Fairfux media’s (no doubt unscientific) survey of the nation – no surprises really though: a tale of, not just 2 nations, but of several – with many people and families doing it tough (including middleclass people with permanent jobs). Many are still looking to that brighter future, but just as many see no improvement on the horizon – others reckon they are doing OK. They don’t seem to have interviewed any of the top 5%…. or even of the top 15-20% on the income/wealth scale:
The place where we speak in aphorism, cliche and well-worn metaphor. Where we are operating on a ”hand out mentality”, but have ”everything going for us”. Where the people are ”resilient” but retailers are ”fragile”. Where we say the average wage is not keeping up with the cost of living while declaring Winston Peters to be ”the only one honest enough to let people know what’s going on”.
…
Ask Donna Koveskali about suffering. After two years battling with Housing New Zealand she has finally moved out of a damp, mouldy state house in Titahi Bay and scored a drier home in Tawa. But it’s come with a cost. With her 23-year-old daughter Danielle fighting kidney failure and her 18-year-old son also sick, Donna says she has little to be optimistic about. Don’t get her started on Prime Minister John Key. ”He is useless.”
She knows nothing of the stock market and has no money to invest even if she did. Living day to day on a sickness benefit is enough without having to worry about asset sales.
Ask Hamilton stay at home mum Jazzman Nelson about worry. She has three young kids and a fourth on the way. Her husband’s wage as a school teacher is spreading thinner and thinner. ”We are making ends meet but we are a one income family and not able to get ahead.”
She isn’t complaining about New Zealand. Wouldn’t dream of it. Loves the place. But with paying food, electricity, telephone all the while living with her mother-in-law, it’s tough to be sunny. She and her husband want to save to buy their own place. ”There’s a future,” she says, ”but I am not sure if it’s bright.”
It’s worth clicking on the interactive map to get the brief run-down on the circumstances of each individual/family.
And of course, the Fairfux reporter is still keeping us all focused on the brighter future, highlighting the optimism, and ending on a hopeful note.
And of course, the Fairfux reporter is still keeping us all focused on the brighter future, highlighting the optimism, and ending on a hopeful note.
Of course, that is the role of the press, and those who are chosen to work inside that “busines”
They must be (not very bright), uninformed, and then unable to critically question the system that pays their wages!
One wonders how long the charade will continue to go on, before even those with serious bias, or limited capacity to observe, start to notice reality.
Hey what about those All Blacks, and how about Angelina and Brad, do you think they might marry, oh, and Kate, won’t she just make the best royal mum, also that naughty uncle Harrys a little bit of wild isn’t he…
Don’t overlook Sonny Bill Williams – quite often the newspapers have at least two glowing features (and pictures) on him on any given day! Thank God we have that to focus upon in the midst of our misery.
The question remains, John, John and co, if these schools work well, why aren’t they being set up within the existing education system, with guaranteed qualified teachers etc?
And why aren’t all schools and all children within the existing system getting the benefit of these small class sizes and individual attention?
Tamihere never misses an opportunity to suck up any available funds to increase his empire, as long as there are others to take the fall if it goes pear shaped.
What will a Tamahere school’s attitude be to the small group of children who deliberately dismantle school property, teacher resources and generally destroy classroom tone and climate, and sap the energy out of those erstwhile highly motivated and dedicated teachers?
(Perhaps they will simply be despatched back to the mainstream schools).
Nah, more likely, they will be screened out before enrollment.
In fact, these charter schools are supposed to address the issue of the “tail”. Perhaps they should be required to recruit only the children who are the tail.
It’s John Banks Trophy time again… DUM QUOTE OF THE WEEK
Award No. 3: for the week ending 01/09/2012
*******
Gosman
*******
Now, regular Standard readers will be aware that dear old Gosman has a role on this forum as a fall-guy, the bloke who sets himself up for a verbal caning, the sayer of things that sane people would never even have considered, the writer of things that honest people would not even imagine anyone would be depraved or stupid enough to write. His contributions are designed to provoke outrage and they usually do. He plays the same role on this forum that John Banks played in the 1990-99 parliament: good for a laugh occasionally, not often terribly witty but usually amusing because of the excesses his crazed mind sometimes takes him to.
Usually anything Gosman says is almost immediately firmly refuted by three or four other people. Not debated, mind you; Gosman seems incapable of sustaining a reasoned argument, and his outlandish contributions are so easily put down, like rabid dogs, there is just no room for civilized discussion ensuing from them.
Several regulars, including myself, soon pointed out the lack of credibility of his source as well as its hypocrisy. Tellingly, Gosman never formulated a response.
And here he is stridently defending the corner of global warming-deniers, like a low-rent version of (God help us all but especially Gosman) that addle-pated shock jock Leighton Smith…
“Organic farming takes far more land area to produce the same amount of food output as intensive non-organic farming. This is a fact.”
Note the deadly seriousness with which he delivers the line “This is a fact.” That’s simply unimprovable. Steve Coogan eat your heart out.
In a contribution to the thread “RIP Neil Armstrong”, he treats us to the following….
“I have more respect for Creationists than I do for Christian’s [sic!] who also accept the reality of Evolution. At least the Creationist is logically consistent.”
What nonsense. What a completely idiotic statement that was.
For these sterling (albeit unwitting) efforts in the service of surreal humor and black comedy, Gosman is a deserved winner of the third John Banks Trophy.
The Economist notes that about 90 percent of traffic accidents are caused by human error, meaning that if humans are taken out of the process, there’s a strong probably that accident rates will plummet.
Even so, the bill requires the cars to have a flesh-and-blood human being behind the wheel if something goes wrong.
“It sounds space age, but it’s almost here,” Padilla told the San Jose Mercury News. “If we can reduce the number of accidents, that alone is worth doing this bill.”
Translation:We will remove humans from various the processes slowly, so they won;t notice, machines are better, we don’t need/want all those useless eater/feeders
But wait….
Bay Area tech giant Google has been leading the way in self-driving cars. The team behind the project asserts that the technology is largely already there and their self-driving cars are ready to hit the road right now.
Earlier this year, Google took a number of state legislators on a test non-drive of their driverless cars.
I thought it was about reducing the number of road deaths…
No this is about restricting human movement, tracking every journey that you make (already done in reality), if you are “lucky” enough to either be “allowed” to drive (because thats what this is also about), but the article tells what these psychopaths think about human beings!
Good. Soon I’ll be able to send my car to work, it’ll then transform into a walking bot and do my job for me. Meanwhile I’ll spend my day I as I please, and make sure my pay still gets lodged in my bank.
A person can dream….
Don’t they realise cars are not going to be the main machines of the future?
I find plenty to do with my time; history, politics, social issues and research, popular culture and its relation to social context, visual arts (especially photography, screen fiction etc).
Despite the bill’s widespread political support, some quarters have voiced reservations, particularly over what happens if driverless cars crash and lawsuits are filed. “This does not protect adequately the manufacturers for liability concerns,” Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers spokesman Dan Gage told the Mercury News.
Interesting, obviously, if the car crashes while in autonomous mode the manufacturer of the car is at fault as, essentially, they’re the ones driving the car.
No this is about restricting human movement,
Don’t know how you get that.
tracking every journey that you make (already done in reality),
To be honest, I don’t have a problem with that either just so long as there’s strict rules about looking at the data and the use that it’s put to.
if you are “lucky” enough to either be “allowed” to drive (because thats what this is also about),
Nobody should be allowed to drive – cars are highly inefficient and should be banned outright with this self-drive capability then used in public transport.
but the article tells what these psychopaths think about human beings!
