It was five dollars a night for a meal and a bed. Fifty to a room, two rooms to a floor, and four floors high. There was a rooftop to jump from or streets to die slow in. An axe murder that week narrowed the streets odds considerably; the dismemberment of limbs signalling more than the frustrations of poverty run amok. We sat on the rooftop smoking weed, gazing down at the nervous prostitutes.
I did a gig with Steady Eddie. I got into town, phoned a comedy club and scored an open mic spot for the next week. After the phone call I went to 'volunteer' at a homeless mission in exchange for a room and meals, as I'd done at a sister fellowship in Brisbane. "Oh no", she said through armoured glass. "This is Sydney, we have far more homeless here and many of them are mental patients. All our staff are trained professionals. Five bucks a night, dinner at six."
The last time I saw Steady Eddie I was a teenager sneaking into The Hillcrest Tavern in Hamilton, NZ. Now I was a homeless man sneaking to avoid a deranged killer while navigating King's Cross. I'd managed to land a day helping a builder lug gib up some stairs for pocket money, and for the gig I'd get a couple of beers. Sure, the axe murderer was a risk: but this was a gig and a couple of beers.
The manager said, "everything went great until you started singing". I drank my beer and watched the rest of the show. Eddie arrived with an attractive blonde shortly before his closing spot. He was hilarious and then he was drinking at the bar. We chatted a little. I liked him. I told Eddie my singing sucked, and he told me his was worse – but he was currently in the charts, and we laughed. Eddie left with two blondes and a 40 oz of bourbon. I took a cab back to the shelter with one eye on the meter.
"Stop here" I said. I got out on the pavement not far from the shelter. I grabbed my guitar and bag and took stock, then a double take. The cab pulled off to leave me standing there with a dozen prostitutes lining the street all the way to the corner; and they had seen me flinch.
"Hi Honey, you want some of this", began the first as she lewdly grabbed at me. "I've got no money." I stammered as I jostled guitar and bag, hands busy and thus helpless. "Well you can do me for your jacket." Says the next as she pulls her top up to reveal breasts bursting from a red lace bra. "No no," says the third, "you can do me for your guitar" as she lifts her skirt and sidles a bare ass toward me. I pick up the pace. The suggestions and sideshow get bluer as I progress. The hands are all over me, tits, ass, pussy; rubbing and thrusting through lace and lycra. Then I am at the corner, turgid, broke, frustrated, alive. I head for the mission as laughter rang down the alley.
My guitar and bag got locked up. I had permission to arrive late and a security guard escorted me up to the room. Softly, slowly, through the lines of broken men I inched over to the empty cot. My clothes and shoes went in the small cupboard beside the single bed, one shoelace tied to my hand and the other end to the cupboard door.
I dreamed I was on stage at the club with an audience full of prostitutes. The microphone wasn't projecting my voice but the ladies howled with laughter at the erection in my pants. One of them came up to the stage and tugged at my hand to draw me down amongst them. I woke to my hand being tugged by the shoelace as I opened my eyes a slit. A junkie was crouched in the dim light, quietly trying to undo the knot on my cupboard door. I punched down hard to the side of his face where his jaws met, knocking him to the floor. "Fuck Off" I said as he hit the floor. He scrambled backward: "I was only looking to see if you had any cigarettes, man" he lisped. "Fuck off now". He slithered off into the dark. The man in the next bed coughed and murmured. "Good job, son".
It was a schizophrenic guy Rafael Gavranovic who attacked at least three, but was found not guilty by means of insanity.
I can't find details of his residence, the Police were in that shelter a few times checking over resident lists to try find the guy. I guess only local cops and law would remember details that far back.
I had a guy lunge for me with a large knife there. I didn't even see him coming, had never met or spoke to him. Luckily security saw him pull the knife and took him down a couple of feet from me. Close call.
Maybe I punched his boyfriend? Staff kicked him out and told me he was a junkie and PTSD vet ‘with a few problems.’
IMO powerful writing, WTB. Definitely not too blue for the subject. The clean direct writing style is perfect and tells it as it is – or rather was. Anything more descriptive (eg descriptive adjectives etc) would lose the message IMO.
Is the collection of short stories to be all your own work, experiences? The short story is probably my most favourite genre and is one of the hardest to master as it has a tight framework to be achieved – and imo you have done it perfectly in the one above. I could 'feel' the experience.
A couple of friends of mine teach creative writing at Victoria and Massey Universities, and one in particular, specialises in the personal memoir and personal essay. I am going to copy your excerpt above to her and I think she will be impressed.
While writing the above, I realised that it reminded me of a little book of a similar nature I had and treasured years ago. It was a collection of short stories by/about a diverse group of people who were part of Wellington's so called 'underworld' back in the 1960s/70s – a world of small time crime, honour amongst thieves, madams who looked after their staff etc which was being overtaken by a darker, more drug driven element which eventually took over the old world. The book was a chronicle of the way life had been in that underworld and the consequences of its loss.
I knew a number of the people whose stories made up the collection – some of which were written by them personally and others were written as interviews by a local journalist who saw what was happening and was inspired to pull the book together as a memory of that part of Wellington's history. I cannot remember the name of the book, or the journalist, but your post has inspired me to try to track both down and refind that book. Probably well out of print etc, but somewhere in Wellington it will still exist. Archives NZ?
Keep going on this, WTB. It is an important part of both your own history and the social history of our country (and Australia).
Thanks for the compliments, I think my writing is finally maturing where it sounds like my voice not some Bukowski fan trying to emulate…
Bukowski could write a short story!
I interviewed Henry Rollins one time and he said of Bukowski that he only had one line 'life sucks and I'm drunk again' – he made a good point. Bukowski was flatting with the author Hubert Selby Junior (Last Exit to Brooklyn, Requiem For a Dream) and turned me on to his writing. 'The Demon' was a startling book.
For me, the attempted novel didn't work. The memories were all snapshots rather than a narrative. There was no thread only survival. Hence short stories.
The stories will be my experiences, and sidetracks to others stories where discussions are recalled. Still trying to 'capture' Sarge, a vet who showed young street people the ropes to survival on Sydney's streets. We downed a goon of wine while talking which didn't help…
I love it all!
I also had a chaotic childhood and young adulthood,nothing made sense , you had to be ready to run (wore a dress only about 3 times in my life, I reckon for that very reason)But I don’t regret it , and reading the sense of aliveness ,immediacy, and richness in your “snapshot”I don’t reckon you do either.
"For me, the attempted novel didn't work. The memories were all snapshots rather than a narrative. There was no thread only survival. Hence short stories."
The snapshot is much more powerful, imo. I like it far more than a full length historical type narrative. The snapshot allows the reader to participate in/savour/feel a moment in time, an experience. That is what happened to me when I read your snapshot above. The reader can then linger in the moment, think about it etc, before moving on to the next snapshot, with each snapshot possibly invoking a different experience. You have chosen well – don't let it go. Kia kaha
[Sorry, not trying to lecture – was just very moved by your post and want to see more!]
Correction – Rollins flatted with HSJ – not Bukowski. I doubt he'd have let him in his door. Rollins was quite hardcore straight-edge at that stage and had very poor opinions of drunks.
I turned up hammered for the interview. It was awkward but we got past it.
That's bloody awful. And then WINZ try shift blame to the helpers for this mess. They love to treat you with suspicion and prejudice, had my fill of these mongrels in the past.
Lol definitely you're top of the list. And incidentally the Murdoch cartoon this a.m. in the Nelson Mail/stuff seems to refer to the recentclimate change thumbs-down.
Excellent strategy from the Herald management. Put him behind the paywall so he can preach only at the converted. Since the battle for public opinion nowadays occurs in the middle ground, the rightists get to lose their champion & centrists won't have to roll their eyes at him any more. Win/win all round, eh?
I broke the other day and took the premium option with a local delivery paper on Sat – it will be clear at that end though that I never "opened" Hosking's rants before and won't now, there were just a few items of interest I wanted to keep up with.
Looks like the British electorate has now split into four more-or-less equal parts: Labour "was ranked fourth in a YouGov poll for The Times on just 18 per cent – its joint lowest level, matched only by Gordon Brown in the depths of the 2009 financial crisis. Labour trailed behind the Tories on 24 per cent, Brexit Party on 23 and Liberal Democrats on 20."
Is 18% for Labour a negative verdict on Jeremy's (lack of) leadership? Probably, but I vaguely recall Helen Clark scored around that prior to becoming PM. Could be he's playing the `slowly slowly catchee monkey' game.
Corbyn campaigned well in 2017. However it was mainly Labour versus a terrible Tory party campaign effort. Since then both the Tories AND Corbyn have impoded. I don't know how he will change that dynamic.
A character test for him, this crisis. The zen sidestep could yet work. I'd rather he told the nation what to do though. See how the news featured a woman brexiteer ranting about slavery to the EU this morning? So they're playing the freedom card.
Jeremy could cite `free to choose' as principled dogma, outflank the Tories on the right like Helen Clark did. Leftists acting like rightists is a known behavioural pattern since the '80s so voters are comfortable with it.
Equally he could steal a portion of the conservative electoral base by telling them independence means reverting to being told what to do by indigenous leaders rather than the Eurocrats. Tories love the lash of the whip so he could easily grab 10% of them with that type of leadership rhetoric.
Agreed he should do something. At the moment he is trying to play both sides of the aisle and it is simply not working for him. He looks weak and indecisive and more importantly losing support from the group of Labour activists who brought him to power.
I can't imagine the horrors some of these folk go through, but I do know they go through it to serve our country and protect the rest of us. These people deserve kindness, respect, assistance, and a place in the sun.
I can't imagine follow up is easy however. PTSD causes isolation, thus leaving one to one's own thoughts. The worst decisions are often born in isolation. Reaching out is so hard yet so vital.
"continuing to try and spread the message that it is ok to not be ok, and to ask for help."
virtue signalling?…..I think the signal is a little more explicit.
"Cull’s welcome speech was anything but welcoming.
“I’ve taken this opportunity to welcome you and this conference to Dunedin – not because I support all of the various plans and projects that will be promoted here, but so you can hear why some of those plans are not welcome here.
“So, to be clear, if you’re promoting fossil fuel exploration, extraction and exploitation – and especially its expansion – then understand you are at odds with this community and my council that represents it.”
He ended by calling fossil fuel exploration and exploitation a “dangerous and immoral folly”.
Cool – he has gone up in my estimation – a few mates in dunners don't like him for some reason. Leadership in action – good luck for the next few 'restful' years sir.
Much of the animosity seems to be from supporters of a local councillor who is "polarising", as in that many people think the councillor is a dickhead, but his supporters think he walks on water.
