We have prominent NZer’s court case coming up at long last (justice delayed for so long to that person’s victims)
Bradley Ambrose is suing Key for defamation, as long as he can get the $$$ to cover the court costs.
And by April the sports logo flag will be trampled in the mud in celebratory fashion, along with Key’s ego.
It could be a pretty shitty autumn for them.
Oh, and hows that plagiarism case coming along? You know, the one where the National Party managed to rip off the Eminem tune for their election campaign music in 2014?
Good gains were made in February in regard to public backlash over the Nat govt, with Key copping most of it. Hopefully we can do round two next month.
PS Don’t forget the Clutha Southland kid’s developing problems. A Dirty Politics cub?
In the past, problems with Nat MP’s going a bit astray managed to last a few news cycles and then get forgotten about due to the apparent popularity of Key, not necessarily of the govt, but of Key. But things have changed now. He’s a little less popular. A new side show might do more damage then it once did. That might lessen the boredom.
The love is fading, as the Smiths could tell you. It’s not what it used to be eh?
“Nothing’s changed
I still love you, oh, I still love you
Only slightly, only slightly less
Than I used to, my love”
Heh, good one. You are right that things might liven up a bit as the people steadily find the voice and power to stand up to these bozos – witness clown action in the TPP meeting yesterday.
…. looking forward to the custard pie for Finlayson QC….
At today’s roadshow Auckland mayoral hopeful Penny Bright questioned how TPP could be in New Zealand’s best interests given it doesn’t include our second biggest trading partner, China, and Obama had been quoted as saying “if we don’t write the rules, then China will write the rules in the region”.
…Penny Bright questioned how TPP could be in New Zealand’s best interests given it doesn’t include our second biggest trading partner, China…
Seeing as we already have a satisfactory free trade deal with China, how would including it in the crappy TPPA be in our interests? Still, I guess it makes as much sense as Penny ever does.
The Government is being accused of going easy on Chinese authorities when making trade deals for the infant formula industry.
Dozens of Kiwi brands made by small businesses going down the drain.
There were 200 brands – and now there are just 20.
Michael Barnett of the Infant Formula Exporters Association said “MPI have allowed them to control that process, so we’ve ended up with a small group of privileged exporters.”
He says many of those exporters are Chinese-owned companies based in New Zealand.
Yeah, and the Australian company producing baby formula just saw it’s share price double as in can’t keep up with demand after doubling it’s production this year from 5M units, to 10M units.
You know countries can have more than one trade deal at a time, right?
There’s plenty of better things to criticise about the TPPA than “it doesn’t include China”
After years as an internet wasteland, the Labour Party’s “Red Alert” blog site looks to have been quietly put out of its misery. Once lauded as the new way for MPs to interact with the public, it soon became a bit of an embarrassment, before being ignored. Now, it appears to be no more.
Thats a shame, it was always quite amusing to go there but they did have some very strict moderation going on…but this was my favorite post:
chris73 says:
July 31, 2010 at 12:00 pm
A vote for Phil Goff is a vote for a prosperous NZ
The only way to win an argument these days is to call the other person a troll. As soon as you say it you can walk away from your keyboard feeling fully satisfied.
a clear narrative on the looming impact on provincial NZ, remembering that most of rural NZ only began to recover from a massive hollowing out with land values halving on the back of this once in a lifetime dairy boom that has now come to an end…..back to the future
No, whats worse is the small businesses that have to carry Fonterra debt for 90 days & cut margins by 10%.
I’m a small business, when my clients don’t pay for 30+ days I still have costs to cover from MY suppliers (thank god I have an overdraft) . I understand it’s a business model but it has the potential to kill off many small kiwi contractors. Maybe they are waiting for the TPP to take force so those large overseas operations can come in an carry their debt by employing former local contractors and paying them less?
Haven’t heard much about Nathan Guy’s “export double” recently. Funny when prices are going up it’s all because of what brilliant economic managers the govt are and when they are plummeting it’s all because of world markets and “out of our control”.
That seems to be similar to Fonterra’s attitude, IMO. No mention of bad management or servicing their high debt being a problem, it’s all because of world markets etc…
Have you seen the latest attempt at making the general populace want to be a republic!!!!!???? Talk about blatant mindbending propoganda quiz questions… also asking whether you are right or left winged (of course if right winged you get a 10 and left = 0) such blatant propoganda I don’t think I’ve seen in quite some time.
I turned out to be a Traditionalist … left out in the cold minority with only 14% of the population apparently and obviously living in the past and need to get with the program persay..
Its incredible…. 3 days till TPPA submissions close.. fek!
Definitely more of a push-poll than a genuine quiz. Still, gotta watch them sneaky MSM polls and quizzes. They are often just as much about profiling readers as they are about providing genuine quizzes. By finger-printing the device from which the answers are entered, MSM servers will tailor “product” to best suit your profile so, if you are left wing, you will see more left wing “news”, and so on. Personally, I try to provide as little information as possible to MSM data harvesting operations.
Given half a chance Collins’ would run her very own black sites.
/
Hence Judith Collins’ transparent attempt to re-assert political control. She wants MPs to ask her office before they go into a prison, and she wants to make sure that senior prison officials escort them at every point of their visit.
Her reasons are, of course, spurious. She cites the case of an MP who shared a female Corrections staffer’s contact details with an offender who has a history of sexual violence. That was certainly a stupid and dangerous thing to do, and Davis has since outed himself as the MP.
[…]
Collins’ argument that she is just trying to keep visiting MPs safe from “the country’s most difficult and dangerous people” is cant. Her initiative isn’t about the health and safety of her fellow politicians. It’s about power and control.
It also raises other questions about prisons and accountability. Collins clearly wants prisons to be run out of her office. This means that information about the state of prisons would be entirely in the hands of a hard-line politician who doesn’t think there is anyone in prison who shouldn’t be there and would happily put a lot more people in as well.
I think that a “fag” is a name given to those junior pupils who are virtually slaves to the whims of senior pupils at Public Schools like Eton. In that context….
It’s also a pun given Wee Toddy Baccy’s connections to the tobacco industry. But I take Lanth’s point. I didn’t know about the private school meaning. Does that get used in NZ?
Since those more innocent or ignorant days, fag may have sexual overtones. Not good. It is becoming acceptable with the barbarians in our
midst to snigger at jokes about men in jail not wanting to bend over in the shower if they drop the soap. Can we keep this vile attitude out of this blog.
No, BM, but if you did, that might explain a little about your current misanthropic attitudes. I wasn’t private schooled, myself. Had a few mates who were and heard the stories. Class war in a school uniform.
Speaking of age, here’s the ODT coverage of the student balcony collapse in Dunedin over the weekend. A couple of things stand out for me.
One is the photo in the first link, which shows people on the remaining balconies laughing and taking photos immediately after the collapse where some people had fallen 3m and some people had a balcony collapse on top of them and all of that is visible to the people laughing (it’s much more obvious in the front page version of the hardcopy). Why are they laughing, and why are they not concerned about their own balcony? Alcohol is a factor, but I think there is something else going on here.
The other thing is, why are these people not at a protest 😉 By the time I was that age, I’d already protested against the Tour and marched up the motorway in Dunedin with thousands of people including many students who were at the forefront of organising the protests. Why do we not have that culture now? I’m being a bit facetious, because of course partying hard was part of uni culture then too, but politics were still a thing too.
I wish more people would look at the builder/developers instead of the students all the time, should that balcony have nothing holding it up? The police are not going to investigate, Worksafe have walked away shrugging their shoulders. It’s like a shanty town that area.
Those balconies were pieces of shit. Should have had a post under each corner. Trying to cantilever balconies in that way is complete and utter negligence.
Those buildings aren’t that old either (relative to Dunedin housing in general), but I don’t know if they predate changes to the building code or not.
I agree, the balconies were probably deficient for the use. But they were probably not built to have a full load of jumping students on them either, so might well have been fit for the purpose they were designed for (residential use). I wasn’t quite sure from the articles, but this is a private residence right? And a private party (eg no tickets sold)?
This comes on the back of the annual couch burning fest that happens in Dunedin, and that along with other problems suggests that the culture there isn’t particularly healthy. Maybe this will wake a few people up.
Cantilevers. I looked at the photo and thought, did no-one teach these kids about Cave Creek when they were at school?
Developer/Designer/Builder have a responsibility to specify what is appropriate for that environment. A cantilevered balcony was chosen for one of the rowdiest, destructive streets in the country where its structural capacity would be severely tested. I find it hard to imagine that no one along the design process said, do you think the design of those balconies are ok?
I heard someone knowledgable on radio saying that balconies are supposed to be able to support 200 kg per square metre or something. These days that might not be enough for a load bearing certificate.
As for students worrying about load bearing – they are young, they wouldn’t expect to have to inspect the specifications of a house before they let rip with their party. And worry – that’s SEP.
Really it just underlines how we depend on trusting each other to do the proper job. Those who don’t should have to sit in town stocks for a day so we can see the so and sos and throw tomatoes at them. They would hate that, and it would keep them out of prison and away from those really nasty criminals.
Think about the trust required when flying. We should actually question the pilot each time we get onto a small plane, carry a checklist to go through before we fly with one of these possible adult idiots who run small airlines like Bannerman? in Christchurch. Like the hot air balloon pilate, washed his hands of responsibility for taking care. Ask have they looked at the weather forecast and are planning to fly round storms? Have they enough fuel? Do their emergency beacons work, have they current batteries?
Maybe, maybe not. Last time I looked at floor loadings in a building code (not New Zealand admittedly), you’d have to pack people in pretty tight to get to design load. Then there’s generous safety factors on top of that.
