"The obvious explanation for wealth growing during the pandemic is that we are simply seeing the effect of businesses and consumers buying into the central banks’ confidence trick.
Monetary easing has inflated the value of house prices, shares and pension schemes beyond their fundamentals, making us collectively better off on paper – but not in actuality."
A lot of it will be the effects of the border being closed to tourism. The money we would have spent travelling the world has been spent in New Zealand, with multiplier effects as that moves around the economy, or saved. So individually and collectively we get richer.
I wouldn't be surprised if one of the 'learnings' once the washup is done of our Covid experience is that tourism, both outbound and inbound was a major net negative to our economy.
The 'fundamentals' he references is essentially productivity .
Productivity is essentially more efficient use of energy.
EROI is decreasing so productivity must decrease.
And yet we waste that energy on consumerism.
Having said I agree that we may belatedly realise that our 'biggest export earner' was in fact simply a swap to enable the few to live the life of Riley
yes, many in my circle of aquantainances have spent up large on toys(boats, motorcycles,cars, spa pools etc) with $$$ that would otherwise be taken offshore. too many of our local tourism ventures are overseas owned and many busloads of asian tourists spend there money in asian owned facilities, so NZ really only benefits from gst, not the whole pie.I think you are on point graeme.
Pot calling the kettle black just nibbles at the edges of this one, an outright disinformation tool of the expansionist kremlin calling anyone else a propaganda tool.
How about we recognise that all the major nation's use soft power projection? And media channels which selectively distort and misinform are just part of this game? And that relying on any one of them to try and gain an objective sense of reality is just going to disappoint.
And at the same time there is still a remarkable amount of usable information out there, most sources don't make up shit all of the time, they cannot entirely disconnect from reality. Even uncritical people notice that.
Right now the media world is in a tough place, with reliable professionalism under siege from multiple directions. It's very difficult for any individual in the system to write fearlessly on all topics. But most of the time they do their best, and if in sum the ‘media’ falls short of our ideals, we can be grateful that we have literally at our fingertips a torrent of information that was unimaginable even just 30 years ago.
And it's a wild torrent that demands some effort if you want to swim in it.
It's also a torrent that is impossible to navigate without some structural understanding of how the world works. That this understanding can harden into ideology doesn't mean that we don't need it. The proliferation of lunacy we see everywhere parallels the proliferation of information.
It's also why I've shifted my attention away from ideologies and toward the geopolitical and demographic realities that determine the fate of nations in the long run.
And one of the few good things about getting older is that I can look back and observe the things I used to believe, which have turned out to be not so true. And then contemplate that a fair chunk of what I believe now will likely have the same fate.
We all need some kind of belief and values system as a framework to conceive, grow, and store and share our hopes, dreams, and aspirations for and about the world and ourselves. This will give is a relatively safe haven to anchor and moor without which we will be pounded and pummelled by the waves and tidal currents of time and smashed on the rocks of reality. However, from time to time, we have to lift the anchor and leave the familiar small surroundings and seek other new places before they turn into a bay of boredom and we lose our mobility and become stale and fixated. After all, we are all sailors on an ocean of possibilities and fishermen of the sea.
Bit unclear as to what the mod meant by "you two".
Gabby definitely one, replying to RL, but there also seemed to be a comment that didn't get past premod or got deleted? but then Adrian has also been commenting today.
Very few comments never make it through to the front-end. This can happen when a ‘new’ commenter does not get past the Pre-Mod filter, e.g. when it is spam, utter vile crap, or an existing user trying to bypass a ban. Sometimes, commenters are put in Pre-Mod for a specific reason, but this always comes with a warning.
We never delete a comment from an existing user after it has actually appeared in the front-end without telling; it’ll show up as [deleted] and often is self-explanatory to the commenter and/or comes with a brief explanation – all this takes up Moderator time.
I’d like to think that Moderators here act with honesty and integrity and we can get a bit shitty when we’re accused of ‘censorship’ in all its gory forms.
Well, Gabby and the Easter bunny did get it. So, obviously, it was obvious enough to them; your miscomprehension is irrelevant regardless unless you thought that RL was or should have been banned, which is also misplaced and irrelevant regardless.
Neither McFlock nor myself 'got it' so, yeah. Part of the problem for commenters is cryptic moderation notes.
[Part of the problem for Moderators is that you keep on creating problems here and that you don’t take a hint. In other words, stubborn obnoxious recidivist behaviour that is wasting time. I’m not going to waste my time repeating what I’ve written to you in recent comments and Moderation notes, one of which was a particularly clear Moderation note (https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-30-03-2021/#comment-1785916). Stop digging a hole or meet that molehill that you seem to be seeking so desperately; the signpost is clearly labelled: molehill or freedom to comment here. This is your warning – Incognito]
First time I've seen that "particularly clear" moderation note.
You didn't follow my comment very closely if you think I labelled RL's comment "woke-left". My entire position was that the use of the term right wing was for some reason frowned upon yet RL uses the pejorative "woke-left" on a daily basis in order to wind up commenters here.
[The onus is on you to read the replies to your comments and the alerts to Moderation notes.
You’re still trying to manipulate me into taking sides in your personal vendetta against RL. In fact, I’m starting to think that you’re trying to deliberately wind up RL and me as well.
You’re still ignoring the fact that you’re being moderated for your behaviour and conduct here on this site.
Stop wasting my time; this is your final warning – Incognito]
I can look back and observe the things I used to believe, which have turned out to be not so true. And then contemplate that a fair chunk of what I believe now…
It's a by product of getting old RL.
Another way of saying;
If only I knew then what I know now things might have been different. 😉
The proliferation of lunacy has less to do with the proliferation of information, but more to do with the proliferation of misinformation and disinformation.
To take the favourite example of the convergence moonbats trying to discredit mainstream media, the Iraq WMD lies (disinformation), the mainstream media were correctly and reporting the (evidence free) assertions of the Shrub and Blair administrations as assertions, and the misinformation reports originating from Ahmed Chalabi via Chris Hedges and Judith Miller and others, they were also reporting the (valid information as it turned out) leaks from the intelligence communities that those claims were a crock of crap, and also reporting the valid information that Hans Blix and his team of UN inspectors were finding nothing of significance that might justify an invasion.
Sorting the valid information from the crap is the difficult bit. It becomes a bit easier when you just don't give those in the habit of flooding the zone with shit an entry into your news stream.
And then there are those in the habit of not telling you that which they don't want you to know. That's a lot harder to detect if you only pay attention to a few 'good' channels that you happen to like. The absence of something is always much less apparent.
Thing is, on the rare (very rare) occasions Sputnik and RT have some sort of actual connection with reality, it's because reality just happens to align with what the Kremlin wants others to think.
The rarity of those occasions in the zone that's otherwise flooded with shit disinformation makes it a waste of time trying to filter through it, unless one has a particular interest in trying to sift through the sewage to glean what might be current Kremlin motivations.
It's a shame, because in the first couple of years, before the state agenda began to dominate reporting, they really were a breathe [sic] of fresh air.
You're correct to note the heavy bias of RT. I'm really appalled by the way they routinely use the most extreme right wing British and American talk radio boofheads to comment on British and American politics. Peter Lavelle's Crosstalk often threatens to be an interesting and informative program but is frequently derailed by the host himself unleashing some crazed extreme right wing opinions that ruin the rest of the program. On the plus side, however, RT regularly features real journalists and academics of unimpeachable integrity, such as Chris Hedges, Norman Finkelstein, and Noam Chomsky.
So does that description imply to you a primary editorial inclination towards truth, a primary editorial inclination towards clickbait, or a primary editorial inclination towards supporting internal criticism within the US and "West"?
Or some other primary editorial inclination?
Because it seems to me that their main role in regards to international affairs is to confuse reporting of Russian actions and motives while providing handy links and "evidence" for americans and western europeans to sow discontent within america and western europe. And any similarity with real people or events is purely coincidental.
Thing is, on the rare (very rare) occasions Sputnik and RT have some sort of actual connection with reality, it's because reality just happens to align with what the Kremlin wants others to think.
A mirror image, then, of the British state broadcaster, the BBC.
Nope, not a mirror image. The BBC frequently reports things that the UK government of the day would prefer were left unaired.
The bias in the BBC is merely consistent with its decision makers having the UK's best interests at heart, which is quite different to the way RT and Sputnik act as propaganda organisations promoting whatever disinformation the Kremlin is pushing at that moment.
The BBC frequently reports things that the UK government of the day would prefer were left unaired.
That was the case briefly at the beginning of this century. That period of independence came to a brutal end in 2003, after Andrew Gilligan plainly stated live on radio that the intelligence used to justify the attack on Iraq was "sexed up", i.e. manipulated and untrustworthy. Blair's chief enforcer, Alistair Campbell, instigated a jihad against the BBC, ensuring that the insubordinate and awkward director-general Greg Dyke—he believed his duty was to serve the public, not the Blair regime—was forced out and replaced by the compliant and reliable functionary Mark Thompson. The rest is gloomy and infuriating history.
Yes, the BBC publishes articles containing critique of the UK government, it's actions and policies. I've asked before from those spouting the editorial 'independence' of RT etc. to link to stories criticising Putin or what he does in a negative light, but no joy as yet.
Today on the BBC UK politics page there are pieces on the outcry against the governments plan for covid passports for pubs and the Tory reception of the racial disparity report.
Not to mention TV programs like Panorama, which regularly put the boot in to the annoyance of number 10.
TBH, I don't pay much attention to the UK. It's just that there's been a bunch of times some topic has caught my eye and I've followed a BBC link for more info, and thought 'ooh, [prominent UK government figure] isn't going to like that getting out'.
The BBC is in a spot of bother if the documentary about the famous Princess Diana interview some 25 plus years the other night on TV1 is to be believed.
Its shaping up to be a story full of lies, deceit and dirty tricks followed by the inevitable cover-up by management.
Well the police have decided to rule out a criminal investigation into Bashir, the interviewer, over allegations from the Spencer family about the alleged use of false documentation to get HRH to do the sit down, so looks like bother gone.
Though if it were true, surely it would be a case of the Beeb going against the establishment and, not doing it's bidding, which is the opposite of what some people are saying.
With regards to the BBC making content against the government's party lines, I'd suggest you seek out the Panorama episode about their mismanagement of ppe supplies from last year. Shockingly on target.
The BBC then came under fire for using ‘labour activists’ to push the message in the program.
The BBC then came under fire for using ‘labour activists’ to push the message in the program.
So, if they had been 'tory activists' pushing a line then I presume they would not come under fire – at least not to the same extent.
If 'the state' decrees there is to be no investigation then the police will not investigate. Wouldn't be the first time that has happened and it won't be the last.
You'll have to put it in context with what's been written above.
The notion being that the BBC is a total shill for the British government. Using the examples I've given, that is very much open to debate. It certainly isn't an organisation in any way equivalent to those pushing Russian propaganda.
The BBC World service is most certainly a propaganda tool of the UK government..
" BBC World Service is not regulated by Ofcom. Instead the BBC is responsible for setting its overall strategic direction, the budget and guarding its editorial independence for World Service. It must set and publish a Licence for the World Service, which defines its remit, scope, annual budget and main commitments, as well as "objectives, targets and priorities" which are agreed with the Foreign Secretary."
But as I mentioned only yesterday on OP, there are a bunch of regular commentors here on TS whom, as it turns out have a world view that aligns up with the UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab and his UK conservative party like a hand in a glove…go figure, yet for some reason only known to them, they insist on thinking themselves Left or Left leaning, when in reality they are more like some sort of post modernist colonialist hybrid, who also it seems, have a very distinct attraction to western authoritarianism (as long as it if coated in liberal sensibilities).
"….. as I mentioned only yesterday on OP, there are a bunch of regular commentors here on TS whom, as it turns out have a world view that aligns up with the UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab and his UK conservative party like a hand in a glove…go figure, yet for some reason only known to them, they insist on thinking themselves Left or Left leaning, when in reality they are more like some sort of post modernist colonialist hybrid, who also it seems, have a very distinct attraction to western authoritarianism (as long as it if coated in liberal sensibilities)."
