“If America had an independent media, the election would be about the 20 years of US and NATO/EU war crimes against Serbia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Libya, Pakistan, Syria, and Yemen, and US and NATO support for Israel’s war crimes against the remnants of the Palestinian people, and US and NATO/EU support for the neo-nazi regime established by the Obama regime in Ukraine to commit war crimes against the breakaway Russian provinces, the populations of which refuse to become victims of Washington’s overthrow of the democratic elected Ukrainian government and installation by “America’s first black president” of a neo-nazi regime.”
John Wight is one of the best left wing writers in the U.K.
Here is his brilliant piece on Remembrance Day, as we approach 11/11/18 and 100 years since the end of WW1.
“There is however an insidious and pernicious aspect to this annual ritual, one that has come to embrace a set of ironclad received truths that brook no questioning, dissent or disagreement. It is that at bottom the trumpets, monuments and fanfare are not designed to mourn the nation’s war dead but instead to glorify the nature of their deaths and, by extension, extol the virtues of militarism and the nation’s martial might; both of which in the context of the British State are inextricably linked to the brutal legacy of empire and colonialism on the part of its ruling class.
This is even more relevant when we consider Britain’s participation in the recent wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya — wars in which countless thousands of civilians were killed and maimed, and for whom there is no monument or ritual of remembrance. And this is not forgetting the myriad other colonial wars the country has waged in the history of an empire that in truth should be a source of shame rather than celebration.
Moreover, in 2018, as we are again invited to embrace Britain’s role in the world as a force for good, the people of Yemen are being systematically slaughtered, starved and made vulnerable to disease in a war unleashed upon them by the murderous medieval tyranny of Saudi Arabia with the active involvement of British miltiary expertise and resources.
Meanwhile at home as the usual array of politicians, members of the royal family and various other dignitaries step forward to lay wreaths at the Cenotaph, consider that 13,000 former soldiers are currently homeless, cast aside like so much flotsam; their lives reduced to a daily struggle with mental health issues resulting from their active service, compounded by the living hell of Tory austerity. Their grim plight forces us to confront a withering reality — namely that of a political establishment which consistently demonstrates little desire to offer those who serve in the nation’s ignoble military adventures more than an existence of poverty, alienation and despair afterwards.”
I guess I’m with Ed. Aotearoa could do with an alternative history, as opposed to the colonialist version, and not just for WWI. Parihaka and the land wars ought to be taught to kids here. When I went through the education system in the fifties and sixties we got nothing about our real history.
First up, I’d make Archie Baxter’s We Shall Not Cease a compulsory part of the college curriculum. It proves there was a positive alternative here to all the fools who volunteered to die for the empire.
I’m currently in the midst of the account of Gallipoli trench warfare as experience by a turkish volunteer. In the novel by Louis de Berniers Birds Without Wings, but just as vivid and ghastly as that provided by Erich Maria Remarque in his famous memoir. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erich_Maria_Remarque
I understand why you feel the need to honour those who die for their country. However the other side of that coin is failure to honour those who tried to provide a better way forward: non-violent conflict resolution. Peaceful coexistence in a world fraught with political and religious hostility is as essential as ever.
It always disappoints me when people look at these remembrance ceremonies and think that they are glorifying war. I always see them as the complete opposite. We highlight the costs and horror of war in the hopes that it won’t be forgotten. We hope that reminding those in power of the terrible losses suffered, that they will be far more circumspect in committing to the horrors of war in the future.
We highlight the costs and horror of war in the hopes that it won’t be forgotten. We hope that reminding those in power of the terrible losses suffered, that they will be far more circumspect in committing to the horrors of war in the future.
It’s obviously not working. IMO, those in power are seeking another world war.
“The democratic revolution that ensued in Ukraine in 2014 was in fact a revolution against democracy, unleashing the dogs of thuggery and gangsterism.
Someone who made the mistake of falling foul of those with a vested interest in the corruption that is a hallmark of today’s Ukraine was Katerina Gandzyuk. The anti-police corruption activist was murdered in an acid attack in Kherson, southern Ukraine. Before succumbing to her injuries, Gandzyuk alleged that “corrupt” high ranking police officers might have been behind the attack, though as yet no one has been prosecuted in connection with it. Prominent members of the far-right group Right Sector are suspected however, begging the question of where the far-right ends and the police begin?
The treatment of Russian journalist Kirill Vyshinsky sheds even more light on Ukraine’s failed experiment in pro-Western democracy. The head of the Russian RIA Novosti news bureau in Ukraine, Vyshinsky was arrested in May on treason charges by Ukrainian authorities and has been held in detention ever since. Even in the face of a call for the journalist’s release by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), a Ukrainian court has ruled that Vyshinsky’s detention be extended until the end of December.
When things reach the stage that even the neocons over at the Atlantic Council are no longer able to put lipstick on the pig of the far-right swamp that is Ukraine in 2018, rock bottom has surely been reached.“
That item on Ukraine is almost completely the Putin line. Just like the Russian denial they didn’t shoot down MH 117 (even though it would have been an accident in the sense they didn’t intend to shoot down an airliner).
Basically not believable.
Oh really. We get a neverending avalanche of tripe supporting him, and nothing from folk supporting the Ukrainian’s rights to self determination.
“why you don’t display…”
If someone makes a post supporting them Morrissey, I’ll probably critique it. Here Ed is supporting Putin’s program of invasions – it’s shameful – but I notice you’re not condemning it.
“far more murderous” only the US would be. There’s half a million Chechens on Putin’s butcher’s bill before we even start with Georgia, the Ukraine, internal dissidents and Syrians.
Unlike you Ed, I don’t make a habit of posting a menu du jour of the regimes I object to. Quite a few educated folk read the Standard, and they don’t require my judgements anymore than they require yours.
I am hesitant to make blanket condemnations of Saudi, since neither anti-Arab racism, nor anti-Islamism square with my views on freedom of religion.
But I notice you continue to not only defend, BUT PROMOTE the murderous bastard Putin Ed. I don’t know where your head is at, but clearly nowhere Left or moral. I’m ashamed of you.
“It is important to watch how long the torrent of criticism of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Saudi Arabia will last. President Trump has been muted in his comments, emphasising the need to keep on terms with the Saudis because of the $110bn contract to sell them arms. Some of those most accustomed to kowtowing to Gulf monarchs, like Tony Blair, are comically reluctant to criticise Saudi Arabia despite the compelling evidence of the murder produced by Turkey. The best Blair can do is to say that the issue should be investigated and explained by Saudi Arabia “because otherwise it runs completely contrary to the process of modernisation”. Even for Blair this is surely a new low, and it could also be a dispiriting straw in the wind, suggesting that political elites in the US and UK will not be shocked for long and criticism will be confined to the alleged killing of Khashoggi.
This is an important point because the killing (as suggested by the Turkish investigators) is by no means the worst act carried out by Saudi Arabia since 2015, though it is much the best publicised. Anybody doubting this should read a report just published which shows that bombing and other military activities by the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen is deliberately targeting food supplies and distribution in a bid to win the war by starving millions of civilians on the other side.
There is nothing collateral or accidental about the attacks according to the report. Civilian food supplies are the intended target with the horrendous results spelled out by the UN at the end of September: some 22.2 million Yemenis or three quarters of the population are in need of assistance, 8.4 million of whom are not getting enough food to eat, a number which may increase by 10 million by the end of the year. “It is bleak,” UN humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock told the Security Council. “We are losing the fight against famine.”
But there are those in Saudi Arabia, UAE and their allies in Washington, London and Paris who evidently do not feel any regret and are intent on creating conditions for a man-made famine as the best way of winning the war against the Houthis who still hold the capital Sana’a and the most highly populated parts of the country. This is the conclusion of the highly detailed report called “The Strategies of the Coalition in the Yemen War: Aerial Bombardment and Food War” written by Professor Martha Mundy for the World Peace Foundation affiliated to the Fletcher School at Tufts University in Massachusetts.
…….The lack of international protests over the war in Yemen, and the involvement of the US and UK as allies of Saudi Arabia and UAE, helps explain one of the mysteries of the Khashoggi disappearance. If the Saudis murdered Khashoggi, why did they expect to carry out the assassination without producing an international uproar? The explanation probably is that Saudi leaders imagined that, having got away with worse atrocities in Yemen, that any outcry over the death of a single man in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul was something they could handle.”
“why did they expect to carry out the assassination without producing an international uproar?”
The release of the tape by Turkish sources suggests that Turkey had the embassy bugged, and, unusually, was prepared to disclose this fact. In the ordinary course of events embassies enjoy virtual impunity. It’s possible that some other power was involved.
“White House press secretary Sarah Sanders on Wednesday night shared a video of CNN reporter Jim Acosta that appeared to have been altered to make his actions at a news conference look more aggressive toward a White House intern.”
It is amazing to watch this creep in action. So blatant, such corrupt morals. And his minions ffs this is how supposedly good people did bad back in the old days. Amazing how myopic and selfish some people can be – hard landing from this I suspect
A hard landing for us all given the quality and direction of leadership currently about the world.
We are herd animals, most look for the pack leader and follow without much thought.
Trump probably only has to stay the course and the gerrymandering does the rest. Democrats will be hoping to interrupt that now they have the lower house.
The inability of capitalism to deal with crises that it causes, Gosman.
From the same article you cite.
Adam Isacson, an analyst at the Washington Office on Latin America, a thinktank, tweeted: “An expert I talked to today pointed out: how is it that Colombia is receiving 5,000 Venezuelans every day, but the US government is panicked by 7,000 Central Americans?”
Gosman, you did not get the point of the paragraph in the article that you cited, did you?
What caused the crises in Honduras from where most of the feared and dreaded caravanistas are coming from?
What does it say about the capitalist US that it is so distraught by the prospect of 7000 refugees?
Or, just maybe, Gosman, just maybe it’s got SFA to do with political
systems but with poverty, international relations, banana companies and their modern counterparts, the global corporations, with authoritariansim and governments of the elites, for the elites, by the elites.
Some here would say more than ‘maybe’ to that one, and even sheet it home to the door of capitalism.
You keep instancing one example to denigrate socialism. You do realise that you run the danger of arguing a logical fallacy here, don’t you?
it’s over to you to prove that socialism done it, btw. First define socialism, then name the countries of the world which are socialist, then maybe your asseverations can be worth more than a passing pfffft!
3 million people fleeing the Chavista regime of Venezuela is not due to Capitalism, International relations, banana companies and their modern counterpart. It is purely down to the Socialist policies of the Chavista regime.
Your lies are getting a joke Gosman, when did the exodus start? When did the ability not to trade in oil kick in? When did sanctions bite, and how many are there now? How many times has the larger corporations stuffed with the Venezuela market (so much for you precious free market ah when they can manipulate shit like the toilet paper crisis) ? How many times has the far right bombed and attacked government – making it unsafe for average citizens?
But most of all, and this is the real kicker for why people are running, becasue every day in Venezuela rumours run wild that the USA is going to bomb them back to the stone ages, like they did in the middle east. People are scared, because they can’t elect their own government – but hey you’re opposed to that so why should anyone listen to your lies?
So not being able to get loans to facilitate oil transactions, is no restriction on oil trade.
Either your a ideological hack who cherry picks information gossy, or your just a liar. I’m going with both.
Yeah the government is doing bad, but external forces are just complicit in the failings of Venezuela economy and those external forces are capitalist – so are you condemning them?
Nah, you just an alex jones style ideological hack.
I provided a link to a site that shows who is the main trading partners for Venezuela. The US is by far the biggest and given that Venezuela exports nothing much beyond oil then this suggests the trade in oil in unaffected by any “financial restrictions”. If you have evidence suggesting otherwise present it here.
Are you going to condemn the capitalist for their completeness in the failing economy? Or are you going to carry on be an alex jones style ideological hack?
You have failed to provide any evidence supporting this view. Why would I agree with something you haven’t backed up with facts?
For someone who is attempting to link me with fact free commentators like Alex Jones you yourself seem very Alex Jones like with providing anything resembling actual evidence.
Good news at least China is helping with loans to get oil to flow. Makes me wonder if you know how the economy really works gossy, if you don’t understand how this part works.
That is correct. The US has imposed limited sanctions on Venezuela that hinder (but do not stop) it’s ability to access finance from US sources. This is entirely within the remit of the US to do and the US has done this to a number of countries in the past. It does not explain why the Venezuelan economy is collapsing though. The US is still the main trading partner with Venezuela so therefore trade financing is still occurring. As your seconf link points out Venezuela is more that able to access financing from other sources. Many countries have done this.
Yeah those little capitalist Xmas elves are real and were really just tying to give their neighbours free gifts from Santa for being good, not destabilise the country so they could swoop in and get cheaper oil.
Capitalism’s response such as what? To still trade with Venezuela and allow the country to access International finance markets do you mean? What can’t Venezuela do that it was hoping to be able to do that is directly caused by the actions of others and not as a result of the dire economic situation of the country?
Differences in price are captured privately at the state’s expense while producing nothing, which in turn leaves fewer resources available for the everyday business of running the country.
That type of theft is endemic to capitalism.
Who caused the crisis in Communist China as a result of the Great Leap forward?
Who caused the million plus deaths in Iraq after the illegal US invasion?
There was not a million plus deaths in Iraq after the US invasion in 2003. that is another falsehood.
It is also irrelevant to the question I asked you which was ” Who was responsible for the crisis in Communist China as a result of the Great Leap forward?” Hint: The answer is not the same as who is responsible for any deaths in Iraq.
On Friday, 14 September 2007, ORB International, an independent polling agency located in London, published estimates of the total war casualties in Iraq since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.[1] At over 1.2 million deaths (1,220,580), this estimate is the highest number published so far.
The question is as relevant as your question about China. The illegal and immoral US invasion was a direct result of capitalism because the US is a capitalist country.
Then the Iranian economy is in for a pretty dire time given the US sanctions on Iran are 1000 times more stringent than anything Venezuela has had imposed on it. Venezuela can still trade (and does) with the US. Most of it’s oil is exported to the US market. If the US wanted to destroy the Venezuelan economy why doesn’t it just stop buying oil from it like it has done with Iran?
“The top export destinations of Venezuela are the United States ($10.3B), China ($4.9B), India ($4.47B), Switzerland ($2.92B) and Singapore ($1.03B). The top import origins are the United States ($5.06B), China ($2.52B), Brazil ($1.28B), Argentina ($706M) and Colombia ($613M)”
“Solid links”? The Guardian is a notorious parrot of propaganda—you probably haven’t but anyone with an I.Q. above room temperature will have been appalled at its role in the absurd and fantastical lying campaign against Jeremy Corbyn.
One of Gosman’s “comments” was nothing more than a link to that propaganda machine, and the other was a fatuous assertion, contra reality, that the U.S. does not want to destroy Venezuela’s economy.
Still, feel free to stick up for him. He needs help, even from someone as hopeless as you.
Yet you have provided ZERO evidence for anything on Venezuela. For example you haven’t explained why the US is still the largets trading partner of Venezuela if it is trying to destroy it’s economy.
Can you explain yourself, Marty? I pointed out the extreme unreliablity of the Grauniad, and excoriated someone who foolishly cited it as some kind of authority.
Your criticism of the Guardian is truly Trumpian in it’s nature. You have discounted any facts contained in the report purely on the basis that you don’t like the Guardian. It is like Trump refusing to address questions posed by CNN journalists.
I’ve provided a link which highlights that the main Export and Import market for Venezuela is the US. How is that commenting from a position of ignorance? You on the other hand have provided ZERO evidence how so called sanctions are impacting the Venezuelan economy. If anyone is commenting from a position of ignorance it is you not I.
As concerning as your apparent regard for the integrity of the Grauniad is, the main problem here is, as usual, your less than intelligent “take” on things. Your hare-brained claim that the U.S. doesn’t want to destroy Venezuela’s economy is on a par with your claim just one month ago that the US “has invaded relatively few countries since 1945.”
You have to be pretty one-eyed to blame the Venezuela situation on anyone other than their current government. Not really sensible to try and defend them. The reality is that some governments are completely incompetent. Venezuela has one of the worst.
Sadly this is true. Having just returned from working in Latin America I’m not going to pose as an expert, but I can convey from first-hand conversations the veracity and extent of this crisis.
The root causes of Venezuela’s breakdown can be summarised in a nut-shell … ideologically induced incompetence. It’s what happens when any simplistic ideology that purports to have the ‘total answer’ to all problems meets the actual complexity of the real world.
Extreme socialism doesn’t have a monopoly on this, but it sure has record with it.
So unless someone gives us analysis from an expert familiar with how Venezuela has applied socialism, we can only deduce from regime failure that the way they tried to apply it was flawed.
I think perceptive commentators can agree that both capitalism & socialism are flawed ideologies. Examples from history & current affairs indicate that failure & success are relative to time and place: national culture being the primary determinant of outcomes. Therefore blanket condemnations aren’t helpful. Generalising doesn’t get us anywhere.
Progress can only be attained via application of Hegel’s dialectic: take the best from both thesis and antithesis, discard the worst, proceed to synthesis. Governments have been attempting the blend for several generations. What’s missing is empirical learning from all the outcomes. What we lack is a general theory emerging from the synthesis. I refuse to accept that everyone is too stupid to deduce it. I do accept that there’s a general reluctance to attempt the task.
Venezuela was held up (and is still held up be some) by many leftists as taking the correct approach to implementing Socialism. It was being done in a democratic manner and seemingly focusing on the needs of the poor and working classes. There were multitudes of social programmes that received large amounts of funding from the government AND the main sectors of the economy were steadily nationalised or brought under State control via other means. The Chavez government also supported numerous worker lead co-operatives to take over or set up businesses. In short Venezuela WAS the poster child for how Socialism could be implement in a modern democratic country.
Venezuela was held up (and is still held up be some) by many leftists as taking the correct approach to implementing Socialism.
No it’s not, and it never has been. Venezuela is as imperfect as any other democracy. What its defenders say is: the United States and its brutal vassal Colombia have no right at all to interfere with it.
It was being done in a democratic manner and seemingly focusing on the needs of the poor and working classes.
That much is true. Sadly, though, the Venezuelan government has made many mistakes. However, unlike, say, Australia, the U.K., Canada, and the United States, it has not been involved in the killing of millions of people in Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Pakistan, Africa, Palestine, and Syria.
Before human rights heroes like Wayne Mapp and Gosman pontificate any more about Venezuela’s failings, they should deal with those far more dangerous and irresponsible regimes.
Which is fine as far as it goes Gosman. But if you want us to have some faith in your views you need to show willing on our concerns too.
Unconstrained capitalism (and it’s political bastard fascism) also brings us gross inequality, environmental damage at an extinction level, a monstrous waste of resources, and a desperately myopic, materialist philosophy of life.
I’m willing to credit and accept that your take on life is different to mine, that you place a higher weight on values like order, achievement and stability than I do. I’m not going to quibble with how you’re wired; but if you want a more interesting conversation how about addressing what is important to us?
