Well it’s still relevant if it is going to be cleared.
I’d like to see an international agreement that protects (and offers an allowance) to the world’s natural areas like rainforests and jungles, to keep them natural and untouched, free of people apart from indigenous people and free of habitat destruction. This would contribute to international biodiversity and helping climate change and help the world retain those areas. I’m pretty sure there is only 4% jungles left for example in the world and they house a significant proportion of biodiversity in the world.
I’d also like to see another measure for forests and international agreements for retaining them.
Sad that the antarctic fishing marine reserves have been stopped by some greedy countries.
Not sure if this is true (from 2005) but I was surprised what countries had the most forests. At that time the world had approx 30% still in forests although that was 13 years ago. (Not sure if this is a measure of the quality of the forests though, aka are they monocultures like pines?)
Forest-rich and forest-poor countries. The five most forest-rich countries (the Russian Federation, Brazil, Canada, the United States and China) account for more than half of total forest area (2 097 million hectares or 53 percent). The Russian Federation alone accounts for 20 percent of the world total. Seven countries have more than 100 million hectares of forest each. The ten most forest-rich countries account for 66 percent of total forest area (Figure 2.3). The remaining 34 percent is spread among 212 countries and areas. Seven countries and areas (the Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, the Holy See, Monaco, Nauru, South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands and Tokelau) reported having no areas that qualify as forests using the FRA 2005 definition.
High and low forest cover countries. Forty-five countries and areas have more than half their total land area covered by forests (Figure 2.4), and 11 of these have more than 75 percent of their total land area covered. Most of these are small island states or territories, but the list also includes three low-lying coastal states in South America and one country in the Congo Basin (Table 2.2).
Sixty-four countries and areas have less than 10 percent of their total land area covered by forests. These include many SIDS and dependent territories, as well as 17 larger countries with relatively substantial forest areas (more than 1 million hectares each). Three of these (Chad, the Islamic Republic of Iran and Mongolia) have more than 10 million hectares of forest, but still qualify as LFCCs.
At the regional level, South America is the region with the highest percentage of forest cover, followed by Europe and North and Central America. Asia is the region with the lowest percentage of forest cover (Table 2.3).”
“The Amazon Rainforest has been described as the “Lungs of our Planet” because it provides the essential environmental world service of continuously recycling carbon dioxide into oxygen. More than 20 percent of the world oxygen is produced in the Amazon Rainforest.
More than half of the world’s estimated 10 million species of plants, animals and insects live in the tropical rainforests. One-fifth of the world’s fresh water is in the Amazon Basin.
One hectare (2.47 acres) may contain over 750 types of trees and 1500 species of higher plants.
At least 80% of the developed world’s diet originated in the tropical rainforest. Its bountiful gifts to the world include fruits like avocados, coconuts, figs, oranges, lemons, grapefruit, bananas, guavas, pineapples, mangos and tomatoes; vegetables including corn, potatoes, rice, winter squash and yams; spices like black pepper, cayenne, chocolate, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, sugar cane, tumeric, coffee and vanilla and nuts including Brazil nuts and cashews.”
The left cuddles up to Fascism? How did you get to that conclusion?
Hi Sanctuary,
Maybe you need to address that question to the biggest, (remaining), Left Assad apologist on this site.
But since you asked:
Cuddling up to fascism
New Zealand’s biggest Centre Left blogsite gives TS author Bill, free reign to censor comment that provides factual evidence of the fascist nature of the Assad regime.
In refusing to address the evidence I presented here and earlier, Bill continually and repeatedly made accusations that I am liar. Bill has never tried to refute what I have written. Neither has Bill ever pointed out where I am have supposed to have lied about him or any other author. NOT ONCE! NOT EVER!
In this way we see the convergence between fascists and some on the Left, not just in ideas but in tactics. Having no moral defence for his position on Syria, Bill and others like him have to resort to these sorts of methods.
Maybe Bill hopes that by continually repeating the accusation without evidence that I am a liar often enough, people will believe him. ie the big lie tactic,
Bill uses this blanket accusation of lying (without giving any evidence of it), along with bans, as a way to avoid addressing the Issues I raise.
Bill is not bothered with lies, but with truth.
Bill is a conscious genocide ignorer. To suit his argument Bill actively ignores the evidence of the huge crimes against humanity committed by the Assad regime. Bill has repeatedly refused to address the evidence of this genocide that I have put before him. And rather than defend his position with rational debate, or refute this evidence, Bill chooses to deliberately ignore it. Rather than attempting to refute my position, Bill chooses outright censorship, or comment suppression. (ie shunting my refutation of his claims, to the bottom of open mike where he hopes no one will see them), above discussion.
This behaviour is allowed, or at the least tolerated by the other Standard authors.
Sanctuary, You may not agree with me that this is the Left cuddling up to fascism, but in my opinion it indicates a certain level of comfort with it.
Another symptom of this political malaise was the promotion of Colonial Viper to Author status not that long after CV had openly called for the gunning down of, at that time, peaceful protesters in the most bloodthirstiest of terms.
I remember writing to CV at the time, trying to gently as I could, chide him for his use of extreme calls for bloodshed, saying that I thought it had no place in family friendly website like The Standard.
However my cautions went unheeded.
And the elevation of this openly pro-fascist supporter of mass murder to authorship had its inevitable dismal conclusion.
And this softness towards Syrian fascism continues.
The Standard may not have an actual editorial line on Syria. But as far as I know The Standard has never allowed one single post defending the Syrian revolution.
In the light of this glaring omission…..
“….It came to me as a shock, actually, that most of them have sided with Bashar al-Assad. I don’t expect much out of the international left, but I thought they would understand our situation and see us as a people who were struggling against a very despotic, very corrupt, and very sectarian regime. I thought they would see us and side with us. What I found, unfortunately, is that most people on the left know absolutely nothing about Syria. They know nothing of its history, political economy, or contemporary circumstances, and they don’t see us.
In America, the leftists are against the establishment in their own country. In a way, they thought that the U.S. establishment was siding with the Syrian revolution — something that is completely false and an utter lie — and for this reason they have stood against us. And this applies to leftists almost everywhere in the world. They are obsessed with the White House and the establishment powers of their own countries. The majority are also still obsessed with the old Cold War-era struggles against imperialism and capitalism.
Recently, an event in Rome that displayed images of those tortured and killed by Assad was attacked by fascists. Just days before, it had also been attacked in a local communist newspaper for promoting “imperialism.” There is a growing convergence between the views of fascists and the far-left about Syria and other issues….”
Yassin Al-Haj Saleh* – .The Intercept, October 27,2016
The film Nae Pasaran is a timely antidote to this moral malaise and spiritual sickness afflicting the modern Left that allows us to ignore genocide, and support dictatorship. The film Nae Pasaran is a window looking into a past and showing us the Left’s once disgust at dictatorship. This is the sort of courageous, uncompromising and uplifting message that we sorely need today.
There was a phrase that jumped out at me from the promo of this film;
Recounting the solidarity shown to the Chilean people by the Left in Scotland in the ’70s, Is the phrase attributed to a Chilean activist. “We often thought the world had forgotten us”
So often I have heard almost the exact same quote from those suffering under the Assad fascist style genocide.
Unfortunately for Syria, it is true.
*Yassin Al-Haj Saleh Wikipedia:
Yassin al-Haj Saleh
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Yassin al-Haj Saleh
Born 1961 (age 56–57)
Raqqa,Syria
Residence Berlin,Germany
Alma mater University of Aleppo
Occupation writer, political dissident
Spouse(s) Samira Khalil
Website http://www.yassinhs.com
Yassin al-Haj Saleh(born inRaqqain 1961)[1]is aSyrianwriter and political dissident. He writes on political, social and cultural subjects relating to Syria and the Arab world.[1]
From 1980 until 1996 he spent time in prison in Syria for his membership in the left-wing opposition groupSyrian Communist Party (Political Bureau),[2]which he calls a “communist pro-democracy group”.[3][4]However, he has also stated that his time in prison allowed him to break out of the “internal prisons [of] narrow political affiliation [and] rigid ideology”, and has called theSyrian revolutionan “open-ended and multi-leveled struggle”, while remaining supportive of aspects ofMarxism.[2]He was arrested while he was studying medicine inAleppoand spent sixteen years in prison, the last inTadmur Prison. He took his final examination as a general medical practitioner in 2000, but never practiced.[1]
He has been granted aPrince Claus Awardfor 2012 as “actually a tribute to the Syrian people and theSyrian revolution. He was not able to collect the award as he is living hiding in the underground in Syria.[5]He was awarded Swedish Tucholsky Prize in 2017.[6]He was one of the talkers in a two-day anti-capitalist forum, which was held in Ankara, Turkey, on Nov 23rd-24th, 2013. Additionally, he was speaking at the event ‘Reporting Change – Stories from the Arab region’ in Amsterdam on 15 June 2014, an event jointly organized byHuman Rights WatchandWorld Press Photo.[7]
Al-Haj Saleh is married toSamira Khalil, a communist dissident, former political detainee and a revolutionary activist abducted in Douma in December 2013.[8]After 21 months of hiding inDamascusand wholeSyria, for being wanted by both the government and radical Islamist militants, he fled toTurkeyand lived inIstanbuluntil 2017. Al-Haj Saleh is now a fellow atBerlin Institute for Advanced Study(Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin).[9]
Works[edit]
One of the most influential Arab writers and dissidents as well as a prominent intellectual voice of theSyrian revolution, Yassin Al-Haj Saleh writes on political, social and cultural subjects relating to Syria and the Arab world for several Arab newspapers and journals outside of Syria, and regularly contributes to the London-basedAl-Hayat newspaper, the Egyptian leftist magazine Al-Bosla, and the Syrian online periodical The Republic.
Among his books (the majority in Arabic):
Syria in the Shadow: Glimpses Inside the Black Box(2009, Dar Jidar);
Walking on One Foot(2011, Dar al-Adab, Beirut), a collection of 52 essays about Syrian affairs, written between 2006 and 2010;
Salvation O Boys: 16 Years in Syrian Prisons(2012, Dar al-Saqi, Beirut);
The Myths of the Latters: A Critique of Contemporary Islam and a Critique of its Critique(2012, Dar al-Saqi, Beirut);
Deliverance or Destruction? Syria at a Crossroads(2014, Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies);
The Impossible Revolution: Making Sense of the Syrian Tragedy(2017, Hurst Publishers, London). [In English]
Jenny, I value what you have to add here and I’m sorry to see you go after stoushes like this one looks likely to turn into.
In the meantime, I’d like to suggest an alternative way of interpreting Bill’s contributions. It seems to me that Bill has a streak of compulsive contrarianism, particularly with respect to msm reporting. This contrarianism leads him to take positions that appear to support some really ugly regimes, but are much more the result of contrarianism rather than holding sympathies towards those regimes. And when defending those contrarian positions in the heat of the moment, things can be said which can easily be misinterpreted to reinforce an impression of regime sympathies.
Kia ora, Jenny. I think you are going way to far in concluding that because some TS authors are less critical of the Assad regime than others, that means that we are cuddling up to fascism. Eddie, Michael Valley, MS and myself posts all wrote posts early in the Syrian civil war that were far from complimentary about the Syrian Government.
Later on, TS clearly was swamped with trolly pro-Putin, pro Assad posts, but that was mainly from an author who you correctly identify as being from the far right and who is here no more.
Additionally, the complexity of this war and the ongoing fight against religious fascism in the regime makes it incredibly hard to work out where support should go at any given time. Kinda like the Falklands/Malvinas blue, where two nasty regimes came to blows, I see Syria as two (or more) strains of fascism fighting amongst themselves. And, as always in war, the real losers are the civilians.
There are a couple of authors at TS who remain deeply cynical about the ‘truth’ in the Syrian conflict, but so what? You, and anybody else, are free to post alternatives. Just don’t personalise your responses and you should be fine.
Kim Hill is casually toying with Seymour on Morning Report. “A listener has suggested that the seat of Epsom might qualify as a taxpayer funded junket.” Great to listen to.
