"the early Celtic Christian monks and mystics who set out alone in small, flimsy boats, seeking solitude, nature, and God on the most remote islands of Britain.
"On island after island," she writes in A Book of Silence, "the more isolated and far-flung the better — on St. Kilda, on the Farnes, on the Shiants, throughout the Hebrides and the northern islands, off the coast of Ireland, around Iceland and possibly even North America — the traces of hermits can be found."
There's an awesome coffee table book 'Men Who Live Alone' but I've not seen a copy for decades. Bunch of locals, B&W photography and stories in their words. Stunning piece of work. War heroes, alcoholics, madmen, artists.
Can't get a fix on it on google, might get lucky in a Library, or hopefully one of our oldies has it and can give us the Author, publisher.
Traces of Hermits? Solitary skeletons. Few implements per small dwelling. Single bed space type thing. When you are building your own shelter there is no reason to overbuild. No neighbors or potential partners to impress. No signs of children (toys, skeletons, art). No communal space…
Take a bit of thinking about but archaeologists are clever types, at least the ones I've met.
The more you are alone the more you are convinced you are right. Feedback is a necessary part of the human progression of thought.
The internet's algorithms that put us alone, but within echo chambers of those sharing our delusions, are a massive regression of human evolution removing the requisite feedback from thought processing – thus enabling extremity.
Get out into the garden, WTB, and talk to the trees. Human to human discourse is as you say, WTB, but there are other conversations to be had; it's not as though other beings aren't talking to us, it's more a case of us having grown deaf to their voices 🙂
Don't patronise me with spiritual mumbo jumbo please.
I study communication of plants/insects/microbes. We were always deaf to their 'voices' only now beginning to understand the means by which they interact.
Got a mate doing a PhD trying to interpret birds… Hard task.
Sorry I was a bit harsh. I have little tolerance for this type of stuff met many people of many belief systems and there are those who live spiritual lives and those who use it as a mask or moral high ground to denigrate/disrupt others living.
We certainly need a better 'religion' than capitalism, so I do understand your attempts to introduce new ways of thinking/being to the TS readership.
A persons spiritual journey is their own. I've not read a single man-made interpretation of the spiritual realm that comes close to sensible.
Maybe we cannot put our finger on that which we cannot put our finger on, as it is a requisite property of the non-physical world.
I'm sure I didn't and I don't believe it is, but if you feel I did and it was, I'm sorry.
I'm studying communication between trees and forests and other beings; insects, mammals, including humans. From what I read, it's a wide and fascinating field of study. Birds-song, it's purpose and meaning along with it's relevance to humans, is also a study I'm involved in making, albeit at the level of an amateur, though there's some great material to be read and heard out there. I'd be interested to read your mate's PHD when it's finished.
I can't wait for the PhD he's the brightest young man I knew at Uni. Aced two degrees at once…
I have a few thoughts around bird communication but didn't want to distract him from his work. I am SOOO curious.
He's in Yellowstone for much of the work, lucky for some aye.
I was being overly-sensitive. No worries you know I struggle.
A spore of the fungus Botrytis cinerea can sense it sits atop a fruit and can then germinate and, using vacuum pressure, force a 'peg' into the side of the cell. Then the fungi releases a couple of assassins to take out the cells sentries, and a hacker to subvert the cells defense systems. The cell begins to attack itself. The fungi sends in armored vehicles that do bombing runs with reactive oxygen species to further force plant response until the cell is weakened by its own attacks and ultimately gives up the cell, allowing it to shut down and die. The dead cell is the actual goal of the fungi, it feeds the fungi, replenishing supplies for further attack.
Hey WTB you need to chill, also its not usually not a winning communication strategy to keep telling people how smart you are or you hang around with smart people as if smartness rubs off or like Likewise to belittle one moment and apologise the next as a regular occurrence This tends to be a real credibility killer
The whole of the west coast of Scotland is littered with such sites. Gigha is referred to by it's inhabitants as the "Isle of the gods", this was the stopping off place for the monks travelling from Ireland northward, and had a small settlement, part of which is still standing in the local graveyard. The Island itself is around 7 miles long, and about a mile wide. It was, at one stage, owned by the Horlicks of the malted milk drink "fame". Now it is under local inhabitants control under a trust, A law change about 20 years ago enabled islanders to take over control of their island homes where previously they had been tenants. Gigha was the first of the Islands to proceed with such a huge undertaking. It obviously needed financing and the Islanders came up with a novel and sustainable solution. They raised money for the purchase of three wind turbines for generating electricity to supply to the UK National grid. These wind turbines are affectionately known as the "Dancing Ladies". They have been so successful that they recently added a 4th and larger turbine to the mix.
My great grandparents lived on Gigha and only spoke the Gaelic.
Do you know the song "Westering Home"? It was composed by the local minister on Gigha around 1900.
Iona was the centre for early Christianity in Britain, and the place where St Columbus set up residence. The small buildings the monks built there are still there and the resident brindled cat (whose ancestor mewed thrice in the "Scottish Play") is a distant relation of my owner – so she informs me. 😼
"Celtic thought contributes magnificently to a philosophy of compassion, deriving from its sense that everything belongs in one diverse, living unity. On an ontological level, the exercise of compassion is the transfiguration of dualism: the separation of matter and spirit, masculine and feminine, body and soul, human and divine, person and animal, and person and element. The beauty of the Celtic tradition was that it managed to think and articulate all of these presences together in a profound, intimate unity. So, if compassion is a praxis which tries to bring that unity into explicit activity and presentation, then Celtic philosophy of unity contributes strongly to compassion."
I read of the Celtic legal system which concentrated on forgiveness and compensation in the 200-500 AD. Then the spread of Catholicism brought punishment and guilt and imprisonment and torture. Women had had an equal place in the society but that was then eroded.
That's really interesting, ianmac. There's a lot to be said for the idea that we are presently, again, under the influence of our base primate hierarchical male-dominant structure that is causing us to destroy ourselves and our fellow travellers through space, yet at times we were operating differently, with feminized society, Goddess influenced, love and compassion driven communities which, if still operating, would see us all living without wrecking the show. Your reference to the Celtic legal system sounds like this, although the one's I'm referring to are pre-historic.
competition, top-down dominance, bullying across the board, thuggish sports, the nuclear family structure just for starters.
It's tricky untangling the symbolic from the literal on this. In a symbolic sense order and hierarchy are allocated to the masculine gender, while it's opposite chaos and nature are considered feminine. Thus a society which has become excessively ordered and regimented can be thought of as 'male dominated', while the complete absence of social order in the natural world is symbolically couched in feminine terms, eg 'Mother Nature'.
Yet in literal terms there isn't a lot of difference between the sexes. Both men and women compete, will act out dominance games, bully (indeed women are arguably more prone to bullying than men) and invest heavily in the nuclear family.
I've long argued here that while men are somewhat more physically aggressive than women on average, women tend to be more emotionally manipulative and abusive. The differences are not huge, but on the whole both sexes are equally capable of aggression. To label this a 'male' problem is deeply misleading and unhelpful.
RedLogix – I think you are assessing the genders from within the matrix of the primate state I described. At the times when humans/hominids were outside of the matrix, all changed and what I described was the state of affairs, imo. It may be true, nowadays, that "there isn't a lot of difference between the sexes", but that not what I was talking about; I'm referring to primate behaviour .v. Goddess-people behaviour.
I'm referring to primate behaviour .v. Goddess-people behaviour.
To be honest I went through a similar line of thinking myself a while back and I acknowledge the appeal of this idea. Sadly my reading in the past decade or so just doesn't support it. Human behaviour prior to recorded history starts about 10,000 years ago is more reliably understood using biology, neurology, and evolutionary psychology tools, and none of this supports the notion of 'female dominated goddess cultures' utopias.
I'm going to link to this fascinating talk by Robert Sapolsky one of the foremost thinkers in this field. At over an hour long I don't expect anyone to watch it now, but it does offer a glimpse of how complex our relationship with 'primate' behaviour really is:
When you passed through that "similar line of thinking a while back", RedLogix, did you land for a moment on the Terrence McKenna description of the "stoned ape" and the communities they enjoyed; psilocybin-lively and stimulated groups with better visual acuity, higher libido and better hunting skills than their peers, thriving in a non-pairing breeding situation where male dominance was redundant, connections with the numinous were regular and life was good?
I don't have a dogmatic response to this; human history is way more complex than we even begin to suspect and even what we have discovered in the past few decades just scratches the surface.
McKenna is not the only one to have pointed to the potential role psychedelics may have had in human evolution. Even Peterson has spoken on the topic a few times, and there is a flourishing community of people out there experimenting with micro-dosing and similar. I recall commenting a month back on the potential they may have in treating trauma, dementia and other brain injuries. But whether they are causally linked to more peaceful less aggressive, less ego driven societies is not clear at all.
The 'Garden of Eden' mythology points to how old this idea is, that in our evolutionary history we existed in a paradise much closer to our primate condition. But a condition subject to nature not knowledge.
Broadly speaking the past 10,000 odd years has been a period of evolution characterised by our increasing ability to manipulate knowledge and build fabulously complex abstractions from it. eg quantum mechanics. We may well share a great deal in common with our primate cousins, but none of them have even remotely achieved this level of intellectual capacity.
What I do accept is that this process has necessarily forced us into a narrowing of our potential. In order to achieve excellence in one thing, we have had to sacrifice other capacities. Whatever we were 10,000 years ago, we are not the same creature that types on the internet.
I'm not trying to discredit what you are saying Robert, it has a validity. But it's wrong to frame it up as a female good vs male bad confrontation. There is a lot more nuance and symbolism to it than this.
I don't think I framed the ideas, "female good vs male bad' did I?
I assigned the present situation we "civilised" humans are experiencing as "base primate hierarchical male-dominant structure" and my wished-for state as " feminized society, Goddess influenced, love and compassion driven communities"
Do those descriptions equate with "female good, vs male bad" do you think?
It is a patriarchy we live in still. Things are changing slowly but we certainly need more feminine influence to lend balance.
Just look at how the right wing took to Jacinda, her sex was anathema. What she wore, that she's attractive, her reproductive abilities… How dare a woman get power!
Old boys clubs everywhere in all strata of society. Male dominated councils, churches, government, corporations, clubs, gangs, boards…
As I said, times are changing, but the Patriarchy has been taking humankind downhill for some time now.
Thanks Robert, but that wasn't quite my question… "male-dominant structure that is causing us to destroy ourselves"
What is the evidence that it is the 'maleness' that is causing the destruction?
Sure, there is a heap that is correlative, and many people always jump on that to claim causation. But as we all know from Issues101, correlation is not causation.
What is the evidence that it is the maleness that is causing it? I would have thought it is the inevitable 'advancement' of 'civilisation' that is causing it. And every society, male or female-dominant, has been on that path such as Maori for example, which pre-euro showed plenty of signs of going down the same path.
The whakataukī also show that Māori learned from the moa's extinction, Dr Wehi says.
"You can think about it as an ecological nuclear bomb – the moa was that important, its extinction had a huge impact.
"We see Māori really responding and talking about this extinction event and we see by the time Europeans arrived … there are a whole lot of environmental management techniques that have been put into place as a response to that kind of thing."
"You can see that now – in the way that Rakiura Māori manage the tītī (muttonbird) harvest, for example, there are lots and lots of different ways that they manage that harvest to make sure there are chicks for future generations.
Yeah thanks solkta, I have read ample. Species extinction happened and was happening. Like it is today despite recognition and action against in the same way
Yep – it was the same non gender hierarchy for Māori – all changed when Christians turned up, at the forefront of colonisation, with their concept of sin and male dominance.
Still the usual mens liberation army recruiters will say their sob stories of how they are the real victims. Pity some men cannot, for the LIFE of them, front up and take responsibility – they snigger as they weaken even more.
I am glad that you reference that to "Christians" marty mars and not men. There, I think, lie most of your targets. Shows good and proper thinking and less knee and jerk.
t.rump the brainbox – this is pretty poor when you consider the state of the planet and the thinking needed from here – sorta the opposite of the non-thinking of the don and the regurgitation of rubbish.
In a tweet, apparently commenting on his own administration’s space policy, the president said: “For all of the money we are spending, NASA should NOT be talking about going to the Moon – We did that 50 years ago.”
He added: “They should be focused on the much bigger things we are doing, including Mars (of which the Moon is a part), Defense and Science!”
… Irrespective of whether the moon is part of Mars (it isn’t), Trump’s announcement was doubly surprising given his previous enthusiasm for a moon trip. His criticism of Nasa for “talking about going to the moon” came just three weeks after Trump championed the idea of a lunar visit.
… but either way it soon emerged that Trump’s moon reversal may have been provoked by the Fox Business tv channel. One hour before the president offered his take on the moon’s origin and his criticism of Nasa, Fox guest Neil Cavuto had expressed scepticism over a moon trip.
Cavuto reportedly told the TV cable network that Nasa is “refocusing on the moon, the next sort of quest, if you will, but didn’t we do this moon thing quite a few decades ago?”
Regrettably that is his sole mode of "thinking". I fear he really is in early stages of dementia. He regularly will say the complete opposite of what he uttered only an hour previously. It is obvious that he has no understanding of what the outcomes of his decisions might be. Added to that is his complete lack of self awareness, and his overwhelming hubris. When added to his underlying principle motivation of greed, he is not only a danger to the US, but a threat to us all.
The saddest thing is however that the only person who could remove him from office , Myrtle McTurtle, is the most duplicitous person on the planet! Unlike Agent Orange he is in complete control of his faculties and understands completely what he is doing – and that is to keep this buffoon in office, as long as he can, so that he can feather his own (and his wife's) nest.
Yeah what do these people care about destroying any shred of credibility a country ever had. The fact the country is not filling the streets and shutting the place down (ironically the government is shutting itself down) lends little sympathy for the rest of them except, living under thumb it often pays to keep your head down (our teachers a classic example of this).
Post-Trump America will carry shame and guilt for a long time. And rightly so.
If they cannot now see they are led by murderers bullies liars and thieves it is because they don't want to see. The lie is the narrative.
White supremacies dying gasps. Cornered cowards stealing the silver before they run and hide. I hope they all get dragged out of the holes they'll hide in.
Assange's father was due to visit, had made a double booking, but was turned away because Assange had to be seen urgently by the prison doctor
And here RT has a video of Assange in Belmarsh , obviously out of date.Although he's thin, he's freely interacting with other prisoners, and seems ok.No verification of the video,how it was made, when it was made….the date stamp is clearly wrong..and how it was got out.
Jonasson said it was only when a 'planeload' of FBI agents arrived in August that he realized the true reason for their visit.
The former minister claims the FBI was seeking Iceland's 'cooperation in what I understood as an operation set up to frame Julian Assange and WikiLeaks'.
This is evidence that the FBI were indeed seeking ways to actively entrap Wikileaks. While it doesn't speak directly to what may or may not have happened in Sweden, it does confirm American intent to do entrap Assange in whatever manner possible.
Ordinarily that might count for something, but self-professed members of "Team Assange" have been confident enough to go public with utter bullshit ever since his first UK legal team claimed he was being investigated for "sex by surprise".
So in my view they're as reliable as RT or Fox&Friends.
Members of 'Team Assange' (including, apparently, former Icelandic minister Jonasson) are, in McFlock's view, as reliable as RT or Fox&Friends.
"As reliable as RT or Fox&Friends" when it comes to first-hand accounts of events relevant to Assange's behaviour and treatment, or "As reliable as RT or Fox&Friends" period? Either way, that's a surprisingly blinkered position to take. Apparently, to belong to ‘Team Assange’ marks one as inherently unreliable, in McFlock’s view.
And yet, if I was to state that anyone belonging to ‘Team anti-Assange’ was, in my view, as reliable as RT or Fox&Friends, I might be roundly criticised as being wildly off base.
Before becoming a member of the Althing, the Icelandic Parliament, Ögmundur Jónasson was a journalist engaged in trade union politics. In 1988 Mr. Jónasson became the chairman of BSRB, the Federation of state and municipal employees. A Left-Green Movement politician, he has held office as minister for health, minister for justice and human rights and minister for transport, communications and local government. The last two ministries were united to form the Ministry of the Interior at the beginning of 2011 and he became the first Icelandic minister for the interior.
But it's a shame that so many Assange supporters outright make shit up. Really hurts the credibility of his team (and that was the phrase from the article, not my invention).
Are you suggesting that because Pilger has, in your opinion, gone off the boil over the last two decades, Jonasson's first hand account (in a 7 Dec. 2016 interview) is unreliable?
It's a shame that so many Assange vilifiers outright make shit up – really hurts their credibility.
What I'm saying is that given the inaccuracy of pronouncements by other prominent people who strongly support Assange, interesting and possible claims from people I don't recall hearing of before require a bit more evidence before I'll bother regarding the claims as anything other than interesting and possible.
So the dude was a country's cabinet member once. So was John Banks.
John Banks is an interesting choice; Minister of Police, Minister of Tourism, and Minister of Sport. I'm not seeing the overlap. Maybe they're all as bad as each other, but I'm going to go out on a limb here and speculate that Jonasson and Banks hold incompatible views on Assange, and that your views are closer to Banks’.
Before becoming a member of the Althing, the Icelandic Parliament, Ögmundur Jónasson was a journalist engaged in trade union politics. In 1988 Mr. Jónasson became the chairman of BSRB, the Federation of state and municipal employees. A Left-Green Movement politician, he has held office as minister for health, minister for justice and human rights and minister for transport, communications and local government. The last two ministries were united to form the Ministry of the Interior at the beginning of 2011 and he became the first Icelandic minister for the interior.
So ex-politicians can lie or misinterpret things, but not if they support Assange? Seems a bit circular: he supports Assange so I should believe his claims in support of Assange.
Let me put it this way: he might have had some weight if so many other claims in support of Assange hadn't been complete bullshit.
So in essence your strategy is to demand evidence and when it is provided merely assert that it is just made up. Well two can play that game; what evidence do you have that Jonasson is lying?
Is what he claims about the FBI somehow impossible, or implausible even? Is it logical impossible or incommensurate with reality? Has someone else come forward with a contradictory claim on the meeting? Do you have anything other than a smear?
So in essence your strategy is to demand evidence and when it is provided merely assert that it is just made up. Well two can play that game; what evidence do you have that Jonasson is lying?
