Probably because this is the issue that will fell the govt.
There is going to be major social dislocation in regional NZ and by election time it will be blowing through the cities as well.
IMHO the govt has made a tactical blunder in trying to downplay this issue. Farmers won’t necessarily blame the govt but they will expect empathy beyond being called ” resilient ” and hearing platitudes about how “very bright” the future is.
That said, opposition parties need to articulate a credible suite of policies to position NZ inc further up the value chain. Rod Oram has been giving them the template for ages.
Remember this is MMP and it only takes a small shift to change the guard.
The Gormless Fool formerly known as Oleolebiscuitbarrell 1.1.1.1
That is a ill informed comment on so many levels The Gormless Fool formerly known as Oleolebiscuitbarrell, it is hard to know where to begin with your obvious gaps in education.
Next, you will be blaming the left for the failure of capitalism.
Yet, where it had been practiced, poverty has decreased, the rights of minorities have gained growing respect, women are more equal and life expectancy rises.
In comparison to every other system ever tried, it is doing fabulously. Which is why record numbers of people are fleeing those other systems to get into capitalist ones.
You should try hooking up with the Shining Path, Draco. Bet it disappoints.
In fact, social democracies and mixed economies have achieved the results you claim for Capitalism. You should try hooking up with Augusto Pinochet Gormless.
Yet, where it had been practiced, poverty has decreased, the rights of minorities have gained growing respect, women are more equal and life expectancy rises.
Nope. Where it has been practised we’ve seen growing poverty, decreased human rights and decreasing life expectancy.
The only reason why we’ve increases in those over the last century is because of socialism. Now that capitalism is back in force we’re seeing the reversal.
The Gormless Fool formerly known as Oleolebiscuitbarrel …
those ‘social democracies’ are all based on Capitalist principles.
Typical semantic bullshit.
Every one of them incorporates some capitalist principles, as well as some socialist principles.
Not one of them is entirely based on capitalism.
Capitalism is a big dog that needs to be trained, restrained and caged while it serves whatever purpose is required. In a social democracy, socialism is the restraint. And democracy is what ensures only the right dog is restrained at the right time.
@ Gormless ‘What alternative are you proposing that has worked in the real world. Time and place, please’
You will have noticed that none of the ‘revolutionaries’ here ever answer that question, no matter how many times it is asked.
But if course, they must have something in mind? You couldn’t get that far in your thinking without having some glimmering of an alternative to the current situation?
Why can’t they say it then eh? What’s there to be shy about?
I’ve said many times that we need to get rid of the rich as they are the problem and not the solution. That means getting rid of private ownership of land, homes and businesses.
The land would be owned by the state and people would have a lease on it.
Homes should be rented from the state with a life time lease. First in, first served. Having a home would be a right.
Businesses would be a legal entity that has no shareholders and is run as a cooperative by the people who work there. The monetary reforms above would ensure that they have access to the money necessary to start up.
Politics would be Participatory Democracy rather than the Representative Democracy that we have at present that only represents the will of the rich thus making it an oligarchy/plutocracy.
The Gormless Fool formerly known as Oleolebiscuitbarrell …
Yup. I give you credit for that, and that is a very clean and straight forward statement of your alternative thanks. Pity more of those who want to tear the current system down aren’t nearly so willing to state their beliefs so honestly.
Of course your system is completely unworkable, because humans beings simply aren’t built like that. You have as much chance of getting humans to agree to live in that manner as you have convincing Great Sharks to go vegetarian.
lol
another example of sheepy plastering bullshit over their outright lies (“none of the ‘revolutionaries’ here ever answer that question, no matter how many times it is asked”) after the falsehood has been shot down in flames, and hoping nobody notices.
‘Wrong. We no longer work on instinct but on intelligence and can choose’.
In that case putting your system into place will be very straight forward.
All those who share your belief will form a Political Party and put your alternative system to the people.
The people will very ‘intelligently’ realise that it is an option they are much keener on than the current system, and so they will ‘choose’ to vote for your Party.
Of course there is – it was drawn up by a RWNJ and designed to fail.
What we on the Left will do and keep doing is telling and showing people that there are better ways than the dystopia (Yes, that is actually what you describe every time you imply that things are the way things are that’s all they’ll ever be) of the RWNJs. Slowly, but surely, we’ll win out.
The Gormless Fool formerly known as Oleolebiscuitbarrell …
Well, over the last 200 years slavery has been made illegal, child labour outlawed, worker safety measures vastly improved, state pensions and benefits introduced, national healthcare systems introduced, the voting franchise extended to women and poor people, the death penalty abolished, husbands no longer allowed to rape or beat their wives, same sex marriage legalised, abortion legalised, capital punishment abolished, unions legalised, the monarchy fading into a constitutional niche, and significant environmental protections and national parks created.
Pendulum swings abound from sector to sector, year to year and even decade to decade, but in the long term the times are a’changing.
‘dystopia (Yes, that is actually what you describe every time you imply that things are the way things are that’s all they’ll ever be
As McFlock has pointed out Draco, things do change and thank fuck for that. But If Humans had a natural inclination towards completely egalitarian communal principles and committee based social organisation then under democratic conditions we would be moving towards that.
But as democracy evolves Human societies are actually moving in the opposite direction, with the freedom and status of the individual ever more strongly expressed than adherence to a ‘hive’ mindset.
That is because we ARE all individuals, and we DO have an individual worldview, and that’s why there is zero support for the kind of system you propose.
Thank fuck for that I say. Your system looks like a nightmare to me, and in the highly unlikely event of finding myself in such a situation I would have no option but to subvert it.
I talked about the progress over centuries, you’re cherrypicking some areas of the last few decades with no evidence that it’s a change in the long term trends.
If you insist on looking at things in terms of recent history, I have two words for your ‘freedom ever more strongly expressed’ bullshit: “patriot act”.
$57 trillion of more debt put into the system since 2008 to what end? 3rd world countries run by corporations and democracy suppressed. New Zealand runners up to the capitalist big dogs the US in incarceration rates. Rocketing inequality straining society. 300,000 kids with dreams are punished because their parents don’t work 24/7. Nope, it’s tearing itself apart.
The Gormless Fool formerly known as Oleolebiscuitbarrell …
Nothing to do with ” the left” it has everything to go with being a farmer and living this reality and knowing how things are affecting my wider community. I am old enough (just) to have been farming in the 80s and know how this plays out. There will be great pain for many and like it or not the govt will be held accountable to some degree. The govt claimed credit when they rode the terms of trade up and they will cop it on way down. This will change the govt.
The Gormless Fool formerly known as Oleolebiscuitbarrell 1.1.1.1.2.1
Sorry to hear that, Cowboy. Your point about the government taking credit is well made. It’s a fiction they like to perpetuate when things are going well: we did it. Really, they didn’t (and nor should they).
Judging from English on RNZ this morning he hinted at an enhanced R&D package in budget. The issue is wether it placates the masses or looksike too little too late?
“member this is MMP and it only takes a small shift to change the guard”
Yes. And we don’t generally give govts 4 terms. Much still depends on Labour appearing competent and the left/centre coalition parties presenting as working together before the election.
“Remember this is MMP and it only takes a small shift to change the guard”
You have spotted the danger in this ‘small shift’ idea I take it?
A similar small shift towards National (1-1.5%) would edge them over the ‘rule alone’ line? A 4th term with a majority for JK and the perfect opportunity for him to put through a few ‘legacy’ projects?
At this stage of the previous electoral cycle Labour/Greens were sitting on 45% in the polls, but currently they are stuck on the same 40% odd they haven’t been able to shift since the last election.
Just saying. Maybe it really is time for a change of strategy from the LW?
(P.S. waiting for events outside your control to happen is not a strategy.)
“(PS waiting for events outside your control is not a strategy)”
I agree with that but in reality govts generally get kicked out. The Nats only really need to shed a couple of % and they are in trouble.
On that I am surprised at Key not feigning more respect for Winston. I watched replay of question time last night and Key mocked Winston mercilessly during an answer. I would have thought Key bright enough to read the tea leaves. Hard to imagine them sitting down and having a reasoned discussion around a coalition.
We’ve had 4 x 4 term Governments in NZ, so self evidently that can happen again, and as I say, at this stage it looks likely.
Personally I would think the LW would find that 4th term a wee bit torturous, and would be highly motivated to avoid it.
But to be honest, I don’t see much sign at all of an urgency to break the current pattern and make the change happen.
But never a 5th term….so I guess you could say that’s an impossibility. Confident about that? Happy to wait for it?
As for Winston Peters, JK has known him a long time, and I believe he is perfectly confident that Winston will do the pragmatic thing and join coalition with the Party that gets the strongest mandate at the next election…if he gets the opportunity.
