An excellent article, part of a longer investigation.
It’s great to see a lot more New Zealanders will learn about how they can help mitigate climate change by adopting a plant based diet or by eating less meat.
There is a lot in the passage worth reading,
Here are some highlights.
“The average Kiwi eats 20kg less meat amid concerns over sustainability of agriculture.
As environmental concerns grow, so do the number of Kiwis choosing to adopt a meat-free lifestyle. A 2016 ANZ Roy Morgan poll showed one in 10 Kiwis follow a vegetarian diet – a 27 per cent increase in just five years.
In terms of sustainability, a low-meat diet is leagues ahead of a meat-rich diet.
There’s no escaping the reality of the environmental impact of agriculture. Collectively dairy, beef and sheep generate more than 97 per cent of all agricultural greenhouse gas emissions in New Zealand and almost half of the total green house emissions for the country.
Since 2002 the number of total dairy cattle has risen. As a result, the emissions created by dairy has doubled since 1990.”
It is clear from reading the article, that If you are concerned about climate change,you can do something.
A misleading piece of propaganda for vegetarianism, would be a better description.
Like you, it takes figures for the environmental impact of feeding grain crops to livestock and presents them as though they applied to New Zealand.
It also presents a graphic, again based on overseas farming practices, claiming meat uses a lot of “scarce” water, ignoring the fact that NZ livestock mostly use water that falls onto the farm as rain. And then captions it “A meat-eaters carbon footprint is much higher than that of a vegetarians,” as though that were what the graphic shows!
When you look at the article’s meat consumption figures, it’s pretty clear that rising prices and scaremongering about red meat have pushed people towards eating more chicken and pork. Whether there’s also greater enthusiasm for vegetarian diets is open to question, although it wouldn’t be surprising given the amount of propaganda for it out there.
I’d be more interested to see an article that worked out the food miles involved in a typical NZ vegan’s diet, and some assessment of what it would mean for the New Zealand environment to switch from meat to large-scale production of soy and other shit food crops. People would be able to make more informed choices then.
The days of a roast every Sunday are long gone. It’s now about once every 3 months. Mince and sausages have generally replaced the regular steak / schnitzel, chops.
To be fair things like kumara and pumpkin are also very expensive.
We’re almost back to seasonal eating again where the seasonal veges are always cheaper.
We’re definitely back to growing some of our own.
Most people I know eat less meat because of the cost.
Some of this relates to more money going out in rent. It’s great that landlord’s can use people’s hard earned money to buy their meat though. At least someone can buy it.
Ain’t got nothing to do with making veganisitic choices.
Wasn’t disputing that. It’s only gone from 8% to 10% though. Stating it as a 27% increase coming off a low base does make it seem a bit more dramatic and depending on the sample size may well be within the margin of error.
There’s no way those 2% of new vegans would be causing that volume of decrease.
I would suspect that it’s much more likely to be cost.
D’oh! I missed that one. That’s another hallmark of misleading propaganda – make a small increase sound like a big one by quoting the relative increase rather than the absolute increase.
And the irrigated water to grow pasture, and the water used to grow imported feed?
Meanwhile, the water consumption for vegan and vegetarian foodstuffs can also be hidden and enormous.
So maybe the answer is to be mindful rather than ideologically hell-bent one way or the other.
To be honest, I don’t quite get why people are hooked on beef and lamb – both increasingly expensive and out of reach for growing numbers of people – (though my understanding is that very large amounts of lamb is rustled…)
What’s wrong with wild goat, wallaby, rabbit, goose…? It isn’t that people are a bit “snobbish” and look on those meats as “shit food” by any chance?
Meanwhile supermarkets sell rabbit at $20 – $30 a kilo (bones included). That was a few years ago. Turns out it costs the same to put a rabbit through the compliance regime as it does a cow (or so a meat inspector suggested to me in conversation back then).
The fact that many poor people are reduced to eating crap (affordable, mechanically recovered “meat” etc) – is a problem that could and should be fixed.
Agreed, and it seems to me that the most practical way to do that is via increased wages and benefits. In the absence of any political will for price controls, whether or not price controls would be a sensible solution.
And the irrigated water to grow pasture, and the water used to grow imported feed?
Those are mainly features of dairy rather than meat production. But yeah, over-intensive dairy farming in inappropriate places has a huge environmental impact, and not just through water usage.
So maybe the answer is to be mindful rather than ideologically hell-bent one way or the other.
Absolutely. There aren’t any environmentally-friendly ways of feeding 9 billion people and climbing, plant-based or not.
The core message of the article was not about vegetarianism or meat consumption, but about how city liberals have fundamentally lost touch with the physical country and the entire agricultural economy of New Zealand.
If you really want to put your money where you mouth is, go buy a farm or work on it.
This is the core message.
That meat eating is under pressure because of people ‘s concerns about sustainability.
I quote….
“’Farmers just aren’t respected’ – that’s the Kiwi message to Europeans who are eating less meat. We kick off a three-week series with an investigation into how environmental sustainability concerns are putting the heat on meat.”
The article ends precisely with how farmers are reacting to foreign markets, and indeed how German farmers are respected while ours are not, which is why so many New Zealand farmers are reacting so well.
More accurately, how intensive propaganda campaigns by vegetarians are putting the heat on meat. But I guess it’s true that that’s not what the article was investigating…
News stories like this prompt responsible and caring people to reconsider their lifestyle choices.
We have a 2020 deadline to avert climate catastrophe: experts.
HUMANITY must put carbon dioxide emissions on a downward slope by 2020 to have a realistic shot at capping global warming at well under two degrees Celsius, the bedrock goal of the Paris climate accord, experts said Wednesday.
A world that heats up beyond that threshold will face a crescendo of devastating impacts ranging from deadly heatwaves to mass migration caused by rising seas, the experts warned in a commentary published in the science journal Nature.
With 1.0 degree Celsius of warming so far, ice sheets that could lift oceans by a dozen metres are melting more quickly, coral reefs are dying from heat stress, and ever more damaging storm surges are hammering coastal communities.
Er, yes. That’s relevant to this discussion how, exactly?
To avoid the parade of non sequiturs that characterise your attempts at argument, you need a means of identifying how something like the quote in the above comment is relevant to the claim you’re making. In this instance, you need to demonstrate that humans eating shite like soy instead of proper food will put carbon dioxide emissions on a downward slope – otherwise, the comment makes no sense.
15,000 scientists give catastrophic warning about the fate of the world in new ‘letter to humanity’
A new, dire “warning to humanity” about the dangers to all of us has been written by 15,000 scientists from around the world.
The message updates an original warning sent from the Union of Concerned Scientists that was backed by 1,700 signatures 25 years ago. But the experts say the picture is far, far worse than it was in 1992, and that almost all of the problems identified then have simply been exacerbated.
Mankind is still facing the existential threat of runaway consumption of limited resources by a rapidly growing population, they warn. And “scientists, media influencers and lay citizens” aren’t doing enough to fight against it, according to the letter.
If the world doesn’t act soon, there be catastrophic biodiversity loss and untold amounts of human misery, they warn.
Eat less meat to avoid dangerous global warming, scientists say.
Research led by Oxford Martin School finds widespread adoption of vegetarian diet would cut food-related emissions by 63% and make people healthier too.
Intensive livestock-rearing is a major cause of greenhouse gases, in part because of the methane produced by the animals and the massive slurry pits that accompany large farms. It also diverts water and grains to animal-rearing, which is less efficient than directing the grains towards direct human consumption.
And this one is, yet again, evidence that feeding human-edible crops to livestock is an incredibly wasteful way of farming. Stopping that would reduce food-related emissions a lot, as the study points out, but it doesn’t necessarily involve a vegetarian diet.
15,000 scientists give catastrophic warning about the fate of the world in new ‘letter to humanity’
We have a 2020 deadline to avert climate catastrophe: experts.
Eat less meat to avoid dangerous global warming, scientists say.
Scientists Make Case For Eating Less Meat In 2018.
Climate scientists at the University of California at Davis say one option is to help slow climate change by adopting a low-emissions diet.
Maya Almaraz, a postdoctoral researcher at the university, says while people may feel helpless when it comes to an issue as large as a warming planet, the data shows that personal decisions really can have a big impact.
Almaraz says the single biggest move you can make, in terms of diet to reduce methane and carbon pollution, is by putting less meat on your plate.
Changing how we grow food. Transitioning from industrial farming to regenerative agriculture and horticulture. Food forestry, polyculture systems, permaculture.
Eat seasonally and locally. Stop expecting food to be shipped from the other side of the world or the other end of the country. Support local growers and farmers who are trying to sell outside of the export market. Especially small to medium growers, and people who live on the land.
Grow what you can, if you can afford to pay someone else to grow for you. The more food we have growing in our neighbourhoods, the less we will need industrial agriculture.
Eat less meat if you eat a lot, eat the whole animal, not just the choice bits. Eat feral meat.
Eat less dairy. Eat dairy that comes from sustainable sources.
Support human animal husbandry, including free range animals (those farmers are the ones I’m talking about above, generally much closer to sustainability).
If you can’t do lots of those things, then agitate and lobby and protest to make those things happen. If you can do those things, then agitate and lobby and protest to make those things happen sooner.
Support the protest movement against Fonterra and Big Dairy, but support the farmers that are doing the right things. They’re not going to go away, so we need the people of means to start buying their produce not that of Big Farmer.
Stop wasting time and energy trying to convert everyone to being vegan. It’s not going to happen on a large scale, and you are promoting choices that support industrial agriculture. Put your energy into sustainable forms of food production.
+100
Exactly what’s happening where I am atm mostly. They even seem to know how to process cow shit properly. 40feet below the surface the most pridtine water is pumped. What the place needs tho is a ban on plastic and better disposal/recycling which causes extensive littering in places.
How Does Meat in the Diet Take an Environmental Toll?
A lifecycle analysis conducted by EWG that took into account the production and distribution of 20 common agricultural products found that red meat such as beef and lamb is responsible for 10 to 40 times as many greenhouse gas emissions as common vegetables and grains.
Our meat consumption habits also cause other environmental problems. A 2009 study found that four-fifths of the deforestation across the Amazon rainforest could be linked to cattle ranching. And the water pollution from factory farms (also called concentrated animal feeding operations or CAFOs)—whereby pigs and other livestock are contained in tight quarters—can produce as much sewage waste as a small city
How’s about you find ‘an angle’ and explore/debate/argue it, as opposed to throwing out a confetti of links?
Comment after comment of “cut/paste/link” really isn’t any different to comment after comment containing video links, and is about as worthwhile from the standpoint of anyone reading a thread – ie, it’s just not really worthwhile at all.
It also damages whatever point it is you’re trying to make around things you think of as so important or feel so passionate about when you “soap box” and “megaphone” them in this way.
‘It’s great to see a lot more New Zealanders will learn about how they can help mitigate climate change by adopting a plant based diet or by eating less meat.’
1. I see a pattern of scientists in countries where feeding human-edible crops to livestock is the norm, conflating that appallingly wasteful agricultural practice with a meat-based diet. That Scientific American article you link to is even illustrated with a photo of cows in a shed eating some kind of grain, as though that were the only way of producing meat that’s possible. “Scientists” should know better.
2. I see a pattern of Ed arguing from authority as usual.
Still, thanks for linking to that Scientific American article, because it does lay out clearly the basis for claims that eating meat is more environmentally damaging than eating plants:
Livestock are typically fed corn, soybean meal and other grains which have to first be grown using large amounts of fertilizer, fuel, pesticides, water and land.
Well, yeah, that’s pretty stupid, right? So, what about farming in New Zealand, in which sheep and beef cattle are typically fed the grass that’s growing in the paddock they live in? Gosh, somehow these American authors haven’t thought about that, America being as much of the world as a person needs to think about.
This one’s also characteristic of vegetarian propaganda:
A 2009 study found that four-fifths of the deforestation across the Amazon rainforest could be linked to cattle ranching.
Those damn cattle! If only everyone ate a vegetarian diet, no land would be being cleared for farming! Right? Amiright? Er, no, wait – I’m wrong. People in Brazil would be cutting down the rainforest for whatever agriculture was currently being practiced, because humans.
In a modern agricultural economy your argument depends on whether the cattle in question are being farmed for domestic consumption or export profit, just as our dairy farms are all about dried milk solids these days.
Not much need to cut down national parks for farming unless we can’t actually feed ourselves, eh.
No, my argument depends on whether there’s something specific about cattle that prompts people in Brazil to cut down rainforests, which there isn’t. What’s actually prompting people to cut down the rainforests is money, and if there were suddenly no money in cattle there’d be money in something else – if Ed had his way, in soy or whatever else vegans eat, for instance.
Actually science is now finding that grazing is an important factor in increasing carbon sequestration in soils. An interesting article is here:
Those who champion soil carbon for climate mitigation frequently look to grasslands, which cover more than a quarter of the world’s land. According to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization, grasslands also hold 20 percent of the world’s soil carbon stock. Much of this land is degraded, as evidenced in the U.S. Great Plains and places like northern Mexico, Africa’s Sahel, and Mongolia.
Seth Itzkan — founder of Massachusetts-based Planet-TECH Associates, a consulting firm specializing in restoration ecology — advocates Holistic Planned Grazing (HPG), a model developed by Zimbabwean wildlife biologist Allan Savory. In this practice, livestock are managed as a tool for large-scale land restoration, mimicking the herding and grazing patterns of wild ruminants that coevolved with grassland ecosystems. Animals are moved so that no plants are overgrazed, and grazing stimulates biological activity in the soil. Their waste adds fertility, and as they move in a herd their trampling aerates soil, presses in seeds, and pushes down dead plant matter so it can be acted upon by soil microorganisms. All of this generates soil carbon, plant carbon, and water retention. Savory says HPG doesn’t require more land — in fact it generally supports greater animal density — so it can be applied wherever livestock are raised.
