While PM,… Key made approx $1 Million per year on his Auckland house …. which I think should be confiscated …. As law changes pushed through by him …. allowing foreign buyers and corrupt money flows into our property market , ….. all seems seems like a clear conflict of interest.
What percentage of NZers made $1 Million per year on our property bubble ,,,,as blown by Mr Key????…..
if we add in his other property ….. Omaha beach , Wellington, London ,,,, and a Hawaii pad he paid $4.5 million for in 2009 …. then he’s obviously gained more than $1 million per year from property speculation.
Tell me there is no connection ….between Keys double digit multi millions property windfalls… ….And the homelessness / housing stress in New Zealand … and London ….and Hawaii …. where workers can no longer afford to buy or rent reasonable homes.
If we do not seize his conflicted money …. a CGT tax on his speculative unearned income is the least we should do to creative john…..
And spend it on building homes for normal decent humans…
Foreign investors come in through the banking system. It is that that needs to be controlled. Start by preventing private banks creating money out of nothing.
Chris T, Sixty nine thousand mentions in the Panama Papers. Plus shonkey lawyers who had Trusts for overseas people Mossack Fonsecca, who disappeared when asked to give a name and address.
Key wanted us to be the “Switzerland of the South” where the rich could hide their money.
You are talking to the wrong people.
You should be moaning to Robbo and the Stardust girl.
After all, they are the ones who propose to exclude one’s “family home” from a CGT.
If you think the family homes should be subject to a CGT why don’t you just say so, and then complain about why the Labour Party won’t allow it?
Come on. Start your diatribe about your beloved leader’s refusal to do anything about house prices and fairness.
I see Reason still has KDS, you are aware Clark had 4 or 5 homes and Cullen 2 or 3 whilst NOT bringing in a CGT during their 9yrs in power. Key made his money outside politics, Clark never worked outside politics and never earned a cent outside a government funded salary! Why you lefties hate Key for his wealth without looking at the 2 other ‘rich pricks’ leading Labour is laughable (and Cullen earning a grand a day for almost 2 years under this Labour govt, when his ‘job’ ends in July)
im right dickhead ………….. tax cullen and clark too you fool.
Rebstock got paid half a million by the nats to do a witch trial ….. you dope
Tax her capital gains too ….
Keyzy just sleazy … who would want to be that deviant creep?
anyway you missed the point ….
Tell me there is no connection ….between Keys double digit multi millions property windfalls… ….And the homelessness / housing stress in New Zealand … and London ….and Hawaii …. where workers can no longer afford to buy or rent reasonable homes. ….
a CGT tax on his speculative unearned income is the least we should do to creative john…..
And spend it on building homes for normal decent humans
That is b*s and you know it Robert.
Please, just because people like “reason(?)” still suffer so grievously from KDS doesn’t mean you have to join them.
I’m not sure who that’s directed at, but buying properties for speculation has always been taxable, the brightline only made it easier for IRD to establish.
The Key Kleptocracy was the worst NZ government in my lifetime, and many of the others were nothing to write home about. Key bears personal responsibility for a number of criminal acts, starting with Equiticorp, insider trading in rail shares, the Stalinist extra-judicial theft of Hubbard’s wealth to name a few.
Derangement more properly describes your worship of this self-serving turd, who, in any well run country, would be doing hard labour for the rest of his natural.
Yeah, we know you’re fine with criminality SM, but it renders all your criticisms of the coalition ineffectual. If you’ll put up with the shite the previous government got up to, you’ve no basis to criticize anything.
If you were up to more serious argument, you might consider why NZ is now a world leader in suicide. It’s not happenstance, but the outcome of decades of absolutely fucking hopeless governance.
NZ is a world leader in reported suicide. Whether it’s down to decades of absolutely fucking hopeless governance as one of the causative factors is certainly worth debate.
Your continued cant regarding criminality and the like from National governments is a hoot.
People victimized by those crimes see it rather differently.
I don’t know why it should suddenly be too much to ask, that a government be both honest and competent, certainly I’ve seen fuck all of either in my lifetime.
You really should have put “NZ is a world leader in reported suicide” in quotes. Without them it tends to imply that you think the statement is true. According to the WHO it simply isn’t true.
I suggest you have a look at this article. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_suicide_rate#List_by_the_World_Health_Organization_(2016)
Have a look at New Zealand. I’ll give you a hint. It is at number 53.
The highest developed country is Russia, at nearly 3 times the level.
Sundry other developed countries above us are Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, Latvia, Uruguay, Belgium, Estonia, Japan, Finland, United States , Hungary, Poland, Iceland, Bolivia, France, Nicaragua, Sweden and Australia.
World leader? You really are dreaming. Thank God it isn’t true.
You put that data together with known coroner reluctance to make a finding of suicide and we’re in a very bad place – and it’s been getting rapidly worse.
Not being as bad as Russia, like most of the specious arguments of the Loony Right, is no consolation – we’re in a record bad place
vis-à-vis our previous record, and that has only been achieved by prodigies of lousy governance.
we-ell the world leader status isn’t too far off if we look at it by agegroup – looking at young people we get up to something like #20.
And then if you look at the OECD rather than including smaller, less developed nations, we seem to be towards the front of the pack.
But regardless of the semantics of our suicide ranking, we should have a much lower rate. It can be difficult – the problem ones to prevent are the impulsive suicides: happy and fine one day, gets dumped or fired the next day, gets drunk, gets morose, is alone, jumps off or in front of something. But there are still things we should be doing and don’t.
“Equiticorp”.
Now you really have lost it.
The H-fee was something done by Elders which was an Australian company. Key worked, at around that time for a New Zealand subsidiary which had nothing at all to do with it.
Only the then Labour President, Mike Williams, thought he could track some connection but came up with zilch, and egg all over his face.
I suppose that you are guilty of Benefit Fraud. After all you are a Green Party Supporter and a one time party leader certainly was guilty of the activity. You must have been involved as you were involved with the party.
There, are you going to plead guilty. You are at least as connected to that as was Key to the payment of the fee.
Your delusions about Hubbard and his “wealth” are equally nuts. Hubbard started getting involved in very risky property developments when he would loan enormous sums to companies that no-one else would touch. For some strange reason he, like Michael Duff, seemed to think that he had a Midas touch and when all the loans went down the tubes his company went bust.
Williams may not have been able to prove it, but those of us who had our money stolen do not forget.
We knew something was wrong with the SCF story the moment the auditor or whatever he was started pushing stories through the media that affected its value – a massive conflict of interest were he in fact trying to protect the asset value as his appointment required.
One of the largest ‘bankruptcies’ in NZ with never a day in court. We know you guys are hot and cold running corruption but this case makes all our commercial law obsolete – a couple of crooked assholes in government can just steal your property by fiat with a smile and a wave.
Weren’t you paid out Stuart?
After all an awful lot of people here continually moan about how the taxpayer paid out to the investors in SCF because it was allowed into the Government Guarantee scheme by Cullen.
Certainly not. The issue is democracy, not my personal financial interest. Hubbard had an absolute right to expect that his own government would not fraudulently deprive him of his wealth.
That Cullen criticism was just another trollfest, like Key’s claim that Thiel’s cannibalism of the outfit he invested in was the fault of the previous government. Nonsense.
These are extremely serious criminal issues that need to be thoroughly and publicly investigated; your troll scapegoating doesn’t really reach that standard.
Says the knob who constantly bangs on about “Stardust Girl” “CoL” etc. You need a truck load of Hemorrhoid Cream for your condition, you completely unethical national toady.
In 2016, there were 118,910family violence investigations by NZ Police.
Responding to family violence accounts for 41% of a frontline Police Officer’s time.
In 2016, 5,461applications were made for protection orders:-5,072(89%) were made by women and 550(10%) by men.3-4,940(89%) of respondents were men and 560(10%) women.
In 2016, there were 6,377recorded male assaults female victimisations and 4,852proceedings against offenders for breaching a protection order.
In 2015/16, Women’s Refuges affiliated to the National Collective of Independent Women’s Refuges received about 73,000crisis calls. 11,062women accessed advocacy services in the community. 2,446women and children stayed in safe houses.
Adult sexual assault
In 2014,24% of New Zealand women and 6% of men reported having experienced sexual assault in their lifetime.
17% of New Zealand women report having experienced sexual violence by an intimate partner in their lifetime; 2% in the last 12 months.
In 2016, there were 2,708 reported sexual offences against an adult over 16years.”
The point is, for me, that progress has been made thanks to tremendous effort by many good people and that more will be accomplished by a great many people’s efforts.
“According to current police data analysed by the Herald, as of 2016 up to 80 per cent of reported aggravated sexual assaults go unresolved. For the crime “male rapes female 16 and over”, that number is even higher, at 85 per cent. Rape cases are four times less likely to go to court in comparison with other types of physical assault, where only 24 per cent of offences are unresolved.”
Hiya gsays. I must find a list of venues for that documentary, I’d like to see it.
I found myself disagreeing with Celia Lashlie on a few occasions…especially with the ‘boys need/NEED good male role models’ thing.
It kinda fed a particular nutbar men’s rights group….and was a too simplistic answer to a fairly recent problem. That said….she certainly had moxie and was more than willing to stick her head above the ramparts.
I wouldn’t dismiss the benefit of a male in a boys life.
The only problems we have had with our son going to a boys school has been with female teachers.
From another ‘tradition’, there is an analogy about raising a child and a potter raising a pot.
The female energy is represented by love and forgiveness, male energy by law and justice.
The child, like a pot, needs both hands to guide it.
Raised only with love and forgiveness it has little regard for itself or others.
Raised only with law and justice the child doesn’t grow.
Make of it what you will, it helped me understand my partner and some of the decisions that were made.
.
Some reflect, some celebrate, and some go “meh!”. We all perceive things differently. Either way, it should not go unnoticed and it is good that it provokes a reaction with people. Worst thing that could happen is to be completely ignored and becoming irrelevant when it clearly needs a lot of attention and is highly relevant.
The low hanging fruit to curb NZs high violence rates was protected by National …. and a dirty politics smear campaign launched against people cleaning up the mess of NZ’s biggest drug problem ,,,,,
“Picture the veteran homicide detective – grizzled, gloomy, jaded after years dealing with humanity’s worst, most hopeless cases.
Retiring this week after 42 years with the police, Drew is optimistic about humanity …. He’s just happy to leave with a clean slate – meaning no unsolved murders.
He later worked in the car squad, fraud squad, drug squad, undercover programmes, and as Wairarapa area commander.
“We had a series of cases that became quite high-profile, where the treatment of the child had been dreadful.
“Not just that the child had been beaten and killed, but the treatment, ongoing for a long time, had been dreadful.”
Just as Kiwis were capable of changing attitudes to child abuse, Drew says maybe another debate is needed around the most common cause of preventable crimes.
A constant over 42 years, he says, has been the role of booze in making otherwise reasonable people do crazy things.
Drew says changing attitudes towards binge drinking will be tough.
He’s wary of sounding like a finger-wagging hypocrite because many of us have done silly things on the booze.
But he says our casual attitude to getting hammered should probably be reassessed – for our own good.”
…………
Judith Collins and the Nats would rather blame Maori for high rates of violent crime… all while demanding more prisons be built,….
It is always problematic to make direct connections as a reason for outcomes. While I’m sure the experienced detective knows a lot more than me about the actuallity of dealing with what has to be a pretty horrific job especially when children are involved, it is not a directline .. i.e drink = abuse a child.
Child abusers are people who would probably take their frustrations out on kids even if they only drank water.
And as for Collins, she’s just a tarted up Trump, bashing whatever group comes on her dog-whistle radar. A few years ago, as a result of a census I think, it was revealed that less than 40% of Maori actually drink alcohol, the Pakeha figure was around 70% as I recall.
The police rosters /staffing levels are set in accordance with our drinking patterns …. ie bugger all cops out monday night …. lots on a friday saturday.
No uniform police get time off on new years eve ….
Because Alcohol abuse spikes both accident and violence rates …. Adrian
Abusers who abuse while sober are particularity mean … while many other abusers go psychotic on booze
Many years back I was hitching out of Auckland one fine Saturday morning, heading once again to the Southern Alps, on the Kyber Pass on-ramp to the motorway. Much to my surprise a big grey police Bedford wagon pulls up and the cheery Sgt driving opens the door and beckons me in.
For a moment I thought he’d busted me for something, but no he was chatty and happy to give me a ride out of town. At some point he pointed to a little window behind us and asked to me check the ‘load’. There was 20 glum looking guys all seated in rows in back!
“They’re the overflow from Auckland, taking them down to the Papakura Court for processing; all of them but one, who was picked up for dud cheques, all of them on the booze last night.”
The he said something I’ve never forgotten. “You know sonny, you’ll be too young to remember this, but some years back there was a big brewery strike and a lot of the pubs ran out of beer. And us cops were reduced to helping little old ladies get cats out of trees”.
It’s that simple. Most of the ugliness that we so lament in our society, that we like to sheet home to all sorts of convoluted ideological causes, are really about not much more than the booze. It takes out about 10% of people as alcoholics to some degree or another and massively burdens our health system patching up the damage.
I’m dead set against prohibitions, but there’s every reason for each of us to take ownership of our relationship with alcohol, and be it’s master.
10 times as many people out and about on the weekends as Monday night and 100s more on New Years Eve, Like I said, drawing direct line correlations gives one flawed information.
Sure alcohol is a factor but enviroments that are noisy, crowded and sexually charged leading to jealousy, envy and irrational behavour will lead to more problems wether drink is involved or not.
The percentage of drinkers on a Monday night is probably the same as on a Friday theres just more people in total.
Don’t believe everything the Police say, they are probably the worst group for being captured by group-think, believing only what their managment tell them.
Sure alcohol is a factor but enviroments that are noisy, crowded and sexually charged leading to jealousy, envy and irrational behavour will lead to more problems wether drink is involved or not.
In my experience of large mixed groups socialising absent alcohol, there is rarely any problems with violence or abuse.
Here’s another stat; approximately 50% of all murder victims and perpetrators are drunk at the time of the crime. (Regardless of what the police may or may not have said about it.)
It’s a risk factor, like anything else. The direct effects on the nervous system are well documents. The limiting of impulse control and coordination are well documented – a drunk adult essentially has the impulse control of a teenager and the coordination of a toddler. There are plenty of qualitative reviews of the effects of alcohol. There is a consistent temporal and dose-response relationship in observations.
The correlation with a multitude of adverse outcomes isn’t just police rosters.
So we can pretend there is no problem on the slim possibility something else is at work, or we can minimise that harm. Elimination is impossible in most cases, isolation viable in some (r18/20 bars), minismisation in others. But we can also increase supervision – police for the streets, social workers for the home.
Drink inflames emotions I think, whatever is being felt it increases it, and the person feeling can’t control him or herself as well, or at all.
Yes alcoholics cause problems. Say that 10% of the population is one.
The rest of their family will be involved; in being encouraged to drink, mixing with other easy-peasy lazy thinkers who get that way because of alcohol, poor adult role models, then there is the money that is not available for the household, then it is hard to actually hold down a job. Then there is the self-aggrandisement of the alcoholic – it’s always someone else’s fault. And so on.
I was happy when the NZ bloke who developed RTDs was killed in a helicopter crash. One of his cohort was offended. I was not even slightly concerned about that. Alcohol deliberately to entice young drinkers, which he expressed surprise at, is nothing but getting the young involved with drugs, and of course his was spirits with mixers to be palatable. The country timidly brought in legislation to limit the rather high alcohol limit supposedly because it was gathering in large numbers of teenagers and under age drinkers. He brought his alcohol levels down to just under it. A very calculating shit.
So reduce availability. Take it out of supermarkets, to the liquor outlets where it belongs. The supermarkets will hate it. ouch. (I’m dreaming here.) But time limits for selling, not till late at night. At bars and restaurants, there would have to be something eaten, so either bowls of nuts, small savouries, ploughman’s lunch, snack etc.
Health, food and safety could let up on their interminable laws to prevent everything and just have cleanliness and godliness as the guide!
Pubs, bars would have to apply for late night licences and nurture their clients. Get away from the sinking them in large number, drinking competition, swill stuff. Make the happy hours just that, not OTT.
The other day Hosking trumpeted that there was no chorus of voices defending the need for a CGT. He pushed the idea floated earlier that week that the government was shocked by the anti CGT reaction and again today said the government had ‘cocked up’ by leaving a vacuum and allowing the no faction to argue their case.
If arguing their case means racist dog-whistling, tweeting fake numbers, and misappropriating the Kiwi way of life then yes, they have argued their case. The Prime Minister made an important point when she said not everyone has a column in the Herald. It’s important because greedy, old, scared, white people have always had better access to platforms from which to honk their message. A CGT legislation would be an important component for balancing out over society exactly those kinds of historic advantages the wealthy have had. That’s why they are scared.
The right wing nuts are also unhappy with the chair of the group staying on to answer questions about the report. To not do so would create even more of a vacuum which is I suspect exactly what the Nats want. They don’t like anyone interrupting their frightened ranting. And what would be the alternative to a six week stand down for public discussion of the report? Would they have preferred the government released the TWG recommendations and their decisions on the same day? In effect a decision made behind closed doors. I think not. The government are, as usual, being honest if not a little hopeful that the opposition would display a similar amount of honesty.
It’s also interesting what recommendations the Nats haven’t attacked with any gusto. And that is a CGT on investment properties. This is because they know almost every citizen in the country is on board with it – even fair minded rental owners! A lot of them are rightly embarrassed about how easy it has been to make tax-free gain. It’s also a frank admission that the policy of the last National government has indeed damaged the country – hopefully not beyond repair.
‘At least 36 countries, including all 28 members of the European Union, have signed a statement condemning Saudi Arabia’s human rights record at the United Nations Human Rights Council ‘
The sad news is of course this.
There are 193 countries that are members of the United Nations.
157 of them declined to sign the statement.
The countries that actually care about human rights appear to be largely in Western Europe.
Sigh.
It is kind of weird that the entire aim of National is to make sure that nobody but the wealthy shall exist naturally and happily in New Zealand.
National has no intention of doing anything but filling their own bellies, in their own comfortable homes, with their girl friends, while the Workers and the Poor, -The Constructive Members of New Zealand Society, – are attacked by merciless Landlords with Excessive, impossible Rental Fees.
We live in the Country of Hosking; Mrs Bennett; Mr Hooten; The Herald; Sir john Key; Sir Billy English; And the bludging Wealthy and Landlords.
Supported by pathetic tiny trolls. Who Hate Hate Hate. They cannot abide a Worker owning a home.
Well i believe the TWG was formed in late 2017? and Cullen is now staying on to answer questions (that Grant obviously can’t answer) until June 2019? so well over a year although I am sure he didn’t work every day he should earn well in excess of the average income,
“Supported by pathetic tiny trolls. Who Hate Hate Hate.”.
That certainly seems to be a perfect description of Government supporter “Sir” Michael Cullen.
Also known as the rip off kid.
“Dame Paula also spearheaded a major report into Child Youth and Family (CYF), for which she was paid $2000 a day, double the normal maximum fee.”
” taxpayers had had to fork out half a million dollars for the Rebstock inquiry which “crucified” two innocent officials – and would now have cough up again to compensate them.
Dr Graham could not fathom how Mr Key could consider employing her again. “
$2,000 a day. I don’t care how fucking talented you are, paying anyone $2,000 a day is just pissing money into the gutter. And then, she fucked it up. So, $2,000 a day for fucking things up. Awesome. I can fuck things up with the best of them. Where do I get a job like that?
“How is Cullen known as the rip off kid?”
Apparently because he was paid for being on the Tax Working Group. I wouldn’t trust any figures coming from National – but supposedly he got $1000/day for a 6 hours’ work.
So a charge-out rate of $167/hour:
– less than half what my dentist charges
– way less than a family lawyer
– less than multitudes of IT consultants
OK – the dentist and lawyer have business overheads – but even allowing for that Cullen’s rate seems remarkably low comparatively.
The point of course is that even though it’s comparatively low, it’s actually unimaginable riches for most NZers, especially for the working poor who tend to vote Labour. Penny drop – the Nats know all this perfectly well – it’s just a crude attempt to wedge Labour’s base.
Just have a look at all the tax-payer funded jobs he has had, and the tax-payer funded travel he has done, since he left Parliament and started collecting his very generous Parliamentary Superannuation.
Ye he is one of those who gets the really generous, gold-plated Super people still complain about. He was there in 1991 you see.
If there is any money in view Michael will rip it out of the hands of the taxpayer and pocket it.
You might consider the contrast with Shipley – appointed by ‘friends’ she proved to be unfit – Cullen, appointed by ‘enemies’ did the job required. It’s possible to be worth a high pay rate – just not for Gnats.
Venezuala needs assistance, is there anything gooie and his gang can do? Revealed: US aid to Venezuala all about regime change>>> https://youtu.be/iKSaDcN_nL0
The current US interest in Venezuela is (of course) an entirely virtuous exception to all their other interventions in Latin America over the last century.
I was totally sceptic about dowsing as I could see no scientific reason for it.
A very long time ago a neighbour showed us how to search for water. Imagine a bunch of sceptical teens marching around the paddock and then the horror when the manuka sticks twitched either up or down! We tried blindfolding and leading each other to an anonymous spot then letting them walk blindly and in exactly the same spots the twitching twitched.
No. We did not dig down to see what was down there but the twitching was very real.
Because I’m a sucker for punishment, I did my daily check on Farrars Ferals over on ‘Kiwi Way of Life’ blog… and bugger me if a high percentage of commentors didn’t have similar stories to tell.
This is why there’s hope for Aotearoa into the future. The Left and Right seemingly in accord over what some would consider woo witchcraft.
Since 1980 the Australian Sceptics Society has a $100,000 offer to divine for minerals or water. So far it has not been won. Just declare what you can do, your the conditions under which you can perform your claimed paranormal deed, and your success rate. Then prove it under properly conducted conditions.
The test that the Australian Sceptics promote is a double-blind test. Basically the substance to be found by divining is hidden underground. The tester accompanying the diviner does not know where the substance is so reading body language or straight out fraud is ruled out. In 39 years the test has not been completed successfully. The conditions of the test are agreed by both the contestant and the Sceptics Society btw.
The test is or course replicable. I’d also venture to say that a successful (IMHO guessed) experiment should be able to be replicated to prove that it wasn’t just a lucky guess.
Uri Geller was a fraud. I can bend spoons too. A bit of rubbing and friction and the spoon bends. Sometimes I can even read my wife’s mind!
I did a psychic experiment whilst at Uni with a glass and all participants putting a finger on the glass which pointed by paranormal means to letters of the alphabet. As the messages got even stranger the slight whiteness on the first knuckle of my finger betrayed me .
skepticism has made no actual contribution to science
Your long winded, protracted and esssentially, empty comment..
cements the above..emphatically!
What attracts you to skeptic pseudoscience lobby groups, who make no worthwhile contribution to humanity, mac1?
Perhaps you could name some members of the ‘skeptics society’…and provide some historical context for how the australian crank group formed…and some of their ‘notable achievements’…
One Two. You can google the Australian Sceptics Society that from the references in my previous comments.
I am at a bit of a loss to understand you here. You seem to be saying that I am in the thrall of “skeptic pseudoscience lobby groups” whereas I am saying that one of the kaupapa of the Australian Sceptic Society is to debunk pseudoscience. See the Bent Spoon Award below.
But from an earlier comment of yours referring to ‘scientism” I seem to be getting the understanding that your idea of true science, and mine, differ somewhat.
One Two. What are your views on dowsing?
You ask what might be the ‘notable achievements’ of sceptics? Putting the blowtorch of reason on dubious claims might help.
What do you make of this article? This is part of what sceptics do.
mac1, I can only go from your comments and links to a suspect group which has no basis is science …whatsoever…
Specifically you have used said group and links to cite disproving of ‘spoon bending’ as some type of derogatory statement against ‘dowsing’…
Have I interpreted the intent of your link and comment about the ‘Randi Prize’, the way you meant it?
If not , please explain how you believe linking to the ‘Randi Prize’ in a dowsing discussion was supposed to be interpreted…
My position on dowsing is not relevant to this sub thread, as I was not commenting on dowsing…I was commenting on your links to a dubious group whose contribution to ‘science’,,,is essentially zero…
Context of the history of ‘sceptical societies’ and the network of so called ‘sceptics’ who are actually self proclaimed ‘debunkers’ (their words not mine)…
If you believe that ‘putting a blow torch’…is a notable contribution…then absolutely you and I are not aligned…
I asked you why you posted the skeptics link and comment…because I’ve no idea if you’re ‘enthralled’…or not…but you linked to a specific group…one whose activities and history I am familar with…
So…go right ahead and answer that question…why did you link to that group in the dowsing thread…
Do we put a blowtorch to claimants such as this one?