Where a cantilevered joist comes out of the wall turns into a moisture trap really easily. In the right continually wet conditions, even H3 will rot pretty quickly. Looking at the photos, those joists look smallish for the length of cantilever. Then if the builders there pulled a real plonker stunt like they did on the cantilevered deck for my house and notched the joists where they sit on the bearers…
Andre
That is an important point worth considering. Design features can be circumvented by the erectors of whatever, because of long-established methods they prefer to use as known practices and easier to follow, than the actual specified method.
Then there is the question of the allowed width of any cantilevered balcony..
There should be standards set by a professional and knowledgable department of building standards that can be consulted free, and which gives detailed information at low cost. Hah hah NZ I bet we haven’t anything like one of these services from our beloved gummint. Now that’s a mint to chew on.
BRANZ I think might have done that in the past, but now when I looked at it for helpful information, it referred me to the type of private consultant who would provide it.
Looking at their site they seem to be busy with industry information, but for ordinary NZs – do they have a role of informing them and protecting them against the shonky, the makeshift, the fast johnnies?
Perhaps they had abandoned the informative, cautionary role long ago and so did not concern themselves with overseas findings of failures with the cladding systems, that were adopted here, although known to be trouble elsewhere.
This, we know has led to ordinary working people losing their entire investment and savings because of a shonky house, finding that the best resolution would be to demolish the remains of their home and sell the bare land to recover some of their mortgage.
This is from their contact us page under a query box where you can describe your concern.
Our professionals helpline – 0800 80 80 85 – is available free to those who work within the New Zealand building and construction industry.
Our consumer helpline is 0900 5 90 90 – calls cost $1.99 per minute, plus GST. Full knowledge of the details of your enquiry may result in you being referred to someone else.
We regret we are unable to respond to technical queries by email. All helpline responses are strictly on a case-by-case basis and are solely based on the information provided.
If your question is of a non-technical nature, please complete the contact us form above, and we will endeavour to respond to you within 48 hours.
Fair enough but people are idiots aren’t they? That’s why we legislate (Stop signs, ‘flammable’ notices, handrails). Most of these kids would have had no idea, now they do, harsh lesson learnt. (A few landlords are up there now adding strength to their balconies, still looks rough, but who cares each out for their own make a buck & move on).
Do think the young will ever not have a few idiotic moments here & there? & the people hurt were standing underneath the balconies? Fair enough 2 broke their backs?
A few weeks ago at my friend left his five children and headed off to start his morning shift and was killed a few minutes later by a young woman crossing the centre line.
Had she survived there’s little doubt she would’ve been prosecuted as should the idiots who overloaded the balcony. Fair enough?
I was also a little confused about the behaviour of the crowd immediately after the collapse. Footage I’d seen showed people looking at the aftermath and cheering. I saw a guy with two drinks in his hands raise them up. I’m guessing this is just really bad judgement from drunk people, in what would have been a traumatic situation for those with serious injuries.
But then there may have been people that rushed to help. We don’t know. Also the Police asked the band to continue playing after the collapse to distract people away from the scene so they might have had such short attention spans that they, once again, feeling wasted, just got back on with the buzz of it.
Still, there did seem to be a disconnect didn’t there?
As an aside, Mr R experienced a weird crowd reaction yesterday. It was also a disconnection to the seriousness of the situation, or at least a lack of reaction, not appropriate to the situation.
Walking down the street on afternoon tea break he watched as an elderly woman got up from an outdoor table where she was having coffee. He saw her trip on the leg of the table, begin to fall and he went running to her to stop her falling any further. He got there just in time and caught her, but not before she hit her head on the corner of the table.
He held her and held his hand under her wound which was bleeding terribly, all over him , all over her, all over the footpath. By this time there was a crowd standing around them. He asked the crowd to call an ambulance., Nothing. They just stared. He asked again, and still nothing, just more staring at him and the woman. It took him three goes for anyone to get their phone out and call an ambulance. On the third instruction he was yelling at the crowd.
While he was fine with dealing with the injured woman he was totally shocked and annoyed by the lack of response from the crowd.
News reports say that there were plenty of people helping on the ground. The ones higher up seemed to not understand the seriousness of what happened, which is bizarre.
That’s a disturbing story about Mr R. and I think that’s what I was getting at. Are we so disconnected now? Bad shit happening to people is something you see on TV so when it happens in real life there’s confusion about whether to be a spectator or not? In the front page photo in the ODT the number of cell phones being held up to record what is happening sticks out.
The watershed moment for me was listening to the TV reporter talk about the immediate moments after the big Chch quake. She proudly talked about how she was on the streets with a cameraman within 1 minute. They filmed what was going on, including people trying to get other people out of collapsed buildings. That she not only thought this was appropriate behaviour but felt proud of it is mindboggling to me. She was interviewed again recently for the 5 year anniversary. I had to turn the radio off.
I think there are times when it’s appropriate to be removed from such situations. eg critical media reporting has alerted the world to what is going on in war zones. But in Chch that wasn’t necessary, whereas helping people in great pain and distress was. At the scene of an accident, if you can’t help, you get yourself out of the way so that emergency crews and people on the scene can do what is needed. You don’t have to watch.
edit, thinking about it, I wonder if many people now just have no clues what to do in emergencies. I attended to an elderly couple in a store one who were having an acute medical emergency and there were people there who had no idea what to do. Even so, the scene you describe to me seems very odd. Calling 111 isn’t rocket science.
Psychology refers to the “bystander effect”, a phenomenon where the more people there are at an emergency scene the less likely one will come forward to assist. In a situation where there are very few, one is forced to assist, out of a sense of duty.
But I don’t know what psychology would say now days about our apparent reluctance – our disconnection , or inappropriate responses. I’m sure there are theories on it, or theories on whether our behaviour has changed. Have we moved so far away from the concept of collective care, eg, pre neolib days, that the need to respond to another in distress just doesn’t compute? I don’t know if it’s the influence of the culture of political systems or something else entirely. That’s one for the sociologists.
Musings aside, in your situation with the elderly couple and in Mr R’s situation, the most helpful and the easiest thing for bystanders to do is dial 111. Why the blockage around that? I just don’t get it.
PS: I remember tv chanels crowing about the fact they were “first on the scene” with their cameras, vulture like, focused on the victims on 22.02.11. Made me sick.
The other crowd effect relevant to that situation is the “milling” effect, where nobody does anything until somebody does something, then everybody does the same thing.
Some people are switched on and jump to action more than others – a sort of vacancy takes over until they find a familiar thing to latch onto and start working from. Very common startle reflex: fight / flight / freeze.
One trick is to speak to an individual, address them directly – can you call and ambulance, etc. It breaks them out of the spectator mode.
Most people milling from day to day aren’t put into these sorts of situations, and we probably wouldn’t want too many keyed up, leap into action types walking around anyway. Too far the other side are the sort who also get swept away while trying to save others, take on the armed robber over $150 till takings, that sort of thing.
Cops and soldiers can change modes pretty quick (ISTR Ron Mark had an active role in the aftermath of a traffic accident a while back – probably no coincidence that he’s ex-army, IMO), and so are others trained in outdoorsey stuff where you need to plan for these things (one of the best incident bystanders I encountered was in a scuba diving club – practically had everything handled before the ambulance came, and it was a fairly complex case as well).
The “milling effect” you refer to could explain what Mr R encountered yesterday, but really it was more like an overwhelming inertia. After some time did only one person eventually phone 111 when instructed. And I do mean directly instructed.
Understand your explanation “where nobody does anything until somebody does something, then everybody does the same thing.” I’m in the situation where I observe ducks, most days and they do this en masse but humans, in a vacuous state, I could see that applying to.
I guess in Mr R’s circumstance, he is switched on to observation. He’s a health and safety officer at his workplace. He saw it coming where as others who were closer to the person just walked away as it was happening.
As another side note I couldn’t help think of the irony of so many people being so disconnected to daily life and social observation because they have their face in a smart phone all day but in a real life situation they completely fail to act and use the phone for something, well, useful.
A really interesting experiment was to put students in a mock exam situation, all authority figures leave the room, and smoke comes under the door after a while.
All except one of the students were confederates instructed to ignore the smoke, but follow the test subject if they left. The control was to leave the room when the smoke was noticed.
If everyone else acted unconcerned, the test subject usually stayed in the room until the smoke was very thick, despite obvious discomfort and concern for personal safety.
I have been told the best way to deal with such a situation is to directly ask some one in the crowd – make it personal
Like “could you the person in the blue jersey please call 111, and look directly at them.
@dv
Brilliant. That is something I recall and have seen it happen. So that is something to put in our mental notes for emergencies. Make it personal – get a who, me response.
And if the person doesn’t respond say to the next person, ‘Are you a capable person’? Phone for an ambulance, just 111, tell them where, or get the person next to you to do it?
I have read of a woman who collapsed in a main city street, with people carefully going round her, but one man apparently stepped over her, but no one squatting down by her head and trying to communicate or help her. I think she was a nurse, used to helping people in difficulty, and was wounded in her respect for others, when she found that the public didn’t help others in distress, and particularly, return her level of care, to herself when needed.
edited
Rosie
That was interesting. In a world of individuals, apparently people still wait for someone else to take over in an unusual situation. It’s like people are basically conformists and in their mental book of etiquette there is no prior instruction of what to do when there is no-one in authority to take charge. And we often are unaccustomed to acting with initiative. People are not very compassionate these days, more uncaring and censorious than they used to be I think.
I remember the story long ago of the NZ woman and her friend at Hampton Court in London who along with other visitors were confronted by a workman who had been down a manhole and just managed to get up to advise that his mate had collapsed.
