I saw in an awards piece yesterday that ex-PMs are now knighted as matter of course. Why? For doing their job? And why Double Dipper when he was only PM for about a year?
It said of course that he was also being recognised for being our most successful Minister of Finance whose wisdom and general awesomeness got us through the Global Financial Crisis and now he was going to make a new career advising others how he created our rockstar economy (or something like that).
But it is about looking after themselves. The main fault with the awards systems is that politicians have their sticky fingers all over it. I would have hoped that a true left-wing Labour-led government would not have recognised such a man. But that’s not what we’ve got.
I wonder as an aside if the Greens and NZ First were allowed any input or a veto.
I suspect went something like: Bill English asked for a knighthood (through the Nats) and the govt thought it would be bad publicity to refuse him. They’d look mean and lose votes. Farrar and co would wet themselves complaining about it for years to come. That particular boil has been lanced.
Yeah it’s just like upper management salaries. They all scratch each others back because they’re afraid if they were to break the cycle they might miss out themselves. Self serving pricks.
Former British PMs once received an Earldom but Macmillan was the last to get one and as for other honours Thatcher has been the only one, being a Baroness.
They seem to see it as a pointless gesture, why cant we. My use of an honorific is of course a parody.
Never mind though eh? It serves as a reminder to politicians in future who wonder why their public have no confidence or faith in them.
Could have been worse. It could have been Dame Paula Bennett, and then Madge really would have good reason to expect people pissing on her grave (going forward)
But then when you think of various others ….. such as in Pillars, or budgetry advice advocacy, or advocates for education, health, the indigent – it is a bit sickening.
I hope they don’t expect any R E S P E C T because they’ll be shit out of luck.
Maybe they were trying to be ‘fair and balanced’.
Ms Healy does deserve respect. The double dipper (who as a Kethlik, really should have a very guilty conscience) is deserving of none.
Like that Parmjeet Kaur on another strand, I spose it’s the difference between faith and religion. (I religiously get up at 5am and religiously take a dump at 5.30)
Perhaps ‘Sir’ stands for ‘Social Investment Required’?
Someone who places their Wellington house into a trust in order to claim $900/week in accommodation allowance for having to live in Wellington, surely shows a lack of understanding of social norms? Early identification and remediation of this problematic behaviour while Bill was still in primary school may have worked. The behaviour is particularly concerning, seeing $900 is as much as many Kiwis (most without discernibly less talent than Bill English) earn in a week.
To add insult to injury, I had to endure listening to the smug, repellent fool wittering on about social investment this morning on RNZ.
Let’s be clear, ‘social investment’ is a smokescreen and a propaganda exercise. Its purpose is to keep a broken economic system in place by suggesting that its victims are at fault by being somehow defective. They therefore need to identified early so they can be ‘fixed’. The truth is that there is absolutely nothing wrong with the vast majority of the poor.
Life of a worker is cheap like it would be in a third world country.
One of the stevedores who went to hospital claims it’s not the first time workers have been exposed – “it’s a common event” – and says some colleagues have refused to work when methyl bromide is being vented.
“They just don’t come out of their huts if they’re de-tarping.”
The worker says he wants to speak out but has been “muzzled”.
“If you don’t do what you’re told you get removed off the board and they don’t give you work.”
We get hit with this stuff unloading containers for international performers. Open container, stand back. I’ve suggested large fans…
One time a huge foreign moth flew up out of the container and off into the spotlights surrounding the grounds. As a biologist type my sphincter did clench…
Nothing came of it. It could have been carrying eggs… But that’s the reason they’re so keen on the bromide in containers. Me, I’d just make them airtight, suck the air out, critters die, job done.
Landlords complain of price gouging insulation companies.
Ironically (in the context that this is EXACTLY what landlords inflict upon tenants) landlords point out that subsidies don’t make it cheaper, instead the subsidy is essentially additional income to the insulation company.
They’ve had plenty of time to get this done when the demand was lower.
Yet they dragged their heels because providing a warm dry home for tenants is actually the very last thing on their minds. The slow uptake on the subsidy was noted.
Wonder how they’d feel if the Accommodation Supplement was cancelled. It is, after all, a subsidy to landlords who automatically put their prices up whenever it increases.
Should really get rid of the AS and have a payment tied to a rental WoF. Then landlords and tenants would be able to weigh up their options and make choices based on that.
Plastic: “And yup, child rapists sometimes get as little as two years’ jail time.”
Really ? Really really ? Where the maximum sentence for rape is 20 years ? Where the staring point without the aggravating factor of child victim is not less than 8 years ? I guess there must be one such case because if there weren’t Plastic would be lying on Trumpian scale.
Give me the case citation Plastic. Give me the judge’s sentencing notes. I’ll bet the farm that the factors of offender’s extreme youth/age/mental impairment figured overwhelmingly in producing such an extraordinarily rare outcome.
Plastic flicks off this “two years jail time” as though it’s reflective of modern sentencing. It’s not. Demonstrably it’s not. Actually Plastic IS lying when she peddles one extraordinarily rare sentence as “sometimes”. As misleading as allowing that this cackling yuppie fool “sometimes” engages journalism.
As Truman Capote said of a contemporary…….”That’s not writing……that’s typing”.
I dont read her stuff anymore, its always as bad as you describe.
Her analytics must have dropped as they try hide her name and just use click bait headlines
Wouldn’t it be great if Bridges, Collins etc watched Prime’s TV 60 Minutes last night, Special Prison Edition.
In Germany the focus is not at all about Punishment but on Rehabilitation and treating inmates with humanity. And lesser crimes have Home Detention and Community involvement, rather than as we do, lock them all away to teach each other worse skills so that on release they can do worse stuff.
(Can’t seem to get replay on Prime?)
I remember that some years ago I was doing adult reading tutoring in a drug rehabilitation house (before it got closed down). As I worked with one young man who was trying to break habit so he could rejoin his wife and child with the addiction behind him, he told me that one task given was to read a book on someone’s experience on giving up marijuana. He said he had to be able to discuss it with the clinicians but could read the whole page and yet not remember the meaning and information at the end.
I mentioned to the clinicians about his problem which they had not been aware of. Apparently it takes some time to get better brain functioning
after long-term marijuana use. They had to work on that before expecting him to be able to handle reading and learning at the level normal for his age. It was part of his set steps that had to be achieved before he could meet requirements for treatment.
They probably mostly do have these problems. But they also commit very violent crimes. About two thirds of all inmates are in for serious violent and sexual crimes. In addition a fair number for serious drug dealing, and a fair number for serious fraud. The other category are serious repeat driving offenders, such as killing or injuring someone when driving drunk.
Is their scope to reduce prisoner numbers? Yes, but not by 30%, more realistically 10%, at least in the median term.
I know that we are often said to be among the highest imprisoners in the OECD. That is correct. We are in a band of UK, Canada, Australia and some central european nations. We are often at the top of that group, as indeed are our crime rates. Many European nations have lower imprisonment rates, typically 50 to 60% lower. They also have lower crime rates.
The US is out in their own category. To put it in perspective, if we imprisoned at the US rate we would have 45,000 prisoners instead of the 11,000 we actually have. US crime rates, especially for homicide, are about 4 times higher than NZ.
So we are often at no 2 in the OECD, but the rate is basically comparable to Australia, the UK and Canada. We are miles less than the US.
One reason we have a high crime rate is the prevalence of gangs in NZ, which now date back to the 1960’s. Not Rotary! But Headhunters, Mongrel Mob, etc. Again the percentage of people in criminal gangs is higher in NZ than most other OECD countries.
Gang life is characterised by extreme violence and sexual crimes. And unfortunately has become multi-generational. If we could reduce the appeal of gangs by say 30 to 50%, then our crime rate would also dramatically reduce.
Not easy, but it should be able to be done. After all most people in poorer social economic communities (where gangs are most prevalent) don’t actually join gangs. So we need to ask why is that? Why can most young people resist the temptation and others not.
The higher the imprisonment rate, the higher the crime rate.
The higher the amount of poverty and inequality, the higher the crime rate.
Cause and effect right there.
Putting the young and stupid, the addicted, and the brain damaged and illiterate, in ‘crime university’ does not work. As Iceland, Holland, Portugal and others have conclusively shown.
Maybe the easiest way to reduce the crime rate, is to imprison all right wing politicians. A reduction on most of the proven causes of crime, and ‘legal’ white collar crimes, would follow very quickly.
We don’t know how to deal with members of our society when they are amidst us and we have even less of a clue on how to deal with convicts. Maybe we should start a reasoned debate or do you think this is too early for little New Zealand?
The point is that we have a social, legal, financial, moral disaster on our hands which all of us have an obligation to acknowledge and address without minimisation. Minimisation benefits only dog-whistling rightist politicians, blood-lusters like the SST’s Garth McCrackers, and multi-national private jailers.
No we don’t “lock them all away” as you irrelevantly say. Why “irrelevantly” ? Because the social, legal, financial, moral disaster exists without us doing that.
So, you miss the point. Again. So that you can stick out your fragile rightist mindset. Again. As always. Strutting for dog-whistlers, blood-lusters, and private jailers. What do you get ? The look of a fool.
Stunned…….would be helpful if you’d actually identify from the vast body of material in the Corrections Department link you provide, “the issue” you mention. Which you cryptically complain “no one likes to mention”.
C’mon Stunned……don’t be coy. Out with it. As long as you don’t launch into a Roseanne Barr racist white-trash rant though.
Still, as rotten as that would be it would confirm your penchant for inadvertently making the point by missing it.
The number on remand, who’ve been convicted of nothing, and the time they spend on remand, which is gradually increasing.
One feature of a functional justice system is that it be able to provide swift justice, primarily for the victims’ sake. So much for right wing crocodile tears about victims’ rights.
Interesting stats thanks Stunned Mullet. But not sure what your point is. What say 50% of those in custody would be better off being helped in a variety of well organised facilities out in society? Drugs, alcohol, mental, learning to read and handle social maths and work support?
And yes there are said to be 100 very serious offenders who should be really locked up. (0.01%) But lets not use those few serious offenders to get in the way of discussion.
Nearly 3,000 people are locked up on Remand, without and before conviction. Probably because the strident screamers have pointed to a few cases where a person not on remand but awaiting trial has gone has gone on to commit a gruesome crime, but 3,000???
Odiferous burbling? Can you try and concentrate and discuss important issues instead of using this post as a therapeutic place to release your simple prejudices? The problems now need real thought, research and practical modern methods to change the bad statistics. You are just one of the 19th century repressors and judgmentals who find it a bridge too far to think in today’s mode to deal with today’s problems in the chemical and television and technology mind-bending age.
Do you think they are ignorant of the facts? I don’t. I think they have a different goal in mind: putting taxpayers’ money into the back pockets of private prison owners.
Just as they were fully aware of the massive fraud that is meth testing. Just as they were fully aware of the situation at Middlemore.
Unforgettable Ass-Kickings
No. 2: George Galloway deals to Christopher Hitchens
Remember these two had quite a history. Galloway had humiliated Hitchens on at least a couple of occasions before this one. At the 3:25 mark here, watch Hitchens nearly choking on bile as Galloway points out he’s a liar…
Unforgettable Ass-Kickings is a series compiled by Hector Stoop and presented by Morrissey Breen for Daisycutter Sports Inc.
Hitchens (now unmemorably deceased) exemplified the loon who starts off pointedly Left and ends up pointedly, disgustingly Right. Richard “Mad Dog” Prebble anyone ?
Galloway marches on, indefatigably, hypocrites and scabs left confounded in his wake. See him here before a US Senate committee:
Thanks North! Making this even better, as I’m sure you’re aware, Galloway’s demolition of Senator Coleman was immediately preceded by his dispatching to the boundary of one… Christopher Hitchens! The self-appointed Scourge of Princess Diana attempted to taunt Galloway before his appearance at the Committee, and even in that highly charged atmosphere Galloway humiliated him. The defeated Hitchens was caught shortly afterwards on camera, snarling “You really are a thug!”
Now we have Sir Deceiving Defrauding Double Dipper of Dipton! An attempt at ripping off the taxpayer. Then there is the Todd Barclay affair. Something for which Blinglish wasn’t made accountable for. Possibly much more malevolence behind the scenes as well.