I’m a firm believer in that you have to get your economic fundamentals correct before you can start expanding social programmes not the other way around. The other way around leads to massive economic distortions which lead to economic contraction rather than expansion. At that point you can’t afford to fund the social programmes you think are so important.
Fair enough I can go with your order of priorities in a fundamental sense; but you can surely understand what happens when this goes too far? When the pursuit of material means overtakes all other goals?
If there is one thing that frustrates the left more than anything else; is the seeming blindness of capitalists, that their success seems to render them impervious to the wider concerns I mentioned above.
Despite the propaganda of many on the left social programmes in places like NZ have not been cut back in any significant way since the 1991 Benefit cuts. The amount of Government expenditure spent on key areas like Health and Social Welfare has more than matched the increase in inflation. The real problem is the costs involved in providing social assistance are growing as is the demand for such services (e.g. an aging population requiring newer drugs). It is easy to demand that more and more money is fed in to a system that is constantly demanding more resources but there has to be a reality check on what the economy can afford to support. If you don’t do that you fall in to the trap of Venezuela which is that you think the State can solve social problems without having an economy to support it.
The left is useful in making the call for social reforms. The right is useful in providing the reality check on ensuring that the economy can afford the costs of those social reforms.
I’m a firm believer in that you have to get your economic fundamentals correct before you can start expanding social programmes not the other way around.
I’m all for getting economic fundamentals correct as well. Simple little things like physical reality have a major bearing upon what can be done.
Capitalism tends to ignore them so as to make a few people rich.
that both capitalism & socialism are flawed ideologies.
In isolation yes. It should be obvious to us by now that they both need each other.
The social and technical landscapes we are traversing are at present chaotic and confusing. We damn well should be worried about where we are heading, and as a species we are going to need every resource we have to navigate through this next century without fatal damage.
What we lack is a general theory emerging from the synthesis. I refuse to accept that everyone is too stupid to deduce it. I do accept that there’s a general reluctance to attempt the task.
I really liked this, and you are completely correct. We are all way smarter and tougher than we think. It was something Ad said to me a while back about being ‘free’ that was a personal turning point; often the chains we imagine bind us are largely illusory.
Except many on the left are unwilling to accept any flaws in their ideology. I am more than happy to accept Capitalism’s many flaws. It does not concern itself with the impacts of economic failure from a society point of view. That is where social policy comes in. You can have progressive social policies under a capitalist framework (indeed that is what the Scandinavian countries do).
Yeah well at least you gave it a go Gosman. I’m not surprised at your response; I agree it was pretty abstract and that seems inherent in trying to discuss something as unverifiable as the future.
Also it speaks to how our personalities are different; I can listen to it and extract something interesting; you listen and don’t. Yet I’m certain there are scenarios where the opposite would be true. The same effect shows up in the comments underneath it.
To engage you I’d need an unqualified concrete discourse; facts, data points and appeal to values like diligence, stability and directness. Unfortunately approach can only replicate what we already know; it’s helpless in the face of the unknown, it fails to create the novel and unexpected.
It’s why I’m a moderately good software engineer, I can visualise abstractions, how they relate to real-world problems and put them together in novel ways; yet put me in charge of the operations division of a large company, within weeks I’d get bored and likely start tinkering with things to no good effect. I suspect you’re the converse, and it’s why the world needs types like both of us; even when we do frustrate the hell out of each other 🙂
“It’s what happens when any simplistic ideology that purports to have the ‘total answer’ to all problems meets the actual complexity of the real world “
The social democrat countries seem to be the happiest with the best division of wealth. I hate extremes. Sad NZ is working their way out of being a socially democratic country and instead part of the ‘global’ economy when money buys anything and you can buy politicians who don’t seem to have a lot of common sense or scruples and rely on paper reports summaries from a bunch of neoliberal officials as though that is the gospel.
I think Marty Mars said 1 in 8 people here over 15 are on antidepressants… likely a consequence of NZ from Rogernomics onwards…
Yes the middle path has proven the correct model; but it’s not necessarily easy to achieve, nor obviously stable when we do reach it. Of the 200 odd nations in the world, barely 30 count as social democrat/capitalist success stories. We certainly cannot point to any individual nation as the ideal model; all have their flaws, and in many ways we seem to have plateaued.
We are missing something; not the least because the nation state in an inadequate framework to understand the problem.
Of course the Venezuelan government has made many mistakes. Chavez wasted a lot of time on publicity stunts and annoying the United States. I’m not a blind supporter of either Chavez or the present democratically elected leader.
But are you trying to suggest that the United States, which supported the coup against Chavez in 2002, is not trying to overthrow the democratic government of Venezuela?
You’re not in the National cabinet now, Dr. Mapp—you’re allowed to be truthful if you want.
If the US was seriously trying to overthrow the Chavista regime in Venezuela why does it allow the country to trade with it and even own Billions of dollars of assets within the US? The US could easily cripple the Venezuelan economy if it took control of Venezuelan Oil assets in the US and stopped purchasing Venezuelan oil. It has applied similar sanctions in the past against regimes it does not like (e.g. Iran and Cuba).
To name just one of the Venezuelan assets in the US, Citgo is one of the larger chains of petrol stations, as well as owning a bunch of other petrochemical assets. Anyone interested should look it up.
If the US was seriously trying to overthrow the Chavista regimein Venezuela
By “Chavista regime”, you mean the democratically elected government of Venezuela. Are you seriously suggesting it is not trying to overthrow the Venezuelan government?
Yes, The US Government is not seriously trying to overthrow the Chavista regime in Venezuela. If it was it would have taking control of all Venezuelan oil assets in the US.
I’m sure you’re already aware of Hamlet’s ironic musing on petards, Morrissey, and for added emphasis, here’s a handy list of people who suffered unintended consequences:
The oil markets deserve another post in the next month or so.
China has confirmed that they will not be taking Iranian oil.
It seems the European importers are generally folding around the U.S. demands against Iran as well.
It looks from my scan of the analysts that barrel prices will grind upwards next year, but will also remain very volatile. For a totally oil-reliant country like ours, price and price volatility is the meanest and most accurate way to wean us off it.
That price volatility has changed the industry in four fundamental ways.
The first is the U.S. production of shale oil and alternative fuels such as ethanol. The shale oil producers have got more and more efficient. Large companies like Exxon-Mobil, BP, Chevron, and Royal Dutch Shell have basically stopped exploring new reserves – and it’s cheaper for them to just buy out less efficient shale companies. The United States will become the world’s largest oil producer in 2023 – not that far away.
The second is Saudi Arabia and Iran. I don’t think it’s coincidental that the U.S. shutting Iranian oil supply down also greatly assists Saudi Arabia against Iran its old enemy. None of them want to lose market share, and it really looks like two dogs against one in a pit.
Third, foreign exchange traders drove up the value of the dollar by 25 percent in 2014 and 2015. All oil transactions are paid in U.S. dollars. The strong dollar helped cause some of the 70 percent decline in the price of petroleum for exporting countries. Most oil-exporting countries peg their currencies to the dollar. Therefore, a 25 percent rise in the dollar offsets a 25 percent drop in oil prices. Global uncertainty keeps the U.S. dollar strong.
I think the fourth factor is the slowing global demand for oil. It only rose to 93.3 million b/d in 2015, from 92.4 million b/d in 2014, according to the IEA. Most of the increase was from China, which now consumes 12 percent of global oil production. Since its economic reforms (including electric car policies) slowed its growth, global demand growth may continue slow down. Underlying global demand is still strong, it’s just shifting around a lot. Plenty are talking about a peak for oil demand by about 2036. Too late to save this kind of world, but we’ve see a few shifts at least as large over the last century.
That’s an excellent geopolitical analysis, Ad! I suggest you save it on file and update it for a feature post every now & then. Interesting that the US will soon become largest oil producer – perhaps the moral of that story is that hi-tech trumps depletion of reserves.
A “70 percent decline in the price of petroleum for exporting countries” sure is a dramatic market signal, eh? Explains the revenue side of Venezuelan regime failure. “China has confirmed that they will not be taking Iranian oil.” That’s astonishing. I’d been seeing it as in their geopolitical interests to help Iran. Is there any other explanation apart from US hegemony dictating the outcome?
Always look on the bright side.. Sometimes that side is hard to find, eh? Be careful, there’s an ominous sign there that you may be trending towards solidarity with Bill.
Perhaps the bright side evident in your analysis is “the fourth factor is the slowing global demand for oil.” Demand peaking in 2036 can be seen as positive – just as the trend toward global population peaking is likewise.
For a totally oil-reliant country like ours, price and price volatility is the meanest and most accurate way to wean us off it.
Efficient distribution of scarce resources is what the price system is for of course, National will complain about it in some way while they’re the opposition and say that the government has To Do Something. If they ever get back in power they’ll just say it’s the market and that they can’t do anything. The MSM, in their total support of National, will parrot National’s lines without thought or critique.
The United States will become the world’s largest oil producer in 2023
Yes but for how long? Shale oil wells don’t last as long as conventional oil wells.
Most oil-exporting countries peg their currencies to the dollar. Therefore, a 25 percent rise in the dollar offsets a 25 percent drop in oil prices. Global uncertainty keeps the U.S. dollar strong.
Yes. The use of the US$ as the ‘Reserve Currency’ is fully against market rules. So is leaving exchange rates to ‘demand’. There should be no Reserve Currency and exchange rates should be formulaic.
Ok North Korea, Cuba, The Soviet Union, Communist China, Easter Europe, Most of South and Central America at various times, Vietnam, Cambodia. Venezuela is only the latest of a very long list of socialist experiments that went tits up Most are now coming out of poverty by embracing capitalism in some form
No, it is Socialist policies. The reason the Oil industry in Venezuela is declining is because the main Oil company was nationalised under Chavez and used as a piggy bank to fund the many social programmes he implemented instead of concentrating on reinvesting money to ensure continued production. The fact that Chavez discouraged private sector investment in the economy has lead to a situation where production has collapsed.
I disagree Gos, all I’ve read about the situation sheets back to exploitive plunderers. I don’t think Chavez nationalised their oil industry to make life fabulous for all Venezuelans, he did it because : ‘What’s in it for me and my mates?’
A bit like what happened to NZRail in the 1990s, after it was privatised. Asset stripping and dividend extraction, rather than reinvesting for development.
The South Africa State owns South African Airways 100%. How has this lead to better outcomes for the South African people given the company is bleeding money?
Here we go, it just has not been implemented properly arguement Similar to business would be easy argument if no staff and customers Socialism a proven failed ideology, persuasive on paper to fools but totally bankrupt in reality from an economic and humanity perspective
God you are like one of the crack pot 1080 protesters, hijacking every thread to derail it so you can troll contributors. Personally, I’d ban your ass for trolling like this – and the people who bite should be ashamed of themselves for feeding the troll.
Your links to “facts” backing up your view that the US and Capitalists have somehow caused the economic collapse of Venezuela consist of one from the US Treasury stating there are limited Economic sanctions on Venezuela (noone argued there wasn’t) and another link where it highlighted that the Venezuelan government was arranging finance from China (which suggests Venezuela CAN get international finance if it wants to). Nowhere in your links does it show how the Venezuelan economy is contracting as a result of actions by the US OR Capitalists.
Understanding how the oil market works, really does seem to be beyond you. Sorry I don’t have the time nor the inclination to help you – as you’re too much of an ideology. I would suggest you stop watching infowars, as it shows in how you debate.
“New statistics, revealed in a University of Otago study, show almost one in eight New Zealanders over the age of 15 are on antidepressants despite little evidence the drugs are helping curb the country’s alarming suicide rates.”
With all due respect, I have a problem with this research. Click on this link which shows the highest suicide rates in NZ were in 1996 -97……….
I have worked with hundreds of people suffering from anxiety and depressions and the vast majority of them make mild to significant improvement from taking them.
I will post more later. Just a little busy working with and fixing the problem……………..
There seems to be little appetite for serious research into why such a high percentage people in our society are so depressed. Improving the drugs is very much the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff, isn’t it.
Yes we need to understand what is happening to people. Our society is missing something. I’m sure we all have great ideas of what things we think are not there or could be improved.
I remember in a past career working with a matrix where Essential, Important, Nice were along one axis and Now, Future were along the other axis. Solutions for me are EssentialNow not ImportantFuture like say getting rid of capitalism. The issues are all around us everywhere and we are all connected to this. The first step I think is to really understand what the problem actually is that we want to solve and research is the way to begin to find out.
Depression and anxiety stress related conditions……..If you have a biological vulnerablity and you experience stress, then you will experience them.
IMO people have got increasingly stressed for all the obvious reasons………….housing, working conditions, women trying to managed work/home/childminding…………………………etc etc.
What I am curious about in this research are the rates of depression and suicide lower in the group of older women who are most heavily prescribed anti-ds.
Yes good comment. I suppose the study will get studied – it will be good to eventually see as many, hopefully constructive imo) views and analysis as possible. Thanks.
Cheers Marty. I appreciate your comments as well. It’s a complex area and I tend to get defensive about meds as I see first hand the huge benefit they provide to any,many people.
Wow. That’s an extraordinary figure marty. I knew that in the USA it’s almost normal to be on anti-depressants, but to see NZ approach the same levels of use is well … depressing.
Without trying to pretend I’m any kind of expert here, my thinking is that at root of the problem lies the extreme materialism of the modern world. In one sense it’s been an extraordinary blessing; a culture so focused on improving material welfare has created a world of convenience, comfort and safety our ancestors could scarcely imagine.
But it has come with costs. One has been dauntingly steep levels of social inequality that we know is associated with stress and dysfunction. Another is a spiritual rootlessness, we live in a globalised world that lacks a coherent moral framework; making it hard for people to develop a sense of place within it. Too many of us feel as if we drift struggle to grasp onto a responsible purpose that would give meaning to the difficulties of our lives.
It’s a lethal three way whammy; steep social gradients creating anxiety, steep economic gradients that create difficulties and weak psychological tools to face them. And this is without mentioning all the other factors, poor sleep, questionable diets, and a myriad of tech/social changes that all potentially undermine our inner balance.
I’m inclined to think of depression as a form of anger but directed inwards, it’s the way the body deals with stressors it cannot process, so it protects what remains by shutting down. A good short-term strategy, but awful to live with long-term.
But I’m only speaking from my limited understanding here; I’m genuinely interested to hear from your professional experience and viewpoint marty.
Thanks red. What you have written is true. My experience of depression is personal and through friends.
For me it is hard to pinpoint because so much is on the list. An important point is that positives in life don’t balance it or offset it imo, they are discrete and seperate.
I work in a slightly different area specifically. I don’t know what the answers are but your view that kindness is important is a good place to start I think.
Yes kindness. And despite the inevitable corrosion of political life I hope Jacinda Adern doesn’t lose sight of it. Peter Cabaldi’s famous Dr Who scene here moved me (and millions of others) enormously:
I found a quote from philosopher Kierkegaard which is at the back of the depression and suicides that are growing.
I have put some of his quotes below and started thinking.
We see the pleasure of being in the world recede as statistics about wealth improve and yet conditions slide.
Humanity is down-graded and replaced by clever machines and we haven’t learned anything from the history of the Industrial Revolution or the Holocaust.
It appears that people’s minds can be dominated by propaganda to despise those who want to conserve what’s good in the world for all people and gradually expand it. Instead is favoured speedy glamorous triviality that passes leaving nothing of lasting value, emptiness.
This is behind the large amounts of anti depressants utilised. Not everyone can find and express the basis of what they feel, to crystallise their stress and concern into words like Kierkegaard did. He does a big thinkpiece that pares away to the core question:
What is this thing called the world?…How did I obtain an interest in this big enterprise they call reality? Why should I have an interest in it? Is it not a voluntary concern? And if I am compelled to take part in it, where is the director?…Whither shall I turn with my complaint?
I have a note this is from Small is Beautiful by EF Schumacher
I like his concept of how to go about our lives. “Thinking can turn toward itself in order to think about itself and skepticism can emerge. But this thinking about itself never accomplishes anything.” Kierkegaard says thinking should serve by thinking something. Kierkegaard wants to stop “thinking’s self-reflection” and that is the movement that constitutes a leap.[3] He is against people thinking about religion all day without ever doing anything; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leap_of_faith
Perhaps the depression that people feel is because they don’t know what is the good thing to actually do in the present circumstances. The indecision, and lack of clear direction and fixed truths that have arisen in our society and from seeing our government and economy run on half-lies, and deliberate inaction, makes us sick. Our certainties may be false but we cling to them because the reality cannot be pinned down or faced and as we look for it, a PR message will arise and tell us what we should think.
Further Kierkegaard.
Some of his quotes to add to the stew of thought: Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.
Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.
Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom.
(I have made quite a few changes since I put this up, trying to make it coherent.)
If he is right, then the depression that people feel is likely to be because they don’t know what is the good thing to do in the present circumstances.
Yes. And the given how dramatically the circumstances have changed it’s no surprise the old responses fall short. When I step back and consider all the themes I’ve tried to pursue here over the years, they can be condensed into three broad streams:
1. The mis-use of power in any of it’s forms. While all human endeavour demands power and authority to function correctly; the concentration of it into single the hands of single individuals history has demonstrated repeatedly to be problematic. We should pay more attention to the basis of power, why it is essential, how to ensure it is more evenly distributed, what purposes it serves and how to more reliably hold it to account.
2. Inequality. The Spirit Level remains one of the most important contributions to our understanding of how societies work; that while distinction and individuality are core attributes of a progressive society, we can only tolerate a certain amount before it becomes toxic.
3. The lack of a globally oriented moral and ethical framework. The material context of the modern world is global, but in spiritual terms it’s a desert.
Epidemic levels of depression and anxiety are important symptoms; they tell us we are doing something wrong, we need to slow down, stop blaming each other and pay attention.
The evidence for antidepressant effectiveness will not be the anecdotal reporting of individuals but taking the research based evidence of a cohort of x numbers using a medication. I agree though that to many of the worried well turn to medication when a lifestyle change would be more effective.
So when are we finally going to get our night school classes back, something that Jacinda Ardern specifically mentioned during the campaign. Anyone heard anything?
Well, she has been at pains to say that the government can’t do everything at once. Having said that, I should have thought night classes would have been a priority. A big leg-up for solo mums and others who want to retrain after having families etc.
Yes, they only cost $18 million or so a year to run so wouldn’t soak up too much of the budget, and until stopped were used by around 225,0000 people, if I recall correctly. Real value for money
There is some to and fro with govt and the business advisory council on what type of training/retraining NZ’ers will need in a rapidly shifting environment.
Perhaps they’re trying to finalise the details before classes are rolled out again?
Former Prime Minister Sir Geoffrey Palmer has slated ECAN’s proposed representation for next year’s election, saying it is “gerrymandering” and gives farmers more say than urban voters.
.. “all Canterbury citizens had an interest in the environment and the decisions made by ECan, whether they lived in a city, town or in the country.
But the proposal meant rural residents would be over-represented and urban residents under-represented, which was inconsistent with the principle of fair representation that underpinned New Zealand’s democracy and was required by the Electoral Act.
“That is unacceptable. Their interest in the rural environment is no greater than the urban electors since the environment must be considered as a whole, not in segments, if the underlying principle of sustainability is to be maintained.”