Anyone who believes that Winston is likely to go into a coalition that involves The Greens is barking mad. Labour yes. National yes. But let me remind you of his comments shortly before the last election…
Any coalition he was willing to make with The Greens would have to be on terms that rendered The Greens irrelevant, and which they would never accept.
“If the Greens think they are going to take over the levers of economic management they are assuming that other parties are not watching their record.”
Peters said there was still a chance for Labour and NZ First to form a government together, claiming that in 2005 the combination delivered the largest surpluses in recent times……
“Voters need to be disabused of the view promoted by the Greens that we in New Zealand First would stand by whole they promote extremist views in government,” Peters said.
Peters praised both Finance Minister Bill English and Labour spokesman David Parker as men of integrity.
“I see both of them as capable of being Ministers of Finance.
If you saw Country Calendar last week then everything is fine. Guy owned 4 dairy farms and taking on debt was just part of the game and healthy risk taking… I think they said his dad had been through the 80s crash as well and lesson was apparently learnt..
I probably would have not so long ago, and I reckon since it was being shown by the authority that is Country Calendar that most of the audience would have been fine going along with it too.
I see….my experience is those who were in the industry during the eighties have a much more realistic view than those involved since….even within family.
“Council chief executive Doug McKay said the cost of implementing computer systems was scary, but as far as he could tell the transition agency ran a good process.
The former private sector boss said he had implemented three new computer systems in the past and each time there had been serious cost blowouts.”
Seems he can add a fourth to his resume, that article was rather prophetic. I can’t help but think there’s something badly wrong when a CEO who’s already overseen three IT cost blowouts lets another happen on his watch. What does a CEO actually do these days?
Tom Lewandowski, the president of the Northeast Indiana Central Labor Council in Fort Wayne, puts it even more bluntly when I asked him about working-class Trump fans. “These people aren’t racist, not any more than anybody else is,” he says of Trump supporters he knows. “When Trump talks about trade, we think about the Clinton administration, first with Nafta and then with [Permanent Normal Trade Relations] China, and here in Northeast Indiana, we hemorrhaged jobs.”
“They look at that, and here’s Trump talking about trade, in a ham-handed way, but at least he’s representing emotionally. We’ve had all the political establishment standing behind every trade deal, and we endorsed some of these people, and then we’ve had to fight them to get them to represent us.”
And from the comments thread:
I was struck how similar Sander’s arguments are to those of Trump. Sanders passionately spoke out against free trade and NAFTA saying shouting “how stupid is that trade policy?” to audience applause. And I’ve noticed in the Republican debates, Trump is the only one who repeatedly discusses jobs. The others never even mention jobs AFAIK.
We tend to assume the left is automatically the choice of the working class, but history shows right-wing authoritarian nationalism can also be very attractive if the people peddling it focus on making sure the working class has work that pays.
Enforcing the laws they already have, fixing the mental health system and fixing the background checks will do more to lower gun deaths then anything (reasonably) else
When a major part of your policy relies on a fairly strong circumstantial case….
A study (really a study of studies) suggests there is “fairly strong circumstantial case for Exile’s impact” on crime rates. But there’s a fairly strong circumstantial case that a program similar to “Exile” worked in Rochester, NY, while the economy was humming along, and then didn’t once it wasn’t.
If Sanders and Trump are both talking about jobs and the problems of free trade then why are those working class people supporting Trump? Underneath the concern about jobs is something else.
There’s nothing inherently left-wing about a voter just because they’re working class. Which means that, given a choice between left and right candidates who are both talking about jobs for workers, there’s no reason to assume workers will all be attracted to the left-wing one. The 1930s demonstrated that pretty clearly.
Yes, I understand that. I was just curious what the rationale was for so many working class supporting Trump, when Sanders is saying the same things re jobs and free trade. i.e. it’s not about the jobs and free trade, it’s about something else. The man quoted above from the Guardian seemed to be arguing that it was about the jobs. I’m not convinced.
The German working class (particularly, the urban, industrial working class) were largely immune to the Nazi electoral appeal. Along with the unemployed, they were the Nazis’ weakest demographic, immersed as so many of them were in the SPD (Social Democrat) and KPD (Communist) sub-cultures.
Only the (non-unionised) rural and small town working class (often working in small handicraft factories with less than 10 fellow employees) moved to the Nazis in appreciable numbers.
It was the German rural and urban middle class Right and Centre-Right that swung en masse to Hitler.
Wellington’s Labour mayoral aspirant Justin Lester is at it again! This time, he is advocating that a community park should be fenced off, furnished with ‘all-weather’ turf and given to a private professional football club (Phoenix) AT RATEPAYER EXPENSE!!! Where does this guy get off his endless proposals for subsidising the private sector with rates funding that should be used to maintain the city’s sagging infrastructure and public amenities. It is a sad day when Nicola Young, the true-blue candidate for the mayoralty has a better grip on Council responsibilities than the disingenuous Deputy Mayor.
What park is this Petertoo? Phoenix FC is one of his pet projects and one I’m not willing to fund. He’s wealthy, he can sell his Kapai chain and fund them himself.
Does he have any comment on Illot Green by the way? I haven’t heard anything. Being on the Developers Advocacy Board I should imagine he’s keen to hock it off for the short term gain of raising the $$$ for earthquake strengthening for the council building.
They could of course scrap the 9 million dollar corporate welfare programme known as WEID and fund the work that way.
Rosie – Martin Luckie Park in Berhampore. The man has no qualms about this well used public space and the kids league team being shunted by the sound of it.
It is a widely held belief that the thought of John Illott Green being retained as open space is anathema to Lester. It has also been mooted that Pike, the City Shaper has already been talking deals with his surrogate boss, Mark McGuinness who owns much of what is likely to become known the Willis Bond Waterfront when the privatisation progresses further with the Site 10 (& 11?) developments.
As for the income from the sale of John Illott Green being used to strengthen the Town Hall – it wouldn’t make much of a dent. The land value, based on sites of similar size on Jervois Quay would be less than $6m. Much less than the nearby site that the ratepayers are paying to kick off the Peter Jackson et. al. museum and a Conference Centre. Obviously the ratepayers have much deeper pockets than Mark Dunajtschik who obviously wan’t prepared to pay an over the odds price to proceed with a proposed Hilton Hotel/Conference Centre on the same Cable Street site.
Obviously, Lester’s short-termism doesn’t factor in the obvious, that a future Council will have to buy and demolish other commercial buildings (like Midland Park at $millions) to provide open space for urban apartment dwellers.
I’m hoping that talk of turning the park in Berhampore into an all weather ground for the Phoenix is only talk. It would be deeply unfair to push children’s and adults sports clubs off the field – or would they be expected to concede to the Phoenix when ever they chose to practice on it? I have no idea why we have to fund a professional sports team anyway.
Re the $134 million convention centre/Jackson film museum site that Mark Dunajtschik couldn’t stump up for, for his hotel plans – he’s also on the executive for the Property Developers Advocacy group, alongside Lester. Maybe he said “here Justin, I’m not having it, you can have it”.
It is a widely held belief that the thought of John Illott Green being retained as open space is anathema to Lester.
Such people find anything public is anathema – especially democracy. They will work hard to privatise everything leaving the rest of us as serfs to the new owners. Democracy will be killed by the simple act of selling off the public’s wealth and thus leaving them powerless.
“Nicola Young, the true-blue candidate for the mayoralty has a better grip on Council responsibilities than the disingenuous Deputy Mayor”.
There. I trimmed of the totally unnecessary words from the sentence. Why on earth do you put “It is a sad day when ” in front of them?
Are you planning to vote for Nicola then? God help us if we have another term of Wade-Brown and Lester sounds even worse, if such a thing is possible.
Nearly all our present councillors seem to have this delusion that they are far-seeing business entrepreneurs. Then they stuff things up. It isn’t their money and they don’t give a damn about what they waste. I have always held the view that at least one councillor should have to take a personal financial interest in any of these projects they push on the ratepayer. When any guarantee is requested or some “can’t fail” expenditure, such as the Visitor Centre at Zealandia is proposed there should have to be one of the council who says “Yes, I believe it will work. If it falls in a heap I will return all the money I have been paid while on the council to help make up for the losses”. I bet they would be a great deal more careful then.
The other problem they, like all politicians, have is that they will never admit that anything they do is a failure and should be scrapped. They would rather just keep throwing other people’s money at it for ever. It is one of the reasons we need to get new people on Governing bodies at regular intervals. New people can throw out things that are useless because their ego isn’t involved.
It gets the same way of course in Central Government. Only the numbers are bigger. The problem at the moment is that there is no viable alternative Government. The opposition at the moment aren’t fit to be allowed near the Beehive. Can’t Labour have a clean out and get people who are capable into Parliament. They still have the fools who should have been dumped at the 2011 election.
