Why can’t New Zealand news presenters properly pronounce the names of cities such as Guangzhou and Guadalajara? It’s not particularly difficult.
I dread the day when something happens in Managua, Nicaragua or Ougadougou, Burkina Faso and the carefully coiffed knuckleheads try to wrap their talking gear around those.
…and when is anyone going to pull that useless rugby commentating pair of ignorant fuckwits, Nesbitt and Smith on their pronunciation of pasifikan surnames ?
they go right out of their way to pronounce the saffas names properly, with their stupid spellings of names that dont even sound like the way they’re spelt but revel in mispronouncing ours.
it’s the pasifikan names that have an O in them that particularly grates me. Kaino, Toeava and Vito spring to mind. It’s not fucking Kane-oh or Tow-e-ahva or Vi-tow.
I mean jeez, how fucking hard is it to pronounce AW instead of OH, so the O sound comes out like AW as in Brad Thawn ?
…thus making Kaino – Kai naw, Toeava -Taw e ahva, and Vito – Vi taw.
I’d love to see the players themselves front foot the issue in any interviews and state clearly and forthrightly how their names are to be pronounced.
I don’t mind when people make an effort and it still doesn’t sound right – we all have different accents, different histories of hearing a word. It’s when an effort is not made at all that grates…e.g. my surname is not common and has a silent ‘e’. I don’t mind that the ‘e’ is said when it shouldn’t be, but do mind when the first exceedingly simple syllable is mispronounced.
And yes, I do mispronounce Maori and Pacific words, hopefully not badly enough that people think I am not making an effort. I find the combined vowels are difficult – probably because I visualise the spelling rather than the sound. I also find ‘r’ rolling difficult (as do many others, I guess, hence Brad Thorn being Brad Thawn – you’d never hear a Scot saying that!).
Anyway, my pronunciation problem at the moment is trying to make the German ‘ich’ sound like an ‘e’ then a cat’s hiss sound rather ‘ch’ as in chair, or ‘k’. *sigh*. and on that note I also wonder if some of Key’s mangling of English is in part due to his Austrian mother – lots of ‘sh’ sounds in Austrian-accented German.
Why can’t we find kiwis to read, tv3 has a weather presenter who sounds Irish I think…..why? It’s a national NZ news service so how about kiwis mediawonks.
Why do we still have to have reporters who insist on the first question they will ask visiting personalities to “Godzone” is going to tell us how beautiful the country is and how friendly we are? Cringe …! (Must be part of Journalism 101. We need to understand now that our ancestors did not make a mistake migrating here all those years ago.)
What about knowing where places are? e.g. radio announcer not knowing where Otago is. Place names – how about Tuck-son, Arizona… looking at you – Sasha, TV3.
Why the hell do we need news readers on screen at all, bringing their “personalities” and “anchor” abilities? Non of them know shit from clay so why give them any credibility?
Another example of NZ media corporations following the US lead. Make the MSM (and its presenters) as ignorant and uneducated as possible, (New Zealand, that’s in Norway, right?) in order to achieve the same effect in the population.
Seriously lol. It was awhile ago now, so probably mean of me to mention it – but it’s my yardstick for ignorance of presenters (along with the NZer not knowing where Otago is).
Jeez the history of the evolution of language is replete with mispronunciation! Is it right that because we have the technology to do so, we should encourage the stasis of language?
I say nay, fight oral conservatism!
Quite right. If we listened to all the language freaks who freak out at mispronunciation and new words then quite obviously we would still be speaking cavemanwoman language. In fact actually, there are still traces of it to be heard in John Key’s speech if you listen carefully.
Jeez the history of the evolution of language is replete with mispronunciation! Is it right that because we have the technology to do so, we should encourage the stasis of language?
I say nay, fight oral conservatism!
Sure, language changes. But to mispronounce Tucson and Guadalajara is simply rude, and unnecessary – and so much difficulty would be prevented by newsreaders simply rehearsing their script before going on air! Language changes, but the change can’t be a matter of one person’s choice… I had huge confusion with a friend who said “appo-sight” when he meant apposite – he’d learned the word by reading it and had never heard it said… (Home schooling?) If every one just used their own idiolect even worse confusion would reign than already does. Plus which, there are an increasing number of non-native speakers of English in NZ – do you want them to be unable to understand a news bulletin?
‘jing’ is a soft ‘ch’ sound (as in chair – what presenters sit on and try not to fall off).
Please try to get the pinyin consonants and vowels right. Not that hard. Or get in someone to take the whole radio/tv cast through it.
Shanghai has a long ‘aah’ sound (ie Shaang-hai) and does not rhyme with hang high, but rhymes with hung high.
This applies too all other languages. With modern technology (eg a free skype call), check with local counterparts who know how to get the pronounciation right.
Set a good example to help make us Kiwi say it correctly – in NZ and when we are overseas.
edit. Oh, and that strangely strangled almost backwards ‘moo’ with a happy ‘ah’ thrown in that weather reporters utter when (over) pronouncing Oamaru. (Kind of like the sound I’d expect from a cow experiencing relief at the end of a difficult calfing)
hah yeah, i don’t even bother anymore and just call it Motch, which incidentally is just round the corner from the rather posh lifestyle community of Moo tree…
…and of course that’s Upper Moutere, not to be condfused with the bottom feeders slum dwelling in the bowels of Lower Moo Tree
Oh dear our pronunsion isn’t the best is it. One non-Maori word that I notice gets mangled, the lieberry (where we borrow books in case you don’t recognise).
And pollywog I shame-facedly admit that I use some of those bad verbals myself, though I try to correct myself. I have taken up the pronunciation of Motueka in the past with a Radionz reporter. Seems a bit odd that we have the Maori greetings at the beginning of news programs but the interest in the language doesn’t go to checks on place-name mangling.
Ah yes, that’s an example of the Americanisation of New Zealand English. Things such as Eye-rack and Eye-racki (Iraq, Iraqi) and Mos-cow (Moscow) were never heard 10 years back…
Other examples are ‘sked-yool’ and gotten both of which seem to have taken over completely. Gotten particularly irks me – Americans use it only for past perfect whereas NZers use it for past simple and past perfect and no one seems to even know the difference!
In all fairness to the local pronounciators, the actual pronounciation of the “cow” in “Moscow” should probably be something like “kva”. I have no idea whether the mispronounciation or the misspelling came first.
Similarly, there would be fewer bad pronounciations of “Oamaru” around if its (as far as I know) superfluous first ‘a’ disappeared.
One TV3 journo said that a woman had suffered “punctuation” wounds!