She looked around and none of the men moved to do anything, so she went down, no doubt carefully, to check the situation, and with her friend formed a rescue team,
successfully.
But it is amazing that people can’t even call an ambulance. The emotion of shock, coupled with an avid and ghoulish curiosity about this novel event, must produce this unpleasant result of dissociation.
I don’t doubt that for a minute, but how is using the gender specific term in your first clause an example of an intersected statement which improved upon the Bill Haywood observation? It does improve on somewhat but cannot be fully intersected. It seems Haywood is addressing exploitation rather than he is addressing exploitative men.
(Serious question, I’ve just been getting into this whole critical theory of oppressive institutions and its linguistics.)
Maybe it depends on context. If it’s general (which is how I’m reading it not knowing who Haywood is), then make both clauses gender neutral. I think we now have enough women making money off other people to warrant that.
I guess it depends on what you mean by not working, but I know plenty of women doing well off investments and interest on savings. I’m not comparing numbers of women to men or women to women, I’m looking at women in NZ and seeing a big chunk that fit what you are saying.
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From the Wall Street Journal:Inside a room of the ornately decorated Hotel du Palais during last month’s Group of Seven summit in Biarritz, France, President Trump awaited a meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi. Mr. Trump looked over a gathering of American and Egyptian officials and called out in ...
by the Redline blog collective At Redline we are very saddened to hear of the death of Magdalen Burns who passed away on the morning of Friday, September 13 (British time). Magdalen was a great fighter for the rights of women in general and lesbian women in particular, a defender ...
The Brexit issue has certainly brought with it a series of apparently difficult constitutional issues, many of them concerning the respective roles of the executive and parliament. Most of them arise because of the unwillingness of MPs, despite their professions to the contrary, to be bound by a constitutional rarity ...
. . This blogpost is different to my usual format of reporting on issues… Since July 1011, I have blogged on a variety of political issues; near always political and/or environmental; mostly highly critical of the previous National Government. Other issues included Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands and repression of ...
Those close to the Police Minister believe the initiative may be the result of Nash “seeing a great deal” on AliExpress. In a move that comes seemingly out of nowhere, Police Minister Stuart Nash announced this afternoon that he expects all frontline staff to don bearskin hats, famously worn by ...
The government has released its Arms Legislation Bill, containing the second tranche of changes to gun laws following the March 15 massacre. And it all looks quite sensible: a national gun register, higher penalties for illegal possession and dealing, tighter restrictions on arms dealers and shooting clubs, and a shorter ...
Private prisons are a stain on humanity. Prison operators explicitly profit from human misery, then lobby for longer prisons terms so they can keep on profiting. And in the US, prison companies run not only local and state prisons, but also Donald Trump's immigration concentration camps. Faced with this moral ...
When National was in power, they were very keen on Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) - basicly, using private companies to finance public infrastructure as a way of hiding debt from the public. They were keen on using them for everything - roads, schools, hospitals. But as the UK shows, that "service" ...
Moving And Shaking: There was a time when people spoke matter-of-factly about the “labour movement” – a political phenomenon understood to embrace much more than the Labour Party. Included within the term’s definition was the whole trade union movement – many of whose members looked upon the Labour Party as ...
by Philip Ferguson Much of the left, even people who formally identify as marxists, have collapsed politically in the face of postmodern gender theory of the sort pioneered by American philosopher Judith Butler. For Butler even biological sex is socially constructed. “If the immutable character of sex is contested, perhaps ...
The media is reporting that the (alleged) Labour party sexual assaulter has resigned from their job at Parliament, which means hopefully he won't be turning up there making people feel unsafe in future. Good. But as with everything about this scandal, it just raises other questions. Most significantly: why the ...
By Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern I am every bit as angry as you are. I am every bit as disappointed as you must be. The people with power, oversight and the ability to do something about these processes within the Labour Party should be ashamed. Whoever those people are, I ...
Property developers think there is an "oversupply" of houses in Auckland:High turnover rates and falling prices may be a sign that there are too many new houses going in to some parts of Auckland, commentators say. [...] Property developer David Whitburn said there was a "bit of an oversupply" in ...
Labour Party president Nigel Haworth resigned yesterday over the party's sexual assault scandal. But while that's good news, its unlikely to take away the stench of a coverup. Because according to Paula Bennett in Parliament yesterday, pretty much everyone in the Prime Minister's office was involved as well:I have been ...
Two-Faced? Labour insiders' commitment to the neoliberal status quo puts them at odds with their party’s membership; its trade union affiliates; and a majority of Labour voters, but this only serves to strengthen the perception they have of themselves as a special elite. Among the lesser breeds, they’ll talk up a ...
There has been a lot of talk about Boris Johnson wanting an election, and he has blustered with great gusto about 'chicken' Jeremy Corbyn refusing one, but I think there are many reasons why he is secretly glad he has been refused the opportunity:The Tories are an utter rabble,tearing themselves ...
Scottish appeal court judges have declared that Boris Johnson’s decision to suspend parliament in the run-up to the October Brexit deadline is unlawful. The three judges, chaired by Lord Carloway, Scotland’s most senior judge, overturned an earlier ruling that the courts did not have the powers to interfere in the prime ...
By Simon Bridges. The following is a press release from the office of Simon Bridges, leader of The National Party. Key ora, New Zealand. Happy Maori Language Week. Look, I’m writing to you today because I want to clear something up. There’s been a lot of kerfuffle around some things ...
I understand there's some stuff going round about how the SIS "was removed from the list of public offices covered by the Public Records Act in 2017". The context of course being their records derived from US torture, which will be disposed of or sealed. The good news is that ...
Dr. Christopher Labos and Jonathan Jarry discuss the recent Canadian fluoride/IQ research. They provide an expert analysis of the paper and its problems. Click on image to go to podcast. The critical debate about the recent ...
Australia is burning down again, and meanwhile its natural disaster minister is denying climate change:Australia’s minister responsible for drought and natural disasters, David Littleproud, has said that he doesn’t “know if climate change is manmade”. Clarifying earlier comments that the question is “irrelevant” when considering the Coalition government’s response to ...
Auckland Philippines Solidarity is excited to host Professor Judy Taguiwalo for a speaking tour of NZ in September. She is a well-known activist in the Philippines and was a political prisoner under the Marcos dictatorship. Professor Taguiwalo briefly served as a Cabinet member under President Duterte but was forced from ...
This open letter to the Green Party was penned after an opinion piece by Jill Abigail, a feminist and founding member of the party, was censored by the Greens’ leadership. (Redline has reprinted her article here).The intolerance of the Green Party leaders and their acceptance of the misogyny of gender ...
Today is a Member's day, and David Seymour's End of Life Choice Bill continues its slow crawl through its committee stage. They're spending the whole day on it today, though the first hour is likely to be spent on voting left over from last time. After that they'll move on ...
An ambitious plan to fly to Los Angeles petered out into a brief sight-seeing trip and a desire to return home and get some sleep before work tomorrow. Air New Zealand has confirmed a flight to Los Angeles last night was turned back about a quarter of the way into ...
There appears to be consensus – by omission – that the concept of indigenous futures should be accepted at face value. So I scavenged the internet to see if I could locate an academic descriptor or a framework around how we think about it as a concept, and whether it ...
Here’s another novelty chocolate to shove in your gob, New Zealand Cadbury could be seeking to make itself great again with a rumoured new release: Pineapple Trumps, a spin on its classic chocolate-encased pineapple treat and do-it-yourself tooth remover. The global confectionery manufacturer and bumbling “before” character in an infomercial, ...
During my time in the Pentagon I had the privilege of sitting down with military leaders and defence and security officials from a variety of Latin American nations. Sometimes I was present as a subordinate assistant to a senior US defence department official, sometimes as part of a delegation that ...
Kia ora, Aotearoa. It’s that magical time of year. Te Wiki o te Reo Māori. In English, the week that frightens talk radio. As you probably know by now, all your favourite media outlets are participating, some more successfully than others. Stuff has changed its name to Puna for the ...
Eighteen months ago, the government promised to strengthen the Bill of Rights Act, by explicitly affirming the power of the courts to issue declarations of inconsistency and requiring Parliament to formally respond to them. So how's that going? I was curious, so I asked for all advice about the proposal. ...
As the Brexit saga staggers on, the focus is naturally enough on the Prime Minister and his attempts to achieve Brexit “do or die”. But the role played by the Leader of the Opposition is of almost equal interest and complexity. The first problem for Jeremy Corbyn is that he ...
Last week, English Prime Minister Boris Johnson boldly declared that he would rather die be dead in a ditch than delay Brexit. Unfortunately for him, the UK parliament accepted the challenge, and promptly dug one for him. The "rebellion bill" requires him to ask for and secure yet another temporary ...
Lost In Political Space: The most important takeaway from this latest Labour sexual assault scandal, which (if I may paraphrase Nixon’s White House counsel’s, John Dean’s, infamous description of Watergate) is “growing like a cancer” on the premiership, is the Labour Party organisation’s extraordinary professional paralysis in the face of ...
by Daphna Whitmore Every Sunday for the past two months unionists from First Union, with supporters from other unions, have set out to the Ihumatao land protest, put up gazebos and gas barbeques, and cooked food for a few hundred locals and supporters who have come from across the country. ...
Newsroom today has an excellent, in-depth article on pine trees as carbon sinks. The TL;DR is that pine is really good at soaking up carbon, but people prefer far-less efficient native forests instead. Which is understandable, but there's two problems: firstly, we've pissed about so long on this problem that ...
Canan Kaftancioglu is a Turkish politician and member of the opposition Republican People's Party (CHP). Like most modern politicians, she tweets, and uses the platform to criticise the Turkish government. She has criticised them over the death of a 14-year-old boy who was hit by a tear gas grenade during ...
