Insanity has been defined as the act of doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. First, it was the Moskva which came within range of Ukrainian missiles. Then it was two patrol boats close to shore taken out by a Ukrainian drone. And, again, the Russians sent the Makarov close to shore to a similar location within the range of Ukrainian neptune missiles again. I wonder if they will keep up the insanity and send another one close to shore.
Thus far, the verified toll against the Russian navy in the Black Sea has been:
1 x landing ship, 2 x patrol boats, 1 x Cruiser, 1x frigate.
Isn’t it ironic…🎶…that the ship was named after Ukrainian born naval innovator Admiral Stepan Makarov who pioneered research into preventing warships from sinking.
The review of images following the strike of the two Neptune anti-ship missiles from open-source naval analyst and retired Navy Capt. Chris Carlson told USNI News that the guided-missile cruiser did not have its fire control radars activated and could not see the threat from the two sea skimming weapons.
In the photo of Moskva after the strike, the radars “are in their normal stowed position,” Carlson told USNI News on Monday.
“If you look at the pictures of Moskva, when she’s just dancing around going from place to place, or she’s anchored as a showboat, those directors are all facing aft every time,” he said.
Is Sinn Fein getting the majority in the Northern Ireland Parliament the equivalent of the Maori Party getting the majority in the New Zealand Parliament?
OK. The gist of this post is simple. If we do not add water capturing earthworks to our catchments we can expect to be left high and dry. No groundwater flow = no hydro power.
I'm quite sick of repeating myself on this, but I will continue. Also, TOLD YOU SO.
The rain cycle used to be that that lost to sea was equivalent to that gained from rain. Now the rains arrive less frequently, and more severely. That lost to sea is continuously increasing. That captured on land is continuously decreasing. It is a compounding problem that arrived very fast since predictions made only a few years back.
How hard is it to admit we can't manage land properly, and correct it.
Get this in your thick government heads or we shall certainly face disaster the likes of which we are utterly unprepared for.
NZ is so complacent about water. We think it's always going to be there no matter what we do. This is some kind of stupid really, given we have the science and history to understand the dynamics you are referring to.
I live in a part of Auckland where they are prevalent. Nothing incenses me more than SUVs dominating the streets, the parking lots and generally making life miserable for other road users – not to mention the environmental damage.
Yes those awful SUVs are really the ultimate in self-centred stupidity. They make driving for others risky and unpleasant. They take up too much space and reduce visibility . Worse, it seems from the way drivers often use them, their main purpose is to bully others by tail-gating and dangerous exits from side streets etc.. However, I don't think letting down tyres is a good idea – likely to make them worse!
Worse, it seems from the way drivers often use them, their main purpose is to bully others by tail-gating and dangerous exits from side streets etc..
I agree. thoroughly informal and anecdotal surveys while travelling up and back to Otaki regularly indicate that they are:
most likely to tail-gate
most likely not to use the 'merge like a zip' concept
least likely to acknowledge the good manners of other drivers in letting them in
least likely to obey the sometimes very slow speed limits, thus kicking up stones for others, while the new Expressway is being built.
most likely to have tyres that are unsuitable for highway driving, I may be wrong but I had thought that using the incorrect tyres adds to wear and tear on highways and is less fuel efficient.
Then don't get me started on my partner's view that they are penis extensions for inadequate males…he puzzles over the irony of making a penis extension the 'family' car so the female partner has to collect children from city based sport, activities driving these vehicles.
I am a driver who has worked on the roads for over 26 years. My observations are that there are two main types of people on the road who don't care a monkeys about safety, courtesy, respect for road rules and just plain commonsense – those who drive black cars and those who drive large overpowered SUVs.
I quite agree. What amazed me, watching as I did the whole of the convoy arriving in Wellington for the protest, was how many of these utes/SUVs were in it driven mainly by the scowling demographic that I believe is behind the 'pretty communist' and other misogynistic thoughts/ideas.
Then I look at the tradies I use with their fit for purpose sign written trade vehicles that are much more practical than utes with low canopies. They have no place in towns and cities.
My farmer bro in law believes in many lowland farms they have no place either. On his lowland Southland farm he used a combo of tractor and ancient old station wagons for all his farming ops. Yet the people who rent most of the land as a dairy run-off to a man, and they mostly are all men, need SUVs, Utes to work on the same land. Most have legs just painted on as well.
Vanity not need accounts for much of the growth of Utes/SUVs.
In the Wellington they park right on the street corners and to see the road around them you need to get right out sometimes into the face of oncoming traffic.
Perhaps they could blitz just with the leaflets rather than letting down the tyres tho' I do/did snicker at the thought of the scowling ones being forced to deal with a flat tyre.
… watching as I did the whole of the convoy arriving in Wellington for the protest, was how many of these utes/SUVs were in it driven mainly by the scowling demographic…
So. Those activists were not concealing their faces? Not hiding behind anonymity or a silly pseudonym? For "security reasons" ?
Your anti-SUV saboteurs lack the courage of their convictions. Cowards.
I don't understand this at all so whatever point you are making is lost on me.
I was able to watch the arrival in slow motion as it were and did not expect to see masked people in their cars.
I made comment at the time about these surly Ute drivers in the convoy, usually by themselves, a few with an equally surly mate. Of course at that stage we thought they were all going to make a protest, make a point then away again. As it is now whatever point they were making, and it become very difficult to find a common cause, is remembered only by a riot, fires.
I have no idea whether those letting tyres down were masked, or had a pseudonym.
And still the PM is subjected to macho posturing and innuendo.
I have no idea whether those letting tyres down were masked, or had a pseudonym.
You didn't actually read the article Anne linked to? Then of course you would not have understood what I was referring to.
You decided to bring up the Freedom protest and you chose comment on the scowling ute/SUV drivers you observed as these anti-mandate activists rolled into Wellington. Clearly you could see their faces.
I know some of those people. All are fully committed to the mission, and none would use a false name or hide behind a stupid sounding organisation. Up front and in your face. At least you know who you are dealing with..or perhaps you prefer…
…the activists who let the SUV tyres down who were too cowardly to do so out in the open, and hid behind silly names.
Anonymous activism? Worthless.
(Oh, an as an aside…very seldom, as you will have noticed, did any of the 'river of filth' wear medical masks or face coverings of any kind. 'Filth' that they were.
Only on that last day did there suddenly appear men wearing various full face masks, designed more to conceal their identity rather than protect against viruses or police pepper spray. These were the guys filmed near the first tent that caught fire. No one recalled seeing these guys in the Freedom Village until that morning. Funny that.)
My comment built on the SUV part. I was amazed by the number of SUV/Utes etc in the convoy. The demographic riding around in Utes/SUVs here in Wellington is much of the same, scowling late 30s/40s males. So I was surprised to see them in the convoy until I realised that they were the anti PM brigade/anti women, rather than strictly anti vax, coming along – the ones that had the 'pretty little communist' type placards in the Groundswell convoys.
So good on them up in Auckland. They have got publicity and they may get a conversation going.
The depth of feeling about vehicles that are unsuitable for city/town traffic is not one that country dwellers will be really aware of. They make getting around much more difficult as sight lines are impeded for other traffic and pedestrians.
So I'm not interested in masks except to studiously wear one, respect others who do, avoid situations or people who do not. I am not interested in who did what in the protest.
In fact the protest and the whole anti vax is the stuff of irrelevance and yawn making to me, now. If I think about the protest at all it is to wonder how NZ got caught up in manufactured protests from overseas and I sometimes indulge in idle speculation about the finances, and 'dark' people behind it. We needed a public health response to a pandemic. We got one. The majority went along with it, some did not.
We have to deal with climate change, it is with us forever. Drawing attention to it is what the SUV protestors and the ones at the Southland coal mine are doing, on my behalf, as a 'ginger' group.
I realised that they were the anti PM brigade/anti women, rather than strictly anti vax, coming along – the ones that had the 'pretty little communist' type placards in the Groundswell convoys. Evidence of this?
…to wonder how NZ got caught up in manufactured protests from overseas err…you do realize that the Tyre Extinguishers are a proud overseas organisation?
How is it that its acceptable for Kiwis to join in protest actions that originate overseas, such as Black Lives Matter, Me Too, Extinction Rebellion, Greenpeace etc…but not in protest action that happens to also have activists in other countries… that is centered around draconian government laws that effectively force people to take an experimental pharmaceutical product with known performance issues and very real adverse effects for far too many people?
For a disease that failed to reach the projected case fatality rates forecast by the modellers?
Closing our borders helped reduce our case load and fatality rates…the so called 'vaccines'…not so much. Double and triple jabbed folk are getting infected at a higher rate than the unvaccinated. An awful lot are still getting sick and still ending up in hospital…at rates not much lower that us filthy unvaxxed, and people jabbed and unjabbed, are still dying with, but not necessarily of Covid.
A Health Ministry, truly committed to Medical Science, would have initiated a study comparing outcomes between eligible unvaccinated and eligible vaccinated. Like the Pfizer Trial… but this time doing an actual Long Term study.
Good that the whole thing is an irrelevance to you now…for some of us the unjustified discrimination still impacts our lives, every day.
Yeah, I know, they're committing crimes but good on them.
Protestors taking such action clearly don't have much between their ears.
We've never had so many EVs in New Zealand or around the world. Yet climate change continues to worsen. The more EVs we buy, the worse climate change gets!
Deflating the tyres of SUVs will have zero effect on climate change, as will buying an EV. We need better protestors.
Interesting further information from the author of a link I posted yesterday….
"We owe thanks to Interest.co. for journalistic bravery.
This article was sent to Newsroom – no acknowledgement, not even a ' no thanks'.
It was sent to Kim Hill, Kathryn Ryan, Bryan Crump and Jim Mora – collectively the journalism end of RNZ. I'm picking there will be no reply, and no coverage (will edit this post should that happen).
My question to all those folk, is this: If this article contains the truth of our predicament (rebuttal invited); how do we describe journalism which avoids the topic? What, indeed, is the difference between silence and falsehood-peddling?"
Thought experiment: what would happen if NZ grew most of its own food? Not coffee or chocolate or vanilla, but our staples and seasonal produce. We could still export what we we could produce sustainably and regeneratively that we didn’t need. For the experiment assume that enough people were ok with this because they understood the urgency of climate action, and food security, so it didn’t prompt political outrage. Eg maybe we’d had a year of many crop failures globally.
are the issues here mainly trade agreements? Perceptions of government policies interference?
I don't think that it's predominantly trade agreements or government policies preventing people eating home-grown. It's that other countries grow X crops cheaper/better and the economics of shipping them here is viable. And that Kiwis want to eat X crops.
