With Labour’s winter fuel allowance ((copied and pasted directly from the UK’s policy), it would mean that NZPower, a policy that would have made a world of difference to electricity users, and would have benefited generators and retailers as well, had they not blindly opposed it is dead in the water. A pity really.
Sounds like some of Sweden’s new citizens have embraced the spirit of community activism and internationalism for which the country is so well know. Oh, wait….
“A Somalian woman in Gothenburg, Sweden, Qamar Cleasson, spies on families in who converted to Christianity and shares the information with Muslims abroad, reports Pamela Geller.
Cleasson joined a Swedish Christian congregation to spy on these families. Somali families associated with the church now feel threatened and some have been forced to go underground. According to local sources speaking to Geller, Swedish police say they “lack resources” and are unable to help the apostate families.”
We didn’t have the infrastructure in place for so many immigrants to come to NZ in the first place.
And now the solution is for national to loan $1billion to councils to try and fix it? It’s not the councils fault that so many people were allowed in NZ, councils were unprepared for it, and now they have to foot the bill.
Doesn’t seem fair to me, wonder if rates will rise in those areas?
Almost everything that National does causes rates to rise and then National will blame the council – unless it’s a right-wing council in which case they won’t say a word. Just look at how they talk about Auckland and who they blame for the cost blow-outs that they caused by their stupid SuperShitty legislation.
Patrick Reynolds – one of the TransportBlog founder – was appointed by Auckland Council to their Customer Focus Committee in June. He’s doing a good job.
Don’t forget:
Auckland Transport has by a long way the largest teams devoted to public transport, cycling, and walking of any public entity in the country.
They are also highly tuned to what the public transport customer is wanting more or less of, due to the near-90% penetration of their HOP card which tracks every trip on every public transport mode.
My snark was not aimed at the work Reynolds is doing, more that despite his appointment AT’s efforts to get public transport users deeply involved in decision-making still look somewhat token when set against a board loaded up with the likes of Cullen, Rebstock, Gilbert…
A Chinese hospital treating sick dissident Liu Xiaobo offered a bleak prognosis on Monday, saying he is seriously ill, as a U.S. attorney who represents Liu accused Beijing of hastening his death by refusing to allow his transfer to a foreign hospital.
Liu, 61, was jailed for 11 years in 2009 for “inciting subversion of state power” after he helped write a petition known as “Charter 08” calling for sweeping political reforms.
Funny how so many in the west can’t see the propaganda that is fed to them on a daily basis.
Here’s but one example.
Remember when Aleppo was being liberated by the Syrian government.
Remember the corporate media ‘s unending commentary about the bad Russians bombing the city to smithereens?
Patrick Cockburn would one of the few western journalists to observe similar destruction has been wreaked on Mosul.
‘Nobody knows how many civilians died in Mosul because many of the bodies are still buried under the rubble in 47 degrees heat. Asked to estimate how many people had been killed in his home district of al-Thawra, Saad Amr said: “we don’t know because houses were often full of an unknown number of displaced people from other parts of the city.”
Some districts are so badly damaged that it is impossible to reach them. We heard that there had been heavy airstrikes on the districts of Zanjily and Sahba and, from a distance, we could see broken roofs with floors hanging down like concrete flaps. But we could not get there in a car because the streets leading to them were choked with broke masonry and burned out cars.”
“The corporate grip on opinion in the United States is one of the wonders of the Western world. No First World country has ever managed to eliminate so entirely from its media all objectivity – much less dissent.”
Oh absolutely, there were numerous incidents of John McCain & CNN’s dearly beloved moderate head choppers shooting people who tried to flee using the open corridors. But muh Russians bombed the last hospital in Aleppo 26 times!
Glad to see we can finally agree that large-scale air strikes on densely-populated areas is not a good way to fight a war, Paul/Ed. It’s a realisation you’ve come to quite late and I expect only because this time the US was involved, but better late than never.
The principle is comparable, the events themselves not so much. For instance, in Mosul the bombardment was carried out in support of a ground attack, while in east Aleppo the bombardment was for a long time carried out in lieu of a ground attack, as the regime didn’t have the numbers to mount one. To that extent it was more of a punishment for opposing the Assad regime than the furthering of any military purpose. Another difference is that the destruction in Mosul was much worse, because it was held by religious fascists fighting to the last man and bullet, so a negotiated conclusion wasn’t possible the way it was in Aleppo. Another difference is the coalition didn’t randomly unload barrels of explosives out the back of a helicopter over Mosul. No doubt there are many other differences. But the principle, yeah pretty comparable.
The principle is broadly comparable, yes. The considerations taken around bombing, “maybe” not so much.
Perhaps you haven’t read the Cockburn piece that comments on the notable absence of bullet holes in walls – indicating a lack of street to street fighting? Who lacked the numbers, or is it the will, to carry out a ground attack again?
Who do you think was opposing the Syrian government in E. Aleppo and launching ordnance into civilian areas of W. Aleppo? The civilians of E. Aleppo who were being held as human shields in much the same manner as civilians in Mosul? Because that’s the implication of your statement that E.Aleppo was simply bombed as a form of punishment.
Care to spell out any meaningful difference between those who sought a Caliphate and who occupied E. Aleppo, and those who sought a Caliphate who occupied Mosul?
And if one set of occupiers can be given safe passage to avoid mounting civilian casualties, then why not the other set ( given that a goodly number had already been allowed passage from Mosul to Palermo)?
Random barrel bombs or ordnance targeting underground bunkers being dropped from helicopters? And how does targeted white phosphorous work?
No need to actually address those questions btw. I fully get that you’re really quite attached to the official narratives flying around the show on Iraq and Syria.
Remember the funnel of those estimates on the population of East Aleppo though? 250,0000 … ahem, 200,000 … ahem 120,000 … ok, so it was actually 60,000 but muh Russian airstrikes! Maybe listening to the London based/Salafi funded ‘Syrian’ Observatory for ‘Human Rights’ wasn’t such a good idea for the UN, who ended up having to backpedal substantially on those bs numbers.
Meanwhile, about 650,000 of Mosul’s prewar population known to have stayed in the city after it was captured by ISIS. Presumably some of them will have escaped in that time, but it sounds like they were every bit as effective as the ‘moderate’ militants in East Aleppo at shooting anyone who tried to flee. So there will undoubtedly have been more people in Mosul by far than even the 250k fake news numbers initially reported for East Aleppo.
Without doubt, it’s the differing treatment from the west which stands out. Where was the outrage at those civilian casualties from CNN? I’ve seen Trump compared to Hitler by American liberals for just about everything except the bombing of Mosul, which had half of liberal American godwinning themselves at the very mention of Vladimir Putin for nigh on a year.
Where was the outrage at those civilian casualties from CNN?
I don’t watch CNN, but I’d be picking they didn’t think the Iraqi government’s attempt to destroy a religious fascist occupation was of a similar nature to the Assad regime’s revenge on people who’d prefer not to live under an absolute monarch. Which would be fair enough, because they are different.
Correctly picking that Syrian civilians would appear to prefer a democratically elected President and an elected parliament to a Monarchy…barreling straight into comment of twisted car crash wreckage. Oh well.
From previous comments and arguments it’s clear you have nothing of worth to say about Syria. An echo of msm memes is about all you have. Maybe if you spoke with some of the Syrian refugees in town, you’d learn a thing or two and stop with that b/s.
Anyway, the turnout in 2014 was 70 odd percent with terrorist controlled areas effectively boycotting the elections. Votes could be cast at those foreign embassies that hadn’t been shut down by host countries.
Couple of things. If the turnout was 70 odd percent in spite of terrorist and foreign based opposition boycotts, and in spite of populations living in terrorist held areas being unable to vote, then what does that say about the supposed ‘civil war’ in Syria?
And if you or I lived in country under siege, would we not tend to vote for the incumbent in multi-candidate elections, even if we disagreed with them politically, given that any further instability would favour those who wanted the entire population subjected to Cromwellian era nonsense?
Or willfully boycott to send a positive roundhead message.
The runner up got 4.3% of the vote btw, and over 30 countries sent observers who judged the election to be fair.
In 2000 he was the only candidate and ~ 8.5 million people voted.
In 2007, it was a referendum to confirm him as president and ~ 11 million people voted.
In 2014 there were 3 candidates and ~ 10 million people voted despite (so we are told) every one wanting him gone.
Doesn’t quite fit the western narrative does it?
An increasing number of people confirming his second term in office in 2007 and only about 10% fewer people than that voting in 2014 despite boycotts, and daily shellings/suicide attacks and occupation of both city districts and swathes of country-side by salafists/headchoppers and millions of refugees.
Seriously. Go and speak to some of the Syrian refugees in town.
I, for one, am a great fan of the way he increased the population of Syria by 3mil from 2000 to 2007, the bulk of which seemed to be eligible voters aged 18 and over.
Well, with winning margins like that, the ones from Hezbollah might. But either way it doesn’t account for the numbers. Much more than 3% are fighting for the various opposition groups.
I think the answer lies in the fact that voting is only held in the Govt controlled areas. Rebel held areas don’t get to vote.
Syrians voted in a parliamentary election in government-held areas of the country on Wednesday in what they called a show of support for President Bashar al-Assad, while his opponents and Western powers denounced the poll as illegitimate.
The election is going ahead independently of a U.N.-led peace process aimed at ending the five-year-long war. Peace talks are due to resume in Geneva on Wednesday as an upsurge in fighting darkens the already bleak outlook for diplomacy.
The government says the vote is being held on time in line with the constitution, a view echoed by its Russian allies. The opposition says the election is meaningless, while Britain and France dismissed it as “flimsy facade” and a “sham”.
5000 people exited E Aleppo. Some of them (like in Homs) did so under threat of death from the Salafists.
That’s 5000 from a population of ..what?…minus the numbers of foreign fighters of course.
Given that forces get concentrated (so more present by percentage of total population in a strategic location like E Aleppo), if we take the figures our media fed us about 200 000 residents being in E Aleppo….what’s that 5000 in percentage terms McFlock? Even if we assume all the women and children and threatened men of that 5000 are a part of the fighting?
Dunno why you’re going on about aleppo in regards to the election vs foreign fighters.
20k people voted against assad in 2007.
Ten years later something like a quarter of a million people are in arms against him. Unless 210k of them are foreigners, it’s a pretty severe drop in the polls.
You’re being a deliberate arse here McFlock. No-one voted “against” Assad in 2007. It was a confirmation referendum. No opposition.
Turnout in 2007 was up some two and a half million from 2000.
In 2014, with some 4 million people having fled the country, and a boycott imposed by Jihadists in areas they controlled plus a war going on and foreign embassies being shut down, turnout in the contested election only dropped by about 400 000 from those 2007 numbers.
Where I come from, a guy who inherited the country from his dad is a king, not a “democratically elected president.” And historically, kings whose rule was absolute got their rule termed “absolute monarchy.” So, yes, Syria is currently an absolute monarchy, albeit one in which the monarch likes to style himself a “democratically-elected president.”
As part of that somewhat comical attempt to style himself a president, Assad holds elections. Which is meaningless – if he wanted, King Salman of Saudi Arabia could hold elections and be assured of an overwhelming majority (after all, opposing him gets you imprisoned and tortured just like it does in Syria). He doesn’t, of course, because he’s up front about being an absolute monarch, a level of honesty way beyond Bashar al Assad. However, even if he were to aspire to Assad levels of dishonesty and hold some elections to declare him president, it wouldn’t make him a “democratically-elected president” any more than it does Assad, or any more than it did Saddam Hussein.
I don’t recall saying it. What gave you that impression? If you’re conflating “Islamists,” ie the majority of Middle East Arabs, with Da’esh, who are religious fascists who tried to set up a caliphate in some parts of Iraq and Syria they conquered. please don’t.
No, I’m saying people whose objective is a theocracy may as well be ISIS if they are prepared to enforce those laws by force. I don’t for a minute think Assad is any good, but secular villain beats Islamist villain for me by a country mile.
So, if we just conflate general Muslim interest in having Islam as the basis of their country’s laws with Da’esh’s attempts to impose a religious fascist dictatorship, then the situations in east Aleppo and Mosul were near enough the same. Why not conflate right-wing political views with fascism and say the National Party might as well be the Nazis, while you’re at it? It makes just as little sense.
That’s a truly astonishing statement. The number of people in the Middle East who are “Islamists,” ie who’d like to see Islam forming the basis of their country’s laws, is huge – in Egypt the military took over again because democratic elections produced an Islamist government. It’s doubtful a genuinely democratic election in Syria or various other Arab countries would have a different result. For you and Cemetery Jones to claim this mass of people are the same as Da’esh is just bizarre.
Oh come on, Ahrar Al-Sham, Jhabat Fatah Al-Sham, Nour Al-Din Al-Zinki etc. were the dominant forces in East Aleppo. They are theocrats, and not a benign kind by any shade. To suggest that these kinds of groups are in any way representative of the general Muslim interest is absurd. They want enforced Sharia, enforced modesty, the traditional role of women (confined or chaperoned) – they are the Islamic version of Margaret Atwood’s Republic of Gilead.
