Rentiers of all stripes are always detrimental to society. This has been known for better than 2000 years which is why both main religions have rules against usury.
Capitalism and private property encourage rentier behaviour.
You’ll be interested in this quote from Noam Chomsky:
“…free enterprise, [is] a term that refers, in practice, to a system of public subsidy and private profit, with massive government intervention in the economy to maintain a welfare state for the rich.”
The Rentiers certainly are supported by the government and easy money from the banks who want to make on interest and a sure bet they can get their dough back by selling up, subsidised by the accommodation allowance from the public’s tax wealth. And no CGT of course. Most of our MPs are at this selfish game.
Our young people being turned into rent-for-life serfs. This wasn’t the kiwi way not so long ago!
“A $5 million study by a team of Wellington researchers aims to boost children’s health by improving New Zealand’s housing.”
This makes me very angry. We already know that improving housing improves children’s health. Has it really come to this that the govt has to fund research to prove that it’s not doing its job? Incompetent is the only word I can think of, although soul destroying and mindfuckery come to mind as well.
Good luck to the researchers, but I’d rather the $5m was spent on implementation.
Our government failed in it’s moral duty to legislate for sound warm housing for all, rather leaving the issue of housing up to an unregulated market. Despite that, no one will be held to account for the preventable death of the toddler.
About four years ago, I met a registered nurse who was involved in an Auckland Health Board (?) research study into housing and illness that was costing $2 million.
Dunedin flooding (I assume the last date is a typo)
“MetService meteorologist Arno Dayson said in the 23 hours until 11pm yesterday, 160.2mm of rain had fallen in Dunedin, more than double the previous record for a full day (83mm in May 2010) since records began in 2006.”
I’m guessing the water table is full. Unless that’s clay on the flat parts of the city? The fire brigade were saying there was nowhere to pump the water to last night. Hopefully we’ll see some reporting on the ground hydrology not just about how the drainage systems couldn’t handle it.
That too. But from what I remember South Dunedin is still largely suburban sections with lawns and gardens. Will be very interesting to see what comes out of this.
South Dunedin is total suburbia. A few years ago I buried a big dog in the backyard, I got about 3-4 feet deep into the lawn & it was all rocky, sandy & there were large puddles of water. We are below sea level here, in what used to be dunes & wetlands, I remember it flooding this high about 7 years ago, though it only lasted a few hours. Water is def going down, slowly, now the clean up begins.
The backyard looked a bit like the Somme last night, but otherwise I’m ok. It had drained away by this morning. I have Lindsay’s Creek right behind my house, but there’s quite a high flood wall in place. I understand it burst its banks a little further up the valley, though.
This will be difficult for the corporate vaccination industry to sweep under the carpet (but I expect they will)….because teenage girls have voices and can be quite articulate about what is ailing them…unlike vulnerable babies who can only cry
‘Thousands of teenage girls enduring debilitating illnesses after routine school cancer vaccination’
In some people HPV infections may cause benign warts or cancers of the cervix, vagina, penis, oropharynx and anus. In particular, HPV16 and HPV18 are known to cause around 70% of cervical cancer cases. A vaccine was developed which was posited to provide protection against these and the population at greatest risk of developing cervical cancers was offered free immunisation provided by the state.
As with all immunisation in NZ it is not compulsory.
It is hard to get females to attend cervical smears regularly. In fact, there have been many campaigns organised to do this.
As you know, cervical smears pick up cell anomalies, and if identification, diagnosis and treatment is done in a timely manner, result in practically 100% avoidance of development into cancer.
Gardasil literature also reinforces the need for regular smears to continue.
Human nature and personal discomfort should be taken into account. There is likely to be many women, who – after getting their vaccination – will delay or avoid getting regular smears – convincing themselves that they are safe. This is a foreseeable problem.
IIRC, the Gardasil vaccination programme cost $160 million. There were indications that a rollout for teenage boys would also take place.
In order to have a more accurate smear test, I pay an extra $25 at my GP.
I would have thought the amount spent on Gardasil could be spent on subsidising more accurate tests, or on facilitating random re-checks on smears for quality assurance. (There has been a delay in errors being picked up on smear results because of a lack of investment in this in the past).
When this campaign was running, I looked into the vaccine in order to determine whether to get my daughter vaccinated. IIRC, the effectiveness of vaccine against HPV 16, and HPV 18 was offset by the replacment of those HPVs with more virulent strains in some cases – increasing the likelihood of cancer from a different HPV.
A very quick google search on a source you may find credible shows up a letter to the NEMJ: “… Our editorial raised additional unanswered questions beyond the concerns addressed by Miller et al., including overall vaccine efficacy in women unexposed to relevant vaccine HPV types, effect on cytologic abnormalities, and effect on disease caused by HPV types not included in the vaccine. The last question is particularly important, in light of the surprising report of vulvar cancer in a 22-year-old trial participant who received the vaccine1; vulvar cancer is rare (overall incidence, 2.2 cases per 100,000 persons) and occurs at a median age of 68 years in the United States.2 This finding and the cited unanswered questions argue for a cautious approach to vaccination policy until trials have been completed and fully reported.
George F. Sawaya, M.D.
Karen Smith-McCune, M.D., Ph.D.
University of California at San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 94118”
At the time, I delved into reviews of the clinical trials, and peer reviews. I’m not going to do that all again. I’m guessing you have the ability to do so yourself.
Fundamentally, the human factor of avoiding smears because of assumed vaccination protection, is the one issue that was never dealt with adequately.
“In order to have a more accurate smear test, I pay an extra $25 at my GP.”
Sidestepping the vaccination debate going on here, do you mind me asking, Molly, what makes the more expensive test different from the standard cervical smear test?
I wasn’t even aware there was two different tests and need to find out more about it. (I had an abnormal result 25 years ago when I was a young un and try to keep on top of having regular smears despite the discomfort).
There isn’t a nurse available at the surgery that I go to that do the test so you need to be charged the Dr’s fee which is $43. For that reason I go to the family planning clinic where they charge $23. The Dame Margaret Sparrow clinic in fact, who coincidentally was interviewed on Radio Active this morning, about her life’s work and the contraception collection she has donated to Te Papa and is currently being exhibited there.
You don’t have to answer but I’d be interested to know how much you are being charged, all up. Any ideas where I can find out about this more accurate test?
Should be free btw, screening for reproductive cancers. Testing should be available to all, regardless of their financial status.
Hi Rosie, there is a free test. I have a very dour, but straight talking GP, whom offered a more “accurate” test a few years ago.
When I asked about it, she said that the processing allowed for more accurate results in finding anomalies. For the cost – around $25 – I took that option and have continued to do so. In this case, I couldn’t be bothered to do the research – as it is non-invasivve.
(Northshoredoc might know about it and the name of the supplier.)
Thanks Molly. Interesting. I asked my Dr about low cost/free testing and he referred me to family planning. When I asked them about it there was only the $23 option.
I was of the understanding that the screening process became more sophisticated and more advanced quite some years ago. Now I’m wondering if the older pap smears are still around and they may be free.
It is hard to get females to attend cervical smears regularly. In fact, there have been many campaigns organised to do this.
yep, this is a behavioural disaster in the making. I can think of better ways to have spent hundreds of millions of NZ health dollars than on some drug company’s unproven drug full of unknown risks.
As with all immunisation in NZ it is not compulsory.
Oh, how reassuring, at this late stage after all the pressure has been put on parents.
@ Molly …yes there have been bad side effects reported about this vaccine from the beginning…but it doesnt seem to stop them from promoting it or continue with blanket vaccination of young girls
…thank goodness my daughter was very skeptical if not rude about it and there was no way she would have taken this vaccination
The actual facts presented in the article: 8,000 “adverse drug reactions” reported related to HPV vaccine out of “many millions” of vaccinations administered.
No detail given on the criteria for reporting, whether people are more likely to report (vs other vaccines) because of the panic-mongering hype around the HPV vaccine, or clinical confirmation that the reactions were actually *caused* by the vaccine.
Given the infamous panic around the MMR vaccine – which many, many parents of autistic children “reported” was to blame for their kids’ condition – this isn’t really the killing blow to the HPV vaccine you seem to think it is.
Well, most STDs – not sure about warts offhand, or whether face-herpes or glandular fever counts.
And there’s always the “everyone should be celibate until marriage with a person known to be similarly celibate” bullshit, which is pretty reliable in the infintesimal proportion of folk who manage to apply it correctly.