For example, while it's technically possible to grow bananas in NZ (Far North) it's not an ideal climate for them. While Queensland and/or Fiji are ideal banana-growing climates. [And, while Fiji may have cheaper labour, I don't think Australia does – so that's not necessarily a factor]
Growing crops in ideal climates is both quicker and cheaper – and they often taste better (Italian tinned tomatoes are way tastier than kiwi ones). And, while there is a cost of shipping them to NZ – it clearly doesn't outweigh the cost of growing them here.
NZ could live on what we grow. But our choices at the supermarket/greengrocer would be a lot more limited; and probably more expensive (NZ olive oil is way more expensive than Italian, for example)
It's not just the fancy flavourings. Think rice, wheat flour (NZ wheat isn't good for baking), sugar, etc.
…while it's technically possible to grow bananas in NZ (Far North) it's not an ideal climate for them … Commercial banana growing is a thing up here. Bonza
Smaller fruit than the inferior tasting Cavendish variety, the things grow like weeds up here. Our Misi Luki plants have been in for 18 months, and each of the original three plants have large bunches of fruit. Other than removing the excess daughters, (which transplant really well) they get next to no attention. I have papaya trees, (grown from seed) and I'm just beginning to cover them with frost cloth on cold nights. Some commercial blueberry growers up here (often grown in high gro tunnels) are pulling out the blueberries and planting papaya.
We also have coffee growing up here….so its not all avos and citrus.
Much of the produce is sold at Farmers Markets…these guys are not big enough to take on the supermarket duopoly in order to get a fair price.
In a big tunnel house and out of doors as well. Frost certainly can set them back 🙂 but we have few if any frosts (we're southern but we're coastal). My out of door bananas are Cook Island plantains which are pretty hardy. I have misiluki (Samoan bananas) and others growing in the tunnel house.Thai ginger (galangal) grows readily outside here and has done for many years. Under the cover of plastic, it booms! I have Amarillo fruiting under cover. The plants are 3 or 4 metres tall. Lemons and grapefruit. Fruiting cherry guava, fig, Elephant grass, 5 metres tall (higher than an elephants eye 🙂 Brugmansias throughout the garden. Many of these plants look "scrappy" during the winter months, but bounce back strongly.
You are most welcome to visit. If you are unable to do so, we have a short-film by Happen Films about to be released – I'll let you know when. As well, there is this: An invitation for wildness – our first film about our forest-garden, you might enjoy 🙂
Well, you'd have to define how you'd envisage the 'government transition'.
If they use tariffs to make imported goods more expensive, then you'd fall foul of a whole host of international trade treaties (nuking NZ export trade).
If you give NZ goods a tax cut (e.g. no GST on NZ produce) then I think you run foul of the trade treaties again.
If they require local produce to be sold at a reasonable mark-up (thinking milk & cheese, NZ lamb, etc here) then I *think* they'd be OK with trade treaties (pretty sure France do this…)
If they require mandatory food labelling (and are very specific about what qualifies as NZ produce) – then there's no comeback.
If they run advertising campaigns (hopefully better ones than the disastrous 3 waters) and 3rd party organisations campaign for NZ produce to be promoted – and it becomes patriotic to buy Kiwi – then again no comeback. That's consumer choice.
Remember, that NZ is also vulnerable to the need to export in order to afford imports.
And that many essentials, sugar, rice, etc. are either not grown in NZ or will never be grown in the quantities that Kiwi consumers want them.
Just come across this list of countries which are self-sufficient in food (of course some continue to import – but they don't have to).
The only country in Europe that’s self-sufficient is France. Other countries in the exclusive club of self sufficiency: Canada, Australia, Russia, India, Argentina, Burma, Thailand, the U.S. and a few small others.
Article is from 2014 – so subject to being corrected by later-arriving information.
There's a link in the article to a nice source map – with the relative proportions of imports (NZ at the 30% level)
By and large it tends to be the largest countries which cross a wide latitude which are self-sufficient (wide variety of micro-climates and growing conditions). A fair split between authoritarian and democratic governments – so that's not an obvious factor.
They may be able to get back to growing their own food on their own land, instead of it being taken for growing monocultures, for export for corporate profits, while they have to migrate in desperation to outer city shanty towns.
That depends on the country. Assuming it isn't a totally corrupt one, you can't make infrastructure and healthcare with bananas. And in an increasingly uncertain climate future, some countries may not be able to rely exclusively on domestic agriculture, including our own.
Subsistence farming – which is what you're talking about – with airy assumptions that developing countries will be "able to get back to growing their own food on their own land" isn't really a very attractive modern lifestyle. Especially without the technical support and infrastructure that you need foreign sales to bring in.
No tractors built in Fiji (for example) or diesel to run them. No communications gear (so no phone or IT infrastructure). Little medical infrastructure (apart from the most basic of care), etc., etc.
All of those are 'bought' by the export of commodities (e.g. raw sugar – and, bizarrely, bottled water, in the case of Fiji – who knew? But it it's a money-spinner for them – why take it away?).
How about you give a real life example of a country which could "get back to growing their own food on their own land" without killing off their external trade and therefore their imports of all the things they are unable to produce.
There have been several examples given in-thread of countries for which this would be disastrous.
Funny that you gave Fiji as an example.. Fiji is one where locals retain ownership of their land.
We will forget about the many places where large scale agriculture, and other resource extraction, benefits a very few, mostly offshore, profit takers, while the locals are forced into poverty and even, starvation!
South American countries were called, banana Republics, for a reason.
There are too many examples to count.
We will also forget about other examples. Such as African grain farmers who lost their livilihoods after being undercut by grain imported from the West.
Believers in the “Free trade” religion, like other believers in “Woo”, ignore the disasters it has caused. Including preventing third world countries from developing the protected internal economies that made Western countries prosperous.
But are you saying Fiji wouldn't be affected though? Also you have a very strange idea of the history of economic development in the West – that prosperity mostly came off the back of centuries of feudalism and imperial conquest.
Well, in our immediate vicinity, Samoa's economy is largely agricultural exports, fish, and foreign manufacturing. Fiji, which is arguably the most developed economy in the region outside Australia and New Zealand is also a major exporter of sugar cane, coconuts, cassava, rice, sweet potato, bananas, ginger, taro etc. Further afield, Ghana is heavily dependent on exporting cacao.
There is sufficient ethical production to supply some manufacturers. There really isn't much incentive to continue to improve ethics and sustainability without an export market.
I'd be good with trade with our Pacific neighbours provided it was actually ecologically sustainable (not greenwashed). I don't know if Fijians are being economically forced to cash crop and then can't afford to buy food themselves. Do you?
A sure winner for the government, taxing the company, not the individual. Put the money to helping families over the cost of living until Fair Pay agreements kick in.
Feels like this has been largely overlooked, but Alito's draft Supreme Court opinion on abortion uses the phrase "domestic supply of infants." It's real, on page 34. DOMESTIC SUPPLY OF INFANTS. pic.twitter.com/VuQWTJ4NHd
Here's an article from 2006 discussing the baby trade, or "reproductive market", in the US. Fewer abortions may help to make it easier, and cheaper, for couples to become parents. The gay community, in particular, could benefit from fewer abortions.
It is entirely possible to conceive of the reproductive market in the United States as a small enclave of science. The market is irrelevant to 85% to 90% of the population—that is, to those lucky enough to conceive children the old-fashioned way. Nearly by definition, then, it shouldn’t share the traits that characterize the markets for potato chips or sneakers or even general health services. It is a niche market, one that is unlikely to expand beyond a small segment of customers. Most of these potential customers, moreover, never avail themselves of any form of treatment: Only 36% of infertile women in the United States seek medical assistance in conceiving, 15% use fertility drugs, 5.5% employ artificial insemination, and only 1% try IVF or other high-tech treatments.
…
In the baby business, even private transactions can impose costs on the rest of society. Consider, for instance, the babies born to 25-year-old Teresa Anderson of Mesa, Arizona, in April 2005. Anderson was a gestational surrogate who, for $15,000, had agreed to carry a child for Enrique Moreno, a landscaper, and his 32-year-old wife, Luisa Gonzalez. To increase the chance of pregnancy, doctors transplanted five embryos into Anderson’s womb. They all survived, and Anderson subsequently bore quintuplets for the couple. When the babies arrived, the news media showed the smiling surrogate, the delighted couple, and the five relatively healthy babies. These babies, however, were extraordinarily expensive: The costs of delivery almost certainly ran to well over $400,000. Gonzalez and Moreno paid to conceive these children, but U.S. consumers—through increased insurance fees and hospital costs—are paying, too. According to one recent study, the total cost of delivering a child born through IVF ranges between $69,000 and $85,000. If the child is born to an older woman, the cost rises to between $151,000 and $223,000. The prospective parents in these cases pay for part of these costs—the IVF, the hormones, the multiple medical visits—but their fellow citizens are paying as well. (See the exhibit “What Price Babies?”)
Presumably the author is setting up a public debate between the ethical and commercial costs of adoption versus the ethical and commercial costs of aborting unborn children.
The US movement against abortion will be seeking to push this kind of contest worldwide through the media, as distinct from the narrow band of international aid and development as they did under Bush.
The upcoming abortion argument contest is going to make the Trans debate look like a very, very small thing in comparison.
I don't think so, Ad. Firstly, discussing rights for women, while reframed as a trans debate, is more of a maintaining of boundaries. However, the infiltration of institutions, companies and schools, and the negative effect on children and young people has meant that more people are getting interested in exploring past the #NoDebate edicts. That's going to take a while.
The abortion debate has never been hampered by #NoDebate tactics, and those who want to be informed will have plenty of opportunities to do so, with articles and television broadcasts from both sides.
It will be interesting to see on TS which of the male commentators will be able to demonstrate their knowledge of the aspects of the abortion topic.
They are birthing bodies with unproductive uteruses that need to be put to work. And yes, quite a few people are not at all fussed by the idea that birthing bodies are nothing more then bipedal gestation units for lease and profit, to be hired and discarded at will.
There will be a future were fertile wombs will be told by WINZ that if they need a job they could gestate a human being for a paying third party. Its like slavery but kind and inclusive.
Women aren't brood mares producing a fucking commodity to be traded.
Thats an opinion rather than fact. Adoption has been around for quite a while, and to a lesser extent surrogacy and IVF. What benefits have these brought parents-to-be and wider society? Where would we be without these options?
I was commenting on Joe’s opinion. To repeat: adoption has been around a while and to a lesser extent surrogacy and IVF. Do the existence of each of these imply or suggest that women are broodmares? I wouldn’t have thought so but you may disagree.
Similarly, should men be allowed to sell sperm? What are the pros and cons of allowing such a transaction?
have you ever given birth Ross? Do you have *any sense of what that process involves for women, and why many of us don't want to go through it unnecessarily.
There was a slogan a while back in regards to the violence against women. 'She is not your therapy'. I guess the woke left saw that and decided that 'She is your therapy' was the correct way to go forward.
