Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Step right up to the mike…
The High Court disallows Dow/Monsanto to appear as a witness on its own behalf to corrupt our environment ( for now) but how has it come to this ?????
Terrifying thoughts to begin a sweet spring morning that Dow/Monsanto already holds sufficient surreptitious sway in NZ to have received the authority to proceed with non-notifiable GM tampering outside our very strict GM controls! Kia Kaha to the Sustainability Council on our behalf. (And it makes the interference on Ruataniwha seem modest by comparison imho.)
Oh my, just how corrupt is this govt willing to be ?? And all powers of local councils to prevent these developments have been removed.
NB — almost certainly this denial of permission to appear as witness could NOT have occurred under TPPA. In fact, likely it could never have gotten to the High Court !!!
Lyn filmed it. Lynn says it’ll take a day or so to get it online. But it will go online. It was an important debate, and needs to be seen and discussed widely.
Bearing in mind Lyn’s workload at present (and mine for that matter) I wouldn’t expect it before the weekend. Last I saw as she was offloading the GB of video was that she was muttering all three mic’ed being pen-clickers đ I got the impression that pen-clicker was some kind of newly discovered swear word. đ
I liked that debate. Wayne was pretty clear on the how and why. Jane was as sharp as usual. Getting a much clearer view about why it is being pushed for and what the benefits are, and the downsides.
The quality of education (literacy and numeracy) in the countries whose education systems gave us National Standards and Charter Schools. A scroll down to the bottom of the lists is required to see what it’s done for their people aged 16-24. A bit of movement from their results for all adults.
Great debate last night. Some may find it hard to believe but I wanted wayne to put some doubt in my mind about wanting to know more he didnt. He said ftas and tppa bring us prosperity pointing to increased trade with those countries we have them with. His second argument was would we really want to not be in it if the others are in.
Yes. Wayne is knowledgeable on the issues, but I disagree with his underlying philosophy (which reminded me so much of my Dad’s way back when I argued with him – heated debates at the dinner table). My dad was also knowledgeable and very smart, but he didn’t convince me back then, and neither did Wayne last night.
Wayne argued that TPP is a very significant agreement involving all Pacific nations, and as a “trading nation” NZ cannot afford to be left out. But s Kelsey showed, there are already many concerns in other countries about the TPP, and it looks to me that there are a lot of cracks where pressure can be applied so that the TPP will start to crumble.
“it looks to me that there are a lot of cracks where pressure can be applied so that the TPP will start to crumble.”
It will be interesting if one of the first cracks appear in what the pork-barrelling in the U.S. dishes up to resolve the government shutdown. Or at the very least whether the shutdown delays negotiations.
Gormless. I thought I heard joyce saying no. It just seems such a strange thing for the nats to dig their toes in. Perhaps it tells us much of their vote sits amongst baby boomers?
The Gormless Fool formerly known as Oleolebiscuitbarrell 6.1
Te Reo Putake, Populuxe and others who slavishly follow the party line will no doubt be amplifying some or all of the latest anti-protestor messages. Promising new targets for Te Reo et al. include:
Watch Niall Ferguson get schooled by real economists
Brad Delong, Paul Krugman and Dean Baker all beat up on Niall Ferguson for making the kind of embarrassing error that would badly damage his career if he were not peddling lies that the rich and powerful want people to believe….
Excellent link: I have often thought that Fergusson was a wannabe Galbraith, Kenneth Clark or Brunowski, acting as a legitimate teller of the tale on a major BBC doc series. In a strange way he reminds me of the very talented Brannagh attempting to don the Shakespearean mantle of Olivier, and never quite succeeding. At-least his attempts were honest, by contrast Niall appears to work on the principle that if a statement is so sweeping it will be received by we humble viewers as true. I don’t mind him being partisan, no amount of eloquence however can make a false proposition any more real.
Yesterday’s Panel with Mora.
The ever-so-reasonable-sounding-Franks was on and began subtly spouting his party line on topics of justice, Supreme court etc and on ACC. Mora invited Dr Duncan Webb to discuss issues and he appeared to progressively dismantle most of Franks points.
I didn’t accuse you of lying, Moz, but of being grossly inaccurate. I provided the link to what was actually said, which bore little resemblance to your fictional ‘transcript’.
At least in earlier exchanges about your inability to transcribe accurately you had the wit to acknowledge that they were just an impression. Which is fine.
I think you need to make up your mind as to whether they are intended to accurately reflect what is said or whether they are just a pisstake. If it’s the latter, I look forward to a few sniggers at the expense of those you target. If its the former, well, you’re just another jonolist. Though an decidely amateur one, obviously.
1.) I didnât accuse you of lying, Moz, but of being grossly inaccurate.
You and a couple of others have repeatedly accused me of “making shit up”. Last night you claimed that “itâs all bullshit from Moz. Nothing in the âtranscriptâ has anything but a passing resemblance to the truth. Ok, Moz gets the names of the participants correct, but the rest is made up.” Yet a few hours later you brazenly claim that you didn’t accuse me of lying. I think you have just been hoist by your own canard.
2.) I provided the link to what was actually said, which bore little resemblance to your fictional âtranscriptâ.
On the contrary, the link shows my rendition of that conversation was accurate. Not word-perfect, of course, and I never pretended it was.
3.) At least in earlier exchanges about your inability to transcribe accurately you had the wit to acknowledge that they were just an impression. Which is fine.
It would be obvious to even the meanest intelligence that my rendition was an impression of what was said. I never claimed it was a transcript. Your quibbling is nothing more than spurious, captious obstinacy.
4.) I think you need to make up your mind as to whether they are intended to accurately reflect what is said or whether they are just a pisstake.
My script was accurate. Not word-perfect, but accurate. I believe I captured Franks’s sneering malevolence, and Mora’s mealy-mouthed flippancy. I didn’t write down everything Chris Wikaira said, because he was well into his speech before I even picked up a piece of paper. Certainly the words are not verbatim, but I made up none of it.
5.) If itâs the latter, I look forward to a few sniggers at the expense of those you target. If its the former, well, youâre just another jonolist. Though an decidely amateur one, obviously.
You mean I’m not professional, like those outstanding specimens at the BBC, NBC, CBS, Fox News, the Grauniad and all the other government-approved cheerleaders and megaphones. I’m a little bit better than that, I think.
Could you explain what you mean please? I’m mystified. It seems that you’re having a sly dig at me, judging by the response of our friend McFlock, but it’s all very obscure.
You’d think they’d have a word or phrase for this by now. Someone who sucks all the attention out of a group of online commentators, so that most of the effort on the blog goes into inanity and discussing inanity and defending inanity and defending/discussing meta-inanity, instead of discussing the things that the blog is actually about. And someone who does this repeatedly in a predictable fashion.
Hence my comment about Jenny leaving and vaccums being filled.
Youâd think theyâd have a word or phrase for this by now. Someone who sucks all the attention out of a group of online commentators, so that most of the effort on the blog goes into inanity and discussing inanity and defending inanity and defending/discussing meta-inanity, instead of discussing the things that the blog is actually about.
The entire raison d’ĂŞtre of my transcripts/reconstructions is to highlight the utter inanity of a significant sector of media commentators in this country. You seem to have mistaken me for my targets. Perhaps you need to ease up on the hallucinogens.
And someone who does this repeatedly in a predictable fashion. Hence my comment about Jenny leaving and vaccums [sic] being filled.
Your comparison is invalid, glib, and stupid. Sadly that’s something that could be said of most of your posts. Hence the general lack of regard for your efforts on this forum.
Cobblers, cobber. You can keep bullshitting all day, but it doesn’t make your dismal effort any more accurate. You are the Stephen Franks of jonolism. It’s great that you now accept it’s only an “impression”. But so is the mark the farmer leaves when he steps in a cowpat. The gumboot still stinks though.
One of the nastier strategies employed by John Key and his parliamentary cronies is to bray “He’s making stuff up” whenever they are confronted with something embarrassing. Here’s a typical example from one of the intellectual powerhouses in the National Party…. http://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2012/10/shearer_makes_it_up.html
I’m sure others on this mostly excellent forum have noticed one or two of the resident thugs around here using the same formula. As an example, look at how our thuggish friend Te Reo Putake behaves….
Cobblers, cobber. You can keep bullshitting all day,
There he goes again!
….but it doesnât make your dismal effort any more accurate.
First the allegation that I have been dishonest, then the derogatory epithet (“dismal effort”). I am sure that this bloke manages to intimidate a few locals around Whanganui with such behaviour but, as always, on a forum like this he only ends up making himself look bereft of ideas.
You are the Stephen Franks of jonolism. Itâs great that you now accept itâs only an âimpression”.
I’ve never suggested otherwise. I’ve always admitted that my transcripts are a mix of verbatim recording and reconstruction from memory. They are usually done in haste but they are always true to the character and tenor of the conversation. Only a few naysayers have objected, and that has been, in every case, because they have objected to my reminding them that someone they have worshipped is a fraud or an empty bag of wind. In the case of Te Reo Putake, I recall he was incandescent with indignation when I pointed out the rank hypocrisy of this fraud’s putrid method acting here…. http://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2013/jul/01/barack-obama-nelson-mandela-robben-island-video
Ooooh, reduced to identity speculation. And so typically inaccurate!
No speculation at all. You do live in Whanganui, as you have repeatedly reminded us on this forum. And far from speculating who you are, I merely suggested that your inept attempts to bully and intimidate people on this site are no doubt a continuation of the way you behave in your everyday life. That’s speculating on your behaviour, not on your identity.
I don’t live in Whanganui, Moz. More made up stuff from you. If only your memory was up to your ambition, eh?
And losing arguments does not make you a victim, it just makes you someone who can’t succesfully argue their corner. Of course, if you took more care to be accurate in the first place, you wouldn’t be called on it and you wouldn’t feel as lousy as you obviously do today.
You could always wait until RNZ put up the recording and check your impression against it before posting. That’s called fact checking, it’s really useful for keeping your integrity intact.
Now, now, TRP – mozz has pointed out that you have repeatedly “reminded us” that you live in Wh. I’m sure, having such accurate recollection, links to the comments where you’ve admitted living in Wh will be along presently.
Indeed, it will be a wonderful demonstration of mozz’s outstanding recollective abilities. We will all have to adopt a more humble deference to his important authority when he proves you wrong.
if a transcript is not word-perfect, then it is not accurate.
My renditions are usually pretty close to word-perfect. I even make sure to include every time someone like Hekia Parata uses fillers like “ummmm”, “ahhhh” and “y’know”. The objections to my renditions are ideological.
The matter under debate seems, therefore, to be the level of inaccuracy.
I might get the odd word out of order, or transpose sentences, but I am very particular at rendering the tenor and the essence of these conversations. You know that very well, of course.
You are the Stephen Franks of jonolism. Itâs great that you now accept itâs only an âimpressionâ.
Iâve never suggested otherwise. Iâve always admitted that my transcripts are a mix of verbatim recording and reconstruction from memory. They are usually done in haste but they are always true to the character and tenor of the conversation.
They are either “pretty close to word-perfect” transcripts, or the wording is off but the tenor or impression of the conversation is accurate (or is your memory “near perfect”?). I’m thinking the difference between a photograph and a Monet. The trouble is that the tone is subjective, especially when reading text that is skewed with disparaging names for some of the participants, so really it comes under satire rather than recording.
It seems to me that you sort of want it both ways – when people take the trouble to prove that your transcripts aren’t word perfect (and the ones I’ve compared have not been anywhere close), you concede and claim that even so the tenor is correct, but then you go back to claiming they are near-perfect transcripts for the next one.
I have shown many times the wording of your impressions to be a long, long way from the words actually spoken. You frequently invent entire sentences.
I have even demonstrated this after you have claimed that your impression was an exact transcript.
I’ve also questioned your impression of the tone of conversations before, and found that you add colours like “yell” and “screech” and “awkward silence” when nothing of the like can be heard in the recording.
My conclusion is that you don’t bother to listen back to recordings after writing your impressions to check what you’ve written. Nothing wrong with that but it makes a mockery of any claim to accuracy, either of colour or content.
1.) I have shown many times the wording of your impressions to be a long, long way from the words actually spoken. You frequently invent entire sentences.
I occasionally have to reconstruct sentences for the purpose of continuity. Although I get most of it word-perfect, it’s not always the case.
2.) I have even demonstrated this after you have claimed that your impression was an exact transcript.
We have agreed on this point already. You weaken your case by overstating how wrong I get it, however.
3.) Iâve also questioned your impression of the tone of conversations before, and found that you add colours like âyellâ and âscreechâ and âawkward silenceâ when nothing of the like can be heard in the recording.
Now you’re questioning my judgement. The fact is, there are many awkward and embarrassing silences on Jim Mora’s programme. Sometimes this is because people are too stunned or too disgusted to say anything; that happens when someone like Nevil Breivik Gibson or Dr. Michael Bassett is a guest. Other times it comes from an inability to formulate a response to something inane that Mora or one of his more foolish guests, like Christine (Spankin’) Rankin, has said. Whatever the reason, those silences happen. It says a lot that you are now pretending they don’t happen. And I have not used either “yell” or “screech” to denote the tone of anyone. You’re struggling to make your point as it is, and misquoting me like that is just another dent to your credibility.
4.) My conclusion is that you donât bother to listen back to recordings after writing your impressions to check what youâve written. Nothing wrong with that but it makes a mockery of any claim to accuracy, either of colour or content.
There you go again—wildly overstating your case. I don’t always get things verbatim, and I have always conceded that. Instead of chiding me for it, which would be a reasonable thing to do, you make a crazed and extreme statement, showing me no respect and grossly misrepresenting my character and the calibre of my work.
This spurious quibbling of yours is cynical and dishonest; you were a fan of my transcripts/reconstructions/dramatizations—call them what you will—until I started to target people and organizations and governments who you have, unwisely, chosen to align yourself with.
Mozza, just because silences exist on a program doesn’t mean you can insert them wherever you like and say you’re being accurate.
And no, nothing to do with your choice of target. The truth is I was a fan until I listened to one of the interviews while reading your impressions and noticed that it was about 50% fantasy.
And yes, of course I’m questioning your judgement. I’m also questioning your hearing, your attention span, your understanding of many of the words you throw around, and your sense of importance.
Once again, felix, I am afraid the very good points you make are submerged in a blizzard of extreme statements and distortions. You are obviously an intelligent and discerning fellow, but your determination to portray my (admittedly imperfect) reconstructions/transcripts as “50% fantasy” seriously undermines your credibility.
As a matter of interest, could you cite the occasion on which I apparently falsified half of my transcript? And when have I not understood a word I have “thrown around”? Once again, this looks like a case of belittlement and distortion.
argh shit – any chance of a moderator rolling back my “just out of time” edit? I was trying to change “12m30s” to “12min”, and must have submitted the edit with half a second to spare, or royally bollocked the comment up.
