Thanks Tautoko Manga Mata. I tried to make sense of what I read but it is too hard and now my brain hurts. It does need interpretation by some clever people so that I can tell whether to be for or against TPP.
Wonder how others feel?
My father fought in World War II with the 20th Battalion, in Greece and Crete and North Africa. He fought for a democratic way of life then sacred in this country. Many New Zealanders paid a high price, the highest price, for that democracy.
All of the above is sentimental crap perhaps, and also perhaps has no place in our me/me society. But it still remains a strong motivation for me and, I hope, for many others of my generation, the baby boomers born just after the war.
I have been decidedly middle class all my working life but, unlike Key, I haven’t forgotten my origins, nor the enormous debt I owe my society for making my transition from a working class family to university and a professional life so easy and so possible.
We MUST stop this TPP crap before it becomes so cemented into place in our society that escape is almost impossible. This will be, in our history, one of the defining moments – whether we retain our ability to govern ourselves or whether we tamely hand our rights over to the big corporates.
And as a white, middle-class male, I’ve got to say, we need to get behind the Treaty of Waitangi. That remarkable document, which can mean so much to so many different people, could be the way to save this country. Prove the TPP violates the treaty and it’s history! We need the Maori people to organise Hikoi to rally the great mass of people against this damned document.
I will be out on the streets in any and all protests over the next few months!
Rather an extreme reaction to my stating how unqualified I am to be spouting on about the Treaty. Perhaps it’s my fault for assuming that white middle-class males would not normally support the treaty – in which case I am admitting to a certain amount of bigotry. But, that aside, the treaty could assume a huge importance for this country – far beyond what the original drafters ever envisioned.
Don’t worry Tony, its just vto’s usual tangent about how any mention of white, middle class, male is bigotry because white dudes are as put upon as anyone else (and no, that doesn’t make any kind of sense).
Tony, I am female and have worked for 35 years to buy a house and provide for my children, I am not offended by your words. I take heart that many people from all demographics realise what what previous generations have sacrificed for, is being squandered. Leaving the next generation without any hope of living a debt free life and losing the health service and secure jobs etc does not make sense to me, like John Key, I would like to see my children (and others) be able to enjoy at least the same security we had.
The wealth gap is reflected in our children, and some have far more than they can appreciate, whilst so many more have to struggle constantly just to hope for an education, living wage and a secure home.
Why be so negative about a person making comments from the position of a middle class white male.
If more middle class white men thought and acted as Tony there would be no need for women, the poor, and the non-white to hit the pavements in protest.
Hi Adele, because it bore no relation to the points being made.
Lumping in the hoary old “white middle male” when it doesn’t apply simply reflects unthinking prejudice – in this against himself in klassic kiwi kringe fashion.
You last paragraph is an interesting one for another day.
“If more middle class white men thought and acted as Tony there would be no need for women, the poor, and the non-white to hit the pavements in protest.”
that doesn’t make any sense either vto, and I suspect you are being deliberately obtuse.
Tony expressed something important from his own identity. You’ve almost completely ignored what he was talking about and instead have deliberately misconstrued a whole bunch of stuff about how he identified. Sorry but you don’t get to say how other people identify.
You are now appropriating this conversation away from the important issues that Tony raised about the TPP and Te Tiriti and instead making it all about your own personal antipathy and agenda about certain kinds of identity politics. I wouldn’t mind so much if your argument had any kind of logic to it, but what you’ve just said shows that it’s nonesense. You’ve taken an implication that no-one else has and you’re skewing what is being said here. I think that’s really off tbh.
No weka, completely disagree, re-read my point about his point about being white male and middle and how it relates to the issues – it doesn’t, that was the whole point.
It is this continual knee-jerk around anything and everything white middle and male that is off. It is bullshit. Total bullshit.
example – why does his gender disqualify or affect his comment on te tiriti?
further example – why would middle class people need to do more re those matters than rich people?
I would be interested in your answer to those two examples
“example – why does his gender disqualify or affect his comment on te tiriti?”
false question. He didn’t say that as a man he wasn’t qualified.
“further example – why would middle class people need to do more re those matters than rich people?”
Another false question. He didn’t say that middle class people need to do more than rich people. You just made that up
Like I said, you are the one making inferences that nobody else is and then you are expecting other people to defend your own (quite frankly ridiculous) propositions.
Just to make it really clear. White middle class men hold certain priviliges in this society, and there is a conflict between doing right and retaining those privilges. But don’t take that to mean that other classes of people don’t also have privilge and conflicts of their own. We all do.
When white middle class men start to take responsibility for how their privilege affects other people, that’s a good thing.
“false question. He didn’t say that as a man he wasn’t qualified. ”
Yes he did. Read again. He said “as a white, middle-class male” and ” my stating how unqualified I am to be spouting on ”
“He didn’t say that middle class people need to do more than rich people.”
Yes he did. Read again. Same thing.
Read the detail weka. It is you who has fired off on your own bandwagon. Evidence – “White middle class men hold certain priviliges in this society, and there is a conflict between doing right and retaining those privilges. ” The points were nothing to do with this subject. The fact you infer they do reflects on you and your world view. Read again.
I know you don’t get this but there is a difference between saying something as a man, and saying something as a white middle class man. When YOU take his statement to be about being a man, you are misrepresenting what he was talking about (IMO, he can clarify).
I’ve engaged in trying to respond to your statements but they just don’t make sense, and instead of you talking about what what you actually mean you keep asking others if they get what you mean or keep putting it back onto others to agree with your basic premises.
I have read what Tony said, multiple times now. I’ve also reread what you have said. My suggestion is that you take a step back and think about how to present your argument coherently because at the moment you are making statements based on lots of mistaken inferences and you’re not making a lot of sense. The onus is on you to make your case clearly, otherwise I’ll feel free to just write it off as a white man feeling sorry for himself and trying to undermine good class analysis to bolster his own shit.
Oh weka, that is your classic way of avoiding and dancing on a pinhead. Lets go to the specifics rather than the wafty general..
to repeat: example – why does his gender disqualify or affect his comment on te tiriti?
You claimed this is a false question and that Tony didn’t say this. I have shown where he did say it. Can you provide evidence to support your contention?
Here it is in another way;
Does gender disqualify or affect comment on te tiriti?
My gender alone does not disqualify me from having an informed opinion about the Treaty. However, all else being equal it does mean that my gender does not really give me a frame of reference from which to empathise with issues of diminished power, denied self determination, or socioeconomic marginalisation, among other things.
My ethnicity alone does not disqualify me from having an informed opinion about the Treaty. However, all else being equal it does mean that my gender does not really give me a frame of reference from which to empathise with issues of diminished power, denied self determination, or socioeconomic marginalisation, among other things.
My class alone does not disqualify me from having an informed opinion about the Treaty. However, all else being equal it does mean that my gender does not really give me a frame of reference from which to empathise with issues of diminished power, denied self determination, or socioeconomic marginalisation, among other things.
But all of those together mean that I have no real frame of reference for truly empathising with people disadvantaged by the Treaty. Its effects were only good for me. I can rationally say “oh, this land was taken, these people were killed, these wrongs have flowed down through the generations”, but I’ll never “get” it. Just as I’ll probably never “get” what it means to be imprisoned, or whatever. Some experiences you need to live to truly understand how life-changing they can be.
So pretty much all of my comments on the Treaty will be the equivalent of a virgin critiquing a brothel.
Yes McFlock, well done you have made the exact same mistake as your peers. All of that is well understood and has been countlessly acknowledged at many threads.
But that was not the point of the point was it.
It was not about the treaty failures and white privilege and institutional racism and all of that.
It was about the relevancy of Tony’s link between his gender, middleness and whiteness, to how the treaty may relate to TPP.
a very specific matter
But you have backed up my hobby horse that the words “white, middle, male” elicit kneejerk responses that have nowt to do with the specific question at hand. Weka has done it too – rambled off onto a long-winded rant about some other wider issues that weren’t part of the issue, mussed it all up and thrown in “you don’t make sense” in her usual fashion when questions get refused.
Just to repeat: It was about the relevancy of Tony’s link between his gender, middleness and whiteness, to how the treaty may relate to the TPP.
This is your typical attempt at a ‘get out of jail free’ card’ by claiming confusion when none exists, by claiming the writer hasn’t explained, by adding in all sorts of other wider and non-related issues to attempt to muss it all up. You wouldn’t happen to be a white middle-aged woman would you?
The issue is pinpointed and there.
When you get a question you struggle to answer you claim confusion. The confusion is yours and your failure to answer the question is the exact same as for the similar recent issue around opinionist Beck Eleven – which in the end was slam-dunked.
Thanks for proof to the point.
“white middle male” has become a kneejerk bucket into which any bullshit can be tossed willy-nilly… the onus is on the accusers such as yourself
Let’s concentrate on the target: TPP. This agreement affects us all, whatever race, gender and socio-economic strata we come from in NZ. We also need to look even further than that and see how it will affect the environment and the cost of medicines in developing countries. Regardless of our income, race or gender our unifying common factor is that we have empathy and compassion for our fellow human beings unlike those who run the big corporates driving this scummy TPP.
Wow! Strike out the white middle class etc bit. As a citizen of New Zealand I think we need to look to the Treaty as a means of saving us from the TPP crap we’re being subjected to. Is that better?
Actually, I don’t give a damn how we do it, so long as we don’t allow the National Party, on behalf of it’s corporate mates, to impose this agreement on the country. But I really do think that the Treaty will play a hugely significant part in that process.
Don’t worry about me Tony, this is an old sawhorse of mine, as you can see … I bore everybody with it too often and likely will continue to for some long time yet.
Time to get out in the garden and separate the dog and chook …. later
+1 Tony Veitch – don’t get drawn on the side issues from Vto.
The small pox infested blankets are still alive and well abet in a more modern form of ‘special interests funding’ in return for compliance. Look at Charter schools etc.
