“A head teacher of a leading primary school has said young children should not have best friends because it could leave others feeling ostracised and hurt. But are people programmed to have best friends?”
This is the kind of lunacy passed off as progressive / humanist philosophy that gives social conservatives a stick with which to beat progressive humanists. I can’t even begin to get on the same mental wavelength as the idiots who propound such facile notions. What kind of mind wakes up in the morning and thinks; “Eureka! We’ll save the lonely children from having hurt feelings by banning friendship and hugs among the children who are lucky enough to have discovered a friend.” A special kind of genius indeed..
My view is that this sort of rubbish comes from a defeated part of the wider “left” that gave up on all the important battles, but still wanted a few victories. It’s the same sort of rubbish that outlaws black as a colour for rubbish bins and is used to hold us all up to ridicule. I hate it, although not in the same way that Back Pussy Tamihere does.
Actually, if you look at the article, it comes from one published in the Daily Torygraph. The headmaster who suggested that best friends should be banned, is the head of a private prep school – hardly the bastion of left wing policy, I’d have thought. He said he’d support a policy against having best friends, as long as it was age appropriate: ie older kids could make up their own minds about it.
Actually, while I am totally happy with kids of any age choosing to have best friends, I think there’s a whole US-led thing that’s kind of institutionalised the whole best friends thing. They’ve made it seem almost compulsory.
I learned something about the US constitutional right to bear arms on Al Jazeera this morning, which gave a lot of times to the issue and the sanely mad gun lobby. It seems the 2nd amendment said that citizens have the right to bear arms as part of a well organised militia.
Well, it seems that is debated. However, the original intent of the amendment was relevant to the context of the time when the amendment was drawn up. At that time citizens’ militia were common because there wasn’t the organised military and National Guard that there is today.
Is that one of the problems of a written constitution? Seems like a good idea at the time and all makes sense but over the years it becomes so entrenced that changes are almost impossible and the Parlimentry process loses the capability to effect change.
America would be better off with fewer guns, most places are better of with fewer guns, but with the second amendment they always get stuck.
This is one of the things that concerns me about NZ creating a written constitution, who would write it? How would everyone ever agree? Will it still be relevant in 50 years? What would we be getting our great grand kids into? Will they spend all their time arguing that if the comma in paragraph seven of subsection 12a was placed four words to the left then nano heart valve replacement is a human right?
“This is one of the things that concerns me about NZ creating a written constitution, who would write it? How would everyone ever agree? Will it still be relevant in 50 years? “
Agree, Jane. The second amendment is the example I use of a problem with a written constitution. Unless it can be renegotiated to fit the times it will at some stage be inappropriate. And if it can be negotiated how is that any better than the lawmaking and judicial interpretation of laws that we have now?
We don’t need a constitution – it would be totally redundant in our mature, robust, flexible Westminster system. This is just the National Party’s thirty silver shekels to the Maori Party. And while the second amendment is an amendment, it has proven impossible for progressives to shift it. A constitution would just give conservatives and the right something to project on to.
We need something to act as a check on parliamentary supremacy, be it an upper house, an elected head of state with a right of veto or supreme law the courts can apply, I am uncomfortable with so much power in this country being concentrated in the hands of so few, especially with the civil liberties shenanigans in recent years such as the Search and Surveillance Act and the proposed changes to the GCSB legislation. It should be systematically impossible for lawmakers to override fundamental rights, not just a matter of trusting in them.
The NZ system doesn’t have any separation of powers, the executive and the legislative branches are the same people, and the judicial branch has a duty to the Crown which is common with the other two branches.
Also, the NZ system is not a constitutional monarchy.
New Zealand’s constitution is based on the principle of separation of powers between Parliament, executive government, and the judiciary through a series of constitutional safeguards, many of which are tacit. The Executive’s ability to carry out decisions often depends on the Legislature, which is elected under the Mixed Member Proportional system. This means the government is rarely a single party but a coalition of parties. The Judiciary is also free of government interference. If a series of judicial decisions result in an interpretation of the law which the Executive considers does not reflect the intention of the policy, the Executive can initiate changes to the legislation in question through the Legislature. The Executive cannot direct or request a judicial officer to revise or reconsider a decision;decisions are final. Should there be a dispute between the Executive and Judiciary, the Executive has no authority to direct the Judiciary, or its individual members and vice versa.
Yes, that’s what they tell the peasants, but it’s mostly bullshit.The separation of powers is a feature of Roman law called the triumvirate. The constitution is based on the unwritten constitution of England, which forms the basis of English common law and the law of the land in New Zealand. The civil law (originally Roman) and the common law (originally Judaic) are philosophically different systems, Roman law was the law of the empire and the predator, English law was the law of the land and the wellbeing of the people.
So basically you just said that New Zealand law is founded in English law and English law is “the law of the land and the wellbeing of the people”. Did you suffer whiplash with that confusing u-turn?
Which can and has been successfully challenged, often by means of an Ombudsman, the modern Tribune. And I can distinctly recall that even a total Nat like Chris Finlayson has actually performed his job as Attorney-General and told his party that a law they wanted to pass was unconstitutional.
In as much as we have MMP and other constitutional peculiarities unique to NZ, we still rely primarily on constitutional law (British model), not civil law (European model). We are still therefore a variation on the Westminster system.
Most people simply have no idea as to the extent and nature of the fraud committed by the state against the people of this country. The treaty was also a fraud, and the state misleads people about the nature of common law.
I really can’t be bothered trying to educate you on the various meanings of the word “civil”, but suffice to say “Civil Government” (general civility) doesn’t mean “Civil Law” (technical term for the European system of law making that evolved out of the Roman system)
Civil law (or civilian law) is a legal system originating in Western Europe, intellectualized within the framework of late Roman law, and whose most prevalent feature is that its core principles are codified into a referable system which serves as the primary source of law.
Written constitutions are good for constitutional lawyers. I’m happy with Te Tiriti, and would be happier with a stronger Bill of Rights, an Official Information Act with teeth, and a well funded and fiercely independent Ombudsman. The Soviet Union also had a wonderful constitution, and human rights were about as well protected there as they are in the US and A. The main danger of a Kiwi constitution is that it could be used to deny Te Tiriti and entrench pakeha ruling class privilege even further.
The framers of the constitution thought that a standing army would be a tool of oppression, given their experience of British troops before the Revolution. So they wanted to make provision for a militia. There is provision for a navy in the US Constitution, but no army.
The US Constitution was written by the rich and powerful behind closed doors. There is NOTHING moral or ethical about it.
Example: For purposes of representation in the House of Representatives, northern delegates said enslaved Negroes should not be counted as part of the population because they have no more rights than horses or dogs. The south wanted them counted as “voters” because in some areas slaves were 90% of the population. So the constitution says one slave is three-fifths of a voter!
The way to keep our laws and constitution contemporary is binding referendums which cannot be overturned by parliament.
So the constitution says one slave is three-fifths of a voter!
That’s what the 14th amendment is for.
Personally, I think the US constitution was ground breaking in its day in terms of assuring the rights of US citizens. Generally ignored now of course.
Orlov would say that the parallels between the USSR and the USA are now unmistakeable.
Without wanting to sound too much like a libertarian…in the last ten years Federal intrusion into the life of ordinary US citizens has become massive.
Some estimates say that the US has spent $700B beefing up internal surveillance and security on its own citizens since 9/11.
And in the wake of the Boston marathon bombing the talk is to ramp this up even further. Even though hundreds of CCTV cameras, police, bomb squad sweeps, email and social media scanning in the immediate area etc couldn’t prevent it.
Yeah, but it was the privacy intrusions that might have prevented another. That’s the security compromise.
I was in favour of heightened security post9/11, not to stop terrorists but to stop yahoos smuggling on weapons to take out terrorists. But they should have been short lived. Now domestic security is part of the military-industrial complex.
The scale of growth of the security services in the US – especially given the amounts going to security contractors as well to develop domestic security hardware & software – sounds staggering. I get the impression more and more Americans are becoming extremely uneasy at how much power US officialdom is getting to spy on them.
Yeah, but it was the privacy intrusions that might have prevented another.
I might have agreed with you once, but when you also consider the systematic attempts to suspend habeas corpus, legalising the state sponsored assassination of American citizens, militarisation of law enforcement, etc it looks more and more like something other than a war against terror. More like a war against your own citizens.
Yep, once you read the history behind the US constitution it becomes obvious that the framers weren’t out to produce a free country but to set up their own aristocracy. Unfortunately for them the people who’d just been doing all the fighting wanted something different and so they got a democracy but a democracy that could be controlled by the rich – representative democracy.
“Yep, once you read the history behind the US constitution it becomes obvious that the framers weren’t out to produce a free country but to set up their own aristocracy.”
Because when you set up an aristocracy the first thing you do is introduce laws against nobility and define term length, election laws as well as allowing any citizen to be president.
You need to read a little more history Contrarian. The framers of the Declaration of independence and American Constitution did not envisage a democratic republic with universal rights and suffrage as I understand it. One of the key contributors to the drafting of the constitution was James Madison. I don’t know the copy / paste rules but here is a selection from Wikipedia quoting Madison.
“In England, at this day, if elections were open to all classes of people, the property of landed proprietors would be insecure. An agrarian law would soon take place. If these observations be just, our government ought to secure the permanent interests of the country against innovation. Landholders ought to have a share in the government, to support these invaluable interests, and to balance and check the other. They ought to be so constituted as to protect the minority of the opulent against the majority. The Senate, therefore, ought to be this body; and to answer these purposes, they ought to have permanency and stability.”
–James Madison, quoted in Notes of the Secret Debates of the Federal Convention of 1787
James Madison’s comments were but one of many. The Constitution, as written, offers no special protections to the rich or noble – despite the above quote.
If they were trying to set up their own aristocracy then they somehow manged to draft a document which did the exact opposite.
Perhaps you should go back and read what Draco (and I) actually said. We mentioned the original intentions and wishes of many of the landowning (and slave owning) oligarchical delegates. Yes, in the end after much debate a very interesting constitution was produced. A majority of delegates initially refused to sign it and full ratification by the States took quite some time. But it still didn’t grant full participatory democracy or universal suffrage. Here is an excerpt lifted from Wikipedia about Madison’s family background:
His father, James Madison, Sr. (1723–1801), was a tobacco planter who grew up on a plantation, then called Mount Pleasant, in Orange County, Virginia, which he had inherited upon reaching adulthood. He later acquired more property and slaves; with 5,000 acres (2,000 ha), he became the largest landowner and a leading citizen of Orange County, in the Piedmont. James Jr.’s mother, Nelly Conway Madison (1731–1829), was born at Port Conway, the daughter of a prominent planter and tobacco merchant and his wife. Madison’s parents were married on September 15, 1749.[6][7] In these years the southern colonies were becoming a slave society, in which slave labor powered the economy and slaveholders formed the political élite.[8]
Madison was not atypical of many of the founding fathers and I’m sure you’re aware that it took over one and a half centuries before universal suffrage and full rights as citizens before the law was extended to the whole population.
Please point to which part of the Constitution attempted to institute an aristocracy. States not ratifying it is like saying, hypothetically, because Auckland didn’t agree to be nuclear free 10 years after NZ law decided to be nuclear free means that law was designed to be nuclear friendly.
“We mentioned the original intentions and wishes of many of the landowning”
” I’m sure you’re aware that it took over one and a half centuries before universal suffrage and full rights as citizens before the law was extended to the whole population.”
You also forget that “the whole population” as it is now doesn’t represent the same population in historical perpetuity. For example, Alaska only became part of the union in 1959. Before that it wasn’t beholden to the Constitution so of course the adoption of the Constitution wasn’t extended to all the States.
Hence the civil war
Contrarian: Sigh. For Pete’s sake do some reading. Madison was far from being a lone voice. The delegate’s went in having been expected to carry out a limited job by the States that appointed them, decided off their own bat to increase their own mandate and initially many of them envisaged something that fell far short of representative democracy with universal suffrage. This is (with certain license for the sake of brevity), historical fact. If you doubt it DO THE READING>>
As for universal suffrage: All males regardless of race or land ownership was 1870 (15th amendment, nearly 100 years after the constitution was drafted) but many southern states effectively barred most blacks from voting through such things as literacy tests. The 19th amendment gave women the vote in 1920. I can’t remember where I read it but I believe some Indian tribe/s in some states didn’t get the vote until the early to mid 1970’s.
“Near full enfranchisement was realized in 1965 with the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the ratification of the 24th Amendment in 1964” Wikipedia.
“In England, at this day, if elections were open to all classes of people, the property of landed proprietors would be insecure.
And that is the sole reason why we have representative democracy rather than participatory democracy. It’s not a fear of Mob Rule but the fear of the rich that the people would take back their wealth.
As YOU understand it, from the benefit from over two hundred years of social progress and a radically different worldview. Try reading it in the context of a former British colony in the late eighteenth century and it’s as progressive and democratic as fuck. What you just said was the equivalent of saying that Fifth Century BC Athens wasn’t a democracy because their society didn’t recognise women or slaves as citizens while completely failing to acknowledge it was the most progressive state in the region because all authority wasn’t in the hands of a single tyrant.
I think the point is that the the framers were well aware of, for example Athens. They understood ‘democracy’ and ‘republic’ very well. they deliberately opted for the latter with democratic aspects.
The house of reps is the most democratic part of the infrastructure, and the weakest. that’s not a coincidence, it was by design.
Which isn’t to say it isn’t a fine document given its time, but to claim it as progressive as all fuck, given what we know they knew and decided to do, is just daft.
Napoleon was arguably more ‘progressive’ than the US framers. Inasmuch as ‘progressive’ means anything.
The point that Draco was making and I was backing him up over was about what some, perhaps a majority, of the delegates first envisaged at the beginning of the process. It is indeed remarkable that given the time in which they lived and class from which many of them came that they eventually produced (after lengthy and heated debate) the document which became the constitution. You would have to be totally unread and or delusional however to believe that all of the lovely words about the rights of man etc were intended by all the delegates to mean all men and all women and all races in all states of the union at all times from the moment the constitution was signed and ratified. It most certainly wasn’t and I gave some examples above of ways in which it wasn’t.
Not in quite so many words perhaps but Contrarians vehement “What utter crap”, in response to Draco’s assertion that many of the founding fathers were essentially oligarchs looking to preserve their privileged status against the non land owning and essentially inferior (in the case of women and non-whites) was the next best thing.
So you agree that it was in fact a very limited form of democratic republicanism which reserved many rights for a privileged class?
Funny, I thought that was precisely what Draco and I were saying.
I actually said several times it was very advanced for it’s day and laid a foundation for some powerful ideas about human and civil rights which have evolved over the last two centuries, but I’m not going to say it was a document which stood for the equal civil rights of the “common man” regardless of social station just to please The Contrarian and yourself, because I don’t believe those things to be true based on my reading of the history.
What was being contested was the suggestion that the constitution was deliberately framed to create an aritsocracy in anything but name. Given that the Constitution and the Bill of Rights are, at least in their language, virtually identical to many anarchist AND libertarian manifestos. Hence the sharp intake of breath as I paused over my port and stilton at the suggestion.
The right to bear arms as part a well organised militia is still a crucial test of citizenship.
I’d like to see Al Jazeera spend less time on the gun lobby in the US and more examing the implications of that principle in Bahrain. But I’m not holding my breath.
did ppl queue up ever? i been voting for 20 years & i have never seen that, i always thought a plus in our voting system was the whole process took about 10-15 minutes, i dont ever recall ppl queueing, but just am asking was it common once in nz for there to be queues of ppl waiting to vote?
i think alot of ‘older’ guys have to go rark up some of the young at the next election, motivate them to vote. young cousins, neices, nephews, service workers, etc…just bring it up all the time, closer to the time.
Never has been long queues while I’ve been around. Longest I ever had was about 15 minutes in Ponsonby after I moved back to Auckland from back up from Dunedin and had to do a special vote because I hadn’t told the electoral commission. There was someone in front of me that had changed their name
The day we go to computer voting is the day we lose all hope of peaceful political change.
Volumes have been written about the blatant corruption of America’s computer voting systems. Once it’s in, you’ll never get rid of it. The people who hack it for their own purposes won’t let you.
I figure that an electronic system could be as secure as a paper system. In fact, I think it may be more so if done correctly. But it must be done correctly and the US system isn’t – the US system has been done to funnel wealth into the hands of business.
Also we don’t need the friend of a brother of an MP getting the tender/shouldertap for organising the leadup, the ballot and the counting and dissemination of end results.
You have to be very trusting, to the point of infantile to not realise the vast field for finagling and carefully managed sharp practices to be loaded into the system. It is possible though that many adults do have this infantile tendency – a bit of brain missing such as in John Cleese saying ‘Madam is this a pea, or is it part of your brain’. They’d say check it out on-line, the computer can’t lie.
I agree Draco, there’s no reason on the face of it that an electronic system can’t be secure and trustworthy. It would definitely require open source code available to anyone who requested it; I guess the tricky part is that you have to prove the source code you’re looking at is the same source code that is being run on the machine.
Nope. No system is unhackable – none. The only unhackable machine is one that’s switched off, unplugged, and buried in a lead-lined safe in a Farraday Cage in a concrete vault….
Of course, Pop, the point is that you ensure the program that is running on the machine is the one that was scrutinised, and do everything possible to stop other programs from being run on it. I expect this would mean some sort of ‘trusted computing’ situation, where the HW will only run software that is signed with the appropriate authentication certificate, similar to how Blu-Ray and PS3 worked for only running trusted discs/games. That would mean even if someone plugged in a USB drive to try and load SW onto it, the SW wouldn’t execute unless they could sign it with the proper encryption key. You could potentially go even further, and write SW that is vetted by experts for exploits etc (using Formal Methods I guess?), and then translate that into a fixed HW circuit, so that the machine was physically incapable of doing anything other than run the specified program – this would be a very expensive route to take though.
In the US case, it seems the program being run on it wasn’t scrutinised and itself was rigged, rather than someone else coming along later and hacking it.
The problem is that all that requires specialist checking.
Whereas any mumpty on the street can see that army officers stuffing ballot boxes is a bit dodgey.
Yep, and that includes the paper system we use today. It’s difficult to do but not impossible. The same applies to electronic voting – just need to put in place the correct protocols. Username, 16 character alpha-numeric password and a security token and the chances of the system being hacked drop to minuscule.
CV
I decided to buy something on ebay and spent what seemed like hours negotiating the system as I couldn’t remember my password or id.
Got through in the end because I just got determined and bloody minded and I knew if I succeeded I would get what I personally wanted.
