes of Roger Douglas, Ruth Richardson, Mike Moore, Jenny Shipley and co and rode roughshod over the ‘ democratic’ process you like to trumpet about and pretend you uphold, and went completely against the democratic will of the people and proceeded to flog off the assets built up by the Great Generation , paid for through taxes and hard work , gut our forestry’s , electricity company’s , airports , rail systems and so on and so forth… not to mention passing the odious Employment Contracts Act 1991 to smash unions to please your 1%’er mates to increase their profits on the workers backs…
And you , Wayne, …. you dare to try and lecture us about what ‘democracy’ is.
It was radicals , Wayne,… radicals just like you we despised. You are not ‘Orthodox’ . You are not ‘Conservative’. You are part of a renegade, out of control and dangerous cabal of piratical leeches who looked lustfully at the wealth of this land and when conditions were right ? – you, along with groups like the Business Roundtable and other traitors in both National and Labour, decided it was time to plunder it.
EXTREMIST RADICALS , Wayne.
Don’t try and preach to US about the virtues of democracy when your own ideological history and those who you consort with show blatant contempt for the same.
Exactly right.
From Wayne. One of the people who turned our society up side down. Because he though that Lawyers should be paid a lot more than wharfies.
If you think palm oil that’s grown for food is the problem, think again.
Most of the plantations around us were new, their rise a direct consequence of policy decisions made half a world away. In the mid-2000s, Western nations, led by the United States, began drafting environmental laws that encouraged the use of vegetable oil in fuels — an ambitious move to reduce carbon dioxide and curb global warming. But these laws were drawn up based on an incomplete accounting of the true environmental costs. Despite warnings that the policies could have the opposite of their intended effect, they were implemented anyway, producing what now appears to be a calamity with global consequences.
http://archive.li/PaUW7
Baa fucking hum bug .
I’ve had a quick scroll (shepherds be busy in December)
And the usual we need to change bullshit still prevails.
The greens ain’t green enuff. Labours not doing enuff.
We need to reduce . We need trains blah blah blah .
What you lot need is to fucking realise is that humans ain’t going to change .
Science is the only fix .
Carbon removal is the only answer .
Removal is part of the answer, but will never be the whole answer unless someone figures out how to synthesize long carbon nanotubes from CO2. But then we’ll have a super-strong plastics problem in the Pacific Gyre.
Baffling poll result on One News: https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/national-surpasses-labour-in-latest-1-news-colmar-brunton-poll-nz-first-and-greens-dip-dangerously-low
Nats back on top despite doing nothing! Contradicts those internal poll results reported by both parties recently too. You know, Labour ten points ahead…
Every time labour leak their internal polls it’s been bullshit.
Didn’t mean much this far out – but great to seeing nzf and Green’s close to being gone burger.
The last leak was National’s internals …
its common with crypt orchids
Where are the details available, with previous poll comparatives? Without that i call bullshit on any ‘internal poll’ leak.
James,… NZ First is the party the radical right wingers fear,… and hate.
You will be seeing a lot more of them in future.
They represent the new conservative vote in NZ, and the new vote endorse by your children. You had best heed that vote,
Well, it indicates the voters are back into contradictory mode. On the one hand the Nats have increased their vote (looks like at NZ First’s expense) and Labour is down from the last CB poll, yet the economic outlook under the Lab led govt has increased. Can’t have it both ways voters.
We haven’t been seeing too much of the Prime Minister of late. I don’t know whether that is intentional or whether the media have decided to ignore her. Whatever… it shows in the outcome of this poll.
I agree the PM’s recent presentation could be a factor. Also, as MS pointed out, could just be random fluctuations within the margin of error for Colmar Brunton. But the discrepancy with the recent internal poll that rated Labour ten points ahead raises a question about how valid polling methodology is.
“We haven’t been seeing too much of the Prime Minister of late”.
I would have said that Winston had been quite vocal and frequently on display lately. If anything we have been seeing rather to much of the old sot.
SHUT UP.
Just shut up.