Possibly, he was anti-stadium. But most of the people who knock him that I've encountered were also anti-stadium. Maybe he wasn't anti enough for their tastes. But the ongoing financing of the stadium has been questionable. He has been pro one or two other developments that were pretty controversial, ISTR.
I've never had too much problem with him either way. Just seems to be pretty bland, nothing too amazing but a solid worker. There are other councillors who are more polarising, and then the usual bunch whose passion for original projects is inversely proportional to the proximity of the next election.
So how about we have a nationalised forest service to implement our aspirations to plant 1 billion trees?
Including research, nurseries, engineers, maintenance crews, millers
Instead of planting short rotation pines, we plant long term hardwoods, mixed native plantations that don't get clear felled but selectively logged for high end use, and we leave the pines and other conifers much longer for their heartwood, thus removing the need for treating with poisons.
Only a nationalised industry can do this, opting for long term gains over short term profit.Once set in motion, its in perpetuity, dedicated forestry land publicly owned cant be turned in to dairy or whatever new short sighted bonanza shows up.
And what say we have dedicated plantations for all future public buildings , schools, housing, libraries etc, getting away from carbon emitting concrete?
Each generation plants for future generations , so there's continuity.
We grow mushrooms ,or rather , we facilitate them , medicinal and otherwise as a sideline
Good thinking, Francesca. I've often wondered why pine replacement doesn't happen – just short-termism or is growing alternative trees just too hard here? I wonder if there's a relevant forestry lobby group, that could push policy from a resilience perspective instead of status quo complacency.
As regards mushrooms, nostalgia tempts me to advocate the magical, but realism reminds me there’s too many folk with vulnerable mental states. Would be interested in hearing from people with expertise in the potential benefits of diverse species of mushrooms though.
And apparently the quality of NZ grown oak, despite fast growth is pretty good
We have a history of chasing short term gains , boom and bust cycles
Maybe its our youth as a country.
In the UK oak forests are attached to Universities , with repairs, future building, roof replacement in mind.This was instituted back in an era where there was a different perception of time
We modern day desperadoes want it all now, with no thought for the morrow
And we have created a world that mirrors that – we have cut down our future to the day after next year. Changing fixed minds based on 20th century thinking is almost impossible, I think one has to smile and go round them.
Trying to keep that in mind while still planning rationally for the near future is the hardest thing.
Taranaki farmers were saved from going broke once by the export of wood ear fungi to China. There are a range of fungi we could grow for a range of purposes.
One interesting emerging idea is to use fungi to devour waste streams while making packaging and other materials.
Another is to use fungi as part of bio-remediation on riparian edges and elsewhere.
There's medicinal fungi of many types, and huge markets for them in Asia. Western medicine is slowly coming on board when they can isolate compounds and make exorbitantly priced products.
There's insecticidal fungi we can use for research and bio-control.
There's turning forestry slash to topsoil.
Then there's food.
Off the top of my head…
There's psilocybin mushrooms in my front garden… I did not put them there but lol, maybe they recognised me and moved in.
I had a look through Lincoln staff and programs once thinking that is where they would have a good silviculture program but it seemed to feature pines. We like to stick to the good idea, keep it going.
Fransesca said so rightly:
Instead of planting short rotation pines, we plant long term hardwoods, mixed native plantations that don't get clear felled but selectively logged for high end use, and we leave the pines and other conifers much longer for their heartwood, thus removing the need for treating with poisons.
Only a nationalised industry can do this, opting for long term gains over short term profit.Once set in motion, its in perpetuity, dedicated forestry land publicly owned cant be turned in to dairy or whatever new short sighted bonanza shows up.
Facts about the effect of planting pine trees and harvesting them leaving the land bare: A Tasman District Council and NIWA study released in 2018 found that recently harvested pine forests along with bank erosion were responsible for a high proportion of sediment in the Waimea Inlet, which is the largest semi-enclosed coastal estuary in the South Island. Coverage of very soft mud in the inlet soared from 10ha in 1999 to 551ha in 2013….
Jones said the national tree-planting programme was "on-track" to have 80,000 trees planted by the end of the current season, with 65,000 trees already planted.
“This new quantitative evaluation shows [forest] restoration isn’t just one of our climate change solutions, it is overwhelmingly the top one,” said Prof Tom Crowther at the Swiss university ETH Zürich, who led the research. “What blows my mind is the scale. I thought restoration would be in the top 10, but it is overwhelmingly more powerful than all of the other climate change solutions proposed.”
Crowther emphasised that it remains vital to reverse the current trends of rising greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel burning and forest destruction, and bring them down to zero. He said this is needed to stop the climate crisis becoming even worse and because the forest restoration envisaged would take 50-100 years to have its full effect of removing 200bn tonnes of carbon."
but…
"However, some scientists said the estimated amount of carbon that mass tree planting could suck from the air was too high. Prof Simon Lewis, at University College London, said the carbon already in the land before tree planting was not accounted for and that it takes hundreds of years to achieve maximum storage. He pointed to a scenario from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 1.5C report of 57bn tonnes of carbon sequestered by new forests this century."
however…
"But tree planting is “a climate change solution that doesn’t require President Trump to immediately start believing in climate change, or scientists to come up with technological solutions to draw carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere”, Crowther said. “It is available now, it is the cheapest one possible and every one of us can get involved.” Individuals could make a tangible impact by growing trees themselves, donating to forest restoration organisations and avoiding irresponsible companies, he added."
It pleases me so much to see how many people are growing in ecological awareness and proffering practical solutions to move forward. Not just here in TS but all over the place.
RIP Simone – I'm sorry everything fell apart for you. You did some good work for refugees – thank you.
A human rights lawyer who was jailed after shouting racist abuse at Air India staff was found dead days after being released from prison, police have said.
Hopkins' disgusting views are consistent with those of Boris Johnson and the rest of those rats in the Conservative Party. She's a moderate compared to the likes of old Yenta Hodge and her vicious cronies.
Monbiot is a spineless fellow. He can't even do something that is decent (supporting the victim of an extermination campaign) without first paying lip service to the villainous lies perpetrated by the would-be exterminators.
Whether or not you like Assange's politics (I don't), or his character (ditto), the charges he faces in the US are oppressive and inimical to free speech. The UK should resist his extradition https://t.co/PKFdtisA22.
A greater environmental mind than you or I has put forward a good Arguement for nuclear power.
James Lovelock talked about the issue and containing the waste from nuclear. Contrasting that with the waste from gas/coal generation of electricity.
Granted, not here in Aotearoa, (go hydro).
I am starting to doubt some of yr proclamations, a coupla days ago a video was posted with Ben Shapiro and Andrew Neil.
Either yrself or yr protege opined that Shapiro came second in the discussion. I watched it and I thought Shapiro ran rings around Neil. I find a lot of Shapiro's views abhorrent, but he came across more competent and consistent than the senior journalist.
Brazil’s Bar Association, journalists and opposition lawmakers have reacted with outrage to reports that the country’s federal police plan to investigate the bank accounts of an American journalist who published leaked conversations between prosecutors and the graft-busting judge who is now Jair Bolsonaro’s justice minister.
The rightwing site the Antagonist (O Antagonista) reported on Tuesday that federal police had asked a money-laundering unit at Brazil’s finance ministry to investigate the “financial activities” of Glenn Greenwald.
Assange was never charged with rape. One is tempted to be charitable and say that such a vicious and ignorant slur is unworthy of you, but that would be a false statement.
Once again: when will you start pouring filth on Glenn Greenwald? Will you start now or will you wait for the morsels of disinformation to be fed to you from the Brazilian/U.S. authorities, as you did with the campaign against Assange?
Accusations Unlimited – is that your speciality. Why can't you give us time to come to the same opinion as you instead of insulting anybody different? Desist.
I don't think the Professor was "insulting anybody different", Mr Shark. He was simply posing the question: how long before these creeps start to pour filth on another government-designated target for destruction?
Is that a rhetorical question he was posing then, or you are? I have a feeling I am missing something here. It seemed to me that he was attacking Joe90 for something that he thought that Joe90 and others might do, like pouring filth on a speaker. Ugh.
He was attacking Joe90 not because of something he might do, but because of something he has actually done. (The latest examples of his pouring filth on a journalist is just above us on this thread, in messages 15.1.1 and 15.1.1.1.1)
Surprise surprise, the corruption prosecutions that resulted in Lula's imprisonment and his ineligibility to run were cooked up by the right.
On Sunday evening, The Intercept published a series of incendiary articles and documents purporting to expose massive problems of unethical behavior and political motives in Brazil’s Operation Car Wash—a five-year investigation into corruption at state oil company Petrobras, which resulted in the conviction of former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Based on “a massive archive of previously undisclosed materials,” The Intercept is reporting that judge Sérgio Moro, hailed in Brazil, on the Time 100 list, and in a fawning 60 Minutes segment in 2017 as a paragon of courageous civic virtue, secretly aided the prosecution in Lula’s case, an egregious ethical violation in a justice system that depends upon the impartiality of the presiding magistrate. Moro has since been appointed Justice Minister in the administration of Jair Bolsonaro, a radical right-winger who won the presidential election in 2018 after Lula was barred from running.
Indeed: "incendiary articles" and exposing of "unethical behaviour and political motives" constitute a grave risk to the state. He'll have to be destroyed, just like Assange.
Could you explain: exactly why are you not on board with the state campaign this time?
Calling Adam – I know that you are there up at 11 but don't want to derail the thread there. Forget feeling crap under capitalism and feel great after rewatching this! Do you remember it Adam?
Adam posted this wonderful, wonderful dance video back on 26 June 2015 on Weekend Social and I refound it a few days ago when totally crap with a full-on dose of the common cold. It restored my belief that life is still worth living and the more I played it, the better I felt.
A must view. Thanks Adam
PS – I am still learning the new system, so if the above does not work, here is a link to Adam’s original comment with video.
One of the quirks of the current comment editor is if you want to link to a specific comment on TS, putting the link as a standalone paragraph strips the #commentnumber off the URL and turns it into a link to the OP.
But if you use the linking tool (that looks more like a misdrawn infinity symbol) or just include the link to a comment in a sentence like this /open-mike-05-07-2019/#comment-1634457 it correctly links to the actual comment.
Thanks for that tip. I assume you mean the symbol that looks like a paperclip next to the slashed S. I used that to put in the actual link to the video which eventually came up properly! But when it did not originally come up, I then edited the comment and the toolbar doesn't come up when I edit so cannot use the symbol. LOL. So I will know for the future when that happens to put the link into a sentence.