Then there’s the Kurdish factor. If these groups were so benign, how come they attacked the Kurdish zone, forcing them to respond by holding a hostile front for the duration of the campaign? Surely the Kurds of East Aleppo could have made a deal with them if they really were just moderates? And surely they would have desired to do so, if they were just moderates? Bullshit, they are sectarian holy warriors, and just because they’ll execute their enemies in a slightly less histrionic fashion to ISIS makes not one whit of difference if you’re in the next neighbourhood over from their fighters.
Oh come on, Ahrar Al-Sham, Jhabat Fatah Al-Sham, Nour Al-Din Al-Zinki etc. were the dominant forces in East Aleppo.
According to Assad and Putin they were, yes. It’s even possible the claim was accurate, after Assad had spent years besieging Aleppo and killing his less-extreme opponents. The fact that the only people left alive opposing the Assad regime a few years after the start of the uprising were the toughest, most highly-motivated fighters because the regime had successfully killed or driven out all the others, isn’t a point in favour of the Assad regime.
It shows what we’ve long known: much like the Anarchists etc. didn’t flock to Spain in the 30s to fight because Franco was leading a terrible regime or because they had the people of Spain’s best interests at heart, but because they wanted their revolution, so too the foreign fighters who flocked to Syria didn’t come because Assad was a dictator or for love of the Syrian people, but to fight holy war against apostates and khufar.
The reason so many wouldn’t surrender is that they weren’t Syrian, they were foreign fighters. They turned a minor rebellion which would have been over quickly due to its lack of popular support into a bloody slugfest. And for the insurgents that’s fine. The uglier, the better. More propaganda, more radicalisation, more division and indecision on the part of those of us who should have seen that phase of rebellion for what it was.
Without doubt, it’s the differing treatment from the west which stands out.
But..but..Assad, who has no history of ‘bad shit’ being reported from the time of his first Presidential term in 2000/2001 until 2011, bar a HRW report from 2007 riding off the back of unfounded Iraqi government charges from 2004 that he was harbouring jihadists who were entering Iraq from Syria (not Turkey), you really need to remember (we all do) that Assad is bad. Really bad. Devil incarnate bad. Always has been.
Hmmm, I remember Assad as being portrayed as bad right from the time that USA decided to promote ‘Arab Spring’ fuck-ups.. Never heard much about him before USA decided regime change was necessary…
Funny, that.
He was never really thought of as a democratic leader. He was just better than the clusterfuck they were planning next door, stabilising a complex demographic and political state in global hotspot.
As soon as he lost control, he was no longer providing any benefit, geopolitically-speaking.
But nice way to side-step the whole demonisation angle.
Anyway. The US wanted their claws on Syria from 2004 on-wards. (Now, you saying he ‘lost control in 2004?) And Clinton’s emails on the region should be required reading.
So what were Cheney’s objectives that are or were different to Clinton’s?
And like I say (and this is on record) the US wanted rid of the Syrian government from 2004 onwards. In fact, I think there’s a CNN interview with Assad from 2004 where that’s brought up.
And no, Syria’s not a “wonderful place to be” ffs, and no-one has said that it is.
It’s a particularly unwonderful place at the moment because it’s a war zone.
It wasn’t a war zone when he was in control.
It wouldn’t be a war zone if he hadn’t lost control.
But he lost control of very large bits of it. Most of it.
As for cheney vs clinton, that’s empire vs actual democratic ideals having a place in the decision-making. Behind quite a bit of realpolitik, sure, but still in the mix.
Either way, we seem to be in agreement that Assad was thought to be “bad” well before Arab Spring.
You simply haven’t read Clinton’s emails on the matter, have you? She wasn’t in the least interested in democracy. Iran and Israel feature large in her take. Syrian people are irrelevant (not mentioned at all)
Anyway. For every three discreet articles/stories in the msm portraying Assad in anything like the terms we’ve seen this last six years, and that are from the years 2000/2001 through to 2010 (a clear decade), Iand that you link to, ‘ll buy you a hand pulled pint of your choosing.
Telling you now though. All you will find is stuff from 2004 when Iraq was throwing groundless accusations about Syria harbouring some peeps from Sadam’s regime and Jihadists. And then you’ll find a 2007 HRW report that’s probably at best (worst) on a par with what would have been reported on the UK in the 70s and 80s before the Peace Process.
That seriously the best you have for the man who we are to believe is the devil incarnate!?
First link is post protests.
Second one (2002) – is about a visit to Buckingham Palace.
Third one (2003) – the accusations that high ranking Iraqis have taken refuge in Syria and about that providing an excuse for Democratic presidential candidate (Florida Sen. Bob Graham) to openly support war with Syria.
Fourth one (2001) – Dry and somewhat detached analysis on the prospects for reform in Syria under Assad.
Fifth one (2003) – claims that Assad’s a weak leader lacking “killer instinct”, but that nevertheless concedes – The two and a half years that have passed since Bashar’s rise to power in Syria have been relatively calm and stable.
Sixth one (2003) Illegal incursion into Syria by US forces from Iraq.
Seventh one (2001) Blair meets Assad.
So no, not even a stale Speights from “The Crown” on a Sunday afternoon there McFlock.
fair call on the first one,snuck through me google filter.
The second one opens “THE Syrians are unlikely players for the war-on-terror team, especially now that the goalposts have been stretched to take in their neighbour, and fellow Baathist dictatorship, Iraq. Aside from making pots of money smuggling Iraqi oil, Syria has long been fingered as a supporter of terrorists, keeps an annoying boothold in Lebanon and is also believed to store some toxic weaponry of its own.”
I would have thought that was quite a negative portayal.
The third one: immediately after the one-line point about asad being so bad Graham was against him we have the rest of the paragraph:”Already some hawks are pointing to the tantalizing parallels between Saddam’s Iraq and Assad’s Syria. Weapons of mass destruction? Check. Support for terrorism? Check. Repressive domestic intelligence services? Check. The comparisons go further: Both countries were ruled by tyrannical men who are not members of the ethnic majority. (Saddam was a Sunni who ruled over a largely Shiite country, and Assad is an Alawite who rules over a Sunni majority.) To top things off, Syria even has a Baath Party and a Republican Guard. No one expects war anytime soon, but Assad’s stupidity has put the subject on the table.”
So a direct comparison with Saddam Hussein written in early 2003.
And so on – the fourth is dry and detached, but the only reforms it thinks likely is becoming like China, not like Canada. The fifth openly calls his government “a coercive and violent regime”. The sixth opens with the US incursion, but you might read the rest of the article. Again, it’s not charitable. As for the final one, “blair meets assad” is a reasonable description. Although again it describes Syria as ” a country that is a dictatorship with an abysmal human rights record, and which is still engaged in fighting Israel by proxy.”. But you preferred the more sterile phrasing. I guess it’s the only way it could get past your blinkers.
You seriously think those stories are on a par with the demonisation of Assad we’ve been subjected to these past several years?
Y’know, the guy who deliberately and casually slaughters Syrian civilians – by gas and bomb and whatever? The guy who orders hospitals to be bombed? The guy who deliberately starves entire populations? The guy who runs torture prisons housing thousands?
Curious btw. What were your search terms, how many pages down did you have to go to get those links, and why do you consider those sources to be msm? Some are, some (cough) “not so much”.
Anyway.
We know that Syria was a one party, democratic centralist state modeled along USSR lines – not exactly politically free then. (It now has pluralistic elections)
We know that along with Iraq and Libya, they were the last secular countries in the Arab world (all soviet/Arab hybrid governance structures and therefore “the enemy” according to liberal thought)
We know the war with Israel is essentially on-going.
And Syria withdrew its military presence from Lebanon in 2005.
So you wanted articles talking about how he gassed his own people before people in his country were gassed?
Sounds legit.
as for the search terms, I think I bunged a date range on “assad”, although at least one more recent thing slipped though. Not completely reliable, but filters it down to more manageable levels.
I dunno, the Americans were happy to cooperate on those rendition flights when it suited them, and the Brits loved having Assad over for a cuppa. As were the French, whose luxury shopping districts were always happy to see his wife which Bashar was hobnobbing with politicians.
I guess I meant more that I think they actually liked him and maybe even projected their own views rather than seeing him for who he was. In that sense I’m more just rounding it out that they seem to have gone from seeing him as nicer than he was to seeing him as nastier than he is. Which for all I know is how you view him too, I guess.
There were initial hopes amongst doves that he’d tend towards more democratic ideals, if not actually relinquishing power. More Jordan than Saudi Arabia, sort of thing.
The hawks are always happy to use any nasty arsehole who is willing to help them.
But everyone knew what his dad was, and what the type of state he took control of was. Like Egypt or Morocco.
Two wikipedia links and one from the Guardian and nothing about mass detentions, torture prisons, assassination programmes, indiscriminate oppression…
The stuff we’ve been getting these past few years, you’d never pick the guy had been trying to steer reforms through a (presumably) hostile and long established bureaucratic party structure – y’know, the likes of what Gorbachev confronted in the last phase of the USSR – with all it’s cliques and what not vying to promote their own agendas and/or retain the status quo.
Exactly it’s funny how Ed Paul doesn’t apply his own rules to himself, both Mosul and Aleppo are a stain on humanity, end of the day if you have to take a stand re the west for all its negatives vs eds team, the west win every time You sort of wonder why the eds of the world just don’t move to Russia as some of the more extreme of his ilk have, usually as a result of avoiding the law
A country that can afford highly expensive killing machines should also be able to have rescue helicopters and camera drones that search for visible people, and have heat’ sensors wouldn’t work in 47degrees though. But reports come that nothing can be done. It can’t if there is no will to do it.
To Ed,
“Funny how so many in the west can’t see the propaganda that is fed to them on a daily basis.”
Why do you think that anything that has happened in the war torn hell-hole that is Syria or Iraq as funny?
When E. Aleppo was being liberated from terrorists, we had condemnation plastered all over front pages. When the terrorists were given safe passage out of E. Aleppo in order that fewer civilian lives would be lost in the on-going conflict, the west screamed that it was a crime against humanity.
Chris Trotter at Bowelly Road and NRT clarify things nicely for commenters here that are nostalgic for Muldoonism: today’s Nats really are his true heirs.
Yes, just because Muldoon opposed Lange’s reforms, many here seem to see him as a proponent of good Keynesian type egalitarianism. I remember him well, and that is the last way I would describe him. The Clyde Dam legislation is a closer indication of his real nature.
Inner hollowness has cropped up as a term for what drives people to keep gouging away at the earth and each other to get more. I started thinking about getting a better philosophy soon as we are going to have to make a sea change ready or not.
There is a drive to get more to make more profit, accumulate money. And yet this may be thrown up in the air on an expensive wedding, some major event or performance, or put into mining for precious metals, a new rip-off venture perhaps. Or the biggest fireworks in the southern hemisphere, an abomination while people are homeless in NZ and starving that so much money can be spent on a short term spectacle.
Perhaps everyone should go into a retreat once a year and meditate on the amazing world lived in and the amazing creature we are, amongst other amazing creatures and plants, and get the feeling of appreciation of life for itself. Then go out in the boat or the yacht, play with the toys, but look at them as extras not passing amusements for the bored, those with ennui. (Where are you ennui?)
Janis Ian had a song about people who sell out on growing up and venturing and living as an individual learning what you are, making mistakes and feeling lonely and having to find reserves inside oneself, and learning some empathy.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUydOqxhDQg
Those sort of people generally are very warm and practical, and materialism isn’t their principal crutch for life. Our task these days is to find each other, and form networks to help us face the coming hardships. The rest will lock themselves away, Lost on an island separated off like Planet Key?
I’m doing a lot of philosophising. We haven’t done much over the past 30 years and now facing the uncertain future, have to change our way of thinking as it requires us to decide on how we want to live; those who want to stay the same will eventually have to manage for themselves as best they can. There will have to be tight-knit groups who fend off those who want to latch on and use up resources without sufficient input, and there will be those who want to rob and destroy and they will have to be kept at bay. There must be something set aside for the outsiders who are needy, but not all will be able to be helped.
We see the world’s attitudes to the African immigrants. Already they are receiving the cold shoulder, having had their countries involved in conflict, their homes, water and crops demolished, and unable to follow their customary practices to last through drought. They are mostly men, it is hard for women and children to flee and last through the demanding journeys to a safe harbour with more privation beyond.
Inner hollowness is killing our world. We must try to maintain a soft centre, but still stay firm enough to cope. It is a difficult balance to achieve.
We are the hollow men
We are the stuffed men
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
Our dried voices, when
We whisper together
Are quiet and meaningless
As wind in dry grass
Or rats’ feet over broken glass
In our dry cellar
Shape without form, shade without colour,
Paralysed force, gesture without motion;
Those who have crossed
With direct eyes, to death’s other Kingdom
Remember us-if at all-not as lost
Violent souls, but only
As the hollow men
The stuffed men.