There’s a reason why Peters is our senior politician,…and why hes earned that position. Because in a young govt hes needed. His senior , wise and unflappable confidence is warranted. Moreover his life experience and prior diplomatic expertise is needed.
This is not something from a decade ago, but something right here and now.
Peters has shown him self over and over to be more than just some temporal appendage , some new boy on the block, – but rather as a seasoned , battle hardened old campaigner. And a wise and steadfast tactical , strategic diplomat.
When idiots from all walks of the political spectrum spurn him,… we all suffer.
Shut up!… just shut up !…. and let the senior politicians speak.
We are tired of the young upstarts, the new inexperienced blood. It is time for wisdom of age and experience to speak !!!! They have the backdrop of time and
life experience to lend authority to their words.
Enough of all this !!!
Let the elders speak !!!!
For those who the think Chinese tourist dollar is great for NZ Tourism, well this article from ABC may’ve wroken up a few up that Chinese Tourist dollars are a myth and as my dad said to me when he was taking me around CHCH l(showing me the Pie eater’s and DonKey handiwork) last yr the Chinese tourists are ripping off NZ Tourism companies blind.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-12-02/how-chinese-tourists-are-reshaping-tourism-around-the-world/10557512
My dad was tour coach driver for well established CHCH based NZ Tour Coach Company, until he recently retired from the company last mth.
This is interesting on Chinese tourism from above link.
Thanks exkiwiforces.
Thailand and Indonesia are cracking down on “zero-dollar” tours — all-inclusive travel packages sold at bargain basement prices that usually sound too good to be true — which have allegedly exploited the lack of local regulations.
Mandatory shopping stops at stores and factories are built into the itinerary, and tourists are urged — and sometimes pressured — to make purchases at marked-up prices.
Many of the shops have large parking lots packed with buses, but the public are usually not welcome.
Travel packages from China to Bali can be bought for as cheaply as $60, which includes everything you need for a five-night stay, according to Indonesia’s National Organisation for Tours and Travel (ASITA)…
Chinese tourists account for 21 per cent of global travel spending this year so far, according to the United Nations World Tourism Organisation.
These numbers can greatly benefit a local economy, but analysts argue it can also be used by the Chinese Government as “global leverage”.
University of Melbourne expert on Chinese foreign relations, Sow Keat Tok, said this power has been used by Beijing to rapidly generate “hostage situations” with countries it has political or diplomatic differences with — showing China’s “willingness to wield the tourism card”.
Travel packages from China to Bali can be bought for as cheaply as $60, which includes everything you need for a five-night stay, according to Indonesia’s National Organisation for Tours and Travel (ASITA).
“The shops are [illegally] owned by Chinese nationals; selling Chinese-produced items which are usually paid for with Alipay or WeChat,” said the head of ASITA Bali, I Ketut Ardana…
He said tour operators were able to sell travel packages cheaply because they work with Chinese operators in Bali who take them to Chinese-owned shops and tourist attractions that do not incur an entry fee.
The practice takes revenue away from the local economy because the income goes directly into the pockets of the people involved, he said…
“Sometimes they emotionally motivate these people to do it, sometimes they violently force them to buy it.
On my last trip to Laos and Nth Eastern Thailand I notice a few of those shops popping up. Before that some 5 yrs ago I was on a Sway Tour through Laos up in the Plain of Jars and taking to an expat Australian who was running the Q& A management of Sway’s Laos operations about Chinese tourism and economic clout in Laos. He went on to say that the proposed Chinese high speed/ freight railway from Kuming in China to Pattaya in Thailand via Laos, that the Chinese wanted own (not lease as most people think) land either side of the Right of Way up to a depth of 10km for their own purpose and a lot local Lao’s were only starting to realise what that meant to the local Lao economy.
Was hoping to head back next yr for some NGO work as I have mate in Laos, but it’s the 20th Anniversary of when INTERFET went into Timor-Leste and they come first.