But that young woman is an amazing dancer! The ability to move bits of the body separately like they are all unconnected is not easy – and she is tops. The other videos of her both alone and with her dance partner are superb. Now off to find the Trump parade videos …
Now seen Joe90’s comment below – LOL
A while back I vaguely remember lprent explained that the delay in the image showing up for video, twitter links etc had something to do with the server having to go fetch the image and then put it into the cache, and there can be delays in some of the processes to make that happen.
Interesting what different people see that linking tool icon to be. I reckon there's a good chance that McFlock with his security background might be the only one of us that correctly interprets it as a short bit of chain at first glance.
I know it's supposed to be a chain link and when I work at it I can make myself see it as chain. But even though it's been there for months, every time I first glance at it I still see it as a misdrawn infinity. Funny how visual perception and mental shortcuts work.
You didn't derail it at all. But I have been so enjoying that video I wanted to thank Adam. He and I have had our spats, but it just brought me so much relief the other day, I wanted to share it and to acknowledge Adam for first putting it up.
I am laughing at what's happening in Washington DC – the sky gods are no fools!
Russian paranoia—you're donkey-deep in it as well. I was providing our friend, and the likes of yourself, with—by your lights—a reasonable explanation.
America is gonna need one all those rednecks have turned it into a symbol of hate.
It's not working people—scoffingly dismissed as “rednecks” by thoughtless rich pricks—that are spreading hate, but the soft, doughy white-collar bigots who have never worked in the sun in their miserable, privileged lives. People like Stephen Miller, Ben Shapiro, Jared Kushner, Donald Trump….
Is there a recipe for starting flame wars? I feel that the tone of the Perfesser is familiar. Or perhaps there is a tide in the affairs of men, and it washes up lumps of spite in blogs leaving a high water mark of see-weed.
USA, China, Australia… and so many more – why? They know what they have to do to win and that is destroy. Not just the actual people, but hope, respect, dignity.
China is deliberately separating Muslim children from their families, faith and language in its far western region of Xinjiang, according to new research.
At the same time as hundreds of thousands of adults are being detained in giant camps, a rapid, large-scale campaign to build boarding schools is under way.
Based on publicly available documents, and backed up by dozens of interviews with family members overseas, the BBC has gathered some of the most comprehensive evidence to date about what is happening to children in the region.
… In a large hall in Istanbul, dozens of people queue to tell their stories, many of them clutching photographs of children, all now missing back home in Xinjiang.
"I don't know who is looking after them," one mother says, pointing to a picture of her three young daughters, "there is no contact at all."
Another mother, holding a photo of three sons and a daughter, wipes away her tears. "I heard that they've been taken to an orphanage," she says.
Good work these crews and good report from Minister Sage on fbook.
Great progress is being made on cleaning up the Fox River since the Department of Conservation (DOC) took over managing the clean-up. Since then, Operation Tidy Fox has cleared 25 ha of rubbish between the Fox River Bridge and the confluence of the Cook River.
The team of daily volunteers has grown from fewer than 10 to around 50 people. Together they’ve picked up 55 fadges of rubbish, with each fadge weighing around 500kgs. (Fadges are like giant wool sacks).
It was good to thank and talk to the wonderful volunteer team and DOC staff in Fox Glacier yesterday. I look forward to the extra support the NZ Defence Force, working with DOC, is planning to provide in the coming weeks. And Government has also provided another $300,000, on top of the $300,000 provided earlier.
Watching a piece of the Trump Parade and it seemed to be pretty shambolic to me. Huge gaps and amatuerish participants. Funny that faces in parade seemed to be fuzzied out.
If EU politics is about incorporating the vote, & therefore you would think it's efficacy, then insular coalition bargaining before the vote is increasingly problematic when there is increasing fragmentation ( which of itself is not necessarily a bad thing ), & it seems like they have essentially a very good structure to take that into account overall if not the traditional method of using it that way.
Seems like some of the criticism is a mix of First Past the Post and Direct Democracy type asks that are being put forward theoretically, but to my understanding both applications of those models to what is being talked about seems misplaced.
Hopefully they can get over this bump and reap the increased benefits after a rocky few years.
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The Youth Parliament is being held this week, and some of the youth MPs are campaigning for a lower voting age:Molly Doyle, 17, is one Youth MP who wants this to change. She is part of a non-partisan campaign run ...
Up till now, Australia has made its living by digging up coal and exporting it to other countries, destroying the global climate in the process. But now they have a new option: exporting solar power:The desert outside Tennant Creek, deep ...
Later this month, thousands of people are expected to march to parliament as part of the #HandsOffOurTamaraki movement. At its heart, the movement is about preserving whānau and demanding that the state stop removing children from their whānau, hapū and iwi. ...
by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh The recent statements made by the former FARC commander, Carlos Lozada (legal name Julian Gallo), where, from his seat in Congress, he praised the Colombian Army demonstrate how low the farianos have sunk. Lozada began by ...
A Woman’s Place is on the Podium was a public meeting in London on 10 July to discuss women’s sports and the impact of transwomen competing against women. The venue was sold out with a packed hall of 750 people. ...
Last month I talked about the no-fly movement: people who refuse to fly or limit it to absolute necessity to avoid destroying the climate. Now, that movement has a somewhat surprising new member: Dutch airline KLM:Dutch airline KLM has launched ...
In the 1960's, humanity faced a terrible threat: global thermonuclear war. Nuclear weapons were uniquely destructive and dangerous, and if more countries got them, the logic of MAD and the pre-emptive strike would put us on a hair-trigger to destruction. ...
An occasional series where I will ponder allegations of anti-Semitism directed at the British Labour Party and its members.In this case, we are thinking about an allegedly anti-Semitic image shared by a Labour Party member. Its origins appear to be ...
Matariki has been and gone, but this year we saw a couple of op-eds arguing that it should be a public holiday, replacing the foreign monarch's fake birthday. And now, New Zealand Republic - a group which campaigns for an ...
The discussion on the quality of economic advice, which we reported last week, has spilled over into a discussion about whether so many senior appointments should be of non-New Zealanders. Recall I discussed the failure to develop career paths within ...
When Nicky Hager revealed US footage of the Operation Burnham raid, obtained under the US Freedom of Information Act, one of the obvious questions was whether Ministers had seen it - and in particular, whether they'd been told that it ...
Northern Ireland is the Alabama of the UK: a backwards region where women and gay people are denied fundamental rights. But Westminster has just decided to fix that:MPs have voted resoundingly to extend same-sex marriage and access to abortion to ...
There's a problem with "synthetic cannabis", and not just the one you think. It's the name.We're in the midst of a wave of news stories that link synthetic drugs to serious harm, through deadly road accidents and accidental overdoses (which ...
Ranjit Kauri, The Dancing Maharani and Other Stories, Swansea, Head and Heart, 2019, £6.99; reviewed by Don Franks Working people are not the same country to country. Our struggles for a better life take place in surroundings of very different ...
Let's Do Them! All Jacinda Ardern has to do to clinch the 2020 General Election is frighten the bejesus out of the electorate by describing in the most graphic terms imaginable what will happen to all the positive beginnings her ...
It may be that we have all misinterpreted the somewhat surprising “bromance” between Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un. It has been all too easy to assume that it is Kim who is cosying up to Trump rather than the ...
by Michael Roberts So the full circle is completed. The corrupt pro-business conservative New Democracy party in Greece that was ousted by the anti-capitalist Syriza party in 2015 has been returned to office in yesterday’s general election, with an outright ...
When the Australian government passed a series of new spy laws over the last few years, they pinky-promised that they wouldn't use them to spy on journalists and subvert freedom of the press. They lied:The anti-encryption laws passed by the ...
From 1975 to 1989, the spy agencies of South America's right-wing military dictatorships cooperated in Operation Condor, a joint campaign of extermination against the continent's left. Roughly 400,000 people were imprisoned, 30,000 disappeared, and 60,000 murdered - kidnapped, tortured, executed, ...
When she was standing for office, Jacinda Ardern promised she would take abortion out of the Crimes Act. And to be fair, there was some early action on that, with an immediate referral of the issue to the Law Commission ...
When the government introduced the Zero Carbon Bill, people rightly asked what they planned to do to reduce transport emissions, which basicly had no policy at all other than the ETS. Today, they responded, announcing a "feebate" system which would ...
At almost every level, the problem with medicinal cannabis is a lack of good information. In the US, FDA regulations make it hard to research. Most doctors aren't familiar with what research there is and most patients don't know either. ...
Redline is critical of Corbyn for his political weaknesses, but he’s no anti-Semite. There is no substance to the McCarthyist witch-hunt being run by the right wing, and the pro-Israel lobby inside and outside the Labour Party in the UK. ...
The government's billion trees program is the sort of policy which could make a real difference to our emissions and the fight against climate change. But climate scientist Jim Salinger isn't convinced:The Forestry Minister Shane Jones' one billion trees won't ...
Last month the government was celebrating another surplus. Meanwhile, children are starving:One in five children are living in households where putting food on the table is a struggle, according to a new report from the Ministry of Health. It found ...
Show Me The Money! The alternative to state funding of infrastructure is, of course, to fund it by taking on massive amounts of private debt. On this issue, at least, Auckland mayoral challenger, Tamihere, has some solid points to make. ...
If we are to avoid making the earth uninhabitable, we need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to practically nothing over the next decade. But that will still leave us with the problem of the carbon we have already emitted, which ...
Former Waikato DHB CEO Nigel Murray allegedly misused public funds, spending more than $120,000 of public money on unjustified travel. He was forced to resign and the Serious Fraud Office began an investigation. But despite the SFO finding that the ...
Jeremy Corbyn, we are told, is being advised – not least by his deputy (as well as by some of his would-be successors) – that he must come “off the fence” on the Brexit issue if he wants to bolster ...
The End of Life bill has been read a second time and is now heading for the House for further debate. Personally, I support the proposal. I don't ever epect to take advantage of the Bill's provisions myself, but as ...
Before the substantive issue which this column is about – whether there has been a deterioration in the economic advice given to the government – a paragraph about the budget leaks.read more ...
Below is a translation of the editorial in the June 24 round of weekly workplace bulletins issued all over France by the revolutionary workers’ organisation Lutte Ouvriere. Last Saturday, 8,000 people took to the streets of Belfort (eastern France) to ...
Why hasn't Parliament followed the lead set by our local authorities and declared a climate emergency? The answer is the National Party:The Prime Minister’s admission that she is open to the idea of declaring a climate change emergency is nothing ...