Adrian Thornton
It is a fear of engaging in open debate with someone who actually has experience of Syria, that is a noticable defining feature of supporters of the Assad regime at this website.
Back in 2017 I also wrote this:
"In my opinion it can be reasonably argued that the failure of the Liberal Centre Left to show solidarity with the Syrian people, and instead side with the regime that is oppressing and murdering them, has helped prolong this war on the Syrian people by the Assad regime and its foreign allies, and helped fuel islamaphobia here."
Jenny
March 15 is the globally recognised anniversary date of the start of the Syrian revolution. Two years after I made the above observation, in March 2019, as Syrian refugees from the Assad regime and their supporters were preparing to mark this anniversary, the anti-Islamic terrorist chose this date to launch his murderous attack in Christchurch.
Don't support fascism. It really shouldn't have to be said.
No, because as usual you seem to intentionally not address the outrageous western Weaponizing of the OCPW….which is what I have been posting about. I can’t believe I have to go over this again FFS..I have never uttered one word of support for Assad…but you people seem to think that all of a sudden the CIA and the western military industrial complex are the friends of the Left, and freedom fighters around the world (WTF!)…it is actually people like you who through your blinkered support for a legitimate uprisings, have wilfully allowed yourselves to be turned into useful idiots to western military/corporate hegemony..well done.
You hit the nail on the head.." Don't support fascism. It really shouldn't have to be said."…quite right, maybe you should stop doing it then.
Perhaps you should explain this particularly gross misrepresentation, Adrian. You have one or possibly two very marginal instances of possible OPCW error, out of hundreds of events. The OPCW moreover went to considerable lengths to try to satisfy the complainants, but was obliged to face the fact that ultimately their sole objective was to discredit the organization and the mission.
The Russian media have beaten it up to the skies, and dupes like you parrot that incessantly – but essentially the OPCW is on the ground to clean up the chemical weapons made by Russia and accumulated by the Assad regime. Just as they spent some years in Russia at US & UN expense cleaning up multiple soviet era chemical weapon sites.
The only outrageous weaponising of the OPCW is by you and your fellow dupes.
There you go again Adrian, actively ignoring/denying genocide.
Genocide denial, like Holocaust denial, is an expression of support for fascism.
Let me repeat that; 'Genocide denial is support for fascism'.
That the Assad regime has been committing genocide against its own people is an absolute fact that you refuse to face.
Instead of addressing this fact you choose to throw up dust around the gas attacks.
I put up a link to a video which goes in depth to expose the conspiracy theories around the gas attacks being spread about by the Assad regime and Russia and their useful idiots, that variously claim, (a) the gas attacks didn't happen at all or, (b). were the work of the opposition who gassed their own supporters to discredit your fascist hero.
But I am not going to debate with you the various weaknesses of fascist propaganda around the sarin and chlorine gas attacks against Syrian civilians, that most definitely did happen.
Instead I put up a video of the destruction of the revolutionary city of Homs by the Assad regime.
Every single one of the genocide deniers and pro-Assad apologists on this site, have to date repeatedly refused to answer the simple question I have posed. Every single one.
Maybe you are different Adrian, maybe you might have enough conscience to look into the abyss and admit that you are playing a game of interference in support of a genocidal fascist style regime.
I am not going to keep on going around in circles with you, this is a pointless and a waste of time, you and Stuart Munro are just too far gone to have any kind of rational debate with…well too far gone.
Rationally and reasonably, you would then stop reading their comments and stop replying to them. But you don’t and you won’t. You’re a walking card-carrying self-contradiction and don’t want to see it and/or admit it.
Thanks for your insightful phycology lesson there Incognito, maybe you would do well to turn that lens on yourself and see what it is inside of you that makes you compulsively want to control all those in your orbit..now that would be something interesting to get to the bottom of, don’t you think?
BTW every human being on this planet is a “walking card-carrying self-contradiction” and so as you have obviously never been self-aware enough to have ever acknowledge that about yourself…welcome to the club, I think we will get along just fine LOL!!!
[RL: The role of moderators is essential. Their purpose is to put limits on people’s behaviour and attempt to instill a culture of constructive conversation. The deal is that if you want to continue to comment here, you respect that role.
Having done it intensively for a number of years here I’m vividly aware of how much goes into good moderation, and how much everyone else benefits from it. The two primary mods we have here at present, weka and Incognito, are doing a way better job of it than I ever did. While it’s a job that can never make everyone happy, I’m fed up seeing this kind of casual undermining. It’s not a game worth playing.
Get this through your head – no-one, but no-one ever enjoyed being moderated, and you are certainly not the first. But it’s a fact of life and you either suck it up like a big boy or sulk off elsewhere.]
Something we should all be aware of and try and guard against and take notice of and continually check ourselves on.
'Confirmation Bias'
Adrian it's disapointing that you refuse to answer the question, and instead run away from the debate. But, I've come to expect it. The reason you, and others like you will not answer the question, is because it challenges your preconceived black and white assumptions.
Reading up on the fixed views of conservatives like Ted Cruz, I came across the following quote.
"It’s part of human nature to want to resist information that contradicts with the way we see the world. Psychologists call the practice confirmation bias, and define it as the tendency to interpret information in ways that support our preconceptions."
A few people read my debates with Assad apologists here, the feedback I get is how can be so tolerant as to engage with people who excuse genocide?
The answer is; I could be where you are, that is if I had not had the life changing privilege to be in the Middle East at the time to be witness to the first stirrings of the Arab Spring.
From comments found under a piece by Novara Media concerning the bbc a quite choice quote by Arundhati Roy : on national flags " First they use them as shrinkwrap for your brain ,then as ceremonial shrouds for their war dead "
Great quote, plenty of people on this site have never seen a western regime change war that hasn't got them all juiced up….these free market liberals are just as jingoistic, ruthless and bloodthirsty as any right wing conservative as it turns out….guess that's why they line up with the UK conservatives so well….a perfect fit.
The funny thing is, Michele Bachmann turned out to be a very focused, hardworking member—even though she spent a few months later in 2011 on a short-lived campaign for president. She showed up to the committee, did her homework, and ended up winning over her fellow members with her dedication. Mike Rogers was impressed—and I have to admit, so was I. The whole situation ended up working out well for everyone. As one of those old Boehnerisms goes, “Get the right people on the bus, and help them find the right seat.”
An exercise in getting a loose cannon pointed in a less dangerous direction, actually turned out quite well. It's why I tend to think of at least 95% of people as pretty decent really, with the potential to be great in the right circumstances.
'Zero Covid' strategy far better for economy, European think-tank concludes
Pursuing a “zero Covid” strategy is best for health outcomes and the economy.
Everyone in NZ except for the National Party and David Seymour knew this to be true. Multiple studies, including this one, have confirmed that the New Zealand government's Covid strategy (with fast financial support) is better for both health and economic outcomes.
But more countries need to commit to the programme for the leaders to get the full benefit, a European think-tank has concluded.
Recovery in zero-Covid countries was to some extent at the mercy of policies in countries where that was not the goal, the institute suggested.
“The recovery is limited only by the failure of other countries to achieve this goal and this should motivate better global collaboration for achieving a shared end.”
This is now the concern. Conservative countries which are bizarrely wedded to 'freedom at any cost' will continue to drag the chain and jeopardise not only their own populations but the world as a whole. Their disastrous Covid-19 response damages those who have done well.
But the Easter Bunny came along and looked up at Boris and said – Que? (it was Manuel’s pet). And so Boris has had to buckle down and face off his mates while he sets another lockdown to end all lockdowns
Que is the most common word in Spanish, according to one study I read. It’s most often used as a conjunction and/or relative pronoun, then (with tilde) as interrogative “What” (Qué). It has many uses, and like a chameleon, can change its meaning to suit the context of the sentence. https://www.spanishdict.com/answers/181220/so-much-trouble-understanding-when-que-is-used-
As I understand it, the word que in latin means and. As in senatus populusque romanus (the senate and the roman people). I'm not how this differs from the word et. Perhaps this word is used in the sense of also as in et te Brute, (You too, Brutus?)
"…. more countries need to commit to the programme for the leaders to get the full benefit, a European think-tank has concluded."
One country that won't commit to the program is Australia, which has an official policy of 'suppression' rather than 'elimination', New Zealand's policy.
New Zealand is preparing to open a quarantine free travel bubble with Australia, unless Australia agrees to adopt New Zealand's policy of elimination, (which Scott Morrison has said Australia will never do), New Zealand will be defacto adopting Australia's policy of suppression.
Their disastrous Covid-19 response damages those who have done well.
One of the big stories over the next 12-18 months will be whether or not these nations will bite the bullet or let the pandemic run through, hoping vaccines do the work for them. Which they may not.
All lively lads and lasses who work in ways and places that NZ needs, that earns its own money from graft not grift, and who appreciate having a life and a society with standards and fairness; a country to be proud of living in for ordinary people as well as the 'swells'. I suggest that a few of you who are motivated with these sorts of ideas do this. Start a facebook page, capture a domain name, and the rights to the name wherever you have to apply to legally acquire it. And become a centre for go-ahead people who are trying to downsize consumption, buy local, get out of 4WDs and large people movers not needed, be into conservation and conversation, a helping hand for others and all families and children, and practical kindness.
You need to get together – in the old saying 'Birds of a feather flock together' – seen the starling images when they fly off? I will put my idea for a name for you on this blog on Tuesday night after seven after you have had Easter to think about this idea. If the active amongst you haven't thought of better, I suggest that someone with the vitals grab it and run with it as I have suggested. I think a lot of us are into 'rolling up our sleeves and doing' – we've all heard, read, done enough talking, chewing the cud! Things have to be moved with people power or what we want won't happen at all, and machines will fill the slack with empty promises and hype that fools people into thinking the answer is going to come from the tech direction.
I see that projections are for Auckland to inflate to 2 million from present 1.7m by early 2030s. Why wait till then, stacks on the mill, as the kids' game used to chant. An extra 1900 people a month appears somewhere in the item in Stuff p.12 Apr.1/21.
It was short and didn't have room to state guesses on when gridlock will be reached, or when police will start evicting people from favelas along motorways and under bridges. (They have already closed down a caravan park in the last decades because some criminals lived there.)
And will people in Auckland fund a charity hospital as they do in Christchurch for the large number of uncared for people? It may be that the Aucklanders will have no money left over after paying for their houses if they have managed to get their fingertips on one, and won a loan in the Australian bank's monthly lottery which they will probably set up soon.
I had a look at the on-line link incognito. It is really upsetting to read the way this article is slanted – that growth in population is automatically good, and the bigger the better. Despite a small mention of problems.
...The medium projection is considered suitable for assessing future population changes, and this week’s release contained the usual gloom about a higher proportion of older people and a declining percentage of children…
(Anyone who is aware knows that NZ is no longer a good place to bring up children as was once proclaimed. In fact it seems that the government finds them a burden with all their needs from start to adulthood. It's more efficient to bring in families from overseas where they have been educated at the family's expense or of that country.)
But beyond that, the cities of Hamilton and Tauranga – the other two hubs in the golden triangle – are expected to grow at the same rate as Auckland.
…By 2033, the projected population for the three regions is put at 2.93m – 51.7 per cent of the national total of 5.68m. For 2048, the figure is 3.32m – 53.4 per cent of the New Zealand population of 6.21m.
Further south, Christchurch, when combined with the adjacent districts where much of the area’s new housing is going – is thought likely to stay close to the leading bunch.
(Sounds like a racing commentary. Listen to Spike Jones' one – 'and Banana is coming through the bunch!').
Christchurch City had a 2018 population of 383,800, and on its own has an unspectacular annual growth projection of 0.6 per cent.
But the South Island’s main centre has a more robust look to it when the Waimakariri District – projected average annual growth 1 per cent – and Selwyn District -1.7 per cent – are added. Combined, the three territorial authorities had a population of 508,400 in 2018 – 10.4 per cent of the national total.
(Like a faster growing population makes a place More Robust! Weak minds repeating weak ideas here.)