I didn’t see anything of that in the article which would indicate that your seeing things that aren’t there.
Technology is not democratic!
Technology is merely there, the use that it’s put to is up to us which is democratic.
The Con trains last 40to60 years cars 15 to 20 on average trains cost 1sixtieth the cost of a car to move that person from a to b that includes construction and running costs.
Fuel cells are ridiculously dear and will probably never be economical.
The primary source is H which is extracted from H2O. You’re right, the cell is the storage device. But the fuel comes from water….and the by-product is water.
My point here, which is what I’d like Draco to comment on, is does he dislike the idea of private vehicles because of the ecological/oil cost or because he doesnt think there should be a private vehicle class in the first place.
Get fucked Draco you fucking cunt. Being a prick for the sake of being prick makes you look like an asshole. A car with a fuel cell would solve your ‘inefficient’ problem but as the crazy ideologue you just dislike the idea of someone having private transportation. Luckily your strange ideas gain no traction.
Don’t know how you get that. Do some further reading then
tracking every journey that you make (already done in reality),
To be honest, I don’t have a problem with that either just so long as there’s strict rules about looking at the data and the use that it’s put to. Im a little surprised at your response to this one DTB. Strict rules, argh, yeah ok mate! Maybe google cars, google wallet, google earth, google st view, google search, google mail, google cloud & (TPPA), could well be an example of where the strict rules you refer could fall over!
if you are “lucky” enough to either be “allowed” to drive (because thats what this is also about),
Nobody should be allowed to drive – cars are highly inefficient and should be banned outright with this self-drive capability then used in public transport. They are inneficient, but thats about all I can find common ground with, the rest of it, you are talking nonsense, but helps me understand some other comments you put in the post, above and below
but the article tells what these psychopaths think about human beings!
I didn’t see anything of that in the article which would indicate that your seeing things that aren’t there. Or you are not seing what is, and I am not just referring to this article!
Technology is not democratic!
Technology is merely there, the use that it’s put to is up to us which is democratic. While true at the end user consumer market, outside of that is what I was actually referring
“the use that it’s put to is up to us which is democratic.”
Some years ago, the previous National govt wanted all cars to be trackable and for the state to be able to tell which cars were going where and when and tie that into registration and WOF data (amongst others), as well as road tolls and user pays.
Weka, yes this subject is something of a uptopian dream for these people, but don’t be fooled by thinking its just the national govt, or act etc, it has little if nothing to do with political ideology!
Its ideological, but not in the way most people want to believe it is.
There is no good reason for the govt to have a tracker in my car that outweighs the privacy concerns, or the wider political agenda (privatising roads).
I can’t believe you just argued for less privacy rights on the basis that ‘at least it’s the govt’ who holds the info. Again, hands up who trusts the the National Govt? I wouldn’t trust Labour with this one either btw.
Maybe google cars, google wallet, google earth, google st view, google search, google mail, google cloud & (TPPA), could well be an example of where the strict rules you refer could fall over!
Did you note the lack of rules and the fact that anybody can accumulate data if you give permission? By using Google you give permission. If you don’t want to be tracked by Google then don’t use them. Of course, that pretty much can’t happen as Google happens to be pretty much everywhere.
They are inneficient, but thats about all I can find common ground with, the rest of it, you are talking nonsense, but helps me understand some other comments you put in the post, above and below
In what way is getting rid of inefficiency, which we can’t afford, nonsense?
Or you are not seing what is, and I am not just referring to this article!
About the only thing they said that even came close to being negative about humans was that they stated the fact that most crashes are caused by human error.
While true at the end user consumer market, outside of that is what I was actually referring
Which makes no sense. The consumer doesn’t have any democratic say in anything but we could use technology to improve our democracy.
Google cars… that’d be a good one. Each week you get into the car on any given morning and they’ve moved where the indicators are, or the lights switch, or the gear stick 🙄 Plus the gear stick doesn’t really do what it used to, so you have to fiddle with all the other knobs to figure out how to drive the car. Some of the things you find useful have been taken out completely, but you can rest assured, because google are the Good Guys so you know that it’s all for the best.
charter skools are the febrile manifestation of the wannabee drongos in nz society who think they know everything but more to the point want a government salary without having any qualifications.
The EU is banning incandescent light bulbs. Gasp! I wonder if this loss of a fundamental civil and political right will have citizens out on the street protesting the challenge to their freedoms …
So we will see this forced change in NZ soon enough then, and won’t Phillips be pleased, what a boon for them its been, and will be eh!
I’m sure all the energy use reductions will be mirrored by the decreasing costs of energy bills accross EU nations….
Quite sure that people have more pressing issues which are/will get(ting) them onto the streets over the coming years, so will assume the comment was /sarc
Isn’t it the lightbulb banning issue that cost Helen Clark her last election? So the story goes. People were incensed at having their rights so badly denied. Incandescent even.
/sarc 😉
Personally I think banning incandescents is rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. It’s symbolic of a world that thinks that we have climate change because we bought the wrong toys.
Actually, it’s symbolic of the realisation that resources are limited which is exactly what is needed if we want to change to a better system. Unbanning them is the result of the idea that BaU will continue.
If we only take small steps we are stuffed mickey. One of the reasons we are only taking small steps is because we think that changing lightbulbs will make a difference. It won’t. It will just enable bean counters to tell us we have made x savings and therefore we are doing the right thing and so we can relax a bit.
I don’t see any evidence that societies are moving towards using less power or creating less emissions in any meaningful way.
If we only take small steps we are stuffed mickey.
A small step that people can come to understand and that will allow bigger steps later.
I don’t see any evidence that societies are moving towards using less power or creating less emissions in any meaningful way.
That’s because societies are still told that there are no limits. Inform them of the limits and people will stop using resources (i.e, water shortages in which people conserve water). Our socio-economic system can’t handle that though as it’s predicated on using as resources as possible so as to make a few people rich.
I appreciate that, my friend. I just think you should be careful about using Hillary Clinton as an exemplar for anything. As horrible as Key is, he doesn’t have blood on his hands like she does.
He was a Mormon missionary to France in the 1960s, studied at the almost-exclusively Mormon Brigham Young university and rose to become first bishop, then “Stake President” (diocesan leader) in his home state of Massachusetts.
He led Sunday services, ran Bible classes for children and looked after a 4,000-strong congregation in Boston for five years in the 1980s.
Like all Mormons, he is expected to give 10% of his annual income – no-one knows how much he is worth, but it is estimated at anywhere from $150 million to $1 billion – to the Church and not drink tea, coffee or alcohol.
Committed Mormons wear special under-garments, and Romney is believed to follow this tenet of his faith too.
After the death of Joseph Smith, Pratt and his family were among the Latter Day Saints who emigrated to Utah Territory and continued on as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) under the direction of Brigham Young. Pratt was involved in establishing the refugee settlements and fields at both Garden Grove and Mt. Pisgah, Iowa, and personally led a pioneer company along the Mormon Trail to the Salt Lake Valley. Sometime in the mid 1850s, working with George D. Watt, he helped develop the Deseret alphabet. In 1854, Pratt went to California to preside over the Pacific Mission of the LDS Church headquartered in San Francisco.
Any thoughts on Rodney Hide’s column in today’s Sunday Herald? I gain the impression that it might be out and out racist in tone, have I got it wrong?
I haven’t read it yet, but I’d be prepared to wager poor old Clint Eastwood’s Republican convention appearance fee that your suspicion is correct. I’ll come back with my analysis after I’ve seen it, but the following factors mean it’s highly likely….