NZDF Attends Commemorations to Mark International Mission in East Timor A New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) contingent participated today in the 20th anniversary commemorations of the International Force East Timor (INTERFET) mission in Dili. The commemoration ...
They’ve only been up and running for a few months, but a New Zealand not-for-profit has already made a big impact on period poverty in New Zealand. ...
The allocation of money for publicly funded broadcasting for election campaigns should be turned on it's head according to Massey University professor of communication design Claire Robinson. ...
Disappointment expressed by Fletcher Building CEO, Ross Taylor, reflects the increasing frustration held by many with this Government’s failure to protect private property rights.[1] ...
The independent Interim Climate Change Committee today launched an eight-week, nationwide call for evidence on options available to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. ...
Social Credit has lodged a complaint with the Ombudsman over the way the Overseas Investment Office is handling its official information request for disclosure of documents on the sale of Westland Milk Products to Chinese company Inner Mongolian ...
This Friday in Solidarity with the Global Climate Strike All of the SodaStream’s e-commerce platforms and head office operations will be closed to kick-off the week-long event, and employees will march the #CLIMATESTRIKE in Auckland on 27 September. ...
Federated Farmers congratulates the Auditor-General’s office on its release today of its report Managing Freshwater Quality: Challenges and Opportunities. ...
Growth has now slowed to a 6-year low, and downside risks are dominating. June quarter GDP growth came in at 0.5%qoq, in line with our expectation, and slightly above consensus. Although there were a few sensational reports of the chance of a negative print. ...
Local Government New Zealand (LGNZ) is calling the release of the National Climate Change Risk Assessment (NCCRA) framework a good first step in balancing New Zealand’s response to climate change. ...
Family First NZ says that a new Colorado report compiled by the Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area finds marijuana-positive traffic fatalities, hospitalisations, marijuana use, and illegal market activity have exploded since marijuana legalization. ...
This year’s Ratepayers’ Report , local government league tables released yesterday, reveals which local councils owe the most and which owe the least. ...
Rachel MacGregor welcomes the decision released today by Justice Hinton. The key issue on which all the various litigation has been based is the question, did Colin Craig sexually harass Rachel. That question has been answered – he did. Justice ...
The Rail and Maritime Transport Union (RMTU) has today ratified a ground breaking pay deal with Dunedin Railways which will see all union members being paid a living wage and the lowest paid receiving an 18% wage increase. Higher paid RMTU members ...
Inclusion for trans women/men and non-binary peoples has today been announced as the cornerstone of a new resolution for the National Council of Women New Zealand (NCWNZ). ...
It took a testy Morning Report interview this week to remind me that Simon Bridges was still the Leader of the Opposition. Until then, he had been largely invisible as the events of recent weeks unfolded. ...
The National Council of Women NZ has today welcomed the news that the Government has purchased Kate Sheppard’s house in Christchurch, the base for the NZ suffrage campaign. ...
The Māori Party supports mana whenua of Ihumātao and acknowledges their coming together to reach consensus on the future of their whenua. “We also acknowledge the leadership of the Kīngitanga who have played an important role in supporting ...
The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union is questioning why, for the second time, Jacinda Ardern has appointed a Crown-owned company Chief Executive to Chair her “Business Advisory Council”, following her announcement that Mercury CEO Fraser Whineray ...
Responding to the Government’s decision to give around $300 million to Amazon as a sweetener for filming a TV series in New Zealand, New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union spokesman Louis Houlbrooke says: “As a matter of simple waste, this is striking, ...
I am very pleased with Air New Zealand’s Decision to backdown and withdraw their application to trademark into a logo Kia Ora. I said at the time that it was an ill conceived idea and poorly thought out – more importantly it should never have been ...
NZEI Te Riu Roa members will be joining with others across the union movement by wearing black and white in support of pay equity on Suffrage Day tomorrow, and urging the Government to commit to a settlement for teacher aides this year. ...
Yesterday’s announcement from the Minister for Immigration, to improve temporary work visas for migrant workers, provides some positive changes but more detail is needed. The Council of Trade Unions fundamentally supports the principle of making ...
FIRST Union today welcomed Westpac’s public admission of the significant gender pay gap in its workforce and reiterated its call for employers to work with unions to close this disparity, arguing that this work must begin at the bottom of the pay ...
Changes to the work visa system announced by the Minister of Immigration are not all positive for employers or migrants, comments Ms June Ranson, chair of the New Zealand Association for Migration and Investment (NZAMI) , a leading voice in the ...
The Dairy Workers Union (DWU) has welcomed the announcement from dairy company, Synlait, that they will be boosting parental leave entitlements significantly for working parents. ...
In June, the Children’s Commissioner announced a thematic review into Oranga Tamariki’s policies, processes and practice relating to care and protection issues for tamariki Māori aged 0-3 months. Today the Children’s Commissioner has released the full ...
“Closing the Gap” Tauranga, one of the area groups of Income Equality Aotearoa NZ Inc., has surveyed all candidates in the three local body elections to discover attitudes to some basic issues of the Western Bay region. We believe that this is ...
In response to DairyNZ's attempt to dismiss an economic report that highlighted dairy's role in the New Zealand economy is only three per cent of GDP, Fish & Game New Zealand Chief Executive Martin Taylor says: "If DairyNZ wishes to reject a report ...
Kiingi Tuuheitia Pootatau Te Wherowhero VII has successfully guided the mana whenua of lhumaatao to reach a consensus on the future of their whenua. ...
Two activists disguised as shareholders interrupted the AGM of a gold mining company in central Auckland this morning to inform shareholders their plans to mine for gold in conservation estate in the Karangahake Gorge were unwelcome. ...
The Capital and Coast District Health Board (CCDHB) has been labelled ‘NATO’ (no action, talk only) when it comes to child mental health, with just 0.6 full time staff (24 hours per week) for inpatient child psychology and just 0.8 full time staff ...
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL has awarded three New Zealand climate youth groups with its Ambassador of Conscience award, its highest recognition for human rights work, previously given to the likes of Nelson Mandela, Ai Weiwei and Malala Yousafzai. ...
The New Zealand Taxpayers' Union , in partnership with the Auckland Ratepayers’ Alliance , has today published this year's Ratepayers' Report – online local government league tables – at www.ratepayersreport.nz . ...
NZUS Council executive director Jordan Small welcomes the news New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern will meet with US President Donald Trump in New York next week. ...
The recent NZIER report trivialises the significant role the dairy sector plays in New Zealand’s economy – and fails to look at the specifics of the Government’s freshwater package, according to DairyNZ. DairyNZ chief executive Dr Tim Mackle said ...
This week, the New Zealand Parliament and the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) will jointly host a seminar on tackling the global spread of illicit weapons. ...
In a landmark judgment issued this morning, the Court of Appeal confirmed that the Southern Response Concealment Class Action will proceed issued on an "opt out” basis. ...
Mainstream media, as the purveyors of truth and source of balanced information, took another backward step today with the announcement by Stuff that most New Zealand organisations had joined 170 media outlets from around the world in the “Covering ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra [embedded content]University of Canberra Deputy Vice-Chancellor Leigh Sullivan discusses Scott Morrison’s new family law inquiry with Michelle Grattan. They also speak of the developments in the Tamil family from Biloela’s case, and the UN barring ...
Analysis - Jacinda Ardern heads for the UN as the sexual assault scandal rumbles on at home, and Simon Bridges says he isn't going to ease off his personal attacks on the PM. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dries Verstraete, Senior Lecturer in Aerospace Design and Propulsion, University of Sydney CC BY-NDClimate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.If you have a question you’d ...
In this episode of our new tarot reading show Wild Card, The Spinoff’s resident psychic divines the outcome of the All Blacks’ opening match against the Springboks on Saturday.In the first and potentially only episode of Wild Card, we have a focus on sport. The Spinoff’s psychic-in-residence, Jo Sees, specialises ...
Recently-retired Sky TV chief executive John Fellet talks to Newsroom business editor Nikki Mandow about baseball, media, goldfish, accountancy - and more baseball. ...
The Real Pod assembles to dissect the week in reality television and real life, with special thanks to Nando’s.With Duncan enjoying a MAFS-style beach holiday in Bali, Alex and Jane are left to cover another crazy week in reality television. Shannon Ryan has gone full beast-mode in Celebrity Treasure Island, Married ...
Dr Bryce Edwards“Diversity” is a central theme of the current local government elections – with the common criticism that incumbent politicians are generally too “stale, male, and pale” (or variations on that). Numerous commentators and candidates have lamented the lack of women, ethnic minorities, and youth in local government. ...
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand.Today’s content by Dr Bryce Edwards.Climate change, environment Paul Gorman (Stuff): How would you spend an unlimited war chest for ...
A review into the Ministry for Culture and Heritage will look into the relationship between a staffer and the external developer responsible for a massive data breach. ...
Covering Climate Now: The Spinoff crew who took on climate change with a vegan diet for the week reflect on the highs, the lows, the pies and the fries. The Spinoff’s participation in Covering Climate Now is made possible thanks to Spinoff Members. Join us here!As I write, I’m tucking into ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Roger Crisp, Professorial Fellow, Dianoia Institute of Philosophy, Australian Catholic University As world chiefs and youth leaders gather in New York at the United Nations Climate Action Summit, many of us as individuals are feeling powerless and overwhelmed. Making big personal changes ...
