There's a few ways to authenticate homelessness but it's probably better to authenticate a fake, as the homeless receive enough bashing from the fearful lately. In the US in some parts it is illegal to feed them. Cops are forced to bully their fellow man out of town. The authorities and those backing them merely cowards.
Cowards? – COWARDS!
"Lot of homelessness. It's confronting. Like that. Snap. Your life's fucked. A divorce, an illness, a mental illness, an accident… Some stupid decision or a cruel twist of fate. It could be us – they are us. You can't hate on the homeless, man. That's not hate, it's fear."
So we find cons have infiltrated this sector of society to bleed funds. That's no surprise the thieving self-entitled infiltrate every strata of society. Theirs is not a stratified world, it is a free for all. These people are no worse than the Hisco's of the world and do a lot less financial damage. Also reprehensible bastards: like the Hisco's of the world.
Fake homeless? Look for:
cleanliness
orderliness
refusal of food offering
sole operator/s (no feral mates in vicinity)
polished story (or laminated placard…)
If you live on the streets: you know the street people, and they know you.
I'm not sure if our beat cops have regular routes? Community Constables are/were in some areas and their ties with community strengthen over time. They'd quickly spot new transients on their beat, and in a relatively short space of time the veracity of their claims. In addition to this a familiar authority figure allows lines of communication to be set up over time with folks whose mistrust of strangers is very high.
Be wary of the tired right-wing schtick bashing all homeless as con-artists and ne'er-do-wells. They are our housing crisis in bold relief. They are a mental health system that is failing us. They are a welfare system run by accountants. They are the fallout of domestic and political violence.
"We ate fungi, watercress, seafood, rustled sheep, pilfered fruit, garden raids, dumpster diving and homeless handouts. We never thought about how we were homeless, we were surviving. Mental health, abuse, alcoholism, addiction, abandonment. It was all there, and it was all intertwined. We absolved ourselves with three Fuck You's and a bottle of grog."
I am deeply suspicious of this articles motives. You only have to view their front page to see where their loyalties lie. No effort to distinguish who is who. Just 'raising awareness' of a con that's been going on since Christ.
I have always considered the role of Community Constables to be of immense importance for the reasons you have mentioned above (and many other reasons), but these roles seem to have diminished to almost the point of extinction in most cities at least. We still have a couple in Wellington (I think) but you don't hear about them nearly as much as in the past.
There is plenty of homeless bashing etc – "get them of our streets", "they are an embarrassment", "they harass tourists" etc – but here in Wellington we also still have a number of good support services still available such as the City Mission, the men's Night Shelter, Soup Kitchen etc. Wellington City Council also now employs a group of Local Hosts whose job is to:
assist the public and visitors to the city
support Police on the street, particularly at night
liaise with retailers, bar and restaurant staff
keep an eye out for what's going on
report safety hazards, graffiti, or issues with city infrastructure.
As part of their daily routine, these Local Hosts also walk the beat talking to and checking on the homeless, and reporting back to the Outreach Team, who provide support to people who are homeless or who are on the fringes of homelessness.
I am not suggesting that these services are nearly enough, a lot more could and should be done but this is at least something by the local council aimed at making connections and offering some level of support.
I wonder who the people were? It says Chinese, but people from Asian countries could all be Chinese who had settled there, so from many countries. Or they could be Asians being labelled Chinese. I wonder if they begged in China, what treatment they would receive? They could be very poor people given the chance of getting money for their family back home, and not have much say in what they do in Australia.
It appears that there is plenty of money in Oz, so why can't they accept more of the refugees that turn up penniless and without hope where they came from? And why chuck NZs out because some of them have been petty crims? They wouldn't be any different percentages than for the working class Australians.
Imagine a pathogen so cunning that it created not only sick people, but also people who looked sick but actually weren't. And also imagine that the imitation was so good that doctors couldn't tell the difference consistently, and ended up withholding treatment from the actually sick people.
We'd be shaking our heads at the highly evolved cruelty of this pathogen. But we'd know what to call it – "capitalism"
In India kids are trained to be beggars and with sometimes young bodies are being deliberately damaged to look the part, and in they go in coordinated teams to beg especially from tourists. Around the corner waits the "boss" perhaps in the comfort of his car.
There is some truth to this. Opportunists (aka capitalists) – guess what – they seize on opportunities. A buck to be made often outweighs any moral imperative – if it was ever there to begin with.
Some countries are still full of land mines – and thus amputees. Should we abandon all in case they've tricked us out of a few bucks – while bankers steal billions?
There are also reports of parents who maim the child. This is a world we can barely grasp let alone understand. I've known more hardship than you've had hot dinners, and I am stunned by the lengths some are driven to.
What level of hardship brings such practice about?
What level of psychopathy is prevalent in (the society and) the capitalists who use such hardship to capitalise?
We can't even imagine that world, but we sure like to judge it.
We definitely need to move the con artists along. From government, civil service, business, banking, media…
We need better opportunities and less opportunists. A systemic overhaul from top to bottom.
Btw @ WtB…..no truer comment ever spoken! (especially the "……..we sure like to judge it".
AND the next bit as well: "We definitely need to move the con artists along. From government, civil service, business, banking, media…"
We actually have/or have had till recently, people in our civil service who couldn't tell the difference between a Muslim or a Sikh, or indeed a Hindu or a Christian with a sweat band! They're all bloody "rag" or "onion heads" to them. (I've heard it first hand! Nor can they tell the difference between arranged marriages and forced marriages; or scam relationships and the genuine; or exploiters and the exploited – LET ALONE why and how it's all become normalised.
As a Koiwoi, I feel the shame at our allowing it all to happen, and worse still why we're so bloody slow to fix it – even when a few simple things could be done tomorrow
Depends entirely where you are. Large cities with extreme poverty. In many rural areas and smaller cities and downs, if parents or anyone else got caught doing this, they'd be driven out of town – possibly worse
The pressure to survive causes some people to kill elephants. Others use their kids to beg and maybe live another day. Hard to imagination in our country but there must be some families who feel totally helpless.
Unbelievable that the government was considering bailing out Westland Milk Products if the Yili sale failed…
ffs, corporate welfare and bailouts for big capital, just like the global financial crisis where those that caused the problem got bailed out…. what a fikkin' yoke
rinse and repeat
save big capital, shit on the little people
is about time big capital had some of its ownership and rights peeled away if it expects little people to save it all the time
The problem with your analysis is that Westland Milk Products is not a "Capitalist" organisation as the word is normally interpreted. It isn't "big capital" at all. If it was it could have survived.
It is a co-operative. As such it finds it very difficult to raise more capital if it is required. A normal firm can issue new shares to people who are willing to buy them. A co-operative like this one can't. They can only raise money by withholding it from the payout to their suppliers. That means all of them equally, rather than selling new shares to willing buyers.
Anyone who believes that co-op's are the way to go should keep that fact in mind. They can crash very easily.
But they seem to be able to access bank loan, "capital" even to pay "unearned" dividends, or for share buy backs.
The banks attitude to co-ops, and indeed many small businesses, when they can lend at far less risk, on speculative land, appears to be part of the problem.
An argument to revive a State "development bank".
Looking at North Dakota, where local banks have been legislated to serve the community, not the other way around.
Thor, the scandinavian storm god, rarely features in local politics and culture here – despite escalating climate change. News that Stuff got rapped over the knuckles for connecting him to the Chch mosque massacre is a bit of a surprise.
Perhaps time's a-coming when burnt offerings to Thor will be used by coastal folk to ward off tornadoes coming in from the Tasman. Magical thinking has been resisting attempts by the upstart, rationality, to dislodge its hegemony for several centuries now. Ramp up those barbies, you westies!
Enjoyable read. When we can't achieve anything because of sloth from fellow human beings, and the might and power of the Wealth-Cult not willing to do anything that can't produce a profit, then it will be good to have gatherings where we can offer prayers and offerings, exchange ideas for coping, have some songs and fermented stuff, and give and get some hugs and handshakes. Not a bad idea.
So National are aiding criminals, their leave it to market ideology, let private charity keep the homeless fed. General welfare, homes to live in, and if we don't, Chinese gangs fait homelessness! begging is now a income! Thanks National. Suppose we put them in jail at considerable cost. GDP spikes up. Wow what a unimaginable cretinous ideology.
foreign media have reported information showing our sub-humane mass murderer seems to be more connected ………… than our 'lone wolf ' media would have you believe …
Who knows what is behind the lack of NZ reporting on this support network of his ….but he was friendly with the fascists our Govt and the west supports. .,…
links have emerged between the shooter and a Ukrainian ultra-nationalist, white supremacist paramilitary organisation called the Azov Battalion. The shooter’s manifesto alleges that he visited the country during his many travels abroad, and the flak jacket he wore during the assault featured a symbol commonly used by the Azov Battalion.
during the massacre he donned the SS wolf’s hook symbol used by the right wing paramilitary group Azov Battalion
The Azov Battalion is emerging as a critical node in the transnational right-wing violent extremist (RWE) network. This group maintains its own “Western Outreach Office” to help recruit and attract foreign fighters that travel to train and connect with people from like-minded violent organisations from across the globe.
In the US, several RAM members (all American citizens) who spent time in Ukraine training with the Azov Battalion were recently indicted by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation for their role in violently attacking counter protesters during the August 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Known as a bastion of neo-Nazism, Ukraine’s Azov Battalion has received teams of American military advisors and high powered US-made weapons.
His passport should have raised red flags …. Afghanistan ,Pakistan, turkey, Israel …. Bulgarian intelligence said he was reported to have visited Serbia, Bosnia, Montenegro, and Croatia in December 2016.
France, Spain and Portugal.
north fucking Korea ???
The blend of such considerable travel activity while stockpiling a cache of semi-automatic firearms with a digital footprint espousing his extremist views online makes the likelihood that [deleted] managed to remain under the radar of the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service (SIS) difficult to believe.
A secret review of the failings of Jihadi Rebecca Kitteridge .and our blind five white eyes cyber spooks will be a white wash
Cheers WTB ,,,, Although I agree with the media blackout of any fame towards our subhuman civilian murderer …. It could also play into the hands of any cover up.
He did have a media profile … on the non encrypted open web….. yet he seems to have been looked at with a blind eye and deaf ear…. But then again I suppose its not just us
Racist, Violent, Unpunished: A White Hate Group’s Campaign of Menace
They train to fight. They post their beatings online. And so far, they have little reason to fear the authorities.
The death threat against Winston also takes on a higher threat level ….. still low, but no longer at the level of being a mocking or laughing matter from National party supporters.
It's particularly despicable bringing children in to this but that is the MO – influencing susceptible minds to their nonsense. A sound mind aint wearing a bar of it. Then there's all the patriotic idiotic chest thumping and imaginary threat assessments to continue the lie they're all victims…
Same shit the wannabe Nazi's here do, only the weaponry is not so prevalent.
Apparently I am a RACE TRAITOR! The marrees are gonna get us!
But really, they are delusional dim-witted shitheels. Any with half a clue are there for the money/ties, not the beer soaked chanting sessions. Unfortunately now very dangerous with social media lending them a distorted echo chamber to validate their moronic views, and the ability to network with purely evil players and finance.
Capitalism's new toy. Nationalism – and the sociopaths it attracts.
The Christchurch shooter was not simply a lone actor, but the product of a broader network of right-wing violent extremists. If the evidence ultimately proves that ******* went to Ukraine to train with like-minded individuals, then the attack in New Zealand was possibly the first example of an act of terrorism committed by a white supremacist foreign fighter. And unless the international community recognizes the danger posed by these transnational networks, the New Zealand attack is unlikely to be the last.
Personally I think the truth is somewhere in the middle between "lone wolf" and "a white supremacist foreign fighter" … Arse covering in a secret Nz investigation ….does not encourage me that we will get the full truth.
our media is shit …. and it seems you get better more informative reporting on NZ …. from overseas sources
Do you know what the Ukraine is? It's a sitting duck. A road apple. The Ukraine is weak. It's feeble. I think it's time to put the hurt on the Ukraine.
It would be to Russia advantage to demonise the Ukraine. So, I'd take all this with a grain of salt considering how much fake news spews out of Russia.
People on the internet are quite happy to tell lies about what symbols people are wearing or making.
Responsible for the deaths of thousands of Jews, Poles and Russians during the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, Ukrainian fascism was rehabilitated and its "new wave" hailed by the enforcer as "nationalists".
This reached its apogee in 2014 when the Obama administration splashed out $5 billion on a coup against the elected government. The shock troops were neo-Nazis known as the Right Sector and Svoboda. Their leaders include Oleh Tyahnybok, who has called for a purge of the "Moscow-Jewish mafia" and "other scum", including gays, feminists and those on the political left.
was functioning as Britain First’s official page and had more than 7,300 followers, with Golding posting pictures from a “Britain First defenders” training day and telling people to “pray for churches” in response to the Christchurch mosque shooting.
"From the late 1980s, when privatisation took hold and many state forests were sold to private enterprise, even those exotic forests that had been planted to stabilise highly erodible landscapes were sold, and harvested. In regions like the East Coast, with some of the most fragile soils in the world, this led to devastating erosion, choking rivers and coastlines with sediment and slash, flooding, and ruining farmland."
"In 1988, after Cyclone Bola ravaged the region, more exotic forests were planted in an effort to stabilise the land, and these are now also being harvested, with predictably disastrous effects, as we saw in Tolaga Bay last year. That kind of planting is still going on."
Adapt to survive thinking cannot enter heads if business & govt planners continue to ignore the changing world around them. Relevant ministers need to signal a change of course to all involved.
"In New Zealand, almost all silvicultural research, expertise and commercial forestry is devoted to exotic, short-rotation monocultures, despite the devastating environmental impacts seen in regions such as the East Coast, Coromandel, Northland and Marlborough. Back in the 1950s, on the other hand, countries like Germany realised that 'close to nature' silviculture, based on indigenous mixed forests, with no clear felling, little spraying and an emphasis on natural regeneration, was a smart alternative to exotic plantation forests. Today almost three quarters of German forests are in mixed stands, with an emphasis on biodiversity and soil enrichment."
Perhaps Britain needs to get a supply of guillotines from the French and systematically start chopping off the heads of the crazies who try to run the country …into the ground. Reading Ellis Peters and the Cadfael series of the 12th century they were eternally fighting between themselves – two contenders Stephen and cousin Maud – or with the Norman French I think. Eight centuries later we still haven't got things sussed. But there is a difference, we haven't got eight centuries left to bugger around, fail, try again,,,,in endless iteration. WW2 was the extreme example of this, we didn't learn from it except use modern technology to make better trebuchets.
The bloody elites are only happy when other people's blood is being spilled. There have been recent comments about the USA elite getting their waivers from serving in their Forces. I suppose it is the same in the UK though the Royal men do take part in soldiering, flying etc.
But learning how to live and let live sustainably, that hasn't happened and the well educated UK parliament haven't learned how to do that so they think they will start a new wave of trials and failures as if they have centuries of stable climate, resources and demographics ahead of them.
Just bloody disgraceful that Britain would renew tensions and not seek viable agreements. They haven't the strength of mind and body to show the finger to the USA, who are so off-compass that they will fall over the Rim soon. (TP Discworld people will have a better grasp of political maneouvering than the well-paid pollies. Their payment system gives the wrong signals – they should be paid on good results that lead to a happy working nation.)
Morrissey You seem to be getting into the hard stuff when it comes to criticism. You might have to limit your spleen Breen, for the sake of maintaining a healthy mind, too much negativity dumbs down others or makes everyone unhappy. Try singing Bobby McFerrin at least once a day, he is being both satirical and realistic:
Fair comment, my friend, but I would remind you that this fellow "Andre" attacked—not criticized, simply attacked—one of the few decent politicians in the western world, and called her supporters "convergence moonbats". I merely challenged his complacent and dishonest post, and reminded him that he is not going to get away with such inflammatory nonsense on this forum.