The proposal took important decisions away from the principle of one person one vote and substituted what amounted to a country quota, he said.
“Such a decision can hardly be tolerated in a modern democracy.”
I was reading a column which highlighted that Trump’s power lies in controlling the states that each have two senators, no matter if their population is 4 million or 40 million. The easiest way for progressives to win back the senate would be to migrate en masse to some of these red states with small populations. It would only require the Democrats winning three or four states more than they have already to control the Senate, and they could pick off the ones with the smallest populations. A migration of a few hundred thousand to each of these would likely tip the balance.
Good thought! – but not as easy as all that unfortunately. You see first they would have to win the Governorship because each State has a different system of running elections, and in all the red states you can almost put a ring around the fact that each polling district is gerrymandered by the ruling party so that even if the popular vote goes against them they will still win. Furthermore in districts where the likely democrat voters reside they put in fewer polling places, so that it becomes a struggle to cast a vote. And if that is not enough, you just can’t move into a State and decide to vote, firstly you need to be (in Texas at least) a permanent resident, attend classes, and jump over a huge number of hurdles to be allowed to cast a vote. Just read this article and it will blow your mind! https://www.thenation.com/article/texass-voter-registration-laws-are-straight-out-of-the-jim-crow-playbook/
A bit of migration could help tip the electoral college. But if you go through the numbers, trying to do it through the smallest states would take maybe 400k plus to move to Alaska, Wyoming, North and South Dakota to flip them, for a total of 12 electoral college votes. Put those extra Dems into Florida, however, then you’ve turned what used to be 29 swinging EC votes into rock-solid Dem. An extra 200k Dems would lock down Pennsylvania’s 20 EC votes pretty solidly.
When you go through the list of states, yes the Repugs do have an advantage from representing more of the smaller states. But that advantage isn’t that big. There’s plenty of smaller states that are solidly Dem, such as Delaware, Hawaii, Rhode Island…
BTW the range of state populations is around 670k in Wyoming (and dropping) to almost 40 million in California (and growing). So yeah, one senator per 340k for Wyoming vs one senator per 20 million in California. And one Electoral College vote per 220k in Wyoming vs one per 730k in California.
Giving losers self-belief and a group identity with a political focus is powerful magic. No way will the media want to acknowledge this! They will persevere in denial because they are advocates for the establishment. US media apologists for the left become delusional when they lose focus on what actually works in American democracy.
“Oh sure, it is possible to defeat Trump’s candidates at the district level and reclaim control of the House of Representatives. But, as progressive America discovered to its horror on 6 November 2018, the real power lies not in the districts but with the states. It is the state which is entitled to two senators – regardless of whether it contains four or forty million voters. And, in 2020, it will be the states dispatching their electors to the Electoral College – which chooses the President of the United States of America.”
You mean the Dems? Last time I thought they were credible was when Carter was president. As for the Reps, it would have to be Eisenhower in retrospect since I was a child at the time! Perhaps you mean both parties.
Interesting that you see the thing as credibility though. I see it as tribal loyalty based mostly on blind faith. What’s believable? The American dream? Capitalism? Socialism? Multiculturalism? Democracy? All faith-based stuff…
Ok, think I get it. The zeitgeist, shifting folks away from faith in traditional adherence to authority. Trump as anti-establishment hero, attractor for the losers victimised by the capitalists, no more trickle-down, alienated by the Democratic focus on minorities. Making America Great Again serving as a faith-based origin myth…
Consider….life not great and gradually community is in decline, you know in your bones that the games rigged but you think those that are running things and those doing well are quite a bit smarter than you so sort of deserve to be where they are…..your not happy about it but thats life.
Along comes Obama making the right noises (remember “yes we can?)…and you think heres a guy who understands what its like to be shit on, he’ll make a difference…and nothing changes.
GFC hits and the banks are bailed, but your house is foreclosed and the taxpayer foots the bill and all the cuts that entails….those running the show are not only exposed as not knowing what theyre doing but they get rewarded for their incompetence and dishonesty.
Meanwhile in the europe Janis Varoufakis, one of “them” (elite, university professor, economist, establishment family) rocks up to the EU with a considered plan to help the people of Greece only to be told that economics has nothing to do with it and he spends the next three years telling the world how decisions are really made.
The curtain has been pulled back in OZ .
8 years after GFC the same faces, same rhetoric, same methods, in other words same bullshit,are all still in place ( and faithfully reported/repeated by the media) and if anything things are worse not better…..and along comes Trump.
The last decade has demonstrated to you that the faith you had that those running things at least knew what they were doing (even if they wernt acting in your best interest) has been been totally misplaced and theres bugger all you can do about it , but you can put the cat among the pidgeons and vote Trump, hell things cant get any worse and by some miracle they might get better….and besides its fun watching those that fucked everything up have an apoplexy.
and they arnt all “good ol’ boys’ living in the stix.
Thanks for filling it out. I agree with your analysis. Basically the same as what I was getting at, except it explains the mass psychology driving the zeitgeist much better. Middle-class alienation not voting Democrat due to not being offered anything of substance by them is another side of it.
Yep the answer is small government, get out of people lives, build individual accountability, resilience, look after yourself and stop hoping mummy government will look after you and you will be right
qUOTE : “But it might just be that there are now people running who are less reluctant to give up just because they have been told to sit down.
“The votes are not there for her,” Kemp told NBC News. “I certainly respect the hard fought race that she ran. But that’s a decision she’s gonna have to make. But we’ve run the race, it’s very clear now and we’re moving forward with the transition.”
NBC News notes that as more ballots are being counted for Abrams, the closer the race becomes, the more likely this fiasco is headed for a runoff election.
Abrams’ campaign believes there are enough outstanding votes – excluding the votes stuffed inside a crushed Honda Civic trunk – to force a runoff. qUOTE END
Kiwibuild was sold to us as a means to increase our housing supply, thus improve declining home ownership numbers. Turns out it has also become a way for Kiwibuild buyers to make some serious cash.
Housing Minister is defending his decision to soften the penalties for those who flip or rent out their Kiwibuild homes
They have yet to do so because the scheme has only just begun, but the potential to do so is real. And while Labour acknowledge that (highlighted by the regulation in place to deter it) it’s clear the regulation in place isn’t much of a deterrent.
Seems Labour like giving National a stick to bash them with.
National will do as National wants to. Nothing to do with Labour. Besides atm it seems National is really good at bashing National.
So why don’t you wait until someone has been caught doing wrong before you accuse people of doing wrong? Same for Newshub. So far no one has done anything, and they should rather report the news then make them up.
Article from Shaun Barnett from New Zealand Geographic, on the story that 41 years ago turned me into a conservationist, and back when I was 10 Stephen King the activist was my kind of hero:
“Your perch: a giant tōtara in the central North Island. Your view: thousands of hectares of podocarp forest, chainsaws chewing its edge. Your mission: to stage the world’s first treetop protest. Your name: Stephen King. Not the American novelist, but a barefoot botanist opposing forest destruction.
During the 1970s, native forests were being milled, but many New Zealanders felt it was time to preserve what remained of our wild lands. Young activists, including King, formed the Native Forest Action Council (NFAC), and gathered signatures for a petition, which resulted in a reprieve for West Coast forests.
But at Pureora, the chainsaws continued to snarl. In April 1977, King had been appalled to see thousand-year-old tōtara being felled, some of no use for timber. Meanwhile, conservationists feared for the future of the kōkako—only about 1400 remained, with the largest population at Pureora, and so the bird became the symbol of protest.
King and NFAC leader Guy Salmon raised public awareness with submissions and slogans such as “Don’t beat about the bush, just stop the logging”. But after diplomacy failed, defiance seemed their only option.
By 1978, King and others were willing to put their lives on the line. When loggers returned from their Christmas holiday on January 18, they found King and 13 other protesters stationed in the canopy. Frustrated millers implored them to leave. A police squad arrived, and loggers began spray-painting trees as a warning, but the activists held firm. By then, their stance headlined all the country’s major newspapers. One read, ‘Forest protesters face death as logging commences’. Unnerved, the district ranger called a halt.
Eventually, the Forest Service backed down, pausing logging while the Wildlife Service researched kōkako. Native-forest logging ceased in 1982.
Today, visitors can gain a similar view to King’s by scaling Pureora’s 12-metre Forest Tower to reach a platform high in the canopy. From Pikiariki and Bismark Roads, accessible from Pureora Village, it’s a ten-minute walk to the Forest Tower. Nearby, DOC has positioned a restored D7 bulldozer to mark where logging stopped.”
Shaun Barnett, Rob Brown and Geoff Spearpoint are just three names from the tramping community who personally embed a deep love for the NZ backcountry and the conservation ethic. (I could extend the list quite a bit.)
These guys are the kaumatua of my tribe. And look up Honora Renwick for a woman with a remarkable backstory:
The Supreme Court has ruled swamp kauri exports must be finished products. This means dodgy practices by Oravida etc (painting a face on a kauri log & call it a ‘totem pole’) are ILLEGAL. Huge congrats to Northland Environment Protection Society for their tireless work!
Damn right! About time the value-added strategy was given some teeth. I remember Muldoon telling the country to wean itself off commodity exports back in the seventies. Too much lazy capitalist thinking around still. Clever business culture is better for a viable national economy.
Common sense and what is best for NZ inc. this decision should not have been needed to have to be made. NZ is NOT a 1st or developing world. Shipping raw materials by a 3rd world country should never happen, but after my rant good to her about this. A very limited resource that NZ should max the value we achieve. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/northern-advocate/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503450&objectid=12157467
MPI’s forestry head of Te Uru Rākau Julie Collins said she welcomed the clarity the Supreme Court had brought to what constituted a manufactured indigenous product.
Black Girl Magic. All 19 black women who ran for Judge in Harris County, Texas – which includes Houston – have won their races. Beto might have missed out but the energy of his campaign sure has percolated down the ballot.
According to the coroner’s report into his death, he died after choking on his vomit while unconscious in the back of the van.
Died due to breathing his own vomit. This happens with alcohol as well. The synthetic cannabis may not have had anything to do with the death other than causing him to vomit.
Later, when his father arrived and along with the uncle returned to the shed, they found him slumped over a table.
“He was unresponsive and cold to the touch.”
A post mortem uncovered the synthetic cannabis link.
“The presence of the synthetic drug was noted by the pathologist who recorded the fact that synthetic cannabinoids are associated with sudden death.”
Died due, apparently, to the synthetic cannabis.
I find it disturbing the way that the article focusses on the first one and pretty much dismisses the second which is far more concerning.
In the meant time, high winds, high temperatures, whole city evacuated or in cases where not possible told to hunker down in large concrete buildings like Walgreens.
Making some of these guys who come before the Courts, and go to prison or are stuck on home detention, work hard for a month would be a useful saving for the country, then the government could put the money into better teaching for the drifters and training suitable for 10 second span teenagers. Saving all round, character building without being vicious punishment though.
Teachers’ strikes confirmed from Monday
Of the offer tat the govt has made are 3% increase for each of the next 3 years and
BUT you have to wait 14 months until this comes into effect …. REALLY….
“Secretary of Education Iona Holsted said the ministry’s offer would give teachers $698 million over three years – $129m more than the previous offer.” Sure but much of what is being offered you have to wait 14 months until this comes into effect …. REALLY, doesn’t that in economic terms (Net Present Value) diminish what you are offering, it is disingenuous to frame the offer in this way
“A new top pay step for teachers with degrees plus professional teaching qualifications from 2020.
• Removal of the qualifications cap on progression for teachers without degrees from 2020. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12157495
Maybe there should be a permanent part of the Weather segment – looking at the demise of glaciers, ocean acidification, air pollution, water quality, biodiversity, rainforest destruction
In 1986 my mum’s banana plant fruited. They were inedible.
But anyhoo, as with the halfwits who declare unseasonable cold to be a significant indicator of climate, Ed conflates weather and the extremes we endure as a speed hump in the southern ocean, with climate.
To me, Ed @22 was expressing concern that the NZ media seems to be lagging behind in this regard:
“It’s irresponsible if you don’t put the current weather trends into some sort of climate context,” Samenow says. “There are some people who don’t want to hear about that, but you’re not telling the entire story if you just report the weather and you don’t explain how this weather fits into changes which are happening.”
“Paul Douglas says he never intended to become a poster boy for climate change. But that’s what he is today, and the reasons why include the fact that his commercial news colleagues avoid the topic as they would an endorsement of pedophilia.”
“What they don’t seem to understand is that the Univeristy proposed the change because they were working with a Crown research institute.
“None of this was our clients idea, this was proposed by the Auckland University, it’s quite absurd.
“They’re claiming, somehow, that he has some nefarious plan to change to change his proposal so that he can make weapons of mass destruction.”
Mr McClymont said his client can’t afford to feed his family or pay rent and has been relying on the community and a local charity to get by while the investigation is ongoing.
INZ general manager Peter Elms defended the investigation, saying New Zealand is a signatory to a number of international agreements that prohibit us from assisting in any way in the development of weapons of mass destruction.
“We take that role seriously, we play our part,” he said.”
(We have the same insane virus that ‘other countries’ have which leads to being super alert to the idea that everyone is a threat, except them of course.)
Last night the largest solar storm in decades resulted in Aurorae being seen across Aotearoa, causing many to ask why?Why was the sky pink? What was all this stuff about the power grid? Have we, as so many have wondered since the election, reached the end of days?I had a ...
We have been on the road in England, squeezing down narrow lanes, flying up the M6, loving hedgerows and villages and cathedrals, liking the 21st century less.There have been moments when it’s felt like a movie trope. The pub in Exford, lovely seventeenth century bar, almost more dogs than people, ...
There’s a solar-storm on at the moment, and since the South Island is having a day and night with clear skies, that means Aurorae. I have just got back from a midnight visit to Tunnel Beach – southwards-looking over the Sea, and without the light pollution. Quite a few others ...
Michael Bassett writes – I’m not sure that it’s much comfort to anyone to know that the post-Covid surge in violent crimes, gang activity, ram raids, random shootings, thuggery and stabbings is occurring in other countries as well as New Zealand. These days, wagging school, out-of-control welfare and ...
Oliver Hartwich writes – Cast your mind back to mid-December. A new Prime Minister had just been sworn in, the new Government started its 100-day programme, and Christmas was only days away.Amid all the haste, a report landed that would have deserved our attention.I am talking about the ...
TL;DR: An unseasonally early icy blast at the same time as some long-overdue maintenance almost caused Aotearoa-NZ’s electricity system to black out this week. That’s because a quadropoly of gentailers1 have prioritised paying dividends from their rising profits and adding debt over investing in 1.5 GigaWatts of new wind farms ...
Hi,Before we crack into today’s Webworm, I wanted to acknowledge the fact that Israel is pushing into Rafah. Over 100,000 Palestinians are now attempting to flee the one place that was deemed “safe”.Trouble is, the place they’re fleeing to is already destroyed. Total annihilation is the end goal here.“Israel is ...
‘It has been said that figures rule the world. Maybe. I am quite sure that it is figures which show us whether it is being ruled well or badly.’ GoetheI was struck at a recent conference on equity for the elderly, how many presenters implicitly relied upon Statistics New Zealand. ...
Buzz from the BeehiveReporting on defence spending late last year, RNZ said the coalition government will have to make some tough calls this term to help the force address staff shortages and ageing infrastructure. “These are huge, huge amounts of government spending. It’s a significant proportion of the government’s ...
Peter Dunne writes – I am always wary when I hear that the Controller and Auditor-General has commented on or made recommendations to the government about an issue of public policy that does not relate strictly to public expenditure. According to the legislation, the role of the Controller ...
How Labour’s and National’s failure to move beyond neoliberalism has brought NZ to the brink of economic and cultural chaos Chris Trotter writes – TO START LOSING, so soon after you won, requires a special kind of political incompetence. At the heart of this Coalition ...
And why did the Crown not challenge the Tribunal’s jurisdiction? Gary Judd writes – Retired District Court Judge, David Harvey, has posted on his A Halflings View Substack an excellent summary of Justice Isacs’ judgment declining to uphold the witness summons issued by the Waitangi Tribunal ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Do you believe New Zealand runs its general elections fairly and competently? As a voter, can you be confident that the votes on your ballot will be counted towards the final result?As a political scientist, I’ve been asked these questions many times and ...
Macklemore isn’t someone I’d usually think about. Sure I liked his big hit from a few years back, everybody did it was catchy and cool with some memorable lines. But if I was going to think of artists who might speak out on political matters or world events, he wouldn’t ...
Another week goes by in the Luxon government’s efforts to roll back the past 70 years of social progress. The school lunches programme is to be downgraded by $107 million, and women need bother their heads no longer about pay equity, let alone expect ACC to provide adequate sexual violence ...
Brrr, the first cold snap of the year. Hope you’re rugged up nice and warm. Here are some stories that caught our eye this week… This Week on Greater Auckland On Monday, we had a post from a new contributor, Connor Sharp, who dug into the public feedback ...
Almost all of the Wellington City Council’s recommended zoning changes to allow many more apartments and townhouses in its inner-suburbs have been approved.Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for subscribers features co-hosts and , along with regular guest on geopolitics, ...
Open access notablesA Global Increase in Nearshore Tropical Cyclone Intensification, Balaguru et al., Earth's Future:Tropical Cyclones (TCs) inflict substantial coastal damages, making it pertinent to understand changing storm characteristics in the important nearshore region. Past work examined several aspects of TCs relevant for impacts in coastal regions. However, ...
Do you believe New Zealand runs its general elections fairly and competently? As a voter, can you be confident that the votes on your ballot will be counted towards the final result? As a political scientist, I’ve been asked these questions many times and always answered “yes”, with very few ...
Thus far May has followed on from a quiet April in the blogging department, but in fairness, it has been another case of doing what I am supposed to be doing, namely writing original fiction. Plus reading. So don’t worry – I have been productive. But in order to reassure ...
Buzz from the Beehive A new government agency will open for business on July 1 – the Social Investment Agency. As a new standalone central agency effective from 1 July, it will lead the development of social investment across Government, helping ministers understand who they need to invest in, what ...
Bryce Edwards writes – “Follow the money” is the classic directive to journalists trying to understand where power and influence lie in society. In terms of uncovering who influences various New Zealand political parties and governments, it therefore pays to look at who is funding them. The ...
Alwyn Poole writes – After being elected to Parliament in 2008 the maiden speech of Hipkins was substantially around education policy. He was Labour’s spokesperson for education 2011 – 2017. He was Minister for Education from 2017 until February 2023. This is approximately 88% of the time Labour ...
Eric Crampton writes – A fashion industry group is lobbying for protections. They make the usual arguments and a newer one. None of it makes sense. An industry group says it pumped $7.8 billion into the economy last year – that’s 1.9 percent of New Zealand’s GDP. ...
In December 2006, Fiji's military leader Voreqe Bainimarama overthrew the elected government in a coup. He ruled Fiji for the next 16 years, first as dictator, then as "elected" Prime Minister. But now, he's finally been sent to jail where he belongs. Sadly, this isn't for his real crime of ...