TPP is a threat to pretty much everyones sovereignty in this country, including the white middle class, working poor and local business and government and even the big multinationals themselves who some of are currently providing decent jobs in this country but stand to be replaced by the lowest common denominator’s like Serco style organisations who in back room deals with government deliver horrible results with public funds with zero enforcement of standards.
TPP stands for greed and protectionism not internationalism. It is an agreement to maintain the most dominant status quo without morals and there are plenty of examples of this from similar agreements that show the downfalls.
“We need the Maori people to organise Hikoi to rally the great mass of people against this damned document.”
Why should Māori do that? – So that others can not have their sovereignty ripped from under their feet, so that others don’t have to suffer as Māori have suffered and continue to suffer – is that the reason?
reminds me a bit of the tour – so great having Māori in the front taking the hits for others – not a thought in the world about why Māori individually were there and now the same with why Māori may oppose the TPPA – hint – it’s not to protect the lifestyles of the big middle.
The TPP I think is certainly bringing to the fore for many how it must be for Maori to have suffered after the last world power came to dominate these lands and impose their sovereignty on the people living here …
it is absolutely NOTHING like it – colonisation is a specific process – this TPPA is not colonisation – it is horrible, unnecessary and bogus but it is not the same as what has happened to Māori and other indigenous peoples around this world.
The sticky point for you is the same as your comments above – privilege and power and how they intersect to dominate defined groups.
Well that’s not right marty mars, as there are indeed similarities.
Gotta run, but perhaps you could think of signing the TPP being similar to all the promises made to placate Maori around the signing of Te Tiriti in 1840. Lets check where NZ is in another 50 years on the basis of signing this 2015 treaty with foreign powers…
similarity one: 1840 a treaty was signed between people living in these lands and the world’s largest power. 2015: a treaty is to be signed between people living in these lands and a group of nations led by the world’s largest power.
similarity two: the 1840 treaty dealt with issues of sovereignty. The 2015 treaty deals with issues of sovereignty.
future similarity?: 50 years after the 1840 treaty the large signing power had stomped all over the local party on the basis of the treaty. In 50 years from now, will we find that the large signing power has stomped all over the local party on the basis of the treaty? (example might be virtually all land owned offshore by then).
I apologise – I was being too black and white about it – of course there are similarities from the high view. The ones you mention could be argued I think but I’m disinclined to do that especially in the way you’ve framed them. Certainly, when I think about it, the fact that people are gaining more chaos, in that uncertainty has increased, is a universal between the two situations. I cannot see any good from the TPPA and, well, you know my views on the Treaty and subsequent events.
Again, you’re right, there is no connection between being Maori and opposing the TPP. I think it was just an association of ideas in my mind – hikoi and Maori. WE, the collective pronoun, the people of this country, need to get off our backsides and organise mass rallies against this abomination.
And now we wait for the Maori Party to take some strong action re the TPPA!
I won’t be holding my breath though, because they are all for breathing life into NatzKEY’s backside to keep it going, regardless of the negative effects the deal will have on the already impoverished, of which a considerable amount of Maori represent.
The Maori Party = a bunch of cheap, self serving quislings!
It’s not the Palestinians that are violent but the Israelis. Of course, Israel itself is an invasion of Palestine and thus the only people who have a claim of self-defence is the Palestinians.
‘Israeli troops have opened fire on Palestinian protesters along the Gaza border fence, killing at least six of them, while a Hamas leader proclaimed the start of a new intifada uprising and the two sides braced for protracted confrontation.’
Jerusalem has remained tense now for almost a year. Most analysts blame the recent heightened tension on several factors. Key among them has been the issue of the religious site in Jerusalem known to Muslims as al-Haram al-Sharif, or the Noble Sanctuary, and Jews as the Temple Mount.
‘A long-running campaign by some fundamentalist Jews and their supporters for expanding their rights to worship in the Al-Aqsa mosque compound on the Temple Mount, supported by rightwing members of Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s own cabinet, has raised the suspicion – despite repeated Israeli denials – that Israel intends to change the precarious status quo for the site, which has been governed under the auspices of the Jordanian monarchy since 1967.
Jerusalem at boiling point of polarisation and violence – EU report
Read more
Recent Israeli police actions at the site scandalised the Muslim world and raised tensions. Israel has also banned two volunteer Islamic watch groups – male and female – accusing them of harassing Jews during the hours they are allowed to visit.
That has combined with the lack of a peace process and growing resentment and frustration in Palestinian society aimed at both Israel and the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, and the Palestinian Authority.’
hah, download, chrome, install hola, get a chromecast and watch ITV live coverage for free.
no need to be subjected to nissssbo and smiiiithy.
the subjective commentary is quite interesting as well.
Banter has its place—but Smith’s is of such a low and witless standard it affects the enjoyment of the broadcast. He’s the worst football broadcaster of any kind; the only one I can think of who is comparably bad is Rush Limbaugh, who was appointed, after someone at ABC had a brain explosion, to the Monday Night Football commentary team.
The Americans do, however, have some standards, and Limbaugh was soon shown the door. New Zealanders, on the other hand, are infinitely generous, and prepared to suffer a fool. Smith has been stinking up rugby broadcasts for years and seems to be ensconced.
You’re a bit liverish and unpleasant this a.m. VTO. Tony hardly deserves that sort of reaction from what was a heartfelt and reasonable contribution to this forum.
It’s not your writing habit or style; it’s your inability to recognise systemic privilege and its general effects and then your attempts to flip the whole phenomenon on its head and suggest some form of victimhood.
I can’t get why you’re unable to comprehend that even the most done over and rubbed out ‘white’ middle class male occupies a space of cultural and political privilege in this society – and that persists regardless of their particular/ individual experience or what may have come to pass for them.
I can’t comprehend why you misinterpret what I have written. Most people do though because the “white middle class male” has become such a knee-jerk dump for whatever people wish to toss into it.
I think you and others need to look more closely at the detail of what is written and stop the wholesale instant assumptions. You come across like the white middle class male from the 1950’s unable to understand what the women are complaining about. In reverse. Get it?
sounds a bit like contrition. I hope so. If not, I could break my own rules (as I’m doing now), and come in every day to tell you just how gorgeous you are – backed by a cast of thousands. That’d be a bit of a shame though – if that was what was required to coax your better side.
Anyway, you’re gorgeous darling! Keep commenting, but make sure your briefs are starched, stiffened and ironed in all the appropriate places. And always make sure you get out on the left side of the bed.
Interview with Michael Hudson on the neoliberal predatory financialisation con which impoverishes ordinary citizens. Based on his book ” Killing the Host, How financial parasites and debt bondage destroy the global economy ”
This interview particularly relates to NZ especially our obscene housing cost bubble that enriches speculators while making our homes unaffordable for our young couples. plus the privatisation of public income producing assets to enrich overseas investers/speculators Key represents this neoliberal rot to the extreme, this money trader didn’t make his millions by a fair day’s graft, yet so many are bamboozled by his easy going smooth persona: all show and no guts except to make his parasite class richer.
Some headings from the interview:
Democratic vs. oligarchic government and their respective economic doctrines
The concept and theory of economic rent
The Austrian School vs. government regulation and pro-labor policies
The case of Latvia: Is it a success story, or a neoliberal disaster?
The Troika and IMF doctrine of austerity and privatization
Financialization of pension plans and retirement savings
Obama’s demagogic role as Wall Street shill for the Rubinomics gang
Early Childhood Education…has come under a fair amount of scrutiny of late in MSM.
Any industry reliant on Government Funding is going to do all in its power to ensure that the $$$ coming from the taxpayer are channeled through its accounts.
Whether or not they are providing an adequate service.
Whether or not the clients are safe.
I have grown children and as yet no mokos, so I’m not within this arena, but I would be interested to hear the opinions of others on this issue.
I am an early childhood teacher. Previously I was involved in Playcentre for eleven years. I am fortunate to work at a small centre with a low staff turnover so we really know our children and families. I believe that we have all got very messed up about what sort of education young children need. They need to be loved, to have a sense of self and know who they are, they need to learn social skills and physical skills, to be able to explore and make sense of the world and very importantly they need to learn language preferably their mother tongue. I believe that these things are best taught by parents and whanau, the people who really know and love a child.
The Te Whaariki curriculum has four principles, holistic development, family and community, relationships and empowerment. It has four strands: well being, belonging, contribution, communication and exploration. I think that what it points to is getting the early childhood centre to be as much as possible like a good caring home. Unfortunately a lot of people are very messed up about early childhood education and think it is about literacy and numeracy so they are quite attracted to the idea of structured school-like centres. Parents lose confidence and think they are not enough for their young children. When you couple that with low ratios such as one teacher per five children who are under two and one adult to 10 children with over two children you can see how children won’t be getting the stuff they need which their families can give them.
Some centres have huge group sizes – my centre has only 20 children. Licensing changes by this government have allowed as many as 75 under two children in a group or 150 over two children. Can you imagine the noise and the chaos. Many centres in low income areas pick the children up in vans and a consequence of this is that the parents don’t see what is going on in the centre. An excellent book if someone wants to read the opinion of an ECE teacher in New Zealand is “Suffer the Little Children” by David Smith. The child forum website childforum.com has a range of articles if you want more information.
I think the real tragedy is a lot of this is caused by governments believing it is better that parents be out in the workforce than caring for their infants and young children. They are prepared to pay big money to centres for instance they will pay $12.33 an hour for an under two child for up to 30 hours per week if the centre has at least 80% qualified staff which works out at $369. http://www.education.govt.nz/early-childhood/running-an-ece-service/funding/ece-funding-handbook/appendix-one/
This is before we start with possible winz subsidies and the fees parents pay on top of that. I have always wondered why parents don’t have the option of taking the money themselves in the form of a parental leave benefit if they would prefer to do so. I guess it comes down to the government being happy to give benefits to corporations and not families. This is a discussion that really needs to be had.
Not only because I agree 100% with all you say…especially your last paragraph…but because you have given a full and considered reply.
My area of expertise is MOH:DSS disability supports.
I see many parallels between the two industries.
If someone else is providing the nurturing (care) the nurturing (care) has a $$$ value. And the corporations win.