A progressive activist has suggested Mother's Day be renamed to reflect how transgender men are now classified as giving birth.
Norrie May-Welby, who was born a male and had gender reassignment surgery at age 28, said the term 'mother' was not exclusive to females.
So a man is telling us to stop calling mothers mothers. Not hidden agenda there.
Probably the most disturbing thing about that is the degree to which society (looking at you liberals) think that we should centre people with mental health distress (gender dysphoria) and base our cultural practices on what they want. And invent whole new sets of language to do that. Have we lost our goddamn minds?
The left have had all those years of screaming "TERF" at us when we said that biological sex existed and was important. Meanwhile the right wingers in the reality based world where biological sex not only exists but functions as a weapon to control women were organising and strategising for this victory. You cannot identify out of this one kiddies – enjoy your pronouns.
As has been discussed previously, abortion is not an absolute right. Similarly, people who chose (perhaps sensibly) not to be vaccinated against COVID-19 apparently didn’t have the right to choose. I imagine that losing their job and possibly their home was quite inconvenient and upsetting.
As English author Julian Barnes once said: we can have our cake and eat it. The trouble is, we get fat.
There are costs and benefits to any course of action. Your focus is on the costs while ignoring the benefits. The costs of IVF are discussed above. Some of those costs are born by taxpayers. Should that be the case? Maybe society thinks the benefits outweigh the costs.
Given how little you appear know about the difference between producing a child and producing sperm – "Similarly, should men be allowed to sell sperm?", I'm trying to gauge where your level of knowledge is on this topic.
1. a) What are the possible negative effects (physical, financial, social, psychological) of producing sperm on the male body?
b) What are the possible negative effects (physical, financial, social, psychological) of pregnancy on the female body?
c) Which one of these two will have an ongoing effect after production?
"Fewer abortions may help to make it easier, and cheaper, for couples to become parents. The gay community, in particular, could benefit from fewer abortions."
The quotes you provided specifically talk about women's bodies in production lines terms, and a child as a commodity.
There is a conversation to be had about the provision of IVF, and adoption. If you have spent time investigating adoption you may find that regardless of the care and love provided by adoptive parents, a significant percentage of adoptees have had disrupted lives due to their emotional reaction to their adoptive status.
But I'd be interested in hearing what you understand of the possible costs of pregnancy, just to get started.
a significant percentage of adoptees have had disrupted lives due to their emotional reaction to their adoptive status.
Yep life isn't fair. I'm sure a significant percentage of adoptees from Ukraine have had more than disrupted lives given that both of their biological parents may be dead. We should stop the war there.
Once you select your child, and the documents are prepared, you will be accompanied to the local court, where the adoption will be granted. There is now a 10 day appeal period following the court. It might be extended ONLY if there are serious complications, which happens extremely rarely. Then an additional 7 – 10 days is required to obtain the child’s documents. Families may choose to return to the U.S. until their adoption order is final and documents are ready. You will return to Kiev and be accompanied to the U.S. Embassy to undergo the required medical exams and receive your immigrant visa for new your child.
What are the possible negative effects (physical, financial, social, psychological) of pregnancy on the female body?
What are the positive effects of pregnancy on the female body?
The quotes you provided specifically talk about women's bodies in production lines terms, and a child as a commodity.
A woman who makes a logical and well-thought out decision to have one or more babies may be nothing more than a production line? That's fairly insulting towards women who wish to be a surrogate or to place their child for adoption. It suggests that they are incapable of making good decisions about their own body. That sort of attitude may be behind the (interim) decision to overturn Roe v Wade.
Actually, it was a thinly veiled suggestion to go away and inform yourself before participating further. Sometimes it is clear that a comment is made from someone who hasn't explored the topic before submitting their reckons. This was one such time.
Now I've seen your reply, I still don't rate it highly, because it is a simplistic – and therefore basic understanding of what is being discussed.
"A woman who makes a logical and well-thought out decision to have one or more babies may be nothing more than a production line? That's fairly insulting towards women who wish to be a surrogate or to place their child for adoption. It suggests that they are incapable of making good decisions about their own body. That sort of attitude may be behind the (interim) decision to overturn Roe v Wade."
That position assumes that there are no forms of coercion, or exploitation of women' bodies happening. If you know of such a place, do tell.
If women are in a tenuous or vulnerable position, and have choices other than adoption or surrogacy, and still choose them, then I'd say that choice is fairly autonomous, but still not without harm. Given that the majority of women in commercial surrogacy are there for financial relief or in desperate circumstances – I'd say there is something else occurring other than autonomy. There are also knock on social effects – on the child, the purchasing parents, and the wider community, that need to be recognised and assessed for harm.
But I’m game to learn of a different perspective, so have at it, what are the "positive effects of pregnancy on the female body?"
(I know of a couple, but would be interested in seeing your list, since you seem to want to avoid any mention of the negative effects that IIRC were not limited to physical, but included social, financial, psychological.)
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As you may have noticed, I have been slowly working my way through the works of Agatha Christie. At the time of writing, I have read some thirty-eight of her books – less than half her total output, but arguably enough to get a reasonable handle on it. It ...
Population growth has some effect on economic growth, but it is complicated especially where infrastructure is involved. We need to think more about it. In an opinion piece in the New Zealand Herald, John Gascoigne claimed that New Zealand was a ‘tragic tale of economic decline’. He gave no evidence ...
The Greens have been almost invisible since the 2020 election. Despite massive crises impacting on people’s lives, such as climate change, housing, inequality, and the cost of living, they’ve had very little to say. On this week’s highly contentious issue of politicians being banned from Parliament by Trevor Mallard, the ...
The government has announced it will be replacing all coal boilers in schools by 2025: All remaining coal boilers in New Zealand schools will be replaced with cleaner wood burners or electric heating by 2025, at a cost of $10 million, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has announced. The coal ...
Israeli news media and politicians often complain about the activity of neo-Nazis in Ukraine. “Activists and supporters of Ukrainian nationalist parties hold torches as they take part in a rally to mark the 112th birth anniversary of Stepan Bandera, in Kyiv, Ukraine, January 1, 2021. Credit: Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters The recent ...
Another gnawing warming worry Accidental outcomes of our engineering prowess are warming Arctic regions at a rapid pace. Another species of accomplished engineers is rapidly occupying and exploiting new territory we've thereby made more easily available, namely beavers (Castor canadensis). Beaver populations in affected Arctic regions have increased from "none" to "quite a ...
Dr Simon Lambert’s dream is to see Indigenous nations across the world exercising their sovereign rights by adding their say to disaster risk reduction planning. Simon, of Ngāi Tūhoe and Ngāti Ruapani ki Waikaremoana, specialises in indigenous disaster risk reduction, indigenous health and indigenous development, social science, environmental management, planning ...
Rukingi Haupapa (Ngāti Whakaue, Te Arawa) credits his stroke in 2005 for changing his life: leading him to change his name, get his mataora (facial moko) and set up a trust to help fellow stroke survivors. Oranga (health and wellbeing) is Rukingi’s passion. He holds a Master’s degree in Indigenous ...
Mike Hosking’s all-too familiar diatribe in today’s Herald is so dripping with venom and anti-Jacinda animus that one can’t help but wonder if the content matters less than the spirit and purpose in and with which it was offered. Hosking clearly needs help. He seems to live in a world ...
So a Supreme Court stacked with ideologues selected by Donald Trump is about to make an ideological decision to ban the legal right of American women to an abortion. In their infinite wisdom, the US courts have decided that the government cannot force people to wear a mask during a ...
National party leader Chris Luxon has been reported as giving some badly uninformed responses to questions about Te Tiriti o Waitangi. As a potential Prime Minister, he needs to get up to speed. Te Tiriti is the Māori language version of the Treaty of Waitangi – the version that is ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) from the atmosphere continues to be a hot topic. In its newest report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concluded that the Paris Climate Agreement targets cannot be met without substantial efforts to remove some of the more than three-trillion ...
Is Parliament just the fiefdom of Trevor Mallard and his colleagues? That’s the impression the public might take from yesterday’s news that the Speaker of Parliament is issuing trespass notices to political opponents who visited the protest in March on the lawns of Parliament. Speaker Mallard has the absolute right ...
The quarterly labour market statistics were released this morning, showing unemployment holding at a record low of 3.2%. There are now 94,000 unemployed - 29,000 fewer than when Labour took office. Average wages are also up, and looking back, they've increased from $30.45 / hour in 2017 to $36.18 today. ...
International analyst Geoffrey Miller reads between the lines of Jacinda Ardern’s speech to this week’s US business summit in Auckland Jacinda Ardern is slowly but surely shifting New Zealand’s foreign policy towards the West. That was the underlying theme of a keynote address by New Zealand’s Prime Minister this ...
We all hate Australia for its policy of jailing refugees as a "disincentive" for people to try and escape torture and persecution. But New Zealand does this too, on a much lesser scale. last year, the government finally ordered a review of this disgusting practice. Today, that review reported back, ...
For the last three decades the global geopolitical system has been in a state of transition. It first transited from the tight bi-polar arrangement of the Cold War, where two nuclear superpowers with closely integrated alliance systems (NATO and the Warsaw Pact, plus other related networks) strategicaly balanced each other ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has been perceived as “softening her line on wealth taxes” – and therefore being open to the introduction of a new type of progressive taxation on the rich. This was the description published yesterday by leftwing wealth researcher Max Rashbrooke, who was reporting on the fact ...
On 24 April the Minister for Māori Development, the Hon. Willie Jackson, stated on TVNZ’s Q+A programme that government plans for Māori co-governance were part of MMP. It meant ‘shared decision-making’, ‘partnership’, ‘diversity, about minorities working together’. ‘Co-governance is based on the principles of MMP, this is a consensus type ...
Below is an excerpt of a talk by journalist Karl du Fresne given at Victoria University on 28 April 2022 for the Free Speech Union. Here he examines the trends that are undermining a free press. [F]ree speech goes hand in hand with a free press – but it’s now ...
Braking And Entering: The CCTV recording of the ram-raid against Auckland’s Ormiston Mall is so disturbing, so inspiring of dread and rage, that no amount of rational commentary will make the slightest difference. It confirms in the most powerful fashion the stories so many New Zealanders have been telling themselves: ...
The Author of this Dorset Eye article, Ukraine – a beginner’s guide, says: “In 2014, the journalist and writer John Pilger wrote an article for The Guardian newspaper entitled ‘In Ukraine the US is dragging us towards war with Russia’.[i] Eight years later, in 2022, this prediction came true when ...
What's better than some Cranky Uncle cartoons scattered around here or there? A collection of them, cross-referenced with the fallacies they depict, of course! And this is what we highlight in this blog post. John Cook had made these cartoons available for download on his Cranky Uncle website in March 2021 ...