Is what he claims about the FBI somehow impossible, or implausible even? Is it logical impossible or incommensurate with reality? Has someone else come forward with a contradictory claim on the meeting? Do you have anything other than a smear?
I have no idea whether it is or not, that is the point. It's an interesting statement that might or might not be true, but the source is completely unfamiliar to me other than what is here and in the article. And given the behaviour of his fellow team-mates, the odds are pretty even either way.
That a tiny country like Iceland can stand up to a major league bully like the US is inspiring
Thats the point
And if Jonasson declaring he was pro Assange/Wikileaks puts him out of the credibility range, then you, who are so adamantly and reliably anti Assange are also out of the running
That's not logical, f, unless the folk who think he should have fronted up to Sweden to face the allegations told as many demonstrable and outright lies as "Team Assange".
Started with his british lawyer talking about "sex by surprise". Includes the claim that red notices are only for terrorists and serious criminals (nice minimisation there). The deliberate muddying of his status regarding charges. The accusation that it's all an invention by the CIA – categorical unsubstantiated assertions of innocence are as bad as those of guilt.
Most of what you say, but I accept those might be delusions rather than outright lies.
You're a notorious smearer, so your "delusion" smears—you use that almost as freely and carelessly as you fire the word "rape" around—carry as much weight as your snickering endorsement of a lightweight contributer's allegation that I was anti-African American and anti-Semitic for daring to criticize Paul Wolfowitz, Norman Schwarzkopf, and Colin Powell.
And then there are those who talk of Assange "scarpering" from Sweden when he was free to leave, those who insisted that it was Assange prolonging the case, when it turns out the Swedes could just as easily have questioned him in the UK but were strongly advised by the UK not to.
That somehow Ecuador frivolously gave political asylum so an alleged rapist could avoid questioning….again Ecuador was open to Assange being questioned in the Embassy, as was Assange.No avoidance except on the part of the Swedish prosecutor(rapped over the knuckles by the Appeal Court too)
And your "team " has had nothing to say about the way political asylum was so egregiously violated
That has repercussions beyond Assange, just as the US indictments have emboldened the Australian spooks/police? you be the judge ..to violate the protections journalists have up until now enjoyed in the "free" world
And members of your "team " have also equated the alleged offense with violent sexual assault. Suzie Dawson is particularly good on this , as are many victims of violent rape.To conflate the two does a huge disservice .
Anyway McFlock, silly for us to be so insistent .We are very unlikely to convince each other with this unseemly tit for tat
I leave you in peace….and will be quite happy for you to have the last word…
Thanks Francesca. I found your comment by using the new updated search hooray! (I am supposed to be just spending a few minutes here before I have to dash out and would otherwise not have seen it. A search that works is better than chocolates at Christmas.)
Here's another report of the Lakeview situation, make what you will of it but there are various realities. The pitfalls or leasehold, and expiry of said lease, being front and centre
The default "affordable housing" in Queenstown has always been what is scheduled for demolition and redevelopment this or next cycle. The Lakeview cabins have been in that category from mid – late 80's but being Council endownment land it's always been knocked back after many development proposals. It's probably the most valuable site in Queenstown but there are some fishhooks in the tenure and difficult for the Council to realise any value. Ideally it would have been sold to a hotel developer and the funds put into a huge social housing development on cheaper land. There's plenty of option for that sort of build.
But the rub is that you can build social housing profitably but not run it, or run it profitably but not build it, but not both. The nightmare is running the thing because of Queenstown's unique social character. There is a housing trust that does a fantastic job with a shared ownership model and several private worker accomodation facilities but waiting lists are long and selection criteria and conditions are onerous. The change in tourism focus away from cheap mass market tours will see a few hotels at the bottom of the market move to long term accomodation which will help things a lot.
The issue is as much demand side as supply, all the demand is from people who have moved here in the last few years (or weeks). We are as much "over localled" as we are "over touristed". Current economy is tourism, which is going well from our perspective, just changing. And building houses to house people to build more houses, which could come a gutsa very soon.
And then we won't have an accomodation problem for a while.
"The secretary of the Treasury came to my office and said there had been 2000 attempts to hack – his word – into the Treasury system. I'm going to take that very seriously. What we learn in hindsight will come through in the [State Services Commission] inquiry.
Not sure if Andrew Little has helped the situation with his comments last night to HDPA on One ZB. He's basically said he passed on the info. that there was no hack in a timely manner
Given that none of the people involved actually know what they mean when they say "hacked," and that saying "not hacked" is a long way from saying "not a criminal offence," the take-home messages are that government officials need to be a lot more careful about their language when they speak to the media, and this possible criminal offence needs to be properly investigated. Can't imagine Paula Bennett writing any letters demanding the latter, though.
The nuance being it was no hack of government systems but still reason enough to involve police.
But to dumb it down, call the investigation of the accessing of confidential government information on Treasury servers a hack.
I suspect Makhlouf wanted police to identify whose computer was involved and to look at laying charges under deliberate accessing of confidential information.
An outline of the argument that National's actions were illegal.
I am in no doubt that is exactly what happened and it showed in Robertson's demeanour after Bridges’ accusation surfaced. He looked nonplussed. Add to that, my understanding is the GCSB head rang Andrew Little after the Treasury secretary reported to Robertson he had called in the police.
There was no conspiracy on anyone's part – just unfortunate timing and in the case of the Treasury secretary maybe a difference of opinion. He clearly believed what happened constituted a hack, and judging from the wording of the legislation he could be right. Just because it didn't fall into the criteria required for the GCSB to become involved, doesn't mean the attempt to extract figures in advance would not qualify as unlawful.
The police, as usual, couldn't wait to drop the case. I wonder if it was the same crew who jumped in bright eyed and bushy-tailed when they saw an opportunity to bring down Nicky Hager over "Dirty Politics"?
It's not surprising that the GCSB head would contact his Minister after concluding there was no hack of government systems.
What is interesting are the conflicting reports about the matter at the Herald. He is being portrayed as heroically trying to warn the governement of the "false" account of Makhlouf (as if they knew what he was going to say in his public statement in advance of it …. how, spying on Makhlouf's office or his meerting with Robertson or both?).
The thing is, the hair width gap in story. Makhlouf acknowledged it was not a hack of government systems that would concern GCSB, but was advised to take it to police (the issue here will be by whom) – presumably as accessing confidential information was still illegal.
Apparently the concern of GCSB that it not be called a hack, is because it was National what done it and I for one suspect GCSB knew that and then – and yet told no Minister about this and yet were concerend they not be blamed by National for police being called in to investiugate a "hack". Concerned enough to leak stuff to the Herald, so National know who their mates are.
Aha… the squirrels and hares all running for cover as fast as their legs can carry them. I, too suspect Makhlouf may well be the scapegoat in this affair.
We can only hope the SSC inquiry gets to the bottom of it in a timely manner before innocent individuals get cauterized for simply being who they are, or find themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time.
In the meantime the real perpetrators of the crime – or at best dishonourable and dirty political behaviour – are being let off the hook by certain partisan journalist hacks.
Tom Pullar-Strecker makes the very good point that it is not the Police or the GCSB who says what is lawful and what is not, it is the judiciary.
The National Party, led now by Paula Benefit furiously writing letter after letter to the SSC and to the media, are trying to divert attention away from their initial misdemeanour, and are wanting desperately to keep the focus on some cast iron definition of the word 'hack'.
I think it's too late for the Nats and their followers because this budget is now well and truely known as the 'hacked budget' and evidence of that is the liberal sprinkling of the word in every single article you read.
The last two paragraphs of that good Opinion piece:
To stay on the safe side, if you find information online on a computer system, especially government information, that you know the owner of that computer system would be surprised and furious you had access to – unless you are willing to take a risk for some sort of whistleblowing mission – my advice would be to navigate away.
Accessing a computer system for a "dishonest purpose" is a separate crime punishable with up to a seven year jail term, by the way, so quite clearly a no-no.
In my view, accessing the cloned Budget 2019 website 2,000 times over 48 hours clearly suggest a wilful intent and purpose. It is a matter of opinion what the nature of this purpose was; I have mine and others have theirs. The subsequent actions of the responsible Party speak volumes.
Patman says the idea of two great rivals squaring off is appealingly simplistic. But another reason it is quite wrong is the world system has reached a point in its development where its biggest issues are truly global.
"Think of all the problems the US, New Zealand and China face together. Like climate change. Can any one country unilaterally resolve climate change? No it can't. What about the global economy? Can any one country resolve the economic problems of the world? No it can't."
Patman says the same applies with terrorism, drugs, pandemics, and any other ill which transcends national borders.
I'm not the only person who has criticized Patman for being a patsy. (Sorry, couldn't resist that.) Whether or not he will be humbled by this writer, i.e., moi, is not clear. I haven't heard back from him. I have, however, most definitely heard back from: Michael Laws [1], Leighton Smith [2], a foamingly angry Kerre Woodham [3], and Brian Edwards [4].
And I most definitely rattled the ACT crank and S.S. counsel Stephen Franks, who threatened me with a libel suit for this email to Noelle McCarthy….
March 12, 2010
Dear Noelle,
Since "knife crime" is one of the issues for discussion on today's edition of The Panel, could you ask Stephen Franks, who is an avowed supporter of the Sensible Sentencing Trust, to say why he and the other members of the Trust endorsed the knife killing of schoolboy Pihema Cameron in 2008. Does Mr Franks endorse Garth McVicar's description of Pihema Cameron's killer as "a decent hard working citizen" who "is facing a murder charge because of his frustration over this issue”?
Please give this letter to Mr Franks if you do not ask him this question yourself.
Reading the parliamentary extract below I'm reminded of the Fallout game intro:
"War. War never changes.
The Romans waged war to gather slaves and wealth. Spain built an empire from its lust for gold and territory. Hitler shaped a battered Germany into an economic superpower.
But war never changes.
In the 21st century, war was still waged over the resources that could be acquired. Only this time, the spoils of war were also its weapons: Petroleum and Uranium. For these resources,China would invade Alaska, the US would annex Canada, and the European Commonwealth would dissolve into quarrelling, bickering nation-states, bent on controlling the last remaining resources on Earth."
Politics in New Zealand in modern times never changes either. Since the 70's we have lost the notion of socialist type reform, of community, of resistance to capitalism which consistently and vigorously attacks any notion of mutual support through taxation. Housing is part of that malaise.
Parliamentary Debates, Volume 382
"but it is also a simple fact that at the time of the general election New Zealand was psychologically sick after 12 years of National Party administration
There is no question about that Confidence had been eroded to the point of completely disappearing in many sectors of our economy By the end of 1972 we had unemployment at a level seldom experienced except under a National Administration since the 1930s.
Home building was lagging despite the needs of the people from one end of the country to the other This afternoon I cited the fall off for example in State housing from the 2,320 units built in 1960 to the miserable 760 units built in 1972.
The future of that industry was so uncertain that no fewer than 4,000 skilled tradesmen opted out of the industry and left it in a state where obviously there will be some difficulty initially in getting it back to a position where it can do the job that is so desperately needed at present."
Labour in it's 80's shift to the right is part of this problem. It's affordable housing policy was a nonsense to the half of the population earning below the median wage, particularly with the failure to recognise that cost of the land made the notion of affordability a nonsense. The simple solution of the state owning the land underneath the house in perpetuity if you really wanted people to own their "house" clashes with the capitalist notion of the land being an asset and having an appreciating value (until the state sells it to the capitalists where it is suddenly worth a lot less at point of sale and a lot more the day after)"
That earlier politicians recognised the need for the state to intervene in the market to house the working and non-working population, to remove the slum landlords, to reduce market house price escalation and rent subsidisation and to reduce homelessness and that our modern politicians cannot see this says a lot about how modern (neo-liberal) capitalist thought is ever persuasive and promoted as common sense.
These past working interventions were not designed by the capitalists – they were designed by the socialists, the unions and the communists. These are the people who should be getting consulted now – not the capitalists nor the neo-liberal Harvard trained economists. These people want to dismantle socialist policies and have the market provide solutions.Remember part of the dismantling of Maori culture was because it was seen by the capitalists as being "communistic" with it's greater sense of community over individual.
It's no use decrying the slum landlords, the motel owners, the camp ground owners, the greedy landlords charging $300-00 a week for a room – they are doing exactly what a capitalistic, market driven economy would drive them to do – they are as economic theory goes being entirely rational. How can I make the maximum profit for the least cost? I have no doubt the wealthy will be jumping on the motel bandwagon as they can.
(Seems interesting that the hotel/motel accommodation survey was reported as being stopped by MBIE at a time we are filling motels up with homeless people. How will we know how many bed nights are tourists vs homeless?)
The churches, in their rational charitable way, are jumping in on the act as well – putting their hands out to help the left behind, making money along the way, imposing their own virtuous rules on those "fortunate" enough to come under their stewardship as they look back on the glory days of poor houses and workhouses and homes for unmarried mothers.
I always note that neither churches nor capitalists like paying tax – they are not strange bed-fellows at all and quite happily spoon together under the blankets of righteousness and respectability.
And while we continue to stay within the current capitalist paradigms of knowing the price of everything but the value of nothing, while we continue to look for capitalistic solutions, while we fail to actually change the system that exists will continue to get market rational behaviours.
So like war, politics at least since the 70's doesn't really seem to change either.
Labour trots out it's slogans:
2012 was the year of the manifesto.
2013 was supposed to be the year of the policy…..
2019 year of delivery
and then underwhelms.
That the discourse mainly is about helping individuals is symptomatic of the prevalence of capitalistic and religious thought.
This was highlighted back in 2012 by a worker who articulated the systemic change that had occurred far better than any politician.
But poverty was formerly a mark against society, now it is seen as an individual's failure, Salesa said.
"For a long time, living in a state house and working in a factory was a badge of honour. If you did a hard day's work you deserved to live in a good house and live a life of dignity," said Salesa, whose father was a factory worker with Fisher and Paykel.
"Being poor in New Zealand, the first thing you don't get is dignity."
A thoughtful comment. Perhaps I can select this as the pivot:
But poverty was formerly a mark against society, now it is seen as an individual's failure, Salesa said.
Left vs right wing politics has long been marked out as a debate over these two influences. Yet it always seemed obvious to me that this was not an 'either/or' choice, that both individual failure and social failure would have a mutually interdependence on each other. Or to put it in starker terms, the optimum way to mitigate poverty is to pursue both individual and social excellence.
Progressive people will rightly look at the decades of neo-liberalism with it's punitive welfare policies and point to the increasing mess of dysfunction build up at the bottom of our society. Poor housing, educational failure, aggression, drugs, mental and physical health failures, crime … the old familiar list.
Conservative people say that unless the individual is willing to change, to take some responsibility in extracting themselves from the mess they're in … then no amount of do-gooding welfare or social help will make much difference. They rightly argue that welfare easily becomes a multi-generational poverty trap that's exceedingly hard to break.
Forty years of neo-liberalism has tilted us towards a harsher, judgemental view of poverty that strips away the dignity and demonises the weakest and most vulnerable in our society. It's clear which way the pendulum must move. Yet, as the Meritia Turei debacle clearly shows, as a society we remain resistant to change. No-one argues for poverty, no-one wants to see social dysfunction, but this conventional left/right wing framing of the issue had demonstrably taken us nowhere.
"Yet it always seemed obvious to me that this was not an 'either/or' choice, that both individual failure and social failure would have a mutually interdependence on each other. Or to put it in starker terms, the optimum way to mitigate poverty is to pursue both individual and social excellence."
The difficulty I see if that the conventional framing is dominated by capitalist framing and structural organisation. It's like a generation earlier than myself saying they had no welfare system. Well they did – it was called a job in the public service. The public service took on school leavers whether they needed them or not, the public service employed people with disabilities – people for whom the profit driven private sector didn't have jobs for. It was called free education, family benefit and so on.
Importantly it was underpinned by a sense of community well-being as an overarching goal. Education was free as it was recognised as a community good – not just an individual good.
You can have both. Lets take something like rail. Lets say, without any complex analysis at this point that rail has both a community good – providing business and the public with necessary infrastructure to enable the country to operate and a private good – enables individuals to travel and businesses take a profit.Let's say it's 50/50. The notion that there is both a public and a private good moves us away from an either or situation where either the state runs rail or it's run for purely a profit.
The conversation and the conceptualisation that it's both is what I see as important.
I think formerly we understood that there was a balance. Today the pendulum is towards individualism and capitalism and immediate reward.
The irony of course in the Meritia Turei situation, and with many others committing fraud, is that economically they too are behaving entirely rationally. The selective moralising I saw at the time (people complaining about benefit fraud while paying tradesman to do cash jobs to get a cheaper price for instance) was somewhat astounding and hypocritical.
We need a much stronger swing towards socialistic / community based outcomes without the fear mongering that the right like to use when such things are discussed. By not calling it socialism we would simply need to find new words for the same thing and let the capitalists define the world in their terms.
Labour however can't just lead the discourse, they need to actually change things.
The biggest disappointment for me at this point is the refusal to increase benefit rates. At least two previous royal commissions as well as the welfare advisory group recommended that this be done. None of the governments in charge at any of those points of recommendation have done so. In that respect the politics wins out over the dignity of those on benefit – as it did when Helen Clark's government put the $20-00 per week back on NZS but not on benefit.
We need a much stronger swing towards socialistic / community based outcomes without the fear mongering that the right like to use when such things are discussed.
Exactly. This prompts me to reframe it slightly, “how do we achieve this swing while winning the support and confidence of the the right? “The answer seems obvious when we put it like that … when the left demands better social support and community outcomes we must simultaneously link it to better individual outcomes. The right doesn't really like poverty any more than we do, but while the left prioritises it, the right will never vote for programs that do little but entrench it.
Understanding right wingers is crucial to gaining their support; and the parable that means much to them is this one, 'give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach him to fish and you will feed him for life'. In other words people who get their shit together will on average look after themselves better than those who don't.
It is a mistake to make social support conditional, I'm a big fan of universality. But this does not rule out also insisting on universal social participation, as Ardern I think put it, everyone should be either 'earning, learning, caring or volunteering'. This is a very powerful idea we could pay a lot more attention to.
But yes what you are saying is strong, straightforward leftwing advocacy, that makes perfect sense to people here at TS, but needs refining if it's going to work in the wider community. This govts apparent failure to address benefit rates should really be seen in that context.