And at the bottom, a message from Stuff: …'Why? Because with the pandemic situation constantly changing, it’s easy for misinformation and rumours to take hold. You can rely on Stuff’s journalists to question the decision-makers, interview experts, and use eyewitness reporting to answer your key questions with facts and context.'
It certainly is hard to keep on top of the tide of information, checking for tainted facts and what environment they arise from.
The Mayor announced some years after the quakes that she had a target of increasing (greater) Christchurch's population to one million within (if I recall correctly) 20 years……she never mentioned it again.
What a horrible projection. Now I understand the property investor who commented yesterday that the prices of houses would not be coming down (in fact not for the forseeable future, the changes in his opinion would only temporarily slow things). How depressing.
edit
The experiment of government central and local contracting business carry out its services should now draw to a close. It was an expensive one in the long term, and while it did lead to some improvements it appears that it cannot cope with the constant ramifications that arise in the fast-changing social and physical environment. While tied down to tight contracts and a business case that forces it to answer to shareholders requirements for profit, it cannot meet needs when presenting in reality which can multiply daily.
(Paragraph from a yet-to-be presented report from someone who has a bigger brain than the average bear.)
Opinion from Metlink
Passengers travelling on Metlink services operated by NZ Bus experienced almost 70 last-minute cancellations on Wednesday. Metlink General Manager Scott Gallacher said the recent service from NZ Bus simply wasn’t good enough.
Oh do you mean the racist nationalist Alexey Navalny that Amnesty International dropped because of his known racist rhetoric…the Navalny who was funded by the US backed National Endowment for Democracy (a known funding route for the CIA) in his Russian election run?…(isn't that kind of like election interference? and here I was thinking you guys hated it when countries meddled in other peoples elections, guess you don't give a shit about that after all)
Oh – you mean Putin is not nationalist? Or racist?
Lacking decades of exposure to a reforming activist base, Russia is as racist as it gets – hence the war of extermination in Chechnya.
To feed your own nonsense back at you: since Russia doesn't give a flying finangle about racism, and is cheerfully nationalist, shouldn't they love Navalny?
But Navalny has committed the unforgiveable crime of revealing the truth about Putin's republic of thieves – something RT will never do.
Have you no shame though, as a professed lefty, supporting this murderous kleptocrat? What would Putin have to do to disabuse you of your infatuation? He's already a genocide, an autocrat, a rigger of elections and a poisoner of political alternatives. Does he have to eat babies live onscreen, or would that too be America's fault?
FFS man "Oh – you mean Putin is not nationalist? Or racist?"…I know Putin is a probably a racist and is definitely a nationalist…but he is not the man that the west and you guys are spouting as some sort of Russian arch angle ready to free the Russian people from their evil overlord… maybe you should check out Putin's popularity stats in his own country once and while to get a grip on the reality over there…but I can tell you this for sure, any politician so obviously backed by the USA is never going to get any real in traction in Russia…sort of like your man Guaido in Venezuela.
If the Russians are ever going to break free from Putin, it will be from an organic rising from within Russia, supported by the Russian people…and not some Western backed Instagram sensation, that would be like you backing a politician in NZ that you knew was backed by Xi Jinping and funded by the MSS. https://www.statista.com/statistics/896181/putin-approval-rating-russia/
The funny thing is I never (or if so, rarely) saw any of you 'lefties' utter a murmur when an actual Left wing leader, Lula was outrageously imprisoned by an outright right wing authoritarian..in fact now I think about it, I don’t believe I have ever (or very rarely if so) seen any of you so called lefties show even the slightest sign of support for any actual Left Wing project around the world, or voice your concern when they are regularly threatened….
It really has become quite apparent to me over the previous few days, that you, Mcflock, Joe90, Al1en and a couple of others on TS are in fact, in your geopolitical beliefs (the ones you express on TS anyway) for want of a better description, are some sort of postmodern (liberal) imperialists. It was always obvious that you guys had some pretty seriously flawed world views, but when I saw recently, exactly how closely nearly all your geopolitical standpoints matched with the UK Conservative parties own positions…I guess the penny dropped…holy crap…I mean did you even realize yourself how far right you had drifted?
in the meantime I am committing the music to red haired boy to memory. at slow speed it is like this scottish lament but brightens up when played fast. stroke of luck I have this country instrumental compilation by NASHVILLE session pickers with this tune and old joe clark on it. nifty stuff. And the music by Steve Carr on bluegrassguitar.com and dude you are swinging . yee hahhh
@ Eco Maori , thanks for that. I really love that Folkways stuff, have been collecting it for many years.,,haven't got that one though, strangely I haven't even seen it in NZ, and I have been a record collector since I was a young man….just found one on Ebay, going to fill that hole in my collection.
Great record too, listening to it now on youtube..thanks again.
Here is a good interview on the history of Folkways that might interest you…
'Worlds Of Sound' A Tribute To Folkways
"Sixty years ago, Moses Asch set out with the lofty ambition to record "all the sound of the world." He established Folkways Records — "the little label that could" — and in the decades that followed, Folkways recorded everything from folk singers, to jazz greats, to sounds of the natural world."
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.06pm on Tuesday, March 19:Kāinga Ora’s dry rot The Spinoff DailyBill McKibben on ‘Climate Superfunds’ making Big Oil pay for climate damage The Crucial YearsPreston Mui on returning to 1980s-style productivity growth NoahpinionAndy Boenau on NIMBYs needing unusual bedfellows Urbanism SpeakeasyNed Resnikoff's case ...
Negative yesterday, negative today. Negative all year, according to one departing reader telling me I’ve grown strident and predictable. Fair enough. If it’s any help, every time I go to write about a certain topic that begins with C and ends with arrrrs, I do brace myself and ask: Again? Are ...
Bryce Edwards writes – It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just show a minimal amount of flux in public support ...
Inspirational: The Family of Man is a glorious hymn to human equality, but, more than that, it is a clarion call to human freedom. Because equality, unleavened by liberty, is a broken piano, an unstrung harp; upon which the songs of fraternity will never be played.“Somebody must have been telling lies about ...
Tax Lawyer Barbara Edmonds vs Emperor Justinian I- Nolo Contendere: False historical explanations of pivotal events are very far from being inconsequential.WHEN BARBARA EDMONDS made reference to the Roman Empire, my ears pricked up. It is, lamentably, very rare to hear a politician admit to any kind of familiarity ...
It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just show a minimal amount of flux in public support for the various parties in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Housing Minister Chris Bishop delivered news – packed with the ingredients to enflame political passions – worthy of supplanting Winston Peters in headline writers’ priorities. He popped up at the post-Cabinet press conference to promise a crackdown on unruly and antisocial state housing tenants. His ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The Reserve Bank is advertising for a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion advisor. The Bank has one mandate – to keep inflation between one and three percent. It has failed in that and is only slowly getting inflation back down to the upper limit. Will it ...
Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency Waka KotahiThe fact that a ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Gavin Jacobson talks to Thomas Piketty 10 years on from Capital in the 21st CenturyThe SalvoLocal scoop: Green MP’s business being investigated over migrant exploitation claims StuffSteve KilgallonLocal deep-dive: The commercial contractors making money from School ...
It’s a home - but Kāinga Ora tenants accused of “abusing the privilege” may lose it. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The Government announced a crackdown on Kāinga Ora tenants who were unruly and/or behind on their rent, with Housing Minister Chris Bishop saying a place in a state ...
This is a guest post by Connor Sharp of Surface Light Rail Light rail in Auckland: A way forward sooner than you think With the coup de grâce of Auckland Light Rail (ALR) earlier this year, and the shift of the government’s priorities to roads, roads, and more roads, it ...
Note: As a paid-up Webworm member, I’ve recorded this Webworm as a mini-podcast for you as well. Some of you said you liked this option - so I aim to provide it when I get a chance to record! Read more ...
TL;DR: In my ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.06pm on Monday, March 18:IKEA is accused of planting big forests in New Zealand to green-wash; REDD-MonitorA City for People takes a well-deserved victory lap over Wellington’s pro-YIMBY District Plan votes; A City for PeopleSteven Anastasiou takes a close look at the sticky ...
Buzz from the Beehive Here’s hoping for a lively post-cabinet press conference when the PM and – perhaps – some of his ministers tell us what was discussed at their meeting today. Until then, Point of Order has precious little Beehive news to report after its latest monitoring of the ...
David Farrar writes – We now have almost all 2023 data in, which has allowed me to update my annual table of how labour went against its promises. This is basically their final report card. The promiseThe result Build 100,000 affordable homes over 10 ...
I’m a bit worried that I’ve started a previous newsletter with the words “just when you think they couldn’t get any worse…” Seems lately that I could begin pretty much every issue with that opening. Such is the nature of our coalition government that they seem to be outdoing each ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. ...
Depictions of Islam in Western popular culture have rarely been positive, even before 9/11. Five years on from the mosque shootings, this is one of the cultural headwinds that the Muslim community has to battle against. Whatever messages of tolerance and inclusion are offered in daylight, much of our culture ...
Last week Transport Minster Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre. The new train control centre will see teams from KiwiRail, Auckland Transport and Auckland One Rail working more closely together to improve train services across the city. The Auckland Rail Operations Centre in ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson said in an exit interview with Q+A yesterday the Government can and should sustain more debt to invest in infrastructure for future generations. Elsewhere in the news in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 6:36am: Read more ...
Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. It is more than just a happy ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to March 18 include:China’s Foreign Minister visiting Wellington today;A post-cabinet news conference this afternoon; the resumption of Parliament on Tuesday for two weeks before Easter;retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson gives his valedictory speech in Parliament; ...
New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters’s state-of-the-nation speech on Sunday was really a state-of-Winston-First speech. He barely mentioned any of the Government’s key policies and could not even wholly endorse its signature income tax cuts. Instead, he rehearsed all of his complaints about the Ardern Government, including an extraordinary claim ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
“I’ve been internalising a really complicated situation in my head.”When they kept telling us we should wait until we get to know him, were they taking the piss? Was it a case of, if you think this is bad, wait till you get to know the real Christopher, after the ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
.“$10 and a target that bleeds” - Bleeding Targets for Under $10!.Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.This government appears hell-bent on either scrapping life-saving legislation or reintroducing things that - frustrated critics insist - will be dangerous and likely ...
“It hardly strikes me as fair to criticise a government for doing exactly what it said it was going to do. For actually keeping its promises.”THUNDER WAS PLAYING TAG with lightning flashes amongst the distant peaks. Its rolling cadences interrupted by the here-I-come-here-I-go Doppler effect of the occasional passing car. ...
Subversive & Disruptive Technologies: Just as happened with that other great regulator of the masses, the Medieval Church, the advent of a new and hard-to-control technology – the Internet – is weakening the ties that bind. Then, and now, those who enjoy a monopoly on the dissemination of lies, cannot and will ...
Been Here Before: To find the precedents for what this Coalition Government is proposing, it is necessary to return to the “glory days” of Muldoonism.THE COALITION GOVERNMENT has celebrated its first 100 days in office by checking-off the last of its listed commitments. It remains, however, an angry government. It ...
Bob Edlin writes – And what is the world watching today…? The email newsletter from Associated Press which landed in our mailbox early this morning advised: In the news today: The father of a school shooter has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter; prosecutors in Trump’s hush-money case ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is another Green MP on their way out? And are the Greens severely tarnished by another integrity scandal? For the second time in three months, the Green Party has secretly suspended an MP over integrity issues. Mystery is surrounding the party’s decision to ...
For the last few years, the Green Party has been the party that has managed to avoid the plague of multiple scandals that have beleaguered other political parties. It appears that their luck has run out with a second scandal which, unfortunately for them, coincided with Golraz Ghahraman, the focus ...
TL;DR: The six newsey things that stood out to me as of 6:46am on Saturday, March 16.Andy Foster has accidentally allowed a Labour/Green amendment to cut road user chargers for plug-in hybrid vehicles, which the Government might accept; NZ HeraldThomas CoughlanSimeon Brown has rejected a plea from Westport ...
What seemed a booming success a couple of years ago has collapsed into fraud convictions.I looked at the crash of FTX (short for ‘Futures Exchange’) in November 2022 to see whether it would impact on the financial system as a whole. Fortunately there was barely a ripple, probably because it ...