[I cannot see the “attack” @ 9 on “one of the few decent politicians in the western world”, which is simply your opinion. You did not “merely challenge[d]” but posted some of your own “inflammatory nonsense” @ 9.1. Please do not start flame wars on this site – Incognito]
It’s a facile concept, desperately posited by the suffering survivors of the doomed Clinton campaign of 2016. Another version of it is the “horseshoe theory.”
Been there done that editing a community paper. Then went on the 'last great drinking jag' culminating in hospitalisation and loss of job.
I'm a shocker myself at times with overly emotive language. It can just flow aye. Folks here have been instrumental in helping me rein it in, which ultimately helps me be a better communicator.
The message is lost when ears are burning.
Sometimes I find it nigh on impossible to turn it off. Misinformation especially deliberate gets the blood boiling.
Agree, Bleeple. I know I write better when I discipline myself, and cut back on the abuse.
Keep up your writing, by the way—I've enjoyed your little vignettes of Wellington bowery life—shades of George Gissing, Geoff Cochrane, and Charles Bukowski!
I did wonder about convergence moonbats – what are those, and why is he so qualified to throw soubriquets around so freely? (I had to look up google for that one – love these odd words. Sounds like small bricks in French and fits the niche well!) Bobby McFerrin is great. And i use him to lighten me quite often, have to follow my own advice!
She's an intelligent and gracious Democrat who has, like anyone with a brain, expressed grave skepticism about the decision of the Democratic "leadership" to pursue this mad fantasy of Russian meddling. That is, by itself, enough for her to incur the hatred and enmity of Nancy Pelosi and her cronies.
She has also pointed out there is no evidence to support the insistence of the Democratic “leadership” that Syrian government forces, and not the U.S.-backed Al Nusra and Al Qaeda terrorists, used chemical weapons.
Tulsi Gabbard is a pro-military, pro-droning, pro-hindu-nationalist, pro-authoritarian, ok with torture, homophobic (historically at least) Representative from Hawaii who holds social positions now fairly common within the Democrats such as $15 minimum wage. She's twigged to the idea that mouthing a few anti-interventionist words is sufficient to attract loud and blinkered support from a few vocal enthusiasts (including the likes of David Duke, Richard Spencer, Steve Bannon etc) that happily blind themselves to her unsavory positions on other topics. She got a massive poll boost from her debate performance, lifting her from 0.6% support all the way to 0.7%.
Marianne Williamson is indeed "a flake, insubstantial as hell" as the mozzie aptly described her. She's apparently some sort of anti-vax New Age self-help guru that has worked for Oprah, and is running as a Democratic candidate for president. Although it's in no way apparent why, as she doesn't seem to have any ideas or even opinions around most topics a president has to deal with. Currently sitting around 0.2% in polling.
I would have thought the residual “crystal energy” set would still have been quite a lot larger than 0.2% of Dems, but hey, maybe they’re a lot more pragmatic and holistic in choosing who to support.
Hey Andre, I know it's too early but are you forming any impression of a likely winner emerging from the rather nondescript pack of contenders?
Warren seems to have said a few intelligent things in the past, yet was apparently unimpressive in recent performance, and Sanders likewise failed to impress in the debate. If you feel picking a winner at the stage is too much like going out on a limb, I agree, just wondering if the Dems are competing to underwhelm the third of the electorate who are non-aligned…
Looks to me like Bernie and Biden are running on their set-in-stone ideas and reputations locked in over their decades of service, and that's starting to show to an electorate that's moved past what they have to offer. They're both dropping in the polls, and I don't think either has the mental flexibility anymore to turn it around.
At the moment it looks to me like it's between Warren and Harris. Warren offers preparation and plans and enough experience in DC to prove she can get things done, but is sadly a bit dry and boring, professorial even, to be really broadly appealing and inspiring.
Whereas Harris is more dynamic, better able to react accurately on the fly, enough government experience to be credible, but on the downside there are things in her backstory that a determined troll campaign could blow out of proportion to smear her.
Buttigieg is the dark horse running the outside lane, but it's hard to see him having enough on his own merits to come through unless all four ahead of him crash and burn.
Interesting that you don't rate Beto. A while back I saw videos of him performing quite well, enough to work a crowd successfully, but I gather he didn't impress in the debate. Wouldn't rule out a tactical move toward caution explaining that. Allow others to get front-runner status, come from behind in a late run.
If I was a wealthy bank-roller of the Democrats, I'd give them all intensive media training. Problem with the primadonna syndrome is you get contenders who don't believe they need it. However that just polishes any gloss. What the Democrats really need is better ideas – particular those likely to trigger the zietgiest.
My impression of Beto is his backstory and the things he likes to talk about are a good fit for representing Texas interests in the Senate. But he doesn't seem to have much to show he's up to the challenge of grabbing leadership of the country and steering it in a new direction.
There is no debate. There is inaction borne of both greed and fear from authorities though. You see this a lot with new disruptive technologies – decision makers wracked with indecision and too scared or unwilling to govern.
You've pinned this nasty boring insect Airbub which with uber is a new disruptive technology that will steal our very lives if we don't control them.
White anting a society and its forms of work and mutuality that is what they do. And the government has been blackmailed by the uncaring c-off to let them get on with whatever they want to do, squeeze us till it hurts, and then sell our blood. Sound OTTT, the examples are there and will increase.
`But is it? The people staying in the $600 a week AirBnbs need to stay somewhere, the motels etc aren't exactly empty. If it is all long term rentals accessed through AirBnb it must be for people who need long term accommodation with out paying rapacious bloody "letting agents " their huge cuts. Maybe the hysteria is being fueled by these self same ethnicly bypassed letting agents fucked off with missing out on their cut. Even the language and media manipulation has all the hallmarks of a professional PR bullshit campaign.
Take into account also how much of the take is individual rooms for a day or so in private houses, which would not be available for long term tenancies anyway. We use AirBnB and meet some interesting locals and get a good take on local conditions. For older superannuitants or young couples trying to buy their own home or even a bit of spare income to help out with the kids AirBnb is a small Godsend for people to help them out .
In Muttonbird's 2nd link is a snapshot of the Airbnb scene in New York. 57% of listings are for the entire home. 53% of listings let for 60 days or more a year.
In the coastal Far North an Airbnb/Bookabach etc property returns about a third of the income when compared to letting the property to a long-term tenant. The overheads take a big hike if going the Airbnb route. Admin, power, internet, water, gas, garden maint, providing linen, laundry, cleaning, sundries (shampoo, toilet paper etc). Little recourse for damage or theft and doubled management costs.
The main advantage is that owners can continue to enjoy the holiday house. Few people want to know about a stay in the Far North for about 7 months of the year. Airbnb returns seem stronger when centrally located in our major centres.
I don't blame Airbnb operators for trying to get the best return they can on their assets. Is this not something we all do? I'm after the best price I can get when I'm flogging off unused gear on Trademe.
Exactly David. attacks on AirBnB and Uber simply for being are misdirected, AirBnb is simply a letting agent with actually a bit more security for damage etc as nobody will let in someone with a bad record and Uber is just a another taxi service, the like of which have existed for decades like Mini-cabs in London.
The difference being that Airbnb has developed some sort of social conscience and appears to be profitable for most participants.
Uber, on the other hand seems to be about destroying everything in an attempt to create a global monopoly, without which they will never be profitable. Before too long that model will run out of investor and supplier confidence, and social license.
Uber – just another taxi service. It is more like levering up the paving stones on a footpath that have been there for ages providing a service and the new replacement doesn't match the input of ages into the past, or those whose job has been to maintain the service. Companies just can't be welcomed to take over a system that serves the community and recycles the money put into it around that community.
Airbnb's advent coincided with the usual accomodation pinch point this cycle and fingers were vigorously pointed in Airbnb's direction. That's quietened down now with Council enforcing existing planning rules and doing some fine tuning of those rules. Airbnb have been active participants in the process to look after their and their hosts interests, but are pretty open with Council about what is going on. It's not in Airbnb's interests for it to turn into a shitfight.
In previous times cribs would have been let out during periods when the owners didn't need them. This resulted in a situation where a large proportion of the rental market was out in the street (literally) every school holidays. My partner grew up here and talks of moving house many times in the rental shuffle through the 70's and 80's. Queenstown's rental market has traditionally been either cribs (holiday houses) or rundown properties slated for re-development, neither terribly secure or long term. There's never been any real development of long term rentals. This is changing with a developers entering the rental market now, Kiwibuild, and possible extensions thereof are helping.
Another aspect of our rental market is the 1-24 month lifestyle resident, or long term tourist. These are generally more up-market and may not take employment, and are just as disruptive of rental market. This group takes a proportion of the Airbnb properties.
I totally agree that this is a Must Read, Incognito. Thanks for bringing it to attention as I had not picked it up earlier. Don't often visit Stuff, Herald etc these days.
Any thoughts of upgrading it to a post – just 'as is', as it speaks very strongly without need for summary or explanation?
I agree this could do with more exposure. It's a rock-and-a-hard-place for people doing a bloody hard job. Oversight is all good and well. 'Media oversight', on the other hand…
Even the writer of the article conceded all was not proper in the 'uplift' filmed by Reid. I'd not be too quick to condemn a journalist trying to get some much needed attention to what is going on.
"…a court-ordered custody order and the managed removal of a child. I'm aware that this is not always done perfectly, and I'm glad the publicised uplift in Hastings is being reviewed. The doco appears to show serious procedural issues in that instance, but it's also heavily edited and completely one-sided. Let's see what the review says and keep an open mind. "
What struck me was the level of professional disrespect shown by the CYFS(by any other name) to the two midwives. And the lawyer. These were professionals with direct involvement with the family (unlike the social workers in the uplift squad) and their opinions were completely ignored. this was unforgivable behaviour from the social workers and I hope they all are sent for re training.
The other aspect of this is the number of people who came forward and said….'Yes, sometimes kids are not safe with their birth family and no, we don't want anymore Kahui twins or Lillybings….but we've seen how too many social workers behave like lazy, ignorant bullies or incompetent twits.' Or words to that effect.
The good social workers will be fine. The ones who are capable of seeing the bigger picture and the ones who don't just uplift children and dump them with foster parents….who actually think about the long term.
After nearly a decade of fostering for CYFs, including being directly involved with a case remarkably similar to the Reid article, I feel qualified to say I see much accuracy in what was depicted. Shame on them.
+ 1 yep – the video showed massive disrespect for mana and that is not acceptable really. This will improve things I believe and it needs to because it is BROKEN now imo.
And if or no other reason…it is a textbook scenario known to all in the child protection field….remove a baby from a young mum and give her little hope of ever having her baby returned and she'll just go off and get hapu again. You can practically bank on it.
On the other hand, put a plan in place where mum and baby live in suitable surroundings with support and supervision (as was the plan for this young mum) and better still engage the wider whanau…like'… clean up your collective shit for the sake of the next generation.' (like seemed to be happening in the Reid article) and the odds of a much more positive outcome increase exponentially.
But. Good old CYFS. Buggers it up again. And they talk about inter-generational dysfunction in these families….seems like one generation of social workers are passing their bad practices down to the next.
Now what's that saying about keeping on doing the same thing over and over again and getting the same result?
Do you and/or Rosemary want to do a Guest Post on this? Both of you can provide a unique angle, which does not get adequate representation in MSM and thereby help to change things for the better for Māori and the children involved.
For me – thanks – I am working night shifts and I look after the kids during the day so I'm very busy and don't think I could do the topic justice. And I feel distinctly uncomfortable either putting myself, or Māori vulnerabilities, under the spotlight on this forum – apart from my comments which I put up when I can.
I read that the other day and have concerns that there seems to be a concerted effort by Media and pressure groups to ridicule Oranga Tamariki. Melanie Reid is on a damaging course. It seems to be simplistic to paint the uplifting as purposeless and vindictive. I hope that the Enquiries paint a balanced fair picture.
We are a new Ministry… No. You're not new. You have been rebranded.
…that bringing a child into our care can be traumatic for the child and their whānau. It is not a decision we take lightly, and there are, quite rightly, a strong set of checks and balances in the process to ensure that the right decision is made.
No. The checks and balances were not strong enough in the case that Reid focused on.
Wherever it is safe and possible to do so, the child’s parent(s), whānau and other people supporting the whānau will be involved in this decision. Well, er, no. Not in the case highlighted by Reid. CYFS (by any other name) were not the only professionals intimately involved with the young mother and her baby. The input of the midwives and the lawyer was treated with contempt by the social workers.
We are strengthening our confidence and competence to engage more effectively with Māori to improve outcomes for their tamariki and whānau, and fulfil our responsibility to better understand and reflect the people and communities we work with.
Doing better for Māori children is a key priority for Oranga Tamariki and there is new legislation requiring this coming into force from 1 July 2019. Section 7AA is a new section of the Oranga Tamariki Act 1989, which sets out our responsibilities to improve outcomes for tamariki Māori and their whānau, and requires Oranga Tamariki to report annually on the progress made. At this heart of this is working with whānau, hapū, iwi and kaupapa Māori providers to ensure we uphold the mana and whakapapa of tamariki Māori and the whānaungatanga responsibilities of whānau, hapū and iwi.
All this planning and all this insight yet you, CYFS (by any other name), failed to see the shit storm gathering force on the horizon.
Back in February 2017 The New Zealand College of Midwives submitted to the The Children, Young Persons, and Their Families (Oranga Tamariki) Legislation Bill and expressed the concern that..
The College has noted that early supportive intervention and preventative work has been seriously underfunded, and this has unfortunately led to the main intervention focus of child protection and the removal of children from their families/whānau. Alongside this is a focus on what is described as the ‘most vulnerable children.’ Extending the focus to support and protection of families/whānau and early help, requires a serious commitment on behalf of government to adequate funding and recognition that whānau who are struggling need support before their situations become acute. It signifies a failure of the system if it becomes concerned only when the family/whānau are at the point where social workers and services are unable to support them to ‘turn the curve.’
Bearing in mind that that submission was made under NationalRule, how did you think, CYFS(by any other name), the midwiveswere going to react when the word got around that the uplift of newborns was continuing unabated under the so called Coalition Of Lovingkindness?
An intelligent and sensitive organisation would have made damn sure that those checks and balances were done doubly properly and all professionals close to the mother and baby were involved. Especially the midwives.
“New details from the Panama Papers show how a stream of foreign cash became a torrent flooding into New Zealand trusts in order to avoid tax offshore.”
The first thought of people reaching dizzy highs in employment must be, "Phew. I am very rich and very important so I will be exempt from prosecution no matter how much I cheat."
Simon Schama frothed and ranted against Jeremy Corbyn this morning, while Kim Hill maintained a silence closely resembling collusion and agreement.
RNZ National, Saturday 6 July 2019, 9:10 a.m.
The first part of this interview by Kim Hill goes as you would expect it to: Simon Schama is a smooth talker, and formidably well informed about art. He sports an impressive résumé, and he loves telling a good story. One of the stories he tells is of meeting Henry Kissinger, who when Schama arrived at his apartment was preoccupied with feeding his dog. "I tried my best not to like him," Schama remembers fondly to Kim Hill, but he was charmed by the great man. "Kissinger is not all bad."
That endorsement of a notorious war criminal is a brief hint of the moral vacuum at the heart of this glib and superficially clever chatterbox. At one point he criticizes President Trump—"stupid", he sniffs contemptuously—for moving the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem; this was wrong, Schama claims, because it "undermined even further the Palestinian Authority." Schama doesn't care a jot for the people of the Occupied Territories; a ferocious supporter of the Israeli state, he is merely concerned about the influence of the collaborationist P.A. After that, he slips smoothly into equating opposition to Israel with being anti-Jewish. The attack on Corbyn, equally dishonest, flows naturally from that.
Following are selected highlights, or lowlights, of the interview, starting with his arch and pretentious comments about art and climaxing with that mad blitzkrieg against the leader of the British Labour Party….
KIM HILL: Um, "the besetting sin of contemporary art," you have said, "is its callow, orgiastic narcissism."
SIMON SCHAMA: I don't know about "narcissism." I wouldn't defend that over-fearfully.
KIM HILL: You were involved in the Paris protests in 1968! You have described yourself in those days as "a barbarically feckless youth, stoned on self-righteousness."
……….