Good point at the beginning of your comment alwyn. Guess it reflects how pissed off some, self included, where when we felt obliged to vote for the city damaging faux-Green Wade-Brown to block Morrison last time round. There is obviously some trepidation as to how neo-liberal Nicola Young might be, but then, could she be more in the pockets of business and the developers than Lester? Now waiting to hear if Paul Eagle does a screeming reverse on the earlier statement of support for Lester’s Mayoral campaign.
Getting back to the former Cr. Morrison, it was a real bummer to find out that the Mayor and her gang of three paid off him off with a $300 000 unrecoverable ratepayer ‘donation’ to establish his favourite Aussie owned call-centre, a cause that morphed into being his employer. Also, impressed with the idea that you consider Cr. Foster should be liable for some of the Zealandia debt. Didn’t the ACT apparatchik Catherine Isaac had a finger in the Visitor Centre pie too?
No I don’t think Foster is liable for the debt. I wouldn’t back date my proposal.
Also Isaac was never a councillor so it couldn’t apply to her.
To expand on my view.
The Council is approached to guarantee a loan, or make a loan for something. The people responsible claim that it will not only be self-sufficient but will be so popular that it will be able to repay the loan. See Zealandia.
When it all goes belly up the Council claims that they couldn’t possibly have known that it would happen and it isn’t their fault. The ratepayer gets screwed.
I would argue that before any such loans are made, or guaranteed, ONE councillor must be found who will put his/her money where their mouth is. If it crashes they will have to repay to the Council every bit of money they have ever received, up to a maximum of the money the Council has lost.
No Councillor willing to do that? No Loan is allowed.
If Foster had been willing to make the promise he would be out of pocket. He has been at the public trough so long we would get back quite a nice little bit of change. He wouldn’t have done it of course.
That would take care of the “Loans” for Zealandia or for the Stadium. It would have prevented the guarantees for the Embassy Theatre or for the sinking of that old frigate. We were promised that fundraising would mean that the guarantee would never be called on but they were.
The Council could still spend money on such activities but they would have to vote the money directly, not hide it away to blow up in the future.
alwyn – yes backdating the proposal would be unreasonable but the comment was meant in the hypothetical. The reference to Catherine Isaac was in a different realm though. It is galling that people are shoulder tapped for roles on a ‘political’ and/or ideological basis – stuff up, then there are no consequences. Strange how this is more apparent in the realms of the higher paid – not unlike today’s expose regarding the Ministry of Health and also applicable with regard to Theo Sperrings.
So the Labour Party, CTU and Unite are merely annoying yapping dogs he had to shut up by throwing a concession over zero hour contracts and workers are the passing cars causing the distraction for the yapping dogs.
What a smug little Fwit. He really needs to get a dose of reality, like having a look at the demands from employers on job ads. The extract below from seek.co.nz is typical of the type of attitude I see every day looking at job ads.
“This role would suit someone who is mature and savvy with no other commitments to allow for flexibility.”
This is a part time customer service role with a stated 18 hours a week over two specified days. The rest of the time you need to be on call to cover shifts as required. If you can’t come into work on call because you’re sick, you’re looking after someone who is sick, and well, you have have other commitments because you know, “life” happens then you’ll probably be fired under the 90 day law.
Its’ these kinds of employers that have to wake up to their responsibilities and that’s why the zero hour law is so important.
“Throw a bone at someone to stop barking at cars – call it a backdown if you wish.” My jaw dropped on reading that. I am utterly fed up with the culture of contempt that attends this government. Who does he think he is? Nero?
And by the way, your link didn’t work for me – possibly RNZ has taken the piece down.
Hi Olwyn. I just clicked on the link and it worked………………..?
I saw Woodhouse say that on newshrub last night – a jaw dropping moment for me too. You’re right about the culture of contempt. This Government is rife with it. No standards, no professionalism, no manners.
I have barked at cars and have subsequently needed screws and titanium thrown at my bones. I happily accept the Zero Hours outcome in this vein – not all bones are meal. The merit of barking prevails.
Watching this was odd, I started thinking this does not apply to Auckland, nor New Zealand.
Then I remembered all the small towns which are now effectively ghost towns up and down this nation.
The ever increasing prison system
and the masses of unemployment.
I know many here don’t want to see capitalism as evil, and I know many here think it can be reformed, but capitalism itself is it’s own worst enemy. We should not be trying to reform it, because in a few generations – it will do all this again.
It’s a fair question Gormless is asking Adam?
Do you really expect the Workers to rise up and destroy their current situation, if you cannot tell them what you would replace it with?
The New Deal was a set of policies implemented within a Capitalist system, and in fact is widely credited with saving Capitalism. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Deal
So, no. It won’t be very difficult for Adam to find the system we already have.
Workers of the world awaken. Break your chains, demand your rights.
All the wealth you make is taken, by exploiting parasites.
Shall you kneel in deep submission from your cradle to your grave?
Is the height of your ambition to be a good and willing slave?
Joe Hill
The Gormless Fool formerly known as Oleolebiscuitbarrell 5.1.2.1
Workers of the world awaken. Break your chains, demand your rights.
All the wealth you make is taken, by exploiting parasites.
Shall you kneel in deep submission from your cradle to your grave?
Is the height of your ambition to be a good and willing slave?
No, no, I want you to be a bit less specific, please.
In the context of this discussion then, is it fair for me to suggest that this is an ideal that might be achieved in the future, as opposed to something that has actually been achieved in the past?
We’ve had egalitarianism as the main organising principle, and those cultures definitely let women have power. How we get from where we are now to that I don’t know, but it does seem sensible to give the power to the people least likely to abuse it and most likely to use it for the good of all.
If you mean changing from a capitalist system, then I don’t know if that’s ever been done.
The recently signed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) will “dramatically” restrict access to affordable medicine in every country that ratifies it, according to a US law expert.
Writing in scientific journal PLOS Medicine, Professor Brook Baker of the Northeastern University School of Law in Boston argues the TPP will:
lead to more patents being placed on new medicines
extend the length of new patents
restrict access to clinical trial data
prevent the introduction of new generic medicines
toughen penalties for patent infringements.
“TPP member states can expect an avalanche of IP-related claims from disappointed pharmaceutical companies that think their legitimate expectations of future profits have been thwarted.” Instead of helping Big Pharma, Prof Baker says the TPP provisions affecting access to healthcare should be scaled back to guidelines and standards agreed at the World Trade Organization in 1994.
“Health advocates should convince the US Congress and opponents in other countries to reject an agreement that could so adversely impact access to medicines.”
A Dunedin academic is criticising the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade for refusing to attend a community-organised meeting on the Trans Pacific Partnership agreement.
“I think it’s unacceptable, and it calls into question the genuine nature of this public information exercise,” University of Otago Emeritus Prof Sir Alan Mark said.
As chairman of the Wise Response society advocacy group, Prof Mark has helped organise a public meeting at 7.30pm on March 14, following the Government-organised, TPP-themed road show presentation in Dunedin.
Prof Mark said the meeting was designed to be more open than the Government-organised one, which required registration and had a limited number of places available.
Thanks for your first link, I very seldom look at the TV3 website nowadays (didn’t even know that 7days had started up again). I had read that ODT piece earlier and particularly liked this bit:
Prof Mark said he and Wise Response secretary Dougal MacTavish had signed up to attend the MFAT meeting on March 14.
Prof Mark said he would promote the community meeting at the Government’s workshop.
Prof Mark said the meeting was designed to be more open than the Government-organised one, which required registration and had a limited number of places available.
The government is openly showing derision for the people and their right to govern the country, and control the government that has been voted in to work for the people. Aren’t I naive. But I still think that.
The first part of your post should get wider publicity. Serious stuff and one that we should be able to articulate it in the MSM.
And the second part is much closer to home and should get wider attention as well and beyond the ODT.
I wonder how to do that?
Well spotted Tautoko Mangō Mata.
Even more from Stiglitz. Forget ISIS, worry about ISDS foreign trade pact clause, economists say
Giving the keys to the country away
What is it that has put Stiglitz, a professor at New York’s Columbia University, on the warpath? It is the obscure treaty enforcement mechanism called the Investor-State Dispute Settlement, referred to by those “in the know” as “ISDS.”
Stiglitz told reporters recently at a National Press Club event (which I moderated) that the ISDS clause within the pact would allow foreign firms in America to sue “when the U.S. government passes a regulation that they think hurts their profits.”
He notes that American firms would not have this power under the law. Stiglitz calls it “fundamental discrimination against Americans, particularly small businesses.”
How might this work if Congress were to ratify the trade agreement?
Stiglitz makes an analogy comparing to what might have happened decades ago when asbestos was found to be a health risk and banned. If “the U.S. government would have to compensate any foreign-owned asbestos company” for future lost profits — as under the TPP — in effect, he says companies would have to be “compensated for not killing people or for not destroying their lives.”
And that means taxpayers would be on the hook for billions of dollars.
Blowhards, trolls and rat-fuckers – say it ain’t so.