She (her name was Tilda Ampersand) was obviously in a comma having come to a full stop after receiving a backslash to her colon which opened her parentheses. She made a dash to the hospital where they made a hash of it and failed to close her parentheses. She now drinks carets through straws and has to wear braces.
“Two hundred years ago industry said that the end of the slave trade was uneconomic and would lead to loss of jobs, and there was public demand for slaves as they were a necessity. Industry proposed that reductions in use of slaves should be left to market forces and self regulation, and that industry itself would improve conditions and limit numbers. Legislation against the slave trade led to the industries involved developing hugely successful technological solutions in very short timescales.
“By legislating against ecocide, companies would develop new technologies and new ways of working far more rapidly than they would otherwise.”
Polly Higgins & Ecocide
People’s Book Prize Winner 2011
9:20am, Today (Mon 5 Sep)
Nine to Noon with Kathryn Ryan, Radio NZ
7 – 9pm, Today (Mon 5 Sep)
Auckland University
Lecture Theatre 260-098, Owen Glenn Building
‘Traditional’ slaves weren’t anywhere near as necessary in industrial settings as they were in intensive agriculture. (Not saying there wasn’t bonded labour in factories throughout the north of England and elsewhere. There was.)
But essentially, slavery wasn’t so much abolished as subjected to a shift in focus that resulted in an explosion in the number and size of available markets (as well as profit levels) through the enforced imposition of new social inventions called jobs. Slavery wasn’t abolished but simply expanded to encompass the people we term today as workers.
Strange then, how we measure individual worth by the degree of exhibited acceptance and involvement in the workforce, no?
@Bill – Slavery, as it was practised with entrapment and kidnapping from home family and country to be carted away in ships with minimum conditions for living needs, and then sold to other people and used as human animals, was abolished by law. Don’t confuse that please.
One of the points Polly Higgins makes is that William Wilberforce and others, had to work hard for change against the cry that the economy depended on the trade. But she makes the point that after abolition other businesses were started. You make the point that these did not offer good working conditions either. But the push for better fairer treatment of each other is on-going, its utopian to consider otherwise when looking at our past. And reining in greed to get more dosh at the expense of workers, or union members at the expense of the public (as with the Cook Strait ferries) is an ongoing task.
@ Jim Nald Well that interview went through smoothly. What do you know how about the dissemination of a taped interview from public radio? Even if it could be bought from Replay Radio, it would be dear at about $25 I think for a 15 minute interview. Would anyone take exception if I distributed the taped interview? And what if I charged for the cost of the tape say $3? Any advice?
I thought Lynn Freeman ran the interview well and managed & allowed the interview to get the most out of Polly. Good questions asked also so there’s a good Nine-to-Noon team thinking and working well.
Polly’s proposal is solidly grounded in law, legal/court practice, and comes from the right places. She probably very likely, in her previous job, advised corporations how to ‘catch them if [the law enforcers] can’. Also, from what she referred to about her closed meetings with corporations, corporations have told her they welcome an incentive, legal authority & the policy of nation-states to help them move on to a new, green economy.
2. Suggest you direct people to the RNZ webpage and the link to the podcast or streaming. That will be free with existing internet connection and just the power bill. The podcast should be up soon and I will be back here to note it for the benefit of all.
3. Another option would be to download the podcast, convert that MP3 format to WAV, and burn it onto a CD that can play on standard CD players. *** BUT *** you should check with the RNZ folks first. We don’t want you to get into trouble over copyright, appropriate acknowledgments and charging!
How about email ninetonoon@radionz.co.nz to ask?
4. Bill – I have comments to that but that will have to wait till later. Go to her lecture tonight in AKL if possible and you can hear for yourself the argument, elaboration and clarification made out intelligently. Or ask your question.
So what I cannot get my head around is how Melissa Lee moved UP three places in National’s list.
It is very obvious that they have a token ethnic representative bracket on their list and that talent and ability are not requirements to inhabit this list.
Like as not there were usual suspects pushing some climate change skepticism round these parts, based on some startling new research published peer reviewed NASA blah blah.
Editor of the journal that published same has just issued mea culpa and resigned. paper was awful and should never have been published:
The hype surrounding a new paper by Roy Spencer and Danny Braswell is impressive (see for instance Fox News); unfortunately the paper itself is not. News releases and blogs on climate denier web sites have publicized the claim from the paper’s news release that “Climate models get energy balance wrong, make too hot forecasts of global warming”. The paper has been published in a journal called Remote sensing which is a fine journal for geographers, but it does not deal with atmospheric and climate science, and it is evident that this paper did not get an adequate peer review. It should not have been published.
John Abraham, an associate professor at the University of St Thomas’s school of engineering in Minnesota who criticised the Spencer paper upon its publication, told the Guardian: “It is remarkable that an editor-in-chief has stepped down from his role at a journal because of the publication of a flawed paper. This significant event reflects on the significance of the flaws in the paper and its review process. It is commendable that Wagner has reacted responsibly to the situation.”
He continued: “Spencer and his colleagues have a long history of minimising the effects of human-caused climate change; they also have a long history of making serious technical errors. This latest paper is only one in a decade-long track record of errors that have forced Spencer to revise his work as the errors are brought to light. Spencer is well known in the scientific community for publishing high-profile papers that initially dispute global warming and only later are found to be faulty.
“This latest article reportedly showed that the climate is not as sensitive to increases in greenhouse gases. It also called into question the cause-and-effect relationship between clouds and climate change. Wolfgang’s resignation was based on the quality of the review the paper received and the obvious technical errors which the paper contained.”
Autocide? prob not given the missus was reported to be at the wheel. Some of the cops car crash forensic investigations do turn up interesting details. Most NZ towns and regions have money lenders and rentiers that operate on patronage and the odd spot of sponsorship and philanthropy. They contribute to the local money go round, but once Hubbard became involved with bank guarantees and speccies his credibility was gone for good.
I realise the poor bugger is dead but I believe Hubbard and perhaps his wife were a couple of con people.,I also wonder just how many of those rich Canterbury investers would have supported him if the poor old tax payers had not paid out a billion dollars to them .I also wonder how many of those same people would support some poor Solo mum charged with pinching a few dollars to exist.?
All in the Labour party who denigrated Glenn’s integrity to save Clark from admitting she was wrong backing a proven liar should resign in shame. “self serving” is what Glenn called Labour and Winston…. he was right. The message – “Don’t bite the hand that feeds you” springs to mind.
Vaguely interesting – man who didn’t quite make it clear he was paying a bribe in exchange for a consulship (rather than just a donation) is explicitly stating he’s buying votes.
c900,000 14 y.o. or under = c$100 to each family for every child they have, as long as they vote national. Fucker should be charged.