[lprent: Looks like there was an occasional bug in this mornings update of the re-edit. Looks like it is working most of the time, otherwise I’d turn it off until I can get to the backups. ]
Most round-about way of phrasing âmake shit upâ Iâve seen in a long while.
I made up nothing. As we can see from your vicious campaign of misrepresenting and distorting my contributions, you are the one in the business of lying. Not that you do it very well, mind you.
The fact is, there are many awkward and embarrassing silences on Jim Moraâs programme. Sometimes this is because people are too stunned or too disgusted to say anything; that happens when someone like Nevil Breivik Gibson or Dr. Michael Bassett is a guest. Other times it comes from an inability to formulate a response to something inane that Mora or one of his more foolish guests, like Christine (Spankinâ) Rankin, has said. Whatever the reason, those silences happen. It says a lot that you are now pretending they donât happen
those italics indicate the parts of your pieces where you make shit up.
You don’t know what those silences mean. You project meaning into them though, and claim that what you interpret them to mean, is what actually happened.
The classic example of something similar was when someone was talking about someone else, and you claimed that she was actually talking about her husband.
those italics indicate the parts of your pieces where you make shit up.
Nonsense. Your comments are completely spurious. I interpreted their comments, and their awkward and embarrassed silences, fairly and correctly. You know that, too, of course, but you’ve embarked on a course of bloodymindedly backing up the destructive behaviour of a few people determined to sabotage any dissenting voices on this forum.
You donât know what those silences mean. You project meaning into them though, and claim that what you interpret them to mean, is what actually happened.
Okay then, let’s pretend that the long silence that followed after Michael Bassett snarled that Nicky Hager “is a holocaust-denier” was because everyone was simply appreciating Bassett’s wit, eloquence and moral authority. I think most people will agree with me that the silence indicated something else, just as the silences that follow some of Mora’s more inane utterances indicate that something has gone wrong. By all means take a benevolent view of that. Just make sure you let us know when the space shuttle has returned from orbit, will you?
The classic example of something similar was when someone was talking about someone else, and you claimed that she was actually talking about her husband.
Of course, anyone with half a brain could have seen I was taking the michael, but poor old felix and bad12 obviously missed the humour in it. More to the point: so do you, all this time later, which is a worry.
Obviously just another joke. Which is the point. If you want to make jokes, make jokes, but don;t present them as transcripts and get haughty when people say that they aren’t accurate representations of what happened.
It is never the readers’ fault when so many of them don’t get what a writer is doing. It just means the writing doesn’t work.
You see Morrissey, you have nothing but this tiresome bluster. It’s all you ever respond with.
I said your things aren’t worth bothering with. And that’s what I meant. There’s nothing to form a coherent response to. They aren’t realistic descriptions or critiques of what were said, and as humour then they are merely personal attacks on people. What is so grand about saying that you don’t like Wilson’s husband?
Awesome piece there, pointing out that you feel the same way about her husband as she feels about someone else. That was the ‘joke’ right?
Fill yer boots, but like I said, getting on your high horse claiming that it is an accurate depiction of what happened is just rubbish. It does no one any good. It’s better written than kiwiblog comments, if overwrought for my taste, but the level of what is going on is about the same.
1.) You see Morrissey, you have nothing but this tiresome bluster. Itâs all you ever respond with.
That’s not true. I have responded in good faith to every point you made, yet your only rejoinder is to dismiss it all as “tiresome bluster”. That’s laziness on your part, pure and simple. Judging by most of the stuff you’ve written on this forum, you’re far better than that. Maybe you need a good sleep, my friend.
2.) I said your things arenât worth bothering with. And thatâs what I meant. Thereâs nothing to form a coherent response to.
Nonsense. You are simply making no sense.
3.) They arenât realistic descriptions or critiques of what were said, and as humour then they are merely personal attacks on people.
So I don’t critique these people? My evocations of them aren’t realistic? You either: (a) just don’t understand what I’m doing; (b) think that there is something commendable about Jim Mora’s laughing at the victims of state repression or Chris Trotter’s windy admonitions to respect lynch law in the Deep South; or (c) you are deliberately misrepresenting my work.
4.)What is so grand about saying that you donât like Wilsonâs husband?
That’s not what I said. My piece was far more nuanced and serious than that.
5.) Awesome piece there, pointing out that you feel the same way about her husband as she feels about someone else. That was the âjokeâ right?
No, there was more to it than that. I was critiquing one half of a hideous right wing husband-wife team. My purpose was utterly serious, even though my method was, as others have said, satirical.
6.) Fill yer boots, but like I said, getting on your high horse claiming that it is an accurate depiction of what happened is just rubbish. It does no one any good. Itâs better written than kiwiblog comments, if overwrought for my taste, but the level of what is going on is about the same.
I appreciate your positive comparison of my modest oeuvre to Farrar’s miserable, crappy blog. I actually think your writing is very good, most of the time; I’m just mystified as to why you are so truculent in your criticism of what I do. I appreciate I am not always correct and am often overly harsh, but I am absolutely prepared to modify my views.
It is never the readersâ fault when so many of them donât get what a writer is doing.
What on earth are you wittering about? “So many of them”? Even my mortal enemies around here—Te Reo, McFuck, Populuxe—understood I was taking the piss. Only you seem to have been incapable of appreciating the joke.
It just means the writing doesnât work.
It worked fine. If I operated on making my work completely comprehensible to the lowest common denominator (i.e. you and Brett Dale) there would be no point in carrying on. I’m interested in engaging more substantial characters.
The well monied Board and Senior Managers of Might River having bought into the shares big-time with the aid of multi-million dollar bank loans, now in a situation of ongoing negative equity USING the profits, of which 51% belong to you and me, in an attempt to pump up the value where they can safely unload???,
Not to mention the ‘blind trust managers’ who bought into Mighty River en masse on behalf of their very public figure beneficiaries facing the prospect of an ongoing very large loss demanding those in charge of Mighty River do something???,
Bock, Bock, Bock, the chickens have come home to roost early this year Wilbur…
Aaaah losers, the National Party is full of them, the small time ‘i own shares brigade’, how much of that useless paper are you holding,
What’s your dollar losses so far, not quite time to panic just yet, BUT, think September 2015 and the Labour/Green Government should be well on the way to introducing Legislation for the power sector reforms,(of course they may already have it in draft form which will change the above to well on the way to Passing Legislation),
Now you can ‘Gamble’, will your piddling little parcel of shares by September 2015 have regained their original price enabling you to unload them and still keep your shirt, or will the Labour/Green electricity reforms pass through the Parliament befor this can occur and bite another 1/3 off of the share price,
You ‘gamble’, you ‘lose’, thank your mates over at National Party HQ for selling you a ‘Lemon’…
Is the Daily Mail correct in this reporting, or just stirring it up? It reckons Kuwait has developed medical test to detect gays and prevent them from entering the country. Futile or what? Or is it just a way to keep out anyone they choose?
He [Yousouf Mindkar, the director of public health at the Kuwaiti health ministry] told Kuwait newspaper Al Rai: âHealth centres conduct the routine medical check to assess the health of the expatriates when they come into the GCC countries. However, we will take stricter measures that will help us detect gays who will be then barred from entering Kuwait or any of the GCC member states.â
Apparently you can check the hip bones for unusual wear, which is a sure sign of exaggerated mincing. They also put on show tunes and check for elevated heart rate.
Without me this place would be as funny as a Russian bread queue which, if you boyfriend has his way and nationalises the supermarkets, people will discover is not very funny at all.
Actually that comment IS pretty funny (the Russian bread queue one). The problem with most of your other comments that would otherwise be funny is that they’re either cruel, mean or just plain obnoxious. Makes it harder to laugh.
And let’s not forget that the destitution which befell millions of citizens of the former USSR in the 10 years after Gorbachev was largely due to self-serving advice from investment banks like Goldman Sachs and neoliberal institutions like the IMF.
Would that be why ShonKey Python’s booked into Mercy Hospital in Epsom then ? A job lot on the hips AND the simper for oh so busy Baby Churchill World Leader ?
“You are trying to get me banned tempting me like that”
Oh go on, take the bait monkey boy….it was great without you last time, but the funniest part was when you tried to come back too early, and Felix summed you up perfectly
Qatar, another GCC member, will host the men’s soccer world cup in 2022. In 2018, Russia will be the host. Looks like the FIFA has an agenda for the future. So much for sport bringing people together..
There is no way qatar or russia should’ve gotton the next two world cups after Brazil, Blatter is the most corrupt man in sports, all countries should tell fifa they wont contest 2022.
The construction workers and the women who service the Qatari population.
The abuses of foreign workers have been going on for years. If FIFA intended on making Qatar clean up it’s act, it might have been worth awarding the games there, but all they seem worried about is playing in the heat…. oh, and the money (and they’d give up the wellbeing of the players for the money too, I reckon).
3rd Degree Burns
Marie Dyhrberg
-1/3 of crime not reported
-20000 IPCA complaints per year; 5% investigated.
-“seeing a slippery slope” develop
-implementation of Curruther’s reform recommendations should produce greater openness
Ian Lambie
-“I see some inappropriate / illegal behaviour”.
36% of police staff lack confidence that their superiors will action (in-house) complaints.
surprisingly, considering the studio audience, before the ‘debate’ they were split 50/50 over whether “the public are losing trust in the Police”.
Overall ‘Vote’ for the country- 56% Yes, the police are losing our trust.
Well, this old dog can come in from the cold and rest his bone.
Exclamation of the evening: “Only Jesus is beyond reproach, and he’s got His detractors” (Same)- Pam Corkery.
(excellent to see the lawyers giving Garner and Espinor a tune-up) đ
The police prosecutor struck me as having the same intonations and simplistic analogies as the police association guy (name escapes me at moment). Must be a cop thing. But when she likened confidence in the police to still supporting the All Blacks even if a player fumbled the ball, the line screaming to be used was the damage match-fixing did to cricket, or even championship wrestling in the US. The last thing we need is a police force with the credibility of WWE.
Have to agree with you there mate. Every time he surfaces I’m left wondering if he has that job for life or will they update for the modern world one day.
Some of you may have seen a short item on 3news about a factory fire that killed (as was reported last night), 10 workers in Bangladesh. You might have said to yourself, “Bloody hell, not again”.
Turns out that once again it is a factory that has contracts with Gap and Walmart. You would think they would have acted to ensure their workplaces were safe after over 1000 workers died in the Rana Plaza collapse and fire several months ago.
“While 90 other companies have joined together in the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh, an agreement between companies and unions, Walmart has refused. Instead, Walmart teamed up with Gap to create a corporate-controlled program that is hardly more than a facelift of the programs that have failed Bangladeshi workers in the past. Meanwhile, the death toll continues to climb. Please take action now â join with us in calling on Walmart and Gap to stop putting profits over peopleâs lives”.
According to a new report by the Congressional Research Service, cutting taxes for the wealthiest does not cause economic growth, despite constant conservative claims that it will. Instead, tax cuts for the rich merely exacerbate income inequality,
Which is what we on the left have been saying for decades.
Barking – and one day they could have their finger on the button.
So to pull all this logic together, God anoints priests to work in the church directly and kings to go out into the marketplace to conquer, plunder, and bring back the spoils to the church. The reason governmental regulation has to disappear from the marketplace is to make it completely available to the plunder of Christian “kings” who will accomplish the “end time transfer of wealth.” Then “God’s bankers” will usher in the “coming of the messiah.” The government is being shut down so that God’s bankers can bring Jesus back.
Ted Cruz may well be barking mad about a lot of stuff, but he is close to the mark here:
When you hear this attack on religion, it’s not really an attack on religion. The fundamental basis is this. Socialism requires that government becomes your God. That’s why they have to destroy your concept of God. They have to destroy all your loyalties except loyalty to the government. That’s what’s behind homosexual marriage. It’s really more about the destruction of the traditional family than about homosexuality, because you need also to destroy loyalty to the family.
An example of this is the state’s removal of all reference of obligations owed to deity in law. The state is happy enough to pay lip service to deity and exercise the benefit of making oath, but when it comes to obligations, the rules of the state are given the status of law while the real law is ignored.
sadly, I was sighing with you over the direction UT takes. (well-meaning is possible though…still, wotteva ewe say is generally OK with me) đ All Good This End đ
The creative field behind. The revelation of such ( not exclusively) to the historic figures of
Christ, John, Thomas. A syncretic Way , of course, my friend.
absolutely (and don’t forget the LDS).
anyway joe, this has been a central tenet of my thesis all through.
However, thanks to TS commentators, some helpful books and an enquiring mind…
so, here’s a mousetrap;
“You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many”
-Mark 10:42-
so simple really đ
was reading yesterday of more RC cover-ups (from the highest levels) in the St Paul-Minnesota region.
@ Tony Parker….reasons for closure seem spurious, unfathomable and cooked ..at least to the School Principal interviewed on National Radio…which makes one wonder ….did Nact plan to replace this state school community with Nact’s own special Charter School imposition?…ie usurp the buildings for a Charter School?….Was this the hidden agenda for the illegitimate closure?
Activity is King. Doesn’t matter that bad law is rushed onto the books, that govt gets more accomplished at choosing lawyers that given them the decisions they want, oh, no, the cost are left to future parliaments to pay. Take Howards policies regards kiwis in OZ. The upper chamber in Australia doesn’t work, and we in NZ don’t have one, hopefully as money becomes scare society may again feel the need to write good law.
Is this going to be your daily comment, pr?
The Herald is a right wing rag and constantly writes puff pieces in support of their corporate mates.
Show me a more independent source lauding this government please.
The IMF must be expecting the Christchurch rebuild to be getting up to full speed then. For the sake of the people who live there, I hope so. They’ve been waiting far too long.
pukesh roque the only reason GDP is up is because the US dollar is sliding on a downward spiral.
If the debt ceiling in the US is not solved its bubble bursting time!
The US stock market is already in free fall the property bubble in NZ will follow our dollar will increase in value reducing our exports!
Leading back to 2008 scenarios!
Sorry, can’t find the comment which alerted me to Gordon Campbell’s article as it relates to the need for an independent body to identify and refer back to appropriate appellate courts, potential miscarriages of justice:
The considered views of Professor Graham Zellick* recounted in Campbell’s article really do underline what an hubristic, dangerous philistine is Judith Collins in Justice.
This government more and more resembles the crazed Tea Party backwoodsmen of the US.
*Professor Zellick – the man who headed the equivalent UK body 2003-2008.
Change clocked. Nature: abstract (paper pay walled) and summary.