And as probability becomes clearer, I’ve been hearing and reading people who profess to be leftists or progressives saying they will never vote for Clinton but might instead vote for Trump.
Anybody who does that is a freaking numbskull. Anybody claiming to be on the left who votes for Trump deserves not an ounce of respect. Anybody who thinks putting this billionaire bully into the White House makes any kind of sense has none. And anybody who urges people to vote for him is dead to me.
I have no idea how many actual Sanders’ supporters are considering a vote for Trump if Bernie fails to get the nomination.
I don’t know how many of the people who are saying Trump is a good option for progressives in November actually are progressives themselves, how many are blowhards and trolls, and how many are rat-fuckers who have all along favored Trump and are eager to exploit our division. Too many, whatever the count.
Glad to hear that SAFE are not feeling threatened by this move, as the believe they meet the criteria for operating as a charity, otherwise that status wouldn’t have been granted it by the charities commission.
Several Native Americans disrupted the state Senate on Monday to protest Utah’s continued observance of Columbus Day.
Three men and woman began shouting from the gallery in the Senate chamber just as senators returned to the floor about 2:15 p.m. One held a sign reading, “Abolish Columbus Day. Stop Celebrating Genocide.”
Protester Charles Aoires said the group came to speak out against Weiler’s words about Native Americans last week.
“The native population gave the early explorers syphilis, which they brought back to Europe. Blaming Columbus for the extermination of the native population is as fair as blaming the native population for people who die using tobacco and cocaine, which the natives introduced to the Europeans,” Weiler said during debate over SB170, a bill that would have changed Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples Day.
Why do people in the USA celebrate Columbus day anyway?
He never landed in North America, but only on islands in the Caribbean.
Any refugee from the USA who can explain?
Just looking for the frequency for local community radio and looked on ite called Love NZ which listed all in locality and National Radio genre is Talkback.
The response to radio on the site is so vacuous that it is automatically regarded as a music service in the main, classic, adult contemporary, feel good, variety, easy listening etc. Rhema is Christian, Sport is sport so that didn’t try their brains much, then there is Community, RADIONZ Concert is listed as Live Concert for goodness sake, as if that is the only concert music they can envisage.
They have no word that is suitable to describe our peerless feeder of information, thought, culture and news. Except to call national radio, RADIONZ, ‘Talkback’, as if this was the highest intellectual offering they could conceive. Thinking, a bit sterile!
Video killed the radio star! It certainly dims when it comes to marketing music for profit,
and not mainly for the musicians either.
Ironic given the hole that Kim Dotcom is in over copyright law that:
“Lawyers for Eminem, National Party back in court.
In September, spokesman for the publishers Joel Martin said Eminem was never approached for permission to use his work in National’s rowing-themed election ads, which featured backing music similar to the riff of Lose Yourself.” http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11602702
Thanks! Useful for me too. I liked the driving to work analogy both in the context of ecomomics but also why thinking about the collective is important in general.
Hard not to draw the conclusion that it’s that Keynesian or Monetarist economics are wrong, but that all economics is 😉 (or maybe it’s just that the economy shouldn’t be based primarily on economics but other things like well being, the collective good, our place in the environment).
Our 100 000 Hindu speakers in NZ have no choice on the flag referendum: they are asked to tick the box they want for the new New Zealand flag. Careless mistranslation or devious manipulation?
Fuck up by someone. I doubt that it was intentional.
As an aside, I was surprised about the 100,000 Hindi speakers number though. Seemed high, although the 2013 census says 66,309, which is nearly doubled since 2006.
Old Billy Boy Ralston standing for Auckland Council finally broken cover aye ? Been on JohnTheNeolib/ParnellBBQ payroll for however long, one way or another. Finally come clean. Hope his splendid benign pomposity doesn’t grow with this. Could be life threatening.
Hi,Today I mainly want to share some of your thoughts about the recent piece I wrote about success and failure, and the forces that seemingly guide our lives. But first, a quick bit of housekeeping: I am doing a Webworm popup in Los Angeles on Saturday May 11 at 2pm. ...
It is hard to see what Melissa Lee might have done to “save” the media. National went into the election with no public media policy and appears not to have developed one subsequently. Lee claimed that she had prepared a policy paper before the election but it had been decided ...
Open access notablesIce acceleration and rotation in the Greenland Ice Sheet interior in recent decades, Løkkegaard et al., Communications Earth & Environment:In the past two decades, mass loss from the Greenland ice sheet has accelerated, partly due to the speedup of glaciers. However, uncertainty in speed derived from satellite products ...
Buzz from the Beehive A statement from Children’s Minister Karen Chhour – yet to be posted on the Government’s official website – arrived in Point of Order’s email in-tray last night. It welcomes the High Court ruling on whether the Waitangi Tribunal can demand she appear before it. It does ...
Mr Bombastic:Ironically, the media the academic experts wanted is, in many ways, the media they got. In place of the tyrannical editors of yesteryear, advancing without fear or favour the interests of the ruling class; the New Zealand news media of today boasts a troop of enlightened journalists dedicated to ...
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Morning in London Mother hugs beloved daughter outside the converted shoe factory in which she is living.Afternoon in London Travelling writer takes himself and his wrist down to A&E, just to be sure. Read more ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – The recent announcement of the University Advisory Group, chaired by Sir Peter Gluckman, makes very clear where the Government’s focus and priorities lie. The remit of the Advisory Group is that Group members will consider challenges and opportunities for improvement in the university sector including: ...
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Rob MacCullough writes – Pundits from the left and the right are arguing that National’s Fast Track Bill that is designed to speed up infrastructure decisions could end up becoming mired in a cesspool of corruption. Political commentator ...
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Swabbing mixed breed baby chicks to test for avian influenzaUh oh. Bird flu – often deadly to humans – is not only being transmitted from infected birds to dairy cows, but is now travelling between dairy cows. As of last Friday, Bloomberg News reports, there were 32 American dairy herds ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
What is it with the mining industry? Its not enough for them to pillage the earth - they apparently can't even be bothered getting resource consent to do so: The proponent behind a major mine near the Clutha River had already been undertaking activity in the area without a ...
Photo # 1 I am a huge fan of Singapore’s approach to housing, as described here two years ago by copying and pasting from The ConversationWhat Singapore has that Australia does not is a public housing developer, the Housing Development Board, which puts new dwellings on public and reclaimed land, ...
Buzz from the Beehive Reactions to news of the government’s readiness to make urgent changes to “the resource management system” through a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) suggest a balanced approach is being taken. The Taxpayers’ Union says the proposed changes don’t go far enough. Greenpeace says ...
I’m starting to wonder if Anna Burns-Francis might be the best political interviewer we’ve got. That might sound unlikely to you, it came as a bit of a surprise to me.Jack Tame can be excellent, but has some pretty average days. I like Rebecca Wright on Newshub, she asks good ...
Chris Trotter writes – Willie Jackson is said to be planning a “media summit” to discuss “the state of the media and how to protect Fourth Estate Journalism”. Not only does the Editor of The Daily Blog, Martyn Bradbury, think this is a good idea, but he has also ...
Graeme Edgeler writes – This morning [April 21], the Wellington High Court is hearing a judicial review brought by Hon. Karen Chhour, the Minister for Children, against a decision of the Waitangi Tribunal. This is unusual, judicial reviews are much more likely to brought against ministers, rather than ...
Both of Parliament’s watchdogs have now ripped into the Government’s Fast-track Approvals Bill. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMy pick of the six newsey things to know from Aotearoa’s political economy and beyond on the morning of Tuesday, April 23 are:The Lead: The Auditor General,John Ryan, has joined the ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Sarah SpengemanPeople wait to board an electric bus in Pune, India. (Image credit: courtesy of ITDP) Public transportation riders in Pune, India, love the city’s new electric buses so much they will actually skip an older diesel bus that ...
The infrastructure industry yesterday issued a “hurry up” message to the Government, telling it to get cracking on developing a pipeline of infrastructure projects.The hiatus around the change of Government has seen some major projects cancelled and others delayed, and there is uncertainty about what will happen with the new ...
Hi,Over the weekend I revisited a podcast I really adore, Dead Eyes. It’s about a guy who got fired from Band of Brothers over two decades ago because Tom Hanks said he had “dead eyes”.If you don’t recall — 2001’s Band of Brothers was part of the emerging trend of ...
Buzz from the Beehive The 180 or so recipients of letters from the Government telling them how to submit infrastructure projects for “fast track” consideration includes some whose project applications previously have been rejected by the courts. News media were quick to feature these in their reports after RMA Reform Minister Chris ...
It would not be a desirable way to start your holiday by breaking your back, your head, or your wrist, but on our first hour in Singapore I gave it a try.We were chatting, last week, before we started a meeting of Hazel’s Enviro Trust, about the things that can ...