Anybody following the situation in Ukraine and Russia would probably have been amused by a recent Tweet on X NATO seems to be putting in an awful lot of effort to influence what is, at least according to them, a sham election in an autocracy.When do the Ukrainians go to ...
TL;DR:Shaun Baker on Wynyard Quarter's transformation. Magdalene Taylor on the problem with smart phones. How private equity are now all over reinsurance. Dylan Cleaver on rugby and CTE. Emily Atkin on ‘Big Meat’ looking like ‘Big Oil’.Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15Photo by Jeppe Hove Jensen ...
Buzz from the Beehive Finance Minister Nicola Willis had plenty to say when addressing the Auckland Business Chamber on the economic growth that (she tells us) is flagging more than we thought. But the government intends to put new life into it: We want our country to be a ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee has reported back on the Road User Charges (Light Electric RUC Vehicles) Amendment Bill, basicly rubberstamping it. While there was widespread support among submitters for the principle that EV and PHEV drivers should pay their fair share for the roads, they also overwhelmingly disagreed with ...
Peter Dunne writes – This week’s government bailout – the fifth in the last eighteen months – of the financially troubled Ruapehu Alpine Lifts company would have pleased many in the central North Island ski industry. The government’s stated rationale for the $7 million funding was that it ...
See if you can spot the difference. An Iranian born female MP from a progressive party is accused of serial shoplifting. Her name is leaked to the media, which goes into a pack frenzy even before the Police launch an … Continue reading → ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The government is omitting general Treaty references from legislation : The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last Government in a bid to get greater coherence in the public service on Treaty ...
What was that judge thinking?Peter Williams writes – That Golriz Ghahraman and District Court Judge Maria Pecotic were once lawyer colleagues is incontrovertible. There is published evidence that they took at least one case to the Court of Appeal together. There was a report on ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Climate Scorpion – the sting is in the tail. Introducing planetary solvency. A paper via the University of Exeter’s Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.Local scoop:Kāinga Ora starts pulling out of its Auckland projects and selling land RNZ ...
Wellington’s massively upzoned District Plan adds the opportunity for tens of thousands of new homes not just in the central city (such as these Webb St new builds) but also close to the CBD and public transport links. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Wellington gave itself the chance of ...
It’s Friday and we’re halfway through March Madness. Here’s some of the things that caught our attention this week. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt asked how we can get better event trains and an option for grade separating Morningside Dr. On Tuesday Matt looked into ...
Something you might not know about me is that I’m quite a stubborn person. No, really. I don’t much care for criticism I think’s unfair or that I disagree with. Few of us do I suppose.Back when I was a drinker I’d sometimes respond defensively, even angrily. There are things ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:PM Christopher Luxon said the reversal of interest deductibility for landlords was done to help renters, who ...
It was not so much the Labour Party but really the Chris Hipkins party yesterday at Labour’s caucus retreat in Martinborough. The former Prime Minister was more or less consistent on wealth tax, which he was at best equivocal about, and social insurance, which he was not willing to revisit. ...
Buzz from the BeehiveThe text reproduced above appears on a page which records all the media statements and speeches posted on the government’s official website by Melissa Lee as Minister of Media and Communications and/or by Jenny Marcroft, her Parliamentary Under-secretary. It can be quickly analysed ...
For forty years, Robert Muldoon has been a dirty word in our politics. His style of government was so repulsive and authoritarian that the backlash to it helped set and entrench our constitutional norms. His pig-headedness over forcing through Think Big eventually gave us the RMA, with its participation and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is the new government reducing tax on rental properties to benefit landlords or to cut the cost of rents? That’s the big question this week, after Associate Finance Minister David Seymour announced on Sunday that the Government would be reversing the Labour Government’s removal ...
Saudi Arabia is rarely far from the international spotlight. The war in Gaza has brought new scrutiny to Saudi plans to normalise relations with Israel, while the fifth anniversary of the controversial killing of Jamal Khashoggi was marked shortly before the war began on October 7. And as the home ...
Questions need to be asked on both sides of the worldPeter Williams writes – The NRL Judiciary hands down an eight week suspension to Sydney Roosters forward Spencer Leniu , an Auckland-born Samoan, after he calls Ezra Mam, Sydney-orn but of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ...
Ele Ludemann writes – Contrary to what many headlines and news stories are saying, residential landlords are not getting a tax break. The government is simply restoring to them the tax deductibility of interest they had until the previous government removed it. There is no logical reason ...
I can't remember when it was goodMoments of happiness in bloomMaybe I just misunderstoodAll of the love we left behindWatching our flashbacks intertwineMemories I will never findIn spite of whatever you becomeForget that reckless thing turned onI think our lives have just begunI think our lives have just begunDoes anyone ...
Michael Bassett writes – At first reading, a front-page story in the New Zealand Herald on 13 March was bizarre. A group of severely intellectually limited teenagers, with little understanding of the law, have been pleading to the Justice Select Committee not to pass a bill dealing with ram ...
How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast TV, the original ”rock solid” $2.1 billion cost he was ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Jonathon Porritt calling bullshit in his own blog post on mainstream climate science as ‘The New Denialism’.Local scoop:The Wellington City Council’s list of proposed changes to the IHP recommendations to be debated later today was leaked this ...
TL;DR:Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said yesterday tenants should be grateful for the reinstatement of interest deductibility because landlords would pass on their lower tax costs in the form of lower rents. That would be true if landlords were regulated monopolies such as Transpower or Auckland Airport1, but they’re not, ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Tom Toro Tom Toro is a cartoonist and author. He has published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010. His cartoons appear in Playboy, the Paris Review, the New York Times, American Bystander, and elsewhere. Related: What 10 EV lovers ...
The business section of the NZ Herald is full of opinion. Among the more opinionated of all is the ex-Minister of Transport, ex-Minister of Railways, ex MP for Auckland Central (1975-93, Labour), Wellington Central (1996-99, ACT, then list-2005), ex-leader of the ACT Party, uncle to actor Antonia, the veritable granddaddy ...
Hi,Just quickly — I’m blown away by the stories you’ve shared with me over the last week since I put out the ‘Gary’ podcast, where I told you about the time my friend’s flatmate killed the neighbour.And you keep telling me stories — in the comments section, and in my ...
The first season of Rings of Power was not awful. It was thoroughly underwhelming, yes, and left a lingering sense of disappointment, but it was more expensive mediocrity than catastrophe. I wrote at length about the series as it came out (see the Review section of the blog, and go ...
Buzz from the Beehive Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden told Auckland Business Chamber members they were the first audience to hear her priorities as a minister in a government committed to cutting red tape and regulations. She brandished her liberalising credentials, saying Flexible labour markets are the ...
Chris Trotter writes – TO UNDERSTAND WHY NEWSHUB FAILED, it is necessary to understand how TVNZ changed. Up until 1989, the state broadcaster had been funded by a broadcasting licence fee, collected from every citizen in possession of a television set, supplemented by a relatively modest (compared ...
Bob Edlin writes – The Māori Party has been busy issuing a mix of warnings and threats as its expresses its opposition to interest deductibility for landlords and the plans of seabed miners. It remains to be seen whether they follow the example of indigenous litigants in Australia, ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
The New Zealand public voted for a change in direction at the 2023 general election and that is exactly what this coalition government has been delivering in its first 100 days. There was an immediate focus on the economy, easing the cost of living, cracking down on law and order ...
The Government has left the health system as an afterthought, announcing half-baked targets at the last minute of their 100-day plan, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
Kiwis are still waiting for their promised cost of living support after 100 days of a National Government that is taking us backwards, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
100 days of National taking NZ backwardsThe National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
The Government must commit to funding free and healthy school lunches, as thousands of people sign the petition to keep them, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti says. ...
If the Government was serious about moving families into public housing, they would build more houses so there is actually somewhere for people to go. ...
The free and healthy school lunches programme feeds our kids, helps them to learn, and saves families money – but it is at risk under this Government, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
The Government’s proposed changes to Firearms Prohibition Orders (FPO) add almost nothing new and are merely an attempt to distract from its plans to loosen gun laws, police spokesperson Ginny Andersen and justice spokesperson Dr Duncan Webb said. ...
The great Victorian era English politician Lord Macauley stood in the British House of Parliament and said, "The gallery in which the reporters sit has become a fourth estate of the realm".He understood and outlined even way back then, the significant role and influence media have in a democracy. ...
"The Government is moving quickly to realise an additional $46 million in tariff savings in the EU market this season for Kiwi exporters,” Minister for Trade and Agriculture, Todd McClay says. Parliament is set, this week, to complete the final legislative processes required to bring the New Zealand – European ...
New Zealand’s social workers are qualified, experienced, and more representative of the communities they serve, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “I want to acknowledge and applaud New Zealand’s social workers for the hard work they do, providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable. “To coincide with World ...
Cabinet has agreed to a reduced road user charge (RUC) rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. Owners of PHEVs will be eligible for a reduced rate of $38 per 1,000km once all light electric vehicles (EVs) move into the RUC system from 1 April. ...
Minister of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McClay, says that today’s opening of Riverland Foods manufacturing plant in Christchurch is a great example of how trade access to overseas markets creates jobs in New Zealand. Speaking at the official opening of this state-of-the-art pet food factory the Minister noted that exports ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Wellington today. “It was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017. Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, ...
Kāinga Ora – Homes & Communities has been instructed to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework and take stronger measures against persistent antisocial behaviour by tenants, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Earlier today Finance Minister Nicola Willis and I sent an interim Letter of Expectations to the Board of Kāinga Ora. ...
Tēna koutou katoa. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the Honourable Simon Bridges for hosting this address today. I acknowledge the business leaders in this room, the leaders and governors, the employers, the entrepreneurs, the investors, and the wealth creators. The coalition Government shares your ...
Minister Winston Peters completed the final leg of his visit to South and South East Asia in Singapore today, where he focused on enhancing one of New Zealand’s indispensable strategic partnerships. “Singapore is our most important defence partner in South East Asia, our fourth-largest trading partner and a ...
Minister of Internal Affairs and Workplace Relations and Safety, Hon. Brooke van Velden, will travel to the Republic of Korea to represent New Zealand at the Third Summit for Democracy on 18 March. The summit, hosted by the Republic of Korea, was first convened by the United States in 2021, ...
ICNZ Speech 7 March 2024, Auckland Acknowledgements and opening Mōrena, ngā mihi nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Good morning, it’s a privilege to be here to open the ICNZ annual conference, thank you to Mark for the Mihi Whakatau My thanks to Tim Grafton for inviting me ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Lead Coordination Minister Judith Collins have expressed their deepest sympathy on the five-year anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks. “March 15, 2019, was a day when families, communities and the country came together both in sorrow and solidarity,” Mr Luxon says. “Today we pay our respects to the 51 shuhada ...
Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024 Acknowledgements and opening Morena, Nga Mihi Nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Thanks Nate for your Mihi Whakatau Good morning. It’s a pleasure to formally open your conference this morning. What a lovely day in Wellington, What a great ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters held discussions in Jakarta today about the future of relations between New Zealand and South East Asia’s most populous country. “We are in Jakarta so early in our new government’s term to reflect the huge importance we place on our relationship with Indonesia and South ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters has announced that the Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi, will visit New Zealand next week. “We look forward to re-engaging with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussing the full breadth of the bilateral relationship, which is one of New Zealand’s ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has today opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre, which will bring together KiwiRail, Auckland Transport, and Auckland One Rail to improve service reliability for Aucklanders. “The recent train disruptions in Auckland have highlighted how important it is KiwiRail and Auckland’s rail agencies work together to ...
The Government is proud to support the 10th edition of Crankworx Rotorua as the Crankworx World Tour returns to Rotorua from 16-24 March 2024, says Minister for Economic Development Melissa Lee. “Over the past 10 years as Crankworx Rotorua has grown, so too have the economic and social benefits that ...
Legislation implementing coalition Government tax commitments and addressing long-standing tax anomalies will be progressed in Parliament next week, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The legislation is contained in an Amendment Paper to the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill issued today. “The Amendment Paper represents ...
Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard has today announced that the Government has agreed to suspend the requirement for councils to comply with the Significant Natural Areas (SNA) provisions of the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity for three years, while it replaces the Resource Management Act (RMA).“As it stands, SNAs ...
Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has classified the drought conditions in the Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts as a medium-scale adverse event, acknowledging the challenging conditions facing farmers and growers in the district. “Parts of Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts are in the grip of an intense dry spell. I know ...
The Government is helping farmers eradicate the significant impact of facial eczema (FE) in pastoral animals, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “A $20 million partnership jointly funded by Beef + Lamb NZ, the Government, and the primary sector will save farmers an estimated NZD$332 million per year, and aims to ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has completed a successful visit to India, saying it was an important step in taking the relationship between the two countries to the next level. “We have laid a strong foundation for the Coalition Government’s priority of enhancing New Zealand-India relations to generate significant future benefit for both countries,” says Mr Peters, ...
Cabinet has agreed to provide $7 million to ensure the 2024 ski season can go ahead on the Whakapapa ski field in the central North Island but has told the operator Ruapehu Alpine Lifts it is the last financial support it will receive from taxpayers. Cabinet also agreed to provide ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Lower fruit and vegetable prices are welcome news for New Zealanders who have been doing it tough at the supermarket, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Stats NZ reported today the price of fruit and vegetables has dropped 9.3 percent in the 12 months to February 2024. “Lower fruit and vege ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the sixty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
The coalition Government is supporting farmers to enhance land management practices by investing $3.3 million in locally led catchment groups, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “Farmers and growers deliver significant prosperity for New Zealand and it’s vital their ongoing efforts to improve land management practices and water quality are supported,” ...
Good evening everyone and thank you for that lovely introduction. Thank you also to the Honourable Simon Bridges for the invitation to address your members. Since being sworn in, this coalition Government has hit the ground running with our 100-day plan, delivering the changes that New Zealanders expect of us. ...
Recommendations from the Climate Change Commission for New Zealand on the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) auction and unit limit settings for the next five years have been tabled in Parliament, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “The Commission provides advice on the ETS annually. This is the third time the ...
The coalition Government is beginning its fight to lower building costs and reduce red tape by exempting minor building work from paying the building levy, says Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk. “Currently, any building project worth $20,444 including GST or more is subject to the building levy which is ...
Proposed changes to tax legislation to prevent the over-taxation of low-earning trusts are welcome, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The changes have been recommended by Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee following consideration of submissions on the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill. “One of the ...
Assalaamu alaikum. السَّلَام عليكم In light of the holy month of Ramadan, I want to extend my warmest wishes to our Muslim community in New Zealand. Ramadan is a time for spiritual reflection, renewed devotion, perseverance, generosity, and forgiveness. It’s a time to strengthen our bonds and appreciate the diversity ...
Former Transport Minister and CEO of the Auckland Business Chamber Hon Simon Bridges has been appointed as the new Board Chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) for a three-year term, Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced today. “Simon brings extensive experience and knowledge in transport policy and governance to the role. He will ...
Good morning all, it is a pleasure to be here as Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology. It is fantastic to see how connected and collaborative the life science and biotechnology industry is here in New Zealand. I would like to thank BioTechNZ and NZTech for the invitation to address ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says he is looking forward to the day when three key water projects in Northland are up and running, unlocking the full potential of land in the region. Mr Jones attended a community event at the site of the Otawere reservoir near Kerikeri on Friday. ...
Associate Finance Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government has agreed to restore deductibility for mortgage interest on residential investment properties. “Help is on the way for landlords and renters alike. The Government’s restoration of interest deductibility will ease pressure on rents and simplify the tax code,” says ...
Sport and Recreation Minister Chris Bishop will travel to Switzerland today to attend an Executive Committee meeting and Symposium of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Mr Bishop will then travel on to London where he will attend a series of meetings in his capacity as Infrastructure Minister. “New Zealanders believe ...
Pacific Media Watch Earthwise hosts Lois and Martin Griffiths. Earthwise presenters Lois and Martin Griffiths on Plains FM 96.9 community radio talk to Dr David Robie, a New Zealand author, independent journalist and media educator with a passion for the Asia-Pacific region. David talks about the struggle to raise awareness ...
Pacific Media Watch Ismail al-Ghoul, an Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent who was held for 12 hours at Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital, says Israeli forces rounded up Palestinian journalists at the facility and made them kneel on the ground for hours, while naked and blindfolded. “The occupation forces handcuffed and blindfolded us ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Wood, Program Director, Energy, Grattan Institute chinasong, Shutterstock Electricity customers in four Australian states can breathe a sigh of relief. After two years in a row of 20% price increases, power prices have finally stabilised. In many places they’re ...
Chumbawamba have reportedly issued the deputy PM a cease-and-desist notice after he used their song 'Tubthumping' before his state of the nation speech. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Deborah Lupton, SHARP Professor, Vitalities Lab, Centre for Social Research in Health and Social Policy Centre, and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society, UNSW Sydney kitzcorner/Shutterstock The assertion from Queensland’s chief health officer John Gerrard that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Shutterstock Why are musicians so keen to get played on the radio? It can’t be because of the money. In Australia they are paid at rates so low they ...
"Farmers make a point not to tell our urban cousins how to live, yet Chlöe from central Auckland is hell-bent on having her say about farmers," says ACT Rural Communities spokesman Mark Cameron. “On her first day in the House as Green ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards – Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Curran, Associate Professor of Ecology, Lincoln University, New Zealand Getty Images/Gerald Corsi In the latest move to reform environmental laws in New Zealand, the coalition government has introduced a bill to fast-track consenting processes for projects deemed to ...
Uber has argued it does not have as much control over drivers as the unions suggest, and wants a judgment ruling that drivers are employees and not contractors set aside and sent back to the Employment Court. The 2022 ruling followed a three-week hearing in which four drivers sought to ...
What can and can’t be purchased by disabled people or their carers has been slashed in an effort by the Ministry of Disabled People Whaikaha to save money. The purchasing guidelines, a set of rules that sets out what can be purchased using the various streams of Government disability funding, ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Tod Wright and Hien Nguyen, Fiscal incidence in New Zealand: The effects of taxes and benefits on household incomes in tax year 2018/19 . Analyses of the distributional impact of taxation and government ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Cory Davis, Boston Hart and Benjamin Stubbing, Household cost-of-living impacts from the Emissions Trading Scheme and using transfers to mitigate regressive outcomes . This Analytical Note ...
A coalition of public transport and climate organisations, united as ‘Transport for All’, is actively opposing the government’s transport proposals. The draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) includes plans for higher fares for public transport, ...
Greater Wellington is inviting feedback on proposed changes to its Revenue and Financing Policy. The Revenue and Financing Policy covers the Council’s various sources of funding, and how the cost of services is shared across the region. This includes ...
Labour has conceded it could have done more to deal with disruptive state housing tenants while in government but says the current coalition is going too far. ...
The band has asked their record label to issue a cease and desist to stop the NZ First leader using their 1997 hit to support his ‘misguided political views’. “I get knocked down, but I get up again,” blared through the speakers on Sunday as Winston Peters took the stage ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist Food rationing is underway in remote areas in Papua New Guinea’s Highlands following torrential rain and flash flooding. More than 20 people have been reported dead in Chimbu Province. In nearby Enga Province, the centre of last month’s massacre, a 15-year-old boy has been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Hughes, Lecturer, Research School of Management, Australian National University After months of debate and intrigue, the AFL’s 19th and newest team, the Tasmania Devils, finally launched its jumper, logo and colours in Devonport this week. The Devils will wear green, ...
Brannavan Gnanalingam reviews the debut novel by Saraid de Silva.One of the most baffling things for children who move to a new country is what their parents’ (or grandparents’) lives were like prior to moving – for kids in particular, they’re too busy trying to fit in in their ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Gaunson, Associate Professor in Cinema Studies, RMIT University Narelle Portanier/Binge “If you don’t know who your mob are, you don’t know who you are,” Detective Andrea “Andie” Whitford (played by Leah Purcell) is told early into the new crime ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elise Klein, Associate professor, Australian National University It’s commonly accepted that women do the vast majority of caregiving in Australian society. But less appreciated is that Indigenous women do larger amounts of unpaid care than any other group. Working with the Aboriginal ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne Joe Biden and Donald Trump have both secured their parties’ nominations for the November 5 United States general election by winning a ...
Comment: There has been a striking contrast in trans-Tasman interest about Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi’s visit to New Zealand and Australia. While the Australian press has been full of articles about the visit – including his curious decision to meet with former prime minister and China booster Paul Keating ...
After years of pressuring banks and other institutions to stop investing in fossil fuels, climate campaigners are making some progress. So how does divestment work?For years, climate activists have been pushing banks and other big institutions to divest from fossil fuels. New research from climate advocacy group 350 Aotearoa ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. The three young Polynesians are part of a K-pop fan community in Tāmaki Makaurau. It’s one of many that have sprung up worldwide as K-pop has gone ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. This one-off documentary presents three intimate portraits of young Polynesians who are pulled into a Korean cultural phenomenon. K-POLYS is directed by Litia Tuiburelevu, Produced by Hex ...
There’s ample evidence demonstrating free school lunch programmes provide wide benefits across schools, households and communities according to public health researchers. ACT Minister David Seymour wants to reduce the spending on Aotearoa New Zealand’s ...
By Wata Shaw in Suva Fiji is facing an exodus of Fijians as many are leaving for overseas seeking employment and education and others are migrating, says Opposition MP Viliame Naupoto. Speaking in Parliament, he said: “His Excellency’s speech (Ratu Wiliame Katonivere) comes after a little over one year of ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming comments from Christopher Luxon this morning recommitting to ‘no new taxes’ as part of Budget 2024. “Mr Luxon’s refusal at the Post-Cabinet press conference yesterday to repeat the ‘no new taxes’ promise ...
SAFE is urgently calling on the Environment Committee to reject the Government’s Fast-Track Approvals Bill, and is urging New Zealanders to rally behind the call. The proposed Bill, currently under consideration with the Environment select committee, ...
Teammates who spend all their time picking fights with spectators are only helpful for the other team, writes Madeleine Chapman. Anyone who has ever played a team sport competitively, particularly as a child and particularly, for some reason, basketball, will know that there’s a lot of politics involved. While there ...
The long-running Wellington music festival is too focused on the Jim Beam-ness and not enough on the Homegrown-ness.There is something about Homegrown that’s difficult to place. A barely perceptible-ness. Like feeling a ghost is watching you from the corner of the room but when you look, there’s nothing there. ...
The latest Ipsos New Zealand Issues Monitor reveals that fewer New Zealanders believe crime / law and order is one of the top issues facing our country. In 2018, Ipsos New Zealand started tracking the key issues facing New Zealand. In this wave ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Griffiths, Deputy Program Director, Budgets and Government, Grattan Institute Australia’s political donations rules are woefully inadequate, but donations reform is finally on the agenda. The federal government has signalled its interest in reform and will soon begin briefing MPs on its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Patrick Taylor, Chief Environmental Scientist, EPA Victoria; Honorary Professor, School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University Naiyana Somchitkaeo/Shutterstock A recent study published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine has linked microplastics with risk to human health. The study ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Albert Van Dijk, Professor, Water and Landscape Dynamics, Fenner School of Environment & Society, Australian National University Global climate records were shattered in 2023, from air and sea temperatures to sea-level rise and sea-ice extent. Scores of countries recorded their hottest year ...
As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a teacher explains why he and his partner are in frugal mode – and how they’re making it work. Gender: Male Age: 35Ethnicity: Pākehā Role: I am an intermediate school teacher and my partner is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Bendall, Senior Lecturer, Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, Australian Catholic University Binge Mary & George, the new British television drama series, depicts the real-life story of Mary Villiers and her son George, and their social climbing at the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jason Nassios, Associate Professor, Centre of Policy Studies, Victoria University This article is part of The Conversation’s series examining the housing crisis. Read the other articles in the series here. Australian state and federal governments spend money in many ways to ...