The Indonesian city of Manokwari is poised to become an unwitting icon for climate change. In about 2020, the coastal location will become one of the first places in recent history to adopt an entirely new climate â one in which its coldest years will be consistently hotter than any of the past 150 years.
That is one finding of a study published today in Nature1, which attempts to create a region-specific index of climate change. Researchers sought to identify the point at which temperature oscillations in each area will exceed the bounds of historical variability. Such âclimate departuresâ are predicted to start in the tropics and then spread to higher latitudes. If carbon dioxide emissions continue unabated, Earthâs mean climate could depart from historical averages in 2047.
– Well maybe Sonny Bill you should stop whatever it is your manager tells you to do and start using your head, yes I’m sure you feel bad for the guy whos place you took however if you had declared your availability before the announcement none of this would have happened
But then that’d be less publicity for you I suppose…
In just 2 daysâ time, African leaders could kill off a great institution, leaving the world a more dangerous place. The International Criminal Court (ICC) is the worldâs first and only global court to adjudicate crimes against humanity. But leaders of Sudan and Kenya, who have inflicted terror and fear across their countries, are trying to drag Africa out of the ICC, allowing them the freedom to kill, rape, and inspire hatred without consequences. I know that together we can change this. But we have to join hands and call on the voices of reason at the African Union (AU) â Nigeria and South Africa â to speak out and ensure that the persecuted are protected by the ICC. Join me by adding your name to the petition now and share it with everyone — when we have hit 1 million our petition will be delivered straight into the AU conference hall where Africaâs leaders are meeting in Addis Ababa. –Desmond Tutu
Although the governmentâs initiative promotes a separation between Islam and politics, opponents say that the new push serves the decidedly political purpose of casting a divine glow on the brutal crackdown against supporters of ousted president Mohamed Morsi. Hundreds of Morsiâs backers in the Muslim Brotherhood have been killed and thousands arrested by authorities, who describe them as âterrorists.â
âThis is the new regime trying to create an official Islam, a state Islam, which doesnât exist within the Islamic tradition,â said Emad Shahin, a professor of public policy at the American University in Cairo. âItâs providing a religious justification to tolerate the killing of possibly thousands of people, and it is sending alarming signals into many segments of society. This is exactly what you call fa**ism.â
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light”. Matt. 12:28- imho, a lovely piece of scripture.
As Adam Smith (a fellow Scot) said in his “scripture” “all wealth comes from labour”. He is right, whether physical or mental, labour is the source of all wealth. Unrest , wars, political upheaval and inequality are a product of the struggle for control of the wealth. What is recent is simply that it is now globally apparent thanks to global communications.
A peaceful protester holds up a sign on the side of the footpath or pedestrian walk along Queen Street for a while, then gets approached by two yellow vested “City Crew” or “City View” staffers employed by Council. One wore a security firm’s sign on his shirt too. They approached the person and asked: “Have you been here for long?” The protester answered: “A while”, so they asked: “Will you be here any much longer?” The person facing them answers with: “Well, I have set myself some time, but probably not all that much longer”. Then the two City Council staffers ask: “Do you mind me asking me for your name?” The protester answers: “Why, what is the problem, this is freedom of expression, democracy?” Also the person says: “I do not feel I need to give you any details.” Then the senior person of the Council staff says (he is Pakeha, his colleagues Polynesian of large build): “Well, do you mind me taking a photo then?” The protester says: “Well, no that is your choice, I have no problem with that”. So the Council staffer steps back a bit, takes a photo and after that they walk on. He also said before that, they were concerned with “City Profile”.
What I also noticed is: Auckland City has suddenly been “cleansed” of ALL beggars and other persons, that I used to see in Queen Street and thereabouts. Now, what is going on, I ask?
To me this is: FASCISM in the making!!! There are under Mayor Len Brown and his Council now efforts made to remove “undesired” out of the CBD and possibly other areas, no matter whether they are begging, sitting around too long, or daring to stage a quiet, peaceful, sidewalk kind of “protest”!!!
This is highly concerning, and it is worth mentioning here, as we have also here in New Zealand too many that are SILENT in their majority, and most are the typical “law abiding”, “hard working”, “decent” and “peaceful” MIDDLE CLASS.
Do you, as middle class member, or other Aucklander find that this is acceptable, what I just described? If so, or if not, I ask for your feedback, please, a worried Auckland, with a migrant background, from a “free view” kind of culture,
No, it’s not acceptable. It’s entirely unacceptable. From what you’ve described Auckland is not as far down the track of restricting the right of protest as the US. So I’m guessing there will be a few battles to fight to keep the right to protest on a footpath if there are bureaucrats worried about the ‘tone’. Maybe they should be worrying about how to fix the problems that cause the protests.
There was NO issue about the “tone”, as the person just stood there, did not even speak to people, unless being asked for a flyer, some of which he had! So I found it appalling, when I heard about it.
I didn’t mean to imply there was a problem with the tone of the protester, I meant the snobby ‘tone of the neighbourhood’ meme that some people, and the bureaucrats drag out when things they don’t like confront them. I think the officials being concerned about the “city profile” pretty much fits the bill.
Exhibit #1 You can’t even build a Bunnings store on a shithole site on Great North Road without upsetting themiddle class liberal folk of Grey Lynn – an unkempt guy with a sign could lower property values!
Exhibit #2 We have a homeless person who comes into our work a couple of times a week. He goes into the loos open to visitors and washes himself, he never takes more than his shirt off and he is quiet and tidy. Someone mentioned this to our manager (a nice, earnest, middle class cookie cutter middle manager type who lacks a sense of humour or an imagination and spends most of his life re-measuring and re-weighing the pig) and he called security. Most of the staff were appalled. This guy isn’t harming anyone. So now we conspire to keep the old guys visits secret.
Given those two examples of our middleclass groupthink, what chance do you think has beggar has in Queen Street?
Sanctuary, I don’t think the Bnnings protest is at all in the same bag as the harrassment of street protestors and the guy washing himself.
There is an issue in my area of how commercial and retail interests are getting the prime sites in terms of the regeneration of the area. There is far less provision for community activities in the sites being allocated – it all smacks of money talking in the direction local councils are taking towards local developments.
OTOH, not allowing the guy to wash, or protests or begging in Queen Street is an issue of middle classes wanting to colonise and protect spaces in their own interest.
McFlock – yes, I know all that, but the attempt was made to challenge, and get answers, without even identifying themselves. So naturally the person refused to state name and so forth. The whole attitude of those persons was disgusting, I feel, as they should just have left the guy alone, as he was just standing there, and I saw it, doing NO harm or disturbance at all.
It seems they just personally disliked the fact someone was standing there with a controversial sign, raising question, that were not really offensive either, just challenging an office’s handling of something.
And yes, the middle class are dangerous in my view, that is to Sanctuary, as they are blinded by generated “fears” and mindless “narrow thinking” how things should be, they also fear to take a stand, so condone authoritarian approaches by authorities.
There was research done many years ago, in Los Angeles and also in Sweden, showing that about 80 per cent of human beings in any society rather put up with abuse, or even collectively join abuse to others, merely to protect themselves from being “different” or in danger of risking their “security”.
That is human behaviour, and the Nazis knew that you can intimidate and manipulate, so do others, nowadays.
But having been on both sides of the petty security fence, I’ve also found that pieces of paper scare enforcers as much as they intimidate the populace.
The guards were either deployed (my guess is by a shopkeeper who made a complaint) or came across the protestor on their travels – in the first case, they’d be annoyed at having to do work; in the second case they’d just be bored. The knack is to be more trouble than it’s worth without raising their hackles (vengeance can motivate an awful lot of paperwork and dot-connecting in the depths of the graveyard shift đ ).
Mind you, doing security in Dunners my preferred tactic was generally to have a cup of tea and a chat before/ratherthan demanding name rank and serial number, unless the situation demanded prickface from the get-go.
En 1977 , con 17 aĂąos de edad,y elemento del grupo Fulano de tal de la ciudad de san Luis PotosĂ, MĂŠxico, cantamos las canciones de Illapu, los aplausos nunca los olvidarĂŠ. Mi padre me dijo entonces, queďťż habĂamos descubierto una hermosa mĂşsica y desde luego identidad. Las cantamos en plazas y fuimos felices y hoy mĂĄs. GRACIAS ILLAPU…”
This is Andean music in its original form, and those not appreciative of this better take no notice. This is about Latin America and the REAL people living there and that deserve all rights and respects, and many to fight for them, all in line with revolutionary solidarity.
There is much more at stake, there are established presidents and forces, and they are voted for, they cannot be thrown out, but some here on this and other forums pretend that there is major change possible, while that all depends on what other people and countries do.
Get a wake up call, please, I am despairing anyway. X
The biggest enemy of New Zealand are your OWN PEople!!!
I see and hear this every day, I witness it all the time, at work, at open spaces, at social events, New Zealanders are NO LONGER ONE, you are ALL divided and full of suspicion and hatred towards each other, this makes you weak and vulnerable. The enemy knows this, that is the employers, the bosses, the admin and so, so they take you to the cleaners.
Also one major is migration without much cohesion, so anybody can come, sell skills, investment, even just buy a house and get PR, but they do NOT connect and have little expectation to be part of NZ.
I have hundreds of stories, and you lefties better wake up to this too, as the politically correct approach has long been redundant.
We are screwed, sold and shat on, that is NZ 2013, and I am a damned migrant myself saying this, I should not have to, as you Kiwis should be speaking up, but almost nobody does.
What a shame and shambles this country has become. I feel sorry and sick and ashamed!
xtasy
You make good points and are onto it. But there is a strange psychological process in one’s mind that I discovered some years back. That is, on the day that you are out of sorts, everyone else seems dull and unfriendly. I think it’s called transference or something.
And for the sake of your health you will need to take some time off thinking how things are, worrying and sad as it is. Have a book to read about something else, some fiction with some good happy bits in it, or look at Yes Minister and then Eddie Izzard or the like and have a soothing drink and go to bed so you wake refreshed to worry and again present facts and solutions the next day. Things are happening and we can only run alongside the moving present and try to remove most of the rotten material before it reaches its destructive potential.
While others just concentrate on themselves, looking at the ground around them, someone has to look up and talk about the obstacles looming. But it’s tiring and dispiriting, and we all have to give ourselves a break. Remind yourself that there are good people trying to make a breakthrough, and while the thinkers are (probably a large) minority, it’s not something to bear on your own. Watch Babylon 5 for a different slant even.
Thatâs interesting Morrissey, who are you apologising to?
I was apologising to my old friend Te Reo Putake, whom I had erroneously accused of living in … (shudder) … Whanganui.
You probably have quite a choice, being fairly free-ranging in your egg throwing.
Actually, I’m pretty precise, but I take your larger point, and think this is the perfect time to make a broad apology to everyone I may have offended over the last two and a half years….
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 27 were:1. The Minister for Ford Rangers strikes againTransport Minister Simeon Brown was again the busiest of the Cabinet ministers this week, announcing an ...
You got a fast carAnd I want a ticket to anywhereMaybe we make a dealMaybe together we can get somewhereAny place is betterYesterday’s newsletter, Trust In Me, on the report of abuse in state care, and by religious organisations, between 1950 and 2019, coupled with the hypocrisy of Christopher Luxon ...
New Zealand is again having to reconcile conflicting pressures from its military and its trade interests. Should we join Pillar Two of AUKUS and risk compromising our markets in China? For a century after New Zealand was founded in 1840, its external security arrangements and external economics arrangements were aligned. ...
The ‘50 Shades of Green’ farmers’ protest in 2019 was heavy on climate change denial, but five years on, scepticism and criticism about the idea that pine forests can save us is growing across the board. File photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate ...
This morning the sky was bright.The birds, in their usual joyous bliss. Nature doesn’t seem to feel the heat of what might angst humans.Their calls are clear and beautiful.Just some random thoughts:MāoriPaul Goldsmith has announced his government will roll back the judiciary’s rulings on Māori Customary Marine Title, which recognises ...
In 2003, the Court of Appeal delivered its decision in Ngati Apa v Attorney-General, ruling that MÄori customary title over the foreshore and seabed had not been universally extinguished, and that the MÄori Land Court could determine claims and confirm title if the facts supported it. This kicked off the ...
Earlier this week at Parliament, Labour leader Chris Hipkins was applauded for saying that the response to the final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care had to be âbigger than politics.â True, but the fine words, apologies and âwe hear youâ messages will soon ring ...
TL;DR: In news breaking this morning:The Ministry of Education is cutting $2 billion from its school building programme so the National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government has enough money to deliver tax cuts; The Government has quietly lowered its child poverty reduction targets to make them easier to achieve;Te Whatu Ora-Health NZ’s ...
Kia ora. These are some stories that caught our eye this week â as always, feel free to share yours in the comments. Our header image this week (via Eke Panuku) shows the planned upgrade for the Karanga Plaza Tidal Swimming Steps. The week in Greater Auckland On ...
1. What's not to love about the way the Harris campaign is turning things around?a. Nothingb. Love all of itc. God what a reliefd. Not that it will be by any means easye. All of the above 2. Documents released by the Ministry of Health show Associate Health Minister Casey ...
Trust in me in all you doHave the faith I have in youLove will see us through, if only you trust in meWhy don't you, you trust me?In a week that saw the release of the 3,000 page Abuse in Care report Christopher Luxon was being asked about Boot Camps. ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking about the Royal Commission Inquiry into Abuse in Carereport released this week, and with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent on a UN push to not recognise carbon offset markets and ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 26, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Transport: Simeon Brown announced$802.9 million in funding for 18 new trains on the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines, which ...
The northern expressway extension from Warkworth to Whangarei is likely to require radical changes to legislation if it is going to be built within the foreseeable future. The Governmentâs powers to purchase land, the planning process and current restrictions on road tolling are all going to need to be changed ...
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedFirst they came for the doctors But I was confused by the numbers and costs So I didn't speak up Then they came for our police and nurses And I didn't think we could afford those costs anyway So I ...
Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on UnsplashWe’re back again after our mid-winter break. We’re still with the ‘new’ day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when we have our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream ...
Notes: This is a free article. Abuse in Care themes are mentioned. Video is at the bottom.BackgroundYesterday’s report into Abuse in Care revealed that at least 1 in 3 of all who went through state and faith based care were abused - often horrifically. At least, because not all survivors ...
Luxon speaks in Parliament yesterday about the Abuse in Care report. Photo: Hagen Hopkins/Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:PM Christopher Luxon said yesterday in tabling the Abuse in Carereport in Parliament he wanted to ‘do the ...
About a decade ago I worked with a bloke called Steve. He was the grizzled veteran coder, a few years older than me, who knew where the bodies were buried - code wise. Despite his best efforts to be approachable and friendly he could be kind of gruff, through to ...