Calling all journalists, academics, planners, lawyers, political activists, environmentalists, and other members of the public who believe that the relationships between vested interests and politicians need to be scrutinised. We need to work together to make sure that the new Fast-Track Approvals Bill – currently being pushed through by the ...
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Bryce Edwards writes- The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. ...
Michael Bassett writes – If you think there is a move afoot by the radical Maori fringe of New Zealand society to create a parallel system of government to the one that we elect at our triennial elections, you aren’t wrong. Over the last few days we have ...
Without a corresponding drop in interest rates, it’s doubtful any changes to the CCCFA will unleash a massive rush of home buyers. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: The six things that stood out to me in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate on Monday, April 22 included:The Government making a ...
Sunday was a lazy day. I started watching Jack Tame on Q&A, the interviews are usually good for something to write about. Saying the things that the politicians won’t, but are quite possibly thinking. Things that are true and need to be extracted from between the lines.As you might know ...
In our Weekly Roundup last week we covered news from Auckland Transport that the WX1 Western Express is going to get an upgrade next year with double decker electric buses. As part of the announcement, AT also said “Since we introduced the WX1 Western Express last November we have seen ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 29 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Stats NZ releases its statutory report on Census 2023 tomorrow.Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivers a pre-Budget speech at ...
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The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. The Government says this will ...
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“You talking about me?”The neoliberal denigration of the past was nowhere more unrelenting than in its depiction of the public service. The Post Office and the Railways were held up as being both irremediably inefficient and scandalously over-manned. Playwright Roger Hall’s “Glide Time” caricatures were presented as accurate depictions of ...
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Rob MacCulloch writes – In 2022, the Curriculum Centre at the Ministry of Education employed 308 staff, according to an Official Information Request. Earlier this week it was announced 202 of those staff were being cut. When you look up “The New Zealand Curriculum” on the Ministry of ...
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Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
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The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
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Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
The Government’s newly announced review of methane emissions reduction targets hints at its desire to delay Aotearoa New Zealand’s urgent transition to a climate safe future, the Green Party said. ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
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Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
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Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
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Farmers on the brink of selling their farms.
New Zealand on the brink of economic collapse.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/business/298360/fonterra-drops-forecast-milk-payout
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/201792286/fonterra-cuts-dairy-payout
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/rural/297689/dairy-downturn-could-get-worse-lawyer
Why so excited then?
Probably because this is the issue that will fell the govt.
There is going to be major social dislocation in regional NZ and by election time it will be blowing through the cities as well.
IMHO the govt has made a tactical blunder in trying to downplay this issue. Farmers won’t necessarily blame the govt but they will expect empathy beyond being called ” resilient ” and hearing platitudes about how “very bright” the future is.
That said, opposition parties need to articulate a credible suite of policies to position NZ inc further up the value chain. Rod Oram has been giving them the template for ages.
Remember this is MMP and it only takes a small shift to change the guard.
The Left love misery and are so eager for it.
That is a ill informed comment on so many levels The Gormless Fool formerly known as Oleolebiscuitbarrell, it is hard to know where to begin with your obvious gaps in education.
Next, you will be blaming the left for the failure of capitalism.
He’s trolling.
Capitalism is going fine.
Yep, it’s destroying society just like it always has.
Yet, where it had been practiced, poverty has decreased, the rights of minorities have gained growing respect, women are more equal and life expectancy rises.
In comparison to every other system ever tried, it is doing fabulously. Which is why record numbers of people are fleeing those other systems to get into capitalist ones.
You should try hooking up with the Shining Path, Draco. Bet it disappoints.
In fact, social democracies and mixed economies have achieved the results you claim for Capitalism. You should try hooking up with Augusto Pinochet Gormless.
Nope. Where it has been practised we’ve seen growing poverty, decreased human rights and decreasing life expectancy.
The only reason why we’ve increases in those over the last century is because of socialism. Now that capitalism is back in force we’re seeing the reversal.
OK , Draco. What alternative are you proposing that has worked in the real world. Time and place, please.
Poor OAB. Can’t bring himself to say that those ‘social democracies’ are all based on Capitalist principles.
‘Smash it all down’ eh. And still, after all the discussions I’ve seen here, no one can propose a compelling alternative.
Typical semantic bullshit.
Every one of them incorporates some capitalist principles, as well as some socialist principles.
Not one of them is entirely based on capitalism.
Capitalism is a big dog that needs to be trained, restrained and caged while it serves whatever purpose is required. In a social democracy, socialism is the restraint. And democracy is what ensures only the right dog is restrained at the right time.
You me and OAB agree on this much at least then McFlock.
Any viable system must incorporate at least some Capitalist principles.
@ Gormless ‘What alternative are you proposing that has worked in the real world. Time and place, please’
You will have noticed that none of the ‘revolutionaries’ here ever answer that question, no matter how many times it is asked.
But if course, they must have something in mind? You couldn’t get that far in your thinking without having some glimmering of an alternative to the current situation?
Why can’t they say it then eh? What’s there to be shy about?
🙄
I talked about social democracies.
You dragged that out to “any viable system”.
You really are a disingenuous piece of shit. And that’s when you’re not outright lying.
Actually, I have – many times.
http://thestandard.org.nz/universal-income-the-minimum-wage/
http://thestandard.org.nz/real-monetary-reform/
Cashless
How an economy works
I’ve said many times that we need to get rid of the rich as they are the problem and not the solution. That means getting rid of private ownership of land, homes and businesses.
The land would be owned by the state and people would have a lease on it.
Homes should be rented from the state with a life time lease. First in, first served. Having a home would be a right.
Businesses would be a legal entity that has no shareholders and is run as a cooperative by the people who work there. The monetary reforms above would ensure that they have access to the money necessary to start up.
Politics would be Participatory Democracy rather than the Representative Democracy that we have at present that only represents the will of the rich thus making it an oligarchy/plutocracy.
Lot of “would be”s, Draco. Got an example of that working anywhere in the history of the world ever?
@ Draco ‘Actually, I have – many times.’
Yup. I give you credit for that, and that is a very clean and straight forward statement of your alternative thanks. Pity more of those who want to tear the current system down aren’t nearly so willing to state their beliefs so honestly.
Of course your system is completely unworkable, because humans beings simply aren’t built like that. You have as much chance of getting humans to agree to live in that manner as you have convincing Great Sharks to go vegetarian.
lol
another example of sheepy plastering bullshit over their outright lies (“none of the ‘revolutionaries’ here ever answer that question, no matter how many times it is asked”) after the falsehood has been shot down in flames, and hoping nobody notices.
Yes. Go read David Graeber’s Debt: The first 5000 years for details.
Wrong. We no longer work on instinct but on intelligence and can choose.
Of course, RWNJs tend to choose not to be intelligent.
‘Wrong. We no longer work on instinct but on intelligence and can choose’.
In that case putting your system into place will be very straight forward.
All those who share your belief will form a Political Party and put your alternative system to the people.
The people will very ‘intelligently’ realise that it is an option they are much keener on than the current system, and so they will ‘choose’ to vote for your Party.
No possible flaw in that plan Draco?
Of course there is – it was drawn up by a RWNJ and designed to fail.
What we on the Left will do and keep doing is telling and showing people that there are better ways than the dystopia (Yes, that is actually what you describe every time you imply that things are the way things are that’s all they’ll ever be) of the RWNJs. Slowly, but surely, we’ll win out.
That explains your unprecedented electoral success.
Well, over the last 200 years slavery has been made illegal, child labour outlawed, worker safety measures vastly improved, state pensions and benefits introduced, national healthcare systems introduced, the voting franchise extended to women and poor people, the death penalty abolished, husbands no longer allowed to rape or beat their wives, same sex marriage legalised, abortion legalised, capital punishment abolished, unions legalised, the monarchy fading into a constitutional niche, and significant environmental protections and national parks created.
Pendulum swings abound from sector to sector, year to year and even decade to decade, but in the long term the times are a’changing.
‘dystopia (Yes, that is actually what you describe every time you imply that things are the way things are that’s all they’ll ever be
As McFlock has pointed out Draco, things do change and thank fuck for that. But If Humans had a natural inclination towards completely egalitarian communal principles and committee based social organisation then under democratic conditions we would be moving towards that.
But as democracy evolves Human societies are actually moving in the opposite direction, with the freedom and status of the individual ever more strongly expressed than adherence to a ‘hive’ mindset.
That is because we ARE all individuals, and we DO have an individual worldview, and that’s why there is zero support for the kind of system you propose.
Thank fuck for that I say. Your system looks like a nightmare to me, and in the highly unlikely event of finding myself in such a situation I would have no option but to subvert it.
what a load of crap.
I talked about the progress over centuries, you’re cherrypicking some areas of the last few decades with no evidence that it’s a change in the long term trends.
If you insist on looking at things in terms of recent history, I have two words for your ‘freedom ever more strongly expressed’ bullshit: “patriot act”.