Key, English et al … seems honorifics are only reserved for the slimy con artists and crooks of the land!
Key, English et al … seems honorifics are only reserved for the slimy con artists and crooks of the land!
That does seem to be true.
We need to remove the giving of honorific from the politicians and give it to the people. Add one aspect to it as well – nobody can get one for doing their job.
Over 70 Syrian tribes issued a joint statement on Saturday that announced the formation of a new combined force that would fight the US-backed militias and foreign troops in northern Syria.
The tribesmen from the Al-Hasakah, Aleppo, and Al-Raqqa governorates reportedly met in the government-held city of Deir Hafer, where they all agreed that they will come together to expel the US and their militias from their provinces.
Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad stated during his latest interview with Russia Today that the US-backed forces and foreign troops in northern Syria will be dealt with militarily if they do not withdrawal.
The Pentagon responded to this threat by warning the Syrian President that any attack on their forces in Syria will end ‘badly’ for him.
Not sure if having his army and airforce destroyed are in Assad;’s best interests. Consider what happened to the Wagner mercenaries.
Of course it’s always possible that the Kremlin will order Trump to withdraw US troops, but would he comply? How well do fascist kleptocrats get along? Are the pee-tapes really that much blackmail currency against the guy with the Pentagon at his disposal?
It’s that the US arrogance shows no bounds.
“The Pentagon responded to this threat by warning the Syrian President that any attack on their forces in Syria will end ‘badly’ for him.”
The Wagner mercenaries were a disaffected bunch from the Urals, poorly trained and equipped. The ultimate question is: who pays Wagner and the numerous other Russian private military companies.
Arrogance, or a simple statement of fact. The destruction of the Syrian army and air-force would destablise the region again. Assad would be lucky to survive this.
“Poorly equipped”, depends who they’re fighting. If it’s the US military, “poorly” is an understatement. Poorly trained? Depends who you ask.
Here is an ironic picture of comfortable and complacent minds confronted by modernity and change and feeling like hermit crabs forced out of their shells.
From the wit of Tom Sharpe in Porterhouse Blues.
Lunch was a mournful occasion. It was the end of term and the Fellows at High Table ate in a silence made all the more noticeable by the lack of conversation from the empty tables below them. To make matters worse, the soup was cold and there was cottage pie. But it was the knowledge of their own dispensability that cast gloom over them.
For five hundred years they and their predecessors had ordained at least some portion of the elite that had ruled the nation. It had been through the sieve of their indulgent bigotry that young men had squeezed to become judges and lawyers, politicians and soldiers, men of affairs, all of them imbued with a corporate complacency and an intellectual scepticism that desiccated change. They were the guardians of political inertia and their role was done. They had succumbed at last to the least effectual of politicians.
‘A student council to run the College. It’s monstrous,’ said the Senior Tutor, but there was no hope in his protest. Despite his cultivated mediocrity of mind, the Senior Tutor had seen change coming. He blamed the sciences for re-establishing the mirage of truth, and still more the pseudomorph subjects like anthropology and economics whose adepts substituted inapplicable statistics for the ineptness of their insights.
And finally there was sociology with its absurd maxim, The Proper Study of Mankind is Man, which typically it took from a man the Senior Tutor would have rejected as unfit to cox the rugger boat….
‘There must be something we can do,’ said the Dean.
‘Short of murder I can think of nothing,’ the Senior Tutor answered.
The crime here is that Forestry is allowed to let log litter accumulate with catastrophic effect on Tolaga Bay people and their homes when the rain comes.
Scroll down the page to see the huge accumulation of logs.
A woman, her partner and their four-year-old granddaughter had no choice but to climb on to their roof while they waited for a rescue helicopter to arrive as water smashed against their home.
Mention in this report about unstable land occurs in relation to roading here:
(I am not expert in handling docos and obtaining info from them – I couldn’t just highlight and copy bits I wanted to show. Have done my best. It looks as if there were not adequate demands made as to the aftercare of logged areas which has left these people lower down in Tolaga Bay etc exposed to damage.
)
MAF ‘East Coast forest industry and wood availability forecasts 2008’ https://www.mpi.govt.nz/dmsdocument/854/loggedIn
The unstable nature of the East Coast landscape and the
roads location of many of the newer forests in less accessible
areas of the region will pose a challenge for the future
expansion of forestry operations. The cost of obtaining
and carting roading materials will also affect profitability
of operations.’…
Biofuels and cogen potential
A very large resource of pulpwood and other by-products
are potentially available – subject to the economics of use
for biofuels, cogeneration or other reconstituted wood
products.
When landing slash is counted, the potential
volume is much greater than that shown in this report;
this could be particularly significant for the East Coast
communities north of Gisborne who are currently
serviced with electricity via limited infrastructure.
The current lack of a local market for pulp wood and
other by-products is a constraint on harvest profitability
and limits the maximum utilisation of forest production.
It is unlikely that cut-over recovery of residues will be
economic, owing to the predominantly very steep
topography of much of the production forests and the
distance to a potential plant in one of the main centres on
region, what is really required is a world-scale solid wood
the East Coast.
Limited Wood Processing Capability
The current lack of local processing is a constraint that
leaves forest owners with few options other than to export
large volumes of logs.
This leaves the region exposed to the log export
market and limited port facilities.
With transport costs making the long cartage of lower value
material marginal or unprofitable, the regional harvest is ‘
at risk of losing potential added-value through the
processing or utilisation of this material as it gets left on
the cut-over.
A greater number of competitive options for
the full range of log products on the East Coast will
contribute considerably to the region’s forestry success.
Part Concluding Comments:
There is still substantial potential for expansion of the
existing forest estate on the East Coast, although all this
may not necessarily be for production purposes, but for
other values such as watershed management, erosion
control and carbon sequestration.
There is discussion about new planting which will also provide land stabilisation.
There is a possibility of businesses setting up wood handling factories when the market is right, and the flow of wood makes it economic and the factor of carbon sequestration.
There is talk about the steep slopes and the need for cable-hauling which requires skilled workers.
There is mention of the okay being given if there is attention given by the loggers to erosion, water etc.
The GDC is a unitary authority that keeps control of important issues relating to land disturbance and logging and clearing and resource consents are required.
Liaison with the Department of Conservation may be required because of the extent and species affected by clearing and logging.
The consent process associated with the harvesting of forests on the East Coast has generally not been an issue.
It seems that the matter of dealing with cut down left-overs has been put on the back burner in the eagerness to get into the log trade, and the intention has been to utilise it at a later date for electricity if there is a viable market for it. It appears that no warning bells have sounded about the instability of the land left bare and the residue from logging left lying where they could be dislodged by expected heavy rain storms although this is a known result of other logging sites in NZ which have been left in a disorganised fashion and have resulted in damage to housing and property and likely to injure people and animals as they have rolled or propelled down slopes onto those below.
Would think if the Gizzy to Napier Railway was still operational that some or all of the by-product could’ve been rail out in bulk with Gizzy being the bulk handing depot for the trucks etc? Or have a Bio- Fuel power plant at Napier to supply the Hawke’s Bay- Gizzy regions?
Don’t know when the trees were felled but as you say the fact of having the rail could have made a big difference in choices of what could be done about the leftover stuff (not correct forestry term!). But NZ had to wait to get a political party that wasn’t constipated. I think within the report it talks about bio-fuel plant. But I was mainly looking for specific mention that the area had to be left in good condition with leftovers stacked safely etc. and didn’t find anything that definite. She’ll be right mate.
So much of our forestry resource that we should have kept and run for the national good in the effective way, has been sold to big firms and institutions
In 1999 Forest & Bird criticised Carter Holt Harvey selling a forest to the east of Taupo to a private buyer. The block was considered to be one of the most ecologically valuable areas of forest in the North Island. Carters in 1994 had withdrawn the forest, Pohokura from sale, and agreed to secure its protection and manage it in consultation with Forest and Bird and DoC. F&B said,”Unfortunately the American managers who now run Carter Holt Harvey Forests have a hardline attitude on environmental issues…they do not wish to work co-operatively with the NZ conservation movement.”
(Newsroom Forest and Bird Press release 2/12/99 16:37:00 Native Forest Sale Breach of Forest Accord.)
Also Fletcher Challenge sold 51% interests in Nelson in 1997 to giant Weyerhaeuser for $275 million; the other 49% was owned by foreign institutional investors. Weyerhaeuser owned or was licensed to operate on an area approaching the size of the entire North Island, 11.4 million hectares, almost three-quarters of which was classed as productive forest land.
The Nelson Mail p15 28/9/99
If I had a big pile of flotsam on my property and a storm washed it all onto the street causing flooding to spread to other houses, will I be exempt for damages so caused? (I am just a little person so it would be easier to punish me.)
I understand what you are saying, with everyone after a quick buck and to hell with everyone especially with outsiders in an management role not understanding NZ workers/ culture in IRT protecting the environment etc.
I can a story about Weyerhaeuser and Fletchers that involve one of my cousins, who runs a forestry contacting gang who runs it like an old school NZ Forest Service logging gang based around a semi co-op system (just how the family ran the coal mine on Coast).
He was asked by Fletchers to move down to Nelson and they going top dollar as well cost to move everyone lock stock and barrel because of his very standards/ skill sets they had. Anyway if they had moved down from Nth Isl, Fletchers sold out and this mob moved in straight away cutting costs left right centre ie bringing in the Nth America logging practices which BTW are bloody dangerous to an already dangerous job. To a point that he was being under cut by other logging gangs and final straw was when he got the job to work over the hill (Golden Bay Area), but Weyerhaeuser refuse to pay any accommodation and transport costs and basically he told them where to go. He left Nelson with his gang and equipment back to the Nth Isl after my grandmother help out as she pull a strings as he was going to call it quits and after a couple of leans yrs doing jobs that no one would do! He’s doing even better now because they starting to understand that cost cutting comes with a price, to a point some yrs later the muppets from Weyerhaeuser came crawling back ask him to work for them and in true West Coast/ typical family style he told them where to bloody go.
There are a myriad ways to use forestry by-products. What we want is sustainability.
We can innoculate the stumps with various mushroom species providing secondary crops for foresters/locals while making topsoil of the stumps.
Deadwood that is not transported offsite for re-purposing is laid flat to the ground so as to decompose further adding substrate for the soil building by fungi and other microorganisms. This also helps protect the soil when it is exposed after cropping. Brushwood piles are ridiculous constructs of the human mind that likes to ‘sweep clean’.
The placing of carbon (wood waste) with available water (ground contact for fungal access) sees opportunistic free living and plant and fungal-symbiotic nitrogen fixing organisms arrive to provide this vital resource for the process. Now nature’s working for us.
The larger scrap wood and bark can be used to make bio-char. This amendment can greatly improve the productivity of various soil types including NZ’s yellow ultic clay which I’ve successfully experimented with for > 10 yrs now. Use of biochar also directly sequesters carbon.
The process of making bio-char releases heat energy that can be re-purposed e.g. drying timber, heating facilities/water, running turbines. It also produces various chemical by-products that can be re-purposed in forestry and other industries.
Biofuel from pine wastes??? We’re not really there yet it gets technical (read expensive). Best not to be pioneers of large scale expensive systems that might have several achilles heels. That’s what R&D is for.
We can be a lot more sustainable with the guidelines above. I’d add to that system intermittently planting other crops to help the soil recover and provide alternate timber/crops to pine.
Just in case Standardistas missed one blatant bit of grandstanding by the Leader of the World watching out for our good, the United States of America.
World
2 Jun 2018
China ‘intimidating neighbours’ – US
7:02 pm on 2 June 2018 General Mattis said the Trump administration wanted a constructive relationship with China but would compete vigorously if necessary.
The US recognised that China had a role to play in the region.
The South China Sea, a key trade route, is subject to overlapping claims by six countries.
China has been building small islands and other maritime features into military facilities there.
Last month China said it had for the first time landed bombers on Woody Island in the Paracel Islands, prompting US warnings that it was destabilising the region.
Woody Island, which China calls Yongxing, is also claimed by Vietnam and Taiwan.