Some of the recent announcements from the government have reminded us of posts we’ve written in the past. Here’s one from early 2020. There were plenty of reactions to the government’s infrastructure announcement a few weeks ago which saw them fund a bunch of big roading projects. One of ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Thursday, July 25 are:News: Why Electric Kiwi is closing to new customers - and why it matters RNZ’s Susan EdmundsScoop: Government drops ...
Hi,I felt a small wet tongue snaking through one of the holes in my Crocs. It explored my big toe, darting down one side, then the other. “He’s looking for some toe cheese,” said the woman next to me, words that still haunt me to this day.Growing up in New ...
Yesterday I happily quoted the Prime Minister without fact-checking him and sure enough, it turns out his numbers were all to hell. It’s not four kg of Royal Commission report, it’s fourteen.My friend and one-time colleague-in-comms Hazel Phillips gently alerted me to my error almost as soon as I’d hit ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Thursday, July 25, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day were:The Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquirypublished its final report yesterday.PM Christopher Luxon and The Minister responsible for ...
The Official Information Act has always been a battle between requesters seeking information, and governments seeking to control it. Information is power, so Ministers and government agencies want to manage what is released and when, for their own convenience, and legality and democracy be damned. Their most recent tactic for ...
TL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:Transport and Energy Minister Simeon Brown is accelerating plans to spend at least $10 billion through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) to extend State Highway One as a four-lane ‘Expressway’ from Warkworth to Whangarei ...
I live my life (woo-ooh-ooh)With no control in my destinyYea-yeah, yea-yeah (woo-ooh-ooh)I can bleed when I want to bleedSo come on, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)You can bleed when you want to bleedYea-yeah, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)Everybody bleed when they want to bleedCome on and bleedGovernments face tough challenges. Selling unpopular decisions to ...
Please note:To skip directly to the- parliamentary footage in the video, scroll to 1:21 To skip to audio please click on the headphone iconon the left hand side of the screenThis video / audio section is under development. ...
Given the crackdown on wasteful government spending, it behooves me to point to a high profile example of spending by the Luxon government that looks like a big, fat waste of time and money. Iâm talking about the deployment of NZDF personnel to support the US-led coalition in the Red ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:40 am on Wednesday, July 24 are:Deep Dive: Chipping away at the housing crisis, including my comments RNZ/Newsroom’s The DetailNews: Government softens on asset sales, ...
As I reported about the city centre, Auckland’s rail network is also going through a difficult and disruptive period which is rapidly approaching a culmination, this will result in a significant upgrade to the whole network. Hallelujah. Also like the city centre this is an upgrade predicated on the City ...
Today, a 4 kilogram report will be delivered to Parliament. We know this is what the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care weighs, because our Prime Minister told us so.Some reporter had blindsided him by asking a question about something done by ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Wednesday, July 24, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Beehive:Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced plans to use PPPs to fund, build and run a four-lane expressway between Auckland ...
NewstalkZB host Mike Hosking, who can usually be relied on to give Prime Minister Christopher Luxon an easy run, did not do so yesterday when he interviewed him about the HealthNZ deficit. Luxon is trying to use a deficit reported last year by HealthNZ as yet another example of the ...
Back in January a StatsNZ employee gave a speech at RÄtana on behalf of tangata whenua in which he insulted and criticised the government. The speech clearly violated the principle of a neutral public service, and StatsNZ started an investigation. Part of that was getting an external consultant to examine ...
Renting for life: Shared ownership initiatives are unlikely to slow the slide in home ownership by much. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:A Deloittereport for Westpac has projected Aotearoa’s home-ownership rate will ...
You're broken down and tiredOf living life on a merry go roundAnd you can't find the fighterBut I see it in you so we gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsWe gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsAnd I'll rise upI'll rise like the dayI'll rise upI'll rise unafraidI'll rise upAnd I'll ...
Thereâs been a change in Myers Park. Down the steps from St. Kevin’s Arcade, past the grassy slopes, the childrenâs playground, the benches and that goat statue, there has been a transformation. The underpass for Mayoral Drive has gone from a barren, grey, concrete tunnel, to a place that thrums ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Global society may have finally slammed on the brakes for climate-warming pollution released by human fossil fuel combustion. According to the Carbon Monitor Project, the total global climate pollution released between February and May 2024 declined slightly from the amount released during the same ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Tuesday, July 23 are:Deep Dive: Penlink: where tolling rhetoric meets reality BusinessDesk-$$$’sOliver LewisScoop:Te Pūkenga plans for regional polytechs leak out ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Tuesday, July 23, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Health: Shane Reti announcedthe Board of Te Whatu Ora-Health New Zealand was being replaced with Commissioner Lester Levy ...
Health NZ warned the Government at the end of March that it was running over Budget. But the reasons it gave were very different to those offered by the Prime Minister yesterday. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon blamed the âbotched mergerâ of the 20 District Health Boards (DHBs) to create Health ...
Long ReadKey Summary: Although National increased the health budget by $1.4 billion in May, they used an old funding model to project health system costs, and never bothered to update their pre-election numbers. They were told during the Health Select Committees earlier in the year their budget amount was deficient, ...
As a momentous, historic weekend in US politics unfolded, analysts and commentators grasped for precedents and comparisons to help explain the significance and power of the choice Joe Biden had made. The 46th president had swept the Democratic partyâs primaries but just over 100 days from the election had chosen ...
TL;DR: I’m casting around for new ideas and ways of thinking about Aotearoa’s political economy to find a few solutions to our cascading and self-reinforcing housing, poverty and climate crises.Associate Professor runs an online masters degree in the economics of sustainability at Torrens University in Australia and is organising ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on National's Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill. The bill sets up water for privatisation, and was introduced under urgency, then rammed through select committee with no time even for local councils to make a proper submission. Naturally, national's select committee ...
Some years ago, I bought a book at Dunedin’s Regent Booksale for $1.50. As one does. Vandrad the Viking (1898), by J. Storer Clouston, is an obscure book these days – I cannot find a proper online review – but soon it was sitting on my shelf, gathering dust alongside ...
History is not on the side of the centre-left, when Democratic presidents fall behind in the polls and choose not to run for re-election. On both previous occasions in the past 75 years (Harry Truman in 1952, Lyndon Johnson in 1968) the Democrats proceeded to then lose the White House ...
This is a free articleCoverageThis morning, US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the Presidential race. And that is genuinely newsworthy. Thanks for your service, President Biden, and all the best to you and yours.However, the media in New Zealand, particularly the 1News nightly bulletin, has been breathlessly covering ...
A homeless person’s camp beside a blocked-off slipped damage walkway in Freeman’s Bay: we are chasing our tail on our worsening and inter-related housing, poverty and climate crises. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Orderimage, ...
Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housingâs ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Ministerâs metaphor of âflooding the marketâ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is Americaâs un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is Americaâs Octavian, the Republicâs youthful undertaker â and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMPâS SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the âilliberalâ prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
Te Rangi e tu nei (The sky above us) Te Papa e takoto nei (The land beneath us) Tatou katoa te hunga ora (To us all the living) Tena koutou katoa (Greetings) ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi MÄori rallied against the Crownâs attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hÄŤkoi of a generation and the birth of Te PÄti MÄori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Governmentâs move to dilute child poverty targets is a reminder that it is actively choosing to preserve hardship for thousands of households. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israelâs illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinianâs have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinianâs who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israelâs occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Governmentâs disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whÄnau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they canât escape on ...
Te PÄti MÄori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. âThis announcement is just another example of the governmentâs anti-Tiriti, anti-MÄori agenda.â Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. âSeymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
Nationalâs Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now itâs been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didnât declare and said wasnât pre-arranged. ...
Te PÄti MÄori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. âReinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of MÄori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. âThis legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whÄnau out onto the street for no reasonâ said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. âTheir solution to the housing ...
âNationalâs campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,â Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
âThere are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,â Jan Tinetti said. ...
âThis government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this governmentâs agenda and the future of our mokopuna,â said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
âTodayâs climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,â Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how theyâre taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. âThe Abuse in Care Inquiryâs report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faithâbased institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Governmentâs online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. âIt is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
TÄnÄ tÄtou katoa, NgÄ mihi te rangi, ngÄ mihi te whenua, ngÄ mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealandâs payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. âThe Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre â Te PokapĹŤ WÄina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. âThe research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. âRegions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesiaâs Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. âIndonesia is important to New Zealandâs security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,â says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kĹrero, he kĹrero, he kĹrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of NgÄti Maniapoto, Minister for MÄori Development Tama Potaka says. âMy thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust â NgÄti Maniapoto for bringing their important kĹrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.âI have received Ms Fredricâs resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,â Mr Brown says.âOn behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliamentâs test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. âSection 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are âdangerous changesâ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. âIssues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. âThe level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations Iâve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and ManawatĹŤ rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawkeâs Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. Itâs the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care âWhanaketia â through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,â was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry âWhanaketia â through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. âTax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says a bill that has passed its first reading will improve parental leave settings and give non-biological parents more flexibility as primary carer for their child. The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (No3), passed its first reading this morning. âIt includes a change ...
Two Bills designed to improve regulation and make it easier to do business have passed their first reading in Parliament, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. The Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Bill and Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Bill make key changes to legislation administered by the Ministry ...
New legislation paves the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. âCompetitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. âUnder current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and WhangÄrei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. âFor too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
Sir Don McKinnon will travel to Viet Nam this week as a Special Envoy of the Government, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. âIt is important that the Government give due recognition to the significant contributions that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made to New Zealand-Viet Nam relations,â Mr ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says newly appointed Commissioner, Grant Illingworth KC, will help deliver the report for the first phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons, due on 28 November 2024. âI am pleased to announce that Mr Illingworth will commence his appointment as ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters travels to Laos this week to participate in a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led Ministerial meetings in Vientiane. âASEAN plays an important role in supporting a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,â Mr Peters says. âThis will be our third visit to ...
Construction of a new mental health facility at Te Nikau Grey Hospital in Greymouth is today one step closer, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says. âThis $27 million facility shows this Government is delivering on its promise to boost mental health care and improve front line services,â Mr Doocey says. ...
New Zealand is committing nearly $50 million to a package supporting sustainable Pacific fisheries development over the next four years, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced today. âThis support consisting of a range of initiatives demonstrates New Zealandâs commitment to assisting our Pacific partners ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says proposed changes to the Education and Training Amendment Bill will ensure charter schools have more flexibility to negotiate employment agreements and are equipped with the right teaching resources. âCabinet has agreed to progress an amendment which means unions will not be able to initiate ...
In response to serious concerns around oversight, overspend and a significant deterioration in financial outlook, the Board of Health New Zealand will be replaced with a Commissioner, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti announced today. âThe previous governmentâs botched health reforms have created significant financial challenges at Health NZ that, without ...
Minister for Space and Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins will travel to Adelaide tomorrow for space and science engagements, including speaking at the Australian Space Forum. While there she will also have meetings and visits with a focus on space, biotechnology and innovation. âNew Zealand has a thriving space ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will travel to China on Saturday to attend the Ministerial on Climate Action meeting held in Wuhan. âAttending the Ministerial on Climate Action is an opportunity to advocate for New Zealand climate priorities and engage with our key partners on climate action,â Mr Watts says. ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is travelling to the Solomon Islands tomorrow for meetings with his counterparts from around the Pacific supporting collective management of the regionâs fisheries. The 23rd Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Committee and the 5th Regional Fisheries Ministersâ Meeting in Honiara from 23 to 26 July ...
The Government today launched the Military Style Academy Pilot at Te Au rere a te Tonga Youth Justice residence in Palmerston North, an important part of the Governmentâs plan to crackdown on youth crime and getting youth offenders back on track, Minister for Children, Karen Chhour said today. âOn the ...
The Government has welcomed news the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has begun work to replace nine priority bridges across the country to ensure our state highway network remains resilient, reliable, and efficient for road users, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.âIncreasing productivity and economic growth is a key priority for the ...
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour has been in contact throughout the evening with senior officials who have coordinated a whole of government response to the global IT outage and can provide an update. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has designated the National Emergency Management Agency as the ...
New Zealand and Japan will continue to step up their shared engagement with the Pacific, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. âNew Zealand and Japan have a strong, shared interest in a free, open and stable Pacific Islands region,â Mr Peters says. âWe are pleased to be finding more ways ...
New developments in the heart of North Island forestry country will reinvigorate their communities and boost economic development, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones visited Kaingaroa and Kawerau in Bay of Plenty today to open a landmark community centre in the former and a new connecting road in ...
President Adeang, fellow Ministers, honourable Diet Member Horii, Ambassadors, distinguished guests. Minasama, konnichiwa, and good afternoon, everyone. Distinguished guests, itâs a pleasure to be here with you today to talk about New Zealandâs foreign policy reset, the reasons for it, the values that underpin it, and how it ...
This month marks two years since the most powerful telescope ever built sent its first pictures back to earth. From its lofty vantage point, beyond the moon in orbit around the sun, the James Webb Space Telescope was tuned to observe the first stars and galaxies being born soon after ...
Comment: After Climate Change Minister Simon Wattsâ preview several weeks ago, I had some optimism about the Governmentâs emissions reduction plan. Now Iâve read the discussion document, that hope has been dashed. How can the Government propose a plan that wants to take New Zealand taxpayersâ hard-earned money, and spend ...
Christopher Luxon: hurdles The little man from National jumps hurdles in his sleep. He’s quite good at it in his dreams and even though the reality doesn’t quite match up you have to give him credit for getting up every morning and crashing into the very first hurdle of the ...
Comment: It was a good two hours into the conversation when Tyrone Marks raised the most basic of questions when I first spoke to him in 2017. âThey didnât explain the things they did to me. They never told me why. And they still havenât. Thereâs no explanation for it. ...
Last summer when Matairangi burned, Ginny and Tom stood at the window of their lounge, watching kÄkÄ shoot skyward from the burning trees. From the distance, they looked to Ginny like pages torn from books and thrown into a bonfire. It was Tom, voice tight, who told her it was ...
Opinion: The Canadian short story writer Alice Munro â winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013 â died in May at the age of 92. Her work was about “the damage people inflict on one another in the name of love”, Deborah Treisman wrote in the New Yorker. ...
Madeleine Chapman rounds out Death Week on The Spinoff with a final recommendation. You can read all of our Death Week coverage here. Nothing forces you to reflect on your life and relationships quite like proximity to death. For those whose nearest and dearest have died, there are reasonably obvious ...
Whitney Greene takes us through her life in television, including the TV character sheâd like to plan a funeral for and her cow lung catastrophe on The Traitors NZ. âIf the phone rings, I have to answer it,â Whitney Greene from The Traitors NZ warns as we begin our My ...