Dad’s experience with Chinese tourism sector in NZ is all bad words to put it mildly, when compared to the Japanese, Singapore, Thai’s, Malaysian, Taiwan and Sth Koreans tourists. The Chinese pretty much ripped off a number of NZ companies, in other words pinch all their ideas and products and in some cases brought out NZ firms or put pressure on them to shut out other tourist companies. The list goes on and on the underhand tactics that the Chinese tourist operators are doing in NZ, but no one doesn’t really want to come down hard the Chinese because of the damage they could do to other parts of the NZ economy.
Interesting – i an not surprised. Did i mention colin cotterill to you. in case i didn’t he hasd= qriien crime books that are different – in one an old lao couple outwit all comers and solve crimes along with a great bunch of supporting characters.
I believe you did, but I can’t remember when as I have Colin Coterill’s name written down on my list to buy books when someone here on the “The Standard” mentions a particular author or book worth reading. Mind you some books and authors do to get scrubbed if i do some further research or avoid them like the plague or I want to read them out of curiosity, especially on why they went down a particular route.
I’ve just finished one book on “Mad on Radium, New Zealand in the Atom Age” by Rebecca Priestley. Which someone here mentioned it.
I knew some stuff on NZ’s involvement in Nuclear Science/ Research and prospecting for Uranium on the Coast , but I didn’t know just how far or in depth it was NZ was involved and was I blown away by it all as NZ was up to it’s neck in it. As I said to dad last night about it, NZ wasn’t all that far behind Australia either IRT to Nuclear Power at one stage the Aussies got as far laying the foundations for its first nuclear power station before it was knocked on the head and is now a carpark (Joking known as the worlds most expensive carpark) for the local surfers at Jervis Bay (The Tasman side) NSW.
That book is worth the read on a wet summers day.
“One example was provided last week by a UN report that revealed attempts to ensure fossil fuel emissions peak by 2020 will fail. Indeed the target will not even be reached by 2030. Another, by the World Meteorological Organization, said the past four years had been the warmest on record and warned that global temperatures could easily rise by 3-5C by 2100, well above that sought-after goal of 1.5C. The UK will not be exempt either. The Met Office said summer temperatures could now be 5.4C hotter by 2070.”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/dec/02/world-verge-climate-catastophe
Looks like the softly softly approach has been abandoned as dangerously ineffective.
If you watch just one tv episode this year, make it the 2 Dec episode of The Hui.
Mad respect to all involved, especially Mike King.
We hear snippets of his work, but to hear and watch his presentation to the high school kids, profoundly moved me, deeply emotional, incredibly confrontational.
If you have children, watch it with them, watch it with your friends, your partner, your family open up the communication channels.
Word’s can’t describe, so grateful for such efforts from Mike King and The Hui for this piece, kudos and thank you.
https://www.threenow.co.nz/shows/the-hui/season-3%3A-sunday-2-december-2018/125685/M26879-480
Yeah well,… so often it is… that we have to reach back to our family roots to get a sense of whats tangible, real and appropriate.
Now here’s something that’s foreign to NZ’ers….
But you , Cinny… know what I’m talkin’ about.
I thrive off of this sort of stuff.
Traditional Lakota/Dakota Sundance Songs 3/6 – YouTube
So get a bit of Aussie up ya’s….
Lets get a bit down and under.
Corroboree – YouTube
Then we got this :
There were people who never gave in…
ALIEN WEAPONRY – Kai Tangata (Official Video) | Napalm Records …
Video for alien weaponry kai tangata▶ 7:17
Yeah , Norse / Scots…. but respect to all these gorgeous people. My geologies goes back a thousand years,… so bloody what. So what if they were Dane or Norse.
Yeah … tough hearted bastards,,,,… now lets support em.
They’ve earned it.
So what if they, …. played one off against another..didn’t the Romans?
It was just military thinking….wouldn’t we do the same?
The Maoris… have more than earned their place in history.
What an incredible people, We should be proud.
I loved it when the men moved in….
The protectors , the providers…the lovely women who nurtured the children, who protected the young children….A family group. This is what society is all about.