Nah – I just don’t think he made it clear at the time he was trying to pay a bribe, rather than just making a donation to a party that had led the best government in 25 years (not that that’s saying much).
This time he’s being repulsively blunt about buying votes. The disgusting thing is that he probably will get away with making the offer, whether it works or not.
Does that count as third-party campaigning? Isn’t $100mil a tad over the limit?
Not when they try to buy votes by waving it under the nose of the some 12,000 people who bothered to watch The Nation last Saturday. Let’s just see what the Police Commissioner has to say about it shall we.
If you’ve got the dosh Owen, put your money where your mouth is and donate it now. Give it to an organization that is really going to help young people ie not the Govt. Why wait until after the election?
So individuals should not be allowed to decide how they donate their own money ?
Its more like no individual or organisation should be allowed to use their own money to subvert the course of democratic discussion, or to have more of a voice than someone else who does not have the same levels of money to spend.
As opposed to being abhorrent when it’s NZ1, but okay when it’s National?
Or okay when it’s the Brethren supporting National?
Like I said, last time Glenn may or may not have adequately communicated that he was trying to bribe someone, rather than just make a donation. This time he’s outright said he will give X for Y. How much longer before he finally gets investigated under the electoral act?
How much longer before he finally gets investigated under the electoral act?
Apparently all he needs to do is deny it long enough for the statue of limitations to expire then he can’t be prosecuted – if he can’t be prosecuted because the statute of limitations has expired then he’s exonerated and did nothing wrong – that was the position of the Labour-led govt.
Or perhaps National can retrospectively validate his actions and the lovers of corruption will say it’s ALL OK.
rather than just making a donation to a party that had led the best government in 25 years
We didn’t even know that he had donated it – Winston didn’t declare it and continued to deny it (with his “NO” sign) till such time as he had to admit it….
And you call a govt that takes donations and fails to declare them the best govt in 25 years…. Is corruption one of the big things you like in govt ?
Nah, it’s not the main factor. I prefer to judge a government by it’s record on GDP, addressing inequality, child health, housing, employment, infrastructure investment, mortality rates, public health, inflation, and so on. Corruption is included, but as a negative.
Six New Zealand institutions feature in the Quacquarelli Symonds World University Rankings and five of them have slipped down.
Auckland Uni went from 68th to 82nd.
According to Vice-chancellor Stuart McCutcheon New Zealand’s overall result is worrying but not unexpected. “Mr McCutcheon says the Government’s tertiary education spending is weighted toward student support, rather than toward improving the quality of tertiary institutions.”
Six New Zealand institutions feature in the Quacquarelli Symonds World University Rankings and five of them have slipped down.
Auckland Uni went from 68th to 82nd.
According to Vice-chancellor Stuart McCutcheon New Zealand’s overall result is worrying but not unexpected. “Mr McCutcheon says the Government’s tertiary education spending is weighted toward student support, rather than toward improving the quality of tertiary institutions.”
That deterioration in standards is a result of lower entry criteria and easy access to low-interest student loans from the last labour admin to cozy up to light-weight impressionable first-time voters…
R&D cuts wouldn’t have any thing to do with it no no.
running universities into ground capping funding no no .
No increases in staff wages .
Having universities going back to the competitive model.
Steven Joyce as tertiary minister.Stickto petrol sniffing and building holiday highways to john Keys bach.
Then our universities might start climbing again.
Be careful micky savage. If you ask real questions then some tory jackanapes is going to jump up and accuse you of being mean and spiteful because you want the truth.
OK, not even the right are asking the questions here (other than Hickey and Morgan), but the criticism against the left – the politicians and intellectuals, not the activists – in this article seem pretty consistent with what we see here.
Is it really just because the media is corrupt, or do people need to be yelling louder, speaking more truthfully and provocatively?
Because, to quote / steal the punchline…”for Labour’s old crusade to make capitalism virtuous, it is a case of: “If not now, when?”
Too true, but not the point; it seems the people most vocal about it’s current predicament are from the Right.
Why aren’t the Left, not the activists but the leaders, the MP’s, the intellectuals, taking the opportunity of the current situation – that even the climate and peak oil and everything else deniers can’t deny – inequality, unemployment, the markets, the double dip depression, the failings of austerity and the surely irrefutable failing of the neo-liberal ideal?
I already know you don’t buy it DTB, but the public aren’t hearing a decent conversation from the people who represent them, cause their all too busy playing the political game and pandering to their fear of the focus group. And they can’t continue to blame that on the Right, or on the media, the media is reporting it all around the world, just not from the mouths of the Left.
I’ve said it before. If the paliamentarians allegedly representing the left did their job they would be reported. Meaningless waffle will only be reported when it comes out of the arse, I mean mouth of Key.
One of the big stories of the moment that our bloody useless MSM have been ignoring is an ongoing series of massive demonstrations in Israel over the rising cost of living, rents in particular. On Saturday, some 430 000 people took part in marches across the country. That’s over 5% of the population and the largest show of public anger since “400,000 that took to the streets in September 1982 to protest Israel’s role in the massacre at Sabra and Shatilla refugee camp in Beirut” (WSWS). The marchers apparently include both Jewish-Israelis and Arab-Israelis. Some links:
uke what 1st world country is not experiencing this phenomena ?
If this news item was given air to breath imagine all those out there that may realise that the current system is not working for them !!!
Couple this with that CEOs, corporations and the like are creaming it e.g Ref Joe 16 above, and there are some out there wanting to give to this group even more, so how do we fund societial needs? http://news.scotland.efinancialcareers.co.uk/newsandviews_item/newsItemId-34339
The utilitarian society that many of us experienced is only unfortunately here in name only.
Yep, you’re right – it’s part of this bigger problem. But I think the neglect of these Israeli protests is a good test-case for MSM bias. They just don’t fit right-wing narratives about Israel (or left-wing ones for that matter). Who would ever think that Israeli society might be suffering the social inequality problems like other Western countries?
Guess we haven’t quite experienced the mass protest-rioting stage in NZ. If NACT win the upcoming election, however, I am confident we would see a big riot within the next 3 years.
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The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts & talking about the week’s news with regular and special guests, including: and on the week in geopolitics, including the latest from Donald Trump’s administration over Gaza and Ukraine; on the ...
Up until now, the prevailing coalition view of public servants was that there were simply too many of them. But yesterday the new Public Service Commissioner, handpicked by the Luxon Government, said it was not so much numbers but what they did and the value they produced that mattered. Sir ...