For decades now we've known that climate change will cause sea-level rise. In Aotearoa, the projections so far have been for 30cm by 2050, and 1m by 2100 - a level which is catastrophic to low-lying areas and coastal infrastructure and which is going to cost us billions of dollars ...
Losses to Australian teams over the weekend by both the Crusaders and Hurricanes have been greeted with shock and surprise by New Zealand rugby fans. Yet, an at least partial explanation is available; the two losses were both set in motion early in each match by a play that is ...
One of the more infuriating aspects of the current political debate is the way the National Party says it would be more rigorous, and more thriftily efficient in running social programmes that – left to its own devices – a National government would never have funded at all in the ...
On Friday the Government made some announcements about their Three Waters programme that were meant to assuage public concerns about the reforms. Instead, the announcements merely reinforced that Local Government Minister Nanaia Mahuta is determined to push the reforms through in the face of strong public opposition. The gist of ...
Unfortunately it looks like we’re going through a spate of ram raids in this country. Predictably, there comes the natural political rejoinder: “Alas, the youth are out of control in this country…” in various flavours of vitriol, and thus the Reckons. Those who were armchair epidemiologists concerning the ...
2022 is turning out to be a crap year – George Orwell would have been shocked. I guess reality is always different to predictions. Wars, economic and financial mayhem, and widespread censorship are now our lot. And on top of the censorship, there is disinformation and fake news. How ...
Completed reads for April: The Saga of Hervör and HeithrekThe Saga of Hromund GreipssonThe Tháttr of NornagestIphigenia among the Taurians, by EuripidesIphigenia at Aulis, by EuripidesRhesus, by Euripides?The Body in the Library, by Agatha ChristieWhy Didn’t They Ask Evans?, by Agatha ChristiePoirot Investigates, by Agatha ChristieThe Secret of Chimneys, ...
One thing is abundantly clear: the way we understand the world is largely a matter of narrative management. It is through the strength of narratives we frame concepts around politics, life, and our consequent approach to it. Personally. As Nations. Too often, we don’t even realise where these come ...
Stuff's Henry Cooke reports that the government is planning a significant increase in proactive release of official information, with plans to proactively release almost all advice to ministers. Which is an idea I love, and want to happen, but at the same time fear, because under this government it is ...
A few weeks ago it emerged that NZ Minister of Defence Peeni Henare had asked cabinet for approval to donate surplus NZDF Light Armoured Vehicles (LAVs) to Ukraine as part of the multilateral efforts to support the Ukrainian defence of its homeland against the Russian invasion that is now into ...
Reductions in effective productivity, largely as a result of events overseas, require reductions in real incomes. Ignore that and you cannot defeat inflation. What would you think of a doctor who treated only the symptoms and never tried to identify the causes? A quack? Skilled quacks will have accounts about ...
In an opinion piece in the Herald Bryce Edwards looks at rising inflation and the huge transfer of wealth to the rich under this Labour government. Some excerpts below detail the growing poverty gap. Business profitability is currently very high – banking profits were up 48 per cent last year, ...
The media's "honeymoon" with National's leader, Christopher Luxon, ended abruptly on 21 March when on Kerre McIvor's NewstalkZB show, he uttered these astonishing words:“If you want to have a go, and you want to make something of yourself -- we don't just do bottom feeding and just focus on the ...
Not Forgotten, Or Forgiven: At this moment our television screens are filled with stories featuring Ukrainians and Russians. Over the course of the past century, both of these peoples have endured almost unbelievable levels of pain, rage and guilt. The statue pictured above, entitled The Bitter Memory of Childhood is ...
A Dangerous Moment: Given the intense preparation which has gone into raising Māori expectations of co-governance, it would now be extremely dangerous for any political party to bring its institutional evolution to a halt. That said, the lack of any serious preparation of the non-Māori population for the revolutionary implications ...
Obviously not true for everyone. But it is amazing how many people take up a strong, emotional stance on the war in Ukraine despite being completely ignorant about what has been happening there. This short video does a great job of condensing the history of Ukraine – and presents ...
This month I finished working my way through the surviving corpus of Ancient Greek Drama (in translation). For those keeping track at home, that is forty-six plays – seven by Aeschylus, seven by ...
by Daphna Whitmore The Auckland University of Technology has just deplatformed a talk on cancel culture. Yes, you read that right. The cancellation was instigated by an “Inclusion Officer” (of course it was). A bit Orwellian isn’t it? I was invited to give a lecture at a Free Speech Union meeting ...
We can't go on like this Past and future warming – direct comparison on multi-century timescales walks us through the improvements in methods between the IPCC AR5 and AR6 leading to the latest report's startling conclusion about our rapid, ongoing effect on global mean temperature. Unleashing the fossil hydrocarbon genie has ...
As of yesterday, I can report that the 2022 SpecFicNZ anthology, Aftermath: Tales of Survival in Aotearoa New Zealand, was released: https://specfic.nz/2022/04/27/aftermath-tales-of-survival-in-aotearoa-new-zealand/ It features The Night of Parmenides, my take on a post-apocalyptic Dunedin. Also notable for referencing Scribes, the much-missed second-hand bookshop of North Dunedin. ...
The current cost of living crisis in the New Zealand economy could yet have severe political consequences. Warning signs could be seen in Monday’s French presidential election result – in which the nationalist-populist Marine Le Pen upset the status quo by getting through to the second round and winning an ...
Such is our devotion to the ordinary Kiwi battler, we ruthlessly tax the wages they earn and the stuff they buy, while letting people who amass wealth from speculative investment (and stash it in trusts) to go on their merry way, largely untroubled by the tax department. In the latest ...
Karl Marx’s Capital remains the most important theoretical work explaining the capitalist mode of production from a working class and socialist perspective. The Centre for the Study of Social and Global Justice (CSSGJ) is pleased to be hosting a series of monthly lectures introducing each part of Volume 1 by Andy Higginbottom, ...
I have always taken a dim view of entrenching the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 (NZBORA). In contrast to certain other online commentators, I consider subjecting parliamentary statutes to judicial review ...
There were two elections over the weekend. In France, neo-liberal Emmanuel Macro managed to defeat neo-fascist Marine Le Pen, which should be a relief to everyone (especially given what a le Pen victory would have meant for Ukraine). But its hardly a particularly inspiring choice, effectively just a question of ...
Aotearoa has an inequality problem. The top 1% own 20% of the wealth, and nearly half our total wealth is owned by the top 5% (and as that paper notes, it likely understates the problem, as wealthy individuals are poorly captured by the Household Economic Survey on which it is ...
National truly is the party of aspiration. Any centre-right voter who watched their champion’s trainwreck interview with Jack Tame on last Sunday’s Q & A programme would have to conclude that if Christopher Luxon can lead National to victory in 2023, any wealthy white man in a suit can do ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Dennis Laich, Larry Wilkerson, and Erik Edstrom The US military is about to find itself committed to yet another unwinnable mission costing trillions of dollars. No, we are not referring to the possibility of American escalation in Russia’s brutal war against Ukraine: ...
There are currently twenty DHB's servicing Aotearoa - a country with five million people. A population that would fit comfortably in eightyone cities around the world.The fragmented system has twenty CEOs; twenty Boards (with up to eleven members each); twenty IT systems (to be confirmed); twenty HR departments; twenty payroll ...
An interesting piece of news out of Fellowship of Fans today. Not one that we were realistically expecting (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmc3sY0GQ0g) The news is that prior to his death in January 2020, Christopher Tolkien made some requests of Amazon, with regards to their impending Second Age adaptation, now called The Rings ...
The Green Party is throwing its support behind the 10,000 allied health workers taking work-to-rule industrial action today because of unfair pay and working conditions. ...
Since the day we came into Government, we’ve worked hard to lift wages and reduce cost pressures facing New Zealanders. But we know the rising cost of living, driven by worldwide inflation and the war in Ukraine, is making things particularly tough right now. That’s why we’ve stepped up our ...
An independent review of New Zealand’s detention regime for asylum seekers has found arbitrary and abusive practices in Aotearoa’s immigration law, policy, and practice. ...
The Human Rights Commission inquiry into housing quality confirms what the Green Party has been calling for - a rental Warrant of Fitness and a register of landlords and property managers. ...
The Green Party welcomes the next steps towards implementing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) in Aotearoa, and calls on the Government to get on with the mahi of upholding Tangata Whenua rights. ...
Our economic recovery is gaining momentum and the latest figures show that the Government’s focus on jobs is working. We’ve delivered a record low unemployment rate as well as a steady fall in the number of New Zealanders receiving a main benefit. ...
The Green Party welcomes the release of the implementation plan for Te Mana o te Taiao Aotearoa New Zealand Biodiversity Strategy and calls on the Government to act faster to protect our oceans. ...
This week (9 – 15 May 2022) is New Zealand Sign Language Week (NZSL), a nationwide celebration of NZSL as an official language of New Zealand. “This year’s theme ‘New Zealand Sign Language is essential’ recognises the prominence and importance of our third official language, and draws a spotlight on ...
The Government’s swift action to secure our economic recovery in the midst of a pandemic has seen 47 per cent of jobs in New Zealand protected by at least one of the 2021 wage subsidies, Minister for Social Development and Employment Carmel Sepuloni said. The Ministry of Social Development’s new ...
Apprenticeship Boost extended to the end of 2023, supporting 38,000 apprentices Support for 1600 Mana in Mahi places to help people into work Funding to continue the Māori Trades and Training Fund, building on the 17 established partnerships that are supporting more than 800 people The Government is extending ...
Climate Change Minister James Shaw today announced New Zealand’s first three emissions budgets, another milestone on of the journey toward a zero-carbon future. “Today’s announcement means our net-zero future is closer than ever before. There’s much more to do, but having these binding budgets in place is a critical part ...
Tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou katoa. Ngā mihi o te ata. Good morning. Thank you, Stephen, for that kind introduction. And thank you, again, to ASB for hosting us today. *** I grew up in a big, old Victorian ‘character home’ in Aro Valley. Like so many here in ...
As Road Safety Week officially commences, Auckland’s busiest cycling route has just received a $14.4 million upgrade, paving the way to get more Aucklanders out of their cars and onto their bikes. The new Tamaki Drive cycleway was opened today by Minister of Transport, Michael Wood following an official dawn ...
Delivers largest Police force ever and continues investment in frontline Police after the goal of an additional 1800 Police will be achieved by the end of this year - six months ahead of schedule Extra funding set aside to grow Police to match population growth. This will ensure there ...
Vetḁkia ‘os Fäega ma Ag fak hanua - Sustaining our Language and Culture is showcased in this year’s Rotuman Language Week – the first of nine Pacific Language Weeks, said Minister for Pacific Peoples Aupito William Sio. “With just 2,000 Rotuman speakers on the islands of Rotuma, nurturing the growing ...