An increase of 1 ton of soil carbon pool of degraded cropland soils may increase crop yield by 20 to 40 kilograms per hectare (kg/ha) for wheat, 10 to 20 kg/ha for maize, and 0.5 to 1 kg/ha for cowpeas. As well as enhancing food security, carbon sequestration has the potential to offset fossil fuel emissions by 0.4 to 1.2 gigatons of carbon per year, or 5 to 15% of the global fossil-fuel emissions.
http://science.sciencemag.org/content/304/5677/1623.full
However one of the major factors in the loss of soil carbon content is tillage. This is because the carbon is sequestrated firstly through photosynthesis then passed through the plants roots to the bacteria and fungi that live around the plants roots. Tillage kills these micro-organisms and the carbon they contain re-enters the atmosphere as methane and CO2.
conversion from conventional till to no-till farming reduces emission by 30 to 35 kg C/ha per season
Does the change in lamb consumption from 19kg in 2006 to 0.9kg in 2016 sound right?
Is the DP wrong? 9kg would sound more reasonable.
[How’s about you use the reply buttons so you don’t squeeze out other topics others have posted on DV? Have shifted Carloyn nths comment this time, but would rather not have to spend time extracting “meat from the sandwich” as it were] – Bill
Lamb consumption collapsed around the same time it became ridiculously expensive.
Lamb is now a luxury item for Xmas, Easter and special occasions.
It is interesting how in a decade what was once regarded as a staple can become a luxury, and a warning that living in a country with an enormous food surplus is no guarantee of security of food supply if capitalism and market are solely responsible for regulating supply, because if that remains the case you can bet your bottom dollar armed police at the wharves would beat off crowds of starving new Zealanders if Fonterra thought it could get $1 more a kg for it’s butter in Dubai.
Yes, if you know to look in the frozen food rather than the fresh meat section. Quite often it seems frozen lamb is quietly disposed of in this way – and it is usually when I buy the stuff if i need a leg of sheep (although being the owner of a mob of 24-36 ewes and lambs we usually have our own home killed mutton and lamb).
The cuts of lamb in the fresh meat section – chops, lamb steaks, etc are very expensive.
Had shoulder chops for dinner tonight, coincidentally.
Pack says $11.99/kg down from $16.99, short dated.
Countdown online store has them on special for $12.99/kg down from $16.99
I suspect there might be seasonal gluts, because nature, but I do enjoy it when our tory brethren and sistren talk about the prices of basic grocery items like bread, butter, or meat. They never check before posting, and it just shows how out of touch they really are.
Lamb chops were a weekly regular – I’ve bought them maybe twice in the last twelve months.
We used to rotate our roasts – beef, lamb, pork, chicken each week. We hardly have them now and it’s whatever is the cheapest – that’s not normally lamb.
Kai provided and transport support from Auckland CBD available (please post in the event if you need a lift from the CBD). Interpreters available for speeches. Accessible venue. Face Fatale Facepainting available to decorate kiddies (and grown ups).
Put it in your diaries now whānau mā!
Address:
Ōtara Pool and Leisure Centre
Newbury Street, Ōtara
“Oh look, it’s a major theme in Marama Davidson’s speech.”
Talking about it in a speech is one thing, but when are we going to actually see some follow-through on that talk?
Ten moths till next Christmas, still no talk from the Greens on securing a little something extra for beneficiaries to help them over Christmas.
No pressure being publicly applied on Labour (by the Greens) to bring forward Labour’s campaign promise of lower doctors fees.
No pressure being publicly applied on Labour (by the Greens) to extend winter energy payments. It’s not only winter that beneficiaries tend to struggle with soaring power bills.
Can you point me to something substantive the Greens have done (or are currently working on) to improve their (beneficiaries) fiscal plight?
My guess is that you either didn’t listen to it properly (as in all of it), or you listened with blocked ears for only the things you could use to criticise them.
It’s patently obvious that you either have no idea how government and parliament and the Greens work (no shame there, lots of people don’t), or you dismiss all that because you are dedicated to the poison pen. There’s no point in saying anything about what the Greens have done on poverty since the last election, because you are already convinced by your own internal dialogue and will just dismiss it.
You never guess right when it comes to you guessing about me.
What should be patently obvious is I’m not one for lowering the bar. Hence, I’m not one for backslapping the team when they are failing to bring their A-game.
Moreover, I point out the flaws and provide alternatives to help improve their game – not because I’m dedicated to the poison pen.
Don’t you think they should be working on the things I highlighted above?
Here’s another, what work have the Greens done on trying to secure a living wage for those employed on the Governments tree planting scheme? Don’t you think other Green supporters would support them doing this and would want to be informed about them doing this?
“All the Greens can get is something for Conservation and Climate Change.”
Labour better think twice about that, because the Greens will struggle if that’s all they get and knowing how Labour is also going to disappoint, they are both going to need each other come next election.
Labour need to give the Greens a little win on lifting the incomes of beneficiaries (whether through a Christmas bonus, core benefit increase or extended and larger energy payment) to help them (thus also themselves) maintain their party support.
The Greens are free apparently to campaign all they want on anything so long as the MP themselves is not the responsible Minister. So they can get their own support, and can campaign for the next 2.5 years. From 6% the only way is up.
The latest poll has the Greens going downwards since the election.
Something which Labour should keep in mind, unless they think they can win the next election alone.
Ponder this:
The Greens have pretty much summed up what they plan to achieve this term (20 policy goals) and yet they’ve dropped in the poll.
And with nothing more up their sleeves coupled with supporter disappointment of swallowing some dead rats along the way, there is a real chance they won’t make the cut (5% threshold) come next election.
And while Labour have gone up on this poll, National still out-polls them.
So there is no comfortable lead for Labour to start forgetting they need the Greens. And the Greens need to give supporters a little more to keep them in the game.
But, as companies like Google, Facebook and Amazon vacuumed up more of people’s private information, European lawmakers upped the ante, intent on setting a new bar for data protection worldwide.
“We want to set the global standard,” Věra Jourová, the European commissioner for justice, told POLITICO last year. “Privacy is a high priority for us.”
Most multinational companies from Google to General Electric must comply with the new standards because of their existing activities in Europe. And smaller firms, even those currently with no operations in the EU, face a tough decision to either comply with the region’s stance on privacy or risk potential sanctions if European customers eventually sign up to their services.
For governments, the choice is often one of necessity. That’s particularly true as the EU now links potential free-trade agreements with demands that other countries adopt the region’s privacy standards through so-called “adequacy decisions.”
Israel and New Zealand are among a handful of international partners that have struck deals with the EU certifying that their data protection rules are equal to those of Europe. Only under those conditions can data — and billions of euros of trade — flow freely between the parties.
FTAs aren’t actually needed. Just the setting of standards.
Looks like it to me, too. I was at a customer focus group meeting a couple of weeks back, at which the large US company involved spoke explicitly about how the GDPR is forcing them to completely review their approach to privacy and security because they can’t run a two-tier system, one for Europe and one for everyone else. They’ll have to apply the European standard to everybody, which is great news for us but also means yes a “local” standard can have international effect if the locals are a significant enough proportion of the market.
How do these standards apply to employees? For instance, a photo of some can be classified as “personal data” because it identifies a person.
So, can an employer demand that an employee upload a photo of themselves to their work contact info on the organisation’s intranet- internal online directory?
Right up there along with demanding highly personal information as back up data to activate corporate log ins (cache very attractive to DOS attacks), making staff use external web based providers after providing your name & corporate email address ( surveys & the like) whose terms of trade let the third party keep your information forever, wanting Bio’s to put on public web pages, credit checking all your financial information including the size of your utility and mortgage payments
– the whole lot needs to be outlawed
That’s the funny bit – my public-sector employer doesn’t have any online business dealings with Europeans so doesn’t give a shit about the GDPR. Only the rapacious multi-national corporations we deal with will be operating at this higher standard, while we continue to do whatever NZ’s Privacy Act and the non-enforcement thereof will let us get away with.
The approach to employees is interesting. We’re supposed to make ourselves and our skills as public as possible via the University’s web site, because the University wants media, researchers, businesspeople etc to find us when they’re looking for expertise to work with. So, my name, photo, job title, work email address and phone number, and applicable expertise is publicly available on our web site. I do get to opt out of including my photo if I want to, and some of my female colleagues did refuse for fairly obvious reasons, and what description of your skills you post is up to you, but you don’t get any choice about having your name, job title and contact details public.
My public sector employer is asking for the photo to be uploaded by everyone, onto the organisation’s intranet, via a system owned by a German Company – not publicly available, but it can be viewed by all the large number of employees within the organisation.
And it gets linked with all the emails we send – at least within the organisation – not sure if it also is viewed by emails we send to people outside the organisation.
Only the rapacious multi-national corporations we deal with will be operating at this higher standard, while we continue to do whatever NZ’s Privacy Act and the non-enforcement thereof will let us get away with.
Apparently NZ has already signed an agreement with the EU saying that ours are as good as theirs.
but you don’t get any choice about having your name, job title and contact details public.
Seems reasonable as long as those contact details go through the university switch board.
Usually direct dial extensions at my workplace, unless sensitive staffing matters.
Some even have office room numbers online. It depends on the role.
Fortunately, I have a satellite office nestled amongst departments that aren’t my own, down a banal corridor, in an office with three people and a phone I never bother answering, 6,000 emails in my inbox so I accidentally miss the annual department photo days and the requests for updated bio information, and a handy back door I can escape out of should anybody actually want to talk to me…
Because anyone who needs to talk to me knows how to get in touch with me, and them that don’t know me should talk to someone else.
On my little macbook, when I try to log into TS on Firefox at home, I get a “bad request – can’t find server” notice. Then when I try to get back TS main page (still without having logged in), I still get the bad request notice for a short time.
But, I can log into TS from Safari on my macbook, and from firefox on my windows laptop at home, I can log into TS successfully.
Different programmes that do broadly the same thing can still do some things quicker than others. Firefox has some features that safari might not, and you can think of it as adding weight to what your machines have to carry (in addition to the weight they already carry simply from their operating system).
So on your desktop, it’s carrying an operating system, a whole heap of firefox features, and then signing in puts some extra tools and stuff on top – it’s a heavy load, but the desktop can carry it.
On your macbook, it’s like a kid (macbook) trying to carry the same load as an adult (desktop) – it can handle the operating system, and firefox, but then you stack encryption and sign in protocols on top and the poor wee thing drops the tool for finding a website server in a decent time.
But because safari is a bit lighter and easier for the kid/macbook to carry, when you put encryption and signup stuff on top of Safari, the kid can still carry the load.
There might be a server timeout setting you could tweak in preferences somewhere, but go with what works.
Hopefully this is a useful general illustration of what might be happening, but it’s also probably precisely wrong, depending on the exact circumstance 🙂
Why have are these star gazing people around Papatuanuku whinging about Peter Becks and his team Humanity STAR . Its not like the Humanity Star is going to blind the Beautiful nite Sky the star is not going to be up there for ever . The Humanity Star is in my view a symbol that has a message to all Humans we are one Race the Human race.
We live in Heaven now so lets speak up now and not let other Idiots turn Papatuanuku into hell which is were we are heading rapidly. Mother Earth is a finely balanced living being as with any living thing to much of one thing IE in this case Carbo in her atmosphere is causing her to heat up . We have had a lot of extreme weather in just one year . Global Warming is the biggest threat to Humanity and everyone is just sitting on there hands letting Trump suppress The words GLOBAL WARMING /CLIMATE CHANGE from the MSM around OUR Papatuanuku .Some people are countering that farcical behavior by Trump who is drunk on his power of President. I say we should tell him to get———and use these words to tell everyone around our world that Global Warning is going to make our Mokos /grandchildren’s future a nightmare for the 99% while the 1% live in location and structures that minimize the catastrophic weather that is already starting NOW . What happens when we get 300 klm winds 50 foot sea level rise. The climate change deniers say Antarctica wont melt because it is that high in mother earths Atmosphere its to cold up there to melt .I say the Ice will melt from the bottom up and If Antarctica melts Tangaroa will rise at least 70 mts we will be like rats on a sinking waka who gets the high ground well the 1% that’s who back to Peter Beck .
When he launched the Humanity star into our space this action in my view has achieved 2 very Great things one is the message To Human’s we are all humans so start behaving like intelligent Humane Beings the other is he saves cost on another test flight to prove that he can put a object in space now they can launch Satellites into space and start off a billion dollar industry in little old Aoteaora/New Zealand Ka pai Peter and your team . PS all the NAY SAYERS are in reality help the Humanity Star get the message out there I loved fishing off Mahia Coast when I was younger beautiful views Nga mihi nui koutou ka kite ano
With regard to Peter Beck, Rocketlabs and the Humanity star.
I’m personally not that exited about Rocketlabs. The company is partly funded by Lockheed Martin, the USA largest defence contractor. They’re also funded by DARPA, a USA government agency involved in military research.
Rocketlabs is also now a USA registered company.
Is it possible Rocketlabs is testing this new rocket technology for possible future military applications? So much for the ” Humanity Star”.
Astronomical photos are long exposure, which increases the chance the disco ball will pass through the shot. And it’ll add to the light fuckage of whatever observation it passes through.
It’s in a very low orbit, so it will only ever be visible close to the horizon, and just after sunset or just before sunrise. Not many serious observations happen then. I’d be surprised if it reflected enough city lights to interfere with proper dark-night observations. Still, it’s a particularly wanky bit of wankery, although not quite in the league of Elon Musk putting one of his cars into orbit.
