This is powerful stuff from a political blog that is fast becoming a must read.
On top of his unique insight into British politics because of his connections, his intellect and empathy make his observations on other issues worth looking at.
Craig Murray talks about the courage of protesters and the vileness of the media. Here he looks at the recent events in Gaza and the ghastly Guardian’s building of false narratives.
“I cannot imagine the cold courage it must take to be a Palestinian, walking in protest, unarmed, towards the fence that contains the agony of their long drawn-out genocide, in the knowledge that the bullets will start splintering bones and ripping out brain matter around them, and every millisecond could be their own last.
I cannot imagine the cold viciousness it must take to work on the Guardian newspaper, where on the homepage the small headline of the latest six Palestinians to be shot dead, is way below the larger headline of the several hundredth article associating Jeremy Corbyn with anti-Semitism, on the basis of the quite deliberate conflation of anti-Semitism with criticism of Israel.”
“I don’t wish death on anyone, but for purely educational purposes, I have a warning for anyone who dreams of such a career…
“The profession of a traitor is one of the most dangerous in the world…
Alcoholism, drug addiction, stress and depression resulting in heart attacks and even suicide were the “professional illnesses of a traitor”
“Don’t choose Britain as a place to live. Something is wrong there. Maybe it’s the climate, but in recent years there have been too many strange incidents with grave outcomes there.”
Firstly, drinking cow’s milk promotes cruelty to animals. This milk is designed for baby cows, not adult humans. Millions of male calves are killed as a result and the mother cow is separated from her child at birth.
Secondly, people’s consumption of milk has major, well documented environmental impacts for our country. Our waterways are being trashed. We can’t swim in our rivers and we can’t drink our water.
And then there is this. To make intensive dairy farming possible, New Zealand farmers import palm kernel from Indonesia. And in doing so, they are responsible for the deforestation of the world’s last primary forests. The Deforestation of Borneo makes catastrophic climate change more likely and takes away the habitat of the orangutan, which is in rapid decline.
Finally, Indonesia since the 1960s has been a nation shorn of many civil rights. Fonterra has become connected with some shady characters ( to put it mildly) as it accesses palm kernel.
So if you are comfortable with animal cruelty, happy to see New Zealand’s environment ruined, can turn a blind eye to your part in climate change and you don’t care about human rights, drink up that white gold.
After all, milk is so healthy.
That must be true.
Fonterra told me so in their last avalanche of advertisements.
Secondly, people’s consumption of milk has major, well documented environmental impacts for our country.
No, the industrial farming of dairy cows is doing this. As you know, cows and chickens are integral components of permaculture land systems. Again you conflate environmental issues with veganism. You are dishonest.
That is not relevant. You are advocating for change. The change that you would have is not the option with the most environmental benefit. You would throw the baby out with the bathwater.
What percentage of soy beans are produced using sustainable methods?
Do you eat cow’s milk or soy milk or both?
I tend to drink coconut or almond milk.
Feel free to present the arguments against soy and I am happy to read your research.
Bu please can we be civil and polite.
Just ignore them Ed, it’s clear from your very first statement that you are addressing animal cruelty concerns and the associated environmental impacts. I have much respect for your viewpoint.
The point is that anything produced unsustainably is unsustainable. You could say soy or broccoli or dairy. Industrial agriculture is destroying water and soil ecosystems regardless of the product.
But i never see you make general comments about the need to move to permaculture based land systems but rather just always that people need to STOP eating animal products. Those who eat large amounts of these products will need to substantially reduce their consumption but as cows and chickens are integral components of permaculture land systems there is no environmental need for people to go vegan.
@Maui: do you believe that guilt-trips are a good strategy to achieve environmental and animal/human rights improvements? That shaming people works?
If so, I have some bad news for you: it doesn’t work on beneficiaries either, no matter how much the National Party tries it. Funny how it’s so easy to recognise and oppose when they do it, eh.
Lets just sum up one more shall we ” It is concluded that phytic acid is a major inhibitory factor of iron absorption in soy-protein isolates but that other factors contribute to the poor bioavailability of iron from these products.”
So it also a good idea not to eat walnuts nor wheat germ when you want to absorb iron, they are high in phytic acid as well.
I’m 2 for 2 for reading that these are not arguments against soy. Just more really good arguments for a balanced diet.
I’m almost exclusively of northern European extraction with a hint of eastern Mediterranean so my ancestors wouldn’t know a soy product if it bit them. And because I reckon that if you eat what your grandparents ate you’ll be just fine, I ain’t going to consuming soy products anytime soon. And I reckon you, Ed and whoever the fuck else wants to eat soy products can do just that, but unless your ancestors ate that shit, soy as a dietary mainstay is likely a risk to your health.
And as for Ed’s day in day out you must do this, you must do that to save the fucking planet caterwauling , Mr Yeats’ said it best:
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
That was a better response than “fill ya boots” – joe90. Thanks.
I agree, I’m happy to talk about farming, but let’s not put people off that process, by evangelizing about a diet which many people can’t have. Myself included.
Ed if you just talked about farming, and why we need to change it, I’d join in the discussion. But, to prescribe a diet – well you lost me. The debate on diet especially a mono diet is bad.
A well balanced diet with not to much meat, and lots of vegetables and good oils seems the best for human health, and a good quality of life – if you consider the consumption of food a quality of life issue.
Joe90 is right, the day in day out slog on you part for a mono diet, is getting tiresome. We are better off discuss farming, and how to do it better. Me I’m a fan off working on getting more perennials into the farming, rather than annuals process.
You advocacy of ceasing “industrial” farming would have to be accompanied by a reduction in the worlds population by at least two thirds. Because that is what the end of “industrial” farming implies.
Most food in Europe, Russia, Ukraine, the US, Canada, and increasingly much of Asia, Africa and South America, is grown on large scale farms with the use of modern machinery and high yield crops. That is how the bulk of the world’s population is fed.
You might as rail against the fact that virtually all modern manufactures are made in huge factories. They simply cannot be made any other way. Smart phones (just to name one product among thousands) are just too complex for any other way of manufacturing.
Over 2 billion people in Asia have escaped poverty in the last 40 years precisely because of large scale mechanisation of both farming and manufacturing.
Over the top claim Wayne just throwing figures around.
I was talking to a post grad Chinese doctor about the Chinese economy she said nearly 600 million still live in poverty.
Large scale industrial farming opens us up to large scale farming failure.
Making it easier for pests and diseases to spread.
Not just China, but also South East Asia, South Korea and the Indian sub continent. That is how I get 2 billion people.
The World bank says about 700 million of them are in China.
Tell that to the Africans and Mexicans who are much poorer than they were, due to competition from US, mega farms destroying their lives, while they, themselves, can, no longer, afford to buy food.
As the food their farms produced is replaced with coffee, soy, beef and dairy and palm kernel farms, for large corporates and consumption in wealthy countries, , on the land they used to farm.
Yes it will as I can see it now happening in Gisborne where factory farms are being developed out in these back hills.
So as the roads are dirt not tar sealed, and these factory farms send big trucks full of feed for their stock they come all the time now with feed for the animals, as they are force feed continually to fatten them as fast as they can.
So our roads are now falling apart and guess who is going to be paying for the maintenance?
We are going to wind up paying not them.
These chinese companies are causing the roads to fail with their dirty farming practices, we should not allow this as we will pay highly for water and land pollution. also as the road repairs.
no reason why we can’t feed the same number of people using regenerative agriculture. The reason we still have industrial ag instead is because of economic ideology. People still think that making money is more important than growing food sustainable. Thus polluted rivers and Peak Soil.
You might also want to look at how industrial ag can survive in a post-carbon world. It’s not pretty. Best we get on with transitioning now before we are forced to.
All that time you wasted “learning” the things you believe, eh Wayne. It’s almost as though the National Party is a life-support system for the ignoratii.
Reducing the population is an excellent idea Wayne. We have way more people than the planet can sustain. I think that people with extravagant resource consuming lifestyles should not have children and other people should be encouraged to have less.
That’s already happening. The wealthy aren’t having enough children to replace themselves, and as the developing world gets wealthier, they’re having fewer children too.
Huge chicken farm has iwi, vege growers worried
Rewa Harriman
More than 1 million chickens will be on the farm at any one time. Credits: Video – The Hui; Image – Getty
Watch the video for the full story from The Hui, including Tegel’s response.
Dargaville locals are crying fowl about Tegel’s proposal to build the country’s largest broiler chicken farm in their backyard.
The proposed site is in Arapohue, a small settlement south east of Dargaville, and neighbouring properties – including the Kapehu Marae – are furious.
Marae chairwoman Margaret Mutu says the enormity of the project has them very concerned.
“We won’t be able to use this place, we’ll be covered in dust, we won’t be able to use the water off our roof because that will have all of the dust and we won’t be able to hear ourselves speak.”
Lizzie Marvelly has written a scathing article on the state of Middlemore saying national have a lot of questions to answer. She calls the situation outrageous and questions what sort of ministry was Jonathan Coleman running. The language is appropriately strong. It came through on my fb feed. I duly looked for it on the herald’s website, but it was nowhere to be seen. Not even lurking at the bottom of the scroll. I finally accessed it by searching Lizzie. Of course easily viewed on the herald website was all sorts of crap including another piece from resident clairvoyant HDA who is now predicting the greens will no longer exist in 10 years.
I am having difficulty posting the link to this article (maybe it came up yesterday on open mike?). But I will keep trying and urge you all to check it out. She nails it
Thank you Ankerrawshark, I had thought Lizzie had been dropped along with some others recently. So I have used your method to access her articles. As you say, always to the point and pithy.
Ryall and Coleman worked to make that sham Bill English look good.
Typical rob peter to pay paul stuff.
Thanks for bringing this article, and subject, to attention again, Ankerrawshark. It is one that must be given attention. I see you have provided the link now in your comments below at 5 and 6.
Although I am not a great Bryce Edwards’ fan, he has actually done a good job on summarising the situation re wider media reporting on the Middlemore Hospital issues in his Political Round up article on 4 April in the Herald.
He gives main kudos for bringing this situation to notice to Phil Pennington, a RNZ senior reporter (formerly DomPost from my memory) who started the ball rolling on 22 March. Edwards says that Pennington has produced about a dozen articles on Middlemore since then and links to a number of these are in Edwards’s article (ie the link above). The article also provides links to a couple of other media articles – eg Gordon Campbell’s excellent piece in Werewolf, and also a good piece in the Spinoff by Dr David Galler, an intensive care specialist at Middlemore.
The Spinoff has also produced a later article not included in Edwards’ Round Up by Peter Glensor entitled “Beyond the toxic mould: how we can get our DHBs back” which is also a thought provoking read on the wider issues with the DHB model.
[“Peter Glensor was an elected member of the Hutt Valley DHB for 12 years. He was chair of the Hutt Valley DHB, ALAC and DHBNZ, and was deputy chair of Capital and Coast DHB. He also helped found and lead a network of community-based health services across New Zealand.”]
Am concerned that health funding and Middlemore taking a back seat to far less important items.
I feel outraged that John f…g key states his one regret is that he didn’t managed to change the flag. What does that say about how he feels about Middlemore. Doesn’t give a s..t that this went on under his watch
Thanks, red-blooded, and also thanks to you and Ankerrawshark for putting up Marvelly’s article because it spurred me to do the research to find the Herald articles and also check out BE’s Political Round Up article, because I tend to not go to the Herald nearly as much as I used to.
I also hope in the longer term this situation leads to a review of the DHB model because IMO it is well past its use by date, and admin costs etc gobble up far too many $$$ that should be going to actual healthcare.
“The district health board system has some real strengths,” he says, “you have local innovation, response to local need. What you don’t have . . . is the sharing of that innovation across the system.”
That seems to suggest that there’s not going to be a total rethink (which might be desirable but would be a very big ask), but that he’s looking at ways to share best practice (which is at least an improvement on the current situation).
Sadly the problems are wider than underfunding (as bad as that is)….its systemic and I think directly related to the cause of most of our problems…the 80s reforms.
Came across this a few years ago when involved in quake issues…..dosnt make for happy reading but is compelling.
Appropriately scathing article about the state of Middlemore by Lizzie Marvelly. Nowhere to be seen on The heralds website. You have to search her name to find it. Cam through my fb feed
In the last few days he seems to have been talking to WO about the Northcote by-election.