Maddie Ballard reviews the debut essay collection of PĹneke writer Flora Feltham.In âThe Raw Materialâ, the longest essay in Flora Felthamâs dazzling debut collection, the author heads out for a run after hours of weaving and sees the world turn to textile. âPounding along the Parade, I saw the ...
Andy Christiansen, one half of the experimental rock-pop duo TRiPS, shares the tunes inspiring the bandâs perfect weekend and new release. âGood speakers, good food, good music, no distractionsâ: thatâs all you need to enjoy the psychedelic stylings of TRiPS, a new band formed by Fly My Prettiesâ Barnaby Weir ...
Celebrating our quadrennial opportunity to become experts in a bunch of sports we never normally watch.The games of the XXXIII Olympiad are upon us. Paris will host this yearâs showcase of sporting and athletic prowess, which means some late-night and early-morning viewing for us in Aotearoa.But what sports ...
The photograph is striking and beautiful, but also disturbing â a reminder that my love for John was often entangled in shame.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.In the spring of 1980, in Dunedin, shortly before his death, someone took a photograph ...
Get to know Babushka, our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our Whatâs Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Babuâs humans, Jo and Isabel, for their support. Dog name: Babushka (Babu for short) Age: 2Breed: Border Collie X poodleIf rescued, ...
Pacific Media Watch A Lebanese photojournalist who was severely wounded during an Israeli air strike in south Lebanon carried the Olympic torch in Paris this week in honour of her peers who have been wounded and killed in the field â especially in Gaza and Lebanon. Christina Assi of Agence ...
The first report in a five-part web series focused on the 15th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women taking place in the Marshall Islands this week.SPECIAL REPORT:By Netani Rika in Majuro Women continue to fight for justice 70 years after the first nuclear tests by the United States caused ...
Christopher Luxon has joined with Australia and Canada's leaders in voicing support for US President Joe Biden's ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The 2022 election brought the âteal waveâ into parliament. The next election will test whether teals, who occupy what were Liberal seats, and other independents can maintain their momentum. Joining us on the Podcast ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Musgrave, Senior lecturer in Pharmacology, University of Adelaide Pixavri/Shutterstock A major Federal Court class action has been dismissed this week after Justice Michael Lee ruled there was not enough evidence to prove the weedkiller Roundup causes cancer. Plaintiff Kelvin ...
In The Week in Politics: politicians have to decide what to do about child abuse, Health NZ is booked in for major surgery and Darleen Tana returns. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Corbould, Associate Professor, Contemporary Histories Research Group, Deakin University Mainstream media are surprisingly muted at the prospect of the worldâs most powerful nation being led for the first time by a woman â specifically a woman of colour, Vice President Kamala ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rebecca Bennett, PhD Student, Associate Research Fellow, Deakin University Last week, a drone delivery company called Wing (owned by Googleâs parent company, Alphabet) started operating in Melbourne. Some 250,000 residents in parts of the cityâs eastern suburbs can now order food from ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan Foo, Lecturer, Physiotherapy, Monash University pikselstock/Shutterstock In the next 40 years in Australia, itâs predicted the number of Australians aged 65 and over will more than double, while the number of people aged 85 and over will more than triple. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katrina Grant, Research Associate, Power Institute for Arts and Visual Culture, University of Sydney Jonas Ă kerstrĂśm’s 1790 work, Session of the Accademia dell’Arcadia on August 17 1788.Nationalmuseum/Cecilia Heisser Ever wondered whether youâd have a better chance at winning an Olympic gold ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexandra Jones, Program Lead, Food Governance, George Institute for Global Health wavebreakmedia/Shutterstock On Thursday, Australian and New Zealand food ministers at state, federal and national levels met to thrash out whatâs next for health star ratings on packaged foods. Now, after ...
The Abuse in Care report found many Pacific survivors lost their connections to their culture and language, resulting in trauma that has been carried from generation to generation. ...
In the regulatory review, ECC intends to suggest that ERO focus on curriculum delivery reviews rather than the Ministry, because itâs not efficient or effective to have two agencies with radically different approaches climbing over each other. ...
Te RĹŤnanga Nui o NgÄ Kura Kaupapa MÄori invites the current government to work in partnership with them to develop a pathway forward, including the development of a parallel pathway and meaningful policy and strategy for Kura Kaupapa MÄori ...
If you havenât started watching yet, Tara Ward begs you to reconsider. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. In the world of New Zealand reality television, we have many gems in our crown. Thereâs the delicious second season of the Celebrity Treasure ...
A new poem by Fiona Kidman. The clothes of the dead I did not keep my motherâs furry red beret for long nor the stringy scarves that adorned the necks of my aunts, although I have kept tag ends of gold, the rings and trinkets they wore, the brooches no ...
The governmentâs announcement that it will re-open the foreshore and seabed controversy by changing the rules on recognising centuries-old MÄori customary title for a third time goes against the rule of law and New Zealand values,â Mr Tipa says. ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Booksâ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Lioness by Emily Perkins (Bloomsbury, $25) Roarrrr! Perkinsâ brilliant, award-winning, Marian-Keyes anointed, darkly funny, long ...
The 2004 Act vested ownership of the foreshore and seabed in the Crown, extinguishing any MÄori claims to ownership and causing widespread outrage and protests among MÄori communities. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Antje Deckert, Associate Professor (Criminology), Auckland University of Technology Getty Images Despite the connection between institutional harm and gang membership made clear in this weekâs mammoth royal commission abuse-in care report, the government seems unlikely to soften its âget tough on ...
From Lewis Clareburt in the swimming to the start of the rowing â the first seven days of Paris 2024 promise to be big for New Zealand. There are few events that bring the country together quite like an Olympic Games. Nothing quite matches the excitement of getting up in ...
Groundbreaking local science just showed up in the most surprising of places: the season finale of The Kardashians. In the season five finale of The Kardashians last night, several members of the family gathered together in one of their signature empty, cream-coloured rooms to hear test results that had been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Saikal, Emeritus professor of Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies, Australian National University The Middle East is on the brink of a possibly devastating regional war, with hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah reaching an extremely dangerous level. Washington has engaged in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Elizabeth Eades, Rheumatologist, Monash University Lupus is an inflammatory autoimmune illness, where the bodyâs immune system mistakenly attacks itself. Lupus can affect virtually any part of the body, although it most commonly affects the skin, joints and kidneys. The symptoms ...
A law firm that specialises in working with survivors of abuse in State care is disappointed that the Government fails to recognise that its boot camps can be directly compared to previous boot camps from the 1990s and 2000s. ...
Dying is a natural part of life, like updating your Wof or seeing your hairdresser, but without the word-of-mouth recs that help guarantee a good service. What if we changed that? Dying Reviews received by The Spinoff have had the names of organisations redacted while Hospice NZ collects further data. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonti Horner, Professor (Astrophysics), University of Southern Queensland Mike Lewinski/Flickr, CC BY On any clear night, if you gaze skywards long enough, chances are youâll see a meteor streaking through the sky. Some nights, however, are better than others. At ...
Despite having no bars or other designated spaces for lesbians, Auckland boasts a small but mighty lesbian museum. So how did it get here? The past 18 months has brought increasing hostility towards the queer community across Aotearoa. Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshullâs anti-trans rally in Tamaki Makaurau last March led to a ...
Poneke Antifascist Coalition has invited Wellingtonians to stand in solidarity with the Kanak people at 12pm today outside the French Embassy in Wellington. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Layton, Visiting Fellow, Strategic Studies, Griffith University Drones are the signature technology of the Ukraine war. A few miniature aircraft designs were used in the warâs early days, but an incredible array of drones have now evolved. There are different types, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Slee, Associate Professor, Clinical Academic Neurologist, Flinders University Francisco Gonzelez/Unsplash Migraine is many things, but one thing itâs not is âjust a headacheâ. âMigraineâ comes from the Greek word âhemicraniaâ, referring to the common experience of migraine being predominantly ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lee White, Senior Lecturer and Horizon Fellow, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Sydney Australia was slow to introduce minimum building standards for energy efficiency. The Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme (NatHERS) only came into force in 2003. Older homes ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Steven Sherwood, Professor of Atmospheric Sciences, Climate Change Research Centre, UNSW Sydney The past century of human-induced warming has increased rainfall variability over 75% of the Earthâs land area â particularly over Australia, Europe and eastern North America, new research shows. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Heynen, Program Coordinator, Sustainable Energy, The University of Queensland A temporary stadium in the Champ-de-Mars, ParisEkaterina Pokrovsky/Shutterstock As Paris prepares to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games, the sustainability of the event is coming under scrutiny. The organisers have promoted ...
A night of karaoke and community in a pub that feels like a memory. Youâd barely even notice it, unless you knew to look. Tucked away behind a liquor store on busy Constable Street is the capitalâs last great pub. Newtown Sports Bar is an emblem of the pub culture ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Wright, Professor in Marine Geology, University of Canterbury Louise Corcoran/Getty Images The decline in the number of doctoral candidates at New Zealand universities is a worrying sign for the countryâs effort to build a knowledge-based economy. Aotearoa New Zealandâs ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laurie Berg, Associate Professor, University of Technology Sydney defotoberg/Shutterstock Migrant worker exploitation is entrenched in workplaces across Australia. Tragically, a deep fear of immigration consequences means most unlawful employer conduct goes unreported. On Wednesday, however, the government officially launched a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vaughan Cruickshank, Senior Lecturer in Health and Physical Education, University of Tasmania Paris is about to host its third summer Olympics. While we donât yet know what the legacy of this yearâs games will be, letâs take the opportunity to reflect on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hugh Breakey, Deputy Director, Institute for Ethics, Governance & Law, Griffith University In the wake of the assassination attempt on former US President Donald Trump, there were calls from bothsides of US politics, as well as internationally, to reduce the brutal, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Keith Rathbone, Senior Lecturer, Modern European History and Sports History, Macquarie University Two high-profile assaults on Australians in Paris have raised concerns about security ahead of the Olympic Games. On Saturday evening, a young woman was allegedly sexually assaulted by a ...
Dying is inevitable and, so it seems, is it costing a lot, writes Stewart Sowman-Lund in todayâs extract from The Bulletin. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here.The cost of dying ...
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WTF and OMG !!!
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11137661
The High Court disallows Dow/Monsanto to appear as a witness on its own behalf to corrupt our environment ( for now) but how has it come to this ?????
Terrifying thoughts to begin a sweet spring morning that Dow/Monsanto already holds sufficient surreptitious sway in NZ to have received the authority to proceed with non-notifiable GM tampering outside our very strict GM controls! Kia Kaha to the Sustainability Council on our behalf. (And it makes the interference on Ruataniwha seem modest by comparison imho.)
Oh my, just how corrupt is this govt willing to be ?? And all powers of local councils to prevent these developments have been removed.
NB — almost certainly this denial of permission to appear as witness could NOT have occurred under TPPA. In fact, likely it could never have gotten to the High Court !!!
And is last night’s debate Prof Jane Kelsey vs Dr Wayne to be available online please ?? many thx LPrent.
Lyn filmed it. Lynn says it’ll take a day or so to get it online. But it will go online. It was an important debate, and needs to be seen and discussed widely.
Bearing in mind Lyn’s workload at present (and mine for that matter) I wouldn’t expect it before the weekend. Last I saw as she was offloading the GB of video was that she was muttering all three mic’ed being pen-clickers đ I got the impression that pen-clicker was some kind of newly discovered swear word. đ
I liked that debate. Wayne was pretty clear on the how and why. Jane was as sharp as usual. Getting a much clearer view about why it is being pushed for and what the benefits are, and the downsides.
thx so much for making the efforts to have it available .. and yes, pen clickers are trouble to sound techies !!
The quality of education (literacy and numeracy) in the countries whose education systems gave us National Standards and Charter Schools. A scroll down to the bottom of the lists is required to see what it’s done for their people aged 16-24. A bit of movement from their results for all adults.
Wonder where NZ lies as not on the List.
Here’s the data for NZ on the OECD website
http://gpseducation.oecd.org/CountryProfile?primaryCountry=NZL&treshold=10&topic=EO
Good to hear Cunliffe re-affirming the very sensible policy to increase the age of super eligibility gradually.
Great debate last night. Some may find it hard to believe but I wanted wayne to put some doubt in my mind about wanting to know more he didnt. He said ftas and tppa bring us prosperity pointing to increased trade with those countries we have them with. His second argument was would we really want to not be in it if the others are in.
Yes. Wayne is knowledgeable on the issues, but I disagree with his underlying philosophy (which reminded me so much of my Dad’s way back when I argued with him – heated debates at the dinner table). My dad was also knowledgeable and very smart, but he didn’t convince me back then, and neither did Wayne last night.
Wayne argued that TPP is a very significant agreement involving all Pacific nations, and as a “trading nation” NZ cannot afford to be left out. But s Kelsey showed, there are already many concerns in other countries about the TPP, and it looks to me that there are a lot of cracks where pressure can be applied so that the TPP will start to crumble.
Don’t mind being ‘in’ … but ‘in’ what? (And how deep?)
And as I said yesterday…why handcuff ourselves to a “diminishing superpower” (as the front page of the Jakarta Globe read).
“it looks to me that there are a lot of cracks where pressure can be applied so that the TPP will start to crumble.”
It will be interesting if one of the first cracks appear in what the pork-barrelling in the U.S. dishes up to resolve the government shutdown. Or at the very least whether the shutdown delays negotiations.
http://stoptpp.org/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/larry-cohen/tpp-is-a-race-to-the-bott_b_4058743.html
Gormless. I thought I heard joyce saying no. It just seems such a strange thing for the nats to dig their toes in. Perhaps it tells us much of their vote sits amongst baby boomers?
National are stuck. They have been so unequivocal that they can’t go back, even though it makes perfect sense.
and so do you, today.
ÂżQue?
/niet/
New Targets for Our Willing Executioners
Te Reo Putake, Populuxe and others who slavishly follow the party line will no doubt be amplifying some or all of the latest anti-protestor messages. Promising new targets for Te Reo et al. include:
(1) Those dirty hippies at Greenpeace…
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24461644
(2) The outrageous Yelena Mizulina….
http://www.rferl.org/content/russia-duma-activist-defamation/25059748.html
(3) The troublemaker Baba Jukwe….
http://www.voanews.com/content/baba-jukwe-zimbabwes-elusive-whistleblower/1702810.html
Happy hunting, democracy-haters.