I forgot to post this link for my post P.S everyone has a different view on reality some people are just jealous shonky and bill could have help fund Peter Ka pai
While the “Me Too” divas and Harpo Windy made grand Obama-esque speeches at the Golden Globes the other week, they for some reason completely ignored the plight of this young woman….
Everything wrong with the reaction to Ahed Tamimi’s prosecution for slapping an Israeli soldier
Where were the international calls for compassion, the reminders that this was a potentially traumatised child?
by HIBA KHAN, Tuesday 2 January 2018 16:00 GMT
Everyone now knows that 16-year-old Ahed Tamimi slapped an Israeli soldier. How many of us know about the events that led up to this? Telling half of a story can be more of an injustice than fabricating the entirety, and in this instance, it most certainly is.
The viral video of Tamimi attempting to hit Israeli soldiers was reportedly the reason for her subsequent arrest and detention. Now let’s consider the background context to this video: Soldiers had apparently parked themselves on Tamimi’s family’s land shortly after their colleagues shot her 14-year-old cousin in the face with a rubber bullet and fired tear gas at their house, smashing windows. Her family says she was merely expressing legitimate protest at this treatment.
Living in fear of this sort of treatment remains the reality for 21st century Palestinians, without whose freedom Nelson Mandela observed that all of humanity’s freedom is incomplete. The UN Security Council deems Israeli settlements “a flagrant violation under international law”, and the sad reality for Palestinians is a life deprived of healthcare, an economy, a justice system, living in abject poverty with no food or water security and military violence against them and their children.
What we see in the widely circulated video of Ahed Tamimi slapping a soldier is the response of a bereaved, oppressed child – a child who is now being condemned and abused across social media. Context is important. A little bit of knowledge can be a dangerous thing.
Take a moment to picture a 16-year-old you know being raised in a country where violence and military occupation is the norm, where she is sometimes unable to access food, water and healthcare. Would they not be in pain, and frustrated and angry with the unfairness of the situation? Now picture their home being raided and them witnessing a younger cousin being shot in the head by a soldier. Would they not attempt to remove the soldiers from their front lawn as Tamimi did? Would they not become even more distraught when the soldiers refuse? Would they not, perhaps, lash out?
When an unarmed child is prosecuted for slapping a larger grown man in army gear equipped with a gun, it’s time to ask questions.
I saw no #IAmAhed. No uproar from feminist groups or international political recognition as there was for Malala, another child who lived in a country where oppression is often the norm. Instead of Nobel prizes and invitations to meet presidents, Ahed Tamimi remains in Israeli detention, having been labelled “dangerous”.
Our compassion and humanity for children growing up with the psychological wounds of living in a conflict zone apparently do not stretch so far as to accommodate girls like Ahed. Apparently, the brutality that Palestinians face is too politically complex and messy to render this strong beautiful girl fully human. But it’s more important than ever that, when we look at the pictures of this teenager in handcuffs, we see her for the child she really is. Don’t tell me the courthouse is where she belongs, and don’t tell me that international condemnation rather than understanding and compassion is what she deserves.
Concur with your sentiments wholeheartedly @ Morrissey (8).
Something is definitely not right about international response to the unjust incarceration of Ahed. The only conclusion I can come to is that the world is too uncaring to be concerned about the plight of a 17 year old Palestinian girl, for fear of repercussions from tyrannical Israel and its supporters. If that is the case, then ignoring the situation, is giving Israel more power to continue its atrocities against Palestinians, which in the end, comes down to absolute shame on the rest of the world.
I doubt anyone will be surprised by Marama Davidson’s announcement that she’s standing for co-leader. Whoever gets the job will be well qualified. Go the Greens!
In her announcement, Davidson is speaking about the struggles of low income people, inequalities, our poor prison system, homelessness, against underemployment, the working poor, etc…for state housing, for providing more opportunities for young people, for fairness and income equality…. etc
There are 119 other politicians in Parliament who ‘speak’ to these issues on a predictably regular basis, and particularly around election time, but not all of them are as genuine and authentic as Marama Davidson. I’m sure the DP brigade is trying to find & dig up dirt on her …
It is the wellbeing of our living systems and our people that will sustain us. For the many, not just for the few.
Nō reira, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou katoa.
“To deliver on all of those visions and policies that our people and our environment so desperately need, we must return to Parliament in 2020 with much greater numbers”
Sounds like she telling us not to expect much from them this term. Sad.
And isn’t she meant to be one of the fighters within the party?
No. it’s just acknowledging they dropped in the numbers of MPs in the last election.So, part of their aims should be to increase their numbers next election.
It’s a speech to launch her campaign to be selected as co-leader of the Greens. It’s not a speech to meet the incessant and child-like needs of some dude on the internet who doesn’t understand how things work.
“The fact you failed to come back with something constructive, opting instead to take a potshot at me, is disappointing and a worry.”
No, it’s really not. I write whole posts on this kind of thing. Other people write whole posts in this kind of thing. The Greens write whole posts on this kind of thing. They also have multiple twitter accounts, press releases, and a whole website full of policy.
You on the other hand, almost never go and do your homework and find out about the things you are complaining about, and instead sit in the comments section of The Standard and take pot shots at the Greens for not doing what you want to them to do. When people do respond with analysis and evidence, you usually dismiss it.
There is no way I am going to respond proactively to any alleged points you raise because your whole point here is to undermine the Greens. It’s a waste of my time, and other peoples imo, to engage with you as if your comments are meaningful. This doesn’t mean you don’t have good ideas, I’m commenting here on *how you choose to present them.
After reading yet another story about meth/P addiction I am beginning to wonder just why NZ appears to be making virtually no progress on this insipid drug over the last decade.
For all the meth busts reported, nothing seems to change or make a dent in the market. Why could that be? Just going to put this out there….. are police paid a decent wage these days? Are some of them supplementing their income by turning a blind eye?
I really feel something is very off with the big picture, are those in positions of power keeping the meth/P market going, am not talking about gangs, I’m talking about white collars. Something doesn’t sit well with the whole situation.
“There is a rise and it’s right across the board. There are 700,000 people in New Zealand with addiction-related problems.
“The meth dealer is targeting families with money in Hamilton and that’s no different to anywhere else, ranging in age from 19 to 42.
Articles say importation is done a lot by gangs and organised crime, while it’s also easy to make it in NZ.
A few articles are blaming Guangdong province in China as being a major centre exporting world wide. Others blame importation to NZ on stuff coming from various Sth East Asian countries. Don’t know how accurate that is.
The Guangdong province, in mainland China, has been known as being home to China’s “Breaking Bad” for several years and plays a major role in Australia’s growing meth, or ice crisis.
One hotspot, Lufeng, an industrial city of 1.7 million people in Guangdong, is so notorious for drug manufacturing it has become known as the “city of ice” by many social media users.
They say it’s easier to slip drugs through customs when there are a lot of legitimate imported products coming from the same countries.
Meanwhile, the Nat government was blamed for focusing more on imprisoning addicts than prevention. Plus, the under funding of police is being blamed. Some are also complaining the police are spending too much time and resources on targeting cannabis use.
I have to agree, Cinny that something is definitely not ok – they seem to have an infinite amount of money/staff to fly around the north spraying marijuana crops which are doing no harm, but are not interested when people ‘dob in’ meth producers. I hear tell of such responses as ‘yes we know about them’ and all of a sudden nothing happens!
Am so hearing you Jan, it’s the same around the top of the south.
I feel someone/something is propping up and continuing to enable the P trade in NZ, gangs are just small fry in the bigger picture and make a palatable scape goat for the public. Am not putting down the police but unfortunately there are rotten people in all facets of society. The gangs aren’t innocent but they are little fish in this picture. The police have been underfunded for so very long, but there’s more to it than that me thinks.
Precursors for the P appear to come via asia, makes one reflect on rich asian donators for various entities.
Where is the anti P advertising/messages/help etc? Should have be all over the telly and social media etc, a long time ago.
Something really stinks about the whole situation, am hoping our new government are brave enough to make a real difference.
Yes we need to be aware of where things are ourselves, and not have tourist maps published, and get in ourselves and pick the stuff. Pool resources and get a vehicle to travel together and pick for instance.
I found when involved in community that beneficiaries, who have a big need for good fresh food, were unable to go to the sites and get it, and when it was brought in to a central point couldn’t manage to get in and collect it there even when it was very accessible. People need support from helpful agencies as they are not able to take up every opportunity that presents.
Because we are rather tired of concern trolls masquerading as real lefties, then constantly nagging about how Labour or the Greens aren’t left enough. Just as Weka and Robert Guyton pointed out above.
The actor is still present next door she has changed her behaviour instead of parking her car on the lawn close to my house she is parking it on the other side of a tree she is now wearing long baggie track suite pants instead of revealing shorts .At least my neighbors are looking down there noses at her and thanks to thestandard site I have checked this cowardly move played by the sandflys .
My problem is what about the people that are getting set up by other sandflys they don’t have a site like thestandard to save there asses ECO MAORI feels sorrows for all these people whom will be mostly Brown.
But let’s all just keep all OUR heads in the sand and pretend that OUR justice systems are all good after shonky has given the sandflys all the power to use and abuse against mostly Brown people. You see people they Don t see US Brown people as there equal in there reality I’m just a Brown savage that deserves to be locked up in a cell for life.We don’t deserves to live in the same Neighborhood as them. ANA TO KAI
Ka kite ano
Uncalled for rudeness – and if you can’t work out what he’s talking about then you either have some huge gaps in your knowledge or you’re not ‘listening’
Back in February, the Marlborough District Council increased the mount it charges for LGOIMA requests. I used the LGOIMA to poke into this, and it seems the case for increased charges is unjustified: the supposed increase in request volumes it rests on is an artefact of the Council suddenly deciding ...
. . April 6: Day 12 of living in lock-down… Another day of a near-empty Park N Ride carpark; . . And another day of near-empty Wellington streets; . . . Light traffic on the motorway. No apparent increase in volume. Commercial vehicles sighted; a gravel-hauling truck; McAuley’s Transport; a ...
Imagination By-Pass: Had the Communications Minister, Kris Faafoi (above) taken a firm stand with Bauer, reminding them of their obligations to both their staff and the wider New Zealand public, then a much more favourable outcome may well have ensued. He should have made it clear to the Bauer board ...
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Connett promotes Riddell et al (2019) as one of the only four studies one needs to read about fluoridation. But he misunderstands and misrepresents the findings of this study. Image credit: Fluoride Action ...
Last month I wrote my blog on covid-19 pointing out the in our pre Alert Level 4 days that a subject no one had heard here months ago was now dominating the media. An amazing feature of this crisis is how quickly it has swept every other issue aside worldwide. ...
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Maybe you’ve seen the graph that says those countries where everyone wears a mask are the ones that have managed to keep Covid-19 under control? The first thing to say about that claim is that those countries also did lots of other things, too – they acted fast, with intense ...
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The Treaty on Open Skies is one of the most effective mechanisms for preventing war curently in force. By letting countries make surveillance flights over each others' territory, it eliminates fears that they are secretly preparing for war. So naturally, the US is planning to withdraw from it: The Trump ...
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As far as anyone can say, New Zeaand still has a general election scheduled for September 19 this year. The election will be accompanied by two referenda, one of which will ask voters:Do you support the proposed Cannabis Legalisation and Control Bill?The official campaign period for the cannabis referendum begins ...
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For those folk who find my other Lock-Down Diary versions too “negative” or otherwise unpalatable… Here’s a photo of my cat, . . Better? Tomorrow’s Sanitised Version: a pretty flower. . . . =fs= ...
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Image credit:Diamond Harbour School Blogs I notice a few regulars no longer allow public access to the site counters. This may happen accidentally when the blog format is altered. If your blog is unexpectedly missing or ...
Yesterday's Horizon poll showing support for a "Yes" vote in this year's cannabis referendum sliding into the majority for the first time in a year looked like good news for reformers – and it probably is. But the result warrants some scrutiny.The poll is the fifth in a series commissioned ...
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We know people are feeling anxious about COVID-19. While the situation is serious, New Zealand has a world-class health system and we’re well-prepared to keep New Zealanders safe. ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters is encouraging New Zealanders overseas to stay where they are amid the COVID-19 pandemic. "We are reaching a point where the best option for most New Zealanders offshore is to shelter in place, by preparing to safely stay where they are.” "This includes following the instructions ...
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“Yesterday evening the Health Minister advised me of his trip to a beach during the lockdown and offered his resignation,” Jacinda Ardern said. “Under normal conditions I would sack the Minister of Health. What he did was wrong, and there are no excuses. “But right now, my priority is our ...
Last night as part of my preparation for the Epidemic Response Committee, I provided the Prime Minister with a complete picture of my activity outside my home during Alert Level 4. That included the fact that on the first weekend of the Alert Level 4 lockdown I drove my family ...
A range of support is being rolled out across New Zealand to help people look after their mental health during COVID-19 Health Minister David Clark said this morning. “COVID-19 has brought a lot of uncertainty into our lives and many of us will be feeling some level of distress or ...
The New Zealand Government has made arrangements to charter a flight for New Zealanders stranded in Peru to depart the country, following agreement with the Chilean government to allow the necessary transit through Chile, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters announced today. “Like many travellers around the world at the moment, ...
Hospital preparations for COVID-19 are well advanced says Health Minister David Clark. “Hospitals across New Zealand are repurposing buildings and training staff to get ready for COVID-19 patients. This gives me confidence that we are well prepared for any potential increase in COVID-19 patients needing hospital level care,” said David ...