Btw @ ScottGN, how do you think we should measure the success of the jaunt to Japan by the two that Mr Rimmer is trying to ‘hold to account’.
Should it be statisically on the basis of a weight to benefit ratio?
or
Should it be statistically on the basis of a ‘heft’ to benefit ratio? (going forward)
A graphic that is both terrible and awesome. So many died – so many of us.
“More than 18,000 New Zealanders lost their lives in World War One. You can find out more about them in this interactive graphic, which shows every person who died.”
So true. We are still suffering as a society for this.
“A lot of people lost their lives. Those that didn’t gave up a significant period of their lives, and those who weren’t killed came home often with severe injuries, physically and certainly mentally, and many struggled to fit back into society.
“When I have been to Gallipoli and Passchendaele … you look down and pick out a grave and you think, ‘What would have happened? How would history have changed if that person wasn’t killed?’
I am so over this glorification of WW1 which is a distraction from the real feelings of outrage and grief we might feel about the courageous and/or dogged sacrifices of the dead of other wars since. We are up to our eyes in a wash of sentiment being organised around a significant date, out of all the significant war dates that should be memorialised, and have been excluded from mention. I remember General Eisenhower of the USA* and his reference to the USA industrial-military complex is in this link. More info about him and his Presidential term below.
Now we will remember them, tomorrow we will move on and not think about it. Going through the motions about war, and its continuance and in preparation for more affrays all the time. I have taken the opportunity to buy some books on WW1 and some illustrated ones and these have displayed the reality. When I go to Anzac Day ceremonies they are repetitive memorials about the disastrous event where people were forced to try to kill others and often received the same result. While remembering the past event and the fallen, it shows a resigned, almost inevitable attitude and anti-war and anti-belligerence approach is very slightly mentioned.
Instead of having a compulsory study of our human history, including wars and national economic forces we have these parades that don’t convey the spectrum of losses caused by war. They finish, leaving an open wound in political and national co-operation and trust between humans and examples of how relatively easy it is for nations to throw out respect and human rights for individuals and groups. Post-war, we lack ‘debriefing’ with the nation and particularly its young, and this just puts a scab over that wound; there is no lasting restoration to a state of higher morality and human respect, and declining and demeaning behaviours lurk in the human herd and heads, always ready to appear from our dark corners.
This 1982 video is from the USA archives and shows how there is a constant campaign to create unrest so that countries are destabilised from foreign interference.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeFgd6gGTWk
No glorification just remberance. Not many families here unaffected. In today’s world few want to front up to the hard questions and hard conclusions around war. Too many put their head in the sand and then wonder why it all happens again.
Pardon me! It is indeed glorification when John Key and the RSA spend $120 million? on the project to provide a new WW1 memorial because a certain date is reached.
After the actual WW1 people who cared paid for memorials themselves all around the country. There are plenty of memorials already; people since 1915 have not forgotten. The memorials were funded by local communities without government assistance. Those who had raised patriotic funds during the war, especially women, often did the hard work. https://teara.govt.nz/en/memorials-and-monuments/page-4
The construction of the park and Arras tunnel needed for the project started in October 2012 at the cost of $120-million.
Curator of the National War Memorial Paul Riley said it was a much-needed addition.
“A few years ago we had a mobile petrol station, a vehicle testing station, tire shop and hire pool right opposite where we are standing now,” Mr Riley said.
“We have a complete contrast now. This is far more appropriate opposite a national shrine.”
The park has a new Australian memorial, featuring fifteen columns of rugged red sandstone blocks.
It is a reciprocal gesture to the “basket handles” of the New Zealand Memorial in Canberra.
A sculpture of a Hinerangi figure, symbolising the daughter of the heavens, by Maori sculptor Darcy Nicholas was also unveiled.
The park will be officially opened on 18 April, a week before Anzac Day.
We have been remembering WW1 for ever on Anzac Day and in other ways and with more people going to view the early morning gathering of veterans marching to the memorials that are in every city.
It is hard for me to find information about the total cost of the Wellington memorial, it does not come up in a discussion about it at stats or in the factual detail from other sources, but I believe that the actual memorial cost $16 million, plus the acquisition of the land for Pukeahu Park.
It was glorification to put up another memorial. That money should have gone to help veterans with treatment needed, to enable peace meetings, to pay for stories about brave forces people, and brave resistance people, and brave civilians, and brave anti-war people on both sides. We should remember these people for sure, and not just at parades and photo-ops for politicians. because they are us and we should be spending on projects preventing more wars arising from clashes between political cultures; a peace museum? That could be used for holding conferences, talks, displays about war and about development to help the people of the world. The subjects discussed would include ending inhumanity in our own country, assisting that in other countries, what is important. Because we are all one entity, one animal, though in many forms different only in our looks.
Okay you just started me off on a line of thought that has been in mind for a while so it’s good to put that up.
Sorry if it wasn’t just on your thought.
I am right with you, Greywarshark. I fear that remembrance is constantly being turned into glorification. Celebrating the brilliant feats pulled off by our Kiwi guys in France using their No 8 Fencing Wire mentality, blah blah. WW1 was an utter bloody tragedy that should have been curtailed. Our media are not promoting the true lessons of history, and are thereby propelling us towards a foolish repetition.
Why not have a look at every person killed in that war and consider the question raised about what the world would have been if those individuals were not slaughtered.
They died in the mud and shit and stink – for what? So that you can say, “Celebrating the brilliant feats pulled off by our Kiwi guys in France using their No 8 Fencing Wire mentality, blah blah.”
Yes what a waste of good people marty mars. Do you think we don’t care about them. If they had cared so much the government wouldn’t be so quick to send troops off to the badlands of WW1.
That is why it is a travesty to pretend to care by building an extra monument; tidying up the old one and setting up a fund to help our youth so they have trades and jobs and going to war isn’t the only thing for them. The gummint could have set up WW1 Memorial Apprenticeships to aim for. Getting ‘on their feet’ would be something the dead guys and women would have liked for their grandchildren.
No I don’t think you care. But that’s okay. I’m not glorifying war or death – I’m not arguing about the utter waste of people or the callous disregard for them by generals and politicians then or now. I simply acknowledging that they died horribly. That there is a new interactive site where every dead person is named and described. And I put another link up to an article talking about the loss of these people and the loss for us all when the survivors and maimed returned home.
Marty – are you one of those who has to have ‘sarc’ signalled after every example that seemed obvious to the writer? Or do you just rush and not think about what you read?
I take people as they write and respect that they say what they mean and put the tags they want on anything they write. I spose i do sometimes get surprised by some of the comments i read. For instance the jamileeross stuff filled me with great sadness when i read the stupid comments from people i normally admire comment wise. Sometimes also i agree with something someone says and then really disagree with what they write. Such is life. I’m sure others would have harsher thoughts on me but mostly I try not to give a fuck too much on what others think and stick to my kaupapa.
Appears the attack line from the Hosk, HDPA et al is to call for immediate sacking of any minister that appears to have a challenge in the carrying out of their job. According to the Hosk today the immigration minister has made a “catastrophic” error and must lose his job. If Hosk, let alone that HDPA twit, were subject to the same view, by all accounts they would have been gone long ago.
Just don’t “click” on them it has become bizarre and the Herald had a major announcement this morning that Hosking is going to be made to work a whole ½ longer today – all that means to me is another ½ spent avoiding that radio feed.
The trouble is ignoring the Herald won’t make this nonsense disapear. The likes of the Herald hold sway over a fair chunk of the electorate’s opinions and for that reason they must be held to account. My response is to throw the nonsense back at them and make them qualify what they print. This mornings effort is a classic example of pure headline grabbing beat up.
Just a shame they didn’t see fit to hold the previous Minister to the same standard, who when it comes down to it all, is responsible for the mess I L-G is in today.
Oh don’t be so bloody mean @Psyche nurse.
She’s not brown or black or yellow (maybe a bit orange), is reasonably wealthy, married to a bastion of the 4th Estate, has her own ‘show’, has never been surveilled by Thompson and Clark, and would probably figure quite low on a non-racist demographic risk management spreadsheet
… and you forgot to add is as shallow as they come, which is a prerequisite for a successful career as a populist political commentator where taking money for nothing of substance is the primary motivation.
I kinda recall something about the duke getting told to take a break until next year, but now I can’t find where that happened. If solkta copped a whack from the ban hammer, I missed it.
It’s an interesting phenomenon – sometimes folks who care passionately seem to recognise that they’re getting too worked up and picking fights with a moderator (often an author moderating their own post, but also often just a mod who’s doing their community maintenance volunteer work). But maybe they can’t draw themselves away and decide they need to get banned for their own good.
Last sightings of solkta seem to be OM 3 Nov and Labour Conference Notes 3 Nov, but am assuming he/she has other priorities or has decided of their own volition to take a break. Actually comment numbers seem to be down the last few days overall – perhaps the weather, spring, start of build up to the end of year celebrations etc.
Last sightings of duke on 5 Nov, OM and JLR Tapes – some things to be worked out re postings the previous day.
If people can prove to whoever that they are rehabilitated then they should get the chance to live their lives. I wouldn’t extend that to sex offenders on registered sex offender lists.
Being vindictive to those that have made mistakes, learned from it, and want to move on is childish and ineffective.
Totally depends. Anonymity is not useful when repeat offender violent and predatory types exist, and there’s a fair few of them.
‘Victim-less’ crime might be wiped after a pattern of good living for x years. The sociopaths and evil dirt bags should be monitored for life. Gang members zero reprieve till they leave their gang, and then a pattern of good living for x years.
Not everyone is a misunderstood youth in need of a hug, some are complete assholes. That counts especially for white collar crims.
Why let a fraudster back in business. They can be employees but not bosses imo. Likewise embezzlement etc. These crims have myriad victims, a lot worse than a poor kid who pinches stuff. No record wiping for these premeditating deliberately callous self obsessed criminals.
People make mistakes and learn. But some plot for themselves 24/7. Screw those people make the penalties harsher.
You raise a valid point. Why let a fraudster back in business. They can be employees but not bosses imo. Likewise embezzlement etc. These crims have myriad victims, a lot worse than a poor kid who pinches stuff. No record wiping for these premeditating deliberately callous self obsessed criminals.
About criminals. The word sounds really bad but mothers trying to bring up kids, trying to run a household and have a life on an inadequate income get put in jail because they coudn’t manage with what they had. Just give them more money, more training, more child care, less oppressive claw-back as soon as they earn something. The hatred and meanness of the government ‘welfare’ system is a bloody disgrace. And succeeding governments seem powerless to adopt reasonable approaches and ensure that reason and kindness are ingrained into the system, and all that work within it.
Yet private people prey on others and manage to weave their way round the legal system leaving ordinary people who try to be good citizens impoverished in their wake.
Of course NZ is second in the world for being easy to get into business, can’t put limits on the crooks or we might spoil our well-known record, which brings investment money into NZ for some purpose and gives the effect of having a booming economy. Yeah right.
Part of the problem is the way that Ministries contract out their work and take no responsibility for the way it is carried out. ‘Oh’ says the National Minister ‘I can’t do anything about (whatever disgraceful matter). That’s an operational matter’. It was shown up this morning on Radionz when a Transport agency man was being questioned about faulty checks on imported cars. They get away with sloppiness that wouldn’t be acceptable by a part-time low paid casual worker. Yet they can ponce around on high salaries. They aren’t doing their work lawfully, as in being suitable for their purpose, or in not meeting the standards of service that they hold themselves out to deliver.
We are run by she’ll-be-rights who pay themselves too much, deliver too little, fudge too much, pull the wool over our eyes too much, and punish the little people struggling with difficulties overwhelming them too much.
Yep, that whole “I can’t comment because it’s ‘an operational’ matter” croc is used all too often. And the definition of what is ‘operational’ and what is not seems pretty flexible.
I’m not sure why elected representatives can’t comment on ‘operational matters’ – especially when the operatives are not living up to what is expected of them.
I might be wrong, but it seems to have become a convenience since the last round of public service/corporatisation reforms.