The finance minister is denying that there’s a $5.6b shortfall in paying for the government’s campaign promises, including tax cuts. At his post-cabinet press conference yesterday, the PM refused to rule out new taxes to pay for the cuts, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s ...
Kāinga Ora tenants abused by their neighbours are doubting the government's crackdown on disruptive tenants will make a difference on their behaviour. ...
Kāinga Ora is New Zealand’s biggest residential landlord, housing more than 180,000 vulnerable people in more than 67,000 properties. Yesterday the government announced a crackdown on its tenants who fall behind on rent. One longtime Kāinga Ora tenant shares her experience.For 18 years I lived in a 1960s standalone ...
Why does this myth persist, and what’s the real reason our skin is suffering?It’s one of the biggest international grievances New Zealanders hold, up there with the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior and 1981’s underarm incident. We’re quick to tell international travellers that the world’s pollution led to the ...
A huge seven months lies in store for the White Ferns, beginning this week with the visit of England and culminating with the T20 World Cup in Bangladesh in September and October. Starting on Tuesday in Dunedin, the world ranked No. 2 visitors will play five T20s and three ODIs, ...
Opinion: In a move that has shocked road safety advocates across the country, the new Minister of Transport, Simeon Brown, is poised to abandon the previous government’s speed limit reduction policy, particularly around schools. Even more alarmingly, he wants school speed limits to be variable rather than full-time, arguing ...
Auckland Council is opposing a fast-track development backed by Sir John Kirwan and Spark NZ, because it doesn’t meet stringent new climate adaptation requirements The post Surf-data centre faces new 3.8C climate warming rules appeared first on Newsroom. ...
When the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act was introduced in 2009 it was firmly targeted at gangs and drugs. The legislation means police no longer need a conviction to seize assets that criminals can’t prove were paid for legitimately, as long as their alleged offences are punishable by more than a ...
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Bob’s relationship with certain members of Lincoln’s academic staff continued to deteriorate in the 1990s. Others supported him publicly, though articles such as Roland Clark’s 1993 piece in Growing Today cannot have pleased the university management. Clark wrote that Bob was selling onions from the Biological Husbandry Unit to a ...
SailGP’s races feature in-your-face action, with agile, hydro-foiling catamarans tacking and jibing for the title over several days. However, public comments ahead of the global series’ return to New Zealand have left this past year’s controversy in the shadows, as a key appointment attracts criticism from dolphin advocates. A year ...
Opinion: We are fast approaching a fundamental change in prisons. As the number of people on custodial remand looks set to overtake the number of sentenced prisoners, the main function of prisons in New Zealand may become incarcerating un-sentenced people who may not be guilty of offending. We have already ...
The letters, which were published last week, were addressed to Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) Chairperson Megawati Sukarnoputri, National Democrat Party (NasDem) Chairperson Surya Paloh, National Awakening Party (PKB) Chairperson Muhaimin Iskandar, Justice and Prosperity Party (PKS) President Ahmad Syaikhu and United Development Party (PPP) Chairperson Muhammad Mardiono. In ...
Evicting more people from state housing is ignorant to the consequences of poverty, the Greens say, but the Housing Minister says it's a privilege that can be taken away if abused. ...
Evicting more people from state housing is ignorant to the consequences of poverty, the Greens say, but the Housing Minister says it's a privilege that can be taken away if abused. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emerald L King, Lecturer in Humanities, University of Tasmania IMDB Between Netflix’s 2023 live-action version of One Piece, and its latest take on Avatar: The Last Airbender, fans are once again asking: why are live-action anime adaptations so tricky to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emerald L King, Lecturer in Humanities, University of Tasmania IMDB Between Netflix’s 2023 live-action version of One Piece, and its latest take on Avatar: The Last Airbender, fans are once again asking: why are live-action anime adaptations so tricky to ...
The government says it still intends to deliver tax cuts by July, but will not lock them in until they have got them past their coalition partners. ...
"The obvious explanation for wealth growing during the pandemic is that we are simply seeing the effect of businesses and consumers buying into the central banks’ confidence trick.
Monetary easing has inflated the value of house prices, shares and pension schemes beyond their fundamentals, making us collectively better off on paper – but not in actuality."
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/opinion-analysis/124468085/covid-seems-to-have-left-us-wealthier-but-less-productive-and-that-cant-add-up
And the million dollar question is will widespread realisation be sudden or gradual?…..I’d suggest the former.
A lot of it will be the effects of the border being closed to tourism. The money we would have spent travelling the world has been spent in New Zealand, with multiplier effects as that moves around the economy, or saved. So individually and collectively we get richer.
I wouldn't be surprised if one of the 'learnings' once the washup is done of our Covid experience is that tourism, both outbound and inbound was a major net negative to our economy.
Ahem. Correct management-speak is 'learnings going forwud'.
The multiplier effect works in both directions.
The 'fundamentals' he references is essentially productivity .
Productivity is essentially more efficient use of energy.
EROI is decreasing so productivity must decrease.
And yet we waste that energy on consumerism.
Having said I agree that we may belatedly realise that our 'biggest export earner' was in fact simply a swap to enable the few to live the life of Riley
yes, many in my circle of aquantainances have spent up large on toys(boats, motorcycles,cars, spa pools etc) with $$$ that would otherwise be taken offshore. too many of our local tourism ventures are overseas owned and many busloads of asian tourists spend there money in asian owned facilities, so NZ really only benefits from gst, not the whole pie.I think you are on point graeme.
https://sptnkne.ws/FP7Z
A comment on the BBC.
British tax payers compulsory funding of this Imperialist propaganda tool.
Buwaaaahaha!
Pot calling the kettle black just nibbles at the edges of this one, an outright disinformation tool of the expansionist kremlin calling anyone else a propaganda tool.
How about we recognise that all the major nation's use soft power projection? And media channels which selectively distort and misinform are just part of this game? And that relying on any one of them to try and gain an objective sense of reality is just going to disappoint.
And at the same time there is still a remarkable amount of usable information out there, most sources don't make up shit all of the time, they cannot entirely disconnect from reality. Even uncritical people notice that.
Right now the media world is in a tough place, with reliable professionalism under siege from multiple directions. It's very difficult for any individual in the system to write fearlessly on all topics. But most of the time they do their best, and if in sum the ‘media’ falls short of our ideals, we can be grateful that we have literally at our fingertips a torrent of information that was unimaginable even just 30 years ago.
And it's a wild torrent that demands some effort if you want to swim in it.
It's also a torrent that is impossible to navigate without some structural understanding of how the world works. That this understanding can harden into ideology doesn't mean that we don't need it. The proliferation of lunacy we see everywhere parallels the proliferation of information.
Yes that's a really good way of putting it.
It's also why I've shifted my attention away from ideologies and toward the geopolitical and demographic realities that determine the fate of nations in the long run.
And one of the few good things about getting older is that I can look back and observe the things I used to believe, which have turned out to be not so true. And then contemplate that a fair chunk of what I believe now will likely have the same fate.
We all need some kind of belief and values system as a framework to conceive, grow, and store and share our hopes, dreams, and aspirations for and about the world and ourselves. This will give is a relatively safe haven to anchor and moor without which we will be pounded and pummelled by the waves and tidal currents of time and smashed on the rocks of reality. However, from time to time, we have to lift the anchor and leave the familiar small surroundings and seek other new places before they turn into a bay of boredom and we lose our mobility and become stale and fixated. After all, we are all sailors on an ocean of possibilities and fishermen of the sea.
A very apt metaphor.
This is weird. I thought you were banned for abuse until after Easter. How is it you are still able to comment here today?
Bit unclear as to what the mod meant by "you two".
Gabby definitely one, replying to RL, but there also seemed to be a comment that didn't get past premod or got deleted? but then Adrian has also been commenting today.
FYI
Very few comments never make it through to the front-end. This can happen when a ‘new’ commenter does not get past the Pre-Mod filter, e.g. when it is spam, utter vile crap, or an existing user trying to bypass a ban. Sometimes, commenters are put in Pre-Mod for a specific reason, but this always comes with a warning.
We never delete a comment from an existing user after it has actually appeared in the front-end without telling; it’ll show up as [deleted] and often is self-explanatory to the commenter and/or comes with a brief explanation – all this takes up Moderator time.
I’d like to think that Moderators here act with honesty and integrity and we can get a bit shitty when we’re accused of ‘censorship’ in all its gory forms.
HTH
A textbook example of wishful thinking AKA believing is seeing 😀
When I said “you two”, I obviously referred to Gabby and the Easter bunny. Doh!
It wasn't obvious at all.
Silly of me to expect that particular moderator to be held to the same standard as we mortals.
Well, Gabby and the Easter bunny did get it. So, obviously, it was obvious enough to them; your miscomprehension is irrelevant regardless unless you thought that RL was or should have been banned, which is also misplaced and irrelevant regardless.
Stop digging a hole for yourself.
Neither McFlock nor myself 'got it' so, yeah. Part of the problem for commenters is cryptic moderation notes.
[Part of the problem for Moderators is that you keep on creating problems here and that you don’t take a hint. In other words, stubborn obnoxious recidivist behaviour that is wasting time. I’m not going to waste my time repeating what I’ve written to you in recent comments and Moderation notes, one of which was a particularly clear Moderation note (https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-30-03-2021/#comment-1785916). Stop digging a hole or meet that molehill that you seem to be seeking so desperately; the signpost is clearly labelled: molehill or freedom to comment here. This is your warning – Incognito]
See my Moderation note @ 4:04 PM.
First time I've seen that "particularly clear" moderation note.
You didn't follow my comment very closely if you think I labelled RL's comment "woke-left". My entire position was that the use of the term right wing was for some reason frowned upon yet RL uses the pejorative "woke-left" on a daily basis in order to wind up commenters here.
[The onus is on you to read the replies to your comments and the alerts to Moderation notes.
You’re still trying to manipulate me into taking sides in your personal vendetta against RL. In fact, I’m starting to think that you’re trying to deliberately wind up RL and me as well.
You’re still ignoring the fact that you’re being moderated for your behaviour and conduct here on this site.
Stop wasting my time; this is your final warning – Incognito]
See my Moderation note @ 6:36 pm.
Brilliant!
It's a by product of getting old RL.
Another way of saying;
If only I knew then what I know now things might have been different. 😉
The proliferation of lunacy has less to do with the proliferation of information, but more to do with the proliferation of misinformation and disinformation.
To take the favourite example of the convergence moonbats trying to discredit mainstream media, the Iraq WMD lies (disinformation), the mainstream media were correctly and reporting the (evidence free) assertions of the Shrub and Blair administrations as assertions, and the misinformation reports originating from Ahmed Chalabi via Chris Hedges and Judith Miller and others, they were also reporting the (valid information as it turned out) leaks from the intelligence communities that those claims were a crock of crap, and also reporting the valid information that Hans Blix and his team of UN inspectors were finding nothing of significance that might justify an invasion.
Sorting the valid information from the crap is the difficult bit. It becomes a bit easier when you just don't give those in the habit of flooding the zone with shit an entry into your news stream.
And then there are those in the habit of not telling you that which they don't want you to know. That's a lot harder to detect if you only pay attention to a few 'good' channels that you happen to like. The absence of something is always much less apparent.
Thing is, on the rare (very rare) occasions Sputnik and RT have some sort of actual connection with reality, it's because reality just happens to align with what the Kremlin wants others to think.
The rarity of those occasions in the zone that's otherwise flooded with shit disinformation makes it a waste of time trying to filter through it, unless one has a particular interest in trying to sift through the sewage to glean what might be current Kremlin motivations.
It's a shame, because in the first couple of years, before the state agenda began to dominate reporting, they really were a breathe of fresh air.
It's a shame, because in the first couple of years, before the state agenda began to dominate reporting, they really were a breathe [sic] of fresh air.
You're correct to note the heavy bias of RT. I'm really appalled by the way they routinely use the most extreme right wing British and American talk radio boofheads to comment on British and American politics. Peter Lavelle's Crosstalk often threatens to be an interesting and informative program but is frequently derailed by the host himself unleashing some crazed extreme right wing opinions that ruin the rest of the program. On the plus side, however, RT regularly features real journalists and academics of unimpeachable integrity, such as Chris Hedges, Norman Finkelstein, and Noam Chomsky.