The Government will be introducing legislation to make changes to the Companies Act to help companies facing insolvency due to COVID-19 to remain viable and keep New Zealanders in jobs. The temporary changes include: Giving directors of companies facing significant liquidity problems because of COVID-19 a ‘safe harbour’ from insolvency ...
The Government’s plan to cushion the blow of COVID-19 by supporting incomes, jobs and businesses, and position the economy to recover has been backed by another international report. International credit rating agency Moody’s today reaffirmed its highest Aaa credit rating on New Zealand, saying the economy is expected to remain ...
National sports organisations have been given certainty of funding to ensure they can remain viable through the COVID-19 pandemic, Sport and Recreation Minister Grant Robertson announced today. “The global spread of COVID-19 has had a significant impact on sport and recreation in New Zealand, including the cancellation or postponement of ...
Changes have been made to allow butchers to process pork, only for supply to supermarkets or other processors or retailers that are open, Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor has announced. “We carefully weighed the risk of allowing butchers to open their shops for retail customers, but the risk of spreading COVID-19 ...
Essential workers who take leave from work to comply with public health guidance are being supported with a leave scheme to ensure they will continue to receive income, say the Minister of Workplace Relations and Safety Iain Lees-Galloway and Minister for Social Development, Carmel Sepuloni. A number of essential businesses ...
A Government WhatsApp channel has been launched to help make information more easily accessible and shareable in the fight against COVID-19. Govt.NZ, which is free to use on any mobile device, will carry information and news for the public, businesses, healthcare providers, not for profits and local government. It can ...
The Government has announced a plan to enable the safe, orderly exit of tens of thousands of stranded foreign nationals from New Zealand during the current COVID-19 Alert Level 4 restrictions, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Winston Peters has said. “When we moved into lockdown a week ago, the ...
Health Minister Dr David Clark says the Government is delivering on its commitment to support general practice doctors and nurses, and pharmacies on the front-line of our fight against COVID-19. "For us to overcome COVID-19, we need community health services such as general practice and community pharmacy to step up ...
Justice Susan Thomas has been appointed Chief High Court Judge, Attorney-General David Parker announced today. She replaces Justice Geoffrey Venning who has resigned from the position. David Parker paid tribute to Justice Venning, who he said had stewarded the High Court very capably over the last five years. “On behalf ...
Businesses can start applying to their banks for loans under the Business Finance Guarantee Scheme set up to support the New Zealand economy during the COVID-19 pandemic. “We’re moving quickly to protect New Zealand businesses, jobs and the economy during this unprecedented global economic shock,” Finance Minister Grant Robertson said. ...
Work is underway looking at measures to speed up consents for development and infrastructure projects during the recovery from COVID 19, to provide jobs and stimulate our economy. Environment Minister David Parker said the COVID-19 pandemic is a serious global crisis that will have a wide ranging and lasting impact ...
Advance payments will be made to transport construction industry contractors to retain the workforce and ensure it is ready to quickly gear up to build projects which will be vital to New Zealand’s COVID-19 economic recovery, Transport Minister Phil Twyford announced today. He said keeping the workforce required to build ...
The Government has tasked a group of industry leaders to seek out infrastructure projects that are ready to start as soon as the construction industry returns to normal to reduce the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Economic Development Minister Phil Twyford and Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones say. The Infrastructure ...
Work to scale up the health system in preparation for COVID-19 was today outlined by Health Minister David Clark, as he reported back to the new Epidemic Response Committee. “We are well placed to contain the spread of COVID-19. We have taken early and decisive action at our borders, and ...
The Government is refining its COVID-19 essential business guidance to include the distribution of news publications for communities which are hard to reach. The Minister of Broadcasting, Communications and Digital Media, Kris Faafoi, said the move was in recognition of the importance for New Zealanders who might be harder to ...
The Government is ensuring supermarkets can open on Easter Sunday so we can buy groceries, but stay closed on Good Friday allowing workers to take a break. This provides a balanced approach and ensures we avoid large queues that two days closure may cause. “Supermarkets will be able to open ...
Following the successful conclusion of the Building Partner Capacity (BPC) mission at Taji, New Zealand defence personnel are returning to New Zealand from Iraq, in accordance with the Cabinet decision made in June 2019, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Ron Mark announced today. “New Zealand is very ...
The State of National Emergency to help stop the spread of COVID-19 has been extended for a further seven days, Minister of Civil Defence Peeni Henare said. The initial declaration on March 25 lasted seven days and can be extended as many times as necessary. “Since we went into isolation ...
New Zealand’s ability to go hard and go early in the fight against COVID-19 has been underpinned by strong Government finances and the growing economy heading into this global pandemic, Finance Minister Grant Robertson says. The Treasury today released the Crown financial statements for the eight months to the end ...
Health Minister Dr David Clark says 36 new intensive care beds at Christchurch Hospital’s new Hagley building are being fast tracked so they are available for treatment of COVID-19 patients. The Ministry of Health is working with contractor CPB and Canterbury DHB to enable access to the hospital’s ICU, ...
The Government has fast-tracked up to $1 million to help Air New Zealand move urgent freight to and from New Zealand, with the first flight to Shanghai leaving tonight, Transport Minister Phil Twyford announced today. Phil Twyford says it’s crucial that trade in vital goods such as medical supplies and ...
New Zealand will temporarily remove tariffs on all medical and hygiene imports needed for the COVID-19 response. Trade and Export Growth Minister David Parker and Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Kris Faafoi said today that the New Zealand Customs Service will apply tariff concessions to all diagnostic reagents and testing ...
Minister of Finance Grant Robertson has clarified that the changes to the wage subsidy scheme announced yesterday mean that employers should be passing on the full subsidy to workers, except in the case where the person’s normal income is less than the level of the subsidy. “We still want employers ...
Medical face masks from the national reserve supply are now being distributed to District Health Boards, while at the same time local production is being ramped up. Yesterday more than 640,000 masks were sent to DHBS – that is an immediate two week supply, with more to follow in coming ...
The Government has made modifications to the wage subsidy scheme to ensure people don’t lose their jobs during the national lockdown. These changes will soften the impact of COVID-19 on workers, families and businesses, and position them to exit the lockdown and look to recovery, Finance Minister Grant Robertson says. ...
Farmers whose herds were culled in response to the outbreak of Mycoplasma bovis will be able to minimise the tax treatment of their income in some circumstances. Revenue Minister Stuart Nash says Cabinet has agreed to change the law. It means farmers may be eligible to spread their income over ...
A $27 million dollar package, effective immediately, is being provided to social sector services and community groups to ensure they can continue to provide essential support to communities as we stay at home as a nation to stop the spread of COVID-19, Minister for Social Development Carmel Sepuloni announced. “At ...
“The guilty plea today will provide some relief to the many people whose lives were shattered by what happened on March 15,” Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said. “These guilty pleas and conviction bring accountability for what happened and also save the families who lost loved ones, those who were injured, ...
The Prime Minister is holding daily press conferences to update New Zealanders on the Government's response to COVID-19. Links to videos and transcripts of these updates below. These transcripts also include All of Government press conferences led by Director Ministry of Health's Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield. 25 March: Live update from the Prime ...
Frontline Police numbers have broken through the 10,000 mark for the first time in history as officers step forward to keep the community safe during the COVID19 lockdown. “Two Police graduations in Auckland and Wellington in the past week have been conducted in unprecedented circumstances,” Police Minister Stuart Nash said. ...
Urgent legislation has been passed to support the package of economic and social measures needed to recover from the impact of the coronavirus outbreak. “The COVID-19 Response (Taxation and Social Assistance Urgent Measures) Bill will cushion New Zealanders from the worst economic impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak,” said Revenue Minister ...
NZIER says confidence survey suggests 100 percent of businesses now have negative outlooks; 596 kiwi pilots laid off by Air NZ and Virgin; RBNZ confirms will buy $3b of council bondsGloomy outlook: The March quarter survey of business opinion from the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research (NZIER) made for ...
Op-Ed by Armida Salsiah AlisjahbanaArmida Salsiah Alisjahbana is the United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of ESCAP. The unprecedented public health emergency triggered by the COVID -19 pandemic and its multi-faceted impact on people’s lives around the world is taking a heavy toll on Asia and the Pacific. ...
Kiwi Wealth’s Customer Services Manager Matt Beach zooms in from his home in Whitby to talk to Bernard Hickey about how his team worked remotely to answer questions from Kiwi Saver customers Matt Beach has been in tricky situations before, but reconfiguring Kiwi Wealth’s call centre to work remotely and ...
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Dire warnings about water levels, tentative good news on Covid-19 case numbers, and local government struggles for funding.The seriousness of this issue has largely gone unnoticed amid everything else, but if we don’t address it now things could get pretty ...
For all The Spinoff’s latest coverage of Covid-19 see here. Read Siouxsie Wiles’s work here. New Zealand is currently in alert level four. The country is shut down, apart from essential services. For updated official government advice, see here.The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is funded by The Spinoff Members. To support this work, join The ...
There is a trade-off: how many lives will be taken by Covid-19 and how many lives will be lost due to our attempts to prevent loss of lives from Covid-19, writes Professor Ananish Chaudhuri of the University of Auckland In his book “Risk Savvy”, the behavioural scientist Gerg Gigerenzer notes that, ...
Like countless local events and businesses, the Vineyard Half in Blenheim is about so much more than money. It’s about the often hidden ties that bind communities together, writes Allan Ramsay. Week two of lockdown and now the layers of what holds all our rural communities together are slowly being ...
Times are tough, tempers are short but memories are long. How can businesses preserve their good reputations? Andrew Patterson reports. There’s an old saying “when times are tough you discover who your true friends are.” The same might be said of business relationships. As businesses fight for survival there’s one ...
A bank tells its customers they're following the lead of their counterparts across the ditch in trying to make thousands more transactions contactless More keypad-free transactions might be coming as part of a measure to raise the paywave threshold to $200. The announcement was made a little early by an eager ...
As new restrictions affecting people’s ability to work are put in place, there's a growing segment of workers we must ensure aren't left out in the cold, writes Victoria University of Wellington's Stephen Blumenfeld The Covid-19 outbreak and nationwide lockdown should not create an opening for employers to treat the ...
With shearing gangs mostly stood down under the level 4 lockdown, farmers face the prospect of having to shear their own sheep, reports Jill Herron. Shearers and wool-handlers across the country are “very keen” to get back to work once Covid 19 restrictions ease – and farmers will be pretty ...
As learning shifts online at pace, the key will be for educators will be to keep it simple, coordinated and normal, write Stephen Dobson and Edward Schofield of Victoria University of Wellington Things have moved quickly in the global scramble to move everything online. We are reminded of how it ...
In a bid to keep the netball community engaged and active in lockdown, Netball NZ are beaming a free fitness programme into Kiwi homes. In these strange and unsettling times, Laura Langman feels just a little funny having others inside her Sunshine Coast home.Just to make it clear, the Silver Ferns captain ...
As life in lockdown becomes our new normal, you may be asking how you can maintain your wellbeing and relationships under these conditions. Here are some tips based on psychological research that will help you cope, get in routine, and make the best of the lockdown experience. Tips to help ...
A surfer photographed raising his middle finger says it was clearly aimed at the photographer, not the police, and wants the online threats against him to stop, reports Bonnie Sumner. A west Auckland surfer says threats have been made against him and his family after the Stuff news site published ...
A new Wattie's cookbook has four recipes of things to make with all that flour and all those cans of Wattie's that you panic-bought.CURRIED LAMB SAUSAGE ROLLS Prep time: 20 minutes. Cook time: 20–25 minutes. 1 small onion, finely diced2 tsp Gregg’s Curry Powder400g lamb mince ...
A new life has been put on hold for people in the Auckland resettlement centre, writes Greta Yeoman.For the 135 refugees based at the Māngere Refugee Resettlement Centre in Auckland, plans to resettle in towns across New Zealand towards the end of April are up in the air with the ...
Amid the seemingly endless bad news at the moment, a new initiative is trying to get people to think positively. While the world may seem like it’s slowed to a crawl, there are still people out there creating and innovating. The Covid-19 pandemic has drastically altered how we’re living, but ...
From the reemerging debate around capital gains tax to the increasing reach of tax authorities, Terry Baucher, writing for interest.co.nz, looks at a number of implications the coronavirus pandemic could have on the tax system. “There are decades when nothing happens and there are weeks when decades happen,” Lenin is said ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Scott Morrison has made clear his view that any attempt to eliminate COVID-19 entirely in Australia would carry too high an economic cost, while Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy says such an aim would require ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stanley Shanapinda, Research Fellow, La Trobe University A conspiracy theory claiming 5G can spread the coronavirus is making the rounds on social media. The myth supposedly gained traction when a Belgian doctor linked the “dangers” of 5G technology to the virus during ...
As governments around the world prepare to spend billions of dollars to stimulate their economies, climate activists see these investments as the last chance for big spending on climate change, Marc Daalder reports "We're out of time." That's the alarm that Climate Change Minister James Shaw has been raising for anyone ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Even regional distribution, though South Island is worse. Chart by Keith Rankin. New Zealand now has sufficient case data to get a sense of its regional distribution of Covid19. Surprisingly, Auckland is not dominant, unlike the main business cities in other countries such as London, ...
Analysis by Bryce Edwards.Minister of Health, David Clark. Is David Clark the best possible Minister of Health to be leading New Zealand through the Coronavirus crisis? Confidence in Clark has plummeted with today’s revelation that the Health minister made another recreational trip during the lockdown that appears to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rick Sarre, Adjunct Professor of Law and Criminal Justice, University of South Australia The High Court today quashed the conviction of Cardinal George Pell, who had originally been found guilty on a number of charges by a jury of 12 people. His ...