Unlike voting, where you hope that the crowd you vote for will succeed to get the numbers and then will deliver the good policies. But I can’t have as much faith in that as I have in my parcel being delivered from the United States.
“The next election has to be mainly about one thing .. turnout, turnout, turnout .. ”
That is correct.
However, speaking as a Labour member where L stands first for Loyalty, with things as they are at the moment, the current leader and deputy are a turnoff, turnoff, turnoff ..
The public evisceration of Happy Gilmore continues. Last night Campbell live did a scathing review of Gilmore’s past difficulties and his blown up sense of worth …
The question is raised, if Lianne Dalziel retires to have a crack at the Christchurch Mayoralty what will National do? Gilmore was the candidate in Christchurch East for the past two elections. If he stood in the by election he could be the most memorial since Melissa Lee …
An odd comment at the end of a Gilmore piece, about:
“Prime Minister John Key is under pressure to discipline shamed MP Aaron Gilmore over allegations of sleazy conduct towards a woman at his infamous boozy dinner. ”
……”A spokeswoman for Mr Key said his office had not been made aware of allegations of an inappropriate advance….”
Wonder what that means? http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/8631499/PM-facing-calls-to-deal-to-MP
Also incredibly easy to believe. I get pretty sick of executive types slobbering over my wife on the odd occasion we have to deal with them. One idiot even suggested she remove her clothes and do a samba on a restaurant table, apparently finding this appropriate because she’s Brazilian. Years back I had a girlfriend who did some work at some sort of NAct convention. She told me some pretty appalling stories about their sleazy conduct.
MO
I remember hearing a story about an IRD party back near the day when a bloke was writing about them in a book called ‘Be Very Afraid’. I’m not sure whether he was the one who committed suicide because of the burden of their relentless compound penalty interest.
The story goes that one of the young bloods got filled up with some liquid then stood on a table dropped his trousers and turned round as fast as he could, emulating a lawn sprayer.
Could be wrong but what an imagination to think up a story like that, if it was made up. It sounds possible because there was a tide of uncontrollable hubris then.
Years ago there were classrooms set up to develop the kids ability to self manage learning. Kids responded with intensity. But parents were uneasy. The learning did not look packaged and formal. So “projects” were born to counteract the misconceptions. Sadly Projects became a return to teacher managed learning.
It is said that if a teacher from 100 years ago appeared in a modern classroom, he would easily identify what was happening today. The tools have changed but the process has not. Prescribed learning and all that.
Interesting. Have just pulled my son out of mainstream education and we are going for a democratic school (don’t really like that term but whatever). There are choices out there and some of those choices are designed for the children rather than the state or factories. I am constantly amazed by how some people disrespect children and treat them like idiots – they aren’t, they are people with individual attributes and deserve respect and support so they can grow into thinkers and lifelong learners.
Presumably the present state system can’t because it’s based on certain quite functional principles of standardised learning, socialisation, and economy of scale. For choice there are a range of private schools, religious schools, Montessori schools, Steiner schools, Democratic schools, Te Reo immersion schools etc – the only difference between them and charter schools being that the others are held to a state monotored standard with professional teachers. Were Charter Schools to be held to the same standards, I wouldn’t have a problem with it.
Ah, when I started out in education, deschooling was a big topic in the training colleges and amongst educationists. I was majorly into Summerhill kind of school, deschooling, etc in the 70s – found them inspiring….. then along came Thatcher et al..
I’ve only ever taught professionally at the university level, but I try to impose as little structure on the process as possible. Perhaps the most important thing I can get across is that they need to develop an ability to evaluate their own answers. The second is that there is more than one way to skin a cat. By and large, I get excellent feedback, but none of my lectures since 2000 have had more than about 35 students, and I would generally have one or two tutors to help. I have a real admiration for school teachers who do it by themselves with the class sizes they have, and a government which encourages people to abuse them.
A revealing article on Stuff about Tikorangi – ” the most heavily explored and developed oil and gas area in New Zealand”
key spoke to 100 in Inglewood
“On Thursday he told an audience that the amount of wealth that exploration could release meant it was in everyones best interests to build respectful relationships with the oil companies.”
Some interesting factoids from the article
On Tuesday the council’s request to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment that urban areas and land near New Plymouth Airport to be excluded from future oil exploration was turned down flat.
Greymouth has stated it is drilling just one well but has applied to drill eight. It has also bought 30 hectares of land despite only needing 1.4ha.
Like so many other media-shy companies, Greymouth requires questions in writing which are answered in kind.
Todd Energy, the other big player in Tikorangi oil and gas and operator of the massive Mangahewa C production site, has started issuing full-colour community updates.
Featuring pictures of smiling rig workers and the top-echelon management team casually splayed out on a grass bank at Womad…
“The fact of the matter is the easy oil is gone, and now exploration is being brought closer to humans,” Todd Energy operations general manager Mr Clennett says.
“Our main focus is how we can build a sustainable operation within the community. Because the skills we are building here, we want to be able to use in other places.”
Mr Clennett’s frankness, the printed updates, the millions in funding to the Len Lye Centre and support for other community projects have another bottom-line benefit for Todd. In a world market scrapping over a limited supply of oil and gas experts, reputation is money.
key and these companies are singing from the same songsheet and they are raising their voices in a cacophony of manipulation designed to drown out opposition to their exploitation, but it won’t work because they ignore people.
“This doesn’t feel like home anymore,” he told his parents Clare and Alan.
“The noise. The rigs. The powerlines. All the lights. It’s taken away the night sky. It’s pretty sad really.”
Expect plenty of glossy brochures and smiling pictures to come because that is all they have got to counter the truth of their activities.
I would say, ” I think you’ve missed the Vienna loaf” or similar. I tend to point it out when I notice that I have been charged incorrectly or given the incorrect change. I do not want to put a shop assistant onto the back foot with her employer, and I do not want to be hostage to petty, grasping instincts either.
A polite curious enquiry might help. “Why doesn’t the money go in the till?” Might be a good reason for this.
It is said that the $3.99 or $19.99 was to force the till to be opened to give change rather than make the cost seem less.
Interesting point re the .99 , and we worry about a few $$ that a few beneficiaries over claim, whilst such actions from business owners and trades go unabated and almost condoned or accepted as being part of the game of being in business. Pity most do not see cashies and these actions are stealing from the public purse.
I still recall a wife of a builder complaining how hard it was to spend $30 k of cashies that he earned on a job and for it not to be noticed, and we worry about feeding and housing those less fortunate. Many here do not appreciate how hard it is for the rich to live and operate & the problems they have to live under!!!!
I think I might have misunderstood your question, Herodotus. I took you to mean that the price of your purchase did not register. However, on reading ianmac’s post, it seems that you paid but the shop assistant didn’t put the money in the till. In that case I would say nothing, since it would seem to me to be busy-bodying. Perhaps she/he put that money to one side to pop across the road and buy something that the shop had just run out of, like milk for instance.
It is going on a lot and is called the black economy. No taxes paid, cash in the bag. I personally would not visit the shop anymore as one has to put the money where the mouth is -literally. My taxes are being deducted and I have no say, it seems hat a shop owner who does not pay taxes can choose. So here are some of the dollars that are missing in the social net structure.
Great article but it does not deal wit the cash and/or barter economy that runs parallel to the taxed one.
There are (business)people who seem to belief that they are entitled to cheat the “system”. By boasting that they have got away avoiding tax and giving that rort a revolutionary name such as “system” “government” “taxman” etc it tends to get the nod because of the wide held belief that these people are cleverer then your average punter who has to suck it up. The very same punters have yet to cotton on to the fact that they admire a cheat who has their hand in the wrong pocket and smile at you whilst robbing you blind. Of cause the “government” and the “taxman” will now ask more of the ordinary punter to cover the shortfall.
There is or was, actually a barter system for businesses that is quite widespread, and this would enable trading to be done without exchanging cash. So what is thought about that.
I belonged to a green dollars group and that is how that operated but we were just ordinary wage earners or beneficiaries, not business people.
Excuse me but i need to have a little rant about this
Not one of you have a skerrick of any wrongdoing, that includes Herodotus who only witnessed cash going somewhere other than the till in a bakery shop. Herodotus later tells us it is money going to the owner no less. Mon dieu, imagine that, a business owner taking money for a sale and doing with it what they wish. What is the world coming to? If Herodotus had a genuine concern of inappropriate activity why did he not say something? If he had, at least he would have fact based reasons for a discussion instead of a swagbag of supposition.
May I recommend to mind your own business, or are the cries of tax evasion and corruption meant to lead to louder calls for the boarding up of the premises and subsequently dragging the owner through the streets by his own scrotum? What business is it of anyone’s, except the IRD, how daily cash handling is done in a private business? By subsequent comments from Herodotus it looks like a bit of a staged discussion anyway.
In one cafe I used to work we had a ‘need change to get another coffee?’ bowl that was a tipn’share bowl. It lived on the counter and cash was constantly going in and out depending on what people needed. Not every business does, or can run, an over- invoiced receipt-driven use the right suppositry code type of operation. Life is messy and for the self employed and small businesses it is getting messier by the day. I do wonder why exactly Herodotus mentioned it, if it was’t to voice his obvious suspicion of fraud or such.
The last time you bought a new car or boat or whatever it is well off people pick up on the weekend, you did what? Handed over a credit card or similar, what account did the money go into? Are you sure it did ? How about that lawyer’s account that your trust management fees went into? You know for a fact that money is being dealt with legitmately?
Next time Herodotus, just ask the person concerned if it is such a worry, and stop casting aspersions on the characters of others, because that is exactly the sort of weak lipped snakeoil that is killing this country faster than all the fraud and theft and greed put together.
Get into the real world as someone who deals day to day in admin accounting I can see when a 2nd till operates. On your ventures out just take a look to see how often such an experience that I described occurs. Why then as I spent $8 why the $2 change came out of a 2nd tin the same as my $10 entered. There was no reason i could come up with why the till on the counter was not used and my transaction was at least not rung up. And as I mentioned before that I was serviced by the owner.
I was interested how others here would have reacted to this.
Not staged from my experiences I come across quite a few instances of tax avoidance in what I considered involving large amounts, perhaps in your world you are more fortunate in the people you deal.
H, what happens to the cash after you have paid for the product you selected, is just none of your business. The banks? maybe, regulatory agencies, possibly, tax man certainly, but unless this shop is a client of yours, it is nothing to do with you. Instead of taking aside the owner and privately voicing whatever ill-focused concerns you may have, you preferred to spend the day involved in the escalation of theoretical wrongdoings.
I believe for every malfeasance you have imagined that the owner is involved in, others could come up with a reasonable and real world alternative that is not judging someone based on nothing but your own expeiriences collected whilst scooping and bagging the effluent of your own career choices.
Get off your high horse. 15% of what we hand over to retailers is tax (GST) that we’re paying and we’ve got every right to expect it to go to the taxman. What they do with their income is their business, GST is our business because it’s our taxes not their income.
Maybe the till wasn’t working and the money was being kept separate so it could be rung up later when it was fixed.
Maybe it ran out of paper.
Maybe they were having a contest to see which staff member could sell the most donuts.
Maybe they were testing out a new piggy bank.
Maybe it was a hidden camera show.
Who the fuck knows? You can keep your money in a tin if you want to. What of it?
The Gormless Fool formerly known as Oleolebiscuitbarrell 9.4.1.3.1
“White House warned on imminent Arctic ice death spiral
National security officials worried by rapid loss of Arctic summer sea ice overlook threat of permanent global food shortages”
“as the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) projected in 2007. He said:
“The Arctic situation is snowballing: dangerous changes in the Arctic derived from accumulated anthropogenic green house gases lead to more activities conducive to further greenhouse gas emissions. This situation has the momentum of a runaway train.”
” phenomenon of “Arctic amplification”, where:
“The loss of Arctic summer sea ice and the rapid warming of the Far North are altering the jet stream over North America, Europe, and Russia. Scientists are now just beginning to understand how these profound shifts may be increasing the likelihood of more persistent and extreme weather.”
There’s a satellite video of ice in the Alaskan Beaufort sea already breaking up (First time ever so early in the spring) indicating a summer ice free Arctic this year or next with a consequent greater loss of the albedo effect and further entrapment of heat in the Earth’s climate system.
From Comments section of article…
“The fossil fuels you burn are directly contributing to killing people in the future.
None of which alters the bottom line – nature will step in and correct our numbers and consumption for us. We have proven incapable of doing either. You might not like it. You might not be one of the very few with even a small chance of making it. But that is the bottom line and the outcome the richer and more powerful members of our species have voted for in continuing business as usual for so long.”
“This is a visualization of the decline in minimum volumes that makes it very clear that the Arctic will be ice free in summer soon. This is significant because it will mark the boundary of a change in state, and the effects on the Northern Hemisphere climate that we are already seeing will intensify.
It is just staggering that we are actually witnessing an event of geologic-time proportions in the space of one generation.”
The new lands, that have been unseen for millenia, were not hidden from the eyes in the sky and are probably mapped in detail and scheduled for stripping. There are shots in the film where you can almost hear them coming for the raw meat of the glacier’s wounds.
1.The normal UK weather pattern (changeable ,sunshine and some showers etc. ) in the UK has been in turmoil for the last several years. Those who spend their working lives outdoors ( Farmers etc.) spotted something was wrong immediately . It started several years ago with almost monsoon like rainstorms in mid summer and has continued in that vain ever since , whereby our weather now resembles something akin to what must go on inside a washing machine come tumble drier ! i.e. constant rain/water and almost gale force like winds. This is because the Arctic is melting at a massive rate and all the freezing air is drifting south and it is enveloping the UK , whereby in the summer it is causing abnormally cold tempratures and constant deluges of rain and high winds ! …. People who live and work in the countryside have known this for several years , however seemingly not the met office or the government, I wonder why ?
2 .Sorry, but I don’t agree , that nothing has happened that hasn’t happened before. My relatives are farmers ( doing it for several generations) and they tell me a different story. They also say that over the same period( last several years) is when the UK’s weather went into turmoil , that the strength of the Sun ( UV rays?) has also seen a dramatic change , whereby it is now impossible to go outside in mid summer for any length of time without your skin beginning to burn very quickly and where people are now being publically warned to wear sun cream/block. This all points to either a mass thinning or an actual hole in the Ozone layer over the Arctic and extending down as far as the UK , which would explain the increased strength of the Sun (UV rays?) and why the Arctic is melting at such an alarming rate.
3. Amazing isn’t it, we will get to see something that hasn’t happened for at least 700,000 years.
4. Been following this issue a long time, no surprises here. Been shouting and shouting “food and water” for years now. This is real brothers and sisters, brace for impact.
I spent a lot of time outdoors in the UK in the really hot summer of 2008, and I certainly didn’t burn. I actually ended up with a light tan which I certainly couldn’t do in NZ.
And while I don’t doubt for a minute doubt climate change, anthropogenic and otherwise, the relatively mild British weather of which you speak has actually been an anomaly that started approximately 200 years ago. Prior to that, surviving accounts show British weather to have been much more severe http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Ice_Age
Absence of sunspots for a couple of centuries. They were surprised as hell when they started reappearing. But it didn’t have much effect outside of Europe.
North western Europe is a canary area as far as climate goes. It is only habitable for a large community because of the gulf stream dropping heat so far north. It responds either through that heat load, or from the jetstream from the arctic to every change in the planetary heat balance.
The strangest thing is that the Brits generally aren’t aware how weird it is having one of the largest concentrations of computing power in the world to predict their weather.
Visiting my mother-in law last Saturday. I went to watch rugby at the Taieri rugby club(Mosgiel) . An incident involving a Pasifika player ensued. He was sent off. The home crowd then proceeded to slur the player with “get back on the banana boat ” the usual “thick coconut ” a a few true scumbags screaming “N word” . Fucking disgraceful. Racism is alive and well at this club. I’ve never seen such appalling behaviour at club level. I’d appreciate this getting passed round, I don’t want this in my game.
nothing has changed much then – I remember their horror when during the Tour I wore my anti-tour badge to the club – oh dear didn’t get to play for them much after that, not that I wanted to of course lol
Agreed, disgraceful, Blue. I’d like to tell another story which gives me hope. The provincial Boys’ College which I used to teach at, this year for the first time elected a Pasifika student as Head Boy. When this appointment was announced to the senior student’s assembly, after input from both students and staff, the entire assembly I am told broke out into spontaneous standing applause, an unprecedented event.
He’s also the 1st XV captain and an outstanding young man, with qualities which the whole senior student body recognised. Such a tale gives me hope for our society.
What I know is the members have had no say in who is Leader and I think they should and if we stay with Shearer we are very much looking like we are walking to another election defeat.
This won’t go down well but Labour could do worse than Shane Jones, hes always impressed me with his ability to be able to talk to everyone and comes across as intelligent
Sure there are some past issues to consider but nothing insurmountable…
“I guess we wont be getting a post from Mike Smith on how wonderful Mr Shearer is”
Quite simply, there is no need for outsourcee Mike Smith to tell us how wonderful Mr Shearer but we want the outsourcer himself saying the real thing and showing that to us.
Remember when Shanghai Pengxin attempted to buy 8000ha of dairy farmland and all hell broke loose and nobody on the left was being the least bit xenophobic? Well, anybody care to note the reaction Dairy Farms Partnership (an investment company owned by Harvard University) buying 1300ha of farmland to add to the farmland in NZ it already owns?
I started looking into that, yesterday. I started saving links on a word document and was intending to do more research on the issue before putting a post together.
eg I have some links to articles about the Harvard Uni investment fund “land grab” in Africa and the potential negative impact. I was wondering what such land grabs have to do with the role of Universities? Part of the neoliberalisation of higher education?
Harvard runs one of the absolute smartest long vision investment funds on the planet.
Mouths increasing, arable land decreasing, land productivity flat, useless paper wealth expanding exponentially
Farm land is where you want to have your investments. And these guys back it up with big money. Last I heard, a NZer ran this side of their asset classes for them.
I thought that many of our neo lib pollies and uncivil servants went to Harvard to study and learn.. Seems that they don’t learn all the good long term structural planning stuff, only the free market and lazy butts and deadhead dads sort of stuff. How to sneer, find fault, and feel superior enough to be worth millions per year in salary, or at least aspire to that.
I guess when we are all labelled okay they can work out an algorithm how to deal with us most efficiently, and whether it’s more cost effective to ensure that there is reasonable accommodation and food for all or to leave us living on the streets.
