“People are crying out for economic justice and cultural security. Whoever grasps this will control the immediate political future”. Security is an eternal primary political motivator in nation states, and Brexit makes it the key to the future, but it seems significant that this analyst identifies post-neoliberalism as equally determinant.
Phillip Blond is the director of the ResPublica thinktank, and the author of Red Tory: How the Left and Right Have Broken the System and How We Can Fix It. Here’s his main point: “it is clear we are in the middle of a significant reframing of our political reality. The shift is probably equal to, if not greater than, the 1945 moment that founded welfare states across Europe or the Thatcher revolution in 1979, which began the dismantling of them in the name of free-market economics. The tectonic shift taking place now is away from liberalism in both its social and economic forms.”
His balanced view is that Labour is ahead in regard to economic security, while the Conservatives are ahead on cultural security – but both have yet to orient themselves to the new reality with a comprehensive political program.
The Guardian is a bourgeois publication that has a vested interest in doing anything and promoting everything that pretends that class politics are no longer relevant.
I’m inclined to agree, inasmuch as it has yet to apologise to readers for getting itself on the wrong side of history (supporting Blairites, etc). But the author is a guest there: “ResPublica’s ideas are founded on the principles of a post-liberal vision of the future which moves beyond the traditional political dichotomies of left and right, and which prioritise the need to recover the language and practice of the common good.[Wikipedia]
I personally think class politics have become potentially relevant again in recent years, due to widening inequality in all western countries. However there is a noticeable lack of any intellectual advocacy to make it actually relevant. Until we get contenders filling that vacuum class consciousness will remain suppressed, and identity politics will divide everyone as usual.
Yes, it’s the ones bleating “identity politics” who divide us. They tell others that their subjectivity is not as valid or worthy of acceptance, or important enough for politics.
I intended no implication of either/or. I’m well aware that identity politics is a naturally-emergent phenomenon. My first such was via the teenage rebel wave in the sixties and there’s been others since.
Seems that humans initially identify with social groups via differentiation. Although natural, when we do differentiate between groups and identify with one or more, the divisions between the groups often outweigh the common ground between folks. It’s in that sense that I meant identity politics usually divides us.
You notice that in this forum too; respondents tend to disagree more than agree because we clarify our comprehension of stuff via differentiating. Political psychology motivates political behaviour. Consensus happens when participants integrate instead. Funny how we got taught in college maths the various uses of integration & differentiation – would have been better for us to have been taught the psychological benefits too.
I find that people talking and activating around their experience helps me to understand a little of their experience. For instance I am able bodied (in general). If someone says I’m in a wheelchair and i can’t access this service or resource and we need to fix this. I think ‘wow I didn’t realise that’ and it helps me connect to them and work with them to make it better for them. I don’t use the difference to create MORE difference instead it creates LESS difference.
Identity politics is being diverted into a type of elite globalism against pluralism.
It is pluralism that celebrates individuals differences and cultures not globalism which puts everyone into one lump…
the globalists want every nation to be free of ‘nationality’ and just have blind competition for all resources… so greedy beats needy… unless you can harness the growing needy into some sort of greedy way to make more money of course and the rise of corporate “charitable trusts” and PPP’s “helping” with prisons and social housing…
“Identity politics will divide everyone as usual”.
Let’s wind back a bit.
Why is class important? Because it’s an affront to natural justice that some people lead better lives and wield power over other people due to their greater access to, and control of, economic resources. Doubly so when that access and control is not even tenuously attributable to merit or effort.
When is identity important? When people of one identity wield power over people of a different identity for no reason whatsoever other than that difference in identity.
So there is a big overlap in the underlying principles for both class and identity politics, i.e. who has power, who doesn’t and the lack of any justification for that difference. So it should be possible for class and identity politics to work harmoniously together.
However there is a weak form of identity politics which implicitly believes that class differences ARE actually merit or effort based. Identity politics then becomes merely making sure that everyone has the same chance (or equality of opportunity) to get rich and assume power over others. The cry for “more women on Boards” is a classic example of this weak identity politics.
If criticising “identity politics” it would pay not to throw the baby out with the bathwater by making sweeping statements.
Yes, a good explanation. For most people both class & identity seem to be more tacit than consciously referenced. Kind of like niche in an ecosystem. When you grow up in that matrix it’s like the dwelling you take for granted due to never knowing another.
Your point about differentiating strong & weak forms of identity politics seems valid but I’m not seeing it clearly. Would be good to develop that. Incidentally Fukuyama’s “Identity: Contemporary Identity Politics and the Struggle for Recognition” was published yesterday. He may prove capable of producing a general theory.
Heartening to read in a mainstream outlet that the relevant target of liberalism is being brought into focus. And yes, I know it’s only an opinion piece, and so afforded much less authority within the publication than its editorial line and the general thrust of its news pieces. But still…
And to all those people (plenty hereabouts) who protest that liberalism’s a good thing and somehow possibly connected to leftist ideas, ideals or thought, and/or who insist on viewing it favourably as akin to large (liberal) servings of ice cream being given out at deli or some such, please, for fucks sake educate yourself on what liberalism is and the political philosophy/schools of thought its built on.
So…..believe nothing we read, and only half you hear?
We needed the promised ‘free to air public access TV channel with investigative journalism as we had with ‘TVNZ 7’ under the last Labour Government from March 25th 2008.
“TVNZ 7 was a commercial-free New Zealand 24-hour news and information channel on Freeview digital television platform and on Sky Television from 1 July 2009. It was produced by Television New Zealand, which received Government funding to launch two additional channels.[2] The channel went to air just after 10 am on 25 March 2008 with a looped preview reel. The channel was officially launched at noon on 30 March 2008 with a special “kingmaker” political debate held within the Parliament building and featuring most of the elected minor party leaders. The channel went off air at midnight on 30 June 2012 to the Goodnight Kiwi.
It featured TVNZ News Now updates every hour from 6 am to 11 pm, with a specialised rolling 10-minute bulletin ‘zone’ between 8 am and 9 am, throughout which six bulletins were aired. TVNZ 7 also featured an hour-long bulletin, TVNZ News at 8, at 8 pm each night. It was hosted on weeknights by Greg Boyed and on weekends by Miriama Kamo.”
I don’t watch much TV and only “discovered” TVNZ 7 in what turned out to be its final days. We found it had a lot of interesting stuff on it and began to watch it a bit. Not as good as SBS (which some parts of NZ used to get because of the spillover from the satellite feed into Tasmania before they fed the signal by cable) but it was coming along nicely.
Such a shame that it was killed off by Key and his lackeys.
But now under Jacinda with ‘her transformative’ Government; – she must restore her government’s pledge to restore the public free to air channel for the peoples voice to be heard now as we have a highly compromised media that has tainted the truth.
Now there is virtually no honest investigative journalism as national has deliberately sabotaged our free speech media that has been canned since 2009.
‘Let’s do this Jacinda’ – before your first year has ended.
Oh! What delicacy of conscience! Oh! What altruistic moral rectitude! From what super-ideal realm do you RWNJs deign to deliver upon us the condemnation we so richly deserve?
Stinking hypocrites.
Muttonbird may have a point..
In China there is no protection against the arbitrary exercise of state power by an absolutist regime run by a dictator who invokes a form devine providence to operate above the rule of law or the constraints of any court or parliament. There isn’t even a star chamber, just an Oriental absolutism inimical to Western ideas of freedom.
In China there is no Magna Carta, no Habeus Corpus, no bill of rights, no elections, and no human rights. You have no protections whatsoever.
China is the enemy of freedom as we understand it, and this is a country that actively and vigorously seeks to interfere in the domestic affairs of other countries if they are displeased.
In short, I fear we must soon begin to prepare for the coming confrontation with China.
Helen Clark’s FTA with China was the one big thing she did that I really felt uncomfortable with. And you’ve outlined exactly the reasons why.
As always I feel the need to bookend this with a disavowal. My oldest and best friend is part-Chinese, I have an adopted son who is a pilot in China, we are living the past 9 months with a Chinese family and the man right next to me as I work today is Chinese. Part of me still laments the absence of our most active author and Chinese contributor CV. I know far more than I should about traditional Chinese medicine. There is much that intrigues and fascinates me about the culture and it’s prodigious history, yet in most respects I still know far too little
Yet in all this another part of me has long been perturbed and uncomfortable with the direction modern China has taken. China there is no Magna Carta, no Habeus Corpus, no bill of rights, no elections, and no human rights. Even the most basic exercise of the rule of law, always remains at the pleasure and whim of some faceless, inaccessible party official who can never be held to account.
Australia gets it. There is considerable media and political discussion around China, yet little old NZ remains both obdurately naive and too frightened of the ‘r-word’ to day anything out loud. There is also the simple possibility that at 15% of the electorate local Chinese voters are already too powerful to challenge openly.
+ 1 – “Part of me still laments the absence of our most active author and Chinese contributor CV”
… yep he was critical of Labour’s neoliberals as well as the Natz and ardent to the death of trade agreements that screw the locals (no matter what ethnicity) ..
Trouble with CV it was hard to discuss anything with him. He was short and to the point and didn’t help in discussion much to advance a change of thinking from other commenters. He seemed to become more extreme as time went on.
China has been a great power, and a scholarly one for so many centuries. It seems that much appreciation of that was lost in the turmoils they have gone through.
Joseph Needham felt that they had lost sight of their achievements and gathered them into an extensive series of books to present to them their past. He was interested firstly in science but also in inter-relationships. Looking at Chinese culture and why they did not develop the codes similar to the west as no Magna Carta, no Habeus Corpus, no bill of rights, no elections, and no human rights posed in Red Logix 4.1, might have been answered in a conversational comment quoted here:
Dr. Needham argued that while the West was preoccupied with natural law, set forth in the scientific principles developed by Galileo and others, the Chinese Taoist and Confucian tradition was more concerned with social ethics and the direct implications of science. “A wise ancient counselor advised against gunpowder,” Dr. Needham liked to say, “for it singed beards, burned houses and brought Taoism into discredit.”
*https://www.nytimes.com/1995/03/27/obituaries/joseph-needham-china-scholar-from-britain-dies-at-94.html
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/obituaryjoseph-needham-1612984.html
This is an interesting paragraph from the above obituary.
(Most great mountain peaks are found close-packed in ranges. Needham matured at Cambridge in the presence of J.J. Thomson, Ernest Rutherford, Arthur Eddington, Edgar Adrian and Charles Sherrington, not to mention some 10 other Nobel laureates from Blackett and Bragg to C.T.R. Wilson. )
There are similar arguments about why Islam did not modernize after the golden era of Baghdad.
For China the Confucian model, which was designed for stability, was part of the obstacle to change. Confucius was a clever guy but not really as self critical as Socrates.
For Islam the blame tends to be placed on the lack of an Augustine writing City of God – a major rethink for millenarian theists who until then thought deus vult would cover most of their problems. Although Al-Ghazali was a decent thinker, he wasn’t obliged to deal with a problem like the fall of Rome – so his work is more of a triumph of his own faith than a redirection and rededication like Augustine’s.
I think the FTA with China could have been better if they had put in provisions to protect NZ and had more thoughts about the eventual balance of power that the agreements failed to protect.
To have provisions where Kiwis can’t buy Chinese land but Chinese can buy NZ land and assets… no real thinking about the long term problems with that.
Sounds lovely (sarcasm) on paper but then there are 1.5 billion Chinese people desperate to buy property around the world and they have a cash culture and need ways to get rid of that money, and only 4 million Kiwis on low wages – it’s not a fair deal to allow the worlds middle classes to come to NZ, get residency or citizenship buy assets, leave and but still have access to our generous welfare provisions, while those still here are paying all the taxes like petrol taxes, infrastructure taxes etc…]
I feel the same way about other countries that get screwed over by big powers and they become tenants in their own country – of course the way things are going, a growing amount of Kiwis will not even be able to afford to be tenants in their country. Tents in 5 years, maybe? Or our taxes pay big business to house our poor, neoliberal style.
Looking at NZ business that try to do partnership with China, well does not end well for the Kiwi business aka Fonterra having it’s only loss in it’s history, but clearly great to Chinese business.
This government is in love with being popular overseas, very Obama, very John Key, but we are in a new era where increasingly people are getting wise to the eventual effects of globalism on their lives and culture.. that’s how Trump won and why Key stepped down before he got busted, because the Labour/democrat/Green strategists of the Intellectual Yet Idiot class making it easy for the right because they can’t see another way but a sort of kinder neoliberalism with more taxes, will it work? I doubt it.
The more people in a country the tougher the leadership needs to be . Humans are to stupid to be free . As long as the iron fist isn’t running death camps i’m good .
Terry Pratchett s patrician from his disc world is a good guide
saveNZ
I don’t think he is being sarcastic or facetious. Looking around at what has been achieved by us with democracy and freedom I don’t like what I see We introduced MMP to enable minority groups to bring their ideas into the mix but still haven’t been able to break the stupidity barrier.
I read Terry Pratchett and The Patrician is a dictator cunning and pragmatic, with understanding of human nature, who tries to control excesses and keep the peace to a manageable level of drunk and disorderly. He has introduced a police force, and set about bringing diversity into it, and most sentient beings may get employment of sorts.
At present I am reading Thud and he has the City Watch trying to resolve a severe division coming from dwarfs with beliefs thousands of years old and whose leader is undermining the self-respect of modernised dwarfs. They have a long-held dislike of trolls, and the Watch’s police force is under stress with both dwarfs and trolls resigning as their group develops old antipathy to the other ‘side’. Dwarfs and trolls could be involved in an internecine battle in which the humans may be brought down too. The Patrician will have some plan to deal with this, having a cool overview and the ability to move in everyone’s (particularly his) best interests. He spies a lot so that he can keep alert to subversion. He is a relatively benign dictator, but is a graduate from the Guild of Assassins and is someone to take notice of.
Certain similarities with our real world will be noticed I am sure.
Vetinari is essentially the Platonic “philosopher-king”.
In real life people are rarely that smart, and when they are they rarely maintain it for more than a decade. but kings and patricians don’t lose elections.
There’s also a certain amount of the “freedom:order” dichotomy at play.
But China is heading to a full 1984 scenario. This is much worse than attempts at democracy.
That 1984 thing does seem to be the case which is very scary. Reading about the people being surveilled all the time at 4.3+, thanks for the info, is bad as it is something that i had thought might occur in future. I didn’t think it already was.
And did the Chinese leader gain another term that can be rolled-over, or am I mis-remembering?
I googled something about China by the way and found that suddenly results were much slowed down. Perhaps something to do with Chinese internet controls?
China has sort of an hierarchical system of representatives, if I recall correctly. So not quite democratic, but with a certain amount of factional inputs.
What they did recently was get rid of the term limits for the president. This enables thirty year rule by one person, but also slows down the adaptability of the system by entrenching existing factions at the top. I suspect that this will significantly shorten China’s period of dominance (although probably not in my lifetime).
I think that overpopulation is a big issue… as soon as people become commodities then governments or society creates organisational way to control. India has the caste system and apparently Indian women have 40% of the highest suicide of women in the world… So it might be government or it might be a societal way of organising people but much more control is needed for larger volumes of people and India and China have the largest populations.
Neoliberalism loves it, because then if you control food, housing, power, water, banking etc etc, you have more profits and consumers and then you redistribute the people around the world after destroying their countries environment and you can get your costs lower and lower for wages and higher for consumer goods…
I don’t think that western societies are perfect, but it’s better than some sort of dictator or caste system to organise people. And what people have to be aware of is that democracy is something that needs fighting for constantly, because there are ALWAYS systems in there to try and take it away.
Look at our own councils in NZ. Effectively democracy has been destroyed by COO structures and SOE in government.
Bear in mind that the caste system predates the population explosion by centuries (although the British, as always, exploited it).
And the population in India in 1951 was roughly the same as the current US population. China wasn’t much farther off.
So a lot of India’s problems are Auckland-style strain on social infrastructure, which will resolve when the population stabilises (mostly when the birth rate decrease catches up with lifespan increases).
As for NZ democracy being destroyed, in my opinion that’s a hyperbolic statement to an absurd level.
NZ democracy being destroyed – so no dirty politics then in your opinion? No interference in the Brexit and US elections?
Normal that in Auckland the ratepayers who are forced to pay their rates then have 1/2 their money given to Auckland Transport whose board now does not even have an elected representative from the council whereas previously they had 2?
Aucklanders were forced into the Supercity against their will.
Oh and wait, in spite of wasting a billion on IT, and against IT advice, Auckland council are thinking of investigating on line elections, that in the US even an 11 year old has hacked…
I agree, I’m getting fed up with the cries of how dire things are in NZ.
There are 195 counties in the world. Some of the comments in here would lead anyone to believe that we’re in the bottom 5% of life-worthy countries in the world.
Where would these people rather live? Where is better?
Swapping emails with pals in the modern socialist utopia of Sweden, things ain’t all roses over there. Imagine walking through an Auckland suburb and being showered in saliva from the apartments above for wearing a skirt. A male in a skirt, begging to be stabbed.