Back in May the government released its Zero Carbon Bill. While much of the bill was welcome, there was one big exception: it contained a secrecy clause, requiring the Climate Change Commission to maintain secrecy over practically everything it does. ...
by Phil Duncan This past week has marked the 50th anniversary of the beginning of the Stonewall Inn riots in Christopher Street, New York, the event generally regarded as kicking off the gay liberation movement. Quite a few articles have ...
Southland - land of coal-burning dairy farmers - has become the first region in the country to explicitly vote against declaring a climate emergency. Their reason? They didn't want to "devalue" the word "emergency". Its an argument addressed powerfully in ...
New Zealand has a problem with police chases: officers going after fleeing drivers like rabid dogs, without any consideration for proportionality or public safety, often with fatal results. And according to an in-depth article in the Guardian today, the UK ...
Welcome to another heaping helping of research publications related to climate change drivers and mechanisms, the effects of climate change and how we might yet grope our way into systems approaches to dealing with the mess we're making, despite ourselves. ...
Holly Lawford-Smith is a senior lecturer in political philosophy at the University of Melbourne. She’s currently writing a book about radical feminism. This article appeared on Feminist Current Academics should be standing together in defence of universities’ fundamental values: the ...
The Otago Daily Times has an in-depth article about the future of wind energy in New Zealand, and it is looking bright:The news that wind will play the leading role in New Zealand’s energy future was put up in lights ...
If the sight of schoolkids striking for a future has been filling you with hope, good news: they want you to join them on September 27:Students will take to the streets again demanding action on climate change, and this time ...
The People's "Friend": In this masterpiece of revolutionary propaganda, the homicidal political psychopath, Jean-Paul Marat, has been transformed by Jacques-Louis David, the French Revolution's most accomplished artist, into a martyred hero of the ordinary people of Paris. Thanks to Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook, ...
The principle of one person, one vote doesn’t apply for local elections. In fact, you don’t even need to be a person to have voting rights. Welcome to the ratepayer roll. While the ratepayer roll accounts for less than 1% ...
I have been working my way through a 47,000 document tranche of declassified US government communications related to Argentina and the “Dirty War” of 1976-83. I grew up in Argentina in the period leading up to the March 24, 1976 ...
To express concern about foreign ownership and control in New Zealand is often to invite accusations of xenophobia and economic illiteracy. It is worthwhile, therefore, to rehearse the grounds for that concern, and to explore the various forms it can ...
A new digital platform aims to make it easier for small businesses to access services from multiple government agencies, leaving them more time to focus on their own priorities. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Minister for Small Business Stuart Nash ...
Million-dollar start to gun collection eventsPolice Minister Stuart Nash says a solid start has been made to the gun buyback and amnesty after the first weekend of community collection events. “Gun owners will walk away with more than ...
Police Minister Stuart Nash has praised Police and gun owners after the first firearms collection event saw a busy turnout at Riccarton Racecourse in Christchurch. “Police officers and staff have put a tremendous effort into planning and logistics for the ...
Seventy-eight new Police constables are heading out to the regions following today’s graduation of a new recruit wing from the Royal New Zealand Police College. Police Minister Stuart Nash says the record high number of new Police officers being recruited, ...
July 19 (BusinessDesk) - The government is looking to tighten control and impose harsher penalties after the Mycoplasma bovis outbreak revealed cracks in the country's stock management system. ...
Kia Anga Mua Ngā Hapū o Ngāpuhi (KAM) has reached a pivotal milestone following a hui yesterday at Waitangi with the Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Andrew Little. ...
The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union can reveal that the Government spent $133,530 on producing its ‘Wellbeing Budget’ document, a cost blowout largely driven by spending on graphic design and photography. The $133,530 price tag compares to $86,268 ...
Kahungunu Māori Language Awards. Nominations closed on 5 July 2019, and were judged by the Senior Management Team of Ngāti Kahungunu Iwi Incorporated. The judges wish to acknowledge the very high calibre of all nominations received making it a very ...
High Court of Australia Judge, Justice Stephen Gageler, will address recent criticism of court judgment delays in Australia, at the University of Canterbury (UC) on 23 July at 6.15pm. ...
This summary is provided to assist in the understanding of the Inquiry’s proceedings but does not constitute the official record. The full Minute is available at the link below. ...
The Tertiary Education Commission is laying charges under section 292A of the Education Act 1989 against three individuals for making a false representation for the purpose of receiving, or continuing to receive, free tertiary education from a tertiary education ...
New Zealand food businesses today welcomed a trio of new food safety tools, designed to make it faster, easier and more affordable to follow the rules and keep consumers safe. ...
AUT research shows that Māori children are almost four times more likely than those of European descent to be placed out of home by child protection services ...
The Government announced today that grants of up to $2,500 for energy efficient heaters are now available as part of the Government’s Warmer Kiwi Homes programme. ...
Fonterra’s use of coal has been the target of numerous grassroots campaigns in recent years. Last year 350 Aotearoa affiliated groups, Fossil Free Aoraki and 350 Nelson launched a petition dismissing the dairy giant’s initial target of no new ...
Information sessions on proposals for The Medicinal Cannabis Scheme take place in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch over the next fortnight. The sessions are open to anyone with an interest in learning more about the proposed scheme. ...
“Our children are our most vulnerable, most innocent victims and we do not want to see any more children harmed by these ‘known sex offenders’. The safety of our community must be the paramount consideration.” ...
“The announcement that Fonterra will immediately stop installing any new coal boilers or increasing capacity to burn coal is the signal that the biomass fuel supply industry welcomes” said Brian Cox, Executive Officer of the Bioenergy Association. ...
18 July 2019-- Coal Action Network Aotearoa (CANA) today welcomed Fonterra’s commitment to build no new coal plants, a “no brainer” for the climate crisis the world faces. The group has been urging this transition for six years now and ...
The increase in demand for cage-free eggs is set to continue according to animal rights organisation SAFE, who says the egg industry should expect this and prepare. ...
Wellington, New Zealand – 350 Pacific made a formal submission to the New Zealand Government’s Environment Parliamentary Select Committee on the Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Bill, led by the Pacific Climate Warriors (PCWs) based in ...
There used to be a school of thought on the centre right side of politics that the best way to neuter the Greens as a political force would be to let them have a spell in government. Then, according to ...
Today (18 July) is Nelson Mandela International Day when the United Nations highlights the importance of humane conditions of imprisonment. In New Zealand our prisons are overcrowded and understaffed. At 214 prisoners per 100,000 people, we have the fifth ...
NZEI Te Riu Roa will take legal action over the lengthy delay in implementing pay increases for teachers. Novopay announced yesterday that teachers would have to wait until 11 September to see pay increases that they won when they settled ...
EDS has filed its submission on the Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Bill. The Bill sets targets for greenhouse gas reductions, provides for the government to set a series of carbon budgets, and sets up a new, independent, Climate ...
The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union has identified an absurd case of mission creep at Wellington City Council: the decision to spend $21,750 on two Consumer NZ investigations into different brands of bike lights. ...
The Motor Trade Association is welcoming the release of the Government’s new draft road safety strategy. MTA Chief Executive Craig Pomare says the association is pleased to see vehicle safety has been made a priority in the Road to Zero ...
The Department of Conservation continue to repeat the same old story about attacks on staff and how it is affecting their role in protecting our precious wildlife. NZ herald https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12249704 ...
The government's silence on the fact that the country's second-largest milk processor is on the brink of becoming 25% Chinese Government owned has been deafening. ...
School Strike 4 Climate NZ welcomes the coalition Government’s endeavour to take action on reducing agricultural emissions but is disappointed at the weak stance that the Government has taken on the issue. ...
The Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) has issued a formal warning under the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act 2009 (AML/CFT Act) to seven reporting entities within the Regus Management Limited (RNZML) designated business ...
The Northland Regional Council (NRC) has voted to exclude all GM/GE precautionary provisions in its regional plan, despite years of community engagement showing support for such protection. There is a sense of betrayal following the way the NRC Chairman ...
New Zealand’s ‘mission-driven’ charities working in international aid are showing early signs of changing the way they work, in particular prioritising building the capacity and resilience of local communities to do their own development. ...
Teachers will have to wait until 11 September for pay increases won as part of their collective agreement negotiations settled in June, according to an update sent to schools today from Novopay. ...
July 16 (BusinessDesk) - Energy Minister Megan Woods says the government “won’t die in a ditch” if its goal of 100 percent renewable electricity generation isn't reached by 2035. ...
The Electricity Networks Association (ENA) is welcoming the Government’s response to the Interim Climate Change Committee (ICCC) Report released today. Graeme Peters, chief executive of the ENA, said one of the key recommendations, endorsed by the ...
An article* published this month in the Journal of Health Organization and Management raises questions over the way health board members are elected and whether the boards are even needed. ...
NZEI Te Riu Roa's kindergarten teacher members will vote on a proposed settlement to their collective agreement after four days of negotiations with the Ministry of Education and kindergarten employers. ...
Vector has today welcomed the ICCC’s report on Accelerated Electrification . Vector agrees that accelerating the electrification of transport and process heat will play a major role in reducing the country’s greenhouse gas emissions. Initiatives to ...
The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union is calling on the Porirua City Council to cancel its underwriting of a proposed Canadian-led privately owned adventure park slated for public land after a similar project created a huge liability for Christchurch ...
Youth climate change campaigners Generation Zero welcome the Interim Climate Change Committee’s (ICCC’s) reports: Accelerated Electrification and Action on agricultural emissions ; which were finally released by the Government today, almost three months ...
Fish & Game New Zealand notes the announcement today that the Government and the intensive agriculture leadership have reached a ‘historic consensus’ and are exploring using a formal sector-government agreement instead of bringing agriculture ...
The independent Interim Climate Change Committee’s report on Accelerated Electrification was released today by the Minister for Energy and Resources, Hon Dr Megan Woods. ...
The independent Interim Climate Change Committee’s report Action on agricultural emissions was released today by the Minister for Climate Change, Hon James Shaw and the Minister of Agriculture, Hon Damien O’Connor. ...
Please find attached embargoed copies of two media statements from the Interim Climate Change Committee http://img.scoop.co.nz/media/pdfs/1907/Embargoed_Interim_Climate_Change_Committee_Accelerated_electrification_MEDIA_STATEMENT.pdf ...
Greenpeace Executive Director, Dr Russel Norman, has reacted with disbelief that the Government’s latest climate proposal includes an option for dairy to voluntarily deal with their emissions over the next six years. ...
This week’s “Youth Parliament” is an expensive waste of time that promotes taxpayer-funded junketeering, says the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union . “We shouldn’t be training kids on the joys of the trough,” says Taxpayers’ Union spokesperson ...
Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones admitted on Q+A tonight that the state of New Zealand’s infrastructure planning is “dismal” and the government needs to get on with building “rather than writing more reports about it.” ...
Aaron Kreisler looks beyond the gags in this survey of an artist and his dogsat the Christchurch Art Gallery.“The dog really must love him, it’s so incredibly patient…”, a woman says to her daughter, punctuating a screening of Coin ...
‘He wants to sleep with you,’ a close friend had said. ‘Then you’ll be able to tell if it is going to lead anywhere’: a short story by New Plymouth author Elizabeth Smither. Photography by Peter Black. ...
Opinion - The leadership visits are more interesting in that they serve as a spotlight on the two countries - politically, and on policy issues, writes Brigette Morten. ...
Created by future ACT Party leader Richard Prebble after an epic reform bender in the 80s, NZ on Air has just marked its third decade. Duncan Greive relates its history and asks: is the funder still fit for purpose?It’s a ...
It helps that he played in the New Zealand cricket team when they lost the 1992 semi-final and went on to coach India, writes Georgie Wright, daughter of JohnMy dad has taught me a fair few things over my 25 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra [embedded content]University of Canberra Vice-Chancellor Professor Deep Saini discusses the week in politics with Michelle Grattan – one with a reduced pace, despite the 24 ...
Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand, with the interview available as both audio and ...
Jacinda Ardern’s Melbourne trip wrapped up with nothing to show on longstanding trans-Tasman concerns, but was a potent reminder of her international appeal. ...
Pricing agricultural emissions first at the processor level - such as Fonterra - rather than right down at farm level stacks up as a gap measure says Catherine Leining. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joanne Orlando, Researcher: Children and Technology, Western Sydney University Instagram is running a social media experiment in Australia and elsewhere to see what happens when it hides the number of likes on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adam Cross, Research Fellow, Curtin University Sign up to the Beating Around the Bush newsletter here, and suggest a plant we should cover at batb@theconversation.edu.au. Billabongs in the northern Kimberley are welcome ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sunanda Creagh, Head of Digital Storytelling You’ve probably heard that this week marks 50 years since humans first set foot on the Moon – a feat that still boggles the mind given ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dennis Gentilin, Adjunct Fellow, Macquarie University As strange as it might sound, whistleblowers in Australia have reason to rejoice – so long as they are in the private sector. Thanks to new ...
The fourth season of Queer Eye drops today on Netflix. Sam Brooks reflects on his difficult relationship with the show, and where it sits in mainstream culture.For depressingly many people, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy was an introduction not just to ...
The collapse of a multi-billion dollar deal to sell AMP's life insurance division to a British company for $3.6 billion is the fault of the companies, according to the Reserve Bank. ...
A poem by Miramar poet Geoff Cochrane.Channel HoppingStupa or Stuka?Weet-Bix or Welsh rabbit?Galactic aerodrome or Matchbox truck?*I’m young in my dreams, still young.*Beautiful Keanu’s wearing shades—antique shades with iodine-coloured lenses.*I’m young in my dreams, still young,and I still have some ...
For the month of July, Josie Adams is taking on the challenge of being low-waste. That means minimising plastics, emissions, and even recyclables. Each week we release her diary. This is week two.Read week one here.I’ll be honest, week two ...
By Royson Willie in Port Vila Two Vanuatu Daily Post journalists were literally given a pat-down by the police criminal investigation unit yesterday over a story they had written about the vehicle of the Chairman of the Public Service ...
By Gorothy Kenneth in Port Moresby Papua New Guinean Prime Minister James Marape will visit Australia this weekend for a week-long state visit and the Bougainville independence referendum in less than three months is expected to be high on ...
Tougher laws governing the movement of animals and harsher penalties for non-compliance are on the table under an overhaul of two key pieces of legislation. ...
Wtf did we just watch?That sound you heard was a million furries screaming in ecstasy as their fantasy and everyone else’s nightmare came to life in the form of the first trailer for the live action version of Cats.Is it ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Three Women by Lisa Taddeo (Bloomsbury, $35)Fucking ...
Tougher laws governing the movement of animals and harsher penalties for non-compliance are on the table under an overhaul of two key pieces of legislation. ...
As we mark the fiftieth anniversary the July 20th Moon landing Dr Nick Long reflects on what that's meant for New Zealand and considers the space 'gold rush' ahead. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christine Griebsch, Specialist and Senior Lecturer in Small Animal Medicine, University Veterinary Teaching Hospital Sydney, Sydney School of Veterinary Science, University of Sydney Recently reported cases of the often fatal bacterial infection ...
My selection of the eight best morning news links from here and overseas, along with eight lunchtime lean-back long reads. Also, the full list of links, including Jacinda Ardern's trip to Australia, the big emissions report, Fonterra's coal move and a new ...
Heaven is a place on earth, and June is saving the world one ’80s pop hit at a time. Tara Ward recaps season 4, episode 9 of The Handmaid’s Tale. Praise be, for there was a tiny bit of good news ...
Finance companies say they shouldn’t have to be ‘fit and proper’ even though in some cases they charge more than the planned clampdown on high cost lending. A group of finance companies that charges well over the government’s proposed cap on ...
An ANZ shareholder is demanding the bank disclose more information about the sale of an Auckland residential property to its former chief executive and his family. ...
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand.Today’s contentForeign Affairs and trade Sam Sachdeva (Newsroom): The new, ...
Tara Ward sets out on a valiant quest to find the best apple in Aotearoa. The idea that every apple is a good apple is fake news. We’ve all got stories about shit experiences with apples, when it looked good on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Sarkissian, Operations Scientist, CSIRO The role Australia played in relaying the first television images of astronaut Neil Armstrong’s historic walk on the Moon 50 years ago this July features in the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lyndal Sleep, Research Fellow, Griffith University In Australia’s social security laws, the “couple rule” is used to determine if a person is in a relationship, tying access to Centrelink payments to the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ben Walker, Lecturer (Management), Victoria University of Wellington We live in a society obsessed with performance. For both young and old, competitions, awards and rankings are an inescapable feature of life. How ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Megan O’Connell, Honorary Senior Fellow, University of Melbourne One-third of all preschools may lack a qualified teacher in the next four years if nothing changes, my new modelling shows. Currently, half of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kirsty Volz, PhD Candidate, The University of Queensland Of all the mantras for modernism, the one I think most befitting for Australian mid-century modern houses is L’esprit Nouveau – The New Spirit. ...
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Skifield snowmaking a sign of the future, vaccination rates fall alarmingly, and construction industry encouraged to lower emissions.Snowmaking has saved the ski industry from disaster this year, after the weather ...
Neil Armstrong may have been the first man on the moon, but if we define the ‘space race’ as spaceflight capability, the Soviets won it hands down, writes Jennifer Frost. ...
Joel Rindelaub explains why it's so important for those weighing on climate science to be transparent about their funding sources and conflicts of interest. ...
Our government and leaders are (still) divided on the question of compulsory te reo Māori. Who’s for it, who’s against it, and who’s flip flopping around in the middle?Under article two of Te Tiriti o Waitangi, the government pledges to ...
Open mike 05/07/2019 
Our conversations and push against specific supremacist and ultra-Nationalist groups, and the pseudo-intellectual underpinnings of them, need to mature at all levels. But in doing so, it’s going to have to include a more thorough and brutally honest self-examination ...16 hours ago
This week, in the wake of National's opposition to even talking about reducing agricultural emissions and Simon Bridges' refusal to recognise that there is a climate emergency, I've been saying that National is unfit to govern. And it looks like ...18 hours ago
Something I missed: not only did Youth MPs declare a climate emergency; they also launched a campaign to lower the voting age to 16:Youth Parliament week in Parliament has seen the establishment of Make it 16, a campaign to ...21 hours ago
I have been reading and listening to the aftermath of Trump’s comments about the four female first term Democratic representatives, all of whom are “people of color.” I found the US coverage interesting both as evidence of partisanship and the ...2 days ago
The proposed Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Bill treats biogenic methane emissions differently from all other carbon emissions. The latter are to be measured net so that emissions from fossil fuels can be offset by carbon stored in trees. ...2 days ago
by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh This article aims to answer a simple question, whether the conflict is only a rural one or whether it is also urban. The verb ‘to be’ is conjugated in the present tense as ,despite what some ...3 days ago
3 days ago
On Sunday July 7, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Associate Health Minister Julie Anne Genter announced their intention to review the Ministry of Health’s Funded Family Care policy and repeal Part 4Aof the 2000 NZ Public Health and Disability Act. These are festering injustices ...4 days ago
Belle is a lovely fifteen year-old border collie who belongs to our friends and neighbours at Bryan’s Beach, Michael and Judy Corboy. Belle, in her old age, can hardly see or hear, but – as a constant participant at social ...4 days ago
A Woman’s Place is on the Podium was a public meeting in London on 10 July to discuss women’s sports and the impact of transwomen competing against women. The venue was sold out with a packed hall of 750 people. ...6 days ago
An occasional series where I will ponder allegations of anti-Semitism directed at the British Labour Party and its members.In this case, we are thinking about an allegedly anti-Semitic image shared by a Labour Party member. Its origins appear to be ...1 week ago
1 week ago
2 weeks ago
Welcome to another heaping helping of research publications related to climate change drivers and mechanisms, the effects of climate change and how we might yet grope our way into systems approaches to dealing with the mess we're making, despite ourselves. ...2 weeks ago
The People's "Friend": In this masterpiece of revolutionary propaganda, the homicidal political psychopath, Jean-Paul Marat, has been transformed by Jacques-Louis David, the French Revolution's most accomplished artist, into a martyred hero of the ordinary people of Paris. Thanks to Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook, ...3 weeks ago
The principle of one person, one vote doesn’t apply for local elections. In fact, you don’t even need to be a person to have voting rights. Welcome to the ratepayer roll. While the ratepayer roll accounts for less than 1% ...3 weeks ago
Image Credit: Blog Writing Tips. I notice a few regulars no longer allow public access to the site counters. This may happen accidentally when the ... 3 weeks ago
A new digital platform aims to make it easier for small businesses to access services from multiple government agencies, leaving them more time to focus on their own priorities. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Minister for Small Business Stuart Nash ...4 days ago
July 19 (BusinessDesk) - The government is looking to tighten control and impose harsher penalties after the Mycoplasma bovis outbreak revealed cracks in the country's stock management system. ...16 hours ago
Aaron Kreisler looks beyond the gags in this survey of an artist and his dogs at the Christchurch Art Gallery.“The dog really must love him, it’s so incredibly patient…”, a woman says to her daughter, punctuating a screening of Coin ...2 hours ago
‘He wants to sleep with you,’ a close friend had said. ‘Then you’ll be able to tell if it is going to lead anywhere’: a short story by New Plymouth author Elizabeth Smither. Photography by Peter Black. ...3 hours ago
Opinion - The leadership visits are more interesting in that they serve as a spotlight on the two countries - politically, and on policy issues, writes Brigette Morten. ...3 hours ago
Created by future ACT Party leader Richard Prebble after an epic reform bender in the 80s, NZ on Air has just marked its third decade. Duncan Greive relates its history and asks: is the funder still fit for purpose?It’s a ...5 hours ago
It helps that he played in the New Zealand cricket team when they lost the 1992 semi-final and went on to coach India, writes Georgie Wright, daughter of JohnMy dad has taught me a fair few things over my 25 ...10 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra [embedded content]University of Canberra Vice-Chancellor Professor Deep Saini discusses the week in politics with Michelle Grattan – one with a reduced pace, despite the 24 ...14 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cherie Hugo, Teaching Fellow, Nutrition & Dietetics, Bond University The Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety this week turned its attention to food and nutrition. The testimony of maggots in ...16 hours ago
Jacinda Ardern’s Melbourne trip wrapped up with nothing to show on longstanding trans-Tasman concerns, but was a potent reminder of her international appeal. ...16 hours ago
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It was five dollars a night for a meal and a bed. Fifty to a room, two rooms to a floor, and four floors high. There was a rooftop to jump from or streets to die slow in. An axe murder that week narrowed the streets odds considerably; the dismemberment of limbs signalling more than the frustrations of poverty run amok. We sat on the rooftop smoking weed, gazing down at the nervous prostitutes.