And is the term “vaccine” applicable to bacterial diseases, in the same way that antibiotics only combat bacteria?
maybe NSDoc knows – the blanket “all” usually makes me hunt for counterexamples. ’tis an affliction of mine.
But encouraging condom use is definitely the most effective way of combating most STDs, including the 100% terminal STD called “life”.
But HPV can and will be largely eradicated by a vaccine that is many, many times safer than getting HPV.
Your spouting ignorance again. An effective vaccine will largely eradicate a disease. As an example, polio has been largely and almost entirely eradicated from most Western nations since the advent of the polio vaccine.
And is the term “vaccine” applicable to bacterial diseases, in the same way that antibiotics only combat bacteria?
A vaccine works by essentially teaching the immune system about the disease so that it recognises it and generates the correct anti-bodies when/if the body is actually infected by that disease. It doesn’t matter if the disease is bacterial or viral it still works the same way.
Given the infamous panic around the MMR vaccine – which many, many parents of autistic children “reported” was to blame for their kids’ condition – this isn’t really the killing blow to the HPV vaccine you seem to think it is.
What does “the killing blow” have to do with it?
The point is young women receiving damaging medical treatment paid for by tax payers and promoted by male dominated authorities. Parents have once again been pressured by authorities into giving children a vaccination for which they were not aware of potential awful side effects and the very minimal benefits. That’s unethical. That’s inexcusable.
Let’s be realistic, CV:
If gardasil was found to cause cancer at a lower rate than the current incidence HPV causes the same cancer, you’d still use the exact phrase “potential awful side effects and the very minimal benefits”. But it gardasil isn’t even that bad compared to getting HPV.
You’re patently unqualified and inadequate to discuss the science, efficacy, ethics, or medical effects of decisions to vaccinate or not. But that doesn’t stop you being a bigger medical propagandist than anything you claim about the MoH and ‘big pharma’ combined.
CV …
are you suggesting that humans should “get along” with hpv???
Did you not read the article in the Independent?
“In the UK, about 3,000 women a year are diagnosed with cervical cancer and it is estimated that about 400 lives could be saved every year as a result of vaccinating girls before they are infected with the human papilloma virus.”
The only issue here is that ‘big pharma’ must improve the vaccine so there are no, or very minor, side effects and that the improved vaccine ensures fewer people experience side effects
I read “gotten along” as co-existing as part of ecological history.
As for the statement “HPV kills people”, isn’t the current medical evidence showing that there are more than hundreds of HPV types and, from those, approximately 10 percent are cancer-causing ?
Whether the statement was delusonal (existed happily together and cooperated) or meaningless (simply existed at the same time) is a distinction about which I do not particularly care.
“In the unusual vaccine court, the government acts on behalf of pharmaceutical companies rather than the public, defending vaccine makers against alleged victims. Money damages are not paid by vaccine companies, but through fees collected from patients on every dose of vaccine.”
“Every visit to a doctor was met with rolled eyes,” said Mrs Ryalls. “Every mention of the HPV vaccination was met with hostility and ridicule. We were eventually referred to a local paediatrician who told her to push herself to get back to normal – ‘We all feel tired in the mornings, Emily’ was one of the remarks regarding her complete exhaustion.”
Health news: in pictures
Two years after falling ill, Emily was eventually referred to Dr Pradip Thakker at Queens Medical Centre in Nottingham; he used a tilt table test to diagnose PoTS (postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome), a condition where moving from lying down to standing up causes an abnormally high heart rate. By this time Emily was able to manage only three to four hours of school a week. Mrs Ryalls, who had built up a small publishing company from scratch, was forced to close it and become Emily’s full-time carer.
That adverse reaction reporting is still treated like this is very poor practice by health authorities and medical practitioners (although it does fit the pattern of chronic illness in general).
and the bit futher down where a health authority basically says too fucking bad people with chronic illness, we saved lives.
There’s actually no need for health systems or even pro-vaccine advocates to keep throwing people under the bus like this. Nor is it necessary to characterise adverse reporting as somehow hysterical.
I’d like to see a pubilc debate about the relative value of how lives are being saved and why those are used to invalidate the suffering of people still alive but whose lives and health have been destroyed. We already know that people with chronic illness are treated badly by society and the health system, esp people with illnesses that aren’t easily managed or treated by mainstream medical science., so it’s not surprisind that many related to vaccinations are going to farebadly. We can do much better.
The pro-vaccination lobby like to promote themselves as being rational, not evangelical. As evidence based, not dogmatic. As scientific, not belief driven.
Anti-vaccination is dogmatic, emotional and rejects medical science. FIFY
The ***behaviour*** of medical scientists is to constantly look for ways to prevent ill-health, and this includes to care about and try to remove the risk of side effects of medicines, vaccines…
Somehow on the basis of one person’s story about an unsympathetic perhaps arrogant doctor, you have invented a notion that ‘all’ those who trust in medical science are unconcerned about pain and side effects..
…if you are “offended” then maybe it is displaced…it may surprise you that many doctors also have reservations about some vaccines and they DO care about their clients and their own children and DON’T have them vaccinated with everything the drug companies push
…these doctors also RESPECT the opinions and experiences of their clients and the general public
…my advice to parents and girls is to shop around until you find a doctor who respects you , one that does NOT offend you or your intelligence and experience … or violate your wellbeing by pushing on you vaccines and drugs that could be harmful to your health…it should be informed and shared decision making , ultimately with the final decision up to you
Big Pharma and vaccinations are a billion dollar industry….not purely altruistic as you make out ….and there have been many mishaps and drugs withdrawn only under public pressure…after much harm has been done
“In her 2009 article “Drug Companies & Doctors: A Story of Corruption”, published in The New York Review of Books magazine, Angell wrote :[7]
…Similar conflicts of interest and biases exist in virtually every field of medicine, particularly those that rely heavily on drugs or devices. It is simply no longer possible to believe much of the clinical research that is published, or to rely on the judgment of trusted physicians or authoritative medical guidelines. I take no pleasure in this conclusion, which I reached slowly and reluctantly over my two decades as an editor of The New England Journal of Medicine …
( just one of many reservations from the medical profession)
Cheers, Chooky. I’m only slowly catching up with the HPV discussion here. I wondered, when I first starting reading this page this morning, if the discussion yesterday was sparked off by having something to do with the following …?
The ***behaviour*** of medical scientists is to constantly look for ways to prevent ill-health, and this includes to care about and try to remove the risk of side effects of medicines, vaccines…
Do you have a problem with that?
And the reason I’m offended is because CV chose to label all all those who know the value and importance of vaccination as somehow represented by the doctors who showed little sympathy to an obviously suffering person….
I remain offended – not just by CV’s insinuation, but now also by your outburst suggesting that somehow you think you know me well enough to suggest i’d be surprised that many doctors may have reservations about some vaccines.
As for your view that ‘doctors who are skeptical of vaccines really care about their patients..’ .(.oops you used the word “clients” which tells me more about your views than you profess to know about mine), is a stunning revelation – thank you.
And your quote from Angell …. spare me – this has nothing to do with the value and importance of vaccination, which is what I thought we were discussing on this thread.
Does anyone know why Labour aren’t catching the disgusting leakers? is there no desire to catch the traitors in their midst or are they just not organised enough?
It’s not that hard to catch leakers, just requires a bit of patience and discipline at HQ. These reports, and anything in print which is circulated, should always be created in batches with each batch subtly different to the rest.
With the wide use of spell checkers it’s easy to insert subtle spelling differences that wouldn’t be picked up, for example you could create a code of American/Englishisms. There’s all sorts of tricks that will eventually fool even the cautious; slightly varied phrases, using steganography etc. Over time you can narrow down the source of leaks and then start feeding a defined group even more doctored information until you catch them red-handed.
Maybe they did it on purpose to guage public reaction. change it and call the leaked doc a first draft… afterall there is a comment in the margin… now who would do that?
According to Reuters, an FBI official who spoke on condition of anonymity said Fifa’s decision to award the World Cups to Russia and Qatar respectively are part of an inquiry that is looking beyond the allegations in an indictment published last week that alleged endemic corruption at the world governing body.
Q. Who nominated the FBI as World Police ?
Q. Will the FBI investigate Israel running an open air prison and illegally occupying lands against International law rulings ?
Q. Why did the FBI not arrest the heads of Wells Fargo / HSBC et al for their role in the biggest money laundering racquets in history ?