If NZ is so crap, go to where I’m sure you’ll find things perfect.
Yeah, like all families we have our differences but Sheesh, instead of bitching on a blog, make like Penny, turn off your computer and have a genuine go.
I could move anywhere, I choose NZ. if it ain’t for you I’m happy to drive you to the airport.
I think that comment is naive; the kind that you hear from someone who has served in a war-torn country and comes home saying that we are so lucky but ungrateful for our good conditions, compared to the previous location.
We notice the gradual degradation of our society which is ongoing. If we don’t stand up and protest, then we are complicit. People who find the place suits them, care nothing for those who are disadvantaged by the political and economic system, and then turn round and interfere with efforts to hold standards or restore ones, are beneath contempt.
“Gradual degradation” is probably fair enough, especially under the last lot. ECANZ, the Anadarko and Hobbit law changes at the behest of overseas corporates, the Auckland supercity, sure. All whittling away against public power over public interests.
But our democracy is far from “destroyed”, which was your opening position. And histrionic overstatements actually enable the tories to undermine valid concerns relating to those issues.
The older we get, the more we pine for the good old days. They weren’t. A working life of sewing the cuffs on business shirts is not something to aspire to. A hand poised on the Stop button of a bottle labeling machine for 40 hours a week for 40 years is as unfulfilling as work can be. How much insulation was in the house you grew up in? How many of your school pals went on to a tertiary education?
Starting your waking hour with a public moan and ending it with a heartfelt gripe is not a quality life Grey. I’m sure you don’t want to be a perpetually cantankerous grumpy old man, they’re awful to spend any time with.
It doesn’t need to be war-torn location Grey, start a utube search with the name of any city you like and add the word homeless.
By all means fight to make a difference for those you perceive to be political or economic victims but be sure, moaning from sun up to sundown on a blog achieves nothing beyond making yourself feel helpless and miserable.
David Mac
I see your point. But you will never see mine because you can’t see far enough and don’t find it surprising that we are saying the same things that probably have been said since the 1800s.
We have lifted people out of ignorance, we haven’t lifted them out of poverty. You can quote statistics all you like and ignore thought about who, what, and how they are gathered. They don’t change the reality of life for people in general, and the hopeless future for all if we go on as we are. The sort of thing i am talking about is probably very similar to what was said by people who could see WW2 coming up and tried to instil some understanding of its terrible possibilities.
It is true what you say. moaning from sun up to sundown on a blog achieves nothing beyond making yourself feel helpless and miserable.The wilfully ignorant ensure that it does not reach any receptive part of their brain and indeed I am helpless to achieve anything with such as you. But this is a blog where people who are trying to understand what is happening and talk about it come, and unfortunately it is not all happy stuff, and does make one miserable. Personally I like to put up happy stuff and positive items and a few jokes, because I think we should smile and need some joy in life. So sorry that you have missed those comments and are upset that it’s all not ‘She’ll be right’ as you prefer.
Perhaps you have come to the wrong blog, and should go to one where they think all can be fixed by sliding in the right statistics, carefully gathered, and with a few nuts tightened and the machine greased, all will be well. The common-sense practical man rides over all.
Haven’t been able to liknk it put a quick Google told me that since 1990 China has lifted 730 million out of poverty compared to India’s 130 mill .
And that honour killing is still a thing in India it seems to have died out in China back in one of the dynasties .
I guess we could play my picks more fucked than you pick all day . But I concede as harvesting organs is fucked up . Unless they were from the likes of breivik or Clayton weathrston in which case I’d be fine with it.
Well, I’d have to be reminding myself why it’s wrong, at any rate.
The basic contradiction is that authoritarian leadership gets shit done, but eventually destroys society with shit ideas. I reckon this applies regardless of the size of the society.
The major problem with large societies is that they tend to build bureaucratic structures that ossify. This means that even if the leader tries to change course, the inflexible structures resist. Not because the society wants to resist (the leader’s desire for change might even be a reflection of the people’s desire for change), but because the pathways it uses to implement decisions are the things that need to change.
The Ottoman Empire, Qing Dynasty, and Catholic Church are all good examples of this. India is having scaling problems as well, in its justice system in particular. Procedurally-heavy with long waits for trial, IIRC.
I share your aversion to China’s current policies, but doubt that framing them as “our natural enemy” is good foreign policy. Rewi Alley provided us with an excellent role model, and Sir Ed replicated that in Tibet, so I’d rather we pursued a policy of constructive critical engagement with China.
In respect of the actress, the real target would be her business advisors, agents and managers. The context is the ongoing anti-corruption campaign being waged by the regime against the most flagrant rule-breakers who have become spectacularly successful via capitalism. Basically it’s a replication of Putin’s campaign against the oligarchs. So she’s just one domino amongst many to fall and I suspect her house arrest is a temporary holding-pattern to send the appropriate signal throughout China that the regime is serious.
If I were Ardern I’d do a state trip to China to launch a new activist foreign policy. I’d use the example of Rewi & Sir Ed as historical precedents. I’d explain that we have a common interest in re-inventing socialism as alternative to neoliberalism. Both countries now have a long tradition of being socialist/capitalist hybrids, so the common ground is how to develop that via sustainable practice and reducing inequality.
In principle I can’t fault your reasoning. Yet the core problem lies deeper; over-populated, intensely competitive societies like China have historically struggled with the notion of individual sovereignty and rights.
In addition there is a fundamental lack of trust in the public domain; the concept of ‘inner circle/outer circle’ is a very real and potent aspect of all life in China; a phenomenon that places a subtle constraint on their development. The CCCP actually understand this; hence their rollout of their extraordinary and deeply intrusive ‘social score’ system that rates every citizen by their behaviour and daily real-time choices in an attempt to impose ‘trust’ top down.
Maybe we think this all too remote from us; but the expressed intention is to roll this system out to all their trading partners. NZ would be an ideal starting point, smallish and not in much of a position to say no.
Thanks for that. I wasn’t aware of it. This extract from Wikipedia explains their policy: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Credit_System]
“The plan shows the government wants the basic structures of the Social Credit System to be in place by 2020. The goal being “raising the awareness for integrities and the level of credibility within society.” It is presented as a means to perfect the “socialist market economy” as well as strengthening and innovating societal governance.This indicates that the Chinese government views it both as a means to regulate the economy at a business level and as a tool of governance to steer the behavior of citizens. The outline focuses on four areas: “honesty in government affairs”, “commercial integrity”, “societal integrity”, and “judicial credibility”.
Those four principles seem sensible. Universal applicability, eh? Societal integrity would be what NZF is fumbling its way towards via their bill for imposing our values on immigrants. As for judicial credibility, wouldn’t that be nice? Too high a bar for our judiciary with its entrenched unaccountability to the public.
Russian-speaking journalist managed to enter the autonomous Uyghur region and observe the Orwellian world of total surveillance, segregation, and discrimination.
The cameras register not only a car’s license plate number but also the face of its driver. At night, lights are projected over the camera lenses, blinding drivers more than oncoming headlights ever could. As we drove past another checkpoint, I tried to shield my eyes with my hand in an attempt to catch a glimpse of the road. The gesture did not go unnoticed: all four cameras immediately flashed a series of strobe lights.
[…]
The city is split into square regions, and in order to cross from one quarter into another, every Uyghur must display a plastic ID, hand over any bags or purses to be searched, undergo a pupil scan, and, in some cases, surrender a mobile phone for inspection.
[…]
“All textbooks published before 2009 were confiscated more than a year ago,” Ekhmet clarified. “They just went from house to house and took everything that we hadn’t managed to burn ourselves.” He managed to hide a couple of the textbooks he had used at university, but he had to destroy the truly old ones — the punishment for keeping them was up to seven years in a prison camp.
[…]
In Xinjiang, where every resident is almost constantly under surveillance, this futuristic nightmare quickly took on the qualities of a bloody dystopia. The artificial intelligence system that analyzes personal data about people divides society into “safe,” “average,” and “dangerous” citizens. Age, religion, previous convictions, and contact with foreigners are all taken into account. It is very likely that samples of DNA might affect residents’ scores in the near future, as well, if they are not part of the system already.
I doubt if Sir Ed ever set foot in Tibet, except perhaps if he strayed to the Tibetan side of the peak of Mt Everest.
Furthermore, I doubt if Sir Ed would have been allowed in the border region of Tibet and Nepal – on the Tibetan side.
Rewi fell out of favour with the Communist Chinese authorities and was only rehabilitated after years of being virtually ostracised, in the final years of his life.
Right, my mistake! Getting old, memory fading nowadays. Interesting that about Rewi. When Shadbolt went there to visit him in the seventies he called Tim a young whippersnapper (Shadbolt writes in his second autobiography). I picked up an old biography of Rewi for five bucks last year at that ramshackle place in Wellington where piles of old books almost reach the ceiling, but haven’t got around to reading it yet.
Tony V
What you refer to in your comment is an actual example of how politics change and why it is worthwhile for our PM to keep options open and do some hand-shaking.
Nothing political is set in concrete, and just quoting the past changes is a bit of an oxymoron or something. Diplomacy is to try and get the other to change in a way that improves relationships to the advantage of each country involved. So mentioning Sir Ed and Nepal and how we have built a mutual relationship is very good thinking.
As for Rewi Alley you say he was rehabilitated in the final years of his life after his standing had earlier been rubbished. The change to communism was a cataclysmic event and the violent measures it led to subsided as you state. So even after all that there is an opportunity for change and hearing differing views of people and systems.
Don’t rubbish diplomacy. We have in the past broken through crusty old walls that have been drenched with blood in conflicts. If we can stay out of great power conflicts, and try to keep going as a unified country, with some concessions, perhaps keeping Switzerland and Sweden as possible guides for survival, we might preserve some of what we achieved in the last century.
for what’s happening to the Uyghur and Tibetan people in China. They (the Han Chinese) seem to be actively trying to eradicate any culture not Han in China.
Well, having written similar emphatic sentiments myself here in the past I won’t argue the point! Comes a time, however, when we ought to learn how such polarisation eventually got transformed in history. Being resolute in opposing Chinese imperialism is essential, as is civil rights for non-Han Chinese. I just think our foreign policy can combine being tough with identifying common ground.
Totally agree, Frank. The trouble is, I don’t see us sticking up for the rights of the persecuted people in China at all.
If we had a truly ‘moral’ foreign and trade policy, we probably would only exchange goods with a handful of countries in the entire world.
And, as someone else mentioned above, maybe the Blue Dragons already exercise too much control over one political party, and maybe their ‘red’ off shoot in another?
Fair enough, maybe I overstated that from something I read.
Given the CCCP’s determination to restore China’s national prestige and global influence (and there are multiple dimensions to this effort, from the Spratley Is forts, through to their debt-diplomacy through-out Africa and Asia, and the ‘Silk Road’ initiative) in which there the is clear determination to dominate a vastly expanded sphere of influence … it’s not a big step to imagine them requiring such a system (or at least some watered down version of it) on their client states.
Dog humping is a sign of rape culture and other fraudulent research papers (deliberate) inlcuding taking a some of Mein Kampf, changing some of the terms and submitting it…and being accepted
‘To date, their project has been successful: seven papers have passed through peer review and have been published, including a 3000 word excerpt of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf, rewritten in the language of Intersectionality theory and published in the Gender Studies journal Affilia.’
I read Mein Kampf ,… but after I got about three quarters the way through I’d had enough. I threw the book into the rubbish bin . Literally. All I had to envision was all those little kids and their mothers being led to the gas chambers… all those young men’s lives wasted fighting that regime, and all those elderly and sick who were killed, injured and died prematurely… sickening.
But one must admire the English constitution and humour in producing a brilliant comedic musical satire like this :
Lambeth Walk: Nazi Style – by Charles A. Ridley (1941) – YouTube
I showed it to my 90 year old father and it had him in fits of laughter.
Will you did better than me, I only as far as pg 109 and it away back in my Blook case. Every now and again I’ll have a crack at reading it, but I fall asleep in the chair while reading pg 109.
I’ve got Marx two volumes on Capital anyway it’s bigger than war and peace, which both was an interesting read and the manifesto which I used to carry around with me and pull it out during before briefings with work for shits and giggles.
I’ve come across a 2nd vol of Herr Hitlers book and I have been rather tempted to buy it for shits and giggles on Foreign Policy.
While we are the subject of Nazism and Herr Hitler, I’ve started to read this book by Julia Boyd. “Travellers in the Third Reich, The rise of Fascism Through the Eyes of Everyday People. So far it’s been an interesting read how some got caught up it and suck into it and those who escaped from the claws of Nazi Fascism barely with their clothes on.
But it’s an oft-neglected aspect of history. Perspectives tend to be top-down, party membership mysteriously grows while the plots of the named leaders are described in great detail. Actual ground-level perspectives are few and far between, and often merely incidental anecdotes to liven up the main history.
A bit like how writers like Keegan moved military histories into recognising the ordinary soldier’s perspective, rather than just being all descriptions of generals’ orders and monochrome maps with rectangles and arrows.
What I find amazing just about everyone from the big end of town to down to the working class both in German and International travellers to German got suck into National Socialism/ Nazi Fascism.
I’ve a few books on some of major and lesser players within the Military got caught up in it especially when Herr Hitler change the Military oath. The German Military had very high standards and ethics at the time. One those standards was to remain aloof from Politics and Political Parties which was their major undoing until it was to late for intervene and this was to cause them grief once Herr Hitler change the Military Oath. Hitler knew if he could change the Military oath and get away from then he knew he had the Military in his palm as the Military would never in a mth of Monday’s they would break that oath no matter what happens.
Yes some Officers and NCO’s did turn a blind eye at some of the Herr Hitler orders and others didn’t until towards the end when were trying to save themselves along with rest of the population in 45 especially those fighting on the Eastern Front.
SEPTEMBER 17TH 18__KRISTIN HOUSER__FILED UNDER: EARTH & ENERGY
ALL ABOARD
Hydrogen fuel cells are a greener way to power vehicles. But they have also been cost-prohibitive.
Today, though, that’s starting to change — on Monday, German passengers boarded the world’s first hydrogen-powered trains.
“Sure, buying a hydrogen train is somewhat more expensive than a diesel train,” said Stefan Schrank, a project manager at locomotive company Alstom, which built the trains, in an interview with Agence France-Presse, “but it is cheaper to run.”
The new trains transport passengers along 100 kilometers (62 miles) of track and can travel up to 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) on a single tank of hydrogen, reaching top speeds of 140 kmh (87 mph).
Chemistry recap: Hydrogen fuel cells generate electricity by combining hydrogen with oxygen, and their only byproduct is water. That makes the cells a promising energy source that produces zero emissions and very little noise.
Though they remain pricey, hydrogen fuel cells have advantages over batteries. Instead of recharging, for instance, you can just refuel them like you would a gas or diesel engine. And because train schedules are highly predictable, it’s easier to build refueling infrastructure.
TRAIN-ING DAY
New research is helping cut the cost of hydrogen, and the fuel source is already in use elsewhere in the world to power buses and cars. Trains are much heavier, though, so powering them with hydrogen instead of diesel could do much more to cut carbon emissions.
If all goes well with these first two trains, Alstom hopes to add another 12 to its Lower Saxony fleet. So while they might be the world’s first hydrogen-powered trains, they’re unlikely to be the last.
‘World’s First’ Hydrogen-Powered Train Enters Into Service [CNBC]
Edited;
Our view is that NZ also may be easily able to develop our own ‘manufacturing Hydrogen plant’ here to supply the transport of rail freight and passenger services as South Australia is doing currently.
“The Dutch defence minister, Ank Bijleveld, said Russian diplomats had been summoned to the foreign ministry. She told reporters the decision to publicise the failed attack was a “far-reaching and unusual measure” designed to “send a very strong signal” to the Kremlin that such behaviour would not be tolerated.”
…
“On Thursday Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said: “The evidence is clearly against Russia on both the Salisbury attack and of course on the latest cyber-attacks so there has to be a confrontation, a diplomatic confrontation, with Russia on this.” ”
And we need to stop more security flaws in cell phone use now as the latest exposure just occurred to “100 Million users” – now last August.
These flaws may affect our services too, as the flaws are built into phones by manufacturers, and include a loophole that could exploit data, emails and text messages.
Fifth Domain reports that DHS-funded researchers from mobile security firm Kryptowire have found vulnerabilities in phones used by Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint.
The flaws are built into phones by manufacturers, and include a loophole that could exploit data, emails and text messages.
Latest chop in the continuing RW and National Party’s woodchoppers axeing contest against NZ business, NZ competence, NZ resilience, NZ as a place of busy, thriving workers, and for a defeated country selling bits of its once proud heritage to enable it to exist from day to day.
No but we are still feeling the effects of their destructive anti worker, corrupt and odious legacy. It will take a long time to rectify the damage they caused.
This is part of the ongoing damage to our economy that the neo-liberal ideology that was brought in by the 4th Labour government and continued by all other governments since including the new one.