Gotta say ….. the men …had a strong part to play. There was no dilatation, you all had a part to play…. you’ve lost that strong leadership,…. you’ve lost the woman’s vote of confidence.
WK 🙂 Lakota wisdom 🙂 Thank you 🙂
He was brilliant on Hui; he can stand on a stage and students won’t believe him to be some sort of fake, talking down, righteous type. He means what he says.
The reason I took a much earlier interest in him, though, was the day he came out and told us what was happening to pigs. Originally acting as front man for the pig meat sellers, he discovered the intensity factory housing of them. It was a gotcha moment for me too, because I honestly believed our animals – our pigs, our chickens, our dairy cows – lived life on the grass in the sunshine, just like we have access to the outside.
Thanks for that Mike King. It changed how I eat and to support those activists far more clever than me to stop factories blotting our landscape.
This is not the New Zealand we want.
People and animals are damaged by these practices.
This is full circle stuff; people then are treated like factory animals. It’s ugly and greedy.
Kia ora the Am Show well what the wealthy should do is buy electric cars Duncan to help mitigate climate change .
The plastic problem we can use paper bags and glass and aluminum containers .
Did simon just land maggie barry in it lol the fiery lady statement from him.
Well the inquiry into bulling in Parliament will change the culture of Parliament NO.
Looks like the Maori Santa has brought out some true feeling if thing’s did not evolve we would be still stuck in the dark ages I don’t see what the problem is with a maori Santa the children have internet now they know he is a fictional character .
I hope there is not to much carnage in the bush fires in Australia .
Its cool that Mexico is going to set in place a policy to create more job creation’s in central America so the people don’t have to leave there home country for a better life. Yes we have to come up with more initiatives to keep our elderly mind’s and body’s active we need to be more grateful of our elderly contributions to our society RESPECT.
Ka kite ano
Eco Maori has observed climate change for 25 years I know we all have to make sacrifices to battle the carbon barons for a better future for our DECENDENTS.
On Sunday morning hundreds of politicians, government officials and scientists will gather in the grandeur of the International Congress Centre in Katowice, Poland. It will be a familiar experience for many. For 24 years the annual UN climate conference has served up a reliable diet of rhetoric, backroom talks and dramatic last-minute deals aimed at halting global warming. in 2100. Although most discussions use the year as a convenient cut-off point for describing Earth’s likely fate, the changes we have already triggered will last well beyond that date, said Svetlana Jevrejeva, at the National Oceanography Centre, Liverpool. She has studied sea-level rises that will be triggered by melting ice sheets and expanding warm seawater in a world 3-5C hotter than it was in pre-industrial times, and concludes these could reach 0.74 to 1.8 metres by 2100. This would be enough to deluge Pacific and Indian Ocean island states and displace millions from Miami, Guangzhou, Mumbai and other low-lying cities. The total cost to the planet could top £11trillion.Vast tracts of prime real estate will be destroyed – at a time when land will be needed with unprecedented desperation. Earth’s population stands at seven billion today and is predicted to rise to nine billion by 2050 and settle at over 11 billion by 2100 – when climate change will have wrecked major ecosystems and turned farmlands to dust bowls.Scientists warned more than 30 years ago that such a future lay ahead, but nothing was done to stave it off. Only dramatic measures are now left to those seeking to save our burning planet, and these can have grim political consequences. In France, for example, President Macron’s new levies on fossil fuels, introduced to cut emissions and to fund renewable energy projects, triggered riots. Had only modest changes been enacted a few decades ago there would be no trouble today, say analysts.