Oh, and btw, that NZTA thing was a shocker, even if you’re forgiving yourself for thinking Kim Hill is driving a second hand Japanese import and is worrying about the integrity of its airbags whilst rolling down a Brooklyn hill on her way to an RNZ studio.
(Don’t mention the trucking industry towbars! Shhhhhh! Wet Wellington bus tickets at the ready – and ‘moreover’ this is a ‘technical issue’ that you just wouldn’t understand – because WE are the professionals and we’re ‘officials’ not to be challenged, not never!)
Yes it was good to hear that NZTA boss explain it all to Kim Hill who couldn’t seem to see why she shouldn’t keep asking some direct questions and get a direct answer of explanation. Sweet fudging.
Rising levels of ‘black carbon’ in Queen St heighten health risk for Aucklanders
“Pedestrians and workers in Auckland’s Queen St are being exposed to high levels of “black carbon”, or ultra-fine carbon particles associated with a number of health problems.
Black carbon emissions are more than three times higher than Canadian cities and twice as high for concentrations in major European, UK and American cities, according to an article published by Auckland Council’s research and evaluation unit.”
“The article said high buildings in Queen St reduce airflow and allow air pollutant concentrations to increase close to ground level. High numbers of diesel buses in the central city and emissions from the port and ferry terminal contributed to air pollution levels.”
Time to put the stadium and all the other polluting enterprises like Cruise ships and actually concentrate on safety of all the people and develop the wharf area and the city into open spaces free of pollution that workers and residents living in central Auckland can escape to! Not be polluted further by!
NZ is not going to have people living in Auckland city (and other cities) in those apartments or working there if the air quality they breathe is harming them!
As for the diesel fuelling public transport and trucks, again, NZ councils and government have clearly got their head’s up their arses on this one as they continually introduce more and more polluting elements into our city and our RMA laws and interpretation of them is dysfunctional.
There’s reason to be cautious about some testing regimes, notably TOEFL, in which the relatively high variation serves the business model (by encouraging multiple resits).
IELTS is more robust, and the convention that working at an academic level requires a basic standard less arbitrary.
I’d be interested to know where the story came from: government seeking to lower the bar to ease recruitment, non-state employers looking for cheap labour, or extant teachers trying to prevent creeping erosion of standards.
I think that some of our laws need to be more tightly focussed. I am thinking it is too general to have a law forbidding ‘sexual harassment’ which doesn’t convey well the extent of the fault.
Geoffrey Rush’s defamation case a ‘roll-call’ of actors
From Morning Report, 8:56 am today
Listen duration 4′ :26″ A defamation case brought by the Oscar-winning actor Geoffrey Rush against the Daily Telegraph newspaper in Sydney is nearing a close.
Rush is suing the newspaper over articles it published last year, which claimed he behaved inappropriately with a co-star during a King Lear production in 2015.
Eryn-Jean Norvill, who played Cordelia in the Shakespeare play, has given evidence in the federal court in Sydney that Rush sexually harassed her.
He denies the allegations.
It may come that men will start suing women about the way they dress, showing body parts that have strong sexual connotations and attraction to men such as breasts, and saying that they are deliberately displaying themselves which introduces thoughts of sexuality which otherwise would not have arisen, and that is a form of sexual harassment!
Ocean Cloud Water owns an existing 33-metre deep bore in the northern suburb of Belfast, from which it is extracting and bottling 4.3 million litres of water a day.
It has now applied to the Environment Canterbury for permission to extract water from a 186-metre deep bore at the plant so it can sell it abroad.
Vicki Buck the former mayor of Christchurch and chair of the Council’s Innovation and Sustainability Committee, says this could compromise Christchurch’s water supply.
Kathryn also talks with Steve Lowndes, Chair of Environment Canterbury.
Kathryn Ryan and Vicki Buck Christchurch Councillor, had a very interesting conversation in this interview about water bottling demands being made on Christchurch city pure water aquifer.
“Unemployment has dropped to 3.9 per cent, the lowest level since the global financial crisis, causing the New Zealand dollar to surge.
On Tuesday Statistics New Zealand revealed that the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 3.9 per cent in the three months to September 30, down from 4.4 per cent at the end of June.
It is the lowest unemployment rate since June 2008, when unemployment was 3.8 per cent.”
Well now partner the ways I sees it is I reckon that if’n Nationals going to be blamed for all the negative stuff then it seems only fair to my ways of thinking that they need to be praised for all of the good stuff to
no numbers of new jobs created
how many people of benefit into studies
how many people of unemployment benefit to other benefits
how many unemployed people retiring
how many unemployed people going still unemployed but not listed as unemployed
this article is actually really lazy and leaves more questions then answers. as to business confidence, who was asked? Bankers?
Yes that dropping out of the system could be the answer. Going along to register and getting treated like a dropout, and being forced to apply for useless jobs where the hours are shit and the transport is not available to suit the hours, or the cost uses all your wages up. And you try and have a life but can’t carry out your duties to family and wor at all odd hours when the fingers get snapped. And you have to notify the Dept each week probably about your earnings so you get a cut in your benefit immediately but they probably take a while to bring it up to a normal level when the hours are cut. It could make you feel like suicide.
And don’t forget how they keep changing the way unemployment is measured – to make Govt. look good by not counting people who used to be counted. I don’t trust this rubbish at all. It is not lowest…
I’m going to make enquiries as to how they get the employment figures. Looking up google all the detail is about measuring the unemployed HxLxW. Stats advise who constitutes an unemployed person but I would like it spelled out as to who is employed – it must be paid work for a start, and how many hours, and it will probably say a minimum of one but I want to know for sure. I guess it will be phrased like ‘Did you do any paid work in the last week and how many hours? The last month and how many hours?
Do they count travelling time? If you have to travel an hour there and another back to work two hours, then that should be counted in a separate column which would also be interesting to see.
StatsNZ are pretty good at putting everything online, but the volume of what they publish means that getting the vibe of what search terms to use (or avoid) can take a while.
Well if we’re reading between the lines as (Jacinda) likes to say then I’m guessing ILG is not going to be feeling too comfortable for the next wee while (nor should he)
Well much like National wanted Little to stay I’m guessing Labour want Bridges to stay and since I’m advising Jude I’ll let you in on what I’ve advised her
Let Bridges stay on untill after the next election and then take over in a very seamless, orderly transition a couple of months after
Of course whether she takes my advice is another story…
Saint Jude the Saviour lol certainly a lot needs saved that’s for sure but based on her track record she may as well be called St Jude the Saveloy cos she ain’t got it – never had it and never will imo.
For those of us who watch Question Time in Parliament, we won’t see either the PM or Simon Bridges there today. Seems they are in Ratana to celebrate the centenary “since prophet Tahupotiki Wiremu Ratana is said to have received a divine revelation from which the Ratana Church was born.”
Marama Davidson is also there as is Shane Jones, according to the Herald.
Considering the discussions here in the last few days or so re Kiwibuild etc, people may be interested in this little snippet in the last paragraph of the Herald article, which is easy to miss lost due to its stupid placement between “Related Articles” and “Herald Recommends”:
“The Government is expected to make an announcement on housing at Ratana. Previous governments have also used Ratana celebrations to make similar announcements.”
Meanwhile, it looks like Winston Peters and Paula Bennett have been left to mind the shop. Winston is not at Ratana according to the above article, and Bennett has Question 2 this afternoon to the PM -“the usual “Does she stand by all of her Government’s statements and actions?”
Presumably Peters and Bennett will still be minding the shop tomorrow, Thursday, as the PM and Leader of the Opposition do not attend Question Time on Thursdays.
So the next time we can hope to see the “Clash of the Titans” between Ardern and Bridges* is not until 27 November for the final three weeks of the House sitting for 2018, as the House is in recess for the next two weeks. The final sitting session will only be three weeks as opposed to the usual four weeks as the House is due to rise for the Summer Recess on Thursday, 13 December.
* Assuming Bridges is still Leader of the National Party …
I don’t disagree that such questions are a problem and have become too much a case of game playing, rather than the Govt being properly being held to account, etc in Question Time.
Their purpose is so that the Govt Minister answering the primary question (or rather, their advisers, Ministry etc) cannot prepare detailed answers as they do for more specific primary questions on specific topics – thus leaving the Minister in the firing line unsure what is going to follow in the supplementary questions.
Thus, behind the scenes it becomes a guessing game as to what is going to follow and advisers etc end up rushing around trying to cover all possibilities in terms of providing briefing notes to the Minister.
From Robin Westenra.
This needs to be a thread.
The second most important story in New Zealand.
This is quite simply the best item mainstream media has come out on this story.
It illustrates why John Campbell had to leave Radio NZ – it is far too politically-correct to have given him to follow this robust line of enquiry.
Campbell makes the essential point that trying to gain influence is natural for any superpower and that, while the US, through the 5 Eyes can simply come through the front door with their spy equipment the Chinese are forced to come through the back door.
While I remain on leave on medical advice, it is important my constituents in the Botany Electorate continue to have a vote cast on their behalf in Parliament. I appreciate NZ First supporting Botany by accepting my request to cast a proxy vote. pic.twitter.com/712dZQjMTY
Kia ora The Am Show The American midterm election has thrown a spanner in trump’s ——– this is a win for the Wahine and minority cultures with the House won by the Democrats that give’s America a humane voice with gerrymandering what has happened there they change the electoral lines that give the go oil party a huge advantage in the House election’s because of gerrymandering so in many of those seats the Democrats won the mojority but republicans still get the seat shonky would have pulled tactics like that if national won .
.https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/nov/04/america-minority-rule-voter-suppression-gerrymandering-supreme-court
Fuel tax is all good seenothing at least that revenue serves the Majority unlike big business were there profits only serve your rich m8’s % 00.1 no .
Of coarse one of the % 00.1 the ceo of walmart is going to say that about trump .
Its the middle and poor classes and minority groups that are getting ripped off buy the go oil party .
Its cool that the ban smoking in cars is getting big support as it should.
Kaiapo school being burnt is a stupid act who burns down a school for te mokopuna’s is a fool.
I agree with Amada we need those corporate fight’s need more laws to protect the fighters . Ka kite ano .
To all the good people who got up and voted for the left Ladies and Minority cultures .
Eco Maori THANKS YOU ALL KIA KAHA this is a big win for the LEFT.
This is just a distraction taxing red meat they say the big picture is we need a world carbon TAX lets stay focused on the real threat to OUR future it is not cow farts it is the petrol we put in our car trucks buses boat’s .
Get a good working world tax on carbon and use the money to pay for renewable energy a oil baron’s investment on the propagandize machine link below ka kite ano.
I agree with George on this story I read it on another site we need OUR voices heard on protecting the innocent wild life and our children Ka pai.David Attenborough has betrayed the living world he loves
Ka kite ano link below.
Geothermal renewable base load energy is a technology the oil barons have suppresed
we have a couple running in Aotearoa NZ
A trailblazing energy project has started drilling the UK’s deepest ever borehole in Cornwall in a bid to use heat from hot rocks as a zero-carbon source of electricity.
The team behind the £18m scheme hopes to create the UK’s first deep geothermal power station and ignite a renewed interest in the technology’s wider potential.
The project near Redruth involves two deep holes being drilled over a course of around six months. Drilling began on Tuesday, with one hole expected to be 1.6 miles (2.5km) deep and the other as far as 2.8 miles (4.5km) down, which would be a UK record for a borehole.
Water will then be pumped into the shallower well, where it should be heated by naturally fractured hot rocks deep underground, hitting temperatures of up to 195C.
Ka kite ano link below P.S let hope this project is successful.
The Man accused of blackmailing DOC over 1080 programme named you will see what type of person is making these foolish threats to state employees ka kite ano link below
Kia ora Tekaea I say its cool that NZFirst is doing to helping Ross and his el
30.000 Ratana people in Australia that’s heaps its a shame that they have to go there to get a better life there was no reason but suppression why te tangata whenua moved from te whenua .
The Ngapuhi settlements should settle and use the money to lift te tangata wairua.
The sport training Awhata is a good thing its cool to teach the tamariki about fitness and control.