Watch Niall Ferguson get schooled by real economists
Brad Delong, Paul Krugman and Dean Baker all beat up on Niall Ferguson for making the kind of embarrassing error that would badly damage his career if he were not peddling lies that the rich and powerful want people to believe….
http://members5.boardhost.com/medialens/msg/1381318334.html
Excellent link: I have often thought that Fergusson was a wannabe Galbraith, Kenneth Clark or Brunowski, acting as a legitimate teller of the tale on a major BBC doc series. In a strange way he reminds me of the very talented Brannagh attempting to don the Shakespearean mantle of Olivier, and never quite succeeding. At-least his attempts were honest, by contrast Niall appears to work on the principle that if a statement is so sweeping it will be received by we humble viewers as true. I don’t mind him being partisan, no amount of eloquence however can make a false proposition any more real.
Yesterday’s Panel with Mora.
The ever-so-reasonable-sounding-Franks was on and began subtly spouting his party line on topics of justice, Supreme court etc and on ACC. Mora invited Dr Duncan Webb to discuss issues and he appeared to progressively dismantle most of Franks points.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player/2572168 (from about 11:19 in)
Careful, logie: Te Reo Putake will accuse you of lying….
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-09102013/#comment-707482
I didn’t accuse you of lying, Moz, but of being grossly inaccurate. I provided the link to what was actually said, which bore little resemblance to your fictional ‘transcript’.
At least in earlier exchanges about your inability to transcribe accurately you had the wit to acknowledge that they were just an impression. Which is fine.
I think you need to make up your mind as to whether they are intended to accurately reflect what is said or whether they are just a pisstake. If it’s the latter, I look forward to a few sniggers at the expense of those you target. If its the former, well, you’re just another jonolist. Though an decidely amateur one, obviously.
1.) I didnât accuse you of lying, Moz, but of being grossly inaccurate.
You and a couple of others have repeatedly accused me of “making shit up”. Last night you claimed that “itâs all bullshit from Moz. Nothing in the âtranscriptâ has anything but a passing resemblance to the truth. Ok, Moz gets the names of the participants correct, but the rest is made up.” Yet a few hours later you brazenly claim that you didn’t accuse me of lying. I think you have just been hoist by your own canard.
2.) I provided the link to what was actually said, which bore little resemblance to your fictional âtranscriptâ.
On the contrary, the link shows my rendition of that conversation was accurate. Not word-perfect, of course, and I never pretended it was.
3.) At least in earlier exchanges about your inability to transcribe accurately you had the wit to acknowledge that they were just an impression. Which is fine.
It would be obvious to even the meanest intelligence that my rendition was an impression of what was said. I never claimed it was a transcript. Your quibbling is nothing more than spurious, captious obstinacy.
4.) I think you need to make up your mind as to whether they are intended to accurately reflect what is said or whether they are just a pisstake.
My script was accurate. Not word-perfect, but accurate. I believe I captured Franks’s sneering malevolence, and Mora’s mealy-mouthed flippancy. I didn’t write down everything Chris Wikaira said, because he was well into his speech before I even picked up a piece of paper. Certainly the words are not verbatim, but I made up none of it.
5.) If itâs the latter, I look forward to a few sniggers at the expense of those you target. If its the former, well, youâre just another jonolist. Though an decidely amateur one, obviously.
You mean I’m not professional, like those outstanding specimens at the BBC, NBC, CBS, Fox News, the Grauniad and all the other government-approved cheerleaders and megaphones. I’m a little bit better than that, I think.
You know how nature abhors a vacuum…?
You know how nature abhors a vacuum�
That’s an intriguingly gnomic comment, weka. Could you elucidate for those of us that aren’t quite as smart as you?
Yeah, sorry, just a comment on the space left by Jenny which you have so promptly and generously filled.
oooooh
zing
Could you explain what you mean please? I’m mystified. It seems that you’re having a sly dig at me, judging by the response of our friend McFlock, but it’s all very obscure.
You’d think they’d have a word or phrase for this by now. Someone who sucks all the attention out of a group of online commentators, so that most of the effort on the blog goes into inanity and discussing inanity and defending inanity and defending/discussing meta-inanity, instead of discussing the things that the blog is actually about. And someone who does this repeatedly in a predictable fashion.
Hence my comment about Jenny leaving and vaccums being filled.
Youâd think theyâd have a word or phrase for this by now. Someone who sucks all the attention out of a group of online commentators, so that most of the effort on the blog goes into inanity and discussing inanity and defending inanity and defending/discussing meta-inanity, instead of discussing the things that the blog is actually about.
The entire raison d’ĂŞtre of my transcripts/reconstructions is to highlight the utter inanity of a significant sector of media commentators in this country. You seem to have mistaken me for my targets. Perhaps you need to ease up on the hallucinogens.
And someone who does this repeatedly in a predictable fashion. Hence my comment about Jenny leaving and vaccums [sic] being filled.
Your comparison is invalid, glib, and stupid. Sadly that’s something that could be said of most of your posts. Hence the general lack of regard for your efforts on this forum.
Cobblers, cobber. You can keep bullshitting all day, but it doesn’t make your dismal effort any more accurate. You are the Stephen Franks of jonolism. It’s great that you now accept it’s only an “impression”. But so is the mark the farmer leaves when he steps in a cowpat. The gumboot still stinks though.
One of the nastier strategies employed by John Key and his parliamentary cronies is to bray “He’s making stuff up” whenever they are confronted with something embarrassing. Here’s a typical example from one of the intellectual powerhouses in the National Party….
http://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2012/10/shearer_makes_it_up.html
I’m sure others on this mostly excellent forum have noticed one or two of the resident thugs around here using the same formula. As an example, look at how our thuggish friend Te Reo Putake behaves….
Cobblers, cobber. You can keep bullshitting all day,
There he goes again!
….but it doesnât make your dismal effort any more accurate.
First the allegation that I have been dishonest, then the derogatory epithet (“dismal effort”). I am sure that this bloke manages to intimidate a few locals around Whanganui with such behaviour but, as always, on a forum like this he only ends up making himself look bereft of ideas.
You are the Stephen Franks of jonolism. Itâs great that you now accept itâs only an âimpression”.
I’ve never suggested otherwise. I’ve always admitted that my transcripts are a mix of verbatim recording and reconstruction from memory. They are usually done in haste but they are always true to the character and tenor of the conversation. Only a few naysayers have objected, and that has been, in every case, because they have objected to my reminding them that someone they have worshipped is a fraud or an empty bag of wind. In the case of Te Reo Putake, I recall he was incandescent with indignation when I pointed out the rank hypocrisy of this fraud’s putrid method acting here….
http://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2013/jul/01/barack-obama-nelson-mandela-robben-island-video
and here….
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-07072013/#comment-659198
But so is the mark the farmer leaves when he steps in a cowpat. The gumboot still stinks though.
Should have quit while you were behind. That only makes you look crude. Then again, maybe it plays well in Whanganui….
Ooooh, reduced to identity speculation. And so typically inaccurate!
Ooooh, reduced to identity speculation. And so typically inaccurate!
No speculation at all. You do live in Whanganui, as you have repeatedly reminded us on this forum. And far from speculating who you are, I merely suggested that your inept attempts to bully and intimidate people on this site are no doubt a continuation of the way you behave in your everyday life. That’s speculating on your behaviour, not on your identity.
I withdraw and apologize, and skulk back to my corner.
That’s interesting Morrissey, who are you apologising to? You probably have quite a choice, being fairly free-ranging in your egg throwing.
I don’t live in Whanganui, Moz. More made up stuff from you. If only your memory was up to your ambition, eh?
And losing arguments does not make you a victim, it just makes you someone who can’t succesfully argue their corner. Of course, if you took more care to be accurate in the first place, you wouldn’t be called on it and you wouldn’t feel as lousy as you obviously do today.
You could always wait until RNZ put up the recording and check your impression against it before posting. That’s called fact checking, it’s really useful for keeping your integrity intact.
Now, now, TRP – mozz has pointed out that you have repeatedly “reminded us” that you live in Wh. I’m sure, having such accurate recollection, links to the comments where you’ve admitted living in Wh will be along presently.
Indeed, it will be a wonderful demonstration of mozz’s outstanding recollective abilities. We will all have to adopt a more humble deference to his important authority when he proves you wrong.
if a transcript is not word-perfect, then it is not accurate.
The matter under debate seems, therefore, to be the level of inaccuracy.
if a transcript is not word-perfect, then it is not accurate.
My renditions are usually pretty close to word-perfect. I even make sure to include every time someone like Hekia Parata uses fillers like “ummmm”, “ahhhh” and “y’know”. The objections to my renditions are ideological.
The matter under debate seems, therefore, to be the level of inaccuracy.
I might get the odd word out of order, or transpose sentences, but I am very particular at rendering the tenor and the essence of these conversations. You know that very well, of course.
cf:
They are either “pretty close to word-perfect” transcripts, or the wording is off but the tenor or impression of the conversation is accurate (or is your memory “near perfect”?). I’m thinking the difference between a photograph and a Monet. The trouble is that the tone is subjective, especially when reading text that is skewed with disparaging names for some of the participants, so really it comes under satire rather than recording.
It seems to me that you sort of want it both ways – when people take the trouble to prove that your transcripts aren’t word perfect (and the ones I’ve compared have not been anywhere close), you concede and claim that even so the tenor is correct, but then you go back to claiming they are near-perfect transcripts for the next one.
I have shown many times the wording of your impressions to be a long, long way from the words actually spoken. You frequently invent entire sentences.
I have even demonstrated this after you have claimed that your impression was an exact transcript.
I’ve also questioned your impression of the tone of conversations before, and found that you add colours like “yell” and “screech” and “awkward silence” when nothing of the like can be heard in the recording.
My conclusion is that you don’t bother to listen back to recordings after writing your impressions to check what you’ve written. Nothing wrong with that but it makes a mockery of any claim to accuracy, either of colour or content.
1.) I have shown many times the wording of your impressions to be a long, long way from the words actually spoken. You frequently invent entire sentences.
I occasionally have to reconstruct sentences for the purpose of continuity. Although I get most of it word-perfect, it’s not always the case.
2.) I have even demonstrated this after you have claimed that your impression was an exact transcript.
We have agreed on this point already. You weaken your case by overstating how wrong I get it, however.
3.) Iâve also questioned your impression of the tone of conversations before, and found that you add colours like âyellâ and âscreechâ and âawkward silenceâ when nothing of the like can be heard in the recording.
Now you’re questioning my judgement. The fact is, there are many awkward and embarrassing silences on Jim Mora’s programme. Sometimes this is because people are too stunned or too disgusted to say anything; that happens when someone like Nevil Breivik Gibson or Dr. Michael Bassett is a guest. Other times it comes from an inability to formulate a response to something inane that Mora or one of his more foolish guests, like Christine (Spankin’) Rankin, has said. Whatever the reason, those silences happen. It says a lot that you are now pretending they don’t happen. And I have not used either “yell” or “screech” to denote the tone of anyone. You’re struggling to make your point as it is, and misquoting me like that is just another dent to your credibility.
4.) My conclusion is that you donât bother to listen back to recordings after writing your impressions to check what youâve written. Nothing wrong with that but it makes a mockery of any claim to accuracy, either of colour or content.
There you go again—wildly overstating your case. I don’t always get things verbatim, and I have always conceded that. Instead of chiding me for it, which would be a reasonable thing to do, you make a crazed and extreme statement, showing me no respect and grossly misrepresenting my character and the calibre of my work.
This spurious quibbling of yours is cynical and dishonest; you were a fan of my transcripts/reconstructions/dramatizations—call them what you will—until I started to target people and organizations and governments who you have, unwisely, chosen to align yourself with.
Mozza, just because silences exist on a program doesn’t mean you can insert them wherever you like and say you’re being accurate.
And no, nothing to do with your choice of target. The truth is I was a fan until I listened to one of the interviews while reading your impressions and noticed that it was about 50% fantasy.
And yes, of course I’m questioning your judgement. I’m also questioning your hearing, your attention span, your understanding of many of the words you throw around, and your sense of importance.
All have been found lacking on many occasions.
Once again, felix, I am afraid the very good points you make are submerged in a blizzard of extreme statements and distortions. You are obviously an intelligent and discerning fellow, but your determination to portray my (admittedly imperfect) reconstructions/transcripts as “50% fantasy” seriously undermines your credibility.
As a matter of interest, could you cite the occasion on which I apparently falsified half of my transcript? And when have I not understood a word I have “thrown around”? Once again, this looks like a case of belittlement and distortion.
%3Ca%20href%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.radionz.co.nz%2Faudio%2Fplayer%2F2572169%22%20rel%3D%22nofollow%22%3EThis%20recording%3C%2Fa%3E(about%2012m%20in%20for%20the%20ToW%20discussion)%0Aversus%20%0A%3Ca%20href%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fthestandard.org.nz%2Fopen-mike-09102013%2F%23comment-707380%22%20rel%3D%22nofollow%22%3Ethis%20summary%3C%2Fa%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%0A50%25%20fantasy%20would%20be%20a%20highly%20conservative%20estimate.
[translates as]
This recording(about 12m30s in for the ToW discussion)
versus
this summary
50% fantasy would be a highly conservative estimate.
[lprent: fixed and confirmation that it is in the edit. ]
argh shit – any chance of a moderator rolling back my “just out of time” edit? I was trying to change “12m30s” to “12min”, and must have submitted the edit with half a second to spare, or royally bollocked the comment up.
[lprent: Looks like there was an occasional bug in this mornings update of the re-edit. Looks like it is working most of the time, otherwise I’d turn it off until I can get to the backups. ]
thanks muchly đ
đ
Most round-about way of phrasing “make shit up” I’ve seen in a long while.
Most round-about way of phrasing âmake shit upâ Iâve seen in a long while.
I made up nothing. As we can see from your vicious campaign of misrepresenting and distorting my contributions, you are the one in the business of lying. Not that you do it very well, mind you.
sorry, where’s the links to trp claiming they live in Whanganui?
those italics indicate the parts of your pieces where you make shit up.
You don’t know what those silences mean. You project meaning into them though, and claim that what you interpret them to mean, is what actually happened.
The classic example of something similar was when someone was talking about someone else, and you claimed that she was actually talking about her husband.
those italics indicate the parts of your pieces where you make shit up.
Nonsense. Your comments are completely spurious. I interpreted their comments, and their awkward and embarrassed silences, fairly and correctly. You know that, too, of course, but you’ve embarked on a course of bloodymindedly backing up the destructive behaviour of a few people determined to sabotage any dissenting voices on this forum.
You donât know what those silences mean. You project meaning into them though, and claim that what you interpret them to mean, is what actually happened.
Okay then, let’s pretend that the long silence that followed after Michael Bassett snarled that Nicky Hager “is a holocaust-denier” was because everyone was simply appreciating Bassett’s wit, eloquence and moral authority. I think most people will agree with me that the silence indicated something else, just as the silences that follow some of Mora’s more inane utterances indicate that something has gone wrong. By all means take a benevolent view of that. Just make sure you let us know when the space shuttle has returned from orbit, will you?