NZNO urgently needs the Government and all health employers to commit to a comprehensive ‘He Kete Tapuhi Ora response package’ to assist all nurses, midwives, health care assistants and kai mahi hauora in this exceptional fight against the COVID-19 ...
The government is exploring taking legal action regarding the Ruby Princess cruise ship which has proven to be a hotbed of Covid-19 infection in Australia. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rachel Climie, Exercise Physiologist and Research Fellow, Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute Fitbit recently released data showing a global decrease in physical activity levels among users of its activity trackers compared to the same time last year. As we navigate the coronavirus ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Indigo Holcombe-James, Sessional academic, School of Media and Communications, RMIT University Museums, galleries and artist collectives around the world are shutting their doors and moving online in response to coronavirus. But engaging with audiences online requires access, skills and investment. My research ...
Two hundred merchants are trialling an online contactless payment method in store, using just mobile phones and no EFTPOS terminal. The technology - devised by Paymark - has been designed in response to Covid-19, allowing customers to purchase items without having to physically touch the terminal. The transaction uses the ...
A report on the NZ Farmer segment of Stuff caught the eye of Point of Order. It led off with a quote from respected economist Cameron Bagrie. “Thank God for farmers….They’ve felt beaten up over the past couple of years, well, thank God agriculture is still the backbone of NZ.The story ...
The introduction of a Universal Basic Income (UBI) now is totally unaffordable and wrong says Peter Malcolm spokesperson for Income Equality Aotearoa NZ Inc. A UBI or Universal Basic Income is a Government payout to all adults and some say for children ...
Unite Union says SkyCity has broken the law by sacking 200 salaried workers without consultation or discussion. It said SkyCity's letter of notice stated that the decision had already been made and it was not seeking the employees' views to the extent that it would do under normal circumstances. Unite ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Steven Hamilton, Visiting Fellow, Tax and Transfer Policy Institute, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University No Australian government has ever spent A$130 billion so quickly. Last Tuesday, when the Prime Minister announced the government would subsidise six million jobs for ...
By Anita Roberts in Port Vila While the Vanuatu government is investing its resources in tackling the coronavirus pandemic threat, it is now stretching its resources to tackle other natural disasters posing threats to the lives of the people – Cyclone Harold still moving over the country after lashing ...
New Zealand has 54 new confirmed and probable cases of Covid-19, bringing the total number of cases to 1160, the Health Ministry has confirmed. Today’s new figure is down from the 67 new cases reported yesterday. With 65 people recovering in the past day, today is also the first ...
The latest in our new series of charts, graphics and data visualisations by Chris McDowall.This work is entirely funded by the generosity of The Spinoff MembersThese posts collate the most recent statistics and present them as charts and maps. The Ministry of Health typically publishes data updates in the early ...
Misinformation about adrenochrome and its supposed links to Covid-19 has gone into overdrive. But what is it? We separate the substance’s literary history from its real-world functions.If you’ve spent much time online lately, like everyone else in lockdown, you’ve probably fallen down some strange Covid-19 rabbit holes. One word you ...
ANALYSIS:By Sally Young of the University of Melbourne Many newspapers betrayed their readers during the Great Depression and now some are doing so again during the coronavirus pandemic. During the Depression, Australia’s major daily newspapers loudly resisted calls for economic stimulus to revive the economy. Even the tabloids ...
The locked-down residents of a Wellington rest home – including her mum – are treated to a live gig courtesy of historian and author Rachel Buchanan (Taranaki, Te Ātiawa).Ever since I was Dorothy in the New Plymouth Operatic Society’s production of The Wizard of Oz, I have wanted an international ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephanie Perkiss, Senior Lecturer, University of Wollongong The coronavirus might make Easter celebrations a little subdued this year, but that doesn’t mean going without chocolate eggs. In fact, South Australia’s chief public health officer Nicola Spurrier reportedly said people should partake in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joo-Cheong Tham, Professor, Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne The centerpiece of the Commonwealth government’s COVID-19 economic stimulus program is JobKeeper. Priced at A$130 billion, it will pay eligible employers $1,500 per fortnight for each eligible employee for up to six months. ...
Bernard Hickey talks to Kiwibank chief economist Jarrod Kerr about the latest weak business confidence figures and they hear from Oliver Hartwich about the Euro's dire prospects Bernard Hickey talks with Jarrod Kerr about the latest Covid-19 figures showing New Zealand's hard and early lockdown appears to be controlling ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ben Mathews, Professor, School of Law, Queensland University of Technology The High Court today granted Cardinal George Pell special leave to appeal, and unanimously allowed the appeal. In other words, Pell won. His convictions were quashed and he will be released from ...
The number of new Covid-19 cases reported on Tuesday was the lowest it has been in two weeks, Marc Daalder reports There were just 54 new cases of Covid-19 in New Zealand as of Tuesday morning, Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield said. This is the lowest figure in two weeks, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ilana Finefter-Rosenbluh, Lecturer, Faculty of Education, Monash University The unfolding COVID-19 situation has brought many changes to school education. NAPLAN tests have been cancelled for 2020 and most children are learning online. Education minister Dan Tehan is meeting with the states on ...
The way we buy our food has changed hugely since the lockdown began. Small New Zealand producers have taken a massive hit, closing stores and struggling with online demand. Here are some ways shoppers can help these businesses.In the first week of lockdown, shoppers panicked. It was a perfectly natural ...
Wellington, 7 April - The Government’s current wage subsidy scheme may insufficiently protect Kiwis from the worst effects of the Covid-19 crisis, according to a new report from the New Zealand Initiative. Comparing New Zealand with Australia and Canada, ...
How is Covid-19 spreading within the country? Newsroom is collating information as it's available to paint a picture of what's happening.The following charts are based on numbers shared at the daily press conference. These may vary from the full day's numbers released in the Ministry of Health's spreadsheet ...
New Zealand is seeking reciprocal transit arrangements with other nations after a decision to allow foreign nationals to use country's airports to get home. ...
After a second revelation of a lockdown breach in as many weeks, David Clark's political career is on life support. But in truth he has never really seemed a good fit as health minister, Sam Sachdeva writes. Appearing before Parliament’s epidemic response committee hours after his latest public shaming, Health ...
Powerplay - Health Minister David Clark stays in Cabinet after he breaches lockdown rules, but this could compromise the government's Covid-19 response and cause distractions for the prime minister at a crucial time, writes Jane Patterson. ...
After offering up his resignation, Health Minister David Clark answered questions along with Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield and Otago University Professor and epidemiologist Sir David Skegg. ...
The Sensible Sentencing Trust is calling on the Government to postpone the report due date for Minister Andrew Little’s Electoral (Registration of Sentenced Prisoners) Amendment Bill. This Bill would allow prisoners with a sentence of three years or ...
Reverend Scottie Reeve on the meaning of Easter during the Covid-19 pandemic, and why we need to embark on a journey of collective repentance. On Wednesday while I was going for a walk, I came across a friend on the Wellington waterfront. We’ll call him David. David had no idea what ...
Our essential workers deserve more than a round of applause, but danger pay is not the answer, writes Kerry Davies from the Public Service Association.Did you shower this morning? Is the kitchen clean? Have you changed your sheets since we went into lockdown? Have you vacuumed? Are you taking that ...
The local government sector has banded together to open a helpline for all council drinking and waste water technicians, providing an accessible source of advice for small suppliers across New Zealand to lean on. While drinking and waste water infrastructure ...
This story first appeared in The Mercury Bay Informer and is republished here with permission. Roadblocks could be in place at entry points to the Coromandel this week as the local Civil Defence Controller moves to prevent unlawful travel to the Peninsula during the Covid-19 lockdown. Speaking to The Informer last ...
He Waka Eke Noa – We are all in this together, according to the Prime Minister. Except that we’re not…………………….. After pressure from employees, Fletcher Building executives have shown the way with their decision to take a 30 ...
New Zealanders in need during the COVID-19 lockdown are set to further benefit from a food charity’s distribution programme. KiwiHarvest, a national food rescue charity which collects food from retailers before it goes to waste and distributes it to ...
The Auckland Ratepayers’ Alliance is slamming ATEED as completely out of touch with the economic reality of Aucklanders after the agency posted a job advertisement for a newly created role: a “Digital Content Specialist” . “ATEED should be ...
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand. Today’s contentHealth minister demoted, Bridges defends commute 1News: ‘I got it wrong’ – David Clark says he’ll continue as Health ...
The Aotearoa Vapers Community Advocacy (AVCA) will challenge Parliament’s Health Select Committee tomorrow morning, saying the Government’s vaping bill in its current form runs the risk of protecting Big Tobacco. Director of AVCA, Nancy Loucas, says ...
How quickly the political landscape can change. A month ago, Deputy PM Winston Peters, along with PM Jacinda Ardern, was deep into a trans-Tasman sledging match after Ardern attacked Australia’s hardline deportation. But as the coronavirus crisis broadened, it was Peters on the line to Canberra seeking Australia’s assistance in ...
Today New Zealand Air Line Pilots’ Association (NZALPA) President Captain Andrew Ridling said: “Yesterday NZALPA met several times with Air New Zealand CEO Mr Greg Foran and his executive team to continue our discussions on cost-cutting measures ...
Mr Davis, AWUNZ spokesman, said; “The Provincial Growth Fund needs a Union heart not only a commercial mind. Shane Jones needs to accept that work creation is the only goal. I don't mean generously-paid jobs either for the Wellington insiders" ...
BSA has today released a guidance note which it has prepared with a working group of broadcasters to guide broadcasters when reporting on terrorism, violent extremism and crisis events. The guidance note follows the issue of decisions by the BSA last ...
‘Paint is peeling from the old truck workshop walls. Some days you can taste rust on the autumn wind, like swallowing iron and blood and pollen.’Read more Lockdown Letters hereIT’S GONE BELLY UP FOR THE WORLD.I bet the doomsday preppers are feeling smug right now, locking down in their DIY ...
The National Iwi Chairs Forum welcomes the further clarity and guidance on Alert Level 4 rules during lockdown, issued by Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield over the weekend. Speaking from the Wellington base of the National Iwi Chairs Forums ...
After offering up his resignation, Health Minister David Clark will be answering questions along with Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield and Otago University Professor and epidemiologist Sir David Skegg. ...
There’s a desperate scramble to stop more major media companies failing. Duncan Greive explains what’s going on – and how it might play out.The most recent edition of the reigning newspaper of the year, the Sunday Star-Times, was a pearler. It opened with a substantial analysis from political editor Luke ...
CEAC again reviewed the NZTA National Land Transport Programme “2021–24 NLTP development” plan and CEAC is shocked that NZTA has assumed itself as “Transport Agency” - but is only a Gov’t designated “Road controlling authority” (RTA) ...
Open Mike 04/02/2018 
Back in February, the Marlborough District Council increased the mount it charges for LGOIMA requests. I used the LGOIMA to poke into this, and it seems the case for increased charges is unjustified: the supposed increase in request volumes it rests on is an artefact of the Council suddenly deciding ...16 hours ago
. . April 6: Day 12 of living in lock-down… Another day of a near-empty Park N Ride carpark; . . And another day of near-empty Wellington streets; . . . Light traffic on the motorway. No apparent increase in volume. Commercial vehicles sighted; a gravel-hauling truck; McAuley’s Transport; a ...20 hours ago
Imagination By-Pass: Had the Communications Minister, Kris Faafoi (above) taken a firm stand with Bauer, reminding them of their obligations to both their staff and the wider New Zealand public, then a much more favourable outcome may well have ensued. He should have made it clear to the Bauer board ...20 hours ago
We all know that Simon Bridges has, at the best of times, an intermittent relationship with the truth. However you would think that during a pandemic and economic crisis the current opposition leader would pull his head in and start to do the right thing.Obviously leading by example should be ...21 hours ago
Connett promotes Riddell et al (2019) as one of the only four studies one needs to read about fluoridation. But he misunderstands and misrepresents the findings of this study. Image credit: Fluoride Action ... 23 hours ago
Last month I wrote my blog on covid-19 pointing out the in our pre Alert Level 4 days that a subject no one had heard here months ago was now dominating the media. An amazing feature of this crisis is how quickly it has swept every other issue aside worldwide. ...2 days ago
Nick Wilson,1 Ayesha Verrall,1,2 Len Cook,3 Alistair Gray,3 Amanda Kvalsvig,1 Michael Baker,1 (1epidemiologists, 2infectious disease physician, 3statisticians) In this blog, we raise ideas for how New Zealand might optimise testing to both identify cases in the community as part of the COVID-19 elimination strategy, and to confirm when the virus ...2 days ago
Story of the Week... Editorial of the Week... Toon of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Climate Feedback Claim Review... SkS Week in Review... Poster of the Week... Story of the Week... North Atlantic's capacity to absorb CO2 overestimated, study suggests Research into ocean’s plankton likely to lead to ...2 days ago
As far as anyone can say, New Zeaand still has a general election scheduled for September 19 this year. The election will be accompanied by two referenda, one of which will ask voters:Do you support the proposed Cannabis Legalisation and Control Bill?The official campaign period for the cannabis referendum begins ...2 days ago
As the world economy slides rapidly towards deep recession there are growing calls for a Universal Benefit coming from some leftists and rightists. Now Finance Minister Grant Robertson is saying it is on the table. This article by a French party Workers Struggle provides analysis of various forms of universal ...3 days ago
This is the advice from the very top of the anti-fluoride movement – Paul Connett, director of the Fluoride Action Network (FAN). Don’t worry about reading up on all the scientific information “You only have ... 3 days ago
Comfortably, in the very first round, with an impressive 56% of the votes.I wonder, did members of the Shadow Cabinet start tweeting their resignations during Starmer's victory speech, or is that only a trick the right pull?It is odd how all the talk of how the next leader "needs to ...3 days ago
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern addressed the nation today about the decline in daylight New Zealand has been experiencing over the previous few months. She said “As many of you will notice, our attempts to stem the dwindling of the daylight over the last few months have been completely ...4 days ago
We must root out the traitors among us! ...5 days ago
I haven’t done a huge amount in the last few days. I’m reading The Poppy War and I’ve sort of poked at a couple of games – I started SOMA but I’m a wimp and I quit while in the first room after the brain scan. I might try it ...6 days ago
Image credit: Diamond Harbour School Blogs I notice a few regulars no longer allow public access to the site counters. This may happen accidentally when the blog format is altered. If your blog is unexpectedly missing or ... 7 days ago
The Covid-19 saga will no doubt produce many twists and turns for us before it is finally brought to an end. But one thing it has shown us – and what comfort it should bring us – is that our country’s government is in good hands. I am not thinking ...1 week ago
The following statement was released on March 28 by the National Network on Cuba, a coalition of 40 groups, based in the United States. In recent weeks, Cuba has deployed hundreds of medical providers to over a dozen countries in Europe, Asia, as well as to their neighbors in Latin ...1 week ago
Rt. Hon. Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Foreign Affairs Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced that New Zealand will enter into transit arrangements with a range of countries to make it easier for each other’s citizens to get home. “There are millions of people around the world stranded ...19 hours ago
From the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, our Government has striven to provide calm, clear and consistent communication, including daily press conference updates from the Prime Minister. ...3 days ago
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The scale of what we face right now is unlike anything we have ever seen before. Overcoming it is our common purpose. ...2 weeks ago
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An excellent article, part of a longer investigation.