The head of one of the country's biggest news media firms is the latest subject of criticism for darkening his face at a staff party he attended dressed as US basketballer Lamar Odom. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Coral Gartner, Associate Professor, School of Public Health, The University of Queensland Health authorities in the United States are investigating 530 cases of lung illness, including seven deaths, reportedly connected to vaping. Some of these patients have been diagnosed with lung inflammation ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 The Testaments by Margaret Atwood (Chatto & Windus, $48)Obvs. (Read our review by Pip Adam here)2 Three ...
When comedy documentary Funny As was made, a lot of interviews got left on the cutting room floor which NZ On Screen quickly picked up. Here are some of our favourites.We’re a pretty funny bunch us Kiwis. Trapped on a tiny island at the end of the earth it appears ...
Auckland rapper JessB has just released a new EP and wraps up a national mini-tour tonight in her home town. Jogai Bhatt talked to her about her world travels, performing at Ihumātao, and how her community and her music intersect.It’s only been two years since JessB entered the public radar ...
A new poem by Waiheke poet Rata Gordon.PacingA deep bow to NerudaIt so happens I am sick of being a woman. It happens that I walk into BP stations and supermarkets greasy, swollen, like a cow made of soap, losing my way in a field of placentas and pesticides.The smell ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amanda Gardiner, Lecturer, Edith Cowan University In August, a 24-year-old woman appeared before the Western Australian District Court after pleading guilty to concealing the birth of her newborn baby in 2018. The charge of concealment of birth refers to hiding the dead ...
Voting papers are being sent out today, and lots of people say they won’t fill them out because they don’t know anything about the candidates. Respected website ‘The Spinoff’ is trying to fix that through its Policy Local tool. But it’s not the only one. Catherine Jeffcoat talks to the ...
This week's biggest-selling New Zealand books, as recorded by the Nielsen BookScan New Zealand bestseller list and described by literary editor Steve Braunias ...
Writer and cannabis legalisation expert Russell Brown watched episode two of Patrick Gower on Weed, and found it highly entertaining but dangerously light on facts. Patrick Gower is good value when he’s high. In the second part of his documentary Patrick Gower on Weed, he does what you’d expect in a ...
Sydney shock-jock Alan Jones has written to Jacinda Ardern saying he didn't intend any violence towards her when he said on air that Australia's Prime Minister should "shove a sock down [her] throat". ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Caio Seguin, PhD candidate, University of Melbourne Brain regions exchange information by sending and receiving signals through a network of nerve connections. This exchange is crucial to all aspects of the brain’s functioning, including how we experience the world, form and retrieve ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Miranda Kaye, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Law, University of Technology Sydney Over the next 12 months, a joint parliamentary committee will examine Australia’s family law system. It will be led by conservative Liberal MP Kevin Andrews and One Nation leader Pauline Hanson. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Barbara Allen, Senior Lecturer in Public Management, Victoria University of Wellington This story is part of Covering Climate Now, a global collaboration of more than 250 news outlets to strengthen coverage of the climate story. For three years in a row, the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Moscova, Senior Lecturer in Anatomy, UNSW Women’s nipples have long been a source of fascination and controversy, from celebrity gossip stories of wardrobe malfunctions and “nip slips” to feminist movements for gender equality. Nipples even became a fashion accessory. Men’s nipples ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Holmes, Director, Climate Change Communication Research Hub, Monash University One of the great paradoxes of climate change communication in Australia is that politicians command the most attention on the issue, yet are among the least trusted sources of climate information. Research ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rachael Sharman, Senior Lecturer in Psychology, University of the Sunshine Coast This story is part of Covering Climate Now, a global collaboration of more than 250 news outlets to strengthen coverage of the climate story. Thousands of school students across Australia are ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin., Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Newstart recipients and other Australians on benefits get their half-yearly pay rise today (and also on March 20). This one is vanishingly small. Announced very quietly by Social Services Minister ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Warren Hogan, Industry Professor, University of Technology Sydney The budget was for practical purposes in neither deficit nor in surplus in 2018-19, the final figures released by Treasurer Josh Frydenberg and Finance Minister Mathias Cormann on Thursday reveal. The underlying cash deficit ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard Holden, Professor of Economics, UNSW This week NBN Co announced pricing changes for the National Broadband Network. It includes a new plan boasting a download speed of 1 gigabit per second and an upload speed of 50 megabits per second for ...
Covering Climate Now: Just how much of an impact would a shift to vegetarian diets have on the battle to halt climate change, asks Mirjam Guesgen.The Spinoff’s participation in Covering Climate Now is made possible thanks to Spinoff Members. Join us here!Kiwi cuisine is replete with meat: fish and chips, meat and ...
It's not a risk assessment, but it's a start: an instruction manual for the experts who'll be writing New Zealand's first national climate risk report for the government was released on Thursday. ...
The Wellington Mayor's main rival in the upcoming local elections, Andy Foster, won't say how much Sir Peter Jackson has stumped up in a bid to get him elected. ...
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: GDP growth slows in the latest quarter, questions raised over utter NZDF incompetence, and NZTA sends money intended for light rail elsewhere.The numbers are in, and GDP growth has slowed down for the second quarter of the year. Radio NZ reports it ...
As climate change crumbles coasts, lengthens droughts and increases extreme weather events, New Zealand’s seed bank for threatened indigenous plants lacks on-going funding. ...
Steve Tew marked the magnitude of the day by openly attacking the Six Nations power bloc and suggesting former ABs should be free to play for Samoa, Tonga or Fiji. ...
A classical approach to freshwater policy only serves to enforce well-established views, argue Maria Armoudian and Nicolas Pirsoul. Here they offer some more innovative alternatives. ...
Freedom camping, public transport and affordable housing are challenges Queenstown’s Mayor Jim Boult says he’s uniquely poised to solve – if only people would do what they’re told.The Spinoff local election coverage is entirely funded by The Spinoff Members. For more about becoming a member and supporting The Spinoff’s journalism click ...
Broadcaster Mark Sainsbury is calling for a “champion for the elderly”. But the truth is, every single politician in parliament already fits that bill. Just look at the enduring nature of NZ Super, writes TOP leader Geoff Simmons. No doubt Mark Sainsbury’s call for an elderly commissioner to be created will ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra John Howard is remembered by his Liberal tribe as a reformer, but his legacy is mixed. The GST has endured but he essentially doomed his government when he let his ideological obsession with industrial relations ...
Open mike 08/03/2016 
Open mike is your post.
Today is the first day of the global climate strike. Led by schoolkids, people all around the world are going to protest to demand action on climate change. New Zealand isn't doing it till next Friday (join us!), but if you want to get active early, there's plenty to do ...8 hours ago
To Protect and Serve: When the Prime Minister finds herself enmeshed in the coils of a full-blown political scandal, her colleagues and party comrades have only one priority: to release her as swiftly – and with as little lasting injury – as possible. Is this what Jacinda Ardern’s colleagues and ...10 hours ago
When military leaders cover up and lie to elected civilian authorities, the foundation of democratic civil-military relations is undermined because it is those authorities who are entrusted to hold the military accountable to the public that they mutually serve. But this is only true if civilian political authorities take their ...11 hours ago
by Daphna Whitmore The long years of Netanyahu’s reign are drawing to an end. For years he has epitomized reactionary zionism as he oversaw hundreds of thousands of Jewish settlers seize land in the West Bank. There are now 700,000 settlers, putting an end to the myth that Israel was ...12 hours ago
BP, Z and Mobil all insist that petrol price hikes are temporary, “in a very literal sense.” The nation’s major petrol providers are trying to allay customer fears over prices, promising that they’ll move to lower them again “immediately” when the Middle East is returned to its formerly peaceful state. ...1 day ago
South African coach Rassie Erasmus says he has no idea what they’re going to do about the boat. In a highly anticipated press conference this afternoon, All Blacks coach Steve Hansen has finally unveiled the team’s boat for its Rugby World Cup 2019 campaign. In a press conference that went ...1 day ago
Get Back Jojo! The elation in Mayor Phil Goff’s camp may be easily imagined as they watched social media light up in indignation at challenger John Tamihere’s "Sieg Heil to that" quip. Just when JT’s notoriously right-wing, sexist and homophobic stains were beginning to fade back into his ‘colourful’ past, ...2 days ago
Patrick Gower is good value when he's high. Not that I've ever, you know, got stoned with him. But in the second part of his documentary Patrick Gower on Weed, he does what you'd expect in a modern weed documentary and immerses himself – first with a doctor, then a ...2 days ago
We surveyed candidates on their attitudes to issues facing the Western Bay Region, find out what they think: “Closing the Gap” Tauranga, one of the area groups of Income Equality Aotearoa NZ Inc., has surveyed all candidates in the three local body elections to discover attitudes to some basic issues ...2 days ago
Why is New Zealand climate change policy so crap? The Herald this morning has a long article on the twists and turns of climate change policy in New Zealand [paywalled / depaywall script], which shows where we've been. The short version is that the government first began worrying about this ...2 days ago
The All Blacks have been, for more than a century, arguably the most successful International sports team in the world. But they are more than that; even for those Kiwis who are immune to the charms of rugby (and there are more than a few), the All Blacks are ambassadors ...3 days ago
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In times of hysteria about the “World coming to an end” and “rising sea levels” so-called ‘Journalists’ who can barely spell words longer than four letters are having a ball! Though the majority of the Public have worked out that manmade climate change is nothing short of pseudo-science, and the ...4 days ago
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Dangerous Foes: For those readers of Bowalley Road who feel disposed to dismiss any prospect of an Israeli destabilisation of New Zealand politics, the example of the United Kingdom repays close attention. Ever since the election of Jeremy Corbyn as leader of the British Labour Party, the Israelis have sanctioned, funded and ...4 days ago
Make It 16, the youth-led campaign to lower New Zealand's voting age, is holding an official campaign launch at Parliament this Friday from 16:30. If you'd like to attend, you can register using EventBrite here. ...4 days ago
by Don Franks It was a lovely sunny Wellington afternoon with blue skies above the beaches. In Courtenay Place, political activists packed out a stuffy upstairs room for an important meeting. The assembled pacifists, anarchists, communists and independent young radicals of Peace Action Wellington felt the need for a mission ...4 days ago
From the Wall Street Journal:Inside a room of the ornately decorated Hotel du Palais during last month’s Group of Seven summit in Biarritz, France, President Trump awaited a meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi. Mr. Trump looked over a gathering of American and Egyptian officials and called out in ...5 days ago
. . This blogpost is different to my usual format of reporting on issues… Since July 1011, I have blogged on a variety of political issues; near always political and/or environmental; mostly highly critical of the previous National Government. Other issues included Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands and repression of ...7 days ago
Those close to the Police Minister believe the initiative may be the result of Nash “seeing a great deal” on AliExpress. In a move that comes seemingly out of nowhere, Police Minister Stuart Nash announced this afternoon that he expects all frontline staff to don bearskin hats, famously worn by ...1 week ago
Moving And Shaking: There was a time when people spoke matter-of-factly about the “labour movement” – a political phenomenon understood to embrace much more than the Labour Party. Included within the term’s definition was the whole trade union movement – many of whose members looked upon the Labour Party as ...1 week ago
By Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern I am every bit as angry as you are. I am every bit as disappointed as you must be. The people with power, oversight and the ability to do something about these processes within the Labour Party should be ashamed. Whoever those people are, I ...1 week ago
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We need a new government to slag – this one is getting boring
April could be interesting vto.