From a google search on “Simon Lusk” for the last month;
Mar 28, 2018 -Dirty Politics – Episode 17- Can Labour Win Northcote? by Cameron Slater on March 28, 2018 at 10:18am. Welcome to episode 17 of our Dirty Politics podcasts. In this episode, Simon Lusk and I discuss whether or not Labour could win the Northcote by-election …
3 days ago – Why taking heads is required in politics. by Simon Lusk on April 5, 2018 at 9:15am. The current Labour government cannot buy a good news story. They are lurching from disaster to disaster, and mainly through inept political management. This inept behaviour is reinforced by the unwillingness to sack anyone for mistakes, … INCITE Archives – Whale Oil Beef Hooked | Whaleoil Media https://www.whaleoil.co.nz/category/incite/
21 hours ago – by Simon Lusk on April 5, 2018 at 9:15am. The current Labour government cannot buy a good news story. They are lurching from disaster to disaster, and mainly through inept political management. This inept behaviour is reinforced by the unwillingness to sack anyone for mistakes, omissions or basic stupidity. Jacinda …
One Anonymous Bloke (7) … If it’s not Natz and its official PR mouthpiece msm having a joke on us, I’m picking it will be either Brownlee or Finlayson who will be taking the walk of shame next.
Yep. It shows where the Nats’ and other rightees values lie. These education support workers are doing a very skilled job, often with children with major needs.
They are making a valuable contribution to the lives of others and society, while being paid a pittance.
Then we hear ACToids complaining that tax is theft from their hard earned wages. And some of them are doing over highly paid jobs that enrich themselves and make little contribution to the betterment of lives of others.
PS: good on Alison Mau for following their case, and reporting it in the MSM.
“They won’t have to wait too long. Caring for the environment is no longer hippy politics. Every party is starting to do it. Virtually the first thing Labour did in Government was to ban plastic microbeads. NZ First has a policy on carbon pricing. Act wants to cut emissions.
Oddly enough the biggest threat is coming from the party the Greens are mostly likely to hiss at: National.
There’s a long tradition of Blue-Greenness within the Nats and things are really starting to ramp up. In his first interviews in the job, new leader Simon Bridges couldn’t have made it clearer he plans to go greener.”
I like the first line about making predictions in politics being an unwise thing to do, yet she did exactly the same thing last week too! More, foolish and attention seeking predictions seem to be all she is now capable of in terms of journalistic style.
Her case for National being the big mover in environmental policy rest entirely on one of Bridges’ reckons (rather than their actual long tradition of promoting the rape of New Zealand water systems for profit), while dismissing an entire election campaign from Labour on water access, irrigation industry reform, regulation of the dairy industry. Not to mention any of the wider global commitments Labour have made.
She really is a bitter caricature of a crappy click-bait hack who, disappointed at not making it as a broadcaster, is now lashing out at her traditional enemy – which is progress.
Well summed up Muttonbird. I began the article agreeing the Greens appear divided, then HDPA started big upping the Nats environmental cred and it became a work of fiction.
To be honest I’m not sure why she gets any airtime she appears quite shallow and a bit thick.
Yes, and if she applied the same rationale to Green vs National then she’d have to say that National cannot ever be environmentally conscious when she claims they are.
There are green nats in the same way there are nats who care about poverty-related social issues:
they will utter soothing words on a case-by-case basis;
make tax-deductible donations to charities they like the look of;
they might even volunteer some of the spare time they are privileged to have towards a worthy organisation,
but all those efforts will be less than nothing when faced against the policies of their preferred government.
What’s really starting to happen with big events in cities…. they start to destroy local business – not help it – as local people are increasingly being taught to “stay away” and can’t even afford to go to the events their tax dollars hosts and pays for.
Gold Coast businesses ’empty’ despite Commonwealth Games
“Businesses struggled in the lead-up, with constant roading upgrades pushing people away.
Mr Day says they had banked on the Games being their cash cow.
“We’ve lost quite a lot of money in the lead-up to the Games, so there’s nothing in the coffers. It won’t give us the build-up we’ve been looking forward to.”
Minutes up the road, it’s a similar story in Surfers Paradise. Christine Broadway runs a bar with her son and is blaming the council and government for scaring people off.
“The roads were going to be very busy; the traffic was going to be impossible, but the M1 was going to be blocked.”
Many cafes and bars in the area are sharing similar stories of being practically empty, but there seems to be little sympathy from Mayor Tom Tate, or Games organisers.”
I wouldn’t read to much into it as the entire Australian retail sector has been struggling for a number of years now due to low wage growth and the high domestic household debt that the average Australian has atm. Sooner or later the interest rates will eventually go up and then things will get very interesting.
The Gold Coast retailers were hoping the games would’ve help them get a boost as these of events in Oz do have a trend of helping the local retail sector out. But from what mother-law has said last week as she lives on the Goldie that transport in and round the Goldie is a bloody mess atm! To a point the locals have been told to stay at home WTF as she was looking to attend a couple of events before she comes up Darwin for few weeks to help with our new house.
If you have a Twitter account? Check out Alan Kohlers graphs as he has some interesting ones of late showing what would a .25%, .50% and .75% interest rate would do to household debt also he has a few on Oz retail sales trends as well.
Alan Kohler does the ABC’s Finance Report on the 7 o’clock news week night, does a articles in the Oz newspaper and has a Twitter Account which is wealth of information IRT graphs which are very interesting and some silly ones, but even those one have a interesting point to them.
Keep this story in mind when the New Zealand and Auckland Governments tell you how wonderful the America’s cup is going to be for the city.
Billions of dollars of income will be promised.
What will happen? Auckland will find that people avoid the city if not interested in the yachting and after the event the city will be left with a white elephant.
A complete waste of at least a quarter of a billion dollars.
Why do politicians adore these circuses? Is it because they hope visiting Billionaires will feed them the very best Champagne and caviar?
visiting Billionaires will feed them the very best Champagne and caviar… don’t you mean the taxpayers of NZ will feed the billionaires the best Champagne and caviar… oh and build the America’s cup ‘charity’ a marina, steal some of the public harbour paid for with free ratepayer and tax payer funds.
I have no problem with America’s cup and billionaires having a whale of a time, just not when the tab is put on the rest of society when there are more socially responsible things to spend the money on and the billionaires could raise the cash themselves.
Still we must keep our beloved Lester living in the style he desires. Bugger the little things like rubbish collection and playgrounds for children. Feed Lester the very best items on the menu seems to be the rule.
I suppose we should be grateful that it was only $98,000. This time.
Auckland will be flushing about two thousand five hundred times that amount on their folly.
If they were really courting investors why did only “a handful of ratepayers” get invited. You aren’t going to tell me that you want our Local Government Council getting involved surely?
Look at their last attempt. Our then Mayor got a bee in her bonnet that there were hordes of people wanting to fly out to China from Wellington. So they did a deal where the ratepayers subsidise a SIA flight from Wellington, via Australia, and then on to Singapore. Why would anyone want to go via Canberra, soon to be Melbourne, and on to Singapore rather than go straight through Auckland. That cuts out one lot of Customs and Immigration checks for a start.
Meanwhile she also proposed extending the runway where the rate payer will pay and a private company gets the benefit. Forget it. If you really want to attract investors, without getting robbed blind, keep Councillors well away.
Most if not all major events cost more for cities to host than they ever get in return. Deloittes and others make big money writing reports for bidding cities etc which market the lie the city will make money.
The boat building industry in NZ is strong, our designing industry is strong and has been for decades, regardless of weather we hosted the Americas Cup
That isn’t what happened last time or the time before that.
Both Americas Cup facilities have gone on to redevelop from grimy heavy marine environments to places where tens of thousands of people visit and have a great time every week.
Pop down some time and have a look at where the old bases were now.
People avoiding the city during the racing will of course be living and shopping elsewhere in New Zealand. Who knows, maybe even Wellington.
Pray tell me then.
If the previous regatta bases were so successful why do we need a new one?
What is wrong with the one that was used last time? Are they planning to spend close to a quarter of a billion dollars and then, should they win and get another chance start all over again?
Looking like the Greens turn to be dumped on this week. If that Duplicity woman is the first to kick off the weeks “pile on” does that mean she will be at the bottom of the pile by weeks end.
Making political predictions as HDA has done for the second week in a row, is a fools game as seldom correct [ridiculous to predict an election 2 and a half years out) and anybody who follows politics knows this to be the case, think trump, brexit, even Jeremy Corbin’s near election victory. And even here at home with the results in 2017.
It suggests to me either a lack of motivation or brain power to write something of substance. Or deliberately trying to spin the narrative or all three.
No, they’re not rogue landlords…they’re sexual predators.
/
To the unaware, the true meaning of some of the phrases used on the ads for tenants could be missed. Rooms for rent are offered in exchange for “benefits” or “keeping me company”. Others are less subtle – “free accommodation in exchange for an erotic arrangement”.
Renting rooms for sexual favours is seen as a growing menace by campaigners, and a byproduct of a housing crisis where young people are unable to find somewhere to live without spending exorbitant sums.
The problem has become particularly marked in university towns, where young women are targeted by rogue landlords. But while then justice secretary David Lidington last year said such offers may breach the Sexual Offences Act, there is frustration that more is not being done.
“Since last year, there has not been a single arrest, let alone a conviction, let alone anybody actually going to jail for it,” says Peter Kyle, Labour MP for Hove.
Kyle has been campaigning on the issue and has consistently called for landlords who offer accommodation in exchange for sex to be prosecuted.
Agree Joe 90 (12) … There was a situation many years ago in NZ, where a highly respected landlord preyed on the girl children of tenants! The young victims were too scared to say anything to their parents, because the landlord threatened if they did, he would throw the family out and tell the parents what their daughters “asked” him to do to them! Of course the young girls didn’t know any better and the result was, the devious sly bastard continued to sexually assault them! He got away with it, because apart from being highly respected in his community in those days a child was considered a liar to report such things and a denial from the man would have been believed above the statements of the child.
This one now deceased thank Christ, would have been the rogue of landlord sexual predators! on young girls!
Murdered with one of the bullets the IDF said they knew exactly where they landed?
A Palestinian journalist shot by Israeli forces during a mass demonstration along the Gaza border has died of his wounds.
Yaser Murtaja, a photographer with the Gaza-based Ain Media agency, was shot in the stomach in Khuza’a in the south of the Gaza Strip on Friday, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
Murtaja, 30, was hit despite wearing a blue flak jacket marked with the word “press”, indicating he was a journalist.
Dude dreamed big as he spent his life trapped in the poverty and oppression of a fucking prison camp. Pricks.
“My name is Yaser Murtaja. I’m 30-years-old. I live in Gaza City. I’ve never traveled!” He never did. https://t.co/PSWDgg9WZh— Loveday Morris (@LovedayM) April 7, 2018
Yaser Murtaja had often filmed from the sky, but he never lived to fulfill his dream of flying on an airplane through the clouds.
The young journalist shot drone images and video for Ain Media, a small Gaza-based news agency he started five years ago. Just two weeks ago, he posted an aerial photo of Gaza City’s port on Facebook. “I wish that the day would come to take this shot when I’m in the air and not on the ground,” he wrote. “My name is Yaser Murtaja. I’m 30 years old. I live in Gaza City. I’ve never traveled!”
It was one of his last posts.
Murtaja, who was married and had a 2-year-old son, died Saturday after being shot the day before while covering protests at the edge of the Gaza Strip.
And this is a slow-cooked Ombudsman special: NZDF admits spending millions with Palantir. https://t.co/ibvTgzoiue— Matt Nippert (@MattNippert) April 7, 2018
The New Zealand Defence Force has spent millions on controversial spy software produced by secretive Silicon Valley firm Palantir.
After refusing for more than a year to reveal the extent of links to Peter Thiel’s big data analysis company, prompting a complaint by the Herald on Sunday to the Ombudsman, the NZDF were forced to disclose annual spending with Palantir averaged $1.2 million.
The figures suggest since contracts were first signed in 2012 the defence force has spent $7.2m with the firm.
With regard to the attacks on the government for the petrol excise duty increases, particularly the criticism of Twyford calling it 10 cents over three years instead of 3 cents a year, could someone better at this than me find a graph on PED increases in the last 10 or 20 years?
The PED now sits at 66 cents but it’s the successive increases which are important in comparing this government’s announcement with what has happened in the past.
I have tried, honest, but don’t know where to look to get that particular info.
Interesting GA had to do the research on the stats in question (it being their graph) rather than it being freely available in that form at MBIE.
Interesting too that NZ has a relatively low tax to price ratio compared with other OECD countries. This is shown here. I guess that the high cost of the product in NZ means we’ve never charged what other countries do in excise which is required for decent infrastructure.
Result? Poor quality roads and terrible public transport infrastructure.
The Legatum Institute is a Stink Tank funded mainly by Chris Chandler … one of a pair of NZ Billionaire Brothers…. who operate their various business s / hedge funds / vulture capitalism from tax havens like Dubai .