If the SAME nurturing (care) is provided by family….it is worth nothing….even though providing that nurturing (care) keeps the nurturer (carer) out of the paid workforce.
Thank you Rosemary MacDonald for raising this issue. A lot of early childhood teachers won’t speak up out of fear for their jobs. I am fortunate to work in a centre with a collective agreement with a union many ece teachers are not unionised. There are all sorts of staffing issues as well, such as teachers not taking breaks because no relievers are provided and the teachers don’t want to put children at risk. Also staff who are doing non-contact are sometimes counted in the ratio.
I think there are also issues around women in caring roles in the workforce sacrificing their personal needs for the the people they care for a bit like what mothers do in families.
And you know what TFG…I am so over hearing about people being too scared to speak up for fear of their jobs.
I know this is a very real issue and I do sympathise…but there MUST be a way to get round this.
General question to all….has anyone been fired for speaking up, and then taken a case to the ET?
“I think there are also issues around women in caring roles in the workforce sacrificing their personal needs for the the people they care for a bit like what mothers do in families.”
Marylin Waring (hero, IMB) wrote a book called “Counting For Nothing”
The other thing I would like to mention is the change of emphasis from care to education which has happened as a result of the move from childcare from social welfate dept to education ministry in the 90s. Originally you used to see a lot of places with care in the name eg childcare daycare. Then the names changed to educare or care and education centres. Now they seem to be early learning centres. Care has gone from the names. Care is what little kids need most and it is what families do best. Our society doesn’t seem to value it
“Care is what little kids need most and it is what families do best. Our society doesn’t seem to value it”
No, because it is ‘women’s work’. It is ‘natural’.
BUT…if you change the name of it to something that sounds, well, more professional….all of a sudden you have a skill, a marketable commodity.,.
And you can open up the ‘market’ to private enterprise…because we all know the private sector does SO much better.
What mothers do is “natural support”.
The Atkinson case ( family carers and adult disabled went to the Human Rights Review Tribunal claiming the Govt. was discriminatory for not allowing family carers to be paid)
The Misery of Health claimed that family care was “natural support”, part of the (unwritten) social contract that family do not get paid for caring for family.
Family who could not or would not provide the care that their adult disabled family member had been assessed as needing were not penalised in any way. They could go out to work, earn a living, pay the mortgage, save for their retirement and make no further financial contribution towards the care of their disabled family member other than the usual PAYE.
Those (like myself) who do provide some or all of the care that family member has been assessed as needing are not paid (other than the benefit) because we are ‘not providing the same type of care that a contracted provider would be providing.’ In many cases, family provide the care because the needs of the disabled family member are too high and complex for the ‘professionals’ to provide safely. We are providing “natural support”.
The Miserly of Health concept of “natural support” was pretty much debunked by the HRRT.
This case was about the care needed by over 18 year olds. Adults.
Under that age….considered parents duty to provide care….even if providing that care prevents one or both parents from participating in paid work.
Likewise with childcare….back when mine were little (27 years ago) the economy was just getting to the stage when if you wanted to ‘get ahead’ (mortgage interest up at 18%!) both Mum and Dad had to work.
We juggled jobs and childcare duties, only those on high incomes could afford fulltime childcare.
How much has changed since then!
You quoted a government spend of over $350 per week for under twos????
And to my knowledge, the primary caregiver does not have to be in work or study to qualify for this ‘subsidy’.
So why?
To be honest, i don’t get why that same amount cannot be paid to a parent to chooses not to factory farm their child.
When, (hah!), the review of Charter Schools supports the theory that lower child to adult ratios in learning environments have better ‘outcomes’ for the child.
This is all very confusing.
Well, not really, but getting one’s head around the inconsistencies is brain boggling.
It would make an interesting case for the CPAG…trying to get the ECE subsidy paid to parents who choose not to put their kids in ECE care.
What you said about young children ” …need to be loved, to have a sense of self and know who they are, they need to learn social skills and physical skills, to be able to explore and make sense of the world and very importantly they need to learn language …”
Young children are constantly asking questions. CONSTANTLY.
“Mum, why?” “Mum, what?” “Mum, where?”
How are these questing minds supposed to be satisfied in the ECE environment.?
They won’t be.
So the child will stop asking questions.
And they will grow to be adults who don’t ask questions.
Adults that simply accept the pap and drivel that is fed to them.
It is the institutionalization that means that the kind of attention to individual needs like encouraging a child’s questions or curiosity gets lost. Of course teachers will be running around taking photos and writing learning stories to prove children are learning but even that takes away the time that they could be spending with children. This is another whole issue – the issue of accountability versus responsibility. If you are accountable the concern is covering your butt. If you are responsible you are a professional and you will be respected and act as an advocate for children. Pasi Sahlberg the Finnish educator who recently visited New Zealand has some good stuff on this and how different the Finnish education system is where teachers are respected and there is minimal testing.
The institutionalization means that children sometimes have to follow routines for the adults i.e eating at certain times or sleeping at certain times. Some centres are better than that but not all. Also parents with no sick leave left or perhaps no sick leave at all will take their children in sick dosed up with pamol meaning germs get spread to other children. Children under the care of their families can have much more flexibility – stay home in bed if they are sick.
There are some centres with good ratios where children do get an ok deal. Often these are ones that also charge parents high fees. I am very concerned that children of beneficiaries are being pushed into ece because the centres they may be pushed into are not always the good quality ones.
” am very concerned that children of beneficiaries are being pushed into ece because the centres they may be pushed into are not always the good quality ones.”
Me too, I have seen this. Parent is not necessarily using that child free time to train or upskill. How much better the old Playcentre thing, only pay parent helpers/participants?
perhaps there is a ‘gold standard’?
Every morning I wake up and thank the Deity that I no longer have to deal with the education system via my children.
Yes the good old days of Playcentre. This uniquely New Zealand organisation is now struggling and numbers are going down. Many parents who use Playcentre also put their children in care so they can work part-time. The 20 hours free system had the effect of most ECE centres going to the full day model including kindergartens so they could maximise funding so the option of sessional kindergarten is also largely gone.
ah something to be grateful for then. Can’t hear an leaf blowers this morning, although it’s hard to tell above the noise of at least 2 lawnmowers and 2 weedeaters (didn’t think I had that many neighbours).
Well I had my own back this Saturday morning. I had the house washers on site to give my place a once in two years clean. Complete with ear-splitting machines, they started shortly after the AB match started, and finished shortly before the match finished.
More propaganda.
That makes about 20 articles pumped out by New Zealand Pravda to tell the people how amazing the TPP is.
And only Bryan Gould’s piece to counter this.
The North Korean Herald. Pimping for transnational corporations.
David Snell is another vested interest.
He is an executive director at Ernst & Young.
Ernst & Young (trading as EY) is a multinational professional services firm headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is one of the “Big Four” audit firms and is the third largest professional services firm in the world by aggregated revenue in 2014, after PwC and Deloitte.
Pity the Herald/Pravda does not show up these conflicts of interest.
So how do we create a stronger, fairer, and more sustainable economic model in
which the many and not just the few benefit from rising prosperity now and into
the future? This is not just a question for governments but for companies and
citizens as well.
While some on the left seek to turn away from globalization and technology, that
is not a realistic option. No country can prosper in isolation. And firms that stand
still and do not adapt to new technology inevitably lose out in global competition.
Without successful entrepreneurs and wealth creation that finances investment,
there is no possibility for progress. But if successful businesses are necessary for
economic success, they are far from sufficient.
Those on the right who argue for a return to laissez-faire, trickle-down economics—cutting taxes at the top, stripping out regulation, and making deep cuts to public services—do not provide a viable alternative. Developed countries cannot
succeed through a race to the bottom in which companies simply compete on cost
as workers see their job security erode and their living standards decline.
According to world famous physicist Stephen Hawking, the rising use of automated machines may mean the end of human rights – not just jobs. But he’s not talking about robots with artificial intelligence taking over the world, he’s talking about the current capitalist political system and its major players.
If we do not take this warning seriously, we may face unfathomable corporate domination. If we let the same people who buy and sell our political system and resources maintain control of automated technology, then we’ll be heading towards a very harsh reality.
+1, and news today that NASA plans on colonising Mars in the next 20 years sound like complete science fiction. Resources and money are going to be completely stretched on planet earth without being siphoned off onto another planet.
But more than that. It is not using the modern skills and the money that has been created to maintain and refurbish the advanced society we have created. The wealthy can’t cut corners squeeze money out of the society and still have a vibrant world to live in.
And they can’t throw cold-blooded hissy fits when they don’t get their own way and cut their servants’ arms off.
“In his latest book, ‘Light It Up: The Marine Eye for Battle in the War for Iraq ‘ historian John Pettegrew takes a look at the crucial role visual culture has played in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. He examines the effects of ‘war porn’, and popular images of battle, in video games and on TV, as well as how military technologies of seeing have determined the killing power of the American war effort.”
I am wondering what Steve Braunias is up to with his turning to matter of the lost papers in the dotcom case on its head, he obviously knows that it was the crown who mmisplaced its documents. Is it that he is making a point about just how much deceit media and the herald get away with?
just watching Hollow Men again – still disgusting, still shocking – I REFUSE to forget these gnat scum and their hideous agenda and yes I mean you too dirtymat.
I am having trouble with the site. My comments aren’t coming through, when I refresh by pressing Home still nothing, then F5 still nothing, then F5 again and get time-outed. So I can’t participate. What’s happening?
[r0b: Sorry, not sure why your last 3 comments were caught. All released now.]
Thanks r0b I hope that doesn’t happen again. (Just checked – the latest one I just put on this morning hasn’t come up. Has the gill net got smaller sized and catching the small fry now?)
Hi,I am just going to state something very obvious: American police are fucking crazy.That was a photo gracing the New York Times this morning, showing New York City police “entering Columbia University last night after receiving a request from the school.”Apparently in America, protesting the deaths of tens of thousands ...
Winston Peters’ much anticipated foreign policy speech last night was a work of two halves. Much of it was a standard “boilerplate” Foreign Ministry overview of the state of the world. There was some hardening up of rhetoric with talk of “benign” becoming “malign” and old truths giving way to ...