We have prominent NZer’s court case coming up at long last (justice delayed for so long to that person’s victims)
Bradley Ambrose is suing Key for defamation, as long as he can get the $$$ to cover the court costs.
And by April the sports logo flag will be trampled in the mud in celebratory fashion, along with Key’s ego.
It could be a pretty shitty autumn for them.
Oh, and hows that plagiarism case coming along? You know, the one where the National Party managed to rip off the Eminem tune for their election campaign music in 2014?
Good gains were made in February in regard to public backlash over the Nat govt, with Key copping most of it. Hopefully we can do round two next month.
PS Don’t forget the Clutha Southland kid’s developing problems. A Dirty Politics cub?
In the past, problems with Nat MP’s going a bit astray managed to last a few news cycles and then get forgotten about due to the apparent popularity of Key, not necessarily of the govt, but of Key. But things have changed now. He’s a little less popular. A new side show might do more damage then it once did. That might lessen the boredom.
The love is fading, as the Smiths could tell you. It’s not what it used to be eh?
“Nothing’s changed
I still love you, oh, I still love you
Only slightly, only slightly less
Than I used to, my love”
Heh, good one. You are right that things might liven up a bit as the people steadily find the voice and power to stand up to these bozos – witness clown action in the TPP meeting yesterday.
…. looking forward to the custard pie for Finlayson QC….
8 March 2016
FYI – not all questions were ignored by media at yesterday’s TPPA ‘Rogue Show’.
http://thespinoff.co.nz/08-03-2016/tea-pee-and-pecuniary-gains-amid-the-clowns-at-the-trade-deal-roadshow/
Tea, pee and pecuniary gains: Amid the clowns at the trade deal roadshow
8 MARCH 2016
By Tim Murphy
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/BU1603/S00243/walker-five-other-countries-interested-in-joining-tpp-deal.htm
At today’s roadshow Auckland mayoral hopeful Penny Bright questioned how TPP could be in New Zealand’s best interests given it doesn’t include our second biggest trading partner, China, and Obama had been quoted as saying “if we don’t write the rules, then China will write the rules in the region”.
…Penny Bright questioned how TPP could be in New Zealand’s best interests given it doesn’t include our second biggest trading partner, China…
Seeing as we already have a satisfactory free trade deal with China, how would including it in the crappy TPPA be in our interests? Still, I guess it makes as much sense as Penny ever does.
Some find it far from satisfactory.
The Government is being accused of going easy on Chinese authorities when making trade deals for the infant formula industry.
Dozens of Kiwi brands made by small businesses going down the drain.
There were 200 brands – and now there are just 20.
Michael Barnett of the Infant Formula Exporters Association said “MPI have allowed them to control that process, so we’ve ended up with a small group of privileged exporters.”
He says many of those exporters are Chinese-owned companies based in New Zealand.
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/business/infant-formula-agency-accused-government-going-easy-china?autoPlay=4785655384001
Yeah, and the Australian company producing baby formula just saw it’s share price double as in can’t keep up with demand after doubling it’s production this year from 5M units, to 10M units.
The TPPA is NOT a ‘Free Trade Agreement’.
It is an anti-China economic and political ‘pivot’ pushed by USA President Barack Obama.
(Obama has been quoted as saying “if we don’t write the rules, then China will write the rules in the region”.)
It just so happens that China is NZ’s 2nd largest trading partner.
So – how is the TPPA in NZ’s best interests?
Just asking …..
Also – how is the TPPA going to remove subsidies from USA, Japanese and Canadian beef and dairy farmers?
This is on top of tariffs under the TPPA never going to be completely eliminated for NZ dairy and meat exports – both key NZ exports?
So – how is the TPPA In NZ’s best interests?
Penny Bright
2016 Auckland Mayoral candidate.
(Who is the only Auckland Mayoral candidate who is actively opposed to the TPPA).
You know countries can have more than one trade deal at a time, right?
There’s plenty of better things to criticise about the TPPA than “it doesn’t include China”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11599571
Red and dead
After years as an internet wasteland, the Labour Party’s “Red Alert” blog site looks to have been quietly put out of its misery. Once lauded as the new way for MPs to interact with the public, it soon became a bit of an embarrassment, before being ignored. Now, it appears to be no more.
Thats a shame, it was always quite amusing to go there but they did have some very strict moderation going on…but this was my favorite post:
chris73 says:
July 31, 2010 at 12:00 pm
A vote for Phil Goff is a vote for a prosperous NZ
One month ban for lying. Trevor
So you were a troll there too. Such lofty ambitions.
I’d suggest that holding the same position for over 6 years now (and counting) suggests a strongly held belief as opposed to trolling
The only way to win an argument these days is to call the other person a troll. As soon as you say it you can walk away from your keyboard feeling fully satisfied.
What was deleted?
TPPA
The Process Of obtaining Pecuniary Advantage over a nation’s sovereignty by multinational corporations
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/298354/fonterra-accused-of-unfair-demands
a clear narrative on the looming impact on provincial NZ, remembering that most of rural NZ only began to recover from a massive hollowing out with land values halving on the back of this once in a lifetime dairy boom that has now come to an end…..back to the future
Dairy co-operative Fonterra has cut its dairy payout forecast, after the milk price dropped from $4.15 to $3.90 per kilo of solids.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/business/298360/fonterra-drops-forecast-milk-payout
This just keeps getting worse.
Fonterra has a market value of $8.9 billion. However, it has total borrowings of $7.56 billion
Net interest costs have risen from $269 million in the July 2013 year to $518 million in the latest period.
The co-op’s International Farming division had a loss of $44 million for the July 2015 year.
Standard & Poor’s downgraded Fonterra’s long-term rating from “A” to “A-“.
S&P’s “A-” rating assumed a milk price of $4.60 per kilogram of milksolids compared with Fonterra’s latest forecast of $4.15 per kilogram.
Hat tip to greywarshark for the link.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11596222
No, whats worse is the small businesses that have to carry Fonterra debt for 90 days & cut margins by 10%.
I’m a small business, when my clients don’t pay for 30+ days I still have costs to cover from MY suppliers (thank god I have an overdraft) . I understand it’s a business model but it has the potential to kill off many small kiwi contractors. Maybe they are waiting for the TPP to take force so those large overseas operations can come in an carry their debt by employing former local contractors and paying them less?
What would be worse is Fonterra not being able to pay its bills, leaving creditors high and dry.
Haven’t heard much about Nathan Guy’s “export double” recently. Funny when prices are going up it’s all because of what brilliant economic managers the govt are and when they are plummeting it’s all because of world markets and “out of our control”.
+1
@ Cowboy
That seems to be similar to Fonterra’s attitude, IMO. No mention of bad management or servicing their high debt being a problem, it’s all because of world markets etc…
@ pat
Liquidity problem looming? See comment at 5.1.1
is a question that will be asked….and can say that the restructure that McKinsey recommended appears to have been placed on hold.
Have you seen the latest attempt at making the general populace want to be a republic!!!!!???? Talk about blatant mindbending propoganda quiz questions… also asking whether you are right or left winged (of course if right winged you get a 10 and left = 0) such blatant propoganda I don’t think I’ve seen in quite some time.
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/kiwimeter-kind-kiwi-you
I turned out to be a Traditionalist … left out in the cold minority with only 14% of the population apparently and obviously living in the past and need to get with the program persay..
Its incredible…. 3 days till TPPA submissions close.. fek!
There was a discussion on this in Open Mike a few days ago.
‘
Definitely more of a push-poll than a genuine quiz. Still, gotta watch them sneaky MSM polls and quizzes. They are often just as much about profiling readers as they are about providing genuine quizzes. By finger-printing the device from which the answers are entered, MSM servers will tailor “product” to best suit your profile so, if you are left wing, you will see more left wing “news”, and so on. Personally, I try to provide as little information as possible to MSM data harvesting operations.
Given half a chance Collins’ would run her very own black sites.
/
Hence Judith Collins’ transparent attempt to re-assert political control. She wants MPs to ask her office before they go into a prison, and she wants to make sure that senior prison officials escort them at every point of their visit.
