Open mike 06/12/2010

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, December 6th, 2010 - 44 comments
Categories: open mike - Tags:

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44 comments on “Open mike 06/12/2010 ”

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  1. Bored 1
    6 December 2010 at 6:46 am

    Theres going to be some fun with Wikileaks..the climate change issue comes out in its full glory of avoidance of reality by the USA and Saudi Arabia amongst others The Saudis believe greenhouse-gas regulation is one of the greatest threats to their economic future, right up there with a nuclear Iran and internal political instability. Crazy stuff, you live in hot sand that wont grow a single sesame seed with a runaway population and you want more heat? Madness.

    http://www.energybulletin.net/stories/2010-12-05/content-dec-5

  2. Pascal's bookie 2
    6 December 2010 at 8:17 am

    Why the Onion sucks and the daily Mash doesn’t.

    Onion

    Mash [This is not a link? — r0b]

  3. higherstandard 3
    6 December 2010 at 8:35 am

    fuck off winston

    [lprent: moved to open mike as being irrelevant to the post. ]

    • ianmac 4.1
      6 December 2010 at 10:23 am

      After watching the Onion and the daily mash I wondered if Pharyngula was real or not. Anyway for we mortals it does highlight the sliding scales and the need for “eternal vigilance”. Maybe that is the importance of Wikileaks?

    • Draco T Bastard 4.2
      6 December 2010 at 11:05 am

      It’s a little disturbing, too. It’s like they’re describing us.

      Especially the bit about inequality, the power to make decisions, respect etc.

  5. Muzza 5
    6 December 2010 at 8:44 am

    I’m not sure if this topic has come up in open mike before but Annette Sykes recently presented the Bruce Jesson lecture. She gives a useful history and critique of the Iwi Leadership Group and Maori authorities in general.

    http://img.scoop.co.nz/media/pdfs/1011/Annette_Sykes_Lecture_2010.pdf

    • Bored 5.1
      6 December 2010 at 9:30 am

      Good stuff Muzza, just read the whole 36 pages and find it hard to fault. As a perspective on how the Maori elite appointed themselves and became part of the neo lib revolution: this is brilliant. More importantly the last few pages on where to next are amazingly insightful.

      • ianmac 5.1.1
        6 December 2010 at 10:18 am

        Yes Muzza. Great stuff. That last bit confirms the glimpses of Annette as seen on TV briefly, where she seemed to be challenging the elite who seem to have taken over the voice of Maori. Does the Maori Party represent Maori and does the Iwi Leadership Group who meet secretly with Ministers signal an unpleasant shift?

        • KJT 5.1.1.1
          6 December 2010 at 10:36 am

          It is confirmation from a Maori leader of what many Hapu have been saying for a while.

          I’ve blogged on the Maori moneyocracy before. As has Marty Mars.

          You could call it the enclosure of the commons again. The Moneyocracy have a common cause with NACT because their aim is the same. To enable individual enrichment from exploiting what should belong to all Maori people.

          This is also diverting all of us from the real enemy of our society. Corporate greed.

          • Colonial Viper 5.1.1.1.1
            6 December 2010 at 11:05 am

            IMO the real enemy of society is personal greed for capital and control, and an ignorance of the beauty of common wealth.

            The corporate embodiment is merely the machine of choice.

          • Muzza 5.1.1.1.2
            6 December 2010 at 11:39 am

            The speech certainly was a challenge to iwi leaders to clarify their kaupapa. I am particularly glad she highlighted the neo liberal agenda of the Iwi Leadership Group so I posted on the topic here;

            http://mauistreet.blogspot.com/2010/12/annette-sykes-maori-elite-and-neo.html

            Marty Mars provides an insightful rebuttal in the comments section as well.

          • marty mars 5.1.1.1.3
            6 December 2010 at 11:48 am

            For the sake of a good discussion I have added a comment to Muzza’s great post from a contrary-slightly-devils-advocate view. This is part way through

            “… So what is the story? They are victims like all maori because they are maori. They aren’t some powerful elite – they are ex truck drivers and school teachers who have been elevated to positions within their iwi. They didn’t ask the government to set up the corporate iwi structures – they were given them and we have seen the scrutiny they get and the ridicule when mistakes are made. By defining maori via class or some other western construct, we devalue our own heritage and kaupapa… ”

            I do think the corporate elite iwi line slips too easily off the tongue – there is more to it than easy slogans and we need to discuss it. And by victims I mean of colonisation.

            As I state on my post on the subject

            “My point around the ranting is that the real enemies for all of us are capitalist, commodification, individualist, selfish and greedy ideologies – they are not maori constructs although some maori follow those false gods with vigour.”

            • KJT 5.1.1.1.3.1
              6 December 2010 at 1:40 pm

              “My point around the ranting is that the real enemies for all of us are capitalist, commodification, individualist, selfish and greedy ideologies – they are not maori constructs although some maori follow those false gods with vigour.”

              Exactly. and far too many Pakeha also.

              Both Maori and Pakeha have traditions of more inclusive and fair societies within NZ.