Exactly. There has been no significant change by any govt since 1984 . Not even during the Clarke years , – and if anything, all she ever did was manage the status quo. Shes no hero of mine.
National have not been in power for a year now. How have they (national) in the last 12 months cost these jobs?
Perhaps increased labour costs have caused this to happen. Currently we don’t know the reasons. But a base assumption would be they can do it cheaper offshore and made a commercial decision – nothing to do with National if it was anything political it would have to do with the current Govt and its policies driving cost up for this business.
Do you believe Huhtamaki is a NZ business, is that due to the name?
It was founded in Finland and it is now a massive multinational.
Personally, I would prefer to see it go as they do a considerable amount of single use plastic products (bags, cups, takeaway containers etc) and a existing or local start up move into the field and produce bio degradable or reusable products then be supported by local business and govt.
@Monty
There have been many events happen in the past before you became conscious of political matters. 12 months is just a blip in time for the policies that have been harming NZ.
+1, greywarkshark.
To put it in biblical terms, the sins of the previous government are visited upon the present govt for up to seven generations. A mere year is almost certain proof of the guilt of the previous govt.
How long did Key’s govt harp on about Helen Clark’s? 3 or 4 or 5 years, I think.
We are going towards righteous anger time. The failure of government to ensure that the laws put in place did not allow shoddy behaviour by those contemptuous of good quality and fair practice whether they were in business or as supposedly experienced and trained advisors.
Who should be targeted and drained of their every penny, and forbidden to associate with good people in their industry ever more? Let’s treat these people with the disdain and suspicion that we mete out to child fiddlers? These people have fiddled with the people that have employed them, they have had supposedly superior wisdom which we trusted, and we have been let down like vulnerable children.
Who should be turned into a shamed leper in the society for being a cunning artificer with cunning plans to rip people off, expecting to get away with it? Are we going to end up so angry that we become biblical in the end – and punish unto the third and fourth generation? There is a deep well of resentment growing in NZ against certain families who live high on ill-gotten gains while others are reduced to penury.
The 285 owners are taking a claim against the Auckland Council and 15 other defendants.
When RNZ first met Bill Bennett in 2016 the estimated cost of repairs was around $60 million.
Defects include cracks in concrete panels, and areas failing to comply with structural or fire safety requirements.
The bill has now jumped to more than $80 million and could grow as they prepare for court.
“There are now far more leaks starting to appear, far more obvious leaks should I say,” Mr Bennett said.
“There are ranch sliders where moisture is coming in, there are actual walls where water is coming in, both through the cracks and from the upper level from the decks of the apartments up the top.
Bus services, desperately needed reliable public transport cannot be supplied under the neo liberal, laissez faire model.
Wellington has had trouble with a new system because it is being run for a private business with profit as more important than providing the needed service in the practical places, at a reasonable cost. Instead they apparently have worked out on a computer which routes can be maximised on each bus for passenger numbers.
Now Auckland’s hapless passengers have suffered being in a two kilometre gridlock. With no toilets in those buses! That could be embarrassing and distressing apart from all the havoc that would have happened in the passengers lives as they don’t arrive at the appointed time and place to carry out their personal responsibilities.
AT says it is still ironing out problems with the new bus network, which came into effect on Sunday.
A transport hub was jammed with buses during peak-hour traffic yesterday afternoon, and angry passengers got stuck in a two kilometre jam on Constellation Drive in Rosedale.
Auckland Transport spokesperson Mark Hannan said 91 buses arrived within half an hour.
He said 37 buses will be pulled out of service this afternoon in order to free up Constellation Drive.
Mr Hannan said there was a settling-in period with major transport changes such as these.
Expect more of this peeps, as the business world is into a new word that demonstrates a meme: ‘disruption’. This apparently means revising things all the time so that we are faced with constant change and stress, and cannot rely on anything valuable to us continuing for more than a couple of years. Brave New World suckers! – say those wealthy leaders and corporates who have us in their grasp.
They have a good overview. part of the trouble was the station doesnt have a separate north and south platforms so the buses have to ‘loop around’ and then loop back again.
Of course, the mainstream media have focused on the one area that was badly conceived in the new northern bus network.
But there also seem to be some positive improvements in other areas.
I read of people in Glenfield liking the new services in their area. The rationalisation of the East Coast Bays services, via the busway, plus more buses terminating at Takapuna and Milford, seems sensible to me.
The NX2 starting and ending with the City Universities via Wellesley Street – to and from Albany seems pretty popular. Yesterday I saw a double decker NX2 that was heading north and pretty full by the time it reached the Civic.
But the change I’m most stoked with is the new service to Warkworth – and I have not seen any media mention it.
I have been saying for some time Warkworth needs a decent public transport system. I was up there for work this week and was told about the new service. Basically it’s about every half hour to and from Warkworth to Silverdale in peak times, and about every hour in the middle of the day.
A Warkworth resident was very positive about how “cheap” the service is. It costs about $3.50 one way between Silverdale and Warkworth on a HOP card. The pre-existing Auckland-Warkworth intercity bus is way more expensive – about $30.00 one way.
There are also now 2 loop services a few times a day: 1 Warkworth to Omaha, and one to Snells Beach.
The main down side is that the extension of the bus stop in Baxter Street has not been properly marked. They just put cones out by the car parking bays telling people not to park there – but people just removed the cones and parked there anyway.
It’ll be interesting to see how it develops there.
But parking in the town centre is pretty difficult these days, as well as continual congestion. So I hope enough of the locals see sense and start using the buses more. If they do, I think the service will expand.
And this, on the situation in Wellington. Simon Louisson […] finds the US expert who advised the change considers passenger outrage a welcome part of the process.’
You could also commit the acronym PTOM to the well of everlasting memory:
‘But it’s not just the redesign that is behind the debacle. At Parliament’s Transport Select Committee hearing on Thursday, it became clear that the genesis of the fiasco is the Public Transport Operating Model (PTOM) imposed on local authorities by the former National Government.’
[…]
‘Campbell claimed the planning and the process had “worked exceptionally well’ although “some really unexpected issues emerged.”
Imposed by the former government, the PTOM has two overarching objectives:
• to grow the commerciality of public transport services and to increase incentives for services to become fully commercial; and
• to grow confidence that services are priced efficiently and there is access to public transport markets for competition.
What this top-down, neo-liberal model has done is force councils to divvy up their public transport services through a tender process, with cost considerations outranking quality, service or protection of employees’ working conditions.’
Can’t have the public being transported can we, they might be so ecstatic that we’d never hear the end of their jubilation – productivity growth would plunge and Business would Suffer!
I think the current Auckland and Wellington situations are a bit different.
AT is far from perfect. But, with the latest reorganisations AT have been attending to usage patterns, and it looks like they have listened to some of the things bus users say. They’ve been slow to the mass transit cause, but gradually seem to be realising that improved mass transit is absolutely necessary to ease Auckland’s congestion.
The profit motive in Auckland is seen more with low wages for drivers and probably poor conditions, too. And in the cost of fares, which could be decreased – especially for low income people.
Why I am against shared walkways with cyclists. I feel sorry for cyclists, but safe footpaths should stay as FOOTPATHS. And there will have been other injuries and grazes and rights and stress because of children and adults on footpaths.
It is a loss of the commons,
a loss of the right to walk on public paths freely and safely,
a loss of the space to move around our towns and get the exercise we are told daily we need,
a loss of places for old people to walk safely to keep healthy and strong and who can’t afford to have falls that may precipitate debilitation and death,
and a loss of the uncontested free right to our most elemental form of locomotion!
“On 19-20 October we will launch own national debate on what an alternative and progressive trade and investment strategy for Aotearoa should look like at a hui at the Fale Pasifika at Auckland University. The sponsors include the NZCTU and many affiliate unions, NGOs Oxfam and Greenpeace, Ora Taiao: New Zealand Climate and Health Council, among others.
The hui is deliberately timed to coincide with a round of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) negotiations at Sky City, a deal involving China, India, Japan, ASEAN and others that follows the same flawed TPPA model.”
Tenancy reform begins. I wish this was part of one big social policy and announcement but Twyford obviously wants to get things moving.
One less fear for tenants who are forced to move from schools and communities, amidst a rising tide of fears in other areas.
It’s a start, and I hope The government doesn’t fall victim to powerful landlord and property investor lobby groups. They need to keep thinking long term and keep their eyes on those who are suffering.
“Official version of Meka Whaitiri report finally released” As bad as it sounded???
This bit was of interest to me:
“…having regard to the information provided to me by Employee A, I find that the Minister did not pull and/or drag Employee A from the foyer. She did take Employee A outside the building where the meeting was taking place.”
and:
“Whaitiri’s lawyer was also concerned that the bruise on the staff member was small and had been described as “tiny” by Patten in his interview with Whaitiri.
The bruise was not the shape that would have been expected from a grab that was alleged, the staff member was unsure where it came from because she didn’t notice until she was prompted three days later, and the photos of it were not taken in a timely way.
“Given the bruise was not ‘discovered’ until four days after the alleged events it is possible the bruise could have been as a result of an entirely unrelated manner. There is no contemporaneous evidence … to indicate the bruise was present on the Monday of the alleged incident and to conclude the bruise was as a result of Ms Whaitiri’s actions in those circumstances is not sustainable.”
and:
“I wouldn’t say yelled but she did raise her voice to me and asked me if I knew what I was doing in my job …”
and:
“Employee A, did not initiate the complaint herself,……” https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12137532
The letter goes on to say that the staff member, a press secretary referred to as Employee A, did not initiate the complaint herself, and the there was potentially a political element to the matter given the PM’s chief of staff was involved.
I’m not sure what the inference is supposed to be. Of course the PM’s chief of staff became involved. It’s their job to look into issues that arise on behalf of the PM.
I took that to mean A did not initiate the complaint. A friend did, so the PM’s Chief of Staff became involved. Wonder about the motive of the “friend.” Acting out of real concern or was she trying to create a political problem for Labour?
Oh I see. The ‘friend’ could have been male or female of course. Chances are it was a mix of both. You often find in such situations that motivations can be plural.
A lot of feminism is detrimental to gender equality. Nature does not need to be ‘fixed’ dues to it’s power imbalances between the genders according to feministas.
Gender equality has nothing to do with that. It is for creating a strong sense of dynamism within the community in order to create a fullsome or wide spectrum to the value system so that shared freedom and efficiency may thrive in the functioning of the local demand and supply system. And all demand and supply is firstly local just as all experience is firstly individual. The better these are the starting points, the better are the wider integrations the ending points.
Thus to corporatism built on neo-liberal rigid marketism, gender equality to board decision making trees is a value system correction to problematic structural dynamism and lazy rigidness. Non disastrous administration of the technological age requires the objective dynamism that is the spirit of it’s ingenuity.
Beyond the law of the land, not judging that ‘personal/private’ arrangements and roles should be, or are better for the individuals, one way or another between consenting adults.
Half an hour ago this brief notice was put on the Herald politics page: ” Massey University Chancellor Michael Ahie said the Council of Massey University was undertaking an independent review into the process surrounding the cancellation of the former National Leader’s appearance on Massey University’s Manawatū campus.
“The Council has already expressed its support and confidence in the Vice Chancellor and it is now seeking a review of the processes involved in the issue so that it can fully understand the lessons learned and have clarity over future events,” Ahie said.
“The review will be undertaken by Douglas Martin, a former Deputy State Services Commissioner… scheduled to report his findings and make recommendations to the University Council by the end of November… terms of reference for the review will focus on the performance of the University in arriving at and managing the consequences of the decision. “As such, it will encompass all aspects of organisational performance and a summary of the findings will be released in the public interest,” Ahie said.”
Interesting that the Council has decided to declare confidence in the VC in advance. Implies they are determined not to hold her accountable for any error of judgment the review may find – but maybe the Council is not her employer!
It’s a truism that everyone (brain surgeons, rocket scientists, politicians, generals, economists, vice-chancellors etc.) makes mistakes, yet many seem unable to admit openly to even the smallest error of judgement (I know I am!)
Massey University council’s current expression of confidence isn’t incompatible with the VC being held to account at a later date if the review’s findings warrant this. The council could simply cop to an error of judgement (but don’t hold your breath) due to not being in full possession of the facts.
VC Thomas is still finding her feet. The council members could (and maybe should) have held their peace, but the silence in Massey University circles would have been deafening, and this is university politics after all.
“University politics are vicious precisely because the stakes are so small.“
“The NZ First MP behind a “values” bill which could expel migrants was once judged unfit to run pubs because of his criminal record.
…
” “As far as judging other peoples values I am pretty confident I am on the right side of the NZ public on this issue, and the voters I have talked to have been really encouraging of remit “
Folks will see this as an own-goal by NZF. In his favour, we must concede that the principle of rehabilitation applies equally to him, and he seems reformed. Bottom line though is that someone with multiple criminal convictions is the wrong choice to promote a bill based on values in parliament! How could Winston be so dumb??
Bit of an understatement about his past there, but in itself it doesn’t rule him out of being an MP.
It’s just a bit tone-deaf having him front the idea of “values” tests, when his own values ruled him out of running a pub and his assessment of other people’s character was so bad the person who spoke in favour of him turned out to be a rapist.
I don’t think so, all the other things are bit and bobs, life happens.
The most serious incident has what i proposed as it’s main context, which while less than ideal is what alot of people would recognise as being the lay of the land in how life can go sometimes.
It’s actually a pretty good AUTHENTIC NZ slice of life story, with bumps in the road but overall a good showing.
The problem is that values are nebulous and subjective – I think most of us would fail some ‘value’ test from someone at some point. Are we bad people, should we be barred? Of course not.
Indeed. Failure by NZF to even suggest the primary kiwi values gives credence to Bernard Hickey’s theory that the NZF bill is intended merely to distract everyone from the actual immigration numbers this past year! https://www.newsroom.co.nz/@politics/2018/10/03/263430/when-deflection-a…
Yeah there’s been plenty of law officers in times past that were less then sterling in character… but they were kept on because they were the only ones with the nerve, cool heads and willingness to use lethal force if needs be to keep the peace. Look at so many famous lawmen of the American west in the 19th century…or our own colonial past.
Kia ora Nation I say farmer’s need to be included in our plan’s to cut carbon uses.
% 091 of te tangata of Aotearoa support meeting OUR Paris Climate Change commitments that give Eco A sore face.
Yes Jamie one need’s to be flexible with our goal’s on reducing green house gases like Obama he did not try and force his goals down the Papatuanuku neck .
Obama and our other left leaders did a GREAT job getting the Paris agreement signed .
The Green Party has been getting some good win’s while in Power.
The ETS COST are there they have always been there. Its is the unborn and the mokopunas that will ultimately be paying the cost of Climate Change if we do nothing.
80 million view’s Voices of hope yes our mental health system is so under funded its because some people can not see it so they think its not a Huge problem for Aotearoa.
The Crown has never been fair on the treaty process
$ 00.1 cent in $100.00compensation is that fair well not in my book.
Ka kite and .
tricky rick the republican Florida senator for the last 8 years has slashed water monitoring station and funding by $700.00 million scraped all the environment protection targets .
The fake it till you make it crew is making a mess of America so primitive they don’t have the intelligence to see that they are ruining the children’s future this $$$$$$$$$$$$$ is what distorts there reality on the facts of Human Caused Climate Change.
When one see dead fish & birds washing up on Miami beaches one can not hide that the voters are going to vote blue Bill Nelson I see a BLUE TSUNAMI hitting America in the near future Kia kaha ka kite ano P.S how do idiots get so much power ????????????
Kia ora Newshub it’s cool that Our defense force went to Indonesia Parlu to fly the poor people to a safe place trapped on that Island after the earth quake and tsunami
That organization predicting doom and glom of our exchange rate is non other than anz bank as for imports they make big mark ups on there prouducts so they will absorb some of the rise in price.
Tangaroa research boat and the crew doing research on the Hikurangi seduction zone are doing good research if it is all ready slipping I say it won’t go with a bang ????????
Many thank’s to the people in Christchurch for using there humane initiative and getting the local cafes in Christchurch to donate they leftovers and gifting the food to the needy .
Kate Rocket Man look like quite a good movie
Ka kite ano
trump is going to ram through Kavanaugh vote on the supreme court judge trump & his followers will be using a lot of tissues come november . trump and the republicans are CHEAT’s just lining there pockets ka kite and
The sandflys are still playing there stupid games everytime I go out I take there game away from them by ignoring them they sent 2 actor’s in yesterday Eco just check’s them. What a bunch of fools . I got another brush off from this system The Ombudsmen ask for me to proudce evedince for my OIA request when they know that is what they should make the organization give me what a SHAM.
I told you common people the systems are rigged all around the World to serve and protect the RICH Ana to kai P.S there sirens went off just after I posted Ecos Music they are trump lovers
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This story was originally published by Capital & Main and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. Within just a week, the sheer devastation of the Los Angeles wildfires has pushed to the fore fundamental questions about the impact of the climate crisis that have been ...