I call them a stink tank as opposed to a think tank … as among other things they rank countries in their own Legatum ‘prosperity index’.
But as Oxfam has correctly pointed out, … tax havens are the biggest drivers of inequality and poverty in the world.
Making Chandlers project like a trader in kiddie porn … lecturing people on children s well-being.
They also employ discredited dishonest anti-russian hacks … and have been pumping out propaganda for quite a while … laying the ground work for the Mays and Clintons to pile it on even thicker.
Here’s some quotes about Legatum … who are also lobbying for a ‘hard Brexit’ ….
apparently nothing to do with tax dodging Billionaires who do not like the EU … with all its regulations … standing in the way of their vulture / disaster capitalism
. https://irrussianality.wordpress.com/2017/11/26/the-hunters-become-the-hunted/
“In an ironic twist of fate, those shouting loudest about Russian ‘fake news’ and demanding that the West take action against RT and other Russian media outlets, are now finding themselves accused of being Russian agents. It is, of course, completely absurd. But I can’t help thinking that what goes around comes around, and that Legatum and co. have only themselves to blame for their predicament. In creating the hysteria about Russian interference in Western politics, they established the conditions which made the assault on their own position possible. If you start a witch-hunt, you shouldn’t be surprised if one day the Witchfinder General comes looking for you.”
“Chandler has made a fortune from so-called disaster capitalism – taking advantage in countries either politically or economically destabilised. What is this foreign national doing by meddling in Britain’s future one wonders.” Chandler has made a fortune from so-called disaster capitalism – taking advantage in countries either politically or economically destabilised. What is this foreign national doing by meddling in Britain’s future one wonders.”
” Liberal Democrat MP Tom Brake insisted it was “clear” the Government was “extremely sensitive about their very close relationship with the Legatum Institute. …He said: “Ministers must distance themselves from a ‘think tank’ whose agenda is leading the UK to a disastrous no deal Brexit that would inflict permanent damage on UK families and jobs.” https://news.sky.com/story/brexiteers-favourite-think-tank-the-legatum-institue-rejects-russia-link-11145291
“Johnson and Gove’s Legatum-backed letter, revealed by The Mail on Sunday a fortnight ago, made three key demands to Mrs May: to force Chancellor Philip Hammond to do more to plan for a ‘hard Brexit’; to use our withdrawal from the EU to scrap swathes of rules and regulations; and to appoint a new ‘Brexit Tsar’ to head up a task force within Whitehall….All three demands seem to have been met. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5117547/Putins-link-Boris-Goves-Brexit-coup-revealed.html
“According to the Legatum Institute, anybody who doesn’t agree with them is under the control of Moscow’s security services. The notion that an individual might have an honest personal opinion that differs from their worldview is unfathomable for these intrepid, self-appointed defenders of freedom…….You’ve read this correctly. A think-tank which claims to be devoted to “revitalising” democracy is smearing its opponents as ‘spooks’. Not just any old sort either – KGB agents. https://www.rt.com/op-ed/322968-legatum-kgb-russia-applebaum/
“Billionaire founder of think tank that advocates leaving single market obtains right to work anywhere in Europe” ….”Christopher Chandler, founder of Legatum, which backs leaving the single market and the customs union, has become a citizen of the Mediterranean island ……..Critics branded the move double standards as the passport would give him the right to live and work in any European country. A hard Brexit is expected to leave Britons without that same privilege.” https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/brexiteer-hard-brexit-eu-passport-buy-malta-christopher-chandler-single-market-customs-union-a8185336.html
“The founder of the libertarian thinktank, Christopher Chandler, is a New Zealand-born financier who made a fortune in the “wild capitalism” days in Russia in the 90s when state-run companies were privatised. His former company, Sovereign Global, was the largest foreign portfolio investor in Russia by 1994…. The company’s investments are believed to have netted Mr Chandler and his brother Richard several billion dollars and by 2012 they were the fourth largest investors in Gazprom – the Russian gas company which has since been taken partly back into state control,” https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brexit-latest-thinktank-russia-legatum-institute-boris-johnson-michael-gove-christopher-chandler-a8076436.html
Chandler is based in Dubai …. a good place for money laundering and extreme misogyny.
And cue the predictable “falling in behind” that would have us believe that an army on the cusp of victory, that has proceeded slowly in retaking urban areas and evacuated as many civilians as it could, would unload chemical weapons for the sake of…well, what’s it going to be?
Because they could? Because they have a track record (allegedly)? Because they’re just mad and bad?
Oh, I know! They were wanting to grab those international news headlines again. Bloody ego-ists!
And there will be no talk of beleaguered terrorists topping members of a captive civilian population who aren’t properly ideologically aligned for propaganda purposes. That, afterall, is an insane suggestion to make about “rebels”.
The poor young RNZ news reader is having to parrot the propaganda unfortunately, with the proviso, though, that no independent reports have been received. I guess that’s something.
The report is from the white helmets. A ‘Syrian based NGO’. Hilarious.
Funny when journalist who have been to Syria call the White Helmets nothing more than a propaganda tool, you do have to ask who for. The journalist being Pilger, Fisk and others.
Odd One Anonymous Bloke, for a guy who believes we can blame the Russians, because they have a track record, you rather unwilling to apply the same methodology to the head choppers in Syria. You should, you might just learn that they are nasty, manipulative and vicious killers, not democratic loving individuals some in the west want to portray them as.
Do you believe the official narrative from Damascus? From the Snopes article linked above:
The accusations seem to be levied at the group based on political motivations, not evidence.
You should stop pretending that you can summarise what I think, Adam. Or that you are teaching me something about “headchoppers” – for one thing I’m suspicious of all such dehumanising labels.
I believe that the most plausible explanation for the Salisbury poisoning is that the Kremlin is involved NOT that we can “blame the Russians”. I believe I have explained this to you before. If you can’t argue with my comments without misrepresenting them that says something about you, and nothing whatsoever about my arguments.
Lift your game. National Party tactics won’t help you.
National party tactics, misrepresentation, calling me a supporter of Damascus.
Yeap, I hit a nerve.
Funny I’ve explained to you over and over who I support in Syria – seems you never get it.
Oh and by the way there’s a reason to call them head choppers, they chop off heads. It might be a bit much for you making a moral decision at this point, but by the very action of killing human beings in such a barbaric way, they gave up on humanity. And yes I think of them as somthing less than human.
I can’t think of any human being I’ve met who thinks it’s normal to cut off someone’s head to prove a religious, or political point, or in the name of power.
I will call them what they are, head choppers, becasue when the barbarity is that obvious, it is a disservice to humanity to brush over their murderous ways.
Most likely, they’re a search and rescue operation whose activities are often used for propaganda purposes, especially since they’ve received funding and resources from a wide range of Western sources.
However, since most of the information about them comes from a civil war zone, I’d be a fool to think that I “know” that. Hence the phrase “most likely”.
a) Believe western government takes or, b) believe other government’s takes (or, laughably, what you interpret from such a bastion of rigorous analysis as Snopes to be the line of other governments)
In other words (to paraphrase Bush, and yes, somewhat ironically given this topic) you’re either with us or against us 🙄
In fact, that’s exactly what Bill said: the notion that your only options are (a) or (b), when experience tells us that the ‘truth’ is probably some third thing entirely.
So if you think Bill is guilty of “post-modern piffle” I suggest you take it up with him.
And now RNZ repeat the propaganda…..
Sure enough – the underling message is ‘Blame Russia.’ as usual.
RNZ do not question the propaganda about the white helmets and accept their lies without any challenge.
Journalism is basically dead in the mainstream. It serves the neoliberal establishment and its lust for war.
Like Robbins, I’m a rather large human and it was obvious to me he that was using his size to physically intimidate the woman, prick was leading with his fist, and dollars to donuts, he’s a fucking expert at it.
Not to mention using the crowd. The “raise your arm” thing is a neat trick – it keeps the audience awake, but also creates group compliance, and makes it even more intimidating to try and discuss something with him.
Interesting variation on “sorry, not sorry”: his version was ‘I’m showing great integrity by not being sorry’.
I was intrigued that a downside of #metoo was, according to Robbins, that attractive women are discriminated against because male employers can’t trust themselves to avoid harrassing attractive women. Sigh.
Keep an eye out for the article by Simon Wilson that’s coming out in tomorrow’s Herald. Apparently he’s interviewed Johnathan Coleman, who “said some pretty surprising things about Middlemore Hospital”.
That sent me rushing to Simon’s Twitter account. Damn, no clues. But liked Kirsty Johnston’s comment that “So he is real?”. Also see Simon fully endorsed Lizzy’s article. Well suppose we have only a few hours to wait. Thanks for the alert.
A well needed piece by Colin Peacock on RNZ. A straight counter argument to the corporate backers of NZME and why we so desperately need RNZ to turn the mirror on conservative media more often.
I wonder if this piece and more to come are a sign that principled journalists at RNZ are actually sick to the stomach about the attack on their organisation by the Herald in the last two weeks.
If there’s going to be a media war I know whose side I’m on…
So was it food poisoning after all those lies about spies?
The Moon of Alabama explains.
“On Wednesday the niece of Sergej Skripal, Viktoria Skripal, received a phone call from Yulia Skripal. She was interviewed by a Russian TV station and suggested that food poisoning might have been the real cause of the calamities her relatives were in:
“Did they eat a dish that one cannot eat, or is it banned in England?
“The first signs when they were found were very similar to fish poisoning.”
Victoria intended to visit the UK and to bring Yulia back home to Moscow. The United Kingdom just rejected Victoria Skripal’s visa application because she “did not comply with the immigration rules.” No further explanation was given.”
“The guinea pigs were reported to have died of thirst; the cat was taken for testing to the Porton Down chemical weapons facility, where all three bodies were incinerated.[29]”
Fish is not a likely source to hospitalize people for much over a week.
The common fish sourced food poisonings – staph aureus, e coli, salmonella, even listeria rarely put people out for two weeks, and are readily identified.
Sure, but the ‘food poison’ had already been positively ‘identified’ and confirmed by the UK Government as Novichok …
Remember the Fonterra botulism debacle? How long did it take to get to the bottom of that? Minimal or no involvement of real experts, just spin doctors and journalists too hungry & desperate for a story?
I would have thought that other customers of Zizzi would have suffered similar symptoms. Then again, it may have been a quiet time with not many people ordering seafood pizza. It would have been coincidence if Nick Bailey just happened to have eaten something at or from Zizzi at around the same time – was it lunch time by any chance?
I didn’t bother with Ed’s link, but on the basis of “fish poison” excluded saxitoxin because that causes mouth dryness rather than foaming at the mouth.
I also excluded things like campylobacter, because of the lack of reports of vomiting etc.
Yeah, it’d be an amazing coincidence if three cops had the same fish lunch at the same place as the Skripals on the same day, all come down with symptoms to varying degrees, but no, like, plumbers or accountants also had the fish for lunch. Like all the disinformation theoretically possible, but… come on, really?
Good point; I once experienced a suspected fish poisoning myself but no frothing at the mouth – I only experience this when reading the comments of some RWNJs here 😉 Nevertheless, some food poisoning symptoms can resemble poisoning with organophosphates (e.g. insecticides).
Cops are known to have lunch together. And it could have been just one little fish or mushroom carrying the poison and this would have limited the transfer to only a few victims instead of poisoning all customers of Zizzi that day.
Yeah, it’s possible in theory, but relies on readers not knowing where the cops had lunch that day. Like the entire “the doorhandle would have been soaked by the rain” thing – nobody knows if it was raining when the Skripals left the house, or if the rain was blowing into the door or away from it.
But we do know that the officers and the Skripals all had contact with the flat, and the symptoms seem to be explained by some sort of nerve toxin/agent.
Which basically leaves “it’s a really weird coincidence and Porton Down are incompetent” vs “somebody used an exotic poison to poison several people (with subsets of ‘intentional harm by another person’ and ‘unintentional self-injury’)”.
The AM Show Duncan Marama handled your interview well I did hope she would win the Co leadership of the Greenparty .
Congratulations Marama its a good thing having you as Co Leader Mana Wahine this will lift the mana of all whaine and Maori ka pai.
Our New Zealand Netball Team has been in a decline for a few years
I say its management someone in that organization is making all the wrong calls to me it looks intentional the generals are to blame enough said .
I went to see the Whano and tupuna it was a one in a hundred year event the new Carvings going up on Pokai Marae my hupu has a lot of Mana and the Whano have restored that with all the mahi they put into achiveing this great feat my Marae is right at the end of a long gravel road and it is thriving.