Q. Why did the FBI not arrest the heads of those same banks for rigging the LIBOR / FX rates globally ?
The FBI are charged with investigating crime that involves American citizens and companies. They are looking for evidence that bribes were paid to win those bids and others. Fair enough, I would have thought.
It’s hardly surprising that the FBI enquiry will go wider than the first indictment. Not the least because that’s normal procedure in every police enquiry ever. As more evidence is found, more charges are laid. But also because there’s going to be a lot of crooks who are going to grass up their FIFA colleagues to avoid long jail sentences. Chuck Blazer was just the first of many who will roll over.
I’m asking agencies to focus on the political corruption of their governments and hold others to account through international organisations… corruption which impacts the lives of the poor and oppressed… which doesn’t include football players, employees and hosts of fifa events.
Try this one where it’s suggested that the corruption at FIFA would never have been caught if the Americans hadn’t got involved. This despite the author pointing out all the corruption in American sports.
“And another technique of indoctrination is to cut back faculty-student contact: large classes, temporary teachers who are overburdened, who can barely survive on an adjunct salary. And since you don’t have any job security, you can’t build up a career, you can’t move on and get more. These are all techniques of discipline, indoctrination, and control.” (Noam Chomsky) http://voxpopulisphere.com/2014/08/10/noam-chomsky-the-death-of-the-american-university/
Does anyone know who is sending these Flag cards that have ben sent by post to most households.?. it looks very much like the same sort of requiest that we recieved from The League of Rights , anyone know.
National MP Judith Collins tonight released emails that show a $30,000 door that will separate Labour MPs from National MPs sharing a floor in Parliament House was opposed by the National Party.
Mr Hipkins confirmed tonight that he also received the letter from Mr Robb, that he had he canvassed his MPs and that they wanted the door.
@nzherald: Maori TV’s star broadcaster Mihingarangi Forbes has quit the company after complaining of management interference in the Native Affairs show
The Herald has been told Forbes’ resignation came after the Native Affairs team were told they were not to run a story on Te Kohanga Reo National Trust, planned for Monday.
How deep into our MSM does the corruption and protection of the privileged go?
As predicted by some The Standard commentators last year, the outstanding journalist Mihi Forbes is now gone. It’s all very much like a McCarthy purge.
IF there existed a media company in New Zealand where journalism still mattered, the lucky owners would be grinning from ear to ear. They would be skipping down the hallways after every meeting as they planned the creation of what could be the most powerful current affairs show ever to grace the screens of Aotearoa.
Not that many years ago, networks would have been clamouring over each other to seal the deal.
Mihingarangi Forbes & John Campbell are apparently both available, at the same time. The scope of content such a pairing could carry is rare indeed. An added bonus of course is how they could design a completely new show from the ground up. It’s akin to a rare celestial event, but the opportunity will no doubt be ignored because who wants to go to all the hassle of lifting their heads to look at the sky.
Needless to say I don’t expect to see this show on our screens anytime soon 🙁
( btw, i really hope I am wrong)
No, it needs to be a much bigger and much more collective/collaborative idea than that. It needs to be an idea which can raise $10M plus in start up funds, and which changes the landscape of independent news and journalism in NZ, permanently.
Not sure what is happening with scoop. There was another online initiative that someone was trying to do last year, something with different pay for service levels, can’t remember what it was.
all these existing players, including some big names, need to come together collectively to seek major donors who will contribute to something which will last a generation.
Don’t need major donors, just lots of small ones. It’s the chasing after major donors while ignoring all the small ones that is killing the Left in general as major donors tend to have a right-wing tilt to them.
completely agree Draco (and Tracey). What’s missing is organising. There is a huge amount of support to do something, just needs someone to step up and do it (some people, plural).
But it should be online content shouldn’t it? TV is last century and the net is where people are finding their info. If you had a video blog site with Campbell presenting a 5-10 minute clip on a regional issue/political issue and these uploaded throughout the day. You could have regional reporters working remotely and filing stories and then with the Campbell presentation providing the polish. That could be a reduced cost approach anyway.
I agree maui. I may not have explicitly mentioned online content but took it as read, in the environment of the discussion taking place, that designing a new show would/could/should be centred around online media.
TV, as you say, is so last century. It cannot be denied however it still has an ‘authority of legitimacy’, albeit undeserved. Even in these supposedly enlightened times, many people still suffer the delusion that if it is not broadcast on TV it is not ‘proper news’.
Crowd-funded think tank, campaign/advocacy group, networking facilitator and news outlet in Scotland.
What is Common Weal?
Common Weal is a ‘think and do tank’ campaigning for social and economic equality in Scotland.
We are a think tank, a campaigning and advocacy organisation, a news service, a social media hub, a network of local groups and more. We are also a philosophy of a different kind of Scotland and how we can achieve it.
Our goal is to achieve a Scotland of social and economic equality and environmental sustainability with a vibrant community and cultural life, widespread democratic participation, a high quality of life and cooperative working. We believe there are a series of key ideas which can explain how we achieve that kind of Scotland. These are all linked to a vision of what a better Scotland could be.
Common Weal is a non-profit company with a Board drawn from Scotland’s leading activists and campaigners. It emerged during the Scottish independence referendum campaign and began operating as an independent organisation in October 2014.
We have a team of 13 staff who are divided into four units. The Policy Unit develops carefully thought-through policy proposals, carries our research, engages a wide community in policy discussions and seeks to make policy engaging and easy to understand. The Parliament and Campaigns Unit then campaigns in the Scottish Parliament and beyond to make those policies happen. The Common Weal Local team support and coordinate a series of local Common Weal groups. Each is autonomous and pursues its own priorities but all share the Common Weal philosophy and seek to make it a reality in their own communities. And CommonSpace is a news service and social media hub which seeks to bring people together, help them to organise and provide them with the news they want to read.
Common Weal is entirely funded through lots of small regular donations from our supporters, and from some merchandising and events income. Every penny is used to support all the activities above, overwhelmingly by enabling us to employ our staff.
I’m just reading through the Food document (in the Library) which is impressive. They’ve merged socioeconomics with the need for localising food production and going smaller scale and resilient/sustainable, and tied in AGW as well.
More sexual abuse breaches of confidentiality by this Government. I suppose when the leader thinks constantly pulling a stranger’s pony tale is funny, that a paedophile loose in Chile is funny that attempted rape isn’t serious enough to warrant an apology, we shouldnt be surprised.
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The Official Information Act has always been a battle between requesters seeking information, and governments seeking to control it. Information is power, so Ministers and government agencies want to manage what is released and when, for their own convenience, and legality and democracy be damned. Their most recent tactic for ...
TL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:Transport and Energy Minister Simeon Brown is accelerating plans to spend at least $10 billion through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) to extend State Highway One as a four-lane ‘Expressway’ from Warkworth to Whangarei ...
I live my life (woo-ooh-ooh)With no control in my destinyYea-yeah, yea-yeah (woo-ooh-ooh)I can bleed when I want to bleedSo come on, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)You can bleed when you want to bleedYea-yeah, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)Everybody bleed when they want to bleedCome on and bleedGovernments face tough challenges. Selling unpopular decisions to ...
Please note:To skip directly to the- parliamentary footage in the video, scroll to 1:21 To skip to audio please click on the headphone iconon the left hand side of the screenThis video / audio section is under development. ...
Given the crackdown on wasteful government spending, it behooves me to point to a high profile example of spending by the Luxon government that looks like a big, fat waste of time and money. I’m talking about the deployment of NZDF personnel to support the US-led coalition in the Red ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:40 am on Wednesday, July 24 are:Deep Dive: Chipping away at the housing crisis, including my comments RNZ/Newsroom’s The DetailNews: Government softens on asset sales, ...
As I reported about the city centre, Auckland’s rail network is also going through a difficult and disruptive period which is rapidly approaching a culmination, this will result in a significant upgrade to the whole network. Hallelujah. Also like the city centre this is an upgrade predicated on the City ...
Today, a 4 kilogram report will be delivered to Parliament. We know this is what the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care weighs, because our Prime Minister told us so.Some reporter had blindsided him by asking a question about something done by ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Wednesday, July 24, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Beehive:Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced plans to use PPPs to fund, build and run a four-lane expressway between Auckland ...