“The promoters of the Premium Wine Card, a credit card-sized item that supposedly improves the flavour of wine through “an embedded set of precise frequencies that produce a long-lasting natural resonance [that] can be transferred to wine through the wine glass.”
That one a runner up in 2014 for the Bent Spoon Award by the Australian Sceptics Society.
This link provides another but similar view to that of the Sceptics Society.
Anyway, One Two, I suggest that you engage with JohnSelway as he seems to be a scientist. I’m just a layman. Tell you what though. I’m off to have a beer now with a bunch of scientists, viticulturists, professors of mathematics, winemakers, surgeons, businessmen and brewers. I’ll canvass their views of ‘scientism”, scepticism and the scientific process. Cheers.
Why did I link to the Sceptics in the dowsing thread?
Here’s why.
2014 Physicist Larry Marshall PhD became CEO of the CSIRO. He made an observation about dowsing that was unscientific and won their Bent Spoon Award for the disparity in that pronouncement and his new role heading a scientific body.
The link I posted was in support of the quote I had used…nothing more than that…
You then linked to the australian skeptic site…more than once and filled the surrounding commentary with skeptic type twaddle about spoon bending, when the subject was about dowsing…
I raised a question…more than once to you asking about why you referenced that same site and spoon bending…you’ve attempted to explain in your comment above at 850pm, but have done poor job elucidating your own thoughts…
So far as the skeptics are concerned…they are an irrelevant noise which far from adding anything positive (bent spoon awards are nothing m1…why do you give them credence) to any form of counter argument…members of their group have nefarious links and boarderline criminal…if not actual criminal involvement against other groups, who the skeptics, actively target…
You can look into it for yourself…
People who link and refer to skeptic sites are, in my experience rather limited in their thinking capacity, either as young adults finding their way through the dross to a more informed space…or adults who are struggling to find a way at all, and are unable to expand from a stunted developmental standpoint…
Those who comment at this site and reference ‘skeptics’ in various guises…are some of the best examples of evidence in support of my stated position, paragraph above..
Each of us must actively decide where we wish to allow complacency to set in…believing we have found ‘truth’…
For me personally…that is a lifelong journey…one which I embrace on a daily basis…
Funny how One Two won’t argue the point posted, but uses comments like, long winded, protracted, empty etc. This is always used by con artists who try & muddy the waters & not deal with the facts.
Maybe you could watch Richard Dawkins documentary “The Enemies of Reason” & see how water diviners get no better results than chance, but of course this would be too long winded & protracted for you
The only people who believe skepticism has made no actual contribution to science are the believers in homeopathy, wifi health issues, flat earthers, 9/11 conspiracy, one world order “single issue nutters”.
Lacking critical thinking they will not change their stance, even thought majority of scientific community says otherwise.
Jeepers, Grandpop used to divine water, he was always bang on when he did it. Any Y shaped stick would do, he would just cut one from the nearest tree, no matter the species, absolutely amazing to watch.
I remember dad was a skeptic of his father inlaws abilities, so asked Grandpop to find the water pipes at home. And sure enough he marked out where they were on the lawn, his stick would point to the ground like a magnet where there was water. Dad never doubted him again.
It’s a gift he would share with others, no charge. His theory was that the hard work is in digging the well rather than finding the water.
One of those things that needs to be seen to be believed, some use special rods, some do not.
At secondary school we did an interesting experiment. The science lab had a large bench running around the outside of the sides and back wall, and under it rows of many identical cupboards.
The entire class went into the back room and isolated, while one person using a randomised list would place a large beaker of water in one cupboard only. (All the others had been emptied out.) That person would then leave the room, another independent person, who had been outside would then enter and call one of the class from the back room to step up onto the bench, and using a dowsing rod, walk slowly around the room once in each direction, and see if we got a response. The independent person would do the recording, and then leave again.
One done that person would then leave the room altogether.
We then ran the trial with an entirely different class with no water as a control.
The results were clear cut, there really was a strong effect. Sorry I cannot remember the exact statistical confidence p number after all these years, but there was no question that most of us did detect the water. I recall my own surprise at the dowsing rod moving in my hand.
I think it was a pretty well designed experiment, and that was the educational purpose of it, but I’d not die in a ditch defending it against some uber-rationalist determined to de-bunk it. Let’s just say, that it’s one of those things that seems harmless enough and should be judged on the results.
When I was a teenager I got a holiday working for P&T (the cable laying & maintenance branch of the post office) I was part of a small crew trenching for a new underground phone line in a semi-rural area. Part of the job involved hand digging to expose pre-mapped wires and pipes where it was too risky just to run the Ditch-Witch through. The maps showed roughly where to dig but the supervisor taught me a technique which was in common use at the time by people doing this kind of work. It involves taking two lengths of 16 gauge wire about 18″ long & bending them into L shapes with the short branch just long enough to sit comfortably inside your hand when closed. The idea was to hold them very lightly, pointing slightly downwards in front of you, then walk slowly at right angles to intersect with the line where the pipe or cable you were searching for was supposed to be. When you were nearly on top of the target the wires swung inwards to point at each other across the front of your chest. A heel mark in the ground marks the spot. Then you walk forward a few metres turn and repeat the exercise from the opposite direction. Typically there was an 18″ to 2″ gap between the two marks and it was invariably accurate at finding water pipe or copper cable.
I am a sceptic by nature and have a reasonably scientific cast of mind but I also believe the evidence of my eyes and personal experience. If I can make it work in a repeatable and reliable way and it’s a useful technique I’m not going to argue the toss about how it’s not possible..
Many years ago one of my apprentices showed me how to find water pipes, we just used some silfos brazing rods from the work van, we bent them in an L shape like you said. Since then i have done it a many times. At the time i was very surprised that it worked.
During a working life in electricity distribution I’ve come across dozens who reckon they can locate cables by dowsing. Thing is, anyone with experience pretty much knows where cables are likely to be laid so any success was always taken with a grain.
And besides, why dowse when you can use an electromagnetic locator.
The holiday job I was referring to took place in 1974 and electromagnetic locators weren’t a thing being used by crews like ours at the time. Not something readily to hand in the average home workshop either. Anyway I’m not going to die in a ditch over this one..
Yep. We flirted with the idea of going to the expense of putting down a bore as back up to our roof collection. The neighbours (wrongly as it turned out after the big Waikato drought of 2008) reckoned there was ‘unlimited’ ground water and more than one gave us the local diviner’s phone number. He did come out and did his thing and found water at about 50 m down. Although we ditched the plan to drill, we were surprised that we weren’t surprised at just how ordinary dowsing is. Talk about cognitive dissonance.
I guess this is a talent/skill that has been used down the eons because having a secure supply of water is so important for survival. I wonder how many dry holes were dug using primitive hand tools before dowsing became an actual ‘thing’.
Surprising, really, that it survived western organised religion.
When we used a y shaped piece of manuka and held it fiercly it would twist in our hands and break the bark off the branch. A really weird feeling as though the branch was alive. It is the only action which I cannot explain scientifically.
Suggest that John Selway get out in a paddock and try it. Then he can refute it if he wishes.
Selway…like many past and present commentators on this site, does not appear to understand the fundamental and core tenants of ‘science’…
As a result, they must perform contorsions, flunk basic logic and reasoning…while screeching ‘anti-science’ at those who point out the many obvious flaws in their ‘belief system’…
Scientism…is not science..it is pure and unadulterated…
Find something that requires explanation
Propose hypothesis
Propose methods to test hypothesis
Test hypothesis
Repeat under conditions
If tests fail return to step one and propose another hypothesis
If test return results run the gauntlet of peer review
If tests are repeatable you have theory
That’s the scientific method – it does not allow for magic. Water dowsing fails this method. It’s that simple. Science is a process, not a belief system.
Water dowsing has never produced a repeatable result, has never produced a theory and is therefor junk science. That isn’t anti-science – this IS science. It’s a process, not a belief.
Your just talking shit now. I explained to you the scientific method pretty much in the simplest way possible and your response “you don’t understand science”.
What you’ve demonstrated, is that you’re not even aware of the fundamental limitation in the starting assumption…actually it’s plural…there is more than one limitation…
Should be easier for you now…increased targets…have a guess…it’s what you’re already doing…
mac1 reckons you’re a scientist…mac1 is a sceptic citing sceptic web sites..so not best placed to identify what is…from what is not…
Debating with One Two is frustrating, but you realise you’re dealing with a clueless nutter went he won’t even consider facts, I suspect his weekend job is a circus clown.
Debating with you One Two is a pointless exercise. You claim to be scientific, but ignore the most basic scientific principles.
Richard Dawkins said that some people who have used double blind tests said they stopped using them as they didn’t work. What they really meant was that double blind showed their own theories were incorrect, so they then ditched them.
These people start with a belief (a bit like you) & ignore any sensible evidence that contradicts their cherished beliefs. How can you debate with someone who doesn’t respect evidence ? They are on another planet.
Because you’re unoriginal , baz…you have nothing in your head which was generated by your own efforts…you project all your uneduated bile at others the same way Gorski , Dawkins and their ilk do…they…like you…are unoriginal….
The difference is…Dawkins is actually intelligent…although he feeds on the weak minded…that’s you baz…the weak minded..
Who can barely author a coherent sentence…
Show just how low your level actually is…express some views on any of the Dawkins books you’ve read…books bazza…can you read…or are you strictly moving pictures…
Go right ahead…no riddle…just a simple request so we can debate those facts…not Dawkins the CSICOP atheists palgeurized ‘facts’…
See if you can figure it out ???? Doesn’t understand the process ?
Do enlighten us One Two – your use of the English language is a cunning ploy as you can’t discuss the basic principles of science. You are missing a cog or two upstairs ….
Others have also pointed to Selways short comings and therefore his self exposure…the same way you expose yourself…
Selway doesn’t know why he is incorrect because he doesn’t understand what he is talking about…and you don’t understand the question I asked of Selway….because your not even of the level to comprehend the question…which indicates that your level is below that of Selway…which of course it is…your level is below almost any other commentator at this site…congratulations…
I’ve attempted to comment in a dumbed down manner such as to assist in lowering your self created frustration levels…but even those comments are above your level of comprehension…
Perhaps, if you allow yourself the opportunity to expand…you’ll branch out from the gutter level of the CSICOP (founded by con artists…surely you know that..), it’s members such as Dawkins…and Gorski/Orac the one man hate speech medic…
Do I care if you remain trapped in the feces you seem to revil in throwing around this site…no…I could not care less…
Run along baz..I’m not wasting any more time on you…
Doesn’t science also include observing phenomena for which you have as yet no explanatory hypothesis?
Dowsing is an interesting marginal case. There are claims of replicability that seem to be more than would be generated by partial positive reinforcement.
As with rat mine and TB detection, the first concern is not understanding the mechanism, so much as whether it works sufficiently reliably to be useful. https://www.apopo.org/en
Perhaps Mac1 but we tested to see if deliberately or subconsciously we were manipulating the bark. We tried gripping the branch on a non-reactive spot and tried to deliberately “strip the bark”. And we couldn’t do it. Open to explanations though. Remember we were totally sceptical at the original proposition. Must go out tomorrow and try again.
And the “How to” is hold a Y shaped stick in your hands.
Tuck your elbows into your ribs.
Your hands are palm sides upper-most.
This leaves your thumbs sticking out nearest your body.
Your four fingers grip the stick with the little finger furtherest forward.
(Much easier to just do it rather than explain. Ha.)
a double blind study with meta-analysis is how hypothesis becomes a theory – through repeatable experiments, double blind studies, peer review and meta-analysis.
Science is a process. Water dowsing can’t even get past the gate of that process.
Yet there is an enormous body of evidence that when it comes to dowsing, something is happening, for at least some people, some of the time. Does our present scientific understanding validate this? No.
But a very good scientist I knew very, very well once told me that we should never totally close to door on magic; because almost everything we understand as moderns, all of our technologies and engineering, would have been firmly called ‘magic’ by our ancestors.
And that future generations will look back on us and say exactly the same thing.
There is not an enormous body of evidence re dowsing, just anecdotes & stories by people who swear it works for them. When asked to replicate the process under proper controlled conditions it doesn’t seem to work. The beauty of the scientific double blind test that has an inbuilt bullshit detector.
Double blind studies are and meta-analysis are not pseudoscientific terms.
They are extremely common practices to determine results. It’s basic scienctific practice. It’s how hypothesis become theories. Every medication you have ever taken has been double-blinded and meta-analysis is the gold standard in scientific studies. It’s not even disputed. Climate scientists use meta-analysis to determine AGW is true. Double-blind studies determine the safety of every medicine on the market.
It’s not so much your comment at 9 but your reluctance to modify the skeptic position you took at 9 after several comments citing practical examples of the effect in action.
It’s not unreasonable to expect there is science behind dowsing rods reacting in close proximity to cables or metal pipes. In the article you linked to at 9, Downer group explains it it ‘one tool used’.
Backing that up, Grant commented at 9.1.4.1 that his experience was that L-rods were used as a tool when other methods weren’t available. And yes, I am aware that workers do like to play practical jokes on teenaged interns!
So again it’s not unreasonable to expect there is an electromagnetic effect in some circumstances and that in situations where there is existing mapping, a dowsing tool might provide extra location information for more precise digging.
The double blind test you’ve put up by the Australian Skeptics is probably not going to come up with positive results because the tools are not being used in their areas of strength which is apparently fine tuning in areas already mapped. Their tests are random as far as I can see are designed to fail.
Coincidentally it is the Australian Skeptics sister organisation, the New Zealand Skeptics, who are criticising Downer along with that most scientific of organisations, the Tax-dodger’s Union!
@MB at 6.46 “..and yes, I am aware that workers do like to play practical jokes on teenaged interns!”
Not in this case MB! We had a job to do and after I’d been shown how to do it and proved to my own satisfaction that it worked, I was a convert. Various members of that crew including myself used that method a number of times over the succeeding weeks. I also spent several years employed as a greenkeeper / mechanic on a golf course and used the same method for finding irrigator pipes that needed maintenance. I’ve impressed various family and friends on more than one occasion by walking across a lawn and locating pipes and wires before trenching for new cable or pipe to be laid.
The first time my wife saw me doing it she thought that either I was the most gullible fool ever or that I thought she was..
I really enjoyed the look on her face when I marked the spot and dug down a foot or two to expose the wrought iron water pipe below.
I can’t say that it would work for everyone but it is most certainly a reliable tool for some people.
I always laugh when people with limited practical experience make pronouncements about things they’ve never seen or experienced.
So keep those minds firmly shut boys. I’m sure it’s worked well for you all your lives.
You could bung a meta-analysis in the discussion, sort of inception-like, as part of whether your findings are consistent with other material in the field.
Just wondering where all the data for this magical meta-analysis is going to spring from. He’s made reference to it with no idea what he’s talking about, then googled it, then backtracked and tried to slip it in like it does make sense.
Making up nonsense, and defending it with more.
You know, to get that nobel prize he mentioned the combo of double-blind and meta-analysis will yield.
The Scheunen experiments, a large scale analysis of dowsing that showed ‘a real core of dowser phenomena can be regarded as empirically proven’, were met with criticism of study design, and merely led to more debate – not a nobel prize.
I recently pitched in on a 200 year old scientific debate. My first search in Google Scholar yielded 126 000 results. So as an introduction I did a meta analysis of previous meta analysis and critiques of these – there was no other way to even begin to try be comprehensive. I identified a number of players who have made it their life work to sit on opposite sides of various theoretical debates and have at each other. Which reminds me how silly I’m being right now.
My work will sit in some database, number 126 001 weighing in on that particular issue.
I have been a bit of a dick. Sorry Stuart I was unduly critical. The misunderstanding of what a meta-analysis can do is common. Meta-analysis sound, to the general public, like a spreadsheet of ayes and nayes producing facts at the end of it. The reality is typically a long freaking grinding debate, a final revealing of new data or ways to look at something, then people debating that… Ego’s abound.
Please excuse mine, I’ll try put a collar back on it.
John. I do not know what our dowsing experience was indicating. Water? Gold? Copper? No idea.
What I am certain of though, is that a Y shaped stick, (or wire) wriggled like a live thing.
We set up blind tests. We tried to prove that the operator was cheating.
We were a group of intelligent sceptical young people yet the question remains.
Why do sticks wriggle when held in the particular way?
This weekend I will try to see if it still works.
My husband has laid all sorts of infrastructure for 35 years and swears by this having asked me for a metal coat hanger, I had my doubts but he’s not the sort to waste anytime on something that doesn’t work and luck plays no part in it. What can I say?
At least the dowsers are mostly harmless. At worst there’s just a bit of cash wasted somewhere. Unlike a lot of the other beliefs that seem to be clustered with belief in dowsing, that can and sometimes do cause real harm.
Bear in mind there was a police investigation in progress and she may have thought it wise to keep her head down. The police did not report their failure to locate the culprits until February of this year.
I think Pablo at Kiwipolitico summed up her predicament well:
Btw, I went through the same experience 25 plus years ago – home break-ins, burglary, car tampering, strange phone calls and other forms of bizarre behaviour. I had no idea who was responsible or why they were doing it. For this reason the police did not investigate. Many years later I discovered what had been going on and it also involved a foreign entity but in my case closer to home. The individuals responsible (one with whom I was associated) were presumably acting on instructions.
Having been along the same road albeit for different reasons, I know Anne Marie Brady’s story is entirely true.
Well it looks like Anne Marie-Brady is finally going to have say in front of the SC after all. That muppet Raymond Huo must have got a boot up his jackise last night by someone or either he didn’t like having egg all over his face.
It would be interesting to know what went on behind the scenes over that decision to block Professor Brady. The Labour MPs on that committee are Raymond Huo, Ginny Anderson, Greg O’Conner and Duncan Webb. With the exception of Raymond Huo all of them parliamentary newbies.
It was a dreadful decision and made worse by the fact it was – of all committees – the Justice Select Committee.
I would guess that the committee found itself between a rock and a hard place on this. But after the initial attempt to silence Prof. Brady, decided that gagging her was going to look a lot worse than letting her speak, but then studiously ignoring what she says.
Yes something smells and I would’ve thought O’Connor and Dr Webb would’ve stood up and said something after Little sought to extend the SC’s scope and time into Foreign involvement in NZ Election. It certainly give a bad look to the democratic process and free speech in NZ at the highest level in our Westminster System.
I wonder if Winnie had a quite talk to Jandals or Jandals told Raymond last night and told him to full their head in?
Anyway it’s good to see Anne finally get to have her say now about this issue of Foreign Involvement in NZ Elections and it would interesting to see SC’s reply as well especially Raymond’s as he has been mentioned in some of Anne’s discussion papers over the years along with old mate the “No Mates Party”
“It was a dreadful decision and made worse by the fact it was – of all committees – the Justice Select Committee.”
Yes.
Its one to add to the “What on Earth were Labour/NZF/Greens Thinking” list.
Deep down I’m sure this lot have good intentions, on the whole, most of them…but oh my goodnessgraciousme they need to think things through a lot better than this.
Journalist @APDiploWriter sets State Dept's Palladino straight when the spokesman objects to the fact that some media outlets are calling #JuanGuaido self proclaimed president/head of the opposition & not interim president of #Venezuela. 😂👍#Maduropic.twitter.com/YFkLU8wjMR
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. envoy for Venezuela dismissed the possibility of American military action in the South American country in a recording made by two Russian pranksters and released Wednesday.
Special Representative Elliott Abrams said in the recording that the U.S. wouldn’t use force in Venezuela unless the government did something “completely crazy” like attack the American Embassy.
But Abrams, who apparently believed he was speaking with a Swiss official, said the U.S. seeks to “make the Venezuelan military nervous” by not publicly ruling out military action to oust President Nicolas Maduro.
“We think it is a mistake tactically to give them endless reassurances that there will never be American military action,” he said. “But I can tell you this is not what we are doing. What we are doing is exactly what you see, financial pressure, economic pressure, diplomatic pressure.”
This would be an interesting story.
I often wonder, given the number of people on the Standard who appear to know the inner workings of the Labour Party, why we get almost no critiquing of policy and ‘stuff’ like this.
Every day we go over the shrill bleating from National, but, you know, they are the opposition, its their job, and they are what they are.
You have to wonder…What are Labour Party supporters so worried about that they can’t question their own Party.
” You have to wonder…What are Labour Party supporters so worried about that they can’t question their own Party ”…
I’d have to agree,… I’d have to suggest that it has much to do with the same faction in Labour that did in David Cunliffe. The neo liberal faction. Those same globalist ‘feather ones own bed’ sovereignty sell – outs that have bolstered Nationals popularity in the past obliquely and ‘indirectly’… those types who bear no real loyalty to either party nor country. Just loyalty to their neo liberal ideology.
The ‘conservative , right wing ‘ National party being in bed with the biggest communist nation on earth and one with one of the largest humans rights abuses on record. So much so that National thinks its perfectly OK to have an ex chinese spy trainer as one of their MP’s. And now we see Labour meekly copying that formula.
Its enough to make anyone want to throw their breakfasts up all over the kitchen table…
• Transport emissions in UK only drop 2% in 29 years from 1990-2017
• Consider this as a far better climate friendly transport policy?
• Jacinda this is graphically showing that like the UK we in NZ need now to abandon its past road transport policies it has in place today (of the current freight haulage by roads around NZ) and instead transform firstly move 50% freight on other modes of rail and coastal shipping.
Here are the latest UK emissions stats to show that they will now fail to meet their emission’s targets by 2035.
Transport was the largest emitting sector of UK greenhouse gas emissions in 2017
Energy supply and the residential sector delivered the largest reductions in
emissions from 2016 to 2017.
Energy emissions drop 17%
Residential emissions drop 15%
Other includes Public, Industrial Processes and the Land Use.
Land Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) sectors (note that LULUCF acts as a net sink of emissions). The percentages may not sum to 100% due to rounding.
Transport emissions drop 2016-2017 no % change
Total transport emissions in UK are 27%.
Transport emissions drop 1990-2017 – 2% change
The energy supply sector has accounted for around half of the overall reduction in UK emissions since 1990, at which point it accounted for 35% of all emissions in the UK.
It was the largest emitting sector until its emissions fell below transport in 2016.
In other sectors, greenhouse gas emissions have fallen sharply.
But transport emissions in the UK have declined by only 2% since 1990.
The government’s legally binding target is an 80% cut by 2050, though even this, the science now tells us, is hopelessly inadequate.
Transport, mostly because of our obsession with the private car, is now the major factor driving us towards climate breakdown, in this and many other nations.
Also the massive increased is of truck freight by roads in both NZ and other countries is unsustainable.
Jacinda; Please consider our health and wellbeing of our future generations.
” Since finance expert Mr John Shewan couldn’t find a single example of a corrupt use of a New Zealand trust fund, Sarawak Report would like to humbly offer him the details of how one such trust was deliberately set up by financial professionals in Europe to facilitate both the hiding of stolen money (again from 1MDB) and the avoidance of tax in the United States by the Emirati businessman Khadem Al Qubaisi, who is now in jail.”
“Judith Collins said the drop in trust numbers was not surprising and it shouldn’t be assumed that was because many had been handling the proceeds of illegitimate activities. “There is a much heavier compliance burden under the new regime with more disclosure required than ever before.”.. she said, adding New Zealand now had a “world class regime”.[Stuff NZ]
Who believes that – after all, how burndensome is it to write down your own name?”
“Nor is this system yet ‘world class’. ” ….
“New Zealand should be ashamed of the comparatively paltry $40 million a year that certain financial folk were making out of facilitating grand theft through such trusts from countries around the world, including the largest kleptocracy case ever from Malaysia.” …. Quoted from corruption buster Clare Rewcastle Brown
For context on Manafort’s 47 months in prison, my client yesterday was offered 36-72 months in prison for stealing $100 worth of quarters from a residential laundry room.
I saw it in 1970 when the Chinese had “ringbarked the hole City of Nairobi in Kenya when the chinese had been allowed into that country and set up shops all around that city selling very cheap stuff and eventually killed off the Local african traders entirely.
As I left Africa one year later the race riots were going strong and then when i got back to Canada the Kenyan Government expelled the Chinese to save the peace.
US warned us of the dangers and did we listen?
Yes it will happen here make no mistake here.
Chinese Communist party will perhaps introduce some plague or horticultural insect plague to ruin your industries here and bring us to our knees.
Today we are dancing with the dragons and tomorrow may be devoured by them.
Yeah, I worked in China for a while. I know how they work. Sad thing is our local Chinese folk had earned a quite different reputation for a while there – massively underrepresented in all the criminal categories the new entrants are now filling.