Mark and Amanda the shonky party deliberately set the welfare systems up so one has to do that to survive and that gives him easy targets to damage brown peoples mana whom needs the service the most big brother now sees all with the tec they have now .He most he gave millions to wealthy people in tax cuts and other subsides to rich irrigation farms down south and starved the reigns that have high Maori populations this phenomenon is steering US in the eyes heaps of money has poured into sports that the wealthy minority participate in these sports that are to expenses for the common person to participate in I will not name these sports if you look you will see it. Duncan you have a interview with one of those people who should retire himself and his views .Mark the only thing shonky did was line his hip pocket and his m8 and try to suppress brown people . Ana to kai Kia kaha ka kite ano
Newshub I had to jump through a few hoops to get this out my sky is in rain faves no reciption my computer x2 cannot get the standard site I have 2 use my old computer to get TV 3 livestreaming and use my Phone to put up this post I will always solve a problem that’s the Rooster way I have the Phoenix – – – –
That’s a tragedy the Broncos Canadian Ice hockey team condolences to all their families and friends.
What a beautiful Tui They are a beautiful bird we can thank The department of Conservation for all our wild life that are surviving this fast pase of industrialisation that mostly base the choices they make on money and not the long term survival of Papatuanukue and her Creations.
Its good having the Common wealth games on the Gold Coast OUR New Zealand stars yes they are all brilliant stars in
ECO MAORI Eyes will have alot of support.
Kia kaha Ka kite ano P.S its awesome to see OUR Pacific Island cousin winning medals to Kia kaha
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The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters discussed the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and enhanced cooperation in the Pacific with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during her first official visit to New Zealand today. "New Zealand and Germany enjoy shared interests and values, including the rule of law, democracy, respect for the international system ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Norton, Professor in the Practice of Higher Education Policy, Australian National University Every year on June 1, student debt in Australia is indexed to inflation. In 2023, high inflation pushed the indexation rate to 7.1%, the highest since 1990. This ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Changes in the May 14 budget will cut the student debt of more than three million people, wiping more than $3 billion from what people owe. The government will cap the HELP indexation rate ...
Asia Pacific Report The prosecutor’s office at the International Criminal Court (ICC) has appealed for an end to what it calls intimidation of its staff, saying such threats could constitute an offence against the “administration of justice” by the world’s permanent war crimes court. The Hague-based office of ICC Prosecutor ...
By Patrick Decloitre, RNZ Pacific correspondent French Pacific desk A women’s union in New Caledonia has staged a sit-in protest this week to support senior Kanak indigenous journalist Thérèse Waia, who works for public broadcaster Nouvelle-Calédonie la Première, after a smear attack by critics. The peaceful demonstration was held on ...
New Zealand Food Safety is monitoring overseas recalls of Indian packaged spice products manufactured by MDH and Everest due to concerns over a cancer-causing pesticide. ...
By Stephen Wright and Stefan Armbruster of BenarNews Fiji’s ranking in a global press freedom index has jumped into the top tier of countries with free or mostly free media after its government last year repealed a draconian law that threatened journalists with prison for doing their jobs. Fiji’s improvement ...
We might be in Invercargill but all anyone can talk about is Gore. Specifically, Salford Street. That’s where three-year-old Lachlan Jones lived, south of the centre of town, between the A&P Showgrounds and the Mataura River. Roughly 1.2 km away from the single level home he lived in with his ...
MONDAY I lined up the latest round of civil servants from city hall against the wall, and signalled for the firing squad to drop their rifles. I stepped up onto a wooden crate to look at the office workers in the eye. But that didn’t feel right, so I found ...
Keen hiker and second-year MSc student Liam Hewson wears two hats when he’s in the great outdoors. “The scientist in me appreciates nature and goes, ‘Oh, there’s that thing and there’s another thing,’ but then the tramper and the outdoorsy person in me thinks, ‘Cool bush.’” Born and bred in ...
After a long and illustrious career as a goal kicker, Dan Carter’s favourite way to unwind is… kicking goals. Why can’t he get enough of it? And what it’s like to watch him do it for an hour straight? A semicircle of people wielding cameras and phones has formed in ...
Dame Susan Devoy takes us through her life in television, including late night ER debriefs, her proudest CTI moment and the show she watches in secret. Quite aside from her four world champion squash titles, Dame Susan Devoy will likely go down in history as one of the best Celebrity ...
Hera Lindsay Bird reveals the best places in Ōtepoti to score more for your apocalypse-prep book hoard.Sometimes I get the feeling I’ve been killed in a car crash, and this second half of my life is just the brain unspooling itself, like one of those episodes of a hospital ...
ThreeNow’s new murder mystery series takes us on a dark, damp journey into the Australian wilderness.This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. High Country is ThreeNow’s new Australian eight-part crime drama, set in a remote part of the Victorian highlands. It tells ...
Introducing a new way to read The Spinoff every weekend. After nearly 10 years of being an online magazine, we’re finally embracing the weekend liftout. Despite our best efforts to convince you otherwise, writers and editors at The Spinoff don’t work weekend. It is through the sheer power of technology ...
Tip one: let yourself be nurtured by this big old man. Tip two: don’t ask him to adopt you. So, you’ve arrived at your first session with a new therapist. He tells you to make yourself comfortable and you opt for the tweed armchair, hoping it makes you look like ...
I didn’t know books could open you back up; that there were books that stayed with you, where reading was like a chemical event. I knew nothing.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.Not too long ago, I was listening to the American ...
Former Olympic swimmer James Magnussen has already started training for the Enhanced games, though says he won’t start taking performance enhancing substances until about nine months out from the competition. The Australian world champion was the first athlete to be announced by Enhanced, but he says the organisation has had ...
Everyone thinks he’s dead. Every day they expect his body to be washed up along the coast. Most likely up Karitane way, the way the tide’s running. But nobody’ll be too surprised if his body’s never found. Even in death he wouldn’t have wished for such attention. He would have ...
Council members voted 21 to 4 in favour of Ahluwalia returning to the Laucala campus following a much-awaited meeting in Vanuatu this week. It comes as USP and its two unions — the Association of the University of the South Pacific Staff (AUSPS) and the Administration and Support Staff Union ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicola Henry, Professor & Australian Research Council Future Fellow, Social and Global Studies Centre, RMIT University Shutterstock Following an emergency meeting of the National Cabinet this week, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced a raft of measures to tackle the problem ...
Analysis - A poll showing the opposition is more popular than the government raises questions, politicians go through their 'trial by pay rise' and a Green MP loses her cool in the debating chamber. ...
The entire stretch of Tokomaru Bay on the East Coast will be subject to a joint customary marine title for two hapū, and extending up to four miles out to sea. A High Court judge has found the two groups, who during the case settled a dispute over boundaries for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Hall, Lecturer, Media & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University A longstanding feud between TikTok and Universal Music Group seems to have finally reached an end, with both parties signing a deal that will see Universal-backed music returned to the social media ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Siobhan O’Dean, Postdoctoral Research Associate, The Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use, University of Sydney After several highly publicised alleged murders of women in Australia, the Albanese government this week pledged more than A$925 million over five years ...
Political parties have now fully disclosed the donations they received last year - with National getting more than double the cash of any other party. ...
A Pacific regionalism expert has called out New Zealand's Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters for withholding information from the public on AUKUS military pact. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard de Grijs, Professor of Astrophysics, Macquarie University Bruno Scramgnon/Pexels All systems are “go” for tonight’s launch of China’s next step in a carefully planned lunar exploration program. Placed on top of a powerful Long March 5 rocket, the Chang’e 6 ...
National returned a massive donation the day after a Newsroom story linked the donors to a property being investigated for operating unlawfully as a migrant workers’ hostel. The party’s 2023 donation filings, released on Friday, show it returned a $200,000 donation from Buen Holdings on August 23. That was the ...
Pacific Media Watch New Zealand has slumped to an unprecedented 19th place in the annual Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index survey released today on World Press Freedom Day — May 3. This was a drop of six places from 13th last year when it slipped out of its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joshua Black, Political Historian and Administrator Officer, Australian Historical Association, Australian National University Australia has had its fair share of public record-keeping controversies in recent years. Some have been mere farce, as in the case of two formerly government-owned filing cabinets (containing ...
Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light (HWPL), a United Nations-affiliated organization dedicated to fostering peace through civilian-led initiatives, has issued a statement in response to the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran. ...
A poem by Tessa Keenan, from AUP New Poets 10. Mātou These days we are a photograph; one of a farm strewn with cows that used to be bright harakeke or swamp. The kids point at it and say the sun sits behind a smudge (left by someone at Christmas); ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan (Faber & Faber, $25)The masterful Irish writer ...
Marriage and civil union statistics record the number of marriages and civil unions registered in New Zealand each year, and divorce statistics record the number of divorces granted in New Zealand each year. Key facts Marriages and civil unions In ...
Marriage and civil union statistics record the number of marriages and civil unions registered in New Zealand each year, and divorce statistics record the number of divorces granted in New Zealand each year. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lennon Y.C. Chang, Associate Professor of Cyber Risk and Policy, Deakin University Taiwan stands out as a beacon of democracy, innovation and resilience in an increasingly autocratic region. But this is under growing threat. In recent years, China has used a variety ...
In this excerpt from her new memoir, Dame Susan Devoy remembers her turn as star contestant on the 2022 season of Celebrity Treasure Island. The most anxious time of every day was pre-elimination, when you knew this could be your final day on the show. I felt such contradictory emotions, ...
A week that began in triumph ended in an all-too-familiar disaster for the Green Party. Duncan Greive asks if there’s something in the mission that breaks its best and brightest. A long, strange week for the Green party began with a fantastic poll result. On one level this is hardly ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist Vanuatu’s former prime minister and opposition MP Ishmael Kalsakau has stepped down — just two days after he confirmed he was the rightful opposition leader. Kalsakau, MP for Port Vila, confirmed to ABC’s Pacific Beat, and the Vanuatu Daily Post on Thursday that he ...
What’s to blame for the coalition’s choppy start? Six months in, and the mojo meter is in the doldrums. A new poll would put National out of power and sees its leader, Chris Luxon, sliding in popularity. How much is it about policy, how much coalition management and a perception ...
The striking report goes far beyond the proposed repeal of the Oranga Tamariki Act’s Treaty of Waitangi provision, and its impact should be felt far beyond the unique circumstances of the claim it addresses. Earlier this week, the Waitangi Tribunal released an interim report on the government’s proposed repeal of ...
The world has been experiencing a productivity slowdown, from which New Zealand has not been exempt. COVID-19 temporarily boosted labour productivity, but more recently, productivity has retreated. The overall trend since 2007 has been one of slow productivity ...
What’s more wasteful than spending $315k on syrup and machine maintenance? Trying to drum up a controversy about it.Cast your mind back to the pre-pandemic idylls of 2019. A “rat” was a disgusting rodent and not a self-administered plague test; the sixth Labour government was in power; and the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Fitz-Gibbon, Professor of Social Sciences, Faculty of Arts, Monash University, Monash University Ken stocker/Shutterstock In the wake of numerous killings of women allegedly by men’s violence in 2024, thousands of Australians have joined rallies across the country to demand action ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Henry Cutler, Professor and Director, Macquarie University Centre for the Health Economy, Macquarie University Oleg Ivanov IL/Shutterstock Waiting times for public hospital elective surgery have been in the news ahead of this year’s federal budget. That’s the type of non-emergency surgery ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Konstantine Panegyres, McKenzie Postdoctoral Fellow, Historical and Philosophical Studies, The University of Melbourne Amna Artist/Shutterstock One of the earliest descriptions of someone with cancer comes from the fourth century BC. Satyrus, tyrant of the city of Heracleia on the Black Sea, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Rose, Professor of Sustainable Future Transport, University of Sydney LanaElcova/Shutterstock Electric vehicles are often seen as the panacea to cutting emissions – and air pollution – from transport. Is this view correct? Yes – but only once uptake accelerates. Despite the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Giselle Natassia Woodley, Researcher and Phd Candidate, Edith Cowan University There is widespread agreement Australia needs to do better when it comes to gender-based violence. Anger and frustration at the numbers of women being killed saw national rallies over the weekend and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Graham, Lecturer in Economics, University of Sydney Mark and Anna Photography/Shutterstock As home ownership moves further out of reach for many Australians, “rentvesting” is being touted as a lifesaver. Rentvesting is the practice of renting one property to live ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sukhmani Khorana, Associate Professor, Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture, UNSW Sydney Netflix The new season of Heartbreak High is garnering mixed reviews. Critics are writing about the racy story lines, comparing it to other coming-of-age series about teenage relationships and ...
Bob Carr intends to launch legal action against Winston Peters and Julie Anne Genter is facing a second allegation of bullying. Both sucked the air out of an announcement on education, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in ...