It’s great to see a lot more New Zealanders will learn about how they can help mitigate climate change by adopting a plant based diet or by eating less meat.
There is a lot in the passage worth reading,
Here are some highlights.
“The average Kiwi eats 20kg less meat amid concerns over sustainability of agriculture.
As environmental concerns grow, so do the number of Kiwis choosing to adopt a meat-free lifestyle. A 2016 ANZ Roy Morgan poll showed one in 10 Kiwis follow a vegetarian diet – a 27 per cent increase in just five years.
In terms of sustainability, a low-meat diet is leagues ahead of a meat-rich diet.
There’s no escaping the reality of the environmental impact of agriculture. Collectively dairy, beef and sheep generate more than 97 per cent of all agricultural greenhouse gas emissions in New Zealand and almost half of the total green house emissions for the country.
Since 2002 the number of total dairy cattle has risen. As a result, the emissions created by dairy has doubled since 1990.”
It is clear from reading the article, that If you are concerned about climate change,you can do something.
Adopt a plant based diet.
https://i.stuff.co.nz/life-style/food-wine/100735629/the-average-kiwi-eats-20kg-less-meat-amid-concerns-over-sustainability-of-agriculture
A misleading piece of propaganda for vegetarianism, would be a better description.
Like you, it takes figures for the environmental impact of feeding grain crops to livestock and presents them as though they applied to New Zealand.
It also presents a graphic, again based on overseas farming practices, claiming meat uses a lot of “scarce” water, ignoring the fact that NZ livestock mostly use water that falls onto the farm as rain. And then captions it “A meat-eaters carbon footprint is much higher than that of a vegetarians,” as though that were what the graphic shows!
When you look at the article’s meat consumption figures, it’s pretty clear that rising prices and scaremongering about red meat have pushed people towards eating more chicken and pork. Whether there’s also greater enthusiasm for vegetarian diets is open to question, although it wouldn’t be surprising given the amount of propaganda for it out there.
I’d be more interested to see an article that worked out the food miles involved in a typical NZ vegan’s diet, and some assessment of what it would mean for the New Zealand environment to switch from meat to large-scale production of soy and other shit food crops. People would be able to make more informed choices then.
I eat less meat now cause it’s so expensive.
The days of a roast every Sunday are long gone. It’s now about once every 3 months. Mince and sausages have generally replaced the regular steak / schnitzel, chops.
To be fair things like kumara and pumpkin are also very expensive.
We’re almost back to seasonal eating again where the seasonal veges are always cheaper.
We’re definitely back to growing some of our own.
Most people I know eat less meat because of the cost.
Some of this relates to more money going out in rent. It’s great that landlord’s can use people’s hard earned money to buy their meat though. At least someone can buy it.
Ain’t got nothing to do with making veganisitic choices.
For you.
But, as the article states, for others yes.
Wasn’t disputing that. It’s only gone from 8% to 10% though. Stating it as a 27% increase coming off a low base does make it seem a bit more dramatic and depending on the sample size may well be within the margin of error.
There’s no way those 2% of new vegans would be causing that volume of decrease.
I would suspect that it’s much more likely to be cost.
It’s only gone from 8% to 10% though.
D’oh! I missed that one. That’s another hallmark of misleading propaganda – make a small increase sound like a big one by quoting the relative increase rather than the absolute increase.
Whatever
And the irrigated water to grow pasture, and the water used to grow imported feed?
Meanwhile, the water consumption for vegan and vegetarian foodstuffs can also be hidden and enormous.
So maybe the answer is to be mindful rather than ideologically hell-bent one way or the other.
To be honest, I don’t quite get why people are hooked on beef and lamb – both increasingly expensive and out of reach for growing numbers of people – (though my understanding is that very large amounts of lamb is rustled…)
What’s wrong with wild goat, wallaby, rabbit, goose…? It isn’t that people are a bit “snobbish” and look on those meats as “shit food” by any chance?
All the hunters I know supply their friends and neighbours with eg: goat, venison etc.
I have a large chunk of venison in the freezer at the moment, though I won’t be eating it myself 🙂
Meanwhile supermarkets sell rabbit at $20 – $30 a kilo (bones included). That was a few years ago. Turns out it costs the same to put a rabbit through the compliance regime as it does a cow (or so a meat inspector suggested to me in conversation back then).
The fact that many poor people are reduced to eating crap (affordable, mechanically recovered “meat” etc) – is a problem that could and should be fixed.
Agreed, and it seems to me that the most practical way to do that is via increased wages and benefits. In the absence of any political will for price controls, whether or not price controls would be a sensible solution.
The courier is already on its way to bring that good thing over to my place.
And the irrigated water to grow pasture, and the water used to grow imported feed?
Those are mainly features of dairy rather than meat production. But yeah, over-intensive dairy farming in inappropriate places has a huge environmental impact, and not just through water usage.
So maybe the answer is to be mindful rather than ideologically hell-bent one way or the other.
Absolutely. There aren’t any environmentally-friendly ways of feeding 9 billion people and climbing, plant-based or not.
MMMMMM crickets.
The core message of the article was not about vegetarianism or meat consumption, but about how city liberals have fundamentally lost touch with the physical country and the entire agricultural economy of New Zealand.
If you really want to put your money where you mouth is, go buy a farm or work on it.
This is the core message.
That meat eating is under pressure because of people ‘s concerns about sustainability.
I quote….
“’Farmers just aren’t respected’ – that’s the Kiwi message to Europeans who are eating less meat. We kick off a three-week series with an investigation into how environmental sustainability concerns are putting the heat on meat.”
The quote starts with “Farmers aren’t respected”.
Not vegetarianism.
Start there and try to find some understanding.
The article ends precisely with how farmers are reacting to foreign markets, and indeed how German farmers are respected while ours are not, which is why so many New Zealand farmers are reacting so well.
‘an investigation into how environmental sustainability concerns are putting the heat on meat’
More accurately, how intensive propaganda campaigns by vegetarians are putting the heat on meat. But I guess it’s true that that’s not what the article was investigating…
Concern for the environment I’d say.
News stories like this prompt responsible and caring people to reconsider their lifestyle choices.
http://www.news.com.au/technology/environment/climate-change/we-have-a-2020-deadline-to-avert-climate-catastrophe-experts/news-story/bcbe18fd8f96efba3ae411f53a12de93
Er, yes. That’s relevant to this discussion how, exactly?
To avoid the parade of non sequiturs that characterise your attempts at argument, you need a means of identifying how something like the quote in the above comment is relevant to the claim you’re making. In this instance, you need to demonstrate that humans eating shite like soy instead of proper food will put carbon dioxide emissions on a downward slope – otherwise, the comment makes no sense.
Are you a fatalist, Ed?
No.
And I am not an ostrich with my head in the sand.
Or news stories like this
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/letter-to-humanity-warning-climate-change-global-warming-scientists-union-concerned-a8052481.html
Ditto.
and then they read this……
and then they act…..
What are you waiting for?
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/mar/21/eat-less-meat-vegetarianism-dangerous-global-warming
And this one is, yet again, evidence that feeding human-edible crops to livestock is an incredibly wasteful way of farming. Stopping that would reduce food-related emissions a lot, as the study points out, but it doesn’t necessarily involve a vegetarian diet.
15,000 scientists give catastrophic warning about the fate of the world in new ‘letter to humanity’
We have a 2020 deadline to avert climate catastrophe: experts.
Eat less meat to avoid dangerous global warming, scientists say.
http://upr.org/post/scientists-make-case-eating-less-meat-2018
Spot a pattern?
What do you think needs to happen to save us from more severe effects of climate change, as you do not think changing our diet is relevant?
Changing how we grow food. Transitioning from industrial farming to regenerative agriculture and horticulture. Food forestry, polyculture systems, permaculture.
Eat seasonally and locally. Stop expecting food to be shipped from the other side of the world or the other end of the country. Support local growers and farmers who are trying to sell outside of the export market. Especially small to medium growers, and people who live on the land.
Grow what you can, if you can afford to pay someone else to grow for you. The more food we have growing in our neighbourhoods, the less we will need industrial agriculture.
Eat less meat if you eat a lot, eat the whole animal, not just the choice bits. Eat feral meat.
Eat less dairy. Eat dairy that comes from sustainable sources.
Support human animal husbandry, including free range animals (those farmers are the ones I’m talking about above, generally much closer to sustainability).
If you can’t do lots of those things, then agitate and lobby and protest to make those things happen. If you can do those things, then agitate and lobby and protest to make those things happen sooner.
Support the protest movement against Fonterra and Big Dairy, but support the farmers that are doing the right things. They’re not going to go away, so we need the people of means to start buying their produce not that of Big Farmer.
Stop wasting time and energy trying to convert everyone to being vegan. It’s not going to happen on a large scale, and you are promoting choices that support industrial agriculture. Put your energy into sustainable forms of food production.
+100
Exactly what’s happening where I am atm mostly. They even seem to know how to process cow shit properly. 40feet below the surface the most pridtine water is pumped. What the place needs tho is a ban on plastic and better disposal/recycling which causes extensive littering in places.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/meat-and-environment/
Ed.
How’s about you find ‘an angle’ and explore/debate/argue it, as opposed to throwing out a confetti of links?
Comment after comment of “cut/paste/link” really isn’t any different to comment after comment containing video links, and is about as worthwhile from the standpoint of anyone reading a thread – ie, it’s just not really worthwhile at all.
It also damages whatever point it is you’re trying to make around things you think of as so important or feel so passionate about when you “soap box” and “megaphone” them in this way.
My angle was this
‘It’s great to see a lot more New Zealanders will learn about how they can help mitigate climate change by adopting a plant based diet or by eating less meat.’
Spot a pattern?
I do. Actually, I see two patterns:
1. I see a pattern of scientists in countries where feeding human-edible crops to livestock is the norm, conflating that appallingly wasteful agricultural practice with a meat-based diet. That Scientific American article you link to is even illustrated with a photo of cows in a shed eating some kind of grain, as though that were the only way of producing meat that’s possible. “Scientists” should know better.
2. I see a pattern of Ed arguing from authority as usual.
Still, thanks for linking to that Scientific American article, because it does lay out clearly the basis for claims that eating meat is more environmentally damaging than eating plants:
Livestock are typically fed corn, soybean meal and other grains which have to first be grown using large amounts of fertilizer, fuel, pesticides, water and land.
Well, yeah, that’s pretty stupid, right? So, what about farming in New Zealand, in which sheep and beef cattle are typically fed the grass that’s growing in the paddock they live in? Gosh, somehow these American authors haven’t thought about that, America being as much of the world as a person needs to think about.
This one’s also characteristic of vegetarian propaganda:
A 2009 study found that four-fifths of the deforestation across the Amazon rainforest could be linked to cattle ranching.
Those damn cattle! If only everyone ate a vegetarian diet, no land would be being cleared for farming! Right? Amiright? Er, no, wait – I’m wrong. People in Brazil would be cutting down the rainforest for whatever agriculture was currently being practiced, because humans.
…rainforest…Those damn cattle! …
In a modern agricultural economy your argument depends on whether the cattle in question are being farmed for domestic consumption or export profit, just as our dairy farms are all about dried milk solids these days.
Not much need to cut down national parks for farming unless we can’t actually feed ourselves, eh.
No, my argument depends on whether there’s something specific about cattle that prompts people in Brazil to cut down rainforests, which there isn’t. What’s actually prompting people to cut down the rainforests is money, and if there were suddenly no money in cattle there’d be money in something else – if Ed had his way, in soy or whatever else vegans eat, for instance.
Actually science is now finding that grazing is an important factor in increasing carbon sequestration in soils. An interesting article is here:
https://e360.yale.edu/features/soil_as_carbon_storehouse_new_weapon_in_climate_fight
Indeed Carbon sequestration in soil could have a major impact of the reduction of atmospheric CO2.
http://science.sciencemag.org/content/304/5677/1623.full
However one of the major factors in the loss of soil carbon content is tillage. This is because the carbon is sequestrated firstly through photosynthesis then passed through the plants roots to the bacteria and fungi that live around the plants roots. Tillage kills these micro-organisms and the carbon they contain re-enters the atmosphere as methane and CO2.
