Paging Pascal’s bookie,wakey wakey, here’s the reply to your rude interruption of the debate in yesterday’s ‘Open Mike’,
Note that ALL of the actions in ‘Operation Cyclone’ were the result of secret ‘directive 166’ signed first by President Jimmy Carter and later expanded by President Ronald Reagan,
Your claims that Arab groups fighting in the Afghan/Soviet war were only funded and armed by Saudi and other Arab states funneled through the Pakistani intelligence service are rather spurious considering the information now available,
Operation Cyclone- Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia,
Bugger, another link that won’t, don’t know what’s with that, but ask the question of Google ‘US funds for groups fighting in Afghan/Soviet war’ and it should take to the page i tried to link to…
If your in for a ‘looong read’ which details ALL the players in the Afghan/Soviet war, the personal connections from the CIA to President Ronald Reagan meeting bin Laden’s older brother at the White-House, (along with such niceties as some of the ‘high-ups’ in bin Laden’ various organizations being aided by the CIA to repeatedly gain visa to enter the US despite being on the ‘terrorist watchlist’) there’s this,
You’ve ignored most of what I said, and have, as predicted, conflated mujaheddin with AQ.
Here’s your initial; claim:
You have to get with the real picture, prior to September 11 Al Qaeda were US funded and armed assets during the Soviet/Afghan war
Operation cyclone was about supporting the mujaheddin, and there is no conclusive evidence that OBL was funded. The implication that he was directly funded by the US is even harder to substantiate, which is probably why you are having such a hard time coming up with any good direct sources or quotes.
Nope i haven’t confused Al Qaeda and the Mujaheddin at all, they were all inter-connected during the Afghan/Soviet war so what funded the Mujahidden also at the same time funded Al Qaeda,
Riiiight, perhaps you think i mean that the CIA passed suitcases full of used 20’s directly to bin Laden, spurious, the funding went to the Pakistani intelligence network from the US, (billions of dollars),and was then distributed by the Pakistani intelligence network either directly as arms or laundered through the BCCI bank,
I suggest you read ‘The complete 911 Timeline: The Soviet-Afghan war which you obviously haven’t otherwise you would not be replying with such lame comments…
I’ve read the timeline. It’s a bit of a curate’s egg to be honest. It often claims certain things to be facts based on not much more than “x reported that unnamed source told him y”, which is a data point to be sure, but absent corroboration, not one that given much weight.*
It would better if it just left it at the ‘X reports’ and laid of on the implications that Y was true.
Based on what you’ve written though. I’d suggest you need to do a lot more reading. A good primer is “The Looming Tower”. It really is worth the time and money invested if you want to know what everyone is claiming and how much evidence exists for the claims.
Nope i haven’t confused Al Qaeda and the Mujaheddin at all, they were all inter-connected during the Afghan/Soviet war so what funded the Mujahidden also at the same time funded Al Qaeda,
I said you conflated the Mujaheddin and AQ.
‘Conflate’, as in, ‘assume that funding one is the same as funding the other’, as in, “so what funded the Mujahidden also at the same time funded Al Qaeda”.
You claimed AQ was a cia/US asset during the 70s and 80’s war. As suppport for this, the only thing you’ve presented is that the US gave money to the ISI to distribute to Mujaheddin. As I predicted.
I think you need to read that timeline yourself, pay attention to it this time.
Now how about justifying your doubts about Assad’s weapons? ( Prediction: ‘The US claimed saddam had WMD in 03 but he didn’t; therefore Assad doesn’t have them now’)
And tell me about my belief system and how it hasn’t changed; another unsupported statement you claimed to have some knowledge about.
*(It’s ironic that many of the claims in the timeline rely on a single MSM report of a statement made by an individual, but I guess that because the timeline itself isn’t MSM, you think, well, I don’t know what you think, but it’s amusing none-the-less)
Yes exactly, during the Afghan/Soviet war Al Qaeda was not so called, what funded the Mujahidden also funded all the Saudi’s and ‘other’s’ who joined the fight,
If you had of read the timeline you would know that bin Laden spent a large part of that war on the Pakistan side of the border funnelling the Saudi and ‘other’ fighters along with the arms across the border to the two main groups of Mujahidden,
It is obvious from the Presidential ‘directive 166’ and operation cyclone that the CIA supplied Osama bin Laden with arms and money and just as obvious that as proof of this you would only accept a ‘confession’ from both the CIA and the White-House which obviously will not be forthcoming,
Carry on with your hilarious belief in the goodness of apple pie and Uncle Sam,
Next you will be denying that prior to the first bombing of the world trade center bin Laden had a recruitment and funding office operating in New York and other US cities…
It isn’t ‘obvious’ at all, it’s an assumption based on ‘not much’. What is obvious is that your ‘knowledge’ stems from things like ‘the timeline’ which you seem to put an enormous weight on. Which is fine as far as it goes, but it’s not analysis, and it’s based on superficial stuff. You should try ‘books’.
Carry on with your hilarious belief in the goodness of apple pie and Uncle Sam,
citation required.
My belief is that the US wasn’t in any sort of control of what was going on, especially with regard to OBL. You seem to think that the US is some sort of ghost in the machine, that everything that happens, happens at their direction.
You claimed that AQ was a CIA asset in the 80s. That’s just laughable and you’ve provided no evidence for it. As is your claim that AQ are ‘basically mercenaries and guns for hire’.
No evidence for doubt about Assad’s wepaons either then?
Yes i should hunt out the book printed by ‘Time’ magazine which says much the same as what i have been saying and much the same as what the timeline also says not to forget the Wikipedia,
You are now retreating to a pathetic default position where you put up comments about what you ‘think’ i think,
Where have i said that the US were in immediate control of bin Laden??? well i didn’t, not even a slight insinuation,
What the CIA was ultimately in control of,(yes along with the Saudi’s) was the money and arms flow to the Pakistani’s who then used bin Laden and others to distribute these arms among the Jihadists,
Provided along with these arms and monies was also an ongoing series of satellite images of specific targets which they wished attacked,
Were the CIA on the ground at any time in Afghanistan giving orders, not likely their involvement was a supposed secret,(in terms of deniability), why do you think they suffered the Pakistani’s skimming the money supposedly for use in Afghanistan,
Untill recently even ‘Presidential directive 166’ was classified information and at the time that directive was issued by Carter it was simply a matter between His administration and the CIA with no over-sight from any other body…
“Where have i said that the US were in immediate control of bin Laden??? well i didn’t, not even a slight insinuation,”
” He who was captured [Mohamed al-Zawahiri] is just as likely to be in the employ of either the UN or the US via the Saudi Government,
You have to get with the real picture, prior to September 11 Al Qaeda were US funded and armed assets during the Soviet/Afghan war,”
That’s a pretty clear ‘insinuation’.
It doesn’t much look like, ‘Prior to forminh AQ OBL was raising funds and distributing them in Afghanistan and had some links with the ISI, who were also distributing US monies’.
But if that’s all you meant by ’employ’ and ‘US funded and armed assets’ and ‘AQ’, then fine I guess.
What you are describing is ‘deniability’, if the US provided the arms, money, and satellite photo’s through a third party to those opposing the Soviet’s in Afghanistan who is funding such opposition, the third party perhaps???…
And if you think anyone would need WMD as a Casus belli to go into Syria at the moment, you should read a newspaper from the last year. They could have gone in under ‘ duty to protect’ at any time.
You could try evaluating why they haven’t, (hint: it’s a shit fight with no good options) but that might challenge your pre-concieved notions about what’s going on.
Are these the same caring foreign countries who are supplying arms, financing and logistical support to the Rebels and assorted Salafi jihadists tearing up civilian areas?
what funded the Mujahidden also funded all the Saudi’s and ‘other’s’ who joined the fight,
large parts of your timeline directly contradict this. Much of the US funding was skimmed by the ISI if your timeline is to be taken as gospel. The funding OBL was attracting from wealthy saudis is what carried the war, according to your timeline. But your timeline contradicts itself in several places, doesn’t it?
Yeah i have read it close enough to know your talking s**t when you claim that the ‘timeline’ shows that ”the funding bin Laden was attracting from wealthy Saudis is what carried the war”…
Now how about justifying your doubts about Assad’s weapons? ( Prediction: ‘The US claimed saddam had WMD in 03 but he didn’t; therefore Assad doesn’t have them now’)
More like – information and claims about middle east WMD in 2003 proved extremely unreliable, information and claims about middle east WMD in 2013 may be equally unreliable.
of course it makes sense. In 1991 WMD was not seen as the all-encompassing rationale for invasion and regime change that it became after 9/11. Saddam’s invasion of Kuwait was the big trigger for allied action in 1991, not WMD.