The South China Sea dispute:
Sovereignty over two largely uninhabited island chains, the Paracels and the Spratlys, is disputed by China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan and Malaysia
China claims the largest portion of territory, saying its rights go back centuries – in 1947 it issued a map detailing its claims
The area is a major shipping route, and a rich fishing ground, and is thought to have abundant oil and gas reserves http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/world/358782/china-intimidating-neighbours-us
I’ve just started reading this book I got off Fishpond called “Globalisation and Defence in the Asia-Pacific – Arms across Asia” which is a collection of Essays edited by Geoffrey Till, Emrys Chew and Joshua Ho.
Chapter 2, last night was a bit interesting IRT what is happening in the South China Sea using a couple of theories called “The Long Wave by Nikolai Kondrative in the 1920’s and the Leadership Cycle” in which both talk about War between a new up and coming nation challenging the current pre-eminent nation which happens roughly once every 100yrs. “This system leader holds a preponderance of key military capabilities (chiefly blue- water sea power, they argue) while boasting the lead economy in terms of size and innovative energy. Regular rhythms in the global economy are related to the rise of this leading state. Just as importantly, key economic trends and the prospects for peace and war are found to be associated with rise, ascendancy and decline of one system leader, and the struggle to produce the next one.”
When one looks at the 50yr cycle of the Kondratiev waves and with the 100yr long Leadership Cycle. You would see Waves of technological innovations (leading sectors in the Global Economy) are very much connected to the rise and decline of global political systems dominated by a hegemonic state.
Last the last two sentences in the conclusion: “ Because globalisation disperses the control of capital, technology and the markets as never before, it remains to seen weather a single state can establish and maintain dominance in the global system on the basis of military might alone. The prospect for peace, we need to know whether the presence of such hegemon will provoke the bellicose challenges to its dominance, the competitive arms build ups and the formation of freshly armed counter- coalitions- for these are the very things which stirred and brewed into systemic war once in every century for the past 500yrs.”
By my reckoning based on what I readed last night we are slowly heading to war on given and current trends within the Asia- Pacific region ATM and with the USA at its peak of the cycle or on top of wave which is about to break as new comer seeks to challenge the dominance of the US.
The public has a tolerance for other people’s suffering. We seem to have been at war or in a state of unease, a push button away from war, since WW2. On the surface it seems as if we are at peace but there are the Syrian reports, the Burmese reports, another little boat that has gone down off Africa. And there is enormous interest in films about war, I was just reading about the enormous business there is in land mines and things called butterfly bombs, and armaments are a big trade. Is it that peace is a cessation of war, a breathing space before the next one starts?
With all these poxy wars happening atm it seems it could be the prelude to the main event?
IRT to the Middle East ATM its watching the start of a yacht race with everyone jockeying for positions at the start and when it does kick off it going to be like watching the Grand National Jumps Race at Antree wondering who is going to be last horse standing.
Chapter 2 of the book mentions this is the longest period of peace since WW2 IRT major inter-state wars, but in saying that the long term trend when one looks at that a major inter-state war will break out sooner or later.
The Kondratiev wave is very interesting theory and when you combine it with the 100yr Leadership cycle to what’s happening in the Asia- Pacific Region atm, it makes for some interesting reading.
“This grim description is backed by figures that reveal the staggering decreases in seabird numbers in Shetland, the most northerly part of the British Isles. In 2000, there were more than 33,000 puffins on the island in early spring. That figure dropped to 570 last year……
….Similarly, Shetland’s kittiwake population plummeted from over 55,000 in 1981 to 5,000 in 2011…..
……there were around 110 Arctic terns there last week compared with around 9,000 that were counted in the same area in 2000. ”
Good morning Newshub Flooding in Tairawhiti Uawa Whangara Global warming is here and now .
Duncan I could see Amanda and Mark disagree with you on that. I say honoring the people who deserve it for there good deeds for OUR society is a good thing we need to show more respect for our elderly and respect for te mokopunas future I.E look after the environment. James we can grow meat and dairy organically and sustainable
Ka pai to the American mokopuna who are touring America keeping up the presser on the politician who support the Gun lobby association of America to change the laws to make it harder to get a gun for idiots.
Smoking is a hard to quit and its hard on the poor people who are most of the smokers .But Hone te Labour lead coalition government has the long game in its sights not just tomorrow even thou there mite be less money targeting Maori more money is getting to the poor and not being chewed up by bureaucratic organizations so in reality more money is reaching Maori and not half to the paper pushers. ka pai.
Did I hear that right Trump has just admitted to the accusations of Russian election scandal well thats what Eco Maori gets from him saying he can pardon his self.
With the plastic bag think what I;m going to do is use those reusable bags and as soon as they are emptied put them strait into the boot of my car or one ends up with a cardboard full of those bags . Ka kite ano P.S we need to stop using any plastic that is not biodegradable
The reason Maori cultured tangata won’t go for becoming a republic is because a republic government will ride rought shod all over Maoris Humane rights the Queen is the Guardian of the Maori tangata .
Io
I
Queen
I I
Tangata whenua NZ Goverment and people
She has been Honorable to all her subjects and is the check that Maori have against
corrupt intentions of some people have against Maori and the common person.
Tangaroa buy Tiki Tane
Just got in contact with the whano in Te Waiapu vally and they say the beach is covered in pine logs from the flooding . I remember when I was a child that the beach had heaps of wood when I last seen the beach there was not much wood there it will be interesting to see it now te Waiapu awa has filled up with silt now
Ka kite ano P.S its not as bad as the flooding in Uawa
5 years since Edward Snowden blew te whistle The common tangata person who let te tangata of Papatuanuku know that they were /are being spied on by Governments and big companys .Te kumara never tells how sweet it is the link below ka kite ano
Eco Maori is trying to have a truce with the sandflys but if they don’t stop trying to intimidat ECO MAORI that they can kiss my – – – – – –
Ana to kai Ka kite ano P.S I know what’s going down
Well I got my answers already from the sandflys so don’t go having te Waiapu come out your eyes when yous get bit on the – – – – Ana to kai Ka kite ano
I already tried to get the sandflys bosses to realise that other people are being affected negative buy there actions my clients have one family split because of them as ECO MAORI has done nothing wrong I realise that I’m unique In that I can think about who my actions affect that goes right over the sandflys heads I will still be coming back to Rotorua and travelling anywhere in Aotearoa. Ka kite ano
That's the only way to describe the government's plans for a Parliamentary Budget Office to allow opposition parties to get an independent costing of their policies. When the idea was first floated back in 2016 as an office within Treasury, I thought that wasn't independent enough and argued that it ...
Today is a Member's day, and after the third reading of Hamish Walker's KiwiSaver (Oranga Tamariki Guardians) Amendment Bill, Parliament will be continuing the committee stage of David Seymour's End of Life Choice Bill. The bigots have put up another pile of amendments in an effort to delay or wreck ...
Television advertising has a huge impact on our lives. Even if we don’t recognise that, we know it has to be true, since otherwise why would advertisers spend so much on it? Its significance, however, is greater than simply the influence it has on what we purchase and consume. It ...
by Jan Rivers More than 30 years ago a Commission of Inquiry was held in New Zealand to investigate, amongst other things, whether women with cervical cancer were aware that they had been part of a research project and whether they were properly informed of the treatment options ...
Everyone Wants To Be Fuhrer: When fascist groups are discussed, the image conjured-up in the minds of most New Zealanders is one of pathetic misfits. This negative impression is reinforced by the latter’s idiotic embrace of the swastika. Even in the second decade of the twenty-first century, the baleful legacy ...
by Philip Ferguson This weekend just past marks the 50th anniversary of Woodstock, the most famous of the great 1960s music festivals. It was held over the weekend (Friday-Monday) of August 15-18, 1969. Woodstock was a highpoint of the US ‘counter-culture’, and also the beginning of its end. When exploring the ...
It looks like the government has won over the public on its vehicle feebate scheme:A feebate scheme that would transfer hundreds of millions of dollars from buyers of higher-emission cars into the pockets of people buying EVs and other more fuel-efficient vehicles has been winning favour with submitters, the Government ...
When people suggest lowering the voting age, others argue that the young are too uneducated or silly to exercise the duties of citizenship. Australian John Quiggin has just blown that argument out of the water:Looking at the array of ignorant and vindictive old men attacking Greta Thunberg and other young ...
In the previous two posts, I laid out the context and set the theoretical framework to answer a question: whether indigenous economies should take the LEAP. This final part outlines ways to conceive of practicing mana motuhake within the existing legal system by carving out special jurisdictions that enable Indigenous ...
Fully Informed? Labour’s 2017 promises raised expectations that were little short of revolutionary. Unfortunately, they were never adequately shaken through the fiscal sieve. The hard economic work was not done – and it shows. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s critics have long complained that her grasp of the way the New ...
You cannot expect to pound communities into the ground day after day, year after year, decade after decade and just expect them to take it lying down. There’s a point at which the place will explode. And we’re faced with some very big ructions on both sides of the Atlantic ...
Back in May, Destiny Church leaders Brian and Hannah Tamaki launched another political party. Despite consisting entirely of followers of their religion, they grandly called it "Coalition New Zealand", in a vain effort to suggest it was something broader. But when they applied for registration, submitters opposed the name, as ...
The following article is excerpted and translated from two articles in recent issues of Lutte de Classe (Class Struggle), the magazine of Lutte Ouvrière (Workers Struggle), the revolutionary workers group active in France. We don’t necessarily agree with everything in it – for instance, the 1956-62 war for independence involved rather more revolutionary forces than ...
The Pacific is on the front line of climate change, and if we don't cut emissions quickly, some countries are literally going to be underwater. Because of this, small Pacific states had tried to use this week's Pacific Islands Forum meeting to get Pacific countries to agree to ending coal ...
To Limit Another's Rights Is To Limit One's Own: Is it too much to expect senior members of our Government to be capable of explaining that we protect the rights of human-beings precisely because not even the most depraved act can cancel-out the fact that its perpetrator is also a ...
Going Down? Once truth and propaganda become fused in the minds of one’s followers, debate and discussion become redundant. If one’s opponents are all outrageous liars, then engaging with them in any way is pointless. Rather than waste its time, a political party should, instead, target all its messages at ...
This section builds on Part 1 of this series to provide a theoretical basis for the final instalment (part 3 – to come). Self-determination: law or resurgence — or both? International law promotes the principal of equal treatment and self-determination, which includes peoples’ rights to freely pursue their social, cultural and ...
Everyone was outraged yesterday to learn that the Christchurch shooting accused had been able to send mail from prison to his Nazi fans, apparently pushing more hate. "How could this possibly happen", people asked. Simple: because New Zealand is a civilised country, and so we let prisoners send and receive ...
If we are to avoid dangerous anthropogenic climate change, we need to rapidly decarbonise our transport fleet. The good news: its starting to happen:The number of electric vehicles on New Zealand's roads have nearly tripled in the past two years. There are currently 15,453 registered electric vehicles (EVs), up ...
We need to fundamentally reframe our systems settings to address the drivers causing and underpinning inequality; structural change in systems especially financial. The Equality Network Hui was held in Wellington on 27 June 2019. The hui covered important topics such as child poverty; a living wage; taxation; public health; mental ...
The views-per-page for some of my recent postings:Depressing, isn't it? Provide thoughtful and wise commentary on the mainstream of British politics and no-one notices. Make a passing reference to Tommy DICKHEAD Robinson in a thread title and you get hundreds of views. Write something about anti-Semitism and you get another ...
The government has announced plans to move the Treaty of Waitangi and other taonga to a new site. Great news! So where are they going? Right next to the old one:The new plan will see a new 22,000-square-metre archive built on the former site of Defence House - the former ...
Back in June, StatsNZ went public about a project to track population data on an hourly level by using people's cellphones. It wasn't as bad as it initially looked - they were receiving no individual data, only counts by suburb - but there was still a huge consent problem, so ...
Most economists agree that a currently slowing economy could do with some stimulus – and they would also agree that there is no shortage of infrastructure projects which could be brought to productive fruition with help from that stimulus. In view of the current practice of sub-contracting economic policy decisions ...
I did an interview on the TVNZ Breakfast Show about the situation in Hong Kong. I tried to frame the issue as a collective action problem between two sides with very different end games. The video is here. Because of time constraints we could not discuss the fact that the ...