I’ll say the same thing now as I did then. Selling our land to foreign owners is bad for NZers and bad for our economy. It quite literally turns us into serfs for foreign owners.
My first response was more like Draco’s. I’m not very keen at all, esepcially given Harvard is such an elite US institution. But I want to look into it and think about it a bit more.
“Smart long term investment” on whose behalf?
Certainly US unis like Harvard have come into some criticism for “land grabbing” in Africa. froma a 2011 Guardian article:
Harvard and other major American universities are working through British hedge funds and European financial speculators to buy or lease vast areas of African farmland in deals, some of which may force many thousands of people off their land, according to a new study.
Researchers say foreign investors are profiting from “land grabs” that often fail to deliver the promised benefits of jobs and economic development, and can lead to environmental and social problems in the poorest countries in the world. …
Much of the money is said to be channelled through London-based Emergent asset management, which runs one of Africa’s largest land acquisition funds, run by former JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs currency dealers. …
Oakland said investors overstated the benefits of the deals for the communities involved. “Companies have been able to create complex layers of companies and subsidiaries to avert the gaze of weak regulatory authorities. Analysis of the contracts reveal that many of the deals will provide few jobs and will force many thousands of people off the land,” said Anuradha Mittal, Oakland’s director.
Harvard is elite in the sense that it is the best, it also has one of the most extensive and well funded scholarship and aid programmes in the world, increased every two or three years by about US $10 million. Please kindly check your confirmation bias.
You do realise that elite or “ivy league” education establishments that offer funding for some who can’t afford the fees, don’t necessarily do anything to change the elite dominated hierarchy, don’t you? It’s the kind of “charity” that is used to justify the dominance of elites?
Again I think that’s your confirmation bias which insists on reinforcing the idea that people that experience social mobility somehow equate to being a class traitor. The notion that “it’s the kind of “charity” that is used to justify the dominance of elites” is inherently silly and an artifact of a narrative that insists on demonising an entire group of people as a single stereotype cliche of fat cat capitalists in top hats. Bill Gates gives away almost all of his billions to better the less fortunate. J K Rowling gave away so much of her money that she is no longer on the rich list. George Soros gave away over $8 billion to human rights, public health, and education causes. Such charity is an appropriate response by people who realise the important role society has played in their success and is a valuable adjunct to state funding.
Yes, fuck them for not wandering around in sack cloth and ashes with dogs licking their sores. Bastards. You silly cartoon Marxist.
One would presume (well, a normal person would presume, so perhaps you are excused) that a considerable amount of Harvard’s endowment would also go toward funding research, paying staff, and supplying the amazing resources that make it a place to want to study at in the first place. But you can do the math. As of 2012, Harvard University had a total financial aid reserve of $158.725 million for students, and a Pell Grant reserve of $4.093 million available for disbursement out of $30.7 billion.
“Well fuck me Pop, I didn’t realise your spurious comparisons were beyond questioning.
0.5% Bit of context sheds some light eh?
Cock.”
Look, Felix, I realise you’re probably a bit special in the touched in the head sense, but obviously the top university in the world with the best facilities, resources and teachers is going to be expensive to run. And guess what, poor kids can get in and take advantage of all that on merit. Wow. I always get the impression from you that you are some nasty bitter little person who hates achievement and talent in others and just burns to drag everyone and everything in the world down to your level of mediocrity rather boosting deserving people with talent. Me, I’ve always thought socialism was about lifting people up, not dragging them down.
You tried to say that Harvard, by spending 0.5% of it’s income on allowing poor kids to attend, is comparable to Bill Gates giving away “almost all” of his money.
What a crock of shit.
ps your assessments of me are hilarious. Bit of self-reflection mate.
“You tried to say that Harvard, by spending 0.5% of it’s income on allowing poor kids to attend, is comparable to Bill Gates giving away “almost all” of his money.”
As I didn’t make that comparison at all, you sad little numpty, you’re projecting. I gave Bill Gates et al as examples of really rich people giving back to the comunity as a counterexample to the assertion that all such charity is a method of control. And I’ve said my bit about how much it costs to fund Harvard’s facilities. I’m not going to argue with your pathology any more except to say Harvard’s provision for disadvantaged students is better than any state university anywhere in the world you can name.
“I’m not going to argue with your pathology any more except to say Harvard’s provision for disadvantaged students is better than any state university anywhere in the world you can name.”
Well I guess that knocks out another argument I didn’t make. 🙄
“Well I guess that knocks out another argument I didn’t make.”
Who knows, Felix, you don’t specialise in arguments, just gibberish and invective. I have attempted to respond to your froth and spittal as best as one can.
I also don’t think xenophobia should be bandied about if the information on the Harvard buy was not publicised as the Crafar farce was. Accusing the media of building xenophobia by reporting unevenly may be more accurate, but even then the publicity around the Shanghai Pengxin bid came in on the back of publicity around fraud, bankruptcies and other apparent dodgy dealings and an imagery of six farms rather than an a more difficult to imagine x-hectares.
From the heavy handed new Greenpeace ads, you would actually begin to wonder if they weren’t secretly working for the government to secretly promote anti sea protest legislation. All they’ve done is strung together a bunch of footage that reinforces all the stereotypes about stupid, dangerous, gung-ho behaviour.
I have a T.V. and watch very little of free to air TV as the programmes are so vapid. I don’t own SKY. When I occasionally do watch a specific programme I mute the ads the moment they come on and usually go do something instead.
Anyway, to the video clip. Great to see Greenpeace getting the message over on mainstream TV as an antidote to all the “buy me buy me” ads. I did not get the same impression as you from the ad.
By the way, I do gain the impression from your comment that you approve of our right to protest being removed. No doubt you were also one of those grumbling about nanny state a few years ago.
You obviously prefer ‘big brother’ state.
I just don’t understand how someone (who I assume is just a regular citizen) having views such as these. What is your motivation?
The right to protest is sacrosanct, but I don’t support naive people risking severe injury or injuring others through their actions on the high seas. The ocean is not the place to be playing silly buggers.
Increasingly rough compared to the 1632 deaths worldwide that were related to the oil and gas industry in November of 2009 alone… I think you and the government have your priorities all wrong!
Comparing activism that has resulted in no deaths and is largely being outlawed by the government with an industry that kills thousands and is being promoted isn’t a false dichotomy… You may as well just write “dog poos” if that’s the extent of your argument Populuxe1.
the seafarers who engage in this kind of activity don’t need you looking after them, and unlike the unsafe foreign fishing vessels which operate out of NZ I’m not aware of any Greenpeace vessel needing NZ tax payers to fork out for a rescue.
Basically you’re making a lot of noise about fuck all. And it doesn’t seem to me like you believe the right to protest is paramount. Just the right to protest in ways that you believe convenient and appropriate.
If by “convenient and appropriate” you mean not acting in a manner that may potentially harm themselves or others, then yes. Your argument is pretty much that of NRA lobbiests in the US. What are you, a Libertarian? I don’t agree with the form of the law as it stands, but I don’t agree with boarding vessles or chucking projectiles etc and that goes for all parties involved.
Don’t be disingenuous. The law isn’t being changed to protect protestors from themselves or for “public safety”. It is being changed to prevent protestors from obstructing prospectors, drill rig operators, whoever..
It is a law against civil disobedience and in the end it won’t work because New Zealanders have repeatedly proven that when their principles are at stake they are quite prepared to collect some convictions and even jail time in defence of causes they believe are just. What’s more, in most cases, history has sided with the protestors and against the established order. Can you name a case where this wasn’t true? I can’t think of any off the top of my head.
I’m well aware of that, but a slightly different law would have some contingency. Here is my reasoning. I’m not so concerned with Greenpeace (basically these days a commercial exercise, little more than a greenwashed Outward Bound so that privileged, predominantly white people can moralise to a developing world painfully aware of its own environmental shortcomings, and with little concern for the effects of their antics on ordinary people) and Sea Shepherd (another pack of showboating privileged wankers who manipulate the naive to get media attention and then hang them out to dry once the dirty work is done).
New Zealand has a vast coastline and the general public have incredible access to boats and the sea. There are also a lot of passionate numpties out there who don’t have the kind of seamanship to be safe in that kind of melee. Also while I am anti-whaling and deeply concerned by oil and mineral prospecting ships in our waters, as long as they are operating within whatever weak and flawed laws we have, no one should be making physical contact with them, board them, or attempt to block their path – all of which are in violation of the Law of the Sea. If protest ships waht to lurk visably nearby with all loudspeakers blasting, I think they should be able to.
Well aren’t you a nice well behaved little boy. Using that logic, if you were old enough to protest in 1981 you would have done so from the safety of your Nana’s lounge room.
“Well aren’t you a nice well behaved little boy. Using that logic, if you were old enough to protest in 1981 you would have done so from the safety of your Nana’s lounge room.”
Oh don’t be so fucking ridiculous. The Molesworth Street batoning was a horrific example of police brutality and it is a national shame that the LAW did not protect those protestors. Though marching on the police was a stupid thing to do too. You are a thoroughly nasty little man.
Some commentator I was listening to recently came up with a description of the present economic hegemony as being ‘corporate feudalism’ – the rich are trying to find more ways of making money from investing their excess, and will apply their minds to squeezing the people more. If that was the case there will be an inevitable slide back to the situation as in Victorian-type dramas of the poor woman and her child being thrust into the snow by a vicious landlord.
Father, dear father, come home with me now,
The clock in the steeple strikes one;
You said you were coming right home from the shop
As soon as your day’s work was done;
Our fire has gone out, our house is all dark,
And mother’s been watching since tea,
With poor brother Benny so sick in her arms
And no one to help her but me,
Come home! come home! come home!
Please father, dear father, come home.
It is so pathetic it almost seems like lampooning the situation but a read of books detailing the privations is sobering, despite the funny side of the Python’s skit about who had the worst childhood.
A bright moment this morning about something good and clever happening out in NZ enterprise fields, was Kim Hill and Doug Avery a farmer, talking about the value of altering long-held practices of pasture grass types. Farmers can gain extra value if they have suitable conditions to grow lucerne which will help them through droughts.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/saturday
09:45
Doug Avery: farming and drought
South Island Farmer of the year 2010, who manages Bonavaree Farm at Grassmere, South Marlborough, using a sustainable farming system that is resilient in extreme weather and variability. (14′11″)
Download: Ogg Vorbis MP3 | Embed
First off, congrats to Nicky Hagar for getting the facts together. His division of attitudes into popular peacekeeping vs the empire/alliance is right on the money.
The most important point is that the PM is not the Commander in Chief. The fact that military operational policy was not aligned with Clark’s policy is a consequence of the nature of the civil system, which has it’s roots in the Roman empire.
“Well aren’t you a nice well behaved little boy. Using that logic, if you were old enough to protest in 1981 you would have done so from the safety of your Nana’s lounge room.”
“”Oh don’t be so fucking ridiculous. The Molesworth Street batoning was a horrific example of police brutality and it is a national shame that the LAW did not protect those protestors. Though marching on the police was a stupid thing to do too. You are a thoroughly nasty little man.””
I seem to have rattled someones cage. Are you running out of coherent arguments? Are you trying to say that you were on Molesworth street and got batoned? If so your method of doing so is rather cryptic and also beside the point. I’m talking about the right to protest and the tension between the LEGAL right to protest in a tidy way from a safe distance and the MORAL right to commit yourself to civil disobedience in a cause which has superior ethical weighting than that protected by the law.
For example: Which matters most, the right to watch a game of rugby undisturbed, or the right for a black majority to have civil rights in their own land? Which matters most, the right of a motorist to cruise up a Wellington street without disruption, or the right not to wind up dead in a South African police station?
For all your talk about the right to protest being sacrosanct blah blah blah…. I think I sniff a social conservative who will take the safe path of bowing to the will of the establishment rather than putting himself at risk in the service of a just cause for the greater good. Or maybe you used to be a radical but the fire has cooled in your belly as the arthritis set into the knees?
” I don’t idealise rashness and violence as being a solution to anything.”
Where did I or anyone else say we see violence as being a solution to anything. Obstruction in and of itself is not violence.
And by the way, as you make it quite clear you’re not the protesting type, that you do not believe in confronting authority, why does the fact that I suggested that your preferred method of protesting would probably be at some considerable remove from the action make me a “nasty little man”.
The debate is about the role of the State in the defense of citizens rights and how it balances, ethically and philosophically speaking, the small issues like laws against obstruction against the large issues like civil and human rights. The ultimate question is, does the State have a MORAL right to criminalize people who are breaking small laws in the defense of large causes. Gandhi for example.
This would be the same Gandhi who practised PASSIVE RESISTANCE? Although admittedly he rationalised that in the knowledge that with a population that size a few million dead here and there wouldn’t matter in the long run.
I suspect you’re making shit up. I’d like a citation showing that Gandhi ever made any such calculation. In the end the people who followed him did so freely because they were prepared to risk whatever actions the state (British Empire) took against them because they found that existing under the yoke of that Empire worse than death. Unlike you some people are prepared to risk their lives for great causes.
“Unlike you some people are prepared to risk their lives for great causes.”
Well aren’t you a romantic delusional arsehat, red for the blood of the martyrs. Oh how amusing you are. Dead people don’t really get to make changes, silly. Better a live dog than a dead lion.
“If I were a Jew and were born in Germany and earned my livelihood there, I would claim Germany as my home even as the tallest Gentile German might, and challenge him to shoot me or cast me in the dungeon; I would refuse to be expelled or to submit to discriminating treatment. And for doing this I should not wait for the fellow Jews to join me in civil resistance, but would have confidence that in the end the rest were bound to follow my example. If one Jew or all the Jews were to accept the prescription here offered, he or they cannot be worse off than now. And suffering voluntarily undergone will bring them an inner strength and joy […] the calculated violence of Hitler may even result in a general massacre of the Jews by way of his first answer to the declaration of such hostilities. But if the Jewish mind could be prepared for voluntary suffering, even the massacre I have imagined could be turned into a day of thanksgiving and joy that Jehovah had wrought deliverance of the race even at the hands of the tyrant. For to the God-fearing, death has no terror.”
Gandhi, M.K. “The Jews” Harijan 26 November 1938 (The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi vol. 74, p. 240)
“…there should be unadulterated non-violent non-cooperation, and if the whole of India responded and unanimously offered it, I should show that, without shedding a single drop of blood, Japanese arms – or any combination of arms – can be sterilized. That involves the determination of India not to give quarter on any point whatsoever and to be ready to risk loss of several million lives. But I would consider that cost very cheap and victory won at that cost glorious. That India may not be ready to pay that price may be true. I hope it is not true, but some such price must be paid by any country that wants to retain its independence. After all, the sacrifice made by the Russians and the Chinese is enormous, and they are ready to risk all. The same could be said of the other countries also, whether aggressors or defenders. The cost is enormous. Therefore, in the non-violent technique I am asking India to risk no more than other countries are risking and which India would have to risk even if she offered armed resistance.”
Gandhi, M.K. “Non-violent Non-cooperation” Harijan 24 May 1942, p. 167 (The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi vol. 82, p. 286; interview conducted 16 May 1942)
If people like me are arsehats and Gandhi is a calculating monster by your reckoning, Populuxe, then I’m happy to side with Gandhi. I’ll also have to concede that any similarity between yourself and a fully functioning moral human being is just a coincidence. Good night and good luck. Keep re-reading the Gandhi. You might come to understand him eventually.
You have a nasty habit of putting words in people’s mouths that they never said and attributing ideas to them which they never thought. It is really most unattractive. In fact you seem to be one of those people who believes in nothing much other than personal preservation and not rocking the boat. News flash, the world will only change for the better if some people are prepared to take risks to make it happen. How many times have you left the herd and taken a risk for a matter of principle Pop? Is there any principle you’d risk it all for?
Well aren’t you a sad old throwback. The reality is positive change will only happen with education and freely given cooperation, not theatrics that will probably alienate more people than it will convert.
I will go before you and make the crooked paths straight;
I will break in pieces the gates of bronze and cut the bars of iron
-Isaiah 45:2
For I will contend with him
who contends with you
-Isaiah 49:25
For all who live by the sword…
Blessed are the meek for they shall…(game theory)
For what greater thing can a man do than to…
Not a nationalist myself, who would be in this day and age! (although I understand Inglorious Bastards).
and the nation that endured the greatest number of fatalities during the Second World War was…
(I’m half-way through that book on the 24th)
…before H.Rel. I would have just kept my head down and soldiered on too. Love the author’s (Armin Bottger) attitude.
The amount of death that the USSR saw during that war is simply staggering.
One in eight Ukranians, dead. And Stalin, well it seemed like losing 200K Red Army soldiers here, losing another 200K over there and yet another 200K further on, was just par for the course.
Mind you, 4 out of every 5 German divisions which were ultimately destroyed in WWII were destroyed by the Soviet Union, not by the Allies. That’s a lot of heavy lifting by the Reds.
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Transforming New Zealand: Brian EastonBrian Easton will discuss the above topic at 2/57 Willis Street, Wellington at 5:30pm on Tuesday 26 February at 2/57 Willis Street, WellingtonThe sub-title to the above is "Why is the Left failing?" Brian Easton's analysis is based on his view that while the ...
Salvation Army’s State of the Nation 2025 report highlights falling living standards, the highest unemployment rates since the 1990s and half of all Pacific children going without food. There are reports of hundreds if not thousands of people are applying for the same jobs in the wake of last year’s ...
Mountain Tui is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Correction: On the article The Condundrum of David Seymour, Luke Malpass conducted joint reviews with Bryce Wilkinson, the architect of the Regulatory Standards Bill - not Bryce Edwards. The article ...
Tomorrow the council’s Transport, Resilience and Infrastructure Committee meet and agenda has a few interesting papers. Council’s Letter of Expectation to Auckland Transport Every year the council provide a Letter of Expectation to Auckland Transport which is part of the process for informing AT of the council’s priorities and ...
All around in my home townThey're trying to track me down, yeahThey say they want to bring me in guiltyFor the killing of a deputyFor the life of a deputySongwriter: Robert Nesta Marley.Support Nick’s Kōrero today with a 20% discount on a paid subscription to receive all my newsletters directly ...
Hi,I think all of us have probably experienced the power of music — that strange, transformative thing that gets under our skin and helps us experience this whole life thing with some kind of sanity.Listening and experiencing music has always been such a huge part of my life, and has ...
Business frustration over the stalled economy is growing, and only 34% of voters are confidentNicola Willis can deliver. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Wednesday, February 12 are:Business frustration is growing about a ...