What’s that got to do with doubting whether or not Assad has WMD?
I reckon he’s got them, based on the fact he claims to have them, is not a member of any of the relevant treaties banning them, and what we know about his programs.
Bad12 seems to think it’s doubtful, but he doesn’t seem to want to talk about it or say why.
So you accept the point that the environment surrounding the treatment of WMD has moved far on from 1991? Good.
Now, if Assad has WMD he’s had them for years and not used them against civilians AFAIK. So now we are back to the post 9/11 WMD pretext for regime change a la Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld.
BTW Syria does not have the most powerful WMD in the Middle East not governed by international treaties, by far. But you know this.
But the reactions are all important PB. After all, Assad has probably had WMD for many years (and Israel likely has the most powerful WMD of any middle east country). But today, after 9/11 and 2003, it’s become an effective pretext for waging war. A true, presumptive, convenient, casus belli a la Iraq.
Great quote from Sarah Teather in the UK Parliament during a debate on social security reforms…so applicable here too…and further evidence of the Crosby technique that they have just bought into there…so familiar!
“In an atmosphere of uncertainty and limited resources, where every family in this country is struggling, there is a natural tendency to try and find someone to blame for our own woes. A fissure already exists between the working and non-working poor. Hammering on that faultline with the language of shirkers and strivers will have long-term impacts on public attitudes, on attitudes of one neighbour against another. It will make society less generous, less sympathetic, less able to co-operate. The marginalisation of the undeserving poor will place one group outwith society entirely over time and leave them less able to make choices about their own lives and less able to participate. That fragmentation of society is, for me, the spectre of broken Britain and it is one that we should worry about hastening at our peril.”
Unfortunately all across the Western World the same template of denigration is being applied by politicians,
Unemployment is simply a reflection of the success or FAILURE of the economic ism adhered to by the various political factions, rather than address the FAILURE of such policy they choose to address negatively the visible manifestation of the FAILURE, the unemployed,
Economically there’s a wealth transfer occurring which is at the heart of the unemployment numbers where as the 1%ers gather unto themselves greater amounts of ‘wealth’ the middle classes who act as (sometimes unwitting), agents of that wealth transfer are protected by the political system directly favoring one class over another,
Symptoms of this overt favoring of the middle classes being, interest free student loans, working for families tax credits, tax cuts, so called ma and pa asset sales, and ‘plans’ to shoe horn those who can afford to service a 300+ thousand dollar mortgage into home ownership,
The only one of such policies that i would qualify as being based upon ‘NEED’ would be the interest free student loans,
Having said that, education should be funded from ‘Social Credit’ and not from the taxpayer base which is simply a means by which education is allowed to be rationed among the population…
And how the lying bastard politicians shamelessly beat that drum to divide society……..their primary purpose being to win and lengthen tenure at the public trough. All the while loftily proclaiming how decent-values stuffed they are and how much they care. They’re scum really.
And how the majority of the players in the embedded media, self-important oracles along for the ride, delightedly, effervescently often, report on how well the drum is beaten…….on how well the “game” is played.
+1 and the current Labour caucus is playing that tune to the delight of the hollowmen. This theme will get rolled out against then in 2014.
How many troughers do you see in the likes of Ducky, Kingy, etc now all been there done that, tried and failed again yet not standing aside for the fresh blood.
The basic problem is that to get most people to understand the intricacies of the Global Financial Crisis and the wholesale looting of various countries treasuries by the rich is too difficult yet people need someone to blame. Western media continuously plays up the desirability of being rich and consuming excessively so the wealthy cannot be attacked. And since the demise of the Soviet Union communists cannot be blamed, even though the Tea Party delusionally thinks they can.
So who do we have left? Beneficiaries are the easiest to bash. There is always one individual amongst a group of hundreds of thousands that can be accused of some sort of shirking behaviour and then they can be blamed for all our problems.
I agree with the gist of this sentiment, however it’s not that pointing out the bad guys is hard, they are the Douglas/Richardson/Fay/Richwhite/Key crowd.
It’s that it’s impossible to point to any good guys around who are presenting Real Alternatives.
Here’s film director Ken Loach making the same point, devastatingly, on BBC television, goading the leonine Thatcher henchman Michael Heseltine into a display of apoplectic fury…
He makes the good point that i often make, here in New Zealand some 7 billion dollars of owed tax is either ‘avoided’ or evaded’ annually,
If that ‘avoidance’ were to be classes as criminal evasion and effort brought to bear on actually collecting this owed taxation Governments wouldn’t be scrabbling round looking to point the finger of blame at the unemployed who have no means of avoiding such tax, for their, (Governments), stupid mismanagement of the economy,
The same excuse of course will be trotted out here as that Tory piece of s**t trotted out in the Utube vid, ”Oh we can’t expect the rich to pay all the tax they owe, they will en masse take all their wealth and flee the country”,
Luckily i don’t get to sit in the same room as any of these ‘people’, hearing such speech drives me into spasms of violent thought…
“The basic problem is that to get most people to understand the intricacies of the Global Financial Crisis and the wholesale looting of various countries treasuries by the rich is too difficult”
Without wanting to sound self serving, that’s an added bonus to my fight to save stan heather park in Hamilton West. Not only would it safeguard a community facility, but give the local people a clear example of wealth transfer in their backyards. The ideas I’ve sent to various parties and organisations and all without reply, show how this local issue could set a national agenda for 2014. It’s so simple, I can’t understand why no-one’s doing it already.
Show the people the fight, teach them how to win it, help them to victory. Whoever does that could take the 6 west ward councillors in the 2013 local elections, and perhaps a good shot at forcing a cup of tea from sue moroney in 2014.
4-10k votes elected 6 ward wallies. Our three suburbs could do that easy.
Hi Al1en. Very nice. A concrete in your face issue used as a demonstrator for the values we are talking about. It allows those in the neighbourhood to inquire further into political economics, without having to start a postgrad degree in the subject.
I’d be very interested in reading some more detail on your ideas – would you please forward to lee.adama@gmx.com? (I will reply via the Std if that’s OK).
No worries, though you’ll have to wade through my pigeon English to get there.
The choice here is more money to a developer or free food for the hungry.
\Doesn’t get more in your face and direct than that. Classic good v evil clash.
Beat them here over a local issue, and who knows what a nationwide launch could achieve?
I’d go at least 5% with the right personnel.
Nice work, go hard.
How can Hardaker claim “”It’s good news for the city as it will be open to the public.” when it’s being turned from park into developed suburbia.
Some mates of hamilton rugby no doubt will be profiting nicely as it’s now reported as sold. Historically wouldn’t this have been gifted to them like Ellerslie racecouse was so sort of like selling on your inheritance.
How the F did such a booming city get into such a mess TA ? The growth in/around Te Rapa with suburbia and te Awa /the base etc, what happened.
Hardaker was on TV (campbell live) when the Chiefs were winning something at last, extolling how Hamilton is a rugby town and how she’s right behind Hamilton rugby. Hypocrite politicians, I shit them.
Asked all those questions, got no answers. The head of the Hamilton rugby union couldn’t ‘remember’ the name of the secret developer that just stumped up $2m, six months before the new district plan is live.
If it smells, looks and tastes like shit, it usually is.
If the rezoning is refused, then the market price drops drastically. Worthless to a developer, priceless to a trust run market garden.
Just got to announce a better use for the land than a money maker for the 1% and raise the cash by donation and all sales of my anonymous cd.
Being part of the 99% means there’s more of us than them, right? Makes it won before it even starts. 😆
Best Practice Dec.12: Did you know that it is estimated by 2026 20,000 NZers will require palliative care to rest in peace?
Pain-the most prevalent symptom preceding all deaths occurring in palliative care settings on NZ
Opioids, also indicated for the treatment of breathlessnes in p.c, sigh, deep breath,
Pain Assessment-STAS-Support Team Assessment Schedule
or,
PACSLAC for seniors
“Total Pain”-a subjective experience, influenced by
physical-psychological-social-spiritual elemants
threshold may be raised through positive influences
-improved sleep, companionship, sympathy,sic (empathy), fear reduction
expression of negative emotions valid: REAL frustrations exist about bureaucracy, diagnostic delays, lack of resources and treatment failure.