Today we reveal the shocking situation one family of seven is currently facing with trying to find a home in our current housing crisis. Their plight is sad – especially given their special circumstances – but it is reality for many people struggling to find roofs over their heads. They have no power, no running water and are living in a situation most people would find difficult for a weekend let alone months on end. Reporter Kelly Makiha talks to the family about how they cope with day-to-day life…….
While families are living in tents and cars, at last count there were 33, 000 perfectly serviceable homes standing empty in Auckland alone.
The world and NZ have become far more complicated than the 60's -80's yet we seem to be applying a govt funding model based on these times to fund a 2020 world.
Yet the commercial/free market world is happy to off load many responsibilities eg wages funded by WFF, tourism and inadequate infrastructure, intensive farming/fishing and deterioration of environment etc.
So who pays for this gap – or is there ever increasing stress on "the system" and we are now seeing this stress manifest for the 1st time in that the current generation facing the fact that the previous generation has had it better ?
A recent investigation by Stuff, coupled with information obtained through the Ministry of Social Development shows that a single motel which charges up to $1,500 per week per room has received over $3 million worth of Government funds to provide emergency assistance, despite never having a Code Compliance Certificate – an offence under the Building Act – and receiving a series of longstanding complaints from occupants regarding the sanitary and safety conditions of the premises. From the period of December 2016 to June 2018 the Government has handed out over $61.7 million worth of Emergency Housing Special Needs grants to motels without putting in place standards to ensure the Emergency Accommodation providers are providing a safe place for homeless people to stay.
Despite criticism from Labour and other parties when in opposition about using motels for emergency accommodation, the current Government has not introduced any measures to proactively ensure contracted motels meet basic criteria of safety for tenants…..
[Is it necessary to bold the whole quotation? I’ve unbolded it – Incognito]
A-mazing. The trouble with government finances is that there are too many separate pockets to dip into. Something can't be funded out of this pocket. But another pocket seems to have unlimited funds.
There is the wages pocket that has a limit so only skeleton staff can be employed to try to manage necessary duties, but then there is pay-the-contractors' pocket which is quite plump and amenable to being squeezed. There is probably a funny skit on this on youtube somewhere, perhaps in Yes Minister or the Simpsons.
Yes, I suppose that’s a possibility but my technical ignorance prevents me from going any further 😉 It doesn’t seem to happen too often, luckily, and it seems to happen more to some than to others …
Maybe J – HtGt? did try to fix it??
Anyway, it’s not a biggie IMO, just easier on the eye.
FYI, as far as I can tell, DMK is not a sockpoppet.
Mike Smith in his Dispatch seems a bit upset. For Britain, which is now a mere Fossil, has sworn itself to the total Power of the United States.
Donald Madman Trump Says Smith " has shown his hand by meeting with Johnson, Gove and Farage. God help us."
Men of no Standing. No Matter. For all the English citizens are now dishelved suckers wanting to suckle and dribble at the Tits of Trump.
Every bit of Trade in Britain will be sacked and splintered by the Gluttonous USA. Especially – National Health.
Neither will The Planet Earth be able to cope with Amercan Pollution. For the Monkey Idiots that comprise the United States would rather Kill Planet Earth than do anything else.
Americans are the Enemy of not only the Earth, but of Reason itself.
Look out Children!. You are in the hands of murderous Mr Trump and his weird family.
Canterbury Cowards? What a weak decision by NZ rugby not to change the team's name. If the team prides itself on excellence, leadership, culture then this decision surely stuffs that all up.
"The reality is that adidas have got to make jerseys, there's merchandising and that sort of stuff,"
Yeah, so you need to get on with deciding on a new logo/brand and then would have to email that to your clothing suppliers. Lol, OMG too hard!
A couple of days ago I heard some fools on RNZ National's Panel programme praising Chairman Tew's "stewardship" of the game. This sort of spinelessness behaviour belies that view.
disgusting creeps – the crusaders = sexual harassment, toxic male attitudes and booze culture compulsory – join up and pretend cos it's easier than trying to solve the problem – drink yourself for bliss forget about the last one get yourself another…
that is ridiculous – you have said they are have the most scandal free record but what does that mean – the rest had 2 scandals a month and the crusaders only had 1 a month.
yeah I'm silly and here is the first link on the search – lol
"As an investigation gets underway into the South African allegations against Richie Mo'unga and George Bridge, their playing futures are clear for now.
On Tuesday, Crusaders chief executive Colin Mansbridge confirmed that both Bridge and Mo'unga would be available for selection against the Blues this weekend.
who cares about political parties – why not just admit you were barking up the wrong tailpipe instead of going off on all these irrelevant tangents – no one is fooled – makes you look sly and untrustworthy.
the name is meaningless – it is made up – it relates to nothing other than some marketing alliteration. But the rugby fans desperate for some relevancy in today's world hold the stupid name close – why?
The other aspect is that this debate has been going on much longer than the events in Christchurch. The world is bigger than this rugby team – Middlesex cricket being but one example that removed Crusaders from its name a few years back.
The KKK magazine has always been known as The Crusader which seems to serendipitously fit nicely with the country's skinhead capital.
I can't see why they don't just change it. Tis just a marketing gimmick.
Change it to the Canterbury Knights or something similar and they can still have their outfits and their horses and Knights are generally well regarded. Easy peasy, no need for fainting and wringing of hands.
The two women left needing hospital treatment after they were attacked on a bus in a homophobic assault have blamed a rise in rightwing populism for growing hate crime and called on people to stand up for each other.
… “I was and still am angry. It was scary, but this is not a novel situation,” said Chris. “I’m not scared about being visibly queer. If anything, you should do it more.
“A lot of people’s rights and basic safety are at risk. I want people to feel emboldened to stand up to the same people who feel emboldened by the rightwing populism that is, I feel, responsible for the escalation in hate crimes,” she told the BBC in a televised interview. “I want people to take away from this that they should stand up for themselves and each other.”
Geymonat added: “The violence is not only because we are women which are dating each other. It’s also because we are women.”
After this point Robertson makes his call for National not to use the information it has and that the Treasury have referred a hacking complaint to police. And apparently still before Little has informed him of his contact with GCSB.
National is angry at the idea (and they take it personally because they did go and get the information off the Treasury site and are guilty of deliberately accessing confidential information) of it being called a hack, apparently they and GCSB sing off the same song chart as to what is a hack and what is not a hack (witness the Assange legal case in the USA).
National had conspired to force an offer of resignation from Robertson (form when budget info is leaked), and to keep focus on him and away from themselves and their actions they claim to be victims of dirty politics (we can see who dances to their tune in the Herald's coverage) – they accuse Robertson of accusing them of hacking (no one had accused anyone of hacking, but National was not ready to admit they had gathered the confidential information albeit by a means they did not accept was hacking).
Now with the apparent help of a leak form the GCSB, the Herald is promoting the line that Ministers knew because one Minister was informed by GCSB. IMO the lack of regard for confidentiality of information displayed by both National and GCSB is of concern. We know what Paula Bennett did with confidential information when Minister etc.
National are desperate for the language to be steered away from the word 'hack', and that is what has incensed them from the beginning – the idea that anyone could think their motives and method were not pure.
The noise of the past week, as you say, is their attempt at keeping the focus away from their original misadventure.
Agree that the leaks and statements coming out of the GCSB are hugely concerning. They are paid to listen, not talk.
If he had an ounce of self-reflection Bridges would be channelling the anger at himself that he turned a gift story about budget infosec into a fucking semantic debate about the meaning of the word "hack".
Last night on OM I wondered about a leaker in the GCSB. The media seems to know an awful lot about what Ministers had been told and when. Andrew Little was contacted by GCSB but he may not have known about Makhlouf and Robertson’s conversation. Didn’t the GCSB tell Treasury that it was a matter for the Police? Anyway, all this conveniently distracts away from the people who started all this in the first place.
Yes, the early reports indicated GCSB did not see it as a government systems hack, but something specific to attempts to access info off the Treasury site and something for the police to look into … . The confidentiality of government information side of the law, which police could not be bothered with – wonder how they will feel if its their information next time (early this century DPF managed to pull a similar gathering of information about police statistics before they were released, on Kiwiblog he posted about this when this story broke in budget week).
The terrible tragedy of the Zero Carbon Act; is consensus between all the parties on climate change, means that voters will be denied a chance to decide between the parties on this issue. And again, despite the growing urgency, climate change will again not be debated on the hustings for another electoral cycle.
……worrying about "consensus" with Denier National is unnecessary. Instead, the government should legislate the strongest bill NZ First will allow them to – and dare National to oppose it. If they do, paint them truthfully as the party of denial, delay, and do nothing, and voters will do the rest.
Democracy, the theory where a nation of people too fucking stupid to put down their phones while driving through torrential rain in three lanes of highway traffic are qualified to pick the government of a nuclear armed nation.
Even 25 years ago, almost all the engineering I got involved in in the US was done in metric. But I still get a giggle out of having to express the result of a test in newtons per pound.
(it was the slope of a curve, before all you nerds out there try to tell me it's a constant 4.448)
lol I still remember my first physics lecture – Naturally it was on units. Part of the first assignment was to convert miles per gallon into per acres! Buggered if I'm going to work out the conversion factor for you. now tho. 🙂
Mind you I remember when we were "forced" – forced I tell you! by that UltraRight Muldoon to move from our sacred and oh so blessed LSD (Pounds, Shillings, and Pence) not acid on 1 July 1967. I still have that jingle in my head. It caused huge relief to all school pupils who suddenly no longer had to calculate the cost of 12 men working 8 hours at 5 shillings and fourpence h'penny per hour. And great anguish to a multitude of teachers who now had to dream up an even more tangled question for a far more simplified money system.
The fact is the 'merican gallon is different from what was the British Imperial Gallon as well! I would have thought that 'merica was the ideal place for a simplified system of measurement. Certainly if the"knowledge" of their "President" is anything to go by.
Hope they don’t find out the US Armed Forces moved largely to the metric system for interoperability purposes. Liberia and Myanmar and US the only nations resisting the “tyranny of the French revolutionaries.” I thought this interview was a put on gag. https://t.co/U52E3Ax1LW
Whenever any American colleagues would whine about having trouble with the metric system, I used to wind them up by asking why they were so fixated on using some weird measurement system dreamed up by some mad english king that was so inbred he had six toes on each foot and hand, which is why there are 12 inches in a foot. Nobody ever called bullshit.
Is it really "a nation of people" that's stupid? Or is it that the political class treats them with no respect?
Look at the "choice" they were "given" by the Republican and Democratic Parties at the last presidential election. Do you blame the "nation of people" for that, or do you blame the likes of Nancy Pelosi and Debbie Wasserman Schultz?
Much of the fighting was about Nader’s past crimes in the Czech Republic. His lawyers didn’t want prosecutors to bring it up. (They did.) The judge grilled Nader’s lawyer, who was forced to concede that Nader had a sexual relationship with two underage boys in the Czech Republic.
This is worrying concerning NZ intellectual archives and memory. We don't want to find outselves to be in the position of a determinedly ignorant leader caring nothing about our accumulated valuable records as in Canada's past Prime Minister Stephen Harper. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Harper
Behind the scenes at Te Papa : Lionel Carter & Mike Rudge
,,,the Board bears an obligation to maintain the resources and the necessary discipline-specific skills. After all, its own Statement of Intent states the museum will “maintain collections to the highest possible standard.”
The Board of Te Papa comprises people mostly qualified in subjects such as law, finance and public affairs, not in science or, in particular, biology. (A temporary exception was the tenure of Sir Peter Gluckman, a paediatrician.
Te Papa restructurings 2012-2018
The restructuring proposed in 2018 was the third in five years. A restructuring in 2012 reduced the number of staff managing the natural history collections by roughly 50% as indicated in the graph below. The proposals in 2018 cut a further 50%. These are not trivial figures. Even worse, people, with specialised expertise and institutional memory are being replaced by inexperienced generalists.
Generic managers and executives – out. Bean-counters and accountants – out.
This set of adjectives – do they describe our present persons of powerful positions?
philistine – a person who is hostile or indifferent to culture and the arts.
"I am a complete philistine when it comes to paintings"
synonyms:lowbrow, anti-intellectual, materialist, bourgeois; boor, ignoramus, lout, oaf, barbarian, primitive, savage, brute, yahoo, vulgarian
"Generic managers and executives – out. Bean-counters and accountants – out.
This set of adjectives – do they describe our present persons of powerful positions?
philistine – a person who is hostile or indifferent to culture and the arts." ……..
………. a big reason why this coalition can never be transformational and 'kind' until they tackle that problem. Not just in the arts.
Incognito had a good post the other day (Politicians Don't Know Jack). See comment12 at bottom
Uber’s longer-term goal was to eliminate all meaningful competition and then profit from this quasi-monopoly power. While it has already begun using some of this artificial power to suppress driver wages, it has not achieved the Facebook- or Amazon-type “platform” power it hoped to exploit. Given that both sustainable profits and true industry dominance seemed unachievable, Uber’s investors decided to take the company public, based on the hope that enough gullible investors still believe that the company’s rapid growth and popularity are the result of powerfully efficient innovations and do not care about its inability to generate profits.
These beliefs about Uber’s corporate value were created entirely out of thin air. This is not a case of a company with a reasonably sound operating business that has managed to inflate stock market expectations a bit. This is a case of a massive valuation that has no relationship to any economic fundamentals. Uber has no competitive efficiency advantages, operates in an industry with few barriers to entry, and has lost more than $14 billion in the previous four years. But its narratives convinced most people in the media, investment, and tech worlds that it is the most valuable transportation company on the planet and the second most valuable start-up IPO in U.S. history (after Facebook).
..and a real life example of what people have been saying for years; real profit comes out of workers wages.
Uber’s entry substantially increased the demand for drivers. If labor markets worked as predicted by economic theory, this should have significantly increased driver take-home pay and improved working conditions. Instead, Uber exploited artificial market power to subvert normal market dynamics.
[…]
Starting in 2015, Uber eliminated most of the incentives it had used to attract drivers and unilaterally raised its share of passenger fares from 20 percent to 25–30 percent. Almost all of Uber’s margin improvement since 2015 is explained by this reduction of driver compensation down to minimum wage levels, not by improved efficiency. These unilateral compensation cuts resulted in a direct wealth transfer from labor to capital of over $3 billion.
In NZ Uber flouts and is non-compliant with nearly all passenger service requirements and laws …
Some examples being …..
A passenger service class of drivers license , which involves a police check,,,, Land Transport photo identification, and a compulsory defensive driving course before sitting the license.
Log book requirements and rules on how many hours driving before compulsory rest periods ….. how many hours out of 24 you are permitted to work.
Passenger service vehicles have more stringent warrant of fitness safety inspections, which can only be done at a VINZ testing station….
I presume they flout the laws in other countries as well …. leading one to ask how they have got away with it.
The answer seems to be their existence and growth has occured while the poms , Canada the Aussies and NZ ….. had right wing or conservative Governments in charge . Deregulation is in their blood.
The fact that Uber has also attacked their workers pay and conditions , as well as those across the industry …. also dovetails with right wing politics.
I do wonder what creative sham they use, to exempt themselves from our NZ transport laws though…
Eco Maori say in reality to save the Papatuanuku (as we know) save it our future from a huge MESS men are creating we must EMPOWER Wahine women.
They are the intelligence human special half of humanity they give us life we must give them respect responsiblity and that =equality for Wahine = happy healthy future.
I did not realize it was World Ocean day yesterday ka pai we need to have a culture that respect Our Ocean.
To save the oceans, we must first empower women
Rather, there is a necessary cultural shift that needs to be undertaken to highlight the equal value of a woman's input when it comes to sustainable management. While this may sound like an insurmountable task, the power of an individual to make waves cannot be overemphasized.
My own journey has been greatly influenced by strong role models such as Sylvia Earle and Rachel Carson, marine biologists who made their voices heard when gender inequality was even more prevalent.
In 1970, Earle led the first all-female team of aquanauts and later became the first female chief scientist at the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration link below ka kite ano.
Our Labour lead Coalition governments has delivered a lot of good policy for the common people tangata whenua make up a big portion of the common people so we are getting a better deal from this government. Money for helping papa kainga is very good I see all the whanau whare in need of Maintenance.
The preservation of tangata whenua art of weaving clokes in Pukekohe ka pai Emily White for your mahi in teaching others to weave clokes ka pai teaching pakiha anyone one who likes to learn the great Art .
Its carbon fuels we have to stop using ASAP all the other causes of Global warming can be tackled in the near future.
If we dump carbon fuels that will go a long way to leaving our decendince a happy healthy future.
Earth's carbon dioxide levels are highest they've been in millions of years This level hasn't been seen in human history and is also higher than at any point in millions of years This is the highest seasonal peak recorded in 61 years of observations on top of Hawaii's largest volcano, and the seventh consecutive year of steep global increases in concentrations of CO2 la kite ano link below.
The business community should be rubbing there hands together with all the extra government spending going into Aotearoa economy common tangata have more money to spend on goods and services .
That's sad that island bay Tapu Te Ranga Marae it will be hard for the local people condolence for your losses.
I have said many times that the JUSTICE system needs to clean up its act.
You would think that a Vitale service like a ferry to Waiheke island would be on time a have a reliable service. It would be good if the Auckland council could take over the ferry's the islands is a big attraction.
The Pink and white terraces were beautiful scenic sight it is cool the underwater filming of them and research them.
Its not good for the tangata of Tapu Te Ranga Marae it sound like quite a few people live in and are camping at the Marae it's lucky no one was losted in the fire.
It would be good for our tamariki if we don't dig holes in the Dome to bury Auckland rubbish we need to minimize wastre and recycle everything .
That was awesome see te tangata in world war uniforms I don't like war but OUR Tipuna got and gave te tangata whenua O Aotearoa heaps of Mana for there effort and losses. There are stories about our tipuna not being happy about no getting what the pakiha soldiers got when they got home I could see the effects around Te Awa and Waikato.
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A chronological listing of news articles posted on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week, i.e., Sun, Jun 16 through Sat, June 22, 2019 Editor's Pick A Degree of Concern: Why Global Temperatures MatterCredit: NASA-JPL/CaltechPart ...
Impaired Vision: Judging from the invaluable testimony obtained from two Taliban commanders by Jon Stephenson, video evidence may exist of a US gunship firing at fleeing insurgents, as well as the Tirgiran villagers fleeing with them. Such a sequence would ...