In this world, it's just usYou know it's not the same as it wasSongwriters: Harry Edward Styles / Thomas Edward Percy Hull / Tyler Sam JohnsonYesterday, I received a lovely message from Caty, a reader of Nick’s Kōrero, that got me thinking. So I thought I’d share it with you, ...
In past times a person was considered “unserious” or “not a serious” person if they failed to grasp, behave and speak according to the solemnity of the context in which they were located. For example a serious person does not audibly pass gas at Church, or yell “gun” at a ...
Long stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Thursday, February 13 are:The coalition Government’s early 2024 ‘fiscal emergency’ freeze on funding, planning and building houses, schools, local roads and hospitals helped extend and deepen the economic and jobs recession through calendar ...
For obvious reasons, people feel uneasy when the right to be a citizen is sold off to wealthy foreigners. Even selling the right to residency seems a bit dubious, when so many migrants who are not millionaires get turned away or are made to jump through innumerable hoops – simply ...
A new season of White Lotus is nearly upon us: more murder mystery, more sumptuous surroundings, more rich people behaving badly.Once more we get to identify with the experience of the pampered tourist or perhaps the poorly paid help; there's something in White Lotus for all New Zealanders.And unlike the ...
In 2016, Aotearoa shockingly plunged to fourth place in the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index. Nine years later, and we're back there again: New Zealand has seen a further slip in its global ranking in the latest Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI). [...] In the latest CPI New Zealand's score ...
1. You’ve started ranking your politicians on how much they respect the rule of law2. You’ve stopped paying attention to those news publications3. You’ve developed a sudden interest in a particular period of history4. More and more people are sounding like your racist, conspiracist uncle.5. Someone just pulled a Nazi ...
Transforming New Zealand: Brian EastonBrian Easton will discuss the above topic at 2/57 Willis Street, Wellington at 5:30pm on Tuesday 26 February at 2/57 Willis Street, WellingtonThe sub-title to the above is "Why is the Left failing?" Brian Easton's analysis is based on his view that while the ...
Salvation Army’s State of the Nation 2025 report highlights falling living standards, the highest unemployment rates since the 1990s and half of all Pacific children going without food. There are reports of hundreds if not thousands of people are applying for the same jobs in the wake of last year’s ...
Mountain Tui is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Correction: On the article The Condundrum of David Seymour, Luke Malpass conducted joint reviews with Bryce Wilkinson, the architect of the Regulatory Standards Bill - not Bryce Edwards. The article ...
Tomorrow the council’s Transport, Resilience and Infrastructure Committee meet and agenda has a few interesting papers. Council’s Letter of Expectation to Auckland Transport Every year the council provide a Letter of Expectation to Auckland Transport which is part of the process for informing AT of the council’s priorities and ...
All around in my home townThey're trying to track me down, yeahThey say they want to bring me in guiltyFor the killing of a deputyFor the life of a deputySongwriter: Robert Nesta Marley.Support Nick’s Kōrero today with a 20% discount on a paid subscription to receive all my newsletters directly ...
Hi,I think all of us have probably experienced the power of music — that strange, transformative thing that gets under our skin and helps us experience this whole life thing with some kind of sanity.Listening and experiencing music has always been such a huge part of my life, and has ...
Business frustration over the stalled economy is growing, and only 34% of voters are confidentNicola Willis can deliver. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Wednesday, February 12 are:Business frustration is growing about a ...
I have now lived long enough to see a cabinet minister go both barrels on their Prime Minister and not get sacked.It used to be that the PM would have a drawer full of resignations signed by ministers on the day of their appointment, ready for such an occasion. But ...
This session will feature Simon McCallum, Senior Lecturer in Engineering and Computer Science (VUW) and recent Labour Party candidate in the Southland Electorate talking about some of the issues around AI and how this should inform Labour Party policy. Simon is an excellent speaker with a comprehensive command of AI ...
The proposed Waimate garbage incinerator is dead: The company behind a highly-controversial proposal to build a waste-to-energy plant in the Waimate District no longer has the land. [...] However, SIRRL director Paul Taylor said the sales and purchase agreement to purchase land from Murphy Farms, near Glenavy, lapsed at ...
The US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act has been a vital tool in combatting international corruption. It forbids US companies and citizens from bribing foreign public officials anywhere in the world. And its actually enforced: some of the world's biggest companies - Siemens, Hewlett Packard, and Bristol Myers Squibb - have ...
December 2024 photo - with UK Tory Boris Johnson (Source: Facebook)Those PollsFor hours, political poll results have resounded across political hallways and commentary.According to the 1News Verizon poll, 50% of the country believe we are heading in the “wrong direction”, while 39% believe we are “on the right track”.The left ...
A Tai Rāwhiti mill that ran for 30 years before it was shut down in late 2023 is set to re-open in the coming months, which will eventually see nearly 300 new jobs in the region. A new report from Massey University shows that pensioners are struggling with rising costs. ...
As support continues to fall, Luxon also now faces his biggest internal ructions within the coalition since the election, with David Seymour reacting badly to being criticised by the PM. File photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate ...
Not since 1988 when Richard Prebble openly criticised David Lange have we seen such a challenge to a Prime Minister as that of David Seymour to Christopher Luxon last night. Prebble suggested Lange had mental health issues during a TV interview and was almost immediately fired. Seymour hasn’t gone quite ...
Three weeks in, and the 24/7 news cycle is not helping anyone feel calm and informed about the second Trump presidency. One day, the US is threatening 25% trade tariffs on its friends and neighbours. The reasons offered by the White House are absurd, such as stopping fentanyl coming in ...
This video includes personal musings and conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Adam Levy. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). Wherever you look, you'll hear headlines claiming we've passed 1.5 degrees of global warming. And while 2024 saw ...
Photo by Heather M. Edwards on UnsplashHere’s the key news, commentary, reports and debate around Aotearoa’s politics and economy in the week to Feb 10 below. That’s ahead of live chats on the Substack App and The Kākā’s front page on Substack at 5pm with: on his column in The ...
Is there anyone in the world the National Party loves more than a campaign donor? Why yes, there is! They will always have the warmest hello and would you like to slip into something more comfortable for that great god of our age, the High Net Worth Individual.The words the ...
Waste and fraud certainly exist in foreign aid programs, but rightwing celebration of USAID’s dismantling shows profound ignorance of the value of soft power (as opposed to hard power) in projecting US influence and interests abroad by non-military/coercive means (think of “hearts and minds,” “hugs, not bullets,” “honey versus vinegar,” ...
Health New Zealand is proposing to cut almost half of its data and digital positions – more than 1000 of them. The PSA has called on the Privacy Commissioner to urgently investigate the cuts due to the potential for serious consequences for patients. NZNO is calling for an urgent increase ...
We may see a few more luxury cars on Queen Street, but a loosening of rules to entice rich foreigners to invest more here is unlikely to “turbocharge our economic growth”. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate ...
Let us not dance daintily around the elephant in the room. Our politicians who serve us in the present are not honest, certainly not as honest as they should be, and while the right are taking out most of the trophies for warping narratives and literally redefining “facts”, the kiwi ...
A few weeks ago I took a look at public transport ridership in 2024. In today’s post I’m going to be looking a bit deeper at bus ridership. Buses make up the vast majority of ridership in Auckland with 70 million boardings last year out of a total of 89.4 ...
Oh, you know I did itIt's over and I feel fineNothing you could say is gonna change my mindWaited and I waited the longest nightNothing like the taste of sweet declineSongwriters: Chris Shiflett / David Eric Grohl / Nate Mendel / Taylor Hawkins.Hindsight is good, eh?The clarity when the pieces ...
Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on UnsplashHere’s what we’re watching in the week to February 16 and beyond in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty:Monday, February 10The Kākā’s weekly wrap-up of news about politics and the economy is due at midday, followed by webinar for paying subscribers in Substack’s ...
A listing of 23 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, February 2, 2025 thru Sat, February 8, 2025. This week's roundup is again published soleley by category. We are still interested in feedback to hone the categorization, so if ...
Today, I stumbled across a Twitter Meme: the ending of The Lord of the Rings as a Chess scenario: https://x.com/mellon_heads/status/1887983845917564991 It gets across the basic gist. Aragorn and Gandalf offering up ‘material’ at the Morannon allows Frodo and Samwise to catch Sauron unawares – fair enough. But there are a ...
Last week, Kieran McAnulty called out Chris Bishop and Nicola Willis for their claims that Kāinga Ora’s costs were too high.They had claimed Kāinga Ora’s cost were 12% higher than market i.e. private devlopersBut Kāinga Ora’s Chair had already explained why last year:"We're not building to sell, so we'll be ...
Stuff’s Political Editor Luke Malpass - A Fellow at New Zealand IniativeLast week I half-joked that Stuff / The Post’s Luke Malpass1 always sounded like he was auditioning for a job at the New Zealand Initiative.Mountain Tui is a reader-supported publication. For a limited time, subscriptions are 20% off. Thanks ...
At a funeral on Friday, there were A4-sized photos covering every wall of the Dil’s reception lounge. There must have been 200 of them, telling the story in the usual way of the video reel but also, by enlargement, making it more possible to linger and step in.Our friend Nicky ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park from the Gigafact team in collaboration with members from our team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is methane the ...
The Government’s idea is that the private sector and Community Housing Providers will fund, build and operate new affordable housing to address our housing crisis. Meanwhile, the Government does not know where almost half of the 1,700 children who left emergency housing actually went. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong ...
Oh, home, let me come homeHome is wherever I'm with youOh, home, let me come homeHome is wherever I'm with youSongwriters: Alexander Ebert / Jade Allyson CastrinosMorena,I’m on a tight time frame this morning. In about an hour and a half, I’ll need to pack up and hit the road ...
This is a post about the Mountain Tui substack, and small tweaks - further to the poll and request post the other day. Please don’t read if you aren’t interested in my personal matters. Thank you all.After oohing-and-aahing about how to structure the Substack model since November, including obtaining ...
This transcript of a recent conversation between the Prime Minister and his chief economic adviser has not been verified.We’ve announced we are the ‘Yes Government’. Do you like it?Yes, Prime Minister.Dreamed up by the PR team. It’s about being committed to growth. Not that the PR team know anything about ...
The other day, Australian Senator Nick McKim issued a warning in the Australian Parliement about the US’s descent into fascim.And of course it’s true, but I lament - that was true as soon as Trump won.What we see is now simply the reification of the intention, planning, and forces behind ...
Among the many other problems associated with Musk/DOGE sending a fleet of teenage and twenty-something cultists to remove, copy and appropriate federal records like social security, medicaid and other supposedly protected data is the fact that the youngsters doing the data-removal, copying and security protocol and filter code over-writing have ...
Jokerman dance to the nightingale tuneBird fly high by the light of the moonOh, oh, oh, JokermanSong by Bob Dylan.Morena folks, I hope this fine morning of the 7th of February finds you well. We're still close to Paihia, just a short drive out of town. Below is the view ...
It’s been an eventful week as always, so here’s a few things that we have found interesting. We also hope everyone had a happy and relaxing Waitangi Day! This week in Greater Auckland We’re still running on summer time, but provided two chewy posts: On Tuesday, a guest ...
Queuing on Queen St: the Government is set to announce another apparently splashy growth policy on Sunday of offering residence visas to wealthy migrants. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Friday, February 7:PM Christopher ...
The fact that Waitangi ended up being such a low-key affair may mark it out as one of the most significant Waitangi Days in recent years. A group of women draped in “Toitu Te Tiriti” banners who turned their backs on the politicians’ powhiri was about as rough as it ...
National’s cuts to disability support funding and freezing of new residential placements has resulted in significant mental health decline for intellectually disabled people. ...
The hundreds of jobs lost needlessly as a result of the Kinleith Mill paper production closure will have a devastating impact on the Tokoroa community - something that could have easily been avoided. ...
Today Te Pāti Māori MP for Te Tai Tokerau, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi, released her members bill that will see the return of tamariki and mokopuna Māori from state care back to te iwi Māori. This bill will establish an independent authority that asserts and protects the rights promised in He Whakaputanga ...
The Whangarei District Council being forced to fluoridate their local water supply is facing a despotic Soviet-era disgrace. This is not a matter of being pro-fluoride or anti-fluoride. It is a matter of what New Zealanders see and value as democracy in our country. Individual democratically elected Councillors are not ...
Nicola Willis’ latest supermarket announcement is painfully weak with no new ideas, no real plan, and no relief for Kiwis struggling with rising grocery costs. ...
Half of Pacific children sometimes going without food is just one of many heartbreaking lowlights in the Salvation Army’s annual State of the Nation report. ...
The Salvation Army’s State of the Nation report is a bleak indictment on the failure of Government to take steps to end poverty, with those on benefits, including their children, hit hardest. ...
New Zealand First has today introduced a Member’s Bill which would restore decision-making power to local communities regarding the fluoridation of drinking water. The ‘Fluoridation (Referendum) Legislation Bill’ seeks to repeal the Health (Fluoridation of Drinking Water) Amendment Act 2021 that granted centralised authority to the Direct General of Health ...
New Zealand First has introduced a Member’s Bill aimed at preventing banks from refusing their services to businesses because of the current “Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Framework”. “This Bill ensures fairness and prevents ESG standards from perpetuating woke ideology in the banking sector being driven by unelected, globalist, climate ...
Erica Stanford has reached peak shortsightedness if today’s announcement is anything to go by, picking apart immigration settings piece by piece to the detriment of the New Zealand economy. ...
Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. The intention was to establish a colony with the cession of sovereignty to the Crown, ...
Te Whatu Ora Chief Executive Margie Apa leaving her job four months early is another symptom of this government’s failure to deliver healthcare for New Zealanders. ...
The Green Party is calling for the Prime Minister to show leadership and be unequivocal about Aotearoa New Zealand’s opposition to a proposal by the US President to remove Palestinians from Gaza. ...
The latest unemployment figures reveal that job losses are hitting Māori and Pacific people especially hard, with Māori unemployment reaching a staggering 9.7% for the December 2024 quarter and Pasifika unemployment reaching 10.5%. ...
Waitangi 2025: Waitangi Day must be community and not politically driven - Shane Jones Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. ...
Despite being confronted every day with people in genuine need being stopped from accessing emergency housing – National still won’t commit to building more public houses. ...
The Green Party says the Government is giving up on growing the country’s public housing stock, despite overwhelming evidence that we need more affordable houses to solve the housing crisis. ...
Before any thoughts of the New Year and what lies ahead could even be contemplated, New Zealand reeled with the tragedy of Senior Sergeant Lyn Fleming losing her life. For over 38 years she had faithfully served as a front-line Police officer. Working alongside her was Senior Sergeant Adam Ramsay ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson will return to politics at Waitangi on Monday the 3rd of February where she will hold a stand up with fellow co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick. ...
Te Pāti Māori is appalled by the government's blatant mishandling of the school lunch programme. David Seymour’s ‘cost-saving’ measures have left tamariki across Aotearoa with unidentifiable meals, causing distress and outrage among parents and communities alike. “What’s the difference between providing inedible food, and providing no food at all?” Said ...
The Government is doubling down on outdated and volatile fossil fuels, showing how shortsighted and destructive their policies are for working New Zealanders. ...
Green Party MP Steve Abel this morning joined Coromandel locals in Waihi to condemn new mining plans announced by Shane Jones in the pit of the town’s Australian-owned Gold mine. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to strengthen its just-announced 2030-2035 Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement and address its woeful lack of commitment to climate security. ...
Today marks a historic moment for Taranaki iwi with the passing of the Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill in Parliament. "Today, we stand together as descendants of Taranaki, and our tūpuna, Taranaki Maunga, is now formally acknowledged by the law as a living tūpuna. ...
Labour is relieved to see Children’s Minister Karen Chhour has woken up to reality and reversed her government’s terrible decisions to cut funding from frontline service providers – temporarily. ...
It is the first week of David Seymour’s school lunch programme and already social media reports are circulating of revolting meals, late deliveries, and mislabelled packaging. ...
The Government’s commitment to get New Zealand’s roads back on track is delivering strong results, with around 98 per cent of potholes on state highways repaired within 24 hours of identification every month since targets were introduced, Transport Minister Chris Bishop says. “Increasing productivity to help rebuild our economy is ...
The former Cadbury factory will be the site of the Inpatient Building for the new Dunedin Hospital and Health Minister Simeon Brown says actions have been taken to get the cost overruns under control. “Today I am giving the people of Dunedin certainty that we will build the new Dunedin ...
From today, Plunket in Whāngarei will be offering childhood immunisations – the first of up to 27 sites nationwide, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. The investment of $1 million into the pilot, announced in October 2024, was made possible due to the Government’s record $16.68 billion investment in health. It ...
New Zealand’s strong commitment to the rights of disabled people has continued with the response to an important United Nations report, Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston has announced. Of the 63 concluding observations of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), 47 will be progressed ...
Resources Minister Shane Jones has launched New Zealand’s national Minerals Strategy and Critical Minerals List, documents that lay a strategic and enduring path for the mineral sector, with the aim of doubling exports to $3 billion by 2035. Mr Jones released the documents, which present the Coalition Government’s transformative vision ...