II
Eyes I dare not meet in dreams
In death’s dream kingdom
These do not appear:
There, the eyes are
Sunlight on a broken column
There, is a tree swinging
And voices are
In the wind’s singing
More distant and more solemn
Than a fading star.
Let me be no nearer
In death’s dream kingdom
Let me also wear
Such deliberate disguises
Rat’s coat, crowskin, crossed staves
In a field
Behaving as the wind behaves
No nearer-
Not that final meeting
In the twilight kingdom
III
This is the dead land
This is cactus land
Here the stone images
Are raised, here they receive
The supplication of a dead man’s hand
Under the twinkle of a fading star.
Is it like this
In death’s other kingdom
Waking alone
At the hour when we are
Trembling with tenderness
Lips that would kiss
Form prayers to broken stone.
IV
The eyes are not here
There are no eyes here
In this valley of dying stars
In this hollow valley
This broken jaw of our lost kingdoms
In this last of meeting places
We grope together
And avoid speech
Gathered on this beach of the tumid river
Sightless, unless
The eyes reappear
As the perpetual star
Multifoliate rose
Of death’s twilight kingdom
The hope only
Of empty men.
V
Here we go round the prickly pear
Prickly pear prickly pear
Here we go round the prickly pear
At five o’clock in the morning.
Between the idea
And the reality
Between the motion
And the act
Falls the Shadow
For Thine is the Kingdom
Between the conception
And the creation
Between the emotion
And the response
Falls the Shadow
Life is very long
Between the desire
And the spasm
Between the potency
And the existence
Between the essence
And the descent
Falls the Shadow
For Thine is the Kingdom
For Thine is
Life is
For Thine is the
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.
Better still, this and this, from our good friend Michael Leunig:
There are only two feelings.
Love and fear.
There are only two languages.
Love and fear.
There are only two activities.
Love and fear.
There are only two motives,
two procedures, two frameworks,
two results.
Love and fear.
Love and fear.
Dear God,
We rejoice and give thanks for earthworms,
bees, ladybirds and broody hens;
for humans tending their gardens, talking to animals,
cleaning their homes and singing to themselves;
for rising of the sap, the fragrance of growth,
the invention of the wheelbarrow and the existence of the teapot,
we give thanks. We celebrate and give thanks.
Thanks may we always have good games of ping pong here, words and thought back and forth, feeding the ball to each other and keeping it in the air never falling.
(So poetic eh or something.)
What a little treasure of words. Leunig is special. I once had a ticket to a talk he gave and forgot. So it is good to have his perky words. And the other poem. I think you have talked about WH Auden. His words are from the heart too, and speak to any heart that can at that moment receive them. Wow it’s a long poem but I thought that these two verses are for the time.
Into this neutral air
Where blind skyscrapers use
Their full height to proclaim
The strength of Collective Man,
Each language pours its vain
Competitive excuse:
But who can live for long
In an euphoric dream;
Out of the mirror they stare,
Imperialism’s face
And the international wrong.
Faces along the bar
Cling to their average day:
The lights must never go out,
The music must always play,
All the conventions conspire
To make this fort assume
The furniture of home;
Lest we should see where we are,
Lost in a haunted wood,
Children afraid of the night
Who have never been happy or good.
He mentions Linz in his poem.
This might have been what he was referring to:
The astronomer and the witch: How one of history’s great scientists saved his mother from burning at the stake
Johannes Keppler in 1620 did this thing by speaking for her at her trial.
I should have included WH Auden’s last verse to September 1, 1939. TS must be a lighthouse.
Defenseless under the night
Our world in stupor lies;
Yet, dotted everywhere,
Ironic points of light
Flash out wherever the Just
Exchange their messages:
May I, composed like them
Of Eros and of dust,
Beleaguered by the same
Negation and despair,
Show an affirming flame.
In Vino
Not lazy at all. You like all of us here have broken through the technology barrier and become slaves tapping at the coalface. It’s not so much the typing, it’s all the new apps and helpful systems that you have to fight off before they take over your life, read your mind before your aware of your thought and reduce you to a sort of avatar of yourself. Interesting thought.
Now I did think that myself, didn’t I?
The neolib Gnashionals proceed with their plan to denature the environment and the communal society of NZ, and the belief in NZs as a special country with great attributes. We are just to be a bunch of mainly poorly-paid or disaffected unemployed living at the whim of overseas business while our natural and previously accumulated wealth is distilled from us leaving the essence of sour grapes for most, and fine wine for the minority.
That is the attitude shown by the latest economic burble coming from the PTB – they are going to erect legal borders and separate areas of NZ into SPECIAL ECONOMIC ZONES. This name should be noted. (Incidentally this idea was one promoted prior to 1840. I think the new effort indicates the mindset that this government is returning to, bugger advanced enlightenment and respect for an equal democracy.)
And the Local Bodies are apparently willing to go along and so sell us out.
Up till now many of us have had a modicum of fellow feeling of warmth from our local government administering services and promoting the local economy for us, feeling an interest in our community and listening to what we want.
They have sometimes been captured by strong local lobbies particularly from the farming community. But with some effort people have mostly been able to have a say and persevere to a better outcome or to stop unwise projects or plain rorts.
But now LG seems to have drunk the Koolaid and we will have to fight our corner hard if they turn out to adopt this RW bastards idea. Watch this, the RW desire to destroy NZ as a country for people, is never-ending. The people who want to be able to have a happy life being people just living a normal life are not appreciated or wanted. Look at r0bs post today – https://thestandard.org.nz/nat-act-dont-think-poor-people-should-have-kids/
Paula Bennett famous solo mum – ““I can tell you that they are completely fed up with these children continuously being born to completely unfit parents. That’s a step that’s right out there, and I can tell you there is certainly discussion going on around it.””
😕
The RWs don’t want you, or you, or……..?
by Molten Moira from Motueka If you want to be a woman let me tell you what to do Get a piece of paper and a biro tooWrite down your new identification And boom! You’re now a woman of this nationSpelled W O M A Na real trans woman that isAs opposed ...
Buzz from the Beehive New Zealand Education Minister Jan Tinetti is hosting the inaugural Conference of Pacific Education Ministers for three days from today, welcoming Education Ministers and senior officials from 18 Pacific Island countries and territories, and from Australia. Here’s hoping they have brought translators with them – or ...
Let’s say you’ve come all the way from His Majesty’s United Kingdom to share with the folk of Australia and New Zealand your antipathy towards certain other human beings. And let’s say you call yourself a women’s rights activist.And let’s say 99 out of 100 people who listen to you ...
James Shaw gave the Green party's annual "state of the planet" address over the weekend, in which he expressed frustration with Labour for not doing enough on climate change. His solution is to elect more Green MPs, so they have more power within any government arrangement, and can hold Labour ...
RNZ this morning has the first story another investigative series by Guyon Espiner, this time into political lobbying. The first story focuses on lobbying by government agencies, specifically transpower, Pharmac, and assorted universities, and how they use lobbyists to manipulate public opinion and gather intelligence on the Ministers who oversee ...
Nick Matzke writes – Dear NZ Herald, I am a Senior Lecturer in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Auckland. I teach evolutionary biology, but I also have long experience in science education and (especially) political attempts to insert pseudoscience into science curricula in ...
James Shaw has again said the Greens would be better ‘in the tent’ with Labour than out, despite Labour’s policy bonfire last week torching much of what the Government was doing to reduce emissions. File Photo: Lynn Grieveson/Getty ImagesTL;DR: The Green Party has never been more popular than in some ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Sarah Wesseler Poor air quality is a long-standing problem in Los Angeles, where the first major outbreak of smog during World War II was so intense that some residents thought the city had been attacked by chemical weapons. Cars were eventually discovered ...
Yesterday I was reading an excellent newsletter from David Slack, and I started writing a comment “Sounds like some excellent genetic heritage…” and then I stopped.There was something about the phrase genetic heritage that stopped me in tracks. Is that a phrase I want to be saying? It’s kind of ...
Brian Easton writes – Two senior economists challenge some of the foundations of current economics. It is easy to criticise economic science by misrepresenting it, by selective quotations, and by ignoring that it progresses, like all sciences, by improving and abandoning old theories. The critics may go ...
This week marks the twentieth anniversary of the Iraq War. While it strongly opposed the US-led invasion, New Zealand’s then Labour-led government led by Prime Minister Helen Clark did deploy military engineers to try to help rebuild Iraq in mid-2003. With violence soaring, their 12-month deployment ended without being renewed ...
After seventy years, Auckland’s motorway network is finally finished. In July 1953 the first section of motorway in Auckland was opened between Ellerslie-Panmure Highway and Mt Wellington Highway. The final stage opens to traffic this week with the completion of the motorway part of the Northern Corridor Improvements project. Aucklanders ...
National’s appointment of Todd McClay as Agriculture spokesperson clearly signals that the party is in trouble with the farming vote. McClay was not an obvious choice, but he does have a record as a political scrapper. The party needs that because sources say it has been shedding farming votes ...
Rays of white light come flooding into my lounge, into my face from over the top of my neighbour’s hedge. I have to look away as the window of the conservatory is awash in light, as if you were driving towards the sun after a rain shower and suddenly blinded. ...
The columnists in Private Eye take pen names, so I have not the least idea who any of them are. But I greatly appreciate their expert insight, especially MD, who writes the medical column, offering informed and often damning critique of the UK health system and the politicians who keep ...
A chronological listing of news articles posted on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Mar 12, 2023 thru Sat, Mar 18, 2023. Story of the Week Guest post: What 13,500 citations reveal about the IPCC’s climate science report IPCC WG1 AR6 SPM Report Cover - Changing ...
Buzz from the Beehive The building of financial capability was brought into our considerations when Social Development and Employment Minister Carmel Sepuloni announced she had dipped into the government’s coffers for $3 million for “providers” to help people and families access community-based Building Financial Capability services. That wording suggests some ...
Do you ever come across something that makes you go Hmmmm?You mean like the song?No, I wasn’t thinking of the song, but I am now - thanks for that. I was thinking of things you read or hear that make you stop and go Hmmmm.Yeah, I know what you mean, ...
By the end of the week, the dramas over Stuart Nash overshadowed Hipkins’ policy bonfire. File photo: Lynn GrieveasonTLDR: This week’s news in geopolitics and the political economy covered on The Kākā included:PM Chris Hipkins’ announcement of the rest of a policy bonfire to save a combined $1.7 billion, but ...
When word went out that Prime Minister Chris Hipkins would be making an announcement about Stuart Nash on the tiles at parliament at 2:45pm yesterday, the assumption was that it was over. That we had reached tipping point for Nash’s time as minister. But by 3pm - when, coincidentally, the ...
Two senior economists challenge some of the foundations of current economics. It is easy to criticise economic science by misrepresenting it, by selective quotations, and by ignoring that it progresses, like all sciences, by improving and abandoning old theories. The critics may go on to attack physics by citing Newton.So ...
Photo by Walker Fenton on UnsplashIt’s that time of the week again when and I co-host our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kaka for an hour at 5 pm. Jump on this link on Riverside (we’ve moved from Zoom) for our chat about the week’s news with ...
In a nice bit of news, my 2550-word deindustrial science-fiction piece, The Dream of Florian Neame, has been accepted for publication at New Maps Magazine (https://www.new-maps.com/). I have published there before, of course, with Of Tin and Tintagel coming out last year. While I still await the ...
And so this is Friday, and what have we learned?It was a week with all the usual luggage: minister brags and then he quits, Hollywood red carpet is full of twits. And all the while, hanging over the trivial stuff: existential dread, and portents of doom.Depending on who you read ...
When I changed the name of this newsletter from The Daily Read to Nick’s Kōrero I was a bit worried whether people would know what Kōrero meant or not. I added a definition when I announced the change and kind of assumed people who weren’t familiar with it would get ...
There was a time when a political party’s publicity people would counsel against promoting a candidate as queer. No matter which of two dictionary meanings the voting public might choose to apply – the old meaning of odd, strange, weird, or aberrant, or the more recent meaning of gay, homosexual ...
Photo by Joakim Honkasalo on UnsplashIt’s that time of the week for an ‘Ask Me Anything’ session for paying subscribers about the week that was for the next hour, including:PM Chris Hipkins announcement of the rest of a policy bonfire to save a combined $1.7 billion, but which blew up ...
Even though concern over the climate change threat is becoming more mainstream, our governments continue to opt out of the difficult decisions at the expense of time, and cost for future generations. Photo: Lynn Grieveson/Getty ImagesTLDR: Now we have a climate liability number to measure the potential failure of the ...
Thomas Cranmer writesLike it or not, the culture wars have entered New Zealand politics and look set to broaden and intensify. The culture wars are often viewed as an exclusively American phenomenon, but the reality is that they are becoming increasingly prominent in countries around the world, ...