Pacific communities can expect more support to go smokefree as Associate Ministers of Health Dr Ayesha Verrall and Aupito William Sio launched one of the new Pacific stop smoking services at K’aute Pasifika Trust in Hamilton today. The Smokefree Pacific Advisory Group, chaired by Associate Professor Dr Collin Tukuitonga, was ...
Northshore commuters now have access to congestion free travel to and from the city, as far north as Albany, thanks to the completion of the latest Northern Busway extension which was opened today by the Minister of Transport, Michael Wood. The four year project has delivered an additional five kilometres ...
Thanks to a $10 million dollar investment, all remaining coal boilers in New Zealand schools will be replaced with renewable woody biomass or electric heating sources by 2025 reducing carbon emissions by around 35,400 tonnes over 10 years, Climate Change Minister James Shaw announced today. The move is part of ...
An innovative high-tech approach to forestry management is set to transform New Zealand’s forestry industry, Forestry Minister Stuart Nash and Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor announced today. The Government is backing Precision Silviculture, a $25.5 million, seven-year programme led by Forest Growers Research Limited (FGR). “The investment is part of the ...
More of New Zealand’s most stunning landscapes, culture and heritage destinations will be showcased by the addition of two new cycle trails to the Ngā Haerenga Great Rides network. Tourism and Economic and Regional Development Minister Stuart Nash has today opened the Whakarewarewa Forest Loop trail near Rotorua, and announced ...
Public feedback is being sought on proposed changes to improve management planning and concession processes in conservation legislation. “Management strategies and plans are key tools which help manage natural and historic resources by providing guidance on what can and cannot be done in our national parks and conservation areas,” Conservation ...
Planning for two new schools on the Bay of Plenty’s Ōmokoroa Peninsula is underway as part of the Government’s comprehensive plan to support growth in the fast-growing Otumoetai catchment. Ongoing housing development will see 1,200 new homes in Ōmokoroa by 2025, and another development area in the west of the ...
A government-backed push to reconnect the tourism and travel industry with our largest market in Australia will see Tourism Minister Stuart Nash head to Sydney next week. Stuart Nash is leading a delegation to one of the first major international trade events by Tourism New Zealand since the COVID-19 outbreak ...
Budget 22 invests $110.9 million into New Zealand’s biosecurity work $42.9 million to bolster New Zealand’s biosecurity readiness for future incursions $68 million over the coming year to continue the M. bovis eradication momentum Protection of primary sector vital with exports forecast to hit record $50.8 billion for year-end 2022 ...
Mycoplasma bovis (M. bovis) down to one infected property 271 farms cleared of M. bovis No working farms currently confirmed infected Plans for next steps towards a national pest management plan under way Hundreds of thousands of milk samples and animals tested last year Four years into a world-first attempt to ...
The Crown accounts are continuing to reflect the strong position New Zealand is in to manage the challenging global environment, Grant Robertson said. For the nine months to the end of March, the Operating Balance before Gains and Losses (OBEGAL) deficit was $8.1 billion, $4.1 billion below that forecast in ...
The Government is: Increasing funding for driver licence support Removing barriers for people who have trouble obtaining driver licences Strengthening testing infrastructure and making it more equitable Reviewing the Graduated Driver Licensing System regulatory framework to ensure it is fit for purpose Budget 2022 will see an estimated 64,000 New ...
Today I am setting out our plan to deal with growing hospital waiting lists. COVID-19 has been hugely disruptive to hospital systems all over the world. In England, for example, there was a 200-fold increase in the number of people waiting more than a year for planned care, from just ...
Hospital waiting lists will be managed nationally under the Labour Government’s plan to cut the time people who need operations and appointments have to wait, Health Minister Andrew Little says. “COVID-19 has been hugely disruptive to hospital systems all over the world,” Andrew Little told health users, providers and unions ...
It is a pleasure to be here tonight addressing you all and continuing to showcase New Zealand’s reconnection to the world. It was fantastic to be travelling again and promoting New Zealand with the Prime Minister a couple of weeks ago to Singapore and Japan. However these are challenging times for trade. ...
In the year ended March 2022, 50,858 new homes were consented, up 24 per cent from the March 2021 year. 21,477 new homes were consented in Auckland in the year ended March 2022, driven largely by an increase in multi-unit dwellings. 5,303 new homes were consented in March 2022 alone. ...
The Government is broadening the ability for residence class visa holders to re-enter New Zealand, Minister for COVID-19 Response Chris Hipkins has announced. The change means residence class visa holders not vaccinated against COVID-19 will be able to enter New Zealand from 6 May. The change allows New Zealand Permanent ...
I tāpaea i te rangi nei Te Tohu o Matariki ki te iwi tūmatanui e te Minita mō te Kōtuinga o Ngāi Māori me te Karauna: Te Arawhiti, Kelvin Davis rāua ko te Minita Tuarua mō te Toi, te Ahurea, me te Tukuihotanga, a Kiri Allan. Hei tā Kelvin Davis, ...
I want to thank Rabobank for hosting us this morning, and all of you for making it along for an early start. Yesterday, New Zealand opened its borders again to tourists and business visitors from around 60 visa waiver countries as we continue our reconnection with the world. The resumption ...
Surpluses will be kept within a band of zero to two percent of GDP to ensure new day‑to‑day spending is not adding to debt. A new debt measure to be introduced to bring New Zealand closer in line with other countries. A debt ceiling will ensure New Zealand maintains some ...
The Government has welcomed Te Waihanga/New Zealand Infrastructure Commission’s first infrastructure strategy as a major milestone in building a more prosperous, resilient and sustainable future for all New Zealanders. Rautaki Hanganga o Aotearoa – New Zealand Infrastructure Strategy 2022–2052 set out the infrastructure challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand ...
It is a pleasure to participate today in the United States Business Summit and to have the opportunity to speak to you about the US-New Zealand trade and economic relationship. I would like to join the Prime Minister in thanking the organisers – especially Fran O’Sullivan and Michael Barnett who I ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta has today announced further sanctions on Russian politicians and defence entities supporting Putin’s actions in Ukraine, as part of the Government’s ongoing response to the war. “Through these sanctions, we are demonstrating our intention to continue going after those who are responsible for Russia’s invasion ...
Supporting preparations for a potential Alpine Fault rupture on the West Coast is one of several grass roots initiatives benefitting from a Government funding package to strengthen community resilience to emergencies. “Due to its isolation, its topography, and its proximity, the West Coast is particularly vulnerable to the impacts of ...
Introduction Kia ora koutou katoa, Today is a significant day for infrastructure in New Zealand. And that means it is a significant day for our productivity, our environment, our wellbeing and connections as people. That is because good quality infrastructure is core to improving all of those things. Today we ...
Ringitia mai, waetia mai Tuhi tuhia mai e Kei te manawa tonu te aroha me te whakapono Can I please acknowledge our co-chairs today Fran O’Sullivan and Michael Barnett. US Ambassador to New Zealand Tom Udall. The Minister for Trade and Export Growth Damien O’Connor. And the really excellent ...
New Zealand is back on the world map for international tourism and business travellers as the country opens up to visitors from around 60 visa-waiver countries who enjoy freer travel here from today. Tourism Minister Stuart Nash and Immigration Minister Kris Faafoi say the welcome mat is out for citizens ...
The Government is committed to improving student attendance at school and kura, Education Minister Chris Hipkins and Associate Education Minister Jan Tinetti said in a pre-Budget announcement today. “It’s clear that young people need to be at school, and yet attendance rates haven’t been good for a long time. It’s ...
Essential workers sent a clear message today that they no longer want to see their pay and conditions set through a race to the bottom, and that they support fair, good faith bargaining with employers through Fair Pay Agreements. On International Workers’ Day, Minister of Workplace Relations and Safety Michael ...
Climate Change Minister James Shaw says the release of new sea level rise data underlines the importance of the work the Government is doing to build a low emission, climate resilient future for Aotearoa. “Data from the NZ SeaRise programme confirms why this Government is right to prioritise action to ...
The Government is partnering with Air New Zealand to trial an innovative new COVID-19 testing solution that uses Loop-Mediated Isothermal Amplification (LAMP) technology, Associate Minister for COVID-19 Response Dr Ayesha Verrall announced today. “As New Zealand reconnects with the world, we are exploring innovative COVID-19 testing technology to help keep ...
A warmer winter is on the horizon for over 1 million New Zealanders receiving either a main benefit or New Zealand Superannuation as the Winter Energy Payment begins today. “When we first came into office, we introduced the Winter Energy Payment as part of our Government’s December 2017 Families Package. ...
RNZ Pacific New Caledonia’s pro-independence Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS) movement and five other small nationalist parties have agreed that they will only discuss the territory’s accession to full sovereignty in talks planned with France. The joint position was adopted at the weekend at the congress of the ...
With the highest inflation in 30 years and the worst cost of living crisis in a generation, the Government must restore fiscal discipline in the upcoming Budget, National’s Finance Spokesperson Nicola Willis says. “National believes every ...
Kia ora koutou katoa, ngā mihi nui ki a koutou. Greetings all. It’s great to be in Christchurch. Let me begin by thanking the Canterbury Employers’ Chamber of Commerce for hosting this event. You do great work advocating for the businesses ...
Progress on climate change isn’t happening fast enough according to Grant Thornton New Zealand Partner, and Environment & Sustainability Leader, Michael Worth. He has identified three areas of spend in Budget 2022 that could go a long way towards ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Walter, Emeritus Professor of Political Science, Monash University In troubled times, people look for strong leaders – men and women who offer decisive action to address collective problems, and promise the capacity to deliver. They initially present as larger-than-life characters, and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Treasure McGuire, Assistant Director of Pharmacy, Mater Health SEQ in conjoint appointment as Associate Professor of Pharmacology, Bond University and Associate Professor (Clinical), The University of Queensland Shutterstock Australia’s surge in COVID cases this year has seen many people looking ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jake Whitehead, E-Mobility Research Fellow, The University of Queensland AAP Image/Pool, Alex Ellinghausen, The Conversation Poll after poll suggests climate change is one of the most pressing issues for Australian voters. Of the 10,000 people who responded to The Conversation’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mandy Treagus, Associate Professor, Department of English, Creative Writing and Film, University of Adelaide Lara Solanki/Netflix When the final 12 episodes of Grace and Frankie were released, the show became the longest running television series on Netflix. Over 94 episodes, ...
By Miriam Zarriga in Port Moresby Seventeen people have been killed, hundreds of families made homeless, dozens of houses razed and government services ground to a halt in Enga Province’s Porgera district in Papua New Guinea as warring clans took up arms against each other. Calls for government help went ...
RNZ Pacific A stand-off was averted on Norfolk Island today when a couple occupying a historic house chose to leave rather than face criminal charges. The couple had been occupying one of the old officers’ houses in the Kingston World Heritage Site and the Canberra administrator had had police flown ...