Thank you Ed, I admire your tenacity on this tricky topic.
Thank you for your support.
There is a lot of resistance to this important message.
Either we adapt or die.
Does the change in lamb consumption from 19kg in 2006 to 0.9kg in 2016 sound right?
Is the DP wrong? 9kg would sound more reasonable.
[How’s about you use the reply buttons so you don’t squeeze out other topics others have posted on DV? Have shifted Carloyn nths comment this time, but would rather not have to spend time extracting “meat from the sandwich” as it were] – Bill
It does seem dramatic.
The increase in chicken is a worry.
No wonder people’s defences against antibiotics is declining.
In the text the article say its 1 kg of Lamb AND Mutton!!
I don’t believe it!!
Bloody hell, I’m eating a lot of other people’s share in that case…
Lamb consumption collapsed around the same time it became ridiculously expensive.
Lamb is now a luxury item for Xmas, Easter and special occasions.
It is interesting how in a decade what was once regarded as a staple can become a luxury, and a warning that living in a country with an enormous food surplus is no guarantee of security of food supply if capitalism and market are solely responsible for regulating supply, because if that remains the case you can bet your bottom dollar armed police at the wharves would beat off crowds of starving new Zealanders if Fonterra thought it could get $1 more a kg for it’s butter in Dubai.
But the figure included mutton.
Price is a factor, but the figure still seems too low. (Especially with Psycho eating so much!!)
“Lamb is now a luxury item for Xmas, Easter and special occasions”
Lamb is often on special in countdown for around $10 a kilo, its cheap compared with beef. Luxury item, you have to be joking.
Yes, if you know to look in the frozen food rather than the fresh meat section. Quite often it seems frozen lamb is quietly disposed of in this way – and it is usually when I buy the stuff if i need a leg of sheep (although being the owner of a mob of 24-36 ewes and lambs we usually have our own home killed mutton and lamb).
The cuts of lamb in the fresh meat section – chops, lamb steaks, etc are very expensive.
” Lamb is often on special at Countdown for $10 kg”. Not so where I live. It has been years since that was the case.
Had shoulder chops for dinner tonight, coincidentally.
Pack says $11.99/kg down from $16.99, short dated.
Countdown online store has them on special for $12.99/kg down from $16.99
I suspect there might be seasonal gluts, because nature, but I do enjoy it when our tory brethren and sistren talk about the prices of basic grocery items like bread, butter, or meat. They never check before posting, and it just shows how out of touch they really are.
Personally I would fit those numbers.
Lamb chops were a weekly regular – I’ve bought them maybe twice in the last twelve months.
We used to rotate our roasts – beef, lamb, pork, chicken each week. We hardly have them now and it’s whatever is the cheapest – that’s not normally lamb.
So yeah my lamb consumption drop is massive.
snap
Actually, now you mention it I haven’t torn into a chop since forever.
Sorry thought i did.
It’s Marama’s announcement day today.
11am-2pm
Livestream for Marama’s announcement starts at 12.10pm today:
https://www.facebook.com/events/2097993280422412/permalink/2107403859481354/
With all this extravaganza, it seems the Greens have forgotten about the fight to improve the plight of beneficiaries.
I’m sorry to hear that you are unable to walk and chew gum at the same time, but you really shouldn’t assume that everyone else is equally incapable.
Oh look, it’s a major theme in Marama Davidson’s speech. “It seems” your credibility could diminish even further after all.
Yep. It’s the main part of the platform she is standing on for co-leader.
“Oh look, it’s a major theme in Marama Davidson’s speech.”
Talking about it in a speech is one thing, but when are we going to actually see some follow-through on that talk?
Ten moths till next Christmas, still no talk from the Greens on securing a little something extra for beneficiaries to help them over Christmas.
No pressure being publicly applied on Labour (by the Greens) to bring forward Labour’s campaign promise of lower doctors fees.
No pressure being publicly applied on Labour (by the Greens) to extend winter energy payments. It’s not only winter that beneficiaries tend to struggle with soaring power bills.
Can you point me to something substantive the Greens have done (or are currently working on) to improve their (beneficiaries) fiscal plight?
What did you think of Keira O’Regan’s speech?
What did you think of Marama Davidson’s speech?
“What did you think of Marama Davidson’s speech?”
See my comment at 9.1.1.1.2
“What did you think of Keira O’Regan’s speech?”
Haven’t had time to look at that one yet.
My guess is that you either didn’t listen to it properly (as in all of it), or you listened with blocked ears for only the things you could use to criticise them.
It’s patently obvious that you either have no idea how government and parliament and the Greens work (no shame there, lots of people don’t), or you dismiss all that because you are dedicated to the poison pen. There’s no point in saying anything about what the Greens have done on poverty since the last election, because you are already convinced by your own internal dialogue and will just dismiss it.
You never guess right when it comes to you guessing about me.
What should be patently obvious is I’m not one for lowering the bar. Hence, I’m not one for backslapping the team when they are failing to bring their A-game.
Moreover, I point out the flaws and provide alternatives to help improve their game – not because I’m dedicated to the poison pen.
Don’t you think they should be working on the things I highlighted above?
Here’s another, what work have the Greens done on trying to secure a living wage for those employed on the Governments tree planting scheme? Don’t you think other Green supporters would support them doing this and would want to be informed about them doing this?
Not going to happen.
All the Greens can get is something for Conservation and Climate Change.
I was guessing about what you did, but the rest is observation. If you don’t want to be perceived as a poison pen, then up your own game.
From your observation, what do you perceive to be wrong with highlighting things we think the Greens should be doing but don’t seem to be?
I’ve already said. It’s *how you do it.
Take my comment at 3.1.1.2.2 and point out what you perceived was wrong with how it was done?
Beneficiaries aren’t Green portfolios.
Beneficiaries can get nothing from the Greens in this term.
Wrong target.
But they promised to continue on the fight, thus supporters (speaking for myself, but am aware of others) expect them too.
“All the Greens can get is something for Conservation and Climate Change.”
Labour better think twice about that, because the Greens will struggle if that’s all they get and knowing how Labour is also going to disappoint, they are both going to need each other come next election.
Labour need to give the Greens a little win on lifting the incomes of beneficiaries (whether through a Christmas bonus, core benefit increase or extended and larger energy payment) to help them (thus also themselves) maintain their party support.
They really don’t.
The Greens are free apparently to campaign all they want on anything so long as the MP themselves is not the responsible Minister. So they can get their own support, and can campaign for the next 2.5 years. From 6% the only way is up.
The latest poll has the Greens going downwards since the election.
Something which Labour should keep in mind, unless they think they can win the next election alone.
Ponder this:
The Greens have pretty much summed up what they plan to achieve this term (20 policy goals) and yet they’ve dropped in the poll.
And with nothing more up their sleeves coupled with supporter disappointment of swallowing some dead rats along the way, there is a real chance they won’t make the cut (5% threshold) come next election.
And while Labour have gone up on this poll, National still out-polls them.
So there is no comfortable lead for Labour to start forgetting they need the Greens. And the Greens need to give supporters a little more to keep them in the game.
PS
I can’t see NZF making the threshold.
The event is now live streaming on Facebook, with one of the pre-Marama speakers.
Marama has just announced she has put herself forward for position of GP co-leader and is speaking to that.
As I’ve said:
FTAs aren’t actually needed. Just the setting of standards.
Looks like it to me, too. I was at a customer focus group meeting a couple of weeks back, at which the large US company involved spoke explicitly about how the GDPR is forcing them to completely review their approach to privacy and security because they can’t run a two-tier system, one for Europe and one for everyone else. They’ll have to apply the European standard to everybody, which is great news for us but also means yes a “local” standard can have international effect if the locals are a significant enough proportion of the market.
How do these standards apply to employees? For instance, a photo of some can be classified as “personal data” because it identifies a person.
So, can an employer demand that an employee upload a photo of themselves to their work contact info on the organisation’s intranet- internal online directory?
Right up there along with demanding highly personal information as back up data to activate corporate log ins (cache very attractive to DOS attacks), making staff use external web based providers after providing your name & corporate email address ( surveys & the like) whose terms of trade let the third party keep your information forever, wanting Bio’s to put on public web pages, credit checking all your financial information including the size of your utility and mortgage payments
– the whole lot needs to be outlawed
Hah! Thanks. That’s very helpful.
Just venting a little there – employers often don’t get to even first base on the respect employee privacy theme
That’s the funny bit – my public-sector employer doesn’t have any online business dealings with Europeans so doesn’t give a shit about the GDPR. Only the rapacious multi-national corporations we deal with will be operating at this higher standard, while we continue to do whatever NZ’s Privacy Act and the non-enforcement thereof will let us get away with.
The approach to employees is interesting. We’re supposed to make ourselves and our skills as public as possible via the University’s web site, because the University wants media, researchers, businesspeople etc to find us when they’re looking for expertise to work with. So, my name, photo, job title, work email address and phone number, and applicable expertise is publicly available on our web site. I do get to opt out of including my photo if I want to, and some of my female colleagues did refuse for fairly obvious reasons, and what description of your skills you post is up to you, but you don’t get any choice about having your name, job title and contact details public.
My public sector employer is asking for the photo to be uploaded by everyone, onto the organisation’s intranet, via a system owned by a German Company – not publicly available, but it can be viewed by all the large number of employees within the organisation.
And it gets linked with all the emails we send – at least within the organisation – not sure if it also is viewed by emails we send to people outside the organisation.
Wear a wig and have your old owl-sized spectacles on. Look okay just a bit different from usual.
Yeah. Some people use old photos, which isn’t that representative, but the admins who check it don’t know the difference, I think.
Apparently NZ has already signed an agreement with the EU saying that ours are as good as theirs.
Seems reasonable as long as those contact details go through the university switch board.
The PABX switchboard, not an operator.
Usually direct dial extensions at my workplace, unless sensitive staffing matters.
Some even have office room numbers online. It depends on the role.
Fortunately, I have a satellite office nestled amongst departments that aren’t my own, down a banal corridor, in an office with three people and a phone I never bother answering, 6,000 emails in my inbox so I accidentally miss the annual department photo days and the requests for updated bio information, and a handy back door I can escape out of should anybody actually want to talk to me…
Because anyone who needs to talk to me knows how to get in touch with me, and them that don’t know me should talk to someone else.
Scientists compare climate change impacts at 1.5C and 2C
Scary stuff.
https://www.carbonbrief.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/1.5C-vs-2C-final-843×1024.jpg
https://www.carbonbrief.org/scientists-compare-climate-change-impacts-at-1-5c-and-2c
Something strange recently when accessing TS.
On my little macbook, when I try to log into TS on Firefox at home, I get a “bad request – can’t find server” notice. Then when I try to get back TS main page (still without having logged in), I still get the bad request notice for a short time.
But, I can log into TS from Safari on my macbook, and from firefox on my windows laptop at home, I can log into TS successfully.
Different programmes that do broadly the same thing can still do some things quicker than others. Firefox has some features that safari might not, and you can think of it as adding weight to what your machines have to carry (in addition to the weight they already carry simply from their operating system).
So on your desktop, it’s carrying an operating system, a whole heap of firefox features, and then signing in puts some extra tools and stuff on top – it’s a heavy load, but the desktop can carry it.
On your macbook, it’s like a kid (macbook) trying to carry the same load as an adult (desktop) – it can handle the operating system, and firefox, but then you stack encryption and sign in protocols on top and the poor wee thing drops the tool for finding a website server in a decent time.
But because safari is a bit lighter and easier for the kid/macbook to carry, when you put encryption and signup stuff on top of Safari, the kid can still carry the load.
There might be a server timeout setting you could tweak in preferences somewhere, but go with what works.
Hopefully this is a useful general illustration of what might be happening, but it’s also probably precisely wrong, depending on the exact circumstance 🙂
Why have are these star gazing people around Papatuanuku whinging about Peter Becks and his team Humanity STAR . Its not like the Humanity Star is going to blind the Beautiful nite Sky the star is not going to be up there for ever . The Humanity Star is in my view a symbol that has a message to all Humans we are one Race the Human race.
We live in Heaven now so lets speak up now and not let other Idiots turn Papatuanuku into hell which is were we are heading rapidly. Mother Earth is a finely balanced living being as with any living thing to much of one thing IE in this case Carbo in her atmosphere is causing her to heat up . We have had a lot of extreme weather in just one year . Global Warming is the biggest threat to Humanity and everyone is just sitting on there hands letting Trump suppress The words GLOBAL WARMING /CLIMATE CHANGE from the MSM around OUR Papatuanuku .Some people are countering that farcical behavior by Trump who is drunk on his power of President. I say we should tell him to get———and use these words to tell everyone around our world that Global Warning is going to make our Mokos /grandchildren’s future a nightmare for the 99% while the 1% live in location and structures that minimize the catastrophic weather that is already starting NOW . What happens when we get 300 klm winds 50 foot sea level rise. The climate change deniers say Antarctica wont melt because it is that high in mother earths Atmosphere its to cold up there to melt .I say the Ice will melt from the bottom up and If Antarctica melts Tangaroa will rise at least 70 mts we will be like rats on a sinking waka who gets the high ground well the 1% that’s who back to Peter Beck .
When he launched the Humanity star into our space this action in my view has achieved 2 very Great things one is the message To Human’s we are all humans so start behaving like intelligent Humane Beings the other is he saves cost on another test flight to prove that he can put a object in space now they can launch Satellites into space and start off a billion dollar industry in little old Aoteaora/New Zealand Ka pai Peter and your team . PS all the NAY SAYERS are in reality help the Humanity Star get the message out there I loved fishing off Mahia Coast when I was younger beautiful views Nga mihi nui koutou ka kite ano
With regard to Peter Beck, Rocketlabs and the Humanity star.