1.) It’s an article by Rodney Hide, who has frequently made crude racist statements on the radio and television;
2.) It’s in the Herald on Sunday, which is a forum for some of the most bizarrely racist and deranged writing in the country.
He needs to learn to speak Maori, he’ll start to understand that they are a “Life” oriented culture at that point.
The article definitely has no respect for their beliefs. Nor does it recognise their growth as a people.
Which does not make it all that pertinent to NZ in 2012.
But the clincher is to recognise the river’s life force. Then it’s yours.
The likes of RH et al, have no concept what so ever of “life forces or energy”, which is why being able to exude such ignorance in this article, comes freely and naturally, the rac*sm unavoidable for him, because, like those who rule over this planet, that is what they are in their very core, and the Rodneys selected, because that too is what they are!
The types who permeate the “halls of power”, are the winners of a selection process, so can you imagine what those who pull the strings represent!
Because kiwis (those who do actually think, and even some who don’t), are easy to get on-board with things like maori rights and rac*sm etc, it means that the support which will be derived for traditional “rights” will stay in focus, which while I am not for “ownership” by any group, at this stage , has to be considered a good thing.
While I’m uneasy about the maori elite, or their ability to not be corrupted further by white men, at this point in time, they are about the only signifigant barrier to those same white men, stealing the lot, again!
I have now sacrificed a couple of minutes of my life and read it and, sure enough, it is as racist, and as ill informed as I feared.
Perhaps even worse than Hide’s moronic, ignorant views is the Herald website’s warning to anyone who might be thinking of posting a reply to the distinguished thinker: “We aim to have healthy debate. But we won’t publish comments that abuse others.”
Clearly no such limitations apply to their own columnists.
I only read the first couple of lines, and the last. Even that demonstrated hypocrisy of such epic proportions I couldn’t bring myself to read the rest.
I read Hide’s column. I see it as an attempt to stir up racism among ignorant pakeha in the interests of selling of our assets to greedy pakeha and foreign corporates. To my way of thinking, that makes it racist, which is about what I’ve come to expect from Rodney Hide.
After madly screeching himself into mass derision (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5FzCeV0ZFc) during his disastrous bid for the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination, Howard Dean has gone onto a career as a “pundit”, where he smiles like a nice guy and expresses his admiration for killing peasants in Asia and Africa by drone aircraft. Watch and cringe as he does his shallow schtick here…
At the start of the clip, you’ll see good-looking but dim Republican senator Marco Rubio saying something inane about the capture of Gaddafi. Also appearing on the clip is another of those glib Brits that infest American public commentary, Tina Brown.
Balancing out the display of horror is Jeremy Scahill, one of the outstanding journalists in America.
One of the YouTube commenters asks a very good question: “Why can’t Scahill be a senator instead of Rubio? Why can’t we have intelligent people in congress?”
“Can democracy exist without trust”?
Interesting TED talk from Ivan Krastev (transcript available). A small snippet:
….
And when you go to the brain sciences, what political consultants learned from the brain scientists is don’t talk to me about ideas anymore, don’t talk to me about policy programs. What really matters is basically to manipulate the emotions of the people. And you have this very strongly to the extent that, even if you see when we talk about revolutions these days, these revolutions are not named anymore around ideologies or ideas. Before, revolutions used to have ideological names. They could be communist, they could be liberal, they could be fascist or Islamic. Now the revolutions are called under the medium which is most used. You have Facebook revolutions, Twitter revolutions. The content doesn’t matter anymore, the problem is the media.
I’m saying this because one of my major points is what went right is also what went wrong. And when we’re now trying to see how we can change the situation, when basically we’re trying to see what can be done about democracy, we should keep this ambiguity in mind. Because probably some of the things that we love most are going to be also the things that can hurt us most. These days it’s very popular to believe that this push for transparency, this kind of a combination between active citizens, new technologies and much more transparency-friendly legislation can restore trust in politics. You believe that when you have these new technologies and people who are ready to use this, it can make it much more difficult for the governments to lie, it’s going to be more difficult for them to steal and probably even going to be more difficult for them to kill. This is probably true. But I do believe that we should be also very clear that now when we put the transparency at the center of politics where the message is that transparency is stupid.
Transparency is not about restoring trust in institutions. Transparency is politics’ management of mistrust. We are assuming that our societies are going to be based on mistrust. And by the way, mistrust was always very important for democracy. This is why you have checks and balances. This is why basically you have all this creative mistrust between the representatives and those whom they represent. But when politics is only management of mistrust, then — I’m very glad that “1984” has been mentioned — now we’re going to have “1984” in reverse. It’s not going to be the Big Brother watching you, it’s going to be we being the Big Brother watching the political class.
This morning on Chris Laidlaw Radionz Jim Dier a very enthusiastic community builder who has found that he and his fellows have made a lot of difference. So he is not an armchair idealist but a thinking down-and-dirty-hands worker who has a good idea that works. Audio should be up by noon
(or so I thought but it isn’t – may be some pesky damn reason of copyright.)
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/sunday
10:06 Ideas: Growing Communities
Epuni Primary School’s Common Unity Project aims to produce enough fruit and vegetables to feed not only the school’s 110 pupils but their families as well. It’s a classic example of what’s been called Asset Based Community Development – or ABC Development. Ideas visits Epuni Primary School in Lower Hutt and talks to the project’s volunteer coordinator Julia Milne; Jim Diers, a proponent of the ABCD movement, tells Jeremy Rose about Seattle’s Strong Communities Initiative; and Denise Bijoux of Inspiring Communities talks to Chris Laidlaw about the proliferation of asset-based community projects in New Zealand.
Presented by Chris Laidlaw
Produced by Jeremy Rose.
This is a copy of the one I put on open mike 30/8 but then thought it might get missed.
I wonder has anyone noticed that when trying to pull a comment from past days, if the number of them go beyond one page, the search device often won’t find the highlighted comment. Than have to go and scroll down for it.
In their wisdom, the producers at RNZ National have seen fit to resurrect one Karen Zelas who, along with Auckland University’s bloviating Professor John Read provided the main academic cover in the police’s hare-brained, fantastical sex abuse case against Peter Ellis.
In A City Possessed, Lynley Hood’s magisterial demolition of the hysteria, Zelas was comprehensively and irrefutably shown up to be a fraud and a charlatan. But if you imagined this horrid woman had been stewing in her own shame for the last decade and a half, you were wrong.
Apparently, she always wanted to be a writer. Maybe that helps to explain her sympathy for the outlandish fantasies drilled into those children’s brains by that crazed cadre of fundamentalist parents at the Christchurch Civic Creche.
Zelas reckons that forcing little children to repeat their parents’ wild and lurid fantasies has made her into quite the poet: “I suppose my former career has given me a depth of understanding of people, their emotions and relationships and how they behave, which I am able to draw upon in my writing.”
She was just following the latest crap coming from American psychologists at the time. In my experience, psychologists are some of the most dangerous people that exist. Psychology is demonstrably not a science, and follows fashions which change every few years, yet its practicioners can affect people’s lives to more of an extent than most pseudo-scientists except economists. The courts would do no worse if they relied on expert testimony from astrologers.
She was just following the latest crap coming from American psychologists at the time.
She was also validating the psychotic sexual fantasies of some fundamentalist Christian loons in Christchurch. She wasn’t the only one, either; the aforementioned Prof. John Read continues to taunt Ellis with cruel and unsubstantiated allegations, the Children’s Commissioner at the time (Laurie O’Reilly) gave the madness official backing by treating the allegations seriously, as did his successor Roger McClay (who was subsequently convicted for fraud and sent to prison). And the police in Christchurch still occasionally haul Ellis into the station to humiliate him further.