Image Credit: Wild Rose College A new study reporting the ranges of values for kidney and liver parameters in a healthy population is being actively misrepresented by anti-fluoride campaigners. The Fluoride Action Network’s (FAN) latest ...
Image Credit: Wild Rose College A new study reporting the ranges of values for kidney and liver parameters in a healthy population is being actively misrepresented by anti-fluoride campaigners. The Fluoride Action Network’s (FAN) latest ...
AN OPEN LETTER FOR SIGN ON BY ORGANISATIONS AND MOVEMENTS ACROSS THE WORLD, ALLIED IN THE FIGHT AGAINST INEQUALITY. This letter was released at the UN Political Forum on 9 July, where the Sustainable Development Goal on inequality was reviewed. The purpose of the letter is to call out the ...
We asked a young gay science student and critic of trans ideology and the trans activists’ assault on women’s and gay rights to outline his views on Redline. Thanks to him for his article. by Cian Ó Catháin Gender identity ideology (Gender ID) is ripping through western society at full ...
The Environment Committee is currently hearing submissions on the Zero Carbon Bill, and Stuff is reporting on the submissions. Today, they're covering yesterday they heard from "NZ" Steel:NZ Steel has told MPs it may be forced to close with the loss of thousands of jobs if changes aren't made to ...
Students are striking against climate change on September 27. And this time, they're asking everyone to join them:Students are taking to the streets, beaches and parks on 27 September, and we're inviting everyone to join us. That's right, this is an intergenerational issue, and you're all invited to put pressure ...
Peter McKenzie has a piece on Newsroom this morning about how local body politics is awash with property developer cash. 70% of all the donations in the 2016 Wellington mayoral election came from property developers. And its pretty obvious what they want in exchange:That’s particularly important in local government, according ...
Source: Unknown, twitter user Recently, I wrote a (relatively) short paper titled as above, to explore what self-determination could like in a practical sense. Maybe I’m a bit of an international trade truther or something, but I absolutely believe trade is at the heart of achieving peace and self-determination. Since ...
In the 1960s, after I had graduated with a first-class Oxford postgraduate law degree, I joined the British Foreign Office as the top entrant of my year. There, I worked for a couple of years on European affairs and was eventually posted to the Embassy in Brussels. After this exposure ...
Alone, Alone. All, All Alone: Will it be a good or a bad thing, when humanity’s bright blue spacecraft is stricken by the civilisation-destroying problem of Climate Change, that no Huston Control will be standing-by to rescue the crew?“WE HAVE A PROBLEM, HUSTON.” These were the words used by the ...
I heard a 45 minute interview with Monica Lewinsky talking to TED’s Chris Anderson on BBC Radio 4 over the weekend, and have listened to it another two times out walking. I recommend it. Highly. Man, I am so impressed with how this woman has integrated her life experiences and ...
Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff, The Coddling of the American Mind: how good intentions and bad ideas are setting up a generation for failure, London, Penguin, 2019, 352pp; reviewed by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff’s book The Coddling of the American Mind is a timely book, whose ...
When the Justice Committee reported back on the Administration of Justice (Reform of Contempt of Court) Bill, free speech advocates breathed a sigh of relief. As originally introduced, the Bill reitered the ancient offence of "scandalising the court" - basicly, a special sedition law protecting judges from criticism. The select ...
Eighteen months ago, the government promised to strengthen the Bill of Rights Act, by explicitly affirming the power of the courts to issue declarations of inconsistency and requiring Parliament to formally respond to them. Since then - crickets. Which raises the obvious question: are they actually going to do this, ...
Back in March, the Ministry of Justice conducted a public consultation exercise on whether to hold a review of the Official Information Act. 285 people submitted on it. Now, Stuff has trawled through those submissions, and the case for reform is strong:The Justice Ministry asked Kiwis what they thought was ...
National's prisoner voting ban has gone down as one of the worst laws in New Zealand history. Passed after a farcical debate (including this farcial speech from ACT MP Hilary Calvert), it has subsequently been found to be inconsistent with the Bill of Rights Act by the High Court, Court ...
Divided Loyalties: Can the Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, be relied upon? That’s what the boys and girls at Foggy Bottom and the Pentagon needed to be reassured about. Because, from the perspective of Washington, it’s looking more and more like Jacinda Ardern and her Labour Party comrades are getting ready ...
This handy Queer Theory Glossary is from thetranswidow.com In case you’ve had trouble keeping up with the spate of new queer theory terms, here’s a handy glossary for your reference. Queer – A straight person with an interesting haircut. Non-binary/genderqueer – A chubby young female, typically 16-28, who has ...
by Daphna Whitmore US social psychologist and author Jonathan Haidt spoke on 1 August in Auckland to a crowd of around one thousand people. He is best known for his bookThe Coddling of the American Mind which examines the new climate of trigger warnings and acute sensitivity of Gen Z. ...
What an extraordinarily depressing experience it is to be compelled to watch, at 12,000 miles distance, the contortions and machinations of the British political class as they set about their determined attempt to overturn the decision taken by the British people that they wish to leave the European Union. The ...
The winter grazing issue is becoming a highly sensitised one that I hope will not become so politicised that it delays solutions and results in the suicides of some very stressed farmers.Winter grazing has hit the headlines after a determined campaign, including the release of a video of some very ...
by Don Franks Way back when British guitar virtuoso Joe Brown was a beginning session guy he got to back a visiting American artist. Young Joe was an able technician but had yet to learn some points of professionalism. Part way through “Five foot high and rising” Joe tired of ...
Since scientists started studying climate change, they have warned that it will reduce food production. And now, its happening:The climate crisis is damaging the ability of the land to sustain humanity, with cascading risks becoming increasingly severe as global temperatures rise, according to a landmark UN report compiled by some ...
The Abortion Legislation Bill just passed its first reading, 94-23. Its a far bigger margin than I expected, even allowing for the Winston factor, and it reflects the overwhelming support there is in this country for reform. but that support isn't a new thing - it has existed for literally ...
The Justice Committee has called for submissions on the Referendums Framework Bill. The Bill does what it says on the label - establishes a framework for referenda. Things you may want to address in your submission: Whether the bill should apply only at the 2020 election, or whether it should ...
The Thompson and Clark / MBIE spying scandal continues to result in fallout, this time in the form of a report on the implementation of MBIE's "Operation Exploration", its internal operation to enforce the infamous Anadarko Amendment which criminalised protests against the oil industry. MBIE's enforcement operation was tainted by ...
So, Winston Peters is defending his last-minute demand for a referendum on abortion by claiming he was "blindsided" by the bill. Really? The bill is a government bill. It has been working through the cabinet approval process since December last year. As part of that process, NZ First was consulted, ...
The Green Part has been accused of lack of transparency in two recent situations. The first was the claimed media lockdown during Green's annual conference and the second was Julie Ann Genter's refusal to release a letter she had sent to Phil Twyford.I do get frustrated when journalist's succumb to ...
The Green Part has been accused of lack of transparency in two recent situations. The first was the claimed media lockdown during Green's annual conference and the second was Julie Ann Genter's refusal to release a letter she had sent to Phil Twyford.I do get frustrated when journalist's succumb to ...
Last week, the ongoing democracy protests in Hong Kong saw a pro-Hong Kong student assaulted at the University of Auckland. The Chinese consulate in Auckland followed this up with a press release "express[ing] its appreciation to the students for their spontaneous patriotism" - effectively condoning the assault and inciting further ...
Only those who close their eyes and minds to the evidence can still be in any doubt that we are facing a climate change crisis. The evidence is conclusive that the world is not only getting inexorably hotter, but also that the rising temperatures are creating a number of other ...
Rural communities are wailing about forestry conversions "taking land out of production" and putting it into locking up carbon. Its driven purely by economics: there's more money and lower costs in carbon than in sheep or beef, and if carbon prices rise, there'll be more net money than dairy even. ...
This week, the government introduced its (underwhelming) Abortion Legislation Bill. And despite having negotiated the text of the bill through the coalition process, Winston Peters is now suggesting that he will demand a referendum on it:NZ First leader Winston Peters has hinted that his party may only support the Government's ...
Blowing-Up The House: Is Winston Peters planning to put himself at the head of all those New Zealanders who refuse to countenance the Coalition Government caving-in to the Ihumatao protesters? The most effective way of doing this would be to issue Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern with an ultimatum. If she ...
Last night the police dramatically incresed their numbers at Ihumātao, shoving over protestors and threatening them with arrest. Despite police talk about the need to maintain "public order" and prevent a "breach of the peace", there appeared to be absolutely no justification for this: the protest camp is, was, and ...
A Cult, that many actors, politicians, and those with a low IQ are joining is sweeping across civilisation, with one main intention – ending humans reign on Earth. Starting as a well meaning though deeply flawed theory, that the Earth was warming due to mankind emitting greenhouse gasses, it was ...
Today's abortion reform announcement is just the latest in a long line of disappointing decisions or outright failures from the Labour government. The 90-day law. KiwiBuild. A capital gains tax. Climate change. Every time they make one of those decisions, we hope for better next time. No repeal of the ...
The Greens used their party conference over the weekend to push for a rent-to-own scheme, where people would be able to work towards home ownership by renting from the government. Its a sensible policy, and one which could make a real difference to home ownership rates. But its also basicly ...
Opportunities to dodge tax are shrinking with the completion of a new tax agreement with Switzerland, Revenue Minister Stuart Nash announced today. Mr Nash and the Swiss Ambassador David Vogelsanger have today signed documents to update the double tax agreement (DTA). The previous DTA was signed in 1980. “Double tax ...
Small Business Minister Stuart Nash says the report of the Small Business Council will help maintain the momentum for innovation and improvements in the sector. Mr Nash has thanked the members of the Small Business Council (SBC) who this week handed over their report, Empowering small businesses to aspire, succeed ...
Jordan Williams, a spokesman for the Auckland Ratepayers’ Alliance and its nationwide sister group the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union is slamming Auckland Mayor Phil Goff for his comments today that John Tamihere would need the Government’s support to ...
A ‘one size fits all’, inflexible and punitive regulatory regime for water quality just gets backs - and costs - up and most importantly will not work, Federated Farmers says. ...
Mediation yesterday between secondary principals and the government has resulted in a deal that the principals' negotiating team is recommending to its members. ...
Clubs New Zealand welcomes the decision of Justice Minister Andrew Little to put forward a bill amending the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act to allow all licensed premises to remain open for Rugby World Cup matches. ...
The Australia and New Zealand Ministerial Forum on Food Regulation has ordered a review looking at labelling of added sugars in food and drinks. An option under investigation is ‘a pictorial approach applied to sugary beverages / sugar-sweetened beverages’ ...
Labour market data released by Statistics New Zealand today indicates that a gender pay gap persists in New Zealand, despite improvement in some areas. ...
In the midst of the 6th Great Extinction Event the coalition, STOP Trashing Our Planet is urging voters to take full responsibility for the legacy we are leaving our children. ...
LGNZ will carefully consider the proposed National Policy Statement on Urban Development (NPS-UD) to assess if it meets the Government’s aim of enabling urban development or simply adds more red tape to the planning process. ...
Statistics out today from the Government show that the gender wage imbalance, or gap, in the average wage is 11.9%, a strong 2 percentage point improvement from 13.9% last year. The gender pay imbalance in the median wage is 9.3%. ...
Newstalk ZB Drive host and Herald on Sunday columnist Heather du Plessis-Allan is taking on the challenge of keeping 2019 Auckland Mayoral contenders Phil Goff and John Tamihere in line and on point in tonight’s live NZ Herald Newstalk ZB debate. ...
After twenty years Napier residents have endured heavy sleep and health disruptive noise and air pollution from freight trucks gridlock operations to and from the Napier port and other regions. ...
The EMA says much is riding on the board and chief executive of the new National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) announced by Infrastructure Minister Hon Shane Jones today, with a difficult task ahead to deliver on its purpose. ...
The Public Service Association welcomes the introduction of workplace standards by the State Services Commission that make it clear public services should expect positive and safe workplaces. ...
The Financial Services Federation (FSF) - the voice of responsible lenders and leasing companies - and FinCap - working with consumers facing financial hardship - are signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) this Thursday 22 August in Auckland. It will ...