EXC: The Conservative Muslim chief has been expelled from the Tory Muslim group. Mohammed Amin tells me he has been expelled following an intervention by CCHQ because he criticised the 'moral integrity' of Boris Johnson: https://t.co/5pkY2JR1C2— Shehab ...
One of the central demands of the Extinction Rebellion campaign has been for climate change to be taken out of the hand of corrupt establishment politicians and put in the hands of the people via a citizen's assembly. Now, it ...
Maire Leadbeater is a longtime anti-imperialist activist based in Auckland. In recent years she has been particularly active in solidarity work with the cause of freedom in West Papua, which has been under vicious Indonesian occupation since the early 1960s. ...
For the past four years, Saudi Arabia has been indiscriminately bombing Yemen, attcking hospitals and other civilian targets and committing war crimes. They're doing it in part with British weapons, exported by British arms dealers with the approval of the ...
Power Grab: With the benefit of hindsight, it is possible to argue that the economic, administrative, social and cultural institutions mandated by New Zealand’s much-praised bicultural project were simultaneously a means of releasing political pressure and mechanisms for securing the ...
Last month, Catalans elected three exiled and jailed pro-independence politicians to the European Parliament. Unfortunately, Spain no longer seems to respect the results of democratic elections, and the Spanish Electoral Commission today declared their seats vacant. The reason? None of ...
Yesterday the government announced some minor tweaks to the electoral system, including more locations for advance voting, and allowing people to enrol on election day. The changes were recommended by the Electoral Commission in its post-mortem on the 2017 election, ...
James Robb looks at the systemic issues surrounding the state taking children from their families. A shocking documentary video released last week by Newsroom reporter Melanie Reid, shows the attempts by social workers employed by Oranga Tamariki, the New Zealand state’s child welfare agency, ...
The inquiry into whether the SAS acted illegally during a nighttime raid on a suspected insurgent’s hideout in Afghanistan in 2010 (code named Operation Burnham), which resulted in six civilian deaths and serious wounds to 15 others, is slowly coming ...
The core claims of Jon Stephenson and Nicky Hager's Hit & Run are that the New Zealand SAS raided two villages in Afghanistan in search of "insurgents" who weren't there, and in the process killed six civilians including a three-year-old ...
The Original White Supremacists: The current misuse of the term “white supremacy” is highly dangerous politically. By singling out this particular form of racism and misapplying it to famous figures from the past, as well as to people living in ...
One of the major issues which face a democratic nation is the challenge of keeping its bureaucracy accountable and responsive to the public. Over the years a variety of arrangements have developed with this objective.read more ...
Statistics New Zealand is planning to track everyone through their cellphones "for statistical purposes":Stats NZ is partnering with cellphone companies to launch a new way of tracking people's movements every hour. The population density programme will launch next month and ...
Reaching Out For The Zeitgeist: Act Leader, David Seymour, and his neoliberal colleagues, have (perhaps unconsciously) grasped the multiple political implications of declaring ACT to be the “freedom party”. What they clearly have not grasped, however, is the fundamental incompatibility ...
Another major oil company has given up exploring in New Zealand: Chevron and Norwegian oil giant Equinor have opted to abandon their joint exploration efforts off the east coast of the North Island. The two firms have applied to surrender ...
When Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern hired a lobbyist to set up her government in 2017, she assured us that everything was above board and any conflicts of interest would be managed. She lied:The lobbyist who served as the prime minister’s ...
NZ has dethroned GDP as a measure of success, but will Ardern’s government be transformational? When you’re in politics, words are a high-stakes game. Voters and journalists hold you to them and there is a risk in using ...
A note of appreciation and a changing of the guardFor the past over eight years Skeptical Science staff volunteer Ari Jokimäki has produced a weekly list of links to recent academic publications concerning the fundamental science of climate change, global ...
The article below first appeared in the April 7, 1978 issue of the fortnightly left-wing workers’ paper Socialist Action. The article is referred to in Maire Leadbeater’s new book on NZ and West Papua – we’ll be reviewing the book ...
If humanity is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and avoid making the Earth uninhabitable, we need to stop burning fossil fuels. Transport is a key emitter, so this means we need to stop using fossil fuelled vehicles. A number of ...
The government's Operation Burnham whitewash has become a farce, with the SAS's victims refusing to participate any further:Afghani villagers are turning their backs on a Government inquiry into allegations six civilians were killed and a further 15 injured in a ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Daisy Simmons SACRAMENTO, Calif. – The world’s oceans are deeply affected by climate change – and vice versa. But until recent years, ocean advocates throughout California had long tackled issues like over-fishing ...
There’s so much one could say about Key’s assessment of Hisco right now… Suffice to say it was definitely the following: A) Perfectly reflective of the ...
New Zealand's spy agencies are supposedly subject to the rigorous oversight of the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security, an independent watchdog appointed to keep an eye on them and ensure they don't break the law again. But that watchdog depends ...
. . This morning, a little after 4am, Sharlene lost her brave fight against cancer. Rest in peace, Sharlene. You were always one of my brightest stars… . . Advertisements ...
Just Following Orders: None of the awfulness associated with Family Court "Uplift" orders exposed by Melanie Reid and Newsroom would be possible without the active assistance and institutional protection afforded to Oranga Tamariki by the nation’s DHBs. These latter, through ...
A chronological listing of news articles posted on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week, i.e., Sun, Jun 9 through Sat, June 15, 2019 Editor's Pick Costa Rica Doubled Its Forest Cover In Just 30 Years! Costa ...
Conflicting Messages: With so few publicly available opinion polls being conducted in this country, we really do need to know how one reputable polling agency can put National on 46 percent, while the other puts it on 37 percent. Nine ...
The End Of Civilisation: Despairing of the major powers ever agreeing to take the steps necessary to slow global warming, The Daily Blog Editor, Martyn Bradbury, has drawn up what amounts to a survivalist agenda for New Zealand. Quite rightly, ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Jeffrey Kiehl Life makes us wake up to needed changes. A visit to the doctor’s office and accompanied tests indicate you have been diagnosed as pre-diabetic. Your doctor indicates two pathways to ...
New Zealand needs to decarbonise its electricity supply, while also increasing it to cope with the extra demand from electric vehicles. Wind energy is an obvious solution for this: we have an excellent wind resource, and its cheaper than fossil ...
by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh The coca issue has gained a new lease of life in Duque’s Colombia, although to be truthful it never really lost its importance to the state. Trump’s scolding of Duque for not doing enough to halt ...
Director-General of OPCW Fernando Arias Gonzales admits Douma engineers report was legit and he was part of the FFM – but attempts to justify suppression of the report. France 24 reports that the head of the Organisation for the ...
When teachers demanded more time and more money to do their jobs, Education Minister Chris Hipkins was adamant: there was no more money and they should expect disappointment. No, after a joint strike and facing five weeks of rolling stoppages, ...
Ecuador's Constitutional Court has legalised same-sex marriage:Ecuador's highest court has approved same-sex marriage in a landmark ruling in the traditionally Catholic country. The vote at the nine-member Constitutional Court came as they ruled on the lawsuits by two same-sex couples ...
Arundhati Roy is speaking at the Auckland Writers Festival on July 17. In this interview in The Guardian Roy discusses her writing and political activism. Gary Younge: One of the things I’m intrigued by at this moment is the way ...
This is a re-post from Carbon Brief by Daisy Dunne The record-breaking 2018 summer heatwave in Japan in which more than 1,000 people died “could not have happened without human-induced global warming”, a study finds. And the extreme heat felt in ...
I've had a bit to say of late about YouTube, its algorithms and the escalating allure of certain facile "creators" to young men. I worry about this stuff. But I think it's also important to acknowledge that the alt-lite and ...
OMV's application for resource consent for drilling offshore exploration wells has highlighted a major flaw in our environmental legislation. Climate change, caused by greenhouse gas emissions, is our most pressing environmental threat. But the EPA, which is deciding the application, ...
I saw an interesting article from FOIMan - a UK-based fredom of information site - on the subject of agencies googling requesters. This is apparently a common practice, but their short advice is "don't": its not just creepy and intimidating, ...
The article below is part of our ‘From the Vaults’ series and first appeared in the fortnightly left-wing NZ paper, Socialist Action, February 10, 1978. We hope to be expanding our Pacific coverage in future. The Republic of Vanuatu came ...
There are a number of ways of reading Sarah Gaitanos’s biography Shirley Smith: An Examined Life. In my view – I knew Shirley a little – she would want to you to read it as her struggle to be recognised, ...
Multiple motivations are behind my various attempts to reduce involvement in online life. The preciousness of time is a big one. The pointlessness of digital feuds is another. The inevitable temptation to meanness is a third.read more ...
Botswana's High Court has ruled that colonial laws outlawing homosexuality are unconstitutional:High court judges in Botswana have ruled that laws criminalising same-sex relations are unconstitutional and should be struck down, in a major victory for gay rights campaigners in Africa. ...
by Don Franks In his June 8th piece “Jacinda Ardern looks unbeatable” journalist Martin van Beynen appeared unbeatable himself – at fawning praise. This week I was reading about John F Kennedy, the American president assassinated in 1963, and saw ...
I am fortunate enough to be a citizen of three countries – New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and Ireland – which gives me the right to live in all three places. So, let’s imagine I am a very bad person. ...
We see regular stories from farmers and orchards complaining that no-one wants to work long hours in terrible conditions for poor pay in their shitty industry. And now, its fishers. But in the process, they neatly explain why:"It's a hard ...
New Zealand's largest city has just declared a climate emergency. And its not just a symbolic move:While the declaration is largely symbolic, it signals the start of a more urgent and focussed approach by councillors to curbing greenhouse gas emissions. ...
This is a re-post from Carbon Brief by Josh Gabbatiss Political lobbying in the US that helped block the progress of proposed climate regulation a decade ago led to a social cost of $60bn, according to a new study. Environmental economists Dr ...
The Wellbeing Budget opens with, “What is wellbeing?”, a question that has been widely posed and little understood. Treasury says “Wellbeing is when people are able to lead fulfilling lives with purpose, balance and meaning to them.” Long-term challenges facing ...
Inland Revenue is to gain greater oversight of land transfer information to ensure those buying and selling properties are complying with tax rules on property speculation. Cabinet has agreed to implement recommendation 99 of the Tax Working Group’s (TWG) final ...
The Government is taking action to expand and strengthen the protection for Māui and Hector’s dolphins with an updated plan to deal with threats to these native marine mammals. Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage and Minister of Fisheries Stuart Nash ...
Commercial fishing vessels at greatest risk of encountering the rare Māui dolphin will be required to operate with on-board cameras from 1 November, as the next step to strengthen our fisheries management system. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Fisheries Minister ...
A new record for the number of Police officers deployed to the regions in a single year has been created with the graduation today of Recruit Wing 326. Police Minister Stuart Nash says the graduation of 78 new constables means ...
New Zealand is pushing on with efforts to ensure multinational companies pay their fair share of tax, with the release of proposed options for a digital services tax (DST). In February Cabinet agreed to consult the public on the problem ...
Today is the beginning of a period known as Matariki, heralded by the sighting of seven stars in the Matariki cluster, which can usually be spotted during atapō (before dawn), north of the constellation Tautoro. ...
The power of Community Housing Aotearoa as a catalyst to drastically increase the supply of adequate, affordable housing for families living in poverty has been recognised by the Peter McKenzie Project of the J R McKenzie Trust. ...
A Palmerston North man has been sentenced after neglecting to provide appropriate and timely health interventions for his pony, which resulted in the pony suffering from chronic, active inflammation laminitis. ...
Today, the widower of Lecretia Seales, Matt Vickers, released a video in support of the End of Life Choice Bill, which is almost certainly up for debate and potentially a vote tomorrow. The Bill is due for its second reading. ...
The Independent Police Conduct Authority has found that, following a pursuit in Auckland, a man was dealt with inappropriately and unprofessionally by a Police officer during his arrest. ...
Yesterday's e-scooter death was the result of corrupt and reckless mismanagement by the government and the minister of transport should resign, says the car review website dogandlemon.com . ...
State Services Commissioner Peter Hughes has today announced Dr Caralee McLiesh, PSM, to the position of Secretary to the Treasury and Chief Executive, the Treasury. ...
“Good on the Government for banning smoking in vehicles when there are children inside. We wholeheartedly support this move and we’re pleased Parliament’s dealing with this issue separately to vaping,” says Jonathan Devery, director of Alt New ...
A reduction in construction waste going to landfill is a step closer, following the release of a draft specification recognising good environmental practice in waste management and minimisation. The specification has been developed by the New Zealand ...
The PSA is calling on the Government to pave the way for Fair Pay Agreements, as new research shows they will both reduce inequality and provide a better balanced economy. ...
NZEI Te Riu Roa has welcomed a BERL-authored report released by the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions this morning, which finds that New Zealand’s abandonment of sector bargaining in the 1990s is linked to a decline in wages. ...
The Council of Trade Unions has today released an independent report conducted by economic research company BERL into the validity of sector bargaining. And the findings are clear - there is no economic reason not to implement sector bargaining but ...
New parent advocacy group Whanau First is calling for the resignation of the Chair of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State Care and in the Care of Faith-based Institutions Sir Anand Satyanand and its Executive Director ...
The bank deposit insurance scheme just announced by government is no more then a licence for banks to create even more money out of thin air than they already do and be less responsible about who they lend it to, ...
Assalaamu Alaikum Wa Rahumatullahi Wa Barakatuh. May the Peace and the Blessing of God be Upon you FIANZ, the voice of New Zealand’s Muslim community since 1979, is opposed to euthanasia and the End of Life Choice Bill. We give ...
New Zealand’s economy has stabilised, with solid growth supporting well-being through jobs and incomes. Ongoing implementation of the government’s new well-being approach to policymaking will offer further opportunities to create a more sustainable and ...
Disability Commissioner Paula Tesoriero outlayed her concerns about the End of Life Choice Bill to John Campbell on TVNZ’s Breakfast yesterday morning . "I'm concerned that the safeguards are woefully inadequate,” she said. “I'm deeply ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters says it’s still a moot point as to whether Iran was responsible for planting mines on two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman. “The more intelligence we see, the more we'll be able to make ...
Members of FIRST Union who work in the banking sector felt vindicated by the FMA and Reserve Bank of New Zealand announcement that all banks had committed to remove sales incentives from frontline staff and their managers. ...
Officials believe a third of all rental homes won't be insulated in time for the deadline next week. However preliminary results from a NZ Property Investors’ Federation (NZPIF) survey show that the real number of properties which are unlikely to ...
The Reserve Bank has welcomed the release of in-principle decisions relating the Review of the Reserve Bank Act and is encouraging submissions in the consultation process. The Ministers’ in-principle decisions and second set of consultation papers ...
In a landmark case, members of FIRST Union who work at Mitre 10 Mega in Dunedin and Mitre 10 Mosgiel have achieved their first collective agreement which affords a living wage. ...
Senior male executives who commit corporate economic crimes are less likely to be dismissed or legally punished than middle management and junior staff according to new research. ...
An historic international agreement by unions, employers and governments was forged last week in Geneva at the International Labour Organisation (ILO) with a new international Convention passed to eliminate violence and harassment at work. The passing of this ...
State Services Minister Chris Hipkins must confirm that the State Services Commissioner is on track to announce the results of his investigation into Gabriel Makhlouf by this Thursday, 27 June, says the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union. Taxpayers' Union ...
Barnardos is today welcoming the release of the report ‘Are We Listening? – Children’s Participation Rights in Government Policy’ from the Children’s Convention Monitoring Group. The report focusses on children and young people’s right to participate ...
The latest Kiwis Count Survey has shown that trust in the public sector continues to rise and is now at an all-time high, says State Services Commissioner Peter Hughes. ...
The gender diversity of New Zealanders will be better reflected in future statistics with new information collected in household surveys, Stats NZ said today. ...
Today climate action groups in Dunedin and Wellington will set up waiting rooms outside Kiwibank branches, to demonstrate that the climate can’t keep waiting for Kiwibank to release a fossil free policy that rules out investments or lending to ...
Making New Zealand a major point of connection between China and South America will take a step forward tomorrow at a trilateral conference in Auckland. ...
A report released today, from the Children’s Convention Monitoring Group*, is a sharp reminder that what children and young people say makes a difference, and that it’s time we paid more attention to their views, says Children’s Commissioner ...
Action for Children and Youth Aotearoa, the country’s alliance for groups and organisations supporting children’s rights, says that a new report published today on child participation shows some important progress has been achieved since 2016, but more must be done ...
Green politicians are betraying disabled people by pretending their upcoming block vote for the End of Life Choice Bill complies with their disability policy. ...
The New Zealand Maori Council has asked the Prime Minister to establish a Royal Commission to investigate PHARMAC and successive Governments failure to provide adequate funding. Executive Director of the Council, Matthew Tukaki, has also said that an urgent investigation ...
The government’s firearm buy back scheme is not just bullying and unfair, it uses the New Zealand police to force its draconian law on law abiding New Zealanders, who are already feeling cheated and manipulated by this process. ...
The euthanasia debate is progressing, with the End of Life Choice Bill expected to have its second reading in Parliament on Wednesday. A similar bill was passed in Canada in 2016 - and it's estimated about 8000 people have had ...
Simon Shepherd: On the other side of the debate is Dave Mullan, a former Methodist preacher who has been living with prostate cancer for 18 years. Medication to stop the spread is no longer working. So he wants the right ...
Anti-euthanasia advocates are planning to go to Parliament this week for the second reading of the End of Life Choice Bill. One will be Vicki Walsh, who was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer almost eight years ago and has so ...
As a part of the UNANZ National Conference 2019, our national office has partnered up with regional offices, especially those from Tauranga, Whanganui, Canterbury, Northern, Waikato and Wellington to bring to the public the Secondary School Speech ...
On the eve of a Cabinet paper recommending radical and controversial changes to the polytech and on-the-job training sector, leaders representing the sector have accused the government of “thumbing its nose” at the interests of over a hundred ...
Muzza’s Pies is a beloved Mt Albert institution, responsible for curing a million hangovers. Alex Casey pays tribute to the shop that got her through her teenage years.We were all perched on the bench outside Muzza’s Pies, a motley group ...