1. Morphine the most extensively studied, widely available and commonly used opioid in p.c
-active opioid metabolites can accumulate through impairments
-opioid toxicity; myoclonic spasms, excessive sedation, confusion, restlessness, hallucination
2.Oral oxy-codone (that’s slipped into NZ in recent times; severely abused in the U.S)
Adversities;
constipation expected
Nausea-distressing yet often transitory; trial various anti-emetics
-Haloperidol if chemo-receptor trigger zone induced
-Metoclopramide if reduced G.I motility
-Cyclizine-if vestibular stimulation
Drowsiness-often transitory,resolved over a period of days; persistence may indicate toxicity
11.8 By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land. (13, admittedly, we are aliens and strangers upon the earth)
Surah 13: 32 Mocked were many Messengers
Before thee: but I granted
Respite to the Unbelievers
And finally I punished them:
Then how terrible was My requital!
Pr.11.6
A kindhearted woman gains respect, but ruthless men gain only wealth.
(I have never been interested in the work of sacha baron cohen, his cousin Simon, yes; and Seinfeld? Woody Allen on a donut, such self-obsessed characters about nothing imo)
In the year following the theft of the Mona Lisa in 1911 by Vincenzo Peruggia more people went to gaze at the empty space than in the year before: Presence (seen the art work on the cover) Absence
“We are in a predominantly mechanical, materialistic phase that has led to a desacralizing of the cosmos. This may yet have disastrous ecological consequences, given the predictions of climate science, though the worst may be abated by recovering the “ancient ideas of sacred groves or holy springs”, The deep truth about matter which neither Descartes or Newton realized, is that over the course of four billion years, molten rocks transformed themselves into monarch butterflies,blue herons and the exalted music of Mozart (Rock me Amadeus) http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/amadeus/. Ignorant of this stupendous process (stupidly) we fell into the fantasy that our role here was to reign (Objectively) over matter.
-Journey of the Universe; Brian Swimme (comologist) and Mary Tucker (ecologist)
“We have to admit the disastrous course of Business as usual; Rather, invest in scientific research, including in the Social Sciences, to find all possible openings (any port in a storm); agree to a great extent on what can be done; negotiate in Good Faith as to who will do what; and stick with the overall plan through thick and thin, despite inevitable short-term crises”
“Earth is negotiating with us right now and waiting patiently-cometh the hour, cometh the political Leadership?-for a Good Faith reply. If humans don’t make it, the universe has plenty of time and space to evolve intelligence again, yet humanity will be sloughed off as if we had never been”
-Joel Primack (physicist) and Nancy Abrams (philosopher)
Not concluding that everyone will agree on what is “sacred” http://www.literaryreview.co.uk/gray_12_10.html
one conclusion is that sacred values lie at the heart of 21st century conflicts. Further,until they are recognized as such, these conflicts will Escalate and Perpetuate, not be won or lessened.
(reasearch has shown that “Palestinian hard-liners were more willing to recognize the right of Israel to exist, if the Israelis apologized for suffering caused to Palestinians civilians in the 1948 war) -Vernon
Why is our century worse than any other?
Is it that in the stupor of fear and grief
It has plunged it’s fingers in the blackest ulcer,
Yet cannot bring relief?
Westward the sun is dropping,
And the roofs of towns are dropping in it’s light.
Already death is chalking doors with crosses
And calling the ravens and the ravens are in flight.
-Anna Akhmatova
Karl Marx was playing a parlour game
with his daughters. To their question
What is the quality one should most abhor?
he wrote; Servility.
This was found-a scrap of paper
amongst the family albums and letters;
it is the most essential of all
the Complete Works.
-Robert Gray
It takes much time to kill a tree
The hand that signed the paper felled a city;
Five sovereign fingers taxed the breath,
Doubled the globe of dead and halved a country;
These five kings did a king to death.
Also as an aside is there any chance that someone could have got my email address from here to add me on facebook? I got a random friend request from someone with some high profile left leaning friends and cannot figure out why they would have added me. I realise more than likely it was just someone adding me by accident, but thought I would check if anyone else had got this or there was any chance it came from here.
I think it would be highly unlikely it came from here.
Might be a fb group or like you made a while ago?
The other option is that it’s someone you did actually meet ages ago and forgot about – happened to me a couple of times. Turned out they knew me from years back.
Dom
-Treaty spawns a Legion of lawyers
-thankfully settlements have risen
yet,
-numbers of lawyers willing to “represent” falling
-$$$ stacked in govts court
-HNZ earthquake-prone stocks unsettling people
-17 Billion bicycles, I mean planets above Beijing
– 1 Trillion dollar platinum Federal coin
-“silliness before disaster”-Krugman
-(accounting manoeuvres only deploy ’til February 😉
-The Biggest Bank in The Whole Wide World, China’s ICBC growing a branch in NZ
-“primed” to launch-Amanda Lu
-unlikely to need to stop at red lights-Claire Matthews
meanwhile, back in the kitchen (Aus “dome of heat”)
-Bureau of Meteorology’s temperature forecast chart adds Deep Purple (Oh my love it’s a long way, where you’re from it’s a long way) and Pink to spectrum and extend range to 54 Degrees C
(all time record high, 50.7 C in 1960 at Oodnadatta)
Are you on a benefit, scared of facing life off the benefit, have you been shafted on the benefit, are you perhaps even informed and know that a nasty piece of legislation called the “Social Security (Benefit Categories and Work Focus) Amendment Bill” is right before Parliament now, being looked at by the Social Services Committee, likely to hear more submissions soon???
Better WAKE up, LEARN what the hell goes down and on, have a read of the bill on Parliament’s website, or on the sites found under following links:
I get it, your parents are rich, your parents are secure middle class, you have some savings, you studied and will get a good and well-paying job, if need be in Australia, you will “never” have to rely on the dole or any other benefit, as you will be fit and healthy for ALL times, right?!
Learn the bloody lessons of live, open your lazy ears and eyes, take a look, have a read, as this is extremely important. No, it will not just “deal to” so-called “bludgers”, “breeding solo mums” and “maligners” on sick and invalid’s benefits. The whole system will change, it will get REAL mean and you will in most cases be affected at one or another time in YOUR bloody life, dear reader.
Now the Ministry of Social (Under) Development, of social exclusion, of meanness, under the bullying Minister in charge, has launched a bloody SURVEY, to serve it’s cause and get the ignorant, blue eyed, naive and good-believing folk out there to offer ideas, suggestions and feed-back on the reforms, solely designed to “assist” the poor and so much neglected sick, injured and disabled into real good value work!?
Propaganda from and for the bottom level of inputters has never been any “sweeter”, not even Master demagogues like Goebbels, Mussolini and Hitler would have thought of such a smart scheme to “involve” all those so “concerned”.
So there you are, able to give your “input”. I am sure Farrar, Whale soil and whatever kinds of their following have already been online day and night, to offer their “advice” and support to MSD.
So dear Standardistas, get off your bloody arses, go there, and deliver also your, and your valued friend’s advice, suggestions and feedback now. It must be done, or the masters of demagoguery will win.
Get onto it, tell them what you think and feel on the MSD website, NOW, please!!!
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1. What's not to love about the way the Harris campaign is turning things around?a. Nothingb. Love all of itc. God what a reliefd. Not that it will be by any means easye. All of the above 2. Documents released by the Ministry of Health show Associate Health Minister Casey ...
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TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 26, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Transport: Simeon Brown announced$802.9 million in funding for 18 new trains on the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines, which ...
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Notes: This is a free article. Abuse in Care themes are mentioned. Video is at the bottom.BackgroundYesterday’s report into Abuse in Care revealed that at least 1 in 3 of all who went through state and faith based care were abused - often horrifically. At least, because not all survivors ...
Luxon speaks in Parliament yesterday about the Abuse in Care report. Photo: Hagen Hopkins/Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:PM Christopher Luxon said yesterday in tabling the Abuse in Carereport in Parliament he wanted to ‘do the ...
About a decade ago I worked with a bloke called Steve. He was the grizzled veteran coder, a few years older than me, who knew where the bodies were buried - code wise. Despite his best efforts to be approachable and friendly he could be kind of gruff, through to ...
Some of the recent announcements from the government have reminded us of posts we’ve written in the past. Here’s one from early 2020. There were plenty of reactions to the government’s infrastructure announcement a few weeks ago which saw them fund a bunch of big roading projects. One of ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Thursday, July 25 are:News: Why Electric Kiwi is closing to new customers - and why it matters RNZ’s Susan EdmundsScoop: Government drops ...