In 1995, Sally Clark went out on her own in a bold and unorthodox attempt to join an illustrious group of equestrian riders conquering the world. In the days of glovebox road maps, brick cell phones, and the hit song How Bizarre, Clark refused to follow Sir Mark Todd, Blyth ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ben Beaglehole, Senior Lecturer, Department of Psychological Medicine, University of Otago niphon/Getty Images The number of people accessing medication for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in Aotearoa New Zealand increased significantly between 2006 and 2022. But the disorder is still under-diagnosed and ...
To celebrate the start of New Zealand music month, we look back at the best local tuneage that managed to weasel its way into Hollywood productions. There’s nothing quite like the thrilling zap of recognition when New Zealand weasels its way into a glamorous Hollywood production. Crack open a Tui ...
People trust other people more than institutions. So how can the media gain that trust through journalists without losing what’s important about the institution? Anna Rawhiti-Connell reflects on two years of curating the news for The Bulletin.Amonth ago, armed cops descended on my neighbourhood as calls to “lock your ...
Opinion: PFAS – per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances – are a class of thousands of man-made chemicals used widely in everyday consumer items such as textiles, packaging, and cookware, popular for their water, grease and stain-repellent properties. However, the very properties that make PFAS so attractive to manufacturers are also what ...
NONFICTION 1 The Last Secret Agent by Pippa Latour & Jude Dobson (Allen & Unwin, $37.99)’ This is the hottest book in New Zealand, number one with a bullet in its first week, selling more than any overseas title, and demand is so huge that it’s already been reprinted. A ...
This is powerful stuff from a political blog that is fast becoming a must read.
On top of his unique insight into British politics because of his connections, his intellect and empathy make his observations on other issues worth looking at.
Craig Murray talks about the courage of protesters and the vileness of the media. Here he looks at the recent events in Gaza and the ghastly Guardian’s building of false narratives.
“I cannot imagine the cold courage it must take to be a Palestinian, walking in protest, unarmed, towards the fence that contains the agony of their long drawn-out genocide, in the knowledge that the bullets will start splintering bones and ripping out brain matter around them, and every millisecond could be their own last.
I cannot imagine the cold viciousness it must take to work on the Guardian newspaper, where on the homepage the small headline of the latest six Palestinians to be shot dead, is way below the larger headline of the several hundredth article associating Jeremy Corbyn with anti-Semitism, on the basis of the quite deliberate conflation of anti-Semitism with criticism of Israel.”
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2018/04/those-who-die-in-palestine-those-with-dead-souls-here/
Thanks Ed.
IMO Craig’s articles are the epitome of great journalism. The comments they generate are also damned good value.
Pauli Walnuts is concerned, and offers some friendly advice to the public:
Thanks Pauli.
There are many reasons not to drink cow’s milk.
Firstly, drinking cow’s milk promotes cruelty to animals. This milk is designed for baby cows, not adult humans. Millions of male calves are killed as a result and the mother cow is separated from her child at birth.
Secondly, people’s consumption of milk has major, well documented environmental impacts for our country. Our waterways are being trashed. We can’t swim in our rivers and we can’t drink our water.
And then there is this. To make intensive dairy farming possible, New Zealand farmers import palm kernel from Indonesia. And in doing so, they are responsible for the deforestation of the world’s last primary forests. The Deforestation of Borneo makes catastrophic climate change more likely and takes away the habitat of the orangutan, which is in rapid decline.
Finally, Indonesia since the 1960s has been a nation shorn of many civil rights. Fonterra has become connected with some shady characters ( to put it mildly) as it accesses palm kernel.
So if you are comfortable with animal cruelty, happy to see New Zealand’s environment ruined, can turn a blind eye to your part in climate change and you don’t care about human rights, drink up that white gold.
After all, milk is so healthy.
That must be true.
Fonterra told me so in their last avalanche of advertisements.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/102536599/fonterra-concerned-by-brutality-claim-made-against-indonesian-police-hosted-by-its-pke-supplier
Secondly, people’s consumption of milk has major, well documented environmental impacts for our country.
No, the industrial farming of dairy cows is doing this. As you know, cows and chickens are integral components of permaculture land systems. Again you conflate environmental issues with veganism. You are dishonest.
What percentage of cows and chickens in New Zealand are not farmed in an industrial manner?
1%, 2%……?
That is not relevant. You are advocating for change. The change that you would have is not the option with the most environmental benefit. You would throw the baby out with the bathwater.
What percentage of soy beans are produced using sustainable methods?
It is very relevant.
I am advocating for the cessation of industrial farming.
That includes industrial soy farming, especially with gm seeds.
I am advocating for the cessation of industrial farming.
No you’re not, you are advocating for veganism. Otherwise you could have very well said that people should stop eating soy beans.
Please do not tell me what I think.
Thank you
OK, so DO YOU advocate that people stop eating soy beans?
Do you eat cow’s milk or soy milk or both?
I tend to drink coconut or almond milk.
Feel free to present the arguments against soy and I am happy to read your research.
Bu please can we be civil and polite.
Fill ya boots.
Overall risks and benefits of soy assessed
Latest review by American Heart Association
Soy inhibits iron absorption
Poor iron bioavailability
Poor calcium bioavailability
Calcium and zinc absorbed better from milk than from soy — even without phytates
Soy provides no benefits with respect to heart disease risk
Soy causes bladder cancer
Soy isoflavones during pregnancy increase breast cancer risk in female offspring
High levels of cadmium in soy formula
Soy linked to peanut allergy and increased risk for asthma
Whole milk vs. soy beverage — asthma risk
Persistent sexual arousal syndrome associated with increased soy intake
Genistein: Does it prevent or promote breast cancer?
Just ignore them Ed, it’s clear from your very first statement that you are addressing animal cruelty concerns and the associated environmental impacts. I have much respect for your viewpoint.
The point is that anything produced unsustainably is unsustainable. You could say soy or broccoli or dairy. Industrial agriculture is destroying water and soil ecosystems regardless of the product.
But i never see you make general comments about the need to move to permaculture based land systems but rather just always that people need to STOP eating animal products. Those who eat large amounts of these products will need to substantially reduce their consumption but as cows and chickens are integral components of permaculture land systems there is no environmental need for people to go vegan.
@Maui: do you believe that guilt-trips are a good strategy to achieve environmental and animal/human rights improvements? That shaming people works?
If so, I have some bad news for you: it doesn’t work on beneficiaries either, no matter how much the National Party tries it. Funny how it’s so easy to recognise and oppose when they do it, eh.
Almond milk. Good for you – very bad for the environment.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/shortcuts/2015/oct/21/almond-milk-quite-good-for-you-very-bad-for-the-planet
http://cebp.aacrjournals.org/content/11/12/1674 Soy cause bladder cancer link, maybe you should have read it.
It sums up with “Thus, a possible effect of dietary soy on bladder cancer risk warrants further study. ”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1503071?dopt=Abstract, Poor iron bioavalibility
Lets just sum up one more shall we ” It is concluded that phytic acid is a major inhibitory factor of iron absorption in soy-protein isolates but that other factors contribute to the poor bioavailability of iron from these products.”
So it also a good idea not to eat walnuts nor wheat germ when you want to absorb iron, they are high in phytic acid as well.
I’m 2 for 2 for reading that these are not arguments against soy. Just more really good arguments for a balanced diet.
Righto, let’s.
I’m almost exclusively of northern European extraction with a hint of eastern Mediterranean so my ancestors wouldn’t know a soy product if it bit them. And because I reckon that if you eat what your grandparents ate you’ll be just fine, I ain’t going to consuming soy products anytime soon. And I reckon you, Ed and whoever the fuck else wants to eat soy products can do just that, but unless your ancestors ate that shit, soy as a dietary mainstay is likely a risk to your health.
And as for Ed’s day in day out you must do this, you must do that to save the fucking planet caterwauling , Mr Yeats’ said it best:
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
That was a better response than “fill ya boots” – joe90. Thanks.
I agree, I’m happy to talk about farming, but let’s not put people off that process, by evangelizing about a diet which many people can’t have. Myself included.
Ed if you just talked about farming, and why we need to change it, I’d join in the discussion. But, to prescribe a diet – well you lost me. The debate on diet especially a mono diet is bad.
A well balanced diet with not to much meat, and lots of vegetables and good oils seems the best for human health, and a good quality of life – if you consider the consumption of food a quality of life issue.
Joe90 is right, the day in day out slog on you part for a mono diet, is getting tiresome. We are better off discuss farming, and how to do it better. Me I’m a fan off working on getting more perennials into the farming, rather than annuals process.
@adam
How does this deal with animal cruelty issues as created by industrial farming?
You mean talking about farming, and as part of that there won’t be a discussion around the cruelty done to animals? I very much doubt that.
Yeah Solkta, and do try not to employ any passive-aggressive dishonesty while you’re at it 😉
Gosh, i’ll try not to.
Ed
You advocacy of ceasing “industrial” farming would have to be accompanied by a reduction in the worlds population by at least two thirds. Because that is what the end of “industrial” farming implies.
Most food in Europe, Russia, Ukraine, the US, Canada, and increasingly much of Asia, Africa and South America, is grown on large scale farms with the use of modern machinery and high yield crops. That is how the bulk of the world’s population is fed.
You might as rail against the fact that virtually all modern manufactures are made in huge factories. They simply cannot be made any other way. Smart phones (just to name one product among thousands) are just too complex for any other way of manufacturing.
Over 2 billion people in Asia have escaped poverty in the last 40 years precisely because of large scale mechanisation of both farming and manufacturing.
Over the top claim Wayne just throwing figures around.
I was talking to a post grad Chinese doctor about the Chinese economy she said nearly 600 million still live in poverty.
Large scale industrial farming opens us up to large scale farming failure.
Making it easier for pests and diseases to spread.
Not just China, but also South East Asia, South Korea and the Indian sub continent. That is how I get 2 billion people.
The World bank says about 700 million of them are in China.
Tell that to the Africans and Mexicans who are much poorer than they were, due to competition from US, mega farms destroying their lives, while they, themselves, can, no longer, afford to buy food.
As the food their farms produced is replaced with coffee, soy, beef and dairy and palm kernel farms, for large corporates and consumption in wealthy countries, , on the land they used to farm.
Trickledrown you are right 100%
Yes it will as I can see it now happening in Gisborne where factory farms are being developed out in these back hills.
So as the roads are dirt not tar sealed, and these factory farms send big trucks full of feed for their stock they come all the time now with feed for the animals, as they are force feed continually to fatten them as fast as they can.
So our roads are now falling apart and guess who is going to be paying for the maintenance?
We are going to wind up paying not them.
These chinese companies are causing the roads to fail with their dirty farming practices, we should not allow this as we will pay highly for water and land pollution. also as the road repairs.
no reason why we can’t feed the same number of people using regenerative agriculture. The reason we still have industrial ag instead is because of economic ideology. People still think that making money is more important than growing food sustainable. Thus polluted rivers and Peak Soil.
You might also want to look at how industrial ag can survive in a post-carbon world. It’s not pretty. Best we get on with transitioning now before we are forced to.
3 Big Myths about Modern Agriculture.
All that time you wasted “learning” the things you believe, eh Wayne. It’s almost as though the National Party is a life-support system for the ignoratii.
Touche
I have a theory, frequently confirmed, that right wingers can’t read. Or if they can, they refuse to research in depth.
Reducing the population is an excellent idea Wayne. We have way more people than the planet can sustain. I think that people with extravagant resource consuming lifestyles should not have children and other people should be encouraged to have less.
That’s already happening. The wealthy aren’t having enough children to replace themselves, and as the developing world gets wealthier, they’re having fewer children too.
Good Point there Ed;
just look at this way they treat Chickens and at the same time call this ‘Environmentally friendly and organic’
This makes me sick at what a large Corporation says and does to us now.
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/shows/2018/04/huge-chicken-farm-has-iwi-vege-growers-worried.html
LIVESTREAM
Newshub Nation
Huge chicken farm has iwi, vege growers worried
Rewa Harriman
More than 1 million chickens will be on the farm at any one time. Credits: Video – The Hui; Image – Getty
Watch the video for the full story from The Hui, including Tegel’s response.
Dargaville locals are crying fowl about Tegel’s proposal to build the country’s largest broiler chicken farm in their backyard.
The proposed site is in Arapohue, a small settlement south east of Dargaville, and neighbouring properties – including the Kapehu Marae – are furious.
Marae chairwoman Margaret Mutu says the enormity of the project has them very concerned.
“We won’t be able to use this place, we’ll be covered in dust, we won’t be able to use the water off our roof because that will have all of the dust and we won’t be able to hear ourselves speak.”
Terrible clean green.
My biggest issue with industrial farming is cruelty.
Thank you for sharing.