In my experience, psychologists are some of the most dangerous people that exist.
There are certainly some bad ones, all right. And Karen Zelas is one of the very worst.
A ‘March for Jobs’ is going to be held this Tuesday in Greymouth. How’s that brighter future looking Coasters?
From the West Coast miner fb page:
There will be a ‘March for Work’ rally in Greymouth on 4th September to commence at midday from the Skate Park. The march is in support of the coalminers of spring creek and the township of Greymouth. This is an open invitation to march through town to raise awareness that will effect us all if the mine was to close. Damien O’Connor MP, The Mayor and Bernie Monk have confirmed there support and will speak following the march. Please pass on and join the march to save jobs and our community.
wow.
carol zelas and march for jobs side by side.
anyway this is for carol.
I have read recently that the US Supreme court no longer represents the little man.
is this true?
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When in government, Labour pushed to extend the Parliamentary term to four years, to reduce accountability and our ability to vote out a bad government. And now, they're trying to do it through the member's ballot, with a Four-Year Parliamentary Term Legislation Bill. The bill at least requires a referendum ...
A ballot for a single Member's Bill was held today, and the following bill was drawn: Public Works (Prohibition of Compulsory Acquisition of Māori Land) Amendment Bill (Hūhana Lyndon) The bill would prevent the government from stealing Māori land in breach of Te Tiriti o Waitangi. It ...
Simeon Brown, alongside Wayne Brown, is favouring a political figleaf now in exchange for loading up tens of millions in extra interest costs on Auckland ratepayers. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s is pushing back hard at suggestions from Local Government Minister Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown ...
Buzz from the Beehive One headline-grabber from the Beehive yesterday was the OECD’s advice that the government must bring the Budget deficit under control or face higher interest rates. Another was the announcement of a $1.9 billion “investment” in Corrections over the next four years. In the best interests of ...
Chris Trotter writes – Had Zheng He’s fleet sailed east, not west, in the early Fifteenth Century, how different our world would be. There is little reason to suppose that the sea-going junks of the Ming Dynasty, among the largest and most sophisticated sailing vessels ever constructed, would have failed ...
David Farrar writes – Two articles give a useful contrast in balance. Both seek to be neutral explainer articles. This one in the Herald on Social Investment covers the pros and cons nicely. It links to critical pieces and talks about aspects that failed and aspects that are more ...
The tikanga regulations will compel law students to be taught that a system which does not conform with the rule of law is nevertheless law which should be observed and applied…Gary Judd KC writes – I have made a complaint to Parliament’s Regulation ...
The future of Te Huia, the train between Hamilton and Auckland, has been getting a lot of attention recently as current funding for it is only in place till the end of June. The government initially agreed to a five year trial, through to April 2026, but that was subject ...
TL;DR: Hamas has just agreed to Israel’s ceasefire plan. Nelson hospital’s rebuild has been cut back to save money. The OECD suggests New Zealand break up network monopolies, including in electricity. PM Christopher Luxon’s news conference on a prison expansion announcement last night was his messiest yet.Here’s my top six ...
A homicide in Ponsonby, a manhunt with a killer on the run. The nation’s leader stands before a press conference reassuring a frightened nation that he’ll sort it out, he’ll keep them safe, he’ll build some new prison spaces.Sorry what? There’s a scary dude on the run with a gun ...
Hi,I know it’s been awhile since there’s been any Webworm merch — and today that all changes!Over the last four months, I’ve been working with New Zealand artist Jess Johnson to create a series of t-shirts, caps and stickers that are infused with Webworm DNA — and as of right ...
The OECD’s chief economist yesterday laid it on the line for the new Government: bring the deficit under control or face higher Reserve Bank interest rates for longer. And to bring the deficit under control, she meant not borrowing for tax cuts. But there was more. Without policy changes—introducing a ...
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 ...
Photo by Jari Hytönen on UnsplashIt’s that new day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when and I co-host our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm. Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news ...
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 ...
The Green Party is welcoming the announcement by the Minister Responsible for RMA Reform Chris Bishop to approve most of the Wellington City Council’s District Plan recommendations. ...
David Seymour has failed to get the sweeping cuts he wanted to the free and healthy school lunch programme, Labour education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
Hon Willie Jackson has been invited by the Oxford Union to debate the motion “This House Believes British Museums are not Very British’ on May 23rd. ...
Green Party MP Hūhana Lyndon says her Public Works (Prohibition of Compulsory Acquisition of Māori Land) Amendment Bill is an opportunity to right some past wrongs around the alienation of Māori land. ...
A senior, highly respected King’s Counsel with decades of experience in our law courts, Gary Judd KC, has filed a complaint about compulsory tikanga Māori studies for law students - highlighting the utter depths of absurdity this woke cultural madness has taken our society. The tikanga regulations will compel law ...
The Government needs to be clear with the people of the Nelson Marlborough region about the changes it is considering for the Nelson Hospital rebuild, Labour health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said. ...
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. ...
Your Excellency Ambassador Meredith, Members of the Diplomatic Corps and Ambassadors from European Union Member States, Ministerial colleagues, Members of Parliament, and other distinguished guests, Thank you everyone for joining us. Ladies and gentlemen - In diplomacy, we often speak of ‘close’ and ‘long-standing’ relations. ...
The Therapeutic Products Act (TPA) will be repealed this year so that a better regime can be put in place to provide New Zealanders safe and timely access to medicines, medical devices and health products, Associate Health Minister Casey Costello announced today. “The medicines and products we are talking about ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop, today released his decision on twenty recommendations referred to him by the Wellington City Council relating to its Intensification Planning Instrument, after the Council rejected those recommendations of the Independent Hearings Panel and made alternative recommendations. “Wellington notified its District Plan on ...
Rape Awareness Week (6-10 May) is an important opportunity to acknowledge the continued effort required by government and communities to ensure that all New Zealanders can live free from violence, say Ministers Karen Chhour and Louise Upston. “With 1 in 3 women and 1 in 8 men experiencing sexual violence ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government will be delivering a more efficient Healthy School Lunches Programme, saving taxpayers approximately $107 million a year compared to how Labour funded it, by embracing innovation and commercial expertise. “We are delivering on our commitment to treat taxpayers’ money ...
New research on the impacts of extreme weather on coastal marine habitats in Tairāwhiti and Hawke’s Bay will help fishery managers plan for and respond to any future events, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. A report released today on research by Niwa on behalf of Fisheries New Zealand ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Winston Peters will lead a broad political delegation on a five-stop Pacific tour next week to strengthen New Zealand’s engagement with the region. The delegation will visit Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, and Tuvalu. “New Zealand has deep and ...
There has been a material decline in gas production according to figures released today by the Gas Industry Co. Figures released by the Gas Industry Company show that there was a 12.5 per cent reduction in gas production during 2023, and a 27.8 per cent reduction in gas production in the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins tonight announced the recipients of the Minister of Defence Awards of Excellence for Industry, saying they all contribute to New Zealanders’ security and wellbeing. “Congratulations to this year’s recipients, whose innovative products and services play a critical role in the delivery of New Zealand’s defence capabilities, ...
Welcome to you all - it is a pleasure to be here this evening.I would like to start by thanking Greg Lowe, Chair of the New Zealand Defence Industry Advisory Council, for co-hosting this reception with me. This evening is about recognising businesses from across New Zealand and overseas who in ...