Hi,I felt a small wet tongue snaking through one of the holes in my Crocs. It explored my big toe, darting down one side, then the other. “He’s looking for some toe cheese,” said the woman next to me, words that still haunt me to this day.Growing up in New ...
Yesterday I happily quoted the Prime Minister without fact-checking him and sure enough, it turns out his numbers were all to hell. It’s not four kg of Royal Commission report, it’s fourteen.My friend and one-time colleague-in-comms Hazel Phillips gently alerted me to my error almost as soon as I’d hit ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Thursday, July 25, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day were:The Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquirypublished its final report yesterday.PM Christopher Luxon and The Minister responsible for ...
The Official Information Act has always been a battle between requesters seeking information, and governments seeking to control it. Information is power, so Ministers and government agencies want to manage what is released and when, for their own convenience, and legality and democracy be damned. Their most recent tactic for ...
TL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:Transport and Energy Minister Simeon Brown is accelerating plans to spend at least $10 billion through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) to extend State Highway One as a four-lane ‘Expressway’ from Warkworth to Whangarei ...
I live my life (woo-ooh-ooh)With no control in my destinyYea-yeah, yea-yeah (woo-ooh-ooh)I can bleed when I want to bleedSo come on, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)You can bleed when you want to bleedYea-yeah, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)Everybody bleed when they want to bleedCome on and bleedGovernments face tough challenges. Selling unpopular decisions to ...
Please note:To skip directly to the- parliamentary footage in the video, scroll to 1:21 To skip to audio please click on the headphone iconon the left hand side of the screenThis video / audio section is under development. ...
Given the crackdown on wasteful government spending, it behooves me to point to a high profile example of spending by the Luxon government that looks like a big, fat waste of time and money. I’m talking about the deployment of NZDF personnel to support the US-led coalition in the Red ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:40 am on Wednesday, July 24 are:Deep Dive: Chipping away at the housing crisis, including my comments RNZ/Newsroom’s The DetailNews: Government softens on asset sales, ...
As I reported about the city centre, Auckland’s rail network is also going through a difficult and disruptive period which is rapidly approaching a culmination, this will result in a significant upgrade to the whole network. Hallelujah. Also like the city centre this is an upgrade predicated on the City ...
Today, a 4 kilogram report will be delivered to Parliament. We know this is what the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care weighs, because our Prime Minister told us so.Some reporter had blindsided him by asking a question about something done by ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Wednesday, July 24, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Beehive:Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced plans to use PPPs to fund, build and run a four-lane expressway between Auckland ...
NewstalkZB host Mike Hosking, who can usually be relied on to give Prime Minister Christopher Luxon an easy run, did not do so yesterday when he interviewed him about the HealthNZ deficit. Luxon is trying to use a deficit reported last year by HealthNZ as yet another example of the ...
Back in January a StatsNZ employee gave a speech at Rātana on behalf of tangata whenua in which he insulted and criticised the government. The speech clearly violated the principle of a neutral public service, and StatsNZ started an investigation. Part of that was getting an external consultant to examine ...
Renting for life: Shared ownership initiatives are unlikely to slow the slide in home ownership by much. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:A Deloittereport for Westpac has projected Aotearoa’s home-ownership rate will ...
You're broken down and tiredOf living life on a merry go roundAnd you can't find the fighterBut I see it in you so we gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsWe gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsAnd I'll rise upI'll rise like the dayI'll rise upI'll rise unafraidI'll rise upAnd I'll ...
There’s been a change in Myers Park. Down the steps from St. Kevin’s Arcade, past the grassy slopes, the children’s playground, the benches and that goat statue, there has been a transformation. The underpass for Mayoral Drive has gone from a barren, grey, concrete tunnel, to a place that thrums ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Global society may have finally slammed on the brakes for climate-warming pollution released by human fossil fuel combustion. According to the Carbon Monitor Project, the total global climate pollution released between February and May 2024 declined slightly from the amount released during the same ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Tuesday, July 23 are:Deep Dive: Penlink: where tolling rhetoric meets reality BusinessDesk-$$$’sOliver LewisScoop:Te Pūkenga plans for regional polytechs leak out ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Tuesday, July 23, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Health: Shane Reti announcedthe Board of Te Whatu Ora-Health New Zealand was being replaced with Commissioner Lester Levy ...
Health NZ warned the Government at the end of March that it was running over Budget. But the reasons it gave were very different to those offered by the Prime Minister yesterday. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon blamed the “botched merger” of the 20 District Health Boards (DHBs) to create Health ...
Long ReadKey Summary: Although National increased the health budget by $1.4 billion in May, they used an old funding model to project health system costs, and never bothered to update their pre-election numbers. They were told during the Health Select Committees earlier in the year their budget amount was deficient, ...
As a momentous, historic weekend in US politics unfolded, analysts and commentators grasped for precedents and comparisons to help explain the significance and power of the choice Joe Biden had made. The 46th president had swept the Democratic party’s primaries but just over 100 days from the election had chosen ...
TL;DR: I’m casting around for new ideas and ways of thinking about Aotearoa’s political economy to find a few solutions to our cascading and self-reinforcing housing, poverty and climate crises.Associate Professor runs an online masters degree in the economics of sustainability at Torrens University in Australia and is organising ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on National's Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill. The bill sets up water for privatisation, and was introduced under urgency, then rammed through select committee with no time even for local councils to make a proper submission. Naturally, national's select committee ...
Some years ago, I bought a book at Dunedin’s Regent Booksale for $1.50. As one does. Vandrad the Viking (1898), by J. Storer Clouston, is an obscure book these days – I cannot find a proper online review – but soon it was sitting on my shelf, gathering dust alongside ...
History is not on the side of the centre-left, when Democratic presidents fall behind in the polls and choose not to run for re-election. On both previous occasions in the past 75 years (Harry Truman in 1952, Lyndon Johnson in 1968) the Democrats proceeded to then lose the White House ...
This is a free articleCoverageThis morning, US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the Presidential race. And that is genuinely newsworthy. Thanks for your service, President Biden, and all the best to you and yours.However, the media in New Zealand, particularly the 1News nightly bulletin, has been breathlessly covering ...
A homeless person’s camp beside a blocked-off slipped damage walkway in Freeman’s Bay: we are chasing our tail on our worsening and inter-related housing, poverty and climate crises. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Orderimage, ...
Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
Te Rangi e tu nei (The sky above us) Te Papa e takoto nei (The land beneath us) Tatou katoa te hunga ora (To us all the living) Tena koutou katoa (Greetings) ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi Māori rallied against the Crown’s attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hīkoi of a generation and the birth of Te Pāti Māori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinian’s have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinian’s who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Government’s disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whānau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they can’t escape on ...
Te Pāti Māori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. “This announcement is just another example of the government’s anti-Tiriti, anti-Māori agenda.” Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. “Seymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged. ...
Te Pāti Māori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. “Reinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Māori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. “This legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whānau out onto the street for no reason” said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “Their solution to the housing ...
“National’s campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,” Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
“There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,” Jan Tinetti said. ...
“This government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this government’s agenda and the future of our mokopuna,” said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
“Today’s climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,” Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how they’re taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
Tēnā tātou katoa, Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament’s test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Section 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. “The level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations I’ve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawke’s Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,” was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry “Whanaketia – through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “Tax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says a bill that has passed its first reading will improve parental leave settings and give non-biological parents more flexibility as primary carer for their child. The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (No3), passed its first reading this morning. “It includes a change ...
Two Bills designed to improve regulation and make it easier to do business have passed their first reading in Parliament, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. The Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Bill and Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Bill make key changes to legislation administered by the Ministry ...
New legislation paves the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Competitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. “Under current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and Whangārei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “For too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
Sir Don McKinnon will travel to Viet Nam this week as a Special Envoy of the Government, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “It is important that the Government give due recognition to the significant contributions that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made to New Zealand-Viet Nam relations,” Mr ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says newly appointed Commissioner, Grant Illingworth KC, will help deliver the report for the first phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons, due on 28 November 2024. “I am pleased to announce that Mr Illingworth will commence his appointment as ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters travels to Laos this week to participate in a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led Ministerial meetings in Vientiane. “ASEAN plays an important role in supporting a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” Mr Peters says. “This will be our third visit to ...
Construction of a new mental health facility at Te Nikau Grey Hospital in Greymouth is today one step closer, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says. “This $27 million facility shows this Government is delivering on its promise to boost mental health care and improve front line services,” Mr Doocey says. ...