Powerhouse Co-Leadership Announced Co-Leaders Sue Grey and Donna Pokere-Phillips An exciting example of Tangata Whenua (Māori) and Tangata Tiriti (non-Māori) coming together in Co-Governance, setting the benchmark for a united Aotearoa New Zealand ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Heather Shearer, Research Fellow, Cities Research Institute, Griffith University Shutterstock Rental housing in Australia is less affordable than ever before. It is no exaggeration to call the situation a crisis, with vacancy rates at record lows. But there are some ...
With the prime minister in isolation, deputy PM Grant Robertson and Education Minister Chris Hipkins are speaking to media after Cabinet's weekly meeting. Watch live. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Ambrose, Research Team Leader, CSIRO Apartment living is booming in Australia. Many people choose apartments for their good energy efficiency, which reduces the need for heating and cooling and leads to lower power bills. But not every apartment is as energy ...
RNZ Pacific Fiji has been ranked as the worst place in the Pacific region for journalists in the latest assessment by the global press freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF). In RSF’s 2022 World Press Freedom Index released last week, Fiji was placed 102nd out of 180 countries — receiving ...
By Arieta Vakasukawaqa in Suva Opposition National Federation Party leader Professor Biman Prasad has questioned the motive of the FijiFirst government to continuously highlight the 1987 coup during the girmit celebrations while refusing to mention the devastation brought about by the 2000 and 2006 coups on Fijians. He highlighted this ...
ANALYSIS:By Binoy Kampmark Children should not pay for the sins of their parents. But in some cases, a healthy suspicion of the offspring is needed, notably when it comes to profiting off ill-gotten gains. It is certainly needed in the case of Filipino politician and presidential candidate Ferdinand “Bongbong” ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards. Political Roundup is entirely subscriber-funded. The ethos behind this public service is to help foster a robust and informed public debate, with a great diversity of perspectives. If you appreciate what we are doing in providing non-partisan analysis and information about politics, economy, and society, ...
The Unit Titles (Strengthening Body Corporate Governance and Other Matters) Amendment Bill (the Bill) has passed its third reading in Parliament and will shortly receive Royal Assent. The Real Estate Institute of New Zealand (REINZ) welcomes the news, ...
There's a lot on the cutting block. ACT would reverse various efforts to curb climate change, increase defence spending, freeze the minimum wage, and abolish some government agencies. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Morey, Senior Lecturer, Department of Languages and Linguistics, La Trobe University In Australia, we choose our political representatives and governments through a democratic electoral system. Generally, these systems should have four main aims. These are to: secure easy ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Matthew Hall, Senior Researcher, Environmental Law Initiative and Visiting Scholar, Faculty of Law, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington Getty Images Nature in Aotearoa New Zealand is in serious trouble. With many of our species and habitats ...
Climate Change Minister James Shaw today announced New Zealand’s first three emissions budgets, describing this as another milestone on of the journey toward a zero-carbon future. Having these binding budgets in place was a critical part of the government’s strategy to rapidly eliminate the pollution that causes climate change, he ...
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Finance Minister Grant Robertson managed to put a bold face on his fiscal management last week when he presented the latest set of Crown accounts, saying they “are continuing to reflect the strong position New Zealand is in to manage the challenging global environment”. Tax revenue in the nine months ...
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The Vote 2022 campaign which kicks off today looks to make Aotearoa the most inclusive and active local democracy in the world. “This is the bold ambition, and we know it will take more than one election cycle to make lasting changes,” says Local ...
Even before COVID, what was being said by business was that the demand for workers was across all sectors and bands of employment. However, the government policies are purely focused on making it easier for highly skilled migrants to gain work and ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicholas Wood, Associate Professor, Discipline of Childhood and Adolescent Health, University of Sydney Over the last year, COVID vaccination recommendations have been updated regularly. So it can be difficult to keep track of how many vaccine doses you and your family members ...
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Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards. Political Roundup is entirely subscriber-funded. The ethos behind this public service is to help foster a robust and informed public debate, with a great diversity of perspectives. If you appreciate what we are doing in providing non-partisan analysis and information about politics, economy, and society, ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. The countries shown here have rates of Covid19 mortality comparable with each other, and – with one exception – have recent ‘excess deaths’ data. We should note that the World Health Organisation (WHO) has just released its world Covid19 mortality estimates for the pandemic so far, ...
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It looks looks like visitors to the Beehive website are being short-changed today. Point of Order is aware of at least one ministerial announcement that has yet to be posted. It deals with a government investment ($10.2 million from the Ministry for Primary Industries’ Sustainable Food and Fibre Futures fund) in ...
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From the "Whoops I did it again file." It looks like the Russians have lost another ship. This time one of their most modern frigates, the Admiral Makarov.
Insanity has been defined as the act of doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. First, it was the Moskva which came within range of Ukrainian missiles. Then it was two patrol boats close to shore taken out by a Ukrainian drone. And, again, the Russians sent the Makarov close to shore to a similar location within the range of Ukrainian neptune missiles again. I wonder if they will keep up the insanity and send another one close to shore.
Thus far, the verified toll against the Russian navy in the Black Sea has been:
1 x landing ship, 2 x patrol boats, 1 x Cruiser, 1x frigate.
All this from a country that doesn't have a navy.
Isn’t it ironic…🎶…that the ship was named after Ukrainian born naval innovator Admiral Stepan Makarov who pioneered research into preventing warships from sinking.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stepan_Makarov
btw
The crew of RTS Moskva (121) was blind to and not ready for the Ukrainian missile attack that sank Russia’s Black Sea flagship, according to a new analysis of the April 13 strike reviewed by USNI News.
The review of images following the strike of the two Neptune anti-ship missiles from open-source naval analyst and retired Navy Capt. Chris Carlson told USNI News that the guided-missile cruiser did not have its fire control radars activated and could not see the threat from the two sea skimming weapons.
In the photo of Moskva after the strike, the radars “are in their normal stowed position,” Carlson told USNI News on Monday.
“If you look at the pictures of Moskva, when she’s just dancing around going from place to place, or she’s anchored as a showboat, those directors are all facing aft every time,” he said.
https://news.usni.org/2022/05/05/warship-moskva-was-blind-to-ukrainian-missile-attack-analysis-shows
Is Sinn Fein getting the majority in the Northern Ireland Parliament the equivalent of the Maori Party getting the majority in the New Zealand Parliament?
Local elections 2022: Tories lose hundreds of seats to Labour and Lib Dems; Sinn Féin set to become largest party in NI elections – live (theguardian.com)
There's some real fun in some of these results today.
The bloody people have stolen our election!
Not unless the Maori party has a murderous, bank robbing military wing.
Northern Ireland's two biggest parties Sin Fein and the equally murderous DUP had military wings.
Whoever wins I'll doubt theyll win a majority more likely a plurality but whoever wins .. I hope there's calm and understanding not bloodshed.
Their government MUST be a power sharing between the 2 largest parties.
Having the most seats just means Sinn Fein is is first minister while DUP is the deputy position for government
Still way short of a majority in 90 seat parliament as they may have 27 seats or so.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_Northern_Ireland_Assembly_election#Results
OK. The gist of this post is simple. If we do not add water capturing earthworks to our catchments we can expect to be left high and dry. No groundwater flow = no hydro power.
I'm quite sick of repeating myself on this, but I will continue. Also, TOLD YOU SO.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/climate-news/128551741/drought-conditions-threaten-southlands-power-supply
The rain cycle used to be that that lost to sea was equivalent to that gained from rain. Now the rains arrive less frequently, and more severely. That lost to sea is continuously increasing. That captured on land is continuously decreasing. It is a compounding problem that arrived very fast since predictions made only a few years back.
How hard is it to admit we can't manage land properly, and correct it.
Get this in your thick government heads or we shall certainly face disaster the likes of which we are utterly unprepared for.
And have a great weekend, HA!
NZ is so complacent about water. We think it's always going to be there no matter what we do. This is some kind of stupid really, given we have the science and history to understand the dynamics you are referring to.
For French specialists: does unifying the French left into a bloc give Melenchon a shot at being Prime Minister?
France: Socialist Party joins leftist coalition against President Emmanuel Macron | News | DW | 06.05.2022
Sadly the left in france will splinter at some time again, so i guess no.
Macrons party is also forming a coalition with other centre right parties too
Insoumise only strong in the Paris region and 2 other low population places .
I dont think forming an election alliance committs them to a parliamentary bloc after the election
Yeah, I know, they're committing crimes but good on them.
https://www.1news.co.nz/2022/05/07/climate-protest-group-deflating-auckland-tyres-first-action-in-new-wave/
I live in a part of Auckland where they are prevalent. Nothing incenses me more than SUVs dominating the streets, the parking lots and generally making life miserable for other road users – not to mention the environmental damage.
Yes those awful SUVs are really the ultimate in self-centred stupidity. They make driving for others risky and unpleasant. They take up too much space and reduce visibility . Worse, it seems from the way drivers often use them, their main purpose is to bully others by tail-gating and dangerous exits from side streets etc.. However, I don't think letting down tyres is a good idea – likely to make them worse!
How might it make them worse, Jan?
By developing 'righteous indignation' and a desire for payback
I agree. thoroughly informal and anecdotal surveys while travelling up and back to Otaki regularly indicate that they are:
Then don't get me started on my partner's view that they are penis extensions for inadequate males…he puzzles over the irony of making a penis extension the 'family' car so the female partner has to collect children from city based sport, activities driving these vehicles.
I am a driver who has worked on the roads for over 26 years. My observations are that there are two main types of people on the road who don't care a monkeys about safety, courtesy, respect for road rules and just plain commonsense – those who drive black cars and those who drive large overpowered SUVs.
I quite agree. What amazed me, watching as I did the whole of the convoy arriving in Wellington for the protest, was how many of these utes/SUVs were in it driven mainly by the scowling demographic that I believe is behind the 'pretty communist' and other misogynistic thoughts/ideas.
Then I look at the tradies I use with their fit for purpose sign written trade vehicles that are much more practical than utes with low canopies. They have no place in towns and cities.
My farmer bro in law believes in many lowland farms they have no place either. On his lowland Southland farm he used a combo of tractor and ancient old station wagons for all his farming ops. Yet the people who rent most of the land as a dairy run-off to a man, and they mostly are all men, need SUVs, Utes to work on the same land. Most have legs just painted on as well.
Vanity not need accounts for much of the growth of Utes/SUVs.
In the Wellington they park right on the street corners and to see the road around them you need to get right out sometimes into the face of oncoming traffic.
Perhaps they could blitz just with the leaflets rather than letting down the tyres tho' I do/did snicker at the thought of the scowling ones being forced to deal with a flat tyre.
… watching as I did the whole of the convoy arriving in Wellington for the protest, was how many of these utes/SUVs were in it driven mainly by the scowling demographic…
So. Those activists were not concealing their faces? Not hiding behind anonymity or a silly pseudonym? For "security reasons" ?