In a moment we explore the question: What is Andrew Bayly wanting to tell ACC, and will it involve enjoying a small wine tasting and then telling someone to fuck off? But first, for context, a broader one: What do we look for in a government?Imagine for a moment, you ...
As expected, Donald Trump just threw Ukraine under the bus, demanding that it accept Russia's illegal theft of land, while ruling out any future membership of NATO. Its a colossal betrayal, which effectively legitimises Russia's invasion, while laying the groundwork for the next one. But Trump is apparently fine with ...
A ballot for a single member's bill was held today, and the following bill was drawn: Employment Relations (Collective Agreements in Triangular Relationships) Amendment Bill (Adrian Rurawhe) The bill would extend union rights to employees in triangular relationships, where they are (nominally) employed by one party, but ...
This is a guest post by George Weeks, reviewing a book called ‘How to Fly a Horse’ by Kevin AshtonBook review: ‘How to Fly a Horse’ by Kevin Ashton (2015) – and what it means for Auckland. The title of this article might unnerve any Greater Auckland ...
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 ...
“The ACT Party can’t be bothered putting an MP on one of the Justice subcommittees hearing submissions on their own Treaty Principles Bill,” Labour Justice Spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
The Government’s newly announced funding for biodiversity and tourism of $30-million over three years is a small fraction of what is required for conservation in this country. ...
The Government's sudden cancellation of the tertiary education funding increase is a reckless move that risks widespread job losses and service reductions across New Zealand's universities. ...
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. ...
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 ...
Comment: Crypto exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are making it easier for people to invest in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum without having to handle digital wallets or private keys. These allow investors to buy and sell cryptocurrency through their regular brokerage accounts.This has opened the door for billions of dollars ...
The New Zealand Government says the Cook Islands must share more information about the deals it has signed with China, following the release of an ‘action plan’ in the face of protests in the Pacific nation’s capital.The Cook Islands government has also revealed plans to spend $3 million on a ...
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Comment: The recent attack by Destiny Church front groups on a Drag science show at Te Atatū library crossed a line. This wasn’t the first time that Brian Tamaki, the multimillionaire self-appointed ‘apostle’, has ordered acts of aggression against the queer community. Last year, Drag Story Time events were targeted, ...
Martina Salmon is well versed in the fast-paced action on a netball court, but even she was caught by surprise with the speed at which her career changed tack last year.Staying in the fast lane is only part of her drive this season.Fresh off a nine-day camp in Sydney with ...
Last night I may as well have been in Taihape. Or, closer to home, for me at least, somewhere in the Wairarapa. Or Tūrangi, even – which is near where we used to spend the summer when I was a child. For there was that same gorgeous small town feeling ...
Having Auckland’s food scraps dumped onto your rural backyard sounds scandalous, but in the North Island town of Reporoa there’s no fuss about the thousands of tonnes carted here every week.From the same site as one truck drops the waste, another truck picks up fertiliser to spread on local sheep ...
Negotiating rights over freshwater in Treaty settlement negotiations could have extended negotiations a decade, a Ngāi Tahu leader says.Tribal leaders, and its umbrella body, Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu, have taken the Attorney-General to court in a bid to have the Crown recognise its rangatiratanga (chiefly authority) over wai māori ...
Analysis: Poor safeguarding of New Zealanders’ data could be a widespread practice within the public service and certainly within the health system, according to the findings of an independent inquiry into allegations of misused census and Covid-19 vaccination information.The Public Service Commission’s review, led by consultant Pania Gray and former ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jennifer Stone, Principal Research Fellow, School of Population and Global Health, The University of Western Australia Gorodenkoff/Shutterstock Having dense breasts is a clear risk factor for breast cancer. It can also make cancers hard to spot on mammograms. Yet you ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The National Anti-Corruption Commission will finally investigate whether six people referred to it by the royal commission into Robodebt engaged in corrupt conduct. This follows an independent reconsideration by former High Court judge Geoffrey ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Blaxland, Professor, Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Australian National University Last week in Europe, the United States sent some very strong messages it is prepared to upend the established global order. US Vice President JD Vance warned a stunned Munich ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Reserve Bank has delivered the expected modest rate cut of a quarter of a percentage point, and we’re set for the predictable frenzy of speculation about an April election. The cut is unlikely to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra The Reserve Bank cut official interest rates on Tuesday, the first decrease in four years, saying inflationary pressures are easing “a little more quickly than expected”. However, the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Reserve Bank has delivered the expected modest rate cut of a quarter of a percentage point, and we’re set for the predictable frenzy of speculation about an April election. The cut is unlikely to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Allan Fels, Professor Allan Fels, Professor of Law, Economics and Business at the University of Melbourne and Monash University., The University of Melbourne Australia is creeping towards adding a divestiture power to its Competition and Consumer Act. Under such a law, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Arjen Vaartjes, PhD Student, Quantum Physics, UNSW Sydney Dmitriy Rybin / Shutterstock What makes something quantum? This question has kept a small but dedicated fraction of the world’s population – most of them quantum physicists – up at night for decades. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mary Anne Kenny, Associate Professor, School of Law, Murdoch University Australia’s minister for home affairs announced on Sunday that the federal government has struck a deal with Nauru to “resettle” three non-citizens from what’s come to be known as the “NZYQ cohort”. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Matt Fitzpatrick, Professor in International History, Flinders University (From left to right): Neville Chamberlain, Édouard Daladier, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, and Italian Foreign Minister Galeazzo Ciano before signing the Munich Agreement, which gave the Sudetenland to Germany.German Federal Archives/Wikimedia Commons Ukraine ...
The purpose was to establish the facts and provide an independent assessment of government agency activity in relation to allegations that personal data may have been misused during the 2023 General Election. ...
Privacy Commissioner Michael Webster said he is carefully reviewing the referrals raised in the two reports. That work will be done in the context the Privacy Act and the need to ensure individuals’ rights to privacy is protected and respected. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bhavna Middha, ARC DECRA Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Urban Research, RMIT University The average Australian household size has decreased from 4.5 people per household in 1911 to 2.5 people in 2024. At the same time, the average house size has increased, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Catherine Page Jeffery, Lecturer in Media and Communications, University of Sydney suriyachan/Shutterstock When the Australian government passed legislation in November last year banning young people under 16 from social media, it included exemptions for platforms “that are primarily for the purposes ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Leslie Roberson, Postdoctoral research fellow, Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science, The University of Queensland If you’ve ever been stopped by quarantine officers at the airport, you might think Australia’s international border is locked down like a fortress. But when it comes ...