I did a gig with Steady Eddie. I got into town, phoned a comedy club and scored an open mic spot for the next week. After the phone call I went to 'volunteer' at a homeless mission in exchange for a room and meals, as I'd done at a sister fellowship in Brisbane. "Oh no", she said through armoured glass. "This is Sydney, we have far more homeless here and many of them are mental patients. All our staff are trained professionals. Five bucks a night, dinner at six."
The last time I saw Steady Eddie I was a teenager sneaking into The Hillcrest Tavern in Hamilton, NZ. Now I was a homeless man sneaking to avoid a deranged killer while navigating King's Cross. I'd managed to land a day helping a builder lug gib up some stairs for pocket money, and for the gig I'd get a couple of beers. Sure, the axe murderer was a risk: but this was a gig and a couple of beers.
The manager said, "everything went great until you started singing". I drank my beer and watched the rest of the show. Eddie arrived with an attractive blonde shortly before his closing spot. He was hilarious and then he was drinking at the bar. We chatted a little. I liked him. I told Eddie my singing sucked, and he told me his was worse – but he was currently in the charts, and we laughed. Eddie left with two blondes and a 40 oz of bourbon. I took a cab back to the shelter with one eye on the meter.
"Stop here" I said. I got out on the pavement not far from the shelter. I grabbed my guitar and bag and took stock, then a double take. The cab pulled off to leave me standing there with a dozen prostitutes lining the street all the way to the corner; and they had seen me flinch.
"Hi Honey, you want some of this", began the first as she lewdly grabbed at me. "I've got no money." I stammered as I jostled guitar and bag, hands busy and thus helpless. "Well you can do me for your jacket." Says the next as she pulls her top up to reveal breasts bursting from a red lace bra. "No no," says the third, "you can do me for your guitar" as she lifts her skirt and sidles a bare ass toward me. I pick up the pace. The suggestions and sideshow get bluer as I progress. The hands are all over me, tits, ass, pussy; rubbing and thrusting through lace and lycra. Then I am at the corner, turgid, broke, frustrated, alive. I head for the mission as laughter rang down the alley.
My guitar and bag got locked up. I had permission to arrive late and a security guard escorted me up to the room. Softly, slowly, through the lines of broken men I inched over to the empty cot. My clothes and shoes went in the small cupboard beside the single bed, one shoelace tied to my hand and the other end to the cupboard door.
I dreamed I was on stage at the club with an audience full of prostitutes. The microphone wasn't projecting my voice but the ladies howled with laughter at the erection in my pants. One of them came up to the stage and tugged at my hand to draw me down amongst them. I woke to my hand being tugged by the shoelace as I opened my eyes a slit. A junkie was crouched in the dim light, quietly trying to undo the knot on my cupboard door. I punched down hard to the side of his face where his jaws met, knocking him to the floor. "Fuck Off" I said as he hit the floor. He scrambled backward: "I was only looking to see if you had any cigarettes, man" he lisped. "Fuck off now". He slithered off into the dark. The man in the next bed coughed and murmured. "Good job, son".
I lay awake till dawn.
I hope the above isn't too blue? I hear worse words here daily but not in the same context. It is a story from 1997 and I laid it out as it happened.
This is an excerpt from: Down & Out Down Under – a collection of short stories (in progress) from Aus/NZ about 'how the other half lives.'
I thought it was fabulous.I remember being in Sydney and King's Cross during that whole , what was it, a serial axe murderer rampaging at random
The fear and excitement!
You've lived on the edge WTB, and lived to tell the tale
Thanks
It was a schizophrenic guy Rafael Gavranovic who attacked at least three, but was found not guilty by means of insanity.
I can't find details of his residence, the Police were in that shelter a few times checking over resident lists to try find the guy. I guess only local cops and law would remember details that far back.
I had a guy lunge for me with a large knife there. I didn't even see him coming, had never met or spoke to him. Luckily security saw him pull the knife and took him down a couple of feet from me. Close call.
Maybe I punched his boyfriend? Staff kicked him out and told me he was a junkie and PTSD vet ‘with a few problems.’
IMO powerful writing, WTB. Definitely not too blue for the subject. The clean direct writing style is perfect and tells it as it is – or rather was. Anything more descriptive (eg descriptive adjectives etc) would lose the message IMO.
Is the collection of short stories to be all your own work, experiences? The short story is probably my most favourite genre and is one of the hardest to master as it has a tight framework to be achieved – and imo you have done it perfectly in the one above. I could 'feel' the experience.
A couple of friends of mine teach creative writing at Victoria and Massey Universities, and one in particular, specialises in the personal memoir and personal essay. I am going to copy your excerpt above to her and I think she will be impressed.
While writing the above, I realised that it reminded me of a little book of a similar nature I had and treasured years ago. It was a collection of short stories by/about a diverse group of people who were part of Wellington's so called 'underworld' back in the 1960s/70s – a world of small time crime, honour amongst thieves, madams who looked after their staff etc which was being overtaken by a darker, more drug driven element which eventually took over the old world. The book was a chronicle of the way life had been in that underworld and the consequences of its loss.
I knew a number of the people whose stories made up the collection – some of which were written by them personally and others were written as interviews by a local journalist who saw what was happening and was inspired to pull the book together as a memory of that part of Wellington's history. I cannot remember the name of the book, or the journalist, but your post has inspired me to try to track both down and refind that book. Probably well out of print etc, but somewhere in Wellington it will still exist. Archives NZ?
Keep going on this, WTB. It is an important part of both your own history and the social history of our country (and Australia).
Thanks for the compliments, I think my writing is finally maturing where it sounds like my voice not some Bukowski fan trying to emulate…
Bukowski could write a short story!
I interviewed Henry Rollins one time and he said of Bukowski that he only had one line 'life sucks and I'm drunk again' – he made a good point. Bukowski was flatting with the author Hubert Selby Junior (Last Exit to Brooklyn, Requiem For a Dream) and turned me on to his writing. 'The Demon' was a startling book.
For me, the attempted novel didn't work. The memories were all snapshots rather than a narrative. There was no thread only survival. Hence short stories.
The stories will be my experiences, and sidetracks to others stories where discussions are recalled. Still trying to 'capture' Sarge, a vet who showed young street people the ropes to survival on Sydney's streets. We downed a goon of wine while talking which didn't help…
“There was no thread , only survival”
Now that is stunning WTB
I love it all!
I also had a chaotic childhood and young adulthood,nothing made sense , you had to be ready to run (wore a dress only about 3 times in my life, I reckon for that very reason)But I don’t regret it , and reading the sense of aliveness ,immediacy, and richness in your “snapshot”I don’t reckon you do either.
"For me, the attempted novel didn't work. The memories were all snapshots rather than a narrative. There was no thread only survival. Hence short stories."
The snapshot is much more powerful, imo. I like it far more than a full length historical type narrative. The snapshot allows the reader to participate in/savour/feel a moment in time, an experience. That is what happened to me when I read your snapshot above. The reader can then linger in the moment, think about it etc, before moving on to the next snapshot, with each snapshot possibly invoking a different experience. You have chosen well – don't let it go. Kia kaha
[Sorry, not trying to lecture – was just very moved by your post and want to see more!]
Correction – Rollins flatted with HSJ – not Bukowski. I doubt he'd have let him in his door. Rollins was quite hardcore straight-edge at that stage and had very poor opinions of drunks.
I turned up hammered for the interview. It was awkward but we got past it.
Gritty rather than blue, either way i found it compelling, thanks WTB. A glimpse into a slice of life this boy hasn't experienced.
Rollins is an interesting character, can communicate strongly held views without being preachy.
I actually read that wrong thinking you said he was preachy.
I reckon he can/could certainly come across preachy but there's usually a back story worth hearing to explain some of his views.
Rollins nails it himself in a recent appearance in Portlandia, where Phil reforms his band Riot Spray.
Series 8 Episode 1 Riot Spray
Rollins: When I was younger I didn't like anything and now I like a lot of stuff.
This documentary is brilliant
2am WINZ queue anyone?
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12246774
I’d quote the article but cant decide what to cut out – suggest read all
That's bloody awful. And then WINZ try shift blame to the helpers for this mess. They love to treat you with suspicion and prejudice, had my fill of these mongrels in the past.
The SFO decide not to prosecute Nigel Murray because it's too expensive.
Over $30m spent on Kim Dotcom's extradition trials.
One of these people actually committed a criminal offense in NZ.
Predictable. Murray's good at this, he's got form which Coleman was informed about.
Then there's that national neutered SFO which probably have him flirty looks and a process long enough to tidy up the loose ends.
I noticed his outrageous expenses were still way,way,less than Hisco's.
I see Hosking is now "premium content" at the Herald.
More reason to buy a subscription. Or on second thoughts, maybe not.
Always thought of Hosking as a premium donna.
Premium?
Premagnum?
Promagnum?
Cromagnum.
Premium Prick.