Wellington, 20 August 2019 — Lawyers for Vulnerable New Zealanders (LVNZ) has lent its support to the amendments proposed by MP Chris Penk to better protect vulnerable people from being coerced to end their lives under the End of Life Choice Bill, currently ...
The Government’s decision to establish and independent Parliamentary Budget Office, outside of Treasury, is a taxpayer victory and will improve democracy, says the New Zealand Taxpayers' Union . Taxpayers' Union spokesman Louis Houlbrooke says, “It's ...
The Taxpayers’ Union can reveal that the cost-benefit analysis prepared by Ministry of Transport and used to advise Ministers on the Government’s Clean Car Standard and ‘Feebate’ policies has serious flaws which undermine justifications for the ...
The Aotearoa New Zealand Association of Social Workers (ANZASW) welcomes new proposals for prison reform put forward by the Minister of Corrections and non-government organisations recently. ...
The New Zealand Maori Council has called on the nation to address all forms of racism and not to shy away from an honest conversation about where it’s taking hold. The call comes after the Nelson Club decided to keep a member after his comments became ...
Wellington (20 August 2019): The New Zealand Initiative enthusiastically welcomes the Coalition Government’s announcement of an Independent Parliamentary Budget Office. Finance Minister Grant Robertson and Associate Finance Minister James Shaw ...
Drs Say No agree with Chris Penk’s amendment to protect vulnerable patients from coercion, although the organisation still maintains that no safe euthanasia legislation can ever be drafted and continues to urge MPs to defeat the End of Life Choice Bill. ...
The Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier says the Northland Regional Corrections Facility is persisting with policies that are preventing it from achieving its full potential. ...
The second national hui in the Māori-led Inquiry into Oranga Tamariki concluded yesterday ahead of schedule after a capacity audience formally ratified the terms of reference that determines the scope and purpose of the independent investigation ...
Forest & Bird says WWF-NZ's plan for protecting Māui dolphins is based on testing unproven methods on a species that is almost extinct, and is urging the Government to reject the proposal. ...
Primary and intermediate school principals have voted to accept a new settlement from the Ministry of Education, which includes entrenched pay parity with secondary principals. ...
Police acknowledge the findings of the Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA) report into the 2014 search of a property belonging to Nicky Hager. ...
The Independent Police Conduct Authority has found that the Police's unlawful search of Nicky Hager's property in October 2014 resulted from an unwitting neglect of duty and did not amount to misconduct by any individual officer. Police policy at the ...
Tuesday, August 20: Greenpeace has labeled an overnight announcement by fishing company Sanford as a danger to Māui and Hector’s dolphins, and is calling on the Government to reject the ‘Sanford Plan’ immediately. ...
World Animal Protection describes an overnight announcement (19 August, embargoed until 6am 20 August), by fishing company Sanford as a cynical move to undermine growing support for full habitat protection for Māui and Hector’s dolphins. They called ...
When the combined tax on fuel hits over 50 percent in some parts of the country, it is hypocritical for the Government to blame corporates, says the New Zealand Taxpayers' Union . ...
A leading expert in suicide prevention has urged MPs not to confuse suicide with assisted dying as they consider the second reading of the End of Life Choice Bill. ...
Over the weekend Māoridom arrived in the Waikato for the annual Koroneihana Celebrations. Yesterday almost 300 attended a Hui in Hamilton to continue the Oranga Tamariki Review led by an independent Māori panel to coincide with the Koroneihana. The Hui confirmed ...
The Council of Licenced Firearm Owners (COLFO) says the newly issued ‘price list’ for compensation of banned firearms reveals that haste in preparing the ban has led to an underestimation of the number of affected firearms and their value. ...
Corrections Minister Kelvin Davis has admitted parts of the prison system are “extremely racist” and says that’s why the Government is asking Māori to work with it to make changes. ...
Ongoing drug-test sanctions contradicts Government’s rhetoric on drugs Reports that two-thirds of beneficiaries who fail drug tests are still having their benefit sanctioned contradicts the Government’s so-called health approach to drugs. Auckland ...
An Auckland Homelessness Collective is optimistic extra government support for sustaining tenancies signals a commitment to a multi-pronged approach to tackling homelessness. ...
Wanaka-based trust ONE New Zealand will be hosting six days of talks, workshops and hands-on activities with local and national experts to educate, inspire and enable grassroots action towards a sustainable future. ...
In last week’s episode of Politics in Full Sentences, David, Brooke and Ruwan discussed why Jacinda Ardern has been lecturing our friends overseas, why Andrew Little called ACT's three strikes law “fascism”, whether he will give prisoners the right to ...
“Community safety must be the paramount consideration when releasing an offender, and the only way for that to be achieved is for the offender to acknowledge their crimes.” ...
“District Health Boards are failing to foster a culture of distributed clinical leadership, despite its demonstrated benefits to the sector,” says Ian Powell, Executive Director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (ASMS). ...
Ratepayers around Auckland were spitting out their morning coffees listening to Phil Goff’s incredible claims on breakfast radio today that this election is about ‘honesty’ and that Aucklanders can trust him on his promises. Auckland Ratepayers’ ...
By Michael Andrew Journalists across Papua New Guinea have spoken out in support of EMTV news director Neville Choi after his “unacceptable” termination from a role he had held for six years. A public statement released on Monday listed the reasons for his termination, one of which was his ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Camellia Webb-Gannon, Lecturer, University of Wollongong Last weekend, the Indonesian police took 43 West Papuan students into custody for allegedly disrespecting the Indonesian flag during an independence day celebration (an allegation the students deny). Police stormed the students’ dorm and used teargas ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Natalie Klein, Professor, UNSW Prime Minister Scott Morrison has confirmed that Australia will lend military support to protect shipping in the Middle East. The commitment has been long expected, with Australia sending a frigate, an aircraft and some headquarters staff as part ...
By Johnny Blades of RNZ Pacific Protests are spreading in Indonesia-ruled West Papua in response to harassment of Papuans during explosive incidents in Javanese cities last week. Indonesia’s president has urged calm after some of the protests turned violent, but he’s been criticised for not directly addressing a festering ...
This year marks the 15th anniversary of the karaoke game that introduced an entire generation to the horrors of ‘Downtown’ by Petula Clark. Jordan Hamel ranks all 30 songs from SingStar v1, from worst to best.Before my generation was old enough to get smashed on reasonably priced Merlot and wander ...
After a decade of making music, Sons of Zion are still refusing to settle into a genre. They sit down to talk about the joys of pop music and te reo Māori, and why a “reggae” band can do both.In 2009 Sons of Zion released their debut album, a self-titled ...
The government is directing councils to loosen up their planning rules, allowing cities to grow both up and out, in a bid to solve the housing crisis. ...
New Zealand’s largest construction company and controversial owner of the disputed Ihumātao land near Auckland airport has made a $164m profit, a big turnaround from its losses last year. Business editor Maria Slade analyses what it all means.What has Fletcher Building announced?The construction and building products company with operations on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Australia will commit a frigate, an aircraft and some headquarters staff to an American-led freedom of navigation operation in the Middle East. Scott Morrison, announcing the long-expected commitment at a Canberra news conference on Wednesday, ...
The local sharemarket has taken an unexpected beating this morning driven by investor disappointment about the performance of the top stock - A2 Milk. ...
Sometimes, less is more. Even when it comes to Quentin Tarantino (Warning: Contains mild spoilers).Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is an impressive film. It’s got great acting, stunning visuals, and a twist ending, all laced with the sort of attention to detail you’d expect from the nuttiest of film ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Beeson, Professor of International Politics, University of Western Australia Populism and environmentalism are words seldom seen in the same sentence. One is associated predominantly with nationalists and charismatic leaders of “real people”, the other with broadly-based collective action to address the ...
Who makes up the royal ‘we’? Lana Lopesi reviews a massive show at ST PAUL St Gallery in Auckland that investigates questions of community, culture and conflict.How to Live Together at ST PAUL St Gallery could hardly have been better timed, opening just days before the protection of Ihumātao in ...
The first week of Celebrity Treasure Island had it all – mud, vomit and coconut brassieres. Alex Casey ranks the celebrity contestants vying to win $100,000 for their chosen charity. It’s 2019 and mostly everything is bad, so I am choosing to focus on the positives of Celebrity Treasure Island NZ. ...
The government is directing councils to loosen up their planning rules, allowing cities to grow both up and out, in a bid to solve the housing crisis. ...
Australia's big banks may have to make do with less money from their New Zealand operations, as Australia's banking regulator moves to improve their financial strength. ...
The anti-1080 lobby has made a martyr out of kea, but that ignores another salient fact: kea survival in large part depends on pest control. Dave Hansford explores on the challenge to balance pest control with conservation.In April this year, Zero Invasive Predators (ZIP) announced that two kea had died ...
Fletcher Building has posted a solid full year profit but continues to be dogged by a weak Australian housing market and underperformance in some of its businesses there. ...
Work obsessed drone Alex Braae assesses whether shutting himself up in a dark room will allow some semblance of normality on a day off.It is a sad fact of life that many of us spend alarmingly large chunks of it working. The relationship is like quicksand: as we spend more ...
Inspired by the ethos of food-rescue organisation Kaibosh, chef Kelda Hains looked to the past to champion unloved ingredients and showcase clever waste-minimising techniques at her All Taste, No Waste dinner during Visa Wellington On a Plate. Ever glanced at those supermarket bags of pre-cut broccoli florets and wondered what happens ...
Dr Bryce EdwardsCould the most interesting aspect of the current local government elections turn out to be generational change? At the moment, there is a surge of media and activist focus on younger candidates standing for office. It suddenly seems to be “cool” again to want to be a ...
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 content by Dr Bryce Edwards.Petrol prices Tom Pullar-Strecker (Stuff): Don’t be surprised if petrol study ends in a deal, ...
Jacinda Ardern’s election campaign was high on hope but this Government should remember that those who encourage what cannot be achieved are quickly found out. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Professor Tim Bentley, Director of Research, professor of Work and Organisation, Massey University According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the workplace can be a positive force for improving mental health. But many workers are exposed to work environments that are damaging ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Denis Muller, Senior Research Fellow in the Centre for Advancing Journalism, University of Melbourne Alan Jones’s political power is to a large extent based on a self-fulfilling prophecy: politicians believe he can shift votes, so they pay homage to him, which adds ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rosemary Stanton, Visiting Fellow, School of Medical Sciences, UNSW Research Checks interrogate newly published studies and how they’re reported in the media. The analysis is undertaken by one or more academics not involved with the study, and reviewed by another, to make ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Associate Professor Ralph Brougham Chapman, Director, Environmental Studies, Victoria University of Wellington CC BY-NDClimate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.If you have a question you’d ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Salvatore Babones, Associate Professor, University of Sydney Australia’s leading universities are now looking to India in search of new sources of international students. This comes amid worries they may have reached a “China max” – no more room for growth in Chinese ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jen Couch, Senior Lecturer – Youth Work and International Development, Australian Catholic University One of the biggest challenges young people of refugee background face in their new country is finding safe, affordable and appropriate housing. Yet this is central to social inclusion ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christopher Sheil, Visiting Senior Fellow in History, UNSW The results of the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics biennial survey of income and wealth met have met with an uneven response, perhaps in part due to a slipshod press release. Released with the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christina Lee, Senior Lecturer in Literary and Cultural Studies, Curtin University This story contains spoilers for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. While promoting Once Upon a Time in Hollywood at the Cannes Film Festival, filmmaker Quentin Tarantino was asked why Margot ...
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: National cries foul over parliamentary costing unit idea, Ngawha Prison heavily criticised in report, and fuel market study confirms prices are high.The government have announced a recommendation to create an official, independent parliamentary costing unit, reports the NZ Herald.The aim is to ...
Phil Goff and John Tamihere are into round 10 of 23 debates planned before the mayoral election in October, and they're punching hard, not resting on the ropes or pulling eachother into dull political clinches. ...
Open Mike 04/06/2018 
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Sir Bingles.
What the hell?
Eloquently put. WTF.
Time to get rid of this anachronism – once again!
I would have expected it under National but I would have hoped for better under a Labour coalition. Obviously not.
Cringeworthy colonial hangeover titles are a joke but they do give an indication of what an administration values.