Graham Adams assesses the fallout of the Cass Review — The press release last Thursday from the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls didn’t make the mainstream news in New Zealand but it really should have. The startling title of Reem Alsalem’s statement — “Implementation of ‘Cass ...
This open-for-business, under-new-management cliché-pockmarked government of Christopher Luxon is not the thing of beauty he imagines it to be. It is not the powerful expression of the will of the people that he asserts it to be. It is not a soaring eagle, it is a malodorous vulture. This newest poll should make ...
The latest labour market statistics, showing a rise in unemployment. There are now 134,000 unemployed - 14,000 more than when the National government took office. Which is I guess what happens when the Reserve Bank causes a recession in an effort to Keep Wages Low. The previous government saw a ...
Three opinion polls have been released in the last two days, all showing that the new government is failing to hold their popular support. The usual honeymoon experienced during the first year of a first term government is entirely absent. The political mood is still gloomy and discontented, mainly due ...
National's Finance Minister once met a poor person.A scornful interview with National's finance guru who knows next to nothing about economics or people.There might have been something a bit familiar if that was the headline I’d gone with today. It would of course have been in tribute to the article ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Throughout the pandemic, the new Vice-Chancellor-of-Otago-University-on-$629,000 per annum-Can-you-believe-it-and-Former-Finance-Minister Grant Robertson repeated the mantra over and over that he saved “lives and livelihoods”.As we update how this claim is faring over the course of time, the facts are increasingly speaking differently. NZ ...
Chris Trotter writes – IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in acknowledgement of electoral victory: “We’ll govern for all New Zealanders.” On the face of it, the pledge is a strange one. Why would any political leader govern in ways that advantaged the huge ...
Bryce Edwards writes – The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 10:06am on Wednesday, May 1:The Lead: Business confidence fell across the board in April, falling in some areas to levels last seen during the lockdowns because of a collapse in ...
Over the past 36 hours, Christopher Luxon has been dong his best to portray the centre-right’s plummeting poll numbers as a mark of virtue. Allegedly, the negative verdicts are the result of hard economic times, and of a government bravely set out on a perilous rescue mission from which not ...
Auckland Transport have started rolling out new HOP card readers around the network and over the next three months, all of them on buses, at train stations and ferry wharves will be replaced. The change itself is not that remarkable, with the new readers looking similar to what is already ...
Completed reads for April: The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Carnival of Saints, by George Herman The Snow Spider, by Jenny Nimmo Emlyn’s Moon, by Jenny Nimmo The Chestnut Soldier, by Jenny Nimmo Death Comes As the End, by Agatha Christie Lord of the Flies, by ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Have a story to share about St Paul’s, but today just picturesPopular novels written at this desk by a young man who managed to bootstrap himself out of father’s imprisonment and his own young life in a workhouse Read more ...
The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill English, Simon Bridges, Steven Joyce, Roger Sowry, ...
Newsroom has a story today about National's (fortunately failed) effort to disestablish the newly-created Inspector-General of Defence. The creation of this agency was the key recommendation of the Inquiry into Operation Burnham, and a vital means of restoring credibility and social licence to an agency which had been caught lying ...
Holding On To The Present:The moment a political movement arises that attacks the whole idea of social progress, and announces its intention to wind back the hands of History’s clock, then democracy, along with its unwritten rules, is in mortal danger.IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in ...
Stuck In The Middle With You:As Christopher Luxon feels the hot breath of Act’s and NZ First’s extremists on the back of his neck and, as he reckons with the damage their policies are already inflicting upon a country he’s described as “fragile”, is there not some merit in reaching out ...
The unpopular coalition government is currently rushing to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The clause is Oranga Tamariki's Treaty clause, and was inserted after its systematic stealing of Māori children became a public scandal and resulted in physical resistance to further abductions. The clause created clear obligations ...
Buzz from the Beehive The government’s official website – which Point of Order monitors daily – not for the first time has nothing much to say today about political happenings that are grabbing media headlines. It makes no mention of the latest 1News-Verian poll, for example. This shows National down ...
It Takes A Train To Cry:Surely, there is nothing lonelier in all this world than the long wail of a distant steam locomotive on a cold Winter’s night.AS A CHILD, I would lie awake in my grandfather’s house and listen to the traffic. The big wooden house was only a ...
Packing A Punch: The election of the present government, including in its ranks politicians dedicated to reasserting the rights of the legislature in shaping and determining the future of Māori and Pakeha in New Zealand, should have alerted the judiciary – including its anomalous appendage, the Waitangi Tribunal – that its ...
Dead Woman Walking: New Zealand’s media industry had been moving steadily towards disaster for all the years Melissa Lee had been National’s media and communications policy spokesperson, and yet, when the crisis finally broke, on her watch, she had nothing intelligent to offer. Christopher Luxon is a patient man - but he’s not ...
Chris Trotter writes – New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Key’s flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMP’s five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is ...
Luxon will no doubt put a brave face on it, but there is no escaping the pressure this latest poll will put on him and the government. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political ...
This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler In the wake of any unusual weather event, someone inevitably asks, “Did climate change cause this?” In the most literal sense, that answer is almost always no. Climate change is never the sole cause of hurricanes, heat waves, droughts, or ...
Something odd happened yesterday, and I’d love to know if there’s more to it. If there was something which preempted what happened, or if it was simply a throwaway line in response to a journalist.Yesterday David Seymour was asked at a press conference what the process would be if the ...
Hi,From time to time, I want to bring Webworm into the real world. We did it last year with the Jurassic Park event in New Zealand — which was a lot of fun!And so on Saturday May 11th, in Los Angeles, I am hosting a lil’ Webworm pop-up! I’ve been ...
Education Minister Erica Standford yesterday unveiled a fundamental reform of the way our school pupils are taught. She would not exactly say so, but she is all but dismantling the so-called “inquiry” “feel good” method of teaching, which has ruled in our classrooms since a major review of the New ...
Exactly where are we seriously going with this government and its policies? That is, apart from following what may as well be a Truss-Lite approach on the purported economic “plan“, and Victorian-era regression when it comes to social policy.Oh it’ll work this time of course, we’re basically assured, “the ...
Hey Uncle Dave, When the Poms joined the EEC, I wasn't one of those defeatists who said, Well, that’s it for the dairy job. And I was right, eh? The Chinese can’t get enough of our milk powder and eventually, the Poms came to their senses and backed up the ute ...
Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is higher than for any other mayor ...
Buzz from the Beehive Pharmac has been given a financial transfusion and a new chair to oversee its spending in the pharmaceutical business. Associate Health Minister David Seymour described the funding for Pharmac as “its largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff”. ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its ...
TL;DR: Here’s my top 10 ‘pick ‘n’ mix of links to news, analysis and opinion articles as of 10:10am on Monday, April 29:Scoop: The children's ward at Rotorua Hospital will be missing a third of its beds as winter hits because Te Whatu Ora halted an upgrade partway through to ...
span class=”dropcap”>As hideous as David Seymour can be, it is worth keeping in mind occasionally that there are even worse political figures (and regimes) out there. Iran for instance, is about to execute the country’s leading hip hop musician Toomaj Salehi, for writing and performing raps that “corrupt” the nation’s ...
Yesterday marked 10 years since the first electric train carried passengers in Auckland so it’s a good time to look back at it and the impact it has had. A brief history The first proposals for rail electrification in Auckland came in the 1920’s alongside the plans for earlier ...
Right now, in Aotearoa-NZ, our ‘animal spirits’ are darkening towards a winter of discontent, thanks at least partly to a chorus of negative comments and actions from the Government Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on ...
You make people evil to punish the paststuck inside a sequel with a rotating castThe following photos haven’t been generated with AI, or modified in any way. They are flesh and blood, human beings. On the left is Galatea Young, a young mum, and her daughter Fiadh who has Angelman ...
April has been a quiet month at A Phuulish Fellow. I have had an exceptionally good reading month, and a decently productive writing month – for original fiction, anyway – but not much has caught my eye that suggested a blog article. It has been vaguely frustrating, to be honest. ...
A listing of 31 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 21, 2024 thru Sat, April 27, 2024. Story of the week Anthropogenic climate change may be the ultimate shaggy dog story— but with a twist, because here ...
Hi,I spent about a year on Webworm reporting on an abusive megachurch called Arise, and it made me want to stab my eyes out with a fork.I don’t regret that reporting in 2022 and 2023 — I am proud of it — but it made me angry.Over three main stories ...
The new Victoria University Vice-Chancellor decided to have a forum at the university about free speech and academic freedom as it is obviously a topical issue, and the Government is looking at legislating some carrots or sticks for universities to uphold their obligations under the Education and Training Act. They ...
Do you remember when Melania Trump got caught out using a speech that sounded awfully like one Michelle Obama had given? Uncannily so.Well it turns out that Abraham Lincoln is to Winston Peters as Michelle was to Melania. With the ANZAC speech Uncle Winston gave at Gallipoli having much in ...
She was born 25 years ago today in North Shore hospital. Her eyes were closed tightly shut, her mouth was silently moving. The whole theatre was all quiet intensity as they marked her a 2 on the APGAR test. A one-minute eternity later, she was an 8. The universe was ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park in collaboration with members from our Skeptical Science team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is Antarctica gaining land ice? ...
Images of US students (and others) protesting and setting up tent cities on US university campuses have been broadcast world wide and clearly demonstrate the growing rifts in US society caused by US policy toward Israel and Israel’s prosecution of … Continue reading → ...
Barrie Saunders writes – Dear Paul As the new Minister of Media and Communications, you will be inundated with heaps of free advice and special pleading, all in the national interest of course. For what it’s worth here is my assessment: Traditional broadcasting free to air content through ...
Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its arguments for such a bold reform. ...
Peter Dunne writes – The great nineteenth British Prime Minister, William Gladstone, once observed that “the first essential for a Prime Minister is to be a good butcher.” When a later British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, sacked a third of his Cabinet in July 1962, in what became ...