$57 trillion of more debt put into the system since 2008 to what end? 3rd world countries run by corporations and democracy suppressed. New Zealand runners up to the capitalist big dogs the US in incarceration rates. Rocketing inequality straining society. 300,000 kids with dreams are punished because their parents don’t work 24/7. Nope, it’s tearing itself apart.
New Zealand runners up to the capitalist big dogs the US in incarceration rates.
No.
http://www.stats.govt.nz/browse_for_stats/government_finance/central_government/nz-in-the-oecd/justice.aspx
No no, NZ is 2nd behind the US in the OECD.
Only if you ignore the statistics.
If you take into account the actual incarceration rates (which you obviously choose not to) we are seventh, one place behind Mexico.
Nothing to do with ” the left” it has everything to go with being a farmer and living this reality and knowing how things are affecting my wider community. I am old enough (just) to have been farming in the 80s and know how this plays out. There will be great pain for many and like it or not the govt will be held accountable to some degree. The govt claimed credit when they rode the terms of trade up and they will cop it on way down. This will change the govt.
Sorry to hear that, Cowboy. Your point about the government taking credit is well made. It’s a fiction they like to perpetuate when things are going well: we did it. Really, they didn’t (and nor should they).
Judging from English on RNZ this morning he hinted at an enhanced R&D package in budget. The issue is wether it placates the masses or looksike too little too late?
We only like your misery fool – payback for all the people who’ve suffered under your vicious and false economic model.
“member this is MMP and it only takes a small shift to change the guard”
Yes. And we don’t generally give govts 4 terms. Much still depends on Labour appearing competent and the left/centre coalition parties presenting as working together before the election.
“Remember this is MMP and it only takes a small shift to change the guard”
You have spotted the danger in this ‘small shift’ idea I take it?
A similar small shift towards National (1-1.5%) would edge them over the ‘rule alone’ line? A 4th term with a majority for JK and the perfect opportunity for him to put through a few ‘legacy’ projects?
At this stage of the previous electoral cycle Labour/Greens were sitting on 45% in the polls, but currently they are stuck on the same 40% odd they haven’t been able to shift since the last election.
Just saying. Maybe it really is time for a change of strategy from the LW?
(P.S. waiting for events outside your control to happen is not a strategy.)
Keep it up: perhaps Cowboy will switch sides 😆
“(PS waiting for events outside your control is not a strategy)”
I agree with that but in reality govts generally get kicked out. The Nats only really need to shed a couple of % and they are in trouble.
On that I am surprised at Key not feigning more respect for Winston. I watched replay of question time last night and Key mocked Winston mercilessly during an answer. I would have thought Key bright enough to read the tea leaves. Hard to imagine them sitting down and having a reasoned discussion around a coalition.
We’ve had 4 x 4 term Governments in NZ, so self evidently that can happen again, and as I say, at this stage it looks likely.
Personally I would think the LW would find that 4th term a wee bit torturous, and would be highly motivated to avoid it.
But to be honest, I don’t see much sign at all of an urgency to break the current pattern and make the change happen.
But never a 5th term….so I guess you could say that’s an impossibility. Confident about that? Happy to wait for it?
As for Winston Peters, JK has known him a long time, and I believe he is perfectly confident that Winston will do the pragmatic thing and join coalition with the Party that gets the strongest mandate at the next election…if he gets the opportunity.
Anyone who believes that Winston is likely to go into a coalition that involves The Greens is barking mad. Labour yes. National yes. But let me remind you of his comments shortly before the last election…
Any coalition he was willing to make with The Greens would have to be on terms that rendered The Greens irrelevant, and which they would never accept.
“If the Greens think they are going to take over the levers of economic management they are assuming that other parties are not watching their record.”
Peters said there was still a chance for Labour and NZ First to form a government together, claiming that in 2005 the combination delivered the largest surpluses in recent times……
“Voters need to be disabused of the view promoted by the Greens that we in New Zealand First would stand by whole they promote extremist views in government,” Peters said.
Peters praised both Finance Minister Bill English and Labour spokesman David Parker as men of integrity.
“I see both of them as capable of being Ministers of Finance.
*whoosh*
😆 too funny hahahahaha
If you saw Country Calendar last week then everything is fine. Guy owned 4 dairy farms and taking on debt was just part of the game and healthy risk taking… I think they said his dad had been through the 80s crash as well and lesson was apparently learnt..
and you believed him?
I probably would have not so long ago, and I reckon since it was being shown by the authority that is Country Calendar that most of the audience would have been fine going along with it too.
I see….my experience is those who were in the industry during the eighties have a much more realistic view than those involved since….even within family.
it is a generational, life experience difference
Following the discussion on the Auckland City IT fiasco I saw this article from 2011….
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10715430
The bit that took my notice is at the bottom;
“Council chief executive Doug McKay said the cost of implementing computer systems was scary, but as far as he could tell the transition agency ran a good process.
The former private sector boss said he had implemented three new computer systems in the past and each time there had been serious cost blowouts.”
Seems he can add a fourth to his resume, that article was rather prophetic. I can’t help but think there’s something badly wrong when a CEO who’s already overseen three IT cost blowouts lets another happen on his watch. What does a CEO actually do these days?
Gets a nice, easy sinecure where s/he gets nicely rewarded for no personal risk and gives jobs and profits to the favoured.
Mckay is experienced at watching sap projects blow out from their original bs number to land on what the real cost was always going to be.
Sap is up to 20 times more expensive than similar packages that do everything it does except look as good on peoples resumes for the next sap trough.
Why Trump is filling stadiums with working class voters (and no, the answer isn’t “bigotry”): http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/mar/07/donald-trump-why-americans-support
Tom Lewandowski, the president of the Northeast Indiana Central Labor Council in Fort Wayne, puts it even more bluntly when I asked him about working-class Trump fans. “These people aren’t racist, not any more than anybody else is,” he says of Trump supporters he knows. “When Trump talks about trade, we think about the Clinton administration, first with Nafta and then with [Permanent Normal Trade Relations] China, and here in Northeast Indiana, we hemorrhaged jobs.”
“They look at that, and here’s Trump talking about trade, in a ham-handed way, but at least he’s representing emotionally. We’ve had all the political establishment standing behind every trade deal, and we endorsed some of these people, and then we’ve had to fight them to get them to represent us.”
And from the comments thread:
I was struck how similar Sander’s arguments are to those of Trump. Sanders passionately spoke out against free trade and NAFTA saying shouting “how stupid is that trade policy?” to audience applause. And I’ve noticed in the Republican debates, Trump is the only one who repeatedly discusses jobs. The others never even mention jobs AFAIK.
We tend to assume the left is automatically the choice of the working class, but history shows right-wing authoritarian nationalism can also be very attractive if the people peddling it focus on making sure the working class has work that pays.
I tell you what though hes right about a couple of things in this:
https://www.donaldjtrump.com/positions/second-amendment-rights
Enforcing the laws they already have, fixing the mental health system and fixing the background checks will do more to lower gun deaths then anything (reasonably) else
Mind you its easier said then done…
When a major part of your policy relies on a fairly strong circumstantial case….
A study (really a study of studies) suggests there is “fairly strong circumstantial case for Exile’s impact” on crime rates. But there’s a fairly strong circumstantial case that a program similar to “Exile” worked in Rochester, NY, while the economy was humming along, and then didn’t once it wasn’t.
http://www.msnbc.com/martin-bashir/whats-wayne-lapierres-love-richmon
If Sanders and Trump are both talking about jobs and the problems of free trade then why are those working class people supporting Trump? Underneath the concern about jobs is something else.
There’s nothing inherently left-wing about a voter just because they’re working class. Which means that, given a choice between left and right candidates who are both talking about jobs for workers, there’s no reason to assume workers will all be attracted to the left-wing one. The 1930s demonstrated that pretty clearly.
Yes, I understand that. I was just curious what the rationale was for so many working class supporting Trump, when Sanders is saying the same things re jobs and free trade. i.e. it’s not about the jobs and free trade, it’s about something else. The man quoted above from the Guardian seemed to be arguing that it was about the jobs. I’m not convinced.
Ummm, No.
The German working class (particularly, the urban, industrial working class) were largely immune to the Nazi electoral appeal. Along with the unemployed, they were the Nazis’ weakest demographic, immersed as so many of them were in the SPD (Social Democrat) and KPD (Communist) sub-cultures.
Only the (non-unionised) rural and small town working class (often working in small handicraft factories with less than 10 fellow employees) moved to the Nazis in appreciable numbers.
It was the German rural and urban middle class Right and Centre-Right that swung en masse to Hitler.