It is a pleasure to be speaking to you as the Minister for Digitising Government. I would like to thank Akolade for the invitation to address this Summit, and to acknowledge the great effort you are making to grow New Zealand’s digital future. Today, we stand at the cusp of ...
New Zealand is urging both Israel and Hamas to agree to an immediate ceasefire to avoid the further humanitarian catastrophe that military action in Rafah would unleash, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The immense suffering in Gaza cannot be allowed to worsen further. Both sides have a responsibility to ...
A new online data dashboard released today as part of the Government’s school attendance action plan makes more timely daily attendance data available to the public and parents, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. The interactive dashboard will be updated once a week to show a national average of how ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced Rosemary Banks will be New Zealand’s next Ambassador to the United States of America. “Our relationship with the United States is crucial for New Zealand in strategic, security and economic terms,” Mr Peters says. “New Zealand and the United States have a ...
The Government is considering creating a new tier of minerals permitting that will make it easier for hobby miners to prospect for gold. “New Zealand was built on gold, it’s in our DNA. Our gold deposits, particularly in regions such as Otago and the West Coast have always attracted fortune-hunters. ...
Minister for Trade Todd McClay today announced that New Zealand and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will commence negotiations on a free trade agreement (FTA). Minister McClay met with his counterpart UAE Trade Minister Dr Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi in Dubai, where they announced the launch of negotiations on a ...
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 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Next week the government will again next try to get its legislation through to deal with non-citizens who won’t cooperate with efforts to deport them. The bill, which the opposition and crossbench refused to rush ...
A long-term project that will set out an alternative vision for Aotearoa that looks beyond the narrow confines of the policy straight jacket adopted by successive governments. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bree Hurst, Associate Professor, Faculty of Business and Law, QUT, Queensland University of Technology TK Kurikawa/Shutterstock A much-awaited report into Coles and Woolworths has found what many customers have long believed – Australia’s big supermarkets engage in price gouging. What started ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daniel Ghezelbash, Associate Professor and Deputy Director, Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law, UNSW Law & Justice, UNSW Sydney The Albanese government wanted to avoid an inquiry into its migration amendment bill. The report, handed down yesterday by a senate committee that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joo-Cheong Tham, Professor, Melbourne Law School, The University of Melbourne Lobbying is at the heart of government. Who has access to and influence over key government officials shapes the decisions governments make – and how they make them. The ability to influence ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Myfany Turpin, Associate Professor, Ethnomusicology, Linguistics and Ethnobiology, University of Sydney The act representing Australia at this year’s Eurovision contest has sadly not qualified for the grand final. Yet for Zaachariaha Fielding and Michael Ross, the duo that makes up Electric Fields, ...
In announcing changes to the school lunches programme, David Seymour said kids would no longer be served ‘woke’ foods. To clear up any confusion, The Spinoff has compiled a guide to the wokeness levels of some common food items. Apple = NOT WOKE Avocado = WOKE Avocado, smashed = EVEN ...
The Minister Responsible for GCSB and the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security have been notified of this review, and have been provided a finalised Terms of Reference. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Minglu Chen, Senior Lecturer, Government and International Relations, University of Sydney Robert Way/Shutterstock As the past few years have illustrated so clearly, the Australia-China relationship is complicated. As such, it is crucial for Australians to develop a more nuanced understanding of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mariana Campbell, Research Lecturer, Conservation, Charles Darwin University Marilyn Connell Australian freshwater turtles are facing an alarming trend. Almost half of these species are listed as vulnerable, endangered or critically endangered. The Mary River turtle (Elusor macrurus) is one of Australia’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Debbie Passey, Digital Health Research Fellow, The University of Melbourne Algorithms have become integral to our lives. From social media apps to Netflix, algorithms learn your preferences and prioritise the content you are shown. Google Maps and artificial intelligence are nothing without ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Josephine Barbaro, Associate Professor, Principal Research Fellow, Psychologist, La Trobe University Unsplash We’ve come a long way in terms of understanding that everyone thinks, interacts and experiences the world differently. In the past, autistic people, people with attention deficit hyperactive disorder ...
PNG Post-Courier Papua New Guinea’s deputy opposition leader James Nomane has accused the government of “reckless economic management” that has forced devaluation to manage loan repayments in foreign currency and placate the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Prime Minister James Marape “must stop lying to the people of Papua New Guinea”, ...
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Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A,DIV,A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Wednesday 8 May appeared first on Newsroom. ...
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Fairfux media’s (no doubt unscientific) survey of the nation – no surprises really though: a tale of, not just 2 nations, but of several – with many people and families doing it tough (including middleclass people with permanent jobs). Many are still looking to that brighter future, but just as many see no improvement on the horizon – others reckon they are doing OK. They don’t seem to have interviewed any of the top 5%…. or even of the top 15-20% on the income/wealth scale:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/7595624/How-do-you-feel-New-Zealand
It’s worth clicking on the interactive map to get the brief run-down on the circumstances of each individual/family.
And of course, the Fairfux reporter is still keeping us all focused on the brighter future, highlighting the optimism, and ending on a hopeful note.
And of course, the Fairfux reporter is still keeping us all focused on the brighter future, highlighting the optimism, and ending on a hopeful note.
Of course, that is the role of the press, and those who are chosen to work inside that “busines”
They must be (not very bright), uninformed, and then unable to critically question the system that pays their wages!
One wonders how long the charade will continue to go on, before even those with serious bias, or limited capacity to observe, start to notice reality.
Hey what about those All Blacks, and how about Angelina and Brad, do you think they might marry, oh, and Kate, won’t she just make the best royal mum, also that naughty uncle Harrys a little bit of wild isn’t he…
Carry on!
Don’t overlook Sonny Bill Williams – quite often the newspapers have at least two glowing features (and pictures) on him on any given day! Thank God we have that to focus upon in the midst of our misery.
Great – John Tamihere leading the charter school charge.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/7595641/An-alternative-charter
The question remains, John, John and co, if these schools work well, why aren’t they being set up within the existing education system, with guaranteed qualified teachers etc?
And why aren’t all schools and all children within the existing system getting the benefit of these small class sizes and individual attention?
Tamihere never misses an opportunity to suck up any available funds to increase his empire, as long as there are others to take the fall if it goes pear shaped.
He’s found his niche as a radio rant show host.
Exactly, tc. I’ve always thought of John Tamihere as Pita Sharples minus the ponytail and ethics.
larf. wotta u like
National are trying to break the teachers Union of course
What will a Tamahere school’s attitude be to the small group of children who deliberately dismantle school property, teacher resources and generally destroy classroom tone and climate, and sap the energy out of those erstwhile highly motivated and dedicated teachers?
(Perhaps they will simply be despatched back to the mainstream schools).
Nah, more likely, they will be screened out before enrollment.
In fact, these charter schools are supposed to address the issue of the “tail”. Perhaps they should be required to recruit only the children who are the tail.
It’s John Banks Trophy time again…
DUM QUOTE OF THE WEEK
Award No. 3: for the week ending 01/09/2012
*******
Gosman
*******
Now, regular Standard readers will be aware that dear old Gosman has a role on this forum as a fall-guy, the bloke who sets himself up for a verbal caning, the sayer of things that sane people would never even have considered, the writer of things that honest people would not even imagine anyone would be depraved or stupid enough to write. His contributions are designed to provoke outrage and they usually do. He plays the same role on this forum that John Banks played in the 1990-99 parliament: good for a laugh occasionally, not often terribly witty but usually amusing because of the excesses his crazed mind sometimes takes him to.