Ele Ludemann writes – New Zealanders had the OECD’s second highest tax increase last year: New Zealanders faced the second-biggest tax raises in the developed world last year, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) says. The intergovernmental agency said the average change in personal income tax ...
We all know something’s not right with our elections. The spread of misinformation, people being targeted with soundbites and emotional triggers that ignore the facts, even the truth, and influence their votes.The use of technology to produce deep fakes. How can you tell if something is real or not? Can ...
This video includes conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Simon Clark. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). This year you will be lied to! Simon Clark helps prebunk some misleading statements you'll hear about climate. The video includes ...
It is all very well cutting the backrooms of public agencies but it may compromise the frontlines. One of the frustrations of the Productivity Commission’s 2017 review of universities is that while it observed that their non-academic staff were increasing faster than their academic staff, it did not bother to ...
Buzz from the Beehive Two speeches delivered by Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters at Anzac Day ceremonies in Turkey are the only new posts on the government’s official website since the PM announced his Cabinet shake-up. In one of the speeches, Peters stated the obvious: we live in a troubled ...
1. Which of these would you not expect to read in The Waikato Invader?a. Luxon is here to do business, don’t you worry about thatb. Mr KPI expects results, and you better believe itc. This decisive man of action is getting me all hot and excitedd. Melissa Lee is how ...
…it has a restricted jurisdiction which must not be abused: it is not an inquisitionNOTE – this article was published before the High Court ruled that Karen Chhour does not have to appear before the Waitangi Tribunal Gary Judd writes – The High Court ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – One of reasons Oranga Tamariki exists is to prevent child neglect. But could the organisation itself be guilty of the same?Oranga Tamariki’s statistics show a decrease in the number and age of children in care. “There are less children ...
David Farrar writes: Graeme Edgeler wrote in 2017: In the first five years after three strikes came into effect 5248 offenders received a ‘first strike’ (that is, a “stage-1 conviction” under the three strikes sentencing regime), and 68 offenders received a ‘second strike’. In the five years prior to ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in politics. That’s refreshing and will be extremely ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the two days to 6:06am on Thursday, April 25:Politics: PM Christopher Luxon has set up a dual standard for ministerial competence by demoting two National Cabinet ministers while leaving also-struggling ...
Hi,Today I mainly want to share some of your thoughts about the recent piece I wrote about success and failure, and the forces that seemingly guide our lives. But first, a quick bit of housekeeping: I am doing a Webworm popup in Los Angeles on Saturday May 11 at 2pm. ...
It is hard to see what Melissa Lee might have done to “save” the media. National went into the election with no public media policy and appears not to have developed one subsequently. Lee claimed that she had prepared a policy paper before the election but it had been decided ...
Open access notablesIce acceleration and rotation in the Greenland Ice Sheet interior in recent decades, Løkkegaard et al., Communications Earth & Environment:In the past two decades, mass loss from the Greenland ice sheet has accelerated, partly due to the speedup of glaciers. However, uncertainty in speed derived from satellite products ...
Buzz from the Beehive A statement from Children’s Minister Karen Chhour – yet to be posted on the Government’s official website – arrived in Point of Order’s email in-tray last night. It welcomes the High Court ruling on whether the Waitangi Tribunal can demand she appear before it. It does ...
Mr Bombastic:Ironically, the media the academic experts wanted is, in many ways, the media they got. In place of the tyrannical editors of yesteryear, advancing without fear or favour the interests of the ruling class; the New Zealand news media of today boasts a troop of enlightened journalists dedicated to ...
It's hard times try to make a livingYou wake up every morning in the unforgivingOut there somewhere in the cityThere's people living lives without mercy or pityI feel good, yeah I'm feeling fineI feel better then I have for the longest timeI think these pills have been good for meI ...
In 1974, the US Supreme Court issued its decision in United States v. Nixon, finding that the President was not a King, but was subject to the law and was required to turn over the evidence of his wrongdoing to the courts. It was a landmark decision for the rule ...
Every day now just seems to bring in more fresh meat for the grinder.In their relentlessly ideological drive to cut back on the “excessive bloat” (as they see it) of the previous Labour-led government, on the mountains of evidence accumulated in such a short period of time do not ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
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RELEASE: #TPP final negotiated text covering the internet, copyrights, patents, drugs https://wikileaks.org/tpp-ip3/
Wikileaks release of TPP deal text confirms ‘freedom of expression’ fears
Intellectual property rights chapter appears to give Trans-Pacific Partnership countries’ countries greater power to stop information from going public
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/oct/09/wikileaks-releases-tpp-intellectual-property-rights-chapter
http://motherboard.vice.com/read/internet-providers-would-be-forced-to-block-filesharing-sites-under-tpp
Thanks Tautoko Manga Mata. I tried to make sense of what I read but it is too hard and now my brain hurts. It does need interpretation by some clever people so that I can tell whether to be for or against TPP.
Wonder how others feel?
My father fought in World War II with the 20th Battalion, in Greece and Crete and North Africa. He fought for a democratic way of life then sacred in this country. Many New Zealanders paid a high price, the highest price, for that democracy.
All of the above is sentimental crap perhaps, and also perhaps has no place in our me/me society. But it still remains a strong motivation for me and, I hope, for many others of my generation, the baby boomers born just after the war.
I have been decidedly middle class all my working life but, unlike Key, I haven’t forgotten my origins, nor the enormous debt I owe my society for making my transition from a working class family to university and a professional life so easy and so possible.
We MUST stop this TPP crap before it becomes so cemented into place in our society that escape is almost impossible. This will be, in our history, one of the defining moments – whether we retain our ability to govern ourselves or whether we tamely hand our rights over to the big corporates.
And as a white, middle-class male, I’ve got to say, we need to get behind the Treaty of Waitangi. That remarkable document, which can mean so much to so many different people, could be the way to save this country. Prove the TPP violates the treaty and it’s history! We need the Maori people to organise Hikoi to rally the great mass of people against this damned document.
I will be out on the streets in any and all protests over the next few months!
“And as a white, middle-class male, I’ve got to say, we need to get behind the Treaty of Waitangi.”
Good grief
As opposed to being female?
As opposed to being rich or poor?
As opposed to being non-white?
ffs, some shit gets dropped into that boring old crockpot of bigotry
Rather an extreme reaction to my stating how unqualified I am to be spouting on about the Treaty. Perhaps it’s my fault for assuming that white middle-class males would not normally support the treaty – in which case I am admitting to a certain amount of bigotry. But, that aside, the treaty could assume a huge importance for this country – far beyond what the original drafters ever envisioned.
Do you seriously believe you are unqualified because you are white, middle and male?
Do you imagine non-whites are more qualified?
Do you imagine women are more qualified?
Do you imagine rich people are more qualified?
confused and cringed
edit: I actually agree on your point about the treaty and its position of strength in dealing with the TPP
Don’t worry Tony, its just vto’s usual tangent about how any mention of white, middle class, male is bigotry because white dudes are as put upon as anyone else (and no, that doesn’t make any kind of sense).
good comment from you btw.
No, it doesn’t, you’re right
Tony, I am female and have worked for 35 years to buy a house and provide for my children, I am not offended by your words. I take heart that many people from all demographics realise what what previous generations have sacrificed for, is being squandered. Leaving the next generation without any hope of living a debt free life and losing the health service and secure jobs etc does not make sense to me, like John Key, I would like to see my children (and others) be able to enjoy at least the same security we had.
The wealth gap is reflected in our children, and some have far more than they can appreciate, whilst so many more have to struggle constantly just to hope for an education, living wage and a secure home.
Kiaora VTO
Why be so negative about a person making comments from the position of a middle class white male.
If more middle class white men thought and acted as Tony there would be no need for women, the poor, and the non-white to hit the pavements in protest.
Hi Adele, because it bore no relation to the points being made.
Lumping in the hoary old “white middle male” when it doesn’t apply simply reflects unthinking prejudice – in this against himself in klassic kiwi kringe fashion.
You last paragraph is an interesting one for another day.
“If more middle class white men thought and acted as Tony there would be no need for women, the poor, and the non-white to hit the pavements in protest.”
Plus a zillion.
Oh. So the implication from that is that rich men do enough, and poor men do enough. Do you see where this old clanger always falls apart?
that doesn’t make any sense either vto, and I suspect you are being deliberately obtuse.
Tony expressed something important from his own identity. You’ve almost completely ignored what he was talking about and instead have deliberately misconstrued a whole bunch of stuff about how he identified. Sorry but you don’t get to say how other people identify.
You are now appropriating this conversation away from the important issues that Tony raised about the TPP and Te Tiriti and instead making it all about your own personal antipathy and agenda about certain kinds of identity politics. I wouldn’t mind so much if your argument had any kind of logic to it, but what you’ve just said shows that it’s nonesense. You’ve taken an implication that no-one else has and you’re skewing what is being said here. I think that’s really off tbh.
No weka, completely disagree, re-read my point about his point about being white male and middle and how it relates to the issues – it doesn’t, that was the whole point.
It is this continual knee-jerk around anything and everything white middle and male that is off. It is bullshit. Total bullshit.
example – why does his gender disqualify or affect his comment on te tiriti?
further example – why would middle class people need to do more re those matters than rich people?
I would be interested in your answer to those two examples
“example – why does his gender disqualify or affect his comment on te tiriti?”
false question. He didn’t say that as a man he wasn’t qualified.
“further example – why would middle class people need to do more re those matters than rich people?”
Another false question. He didn’t say that middle class people need to do more than rich people. You just made that up
Like I said, you are the one making inferences that nobody else is and then you are expecting other people to defend your own (quite frankly ridiculous) propositions.
Just to make it really clear. White middle class men hold certain priviliges in this society, and there is a conflict between doing right and retaining those privilges. But don’t take that to mean that other classes of people don’t also have privilge and conflicts of their own. We all do.
When white middle class men start to take responsibility for how their privilege affects other people, that’s a good thing.