Don't like National's corrupt Muldoonist "fast-track" law? Aotearoa's environmental NGO's - Greenpeace, Forest & Bird, WWF, Coromandel Watchdog, Coal Action Network Aotearoa, Kiwis Against Seabed Mining, and others - have announced a joint march against it in Auckland in June: When: 13:00, 8 June, 2024 Where: Aotea Square, Auckland You ...
Seymour describes sushi as too woke for school meals. There are no fish sushi meals recommended by the School Lunches programme. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / Getty ImagesTL;DR: The Government will swap out hot meals for packaged sandwiches to save $107 million on school lunches for poor kids. MSD has pulled ...
I don't mind stealin' bread from the mouths of decadenceBut I can't feed on the powerless when my cup's already overfilled, yeahBut it's on the table, the fire's cookin'And they're farmin' babies, while slaves are workin'The blood is on the table and the mouths are chokin'But I'm goin' hungry, yeahSome ...
The Ardern Government’s chickens came home to roost yesterday with the news that the country is short of natural gas. In 2018, Labour banned offshore petroleum exploration, and industry executives say that the attendant loss of confidence by the industry impacted overall investment in onshore gas fields. Energy Resources Minister ...
Hi,If you’ve been digging through the newly launched Webworm store (orders are being dispatched worldwide as I type!) you’ll have noticed the best model we had was Calvin.This is Calvin.Calvin.Calvin is 7, and is the son of my producer over on Flightless Bird, Rob — aka “Wobby Wob”. Rob also ...
This video includes conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Adam Levy. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). Climate change is everywhere. And when something's everywhere it can feel like it's nowhere. So how do we get our heads ...
Its a law like gravity: whenever a right-wing government is elected, they start attacking democracy. And now, after talking to their Republican and Tory and Fidesz chums at the International Democracy Union forum in Wellington, National is doing it here, announcing plans to remove election-day enrolment. Or, to put it ...
Yesterday Winston Peters focussed his attention on the important matter at hand. Tweeting. Like the former, and quite possibly next, orange POTUS, from whom he takes much of his political strategy, Winston is an avid X’er.His message didn’t resemble an historic address this time. In fact it was more reminiscent ...
Buzz from the Beehive A significant decline in natural gas production has given Resources Minister Shane Jones an opportunity to reiterate his enthusiasm for the mining and burning of coal. For good measure, he has praised an announcement from Genesis Energy that it will resume importing coal. He and Energy ...
“Follow the money” is the classic directive to journalists trying to understand where power and influence lie in society. In terms of uncovering who influences various New Zealand political parties and governments, it therefore pays to look at who is funding them. The political parties are legally obliged to make ...
Rob MacCullough writes – Here is my subjective ranking on a “most-left” to “most-right” scale of most of our major NZ Universities, with some anecdotal (and at times amusing) evidence to back up the claim.Extreme Left Auckland University of TechnologyEvidenceThe ...
Eric Crampton writes – I hadn’t thought about this one until a helpful email showed up in my inbox.It’s pretty obvious that income tax thresholds should automatically index with inflation – whether to anchor the thresholds in percentiles of the income distribution, or to anchor against a real ...
Jacqui Van Der Kaay writes – Parliament’s speaker had no option but to refer Green MP Julie Anne Genter to the Privileges Committee for her behaviour in the House last Wednesday evening. The incident, in which she crossed the floor to wave a book and yell at National ...
Gary Judd writes – The Dean of the law school at the Auckland University of Technology is someone called Khylee Quince. I have been sent her social media posting in which she has, over the LawNews headline “Senior King’s Counsel files complaint about compulsory tikanga Maori studies for ...
Cleo Paskal writes – WASHINGTON, D.C.: ‘Many of us have received phone calls from [the opposing camp] telling them if they join the camp they will be given projects for their wards and $300,000 [around US$35,000] each’, says former Malaita Premier Daniel Suidani. The elections in Solomon Islands aren’t ...
With hindsight, it was inevitable that (a) Hamas would agree to the ceasefire deal brokered by Egypt and Qatar and that ( b) Israel would then immediately launch attacks on Rafah, regardless. We might have hoped the concessions made by Hamas would cause Israel to desist from slaughtering thousands more ...
Placards and mourners outside the Kilbirnie Mosque following the Christchurch terror attack: MSD has terminated the Kaiwhakaoranga service, which has been used by 415 families since the attacks. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: The Government’s pledge to only cut ‘back office’ staff rather than ‘frontline’ services is on increasingly shaky ground, with ...
There’s been a few smaller public transport announcements over the last week or so that I thought I’d cover in a single post. Fareshare I’ve long called for Auckland Transport to offer a way to enable employer-subsidised public transport options. The need for this took on even more importance ...
Parliament’s speaker had no option but to refer Green MP Julie Anne Genter to the Privileges Committee for her behaviour in the House last Wednesday evening. The incident, in which she crossed the floor to wave a book and yell at National Minister Matt Doocey, reflects poorly on Genter and ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Who likes being sneered at? Nobody. Worse yet, when the sneerer has their facts all wrong, and might well be an idiot.The sneer in question is The adults are in charge now, and it is a sneer offered in retort to criticism of this new Government, no matter how well ...
When in government, Labour pushed to extend the Parliamentary term to four years, to reduce accountability and our ability to vote out a bad government. And now, they're trying to do it through the member's ballot, with a Four-Year Parliamentary Term Legislation Bill. The bill at least requires a referendum ...
A ballot for a single Member's Bill was held today, and the following bill was drawn: Public Works (Prohibition of Compulsory Acquisition of Māori Land) Amendment Bill (Hūhana Lyndon) The bill would prevent the government from stealing Māori land in breach of Te Tiriti o Waitangi. It ...
Simeon Brown, alongside Wayne Brown, is favouring a political figleaf now in exchange for loading up tens of millions in extra interest costs on Auckland ratepayers. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s is pushing back hard at suggestions from Local Government Minister Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown ...
Buzz from the Beehive One headline-grabber from the Beehive yesterday was the OECD’s advice that the government must bring the Budget deficit under control or face higher interest rates. Another was the announcement of a $1.9 billion “investment” in Corrections over the next four years. In the best interests of ...
Chris Trotter writes – Had Zheng He’s fleet sailed east, not west, in the early Fifteenth Century, how different our world would be. There is little reason to suppose that the sea-going junks of the Ming Dynasty, among the largest and most sophisticated sailing vessels ever constructed, would have failed ...
David Farrar writes – Two articles give a useful contrast in balance. Both seek to be neutral explainer articles. This one in the Herald on Social Investment covers the pros and cons nicely. It links to critical pieces and talks about aspects that failed and aspects that are more ...
The tikanga regulations will compel law students to be taught that a system which does not conform with the rule of law is nevertheless law which should be observed and applied…Gary Judd KC writes – I have made a complaint to Parliament’s Regulation ...
The future of Te Huia, the train between Hamilton and Auckland, has been getting a lot of attention recently as current funding for it is only in place till the end of June. The government initially agreed to a five year trial, through to April 2026, but that was subject ...
TL;DR: Hamas has just agreed to Israel’s ceasefire plan. Nelson hospital’s rebuild has been cut back to save money. The OECD suggests New Zealand break up network monopolies, including in electricity. PM Christopher Luxon’s news conference on a prison expansion announcement last night was his messiest yet.Here’s my top six ...
A homicide in Ponsonby, a manhunt with a killer on the run. The nation’s leader stands before a press conference reassuring a frightened nation that he’ll sort it out, he’ll keep them safe, he’ll build some new prison spaces.Sorry what? There’s a scary dude on the run with a gun ...
Hi,I know it’s been awhile since there’s been any Webworm merch — and today that all changes!Over the last four months, I’ve been working with New Zealand artist Jess Johnson to create a series of t-shirts, caps and stickers that are infused with Webworm DNA — and as of right ...
The OECD’s chief economist yesterday laid it on the line for the new Government: bring the deficit under control or face higher Reserve Bank interest rates for longer. And to bring the deficit under control, she meant not borrowing for tax cuts. But there was more. Without policy changes—introducing a ...
After a hiatus of over four months Selwyn Manning and I finally got it together to re-start the “A View from Afar” podcast series. We shall see how we go but aim to do 2 episodes per month if possible. … Continue reading → ...
In 2008, the UK Parliament passed the Climate Change Act 2008. The law established a system of targets, budgets, and plans, with inbuilt accountability mechanisms; the aim was to break the cycle of empty promises and replace it with actual progress towards emissions reduction. The law was passed with near-universal ...
Buzz from the Beehive Local Water Done Well – let’s be blunt – is a silly name, but the first big initiative to put it into practice has gone done well. This success is reflected in the headline on an RNZ report:District mayors welcome Auckland’s new water deal with ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate ConnectionsA farmworker cleans the solar panels of a solar water pump in the village of Jagadhri, Haryana Country, India. (Photo credit: Prashanth Vishwanathan/ IWMI) Decisions made in India over the next few years will play a key role in global ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – The Children’s Minister, Karen Chhour, intends to repeal Section 7AA from the Oranga Tamariki Act 1989 because it creates conflict between claimed Crown Treaty obligations and the child’s best interests. In her words, “Oranga Tamariki’s governing principles and its act should be colour ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – The gloves are off. That might seem to be the undertone of surprisingly tough talk from New Zealand’s foreign and trade ministers. Winston Peters, the foreign minister, may be facing legal action after making allegations about former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr on Radio New Zealand. ...
Brian Easton writes – This is about the time that the Treasury will be locking up its economic forecasts to be published in the 2024 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) on budget day, 30 May. I am not privy to what they will be (I will report on them ...
TL;DR:Winston Peters is reported to have won a budget increase for MFAT. David Seymour wanted his Ministry of Regulation to be three times bigger than the Productivity Commission. Simeon Brown is appointing a Crown Monitor to Watercare to protect the Claytons Crown Guarantee he had to give ratings agencies ...
The gloves are off. That might seem to be the undertone of surprisingly tough talk from New Zealand’s foreign and trade ministers. Winston Peters, the foreign minister, may be facing legal action after making allegations about former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr on Radio New Zealand. Carr had made highly ...
Today New Zealand First will introduce a Member’s Bill that will protect women’s spaces. The ‘Fair Access to Bathrooms Bill’ will require, primarily in the interest and safety of women and girls, that all new non-domestic publicly accessible buildings provide separate, clearly demarcated, unisex and single sex bathrooms. This Bill ...
The Green Party is welcoming Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ continuation of Hon. James Shaw’s cross-party work on climate adaptation, now in the form of a Finance and Expenditure Committee Inquiry. ...
The National Government plans to cut 390 jobs at ACC, including roles in the areas of prevention of sexual violence, road safety and workplace safety. ...
The Government has been caught in opposition to evidence once again as it looks to usher in tried, tested and failed work seminar obligations for job-seeking beneficiaries. ...
The Green Party is welcoming the announcement by the Minister Responsible for RMA Reform Chris Bishop to approve most of the Wellington City Council’s District Plan recommendations. ...
David Seymour has failed to get the sweeping cuts he wanted to the free and healthy school lunch programme, Labour education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
Hon Willie Jackson has been invited by the Oxford Union to debate the motion “This House Believes British Museums are not Very British’ on May 23rd. ...
Green Party MP Hūhana Lyndon says her Public Works (Prohibition of Compulsory Acquisition of Māori Land) Amendment Bill is an opportunity to right some past wrongs around the alienation of Māori land. ...
A senior, highly respected King’s Counsel with decades of experience in our law courts, Gary Judd KC, has filed a complaint about compulsory tikanga Māori studies for law students - highlighting the utter depths of absurdity this woke cultural madness has taken our society. The tikanga regulations will compel law ...
The Government needs to be clear with the people of the Nelson Marlborough region about the changes it is considering for the Nelson Hospital rebuild, Labour health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said. ...
Ministers must front up about which projects it will push through under its Fast Track Approvals legislation, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
New Zealand voted in favour of a resolution broadening Palestine’s participation at the United Nations General Assembly overnight, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The resolution enhances the rights of Palestine to participate in the work of the UN General Assembly while stopping short of admitting Palestine as a full ...
Introduction Good morning. It’s a great privilege to be here at the 2024 Infrastructure Symposium. I was extremely happy when the Prime Minister asked me to be his Minister for Infrastructure. It is one of the great barriers holding the New Zealand economy back from achieving its potential. Building high ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced the upcoming Budget will include new funding of $571 million for Defence Force pay and projects. “Our servicemen and women do New Zealand proud throughout the world and this funding will help ensure we retain their services and expertise as we navigate an increasingly ...
New Zealand’s ability to cope with climate change will be strengthened as part of the Government’s focus to build resilience as we rebuild the economy, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “An enduring and long-term approach is needed to provide New Zealanders and the economy with certainty as the climate ...
Jobseeker beneficiaries who have work obligations must now meet with MSD within two weeks of their benefit starting to determine their next step towards finding a job, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “A key part of the coalition Government’s plan to have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker ...
A new standalone Social Investment Agency will power-up the social investment approach, driving positive change for our most vulnerable New Zealanders, Social Investment Minister Nicola Willis says. “Despite the Government currently investing more than $70 billion every year into social services, we are not seeing the outcomes we want for ...
Check against delivery Good morning. It is a pleasure to be with you to outline the Coalition Government’s approach to our first Budget. Thank you Mark Skelly, President of the Hutt Valley Chamber of Commerce, together with your Board and team, for hosting me. I’d like to acknowledge His Worship ...
Your Excellency Ambassador Meredith, Members of the Diplomatic Corps and Ambassadors from European Union Member States, Ministerial colleagues, Members of Parliament, and other distinguished guests, Thank you everyone for joining us. Ladies and gentlemen - In diplomacy, we often speak of ‘close’ and ‘long-standing’ relations. ...
The Therapeutic Products Act (TPA) will be repealed this year so that a better regime can be put in place to provide New Zealanders safe and timely access to medicines, medical devices and health products, Associate Health Minister Casey Costello announced today. “The medicines and products we are talking about ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop, today released his decision on twenty recommendations referred to him by the Wellington City Council relating to its Intensification Planning Instrument, after the Council rejected those recommendations of the Independent Hearings Panel and made alternative recommendations. “Wellington notified its District Plan on ...
Rape Awareness Week (6-10 May) is an important opportunity to acknowledge the continued effort required by government and communities to ensure that all New Zealanders can live free from violence, say Ministers Karen Chhour and Louise Upston. “With 1 in 3 women and 1 in 8 men experiencing sexual violence ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government will be delivering a more efficient Healthy School Lunches Programme, saving taxpayers approximately $107 million a year compared to how Labour funded it, by embracing innovation and commercial expertise. “We are delivering on our commitment to treat taxpayers’ money ...
New research on the impacts of extreme weather on coastal marine habitats in Tairāwhiti and Hawke’s Bay will help fishery managers plan for and respond to any future events, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. A report released today on research by Niwa on behalf of Fisheries New Zealand ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Winston Peters will lead a broad political delegation on a five-stop Pacific tour next week to strengthen New Zealand’s engagement with the region. The delegation will visit Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, and Tuvalu. “New Zealand has deep and ...
There has been a material decline in gas production according to figures released today by the Gas Industry Co. Figures released by the Gas Industry Company show that there was a 12.5 per cent reduction in gas production during 2023, and a 27.8 per cent reduction in gas production in the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins tonight announced the recipients of the Minister of Defence Awards of Excellence for Industry, saying they all contribute to New Zealanders’ security and wellbeing. “Congratulations to this year’s recipients, whose innovative products and services play a critical role in the delivery of New Zealand’s defence capabilities, ...
Welcome to you all - it is a pleasure to be here this evening.I would like to start by thanking Greg Lowe, Chair of the New Zealand Defence Industry Advisory Council, for co-hosting this reception with me. This evening is about recognising businesses from across New Zealand and overseas who in ...
It is a pleasure to be speaking to you as the Minister for Digitising Government. I would like to thank Akolade for the invitation to address this Summit, and to acknowledge the great effort you are making to grow New Zealand’s digital future. Today, we stand at the cusp of ...
New Zealand is urging both Israel and Hamas to agree to an immediate ceasefire to avoid the further humanitarian catastrophe that military action in Rafah would unleash, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The immense suffering in Gaza cannot be allowed to worsen further. Both sides have a responsibility to ...
A new online data dashboard released today as part of the Government’s school attendance action plan makes more timely daily attendance data available to the public and parents, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. The interactive dashboard will be updated once a week to show a national average of how ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced Rosemary Banks will be New Zealand’s next Ambassador to the United States of America. “Our relationship with the United States is crucial for New Zealand in strategic, security and economic terms,” Mr Peters says. “New Zealand and the United States have a ...
The Government is considering creating a new tier of minerals permitting that will make it easier for hobby miners to prospect for gold. “New Zealand was built on gold, it’s in our DNA. Our gold deposits, particularly in regions such as Otago and the West Coast have always attracted fortune-hunters. ...
Minister for Trade Todd McClay today announced that New Zealand and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will commence negotiations on a free trade agreement (FTA). Minister McClay met with his counterpart UAE Trade Minister Dr Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi in Dubai, where they announced the launch of negotiations on a ...
New Zealand Sign Language Week is an excellent opportunity for all Kiwis to give the language a go, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. This week (May 6 to 12) is New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) Week. The theme is “an Aotearoa where anyone can sign anywhere” and aims to ...
Six tertiary students have been selected to work on NASA projects in the US through a New Zealand Space Scholarship, Space Minister Judith Collins announced today. “This is a fantastic opportunity for these talented students. They will undertake internships at NASA’s Ames Research Center or its Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), where ...
New Zealanders will be safer because of a $1.9 billion investment in more frontline Corrections officers, more support for offenders to turn away from crime, and more prison capacity, Corrections Minister Mark Mitchell says. “Our Government said we would crack down on crime. We promised to restore law and order, ...
The OECD’s latest report on New Zealand reinforces the importance of bringing Government spending under control, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The OECD conducts country surveys every two years to review its members’ economic policies. The 2024 New Zealand survey was presented in Wellington today by OECD Chief Economist Clare Lombardelli. ...
The Government has delivered on its election promise to provide a financially sustainable model for Auckland under its Local Water Done Well plan. The plan, which has been unanimously endorsed by Auckland Council’s Governing Body, will see Aucklanders avoid the previously projected 25.8 per cent water rates increases while retaining ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters discussed the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and enhanced cooperation in the Pacific with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during her first official visit to New Zealand today. "New Zealand and Germany enjoy shared interests and values, including the rule of law, democracy, respect for the international system ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
PNG Post-Courier New Zealand High Commissioner Peter Zwart and PNG Defence Minister Dr Billy Joseph welcomed a C-130 Hercules to Port Moresby this week to support Papua New Guinea’s response to the March 24 earthquake and recent severe flooding. “Papua New Guinea has requested New Zealand’s assistance to transport emergency ...
Grub Street King Luxon rode through the streets Of King’s Landing, and was troubled By the sight of hungry urchins in the mud. “Who would be the best of my Lords To deal with this negative optic?” He pondered. The answer came to him instantly. “Seymour!” he said to himself. ...