I think pig farming in NZ is just as bad.
I suppose one might object to the eating of meat generally, but, if not, then one can hardly object to the killing of male calves.
The palm oil question is really a separate issue. Farmers could probably feed their cattle on other food.
You’re on your own on this one Ed.
Next time keep you’re thoughts to yourself and enjoy a peaceful stressful Sunday.
Goodnight
There are clearly a lot of people who agree with me on this.
Lizzie Marvelly has written a scathing article on the state of Middlemore saying national have a lot of questions to answer. She calls the situation outrageous and questions what sort of ministry was Jonathan Coleman running. The language is appropriately strong. It came through on my fb feed. I duly looked for it on the herald’s website, but it was nowhere to be seen. Not even lurking at the bottom of the scroll. I finally accessed it by searching Lizzie. Of course easily viewed on the herald website was all sorts of crap including another piece from resident clairvoyant HDA who is now predicting the greens will no longer exist in 10 years.
I am having difficulty posting the link to this article (maybe it came up yesterday on open mike?). But I will keep trying and urge you all to check it out. She nails it
Thank you Ankerrawshark, I had thought Lizzie had been dropped along with some others recently. So I have used your method to access her articles. As you say, always to the point and pithy.
Ryall and Coleman worked to make that sham Bill English look good.
Typical rob peter to pay paul stuff.
Thanks for bringing this article, and subject, to attention again, Ankerrawshark. It is one that must be given attention. I see you have provided the link now in your comments below at 5 and 6.
Marvelly’s article was actually put up here on Open Mike yesterday by red-blooded but did not get much attention as it was a bit lost in the morass of other subjects above it: https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-07-04-2018/#comment-1471172
In reply I also provided a list of all the 12 articles on Middlemore Hospital’s disgusting state of repair found using the Herald’s own search facility:
https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-07-04-2018/#comment-1471204
Although I am not a great Bryce Edwards’ fan, he has actually done a good job on summarising the situation re wider media reporting on the Middlemore Hospital issues in his Political Round up article on 4 April in the Herald.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12026117
He gives main kudos for bringing this situation to notice to Phil Pennington, a RNZ senior reporter (formerly DomPost from my memory) who started the ball rolling on 22 March. Edwards says that Pennington has produced about a dozen articles on Middlemore since then and links to a number of these are in Edwards’s article (ie the link above). The article also provides links to a couple of other media articles – eg Gordon Campbell’s excellent piece in Werewolf, and also a good piece in the Spinoff by Dr David Galler, an intensive care specialist at Middlemore.
I second Edwards’ recommendation that Dr Galler’s article is a must read so here is the link again –
https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/03-04-2018/the-toxic-mould-and-rot-of-middlemore-is-the-legacy-of-a-crisis-in-values/
The Spinoff has also produced a later article not included in Edwards’ Round Up by Peter Glensor entitled “Beyond the toxic mould: how we can get our DHBs back” which is also a thought provoking read on the wider issues with the DHB model.
https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/06-04-2018/beyond-the-toxic-mould-how-dhbs-can-lead-the-fight-to-fix-our-hospitals/
[“Peter Glensor was an elected member of the Hutt Valley DHB for 12 years. He was chair of the Hutt Valley DHB, ALAC and DHBNZ, and was deputy chair of Capital and Coast DHB. He also helped found and lead a network of community-based health services across New Zealand.”]
A bit of reading there for anyone interested!
Thanks Veut.
Am concerned that health funding and Middlemore taking a back seat to far less important items.
I feel outraged that John f…g key states his one regret is that he didn’t managed to change the flag. What does that say about how he feels about Middlemore. Doesn’t give a s..t that this went on under his watch
Great summary, veutoviper.
Thanks, red-blooded, and also thanks to you and Ankerrawshark for putting up Marvelly’s article because it spurred me to do the research to find the Herald articles and also check out BE’s Political Round Up article, because I tend to not go to the Herald nearly as much as I used to.
I also hope in the longer term this situation leads to a review of the DHB model because IMO it is well past its use by date, and admin costs etc gobble up far too many $$$ that should be going to actual healthcare.
Interesting to see David Clark commenting on this in a background piece on Stuff today.
“The district health board system has some real strengths,” he says, “you have local innovation, response to local need. What you don’t have . . . is the sharing of that innovation across the system.”
That seems to suggest that there’s not going to be a total rethink (which might be desirable but would be a very big ask), but that he’s looking at ways to share best practice (which is at least an improvement on the current situation).
With 20 DHBs reinventing wheels imagine how much time & money could be saved if they were actually sharing their solutions and best practice!
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/101209726/health-boss-chai-chuah-spent-233000-on-foreign-academics-and-31000-on-course-months-before-he-quit
Sadly the problems are wider than underfunding (as bad as that is)….its systemic and I think directly related to the cause of most of our problems…the 80s reforms.
Came across this a few years ago when involved in quake issues…..dosnt make for happy reading but is compelling.
http://canterbury.royalcommission.govt.nz/documents-by-key/20120813.4973/$file/ENG.SCA.0002.RED.pdf
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12026497
I am having trouble posting on TS. Wrote a comment about this article by Lizzie Marvelly about Middlemore. This is a great article
I don’t know why your comments are hitting “pending”. If you have log-in details, use them and it might resolve the problem] – Bill
Thanks bill will look into and apologies everyone for the repetition
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12026497
Appropriately scathing article about the state of Middlemore by Lizzie Marvelly. Nowhere to be seen on The heralds website. You have to search her name to find it. Cam through my fb feed
Carter and Finlayson are enjoying life and minding their own business.
Has anyone seen Simon Lusk?
He’s been off hunting
Lusk is either fishing In the Wild
giving advice on it,
or working on campaigns to remove politicians that stand against his clients in parliamentary, by-elections and local government elections.
In the last few days he seems to have been talking to WO about the Northcote by-election.
From a google search on “Simon Lusk” for the last month;
One Anonymous Bloke (7) … If it’s not Natz and its official PR mouthpiece msm having a joke on us, I’m picking it will be either Brownlee or Finlayson who will be taking the walk of shame next.
When are labour going to discuss in Parliament about TPP?
Oi! Gummint! The Ministry of Education’s legal team needs their final written warning.
Again. Another National Party clusterfuck to repair.
Yep. It shows where the Nats’ and other rightees values lie. These education support workers are doing a very skilled job, often with children with major needs.
They are making a valuable contribution to the lives of others and society, while being paid a pittance.
Then we hear ACToids complaining that tax is theft from their hard earned wages. And some of them are doing
overhighly paid jobs that enrich themselves and make little contribution to the betterment of lives of others.PS: good on Alison Mau for following their case, and reporting it in the MSM.
HdPA at it again
“They won’t have to wait too long. Caring for the environment is no longer hippy politics. Every party is starting to do it. Virtually the first thing Labour did in Government was to ban plastic microbeads. NZ First has a policy on carbon pricing. Act wants to cut emissions.
Oddly enough the biggest threat is coming from the party the Greens are mostly likely to hiss at: National.
There’s a long tradition of Blue-Greenness within the Nats and things are really starting to ramp up. In his first interviews in the job, new leader Simon Bridges couldn’t have made it clearer he plans to go greener.”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12027293
Given whats emerged from the past 9 years would anyone trust Nationals ability to do anything more than add a verdant hue to their incompetence?
I like the first line about making predictions in politics being an unwise thing to do, yet she did exactly the same thing last week too! More, foolish and attention seeking predictions seem to be all she is now capable of in terms of journalistic style.
Her case for National being the big mover in environmental policy rest entirely on one of Bridges’ reckons (rather than their actual long tradition of promoting the rape of New Zealand water systems for profit), while dismissing an entire election campaign from Labour on water access, irrigation industry reform, regulation of the dairy industry. Not to mention any of the wider global commitments Labour have made.
She really is a bitter caricature of a crappy click-bait hack who, disappointed at not making it as a broadcaster, is now lashing out at her traditional enemy – which is progress.
Well summed up Muttonbird. I began the article agreeing the Greens appear divided, then HDPA started big upping the Nats environmental cred and it became a work of fiction.
To be honest I’m not sure why she gets any airtime she appears quite shallow and a bit thick.
She gets airtime because she’s part of the rightwing stable of journalists employed by the conservative corporate controlled NZME.
They don’t care how thick she or any of their other hacks are, as long as they are critical of Labour.
Her argument is based on the ridiculous assumptions that Julie Anne is not left wing and Marama is not environmentally minded.
Yes, and if she applied the same rationale to Green vs National then she’d have to say that National cannot ever be environmentally conscious when she claims they are.
She really is thick.
Thick or dishonest.
In any political context, stupidity and dishonesty go hand-in-glove.
Or thick and dishonest.
The only Green thing about National would be verdigris.
Yes relics from the bronze age……. 🙂
or green mould 😉
Or their bile & venom 😉
Hospital mould can be sort of Blue/Green?
Algae blooms in our Lakes – Greening the country under National!
There are green nats in the same way there are nats who care about poverty-related social issues:
they will utter soothing words on a case-by-case basis;
make tax-deductible donations to charities they like the look of;
they might even volunteer some of the spare time they are privileged to have towards a worthy organisation,
but all those efforts will be less than nothing when faced against the policies of their preferred government.
National is saying they care about the environment and poor people. Their actions for 9 years speak volumes however
National using poor people for fertiliser = National caring for the Environment and reducing poverty?
😉
What’s really starting to happen with big events in cities…. they start to destroy local business – not help it – as local people are increasingly being taught to “stay away” and can’t even afford to go to the events their tax dollars hosts and pays for.
Gold Coast businesses ’empty’ despite Commonwealth Games
“Businesses struggled in the lead-up, with constant roading upgrades pushing people away.
Mr Day says they had banked on the Games being their cash cow.
“We’ve lost quite a lot of money in the lead-up to the Games, so there’s nothing in the coffers. It won’t give us the build-up we’ve been looking forward to.”
Minutes up the road, it’s a similar story in Surfers Paradise. Christine Broadway runs a bar with her son and is blaming the council and government for scaring people off.
“The roads were going to be very busy; the traffic was going to be impossible, but the M1 was going to be blocked.”
Many cafes and bars in the area are sharing similar stories of being practically empty, but there seems to be little sympathy from Mayor Tom Tate, or Games organisers.”
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/Commonwealth-Games/2018/04/gold-coast-businesses-empty-despite-commonwealth-games.html
I wouldn’t read to much into it as the entire Australian retail sector has been struggling for a number of years now due to low wage growth and the high domestic household debt that the average Australian has atm. Sooner or later the interest rates will eventually go up and then things will get very interesting.
The Gold Coast retailers were hoping the games would’ve help them get a boost as these of events in Oz do have a trend of helping the local retail sector out. But from what mother-law has said last week as she lives on the Goldie that transport in and round the Goldie is a bloody mess atm! To a point the locals have been told to stay at home WTF as she was looking to attend a couple of events before she comes up Darwin for few weeks to help with our new house.
If you have a Twitter account? Check out Alan Kohlers graphs as he has some interesting ones of late showing what would a .25%, .50% and .75% interest rate would do to household debt also he has a few on Oz retail sales trends as well.
Alan Kohler does the ABC’s Finance Report on the 7 o’clock news week night, does a articles in the Oz newspaper and has a Twitter Account which is wealth of information IRT graphs which are very interesting and some silly ones, but even those one have a interesting point to them.
Keep this story in mind when the New Zealand and Auckland Governments tell you how wonderful the America’s cup is going to be for the city.
Billions of dollars of income will be promised.
What will happen? Auckland will find that people avoid the city if not interested in the yachting and after the event the city will be left with a white elephant.
A complete waste of at least a quarter of a billion dollars.
Why do politicians adore these circuses? Is it because they hope visiting Billionaires will feed them the very best Champagne and caviar?
visiting Billionaires will feed them the very best Champagne and caviar… don’t you mean the taxpayers of NZ will feed the billionaires the best Champagne and caviar… oh and build the America’s cup ‘charity’ a marina, steal some of the public harbour paid for with free ratepayer and tax payer funds.
I have no problem with America’s cup and billionaires having a whale of a time, just not when the tab is put on the rest of society when there are more socially responsible things to spend the money on and the billionaires could raise the cash themselves.
” don’t you mean the taxpayers of NZ will feed the billionaires ”
You are, unfortunately quite right. The Wellington City Council, with our Labour Mayor managed to spend $98,000 on a lavish dinner for some visiting Chinese, and a goodly number of the Councillors. A handful of ratepayers were invited according to the story.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/102840947/Wellington-ratepayers-pick-up-98-000-cheque-for-councils-lavish-banquet
Still we must keep our beloved Lester living in the style he desires. Bugger the little things like rubbish collection and playgrounds for children. Feed Lester the very best items on the menu seems to be the rule.