“false question. He didn’t say that as a man he wasn’t qualified. ”
Yes he did. Read again. He said “as a white, middle-class male” and ” my stating how unqualified I am to be spouting on ”
“He didn’t say that middle class people need to do more than rich people.”
Yes he did. Read again. Same thing.
Read the detail weka. It is you who has fired off on your own bandwagon. Evidence – “White middle class men hold certain priviliges in this society, and there is a conflict between doing right and retaining those privilges. ” The points were nothing to do with this subject. The fact you infer they do reflects on you and your world view. Read again.
I know you don’t get this but there is a difference between saying something as a man, and saying something as a white middle class man. When YOU take his statement to be about being a man, you are misrepresenting what he was talking about (IMO, he can clarify).
I’ve engaged in trying to respond to your statements but they just don’t make sense, and instead of you talking about what what you actually mean you keep asking others if they get what you mean or keep putting it back onto others to agree with your basic premises.
I have read what Tony said, multiple times now. I’ve also reread what you have said. My suggestion is that you take a step back and think about how to present your argument coherently because at the moment you are making statements based on lots of mistaken inferences and you’re not making a lot of sense. The onus is on you to make your case clearly, otherwise I’ll feel free to just write it off as a white man feeling sorry for himself and trying to undermine good class analysis to bolster his own shit.
Oh weka, that is your classic way of avoiding and dancing on a pinhead. Lets go to the specifics rather than the wafty general..
to repeat: example – why does his gender disqualify or affect his comment on te tiriti?
You claimed this is a false question and that Tony didn’t say this. I have shown where he did say it. Can you provide evidence to support your contention?
Here it is in another way;
Does gender disqualify or affect comment on te tiriti?
VTO, I’m another white, middle class male.
My gender alone does not disqualify me from having an informed opinion about the Treaty. However, all else being equal it does mean that my gender does not really give me a frame of reference from which to empathise with issues of diminished power, denied self determination, or socioeconomic marginalisation, among other things.
My ethnicity alone does not disqualify me from having an informed opinion about the Treaty. However, all else being equal it does mean that my gender does not really give me a frame of reference from which to empathise with issues of diminished power, denied self determination, or socioeconomic marginalisation, among other things.
My class alone does not disqualify me from having an informed opinion about the Treaty. However, all else being equal it does mean that my gender does not really give me a frame of reference from which to empathise with issues of diminished power, denied self determination, or socioeconomic marginalisation, among other things.
But all of those together mean that I have no real frame of reference for truly empathising with people disadvantaged by the Treaty. Its effects were only good for me. I can rationally say “oh, this land was taken, these people were killed, these wrongs have flowed down through the generations”, but I’ll never “get” it. Just as I’ll probably never “get” what it means to be imprisoned, or whatever. Some experiences you need to live to truly understand how life-changing they can be.
So pretty much all of my comments on the Treaty will be the equivalent of a virgin critiquing a brothel.
Yes McFlock, well done you have made the exact same mistake as your peers. All of that is well understood and has been countlessly acknowledged at many threads.
But that was not the point of the point was it.
It was not about the treaty failures and white privilege and institutional racism and all of that.
It was about the relevancy of Tony’s link between his gender, middleness and whiteness, to how the treaty may relate to TPP.
a very specific matter
But you have backed up my hobby horse that the words “white, middle, male” elicit kneejerk responses that have nowt to do with the specific question at hand. Weka has done it too – rambled off onto a long-winded rant about some other wider issues that weren’t part of the issue, mussed it all up and thrown in “you don’t make sense” in her usual fashion when questions get refused.
Just to repeat: It was about the relevancy of Tony’s link between his gender, middleness and whiteness, to how the treaty may relate to the TPP.
I notice you still haven’t explained your own position apart from the fact that you don’t like Tony’s identifying as white, male and middle class.
Full of air vto, no substance. Well done on the distraction though.
Bullshit weka you’re full of it.
This is your typical attempt at a ‘get out of jail free’ card’ by claiming confusion when none exists, by claiming the writer hasn’t explained, by adding in all sorts of other wider and non-related issues to attempt to muss it all up. You wouldn’t happen to be a white middle-aged woman would you?
The issue is pinpointed and there.
When you get a question you struggle to answer you claim confusion. The confusion is yours and your failure to answer the question is the exact same as for the similar recent issue around opinionist Beck Eleven – which in the end was slam-dunked.
Thanks for proof to the point.
“white middle male” has become a kneejerk bucket into which any bullshit can be tossed willy-nilly… the onus is on the accusers such as yourself
Let’s concentrate on the target: TPP. This agreement affects us all, whatever race, gender and socio-economic strata we come from in NZ. We also need to look even further than that and see how it will affect the environment and the cost of medicines in developing countries. Regardless of our income, race or gender our unifying common factor is that we have empathy and compassion for our fellow human beings unlike those who run the big corporates driving this scummy TPP.
Exactly exactly
Wow! Strike out the white middle class etc bit. As a citizen of New Zealand I think we need to look to the Treaty as a means of saving us from the TPP crap we’re being subjected to. Is that better?
Actually, I don’t give a damn how we do it, so long as we don’t allow the National Party, on behalf of it’s corporate mates, to impose this agreement on the country. But I really do think that the Treaty will play a hugely significant part in that process.
Agree completely
Don’t worry about me Tony, this is an old sawhorse of mine, as you can see … I bore everybody with it too often and likely will continue to for some long time yet.
Time to get out in the garden and separate the dog and chook …. later
bang on the nail Adele
Thinking the same thing! 🙄
I’ll be there too… and with others ka whawhai tonu mātou.
+1
Count this ‘white’ and working class foreigner in. 😉
+1 Tony Veitch – don’t get drawn on the side issues from Vto.
The small pox infested blankets are still alive and well abet in a more modern form of ‘special interests funding’ in return for compliance. Look at Charter schools etc.
TPP is a threat to pretty much everyones sovereignty in this country, including the white middle class, working poor and local business and government and even the big multinationals themselves who some of are currently providing decent jobs in this country but stand to be replaced by the lowest common denominator’s like Serco style organisations who in back room deals with government deliver horrible results with public funds with zero enforcement of standards.
TPP stands for greed and protectionism not internationalism. It is an agreement to maintain the most dominant status quo without morals and there are plenty of examples of this from similar agreements that show the downfalls.
Yep.
“We need the Maori people to organise Hikoi to rally the great mass of people against this damned document.”
Why should Māori do that? – So that others can not have their sovereignty ripped from under their feet, so that others don’t have to suffer as Māori have suffered and continue to suffer – is that the reason?
reminds me a bit of the tour – so great having Māori in the front taking the hits for others – not a thought in the world about why Māori individually were there and now the same with why Māori may oppose the TPPA – hint – it’s not to protect the lifestyles of the big middle.
The TPP I think is certainly bringing to the fore for many how it must be for Maori to have suffered after the last world power came to dominate these lands and impose their sovereignty on the people living here …
it sucks
it is absolutely NOTHING like it – colonisation is a specific process – this TPPA is not colonisation – it is horrible, unnecessary and bogus but it is not the same as what has happened to Māori and other indigenous peoples around this world.
The sticky point for you is the same as your comments above – privilege and power and how they intersect to dominate defined groups.
Well that’s not right marty mars, as there are indeed similarities.
Gotta run, but perhaps you could think of signing the TPP being similar to all the promises made to placate Maori around the signing of Te Tiriti in 1840. Lets check where NZ is in another 50 years on the basis of signing this 2015 treaty with foreign powers…
you don’t know what you are talking about
Oh right. I would suggest you are too conflicted to see clearly
sure maybe – put up a couple of similarities and I’ll explain what i mean.
similarity one: 1840 a treaty was signed between people living in these lands and the world’s largest power. 2015: a treaty is to be signed between people living in these lands and a group of nations led by the world’s largest power.
similarity two: the 1840 treaty dealt with issues of sovereignty. The 2015 treaty deals with issues of sovereignty.
future similarity?: 50 years after the 1840 treaty the large signing power had stomped all over the local party on the basis of the treaty. In 50 years from now, will we find that the large signing power has stomped all over the local party on the basis of the treaty? (example might be virtually all land owned offshore by then).
it’s a high view picture
I apologise – I was being too black and white about it – of course there are similarities from the high view. The ones you mention could be argued I think but I’m disinclined to do that especially in the way you’ve framed them. Certainly, when I think about it, the fact that people are gaining more chaos, in that uncertainty has increased, is a universal between the two situations. I cannot see any good from the TPPA and, well, you know my views on the Treaty and subsequent events.
Again, you’re right, there is no connection between being Maori and opposing the TPP. I think it was just an association of ideas in my mind – hikoi and Maori. WE, the collective pronoun, the people of this country, need to get off our backsides and organise mass rallies against this abomination.
+1
We’re all being shafted by the corporations and it needs to be stopped and we need to work together to stop it.
+1
(2) – Good one Tony 🙂
And now we wait for the Maori Party to take some strong action re the TPPA!
I won’t be holding my breath though, because they are all for breathing life into NatzKEY’s backside to keep it going, regardless of the negative effects the deal will have on the already impoverished, of which a considerable amount of Maori represent.
The Maori Party = a bunch of cheap, self serving quislings!
Yeah nah the foreign investors were having negligible impact on Auckland’s housing market…..
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/money/72855966/chinese-buyers-desert-auckland-market-brokers-say
Watch the prices now begin to sink…
And the bullshit lies of Key, English and Smith get exposed for the deceptions they were ….
liars
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/11921994/Why-is-the-world-ignoring-a-wave-of-terror-in-Israel.html
Because the reporting of Palestinian violence does not suit the agenda of the left
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/10/israel-opens-fire-palestinians-gaza-border-151009114132806.html
http://www.ifamericansknew.org/
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/27/israel-kills-more-palestinians-2014-than-any-other-year-since-1967
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/12/israeli-troops-kill-palestinian-west-bank-2014121654947797159.html
It’s not the Palestinians that are violent but the Israelis. Of course, Israel itself is an invasion of Palestine and thus the only people who have a claim of self-defence is the Palestinians.