SIMON SCHAMA: I reviewed Henry Kissinger's book Diplomacy. I didn't think it was as good as it could have been. He rang me and invited me to his apartment to talk about it. I was thinking of the bomber of Cambodia, and I tried my best not to like him. But when he answered the door, he was feeding his dog. Kissinger is not all bad. ….
SIMON SCHAMA: The Russians and the North Koreans have got Trump to do exactly what they want…. By and large since 1945, America's commitment to its alliances has actually kept the peace. But Trump doesn't know anything about diplomacy. …dismantling the hard-won Iran Nuclear Deal…. moving the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem has undermined even further the Palestinian Authority. …
KIM HILL: Do you think there is anything to these allegations of antisemitism against Jeremy Corbyn?
SIMON SCHAMA: There are very, very good people in the Labour Party, like Tom Watson. Jeremy Corbyn has been extraordinarily culpable in not paying attention to the POISON coursing through the veins of the Labour Party. … Young MPs like Luciana Berger have been subjected to DEATH THREATS! … I don't think he wants to drive Jews into concentration camps, I'm sure he doesn't. … Criticism of Israel morphs into anti-Semitism. …. He's dug his heels in SO MUCH. I don't know quite what we call it, but it amounts to vicious, malignant intransigence. … TheProtocols of Zion, that terrible forgery, has never had so many readers—-
KIM HILL: Seriously?
SIMON SCHAMA: Yeah. On the Web.
KIM HILL: Oh, the Web is making us STUPID, and believers in mad conspiracy theories….
… ad nauseam.
After this abortion, I sent Kim Hill the following email, which she read out on air just after the 10 o'clock news….
Dear Kim,
Simon Schama, admirer of Kissinger, spouter of lies against Corbyn
Simon Schama's extraordinary partisan broadside against Jeremy Corbyn, full of invective but devoid of evidence, was one of the ugliest few minutes of radio, on any station, this year. It's a pity you didn't ask him to back up his wild accusation that Corbyn is guilty of "vicious, malignant intransigence." It would have been almost as interesting, perhaps, as listening to him explain how he came under the thrall of Henry Kissinger.
Schama is Jewish, you pillock – of course he doesn't think Corbyn's done enough to combat anti-semitism in the Labour Party. That doesn't make him a "smooth and sinister liar," it makes him "someone with an opinion Morrisey doesn't like."
That was the empty flatulating gumflapping you seem to employ to boost your sense of moral selfworth morpissey. What do you expect the palestinian authority to do?
Thanks for that photo, my friend. It also serves as an analogy for Kim Hill's effectiveness in that "interview" this morning. Except, of course, that she didn't even throw a pebble at that engine of lies and propaganda. A pity, because his statements were almost all false, and would have collapsed if he had been asked to back them up with any evidence.
The Israeli Supreme Court refuses to hear arguments in a case about whether Palestinian minors imprisoned by Israel should be allowed to speak to their families on the phone.
Azov Battalion online propaganda shows Israeli-licensed Tavor rifles in the fascist group’s hands, while Israeli human rights activists have protested arms sales to Ukraine on the basis that weapons might end up with anti-Semitic militias.
She could have even asked about Israels Apartheid Bomb ….. the nuclear weapons they co-developed with South Africa … and usa moles
The CIA had evidence that this was a joint nuclear test conducted by Israel and the Apartheid regime in South Africa.
US suspicions were based on the already established nuclear cooperation between Israel and South Africa during the 1970s, which included sharing knowledge, materials and scientists.
Are you really serious, it is and has always been the Tories who have had a long a sordid history of anti-semitism in the UK, when was the last time Kim Hill, The Guardian or for that matter any MSM outlet has done a piece on that?
Man if you don't understand that this is purely an ideological battle for the media who are cynically using the racist Israeli lobby for their own purpose, it has sweet fuck all if anything to do with anti-semitism, then all I can say is.. well sir, can I sell you a used car… one lady owner….
I don't recall endorsing Schama's opinion or sharing it, just pointing out that it's unsurprising he holds that opinion. I expect he's none too chuffed with the Tories when it comes to ethnic bigotry either.
You claimed that Schama was "of course" obliged to spout vicious nonsense because he's Jewish.
In some alternate Morrissey-fantasy universe, perhaps. In this real, actually-existing one, of course Schama isn't happy with Corbyn's response to complaints of anti-semitism, because British Jews are highly likely to be unhappy with it. "Vicious nonsense" is your personal opinion, which has a net value of $0.00 outside your own head.
You could also usefully ponder the question of how members of other ethnic groups might take your view that their thoughts on the bigotry they're subjected to is "vicious nonsense." Just for once, as an experiment, like.
" I expect he's none too chuffed with the Tories when it comes to ethnic bigotry either. "…Funny how we wouldn't know that. probably because he never mentioned it..no just the usual bullshit about Labour/Corbyn…that's the point.
Morrissey Kim may have stayed quiet because she wanted to let him explain himself with few prompts. She operates differently to you, can be quite subtle.
I agree with you, Mr Shark: she can indeed be quite subtle. I do enjoy her programme, and I think she is far superior to her godawful temp. Noelle McCarthy.
She does have some grave faults, though, such as a propensity to automatically and uncritically recycle official bilge, and a certain degree of indolence, which was disastrous for her when she came across someone really sharp sixteen years ago….
A pity it wasn't you interviewing him, Dennis. You rightly have divined that there's not a lot of substance behind Schama's scholarly front. Kim Hill was putty in his hands, and treated him with the same deference she showed for other scoundrels from that part of the world, like Jonathan Freedland, Luke Harding, and A.A. Gill.
Thank you Morrissey, your letter on RNZ this morning is the best thing I have heard on Kim's reactionary show for quite a while..quite a highlight,, actually I was at first surprised that she read it out, as it pointed out quite nicely her obvious flaws, but then on reflection I came to the conclusion that she has gone so far down the rabbit hole of just parroting and giving unquestioned platform to that kind of bullshit, that wouldn't be able to see anything wrong with it..sad really, I used to admire her greatly.
Thanks, Adrian. Actually, to give Kim Hill her due, she almost always reads out my emails to her—and no, I don't write one to her regularly! She's only expressed consternation or anger towards me on one occasion….
morrissey….thank you for that….i can never quite understand why kim hill doesnt take these people to task….corbyn has been anti racism all his political life….meanwhile the genuine racism against moslems from the Tories is swept under the carpet.
But attacking Corbyn as a racist is all they have….he will be PM before xmas
This will be really interesting when the audio goes up on Radionz. He has something very interesting to say about managing predators and where cats useful place is in the chain; there is a chain to consider, not just knee jerk 'cats are bad'.
11:05 John Flux – Lifelong ecologist
John Flux in Iran in 1977 with a road kill hare Photo: Supplied
Internationally respected New Zealand ecologist John Flux has spent his life studying hares, starlings, and even his own cats.
His study of starlings in Belmont Regional Park, near Wellington, has become one of the longest continuous ecological studies in the world, running from 1970 to today.
At its peak he and his wife Meg would examine 500 starling nest boxes, located in munitions bunkers built by the US military in 1942.
John still climbs a ladder each year to check on 50 nesting boxes to see what effect climate change is having on the timing of egg laying.
He's recently authored a paper in the European Journal of Ecology about what humans might learn from the fate of feral populations of domesticated rabbits.
The Auckland ratepayers open ended cheque for the Americas cup and the cost to the environment in dumping sludge dredged for the village outside Great Barrier Island.
Oh if you don’t want to pay then maybe no event !
Sounds familiar.
I'm not impressed by Trump's blame game today: "Trump blamed a faulty teleprompter for his claim during remarks he made at a July 4th event that the Continental Army "took over the airports" during the Revolutionary War."
He claimed it broke down. So that technical malfunction caused him to describe the American troops occupying airports in 1775, he expects viewers to believe. I suspect few viewers will detect any causal logic connecting the two things…
I imagine the Iranian regime's top guys are trembling in fear right now. The Supreme Leader is likely to have a message descend from his prophet in paradise: cease provoking the infidel, looks like his brain is dysfunctional, he could do anything!
Gee, eh? Dementia onset sometimes sporadic?? The guy can seem lucid enough most of the time then it kicks in for a wee while? Pence must be rubbing his hands in glee…
Sufferers know early on that something is up and when they're sure, they never stop trying to cover up their decline. As things get worse they get more and more determined to pull the wool and refine their tactics to deceive outsiders. This can last for years but eventually, the mask drops and their decline becomes obvious to everyone, not just those closest to them.
The last leg is when they forget they’ve forgotten, believe me, it's a blessing, and it's all down hill from there.
Well, I guess we just wait till a diagnosis becomes official. It's a national security issue as soon as Pence consults with the Secretary of Defense. He'll probably involve Pompeo, since they are both fundamentalists. Watch for a catastrophic Wall St plunge real soon…
Though the 36-year rule of Portugal's António de Oliveira Salazar ended last year, the old man is not yet aware of it. Still immobilized after a stroke and a coma 13 months ago, Salazar calls Cabinet meetings, and his old ministers faithfully attend—even though some of them are no longer in the Cabinet. No one has found the courage to tell the 80-year-old dictator that he has been replaced.
Reminds me of a story about Ronald Reagan in his declining years.
His Secret Service detail used to toss bags of leaves on the ground at one end of the swimming pool. Reagan would come along and laboriously sweep them up and while he was doing so, his detail would be at the other end of the pool tossing more bags of leaves on the ground. It was a way of keeping the old boy occupied while at the same time giving him some physical exercise.
Love that one! We're bound to get a real flood of them tomorrow. The media ought to frame it as a competition of satire, nominate their favourite contender for top satirist.
For those unfamiliar with the China Lake Air Weapons Range or it geography? This geothermal/ volcanic area is to the NW/ NNW of China Lake AWR and the most of the valley has numerous fault lines.
Yup. Lots of cool geothermal/volcanic stuff going on all the way up the east side of the Sierra Nevadas.
Then there's Death Valley just to the northeast of China Lake.
Fun fact, the highest (Mt Whitney) and lowest points (Badwater, Death Valley) in the 48 states are both in Inyo County, just to the north of China Lake. Both are due to all the faulting and ground movement continually happening there.
NAWS China Lake is not mission capable,non essential personnel evacuating to safe haven.
NON ESSENTIAL active duty, drilling reservists, civilian employees, and dependents are authorized to evacuate to a radius of 100 miles from safe haven Naval Base Ventura County (NVBC).
It's cool that our Coalition Government is funding family care people looking after there disabled family and tamariki 25 a hour sounds good.
A big Earthquake in Los Angeles 7.1 is quite high let's hope that not to much damage is caused by the EarthQuake.
Eco Maori favorite charity The Salvation Army is offering free doctors visit in Waitakare Auckland yes a lot of people can not afford to go to the doctor's.
Yes power is wasted and power bill grow during winter luck our government has given a winter power payments .Eco Maori is going to get Free power from a Micro hydro turbines run from a stream . Ka Pai Tomorrow for showing te tangata how to save money by saving power. Good on Newshub for this positive story
That is awesome our government paying carer's looking after there Whanau who need constant care there are a lot of people struggling to care for there Whanau.
Energy mate hopefully will save people struggling with big power bills a lot of stress.
Cyber security is a very good topic everyone's data can be harvested by the state or others
Eco Maori agrees with the United nations we see destruction caused by human caused climate change all the TIME these days
One climate crisis disaster happening every week, UN warns
Developing countries must prepare now for profound impact, disaster representative says
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Climate crisis disasters are happening at the rate of one a week, though most draw little international attention and work is urgently needed to prepare developing countries for the profound impacts, the UN has warned.
Catastrophes such as cyclones Idai and Kenneth in Mozambique and the drought afflicting India make headlines around the world. But large numbers of “lower impact events” that are causing death, displacement and suffering are occurring much faster than predicted, said Mami Mizutori, the UN secretary-general’s special representative on disaster risk reduction. “This is not about the future, ka kite ano link below
Jeremy Corbin finally making a commitment to abandoned Brexit Eco Maori backs Britian staying in the European Union.
It's good that I'll people could access medicine weed
The smoke tax has good side effects and bad ones imagine if they were banned ????????.
Some people think they have a higher IQ than they actually have it good for there confidence but that phenomen is easy to read.
A fuel tax on gas guzzling cars is needed good on our government for implementing it they are planning to use the tax to make owning electric cars cheaper subsidy from carbon to clean energy user.
Buzz from the Beehive Housing Minister Chris Bishop delivered news – packed with the ingredients to enflame political passions – worthy of supplanting Winston Peters in headline writers’ priorities. He popped up at the post-Cabinet press conference to promise a crackdown on unruly and antisocial state housing tenants. His ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The Reserve Bank is advertising for a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion advisor. The Bank has one mandate – to keep inflation between one and three percent. It has failed in that and is only slowly getting inflation back down to the upper limit. Will it ...
Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency Waka KotahiThe fact that a ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Gavin Jacobson talks to Thomas Piketty 10 years on from Capital in the 21st CenturyThe SalvoLocal scoop: Green MP’s business being investigated over migrant exploitation claims StuffSteve KilgallonLocal deep-dive: The commercial contractors making money from School ...
It’s a home - but Kāinga Ora tenants accused of “abusing the privilege” may lose it. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The Government announced a crackdown on Kāinga Ora tenants who were unruly and/or behind on their rent, with Housing Minister Chris Bishop saying a place in a state ...
This is a guest post by Connor Sharp of Surface Light Rail Light rail in Auckland: A way forward sooner than you think With the coup de grâce of Auckland Light Rail (ALR) earlier this year, and the shift of the government’s priorities to roads, roads, and more roads, it ...
Note: As a paid-up Webworm member, I’ve recorded this Webworm as a mini-podcast for you as well. Some of you said you liked this option - so I aim to provide it when I get a chance to record! Read more ...
TL;DR: In my ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.06pm on Monday, March 18:IKEA is accused of planting big forests in New Zealand to green-wash; REDD-MonitorA City for People takes a well-deserved victory lap over Wellington’s pro-YIMBY District Plan votes; A City for PeopleSteven Anastasiou takes a close look at the sticky ...
Buzz from the Beehive Here’s hoping for a lively post-cabinet press conference when the PM and – perhaps – some of his ministers tell us what was discussed at their meeting today. Until then, Point of Order has precious little Beehive news to report after its latest monitoring of the ...
David Farrar writes – We now have almost all 2023 data in, which has allowed me to update my annual table of how labour went against its promises. This is basically their final report card. The promiseThe result Build 100,000 affordable homes over 10 ...
I’m a bit worried that I’ve started a previous newsletter with the words “just when you think they couldn’t get any worse…” Seems lately that I could begin pretty much every issue with that opening. Such is the nature of our coalition government that they seem to be outdoing each ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. ...
Depictions of Islam in Western popular culture have rarely been positive, even before 9/11. Five years on from the mosque shootings, this is one of the cultural headwinds that the Muslim community has to battle against. Whatever messages of tolerance and inclusion are offered in daylight, much of our culture ...
Last week Transport Minster Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre. The new train control centre will see teams from KiwiRail, Auckland Transport and Auckland One Rail working more closely together to improve train services across the city. The Auckland Rail Operations Centre in ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson said in an exit interview with Q+A yesterday the Government can and should sustain more debt to invest in infrastructure for future generations. Elsewhere in the news in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 6:36am: Read more ...
Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. It is more than just a happy ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to March 18 include:China’s Foreign Minister visiting Wellington today;A post-cabinet news conference this afternoon; the resumption of Parliament on Tuesday for two weeks before Easter;retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson gives his valedictory speech in Parliament; ...
New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters’s state-of-the-nation speech on Sunday was really a state-of-Winston-First speech. He barely mentioned any of the Government’s key policies and could not even wholly endorse its signature income tax cuts. Instead, he rehearsed all of his complaints about the Ardern Government, including an extraordinary claim ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
“I’ve been internalising a really complicated situation in my head.”When they kept telling us we should wait until we get to know him, were they taking the piss? Was it a case of, if you think this is bad, wait till you get to know the real Christopher, after the ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
.“$10 and a target that bleeds” - Bleeding Targets for Under $10!.Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.This government appears hell-bent on either scrapping life-saving legislation or reintroducing things that - frustrated critics insist - will be dangerous and likely ...