Wellington’s Labour mayoral aspirant Justin Lester is at it again! This time, he is advocating that a community park should be fenced off, furnished with ‘all-weather’ turf and given to a private professional football club (Phoenix) AT RATEPAYER EXPENSE!!! Where does this guy get off his endless proposals for subsidising the private sector with rates funding that should be used to maintain the city’s sagging infrastructure and public amenities. It is a sad day when Nicola Young, the true-blue candidate for the mayoralty has a better grip on Council responsibilities than the disingenuous Deputy Mayor.
What park is this Petertoo? Phoenix FC is one of his pet projects and one I’m not willing to fund. He’s wealthy, he can sell his Kapai chain and fund them himself.
Does he have any comment on Illot Green by the way? I haven’t heard anything. Being on the Developers Advocacy Board I should imagine he’s keen to hock it off for the short term gain of raising the $$$ for earthquake strengthening for the council building.
They could of course scrap the 9 million dollar corporate welfare programme known as WEID and fund the work that way.
Rosie – Martin Luckie Park in Berhampore. The man has no qualms about this well used public space and the kids league team being shunted by the sound of it.
It is a widely held belief that the thought of John Illott Green being retained as open space is anathema to Lester. It has also been mooted that Pike, the City Shaper has already been talking deals with his surrogate boss, Mark McGuinness who owns much of what is likely to become known the Willis Bond Waterfront when the privatisation progresses further with the Site 10 (& 11?) developments.
As for the income from the sale of John Illott Green being used to strengthen the Town Hall – it wouldn’t make much of a dent. The land value, based on sites of similar size on Jervois Quay would be less than $6m. Much less than the nearby site that the ratepayers are paying to kick off the Peter Jackson et. al. museum and a Conference Centre. Obviously the ratepayers have much deeper pockets than Mark Dunajtschik who obviously wan’t prepared to pay an over the odds price to proceed with a proposed Hilton Hotel/Conference Centre on the same Cable Street site.
Obviously, Lester’s short-termism doesn’t factor in the obvious, that a future Council will have to buy and demolish other commercial buildings (like Midland Park at $millions) to provide open space for urban apartment dwellers.
Sorry, yes, town hall, not council buildings.
I’m hoping that talk of turning the park in Berhampore into an all weather ground for the Phoenix is only talk. It would be deeply unfair to push children’s and adults sports clubs off the field – or would they be expected to concede to the Phoenix when ever they chose to practice on it? I have no idea why we have to fund a professional sports team anyway.
Re the $134 million convention centre/Jackson film museum site that Mark Dunajtschik couldn’t stump up for, for his hotel plans – he’s also on the executive for the Property Developers Advocacy group, alongside Lester. Maybe he said “here Justin, I’m not having it, you can have it”.
Such people find anything public is anathema – especially democracy. They will work hard to privatise everything leaving the rest of us as serfs to the new owners. Democracy will be killed by the simple act of selling off the public’s wealth and thus leaving them powerless.
“Nicola Young, the true-blue candidate for the mayoralty has a better grip on Council responsibilities than the disingenuous Deputy Mayor”.
There. I trimmed of the totally unnecessary words from the sentence. Why on earth do you put “It is a sad day when ” in front of them?
Are you planning to vote for Nicola then? God help us if we have another term of Wade-Brown and Lester sounds even worse, if such a thing is possible.
Nearly all our present councillors seem to have this delusion that they are far-seeing business entrepreneurs. Then they stuff things up. It isn’t their money and they don’t give a damn about what they waste. I have always held the view that at least one councillor should have to take a personal financial interest in any of these projects they push on the ratepayer. When any guarantee is requested or some “can’t fail” expenditure, such as the Visitor Centre at Zealandia is proposed there should have to be one of the council who says “Yes, I believe it will work. If it falls in a heap I will return all the money I have been paid while on the council to help make up for the losses”. I bet they would be a great deal more careful then.
The other problem they, like all politicians, have is that they will never admit that anything they do is a failure and should be scrapped. They would rather just keep throwing other people’s money at it for ever. It is one of the reasons we need to get new people on Governing bodies at regular intervals. New people can throw out things that are useless because their ego isn’t involved.
It gets the same way of course in Central Government. Only the numbers are bigger. The problem at the moment is that there is no viable alternative Government. The opposition at the moment aren’t fit to be allowed near the Beehive. Can’t Labour have a clean out and get people who are capable into Parliament. They still have the fools who should have been dumped at the 2011 election.
Good point at the beginning of your comment alwyn. Guess it reflects how pissed off some, self included, where when we felt obliged to vote for the city damaging faux-Green Wade-Brown to block Morrison last time round. There is obviously some trepidation as to how neo-liberal Nicola Young might be, but then, could she be more in the pockets of business and the developers than Lester? Now waiting to hear if Paul Eagle does a screeming reverse on the earlier statement of support for Lester’s Mayoral campaign.
Getting back to the former Cr. Morrison, it was a real bummer to find out that the Mayor and her gang of three paid off him off with a $300 000 unrecoverable ratepayer ‘donation’ to establish his favourite Aussie owned call-centre, a cause that morphed into being his employer. Also, impressed with the idea that you consider Cr. Foster should be liable for some of the Zealandia debt. Didn’t the ACT apparatchik Catherine Isaac had a finger in the Visitor Centre pie too?
No I don’t think Foster is liable for the debt. I wouldn’t back date my proposal.
Also Isaac was never a councillor so it couldn’t apply to her.
To expand on my view.
The Council is approached to guarantee a loan, or make a loan for something. The people responsible claim that it will not only be self-sufficient but will be so popular that it will be able to repay the loan. See Zealandia.
When it all goes belly up the Council claims that they couldn’t possibly have known that it would happen and it isn’t their fault. The ratepayer gets screwed.
I would argue that before any such loans are made, or guaranteed, ONE councillor must be found who will put his/her money where their mouth is. If it crashes they will have to repay to the Council every bit of money they have ever received, up to a maximum of the money the Council has lost.
No Councillor willing to do that? No Loan is allowed.
If Foster had been willing to make the promise he would be out of pocket. He has been at the public trough so long we would get back quite a nice little bit of change. He wouldn’t have done it of course.
That would take care of the “Loans” for Zealandia or for the Stadium. It would have prevented the guarantees for the Embassy Theatre or for the sinking of that old frigate. We were promised that fundraising would mean that the guarantee would never be called on but they were.
The Council could still spend money on such activities but they would have to vote the money directly, not hide it away to blow up in the future.
alwyn – yes backdating the proposal would be unreasonable but the comment was meant in the hypothetical. The reference to Catherine Isaac was in a different realm though. It is galling that people are shoulder tapped for roles on a ‘political’ and/or ideological basis – stuff up, then there are no consequences. Strange how this is more apparent in the realms of the higher paid – not unlike today’s expose regarding the Ministry of Health and also applicable with regard to Theo Sperrings.
Frankly it is hard to respect any “professionals” who require extensive funding from debt ridden local councils.
I’m pretty sure the Ole(!) Football Academy didn’t ask for ratepayers in Porirua to chip in, but they have an awesome field with water views.
Yesterday Michael Woodhouse managed to insult those who actively resisted zero hours contracts AND NZ workers with this comment
“Throw a bone at someone to stop barking at cars – call it a backdown if you wish.”
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/298442/green-light-for-zero-hours-ban
So the Labour Party, CTU and Unite are merely annoying yapping dogs he had to shut up by throwing a concession over zero hour contracts and workers are the passing cars causing the distraction for the yapping dogs.
What a smug little Fwit. He really needs to get a dose of reality, like having a look at the demands from employers on job ads. The extract below from seek.co.nz is typical of the type of attitude I see every day looking at job ads.
“This role would suit someone who is mature and savvy with no other commitments to allow for flexibility.”
This is a part time customer service role with a stated 18 hours a week over two specified days. The rest of the time you need to be on call to cover shifts as required. If you can’t come into work on call because you’re sick, you’re looking after someone who is sick, and well, you have have other commitments because you know, “life” happens then you’ll probably be fired under the 90 day law.
Its’ these kinds of employers that have to wake up to their responsibilities and that’s why the zero hour law is so important.
“Throw a bone at someone to stop barking at cars – call it a backdown if you wish.” My jaw dropped on reading that. I am utterly fed up with the culture of contempt that attends this government. Who does he think he is? Nero?
And by the way, your link didn’t work for me – possibly RNZ has taken the piece down.
Worked for me Olwyn.
Thanks ianmac and Rosie – I tried the link again and it worked – it seems I spoke too soon. 🙂
Hi Olwyn. I just clicked on the link and it worked………………..?
I saw Woodhouse say that on newshrub last night – a jaw dropping moment for me too. You’re right about the culture of contempt. This Government is rife with it. No standards, no professionalism, no manners.
No wonder we are an international laughing stock.
Not jaw dropping- just what we expect from anti-empathetic people.
That comment’ Throw a bone…etc” typifies Tory caught in the headlights reaction.