Here’s an analogy for the Stuart Nash saga. If people are to be forgiven for their sins,Catholic dogma requires two factors to be present. There has to be a sincere act of confession about what has been done, but also a sincere act of contrition, which signals a painful ...
Here’s an analogy for the Stuart Nash saga. If people are to be forgiven for their sins,Catholic dogma requires two factors to be present. There has to be a sincere act of confession about what has been done, but also a sincere act of contrition, which signals a painful ...
Human Destabilisers: Russia now has a new strategic weapon – migratory waves of unwelcome human-beings. Desperate people with different coloured skins and different religious beliefs arriving at, or actually breaching, the national borders of Russia’s enemies can wreak as much havoc, culturally and politically, as a hypersonic missile exploding in the ...
Hi,After Webworm contributor Hayden Donnell wrote his latest piece, ‘RIP to Millennials Killing Everything’, he delivered this exciting and important bonus content.It will make more sense if you’ve read his piece.David. Read more ...
Hi,Before we get to Hayden’s column — RIP to Millennials Killing Everything — a quick observation.There was a day last week where it had suddenly reached 10pm and I hadn’t eaten all day. Hunger had suddenly gripped me with a panicky all-consuming force, so I jumped onto Uber Eats and ...
We add some of the CMIP6 models to the updateable MSU comparisons. After my annual update, I was pointed to some MSU-related diagnostics for many of the CMIP6 models (24 of them at least) from Po-Chedley et al. (2022) courtesy of Ben Santer. These are slightly different to what ...
In a memorable Pulp Fiction scene, Vincent inadvertently shoots their backseat passenger in the head. This leads our heroes Jules and Vincent to express alarm about their predicament.We're on a city street in broad daylight here!says Vincent. We gotta get this car off the roads. You know cops tend to ...
Primary, secondary and kindergarten teachers are all on strike today, demanding higher pay and an end to systematic understaffing. While the former is important - wages should at least keep up with inflation - its the latter which is the real issue. As with the health system, teachers have been ...
So the teachers are on strike, marching across Aotearoa today to press their demands for better pay and working conditions.Children remained in bed this brisk morning, many no doubt quite pleased about a day off school. Parents perhaps taking the day off to look after the kids, or working from ...
After the Cold War the consensus among Western military strategists was that the era of Big Wars, defined as peer conflict between large states with full spectrum military technologies, was at an end, at least for the foreseeable future. The … Continue reading → ...
Dairy giant Fonterra has posted a 50% lift in net profit to $546m, doubled its interim dividend, and is proposing a return of capital of 50c a share, injecting a note of optimism into the nation’s dairy industry. Fonterra’s strong performance is against a backdrop of market volatility. It ...
Buzz from the Beehive The bothersome economic news today is that New Zealand’s GDP fell by 0.6% in the December quarter, weaker than market forecasts of a fall of around 0.2% and much weaker than the Reserve Bank’s assumption of a 0.7% rise. This followed the even-more-bothersome news yesterday that ...
Ouch: Hipkins’ policy bonfire has resulted in an expensive self-administered removal of a Budgetary foot with an explosive device. File Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTLDR: Bonfires can be dangerous things when they get out of control. They also create a lot of smoke and heat and burn the grass. ...
* Dr Bryce Edwards writes – I teach a first-year course at Victoria University of Wellington about government and the political process in New Zealand. In “Introduction to Government and Law”, students learn there are rules preventing senior public servants from getting involved in big political debates – as we ...
I teach a first year course at Victoria University of Wellington about government and the political process in New Zealand. In “Introduction to Government and Law”, students learn there are rules preventing senior public servants from getting involved in big political debates – as we have recently witnessed with Rob ...
An issue of integrity has claimed the first ministerial scalp in Prime Minister Chris Hipkins’ premiership. Police Minister Stuart Nash lasted mere weeks in the role after admitting in a radio interview this morning that he had called Police Commissioner Andrew Coster to ask him if police were going to ...
For some time now we’ve known that the cost and completion timeframe for the City Rail Link would increase. Yesterday we finally learned by just how much. Costs City Rail Link Ltd (CRL Ltd) today confirms it has submitted a formal funding request to its Sponsors – the Crown and ...
The Government’s decision to back peddle on lowering speed limits is hitting potholes. At this stage, although it is part of the Government’s reprioritisation efforts to free up money to alleviate cost of living increases, the speed limit change looks unlikely to do that. And it appears that it ...
The University of Otago – the oldest university in New Zealand – towers over my home city of Dunedin. When classes are on, something like a fifth of Dunedin’s population are university students. It is also the largest employer in the South Island. To say that this is a ...
Last weekend brought the latest instalment in Stuff’s bravura satirical series Of course you can afford a house! Just dig deeper!I love how much their appreciation of humour has evolved in just a few short years since the days when I would get to produce, for a few meagre dollars, ...
Australia’s move to strengthen its defence capability with five nuclear-powered attack submarines underlines how relatively defenceless New Zealand is in the Pacific. Kiwis may gasp that the Labor government in Australia recognises it must outlay $400bn on the nuclear subs, but this ensures that Australia is not exposed ...
Ironically, a repurposed Auckland Ratepayers Alliance placard (with a demand for climate action on the front) featured at the recent climate march. Voting ratepayers don’t want ‘bureaucrats in cushy council jobs’ borrowing or increasing rates, even when the need for investment is becoming increasingly obvious. So is council cost-cutting a ...
The quarterly ETS auction was held today. In the past, these have seen collusion by big players to game the price and force a dump of extra credits from the cost-containment reserve (essentially, trying to pick stuff up cheap now in the belief that it will be more valuable later). ...
Buzz from the Beehive Exempting bikes, electric bikes and scooters from fringe benefit tax looked like something of a sop for a Green Party that had good grounds to grumble after a bunch of climate change measures was tossed on to the PM’s policy bonfire. The combustibles included the clean car ...
Today is a Member's Day, the first of the year. Unfortunately it also looks to be a boring one. First, there's a two hour debate on the budget policy statement (somehow inexplicably "member's business", despite it being fundamentally a government thing). Then there's a couple of "private bills" - people ...
Most days, Chris Hipkins and James Shaw seem a bit like the Seals and Crofts of the centre-left: Earnest, inoffensive, and capable of quite nice harmonies at times. They blow gently through the jasmine in your mind, but you know they’re never going to rock your world. Back in 2020, ...
The reflection gazed back at him. Pale and a little paunchy, he wasn’t a well man.He had a toga made from a fitted sheet and it kept bunching up under his armpits.His Laurel wreath was made from some Christmas tree branches he’d found in the shed, not a real pine ...
Yesterday we covered the government’s latest policy/delivery changes with a focus on light rail. But there was another important transport part of the announcement: The government will also intends to scale back its road safety plans. The programmes that are being reprioritised include: Significantly narrowing the speed reduction programme to ...
Unbridled Consumption: This civilisation we have built (we being the whole human species) is the most astonishingly wonderful thing homo sapiens has ever seen. We love it. We cannot imagine how awful life would be without it. And, we most certainly are not going to co-operate with anyone who advises ...
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 ...
Let’s start with the absolute truisms.Politics is the art of the possibleHalf of something is better than all of nothingLet us now consider these with reference to the Under New Management government.What is a supporter of progressive politics to make of the abandonment of various policies, as announced in recent post-cabinet ...
Chris Hipkins has surprised even some of his closest friends and backers with the bounce he has secured for Labour in public polls since he became Prime Minister. He has been put to the test since he took over from Jacinda Ardern in the top job, and has shown a ...
Buzz from the Beehive It was a big day for the stopping or slowing of a second tranche of government programmes, an exercise which Beehive publicists are pitching as measures to allow the Government to focus more time, energy and resources on “the bread and butter issues” facing New Zealanders. ...
Last night there was a One News political poll which was welcomed by the left and will cause some concern in the opposition camp. A poll that showed no path to victory for ACT and National and which would likely result in another Labour/Greens government, possibly with the inclusion, or ...
Our young renters can vote Labour or Green as often as they like, but will end up paying the price of more and bigger climate emergencies, while also paying most of their after-tax income on rent with little hope of owning their own homes. Photo: Lynn Grieveson/Getty ImagesTLDR:PM ...
Dr Bryce Edwards writes – Labour’s shift in focus is working. Under Jacinda Ardern they were a party and government focused on the voters and ideologies of liberal Grey Lynn and Wellington Central. Now under Prime Minister Chris Hipkins Labour has a laser-like focus directed at ...
Labour’s shift in focus is working. Under Jacinda Ardern they were a party and government focused on the voters and ideologies of liberal Grey Lynn and Wellington Central. Now under Prime Minister Chris Hipkins Labour has a laser-like focus directed at the working class politics of places like West Auckland ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Chris Baraniuk It was an engineering problem that had bugged Zhibin Yu for years — but now he had the perfect chance to fix it. Stuck at home during the first UK lockdown of the Covid-19 pandemic, the thermal engineer suddenly had all ...
Hi,I just wanted to say hello as this week really gets going, and check in about a few things. They’re a series of fractured random thoughts, so bear with me! First up — I haven’t watched the Oscars in ages and I’m really glad I watched yesterday. It felt like ...
Yesterday the Prime Minister laid out the next tranche of plans to scale back the ambition of Labour’s policy/delivery programme – and this time the Auckland light rail project gets a mention. “I can also confirm today that we will roll out transport projects in Auckland in stages. “Reducing transport ...
The Hipkins Government revealed its true colours yesterday as it chopped a whole series of “nice to have” policies — many of them promoted by the Greens — and instead diverted the savings to relieve the impact of inflation. His approach is all about taking action; no more excuses, ...
Saving The People From ... The People: The strangest aspect of the mass Israeli protests, from a New Zealand perspective, is that the judicial reforms proposed by Benjamin Netanyahu’s government would only confer upon Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, powers which the New Zealand House of Representatives has not only exercised ...
Political parties that want to negotiate with the Green Party must come to the table with much faster, bolder climate action, co-leaders James Shaw and Marama Davidson emphasised in their State of the Planet speech today. ...
Political parties that want to negotiate with the Green Party after the election must come to the table with much faster, bolder climate action, co-leaders James Shaw and Marama Davidson emphasised today. ...
You will never truly understand, from the pictures you’ve seen in the newspapers or on the six o-clock news, the sheer scale of the devastation wrought by Cyclone Gabrielle. ...
We’re boosting incomes and helping ease cost of living pressures on Kiwis through a range of bread and butter support measures that will see pensioners, students, families, and those on main benefits better off from the start of next month. ...
The error Labour Ministers made by stopping work on a beverage container return scheme will be reversed by the Greens at the earliest opportunity as part of the next Government. ...
“Cabinet needs to do better - and today has shown exactly why we need Green Ministers in cabinet, so we can prioritise action to cut climate pollution and support people to make ends meet,” says Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson. ...
Biggest increase in food prices for over three decades shows the need for an excess profit tax on corporations to help people put food on the table. ...
The Green Party has today launched a submission guide to help Aucklanders give crucial input and prevent potentially disastrous Auckland Council budget proposals. ...
With calls growing for inquiries and action on bank profits, the Greens say the Government has all the information it needs to act now and put a levy on banks. ...
As large parts of Aotearoa recover from two of the worst climate disasters we have ever experienced, it would be a huge mistake for the Government to deprioritise climate action from future transport investments, the Green Party says. ...
The Green Party is celebrating the signing of a historic United Nations Ocean Treaty, and calls on the new Oceans and Fisheries Minister to urgently step up protection for Aotearoa’s oceans. ...
This year has seen a series of extreme weather events, unparalleled in New Zealand’s recent history. From Cape Reinga in the far north down to the Tararua Ranges, families and businesses across the country have suffered enormous loss and hardship. While the severe weather hasn’t directly affected every part of ...
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has today appointed Ginny Andersen as Minister of Police. “Ginny Andersen has a strong and relevant background in this important portfolio,” Chris Hipkins said. “Ginny Andersen worked for the Police as a non-sworn staff member for around 10 years and has more recently been chair of ...
Six further bailey bridge sites confirmed Four additional bridge sites under consideration 91 per cent of damaged state highways reopened Recovery Dashboards for impacted regions released The Government has responded quickly to restore lifeline routes after Cyclone Gabrielle and can today confirm that an additional six bailey bridges will ...
Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta departs for China tomorrow, where she will meet with her counterpart, State Councillor and Foreign Minister Qin Gang, in Beijing. This will be the first visit by a New Zealand Minister to China since 2019, and follows the easing of COVID-19 travel restrictions between New Zealand and China. ...
Education Ministers from across the Pacific will gather in Tāmaki Makaurau this week to share their collective knowledge and strategic vision, for the benefit of ākonga across the region. New Zealand Education Minister Jan Tinetti will host the inaugural Conference of Pacific Education Ministers (CPEM) for three days from today, ...
A vital transport link for communities and local businesses has been restored following Cyclone Gabrielle with the reopening of State Highway 5 (SH5) between Napier and Taupō, Associate Minister of Transport Kiri Allan says. SH5 reopened to all traffic between 7am and 7pm from today, with closure points at SH2 (Kaimata ...