“It hardly strikes me as fair to criticise a government for doing exactly what it said it was going to do. For actually keeping its promises.”THUNDER WAS PLAYING TAG with lightning flashes amongst the distant peaks. Its rolling cadences interrupted by the here-I-come-here-I-go Doppler effect of the occasional passing car. ...
Subversive & Disruptive Technologies: Just as happened with that other great regulator of the masses, the Medieval Church, the advent of a new and hard-to-control technology – the Internet – is weakening the ties that bind. Then, and now, those who enjoy a monopoly on the dissemination of lies, cannot and will ...
Been Here Before: To find the precedents for what this Coalition Government is proposing, it is necessary to return to the “glory days” of Muldoonism.THE COALITION GOVERNMENT has celebrated its first 100 days in office by checking-off the last of its listed commitments. It remains, however, an angry government. It ...
Bob Edlin writes – And what is the world watching today…? The email newsletter from Associated Press which landed in our mailbox early this morning advised: In the news today: The father of a school shooter has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter; prosecutors in Trump’s hush-money case ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is another Green MP on their way out? And are the Greens severely tarnished by another integrity scandal? For the second time in three months, the Green Party has secretly suspended an MP over integrity issues. Mystery is surrounding the party’s decision to ...
For the last few years, the Green Party has been the party that has managed to avoid the plague of multiple scandals that have beleaguered other political parties. It appears that their luck has run out with a second scandal which, unfortunately for them, coincided with Golraz Ghahraman, the focus ...
TL;DR: The six newsey things that stood out to me as of 6:46am on Saturday, March 16.Andy Foster has accidentally allowed a Labour/Green amendment to cut road user chargers for plug-in hybrid vehicles, which the Government might accept; NZ HeraldThomas CoughlanSimeon Brown has rejected a plea from Westport ...
What seemed a booming success a couple of years ago has collapsed into fraud convictions.I looked at the crash of FTX (short for ‘Futures Exchange’) in November 2022 to see whether it would impact on the financial system as a whole. Fortunately there was barely a ripple, probably because it ...
Anybody following the situation in Ukraine and Russia would probably have been amused by a recent Tweet on X NATO seems to be putting in an awful lot of effort to influence what is, at least according to them, a sham election in an autocracy.When do the Ukrainians go to ...
TL;DR:Shaun Baker on Wynyard Quarter's transformation. Magdalene Taylor on the problem with smart phones. How private equity are now all over reinsurance. Dylan Cleaver on rugby and CTE. Emily Atkin on ‘Big Meat’ looking like ‘Big Oil’.Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15Photo by Jeppe Hove Jensen ...
Buzz from the Beehive Finance Minister Nicola Willis had plenty to say when addressing the Auckland Business Chamber on the economic growth that (she tells us) is flagging more than we thought. But the government intends to put new life into it: We want our country to be a ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee has reported back on the Road User Charges (Light Electric RUC Vehicles) Amendment Bill, basicly rubberstamping it. While there was widespread support among submitters for the principle that EV and PHEV drivers should pay their fair share for the roads, they also overwhelmingly disagreed with ...
Peter Dunne writes – This week’s government bailout – the fifth in the last eighteen months – of the financially troubled Ruapehu Alpine Lifts company would have pleased many in the central North Island ski industry. The government’s stated rationale for the $7 million funding was that it ...
See if you can spot the difference. An Iranian born female MP from a progressive party is accused of serial shoplifting. Her name is leaked to the media, which goes into a pack frenzy even before the Police launch an … Continue reading → ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The government is omitting general Treaty references from legislation : The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last Government in a bid to get greater coherence in the public service on Treaty ...
What was that judge thinking?Peter Williams writes – That Golriz Ghahraman and District Court Judge Maria Pecotic were once lawyer colleagues is incontrovertible. There is published evidence that they took at least one case to the Court of Appeal together. There was a report on ...
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It’s Friday and we’re halfway through March Madness. Here’s some of the things that caught our attention this week. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt asked how we can get better event trains and an option for grade separating Morningside Dr. On Tuesday Matt looked into ...
Something you might not know about me is that I’m quite a stubborn person. No, really. I don’t much care for criticism I think’s unfair or that I disagree with. Few of us do I suppose.Back when I was a drinker I’d sometimes respond defensively, even angrily. There are things ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:PM Christopher Luxon said the reversal of interest deductibility for landlords was done to help renters, who ...
It was not so much the Labour Party but really the Chris Hipkins party yesterday at Labour’s caucus retreat in Martinborough. The former Prime Minister was more or less consistent on wealth tax, which he was at best equivocal about, and social insurance, which he was not willing to revisit. ...
Buzz from the BeehiveThe text reproduced above appears on a page which records all the media statements and speeches posted on the government’s official website by Melissa Lee as Minister of Media and Communications and/or by Jenny Marcroft, her Parliamentary Under-secretary. It can be quickly analysed ...
For forty years, Robert Muldoon has been a dirty word in our politics. His style of government was so repulsive and authoritarian that the backlash to it helped set and entrench our constitutional norms. His pig-headedness over forcing through Think Big eventually gave us the RMA, with its participation and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is the new government reducing tax on rental properties to benefit landlords or to cut the cost of rents? That’s the big question this week, after Associate Finance Minister David Seymour announced on Sunday that the Government would be reversing the Labour Government’s removal ...
Saudi Arabia is rarely far from the international spotlight. The war in Gaza has brought new scrutiny to Saudi plans to normalise relations with Israel, while the fifth anniversary of the controversial killing of Jamal Khashoggi was marked shortly before the war began on October 7. And as the home ...
Questions need to be asked on both sides of the worldPeter Williams writes – The NRL Judiciary hands down an eight week suspension to Sydney Roosters forward Spencer Leniu , an Auckland-born Samoan, after he calls Ezra Mam, Sydney-orn but of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ...
Ele Ludemann writes – Contrary to what many headlines and news stories are saying, residential landlords are not getting a tax break. The government is simply restoring to them the tax deductibility of interest they had until the previous government removed it. There is no logical reason ...
I can't remember when it was goodMoments of happiness in bloomMaybe I just misunderstoodAll of the love we left behindWatching our flashbacks intertwineMemories I will never findIn spite of whatever you becomeForget that reckless thing turned onI think our lives have just begunI think our lives have just begunDoes anyone ...
Michael Bassett writes – At first reading, a front-page story in the New Zealand Herald on 13 March was bizarre. A group of severely intellectually limited teenagers, with little understanding of the law, have been pleading to the Justice Select Committee not to pass a bill dealing with ram ...
How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast TV, the original ”rock solid” $2.1 billion cost he was ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Jonathon Porritt calling bullshit in his own blog post on mainstream climate science as ‘The New Denialism’.Local scoop:The Wellington City Council’s list of proposed changes to the IHP recommendations to be debated later today was leaked this ...
TL;DR:Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said yesterday tenants should be grateful for the reinstatement of interest deductibility because landlords would pass on their lower tax costs in the form of lower rents. That would be true if landlords were regulated monopolies such as Transpower or Auckland Airport1, but they’re not, ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Tom Toro Tom Toro is a cartoonist and author. He has published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010. His cartoons appear in Playboy, the Paris Review, the New York Times, American Bystander, and elsewhere. Related: What 10 EV lovers ...
The business section of the NZ Herald is full of opinion. Among the more opinionated of all is the ex-Minister of Transport, ex-Minister of Railways, ex MP for Auckland Central (1975-93, Labour), Wellington Central (1996-99, ACT, then list-2005), ex-leader of the ACT Party, uncle to actor Antonia, the veritable granddaddy ...
Hi,Just quickly — I’m blown away by the stories you’ve shared with me over the last week since I put out the ‘Gary’ podcast, where I told you about the time my friend’s flatmate killed the neighbour.And you keep telling me stories — in the comments section, and in my ...
The first season of Rings of Power was not awful. It was thoroughly underwhelming, yes, and left a lingering sense of disappointment, but it was more expensive mediocrity than catastrophe. I wrote at length about the series as it came out (see the Review section of the blog, and go ...
Buzz from the Beehive Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden told Auckland Business Chamber members they were the first audience to hear her priorities as a minister in a government committed to cutting red tape and regulations. She brandished her liberalising credentials, saying Flexible labour markets are the ...
Chris Trotter writes – TO UNDERSTAND WHY NEWSHUB FAILED, it is necessary to understand how TVNZ changed. Up until 1989, the state broadcaster had been funded by a broadcasting licence fee, collected from every citizen in possession of a television set, supplemented by a relatively modest (compared ...
Bob Edlin writes – The Māori Party has been busy issuing a mix of warnings and threats as its expresses its opposition to interest deductibility for landlords and the plans of seabed miners. It remains to be seen whether they follow the example of indigenous litigants in Australia, ...
Every year, in the Budget, Parliament forks out money to government agencies to do certain things. And every year, as part of the annual review cycle, those agencies are meant to report on whether they have done the things Parliament gave them that money for. Agencies which consistently fail to ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – Recent events in American universities point to an underlying crisis of coherent thinking, an issue that increasingly affects the progressive left across the Western world. This of course is nothing new as anyone who can either remember or has read of the late ...
The thing about life’s little victories is that they can be followed by a defeat.Reader Darryl told me on Monday night:Test again Dave. My “head cold” last week became COVID within 24 hours, and is still with me. I hear the new variants take a bit longer to show up ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Angus Deaton on rethinking his economics IMFLocal scoop: The people behind Tamarind, the firm that left a $500m cleanup bill for taxpayers at Taranaki’s Tui oil well, are back operating in Taranaki under a different company name. Jonathan ...
Normally when we talk about accessing public transport it’s about improving how easy it is to get to, such as how easy is it to cross roads in a station/stop’s walking catchment, is it possible to cycle to safely, do bus connections work, or even if are there new routes/connections ...
Politicians are not renowned for telling the truth. Some tell us things that are verifiably not true. They offer statements that omit critical pieces of information. Gloss over risks, preferring to offer the best case scenario.Some not truths are quite small, others amusing in their transparency. There are those repeated ...
The pressure is mounting on the Government as it finalises its Budget Policy Statement, but yet more predicted revenue ‘goes missing’. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The Climate Commission has delivered another funding blow to the National-ACT-NZ First coalition Government’s tax-cutting plans, potentially carving $1.4 billion off the ‘climate ...
The Government now faces the prospect of having to watch another tax raise the price of petrol when, only six days ago, it abolished the Auckland Regional Fuel tax. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon argued that the regional fuel tax imposed costs on lower-income people with less fuel-efficient vehicles and that ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
The New Zealand public voted for a change in direction at the 2023 general election and that is exactly what this coalition government has been delivering in its first 100 days. There was an immediate focus on the economy, easing the cost of living, cracking down on law and order ...
The Government has left the health system as an afterthought, announcing half-baked targets at the last minute of their 100-day plan, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
Kiwis are still waiting for their promised cost of living support after 100 days of a National Government that is taking us backwards, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
100 days of National taking NZ backwardsThe National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
The Government must commit to funding free and healthy school lunches, as thousands of people sign the petition to keep them, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti says. ...
If the Government was serious about moving families into public housing, they would build more houses so there is actually somewhere for people to go. ...
The free and healthy school lunches programme feeds our kids, helps them to learn, and saves families money – but it is at risk under this Government, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
The Government’s proposed changes to Firearms Prohibition Orders (FPO) add almost nothing new and are merely an attempt to distract from its plans to loosen gun laws, police spokesperson Ginny Andersen and justice spokesperson Dr Duncan Webb said. ...
The great Victorian era English politician Lord Macauley stood in the British House of Parliament and said, "The gallery in which the reporters sit has become a fourth estate of the realm".He understood and outlined even way back then, the significant role and influence media have in a democracy. ...
The government’s attack on Māori health this week is committing tangata-whenua to a premature death, says Te Pāti Māori. “The government have begun their onslaught on Māori health with the abolishment of the Māori Health Authority and smokefree laws in the same day” said health spokesperson and co-leader, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. ...
Today marks a tragic milestone for New Zealanders as the Coalition Government side with big tobacco to repeal the Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products (Smoked Tobacco) Amendment Act 2022, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins and Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said. ...
New Zealand’s social workers are qualified, experienced, and more representative of the communities they serve, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “I want to acknowledge and applaud New Zealand’s social workers for the hard work they do, providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable. “To coincide with World ...
Cabinet has agreed to a reduced road user charge (RUC) rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. Owners of PHEVs will be eligible for a reduced rate of $38 per 1,000km once all light electric vehicles (EVs) move into the RUC system from 1 April. ...
Minister of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McClay, says that today’s opening of Riverland Foods manufacturing plant in Christchurch is a great example of how trade access to overseas markets creates jobs in New Zealand. Speaking at the official opening of this state-of-the-art pet food factory the Minister noted that exports ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Wellington today. “It was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017. Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, ...
Kāinga Ora – Homes & Communities has been instructed to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework and take stronger measures against persistent antisocial behaviour by tenants, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Earlier today Finance Minister Nicola Willis and I sent an interim Letter of Expectations to the Board of Kāinga Ora. ...
Tēna koutou katoa. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the Honourable Simon Bridges for hosting this address today. I acknowledge the business leaders in this room, the leaders and governors, the employers, the entrepreneurs, the investors, and the wealth creators. The coalition Government shares your ...
Minister Winston Peters completed the final leg of his visit to South and South East Asia in Singapore today, where he focused on enhancing one of New Zealand’s indispensable strategic partnerships. “Singapore is our most important defence partner in South East Asia, our fourth-largest trading partner and a ...
Minister of Internal Affairs and Workplace Relations and Safety, Hon. Brooke van Velden, will travel to the Republic of Korea to represent New Zealand at the Third Summit for Democracy on 18 March. The summit, hosted by the Republic of Korea, was first convened by the United States in 2021, ...
ICNZ Speech 7 March 2024, Auckland Acknowledgements and opening Mōrena, ngā mihi nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Good morning, it’s a privilege to be here to open the ICNZ annual conference, thank you to Mark for the Mihi Whakatau My thanks to Tim Grafton for inviting me ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Lead Coordination Minister Judith Collins have expressed their deepest sympathy on the five-year anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks. “March 15, 2019, was a day when families, communities and the country came together both in sorrow and solidarity,” Mr Luxon says. “Today we pay our respects to the 51 shuhada ...
Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024 Acknowledgements and opening Morena, Nga Mihi Nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Thanks Nate for your Mihi Whakatau Good morning. It’s a pleasure to formally open your conference this morning. What a lovely day in Wellington, What a great ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters held discussions in Jakarta today about the future of relations between New Zealand and South East Asia’s most populous country. “We are in Jakarta so early in our new government’s term to reflect the huge importance we place on our relationship with Indonesia and South ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters has announced that the Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi, will visit New Zealand next week. “We look forward to re-engaging with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussing the full breadth of the bilateral relationship, which is one of New Zealand’s ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has today opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre, which will bring together KiwiRail, Auckland Transport, and Auckland One Rail to improve service reliability for Aucklanders. “The recent train disruptions in Auckland have highlighted how important it is KiwiRail and Auckland’s rail agencies work together to ...
The Government is proud to support the 10th edition of Crankworx Rotorua as the Crankworx World Tour returns to Rotorua from 16-24 March 2024, says Minister for Economic Development Melissa Lee. “Over the past 10 years as Crankworx Rotorua has grown, so too have the economic and social benefits that ...
Legislation implementing coalition Government tax commitments and addressing long-standing tax anomalies will be progressed in Parliament next week, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The legislation is contained in an Amendment Paper to the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill issued today. “The Amendment Paper represents ...
Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard has today announced that the Government has agreed to suspend the requirement for councils to comply with the Significant Natural Areas (SNA) provisions of the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity for three years, while it replaces the Resource Management Act (RMA).“As it stands, SNAs ...
Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has classified the drought conditions in the Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts as a medium-scale adverse event, acknowledging the challenging conditions facing farmers and growers in the district. “Parts of Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts are in the grip of an intense dry spell. I know ...