New Zealand is committing nearly $50 million to a package supporting sustainable Pacific fisheries development over the next four years, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This support consisting of a range of initiatives demonstrates New Zealand’s commitment to assisting our Pacific partners ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says proposed changes to the Education and Training Amendment Bill will ensure charter schools have more flexibility to negotiate employment agreements and are equipped with the right teaching resources. “Cabinet has agreed to progress an amendment which means unions will not be able to initiate ...
In response to serious concerns around oversight, overspend and a significant deterioration in financial outlook, the Board of Health New Zealand will be replaced with a Commissioner, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti announced today. “The previous government’s botched health reforms have created significant financial challenges at Health NZ that, without ...
Minister for Space and Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins will travel to Adelaide tomorrow for space and science engagements, including speaking at the Australian Space Forum. While there she will also have meetings and visits with a focus on space, biotechnology and innovation. “New Zealand has a thriving space ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will travel to China on Saturday to attend the Ministerial on Climate Action meeting held in Wuhan. “Attending the Ministerial on Climate Action is an opportunity to advocate for New Zealand climate priorities and engage with our key partners on climate action,” Mr Watts says. ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is travelling to the Solomon Islands tomorrow for meetings with his counterparts from around the Pacific supporting collective management of the region’s fisheries. The 23rd Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Committee and the 5th Regional Fisheries Ministers’ Meeting in Honiara from 23 to 26 July ...
The Government today launched the Military Style Academy Pilot at Te Au rere a te Tonga Youth Justice residence in Palmerston North, an important part of the Government’s plan to crackdown on youth crime and getting youth offenders back on track, Minister for Children, Karen Chhour said today. “On the ...
The Government has welcomed news the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has begun work to replace nine priority bridges across the country to ensure our state highway network remains resilient, reliable, and efficient for road users, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“Increasing productivity and economic growth is a key priority for the ...
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour has been in contact throughout the evening with senior officials who have coordinated a whole of government response to the global IT outage and can provide an update. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has designated the National Emergency Management Agency as the ...
New Zealand and Japan will continue to step up their shared engagement with the Pacific, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand and Japan have a strong, shared interest in a free, open and stable Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “We are pleased to be finding more ways ...
New developments in the heart of North Island forestry country will reinvigorate their communities and boost economic development, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones visited Kaingaroa and Kawerau in Bay of Plenty today to open a landmark community centre in the former and a new connecting road in ...
President Adeang, fellow Ministers, honourable Diet Member Horii, Ambassadors, distinguished guests. Minasama, konnichiwa, and good afternoon, everyone. Distinguished guests, it’s a pleasure to be here with you today to talk about New Zealand’s foreign policy reset, the reasons for it, the values that underpin it, and how it ...
Christopher Luxon: hurdles The little man from National jumps hurdles in his sleep. He’s quite good at it in his dreams and even though the reality doesn’t quite match up you have to give him credit for getting up every morning and crashing into the very first hurdle of the ...
Comment: It was a good two hours into the conversation when Tyrone Marks raised the most basic of questions when I first spoke to him in 2017. “They didn’t explain the things they did to me. They never told me why. And they still haven’t. There’s no explanation for it. ...
Last summer when Matairangi burned, Ginny and Tom stood at the window of their lounge, watching kākā shoot skyward from the burning trees. From the distance, they looked to Ginny like pages torn from books and thrown into a bonfire. It was Tom, voice tight, who told her it was ...
Opinion: The Canadian short story writer Alice Munro – winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013 – died in May at the age of 92. Her work was about “the damage people inflict on one another in the name of love”, Deborah Treisman wrote in the New Yorker. ...
This month marks two years since the most powerful telescope ever built sent its first pictures back to earth. From its lofty vantage point, beyond the moon in orbit around the sun, the James Webb Space Telescope was tuned to observe the first stars and galaxies being born soon after ...
Comment: After Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ preview several weeks ago, I had some optimism about the Government’s emissions reduction plan. Now I’ve read the discussion document, that hope has been dashed. How can the Government propose a plan that wants to take New Zealand taxpayers’ hard-earned money, and spend ...
Madeleine Chapman rounds out Death Week on The Spinoff with a final recommendation. You can read all of our Death Week coverage here. Nothing forces you to reflect on your life and relationships quite like proximity to death. For those whose nearest and dearest have died, there are reasonably obvious ...
Whitney Greene takes us through her life in television, including the TV character she’d like to plan a funeral for and her cow lung catastrophe on The Traitors NZ. “If the phone rings, I have to answer it,” Whitney Greene from The Traitors NZ warns as we begin our My ...
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Paging Pascal’s bookie,wakey wakey, here’s the reply to your rude interruption of the debate in yesterday’s ‘Open Mike’,
Note that ALL of the actions in ‘Operation Cyclone’ were the result of secret ‘directive 166’ signed first by President Jimmy Carter and later expanded by President Ronald Reagan,
Your claims that Arab groups fighting in the Afghan/Soviet war were only funded and armed by Saudi and other Arab states funneled through the Pakistani intelligence service are rather spurious considering the information now available,
Operation Cyclone- Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia,
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/operation_cyclone
Bugger, another link that won’t, don’t know what’s with that, but ask the question of Google ‘US funds for groups fighting in Afghan/Soviet war’ and it should take to the page i tried to link to…
If your in for a ‘looong read’ which details ALL the players in the Afghan/Soviet war, the personal connections from the CIA to President Ronald Reagan meeting bin Laden’s older brother at the White-House, (along with such niceties as some of the ‘high-ups’ in bin Laden’ various organizations being aided by the CIA to repeatedly gain visa to enter the US despite being on the ‘terrorist watchlist’) there’s this,
Complete 911 Timeline: The Soviet/Afghan war.
http://www.historycommons.org>…>Afghanistan>complete911timeline
If that link fails, try asking google the same question i refer to after my earlier link didn’t work…
It’s all pretty weak, and anticipated in my comment.
I suggest we take this over there, so that it doesn’t clutter this thread, and so that people can see the context.
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-07012013/comment-page-1/#comment-570950
You’ve ignored most of what I said, and have, as predicted, conflated mujaheddin with AQ.
Here’s your initial; claim:
You have to get with the real picture, prior to September 11 Al Qaeda were US funded and armed assets during the Soviet/Afghan war
Operation cyclone was about supporting the mujaheddin, and there is no conclusive evidence that OBL was funded. The implication that he was directly funded by the US is even harder to substantiate, which is probably why you are having such a hard time coming up with any good direct sources or quotes.
I’ll repost this in the relevant thread.
Nope i haven’t confused Al Qaeda and the Mujaheddin at all, they were all inter-connected during the Afghan/Soviet war so what funded the Mujahidden also at the same time funded Al Qaeda,
Riiiight, perhaps you think i mean that the CIA passed suitcases full of used 20’s directly to bin Laden, spurious, the funding went to the Pakistani intelligence network from the US, (billions of dollars),and was then distributed by the Pakistani intelligence network either directly as arms or laundered through the BCCI bank,
I suggest you read ‘The complete 911 Timeline: The Soviet-Afghan war which you obviously haven’t otherwise you would not be replying with such lame comments…
I’ve read the timeline. It’s a bit of a curate’s egg to be honest. It often claims certain things to be facts based on not much more than “x reported that unnamed source told him y”, which is a data point to be sure, but absent corroboration, not one that given much weight.*
It would better if it just left it at the ‘X reports’ and laid of on the implications that Y was true.
Based on what you’ve written though. I’d suggest you need to do a lot more reading. A good primer is “The Looming Tower”. It really is worth the time and money invested if you want to know what everyone is claiming and how much evidence exists for the claims.
Nope i haven’t confused Al Qaeda and the Mujaheddin at all, they were all inter-connected during the Afghan/Soviet war so what funded the Mujahidden also at the same time funded Al Qaeda,
I said you conflated the Mujaheddin and AQ.
‘Conflate’, as in, ‘assume that funding one is the same as funding the other’, as in, “so what funded the Mujahidden also at the same time funded Al Qaeda”.
You claimed AQ was a cia/US asset during the 70s and 80’s war. As suppport for this, the only thing you’ve presented is that the US gave money to the ISI to distribute to Mujaheddin. As I predicted.
I think you need to read that timeline yourself, pay attention to it this time.
Now how about justifying your doubts about Assad’s weapons? ( Prediction: ‘The US claimed saddam had WMD in 03 but he didn’t; therefore Assad doesn’t have them now’)
And tell me about my belief system and how it hasn’t changed; another unsupported statement you claimed to have some knowledge about.