Internal Affairs Minister Barbara Edmonds has thanked generous New Zealanders who took part in the special Lotto draw for communities affected by Cyclone Gabrielle. Held on Saturday night, the draw raised $11.7 million with half of all ticket sales going towards recovery efforts. “In a time of need, New Zealanders ...
The Government has announced funding of $3 million for providers to help people, and whānau access community-based Building Financial Capability services. “Demand for Financial Capability Services is growing as people face cost of living pressures. Those pressures are increasing further in areas affected by flooding and Cyclone Gabrielle,” Minister for ...
Minister of Education, Hon Jan Tinetti, has announced appointments to the Board of Education New Zealand | Manapou ki te Ao. Tracey Bridges is joining the Board as the new Chair and Dr Therese Arseneau will be a new member. Current members Dr Linda Sissons CNZM and Daniel Wilson have ...
Fifteen ākonga Māori from across Aotearoa have been awarded the prestigious Ngarimu VC and 28th (Māori) Battalion Memorial Scholarships and Awards for 2023, Associate Education Minister and Ngarimu Board Chair, Kelvin Davis announced today. The recipients include doctoral, masters’ and undergraduate students. Three vocational training students and five wharekura students, ...
High Court Judge Jillian Maree Mallon has been appointed a Judge of the Court of Appeal, and District Court Judge Andrew John Becroft QSO has been appointed a Judge of the High Court, Attorney‑General David Parker announced today. Justice Mallon graduated from Otago University in 1988 with an LLB (Hons), and with ...
The economy has continued to show its resilience despite today’s GDP figures showing a modest decline in the December quarter, leaving the Government well positioned to help New Zealanders face cost of living pressures in a challenging global environment. “The economy had grown strongly in the two quarters before this ...
Aucklanders now have more ways to get around as Transport Minister Michael Wood opened the direct State Highway 1 (SH1) to State Highway 18 (SH18) underpass today, marking the completion of the 48-kilometre Western Ring Route (WRR). “The Government is upgrading New Zealand’s transport system to make it safer, more ...
This section contains briefings received by incoming ministers following changes to Cabinet in January. Some information may have been withheld in accordance with the Official Information Act 1982. Where information has been withheld that is indicated within the document. ...
Aotearoa New Zealand Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta reaffirmed her commitment to working together with the new Government of Fiji on issues of shared importance, including on the prioritisation of climate change and sustainability, at a meeting today, in Nadi. Fiji and Aotearoa New Zealand’s close relationship is underpinned by the Duavata ...
The Government is delivering a coastal shipping lifeline for businesses, residents and the primary sector in the cyclone-stricken regions of Hawkes Bay and Tairāwhiti, Regional Development Minister Kiri Allan announced today. The Rangitata vessel has been chartered for an emergency coastal shipping route between Gisborne and Napier, with potential for ...
The Government will progress to the next stage of the NZ Battery Project, looking at the viability of pumped hydro as well as an alternative, multi-technology approach as part of the Government’s long term-plan to build a resilient, affordable, secure and decarbonised energy system in New Zealand, Energy and Resources ...
This morning I was made aware of a media interview in which Minister Stuart Nash criticised a decision of the Court and said he had contacted the Police Commissioner to suggest the Police appeal the decision. The phone call took place in 2021 when he was not the Police Minister. ...
The Government’s sharp focus on trade continues with Aotearoa New Zealand set to host Trade Ministers and delegations from 10 Asia Pacific economies at a meeting of Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) Commission members in July, Minister for Trade and Export Growth Damien O’Connor announced today. “New Zealand ...
$25 million boost to support more businesses with clean-up in cyclone affected regions, taking total business support to more than $50 million Demand for grants has been strong, with estimates showing applications will exceed the initial $25 million business support package Grants of up to a maximum of $40,000 per ...
80 per cent of 2021 Resident Visas applications have been processed – three months ahead of schedule Residence granted to 160,000 people 84,000 of 85,000 applications have been approved Over 160,000 people have become New Zealand residents now that 80 per cent of 2021 Resident Visa (2021RV) applications have been ...
The Lead Coordination Minister for the Government’s Response to the Royal Commission’s Report into the Terrorist Attack on the Christchurch Mosques travels to Melbourne, Australia today to represent New Zealand at the fourth Sub-Regional Meeting on Counter-Terrorism and Transnational Security. “The Government is committed to reducing the threat of terrorism ...
The health and safety practices at our nation’s ports will be improved as part of a new industry-wide action plan, Workplace Relations and Safety, and Transport Minister Michael Wood has announced. “Following the tragic death of two port workers in Auckland and Lyttelton last year, I asked the Port Health ...
Bikes, electric bikes and scooters will be added to the types of transport exempted from fringe benefit tax under changes proposed today. Revenue Minister David Parker said the change would allow bicycles, electric bicycles, scooters, electric scooters, and micro-mobility share services to be exempt from fringe benefit tax where they ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta will hold bilateral meetings with Fiji this week. The visit will be her first to the country since the election of the new coalition Government led by Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sitiveni Rabuka. The visit will be an opportunity to meet kanohi ki ...
The Government is introducing the Severe Weather Emergency Legislation Bill to ensure the recovery and rebuild from Cyclone Gabrielle is streamlined and efficient with unnecessary red tape removed. The legislation is similar to legislation passed following the Christchurch and Kaikōura earthquakes that modifies existing legislation in order to remove constraints ...
Approximately 1.4 million people will benefit from increases to rates and thresholds for social assistance to help with the cost of living Superannuation to increase by over $100 a pay for a couple Main benefits to increase by the rate of inflation, meaning a family on a benefit with children ...
$1 billion in savings which will be reallocated to support New Zealanders with the cost of living A range of transport programmes deferred so Waka Kotahi can focus on post Cyclone road recovery Speed limit reduction programme significantly narrowed to focus on the most dangerous one per cent of state ...
The remaining state of national emergency over the Tairāwhiti and Hawke’s Bay regions will end on Tuesday 14 March, Minister for Emergency Management Kieran McAnulty announced today. Minister McAnulty gave notice of a national transition period over these regions, which will come into effect immediately following the end of the ...
The Government is today delivering on one of its commitments as part of the New Zealand Government’s Dawn Raids apology, welcoming a cohort of emerging Pacific leaders to Aotearoa New Zealand participating in the He Manawa Tītī Scholarship Programme. This cohort will participate in a bespoke leadership training programme that ...
Industry Transformation Plan to transform advanced manufacturing through increased productivity and higher-skilled, higher-wage jobs into a globally-competitive low-emissions sector. Co-created and co-owned by business, unions and workers, government, Māori, Pacific peoples and wider stakeholders. A plan to accelerate the growth and transformation of New Zealand’s advanced manufacturing sector was launched ...
New Zealand will provide support for Pacific countries to prevent the spread of harmful animal diseases, Associate Minister of Agriculture Meka Whaitiri said. The Associate Minister is attending a meeting of Pacific Ministers during the Pacific Week of Agriculture and Forestry in Nadi, Fiji. “Highly contagious diseases such as African ...
The Public Transport Futures project will deliver approximately: 100 more buses providing a greater number of seats to a greater number of locations at a higher frequency Over 470 more bus shelters to support a more enjoyable travel experience Almost 200 real time display units providing accurate information on bus ...
All but six schools and kura have reopened for onsite learning All students in the six closed schools or kura are being educated in other schools, online, or in alternative locations Over 4,300 education hardpacks distributed to support students Almost 38,000 community meals provided by suppliers of the Ka Ora ...
A new health centre has opened with financial support from the Government and further investment has been committed to projects that will accelerate Māori economic opportunities, Regional Development Minister Kiri Allan says. Community health provider QE Health will continue its long history in Rotorua with the official opening of the ...
The new three year NZ UK Working Holiday Visas (WHV) will now be delivered earlier than expected, coming into force by July this year in time to support businesses through the global labour shortages Prime Minister Chris Hipkins says. The improved WHV, successfully negotiated alongside the NZ UK Free trade ...
It seems like only yesterday that we launched the discussion document Enabling Investment in Offshore Renewable Energy, which is the key theme for this Forum. Everyone in this room understands the enormous potential of offshore wind in Aotearoa New Zealand – and particularly this region. Establishing a regime to pave ...
Police has reached a major milestone filing over 28,000 charges related to Operation Cobalt. “I’m extremely proud of the fantastic work that our Police has been doing to crack down on gangs, and keep our communities safe. The numbers speak for themselves – with over 28,000 charges, Police are getting ...
The Government will provide $15 million in the short term to local councils to remove rubbish, as a longer-term approach is developed, the Minister for Emergency Management Kieran McAnulty announced today. “Several regions are facing significant costs associated with residential waste removal, which has the potential to become a public ...
$15 million of immediate reimbursement for marae, iwi, recognised rural and community groups $2 million for community food providers $0.5 million for additional translation services Increasing the caps of the Community and Provider funds The Government has announced $17.5 million to further support communities and community providers impacted by Cyclone ...
The Government’s approach of using frontline service providers to address inequities for Māori with mental health and addiction needs is making good progress in many communities, a new report says. An independent evaluation into the Māori Access and Choice programme, commissioned by Te Whatu Ora has highlighted the programme’s success ...
Phase One Ventures chief executive Mahesh Muralidhar has been selected by local party members as National’s candidate in Auckland Central for the 2023 General Election. “I want to thank our local party members for backing me to campaign for ...
On the holy terror and absolute love of parenting Picked up by Octavia outside the book shop, the kid and I clambered into the back, to the soundtrack of classic hits from what seemed to be a tape she was playing. We were thankful to get in. The sun ...
A new investigative series from RNZ reveals just how broken the government communications machine is, writes Duncan Greive.Investigative journalist Guyon Espiner is peeling back the lid on the world of external lobbyists and corporate affairs strategists employed by the public sector. His new series, being published on RNZ this ...
Fresh from a Melbourne rally that attracted neo-Nazi supporters, British anti-transgender rights speaker Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull is scheduled to appear at two events in Aotearoa. So what’s the lowdown? Another controversial international speaker wants to visit New Zealand, and, as expected, reaction has covered the full spectrum from outrage to support. ...
Companies have tended to be louder in lobbying politicians against climate change mitigation rather than in favour of it. This election, that needs to change ...
H5N1 only sporadically infects humans - but it kills half of those who catch it. As the largest ever outbreak of the virus continues to rage, is New Zealand prepared?Special report: Kiwi scientist Robert Webster knew two things about the avian flu virus he dripped into his nose one day ...
The hat-trick hero of the Black Ferns’ 2017 World Cup win, Toka Natua is back in rugby – discovering the pros and cons of playing as a mum. And the double international is ready for her next chapter in France. There are the odd moments at training where Toka Natua’s mind goes blank ...
With a number of events planned down the length of the country, the scene at this weekend’s ‘Stop Co-Governance’ rally in Orewa could be just the first of many Social media erupted with pictures of distorted faces, pulled into expressions of anger or yelling gleefully into the camera. The mugshots ...
The Emissions Trading Scheme was always a neoliberal, market-based, get-out-of-jail-free plan. Time to lead the way with Tradable Energy Quotas insteadOpinion: The old saying about news – that it’s always bad or it wouldn’t be news – is distressingly true for the climate, both in terms of this summer’s weather ...
The Detail finds out why a law change in 2017 has led to a proliferation of independent taxi drivers – and why they're leaving some passengers feeling ripped off Not all taxis are created equal. RNZ newsreader Evie Ashton found this out the hard way, after Dave Chapelle's recent show at Auckland's ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Frank Jotzo, Professor, Crawford School of Public Policy and Head of Energy, Institute for Climate Energy and Disaster Solutions, Australian National University IISD/ENB The world is in deep trouble on climate change, but if we really put our shoulder to ...
RNZ Pacific New Caledonia’s only daily newspaper, Les Nouvelles Calédoniennes, has folded after the commercial court accepted the publishing company’s request for its liquidation. The court had deferred its decision by a day after an injunction by the public prosecutor who wanted to see if there was still a possibility ...
By Arieta Vakasukawaqa in Suva The installation of the Turaga Bale na Vunivalu Na Tui Kaba, Ratu Epenisa Cakobau, clearly indicates that Fiji’s traditional chiefly system still has a strong footing and chiefs still command respect among the country’s citizens. This is the view of Dr Paul Geraghty, the University ...
ANALYSIS:By Shailendra Bahadur Singh in Suva The long-running row between the former Fiji government and the Suva-based regional University of the South Pacific (USP) has come back to haunt former Fiji Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama, who spent a night in a police cell on March 9 before appearing in ...
By Antoine Samoyeau in Pape’ete About 3000 activists of French Polynesia’s pro-independence Tavini Huiraatira party met for six hours at the weekend with the executives insisting that they were “united’ after a recent upheaval over leadership. The party also presented a “renewed” slate of 73 candidates for next month’s territorial ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The first arrest has been made following the Brereton inquiry into allegations that Australians committed war crimes in Afghanistan. Former SAS soldier, Oliver Schulz, 41, has been remanded in custody after his arrest by ...