I have now lived long enough to see a cabinet minister go both barrels on their Prime Minister and not get sacked.It used to be that the PM would have a drawer full of resignations signed by ministers on the day of their appointment, ready for such an occasion. But ...
This session will feature Simon McCallum, Senior Lecturer in Engineering and Computer Science (VUW) and recent Labour Party candidate in the Southland Electorate talking about some of the issues around AI and how this should inform Labour Party policy. Simon is an excellent speaker with a comprehensive command of AI ...
The proposed Waimate garbage incinerator is dead: The company behind a highly-controversial proposal to build a waste-to-energy plant in the Waimate District no longer has the land. [...] However, SIRRL director Paul Taylor said the sales and purchase agreement to purchase land from Murphy Farms, near Glenavy, lapsed at ...
The US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act has been a vital tool in combatting international corruption. It forbids US companies and citizens from bribing foreign public officials anywhere in the world. And its actually enforced: some of the world's biggest companies - Siemens, Hewlett Packard, and Bristol Myers Squibb - have ...
December 2024 photo - with UK Tory Boris Johnson (Source: Facebook)Those PollsFor hours, political poll results have resounded across political hallways and commentary.According to the 1News Verizon poll, 50% of the country believe we are heading in the “wrong direction”, while 39% believe we are “on the right track”.The left ...
A Tai Rāwhiti mill that ran for 30 years before it was shut down in late 2023 is set to re-open in the coming months, which will eventually see nearly 300 new jobs in the region. A new report from Massey University shows that pensioners are struggling with rising costs. ...
As support continues to fall, Luxon also now faces his biggest internal ructions within the coalition since the election, with David Seymour reacting badly to being criticised by the PM. File photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate ...
Not since 1988 when Richard Prebble openly criticised David Lange have we seen such a challenge to a Prime Minister as that of David Seymour to Christopher Luxon last night. Prebble suggested Lange had mental health issues during a TV interview and was almost immediately fired. Seymour hasn’t gone quite ...
Three weeks in, and the 24/7 news cycle is not helping anyone feel calm and informed about the second Trump presidency. One day, the US is threatening 25% trade tariffs on its friends and neighbours. The reasons offered by the White House are absurd, such as stopping fentanyl coming in ...
This video includes personal musings and conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Adam Levy. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). Wherever you look, you'll hear headlines claiming we've passed 1.5 degrees of global warming. And while 2024 saw ...
Photo by Heather M. Edwards on UnsplashHere’s the key news, commentary, reports and debate around Aotearoa’s politics and economy in the week to Feb 10 below. That’s ahead of live chats on the Substack App and The Kākā’s front page on Substack at 5pm with: on his column in The ...
Is there anyone in the world the National Party loves more than a campaign donor? Why yes, there is! They will always have the warmest hello and would you like to slip into something more comfortable for that great god of our age, the High Net Worth Individual.The words the ...
Waste and fraud certainly exist in foreign aid programs, but rightwing celebration of USAID’s dismantling shows profound ignorance of the value of soft power (as opposed to hard power) in projecting US influence and interests abroad by non-military/coercive means (think of “hearts and minds,” “hugs, not bullets,” “honey versus vinegar,” ...
Health New Zealand is proposing to cut almost half of its data and digital positions – more than 1000 of them. The PSA has called on the Privacy Commissioner to urgently investigate the cuts due to the potential for serious consequences for patients. NZNO is calling for an urgent increase ...
We may see a few more luxury cars on Queen Street, but a loosening of rules to entice rich foreigners to invest more here is unlikely to “turbocharge our economic growth”. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate ...
Let us not dance daintily around the elephant in the room. Our politicians who serve us in the present are not honest, certainly not as honest as they should be, and while the right are taking out most of the trophies for warping narratives and literally redefining “facts”, the kiwi ...
A few weeks ago I took a look at public transport ridership in 2024. In today’s post I’m going to be looking a bit deeper at bus ridership. Buses make up the vast majority of ridership in Auckland with 70 million boardings last year out of a total of 89.4 ...
Oh, you know I did itIt's over and I feel fineNothing you could say is gonna change my mindWaited and I waited the longest nightNothing like the taste of sweet declineSongwriters: Chris Shiflett / David Eric Grohl / Nate Mendel / Taylor Hawkins.Hindsight is good, eh?The clarity when the pieces ...
Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on UnsplashHere’s what we’re watching in the week to February 16 and beyond in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty:Monday, February 10The Kākā’s weekly wrap-up of news about politics and the economy is due at midday, followed by webinar for paying subscribers in Substack’s ...
A listing of 23 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, February 2, 2025 thru Sat, February 8, 2025. This week's roundup is again published soleley by category. We are still interested in feedback to hone the categorization, so if ...
Today, I stumbled across a Twitter Meme: the ending of The Lord of the Rings as a Chess scenario: https://x.com/mellon_heads/status/1887983845917564991 It gets across the basic gist. Aragorn and Gandalf offering up ‘material’ at the Morannon allows Frodo and Samwise to catch Sauron unawares – fair enough. But there are a ...
Last week, Kieran McAnulty called out Chris Bishop and Nicola Willis for their claims that Kāinga Ora’s costs were too high.They had claimed Kāinga Ora’s cost were 12% higher than market i.e. private devlopersBut Kāinga Ora’s Chair had already explained why last year:"We're not building to sell, so we'll be ...
Stuff’s Political Editor Luke Malpass - A Fellow at New Zealand IniativeLast week I half-joked that Stuff / The Post’s Luke Malpass1 always sounded like he was auditioning for a job at the New Zealand Initiative.Mountain Tui is a reader-supported publication. For a limited time, subscriptions are 20% off. Thanks ...
At a funeral on Friday, there were A4-sized photos covering every wall of the Dil’s reception lounge. There must have been 200 of them, telling the story in the usual way of the video reel but also, by enlargement, making it more possible to linger and step in.Our friend Nicky ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park from the Gigafact team in collaboration with members from our team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is methane the ...
The Government’s idea is that the private sector and Community Housing Providers will fund, build and operate new affordable housing to address our housing crisis. Meanwhile, the Government does not know where almost half of the 1,700 children who left emergency housing actually went. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong ...
Oh, home, let me come homeHome is wherever I'm with youOh, home, let me come homeHome is wherever I'm with youSongwriters: Alexander Ebert / Jade Allyson CastrinosMorena,I’m on a tight time frame this morning. In about an hour and a half, I’ll need to pack up and hit the road ...
This is a post about the Mountain Tui substack, and small tweaks - further to the poll and request post the other day. Please don’t read if you aren’t interested in my personal matters. Thank you all.After oohing-and-aahing about how to structure the Substack model since November, including obtaining ...
This transcript of a recent conversation between the Prime Minister and his chief economic adviser has not been verified.We’ve announced we are the ‘Yes Government’. Do you like it?Yes, Prime Minister.Dreamed up by the PR team. It’s about being committed to growth. Not that the PR team know anything about ...
The other day, Australian Senator Nick McKim issued a warning in the Australian Parliement about the US’s descent into fascim.And of course it’s true, but I lament - that was true as soon as Trump won.What we see is now simply the reification of the intention, planning, and forces behind ...
Among the many other problems associated with Musk/DOGE sending a fleet of teenage and twenty-something cultists to remove, copy and appropriate federal records like social security, medicaid and other supposedly protected data is the fact that the youngsters doing the data-removal, copying and security protocol and filter code over-writing have ...
Jokerman dance to the nightingale tuneBird fly high by the light of the moonOh, oh, oh, JokermanSong by Bob Dylan.Morena folks, I hope this fine morning of the 7th of February finds you well. We're still close to Paihia, just a short drive out of town. Below is the view ...
It’s been an eventful week as always, so here’s a few things that we have found interesting. We also hope everyone had a happy and relaxing Waitangi Day! This week in Greater Auckland We’re still running on summer time, but provided two chewy posts: On Tuesday, a guest ...
Queuing on Queen St: the Government is set to announce another apparently splashy growth policy on Sunday of offering residence visas to wealthy migrants. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Friday, February 7:PM Christopher ...
The fact that Waitangi ended up being such a low-key affair may mark it out as one of the most significant Waitangi Days in recent years. A group of women draped in “Toitu Te Tiriti” banners who turned their backs on the politicians’ powhiri was about as rough as it ...
Hi,This week’s Flightless Bird episode was about “fake seizure guy” — a Melbourne man who fakes seizures in order to get members of the public to sit on him.The audio documentary (which I have included in this newsletter in case you don’t listen to Flightless Bird) built on reporting first ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Karin Kirk The 119th Congress comes with a price tag. The oil and gas industry gave about $24 million in campaign contributions to the members of the U.S. House and Senate expected to be sworn in January 3, 2025, according to a ...
Early morning, the shadows still long, but you can already feel the warmth building. Our motel was across the road from the historic homestead where Henry Williams' family lived. The evening before, we wandered around the gardens, reading the plaques and enjoying the close proximity to the history of the ...
Thanks folks for your feedback, votes and comments this week. I’ll be making the changes soon. Appreciate all your emails, comments and subscriptions too. I know your time is valuable - muchas gracias.A lot is happening both here and around the world - so I want to provide a snippets ...
Data released today by Statistics NZ shows that unemployment rose to 5.1%, with 33,000 more people out of work than last year said NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi Economist Craig Renney. “The latest data shows that employment fell in Aotearoa at its fastest rate since the GFC. Unemployment rose in 8 ...
The December labour market statistics have been released, showing yet another increase in unemployment. There are now 156,000 unemployed - 34,000 more than when National took office. And having thrown all these people out of work, National is doubling down on cruelty. Because being vicious will somehow magically create the ...
Boarded up homes in Kilbirnie, where work on a planned development was halted. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Wednesday, February 5 are;Housing Minister Chris Bishop yesterday announcedKāinga Ora would be stripped of ...
This week Kiwirail and Auckland Transport were celebrating the completion of the summer rail works that had the network shut or for over a month and the start of electric trains to Pukekohe. First up, here’s parts of the press release about the shutdown works. Passengers boarding trains in Auckland ...
Through its austerity measures, the coalition government has engineered a rise in unemployment in order to reduce inflation while – simultaneously – cracking down harder and harder on the people thrown out of work by its own policies. To that end, Social Development Minister Louise Upston this week added two ...
This year, we've seen a radical, white supremacist government ignoring its Tiriti obligations, refusing to consult with Māori, and even trying to legislatively abrogate te Tiriti o Waitangi. When it was criticised by the Waitangi Tribunal, the government sabotaged that body, replacing its legal and historical experts with corporate shills, ...
Poor old democracy, it really is in a sorry state. It would be easy to put all the blame on the vandals and tyrants presently trashing the White House, but this has been years in the making. It begins with Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan and the spirit of Gordon ...
The new school lunches came in this week, and they were absolutely scrumptious.I had some, and even though Connor said his tasted like “stodge” and gave him a sore tummy, I myself loved it!Look at the photos - I knew Mr Seymour wouldn’t lie when he told us last year:"It ...
The tighter sanctions are modelled on ones used in Britain, which did push people off ‘the dole’, but didn’t increase the number of workers, and which evidence has repeatedly shown don’t work. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, ...
Catching you up on the morning’s global news and a quick look at the parallels -GLOBALTariffs are backSharemarkets in the US, UK and Europe have “plunged” in response to Trump’s tariffs. And while Mexico has won a one month reprieve, Canada and China will see their respective 25% and 10% ...
This post by Nicolas Reid was originally published on Linked in. It is republished here with permission. Gondolas are often in the news, with manufacturers of ropeway systems proposing them as a modern option for mass transit systems in New Zealand. However, like every next big thing in transport, it’s hard ...
This is a re-post from The Climate BrinkBoth 2023 and 2024 were exceptionally warm years, at just below and above 1.5C relative to preindustrial in the WMO composite of surface temperature records, respectively. While we are still working to assess the full set of drivers of this warmth, it is clear that ...
Hi,I woke up feeling nervous this morning, realising that this weekend Flightless Bird is going to do it’s first ever live show. We’re heading to a sold out (!) show in Seattle to test the format out in front of an audience. If it works, we’ll do more. I want ...
From the United-For-Now States of America comes the thrilling news that a New Zealander may be at the very heart of the current coup. Punching above our weight on the world stage once more! Wait, you may be asking, what New Zealander? I speak of Peter Thiel, made street legal ...
Even Stevens: Over the 33 years between 1990 and 2023 (and allowing for the aberrant 2020 result) the average level of support enjoyed by the Left and Right blocs, at roughly 44.5 percent each, turns out to be, as near as dammit, identical.WORLDWIDE, THE PARTIES of the Left are presented ...
Back in 2023, a "prominent political figure" went on trial for historic sex offences. But we weren't allowed to know who they were or what political party they were "prominent" in, because it might affect the way we voted. At the time, I said that this was untenable; it was ...
I'm going, I'm goingWhere the water tastes like wineI'm going where the water tastes like wineWe can jump in the waterStay drunk all the timeI'm gonna leave this city, got to get awayI'm gonna leave this city, got to get awayAll this fussing and fighting, man, you know I sure ...
Waitangi Day is a time to honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi and stand together for a just and fair Aotearoa. Across the motu, communities are gathering to reflect, kōrero, and take action for a future built on equity and tino rangatiratanga. From dawn ceremonies to whānau-friendly events, there are ...
Subscribe to Mountain Tūī ! Where you too can learn about exciting things from a flying bird! Tweet.Yes - I absolutely suck at marketing. It’s a fact.But first -My question to all readers is:How should I set up the Substack model?It’s been something I’ve been meaning to ask since November ...
Here’s the key news, commentary, reports and debate around Aotearoa’s political economy on politics and in the week to Feb 3:PM Christopher Luxon began 2025’s first day of Parliament last Tuesday by carrying on where left off in 2024, letting National’s junior coalition partner set the political agenda and dragging ...
Half of Pacific children sometimes going without food is just one of many heartbreaking lowlights in the Salvation Army’s annual State of the Nation report. ...
The Salvation Army’s State of the Nation report is a bleak indictment on the failure of Government to take steps to end poverty, with those on benefits, including their children, hit hardest. ...
New Zealand First has today introduced a Member’s Bill which would restore decision-making power to local communities regarding the fluoridation of drinking water. The ‘Fluoridation (Referendum) Legislation Bill’ seeks to repeal the Health (Fluoridation of Drinking Water) Amendment Act 2021 that granted centralised authority to the Direct General of Health ...
New Zealand First has introduced a Member’s Bill aimed at preventing banks from refusing their services to businesses because of the current “Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Framework”. “This Bill ensures fairness and prevents ESG standards from perpetuating woke ideology in the banking sector being driven by unelected, globalist, climate ...
Erica Stanford has reached peak shortsightedness if today’s announcement is anything to go by, picking apart immigration settings piece by piece to the detriment of the New Zealand economy. ...
Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. The intention was to establish a colony with the cession of sovereignty to the Crown, ...
Te Whatu Ora Chief Executive Margie Apa leaving her job four months early is another symptom of this government’s failure to deliver healthcare for New Zealanders. ...
The Green Party is calling for the Prime Minister to show leadership and be unequivocal about Aotearoa New Zealand’s opposition to a proposal by the US President to remove Palestinians from Gaza. ...
The latest unemployment figures reveal that job losses are hitting Māori and Pacific people especially hard, with Māori unemployment reaching a staggering 9.7% for the December 2024 quarter and Pasifika unemployment reaching 10.5%. ...
Waitangi 2025: Waitangi Day must be community and not politically driven - Shane Jones Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. ...
Despite being confronted every day with people in genuine need being stopped from accessing emergency housing – National still won’t commit to building more public houses. ...
The Green Party says the Government is giving up on growing the country’s public housing stock, despite overwhelming evidence that we need more affordable houses to solve the housing crisis. ...
Before any thoughts of the New Year and what lies ahead could even be contemplated, New Zealand reeled with the tragedy of Senior Sergeant Lyn Fleming losing her life. For over 38 years she had faithfully served as a front-line Police officer. Working alongside her was Senior Sergeant Adam Ramsay ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson will return to politics at Waitangi on Monday the 3rd of February where she will hold a stand up with fellow co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick. ...
Te Pāti Māori is appalled by the government's blatant mishandling of the school lunch programme. David Seymour’s ‘cost-saving’ measures have left tamariki across Aotearoa with unidentifiable meals, causing distress and outrage among parents and communities alike. “What’s the difference between providing inedible food, and providing no food at all?” Said ...
The Government is doubling down on outdated and volatile fossil fuels, showing how shortsighted and destructive their policies are for working New Zealanders. ...
Green Party MP Steve Abel this morning joined Coromandel locals in Waihi to condemn new mining plans announced by Shane Jones in the pit of the town’s Australian-owned Gold mine. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to strengthen its just-announced 2030-2035 Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement and address its woeful lack of commitment to climate security. ...
Today marks a historic moment for Taranaki iwi with the passing of the Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill in Parliament. "Today, we stand together as descendants of Taranaki, and our tūpuna, Taranaki Maunga, is now formally acknowledged by the law as a living tūpuna. ...
Labour is relieved to see Children’s Minister Karen Chhour has woken up to reality and reversed her government’s terrible decisions to cut funding from frontline service providers – temporarily. ...
It is the first week of David Seymour’s school lunch programme and already social media reports are circulating of revolting meals, late deliveries, and mislabelled packaging. ...
The Green Party says that with no-cause evictions returning from today, the move to allow landlords to end tenancies without reason plunges renters, and particularly families who rent, into insecurity and stress. ...
The Government’s move to increase speed limits substantially on dozens of stretches of rural and often undivided highways will result in more serious harm. ...
In her first announcement as Economic Growth Minister, Nicola Willis chose to loosen restrictions for digital nomads from other countries, rather than focus on everyday Kiwis. ...
The Government’s commitment to get New Zealand’s roads back on track is delivering strong results, with around 98 per cent of potholes on state highways repaired within 24 hours of identification every month since targets were introduced, Transport Minister Chris Bishop says. “Increasing productivity to help rebuild our economy is ...
The former Cadbury factory will be the site of the Inpatient Building for the new Dunedin Hospital and Health Minister Simeon Brown says actions have been taken to get the cost overruns under control. “Today I am giving the people of Dunedin certainty that we will build the new Dunedin ...
From today, Plunket in Whāngarei will be offering childhood immunisations – the first of up to 27 sites nationwide, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. The investment of $1 million into the pilot, announced in October 2024, was made possible due to the Government’s record $16.68 billion investment in health. It ...
New Zealand’s strong commitment to the rights of disabled people has continued with the response to an important United Nations report, Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston has announced. Of the 63 concluding observations of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), 47 will be progressed ...