I suppose we should be grateful that it was only $98,000. This time.
Auckland will be flushing about two thousand five hundred times that amount on their folly.
I wonder how many of the guests were interpreters
You are clearly not used to courting investors.
It takes money, often civic money.
If they were really courting investors why did only “a handful of ratepayers” get invited. You aren’t going to tell me that you want our Local Government Council getting involved surely?
Look at their last attempt. Our then Mayor got a bee in her bonnet that there were hordes of people wanting to fly out to China from Wellington. So they did a deal where the ratepayers subsidise a SIA flight from Wellington, via Australia, and then on to Singapore. Why would anyone want to go via Canberra, soon to be Melbourne, and on to Singapore rather than go straight through Auckland. That cuts out one lot of Customs and Immigration checks for a start.
Meanwhile she also proposed extending the runway where the rate payer will pay and a private company gets the benefit. Forget it. If you really want to attract investors, without getting robbed blind, keep Councillors well away.
Most if not all major events cost more for cities to host than they ever get in return. Deloittes and others make big money writing reports for bidding cities etc which market the lie the city will make money.
The boat building industry in NZ is strong, our designing industry is strong and has been for decades, regardless of weather we hosted the Americas Cup
That isn’t what happened last time or the time before that.
Both Americas Cup facilities have gone on to redevelop from grimy heavy marine environments to places where tens of thousands of people visit and have a great time every week.
Pop down some time and have a look at where the old bases were now.
People avoiding the city during the racing will of course be living and shopping elsewhere in New Zealand. Who knows, maybe even Wellington.
Pray tell me then.
If the previous regatta bases were so successful why do we need a new one?
What is wrong with the one that was used last time? Are they planning to spend close to a quarter of a billion dollars and then, should they win and get another chance start all over again?
Looking like the Greens turn to be dumped on this week. If that Duplicity woman is the first to kick off the weeks “pile on” does that mean she will be at the bottom of the pile by weeks end.
Making political predictions as HDA has done for the second week in a row, is a fools game as seldom correct [ridiculous to predict an election 2 and a half years out) and anybody who follows politics knows this to be the case, think trump, brexit, even Jeremy Corbin’s near election victory. And even here at home with the results in 2017.
It suggests to me either a lack of motivation or brain power to write something of substance. Or deliberately trying to spin the narrative or all three.
No, they’re not rogue landlords…they’re sexual predators.
/
To the unaware, the true meaning of some of the phrases used on the ads for tenants could be missed. Rooms for rent are offered in exchange for “benefits” or “keeping me company”. Others are less subtle – “free accommodation in exchange for an erotic arrangement”.
Renting rooms for sexual favours is seen as a growing menace by campaigners, and a byproduct of a housing crisis where young people are unable to find somewhere to live without spending exorbitant sums.
The problem has become particularly marked in university towns, where young women are targeted by rogue landlords. But while then justice secretary David Lidington last year said such offers may breach the Sexual Offences Act, there is frustration that more is not being done.
“Since last year, there has not been a single arrest, let alone a conviction, let alone anybody actually going to jail for it,” says Peter Kyle, Labour MP for Hove.
Kyle has been campaigning on the issue and has consistently called for landlords who offer accommodation in exchange for sex to be prosecuted.
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2018/apr/02/sex-for-rent-accommodation-rogue-landlords-campaign?
Agree Joe 90 (12) … There was a situation many years ago in NZ, where a highly respected landlord preyed on the girl children of tenants! The young victims were too scared to say anything to their parents, because the landlord threatened if they did, he would throw the family out and tell the parents what their daughters “asked” him to do to them! Of course the young girls didn’t know any better and the result was, the devious sly bastard continued to sexually assault them! He got away with it, because apart from being highly respected in his community in those days a child was considered a liar to report such things and a denial from the man would have been believed above the statements of the child.
This one now deceased thank Christ, would have been the rogue of landlord sexual predators! on young girls!
And they’re using the power that being capitalists gives them to abuse people.
Of course, that’s capitalism hands down. It’s designed to give a few people power so that they can abuse people and bludge off of them.
Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Murdered with one of the bullets the IDF said they knew exactly where they landed?
A Palestinian journalist shot by Israeli forces during a mass demonstration along the Gaza border has died of his wounds.
Yaser Murtaja, a photographer with the Gaza-based Ain Media agency, was shot in the stomach in Khuza’a in the south of the Gaza Strip on Friday, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
Murtaja, 30, was hit despite wearing a blue flak jacket marked with the word “press”, indicating he was a journalist.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/04/palestinian-journalist-yasser-murtaja-dies-shot-israeli-forces-180407054201619.html
https://twitter.com/btselem
Dude dreamed big as he spent his life trapped in the poverty and oppression of a fucking prison camp. Pricks.
Yaser Murtaja had often filmed from the sky, but he never lived to fulfill his dream of flying on an airplane through the clouds.
The young journalist shot drone images and video for Ain Media, a small Gaza-based news agency he started five years ago. Just two weeks ago, he posted an aerial photo of Gaza City’s port on Facebook. “I wish that the day would come to take this shot when I’m in the air and not on the ground,” he wrote. “My name is Yaser Murtaja. I’m 30 years old. I live in Gaza City. I’ve never traveled!”
It was one of his last posts.
Murtaja, who was married and had a 2-year-old son, died Saturday after being shot the day before while covering protests at the edge of the Gaza Strip.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/palestinian-journalist-in-vest-marked-press-shot-dead-by-israeli-troops-in-gaza/2018/04/07/ac57b524-3a30-11e8-8fd2-49fe3c675a89_story.html?utm_term=.696a7351b265
So much injustice.
Trump Tower on fire. Perhaps his hairpiece got too close to the hot air…
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/world/2018/04/trump-tower-in-new-york-on-fire.html
Hair, you say.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DaJHCudX0AEPKGy.jpg
Fun fact – tRump’s baby fingered ego means the fire on the 50th floor of Trump Tower is actually on the 40th floor.
https://www.businessinsider.com.au/trump-tower-is-not-as-tall-as-trump-says-2016-10?r=US&IR=T
Who’s the person who died, mutty?
Another ponyboy special.
The New Zealand Defence Force has spent millions on controversial spy software produced by secretive Silicon Valley firm Palantir.
After refusing for more than a year to reveal the extent of links to Peter Thiel’s big data analysis company, prompting a complaint by the Herald on Sunday to the Ombudsman, the NZDF were forced to disclose annual spending with Palantir averaged $1.2 million.
The figures suggest since contracts were first signed in 2012 the defence force has spent $7.2m with the firm.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12026641
With regard to the attacks on the government for the petrol excise duty increases, particularly the criticism of Twyford calling it 10 cents over three years instead of 3 cents a year, could someone better at this than me find a graph on PED increases in the last 10 or 20 years?
The PED now sits at 66 cents but it’s the successive increases which are important in comparing this government’s announcement with what has happened in the past.
I have tried, honest, but don’t know where to look to get that particular info.
here
Thank you.
Interesting GA had to do the research on the stats in question (it being their graph) rather than it being freely available in that form at MBIE.
Interesting too that NZ has a relatively low tax to price ratio compared with other OECD countries. This is shown here. I guess that the high cost of the product in NZ means we’ve never charged what other countries do in excise which is required for decent infrastructure.
Result? Poor quality roads and terrible public transport infrastructure.
The Legatum Institute is a Stink Tank funded mainly by Chris Chandler … one of a pair of NZ Billionaire Brothers…. who operate their various business s / hedge funds / vulture capitalism from tax havens like Dubai .
I call them a stink tank as opposed to a think tank … as among other things they rank countries in their own Legatum ‘prosperity index’.
But as Oxfam has correctly pointed out, … tax havens are the biggest drivers of inequality and poverty in the world.
Making Chandlers project like a trader in kiddie porn … lecturing people on children s well-being.
They also employ discredited dishonest anti-russian hacks … and have been pumping out propaganda for quite a while … laying the ground work for the Mays and Clintons to pile it on even thicker.
Here’s some quotes about Legatum … who are also lobbying for a ‘hard Brexit’ ….
apparently nothing to do with tax dodging Billionaires who do not like the EU … with all its regulations … standing in the way of their vulture / disaster capitalism
.
https://irrussianality.wordpress.com/2017/11/26/the-hunters-become-the-hunted/
“In an ironic twist of fate, those shouting loudest about Russian ‘fake news’ and demanding that the West take action against RT and other Russian media outlets, are now finding themselves accused of being Russian agents. It is, of course, completely absurd. But I can’t help thinking that what goes around comes around, and that Legatum and co. have only themselves to blame for their predicament. In creating the hysteria about Russian interference in Western politics, they established the conditions which made the assault on their own position possible. If you start a witch-hunt, you shouldn’t be surprised if one day the Witchfinder General comes looking for you.”
“Chandler has made a fortune from so-called disaster capitalism – taking advantage in countries either politically or economically destabilised. What is this foreign national doing by meddling in Britain’s future one wonders.” Chandler has made a fortune from so-called disaster capitalism – taking advantage in countries either politically or economically destabilised. What is this foreign national doing by meddling in Britain’s future one wonders.”
” Liberal Democrat MP Tom Brake insisted it was “clear” the Government was “extremely sensitive about their very close relationship with the Legatum Institute. …He said: “Ministers must distance themselves from a ‘think tank’ whose agenda is leading the UK to a disastrous no deal Brexit that would inflict permanent damage on UK families and jobs.” https://news.sky.com/story/brexiteers-favourite-think-tank-the-legatum-institue-rejects-russia-link-11145291
“Johnson and Gove’s Legatum-backed letter, revealed by The Mail on Sunday a fortnight ago, made three key demands to Mrs May: to force Chancellor Philip Hammond to do more to plan for a ‘hard Brexit’; to use our withdrawal from the EU to scrap swathes of rules and regulations; and to appoint a new ‘Brexit Tsar’ to head up a task force within Whitehall….All three demands seem to have been met. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5117547/Putins-link-Boris-Goves-Brexit-coup-revealed.html
“According to the Legatum Institute, anybody who doesn’t agree with them is under the control of Moscow’s security services. The notion that an individual might have an honest personal opinion that differs from their worldview is unfathomable for these intrepid, self-appointed defenders of freedom…….You’ve read this correctly. A think-tank which claims to be devoted to “revitalising” democracy is smearing its opponents as ‘spooks’. Not just any old sort either – KGB agents. https://www.rt.com/op-ed/322968-legatum-kgb-russia-applebaum/
“Billionaire founder of think tank that advocates leaving single market obtains right to work anywhere in Europe” ….”Christopher Chandler, founder of Legatum, which backs leaving the single market and the customs union, has become a citizen of the Mediterranean island ……..Critics branded the move double standards as the passport would give him the right to live and work in any European country. A hard Brexit is expected to leave Britons without that same privilege.” https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/brexiteer-hard-brexit-eu-passport-buy-malta-christopher-chandler-single-market-customs-union-a8185336.html
“The founder of the libertarian thinktank, Christopher Chandler, is a New Zealand-born financier who made a fortune in the “wild capitalism” days in Russia in the 90s when state-run companies were privatised. His former company, Sovereign Global, was the largest foreign portfolio investor in Russia by 1994…. The company’s investments are believed to have netted Mr Chandler and his brother Richard several billion dollars and by 2012 they were the fourth largest investors in Gazprom – the Russian gas company which has since been taken partly back into state control,” https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brexit-latest-thinktank-russia-legatum-institute-boris-johnson-michael-gove-christopher-chandler-a8076436.html
Chandler is based in Dubai …. a good place for money laundering and extreme misogyny.
Walker on Pie.
heh.
Aw ffs.
Here we go.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/syria-chemical-weapons-civilians-killed-douma-eastern-ghouta-damascus-a8294296.html
And cue the predictable “falling in behind” that would have us believe that an army on the cusp of victory, that has proceeded slowly in retaking urban areas and evacuated as many civilians as it could, would unload chemical weapons for the sake of…well, what’s it going to be?
Because they could? Because they have a track record (allegedly)? Because they’re just mad and bad?
Oh, I know! They were wanting to grab those international news headlines again. Bloody ego-ists!
And there will be no talk of beleaguered terrorists topping members of a captive civilian population who aren’t properly ideologically aligned for propaganda purposes. That, afterall, is an insane suggestion to make about “rebels”.
According to the Syrian official narrative, there has been no CW attack at all. The only person suggesting that “the rebels did it” is you.
You pretending, or have your reading comprehension levels really hit the depths your comment suggests?
Timed with the Russian spy story.
So predictable.
And the Guardian is in there,boots and all blaming the government.