Duncan Sarkies’ latest novel, Star Gazers, is about the collapse of democracy in a society of alpaca breeders. Here are some things his intensive research revealed. 1 How greed works, psychologicallyYes, I guess I already understood greed, but I could never understand why people who already have everything they ...
The proposed cuts would see only two full time Telehealth data and digital roles, and one Planning, Funding and Outcomes (PFO) role remain, reduced from 17 Telehealth support roles (including vacant roles). Roles proposed to be cut include Telehealth ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is calling for Ministers to end funding for Te Kurahuna programmes and workshop grifters that have received millions in taxpayer funding, despite the Government’s supposed focus on cutting costs. ...
*mini-rant*
Why can’t New Zealand news presenters properly pronounce the names of cities such as Guangzhou and Guadalajara? It’s not particularly difficult.
I dread the day when something happens in Managua, Nicaragua or Ougadougou, Burkina Faso and the carefully coiffed knuckleheads try to wrap their talking gear around those.
Maaori also dispair – when things happen in Porirua, Tamaki Makaurau, Papatoetoe etc, etc, etc.
…and when is anyone going to pull that useless rugby commentating pair of ignorant fuckwits, Nesbitt and Smith on their pronunciation of pasifikan surnames ?
they go right out of their way to pronounce the saffas names properly, with their stupid spellings of names that dont even sound like the way they’re spelt but revel in mispronouncing ours.
it’s the pasifikan names that have an O in them that particularly grates me. Kaino, Toeava and Vito spring to mind. It’s not fucking Kane-oh or Tow-e-ahva or Vi-tow.
I mean jeez, how fucking hard is it to pronounce AW instead of OH, so the O sound comes out like AW as in Brad Thawn ?
…thus making Kaino – Kai naw, Toeava -Taw e ahva, and Vito – Vi taw.
I’d love to see the players themselves front foot the issue in any interviews and state clearly and forthrightly how their names are to be pronounced.
Worcestershire.
Always a laugh to hear butchered, either as a place or a sauce.
I don’t mind when people make an effort and it still doesn’t sound right – we all have different accents, different histories of hearing a word. It’s when an effort is not made at all that grates…e.g. my surname is not common and has a silent ‘e’. I don’t mind that the ‘e’ is said when it shouldn’t be, but do mind when the first exceedingly simple syllable is mispronounced.
And yes, I do mispronounce Maori and Pacific words, hopefully not badly enough that people think I am not making an effort. I find the combined vowels are difficult – probably because I visualise the spelling rather than the sound. I also find ‘r’ rolling difficult (as do many others, I guess, hence Brad Thorn being Brad Thawn – you’d never hear a Scot saying that!).
Anyway, my pronunciation problem at the moment is trying to make the German ‘ich’ sound like an ‘e’ then a cat’s hiss sound rather ‘ch’ as in chair, or ‘k’. *sigh*. and on that note I also wonder if some of Key’s mangling of English is in part due to his Austrian mother – lots of ‘sh’ sounds in Austrian-accented German.
Why can’t we find kiwis to read, tv3 has a weather presenter who sounds Irish I think…..why? It’s a national NZ news service so how about kiwis mediawonks.
Why do we still have to have reporters who insist on the first question they will ask visiting personalities to “Godzone” is going to tell us how beautiful the country is and how friendly we are? Cringe …! (Must be part of Journalism 101. We need to understand now that our ancestors did not make a mistake migrating here all those years ago.)
What about knowing where places are? e.g. radio announcer not knowing where Otago is. Place names – how about Tuck-son, Arizona… looking at you – Sasha, TV3.
Why the hell do we need news readers on screen at all, bringing their “personalities” and “anchor” abilities? Non of them know shit from clay so why give them any credibility?
Another example of NZ media corporations following the US lead. Make the MSM (and its presenters) as ignorant and uneducated as possible, (New Zealand, that’s in Norway, right?) in order to achieve the same effect in the population.
Tuck-son? Seriously?
🙂 Unreal…
Seriously lol. It was awhile ago now, so probably mean of me to mention it – but it’s my yardstick for ignorance of presenters (along with the NZer not knowing where Otago is).
Might that sound like Oh-tay-go or Oh-t-air-go ?
Or why not let them mutilate Otepoti.
Jeez the history of the evolution of language is replete with mispronunciation! Is it right that because we have the technology to do so, we should encourage the stasis of language?
I say nay, fight oral conservatism!
Quite right. If we listened to all the language freaks who freak out at mispronunciation and new words then quite obviously we would still be speaking cavemanwoman language. In fact actually, there are still traces of it to be heard in John Key’s speech if you listen carefully.
Sure, language changes. But to mispronounce Tucson and Guadalajara is simply rude, and unnecessary – and so much difficulty would be prevented by newsreaders simply rehearsing their script before going on air! Language changes, but the change can’t be a matter of one person’s choice… I had huge confusion with a friend who said “appo-sight” when he meant apposite – he’d learned the word by reading it and had never heard it said… (Home schooling?) If every one just used their own idiolect even worse confusion would reign than already does. Plus which, there are an increasing number of non-native speakers of English in NZ – do you want them to be unable to understand a news bulletin?
Otakou Otepeti is Dunedins name Otakou is the original Maori name mangled to Ootaa gooooo.
Oh no, she didn’t! Horror! 😀
And Beijing becomes Bei-zzhh-ing.
‘jing’ is a soft ‘ch’ sound (as in chair – what presenters sit on and try not to fall off).
Please try to get the pinyin consonants and vowels right. Not that hard. Or get in someone to take the whole radio/tv cast through it.
Shanghai has a long ‘aah’ sound (ie Shaang-hai) and does not rhyme with hang high, but rhymes with hung high.
This applies too all other languages. With modern technology (eg a free skype call), check with local counterparts who know how to get the pronounciation right.
Set a good example to help make us Kiwi say it correctly – in NZ and when we are overseas.
My personal ‘favorite’ is the ‘cow’ in Moscow.
edit. Oh, and that strangely strangled almost backwards ‘moo’ with a happy ‘ah’ thrown in that weather reporters utter when (over) pronouncing Oamaru. (Kind of like the sound I’d expect from a cow experiencing relief at the end of a difficult calfing)
Motueka is the placename that causes lots of difficulty from what I hear. Lots of ‘chew’ in there when mispronounced.
hah yeah, i don’t even bother anymore and just call it Motch, which incidentally is just round the corner from the rather posh lifestyle community of Moo tree…
…and of course that’s Upper Moutere, not to be condfused with the bottom feeders slum dwelling in the bowels of Lower Moo Tree
@pollywog – Ever been to Warkupawark?
yeah, it’s just down the road from Addawai isn’t it ?
close to where my my kids go to school at Hi-rah
man, i love living here in Wockatoo…
‘noose in’ I think you mean
Oh dear our pronunsion isn’t the best is it. One non-Maori word that I notice gets mangled, the lieberry (where we borrow books in case you don’t recognise).