“The Bill does not provide environmental protection, good quality decision making, certainty, public participation or speed. It should be withdrawn.” ...
RNZ News Television New Zealand has breached its collective agreement with the E tū union when deciding on discontinuing programmes, the Employment Relations Authority has ruled. It was announced in March that 68 staff members who work for news programmes Midday and Tonight, consumer justice programme Fair Go, current affairs ...
Asia Pacific Report Barangay New Zealand’s Rene Molina has interviewed the country’s first Filipino Green MP Francisco Hernandez who was sworn into Parliament yesterday as the party’s latest member. This is the first interview with Hernandez who replaces former Green Party co-leader James Shaw after his retirement from politics to ...
An Australian Strategic Policy Institute report says Pillar Two could raise the industry to state of the art capability - or "crush" it "under the weight of the globe's biggest player". ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marlene Longbottom, Associate Professor, Indigenous Education & Research Centre, James Cook University ShutterstockThis article contains information on deaths in custody and the violence experienced by First Nations people in encounters with the Australian carceral system. It also contains references to ...
“Instead of following along countries that are investing in death and better ways of killing people faster, we need to invest in life and in making Aotearoa a fair, just and equitable place where everyone has what they need for a dignified life.” ...
MARIAMENO KAPA-KINGI, TPM MP FOR TAI TOKERAU This Government will not waver in its mission to exterminate Māori. CHRISTOPHER LUXON Oh well look you know I don’t think that hard-working Kiwis want to hear language like that. It’s just really unhelpful rhetoric. My Government is genuinely committed to advancing outcomes ...
The body positivity movement started with women confronting the unrealistic expectations and unrepresentative portrayals of them in media and advertising. Men weren’t part of it … their bodies hadn’t been sexualised to the same extremes and they didn’t really need it. But now that’s changed. And in a warped sort ...
The New Zealand comedy legend takes us through her life in television, including the time she hugged Elton John and the unshakeable legacy of a girl named Lyn. In 1981, Ginette McDonald stood on the stage of Auckland’s St James Theatre and directly addressed Queen Elizabeth II. It was a ...
An essay by Lily Duval from the just-released anthology Otherhood: Essays on being childless, childfree and child adjacent.I was 22 when my friend Alice gave birth in the living room of our pokey Addington flat. She laboured in the blow-up pool for hours. Garish fish swam along the inflated ...
Ella Borrie on the best books about motherhood she’s come across so far. Over the past few years I’ve been drawn to books about motherhood. I’m fascinated by the joys and horrors of becoming a parent. The question of children also feels more pressing than it used to. It’s like ...
Out of gift ideas for mum? You can’t go wrong with a bottle of toilet cleaner and a new squeegee. Emily Writes is the writer and editor of Emily Writes Weekly. This week marks five years since I published a post on The Spinoff about Mother’s Day marketing titled ‘A ...
My husband is posted overseas for 12 months and I’m armed with an expensive, newfangled vibrator. Will I miss him? The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.A few days after my husband leaves, a new sex toy arrives at the front door. Nestled ...
Jaimie Baird’s new book Here Today Gone Tomorrow is a record of four decades of graffiti and street art in Wellington, told through more than 1,200 photographs. He spoke with Joel MacManus about what inspired the book. How did you first get interested in photographing street art? I remember ...
Editor Madeleine Chapman looks back at a busy week where food of all political leanings dominated. Sometimes you’re just going about your week thinking you’ve got a good handle on what might be coming as far as news topics and then someone (usually a politician) says something so ridiculous that ...
In a week of cold rain and frost, the climate in courtroom four upstairs at the Invercargill courthouse was simmering with restrained indignation. At times it felt like the famous Mexican standoff scene from Reservoir Dogs, or, as someone watching the proceedings described it, there was so much throwing of ...
A banner notification alerts me to the fact that I’ve received an Instagram message from @felicity.loves. She always comments on my posts. I shouldn’t have opened the message, but clicked on the notification before rationalising this. OMG! Are you in Wellys? X I debate not replying, but Instagram will inform ...
In Melbourne’s hardscrabble western suburbs where AFL – Aussie rules football – is a state religion, Callum Donaldson has been quietly grafting away, four months into an odyssey that he hopes will take him to another promised land: the NRL. It was a solid 2023 for the softly spoken 20-year-old ...
Pacific Media Watch Television New Zealand Pacific correspondent Barbara Dreaver has been made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to investigative journalism and Pacific communities in a ceremony at Government House, reports 1News. She has been the Pacific correspondent for 1News since 2002, breaking many ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Tuesday’s budget will respond to the deepening public agitation over Australia’s housing shortages by pouring new money into crisis accommodation for women and children, social housing and infrastructure. A specially-convened national cabinet late Friday ticked ...
By Kaneta Naimatu in Suva Journalists in the Pacific region play an important role as the “eyes and ears on the ground” when it comes to reporting the climate crisis, says the European Union’s Pacific Ambassador Barbara Plinkert. Speaking at The University of the South Pacific (USP) on World Press ...
Aldora Itunu is back in the Black Ferns squad after a three-year absence. The last of her 24 internationals was an underwhelming loss to France (7-29) in Castres to conclude the disastrous 2021 Northern Tour. The powerhouse prop won a Rugby World Cup in 2017 and thought she was done. ...
The fight to control major transport policy and projects in Auckland has burst into the open again, with councillors rejecting Mayor Wayne Brown’s latest attempt to steer things more under his influence. Councillors from the left and right broke ranks on the mayor’s bid to control Auckland Transport more directly ...
Exhausted by the general election campaign, horrified by the twilight zone of coalition negotiations, distracted by the silly season and waiting for the honeymoon to begin, Raw Politics has been in hibernation since October. From today, we’re back. Our weekly political video show and podcast returns for ...
By Patrick Decloitre, RNZ Pacific correspondent French Pacific desk Authorities in the small town of Boulouparis have commemorated Armistice Day on May 8 with a new memorial honouring New Zealand soldiers who were stationed in New Caledonia during World War II. The ceremony took place in the township on the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sara Dehm, Senior lecturer, international migration and refugee law, University of Technology Sydney The High Court unanimously ruled today that the Australian government can keep asylum seekers in immigration detention indefinitely in cases where they do not “voluntarily” cooperate with their own ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kim Munro, Lecturer, Creative Industries and Digital Media, University of South Australia Twenty-four hours after the release of Macklemore’s pro-Palestine protest song Hind’s Hall on social media on May 7, the video had already notched up over 24 million views. In ...
Failing to anticipate the complexity of the consenting system is being cited as the the current builder's shortcomings, an Infrastructure Commission review says. ...
Failing to anticipate the complexity of the consenting system is being cited as the the current builder's shortcomings, an Infrastructure Commission review says. ...
350 Aotearoa is calling the Environment Select Committee’s decision to allow oral submissions from just 40% of individual, unique submitters who asked to speak to the committee ‘a disgraceful blight to democracy’. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Helal, Assistant Dean (Sustainability), The University of Melbourne Dubai skylineAleksandarPasaric/Pexels Since ancient times, people have built structures that reach for the skies – from the steep spires of medieval towers to the grand domes of ancient cathedrals and mosques. Today ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Edward Musole, PhD Law Student, University of New England Girts Ragelis/ShutterstockRecent trends show Australians are increasingly buying wearables such as smartwatches and fitness trackers. These electronics track our body movements or vital signs to provide data throughout the day, with ...
Papua New Guinea experienced a significant earthquake on 24 March in East Sepik and there has also been recent flooding there and in surrounding provinces. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Yousuf Mohammed, Dermatology researcher, The University of Queensland Maridav/Shutterstock You wake up, stagger to the bathroom and gaze into the mirror. No, you’re not imagining it. You’ve developed face wrinkles overnight. They’re sleep wrinkles. Sleep wrinkles are temporary. But as your ...
The Environment Select Committee has just announced that 60 percent of individuals who asked to speak at the hearings will not be heard. This equates to almost 700 people who made individual submissions and more than 1000 more who made a form submission. ...
The Royal New Zealand Ballet is performing Swan Lake around the country. What kind of dream does the ballet sell?Before going to see the Royal New Zealand Ballet perform Swan Lake, I had about as much familiarity with the plot of this ballet as could be expected from having ...
A new poem by Auckland poet Eamonn Tee. High Tide at Local Maxima It is only going to get worse. The streams will be narrow and fickle. The week will bend and buckle like a pot-bellied waist. You will make it to the weekend with one ...
The New Zealand entrepreneur behind beauty business Ethique is gearing up to launch a new eco-venture. This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. Our thirst for a tasty bevvy is insatiable, but it comes with a hefty plastic price for the planet: 580 billion ...
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 James by Percival Everett (Mantle, $38) A retelling of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from ...
By Kamna Kumar in Suva Pacific Islands Forum Secretary-General Henry Puna stressed the importance of media freedom and its link to the climate and environmental crisis at the 2024 World Press Freedom Day event organised by the University of the South Pacific’s journalism programme. Under the theme “A Planet for ...
Tara Ward previews a new local TV series offering alternative visions of motherhood. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. A woman is clambering up the side of her two-story house, clinging desperately to a drainpipe. Nearby, her child is perched on the ...
Local Government New Zealand (LGNZ) is supportive of the cross-party approach to climate adaptation announced by the Minister of Climate Change today. ...
The Sustainable Business Council (SBC) and Climate Leaders Coalition (CLC) welcome today’s announcement from Government around a bipartisan inquiry into an enduring climate adaptation framework for New Zealand. ...
The Free Speech Union welcomes the decision by the Department of Internal Affairs, and Minister Brooke Van Velden, to abandon proposals to further regulate online speech. ...
Its new building in Wellington will not be nearly big enough for all its records, and it has also run out of money to build its new storage facility in Levin. ...
BusinessNZ is congratulating the Minister of Climate Change for his work in achieving cross-party consensus for a way forward on climate adaptation. ...
Recent research reveals the repeal of smokefree measures is not only bad for our health, but also the economy. The Government has repealed various smokefree measures to ensure it keeps collecting $1.2 billion a year in tobacco taxes, in order to pay for tax cuts already being delivered to ...
The club’s surprisingly good season is built on the desire to prove a random A-League YouTuber wrong… and a few other factors.“There’s no way that Wellington Phoenix play finals this year. I can’t see it happening at all.” Those are the words of Lachlan Raeside, an Australian football content ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By César Albarrán-Torres, Senior Lecturer, Department of Media and Communication, Swinburne University of Technology Apple TV+ As one of billions of bilingual individuals in the world, it disappoints me when a film or TV show with characters of a non-English-speaking background is ...
The under-utilised course is a waste of space, and with a little political will, it could be turned into something better. For the duration of her stay in Wellington, my long-suffering cousin listened to me rant about golf courses. They’re bad for the environment: water intensive and pesticide heavy. They ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Leah Ruppanner, Professor of Sociology and Founding Director of The Future of Work Lab, Podcast at MissPerceived, The University of Melbourne Shutterstock A recent report from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows US fertility rates dropped 2% in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amy Corderoy, Medical doctor and PhD candidate studying involuntary psychiatric treatment, School of Psychiatry, UNSW Sydney shop_py/Shutterstock Picture two people, both suffering from a serious mental illness requiring hospital admission. One was born in Australia, the other in Asia. Hopefully, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Treby, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, RMIT University P.j.Hickox, Shutterstock Peatlands store more carbon per square metre than any other ecosystem on Earth. These waterlogged, mossy bogs beat even dense rainforests for their ability to act as carbon reservoirs. Under the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Goss, Adjunct Associate Professor, Health Research Institute, University of Canberra Government spending on health has been growing so rapidly that a decade ago the then health minister Peter Dutton called it “unmanageable” and “unsustainable”. Health spending grew in real terms by ...
New Zealand's largest electricity distributor is warning the country to hurry up with controls around charging electric vehicles or face unnecessary bills running into the billions. ...
New Zealanders have been asked to conserve energy this morning to combat a possible electricity shortfall, writes Stewart Sowman-Lund in this extract from The Bulletin. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. A call to conserve power New Zealand is facing a possible electricity shortfall, with people up ...
Writer Rebecca K Reilly breaks down the national book awards. What are the Ockhams?The Ockham New Zealand Book Awards are our annual national awards for books published for adults, and have existed in this form since 2016. There are four categories: Fiction, Poetry, General Non-fiction and Illustrated Non-fiction. There ...
Peter Ford was British Ambassador to Syria.
Here is his view.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=74lBbsTozx4
Illuminating Ed. Seems credible.
“How To Be A Reliable ‘Mainstream’ Journalist”
Media Lens.
http://medialens.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=885:how-to-be-a-reliable-mainstream-journalist&catid=56:alerts-2018&Itemid=250
As Paul Craig Roberts says.
“If America had an independent media, the election would be about the 20 years of US and NATO/EU war crimes against Serbia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Libya, Pakistan, Syria, and Yemen, and US and NATO support for Israel’s war crimes against the remnants of the Palestinian people, and US and NATO/EU support for the neo-nazi regime established by the Obama regime in Ukraine to commit war crimes against the breakaway Russian provinces, the populations of which refuse to become victims of Washington’s overthrow of the democratic elected Ukrainian government and installation by “America’s first black president” of a neo-nazi regime.”
John Wight is one of the best left wing writers in the U.K.
Here is his brilliant piece on Remembrance Day, as we approach 11/11/18 and 100 years since the end of WW1.
“There is however an insidious and pernicious aspect to this annual ritual, one that has come to embrace a set of ironclad received truths that brook no questioning, dissent or disagreement. It is that at bottom the trumpets, monuments and fanfare are not designed to mourn the nation’s war dead but instead to glorify the nature of their deaths and, by extension, extol the virtues of militarism and the nation’s martial might; both of which in the context of the British State are inextricably linked to the brutal legacy of empire and colonialism on the part of its ruling class.
This is even more relevant when we consider Britain’s participation in the recent wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya — wars in which countless thousands of civilians were killed and maimed, and for whom there is no monument or ritual of remembrance. And this is not forgetting the myriad other colonial wars the country has waged in the history of an empire that in truth should be a source of shame rather than celebration.
Moreover, in 2018, as we are again invited to embrace Britain’s role in the world as a force for good, the people of Yemen are being systematically slaughtered, starved and made vulnerable to disease in a war unleashed upon them by the murderous medieval tyranny of Saudi Arabia with the active involvement of British miltiary expertise and resources.
Meanwhile at home as the usual array of politicians, members of the royal family and various other dignitaries step forward to lay wreaths at the Cenotaph, consider that 13,000 former soldiers are currently homeless, cast aside like so much flotsam; their lives reduced to a daily struggle with mental health issues resulting from their active service, compounded by the living hell of Tory austerity. Their grim plight forces us to confront a withering reality — namely that of a political establishment which consistently demonstrates little desire to offer those who serve in the nation’s ignoble military adventures more than an existence of poverty, alienation and despair afterwards.”
Read it all here.
https://medium.com/p/4a943b3ed1b6?source=user_profile———4——————
What you’re inviting there Ed is a kind of alternative history for the New Zealand involvement in the First World War.
But that’s another mirage.
We are now fully independent of Britain and have been for some time.
The centenary of the end of New Zealand’s involvement in that war occurs this Sunday, Armistice Day.
I’ll certainly be going to my nearest cenotaph and service.
I am deeply grateful for their effort and deeply sad for the ruinous loss of life.
Anyone who wants to can find their nearest one here:
https://ww100.govt.nz/armistice
My personal favourite is the cavalcade of people on horses and flags that’s going through Roxborough and Tevoit.
In Dunedin around the cenotaph there are hundreds and hundreds of little white crosses symbolising every person who died from New Zealand.
You can do a hundred ” but whatabouts”, it won’t take away their service.
This Sunday, something mysterious and sad of us will be laid to rest.
I guess I’m with Ed. Aotearoa could do with an alternative history, as opposed to the colonialist version, and not just for WWI. Parihaka and the land wars ought to be taught to kids here. When I went through the education system in the fifties and sixties we got nothing about our real history.
First up, I’d make Archie Baxter’s We Shall Not Cease a compulsory part of the college curriculum. It proves there was a positive alternative here to all the fools who volunteered to die for the empire.
I’m currently in the midst of the account of Gallipoli trench warfare as experience by a turkish volunteer. In the novel by Louis de Berniers Birds Without Wings, but just as vivid and ghastly as that provided by Erich Maria Remarque in his famous memoir. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erich_Maria_Remarque
I understand why you feel the need to honour those who die for their country. However the other side of that coin is failure to honour those who tried to provide a better way forward: non-violent conflict resolution. Peaceful coexistence in a world fraught with political and religious hostility is as essential as ever.
Thanks for that Ad.
It always disappoints me when people look at these remembrance ceremonies and think that they are glorifying war. I always see them as the complete opposite. We highlight the costs and horror of war in the hopes that it won’t be forgotten. We hope that reminding those in power of the terrible losses suffered, that they will be far more circumspect in committing to the horrors of war in the future.
It’s obviously not working. IMO, those in power are seeking another world war.
John Wight on the Ukraine.
“The democratic revolution that ensued in Ukraine in 2014 was in fact a revolution against democracy, unleashing the dogs of thuggery and gangsterism.
Someone who made the mistake of falling foul of those with a vested interest in the corruption that is a hallmark of today’s Ukraine was Katerina Gandzyuk. The anti-police corruption activist was murdered in an acid attack in Kherson, southern Ukraine. Before succumbing to her injuries, Gandzyuk alleged that “corrupt” high ranking police officers might have been behind the attack, though as yet no one has been prosecuted in connection with it. Prominent members of the far-right group Right Sector are suspected however, begging the question of where the far-right ends and the police begin?
The treatment of Russian journalist Kirill Vyshinsky sheds even more light on Ukraine’s failed experiment in pro-Western democracy. The head of the Russian RIA Novosti news bureau in Ukraine, Vyshinsky was arrested in May on treason charges by Ukrainian authorities and has been held in detention ever since. Even in the face of a call for the journalist’s release by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), a Ukrainian court has ruled that Vyshinsky’s detention be extended until the end of December.
When things reach the stage that even the neocons over at the Atlantic Council are no longer able to put lipstick on the pig of the far-right swamp that is Ukraine in 2018, rock bottom has surely been reached.“
All the article here.
https://t.co/VKNll6HL0Q?amp=1
That item on Ukraine is almost completely the Putin line. Just like the Russian denial they didn’t shoot down MH 117 (even though it would have been an accident in the sense they didn’t intend to shoot down an airliner).
Basically not believable.
+ 1 yep I agree.
Quite.
And the murdering butcher Putin is a fucking saint Ed. We get it.
Nobody thinks that, Mr Munro. And you know it.
Now, could you tell us why you don’t display such anger against the far more murderous butchers who run the U.K., the U.S., Israel, and Saudi Arabia?
“Nobody thinks that”
Oh really. We get a neverending avalanche of tripe supporting him, and nothing from folk supporting the Ukrainian’s rights to self determination.