Tongan journalist, publisher and broadcaster Kalafi Moala talks to Pacific Media Watch project’s Sri Krishnamurthi. Video: Sri Krishnamurthi/Blessen TomBy Sri Krishnamurthi After 30 years as chief editor and publisher of Tonga’s flagship Taimi ‘o Tonga newspaper, the iconic ...
In a surprise announcement, the shadow finance minister Amy Adams will leave parliament in 2020, and has stepped down from her frontbench roles with immediate effect. Alex Braae asks what happens now It could have all been so different for Amy ...
Arthur Grimes looks at how putting the former government and current Government's approaches together would achieve significant improvements in areas in dire need of improvement. ...
A new book about the depiction of religion in New Zealand editorial cartoons reveals some disturbing truths.Last week the NZ Cartoon Archive at Wellington’s Alexander Turnbull Library published Mike Grimshaw’s Bishops, Boozers, Brethren & Burkas, which looks at religion in ...
Dance down memory lane with us to a time when the Māori showbands ruled supreme. After World War II, Māori concert parties became a huge attraction in Aotearoa, like the kapa haka groups we know and love today. Action songs and ...
Welcome to the Cheat Sheet, a clickable, shareable, bite-sized FAQ about the news of the moment. Today, we look at the UberEats busy area fee that has just launched in Auckland.The what?You know how you often pay more for a ...
Over 2.8 million New Zealanders are signed up for Kiwisaver, but not many are aware of where that money is going. Weaponry, fossil fuels and gambling services are all being invested in from some of the most popular funds, and ...
The government's proposals to make the banking system safer for customers might not be enough for New Zealanders struggling to save for their retirement, the opposition says. ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has defended Housing Minister Phil Twyford over KiwiBuild, saying one individual shouldn't be blamed for difficulties in an ambitious policy. ...
The service would have paid families between $500 to $5000 a year, allowing them to buy the respite support which suited them best, but the Ministry of Health baulked at the cost. ...
A global report has praised New Zealand for its wellbeing approach to policy, but has named inequality, housing unaffordability and migration policy as major risks to our economic success. ...
Tara Ward power-ranks our nation’s most valuable, revenue-generating resource: Our big-ass rural monuments.Big Monuments are taking over the nation. No town is safe, no highway untouched by their enormous limbs and massive beaks and enormous carroty girths. We’re obsessed with ...
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand.Today’s contentBanks Bernard Hickey (Newsroom): A proper banking and insurance ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has defended Phil Twyford over KiwiBuild, saying one individual shouldn't be blamed for difficulties in an ambitious policy. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Donell Holloway, Senior research fellow, Edith Cowan University I recently purchased a bedroom bundle (mattress, bed base, pillows and sheets) from a well known Australian startup for my son, who has flown ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alex Reilly, Director of the Public Law and Policy Research Unit, Adelaide Law School, University of Adelaide With all the hyperbole about the medevac law, it is easy to lose sight of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Allen Cheng, Professor in Infectious Diseases Epidemiology, Monash University Influenza is a moving target for vaccines. Each year, up to four different strains circulate, and they are constantly evolving to escape our ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Matt Curnock, Social Scientist, CSIRO Media coverage of mass coral bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef may have been a major tipping point for public concerns around climate change, according to research ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Pi-Shen Seet, Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Edith Cowan University This essay is part of a series of articles on the future of education. Technological developments are expected to majorly, and rapidly, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Assistant professor, University of Canberra Facebook’s proposed new digital currency, if even modestly successful, will hand over much of the control of monetary policy from central banks to Facebook and ...
The government has revealed more details of its billion-dollar KiwiRail spend, with hundreds of new locomotives and container wagons coming down the tracks. ...
It was the story that circled the globe – giant rats, writhing across Titirangi. But rats were here long before it was fashionable or “newsworthy” – as were rat hunters. Don Rowe talks to Phil Brown, Auckland Council’s head of ...
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Report questions government’s plans for renewable energy, reshuffle confirmed by PM for later this week, and two powerful pieces about giving birth. The government’s priorities for lowering carbon emissions are in ...
The government's proposals to make the banking system safer for customers might not be enough for NZers struggling to save for their retirement, the opposition says. ...
We’re launching a brand new membership programme, inviting readers to support new journalistic endeavours and help shape our editorial direction.Today The Spinoff enters a new era with the launch of The Spinoff Members. It will support our growth in a ...
The bad boy of hospitality is nearing retirement age, yet his capacity for bitter feuds remains undiminished. Duncan Greive meets Leo Molloy, the Viaduct’s best host and worst enemy.“I know Bernie Monk,” said Leo Molloy. “He was a year ahead ...
You would have heard more about the recent Sudan massacre through social media, than news reports. Now, pro-democracy activists are begging the world not to forget them. ...
To criticise GDP because it is not a wellbeing measure is to criticise it for something it is not intended to be, writes NZ Initiative's Dr Bryce Wilkinson. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tom Ross, Professor in Food Microbiology, Centre for Food Safety and Innovation, Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture, University of Tasmania Last Thursday, dairy company Lactalis Australia recalled eight varieties of milk over concerns ...
By Peni Komaisavai in Suva Staff of the University of the South Pacific at the university’s main Laucala campus in Suva have called for pro-chancellor Winston Thompson to step aside to allow for an independent investigation into alleged abuse ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Phoebe Bailey, Associate Professor of Psychology, Western Sydney University Populations around the world are ageing rapidly. Almost one in four people will be aged 60 or more by 2050. This growing cohort ...
A scheme to protect people from potential failure of banks and a tougher regime for executives have been announced by the government as it reviews New Zealand's banking laws. ...
Government policies affect us all, so surely children should get a say? Alice Burton reports on how providing children with both information and a listening ear is important for encouraging their participation in politics.Too young to care. Too young to ...
Open mike 08/06/2019 
The Stuff story on the renewable energy target quotes National climate change spokesperson Todd Muller as opposing cuts to electricity sector emissions:National's climate change spokesman Todd Muller said the report exposed the "economic lunacy" of being fixated on greenhouse emissions ...1 hour ago
Few tears will be shed in the regions at the departure of Christopher Luxon as CEO of Air New Zealand. Under his watch, the supposedly “national” airline lost sight of its national responsibilities and abandoned regional centres such as Whakatane ...2 hours ago
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This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections The Trump administration’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on June 19 published its “Affordable Clean Energy” (ACE) rule to replace the Obama EPA’s Clean Power Plan (CPP). The replacement plan is essentially the Trump administration’s attempt ...8 hours ago
by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh Colombia has now made it into the modern world, but not that of a strong and diversified economy, of democratic rights, nor the rule of law. No, that is not the modern world that Colombia has ...21 hours ago
Grant Illingworth QC is concerned that if David Seymour’s End of Life Choice Bill is enacted, we somehow would be breaching the social contract on which our entire system of law rests.read more ...2 days ago
This article is about what can happen if a drug substitution programme is suddenly cancelled. In 1978, the Dunedin Hospital Board followed a New Zealand-wide trend and began an opiate substitution programme for local addicts using the synthetic narcotic, methadone. The ...2 days ago
A chronological listing of news articles posted on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week, i.e., Sun, Jun 16 through Sat, June 22, 2019 Editor's Pick A Degree of Concern: Why Global Temperatures Matter Credit: NASA-JPL/Caltech Part ...2 days ago
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And now this:
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James Robb looks at the systemic issues surrounding the state taking children from their families. A shocking documentary video released last week by Newsroom reporter Melanie Reid, shows the attempts by social workers employed by Oranga Tamariki, the New Zealand state’s child welfare agency, ...5 days ago
The inquiry into whether the SAS acted illegally during a nighttime raid on a suspected insurgent’s hideout in Afghanistan in 2010 (code named Operation Burnham), which resulted in six civilian deaths and serious wounds to 15 others, is slowly coming ...5 days ago
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Another major oil company has given up exploring in New Zealand: Chevron and Norwegian oil giant Equinor have opted to abandon their joint exploration efforts off the east coast of the North Island. The two firms have applied to surrender ...6 days ago
NZ has dethroned GDP as a measure of success, but will Ardern’s government be transformational? When you’re in politics, words are a high-stakes game. Voters and journalists hold you to them and there is a risk in using ...6 days ago
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Daisy Simmons SACRAMENTO, Calif. – The world’s oceans are deeply affected by climate change – and vice versa. But until recent years, ocean advocates throughout California had long tackled issues like over-fishing ...1 week ago
There’s so much one could say about Key’s assessment of Hisco right now…
Suffice to say it was definitely the following: A) Perfectly reflective of the ... 1 week ago
. . This morning, a little after 4am, Sharlene lost her brave fight against cancer. Rest in peace, Sharlene. You were always one of my brightest stars… . . Advertisements ...1 week ago
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A chronological listing of news articles posted on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week, i.e., Sun, Jun 9 through Sat, June 15, 2019 Editor's Pick Costa Rica Doubled Its Forest Cover In Just 30 Years! Costa ...1 week ago
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Director-General of OPCW Fernando Arias Gonzales admits Douma engineers report was legit and he was part of the FFM – but attempts to justify suppression of the report. France 24 reports that the head of the Organisation for the ...2 weeks ago
This is a re-post from Carbon Brief by Daisy Dunne The record-breaking 2018 summer heatwave in Japan in which more than 1,000 people died “could not have happened without human-induced global warming”, a study finds. And the extreme heat felt in ...2 weeks ago
Jonathan Bamber, Professor of Physical Geography, University of Bristol and Michael Oppenheimer, Professor of Geosciences and International Affairs, Princeton University This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Antarctica is further from ...2 weeks ago
This is a re-post from Carbon Brief by Josh Gabbatiss Political lobbying in the US that helped block the progress of proposed climate regulation a decade ago led to a social cost of $60bn, according to a new study. Environmental economists Dr ...2 weeks ago
The Wellbeing Budget opens with, “What is wellbeing?”, a question that has been widely posed and little understood. Treasury says “Wellbeing is when people are able to lead fulfilling lives with purpose, balance and meaning to them.” Long-term challenges facing ...2 weeks ago
Inland Revenue is to gain greater oversight of land transfer information to ensure those buying and selling properties are complying with tax rules on property speculation. Cabinet has agreed to implement recommendation 99 of the Tax Working Group’s (TWG) final ...7 days ago
Today is the beginning of a period known as Matariki, heralded by the sighting of seven stars in the Matariki cluster, which can usually be spotted during atapō (before dawn), north of the constellation Tautoro. ...25 mins ago
Muzza’s Pies is a beloved Mt Albert institution, responsible for curing a million hangovers. Alex Casey pays tribute to the shop that got her through her teenage years.We were all perched on the bench outside Muzza’s Pies, a motley group ...21 mins ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Douglas, Senior Lecturer in Law, University of Western Australia When you go online and write something nasty about a person, or even a small business, you risk being sued for defamation. ...25 mins ago
The beleaguered Gabriel Makhlouf will be replaced by Australian economist and bureaucrat Dr Caralee McLiesh. ...52 mins ago
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Log-in’s all over the park, mods. Takes me three attempts, then reverts spontaneously to not logged in.
Peregrini:
"the early Celtic Christian monks and mystics who set out alone in small, flimsy boats, seeking solitude, nature, and God on the most remote islands of Britain.
"On island after island," she writes in A Book of Silence, "the more isolated and far-flung the better — on St. Kilda, on the Farnes, on the Shiants, throughout the Hebrides and the northern islands, off the coast of Ireland, around Iceland and possibly even North America — the traces of hermits can be found."
I wonder what "traces of hermits" look like?
I first thought, fewmets!
Dunno Robert, but I do know that archaeology is a young science and that the surface has literally hardly been scratched yet….
There is a huge amount more to learn about our past and the extent of exploration and discovery that humans undertook…
I've been listening to Terrence McKenna describing the intricacies and importance of the I Ching. That's fascinating stuff:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_alone
The hermit is almost a mythical figure in lore.
There's an awesome coffee table book 'Men Who Live Alone' but I've not seen a copy for decades. Bunch of locals, B&W photography and stories in their words. Stunning piece of work. War heroes, alcoholics, madmen, artists.
Can't get a fix on it on google, might get lucky in a Library, or hopefully one of our oldies has it and can give us the Author, publisher.
Traces of Hermits? Solitary skeletons. Few implements per small dwelling. Single bed space type thing. When you are building your own shelter there is no reason to overbuild. No neighbors or potential partners to impress. No signs of children (toys, skeletons, art). No communal space…
Take a bit of thinking about but archaeologists are clever types, at least the ones I've met.
Also, on living alone.
The more you are alone the more you are convinced you are right. Feedback is a necessary part of the human progression of thought.
The internet's algorithms that put us alone, but within echo chambers of those sharing our delusions, are a massive regression of human evolution removing the requisite feedback from thought processing – thus enabling extremity.
Get out into the garden, WTB, and talk to the trees. Human to human discourse is as you say, WTB, but there are other conversations to be had; it's not as though other beings aren't talking to us, it's more a case of us having grown deaf to their voices 🙂
Don't patronise me with spiritual mumbo jumbo please.
I study communication of plants/insects/microbes. We were always deaf to their 'voices' only now beginning to understand the means by which they interact.
Got a mate doing a PhD trying to interpret birds… Hard task.
Sorry I was a bit harsh. I have little tolerance for this type of stuff met many people of many belief systems and there are those who live spiritual lives and those who use it as a mask or moral high ground to denigrate/disrupt others living.
We certainly need a better 'religion' than capitalism, so I do understand your attempts to introduce new ways of thinking/being to the TS readership.
A persons spiritual journey is their own. I've not read a single man-made interpretation of the spiritual realm that comes close to sensible.
Maybe we cannot put our finger on that which we cannot put our finger on, as it is a requisite property of the non-physical world.
Stephen Harrod Buhner
The lost language of plants.
I'm reading this presently.
The Biology of Belief by Bruce Lipton, PhD.
I'm sure I didn't and I don't believe it is, but if you feel I did and it was, I'm sorry.
I'm studying communication between trees and forests and other beings; insects, mammals, including humans. From what I read, it's a wide and fascinating field of study. Birds-song, it's purpose and meaning along with it's relevance to humans, is also a study I'm involved in making, albeit at the level of an amateur, though there's some great material to be read and heard out there. I'd be interested to read your mate's PHD when it's finished.
I can't wait for the PhD he's the brightest young man I knew at Uni. Aced two degrees at once…
I have a few thoughts around bird communication but didn't want to distract him from his work. I am SOOO curious.
He's in Yellowstone for much of the work, lucky for some aye.
I was being overly-sensitive. No worries you know I struggle.
A spore of the fungus Botrytis cinerea can sense it sits atop a fruit and can then germinate and, using vacuum pressure, force a 'peg' into the side of the cell. Then the fungi releases a couple of assassins to take out the cells sentries, and a hacker to subvert the cells defense systems. The cell begins to attack itself. The fungi sends in armored vehicles that do bombing runs with reactive oxygen species to further force plant response until the cell is weakened by its own attacks and ultimately gives up the cell, allowing it to shut down and die. The dead cell is the actual goal of the fungi, it feeds the fungi, replenishing supplies for further attack.
Hey WTB you need to chill, also its not usually not a winning communication strategy to keep telling people how smart you are or you hang around with smart people as if smartness rubs off or like Likewise to belittle one moment and apologise the next as a regular occurrence This tends to be a real credibility killer
You have only directed judgement and smartass shite at me for some time. You have no credibility to me whatsoever, so fuck off.
And I’m not going to stop apologising if I think I’m wrong.
Wow over reaction, less emotion snow flake
My point is if you keep attacking then apologising it lacks integrity , not that apologising per see is wrong Just an opinion so dont sweat it champ
While some just attack….
Bewildered , Sadly you offer nothing of sustenance for the soul, seldom do you offer anything constructive or uplifting.
Nature and I are two.
Woody Allen.
Oh! You missed out Gigha! and Iona.
The whole of the west coast of Scotland is littered with such sites. Gigha is referred to by it's inhabitants as the "Isle of the gods", this was the stopping off place for the monks travelling from Ireland northward, and had a small settlement, part of which is still standing in the local graveyard. The Island itself is around 7 miles long, and about a mile wide. It was, at one stage, owned by the Horlicks of the malted milk drink "fame". Now it is under local inhabitants control under a trust, A law change about 20 years ago enabled islanders to take over control of their island homes where previously they had been tenants. Gigha was the first of the Islands to proceed with such a huge undertaking. It obviously needed financing and the Islanders came up with a novel and sustainable solution. They raised money for the purchase of three wind turbines for generating electricity to supply to the UK National grid. These wind turbines are affectionately known as the "Dancing Ladies". They have been so successful that they recently added a 4th and larger turbine to the mix.
http://www.gigha.org.uk/viewItem.php
My great grandparents lived on Gigha and only spoke the Gaelic.
Do you know the song "Westering Home"? It was composed by the local minister on Gigha around 1900.
Iona was the centre for early Christianity in Britain, and the place where St Columbus set up residence. The small buildings the monks built there are still there and the resident brindled cat (whose ancestor mewed thrice in the "Scottish Play") is a distant relation of my owner – so she informs me. 😼
http://www.welcometoiona.com/
You might enjoy this, Macro:
Oh Yes! And I know my family (including the "owner" of the house) will too!
Very nice, I want to see all of this.
And right in the trailer with the characters of Brendon and Ashley is exactly the kind of masculine/feminine symbolism I was talking about before.
Compassion:
"Celtic thought contributes magnificently to a philosophy of compassion, deriving from its sense that everything belongs in one diverse, living unity. On an ontological level, the exercise of compassion is the transfiguration of dualism: the separation of matter and spirit, masculine and feminine, body and soul, human and divine, person and animal, and person and element. The beauty of the Celtic tradition was that it managed to think and articulate all of these presences together in a profound, intimate unity. So, if compassion is a praxis which tries to bring that unity into explicit activity and presentation, then Celtic philosophy of unity contributes strongly to compassion."
I read of the Celtic legal system which concentrated on forgiveness and compensation in the 200-500 AD. Then the spread of Catholicism brought punishment and guilt and imprisonment and torture. Women had had an equal place in the society but that was then eroded.
That's really interesting, ianmac. There's a lot to be said for the idea that we are presently, again, under the influence of our base primate hierarchical male-dominant structure that is causing us to destroy ourselves and our fellow travellers through space, yet at times we were operating differently, with feminized society, Goddess influenced, love and compassion driven communities which, if still operating, would see us all living without wrecking the show. Your reference to the Celtic legal system sounds like this, although the one's I'm referring to are pre-historic.