And pollywog I shame-facedly admit that I use some of those bad verbals myself, though I try to correct myself. I have taken up the pronunciation of Motueka in the past with a Radionz reporter. Seems a bit odd that we have the Maori greetings at the beginning of news programs but the interest in the language doesn’t go to checks on place-name mangling.
Here’s grinning air’chew 😉
bless you 🙂
…at Oh -ar -mar-roo!!
Ah yes, that’s an example of the Americanisation of New Zealand English. Things such as Eye-rack and Eye-racki (Iraq, Iraqi) and Mos-cow (Moscow) were never heard 10 years back…
Other examples are ‘sked-yool’ and gotten both of which seem to have taken over completely. Gotten particularly irks me – Americans use it only for past perfect whereas NZers use it for past simple and past perfect and no one seems to even know the difference!
In all fairness to the local pronounciators, the actual pronounciation of the “cow” in “Moscow” should probably be something like “kva”. I have no idea whether the mispronounciation or the misspelling came first.
Similarly, there would be fewer bad pronounciations of “Oamaru” around if its (as far as I know) superfluous first ‘a’ disappeared.
One TV3 journo said that a woman had suffered “punctuation” wounds!
She (her name was Tilda Ampersand) was obviously in a comma having come to a full stop after receiving a backslash to her colon which opened her parentheses. She made a dash to the hospital where they made a hash of it and failed to close her parentheses. She now drinks carets through straws and has to wear braces.
@William Joyce – Choice!
happynz:
Come on now. who the hell can pronounce Guadalajara??
Your post was satire?
Who the hell can’t? Come on, it’s not difficult!
Oh exactly! They are fertile fields for me to gather ‘infelicities’ for my language blog… I have heard some breath-takingly awful things…
“Two hundred years ago industry said that the end of the slave trade was uneconomic and would lead to loss of jobs, and there was public demand for slaves as they were a necessity. Industry proposed that reductions in use of slaves should be left to market forces and self regulation, and that industry itself would improve conditions and limit numbers. Legislation against the slave trade led to the industries involved developing hugely successful technological solutions in very short timescales.
“By legislating against ecocide, companies would develop new technologies and new ways of working far more rapidly than they would otherwise.”
Polly Higgins & Ecocide
People’s Book Prize Winner 2011
9:20am, Today (Mon 5 Sep)
Nine to Noon with Kathryn Ryan, Radio NZ
7 – 9pm, Today (Mon 5 Sep)
Auckland University
Lecture Theatre 260-098, Owen Glenn Building
Strong recommendation from prism and Jim Nald
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-04092011/#comment-371102
Otago Daily Times records Polly’s visit (thanks, John Gibb!):
http://www.odt.co.nz/campus/university-otago/176219/nz-urged-battle-ecocide
‘Traditional’ slaves weren’t anywhere near as necessary in industrial settings as they were in intensive agriculture. (Not saying there wasn’t bonded labour in factories throughout the north of England and elsewhere. There was.)
But essentially, slavery wasn’t so much abolished as subjected to a shift in focus that resulted in an explosion in the number and size of available markets (as well as profit levels) through the enforced imposition of new social inventions called jobs. Slavery wasn’t abolished but simply expanded to encompass the people we term today as workers.
Strange then, how we measure individual worth by the degree of exhibited acceptance and involvement in the workforce, no?
@Bill – Slavery, as it was practised with entrapment and kidnapping from home family and country to be carted away in ships with minimum conditions for living needs, and then sold to other people and used as human animals, was abolished by law. Don’t confuse that please.
One of the points Polly Higgins makes is that William Wilberforce and others, had to work hard for change against the cry that the economy depended on the trade. But she makes the point that after abolition other businesses were started. You make the point that these did not offer good working conditions either. But the push for better fairer treatment of each other is on-going, its utopian to consider otherwise when looking at our past. And reining in greed to get more dosh at the expense of workers, or union members at the expense of the public (as with the Cook Strait ferries) is an ongoing task.
@ Jim Nald Well that interview went through smoothly. What do you know how about the dissemination of a taped interview from public radio? Even if it could be bought from Replay Radio, it would be dear at about $25 I think for a 15 minute interview. Would anyone take exception if I distributed the taped interview? And what if I charged for the cost of the tape say $3? Any advice?
I thought Lynn Freeman ran the interview well and managed & allowed the interview to get the most out of Polly. Good questions asked also so there’s a good Nine-to-Noon team thinking and working well.
Polly’s proposal is solidly grounded in law, legal/court practice, and comes from the right places. She probably very likely, in her previous job, advised corporations how to ‘catch them if [the law enforcers] can’. Also, from what she referred to about her closed meetings with corporations, corporations have told her they welcome an incentive, legal authority & the policy of nation-states to help them move on to a new, green economy.
1. Google tells me info about Replay Radio is at:
http://www.radionz.co.nz/replayradio
2. Suggest you direct people to the RNZ webpage and the link to the podcast or streaming. That will be free with existing internet connection and just the power bill. The podcast should be up soon and I will be back here to note it for the benefit of all.
3. Another option would be to download the podcast, convert that MP3 format to WAV, and burn it onto a CD that can play on standard CD players. *** BUT *** you should check with the RNZ folks first. We don’t want you to get into trouble over copyright, appropriate acknowledgments and charging!
How about email ninetonoon@radionz.co.nz to ask?
4. Bill – I have comments to that but that will have to wait till later. Go to her lecture tonight in AKL if possible and you can hear for yourself the argument, elaboration and clarification made out intelligently. Or ask your question.
Lynn Freeman (interviewer), Catherine Walbridge (producer) & the team at Radio New Zealand – well done.
We (NZ) will rate high with being one of the first and earliest in helping generate discussion of Polly’s proposal by mp3.
Go to the following and look up Polly’s interview:
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/20110905
More specifically, go directly to
mp3 at
http://podcast.radionz.co.nz/ntn/ntn-20110905-0925-polly_higgins_-_eradicating_ecocide-048.mp3
ogg at
http://podcast.radionz.co.nz/ntn/ntn-20110905-0925-polly_higgins_-_eradicating_ecocide-00.ogg
Think! And have fun, folks.
Also works when you legislate for higher wages and more tax on the wealthy.
Anyone know who bought the Crafar Farms? Rumour mill says they’ve been sold…!