“why you don’t display…”
If someone makes a post supporting them Morrissey, I’ll probably critique it. Here Ed is supporting Putin’s program of invasions – it’s shameful – but I notice you’re not condemning it.
“far more murderous” only the US would be. There’s half a million Chechens on Putin’s butcher’s bill before we even start with Georgia, the Ukraine, internal dissidents and Syrians.
Have you seen the news from Yemen?
Yes, MSF keep me up to speed on it.
They’re also very concerned about the Central African Republic.
Yet the butchers of Riyadh never seem to incur your wrath – as Morrissey stated.
Unlike you Ed, I don’t make a habit of posting a menu du jour of the regimes I object to. Quite a few educated folk read the Standard, and they don’t require my judgements anymore than they require yours.
I am hesitant to make blanket condemnations of Saudi, since neither anti-Arab racism, nor anti-Islamism square with my views on freedom of religion.
But I notice you continue to not only defend, BUT PROMOTE the murderous bastard Putin Ed. I don’t know where your head is at, but clearly nowhere Left or moral. I’m ashamed of you.
Patrick Cockburn on the Yemen.
“It is important to watch how long the torrent of criticism of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Saudi Arabia will last. President Trump has been muted in his comments, emphasising the need to keep on terms with the Saudis because of the $110bn contract to sell them arms. Some of those most accustomed to kowtowing to Gulf monarchs, like Tony Blair, are comically reluctant to criticise Saudi Arabia despite the compelling evidence of the murder produced by Turkey. The best Blair can do is to say that the issue should be investigated and explained by Saudi Arabia “because otherwise it runs completely contrary to the process of modernisation”. Even for Blair this is surely a new low, and it could also be a dispiriting straw in the wind, suggesting that political elites in the US and UK will not be shocked for long and criticism will be confined to the alleged killing of Khashoggi.
This is an important point because the killing (as suggested by the Turkish investigators) is by no means the worst act carried out by Saudi Arabia since 2015, though it is much the best publicised. Anybody doubting this should read a report just published which shows that bombing and other military activities by the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen is deliberately targeting food supplies and distribution in a bid to win the war by starving millions of civilians on the other side.
There is nothing collateral or accidental about the attacks according to the report. Civilian food supplies are the intended target with the horrendous results spelled out by the UN at the end of September: some 22.2 million Yemenis or three quarters of the population are in need of assistance, 8.4 million of whom are not getting enough food to eat, a number which may increase by 10 million by the end of the year. “It is bleak,” UN humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock told the Security Council. “We are losing the fight against famine.”
But there are those in Saudi Arabia, UAE and their allies in Washington, London and Paris who evidently do not feel any regret and are intent on creating conditions for a man-made famine as the best way of winning the war against the Houthis who still hold the capital Sana’a and the most highly populated parts of the country. This is the conclusion of the highly detailed report called “The Strategies of the Coalition in the Yemen War: Aerial Bombardment and Food War” written by Professor Martha Mundy for the World Peace Foundation affiliated to the Fletcher School at Tufts University in Massachusetts.
…….The lack of international protests over the war in Yemen, and the involvement of the US and UK as allies of Saudi Arabia and UAE, helps explain one of the mysteries of the Khashoggi disappearance. If the Saudis murdered Khashoggi, why did they expect to carry out the assassination without producing an international uproar? The explanation probably is that Saudi leaders imagined that, having got away with worse atrocities in Yemen, that any outcry over the death of a single man in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul was something they could handle.”
Read the whole article here.
https://t.co/NL8o28l04l?amp=1
“why did they expect to carry out the assassination without producing an international uproar?”
The release of the tape by Turkish sources suggests that Turkey had the embassy bugged, and, unusually, was prepared to disclose this fact. In the ordinary course of events embassies enjoy virtual impunity. It’s possible that some other power was involved.
Thank you Ed, wonderful way to start the day.
Thank you for your support.
Surely 3 paras max per post is sufficient to get the point across. Coming across spamish ed.
I’ll try and summarise more.
Sometimes i find it hard to pick the paras that get the point across and attract someone to read it. More art than science I think.
This is how disgusting this white house is.
“White House press secretary Sarah Sanders on Wednesday night shared a video of CNN reporter Jim Acosta that appeared to have been altered to make his actions at a news conference look more aggressive toward a White House intern.”
https://i.stuff.co.nz/world/americas/donald-trumps-america/108472110/white-house-shares-doctored-video-to-support-punishment-of-cnn-journalist
I’m waiting for Trump to tell us that this is fake news and that it is the ‘original’ that has been altered.
It is amazing to watch this creep in action. So blatant, such corrupt morals. And his minions ffs this is how supposedly good people did bad back in the old days. Amazing how myopic and selfish some people can be – hard landing from this I suspect
A hard landing for us all given the quality and direction of leadership currently about the world.
We are herd animals, most look for the pack leader and follow without much thought.
Trump probably only has to stay the course and the gerrymandering does the rest. Democrats will be hoping to interrupt that now they have the lower house.
“Democrats will be hoping to interrupt that now they have the lower house.”
And isnt that what led us here?…..how about addressing the cause rather than BAU.
Trump (or Duterte, Bolsonaro) are but the symptom.
Gotta treat the symptoms too I think – it’s an and not an or. And we have focused too much on the symptoms to date.
treating symptoms is somewhat like your anti depressant concern
Yes exactly – there are many paradoxes with these things.
@solkta
And the Trumpites will agree with him. 😕
The misery caused by Socialism
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/08/venezuela-migrants-fleeing-exodus-increase-united-nations
The inability of capitalism to deal with crises that it causes, Gosman.
From the same article you cite.
Adam Isacson, an analyst at the Washington Office on Latin America, a thinktank, tweeted: “An expert I talked to today pointed out: how is it that Colombia is receiving 5,000 Venezuelans every day, but the US government is panicked by 7,000 Central Americans?”
Capitalism did not cause the crisis in Venezuela. Socialism did.
Just shows how oil reserves can’t buy happiness, in fact can buy a shit fight for destabilisation instead.
Lucky in NZ we are banning oil exploration. (more in words than reality though)
No, it shows Socialism doesn’t lead to happiness. in fact the exact opposite. It leads to 1/12th of the population of a country fleeing the results.
Gosman, you did not get the point of the paragraph in the article that you cited, did you?
What caused the crises in Honduras from where most of the feared and dreaded caravanistas are coming from?
What does it say about the capitalist US that it is so distraught by the prospect of 7000 refugees?
Or, just maybe, Gosman, just maybe it’s got SFA to do with political
systems but with poverty, international relations, banana companies and their modern counterparts, the global corporations, with authoritariansim and governments of the elites, for the elites, by the elites.
Some here would say more than ‘maybe’ to that one, and even sheet it home to the door of capitalism.
You keep instancing one example to denigrate socialism. You do realise that you run the danger of arguing a logical fallacy here, don’t you?
it’s over to you to prove that socialism done it, btw. First define socialism, then name the countries of the world which are socialist, then maybe your asseverations can be worth more than a passing pfffft!
3 million people fleeing the Chavista regime of Venezuela is not due to Capitalism, International relations, banana companies and their modern counterpart. It is purely down to the Socialist policies of the Chavista regime.
Your lies are getting a joke Gosman, when did the exodus start? When did the ability not to trade in oil kick in? When did sanctions bite, and how many are there now? How many times has the larger corporations stuffed with the Venezuela market (so much for you precious free market ah when they can manipulate shit like the toilet paper crisis) ? How many times has the far right bombed and attacked government – making it unsafe for average citizens?
But most of all, and this is the real kicker for why people are running, becasue every day in Venezuela rumours run wild that the USA is going to bomb them back to the stone ages, like they did in the middle east. People are scared, because they can’t elect their own government – but hey you’re opposed to that so why should anyone listen to your lies?
There is NO restrictions on Venezuelan ability to trade in oil. The only liar here is YOU.
You really have no idea do you.
So not being able to get loans to facilitate oil transactions, is no restriction on oil trade.
Either your a ideological hack who cherry picks information gossy, or your just a liar. I’m going with both.
Yeah the government is doing bad, but external forces are just complicit in the failings of Venezuela economy and those external forces are capitalist – so are you condemning them?
Nah, you just an alex jones style ideological hack.
I provided a link to a site that shows who is the main trading partners for Venezuela. The US is by far the biggest and given that Venezuela exports nothing much beyond oil then this suggests the trade in oil in unaffected by any “financial restrictions”. If you have evidence suggesting otherwise present it here.
Time to front up gossy.
Are you going to condemn the capitalist for their completeness in the failing economy? Or are you going to carry on be an alex jones style ideological hack?
What do you mean by “…their completeness in the failing economy”?
That they are completely involved.
You have failed to provide any evidence supporting this view. Why would I agree with something you haven’t backed up with facts?
For someone who is attempting to link me with fact free commentators like Alex Jones you yourself seem very Alex Jones like with providing anything resembling actual evidence.
https://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/sanctions/Programs/pages/venezuela.aspx
Good news at least China is helping with loans to get oil to flow. Makes me wonder if you know how the economy really works gossy, if you don’t understand how this part works.
https://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/China-Approves-US5Bn-Loan-For-Venezuelan-Oil-Development-20180703-0036.html
Now answer the damn question
That is correct. The US has imposed limited sanctions on Venezuela that hinder (but do not stop) it’s ability to access finance from US sources. This is entirely within the remit of the US to do and the US has done this to a number of countries in the past. It does not explain why the Venezuelan economy is collapsing though. The US is still the main trading partner with Venezuela so therefore trade financing is still occurring. As your seconf link points out Venezuela is more that able to access financing from other sources. Many countries have done this.
WOOHOO another alex jones answer from gossy, who would have thunked it…
pffffft! with an extra ‘f’.
Yeah those little capitalist Xmas elves are real and were really just tying to give their neighbours free gifts from Santa for being good, not destabilise the country so they could swoop in and get cheaper oil.
Ummm… how are they achieving that aim at the moment? Venezuela is producing less oi. This increases the price of oil worldwide not lower it.
Or was it capitalisms response to a socialist society that nationalised proffitable industry.
Capitalism’s response such as what? To still trade with Venezuela and allow the country to access International finance markets do you mean? What can’t Venezuela do that it was hoping to be able to do that is directly caused by the actions of others and not as a result of the dire economic situation of the country?
Will ask one of our local ‘granny’s’ next time I see her. She fled Venezuela a few years back, and is raising her grandson here.
An incredible, sweet, cautious, loving lady. Could be a sensitive topic for her, so will approach with kindness and understanding.
But if she shares I will let you know, might take a few weeks before I catch up with her again.
It is always capitalists that cause crisis. They do so so as to enrich themselves.
You have no evidence supporting this claim. Who caused the crisis in Communist China as a result of the Great Leap forward?
Natz and capitalists love the communists now Gosman, we even have 2 Chinese being better than 2 Indians on their MP list. Donations kindly accepted.
Actually, there’s lots of evidence supporting that claim:
That type of theft is endemic to capitalism.
Who caused the million plus deaths in Iraq after the illegal US invasion?
There was not a million plus deaths in Iraq after the US invasion in 2003. that is another falsehood.
It is also irrelevant to the question I asked you which was ” Who was responsible for the crisis in Communist China as a result of the Great Leap forward?” Hint: The answer is not the same as who is responsible for any deaths in Iraq.
The question is as relevant as your question about China. The illegal and immoral US invasion was a direct result of capitalism because the US is a capitalist country.
Wikipedia has a broader view:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casualties_of_the_Iraq_War
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ORB_survey_of_Iraq_War_casualties
I know the report you mention. It’s methodology was entirely bogus. It was based on dodgy survey data from a limited area of Iraq.
Go away, ignoramus. You know nothing about Venezuela and especially about the concerted attempts to destroy its democratically elected government.
You’re ignorant. Go away.
Pretty sure it’s the yankers gozzer.
Then the Iranian economy is in for a pretty dire time given the US sanctions on Iran are 1000 times more stringent than anything Venezuela has had imposed on it. Venezuela can still trade (and does) with the US. Most of it’s oil is exported to the US market. If the US wanted to destroy the Venezuelan economy why doesn’t it just stop buying oil from it like it has done with Iran?
https://atlas.media.mit.edu/en/profile/country/ven/
“The top export destinations of Venezuela are the United States ($10.3B), China ($4.9B), India ($4.47B), Switzerland ($2.92B) and Singapore ($1.03B). The top import origins are the United States ($5.06B), China ($2.52B), Brazil ($1.28B), Argentina ($706M) and Colombia ($613M)”
Again, you’re commenting from a position of utter ignorance.
MEMO to site Administrators:
Is there nothing you can do to stop this blizzard of willful, destructive nonsense from this fellow?
Hmmm, so far in this thread Gosman has backed 2/3 of his comments with fairly solid links, whereas all you’ve contributed is assertions and ad homs.
“Solid links”? The Guardian is a notorious parrot of propaganda—you probably haven’t but anyone with an I.Q. above room temperature will have been appalled at its role in the absurd and fantastical lying campaign against Jeremy Corbyn.
One of Gosman’s “comments” was nothing more than a link to that propaganda machine, and the other was a fatuous assertion, contra reality, that the U.S. does not want to destroy Venezuela’s economy.
Still, feel free to stick up for him. He needs help, even from someone as hopeless as you.
Your comedy is improving, Mozzie. That one got an actual lol from me.
Are you trying to be funny?
Sorry, but you just ain’t got the chops for it.
(Try reading a book instead. Or a hundred books.)
Yet you have provided ZERO evidence for anything on Venezuela. For example you haven’t explained why the US is still the largets trading partner of Venezuela if it is trying to destroy it’s economy.
Why would the two things be mutually exclusive gozzer?
Who is the biggest trading partner of Cuba Gabby?
How’s Cuba relevant gozzer?
Yeah me too. Pretty classic rant.
Can you explain yourself, Marty? I pointed out the extreme unreliablity of the Grauniad, and excoriated someone who foolishly cited it as some kind of authority.
How is that a “rant”?
Your criticism of the Guardian is truly Trumpian in it’s nature. You have discounted any facts contained in the report purely on the basis that you don’t like the Guardian. It is like Trump refusing to address questions posed by CNN journalists.
Mate, it was a COMPLIMENT as I suspect was Andre’s comment.
I’ve provided a link which highlights that the main Export and Import market for Venezuela is the US. How is that commenting from a position of ignorance? You on the other hand have provided ZERO evidence how so called sanctions are impacting the Venezuelan economy. If anyone is commenting from a position of ignorance it is you not I.
As concerning as your apparent regard for the integrity of the Grauniad is, the main problem here is, as usual, your less than intelligent “take” on things. Your hare-brained claim that the U.S. doesn’t want to destroy Venezuela’s economy is on a par with your claim just one month ago that the US “has invaded relatively few countries since 1945.”
https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-10-10-2018/#comment-1533884
I note with amusement that the dreadful Andre attempted to ride to your defence on that occasion as well. Sadly though, he fell off his horse.
You have to be pretty one-eyed to blame the Venezuela situation on anyone other than their current government. Not really sensible to try and defend them. The reality is that some governments are completely incompetent. Venezuela has one of the worst.
Apparently it is all the fault of the evil Capitalists though Wayne…
Far out why does it have to be a competition?
Blokes, mate.
Sadly this is true. Having just returned from working in Latin America I’m not going to pose as an expert, but I can convey from first-hand conversations the veracity and extent of this crisis.
The root causes of Venezuela’s breakdown can be summarised in a nut-shell … ideologically induced incompetence. It’s what happens when any simplistic ideology that purports to have the ‘total answer’ to all problems meets the actual complexity of the real world.
Extreme socialism doesn’t have a monopoly on this, but it sure has record with it.
So unless someone gives us analysis from an expert familiar with how Venezuela has applied socialism, we can only deduce from regime failure that the way they tried to apply it was flawed.
I think perceptive commentators can agree that both capitalism & socialism are flawed ideologies. Examples from history & current affairs indicate that failure & success are relative to time and place: national culture being the primary determinant of outcomes. Therefore blanket condemnations aren’t helpful. Generalising doesn’t get us anywhere.
Progress can only be attained via application of Hegel’s dialectic: take the best from both thesis and antithesis, discard the worst, proceed to synthesis. Governments have been attempting the blend for several generations. What’s missing is empirical learning from all the outcomes. What we lack is a general theory emerging from the synthesis. I refuse to accept that everyone is too stupid to deduce it. I do accept that there’s a general reluctance to attempt the task.
Venezuela was held up (and is still held up be some) by many leftists as taking the correct approach to implementing Socialism. It was being done in a democratic manner and seemingly focusing on the needs of the poor and working classes. There were multitudes of social programmes that received large amounts of funding from the government AND the main sectors of the economy were steadily nationalised or brought under State control via other means. The Chavez government also supported numerous worker lead co-operatives to take over or set up businesses. In short Venezuela WAS the poster child for how Socialism could be implement in a modern democratic country.
Venezuela was held up (and is still held up be some) by many leftists as taking the correct approach to implementing Socialism.
No it’s not, and it never has been. Venezuela is as imperfect as any other democracy. What its defenders say is: the United States and its brutal vassal Colombia have no right at all to interfere with it.
It was being done in a democratic manner and seemingly focusing on the needs of the poor and working classes.
That much is true. Sadly, though, the Venezuelan government has made many mistakes. However, unlike, say, Australia, the U.K., Canada, and the United States, it has not been involved in the killing of millions of people in Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Pakistan, Africa, Palestine, and Syria.
Before human rights heroes like Wayne Mapp and Gosman pontificate any more about Venezuela’s failings, they should deal with those far more dangerous and irresponsible regimes.
No, it has only been involved in the impoverishment of it’s citizens which has lead to 3 million of them fleeing the country.
Which is fine as far as it goes Gosman. But if you want us to have some faith in your views you need to show willing on our concerns too.
Unconstrained capitalism (and it’s political bastard fascism) also brings us gross inequality, environmental damage at an extinction level, a monstrous waste of resources, and a desperately myopic, materialist philosophy of life.
I’m willing to credit and accept that your take on life is different to mine, that you place a higher weight on values like order, achievement and stability than I do. I’m not going to quibble with how you’re wired; but if you want a more interesting conversation how about addressing what is important to us?
I’m a firm believer in that you have to get your economic fundamentals correct before you can start expanding social programmes not the other way around. The other way around leads to massive economic distortions which lead to economic contraction rather than expansion. At that point you can’t afford to fund the social programmes you think are so important.
Fair enough I can go with your order of priorities in a fundamental sense; but you can surely understand what happens when this goes too far? When the pursuit of material means overtakes all other goals?
If there is one thing that frustrates the left more than anything else; is the seeming blindness of capitalists, that their success seems to render them impervious to the wider concerns I mentioned above.
Despite the propaganda of many on the left social programmes in places like NZ have not been cut back in any significant way since the 1991 Benefit cuts. The amount of Government expenditure spent on key areas like Health and Social Welfare has more than matched the increase in inflation. The real problem is the costs involved in providing social assistance are growing as is the demand for such services (e.g. an aging population requiring newer drugs). It is easy to demand that more and more money is fed in to a system that is constantly demanding more resources but there has to be a reality check on what the economy can afford to support. If you don’t do that you fall in to the trap of Venezuela which is that you think the State can solve social problems without having an economy to support it.