Firstly I want to thank OceanaGold for hosting our event today. Your operation at Waihi is impressive. I want to acknowledge local MP Scott Simpson, local government dignitaries, community stakeholders and all of you who have gathered here today. It’s a privilege to welcome you to the launch of the ...
Racing Minister, Winston Peters has announced the Government is preparing public consultation on GST policy proposals which would make the New Zealand racing industry more competitive. “The racing industry makes an important economic contribution. New Zealand thoroughbreds are in demand overseas as racehorses and for breeding. The domestic thoroughbred industry ...
Business confidence remains very high and shows the economy is on track to improve, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis says. “The latest ANZ Business Outlook survey, released yesterday, shows business confidence and expected own activity are ‘still both very high’.” The survey reports business confidence fell eight points to +54 ...
Enabling works have begun this week on an expanded radiology unit at Hawke’s Bay Fallen Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital which will double CT scanning capacity in Hawke’s Bay to ensure more locals can benefit from access to timely, quality healthcare, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. This investment of $29.3m in the ...
The Government has today announced New Zealand’s second international climate target under the Paris Agreement, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand will reduce emissions by 51 to 55 per cent compared to 2005 levels, by 2035. “We have worked hard to set a target that is both ambitious ...
Nine years of negotiations between the Crown and iwi of Taranaki have concluded following Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/the Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill passing its third reading in Parliament today, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “This Bill addresses the historical grievances endured by the eight iwi ...
As schools start back for 2025, there will be a relentless focus on teaching the basics brilliantly so all Kiwi kids grow up with the knowledge, skills and competencies needed to grow the New Zealand of the future, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “A world-leading education system is a key ...
Housing Minister Chris Bishop and Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson have welcomed Kāinga Ora’s decision to re-open its tender for carpets to allow wool carpet suppliers to bid. “In 2024 Kāinga Ora issued requests for tender (RFTs) seeking bids from suppliers to carpet their properties,” Mr Bishop says. “As part ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour has today visited Otahuhu College where the new school lunch programme has served up healthy lunches to students in the first days of the school year. “As schools open in 2025, the programme will deliver nutritious meals to around 242,000 students, every school day. On ...
Minister for Children Karen Chhour has intervened in Oranga Tamariki’s review of social service provider contracts to ensure Barnardos can continue to deliver its 0800 What’s Up hotline. “When I found out about the potential impact to this service, I asked Oranga Tamariki for an explanation. Based on the information ...
A bill to make revenue collection on imported and exported goods fairer and more effective had its first reading in Parliament, Customs Minister Casey Costello said today. “The Customs (Levies and Other Matters) Amendment Bill modernises the way in which Customs can recover the costs of services that are needed ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Department of Internal Affairs [the Department] has achieved significant progress in completing applications for New Zealand citizenship. “December 2024 saw the Department complete 5,661 citizenship applications, the most for any month in 2024. This is a 54 per cent increase compared ...
Reversals to Labour’s blanket speed limit reductions begin tonight and will be in place by 1 July, says Minister of Transport Chris Bishop. “The previous government was obsessed with slowing New Zealanders down by imposing illogical and untargeted speed limit reductions on state highways and local roads. “National campaigned on ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis has announced Budget 2025 – the Growth Budget - will be delivered on Thursday 22 May. “This year’s Budget will drive forward the Government’s plan to grow our economy to improve the incomes of New Zealanders now and in the years ahead. “Budget 2025 will build ...
For the Government, 2025 will bring a relentless focus on unleashing the growth we need to lift incomes, strengthen local businesses and create opportunity. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon today laid out the Government’s growth agenda in his Statement to Parliament. “Just over a year ago this Government was elected by ...
The Jewish Council’s proposals are divisive, contrary to New Zealand’s human rights framework, and ignore the rights of other ethnic minorities in Aotearoa. ...
"This is shocking, and astounding," says Augusta Macassey-Pickard, spokesperson for the group. "We knew that this process was rushed, and flawed, but this is another level of compromised." ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific presenter/Bulletin editor Former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark maintains that Cook Islands, a realm of New Zealand, should have consulted Wellington before signing a “partnership” deal with China. “[Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown] seems to have signed behind the backs of his own ...
COMMENTARY:By Saige England Mediawatch on RNZ today strongly criticised Stuff and YouTube among other media for using Israeli propaganda’s “Outbrain” service. Outbrain is a company founded by the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) military and its technology can be tracked back to a wealthy entrepreneur, which in this case could ...
Luxon said protesters linked to Destiny Church "went too far" by disrupting Pride events in Auckland, while church leader Brian Tamaki said he told protesters, "I want you to storm the library they're in." ...
Hundreds of engineers are losing their jobs and leaving our shores due to infrastructure project delays, creating "significant" risk to our nation's development, says the head of New Zealand's engineering body. ...
By Caleb Fotheringham, RNZ Pacific journalist Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown says the deal with China “complements, not replaces” the relationship with New Zealand after signing it yesterday. Brown said “The Action Plan for Comprehensive Strategic Partnership (CSP) 2025-2030” provides a structured framework for engagement between the Cook Islands ...
The government should not set military style academies into youth justice law, the children's commissioner says, despite its first bootcamp getting a glowing report. ...
The infamous over-the-suit T-shirt worn by the PM at a Parliament barbecue has gone on sale to raise funds for children living in poverty, in a TradeMe auction. ...
MONDAYSheriff Seymour rode slowly down the main street of Dodge on his faithful white horse Atlas Network.He liked what he saw.Children were being fed free lunches prepared by kind people who collected the scraps from an offal rendering plant.“Very strongly flavoured liver, such as ox liver, can be soaked overnight ...
Once upon a time it was all about being an astronaut, a firefighter or doctor; but these days kids have their sights set on becoming vloggers or YouTubers.That’s according to a 2019 study by Lego that surveyed 3000 children between the ages of eight to 12 from the US, the ...
Madeleine Chapman reflects on the week that was. From the moment I started high school and realised almost every other girl in my year was at least partially interested in what the boys were up to, I realised that I would be single for life. The feeling wasn’t one of ...
The Pacific profiles series shines a light on Pacific people in Aotearoa doing interesting and important work in their communities, as nominated by members of the public. Today, Selina Alesana Alefosio.All photos by Geoffery Matautia.On a bright Sunday morning from her grandparent’s home in Pito-one, I spoke with ...
The White Lotus star reflects on her life in TV, including the local ad reference that doesn’t work in Australia, and her bananas co-star on Neighbours.Morgana O’Reilly was scrolling her phone next to her sleeping son on an idle Saturday morning when she got the call confirming that she ...
Claire Mabey explores the pros and cons of puff quotes on book covers.In January, Publishers Weekly put out an article by Sean Manning – publisher of Simon & Schuster’s flagship US imprint – in which he said he’d “no longer require authors to obtain blurbs for their books”.The ...
New Zealand’s Entomological Society is hosting its annual bug of the year contest. Here are some of the insects in the running. For some reason – perhaps humans’ inherent competitiveness, the idealisation of democracy, the need to demarcate winners and losers – one of the best ways to get people ...
A journey along the border, with words and illustrations by Bob Kerr.The Spinoff Essay showcases the best essayists in Aotearoa, on topics big and small. Made possible by the generous support of our members.The Sunset Limited leaves Union Station New Orleans on time at nine in the morning. We ...
Neville Peat is the 2024 recipient of the Prime Minister’s Award for Literary Achievement in nonfiction. He’s written 56 books, mostly on natural history; this excerpt is from The Falcon and the Lark: A New Zealand High Country Journal, first published in 1992. The falcon wintering on the Rock and ...
It was a light-hearted gesture Greta Pilkington will be forever grateful for – thanks to an Aussie rival who jumped in when the Olympic sailor couldn’t be at her own graduation.Pilkington, then 20, had been leading a double life – while qualifying for the 2024 Paris Olympics in the ILCA ...
I was born in the back of my grandfather’s ute, by an overgrown windbreak in a remote place called Wahi-Rakauyou can’t find on a map. I was born a girl but given the man’s name Harvey, as my dad always wanted a violent-minded boy to one day help him ...
“We’re not here to interfere in people’s property rights,” Ngāi Tahu’s Te Maire Tau has told the High Court.Tau, a historian, Upoko (traditional leader) of Ngāi Tūāhuriri, and a university professor of history, is the lead witness in a case designed to force the Crown to recognise the tribe’s rangatiratanga ...
Pacific Media Watch Trump administration officials barred two Associated Press (AP) reporters from covering White House events this week because the US-based independent news agency did not change its style guide to align with the president’s political agenda. The AP is being punished for using the term “Gulf of Mexico,” ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific Presenter/Bulletin editor France’s top diplomat in the Pacific region says talks around the “unfreezing” of New Caledonia’s highly controversial electoral roll are back on the table. The French government intended to make a constitutional amendment that would lift restrictions prescribed under the Nouméa Accord, which ...
By bringing these global voices to the fight for free expression in New Zealand, we’ll continue to protect and expand our culture of free speech, says Nathan Seiuli, the Free Speech Union's Events Manager. ...
The issue is no longer a hypothetical one. US President Donald Trump will not explicitly suggest death camps, but he has already consented to Israel’s continuing a war that is not a war but rather a barbaric assault on a desolate stretch of land. From there, the road to annihilation is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cecelia Cmielewski, Research Fellow, Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University To be selected as the artist and curator team to represent Australia at the Venice Biennale is considered the ultimate exhibition for an artistic team. To have your selection rescinded, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Steve Turton, Adjunct Professor of Environmental Geography, CQUniversity Australia Severe Tropical Cyclone Zelia is bearing down on the northwest coast of Australia and is likely to make landfall early Friday evening. It’s a monster storm of great concern to Western Australia. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Danielle Ireland-Piper, Associate Professor, ANU National Security College, Australian National University A Victorian government decision to allow dingo culling in the state’s east until 2028 has reignited debate over what has been dubbed Australia’s most controversial animal. Animals Australia, an animal welfare ...
There’s an interesting UK political analysis here: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/oct/04/insecurity-britain-labour-tories-economic-justice-cultural-security
“People are crying out for economic justice and cultural security. Whoever grasps this will control the immediate political future”. Security is an eternal primary political motivator in nation states, and Brexit makes it the key to the future, but it seems significant that this analyst identifies post-neoliberalism as equally determinant.
Phillip Blond is the director of the ResPublica thinktank, and the author of Red Tory: How the Left and Right Have Broken the System and How We Can Fix It. Here’s his main point: “it is clear we are in the middle of a significant reframing of our political reality. The shift is probably equal to, if not greater than, the 1945 moment that founded welfare states across Europe or the Thatcher revolution in 1979, which began the dismantling of them in the name of free-market economics. The tectonic shift taking place now is away from liberalism in both its social and economic forms.”
His balanced view is that Labour is ahead in regard to economic security, while the Conservatives are ahead on cultural security – but both have yet to orient themselves to the new reality with a comprehensive political program.
The Guardian is a bourgeois publication that has a vested interest in doing anything and promoting everything that pretends that class politics are no longer relevant.
I’m inclined to agree, inasmuch as it has yet to apologise to readers for getting itself on the wrong side of history (supporting Blairites, etc). But the author is a guest there: “ResPublica’s ideas are founded on the principles of a post-liberal vision of the future which moves beyond the traditional political dichotomies of left and right, and which prioritise the need to recover the language and practice of the common good.[Wikipedia]
I personally think class politics have become potentially relevant again in recent years, due to widening inequality in all western countries. However there is a noticeable lack of any intellectual advocacy to make it actually relevant. Until we get contenders filling that vacuum class consciousness will remain suppressed, and identity politics will divide everyone as usual.
Identity politics actually brings us together not divides us imo. It depends whether you fit the dominant societal category membership or not.
Yes, it’s the ones bleating “identity politics” who divide us. They tell others that their subjectivity is not as valid or worthy of acceptance, or important enough for politics.
I know and it really bugs me. Those that don’t understand because they don’t experience it belittling others who do. Irritating.
I intended no implication of either/or. I’m well aware that identity politics is a naturally-emergent phenomenon. My first such was via the teenage rebel wave in the sixties and there’s been others since.
Seems that humans initially identify with social groups via differentiation. Although natural, when we do differentiate between groups and identify with one or more, the divisions between the groups often outweigh the common ground between folks. It’s in that sense that I meant identity politics usually divides us.
You notice that in this forum too; respondents tend to disagree more than agree because we clarify our comprehension of stuff via differentiating. Political psychology motivates political behaviour. Consensus happens when participants integrate instead. Funny how we got taught in college maths the various uses of integration & differentiation – would have been better for us to have been taught the psychological benefits too.
Thanks Dennis.
I find that people talking and activating around their experience helps me to understand a little of their experience. For instance I am able bodied (in general). If someone says I’m in a wheelchair and i can’t access this service or resource and we need to fix this. I think ‘wow I didn’t realise that’ and it helps me connect to them and work with them to make it better for them. I don’t use the difference to create MORE difference instead it creates LESS difference.
I have just read this profound article – it has connected me to experiences that aren’t mine and thus is valuable I believe.
http://pantograph-punch.com/post/hidden-women
Identity politics is being diverted into a type of elite globalism against pluralism.
It is pluralism that celebrates individuals differences and cultures not globalism which puts everyone into one lump…
the globalists want every nation to be free of ‘nationality’ and just have blind competition for all resources… so greedy beats needy… unless you can harness the growing needy into some sort of greedy way to make more money of course and the rise of corporate “charitable trusts” and PPP’s “helping” with prisons and social housing…
Growing commodification of natural resources…
Fresh air from New Zealand goes on sale at a duty free shop for $100
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12137412
http://www.kiwiana.co/Home/
“Identity politics will divide everyone as usual”.
Let’s wind back a bit.
Why is class important? Because it’s an affront to natural justice that some people lead better lives and wield power over other people due to their greater access to, and control of, economic resources. Doubly so when that access and control is not even tenuously attributable to merit or effort.
When is identity important? When people of one identity wield power over people of a different identity for no reason whatsoever other than that difference in identity.
So there is a big overlap in the underlying principles for both class and identity politics, i.e. who has power, who doesn’t and the lack of any justification for that difference. So it should be possible for class and identity politics to work harmoniously together.
However there is a weak form of identity politics which implicitly believes that class differences ARE actually merit or effort based. Identity politics then becomes merely making sure that everyone has the same chance (or equality of opportunity) to get rich and assume power over others. The cry for “more women on Boards” is a classic example of this weak identity politics.
If criticising “identity politics” it would pay not to throw the baby out with the bathwater by making sweeping statements.
Yes, a good explanation. For most people both class & identity seem to be more tacit than consciously referenced. Kind of like niche in an ecosystem. When you grow up in that matrix it’s like the dwelling you take for granted due to never knowing another.
Your point about differentiating strong & weak forms of identity politics seems valid but I’m not seeing it clearly. Would be good to develop that. Incidentally Fukuyama’s “Identity: Contemporary Identity Politics and the Struggle for Recognition” was published yesterday. He may prove capable of producing a general theory.
Heartening to read in a mainstream outlet that the relevant target of liberalism is being brought into focus. And yes, I know it’s only an opinion piece, and so afforded much less authority within the publication than its editorial line and the general thrust of its news pieces. But still…
And to all those people (plenty hereabouts) who protest that liberalism’s a good thing and somehow possibly connected to leftist ideas, ideals or thought, and/or who insist on viewing it favourably as akin to large (liberal) servings of ice cream being given out at deli or some such, please, for fucks sake educate yourself on what liberalism is and the political philosophy/schools of thought its built on.
(Not holding my breath)
So…..believe nothing we read, and only half you hear?
We needed the promised ‘free to air public access TV channel with investigative journalism as we had with ‘TVNZ 7’ under the last Labour Government from March 25th 2008.
Quote; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TVNZ_7
“TVNZ 7 was a commercial-free New Zealand 24-hour news and information channel on Freeview digital television platform and on Sky Television from 1 July 2009. It was produced by Television New Zealand, which received Government funding to launch two additional channels.[2] The channel went to air just after 10 am on 25 March 2008 with a looped preview reel. The channel was officially launched at noon on 30 March 2008 with a special “kingmaker” political debate held within the Parliament building and featuring most of the elected minor party leaders. The channel went off air at midnight on 30 June 2012 to the Goodnight Kiwi.
It featured TVNZ News Now updates every hour from 6 am to 11 pm, with a specialised rolling 10-minute bulletin ‘zone’ between 8 am and 9 am, throughout which six bulletins were aired. TVNZ 7 also featured an hour-long bulletin, TVNZ News at 8, at 8 pm each night. It was hosted on weeknights by Greg Boyed and on weekends by Miriama Kamo.”
I don’t watch much TV and only “discovered” TVNZ 7 in what turned out to be its final days. We found it had a lot of interesting stuff on it and began to watch it a bit. Not as good as SBS (which some parts of NZ used to get because of the spillover from the satellite feed into Tasmania before they fed the signal by cable) but it was coming along nicely.