I’m personally not that exited about Rocketlabs. The company is partly funded by Lockheed Martin, the USA largest defence contractor. They’re also funded by DARPA, a USA government agency involved in military research.
Rocketlabs is also now a USA registered company.
Is it possible Rocketlabs is testing this new rocket technology for possible future military applications? So much for the ” Humanity Star”.
Astronomical photos are long exposure, which increases the chance the disco ball will pass through the shot. And it’ll add to the light fuckage of whatever observation it passes through.
It’s in a very low orbit, so it will only ever be visible close to the horizon, and just after sunset or just before sunrise. Not many serious observations happen then. I’d be surprised if it reflected enough city lights to interfere with proper dark-night observations. Still, it’s a particularly wanky bit of wankery, although not quite in the league of Elon Musk putting one of his cars into orbit.
I forgot to post this link for my post P.S everyone has a different view on reality some people are just jealous shonky and bill could have help fund Peter Ka pai
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11986005
While the “Me Too” divas and Harpo Windy made grand Obama-esque speeches at the Golden Globes the other week, they for some reason completely ignored the plight of this young woman….
Everything wrong with the reaction to Ahed Tamimi’s prosecution for slapping an Israeli soldier
Where were the international calls for compassion, the reminders that this was a potentially traumatised child?
by HIBA KHAN, Tuesday 2 January 2018 16:00 GMT
Everyone now knows that 16-year-old Ahed Tamimi slapped an Israeli soldier. How many of us know about the events that led up to this? Telling half of a story can be more of an injustice than fabricating the entirety, and in this instance, it most certainly is.
The viral video of Tamimi attempting to hit Israeli soldiers was reportedly the reason for her subsequent arrest and detention. Now let’s consider the background context to this video: Soldiers had apparently parked themselves on Tamimi’s family’s land shortly after their colleagues shot her 14-year-old cousin in the face with a rubber bullet and fired tear gas at their house, smashing windows. Her family says she was merely expressing legitimate protest at this treatment.
Living in fear of this sort of treatment remains the reality for 21st century Palestinians, without whose freedom Nelson Mandela observed that all of humanity’s freedom is incomplete. The UN Security Council deems Israeli settlements “a flagrant violation under international law”, and the sad reality for Palestinians is a life deprived of healthcare, an economy, a justice system, living in abject poverty with no food or water security and military violence against them and their children.
What we see in the widely circulated video of Ahed Tamimi slapping a soldier is the response of a bereaved, oppressed child – a child who is now being condemned and abused across social media. Context is important. A little bit of knowledge can be a dangerous thing.
Take a moment to picture a 16-year-old you know being raised in a country where violence and military occupation is the norm, where she is sometimes unable to access food, water and healthcare. Would they not be in pain, and frustrated and angry with the unfairness of the situation? Now picture their home being raided and them witnessing a younger cousin being shot in the head by a soldier. Would they not attempt to remove the soldiers from their front lawn as Tamimi did? Would they not become even more distraught when the soldiers refuse? Would they not, perhaps, lash out?
When an unarmed child is prosecuted for slapping a larger grown man in army gear equipped with a gun, it’s time to ask questions.
I saw no #IAmAhed. No uproar from feminist groups or international political recognition as there was for Malala, another child who lived in a country where oppression is often the norm. Instead of Nobel prizes and invitations to meet presidents, Ahed Tamimi remains in Israeli detention, having been labelled “dangerous”.
Our compassion and humanity for children growing up with the psychological wounds of living in a conflict zone apparently do not stretch so far as to accommodate girls like Ahed. Apparently, the brutality that Palestinians face is too politically complex and messy to render this strong beautiful girl fully human. But it’s more important than ever that, when we look at the pictures of this teenager in handcuffs, we see her for the child she really is. Don’t tell me the courthouse is where she belongs, and don’t tell me that international condemnation rather than understanding and compassion is what she deserves.
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/ahed-tamimi-soldier-slap-israel-charges-court-everything-wrong-response-a8138276.html
Great post morrissey.
Concur with your sentiments wholeheartedly @ Morrissey (8).
Something is definitely not right about international response to the unjust incarceration of Ahed. The only conclusion I can come to is that the world is too uncaring to be concerned about the plight of a 17 year old Palestinian girl, for fear of repercussions from tyrannical Israel and its supporters. If that is the case, then ignoring the situation, is giving Israel more power to continue its atrocities against Palestinians, which in the end, comes down to absolute shame on the rest of the world.
#I’mwithAhed.
I doubt anyone will be surprised by Marama Davidson’s announcement that she’s standing for co-leader. Whoever gets the job will be well qualified. Go the Greens!
In her announcement, Davidson is speaking about the struggles of low income people, inequalities, our poor prison system, homelessness, against underemployment, the working poor, etc…for state housing, for providing more opportunities for young people, for fairness and income equality…. etc
There are 119 other politicians in Parliament who ‘speak’ to these issues on a predictably regular basis, and particularly around election time, but not all of them are as genuine and authentic as Marama Davidson. I’m sure the DP brigade is trying to find & dig up dirt on her …
Yep.
Full text of Marama’s speech today via Scoop
Ends:
This sentence alone makes me want Marama to win.
Apart from talking about it, what have the Greens done that has been bold and brave since the election?
Fair point.
Davidson will make a difference.
When do you expect Davidson will do something bold and brave?
Soon
Why are you asking all these picky questions?
“Why are you asking all these picky questions?”
To help clear the air between the lip service being touted and action taken.
“To deliver on all of those visions and policies that our people and our environment so desperately need, we must return to Parliament in 2020 with much greater numbers”
Sounds like she telling us not to expect much from them this term. Sad.
And isn’t she meant to be one of the fighters within the party?
No. it’s just acknowledging they dropped in the numbers of MPs in the last election.So, part of their aims should be to increase their numbers next election.
It’s called realism – you sure are nit picking.
To deliver on all of those visions and policies was her wording.
To further deliver would have been a better choice of words if she was only implying to requiring more support.
It’s called listening to what’s been said.
It’s a speech to launch her campaign to be selected as co-leader of the Greens. It’s not a speech to meet the incessant and child-like needs of some dude on the internet who doesn’t understand how things work.
“It’s not a speech to meet the incessant and child-like needs of some dude on the internet who doesn’t understand how things work.”
The fact you failed to come back with something constructive, opting instead to take a potshot at me, is disappointing and a worry.
To me, your response (a potshot) merely reinforces my point, as, evidently, you had no better counter.
“The fact you failed to come back with something constructive, opting instead to take a potshot at me, is disappointing and a worry.”
No, it’s really not. I write whole posts on this kind of thing. Other people write whole posts in this kind of thing. The Greens write whole posts on this kind of thing. They also have multiple twitter accounts, press releases, and a whole website full of policy.
You on the other hand, almost never go and do your homework and find out about the things you are complaining about, and instead sit in the comments section of The Standard and take pot shots at the Greens for not doing what you want to them to do. When people do respond with analysis and evidence, you usually dismiss it.
There is no way I am going to respond proactively to any alleged points you raise because your whole point here is to undermine the Greens. It’s a waste of my time, and other peoples imo, to engage with you as if your comments are meaningful. This doesn’t mean you don’t have good ideas, I’m commenting here on *how you choose to present them.
^^^^^
THIS
See my comment above (at 3:43 pm). You are way off.
The nit-picking Chairman selects snippets to create an atmosphere of insecurity and doubt; modus operandi.
Oh. Sounds like despite any suggestion I make it is BAU.
So what’s wrong with the revised TPP that Labour are happy to sign?
Jane Kelsey eloquently lays it all out:
https://itsourfuture.org.nz/te-tiriti-o-waitangi-tino-rangatiratanga-tppa-jane-kelsey/
Must read.
MomentumVerified account @PeoplesMomentum
Shock horror, Momentum members engage with Labour democracy review to make the party more democratic.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/momentum-plots-to-hijack-democracy-review-and-purge-moderate-councillors-5nk3jc078
After reading yet another story about meth/P addiction I am beginning to wonder just why NZ appears to be making virtually no progress on this insipid drug over the last decade.
For all the meth busts reported, nothing seems to change or make a dent in the market. Why could that be? Just going to put this out there….. are police paid a decent wage these days? Are some of them supplementing their income by turning a blind eye?
I really feel something is very off with the big picture, are those in positions of power keeping the meth/P market going, am not talking about gangs, I’m talking about white collars. Something doesn’t sit well with the whole situation.
None of the above: it’s because our level of inequality drives demand.
Totally agree.
Not entirely. I’ve looked at a few articles on it this arvo. There’s a world wide glut which is driving down prices.
There’s a significant number of middle class meth users (Feb 2017 article).
Articles say importation is done a lot by gangs and organised crime, while it’s also easy to make it in NZ.
A few articles are blaming Guangdong province in China as being a major centre exporting world wide. Others blame importation to NZ on stuff coming from various Sth East Asian countries. Don’t know how accurate that is.
An Aussie article from April 2017, saying they have the same problem:
They say it’s easier to slip drugs through customs when there are a lot of legitimate imported products coming from the same countries.
Meanwhile, the Nat government was blamed for focusing more on imprisoning addicts than prevention. Plus, the under funding of police is being blamed. Some are also complaining the police are spending too much time and resources on targeting cannabis use.
I have to agree, Cinny that something is definitely not ok – they seem to have an infinite amount of money/staff to fly around the north spraying marijuana crops which are doing no harm, but are not interested when people ‘dob in’ meth producers. I hear tell of such responses as ‘yes we know about them’ and all of a sudden nothing happens!
Am so hearing you Jan, it’s the same around the top of the south.
I feel someone/something is propping up and continuing to enable the P trade in NZ, gangs are just small fry in the bigger picture and make a palatable scape goat for the public. Am not putting down the police but unfortunately there are rotten people in all facets of society. The gangs aren’t innocent but they are little fish in this picture. The police have been underfunded for so very long, but there’s more to it than that me thinks.
Precursors for the P appear to come via asia, makes one reflect on rich asian donators for various entities.
Where is the anti P advertising/messages/help etc? Should have be all over the telly and social media etc, a long time ago.
Something really stinks about the whole situation, am hoping our new government are brave enough to make a real difference.
“am hoping our new government are brave enough to make a real difference”. Me too!
Did you see that link I put up about the spy???????????????????????????????????????? Cinny
Vegans make death threats against dairy farming couple for celebrating the birthdays of calves:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=11987913
Result:
Their sales of home made dairy products go through the roof.
The relationship between the urbane liberals and the agricultural economy won’t be improved with death threats.
None of the threats were quoted or substantiated, nor were the identities of the on-line posters confirmed; were they vegans, or something else?
It read like a marketing exercise to me.
“Result:
Their sales of home made dairy products go through the roof.”
But then I’m just a cynical bored retailer…..
It’s a very poorly written article.
Who is eating what?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/travel/destinations/nz/101071529/foraging-foreigners–new-zealands-milk-and-honey-is-providing-for-our-tourists
Perhaps we should follow along and learn about our edibles in the wild.
Sorry, plenty of people already foraging in NZ and the last thing we need is to put places on a map so tourists can take it instead.
Yes we need to be aware of where things are ourselves, and not have tourist maps published, and get in ourselves and pick the stuff. Pool resources and get a vehicle to travel together and pick for instance.
I found when involved in community that beneficiaries, who have a big need for good fresh food, were unable to go to the sites and get it, and when it was brought in to a central point couldn’t manage to get in and collect it there even when it was very accessible. People need support from helpful agencies as they are not able to take up every opportunity that presents.
Are the Greens publicly supporting the call (see links below) to Pay the full Working for Families package to all low-income families on April 1?
If so, can anyone point me to it? And if not, why not?
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2018/02/02/pay-the-full-working-for-families-package-to-all-low-income-families-on-apil-1/
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2018/02/01/child-poverty-targets-realistic-but-income-needs-urgent-child-poverty-action-group/
Because we are rather tired of concern trolls masquerading as real lefties, then constantly nagging about how Labour or the Greens aren’t left enough. Just as Weka and Robert Guyton pointed out above.
I’m not masquerading as a lefty.
The things (living wage, benefit increases, etc) I advocate for are things I genuinely want to see come about.
If you were a genuine lefty, you’d be advocating for these things too.
The actor is still present next door she has changed her behaviour instead of parking her car on the lawn close to my house she is parking it on the other side of a tree she is now wearing long baggie track suite pants instead of revealing shorts .At least my neighbors are looking down there noses at her and thanks to thestandard site I have checked this cowardly move played by the sandflys .
My problem is what about the people that are getting set up by other sandflys they don’t have a site like thestandard to save there asses ECO MAORI feels sorrows for all these people whom will be mostly Brown.
But let’s all just keep all OUR heads in the sand and pretend that OUR justice systems are all good after shonky has given the sandflys all the power to use and abuse against mostly Brown people. You see people they Don t see US Brown people as there equal in there reality I’m just a Brown savage that deserves to be locked up in a cell for life.We don’t deserves to live in the same Neighborhood as them. ANA TO KAI
Ka kite ano
I forgot to post this link for my post
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11986005
I really enjoy your good sorts Peter that is a good way to keep our kaumatua and the new mokos Ka pai one news
Ka kite ano
This isn’t facebook dude, no one has a clue what the fuck you’re rambling on about.
Same could be said to you BM 🙂
Uncalled for rudeness – and if you can’t work out what he’s talking about then you either have some huge gaps in your knowledge or you’re not ‘listening’
How unpleasant
BM is just irritated that he can’t quickly find some point that’s important to the writer that BM can rubbish.