How predictable.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/08/syrian-government-accused-of-chemical-attacks-on-civilians-in-eastern-ghouta
Reporting that someone has been accused is not the same as blaming them. Twisting peoples words like that is very uncivil of you.
The poor young RNZ news reader is having to parrot the propaganda unfortunately, with the proviso, though, that no independent reports have been received. I guess that’s something.
The report is from the white helmets. A ‘Syrian based NGO’. Hilarious.
Though it’s not funny at all.
You believe the Damascus official narrative about the WHs then?
Funny when journalist who have been to Syria call the White Helmets nothing more than a propaganda tool, you do have to ask who for. The journalist being Pilger, Fisk and others.
Odd One Anonymous Bloke, for a guy who believes we can blame the Russians, because they have a track record, you rather unwilling to apply the same methodology to the head choppers in Syria. You should, you might just learn that they are nasty, manipulative and vicious killers, not democratic loving individuals some in the west want to portray them as.
Do you believe the official narrative from Damascus? From the Snopes article linked above:
The accusations seem to be levied at the group based on political motivations, not evidence.
You should stop pretending that you can summarise what I think, Adam. Or that you are teaching me something about “headchoppers” – for one thing I’m suspicious of all such dehumanising labels.
I believe that the most plausible explanation for the Salisbury poisoning is that the Kremlin is involved NOT that we can “blame the Russians”. I believe I have explained this to you before. If you can’t argue with my comments without misrepresenting them that says something about you, and nothing whatsoever about my arguments.
Lift your game. National Party tactics won’t help you.
Wow One Anonymous bloke, did I hit a nerve did I?
National party tactics, misrepresentation, calling me a supporter of Damascus.
Yeap, I hit a nerve.
Funny I’ve explained to you over and over who I support in Syria – seems you never get it.
Oh and by the way there’s a reason to call them head choppers, they chop off heads. It might be a bit much for you making a moral decision at this point, but by the very action of killing human beings in such a barbaric way, they gave up on humanity. And yes I think of them as somthing less than human.
I can’t think of any human being I’ve met who thinks it’s normal to cut off someone’s head to prove a religious, or political point, or in the name of power.
I will call them what they are, head choppers, becasue when the barbarity is that obvious, it is a disservice to humanity to brush over their murderous ways.
That particular nerve has been “hit” so many times it’s gone numb.
I’m sure someone’s trying to brush over their murderous ways, but it ain’t me.
oab obviously hasn’t a clue who the white helmets are
Personalising the discussion won’t help you.
Most likely, they’re a search and rescue operation whose activities are often used for propaganda purposes, especially since they’ve received funding and resources from a wide range of Western sources.
However, since most of the information about them comes from a civil war zone, I’d be a fool to think that I “know” that. Hence the phrase “most likely”.
Because that’s the only option, right?
a) Believe western government takes or, b) believe other government’s takes (or, laughably, what you interpret from such a bastion of rigorous analysis as Snopes to be the line of other governments)
In other words (to paraphrase Bush, and yes, somewhat ironically given this topic) you’re either with us or against us 🙄
Nope. Shades of grey.
Post modern piffle.
In fact, that’s exactly what Bill said: the notion that your only options are (a) or (b), when experience tells us that the ‘truth’ is probably some third thing entirely.
So if you think Bill is guilty of “post-modern piffle” I suggest you take it up with him.
Do you?
The White Helmets
Everyone knows they’re a propaganda front for ISIS and other headchoppers
“everyone knows” 😆
Foucault’s Pendulum alert.
“Your reasoning is flawless,” Belbo said, giving me a sidelong glance.
Yes
Those of us who can read and comprehend.
Alas some cant do either.
Or won’t.
Trying to start a flame war again. Slow clap.
And now RNZ repeat the propaganda…..
Sure enough – the underling message is ‘Blame Russia.’ as usual.
RNZ do not question the propaganda about the white helmets and accept their lies without any challenge.
Journalism is basically dead in the mainstream. It serves the neoliberal establishment and its lust for war.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/world/354447/syria-toxic-gas-attack-kills-at-least-70-in-douma
Interesting perspective on the #metoo movement by Tony Robbins
https://youtu.be/74YILhy4RgE
@ Tracey comment 20
That woman had serious guts.
Interesting look at Robbins’ act, too. A very well-oiled team. Shame it seemed to be mostly platitude and reflex responses.
I agree. She stands her ground. Even when he seems to use his physical superiority to help her see sense.
Like Robbins, I’m a rather large human and it was obvious to me he that was using his size to physically intimidate the woman, prick was leading with his fist, and dollars to donuts, he’s a fucking expert at it.
Not to mention using the crowd. The “raise your arm” thing is a neat trick – it keeps the audience awake, but also creates group compliance, and makes it even more intimidating to try and discuss something with him.
Interesting variation on “sorry, not sorry”: his version was ‘I’m showing great integrity by not being sorry’.
I was intrigued that a downside of #metoo was, according to Robbins, that attractive women are discriminated against because male employers can’t trust themselves to avoid harrassing attractive women. Sigh.
Nanine McCool interview.
edit: more live chat, actually
https://www.facebook.com/destingerekprofile/videos/1349300891838871/
Keep an eye out for the article by Simon Wilson that’s coming out in tomorrow’s Herald. Apparently he’s interviewed Johnathan Coleman, who “said some pretty surprising things about Middlemore Hospital”.
“Ich habe es nicht gewußt”, by any chance?
That sent me rushing to Simon’s Twitter account. Damn, no clues. But liked Kirsty Johnston’s comment that “So he is real?”. Also see Simon fully endorsed Lizzy’s article. Well suppose we have only a few hours to wait. Thanks for the alert.
A well needed piece by Colin Peacock on RNZ. A straight counter argument to the corporate backers of NZME and why we so desperately need RNZ to turn the mirror on conservative media more often.
I wonder if this piece and more to come are a sign that principled journalists at RNZ are actually sick to the stomach about the attack on their organisation by the Herald in the last two weeks.
If there’s going to be a media war I know whose side I’m on…
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/mediawatch/audio/2018639331/transport-plan-sparks-front-page-road-rage
“How are we going to face up to the big difficult issues if politicians and commentators prefer the lazy option of easy trash talk?” he asked.
How indeed…..too much noise and not enough thought.
So was it food poisoning after all those lies about spies?
The Moon of Alabama explains.
“On Wednesday the niece of Sergej Skripal, Viktoria Skripal, received a phone call from Yulia Skripal. She was interviewed by a Russian TV station and suggested that food poisoning might have been the real cause of the calamities her relatives were in:
“Did they eat a dish that one cannot eat, or is it banned in England?
“The first signs when they were found were very similar to fish poisoning.”
Victoria intended to visit the UK and to bring Yulia back home to Moscow. The United Kingdom just rejected Victoria Skripal’s visa application because she “did not comply with the immigration rules.” No further explanation was given.”
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/49168.htm
OMG now the nutbars really are blaming FUGU!
lolz
What about the cops?
Mike Smith recommended this source to us all.
Is the ex-president of the Labour Party a nut bar?
Quite possibly, I don’t know the man.
But if the Skripals had food poisoning, what did the cops have? Exposure to latent traces of a fish dinner?
I don’t believe the story.
The policeman’s predicament points to poison.
So which direction does your pointy sense point towards the poisoners?
Don’t know to be honest
If everybody is equally bad (let’s just table that one for a bit), who has the greatest benefit for the least risk (and complexity is risk)?
I’m interested in your theory.
I like detective mystery thrillers.
I think I’ve already stated my case ad nauseum.
Such a shame about your pointy-sense, failing you just when you were about to form your own opinion rather than parroting other people’s sites.
Was the policeman the first one to notice them collapsed on the park bench and administer aid. Why not a member of the public?
let me wikipedia that for you.
No.
Thanks
Why was the evidence destroyed?
From your link.
“The guinea pigs were reported to have died of thirst; the cat was taken for testing to the Porton Down chemical weapons facility, where all three bodies were incinerated.[29]”
I expect they’d have retained samples.
Fish is not a likely source to hospitalize people for much over a week.
The common fish sourced food poisonings – staph aureus, e coli, salmonella, even listeria rarely put people out for two weeks, and are readily identified.
This MOOA claim is not tenable.
Sure, but the ‘food poison’ had already been positively ‘identified’ and confirmed by the UK Government as Novichok …
Remember the Fonterra botulism debacle? How long did it take to get to the bottom of that? Minimal or no involvement of real experts, just spin doctors and journalists too hungry & desperate for a story?
Actually, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saxitoxin; it was in the link in Ed’s comment. Tetrodotoxin is something different.
I would have thought that other customers of Zizzi would have suffered similar symptoms. Then again, it may have been a quiet time with not many people ordering seafood pizza. It would have been coincidence if Nick Bailey just happened to have eaten something at or from Zizzi at around the same time – was it lunch time by any chance?
I didn’t bother with Ed’s link, but on the basis of “fish poison” excluded saxitoxin because that causes mouth dryness rather than foaming at the mouth.
I also excluded things like campylobacter, because of the lack of reports of vomiting etc.
Yeah, it’d be an amazing coincidence if three cops had the same fish lunch at the same place as the Skripals on the same day, all come down with symptoms to varying degrees, but no, like, plumbers or accountants also had the fish for lunch. Like all the disinformation theoretically possible, but… come on, really?
Good point; I once experienced a suspected fish poisoning myself but no frothing at the mouth – I only experience this when reading the comments of some RWNJs here 😉 Nevertheless, some food poisoning symptoms can resemble poisoning with organophosphates (e.g. insecticides).
Cops are known to have lunch together. And it could have been just one little fish or mushroom carrying the poison and this would have limited the transfer to only a few victims instead of poisoning all customers of Zizzi that day.
Yeah, it’s possible in theory, but relies on readers not knowing where the cops had lunch that day. Like the entire “the doorhandle would have been soaked by the rain” thing – nobody knows if it was raining when the Skripals left the house, or if the rain was blowing into the door or away from it.
But we do know that the officers and the Skripals all had contact with the flat, and the symptoms seem to be explained by some sort of nerve toxin/agent.
Which basically leaves “it’s a really weird coincidence and Porton Down are incompetent” vs “somebody used an exotic poison to poison several people (with subsets of ‘intentional harm by another person’ and ‘unintentional self-injury’)”.
Wonder if we’ll ever know.
That all depends on the level of probability you regard as “knowledge”.
The AM Show Duncan Marama handled your interview well I did hope she would win the Co leadership of the Greenparty .
Congratulations Marama its a good thing having you as Co Leader Mana Wahine this will lift the mana of all whaine and Maori ka pai.
Our New Zealand Netball Team has been in a decline for a few years
I say its management someone in that organization is making all the wrong calls to me it looks intentional the generals are to blame enough said .
I went to see the Whano and tupuna it was a one in a hundred year event the new Carvings going up on Pokai Marae my hupu has a lot of Mana and the Whano have restored that with all the mahi they put into achiveing this great feat my Marae is right at the end of a long gravel road and it is thriving.
Mark and Amanda the shonky party deliberately set the welfare systems up so one has to do that to survive and that gives him easy targets to damage brown peoples mana whom needs the service the most big brother now sees all with the tec they have now .He most he gave millions to wealthy people in tax cuts and other subsides to rich irrigation farms down south and starved the reigns that have high Maori populations this phenomenon is steering US in the eyes heaps of money has poured into sports that the wealthy minority participate in these sports that are to expenses for the common person to participate in I will not name these sports if you look you will see it. Duncan you have a interview with one of those people who should retire himself and his views .Mark the only thing shonky did was line his hip pocket and his m8 and try to suppress brown people . Ana to kai Kia kaha ka kite ano
Newshub I had to jump through a few hoops to get this out my sky is in rain faves no reciption my computer x2 cannot get the standard site I have 2 use my old computer to get TV 3 livestreaming and use my Phone to put up this post I will always solve a problem that’s the Rooster way I have the Phoenix – – – –
That’s a tragedy the Broncos Canadian Ice hockey team condolences to all their families and friends.
What a beautiful Tui They are a beautiful bird we can thank The department of Conservation for all our wild life that are surviving this fast pase of industrialisation that mostly base the choices they make on money and not the long term survival of Papatuanukue and her Creations.
Its good having the Common wealth games on the Gold Coast OUR New Zealand stars yes they are all brilliant stars in
ECO MAORI Eyes will have alot of support.
Kia kaha Ka kite ano P.S its awesome to see OUR Pacific Island cousin winning medals to Kia kaha
I will be supporting The Crowd Goes Wild TV 4 Ana to kai P.S some people know which side there bread is butter on.
PIO Has more humor in his little toe than most of the new Comedians I have seen Ana to kai