Such a shame that it was killed off by Key and his lackeys.
Thanks Grey Area.
Key killed off any truth to power in NZ!!!!!
But now under Jacinda with ‘her transformative’ Government; – she must restore her government’s pledge to restore the public free to air channel for the peoples voice to be heard now as we have a highly compromised media that has tainted the truth.
Now there is virtually no honest investigative journalism as national has deliberately sabotaged our free speech media that has been canned since 2009.
‘Let’s do this Jacinda’ – before your first year has ended.
Removing Curran’s a step towards that IMO. JA’s no fool, she gave em enough rope and now can go and assemble a crew to get that done if she wants to.
It’ll need to be toughened players to succeed as the msm will scream nanny state socialist sky is falling memes till the cows come home.
I wonder if Key’s axing of this last true public broadcasting platform contributed to Greg Boyed’s condition.
I wonder if you are dumb or dumber – you cover the left in glory most days mb, well done that man!!
Do you think readers really want you speculating on a recent suicide?
Using a long bow on a persons suicide as a political point score is a low point even for you.
Oh! What delicacy of conscience! Oh! What altruistic moral rectitude! From what super-ideal realm do you RWNJs deign to deliver upon us the condemnation we so richly deserve?
Stinking hypocrites.
Muttonbird may have a point..
Someone needs to call your pratings.
Typical ex school teacher, no fucking class.
No comment needed:
One set of the toughest regulations that we need is those governing recycling to ensure that it happens and that it happens safely.
Why China is our natural enemy.
https://www.theepochtimes.com/after-3-month-silence-chinese-authorities-confirm-status-of-disappeared-actress-fan-bingbing_2655205.html
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/oct/04/fan-bingbing-mysterious-disappearance-chinese-film-star-elite
In China there is no protection against the arbitrary exercise of state power by an absolutist regime run by a dictator who invokes a form devine providence to operate above the rule of law or the constraints of any court or parliament. There isn’t even a star chamber, just an Oriental absolutism inimical to Western ideas of freedom.
In China there is no Magna Carta, no Habeus Corpus, no bill of rights, no elections, and no human rights. You have no protections whatsoever.
China is the enemy of freedom as we understand it, and this is a country that actively and vigorously seeks to interfere in the domestic affairs of other countries if they are displeased.
In short, I fear we must soon begin to prepare for the coming confrontation with China.
Helen Clark’s FTA with China was the one big thing she did that I really felt uncomfortable with. And you’ve outlined exactly the reasons why.
As always I feel the need to bookend this with a disavowal. My oldest and best friend is part-Chinese, I have an adopted son who is a pilot in China, we are living the past 9 months with a Chinese family and the man right next to me as I work today is Chinese. Part of me still laments the absence of our most active author and Chinese contributor CV. I know far more than I should about traditional Chinese medicine. There is much that intrigues and fascinates me about the culture and it’s prodigious history, yet in most respects I still know far too little
Yet in all this another part of me has long been perturbed and uncomfortable with the direction modern China has taken. China there is no Magna Carta, no Habeus Corpus, no bill of rights, no elections, and no human rights. Even the most basic exercise of the rule of law, always remains at the pleasure and whim of some faceless, inaccessible party official who can never be held to account.
Australia gets it. There is considerable media and political discussion around China, yet little old NZ remains both obdurately naive and too frightened of the ‘r-word’ to day anything out loud. There is also the simple possibility that at 15% of the electorate local Chinese voters are already too powerful to challenge openly.
Interesting times ahead.
+ 1 – “Part of me still laments the absence of our most active author and Chinese contributor CV”
… yep he was critical of Labour’s neoliberals as well as the Natz and ardent to the death of trade agreements that screw the locals (no matter what ethnicity) ..
Trouble with CV it was hard to discuss anything with him. He was short and to the point and didn’t help in discussion much to advance a change of thinking from other commenters. He seemed to become more extreme as time went on.
China has been a great power, and a scholarly one for so many centuries. It seems that much appreciation of that was lost in the turmoils they have gone through.
Joseph Needham felt that they had lost sight of their achievements and gathered them into an extensive series of books to present to them their past. He was interested firstly in science but also in inter-relationships. Looking at Chinese culture and why they did not develop the codes similar to the west as no Magna Carta, no Habeus Corpus, no bill of rights, no elections, and no human rights posed in Red Logix 4.1, might have been answered in a conversational comment quoted here:
Dr. Needham argued that while the West was preoccupied with natural law, set forth in the scientific principles developed by Galileo and others, the Chinese Taoist and Confucian tradition was more concerned with social ethics and the direct implications of science. “A wise ancient counselor advised against gunpowder,” Dr. Needham liked to say, “for it singed beards, burned houses and brought Taoism into discredit.”
*https://www.nytimes.com/1995/03/27/obituaries/joseph-needham-china-scholar-from-britain-dies-at-94.html
His massive series, in which many other academics participated, and which is ‘ongoing at the Needham Research Institute in Cambridge’.*
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_and_Civilisation_in_China
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/obituaryjoseph-needham-1612984.html
This is an interesting paragraph from the above obituary.
(Most great mountain peaks are found close-packed in ranges. Needham matured at Cambridge in the presence of J.J. Thomson, Ernest Rutherford, Arthur Eddington, Edgar Adrian and Charles Sherrington, not to mention some 10 other Nobel laureates from Blackett and Bragg to C.T.R. Wilson. )
This addresses why science did not continue to rise in China to the modern era.
https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2008/11/06/why-didnt-science-rise-in-china/
(Incidentally, it seems to take an inordinate amount of time for google to produce something with China as one of the keywords!)
There are similar arguments about why Islam did not modernize after the golden era of Baghdad.
For China the Confucian model, which was designed for stability, was part of the obstacle to change. Confucius was a clever guy but not really as self critical as Socrates.
For Islam the blame tends to be placed on the lack of an Augustine writing City of God – a major rethink for millenarian theists who until then thought deus vult would cover most of their problems. Although Al-Ghazali was a decent thinker, he wasn’t obliged to deal with a problem like the fall of Rome – so his work is more of a triumph of his own faith than a redirection and rededication like Augustine’s.
I think the FTA with China could have been better if they had put in provisions to protect NZ and had more thoughts about the eventual balance of power that the agreements failed to protect.
To have provisions where Kiwis can’t buy Chinese land but Chinese can buy NZ land and assets… no real thinking about the long term problems with that.
Sounds lovely (sarcasm) on paper but then there are 1.5 billion Chinese people desperate to buy property around the world and they have a cash culture and need ways to get rid of that money, and only 4 million Kiwis on low wages – it’s not a fair deal to allow the worlds middle classes to come to NZ, get residency or citizenship buy assets, leave and but still have access to our generous welfare provisions, while those still here are paying all the taxes like petrol taxes, infrastructure taxes etc…]
I feel the same way about other countries that get screwed over by big powers and they become tenants in their own country – of course the way things are going, a growing amount of Kiwis will not even be able to afford to be tenants in their country. Tents in 5 years, maybe? Or our taxes pay big business to house our poor, neoliberal style.
Looking at NZ business that try to do partnership with China, well does not end well for the Kiwi business aka Fonterra having it’s only loss in it’s history, but clearly great to Chinese business.
This government is in love with being popular overseas, very Obama, very John Key, but we are in a new era where increasingly people are getting wise to the eventual effects of globalism on their lives and culture.. that’s how Trump won and why Key stepped down before he got busted, because the Labour/democrat/Green strategists of the Intellectual Yet Idiot class making it easy for the right because they can’t see another way but a sort of kinder neoliberalism with more taxes, will it work? I doubt it.
But he was defensive of Chinese actions that went against human rights and international law.
The more people in a country the tougher the leadership needs to be . Humans are to stupid to be free . As long as the iron fist isn’t running death camps i’m good .
Terry Pratchett s patrician from his disc world is a good guide
I hope you are being sarcastic there, bwaghorn..
saveNZ
I don’t think he is being sarcastic or facetious. Looking around at what has been achieved by us with democracy and freedom I don’t like what I see We introduced MMP to enable minority groups to bring their ideas into the mix but still haven’t been able to break the stupidity barrier.
I read Terry Pratchett and The Patrician is a dictator cunning and pragmatic, with understanding of human nature, who tries to control excesses and keep the peace to a manageable level of drunk and disorderly. He has introduced a police force, and set about bringing diversity into it, and most sentient beings may get employment of sorts.
At present I am reading Thud and he has the City Watch trying to resolve a severe division coming from dwarfs with beliefs thousands of years old and whose leader is undermining the self-respect of modernised dwarfs. They have a long-held dislike of trolls, and the Watch’s police force is under stress with both dwarfs and trolls resigning as their group develops old antipathy to the other ‘side’. Dwarfs and trolls could be involved in an internecine battle in which the humans may be brought down too. The Patrician will have some plan to deal with this, having a cool overview and the ability to move in everyone’s (particularly his) best interests. He spies a lot so that he can keep alert to subversion. He is a relatively benign dictator, but is a graduate from the Guild of Assassins and is someone to take notice of.
Certain similarities with our real world will be noticed I am sure.
Vetinari is essentially the Platonic “philosopher-king”.
In real life people are rarely that smart, and when they are they rarely maintain it for more than a decade. but kings and patricians don’t lose elections.
There’s also a certain amount of the “freedom:order” dichotomy at play.
But China is heading to a full 1984 scenario. This is much worse than attempts at democracy.
That 1984 thing does seem to be the case which is very scary. Reading about the people being surveilled all the time at 4.3+, thanks for the info, is bad as it is something that i had thought might occur in future. I didn’t think it already was.
And did the Chinese leader gain another term that can be rolled-over, or am I mis-remembering?
I googled something about China by the way and found that suddenly results were much slowed down. Perhaps something to do with Chinese internet controls?
China has sort of an hierarchical system of representatives, if I recall correctly. So not quite democratic, but with a certain amount of factional inputs.
What they did recently was get rid of the term limits for the president. This enables thirty year rule by one person, but also slows down the adaptability of the system by entrenching existing factions at the top. I suspect that this will significantly shorten China’s period of dominance (although probably not in my lifetime).
His predecessors Snapcase and Winder providing the counterargument.
I’m not sure India is so much worse off than China, and they don’t have such an authoritarian government.
I think that overpopulation is a big issue… as soon as people become commodities then governments or society creates organisational way to control. India has the caste system and apparently Indian women have 40% of the highest suicide of women in the world… So it might be government or it might be a societal way of organising people but much more control is needed for larger volumes of people and India and China have the largest populations.
Neoliberalism loves it, because then if you control food, housing, power, water, banking etc etc, you have more profits and consumers and then you redistribute the people around the world after destroying their countries environment and you can get your costs lower and lower for wages and higher for consumer goods…
I don’t think that western societies are perfect, but it’s better than some sort of dictator or caste system to organise people. And what people have to be aware of is that democracy is something that needs fighting for constantly, because there are ALWAYS systems in there to try and take it away.
Look at our own councils in NZ. Effectively democracy has been destroyed by COO structures and SOE in government.
Bear in mind that the caste system predates the population explosion by centuries (although the British, as always, exploited it).
And the population in India in 1951 was roughly the same as the current US population. China wasn’t much farther off.
So a lot of India’s problems are Auckland-style strain on social infrastructure, which will resolve when the population stabilises (mostly when the birth rate decrease catches up with lifespan increases).
As for NZ democracy being destroyed, in my opinion that’s a hyperbolic statement to an absurd level.
NZ democracy being destroyed – so no dirty politics then in your opinion? No interference in the Brexit and US elections?
Normal that in Auckland the ratepayers who are forced to pay their rates then have 1/2 their money given to Auckland Transport whose board now does not even have an elected representative from the council whereas previously they had 2?
Aucklanders were forced into the Supercity against their will.
Oh and wait, in spite of wasting a billion on IT, and against IT advice, Auckland council are thinking of investigating on line elections, that in the US even an 11 year old has hacked…
We’re still well shy of, say, China or Russia or the USA. So yeah, “destroyed” is hyperbole.
I agree, I’m getting fed up with the cries of how dire things are in NZ.
There are 195 counties in the world. Some of the comments in here would lead anyone to believe that we’re in the bottom 5% of life-worthy countries in the world.
Where would these people rather live? Where is better?
Swapping emails with pals in the modern socialist utopia of Sweden, things ain’t all roses over there. Imagine walking through an Auckland suburb and being showered in saliva from the apartments above for wearing a skirt. A male in a skirt, begging to be stabbed.
If NZ is so crap, go to where I’m sure you’ll find things perfect.
Yeah, like all families we have our differences but Sheesh, instead of bitching on a blog, make like Penny, turn off your computer and have a genuine go.
I could move anywhere, I choose NZ. if it ain’t for you I’m happy to drive you to the airport.
I think that comment is naive; the kind that you hear from someone who has served in a war-torn country and comes home saying that we are so lucky but ungrateful for our good conditions, compared to the previous location.
We notice the gradual degradation of our society which is ongoing. If we don’t stand up and protest, then we are complicit. People who find the place suits them, care nothing for those who are disadvantaged by the political and economic system, and then turn round and interfere with efforts to hold standards or restore ones, are beneath contempt.
“Gradual degradation” is probably fair enough, especially under the last lot. ECANZ, the Anadarko and Hobbit law changes at the behest of overseas corporates, the Auckland supercity, sure. All whittling away against public power over public interests.
But our democracy is far from “destroyed”, which was your opening position. And histrionic overstatements actually enable the tories to undermine valid concerns relating to those issues.
The older we get, the more we pine for the good old days. They weren’t. A working life of sewing the cuffs on business shirts is not something to aspire to. A hand poised on the Stop button of a bottle labeling machine for 40 hours a week for 40 years is as unfulfilling as work can be. How much insulation was in the house you grew up in? How many of your school pals went on to a tertiary education?
Starting your waking hour with a public moan and ending it with a heartfelt gripe is not a quality life Grey. I’m sure you don’t want to be a perpetually cantankerous grumpy old man, they’re awful to spend any time with.
It doesn’t need to be war-torn location Grey, start a utube search with the name of any city you like and add the word homeless.
By all means fight to make a difference for those you perceive to be political or economic victims but be sure, moaning from sun up to sundown on a blog achieves nothing beyond making yourself feel helpless and miserable.
David Mac
I see your point. But you will never see mine because you can’t see far enough and don’t find it surprising that we are saying the same things that probably have been said since the 1800s.
We have lifted people out of ignorance, we haven’t lifted them out of poverty. You can quote statistics all you like and ignore thought about who, what, and how they are gathered. They don’t change the reality of life for people in general, and the hopeless future for all if we go on as we are. The sort of thing i am talking about is probably very similar to what was said by people who could see WW2 coming up and tried to instil some understanding of its terrible possibilities.
It is true what you say. moaning from sun up to sundown on a blog achieves nothing beyond making yourself feel helpless and miserable.The wilfully ignorant ensure that it does not reach any receptive part of their brain and indeed I am helpless to achieve anything with such as you. But this is a blog where people who are trying to understand what is happening and talk about it come, and unfortunately it is not all happy stuff, and does make one miserable. Personally I like to put up happy stuff and positive items and a few jokes, because I think we should smile and need some joy in life. So sorry that you have missed those comments and are upset that it’s all not ‘She’ll be right’ as you prefer.
Perhaps you have come to the wrong blog, and should go to one where they think all can be fixed by sliding in the right statistics, carefully gathered, and with a few nuts tightened and the machine greased, all will be well. The common-sense practical man rides over all.
Haven’t been able to liknk it put a quick Google told me that since 1990 China has lifted 730 million out of poverty compared to India’s 130 mill .
And that honour killing is still a thing in India it seems to have died out in China back in one of the dynasties .
And how many prisoners have had their organs harvested or their bodies plasticised?
I guess we could play my picks more fucked than you pick all day . But I concede as harvesting organs is fucked up . Unless they were from the likes of breivik or Clayton weathrston in which case I’d be fine with it.
Well, I’d have to be reminding myself why it’s wrong, at any rate.
The basic contradiction is that authoritarian leadership gets shit done, but eventually destroys society with shit ideas. I reckon this applies regardless of the size of the society.
The major problem with large societies is that they tend to build bureaucratic structures that ossify. This means that even if the leader tries to change course, the inflexible structures resist. Not because the society wants to resist (the leader’s desire for change might even be a reflection of the people’s desire for change), but because the pathways it uses to implement decisions are the things that need to change.
The Ottoman Empire, Qing Dynasty, and Catholic Church are all good examples of this. India is having scaling problems as well, in its justice system in particular. Procedurally-heavy with long waits for trial, IIRC.
Smaller societies are more adaptable.
I share your aversion to China’s current policies, but doubt that framing them as “our natural enemy” is good foreign policy. Rewi Alley provided us with an excellent role model, and Sir Ed replicated that in Tibet, so I’d rather we pursued a policy of constructive critical engagement with China.