I have barked at cars and have subsequently needed screws and titanium thrown at my bones. I happily accept the Zero Hours outcome in this vein – not all bones are meal. The merit of barking prevails.
Watching this was odd, I started thinking this does not apply to Auckland, nor New Zealand.
Then I remembered all the small towns which are now effectively ghost towns up and down this nation.
The ever increasing prison system
and the masses of unemployment.
I know many here don’t want to see capitalism as evil, and I know many here think it can be reformed, but capitalism itself is it’s own worst enemy. We should not be trying to reform it, because in a few generations – it will do all this again.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3HMOrruYDw
What system would you favour implementing, adam? Do you have an example of people flourishing under it?
Adam’s task should be too easy.
I’m no social democrat,
I think reforming capitalism is like keeping pet sharks,
you canny complain when it bites your face off.
It’s a fair question Gormless is asking Adam?
Do you really expect the Workers to rise up and destroy their current situation, if you cannot tell them what you would replace it with?
The New Deal was a set of policies implemented within a Capitalist system, and in fact is widely credited with saving Capitalism.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Deal
So, no. It won’t be very difficult for Adam to find the system we already have.
I wouldn’t call what we’ve got now is Keynes’ form of capitalism.
It’s still Capitalism.
You’re flattering yourself that you’re a political historian now are you?
Lame tosser.
Workers of the world awaken. Break your chains, demand your rights.
All the wealth you make is taken, by exploiting parasites.
Shall you kneel in deep submission from your cradle to your grave?
Is the height of your ambition to be a good and willing slave?
Joe Hill
Workers of the world awaken. Break your chains, demand your rights.
All the wealth you make is taken, by exploiting parasites.
Shall you kneel in deep submission from your cradle to your grave?
Is the height of your ambition to be a good and willing slave?
No, no, I want you to be a bit less specific, please.
“What system would you favour implementing, adam? Do you have an example of people flourishing under it?”
Egalitarian cultures seem to do pretty well. Take the power away from white men and give it to the Māori kuia and see how we get on.
You specify ‘Māori kuia’ rather than ‘Māori’ Weka? Is there a reason for the distinction?
I think they are the group of people most likely to prioritise egalitarianism over power, and the importance of the wellbeing of everyone.
In the context of this discussion then, is it fair for me to suggest that this is an ideal that might be achieved in the future, as opposed to something that has actually been achieved in the past?
We’ve had egalitarianism as the main organising principle, and those cultures definitely let women have power. How we get from where we are now to that I don’t know, but it does seem sensible to give the power to the people least likely to abuse it and most likely to use it for the good of all.
If you mean changing from a capitalist system, then I don’t know if that’s ever been done.
TPP
http://www.newshub.co.nz/nznews/health-law-expert-rips-into-tpp-2016030910#axzz42LwRSRtL
but wait, there’s more
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/375719/mark-slates-govt-tpp-road-show
Thanks for your first link, I very seldom look at the TV3 website nowadays (didn’t even know that 7days had started up again). I had read that ODT piece earlier and particularly liked this bit:
– See more at: http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/375719/mark-slates-govt-tpp-road-show#sthash.DKKErkRE.dpuf
Perhaps an idea that should emulated at other MFAT “workshops”?
WTF –
The government is openly showing derision for the people and their right to govern the country, and control the government that has been voted in to work for the people. Aren’t I naive. But I still think that.
IIRC, Don Brash referred to the voters as “the punters out in punterland.”
It seems to be an attitude typical of the Tories high up in any organisation.
The first part of your post should get wider publicity. Serious stuff and one that we should be able to articulate it in the MSM.
And the second part is much closer to home and should get wider attention as well and beyond the ODT.
I wonder how to do that?
Well spotted Tautoko Mangō Mata.
Even more from Stiglitz.
Forget ISIS, worry about ISDS foreign trade pact clause, economists say
http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/forget-isis-worry-isds-foreign-trade-pact-clause-article-1.2557485
Just an ordinary guy.
/
Ari Melber Verified account
@AriMelber
New: Trump admitted he makes UNDER $500,000 a year in a 2016 tax filing.
That got him $300 back.
-@CrainsNewYork
https://twitter.com/AriMelber/status/707285973143576578
http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20160308/BLOGS02/160309865/how-did-trump-qualify-for-a-middle-class-tax-break?CSDropAuthCookieSpecified=1&CSDropAuthCookie=1
Blowhards, trolls and rat-fuckers – say it ain’t so.
And as probability becomes clearer, I’ve been hearing and reading people who profess to be leftists or progressives saying they will never vote for Clinton but might instead vote for Trump.
Anybody who does that is a freaking numbskull. Anybody claiming to be on the left who votes for Trump deserves not an ounce of respect. Anybody who thinks putting this billionaire bully into the White House makes any kind of sense has none. And anybody who urges people to vote for him is dead to me.
I have no idea how many actual Sanders’ supporters are considering a vote for Trump if Bernie fails to get the nomination.
I don’t know how many of the people who are saying Trump is a good option for progressives in November actually are progressives themselves, how many are blowhards and trolls, and how many are rat-fuckers who have all along favored Trump and are eager to exploit our division. Too many, whatever the count.
http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/3/4/1495625/-If-you-re-thinking-of-voting-for-Trump-because-you-can-t-stand-Clinton-you-aren-t-thinking-very-hard
From the “hot headed knee jerk reaction files”.
The petition to get SAFE’s status as a charity revoked has made it to the DIA
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/dairy/77647167/farmers-threaten-animal-rights-groups-charitable-status
Glad to hear that SAFE are not feeling threatened by this move, as the believe they meet the criteria for operating as a charity, otherwise that status wouldn’t have been granted it by the charities commission.
Wholesale spying on New Zealanders and the merger between SIS and GCSB recommended by Michael Cullen
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11602643
See new post on this.
That word again.
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865649537/Native-Americans-protest-at-Capitol-over-observance-of-Columbus-Day.html
Why do people in the USA celebrate Columbus day anyway?
He never landed in North America, but only on islands in the Caribbean.
Any refugee from the USA who can explain?
‘Presidential primaries 2016: Americans head to polls in 4 states’
https://www.rt.com/usa/334903-primary-michigan-hawaii-idaho/
Michael Moore tweet
“The choices r a demented billionaire, a democratic socialist, maybe our 1st woman prez who’s “sorry” 4 her Iraq War vote &a Canadian Dracula”
Just looking for the frequency for local community radio and looked on ite called Love NZ which listed all in locality and National Radio genre is Talkback.
The response to radio on the site is so vacuous that it is automatically regarded as a music service in the main, classic, adult contemporary, feel good, variety, easy listening etc. Rhema is Christian, Sport is sport so that didn’t try their brains much, then there is Community, RADIONZ Concert is listed as Live Concert for goodness sake, as if that is the only concert music they can envisage.
They have no word that is suitable to describe our peerless feeder of information, thought, culture and news. Except to call national radio, RADIONZ, ‘Talkback’, as if this was the highest intellectual offering they could conceive. Thinking, a bit sterile!
Video killed the radio star! It certainly dims when it comes to marketing music for profit,
and not mainly for the musicians either.
Ironic given the hole that Kim Dotcom is in over copyright law that:
“Lawyers for Eminem, National Party back in court.
In September, spokesman for the publishers Joel Martin said Eminem was never approached for permission to use his work in National’s rowing-themed election ads, which featured backing music similar to the riff of Lose Yourself.”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11602702
http://m.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=11602456
Economic s for dummy’s. ( me included)
Thanks! Useful for me too. I liked the driving to work analogy both in the context of ecomomics but also why thinking about the collective is important in general.
Hard not to draw the conclusion that it’s that Keynesian or Monetarist economics are wrong, but that all economics is 😉 (or maybe it’s just that the economy shouldn’t be based primarily on economics but other things like well being, the collective good, our place in the environment).
Our 100 000 Hindu speakers in NZ have no choice on the flag referendum: they are asked to tick the box they want for the new New Zealand flag. Careless mistranslation or devious manipulation?
Fuck up by someone. I doubt that it was intentional.
As an aside, I was surprised about the 100,000 Hindi speakers number though. Seemed high, although the 2013 census says 66,309, which is nearly doubled since 2006.
I live in a very Euro-centric part of NZ :-/
http://www.stats.govt.nz/Census/2013-census/profile-and-summary-reports/quickstats-culture-identity/languages.aspx
Old Billy Boy Ralston standing for Auckland Council finally broken cover aye ? Been on JohnTheNeolib/ParnellBBQ payroll for however long, one way or another. Finally come clean. Hope his splendid benign pomposity doesn’t grow with this. Could be life threatening.
Ralston has been spinning for Key for ages.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/77685076/sell-aucklands-port-bill-ralston-launches-councillor-campaign
Billy Boy in earnest mode. By which he will ‘earnest’ much more pleasingly than ever before. Geezuz !