So what I cannot get my head around is how Melissa Lee moved UP three places in National’s list.
It is very obvious that they have a token ethnic representative bracket on their list and that talent and ability are not requirements to inhabit this list.
Movement up the Nat list must be in inverse amount to IQ?????
Erm … the outcome of the brains trust being out & about and filling up?
http://thestandard.org.nz/brains-trust/
That would mean Tau Henare was intellectual, which he is not!
Like as not there were usual suspects pushing some climate change skepticism round these parts, based on some startling new research published peer reviewed NASA blah blah.
Editor of the journal that published same has just issued mea culpa and resigned. paper was awful and should never have been published:
http://thinkprogress.org/romm/2011/09/02/310889/editor-denier-bunk-resigns-spencer/
Expect retractions in, nah.
More:
“Misdiagnosis of Surface Temperature Feedback”
The hype surrounding a new paper by Roy Spencer and Danny Braswell is impressive (see for instance Fox News); unfortunately the paper itself is not. News releases and blogs on climate denier web sites have publicized the claim from the paper’s news release that “Climate models get energy balance wrong, make too hot forecasts of global warming”. The paper has been published in a journal called Remote sensing which is a fine journal for geographers, but it does not deal with atmospheric and climate science, and it is evident that this paper did not get an adequate peer review. It should not have been published.
And: Journal editor resigns over ‘flawed’ paper co-authored by climate sceptic
John Abraham, an associate professor at the University of St Thomas’s school of engineering in Minnesota who criticised the Spencer paper upon its publication, told the Guardian: “It is remarkable that an editor-in-chief has stepped down from his role at a journal because of the publication of a flawed paper. This significant event reflects on the significance of the flaws in the paper and its review process. It is commendable that Wagner has reacted responsibly to the situation.”
He continued: “Spencer and his colleagues have a long history of minimising the effects of human-caused climate change; they also have a long history of making serious technical errors. This latest paper is only one in a decade-long track record of errors that have forced Spencer to revise his work as the errors are brought to light. Spencer is well known in the scientific community for publishing high-profile papers that initially dispute global warming and only later are found to be faulty.
“This latest article reportedly showed that the climate is not as sensitive to increases in greenhouse gases. It also called into question the cause-and-effect relationship between clouds and climate change. Wolfgang’s resignation was based on the quality of the review the paper received and the obvious technical errors which the paper contained.”
Well here it is: Who runs the world!
Not my paranoia after all but solid science. And Merrill Lynch, John Key’s bank is number 10 in the top 50 of most powerful economic actors.
Thanks, very interesting.
🙂
The Contradictions of David Farrar #1
Now we all know David Farrar from Kiwibog can be inconsistent at the best of times, but once in a while he really outdoes himself…
I wonder if Alan Hubbard was wearing his seat belt? Being precautionary like.
Autocide? prob not given the missus was reported to be at the wheel. Some of the cops car crash forensic investigations do turn up interesting details. Most NZ towns and regions have money lenders and rentiers that operate on patronage and the odd spot of sponsorship and philanthropy. They contribute to the local money go round, but once Hubbard became involved with bank guarantees and speccies his credibility was gone for good.
I realise the poor bugger is dead but I believe Hubbard and perhaps his wife were a couple of con people.,I also wonder just how many of those rich Canterbury investers would have supported him if the poor old tax payers had not paid out a billion dollars to them .I also wonder how many of those same people would support some poor Solo mum charged with pinching a few dollars to exist.?
The one that got away… well not so much got away – was chased away.
TV3 News: Multi millionaire businessman now backs National
All in the Labour party who denigrated Glenn’s integrity to save Clark from admitting she was wrong backing a proven liar should resign in shame. “self serving” is what Glenn called Labour and Winston…. he was right. The message – “Don’t bite the hand that feeds you” springs to mind.
Vaguely interesting – man who didn’t quite make it clear he was paying a bribe in exchange for a consulship (rather than just a donation) is explicitly stating he’s buying votes.
c900,000 14 y.o. or under = c$100 to each family for every child they have, as long as they vote national. Fucker should be charged.
McFlock
You still upset he showed up the previous Labour party and Winston as liars ?
Nah – I just don’t think he made it clear at the time he was trying to pay a bribe, rather than just making a donation to a party that had led the best government in 25 years (not that that’s saying much).
This time he’s being repulsively blunt about buying votes. The disgusting thing is that he probably will get away with making the offer, whether it works or not.
Does that count as third-party campaigning? Isn’t $100mil a tad over the limit?
Isn’t $100,000 a tad over the limit ? Oh let me guess, it’s OK when it benefits the Labour-led govt ?
As posted yesterday, any donation should be to the country, not the government – give it to ChCh to fix the schools FFS!
So individuals should not be allowed to decide how they donate their own money ?
Not when they try to buy votes by waving it under the nose of the some 12,000 people who bothered to watch The Nation last Saturday. Let’s just see what the Police Commissioner has to say about it shall we.
How manipulative is that. Owen Glenn is such a self serving con-artist.
If you’ve got the dosh Owen, put your money where your mouth is and donate it now. Give it to an organization that is really going to help young people ie not the Govt. Why wait until after the election?
Its more like no individual or organisation should be allowed to use their own money to subvert the course of democratic discussion, or to have more of a voice than someone else who does not have the same levels of money to spend.
You might also remember he has already donated a significant sum to ChCh. Was that not enough for you ?
I’d be a lot more impressed if he just paid tax like everyone else has to.
As opposed to being abhorrent when it’s NZ1, but okay when it’s National?
Or okay when it’s the Brethren supporting National?
Like I said, last time Glenn may or may not have adequately communicated that he was trying to bribe someone, rather than just make a donation. This time he’s outright said he will give X for Y. How much longer before he finally gets investigated under the electoral act?
Apparently all he needs to do is deny it long enough for the statue of limitations to expire then he can’t be prosecuted – if he can’t be prosecuted because the statute of limitations has expired then he’s exonerated and did nothing wrong – that was the position of the Labour-led govt.
Or perhaps National can retrospectively validate his actions and the lovers of corruption will say it’s ALL OK.
How are Environment Canterbury going?
Oh, and anything else been pushed through under urgency lately? The list os so loooong…
We didn’t even know that he had donated it – Winston didn’t declare it and continued to deny it (with his “NO” sign) till such time as he had to admit it….
And you call a govt that takes donations and fails to declare them the best govt in 25 years…. Is corruption one of the big things you like in govt ?