In respect of the actress, the real target would be her business advisors, agents and managers. The context is the ongoing anti-corruption campaign being waged by the regime against the most flagrant rule-breakers who have become spectacularly successful via capitalism. Basically it’s a replication of Putin’s campaign against the oligarchs. So she’s just one domino amongst many to fall and I suspect her house arrest is a temporary holding-pattern to send the appropriate signal throughout China that the regime is serious.
If I were Ardern I’d do a state trip to China to launch a new activist foreign policy. I’d use the example of Rewi & Sir Ed as historical precedents. I’d explain that we have a common interest in re-inventing socialism as alternative to neoliberalism. Both countries now have a long tradition of being socialist/capitalist hybrids, so the common ground is how to develop that via sustainable practice and reducing inequality.
In principle I can’t fault your reasoning. Yet the core problem lies deeper; over-populated, intensely competitive societies like China have historically struggled with the notion of individual sovereignty and rights.
In addition there is a fundamental lack of trust in the public domain; the concept of ‘inner circle/outer circle’ is a very real and potent aspect of all life in China; a phenomenon that places a subtle constraint on their development. The CCCP actually understand this; hence their rollout of their extraordinary and deeply intrusive ‘social score’ system that rates every citizen by their behaviour and daily real-time choices in an attempt to impose ‘trust’ top down.
Maybe we think this all too remote from us; but the expressed intention is to roll this system out to all their trading partners. NZ would be an ideal starting point, smallish and not in much of a position to say no.
Thanks for that. I wasn’t aware of it. This extract from Wikipedia explains their policy: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Credit_System]
“The plan shows the government wants the basic structures of the Social Credit System to be in place by 2020. The goal being “raising the awareness for integrities and the level of credibility within society.” It is presented as a means to perfect the “socialist market economy” as well as strengthening and innovating societal governance.This indicates that the Chinese government views it both as a means to regulate the economy at a business level and as a tool of governance to steer the behavior of citizens. The outline focuses on four areas: “honesty in government affairs”, “commercial integrity”, “societal integrity”, and “judicial credibility”.
Those four principles seem sensible. Universal applicability, eh? Societal integrity would be what NZF is fumbling its way towards via their bill for imposing our values on immigrants. As for judicial credibility, wouldn’t that be nice? Too high a bar for our judiciary with its entrenched unaccountability to the public.
I discussed it a few weeks back in response to this excellent ABC investigation:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-09-18/china-social-credit-a-model-citizen-in-a-digital-dictatorship/10200278
Russian-speaking journalist managed to enter the autonomous Uyghur region and observe the Orwellian world of total surveillance, segregation, and discrimination.
The cameras register not only a car’s license plate number but also the face of its driver. At night, lights are projected over the camera lenses, blinding drivers more than oncoming headlights ever could. As we drove past another checkpoint, I tried to shield my eyes with my hand in an attempt to catch a glimpse of the road. The gesture did not go unnoticed: all four cameras immediately flashed a series of strobe lights.
[…]
The city is split into square regions, and in order to cross from one quarter into another, every Uyghur must display a plastic ID, hand over any bags or purses to be searched, undergo a pupil scan, and, in some cases, surrender a mobile phone for inspection.
[…]
“All textbooks published before 2009 were confiscated more than a year ago,” Ekhmet clarified. “They just went from house to house and took everything that we hadn’t managed to burn ourselves.” He managed to hide a couple of the textbooks he had used at university, but he had to destroy the truly old ones — the punishment for keeping them was up to seven years in a prison camp.
[…]
In Xinjiang, where every resident is almost constantly under surveillance, this futuristic nightmare quickly took on the qualities of a bloody dystopia. The artificial intelligence system that analyzes personal data about people divides society into “safe,” “average,” and “dangerous” citizens. Age, religion, previous convictions, and contact with foreigners are all taken into account. It is very likely that samples of DNA might affect residents’ scores in the near future, as well, if they are not part of the system already.
https://meduza.io/en/feature/2018/10/01/an-internment-camp-for-10-million-uyghurs
I doubt if Sir Ed ever set foot in Tibet, except perhaps if he strayed to the Tibetan side of the peak of Mt Everest.
Furthermore, I doubt if Sir Ed would have been allowed in the border region of Tibet and Nepal – on the Tibetan side.
Rewi fell out of favour with the Communist Chinese authorities and was only rehabilitated after years of being virtually ostracised, in the final years of his life.
Right, my mistake! Getting old, memory fading nowadays. Interesting that about Rewi. When Shadbolt went there to visit him in the seventies he called Tim a young whippersnapper (Shadbolt writes in his second autobiography). I picked up an old biography of Rewi for five bucks last year at that ramshackle place in Wellington where piles of old books almost reach the ceiling, but haven’t got around to reading it yet.
Tony V
What you refer to in your comment is an actual example of how politics change and why it is worthwhile for our PM to keep options open and do some hand-shaking.
Nothing political is set in concrete, and just quoting the past changes is a bit of an oxymoron or something. Diplomacy is to try and get the other to change in a way that improves relationships to the advantage of each country involved. So mentioning Sir Ed and Nepal and how we have built a mutual relationship is very good thinking.
As for Rewi Alley you say he was rehabilitated in the final years of his life after his standing had earlier been rubbished. The change to communism was a cataclysmic event and the violent measures it led to subsided as you state. So even after all that there is an opportunity for change and hearing differing views of people and systems.
Don’t rubbish diplomacy. We have in the past broken through crusty old walls that have been drenched with blood in conflicts. If we can stay out of great power conflicts, and try to keep going as a unified country, with some concessions, perhaps keeping Switzerland and Sweden as possible guides for survival, we might preserve some of what we achieved in the last century.
Check out the RFA (Radio Free Asia) website
https://www.rfa.org/english/
for what’s happening to the Uyghur and Tibetan people in China. They (the Han Chinese) seem to be actively trying to eradicate any culture not Han in China.
They are our ‘natural enemy.’
Well, having written similar emphatic sentiments myself here in the past I won’t argue the point! Comes a time, however, when we ought to learn how such polarisation eventually got transformed in history. Being resolute in opposing Chinese imperialism is essential, as is civil rights for non-Han Chinese. I just think our foreign policy can combine being tough with identifying common ground.
Totally agree, Frank. The trouble is, I don’t see us sticking up for the rights of the persecuted people in China at all.
If we had a truly ‘moral’ foreign and trade policy, we probably would only exchange goods with a handful of countries in the entire world.
And, as someone else mentioned above, maybe the Blue Dragons already exercise too much control over one political party, and maybe their ‘red’ off shoot in another?
If we set standards that other countries needed to meet before we traded with them China would be one country that we’d never trade with.
the expressed intention is to roll this system out to all their trading partners
citation needed.
not in much of a position to say no
why?
Fair enough, maybe I overstated that from something I read.
Given the CCCP’s determination to restore China’s national prestige and global influence (and there are multiple dimensions to this effort, from the Spratley Is forts, through to their debt-diplomacy through-out Africa and Asia, and the ‘Silk Road’ initiative) in which there the is clear determination to dominate a vastly expanded sphere of influence … it’s not a big step to imagine them requiring such a system (or at least some watered down version of it) on their client states.
Dog humping is a sign of rape culture and other fraudulent research papers (deliberate) inlcuding taking a some of Mein Kampf, changing some of the terms and submitting it…and being accepted
Its right up there with Dihydrogen Monoxide 🙂
ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwFmrI5QQFI
For those that don’t like Ben Shapiro (can’t imagine why not 🙂 ):
https://quillette.com/2018/10/01/the-grievance-studies-scandal-five-academics-respond/
‘To date, their project has been successful: seven papers have passed through peer review and have been published, including a 3000 word excerpt of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf, rewritten in the language of Intersectionality theory and published in the Gender Studies journal Affilia.’
and in their own words:
https://areomagazine.com/2018/10/02/academic-grievance-studies-and-the-corruption-of-scholarship/
WTF at No.6
How is this important to the discussion?
Its open mike and it shows just how easy it is to manipulate these sorts of things plus its quite amusing
I read Mein Kampf ,… but after I got about three quarters the way through I’d had enough. I threw the book into the rubbish bin . Literally. All I had to envision was all those little kids and their mothers being led to the gas chambers… all those young men’s lives wasted fighting that regime, and all those elderly and sick who were killed, injured and died prematurely… sickening.
But one must admire the English constitution and humour in producing a brilliant comedic musical satire like this :
Lambeth Walk: Nazi Style – by Charles A. Ridley (1941) – YouTube
I showed it to my 90 year old father and it had him in fits of laughter.
Gestapo hep cats 🙂
Will you did better than me, I only as far as pg 109 and it away back in my Blook case. Every now and again I’ll have a crack at reading it, but I fall asleep in the chair while reading pg 109.
Apparently merely being able to finish the bloody thing is a sign of a deranged mind 🙂
I’ve got Marx two volumes on Capital anyway it’s bigger than war and peace, which both was an interesting read and the manifesto which I used to carry around with me and pull it out during before briefings with work for shits and giggles.
I’ve come across a 2nd vol of Herr Hitlers book and I have been rather tempted to buy it for shits and giggles on Foreign Policy.
🙂
While we are the subject of Nazism and Herr Hitler, I’ve started to read this book by Julia Boyd. “Travellers in the Third Reich, The rise of Fascism Through the Eyes of Everyday People. So far it’s been an interesting read how some got caught up it and suck into it and those who escaped from the claws of Nazi Fascism barely with their clothes on.
Not exactly bed-time reading, I suspect.
But it’s an oft-neglected aspect of history. Perspectives tend to be top-down, party membership mysteriously grows while the plots of the named leaders are described in great detail. Actual ground-level perspectives are few and far between, and often merely incidental anecdotes to liven up the main history.
A bit like how writers like Keegan moved military histories into recognising the ordinary soldier’s perspective, rather than just being all descriptions of generals’ orders and monochrome maps with rectangles and arrows.
What I find amazing just about everyone from the big end of town to down to the working class both in German and International travellers to German got suck into National Socialism/ Nazi Fascism.
I’ve a few books on some of major and lesser players within the Military got caught up in it especially when Herr Hitler change the Military oath. The German Military had very high standards and ethics at the time. One those standards was to remain aloof from Politics and Political Parties which was their major undoing until it was to late for intervene and this was to cause them grief once Herr Hitler change the Military Oath. Hitler knew if he could change the Military oath and get away from then he knew he had the Military in his palm as the Military would never in a mth of Monday’s they would break that oath no matter what happens.
Yes some Officers and NCO’s did turn a blind eye at some of the Herr Hitler orders and others didn’t until towards the end when were trying to save themselves along with rest of the population in 45 especially those fighting on the Eastern Front.
Superb science here as Germany excels again; – as a world leader we need to follow now.
“New evidenced based ‘zero emissions train’ developed in Germany that scientists claim are the best transport option.
https://futurism.com/the-byte/hydrogen-powered-trains
SEPTEMBER 17TH 18__KRISTIN HOUSER__FILED UNDER: EARTH & ENERGY
ALL ABOARD
Hydrogen fuel cells are a greener way to power vehicles. But they have also been cost-prohibitive.
Today, though, that’s starting to change — on Monday, German passengers boarded the world’s first hydrogen-powered trains.
“Sure, buying a hydrogen train is somewhat more expensive than a diesel train,” said Stefan Schrank, a project manager at locomotive company Alstom, which built the trains, in an interview with Agence France-Presse, “but it is cheaper to run.”
The new trains transport passengers along 100 kilometers (62 miles) of track and can travel up to 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) on a single tank of hydrogen, reaching top speeds of 140 kmh (87 mph).
Chemistry recap: Hydrogen fuel cells generate electricity by combining hydrogen with oxygen, and their only byproduct is water. That makes the cells a promising energy source that produces zero emissions and very little noise.
Though they remain pricey, hydrogen fuel cells have advantages over batteries. Instead of recharging, for instance, you can just refuel them like you would a gas or diesel engine. And because train schedules are highly predictable, it’s easier to build refueling infrastructure.
TRAIN-ING DAY
New research is helping cut the cost of hydrogen, and the fuel source is already in use elsewhere in the world to power buses and cars. Trains are much heavier, though, so powering them with hydrogen instead of diesel could do much more to cut carbon emissions.
If all goes well with these first two trains, Alstom hopes to add another 12 to its Lower Saxony fleet. So while they might be the world’s first hydrogen-powered trains, they’re unlikely to be the last.
‘World’s First’ Hydrogen-Powered Train Enters Into Service [CNBC]
Edited;
Our view is that NZ also may be easily able to develop our own ‘manufacturing Hydrogen plant’ here to supply the transport of rail freight and passenger services as South Australia is doing currently.
https://reneweconomy.com.au/s-a-to-host-australias-first-green-hydrogen-power-plant-89447/
More unravelling – putinbots won’t be happy
“The Dutch defence minister, Ank Bijleveld, said Russian diplomats had been summoned to the foreign ministry. She told reporters the decision to publicise the failed attack was a “far-reaching and unusual measure” designed to “send a very strong signal” to the Kremlin that such behaviour would not be tolerated.”
…
“On Thursday Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said: “The evidence is clearly against Russia on both the Salisbury attack and of course on the latest cyber-attacks so there has to be a confrontation, a diplomatic confrontation, with Russia on this.” ”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/oct/04/netherlands-halted-russian-cyber-attack-on-chemical-weapons-body
And we need to stop more security flaws in cell phone use now as the latest exposure just occurred to “100 Million users” – now last August.
These flaws may affect our services too, as the flaws are built into phones by manufacturers, and include a loophole that could exploit data, emails and text messages.
https://www.engadget.com/2018/08/08/phones-us-carriers-security-flaw-Verizon-ATT-Sprint-TMobile/
“Customers using devices from four major cell phone carriers could unknowingly be exposing sensitive data to hackers, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
Fifth Domain reports that DHS-funded researchers from mobile security firm Kryptowire have found vulnerabilities in phones used by Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint.
The flaws are built into phones by manufacturers, and include a loophole that could exploit data, emails and text messages.
Yes the putinbots are clearly noticeable by their absence..
Probably waiting on instructions from RT et al.
I thought they would be all over this like a rash. /sarc
Latest chop in the continuing RW and National Party’s woodchoppers axeing contest against NZ business, NZ competence, NZ resilience, NZ as a place of busy, thriving workers, and for a defeated country selling bits of its once proud heritage to enable it to exist from day to day.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/business/367945/auckland-packaging-plant-to-cut-almost-130-jobs
6:38 pm on 4 October 2018
Nearly 130 jobs could be axed at a packaging plant in Henderson, as part of the business is moved to Asia.
How do you see this as the National Party’s fault?? In case you haven’t noticed, they aren’t in Government.
A.
No but we are still feeling the effects of their destructive anti worker, corrupt and odious legacy. It will take a long time to rectify the damage they caused.
This is part of the ongoing damage to our economy that the neo-liberal ideology that was brought in by the 4th Labour government and continued by all other governments since including the new one.
Exactly. There has been no significant change by any govt since 1984 . Not even during the Clarke years , – and if anything, all she ever did was manage the status quo. Shes no hero of mine.
National have not been in power for a year now. How have they (national) in the last 12 months cost these jobs?
Perhaps increased labour costs have caused this to happen. Currently we don’t know the reasons. But a base assumption would be they can do it cheaper offshore and made a commercial decision – nothing to do with National if it was anything political it would have to do with the current Govt and its policies driving cost up for this business.
Do you believe Huhtamaki is a NZ business, is that due to the name?
It was founded in Finland and it is now a massive multinational.
https://www.huhtamaki.com/en/about/our-history/
Personally, I would prefer to see it go as they do a considerable amount of single use plastic products (bags, cups, takeaway containers etc) and a existing or local start up move into the field and produce bio degradable or reusable products then be supported by local business and govt.
@Monty
There have been many events happen in the past before you became conscious of political matters. 12 months is just a blip in time for the policies that have been harming NZ.
+1, greywarkshark.
To put it in biblical terms, the sins of the previous government are visited upon the present govt for up to seven generations. A mere year is almost certain proof of the guilt of the previous govt.
How long did Key’s govt harp on about Helen Clark’s? 3 or 4 or 5 years, I think.
We are going towards righteous anger time. The failure of government to ensure that the laws put in place did not allow shoddy behaviour by those contemptuous of good quality and fair practice whether they were in business or as supposedly experienced and trained advisors.
Who should be targeted and drained of their every penny, and forbidden to associate with good people in their industry ever more? Let’s treat these people with the disdain and suspicion that we mete out to child fiddlers? These people have fiddled with the people that have employed them, they have had supposedly superior wisdom which we trusted, and we have been let down like vulnerable children.
Who should be turned into a shamed leper in the society for being a cunning artificer with cunning plans to rip people off, expecting to get away with it? Are we going to end up so angry that we become biblical in the end – and punish unto the third and fourth generation? There is a deep well of resentment growing in NZ against certain families who live high on ill-gotten gains while others are reduced to penury.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/367881/owners-of-leaky-apartments-in-auckland-anxious-as-expenses-skyrocket
St Lukes Garden Apartment complex was built between 2003 and 2011 and its defects and leaks have become a serious problem.