Robert
Lol definitely you're top of the list. And incidentally the Murdoch cartoon this a.m. in the Nelson Mail/stuff seems to refer to the recentclimate change thumbs-down.
Excellent strategy from the Herald management. Put him behind the paywall so he can preach only at the converted. Since the battle for public opinion nowadays occurs in the middle ground, the rightists get to lose their champion & centrists won't have to roll their eyes at him any more. Win/win all round, eh?
Tells you everything you need to know about the standard of egotistical immature rant granny calls 'premium'.
I broke the other day and took the premium option with a local delivery paper on Sat – it will be clear at that end though that I never "opened" Hosking's rants before and won't now, there were just a few items of interest I wanted to keep up with.
The wall isn't big enough nor well guarded enough.
I found myself listening to him via RNZ, I think it was the media slot. It was not a pleasant experience.
Looks like the British electorate has now split into four more-or-less equal parts: Labour "was ranked fourth in a YouGov poll for The Times on just 18 per cent – its joint lowest level, matched only by Gordon Brown in the depths of the 2009 financial crisis. Labour trailed behind the Tories on 24 per cent, Brexit Party on 23 and Liberal Democrats on 20."
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/corbyn-labour-leader-poll-slump-low-a8988866.html
Is 18% for Labour a negative verdict on Jeremy's (lack of) leadership? Probably, but I vaguely recall Helen Clark scored around that prior to becoming PM. Could be he's playing the `slowly slowly catchee monkey' game.
Corbyn campaigned well in 2017. However it was mainly Labour versus a terrible Tory party campaign effort. Since then both the Tories AND Corbyn have impoded. I don't know how he will change that dynamic.
A character test for him, this crisis. The zen sidestep could yet work. I'd rather he told the nation what to do though. See how the news featured a woman brexiteer ranting about slavery to the EU this morning? So they're playing the freedom card.
Jeremy could cite `free to choose' as principled dogma, outflank the Tories on the right like Helen Clark did. Leftists acting like rightists is a known behavioural pattern since the '80s so voters are comfortable with it.
Equally he could steal a portion of the conservative electoral base by telling them independence means reverting to being told what to do by indigenous leaders rather than the Eurocrats. Tories love the lash of the whip so he could easily grab 10% of them with that type of leadership rhetoric.
Agreed he should do something. At the moment he is trying to play both sides of the aisle and it is simply not working for him. He looks weak and indecisive and more importantly losing support from the group of Labour activists who brought him to power.
It's unfortunate he looks weak, being the only one honest enough to 'not know' the way out of such a mess. Needs lessons in bluster.
Here she is.
Why is that embarrassing? She is expressing her firmly held opinion and representing the people who democratically chose her to do just that.
Well THIS is interesting….NZ removed the ability for property investors to off set residential property losses.
MSM stands to the side, useless. This happened last week – it should be big news but we’ve got crickets.
Soldiers in need of help.
People get broken when exposed to trauma, and if society sends them into harms way society should then be obliged to help them.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/taranaki-daily-news/news/113934132/young-army-veterans-in-need-of-mental-healthcare-are-slipping-through-the-gaps
I can't imagine the horrors some of these folk go through, but I do know they go through it to serve our country and protect the rest of us. These people deserve kindness, respect, assistance, and a place in the sun.
I can't imagine follow up is easy however. PTSD causes isolation, thus leaving one to one's own thoughts. The worst decisions are often born in isolation. Reaching out is so hard yet so vital.
"continuing to try and spread the message that it is ok to not be ok, and to ask for help."
Hear hear.
virtue signalling?…..I think the signal is a little more explicit.
"Cull’s welcome speech was anything but welcoming.
“I’ve taken this opportunity to welcome you and this conference to Dunedin – not because I support all of the various plans and projects that will be promoted here, but so you can hear why some of those plans are not welcome here.
“So, to be clear, if you’re promoting fossil fuel exploration, extraction and exploitation – and especially its expansion – then understand you are at odds with this community and my council that represents it.”
He ended by calling fossil fuel exploration and exploitation a “dangerous and immoral folly”.
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2019/07/05/667795/the-un-welcome-speech-dunedins-mayor-gave-miners
Cool – he has gone up in my estimation – a few mates in dunners don't like him for some reason. Leadership in action – good luck for the next few 'restful' years sir.
Much of the animosity seems to be from supporters of a local councillor who is "polarising", as in that many people think the councillor is a dickhead, but his supporters think he walks on water.
I thought the stadium had something to do it.
Possibly, he was anti-stadium. But most of the people who knock him that I've encountered were also anti-stadium. Maybe he wasn't anti enough for their tastes. But the ongoing financing of the stadium has been questionable. He has been pro one or two other developments that were pretty controversial, ISTR.
I've never had too much problem with him either way. Just seems to be pretty bland, nothing too amazing but a solid worker. There are other councillors who are more polarising, and then the usual bunch whose passion for original projects is inversely proportional to the proximity of the next election.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jul/04/planting-billions-trees-best-tackle-climate-crisis-scientists-canopy-emissions
So how about we have a nationalised forest service to implement our aspirations to plant 1 billion trees?
Including research, nurseries, engineers, maintenance crews, millers
Instead of planting short rotation pines, we plant long term hardwoods, mixed native plantations that don't get clear felled but selectively logged for high end use, and we leave the pines and other conifers much longer for their heartwood, thus removing the need for treating with poisons.
Only a nationalised industry can do this, opting for long term gains over short term profit.Once set in motion, its in perpetuity, dedicated forestry land publicly owned cant be turned in to dairy or whatever new short sighted bonanza shows up.
And what say we have dedicated plantations for all future public buildings , schools, housing, libraries etc, getting away from carbon emitting concrete?
Each generation plants for future generations , so there's continuity.
We grow mushrooms ,or rather , we facilitate them , medicinal and otherwise as a sideline
within the forests.
Good thinking, Francesca. I've often wondered why pine replacement doesn't happen – just short-termism or is growing alternative trees just too hard here? I wonder if there's a relevant forestry lobby group, that could push policy from a resilience perspective instead of status quo complacency.
As regards mushrooms, nostalgia tempts me to advocate the magical, but realism reminds me there’s too many folk with vulnerable mental states. Would be interested in hearing from people with expertise in the potential benefits of diverse species of mushrooms though.
https://www.tanestrees.org.nz/
A great model and underway
And apparently the quality of NZ grown oak, despite fast growth is pretty good
We have a history of chasing short term gains , boom and bust cycles
Maybe its our youth as a country.
In the UK oak forests are attached to Universities , with repairs, future building, roof replacement in mind.This was instituted back in an era where there was a different perception of time
We modern day desperadoes want it all now, with no thought for the morrow
And we have created a world that mirrors that – we have cut down our future to the day after next year. Changing fixed minds based on 20th century thinking is almost impossible, I think one has to smile and go round them.
Trying to keep that in mind while still planning rationally for the near future is the hardest thing.
Taranaki farmers were saved from going broke once by the export of wood ear fungi to China. There are a range of fungi we could grow for a range of purposes.
One interesting emerging idea is to use fungi to devour waste streams while making packaging and other materials.
Another is to use fungi as part of bio-remediation on riparian edges and elsewhere.
There's medicinal fungi of many types, and huge markets for them in Asia. Western medicine is slowly coming on board when they can isolate compounds and make exorbitantly priced products.
There's insecticidal fungi we can use for research and bio-control.
There's turning forestry slash to topsoil.
Then there's food.
Off the top of my head…
There's psilocybin mushrooms in my front garden… I did not put them there but lol, maybe they recognised me and moved in.
I had a look through Lincoln staff and programs once thinking that is where they would have a good silviculture program but it seemed to feature pines. We like to stick to the good idea, keep it going.
Fransesca said so rightly:
Instead of planting short rotation pines, we plant long term hardwoods, mixed native plantations that don't get clear felled but selectively logged for high end use, and we leave the pines and other conifers much longer for their heartwood, thus removing the need for treating with poisons.
Only a nationalised industry can do this, opting for long term gains over short term profit.Once set in motion, its in perpetuity, dedicated forestry land publicly owned cant be turned in to dairy or whatever new short sighted bonanza shows up.
There will be others out there who think the same. How can we help?
Shane Jones recently announced planting of native trees in Waimea Nelson.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/113953302/government-announces-70000-trees-to-be-planted-to-protect-tasmans-waimea-inlet
Facts about the effect of planting pine trees and harvesting them leaving the land bare:
A Tasman District Council and NIWA study released in 2018 found that recently harvested pine forests along with bank erosion were responsible for a high proportion of sediment in the Waimea Inlet, which is the largest semi-enclosed coastal estuary in the South Island. Coverage of very soft mud in the inlet soared from 10ha in 1999 to 551ha in 2013….
Jones said the national tree-planting programme was "on-track" to have 80,000 trees planted by the end of the current season, with 65,000 trees already planted.
“This new quantitative evaluation shows [forest] restoration isn’t just one of our climate change solutions, it is overwhelmingly the top one,” said Prof Tom Crowther at the Swiss university ETH Zürich, who led the research. “What blows my mind is the scale. I thought restoration would be in the top 10, but it is overwhelmingly more powerful than all of the other climate change solutions proposed.”
Crowther emphasised that it remains vital to reverse the current trends of rising greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel burning and forest destruction, and bring them down to zero. He said this is needed to stop the climate crisis becoming even worse and because the forest restoration envisaged would take 50-100 years to have its full effect of removing 200bn tonnes of carbon."
but…
"However, some scientists said the estimated amount of carbon that mass tree planting could suck from the air was too high. Prof Simon Lewis, at University College London, said the carbon already in the land before tree planting was not accounted for and that it takes hundreds of years to achieve maximum storage. He pointed to a scenario from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 1.5C report of 57bn tonnes of carbon sequestered by new forests this century."
however…
"But tree planting is “a climate change solution that doesn’t require President Trump to immediately start believing in climate change, or scientists to come up with technological solutions to draw carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere”, Crowther said. “It is available now, it is the cheapest one possible and every one of us can get involved.” Individuals could make a tangible impact by growing trees themselves, donating to forest restoration organisations and avoiding irresponsible companies, he added."
Nothing to lose
Yes
It pleases me so much to see how many people are growing in ecological awareness and proffering practical solutions to move forward. Not just here in TS but all over the place.
Sad story all around
RIP Simone – I'm sorry everything fell apart for you. You did some good work for refugees – thank you.
For those who feel a bit economic ignorant. Or understanding why you feel like crap under capitalism.
Not unsympathetic to Wolf's views.
Does he have alternatives to the Capitalist model?