So does that description imply to you a primary editorial inclination towards truth, a primary editorial inclination towards clickbait, or a primary editorial inclination towards supporting internal criticism within the US and "West"?
Or some other primary editorial inclination?
Because it seems to me that their main role in regards to international affairs is to confuse reporting of Russian actions and motives while providing handy links and "evidence" for americans and western europeans to sow discontent within america and western europe. And any similarity with real people or events is purely coincidental.
Thing is, on the rare (very rare) occasions Sputnik and RT have some sort of actual connection with reality, it's because reality just happens to align with what the Kremlin wants others to think.
A mirror image, then, of the British state broadcaster, the BBC.
Nope, not a mirror image. The BBC frequently reports things that the UK government of the day would prefer were left unaired.
The bias in the BBC is merely consistent with its decision makers having the UK's best interests at heart, which is quite different to the way RT and Sputnik act as propaganda organisations promoting whatever disinformation the Kremlin is pushing at that moment.
The BBC frequently reports things that the UK government of the day would prefer were left unaired.
That was the case briefly at the beginning of this century. That period of independence came to a brutal end in 2003, after Andrew Gilligan plainly stated live on radio that the intelligence used to justify the attack on Iraq was "sexed up", i.e. manipulated and untrustworthy. Blair's chief enforcer, Alistair Campbell, instigated a jihad against the BBC, ensuring that the insubordinate and awkward director-general Greg Dyke—he believed his duty was to serve the public, not the Blair regime—was forced out and replaced by the compliant and reliable functionary Mark Thompson. The rest is gloomy and infuriating history.
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/mar/02/bbc-defends-distinctive-programmes-against-government-criticism
Yes, the BBC publishes articles containing critique of the UK government, it's actions and policies. I've asked before from those spouting the editorial 'independence' of RT etc. to link to stories criticising Putin or what he does in a negative light, but no joy as yet.
Today on the BBC UK politics page there are pieces on the outcry against the governments plan for covid passports for pubs and the Tory reception of the racial disparity report.
Not to mention TV programs like Panorama, which regularly put the boot in to the annoyance of number 10.
TBH, I don't pay much attention to the UK. It's just that there's been a bunch of times some topic has caught my eye and I've followed a BBC link for more info, and thought 'ooh, [prominent UK government figure] isn't going to like that getting out'.
The BBC is in a spot of bother if the documentary about the famous Princess Diana interview some 25 plus years the other night on TV1 is to be believed.
Its shaping up to be a story full of lies, deceit and dirty tricks followed by the inevitable cover-up by management.
Well the police have decided to rule out a criminal investigation into Bashir, the interviewer, over allegations from the Spencer family about the alleged use of false documentation to get HRH to do the sit down, so looks like bother gone.
Though if it were true, surely it would be a case of the Beeb going against the establishment and, not doing it's bidding, which is the opposite of what some people are saying.
With regards to the BBC making content against the government's party lines, I'd suggest you seek out the Panorama episode about their mismanagement of ppe supplies from last year. Shockingly on target.
The BBC then came under fire for using ‘labour activists’ to push the message in the program.
So, if they had been 'tory activists' pushing a line then I presume they would not come under fire – at least not to the same extent.
If 'the state' decrees there is to be no investigation then the police will not investigate. Wouldn't be the first time that has happened and it won't be the last.
You'll have to put it in context with what's been written above.
The notion being that the BBC is a total shill for the British government. Using the examples I've given, that is very much open to debate. It certainly isn't an organisation in any way equivalent to those pushing Russian propaganda.
That is all.
The BBC World service is most certainly a propaganda tool of the UK government..
" BBC World Service is not regulated by Ofcom. Instead the BBC is responsible for setting its overall strategic direction, the budget and guarding its editorial independence for World Service. It must set and publish a Licence for the World Service, which defines its remit, scope, annual budget and main commitments, as well as "objectives, targets and priorities" which are agreed with the Foreign Secretary."
https://www.bbc.com/aboutthebbc/governance/regulation
But as I mentioned only yesterday on OP, there are a bunch of regular commentors here on TS whom, as it turns out have a world view that aligns up with the UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab and his UK conservative party like a hand in a glove…go figure, yet for some reason only known to them, they insist on thinking themselves Left or Left leaning, when in reality they are more like some sort of post modernist colonialist hybrid, who also it seems, have a very distinct attraction to western authoritarianism (as long as it if coated in liberal sensibilities).
"
"….. as I mentioned only yesterday on OP, there are a bunch of regular commentors here on TS whom, as it turns out have a world view that aligns up with the UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab and his UK conservative party like a hand in a glove…go figure, yet for some reason only known to them, they insist on thinking themselves Left or Left leaning, when in reality they are more like some sort of post modernist colonialist hybrid, who also it seems, have a very distinct attraction to western authoritarianism (as long as it if coated in liberal sensibilities)."
Adrian Thornton
3 April 2021 at 12:42 pm
I admit I could be wrong, but I am guessing, that you are referring here Adrian, to my and others comments yesterday.
https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-02-04-2021/#comment-1786446
Instead of replying to my comments and debating directly, you have slunk away from open debate and resorted to making sly digs in other threads.
As I said in reply to Bill's accusation that I am guilty of not "engaging or debating".
"it is you and the other supporters of the Syrian regime who refuse to engage or debate"
Jenny
14 February 2017 at 5:36 am
It is a fear of engaging in open debate with someone who actually has experience of Syria, that is a noticable defining feature of supporters of the Assad regime at this website.
Back in 2017 I also wrote this:
"In my opinion it can be reasonably argued that the failure of the Liberal Centre Left to show solidarity with the Syrian people, and instead side with the regime that is oppressing and murdering them, has helped prolong this war on the Syrian people by the Assad regime and its foreign allies, and helped fuel islamaphobia here."
Jenny
14 February 2017 at 5:20 am
March 15 is the globally recognised anniversary date of the start of the Syrian revolution. Two years after I made the above observation, in March 2019, as Syrian refugees from the Assad regime and their supporters were preparing to mark this anniversary, the anti-Islamic terrorist chose this date to launch his murderous attack in Christchurch.
Don't support fascism. It really shouldn't have to be said.
No, because as usual you seem to intentionally not address the outrageous western Weaponizing of the OCPW….which is what I have been posting about. I can’t believe I have to go over this again FFS..I have never uttered one word of support for Assad…but you people seem to think that all of a sudden the CIA and the western military industrial complex are the friends of the Left, and freedom fighters around the world (WTF!)…it is actually people like you who through your blinkered support for a legitimate uprisings, have wilfully allowed yourselves to be turned into useful idiots to western military/corporate hegemony..well done.
You hit the nail on the head.." Don't support fascism. It really shouldn't have to be said."…quite right, maybe you should stop doing it then.
the outrageous western Weaponizing of the OCPW….
Perhaps you should explain this particularly gross misrepresentation, Adrian. You have one or possibly two very marginal instances of possible OPCW error, out of hundreds of events. The OPCW moreover went to considerable lengths to try to satisfy the complainants, but was obliged to face the fact that ultimately their sole objective was to discredit the organization and the mission.
The Russian media have beaten it up to the skies, and dupes like you parrot that incessantly – but essentially the OPCW is on the ground to clean up the chemical weapons made by Russia and accumulated by the Assad regime. Just as they spent some years in Russia at US & UN expense cleaning up multiple soviet era chemical weapon sites.
The only outrageous weaponising of the OPCW is by you and your fellow dupes.
There you go again Adrian, actively ignoring/denying genocide.
Genocide denial, like Holocaust denial, is an expression of support for fascism.
Let me repeat that; 'Genocide denial is support for fascism'.
That the Assad regime has been committing genocide against its own people is an absolute fact that you refuse to face.
Instead of addressing this fact you choose to throw up dust around the gas attacks.
I put up a link to a video which goes in depth to expose the conspiracy theories around the gas attacks being spread about by the Assad regime and Russia and their useful idiots, that variously claim, (a) the gas attacks didn't happen at all or, (b). were the work of the opposition who gassed their own supporters to discredit your fascist hero.
But I am not going to debate with you the various weaknesses of fascist propaganda around the sarin and chlorine gas attacks against Syrian civilians, that most definitely did happen.
Instead I put up a video of the destruction of the revolutionary city of Homs by the Assad regime.
Every single one of the genocide deniers and pro-Assad apologists on this site, have to date repeatedly refused to answer the simple question I have posed. Every single one.
Maybe you are different Adrian, maybe you might have enough conscience to look into the abyss and admit that you are playing a game of interference in support of a genocidal fascist style regime.
So I will pose the question again,
Who did this?
And is it not evidence of genocide?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mt3gR4BUPmQ
I am not going to keep on going around in circles with you, this is a pointless and a waste of time, you and Stuart Munro are just too far gone to have any kind of rational debate with…well too far gone.
Rationally and reasonably, you would then stop reading their comments and stop replying to them. But you don’t and you won’t. You’re a walking card-carrying self-contradiction and don’t want to see it and/or admit it.
Thanks for your insightful phycology lesson there Incognito, maybe you would do well to turn that lens on yourself and see what it is inside of you that makes you compulsively want to control all those in your orbit..now that would be something interesting to get to the bottom of, don’t you think?
BTW every human being on this planet is a “walking card-carrying self-contradiction” and so as you have obviously never been self-aware enough to have ever acknowledge that about yourself…welcome to the club, I think we will get along just fine LOL!!!
[RL: The role of moderators is essential. Their purpose is to put limits on people’s behaviour and attempt to instill a culture of constructive conversation. The deal is that if you want to continue to comment here, you respect that role.
Having done it intensively for a number of years here I’m vividly aware of how much goes into good moderation, and how much everyone else benefits from it. The two primary mods we have here at present, weka and Incognito, are doing a way better job of it than I ever did. While it’s a job that can never make everyone happy, I’m fed up seeing this kind of casual undermining. It’s not a game worth playing.
Get this through your head – no-one, but no-one ever enjoyed being moderated, and you are certainly not the first. But it’s a fact of life and you either suck it up like a big boy or sulk off elsewhere.]
I hate rock snot.
What makes you think Adrian hasn't stopped? I think he just indicated he's walking away from this one.
Oh dear, you go me there
Au revoir Adrian,
As you depart the scene.
Something we should all be aware of and try and guard against and take notice of and continually check ourselves on.
'Confirmation Bias'
Adrian it's disapointing that you refuse to answer the question, and instead run away from the debate. But, I've come to expect it. The reason you, and others like you will not answer the question, is because it challenges your preconceived black and white assumptions.
Reading up on the fixed views of conservatives like Ted Cruz, I came across the following quote.
"It’s part of human nature to want to resist information that contradicts with the way we see the world. Psychologists call the practice confirmation bias, and define it as the tendency to interpret information in ways that support our preconceptions."
https://www.salon.com/2015/04/07/ted_cruz_is_dangerous_why_liberals_scoff_at_his_campaign_at_their_peril_partner/
A few people read my debates with Assad apologists here, the feedback I get is how can be so tolerant as to engage with people who excuse genocide?
The answer is; I could be where you are, that is if I had not had the life changing privilege to be in the Middle East at the time to be witness to the first stirrings of the Arab Spring.
I wish I had stayed.
From comments found under a piece by Novara Media concerning the bbc a quite choice quote by Arundhati Roy : on national flags " First they use them as shrinkwrap for your brain ,then as ceremonial shrouds for their war dead "
Great quote, plenty of people on this site have never seen a western regime change war that hasn't got them all juiced up….these free market liberals are just as jingoistic, ruthless and bloodthirsty as any right wing conservative as it turns out….guess that's why they line up with the UK conservatives so well….a perfect fit.
Former Repug Speaker of the House John Boehner has his say on the crazies of the past decade and Faux News' part in fomenting the crazy.
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/04/02/john-boehner-book-memoir-excerpt-478506
An interesting quote from that link:
An exercise in getting a loose cannon pointed in a less dangerous direction, actually turned out quite well. It's why I tend to think of at least 95% of people as pretty decent really, with the potential to be great in the right circumstances.