The left is useful in making the call for social reforms. The right is useful in providing the reality check on ensuring that the economy can afford the costs of those social reforms.
I’m all for getting economic fundamentals correct as well. Simple little things like physical reality have a major bearing upon what can be done.
Capitalism tends to ignore them so as to make a few people rich.
that both capitalism & socialism are flawed ideologies.
In isolation yes. It should be obvious to us by now that they both need each other.
The social and technical landscapes we are traversing are at present chaotic and confusing. We damn well should be worried about where we are heading, and as a species we are going to need every resource we have to navigate through this next century without fatal damage.
What we lack is a general theory emerging from the synthesis. I refuse to accept that everyone is too stupid to deduce it. I do accept that there’s a general reluctance to attempt the task.
I really liked this, and you are completely correct. We are all way smarter and tougher than we think. It was something Ad said to me a while back about being ‘free’ that was a personal turning point; often the chains we imagine bind us are largely illusory.
Except many on the left are unwilling to accept any flaws in their ideology. I am more than happy to accept Capitalism’s many flaws. It does not concern itself with the impacts of economic failure from a society point of view. That is where social policy comes in. You can have progressive social policies under a capitalist framework (indeed that is what the Scandinavian countries do).
Yup – all that’s required is adequate taxation of higher incomes.
I almost choked at the point when he used the phrase “paradigm shift” … but this guy does speak pretty well to what I have in mind:
Wishy washy nonsense.
Yeah well at least you gave it a go Gosman. I’m not surprised at your response; I agree it was pretty abstract and that seems inherent in trying to discuss something as unverifiable as the future.
Also it speaks to how our personalities are different; I can listen to it and extract something interesting; you listen and don’t. Yet I’m certain there are scenarios where the opposite would be true. The same effect shows up in the comments underneath it.
To engage you I’d need an unqualified concrete discourse; facts, data points and appeal to values like diligence, stability and directness. Unfortunately approach can only replicate what we already know; it’s helpless in the face of the unknown, it fails to create the novel and unexpected.
It’s why I’m a moderately good software engineer, I can visualise abstractions, how they relate to real-world problems and put them together in novel ways; yet put me in charge of the operations division of a large company, within weeks I’d get bored and likely start tinkering with things to no good effect. I suspect you’re the converse, and it’s why the world needs types like both of us; even when we do frustrate the hell out of each other 🙂
Hear hear.
“It’s what happens when any simplistic ideology that purports to have the ‘total answer’ to all problems meets the actual complexity of the real world “
In short Draco daily contributions
The social democrat countries seem to be the happiest with the best division of wealth. I hate extremes. Sad NZ is working their way out of being a socially democratic country and instead part of the ‘global’ economy when money buys anything and you can buy politicians who don’t seem to have a lot of common sense or scruples and rely on paper reports summaries from a bunch of neoliberal officials as though that is the gospel.
I think Marty Mars said 1 in 8 people here over 15 are on antidepressants… likely a consequence of NZ from Rogernomics onwards…
Yes the middle path has proven the correct model; but it’s not necessarily easy to achieve, nor obviously stable when we do reach it. Of the 200 odd nations in the world, barely 30 count as social democrat/capitalist success stories. We certainly cannot point to any individual nation as the ideal model; all have their flaws, and in many ways we seem to have plateaued.
We are missing something; not the least because the nation state in an inadequate framework to understand the problem.
There is no indication that people living in more social democratic countries have lower incidences of mental health problems.
Of course the Venezuelan government has made many mistakes. Chavez wasted a lot of time on publicity stunts and annoying the United States. I’m not a blind supporter of either Chavez or the present democratically elected leader.
But are you trying to suggest that the United States, which supported the coup against Chavez in 2002, is not trying to overthrow the democratic government of Venezuela?
You’re not in the National cabinet now, Dr. Mapp—you’re allowed to be truthful if you want.
If the US was seriously trying to overthrow the Chavista regime in Venezuela why does it allow the country to trade with it and even own Billions of dollars of assets within the US? The US could easily cripple the Venezuelan economy if it took control of Venezuelan Oil assets in the US and stopped purchasing Venezuelan oil. It has applied similar sanctions in the past against regimes it does not like (e.g. Iran and Cuba).
To name just one of the Venezuelan assets in the US, Citgo is one of the larger chains of petrol stations, as well as owning a bunch of other petrochemical assets. Anyone interested should look it up.
If the US was seriously trying to overthrow the Chavista regime in Venezuela
By “Chavista regime”, you mean the democratically elected government of Venezuela. Are you seriously suggesting it is not trying to overthrow the Venezuelan government?
Yes, The US Government is not seriously trying to overthrow the Chavista regime in Venezuela. If it was it would have taking control of all Venezuelan oil assets in the US.
I’m sure you’re already aware of Hamlet’s ironic musing on petards, Morrissey, and for added emphasis, here’s a handy list of people who suffered unintended consequences:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_inventors_killed_by_their_own_inventions
Thanks for that, Te Reo. Brilliant!
The oil markets deserve another post in the next month or so.
China has confirmed that they will not be taking Iranian oil.
It seems the European importers are generally folding around the U.S. demands against Iran as well.
It looks from my scan of the analysts that barrel prices will grind upwards next year, but will also remain very volatile. For a totally oil-reliant country like ours, price and price volatility is the meanest and most accurate way to wean us off it.
That price volatility has changed the industry in four fundamental ways.
The first is the U.S. production of shale oil and alternative fuels such as ethanol. The shale oil producers have got more and more efficient. Large companies like Exxon-Mobil, BP, Chevron, and Royal Dutch Shell have basically stopped exploring new reserves – and it’s cheaper for them to just buy out less efficient shale companies. The United States will become the world’s largest oil producer in 2023 – not that far away.
The second is Saudi Arabia and Iran. I don’t think it’s coincidental that the U.S. shutting Iranian oil supply down also greatly assists Saudi Arabia against Iran its old enemy. None of them want to lose market share, and it really looks like two dogs against one in a pit.
Third, foreign exchange traders drove up the value of the dollar by 25 percent in 2014 and 2015. All oil transactions are paid in U.S. dollars. The strong dollar helped cause some of the 70 percent decline in the price of petroleum for exporting countries. Most oil-exporting countries peg their currencies to the dollar. Therefore, a 25 percent rise in the dollar offsets a 25 percent drop in oil prices. Global uncertainty keeps the U.S. dollar strong.
I think the fourth factor is the slowing global demand for oil. It only rose to 93.3 million b/d in 2015, from 92.4 million b/d in 2014, according to the IEA. Most of the increase was from China, which now consumes 12 percent of global oil production. Since its economic reforms (including electric car policies) slowed its growth, global demand growth may continue slow down. Underlying global demand is still strong, it’s just shifting around a lot. Plenty are talking about a peak for oil demand by about 2036. Too late to save this kind of world, but we’ve see a few shifts at least as large over the last century.
That’s an excellent geopolitical analysis, Ad! I suggest you save it on file and update it for a feature post every now & then. Interesting that the US will soon become largest oil producer – perhaps the moral of that story is that hi-tech trumps depletion of reserves.
A “70 percent decline in the price of petroleum for exporting countries” sure is a dramatic market signal, eh? Explains the revenue side of Venezuelan regime failure. “China has confirmed that they will not be taking Iranian oil.” That’s astonishing. I’d been seeing it as in their geopolitical interests to help Iran. Is there any other explanation apart from US hegemony dictating the outcome?
Honestly it’s all a bit depressing.
I’ll do one if there’s a useful local hook to attach it to.
Otherwise it goes all climate change wrist-slitty for me.
Always look on the bright side.. Sometimes that side is hard to find, eh? Be careful, there’s an ominous sign there that you may be trending towards solidarity with Bill.
Perhaps the bright side evident in your analysis is “the fourth factor is the slowing global demand for oil.” Demand peaking in 2036 can be seen as positive – just as the trend toward global population peaking is likewise.
Efficient distribution of scarce resources is what the price system is for of course, National will complain about it in some way while they’re the opposition and say that the government has To Do Something. If they ever get back in power they’ll just say it’s the market and that they can’t do anything. The MSM, in their total support of National, will parrot National’s lines without thought or critique.
Yes but for how long? Shale oil wells don’t last as long as conventional oil wells.
Yes. The use of the US$ as the ‘Reserve Currency’ is fully against market rules. So is leaving exchange rates to ‘demand’. There should be no Reserve Currency and exchange rates should be formulaic.
And why is the US, shining light of capitalism that it is, putting sanctions on Iran?
After all, Iran hasn’t actually done anything to the US or, in fact, the world.
Zzzzzz….
If you aren’t interested in the damage caused by Socialist policies then don’t comment.
I am interested but get bored by your one-trick pony posts based a “socialism is bad as well” schtick.
Ok North Korea, Cuba, The Soviet Union, Communist China, Easter Europe, Most of South and Central America at various times, Vietnam, Cambodia. Venezuela is only the latest of a very long list of socialist experiments that went tits up Most are now coming out of poverty by embracing capitalism in some form
Greedy exploitive arseholes hang their hats on political persausions of all varieties.
Men dragging sacks filled with under size paua up the beach are not doing so because they voted for Labour.
The problem in Venezeula isn’t socialism, it’s greedy men that pay scant regard for their fellow man. These types can wear the jersey of any team.
No, it is Socialist policies. The reason the Oil industry in Venezuela is declining is because the main Oil company was nationalised under Chavez and used as a piggy bank to fund the many social programmes he implemented instead of concentrating on reinvesting money to ensure continued production. The fact that Chavez discouraged private sector investment in the economy has lead to a situation where production has collapsed.
I disagree Gos, all I’ve read about the situation sheets back to exploitive plunderers. I don’t think Chavez nationalised their oil industry to make life fabulous for all Venezuelans, he did it because : ‘What’s in it for me and my mates?’
A bit like what happened to NZRail in the 1990s, after it was privatised. Asset stripping and dividend extraction, rather than reinvesting for development.
Yep, selling off Telecom didn’t make all NZers’ lives a little bit better. It created a handful of overnight multi-millionaires.
Selling Telecom made most of us worse off. After all, those profits that they’ve been getting come from most of us and we get nothing for it.
The South Africa State owns South African Airways 100%. How has this lead to better outcomes for the South African people given the company is bleeding money?
How badly was it doing before nationalisation?
After all the SAG wouldn’t have nationalised it if it wasn’t working for the country.
Why do you think that? Government’s nationalise industries for all sortss of reasons.
You can stop biting, you have swallowed the bait.
Here we go, it just has not been implemented properly arguement Similar to business would be easy argument if no staff and customers Socialism a proven failed ideology, persuasive on paper to fools but totally bankrupt in reality from an economic and humanity perspective
The yankers aren’t socialists gozzer. Well the bankers are a bit.
God you are like one of the crack pot 1080 protesters, hijacking every thread to derail it so you can troll contributors. Personally, I’d ban your ass for trolling like this – and the people who bite should be ashamed of themselves for feeding the troll.
This is Open mike. You are aware what Open mike is for aren’t you?
It’s not for crackpot obsessives like you. Go away and read. Seriously, you need to.
And, no, clicking on a Grauniad article or viewing a Fox News rant is NOT serious reading.
Considering you have yet to provide ANY links on alternative views on Venezuela I find your comment laughable.
Our own alex jones.
Your links to “facts” backing up your view that the US and Capitalists have somehow caused the economic collapse of Venezuela consist of one from the US Treasury stating there are limited Economic sanctions on Venezuela (noone argued there wasn’t) and another link where it highlighted that the Venezuelan government was arranging finance from China (which suggests Venezuela CAN get international finance if it wants to). Nowhere in your links does it show how the Venezuelan economy is contracting as a result of actions by the US OR Capitalists.
Understanding how the oil market works, really does seem to be beyond you. Sorry I don’t have the time nor the inclination to help you – as you’re too much of an ideology. I would suggest you stop watching infowars, as it shows in how you debate.
Shocking when you think about it.
“New statistics, revealed in a University of Otago study, show almost one in eight New Zealanders over the age of 15 are on antidepressants despite little evidence the drugs are helping curb the country’s alarming suicide rates.”
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12156858
I’m not anti meds and we have to work out what the hell we can do to help people better.
That’s an incredible amount of money being spent for a mediocre result.
Definitely time to review.
http://archive.stats.govt.nz/browse_for_stats/snapshots-of-nz/nz-social-indicators/Home/Health/suicide.aspx
With all due respect, I have a problem with this research. Click on this link which shows the highest suicide rates in NZ were in 1996 -97……….
I have worked with hundreds of people suffering from anxiety and depressions and the vast majority of them make mild to significant improvement from taking them.
I will post more later. Just a little busy working with and fixing the problem……………..
There seems to be little appetite for serious research into why such a high percentage people in our society are so depressed. Improving the drugs is very much the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff, isn’t it.
Yes we need to understand what is happening to people. Our society is missing something. I’m sure we all have great ideas of what things we think are not there or could be improved.
I remember in a past career working with a matrix where Essential, Important, Nice were along one axis and Now, Future were along the other axis. Solutions for me are EssentialNow not ImportantFuture like say getting rid of capitalism. The issues are all around us everywhere and we are all connected to this. The first step I think is to really understand what the problem actually is that we want to solve and research is the way to begin to find out.
Depression and anxiety stress related conditions……..If you have a biological vulnerablity and you experience stress, then you will experience them.
IMO people have got increasingly stressed for all the obvious reasons………….housing, working conditions, women trying to managed work/home/childminding…………………………etc etc.
What I am curious about in this research are the rates of depression and suicide lower in the group of older women who are most heavily prescribed anti-ds.
Yes good comment. I suppose the study will get studied – it will be good to eventually see as many, hopefully constructive imo) views and analysis as possible. Thanks.
Cheers Marty. I appreciate your comments as well. It’s a complex area and I tend to get defensive about meds as I see first hand the huge benefit they provide to any,many people.
Wow. That’s an extraordinary figure marty. I knew that in the USA it’s almost normal to be on anti-depressants, but to see NZ approach the same levels of use is well … depressing.
Without trying to pretend I’m any kind of expert here, my thinking is that at root of the problem lies the extreme materialism of the modern world. In one sense it’s been an extraordinary blessing; a culture so focused on improving material welfare has created a world of convenience, comfort and safety our ancestors could scarcely imagine.
But it has come with costs. One has been dauntingly steep levels of social inequality that we know is associated with stress and dysfunction. Another is a spiritual rootlessness, we live in a globalised world that lacks a coherent moral framework; making it hard for people to develop a sense of place within it. Too many of us feel as if we drift struggle to grasp onto a responsible purpose that would give meaning to the difficulties of our lives.
It’s a lethal three way whammy; steep social gradients creating anxiety, steep economic gradients that create difficulties and weak psychological tools to face them. And this is without mentioning all the other factors, poor sleep, questionable diets, and a myriad of tech/social changes that all potentially undermine our inner balance.
I’m inclined to think of depression as a form of anger but directed inwards, it’s the way the body deals with stressors it cannot process, so it protects what remains by shutting down. A good short-term strategy, but awful to live with long-term.
But I’m only speaking from my limited understanding here; I’m genuinely interested to hear from your professional experience and viewpoint marty.
Thanks red. What you have written is true. My experience of depression is personal and through friends.
For me it is hard to pinpoint because so much is on the list. An important point is that positives in life don’t balance it or offset it imo, they are discrete and seperate.
I work in a slightly different area specifically. I don’t know what the answers are but your view that kindness is important is a good place to start I think.
Yes kindness. And despite the inevitable corrosion of political life I hope Jacinda Adern doesn’t lose sight of it. Peter Cabaldi’s famous Dr Who scene here moved me (and millions of others) enormously:
I found a quote from philosopher Kierkegaard which is at the back of the depression and suicides that are growing.
I have put some of his quotes below and started thinking.
We see the pleasure of being in the world recede as statistics about wealth improve and yet conditions slide.
Humanity is down-graded and replaced by clever machines and we haven’t learned anything from the history of the Industrial Revolution or the Holocaust.
It appears that people’s minds can be dominated by propaganda to despise those who want to conserve what’s good in the world for all people and gradually expand it. Instead is favoured speedy glamorous triviality that passes leaving nothing of lasting value, emptiness.
This is behind the large amounts of anti depressants utilised. Not everyone can find and express the basis of what they feel, to crystallise their stress and concern into words like Kierkegaard did. He does a big thinkpiece that pares away to the core question:
What is this thing called the world?…How did I obtain an interest in this big enterprise they call reality? Why should I have an interest in it? Is it not a voluntary concern? And if I am compelled to take part in it, where is the director?…Whither shall I turn with my complaint?
I have a note this is from Small is Beautiful by EF Schumacher
I like his concept of how to go about our lives.
“Thinking can turn toward itself in order to think about itself and skepticism can emerge. But this thinking about itself never accomplishes anything.” Kierkegaard says thinking should serve by thinking something. Kierkegaard wants to stop “thinking’s self-reflection” and that is the movement that constitutes a leap.[3] He is against people thinking about religion all day without ever doing anything;
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leap_of_faith
Perhaps the depression that people feel is because they don’t know what is the good thing to actually do in the present circumstances. The indecision, and lack of clear direction and fixed truths that have arisen in our society and from seeing our government and economy run on half-lies, and deliberate inaction, makes us sick. Our certainties may be false but we cling to them because the reality cannot be pinned down or faced and as we look for it, a PR message will arise and tell us what we should think.
Further Kierkegaard.
Some of his quotes to add to the stew of thought:
Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.
Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.
Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom.
(I have made quite a few changes since I put this up, trying to make it coherent.)
If he is right, then the depression that people feel is likely to be because they don’t know what is the good thing to do in the present circumstances.
Yes. And the given how dramatically the circumstances have changed it’s no surprise the old responses fall short. When I step back and consider all the themes I’ve tried to pursue here over the years, they can be condensed into three broad streams:
1. The mis-use of power in any of it’s forms. While all human endeavour demands power and authority to function correctly; the concentration of it into single the hands of single individuals history has demonstrated repeatedly to be problematic. We should pay more attention to the basis of power, why it is essential, how to ensure it is more evenly distributed, what purposes it serves and how to more reliably hold it to account.
2. Inequality. The Spirit Level remains one of the most important contributions to our understanding of how societies work; that while distinction and individuality are core attributes of a progressive society, we can only tolerate a certain amount before it becomes toxic.
3. The lack of a globally oriented moral and ethical framework. The material context of the modern world is global, but in spiritual terms it’s a desert.
Epidemic levels of depression and anxiety are important symptoms; they tell us we are doing something wrong, we need to slow down, stop blaming each other and pay attention.
+1 marty mars
That is an alarming statistic.
The evidence for antidepressant effectiveness will not be the anecdotal reporting of individuals but taking the research based evidence of a cohort of x numbers using a medication. I agree though that to many of the worried well turn to medication when a lifestyle change would be more effective.