I just ignore titles like Knight and Dame. I may be tilting at windmills but I just simply never use them. I mean Shonkey is still Shonkey.
Isn’t it insulting? They’re sure good at looking out for themselves aren’t they.
I saw in an awards piece yesterday that ex-PMs are now knighted as matter of course. Why? For doing their job? And why Double Dipper when he was only PM for about a year?
It said of course that he was also being recognised for being our most successful Minister of Finance whose wisdom and general awesomeness got us through the Global Financial Crisis and now he was going to make a new career advising others how he created our rockstar economy (or something like that).
But it is about looking after themselves. The main fault with the awards systems is that politicians have their sticky fingers all over it. I would have hoped that a true left-wing Labour-led government would not have recognised such a man. But that’s not what we’ve got.
I wonder as an aside if the Greens and NZ First were allowed any input or a veto.
I suspect went something like: Bill English asked for a knighthood (through the Nats) and the govt thought it would be bad publicity to refuse him. They’d look mean and lose votes. Farrar and co would wet themselves complaining about it for years to come. That particular boil has been lanced.
Yeah it’s just like upper management salaries. They all scratch each others back because they’re afraid if they were to break the cycle they might miss out themselves. Self serving pricks.
Former British PMs once received an Earldom but Macmillan was the last to get one and as for other honours Thatcher has been the only one, being a Baroness.
They seem to see it as a pointless gesture, why cant we. My use of an honorific is of course a parody.
Never mind though eh? It serves as a reminder to politicians in future who wonder why their public have no confidence or faith in them.
Could have been worse. It could have been Dame Paula Bennett, and then Madge really would have good reason to expect people pissing on her grave (going forward)
But then when you think of various others ….. such as in Pillars, or budgetry advice advocacy, or advocates for education, health, the indigent – it is a bit sickening.
I hope they don’t expect any R E S P E C T because they’ll be shit out of luck.
Maybe they were trying to be ‘fair and balanced’.
Ms Healy does deserve respect. The double dipper (who as a Kethlik, really should have a very guilty conscience) is deserving of none.
Like that Parmjeet Kaur on another strand, I spose it’s the difference between faith and religion. (I religiously get up at 5am and religiously take a dump at 5.30)
In one sense. On the other hand, Bill English and knighthoods are very much institutions of the same establishment.
Perhaps ‘Sir’ stands for ‘Social Investment Required’?
Someone who places their Wellington house into a trust in order to claim $900/week in accommodation allowance for having to live in Wellington, surely shows a lack of understanding of social norms? Early identification and remediation of this problematic behaviour while Bill was still in primary school may have worked. The behaviour is particularly concerning, seeing $900 is as much as many Kiwis (most without discernibly less talent than Bill English) earn in a week.
To add insult to injury, I had to endure listening to the smug, repellent fool wittering on about social investment this morning on RNZ.
Let’s be clear, ‘social investment’ is a smokescreen and a propaganda exercise. Its purpose is to keep a broken economic system in place by suggesting that its victims are at fault by being somehow defective. They therefore need to identified early so they can be ‘fixed’. The truth is that there is absolutely nothing wrong with the vast majority of the poor.
David Slack on Twitter: He’d have been knighted sooner but they kept sending the invitation letter to Dipton.
😆
Well-deserved, Sir Bill.
WTF have the Topp twins done
Congrats Bill for:
* bailing out your mates in South Canterbury Finance: $1.7 billion
* screwing Solid Energy: $128 million
* diverting billions worth of asset sales proceeds from social programs to banks
* deleting 450 unusual texts to a National Party staffer and covering for a bully (Todd Barclay)
Scumbag of the lowest order.
Key
Talley
English
Shipley
Estrange Corbet
Knighthoods and dames . It would seem they area prize for committing crimes against the citizens of New Zealand and the world.
+111
Excellent reporting from Tony Wall on our 100% Pure nation’s use of methyl bromide.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/103690904/its-banned-in-other-countries-but-new-zealand-is-using-more-toxic-methyl-bromide-than-ever
There are three parts, so make coffee and toast and dig in.
Life of a worker is cheap like it would be in a third world country.
One of the stevedores who went to hospital claims it’s not the first time workers have been exposed – “it’s a common event” – and says some colleagues have refused to work when methyl bromide is being vented.
“They just don’t come out of their huts if they’re de-tarping.”
The worker says he wants to speak out but has been “muzzled”.
“If you don’t do what you’re told you get removed off the board and they don’t give you work.”
A good reason to process the logs in nz.
That is so scary-good post Rosemary.
We get hit with this stuff unloading containers for international performers. Open container, stand back. I’ve suggested large fans…
One time a huge foreign moth flew up out of the container and off into the spotlights surrounding the grounds. As a biologist type my sphincter did clench…
Nothing came of it. It could have been carrying eggs… But that’s the reason they’re so keen on the bromide in containers. Me, I’d just make them airtight, suck the air out, critters die, job done.
But thinking, you know…
Landlords complain of price gouging insulation companies.
Ironically (in the context that this is EXACTLY what landlords inflict upon tenants) landlords point out that subsidies don’t make it cheaper, instead the subsidy is essentially additional income to the insulation company.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12062882
They’ve had plenty of time to get this done when the demand was lower.
Yet they dragged their heels because providing a warm dry home for tenants is actually the very last thing on their minds. The slow uptake on the subsidy was noted.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/property/news/article.cfm?c_id=8&objectid=11879566
No use complaining about the price of insulation now – supply and demand.
Muttonbird @ 4.1 cry me a river
Wonder how they’d feel if the Accommodation Supplement was cancelled. It is, after all, a subsidy to landlords who automatically put their prices up whenever it increases.
Should really get rid of the AS and have a payment tied to a rental WoF. Then landlords and tenants would be able to weigh up their options and make choices based on that.
+111
:-))
rent controls with prices administered by a government agency. the market has completely failed
Oh My God ! More scribbled-out-while-half-pissed tripe from Heather Plastic-Allan, this time on prison reform and perils of the same:
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=12062674
Plastic: “And yup, child rapists sometimes get as little as two years’ jail time.”
Really ? Really really ? Where the maximum sentence for rape is 20 years ? Where the staring point without the aggravating factor of child victim is not less than 8 years ? I guess there must be one such case because if there weren’t Plastic would be lying on Trumpian scale.
Give me the case citation Plastic. Give me the judge’s sentencing notes. I’ll bet the farm that the factors of offender’s extreme youth/age/mental impairment figured overwhelmingly in producing such an extraordinarily rare outcome.
Plastic flicks off this “two years jail time” as though it’s reflective of modern sentencing. It’s not. Demonstrably it’s not. Actually Plastic IS lying when she peddles one extraordinarily rare sentence as “sometimes”. As misleading as allowing that this cackling yuppie fool “sometimes” engages journalism.
As Truman Capote said of a contemporary…….”That’s not writing……that’s typing”.
I dont read her stuff anymore, its always as bad as you describe.
Her analytics must have dropped as they try hide her name and just use click bait headlines
She’s obviously lying and needs to be held to account for a few million dollars and banned from ever being a journalist again.
There should be consequences for shit like this and there isn’t.
Many will be disappointed in the List. Bill only got a Knighthood.
They’d have expected Sainthood at minimum.
Patron Saint of Rental Properties. Double sainthood.
At first glance i thought you’d said renal properties… which would be an appropriate place to stick his knighthood 😉
To become a Saint you’ll have to meet one vital criterion … [pun intended]
I don’t think the knighthood will help him where he, according to his own religion, is going to end up.
Wouldn’t it be great if Bridges, Collins etc watched Prime’s TV 60 Minutes last night, Special Prison Edition.
In Germany the focus is not at all about Punishment but on Rehabilitation and treating inmates with humanity. And lesser crimes have Home Detention and Community involvement, rather than as we do, lock them all away to teach each other worse skills so that on release they can do worse stuff.
(Can’t seem to get replay on Prime?)
We hardly lock them all away. The majority of detainees in NZ- have multiple serious convictions.
Citation please.
From what I have heard the majority of prisoners have mental health issues \ drug and alcohol problems. Help is required not damaging people further.
and illiteracy. Teaching them to read can make a huge difference.
It certainly can work wonders here amongst the usual suspects.
This might interest you; there are many scientific studies like this:
Prevalence of traumatic brain injury in a male adult prison population and links with offence type
https://aut.researchgateway.ac.nz/bitstream/handle/10292/10718/Mitchell%20-prevalence%20of%20TBI%20in%20prison%20revised%20clean.pdf?sequence=5&isAllowed=y
Interesting thanks.
I remember that some years ago I was doing adult reading tutoring in a drug rehabilitation house (before it got closed down). As I worked with one young man who was trying to break habit so he could rejoin his wife and child with the addiction behind him, he told me that one task given was to read a book on someone’s experience on giving up marijuana. He said he had to be able to discuss it with the clinicians but could read the whole page and yet not remember the meaning and information at the end.
I mentioned to the clinicians about his problem which they had not been aware of. Apparently it takes some time to get better brain functioning
after long-term marijuana use. They had to work on that before expecting him to be able to handle reading and learning at the level normal for his age. It was part of his set steps that had to be achieved before he could meet requirements for treatment.
Tell you what when xianmac provides a link that we lock them all up i’ll provide a link to demonstrate the counterfactual.
Regarding drug and alcohol problems, yes it is a major problem.
http://www.corrections.govt.nz/resources/newsletters_and_brochures/tackling_alcohol_and_drug_abuse.html
You made a statement – now back it up or we must assume that you’re lying.
maui,
They probably mostly do have these problems. But they also commit very violent crimes. About two thirds of all inmates are in for serious violent and sexual crimes. In addition a fair number for serious drug dealing, and a fair number for serious fraud. The other category are serious repeat driving offenders, such as killing or injuring someone when driving drunk.
Is their scope to reduce prisoner numbers? Yes, but not by 30%, more realistically 10%, at least in the median term.
I know that we are often said to be among the highest imprisoners in the OECD. That is correct. We are in a band of UK, Canada, Australia and some central european nations. We are often at the top of that group, as indeed are our crime rates. Many European nations have lower imprisonment rates, typically 50 to 60% lower. They also have lower crime rates.
The US is out in their own category. To put it in perspective, if we imprisoned at the US rate we would have 45,000 prisoners instead of the 11,000 we actually have. US crime rates, especially for homicide, are about 4 times higher than NZ.
So we are often at no 2 in the OECD, but the rate is basically comparable to Australia, the UK and Canada. We are miles less than the US.
One reason we have a high crime rate is the prevalence of gangs in NZ, which now date back to the 1960’s. Not Rotary! But Headhunters, Mongrel Mob, etc. Again the percentage of people in criminal gangs is higher in NZ than most other OECD countries.
Gang life is characterised by extreme violence and sexual crimes. And unfortunately has become multi-generational. If we could reduce the appeal of gangs by say 30 to 50%, then our crime rate would also dramatically reduce.
Not easy, but it should be able to be done. After all most people in poorer social economic communities (where gangs are most prevalent) don’t actually join gangs. So we need to ask why is that? Why can most young people resist the temptation and others not.
The gang to start with would be the Gnats – sociopathic scofflaws and scoundrels without exception.
Here is a good article from the Dominion Post
https://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/comment/104107156/extra-prisoners-are-nearly-all-gang-members–thats-hardly-a-crisis
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/v-wQm6nE6HE/hqdefault.jpg
Looks like an ACT opinion piece. No answers, just lots of hate. It’s a good thing kiwis don’t generally think like that.
Don’t you ever think about why gang membership is a desirable career option in New Zealand?
Over 25% of young Maori with no or zero hours jobs in Northland, for example.
The higher the imprisonment rate, the higher the crime rate.
The higher the amount of poverty and inequality, the higher the crime rate.
Cause and effect right there.
Putting the young and stupid, the addicted, and the brain damaged and illiterate, in ‘crime university’ does not work. As Iceland, Holland, Portugal and others have conclusively shown.
Maybe the easiest way to reduce the crime rate, is to imprison all right wing politicians. A reduction on most of the proven causes of crime, and ‘legal’ white collar crimes, would follow very quickly.
Oh get off the grass, please!