The Government is helping farmers eradicate the significant impact of facial eczema (FE) in pastoral animals, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “A $20 million partnership jointly funded by Beef + Lamb NZ, the Government, and the primary sector will save farmers an estimated NZD$332 million per year, and aims to ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has completed a successful visit to India, saying it was an important step in taking the relationship between the two countries to the next level. “We have laid a strong foundation for the Coalition Government’s priority of enhancing New Zealand-India relations to generate significant future benefit for both countries,” says Mr Peters, ...
Cabinet has agreed to provide $7 million to ensure the 2024 ski season can go ahead on the Whakapapa ski field in the central North Island but has told the operator Ruapehu Alpine Lifts it is the last financial support it will receive from taxpayers. Cabinet also agreed to provide ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Lower fruit and vegetable prices are welcome news for New Zealanders who have been doing it tough at the supermarket, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Stats NZ reported today the price of fruit and vegetables has dropped 9.3 percent in the 12 months to February 2024. “Lower fruit and vege ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the sixty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
The coalition Government is supporting farmers to enhance land management practices by investing $3.3 million in locally led catchment groups, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “Farmers and growers deliver significant prosperity for New Zealand and it’s vital their ongoing efforts to improve land management practices and water quality are supported,” ...
Good evening everyone and thank you for that lovely introduction. Thank you also to the Honourable Simon Bridges for the invitation to address your members. Since being sworn in, this coalition Government has hit the ground running with our 100-day plan, delivering the changes that New Zealanders expect of us. ...
Recommendations from the Climate Change Commission for New Zealand on the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) auction and unit limit settings for the next five years have been tabled in Parliament, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “The Commission provides advice on the ETS annually. This is the third time the ...
The coalition Government is beginning its fight to lower building costs and reduce red tape by exempting minor building work from paying the building levy, says Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk. “Currently, any building project worth $20,444 including GST or more is subject to the building levy which is ...
Proposed changes to tax legislation to prevent the over-taxation of low-earning trusts are welcome, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The changes have been recommended by Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee following consideration of submissions on the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill. “One of the ...
Assalaamu alaikum. السَّلَام عليكم In light of the holy month of Ramadan, I want to extend my warmest wishes to our Muslim community in New Zealand. Ramadan is a time for spiritual reflection, renewed devotion, perseverance, generosity, and forgiveness. It’s a time to strengthen our bonds and appreciate the diversity ...
Former Transport Minister and CEO of the Auckland Business Chamber Hon Simon Bridges has been appointed as the new Board Chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) for a three-year term, Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced today. “Simon brings extensive experience and knowledge in transport policy and governance to the role. He will ...
Good morning all, it is a pleasure to be here as Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology. It is fantastic to see how connected and collaborative the life science and biotechnology industry is here in New Zealand. I would like to thank BioTechNZ and NZTech for the invitation to address ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says he is looking forward to the day when three key water projects in Northland are up and running, unlocking the full potential of land in the region. Mr Jones attended a community event at the site of the Otawere reservoir near Kerikeri on Friday. ...
Associate Finance Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government has agreed to restore deductibility for mortgage interest on residential investment properties. “Help is on the way for landlords and renters alike. The Government’s restoration of interest deductibility will ease pressure on rents and simplify the tax code,” says ...
Sport and Recreation Minister Chris Bishop will travel to Switzerland today to attend an Executive Committee meeting and Symposium of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Mr Bishop will then travel on to London where he will attend a series of meetings in his capacity as Infrastructure Minister. “New Zealanders believe ...
This year’s Pacific Language Weeks celebrate regional unity and the contribution of Pacific communities to New Zealand culture, says Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti. Dr Reti announced dates for the 2024 Pacific Language Weeks during a visit to the Pasifika festival in Auckland today and says there’s so ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist Food rationing is underway in remote areas in Papua New Guinea’s Highlands following torrential rain and flash flooding. More than 20 people have been reported dead in Chimbu Province. In nearby Enga Province, the centre of last month’s massacre, a 15-year-old boy has been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Hughes, Lecturer, Research School of Management, Australian National University After months of debate and intrigue, the AFL’s 19th and newest team, the Tasmania Devils, finally launched its jumper, logo and colours in Devonport this week. The Devils will wear green, ...
Brannavan Gnanalingam reviews the debut novel by Saraid de Silva.One of the most baffling things for children who move to a new country is what their parents’ (or grandparents’) lives were like prior to moving – for kids in particular, they’re too busy trying to fit in in their ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Gaunson, Associate Professor in Cinema Studies, RMIT University Narelle Portanier/Binge “If you don’t know who your mob are, you don’t know who you are,” Detective Andrea “Andie” Whitford (played by Leah Purcell) is told early into the new crime ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elise Klein, Associate professor, Australian National University It’s commonly accepted that women do the vast majority of caregiving in Australian society. But less appreciated is that Indigenous women do larger amounts of unpaid care than any other group. Working with the Aboriginal ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne Joe Biden and Donald Trump have both secured their parties’ nominations for the November 5 United States general election by winning a ...
Comment: There has been a striking contrast in trans-Tasman interest about Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi’s visit to New Zealand and Australia. While the Australian press has been full of articles about the visit – including his curious decision to meet with former prime minister and China booster Paul Keating ...
After years of pressuring banks and other institutions to stop investing in fossil fuels, climate campaigners are making some progress. So how does divestment work?For years, climate activists have been pushing banks and other big institutions to divest from fossil fuels. New research from climate advocacy group 350 Aotearoa ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. The three young Polynesians are part of a K-pop fan community in Tāmaki Makaurau. It’s one of many that have sprung up worldwide as K-pop has gone ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. This one-off documentary presents three intimate portraits of young Polynesians who are pulled into a Korean cultural phenomenon. K-POLYS is directed by Litia Tuiburelevu, Produced by Hex ...
There’s ample evidence demonstrating free school lunch programmes provide wide benefits across schools, households and communities according to public health researchers. ACT Minister David Seymour wants to reduce the spending on Aotearoa New Zealand’s ...
By Wata Shaw in Suva Fiji is facing an exodus of Fijians as many are leaving for overseas seeking employment and education and others are migrating, says Opposition MP Viliame Naupoto. Speaking in Parliament, he said: “His Excellency’s speech (Ratu Wiliame Katonivere) comes after a little over one year of ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming comments from Christopher Luxon this morning recommitting to ‘no new taxes’ as part of Budget 2024. “Mr Luxon’s refusal at the Post-Cabinet press conference yesterday to repeat the ‘no new taxes’ promise ...
SAFE is urgently calling on the Environment Committee to reject the Government’s Fast-Track Approvals Bill, and is urging New Zealanders to rally behind the call. The proposed Bill, currently under consideration with the Environment select committee, ...
Teammates who spend all their time picking fights with spectators are only helpful for the other team, writes Madeleine Chapman. Anyone who has ever played a team sport competitively, particularly as a child and particularly, for some reason, basketball, will know that there’s a lot of politics involved. While there ...
The long-running Wellington music festival is too focused on the Jim Beam-ness and not enough on the Homegrown-ness.There is something about Homegrown that’s difficult to place. A barely perceptible-ness. Like feeling a ghost is watching you from the corner of the room but when you look, there’s nothing there. ...
The latest Ipsos New Zealand Issues Monitor reveals that fewer New Zealanders believe crime / law and order is one of the top issues facing our country. In 2018, Ipsos New Zealand started tracking the key issues facing New Zealand. In this wave ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Griffiths, Deputy Program Director, Budgets and Government, Grattan Institute Australia’s political donations rules are woefully inadequate, but donations reform is finally on the agenda. The federal government has signalled its interest in reform and will soon begin briefing MPs on its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Patrick Taylor, Chief Environmental Scientist, EPA Victoria; Honorary Professor, School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University Naiyana Somchitkaeo/Shutterstock A recent study published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine has linked microplastics with risk to human health. The study ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Albert Van Dijk, Professor, Water and Landscape Dynamics, Fenner School of Environment & Society, Australian National University Global climate records were shattered in 2023, from air and sea temperatures to sea-level rise and sea-ice extent. Scores of countries recorded their hottest year ...
As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a teacher explains why he and his partner are in frugal mode – and how they’re making it work. Gender: Male Age: 35Ethnicity: Pākehā Role: I am an intermediate school teacher and my partner is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Bendall, Senior Lecturer, Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, Australian Catholic University Binge Mary & George, the new British television drama series, depicts the real-life story of Mary Villiers and her son George, and their social climbing at the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jason Nassios, Associate Professor, Centre of Policy Studies, Victoria University This article is part of The Conversation’s series examining the housing crisis. Read the other articles in the series here. Australian state and federal governments spend money in many ways to ...
The finance minister is denying that there’s a $5.6b shortfall in paying for the government’s campaign promises, including tax cuts. At his post-cabinet press conference yesterday, the PM refused to rule out new taxes to pay for the cuts, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s ...
Kāinga Ora tenants abused by their neighbours are doubting the government's crackdown on disruptive tenants will make a difference on their behaviour. ...
Kāinga Ora is New Zealand’s biggest residential landlord, housing more than 180,000 vulnerable people in more than 67,000 properties. Yesterday the government announced a crackdown on its tenants who fall behind on rent. One longtime Kāinga Ora tenant shares her experience.For 18 years I lived in a 1960s standalone ...
Why does this myth persist, and what’s the real reason our skin is suffering?It’s one of the biggest international grievances New Zealanders hold, up there with the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior and 1981’s underarm incident. We’re quick to tell international travellers that the world’s pollution led to the ...
Opinion: We are fast approaching a fundamental change in prisons. As the number of people on custodial remand looks set to overtake the number of sentenced prisoners, the main function of prisons in New Zealand may become incarcerating un-sentenced people who may not be guilty of offending. We have already ...
A huge seven months lies in store for the White Ferns, beginning this week with the visit of England and culminating with the T20 World Cup in Bangladesh in September and October. Starting on Tuesday in Dunedin, the world ranked No. 2 visitors will play five T20s and three ODIs, ...
Opinion: In a move that has shocked road safety advocates across the country, the new Minister of Transport, Simeon Brown, is poised to abandon the previous government’s speed limit reduction policy, particularly around schools. Even more alarmingly, he wants school speed limits to be variable rather than full-time, arguing ...
Auckland Council is opposing a fast-track development backed by Sir John Kirwan and Spark NZ, because it doesn’t meet stringent new climate adaptation requirements The post Surf-data centre faces new 3.8C climate warming rules appeared first on Newsroom. ...
When the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act was introduced in 2009 it was firmly targeted at gangs and drugs. The legislation means police no longer need a conviction to seize assets that criminals can’t prove were paid for legitimately, as long as their alleged offences are punishable by more than a ...
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Bob’s relationship with certain members of Lincoln’s academic staff continued to deteriorate in the 1990s. Others supported him publicly, though articles such as Roland Clark’s 1993 piece in Growing Today cannot have pleased the university management. Clark wrote that Bob was selling onions from the Biological Husbandry Unit to a ...
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Fake beggars busted making bank in Melbourne
– people are flown in to beg for profit
– clothing/props are shared between people
– suspect a Chinese group are behind it
https://www.news.com.au/news/national/chinese-beggars-revealed-to-be-professional-after-police-crackdown/news-story/5c743d10e9d1cf1c7745ecfa8dc31b8e
There's a few ways to authenticate homelessness but it's probably better to authenticate a fake, as the homeless receive enough bashing from the fearful lately. In the US in some parts it is illegal to feed them. Cops are forced to bully their fellow man out of town. The authorities and those backing them merely cowards.
Cowards? – COWARDS!
"Lot of homelessness. It's confronting. Like that. Snap. Your life's fucked. A divorce, an illness, a mental illness, an accident… Some stupid decision or a cruel twist of fate. It could be us – they are us. You can't hate on the homeless, man. That's not hate, it's fear."
So we find cons have infiltrated this sector of society to bleed funds. That's no surprise the thieving self-entitled infiltrate every strata of society. Theirs is not a stratified world, it is a free for all. These people are no worse than the Hisco's of the world and do a lot less financial damage. Also reprehensible bastards: like the Hisco's of the world.
Fake homeless? Look for:
If you live on the streets: you know the street people, and they know you.
I'm not sure if our beat cops have regular routes? Community Constables are/were in some areas and their ties with community strengthen over time. They'd quickly spot new transients on their beat, and in a relatively short space of time the veracity of their claims. In addition to this a familiar authority figure allows lines of communication to be set up over time with folks whose mistrust of strangers is very high.
Be wary of the tired right-wing schtick bashing all homeless as con-artists and ne'er-do-wells. They are our housing crisis in bold relief. They are a mental health system that is failing us. They are a welfare system run by accountants. They are the fallout of domestic and political violence.
"We ate fungi, watercress, seafood, rustled sheep, pilfered fruit, garden raids, dumpster diving and homeless handouts. We never thought about how we were homeless, we were surviving. Mental health, abuse, alcoholism, addiction, abandonment. It was all there, and it was all intertwined. We absolved ourselves with three Fuck You's and a bottle of grog."
I am deeply suspicious of this articles motives. You only have to view their front page to see where their loyalties lie. No effort to distinguish who is who. Just 'raising awareness' of a con that's been going on since Christ.
I have always considered the role of Community Constables to be of immense importance for the reasons you have mentioned above (and many other reasons), but these roles seem to have diminished to almost the point of extinction in most cities at least. We still have a couple in Wellington (I think) but you don't hear about them nearly as much as in the past.
There is plenty of homeless bashing etc – "get them of our streets", "they are an embarrassment", "they harass tourists" etc – but here in Wellington we also still have a number of good support services still available such as the City Mission, the men's Night Shelter, Soup Kitchen etc. Wellington City Council also now employs a group of Local Hosts whose job is to:
support Police on the street, particularly at night
https://wellington.govt.nz/services/community-and-culture/community-safety/safety-in-wellington/local-hosts
As part of their daily routine, these Local Hosts also walk the beat talking to and checking on the homeless, and reporting back to the Outreach Team, who provide support to people who are homeless or who are on the fringes of homelessness.
I am not suggesting that these services are nearly enough, a lot more could and should be done but this is at least something by the local council aimed at making connections and offering some level of support.
I wonder who the people were? It says Chinese, but people from Asian countries could all be Chinese who had settled there, so from many countries. Or they could be Asians being labelled Chinese. I wonder if they begged in China, what treatment they would receive? They could be very poor people given the chance of getting money for their family back home, and not have much say in what they do in Australia.
It appears that there is plenty of money in Oz, so why can't they accept more of the refugees that turn up penniless and without hope where they came from? And why chuck NZs out because some of them have been petty crims? They wouldn't be any different percentages than for the working class Australians.
Imagine a pathogen so cunning that it created not only sick people, but also people who looked sick but actually weren't. And also imagine that the imitation was so good that doctors couldn't tell the difference consistently, and ended up withholding treatment from the actually sick people.
We'd be shaking our heads at the highly evolved cruelty of this pathogen. But we'd know what to call it – "capitalism"
In India kids are trained to be beggars and with sometimes young bodies are being deliberately damaged to look the part, and in they go in coordinated teams to beg especially from tourists. Around the corner waits the "boss" perhaps in the comfort of his car.
Or so I read a few years ago. True?
There is some truth to this. Opportunists (aka capitalists) – guess what – they seize on opportunities. A buck to be made often outweighs any moral imperative – if it was ever there to begin with.
Some countries are still full of land mines – and thus amputees. Should we abandon all in case they've tricked us out of a few bucks – while bankers steal billions?
There are also reports of parents who maim the child. This is a world we can barely grasp let alone understand. I've known more hardship than you've had hot dinners, and I am stunned by the lengths some are driven to.
What level of hardship brings such practice about?
What level of psychopathy is prevalent in (the society and) the capitalists who use such hardship to capitalise?
We can't even imagine that world, but we sure like to judge it.
We definitely need to move the con artists along. From government, civil service, business, banking, media…
We need better opportunities and less opportunists. A systemic overhaul from top to bottom.