Usually anything Gosman says is almost immediately firmly refuted by three or four other people. Not debated, mind you; Gosman seems incapable of sustaining a reasoned argument, and his outlandish contributions are so easily put down, like rabid dogs, there is just no room for civilized discussion ensuing from them.
A good example of this could be seen last Thursday when the poor fellow supplied the following piece of black anti-democratic propaganda from an extremist site….
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-30082012/comment-page-1/#comment-515179
Several regulars, including myself, soon pointed out the lack of credibility of his source as well as its hypocrisy. Tellingly, Gosman never formulated a response.
And here he is stridently defending the corner of global warming-deniers, like a low-rent version of (God help us all but especially Gosman) that addle-pated shock jock Leighton Smith…
“Organic farming takes far more land area to produce the same amount of food output as intensive non-organic farming. This is a fact.”
http://thestandard.org.nz/climate-models-fail-to-accurately-predict-arctic-ice-deniers-fail-to-notice/#comment-513693
Note the deadly seriousness with which he delivers the line “This is a fact.” That’s simply unimprovable. Steve Coogan eat your heart out.
In a contribution to the thread “RIP Neil Armstrong”, he treats us to the following….
“I have more respect for Creationists than I do for Christian’s [sic!] who also accept the reality of Evolution. At least the Creationist is logically consistent.”
What nonsense. What a completely idiotic statement that was.
For these sterling (albeit unwitting) efforts in the service of surreal humor and black comedy, Gosman is a deserved winner of the third John Banks Trophy.
Previous Banksy winners…
No. 1: Te Reo Putake (awarded 17/8/2012)
No. 2: Monique Watson (awarded 25/08/2012)
or
“i would go out tonight, but i havn’t got a stitch to wear…..?”
Ho ho ho. Nice one, buddy.
The California state legislature just moved that dream a little closer to reality by approving a bill paving the way for driverless cars to be allowed on Golden State freeways.
Translation:We will remove humans from various the processes slowly, so they won;t notice, machines are better, we don’t need/want all those useless eater/feeders
But wait….
I thought it was about reducing the number of road deaths…
No this is about restricting human movement, tracking every journey that you make (already done in reality), if you are “lucky” enough to either be “allowed” to drive (because thats what this is also about), but the article tells what these psychopaths think about human beings!
Technology is not democratic!
Good. Soon I’ll be able to send my car to work, it’ll then transform into a walking bot and do my job for me. Meanwhile I’ll spend my day I as I please, and make sure my pay still gets lodged in my bank.
A person can dream….
Don’t they realise cars are not going to be the main machines of the future?
So, what would you do with your time? Personally, I get into art, politics and trying to keep up with technological advances (which feeds back into my politics).
IMO, that’s what we should be aiming for because it would allow us to engage more, do more and be self-governing.
interesting. semi, quietism leads me there and here
I find plenty to do with my time; history, politics, social issues and research, popular culture and its relation to social context, visual arts (especially photography, screen fiction etc).
believed i was on the correct page
I was responding to DTB’s question about what I’d do with my time if I was working less.
Quoting article:
Interesting, obviously, if the car crashes while in autonomous mode the manufacturer of the car is at fault as, essentially, they’re the ones driving the car.
Don’t know how you get that.
To be honest, I don’t have a problem with that either just so long as there’s strict rules about looking at the data and the use that it’s put to.
Nobody should be allowed to drive – cars are highly inefficient and should be banned outright with this self-drive capability then used in public transport.
I didn’t see anything of that in the article which would indicate that your seeing things that aren’t there.
Technology is merely there, the use that it’s put to is up to us which is democratic.
slap that bit
“cars are highly inefficient and should be banned outright with this self-drive capability then used in public transport.”
Bahahahahahahaha. Do you drive a car, Draco?
No.
But you’re more than happy to ensure no one else does either?
Have you got a good reason to maintain the inefficiency?
Yes, I have a disability that makes me dependent on my car.
That’s an exception and not a good enough reason to keep cars.
So if cars were completely powered by hydrogen fuel cells would you still argue people should only use public transport?
The Con trains last 40to60 years cars 15 to 20 on average trains cost 1sixtieth the cost of a car to move that person from a to b that includes construction and running costs.
Fuel cells are ridiculously dear and will probably never be economical.
Doesn’t matter what they’re powered by they’re still inefficient.
“Doesn’t matter what they’re powered by they’re still inefficient.”
Errr, what?
A hydrogen fuel cell is inefficient?
Bearing in mind that a hydrogen fuel cell is not a primary source of energy, merely a store of energy.
The primary source is H which is extracted from H2O. You’re right, the cell is the storage device. But the fuel comes from water….and the by-product is water.
My point here, which is what I’d like Draco to comment on, is does he dislike the idea of private vehicles because of the ecological/oil cost or because he doesnt think there should be a private vehicle class in the first place.
I think you’ve missed a step in the energy equation. Which is: where does the energy come from to extract H from water.
Whatever powers your extraction process is the primary energy source. Not the hydrogen.
There is an anode and a cathode. O reacts with one a H reacts with the other.
Like a battery. There is no extraction.
No you moron, cars are inefficient.
“No you moron, cars are inefficient.”
Get fucked Draco you fucking cunt. Being a prick for the sake of being prick makes you look like an asshole. A car with a fuel cell would solve your ‘inefficient’ problem but as the crazy ideologue you just dislike the idea of someone having private transportation. Luckily your strange ideas gain no traction.
This is not likely to ever happen, I’m afraid.
It’s a hypothetical question.
No this is about restricting human movement,
Don’t know how you get that.
Do some further reading then
tracking every journey that you make (already done in reality),
To be honest, I don’t have a problem with that either just so long as there’s strict rules about looking at the data and the use that it’s put to.
Im a little surprised at your response to this one DTB. Strict rules, argh, yeah ok mate! Maybe google cars, google wallet, google earth, google st view, google search, google mail, google cloud & (TPPA), could well be an example of where the strict rules you refer could fall over!
if you are “lucky” enough to either be “allowed” to drive (because thats what this is also about),
Nobody should be allowed to drive – cars are highly inefficient and should be banned outright with this self-drive capability then used in public transport.
They are inneficient, but thats about all I can find common ground with, the rest of it, you are talking nonsense, but helps me understand some other comments you put in the post, above and below
but the article tells what these psychopaths think about human beings!
I didn’t see anything of that in the article which would indicate that your seeing things that aren’t there.
Or you are not seing what is, and I am not just referring to this article!
Technology is not democratic!
Technology is merely there, the use that it’s put to is up to us which is democratic.
While true at the end user consumer market, outside of that is what I was actually referring
“the use that it’s put to is up to us which is democratic.”
Some years ago, the previous National govt wanted all cars to be trackable and for the state to be able to tell which cars were going where and when and tie that into registration and WOF data (amongst others), as well as road tolls and user pays.
Hands up who trusts the National govt?
Weka, yes this subject is something of a uptopian dream for these people, but don’t be fooled by thinking its just the national govt, or act etc, it has little if nothing to do with political ideology!
Its ideological, but not in the way most people want to believe it is.
on to it
I’d prefer the government getting the data than a private firm:
a) The government can use the data to actually improve our lives
b) The government can be held to account
Neither of these things is true of private companies.
There is no good reason for the govt to have a tracker in my car that outweighs the privacy concerns, or the wider political agenda (privatising roads).
I can’t believe you just argued for less privacy rights on the basis that ‘at least it’s the govt’ who holds the info. Again, hands up who trusts the the National Govt? I wouldn’t trust Labour with this one either btw.