NewstalkZB host Mike Hosking, who can usually be relied on to give Prime Minister Christopher Luxon an easy run, did not do so yesterday when he interviewed him about the HealthNZ deficit. Luxon is trying to use a deficit reported last year by HealthNZ as yet another example of the ...
Back in January a StatsNZ employee gave a speech at Rātana on behalf of tangata whenua in which he insulted and criticised the government. The speech clearly violated the principle of a neutral public service, and StatsNZ started an investigation. Part of that was getting an external consultant to examine ...
Renting for life: Shared ownership initiatives are unlikely to slow the slide in home ownership by much. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:A Deloittereport for Westpac has projected Aotearoa’s home-ownership rate will ...
You're broken down and tiredOf living life on a merry go roundAnd you can't find the fighterBut I see it in you so we gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsWe gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsAnd I'll rise upI'll rise like the dayI'll rise upI'll rise unafraidI'll rise upAnd I'll ...
There’s been a change in Myers Park. Down the steps from St. Kevin’s Arcade, past the grassy slopes, the children’s playground, the benches and that goat statue, there has been a transformation. The underpass for Mayoral Drive has gone from a barren, grey, concrete tunnel, to a place that thrums ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Global society may have finally slammed on the brakes for climate-warming pollution released by human fossil fuel combustion. According to the Carbon Monitor Project, the total global climate pollution released between February and May 2024 declined slightly from the amount released during the same ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Tuesday, July 23 are:Deep Dive: Penlink: where tolling rhetoric meets reality BusinessDesk-$$$’sOliver LewisScoop:Te Pūkenga plans for regional polytechs leak out ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Tuesday, July 23, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Health: Shane Reti announcedthe Board of Te Whatu Ora-Health New Zealand was being replaced with Commissioner Lester Levy ...
Health NZ warned the Government at the end of March that it was running over Budget. But the reasons it gave were very different to those offered by the Prime Minister yesterday. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon blamed the “botched merger” of the 20 District Health Boards (DHBs) to create Health ...
Long ReadKey Summary: Although National increased the health budget by $1.4 billion in May, they used an old funding model to project health system costs, and never bothered to update their pre-election numbers. They were told during the Health Select Committees earlier in the year their budget amount was deficient, ...
As a momentous, historic weekend in US politics unfolded, analysts and commentators grasped for precedents and comparisons to help explain the significance and power of the choice Joe Biden had made. The 46th president had swept the Democratic party’s primaries but just over 100 days from the election had chosen ...
TL;DR: I’m casting around for new ideas and ways of thinking about Aotearoa’s political economy to find a few solutions to our cascading and self-reinforcing housing, poverty and climate crises.Associate Professor runs an online masters degree in the economics of sustainability at Torrens University in Australia and is organising ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on National's Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill. The bill sets up water for privatisation, and was introduced under urgency, then rammed through select committee with no time even for local councils to make a proper submission. Naturally, national's select committee ...
Some years ago, I bought a book at Dunedin’s Regent Booksale for $1.50. As one does. Vandrad the Viking (1898), by J. Storer Clouston, is an obscure book these days – I cannot find a proper online review – but soon it was sitting on my shelf, gathering dust alongside ...
History is not on the side of the centre-left, when Democratic presidents fall behind in the polls and choose not to run for re-election. On both previous occasions in the past 75 years (Harry Truman in 1952, Lyndon Johnson in 1968) the Democrats proceeded to then lose the White House ...
This is a free articleCoverageThis morning, US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the Presidential race. And that is genuinely newsworthy. Thanks for your service, President Biden, and all the best to you and yours.However, the media in New Zealand, particularly the 1News nightly bulletin, has been breathlessly covering ...
A homeless person’s camp beside a blocked-off slipped damage walkway in Freeman’s Bay: we are chasing our tail on our worsening and inter-related housing, poverty and climate crises. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Orderimage, ...
Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent talking about the National-ACT-NZ First Government’s release of its first Emissions Reduction Plan;University of Otago Foreign Relations Professor and special guest Dr Karin von ...
Open access notablesImproving global temperature datasets to better account for non-uniform warming, Calvert, Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society:To better account for spatial non-uniform trends in warming, a new GITD [global instrumental temperature dataset] was created that used maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) to combine the land surface ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi Māori rallied against the Crown’s attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hīkoi of a generation and the birth of Te Pāti Māori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinian’s have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinian’s who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Government’s disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whānau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they can’t escape on ...
Te Pāti Māori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. “This announcement is just another example of the government’s anti-Tiriti, anti-Māori agenda.” Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. “Seymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged. ...
Te Pāti Māori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. “Reinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Māori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. “This legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whānau out onto the street for no reason” said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “Their solution to the housing ...
“National’s campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,” Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
“There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,” Jan Tinetti said. ...
“This government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this government’s agenda and the future of our mokopuna,” said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
“Today’s climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,” Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how they’re taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
Tēnā tātou katoa, Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament’s test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Section 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. “The level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations I’ve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawke’s Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,” was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry “Whanaketia – through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “Tax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says a bill that has passed its first reading will improve parental leave settings and give non-biological parents more flexibility as primary carer for their child. The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (No3), passed its first reading this morning. “It includes a change ...
Two Bills designed to improve regulation and make it easier to do business have passed their first reading in Parliament, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. The Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Bill and Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Bill make key changes to legislation administered by the Ministry ...
New legislation paves the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Competitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. “Under current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and Whangārei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “For too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
Sir Don McKinnon will travel to Viet Nam this week as a Special Envoy of the Government, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “It is important that the Government give due recognition to the significant contributions that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made to New Zealand-Viet Nam relations,” Mr ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says newly appointed Commissioner, Grant Illingworth KC, will help deliver the report for the first phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons, due on 28 November 2024. “I am pleased to announce that Mr Illingworth will commence his appointment as ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters travels to Laos this week to participate in a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led Ministerial meetings in Vientiane. “ASEAN plays an important role in supporting a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” Mr Peters says. “This will be our third visit to ...
Construction of a new mental health facility at Te Nikau Grey Hospital in Greymouth is today one step closer, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says. “This $27 million facility shows this Government is delivering on its promise to boost mental health care and improve front line services,” Mr Doocey says. ...
New Zealand is committing nearly $50 million to a package supporting sustainable Pacific fisheries development over the next four years, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This support consisting of a range of initiatives demonstrates New Zealand’s commitment to assisting our Pacific partners ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says proposed changes to the Education and Training Amendment Bill will ensure charter schools have more flexibility to negotiate employment agreements and are equipped with the right teaching resources. “Cabinet has agreed to progress an amendment which means unions will not be able to initiate ...
In response to serious concerns around oversight, overspend and a significant deterioration in financial outlook, the Board of Health New Zealand will be replaced with a Commissioner, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti announced today. “The previous government’s botched health reforms have created significant financial challenges at Health NZ that, without ...
Minister for Space and Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins will travel to Adelaide tomorrow for space and science engagements, including speaking at the Australian Space Forum. While there she will also have meetings and visits with a focus on space, biotechnology and innovation. “New Zealand has a thriving space ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will travel to China on Saturday to attend the Ministerial on Climate Action meeting held in Wuhan. “Attending the Ministerial on Climate Action is an opportunity to advocate for New Zealand climate priorities and engage with our key partners on climate action,” Mr Watts says. ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is travelling to the Solomon Islands tomorrow for meetings with his counterparts from around the Pacific supporting collective management of the region’s fisheries. The 23rd Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Committee and the 5th Regional Fisheries Ministers’ Meeting in Honiara from 23 to 26 July ...
The Government today launched the Military Style Academy Pilot at Te Au rere a te Tonga Youth Justice residence in Palmerston North, an important part of the Government’s plan to crackdown on youth crime and getting youth offenders back on track, Minister for Children, Karen Chhour said today. “On the ...
The Government has welcomed news the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has begun work to replace nine priority bridges across the country to ensure our state highway network remains resilient, reliable, and efficient for road users, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“Increasing productivity and economic growth is a key priority for the ...
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour has been in contact throughout the evening with senior officials who have coordinated a whole of government response to the global IT outage and can provide an update. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has designated the National Emergency Management Agency as the ...
New Zealand and Japan will continue to step up their shared engagement with the Pacific, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand and Japan have a strong, shared interest in a free, open and stable Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “We are pleased to be finding more ways ...
New developments in the heart of North Island forestry country will reinvigorate their communities and boost economic development, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones visited Kaingaroa and Kawerau in Bay of Plenty today to open a landmark community centre in the former and a new connecting road in ...