We don’t know how to deal with members of our society when they are amidst us and we have even less of a clue on how to deal with convicts. Maybe we should start a reasoned debate or do you think this is too early for little New Zealand?
Again you miss the point SM.
The point is that we have a social, legal, financial, moral disaster on our hands which all of us have an obligation to acknowledge and address without minimisation. Minimisation benefits only dog-whistling rightist politicians, blood-lusters like the SST’s Garth McCrackers, and multi-national private jailers.
No we don’t “lock them all away” as you irrelevantly say. Why “irrelevantly” ? Because the social, legal, financial, moral disaster exists without us doing that.
So, you miss the point. Again. So that you can stick out your fragile rightist mindset. Again. As always. Strutting for dog-whistlers, blood-lusters, and private jailers. What do you get ? The look of a fool.
The real issue regarding our inmates is the one that no one likes to mention..
http://www.corrections.govt.nz/resources/research_and_statistics/quarterly_prison_statistics/prison_stats_june_2017.html
…but feel free to continue with your odiferous burbling.
The real issue is that there’s an issue, really. OMG!
I know the solution to said issue: we have to find a solution. FFS!
Any chance of lifting the debate above the level of the an average 5-yr old?
Stunned…….would be helpful if you’d actually identify from the vast body of material in the Corrections Department link you provide, “the issue” you mention. Which you cryptically complain “no one likes to mention”.
C’mon Stunned……don’t be coy. Out with it. As long as you don’t launch into a Roseanne Barr racist white-trash rant though.
Still, as rotten as that would be it would confirm your penchant for inadvertently making the point by missing it.
pfft usual cant from North…why don’t you pop off with moz and have a conniption over the feline Galloway.
The number on remand, who’ve been convicted of nothing, and the time they spend on remand, which is gradually increasing.
One feature of a functional justice system is that it be able to provide swift justice, primarily for the victims’ sake. So much for right wing crocodile tears about victims’ rights.
Interesting stats thanks Stunned Mullet. But not sure what your point is. What say 50% of those in custody would be better off being helped in a variety of well organised facilities out in society? Drugs, alcohol, mental, learning to read and handle social maths and work support?
And yes there are said to be 100 very serious offenders who should be really locked up. (0.01%) But lets not use those few serious offenders to get in the way of discussion.
Nearly 3,000 people are locked up on Remand, without and before conviction. Probably because the strident screamers have pointed to a few cases where a person not on remand but awaiting trial has gone has gone on to commit a gruesome crime, but 3,000???
And instead of justifying longer sentences maybe we should be getting serious about Victim Support, almost as a separate issue.
Odiferous burbling? Can you try and concentrate and discuss important issues instead of using this post as a therapeutic place to release your simple prejudices? The problems now need real thought, research and practical modern methods to change the bad statistics. You are just one of the 19th century repressors and judgmentals who find it a bridge too far to think in today’s mode to deal with today’s problems in the chemical and television and technology mind-bending age.
Do you think they are ignorant of the facts? I don’t. I think they have a different goal in mind: putting taxpayers’ money into the back pockets of private prison owners.
Just as they were fully aware of the massive fraud that is meth testing. Just as they were fully aware of the situation at Middlemore.
Unforgettable Ass-Kickings
No. 2: George Galloway deals to Christopher Hitchens
Remember these two had quite a history. Galloway had humiliated Hitchens on at least a couple of occasions before this one. At the 3:25 mark here, watch Hitchens nearly choking on bile as Galloway points out he’s a liar…
Unforgettable Ass-Kickings is a series compiled by Hector Stoop and presented by Morrissey Breen for Daisycutter Sports Inc.
No. 1: Ed Herman deals to Christopher Hitchens
Hitchens (now unmemorably deceased) exemplified the loon who starts off pointedly Left and ends up pointedly, disgustingly Right. Richard “Mad Dog” Prebble anyone ?
Galloway marches on, indefatigably, hypocrites and scabs left confounded in his wake. See him here before a US Senate committee:
Thanks North! Making this even better, as I’m sure you’re aware, Galloway’s demolition of Senator Coleman was immediately preceded by his dispatching to the boundary of one… Christopher Hitchens! The self-appointed Scourge of Princess Diana attempted to taunt Galloway before his appearance at the Committee, and even in that highly charged atmosphere Galloway humiliated him. The defeated Hitchens was caught shortly afterwards on camera, snarling “You really are a thug!”
Once again, thanks for posting this classic.
The first clip you cite is edited – have you seen the full discussion?
YouTube is full off clips in which supporters of one side or the other claim their ‘man’ won the day. Here’s an example for you:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-kUy4LxxuFQ.
It’s puerile. I enjoy both Galloway and the late Hitchens, but grow up old chap and firm your own opinions.
The insufferable Owen Jones
He’s way out of his depth with the far sharper, far more thoughtful and well read Jonathan Pie….
Tom Walker is a funny guy.
Next up: Duane Gish, master debater…
Pete (6) … according to some lost souls, only Key deserves a sainthood!
But Key is Jesus Christ in mufti so there is no limit to his reward.
Now we have Sir Deceiving Defrauding Double Dipper of Dipton! An attempt at ripping off the taxpayer. Then there is the Todd Barclay affair. Something for which Blinglish wasn’t made accountable for. Possibly much more malevolence behind the scenes as well.
Key, English et al … seems honorifics are only reserved for the slimy con artists and crooks of the land!
That does seem to be true.
We need to remove the giving of honorific from the politicians and give it to the people. Add one aspect to it as well – nobody can get one for doing their job.
Can’t agree more DTB.
Over 70 Syrian tribes issued a joint statement on Saturday that announced the formation of a new combined force that would fight the US-backed militias and foreign troops in northern Syria.
The tribesmen from the Al-Hasakah, Aleppo, and Al-Raqqa governorates reportedly met in the government-held city of Deir Hafer, where they all agreed that they will come together to expel the US and their militias from their provinces.
Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad stated during his latest interview with Russia Today that the US-backed forces and foreign troops in northern Syria will be dealt with militarily if they do not withdrawal.
The Pentagon responded to this threat by warning the Syrian President that any attack on their forces in Syria will end ‘badly’ for him.
https://mobile.almasdarnews.com/article/over-70-syrian-tribes-declare-war-on-us-backed-forces-foreign-troops-in-northern-syria/
Not sure if having his army and airforce destroyed are in Assad;’s best interests. Consider what happened to the Wagner mercenaries.
Of course it’s always possible that the Kremlin will order Trump to withdraw US troops, but would he comply? How well do fascist kleptocrats get along? Are the pee-tapes really that much blackmail currency against the guy with the Pentagon at his disposal?
Nah, I’m picking a tense stand-off.
It’s that the US arrogance shows no bounds.
“The Pentagon responded to this threat by warning the Syrian President that any attack on their forces in Syria will end ‘badly’ for him.”
The Wagner mercenaries were a disaffected bunch from the Urals, poorly trained and equipped. The ultimate question is: who pays Wagner and the numerous other Russian private military companies.
Arrogance, or a simple statement of fact. The destruction of the Syrian army and air-force would destablise the region again. Assad would be lucky to survive this.
“Poorly equipped”, depends who they’re fighting. If it’s the US military, “poorly” is an understatement. Poorly trained? Depends who you ask.
Here is an ironic picture of comfortable and complacent minds confronted by modernity and change and feeling like hermit crabs forced out of their shells.
From the wit of Tom Sharpe in Porterhouse Blues.
Lunch was a mournful occasion. It was the end of term and the Fellows at High Table ate in a silence made all the more noticeable by the lack of conversation from the empty tables below them. To make matters worse, the soup was cold and there was cottage pie. But it was the knowledge of their own dispensability that cast gloom over them.
For five hundred years they and their predecessors had ordained at least some portion of the elite that had ruled the nation. It had been through the sieve of their indulgent bigotry that young men had squeezed to become judges and lawyers, politicians and soldiers, men of affairs, all of them imbued with a corporate complacency and an intellectual scepticism that desiccated change. They were the guardians of political inertia and their role was done. They had succumbed at last to the least effectual of politicians.
‘A student council to run the College. It’s monstrous,’ said the Senior Tutor, but there was no hope in his protest. Despite his cultivated mediocrity of mind, the Senior Tutor had seen change coming. He blamed the sciences for re-establishing the mirage of truth, and still more the pseudomorph subjects like anthropology and economics whose adepts substituted inapplicable statistics for the ineptness of their insights.
And finally there was sociology with its absurd maxim, The Proper Study of Mankind is Man, which typically it took from a man the Senior Tutor would have rejected as unfit to cox the rugger boat….
‘There must be something we can do,’ said the Dean.
‘Short of murder I can think of nothing,’ the Senior Tutor answered.
Caesar, watch your back for conspirators!
The crime here is that Forestry is allowed to let log litter accumulate with catastrophic effect on Tolaga Bay people and their homes when the rain comes.
Scroll down the page to see the huge accumulation of logs.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12064261
Mention in this report about unstable land occurs in relation to roading here:
(I am not expert in handling docos and obtaining info from them – I couldn’t just highlight and copy bits I wanted to show. Have done my best. It looks as if there were not adequate demands made as to the aftercare of logged areas which has left these people lower down in Tolaga Bay etc exposed to damage.
)
MAF ‘East Coast forest industry and wood availability forecasts 2008’
https://www.mpi.govt.nz/dmsdocument/854/loggedIn
The unstable nature of the East Coast landscape and the
roads location of many of the newer forests in less accessible
areas of the region will pose a challenge for the future
expansion of forestry operations. The cost of obtaining
and carting roading materials will also affect profitability
of operations.’…
Biofuels and cogen potential
A very large resource of pulpwood and other by-products
are potentially available – subject to the economics of use
for biofuels, cogeneration or other reconstituted wood
products.
When landing slash is counted, the potential
volume is much greater than that shown in this report;
this could be particularly significant for the East Coast
communities north of Gisborne who are currently
serviced with electricity via limited infrastructure.
The current lack of a local market for pulp wood and
other by-products is a constraint on harvest profitability
and limits the maximum utilisation of forest production.
It is unlikely that cut-over recovery of residues will be
economic, owing to the predominantly very steep
topography of much of the production forests and the
distance to a potential plant in one of the main centres on
region, what is really required is a world-scale solid wood
the East Coast.
Limited Wood Processing Capability
The current lack of local processing is a constraint that
leaves forest owners with few options other than to export
large volumes of logs.
This leaves the region exposed to the log export
market and limited port facilities.
With transport costs making the long cartage of lower value
material marginal or unprofitable, the regional harvest is ‘
at risk of losing potential added-value through the
processing or utilisation of this material as it gets left on
the cut-over.
A greater number of competitive options for
the full range of log products on the East Coast will
contribute considerably to the region’s forestry success.
Part Concluding Comments:
There is still substantial potential for expansion of the
existing forest estate on the East Coast, although all this
may not necessarily be for production purposes, but for
other values such as watershed management, erosion
control and carbon sequestration.
There is discussion about new planting which will also provide land stabilisation.
There is a possibility of businesses setting up wood handling factories when the market is right, and the flow of wood makes it economic and the factor of carbon sequestration.
There is talk about the steep slopes and the need for cable-hauling which requires skilled workers.
There is mention of the okay being given if there is attention given by the loggers to erosion, water etc.
The GDC is a unitary authority that keeps control of important issues relating to land disturbance and logging and clearing and resource consents are required.
Liaison with the Department of Conservation may be required because of the extent and species affected by clearing and logging.
The consent process associated with the harvesting of forests on the East Coast has generally not been an issue.
It seems that the matter of dealing with cut down left-overs has been put on the back burner in the eagerness to get into the log trade, and the intention has been to utilise it at a later date for electricity if there is a viable market for it. It appears that no warning bells have sounded about the instability of the land left bare and the residue from logging left lying where they could be dislodged by expected heavy rain storms although this is a known result of other logging sites in NZ which have been left in a disorganised fashion and have resulted in damage to housing and property and likely to injure people and animals as they have rolled or propelled down slopes onto those below.
Would think if the Gizzy to Napier Railway was still operational that some or all of the by-product could’ve been rail out in bulk with Gizzy being the bulk handing depot for the trucks etc? Or have a Bio- Fuel power plant at Napier to supply the Hawke’s Bay- Gizzy regions?