Ka kite ano
Kia ora Newshub I still say Galloway was set up when I take on new management roles I have most time’s clean out the rat’s the one time I did not do this it bit me on the——-.
IPCA washing there image typical tactic the car chase 200 klm 3 dead.
Jeff Sessions is a honorable person Kia Kaha Jeff.
Is that global warming the West coats of Aotearoa getting hammered by tawhirimatea well that will fill some of the hydro power lakes .
Yes I say all the taps and pluming parts that are used in out water supply should be looked at and tested for lead content .
Our power prices are one of the highest in the OECD and what they use hydro to provide most of our power supplies.???? A lot of lies have been told about why our power prices are so high.
The new phones are advancing fast and with them battery technology I say battery power storage is going to revolutionize the renewable energy sector .
Ka kite ano .
Kia ora James & Strrom from The Crowd Goes Wild That’s awesome Trent bolt got a hatrick in the Pakistan first one day over test game and won that;s the way Ross Taylor let em know that you can see what they are up to good game.
That reff let the player know who’s boss by yellow card both front rows in Rugby .
Good on Sulu the netball player for getting a tattoos to show her culture and she is having a good run Mana Wahine .
Ka kite ano P.S good luck to the Black Ferns game in France
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This week’s “Youth Parliament” is an expensive waste of time that promotes taxpayer-funded junketeering, says the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union . “We shouldn’t be training kids on the joys of the trough,” says Taxpayers’ Union spokesperson ...
Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones admitted on Q+A tonight that the state of New Zealand’s infrastructure planning is “dismal” and the government needs to get on with building “rather than writing more reports about it.” ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Flannery, Planetary Scientist, Queensland University of Technology This weekend marks 50 years exactly since humans first walked on the Moon. It also marks Australia’s small but significant role in enabling NASA ...
The Lightbulb asks innovators and entrepreneurs how they turned their ideas into reality. This week we talk to Aaron Jones, founder of Christchurch-based reusable bag company Zerobag.First of all, give us your elevator pitch for Zerobag.Zerobag is a New Zealand-owned ...
Aaron Kreisler looks beyond the gags in this survey of an artist and his dogsat the Christchurch Art Gallery.“The dog really must love him, it’s so incredibly patient…”, a woman says to her daughter, punctuating a screening of Coin ...
‘He wants to sleep with you,’ a close friend had said. ‘Then you’ll be able to tell if it is going to lead anywhere’: a short story by New Plymouth author Elizabeth Smither. Photography by Peter Black. ...
Opinion - The leadership visits are more interesting in that they serve as a spotlight on the two countries - politically, and on policy issues, writes Brigette Morten. ...
Created by future ACT Party leader Richard Prebble after an epic reform bender in the 80s, NZ on Air has just marked its third decade. Duncan Greive relates its history and asks: is the funder still fit for purpose?It’s a ...
It helps that he played in the New Zealand cricket team when they lost the 1992 semi-final and went on to coach India, writes Georgie Wright, daughter of JohnMy dad has taught me a fair few things over my 25 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra [embedded content]University of Canberra Vice-Chancellor Professor Deep Saini discusses the week in politics with Michelle Grattan – one with a reduced pace, despite the 24 ...
Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand, with the interview available as both audio and ...
Jacinda Ardern’s Melbourne trip wrapped up with nothing to show on longstanding trans-Tasman concerns, but was a potent reminder of her international appeal. ...
Pricing agricultural emissions first at the processor level - such as Fonterra - rather than right down at farm level stacks up as a gap measure says Catherine Leining. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joanne Orlando, Researcher: Children and Technology, Western Sydney University Instagram is running a social media experiment in Australia and elsewhere to see what happens when it hides the number of likes on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adam Cross, Research Fellow, Curtin University Sign up to the Beating Around the Bush newsletter here, and suggest a plant we should cover at batb@theconversation.edu.au. Billabongs in the northern Kimberley are welcome ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sunanda Creagh, Head of Digital Storytelling You’ve probably heard that this week marks 50 years since humans first set foot on the Moon – a feat that still boggles the mind given ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dennis Gentilin, Adjunct Fellow, Macquarie University As strange as it might sound, whistleblowers in Australia have reason to rejoice – so long as they are in the private sector. Thanks to new ...
The fourth season of Queer Eye drops today on Netflix. Sam Brooks reflects on his difficult relationship with the show, and where it sits in mainstream culture.For depressingly many people, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy was an introduction not just to ...
The collapse of a multi-billion dollar deal to sell AMP's life insurance division to a British company for $3.6 billion is the fault of the companies, according to the Reserve Bank. ...
A poem by Miramar poet Geoff Cochrane.Channel HoppingStupa or Stuka?Weet-Bix or Welsh rabbit?Galactic aerodrome or Matchbox truck?*I’m young in my dreams, still young.*Beautiful Keanu’s wearing shades—antique shades with iodine-coloured lenses.*I’m young in my dreams, still young,and I still have some ...
For the month of July, Josie Adams is taking on the challenge of being low-waste. That means minimising plastics, emissions, and even recyclables. Each week we release her diary. This is week two.Read week one here.I’ll be honest, week two ...
By Royson Willie in Port Vila Two Vanuatu Daily Post journalists were literally given a pat-down by the police criminal investigation unit yesterday over a story they had written about the vehicle of the Chairman of the Public Service ...
By Gorothy Kenneth in Port Moresby Papua New Guinean Prime Minister James Marape will visit Australia this weekend for a week-long state visit and the Bougainville independence referendum in less than three months is expected to be high on ...
Tougher laws governing the movement of animals and harsher penalties for non-compliance are on the table under an overhaul of two key pieces of legislation. ...
Wtf did we just watch?That sound you heard was a million furries screaming in ecstasy as their fantasy and everyone else’s nightmare came to life in the form of the first trailer for the live action version of Cats.Is it ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Three Women by Lisa Taddeo (Bloomsbury, $35)Fucking ...
Tougher laws governing the movement of animals and harsher penalties for non-compliance are on the table under an overhaul of two key pieces of legislation. ...
As we mark the fiftieth anniversary the July 20th Moon landing Dr Nick Long reflects on what that's meant for New Zealand and considers the space 'gold rush' ahead. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christine Griebsch, Specialist and Senior Lecturer in Small Animal Medicine, University Veterinary Teaching Hospital Sydney, Sydney School of Veterinary Science, University of Sydney Recently reported cases of the often fatal bacterial infection ...
My selection of the eight best morning news links from here and overseas, along with eight lunchtime lean-back long reads. Also, the full list of links, including Jacinda Ardern's trip to Australia, the big emissions report, Fonterra's coal move and a new ...
Heaven is a place on earth, and June is saving the world one ’80s pop hit at a time. Tara Ward recaps season 4, episode 9 of The Handmaid’s Tale. Praise be, for there was a tiny bit of good news ...
Finance companies say they shouldn’t have to be ‘fit and proper’ even though in some cases they charge more than the planned clampdown on high cost lending. A group of finance companies that charges well over the government’s proposed cap on ...
An ANZ shareholder is demanding the bank disclose more information about the sale of an Auckland residential property to its former chief executive and his family. ...
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand.Today’s contentForeign Affairs and trade Sam Sachdeva (Newsroom): The new, ...
Tara Ward sets out on a valiant quest to find the best apple in Aotearoa. The idea that every apple is a good apple is fake news. We’ve all got stories about shit experiences with apples, when it looked good on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Sarkissian, Operations Scientist, CSIRO The role Australia played in relaying the first television images of astronaut Neil Armstrong’s historic walk on the Moon 50 years ago this July features in the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lyndal Sleep, Research Fellow, Griffith University In Australia’s social security laws, the “couple rule” is used to determine if a person is in a relationship, tying access to Centrelink payments to the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ben Walker, Lecturer (Management), Victoria University of Wellington We live in a society obsessed with performance. For both young and old, competitions, awards and rankings are an inescapable feature of life. How ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Megan O’Connell, Honorary Senior Fellow, University of Melbourne One-third of all preschools may lack a qualified teacher in the next four years if nothing changes, my new modelling shows. Currently, half of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kirsty Volz, PhD Candidate, The University of Queensland Of all the mantras for modernism, the one I think most befitting for Australian mid-century modern houses is L’esprit Nouveau – The New Spirit. ...
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Skifield snowmaking a sign of the future, vaccination rates fall alarmingly, and construction industry encouraged to lower emissions.Snowmaking has saved the ski industry from disaster this year, after the weather ...
Neil Armstrong may have been the first man on the moon, but if we define the ‘space race’ as spaceflight capability, the Soviets won it hands down, writes Jennifer Frost. ...
Joel Rindelaub explains why it's so important for those weighing on climate science to be transparent about their funding sources and conflicts of interest. ...