"male-dominant structure that is causing us to destroy ourselves "
Thats a big call Robert, do you have any evidence for that?
It's all around us, vto; competition, top-down dominance, bullying across the board, thuggish sports, the nuclear family structure just for starters.
competition, top-down dominance, bullying across the board, thuggish sports, the nuclear family structure just for starters.
It's tricky untangling the symbolic from the literal on this. In a symbolic sense order and hierarchy are allocated to the masculine gender, while it's opposite chaos and nature are considered feminine. Thus a society which has become excessively ordered and regimented can be thought of as 'male dominated', while the complete absence of social order in the natural world is symbolically couched in feminine terms, eg 'Mother Nature'.
Yet in literal terms there isn't a lot of difference between the sexes. Both men and women compete, will act out dominance games, bully (indeed women are arguably more prone to bullying than men) and invest heavily in the nuclear family.
I've long argued here that while men are somewhat more physically aggressive than women on average, women tend to be more emotionally manipulative and abusive. The differences are not huge, but on the whole both sexes are equally capable of aggression. To label this a 'male' problem is deeply misleading and unhelpful.
RedLogix – I think you are assessing the genders from within the matrix of the primate state I described. At the times when humans/hominids were outside of the matrix, all changed and what I described was the state of affairs, imo. It may be true, nowadays, that "there isn't a lot of difference between the sexes", but that not what I was talking about; I'm referring to primate behaviour .v. Goddess-people behaviour.
I'm referring to primate behaviour .v. Goddess-people behaviour.
To be honest I went through a similar line of thinking myself a while back and I acknowledge the appeal of this idea. Sadly my reading in the past decade or so just doesn't support it. Human behaviour prior to recorded history starts about 10,000 years ago is more reliably understood using biology, neurology, and evolutionary psychology tools, and none of this supports the notion of 'female dominated goddess cultures' utopias.
I'm going to link to this fascinating talk by Robert Sapolsky one of the foremost thinkers in this field. At over an hour long I don't expect anyone to watch it now, but it does offer a glimpse of how complex our relationship with 'primate' behaviour really is:
When you passed through that "similar line of thinking a while back", RedLogix, did you land for a moment on the Terrence McKenna description of the "stoned ape" and the communities they enjoyed; psilocybin-lively and stimulated groups with better visual acuity, higher libido and better hunting skills than their peers, thriving in a non-pairing breeding situation where male dominance was redundant, connections with the numinous were regular and life was good?
Woody Allen wouldn't have been comfortable there.
I don't have a dogmatic response to this; human history is way more complex than we even begin to suspect and even what we have discovered in the past few decades just scratches the surface.
McKenna is not the only one to have pointed to the potential role psychedelics may have had in human evolution. Even Peterson has spoken on the topic a few times, and there is a flourishing community of people out there experimenting with micro-dosing and similar. I recall commenting a month back on the potential they may have in treating trauma, dementia and other brain injuries. But whether they are causally linked to more peaceful less aggressive, less ego driven societies is not clear at all.
The 'Garden of Eden' mythology points to how old this idea is, that in our evolutionary history we existed in a paradise much closer to our primate condition. But a condition subject to nature not knowledge.
Broadly speaking the past 10,000 odd years has been a period of evolution characterised by our increasing ability to manipulate knowledge and build fabulously complex abstractions from it. eg quantum mechanics. We may well share a great deal in common with our primate cousins, but none of them have even remotely achieved this level of intellectual capacity.
What I do accept is that this process has necessarily forced us into a narrowing of our potential. In order to achieve excellence in one thing, we have had to sacrifice other capacities. Whatever we were 10,000 years ago, we are not the same creature that types on the internet.
I'm not trying to discredit what you are saying Robert, it has a validity. But it's wrong to frame it up as a female good vs male bad confrontation. There is a lot more nuance and symbolism to it than this.
I don't think I framed the ideas, "female good vs male bad' did I?
I assigned the present situation we "civilised" humans are experiencing as "base primate hierarchical male-dominant structure" and my wished-for state as " feminized society, Goddess influenced, love and compassion driven communities"
Do those descriptions equate with "female good, vs male bad" do you think?
Well yes that's exactly how I read it. If you mean differently then you might want to communicate it better.
It is a patriarchy we live in still. Things are changing slowly but we certainly need more feminine influence to lend balance.
Just look at how the right wing took to Jacinda, her sex was anathema. What she wore, that she's attractive, her reproductive abilities… How dare a woman get power!
Old boys clubs everywhere in all strata of society. Male dominated councils, churches, government, corporations, clubs, gangs, boards…
As I said, times are changing, but the Patriarchy has been taking humankind downhill for some time now.
38% female MP's. Go NZ!
Thanks Robert, but that wasn't quite my question… "male-dominant structure that is causing us to destroy ourselves"
What is the evidence that it is the 'maleness' that is causing the destruction?
Sure, there is a heap that is correlative, and many people always jump on that to claim causation. But as we all know from Issues101, correlation is not causation.
What is the evidence that it is the maleness that is causing it? I would have thought it is the inevitable 'advancement' of 'civilisation' that is causing it. And every society, male or female-dominant, has been on that path such as Maori for example, which pre-euro showed plenty of signs of going down the same path.
as Maori for example, which pre-euro showed plenty of signs of going down the same path
What signs are these?
They had the concept of kaitiakitanga
They had the whakatauki:
Rite ki te Moa, ka ngaro / pēra ki te Pouakai, ka ngaro — (Just like the moa/pouakai, it will be lost)
Moa extinction and whakataukī offer ecological, social, linguistic knowledge – Dr Priscilla Wehi
The whakataukī also show that Māori learned from the moa's extinction, Dr Wehi says.
"You can think about it as an ecological nuclear bomb – the moa was that important, its extinction had a huge impact.
"We see Māori really responding and talking about this extinction event and we see by the time Europeans arrived … there are a whole lot of environmental management techniques that have been put into place as a response to that kind of thing."
"You can see that now – in the way that Rakiura Māori manage the tītī (muttonbird) harvest, for example, there are lots and lots of different ways that they manage that harvest to make sure there are chicks for future generations.
population expansion, conflict, species extinction, environmental degradation, technological advancement
species extinction,
So when you have actually read the links i gave you then have another go. You are just choosing to be an ignoramus.
Yeah thanks solkta, I have read ample. Species extinction happened and was happening. Like it is today despite recognition and action against in the same way
Yeh good onya. Enjoy your tiny planet.
Yep – it was the same non gender hierarchy for Māori – all changed when Christians turned up, at the forefront of colonisation, with their concept of sin and male dominance.
Still the usual mens liberation army recruiters will say their sob stories of how they are the real victims. Pity some men cannot, for the LIFE of them, front up and take responsibility – they snigger as they weaken even more.
I am glad that you reference that to "Christians" marty mars and not men. There, I think, lie most of your targets. Shows good and proper thinking and less knee and jerk.
you didn't really read it did you.
The second paragraph directly relates to your style of men’s defence.
There was no "men's defence", there was a call for evidence for the claim that men have caused the world's destruction.
Got any?
edit: unrelated, but your second paragraph is typical mm personal rhetoric and of no use
"We want the Police to stop locking us up, it's really that simple"
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/113212281/cannabis-campaigner-dakta-green-opens-cannabis-club-in-wellington-claiming-700-members
The Hill.
A boy with some weed was put in a cell
In a place filled with misshapen men
He went from that cage adorned with new rage
And a play that might put paid to them
And so it goes on, these layers of wrongs
In a system outside of the heart
Run by the bastards that call themselves masters
Who dabble in death and dark arts
Through the gaps in the bars were no fine motes of dust
Capturing light in the gloom
But a grim gallows pole where they hung men of old
And the walls overshadowing doom
In the line for a meal shuffling cold toes to heel
shines a light as it bounces from knife
and the screams and the blood and the thundering thugs
and the banshees that cry in the night.
t.rump the brainbox – this is pretty poor when you consider the state of the planet and the thinking needed from here – sorta the opposite of the non-thinking of the don and the regurgitation of rubbish.
Sounds like he just retweets sound bytes that catch his ear and that is what constitutes his thinking.
America will take a long time and a herculean effort to get any respect post-Trump.
Fear is not respect.
Regrettably that is his sole mode of "thinking". I fear he really is in early stages of dementia. He regularly will say the complete opposite of what he uttered only an hour previously. It is obvious that he has no understanding of what the outcomes of his decisions might be. Added to that is his complete lack of self awareness, and his overwhelming hubris. When added to his underlying principle motivation of greed, he is not only a danger to the US, but a threat to us all.
The saddest thing is however that the only person who could remove him from office , Myrtle McTurtle, is the most duplicitous person on the planet! Unlike Agent Orange he is in complete control of his faculties and understands completely what he is doing – and that is to keep this buffoon in office, as long as he can, so that he can feather his own (and his wife's) nest.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/02/us/politics/elaine-chao-china.html
Yeah what do these people care about destroying any shred of credibility a country ever had. The fact the country is not filling the streets and shutting the place down (ironically the government is shutting itself down) lends little sympathy for the rest of them except, living under thumb it often pays to keep your head down (our teachers a classic example of this).
Post-Trump America will carry shame and guilt for a long time. And rightly so.
If they cannot now see they are led by murderers bullies liars and thieves it is because they don't want to see. The lie is the narrative.
White supremacies dying gasps. Cornered cowards stealing the silver before they run and hide. I hope they all get dragged out of the holes they'll hide in.
Greywarshark
You were interested in updates on Assange
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/06/07/assa-j07.html
Assange's father was due to visit, had made a double booking, but was turned away because Assange had to be seen urgently by the prison doctor
And here RT has a video of Assange in Belmarsh , obviously out of date.Although he's thin, he's freely interacting with other prisoners, and seems ok.No verification of the video,how it was made, when it was made….the date stamp is clearly wrong..and how it was got out.
https://www.rt.com/news/461329-assange-video-belmarsh-prison/
Interesting note on the Iceland incident:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4021166/Former-Icelandic-minister-claims-FBI-tried-frame-Julian-Assange.html
This is evidence that the FBI were indeed seeking ways to actively entrap Wikileaks. While it doesn't speak directly to what may or may not have happened in Sweden, it does confirm American intent to do entrap Assange in whatever manner possible.
Also extraordinary that the interior minister of tiny Iceland sent the planeload of FBI agents packing.
With a population less than 350,000, how is it that they can punch so far above their weight?
Loved the Icelandic film Woman at War
Well, his interpretation of their purpose was to entrap wikileaks for hacking.
He's been confident enough in his interpretation to go public on it. He's the one who was there, and the Americans aren't talking.
Ordinarily that might count for something, but self-professed members of "Team Assange" have been confident enough to go public with utter bullshit ever since his first UK legal team claimed he was being investigated for "sex by surprise".
So in my view they're as reliable as RT or Fox&Friends.
Members of 'Team Assange' (including, apparently, former Icelandic minister Jonasson) are, in McFlock's view, as reliable as RT or Fox&Friends.
"As reliable as RT or Fox&Friends" when it comes to first-hand accounts of events relevant to Assange's behaviour and treatment, or "As reliable as RT or Fox&Friends" period? Either way, that's a surprisingly blinkered position to take. Apparently, to belong to ‘Team Assange’ marks one as inherently unreliable, in McFlock’s view.
And yet, if I was to state that anyone belonging to ‘Team anti-Assange’ was, in my view, as reliable as RT or Fox&Friends, I might be roundly criticised as being wildly off base.
Pilger was pretty good in the 1980s and 90s, too.
But it's a shame that so many Assange supporters outright make shit up. Really hurts the credibility of his team (and that was the phrase from the article, not my invention).
Are you suggesting that because Pilger has, in your opinion, gone off the boil over the last two decades, Jonasson's first hand account (in a 7 Dec. 2016 interview) is unreliable?
It's a shame that so many Assange vilifiers outright make shit up – really hurts their credibility.
What I'm saying is that given the inaccuracy of pronouncements by other prominent people who strongly support Assange, interesting and possible claims from people I don't recall hearing of before require a bit more evidence before I'll bother regarding the claims as anything other than interesting and possible.
So the dude was a country's cabinet member once. So was John Banks.
BTW, I didn’t make shit up. Sad but true.
John Banks is an interesting choice; Minister of Police, Minister of Tourism, and Minister of Sport. I'm not seeing the overlap. Maybe they're all as bad as each other, but I'm going to go out on a limb here and speculate that Jonasson and Banks hold incompatible views on Assange, and that your views are closer to Banks’.
So ex-politicians can lie or misinterpret things, but not if they support Assange? Seems a bit circular: he supports Assange so I should believe his claims in support of Assange.
Let me put it this way: he might have had some weight if so many other claims in support of Assange hadn't been complete bullshit.
@McF
So in essence your strategy is to demand evidence and when it is provided merely assert that it is just made up. Well two can play that game; what evidence do you have that Jonasson is lying?
Is what he claims about the FBI somehow impossible, or implausible even? Is it logical impossible or incommensurate with reality? Has someone else come forward with a contradictory claim on the meeting? Do you have anything other than a smear?
@McF
So in essence your strategy is to demand evidence and when it is provided merely assert that it is just made up. Well two can play that game; what evidence do you have that Jonasson is lying?
Is what he claims about the FBI somehow impossible, or implausible even? Is it logical impossible or incommensurate with reality? Has someone else come forward with a contradictory claim on the meeting? Do you have anything other than a smear?
Why would McF (need to) believe that Jonasson was lying, or had misinterpreted events? Does McF “have anything other than a smear?”
Interesting questions.
To quote a McF comment from a 23 Feb 2019 'Assange discussion':
In that discussion, McF asserted that he would walk out of the [Ecuadorian] embassy today if he was in Assange's position.
I'm not asserting it is just made up.
I have no idea whether it is or not, that is the point. It's an interesting statement that might or might not be true, but the source is completely unfamiliar to me other than what is here and in the article. And given the behaviour of his fellow team-mates, the odds are pretty even either way.
That a tiny country like Iceland can stand up to a major league bully like the US is inspiring
Thats the point
And if Jonasson declaring he was pro Assange/Wikileaks puts him out of the credibility range, then you, who are so adamantly and reliably anti Assange are also out of the running
you, who are so adamantly and reliably anti Assange…
Our friend McFlock should enter this salon, where he’d fit in nicely…..
https://morrisseybreen.blogspot.com/2018/01/rnzs-brains-trust-re-assange-hes-just.html
That's not logical, f, unless the folk who think he should have fronted up to Sweden to face the allegations told as many demonstrable and outright lies as "Team Assange".
What lies did "Team Assange" tell?
Started with his british lawyer talking about "sex by surprise". Includes the claim that red notices are only for terrorists and serious criminals (nice minimisation there). The deliberate muddying of his status regarding charges. The accusation that it's all an invention by the CIA – categorical unsubstantiated assertions of innocence are as bad as those of guilt.
Most of what you say, but I accept those might be delusions rather than outright lies.
You're a notorious smearer, so your "delusion" smears—you use that almost as freely and carelessly as you fire the word "rape" around—carry as much weight as your snickering endorsement of a lightweight contributer's allegation that I was anti-African American and anti-Semitic for daring to criticize Paul Wolfowitz, Norman Schwarzkopf, and Colin Powell.
https://morrisseybreen.blogspot.com/2018/01/how-many-war-criminals-can-you-name-in.html
dude, take your linkwhoring and rant about me to the ether.
Not sure I've ever read your blog, and I can't be bothered starting now – I see enough of your crazy here.
Not sure I've ever read your blog…
Hate to break it to you, but you're not my go-to guy for news or insightful commentary, dude.
And then there are those who talk of Assange "scarpering" from Sweden when he was free to leave, those who insisted that it was Assange prolonging the case, when it turns out the Swedes could just as easily have questioned him in the UK but were strongly advised by the UK not to.
That somehow Ecuador frivolously gave political asylum so an alleged rapist could avoid questioning….again Ecuador was open to Assange being questioned in the Embassy, as was Assange.No avoidance except on the part of the Swedish prosecutor(rapped over the knuckles by the Appeal Court too)
And your "team " has had nothing to say about the way political asylum was so egregiously violated
That has repercussions beyond Assange, just as the US indictments have emboldened the Australian spooks/police? you be the judge ..to violate the protections journalists have up until now enjoyed in the "free" world
And members of your "team " have also equated the alleged offense with violent sexual assault. Suzie Dawson is particularly good on this , as are many victims of violent rape.To conflate the two does a huge disservice .
Anyway McFlock, silly for us to be so insistent .We are very unlikely to convince each other with this unseemly tit for tat
I leave you in peace….and will be quite happy for you to have the last word…
I disagree with everything in your comment, but I hope your evening treats you well 🙂
Thanks Francesca. I found your comment by using the new updated search hooray! (I am supposed to be just spending a few minutes here before I have to dash out and would otherwise not have seen it. A search that works is better than chocolates at Christmas.)
Wow. This is the reality for 110 people at Queenstown's Lakeview Holiday Park including a family of nine.
But it is no holiday for these people.
https://resources.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/v/c/v/o/l/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.1420×800.1vboje.png/1559892834395.jpg
If you can imagine the thousands of empty multi-million dollar properties nearby, this image is a clear sign of what we have become.
It looks like a concentrated version of America.
https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/113079290/holiday-park-living-for-homeless-families-who-cant-find-homes
And another…
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12235511
Time to close the borders?
Here's another report of the Lakeview situation, make what you will of it but there are various realities. The pitfalls or leasehold, and expiry of said lease, being front and centre
https://crux.org.nz/community/deceived-then-abandoned-lakeview-residents-on-qldc-secrecy/
The default "affordable housing" in Queenstown has always been what is scheduled for demolition and redevelopment this or next cycle. The Lakeview cabins have been in that category from mid – late 80's but being Council endownment land it's always been knocked back after many development proposals. It's probably the most valuable site in Queenstown but there are some fishhooks in the tenure and difficult for the Council to realise any value. Ideally it would have been sold to a hotel developer and the funds put into a huge social housing development on cheaper land. There's plenty of option for that sort of build.