We have our 2023 finalists after a big Sunday double-header at North Shore Stadium. Alice Soper reviews.Matatū vs BluesMatatū have scored the first try in every match they have played this season. It looked like this streak was going to be broken as the Blues finally found ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robert Park, Judith and David Coffey Chair in Sustainable Agriculture, Plant Breeding Institute, University of Sydney Shutterstock Some 70% of the World Heritage-listed Lord Howe Island has been closed to non-essential visitors in response to a recurrence of the plant ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Suranga Seneviratne, Senior Lecturer – Security, University of Sydney Shutterstock Are you tired of receiving SMS scams pretending to be from Australia Post, the tax office, MyGov and banks? You’re not alone. Each year, thousands of Australians fall victim to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Misha Ketchell, Editor, The Conversation Thanks in no small part to the work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), today few people would be foolish enough to dispute the scientific consensus on the climate crisis. But as ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Eric Windholz, Senior Lecturer and Associate, Monash Centre for Commercial Law and Regulatory Studies, Monash University Inadequate, inequitable, and in some cases possibly in breach of workers’ compensation laws. That’s how bad the current insurance arrangements are for Australia’s professional sports people, ...
The newly-minted Police Minister, Ginny Andersen, has been called on by the Council of Licensed Firearm Owners (COLFO) to investigate how the previous Minister allowed Police to propose extraordinary fee increases for licensed firearm owners without ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard Kingsford, Professor, School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, UNSW Sydney Bill Ormonde, Author provided Millions of dead fish float on the surface of the river. Native bony herring and introduced young carp, as well as a few mature ...
Things make more sense when people are speaking your language! This CAB Awareness Week (20-26 March), we are celebrating diversity and multiculturalism within our service. At the Citizens Advice Bureau, we are committed to making sure our service ...
The second week of the Auckland Arts Festivals showed the versatility of the city’s spaces, even when not matched entirely correctly with shows. Sam Brooks reviews (with assistance from Shanti Mathias).I often dismay at the lack of performance spaces we have in Auckland, and it takes something like the ...
The free and easy SMS two factor authentication (2FA) to log into your Twitter account ends today. That concerns Privacy Commissioner Michael Webster because it takes away one of the most common ways to verify who users are on their free accounts, which ...
New Zealand’s new minister of police will be one of the freshest faces around the cabinet table. Ginny Andersen, the MP for Hutt South, has been named as the new minister taking over from Stuart Nash. Andersen first became an MP in 2017 and only became a minister for the ...
The government has announced further roading reconnections, several weeks on from Cyclone Gabrielle. Earlier this morning it was confirmed the link between Napier and Taupō had been reestablished. And now, transport minister Michael Wood said another six bailey bridges would be constructed. “Our immediate priority has been to reopen lifeline ...
The Taxpayers’ Union has slammed the revelation that government agencies and State Owned Enterprises are spending hundreds of thousands of taxpayers’ dollars on lobbying firms as revealed by Radio NZ this morning. Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns Manager, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter McNeil, Distinguished Professor of Design History, UTS, University of Technology Sydney Sydney World Pride and Mardi Gras 2023 were a huge success. Sydney was activated in a way rarely seen – block and street parties, cultural festivals and dance parties for ...
For the first time since 2019, a New Zealand minister will head to China this week. Foreign minister Nanaia Mahuta will meet with her Chinese counterpart Qin Gang in Beijing. “I intend to discuss areas where we cooperate, such as on trade, people-to-people and climate and environmental issues. I will ...
The Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier has completed his investigation into complaints about Auckland Council’s role in the National Erebus Memorial project. The complaints relate to the council’s approval and consents process for the memorial site in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hal Pawson, Professor of Housing Research and Policy, and Associate Director, City Futures Research Centre, UNSW Sydney Pandemic-generated pressures have left our rental housing market reeling. Australia-wide, vacancy rates are at rock-bottom levels. Rents are soaring at record rates. Queensland has ...
The first edition felt like a breath of fresh, local music-filled air. This year, with many of the same headliners as 2008 (and every year since), the long-running Wellington festival has grown stale. It’s finally time to admit that on a cold night in Palmy 20 years ago, I felt ...
The first edition felt like a breath of fresh, local music-filled air. This year, with many of the same headliners as 2008 (and every year since), the formula has grown stale. It’s finally time to admit that on a cold night in Palmy 20 years ago, I felt Shihad frontman ...
The anti-transgender activist that provoked aggressive protests in Australia over the weekend may not be able to enter New Zealand. Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull, the British anti-transgender campaigner, is scheduled to visit New Zealand next weekend for two public events. But according to a new statement from Immigration NZ, her ability to ...
The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union is pleased to hear that the Minister of Local Government, Kieran McAnulty, has invited concerned mayors to the Beehive to discuss the Three Waters reforms but believe he should meet with the country’s largest ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne Dan Himbrechts/Paul Braven/AAP The New South Wales state election will be held on Saturday. I had a preview of both ...
Whether the anti-trans campaigner can enter the country without a visa is now up in the air. Controversy surrounds the upcoming visit by Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull, the British anti-transgender campaigner on a global tour who is scheduled to visit New Zealand next weekend for two public events. During an appearance in Melbourne ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lynne Chepulis, Associate Professor Health Sciences, University of Waikato Getty Images The controversial 2021 decision by the government drug-buying agency Pharmac to prioritise Māori and Pacific patients in its funding of two game-changing new diabetes drugs appears to have paid ...
The idea of the Greens flirting with National gets an airing before almost every election. It remains as much of a nonstarter as ever, writes Henry Cooke.This article was first published in Henry Cooke’s politics newsletter, Museum Street. It’s far more reliable than clockwork. Every election cycle – often several ...
With half the value of all Lotto, Powerball and Strike tickets going to cyclone relief, the "Must-be-won" draw for $15.5 million on Saturday went to a Canterbury player. ...
Auckland’s mayor has taken aim at road closures and traffic disruption around the super city, revealing a plan to reduce road cones. Wayne Brown had previously pledged to clean up the city of road cones and set it out as an “immediate priority” for the council’s transport agency. Now, he’s ...
The name's Bond – unhedged Treasury bond. Jonathan Milne argues that bond traders have again become sexy, for all the wrong reasons.Analysis: Giant Swiss bank UBS has agreed to buy its rival Credit Suisse for 3 billion Swiss francs (US$3.23 billion) and to assume up to $5.4 billion in losses, in a shotgun ...
‘Don’t fucking come and talk to me, write a submission,’ reckons Mayor Wayne Brown. So how do you do that?Let’s be honest, most people don’t understand local politics. We know that we vote for a mayor and councillors every couple of years, and that’s about it. But local politics ...
The link between Napier and Taupō has reopened this week for the first time since it was damaged in Cyclone Gabrielle. State highway five will be open to all traffic between 7am and 7pm, with overnight closure points at Kaimata Road, Glengarry Road and Matea Road. Kiri Allan, the associate ...
Analysis by By Geoffrey Miller. Political Roundup: NZ’s Middle East strategy, 20 years after the Iraq War This week marks the twentieth anniversary of the Iraq War. While it strongly opposed the US-led invasion, New Zealand’s then Labour-led government led by Prime Minister Helen Clark did deploy military engineers to try to help rebuild Iraq ...
If you find yourself stressing about the cost of living crisis and how it will impact your home loan, talking to your bank as soon as possible is important. If you are experiencing financial challenges or think you might in the future, it’s important to reach out to your bank ...
Despite being entrenched practice in New Zealand schools, the practice of academic streaming in schools might not be around much longer. A plan launched today sets out a pathway to achieve this.If you went to school in Aotearoa, odds are that streaming was part of your experience. The numerically-inclined ...
The Paediatric Society of New Zealand/Te Kāhui Mātai Arotamariki o Aotearoa are very concerned about the high number of tamariki injured by dogs in Aotearoa. Auckland emergency doctor Natasha Duncan-Sutherland says, “Over 2800 dog-related injuries ...
MP Ibrahim Omer will replace Grant Robertson as Labour’s candidate in the Wellington Central electorate after beating former party president Claire Szabo in the candidate selection race. Omer arrived in New Zealand as a refugee and worked as a cleaner before enrolling at Victoria University in 2014. “As someone who has ...
A new report from Australia highlights the significant community exposure to alcohol advertising through social media platforms. Over a one-year period researchers observed nearly 40,000 advertisements from a subset of alcohol-related accounts on Meta platforms ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Leah Ruppanner, Professor of Sociology and Founding Director of The Future of Work Lab, The University of Melbourne pexels/tara winstead, CC BY-SA You’ve probably heard about the “great resignation” which saw large numbers of people resigning from their jobs in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Beckett, Senior Lecturer (Food Science and Human Nutrition), School of Environmental and Life Sciences, University of Newcastle Shutterstock You’ve probably heard about the medication Ozempic, used to manage type 2 diabetes and as a weight loss drug. Ozempic (and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Menna Elizabeth Jones, Associate Professor in Zoology, University of Tasmania Human life on Earth is utterly dependent on biodiversity but our activities are driving an increase in extinctions. Yet some extinct species continue to hold our fascination. New methods in genetics and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Paul Kidson, Senior Lecturer in Educational Leadership, Australian Catholic University Shutterstock Australian schools have been under huge pressures in recent years. On top of concerns about academic progress and staff shortages, schools have faced significant, ongoing disruptions due to ...
The Green Party has made it clear it’s frustrated after being shafted by Labour during last week’s so-called policy bonfire. The prime minister recently ditched a number of policies announced during Jacinda Ardern’s tenure, many of which were backed strongly by the Greens. In a state of the nation address ...
The US banking crisis may help force a rethink by the Reserve Bank here, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here.Did last week’s turmoil stop interest rate hikes in their tracks? ...
The Greens have laid down a challenge to potential coalition partners: come to the table with faster and stronger climate action if you want our support. ...
The early days of Māori Television were chaotic. After the founding CE was fired and imprisoned for fraud, Dr. Jim Mather was tapped to lead the fledging broadcaster. An account with no previous media experience, he was an unlikely choice for the role, but ended up leading the channel through ...
Regional public transport is where money can do the most good in the shortest time. So why is the government giving the regions’ funding to the main centres? I used to think of public transport mainly as a way to reduce our environmental impact. It was only when I started ...
The most recent piece of research on actual menstrual blood volume was conducted in 1964, which has left many people without key health information, writes researcher Claire Badenhorst. Last month, after being in the office for only half a day, I headed home early for the sole reason that I ...
The amazing success story of a Takapuna writer In 2021, I self-published The Lighthouse, a novel I had been working on for 10 years. Something that kept me going was the thought I might one day walk into a bookstore and see my book sitting on the shelf. Would ...
Watch video: In part 4 of our video series, The Way Forward, Rod Oram looks at big new ideas that can lead our response to climate change and improve sustainability. Agriculture generates half New Zealand’s greenhouse gases, but the sector is still moving very slowly and reluctantly towards cutting ...
The precious metal surged almost 4 percent as investors, shaken by US bank collapses and trouble at the venerable Swiss bank Credit Suisse, fled to a safe haven ...
Auckland Council has consented yet another helipad on Waiheke Island. That’s more than 60 on an island less than 20km long. Kim Whitaker asks how has council got it so wrong? A landowner in Church Bay, Waiheke Island, got some welcome news on Friday afternoon, when their helipad consent application ...
With Labour’s winter fuel allowance ((copied and pasted directly from the UK’s policy), it would mean that NZPower, a policy that would have made a world of difference to electricity users, and would have benefited generators and retailers as well, had they not blindly opposed it is dead in the water. A pity really.
Well, this is what happened when Labour capitulated to the ABCs: kill all remaining innovation in the party as if that was what went wrong in 2014.
Search for the petition to stop the merger between Bayer and Monsanto. Please sign it today.
Sounds like some of Sweden’s new citizens have embraced the spirit of community activism and internationalism for which the country is so well know. Oh, wait….
“A Somalian woman in Gothenburg, Sweden, Qamar Cleasson, spies on families in who converted to Christianity and shares the information with Muslims abroad, reports Pamela Geller.
Cleasson joined a Swedish Christian congregation to spy on these families. Somali families associated with the church now feel threatened and some have been forced to go underground. According to local sources speaking to Geller, Swedish police say they “lack resources” and are unable to help the apostate families.”
https://www.jihadwatch.org/2017/07/sweden-muslima-infiltrates-church-to-spy-on-report-converts-to-christianity
We didn’t have the infrastructure in place for so many immigrants to come to NZ in the first place.
And now the solution is for national to loan $1billion to councils to try and fix it? It’s not the councils fault that so many people were allowed in NZ, councils were unprepared for it, and now they have to foot the bill.
Doesn’t seem fair to me, wonder if rates will rise in those areas?