Btw @ WtB…..no truer comment ever spoken! (especially the "……..we sure like to judge it".
AND the next bit as well: "We definitely need to move the con artists along. From government, civil service, business, banking, media…"
We actually have/or have had till recently, people in our civil service who couldn't tell the difference between a Muslim or a Sikh, or indeed a Hindu or a Christian with a sweat band! They're all bloody "rag" or "onion heads" to them. (I've heard it first hand! Nor can they tell the difference between arranged marriages and forced marriages; or scam relationships and the genuine; or exploiters and the exploited – LET ALONE why and how it's all become normalised.
As a Koiwoi, I feel the shame at our allowing it all to happen, and worse still why we're so bloody slow to fix it – even when a few simple things could be done tomorrow
Depends entirely where you are. Large cities with extreme poverty. In many rural areas and smaller cities and downs, if parents or anyone else got caught doing this, they'd be driven out of town – possibly worse
The pressure to survive causes some people to kill elephants. Others use their kids to beg and maybe live another day. Hard to imagination in our country but there must be some families who feel totally helpless.
Unbelievable that the government was considering bailing out Westland Milk Products if the Yili sale failed…
ffs, corporate welfare and bailouts for big capital, just like the global financial crisis where those that caused the problem got bailed out…. what a fikkin' yoke
rinse and repeat
save big capital, shit on the little people
is about time big capital had some of its ownership and rights peeled away if it expects little people to save it all the time
The problem with your analysis is that Westland Milk Products is not a "Capitalist" organisation as the word is normally interpreted. It isn't "big capital" at all. If it was it could have survived.
It is a co-operative. As such it finds it very difficult to raise more capital if it is required. A normal firm can issue new shares to people who are willing to buy them. A co-operative like this one can't. They can only raise money by withholding it from the payout to their suppliers. That means all of them equally, rather than selling new shares to willing buyers.
Anyone who believes that co-op's are the way to go should keep that fact in mind. They can crash very easily.
"It isn't "big capital" at all. If it was it could have survived."
Probably not…poor decision making led to its demise, its structure wasnt the cause but it did limit its options.
Indeed if it was owned by 'big capital' it probably would have been sold years ago, or been wound up.
Was CBL Insurance,Dick Smith,Feltex,Mainzeal ,Wynyard…could go on all day Big Capital?
Theycouldn't survive,but luckily all the principal players did O.K!All done in the best…possible taste!
So can shareholder companies.
But they seem to be able to access bank loan, "capital" even to pay "unearned" dividends, or for share buy backs.
The banks attitude to co-ops, and indeed many small businesses, when they can lend at far less risk, on speculative land, appears to be part of the problem.
An argument to revive a State "development bank".
Looking at North Dakota, where local banks have been legislated to serve the community, not the other way around.
This is one of the dumbest posts on here for a while
IYO
Thor, the scandinavian storm god, rarely features in local politics and culture here – despite escalating climate change. News that Stuff got rapped over the knuckles for connecting him to the Chch mosque massacre is a bit of a surprise.
"The Media Council has ruled that Stuff's linking of a Thor-worshipping group with the Christchurch mosque shootings was unfair". https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/113961735/thorworshipping-article-unfair–media-council
Perhaps time's a-coming when burnt offerings to Thor will be used by coastal folk to ward off tornadoes coming in from the Tasman. Magical thinking has been resisting attempts by the upstart, rationality, to dislodge its hegemony for several centuries now. Ramp up those barbies, you westies!
Perhaxis not franko.
DF
Enjoyable read. When we can't achieve anything because of sloth from fellow human beings, and the might and power of the Wealth-Cult not willing to do anything that can't produce a profit, then it will be good to have gatherings where we can offer prayers and offerings, exchange ideas for coping, have some songs and fermented stuff, and give and get some hugs and handshakes. Not a bad idea.
So National are aiding criminals, their leave it to market ideology, let private charity keep the homeless fed. General welfare, homes to live in, and if we don't, Chinese gangs fait homelessness! begging is now a income! Thanks National. Suppose we put them in jail at considerable cost. GDP spikes up. Wow what a unimaginable cretinous ideology.
foreign media have reported information showing our sub-humane mass murderer seems to be more connected ………… than our 'lone wolf ' media would have you believe …
Who knows what is behind the lack of NZ reporting on this support network of his ….but he was friendly with the fascists our Govt and the west supports. .,…
https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/3002927/was-christchurch-shooter-part-white-supremacist-network
https://thegrayzone.com/2018/04/07/the-us-is-arming-and-assisting-neo-nazis-in-ukraine-while-congress-debates-prohibition/
Did our media tell us that the Avoz neo nazis were involved in the ukraine election … https://freedomhouse.org/blog/why-militia-monitoring-ukraine-s-presidential-election With Avoz neo nazi goons hanging around polling stations
Our media kept quiet about a few things to do with the Ukraine election
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3N85l3G7P3c
Also …. did our media inform us of this …. And I wonder if the Turkish people knew??
His passport should have raised red flags …. Afghanistan ,Pakistan, turkey, Israel …. Bulgarian intelligence said he was reported to have visited Serbia, Bosnia, Montenegro, and Croatia in December 2016.
France, Spain and Portugal.
north fucking Korea ???
A secret review of the failings of Jihadi Rebecca Kitteridge .and our blind five white eyes cyber spooks will be a white wash
Good work.
Cheers WTB ,,,, Although I agree with the media blackout of any fame towards our subhuman civilian murderer …. It could also play into the hands of any cover up.
He did have a media profile … on the non encrypted open web….. yet he seems to have been looked at with a blind eye and deaf ear…. But then again I suppose its not just us
https://www.propublica.org/article/white-hate-group-campaign-of-menace-rise-above-movement
Racist, Violent, Unpunished: A White Hate Group’s Campaign of Menace
They train to fight. They post their beatings online. And so far, they have little reason to fear the authorities.
The death threat against Winston also takes on a higher threat level ….. still low, but no longer at the level of being a mocking or laughing matter from National party supporters.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fpt3ImXIImY
and 2 mins 27 secs …. bombs on mosques … on a guitar
…. At a Azov youth camp https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wAgTGZ0FHY
It's particularly despicable bringing children in to this but that is the MO – influencing susceptible minds to their nonsense. A sound mind aint wearing a bar of it. Then there's all the
patrioticidiotic chest thumping and imaginary threat assessments to continue the lie they're all victims…Same shit the wannabe Nazi's here do, only the weaponry is not so prevalent.
Apparently I am a RACE TRAITOR! The marrees are gonna get us!
But really, they are delusional dim-witted shitheels. Any with half a clue are there for the money/ties, not the beer soaked chanting sessions. Unfortunately now very dangerous with social media lending them a distorted echo chamber to validate their moronic views, and the ability to network with purely evil players and finance.
Capitalism's new toy. Nationalism – and the sociopaths it attracts.
https://thesoufancenter.org/intelbrief-the-transnational-network-that-nobody-is-talking-about/
Personally I think the truth is somewhere in the middle between "lone wolf" and "a white supremacist foreign fighter" … Arse covering in a secret Nz investigation ….does not encourage me that we will get the full truth.
our media is shit …. and it seems you get better more informative reporting on NZ …. from overseas sources
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VuLILCu6vs
http://spitfirelist.com/for-the-record/ftr-1073-azov-on-our-mind-ukrainian-fascism-extends-its-tentacles-return-of-the-prodigal-black-sun/
Do you know what the Ukraine is? It's a sitting duck. A road apple. The Ukraine is weak. It's feeble. I think it's time to put the hurt on the Ukraine.
It would be to Russia advantage to demonise the Ukraine. So, I'd take all this with a grain of salt considering how much fake news spews out of Russia.
People on the internet are quite happy to tell lies about what symbols people are wearing or making.
I believe john Pilger … who is not russian
…. And Azov ….. self proclaimed fascists
http://johnpilger.com/articles/why-the-rise-of-fascism-is-again-the-issue
Which links were to Russian media?
Bloody russians …. they even control facebook …. 😉
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/facebook-new-zealand-neo-nazis-white-supremacists-a8837886.html
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/facebook-britain-first-page-far-right-advert-paul-golding-adverts-a8828386.html
…. and BM may have repeated that lie here at TS
Dumb kiwis keep making same stupid mistake, due to business-as-usual. "A radical division between exotic commercial forests and indigenous conservation forests in Aotearoa New Zealand has meant that the possibility of truly sustainable, 'close to nature' silviculture has been almost entirely ignored." https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/113901209/listen-to-what-the-history-of-our-trees-is-telling-us
"From the late 1980s, when privatisation took hold and many state forests were sold to private enterprise, even those exotic forests that had been planted to stabilise highly erodible landscapes were sold, and harvested. In regions like the East Coast, with some of the most fragile soils in the world, this led to devastating erosion, choking rivers and coastlines with sediment and slash, flooding, and ruining farmland."
"In 1988, after Cyclone Bola ravaged the region, more exotic forests were planted in an effort to stabilise the land, and these are now also being harvested, with predictably disastrous effects, as we saw in Tolaga Bay last year. That kind of planting is still going on."
Adapt to survive thinking cannot enter heads if business & govt planners continue to ignore the changing world around them. Relevant ministers need to signal a change of course to all involved.
"In New Zealand, almost all silvicultural research, expertise and commercial forestry is devoted to exotic, short-rotation monocultures, despite the devastating environmental impacts seen in regions such as the East Coast, Coromandel, Northland and Marlborough. Back in the 1950s, on the other hand, countries like Germany realised that 'close to nature' silviculture, based on indigenous mixed forests, with no clear felling, little spraying and an emphasis on natural regeneration, was a smart alternative to exotic plantation forests. Today almost three quarters of German forests are in mixed stands, with an emphasis on biodiversity and soil enrichment."
some more 'hardworking Kiwis at it again'..where there's muck,you'll always find a Sir!
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12005410
Brits seize Iranian oil tanker on behalf of US BS.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/world/114029327/british-commandos-seize-iranian-oil-tanker
Apparently there's a name for that-piracy.
Perhaps Britain needs to get a supply of guillotines from the French and systematically start chopping off the heads of the crazies who try to run the country …into the ground. Reading Ellis Peters and the Cadfael series of the 12th century they were eternally fighting between themselves – two contenders Stephen and cousin Maud – or with the Norman French I think. Eight centuries later we still haven't got things sussed. But there is a difference, we haven't got eight centuries left to bugger around, fail, try again,,,,in endless iteration. WW2 was the extreme example of this, we didn't learn from it except use modern technology to make better trebuchets.
The bloody elites are only happy when other people's blood is being spilled. There have been recent comments about the USA elite getting their waivers from serving in their Forces. I suppose it is the same in the UK though the Royal men do take part in soldiering, flying etc.
But learning how to live and let live sustainably, that hasn't happened and the well educated UK parliament haven't learned how to do that so they think they will start a new wave of trials and failures as if they have centuries of stable climate, resources and demographics ahead of them.
Just bloody disgraceful that Britain would renew tensions and not seek viable agreements. They haven't the strength of mind and body to show the finger to the USA, who are so off-compass that they will fall over the Rim soon. (TP Discworld people will have a better grasp of political maneouvering than the well-paid pollies. Their payment system gives the wrong signals – they should be paid on good results that lead to a happy working nation.)
I must confess to some mild curiosity about why convergence moonbats are going gaga over Tulsi, but Marianne Williamson is getting ignored.
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/07/05/politics/marianne-williamson-vogue-photoshoot-trnd/index.html
You'd be a Marianne Williamson type. She's a flake, insubstantial as hell.
Morrissey You seem to be getting into the hard stuff when it comes to criticism. You might have to limit your spleen Breen, for the sake of maintaining a healthy mind, too much negativity dumbs down others or makes everyone unhappy. Try singing Bobby McFerrin at least once a day, he is being both satirical and realistic:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fCqG8QJIAU
Fair comment, my friend, but I would remind you that this fellow "Andre" attacked—not criticized, simply attacked—one of the few decent politicians in the western world, and called her supporters "convergence moonbats". I merely challenged his complacent and dishonest post, and reminded him that he is not going to get away with such inflammatory nonsense on this forum.
[I cannot see the “attack” @ 9 on “one of the few decent politicians in the western world”, which is simply your opinion. You did not “merely challenge[d]” but posted some of your own “inflammatory nonsense” @ 9.1. Please do not start flame wars on this site – Incognito]
I haven't the faintest idea what a "convergence moonbat" is supposed to be, and now I is one
It’s a facile concept, desperately posited by the suffering survivors of the doomed Clinton campaign of 2016. Another version of it is the “horseshoe theory.”
It’s a [] concept, [] posited by the [] survivors of the [] Clinton campaign of 2016.
FIFY – still iffy about the word survivors.
See how many pleas to emotion I removed from your one sentence. I'm not saying don't emote, I'm saying you go OTT.
Thanks, Bleeple. Yes, it does work just as well without all the adjectives. Have you considered a career in publishing?
Been there done that editing a community paper. Then went on the 'last great drinking jag' culminating in hospitalisation and loss of job.
I'm a shocker myself at times with overly emotive language. It can just flow aye. Folks here have been instrumental in helping me rein it in, which ultimately helps me be a better communicator.
The message is lost when ears are burning.
Sometimes I find it nigh on impossible to turn it off. Misinformation especially deliberate gets the blood boiling.
Agree, Bleeple. I know I write better when I discipline myself, and cut back on the abuse.
Keep up your writing, by the way—I've enjoyed your little vignettes of Wellington bowery life—shades of George Gissing, Geoff Cochrane, and Charles Bukowski!
Morrissey Have you – why not normalise your daily output?
I did wonder about convergence moonbats – what are those, and why is he so qualified to throw soubriquets around so freely? (I had to look up google for that one – love these odd words. Sounds like small bricks in French and fits the niche well!) Bobby McFerrin is great. And i use him to lighten me quite often, have to follow my own advice!
He throws around the soubriquets all right, Mr Shark. That's all he's got, however. Le pauvre garçon est un peu poney à un tour.
All Bats are moon-bats.
Similar to Demi Lardner's line. Night Owl, which, by the way, is just an owl.
P.S. It's not true – all bats being nocturnal. There are day bats. I've met a few silly old day bats myself!
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2018/11/daytime-bats-help-explain-nocturnal-evolution/
See my Moderation note @ 10:22 AM.
Seen and noted. Thanks for the warning, sir!
Tulsi is a right wing democrat being pushed by a well organised social media campaign. Beware.
She's an intelligent and gracious Democrat who has, like anyone with a brain, expressed grave skepticism about the decision of the Democratic "leadership" to pursue this mad fantasy of Russian meddling. That is, by itself, enough for her to incur the hatred and enmity of Nancy Pelosi and her cronies.
She has also pointed out there is no evidence to support the insistence of the Democratic “leadership” that Syrian government forces, and not the U.S.-backed Al Nusra and Al Qaeda terrorists, used chemical weapons.
Now, how is she "right wing", exactly?
morrissey….she has fought long and hard against lgbt rights and was a staunch supporter of the bill that condemned the boycott israel movement
Whodat dredre?
Tulsi Gabbard is a pro-military, pro-droning, pro-hindu-nationalist, pro-authoritarian, ok with torture, homophobic (historically at least) Representative from Hawaii who holds social positions now fairly common within the Democrats such as $15 minimum wage. She's twigged to the idea that mouthing a few anti-interventionist words is sufficient to attract loud and blinkered support from a few vocal enthusiasts (including the likes of David Duke, Richard Spencer, Steve Bannon etc) that happily blind themselves to her unsavory positions on other topics. She got a massive poll boost from her debate performance, lifting her from 0.6% support all the way to 0.7%.
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/where-kamala-harriss-new-voters-came-from/
Marianne Williamson is indeed "a flake, insubstantial as hell" as the mozzie aptly described her. She's apparently some sort of anti-vax New Age self-help guru that has worked for Oprah, and is running as a Democratic candidate for president. Although it's in no way apparent why, as she doesn't seem to have any ideas or even opinions around most topics a president has to deal with. Currently sitting around 0.2% in polling.
https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2020-primaries/democratic/national/
I would have thought the residual “crystal energy” set would still have been quite a lot larger than 0.2% of Dems, but hey, maybe they’re a lot more pragmatic and holistic in choosing who to support.