But the rub is that you can build social housing profitably but not run it, or run it profitably but not build it, but not both. The nightmare is running the thing because of Queenstown's unique social character. There is a housing trust that does a fantastic job with a shared ownership model and several private worker accomodation facilities but waiting lists are long and selection criteria and conditions are onerous. The change in tourism focus away from cheap mass market tours will see a few hotels at the bottom of the market move to long term accomodation which will help things a lot.
The issue is as much demand side as supply, all the demand is from people who have moved here in the last few years (or weeks). We are as much "over localled" as we are "over touristed". Current economy is tourism, which is going well from our perspective, just changing. And building houses to house people to build more houses, which could come a gutsa very soon.
And then we won't have an accomodation problem for a while.
Seems to be genuine/credible Mr Robertson:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/113307614/robertson-clarifies-knowledge-of-the-hack-at-business-postbudget-briefing
Right from the first statement from Marklouf his antipathy towards National was apparent (and is now being returned in kind)…..the question is why?
Not sure if Andrew Little has helped the situation with his comments last night to HDPA on One ZB. He's basically said he passed on the info. that there was no hack in a timely manner
Given that none of the people involved actually know what they mean when they say "hacked," and that saying "not hacked" is a long way from saying "not a criminal offence," the take-home messages are that government officials need to be a lot more careful about their language when they speak to the media, and this possible criminal offence needs to be properly investigated. Can't imagine Paula Bennett writing any letters demanding the latter, though.
The nuance being it was no hack of government systems but still reason enough to involve police.
But to dumb it down, call the investigation of the accessing of confidential government information on Treasury servers a hack.
I suspect Makhlouf wanted police to identify whose computer was involved and to look at laying charges under deliberate accessing of confidential information.
An outline of the argument that National's actions were illegal.
http://www.medialawjournal.co.nz/?p=717
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12236128
I am in no doubt that is exactly what happened and it showed in Robertson's demeanour after Bridges’ accusation surfaced. He looked nonplussed. Add to that, my understanding is the GCSB head rang Andrew Little after the Treasury secretary reported to Robertson he had called in the police.
There was no conspiracy on anyone's part – just unfortunate timing and in the case of the Treasury secretary maybe a difference of opinion. He clearly believed what happened constituted a hack, and judging from the wording of the legislation he could be right. Just because it didn't fall into the criteria required for the GCSB to become involved, doesn't mean the attempt to extract figures in advance would not qualify as unlawful.
The police, as usual, couldn't wait to drop the case. I wonder if it was the same crew who jumped in bright eyed and bushy-tailed when they saw an opportunity to bring down Nicky Hager over "Dirty Politics"?
It's not surprising that the GCSB head would contact his Minister after concluding there was no hack of government systems.
What is interesting are the conflicting reports about the matter at the Herald. He is being portrayed as heroically trying to warn the governement of the "false" account of Makhlouf (as if they knew what he was going to say in his public statement in advance of it …. how, spying on Makhlouf's office or his meerting with Robertson or both?).
The thing is, the hair width gap in story. Makhlouf acknowledged it was not a hack of government systems that would concern GCSB, but was advised to take it to police (the issue here will be by whom) – presumably as accessing confidential information was still illegal.
Apparently the concern of GCSB that it not be called a hack, is because it was National what done it and I for one suspect GCSB knew that and then – and yet told no Minister about this and yet were concerend they not be blamed by National for police being called in to investiugate a "hack". Concerned enough to leak stuff to the Herald, so National know who their mates are.
Aha… the squirrels and hares all running for cover as fast as their legs can carry them. I, too suspect Makhlouf may well be the scapegoat in this affair.
We can only hope the SSC inquiry gets to the bottom of it in a timely manner before innocent individuals get cauterized for simply being who they are, or find themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time.
In the meantime the real perpetrators of the crime – or at best dishonourable and dirty political behaviour – are being let off the hook by certain partisan journalist hacks.
+100%
Yeah.
Because I am sure Little didn't bother mentioning it to him or Ardern
Check the timeline up on Newshub.
Tom Pullar-Strecker makes the very good point that it is not the Police or the GCSB who says what is lawful and what is not, it is the judiciary.
The National Party, led now by Paula Benefit furiously writing letter after letter to the SSC and to the media, are trying to divert attention away from their initial misdemeanour, and are wanting desperately to keep the focus on some cast iron definition of the word 'hack'.
https://i.stuff.co.nz/business/113324294/hack-or-no-hack-accessing-a-computer-system-without-authorisation-carries-risk
I think it's too late for the Nats and their followers because this budget is now well and truely known as the 'hacked budget' and evidence of that is the liberal sprinkling of the word in every single article you read.
And the Nats are pouring petrol on it! Madness.
The last two paragraphs of that good Opinion piece:
In my view, accessing the cloned Budget 2019 website 2,000 times over 48 hours clearly suggest a wilful intent and purpose. It is a matter of opinion what the nature of this purpose was; I have mine and others have theirs. The subsequent actions of the responsible Party speak volumes.
An informed and nuanced article this morning:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/113097493/caught-between-china-and-the-us-the-kiwi-place-in-a-newly-confrontational-world
Robert Patman?
https://morrisseybreen.blogspot.com/2019/06/mediocrity-watch-professor-robert.html
I'm sure he will be humbled with his reputation in tatters after your criticism./sarc
I'm not the only person who has criticized Patman for being a patsy. (Sorry, couldn't resist that.) Whether or not he will be humbled by this writer, i.e., moi, is not clear. I haven't heard back from him. I have, however, most definitely heard back from: Michael Laws [1], Leighton Smith [2], a foamingly angry Kerre Woodham [3], and Brian Edwards [4].
And I most definitely rattled the ACT crank and S.S. counsel Stephen Franks, who threatened me with a libel suit for this email to Noelle McCarthy….
[1] https://morrisseybreen.blogspot.com/2018/01/michael-laws-utterly-unable-to-defend.html
[2] https://morrisseybreen.blogspot.com/2019/01/how-this-writer-ie-moi-goaded-leighton.html
[3] https://morrisseybreen.blogspot.com/2018/01/kerre-woodham-was-here-remember-this.html
[4] https://morrisseybreen.blogspot.com/2018/01/correspondence-with-brian-edwards-re.html
As Chris Trotter observes, China's boxers are belted up but not in a good way.
Both the USA and China are in the way of global co-operation on GW.
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2019/06/07/climate-change-survivalism-is-not-the-answer/
What a nasty little school
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/113021958/pukekohe-high-school-reveals-medical-details-to-bullies
Serious problems there. To reveal medical information is unforgivable imo
Reading the parliamentary extract below I'm reminded of the Fallout game intro:
"War. War never changes.
The Romans waged war to gather slaves and wealth. Spain built an empire from its lust for gold and territory. Hitler shaped a battered Germany into an economic superpower.
But war never changes.
In the 21st century, war was still waged over the resources that could be acquired. Only this time, the spoils of war were also its weapons: Petroleum and Uranium. For these resources,China would invade Alaska, the US would annex Canada, and the European Commonwealth would dissolve into quarrelling, bickering nation-states, bent on controlling the last remaining resources on Earth."
Politics in New Zealand in modern times never changes either. Since the 70's we have lost the notion of socialist type reform, of community, of resistance to capitalism which consistently and vigorously attacks any notion of mutual support through taxation. Housing is part of that malaise.
Parliamentary Debates, Volume 382
"but it is also a simple fact that at the time of the general election New Zealand was psychologically sick after 12 years of National Party administration
There is no question about that Confidence had been eroded to the point of completely disappearing in many sectors of our economy By the end of 1972 we had unemployment at a level seldom experienced except under a National Administration since the 1930s.
Home building was lagging despite the needs of the people from one end of the country to the other This afternoon I cited the fall off for example in State housing from the 2,320 units built in 1960 to the miserable 760 units built in 1972.
The future of that industry was so uncertain that no fewer than 4,000 skilled tradesmen opted out of the industry and left it in a state where obviously there will be some difficulty initially in getting it back to a position where it can do the job that is so desperately needed at present."
Labour in it's 80's shift to the right is part of this problem. It's affordable housing policy was a nonsense to the half of the population earning below the median wage, particularly with the failure to recognise that cost of the land made the notion of affordability a nonsense. The simple solution of the state owning the land underneath the house in perpetuity if you really wanted people to own their "house" clashes with the capitalist notion of the land being an asset and having an appreciating value (until the state sells it to the capitalists where it is suddenly worth a lot less at point of sale and a lot more the day after)"
That earlier politicians recognised the need for the state to intervene in the market to house the working and non-working population, to remove the slum landlords, to reduce market house price escalation and rent subsidisation and to reduce homelessness and that our modern politicians cannot see this says a lot about how modern (neo-liberal) capitalist thought is ever persuasive and promoted as common sense.
These past working interventions were not designed by the capitalists – they were designed by the socialists, the unions and the communists. These are the people who should be getting consulted now – not the capitalists nor the neo-liberal Harvard trained economists. These people want to dismantle socialist policies and have the market provide solutions.Remember part of the dismantling of Maori culture was because it was seen by the capitalists as being "communistic" with it's greater sense of community over individual.
It's no use decrying the slum landlords, the motel owners, the camp ground owners, the greedy landlords charging $300-00 a week for a room – they are doing exactly what a capitalistic, market driven economy would drive them to do – they are as economic theory goes being entirely rational. How can I make the maximum profit for the least cost? I have no doubt the wealthy will be jumping on the motel bandwagon as they can.
(Seems interesting that the hotel/motel accommodation survey was reported as being stopped by MBIE at a time we are filling motels up with homeless people. How will we know how many bed nights are tourists vs homeless?)
The churches, in their rational charitable way, are jumping in on the act as well – putting their hands out to help the left behind, making money along the way, imposing their own virtuous rules on those "fortunate" enough to come under their stewardship as they look back on the glory days of poor houses and workhouses and homes for unmarried mothers.
I always note that neither churches nor capitalists like paying tax – they are not strange bed-fellows at all and quite happily spoon together under the blankets of righteousness and respectability.
And while we continue to stay within the current capitalist paradigms of knowing the price of everything but the value of nothing, while we continue to look for capitalistic solutions, while we fail to actually change the system that exists will continue to get market rational behaviours.
So like war, politics at least since the 70's doesn't really seem to change either.
Labour trots out it's slogans:
2012 was the year of the manifesto.
2013 was supposed to be the year of the policy…..
2019 year of delivery
and then underwhelms.
That the discourse mainly is about helping individuals is symptomatic of the prevalence of capitalistic and religious thought.
This was highlighted back in 2012 by a worker who articulated the systemic change that had occurred far better than any politician.
But poverty was formerly a mark against society, now it is seen as an individual's failure, Salesa said.
"For a long time, living in a state house and working in a factory was a badge of honour. If you did a hard day's work you deserved to live in a good house and live a life of dignity," said Salesa, whose father was a factory worker with Fisher and Paykel.
"Being poor in New Zealand, the first thing you don't get is dignity."
http://www.stuff.co.nz/video-pointer/8256615/Are-Kiwis-really-one-big-happy-family
Hi … welcome back
A thoughtful comment. Perhaps I can select this as the pivot:
But poverty was formerly a mark against society, now it is seen as an individual's failure, Salesa said.
Left vs right wing politics has long been marked out as a debate over these two influences. Yet it always seemed obvious to me that this was not an 'either/or' choice, that both individual failure and social failure would have a mutually interdependence on each other. Or to put it in starker terms, the optimum way to mitigate poverty is to pursue both individual and social excellence.
Progressive people will rightly look at the decades of neo-liberalism with it's punitive welfare policies and point to the increasing mess of dysfunction build up at the bottom of our society. Poor housing, educational failure, aggression, drugs, mental and physical health failures, crime … the old familiar list.
Conservative people say that unless the individual is willing to change, to take some responsibility in extracting themselves from the mess they're in … then no amount of do-gooding welfare or social help will make much difference. They rightly argue that welfare easily becomes a multi-generational poverty trap that's exceedingly hard to break.
Forty years of neo-liberalism has tilted us towards a harsher, judgemental view of poverty that strips away the dignity and demonises the weakest and most vulnerable in our society. It's clear which way the pendulum must move. Yet, as the Meritia Turei debacle clearly shows, as a society we remain resistant to change. No-one argues for poverty, no-one wants to see social dysfunction, but this conventional left/right wing framing of the issue had demonstrably taken us nowhere.
"Yet it always seemed obvious to me that this was not an 'either/or' choice, that both individual failure and social failure would have a mutually interdependence on each other. Or to put it in starker terms, the optimum way to mitigate poverty is to pursue both individual and social excellence."
The difficulty I see if that the conventional framing is dominated by capitalist framing and structural organisation. It's like a generation earlier than myself saying they had no welfare system. Well they did – it was called a job in the public service. The public service took on school leavers whether they needed them or not, the public service employed people with disabilities – people for whom the profit driven private sector didn't have jobs for. It was called free education, family benefit and so on.
Importantly it was underpinned by a sense of community well-being as an overarching goal. Education was free as it was recognised as a community good – not just an individual good.
You can have both. Lets take something like rail. Lets say, without any complex analysis at this point that rail has both a community good – providing business and the public with necessary infrastructure to enable the country to operate and a private good – enables individuals to travel and businesses take a profit.Let's say it's 50/50. The notion that there is both a public and a private good moves us away from an either or situation where either the state runs rail or it's run for purely a profit.
The conversation and the conceptualisation that it's both is what I see as important.
I think formerly we understood that there was a balance. Today the pendulum is towards individualism and capitalism and immediate reward.
The irony of course in the Meritia Turei situation, and with many others committing fraud, is that economically they too are behaving entirely rationally. The selective moralising I saw at the time (people complaining about benefit fraud while paying tradesman to do cash jobs to get a cheaper price for instance) was somewhat astounding and hypocritical.
We need a much stronger swing towards socialistic / community based outcomes without the fear mongering that the right like to use when such things are discussed. By not calling it socialism we would simply need to find new words for the same thing and let the capitalists define the world in their terms.
Labour however can't just lead the discourse, they need to actually change things.
The biggest disappointment for me at this point is the refusal to increase benefit rates. At least two previous royal commissions as well as the welfare advisory group recommended that this be done. None of the governments in charge at any of those points of recommendation have done so. In that respect the politics wins out over the dignity of those on benefit – as it did when Helen Clark's government put the $20-00 per week back on NZS but not on benefit.
We need a much stronger swing towards socialistic / community based outcomes without the fear mongering that the right like to use when such things are discussed.
Exactly. This prompts me to reframe it slightly, “how do we achieve this swing while winning the support and confidence of the the right? “The answer seems obvious when we put it like that … when the left demands better social support and community outcomes we must simultaneously link it to better individual outcomes. The right doesn't really like poverty any more than we do, but while the left prioritises it, the right will never vote for programs that do little but entrench it.
Understanding right wingers is crucial to gaining their support; and the parable that means much to them is this one, 'give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach him to fish and you will feed him for life'. In other words people who get their shit together will on average look after themselves better than those who don't.
It is a mistake to make social support conditional, I'm a big fan of universality. But this does not rule out also insisting on universal social participation, as Ardern I think put it, everyone should be either 'earning, learning, caring or volunteering'. This is a very powerful idea we could pay a lot more attention to.
But yes what you are saying is strong, straightforward leftwing advocacy, that makes perfect sense to people here at TS, but needs refining if it's going to work in the wider community. This govts apparent failure to address benefit rates should really be seen in that context.
Why haven't we got an Empty Homes Tax like the city of Vancouver?
Supply and demand. Is the sick logic of the market.
Limit the supply, and you can demand whatever rent or mortgage you like.
Who cares about the social wreckage created? The market will provide and the devil take the hindmost.
While families are living in tents and cars, at last count there were 33, 000 perfectly serviceable homes standing empty in Auckland alone.
The world and NZ have become far more complicated than the 60's -80's yet we seem to be applying a govt funding model based on these times to fund a 2020 world.
Yet the commercial/free market world is happy to off load many responsibilities eg wages funded by WFF, tourism and inadequate infrastructure, intensive farming/fishing and deterioration of environment etc.
So who pays for this gap – or is there ever increasing stress on "the system" and we are now seeing this stress manifest for the 1st time in that the current generation facing the fact that the previous generation has had it better ?
All our well to do types have offset environmental and social costs for us to pick up the tab now the ecology and social fabric is breaking.
The market will provide.
And if the market can't provide the taxpayer will subsidise the market.
Currently the taxpayer is shelling out $millions to stuff as many of the homeless as possible into motels to pad the pockets of the motel owners.
[Is it necessary to bold the whole quotation? I’ve unbolded it – Incognito]
A-mazing. The trouble with government finances is that there are too many separate pockets to dip into. Something can't be funded out of this pocket. But another pocket seems to have unlimited funds.
There is the wages pocket that has a limit so only skeleton staff can be employed to try to manage necessary duties, but then there is pay-the-contractors' pocket which is quite plump and amenable to being squeezed. There is probably a funny skit on this on youtube somewhere, perhaps in Yes Minister or the Simpsons.
See my Moderation note @ 4:02 PM.
Was similar couple of days ago: https://thestandard.org.nz/the-teachers-strike-2/#comment-1625175.
May be possible for people to click bold then paste into it and not be able to fix for some reason?
Yes, I suppose that’s a possibility but my technical ignorance prevents me from going any further 😉 It doesn’t seem to happen too often, luckily, and it seems to happen more to some than to others …
Maybe J – HtGt? did try to fix it??
Anyway, it’s not a biggie IMO, just easier on the eye.
FYI, as far as I can tell, DMK is not a sockpoppet.
Ta.
The Three Stooges
Mike Smith in his Dispatch seems a bit upset. For Britain, which is now a mere Fossil, has sworn itself to the total Power of the United States.
Donald Madman Trump Says Smith " has shown his hand by meeting with Johnson, Gove and Farage. God help us."
Men of no Standing. No Matter. For all the English citizens are now dishelved suckers wanting to suckle and dribble at the Tits of Trump.
Every bit of Trade in Britain will be sacked and splintered by the Gluttonous USA. Especially – National Health.
Neither will The Planet Earth be able to cope with Amercan Pollution. For the Monkey Idiots that comprise the United States would rather Kill Planet Earth than do anything else.
Americans are the Enemy of not only the Earth, but of Reason itself.
Look out Children!. You are in the hands of murderous Mr Trump and his weird family.
Canterbury Cowards? What a weak decision by NZ rugby not to change the team's name. If the team prides itself on excellence, leadership, culture then this decision surely stuffs that all up.