Almost everything that National does causes rates to rise and then National will blame the council – unless it’s a right-wing council in which case they won’t say a word. Just look at how they talk about Auckland and who they blame for the cost blow-outs that they caused by their stupid SuperShitty legislation.
Holy fuck. A blinding flash of actual good sense from Dallas, Texas. Put some actual public transport users on the board of the transit authority.
https://cleantechnica.com/2017/07/10/dallas-puts-transit-riders-transit-board-whoa/
A brief scan of Auckland Transport’s board doesn’t look like a similar outbreak is coming here anytime soon.
https://at.govt.nz/about-us/our-role-organisation/board-of-directors/
Patrick Reynolds – one of the TransportBlog founder – was appointed by Auckland Council to their Customer Focus Committee in June. He’s doing a good job.
I hate to feel like I’m dumping on good news, but isn’t that a bit damning with faint praise?
Yes lol. They should have PT experts all over local government.
Nope. He’s doing a good job.
Don’t forget:
Auckland Transport has by a long way the largest teams devoted to public transport, cycling, and walking of any public entity in the country.
They are also highly tuned to what the public transport customer is wanting more or less of, due to the near-90% penetration of their HOP card which tracks every trip on every public transport mode.
My snark was not aimed at the work Reynolds is doing, more that despite his appointment AT’s efforts to get public transport users deeply involved in decision-making still look somewhat token when set against a board loaded up with the likes of Cullen, Rebstock, Gilbert…
Honour Board.
Protesting for democracy. Jailed.
Hard to get, and easy to lose, or misuse.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-rights-idUSKBN19V0Q4
A Chinese hospital treating sick dissident Liu Xiaobo offered a bleak prognosis on Monday, saying he is seriously ill, as a U.S. attorney who represents Liu accused Beijing of hastening his death by refusing to allow his transfer to a foreign hospital.
Liu, 61, was jailed for 11 years in 2009 for “inciting subversion of state power” after he helped write a petition known as “Charter 08” calling for sweeping political reforms.
Funny how so many in the west can’t see the propaganda that is fed to them on a daily basis.
Here’s but one example.
Remember when Aleppo was being liberated by the Syrian government.
Remember the corporate media ‘s unending commentary about the bad Russians bombing the city to smithereens?
Patrick Cockburn would one of the few western journalists to observe similar destruction has been wreaked on Mosul.
‘Nobody knows how many civilians died in Mosul because many of the bodies are still buried under the rubble in 47 degrees heat. Asked to estimate how many people had been killed in his home district of al-Thawra, Saad Amr said: “we don’t know because houses were often full of an unknown number of displaced people from other parts of the city.”
Some districts are so badly damaged that it is impossible to reach them. We heard that there had been heavy airstrikes on the districts of Zanjily and Sahba and, from a distance, we could see broken roofs with floors hanging down like concrete flaps. But we could not get there in a car because the streets leading to them were choked with broke masonry and burned out cars.”
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/isis-baghdadi-mosul-air-strikes-civilians-killed-us-a7836261.html
As Gore Vidal said…
“The corporate grip on opinion in the United States is one of the wonders of the Western world. No First World country has ever managed to eliminate so entirely from its media all objectivity – much less dissent.”
Oh absolutely, there were numerous incidents of John McCain & CNN’s dearly beloved moderate head choppers shooting people who tried to flee using the open corridors. But muh Russians bombed the last hospital in Aleppo 26 times!
Glad to see we can finally agree that large-scale air strikes on densely-populated areas is not a good way to fight a war, Paul/Ed. It’s a realisation you’ve come to quite late and I expect only because this time the US was involved, but better late than never.
Is that a suggestion that bombing carried out on E. Aleppo was somehow comparable to what has just happened in Mosul?
The principle is comparable, the events themselves not so much. For instance, in Mosul the bombardment was carried out in support of a ground attack, while in east Aleppo the bombardment was for a long time carried out in lieu of a ground attack, as the regime didn’t have the numbers to mount one. To that extent it was more of a punishment for opposing the Assad regime than the furthering of any military purpose. Another difference is that the destruction in Mosul was much worse, because it was held by religious fascists fighting to the last man and bullet, so a negotiated conclusion wasn’t possible the way it was in Aleppo. Another difference is the coalition didn’t randomly unload barrels of explosives out the back of a helicopter over Mosul. No doubt there are many other differences. But the principle, yeah pretty comparable.
The principle is broadly comparable, yes. The considerations taken around bombing, “maybe” not so much.
Perhaps you haven’t read the Cockburn piece that comments on the notable absence of bullet holes in walls – indicating a lack of street to street fighting? Who lacked the numbers, or is it the will, to carry out a ground attack again?
Who do you think was opposing the Syrian government in E. Aleppo and launching ordnance into civilian areas of W. Aleppo? The civilians of E. Aleppo who were being held as human shields in much the same manner as civilians in Mosul? Because that’s the implication of your statement that E.Aleppo was simply bombed as a form of punishment.
Care to spell out any meaningful difference between those who sought a Caliphate and who occupied E. Aleppo, and those who sought a Caliphate who occupied Mosul?
And if one set of occupiers can be given safe passage to avoid mounting civilian casualties, then why not the other set ( given that a goodly number had already been allowed passage from Mosul to Palermo)?
Random barrel bombs or ordnance targeting underground bunkers being dropped from helicopters? And how does targeted white phosphorous work?
No need to actually address those questions btw. I fully get that you’re really quite attached to the official narratives flying around the show on Iraq and Syria.
Remember the funnel of those estimates on the population of East Aleppo though? 250,0000 … ahem, 200,000 … ahem 120,000 … ok, so it was actually 60,000 but muh Russian airstrikes! Maybe listening to the London based/Salafi funded ‘Syrian’ Observatory for ‘Human Rights’ wasn’t such a good idea for the UN, who ended up having to backpedal substantially on those bs numbers.
Meanwhile, about 650,000 of Mosul’s prewar population known to have stayed in the city after it was captured by ISIS. Presumably some of them will have escaped in that time, but it sounds like they were every bit as effective as the ‘moderate’ militants in East Aleppo at shooting anyone who tried to flee. So there will undoubtedly have been more people in Mosul by far than even the 250k fake news numbers initially reported for East Aleppo.
Without doubt, it’s the differing treatment from the west which stands out. Where was the outrage at those civilian casualties from CNN? I’ve seen Trump compared to Hitler by American liberals for just about everything except the bombing of Mosul, which had half of liberal American godwinning themselves at the very mention of Vladimir Putin for nigh on a year.
Where was the outrage at those civilian casualties from CNN?
I don’t watch CNN, but I’d be picking they didn’t think the Iraqi government’s attempt to destroy a religious fascist occupation was of a similar nature to the Assad regime’s revenge on people who’d prefer not to live under an absolute monarch. Which would be fair enough, because they are different.
Correctly picking that Syrian civilians would appear to prefer a democratically elected President and an elected parliament to a Monarchy…barreling straight into comment of twisted car crash wreckage. Oh well.
Democratically elected?
Twice.
lol 99/97% each time, too.
And yet it seems that more than 3% of Syria counter-votes with a bullet.
But are the people using those bullets a majority?
No McFlock. Neither 99 nor 97%.
From previous comments and arguments it’s clear you have nothing of worth to say about Syria. An echo of msm memes is about all you have. Maybe if you spoke with some of the Syrian refugees in town, you’d learn a thing or two and stop with that b/s.
Anyway, the turnout in 2014 was 70 odd percent with terrorist controlled areas effectively boycotting the elections. Votes could be cast at those foreign embassies that hadn’t been shut down by host countries.
Couple of things. If the turnout was 70 odd percent in spite of terrorist and foreign based opposition boycotts, and in spite of populations living in terrorist held areas being unable to vote, then what does that say about the supposed ‘civil war’ in Syria?
And if you or I lived in country under siege, would we not tend to vote for the incumbent in multi-candidate elections, even if we disagreed with them politically, given that any further instability would favour those who wanted the entire population subjected to Cromwellian era nonsense?
Or willfully boycott to send a positive roundhead message.
The runner up got 4.3% of the vote btw, and over 30 countries sent observers who judged the election to be fair.
2000: 99.7%
2007:99.86%
2014: 88.7%
You can believe those results, millions wouldn’t.
In 2000 he was the only candidate and ~ 8.5 million people voted.
In 2007, it was a referendum to confirm him as president and ~ 11 million people voted.
In 2014 there were 3 candidates and ~ 10 million people voted despite (so we are told) every one wanting him gone.
Doesn’t quite fit the western narrative does it?
An increasing number of people confirming his second term in office in 2007 and only about 10% fewer people than that voting in 2014 despite boycotts, and daily shellings/suicide attacks and occupation of both city districts and swathes of country-side by salafists/headchoppers and millions of refugees.
Seriously. Go and speak to some of the Syrian refugees in town.
How does it not fit the narrative?
I, for one, am a great fan of the way he increased the population of Syria by 3mil from 2000 to 2007, the bulk of which seemed to be eligible voters aged 18 and over.
Foreign fighters don’t typically vote in elections for the country they’re being paid to invade.
Well, with winning margins like that, the ones from Hezbollah might. But either way it doesn’t account for the numbers. Much more than 3% are fighting for the various opposition groups.
I think the answer lies in the fact that voting is only held in the Govt controlled areas. Rebel held areas don’t get to vote.
my bold
5000 people exited E Aleppo. Some of them (like in Homs) did so under threat of death from the Salafists.
That’s 5000 from a population of ..what?…minus the numbers of foreign fighters of course.
Given that forces get concentrated (so more present by percentage of total population in a strategic location like E Aleppo), if we take the figures our media fed us about 200 000 residents being in E Aleppo….what’s that 5000 in percentage terms McFlock? Even if we assume all the women and children and threatened men of that 5000 are a part of the fighting?
“Much more than 3%” as you claim?
Hmm. Not really.
Dunno why you’re going on about aleppo in regards to the election vs foreign fighters.
20k people voted against assad in 2007.
Ten years later something like a quarter of a million people are in arms against him. Unless 210k of them are foreigners, it’s a pretty severe drop in the polls.
You’re being a deliberate arse here McFlock. No-one voted “against” Assad in 2007. It was a confirmation referendum. No opposition.
Turnout in 2007 was up some two and a half million from 2000.
In 2014, with some 4 million people having fled the country, and a boycott imposed by Jihadists in areas they controlled plus a war going on and foreign embassies being shut down, turnout in the contested election only dropped by about 400 000 from those 2007 numbers.
Anyway. That offer above stands.
2007 election
Choice Votes %
For 11,199,445 99.82
Against 19,653 0.18
Invalid/blank votes 253,059 –
Total 11,472,157 100
And the number of votes actually increased between 2007 and 2014. Even though the turnout percentage dropped by a quarter.
Where I come from, a guy who inherited the country from his dad is a king, not a “democratically elected president.” And historically, kings whose rule was absolute got their rule termed “absolute monarchy.” So, yes, Syria is currently an absolute monarchy, albeit one in which the monarch likes to style himself a “democratically-elected president.”
As part of that somewhat comical attempt to style himself a president, Assad holds elections. Which is meaningless – if he wanted, King Salman of Saudi Arabia could hold elections and be assured of an overwhelming majority (after all, opposing him gets you imprisoned and tortured just like it does in Syria). He doesn’t, of course, because he’s up front about being an absolute monarch, a level of honesty way beyond Bashar al Assad. However, even if he were to aspire to Assad levels of dishonesty and hold some elections to declare him president, it wouldn’t make him a “democratically-elected president” any more than it does Assad, or any more than it did Saddam Hussein.
Wait, you’re saying that the majority of the fighters in East Aleppo weren’t Islamists?
I don’t recall saying it. What gave you that impression? If you’re conflating “Islamists,” ie the majority of Middle East Arabs, with Da’esh, who are religious fascists who tried to set up a caliphate in some parts of Iraq and Syria they conquered. please don’t.
No, I’m saying people whose objective is a theocracy may as well be ISIS if they are prepared to enforce those laws by force. I don’t for a minute think Assad is any good, but secular villain beats Islamist villain for me by a country mile.
So, if we just conflate general Muslim interest in having Islam as the basis of their country’s laws with Da’esh’s attempts to impose a religious fascist dictatorship, then the situations in east Aleppo and Mosul were near enough the same. Why not conflate right-wing political views with fascism and say the National Party might as well be the Nazis, while you’re at it? It makes just as little sense.
Same people PM. No “conflation” required.
That’s a truly astonishing statement. The number of people in the Middle East who are “Islamists,” ie who’d like to see Islam forming the basis of their country’s laws, is huge – in Egypt the military took over again because democratic elections produced an Islamist government. It’s doubtful a genuinely democratic election in Syria or various other Arab countries would have a different result. For you and Cemetery Jones to claim this mass of people are the same as Da’esh is just bizarre.