Nah, it’s not the main factor. I prefer to judge a government by it’s record on GDP, addressing inequality, child health, housing, employment, infrastructure investment, mortality rates, public health, inflation, and so on. Corruption is included, but as a negative.
This govt fails on all counts.
Poor old Pansey Wong and her rip off husband with their good friend Shipley .
Jail time
Or coverup!
Nup … no jail time, no cover-up …
… it’s a get-out-of-jail-free card…
…wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for an apology from the schmuck brigade though, despite all their nastiness
Joe you are such a trier. So Pansy did nothing wrong but resigned because the awful socialists were being mean to her??
As if.
Hey Tolley, how about this for a league table?
Six New Zealand institutions feature in the Quacquarelli Symonds World University Rankings and five of them have slipped down.
Auckland Uni went from 68th to 82nd.
According to Vice-chancellor Stuart McCutcheon New Zealand’s overall result is worrying but not unexpected. “Mr McCutcheon says the Government’s tertiary education spending is weighted toward student support, rather than toward improving the quality of tertiary institutions.”
Shouldn’t you like be doing something about it?
Is Tolley tertiary minister? No.
Oops right you are. Obviously need more coffee. Will try again.
Hey Joyce, how about this for a league table?
Six New Zealand institutions feature in the Quacquarelli Symonds World University Rankings and five of them have slipped down.
Auckland Uni went from 68th to 82nd.
According to Vice-chancellor Stuart McCutcheon New Zealand’s overall result is worrying but not unexpected. “Mr McCutcheon says the Government’s tertiary education spending is weighted toward student support, rather than toward improving the quality of tertiary institutions.”
Shouldn’t you like be doing something about it?
tedious repeater. Correlation doesn’t imply causation…
That deterioration in standards is a result of lower entry criteria and easy access to low-interest student loans from the last labour admin to cozy up to light-weight impressionable first-time voters…
I have a feeling its more because Australian universities (for instance) have way better pay and facilities to attract and keep good staff members.
And have superior post grad scholarships too, so accepting a PhD programme in Oz instead of New Zealand is the thing to do, if you are offered it.
R&D cuts wouldn’t have any thing to do with it no no.
running universities into ground capping funding no no .
No increases in staff wages .
Having universities going back to the competitive model.
Steven Joyce as tertiary minister.Stickto petrol sniffing and building holiday highways to john Keys bach.
Then our universities might start climbing again.
No, Sneaky Steven Joyce is.
Is Tolley tertiary minister? No…–Gingercrush.
That would be Hollowman Joyce. A fullyformed professional rightwinger, Tolley is just an amateur.
News you may have missed #582
US government conceals Bush surveillance memos.
Ex-CIA bin Laden Unit boss wants rendition back
French firm helped Gaddafi spy on opposition.
Be careful micky savage. If you ask real questions then some tory jackanapes is going to jump up and accuse you of being mean and spiteful because you want the truth.
Colonial Viper:
Cspan, NPR are all class, dont think all usa media outlets to the likes of Fox News.
“Why are the failings of capitalism only being exposed by the right?”
http://m.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/aug/21/ed-miliband-capitalism-rightwing-critics?cat=commentisfree&type=article
OK, not even the right are asking the questions here (other than Hickey and Morgan), but the criticism against the left – the politicians and intellectuals, not the activists – in this article seem pretty consistent with what we see here.
Is it really just because the media is corrupt, or do people need to be yelling louder, speaking more truthfully and provocatively?
Because, to quote / steal the punchline…”for Labour’s old crusade to make capitalism virtuous, it is a case of: “If not now, when?”
Can’t make capitalism virtuous as all the slime (psychopaths) rise to the top and then corruption sets in.
Too true, but not the point; it seems the people most vocal about it’s current predicament are from the Right.
Why aren’t the Left, not the activists but the leaders, the MP’s, the intellectuals, taking the opportunity of the current situation – that even the climate and peak oil and everything else deniers can’t deny – inequality, unemployment, the markets, the double dip depression, the failings of austerity and the surely irrefutable failing of the neo-liberal ideal?
I already know you don’t buy it DTB, but the public aren’t hearing a decent conversation from the people who represent them, cause their all too busy playing the political game and pandering to their fear of the focus group. And they can’t continue to blame that on the Right, or on the media, the media is reporting it all around the world, just not from the mouths of the Left.
I’ve said it before. If the paliamentarians allegedly representing the left did their job they would be reported. Meaningless waffle will only be reported when it comes out of the arse, I mean mouth of Key.
And they currently have a global narrative upon which to hang it.
Daily Kos: Serfs up: how coddling the rich is destroying the American dream
Think Progress: Since 2009, 88 Percent Of Income Growth Went To Corporate Profits, Just One Percent Went To Wages
We get this from Ant R0b – Which technically is niot a racists comment
http://thestandard.org.nz/cheeky-darkie-holmes-at-it-again/#comment-350235
But what outcry is there resulting from this?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10749568
Pity principles are less important than the “us” versus “them” attitude
One of the big stories of the moment that our bloody useless MSM have been ignoring is an ongoing series of massive demonstrations in Israel over the rising cost of living, rents in particular. On Saturday, some 430 000 people took part in marches across the country. That’s over 5% of the population and the largest show of public anger since “400,000 that took to the streets in September 1982 to protest Israel’s role in the massacre at Sabra and Shatilla refugee camp in Beirut” (WSWS). The marchers apparently include both Jewish-Israelis and Arab-Israelis. Some links:
400,000 rally for social justice across the country (Jerusalem Post)
Israeli protests: 430,000 take to streets to demand social justice (The Guardian)
Israel’s largest ever protests oppose inequality (WSWS)
uke what 1st world country is not experiencing this phenomena ?
If this news item was given air to breath imagine all those out there that may realise that the current system is not working for them !!!
Couple this with that CEOs, corporations and the like are creaming it e.g Ref Joe 16 above, and there are some out there wanting to give to this group even more, so how do we fund societial needs?
http://news.scotland.efinancialcareers.co.uk/newsandviews_item/newsItemId-34339
The utilitarian society that many of us experienced is only unfortunately here in name only.
Yep, you’re right – it’s part of this bigger problem. But I think the neglect of these Israeli protests is a good test-case for MSM bias. They just don’t fit right-wing narratives about Israel (or left-wing ones for that matter). Who would ever think that Israeli society might be suffering the social inequality problems like other Western countries?
Guess we haven’t quite experienced the mass protest-rioting stage in NZ. If NACT win the upcoming election, however, I am confident we would see a big riot within the next 3 years.
They were however mentioned on the BBC WS – albeit briefly…
Sorry, should have been more specific – I was mainly referring to the New Zealand MSM.