Everyone in NZ except for the National Party and David Seymour knew this to be true. Multiple studies, including this one, have confirmed that the New Zealand government's Covid strategy (with fast financial support) is better for both health and economic outcomes.
This is now the concern. Conservative countries which are bizarrely wedded to 'freedom at any cost' will continue to drag the chain and jeopardise not only their own populations but the world as a whole. Their disastrous Covid-19 response damages those who have done well.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/124739946/zero-covid-strategy-far-better-for-economy-european-thinktank-concludes
edit
UK goes its own way at its peril, and that of its hapless population. People in UK need more 'hap' before they can get happy.
At the Covid 19 start. Easy-peasy will do it suggests Boris.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2021/03/16/report-boris-johnson-said-uk-should-ignore-covid-19-at-the-start-of-the-pandemic/?sh=56542f144285
(Bill Bailey talked about Johnson as being a mobile haystack! So good.)
Boorish hasn't improved. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/27/data-still-supports-lifting-covid-19-restrictions-insists-boris-johnson
But the Easter Bunny came along and looked up at Boris and said – Que? (it was Manuel’s pet). And so Boris has had to buckle down and face off his mates while he sets another lockdown to end all lockdowns
Que is the most common word in Spanish, according to one study I read. It’s most often used as a conjunction and/or relative pronoun, then (with tilde) as interrogative “What” (Qué). It has many uses, and like a chameleon, can change its meaning to suit the context of the sentence.
https://www.spanishdict.com/answers/181220/so-much-trouble-understanding-when-que-is-used-
As I understand it, the word que in latin means and. As in senatus populusque romanus (the senate and the roman people). I'm not how this differs from the word et. Perhaps this word is used in the sense of also as in et te Brute, (You too, Brutus?)
I looked up google and it gave me Manuel (Fawlty Towers) meaning. Sorry I'm just one of the hoi polloi with language, learning as I go.
Zero Covid seems unlikely.
It's 'Zero Covid strategy', KSays. Read and understand the link please.
"…. more countries need to commit to the programme for the leaders to get the full benefit, a European think-tank has concluded."
One country that won't commit to the program is Australia, which has an official policy of 'suppression' rather than 'elimination', New Zealand's policy.
New Zealand is preparing to open a quarantine free travel bubble with Australia, unless Australia agrees to adopt New Zealand's policy of elimination, (which Scott Morrison has said Australia will never do), New Zealand will be defacto adopting Australia's policy of suppression.
Private Wealth vs. Public Health
Suppression not elimination
https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6836358/elimination-risky-and-illusory-scott-morrison/
Elimination not suppression
http://isocracy.org/content/elimination-not-suppression
One of the big stories over the next 12-18 months will be whether or not these nations will bite the bullet or let the pandemic run through, hoping vaccines do the work for them. Which they may not.
All lively lads and lasses who work in ways and places that NZ needs, that earns its own money from graft not grift, and who appreciate having a life and a society with standards and fairness; a country to be proud of living in for ordinary people as well as the 'swells'. I suggest that a few of you who are motivated with these sorts of ideas do this. Start a facebook page, capture a domain name, and the rights to the name wherever you have to apply to legally acquire it. And become a centre for go-ahead people who are trying to downsize consumption, buy local, get out of 4WDs and large people movers not needed, be into conservation and conversation, a helping hand for others and all families and children, and practical kindness.
You need to get together – in the old saying 'Birds of a feather flock together' – seen the starling images when they fly off? I will put my idea for a name for you on this blog on Tuesday night after seven after you have had Easter to think about this idea. If the active amongst you haven't thought of better, I suggest that someone with the vitals grab it and run with it as I have suggested. I think a lot of us are into 'rolling up our sleeves and doing' – we've all heard, read, done enough talking, chewing the cud! Things have to be moved with people power or what we want won't happen at all, and machines will fill the slack with empty promises and hype that fools people into thinking the answer is going to come from the tech direction.
Saying 'There is no time like the present'!
I see that projections are for Auckland to inflate to 2 million from present 1.7m by early 2030s. Why wait till then, stacks on the mill, as the kids' game used to chant. An extra 1900 people a month appears somewhere in the item in Stuff p.12 Apr.1/21.
It was short and didn't have room to state guesses on when gridlock will be reached, or when police will start evicting people from favelas along motorways and under bridges. (They have already closed down a caravan park in the last decades because some criminals lived there.)
And will people in Auckland fund a charity hospital as they do in Christchurch for the large number of uncared for people? It may be that the Aucklanders will have no money left over after paying for their houses if they have managed to get their fingertips on one, and won a loan in the Australian bank's monthly lottery which they will probably set up soon.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/124732205/new-population-projections-show-growing-upper-north-island-dominance-with-solid-showing-from-christchurch
I had a look at the on-line link incognito. It is really upsetting to read the way this article is slanted – that growth in population is automatically good, and the bigger the better. Despite a small mention of problems.
...The medium projection is considered suitable for assessing future population changes, and this week’s release contained the usual gloom about a higher proportion of older people and a declining percentage of children…
(Anyone who is aware knows that NZ is no longer a good place to bring up children as was once proclaimed. In fact it seems that the government finds them a burden with all their needs from start to adulthood. It's more efficient to bring in families from overseas where they have been educated at the family's expense or of that country.)
But beyond that, the cities of Hamilton and Tauranga – the other two hubs in the golden triangle – are expected to grow at the same rate as Auckland.
…By 2033, the projected population for the three regions is put at 2.93m – 51.7 per cent of the national total of 5.68m. For 2048, the figure is 3.32m – 53.4 per cent of the New Zealand population of 6.21m.
Further south, Christchurch, when combined with the adjacent districts where much of the area’s new housing is going – is thought likely to stay close to the leading bunch.
(Sounds like a racing commentary. Listen to Spike Jones' one – 'and Banana is coming through the bunch!').
Christchurch City had a 2018 population of 383,800, and on its own has an unspectacular annual growth projection of 0.6 per cent.
But the South Island’s main centre has a more robust look to it when the Waimakariri District – projected average annual growth 1 per cent – and Selwyn District -1.7 per cent – are added. Combined, the three territorial authorities had a population of 508,400 in 2018 – 10.4 per cent of the national total.
(Like a faster growing population makes a place More Robust! Weak minds repeating weak ideas here.)
And at the bottom, a message from Stuff: …'Why? Because with the pandemic situation constantly changing, it’s easy for misinformation and rumours to take hold. You can rely on Stuff’s journalists to question the decision-makers, interview experts, and use eyewitness reporting to answer your key questions with facts and context.'
It certainly is hard to keep on top of the tide of information, checking for tainted facts and what environment they arise from.
The Mayor announced some years after the quakes that she had a target of increasing (greater) Christchurch's population to one million within (if I recall correctly) 20 years……she never mentioned it again.
What a horrible projection. Now I understand the property investor who commented yesterday that the prices of houses would not be coming down (in fact not for the forseeable future, the changes in his opinion would only temporarily slow things). How depressing.
edit
The experiment of government central and local contracting business carry out its services should now draw to a close. It was an expensive one in the long term, and while it did lead to some improvements it appears that it cannot cope with the constant ramifications that arise in the fast-changing social and physical environment. While tied down to tight contracts and a business case that forces it to answer to shareholders requirements for profit, it cannot meet needs when presenting in reality which can multiply daily.
(Paragraph from a yet-to-be presented report from someone who has a bigger brain than the average bear.)
http://wellington.scoop.co.nz/?p=135195
70 NZ Bus Cancellations "Not Good Enough"
Opinion from Metlink
Passengers travelling on Metlink services operated by NZ Bus experienced almost 70 last-minute cancellations on Wednesday. Metlink General Manager Scott Gallacher said the recent service from NZ Bus simply wasn’t good enough.
The GOP's favourite Russian.
https://twitter.com/biannagolodryga/status/1377625929946701827
https://twitter.com/biannagolodryga/status/1377999658094628864
Oh do you mean the racist nationalist Alexey Navalny that Amnesty International dropped because of his known racist rhetoric…the Navalny who was funded by the US backed National Endowment for Democracy (a known funding route for the CIA) in his Russian election run?…(isn't that kind of like election interference? and here I was thinking you guys hated it when countries meddled in other peoples elections, guess you don't give a shit about that after all)
The US government and the Russian election
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2017/12/27/pers-d27.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyqAWCx-I38
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgGzAKP_HuM
That was pretty good, thanks…reminded me of Samurai Jack (one of my favourite modern animated series).
Oh – you mean Putin is not nationalist? Or racist?
Lacking decades of exposure to a reforming activist base, Russia is as racist as it gets – hence the war of extermination in Chechnya.
To feed your own nonsense back at you: since Russia doesn't give a flying finangle about racism, and is cheerfully nationalist, shouldn't they love Navalny?
But Navalny has committed the unforgiveable crime of revealing the truth about Putin's republic of thieves – something RT will never do.
Have you no shame though, as a professed lefty, supporting this murderous kleptocrat? What would Putin have to do to disabuse you of your infatuation? He's already a genocide, an autocrat, a rigger of elections and a poisoner of political alternatives. Does he have to eat babies live onscreen, or would that too be America's fault?
FFS man "Oh – you mean Putin is not nationalist? Or racist?"…I know Putin is a probably a racist and is definitely a nationalist…but he is not the man that the west and you guys are spouting as some sort of Russian arch angle ready to free the Russian people from their evil overlord… maybe you should check out Putin's popularity stats in his own country once and while to get a grip on the reality over there…but I can tell you this for sure, any politician so obviously backed by the USA is never going to get any real in traction in Russia…sort of like your man Guaido in Venezuela.
If the Russians are ever going to break free from Putin, it will be from an organic rising from within Russia, supported by the Russian people…and not some Western backed Instagram sensation, that would be like you backing a politician in NZ that you knew was backed by Xi Jinping and funded by the MSS.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/896181/putin-approval-rating-russia/
The funny thing is I never (or if so, rarely) saw any of you 'lefties' utter a murmur when an actual Left wing leader, Lula was outrageously imprisoned by an outright right wing authoritarian..in fact now I think about it, I don’t believe I have ever (or very rarely if so) seen any of you so called lefties show even the slightest sign of support for any actual Left Wing project around the world, or voice your concern when they are regularly threatened….
It really has become quite apparent to me over the previous few days, that you, Mcflock, Joe90, Al1en and a couple of others on TS are in fact, in your geopolitical beliefs (the ones you express on TS anyway) for want of a better description, are some sort of postmodern (liberal) imperialists. It was always obvious that you guys had some pretty seriously flawed world views, but when I saw recently, exactly how closely nearly all your geopolitical standpoints matched with the UK Conservative parties own positions…I guess the penny dropped…holy crap…I mean did you even realize yourself how far right you had drifted?
Quite – it's all our fault that Putin poisons people.
Look what we made him do.
easter holiday.
3 day ban from fb
hehehe
offended someone by telling them to shut up and that they were a male chauvinist pig.
snapchat that!
happy easter
in the meantime I am committing the music to red haired boy to memory. at slow speed it is like this scottish lament but brightens up when played fast. stroke of luck I have this country instrumental compilation by NASHVILLE session pickers with this tune and old joe clark on it. nifty stuff. And the music by Steve Carr on bluegrassguitar.com and dude you are swinging . yee hahhh
Apt analogy for today’s discussion topics.
https://youtu.be/P4NT1UUCZV4
https://youtu.be/qQfetkoGrpU
@ Eco Maori , thanks for that. I really love that Folkways stuff, have been collecting it for many years.,,haven't got that one though, strangely I haven't even seen it in NZ, and I have been a record collector since I was a young man….just found one on Ebay, going to fill that hole in my collection.
Great record too, listening to it now on youtube..thanks again.
Here is a good interview on the history of Folkways that might interest you…
'Worlds Of Sound' A Tribute To Folkways
"Sixty years ago, Moses Asch set out with the lofty ambition to record "all the sound of the world." He established Folkways Records — "the little label that could" — and in the decades that followed, Folkways recorded everything from folk singers, to jazz greats, to sounds of the natural world."
https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=96820123