Open Mike 07/11/2018 
Our conversations and push against specific supremacist and ultra-Nationalist groups, and the pseudo-intellectual underpinnings of them, need to mature at all levels. But in doing so, it’s going to have to include a more thorough and brutally honest self-examination ...18 hours ago
This week, in the wake of National's opposition to even talking about reducing agricultural emissions and Simon Bridges' refusal to recognise that there is a climate emergency, I've been saying that National is unfit to govern. And it looks like ...20 hours ago
Something I missed: not only did Youth MPs declare a climate emergency; they also launched a campaign to lower the voting age to 16:Youth Parliament week in Parliament has seen the establishment of Make it 16, a campaign to ...23 hours ago
I have been reading and listening to the aftermath of Trump’s comments about the four female first term Democratic representatives, all of whom are “people of color.” I found the US coverage interesting both as evidence of partisanship and the ...2 days ago
The proposed Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Bill treats biogenic methane emissions differently from all other carbon emissions. The latter are to be measured net so that emissions from fossil fuels can be offset by carbon stored in trees. ...3 days ago
by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh This article aims to answer a simple question, whether the conflict is only a rural one or whether it is also urban. The verb ‘to be’ is conjugated in the present tense as ,despite what some ...3 days ago
3 days ago
On Sunday July 7, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Associate Health Minister Julie Anne Genter announced their intention to review the Ministry of Health’s Funded Family Care policy and repeal Part 4Aof the 2000 NZ Public Health and Disability Act. These are festering injustices ...4 days ago
Belle is a lovely fifteen year-old border collie who belongs to our friends and neighbours at Bryan’s Beach, Michael and Judy Corboy. Belle, in her old age, can hardly see or hear, but – as a constant participant at social ...4 days ago
A Woman’s Place is on the Podium was a public meeting in London on 10 July to discuss women’s sports and the impact of transwomen competing against women. The venue was sold out with a packed hall of 750 people. ...6 days ago
An occasional series where I will ponder allegations of anti-Semitism directed at the British Labour Party and its members.In this case, we are thinking about an allegedly anti-Semitic image shared by a Labour Party member. Its origins appear to be ...1 week ago
1 week ago
2 weeks ago
Welcome to another heaping helping of research publications related to climate change drivers and mechanisms, the effects of climate change and how we might yet grope our way into systems approaches to dealing with the mess we're making, despite ourselves. ...2 weeks ago
The People's "Friend": In this masterpiece of revolutionary propaganda, the homicidal political psychopath, Jean-Paul Marat, has been transformed by Jacques-Louis David, the French Revolution's most accomplished artist, into a martyred hero of the ordinary people of Paris. Thanks to Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook, ...3 weeks ago
The principle of one person, one vote doesn’t apply for local elections. In fact, you don’t even need to be a person to have voting rights. Welcome to the ratepayer roll. While the ratepayer roll accounts for less than 1% ...3 weeks ago
Image Credit: Blog Writing Tips. I notice a few regulars no longer allow public access to the site counters. This may happen accidentally when the ... 3 weeks ago
A new digital platform aims to make it easier for small businesses to access services from multiple government agencies, leaving them more time to focus on their own priorities. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Minister for Small Business Stuart Nash ...4 days ago
July 19 (BusinessDesk) - The government is looking to tighten control and impose harsher penalties after the Mycoplasma bovis outbreak revealed cracks in the country's stock management system. ...18 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Flannery, Planetary Scientist, Queensland University of Technology This weekend marks 50 years exactly since humans first walked on the Moon. It also marks Australia’s small but significant role in enabling NASA ...30 mins ago
The Lightbulb asks innovators and entrepreneurs how they turned their ideas into reality. This week we talk to Aaron Jones, founder of Christchurch-based reusable bag company Zerobag.First of all, give us your elevator pitch for Zerobag.Zerobag is a New Zealand-owned ...54 mins ago
Aaron Kreisler looks beyond the gags in this survey of an artist and his dogs at the Christchurch Art Gallery.“The dog really must love him, it’s so incredibly patient…”, a woman says to her daughter, punctuating a screening of Coin ...4 hours ago
‘He wants to sleep with you,’ a close friend had said. ‘Then you’ll be able to tell if it is going to lead anywhere’: a short story by New Plymouth author Elizabeth Smither. Photography by Peter Black. ...5 hours ago
Opinion - The leadership visits are more interesting in that they serve as a spotlight on the two countries - politically, and on policy issues, writes Brigette Morten. ...5 hours ago
Created by future ACT Party leader Richard Prebble after an epic reform bender in the 80s, NZ on Air has just marked its third decade. Duncan Greive relates its history and asks: is the funder still fit for purpose?It’s a ...6 hours ago
It helps that he played in the New Zealand cricket team when they lost the 1992 semi-final and went on to coach India, writes Georgie Wright, daughter of JohnMy dad has taught me a fair few things over my 25 ...11 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra [embedded content]University of Canberra Vice-Chancellor Professor Deep Saini discusses the week in politics with Michelle Grattan – one with a reduced pace, despite the 24 ...16 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cherie Hugo, Teaching Fellow, Nutrition & Dietetics, Bond University The Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety this week turned its attention to food and nutrition. The testimony of maggots in ...18 hours ago
Jacinda Ardern’s Melbourne trip wrapped up with nothing to show on longstanding trans-Tasman concerns, but was a potent reminder of her international appeal. ...18 hours ago
Pricing agricultural emissions first at the processor level - such as Fonterra - rather than right down at farm level stacks up as a gap measure says Catherine Leining. ...19 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adam Cross, Research Fellow, Curtin University Sign up to the Beating Around the Bush newsletter here, and suggest a plant we should cover at batb@theconversation.edu.au. Billabongs in the northern Kimberley are welcome ...20 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dennis Gentilin, Adjunct Fellow, Macquarie University As strange as it might sound, whistleblowers in Australia have reason to rejoice – so long as they are in the private sector. Thanks to new ...21 hours ago
The fourth season of Queer Eye drops today on Netflix. Sam Brooks reflects on his difficult relationship with the show, and where it sits in mainstream culture.For depressingly many people, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy was an introduction not just to ...21 hours ago
The collapse of a multi-billion dollar deal to sell AMP's life insurance division to a British company for $3.6 billion is the fault of the companies, according to the Reserve Bank. ...21 hours ago
A poem by Miramar poet Geoff Cochrane. Channel Hopping Stupa or Stuka?Weet-Bix or Welsh rabbit?Galactic aerodrome or Matchbox truck?*I’m young in my dreams, still young.*Beautiful Keanu’s wearing shades—antique shades with iodine-coloured lenses.*I’m young in my dreams, still young,and I still have some ...22 hours ago
For the month of July, Josie Adams is taking on the challenge of being low-waste. That means minimising plastics, emissions, and even recyclables. Each week we release her diary. This is week two.Read week one here.I’ll be honest, week two ...22 hours ago
By Royson Willie in Port Vila Two Vanuatu Daily Post journalists were literally given a pat-down by the police criminal investigation unit yesterday over a story they had written about the vehicle of the Chairman of the Public Service ...22 hours ago
By Gorothy Kenneth in Port Moresby Papua New Guinean Prime Minister James Marape will visit Australia this weekend for a week-long state visit and the Bougainville independence referendum in less than three months is expected to be high on ...22 hours ago
Tougher laws governing the movement of animals and harsher penalties for non-compliance are on the table under an overhaul of two key pieces of legislation. ...22 hours ago
Wtf did we just watch?That sound you heard was a million furries screaming in ecstasy as their fantasy and everyone else’s nightmare came to life in the form of the first trailer for the live action version of Cats.Is it ...22 hours ago
As we mark the fiftieth anniversary the July 20th Moon landing Dr Nick Long reflects on what that's meant for New Zealand and considers the space 'gold rush' ahead. ...23 hours ago
My selection of the eight best morning news links from here and overseas, along with eight lunchtime lean-back long reads. Also, the full list of links, including Jacinda Ardern's trip to Australia, the big emissions report, Fonterra's coal move and a new ...24 hours ago
John Banks' former lives, vegetable-based insults in Auckland's mayoral race and metaphorical cabbage - James Elliott has it all. ...24 hours ago
Heaven is a place on earth, and June is saving the world one ’80s pop hit at a time. Tara Ward recaps season 4, episode 9 of The Handmaid’s Tale. Praise be, for there was a tiny bit of good news ...1 day ago
An ANZ shareholder is demanding the bank disclose more information about the sale of an Auckland residential property to its former chief executive and his family. ...1 day ago
Tara Ward sets out on a valiant quest to find the best apple in Aotearoa. The idea that every apple is a good apple is fake news. We’ve all got stories about shit experiences with apples, when it looked good on ...1 day ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Megan O’Connell, Honorary Senior Fellow, University of Melbourne One-third of all preschools may lack a qualified teacher in the next four years if nothing changes, my new modelling shows. Currently, half of ...1 day ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kirsty Volz, PhD Candidate, The University of Queensland Of all the mantras for modernism, the one I think most befitting for Australian mid-century modern houses is L’esprit Nouveau – The New Spirit. ...1 day ago
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Skifield snowmaking a sign of the future, vaccination rates fall alarmingly, and construction industry encouraged to lower emissions.Snowmaking has saved the ski industry from disaster this year, after the weather ...1 day ago
A former MP and shock jock says Queenstown council’s making excuses in seeking a 35-year approval for sewer overflows. ...1 day ago
Neil Armstrong may have been the first man on the moon, but if we define the ‘space race’ as spaceflight capability, the Soviets won it hands down, writes Jennifer Frost. ...1 day ago
Joel Rindelaub explains why it's so important for those weighing on climate science to be transparent about their funding sources and conflicts of interest. ...1 day ago
Emma Espiner takes a look at a deadly inequity happening in our poorest communities. ...1 day ago
Ecuador planning to sell large tracts of its rainforest to China.
What could possibly go wrong?
A quick Google search reveals that this was reported about 4-5 years ago.
Well it’s still relevant if it is going to be cleared.
I’d like to see an international agreement that protects (and offers an allowance) to the world’s natural areas like rainforests and jungles, to keep them natural and untouched, free of people apart from indigenous people and free of habitat destruction. This would contribute to international biodiversity and helping climate change and help the world retain those areas. I’m pretty sure there is only 4% jungles left for example in the world and they house a significant proportion of biodiversity in the world.
I’d also like to see another measure for forests and international agreements for retaining them.
Sad that the antarctic fishing marine reserves have been stopped by some greedy countries.
Not sure if this is true (from 2005) but I was surprised what countries had the most forests. At that time the world had approx 30% still in forests although that was 13 years ago. (Not sure if this is a measure of the quality of the forests though, aka are they monocultures like pines?)
Forest-rich and forest-poor countries. The five most forest-rich countries (the Russian Federation, Brazil, Canada, the United States and China) account for more than half of total forest area (2 097 million hectares or 53 percent). The Russian Federation alone accounts for 20 percent of the world total. Seven countries have more than 100 million hectares of forest each. The ten most forest-rich countries account for 66 percent of total forest area (Figure 2.3). The remaining 34 percent is spread among 212 countries and areas. Seven countries and areas (the Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, the Holy See, Monaco, Nauru, South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands and Tokelau) reported having no areas that qualify as forests using the FRA 2005 definition.
High and low forest cover countries. Forty-five countries and areas have more than half their total land area covered by forests (Figure 2.4), and 11 of these have more than 75 percent of their total land area covered. Most of these are small island states or territories, but the list also includes three low-lying coastal states in South America and one country in the Congo Basin (Table 2.2).
Sixty-four countries and areas have less than 10 percent of their total land area covered by forests. These include many SIDS and dependent territories, as well as 17 larger countries with relatively substantial forest areas (more than 1 million hectares each). Three of these (Chad, the Islamic Republic of Iran and Mongolia) have more than 10 million hectares of forest, but still qualify as LFCCs.
At the regional level, South America is the region with the highest percentage of forest cover, followed by Europe and North and Central America. Asia is the region with the lowest percentage of forest cover (Table 2.3).”
https://www.greenfacts.org/en/forests/l-3/2-extent-deforestation.htm#1p0
Maybe a very good strategic move by China?
“The Amazon Rainforest has been described as the “Lungs of our Planet” because it provides the essential environmental world service of continuously recycling carbon dioxide into oxygen. More than 20 percent of the world oxygen is produced in the Amazon Rainforest.
More than half of the world’s estimated 10 million species of plants, animals and insects live in the tropical rainforests. One-fifth of the world’s fresh water is in the Amazon Basin.
One hectare (2.47 acres) may contain over 750 types of trees and 1500 species of higher plants.
At least 80% of the developed world’s diet originated in the tropical rainforest. Its bountiful gifts to the world include fruits like avocados, coconuts, figs, oranges, lemons, grapefruit, bananas, guavas, pineapples, mangos and tomatoes; vegetables including corn, potatoes, rice, winter squash and yams; spices like black pepper, cayenne, chocolate, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, sugar cane, tumeric, coffee and vanilla and nuts including Brazil nuts and cashews.”
http://www.rain-tree.com/facts.htm
Yeah they could transport the clean air over to China.
Extinction rebellion.
“We refuse to bequeath a dying planet to future generations by failing to act now.”
https://twitter.com/ExtinctionR?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
A movie about a time when the Left condemned fascism, instead of cuddling up to it.
The left cuddles up to Fascism? How did you get to that conclusion?
Idiot post not worth responding to.
Hi Sanctuary,
Maybe you need to address that question to the biggest, (remaining), Left Assad apologist on this site.
But since you asked:
Cuddling up to fascism
New Zealand’s biggest Centre Left blogsite gives TS author Bill, free reign to censor comment that provides factual evidence of the fascist nature of the Assad regime.
[For ignoring moderation and lying about authors…continuing with the same old tiresome pattern of bullshit – 1 year ban] – Bill
In refusing to address the evidence I presented here and earlier, Bill continually and repeatedly made accusations that I am liar. Bill has never tried to refute what I have written. Neither has Bill ever pointed out where I am have supposed to have lied about him or any other author. NOT ONCE! NOT EVER!
In this way we see the convergence between fascists and some on the Left, not just in ideas but in tactics. Having no moral defence for his position on Syria, Bill and others like him have to resort to these sorts of methods.
Maybe Bill hopes that by continually repeating the accusation without evidence that I am a liar often enough, people will believe him. ie the big lie tactic,
Bill uses this blanket accusation of lying (without giving any evidence of it), along with bans, as a way to avoid addressing the Issues I raise.
Bill is not bothered with lies, but with truth.
Bill is a conscious genocide ignorer. To suit his argument Bill actively ignores the evidence of the huge crimes against humanity committed by the Assad regime. Bill has repeatedly refused to address the evidence of this genocide that I have put before him. And rather than defend his position with rational debate, or refute this evidence, Bill chooses to deliberately ignore it. Rather than attempting to refute my position, Bill chooses outright censorship, or comment suppression. (ie shunting my refutation of his claims, to the bottom of open mike where he hopes no one will see them), above discussion.
This behaviour is allowed, or at the least tolerated by the other Standard authors.
Sanctuary, You may not agree with me that this is the Left cuddling up to fascism, but in my opinion it indicates a certain level of comfort with it.