Did you just imply that new asian immigrants are all criminals? Or do you prefer your criminals undetected. It can be difficult to interpret the shit you type.
First off, he wasn’t talking about ‘Asians’ . He was mentioning his experience while working in china.
Second off, with all the news coverage of the detrimental effects of chinas soft power expansionism into the Southern Oceans, don’t you think we have a right to question the motives of some , if not many of these new entrants particularly as National has an ex military chinese spy tutor as an MP and the revelations of the Jamie Lee Ross tapes,.. and of Prof Brady being snubbed by a Labour govt select committee and of which some of that committees interests were with national security issues ???
Are we really so naive to believe it is only the top tier James Bond types who are carrying out the spying?
We should question the motives of all entrants, as one would naively hope is already done.
The ‘new entrants’ (immigrants) are described above as ‘not local chinese’ rather, a breed with a multi-faceted talent for crime – “all the criminal categories the new entrants are now filling”.
aka Asian immigrants are a bunch of criminals.
The fact our Govt is in bed with the Chinese Govt at some level has got F-all to do with the repugnance of the comment.
It must be an Asian crime wave, quick, someone alert the media.
The shit you type? Are you referring to Stuart Munro? He doesn’t write the RW shit that so spoils the blog. But with Chinese perhaps if he knows what he is talking about it would be a good idea to either give an example, or not so strong sweeping generalisation.
I used to pay some attention to some of the imprisonment stats, they revealed a thing or two, back when I was teaching refugees. Used to be our worst migrant community (in that dataset) was in fact expat poms – who were overrepresented in fraud.
My impression is that of late our migrant groups have been a little less scrupulously selected (or self-selected) so that the norms of the late 90s no longer hold, sadly. At that time I tended to defend particularly Asian migrants, as being one of one the least troublesome groups in our country.
I’m not sure whether you consider it racist to say so, but there is a cultural element to particular criminalities. Nigerians are frequent participants in some kinds of internet scams (as are Indians more recently). Russian organized crime often chooses scams based around petroleum.
I’m gonna give you the benefit of the doubt on this you don’t seem unreasonably callous though I don’t think you picked up the subtext you portrayed. Casual racism is so ingrained here in NZ I have a low tolerance to it get myself in trouble with people all the time. All of them white, male, over 40. To profile…
I was also unduly critical yesterday – when the aspie and PTSD rise simultaneously I’m a hangry janky jerk. Will sorry suffice? Peace?
The comment pushed buttons my relatives on Dad’s side mined gold in Waitawheta gorge the Chinese were feared: As Grandad would say – the Irish were drunks always getting in fistfights while the Chinese were sober. But they did sell opium. And you didn’t muck em round or you’d wake up dead with a knife sticking out of you. Historically not so boisterous as others and so not so much in public profile, but still a criminal reputation of some remark in mining stories, and that since the gold rush.
I think the grouping of crime types is at least partly similar to grouping of learned behavior in bird populations. If one learns how to get the nuts and the others want nuts, they’ll copy.
Although, how much is opportunistic and how much is cultural e.g. coastal pirates, would be a fascinating study…
I took no offence – and I recognize that groupings like cultural crime preferences are potentially the foundations of prejudice, the basis of profiling after all. Problems like P and political corruption have me reaching for big sticks however – Iain Banks’s Special Circumstances characters like the ship Falling Outside The Normal Moral Constraints.
I had a partner who was mates with Iain. It was strange to hear him spoken of like a mortal. My only gripe was you can’t smoke weed and read him, too complex.
Shame we lost him early, quite the genius.
P – I throw people out of my house if they’re on it. The armed offenders have been on the street four times in the last month. guess what one of the neighbors likes to smoke… then a streetwide shouting match/domestic, smashing stuff, lunacy…..
Increasing gender equality to business & corporate decision making trees, will help progress an added value localised state of culture in establishing more mutual & encompassing trading relations in the international market place, & help our NZ economy in achieving the maximum empowerment in it’s overall prosperity.
A light capital gains tax.
An increase in tax on large & medium to large corporates/business.
A ‘house is a home’ property market to kick financialization out of house market so it’s demand & supply can calibrate & perform to it’s primary societal function.
Increasingly reduced tax on large & medium to large corporates/businesses that achieve gender equality increasingly throughout their decision making structures.
Wasps nest – immense. These skilled workers are people we need with the nous to stop wasps decimating everything. Female fruit flies not wanted either. What’s next, I suppose it is inevitable that we will get more.
You pay $millions and still the experts can’t cope with the basics. We probably have spent too much on the airport terminal anyway. I thought it was almost industrial in its noise when I went through. We had a nice reasonable sized terminal but of course we are getting more tourists so we have to go into hock I imagine, to provide them with the facilities they need.
I see Queenstown are seeing the light. A short of money tourist said they would think twice about going there. Good one, Venice had to to tighten up and Q’town is reached capacity I hear. Before the place gets over-run. It’s actually quite nice to meet people in the streetin Nelson who are locals, though some of my best friends are overseas people!
I find that people are still clinging onto the last century in their thinking. If we are seeing changes it comes because the government has given up the task of running the country as we expected, and told their mates in business that they can experiment on us, and it has turned out so badly that we have to do something to rectify a mess.
And we encouraged that ourselves, and only marginally now have been able to get to a position where anything much will be attempted. It’s putting a toe in the water. Soon we won’t be able to do that, it will be boiling hot, or have acid, or algae or something.
I keep hoping that we can get euthanasia for adults over 60, and others who apply to the Court and make their case, but we can’t even get it for people in pain who ask for it, and people who are terminally ill.
It would be good to know that I can attend to the organisational side of leaving the world permanently then after that’s ready, sometime I can give up, say my goodbyes, take a last look at some places, give big hugs to special people, and go in my own time. It really is hard sometimes to put up with any more of the nonsense, cruelty and foolishness that goes on.
TE Blind I see powerful people using this dirty behavour all around Papatuanuku
Refining NZ faces tough questions from government inquiry over 2017 Auckland fuel crisis
Refining NZ will face grilling from a government inquiry over whether it could have averted the rupture of its Auckland fuel pipeline 18 months ago and prevented the crisis that led to the cancellation of more than 100 flights at Auckland airport.
The pipeline provides the main supply of petrol, diesel and jet fuel for Auckland and its catastrophic failure on September 14, 2017, raised questions about whether a second pipeline costing hundreds of millions of dollars might be justified.
But a body representing airlines has signalled they may now be close to an agreement with oil companies that would instead see extra fuel storage tanks installed either at Auckland airport or at a nearby facility at Wiri at a likely cost of $100 million to $150m.
{{{{Refining NZ, which also operates the Marsden Point oil refinery, blamed the pipeline failure on an unidentified digger driver who it believes damaged the pipeline some time after July 2014, perhaps while searching for swamp kauri.]]]] Can you even believe this story its like clark and tompson spys and the EVEDINCE disserparing from Pike River Mine but this was not a cover up this a blind /DISTRACTION cause shonkys national party were getting hammered in the polls so they pull this stunt KAURI LOGS AIRNZ SHONKY JUDY see the links clearly do YOU.
A Northland Regional Council report concluded there was “no suggestion Refining NZ could or should have known the incident was going to occur”.
But a newly-convened government inquiry will shortly begin hearing evidence on whether an increase in pressure in the pipeline may have contributed to the failure and also on whether Refining NZ should have detected the digger damage before the pipeline.
It emerged last year that a sequence of events had preceded the pipeline rupture.
In particular, a WorleyParsons engineering report released under the Official Information Act revealed the pipeline experienced an “emergency shutdown” just two hours before it ruptured, after a maintenance worker accidentally triggered a fire alarm at a pumping station part-way along the 170 kilometre pipeline.
Two of three pumps then failed to restart when the refinery began pumping fuel back through the pipeline about 20 minutes later, causing pressure in the pipeline to spike to nearer to its maximum allowed level. Ka kite ano links below P.S You do know that diggers have a GPS TRACKER installed on them If you hit some thing hard you know you have hit in a digger
Kia ora R&R on Maori Tv I do agree that our lives are structured around mahi. But the good jobs in Aotearoa are all taken by Europeans as most jobs given by word of mouth so Maori don’t even get a toe in the door look at all the work trucks hilux all full of WHITE Face.
Most people m8 are from work because the sandflys are using anyone they can bribe con or spin to against Eco Maori I don’t have m8s at this point in time.
The wages te tangata whenua get in Aotearoa is Crap.
Ka kite ano
Kia ora Te ao Maori News.
Kids can is a great organisation supporting disadvantage kids. They are our future and need the best possible start in life.
There you go Maori salleries are CRAP.
ITS very important to get the Mokopunas vacancied as if they don’t that could cause a major health problem.
Not sure about the loss to Spain they must have played the water boys in that game.
The Taranaki IWIs suffered a massive blow to their Mana when the crown orgistated and minupulate the setting to steal their land and kill unarmed women and children these people still look down on US.
I say that the western people treated our old tohonga,s badly they were outlawed WTF.
Just because one doesn’t know how it works doesn’t mean it does not work we need to go back to the old ways of healing the tangata whenua even just Aroha is a powerful healing phenomenon.
My Mokopunas love there Pepeha dolls from the Warehouse I games can be a top income earner for Tangata Whenua Ka kite ano P.S I see the ECO Maori effect he was coached and could not look straight lol
Kia ora The AM Show Water bottling is bad for the inviroment but I A country were you can not grantee the best water quality it’s a must we have to come up with a better system maybe bulk shipping of water.
There you go Helen Clarke did not forsee that her kneejerk reaction to the Forshore and Seabed issues would have this concerquences. I SAY ALL THE ROYALTYs FROM WATER BOTTLING SHOULD BE GIVEN TO MAORI. To make up for the shit that this system has and is raining down on US. Ana to kai
3 years ago who would have thought a national party leader would start a sentence with MAORI words on TV.
simon you give tax relief to the wrong people you gave tax relief to the wealthy and put up GST to pay for your social service to the WEALTHY.
Still need some tissue over the eliction I SEE puppet.
Jason scotmo has the brain of a lump of coal everyone is pissed with him ignoring climate change and he is a chovernistic moron who is getting the warth of the World.
I say it’s a good thing when someone change his mind on issues some people are to stupid to see they have made a mistake Phil Goff. Ships are only going to get bigger I can see you attack things I support.
What a load of bullshit duncan if the previous government had dune it job we would not have this virus out break I could just afford to go to the doctors under them now it Alot more affordable to go to the doctors I use to only see a nurse to keep my costs down and the only reason I could pull that off is because I’m Eco Maori.
I Heard a statement saying that 9 million litres of bottled water was exported what is it billions or millions.
School Students Striking for Climate is going to be the best thing they could do to save their ENVIRONMENT.
That’s why duncan is pushing this minor issue water bottleing to try and hype it up as a tool to attack the government with.
I had a actor ask me a favour can you fix my washing machine taps I kindly said I don’t interact with strangers sorry next minute slammed door LOL she got upset.
There you go a negative person on weed the reason weed needs to be legalised is because it a medical plant and your m8 are locking thousands of tangata whenua because of this stupid law.
If you start smoking at 13 no wonder you were stuffed up there you go let the money men get control of weed/ anything and they ruin it trying to squeeze all the money out of it. Piss off people won’t be waking the streets all smoking weed it a wynd down drug you relax after the day you don’t go roaming the street like Upper drugs do PEE and all that shit.
There you go dick having another kick the pollies are not making the changes fast enough to combat climate change because people like you suck up the climate deniers money and push out there lies propergander. The pollies will listen to there children about climate change. Also it is a well known fact that laws change because of protesting the teachers are protesting for money /being lead by the right neo liberal people so school tamariki should protest for their Futures.
Ka kite ano
What do you say to your kids have you seen fools smoking weed in a car park I have seen pissed people in public do you tell them that will stuff there livers make them do stupid shit fight all the dumb shit do you tell them if you drink alcohol fast it will kill you Ka kite ano
This is the reason I discredit lab meat and the vagen movement this is just a way to attack OUR small family run farms .These corprate people are cheats they use the media to minuplate the people into thinking family farms are bad then buy them out and start factory farms local and central goverments are hamstrung by these huge busness money minuplateing them /bacicly the factory farms get to do what they want . This is what has caused the Murry Darling river crisses corprate farms doing what they WANT taking more water that the enviroment can sustain weather they kill our enviroment or not
How America’s food giants swallowed the family farms
Across the midwest, the rise of factory farming is destroying rural communities. And the massive corporations behind this devastation are now eyeing a post-Brexit UK market
by Chris McGreal
W
hen the vast expanse of rural Iowa was carved up for settlers in the 19th century, it was often divided into 160-acre lots. Four farms made a square mile, with a crisscross of dead-straight roads marking the boundaries like a sprawling chess board.
Within each square, generations of families tended pigs and cattle, grew oats and raised children, with the sons most likely to take over the farm. That is how Barb Kalbach saw the future when she left her family’s land to marry and begin farming with her new husband, Jim, 47 years ago.
“When we very first were married, we had cattle and calves,” she says. “We raised hogs from farrow to finish, and we had corn, beans, hay and oats. So did everyone around us.”
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Half a century later, Kalbach surveys the destruction within the section of chessboard she shared with other farms near Dexter in southwestern Iowa. Barb and Jim are the last family still working the land, after their neighbours were picked off by waves of collapsing commodity prices and the rise of factory farming. With that came a vast transfer in wealth as farm profits funnelled into corporations or the diminishing number of families that own an increasing share of the land. Rural communities have been hollowed out.
And while the Kalbachs have hung on to their farm, they long ago abandoned livestock and mixed arable farming for the only thing they can make money at any more – growing corn and soya beans to sell to corporate buyers as feed for animals crammed by the thousands into the huge semi-automated sheds that now dominate farming, and the landscape, in large parts of Iowa.
Kalbach comes from five generations of farmers and suspects she may be the last. As she drives the roads around her farmhouse, she ticks off the disappearances.
This collapse has in good part been driven by the rise of concentrated animal feeding operations, or Cafos. In these industrial farming units, pigs, cows and chickens are crammed by the thousand into rows of barns. Many units are semi-automated, with feeding run by computer and the animals watched by video, with periodic visits by workers who drive between several operations.
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“That’s how I end up with 40,000 hogs around me,” says Partridge.
Cafos account for only a small proportion of America’s 2 million farms, but they dominate animal production and have an outsize influence on crop growing, particularly in the midwest.
By one calculation, the US has around 250,000 factory farms of one kind or another. They have their roots in the 1930s, with the mechanisation of pig slaughterhouses. By the 1950s, chickens were routinely packed into huge sheds, in appalling conditions.
In the early 1970s, US agriculture secretary Earl Butz pushed the idea of large-scale farming with the mantra “get big or get out”. He wanted to see farmers embrace what he regarded as a more efficient strategy of growing commodity crops, such as corn and soya beans. Some farmers invested heavily in buying land and new machinery to increase production – taking on large amounts of debt to do so.
A decade later, the farm crisis hit as overproduction, the US grain embargo against the Soviet Union and high interest rates dramatically drove up costs and debt for family farms. Land prices collapsed and foreclosures escalated.“Every blow to independent farming made it more of an opportunity for large corporations to come in,” said Partridge.
In 1990, small and medium-sized farms accounted for nearly half of all agricultural production in the US. Now it is less than a quarter.
As the medium-sized family farms retreated, the businesses they helped support disappeared. Local seed and equipment suppliers shut up shop because corporations went straight to wholesalers or manufacturers. Demand for local vets collapsed. As those businesses packed up and left, communities shrank. Shops, restaurants and doctors’ surgeries closed. People found they had to drive for an hour or more for medical treatment. Towns and counties began to share ambulances. Ka kite ano links below
I see the similarities of Maori and Asian cultures respect the whanau /family kau matua elders and tipuna,s ansesters enviroment as well . The Captlist single person thing about ones own welbeing who care about the brown person under the bridge .This mentality is imposed on the common poor person but the ultrawealthy have there companys that act as one on there behalf these people are networked through there companys that work as a communistic system on there behalf . While the common person has to struggle in this socioty by themselvels easer for the companys to milk.
The youth grow up thinking they know better than the kau matua and end up making all sorts of stupid mistakes because of this whiteman thing of no respect for the whanau or kau matuas or enviroment.
Māori at an advantage in engagement with Asia trade
OPINION: I’m going to be unabashed in my promotion of a piece of good news this week. We now have the data to show that Māori can succeed in their engagement with Asia and Asian peoples – and already do.
Last week we released a piece of research which mirrors our general survey on New Zealanders’ perceptions of Asia, Perceptions of Asia and Asian People from a Te Ao Māori Perspective.
It showed some similarities – both reports show New Zealanders, including Māori, feel that tourism from Asia is going to have a positive impact; both surveys show that New Zealanders are more interested in Asian food than Asian sports.
But in this research we also explored the cultural connections Māori might have with Asian cultures. It confirmed what we had guessed and were aware of anecdotally – there is a strong affinity to build on.
As I have said often, relationships with Asia have to mean more than “we want to sell you stuff”.
In business, arts, journalism, diplomacy, education, positive relationships and mutual understanding lay a strong foundation for success – Māori may have the edge on this work.
We’re going to be picking up steam on the work we’re doing to make sure Māori are accessing our opportunities, and we are challenging others to do the same.
Relevant to the work ahead is that despite feeling cultural affinity, Māori have low self-perceived knowledge of Asian peoples and cultures – fewer than 20 per cent felt they knew at least a fair amount about Asia, compared to a third among the general population.
While more than half see the benefit of engaging economically and culturally with Asia – fewer felt Māori benefited from this.
Eight out of 10 surveyed felt it was important for the future workforce to be confident with Asian cultures. Only eight per cent of those surveyed thought enough was being done to equip Māori business to succeed in Asia.
New Zealand’s future (and present) is undoubtedly tied with Asia, and we need to ensure Māori are included in work to prepare for that – they can clearly teach non-Māori a thing or two. Ka kite ano link,s below
The sandflys are listening hard on my phone the data use has spiked and battrie life is getting used fast. They are praying that there steeotype they have been trying to brand me with is correct idiots
I know someone who see this every day at work that is why she is not like Eco Maori A proud Maori who could be mistaken as white but I soon let them know when I speak I greet everyone with Kia ora. I have seen this all through out my life discrimanation some people blank it out but not I.
She thought I was homeless
The Pākehā lady at the homeless shelter shoves a box of tampons into my hands.
“Here you go,” she whispers in my ear. “It’s the last one.”
I look down at my hands, wondering why she just handed me a free box of tampons. She smiles and gives me a look, like she’s just saved me from falling off a cliff. And then I realise why. I see the homeless people behind her. All brown faces. All Māori. She thinks I’m homeless.
Wow. “Do I dress like I don’t have a home?” That was the first question that crossed my mind. Admittedly, my ego was a little bruised. When I told the helper I was actually there as a journalist covering a story about homelessness, she was extremely embarrassed.
I laughed about it when I retold this story to friends, but later as I pondered on this experience, it set me thinking.
I wasn’t surprised when I read, a few days later, about how Reremai Cameron, a young Māori student, had a potential landlord asking her, in a text message, if she was Māori.
“I hope you are aware the rent would only cover you and no friends or family to stay in the sleep-out. We had a Māori in our home before whom had multiple family and friend visitors, that is something we will not tolerate.”
The lady at the homeless shelter was a nice lady. Clearly, if she’s giving her time to help those who are vulnerable, she has a good heart. And, seeing it was a homeless shelter, maybe it was understandable that she leapt to conclusions.
But I’m pretty sure she wouldn’t have made the same mistake with a Pākehā reporter. She’d assumed I was homeless because I was brown, and she didn’t stop to take in anything else about me. Like the camera bag I was carrying, or the nice clothes I was wearing.
(Okay, so I’m doing a bit of stereotyping myself by assuming homeless people wouldn’t be wearing nice clothes.)
It’s true that we all use stereotyping to navigate our way through life when we’re meeting strangers. Stereotypes are cognitive shortcuts — our brains seem to have evolved this way so we can size people up quickly. Friend or foe? Potential threat or possible ally? We don’t have time to carry out a thorough risk assessment every time we meet someone new. So we categorise. Teenagers or pensioners. Female or male. Skinny or fat. Yellow or black. White or brown.
And that’s all very well and good, but the trouble is when people don’t look any further than the stereotypes they’ve picked up along the way. When it stops them seeing a human being in front of them, rather than a colour or an ethnicity.
You’d think in this country we could avoid stereotypes built on incomplete information, or false assumptions, or media headlines. We’re a small country. We live close to each other — often within the same family.
The constant repetition of negative stereotypes, sometimes with not much more than a look or body language, can be hurtful and damaging.
Growing up, I remember the lengths to which my mum and dad would go to avoid racist judgments being made about them.
It was always very subtle. My dad would gently tug his sleeves down his arms to cover his tattoos when we walked into a shop. My mum would change into her Pākehā voice on the phone when she wanted something done.
I was taught to dress nicely and talk “properly”. I let people say my last name wrong, even though they were butchering it. It was better to say nothing, than to create awkwardness and tension. In other words, I thought it was better to be silent than to be right.
“It’s always the Mowrees abusing the children,” a Pākehā friend once said, after a brown face came on the news. And then she looks at me, obviously forgetting that I’m Māori. “Oh! But you’re not really a Mowree. You’re a plastic Mowree.”
I don’t even know what that means. But nope. Not a plastic Māori. Just Māori. And no matter how hard I try to avoid racist stereotypes, how nice I dress, how much I straighten my hair, I can’t change the colour of my skin.
Last year, Taika Waititi, who’s been making waves as a movie director, said New Zealand was racist. Suddenly there was this national outcry. It felt like the whole country was in a state of denial. “You’re clearly not very travelled then mate,” one Stuff commenter wrote. “Maybe take a trip to America or Australia? Or to Malaysia? New Zealand is one of the least racist places in the western world.”
Least racist? Perhaps you could argue that if you think the only form of racism has to be extreme and in your face? That you’re racist only if you’re one of those lunatics in a viral video telling those of colour to go back to their own country?
But there are so many layers of racism, and they begin with assumptions. Usually false and negative assumptions based on ignorance.
People would say to Taika Waititi: “Oh, you’ve done so well, haven’t you? For how you grew up. For one of your people.”
As opposed to what?
My brother was once asked if he was the security guard when he was attending a meeting as an elected member of the local council.
Or what about the Māori Santa last year? Do we even need to talk about that?
Subtle but patronising comments about race is racism. Silent racial profiling is a form of discrimination. And when you encounter examples of it every single day, it’s not only hurtful, it’s exhausting. You soon start to believe what you’re told. You’re defined by your skin colour or race, rather than by what you are as a person.
Ka kite ano links below.
Kia ora Te ao Maori News Kids can help Maori tamariki as our tamariki are the ones suffering the most
Ka pai the Pacific form meeting the Pacific needs to be protected from the big companies that will exploit all our our Mokopunas resources. Was it Naro that had a vast reserve of fertiliser that was strip mine by the west and left broke capitalism at its best.
Its cool that Nanaia Mahuta is in Chile promoting indigenous business we can have a strong tangata whenua world class exporting presents once AGAIN.
The Maori Kitchen in Central Auckland is cool I will get a kai from there when I am there next. Got big expansion in there goals Ka pai
What happened to Tama Itis restaurant in Auckland I think I know what went wrong Maori suppression that’s it. I seen him on Maori kai Masters
Yes these companies using Maori art to sell kai best get some Maori advice as Kai is very Tapu to Maori it will save a lot of headache and show that they respect Maori Cultures Ka kite ano.
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Freedom Of Speech? The Säuberung (cleansing by fire) was the work of the German Student Union which, on 10 May 1933, under the watchful eye of the Nazi Reichminister for Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, consigned 25,000 books to the flames in a ritual exorcism of “un-German thought”. According to the logic of the ...
“There can be no such thing as kaupapa Māori political parties or politics in Aotearoa” (Willie Jackson, Labour Party (2017). Māori TV, General/List Election Special) I begin with that claim because at the time, I was confounded at first that it fell out of Willie Jackson’s mouth, and then ...
New Zealand has prided itself for decades with regard to its lack of pollution, and all will be aware that the ‘100% Pure New Zealand‘ meme is under threat through land, water and air pollution of various causes. There is another type of contamination that the country also faces: light ...