Your anti-SUV saboteurs lack the courage of their convictions. Cowards.
I don't understand this at all so whatever point you are making is lost on me.
I was able to watch the arrival in slow motion as it were and did not expect to see masked people in their cars.
I made comment at the time about these surly Ute drivers in the convoy, usually by themselves, a few with an equally surly mate. Of course at that stage we thought they were all going to make a protest, make a point then away again. As it is now whatever point they were making, and it become very difficult to find a common cause, is remembered only by a riot, fires.
I have no idea whether those letting tyres down were masked, or had a pseudonym.
And still the PM is subjected to macho posturing and innuendo.
I have no idea whether those letting tyres down were masked, or had a pseudonym.
You didn't actually read the article Anne linked to? Then of course you would not have understood what I was referring to.
You decided to bring up the Freedom protest and you chose comment on the scowling ute/SUV drivers you observed as these anti-mandate activists rolled into Wellington. Clearly you could see their faces.
I know some of those people. All are fully committed to the mission, and none would use a false name or hide behind a stupid sounding organisation. Up front and in your face. At least you know who you are dealing with..or perhaps you prefer…
…the activists who let the SUV tyres down who were too cowardly to do so out in the open, and hid behind silly names.
Anonymous activism? Worthless.
(Oh, an as an aside…very seldom, as you will have noticed, did any of the 'river of filth' wear medical masks or face coverings of any kind. 'Filth' that they were.
Only on that last day did there suddenly appear men wearing various full face masks, designed more to conceal their identity rather than protect against viruses or police pepper spray. These were the guys filmed near the first tent that caught fire. No one recalled seeing these guys in the Freedom Village until that morning. Funny that.)
I did read the article.
My comment built on the SUV part. I was amazed by the number of SUV/Utes etc in the convoy. The demographic riding around in Utes/SUVs here in Wellington is much of the same, scowling late 30s/40s males. So I was surprised to see them in the convoy until I realised that they were the anti PM brigade/anti women, rather than strictly anti vax, coming along – the ones that had the 'pretty little communist' type placards in the Groundswell convoys.
So good on them up in Auckland. They have got publicity and they may get a conversation going.
The depth of feeling about vehicles that are unsuitable for city/town traffic is not one that country dwellers will be really aware of. They make getting around much more difficult as sight lines are impeded for other traffic and pedestrians.
So I'm not interested in masks except to studiously wear one, respect others who do, avoid situations or people who do not. I am not interested in who did what in the protest.
In fact the protest and the whole anti vax is the stuff of irrelevance and yawn making to me, now. If I think about the protest at all it is to wonder how NZ got caught up in manufactured protests from overseas and I sometimes indulge in idle speculation about the finances, and 'dark' people behind it. We needed a public health response to a pandemic. We got one. The majority went along with it, some did not.
We have to deal with climate change, it is with us forever. Drawing attention to it is what the SUV protestors and the ones at the Southland coal mine are doing, on my behalf, as a 'ginger' group.
I realised that they were the anti PM brigade/anti women, rather than strictly anti vax, coming along – the ones that had the 'pretty little communist' type placards in the Groundswell convoys. Evidence of this?
…to wonder how NZ got caught up in manufactured protests from overseas err…you do realize that the Tyre Extinguishers are a proud overseas organisation?
How is it that its acceptable for Kiwis to join in protest actions that originate overseas, such as Black Lives Matter, Me Too, Extinction Rebellion, Greenpeace etc…but not in protest action that happens to also have activists in other countries… that is centered around draconian government laws that effectively force people to take an experimental pharmaceutical product with known performance issues and very real adverse effects for far too many people?
For a disease that failed to reach the projected case fatality rates forecast by the modellers?
Closing our borders helped reduce our case load and fatality rates…the so called 'vaccines'…not so much. Double and triple jabbed folk are getting infected at a higher rate than the unvaccinated. An awful lot are still getting sick and still ending up in hospital…at rates not much lower that us filthy unvaxxed, and people jabbed and unjabbed, are still dying with, but not necessarily of Covid.
A Health Ministry, truly committed to Medical Science, would have initiated a study comparing outcomes between eligible unvaccinated and eligible vaccinated. Like the Pfizer Trial… but this time doing an actual Long Term study.
Good that the whole thing is an irrelevance to you now…for some of us the unjustified discrimination still impacts our lives, every day.
Yeah, I know, they're committing crimes but good on them.
Protestors taking such action clearly don't have much between their ears.
We've never had so many EVs in New Zealand or around the world. Yet climate change continues to worsen. The more EVs we buy, the worse climate change gets!
Deflating the tyres of SUVs will have zero effect on climate change, as will buying an EV. We need better protestors.
https://www.carsguide.com.au/ev/advice/how-many-electric-cars-are-there-in-the-world-85961
🙄 🙄
Interesting further information from the author of a link I posted yesterday….
"We owe thanks to Interest.co. for journalistic bravery.
This article was sent to Newsroom – no acknowledgement, not even a ' no thanks'.
It was sent to Kim Hill, Kathryn Ryan, Bryan Crump and Jim Mora – collectively the journalism end of RNZ. I'm picking there will be no reply, and no coverage (will edit this post should that happen).
My question to all those folk, is this: If this article contains the truth of our predicament (rebuttal invited); how do we describe journalism which avoids the topic? What, indeed, is the difference between silence and falsehood-peddling?"
https://www.interest.co.nz/public-policy/115678/murray-grimwood-outlines-why-and-how-be-believes-our-relationship-and
Thanks for posting Pat. Our media simply ignore some stories. It's not good
Thought experiment: what would happen if NZ grew most of its own food? Not coffee or chocolate or vanilla, but our staples and seasonal produce. We could still export what we we could produce sustainably and regeneratively that we didn’t need. For the experiment assume that enough people were ok with this because they understood the urgency of climate action, and food security, so it didn’t prompt political outrage. Eg maybe we’d had a year of many crop failures globally.
are the issues here mainly trade agreements? Perceptions of government policies interference?
We already do….around 20% of food products are imported, though that may be increasing.
https://www.infometrics.co.nz/article/2020-03-nz-continues-to-produce-and-import-food-so-theres-no-need-to-panic-buy
I don't think that it's predominantly trade agreements or government policies preventing people eating home-grown. It's that other countries grow X crops cheaper/better and the economics of shipping them here is viable. And that Kiwis want to eat X crops.
For example, while it's technically possible to grow bananas in NZ (Far North) it's not an ideal climate for them. While Queensland and/or Fiji are ideal banana-growing climates. [And, while Fiji may have cheaper labour, I don't think Australia does – so that's not necessarily a factor]
Growing crops in ideal climates is both quicker and cheaper – and they often taste better (Italian tinned tomatoes are way tastier than kiwi ones). And, while there is a cost of shipping them to NZ – it clearly doesn't outweigh the cost of growing them here.
NZ could live on what we grow. But our choices at the supermarket/greengrocer would be a lot more limited; and probably more expensive (NZ olive oil is way more expensive than Italian, for example)
It's not just the fancy flavourings. Think rice, wheat flour (NZ wheat isn't good for baking), sugar, etc.
…while it's technically possible to grow bananas in NZ (Far North) it's not an ideal climate for them … Commercial banana growing is a thing up here. Bonza
Smaller fruit than the inferior tasting Cavendish variety, the things grow like weeds up here. Our Misi Luki plants have been in for 18 months, and each of the original three plants have large bunches of fruit. Other than removing the excess daughters, (which transplant really well) they get next to no attention. I have papaya trees, (grown from seed) and I'm just beginning to cover them with frost cloth on cold nights. Some commercial blueberry growers up here (often grown in high gro tunnels) are pulling out the blueberries and planting papaya.
We also have coffee growing up here….so its not all avos and citrus.
Much of the produce is sold at Farmers Markets…these guys are not big enough to take on the supermarket duopoly in order to get a fair price.
Bananas grow and fruit all over the show…Whanganui, Gisborne.
Climate change…if we can't beat it…
Well, Rosemary – you live and learn!
I had no idea that commercial banana plantations were a thing up north.
How about sugar cane? IIRC it needs roughly the same climate as bananas – but it may need a bigger area in order to be commercially viable.
I have bananas and sugar cane growing in Riverton 🙂
Good Lord! Outdoors? Or in some form of climate control?
I'd have thought that frost would be a killer for both of them.
In a big tunnel house and out of doors as well. Frost certainly can set them back 🙂 but we have few if any frosts (we're southern but we're coastal). My out of door bananas are Cook Island plantains which are pretty hardy. I have misiluki (Samoan bananas) and others growing in the tunnel house.Thai ginger (galangal) grows readily outside here and has done for many years. Under the cover of plastic, it booms! I have Amarillo fruiting under cover. The plants are 3 or 4 metres tall. Lemons and grapefruit. Fruiting cherry guava, fig, Elephant grass, 5 metres tall (higher than an elephants eye 🙂 Brugmansias throughout the garden. Many of these plants look "scrappy" during the winter months, but bounce back strongly.
That is so cool. I'd love to see it!
You are most welcome to visit. If you are unable to do so, we have a short-film by Happen Films about to be released – I'll let you know when. As well, there is this: An invitation for wildness – our first film about our forest-garden, you might enjoy 🙂
It's worth it.
so there would be no international pressure if a NZ government tried to transition us to eating mostly from what we grow ourselves?
Well, you'd have to define how you'd envisage the 'government transition'.
If they use tariffs to make imported goods more expensive, then you'd fall foul of a whole host of international trade treaties (nuking NZ export trade).
If you give NZ goods a tax cut (e.g. no GST on NZ produce) then I think you run foul of the trade treaties again.
If they require local produce to be sold at a reasonable mark-up (thinking milk & cheese, NZ lamb, etc here) then I *think* they'd be OK with trade treaties (pretty sure France do this…)
If they require mandatory food labelling (and are very specific about what qualifies as NZ produce) – then there's no comeback.
If they run advertising campaigns (hopefully better ones than the disastrous 3 waters) and 3rd party organisations campaign for NZ produce to be promoted – and it becomes patriotic to buy Kiwi – then again no comeback. That's consumer choice.
Remember, that NZ is also vulnerable to the need to export in order to afford imports.
And that many essentials, sugar, rice, etc. are either not grown in NZ or will never be grown in the quantities that Kiwi consumers want them.
Just come across this list of countries which are self-sufficient in food (of course some continue to import – but they don't have to).
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/is-your-country-food-independent
Article is from 2014 – so subject to being corrected by later-arriving information.
There's a link in the article to a nice source map – with the relative proportions of imports (NZ at the 30% level)
By and large it tends to be the largest countries which cross a wide latitude which are self-sufficient (wide variety of micro-climates and growing conditions). A fair split between authoritarian and democratic governments – so that's not an obvious factor.