Did you note the lack of rules and the fact that anybody can accumulate data if you give permission? By using Google you give permission. If you don’t want to be tracked by Google then don’t use them. Of course, that pretty much can’t happen as Google happens to be pretty much everywhere.
In what way is getting rid of inefficiency, which we can’t afford, nonsense?
About the only thing they said that even came close to being negative about humans was that they stated the fact that most crashes are caused by human error.
Which makes no sense. The consumer doesn’t have any democratic say in anything but we could use technology to improve our democracy.
Google cars… that’d be a good one. Each week you get into the car on any given morning and they’ve moved where the indicators are, or the lights switch, or the gear stick 🙄 Plus the gear stick doesn’t really do what it used to, so you have to fiddle with all the other knobs to figure out how to drive the car. Some of the things you find useful have been taken out completely, but you can rest assured, because google are the Good Guys so you know that it’s all for the best.
charter skools are the febrile manifestation of the wannabee drongos in nz society who think they know everything but more to the point want a government salary without having any qualifications.
Nope, charter schools is all about a few rich people getting government handouts in the millions of dollars per year.
The EU is banning incandescent light bulbs. Gasp! I wonder if this loss of a fundamental civil and political right will have citizens out on the street protesting the challenge to their freedoms …
So we will see this forced change in NZ soon enough then, and won’t Phillips be pleased, what a boon for them its been, and will be eh!
I’m sure all the energy use reductions will be mirrored by the decreasing costs of energy bills accross EU nations….
Quite sure that people have more pressing issues which are/will get(ting) them onto the streets over the coming years, so will assume the comment was /sarc
Isn’t it the lightbulb banning issue that cost Helen Clark her last election? So the story goes. People were incensed at having their rights so badly denied. Incandescent even.
/sarc 😉
Personally I think banning incandescents is rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. It’s symbolic of a world that thinks that we have climate change because we bought the wrong toys.
Actually, it’s symbolic of the realisation that resources are limited which is exactly what is needed if we want to change to a better system. Unbanning them is the result of the idea that BaU will continue.
Small steps weka but if we do not even take these small steps we are irreversibly stuffed.
The trick is to try and remember that no configuration of the deck chairs, no matter how clever, will stop the Titanic from going under.
If we only take small steps we are stuffed mickey. One of the reasons we are only taking small steps is because we think that changing lightbulbs will make a difference. It won’t. It will just enable bean counters to tell us we have made x savings and therefore we are doing the right thing and so we can relax a bit.
I don’t see any evidence that societies are moving towards using less power or creating less emissions in any meaningful way.
A small step that people can come to understand and that will allow bigger steps later.
That’s because societies are still told that there are no limits. Inform them of the limits and people will stop using resources (i.e, water shortages in which people conserve water). Our socio-economic system can’t handle that though as it’s predicated on using as resources as possible so as to make a few people rich.
I’d love to know when this “later” you are referring to might be. If its after about 2016 or 2018 we’re shit out of luck.
Yeah, well, we took the step and then we voted this government in and took several dozen backwards. Thems the breaks.
After 2016 I suspect people will be clamouring to take that step and several others.
What’s next? Their sacred showerheads?
“Eureka”
“now, i see”
“I Believe”
(btw, numerous microethnomethodological studies strongly suggest, science conducted by faith)
RONS just wrong
wow! what a start to His day; R.Smalley (in black) followed by J-A G (au natural) and some very considerate discourse. we live and pray
thought for today? am i my brother/s keeper
plus, the channel 3 news last pm was just one deleterious social impacting event after another;
at least there is always the anasthetic of alcohol….
not sure if this has been shared here in the last few days as i have been doing other things
but i think we have a new caption contest candidate
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/photo/2012-08/29/131815695_21n.jpg
Photoshop?
No, it’s real:
http://www.3news.co.nz/John-Key-welcomed-in-Rarotonga/tabid/417/articleID/267255/Default.aspx
Might put it up as a caption comp some time…
Hopefully they’re carting him off to the tip, or the out-house where his shite belongs…
Anyone get a pic of the armed guards standing off frame who ordered this to happen? /sarc
I really enjoyed the emerson cartoon, with key being carried on the litter by the alcohol lobby.
Hillary Clinton’s a bit more important than John Key. She walked.
(you can imagine the conversation –
Staffer: “Madam Secretary, the Cook Islands protocol involves you being carried on the backs of the natives, like a colonial master, and … ”
Hillary: “You’ve got to be kidding! Are we trying to lose the election? Ain’t gonna happen.”)
Hillary Clinton’s a bit more important than John Key. She walked.
Yes, Hillary Clinton’s an outstanding champion of human rights. Ask any person living in Iraq, Afghanistan or the Occupied Territories.
Here she is with another really humane leader, re-affirming to the world just how committed to human rights they both are….
There is no connection whatsoever between what I said and your “Yes”.
(But you knew that already).
I appreciate that, my friend. I just think you should be careful about using Hillary Clinton as an exemplar for anything. As horrible as Key is, he doesn’t have blood on his hands like she does.
I took gs’s comment to be about Clinton having more PR nous than Key (and probably self respect). Nothing to do with her credibility or ethics.
Yes, yes, weka, I understood too. I just couldn’t resist having a go at her, though.
“I have repeatedly warned the Tsar…”
Unbelievable! 😀
This picture of Romney’s family paints a couple of thousand words.
On the stump Mitt Romney, 65, has avoided mentioning Mormonism, instead talking generally about his faith, but he has been an active lifelong member of the church.
Then there is his great-great grandfather
This picture of Romney’s family paints a couple of thousand words.
No, it paints one. And the word is “Photoshop”.
It’s almost as funny as the “Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan” rearrangement “My ultimate Ayn Rand porn” (hat tip TheContrarian)
Burning Man gallery, scroll down for the live feed.
Direct stream here.
In a time of austerity, we are asking for some to pay for their job interview process.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/30/us-usa-campaign-spending-idUSTRE77T3ZX20110830
Any thoughts on Rodney Hide’s column in today’s Sunday Herald? I gain the impression that it might be out and out racist in tone, have I got it wrong?
Any thoughts on Rodney Hide’s column in today’s Sunday Herald? I gain the impression that it might be out and out racist in tone, have I got it wrong?
I haven’t read it yet, but I’d be prepared to wager poor old Clint Eastwood’s Republican convention appearance fee that your suspicion is correct. I’ll come back with my analysis after I’ve seen it, but the following factors mean it’s highly likely….
1.) It’s an article by Rodney Hide, who has frequently made crude racist statements on the radio and television;
2.) It’s in the Herald on Sunday, which is a forum for some of the most bizarrely racist and deranged writing in the country.
He needs to learn to speak Maori, he’ll start to understand that they are a “Life” oriented culture at that point.
The article definitely has no respect for their beliefs. Nor does it recognise their growth as a people.
Which does not make it all that pertinent to NZ in 2012.
He needs to learn to speak Maori, he’ll start to understand that they are a “Life” oriented culture
Life is very important in Maori culture, because if something’s not alive you can’t kill it and eat it. Plants… animals… other people… very important.
Ladies and Gentlemen, the racist right wing.
Look out, fellas—it’s a moron.
The consumption of life and “life force” is at the heart of all animistic cultures, of which the NZ Maori is just one.
But the clincher is to recognise the river’s life force. Then it’s yours.
The likes of RH et al, have no concept what so ever of “life forces or energy”, which is why being able to exude such ignorance in this article, comes freely and naturally, the rac*sm unavoidable for him, because, like those who rule over this planet, that is what they are in their very core, and the Rodneys selected, because that too is what they are!