New Zealand’s media is doing its part in Japan, reassuring those in the path of the storm that they won’t miss any rugby while away from their flooded homes. New Zealand sports reporters stationed in Japan for the Rugby World Cup have had the rare and heartwarming opportunity to inform ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones is the only Cabinet member in favour of putting it all on green. As Finance Minister Grant Robertson finds himself with an enormous $7.5 billion surplus, the Government has begun intense, at times contentious conversations about whether to put the money on red or black at ...
by Susanne Kemp At the start of September close to 100,000 school teachers went on strike in Jordan. They demanded a 50% pay rise. A pay rise actually agreed to by the regime back in 2014. In early October, however, in the face of government repression and threats, the teachers’ ...
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nzWhy do people still think climate change isn’t real?David ...
Back in 2011, journalist Nicky Hager published Other People's Wars, an expose on NZDF's activities over the previous decade of the "war on terror". NZDF didn't like this, and especially didn't like the fact that it was base don leaks from their own. So, they had the SIS investigate him ...
The Zero Carbon Bill is due back from select committee in two weeks, and will likely pass its final stages in November. So naturally, farmers are planning a hate-march against it. But they're not just demanding lower methane targets so they can keep on destroying the planet; they're also demanding ...
Last year, California burned. This year, to stop it happening again (or rather, to stop themselves from being found liable if it happens again), Pacific Gas and Electric is cutting power to half the state for a week:Schools are closed. Traffic lights down. Tunnels dark. Businesses unopened. Hospitals running on ...
The Best Way: Missing from the on-line voting debate is any reference to the voting system that produces turn-out figures ranging from 77 to 93 percent of registered voters. The voting system used to collect and count the votes cast in our parliamentary elections. The system that involves citizens making ...
Among the great new bunch of political friends we have been making recently is the excellent Australian-based Marxist gender-critical site, Freer Lives. So we asked the comrade who set up that blog to write something for Redline on the blog, himself, his analysis of the rise of gender politics and ...
by Don Franks The Auckland City Mission is struggling with a 40 percent increase in demand for food parcels this year. A total of 23,020 were needed by June. Last month Missioner Chris Farrelly told the Herald the “cupboards are bare” and without an emergency food drive, he can’t see ...
by The Council of Disobedient Women Massey Wellington Student Association had a sit-in today. Imagine a sit-in. On a campus. Against a women’s rights meeting. Did the ’60s really happen or did we fucking dream it? They gathered in the student square, an echo chamber. Sitting on soft pillows ...
For some reasons, my post about the mystery message from inside the Downing Street bunker seemed to catch people's attention. Quite a lot of hits from NZ (unsurprisingly) and the USA (a bit more puzzlingly, but hi there, USAians!!) and 76 views from the Ukraine.I've celebrated my Ukrainian readers in ...
First, almost a score of Labour MPs seem to have sent a letter to the EU basically begging them to accept a deal - any deal - just so Britain can get the Heck on with Brexiting instead of being trapped in limbo:
by Phil Duncan In 2016 the National-led government suspended the Parent Visa Category, through which migrants were able to bring their parents into New Zealand. Since then over 5,700 people have been in immigration limbo, stuck on the visa wait list. Labour is now bringing back the scheme. Well, sort ...
The following was released yesterday (Tues, October 8) by the women’s liberation organisation Speak Up for Women. On 23 September Speak Up For Women announced that we would be holding an event at the Massey University Theaterette in Wellington. The event is called Feminism 2020. The intention of the event ...
The government is currently consulting on plans to improve freshwater quality. So naturally, farmers oppose it:South Taranaki farmers are preparing to fight proposed national freshwater changes that some fear will bankrupt them. The Government's proposed National Environment Standard on Freshwater Management, released in September, rated the Waingongoro River as one ...
Yesterday was the last day for (reliably) posting your vote away in local body elections. Turnouts are mostly much lower than the equivalent time last year (Palmerston North is down 2.3%), and so naturally people are pushing their online-voting snake oil again. Because the online census worked so well, lets ...
This essay, on the political legacy of the eugenics movement, by Kenan Malik was originally published in the Observer on 6 October 2019, under the headline ‘The spirit of eugenics is still with us, as immigrants know to their cost’. Birth control. Intelligence tests. Town planning. Immigration controls. It’s striking how ...
Another year, and the government has announced another enormous government "surplus". And just like last year, its nothing of the sort. When we have people homeless and sick and hungry, when we have schools and hospitals still falling down, when we have underpaid public servants and infrastucture unmaintained or unbuilt, ...
James Forsyth at The Spectator (I know, I know) has tapped one of his contacts inside Number Ten for an insight into the Johnson administration's thinking and strategy.It is fascinating, unsettling and quite, quite mad. Some key points:Negotiations have stalled and the Johnson administration are keen to blame the EU: ...
Fatal Contact: With the arrival of captain James Cook in October 1769, the islands of what would become New Zealand ceased to be the preserve of Polynesian navigators and settlers and became a part of both the world’s map and the world’s history.THE MAORI NATIONALIST assault upon the historical meaning ...
Another round of tactical talks about forming a Government of National Unity have come to nothing with the Liberal Democrats still refusing countenance putting Jeremy Corbyn into Downing Street:Opposition talks on Monday made little headway over when to try and vote down Boris Johnson's government and who might succeed him as ...
by Nick Rogers The debate around the meaning of sex and gender made an appearance at this year’s British Labour Party conference in Brighton. Women’s Place UK – an organisation that questions the demand that biological males who self-identify as woman should have access to women’s spaces, to all-women shortlists, ...
Yesterday I went down to Wellington to participate in the Extinction Rebellion protest. Its part of the latest global wave of XR actions, with actions happening all over the world. Some of those protests are massively disruptive: in Canada, XR is blocking major bridges, stopping people from getting to work. ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters is predicting a hard Brexit for the United Kingdom, as he believes British Prime Minister Boris Johnson won’t be able to negotiate terms before the October 30 deadline. The Minister, who was one of the first to publicly come out and predict British voters would leave ...
Speaking at the Council of Trade Unions' (CTU) biennial conference, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters told unionists that any future attacks on the Government won't work. "Now, we are being attacked by the union movement in this country. You can have your views but I'm here to say standing ...
We want every New Zealander to be happy, safe, and healthy. To do this, we need to support strong, safe communities, and a robust and efficient health system. ...
Defence Minister Ron Mark has used his powers to overrule a noise complaint ruling against Whenuapai airbase on the grounds of "national security". The Environment Court last month released a ruling in favour of a private developer, declaring the Auckland airbase had to comply with noise restrictions when it performs ...
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has opened fire against "unreconstructed morons" after NZ First MP Shane Jones was photographed on holiday holding an AR-15 rifle. Mr Peters is defending Mr Jones, telling Magic Talk host Peter Williams that his MP was just having fun "like most people do". "The ...
New Zealand First Deputy Leader and Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau was in attendance during the morning blessing of the Rotorua Lakefront development project. Around 60 people gathered on the shores of Lake Rotorua, including city mayor Steve Chadwick and deputy Dave Donaldson. The Lakefront development is a ...
Forestry Minister Shane Jones is considering reining in on conversions of farmland to forestry, and also issued a warning to foreign-owned forestry companies that make up nearly 75 per cent of the industry. He said too many foreign companies had not provided enough access for domestic processors to get timber. ...
Speaking to Radio NZ, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters said the tightening of the parental category visa is a direct result of the Party’s coalition negotiations with the Labour Party. He said the new changes switch the financial onus from the parent moving to New Zealand to the child ...
The Coalition Government is set to cut red tape in the building and construction sector in an effort to allow more houses to be built, including prefabricated houses. The changes will enable the mass factory production of "high quality" buildings, slash the likely number of building inspections for factory produced ...
Since coming into Government, we’ve worked hard to tackle homelessness and make sure everyone has a warm, dry home. And today, on World Homeless Day, we want to report back and update you on our progress so far. ...
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has hit back at National Party leader Simon Bridges who criticized the Coalition Government’s approach to crime, and said that the latter isn't credible in his attack on the Government over gang recruitment. "We've got as massive drug problem in this country. It is ...
New Zealand Mānuka honey exporters have welcomed an initiative by the Coalition Government to help secure the term “mānuka honey” to be used exclusively by Kiwi exporters, ensuring that our multimillion-dollar industry is protected. Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones had recently announced that a Provincial Growth Funding of $5.7 ...
Political commentator Mike Hosking has labelled New Zealand First leader Winston Peters as “the voice of reason in a government soft on drugs”, for the Party’s stance on drug testing at music festivals. “If common sense is worth a vote, Winston Peters is quids in,” Mr Hosking said. The Labour ...
Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau has announced Provincial Growth Funding to ensure work opportunities in Turangi and Whanganui, through its skills and employment programme, Te Ara Mahi. A fund of $500,000 will go to Rafting NZ in Turangi for a 16-week river guide training course to train ...
Treasury has shown that the Coalition Government has a $7.5 billion surplus, which is $4 billion higher than what was expected in the 2019 Budget unveiled last May. It is also $2 billion higher than the actual surplus unveiled this time last year, and at a size that has not ...
Official Information Act figures released to NZME show there were 350 assaults on officers in the year to the end of June, 79 more than the year before. The increase in attacks have sparked calls for more legal protection for first responders to be enacted. The assaults included officers being ...
“Nobody wants to see babies uplifted”, this was the pronouncement of Minister for Children Hon. Tracey Martin as her department, Oranga Tamariki, faces multiple inquiries into the number of babies being taken from their families. “But a baby can die with a single punch, “the Minister continued. “So sometimes, Oranga ...
We're making progress on tackling the long-term challenges: from homelessness, to strengthening border security, to bringing banking back New Zealand's small towns. ...
Associate Transport Minister Shane Jones has backed the ambitious plan to move Auckland’s port to Northport, at Whangarei harbour, which he says will be the “King Kong of infrastructure”. The plan is part of the recommendations of a six-person independent working group, which has recommended the Ports of Auckland be ...
A six-member independent working group selected the option of moving Auckland’s port to Northport, in Whangarei, ahead of other options. In what could be New Zealand’s most ambitious infrastructure project yet, a major expansion of the Marsden Point port could happen within 15 years. The project, officially called the “Upper ...
The final Electricity Price Review recommended prohibiting prompt payment discounts but allowing “reasonable” late fees. The findings of this review was welcomed by the Coalition Government, but they hope companies will follow through with its recommendations without regulations needed to be passed. Meridian Energy had already stopped prompt payment discounts, ...
Fletcher Tabuteau, Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF)through its skills and employment programme, Te Ara Mahi,will invest nearly $600,000 to ensure work opportunities for locals in Turangia and Whanganui, Parliamentary Under Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau announced today. “I’m pleased to announce the PGF ...
An export-led economy is one of New Zealand First’s key principles, and our commitment to achieving this is shown by the continuing skyrocketing demand for our beef and sheep meat exports. Beef + Lamb New Zealand's New Season Outlook 2019-20 report forecasts beef, lamb and mutton prices to lift from ...
Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced today in Gisborne an investment of $17.27m into bringing “world-leading” food-growing technology and the creation of more than 100 new jobs in the East Coast city. The funding comes from the Provincial Growth Fund, and included a $15 million loan to LeaderBrand, a ...
Hon Shane Jones, Minister for Regional Economic Development More than 100 people in Tairāwhiti’s Tolaga Bay will benefit from two employment initiatives supported by the Provincial Growth Fund, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones and Employment Minister Willie Jackson announced today. “Tolaga Bay is an incredibly tight-knit community, but one in ...
Hon Shane Jones, Minister for Regional Economic Development The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) is supporting Gisborne business Leaderbrand to produce salad vegetables year round and create more jobs in the Tairāwhiti region, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced today. “Our support for Leaderbrand will help them build large greenhouses ...
“Nobody wants to see babies uplifted”, this was the pronouncement of Minister for Children Hon. Tracey Martin as her department, Oranga Tamariki, faces multiple inquiries into the number of babies being taken from their families. “But a baby can die with a single punch, “the Minister continued. “So sometimes, Oranga ...
Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones has praised the promise by New Zealand’s biggest banks not to close any provincial branches while the Coalition Government trials regional banking hubs across the country. The Minister said the announce was the “first sign of hope for regional communities”, many of which have ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, New Zealand First Leader New Zealand First is proud to have delivered an upgrade of the SuperGold Card website and a new smartphone app, which will help unlock the full benefits of the SuperGold Card for 750,000 New Zealand seniors.Party Leader Rt Hon Winston Peters, ...
Delivering a key election campaign promise, New Zealand First is proud to have accomplished a long overdue upgrade of the SuperGold Card today. At an event in Auckland, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters joined Minister for Seniors Hon. Tracey Martin in unveiling the new website and smartphone app which ...
The Government today announced its support for a project that could substantially reduce agricultural greenhouse gas emissions from cattle. The announcement was made as part of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s and Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor’s visit to Nelson’s Cawthron Aquaculture Park. The Cawthron Institute will receive $100,000 from the Government’s ...
Social Development Minister Carmel Sepuloni has welcomed the first reading of the New Zealand Superannuation and Veteran’s Pension Legislation Amendment Bill. “Every New Zealander has a stake in New Zealand Superannuation and Veteran’s Pension,” says Carmel Sepuloni. “They are our most common form of social assistance – nearly 800,000 New ...
Babies in Auckland aged six months and over can receive a free vaccination and children will all have access to vaccines, Associate Minister of Health Julie Anne Genter announced today at Papatoetoe High School. The move comes as part of Government efforts to step up the fight against measles. ...
***Check against delivery*** Good morning. It is a pleasure to be here, and to have the honour of opening this important conference on behalf of the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. Let us take the opportunity to acknowledge all the people who have helped make today possible, including our special ...
Police Minister Stuart Nash says the safety of frontline officers and members of the public will be the focus of a new trial of specialist Police response teams in three of our largest urban centres. Police have this morning released details of an initiative to be trialled in Counties Manukau, ...
The Minister of Fisheries is calling for entries for a new public award to celebrate innovation in our seafood sector. “I have established the Seafood Sustainability Awards to recognise and celebrate those throughout industry, tangata whenua and communities who demonstrate outstanding dedication and innovation towards the sustainability of New Zealand’s ...
Minister for Women Julie Anne Genter welcomes leaders in the private sector taking action on closing their gender pay gaps to ensure a fairer workplace for all New Zealanders. Ms Genter today launched a new report, Addressing the gender pay gap and driving women’s representation in senior leadership, from the Champions for ...
Government Ministers today welcomed the release of a marine environment report highlighting the four key issues affecting our oceans, estuaries and coastlines. The release underlines the importance of government proposals to combat climate pollution, ensure clean freshwater, protect biodiversity, make land use more sustainable, and reduce waste and plastic. Environment ...
The Government has approved funding for a new acute mental health facility for Waikato which will provide better care and support to people with mental health and addiction issues. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Health Minister Dr David Clark announced the $100 million project to replace the aging Henry Rongomau ...
The Government is making progress on its goal to integrate te reo Māori into education by 2025, with over 500 teachers and support staff already graduating from Te Ahu o te Reo Māori, Associate Education Minister Kelvin Davis announced today. Kelvin Davis made the announcement at an awards ceremony in Waikanae today, for ...
Statistics Minister James Shaw has welcomed the first release of 2018 Census data. The first release of data today, 23 September, includes key data on population, regional growth, the number of homes and the size of different ethnic groups in New Zealand. Data from the 2018 Census will support the ...
Minister for Statistics James Shaw today announced a public consultation on a proposed algorithm charter for government agencies. The charter has been developed by the Government Chief Data Steward in response to growing calls for more transparency in government use of data. Computer algorithms – procedures or formulas for solving ...
Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor, Climate Change Minister James Shaw and visiting Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte co-hosted a business roundtable in Auckland this morning focused on working together to address climate change. “The Netherlands is an important partner for New Zealand. We share a strong agricultural history. Sustainable agribusiness and ...
The Government is taking action to build an inclusive economy where more of us receive our fair share at work and businesses can compete on great products and services, not undercutting wages and conditions, Immigration and Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Iain Lees-Galloway says. Two consultations launched today seek feedback ...
The future for New Zealand’s threatened indigenous freshwater fish looks brighter with the passing of the Conservation (Indigenous Freshwater Fish) Amendment Bill in Parliament today said Minister of Conservation, Eugenie Sage. “Until now, our freshwater fish legislation has been 20 years out of date. We have lacked effective tools to ...
At 1.30pm tomorrow, hundreds of thousands of Kiwis will join about 65 million people around the globe in ShakeOut, the world’s biggest earthquake drill. The annual drill is to remind people of the right action to take during an earthquake which is to Drop, Cover, Hold, and to practise their ...
Kiwis are benefiting from higher wage growth and low inflation under the Coalition Government. Stats NZ data out today shows the rise in the cost of living remains low, as annual Consumers Price Index (CPI) inflation fell to 1.5% in September from 1.7% in June. “The low inflation comes as ...
New Zealand’s economic strength and resilience has been recognised in a major update on the state of the global economy. The IMF’s latest World Economic Outlook released overnight shows a reduced global growth forecast over the next two years as issues like the US-China trade war and Brexit take hold. ...
Justice Minister Andrew Little has today introduced a new Bill to prevent terrorism and support the de-radicalisation of New Zealanders returning from overseas. The Terrorism Suppression (Control Orders) Bill gives the New Zealand Police the ability to apply to the High Court to impose control orders on New Zealanders who ...
A Bill that proposes targeted changes to simplify the processes for Māori land owners when engaging with the Māori Land Court has had its First Reading today. “The approach taken by the Government is to ensure that the protection of Māori land remains a priority as we seek to improve ...
Let me first thank all the new unionists and members in the room. There is nothing more important to improving people’s working lives than people making the decision to care, to get on board and help, to take up the reins and get involved. Congratulations to you. You bring the ...
Minister of Defence Ron Mark has signed a certificate exempting the activity of engine testing at Whenuapai Airbase from the Resource Management Act 1991. The Act gives the Minister of Defence the power to exempt activities for the purposes of national security. The certificate will mean the recent Environment Court ...
Finance Minister Grant Robertson has announced New Zealand will join the Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action while attending APEC meetings in Chile. The objective of the 39 member Coalition is to share information and promote action to tackle climate change. It was formed in April this year, in ...
Feedback sought– Lyttelton commercial zone parking The Associate Minister for Greater Christchurch Regeneration, Poto Williams, is seeking feedback on a proposal to remove on-site car parking requirements for new developments in the Lyttelton commercial zone. The proposal, by Christchurch City Council, asks that powers under section 71 of the Greater ...
Hon Minister Poto Williams Associate Minister for Greater Christchurch Regeneration MEDIA STATEMENT Tuesday 15 October 2019 Feedback sought – Hagley Oval The Associate Minister for Greater Christchurch Regeneration, Poto Williams, is seeking feedback on a proposal about Hagley Oval. The proposal was developed by Regenerate Christchurch ...
Ladies and gentlemen, NZCTU President Richard Wagstaff, members of respective unions – thank you for the invitation to speak to you today. This might be preaching to the choir, but the importance of trade unions in New Zealand’s historical arch is difficult to understate. And it is my belief that ...
"Let’s start by acknowledging that it has been a huge year. " Police Association Annual Conference James Cook Grand Chancellor Hotel Wellington Nau mai, haere mai. Tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, ka nui te mihi, ki a koutou katoa. President of the Police Association, Chris Cahill; Members of the Association and ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters and Minister of Defence Ron Mark have announced the New Zealand Government’s decision to again deploy a Royal New Zealand Air Force P-3K2 (P-3) maritime patrol aircraft to support the implementation of United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions imposing sanctions against North Korea. New ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters says New Zealand continues to have serious concerns for peace and stability in north-east Syria. “Recent reports that hundreds of ISIS-affiliated families have fled from a camp are deeply concerning from a humanitarian and security perspective”, Mr Peters says. “While we acknowledge Turkey’s domestic security ...
Biosecurity Minister Damien O’Connor is warning travelling Kiwis to be vigilant as the high-season for the crop-eating brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB) is under way. “We’re on high alert to stop BMSB arriving in NZ. The high season runs until April 30 and we’ve strengthened our measures to stop stink ...
The Government is moving swiftly to change the law to improve the welfare and pastoral care of students living in university halls of residence and other tertiary hostels. Cabinet has agreed to several changes, including creating a new mandatory Code of Practice that sets out the duty of pastoral care ...
The Minister for Conservation Eugenie Sage has launched a new comprehensive trapping guide for community trappers to help them protect our native birds, plants and other wildlife, at Zealandia in Wellington today. ‘A practical guide to trapping’, has been developed by the Department of Conservation (DOC), and was launched during ...
Associate Health Minister Julie Anne Genter welcomes PHARMAC’s move to improve access to long-acting reversible contraception (LARCs). PHARMAC has today announced it will fund the full cost of Mirena and Jaydess for anyone seeking long term contraception, lifting previous restrictions on access to Mirena. “I welcome women having greater choices ...
The Government has approved the next stage of a major redevelopment of Taranaki Base Hospital, which will deliver new and improved facilities for patients. Health Minister Dr David Clark has announced details of a $300 million dollar project to build a new East Wing at the New Plymouth hospital. It ...
Extra funding will allow Rural Support Trusts to help farming families, says Minister for Rural Communities and Agriculture Damien O’Connor. “I know that rural families are worried about some of the challenges facing them, including the ongoing uncertainty created by the Mycoplasma bovis outbreak. “Those concerns sit alongside ongoing worries ...
Thank you for the opportunity to be here to present certificates to the 16 graduates who have completed a beekeeping course delivered by the Howard League. Let us start by acknowledging Auckland Prison’s Deputy Prison Director Tom Sherlock, and Acting Assistant Regional Commissioner of Corrections Northern Region Scott Walker - ...
Finance Minister Grant Robertson leaves this weekend to attend the APEC Finance Ministers meeting in Santiago, Chile. Discussions between APEC Finance Ministers at the meeting will include the effects of the current global economic uncertainty, risks for APEC economies and sustainable development of the region. While at APEC Grant Robertson ...
The Minister for Pacific Peoples Aupito William Sio says for Pacific people, language can be a source of strength. It can help ground us and give us confidence. When we speak them, our languages provide us with an immediate and intimate access to our identity and our story - and ...
The Coalition Government has announced an action plan to improve the wellbeing of disabled New Zealanders by addressing inequalities in play, active recreation and sport. The initiative includes training to develop a workforce that understands the needs of children and young people with a range of impairments, advocacy for fit ...
The construction sector is being freed up to allow more homes to be built more quickly as the Government cuts through some of the red tape of the Building Act. “Every New Zealander deserves a warm, dry, safe home and old inefficiencies in the Building Act make building slow and ...
Four months ago Caroline Shaw bought an e-bike. She explains why they’re the answer to our lethal car culture.Four months ago we took what felt like a huge leap of faith and bought an e-cargo bike. The combination of three things tipped us over the edge: feeling the need to ...
The online magazine that boasted a bigger Instagram following than most New Zealand media has abruptly come to an end. So what was Auckland Mag? Why did it exist? And who was it mysterious founder Dan Rolph? David Farrier investigates. The reply from Dan Rolph at Auckland Magazine came quickly. It came ...
In the wake of the shocking revelations about Three, Duncan Greive assesses the health of New Zealand’s six big media companies.Winston Peters has studied the cold, pitiless heart of a certain strand of New Zealander for four decades now, and has become our foremost expert on both expressing its feelings ...
US justice reform activists Deborah Small and asha bandele say white supremacy and colonialism are at the heart of punitive drug laws. They spoke to Teuila Fuatai about how drug reform can reverse their effects on minority communities. Deborah Small sees Donald Trump as the US Dorian Gray. “He’s the physical ...
Madeleine Chapman spent a day learning about Christchurch through its most famous dishes.What is there do with with a day in Christchurch? Thanks to the inexplicably early check-out times at hotels all over the world and a 7pm flight back to Auckland, I had a full day to wander the ...
Winston Peters says his party is a handbrake on bad ideas and a "supercharged turbo" for good ones - but will it be in the driver's seat come 2020? ...
Our former prime minister secured a meeting with Chinese premier Xi Jinping outside all normal diplomatic channels. Interest’s Jenée Tibshraeny asks what it means for New Zealand’s evolving relationship with the superpower.Former prime minister John Key secured a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping this week without the involvement of ...
David Robiecontinues his three-part series about travelling in Iran. I stumbled on the scene by chance. Our host family in Iran’s second city Mashhad, a modern and beautiful metropolis that would comfortably fit in New Zealand’s entire population, was taking us on a drive to the outskirts to ...
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has lashed out at the media, in particular, MediaWorks, just a day after the company announced it was selling off its television arm. ...
About a hundred disgruntled licensed gun owners have descended on the New Zealand First conference to tell the party leader Winston Peters that they feel like victims. ...
New Zealand First members will vote on a policy today that would allow businesses of all sizes to enforce 90-day trials when they employ people straight out of prison. ...