Resources Minister Shane Jones has launched New Zealand’s national Minerals Strategy and Critical Minerals List, documents that lay a strategic and enduring path for the mineral sector, with the aim of doubling exports to $3 billion by 2035. Mr Jones released the documents, which present the Coalition Government’s transformative vision ...
Firstly I want to thank OceanaGold for hosting our event today. Your operation at Waihi is impressive. I want to acknowledge local MP Scott Simpson, local government dignitaries, community stakeholders and all of you who have gathered here today. It’s a privilege to welcome you to the launch of the ...
Racing Minister, Winston Peters has announced the Government is preparing public consultation on GST policy proposals which would make the New Zealand racing industry more competitive. “The racing industry makes an important economic contribution. New Zealand thoroughbreds are in demand overseas as racehorses and for breeding. The domestic thoroughbred industry ...
Business confidence remains very high and shows the economy is on track to improve, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis says. “The latest ANZ Business Outlook survey, released yesterday, shows business confidence and expected own activity are ‘still both very high’.” The survey reports business confidence fell eight points to +54 ...
Enabling works have begun this week on an expanded radiology unit at Hawke’s Bay Fallen Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital which will double CT scanning capacity in Hawke’s Bay to ensure more locals can benefit from access to timely, quality healthcare, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. This investment of $29.3m in the ...
The Government has today announced New Zealand’s second international climate target under the Paris Agreement, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand will reduce emissions by 51 to 55 per cent compared to 2005 levels, by 2035. “We have worked hard to set a target that is both ambitious ...
Nine years of negotiations between the Crown and iwi of Taranaki have concluded following Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/the Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill passing its third reading in Parliament today, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “This Bill addresses the historical grievances endured by the eight iwi ...
As schools start back for 2025, there will be a relentless focus on teaching the basics brilliantly so all Kiwi kids grow up with the knowledge, skills and competencies needed to grow the New Zealand of the future, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “A world-leading education system is a key ...
Housing Minister Chris Bishop and Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson have welcomed Kāinga Ora’s decision to re-open its tender for carpets to allow wool carpet suppliers to bid. “In 2024 Kāinga Ora issued requests for tender (RFTs) seeking bids from suppliers to carpet their properties,” Mr Bishop says. “As part ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour has today visited Otahuhu College where the new school lunch programme has served up healthy lunches to students in the first days of the school year. “As schools open in 2025, the programme will deliver nutritious meals to around 242,000 students, every school day. On ...
Minister for Children Karen Chhour has intervened in Oranga Tamariki’s review of social service provider contracts to ensure Barnardos can continue to deliver its 0800 What’s Up hotline. “When I found out about the potential impact to this service, I asked Oranga Tamariki for an explanation. Based on the information ...
A bill to make revenue collection on imported and exported goods fairer and more effective had its first reading in Parliament, Customs Minister Casey Costello said today. “The Customs (Levies and Other Matters) Amendment Bill modernises the way in which Customs can recover the costs of services that are needed ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Department of Internal Affairs [the Department] has achieved significant progress in completing applications for New Zealand citizenship. “December 2024 saw the Department complete 5,661 citizenship applications, the most for any month in 2024. This is a 54 per cent increase compared ...
Reversals to Labour’s blanket speed limit reductions begin tonight and will be in place by 1 July, says Minister of Transport Chris Bishop. “The previous government was obsessed with slowing New Zealanders down by imposing illogical and untargeted speed limit reductions on state highways and local roads. “National campaigned on ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis has announced Budget 2025 – the Growth Budget - will be delivered on Thursday 22 May. “This year’s Budget will drive forward the Government’s plan to grow our economy to improve the incomes of New Zealanders now and in the years ahead. “Budget 2025 will build ...
For the Government, 2025 will bring a relentless focus on unleashing the growth we need to lift incomes, strengthen local businesses and create opportunity. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon today laid out the Government’s growth agenda in his Statement to Parliament. “Just over a year ago this Government was elected by ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour welcomes students back to school with a call to raise attendance from last year. “The Government encourages all students to attend school every day because there is a clear connection between being present at school and setting yourself up for a bright future,” says Mr ...
The Government is relaxing visitor visa requirements to allow tourists to work remotely while visiting New Zealand, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis, Immigration Minister Erica Stanford and Tourism Minister Louise Upston say. “The change is part of the Government’s plan to unlock New Zealand’s potential by shifting the country onto ...
The opening of Kāinga Ora’s development of 134 homes in Epuni, Lower Hutt will provide much-needed social housing for Hutt families, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I’ve been a strong advocate for social housing on Kāinga Ora’s Epuni site ever since the old earthquake-prone housing was demolished in 2015. I ...
Trade and Investment Minister Todd McClay will travel to Australia today for meetings with Australian Trade Minister, Senator Don Farrell, and the Australia New Zealand Leadership Forum (ANZLF). Mr McClay recently hosted Minister Farrell in Rotorua for the annual Closer Economic Relations (CER) Trade Ministers’ meeting, where ANZLF presented on ...
A new monthly podiatry clinic has been launched today in Wairoa and will bring a much-needed service closer to home for the Wairoa community, Health Minister Simeon Brown says.“Health New Zealand has been successful in securing a podiatrist until the end of June this year to meet the needs of ...
The Judicial Conduct Commissioner has recommended a Judicial Conduct Panel be established to inquire into and report on the alleged conduct of acting District Court Judge Ema Aitken in an incident last November, Attorney-General Judith Collins said today. “I referred the matter of Judge Aitken’s alleged conduct during an incident ...
Students who need extra help with maths are set to benefit from a targeted acceleration programme that will give them more confidence in the classroom, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Last year, significant numbers of students did not meet the foundational literacy and numeracy level required to gain NCEA. To ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters has announced three new diplomatic appointments. “Our diplomats play an important role in ensuring New Zealand’s interests are maintained and enhanced across the world,” Mr Peters says. “It is a pleasure to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and ...
Ki te kahore he whakakitenga, ka ngaro te Iwi – without a vision, the people will perish. The Government has achieved its target to reduce the number of households in emergency housing motels by 75 per cent five years early, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. The number of households ...
The opening of Palmerston North’s biggest social housing development will have a significant impact for whānau in need of safe, warm, dry housing, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. The minister visited the development today at North Street where a total of 50 two, three, and four-bedroom homes plus a ...
The lead witness in Ngāi Tahu’s freshwater claim says the case raises an “existentialist question” for his people.“My greatest fear is that we will have our connection with our land and waterways extinguished,” Te Maire Tau (Ngāi Tahu/Ngāi Tūāhuriri) said in the Christchurch High Court, before Justice Melanie Harland. The university history ...
As New Zealand woke to Waitangi Day, 1600 athletes and their support crew began to descend on the sleepy west coast town of Greymouth, ready to take on the iconic multisport race, the Coast to Coast.Among the cars laden with kayaks, bikes and enough race food to feed a small ...
I collect sailing books, especially solo sailing adventures. I sail a lot and when in meetings, I think about sailing rather than focus on the dry PowerPoint presentations of earnest landlubbers. Just quietly, I also offer dead sailors drinks and occasionally good books over the side when I am at ...
Over the past few weeks, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has had public tiffs with the leaders of both the Cook Islands and Kiribati.The issues: first Peters put foreign aid to Kiribati under review after President Taneti Maamau cancelled a meeting with him. Then this week, Peters accused the PM of ...
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“A head teacher of a leading primary school has said young children should not have best friends because it could leave others feeling ostracised and hurt. But are people programmed to have best friends?”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22383453
Al1en no mates says what?
This is the kind of lunacy passed off as progressive / humanist philosophy that gives social conservatives a stick with which to beat progressive humanists. I can’t even begin to get on the same mental wavelength as the idiots who propound such facile notions. What kind of mind wakes up in the morning and thinks; “Eureka! We’ll save the lonely children from having hurt feelings by banning friendship and hugs among the children who are lucky enough to have discovered a friend.” A special kind of genius indeed..
My view is that this sort of rubbish comes from a defeated part of the wider “left” that gave up on all the important battles, but still wanted a few victories. It’s the same sort of rubbish that outlaws black as a colour for rubbish bins and is used to hold us all up to ridicule. I hate it, although not in the same way that Back Pussy Tamihere does.
Good analysis
But please, no more gender biased language, the fairer sex might get offended
Actually, if you look at the article, it comes from one published in the Daily Torygraph. The headmaster who suggested that best friends should be banned, is the head of a private prep school – hardly the bastion of left wing policy, I’d have thought. He said he’d support a policy against having best friends, as long as it was age appropriate: ie older kids could make up their own minds about it.
Actually, while I am totally happy with kids of any age choosing to have best friends, I think there’s a whole US-led thing that’s kind of institutionalised the whole best friends thing. They’ve made it seem almost compulsory.
I learned something about the US constitutional right to bear arms on Al Jazeera this morning, which gave a lot of times to the issue and the sanely mad gun lobby. It seems the 2nd amendment said that citizens have the right to bear arms as part of a well organised militia.
Well, it seems that is debated. However, the original intent of the amendment was relevant to the context of the time when the amendment was drawn up. At that time citizens’ militia were common because there wasn’t the organised military and National Guard that there is today.
Is that one of the problems of a written constitution? Seems like a good idea at the time and all makes sense but over the years it becomes so entrenced that changes are almost impossible and the Parlimentry process loses the capability to effect change.
America would be better off with fewer guns, most places are better of with fewer guns, but with the second amendment they always get stuck.
This is one of the things that concerns me about NZ creating a written constitution, who would write it? How would everyone ever agree? Will it still be relevant in 50 years? What would we be getting our great grand kids into? Will they spend all their time arguing that if the comma in paragraph seven of subsection 12a was placed four words to the left then nano heart valve replacement is a human right?
“This is one of the things that concerns me about NZ creating a written constitution, who would write it? How would everyone ever agree? Will it still be relevant in 50 years? “
Agree, Jane. The second amendment is the example I use of a problem with a written constitution. Unless it can be renegotiated to fit the times it will at some stage be inappropriate. And if it can be negotiated how is that any better than the lawmaking and judicial interpretation of laws that we have now?
We wouldn’t have to model our constitution after the US. The one South Africa adopted after the end of apartheid would be a better example to follow.
And remember, the second amendment was an amendment. It was itself a change to the constitution when the Bill of Rights was adopted.
We don’t need a constitution – it would be totally redundant in our mature, robust, flexible Westminster system. This is just the National Party’s thirty silver shekels to the Maori Party. And while the second amendment is an amendment, it has proven impossible for progressives to shift it. A constitution would just give conservatives and the right something to project on to.
identify then
Don’t be a tool.
well, I thought your comment was very deviceive.possibly even nailed it.
Your gnomic comment could be taken many ways
hope you are not brushing aside your own talents
We need something to act as a check on parliamentary supremacy, be it an upper house, an elected head of state with a right of veto or supreme law the courts can apply, I am uncomfortable with so much power in this country being concentrated in the hands of so few, especially with the civil liberties shenanigans in recent years such as the Search and Surveillance Act and the proposed changes to the GCSB legislation. It should be systematically impossible for lawmakers to override fundamental rights, not just a matter of trusting in them.
That’s why we have Separation of Powers and a Constitutional Monarchy.
The NZ system doesn’t have any separation of powers, the executive and the legislative branches are the same people, and the judicial branch has a duty to the Crown which is common with the other two branches.
Also, the NZ system is not a constitutional monarchy.
“Her Majesty therefore being desirous to establish a settled form of Civil Government”
http://www.waitangi-tribunal.govt.nz/treaty/english.asp
New Zealand’s constitution is based on the principle of separation of powers between Parliament, executive government, and the judiciary through a series of constitutional safeguards, many of which are tacit. The Executive’s ability to carry out decisions often depends on the Legislature, which is elected under the Mixed Member Proportional system. This means the government is rarely a single party but a coalition of parties. The Judiciary is also free of government interference. If a series of judicial decisions result in an interpretation of the law which the Executive considers does not reflect the intention of the policy, the Executive can initiate changes to the legislation in question through the Legislature. The Executive cannot direct or request a judicial officer to revise or reconsider a decision;decisions are final. Should there be a dispute between the Executive and Judiciary, the Executive has no authority to direct the Judiciary, or its individual members and vice versa.
Yes, that’s what they tell the peasants, but it’s mostly bullshit.The separation of powers is a feature of Roman law called the triumvirate. The constitution is based on the unwritten constitution of England, which forms the basis of English common law and the law of the land in New Zealand. The civil law (originally Roman) and the common law (originally Judaic) are philosophically different systems, Roman law was the law of the empire and the predator, English law was the law of the land and the wellbeing of the people.
So basically you just said that New Zealand law is founded in English law and English law is “the law of the land and the wellbeing of the people”. Did you suffer whiplash with that confusing u-turn?
“It should be systematically impossible for lawmakers to override fundamental rights”
It is. But that doesn’t stop them pretending to make law regardless.
Which can and has been successfully challenged, often by means of an Ombudsman, the modern Tribune. And I can distinctly recall that even a total Nat like Chris Finlayson has actually performed his job as Attorney-General and told his party that a law they wanted to pass was unconstitutional.
Populuxel, the NZ system is a civil system, it is not the same as the English Westminster system.
In as much as we have MMP and other constitutional peculiarities unique to NZ, we still rely primarily on constitutional law (British model), not civil law (European model). We are still therefore a variation on the Westminster system.
That’s plainly wrong. The NZ body politic uses the European/civil model.
“Her Majesty therefore being desirous to establish a settled form of Civil Government”
http://www.waitangi-tribunal.govt.nz/treaty/english.asp
Most people simply have no idea as to the extent and nature of the fraud committed by the state against the people of this country. The treaty was also a fraud, and the state misleads people about the nature of common law.
I really can’t be bothered trying to educate you on the various meanings of the word “civil”, but suffice to say “Civil Government” (general civility) doesn’t mean “Civil Law” (technical term for the European system of law making that evolved out of the Roman system)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_law_(legal_system)
Populuxel, your own source contradicts you.
Civil law (or civilian law) is a legal system originating in Western Europe, intellectualized within the framework of late Roman law, and whose most prevalent feature is that its core principles are codified into a referable system which serves as the primary source of law.
BTW, Wikipedia is crap for information on law.
Who is our head of state?
Written constitutions are good for constitutional lawyers. I’m happy with Te Tiriti, and would be happier with a stronger Bill of Rights, an Official Information Act with teeth, and a well funded and fiercely independent Ombudsman. The Soviet Union also had a wonderful constitution, and human rights were about as well protected there as they are in the US and A. The main danger of a Kiwi constitution is that it could be used to deny Te Tiriti and entrench pakeha ruling class privilege even further.
“The Soviet Union also had a wonderful constitution, and human rights were about as well protected there as they are in the US and A.”
Hahahahahahaha ahahahaha *snort* ahahahaha *snort snort* hahahahaha Oh my spleen hurts from laughing hahahahahahaha
The framers of the constitution thought that a standing army would be a tool of oppression, given their experience of British troops before the Revolution. So they wanted to make provision for a militia. There is provision for a navy in the US Constitution, but no army.
Sturm, Ruger is a leading manufacturer of firearms in the US.
They are currently selling 500,000 firearms a quarter, and has an order backlog of 2M firearms.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-04-29/weaponized-america-sturm-ruger-backlog-doubles-gun-production-shipments-surge
saw an article on the nooz about marketing of weapons to children in the US.”Daisy Daisy, give me an airgun too…”
If we’re serious about tackling law and order in NZ we should approve the concealed carry of handguns to anyone who passes a background check.
I mean, what could go wrong?
well, I might have for a start. (I grew up with the Molenaar crowd, his best mates sister etc).
”Daisy Daisy, give me an airgun too…”
“We’ll go shooting, our sister aged only two..”
The US Constitution was written by the rich and powerful behind closed doors. There is NOTHING moral or ethical about it.
Example: For purposes of representation in the House of Representatives, northern delegates said enslaved Negroes should not be counted as part of the population because they have no more rights than horses or dogs. The south wanted them counted as “voters” because in some areas slaves were 90% of the population. So the constitution says one slave is three-fifths of a voter!
The way to keep our laws and constitution contemporary is binding referendums which cannot be overturned by parliament.
There’s a really good primer on US history at http://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8dPuuaLjXtMwmepBjTSG593eG7ObzO7s
Yes, it was mainly money behind the revolution, but enlightenment philosophers like Locke had their impact too.
That’s what the 14th amendment is for.
Personally, I think the US constitution was ground breaking in its day in terms of assuring the rights of US citizens. Generally ignored now of course.
Orlov would say that the parallels between the USSR and the USA are now unmistakeable.
Agree with Viper. In it’s time the Constitution guaranteed freedoms, legally, like no other founding document.
Without wanting to sound too much like a libertarian…in the last ten years Federal intrusion into the life of ordinary US citizens has become massive.
Some estimates say that the US has spent $700B beefing up internal surveillance and security on its own citizens since 9/11.
And in the wake of the Boston marathon bombing the talk is to ramp this up even further. Even though hundreds of CCTV cameras, police, bomb squad sweeps, email and social media scanning in the immediate area etc couldn’t prevent it.
Yeah, but it was the privacy intrusions that might have prevented another. That’s the security compromise.
I was in favour of heightened security post9/11, not to stop terrorists but to stop yahoos smuggling on weapons to take out terrorists. But they should have been short lived. Now domestic security is part of the military-industrial complex.
The scale of growth of the security services in the US – especially given the amounts going to security contractors as well to develop domestic security hardware & software – sounds staggering. I get the impression more and more Americans are becoming extremely uneasy at how much power US officialdom is getting to spy on them.
Inside Top Secret America:
I might have agreed with you once, but when you also consider the systematic attempts to suspend habeas corpus, legalising the state sponsored assassination of American citizens, militarisation of law enforcement, etc it looks more and more like something other than a war against terror. More like a war against your own citizens.
Yep, once you read the history behind the US constitution it becomes obvious that the framers weren’t out to produce a free country but to set up their own aristocracy. Unfortunately for them the people who’d just been doing all the fighting wanted something different and so they got a democracy but a democracy that could be controlled by the rich – representative democracy.
“Yep, once you read the history behind the US constitution it becomes obvious that the framers weren’t out to produce a free country but to set up their own aristocracy.”
What utter crap.
No, my turnip came up with the same analysis as DTB
How is your new Scandinavian friend anyway? No prurient interest intended..
My beloved turnip and I will be together forever.