Hey Andre, I know it's too early but are you forming any impression of a likely winner emerging from the rather nondescript pack of contenders?
Warren seems to have said a few intelligent things in the past, yet was apparently unimpressive in recent performance, and Sanders likewise failed to impress in the debate. If you feel picking a winner at the stage is too much like going out on a limb, I agree, just wondering if the Dems are competing to underwhelm the third of the electorate who are non-aligned…
Looks to me like Bernie and Biden are running on their set-in-stone ideas and reputations locked in over their decades of service, and that's starting to show to an electorate that's moved past what they have to offer. They're both dropping in the polls, and I don't think either has the mental flexibility anymore to turn it around.
At the moment it looks to me like it's between Warren and Harris. Warren offers preparation and plans and enough experience in DC to prove she can get things done, but is sadly a bit dry and boring, professorial even, to be really broadly appealing and inspiring.
Whereas Harris is more dynamic, better able to react accurately on the fly, enough government experience to be credible, but on the downside there are things in her backstory that a determined troll campaign could blow out of proportion to smear her.
Buttigieg is the dark horse running the outside lane, but it's hard to see him having enough on his own merits to come through unless all four ahead of him crash and burn.
Interesting that you don't rate Beto. A while back I saw videos of him performing quite well, enough to work a crowd successfully, but I gather he didn't impress in the debate. Wouldn't rule out a tactical move toward caution explaining that. Allow others to get front-runner status, come from behind in a late run.
If I was a wealthy bank-roller of the Democrats, I'd give them all intensive media training. Problem with the primadonna syndrome is you get contenders who don't believe they need it. However that just polishes any gloss. What the Democrats really need is better ideas – particular those likely to trigger the zietgiest.
My impression of Beto is his backstory and the things he likes to talk about are a good fit for representing Texas interests in the Senate. But he doesn't seem to have much to show he's up to the challenge of grabbing leadership of the country and steering it in a new direction.
Beto has the ability to fail to answer questions in English and Spanish – surely a politician's politician.
I reckon he's not a bad pick. But he shot himself in the debate.
I'm a Mayor Pete fan, but don't value his chances much.
A demonstration of why the RBNZ is correct to call for increased reserves
https://www.interest.co.nz/opinion/100549/kiwibank-chief-economist-jarrod-kerr-why-fiscal-austerity-our-greatest-mistake
$33.5m to Tauranga Airbnbs in 11 months.
The equivalent earned from residential letting at $30K per annual long term tenancy is 1000 houses not available for local workers to rent.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/property/news/article.cfm?c_id=8&objectid=12241396
There is no debate. There is inaction borne of both greed and fear from authorities though. You see this a lot with new disruptive technologies – decision makers wracked with indecision and too scared or unwilling to govern.
See more about Airbnb’s effects here
You've pinned this nasty boring insect Airbub which with uber is a new disruptive technology that will steal our very lives if we don't control them.
White anting a society and its forms of work and mutuality that is what they do. And the government has been blackmailed by the uncaring c-off to let them get on with whatever they want to do, squeeze us till it hurts, and then sell our blood. Sound OTTT, the examples are there and will increase.
`But is it? The people staying in the $600 a week AirBnbs need to stay somewhere, the motels etc aren't exactly empty. If it is all long term rentals accessed through AirBnb it must be for people who need long term accommodation with out paying rapacious bloody "letting agents " their huge cuts. Maybe the hysteria is being fueled by these self same ethnicly bypassed letting agents fucked off with missing out on their cut. Even the language and media manipulation has all the hallmarks of a professional PR bullshit campaign.
Take into account also how much of the take is individual rooms for a day or so in private houses, which would not be available for long term tenancies anyway. We use AirBnB and meet some interesting locals and get a good take on local conditions. For older superannuitants or young couples trying to buy their own home or even a bit of spare income to help out with the kids AirBnb is a small Godsend for people to help them out .
In Muttonbird's 2nd link is a snapshot of the Airbnb scene in New York. 57% of listings are for the entire home. 53% of listings let for 60 days or more a year.
Interesting Adrian Think on Air bnb for me.
In the coastal Far North an Airbnb/Bookabach etc property returns about a third of the income when compared to letting the property to a long-term tenant. The overheads take a big hike if going the Airbnb route. Admin, power, internet, water, gas, garden maint, providing linen, laundry, cleaning, sundries (shampoo, toilet paper etc). Little recourse for damage or theft and doubled management costs.
The main advantage is that owners can continue to enjoy the holiday house. Few people want to know about a stay in the Far North for about 7 months of the year. Airbnb returns seem stronger when centrally located in our major centres.
I don't blame Airbnb operators for trying to get the best return they can on their assets. Is this not something we all do? I'm after the best price I can get when I'm flogging off unused gear on Trademe.
Exactly David. attacks on AirBnB and Uber simply for being are misdirected, AirBnb is simply a letting agent with actually a bit more security for damage etc as nobody will let in someone with a bad record and Uber is just a another taxi service, the like of which have existed for decades like Mini-cabs in London.
The difference being that Airbnb has developed some sort of social conscience and appears to be profitable for most participants.
Uber, on the other hand seems to be about destroying everything in an attempt to create a global monopoly, without which they will never be profitable. Before too long that model will run out of investor and supplier confidence, and social license.
Uber – just another taxi service. It is more like levering up the paving stones on a footpath that have been there for ages providing a service and the new replacement doesn't match the input of ages into the past, or those whose job has been to maintain the service. Companies just can't be welcomed to take over a system that serves the community and recycles the money put into it around that community.
Airbnb to their credit are facing up to the effects their platform has on communities. In Queenstown they are fully supportive of the council's efforts to introduce a 5% levy on commercial accomodation providers We had a postal referendum on this and the the result was overwhelmingly in support, 42% voted, 81% in favour Some of the traditional providers were't quite as supportive.
Airbnb's advent coincided with the usual accomodation pinch point this cycle and fingers were vigorously pointed in Airbnb's direction. That's quietened down now with Council enforcing existing planning rules and doing some fine tuning of those rules. Airbnb have been active participants in the process to look after their and their hosts interests, but are pretty open with Council about what is going on. It's not in Airbnb's interests for it to turn into a shitfight.
In previous times cribs would have been let out during periods when the owners didn't need them. This resulted in a situation where a large proportion of the rental market was out in the street (literally) every school holidays. My partner grew up here and talks of moving house many times in the rental shuffle through the 70's and 80's. Queenstown's rental market has traditionally been either cribs (holiday houses) or rundown properties slated for re-development, neither terribly secure or long term. There's never been any real development of long term rentals. This is changing with a developers entering the rental market now, Kiwibuild, and possible extensions thereof are helping.
Another aspect of our rental market is the 1-24 month lifestyle resident, or long term tourist. These are generally more up-market and may not take employment, and are just as disruptive of rental market. This group takes a proportion of the Airbnb properties.
Tulsi is a right wing democrat being pushed by a well organised social media campaign. Beware.
This may have appeared here before but it is too important to miss IMO:
Open letter: Oranga Tamariki social workers in 'terrible, almost untenable position'
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/113731528/open-letter-oranga-tamariki-social-workers-in-terrible-almost-untenable-position
I totally agree that this is a Must Read, Incognito. Thanks for bringing it to attention as I had not picked it up earlier. Don't often visit Stuff, Herald etc these days.
Any thoughts of upgrading it to a post – just 'as is', as it speaks very strongly without need for summary or explanation?
I agree this could do with more exposure. It's a rock-and-a-hard-place for people doing a bloody hard job. Oversight is all good and well. 'Media oversight', on the other hand…
'Media oversight', on the other hand…
Even the writer of the article conceded all was not proper in the 'uplift' filmed by Reid. I'd not be too quick to condemn a journalist trying to get some much needed attention to what is going on.
"…a court-ordered custody order and the managed removal of a child. I'm aware that this is not always done perfectly, and I'm glad the publicised uplift in Hastings is being reviewed. The doco appears to show serious procedural issues in that instance, but it's also heavily edited and completely one-sided. Let's see what the review says and keep an open mind. "
What struck me was the level of professional disrespect shown by the CYFS(by any other name) to the two midwives. And the lawyer. These were professionals with direct involvement with the family (unlike the social workers in the uplift squad) and their opinions were completely ignored. this was unforgivable behaviour from the social workers and I hope they all are sent for re training.
The other aspect of this is the number of people who came forward and said….'Yes, sometimes kids are not safe with their birth family and no, we don't want anymore Kahui twins or Lillybings….but we've seen how too many social workers behave like lazy, ignorant bullies or incompetent twits.' Or words to that effect.
The good social workers will be fine. The ones who are capable of seeing the bigger picture and the ones who don't just uplift children and dump them with foster parents….who actually think about the long term.
After nearly a decade of fostering for CYFs, including being directly involved with a case remarkably similar to the Reid article, I feel qualified to say I see much accuracy in what was depicted. Shame on them.
+ 1 yep – the video showed massive disrespect for mana and that is not acceptable really. This will improve things I believe and it needs to because it is BROKEN now imo.
And if or no other reason…it is a textbook scenario known to all in the child protection field….remove a baby from a young mum and give her little hope of ever having her baby returned and she'll just go off and get hapu again. You can practically bank on it.
On the other hand, put a plan in place where mum and baby live in suitable surroundings with support and supervision (as was the plan for this young mum) and better still engage the wider whanau…like'… clean up your collective shit for the sake of the next generation.' (like seemed to be happening in the Reid article) and the odds of a much more positive outcome increase exponentially.
But. Good old CYFS. Buggers it up again. And they talk about inter-generational dysfunction in these families….seems like one generation of social workers are passing their bad practices down to the next.
Now what's that saying about keeping on doing the same thing over and over again and getting the same result?
Madness.
I don't believe Māori will tolerate 3 Māori babies being taken off their mothers or whānau every week anymore.
Do you and/or Rosemary want to do a Guest Post on this? Both of you can provide a unique angle, which does not get adequate representation in MSM and thereby help to change things for the better for Māori and the children involved.
For me – thanks – I am working night shifts and I look after the kids during the day so I'm very busy and don't think I could do the topic justice. And I feel distinctly uncomfortable either putting myself, or Māori vulnerabilities, under the spotlight on this forum – apart from my comments which I put up when I can.
I fully respect that, thanks.
Good judgement.
What I was trying to imply…
There's a big difference between a bit of investigative journalism to raise awareness – and a media pile on.
I read that the other day and have concerns that there seems to be a concerted effort by Media and pressure groups to ridicule Oranga Tamariki. Melanie Reid is on a damaging course. It seems to be simplistic to paint the uplifting as purposeless and vindictive. I hope that the Enquiries paint a balanced fair picture.
You will have read this ianmac…. https://orangatamariki.govt.nz/assets/Uploads/OIA-responses/children-in-care/20190628-Babies-and-children-entering-Oranga-Tamariki-care.pdf
…found here… https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/393208/oranga-tamariki-stats-increase-in-maori-children-taken
The misrepresentation starts early…
We are a new Ministry… No. You're not new. You have been rebranded.
…that bringing a child into our care can be traumatic for the child and their whānau. It is not a decision we take lightly, and there are, quite rightly, a strong set of checks and balances in the process to ensure that the right decision is made.
No. The checks and balances were not strong enough in the case that Reid focused on.
Wherever it is safe and possible to do so, the child’s parent(s), whānau and other people supporting the whānau will be involved in this decision. Well, er, no. Not in the case highlighted by Reid. CYFS (by any other name) were not the only professionals intimately involved with the young mother and her baby. The input of the midwives and the lawyer was treated with contempt by the social workers.
We are strengthening our confidence and competence to engage more effectively with Māori to improve outcomes for their tamariki and whānau, and fulfil our responsibility to better understand and reflect the people and communities we work with.
Doing better for Māori children is a key priority for Oranga Tamariki and there is new legislation requiring this coming into force from 1 July 2019. Section 7AA is a new section of the Oranga Tamariki Act 1989, which sets out our responsibilities to improve outcomes for tamariki Māori and their whānau, and requires Oranga Tamariki to report annually on the progress made. At this heart of this is working with whānau, hapū, iwi and kaupapa Māori providers to ensure we uphold the mana and whakapapa of tamariki Māori and the whānaungatanga responsibilities of whānau, hapū and iwi.
All this planning and all this insight yet you, CYFS (by any other name), failed to see the shit storm gathering force on the horizon.
Back in February 2017 The New Zealand College of Midwives submitted to the The Children, Young Persons, and Their Families (Oranga Tamariki) Legislation Bill and expressed the concern that..
The College has noted that early supportive intervention and preventative work has been seriously underfunded, and this has unfortunately led to the main intervention focus of child protection and the removal of children from their families/whānau. Alongside this is a focus on what is described as the ‘most vulnerable children.’ Extending the focus to support and protection of families/whānau and early help, requires a serious commitment on behalf of government to adequate funding and recognition that whānau who are struggling need support before their situations become acute. It signifies a failure of the system if it becomes concerned only when the family/whānau are at the point where social workers and services are unable to support them to ‘turn the curve.’
Bearing in mind that that submission was made under National Rule, how did you think, CYFS(by any other name), the midwives were going to react when the word got around that the uplift of newborns was continuing unabated under the so called Coalition Of Lovingkindness?
An intelligent and sensitive organisation would have made damn sure that those checks and balances were done doubly properly and all professionals close to the mother and baby were involved. Especially the midwives.
Funny that that baby removal which was painted as without warning, and yet Reid and a camera team were there ready and waiting.
We do not know what the causes were, just the effect. Privacy trumps public interest?
“Only the poor break laws – the rich evade them.” – T-Bone Slim
David Hisco, Nigel Murray, Jenny Shipley, Peter Whittall – are their enough rich people to save the world? If we 'feed the rich', will we grow more?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfBFL2ScXHw
https://prospect.org/article/what-taxing-rich-could-yield
The first thought of people reaching dizzy highs in employment must be, "Phew. I am very rich and very important so I will be exempt from prosecution no matter how much I cheat."
If you need a laugh
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6vvpQEaRdk&ab_channel=thejuicemedia
Simon Schama frothed and ranted against Jeremy Corbyn this morning, while Kim Hill maintained a silence closely resembling collusion and agreement.
RNZ National, Saturday 6 July 2019, 9:10 a.m.
The first part of this interview by Kim Hill goes as you would expect it to: Simon Schama is a smooth talker, and formidably well informed about art. He sports an impressive résumé, and he loves telling a good story. One of the stories he tells is of meeting Henry Kissinger, who when Schama arrived at his apartment was preoccupied with feeding his dog. "I tried my best not to like him," Schama remembers fondly to Kim Hill, but he was charmed by the great man. "Kissinger is not all bad."
That endorsement of a notorious war criminal is a brief hint of the moral vacuum at the heart of this glib and superficially clever chatterbox. At one point he criticizes President Trump—"stupid", he sniffs contemptuously—for moving the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem; this was wrong, Schama claims, because it "undermined even further the Palestinian Authority." Schama doesn't care a jot for the people of the Occupied Territories; a ferocious supporter of the Israeli state, he is merely concerned about the influence of the collaborationist P.A. After that, he slips smoothly into equating opposition to Israel with being anti-Jewish. The attack on Corbyn, equally dishonest, flows naturally from that.
Following are selected highlights, or lowlights, of the interview, starting with his arch and pretentious comments about art and climaxing with that mad blitzkrieg against the leader of the British Labour Party….
KIM HILL: Um, "the besetting sin of contemporary art," you have said, "is its callow, orgiastic narcissism."
SIMON SCHAMA: I don't know about "narcissism." I wouldn't defend that over-fearfully.
KIM HILL: You were involved in the Paris protests in 1968! You have described yourself in those days as "a barbarically feckless youth, stoned on self-righteousness."
……….
SIMON SCHAMA: I reviewed Henry Kissinger's book Diplomacy. I didn't think it was as good as it could have been. He rang me and invited me to his apartment to talk about it. I was thinking of the bomber of Cambodia, and I tried my best not to like him. But when he answered the door, he was feeding his dog. Kissinger is not all bad. ….