"Each time she held her lighter underneath the pipe and sucked the smoke into the back of her throat, the promise was there": a New Zealand tragedy by Alice Tawhai. ...
With the future of Mediaworks’ TV business hanging in the balance, Al Jazeera news presenter Kamahl Santamaria reflects on what the imperilled channel meant, and continues to mean, to him.I always liked the logo. The fresh bright colours, the nod to a koru in its shape, and just the fact ...
There are still many barriers preventing people from voting in local elections. Laura O’Connell Rapira proposes some social solutions.The Spinoff local election coverage is made possible thanks to The Spinoff Members. For more about becoming a member and supporting The Spinoff’s journalism click here.To vote in the local elections, I cast ...
What’s really stood out for me being back in Tokyo is the unique qualities of Japan’s spectators, writes Richard Light, professor of sport coaching at the University of Canterbury.The Rugby World Cup has thrown a global spotlight on Japan over recent weeks. Not just the rugby: the distinctive culture and ...
As the New Zealand First Party gathers for its annual conference, the question swirling in the year is how it can carve out a path to avoid electoral defeat in 2020, writes Jo Moir for RNZ. It’s not you, it’s me. It’s a familiar break up excuse that’s used ...
To the early intervention therapists, to the teachers, to the speech therapists, the occupational therapists, music therapists, diabetes nurses and all: you change the world.When I was married almost a decade ago we had the following reading at our wedding:You are holding up a ceilingwith both arms. It is very ...
The faces said it all. The smiles of the European leaders crowded round Boris after the Brexit deal was struck. The deal his opponents – no, pretty much everyone – said was impossible.So what’s in it? The detail is still opaque, but subject to gremlins in the fine print, ...
Iran attracts an onslaught of negative media in New Zealand and Western media. But is it fair or deserved? David Robie has spent several weeks travelling in the country on sabbatical and finds the media negativity far from the reality of the “most friendly” country he has ever visited ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra [embedded content]University of Canberra Deputy Vice-Chancellor Professor Leigh Sullivan discusses the week in politics with Michelle Grattan. They talk about Alan Jones accusing Prime Minister Scott Morrison of failing the immediate needs of drought-striken farmers, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anita Parbhakar-Fox, Senior Research Fellow in Geometallurgy/Applied Geochemistry, The University of Queensland Last month, scientists uncovered a mineral called Edscottite. Minerals are solid, naturally occurring substances that are not living, such as quartz or haematite. This new mineral was discovered after an ...
The Auckland-based collective talk origins, ambitions and making the rave accessible to everybody.Friendly Potential is an outfit that defies easy summary. They’re among the country’s most ambitious and prolific club promoters. In their almost five-years of operation, they’ve been responsible for the local debuts of electronic music icons including Detroit ...
Analysis: Two polls show support for Labour sliding, the government is accused of breaking another promise and the Greens's refusal to back a bill forces Labour to rely on National to get it through. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kiera Lindsey, University of Technology Sydney One spring morning in 1850, over 8,000 Sydneysiders marched through town to protest the resumption of transportation – the act of sending British criminals to Australia. It was the largest protest in Australia thus far, an ...
Two shareholders of failed insurance firm company CBL are leading a class action against the firm's former directors seeking compensation for financial losses. ...
Sam Brooks recaps the third episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK, and wonders why some of these queens don’t know how to sew.This episode asks, and sort of answers the main question that millions of people across the world: why would you come on Drag Race and not know how to sew?!There ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John M Clarke, Team Leader, Regional Projections, CSIRO Last month we lost Dr Penny Whetton – one of the world’s most respected climate scientists and a brilliant mentor to the next generation of researchers. Penny will also be remembered as a passionate ...
Ten moose were upended into the Dusky Sounds in 1910. Now, their descendants are getting their day in the sun.The climate crisis is affecting wildlife all over the country: rockhopper penguin populations are in drastic decline, tuatara eggs aren’t hatching females, and the ice walls keeping predators away from kea ...
Security footage of NZ First MP Clayton Mitchell being thrown out of a Tauranga bar looks unlikely to ever be aired - despite his leader Winston Peters promising a screening. ...
Amnesty International is concerned that Justice Minister Andrew Little's Terrorism Suppression (Control Orders) Bill could have the potential to undermine human rights in New Zealand. The Bill would give the New Zealand Police the ability to apply to ...
Expect the old campaigner Winston Peters to be at his belligerent best as he gears up for another election. He’s kept his party alive for 27 years and he shows no sign of quitting. The omens may be bleak—polls this week showed his party below the 5% threshold– but Peters ...
The National Party has agreed to take down any videos breaching the current rules around the use of parliamentary TV footage, as all parties try to reach consensus. ...
Recently the Health Promotion Agency released a report into hazardous drinking in New Zealand. The report shows that Māori who drink alcohol and live in deprived circumstances are less likely to have a harmful relationship with alcohol if they ...
Turkey-US joint-statement on military ops within Syria’s territory.The Turkish Embassy in New Zealand issued Evening Report this unabridged United States of America-Republic of Turkey joint-statement detailing what both sides agreed to regarding Turkey’s military operations within the so-called security zone within Syrian territory near Turkey’s southern border. It is ...
Fisheries Minister Stuart Nash didn’t mention what winners will receive, when he proudly called for entries for a new public award “to celebrate innovation in our seafood sector”. Nor did he mention the cost to taxpayers of this initiative. Point of Order’s checks with the website where more details have ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Fiona R Martin, Senior Lecturer in Convergent and Online Media, University of Sydney One of the basic tenets of the ABC Act is independence from government. Yet once again, in contravention to that principle, the federal government is trying to push through ...
A new poem by Auckland poet Lily Holloway.modernity to globalisationwhen I get there as still life and landscape and also portraitureseeking the cacti in small pots who dot the globeslices of pie offer up the vision after the sermonexpressing emotions without coherent narrative supportbecause no artist responded to this callemploying ...
The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union is calling on Broadcasting Minister Kris Faafoi to rule out any taxpayer-funded purchase or bailout for Mediaworks’s channel Three. Taxpayers’ Union spokesman Louis Houlbrooke says, “For the last few months Mediaworks ...
The Police Commissioner's announcement that squadcars of officers with automatic rifles will patrol New Zealand's streets is dangerous and unnecessary, according to the criminal justice community organisation People Against Prisons Aotearoa. The ...
News broke this morning that Mediaworks is seeking to sell off, and even contemplating closing, its TV division. What might that mean for journalism?For journalism in New Zealand, the loss of Three’s TV division is a devastating blow. It is not yet known whether any of the news properties will ...
In our defence of our coalition Government policy on climate change, we fully support Government plan to use rail funding for rail infrastructure upgrades to promote use rail infrastructure for freight around NZ. ...
The billions of tonnes of plastic in our oceans isn’t going away any time soon, but innovative companies here and abroad are working together to find silver linings to this daunting problem.Fishing boats head out to sea and set their nets. They go back to shore. They head back out, ...
An EveningReport.nz investigation by Kevin ListKiwibank services. Image by Kevin List.Evening Report looks into the separation of Kiwibank from New Zealand Post, and considers the impact on the public’s access to banking services in their communities.Kiwibank. What’s going on? Kiwibank and New Zealand Post are in the ...
Local Government New Zealand today confirmed what many local election commentators have observed; that more of the voting public cast their ballots in favour of women candidates than ever before. ...
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 (this week we totted up the data a day early, on Wednesday, to let our books ed. ...
New Zealand's mineral manufacturing sector is expected to face some testing times, with softer prices, tighter margins and sluggish export markets. ...
Portugal has been painted by pro-cannabis legalisation groups as a model to follow. Yet just last month, the mayor of Porto contradicted his previous pro-harm reduction position and endorsed reintroducing criminal penalties for drug use in public spaces. ...
Chief of Defence Force Air Marshal Kevin Short announced today the inclusion of six Cook Island First World War soldiers in the New Zealand and Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s official rolls of honour. ...
The latest statistics released by the Health Promotion Agency showing a dramatic fall in the numbers of cigarettes being sold in supermarkets, service stations, and liquor stores are being welcomed by the Vaping Trade Association of New Zealand (VTANZ). ...
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 content by Dr Bryce Edwards.NZ First Thomas Coughlan (Stuff): Where to from here? How NZ First will win in ...
Aotearoa Climate Emergency (ACE), a climate change network, will host a conference in Wellington on 11 November (Armistice Day) to promote holding a Citizens Assembly in 2020, as a way of breaking the current political deadlock on treating climate ...
MediaWorks’ owners have called time after years of losses from its TV division. Sources say the company will announce it is for sale – if no buyers emerge, it will close within months.Three is facing the biggest crisis in its three decade history today, as its ownership will soon announce ...
Sam Brooks reviews Amazon Prime’s Modern Love, an anthology series based on the New York Times column dedicated to ‘love in all its forms’. A first date that ends up in the emergency room. A flagging marriage that finds new energy through tennis. The founder of a dating app who doesn’t ...
If we want to grow support for New Zealand’s aid, we need to get better at partnering with the ‘unlike-minded’ as well as the ‘like-minded’, and much better at telling people what we do with the money they give, says Josie Pagani, Executive ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Orsola De Marco, Astrophysicist , Macquarie University If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to curiouskids@theconversation.edu.au.How are stars made? –Zali, age 8, Karkoo, South Australia. How are stars made? Well, stars are not ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gita Mishra, Professor of Life Course Epidemiology, Faculty of Medicine, The University of Queensland All women know to expect the time in life when their periods finish and they reach menopause. Many might even look forward to it. What many women don’t ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Paul McGreevy, Professor of Animal Behaviour and Animal Welfare Science, University of Sydney Since ancient times, horse behaviour, and the bond between horses and humans, has been a source of intrigue and fascination. The horse-lore that has accumulated over the centuries is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rachael Wallis, Lecturer and Honorary Research Fellow, University of Southern Queensland A move to the country is often presented in popular culture as an idyllic life, a place where you can escape the pressures of the city. It’s in television shows such ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard Holden, Professor of Economics, UNSW The just-announced inquiry into Australia’s retirement income system ought to be anything but run-of-the-mill. Taking place 25 years after the introduction of compulsory superannuation, it provides an opportunity to either fix a broken system, or discard ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Allan McCay, Law Lecturer, University of Sydney The rise of artificial intelligence has led to widespread concern about the role of humans in the workplaces of the future. Indeed, Israeli historian, futurist and publishing sensation Yuval Noah Harari warns in his most ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jen Saunders, Phd candidate, University of Wollongong Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this article contains images and names of deceased people. You leave Sydney and head for holidays on the South Coast. You plan to catch a quick surf, ...
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Clayton Mitchell denies accusations around a night out, food insecurity on the rise, and UK PM Boris Johnson secures deal with dubious prospects.NZ First MP Clayton Mitchell has got himself in a spot of late night bother in a Tauranga ...
As the rugby world wrestles with the new reality that players can, and will, be dismissed for accidental contact with an opponent’s head it's worth pondering the fate of three All Blacks not selected for the Ireland quarterfinal. ...
A measles outbreak in Samoa suspected to be responsible for the death of a one-year-old was “inevitable”, according to an expert who thinks NZ could have prevented it. ...
Open mike 08/03/2019 
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Looking forward to more people calling “the car” what it is:
(One of) the most destructive technology people outside the army can buy
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/mar/07/cars-killing-us-driving-environment-phase-out
Would be great if all the cities make (at least) their inner city car-free within 10 years. Although, more likely it ends up in the “too hard basket”.
The internal combustion engine is yesterday’s technology. The sooner it becomes a museum item the better.
While PM,… Key made approx $1 Million per year on his Auckland house …. which I think should be confiscated …. As law changes pushed through by him …. allowing foreign buyers and corrupt money flows into our property market , ….. all seems seems like a clear conflict of interest.
What percentage of NZers made $1 Million per year on our property bubble ,,,,as blown by Mr Key????…..
if we add in his other property ….. Omaha beach , Wellington, London ,,,, and a Hawaii pad he paid $4.5 million for in 2009 …. then he’s obviously gained more than $1 million per year from property speculation.
Tell me there is no connection ….between Keys double digit multi millions property windfalls… ….And the homelessness / housing stress in New Zealand … and London ….and Hawaii …. where workers can no longer afford to buy or rent reasonable homes.
If we do not seize his conflicted money …. a CGT tax on his speculative unearned income is the least we should do to creative john…..
And spend it on building homes for normal decent humans…
Stop attacking the “kiwi way of life”.
And ‘Venezuela!”
gosh darn … you rumbled me AB …. my jigs up 🙂
AWOL- our Aspirational Way Of Life.
For the few.
Also missing from AWOL are- empathy, ethics, morality, charity,
Funny how that all comes to mind when John Key is mentioned………..
100% mac1 well said.
I heard JK is changing his name to John Ponytail puller. Apparently it’s a new Trump inspired craze.
“As law changes pushed through by him …. allowing foreign buyers and corrupt money flows into our property market ,”
Care to expand on this and your theory foreigners were not able to enter the property market before Key got in?
Thanks
Foreign investors come in through the banking system. It is that that needs to be controlled. Start by preventing private banks creating money out of nothing.
Do you believe in MMT?
Chris T, Sixty nine thousand mentions in the Panama Papers. Plus shonkey lawyers who had Trusts for overseas people Mossack Fonsecca, who disappeared when asked to give a name and address.
Key wanted us to be the “Switzerland of the South” where the rich could hide their money.
Start with a CGT then open the books and send in the forensic accountants!
You really are overstating Key’s influence, Phil. Time to move on.
…. but Key is the poster child for a CGT ……….
Good brand recognition and all that …
But what specific “law changes pushed through by him …. allowing foreign buyers and corrupt money flows into our property market” did he make?
You are talking to the wrong people.
You should be moaning to Robbo and the Stardust girl.
After all, they are the ones who propose to exclude one’s “family home” from a CGT.
If you think the family homes should be subject to a CGT why don’t you just say so, and then complain about why the Labour Party won’t allow it?
Come on. Start your diatribe about your beloved leader’s refusal to do anything about house prices and fairness.
Allwhinge pathology on open display again – it’s almost as if you believe your dribble.
Pool alwyn – can’t even incoherently mumble, through bitter, twisted gums, the Prime Minister’s name – has to insult her like a weakling.
I see Reason still has KDS, you are aware Clark had 4 or 5 homes and Cullen 2 or 3 whilst NOT bringing in a CGT during their 9yrs in power. Key made his money outside politics, Clark never worked outside politics and never earned a cent outside a government funded salary! Why you lefties hate Key for his wealth without looking at the 2 other ‘rich pricks’ leading Labour is laughable (and Cullen earning a grand a day for almost 2 years under this Labour govt, when his ‘job’ ends in July)
im right dickhead ………….. tax cullen and clark too you fool.
Rebstock got paid half a million by the nats to do a witch trial ….. you dope
Tax her capital gains too ….
Keyzy just sleazy … who would want to be that deviant creep?
anyway you missed the point ….
Tell me there is no connection ….between Keys double digit multi millions property windfalls… ….And the homelessness / housing stress in New Zealand … and London ….and Hawaii …. where workers can no longer afford to buy or rent reasonable homes. ….
a CGT tax on his speculative unearned income is the least we should do to creative john…..
And spend it on building homes for normal decent humans
Key made his money working for Merril Lynch. Enough said, I think.
Cullen has his home and pension. only.
Freedom is not ripping people off.
Oh shut up you jealous tard. He lived in the house the entire time. Under the cgt he wouldn’t have been taxed anyway
There is little doubt he bought it for speculative purposes, which under existing law made his gain taxable.
That is b*s and you know it Robert.
Please, just because people like “reason(?)” still suffer so grievously from KDS doesn’t mean you have to join them.
I’m not sure who that’s directed at, but buying properties for speculation has always been taxable, the brightline only made it easier for IRD to establish.
The Key Kleptocracy was the worst NZ government in my lifetime, and many of the others were nothing to write home about. Key bears personal responsibility for a number of criminal acts, starting with Equiticorp, insider trading in rail shares, the Stalinist extra-judicial theft of Hubbard’s wealth to name a few.
Derangement more properly describes your worship of this self-serving turd, who, in any well run country, would be doing hard labour for the rest of his natural.
The guy was actually a rat in sheep’s clothing IMHO
😆 Stuart’s reverted to his past commenting behaviour, a touch of flowery prose sprinkled with a large amount of KDS and outright fantasy.
Yeah, we know you’re fine with criminality SM, but it renders all your criticisms of the coalition ineffectual. If you’ll put up with the shite the previous government got up to, you’ve no basis to criticize anything.
If you were up to more serious argument, you might consider why NZ is now a world leader in suicide. It’s not happenstance, but the outcome of decades of absolutely fucking hopeless governance.
NZ is a world leader in reported suicide. Whether it’s down to decades of absolutely fucking hopeless governance as one of the causative factors is certainly worth debate.
Your continued cant regarding criminality and the like from National governments is a hoot.
Yes, it’s a hoot to you.
People victimized by those crimes see it rather differently.
I don’t know why it should suddenly be too much to ask, that a government be both honest and competent, certainly I’ve seen fuck all of either in my lifetime.
You really should have put “NZ is a world leader in reported suicide” in quotes. Without them it tends to imply that you think the statement is true. According to the WHO it simply isn’t true.
I suggest you have a look at this article.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_suicide_rate#List_by_the_World_Health_Organization_(2016)
Have a look at New Zealand. I’ll give you a hint. It is at number 53.
The highest developed country is Russia, at nearly 3 times the level.
Sundry other developed countries above us are Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, Latvia, Uruguay, Belgium, Estonia, Japan, Finland, United States , Hungary, Poland, Iceland, Bolivia, France, Nicaragua, Sweden and Australia.
World leader? You really are dreaming. Thank God it isn’t true.
Yes fair call.
You put that data together with known coroner reluctance to make a finding of suicide and we’re in a very bad place – and it’s been getting rapidly worse.
Not being as bad as Russia, like most of the specious arguments of the Loony Right, is no consolation – we’re in a record bad place
vis-à-vis our previous record, and that has only been achieved by prodigies of lousy governance.
we-ell the world leader status isn’t too far off if we look at it by agegroup – looking at young people we get up to something like #20.
And then if you look at the OECD rather than including smaller, less developed nations, we seem to be towards the front of the pack.
But regardless of the semantics of our suicide ranking, we should have a much lower rate. It can be difficult – the problem ones to prevent are the impulsive suicides: happy and fine one day, gets dumped or fired the next day, gets drunk, gets morose, is alone, jumps off or in front of something. But there are still things we should be doing and don’t.
“Equiticorp”.
Now you really have lost it.
The H-fee was something done by Elders which was an Australian company. Key worked, at around that time for a New Zealand subsidiary which had nothing at all to do with it.
Only the then Labour President, Mike Williams, thought he could track some connection but came up with zilch, and egg all over his face.
I suppose that you are guilty of Benefit Fraud. After all you are a Green Party Supporter and a one time party leader certainly was guilty of the activity. You must have been involved as you were involved with the party.
There, are you going to plead guilty. You are at least as connected to that as was Key to the payment of the fee.
Your delusions about Hubbard and his “wealth” are equally nuts. Hubbard started getting involved in very risky property developments when he would loan enormous sums to companies that no-one else would touch. For some strange reason he, like Michael Duff, seemed to think that he had a Midas touch and when all the loans went down the tubes his company went bust.
Williams may not have been able to prove it, but those of us who had our money stolen do not forget.
We knew something was wrong with the SCF story the moment the auditor or whatever he was started pushing stories through the media that affected its value – a massive conflict of interest were he in fact trying to protect the asset value as his appointment required.
One of the largest ‘bankruptcies’ in NZ with never a day in court. We know you guys are hot and cold running corruption but this case makes all our commercial law obsolete – a couple of crooked assholes in government can just steal your property by fiat with a smile and a wave.
And you’re down with that.
Weren’t you paid out Stuart?
After all an awful lot of people here continually moan about how the taxpayer paid out to the investors in SCF because it was allowed into the Government Guarantee scheme by Cullen.
Certainly not. The issue is democracy, not my personal financial interest. Hubbard had an absolute right to expect that his own government would not fraudulently deprive him of his wealth.
That Cullen criticism was just another trollfest, like Key’s claim that Thiel’s cannibalism of the outfit he invested in was the fault of the previous government. Nonsense.
These are extremely serious criminal issues that need to be thoroughly and publicly investigated; your troll scapegoating doesn’t really reach that standard.
Says the knob who constantly bangs on about “Stardust Girl” “CoL” etc. You need a truck load of Hemorrhoid Cream for your condition, you completely unethical national toady.
Well done Reason; – implicitly stated. 100%
Today is International Women’s Day.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/111101587/prominent-kiwi-wahine-explain-what-international-womens-day-means-to-them
To be sure, we have much to celebrate.
“Family violence
In 2016, there were 118,910family violence investigations by NZ Police.
Responding to family violence accounts for 41% of a frontline Police Officer’s time.
In 2016, 5,461applications were made for protection orders:-5,072(89%) were made by women and 550(10%) by men.3-4,940(89%) of respondents were men and 560(10%) women.
In 2016, there were 6,377recorded male assaults female victimisations and 4,852proceedings against offenders for breaching a protection order.
In 2015/16, Women’s Refuges affiliated to the National Collective of Independent Women’s Refuges received about 73,000crisis calls. 11,062women accessed advocacy services in the community. 2,446women and children stayed in safe houses.
Adult sexual assault
In 2014,24% of New Zealand women and 6% of men reported having experienced sexual assault in their lifetime.
17% of New Zealand women report having experienced sexual violence by an intimate partner in their lifetime; 2% in the last 12 months.
In 2016, there were 2,708 reported sexual offences against an adult over 16years.”
https://nzfvc.org.nz/sites/nzfvc.org.nz/files/Data-summaries-snapshot-2017.pdf
The point is, for me, that progress has been made thanks to tremendous effort by many good people and that more will be accomplished by a great many people’s efforts.
“Progress has been made….”
Tell that to these women….
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12160574
“A teen reported a rape. Police took five months to interview the suspects, then dropped the case ”
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12042963
“According to current police data analysed by the Herald, as of 2016 up to 80 per cent of reported aggravated sexual assaults go unresolved. For the crime “male rapes female 16 and over”, that number is even higher, at 85 per cent. Rape cases are four times less likely to go to court in comparison with other types of physical assault, where only 24 per cent of offences are unresolved.”
Nah. I won’t be celebrating.
Hi Rosemary, on a related topic, I went to see Celia, Amanda Miller’s movie about Celia Lashlie.
Highly recommended, and a promising initiative with couples and families going to a weekend and tackling D.V.
Has made me look at a way i can do some voluntary mahi around DV.
Hiya gsays. I must find a list of venues for that documentary, I’d like to see it.
I found myself disagreeing with Celia Lashlie on a few occasions…especially with the ‘boys need/NEED good male role models’ thing.
It kinda fed a particular nutbar men’s rights group….and was a too simplistic answer to a fairly recent problem. That said….she certainly had moxie and was more than willing to stick her head above the ramparts.
I wouldn’t dismiss the benefit of a male in a boys life.
The only problems we have had with our son going to a boys school has been with female teachers.
From another ‘tradition’, there is an analogy about raising a child and a potter raising a pot.
The female energy is represented by love and forgiveness, male energy by law and justice.
The child, like a pot, needs both hands to guide it.
Raised only with love and forgiveness it has little regard for itself or others.
Raised only with law and justice the child doesn’t grow.
Make of it what you will, it helped me understand my partner and some of the decisions that were made.
.
https://www.flicks.co.nz/movie/celia/
Some reflect, some celebrate, and some go “meh!”. We all perceive things differently. Either way, it should not go unnoticed and it is good that it provokes a reaction with people. Worst thing that could happen is to be completely ignored and becoming irrelevant when it clearly needs a lot of attention and is highly relevant.
The low hanging fruit to curb NZs high violence rates was protected by National …. and a dirty politics smear campaign launched against people cleaning up the mess of NZ’s biggest drug problem ,,,,,
“Picture the veteran homicide detective – grizzled, gloomy, jaded after years dealing with humanity’s worst, most hopeless cases.
Retiring this week after 42 years with the police, Drew is optimistic about humanity …. He’s just happy to leave with a clean slate – meaning no unsolved murders.
He later worked in the car squad, fraud squad, drug squad, undercover programmes, and as Wairarapa area commander.
“We had a series of cases that became quite high-profile, where the treatment of the child had been dreadful.
“Not just that the child had been beaten and killed, but the treatment, ongoing for a long time, had been dreadful.”
Just as Kiwis were capable of changing attitudes to child abuse, Drew says maybe another debate is needed around the most common cause of preventable crimes.