Because when you set up an aristocracy the first thing you do is introduce laws against nobility and define term length, election laws as well as allowing any citizen to be president.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Title_of_Nobility_Clause
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Article_Two_of_the_United_States_Constitution
Seriously Draco, what are you talking about?
You need to read a little more history Contrarian. The framers of the Declaration of independence and American Constitution did not envisage a democratic republic with universal rights and suffrage as I understand it. One of the key contributors to the drafting of the constitution was James Madison. I don’t know the copy / paste rules but here is a selection from Wikipedia quoting Madison.
“In England, at this day, if elections were open to all classes of people, the property of landed proprietors would be insecure. An agrarian law would soon take place. If these observations be just, our government ought to secure the permanent interests of the country against innovation. Landholders ought to have a share in the government, to support these invaluable interests, and to balance and check the other. They ought to be so constituted as to protect the minority of the opulent against the majority. The Senate, therefore, ought to be this body; and to answer these purposes, they ought to have permanency and stability.”
–James Madison, quoted in Notes of the Secret Debates of the Federal Convention of 1787
James Madison’s comments were but one of many. The Constitution, as written, offers no special protections to the rich or noble – despite the above quote.
If they were trying to set up their own aristocracy then they somehow manged to draft a document which did the exact opposite.
Perhaps you should go back and read what Draco (and I) actually said. We mentioned the original intentions and wishes of many of the landowning (and slave owning) oligarchical delegates. Yes, in the end after much debate a very interesting constitution was produced. A majority of delegates initially refused to sign it and full ratification by the States took quite some time. But it still didn’t grant full participatory democracy or universal suffrage. Here is an excerpt lifted from Wikipedia about Madison’s family background:
His father, James Madison, Sr. (1723–1801), was a tobacco planter who grew up on a plantation, then called Mount Pleasant, in Orange County, Virginia, which he had inherited upon reaching adulthood. He later acquired more property and slaves; with 5,000 acres (2,000 ha), he became the largest landowner and a leading citizen of Orange County, in the Piedmont. James Jr.’s mother, Nelly Conway Madison (1731–1829), was born at Port Conway, the daughter of a prominent planter and tobacco merchant and his wife. Madison’s parents were married on September 15, 1749.[6][7] In these years the southern colonies were becoming a slave society, in which slave labor powered the economy and slaveholders formed the political élite.[8]
Madison was not atypical of many of the founding fathers and I’m sure you’re aware that it took over one and a half centuries before universal suffrage and full rights as citizens before the law was extended to the whole population.
James Madison’s history is irrelevant.
Please point to which part of the Constitution attempted to institute an aristocracy. States not ratifying it is like saying, hypothetically, because Auckland didn’t agree to be nuclear free 10 years after NZ law decided to be nuclear free means that law was designed to be nuclear friendly.
“We mentioned the original intentions and wishes of many of the landowning”
No, you mentioned one. One =/= many
” I’m sure you’re aware that it took over one and a half centuries before universal suffrage and full rights as citizens before the law was extended to the whole population.”
You also forget that “the whole population” as it is now doesn’t represent the same population in historical perpetuity. For example, Alaska only became part of the union in 1959. Before that it wasn’t beholden to the Constitution so of course the adoption of the Constitution wasn’t extended to all the States.
Hence the civil war
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_date_of_statehood
don’t you people have a gnome to go to?
Contrarian: Sigh. For Pete’s sake do some reading. Madison was far from being a lone voice. The delegate’s went in having been expected to carry out a limited job by the States that appointed them, decided off their own bat to increase their own mandate and initially many of them envisaged something that fell far short of representative democracy with universal suffrage. This is (with certain license for the sake of brevity), historical fact. If you doubt it DO THE READING>>
As for universal suffrage: All males regardless of race or land ownership was 1870 (15th amendment, nearly 100 years after the constitution was drafted) but many southern states effectively barred most blacks from voting through such things as literacy tests. The 19th amendment gave women the vote in 1920. I can’t remember where I read it but I believe some Indian tribe/s in some states didn’t get the vote until the early to mid 1970’s.
“Near full enfranchisement was realized in 1965 with the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the ratification of the 24th Amendment in 1964” Wikipedia.
You’re really not too hot on concepts like “historical context” are you. Law is a continual process that evolves in response to social change.
And that is the sole reason why we have representative democracy rather than participatory democracy. It’s not a fear of Mob Rule but the fear of the rich that the people would take back their wealth.
As YOU understand it, from the benefit from over two hundred years of social progress and a radically different worldview. Try reading it in the context of a former British colony in the late eighteenth century and it’s as progressive and democratic as fuck. What you just said was the equivalent of saying that Fifth Century BC Athens wasn’t a democracy because their society didn’t recognise women or slaves as citizens while completely failing to acknowledge it was the most progressive state in the region because all authority wasn’t in the hands of a single tyrant.
I think the point is that the the framers were well aware of, for example Athens. They understood ‘democracy’ and ‘republic’ very well. they deliberately opted for the latter with democratic aspects.
The house of reps is the most democratic part of the infrastructure, and the weakest. that’s not a coincidence, it was by design.
Which isn’t to say it isn’t a fine document given its time, but to claim it as progressive as all fuck, given what we know they knew and decided to do, is just daft.
Napoleon was arguably more ‘progressive’ than the US framers. Inasmuch as ‘progressive’ means anything.
The point that Draco was making and I was backing him up over was about what some, perhaps a majority, of the delegates first envisaged at the beginning of the process. It is indeed remarkable that given the time in which they lived and class from which many of them came that they eventually produced (after lengthy and heated debate) the document which became the constitution. You would have to be totally unread and or delusional however to believe that all of the lovely words about the rights of man etc were intended by all the delegates to mean all men and all women and all races in all states of the union at all times from the moment the constitution was signed and ratified. It most certainly wasn’t and I gave some examples above of ways in which it wasn’t.
A claim that no one here has actually made.
Not in quite so many words perhaps but Contrarians vehement “What utter crap”, in response to Draco’s assertion that many of the founding fathers were essentially oligarchs looking to preserve their privileged status against the non land owning and essentially inferior (in the case of women and non-whites) was the next best thing.
“You’re really not too hot on concepts like “historical context” are you. Law is a continual process that evolves in response to social change.”
In the American context it evolved pretty damned late compared to most of the other western democracies didn’t it?
Populuxe 3.37
“in the context of a former British colony in the late eighteenth century and it’s as progressive and democratic as fuck.”
Yes it was as progressive and democratic as fuck at the time for a certain class, gender and race..
No shit? Really? You mean the eighteenth century mindset isn’t anything like a twentyfirst or even twentieth century mindset? Well fuck me!
So you agree that it was in fact a very limited form of democratic republicanism which reserved many rights for a privileged class?
Funny, I thought that was precisely what Draco and I were saying.
I actually said several times it was very advanced for it’s day and laid a foundation for some powerful ideas about human and civil rights which have evolved over the last two centuries, but I’m not going to say it was a document which stood for the equal civil rights of the “common man” regardless of social station just to please The Contrarian and yourself, because I don’t believe those things to be true based on my reading of the history.
What was being contested was the suggestion that the constitution was deliberately framed to create an aritsocracy in anything but name. Given that the Constitution and the Bill of Rights are, at least in their language, virtually identical to many anarchist AND libertarian manifestos. Hence the sharp intake of breath as I paused over my port and stilton at the suggestion.
The right to bear arms as part a well organised militia is still a crucial test of citizenship.
I’d like to see Al Jazeera spend less time on the gun lobby in the US and more examing the implications of that principle in Bahrain. But I’m not holding my breath.
The next election has to be mainly about one thing .. turnout, turnout, turnout ..
I was shocked at the level of voter apathy with all but empty polling booths
in my electorate.
In previous years I remember long queues snaking around the block.
The key is social media for the young and public meetings for the senior members of our society.
Don’t forget giving people something to vote for: strong policies and a credible government in waiting.
I agree
did ppl queue up ever? i been voting for 20 years & i have never seen that, i always thought a plus in our voting system was the whole process took about 10-15 minutes, i dont ever recall ppl queueing, but just am asking was it common once in nz for there to be queues of ppl waiting to vote?
i think alot of ‘older’ guys have to go rark up some of the young at the next election, motivate them to vote. young cousins, neices, nephews, service workers, etc…just bring it up all the time, closer to the time.
Never has been long queues while I’ve been around. Longest I ever had was about 15 minutes in Ponsonby after I moved back to Auckland from back up from Dunedin and had to do a special vote because I hadn’t told the electoral commission. There was someone in front of me that had changed their name
Our paper system is far far far better than the machine/electronic systems used in the US. Which honestly to me seems like a rort.
http://metro.co.uk/2012/11/07/faulty-machines-anger-and-longer-queues-than-iraq-in-us-election-614617/
The day we go to computer voting is the day we lose all hope of peaceful political change.
Volumes have been written about the blatant corruption of America’s computer voting systems. Once it’s in, you’ll never get rid of it. The people who hack it for their own purposes won’t let you.
In the old days they’d just tip the voting machines into the bottom of Lake Michigan.
Computerised voting would simply bring about the ability to do it faster, more efficiently, and on a massive scale.
The following testimony around rigging computer voting machines was given to a US court:
Don’t forget the hanging chads.
I figure that an electronic system could be as secure as a paper system. In fact, I think it may be more so if done correctly. But it must be done correctly and the US system isn’t – the US system has been done to funnel wealth into the hands of business.
Nah, keep technology out of it. It just fragilises things. We don’t need power cuts, broadband drop outs and server crashes screwing election day.
CV, remember hanging chads, paper can get wet, blow away, be as easily tampered with, can catch fire etc etc.
A simple electronic machine, with battery back-up, NOT connected to a network and runs on simple binary:
Labour: 0
National: 1
Green: 01
ACT 10
etc etc.
Piece of cake.
Well, it’s been a few years since any ballot boxes caught fire…the last time that an IT system went down losing data on the other hand…
Also we don’t need the friend of a brother of an MP getting the tender/shouldertap for organising the leadup, the ballot and the counting and dissemination of end results.
You have to be very trusting, to the point of infantile to not realise the vast field for finagling and carefully managed sharp practices to be loaded into the system. It is possible though that many adults do have this infantile tendency – a bit of brain missing such as in John Cleese saying ‘Madam is this a pea, or is it part of your brain’. They’d say check it out on-line, the computer can’t lie.
I agree Draco, there’s no reason on the face of it that an electronic system can’t be secure and trustworthy. It would definitely require open source code available to anyone who requested it; I guess the tricky part is that you have to prove the source code you’re looking at is the same source code that is being run on the machine.
Nope. No system is unhackable – none. The only unhackable machine is one that’s switched off, unplugged, and buried in a lead-lined safe in a Farraday Cage in a concrete vault….
“There will be no networked computers on my Battlestar!!!”
Of course, Pop, the point is that you ensure the program that is running on the machine is the one that was scrutinised, and do everything possible to stop other programs from being run on it. I expect this would mean some sort of ‘trusted computing’ situation, where the HW will only run software that is signed with the appropriate authentication certificate, similar to how Blu-Ray and PS3 worked for only running trusted discs/games. That would mean even if someone plugged in a USB drive to try and load SW onto it, the SW wouldn’t execute unless they could sign it with the proper encryption key. You could potentially go even further, and write SW that is vetted by experts for exploits etc (using Formal Methods I guess?), and then translate that into a fixed HW circuit, so that the machine was physically incapable of doing anything other than run the specified program – this would be a very expensive route to take though.
In the US case, it seems the program being run on it wasn’t scrutinised and itself was rigged, rather than someone else coming along later and hacking it.
anyway, for you engineering-related types, this is just Wow! 😀 (big smiley)
the 3 D printing of body tissues followed by Organs.
Ten years away? Sounds like the state of fusion power since 1965.
I never count on this stuff happening until they can say its 12 months away…
The problem is that all that requires specialist checking.
Whereas any mumpty on the street can see that army officers stuffing ballot boxes is a bit dodgey.
Loading them into the back of an unmarked ute with no receipts or paperwork signed…
Yep, and that includes the paper system we use today. It’s difficult to do but not impossible. The same applies to electronic voting – just need to put in place the correct protocols. Username, 16 character alpha-numeric password and a security token and the chances of the system being hacked drop to minuscule.
16 character alphanumeric password?
How many people is this going to stop voting?
CV
I decided to buy something on ebay and spent what seemed like hours negotiating the system as I couldn’t remember my password or id.
Got through in the end because I just got determined and bloody minded and I knew if I succeeded I would get what I personally wanted.
Unlike voting, where you hope that the crowd you vote for will succeed to get the numbers and then will deliver the good policies. But I can’t have as much faith in that as I have in my parcel being delivered from the United States.
“there’s no reason on the face of it that an electronic system can’t be secure and trustworthy.”
Relevant to all y’all interests:
http://www.technologyreview.com/view/514581/government-lab-reveals-quantum-internet-operated-continuously-for-over-two-years/
“The next election has to be mainly about one thing .. turnout, turnout, turnout .. ”
That is correct.
However, speaking as a Labour member where L stands first for Loyalty, with things as they are at the moment, the current leader and deputy are a turnoff, turnoff, turnoff ..
The public evisceration of Happy Gilmore continues. Last night Campbell live did a scathing review of Gilmore’s past difficulties and his blown up sense of worth …
http://www.3news.co.nz/Inside-the-mind-of-Aaron-Gilmore/tabid/367/articleID/296444/Default.aspx
And this morning Stuff also reviews his history and it is not pretty …
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/8631574/Gilmore-has-colourful-history
The question is raised, if Lianne Dalziel retires to have a crack at the Christchurch Mayoralty what will National do? Gilmore was the candidate in Christchurch East for the past two elections. If he stood in the by election he could be the most memorial since Melissa Lee …
it’s all ok, the country is in good hands, we have no reasons to be concerned
http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/john-key-third-most-ridiculous-world-leader-list-5426385
yes it is a list on the internet so means nothing, but still, “of All Time.” !!
Only third freedom? Well he has to try harder to become number 1. Send in the mincing walk?
An odd comment at the end of a Gilmore piece, about:
“Prime Minister John Key is under pressure to discipline shamed MP Aaron Gilmore over allegations of sleazy conduct towards a woman at his infamous boozy dinner. ”
……”A spokeswoman for Mr Key said his office had not been made aware of allegations of an inappropriate advance….”
Wonder what that means?
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/8631499/PM-facing-calls-to-deal-to-MP
Sounds like he did an impromptu tango and went forwards when he should have gone backwards. Those tricky political steps can be confusing.
Also incredibly easy to believe. I get pretty sick of executive types slobbering over my wife on the odd occasion we have to deal with them. One idiot even suggested she remove her clothes and do a samba on a restaurant table, apparently finding this appropriate because she’s Brazilian. Years back I had a girlfriend who did some work at some sort of NAct convention. She told me some pretty appalling stories about their sleazy conduct.
MO
I remember hearing a story about an IRD party back near the day when a bloke was writing about them in a book called ‘Be Very Afraid’. I’m not sure whether he was the one who committed suicide because of the burden of their relentless compound penalty interest.
The story goes that one of the young bloods got filled up with some liquid then stood on a table dropped his trousers and turned round as fast as he could, emulating a lawn sprayer.
Could be wrong but what an imagination to think up a story like that, if it was made up. It sounds possible because there was a tide of uncontrollable hubris then.
This has been waiting about an hour for release from moderation. Perhaps after the next tv program finishes.
[lprent: it happens, especially on weekend evenings, ]
lprent Yes I shouldn’t be so niggly – excuse – feeling tired and stressed. Which is BAU for a lot of people on this blog I know.
Slurrin’ Uuron ?
That TV3 clip was more banal and irrelevant than anything I’ve seen on Seven Sharp.
Since when was a Tory being an offensive, self-important wanker a hanging offence. I remember when it was mandatory…
“the most memorial since Melissa Lee …”
You spelt forgettable wrong.
The only thing I know about Melissa Lee is from her by-election attempt and the Waterview crims line.
What Happens When Students Are Simply Free To Learn?
Apparently, they go out and learn about stuff that interests them and find that learning is fun rather than the chore that school normally is.
Years ago there were classrooms set up to develop the kids ability to self manage learning. Kids responded with intensity. But parents were uneasy. The learning did not look packaged and formal. So “projects” were born to counteract the misconceptions. Sadly Projects became a return to teacher managed learning.
It is said that if a teacher from 100 years ago appeared in a modern classroom, he would easily identify what was happening today. The tools have changed but the process has not. Prescribed learning and all that.
Interesting. Have just pulled my son out of mainstream education and we are going for a democratic school (don’t really like that term but whatever). There are choices out there and some of those choices are designed for the children rather than the state or factories. I am constantly amazed by how some people disrespect children and treat them like idiots – they aren’t, they are people with individual attributes and deserve respect and support so they can grow into thinkers and lifelong learners.
Yes. (within idiosyncratic developmental time-frames).
Well start a charter school then.
Why when the present system could do it?
Presumably the present state system can’t because it’s based on certain quite functional principles of standardised learning, socialisation, and economy of scale. For choice there are a range of private schools, religious schools, Montessori schools, Steiner schools, Democratic schools, Te Reo immersion schools etc – the only difference between them and charter schools being that the others are held to a state monotored standard with professional teachers. Were Charter Schools to be held to the same standards, I wouldn’t have a problem with it.
Diverting public funds for private profit. Just great.
Oh yep, them bloody Maori and Steiner schools. And what if that private profit was going to a co-op or iwi? Do exercise that grey matter.
check out ivan illich – deschooling
Ivan Illich
Ah, when I started out in education, deschooling was a big topic in the training colleges and amongst educationists. I was majorly into Summerhill kind of school, deschooling, etc in the 70s – found them inspiring….. then along came Thatcher et al..
I’ve only ever taught professionally at the university level, but I try to impose as little structure on the process as possible. Perhaps the most important thing I can get across is that they need to develop an ability to evaluate their own answers. The second is that there is more than one way to skin a cat. By and large, I get excellent feedback, but none of my lectures since 2000 have had more than about 35 students, and I would generally have one or two tutors to help. I have a real admiration for school teachers who do it by themselves with the class sizes they have, and a government which encourages people to abuse them.
Seems like charity begins at home
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/8631567/Hospitals-tax-exempt-status-criticised
Might register myself. Looks pretty effective.
“Other countries legislation changes demonstrate how incompetently the New Zealand Parliament has treated the charity sector.”
they have got to be pulling an arm and a leg. How much of this capitalist “disease” will people tolerate?
Remember that Key supposedly donates his salary to charity. He wouldn’t want it to be one that did anything charitable.