SIMON SCHAMA: The Russians and the North Koreans have got Trump to do exactly what they want…. By and large since 1945, America's commitment to its alliances has actually kept the peace. But Trump doesn't know anything about diplomacy. …dismantling the hard-won Iran Nuclear Deal…. moving the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem has undermined even further the Palestinian Authority. …
KIM HILL: Do you think there is anything to these allegations of antisemitism against Jeremy Corbyn?
SIMON SCHAMA: There are very, very good people in the Labour Party, like Tom Watson. Jeremy Corbyn has been extraordinarily culpable in not paying attention to the POISON coursing through the veins of the Labour Party. … Young MPs like Luciana Berger have been subjected to DEATH THREATS! … I don't think he wants to drive Jews into concentration camps, I'm sure he doesn't. … Criticism of Israel morphs into anti-Semitism. …. He's dug his heels in SO MUCH. I don't know quite what we call it, but it amounts to vicious, malignant intransigence. … The Protocols of Zion, that terrible forgery, has never had so many readers—-
KIM HILL: Seriously?
SIMON SCHAMA: Yeah. On the Web.
KIM HILL: Oh, the Web is making us STUPID, and believers in mad conspiracy theories….
… ad nauseam.
After this abortion, I sent Kim Hill the following email, which she read out on air just after the 10 o'clock news….
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/saturday/audio/2018702951/simon-schama-historian-and-author-s-love-affair-with-words
Schama is Jewish, you pillock – of course he doesn't think Corbyn's done enough to combat anti-semitism in the Labour Party. That doesn't make him a "smooth and sinister liar," it makes him "someone with an opinion Morrisey doesn't like."
I'm not quite sure what morsissey wants of the palestinian authority – suicide stone thrower squads and tunneling bombers praps.
That statement was as flagrantly dishonest and offensive as anything said by Simon Slick this morning. Shame on you, Raggy.
By the way, what’s a “suicide stone thrower”?
That was the empty flatulating gumflapping you seem to employ to boost your sense of moral selfworth morpissey. What do you expect the palestinian authority to do?
https://preview.redd.it/z1voyshh4yaz.jpg?width=960&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=91a180f49171faf82ac7b34827da66c898ed0c6c
Thanks for that photo, my friend. It also serves as an analogy for Kim Hill's effectiveness in that "interview" this morning. Except, of course, that she didn't even throw a pebble at that engine of lies and propaganda. A pity, because his statements were almost all false, and would have collapsed if he had been asked to back them up with any evidence.
Our media frustrates me ……. as it allows a level of ignorance that allows the Gosmans , wayne mapps or SIMON SCHAMAs …. to peddle bullshit.
Kim Hill could have actually informed New Zealanders …and held the dishonest zionists feet to the fire ….. with questions about ….
https://972mag.com/israel-arrests-six-palestinian-journalists-for-incitement/137093/
https://972mag.com/palestinian-minors-israel-prison/142144/
https://electronicintifada.net/content/israel-arming-neo-nazis-ukraine/24876
She could have even asked about Israels Apartheid Bomb ….. the nuclear weapons they co-developed with South Africa … and usa moles
https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/US-suspected-Israeli-South-African-nuclear-test-474765
https://www.theglobalist.com/how-israel-helped-a-then-rogue-state-go-nuclear/
http://www.warscapes.com/reportage/decay-third-kingdom-israeli-nuclear-development-and-future-negev-desert-part-two
Maybe kim hill thought she was mike hosking …. and Schama became John Key …. he got a soft stroking in a pony tail of an interview ,,,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2FrtPwqlNU
Jews in Britain don't "of course" think that at all. You've—no doubt deliberately—conflated right wing haters of Corbyn with Jewish opinion.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-47322921
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/jewish-labour-supporters-write-letter-support-corbyn
Are you really serious, it is and has always been the Tories who have had a long a sordid history of anti-semitism in the UK, when was the last time Kim Hill, The Guardian or for that matter any MSM outlet has done a piece on that?
Man if you don't understand that this is purely an ideological battle for the media who are cynically using the racist Israeli lobby for their own purpose, it has sweet fuck all if anything to do with anti-semitism, then all I can say is.. well sir, can I sell you a used car… one lady owner….
I don't recall endorsing Schama's opinion or sharing it, just pointing out that it's unsurprising he holds that opinion. I expect he's none too chuffed with the Tories when it comes to ethnic bigotry either.
You claimed that Schama was "of course" obliged to spout vicious nonsense because he's Jewish. If that's not endorsing him, then what were you doing?
You claimed that Schama was "of course" obliged to spout vicious nonsense because he's Jewish.
In some alternate Morrissey-fantasy universe, perhaps. In this real, actually-existing one, of course Schama isn't happy with Corbyn's response to complaints of anti-semitism, because British Jews are highly likely to be unhappy with it. "Vicious nonsense" is your personal opinion, which has a net value of $0.00 outside your own head.
You could also usefully ponder the question of how members of other ethnic groups might take your view that their thoughts on the bigotry they're subjected to is "vicious nonsense." Just for once, as an experiment, like.
" I expect he's none too chuffed with the Tories when it comes to ethnic bigotry either. "…Funny how we wouldn't know that. probably because he never mentioned it..no just the usual bullshit about Labour/Corbyn…that's the point.
Morrissey Kim may have stayed quiet because she wanted to let him explain himself with few prompts. She operates differently to you, can be quite subtle.
I agree with you, Mr Shark: she can indeed be quite subtle. I do enjoy her programme, and I think she is far superior to her godawful temp. Noelle McCarthy.
She does have some grave faults, though, such as a propensity to automatically and uncritically recycle official bilge, and a certain degree of indolence, which was disastrous for her when she came across someone really sharp sixteen years ago….
https://www.nzonscreen.com/title/face-to-face-with-kim-hill-john-pilger-2003
stoned on self-righteousness – how does that feel morsissey?
Dunno, Baggers. Ask Simon Schama. But don't expect an honest or enlightening answer, despite the fact he'll keep talking and talking and talking.
"the besetting sin of contemporary art," you have said, "is its callow, orgiastic narcissism."
I'd vote for a) the whore of commerce
or b) totally irrelevant to culture.
But that's just knee-jerk stuff. I'd hope to come up with a more profound dismissal given time…
A pity it wasn't you interviewing him, Dennis. You rightly have divined that there's not a lot of substance behind Schama's scholarly front. Kim Hill was putty in his hands, and treated him with the same deference she showed for other scoundrels from that part of the world, like Jonathan Freedland, Luke Harding, and A.A. Gill.
https://morrisseybreen.blogspot.com/2019/04/freedland-uncritically-interviewed-by.html
https://morrisseybreen.blogspot.com/2019/07/kim-hill-derided-peter-boykin-but-fawns.html
https://morrisseybreen.blogspot.com/2019/07/letter-to-kim-hill-after-she-failed-to.html
Thank you Morrissey, your letter on RNZ this morning is the best thing I have heard on Kim's reactionary show for quite a while..quite a highlight,, actually I was at first surprised that she read it out, as it pointed out quite nicely her obvious flaws, but then on reflection I came to the conclusion that she has gone so far down the rabbit hole of just parroting and giving unquestioned platform to that kind of bullshit, that wouldn't be able to see anything wrong with it..sad really, I used to admire her greatly.
Thanks, Adrian. Actually, to give Kim Hill her due, she almost always reads out my emails to her—and no, I don't write one to her regularly! She's only expressed consternation or anger towards me on one occasion….
https://morrisseybreen.blogspot.com/2018/01/who-is-more-violent-and-despicable.html
morrissey….thank you for that….i can never quite understand why kim hill doesnt take these people to task….corbyn has been anti racism all his political life….meanwhile the genuine racism against moslems from the Tories is swept under the carpet.
But attacking Corbyn as a racist is all they have….he will be PM before xmas
I wonder how the S.F.O is dealing with the investigation of the National party's violation of electoral law over the donation from Zhang Yikun ?
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2019/07/05/dave-macpherson-serious-fraud-office-sends-terrible-message-over-former-waikato-dhb-ceos-200k-ripoff/
Far too expensive to even investigate mosy. SFO lookin after the taxpayer as per.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/saturday/audio/2018702949/dr-merlyn-hay-vet-who-discovered-m-bovis
This scientist, and woman, for a NZ Order of Merit and also a Damehood.
She has done more for NZ than Roger the dodger.
Dr Merlyn Hay, a name with special powers?
This will be really interesting when the audio goes up on Radionz. He has something very interesting to say about managing predators and where cats useful place is in the chain; there is a chain to consider, not just knee jerk 'cats are bad'.
11:05 John Flux – Lifelong ecologist
John Flux in Iran in 1977 with a road kill hare Photo: Supplied
Internationally respected New Zealand ecologist John Flux has spent his life studying hares, starlings, and even his own cats.
His study of starlings in Belmont Regional Park, near Wellington, has become one of the longest continuous ecological studies in the world, running from 1970 to today.
At its peak he and his wife Meg would examine 500 starling nest boxes, located in munitions bunkers built by the US military in 1942.
John still climbs a ladder each year to check on 50 nesting boxes to see what effect climate change is having on the timing of egg laying.
He's recently authored a paper in the European Journal of Ecology about what humans might learn from the fate of feral populations of domesticated rabbits.
humans might learn
Always possible, I suppose, though past experience doesn't give us much hope…
The Auckland ratepayers open ended cheque for the Americas cup and the cost to the environment in dumping sludge dredged for the village outside Great Barrier Island.
Oh if you don’t want to pay then maybe no event !
Sounds familiar.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/377659/aucklander-ratepayers-to-fork-out-another-14-point-5-million-for-america-s-
7.1 (preliminary est) hits ridgecrest 6.4 was a foreshock.
https://twitter.com/LastQuake/status/1147351492111847424
oh.
https://twitter.com/CavasShips/status/1147357989428506624
I'm not impressed by Trump's blame game today: "Trump blamed a faulty teleprompter for his claim during remarks he made at a July 4th event that the Continental Army "took over the airports" during the Revolutionary War."
He claimed it broke down. So that technical malfunction caused him to describe the American troops occupying airports in 1775, he expects viewers to believe. I suspect few viewers will detect any causal logic connecting the two things…
https://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-trump-revolutionary-war-airport-memes-20190705-story.html
“Our Army manned the air, it rammed the ramparts, it took over the airports” [NBC]
I imagine the Iranian regime's top guys are trembling in fear right now. The Supreme Leader is likely to have a message descend from his prophet in paradise: cease provoking the infidel, looks like his brain is dysfunctional, he could do anything!
People are noticing.
https://twitter.com/gregolear/status/1146377905783607296
https://twitter.com/TomJChicago/status/1146435213070934016
edit: Having been the primary carer for a dementia patient, this from a couple of days ago clinches it for me.
https://twitter.com/ShotgunZen/status/1135453852617052161
Gee, eh? Dementia onset sometimes sporadic?? The guy can seem lucid enough most of the time then it kicks in for a wee while? Pence must be rubbing his hands in glee…
Sufferers know early on that something is up and when they're sure, they never stop trying to cover up their decline. As things get worse they get more and more determined to pull the wool and refine their tactics to deceive outsiders. This can last for years but eventually, the mask drops and their decline becomes obvious to everyone, not just those closest to them.
The last leg is when they forget they’ve forgotten, believe me, it's a blessing, and it's all down hill from there.
Well, I guess we just wait till a diagnosis becomes official. It's a national security issue as soon as Pence consults with the Secretary of Defense. He'll probably involve Pompeo, since they are both fundamentalists. Watch for a catastrophic Wall St plunge real soon…
@22.2.1
Frying pan to fire stuff.
Shades of Salazar
Time, Friday, Oct. 31, 1969
Therapeutic lying is a thing.
Reminds me of a story about Ronald Reagan in his declining years.
His Secret Service detail used to toss bags of leaves on the ground at one end of the swimming pool. Reagan would come along and laboriously sweep them up and while he was doing so, his detail would be at the other end of the pool tossing more bags of leaves on the ground. It was a way of keeping the old boy occupied while at the same time giving him some physical exercise.
Caption contest please.
Lotsa people having fun.
https://twitter.com/GetLostWithVivi/status/1147235346054336512
https://twitter.com/Chudlife75/status/1147231379844997121
Love that one! We're bound to get a real flood of them tomorrow. The media ought to frame it as a competition of satire, nominate their favourite contender for top satirist.
For those unfamiliar with the China Lake Air Weapons Range or it geography? This geothermal/ volcanic area is to the NW/ NNW of China Lake AWR and the most of the valley has numerous fault lines.
https://volcanoes.usgs.gov/volcanoes/coso_volcanic_field/
Totally out of my depth, but is this the one mentioned at 21.1 above?
Yup. Lots of cool geothermal/volcanic stuff going on all the way up the east side of the Sierra Nevadas.
Then there's Death Valley just to the northeast of China Lake.
Fun fact, the highest (Mt Whitney) and lowest points (Badwater, Death Valley) in the 48 states are both in Inyo County, just to the north of China Lake. Both are due to all the faulting and ground movement continually happening there.
NAWS China Lake is not mission capable,non essential personnel evacuating to safe haven.
NON ESSENTIAL active duty, drilling reservists, civilian employees, and dependents are authorized to evacuate to a radius of 100 miles from safe haven Naval Base Ventura County (NVBC).
https://www.facebook.com/NAWSChinaLake/photos/a.1268422873184518/2819705194722937/?type=3&theater
https://youtu.be/qQfetkoGrpU
Kia ora Newshub.
It's cool that our Coalition Government is funding family care people looking after there disabled family and tamariki 25 a hour sounds good.
A big Earthquake in Los Angeles 7.1 is quite high let's hope that not to much damage is caused by the EarthQuake.
Eco Maori favorite charity The Salvation Army is offering free doctors visit in Waitakare Auckland yes a lot of people can not afford to go to the doctor's.
Yes power is wasted and power bill grow during winter luck our government has given a winter power payments .Eco Maori is going to get Free power from a Micro hydro turbines run from a stream . Ka Pai Tomorrow for showing te tangata how to save money by saving power. Good on Newshub for this positive story
Ka kite ano
Kia ora Te Ao Maori News.
I don't think that whakapapa should be sold anyone's whakapapa.
It's good that the Kohanga reo has settled with Tony Waho.
Awesome that Kaitahi superfood company has won te whanganui business awards.
Ka kite ano
Kia ora The Am Show.
That is awesome our government paying carer's looking after there Whanau who need constant care there are a lot of people struggling to care for there Whanau.
Energy mate hopefully will save people struggling with big power bills a lot of stress.
Cyber security is a very good topic everyone's data can be harvested by the state or others
Ka kite ano
https://youtu.be/u9Dg-g7t2l4
Eco Maori agrees with the United nations we see destruction caused by human caused climate change all the TIME these days
One climate crisis disaster happening every week, UN warns
Developing countries must prepare now for profound impact, disaster representative says
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Climate crisis disasters are happening at the rate of one a week, though most draw little international attention and work is urgently needed to prepare developing countries for the profound impacts, the UN has warned.
Catastrophes such as cyclones Idai and Kenneth in Mozambique and the drought afflicting India make headlines around the world. But large numbers of “lower impact events” that are causing death, displacement and suffering are occurring much faster than predicted, said Mami Mizutori, the UN secretary-general’s special representative on disaster risk reduction. “This is not about the future, ka kite ano link below
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jul/07/one-climate-crisis-disaster-happening-every-week-un-warns
Kia aro The Am Show.
Jeremy Corbin finally making a commitment to abandoned Brexit Eco Maori backs Britian staying in the European Union.
It's good that I'll people could access medicine weed
The smoke tax has good side effects and bad ones imagine if they were banned ????????.
Some people think they have a higher IQ than they actually have it good for there confidence but that phenomen is easy to read.
A fuel tax on gas guzzling cars is needed good on our government for implementing it they are planning to use the tax to make owning electric cars cheaper subsidy from carbon to clean energy user.
Ka kite ano