President Adeang, fellow Ministers, honourable Diet Member Horii, Ambassadors, distinguished guests. Minasama, konnichiwa, and good afternoon, everyone. Distinguished guests, it’s a pleasure to be here with you today to talk about New Zealand’s foreign policy reset, the reasons for it, the values that underpin it, and how it ...
Last summer when Matairangi burned, Ginny and Tom stood at the window of their lounge, watching kākā shoot skyward from the burning trees. From the distance, they looked to Ginny like pages torn from books and thrown into a bonfire. It was Tom, voice tight, who told her it was ...
Opinion: The Canadian short story writer Alice Munro – winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013 – died in May at the age of 92. Her work was about “the damage people inflict on one another in the name of love”, Deborah Treisman wrote in the New Yorker. ...
This month marks two years since the most powerful telescope ever built sent its first pictures back to earth. From its lofty vantage point, beyond the moon in orbit around the sun, the James Webb Space Telescope was tuned to observe the first stars and galaxies being born soon after ...
Comment: After Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ preview several weeks ago, I had some optimism about the Government’s emissions reduction plan. Now I’ve read the discussion document, that hope has been dashed. How can the Government propose a plan that wants to take New Zealand taxpayers’ hard-earned money, and spend ...
Christopher Luxon: hurdles The little man from National jumps hurdles in his sleep. He’s quite good at it in his dreams and even though the reality doesn’t quite match up you have to give him credit for getting up every morning and crashing into the very first hurdle of the ...
Comment: It was a good two hours into the conversation when Tyrone Marks raised the most basic of questions when I first spoke to him in 2017. “They didn’t explain the things they did to me. They never told me why. And they still haven’t. There’s no explanation for it. ...
Madeleine Chapman rounds out Death Week on The Spinoff with a final recommendation. You can read all of our Death Week coverage here. Nothing forces you to reflect on your life and relationships quite like proximity to death. For those whose nearest and dearest have died, there are reasonably obvious ...
Whitney Greene takes us through her life in television, including the TV character she’d like to plan a funeral for and her cow lung catastrophe on The Traitors NZ. “If the phone rings, I have to answer it,” Whitney Greene from The Traitors NZ warns as we begin our My ...
Maddie Ballard reviews the debut essay collection of Pōneke writer Flora Feltham.In ‘The Raw Material’, the longest essay in Flora Feltham’s dazzling debut collection, the author heads out for a run after hours of weaving and sees the world turn to textile. “Pounding along the Parade, I saw the ...
Andy Christiansen, one half of the experimental rock-pop duo TRiPS, shares the tunes inspiring the band’s perfect weekend and new release. “Good speakers, good food, good music, no distractions”: that’s all you need to enjoy the psychedelic stylings of TRiPS, a new band formed by Fly My Pretties’ Barnaby Weir ...
Celebrating our quadrennial opportunity to become experts in a bunch of sports we never normally watch.The games of the XXXIII Olympiad are upon us. Paris will host this year’s showcase of sporting and athletic prowess, which means some late-night and early-morning viewing for us in Aotearoa.But what sports ...
The photograph is striking and beautiful, but also disturbing – a reminder that my love for John was often entangled in shame.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.In the spring of 1980, in Dunedin, shortly before his death, someone took a photograph ...
Get to know Babushka, our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Babu’s humans, Jo and Isabel, for their support. Dog name: Babushka (Babu for short) Age: 2Breed: Border Collie X poodleIf rescued, ...
Pacific Media Watch A Lebanese photojournalist who was severely wounded during an Israeli air strike in south Lebanon carried the Olympic torch in Paris this week in honour of her peers who have been wounded and killed in the field — especially in Gaza and Lebanon. Christina Assi of Agence ...
The first report in a five-part web series focused on the 15th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women taking place in the Marshall Islands this week.SPECIAL REPORT:By Netani Rika in Majuro Women continue to fight for justice 70 years after the first nuclear tests by the United States caused ...
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http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2015/06/martin_weitzman.html
An interesting discussion from the right on climate change apropos James Shaw’s position.
From Wikipedia.
‘Weitzman serves as a consultant to The World Bank, Stanford Research Institute, International Monetary Fund’
So a pillar of the neoliberal system, then….
The Herald’s editorial saying Key should accept Shaw’s CC offer,
http://m.nzherald.co.nz/climate-change/news/article.cfm?c_id=26&objectid=11459348
Yes, and if you think that’s bad look up Russ Roberts the interviewer.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/69058217/new-5-million-study-to-boost-childrens-health-by-improving-housing.html
Landlords….providing a valuable service, or exploiting both the NZ tax and benefit system to the detriment of the community?
Rentiers of all stripes are always detrimental to society. This has been known for better than 2000 years which is why both main religions have rules against usury.
Capitalism and private property encourage rentier behaviour.
100% DTB
You’ll be interested in this quote from Noam Chomsky:
“…free enterprise, [is] a term that refers, in practice, to a system of public subsidy and private profit, with massive government intervention in the economy to maintain a welfare state for the rich.”
The Rentiers certainly are supported by the government and easy money from the banks who want to make on interest and a sure bet they can get their dough back by selling up, subsidised by the accommodation allowance from the public’s tax wealth. And no CGT of course. Most of our MPs are at this selfish game.
Our young people being turned into rent-for-life serfs. This wasn’t the kiwi way not so long ago!
“A $5 million study by a team of Wellington researchers aims to boost children’s health by improving New Zealand’s housing.”
This makes me very angry. We already know that improving housing improves children’s health. Has it really come to this that the govt has to fund research to prove that it’s not doing its job? Incompetent is the only word I can think of, although soul destroying and mindfuckery come to mind as well.
Good luck to the researchers, but I’d rather the $5m was spent on implementation.
Good housing was known in the 1930s to be critical to good health. All the rest of this is just for the appearance of doing something.
Correct:
This death is a direct result of the poverty that capitalism produces.
A good pro bono lawyer needs to step up on that one.
+1 weka, CR and Draco.
Our government failed in it’s moral duty to legislate for sound warm housing for all, rather leaving the issue of housing up to an unregulated market. Despite that, no one will be held to account for the preventable death of the toddler.
About four years ago, I met a registered nurse who was involved in an Auckland Health Board (?) research study into housing and illness that was costing $2 million.
All this research and no effective responses…
I suggest follow up studies
🙂
Anyone seen this?
http://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/well-good/teach-me/69061635/chocolate-weightloss-study-was-a-fake-research-troll-reveals
Great example of how people and media get manipulated.
Just substitute any number of National’s policies, and it becomes frighteningly clear how easily people get taken in.
Dunedin flooding (I assume the last date is a typo)
“MetService meteorologist Arno Dayson said in the 23 hours until 11pm yesterday, 160.2mm of rain had fallen in Dunedin, more than double the previous record for a full day (83mm in May 2010) since records began in 2006.”
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/344634/record-rainfall-city-awash
Quite a few standardistas in Dunedin, hope you are all well.
Street still flooded, houses on corners of st where the road is deepest have been flooded, water has maybe gone down a couple inches, but very slowly.
I’m guessing the water table is full. Unless that’s clay on the flat parts of the city? The fire brigade were saying there was nowhere to pump the water to last night. Hopefully we’ll see some reporting on the ground hydrology not just about how the drainage systems couldn’t handle it.
I’m guessing that the land is covered in concrete, tar-seal and buildings.
That too. But from what I remember South Dunedin is still largely suburban sections with lawns and gardens. Will be very interesting to see what comes out of this.
South Dunedin is total suburbia. A few years ago I buried a big dog in the backyard, I got about 3-4 feet deep into the lawn & it was all rocky, sandy & there were large puddles of water. We are below sea level here, in what used to be dunes & wetlands, I remember it flooding this high about 7 years ago, though it only lasted a few hours. Water is def going down, slowly, now the clean up begins.
ok, that makes sense.
Do you remember what time of year the last flood was?
The backyard looked a bit like the Somme last night, but otherwise I’m ok. It had drained away by this morning. I have Lindsay’s Creek right behind my house, but there’s quite a high flood wall in place. I understand it burst its banks a little further up the valley, though.
Given that FIFA events seem to be allocated by bribe who paid who to have the Under Twenty held here?
charlie dempsey but with his votes over the years
Ask TRP
Its not a bribe its a facilitation payment
haha. talley could be a facilitation payer and the national party could be a facilitation payee. brilliant.