A constant over 42 years, he says, has been the role of booze in making otherwise reasonable people do crazy things.
Drew says changing attitudes towards binge drinking will be tough.
He’s wary of sounding like a finger-wagging hypocrite because many of us have done silly things on the booze.
But he says our casual attitude to getting hammered should probably be reassessed – for our own good.”
…………
Judith Collins and the Nats would rather blame Maori for high rates of violent crime… all while demanding more prisons be built,….
It is always problematic to make direct connections as a reason for outcomes. While I’m sure the experienced detective knows a lot more than me about the actuallity of dealing with what has to be a pretty horrific job especially when children are involved, it is not a directline .. i.e drink = abuse a child.
Child abusers are people who would probably take their frustrations out on kids even if they only drank water.
And as for Collins, she’s just a tarted up Trump, bashing whatever group comes on her dog-whistle radar. A few years ago, as a result of a census I think, it was revealed that less than 40% of Maori actually drink alcohol, the Pakeha figure was around 70% as I recall.
The police rosters /staffing levels are set in accordance with our drinking patterns …. ie bugger all cops out monday night …. lots on a friday saturday.
No uniform police get time off on new years eve ….
Because Alcohol abuse spikes both accident and violence rates …. Adrian
Abusers who abuse while sober are particularity mean … while many other abusers go psychotic on booze
like the cop said
Many years back I was hitching out of Auckland one fine Saturday morning, heading once again to the Southern Alps, on the Kyber Pass on-ramp to the motorway. Much to my surprise a big grey police Bedford wagon pulls up and the cheery Sgt driving opens the door and beckons me in.
For a moment I thought he’d busted me for something, but no he was chatty and happy to give me a ride out of town. At some point he pointed to a little window behind us and asked to me check the ‘load’. There was 20 glum looking guys all seated in rows in back!
“They’re the overflow from Auckland, taking them down to the Papakura Court for processing; all of them but one, who was picked up for dud cheques, all of them on the booze last night.”
The he said something I’ve never forgotten. “You know sonny, you’ll be too young to remember this, but some years back there was a big brewery strike and a lot of the pubs ran out of beer. And us cops were reduced to helping little old ladies get cats out of trees”.
It’s that simple. Most of the ugliness that we so lament in our society, that we like to sheet home to all sorts of convoluted ideological causes, are really about not much more than the booze. It takes out about 10% of people as alcoholics to some degree or another and massively burdens our health system patching up the damage.
I’m dead set against prohibitions, but there’s every reason for each of us to take ownership of our relationship with alcohol, and be it’s master.
10 times as many people out and about on the weekends as Monday night and 100s more on New Years Eve, Like I said, drawing direct line correlations gives one flawed information.
Sure alcohol is a factor but enviroments that are noisy, crowded and sexually charged leading to jealousy, envy and irrational behavour will lead to more problems wether drink is involved or not.
The percentage of drinkers on a Monday night is probably the same as on a Friday theres just more people in total.
Don’t believe everything the Police say, they are probably the worst group for being captured by group-think, believing only what their managment tell them.
Sure alcohol is a factor but enviroments that are noisy, crowded and sexually charged leading to jealousy, envy and irrational behavour will lead to more problems wether drink is involved or not.
In my experience of large mixed groups socialising absent alcohol, there is rarely any problems with violence or abuse.
Here’s another stat; approximately 50% of all murder victims and perpetrators are drunk at the time of the crime. (Regardless of what the police may or may not have said about it.)
It’s a risk factor, like anything else. The direct effects on the nervous system are well documents. The limiting of impulse control and coordination are well documented – a drunk adult essentially has the impulse control of a teenager and the coordination of a toddler. There are plenty of qualitative reviews of the effects of alcohol. There is a consistent temporal and dose-response relationship in observations.
The correlation with a multitude of adverse outcomes isn’t just police rosters.
So we can pretend there is no problem on the slim possibility something else is at work, or we can minimise that harm. Elimination is impossible in most cases, isolation viable in some (r18/20 bars), minismisation in others. But we can also increase supervision – police for the streets, social workers for the home.
Drink inflames emotions I think, whatever is being felt it increases it, and the person feeling can’t control him or herself as well, or at all.
Yes alcoholics cause problems. Say that 10% of the population is one.
The rest of their family will be involved; in being encouraged to drink, mixing with other easy-peasy lazy thinkers who get that way because of alcohol, poor adult role models, then there is the money that is not available for the household, then it is hard to actually hold down a job. Then there is the self-aggrandisement of the alcoholic – it’s always someone else’s fault. And so on.
I was happy when the NZ bloke who developed RTDs was killed in a helicopter crash. One of his cohort was offended. I was not even slightly concerned about that. Alcohol deliberately to entice young drinkers, which he expressed surprise at, is nothing but getting the young involved with drugs, and of course his was spirits with mixers to be palatable. The country timidly brought in legislation to limit the rather high alcohol limit supposedly because it was gathering in large numbers of teenagers and under age drinkers. He brought his alcohol levels down to just under it. A very calculating shit.
So reduce availability. Take it out of supermarkets, to the liquor outlets where it belongs. The supermarkets will hate it. ouch. (I’m dreaming here.) But time limits for selling, not till late at night. At bars and restaurants, there would have to be something eaten, so either bowls of nuts, small savouries, ploughman’s lunch, snack etc.
Health, food and safety could let up on their interminable laws to prevent everything and just have cleanliness and godliness as the guide!
Pubs, bars would have to apply for late night licences and nurture their clients. Get away from the sinking them in large number, drinking competition, swill stuff. Make the happy hours just that, not OTT.
The other day Hosking trumpeted that there was no chorus of voices defending the need for a CGT. He pushed the idea floated earlier that week that the government was shocked by the anti CGT reaction and again today said the government had ‘cocked up’ by leaving a vacuum and allowing the no faction to argue their case.
If arguing their case means racist dog-whistling, tweeting fake numbers, and misappropriating the Kiwi way of life then yes, they have argued their case. The Prime Minister made an important point when she said not everyone has a column in the Herald. It’s important because greedy, old, scared, white people have always had better access to platforms from which to honk their message. A CGT legislation would be an important component for balancing out over society exactly those kinds of historic advantages the wealthy have had. That’s why they are scared.
The right wing nuts are also unhappy with the chair of the group staying on to answer questions about the report. To not do so would create even more of a vacuum which is I suspect exactly what the Nats want. They don’t like anyone interrupting their frightened ranting. And what would be the alternative to a six week stand down for public discussion of the report? Would they have preferred the government released the TWG recommendations and their decisions on the same day? In effect a decision made behind closed doors. I think not. The government are, as usual, being honest if not a little hopeful that the opposition would display a similar amount of honesty.
It’s also interesting what recommendations the Nats haven’t attacked with any gusto. And that is a CGT on investment properties. This is because they know almost every citizen in the country is on board with it – even fair minded rental owners! A lot of them are rightly embarrassed about how easy it has been to make tax-free gain. It’s also a frank admission that the policy of the last National government has indeed damaged the country – hopefully not beyond repair.
Wonder why our news networks aren’t covering this….. it’s huge news….happened last night..
‘At least 36 countries, including all 28 members of the European Union, have signed a statement condemning Saudi Arabia’s human rights record at the United Nations Human Rights Council ‘
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/03/eu-rebukes-saudi-arabia-human-rights-forum-190307114443284.html
The sad news is of course this.
There are 193 countries that are members of the United Nations.
157 of them declined to sign the statement.
The countries that actually care about human rights appear to be largely in Western Europe.
Sigh.
Good point Alwyn.
Sighs with you.
I wonder why this doesn’t even get a mention. three bodies were found but one was dissapeared again.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-01-23/thai-police-say-bodies-found-in-mekong-river-were-activists/10738582
Some lives matter
Dodgy dealings, cheers for the link Bruce.
The sad bag of the Trolls
It is kind of weird that the entire aim of National is to make sure that nobody but the wealthy shall exist naturally and happily in New Zealand.
National has no intention of doing anything but filling their own bellies, in their own comfortable homes, with their girl friends, while the Workers and the Poor, -The Constructive Members of New Zealand Society, – are attacked by merciless Landlords with Excessive, impossible Rental Fees.
We live in the Country of Hosking; Mrs Bennett; Mr Hooten; The Herald; Sir john Key; Sir Billy English; And the bludging Wealthy and Landlords.
Supported by pathetic tiny trolls. Who Hate Hate Hate. They cannot abide a Worker owning a home.
Earning $1,062 per day, Michael Cullen will soon become a ‘rich prick’.
He will have to start hating himself.
How many days wee jimby?
Well i believe the TWG was formed in late 2017? and Cullen is now staying on to answer questions (that Grant obviously can’t answer) until June 2019? so well over a year although I am sure he didn’t work every day he should earn well in excess of the average income,
Jimmy in Feb he claimed 4 days and says it will be about the same this month.
This Government believes in paying for expertise. Unlike the last one.
“Supported by pathetic tiny trolls. Who Hate Hate Hate.”.
That certainly seems to be a perfect description of Government supporter “Sir” Michael Cullen.
Also known as the rip off kid.
How is Cullen known as the rip off kid?
Today’s party line.
Could be a nat meme about his pay….
Which is less than that ruthless disastrous Rebstock who the Nats shoulder tapped for half million dollar fuck ups
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/307143/rebstock-mfat-inquiry-errors-not-terminal,-says-pm
“Dame Paula also spearheaded a major report into Child Youth and Family (CYF), for which she was paid $2000 a day, double the normal maximum fee.”
” taxpayers had had to fork out half a million dollars for the Rebstock inquiry which “crucified” two innocent officials – and would now have cough up again to compensate them.
Dr Graham could not fathom how Mr Key could consider employing her again. “
$2,000 a day. I don’t care how fucking talented you are, paying anyone $2,000 a day is just pissing money into the gutter. And then, she fucked it up. So, $2,000 a day for fucking things up. Awesome. I can fuck things up with the best of them. Where do I get a job like that?
I’ll fuck things up EPICALLY for only $1995. Free market an all that.
Let’s not forget the Nats bending the rules on committee pay to comfort their pal Shipley: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10739607
I’m sure rebbers was worth every cent dotdotdot.
“How is Cullen known as the rip off kid?”
Apparently because he was paid for being on the Tax Working Group. I wouldn’t trust any figures coming from National – but supposedly he got $1000/day for a 6 hours’ work.
So a charge-out rate of $167/hour:
– less than half what my dentist charges
– way less than a family lawyer
– less than multitudes of IT consultants
OK – the dentist and lawyer have business overheads – but even allowing for that Cullen’s rate seems remarkably low comparatively.
The point of course is that even though it’s comparatively low, it’s actually unimaginable riches for most NZers, especially for the working poor who tend to vote Labour. Penny drop – the Nats know all this perfectly well – it’s just a crude attempt to wedge Labour’s base.
Get used to it – Nats have no principles.
For god sake wake up. he got two days in January hes off to buy a house
For pete’s sake – pipe down. If you have anything to add please do it otherwise……
Just have a look at all the tax-payer funded jobs he has had, and the tax-payer funded travel he has done, since he left Parliament and started collecting his very generous Parliamentary Superannuation.
Ye he is one of those who gets the really generous, gold-plated Super people still complain about. He was there in 1991 you see.
If there is any money in view Michael will rip it out of the hands of the taxpayer and pocket it.
To be fair to Michael Cullen National did appoint him as Deputy Chair of NZ post in 2009, so they can’t think too badly of him.
You might consider the contrast with Shipley – appointed by ‘friends’ she proved to be unfit – Cullen, appointed by ‘enemies’ did the job required. It’s possible to be worth a high pay rate – just not for Gnats.
Its all in his/hers head Muttonbird.
I don’t see Sir Michael Cullen as “the ripoff kid” – alwyn is off his tree again obviously.
Like our little pet trolls Gosman & James
Venezuala needs assistance, is there anything gooie and his gang can do? Revealed: US aid to Venezuala all about regime change>>> https://youtu.be/iKSaDcN_nL0
Gooie gang, gooie gang, gooie gang 😹😹😹
The current US interest in Venezuela is (of course) an entirely virtuous exception to all their other interventions in Latin America over the last century.
Wow….this is a, errrr, novel approach…
https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/111078262/wellington-city-council-contractor-downer-uses-magic-dowsing-rods-to-find-pipes
I was totally sceptic about dowsing as I could see no scientific reason for it.
A very long time ago a neighbour showed us how to search for water. Imagine a bunch of sceptical teens marching around the paddock and then the horror when the manuka sticks twitched either up or down! We tried blindfolding and leading each other to an anonymous spot then letting them walk blindly and in exactly the same spots the twitching twitched.
No. We did not dig down to see what was down there but the twitching was very real.
Because I’m a sucker for punishment, I did my daily check on Farrars Ferals over on ‘Kiwi Way of Life’ blog… and bugger me if a high percentage of commentors didn’t have similar stories to tell.
This is why there’s hope for Aotearoa into the future. The Left and Right seemingly in accord over what some would consider woo witchcraft.
Consider myself skeptical, but there is something to dowsing (and not just for water), in the right hands (not mine).
No idea how it works, but would like too – maybe some experiments that try to disrupt either the ‘signal’, its transmission, or reception.
Since 1980 the Australian Sceptics Society has a $100,000 offer to divine for minerals or water. So far it has not been won. Just declare what you can do, your the conditions under which you can perform your claimed paranormal deed, and your success rate. Then prove it under properly conducted conditions.
https://www.skeptics.com.au/features/prize/
http://www.skepticalinvestigations.org/Examskeptics/Randi_problem.html
The Problem with James Randi…And his foundation on the paranormal, pseudoscientific and supernatural…
skepticism has made no actual contribution to science
The test that the Australian Sceptics promote is a double-blind test. Basically the substance to be found by divining is hidden underground. The tester accompanying the diviner does not know where the substance is so reading body language or straight out fraud is ruled out. In 39 years the test has not been completed successfully. The conditions of the test are agreed by both the contestant and the Sceptics Society btw.
The test is or course replicable. I’d also venture to say that a successful (IMHO guessed) experiment should be able to be replicated to prove that it wasn’t just a lucky guess.
Uri Geller was a fraud. I can bend spoons too. A bit of rubbing and friction and the spoon bends. Sometimes I can even read my wife’s mind!
Here’s another Skeptics society award. The Bent Spoon Award with honourable winners named. https://www.skeptics.com.au/features/bent-spoon/
I did a psychic experiment whilst at Uni with a glass and all participants putting a finger on the glass which pointed by paranormal means to letters of the alphabet. As the messages got even stranger the slight whiteness on the first knuckle of my finger betrayed me .
skepticism has made no actual contribution to science
Your long winded, protracted and esssentially, empty comment..
cements the above..emphatically!
What attracts you to skeptic pseudoscience lobby groups, who make no worthwhile contribution to humanity, mac1?
Perhaps you could name some members of the ‘skeptics society’…and provide some historical context for how the australian crank group formed…and some of their ‘notable achievements’…
Go for it…
One Two. You can google the Australian Sceptics Society that from the references in my previous comments.
I am at a bit of a loss to understand you here. You seem to be saying that I am in the thrall of “skeptic pseudoscience lobby groups” whereas I am saying that one of the kaupapa of the Australian Sceptic Society is to debunk pseudoscience. See the Bent Spoon Award below.
But from an earlier comment of yours referring to ‘scientism” I seem to be getting the understanding that your idea of true science, and mine, differ somewhat.
One Two. What are your views on dowsing?
You ask what might be the ‘notable achievements’ of sceptics? Putting the blowtorch of reason on dubious claims might help.
What do you make of this article? This is part of what sceptics do.
https://www.skeptics.com.au/features/bent-spoon/
mac1, I can only go from your comments and links to a suspect group which has no basis is science …whatsoever…
Specifically you have used said group and links to cite disproving of ‘spoon bending’ as some type of derogatory statement against ‘dowsing’…
Have I interpreted the intent of your link and comment about the ‘Randi Prize’, the way you meant it?
If not , please explain how you believe linking to the ‘Randi Prize’ in a dowsing discussion was supposed to be interpreted…
My position on dowsing is not relevant to this sub thread, as I was not commenting on dowsing…I was commenting on your links to a dubious group whose contribution to ‘science’,,,is essentially zero…
Context of the history of ‘sceptical societies’ and the network of so called ‘sceptics’ who are actually self proclaimed ‘debunkers’ (their words not mine)…
If you believe that ‘putting a blow torch’…is a notable contribution…then absolutely you and I are not aligned…
I asked you why you posted the skeptics link and comment…because I’ve no idea if you’re ‘enthralled’…or not…but you linked to a specific group…one whose activities and history I am familar with…
So…go right ahead and answer that question…why did you link to that group in the dowsing thread…
Do we put a blowtorch to claimants such as this one?
“The promoters of the Premium Wine Card, a credit card-sized item that supposedly improves the flavour of wine through “an embedded set of precise frequencies that produce a long-lasting natural resonance [that] can be transferred to wine through the wine glass.”
That one a runner up in 2014 for the Bent Spoon Award by the Australian Sceptics Society.
This link provides another but similar view to that of the Sceptics Society.
https://www.therealreview.com/2014/06/12/wine-gadget-road-test-the-premium-wine-card/
Anyway, One Two, I suggest that you engage with JohnSelway as he seems to be a scientist. I’m just a layman. Tell you what though. I’m off to have a beer now with a bunch of scientists, viticulturists, professors of mathematics, winemakers, surgeons, businessmen and brewers. I’ll canvass their views of ‘scientism”, scepticism and the scientific process. Cheers.
Now that you’ve completely avoided the clear question…you’ve provided enough information, to affirm my interpretation, is accurate …
Eventually you might just move on from aligning yourself with ‘sceptics’…to forming your own opinions and thoughts…
Time spent around scientists…may or may not assist with your evolution…it depends what your seeking to attain…
Enjoy the beer…
Why did I link to the Sceptics in the dowsing thread?
Here’s why.
2014 Physicist Larry Marshall PhD became CEO of the CSIRO. He made an observation about dowsing that was unscientific and won their Bent Spoon Award for the disparity in that pronouncement and his new role heading a scientific body.
http://www.australasianscience.com.au/article/issue-januaryfebruary-2015/skeptics-award-bent-spoon-new-csiro-chief.html
Even Dr Marshall admitted “dowsing is a “little out there” …..
What do you have against the Sceptics Society?
One Two, it was you who linked to the article about Randi. You brought him into the arena above at 9.1.3.1.
You are confused there.
The link I posted was in support of the quote I had used…nothing more than that…
You then linked to the australian skeptic site…more than once and filled the surrounding commentary with skeptic type twaddle about spoon bending, when the subject was about dowsing…
I raised a question…more than once to you asking about why you referenced that same site and spoon bending…you’ve attempted to explain in your comment above at 850pm, but have done poor job elucidating your own thoughts…
So far as the skeptics are concerned…they are an irrelevant noise which far from adding anything positive (bent spoon awards are nothing m1…why do you give them credence) to any form of counter argument…members of their group have nefarious links and boarderline criminal…if not actual criminal involvement against other groups, who the skeptics, actively target…
You can look into it for yourself…
People who link and refer to skeptic sites are, in my experience rather limited in their thinking capacity, either as young adults finding their way through the dross to a more informed space…or adults who are struggling to find a way at all, and are unable to expand from a stunted developmental standpoint…
Those who comment at this site and reference ‘skeptics’ in various guises…are some of the best examples of evidence in support of my stated position, paragraph above..
Each of us must actively decide where we wish to allow complacency to set in…believing we have found ‘truth’…
For me personally…that is a lifelong journey…one which I embrace on a daily basis…
Each to their own..
Funny how One Two won’t argue the point posted, but uses comments like, long winded, protracted, empty etc. This is always used by con artists who try & muddy the waters & not deal with the facts.
Maybe you could watch Richard Dawkins documentary “The Enemies of Reason” & see how water diviners get no better results than chance, but of course this would be too long winded & protracted for you
The only people who believe skepticism has made no actual contribution to science are the believers in homeopathy, wifi health issues, flat earthers, 9/11 conspiracy, one world order “single issue nutters”.
Lacking critical thinking they will not change their stance, even thought majority of scientific community says otherwise.
Jeepers, Grandpop used to divine water, he was always bang on when he did it. Any Y shaped stick would do, he would just cut one from the nearest tree, no matter the species, absolutely amazing to watch.
I remember dad was a skeptic of his father inlaws abilities, so asked Grandpop to find the water pipes at home. And sure enough he marked out where they were on the lawn, his stick would point to the ground like a magnet where there was water. Dad never doubted him again.
It’s a gift he would share with others, no charge. His theory was that the hard work is in digging the well rather than finding the water.
One of those things that needs to be seen to be believed, some use special rods, some do not.
At secondary school we did an interesting experiment. The science lab had a large bench running around the outside of the sides and back wall, and under it rows of many identical cupboards.
The entire class went into the back room and isolated, while one person using a randomised list would place a large beaker of water in one cupboard only. (All the others had been emptied out.) That person would then leave the room, another independent person, who had been outside would then enter and call one of the class from the back room to step up onto the bench, and using a dowsing rod, walk slowly around the room once in each direction, and see if we got a response. The independent person would do the recording, and then leave again.
One done that person would then leave the room altogether.
We then ran the trial with an entirely different class with no water as a control.
The results were clear cut, there really was a strong effect. Sorry I cannot remember the exact statistical confidence p number after all these years, but there was no question that most of us did detect the water. I recall my own surprise at the dowsing rod moving in my hand.
I think it was a pretty well designed experiment, and that was the educational purpose of it, but I’d not die in a ditch defending it against some uber-rationalist determined to de-bunk it. Let’s just say, that it’s one of those things that seems harmless enough and should be judged on the results.
When I was a teenager I got a holiday working for P&T (the cable laying & maintenance branch of the post office) I was part of a small crew trenching for a new underground phone line in a semi-rural area. Part of the job involved hand digging to expose pre-mapped wires and pipes where it was too risky just to run the Ditch-Witch through. The maps showed roughly where to dig but the supervisor taught me a technique which was in common use at the time by people doing this kind of work. It involves taking two lengths of 16 gauge wire about 18″ long & bending them into L shapes with the short branch just long enough to sit comfortably inside your hand when closed. The idea was to hold them very lightly, pointing slightly downwards in front of you, then walk slowly at right angles to intersect with the line where the pipe or cable you were searching for was supposed to be. When you were nearly on top of the target the wires swung inwards to point at each other across the front of your chest. A heel mark in the ground marks the spot. Then you walk forward a few metres turn and repeat the exercise from the opposite direction. Typically there was an 18″ to 2″ gap between the two marks and it was invariably accurate at finding water pipe or copper cable.
I am a sceptic by nature and have a reasonably scientific cast of mind but I also believe the evidence of my eyes and personal experience. If I can make it work in a repeatable and reliable way and it’s a useful technique I’m not going to argue the toss about how it’s not possible..
Many years ago one of my apprentices showed me how to find water pipes, we just used some silfos brazing rods from the work van, we bent them in an L shape like you said. Since then i have done it a many times. At the time i was very surprised that it worked.
Nothing like doing it yourself to be convinced that it can work.
During a working life in electricity distribution I’ve come across dozens who reckon they can locate cables by dowsing. Thing is, anyone with experience pretty much knows where cables are likely to be laid so any success was always taken with a grain.
And besides, why dowse when you can use an electromagnetic locator.
The holiday job I was referring to took place in 1974 and electromagnetic locators weren’t a thing being used by crews like ours at the time. Not something readily to hand in the average home workshop either. Anyway I’m not going to die in a ditch over this one..
Yep. We flirted with the idea of going to the expense of putting down a bore as back up to our roof collection. The neighbours (wrongly as it turned out after the big Waikato drought of 2008) reckoned there was ‘unlimited’ ground water and more than one gave us the local diviner’s phone number. He did come out and did his thing and found water at about 50 m down. Although we ditched the plan to drill, we were surprised that we weren’t surprised at just how ordinary dowsing is. Talk about cognitive dissonance.
I guess this is a talent/skill that has been used down the eons because having a secure supply of water is so important for survival. I wonder how many dry holes were dug using primitive hand tools before dowsing became an actual ‘thing’.
Surprising, really, that it survived western organised religion.
Fascinating topic.
There is science to back it up whatsoever.
What is the method of action? Water is 2 hydrogen atoms and 1 oxygen atom. They don’t ‘transmit’ anything. They are just molecules.
But if you want to, do a double blind study with meta-analysis and you could win a Nobel Prize and be instantly famous with your discovery.