A revealing article on Stuff about Tikorangi – ” the most heavily explored and developed oil and gas area in New Zealand”
key spoke to 100 in Inglewood
“On Thursday he told an audience that the amount of wealth that exploration could release meant it was in everyones best interests to build respectful relationships with the oil companies.”
Some interesting factoids from the article
key and these companies are singing from the same songsheet and they are raising their voices in a cacophony of manipulation designed to drown out opposition to their exploitation, but it won’t work because they ignore people.
Expect plenty of glossy brochures and smiling pictures to come because that is all they have got to counter the truth of their activities.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/taranaki-daily-news/news/8631612/Black-gold-dark-clouds
From visiting a bakery, and seeing my purchase escape the till, wondering if anyone here would have said anything and if so what you would say ?
I would say, ” I think you’ve missed the Vienna loaf” or similar. I tend to point it out when I notice that I have been charged incorrectly or given the incorrect change. I do not want to put a shop assistant onto the back foot with her employer, and I do not want to be hostage to petty, grasping instincts either.
A polite curious enquiry might help. “Why doesn’t the money go in the till?” Might be a good reason for this.
It is said that the $3.99 or $19.99 was to force the till to be opened to give change rather than make the cost seem less.
And the encouragement of electronic payment methods like EFTPOS.
Interesting point re the .99 , and we worry about a few $$ that a few beneficiaries over claim, whilst such actions from business owners and trades go unabated and almost condoned or accepted as being part of the game of being in business. Pity most do not see cashies and these actions are stealing from the public purse.
I still recall a wife of a builder complaining how hard it was to spend $30 k of cashies that he earned on a job and for it not to be noticed, and we worry about feeding and housing those less fortunate. Many here do not appreciate how hard it is for the rich to live and operate & the problems they have to live under!!!!
Yeah. Poor bastards. Bet the rich all secretly wish they were beneficiaries – politics of envy.
I think I might have misunderstood your question, Herodotus. I took you to mean that the price of your purchase did not register. However, on reading ianmac’s post, it seems that you paid but the shop assistant didn’t put the money in the till. In that case I would say nothing, since it would seem to me to be busy-bodying. Perhaps she/he put that money to one side to pop across the road and buy something that the shop had just run out of, like milk for instance.
The person I paid was the owner !! I apologise for the confusion in the lack of clarification in my initial comment.
It is going on a lot and is called the black economy. No taxes paid, cash in the bag. I personally would not visit the shop anymore as one has to put the money where the mouth is -literally. My taxes are being deducted and I have no say, it seems hat a shop owner who does not pay taxes can choose. So here are some of the dollars that are missing in the social net structure.
Excellent article by Deborah Russell Massey University on wealthy people avoiding (although not evading) taxes.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/comment/columnists/8541593/Tax-avoidance-by-well-off-a-rort
Great article but it does not deal wit the cash and/or barter economy that runs parallel to the taxed one.
There are (business)people who seem to belief that they are entitled to cheat the “system”. By boasting that they have got away avoiding tax and giving that rort a revolutionary name such as “system” “government” “taxman” etc it tends to get the nod because of the wide held belief that these people are cleverer then your average punter who has to suck it up. The very same punters have yet to cotton on to the fact that they admire a cheat who has their hand in the wrong pocket and smile at you whilst robbing you blind. Of cause the “government” and the “taxman” will now ask more of the ordinary punter to cover the shortfall.
There is or was, actually a barter system for businesses that is quite widespread, and this would enable trading to be done without exchanging cash. So what is thought about that.
I belonged to a green dollars group and that is how that operated but we were just ordinary wage earners or beneficiaries, not business people.
Excuse me but i need to have a little rant about this
Not one of you have a skerrick of any wrongdoing, that includes Herodotus who only witnessed cash going somewhere other than the till in a bakery shop. Herodotus later tells us it is money going to the owner no less. Mon dieu, imagine that, a business owner taking money for a sale and doing with it what they wish. What is the world coming to? If Herodotus had a genuine concern of inappropriate activity why did he not say something? If he had, at least he would have fact based reasons for a discussion instead of a swagbag of supposition.
May I recommend to mind your own business, or are the cries of tax evasion and corruption meant to lead to louder calls for the boarding up of the premises and subsequently dragging the owner through the streets by his own scrotum? What business is it of anyone’s, except the IRD, how daily cash handling is done in a private business? By subsequent comments from Herodotus it looks like a bit of a staged discussion anyway.
In one cafe I used to work we had a ‘need change to get another coffee?’ bowl that was a tipn’share bowl. It lived on the counter and cash was constantly going in and out depending on what people needed. Not every business does, or can run, an over- invoiced receipt-driven use the right suppositry code type of operation. Life is messy and for the self employed and small businesses it is getting messier by the day. I do wonder why exactly Herodotus mentioned it, if it was’t to voice his obvious suspicion of fraud or such.
The last time you bought a new car or boat or whatever it is well off people pick up on the weekend, you did what? Handed over a credit card or similar, what account did the money go into? Are you sure it did ? How about that lawyer’s account that your trust management fees went into? You know for a fact that money is being dealt with legitmately?
Next time Herodotus, just ask the person concerned if it is such a worry, and stop casting aspersions on the characters of others, because that is exactly the sort of weak lipped snakeoil that is killing this country faster than all the fraud and theft and greed put together.
Get into the real world as someone who deals day to day in admin accounting I can see when a 2nd till operates. On your ventures out just take a look to see how often such an experience that I described occurs. Why then as I spent $8 why the $2 change came out of a 2nd tin the same as my $10 entered. There was no reason i could come up with why the till on the counter was not used and my transaction was at least not rung up. And as I mentioned before that I was serviced by the owner.
I was interested how others here would have reacted to this.
Not staged from my experiences I come across quite a few instances of tax avoidance in what I considered involving large amounts, perhaps in your world you are more fortunate in the people you deal.
H, what happens to the cash after you have paid for the product you selected, is just none of your business. The banks? maybe, regulatory agencies, possibly, tax man certainly, but unless this shop is a client of yours, it is nothing to do with you. Instead of taking aside the owner and privately voicing whatever ill-focused concerns you may have, you preferred to spend the day involved in the escalation of theoretical wrongdoings.
I believe for every malfeasance you have imagined that the owner is involved in, others could come up with a reasonable and real world alternative that is not judging someone based on nothing but your own expeiriences collected whilst scooping and bagging the effluent of your own career choices.
Get off your high horse. 15% of what we hand over to retailers is tax (GST) that we’re paying and we’ve got every right to expect it to go to the taxman. What they do with their income is their business, GST is our business because it’s our taxes not their income.
Actually, if a crime is taking place then it’s the persons responsibility to report it.
well, I do observe “floating” exchanges regularly in retail; have done for years.
Maybe the till wasn’t working and the money was being kept separate so it could be rung up later when it was fixed.
Maybe it ran out of paper.
Maybe they were having a contest to see which staff member could sell the most donuts.
Maybe they were testing out a new piggy bank.
Maybe it was a hidden camera show.
Who the fuck knows? You can keep your money in a tin if you want to. What of it?
Didn’t have you pegged as an apologist for tax dodgers, Felix. I love that, even after all of this time, you can still surprise me.
Climate Change…..
“White House warned on imminent Arctic ice death spiral
National security officials worried by rapid loss of Arctic summer sea ice overlook threat of permanent global food shortages”
“as the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) projected in 2007. He said:
“The Arctic situation is snowballing: dangerous changes in the Arctic derived from accumulated anthropogenic green house gases lead to more activities conducive to further greenhouse gas emissions. This situation has the momentum of a runaway train.”
” phenomenon of “Arctic amplification”, where:
“The loss of Arctic summer sea ice and the rapid warming of the Far North are altering the jet stream over North America, Europe, and Russia. Scientists are now just beginning to understand how these profound shifts may be increasing the likelihood of more persistent and extreme weather.”
There’s a satellite video of ice in the Alaskan Beaufort sea already breaking up (First time ever so early in the spring) indicating a summer ice free Arctic this year or next with a consequent greater loss of the albedo effect and further entrapment of heat in the Earth’s climate system.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/earth-insight/2013/may/02/white-house-arctic-ice-death-spiral
From Comments section of article…
“The fossil fuels you burn are directly contributing to killing people in the future.
None of which alters the bottom line – nature will step in and correct our numbers and consumption for us. We have proven incapable of doing either. You might not like it. You might not be one of the very few with even a small chance of making it. But that is the bottom line and the outcome the richer and more powerful members of our species have voted for in continuing business as usual for so long.”
“This is a visualization of the decline in minimum volumes that makes it very clear that the Arctic will be ice free in summer soon. This is significant because it will mark the boundary of a change in state, and the effects on the Northern Hemisphere climate that we are already seeing will intensify.
It is just staggering that we are actually witnessing an event of geologic-time proportions in the space of one generation.”
You missed out one great thing about the destruction of arctic ice: massive new oil and gas fields can now be exploited.
Who said global warming was bad for the economy?
a smooth, blended, landing
or “Upstairs / Downstairs politics” (SFWU spokesman)
http://www.movie2k.to/Chasing-Ice-watch-movie-2908859.html
the buzzards did cross my mind when i was watching Chasing Ice.
The new lands, that have been unseen for millenia, were not hidden from the eyes in the sky and are probably mapped in detail and scheduled for stripping. There are shots in the film where you can almost hear them coming for the raw meat of the glacier’s wounds.
Re Post #10
More comments on the above article….
1.The normal UK weather pattern (changeable ,sunshine and some showers etc. ) in the UK has been in turmoil for the last several years. Those who spend their working lives outdoors ( Farmers etc.) spotted something was wrong immediately . It started several years ago with almost monsoon like rainstorms in mid summer and has continued in that vain ever since , whereby our weather now resembles something akin to what must go on inside a washing machine come tumble drier ! i.e. constant rain/water and almost gale force like winds. This is because the Arctic is melting at a massive rate and all the freezing air is drifting south and it is enveloping the UK , whereby in the summer it is causing abnormally cold tempratures and constant deluges of rain and high winds ! …. People who live and work in the countryside have known this for several years , however seemingly not the met office or the government, I wonder why ?
2 .Sorry, but I don’t agree , that nothing has happened that hasn’t happened before. My relatives are farmers ( doing it for several generations) and they tell me a different story. They also say that over the same period( last several years) is when the UK’s weather went into turmoil , that the strength of the Sun ( UV rays?) has also seen a dramatic change , whereby it is now impossible to go outside in mid summer for any length of time without your skin beginning to burn very quickly and where people are now being publically warned to wear sun cream/block. This all points to either a mass thinning or an actual hole in the Ozone layer over the Arctic and extending down as far as the UK , which would explain the increased strength of the Sun (UV rays?) and why the Arctic is melting at such an alarming rate.
3. Amazing isn’t it, we will get to see something that hasn’t happened for at least 700,000 years.
4. Been following this issue a long time, no surprises here. Been shouting and shouting “food and water” for years now. This is real brothers and sisters, brace for impact.
I spent a lot of time outdoors in the UK in the really hot summer of 2008, and I certainly didn’t burn. I actually ended up with a light tan which I certainly couldn’t do in NZ.
And while I don’t doubt for a minute doubt climate change, anthropogenic and otherwise, the relatively mild British weather of which you speak has actually been an anomaly that started approximately 200 years ago. Prior to that, surviving accounts show British weather to have been much more severe http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Ice_Age
Absence of sunspots for a couple of centuries. They were surprised as hell when they started reappearing. But it didn’t have much effect outside of Europe.
North western Europe is a canary area as far as climate goes. It is only habitable for a large community because of the gulf stream dropping heat so far north. It responds either through that heat load, or from the jetstream from the arctic to every change in the planetary heat balance.
The strangest thing is that the Brits generally aren’t aware how weird it is having one of the largest concentrations of computing power in the world to predict their weather.
Visiting my mother-in law last Saturday. I went to watch rugby at the Taieri rugby club(Mosgiel) . An incident involving a Pasifika player ensued. He was sent off. The home crowd then proceeded to slur the player with “get back on the banana boat ” the usual “thick coconut ” a a few true scumbags screaming “N word” . Fucking disgraceful. Racism is alive and well at this club. I’ve never seen such appalling behaviour at club level. I’d appreciate this getting passed round, I don’t want this in my game.
nothing has changed much then – I remember their horror when during the Tour I wore my anti-tour badge to the club – oh dear didn’t get to play for them much after that, not that I wanted to of course lol
Dr Joe Kalt on Indigenous Governance, and Dr Richard Pitts, on energy and climate change;
RNZ audio
Agreed, disgraceful, Blue. I’d like to tell another story which gives me hope. The provincial Boys’ College which I used to teach at, this year for the first time elected a Pasifika student as Head Boy. When this appointment was announced to the senior student’s assembly, after input from both students and staff, the entire assembly I am told broke out into spontaneous standing applause, an unprecedented event.
He’s also the 1st XV captain and an outstanding young man, with qualities which the whole senior student body recognised. Such a tale gives me hope for our society.
So the latest Roy Morgans is out http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10881366 and Labours not doin so well I guess we wont be getting a post from Mike Smith on how wonderful Mr Shearer is?
one off rogue poll give Shearer another 6 months it’s only a matter of time
Oh ok, yeah no need to comment on those rogue polls I forgot. Its full steam a head to defeat then and another term of smiling lying John.
“give Shearer another 6 months it’s only a matter of time”
Do you think Brutus Robertson is better? I don’t.
What I know is the members have had no say in who is Leader and I think they should and if we stay with Shearer we are very much looking like we are walking to another election defeat.
This won’t go down well but Labour could do worse than Shane Jones, hes always impressed me with his ability to be able to talk to everyone and comes across as intelligent
Sure there are some past issues to consider but nothing insurmountable…
Shane Jones? Nope. That would be another mistake.
Yes I remember you saying how impressed you were that he managed to get paid for wanking.
If that’s the best you can come up with after your one month ban you might need another one!
Seriously though the guy speaks well, is intelligent and appeals to both maori and pakeha, working class and intellectual
Ok so the hand shandy wasn’t the best thing he could have done but he even handled (pardon the expression) that well
You’re the only person I’ve ever come across that was impressed by him, and some of my best friends are Maori.
“Seriously though the guy speaks well”
I’ve never known him to speak well at all. Usually he just does that over-verbose thing that people do when they want to sound smart to dumb people.
Thank God I’m not playing the drinking game this morning 😛
“I guess we wont be getting a post from Mike Smith on how wonderful Mr Shearer is”
Quite simply, there is no need for outsourcee Mike Smith to tell us how wonderful Mr Shearer but we want the outsourcer himself saying the real thing and showing that to us.
Remember when Shanghai Pengxin attempted to buy 8000ha of dairy farmland and all hell broke loose and nobody on the left was being the least bit xenophobic? Well, anybody care to note the reaction Dairy Farms Partnership (an investment company owned by Harvard University) buying 1300ha of farmland to add to the farmland in NZ it already owns?
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/dairy/8628552/Harvard-buys-Otago-dairy-farm
These guys are really good farmers. You won’t find any locals objecting. At least it’s not the Chinese… 😈
sounds familiar to another Kiwi Lament
Ahhhh should be a solid amount of electoral fraud in that election.
I started looking into that, yesterday. I started saving links on a word document and was intending to do more research on the issue before putting a post together.
eg I have some links to articles about the Harvard Uni investment fund “land grab” in Africa and the potential negative impact. I was wondering what such land grabs have to do with the role of Universities? Part of the neoliberalisation of higher education?
Harvard runs one of the absolute smartest long vision investment funds on the planet.
Mouths increasing, arable land decreasing, land productivity flat, useless paper wealth expanding exponentially
Farm land is where you want to have your investments. And these guys back it up with big money. Last I heard, a NZer ran this side of their asset classes for them.
I thought that many of our neo lib pollies and uncivil servants went to Harvard to study and learn.. Seems that they don’t learn all the good long term structural planning stuff, only the free market and lazy butts and deadhead dads sort of stuff. How to sneer, find fault, and feel superior enough to be worth millions per year in salary, or at least aspire to that.
I guess when we are all labelled okay they can work out an algorithm how to deal with us most efficiently, and whether it’s more cost effective to ensure that there is reasonable accommodation and food for all or to leave us living on the streets.
I’ll say the same thing now as I did then. Selling our land to foreign owners is bad for NZers and bad for our economy. It quite literally turns us into serfs for foreign owners.
My first response was more like Draco’s. I’m not very keen at all, esepcially given Harvard is such an elite US institution. But I want to look into it and think about it a bit more.
“Smart long term investment” on whose behalf?
Certainly US unis like Harvard have come into some criticism for “land grabbing” in Africa. froma a 2011 Guardian article:
Harvard is elite in the sense that it is the best, it also has one of the most extensive and well funded scholarship and aid programmes in the world, increased every two or three years by about US $10 million. Please kindly check your confirmation bias.
http://www.fao.fas.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do
Thank-you.
I’m still looking into the Harvard issue. But I’d want more than their own PR about the aid they provide.
Well here’s a start http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvard_University#Endowment
Thanks.
You do realise that elite or “ivy league” education establishments that offer funding for some who can’t afford the fees, don’t necessarily do anything to change the elite dominated hierarchy, don’t you? It’s the kind of “charity” that is used to justify the dominance of elites?
Again I think that’s your confirmation bias which insists on reinforcing the idea that people that experience social mobility somehow equate to being a class traitor. The notion that “it’s the kind of “charity” that is used to justify the dominance of elites” is inherently silly and an artifact of a narrative that insists on demonising an entire group of people as a single stereotype cliche of fat cat capitalists in top hats. Bill Gates gives away almost all of his billions to better the less fortunate. J K Rowling gave away so much of her money that she is no longer on the rich list. George Soros gave away over $8 billion to human rights, public health, and education causes. Such charity is an appropriate response by people who realise the important role society has played in their success and is a valuable adjunct to state funding.
Also the culture at most of the Ivy Leage universities is decidedly left leaning
http://thecitizens.blogspot.co.nz/2005/11/americas-left-wing-universities.html
Even the RWNJs agree
http://americanpowerblog.blogspot.co.nz/2013/03/universities-as-left-wing-seminaries.html
So Rowling gave away “so much of her money that she is no longer on the rich list”.
And Gates gives away “almost all” of his.
What’s the proportion at Harvard? Do they also give away “almost all” of their places to those who can’t afford to attend?
Yes, fuck them for not wandering around in sack cloth and ashes with dogs licking their sores. Bastards. You silly cartoon Marxist.