This will be difficult for the corporate vaccination industry to sweep under the carpet (but I expect they will)….because teenage girls have voices and can be quite articulate about what is ailing them…unlike vulnerable babies who can only cry
‘Thousands of teenage girls enduring debilitating illnesses after routine school cancer vaccination’
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/thousands-of-teenage-girls-enduring-debilitating-illnesses-after-routine-school-cancer-vaccination-10286876.html?origi
The Gardasil programme was always ill conceived.
Why was it ill conceived Molly ?
Seems a fairly sound concept to me.
In some people HPV infections may cause benign warts or cancers of the cervix, vagina, penis, oropharynx and anus. In particular, HPV16 and HPV18 are known to cause around 70% of cervical cancer cases. A vaccine was developed which was posited to provide protection against these and the population at greatest risk of developing cervical cancers was offered free immunisation provided by the state.
As with all immunisation in NZ it is not compulsory.
It is hard to get females to attend cervical smears regularly. In fact, there have been many campaigns organised to do this.
As you know, cervical smears pick up cell anomalies, and if identification, diagnosis and treatment is done in a timely manner, result in practically 100% avoidance of development into cancer.
Gardasil literature also reinforces the need for regular smears to continue.
Human nature and personal discomfort should be taken into account. There is likely to be many women, who – after getting their vaccination – will delay or avoid getting regular smears – convincing themselves that they are safe. This is a foreseeable problem.
IIRC, the Gardasil vaccination programme cost $160 million. There were indications that a rollout for teenage boys would also take place.
In order to have a more accurate smear test, I pay an extra $25 at my GP.
I would have thought the amount spent on Gardasil could be spent on subsidising more accurate tests, or on facilitating random re-checks on smears for quality assurance. (There has been a delay in errors being picked up on smear results because of a lack of investment in this in the past).
When this campaign was running, I looked into the vaccine in order to determine whether to get my daughter vaccinated. IIRC, the effectiveness of vaccine against HPV 16, and HPV 18 was offset by the replacment of those HPVs with more virulent strains in some cases – increasing the likelihood of cancer from a different HPV.
A very quick google search on a source you may find credible shows up a letter to the NEMJ:
“… Our editorial raised additional unanswered questions beyond the concerns addressed by Miller et al., including overall vaccine efficacy in women unexposed to relevant vaccine HPV types, effect on cytologic abnormalities, and effect on disease caused by HPV types not included in the vaccine. The last question is particularly important, in light of the surprising report of vulvar cancer in a 22-year-old trial participant who received the vaccine1; vulvar cancer is rare (overall incidence, 2.2 cases per 100,000 persons) and occurs at a median age of 68 years in the United States.2 This finding and the cited unanswered questions argue for a cautious approach to vaccination policy until trials have been completed and fully reported.
George F. Sawaya, M.D.
Karen Smith-McCune, M.D., Ph.D.
University of California at San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 94118”
At the time, I delved into reviews of the clinical trials, and peer reviews. I’m not going to do that all again. I’m guessing you have the ability to do so yourself.
Fundamentally, the human factor of avoiding smears because of assumed vaccination protection, is the one issue that was never dealt with adequately.
“In order to have a more accurate smear test, I pay an extra $25 at my GP.”
Sidestepping the vaccination debate going on here, do you mind me asking, Molly, what makes the more expensive test different from the standard cervical smear test?
I wasn’t even aware there was two different tests and need to find out more about it. (I had an abnormal result 25 years ago when I was a young un and try to keep on top of having regular smears despite the discomfort).
There isn’t a nurse available at the surgery that I go to that do the test so you need to be charged the Dr’s fee which is $43. For that reason I go to the family planning clinic where they charge $23. The Dame Margaret Sparrow clinic in fact, who coincidentally was interviewed on Radio Active this morning, about her life’s work and the contraception collection she has donated to Te Papa and is currently being exhibited there.
You don’t have to answer but I’d be interested to know how much you are being charged, all up. Any ideas where I can find out about this more accurate test?
Should be free btw, screening for reproductive cancers. Testing should be available to all, regardless of their financial status.
Hi Rosie, there is a free test. I have a very dour, but straight talking GP, whom offered a more “accurate” test a few years ago.
When I asked about it, she said that the processing allowed for more accurate results in finding anomalies. For the cost – around $25 – I took that option and have continued to do so. In this case, I couldn’t be bothered to do the research – as it is non-invasivve.
(Northshoredoc might know about it and the name of the supplier.)
Thanks Molly. Interesting. I asked my Dr about low cost/free testing and he referred me to family planning. When I asked them about it there was only the $23 option.
I was of the understanding that the screening process became more sophisticated and more advanced quite some years ago. Now I’m wondering if the older pap smears are still around and they may be free.
yep, this is a behavioural disaster in the making. I can think of better ways to have spent hundreds of millions of NZ health dollars than on some drug company’s unproven drug full of unknown risks.
Oh, how reassuring, at this late stage after all the pressure has been put on parents.
@ Molly …yes there have been bad side effects reported about this vaccine from the beginning…but it doesnt seem to stop them from promoting it or continue with blanket vaccination of young girls
…thank goodness my daughter was very skeptical if not rude about it and there was no way she would have taken this vaccination
There are many stories about the assumption of consent being made at schools over the implementation of this vaccine.
And other personal stories about coercion and pressure being used on students that declined.
It did seem a little weird to vaccinate against one STD and not others.
We do vaccinate against other STDs where there are vaccines available Rosemary.
Unfortunately for most there are no vaccines available.
doc
is there a gender divide in std stats or does it afflict close to 50/50
Around 50/50 I believe with the longer term adverse outcomes being down to the differences in plumbing.
I’ll ask one go the O&Gs at tea and get back to you.
thanks doc. much appreciated.
As above Tracey, apparently almost all of us will be exposed as adults.
Thanks Doc, I wondered if more women than men (or vice versa) contract STD’s but ow to your access to that knowledge.
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2013/06/14/editorials/hpv-vaccine-raises-questions/#.VVk2nEZF0q_
Japan
The actual facts presented in the article: 8,000 “adverse drug reactions” reported related to HPV vaccine out of “many millions” of vaccinations administered.
No detail given on the criteria for reporting, whether people are more likely to report (vs other vaccines) because of the panic-mongering hype around the HPV vaccine, or clinical confirmation that the reactions were actually *caused* by the vaccine.
Given the infamous panic around the MMR vaccine – which many, many parents of autistic children “reported” was to blame for their kids’ condition – this isn’t really the killing blow to the HPV vaccine you seem to think it is.
Whether one is pro or anti vaccination is immaterial when it comes to this particular vaccine.
A vaccine to give protection against one sexually transmitted disease when there are so many other STDs one can be exposed to seems illogical.
And those other STDs are getting harder to manage due to antibiotic resistance.
The only protection against the other diseases is the use of condoms.
No it doesn’t. If you only have a vaccine for one then you apply it. You don’t wait until you’ve got a vaccine for all of them before doing so.
A condom is the only protection against the spread of all STDs.
what?
Nope, can’t see what your problem is.
Well, most STDs – not sure about warts offhand, or whether face-herpes or glandular fever counts.
And there’s always the “everyone should be celibate until marriage with a person known to be similarly celibate” bullshit, which is pretty reliable in the infintesimal proportion of folk who manage to apply it correctly.
And is the term “vaccine” applicable to bacterial diseases, in the same way that antibiotics only combat bacteria?
maybe NSDoc knows – the blanket “all” usually makes me hunt for counterexamples. ’tis an affliction of mine.
But encouraging condom use is definitely the most effective way of combating most STDs, including the 100% terminal STD called “life”.
But HPV can and will be largely eradicated by a vaccine that is many, many times safer than getting HPV.
the vaccine has zero chance of “largely eradicating” hpv. not even at the global cost of $100B gifted to big pharma.
hell, talk about human hubris; hpv and its close relations are very likely to outlast homo sapiens full stop.
Your spouting ignorance again. An effective vaccine will largely eradicate a disease. As an example, polio has been largely and almost entirely eradicated from most Western nations since the advent of the polio vaccine.
ooooh, my smallpox has been acting up something wicked lately.
A vaccine works by essentially teaching the immune system about the disease so that it recognises it and generates the correct anti-bodies when/if the body is actually infected by that disease. It doesn’t matter if the disease is bacterial or viral it still works the same way.
one of several questions I’d like to look into further before saying “condoms prevent all STDs”.