Yes psych nurse. Agree we need good evidence
A Cochrane Collaboration review of studies up to 2009 concluded that antidepressants were effective in depression treated in primary care, but most studies were funded by the pharmaceutical industry and of short duration.
https://www.cochrane.org/CD007954/DEPRESSN_antidepressants-versus-placebo-for-depression-in-primary-care
So when are we finally going to get our night school classes back, something that Jacinda Ardern specifically mentioned during the campaign. Anyone heard anything?
Well, she has been at pains to say that the government can’t do everything at once. Having said that, I should have thought night classes would have been a priority. A big leg-up for solo mums and others who want to retrain after having families etc.
> I should have thought night classes would have been a priority
If they were, they would have been done in the last Budget
A.
Yes, they only cost $18 million or so a year to run so wouldn’t soak up too much of the budget, and until stopped were used by around 225,0000 people, if I recall correctly. Real value for money
There is some to and fro with govt and the business advisory council on what type of training/retraining NZ’ers will need in a rapidly shifting environment.
Perhaps they’re trying to finalise the details before classes are rolled out again?
And they will need to find the Human Resources to teach the classes?
Farmer Extremists?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/105202179/ecan-elections-may-be-very-dangerous-if-extremists-elected-warns-farming-leader
Yet;
Former Prime Minister Sir Geoffrey Palmer has slated ECAN’s proposed representation for next year’s election, saying it is “gerrymandering” and gives farmers more say than urban voters.
.. “all Canterbury citizens had an interest in the environment and the decisions made by ECan, whether they lived in a city, town or in the country.
But the proposal meant rural residents would be over-represented and urban residents under-represented, which was inconsistent with the principle of fair representation that underpinned New Zealand’s democracy and was required by the Electoral Act.
“That is unacceptable. Their interest in the rural environment is no greater than the urban electors since the environment must be considered as a whole, not in segments, if the underlying principle of sustainability is to be maintained.”
The proposal took important decisions away from the principle of one person one vote and substituted what amounted to a country quota, he said.
“Such a decision can hardly be tolerated in a modern democracy.”
https://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/108441705/former-pm-accuses-ecan-of-gerrymandering-to-farming-interests
I was reading a column which highlighted that Trump’s power lies in controlling the states that each have two senators, no matter if their population is 4 million or 40 million. The easiest way for progressives to win back the senate would be to migrate en masse to some of these red states with small populations. It would only require the Democrats winning three or four states more than they have already to control the Senate, and they could pick off the ones with the smallest populations. A migration of a few hundred thousand to each of these would likely tip the balance.
Good thought! – but not as easy as all that unfortunately. You see first they would have to win the Governorship because each State has a different system of running elections, and in all the red states you can almost put a ring around the fact that each polling district is gerrymandered by the ruling party so that even if the popular vote goes against them they will still win. Furthermore in districts where the likely democrat voters reside they put in fewer polling places, so that it becomes a struggle to cast a vote. And if that is not enough, you just can’t move into a State and decide to vote, firstly you need to be (in Texas at least) a permanent resident, attend classes, and jump over a huge number of hurdles to be allowed to cast a vote. Just read this article and it will blow your mind!
https://www.thenation.com/article/texass-voter-registration-laws-are-straight-out-of-the-jim-crow-playbook/
A bit of migration could help tip the electoral college. But if you go through the numbers, trying to do it through the smallest states would take maybe 400k plus to move to Alaska, Wyoming, North and South Dakota to flip them, for a total of 12 electoral college votes. Put those extra Dems into Florida, however, then you’ve turned what used to be 29 swinging EC votes into rock-solid Dem. An extra 200k Dems would lock down Pennsylvania’s 20 EC votes pretty solidly.
When you go through the list of states, yes the Repugs do have an advantage from representing more of the smaller states. But that advantage isn’t that big. There’s plenty of smaller states that are solidly Dem, such as Delaware, Hawaii, Rhode Island…
BTW the range of state populations is around 670k in Wyoming (and dropping) to almost 40 million in California (and growing). So yeah, one senator per 340k for Wyoming vs one senator per 20 million in California. And one Electoral College vote per 220k in Wyoming vs one per 730k in California.
Chris Trotter’s latest explains how identity politics on the right is working for Trump: “By bringing the losers back into the “Us” and by bringing the “Them” into much sharper focus, Trump has created an extremely powerful political force.”
http://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/2018/11/the-white-male-losers-liberator-wins.html
Giving losers self-belief and a group identity with a political focus is powerful magic. No way will the media want to acknowledge this! They will persevere in denial because they are advocates for the establishment. US media apologists for the left become delusional when they lose focus on what actually works in American democracy.
“Oh sure, it is possible to defeat Trump’s candidates at the district level and reclaim control of the House of Representatives. But, as progressive America discovered to its horror on 6 November 2018, the real power lies not in the districts but with the states. It is the state which is entitled to two senators – regardless of whether it contains four or forty million voters. And, in 2020, it will be the states dispatching their electors to the Electoral College – which chooses the President of the United States of America.”
CT gets close but misses the point…….the issue is one of lost credibility which is manifesting in various forms.
You mean the Dems? Last time I thought they were credible was when Carter was president. As for the Reps, it would have to be Eisenhower in retrospect since I was a child at the time! Perhaps you mean both parties.
Interesting that you see the thing as credibility though. I see it as tribal loyalty based mostly on blind faith. What’s believable? The American dream? Capitalism? Socialism? Multiculturalism? Democracy? All faith-based stuff…
no…I mean the elites, the establishment, which includes the press….think about it.
Ok, think I get it. The zeitgeist, shifting folks away from faith in traditional adherence to authority. Trump as anti-establishment hero, attractor for the losers victimised by the capitalists, no more trickle-down, alienated by the Democratic focus on minorities. Making America Great Again serving as a faith-based origin myth…
no, i fear you too have missed it.
Consider….life not great and gradually community is in decline, you know in your bones that the games rigged but you think those that are running things and those doing well are quite a bit smarter than you so sort of deserve to be where they are…..your not happy about it but thats life.
Along comes Obama making the right noises (remember “yes we can?)…and you think heres a guy who understands what its like to be shit on, he’ll make a difference…and nothing changes.
GFC hits and the banks are bailed, but your house is foreclosed and the taxpayer foots the bill and all the cuts that entails….those running the show are not only exposed as not knowing what theyre doing but they get rewarded for their incompetence and dishonesty.
Meanwhile in the europe Janis Varoufakis, one of “them” (elite, university professor, economist, establishment family) rocks up to the EU with a considered plan to help the people of Greece only to be told that economics has nothing to do with it and he spends the next three years telling the world how decisions are really made.
The curtain has been pulled back in OZ .
8 years after GFC the same faces, same rhetoric, same methods, in other words same bullshit,are all still in place ( and faithfully reported/repeated by the media) and if anything things are worse not better…..and along comes Trump.
The last decade has demonstrated to you that the faith you had that those running things at least knew what they were doing (even if they wernt acting in your best interest) has been been totally misplaced and theres bugger all you can do about it , but you can put the cat among the pidgeons and vote Trump, hell things cant get any worse and by some miracle they might get better….and besides its fun watching those that fucked everything up have an apoplexy.
and they arnt all “good ol’ boys’ living in the stix.
Thanks for filling it out. I agree with your analysis. Basically the same as what I was getting at, except it explains the mass psychology driving the zeitgeist much better. Middle-class alienation not voting Democrat due to not being offered anything of substance by them is another side of it.
“Middle-class alienation not voting Democrat due to not being offered anything of substance by them is another side of it.”
Its not of substance….. theyre not offering anything different. They are offering a continuation of the same failed paradigm.
Why would that be a vote winner?
Yep the answer is small government, get out of people lives, build individual accountability, resilience, look after yourself and stop hoping mummy government will look after you and you will be right
ya think?
Fantastic post Pat.Great analysis…the -‘it couldn’t be any worse’ solution.
Yep. The campaign slogan could have been: Ah fuck it, vote Trump.
More or less was. His pitch to African-Americans was “what the hell do you have to lose?”
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/politics/88162740-157.html
it matters not who votes, it matters who counts.
https://www.theroot.com/brian-kemp-resigns-as-georgia-secretary-of-state-with-g-1830321781
qUOTE : “But it might just be that there are now people running who are less reluctant to give up just because they have been told to sit down.
“The votes are not there for her,” Kemp told NBC News. “I certainly respect the hard fought race that she ran. But that’s a decision she’s gonna have to make. But we’ve run the race, it’s very clear now and we’re moving forward with the transition.”
NBC News notes that as more ballots are being counted for Abrams, the closer the race becomes, the more likely this fiasco is headed for a runoff election.
Abrams’ campaign believes there are enough outstanding votes – excluding the votes stuffed inside a crushed Honda Civic trunk – to force a runoff. qUOTE END
Kiwibuild was sold to us as a means to increase our housing supply, thus improve declining home ownership numbers. Turns out it has also become a way for Kiwibuild buyers to make some serious cash.
Housing Minister is defending his decision to soften the penalties for those who flip or rent out their Kiwibuild homes
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2018/11/is-this-kiwi-airbnb-national-slams-govt-over-kiwibuild-renting-penalty.html
Labour seem way out of touch on this one.
Quote:
Newshub can reveal more details about how KiwBuild owners can use the scheme to make some serious cash.
Quote end.
they use a lot of ‘can’ but not ‘have done’. So essentially Newshub is farting out loud and you reporting the farts as facts.
Sad!
They have yet to do so because the scheme has only just begun, but the potential to do so is real. And while Labour acknowledge that (highlighted by the regulation in place to deter it) it’s clear the regulation in place isn’t much of a deterrent.
Seems Labour like giving National a stick to bash them with.
National will do as National wants to. Nothing to do with Labour. Besides atm it seems National is really good at bashing National.
So why don’t you wait until someone has been caught doing wrong before you accuse people of doing wrong? Same for Newshub. So far no one has done anything, and they should rather report the news then make them up.
Fake news! Sad!
While National will continue to do what they do, there is no need for Labour to assist them by handing them that stick.
As for your assertion, the only one I’m accusing of getting it wrong is Labour. The deterrents are too weak.
From what I gather, this is going down like a cup of cold sick.
Being their flagship policy, Labour can’t afford to get this so wrong.
I hear they’re making multiple millions with meth labs. Cheating bastards.
You do realise that the problem is capitalism and the profit drive right?
I think it is more to do with those (elite, political class) whom enforce it and the form in which we have adopted.
Article from Shaun Barnett from New Zealand Geographic, on the story that 41 years ago turned me into a conservationist, and back when I was 10 Stephen King the activist was my kind of hero:
“Your perch: a giant tōtara in the central North Island. Your view: thousands of hectares of podocarp forest, chainsaws chewing its edge. Your mission: to stage the world’s first treetop protest. Your name: Stephen King. Not the American novelist, but a barefoot botanist opposing forest destruction.
During the 1970s, native forests were being milled, but many New Zealanders felt it was time to preserve what remained of our wild lands. Young activists, including King, formed the Native Forest Action Council (NFAC), and gathered signatures for a petition, which resulted in a reprieve for West Coast forests.
But at Pureora, the chainsaws continued to snarl. In April 1977, King had been appalled to see thousand-year-old tōtara being felled, some of no use for timber. Meanwhile, conservationists feared for the future of the kōkako—only about 1400 remained, with the largest population at Pureora, and so the bird became the symbol of protest.
King and NFAC leader Guy Salmon raised public awareness with submissions and slogans such as “Don’t beat about the bush, just stop the logging”. But after diplomacy failed, defiance seemed their only option.
By 1978, King and others were willing to put their lives on the line. When loggers returned from their Christmas holiday on January 18, they found King and 13 other protesters stationed in the canopy. Frustrated millers implored them to leave. A police squad arrived, and loggers began spray-painting trees as a warning, but the activists held firm. By then, their stance headlined all the country’s major newspapers. One read, ‘Forest protesters face death as logging commences’. Unnerved, the district ranger called a halt.
Eventually, the Forest Service backed down, pausing logging while the Wildlife Service researched kōkako. Native-forest logging ceased in 1982.
Today, visitors can gain a similar view to King’s by scaling Pureora’s 12-metre Forest Tower to reach a platform high in the canopy. From Pikiariki and Bismark Roads, accessible from Pureora Village, it’s a ten-minute walk to the Forest Tower. Nearby, DOC has positioned a restored D7 bulldozer to mark where logging stopped.”
https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/occupy-the-forest/?t=23880_ee505f21cdd4ad3202a26450a3b73195&campaign_id=
Shaun Barnett, Rob Brown and Geoff Spearpoint are just three names from the tramping community who personally embed a deep love for the NZ backcountry and the conservation ethic. (I could extend the list quite a bit.)
These guys are the kaumatua of my tribe. And look up Honora Renwick for a woman with a remarkable backstory:
https://www.wildernessmag.co.nz/undercover-track-cutters/
The Supreme Court has ruled swamp kauri exports must be finished products. This means dodgy practices by Oravida etc (painting a face on a kauri log & call it a ‘totem pole’) are ILLEGAL. Huge congrats to Northland Environment Protection Society for their tireless work!
Respect!
(Poor Judith)
Yeah this is awesome news.
Damn right! About time the value-added strategy was given some teeth. I remember Muldoon telling the country to wean itself off commodity exports back in the seventies. Too much lazy capitalist thinking around still. Clever business culture is better for a viable national economy.
Choice al!
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/375583/supreme-court-decision-could-shut-down-swamp-kauri-trade
https://www.mpi.govt.nz/news-and-resources/resources/official-information-act-responses/swamp-kauri/
Common sense and what is best for NZ inc. this decision should not have been needed to have to be made. NZ is NOT a 1st or developing world. Shipping raw materials by a 3rd world country should never happen, but after my rant good to her about this. A very limited resource that NZ should max the value we achieve.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/northern-advocate/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503450&objectid=12157467
Shirley Bassey has some advice to Judith about letting Jacinda in to Judith’s heart
(if she looks she will find it).
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/375583/supreme-court-decision-could-shut-down-swamp-kauri-trade
MPI’s forestry head of Te Uru Rākau Julie Collins said she welcomed the clarity the Supreme Court had brought to what constituted a manufactured indigenous product.
https://www.mpi.govt.nz/news-and-resources/resources/official-information-act-responses/swamp-kauri/
Black Girl Magic. All 19 black women who ran for Judge in Harris County, Texas – which includes Houston – have won their races. Beto might have missed out but the energy of his campaign sure has percolated down the ballot.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/nov/08/black-women-texas-judge-harris-county
Great that they won but isn’t it odd that they had to be elected to office.
Coroner links synthetic cannabis to two more deaths
Died due to breathing his own vomit. This happens with alcohol as well. The synthetic cannabis may not have had anything to do with the death other than causing him to vomit.
Died due, apparently, to the synthetic cannabis.
I find it disturbing the way that the article focusses on the first one and pretty much dismisses the second which is far more concerning.
And still Labour/Greens/NZFirst is gonna do nothing about legalization of recreational and medicinal MJ.
That to me is the saddest part of it all.
Its gonna be National that will legalize it and if it is only to win a fucking election.
language please Sabine
In the meant time, high winds, high temperatures, whole city evacuated or in cases where not possible told to hunker down in large concrete buildings like Walgreens.
good grief.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/officials-order-evacuations-camp-fire-threatens-8000-acres/story?id=59065896
https://twitter.com/search?q=%23CAMPFIRE&src=tyah
Making some of these guys who come before the Courts, and go to prison or are stuck on home detention, work hard for a month would be a useful saving for the country, then the government could put the money into better teaching for the drifters and training suitable for 10 second span teenagers. Saving all round, character building without being vicious punishment though.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/375544/court-appearance-for-sculpture-accused
Teachers’ strikes confirmed from Monday
Of the offer tat the govt has made are 3% increase for each of the next 3 years and
BUT you have to wait 14 months until this comes into effect …. REALLY….
“Secretary of Education Iona Holsted said the ministry’s offer would give teachers $698 million over three years – $129m more than the previous offer.” Sure but much of what is being offered you have to wait 14 months until this comes into effect …. REALLY, doesn’t that in economic terms (Net Present Value) diminish what you are offering, it is disingenuous to frame the offer in this way
“A new top pay step for teachers with degrees plus professional teaching qualifications from 2020.
• Removal of the qualifications cap on progression for teachers without degrees from 2020.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12157495
As usual, no mention of climate change when reporting extreme weather in New Zealand…..
Maybe there should be a permanent part of the Weather segment – looking at the demise of glaciers, ocean acidification, air pollution, water quality, biodiversity, rainforest destruction
Are this year’s extremes any different to the extremes of say, 1954?
Bananas fruiting outside my window, two years in a row now.
Our largest (niche) grower says “Three years after planting, banana plants begin to bear fruit, but they produce consistently from then on”
Not any more, it takes one year.
Nothing to see here, move along.
In 1986 my mum’s banana plant fruited. They were inedible.
But anyhoo, as with the halfwits who declare unseasonable cold to be a significant indicator of climate, Ed conflates weather and the extremes we endure as a speed hump in the southern ocean, with climate.
Your ‘let’s label Ed a halfwit’ reflex is acting out.
Nah, I said Ed’s doing the same thing that the halfwits do, conflate weather with climate.
To me, Ed @22 was expressing concern that the NZ media seems to be lagging behind in this regard:
And, from that link:
The second link’s Q&A is three-and-a-half years old – time to get these words [Climate Change] out?
How can we purge our government and semi-government of people who have some right-wing conspiracy injections that bring on psychological fits?
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/375543/student-investigated-over-incredibly-vague-wmd-allegations
”
Mr McClymont said INZ raised concerns over the fact the student’s PhD proposal had changed after arriving in New Zealand.
“What they don’t seem to understand is that the Univeristy proposed the change because they were working with a Crown research institute.
“None of this was our clients idea, this was proposed by the Auckland University, it’s quite absurd.
“They’re claiming, somehow, that he has some nefarious plan to change to change his proposal so that he can make weapons of mass destruction.”
Mr McClymont said his client can’t afford to feed his family or pay rent and has been relying on the community and a local charity to get by while the investigation is ongoing.
INZ general manager Peter Elms defended the investigation, saying New Zealand is a signatory to a number of international agreements that prohibit us from assisting in any way in the development of weapons of mass destruction.
“We take that role seriously, we play our part,” he said.”
(We have the same insane virus that ‘other countries’ have which leads to being super alert to the idea that everyone is a threat, except them of course.)
Perhaps the lurking problem is Elm Tree Disease, a biological weapon.
too late it’s already here. So watch out for it, it’s bad.
http://ourauckland.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/articles/news/2018/2/dutch-elm-disease-found-on-iconic-auckland-trees/
https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/ornamental/trees/elm/diseases-of-elm-trees.htm
Two predictions about Donald Trump: one hopeless,
the other one on the money
At the 19:44 mark of this 2011 interview, Bill O’Reilly asks Jon Stewart: “How about Donald Trump?” Stewart gets it totally wrong….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbQRz2xF8cM
This writer, OTOH, got it pretty much correct in 2013….
https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-31122013/#comment-751510