Another symptom of this political malaise was the promotion of Colonial Viper to Author status not that long after CV had openly called for the gunning down of, at that time, peaceful protesters in the most bloodthirstiest of terms.
I remember writing to CV at the time, trying to gently as I could, chide him for his use of extreme calls for bloodshed, saying that I thought it had no place in family friendly website like The Standard.
However my cautions went unheeded.
And the elevation of this openly pro-fascist supporter of mass murder to authorship had its inevitable dismal conclusion.
And this softness towards Syrian fascism continues.
The Standard may not have an actual editorial line on Syria. But as far as I know The Standard has never allowed one single post defending the Syrian revolution.
In the light of this glaring omission…..
The film Nae Pasaran is a timely antidote to this moral malaise and spiritual sickness afflicting the modern Left that allows us to ignore genocide, and support dictatorship. The film Nae Pasaran is a window looking into a past and showing us the Left’s once disgust at dictatorship. This is the sort of courageous, uncompromising and uplifting message that we sorely need today.
There was a phrase that jumped out at me from the promo of this film;
Recounting the solidarity shown to the Chilean people by the Left in Scotland in the ’70s, Is the phrase attributed to a Chilean activist. “We often thought the world had forgotten us”
So often I have heard almost the exact same quote from those suffering under the Assad fascist style genocide.
Unfortunately for Syria, it is true.
*Yassin Al-Haj Saleh Wikipedia:
Self-martyrdom coming up in 3 … 2 … 1 …
Jenny, I value what you have to add here and I’m sorry to see you go after stoushes like this one looks likely to turn into.
In the meantime, I’d like to suggest an alternative way of interpreting Bill’s contributions. It seems to me that Bill has a streak of compulsive contrarianism, particularly with respect to msm reporting. This contrarianism leads him to take positions that appear to support some really ugly regimes, but are much more the result of contrarianism rather than holding sympathies towards those regimes. And when defending those contrarian positions in the heat of the moment, things can be said which can easily be misinterpreted to reinforce an impression of regime sympathies.
Kia ora, Jenny. I think you are going way to far in concluding that because some TS authors are less critical of the Assad regime than others, that means that we are cuddling up to fascism. Eddie, Michael Valley, MS and myself posts all wrote posts early in the Syrian civil war that were far from complimentary about the Syrian Government.
Later on, TS clearly was swamped with trolly pro-Putin, pro Assad posts, but that was mainly from an author who you correctly identify as being from the far right and who is here no more.
Additionally, the complexity of this war and the ongoing fight against religious fascism in the regime makes it incredibly hard to work out where support should go at any given time. Kinda like the Falklands/Malvinas blue, where two nasty regimes came to blows, I see Syria as two (or more) strains of fascism fighting amongst themselves. And, as always in war, the real losers are the civilians.
There are a couple of authors at TS who remain deeply cynical about the ‘truth’ in the Syrian conflict, but so what? You, and anybody else, are free to post alternatives. Just don’t personalise your responses and you should be fine.
Looks awesome. Thanks Jenny.
Kim Hill is casually toying with Seymour on Morning Report. “A listener has suggested that the seat of Epsom might qualify as a taxpayer funded junket.” Great to listen to.
Good eh? A delight to listen to. One or two pregnant inhalations as well by Mr Rimmer
Btw @ ScottGN, how do you think we should measure the success of the jaunt to Japan by the two that Mr Rimmer is trying to ‘hold to account’.
Should it be statisically on the basis of a weight to benefit ratio?
or
Should it be statistically on the basis of a ‘heft’ to benefit ratio? (going forward)
And earlier on MR, there was this:
https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018670092/migrant-workers-union-welcomes-exploitation-inquiry
As a pompous Woodhouse would say: “Standby”
More to come
A graphic that is both terrible and awesome. So many died – so many of us.
“More than 18,000 New Zealanders lost their lives in World War One. You can find out more about them in this interactive graphic, which shows every person who died.”
https://insights.nzherald.co.nz/article/world-war-one-roll-of-honour/
So true. We are still suffering as a society for this.
“A lot of people lost their lives. Those that didn’t gave up a significant period of their lives, and those who weren’t killed came home often with severe injuries, physically and certainly mentally, and many struggled to fit back into society.
“When I have been to Gallipoli and Passchendaele … you look down and pick out a grave and you think, ‘What would have happened? How would history have changed if that person wasn’t killed?’
https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/last-post-first-light/108380440/lessons-for-today-100-years-on-from-the-armistice
I am so over this glorification of WW1 which is a distraction from the real feelings of outrage and grief we might feel about the courageous and/or dogged sacrifices of the dead of other wars since. We are up to our eyes in a wash of sentiment being organised around a significant date, out of all the significant war dates that should be memorialised, and have been excluded from mention. I remember General Eisenhower of the USA* and his reference to the USA industrial-military complex is in this link. More info about him and his Presidential term below.
Now we will remember them, tomorrow we will move on and not think about it. Going through the motions about war, and its continuance and in preparation for more affrays all the time. I have taken the opportunity to buy some books on WW1 and some illustrated ones and these have displayed the reality. When I go to Anzac Day ceremonies they are repetitive memorials about the disastrous event where people were forced to try to kill others and often received the same result. While remembering the past event and the fallen, it shows a resigned, almost inevitable attitude and anti-war and anti-belligerence approach is very slightly mentioned.
Instead of having a compulsory study of our human history, including wars and national economic forces we have these parades that don’t convey the spectrum of losses caused by war. They finish, leaving an open wound in political and national co-operation and trust between humans and examples of how relatively easy it is for nations to throw out respect and human rights for individuals and groups. Post-war, we lack ‘debriefing’ with the nation and particularly its young, and this just puts a scab over that wound; there is no lasting restoration to a state of higher morality and human respect, and declining and demeaning behaviours lurk in the human herd and heads, always ready to appear from our dark corners.
This 1982 video is from the USA archives and shows how there is a constant campaign to create unrest so that countries are destabilised from foreign interference.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeFgd6gGTWk
*https://millercenter.org/president/eisenhower/impact-and-legacy
No glorification just remberance. Not many families here unaffected. In today’s world few want to front up to the hard questions and hard conclusions around war. Too many put their head in the sand and then wonder why it all happens again.
We will remember them because they are us.
Pardon me! It is indeed glorification when John Key and the RSA spend $120 million? on the project to provide a new WW1 memorial because a certain date is reached.
After the actual WW1 people who cared paid for memorials themselves all around the country. There are plenty of memorials already; people since 1915 have not forgotten.
The memorials were funded by local communities without government assistance. Those who had raised patriotic funds during the war, especially women, often did the hard work.
https://teara.govt.nz/en/memorials-and-monuments/page-4
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/regional/269566/war-memorial-park-blessed
The Ministry of Arts, Culture and Heritage acquired land on Buckle Street, across from the National War Memorial in 2005, and six years later opened a public space to remember those affected by war.
The construction of the park and Arras tunnel needed for the project started in October 2012 at the cost of $120-million.
Curator of the National War Memorial Paul Riley said it was a much-needed addition.
“A few years ago we had a mobile petrol station, a vehicle testing station, tire shop and hire pool right opposite where we are standing now,” Mr Riley said.
“We have a complete contrast now. This is far more appropriate opposite a national shrine.”
The park has a new Australian memorial, featuring fifteen columns of rugged red sandstone blocks.
It is a reciprocal gesture to the “basket handles” of the New Zealand Memorial in Canberra.
A sculpture of a Hinerangi figure, symbolising the daughter of the heavens, by Maori sculptor Darcy Nicholas was also unveiled.
The park will be officially opened on 18 April, a week before Anzac Day.
We have been remembering WW1 for ever on Anzac Day and in other ways and with more people going to view the early morning gathering of veterans marching to the memorials that are in every city.
More details about the building and landscaping – no mention of the cost because that gets swallowed up by the sentiment for the dead, and their belief that it was to ensure a good world for the living is by-passed.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/last-post-first-light/67854592/Pukeahu-National-War-Memorial-Park-officially-opens
https://mch.govt.nz/what-we-do/our-projects/current/first-world-war-centenary-projects
https://mch.govt.nz/pukeahu/park/redevelopment
It is hard for me to find information about the total cost of the Wellington memorial, it does not come up in a discussion about it at stats or in the factual detail from other sources, but I believe that the actual memorial cost $16 million, plus the acquisition of the land for Pukeahu Park.
It was glorification to put up another memorial. That money should have gone to help veterans with treatment needed, to enable peace meetings, to pay for stories about brave forces people, and brave resistance people, and brave civilians, and brave anti-war people on both sides. We should remember these people for sure, and not just at parades and photo-ops for politicians. because they are us and we should be spending on projects preventing more wars arising from clashes between political cultures; a peace museum? That could be used for holding conferences, talks, displays about war and about development to help the people of the world. The subjects discussed would include ending inhumanity in our own country, assisting that in other countries, what is important. Because we are all one entity, one animal, though in many forms different only in our looks.
I’m talking about what I put up in my two posts. I don’t know or care about what you’re going on about sorry.
Okay you just started me off on a line of thought that has been in mind for a while so it’s good to put that up.
Sorry if it wasn’t just on your thought.
I am right with you, Greywarshark. I fear that remembrance is constantly being turned into glorification. Celebrating the brilliant feats pulled off by our Kiwi guys in France using their No 8 Fencing Wire mentality, blah blah. WW1 was an utter bloody tragedy that should have been curtailed. Our media are not promoting the true lessons of history, and are thereby propelling us towards a foolish repetition.
Why not have a look at every person killed in that war and consider the question raised about what the world would have been if those individuals were not slaughtered.
https://insights.nzherald.co.nz/article/world-war-one-roll-of-honour/
They died in the mud and shit and stink – for what? So that you can say, “Celebrating the brilliant feats pulled off by our Kiwi guys in France using their No 8 Fencing Wire mentality, blah blah.”
Yes what a waste of good people marty mars. Do you think we don’t care about them. If they had cared so much the government wouldn’t be so quick to send troops off to the badlands of WW1.
That is why it is a travesty to pretend to care by building an extra monument; tidying up the old one and setting up a fund to help our youth so they have trades and jobs and going to war isn’t the only thing for them. The gummint could have set up WW1 Memorial Apprenticeships to aim for. Getting ‘on their feet’ would be something the dead guys and women would have liked for their grandchildren.
No I don’t think you care. But that’s okay. I’m not glorifying war or death – I’m not arguing about the utter waste of people or the callous disregard for them by generals and politicians then or now. I simply acknowledging that they died horribly. That there is a new interactive site where every dead person is named and described. And I put another link up to an article talking about the loss of these people and the loss for us all when the survivors and maimed returned home.
Marty – are you one of those who has to have ‘sarc’ signalled after every example that seemed obvious to the writer? Or do you just rush and not think about what you read?
I take people as they write and respect that they say what they mean and put the tags they want on anything they write. I spose i do sometimes get surprised by some of the comments i read. For instance the jamileeross stuff filled me with great sadness when i read the stupid comments from people i normally admire comment wise. Sometimes also i agree with something someone says and then really disagree with what they write. Such is life. I’m sure others would have harsher thoughts on me but mostly I try not to give a fuck too much on what others think and stick to my kaupapa.
Appears the attack line from the Hosk, HDPA et al is to call for immediate sacking of any minister that appears to have a challenge in the carrying out of their job. According to the Hosk today the immigration minister has made a “catastrophic” error and must lose his job. If Hosk, let alone that HDPA twit, were subject to the same view, by all accounts they would have been gone long ago.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12155789
Just don’t “click” on them it has become bizarre and the Herald had a major announcement this morning that Hosking is going to be made to work a whole ½ longer today – all that means to me is another ½ spent avoiding that radio feed.
The trouble is ignoring the Herald won’t make this nonsense disapear. The likes of the Herald hold sway over a fair chunk of the electorate’s opinions and for that reason they must be held to account. My response is to throw the nonsense back at them and make them qualify what they print. This mornings effort is a classic example of pure headline grabbing beat up.
Never read them.
Just a shame they didn’t see fit to hold the previous Minister to the same standard, who when it comes down to it all, is responsible for the mess I L-G is in today.