There is science to back it up whatsoever
All you’ve managed to achieve with that comment…
Is expose the limitations of scientific understanding…
…and illustrate an example of SCIENTISM…
When we used a y shaped piece of manuka and held it fiercly it would twist in our hands and break the bark off the branch. A really weird feeling as though the branch was alive. It is the only action which I cannot explain scientifically.
Suggest that John Selway get out in a paddock and try it. Then he can refute it if he wishes.
Selway…like many past and present commentators on this site, does not appear to understand the fundamental and core tenants of ‘science’…
As a result, they must perform contorsions, flunk basic logic and reasoning…while screeching ‘anti-science’ at those who point out the many obvious flaws in their ‘belief system’…
Scientism…is not science..it is pure and unadulterated…
Anti-Science…
One Two,
I know how science works.
Find something that requires explanation
Propose hypothesis
Propose methods to test hypothesis
Test hypothesis
Repeat under conditions
If tests fail return to step one and propose another hypothesis
If test return results run the gauntlet of peer review
If tests are repeatable you have theory
That’s the scientific method – it does not allow for magic. Water dowsing fails this method. It’s that simple. Science is a process, not a belief system.
Water dowsing has never produced a repeatable result, has never produced a theory and is therefor junk science. That isn’t anti-science – this IS science. It’s a process, not a belief.
I know how science works.
No. You don’t!
You’ve partially listed a process, (which I doubt you understand) that is punctuated with a fundamental limitation in it’s starting assumption…
See if you can figure it out…
Then…perhaps you can claim to ‘know science’…
Right now…from your comments…and use of the word ‘magic’…
Scientism…is what you represent…
Your just talking shit now. I explained to you the scientific method pretty much in the simplest way possible and your response “you don’t understand science”.
Well I just demonstrated it buddy
Well I just demonstrated it buddy
Again. No.
What you’ve demonstrated, is that you’re not even aware of the fundamental limitation in the starting assumption…actually it’s plural…there is more than one limitation…
Should be easier for you now…increased targets…have a guess…it’s what you’re already doing…
mac1 reckons you’re a scientist…mac1 is a sceptic citing sceptic web sites..so not best placed to identify what is…from what is not…
I am not mac1…
If you think I’m wrong please explain to me what you believe the scientific method to be.
John,
Debating with One Two is frustrating, but you realise you’re dealing with a clueless nutter went he won’t even consider facts, I suspect his weekend job is a circus clown.
One Two talks in riddles, difficult to pin down, avoids the topic being discussed.
Nah, baz…
The severe disadvantage of your position is self created…
That my commemts tie you and others at your level, in knots…is your problem…of course it’s frustrating for you…
CSICOP and Gorski is your level, baz…
Every comment you write here is at joke level…nothing…no information…emptiness…
Stick with Orac…that’s a good fit for you…based on your track record…
I’ll offer you another chance…go on…debate me some of your facts…
Go…Bro…
Debating with you One Two is a pointless exercise. You claim to be scientific, but ignore the most basic scientific principles.
Richard Dawkins said that some people who have used double blind tests said they stopped using them as they didn’t work. What they really meant was that double blind showed their own theories were incorrect, so they then ditched them.
These people start with a belief (a bit like you) & ignore any sensible evidence that contradicts their cherished beliefs. How can you debate with someone who doesn’t respect evidence ? They are on another planet.
Richard Dawkins said…
Why won’t baz say…
Why are you citing Dawkins the atheist…I’ll help…
Because you’re unoriginal , baz…you have nothing in your head which was generated by your own efforts…you project all your uneduated bile at others the same way Gorski , Dawkins and their ilk do…they…like you…are unoriginal….
The difference is…Dawkins is actually intelligent…although he feeds on the weak minded…that’s you baz…the weak minded..
Who can barely author a coherent sentence…
Show just how low your level actually is…express some views on any of the Dawkins books you’ve read…books bazza…can you read…or are you strictly moving pictures…
Go right ahead…no riddle…just a simple request so we can debate those facts…not Dawkins the CSICOP atheists palgeurized ‘facts’…
Bazzas ‘facts’…chop chop…
I may be unoriginal, but at least I’m not thick.
See if you can figure it out ???? Doesn’t understand the process ?
Do enlighten us One Two – your use of the English language is a cunning ploy as you can’t discuss the basic principles of science. You are missing a cog or two upstairs ….
I asked the questions, baz…there was no response…
Others have also pointed to Selways short comings and therefore his self exposure…the same way you expose yourself…
Selway doesn’t know why he is incorrect because he doesn’t understand what he is talking about…and you don’t understand the question I asked of Selway….because your not even of the level to comprehend the question…which indicates that your level is below that of Selway…which of course it is…your level is below almost any other commentator at this site…congratulations…
I’ve attempted to comment in a dumbed down manner such as to assist in lowering your self created frustration levels…but even those comments are above your level of comprehension…
Perhaps, if you allow yourself the opportunity to expand…you’ll branch out from the gutter level of the CSICOP (founded by con artists…surely you know that..), it’s members such as Dawkins…and Gorski/Orac the one man hate speech medic…
Do I care if you remain trapped in the feces you seem to revil in throwing around this site…no…I could not care less…
Run along baz..I’m not wasting any more time on you…
I’ve never met anyone who can say so little with so many words.
Have you tried an economical writing course ?
I think you’re oversimplifying.
Doesn’t science also include observing phenomena for which you have as yet no explanatory hypothesis?
Dowsing is an interesting marginal case. There are claims of replicability that seem to be more than would be generated by partial positive reinforcement.
https://explore.scimednet.org/index.php/dowsing-a-review/
As with rat mine and TB detection, the first concern is not understanding the mechanism, so much as whether it works sufficiently reliably to be useful. https://www.apopo.org/en
Thanks Stuart. The scimednet article was interesting and some of it concurs with my own homegrown theory as to how it might work.
ianmac, the article below might give an explanation of the phenomenon of the twisting branch. I found the reference in Wikipedia under “Dowsing”.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ideomotor_phenomenon
Perhaps Mac1 but we tested to see if deliberately or subconsciously we were manipulating the bark. We tried gripping the branch on a non-reactive spot and tried to deliberately “strip the bark”. And we couldn’t do it. Open to explanations though. Remember we were totally sceptical at the original proposition. Must go out tomorrow and try again.
And the “How to” is hold a Y shaped stick in your hands.
Tuck your elbows into your ribs.
Your hands are palm sides upper-most.
This leaves your thumbs sticking out nearest your body.
Your four fingers grip the stick with the little finger furtherest forward.
(Much easier to just do it rather than explain. Ha.)
I’d say all John Selway has achieved with that comment is confusing the crap out of everyone.
Does he mean, “no science”?
If so, what is the science behind his leaving out the no?
“a double blind study with meta-analysis”
Pseudoscientific gibberish where scientific terms are thrown together in a sentence but have little relevance to each other.
I’ll be sure to ignore you from now on you just make shit up.
a double blind study with meta-analysis is how hypothesis becomes a theory – through repeatable experiments, double blind studies, peer review and meta-analysis.
Science is a process. Water dowsing can’t even get past the gate of that process.
Yet there is an enormous body of evidence that when it comes to dowsing, something is happening, for at least some people, some of the time. Does our present scientific understanding validate this? No.
But a very good scientist I knew very, very well once told me that we should never totally close to door on magic; because almost everything we understand as moderns, all of our technologies and engineering, would have been firmly called ‘magic’ by our ancestors.
And that future generations will look back on us and say exactly the same thing.
Dowsing has never succeeded in controlled conditions. You know, by using the scientific method. It fails double blind studies
There is not an enormous body of evidence re dowsing, just anecdotes & stories by people who swear it works for them. When asked to replicate the process under proper controlled conditions it doesn’t seem to work. The beauty of the scientific double blind test that has an inbuilt bullshit detector.
One doesn’t do meta-analysis on one single study, blinded or not. This is nonsensical.
Double blind studies are and meta-analysis are not pseudoscientific terms.
They are extremely common practices to determine results. It’s basic scienctific practice. It’s how hypothesis become theories. Every medication you have ever taken has been double-blinded and meta-analysis is the gold standard in scientific studies. It’s not even disputed. Climate scientists use meta-analysis to determine AGW is true. Double-blind studies determine the safety of every medicine on the market.
LOL. You are a fool.
I’m a fool how?
For your comment at 9, evidently.
You’ll have to be more specific
I will.
It’s not so much your comment at 9 but your reluctance to modify the skeptic position you took at 9 after several comments citing practical examples of the effect in action.
It’s not unreasonable to expect there is science behind dowsing rods reacting in close proximity to cables or metal pipes. In the article you linked to at 9, Downer group explains it it ‘one tool used’.
Backing that up, Grant commented at 9.1.4.1 that his experience was that L-rods were used as a tool when other methods weren’t available. And yes, I am aware that workers do like to play practical jokes on teenaged interns!
So again it’s not unreasonable to expect there is an electromagnetic effect in some circumstances and that in situations where there is existing mapping, a dowsing tool might provide extra location information for more precise digging.
The double blind test you’ve put up by the Australian Skeptics is probably not going to come up with positive results because the tools are not being used in their areas of strength which is apparently fine tuning in areas already mapped. Their tests are random as far as I can see are designed to fail.
Coincidentally it is the Australian Skeptics sister organisation, the New Zealand Skeptics, who are criticising Downer along with that most scientific of organisations, the Tax-dodger’s Union!
If you ask me, these are the real nutters.
@MB at 6.46 “..and yes, I am aware that workers do like to play practical jokes on teenaged interns!”
Not in this case MB! We had a job to do and after I’d been shown how to do it and proved to my own satisfaction that it worked, I was a convert. Various members of that crew including myself used that method a number of times over the succeeding weeks. I also spent several years employed as a greenkeeper / mechanic on a golf course and used the same method for finding irrigator pipes that needed maintenance. I’ve impressed various family and friends on more than one occasion by walking across a lawn and locating pipes and wires before trenching for new cable or pipe to be laid.
The first time my wife saw me doing it she thought that either I was the most gullible fool ever or that I thought she was..
I really enjoyed the look on her face when I marked the spot and dug down a foot or two to expose the wrought iron water pipe below.
I can’t say that it would work for everyone but it is most certainly a reliable tool for some people.
I always laugh when people with limited practical experience make pronouncements about things they’ve never seen or experienced.
So keep those minds firmly shut boys. I’m sure it’s worked well for you all your lives.
Grant. Yeah, I remember being sent to Placemakers for skyhooks when I was that age. Obviously I’ve not forgotten it. 🙁
@MB. “Skyhooks..
Yeah. An oldie but a goodie..
I’ll just keep repeating your original sentence, and you can keep defending it if you like.
“a double blind study with meta-analysis”
You could bung a meta-analysis in the discussion, sort of inception-like, as part of whether your findings are consistent with other material in the field.
Just wondering where all the data for this magical meta-analysis is going to spring from. He’s made reference to it with no idea what he’s talking about, then googled it, then backtracked and tried to slip it in like it does make sense.
Making up nonsense, and defending it with more.
You know, to get that nobel prize he mentioned the combo of double-blind and meta-analysis will yield.
same place any meta-analysis gets its data – ♪of all the studies I’ve loved before…♬♪
Dowsing has been studied extensively.
The Scheunen experiments, a large scale analysis of dowsing that showed ‘a real core of dowser phenomena can be regarded as empirically proven’, were met with criticism of study design, and merely led to more debate – not a nobel prize.
I recently pitched in on a 200 year old scientific debate. My first search in Google Scholar yielded 126 000 results. So as an introduction I did a meta analysis of previous meta analysis and critiques of these – there was no other way to even begin to try be comprehensive. I identified a number of players who have made it their life work to sit on opposite sides of various theoretical debates and have at each other. Which reminds me how silly I’m being right now.
My work will sit in some database, number 126 001 weighing in on that particular issue.
I have been a bit of a dick. Sorry Stuart I was unduly critical. The misunderstanding of what a meta-analysis can do is common. Meta-analysis sound, to the general public, like a spreadsheet of ayes and nayes producing facts at the end of it. The reality is typically a long freaking grinding debate, a final revealing of new data or ways to look at something, then people debating that… Ego’s abound.
Please excuse mine, I’ll try put a collar back on it.
WTB thinks double blind is Stevie Wonder duetting with Ray Charles.
WTB
He’s a lot brighter than you. You are as thick as two planks.
Barry, you are 55 this year. Act your age please.
He’s been inspired by Shagrat and Gorbag to try and match their debating skills.
Can’t I have some fun before I pop my clogs ?
John. I do not know what our dowsing experience was indicating. Water? Gold? Copper? No idea.
What I am certain of though, is that a Y shaped stick, (or wire) wriggled like a live thing.
We set up blind tests. We tried to prove that the operator was cheating.
We were a group of intelligent sceptical young people yet the question remains.
Why do sticks wriggle when held in the particular way?
This weekend I will try to see if it still works.
So, when they discovered the Higgs boson (AKA the God Particle) they did double blind studies and then meta-analysis?
Why would it have to ‘transmit’ anything? It could be a medium.
My husband has laid all sorts of infrastructure for 35 years and swears by this having asked me for a metal coat hanger, I had my doubts but he’s not the sort to waste anytime on something that doesn’t work and luck plays no part in it. What can I say?
At least the dowsers are mostly harmless. At worst there’s just a bit of cash wasted somewhere. Unlike a lot of the other beliefs that seem to be clustered with belief in dowsing, that can and sometimes do cause real harm.
Why didn’t Chia expert Anne-Marie Brady submit to the Select Committee when it was open to the Public in 2018?
They weren’t investigating popular superfoods at that stage. 🙂
Those chia experts can be whiney little fuckers too.
Those bulging eyes give me the creeps.
Bear in mind there was a police investigation in progress and she may have thought it wise to keep her head down. The police did not report their failure to locate the culprits until February of this year.
I think Pablo at Kiwipolitico summed up her predicament well:
http://www.kiwipolitico.com/2019/02/spare-a-thought-for-anne-marie/
Btw, I went through the same experience 25 plus years ago – home break-ins, burglary, car tampering, strange phone calls and other forms of bizarre behaviour. I had no idea who was responsible or why they were doing it. For this reason the police did not investigate. Many years later I discovered what had been going on and it also involved a foreign entity but in my case closer to home. The individuals responsible (one with whom I was associated) were presumably acting on instructions.
Having been along the same road albeit for different reasons, I know Anne Marie Brady’s story is entirely true.
I don’t know what looks worse for our Last -Hope government.
Banning Brady or backtracking.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/384252/labour-mps-backtrack-on-anne-marie-brady-committee-decision
Turns out Huo has been up all night having a re think.
It’s not exactly a hugs and kisses welcome…”….the committee would briefly reopen submissions to the public later this year.”
Ho hum
Politics.
SSDD
Newsroom, once again shines more light on said.
“Brady blocked from foreign interference inquiry ”
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2019/03/08/477641/brady-blocked-from-appearing-before-justice-committee
Well it looks like Anne Marie-Brady is finally going to have say in front of the SC after all. That muppet Raymond Huo must have got a boot up his jackise last night by someone or either he didn’t like having egg all over his face.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/384223/national-party-targets-justice-committee-refusal-to-hear-anne-marie-brady
It would be interesting to know what went on behind the scenes over that decision to block Professor Brady. The Labour MPs on that committee are Raymond Huo, Ginny Anderson, Greg O’Conner and Duncan Webb. With the exception of Raymond Huo all of them parliamentary newbies.
It was a dreadful decision and made worse by the fact it was – of all committees – the Justice Select Committee.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12210853
I would guess that the committee found itself between a rock and a hard place on this. But after the initial attempt to silence Prof. Brady, decided that gagging her was going to look a lot worse than letting her speak, but then studiously ignoring what she says.
Sigh… I think you have it Redlogix.
Yes something smells and I would’ve thought O’Connor and Dr Webb would’ve stood up and said something after Little sought to extend the SC’s scope and time into Foreign involvement in NZ Election. It certainly give a bad look to the democratic process and free speech in NZ at the highest level in our Westminster System.
I wonder if Winnie had a quite talk to Jandals or Jandals told Raymond last night and told him to full their head in?
Anyway it’s good to see Anne finally get to have her say now about this issue of Foreign Involvement in NZ Elections and it would interesting to see SC’s reply as well especially Raymond’s as he has been mentioned in some of Anne’s discussion papers over the years along with old mate the “No Mates Party”
“It was a dreadful decision and made worse by the fact it was – of all committees – the Justice Select Committee.”
Yes.
Its one to add to the “What on Earth were Labour/NZF/Greens Thinking” list.
Deep down I’m sure this lot have good intentions, on the whole, most of them…but oh my goodnessgraciousme they need to think things through a lot better than this.
If you don’t laugh, you’ll cry.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. envoy for Venezuela dismissed the possibility of American military action in the South American country in a recording made by two Russian pranksters and released Wednesday.
Special Representative Elliott Abrams said in the recording that the U.S. wouldn’t use force in Venezuela unless the government did something “completely crazy” like attack the American Embassy.
But Abrams, who apparently believed he was speaking with a Swiss official, said the U.S. seeks to “make the Venezuelan military nervous” by not publicly ruling out military action to oust President Nicolas Maduro.
“We think it is a mistake tactically to give them endless reassurances that there will never be American military action,” he said. “But I can tell you this is not what we are doing. What we are doing is exactly what you see, financial pressure, economic pressure, diplomatic pressure.”
https://apnews.com/a2ca552b73f146e4a532470d75f28958
Anybody who doesn’t think Guaido is the duly elected president of Venezuela hates the United States and its freedoms.
Labour are now as compromised to our Chinese Overlords as …
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/…/labour-are-now-as-compromised-to-our-chinese-overlord…
This would be an interesting story.
I often wonder, given the number of people on the Standard who appear to know the inner workings of the Labour Party, why we get almost no critiquing of policy and ‘stuff’ like this.
Every day we go over the shrill bleating from National, but, you know, they are the opposition, its their job, and they are what they are.
You have to wonder…What are Labour Party supporters so worried about that they can’t question their own Party.
” You have to wonder…What are Labour Party supporters so worried about that they can’t question their own Party ”…
I’d have to agree,… I’d have to suggest that it has much to do with the same faction in Labour that did in David Cunliffe. The neo liberal faction. Those same globalist ‘feather ones own bed’ sovereignty sell – outs that have bolstered Nationals popularity in the past obliquely and ‘indirectly’… those types who bear no real loyalty to either party nor country. Just loyalty to their neo liberal ideology.
The ‘conservative , right wing ‘ National party being in bed with the biggest communist nation on earth and one with one of the largest humans rights abuses on record. So much so that National thinks its perfectly OK to have an ex chinese spy trainer as one of their MP’s. And now we see Labour meekly copying that formula.
Its enough to make anyone want to throw their breakfasts up all over the kitchen table…
Lime s scooter accident in Auckland today.
When will they ever learn?
If they got prosecuted for every offence committed with one of their contraptions they might.
Press release from CEAC
8th March 2019.
“Support letter from ‘Citizens Environmental Advocacy Centre’ (CEAC) for requesting PM Ardern “speed up the release of the Zero Carbon Bill””
We are showing our support of the Mt Albert community by also sending a letter to ‘Mt Albert MP Jacinda Ardern’ to speed up the process of passing a Zero Carbon Bill in Parliament in an open letter signed by over 150 local residents.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1903/S00050/mt-albert-community-comes-together-for-open-letter-to-mp.htm
With all respect given; Prime Minister Ardern said she would make climate change her generations nuclear moment didn’t she?
Our letter from us at CEAC to Prime Minister Ardern;
Dear; Honourable PM’ Jacinda Ardern,
8th March 2019.
Please now consider Jacinda this report from UK today – “Transport was the largest emitting sector of UK greenhouse gas emissions in 2017” – and how we are in NZ now in jeopardy of also failing in the same manner to meet our Paris emissions targets.
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/776083/2017_Final_emissions_statistics_one_page_summary.pdf
• Transport emissions in UK only drop 2% in 29 years from 1990-2017
• Consider this as a far better climate friendly transport policy?
• Jacinda this is graphically showing that like the UK we in NZ need now to abandon its past road transport policies it has in place today (of the current freight haulage by roads around NZ) and instead transform firstly move 50% freight on other modes of rail and coastal shipping.
Here are the latest UK emissions stats to show that they will now fail to meet their emission’s targets by 2035.
Transport was the largest emitting sector of UK greenhouse gas emissions in 2017
Energy supply and the residential sector delivered the largest reductions in
emissions from 2016 to 2017.
Energy emissions drop 17%
Residential emissions drop 15%
Other includes Public, Industrial Processes and the Land Use.
Land Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) sectors (note that LULUCF acts as a net sink of emissions). The percentages may not sum to 100% due to rounding.
Transport emissions drop 2016-2017 no % change
Total transport emissions in UK are 27%.
Transport emissions drop 1990-2017 – 2% change
The energy supply sector has accounted for around half of the overall reduction in UK emissions since 1990, at which point it accounted for 35% of all emissions in the UK.
It was the largest emitting sector until its emissions fell below transport in 2016.
In other sectors, greenhouse gas emissions have fallen sharply.
But transport emissions in the UK have declined by only 2% since 1990.
The government’s legally binding target is an 80% cut by 2050, though even this, the science now tells us, is hopelessly inadequate.
Transport, mostly because of our obsession with the private car, is now the major factor driving us towards climate breakdown, in this and many other nations.
Also the massive increased is of truck freight by roads in both NZ and other countries is unsustainable.
Jacinda; Please consider our health and wellbeing of our future generations.
Trump’s campaign manager Paul Manafort gets 4 years jail for fraud and tax evasion:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2019/mar/07/trump-manafort-trial-sentence-news-latest-live-updates-us-politics-today
Shame they didn’t hand out these sort of sentences to the big bankers after the crash.
100+ … Siobhan
Our bankster PM opened the doors for dirty money and rich criminals
http://www.sarawakreport.org/2017/01/trust-us-new-zealand-can-hide-your-money/
” Since finance expert Mr John Shewan couldn’t find a single example of a corrupt use of a New Zealand trust fund, Sarawak Report would like to humbly offer him the details of how one such trust was deliberately set up by financial professionals in Europe to facilitate both the hiding of stolen money (again from 1MDB) and the avoidance of tax in the United States by the Emirati businessman Khadem Al Qubaisi, who is now in jail.”
“Judith Collins said the drop in trust numbers was not surprising and it shouldn’t be assumed that was because many had been handling the proceeds of illegitimate activities. “There is a much heavier compliance burden under the new regime with more disclosure required than ever before.”.. she said, adding New Zealand now had a “world class regime”.[Stuff NZ]
Who believes that – after all, how burndensome is it to write down your own name?”
“Nor is this system yet ‘world class’. ” ….
“New Zealand should be ashamed of the comparatively paltry $40 million a year that certain financial folk were making out of facilitating grand theft through such trusts from countries around the world, including the largest kleptocracy case ever from Malaysia.” …. Quoted from corruption buster Clare Rewcastle Brown
http://www.sarawakreport.org/
Rich whitey gets wet bus ticket.
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1103809139900407808.html
Why Raymond Huo Wants Prof Brady Blocked From Speaking To His …
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/…/why-raymond-huo-wants-prof-brady-blocked-from-spea…
Oh dear. He really ought to step down for that.
I saw it in 1970 when the Chinese had “ringbarked the hole City of Nairobi in Kenya when the chinese had been allowed into that country and set up shops all around that city selling very cheap stuff and eventually killed off the Local african traders entirely.
As I left Africa one year later the race riots were going strong and then when i got back to Canada the Kenyan Government expelled the Chinese to save the peace.
US warned us of the dangers and did we listen?
Yes it will happen here make no mistake here.
Chinese Communist party will perhaps introduce some plague or horticultural insect plague to ruin your industries here and bring us to our knees.
Today we are dancing with the dragons and tomorrow may be devoured by them.
Yeah, I worked in China for a while. I know how they work. Sad thing is our local Chinese folk had earned a quite different reputation for a while there – massively underrepresented in all the criminal categories the new entrants are now filling.
Did you just imply that new asian immigrants are all criminals? Or do you prefer your criminals undetected. It can be difficult to interpret the shit you type.
Rather Trumpian attitude regardless.
First off, he wasn’t talking about ‘Asians’ . He was mentioning his experience while working in china.
Second off, with all the news coverage of the detrimental effects of chinas soft power expansionism into the Southern Oceans, don’t you think we have a right to question the motives of some , if not many of these new entrants particularly as National has an ex military chinese spy tutor as an MP and the revelations of the Jamie Lee Ross tapes,.. and of Prof Brady being snubbed by a Labour govt select committee and of which some of that committees interests were with national security issues ???
Are we really so naive to believe it is only the top tier James Bond types who are carrying out the spying?
“what detrimental effects?”