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But the most telling example is provided by the US, which has emitted about a third of the carbon responsible for global warming. Yet it has essentially done nothing to check its annual rises in output. Lobbying by the fossil fuel industry has proved highly effective at blocking political change – a point most recently demonstrated by groups such as the Competitive Enterprise Institute and the Heartland Institute, which helped persuade President Trump to pull out of the Paris agreement, thus dashing the planet’s last hope of ecological salvation. “The coalition used its power to slow us down precisely at the moment when we needed to speed up,” said the environmentalist Bill McKibben in the New Yorker.Florida
No region of the US has more to lose from climate change than southern Florida. If scientists’ worst predictions are realised, an entire metropolitan area, currently inhabited by more than six million people, is likely to be swamped by a 1.5-metre sea-level rise before the end of this century, a rise that could see the tourist mecca of Miami simply disappear. Ka kite ano
Trade tariff’s hurt the common people the most as they pay the bill not goverment’s.
he tangata he tangata that count the most in any country some don’t get IT.
donald trump has delayed for 90 days his threatened imposition of 25% tariffs on most Chinese imports after a dinner meeting with Xi Jinping, to give time for negotiations on longstanding trade disputes between the two countries, the White House has said.The two presidents agreed that the two sides can and must get bilateral relations right,” Wang Yi, China’s lead diplomat, told reporters in Buenos Aires. “Discussion on economic and trade issues was very positive and constructive. The two heads of state reached consensus to halt the mutual increase of new tariffs.”China has agreed to start purchasing agricultural product from our farmers immediately,” the statement said. Since trade tensions have escalated under Trump, China has radically reduced its import of US soy beans and other farm products, with direct impact on farmers in the US mid-west where Trump has drawn much of his political support.We suspect that since he negotiated this deal himself, Trump will be much more reluctant to torpedo it when his own personal reputation is on the line,” Ashworth added. Ka kite ano.
Lets hope that we have learned that war’s is not the correct way to change who leads the World here is a video and what I get out of it is cultures that have much in-common did not go to war over leadership of the world .The world leader need to learn to pass the baton on in this relay .Eco Maori says that America & China have a lot in-common now so PEACE is what is needed for the people to have a happy healthy life we need to work together to fight climate change and not each other for the grandchildren sake .
Is war between China and the US inevitable? | Graham Allison
Ka kite ano
I hope OUR World leader’s can lead us all on a journey away from climate disaster to a World binding agreement to protect our descendants and mother earth future.
We are last generation that can stop climate change’ – UN summit .
Big cuts in carbon emissions and a rise in protection from extreme weather urgently needed . We are clearly the last generation that can change the course of climate change, but we are also the first generation with its consequences,” said Kristalina Georgieva, the CEO of the World Bank. The bank announced on Monday that its record $100bn (£78bn) of climate funding from 2021-2025 would for the first time be split equally between projects to cut emissions and those protecting people from the floods, storms and droughts that global warming is making worse. Ka kite ano links below .
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/dec/03/we-are-last-generation-that-can-stop-climate-change-un-summit
Kia ora Newshub That was a big thunder & lightning strike at that Hamilton school.
I totally agree with his views we need to reduce reuse and stop producing waste not just plastic all waste need to be recycled .
The fuel company’s are in a dominate position to manipulate the market excuse we are so far away from the export market does not cut it anymore thats the line most retailer use to have there price higher difference justified when compared to other countrys .
That really cool that more tracks have been closed in Auckland to protect Tane Mahuta
Ka pai to all the people protesting about the need to battle climate change.
I see some one was not impressed with trump refusing to include America in the Parsh
agreement
Well come to Aotearoa to South Korean President Moon Jae in I say we will be good respectful host.
The housing corp meth testing scam Cleo I feel for all those people who lost there house’s and who was running the meth testing retired WHO.
At least they are getting compensation from the Coalition Government if the old one was still in the gravy train would have still been running and ruining peoples lives.
Ka kite ano
Kia ora The Crowd Goes Wild James & Mulls good fight the boxing well The Gypsy had a good fight he had a good come back fight I like his waiata I get knocked down and I get up again the rematch will get the punters going ka pai.
The soccer call looked as bad as the basket ball calls.
Sam the man he had a good long UFC courier all the best in your retirement .
The Lonsdale Awards Cup looks like a good event Anna.
I’m not scared of heights but I don’t like the Idea of jumping out of a plane unless its crashing good footage
Ka kite ano