The types who permeate the “halls of power”, are the winners of a selection process, so can you imagine what those who pull the strings represent!
Because kiwis (those who do actually think, and even some who don’t), are easy to get on-board with things like maori rights and rac*sm etc, it means that the support which will be derived for traditional “rights” will stay in focus, which while I am not for “ownership” by any group, at this stage , has to be considered a good thing.
While I’m uneasy about the maori elite, or their ability to not be corrupted further by white men, at this point in time, they are about the only signifigant barrier to those same white men, stealing the lot, again!
It’s online. Read at your own risk.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/religion-and-beliefs/news/article.cfm?c_id=301&objectid=10831075
I have now sacrificed a couple of minutes of my life and read it and, sure enough, it is as racist, and as ill informed as I feared.
Perhaps even worse than Hide’s moronic, ignorant views is the Herald website’s warning to anyone who might be thinking of posting a reply to the distinguished thinker: “We aim to have healthy debate. But we won’t publish comments that abuse others.”
Clearly no such limitations apply to their own columnists.
I only read the first couple of lines, and the last. Even that demonstrated hypocrisy of such epic proportions I couldn’t bring myself to read the rest.
I read a bit (yuk!) then started to read the comments…. so many, too many, people congratulating RH on his article and endorsing it.
Reading the comments in that is rather sickening. The racism and ignorance is much worse in the comments than what was in RH’s spiel.
Dunno why but your link doesn’t work for some reason. This one does.
The racism and ignorance is much worse in the comments than what was in RH’s spiel.
Really? Hide is about as extreme as they come.
I read Hide’s column. I see it as an attempt to stir up racism among ignorant pakeha in the interests of selling of our assets to greedy pakeha and foreign corporates. To my way of thinking, that makes it racist, which is about what I’ve come to expect from Rodney Hide.
Sunday Funnies
Whatever happened to Howard Dean?
After madly screeching himself into mass derision (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5FzCeV0ZFc) during his disastrous bid for the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination, Howard Dean has gone onto a career as a “pundit”, where he smiles like a nice guy and expresses his admiration for killing peasants in Asia and Africa by drone aircraft. Watch and cringe as he does his shallow schtick here…
At the start of the clip, you’ll see good-looking but dim Republican senator Marco Rubio saying something inane about the capture of Gaddafi. Also appearing on the clip is another of those glib Brits that infest American public commentary, Tina Brown.
Balancing out the display of horror is Jeremy Scahill, one of the outstanding journalists in America.
One of the YouTube commenters asks a very good question: “Why can’t Scahill be a senator instead of Rubio? Why can’t we have intelligent people in congress?”
http://www.ted.com/talks/ivan_krastev_can_democracy_exist_without_trust.html
“Can democracy exist without trust”?
Interesting TED talk from Ivan Krastev (transcript available). A small snippet:
….
Ta JS, something to think about.
whoever designed john banks should have another look at the plans!
This morning on Chris Laidlaw Radionz Jim Dier a very enthusiastic community builder who has found that he and his fellows have made a lot of difference. So he is not an armchair idealist but a thinking down-and-dirty-hands worker who has a good idea that works. Audio should be up by noon
(or so I thought but it isn’t – may be some pesky damn reason of copyright.)
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/sunday
10:06 Ideas: Growing Communities
Epuni Primary School’s Common Unity Project aims to produce enough fruit and vegetables to feed not only the school’s 110 pupils but their families as well. It’s a classic example of what’s been called Asset Based Community Development – or ABC Development. Ideas visits Epuni Primary School in Lower Hutt and talks to the project’s volunteer coordinator Julia Milne; Jim Diers, a proponent of the ABCD movement, tells Jeremy Rose about Seattle’s Strong Communities Initiative; and Denise Bijoux of Inspiring Communities talks to Chris Laidlaw about the proliferation of asset-based community projects in New Zealand.
Presented by Chris Laidlaw
Produced by Jeremy Rose.
This is a copy of the one I put on open mike 30/8 but then thought it might get missed.
Further to 16
It is on line now if you want to listen to it.
plenty of inspirational roots-level community development building here in HB
I wonder has anyone noticed that when trying to pull a comment from past days, if the number of them go beyond one page, the search device often won’t find the highlighted comment. Than have to go and scroll down for it.
LUNATIC POET ALERT!
Expect an unpleasant blast of foul air from Christchurch to burst from your radio at 2:35 this afternoon at 2:35 p.m….
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/artsonsunday
In their wisdom, the producers at RNZ National have seen fit to resurrect one Karen Zelas who, along with Auckland University’s bloviating Professor John Read provided the main academic cover in the police’s hare-brained, fantastical sex abuse case against Peter Ellis.
In A City Possessed, Lynley Hood’s magisterial demolition of the hysteria, Zelas was comprehensively and irrefutably shown up to be a fraud and a charlatan. But if you imagined this horrid woman had been stewing in her own shame for the last decade and a half, you were wrong.
Apparently, she always wanted to be a writer. Maybe that helps to explain her sympathy for the outlandish fantasies drilled into those children’s brains by that crazed cadre of fundamentalist parents at the Christchurch Civic Creche.
Zelas reckons that forcing little children to repeat their parents’ wild and lurid fantasies has made her into quite the poet: “I suppose my former career has given me a depth of understanding of people, their emotions and relationships and how they behave, which I am able to draw upon in my writing.”
http://www.peterellis.org.nz/LawReform/Evidence/2003-0831_SST_AreCourtsOverZelas.htm
She was just following the latest crap coming from American psychologists at the time. In my experience, psychologists are some of the most dangerous people that exist. Psychology is demonstrably not a science, and follows fashions which change every few years, yet its practicioners can affect people’s lives to more of an extent than most pseudo-scientists except economists. The courts would do no worse if they relied on expert testimony from astrologers.
She was just following the latest crap coming from American psychologists at the time.
She was also validating the psychotic sexual fantasies of some fundamentalist Christian loons in Christchurch. She wasn’t the only one, either; the aforementioned Prof. John Read continues to taunt Ellis with cruel and unsubstantiated allegations, the Children’s Commissioner at the time (Laurie O’Reilly) gave the madness official backing by treating the allegations seriously, as did his successor Roger McClay (who was subsequently convicted for fraud and sent to prison). And the police in Christchurch still occasionally haul Ellis into the station to humiliate him further.
In my experience, psychologists are some of the most dangerous people that exist.
There are certainly some bad ones, all right. And Karen Zelas is one of the very worst.
A ‘March for Jobs’ is going to be held this Tuesday in Greymouth. How’s that brighter future looking Coasters?
From the West Coast miner fb page:
There will be a ‘March for Work’ rally in Greymouth on 4th September to commence at midday from the Skate Park. The march is in support of the coalminers of spring creek and the township of Greymouth. This is an open invitation to march through town to raise awareness that will effect us all if the mine was to close. Damien O’Connor MP, The Mayor and Bernie Monk have confirmed there support and will speak following the march. Please pass on and join the march to save jobs and our community.
I dunno but maybe they could allow some more mining to happen on the coast.
wow.
carol zelas and march for jobs side by side.
anyway this is for carol.
I have read recently that the US Supreme court no longer represents the little man.
is this true?
Karl Popper
anyway, at the community meals there are just rows and rows of tangata whenua tamariki and moko’
every week
after week
(middle class-daydream)
there is no forgiveness in NZ? reminds me of “There is no depression in NZ….”
who loves James K. Baxter? Wow!