Don’t know when the trees were felled but as you say the fact of having the rail could have made a big difference in choices of what could be done about the leftover stuff (not correct forestry term!). But NZ had to wait to get a political party that wasn’t constipated. I think within the report it talks about bio-fuel plant. But I was mainly looking for specific mention that the area had to be left in good condition with leftovers stacked safely etc. and didn’t find anything that definite. She’ll be right mate.
So much of our forestry resource that we should have kept and run for the national good in the effective way, has been sold to big firms and institutions
In 1999 Forest & Bird criticised Carter Holt Harvey selling a forest to the east of Taupo to a private buyer. The block was considered to be one of the most ecologically valuable areas of forest in the North Island. Carters in 1994 had withdrawn the forest, Pohokura from sale, and agreed to secure its protection and manage it in consultation with Forest and Bird and DoC. F&B said,”Unfortunately the American managers who now run Carter Holt Harvey Forests have a hardline attitude on environmental issues…they do not wish to work co-operatively with the NZ conservation movement.”
(Newsroom Forest and Bird Press release 2/12/99 16:37:00 Native Forest Sale Breach of Forest Accord.)
Also Fletcher Challenge sold 51% interests in Nelson in 1997 to giant Weyerhaeuser for $275 million; the other 49% was owned by foreign institutional investors.
Weyerhaeuser owned or was licensed to operate on an area approaching the size of the entire North Island, 11.4 million hectares, almost three-quarters of which was classed as productive forest land.
The Nelson Mail p15 28/9/99
If I had a big pile of flotsam on my property and a storm washed it all onto the street causing flooding to spread to other houses, will I be exempt for damages so caused? (I am just a little person so it would be easier to punish me.)
I understand what you are saying, with everyone after a quick buck and to hell with everyone especially with outsiders in an management role not understanding NZ workers/ culture in IRT protecting the environment etc.
I can a story about Weyerhaeuser and Fletchers that involve one of my cousins, who runs a forestry contacting gang who runs it like an old school NZ Forest Service logging gang based around a semi co-op system (just how the family ran the coal mine on Coast).
He was asked by Fletchers to move down to Nelson and they going top dollar as well cost to move everyone lock stock and barrel because of his very standards/ skill sets they had. Anyway if they had moved down from Nth Isl, Fletchers sold out and this mob moved in straight away cutting costs left right centre ie bringing in the Nth America logging practices which BTW are bloody dangerous to an already dangerous job. To a point that he was being under cut by other logging gangs and final straw was when he got the job to work over the hill (Golden Bay Area), but Weyerhaeuser refuse to pay any accommodation and transport costs and basically he told them where to go. He left Nelson with his gang and equipment back to the Nth Isl after my grandmother help out as she pull a strings as he was going to call it quits and after a couple of leans yrs doing jobs that no one would do! He’s doing even better now because they starting to understand that cost cutting comes with a price, to a point some yrs later the muppets from Weyerhaeuser came crawling back ask him to work for them and in true West Coast/ typical family style he told them where to bloody go.
There are a myriad ways to use forestry by-products. What we want is sustainability.
We can innoculate the stumps with various mushroom species providing secondary crops for foresters/locals while making topsoil of the stumps.
Deadwood that is not transported offsite for re-purposing is laid flat to the ground so as to decompose further adding substrate for the soil building by fungi and other microorganisms. This also helps protect the soil when it is exposed after cropping. Brushwood piles are ridiculous constructs of the human mind that likes to ‘sweep clean’.
The placing of carbon (wood waste) with available water (ground contact for fungal access) sees opportunistic free living and plant and fungal-symbiotic nitrogen fixing organisms arrive to provide this vital resource for the process. Now nature’s working for us.
The larger scrap wood and bark can be used to make bio-char. This amendment can greatly improve the productivity of various soil types including NZ’s yellow ultic clay which I’ve successfully experimented with for > 10 yrs now. Use of biochar also directly sequesters carbon.
The process of making bio-char releases heat energy that can be re-purposed e.g. drying timber, heating facilities/water, running turbines. It also produces various chemical by-products that can be re-purposed in forestry and other industries.
Biofuel from pine wastes??? We’re not really there yet it gets technical (read expensive). Best not to be pioneers of large scale expensive systems that might have several achilles heels. That’s what R&D is for.
We can be a lot more sustainable with the guidelines above. I’d add to that system intermittently planting other crops to help the soil recover and provide alternate timber/crops to pine.
Just in case Standardistas missed one blatant bit of grandstanding by the Leader of the World watching out for our good, the United States of America.
World
2 Jun 2018
China ‘intimidating neighbours’ – US
7:02 pm on 2 June 2018 General Mattis said the Trump administration wanted a constructive relationship with China but would compete vigorously if necessary.
The US recognised that China had a role to play in the region.
The South China Sea, a key trade route, is subject to overlapping claims by six countries.
China has been building small islands and other maritime features into military facilities there.
Last month China said it had for the first time landed bombers on Woody Island in the Paracel Islands, prompting US warnings that it was destabilising the region.
Woody Island, which China calls Yongxing, is also claimed by Vietnam and Taiwan.
The South China Sea dispute:
Sovereignty over two largely uninhabited island chains, the Paracels and the Spratlys, is disputed by China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan and Malaysia
China claims the largest portion of territory, saying its rights go back centuries – in 1947 it issued a map detailing its claims
The area is a major shipping route, and a rich fishing ground, and is thought to have abundant oil and gas reserves
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/world/358782/china-intimidating-neighbours-us
China warns US to stop South China Sea patrols
7:31 am on 26 May 2017
China is warning that the United States risks severely disrupting negotiations between stakeholders in the South China Sea after an American warship sailed close to one of its artificial islands in the disputed waters.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/world/331619/us-patrols-very-likely-to-cause-unexpected-accidents-china
I’ve just started reading this book I got off Fishpond called “Globalisation and Defence in the Asia-Pacific – Arms across Asia” which is a collection of Essays edited by Geoffrey Till, Emrys Chew and Joshua Ho.
Chapter 2, last night was a bit interesting IRT what is happening in the South China Sea using a couple of theories called “The Long Wave by Nikolai Kondrative in the 1920’s and the Leadership Cycle” in which both talk about War between a new up and coming nation challenging the current pre-eminent nation which happens roughly once every 100yrs. “This system leader holds a preponderance of key military capabilities (chiefly blue- water sea power, they argue) while boasting the lead economy in terms of size and innovative energy. Regular rhythms in the global economy are related to the rise of this leading state. Just as importantly, key economic trends and the prospects for peace and war are found to be associated with rise, ascendancy and decline of one system leader, and the struggle to produce the next one.”
When one looks at the 50yr cycle of the Kondratiev waves and with the 100yr long Leadership Cycle. You would see Waves of technological innovations (leading sectors in the Global Economy) are very much connected to the rise and decline of global political systems dominated by a hegemonic state.
Last the last two sentences in the conclusion: “ Because globalisation disperses the control of capital, technology and the markets as never before, it remains to seen weather a single state can establish and maintain dominance in the global system on the basis of military might alone. The prospect for peace, we need to know whether the presence of such hegemon will provoke the bellicose challenges to its dominance, the competitive arms build ups and the formation of freshly armed counter- coalitions- for these are the very things which stirred and brewed into systemic war once in every century for the past 500yrs.”
By my reckoning based on what I readed last night we are slowly heading to war on given and current trends within the Asia- Pacific region ATM and with the USA at its peak of the cycle or on top of wave which is about to break as new comer seeks to challenge the dominance of the US.
We live interesting times.
The public has a tolerance for other people’s suffering. We seem to have been at war or in a state of unease, a push button away from war, since WW2. On the surface it seems as if we are at peace but there are the Syrian reports, the Burmese reports, another little boat that has gone down off Africa. And there is enormous interest in films about war, I was just reading about the enormous business there is in land mines and things called butterfly bombs, and armaments are a big trade. Is it that peace is a cessation of war, a breathing space before the next one starts?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_1945%E2%80%931989
With all these poxy wars happening atm it seems it could be the prelude to the main event?
IRT to the Middle East ATM its watching the start of a yacht race with everyone jockeying for positions at the start and when it does kick off it going to be like watching the Grand National Jumps Race at Antree wondering who is going to be last horse standing.
Chapter 2 of the book mentions this is the longest period of peace since WW2 IRT major inter-state wars, but in saying that the long term trend when one looks at that a major inter-state war will break out sooner or later.
USSR ordered a death sentence after Kondratiev and his wave predicted the fall of Communism.
The ability of his theory to predict cycles has proven very accurate.
The Kondratiev wave is very interesting theory and when you combine it with the 100yr Leadership cycle to what’s happening in the Asia- Pacific Region atm, it makes for some interesting reading.
We are killing the world’s species
#1. Terms, kittiwakes and puffins
“This grim description is backed by figures that reveal the staggering decreases in seabird numbers in Shetland, the most northerly part of the British Isles. In 2000, there were more than 33,000 puffins on the island in early spring. That figure dropped to 570 last year……
….Similarly, Shetland’s kittiwake population plummeted from over 55,000 in 1981 to 5,000 in 2011…..
……there were around 110 Arctic terns there last week compared with around 9,000 that were counted in the same area in 2000. ”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jun/03/shetland-seabirds-climate-change-catastrophe-terns-kittiwakes-puffins
Good morning Newshub Flooding in Tairawhiti Uawa Whangara Global warming is here and now .
Duncan I could see Amanda and Mark disagree with you on that. I say honoring the people who deserve it for there good deeds for OUR society is a good thing we need to show more respect for our elderly and respect for te mokopunas future I.E look after the environment. James we can grow meat and dairy organically and sustainable
Ka pai to the American mokopuna who are touring America keeping up the presser on the politician who support the Gun lobby association of America to change the laws to make it harder to get a gun for idiots.
Smoking is a hard to quit and its hard on the poor people who are most of the smokers .But Hone te Labour lead coalition government has the long game in its sights not just tomorrow even thou there mite be less money targeting Maori more money is getting to the poor and not being chewed up by bureaucratic organizations so in reality more money is reaching Maori and not half to the paper pushers. ka pai.
Did I hear that right Trump has just admitted to the accusations of Russian election scandal well thats what Eco Maori gets from him saying he can pardon his self.
With the plastic bag think what I;m going to do is use those reusable bags and as soon as they are emptied put them strait into the boot of my car or one ends up with a cardboard full of those bags . Ka kite ano P.S we need to stop using any plastic that is not biodegradable
The reason Maori cultured tangata won’t go for becoming a republic is because a republic government will ride rought shod all over Maoris Humane rights the Queen is the Guardian of the Maori tangata .
Io
I
Queen
I I
Tangata whenua NZ Goverment and people
She has been Honorable to all her subjects and is the check that Maori have against
corrupt intentions of some people have against Maori and the common person.
Tangaroa buy Tiki Tane
Eco Maori has a strong connection to Tangaroa
Just got in contact with the whano in Te Waiapu vally and they say the beach is covered in pine logs from the flooding . I remember when I was a child that the beach had heaps of wood when I last seen the beach there was not much wood there it will be interesting to see it now te Waiapu awa has filled up with silt now
Ka kite ano P.S its not as bad as the flooding in Uawa
5 years since Edward Snowden blew te whistle The common tangata person who let te tangata of Papatuanuku know that they were /are being spied on by Governments and big companys .Te kumara never tells how sweet it is the link below ka kite ano
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jun/04/edward-snowden-people-still-powerless-but-aware
Eco Maori is trying to have a truce with the sandflys but if they don’t stop trying to intimidat ECO MAORI that they can kiss my – – – – – –
Ana to kai Ka kite ano P.S I know what’s going down
Well I got my answers already from the sandflys so don’t go having te Waiapu come out your eyes when yous get bit on the – – – – Ana to kai Ka kite ano
I already tried to get the sandflys bosses to realise that other people are being affected negative buy there actions my clients have one family split because of them as ECO MAORI has done nothing wrong I realise that I’m unique In that I can think about who my actions affect that goes right over the sandflys heads I will still be coming back to Rotorua and travelling anywhere in Aotearoa. Ka kite ano
Anything negative happens to anyone it’s all on the sandflys Ka kite ano