You'd be cutting off revenue to a lot of developing countries that rely heavily on it.
They may be able to get back to growing their own food on their own land, instead of it being taken for growing monocultures, for export for corporate profits, while they have to migrate in desperation to outer city shanty towns.
Terrible!
That depends on the country. Assuming it isn't a totally corrupt one, you can't make infrastructure and healthcare with bananas. And in an increasingly uncertain climate future, some countries may not be able to rely exclusively on domestic agriculture, including our own.
Subsistence farming – which is what you're talking about – with airy assumptions that developing countries will be "able to get back to growing their own food on their own land" isn't really a very attractive modern lifestyle. Especially without the technical support and infrastructure that you need foreign sales to bring in.
No tractors built in Fiji (for example) or diesel to run them. No communications gear (so no phone or IT infrastructure). Little medical infrastructure (apart from the most basic of care), etc., etc.
All of those are 'bought' by the export of commodities (e.g. raw sugar – and, bizarrely, bottled water, in the case of Fiji – who knew? But it it's a money-spinner for them – why take it away?).
https://oec.world/en/profile/country/fji
No. It is not what I'm talking about.
But keep your simplistic assumptions.
How about you give a real life example of a country which could "get back to growing their own food on their own land" without killing off their external trade and therefore their imports of all the things they are unable to produce.
There have been several examples given in-thread of countries for which this would be disastrous.
Where's your counter example?
Funny that you gave Fiji as an example.. Fiji is one where locals retain ownership of their land.
We will forget about the many places where large scale agriculture, and other resource extraction, benefits a very few, mostly offshore, profit takers, while the locals are forced into poverty and even, starvation!
South American countries were called, banana Republics, for a reason.
There are too many examples to count.
We will also forget about other examples. Such as African grain farmers who lost their livilihoods after being undercut by grain imported from the West.
Believers in the “Free trade” religion, like other believers in “Woo”, ignore the disasters it has caused. Including preventing third world countries from developing the protected internal economies that made Western countries prosperous.
But are you saying Fiji wouldn't be affected though? Also you have a very strange idea of the history of economic development in the West – that prosperity mostly came off the back of centuries of feudalism and imperial conquest.
To help you open your mind away from unthinkingly repeating memes.
Better than a summary “Kicking Away the Ladder” book by Ha-Joon Chang (blinkist.com)
You mean like you're doing?
Confirmed my point.
Thank you..
Can you please give some examples?
Well, in our immediate vicinity, Samoa's economy is largely agricultural exports, fish, and foreign manufacturing. Fiji, which is arguably the most developed economy in the region outside Australia and New Zealand is also a major exporter of sugar cane, coconuts, cassava, rice, sweet potato, bananas, ginger, taro etc. Further afield, Ghana is heavily dependent on exporting cacao.
Ghana?
How does poverty taste? Chocolatey. – Solidaridad Network
There is sufficient ethical production to supply some manufacturers. There really isn't much incentive to continue to improve ethics and sustainability without an export market.
I'd be good with trade with our Pacific neighbours provided it was actually ecologically sustainable (not greenwashed). I don't know if Fijians are being economically forced to cash crop and then can't afford to buy food themselves. Do you?
A sure winner for the government, taxing the company, not the individual. Put the money to helping families over the cost of living until Fair Pay agreements kick in.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/opinion-analysis/128536233/why-are-we-not-discussing-a-windfall-tax
Gotta keep the domestic supply going.
//
What's your point, Joe?
Here's an article from 2006 discussing the baby trade, or "reproductive market", in the US. Fewer abortions may help to make it easier, and cheaper, for couples to become parents. The gay community, in particular, could benefit from fewer abortions.
Presumably the author is setting up a public debate between the ethical and commercial costs of adoption versus the ethical and commercial costs of aborting unborn children.
The US movement against abortion will be seeking to push this kind of contest worldwide through the media, as distinct from the narrow band of international aid and development as they did under Bush.
Abortion laws worldwide: In what countries is abortion legal? (nbcnews.com)
The upcoming abortion argument contest is going to make the Trans debate look like a very, very small thing in comparison.
gee, I wonder what both those things have in common.
Brava!
I don't think so, Ad. Firstly, discussing rights for women, while reframed as a trans debate, is more of a maintaining of boundaries. However, the infiltration of institutions, companies and schools, and the negative effect on children and young people has meant that more people are getting interested in exploring past the #NoDebate edicts. That's going to take a while.
The abortion debate has never been hampered by #NoDebate tactics, and those who want to be informed will have plenty of opportunities to do so, with articles and television broadcasts from both sides.
It will be interesting to see on TS which of the male commentators will be able to demonstrate their knowledge of the aspects of the abortion topic.
Women aren't brood mares producing a fucking commodity to be traded.
useful I guess to hear it said outloud.
shh, you need to get on with times
They are birthing bodies with unproductive uteruses that need to be put to work. And yes, quite a few people are not at all fussed by the idea that birthing bodies are nothing more then bipedal gestation units for lease and profit, to be hired and discarded at will.
There will be a future were fertile wombs will be told by WINZ that if they need a job they could gestate a human being for a paying third party. Its like slavery but kind and inclusive.
Women aren't brood mares producing a fucking commodity to be traded.
Thats an opinion rather than fact. Adoption has been around for quite a while, and to a lesser extent surrogacy and IVF. What benefits have these brought parents-to-be and wider society? Where would we be without these options?
Ross, are you expressing the opinion that women are brood mares?
Weka
I was commenting on Joe’s opinion. To repeat: adoption has been around a while and to a lesser extent surrogacy and IVF. Do the existence of each of these imply or suggest that women are broodmares? I wouldn’t have thought so but you may disagree.
Similarly, should men be allowed to sell sperm? What are the pros and cons of allowing such a transaction?
Commercial surrogacy treats women like brood mares, yes.
have you ever given birth Ross? Do you have *any sense of what that process involves for women, and why many of us don't want to go through it unnecessarily.
they really don't care.
did you see this?
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10788221/Call-Mothers-Day-renamed-transgender-men-classified-giving-birth.html
Can't have motherday now that 'men' give birth.
There was a slogan a while back in regards to the violence against women. 'She is not your therapy'. I guess the woke left saw that and decided that 'She is your therapy' was the correct way to go forward.
So a man is telling us to stop calling mothers mothers. Not hidden agenda there.
Probably the most disturbing thing about that is the degree to which society (looking at you liberals) think that we should centre people with mental health distress (gender dysphoria) and base our cultural practices on what they want. And invent whole new sets of language to do that. Have we lost our goddamn minds?
The left have had all those years of screaming "TERF" at us when we said that biological sex existed and was important. Meanwhile the right wingers in the reality based world where biological sex not only exists but functions as a weapon to control women were organising and strategising for this victory. You cannot identify out of this one kiddies – enjoy your pronouns.
Have we lost our goddamn minds? I'm surprised you need to ask.
it was rhetorical 😈
Weka
As has been discussed previously, abortion is not an absolute right. Similarly, people who chose (perhaps sensibly) not to be vaccinated against COVID-19 apparently didn’t have the right to choose. I imagine that losing their job and possibly their home was quite inconvenient and upsetting.
As English author Julian Barnes once said: we can have our cake and eat it. The trouble is, we get fat.
rights are granted and taken away by society. In that sense no-one has an absolute right to anything.
I see you ignored my point about the impact on women of unnecessary pregnancy, childbirth and post-partum.
There are costs and benefits to any course of action. Your focus is on the costs while ignoring the benefits. The costs of IVF are discussed above. Some of those costs are born by taxpayers. Should that be the case? Maybe society thinks the benefits outweigh the costs.
do you consider birthing bodies to be even human?
Given how little you appear know about the difference between producing a child and producing sperm – "Similarly, should men be allowed to sell sperm?", I'm trying to gauge where your level of knowledge is on this topic.
1. a) What are the possible negative effects (physical, financial, social, psychological) of producing sperm on the male body?
b) What are the possible negative effects (physical, financial, social, psychological) of pregnancy on the female body?
c) Which one of these two will have an ongoing effect after production?
"Fewer abortions may help to make it easier, and cheaper, for couples to become parents. The gay community, in particular, could benefit from fewer abortions."
The quotes you provided specifically talk about women's bodies in production lines terms, and a child as a commodity.
There is a conversation to be had about the provision of IVF, and adoption. If you have spent time investigating adoption you may find that regardless of the care and love provided by adoptive parents, a significant percentage of adoptees have had disrupted lives due to their emotional reaction to their adoptive status.
But I'd be interested in hearing what you understand of the possible costs of pregnancy, just to get started.
Given how little you appear know
That's never a great start to a discussion lol.
a significant percentage of adoptees have had disrupted lives due to their emotional reaction to their adoptive status.
Yep life isn't fair. I'm sure a significant percentage of adoptees from Ukraine have had more than disrupted lives given that both of their biological parents may be dead. We should stop the war there.
What are the possible negative effects (physical, financial, social, psychological) of pregnancy on the female body?
What are the positive effects of pregnancy on the female body?
The quotes you provided specifically talk about women's bodies in production lines terms, and a child as a commodity.
A woman who makes a logical and well-thought out decision to have one or more babies may be nothing more than a production line? That's fairly insulting towards women who wish to be a surrogate or to place their child for adoption. It suggests that they are incapable of making good decisions about their own body. That sort of attitude may be behind the (interim) decision to overturn Roe v Wade.
https://www.opendooradoption.org/adoption-services/international-adoptions/ukraine/
Actually, it was a thinly veiled suggestion to go away and inform yourself before participating further. Sometimes it is clear that a comment is made from someone who hasn't explored the topic before submitting their reckons. This was one such time.
Now I've seen your reply, I still don't rate it highly, because it is a simplistic – and therefore basic understanding of what is being discussed.
"A woman who makes a logical and well-thought out decision to have one or more babies may be nothing more than a production line? That's fairly insulting towards women who wish to be a surrogate or to place their child for adoption. It suggests that they are incapable of making good decisions about their own body. That sort of attitude may be behind the (interim) decision to overturn Roe v Wade."
That position assumes that there are no forms of coercion, or exploitation of women' bodies happening. If you know of such a place, do tell.
If women are in a tenuous or vulnerable position, and have choices other than adoption or surrogacy, and still choose them, then I'd say that choice is fairly autonomous, but still not without harm. Given that the majority of women in commercial surrogacy are there for financial relief or in desperate circumstances – I'd say there is something else occurring other than autonomy. There are also knock on social effects – on the child, the purchasing parents, and the wider community, that need to be recognised and assessed for harm.
But I’m game to learn of a different perspective, so have at it, what are the "positive effects of pregnancy on the female body?"
(I know of a couple, but would be interested in seeing your list, since you seem to want to avoid any mention of the negative effects that IIRC were not limited to physical, but included social, financial, psychological.)