One would presume (well, a normal person would presume, so perhaps you are excused) that a considerable amount of Harvard’s endowment would also go toward funding research, paying staff, and supplying the amazing resources that make it a place to want to study at in the first place. But you can do the math. As of 2012, Harvard University had a total financial aid reserve of $158.725 million for students, and a Pell Grant reserve of $4.093 million available for disbursement out of $30.7 billion.
Well fuck me Pop, I didn’t realise your spurious comparisons were beyond questioning.
0.5% Bit of context sheds some light eh?
Cock.
folks not put you out for the night yet felix?
“Well fuck me Pop, I didn’t realise your spurious comparisons were beyond questioning.
0.5% Bit of context sheds some light eh?
Cock.”
Look, Felix, I realise you’re probably a bit special in the touched in the head sense, but obviously the top university in the world with the best facilities, resources and teachers is going to be expensive to run. And guess what, poor kids can get in and take advantage of all that on merit. Wow. I always get the impression from you that you are some nasty bitter little person who hates achievement and talent in others and just burns to drag everyone and everything in the world down to your level of mediocrity rather boosting deserving people with talent. Me, I’ve always thought socialism was about lifting people up, not dragging them down.
Drop the sanctimony Pop.
You tried to say that Harvard, by spending 0.5% of it’s income on allowing poor kids to attend, is comparable to Bill Gates giving away “almost all” of his money.
What a crock of shit.
ps your assessments of me are hilarious. Bit of self-reflection mate.
“You tried to say that Harvard, by spending 0.5% of it’s income on allowing poor kids to attend, is comparable to Bill Gates giving away “almost all” of his money.”
As I didn’t make that comparison at all, you sad little numpty, you’re projecting. I gave Bill Gates et al as examples of really rich people giving back to the comunity as a counterexample to the assertion that all such charity is a method of control. And I’ve said my bit about how much it costs to fund Harvard’s facilities. I’m not going to argue with your pathology any more except to say Harvard’s provision for disadvantaged students is better than any state university anywhere in the world you can name.
“the assertion that all such charity is a method of control.”
Which no one I can see actually made.
“I’m not going to argue with your pathology any more except to say Harvard’s provision for disadvantaged students is better than any state university anywhere in the world you can name.”
Well I guess that knocks out another argument I didn’t make. 🙄
““the assertion that all such charity is a method of control.”
Which no one I can see actually made.”
Hey, PB, dumbarse:
“It’s the kind of “charity” that is used to justify the dominance of elites” – Karol
“Well I guess that knocks out another argument I didn’t make.”
Who knows, Felix, you don’t specialise in arguments, just gibberish and invective. I have attempted to respond to your froth and spittal as best as one can.
Pop, for god’s sake man.
That doesn’t mean what you claimed it does. Draw yourself a venn diagram or something.
Did Karol say it was the same kind of charity as Gates et al?
And Pop JFTR, you really, (really), don’t argue well. And you’re a hypocrite.
Other people here are far nicer to you than you are in return.
I say this in case you aren’t aware of that.
Questioning Pop’s assertions, none of which he stands by, is “froth and spittle”.
Righto. 🙄
+1 dtb
I also don’t think xenophobia should be bandied about if the information on the Harvard buy was not publicised as the Crafar farce was. Accusing the media of building xenophobia by reporting unevenly may be more accurate, but even then the publicity around the Shanghai Pengxin bid came in on the back of publicity around fraud, bankruptcies and other apparent dodgy dealings and an imagery of six farms rather than an a more difficult to imagine x-hectares.
It’s a dumb idea to allow our productive infrastructure and land to be owned offshore.
The price of M.I.L.K
Conniptions ahoy for the haters.
http://www.latimes.com/news/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-google-palestine-website-change-20130503,0,2831606.story
From the heavy handed new Greenpeace ads, you would actually begin to wonder if they weren’t secretly working for the government to secretly promote anti sea protest legislation. All they’ve done is strung together a bunch of footage that reinforces all the stereotypes about stupid, dangerous, gung-ho behaviour.
Link??
Why? Don’t you have a TV? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxE-f-n_EJI
I have a T.V. and watch very little of free to air TV as the programmes are so vapid. I don’t own SKY. When I occasionally do watch a specific programme I mute the ads the moment they come on and usually go do something instead.
Anyway, to the video clip. Great to see Greenpeace getting the message over on mainstream TV as an antidote to all the “buy me buy me” ads. I did not get the same impression as you from the ad.
By the way, I do gain the impression from your comment that you approve of our right to protest being removed. No doubt you were also one of those grumbling about nanny state a few years ago.
You obviously prefer ‘big brother’ state.
I just don’t understand how someone (who I assume is just a regular citizen) having views such as these. What is your motivation?
The right to protest is sacrosanct, but I don’t support naive people risking severe injury or injuring others through their actions on the high seas. The ocean is not the place to be playing silly buggers.
You’re worried about the excessive number of deaths and serious injuries caused by Greenpeace vessels? How many a year is that exactly?
No, I’m probably more worried about amateurs getting into trouble, and in fact people do get injured. Tempers flair in unpredictable conditions. It only takes a Pete Bethune or enraged whalers to take it a step too far. Clashes already happen with great frequency. I think the law isn’t well written and unfairly targets genuinely peaceful protestors and observers. But it cannot be denied that it is getting increasingly rough out there. It’s a matter of time.
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2010/02/three_whalers_injured_in_confr.html
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/national/246548/whalers-ram-protest-ships-sea-shepherd
Increasingly rough compared to the 1632 deaths worldwide that were related to the oil and gas industry in November of 2009 alone… I think you and the government have your priorities all wrong!
False Dichotomy
Comparing activism that has resulted in no deaths and is largely being outlawed by the government with an industry that kills thousands and is being promoted isn’t a false dichotomy… You may as well just write “dog poos” if that’s the extent of your argument Populuxe1.
the seafarers who engage in this kind of activity don’t need you looking after them, and unlike the unsafe foreign fishing vessels which operate out of NZ I’m not aware of any Greenpeace vessel needing NZ tax payers to fork out for a rescue.
Basically you’re making a lot of noise about fuck all. And it doesn’t seem to me like you believe the right to protest is paramount. Just the right to protest in ways that you believe convenient and appropriate.
If by “convenient and appropriate” you mean not acting in a manner that may potentially harm themselves or others, then yes. Your argument is pretty much that of NRA lobbiests in the US. What are you, a Libertarian? I don’t agree with the form of the law as it stands, but I don’t agree with boarding vessles or chucking projectiles etc and that goes for all parties involved.
Populuxe:
Sacrosanct: definition thereof
Adjective
(esp. of a principle, place, or routine) Regarded as too important or valuable to be interfered with.
Synonyms
sacred – holy – inviolable
So the right to protest is sacrosanct.. except when you say it isn’t
The right to protest is sacrosanct, but so is public safety
Don’t be disingenuous. The law isn’t being changed to protect protestors from themselves or for “public safety”. It is being changed to prevent protestors from obstructing prospectors, drill rig operators, whoever..
It is a law against civil disobedience and in the end it won’t work because New Zealanders have repeatedly proven that when their principles are at stake they are quite prepared to collect some convictions and even jail time in defence of causes they believe are just. What’s more, in most cases, history has sided with the protestors and against the established order. Can you name a case where this wasn’t true? I can’t think of any off the top of my head.
I’m well aware of that, but a slightly different law would have some contingency. Here is my reasoning. I’m not so concerned with Greenpeace (basically these days a commercial exercise, little more than a greenwashed Outward Bound so that privileged, predominantly white people can moralise to a developing world painfully aware of its own environmental shortcomings, and with little concern for the effects of their antics on ordinary people) and Sea Shepherd (another pack of showboating privileged wankers who manipulate the naive to get media attention and then hang them out to dry once the dirty work is done).
New Zealand has a vast coastline and the general public have incredible access to boats and the sea. There are also a lot of passionate numpties out there who don’t have the kind of seamanship to be safe in that kind of melee. Also while I am anti-whaling and deeply concerned by oil and mineral prospecting ships in our waters, as long as they are operating within whatever weak and flawed laws we have, no one should be making physical contact with them, board them, or attempt to block their path – all of which are in violation of the Law of the Sea. If protest ships waht to lurk visably nearby with all loudspeakers blasting, I think they should be able to.
Well aren’t you a nice well behaved little boy. Using that logic, if you were old enough to protest in 1981 you would have done so from the safety of your Nana’s lounge room.
“Well aren’t you a nice well behaved little boy. Using that logic, if you were old enough to protest in 1981 you would have done so from the safety of your Nana’s lounge room.”
Oh don’t be so fucking ridiculous. The Molesworth Street batoning was a horrific example of police brutality and it is a national shame that the LAW did not protect those protestors. Though marching on the police was a stupid thing to do too. You are a thoroughly nasty little man.
Well, we don’t need new legislation to ensure vessels obey maritime law.
Sort of the point of maritime law.
Some commentator I was listening to recently came up with a description of the present economic hegemony as being ‘corporate feudalism’ – the rich are trying to find more ways of making money from investing their excess, and will apply their minds to squeezing the people more. If that was the case there will be an inevitable slide back to the situation as in Victorian-type dramas of the poor woman and her child being thrust into the snow by a vicious landlord.
Or the sad hopeless songs from Victorian times and before as in Come Home Father
http://ingeb.org/songs/fatherde.html
Father, dear father, come home with me now,
The clock in the steeple strikes one;
You said you were coming right home from the shop
As soon as your day’s work was done;
Our fire has gone out, our house is all dark,
And mother’s been watching since tea,
With poor brother Benny so sick in her arms
And no one to help her but me,
Come home! come home! come home!
Please father, dear father, come home.
It is so pathetic it almost seems like lampooning the situation but a read of books detailing the privations is sobering, despite the funny side of the Python’s skit about who had the worst childhood.
A bright moment this morning about something good and clever happening out in NZ enterprise fields, was Kim Hill and Doug Avery a farmer, talking about the value of altering long-held practices of pasture grass types. Farmers can gain extra value if they have suitable conditions to grow lucerne which will help them through droughts.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/saturday
09:45
Doug Avery: farming and drought
South Island Farmer of the year 2010, who manages Bonavaree Farm at Grassmere, South Marlborough, using a sustainable farming system that is resilient in extreme weather and variability. (14′11″)
Download: Ogg Vorbis MP3 | Embed
Too funny.
http://www.ginandtacos.com/2008/08/31/atheistsfoxholes-libertariansairplanes/
PIE in the sky.
Phil Twyford has posted on Red alert the following lecture by Nicky Hagar to a North Shore Labour Party function.
Nicky Hagar – Uncomfortable Truths – NZ Foreign Policy- War on Terror
For karol, lPrent, Redlogix, Irishbill, r0b whoever – the messages inherent is so important can someone set it up as a proper post on the Standard?
Well, in the meantime, here’s the link to the presentation for the half a dozen or so people who may be around and up for listening at this time on a Saturday night https://soundcloud.com/nzlabour/sets/nicky-hager-uncomfortable
Will look in to it…
First off, congrats to Nicky Hagar for getting the facts together. His division of attitudes into popular peacekeeping vs the empire/alliance is right on the money.
The most important point is that the PM is not the Commander in Chief. The fact that military operational policy was not aligned with Clark’s policy is a consequence of the nature of the civil system, which has it’s roots in the Roman empire.
Populuxe:
“Well aren’t you a nice well behaved little boy. Using that logic, if you were old enough to protest in 1981 you would have done so from the safety of your Nana’s lounge room.”
“”Oh don’t be so fucking ridiculous. The Molesworth Street batoning was a horrific example of police brutality and it is a national shame that the LAW did not protect those protestors. Though marching on the police was a stupid thing to do too. You are a thoroughly nasty little man.””
I seem to have rattled someones cage. Are you running out of coherent arguments? Are you trying to say that you were on Molesworth street and got batoned? If so your method of doing so is rather cryptic and also beside the point. I’m talking about the right to protest and the tension between the LEGAL right to protest in a tidy way from a safe distance and the MORAL right to commit yourself to civil disobedience in a cause which has superior ethical weighting than that protected by the law.
For example: Which matters most, the right to watch a game of rugby undisturbed, or the right for a black majority to have civil rights in their own land? Which matters most, the right of a motorist to cruise up a Wellington street without disruption, or the right not to wind up dead in a South African police station?
For all your talk about the right to protest being sacrosanct blah blah blah…. I think I sniff a social conservative who will take the safe path of bowing to the will of the establishment rather than putting himself at risk in the service of a just cause for the greater good. Or maybe you used to be a radical but the fire has cooled in your belly as the arthritis set into the knees?
What are you jabbering about?
And no, I’m not a radical because I don’t idealise rashness and violence as being a solution to anything.
Sorry we’re obviously getting a bit beyond you here. You go back to you bath chair.
” I don’t idealise rashness and violence as being a solution to anything.”
Where did I or anyone else say we see violence as being a solution to anything. Obstruction in and of itself is not violence.
And by the way, as you make it quite clear you’re not the protesting type, that you do not believe in confronting authority, why does the fact that I suggested that your preferred method of protesting would probably be at some considerable remove from the action make me a “nasty little man”.
The debate is about the role of the State in the defense of citizens rights and how it balances, ethically and philosophically speaking, the small issues like laws against obstruction against the large issues like civil and human rights. The ultimate question is, does the State have a MORAL right to criminalize people who are breaking small laws in the defense of large causes. Gandhi for example.
And I may be nasty but I’m not little.
This would be the same Gandhi who practised PASSIVE RESISTANCE? Although admittedly he rationalised that in the knowledge that with a population that size a few million dead here and there wouldn’t matter in the long run.
This is the Gandhi who advocated non violent CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE which led to much violence by the State against his protest movement. Spanner..
Refer to his rather callous mathematics about population and acceptable loss.
that’s partition for ya
I suspect you’re making shit up. I’d like a citation showing that Gandhi ever made any such calculation. In the end the people who followed him did so freely because they were prepared to risk whatever actions the state (British Empire) took against them because they found that existing under the yoke of that Empire worse than death. Unlike you some people are prepared to risk their lives for great causes.
I notice that as Populuxe loses the major points of the debate he starts deflecting into minor points so as to have the last word. Sad.
“Unlike you some people are prepared to risk their lives for great causes.”
Well aren’t you a romantic delusional arsehat, red for the blood of the martyrs. Oh how amusing you are. Dead people don’t really get to make changes, silly. Better a live dog than a dead lion.
“If I were a Jew and were born in Germany and earned my livelihood there, I would claim Germany as my home even as the tallest Gentile German might, and challenge him to shoot me or cast me in the dungeon; I would refuse to be expelled or to submit to discriminating treatment. And for doing this I should not wait for the fellow Jews to join me in civil resistance, but would have confidence that in the end the rest were bound to follow my example. If one Jew or all the Jews were to accept the prescription here offered, he or they cannot be worse off than now. And suffering voluntarily undergone will bring them an inner strength and joy […] the calculated violence of Hitler may even result in a general massacre of the Jews by way of his first answer to the declaration of such hostilities. But if the Jewish mind could be prepared for voluntary suffering, even the massacre I have imagined could be turned into a day of thanksgiving and joy that Jehovah had wrought deliverance of the race even at the hands of the tyrant. For to the God-fearing, death has no terror.”
Gandhi, M.K. “The Jews” Harijan 26 November 1938 (The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi vol. 74, p. 240)
“…there should be unadulterated non-violent non-cooperation, and if the whole of India responded and unanimously offered it, I should show that, without shedding a single drop of blood, Japanese arms – or any combination of arms – can be sterilized. That involves the determination of India not to give quarter on any point whatsoever and to be ready to risk loss of several million lives. But I would consider that cost very cheap and victory won at that cost glorious. That India may not be ready to pay that price may be true. I hope it is not true, but some such price must be paid by any country that wants to retain its independence. After all, the sacrifice made by the Russians and the Chinese is enormous, and they are ready to risk all. The same could be said of the other countries also, whether aggressors or defenders. The cost is enormous. Therefore, in the non-violent technique I am asking India to risk no more than other countries are risking and which India would have to risk even if she offered armed resistance.”
Gandhi, M.K. “Non-violent Non-cooperation” Harijan 24 May 1942, p. 167 (The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi vol. 82, p. 286; interview conducted 16 May 1942)
If people like me are arsehats and Gandhi is a calculating monster by your reckoning, Populuxe, then I’m happy to side with Gandhi. I’ll also have to concede that any similarity between yourself and a fully functioning moral human being is just a coincidence. Good night and good luck. Keep re-reading the Gandhi. You might come to understand him eventually.
I don’t make a habit of putting people on pedistals. Idols encourage distorted worldviews and blind faith.
You have a nasty habit of putting words in people’s mouths that they never said and attributing ideas to them which they never thought. It is really most unattractive. In fact you seem to be one of those people who believes in nothing much other than personal preservation and not rocking the boat. News flash, the world will only change for the better if some people are prepared to take risks to make it happen. How many times have you left the herd and taken a risk for a matter of principle Pop? Is there any principle you’d risk it all for?
Well aren’t you a sad old throwback. The reality is positive change will only happen with education and freely given cooperation, not theatrics that will probably alienate more people than it will convert.
I will go before you and make the crooked paths straight;
I will break in pieces the gates of bronze and cut the bars of iron
-Isaiah 45:2
For I will contend with him
who contends with you
-Isaiah 49:25
For all who live by the sword…
Blessed are the meek for they shall…(game theory)
For what greater thing can a man do than to…
Not a nationalist myself, who would be in this day and age! (although I understand Inglorious Bastards).
and the nation that endured the greatest number of fatalities during the Second World War was…
(I’m half-way through that book on the 24th)
…before H.Rel. I would have just kept my head down and soldiered on too. Love the author’s (Armin Bottger) attitude.
The amount of death that the USSR saw during that war is simply staggering.
One in eight Ukranians, dead. And Stalin, well it seemed like losing 200K Red Army soldiers here, losing another 200K over there and yet another 200K further on, was just par for the course.
Mind you, 4 out of every 5 German divisions which were ultimately destroyed in WWII were destroyed by the Soviet Union, not by the Allies. That’s a lot of heavy lifting by the Reds.
Yep. Reds know how to lift; Blues how to drag. off to some soft fiction now.
Keep your chin up. 😉 (keeps your nose cleaner)
The problem is that so many of our legislators are intellectual and moral midgets. All due apologies to midgets.
Aaron Gilmore seems nice …
I nearly had a fit! Stop it…
and midges too. Populuxe is well defined, refined and streamlined; tips are complementary. 😉 though rarely hot air or steam.