What does “the killing blow” have to do with it?
The point is young women receiving damaging medical treatment paid for by tax payers and promoted by male dominated authorities. Parents have once again been pressured by authorities into giving children a vaccination for which they were not aware of potential awful side effects and the very minimal benefits. That’s unethical. That’s inexcusable.
+100 CR
Let’s be realistic, CV:
If gardasil was found to cause cancer at a lower rate than the current incidence HPV causes the same cancer, you’d still use the exact phrase “potential awful side effects and the very minimal benefits”. But it gardasil isn’t even that bad compared to getting HPV.
You’re patently unqualified and inadequate to discuss the science, efficacy, ethics, or medical effects of decisions to vaccinate or not. But that doesn’t stop you being a bigger medical propagandist than anything you claim about the MoH and ‘big pharma’ combined.
humans and hpv have gotten along for a very long time. humans and gardasil – hardly any time whatsoever. and it shows.
lol
“gotten along”?
HPV kills people.
CV …
are you suggesting that humans should “get along” with hpv???
Did you not read the article in the Independent?
“In the UK, about 3,000 women a year are diagnosed with cervical cancer and it is estimated that about 400 lives could be saved every year as a result of vaccinating girls before they are infected with the human papilloma virus.”
The only issue here is that ‘big pharma’ must improve the vaccine so there are no, or very minor, side effects and that the improved vaccine ensures fewer people experience side effects
I read “gotten along” as co-existing as part of ecological history.
As for the statement “HPV kills people”, isn’t the current medical evidence showing that there are more than hundreds of HPV types and, from those, approximately 10 percent are cancer-causing ?
Whether the statement was delusonal (existed happily together and cooperated) or meaningless (simply existed at the same time) is a distinction about which I do not particularly care.
And yes, “HPV types 16 and 18 cause an estimated 70% of cervical cancers“. Those and the wart strains are what gardasil is targetted at (interesting – didn’t know it did genital warts as well).
https://sharylattkisson.com/
Various subjects covered ….
“In the unusual vaccine court, the government acts on behalf of pharmaceutical companies rather than the public, defending vaccine makers against alleged victims. Money damages are not paid by vaccine companies, but through fees collected from patients on every dose of vaccine.”
https://sharylattkisson.com/
Definitely in the WTF category.
Vaccine court injury payouts are seen as a simple cost of doing business
RWNJ Benghazi truther says shit.
/
http://www.mediaite.com/online/cbs-news-sharyl-attkisson-also-presented-invented-benghazi-emails-as-authentic/
http://www.salon.com/2015/02/02/a_right_wing_hack_undone_sharyl_attkissons_white_house_hacking_allegation_takes_a_hit/
So you went looking for dirt on the journalist as opposed to reading the material and commenting on it
Clever boy
Any chance of you making a comment on the analyses of the vaccination injury court?
That’s a good solid article, thanks.
This bit jumps out at me,
That adverse reaction reporting is still treated like this is very poor practice by health authorities and medical practitioners (although it does fit the pattern of chronic illness in general).
and the bit futher down where a health authority basically says too fucking bad people with chronic illness, we saved lives.
There’s actually no need for health systems or even pro-vaccine advocates to keep throwing people under the bus like this. Nor is it necessary to characterise adverse reporting as somehow hysterical.
I’d like to see a pubilc debate about the relative value of how lives are being saved and why those are used to invalidate the suffering of people still alive but whose lives and health have been destroyed. We already know that people with chronic illness are treated badly by society and the health system, esp people with illnesses that aren’t easily managed or treated by mainstream medical science., so it’s not surprisind that many related to vaccinations are going to farebadly. We can do much better.
The pro-vaccination lobby like to promote themselves as being rational, not evangelical. As evidence based, not dogmatic. As scientific, not belief driven.
But what does their ***behaviour*** tell you.
+100 CR
Anti-vaccination is dogmatic, emotional and rejects medical science. FIFY
The ***behaviour*** of medical scientists is to constantly look for ways to prevent ill-health, and this includes to care about and try to remove the risk of side effects of medicines, vaccines…
Somehow on the basis of one person’s story about an unsympathetic perhaps arrogant doctor, you have invented a notion that ‘all’ those who trust in medical science are unconcerned about pain and side effects..
i’m offended
…if you are “offended” then maybe it is displaced…it may surprise you that many doctors also have reservations about some vaccines and they DO care about their clients and their own children and DON’T have them vaccinated with everything the drug companies push
…these doctors also RESPECT the opinions and experiences of their clients and the general public
…my advice to parents and girls is to shop around until you find a doctor who respects you , one that does NOT offend you or your intelligence and experience … or violate your wellbeing by pushing on you vaccines and drugs that could be harmful to your health…it should be informed and shared decision making , ultimately with the final decision up to you
Big Pharma and vaccinations are a billion dollar industry….not purely altruistic as you make out ….and there have been many mishaps and drugs withdrawn only under public pressure…after much harm has been done
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcia_Angell
“In her 2009 article “Drug Companies & Doctors: A Story of Corruption”, published in The New York Review of Books magazine, Angell wrote :[7]
…Similar conflicts of interest and biases exist in virtually every field of medicine, particularly those that rely heavily on drugs or devices. It is simply no longer possible to believe much of the clinical research that is published, or to rely on the judgment of trusted physicians or authoritative medical guidelines. I take no pleasure in this conclusion, which I reached slowly and reluctantly over my two decades as an editor of The New England Journal of Medicine …
( just one of many reservations from the medical profession)
Cheers, Chooky. I’m only slowly catching up with the HPV discussion here. I wondered, when I first starting reading this page this morning, if the discussion yesterday was sparked off by having something to do with the following …?
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/69091525/hpv-vaccination-report-should-not-scare-parents-health-professionals-say
chooky re-read what I wrote:
The ***behaviour*** of medical scientists is to constantly look for ways to prevent ill-health, and this includes to care about and try to remove the risk of side effects of medicines, vaccines…
Do you have a problem with that?
And the reason I’m offended is because CV chose to label all all those who know the value and importance of vaccination as somehow represented by the doctors who showed little sympathy to an obviously suffering person….
I remain offended – not just by CV’s insinuation, but now also by your outburst suggesting that somehow you think you know me well enough to suggest i’d be surprised that many doctors may have reservations about some vaccines.
As for your view that ‘doctors who are skeptical of vaccines really care about their patients..’ .(.oops you used the word “clients” which tells me more about your views than you profess to know about mine), is a stunning revelation – thank you.
And your quote from Angell …. spare me – this has nothing to do with the value and importance of vaccination, which is what I thought we were discussing on this thread.
If you want to talk about the judgement of trusted physicians please direct your attention to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Wakefield
More disturbing news from the UK
‘Threat to scrap Human Rights Act could see UK follow Nazi example, warns UN official’
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/threat-to-scrap-human-rights-act-could-see-uk-follow-nazi-example-warns-un-official-10287557.html
Well, a few of people have been saying that the West has been becoming fascist for quite a while now. This is just one more example.
Does anyone know why Labour aren’t catching the disgusting leakers? is there no desire to catch the traitors in their midst or are they just not organised enough?
It’s not that hard to catch leakers, just requires a bit of patience and discipline at HQ. These reports, and anything in print which is circulated, should always be created in batches with each batch subtly different to the rest.
With the wide use of spell checkers it’s easy to insert subtle spelling differences that wouldn’t be picked up, for example you could create a code of American/Englishisms. There’s all sorts of tricks that will eventually fool even the cautious; slightly varied phrases, using steganography etc. Over time you can narrow down the source of leaks and then start feeding a defined group even more doctored information until you catch them red-handed.
Maybe they did it on purpose to guage public reaction. change it and call the leaked doc a first draft… afterall there is a comment in the margin… now who would do that?
You don’t even have to do visible spelling changes.
Punctuation changes – from , to -. or from : to – are impossible to detect when reading a single copy.
Invisible characters that will get picked up from a “cut and paste” are also possible.
http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/jun/03/fbi-investigating-fifa-2018-2022-world-cup
According to Reuters, an FBI official who spoke on condition of anonymity said Fifa’s decision to award the World Cups to Russia and Qatar respectively are part of an inquiry that is looking beyond the allegations in an indictment published last week that alleged endemic corruption at the world governing body.