The Torygraph is not a reliable source.
‘Israeli troops have opened fire on Palestinian protesters along the Gaza border fence, killing at least six of them, while a Hamas leader proclaimed the start of a new intifada uprising and the two sides braced for protracted confrontation.’
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/gaza-shootings-hamas-pledge-new-intifada-as-day-of-rage-sees-israeli-soldiers-kill-six-palestinian-a6688586.html
Jerusalem has remained tense now for almost a year. Most analysts blame the recent heightened tension on several factors. Key among them has been the issue of the religious site in Jerusalem known to Muslims as al-Haram al-Sharif, or the Noble Sanctuary, and Jews as the Temple Mount.
‘A long-running campaign by some fundamentalist Jews and their supporters for expanding their rights to worship in the Al-Aqsa mosque compound on the Temple Mount, supported by rightwing members of Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s own cabinet, has raised the suspicion – despite repeated Israeli denials – that Israel intends to change the precarious status quo for the site, which has been governed under the auspices of the Jordanian monarchy since 1967.
Jerusalem at boiling point of polarisation and violence – EU report
Read more
Recent Israeli police actions at the site scandalised the Muslim world and raised tensions. Israel has also banned two volunteer Islamic watch groups – male and female – accusing them of harassing Jews during the hours they are allowed to visit.
That has combined with the lack of a peace process and growing resentment and frustration in Palestinian society aimed at both Israel and the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, and the Palestinian Authority.’
http://www.theguardian.com/news/2015/oct/07/violence-israel-palestinian-territories-guardian-briefing
Because the reporting of
PalestinianIsraeli violence does not suit the agenda of theleftRWNJ’s.http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Suspects-from-extremist-Jewish-group-indicted-for-arson-of-Church-of-Loaves-and-Fishes-410486
Because the reporting of
PalestinianIsraeli violence does not suit the agenda of theleftRWNJ’s.https://twitter.com/lana_palestine/status/652592191332679680
Tory, you’re out of your depth. You need to stop commenting on this topic. You obviously know nothing.
Why is Ian Smith a rugby commentator?
He seems to know nothing about the game, but he’s always the sideline commentator for All Black games.
Why?
Does anybody know?
He seems very good mates with Nisbo. That may have helped.
The quality in commentators has gone downhill in recent years, focusing more an banter than any form of expert analysis.
hah, download, chrome, install hola, get a chromecast and watch ITV live coverage for free.
no need to be subjected to nissssbo and smiiiithy.
the subjective commentary is quite interesting as well.
Banter has its place—but Smith’s is of such a low and witless standard it affects the enjoyment of the broadcast. He’s the worst football broadcaster of any kind; the only one I can think of who is comparably bad is Rush Limbaugh, who was appointed, after someone at ABC had a brain explosion, to the Monday Night Football commentary team.
The Americans do, however, have some standards, and Limbaugh was soon shown the door. New Zealanders, on the other hand, are infinitely generous, and prepared to suffer a fool. Smith has been stinking up rugby broadcasts for years and seems to be ensconced.
You’re a bit liverish and unpleasant this a.m. VTO. Tony hardly deserves that sort of reaction from what was a heartfelt and reasonable contribution to this forum.
yes, I seem to have a writing habit that comes across harder than intended.
It’s not your writing habit or style; it’s your inability to recognise systemic privilege and its general effects and then your attempts to flip the whole phenomenon on its head and suggest some form of victimhood.
I can’t get why you’re unable to comprehend that even the most done over and rubbed out ‘white’ middle class male occupies a space of cultural and political privilege in this society – and that persists regardless of their particular/ individual experience or what may have come to pass for them.
I do comprehend that Bill.
I can’t comprehend why you misinterpret what I have written. Most people do though because the “white middle class male” has become such a knee-jerk dump for whatever people wish to toss into it.
I think you and others need to look more closely at the detail of what is written and stop the wholesale instant assumptions. You come across like the white middle class male from the 1950’s unable to understand what the women are complaining about. In reverse. Get it?
sounds a bit like contrition. I hope so. If not, I could break my own rules (as I’m doing now), and come in every day to tell you just how gorgeous you are – backed by a cast of thousands. That’d be a bit of a shame though – if that was what was required to coax your better side.
Anyway, you’re gorgeous darling! Keep commenting, but make sure your briefs are starched, stiffened and ironed in all the appropriate places. And always make sure you get out on the left side of the bed.
Teenaa koe, Tory
Rather ironic that the linked article has an image of a man using a slingshot.
For me, it kind of brings into focus the power imbalance that exists between the two nation states. A modern day David and Goliath epic.
+1
” Parasites in the Body Economic: the Disasters of Neoliberalism ”
http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/10/05/parasites-in-the-body-economic-the-disasters-of-neoliberalism/
Interview with Michael Hudson on the neoliberal predatory financialisation con which impoverishes ordinary citizens. Based on his book ” Killing the Host, How financial parasites and debt bondage destroy the global economy ”
This interview particularly relates to NZ especially our obscene housing cost bubble that enriches speculators while making our homes unaffordable for our young couples. plus the privatisation of public income producing assets to enrich overseas investers/speculators Key represents this neoliberal rot to the extreme, this money trader didn’t make his millions by a fair day’s graft, yet so many are bamboozled by his easy going smooth persona: all show and no guts except to make his parasite class richer.
Some headings from the interview:
Democratic vs. oligarchic government and their respective economic doctrines
The concept and theory of economic rent
The Austrian School vs. government regulation and pro-labor policies
The case of Latvia: Is it a success story, or a neoliberal disaster?
The Troika and IMF doctrine of austerity and privatization
Financialization of pension plans and retirement savings
Obama’s demagogic role as Wall Street shill for the Rubinomics gang
left-wing economic alternative
Early Childhood Education…has come under a fair amount of scrutiny of late in MSM.
Any industry reliant on Government Funding is going to do all in its power to ensure that the $$$ coming from the taxpayer are channeled through its accounts.
Whether or not they are providing an adequate service.
Whether or not the clients are safe.
I have grown children and as yet no mokos, so I’m not within this arena, but I would be interested to hear the opinions of others on this issue.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/opinion/72837771/editorial-early-childhood-disquiet-a-wakeup-call
http://m.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11525360
And when parents opt out of ‘factory farm’ ECE, there is the inevitable fight back from the ‘professionals’.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11526737
I am an early childhood teacher. Previously I was involved in Playcentre for eleven years. I am fortunate to work at a small centre with a low staff turnover so we really know our children and families. I believe that we have all got very messed up about what sort of education young children need. They need to be loved, to have a sense of self and know who they are, they need to learn social skills and physical skills, to be able to explore and make sense of the world and very importantly they need to learn language preferably their mother tongue. I believe that these things are best taught by parents and whanau, the people who really know and love a child.
The Te Whaariki curriculum has four principles, holistic development, family and community, relationships and empowerment. It has four strands: well being, belonging, contribution, communication and exploration. I think that what it points to is getting the early childhood centre to be as much as possible like a good caring home. Unfortunately a lot of people are very messed up about early childhood education and think it is about literacy and numeracy so they are quite attracted to the idea of structured school-like centres. Parents lose confidence and think they are not enough for their young children. When you couple that with low ratios such as one teacher per five children who are under two and one adult to 10 children with over two children you can see how children won’t be getting the stuff they need which their families can give them.
Some centres have huge group sizes – my centre has only 20 children. Licensing changes by this government have allowed as many as 75 under two children in a group or 150 over two children. Can you imagine the noise and the chaos. Many centres in low income areas pick the children up in vans and a consequence of this is that the parents don’t see what is going on in the centre. An excellent book if someone wants to read the opinion of an ECE teacher in New Zealand is “Suffer the Little Children” by David Smith. The child forum website childforum.com has a range of articles if you want more information.
I think the real tragedy is a lot of this is caused by governments believing it is better that parents be out in the workforce than caring for their infants and young children. They are prepared to pay big money to centres for instance they will pay $12.33 an hour for an under two child for up to 30 hours per week if the centre has at least 80% qualified staff which works out at $369. http://www.education.govt.nz/early-childhood/running-an-ece-service/funding/ece-funding-handbook/appendix-one/
This is before we start with possible winz subsidies and the fees parents pay on top of that. I have always wondered why parents don’t have the option of taking the money themselves in the form of a parental leave benefit if they would prefer to do so. I guess it comes down to the government being happy to give benefits to corporations and not families. This is a discussion that really needs to be had.
Thank you, thank you, The Fairy Godmother.
Not only because I agree 100% with all you say…especially your last paragraph…but because you have given a full and considered reply.
My area of expertise is MOH:DSS disability supports.
I see many parallels between the two industries.
If someone else is providing the nurturing (care) the nurturing (care) has a $$$ value. And the corporations win.
If the SAME nurturing (care) is provided by family….it is worth nothing….even though providing that nurturing (care) keeps the nurturer (carer) out of the paid workforce.
When ECE becomes compulsory….?
As you say…..this discussion NEEDS to be had.
Thank you Rosemary MacDonald for raising this issue. A lot of early childhood teachers won’t speak up out of fear for their jobs. I am fortunate to work in a centre with a collective agreement with a union many ece teachers are not unionised. There are all sorts of staffing issues as well, such as teachers not taking breaks because no relievers are provided and the teachers don’t want to put children at risk. Also staff who are doing non-contact are sometimes counted in the ratio.
I think there are also issues around women in caring roles in the workforce sacrificing their personal needs for the the people they care for a bit like what mothers do in families.
And you know what TFG…I am so over hearing about people being too scared to speak up for fear of their jobs.
I know this is a very real issue and I do sympathise…but there MUST be a way to get round this.
General question to all….has anyone been fired for speaking up, and then taken a case to the ET?
“I think there are also issues around women in caring roles in the workforce sacrificing their personal needs for the the people they care for a bit like what mothers do in families.”
Marylin Waring (hero, IMB) wrote a book called “Counting For Nothing”
Well worth a read.
+1. I agree we should speak out and Marilyn Waring’s book and the documentary are excellent. Wonder if this whole issue would make a good post.