Typical National Party Dirty Politics MO then. The same was happening during the last Labour led term of government as well.
HDPA should be banned it taints shellfish in the can and cause tremors, palpitations and cricopharyngeal spasms in readers.
Announce a review of her immigration status and see how she squeels.
Oh don’t be so bloody mean @Psyche nurse.
She’s not brown or black or yellow (maybe a bit orange), is reasonably wealthy, married to a bastion of the 4th Estate, has her own ‘show’, has never been surveilled by Thompson and Clark, and would probably figure quite low on a non-racist demographic risk management spreadsheet
(/sarc)
… and you forgot to add is as shallow as they come, which is a prerequisite for a successful career as a populist political commentator where taking money for nothing of substance is the primary motivation.
Did the duke and/or solkta get banned?
I kinda recall something about the duke getting told to take a break until next year, but now I can’t find where that happened. If solkta copped a whack from the ban hammer, I missed it.
Dukeofurl is gone till Feb. Solkta is not on the naughty list that I can see.
Fucken sad that. ffs 🙄
Well, Duke was given a reasonable opportunity to respond positively to moderation and chose the opposite tack. We all know how that ends.
Yep. I could see it happening from a mile away and the instructions were clear – no excuses for him. Quite a skill skating around the bolded text 😉
It’s an interesting phenomenon – sometimes folks who care passionately seem to recognise that they’re getting too worked up and picking fights with a moderator (often an author moderating their own post, but also often just a mod who’s doing their community maintenance volunteer work). But maybe they can’t draw themselves away and decide they need to get banned for their own good.
Last sightings of solkta seem to be OM 3 Nov and Labour Conference Notes 3 Nov, but am assuming he/she has other priorities or has decided of their own volition to take a break. Actually comment numbers seem to be down the last few days overall – perhaps the weather, spring, start of build up to the end of year celebrations etc.
Last sightings of duke on 5 Nov, OM and JLR Tapes – some things to be worked out re postings the previous day.
Should the Clean Slate Act be extended to former prisoners?
https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018669928/calls-for-clean-slates-for-former-prisoners
Probably. It’s there to give people their second chance.
I agree, unless it’s a pedo wanting to work with children, keep the kids safe.
Agreed
If people can prove to whoever that they are rehabilitated then they should get the chance to live their lives. I wouldn’t extend that to sex offenders on registered sex offender lists.
Being vindictive to those that have made mistakes, learned from it, and want to move on is childish and ineffective.
Totally depends. Anonymity is not useful when repeat offender violent and predatory types exist, and there’s a fair few of them.
‘Victim-less’ crime might be wiped after a pattern of good living for x years. The sociopaths and evil dirt bags should be monitored for life. Gang members zero reprieve till they leave their gang, and then a pattern of good living for x years.
Not everyone is a misunderstood youth in need of a hug, some are complete assholes. That counts especially for white collar crims.
Why let a fraudster back in business. They can be employees but not bosses imo. Likewise embezzlement etc. These crims have myriad victims, a lot worse than a poor kid who pinches stuff. No record wiping for these premeditating deliberately callous self obsessed criminals.
People make mistakes and learn. But some plot for themselves 24/7. Screw those people make the penalties harsher.
You raise a valid point.
Why let a fraudster back in business. They can be employees but not bosses imo. Likewise embezzlement etc. These crims have myriad victims, a lot worse than a poor kid who pinches stuff. No record wiping for these premeditating deliberately callous self obsessed criminals.
About criminals. The word sounds really bad but mothers trying to bring up kids, trying to run a household and have a life on an inadequate income get put in jail because they coudn’t manage with what they had. Just give them more money, more training, more child care, less oppressive claw-back as soon as they earn something. The hatred and meanness of the government ‘welfare’ system is a bloody disgrace. And succeeding governments seem powerless to adopt reasonable approaches and ensure that reason and kindness are ingrained into the system, and all that work within it.
Yet private people prey on others and manage to weave their way round the legal system leaving ordinary people who try to be good citizens impoverished in their wake.
Of course NZ is second in the world for being easy to get into business, can’t put limits on the crooks or we might spoil our well-known record, which brings investment money into NZ for some purpose and gives the effect of having a booming economy. Yeah right.
Part of the problem is the way that Ministries contract out their work and take no responsibility for the way it is carried out. ‘Oh’ says the National Minister ‘I can’t do anything about (whatever disgraceful matter). That’s an operational matter’. It was shown up this morning on Radionz when a Transport agency man was being questioned about faulty checks on imported cars. They get away with sloppiness that wouldn’t be acceptable by a part-time low paid casual worker. Yet they can ponce around on high salaries. They aren’t doing their work lawfully, as in being suitable for their purpose, or in not meeting the standards of service that they hold themselves out to deliver.
We are run by she’ll-be-rights who pay themselves too much, deliver too little, fudge too much, pull the wool over our eyes too much, and punish the little people struggling with difficulties overwhelming them too much.
Yep, that whole “I can’t comment because it’s ‘an operational’ matter” croc is used all too often. And the definition of what is ‘operational’ and what is not seems pretty flexible.
I’m not sure why elected representatives can’t comment on ‘operational matters’ – especially when the operatives are not living up to what is expected of them.
I might be wrong, but it seems to have become a convenience since the last round of public service/corporatisation reforms.
Roll it on Chippie!
This is a good start:
https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018670092/migrant-workers-union-welcomes-exploitation-inquiry
(it’d never have happened had there not been some serious ‘operational’ fuckups over the past decade)
Oh, and btw, that NZTA thing was a shocker, even if you’re forgiving yourself for thinking Kim Hill is driving a second hand Japanese import and is worrying about the integrity of its airbags whilst rolling down a Brooklyn hill on her way to an RNZ studio.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018670120/vehicle-importer-tester-conflict-a-serious-issue-nzta-boss
(Don’t mention the trucking industry towbars! Shhhhhh! Wet Wellington bus tickets at the ready – and ‘moreover’ this is a ‘technical issue’ that you just wouldn’t understand – because WE are the professionals and we’re ‘officials’ not to be challenged, not never!)
Yes it was good to hear that NZTA boss explain it all to Kim Hill who couldn’t seem to see why she shouldn’t keep asking some direct questions and get a direct answer of explanation. Sweet fudging.
Rising levels of ‘black carbon’ in Queen St heighten health risk for Aucklanders
“Pedestrians and workers in Auckland’s Queen St are being exposed to high levels of “black carbon”, or ultra-fine carbon particles associated with a number of health problems.
Black carbon emissions are more than three times higher than Canadian cities and twice as high for concentrations in major European, UK and American cities, according to an article published by Auckland Council’s research and evaluation unit.”
“The article said high buildings in Queen St reduce airflow and allow air pollutant concentrations to increase close to ground level. High numbers of diesel buses in the central city and emissions from the port and ferry terminal contributed to air pollution levels.”
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12155503
Time to put the stadium and all the other polluting enterprises like Cruise ships and actually concentrate on safety of all the people and develop the wharf area and the city into open spaces free of pollution that workers and residents living in central Auckland can escape to! Not be polluted further by!
NZ is not going to have people living in Auckland city (and other cities) in those apartments or working there if the air quality they breathe is harming them!
As for the diesel fuelling public transport and trucks, again, NZ councils and government have clearly got their head’s up their arses on this one as they continually introduce more and more polluting elements into our city and our RMA laws and interpretation of them is dysfunctional.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/AK1806/S00111/public-health-fears-over-wellington-bus-plan.htm
‘Each day a cruise ship emits as much particulate matter as a million cars’
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/pollution-cruise-ships-po-oceana-higher-piccadilly-circus-channel-4-dispatches-a7821911.html
https://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/108358338/English-language-tests-for-foreign-teachers-likely-to-be-scrapped
There’s reason to be cautious about some testing regimes, notably TOEFL, in which the relatively high variation serves the business model (by encouraging multiple resits).
IELTS is more robust, and the convention that working at an academic level requires a basic standard less arbitrary.
I’d be interested to know where the story came from: government seeking to lower the bar to ease recruitment, non-state employers looking for cheap labour, or extant teachers trying to prevent creeping erosion of standards.
I think that some of our laws need to be more tightly focussed. I am thinking it is too general to have a law forbidding ‘sexual harassment’ which doesn’t convey well the extent of the fault.
This morning on the latest to come to the news:
https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018670126/geoffrey-rush-s-defamation-case-a-roll-call-of-actors
Geoffrey Rush’s defamation case a ‘roll-call’ of actors
From Morning Report, 8:56 am today
Listen duration 4′ :26″
A defamation case brought by the Oscar-winning actor Geoffrey Rush against the Daily Telegraph newspaper in Sydney is nearing a close.
Rush is suing the newspaper over articles it published last year, which claimed he behaved inappropriately with a co-star during a King Lear production in 2015.
Eryn-Jean Norvill, who played Cordelia in the Shakespeare play, has given evidence in the federal court in Sydney that Rush sexually harassed her.
He denies the allegations.
It may come that men will start suing women about the way they dress, showing body parts that have strong sexual connotations and attraction to men such as breasts, and saying that they are deliberately displaying themselves which introduces thoughts of sexuality which otherwise would not have arisen, and that is a form of sexual harassment!
So I think more definition is needed about what constitutes sexual harassment. Also I would like murder to be cited in degrees as some of the States in USA do.
https://criminal-law.freeadvice.com/criminal-law/violent_crimes/degrees.murder.htm
https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/2018670114/water-bottling-expansion-could-threaten-chch-drinking-supplies-councillor
A Christchurch City Councillor is strongly opposing the application by a Chinese owned bottling company to take 1.5 billion litres of water from a deep aquifer – saying it could threaten the city’s drinking supply.
Ocean Cloud Water owns an existing 33-metre deep bore in the northern suburb of Belfast, from which it is extracting and bottling 4.3 million litres of water a day.
It has now applied to the Environment Canterbury for permission to extract water from a 186-metre deep bore at the plant so it can sell it abroad.
Vicki Buck the former mayor of Christchurch and chair of the Council’s Innovation and Sustainability Committee, says this could compromise Christchurch’s water supply.
Kathryn also talks with Steve Lowndes, Chair of Environment Canterbury.
Kathryn Ryan and Vicki Buck Christchurch Councillor, had a very interesting conversation in this interview about water bottling demands being made on Christchurch city pure water aquifer.
Hey, hey….
More good news for our Coalition Government 🙂
“Unemployment has dropped to 3.9 per cent, the lowest level since the global financial crisis, causing the New Zealand dollar to surge.
On Tuesday Statistics New Zealand revealed that the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 3.9 per cent in the three months to September 30, down from 4.4 per cent at the end of June.
It is the lowest unemployment rate since June 2008, when unemployment was 3.8 per cent.”
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/108414604/unemployment-drops-sharply-hitting-lowest-level-since-2008
Yes indeed, well done National for gifting the incoming government such a strong base 🙂
Lmao cheeky as ! Yeah, nah.
We’ve had a new government for a year, and would you look at that, with those figures it’s obvious business confidence is also up.
Well now partner the ways I sees it is I reckon that if’n Nationals going to be blamed for all the negative stuff then it seems only fair to my ways of thinking that they need to be praised for all of the good stuff to
I’ll be moseying off now
The problem in our thinking is that national is all the negative stuff .
Aaargh fucking your thinking that’s meant to be . And the edit function is mia on that post ? But not this one
Pretty sure the best thing about national for Pucky, would be….drum roll please….
judith collins.
You’re not wrong 🙂
Well howdy there partner I do believe you got it right
Puckish Rogue, I don’t think I got an impression of ‘gifting’ amongst the cries of “We wuz robbed”.
not to rain on any parade but
no numbers of new jobs created
how many people of benefit into studies
how many people of unemployment benefit to other benefits
how many unemployed people retiring
how many unemployed people going still unemployed but not listed as unemployed
this article is actually really lazy and leaves more questions then answers. as to business confidence, who was asked? Bankers?
Maybe we will find out more after question time today?
it would be good to know what caused the drop.