Her reasons are, of course, spurious. She cites the case of an MP who shared a female Corrections staffer’s contact details with an offender who has a history of sexual violence. That was certainly a stupid and dangerous thing to do, and Davis has since outed himself as the MP.
[…]
Collins’ argument that she is just trying to keep visiting MPs safe from “the country’s most difficult and dangerous people” is cant. Her initiative isn’t about the health and safety of her fellow politicians. It’s about power and control.
It also raises other questions about prisons and accountability. Collins clearly wants prisons to be run out of her office. This means that information about the state of prisons would be entirely in the hands of a hard-line politician who doesn’t think there is anyone in prison who shouldn’t be there and would happily put a lot more people in as well.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/77572241/editorial-collins-seeks-to-crush-the-flow-of-bad-news-coming-out-of-prisons
+100 to that…smacks of police state and persecution of potentially ‘political prisoners’…we need to be protected from Collins
‘Hacker ‘Guccifer,’ who uncovered Clinton’s private emails, to be extradited to US’
https://www.rt.com/usa/334846-romanian-hacker-guccifer-extradition/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dan-kovalik/clinton-emails-on-libya-e_b_9054182.html
https://news.vice.com/article/libyan-oil-gold-and-qaddafi-the-strange-email-sidney-blumenthal-sent-hillary-clinton-in-2011
http://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/2016/01/06/new-hillary-emails-reveal-true-motive-for-libya-intervention/
@BM
And Todd Barclay is Key’s little fag.
[Pointless abuse (or dodgy joke) resulting in derail. Moved to Open Mike. BLiP]
I find that remark offensive.
I think that a “fag” is a name given to those junior pupils who are virtually slaves to the whims of senior pupils at Public Schools like Eton. In that context….
It’s also a pun given Wee Toddy Baccy’s connections to the tobacco industry. But I take Lanth’s point. I didn’t know about the private school meaning. Does that get used in NZ?
I’ve never heard it before.
It’s a very well known term associated with Tom Brown’s school days, etc.
It was the ‘official’ term for a junior boy who would do all the chores for a senior.
Here’s the Wikipedia entry.
Fags were the third form boarders when I was at high school in the early 1980’s. They had a tough life that year.
Since those more innocent or ignorant days, fag may have sexual overtones. Not good. It is becoming acceptable with the barbarians in our
midst to snigger at jokes about men in jail not wanting to bend over in the shower if they drop the soap. Can we keep this vile attitude out of this blog.
Fagging also involved homosexual activity, a lot of it forced, which is probably where the modern term comes from.
Fagging was normal in nz private schools when I was a lad. It may have faded away in these more liberal times.
Bm, I think the word may be Yiddish.
Did you ever have to toast crumpets stuck in your butt cheeks TRP.?
No, BM, but if you did, that might explain a little about your current misanthropic attitudes. I wasn’t private schooled, myself. Had a few mates who were and heard the stories. Class war in a school uniform.
Just spotted the Blackadder clip in the Todd nice but Odd post. I (now) see what you did there BM!
I thought someone would, but it depends on your understanding of the word.
“Fag, a junior boy who acts or acted as servant (“fagging”) to a senior boy at a British public school”
And – separately – I presume you know that Barclay worked for Philip Morris.
Speaking of age, here’s the ODT coverage of the student balcony collapse in Dunedin over the weekend. A couple of things stand out for me.
One is the photo in the first link, which shows people on the remaining balconies laughing and taking photos immediately after the collapse where some people had fallen 3m and some people had a balcony collapse on top of them and all of that is visible to the people laughing (it’s much more obvious in the front page version of the hardcopy). Why are they laughing, and why are they not concerned about their own balcony? Alcohol is a factor, but I think there is something else going on here.
The other thing is, why are these people not at a protest 😉 By the time I was that age, I’d already protested against the Tour and marched up the motorway in Dunedin with thousands of people including many students who were at the forefront of organising the protests. Why do we not have that culture now? I’m being a bit facetious, because of course partying hard was part of uni culture then too, but politics were still a thing too.
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/375500/no-criminal-investigation-balcony-collapse
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/375391/two-seriously-hurt-after-balcony-collapse
I wish more people would look at the builder/developers instead of the students all the time, should that balcony have nothing holding it up? The police are not going to investigate, Worksafe have walked away shrugging their shoulders. It’s like a shanty town that area.
Those balconies were pieces of shit. Should have had a post under each corner. Trying to cantilever balconies in that way is complete and utter negligence.
Total negligence in construction.
quelle surprise
the construction sector in NZ is appalling
Those buildings aren’t that old either (relative to Dunedin housing in general), but I don’t know if they predate changes to the building code or not.
I agree, the balconies were probably deficient for the use. But they were probably not built to have a full load of jumping students on them either, so might well have been fit for the purpose they were designed for (residential use). I wasn’t quite sure from the articles, but this is a private residence right? And a private party (eg no tickets sold)?
This comes on the back of the annual couch burning fest that happens in Dunedin, and that along with other problems suggests that the culture there isn’t particularly healthy. Maybe this will wake a few people up.
Cantilevers. I looked at the photo and thought, did no-one teach these kids about Cave Creek when they were at school?
Nope, code says cantilevered joists are okay.
code and negligence have a history of association in nz
they are far from mutually exclusive
Developer/Designer/Builder have a responsibility to specify what is appropriate for that environment. A cantilevered balcony was chosen for one of the rowdiest, destructive streets in the country where its structural capacity would be severely tested. I find it hard to imagine that no one along the design process said, do you think the design of those balconies are ok?
I heard someone knowledgable on radio saying that balconies are supposed to be able to support 200 kg per square metre or something. These days that might not be enough for a load bearing certificate.
As for students worrying about load bearing – they are young, they wouldn’t expect to have to inspect the specifications of a house before they let rip with their party. And worry – that’s SEP.
Really it just underlines how we depend on trusting each other to do the proper job. Those who don’t should have to sit in town stocks for a day so we can see the so and sos and throw tomatoes at them. They would hate that, and it would keep them out of prison and away from those really nasty criminals.
Think about the trust required when flying. We should actually question the pilot each time we get onto a small plane, carry a checklist to go through before we fly with one of these possible adult idiots who run small airlines like Bannerman? in Christchurch. Like the hot air balloon pilate, washed his hands of responsibility for taking care. Ask have they looked at the weather forecast and are planning to fly round storms? Have they enough fuel? Do their emergency beacons work, have they current batteries?
Cantilevered balcony joists snap because idiots overload the structure.
http://www.odt.co.nz/files/story/2016/03/the_flat_minus_its_balcony_photo_christine_o_conno_56da31b8d5.JPG
Maybe, maybe not. Last time I looked at floor loadings in a building code (not New Zealand admittedly), you’d have to pack people in pretty tight to get to design load. Then there’s generous safety factors on top of that.
Where a cantilevered joist comes out of the wall turns into a moisture trap really easily. In the right continually wet conditions, even H3 will rot pretty quickly. Looking at the photos, those joists look smallish for the length of cantilever. Then if the builders there pulled a real plonker stunt like they did on the cantilevered deck for my house and notched the joists where they sit on the bearers…
Andre
That is an important point worth considering. Design features can be circumvented by the erectors of whatever, because of long-established methods they prefer to use as known practices and easier to follow, than the actual specified method.
Then there is the question of the allowed width of any cantilevered balcony..
There should be standards set by a professional and knowledgable department of building standards that can be consulted free, and which gives detailed information at low cost. Hah hah NZ I bet we haven’t anything like one of these services from our beloved gummint. Now that’s a mint to chew on.
BRANZ I think might have done that in the past, but now when I looked at it for helpful information, it referred me to the type of private consultant who would provide it.
Looking at their site they seem to be busy with industry information, but for ordinary NZs – do they have a role of informing them and protecting them against the shonky, the makeshift, the fast johnnies?
Perhaps they had abandoned the informative, cautionary role long ago and so did not concern themselves with overseas findings of failures with the cladding systems, that were adopted here, although known to be trouble elsewhere.
This, we know has led to ordinary working people losing their entire investment and savings because of a shonky house, finding that the best resolution would be to demolish the remains of their home and sell the bare land to recover some of their mortgage.
This is from their contact us page under a query box where you can describe your concern.
Our professionals helpline – 0800 80 80 85 – is available free to those who work within the New Zealand building and construction industry.
Our consumer helpline is 0900 5 90 90 – calls cost $1.99 per minute, plus GST. Full knowledge of the details of your enquiry may result in you being referred to someone else.
We regret we are unable to respond to technical queries by email. All helpline responses are strictly on a case-by-case basis and are solely based on the information provided.
If your question is of a non-technical nature, please complete the contact us form above, and we will endeavour to respond to you within 48 hours.
Fair enough but people are idiots aren’t they? That’s why we legislate (Stop signs, ‘flammable’ notices, handrails). Most of these kids would have had no idea, now they do, harsh lesson learnt. (A few landlords are up there now adding strength to their balconies, still looks rough, but who cares each out for their own make a buck & move on).
A few weeks ago at my friend left his five children and headed off to start his morning shift and was killed a few minutes later by a young woman crossing the centre line.
Had she survived there’s little doubt she would’ve been prosecuted as should the idiots who overloaded the balcony. Fair enough?
Oh, what a terrible loss. So very sorry joe90.
I knew/know the young woman, her partner and their family members too Rosie so a tragedy all round.
What a tragic impact impact on so many lives. Arohanui joe
joe 90
Sympathy to all. Just seconds apart and all would have been different.
Those vital seconds extinguish lifetimes. Hard to accept.