*(It’s ironic that many of the claims in the timeline rely on a single MSM report of a statement made by an individual, but I guess that because the timeline itself isn’t MSM, you think, well, I don’t know what you think, but it’s amusing none-the-less)
Yes exactly, during the Afghan/Soviet war Al Qaeda was not so called, what funded the Mujahidden also funded all the Saudi’s and ‘other’s’ who joined the fight,
If you had of read the timeline you would know that bin Laden spent a large part of that war on the Pakistan side of the border funnelling the Saudi and ‘other’ fighters along with the arms across the border to the two main groups of Mujahidden,
It is obvious from the Presidential ‘directive 166’ and operation cyclone that the CIA supplied Osama bin Laden with arms and money and just as obvious that as proof of this you would only accept a ‘confession’ from both the CIA and the White-House which obviously will not be forthcoming,
Carry on with your hilarious belief in the goodness of apple pie and Uncle Sam,
Next you will be denying that prior to the first bombing of the world trade center bin Laden had a recruitment and funding office operating in New York and other US cities…
It isn’t ‘obvious’ at all, it’s an assumption based on ‘not much’. What is obvious is that your ‘knowledge’ stems from things like ‘the timeline’ which you seem to put an enormous weight on. Which is fine as far as it goes, but it’s not analysis, and it’s based on superficial stuff. You should try ‘books’.
Carry on with your hilarious belief in the goodness of apple pie and Uncle Sam,
citation required.
My belief is that the US wasn’t in any sort of control of what was going on, especially with regard to OBL. You seem to think that the US is some sort of ghost in the machine, that everything that happens, happens at their direction.
You claimed that AQ was a CIA asset in the 80s. That’s just laughable and you’ve provided no evidence for it. As is your claim that AQ are ‘basically mercenaries and guns for hire’.
No evidence for doubt about Assad’s wepaons either then?
Yes i should hunt out the book printed by ‘Time’ magazine which says much the same as what i have been saying and much the same as what the timeline also says not to forget the Wikipedia,
You are now retreating to a pathetic default position where you put up comments about what you ‘think’ i think,
Where have i said that the US were in immediate control of bin Laden??? well i didn’t, not even a slight insinuation,
What the CIA was ultimately in control of,(yes along with the Saudi’s) was the money and arms flow to the Pakistani’s who then used bin Laden and others to distribute these arms among the Jihadists,
Provided along with these arms and monies was also an ongoing series of satellite images of specific targets which they wished attacked,
Were the CIA on the ground at any time in Afghanistan giving orders, not likely their involvement was a supposed secret,(in terms of deniability), why do you think they suffered the Pakistani’s skimming the money supposedly for use in Afghanistan,
Untill recently even ‘Presidential directive 166’ was classified information and at the time that directive was issued by Carter it was simply a matter between His administration and the CIA with no over-sight from any other body…
“Where have i said that the US were in immediate control of bin Laden??? well i didn’t, not even a slight insinuation,”
” He who was captured [Mohamed al-Zawahiri] is just as likely to be in the employ of either the UN or the US via the Saudi Government,
You have to get with the real picture, prior to September 11 Al Qaeda were US funded and armed assets during the Soviet/Afghan war,”
That’s a pretty clear ‘insinuation’.
It doesn’t much look like, ‘Prior to forminh AQ OBL was raising funds and distributing them in Afghanistan and had some links with the ISI, who were also distributing US monies’.
But if that’s all you meant by ’employ’ and ‘US funded and armed assets’ and ‘AQ’, then fine I guess.
What you are describing is ‘deniability’, if the US provided the arms, money, and satellite photo’s through a third party to those opposing the Soviet’s in Afghanistan who is funding such opposition, the third party perhaps???…
Sigh.
Your initial claim was that AQ was a CIA asset, and that based on that Al Zawahiri was likely to be in the employ of the UN, via the Saud regime.
That’s ridiculous.
Now you are saying that OBL possibly got some money from the ISI before AQ was even formed.
Weapons of mass destruction??? now where have i heard that before…
What did you mean by that?
Do you doubt he has them? On what grounds?
And if you think anyone would need WMD as a Casus belli to go into Syria at the moment, you should read a newspaper from the last year. They could have gone in under ‘ duty to protect’ at any time.
You could try evaluating why they haven’t, (hint: it’s a shit fight with no good options) but that might challenge your pre-concieved notions about what’s going on.
Duty to protect? LOL
Are these the same caring foreign countries who are supplying arms, financing and logistical support to the Rebels and assorted Salafi jihadists tearing up civilian areas?
what funded the Mujahidden also funded all the Saudi’s and ‘other’s’ who joined the fight,
large parts of your timeline directly contradict this. Much of the US funding was skimmed by the ISI if your timeline is to be taken as gospel. The funding OBL was attracting from wealthy saudis is what carried the war, according to your timeline. But your timeline contradicts itself in several places, doesn’t it?
Have you really read it? Closely?
Yeah i have read it close enough to know your talking s**t when you claim that the ‘timeline’ shows that ”the funding bin Laden was attracting from wealthy Saudis is what carried the war”…
It’s a claim made in the Timeline, not one I made.
notice heaps of “a source within x” in the MSM these days
sooo, where is the mandate to verify sources?
‘First draft of history’ and all that.
More like – information and claims about middle east WMD in 2003 proved extremely unreliable, information and claims about middle east WMD in 2013 may be equally unreliable.
But that’s no better.
The situation is closer to Iraq in 91. Care to claim he didn’t have WMD then?
Since 9/11, your example has become less relevant and mine more so. Blame Bush/Cheney for this environment.
That makes no sense at all.
Saying ‘Bush Cheney’ doesn’t render logical fallacies valid, it just adds another to the mix.
of course it makes sense. In 1991 WMD was not seen as the all-encompassing rationale for invasion and regime change that it became after 9/11. Saddam’s invasion of Kuwait was the big trigger for allied action in 1991, not WMD.
What’s that got to do with doubting whether or not Assad has WMD?
I reckon he’s got them, based on the fact he claims to have them, is not a member of any of the relevant treaties banning them, and what we know about his programs.
Bad12 seems to think it’s doubtful, but he doesn’t seem to want to talk about it or say why.
So you accept the point that the environment surrounding the treatment of WMD has moved far on from 1991? Good.
Now, if Assad has WMD he’s had them for years and not used them against civilians AFAIK. So now we are back to the post 9/11 WMD pretext for regime change a la Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld.
BTW Syria does not have the most powerful WMD in the Middle East not governed by international treaties, by far. But you know this.
We’re not ‘back to’ anything.
We were talking about whether or not he has them. The reactions to that, do not effect the likelihood of that.
But the reactions are all important PB. After all, Assad has probably had WMD for many years (and Israel likely has the most powerful WMD of any middle east country). But today, after 9/11 and 2003, it’s become an effective pretext for waging war. A true, presumptive, convenient, casus belli a la Iraq.
By the way, in todays stupid languaging a 100 year old chlorine, mustard gas or phosgene shell would be correctly considered “WMD”. Hopeless.
johnny boy’s gotta lotta ‘D’s on his report card, Frankly Speaking 🙁
Great quote from Sarah Teather in the UK Parliament during a debate on social security reforms…so applicable here too…and further evidence of the Crosby technique that they have just bought into there…so familiar!
“In an atmosphere of uncertainty and limited resources, where every family in this country is struggling, there is a natural tendency to try and find someone to blame for our own woes. A fissure already exists between the working and non-working poor. Hammering on that faultline with the language of shirkers and strivers will have long-term impacts on public attitudes, on attitudes of one neighbour against another. It will make society less generous, less sympathetic, less able to co-operate. The marginalisation of the undeserving poor will place one group outwith society entirely over time and leave them less able to make choices about their own lives and less able to participate. That fragmentation of society is, for me, the spectre of broken Britain and it is one that we should worry about hastening at our peril.”
The beneficiary painting the roof couldn’t be a better example of ‘A fissure already exists between the working and non-working poor.’