If its more jobs, awesome. If its just people dropping out of the system, then no its not good at all.
More info would be very much appreciated, and should have been provided in the article to be honest.
Yes that dropping out of the system could be the answer. Going along to register and getting treated like a dropout, and being forced to apply for useless jobs where the hours are shit and the transport is not available to suit the hours, or the cost uses all your wages up. And you try and have a life but can’t carry out your duties to family and wor at all odd hours when the fingers get snapped. And you have to notify the Dept each week probably about your earnings so you get a cut in your benefit immediately but they probably take a while to bring it up to a normal level when the hours are cut. It could make you feel like suicide.
And don’t forget how they keep changing the way unemployment is measured – to make Govt. look good by not counting people who used to be counted. I don’t trust this rubbish at all. It is not lowest…
I’m going to make enquiries as to how they get the employment figures. Looking up google all the detail is about measuring the unemployed HxLxW. Stats advise who constitutes an unemployed person but I would like it spelled out as to who is employed – it must be paid work for a start, and how many hours, and it will probably say a minimum of one but I want to know for sure. I guess it will be phrased like ‘Did you do any paid work in the last week and how many hours? The last month and how many hours?
Do they count travelling time? If you have to travel an hour there and another back to work two hours, then that should be counted in a separate column which would also be interesting to see.
Is this of any use to you?
StatsNZ are pretty good at putting everything online, but the volume of what they publish means that getting the vibe of what search terms to use (or avoid) can take a while.
Well if we’re reading between the lines as (Jacinda) likes to say then I’m guessing ILG is not going to be feeling too comfortable for the next wee while (nor should he)
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/108416607/prime-minister-jacinda-ardern-found-out-about-karel-sroubek-decision-through-the-media
“What is unusual is some of the basis of the minister’s decision has been contradicted by other information in the public domain.”
(PR, the PM’s name is Jacinda. There’s more than a hint of misogynist belittling with the alternative you used, which is not OK here. TRP)
Should be good to note the contrast with bridges who has dropped shit grenade after shit grenade into his team’s hooch.
Hes only keeping the seat warm until Saint Jude the Savior chooses to take over
LOL. See my 17 below.
But, but – what gives with the job situation?
Well much like National wanted Little to stay I’m guessing Labour want Bridges to stay and since I’m advising Jude I’ll let you in on what I’ve advised her
Let Bridges stay on untill after the next election and then take over in a very seamless, orderly transition a couple of months after
Of course whether she takes my advice is another story…
LOL – I meant your job situation … Everything sorted?
Coming along nicely but very slowly, who’d thought a government role would take so damn long.
We have a site visit and testing on Friday and then the last thing should be a reference check and, hopefully, a job offer
If it wasn’t for the release of Red Dead Redemption 2 I’d be sooooo bored waiting 🙂
Saint Jude the Saviour lol certainly a lot needs saved that’s for sure but based on her track record she may as well be called St Jude the Saveloy cos she ain’t got it – never had it and never will imo.
I thought St. Jude’s moniker was ‘the obscure’. She certainly squawks like a skua.
Yeah Kate Winslet does look a bit like Jude
hahahahahahahahah
thanks for that, i needed a good belly laugh.
” Hes only keeping the seat warm until Saint Jude the Savior chooses to take over”
I thought her kind sunned themselves on rocks to warm the bloodstream.
No worries
Cheers, PR. George Costanza says it best:
Have a look at BM’s comments yesterday. Disgusting.
Every time you mention thee trolls it gives them a thrill. They thrill and trill when they troll, so roll on past why don’t you. You are feeding them.
For those of us who watch Question Time in Parliament, we won’t see either the PM or Simon Bridges there today. Seems they are in Ratana to celebrate the centenary “since prophet Tahupotiki Wiremu Ratana is said to have received a divine revelation from which the Ratana Church was born.”
Marama Davidson is also there as is Shane Jones, according to the Herald.
Considering the discussions here in the last few days or so re Kiwibuild etc, people may be interested in this little snippet in the last paragraph of the Herald article, which is easy to miss lost due to its stupid placement between “Related Articles” and “Herald Recommends”:
“The Government is expected to make an announcement on housing at Ratana. Previous governments have also used Ratana celebrations to make similar announcements.”
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12154927
Meanwhile, it looks like Winston Peters and Paula Bennett have been left to mind the shop. Winston is not at Ratana according to the above article, and Bennett has Question 2 this afternoon to the PM -“the usual “Does she stand by all of her Government’s statements and actions?”
https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/order-paper-questions/list-of-oral-questions/oral-questions-7-november-2018/
Presumably Peters and Bennett will still be minding the shop tomorrow, Thursday, as the PM and Leader of the Opposition do not attend Question Time on Thursdays.
So the next time we can hope to see the “Clash of the Titans” between Ardern and Bridges* is not until 27 November for the final three weeks of the House sitting for 2018, as the House is in recess for the next two weeks. The final sitting session will only be three weeks as opposed to the usual four weeks as the House is due to rise for the Summer Recess on Thursday, 13 December.
* Assuming Bridges is still Leader of the National Party …
“Does she stand by all of her Government’s statements and actions?”
This question and others of its ilk should be banned. It is a complete waste of time. Both sides – Just state your damn case.
I don’t disagree that such questions are a problem and have become too much a case of game playing, rather than the Govt being properly being held to account, etc in Question Time.
Their purpose is so that the Govt Minister answering the primary question (or rather, their advisers, Ministry etc) cannot prepare detailed answers as they do for more specific primary questions on specific topics – thus leaving the Minister in the firing line unsure what is going to follow in the supplementary questions.
Thus, behind the scenes it becomes a guessing game as to what is going to follow and advisers etc end up rushing around trying to cover all possibilities in terms of providing briefing notes to the Minister.
New Zealand now has 3.9% headline unemployment.
Underutilization is at 11.3%.
Best since 2008.
Yes, we’re still one of the most unequal countries in the oecd.
But this is one very good stat.
More from Mother Agnes on Syria. No doubt the lefty fascists will scream, but, but.. Assad!
From Robin Westenra.
This needs to be a thread.
The second most important story in New Zealand.
Winston is going to take jlr’s proxy vote.
Wonder if simon wants to talk about it?
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12156119
Winnie will be loving it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I know it won’t happen but I would love it if the media DID NOT ASK Bridges about it!
ROFL.
And here is Stuff’s article.
So timewise, National refused to exercise Ross’ proxy votes on Friday, 2 Nov and NZF received a letter from Ross on Sat, 3 Nov …
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/108429642/jamilee-ross-switches-his-proxy-vote-to-new-zealand-first
And Ross has tweeted about it here
And more –
Andrew Geddis’ considered legal opinion – “Oh, this is totally messed up … !
https://twitter.com/acgeddis/status/1060001425541935104
Toby Manhire – “What”
And love this one –
@LewSOS
55m55 minutes ago
More
Winston Peters Troll Level: is there a level higher than Grand Master
Some great reactions in all of the above full threads! ROFL
Wonder what tune Winston will put to this? Suggest “These Boots were made for Walking” Any other suggestions.
Nancy Sinatra – These Boots Are Made for Walkin
I reckon this one: Queen – If You Can’t Beat Them
Kia ora The Am Show The American midterm election has thrown a spanner in trump’s ——– this is a win for the Wahine and minority cultures with the House won by the Democrats that give’s America a humane voice with gerrymandering what has happened there they change the electoral lines that give the go oil party a huge advantage in the House election’s because of gerrymandering so in many of those seats the Democrats won the mojority but republicans still get the seat shonky would have pulled tactics like that if national won .
.https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/nov/04/america-minority-rule-voter-suppression-gerrymandering-supreme-court
Fuel tax is all good seenothing at least that revenue serves the Majority unlike big business were there profits only serve your rich m8’s % 00.1 no .
Of coarse one of the % 00.1 the ceo of walmart is going to say that about trump .
Its the middle and poor classes and minority groups that are getting ripped off buy the go oil party .
Its cool that the ban smoking in cars is getting big support as it should.
Kaiapo school being burnt is a stupid act who burns down a school for te mokopuna’s is a fool.
I agree with Amada we need those corporate fight’s need more laws to protect the fighters . Ka kite ano .
To all the good people who got up and voted for the left Ladies and Minority cultures .
Eco Maori THANKS YOU ALL KIA KAHA this is a big win for the LEFT.
This is just a distraction taxing red meat they say the big picture is we need a world carbon TAX lets stay focused on the real threat to OUR future it is not cow farts it is the petrol we put in our car trucks buses boat’s .
Get a good working world tax on carbon and use the money to pay for renewable energy a oil baron’s investment on the propagandize machine link below ka kite ano.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/nov/06/taxing-red-meat-would-save-many-lives-research-shows
https://globalnews.ca/news/4291256/carbon-tax-do-they-work/ I say they work one just has to look at the drop in NZ carbon this year 2018
The Democrats’ advances were essential, and will check Donald Trump’s power as well as boosting their morale. link below ka kite ano.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/nov/07/the-guardian-view-on-the-us-midterms-a-welcome-start one has to keep the momentum going to have Equality for all and a clean environment for our decedents.
I agree with George on this story I read it on another site we need OUR voices heard on protecting the innocent wild life and our children Ka pai.David Attenborough has betrayed the living world he loves
Ka kite ano link below.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/nov/07/david-attenborough-world-environment-bbc-films
Eco Maori Music wake up.
Geothermal renewable base load energy is a technology the oil barons have suppresed
we have a couple running in Aotearoa NZ
A trailblazing energy project has started drilling the UK’s deepest ever borehole in Cornwall in a bid to use heat from hot rocks as a zero-carbon source of electricity.
The team behind the £18m scheme hopes to create the UK’s first deep geothermal power station and ignite a renewed interest in the technology’s wider potential.
The project near Redruth involves two deep holes being drilled over a course of around six months. Drilling began on Tuesday, with one hole expected to be 1.6 miles (2.5km) deep and the other as far as 2.8 miles (4.5km) down, which would be a UK record for a borehole.
Water will then be pumped into the shallower well, where it should be heated by naturally fractured hot rocks deep underground, hitting temperatures of up to 195C.
Ka kite ano link below P.S let hope this project is successful.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/nov/06/drilling-starts-to-tap-geothermal-power-from-cornwalls-hot-rocks
The Man accused of blackmailing DOC over 1080 programme named you will see what type of person is making these foolish threats to state employees ka kite ano link below
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/375460/man-accused-of-blackmailing-doc-over-1080-programme-named
Kia ora Tekaea I say its cool that NZFirst is doing to helping Ross and his el
30.000 Ratana people in Australia that’s heaps its a shame that they have to go there to get a better life there was no reason but suppression why te tangata whenua moved from te whenua .
The Ngapuhi settlements should settle and use the money to lift te tangata wairua.
The sport training Awhata is a good thing its cool to teach the tamariki about fitness and control.
Ka kite ano
Kia ora Newshub I still say Galloway was set up when I take on new management roles I have most time’s clean out the rat’s the one time I did not do this it bit me on the——-.
IPCA washing there image typical tactic the car chase 200 klm 3 dead.
Jeff Sessions is a honorable person Kia Kaha Jeff.
Is that global warming the West coats of Aotearoa getting hammered by tawhirimatea well that will fill some of the hydro power lakes .
Yes I say all the taps and pluming parts that are used in out water supply should be looked at and tested for lead content .
Our power prices are one of the highest in the OECD and what they use hydro to provide most of our power supplies.???? A lot of lies have been told about why our power prices are so high.
The new phones are advancing fast and with them battery technology I say battery power storage is going to revolutionize the renewable energy sector .
Ka kite ano .
Kia ora James & Strrom from The Crowd Goes Wild That’s awesome Trent bolt got a hatrick in the Pakistan first one day over test game and won that;s the way Ross Taylor let em know that you can see what they are up to good game.
That reff let the player know who’s boss by yellow card both front rows in Rugby .
Good on Sulu the netball player for getting a tattoos to show her culture and she is having a good run Mana Wahine .
Ka kite ano P.S good luck to the Black Ferns game in France