Re the balcony collapse at the six60 gig.
I was also a little confused about the behaviour of the crowd immediately after the collapse. Footage I’d seen showed people looking at the aftermath and cheering. I saw a guy with two drinks in his hands raise them up. I’m guessing this is just really bad judgement from drunk people, in what would have been a traumatic situation for those with serious injuries.
But then there may have been people that rushed to help. We don’t know. Also the Police asked the band to continue playing after the collapse to distract people away from the scene so they might have had such short attention spans that they, once again, feeling wasted, just got back on with the buzz of it.
Still, there did seem to be a disconnect didn’t there?
As an aside, Mr R experienced a weird crowd reaction yesterday. It was also a disconnection to the seriousness of the situation, or at least a lack of reaction, not appropriate to the situation.
Walking down the street on afternoon tea break he watched as an elderly woman got up from an outdoor table where she was having coffee. He saw her trip on the leg of the table, begin to fall and he went running to her to stop her falling any further. He got there just in time and caught her, but not before she hit her head on the corner of the table.
He held her and held his hand under her wound which was bleeding terribly, all over him , all over her, all over the footpath. By this time there was a crowd standing around them. He asked the crowd to call an ambulance., Nothing. They just stared. He asked again, and still nothing, just more staring at him and the woman. It took him three goes for anyone to get their phone out and call an ambulance. On the third instruction he was yelling at the crowd.
While he was fine with dealing with the injured woman he was totally shocked and annoyed by the lack of response from the crowd.
News reports say that there were plenty of people helping on the ground. The ones higher up seemed to not understand the seriousness of what happened, which is bizarre.
That’s a disturbing story about Mr R. and I think that’s what I was getting at. Are we so disconnected now? Bad shit happening to people is something you see on TV so when it happens in real life there’s confusion about whether to be a spectator or not? In the front page photo in the ODT the number of cell phones being held up to record what is happening sticks out.
The watershed moment for me was listening to the TV reporter talk about the immediate moments after the big Chch quake. She proudly talked about how she was on the streets with a cameraman within 1 minute. They filmed what was going on, including people trying to get other people out of collapsed buildings. That she not only thought this was appropriate behaviour but felt proud of it is mindboggling to me. She was interviewed again recently for the 5 year anniversary. I had to turn the radio off.
I think there are times when it’s appropriate to be removed from such situations. eg critical media reporting has alerted the world to what is going on in war zones. But in Chch that wasn’t necessary, whereas helping people in great pain and distress was. At the scene of an accident, if you can’t help, you get yourself out of the way so that emergency crews and people on the scene can do what is needed. You don’t have to watch.
edit, thinking about it, I wonder if many people now just have no clues what to do in emergencies. I attended to an elderly couple in a store one who were having an acute medical emergency and there were people there who had no idea what to do. Even so, the scene you describe to me seems very odd. Calling 111 isn’t rocket science.
Psychology refers to the “bystander effect”, a phenomenon where the more people there are at an emergency scene the less likely one will come forward to assist. In a situation where there are very few, one is forced to assist, out of a sense of duty.
But I don’t know what psychology would say now days about our apparent reluctance – our disconnection , or inappropriate responses. I’m sure there are theories on it, or theories on whether our behaviour has changed. Have we moved so far away from the concept of collective care, eg, pre neolib days, that the need to respond to another in distress just doesn’t compute? I don’t know if it’s the influence of the culture of political systems or something else entirely. That’s one for the sociologists.
Musings aside, in your situation with the elderly couple and in Mr R’s situation, the most helpful and the easiest thing for bystanders to do is dial 111. Why the blockage around that? I just don’t get it.
PS: I remember tv chanels crowing about the fact they were “first on the scene” with their cameras, vulture like, focused on the victims on 22.02.11. Made me sick.
The other crowd effect relevant to that situation is the “milling” effect, where nobody does anything until somebody does something, then everybody does the same thing.
Some people are switched on and jump to action more than others – a sort of vacancy takes over until they find a familiar thing to latch onto and start working from. Very common startle reflex: fight / flight / freeze.
One trick is to speak to an individual, address them directly – can you call and ambulance, etc. It breaks them out of the spectator mode.
Most people milling from day to day aren’t put into these sorts of situations, and we probably wouldn’t want too many keyed up, leap into action types walking around anyway. Too far the other side are the sort who also get swept away while trying to save others, take on the armed robber over $150 till takings, that sort of thing.
Cops and soldiers can change modes pretty quick (ISTR Ron Mark had an active role in the aftermath of a traffic accident a while back – probably no coincidence that he’s ex-army, IMO), and so are others trained in outdoorsey stuff where you need to plan for these things (one of the best incident bystanders I encountered was in a scuba diving club – practically had everything handled before the ambulance came, and it was a fairly complex case as well).
The “milling effect” you refer to could explain what Mr R encountered yesterday, but really it was more like an overwhelming inertia. After some time did only one person eventually phone 111 when instructed. And I do mean directly instructed.
Understand your explanation “where nobody does anything until somebody does something, then everybody does the same thing.” I’m in the situation where I observe ducks, most days and they do this en masse but humans, in a vacuous state, I could see that applying to.
I guess in Mr R’s circumstance, he is switched on to observation. He’s a health and safety officer at his workplace. He saw it coming where as others who were closer to the person just walked away as it was happening.
As another side note I couldn’t help think of the irony of so many people being so disconnected to daily life and social observation because they have their face in a smart phone all day but in a real life situation they completely fail to act and use the phone for something, well, useful.
A really interesting experiment was to put students in a mock exam situation, all authority figures leave the room, and smoke comes under the door after a while.
All except one of the students were confederates instructed to ignore the smoke, but follow the test subject if they left. The control was to leave the room when the smoke was noticed.
If everyone else acted unconcerned, the test subject usually stayed in the room until the smoke was very thick, despite obvious discomfort and concern for personal safety.
I have been told the best way to deal with such a situation is to directly ask some one in the crowd – make it personal
Like “could you the person in the blue jersey please call 111, and look directly at them.
@dv
Brilliant. That is something I recall and have seen it happen. So that is something to put in our mental notes for emergencies. Make it personal – get a who, me response.
And if the person doesn’t respond say to the next person, ‘Are you a capable person’? Phone for an ambulance, just 111, tell them where, or get the person next to you to do it?
I have read of a woman who collapsed in a main city street, with people carefully going round her, but one man apparently stepped over her, but no one squatting down by her head and trying to communicate or help her. I think she was a nurse, used to helping people in difficulty, and was wounded in her respect for others, when she found that the public didn’t help others in distress, and particularly, return her level of care, to herself when needed.
edited
Rosie
That was interesting. In a world of individuals, apparently people still wait for someone else to take over in an unusual situation. It’s like people are basically conformists and in their mental book of etiquette there is no prior instruction of what to do when there is no-one in authority to take charge. And we often are unaccustomed to acting with initiative. People are not very compassionate these days, more uncaring and censorious than they used to be I think.
I remember the story long ago of the NZ woman and her friend at Hampton Court in London who along with other visitors were confronted by a workman who had been down a manhole and just managed to get up to advise that his mate had collapsed.
She looked around and none of the men moved to do anything, so she went down, no doubt carefully, to check the situation, and with her friend formed a rescue team,
successfully.
But it is amazing that people can’t even call an ambulance. The emotion of shock, coupled with an avid and ghoulish curiosity about this novel event, must produce this unpleasant result of dissociation.
Ah yes, dissociation. That’s the word. Thank you grey. I agree, there is less compassion in our society too.
“If some man has a dollar he didn’t work for, some other man worked for a dollar he didn’t get”
Bill Haywood
I’d like to change Big Bill’s comment, to reflect a more intersected movement.
“If some man has a dollar he didn’t work for, someone worked for a dollar they didn’t get”
‘
“If a person receives money for doing no work, someone else has worked for money they never received”
Nah BLiP it’s still men who dominate in exploitation
‘
I don’t doubt that for a minute, but how is using the gender specific term in your first clause an example of an intersected statement which improved upon the Bill Haywood observation? It does improve on somewhat but cannot be fully intersected. It seems Haywood is addressing exploitation rather than he is addressing exploitative men.
(Serious question, I’ve just been getting into this whole critical theory of oppressive institutions and its linguistics.)
I agree, Big Bill Haywood is speaking to exploitation, and in the language of his time.
I just think we can do both with his quote by tweaking it a bit.
It’s a patriarchal society, which we still live in. So we need to talk to power, we do no one any favours by making the first part gender neutral.
Maybe it depends on context. If it’s general (which is how I’m reading it not knowing who Haywood is), then make both clauses gender neutral. I think we now have enough women making money off other people to warrant that.
Disagree weka, women own, well not much. Plus women are exploited more.
Big Bill Haywood.
http://www.britannica.com/biography/William-D-Haywood
I guess it depends on what you mean by not working, but I know plenty of women doing well off investments and interest on savings. I’m not comparing numbers of women to men or women to women, I’m looking at women in NZ and seeing a big chunk that fit what you are saying.
+1
I think the gender neutral term is better. Targeting men only excuses the women also doing it.
Finally.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/77651767/law-commission-wants-strangulation-to-become-its-own-crime
http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-unseen-victims-of-traumatic-brain-injury-from-domestic-violence
Seen this?
http://www.theguardian.com/public-leaders-network/2016/mar/04/councils-outsourcing-local-authorities-contract-services
Public Leaders Network
It’s time for councils to stop out-of-control outsourcing
__________________________
Yep – I agree.
Same issue applies -in my view – to Auckland Council and Auckland Council Controlled Organisations (CCOs).
Penny Bright
2016 Auckland Mayoral candidate