He errs at the beginning by stating the difference between hourly wage rates and the price of the end service or product is profit.
Most people are aware of operational costs,rents,insurances,taxes,cost of goods,super..etc
Multi national companies have the influence and resources that the small businessman does not.(to state the obvious)
"Does he have alternatives to the Capitalist model?"
My favorite economist.
See 16 below.
Right wing loon Katie Hopkins and her apartheid state supporters
A word far stronger than "despicable" is needed to describe her and the people who applaud her racist ranting….
https://www.thejc.com/news/news-features/katie-hopkins-homelands-film-premiere-london-hendon-islamophobia-1.486061
I'm sure Hopkins appreciates your efforts in spreading her work to a wider audience.
Hopkins' disgusting views are consistent with those of Boris Johnson and the rest of those rats in the Conservative Party. She's a moderate compared to the likes of old Yenta Hodge and her vicious cronies.
Marcus posted this link to Monbiot:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jul/03/land-reform-brute-power-billionaire-press-attacks?CMP=share_btn_fb&fbclid=IwAR19LprhYKBidvX-ytKgbhoAbK8CXdQeS8hDS0sQubJmYni_nAawou8MwMA
It's a must-read.
Good work from Monbiot.
An extension of Rutgers Davos observation, about millionaire media front persons,always promoting the vested interests of their billionaire owners.
Monbiot is a spineless fellow. He can't even do something that is decent (supporting the victim of an extermination campaign) without first paying lip service to the villainous lies perpetrated by the would-be exterminators.
As well as his moral cowardice, he's a dodgy "environmentalist"—he supports nuclear power.
A greater environmental mind than you or I has put forward a good Arguement for nuclear power.
James Lovelock talked about the issue and containing the waste from nuclear. Contrasting that with the waste from gas/coal generation of electricity.
Granted, not here in Aotearoa, (go hydro).
I am starting to doubt some of yr proclamations, a coupla days ago a video was posted with Ben Shapiro and Andrew Neil.
Either yrself or yr protege opined that Shapiro came second in the discussion. I watched it and I thought Shapiro ran rings around Neil. I find a lot of Shapiro's views abhorrent, but he came across more competent and consistent than the senior journalist.
I thought Shapiro ran rings around Neil….competent and consistent.
And the sun circles the earth. Got it.
(Whatever this fellow is smoking, I would recommend the rest of you steer clear of it.)
You have written that James Lovelock is credible, and that Ben Shapiro "ran rings around" Andrew Neil.
You are under the influence of a powerful hallucinogen, aren't you?
Hee hee, just high on life.
LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL
The Trump Show Sucks Balls.
Bound to happen when Bolsonaro took over.
Brazil’s Bar Association, journalists and opposition lawmakers have reacted with outrage to reports that the country’s federal police plan to investigate the bank accounts of an American journalist who published leaked conversations between prosecutors and the graft-busting judge who is now Jair Bolsonaro’s justice minister.
The rightwing site the Antagonist (O Antagonista) reported on Tuesday that federal police had asked a money-laundering unit at Brazil’s finance ministry to investigate the “financial activities” of Glenn Greenwald.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jul/03/brazil-glenn-greenwald-investigation-outcry-bar-association-journalists
You'll be right behind this latest state campaign against a journalist, of course.
Unlike the alleged rapist, Greenwald's an actual journalist.
Assange was never charged with rape. One is tempted to be charitable and say that such a vicious and ignorant slur is unworthy of you, but that would be a false statement.
Oh, my bad.
The alleged sexual violator.
Nope. You're still lying.
Once again: when will you start pouring filth on Glenn Greenwald? Will you start now or will you wait for the morsels of disinformation to be fed to you from the Brazilian/U.S. authorities, as you did with the campaign against Assange?
Professor L
Accusations Unlimited – is that your speciality. Why can't you give us time to come to the same opinion as you instead of insulting anybody different? Desist.
I don't think the Professor was "insulting anybody different", Mr Shark. He was simply posing the question: how long before these creeps start to pour filth on another government-designated target for destruction?
Is that a rhetorical question he was posing then, or you are? I have a feeling I am missing something here. It seemed to me that he was attacking Joe90 for something that he thought that Joe90 and others might do, like pouring filth on a speaker. Ugh.
I prefer to get down and dirty in the garden.
He was attacking Joe90 not because of something he might do, but because of something he has actually done. (The latest examples of his pouring filth on a journalist is just above us on this thread, in messages 15.1.1 and 15.1.1.1.1)
If only you and your sock were as concerned with Greenwald's work as you are with defending an alleged sexual offender.
joe90
11 June 2019 at 8:23 pm
Surprise surprise, the corruption prosecutions that resulted in Lula's imprisonment and his ineligibility to run were cooked up by the right.
Indeed: "incendiary articles" and exposing of "unethical behaviour and political motives" constitute a grave risk to the state. He'll have to be destroyed, just like Assange.
Could you explain: exactly why are you not on board with the state campaign this time?
Calling Adam – I know that you are there up at 11 but don't want to derail the thread there. Forget feeling crap under capitalism and feel great after rewatching this! Do you remember it Adam?
Adam posted this wonderful, wonderful dance video back on 26 June 2015 on Weekend Social and I refound it a few days ago when totally crap with a full-on dose of the common cold. It restored my belief that life is still worth living and the more I played it, the better I felt.
A must view. Thanks Adam
PS – I am still learning the new system, so if the above does not work, here is a link to Adam’s original comment with video.
One of the quirks of the current comment editor is if you want to link to a specific comment on TS, putting the link as a standalone paragraph strips the #commentnumber off the URL and turns it into a link to the OP.
But if you use the linking tool (that looks more like a misdrawn infinity symbol) or just include the link to a comment in a sentence like this /open-mike-05-07-2019/#comment-1634457 it correctly links to the actual comment.
Thanks for that tip. I assume you mean the symbol that looks like a paperclip next to the slashed S. I used that to put in the actual link to the video which eventually came up properly! But when it did not originally come up, I then edited the comment and the toolbar doesn't come up when I edit so cannot use the symbol. LOL. So I will know for the future when that happens to put the link into a sentence.
But that young woman is an amazing dancer! The ability to move bits of the body separately like they are all unconnected is not easy – and she is tops. The other videos of her both alone and with her dance partner are superb. Now off to find the Trump parade videos …
Now seen Joe90’s comment below – LOL
A while back I vaguely remember lprent explained that the delay in the image showing up for video, twitter links etc had something to do with the server having to go fetch the image and then put it into the cache, and there can be delays in some of the processes to make that happen.
Interesting what different people see that linking tool icon to be. I reckon there's a good chance that McFlock with his security background might be the only one of us that correctly interprets it as a short bit of chain at first glance.
Sorry to derail your thread about dance …
I see a chain link.
I know it's supposed to be a chain link and when I work at it I can make myself see it as chain. But even though it's been there for months, every time I first glance at it I still see it as a misdrawn infinity. Funny how visual perception and mental shortcuts work.
You didn't derail it at all. But I have been so enjoying that video I wanted to thank Adam. He and I have had our spats, but it just brought me so much relief the other day, I wanted to share it and to acknowledge Adam for first putting it up.
I am laughing at what's happening in Washington DC – the sky gods are no fools!
But I so wanted to see Trump's Shermans!
Aww..
Maybe the new Shermans didn't make it off the production line in time?
Russian sabotage? You'd buy into that theory, no doubt?
You're spluttering. Damn pin bones, again?
Russian paranoia—you're donkey-deep in it as well. I was providing our friend, and the likes of yourself, with—by your lights—a reasonable explanation.
Well said Prof.
..and don't worry Biden 2020 will save us lol.
Nah. This time it was all the immigrant workers in the defense contractors that went on a go-slow when they saw the design.
Yes, but it was the evil Russian masterminds that persuaded them to take that go-slow action, surely.
Surely? They control everything and everyone, as you know.
Huuge parade.
Much more fun than the Trump Parade!
Thanks lol
Speaking of flag referendums…
America is gonna need one all those rednecks have turned it into a symbol of hate.
Speaking of flag referendums…
The correct word is "referenda."
America is gonna need one all those rednecks have turned it into a symbol of hate.
It's not working people—scoffingly dismissed as “rednecks” by thoughtless rich pricks—that are spreading hate, but the soft, doughy white-collar bigots who have never worked in the sun in their miserable, privileged lives. People like Stephen Miller, Ben Shapiro, Jared Kushner, Donald Trump….
referendum, n.
Pronunciation: Brit. /ˌrɛfəˈrɛndəm/, U.S. /ˌrɛfəˈrɛndəm/
Inflections: Plural referendums, referenda.
OED
Quoting the OED, no less. Q.E.D.
Identity crisis? Or just in two minds?
I ladled out the praise after you had dealt a lesson to the Professor, and you come back with an allegation like that. Sheesh! Talk about ungracious.
Peculiar prose and passionate protest. Anyway, we’re all on the same page so all good with me.
Enjoy your weekend.
Yep, that's me, a thoughtless rich prick.
'Professor'
And those proud boys and their truck humpin cousins are all very fine people indeed.
Thanks for the lesson.
You schooled me good.
Is there a recipe for starting flame wars? I feel that the tone of the Perfesser is familiar. Or perhaps there is a tide in the affairs of men, and it washes up lumps of spite in blogs leaving a high water mark of see-weed.
Should we be celebrating? https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/new-zealand-china-defence-relationship-recognised-through-conclusion-defence-cooperation
https://www.beehive.govt.nz/sites/default/files/2019-07/Memorandum%20of%20Arrangement%20Concerning%20Defence%20Cooperation.pdf
USA, China, Australia… and so many more – why? They know what they have to do to win and that is destroy. Not just the actual people, but hope, respect, dignity.
Good work these crews and good report from Minister Sage on fbook.
Watching a piece of the Trump Parade and it seemed to be pretty shambolic to me. Huge gaps and amatuerish participants. Funny that faces in parade seemed to be fuzzied out.
If EU politics is about incorporating the vote, & therefore you would think it's efficacy, then insular coalition bargaining before the vote is increasingly problematic when there is increasing fragmentation ( which of itself is not necessarily a bad thing ), & it seems like they have essentially a very good structure to take that into account overall if not the traditional method of using it that way.
https://www.dw.com/en/inside-europe-women-nominated-for-eus-top-jobs/av-49472112
Seems like some of the criticism is a mix of First Past the Post and Direct Democracy type asks that are being put forward theoretically, but to my understanding both applications of those models to what is being talked about seems misplaced.
Hopefully they can get over this bump and reap the increased benefits after a rocky few years.