Unfortunately all across the Western World the same template of denigration is being applied by politicians,
Unemployment is simply a reflection of the success or FAILURE of the economic ism adhered to by the various political factions, rather than address the FAILURE of such policy they choose to address negatively the visible manifestation of the FAILURE, the unemployed,
Economically there’s a wealth transfer occurring which is at the heart of the unemployment numbers where as the 1%ers gather unto themselves greater amounts of ‘wealth’ the middle classes who act as (sometimes unwitting), agents of that wealth transfer are protected by the political system directly favoring one class over another,
Symptoms of this overt favoring of the middle classes being, interest free student loans, working for families tax credits, tax cuts, so called ma and pa asset sales, and ‘plans’ to shoe horn those who can afford to service a 300+ thousand dollar mortgage into home ownership,
The only one of such policies that i would qualify as being based upon ‘NEED’ would be the interest free student loans,
Having said that, education should be funded from ‘Social Credit’ and not from the taxpayer base which is simply a means by which education is allowed to be rationed among the population…
And how the lying bastard politicians shamelessly beat that drum to divide society……..their primary purpose being to win and lengthen tenure at the public trough. All the while loftily proclaiming how decent-values stuffed they are and how much they care. They’re scum really.
And how the majority of the players in the embedded media, self-important oracles along for the ride, delightedly, effervescently often, report on how well the drum is beaten…….on how well the “game” is played.
Damn…….there are even knighthoods in the offing.
+1 and the current Labour caucus is playing that tune to the delight of the hollowmen. This theme will get rolled out against then in 2014.
How many troughers do you see in the likes of Ducky, Kingy, etc now all been there done that, tried and failed again yet not standing aside for the fresh blood.
The basic problem is that to get most people to understand the intricacies of the Global Financial Crisis and the wholesale looting of various countries treasuries by the rich is too difficult yet people need someone to blame. Western media continuously plays up the desirability of being rich and consuming excessively so the wealthy cannot be attacked. And since the demise of the Soviet Union communists cannot be blamed, even though the Tea Party delusionally thinks they can.
So who do we have left? Beneficiaries are the easiest to bash. There is always one individual amongst a group of hundreds of thousands that can be accused of some sort of shirking behaviour and then they can be blamed for all our problems.
People need simple targets.
I agree with the gist of this sentiment, however it’s not that pointing out the bad guys is hard, they are the Douglas/Richardson/Fay/Richwhite/Key crowd.
It’s that it’s impossible to point to any good guys around who are presenting Real Alternatives.
+1
Need to do more than point out the Bad guys as well – need to point out that the entire socio-economic system is a failure.
Gareth’s retrospective is helpful
Here’s film director Ken Loach making the same point, devastatingly, on BBC television, goading the leonine Thatcher henchman Michael Heseltine into a display of apoplectic fury…
He makes the good point that i often make, here in New Zealand some 7 billion dollars of owed tax is either ‘avoided’ or evaded’ annually,
If that ‘avoidance’ were to be classes as criminal evasion and effort brought to bear on actually collecting this owed taxation Governments wouldn’t be scrabbling round looking to point the finger of blame at the unemployed who have no means of avoiding such tax, for their, (Governments), stupid mismanagement of the economy,
The same excuse of course will be trotted out here as that Tory piece of s**t trotted out in the Utube vid, ”Oh we can’t expect the rich to pay all the tax they owe, they will en masse take all their wealth and flee the country”,
Luckily i don’t get to sit in the same room as any of these ‘people’, hearing such speech drives me into spasms of violent thought…
“The basic problem is that to get most people to understand the intricacies of the Global Financial Crisis and the wholesale looting of various countries treasuries by the rich is too difficult”
Without wanting to sound self serving, that’s an added bonus to my fight to save stan heather park in Hamilton West. Not only would it safeguard a community facility, but give the local people a clear example of wealth transfer in their backyards. The ideas I’ve sent to various parties and organisations and all without reply, show how this local issue could set a national agenda for 2014. It’s so simple, I can’t understand why no-one’s doing it already.
Show the people the fight, teach them how to win it, help them to victory. Whoever does that could take the 6 west ward councillors in the 2013 local elections, and perhaps a good shot at forcing a cup of tea from sue moroney in 2014.
4-10k votes elected 6 ward wallies. Our three suburbs could do that easy.
But nope, not going to happen.
Hi Al1en. Very nice. A concrete in your face issue used as a demonstrator for the values we are talking about. It allows those in the neighbourhood to inquire further into political economics, without having to start a postgrad degree in the subject.
I’d be very interested in reading some more detail on your ideas – would you please forward to lee.adama@gmx.com? (I will reply via the Std if that’s OK).
No worries, though you’ll have to wade through my pigeon English to get there.
The choice here is more money to a developer or free food for the hungry.
\Doesn’t get more in your face and direct than that. Classic good v evil clash.
Beat them here over a local issue, and who knows what a nationwide launch could achieve?
I’d go at least 5% with the right personnel.
I’ll send you something later tonight.
Thanks.
Nice work, go hard.
How can Hardaker claim “”It’s good news for the city as it will be open to the public.” when it’s being turned from park into developed suburbia.
Some mates of hamilton rugby no doubt will be profiting nicely as it’s now reported as sold. Historically wouldn’t this have been gifted to them like Ellerslie racecouse was so sort of like selling on your inheritance.
How the F did such a booming city get into such a mess TA ? The growth in/around Te Rapa with suburbia and te Awa /the base etc, what happened.
Hardaker was on TV (campbell live) when the Chiefs were winning something at last, extolling how Hamilton is a rugby town and how she’s right behind Hamilton rugby. Hypocrite politicians, I shit them.
Asked all those questions, got no answers. The head of the Hamilton rugby union couldn’t ‘remember’ the name of the secret developer that just stumped up $2m, six months before the new district plan is live.
If it smells, looks and tastes like shit, it usually is.
If the rezoning is refused, then the market price drops drastically. Worthless to a developer, priceless to a trust run market garden.
Just got to announce a better use for the land than a money maker for the 1% and raise the cash by donation and all sales of my anonymous cd.
Being part of the 99% means there’s more of us than them, right? Makes it won before it even starts. 😆
Councils all over the country are flogging off open spaces and community facilities like they are going out of fashion.
“Some wonderful responses to our Chatham Oi-lands story!”
Summer Noelle doggedly keeping it light
I’ve still had no reply from Noelle McCarthy, following her timid handling yesterday of the American writer Mark Bowden….
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-08012013/comment-page-1/#comment-570645
She did, however, have time to read out several emails, all of them whimsical and non-threatening comments about the “Chatham Oi-lands.”
Obviously there is no room on “Summer Noelle” for anything resembling debate, let alone dissent. Maybe she thinks she’s still working at NewstalkZB.
RNZ is turning into ZB under Griffin. She got caught out for plagarism from memory last time around.
Wouldn’t summer be a good time to give some fresh local talent some airtime rather than this recycled common garden variety hack.
Does Richard Griffin actually have an influence on the programming now? That prospect is almost too depressing to contemplate.
Perhaps RNZ should turn over its summer air time to the Access radio/student radio stations…
“New Zealand’s status as a test-playing cricket nation in question; lack of depth, or out of our depth”
is Hell other people?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Paul_Sartre
is literatures’ function ultimately a bourgeois substitute for real “authentic” commitment in the world?
beavering on, (more on Nausea to follow)
Best Practice Dec.12: Did you know that it is estimated by 2026 20,000 NZers will require palliative care to rest in peace?
Pain-the most prevalent symptom preceding all deaths occurring in palliative care settings on NZ
Opioids, also indicated for the treatment of breathlessnes in p.c, sigh, deep breath,
Pain Assessment-STAS-Support Team Assessment Schedule
or,
PACSLAC for seniors
“Total Pain”-a subjective experience, influenced by
physical-psychological-social-spiritual elemants
threshold may be raised through positive influences
-improved sleep, companionship, sympathy,sic (empathy), fear reduction
expression of negative emotions valid: REAL frustrations exist about bureaucracy, diagnostic delays, lack of resources and treatment failure.
1. Morphine the most extensively studied, widely available and commonly used opioid in p.c
-active opioid metabolites can accumulate through impairments
-opioid toxicity; myoclonic spasms, excessive sedation, confusion, restlessness, hallucination
2.Oral oxy-codone (that’s slipped into NZ in recent times; severely abused in the U.S)
3. Fentanyl
Adjuvant analgesics
Indications
neuropathic- tri-cyclics, anti-epileptics
bone pain- NSAIDS
skeletal muscle spasm- relaxants, benzos etc
smooth muscle spasm- anti-cholinergics, anti-muscurinics
intra-cranial pressure
liver capsule stretch
tenesmus (gotta go) – steroids
Adversities;
constipation expected
Nausea-distressing yet often transitory; trial various anti-emetics
-Haloperidol if chemo-receptor trigger zone induced
-Metoclopramide if reduced G.I motility
-Cyclizine-if vestibular stimulation
Drowsiness-often transitory,resolved over a period of days; persistence may indicate toxicity
11.8 By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land. (13, admittedly, we are aliens and strangers upon the earth)
Surah 13: 32 Mocked were many Messengers
Before thee: but I granted
Respite to the Unbelievers
And finally I punished them:
Then how terrible was My requital!