The 285 owners are taking a claim against the Auckland Council and 15 other defendants.
When RNZ first met Bill Bennett in 2016 the estimated cost of repairs was around $60 million.
Defects include cracks in concrete panels, and areas failing to comply with structural or fire safety requirements.
The bill has now jumped to more than $80 million and could grow as they prepare for court.
“There are now far more leaks starting to appear, far more obvious leaks should I say,” Mr Bennett said.
“There are ranch sliders where moisture is coming in, there are actual walls where water is coming in, both through the cracks and from the upper level from the decks of the apartments up the top.
Bus services, desperately needed reliable public transport cannot be supplied under the neo liberal, laissez faire model.
Wellington has had trouble with a new system because it is being run for a private business with profit as more important than providing the needed service in the practical places, at a reasonable cost. Instead they apparently have worked out on a computer which routes can be maximised on each bus for passenger numbers.
Now Auckland’s hapless passengers have suffered being in a two kilometre gridlock. With no toilets in those buses! That could be embarrassing and distressing apart from all the havoc that would have happened in the passengers lives as they don’t arrive at the appointed time and place to carry out their personal responsibilities.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/367740/auckland-bus-gridlock-37-buses-to-be-pulled-from-service
Constellation Drive? On which planet is that??
Auckland Transport will pull dozens of buses from a new North Shore network after passengers got stuck in a two kilometre jam yesterday.
AT says it is still ironing out problems with the new bus network, which came into effect on Sunday.
A transport hub was jammed with buses during peak-hour traffic yesterday afternoon, and angry passengers got stuck in a two kilometre jam on Constellation Drive in Rosedale.
Auckland Transport spokesperson Mark Hannan said 91 buses arrived within half an hour.
He said 37 buses will be pulled out of service this afternoon in order to free up Constellation Drive.
Mr Hannan said there was a settling-in period with major transport changes such as these.
Expect more of this peeps, as the business world is into a new word that demonstrates a meme: ‘disruption’. This apparently means revising things all the time so that we are faced with constant change and stress, and cannot rely on anything valuable to us continuing for more than a couple of years. Brave New World suckers! – say those wealthy leaders and corporates who have us in their grasp.
disruption – specialized business changing the traditional way that an industry operates, especially in a new and effective way: disruptive technologies. Upsetting and destabilizing.
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/disruptive
You wonder the brain power of the officials that sent out 91 buses to be operating within the same location within 30 minutes…
https://www.greaterauckland.org.nz/2018/10/02/constellation-station-falls-over/
They have a good overview. part of the trouble was the station doesnt have a separate north and south platforms so the buses have to ‘loop around’ and then loop back again.
Of course, the mainstream media have focused on the one area that was badly conceived in the new northern bus network.
But there also seem to be some positive improvements in other areas.
I read of people in Glenfield liking the new services in their area. The rationalisation of the East Coast Bays services, via the busway, plus more buses terminating at Takapuna and Milford, seems sensible to me.
The NX2 starting and ending with the City Universities via Wellesley Street – to and from Albany seems pretty popular. Yesterday I saw a double decker NX2 that was heading north and pretty full by the time it reached the Civic.
But the change I’m most stoked with is the new service to Warkworth – and I have not seen any media mention it.
I have been saying for some time Warkworth needs a decent public transport system. I was up there for work this week and was told about the new service. Basically it’s about every half hour to and from Warkworth to Silverdale in peak times, and about every hour in the middle of the day.
A Warkworth resident was very positive about how “cheap” the service is. It costs about $3.50 one way between Silverdale and Warkworth on a HOP card. The pre-existing Auckland-Warkworth intercity bus is way more expensive – about $30.00 one way.
There are also now 2 loop services a few times a day: 1 Warkworth to Omaha, and one to Snells Beach.
The main down side is that the extension of the bus stop in Baxter Street has not been properly marked. They just put cones out by the car parking bays telling people not to park there – but people just removed the cones and parked there anyway.
“but people just removed the cones and parked there anyway” – hope they towed the feckers.
🙂
It’ll be interesting to see how it develops there.
But parking in the town centre is pretty difficult these days, as well as continual congestion. So I hope enough of the locals see sense and start using the buses more. If they do, I think the service will expand.
And this, on the situation in Wellington. Simon Louisson […] finds the US expert who advised the change considers passenger outrage a welcome part of the process.’
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2018/10/01/259842/the-american-consultants-behind-wellingtons-bus-nightmar?preview=1
You could also commit the acronym PTOM to the well of everlasting memory:
‘But it’s not just the redesign that is behind the debacle. At Parliament’s Transport Select Committee hearing on Thursday, it became clear that the genesis of the fiasco is the Public Transport Operating Model (PTOM) imposed on local authorities by the former National Government.’
[…]
‘Campbell claimed the planning and the process had “worked exceptionally well’ although “some really unexpected issues emerged.”
Imposed by the former government, the PTOM has two overarching objectives:
• to grow the commerciality of public transport services and to increase incentives for services to become fully commercial; and
• to grow confidence that services are priced efficiently and there is access to public transport markets for competition.
What this top-down, neo-liberal model has done is force councils to divvy up their public transport services through a tender process, with cost considerations outranking quality, service or protection of employees’ working conditions.’
Can’t have the public being transported can we, they might be so ecstatic that we’d never hear the end of their jubilation – productivity growth would plunge and Business would Suffer!
I think the current Auckland and Wellington situations are a bit different.
AT is far from perfect. But, with the latest reorganisations AT have been attending to usage patterns, and it looks like they have listened to some of the things bus users say. They’ve been slow to the mass transit cause, but gradually seem to be realising that improved mass transit is absolutely necessary to ease Auckland’s congestion.
The profit motive in Auckland is seen more with low wages for drivers and probably poor conditions, too. And in the cost of fares, which could be decreased – especially for low income people.
Why I am against shared walkways with cyclists. I feel sorry for cyclists, but safe footpaths should stay as FOOTPATHS. And there will have been other injuries and grazes and rights and stress because of children and adults on footpaths.
It is a loss of the commons,
a loss of the right to walk on public paths freely and safely,
a loss of the space to move around our towns and get the exercise we are told daily we need,
a loss of places for old people to walk safely to keep healthy and strong and who can’t afford to have falls that may precipitate debilitation and death,
and a loss of the uncontested free right to our most elemental form of locomotion!
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/367983/hit-and-run-cyclist-told-to-turn-himself-in
Great to see a strategy for change
“On 19-20 October we will launch own national debate on what an alternative and progressive trade and investment strategy for Aotearoa should look like at a hui at the Fale Pasifika at Auckland University. The sponsors include the NZCTU and many affiliate unions, NGOs Oxfam and Greenpeace, Ora Taiao: New Zealand Climate and Health Council, among others.
The hui is deliberately timed to coincide with a round of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) negotiations at Sky City, a deal involving China, India, Japan, ASEAN and others that follows the same flawed TPPA model.”
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2018/10/03/converting-resistance-to-tppa-into-a-new-agenda-for-change/
Tenancy reform begins. I wish this was part of one big social policy and announcement but Twyford obviously wants to get things moving.
One less fear for tenants who are forced to move from schools and communities, amidst a rising tide of fears in other areas.
It’s a start, and I hope The government doesn’t fall victim to powerful landlord and property investor lobby groups. They need to keep thinking long term and keep their eyes on those who are suffering.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2018/10/government-to-abolish-letting-fees-by-christmas.html
I salute the government for consulting and then acting in addressing an issue, pity it was not addressed 6+ years ago. Especially using its 10% market in leverage to be considered for govt tenders 🙂
It will place a halt on the lazy solution of just importing the workforce to meet current demand and no consideration towards the future
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/property/107592034/Government-announces-action-plan-to-target-construction-worker-shortage
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=12136784
“Official version of Meka Whaitiri report finally released” As bad as it sounded???
This bit was of interest to me:
“…having regard to the information provided to me by Employee A, I find that the Minister did not pull and/or drag Employee A from the foyer. She did take Employee A outside the building where the meeting was taking place.”
and:
“Whaitiri’s lawyer was also concerned that the bruise on the staff member was small and had been described as “tiny” by Patten in his interview with Whaitiri.
The bruise was not the shape that would have been expected from a grab that was alleged, the staff member was unsure where it came from because she didn’t notice until she was prompted three days later, and the photos of it were not taken in a timely way.
“Given the bruise was not ‘discovered’ until four days after the alleged events it is possible the bruise could have been as a result of an entirely unrelated manner. There is no contemporaneous evidence … to indicate the bruise was present on the Monday of the alleged incident and to conclude the bruise was as a result of Ms Whaitiri’s actions in those circumstances is not sustainable.”
and:
“I wouldn’t say yelled but she did raise her voice to me and asked me if I knew what I was doing in my job …”
and:
“Employee A, did not initiate the complaint herself,……”
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12137532
To expand on the last portion:
I’m not sure what the inference is supposed to be. Of course the PM’s chief of staff became involved. It’s their job to look into issues that arise on behalf of the PM.
I took that to mean A did not initiate the complaint. A friend did, so the PM’s Chief of Staff became involved. Wonder about the motive of the “friend.” Acting out of real concern or was she trying to create a political problem for Labour?
Oh I see. The ‘friend’ could have been male or female of course. Chances are it was a mix of both. You often find in such situations that motivations can be plural.
The friend didnt create a political problem for labour.
The MP who assaulted the staff member did.
Mountains out of molehills James?
Depends whether you consider assaulting your workers a big deal
Do you?
Ok so way back when celebrities didn’t attack politicians but simply encouraged people to vote
Also my god those voices…shivers down my spine
(Yeah its basically an excuse to play the vid)
Nope, you’d have to go way further than that
This is more of what we need to hear eh Chris; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWd6XgBVIcg
Globalists!!!!1!!
I didn’t say they were the first but really I just wanted an excuse to put the clip up
Like Brando’s non attendance at the 1973 Oscars accept his award, in protest at the poor treatment of Native Americans by the film industry.
He sent Sacheen Littlefeather in his place.
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/winston-peters-would-have-let-far-right-commentators-talk-venue-basis-free-speech
Yep
A lot of feminism is detrimental to gender equality. Nature does not need to be ‘fixed’ dues to it’s power imbalances between the genders according to feministas.
Gender equality has nothing to do with that. It is for creating a strong sense of dynamism within the community in order to create a fullsome or wide spectrum to the value system so that shared freedom and efficiency may thrive in the functioning of the local demand and supply system. And all demand and supply is firstly local just as all experience is firstly individual. The better these are the starting points, the better are the wider integrations the ending points.
Thus to corporatism built on neo-liberal rigid marketism, gender equality to board decision making trees is a value system correction to problematic structural dynamism and lazy rigidness. Non disastrous administration of the technological age requires the objective dynamism that is the spirit of it’s ingenuity.
A lot of feminism gets in the way of this.
How chcoffoffy?
Beyond the law of the land, not judging that ‘personal/private’ arrangements and roles should be, or are better for the individuals, one way or another between consenting adults.
Half an hour ago this brief notice was put on the Herald politics page: ” Massey University Chancellor Michael Ahie said the Council of Massey University was undertaking an independent review into the process surrounding the cancellation of the former National Leader’s appearance on Massey University’s Manawatū campus.
“The Council has already expressed its support and confidence in the Vice Chancellor and it is now seeking a review of the processes involved in the issue so that it can fully understand the lessons learned and have clarity over future events,” Ahie said.
“The review will be undertaken by Douglas Martin, a former Deputy State Services Commissioner… scheduled to report his findings and make recommendations to the University Council by the end of November… terms of reference for the review will focus on the performance of the University in arriving at and managing the consequences of the decision. “As such, it will encompass all aspects of organisational performance and a summary of the findings will be released in the public interest,” Ahie said.”
Interesting that the Council has decided to declare confidence in the VC in advance. Implies they are determined not to hold her accountable for any error of judgment the review may find – but maybe the Council is not her employer!
It’s a truism that everyone (brain surgeons, rocket scientists, politicians, generals, economists, vice-chancellors etc.) makes mistakes, yet many seem unable to admit openly to even the smallest error of judgement (I know I am!)
Massey University council’s current expression of confidence isn’t incompatible with the VC being held to account at a later date if the review’s findings warrant this. The council could simply cop to an error of judgement (but don’t hold your breath) due to not being in full possession of the facts.
VC Thomas is still finding her feet. The council members could (and maybe should) have held their peace, but the silence in Massey University circles would have been deafening, and this is university politics after all.
“University politics are vicious precisely because the stakes are so small.“
Bloody hell – bit of a shocking read.
https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/107627761/nz-first-mp-campaigning-for-kiwi-values-was-ruled-unfit-to-run-a-pub
Using Shipton as a character witness proved to be ironic.
Folks will see this as an own-goal by NZF. In his favour, we must concede that the principle of rehabilitation applies equally to him, and he seems reformed. Bottom line though is that someone with multiple criminal convictions is the wrong choice to promote a bill based on values in parliament! How could Winston be so dumb??
I don’t see getting into a scrap to keep things in check in his pub is much of a vote loser for NZ1st.
Bit of an understatement about his past there, but in itself it doesn’t rule him out of being an MP.
It’s just a bit tone-deaf having him front the idea of “values” tests, when his own values ruled him out of running a pub and his assessment of other people’s character was so bad the person who spoke in favour of him turned out to be a rapist.
I don’t think so, all the other things are bit and bobs, life happens.
The most serious incident has what i proposed as it’s main context, which while less than ideal is what alot of people would recognise as being the lay of the land in how life can go sometimes.
It’s actually a pretty good AUTHENTIC NZ slice of life story, with bumps in the road but overall a good showing.
The problem is that values are nebulous and subjective – I think most of us would fail some ‘value’ test from someone at some point. Are we bad people, should we be barred? Of course not.
Indeed. Failure by NZF to even suggest the primary kiwi values gives credence to Bernard Hickey’s theory that the NZF bill is intended merely to distract everyone from the actual immigration numbers this past year! https://www.newsroom.co.nz/@politics/2018/10/03/263430/when-deflection-a…
Yeah there’s been plenty of law officers in times past that were less then sterling in character… but they were kept on because they were the only ones with the nerve, cool heads and willingness to use lethal force if needs be to keep the peace. Look at so many famous lawmen of the American west in the 19th century…or our own colonial past.
Kia ora Nation I say farmer’s need to be included in our plan’s to cut carbon uses.
% 091 of te tangata of Aotearoa support meeting OUR Paris Climate Change commitments that give Eco A sore face.
Yes Jamie one need’s to be flexible with our goal’s on reducing green house gases like Obama he did not try and force his goals down the Papatuanuku neck .
Obama and our other left leaders did a GREAT job getting the Paris agreement signed .
The Green Party has been getting some good win’s while in Power.
The ETS COST are there they have always been there. Its is the unborn and the mokopunas that will ultimately be paying the cost of Climate Change if we do nothing.
80 million view’s Voices of hope yes our mental health system is so under funded its because some people can not see it so they think its not a Huge problem for Aotearoa.
The Crown has never been fair on the treaty process
$ 00.1 cent in $100.00compensation is that fair well not in my book.
Ka kite and .
tricky rick the republican Florida senator for the last 8 years has slashed water monitoring station and funding by $700.00 million scraped all the environment protection targets .
The fake it till you make it crew is making a mess of America so primitive they don’t have the intelligence to see that they are ruining the children’s future this $$$$$$$$$$$$$ is what distorts there reality on the facts of Human Caused Climate Change.
When one see dead fish & birds washing up on Miami beaches one can not hide that the voters are going to vote blue Bill Nelson I see a BLUE TSUNAMI hitting America in the near future Kia kaha ka kite ano P.S how do idiots get so much power ????????????
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/oct/05/florida-red-tide-republican-rick-scotts-senate-midterms
Kia ora Newshub it’s cool that Our defense force went to Indonesia Parlu to fly the poor people to a safe place trapped on that Island after the earth quake and tsunami
That organization predicting doom and glom of our exchange rate is non other than anz bank as for imports they make big mark ups on there prouducts so they will absorb some of the rise in price.
Tangaroa research boat and the crew doing research on the Hikurangi seduction zone are doing good research if it is all ready slipping I say it won’t go with a bang ????????
Many thank’s to the people in Christchurch for using there humane initiative and getting the local cafes in Christchurch to donate they leftovers and gifting the food to the needy .
Kate Rocket Man look like quite a good movie
Ka kite ano
trump is going to ram through Kavanaugh vote on the supreme court judge trump & his followers will be using a lot of tissues come november . trump and the republicans are CHEAT’s just lining there pockets ka kite and
Ka pai Mike
The sandflys are still playing there stupid games everytime I go out I take there game away from them by ignoring them they sent 2 actor’s in yesterday Eco just check’s them. What a bunch of fools . I got another brush off from this system The Ombudsmen ask for me to proudce evedince for my OIA request when they know that is what they should make the organization give me what a SHAM.
I told you common people the systems are rigged all around the World to serve and protect the RICH Ana to kai P.S there sirens went off just after I posted Ecos Music they are trump lovers