Q. Who nominated the FBI as World Police ?
Q. Will the FBI investigate Israel running an open air prison and illegally occupying lands against International law rulings ?
Q. Why did the FBI not arrest the heads of Wells Fargo / HSBC et al for their role in the biggest money laundering racquets in history ?
Q. Why did the FBI not arrest the heads of those same banks for rigging the LIBOR / FX rates globally ?
SHAM / FARCE
The FBI are charged with investigating crime that involves American citizens and companies. They are looking for evidence that bribes were paid to win those bids and others. Fair enough, I would have thought.
It’s hardly surprising that the FBI enquiry will go wider than the first indictment. Not the least because that’s normal procedure in every police enquiry ever. As more evidence is found, more charges are laid. But also because there’s going to be a lot of crooks who are going to grass up their FIFA colleagues to avoid long jail sentences. Chuck Blazer was just the first of many who will roll over.
The FBI are charged with investigating crime that involves American citizens and companies.
The FBI are instructed as to who/what they can investigate and when they are to investigate
FIFY
Chuck Blazer – ‘ I waited xx years before saying anything at all’ – A stand up bloke
Bed wetters of the world come together
SHAME / FARCE
Meaningless dribble, Murphey. Are you Gareth Bale in disguise?
Leaving aside the ‘I won’t be playing’ response – Are you Darren Anderton in disguise ?
The FBI are a sham / farce / joke / for hire agency parading around on behalf of whoever has instructed them to act
How dare you impugn a good Tottenham boy.
more importantly why arent they coming down harder on various corrupt acts by govts around the world. i love the beautiful game …..but
Q. Are you asking for the FBI to be acting against world governments ?
nope.
I’m asking agencies to focus on the political corruption of their governments and hold others to account through international organisations… corruption which impacts the lives of the poor and oppressed… which doesn’t include football players, employees and hosts of fifa events.
Understand and agree
Is it just me, or does anyone else get the feeling that Blatter is the spitting image of Key, just a few years older?
Just you
Not in looks but in MO definatly , I would imagine key idolizes the likes of Blatter .
Try this one where it’s suggested that the corruption at FIFA would never have been caught if the Americans hadn’t got involved. This despite the author pointing out all the corruption in American sports.
The record rainfall in Dunedin was a record for the last 9 years
And hardly compares with the 12 inches that fell in 1923
Nice bit of info there Ray (12″ = 305mm)
TPPA relevations:
http://rt.com/news/264745-wikileaks-secret-tisa-documents/
“And another technique of indoctrination is to cut back faculty-student contact: large classes, temporary teachers who are overburdened, who can barely survive on an adjunct salary. And since you don’t have any job security, you can’t build up a career, you can’t move on and get more. These are all techniques of discipline, indoctrination, and control.” (Noam Chomsky)
http://voxpopulisphere.com/2014/08/10/noam-chomsky-the-death-of-the-american-university/
Does anyone know who is sending these Flag cards that have ben sent by post to most households.?. it looks very much like the same sort of requiest that we recieved from The League of Rights , anyone know.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11459417
National MP Judith Collins tonight released emails that show a $30,000 door that will separate Labour MPs from National MPs sharing a floor in Parliament House was opposed by the National Party.
Mr Hipkins confirmed tonight that he also received the letter from Mr Robb, that he had he canvassed his MPs and that they wanted the door.
Yep
but she deleted her own emails rather than give them to an enquiry, this ‘nothing to fear nothing to hide” person of the public purse you write of.
Audrey Young is on the ball, isn’t she. In fact she was so quick to pimp for Collins that she lost the ability to write English
“Mr Macindoe’s reply her and the six other MPs he consulted says:…”
To hard to admit Collins dealt to Hipkins? (although Hipkins made it pretty easy for her)
Just pointing out the hypocrisy PR, sorry if I was too subtle.
Hipkins, he is in the Labour Party right?
Another one bites the dust,
@nzherald: Maori TV’s star broadcaster Mihingarangi Forbes has quit the company after complaining of management interference in the Native Affairs show
Star Maori TV broadcaster Mihingarangi Forbes quits
How deep into our MSM does the corruption and protection of the privileged go?
What has the Maori Party had to say, about the resignation and the story not being run?
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/275358/charter-schools-report-top-marks
The models looking good so far
can you confirm their total funding per student compared to public school funding per student? Thanks in advance.
As predicted by some The Standard commentators last year, the outstanding journalist Mihi Forbes is now gone. It’s all very much like a McCarthy purge.
Karen and Rawshark-yeshe were prescient
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-22102014/#comment-915334
John Campbell and Mihinragi Forbes two top reporters needing a vehicle for there reporting. Surely there’s a way ?
IF there existed a media company in New Zealand where journalism still mattered, the lucky owners would be grinning from ear to ear. They would be skipping down the hallways after every meeting as they planned the creation of what could be the most powerful current affairs show ever to grace the screens of Aotearoa.
Not that many years ago, networks would have been clamouring over each other to seal the deal.
Mihingarangi Forbes & John Campbell are apparently both available, at the same time. The scope of content such a pairing could carry is rare indeed. An added bonus of course is how they could design a completely new show from the ground up. It’s akin to a rare celestial event, but the opportunity will no doubt be ignored because who wants to go to all the hassle of lifting their heads to look at the sky.
Needless to say I don’t expect to see this show on our screens anytime soon 🙁
( btw, i really hope I am wrong)
crowdfunding for SCOOP to take on mihingarani Forbes
No, it needs to be a much bigger and much more collective/collaborative idea than that. It needs to be an idea which can raise $10M plus in start up funds, and which changes the landscape of independent news and journalism in NZ, permanently.
i was looking at an idea to employ 1 great journalist with resources.
but you go ahead with your idea instead. i will donate. let me know when you are open for donations.
I’ve already written to a few people about the concept. Thank you for your support tracey.
thers alot of disgruntled cl supporters out there.
this is a one time opportunity to change the face of independent media in nz.
Have invited Scoop’s business development manager to join this thread
These people are doing a kind of news outlet via crowdfunding
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-04062015/#comment-1025143
i saw that.i like the notion of utlising scoop. they have existing networks. cv also is putting irons in the fire.
Not sure what is happening with scoop. There was another online initiative that someone was trying to do last year, something with different pay for service levels, can’t remember what it was.
all these existing players, including some big names, need to come together collectively to seek major donors who will contribute to something which will last a generation.
I was thinking that too. Lots of people are talking about it, which is good, and so far it’s all dispersed.
ditto
Don’t need major donors, just lots of small ones. It’s the chasing after major donors while ignoring all the small ones that is killing the Left in general as major donors tend to have a right-wing tilt to them.
and/or subscribers…
completely agree Draco (and Tracey). What’s missing is organising. There is a huge amount of support to do something, just needs someone to step up and do it (some people, plural).
But it should be online content shouldn’t it? TV is last century and the net is where people are finding their info. If you had a video blog site with Campbell presenting a 5-10 minute clip on a regional issue/political issue and these uploaded throughout the day. You could have regional reporters working remotely and filing stories and then with the Campbell presentation providing the polish. That could be a reduced cost approach anyway.
I agree maui. I may not have explicitly mentioned online content but took it as read, in the environment of the discussion taking place, that designing a new show would/could/should be centred around online media.
TV, as you say, is so last century. It cannot be denied however it still has an ‘authority of legitimacy’, albeit undeserved. Even in these supposedly enlightened times, many people still suffer the delusion that if it is not broadcast on TV it is not ‘proper news’.
yes, that is why I think scoop needs to be involved…
Campbell himself would take a huge chunk out of the budget. It doesn’t reuire him, it requires people focussing on the stuff that CL offered.
Crowd-funded think tank, campaign/advocacy group, networking facilitator and news outlet in Scotland.
http://allofusfirst.org/what-is-common-weal/
a very good model to pivot off
I’m just reading through the Food document (in the Library) which is impressive. They’ve merged socioeconomics with the need for localising food production and going smaller scale and resilient/sustainable, and tied in AGW as well.
More sexual abuse breaches of confidentiality by this Government. I suppose when the leader thinks constantly pulling a stranger’s pony tale is funny, that a paedophile loose in Chile is funny that attempted rape isn’t serious enough to warrant an apology, we shouldnt be surprised.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/275279/child-abuse-details-sent-to-wrong-personit's not a serious topic for an apology
Still, keeping TPP clauses from the people… THATs crucial.