"The reality is that adidas have got to make jerseys, there's merchandising and that sort of stuff,"
Yeah, so you need to get on with deciding on a new logo/brand and then would have to email that to your clothing suppliers. Lol, OMG too hard!
https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/super-rugby/113333175/christchurch-shootings-crusaders-will-keep-name-in-2020-nz-rugby-chairman-says
A couple of days ago I heard some fools on RNZ National's Panel programme praising Chairman Tew's "stewardship" of the game. This sort of spinelessness behaviour belies that view.
disgusting creeps – the crusaders = sexual harassment, toxic male attitudes and booze culture compulsory – join up and pretend cos it's easier than trying to solve the problem – drink yourself for bliss forget about the last one get yourself another…
The Crusaders have probably the most scandal free record of any elite professional male sporting team
so what
Well it kind of makes your comment
"disgusting creeps – the crusaders = sexual harassment, toxic male attitudes and booze culture compulsory"
A bit silly
Their whole franchise was built to the success it is by literally family
Including entire team and their families having BBQs at weekends to make the whole thing inclusive.
Frankly your comment was about as wrong as wrong can be
that is ridiculous – you have said they are have the most scandal free record but what does that mean – the rest had 2 scandals a month and the crusaders only had 1 a month.
No
What it means is your claim
"disgusting creeps – the crusaders = sexual harassment, toxic male attitudes and booze culture compulsory"
Is kind of silly when they aren't
Unless you have evidence for your slagging them off of course. More than they are men so it must be true.
yeah I'm silly and here is the first link on the search – lol
"As an investigation gets underway into the South African allegations against Richie Mo'unga and George Bridge, their playing futures are clear for now.
On Tuesday, Crusaders chief executive Colin Mansbridge confirmed that both Bridge and Mo'unga would be available for selection against the Blues this weekend.
Winger Bridge was accused of homophobic slurs against patrons at a Cape Town McDonald's outlet after their draw with the Stormers, while All Blacks first-five Mo'unga has also been implicated in a case of spitting and groping in a bar.
Fines or suspensions could follow, depending on the findings from independent investigator Steph Dyhrberg"
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/sport/2019/05/super-rugby-2019-business-as-usual-for-crusaders-despite-off-field-scandal.html
I missed the bit where these stories weren't made up
And would you like me to put together a catalogue of political party stuff
Because fairly recently a certain party has been rather good at it and then not being very transparent with it
yeah they just popped out of thin air eh
who cares about political parties – why not just admit you were barking up the wrong tailpipe instead of going off on all these irrelevant tangents – no one is fooled – makes you look sly and untrustworthy.
The Crusaders don't decide if they change the name
The NZRU do.
Frankly changing the name would just be knee jerk virtue signalling imo.
I get emotions were high when it was first muted, but calmer heads have prevailed.
But I do agree with one thing. The NZRU are cowardly for not just saying they are not changing it, rather than pretending it is some sponsorship thing
the name is meaningless – it is made up – it relates to nothing other than some marketing alliteration. But the rugby fans desperate for some relevancy in today's world hold the stupid name close – why?
that's why
OK then
Why don't the Labour Party change their name?
These days it is “nothing other than some marketing alliteration” at elections, given the change to their policy
oh dear – wot a nob
Lol
It was a joke
me too
The other aspect is that this debate has been going on much longer than the events in Christchurch. The world is bigger than this rugby team – Middlesex cricket being but one example that removed Crusaders from its name a few years back.
The KKK magazine has always been known as The Crusader which seems to serendipitously fit nicely with the country's skinhead capital.
I can't see why they don't just change it. Tis just a marketing gimmick.
http://www.terrorismanalysts.com/pt/index.php/pot/article/view/641/html
Change it to the Canterbury Knights or something similar and they can still have their outfits and their horses and Knights are generally well regarded. Easy peasy, no need for fainting and wringing of hands.
Canterbury Rangers. Lots of scope for horses there + the play on the South Island Ranges (Southern Alps)
Nice, I was thinking of something along the lines of Mustering. More New Zealand appropriate too than medieval stuff.
... knee jerk virtue signalling imo.
Idiot, you are.
Well it is
Agree with losing the stupid horses and sword dude though
Shocking event – glad they have the suspects now.
Robertson meets with Makhlouf after 7.15-35pm and is informed that the matter has been referred to police.
Around 7.55pm Newshub reports this and around this time the GCSB head informs Little it would not refer to what happened as a hack.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2019/06/inside-the-budget-breach-what-we-know.html
After this point Robertson makes his call for National not to use the information it has and that the Treasury have referred a hacking complaint to police. And apparently still before Little has informed him of his contact with GCSB.
National is angry at the idea (and they take it personally because they did go and get the information off the Treasury site and are guilty of deliberately accessing confidential information) of it being called a hack, apparently they and GCSB sing off the same song chart as to what is a hack and what is not a hack (witness the Assange legal case in the USA).
National had conspired to force an offer of resignation from Robertson (form when budget info is leaked), and to keep focus on him and away from themselves and their actions they claim to be victims of dirty politics (we can see who dances to their tune in the Herald's coverage) – they accuse Robertson of accusing them of hacking (no one had accused anyone of hacking, but National was not ready to admit they had gathered the confidential information albeit by a means they did not accept was hacking).
Now with the apparent help of a leak form the GCSB, the Herald is promoting the line that Ministers knew because one Minister was informed by GCSB. IMO the lack of regard for confidentiality of information displayed by both National and GCSB is of concern. We know what Paula Bennett did with confidential information when Minister etc.
National are desperate for the language to be steered away from the word 'hack', and that is what has incensed them from the beginning – the idea that anyone could think their motives and method were not pure.
The noise of the past week, as you say, is their attempt at keeping the focus away from their original misadventure.
Agree that the leaks and statements coming out of the GCSB are hugely concerning. They are paid to listen, not talk.
National are not angry that they have been accused of hacking .
National found a weakness and are ringing every last drop of shit stirring they possible can out of it .
Any one who cant see this is fucking thick.
So Bridges was not angry but feigning anger, and lying about being angry.
Sure, OK …
Yip he is . Hes a greasy little turd that has just happened to float to the surface of the septic tank that the national party has become.
If he had an ounce of self-reflection Bridges would be channelling the anger at himself that he turned a gift story about budget infosec into a fucking semantic debate about the meaning of the word "hack".
I mean, seriously, how do you fuck that up?
Last night on OM I wondered about a leaker in the GCSB. The media seems to know an awful lot about what Ministers had been told and when. Andrew Little was contacted by GCSB but he may not have known about Makhlouf and Robertson’s conversation. Didn’t the GCSB tell Treasury that it was a matter for the Police? Anyway, all this conveniently distracts away from the people who started all this in the first place.
Yes, the early reports indicated GCSB did not see it as a government systems hack, but something specific to attempts to access info off the Treasury site and something for the police to look into … . The confidentiality of government information side of the law, which police could not be bothered with – wonder how they will feel if its their information next time (early this century DPF managed to pull a similar gathering of information about police statistics before they were released, on Kiwiblog he posted about this when this story broke in budget week).
There are loads of leaky buildings in Wellington.
Houston, we have ‘consensus’
The terrible tragedy of the Zero Carbon Act; is consensus between all the parties on climate change, means that voters will be denied a chance to decide between the parties on this issue. And again, despite the growing urgency, climate change will again not be debated on the hustings for another electoral cycle.
(It’s called having faith in the people)
'Murica!
Even 25 years ago, almost all the engineering I got involved in in the US was done in metric. But I still get a giggle out of having to express the result of a test in newtons per pound.
(it was the slope of a curve, before all you nerds out there try to tell me it's a constant 4.448)
lol I still remember my first physics lecture – Naturally it was on units. Part of the first assignment was to convert miles per gallon into per acres! Buggered if I'm going to work out the conversion factor for you. now tho. 🙂
OMG!
Mind you I remember when we were "forced" – forced I tell you! by that UltraRight Muldoon to move from our sacred and oh so blessed LSD (Pounds, Shillings, and Pence) not acid on 1 July 1967. I still have that jingle in my head.
It caused huge relief to all school pupils who suddenly no longer had to calculate the cost of 12 men working 8 hours at 5 shillings and fourpence h'penny per hour. And great anguish to a multitude of teachers who now had to dream up an even more tangled question for a far more simplified money system.
The fact is the 'merican gallon is different from what was the British Imperial Gallon as well! I would have thought that 'merica was the ideal place for a simplified system of measurement. Certainly if the"knowledge" of their "President" is anything to go by.
And it wasn't Robespierre it was a panel of 5 French Scientists and Mathematicians Jean-Charles de Borda, Joseph-Louis Lagrange, Pierre-Simon Laplace, Gaspard Monge and Nicolas de Condorcet. who developed the first complete metrical system which has been developed and is continuing to be modified – even this year.
Deep state Jacobins.
"You give us heart to defend against the global tyranny of the metric system" – Tucker Carlson
OMFG!!!
They're batshit crazy stupid now…
Listening and watching what comes out of 'murica would be serious if it wasn't so funny.
Faux News – The Ministry of Truth viewers certainly are.
Watch Laura Ingraham tell her audience to disbelieve something Trump just told her!
https://www.vox.com/2019/6/7/18656564/ingraham-trump-d-day-ceremony-normandy-interview
Whenever any American colleagues would whine about having trouble with the metric system, I used to wind them up by asking why they were so fixated on using some weird measurement system dreamed up by some mad english king that was so inbred he had six toes on each foot and hand, which is why there are 12 inches in a foot. Nobody ever called bullshit.
I remember the movie. The twelve toed toad of great hall.
Is it really "a nation of people" that's stupid? Or is it that the political class treats them with no respect?
Look at the "choice" they were "given" by the Republican and Democratic Parties at the last presidential election. Do you blame the "nation of people" for that, or do you blame the likes of Nancy Pelosi and Debbie Wasserman Schultz?
Only the best people, #…
The best people….
http://www.myconfinedspace.com/2011/10/14/the-yobbish-hypocritical-toff-history-of-david-cameron-boris-johnson/davidandboris-jpg/
This is worrying concerning NZ intellectual archives and memory. We don't want to find outselves to be in the position of a determinedly ignorant leader caring nothing about our accumulated valuable records as in Canada's past Prime Minister Stephen Harper. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Harper
Edit:
Stephen Joseph Harper PC (born April 30, 1959) is a Canadian economist, entrepreneur, and retired politician who served as the 22nd prime minister of Canada for nearly a decade, from February 6, 2006, to November 4, 2015.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/canadian-scientists-open-about-how-their-government-silenced-science-180961942/
.
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/01/canada-war-on-science/514322/
https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/4w578d/the-harper-government-has-trashed-and-burned-environmental-books-and-documents
New Zealand :
http://briefingpapers.co.nz/behind-the-scenes-at-te-papa/
5/6/19
Behind the scenes at Te Papa : Lionel Carter & Mike Rudge
,,,the Board bears an obligation to maintain the resources and the necessary discipline-specific skills. After all, its own Statement of Intent states the museum will “maintain collections to the highest possible standard.”
The Board of Te Papa comprises people mostly qualified in subjects such as law, finance and public affairs, not in science or, in particular, biology. (A temporary exception was the tenure of Sir Peter Gluckman, a paediatrician.
Te Papa restructurings 2012-2018
The restructuring proposed in 2018 was the third in five years. A restructuring in 2012 reduced the number of staff managing the natural history collections by roughly 50% as indicated in the graph below. The proposals in 2018 cut a further 50%. These are not trivial figures. Even worse, people, with specialised expertise and institutional memory are being replaced by inexperienced generalists.
Generic managers and executives – out. Bean-counters and accountants – out.
This set of adjectives – do they describe our present persons of powerful positions?
philistine – a person who is hostile or indifferent to culture and the arts.
"I am a complete philistine when it comes to paintings"
synonyms:lowbrow, anti-intellectual, materialist, bourgeois; boor, ignoramus, lout, oaf, barbarian, primitive, savage, brute, yahoo, vulgarian
"Generic managers and executives – out. Bean-counters and accountants – out.
This set of adjectives – do they describe our present persons of powerful positions?
philistine – a person who is hostile or indifferent to culture and the arts." ……..
………. a big reason why this coalition can never be transformational and 'kind' until they tackle that problem. Not just in the arts.
Incognito had a good post the other day (Politicians Don't Know Jack). See comment12 at bottom
So, it's a long con..
Uber’s longer-term goal was to eliminate all meaningful competition and then profit from this quasi-monopoly power. While it has already begun using some of this artificial power to suppress driver wages, it has not achieved the Facebook- or Amazon-type “platform” power it hoped to exploit. Given that both sustainable profits and true industry dominance seemed unachievable, Uber’s investors decided to take the company public, based on the hope that enough gullible investors still believe that the company’s rapid growth and popularity are the result of powerfully efficient innovations and do not care about its inability to generate profits.
These beliefs about Uber’s corporate value were created entirely out of thin air. This is not a case of a company with a reasonably sound operating business that has managed to inflate stock market expectations a bit. This is a case of a massive valuation that has no relationship to any economic fundamentals. Uber has no competitive efficiency advantages, operates in an industry with few barriers to entry, and has lost more than $14 billion in the previous four years. But its narratives convinced most people in the media, investment, and tech worlds that it is the most valuable transportation company on the planet and the second most valuable start-up IPO in U.S. history (after Facebook).
..and a real life example of what people have been saying for years; real profit comes out of workers wages.
Uber’s entry substantially increased the demand for drivers. If labor markets worked as predicted by economic theory, this should have significantly increased driver take-home pay and improved working conditions. Instead, Uber exploited artificial market power to subvert normal market dynamics.
[…]
Starting in 2015, Uber eliminated most of the incentives it had used to attract drivers and unilaterally raised its share of passenger fares from 20 percent to 25–30 percent. Almost all of Uber’s margin improvement since 2015 is explained by this reduction of driver compensation down to minimum wage levels, not by improved efficiency. These unilateral compensation cuts resulted in a direct wealth transfer from labor to capital of over $3 billion.
https://americanaffairsjournal.org/2019/05/ubers-path-of-destruction/
In NZ Uber flouts and is non-compliant with nearly all passenger service requirements and laws …
Some examples being …..
A passenger service class of drivers license , which involves a police check,,,, Land Transport photo identification, and a compulsory defensive driving course before sitting the license.
Log book requirements and rules on how many hours driving before compulsory rest periods ….. how many hours out of 24 you are permitted to work.
Passenger service vehicles have more stringent warrant of fitness safety inspections, which can only be done at a VINZ testing station….
I presume they flout the laws in other countries as well …. leading one to ask how they have got away with it.
The answer seems to be their existence and growth has occured while the poms , Canada the Aussies and NZ ….. had right wing or conservative Governments in charge . Deregulation is in their blood.
The fact that Uber has also attacked their workers pay and conditions , as well as those across the industry …. also dovetails with right wing politics.
I do wonder what creative sham they use, to exempt themselves from our NZ transport laws though…
Eco Maori say in reality to save the Papatuanuku (as we know) save it our future from a huge MESS men are creating we must EMPOWER Wahine women.
They are the intelligence human special half of humanity they give us life we must give them respect responsiblity and that =equality for Wahine = happy healthy future.
I did not realize it was World Ocean day yesterday ka pai we need to have a culture that respect Our Ocean.
To save the oceans, we must first empower women
Rather, there is a necessary cultural shift that needs to be undertaken to highlight the equal value of a woman's input when it comes to sustainable management. While this may sound like an insurmountable task, the power of an individual to make waves cannot be overemphasized.
Read: 7 startling facts about the crisis facing our oceans
My own journey has been greatly influenced by strong role models such as Sylvia Earle and Rachel Carson, marine biologists who made their voices heard when gender inequality was even more prevalent.
In 1970, Earle led the first all-female team of aquanauts and later became the first female chief scientist at the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration link below ka kite ano.
https://edition-m.cnn.com/2019/06/08/opinions/rebecca-loy-oceans-day-intl/index.html?r=https%3A%2F%2Fedition.cnn.com%2F
Kia ora Hui .
Our Labour lead Coalition governments has delivered a lot of good policy for the common people tangata whenua make up a big portion of the common people so we are getting a better deal from this government. Money for helping papa kainga is very good I see all the whanau whare in need of Maintenance.
The preservation of tangata whenua art of weaving clokes in Pukekohe ka pai Emily White for your mahi in teaching others to weave clokes ka pai teaching pakiha anyone one who likes to learn the great Art .
Ka kite ano
Its carbon fuels we have to stop using ASAP all the other causes of Global warming can be tackled in the near future.
If we dump carbon fuels that will go a long way to leaving our decendince a happy healthy future.
Earth's carbon dioxide levels are highest they've been in millions of years This level hasn't been seen in human history and is also higher than at any point in millions of years This is the highest seasonal peak recorded in 61 years of observations on top of Hawaii's largest volcano, and the seventh consecutive year of steep global increases in concentrations of CO2 la kite ano link below.
https://i.stuff.co.nz/environment/climate-news/113328022/earths-carbon-dioxide-levels-are-highest-theyve-been-in-millions-of-years
Kia ora Newshub.
The polls give Eco Maori a sore face very good
The business community should be rubbing there hands together with all the extra government spending going into Aotearoa economy common tangata have more money to spend on goods and services .
That's sad that island bay Tapu Te Ranga Marae it will be hard for the local people condolence for your losses.
I have said many times that the JUSTICE system needs to clean up its act.
You would think that a Vitale service like a ferry to Waiheke island would be on time a have a reliable service. It would be good if the Auckland council could take over the ferry's the islands is a big attraction.
The Pink and white terraces were beautiful scenic sight it is cool the underwater filming of them and research them.
Ka kite ano
Kia ora te ao Maori news.
Its not good for the tangata of Tapu Te Ranga Marae it sound like quite a few people live in and are camping at the Marae it's lucky no one was losted in the fire.
It would be good for our tamariki if we don't dig holes in the Dome to bury Auckland rubbish we need to minimize wastre and recycle everything .
That was awesome see te tangata in world war uniforms I don't like war but OUR Tipuna got and gave te tangata whenua O Aotearoa heaps of Mana for there effort and losses. There are stories about our tipuna not being happy about no getting what the pakiha soldiers got when they got home I could see the effects around Te Awa and Waikato.
Ka kite ano