By the way the Kenyans, and other Africans seem to be very positive about the Chinese:
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/10/19/5-charts-on-global-views-of-china/
We should question the motives of all entrants, as one would naively hope is already done.
The ‘new entrants’ (immigrants) are described above as ‘not local chinese’ rather, a breed with a multi-faceted talent for crime – “all the criminal categories the new entrants are now filling”.
aka Asian immigrants are a bunch of criminals.
The fact our Govt is in bed with the Chinese Govt at some level has got F-all to do with the repugnance of the comment.
It must be an Asian crime wave, quick, someone alert the media.
The shit you type? Are you referring to Stuart Munro? He doesn’t write the RW shit that so spoils the blog. But with Chinese perhaps if he knows what he is talking about it would be a good idea to either give an example, or not so strong sweeping generalisation.
And now you think it’s fair, because he’s not right wing, it’s ok to be left wing racist is it?
I used to pay some attention to some of the imprisonment stats, they revealed a thing or two, back when I was teaching refugees. Used to be our worst migrant community (in that dataset) was in fact expat poms – who were overrepresented in fraud.
My impression is that of late our migrant groups have been a little less scrupulously selected (or self-selected) so that the norms of the late 90s no longer hold, sadly. At that time I tended to defend particularly Asian migrants, as being one of one the least troublesome groups in our country.
I’m not sure whether you consider it racist to say so, but there is a cultural element to particular criminalities. Nigerians are frequent participants in some kinds of internet scams (as are Indians more recently). Russian organized crime often chooses scams based around petroleum.
I’m gonna give you the benefit of the doubt on this you don’t seem unreasonably callous though I don’t think you picked up the subtext you portrayed. Casual racism is so ingrained here in NZ I have a low tolerance to it get myself in trouble with people all the time. All of them white, male, over 40. To profile…
I was also unduly critical yesterday – when the aspie and PTSD rise simultaneously I’m a hangry janky jerk. Will sorry suffice? Peace?
The comment pushed buttons my relatives on Dad’s side mined gold in Waitawheta gorge the Chinese were feared: As Grandad would say – the Irish were drunks always getting in fistfights while the Chinese were sober. But they did sell opium. And you didn’t muck em round or you’d wake up dead with a knife sticking out of you. Historically not so boisterous as others and so not so much in public profile, but still a criminal reputation of some remark in mining stories, and that since the gold rush.
I think the grouping of crime types is at least partly similar to grouping of learned behavior in bird populations. If one learns how to get the nuts and the others want nuts, they’ll copy.
Although, how much is opportunistic and how much is cultural e.g. coastal pirates, would be a fascinating study…
I took no offence – and I recognize that groupings like cultural crime preferences are potentially the foundations of prejudice, the basis of profiling after all. Problems like P and political corruption have me reaching for big sticks however – Iain Banks’s Special Circumstances characters like the ship Falling Outside The Normal Moral Constraints.
I had a partner who was mates with Iain. It was strange to hear him spoken of like a mortal. My only gripe was you can’t smoke weed and read him, too complex.
Shame we lost him early, quite the genius.
P – I throw people out of my house if they’re on it. The armed offenders have been on the street four times in the last month. guess what one of the neighbors likes to smoke… then a streetwide shouting match/domestic, smashing stuff, lunacy…..
I HATE that drug.
What’s Pricksmiff’s game though’s what I want to know.
He’ll be shagging every woman that walks past with the wonky eyeball of his.
Woman’s Day
Increasing gender equality to business & corporate decision making trees, will help progress an added value localised state of culture in establishing more mutual & encompassing trading relations in the international market place, & help our NZ economy in achieving the maximum empowerment in it’s overall prosperity.
NZ1st!
CHCOff
Who wrote that mouthful? NZ1st? I find it almost unintelligible?
Today is a significant do for all those who have achieved so much for woman. There is no wrong way of saying that.
A light capital gains tax.
An increase in tax on large & medium to large corporates/business.
A ‘house is a home’ property market to kick financialization out of house market so it’s demand & supply can calibrate & perform to it’s primary societal function.
Increasingly reduced tax on large & medium to large corporates/businesses that achieve gender equality increasingly throughout their decision making structures.
Is that more intelligible to you GWS?
Let’s build & create a more robust NZ interface for creating more options to prosperity in international relations and partnership bonds.
https://elpais.com/elpais/2019/03/08/inenglish/1552051103_915747.html
Wasps nest – immense. These skilled workers are people we need with the nous to stop wasps decimating everything. Female fruit flies not wanted either. What’s next, I suppose it is inevitable that we will get more.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/384299/million-wasp-nest-discovered-near-rotorua
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/384298/nelson-air-terminal-so-hot-people-feared-heat-stroke
You pay $millions and still the experts can’t cope with the basics. We probably have spent too much on the airport terminal anyway. I thought it was almost industrial in its noise when I went through. We had a nice reasonable sized terminal but of course we are getting more tourists so we have to go into hock I imagine, to provide them with the facilities they need.
I see Queenstown are seeing the light. A short of money tourist said they would think twice about going there. Good one, Venice had to to tighten up and Q’town is reached capacity I hear. Before the place gets over-run. It’s actually quite nice to meet people in the streetin Nelson who are locals, though some of my best friends are overseas people!
OH hell. Hells’R’Us with climate change. Can we do enough? Can we do a little every day?
https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/2018685155/david-wallace-wells-inaction-on-climate-change-will-turn-earth-into-a-hell
I find that people are still clinging onto the last century in their thinking. If we are seeing changes it comes because the government has given up the task of running the country as we expected, and told their mates in business that they can experiment on us, and it has turned out so badly that we have to do something to rectify a mess.
And we encouraged that ourselves, and only marginally now have been able to get to a position where anything much will be attempted. It’s putting a toe in the water. Soon we won’t be able to do that, it will be boiling hot, or have acid, or algae or something.
I keep hoping that we can get euthanasia for adults over 60, and others who apply to the Court and make their case, but we can’t even get it for people in pain who ask for it, and people who are terminally ill.
It would be good to know that I can attend to the organisational side of leaving the world permanently then after that’s ready, sometime I can give up, say my goodbyes, take a last look at some places, give big hugs to special people, and go in my own time. It really is hard sometimes to put up with any more of the nonsense, cruelty and foolishness that goes on.
Some Eco Maori Music for the minute.
TE Blind I see powerful people using this dirty behavour all around Papatuanuku
Refining NZ faces tough questions from government inquiry over 2017 Auckland fuel crisis
Refining NZ will face grilling from a government inquiry over whether it could have averted the rupture of its Auckland fuel pipeline 18 months ago and prevented the crisis that led to the cancellation of more than 100 flights at Auckland airport.
The pipeline provides the main supply of petrol, diesel and jet fuel for Auckland and its catastrophic failure on September 14, 2017, raised questions about whether a second pipeline costing hundreds of millions of dollars might be justified.
But a body representing airlines has signalled they may now be close to an agreement with oil companies that would instead see extra fuel storage tanks installed either at Auckland airport or at a nearby facility at Wiri at a likely cost of $100 million to $150m.
{{{{Refining NZ, which also operates the Marsden Point oil refinery, blamed the pipeline failure on an unidentified digger driver who it believes damaged the pipeline some time after July 2014, perhaps while searching for swamp kauri.]]]] Can you even believe this story its like clark and tompson spys and the EVEDINCE disserparing from Pike River Mine but this was not a cover up this a blind /DISTRACTION cause shonkys national party were getting hammered in the polls so they pull this stunt KAURI LOGS AIRNZ SHONKY JUDY see the links clearly do YOU.
A Northland Regional Council report concluded there was “no suggestion Refining NZ could or should have known the incident was going to occur”.
But a newly-convened government inquiry will shortly begin hearing evidence on whether an increase in pressure in the pipeline may have contributed to the failure and also on whether Refining NZ should have detected the digger damage before the pipeline.
It emerged last year that a sequence of events had preceded the pipeline rupture.
In particular, a WorleyParsons engineering report released under the Official Information Act revealed the pipeline experienced an “emergency shutdown” just two hours before it ruptured, after a maintenance worker accidentally triggered a fire alarm at a pumping station part-way along the 170 kilometre pipeline.
Two of three pumps then failed to restart when the refinery began pumping fuel back through the pipeline about 20 minutes later, causing pressure in the pipeline to spike to nearer to its maximum allowed level. Ka kite ano links below P.S You do know that diggers have a GPS TRACKER installed on them If you hit some thing hard you know you have hit in a digger
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/111007574/refining-nz-faces-tough-questions-from-government-inquiry-over-2017-auckland-fuel-crisis
Kia ora R&R on Maori Tv I do agree that our lives are structured around mahi. But the good jobs in Aotearoa are all taken by Europeans as most jobs given by word of mouth so Maori don’t even get a toe in the door look at all the work trucks hilux all full of WHITE Face.
Most people m8 are from work because the sandflys are using anyone they can bribe con or spin to against Eco Maori I don’t have m8s at this point in time.
The wages te tangata whenua get in Aotearoa is Crap.
Ka kite ano
Some Eco Maori Music for the minute.
Ma te wa kiore
Kia ora Te ao Maori News.
Kids can is a great organisation supporting disadvantage kids. They are our future and need the best possible start in life.
There you go Maori salleries are CRAP.
ITS very important to get the Mokopunas vacancied as if they don’t that could cause a major health problem.
Not sure about the loss to Spain they must have played the water boys in that game.
The Taranaki IWIs suffered a massive blow to their Mana when the crown orgistated and minupulate the setting to steal their land and kill unarmed women and children these people still look down on US.
I say that the western people treated our old tohonga,s badly they were outlawed WTF.
Just because one doesn’t know how it works doesn’t mean it does not work we need to go back to the old ways of healing the tangata whenua even just Aroha is a powerful healing phenomenon.
My Mokopunas love there Pepeha dolls from the Warehouse I games can be a top income earner for Tangata Whenua Ka kite ano P.S I see the ECO Maori effect he was coached and could not look straight lol
Some Eco Maori Music for the minute.
Kia ora The AM Show Water bottling is bad for the inviroment but I A country were you can not grantee the best water quality it’s a must we have to come up with a better system maybe bulk shipping of water.
There you go Helen Clarke did not forsee that her kneejerk reaction to the Forshore and Seabed issues would have this concerquences. I SAY ALL THE ROYALTYs FROM WATER BOTTLING SHOULD BE GIVEN TO MAORI. To make up for the shit that this system has and is raining down on US. Ana to kai
3 years ago who would have thought a national party leader would start a sentence with MAORI words on TV.
simon you give tax relief to the wrong people you gave tax relief to the wealthy and put up GST to pay for your social service to the WEALTHY.
Still need some tissue over the eliction I SEE puppet.
Jason scotmo has the brain of a lump of coal everyone is pissed with him ignoring climate change and he is a chovernistic moron who is getting the warth of the World.
I say it’s a good thing when someone change his mind on issues some people are to stupid to see they have made a mistake Phil Goff. Ships are only going to get bigger I can see you attack things I support.
What a load of bullshit duncan if the previous government had dune it job we would not have this virus out break I could just afford to go to the doctors under them now it Alot more affordable to go to the doctors I use to only see a nurse to keep my costs down and the only reason I could pull that off is because I’m Eco Maori.
I Heard a statement saying that 9 million litres of bottled water was exported what is it billions or millions.
School Students Striking for Climate is going to be the best thing they could do to save their ENVIRONMENT.
That’s why duncan is pushing this minor issue water bottleing to try and hype it up as a tool to attack the government with.
I had a actor ask me a favour can you fix my washing machine taps I kindly said I don’t interact with strangers sorry next minute slammed door LOL she got upset.
There you go a negative person on weed the reason weed needs to be legalised is because it a medical plant and your m8 are locking thousands of tangata whenua because of this stupid law.
If you start smoking at 13 no wonder you were stuffed up there you go let the money men get control of weed/ anything and they ruin it trying to squeeze all the money out of it. Piss off people won’t be waking the streets all smoking weed it a wynd down drug you relax after the day you don’t go roaming the street like Upper drugs do PEE and all that shit.
There you go dick having another kick the pollies are not making the changes fast enough to combat climate change because people like you suck up the climate deniers money and push out there lies propergander. The pollies will listen to there children about climate change. Also it is a well known fact that laws change because of protesting the teachers are protesting for money /being lead by the right neo liberal people so school tamariki should protest for their Futures.
Ka kite ano
What do you say to your kids have you seen fools smoking weed in a car park I have seen pissed people in public do you tell them that will stuff there livers make them do stupid shit fight all the dumb shit do you tell them if you drink alcohol fast it will kill you Ka kite ano
Some Eco Maori Music for the minute.
P.S It would help if tangata that tau toko Eco Maori wispered in my immediate whanau ear that they have heard of me.
This is the reason I discredit lab meat and the vagen movement this is just a way to attack OUR small family run farms .These corprate people are cheats they use the media to minuplate the people into thinking family farms are bad then buy them out and start factory farms local and central goverments are hamstrung by these huge busness money minuplateing them /bacicly the factory farms get to do what they want . This is what has caused the Murry Darling river crisses corprate farms doing what they WANT taking more water that the enviroment can sustain weather they kill our enviroment or not
How America’s food giants swallowed the family farms
Across the midwest, the rise of factory farming is destroying rural communities. And the massive corporations behind this devastation are now eyeing a post-Brexit UK market
by Chris McGreal
W
hen the vast expanse of rural Iowa was carved up for settlers in the 19th century, it was often divided into 160-acre lots. Four farms made a square mile, with a crisscross of dead-straight roads marking the boundaries like a sprawling chess board.
Within each square, generations of families tended pigs and cattle, grew oats and raised children, with the sons most likely to take over the farm. That is how Barb Kalbach saw the future when she left her family’s land to marry and begin farming with her new husband, Jim, 47 years ago.
“When we very first were married, we had cattle and calves,” she says. “We raised hogs from farrow to finish, and we had corn, beans, hay and oats. So did everyone around us.”
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Half a century later, Kalbach surveys the destruction within the section of chessboard she shared with other farms near Dexter in southwestern Iowa. Barb and Jim are the last family still working the land, after their neighbours were picked off by waves of collapsing commodity prices and the rise of factory farming. With that came a vast transfer in wealth as farm profits funnelled into corporations or the diminishing number of families that own an increasing share of the land. Rural communities have been hollowed out.
And while the Kalbachs have hung on to their farm, they long ago abandoned livestock and mixed arable farming for the only thing they can make money at any more – growing corn and soya beans to sell to corporate buyers as feed for animals crammed by the thousands into the huge semi-automated sheds that now dominate farming, and the landscape, in large parts of Iowa.
Kalbach comes from five generations of farmers and suspects she may be the last. As she drives the roads around her farmhouse, she ticks off the disappearances.
This collapse has in good part been driven by the rise of concentrated animal feeding operations, or Cafos. In these industrial farming units, pigs, cows and chickens are crammed by the thousand into rows of barns. Many units are semi-automated, with feeding run by computer and the animals watched by video, with periodic visits by workers who drive between several operations.
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“That’s how I end up with 40,000 hogs around me,” says Partridge.
Cafos account for only a small proportion of America’s 2 million farms, but they dominate animal production and have an outsize influence on crop growing, particularly in the midwest.
By one calculation, the US has around 250,000 factory farms of one kind or another. They have their roots in the 1930s, with the mechanisation of pig slaughterhouses. By the 1950s, chickens were routinely packed into huge sheds, in appalling conditions.
In the early 1970s, US agriculture secretary Earl Butz pushed the idea of large-scale farming with the mantra “get big or get out”. He wanted to see farmers embrace what he regarded as a more efficient strategy of growing commodity crops, such as corn and soya beans. Some farmers invested heavily in buying land and new machinery to increase production – taking on large amounts of debt to do so.
A decade later, the farm crisis hit as overproduction, the US grain embargo against the Soviet Union and high interest rates dramatically drove up costs and debt for family farms. Land prices collapsed and foreclosures escalated.“Every blow to independent farming made it more of an opportunity for large corporations to come in,” said Partridge.
In 1990, small and medium-sized farms accounted for nearly half of all agricultural production in the US. Now it is less than a quarter.
As the medium-sized family farms retreated, the businesses they helped support disappeared. Local seed and equipment suppliers shut up shop because corporations went straight to wholesalers or manufacturers. Demand for local vets collapsed. As those businesses packed up and left, communities shrank. Shops, restaurants and doctors’ surgeries closed. People found they had to drive for an hour or more for medical treatment. Towns and counties began to share ambulances. Ka kite ano links below
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/mar/09/american-food-giants-swallow-the-family-farms-iowa
I see the similarities of Maori and Asian cultures respect the whanau /family kau matua elders and tipuna,s ansesters enviroment as well . The Captlist single person thing about ones own welbeing who care about the brown person under the bridge .This mentality is imposed on the common poor person but the ultrawealthy have there companys that act as one on there behalf these people are networked through there companys that work as a communistic system on there behalf . While the common person has to struggle in this socioty by themselvels easer for the companys to milk.
The youth grow up thinking they know better than the kau matua and end up making all sorts of stupid mistakes because of this whiteman thing of no respect for the whanau or kau matuas or enviroment.
Māori at an advantage in engagement with Asia trade
OPINION: I’m going to be unabashed in my promotion of a piece of good news this week. We now have the data to show that Māori can succeed in their engagement with Asia and Asian peoples – and already do.
Last week we released a piece of research which mirrors our general survey on New Zealanders’ perceptions of Asia, Perceptions of Asia and Asian People from a Te Ao Māori Perspective.
It showed some similarities – both reports show New Zealanders, including Māori, feel that tourism from Asia is going to have a positive impact; both surveys show that New Zealanders are more interested in Asian food than Asian sports.
But in this research we also explored the cultural connections Māori might have with Asian cultures. It confirmed what we had guessed and were aware of anecdotally – there is a strong affinity to build on.
As I have said often, relationships with Asia have to mean more than “we want to sell you stuff”.
In business, arts, journalism, diplomacy, education, positive relationships and mutual understanding lay a strong foundation for success – Māori may have the edge on this work.
We’re going to be picking up steam on the work we’re doing to make sure Māori are accessing our opportunities, and we are challenging others to do the same.
Relevant to the work ahead is that despite feeling cultural affinity, Māori have low self-perceived knowledge of Asian peoples and cultures – fewer than 20 per cent felt they knew at least a fair amount about Asia, compared to a third among the general population.
While more than half see the benefit of engaging economically and culturally with Asia – fewer felt Māori benefited from this.
Eight out of 10 surveyed felt it was important for the future workforce to be confident with Asian cultures. Only eight per cent of those surveyed thought enough was being done to equip Māori business to succeed in Asia.
New Zealand’s future (and present) is undoubtedly tied with Asia, and we need to ensure Māori are included in work to prepare for that – they can clearly teach non-Māori a thing or two. Ka kite ano link,s below
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/opinion-analysis/111167607/mori-ties-to-asia-run-deep
Some Eco Maori Music for the minute.
The sandflys are listening hard on my phone the data use has spiked and battrie life is getting used fast. They are praying that there steeotype they have been trying to brand me with is correct idiots
I know someone who see this every day at work that is why she is not like Eco Maori A proud Maori who could be mistaken as white but I soon let them know when I speak I greet everyone with Kia ora. I have seen this all through out my life discrimanation some people blank it out but not I.
She thought I was homeless
The Pākehā lady at the homeless shelter shoves a box of tampons into my hands.
“Here you go,” she whispers in my ear. “It’s the last one.”
I look down at my hands, wondering why she just handed me a free box of tampons. She smiles and gives me a look, like she’s just saved me from falling off a cliff. And then I realise why. I see the homeless people behind her. All brown faces. All Māori. She thinks I’m homeless.
Wow. “Do I dress like I don’t have a home?” That was the first question that crossed my mind. Admittedly, my ego was a little bruised. When I told the helper I was actually there as a journalist covering a story about homelessness, she was extremely embarrassed.
I laughed about it when I retold this story to friends, but later as I pondered on this experience, it set me thinking.
I wasn’t surprised when I read, a few days later, about how Reremai Cameron, a young Māori student, had a potential landlord asking her, in a text message, if she was Māori.
“I hope you are aware the rent would only cover you and no friends or family to stay in the sleep-out. We had a Māori in our home before whom had multiple family and friend visitors, that is something we will not tolerate.”
The lady at the homeless shelter was a nice lady. Clearly, if she’s giving her time to help those who are vulnerable, she has a good heart. And, seeing it was a homeless shelter, maybe it was understandable that she leapt to conclusions.
But I’m pretty sure she wouldn’t have made the same mistake with a Pākehā reporter. She’d assumed I was homeless because I was brown, and she didn’t stop to take in anything else about me. Like the camera bag I was carrying, or the nice clothes I was wearing.
(Okay, so I’m doing a bit of stereotyping myself by assuming homeless people wouldn’t be wearing nice clothes.)
It’s true that we all use stereotyping to navigate our way through life when we’re meeting strangers. Stereotypes are cognitive shortcuts — our brains seem to have evolved this way so we can size people up quickly. Friend or foe? Potential threat or possible ally? We don’t have time to carry out a thorough risk assessment every time we meet someone new. So we categorise. Teenagers or pensioners. Female or male. Skinny or fat. Yellow or black. White or brown.
And that’s all very well and good, but the trouble is when people don’t look any further than the stereotypes they’ve picked up along the way. When it stops them seeing a human being in front of them, rather than a colour or an ethnicity.
You’d think in this country we could avoid stereotypes built on incomplete information, or false assumptions, or media headlines. We’re a small country. We live close to each other — often within the same family.
The constant repetition of negative stereotypes, sometimes with not much more than a look or body language, can be hurtful and damaging.
Growing up, I remember the lengths to which my mum and dad would go to avoid racist judgments being made about them.
It was always very subtle. My dad would gently tug his sleeves down his arms to cover his tattoos when we walked into a shop. My mum would change into her Pākehā voice on the phone when she wanted something done.
I was taught to dress nicely and talk “properly”. I let people say my last name wrong, even though they were butchering it. It was better to say nothing, than to create awkwardness and tension. In other words, I thought it was better to be silent than to be right.
“It’s always the Mowrees abusing the children,” a Pākehā friend once said, after a brown face came on the news. And then she looks at me, obviously forgetting that I’m Māori. “Oh! But you’re not really a Mowree. You’re a plastic Mowree.”
I don’t even know what that means. But nope. Not a plastic Māori. Just Māori. And no matter how hard I try to avoid racist stereotypes, how nice I dress, how much I straighten my hair, I can’t change the colour of my skin.
Last year, Taika Waititi, who’s been making waves as a movie director, said New Zealand was racist. Suddenly there was this national outcry. It felt like the whole country was in a state of denial. “You’re clearly not very travelled then mate,” one Stuff commenter wrote. “Maybe take a trip to America or Australia? Or to Malaysia? New Zealand is one of the least racist places in the western world.”
Least racist? Perhaps you could argue that if you think the only form of racism has to be extreme and in your face? That you’re racist only if you’re one of those lunatics in a viral video telling those of colour to go back to their own country?
But there are so many layers of racism, and they begin with assumptions. Usually false and negative assumptions based on ignorance.
People would say to Taika Waititi: “Oh, you’ve done so well, haven’t you? For how you grew up. For one of your people.”
As opposed to what?
My brother was once asked if he was the security guard when he was attending a meeting as an elected member of the local council.
Or what about the Māori Santa last year? Do we even need to talk about that?
Subtle but patronising comments about race is racism. Silent racial profiling is a form of discrimination. And when you encounter examples of it every single day, it’s not only hurtful, it’s exhausting. You soon start to believe what you’re told. You’re defined by your skin colour or race, rather than by what you are as a person.
Ka kite ano links below.
https://e-tangata.co.nz/reflections/she-thought-i-was-homeless/
Kia ora Te ao Maori News Kids can help Maori tamariki as our tamariki are the ones suffering the most
Ka pai the Pacific form meeting the Pacific needs to be protected from the big companies that will exploit all our our Mokopunas resources. Was it Naro that had a vast reserve of fertiliser that was strip mine by the west and left broke capitalism at its best.
Its cool that Nanaia Mahuta is in Chile promoting indigenous business we can have a strong tangata whenua world class exporting presents once AGAIN.
The Maori Kitchen in Central Auckland is cool I will get a kai from there when I am there next. Got big expansion in there goals Ka pai
What happened to Tama Itis restaurant in Auckland I think I know what went wrong Maori suppression that’s it. I seen him on Maori kai Masters
Yes these companies using Maori art to sell kai best get some Maori advice as Kai is very Tapu to Maori it will save a lot of headache and show that they respect Maori Cultures Ka kite ano.