Pr.11.6
A kindhearted woman gains respect, but ruthless men gain only wealth.
(I have never been interested in the work of sacha baron cohen, his cousin Simon, yes; and Seinfeld? Woody Allen on a donut, such self-obsessed characters about nothing imo)
These are the Gangs from New York I like
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gangs_of_New_York:_Music_from_the_Miramax_Motion_Picture
-Hawkeye
In the year following the theft of the Mona Lisa in 1911 by Vincenzo Peruggia more people went to gaze at the empty space than in the year before: Presence (seen the art work on the cover) Absence
“We are in a predominantly mechanical, materialistic phase that has led to a desacralizing of the cosmos. This may yet have disastrous ecological consequences, given the predictions of climate science, though the worst may be abated by recovering the “ancient ideas of sacred groves or holy springs”, The deep truth about matter which neither Descartes or Newton realized, is that over the course of four billion years, molten rocks transformed themselves into monarch butterflies,blue herons and the exalted music of Mozart (Rock me Amadeus) http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/amadeus/. Ignorant of this stupendous process (stupidly) we fell into the fantasy that our role here was to reign (Objectively) over matter.
-Journey of the Universe; Brian Swimme (comologist) and Mary Tucker (ecologist)
“We have to admit the disastrous course of Business as usual; Rather, invest in scientific research, including in the Social Sciences, to find all possible openings (any port in a storm); agree to a great extent on what can be done; negotiate in Good Faith as to who will do what; and stick with the overall plan through thick and thin, despite inevitable short-term crises”
“Earth is negotiating with us right now and waiting patiently-cometh the hour, cometh the political Leadership?-for a Good Faith reply. If humans don’t make it, the universe has plenty of time and space to evolve intelligence again, yet humanity will be sloughed off as if we had never been”
-Joel Primack (physicist) and Nancy Abrams (philosopher)
Not concluding that everyone will agree on what is “sacred”
http://www.literaryreview.co.uk/gray_12_10.html
one conclusion is that sacred values lie at the heart of 21st century conflicts. Further,until they are recognized as such, these conflicts will Escalate and Perpetuate, not be won or lessened.
(reasearch has shown that “Palestinian hard-liners were more willing to recognize the right of Israel to exist, if the Israelis apologized for suffering caused to Palestinians civilians in the 1948 war) -Vernon
Why is our century worse than any other?
Is it that in the stupor of fear and grief
It has plunged it’s fingers in the blackest ulcer,
Yet cannot bring relief?
Westward the sun is dropping,
And the roofs of towns are dropping in it’s light.
Already death is chalking doors with crosses
And calling the ravens and the ravens are in flight.
-Anna Akhmatova
Karl Marx was playing a parlour game
with his daughters. To their question
What is the quality one should most abhor?
he wrote; Servility.
This was found-a scrap of paper
amongst the family albums and letters;
it is the most essential of all
the Complete Works.
-Robert Gray
It takes much time to kill a tree
The hand that signed the paper felled a city;
Five sovereign fingers taxed the breath,
Doubled the globe of dead and halved a country;
These five kings did a king to death.
-Dylan
Apologies if this has already been posted, but here is a very interesting article about the effects of austerity:
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/when-a-guess-is-as-good-as-a-forecast-20130108-2cep8.html
Don’t know how to embed the link.
Also as an aside is there any chance that someone could have got my email address from here to add me on facebook? I got a random friend request from someone with some high profile left leaning friends and cannot figure out why they would have added me. I realise more than likely it was just someone adding me by accident, but thought I would check if anyone else had got this or there was any chance it came from here.
easiest way is to fb message the person and ask.
Yeah I have but they haven’t responded and it’s not anywhere near important enough for me to follow up with another message.
I think it would be highly unlikely it came from here.
Might be a fb group or like you made a while ago?
The other option is that it’s someone you did actually meet ages ago and forgot about – happened to me a couple of times. Turned out they knew me from years back.
Dom
-Treaty spawns a Legion of lawyers
-thankfully settlements have risen
yet,
-numbers of lawyers willing to “represent” falling
-$$$ stacked in govts court
-HNZ earthquake-prone stocks unsettling people
-17 Billion bicycles, I mean planets above Beijing
– 1 Trillion dollar platinum Federal coin
-“silliness before disaster”-Krugman
-(accounting manoeuvres only deploy ’til February 😉
-The Biggest Bank in The Whole Wide World, China’s ICBC growing a branch in NZ
-“primed” to launch-Amanda Lu
-unlikely to need to stop at red lights-Claire Matthews
meanwhile, back in the kitchen (Aus “dome of heat”)
-Bureau of Meteorology’s temperature forecast chart adds Deep Purple (Oh my love it’s a long way, where you’re from it’s a long way) and Pink to spectrum and extend range to 54 Degrees C
(all time record high, 50.7 C in 1960 at Oodnadatta)
Cobra II
http://books.google.co.nz/books/about/Cobra_II.html?id=CyuUZlAFXHUC&redir_esc=y
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/09/25/the-endgame-is-a-well-researched-highly-critical-look-at-u-s-policy-in-iraq.html
The End Game
those who give have all things, those who withhold, nothing.
-Hindu proverb (sounds a little like Mana)
HALLO ALL!
Are you on a benefit, scared of facing life off the benefit, have you been shafted on the benefit, are you perhaps even informed and know that a nasty piece of legislation called the “Social Security (Benefit Categories and Work Focus) Amendment Bill” is right before Parliament now, being looked at by the Social Services Committee, likely to hear more submissions soon???
Better WAKE up, LEARN what the hell goes down and on, have a read of the bill on Parliament’s website, or on the sites found under following links:
http://www.legislation.govt.nz/bill/government/2012/0067/latest/DLM4542304.html
http://www.parliament.nz/en-NZ/PB/Legislation/Bills/5/2/a/00DBHOH_BILL11634_1-Social-Security-Benefit-Categories-and-Work-Focus.htm
http://www.parliament.nz/en-NZ/PB/SC/Documents/Evidence/?Custom=00DBHOH_BILL11634_1
I get it, your parents are rich, your parents are secure middle class, you have some savings, you studied and will get a good and well-paying job, if need be in Australia, you will “never” have to rely on the dole or any other benefit, as you will be fit and healthy for ALL times, right?!
Learn the bloody lessons of live, open your lazy ears and eyes, take a look, have a read, as this is extremely important. No, it will not just “deal to” so-called “bludgers”, “breeding solo mums” and “maligners” on sick and invalid’s benefits. The whole system will change, it will get REAL mean and you will in most cases be affected at one or another time in YOUR bloody life, dear reader.
Now the Ministry of Social (Under) Development, of social exclusion, of meanness, under the bullying Minister in charge, has launched a bloody SURVEY, to serve it’s cause and get the ignorant, blue eyed, naive and good-believing folk out there to offer ideas, suggestions and feed-back on the reforms, solely designed to “assist” the poor and so much neglected sick, injured and disabled into real good value work!?
Have a look at this piece:
http://www.msd.govt.nz/about-msd-and-our-work/work-programmes/welfare-reform/july-2013/ill-health-disability-feedback.html
Propaganda from and for the bottom level of inputters has never been any “sweeter”, not even Master demagogues like Goebbels, Mussolini and Hitler would have thought of such a smart scheme to “involve” all those so “concerned”.
So there you are, able to give your “input”. I am sure Farrar, Whale soil and whatever kinds of their following have already been online day and night, to offer their “advice” and support to MSD.
So dear Standardistas, get off your bloody arses, go there, and deliver also your, and your valued friend’s advice, suggestions and feedback now. It must be done, or the masters of demagoguery will win.
Get onto it, tell them what you think and feel on the MSD website, NOW, please!!!
Sorry to bother you Lyn but I keep getting an unresponsive script on the pages in here, is it me or you?
Error is.
Script: http://s0.wp.com/wp-content/js/devicepx-jetpack.js?ver=201302:22
Cheers
Probably Me. Looking at a cache setting and I can only really test it on the live site (so I do it late at night).
But maybe not that error is from wordpress.com… A javascript file that isn’t getting sent?