  6. Pascal's bookie 6
    6 December 2010 at 11:03 am

    “The most effectual means of preventing the perversion of power into tyranny are to illuminate, as far as practicable, the minds of the people at large, and more especially to give them knowledge of those facts which history exhibits, that possessed thereby of the experience of other ages and countries, they may be enabled to know ambition under all its shapes, and prompt to exert their natural powers to defeat its purposes.” –Thomas Jefferson: Diffusion of Knowledge Bill, 1779. FE 2:221, Papers 2:526

  7. Treetop 7
    6 December 2010 at 11:28 am

    Commissions of Inquiry Act 1908
    The age of this legislation would not serve the purpose that is required of a Royal Commission or a Commission of inquiry today. Are the public of NZ any wiser as to: Who killed the Crewes? What the full police evidence is in regard to the Colin Moyle inquiry? What happened to Collin’s note book at the lock up at Mc Murdo base? Who caused the systemic failure at Cave Creek?

    There needs to be new legislation because there is so much doubt found in inquiries in modern times and some essential witnesses are excluded from giving evidence. An example of this is Gilpin and Leighton regarding Collin’s notebook being tampered with.

  8. Tigger 8
    6 December 2010 at 11:30 am

    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10692406

    Okay, so they’ve budgeted poorly, and their response is – cuts in spending.

    How about reversing tax cuts Blinglish because they sure as hell aren’t creating the wealth you thought they would. I got a huge whack in the tax cuts and I’m flinging it against our mortgage. Oh, and upping my Labour Party contributions…

  9. prism 9
    6 December 2010 at 1:02 pm

    Listening to the pol comms on radionz this morning saying that TPP trade talks are being held secretly in Auckland Casino. I thought we had agreement with government that stopped the secrecy in past years. Silly me. Just thinking about Wikileaks. What we need is something similar – tralah – Kiwileaks. We need some good leaks to a reliable recipient. (I am talking generally and not suggesting any particular entity for receipt of the info.)

  10. oscar 10
    6 December 2010 at 1:14 pm

    Australian banks are heading into a maelstrom of defaulting mortgages. Rudd’s 17k package for first home buyers allowed many into the market that probably shouldn’t have gone in, in the first place.
    Now that interest rates are rising steeply over there, anecdotal evidence suggests many are finding it hard to keep up mortage payments with an increase in defaults become more apparent by the day.
    What does this mean for NZ? Will we eventually have to pay for the Aussies inability to manage their debt servicing?
    Keep an eye on this area, as it’s likely to have financial implications for us.

    • Colonial Viper 10.1
      6 December 2010 at 2:07 pm

      Defaults will only get serious if property prices start declining.

      At the moment too many people feel confident because although in debt they are not underwater.

      Do you follow Steve Keen’s commentary?

  12. Tigger 12
    6 December 2010 at 3:52 pm

    Front page of NBR – Pansy Wong raised $200K for National but how was it accounted for? (not free on their site sorry and I ain’t typing the damn thing out)

    Raised $200K at a 2007 fundraiser but how was it accounted for? The only National Party donation over $50K that year was from the Waitemata Trust.

    So did the money go to the Trust? Or another trust (and was then given to National). Or did it go somewhere else?

    And who was at the fundraiser? Why Mr Key, who auctioned a tie he wore for…$50K.

    • Herodotus 12.2
      6 December 2010 at 7:26 pm

      Then there must be someone connected to this site that can use the sytem (police, IRD,returning officer?) available to those who know how to use the system and make a complaint. There maybe issues of declearation, undisclosed income of the such like.
      Also to Marty is there some changes that have occurred within the site? As on the right there are not the drill downs of current posts or topics in cronological order. I am a creature of habit and struggle with change !!! 😉

      • lprent 12.2.1
        6 December 2010 at 9:21 pm

        There was a site update a few days ago… Broke some of my hacks. I’m working on it

        • Herodotus 12.2.1.1
          6 December 2010 at 9:48 pm

          Thanks for that L. It i sfast approaching Christmas so don’t stress out too much. Perhaps I will get my Christmas want … That Phil and David will be able to define rich and middle class just in case something approaching a Teachers/Principal salary is considered rich again by Lab and I have to readjust my affairs, as do those with real wealth are able to do. Or even the preoccupation with tax on earnings can be widened to incorporate other means of income that is currently not taxed. 😉

  13. Vicky32 13
    6 December 2010 at 6:28 pm

    Duncan Garner (I can’t call him Fatty any more, he became frankly gaunt after his idol/business partner Rodney Hide lost *his* weight), will go to the most extreme lengths to try to undermine Labour. A bizarre little item just now after Phil Goff’s slip of the tongue in calling David Cunliffe ‘Caygill’, and a sneer at Cunliffe when he refused to get angry about it!
    Then the obligatory footage of Key speechifying, even though he didn’t comment on the ‘issue’…
    Deb

  14. ak 14
    6 December 2010 at 11:02 pm

    ‘No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable,’ said Adam Smith.

    http://www.interest.co.nz/opinion/opinion-income-inequality-new-zealand

    Worth a squiz

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