The classic example of something similar was when someone was talking about someone else, and you claimed that she was actually talking about her husband.
You mean this little episode….
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-22032013/#comment-607420
Of course, anyone with half a brain could have seen I was taking the michael, but poor old felix and bad12 obviously missed the humour in it. More to the point: so do you, all this time later, which is a worry.
Yeah, that’s the one.
And I remember it because that’s when I decided your little things aren’t worth bothering with.
And here you are claiming it wasn’t a joke at all:
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-18042013/#comment-621262
Obviously just another joke. Which is the point. If you want to make jokes, make jokes, but don;t present them as transcripts and get haughty when people say that they aren’t accurate representations of what happened.
It is never the readers’ fault when so many of them don’t get what a writer is doing. It just means the writing doesn’t work.
Iâm a little bit better than that, I think. I think so too, even if (I think) I know more about rugby than you!!!!! Carry on amusing me please.
Yeah, thatâs the one. And I remember it because thatâs when I decided your little things arenât worth bothering with.
You mean: that’s when you realized you didn’t have a hope of formulating a coherent or intelligent response.
Word of advice, my flustered, bewildered friend: quit while you’re behind.
You see Morrissey, you have nothing but this tiresome bluster. It’s all you ever respond with.
I said your things aren’t worth bothering with. And that’s what I meant. There’s nothing to form a coherent response to. They aren’t realistic descriptions or critiques of what were said, and as humour then they are merely personal attacks on people. What is so grand about saying that you don’t like Wilson’s husband?
Awesome piece there, pointing out that you feel the same way about her husband as she feels about someone else. That was the ‘joke’ right?
Fill yer boots, but like I said, getting on your high horse claiming that it is an accurate depiction of what happened is just rubbish. It does no one any good. It’s better written than kiwiblog comments, if overwrought for my taste, but the level of what is going on is about the same.
1.) You see Morrissey, you have nothing but this tiresome bluster. Itâs all you ever respond with.
That’s not true. I have responded in good faith to every point you made, yet your only rejoinder is to dismiss it all as “tiresome bluster”. That’s laziness on your part, pure and simple. Judging by most of the stuff you’ve written on this forum, you’re far better than that. Maybe you need a good sleep, my friend.
2.) I said your things arenât worth bothering with. And thatâs what I meant. Thereâs nothing to form a coherent response to.
Nonsense. You are simply making no sense.
3.) They arenât realistic descriptions or critiques of what were said, and as humour then they are merely personal attacks on people.
So I don’t critique these people? My evocations of them aren’t realistic? You either: (a) just don’t understand what I’m doing; (b) think that there is something commendable about Jim Mora’s laughing at the victims of state repression or Chris Trotter’s windy admonitions to respect lynch law in the Deep South; or (c) you are deliberately misrepresenting my work.
4.)What is so grand about saying that you donât like Wilsonâs husband?
That’s not what I said. My piece was far more nuanced and serious than that.
5.) Awesome piece there, pointing out that you feel the same way about her husband as she feels about someone else. That was the âjokeâ right?
No, there was more to it than that. I was critiquing one half of a hideous right wing husband-wife team. My purpose was utterly serious, even though my method was, as others have said, satirical.
6.) Fill yer boots, but like I said, getting on your high horse claiming that it is an accurate depiction of what happened is just rubbish. It does no one any good. Itâs better written than kiwiblog comments, if overwrought for my taste, but the level of what is going on is about the same.
I appreciate your positive comparison of my modest oeuvre to Farrar’s miserable, crappy blog. I actually think your writing is very good, most of the time; I’m just mystified as to why you are so truculent in your criticism of what I do. I appreciate I am not always correct and am often overly harsh, but I am absolutely prepared to modify my views.
Pb, your style works for me.
Chin up Morrissey.
Obviously just another joke.
Obviously. But not to you, obviously.
It is never the readersâ fault when so many of them donât get what a writer is doing.
What on earth are you wittering about? “So many of them”? Even my mortal enemies around here—Te Reo, McFuck, Populuxe—understood I was taking the piss. Only you seem to have been incapable of appreciating the joke.
It just means the writing doesnât work.
It worked fine. If I operated on making my work completely comprehensible to the lowest common denominator (i.e. you and Brett Dale) there would be no point in carrying on. I’m interested in engaging more substantial characters.
1: no,I don’t know that
2: “mortal enemy”? Get over yourself.
But it’s obvious that you can’t engage, Morrissey. You never do.
All you do is say:
‘I’m too clever for you and I am obviously correct. fapfapfapaboutmyownstaidproseforahundredwordsfapfap.’
But itâs obvious that you canât engage, Morrissey. You never do.
Actually, the precise opposite is the case, my friend.
All you do is say: âIâm too clever for you and I am obviously correct. fapfapfapaboutmyownstaidproseforahundredwordsfapfap.â
Again, I don’t do that, and I certainly don’t think that I’m cleverer than you or anyone else here.
…without a trace of irony đ
Can’t wait to see what the MOM fans spin is on the fact that MRP can’t think of anything better to do with its profits than buy shares in itself.
Rod Oram tweeted:
The well monied Board and Senior Managers of Might River having bought into the shares big-time with the aid of multi-million dollar bank loans, now in a situation of ongoing negative equity USING the profits, of which 51% belong to you and me, in an attempt to pump up the value where they can safely unload???,
Not to mention the ‘blind trust managers’ who bought into Mighty River en masse on behalf of their very public figure beneficiaries facing the prospect of an ongoing very large loss demanding those in charge of Mighty River do something???,
Bock, Bock, Bock, the chickens have come home to roost early this year Wilbur…
This is what Warren Buffet prefers, the less shares there are the more valuble the remaining shares are
This is good
3/10 must try harder
I own shares in MRP and I approve of this action
Aaaah losers, the National Party is full of them, the small time ‘i own shares brigade’, how much of that useless paper are you holding,
What’s your dollar losses so far, not quite time to panic just yet, BUT, think September 2015 and the Labour/Green Government should be well on the way to introducing Legislation for the power sector reforms,(of course they may already have it in draft form which will change the above to well on the way to Passing Legislation),
Now you can ‘Gamble’, will your piddling little parcel of shares by September 2015 have regained their original price enabling you to unload them and still keep your shirt, or will the Labour/Green electricity reforms pass through the Parliament befor this can occur and bite another 1/3 off of the share price,
You ‘gamble’, you ‘lose’, thank your mates over at National Party HQ for selling you a ‘Lemon’…
Is the Daily Mail correct in this reporting, or just stirring it up? It reckons Kuwait has developed medical test to detect gays and prevent them from entering the country. Futile or what? Or is it just a way to keep out anyone they choose?
Apparently you can check the hip bones for unusual wear, which is a sure sign of exaggerated mincing. They also put on show tunes and check for elevated heart rate.
I know I shouldn’t but I did LOL at your sarcasm.
KK actually demonstrated funniness for once…
…it’s a sub. – routine they’ve learned.
For once…my arse.
Without me this place would be as funny as a Russian bread queue which, if you boyfriend has his way and nationalises the supermarkets, people will discover is not very funny at all.
Actually that comment IS pretty funny (the Russian bread queue one). The problem with most of your other comments that would otherwise be funny is that they’re either cruel, mean or just plain obnoxious. Makes it harder to laugh.
klueless klutz waiting in a russian bread que is better than the 4 million sleeping under tarpaulins in the US the home of the free market.
And let’s not forget that the destitution which befell millions of citizens of the former USSR in the 10 years after Gorbachev was largely due to self-serving advice from investment banks like Goldman Sachs and neoliberal institutions like the IMF.
23 years CV poverty in Russia is worse than ever!
And roger douglas gave advice too, apparently
intercontinental economic fuckup.
Would that be why ShonKey Python’s booked into Mercy Hospital in Epsom then ? A job lot on the hips AND the simper for oh so busy Baby Churchill World Leader ?
and women?
You are trying to get me banned tempting me like that.
I will show restraint, but it is a shame as I did have a good gag about Persian rugs.
Hiding behind the drapes? mouse got your tongue?
“You are trying to get me banned tempting me like that”
Oh go on, take the bait monkey boy….it was great without you last time, but the funniest part was when you tried to come back too early, and Felix summed you up perfectly
I think the funniest part is how my presence seems to have such a massive affect on you.
LOL….if you ever need anything, please don’t hesitate to ask someone else first
don’t give ’em an aneurysm; “for all have sinned and fallen short…”
Gape me! đ
“Uh uh ah…Afternoon Delight!”.
I can’t see that s/he has any affect(ion) for you as that have connotations of being a pleasurable event.
However you may have meant that you have a massive effect on them – probably mostly disgust?
What are they teaching children these days about language…. đ
Probably the same thing they’re teaching monkeys.
Qatar, another GCC member, will host the men’s soccer world cup in 2022. In 2018, Russia will be the host. Looks like the FIFA has an agenda for the future. So much for sport bringing people together..
Hundreds of workers (slaves) have died in Qatar getting ready for the FIFA 2022 blood games. And more are dying every day.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/02/qatar-workers-deaths-fifa-world-cup-2022
There is no way qatar or russia should’ve gotton the next two world cups after Brazil, Blatter is the most corrupt man in sports, all countries should tell fifa they wont contest 2022.
Blatter has some competition for that “most corrupt” title.
BD thats your free market working
The construction workers and the women who service the Qatari population.
The abuses of foreign workers have been going on for years. If FIFA intended on making Qatar clean up it’s act, it might have been worth awarding the games there, but all they seem worried about is playing in the heat…. oh, and the money (and they’d give up the wellbeing of the players for the money too, I reckon).
Bloody good reason for avoiding their airlines and their countries. I will spend my pink dollars elsewhere.
3rd Degree Burns
Marie Dyhrberg
-1/3 of crime not reported
-20000 IPCA complaints per year; 5% investigated.
-“seeing a slippery slope” develop
-implementation of Curruther’s reform recommendations should produce greater openness
Ian Lambie
-“I see some inappropriate / illegal behaviour”.
36% of police staff lack confidence that their superiors will action (in-house) complaints.
surprisingly, considering the studio audience, before the ‘debate’ they were split 50/50 over whether “the public are losing trust in the Police”.
Overall ‘Vote’ for the country- 56% Yes, the police are losing our trust.
Well, this old dog can come in from the cold and rest his bone.
Exclamation of the evening: “Only Jesus is beyond reproach, and he’s got His detractors” (Same)- Pam Corkery.
(excellent to see the lawyers giving Garner and Espinor a tune-up) đ
The police prosecutor struck me as having the same intonations and simplistic analogies as the police association guy (name escapes me at moment). Must be a cop thing. But when she likened confidence in the police to still supporting the All Blacks even if a player fumbled the ball, the line screaming to be used was the damage match-fixing did to cricket, or even championship wrestling in the US. The last thing we need is a police force with the credibility of WWE.
He’s “need a gun on every hip” Greg O’Conner, police union broken record guy.
that’s the chappie. Bit of a dick, really.
Have to agree with you there mate. Every time he surfaces I’m left wondering if he has that job for life or will they update for the modern world one day.
Outage was due to a MSNbot from redmond going apeshit scanning the site
I’d increased the limits the other day, evidently too far. Dropped them back and increased the block time from 10 minutes to an hour
Pablo Honey .
Some of you may have seen a short item on 3news about a factory fire that killed (as was reported last night), 10 workers in Bangladesh. You might have said to yourself, “Bloody hell, not again”.
Turns out that once again it is a factory that has contracts with Gap and Walmart. You would think they would have acted to ensure their workplaces were safe after over 1000 workers died in the Rana Plaza collapse and fire several months ago.
“While 90 other companies have joined together in the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh, an agreement between companies and unions, Walmart has refused. Instead, Walmart teamed up with Gap to create a corporate-controlled program that is hardly more than a facelift of the programs that have failed Bangladeshi workers in the past. Meanwhile, the death toll continues to climb. Please take action now â join with us in calling on Walmart and Gap to stop putting profits over peopleâs lives”.
From International Labor Rights Forum
http://action.laborrights.org/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=7262
Ach! Nothing’s changed then? Shame on companies like Gap and Walmart.
Oh wow, even tories are coming around to Keynesianism.
Another plank of credibility removed from those who want to see inequality and hardship persist in the world.
Ha, this sub-link is good:
Which is what we on the left have been saying for decades.
Barking – and one day they could have their finger on the button.
So to pull all this logic together, God anoints priests to work in the church directly and kings to go out into the marketplace to conquer, plunder, and bring back the spoils to the church. The reason governmental regulation has to disappear from the marketplace is to make it completely available to the plunder of Christian “kings” who will accomplish the “end time transfer of wealth.” Then “God’s bankers” will usher in the “coming of the messiah.” The government is being shut down so that God’s bankers can bring Jesus back.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/morgan-guyton/the-theology-of-governmen_b_4020537.html
Ted Cruz may well be barking mad about a lot of stuff, but he is close to the mark here:
An example of this is the state’s removal of all reference of obligations owed to deity in law. The state is happy enough to pay lip service to deity and exercise the benefit of making oath, but when it comes to obligations, the rules of the state are given the status of law while the real law is ignored.
Ah, got it, you’re actually a religious loony who wants to bring back god’s law.
Another Koch Bros funded politician.
Buyers regret.
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/10/the-kochs-cant-control-the-monster-they-created/280435/
The deity can always challenge their eviction in the court of the hundred, so who gives a shit.
deep Sigh Crumpy
‘sokay.
I don’t know about your one, but I’m pretty sure UT’s deity doesn’t really exist.
sadly, I was sighing with you over the direction UT takes. (well-meaning is possible though…still, wotteva ewe say is generally OK with me) đ All Good This End đ
The creative field behind. The revelation of such ( not exclusively) to the historic figures of
Christ, John, Thomas. A syncretic Way , of course, my friend.
Itâs really more about the destruction of the traditional family than about homosexuality, because you need also to destroy loyalty to the family.
hahahahahahahh… tell that to the families of many homosexual people.
religious zealots are the same as junkies !
Tut tut.
Yeah, anointed.
/
http://crooksandliars.com/karoli/rafael-cruz-declares-son-ted-cruz-anointed-
WOBH may be anointed (with some concoction)
absolutely (and don’t forget the LDS).
anyway joe, this has been a central tenet of my thesis all through.
However, thanks to TS commentators, some helpful books and an enquiring mind…
so, here’s a mousetrap;
“You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many”
-Mark 10:42-
so simple really đ
was reading yesterday of more RC cover-ups (from the highest levels) in the St Paul-Minnesota region.
oops, St Paul-Minneapolis
So another school closure has been ruled as unlawful.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11138079
That’s 2 now that have been challenged and found to be unlawful. She’s not doing well with this.