The other thing I would like to mention is the change of emphasis from care to education which has happened as a result of the move from childcare from social welfate dept to education ministry in the 90s. Originally you used to see a lot of places with care in the name eg childcare daycare. Then the names changed to educare or care and education centres. Now they seem to be early learning centres. Care has gone from the names. Care is what little kids need most and it is what families do best. Our society doesn’t seem to value it
“Care is what little kids need most and it is what families do best. Our society doesn’t seem to value it”
No, because it is ‘women’s work’. It is ‘natural’.
BUT…if you change the name of it to something that sounds, well, more professional….all of a sudden you have a skill, a marketable commodity.,.
And you can open up the ‘market’ to private enterprise…because we all know the private sector does SO much better.
What mothers do is “natural support”.
The Atkinson case ( family carers and adult disabled went to the Human Rights Review Tribunal claiming the Govt. was discriminatory for not allowing family carers to be paid)
The Misery of Health claimed that family care was “natural support”, part of the (unwritten) social contract that family do not get paid for caring for family.
Family who could not or would not provide the care that their adult disabled family member had been assessed as needing were not penalised in any way. They could go out to work, earn a living, pay the mortgage, save for their retirement and make no further financial contribution towards the care of their disabled family member other than the usual PAYE.
Those (like myself) who do provide some or all of the care that family member has been assessed as needing are not paid (other than the benefit) because we are ‘not providing the same type of care that a contracted provider would be providing.’ In many cases, family provide the care because the needs of the disabled family member are too high and complex for the ‘professionals’ to provide safely. We are providing “natural support”.
The Miserly of Health concept of “natural support” was pretty much debunked by the HRRT.
This case was about the care needed by over 18 year olds. Adults.
Under that age….considered parents duty to provide care….even if providing that care prevents one or both parents from participating in paid work.
Likewise with childcare….back when mine were little (27 years ago) the economy was just getting to the stage when if you wanted to ‘get ahead’ (mortgage interest up at 18%!) both Mum and Dad had to work.
We juggled jobs and childcare duties, only those on high incomes could afford fulltime childcare.
How much has changed since then!
You quoted a government spend of over $350 per week for under twos????
And to my knowledge, the primary caregiver does not have to be in work or study to qualify for this ‘subsidy’.
So why?
To be honest, i don’t get why that same amount cannot be paid to a parent to chooses not to factory farm their child.
When, (hah!), the review of Charter Schools supports the theory that lower child to adult ratios in learning environments have better ‘outcomes’ for the child.
This is all very confusing.
Well, not really, but getting one’s head around the inconsistencies is brain boggling.
It would make an interesting case for the CPAG…trying to get the ECE subsidy paid to parents who choose not to put their kids in ECE care.
I’d like to add to that.
What you said about young children ” …need to be loved, to have a sense of self and know who they are, they need to learn social skills and physical skills, to be able to explore and make sense of the world and very importantly they need to learn language …”
Young children are constantly asking questions. CONSTANTLY.
“Mum, why?” “Mum, what?” “Mum, where?”
How are these questing minds supposed to be satisfied in the ECE environment.?
They won’t be.
So the child will stop asking questions.
And they will grow to be adults who don’t ask questions.
Adults that simply accept the pap and drivel that is fed to them.
It is the institutionalization that means that the kind of attention to individual needs like encouraging a child’s questions or curiosity gets lost. Of course teachers will be running around taking photos and writing learning stories to prove children are learning but even that takes away the time that they could be spending with children. This is another whole issue – the issue of accountability versus responsibility. If you are accountable the concern is covering your butt. If you are responsible you are a professional and you will be respected and act as an advocate for children. Pasi Sahlberg the Finnish educator who recently visited New Zealand has some good stuff on this and how different the Finnish education system is where teachers are respected and there is minimal testing.
The institutionalization means that children sometimes have to follow routines for the adults i.e eating at certain times or sleeping at certain times. Some centres are better than that but not all. Also parents with no sick leave left or perhaps no sick leave at all will take their children in sick dosed up with pamol meaning germs get spread to other children. Children under the care of their families can have much more flexibility – stay home in bed if they are sick.
There are some centres with good ratios where children do get an ok deal. Often these are ones that also charge parents high fees. I am very concerned that children of beneficiaries are being pushed into ece because the centres they may be pushed into are not always the good quality ones.
Here is a good link about the views of Pasi Sahlberg and the status of teachers in Finland versus other countries such as the US and I believe New Zealand. http://dianeravitch.net/2015/10/09/pasi-sahlberg-teacher-autonomy-matters-more-than-school-autonomy/
” am very concerned that children of beneficiaries are being pushed into ece because the centres they may be pushed into are not always the good quality ones.”
Me too, I have seen this. Parent is not necessarily using that child free time to train or upskill. How much better the old Playcentre thing, only pay parent helpers/participants?
perhaps there is a ‘gold standard’?
Every morning I wake up and thank the Deity that I no longer have to deal with the education system via my children.
Yes the good old days of Playcentre. This uniquely New Zealand organisation is now struggling and numbers are going down. Many parents who use Playcentre also put their children in care so they can work part-time. The 20 hours free system had the effect of most ECE centres going to the full day model including kindergartens so they could maximise funding so the option of sessional kindergarten is also largely gone.
No Weekend Social? Where can I complain about all the friggen Saturday lawnmowers and weedeaters? It’s like a virus.
My personal hate is leaf blowers, is their anything more pointless? Whatever happened to a rake?
ah something to be grateful for then. Can’t hear an leaf blowers this morning, although it’s hard to tell above the noise of at least 2 lawnmowers and 2 weedeaters (didn’t think I had that many neighbours).
Well I had my own back this Saturday morning. I had the house washers on site to give my place a once in two years clean. Complete with ear-splitting machines, they started shortly after the AB match started, and finished shortly before the match finished.
Good one Girl 🙂
rofl. well done!
More propaganda.
That makes about 20 articles pumped out by New Zealand Pravda to tell the people how amazing the TPP is.
And only Bryan Gould’s piece to counter this.
The North Korean Herald. Pimping for transnational corporations.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11526982
David Snell is another vested interest.
He is an executive director at Ernst & Young.
Ernst & Young (trading as EY) is a multinational professional services firm headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is one of the “Big Four” audit firms and is the third largest professional services firm in the world by aggregated revenue in 2014, after PwC and Deloitte.
Pity the Herald/Pravda does not show up these conflicts of interest.
That would require them to tell the truth and they appear fundamentally incapable of doing that.
The Herald has never been good,but it really has plummeted in quality and increased its bias in recent years.
Well Murdoch did take a stake in the Herald. Say’s it all really.
Apparently the herald Journos are all being asked to sign really unfair contracts too.
A Soviet era joke that is probably still pertinent unfortunately, needs a bit of translation:
“Izvestia” means “news” and “Pravda” means “truth”, both are also the titles of Russian newspapers, so, ta-daaaa…
“There is no truth in the news and no news in the truth.”
It’s amazing progress though – now we have our Ministry of Truth to tell us with what to think.
TPP and the IP Leak- some recent links
1. “our analysis here is limited to the copyright and Internet-related provisions of the chapter, but analyses of the impacts of other parts of the chapter have been published by Wikileaks and others.”
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/10/final-leaked-tpp-text-all-we-feared
2
http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/10/09/new-leak-final-tpp-text-confirms-attack-freedom-expression-public-health
3. “Even if it is not perfect, our democracy should not be sold out to foreign investors. The sacrifices of our soldiers who fought for freedom should not be in vain.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/gerard-montpetit/democracy-for-sale_b_8263960.html
and
http://usuncut.com/politics/sanders-battles-drug-companies-as-wikileaks-exposes-how-tpp-is-a-death-sentence-for-patients/
Leaked (final?) TPP Intellectual Property chapter spells doom for free speech online
https://boingboing.net/2015/10/09/leaked-final-tpp-intellectu.html
Thanks for all the updates tmm
+100 Tautoko Mango Mata
Worth a read: Subscription vs Ad support
my comments are going to (it looks like) automatic moderation – not the content of course 🙂
A good reference on global wages
Stephen Hawking Says We Should Really Be Scared Of Capitalism, Not Robots
it really is too late for this kind of thing. “Prosperity” of the human race is not the question of the 21st century; survival of the human race is.
And in that, globalised corporate trade and the encouragement of consumption and consumerism has all the wrong answers.
+1, and news today that NASA plans on colonising Mars in the next 20 years sound like complete science fiction. Resources and money are going to be completely stretched on planet earth without being siphoned off onto another planet.
But more than that. It is not using the modern skills and the money that has been created to maintain and refurbish the advanced society we have created. The wealthy can’t cut corners squeeze money out of the society and still have a vibrant world to live in.
And they can’t throw cold-blooded hissy fits when they don’t get their own way and cut their servants’ arms off.
This is a very good thought provoking interview by Kathryn Ryan on warmongering:
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/201773948/visions-of-war
“In his latest book, ‘Light It Up: The Marine Eye for Battle in the War for Iraq ‘ historian John Pettegrew takes a look at the crucial role visual culture has played in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. He examines the effects of ‘war porn’, and popular images of battle, in video games and on TV, as well as how military technologies of seeing have determined the killing power of the American war effort.”
I am wondering what Steve Braunias is up to with his turning to matter of the lost papers in the dotcom case on its head, he obviously knows that it was the crown who mmisplaced its documents. Is it that he is making a point about just how much deceit media and the herald get away with?
link?
just watching Hollow Men again – still disgusting, still shocking – I REFUSE to forget these gnat scum and their hideous agenda and yes I mean you too dirtymat.
I am having trouble with the site. My comments aren’t coming through, when I refresh by pressing Home still nothing, then F5 still nothing, then F5 again and get time-outed. So I can’t participate. What’s happening?
[r0b: Sorry, not sure why your last 3 comments were caught. All released now.]
Thanks r0b I hope that doesn’t happen again. (Just checked – the latest one I just put on this morning hasn’t come up. Has the gill net got smaller sized and catching the small fry now?)