@ Tony Parker….reasons for closure seem spurious, unfathomable and cooked ..at least to the School Principal interviewed on National Radio…which makes one wonder ….did Nact plan to replace this state school community with Nact’s own special Charter School imposition?…ie usurp the buildings for a Charter School?….Was this the hidden agenda for the illegitimate closure?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11137643
– Well done John Key and Bill english, you don’t have to be flashy you just need to get the job done
and ignore the current account balance (amongst other indicators).
Activity is King. Doesn’t matter that bad law is rushed onto the books, that govt gets more accomplished at choosing lawyers that given them the decisions they want, oh, no, the cost are left to future parliaments to pay. Take Howards policies regards kiwis in OZ. The upper chamber in Australia doesn’t work, and we in NZ don’t have one, hopefully as money becomes scare society may again feel the need to write good law.
sigh
Growth is unsustainable so it’s certainly nothing to be crowing about. Bringing about the destruction of our environment isn’t what we need to do.
A “Toast” , My Friends. đ
Is this going to be your daily comment, pr?
The Herald is a right wing rag and constantly writes puff pieces in support of their corporate mates.
Show me a more independent source lauding this government please.
PR knows how to link to whale-snot too… if you’d prefer… đ
The IMF must be expecting the Christchurch rebuild to be getting up to full speed then. For the sake of the people who live there, I hope so. They’ve been waiting far too long.
pukesh roque the only reason GDP is up is because the US dollar is sliding on a downward spiral.
If the debt ceiling in the US is not solved its bubble bursting time!
The US stock market is already in free fall the property bubble in NZ will follow our dollar will increase in value reducing our exports!
Leading back to 2008 scenarios!
Sorry, can’t find the comment which alerted me to Gordon Campbell’s article as it relates to the need for an independent body to identify and refer back to appropriate appellate courts, potential miscarriages of justice:
http://gordoncampbell.scoop.co.nz/2013/10/10/gordon-campbell-on-the-cunliffe-speech-and-the-mark-lundy-decision/
The considered views of Professor Graham Zellick* recounted in Campbell’s article really do underline what an hubristic, dangerous philistine is Judith Collins in Justice.
This government more and more resembles the crazed Tea Party backwoodsmen of the US.
*Professor Zellick – the man who headed the equivalent UK body 2003-2008.
Change clocked. Nature: abstract (paper pay walled) and summary.
The Indonesian city of Manokwari is poised to become an unwitting icon for climate change. In about 2020, the coastal location will become one of the first places in recent history to adopt an entirely new climate â one in which its coldest years will be consistently hotter than any of the past 150 years.
That is one finding of a study published today in Nature1, which attempts to create a region-specific index of climate change. Researchers sought to identify the point at which temperature oscillations in each area will exceed the bounds of historical variability. Such âclimate departuresâ are predicted to start in the tropics and then spread to higher latitudes. If carbon dioxide emissions continue unabated, Earthâs mean climate could depart from historical averages in 2047.
Visualised.
http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/mora/PublicationsCopyRighted/Cities%20Timing.html
http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/league/9268153/Sonny-Bill-I-would-ve-had-lifelong-regrets
– Well maybe Sonny Bill you should stop whatever it is your manager tells you to do and start using your head, yes I’m sure you feel bad for the guy whos place you took however if you had declared your availability before the announcement none of this would have happened
But then that’d be less publicity for you I suppose…
(Sorry just had to get that of my chest)
lightweight
Well some blame Kearney’s handling of the situation.
“(Sorry just had to get that of my chest)”
Good idea, your wife was looking for her undergarment.
In just 2 daysâ time, African leaders could kill off a great institution, leaving the world a more dangerous place. The International Criminal Court (ICC) is the worldâs first and only global court to adjudicate crimes against humanity. But leaders of Sudan and Kenya, who have inflicted terror and fear across their countries, are trying to drag Africa out of the ICC, allowing them the freedom to kill, rape, and inspire hatred without consequences. I know that together we can change this. But we have to join hands and call on the voices of reason at the African Union (AU) â Nigeria and South Africa â to speak out and ensure that the persecuted are protected by the ICC. Join me by adding your name to the petition now and share it with everyone — when we have hit 1 million our petition will be delivered straight into the AU conference hall where Africaâs leaders are meeting in Addis Ababa. –Desmond Tutu
The proposed new yoke – same as old yoke.
Although the governmentâs initiative promotes a separation between Islam and politics, opponents say that the new push serves the decidedly political purpose of casting a divine glow on the brutal crackdown against supporters of ousted president Mohamed Morsi. Hundreds of Morsiâs backers in the Muslim Brotherhood have been killed and thousands arrested by authorities, who describe them as âterrorists.â
âThis is the new regime trying to create an official Islam, a state Islam, which doesnât exist within the Islamic tradition,â said Emad Shahin, a professor of public policy at the American University in Cairo. âItâs providing a religious justification to tolerate the killing of possibly thousands of people, and it is sending alarming signals into many segments of society. This is exactly what you call fa**ism.â
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/in-egypt-a-campaign-to-promote-an-egyptian-islam/2013/10/09/45060fca-29b3-11e3-b141-298f46539716_story.html
New best friends.
http://security.blogs.cnn.com/2013/10/09/libya-approves-u-s-operations-to-get-benghazi-suspects/
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light”. Matt. 12:28- imho, a lovely piece of scripture.
As Adam Smith (a fellow Scot) said in his “scripture” “all wealth comes from labour”. He is right, whether physical or mental, labour is the source of all wealth. Unrest , wars, political upheaval and inequality are a product of the struggle for control of the wealth. What is recent is simply that it is now globally apparent thanks to global communications.
Yup, depressed.
http://grist.org/list/this-video-will-get-you-off-factory-farmed-meat-or-depress-you-or-both/
Today in Auckland City:
A peaceful protester holds up a sign on the side of the footpath or pedestrian walk along Queen Street for a while, then gets approached by two yellow vested “City Crew” or “City View” staffers employed by Council. One wore a security firm’s sign on his shirt too. They approached the person and asked: “Have you been here for long?” The protester answered: “A while”, so they asked: “Will you be here any much longer?” The person facing them answers with: “Well, I have set myself some time, but probably not all that much longer”. Then the two City Council staffers ask: “Do you mind me asking me for your name?” The protester answers: “Why, what is the problem, this is freedom of expression, democracy?” Also the person says: “I do not feel I need to give you any details.” Then the senior person of the Council staff says (he is Pakeha, his colleagues Polynesian of large build): “Well, do you mind me taking a photo then?” The protester says: “Well, no that is your choice, I have no problem with that”. So the Council staffer steps back a bit, takes a photo and after that they walk on. He also said before that, they were concerned with “City Profile”.
What I also noticed is: Auckland City has suddenly been “cleansed” of ALL beggars and other persons, that I used to see in Queen Street and thereabouts. Now, what is going on, I ask?
To me this is: FASCISM in the making!!! There are under Mayor Len Brown and his Council now efforts made to remove “undesired” out of the CBD and possibly other areas, no matter whether they are begging, sitting around too long, or daring to stage a quiet, peaceful, sidewalk kind of “protest”!!!
This is highly concerning, and it is worth mentioning here, as we have also here in New Zealand too many that are SILENT in their majority, and most are the typical “law abiding”, “hard working”, “decent” and “peaceful” MIDDLE CLASS.
Do you, as middle class member, or other Aucklander find that this is acceptable, what I just described? If so, or if not, I ask for your feedback, please, a worried Auckland, with a migrant background, from a “free view” kind of culture,
Xtasy
No, it’s not acceptable. It’s entirely unacceptable. From what you’ve described Auckland is not as far down the track of restricting the right of protest as the US. So I’m guessing there will be a few battles to fight to keep the right to protest on a footpath if there are bureaucrats worried about the ‘tone’. Maybe they should be worrying about how to fix the problems that cause the protests.
There was NO issue about the “tone”, as the person just stood there, did not even speak to people, unless being asked for a flyer, some of which he had! So I found it appalling, when I heard about it.
I didn’t mean to imply there was a problem with the tone of the protester, I meant the snobby ‘tone of the neighbourhood’ meme that some people, and the bureaucrats drag out when things they don’t like confront them. I think the officials being concerned about the “city profile” pretty much fits the bill.
Exhibit #1 You can’t even build a Bunnings store on a shithole site on Great North Road without upsetting themiddle class liberal folk of Grey Lynn – an unkempt guy with a sign could lower property values!
Exhibit #2 We have a homeless person who comes into our work a couple of times a week. He goes into the loos open to visitors and washes himself, he never takes more than his shirt off and he is quiet and tidy. Someone mentioned this to our manager (a nice, earnest, middle class cookie cutter middle manager type who lacks a sense of humour or an imagination and spends most of his life re-measuring and re-weighing the pig) and he called security. Most of the staff were appalled. This guy isn’t harming anyone. So now we conspire to keep the old guys visits secret.
Given those two examples of our middleclass groupthink, what chance do you think has beggar has in Queen Street?
Sanctuary, I don’t think the Bnnings protest is at all in the same bag as the harrassment of street protestors and the guy washing himself.
There is an issue in my area of how commercial and retail interests are getting the prime sites in terms of the regeneration of the area. There is far less provision for community activities in the sites being allocated – it all smacks of money talking in the direction local councils are taking towards local developments.
OTOH, not allowing the guy to wash, or protests or begging in Queen Street is an issue of middle classes wanting to colonise and protect spaces in their own interest.
ask to see their ID. And security licence/certificate of approval if they’re wearing a security uniform.
McFlock – yes, I know all that, but the attempt was made to challenge, and get answers, without even identifying themselves. So naturally the person refused to state name and so forth. The whole attitude of those persons was disgusting, I feel, as they should just have left the guy alone, as he was just standing there, and I saw it, doing NO harm or disturbance at all.
It seems they just personally disliked the fact someone was standing there with a controversial sign, raising question, that were not really offensive either, just challenging an office’s handling of something.
And yes, the middle class are dangerous in my view, that is to Sanctuary, as they are blinded by generated “fears” and mindless “narrow thinking” how things should be, they also fear to take a stand, so condone authoritarian approaches by authorities.
There was research done many years ago, in Los Angeles and also in Sweden, showing that about 80 per cent of human beings in any society rather put up with abuse, or even collectively join abuse to others, merely to protect themselves from being “different” or in danger of risking their “security”.
That is human behaviour, and the Nazis knew that you can intimidate and manipulate, so do others, nowadays.
aye, true enough.
But having been on both sides of the petty security fence, I’ve also found that pieces of paper scare enforcers as much as they intimidate the populace.
The guards were either deployed (my guess is by a shopkeeper who made a complaint) or came across the protestor on their travels – in the first case, they’d be annoyed at having to do work; in the second case they’d just be bored. The knack is to be more trouble than it’s worth without raising their hackles (vengeance can motivate an awful lot of paperwork and dot-connecting in the depths of the graveyard shift đ ).
Mind you, doing security in Dunners my preferred tactic was generally to have a cup of tea and a chat before/ratherthan demanding name rank and serial number, unless the situation demanded prickface from the get-go.
From Chilean Illapu Blog:
“Top Comments
jaime contreras 9 months ago
En 1977 , con 17 aĂąos de edad,y elemento del grupo Fulano de tal de la ciudad de san Luis PotosĂ, MĂŠxico, cantamos las canciones de Illapu, los aplausos nunca los olvidarĂŠ. Mi padre me dijo entonces, queďťż habĂamos descubierto una hermosa mĂşsica y desde luego identidad. Las cantamos en plazas y fuimos felices y hoy mĂĄs. GRACIAS ILLAPU…”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXRTfOy4EVY
This is Andean music in its original form, and those not appreciative of this better take no notice. This is about Latin America and the REAL people living there and that deserve all rights and respects, and many to fight for them, all in line with revolutionary solidarity.
Viva, el pueblo de Chile y Peru!
Awesome!
Respeto a Camilla Vallejo, la Comunista y Socialista de Chile, por la educacion libre:
I am struggling to get sense into some people here, I know, but the following just shows the bloody challenge we face, few here even get it (if ever):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSukitimNdo
There is much more at stake, there are established presidents and forces, and they are voted for, they cannot be thrown out, but some here on this and other forums pretend that there is major change possible, while that all depends on what other people and countries do.
Get a wake up call, please, I am despairing anyway. X
The biggest enemy of New Zealand are your OWN PEople!!!
I see and hear this every day, I witness it all the time, at work, at open spaces, at social events, New Zealanders are NO LONGER ONE, you are ALL divided and full of suspicion and hatred towards each other, this makes you weak and vulnerable. The enemy knows this, that is the employers, the bosses, the admin and so, so they take you to the cleaners.
Also one major is migration without much cohesion, so anybody can come, sell skills, investment, even just buy a house and get PR, but they do NOT connect and have little expectation to be part of NZ.
I have hundreds of stories, and you lefties better wake up to this too, as the politically correct approach has long been redundant.
We are screwed, sold and shat on, that is NZ 2013, and I am a damned migrant myself saying this, I should not have to, as you Kiwis should be speaking up, but almost nobody does.
What a shame and shambles this country has become. I feel sorry and sick and ashamed!
Perhaps you ought to consider earlier nights. Just saying. đ
lol
xtasy
You make good points and are onto it. But there is a strange psychological process in one’s mind that I discovered some years back. That is, on the day that you are out of sorts, everyone else seems dull and unfriendly. I think it’s called transference or something.
And for the sake of your health you will need to take some time off thinking how things are, worrying and sad as it is. Have a book to read about something else, some fiction with some good happy bits in it, or look at Yes Minister and then Eddie Izzard or the like and have a soothing drink and go to bed so you wake refreshed to worry and again present facts and solutions the next day. Things are happening and we can only run alongside the moving present and try to remove most of the rotten material before it reaches its destructive potential.
While others just concentrate on themselves, looking at the ground around them, someone has to look up and talk about the obstacles looming. But it’s tiring and dispiriting, and we all have to give ourselves a break. Remind yourself that there are good people trying to make a breakthrough, and while the thinkers are (probably a large) minority, it’s not something to bear on your own. Watch Babylon 5 for a different slant even.
Thatâs interesting Morrissey, who are you apologising to?
I was apologising to my old friend Te Reo Putake, whom I had erroneously accused of living in … (shudder) … Whanganui.
You probably have quite a choice, being fairly free-ranging in your egg throwing.
Actually, I’m pretty precise, but I take your larger point, and think this is the perfect time to make a broad apology to everyone I may have offended over the last two and a half years….
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-twGsynRkcck/T-ZJ60GmKjI/AAAAAAAAAmU/NxR0af4EyKs/s1600/cute-sad-kitten06.jpg