Oh come on, Ahrar Al-Sham, Jhabat Fatah Al-Sham, Nour Al-Din Al-Zinki etc. were the dominant forces in East Aleppo. They are theocrats, and not a benign kind by any shade. To suggest that these kinds of groups are in any way representative of the general Muslim interest is absurd. They want enforced Sharia, enforced modesty, the traditional role of women (confined or chaperoned) – they are the Islamic version of Margaret Atwood’s Republic of Gilead.
Then there’s the Kurdish factor. If these groups were so benign, how come they attacked the Kurdish zone, forcing them to respond by holding a hostile front for the duration of the campaign? Surely the Kurds of East Aleppo could have made a deal with them if they really were just moderates? And surely they would have desired to do so, if they were just moderates? Bullshit, they are sectarian holy warriors, and just because they’ll execute their enemies in a slightly less histrionic fashion to ISIS makes not one whit of difference if you’re in the next neighbourhood over from their fighters.
Oh come on, Ahrar Al-Sham, Jhabat Fatah Al-Sham, Nour Al-Din Al-Zinki etc. were the dominant forces in East Aleppo.
According to Assad and Putin they were, yes. It’s even possible the claim was accurate, after Assad had spent years besieging Aleppo and killing his less-extreme opponents. The fact that the only people left alive opposing the Assad regime a few years after the start of the uprising were the toughest, most highly-motivated fighters because the regime had successfully killed or driven out all the others, isn’t a point in favour of the Assad regime.
It shows what we’ve long known: much like the Anarchists etc. didn’t flock to Spain in the 30s to fight because Franco was leading a terrible regime or because they had the people of Spain’s best interests at heart, but because they wanted their revolution, so too the foreign fighters who flocked to Syria didn’t come because Assad was a dictator or for love of the Syrian people, but to fight holy war against apostates and khufar.
The reason so many wouldn’t surrender is that they weren’t Syrian, they were foreign fighters. They turned a minor rebellion which would have been over quickly due to its lack of popular support into a bloody slugfest. And for the insurgents that’s fine. The uglier, the better. More propaganda, more radicalisation, more division and indecision on the part of those of us who should have seen that phase of rebellion for what it was.
Without doubt, it’s the differing treatment from the west which stands out.
But..but..Assad, who has no history of ‘bad shit’ being reported from the time of his first Presidential term in 2000/2001 until 2011, bar a HRW report from 2007 riding off the back of unfounded Iraqi government charges from 2004 that he was harbouring jihadists who were entering Iraq from Syria (not Turkey), you really need to remember (we all do) that Assad is bad. Really bad. Devil incarnate bad. Always has been.
Hmmm, I remember Assad as being portrayed as bad right from the time that USA decided to promote ‘Arab Spring’ fuck-ups.. Never heard much about him before USA decided regime change was necessary…
Funny, that.
Seriously?
He was never really thought of as a democratic leader. He was just better than the clusterfuck they were planning next door, stabilising a complex demographic and political state in global hotspot.
As soon as he lost control, he was no longer providing any benefit, geopolitically-speaking.
He didn’t and hasn’t lost control.
But nice way to side-step the whole demonisation angle.
Anyway. The US wanted their claws on Syria from 2004 on-wards. (Now, you saying he ‘lost control in 2004?) And Clinton’s emails on the region should be required reading.
I think you’ll find clinton had different policy objectives from cheney. Especially after 2010/11, when Assad lost control.
But of course he hasn’t lost control, Syria is a wonderful place to be, with pastoral hillsides echoing the calls of 7.62mm birds… /sarc
So what were Cheney’s objectives that are or were different to Clinton’s?
And like I say (and this is on record) the US wanted rid of the Syrian government from 2004 onwards. In fact, I think there’s a CNN interview with Assad from 2004 where that’s brought up.
And no, Syria’s not a “wonderful place to be” ffs, and no-one has said that it is.
It’s a particularly unwonderful place at the moment because it’s a war zone.
It wasn’t a war zone when he was in control.
It wouldn’t be a war zone if he hadn’t lost control.
But he lost control of very large bits of it. Most of it.
As for cheney vs clinton, that’s empire vs actual democratic ideals having a place in the decision-making. Behind quite a bit of realpolitik, sure, but still in the mix.
Either way, we seem to be in agreement that Assad was thought to be “bad” well before Arab Spring.
You simply haven’t read Clinton’s emails on the matter, have you? She wasn’t in the least interested in democracy. Iran and Israel feature large in her take. Syrian people are irrelevant (not mentioned at all)
Anyway. For every three discreet articles/stories in the msm portraying Assad in anything like the terms we’ve seen this last six years, and that are from the years 2000/2001 through to 2010 (a clear decade), Iand that you link to, ‘ll buy you a hand pulled pint of your choosing.
Telling you now though. All you will find is stuff from 2004 when Iraq was throwing groundless accusations about Syria harbouring some peeps from Sadam’s regime and Jihadists. And then you’ll find a 2007 HRW report that’s probably at best (worst) on a par with what would have been reported on the UK in the 70s and 80s before the Peace Process.
I don’t think I’ve bothered to ever read clinton’s emails on any matter. Some of the podesta ones I think.
anyway: PBS
The economist
Slate
Washington Institute
Middle East Forum
the New Yorker
the Guardian.
That enough for a speights?
That seriously the best you have for the man who we are to believe is the devil incarnate!?
First link is post protests.
Second one (2002) – is about a visit to Buckingham Palace.
Third one (2003) – the accusations that high ranking Iraqis have taken refuge in Syria and about that providing an excuse for Democratic presidential candidate (Florida Sen. Bob Graham) to openly support war with Syria.
Fourth one (2001) – Dry and somewhat detached analysis on the prospects for reform in Syria under Assad.
Fifth one (2003) – claims that Assad’s a weak leader lacking “killer instinct”, but that nevertheless concedes – The two and a half years that have passed since Bashar’s rise to power in Syria have been relatively calm and stable.
Sixth one (2003) Illegal incursion into Syria by US forces from Iraq.
Seventh one (2001) Blair meets Assad.
So no, not even a stale Speights from “The Crown” on a Sunday afternoon there McFlock.
fair call on the first one,snuck through me google filter.
The second one opens “THE Syrians are unlikely players for the war-on-terror team, especially now that the goalposts have been stretched to take in their neighbour, and fellow Baathist dictatorship, Iraq. Aside from making pots of money smuggling Iraqi oil, Syria has long been fingered as a supporter of terrorists, keeps an annoying boothold in Lebanon and is also believed to store some toxic weaponry of its own.”
I would have thought that was quite a negative portayal.
The third one: immediately after the one-line point about asad being so bad Graham was against him we have the rest of the paragraph:”Already some hawks are pointing to the tantalizing parallels between Saddam’s Iraq and Assad’s Syria. Weapons of mass destruction? Check. Support for terrorism? Check. Repressive domestic intelligence services? Check. The comparisons go further: Both countries were ruled by tyrannical men who are not members of the ethnic majority. (Saddam was a Sunni who ruled over a largely Shiite country, and Assad is an Alawite who rules over a Sunni majority.) To top things off, Syria even has a Baath Party and a Republican Guard. No one expects war anytime soon, but Assad’s stupidity has put the subject on the table.”
So a direct comparison with Saddam Hussein written in early 2003.
And so on – the fourth is dry and detached, but the only reforms it thinks likely is becoming like China, not like Canada. The fifth openly calls his government “a coercive and violent regime”. The sixth opens with the US incursion, but you might read the rest of the article. Again, it’s not charitable. As for the final one, “blair meets assad” is a reasonable description. Although again it describes Syria as ” a country that is a dictatorship with an abysmal human rights record, and which is still engaged in fighting Israel by proxy.”. But you preferred the more sterile phrasing. I guess it’s the only way it could get past your blinkers.
You seriously think those stories are on a par with the demonisation of Assad we’ve been subjected to these past several years?
Y’know, the guy who deliberately and casually slaughters Syrian civilians – by gas and bomb and whatever? The guy who orders hospitals to be bombed? The guy who deliberately starves entire populations? The guy who runs torture prisons housing thousands?
Curious btw. What were your search terms, how many pages down did you have to go to get those links, and why do you consider those sources to be msm? Some are, some (cough) “not so much”.
Anyway.
We know that Syria was a one party, democratic centralist state modeled along USSR lines – not exactly politically free then. (It now has pluralistic elections)
We know that along with Iraq and Libya, they were the last secular countries in the Arab world (all soviet/Arab hybrid governance structures and therefore “the enemy” according to liberal thought)
We know the war with Israel is essentially on-going.
And Syria withdrew its military presence from Lebanon in 2005.
So you wanted articles talking about how he gassed his own people before people in his country were gassed?
Sounds legit.
as for the search terms, I think I bunged a date range on “assad”, although at least one more recent thing slipped though. Not completely reliable, but filters it down to more manageable levels.
I dunno, the Americans were happy to cooperate on those rendition flights when it suited them, and the Brits loved having Assad over for a cuppa. As were the French, whose luxury shopping districts were always happy to see his wife which Bashar was hobnobbing with politicians.
How does that address my comment about him being useful only as long as he was in control of the country?
I guess I meant more that I think they actually liked him and maybe even projected their own views rather than seeing him for who he was. In that sense I’m more just rounding it out that they seem to have gone from seeing him as nicer than he was to seeing him as nastier than he is. Which for all I know is how you view him too, I guess.
“Like” has nothing to do with it.
There were initial hopes amongst doves that he’d tend towards more democratic ideals, if not actually relinquishing power. More Jordan than Saudi Arabia, sort of thing.
The hawks are always happy to use any nasty arsehole who is willing to help them.
But everyone knew what his dad was, and what the type of state he took control of was. Like Egypt or Morocco.
Arse.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damascus_Spring
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damascus_Declaration
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/may/28/syria.ianblack
Really?
Two wikipedia links and one from the Guardian and nothing about mass detentions, torture prisons, assassination programmes, indiscriminate oppression…
The stuff we’ve been getting these past few years, you’d never pick the guy had been trying to steer reforms through a (presumably) hostile and long established bureaucratic party structure – y’know, the likes of what Gorbachev confronted in the last phase of the USSR – with all it’s cliques and what not vying to promote their own agendas and/or retain the status quo.
Exactly it’s funny how Ed Paul doesn’t apply his own rules to himself, both Mosul and Aleppo are a stain on humanity, end of the day if you have to take a stand re the west for all its negatives vs eds team, the west win every time You sort of wonder why the eds of the world just don’t move to Russia as some of the more extreme of his ilk have, usually as a result of avoiding the law
Yous should read Patrick Cockburn and educate yourself.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/isis-baghdadi-mosul-air-strikes-civilians-killed-us-a7836261.html
We do read Patrick Cockburn,, Paul/Ed, we just don’t mis-use his work for specious arguments from authority as you’re wont to do.
I honestly believe the propaganda is fraying. Badly.
A country that can afford highly expensive killing machines should also be able to have rescue helicopters and camera drones that search for visible people, and have heat’ sensors wouldn’t work in 47degrees though. But reports come that nothing can be done. It can’t if there is no will to do it.
To Ed,
“Funny how so many in the west can’t see the propaganda that is fed to them on a daily basis.”
Why do you think that anything that has happened in the war torn hell-hole that is Syria or Iraq as funny?
a) that is not what he said was funny.
b) he obviously meant ‘funny peculiar’. not ‘funny ha-ha.’
Please try to put in a little more thought.
To In Vino,
Then, perhaps Ed can express himself more clearly! There is nothing wrong with my thought processes mate!
And there was nothing wrong with his. Sort out your own pedantry first.
HAha to that Johan
When E. Aleppo was being liberated from terrorists, we had condemnation plastered all over front pages. When the terrorists were given safe passage out of E. Aleppo in order that fewer civilian lives would be lost in the on-going conflict, the west screamed that it was a crime against humanity.
Bearing all of that and more in mind…
Patrick Cockburn on Mosul.
edit. seems I should have read previous comments. Oh well.
Forget it Bill, no one here wants to admit NZ’s role in all this killing of civilians with a ordinance which Satan Himself would be proud of.
A good concise article on Dem prospects for next year’s Senate elections.
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/red-state-senate-democrats-havent-drawn-strong-opponents-yet/
Chris Trotter at Bowelly Road and NRT clarify things nicely for commenters here that are nostalgic for Muldoonism: today’s Nats really are his true heirs.
http://norightturn.blogspot.com/2017/07/nationals-new-muldoonism.html
http://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/2017/07/damning-dam.html
Yes, just because Muldoon opposed Lange’s reforms, many here seem to see him as a proponent of good Keynesian type egalitarianism. I remember him well, and that is the last way I would describe him. The Clyde Dam legislation is a closer indication of his real nature.
But enough about us…
Probably work for the daily review pic.
Or, perhaps this one.
Inner hollowness has cropped up as a term for what drives people to keep gouging away at the earth and each other to get more. I started thinking about getting a better philosophy soon as we are going to have to make a sea change ready or not.
There is a drive to get more to make more profit, accumulate money. And yet this may be thrown up in the air on an expensive wedding, some major event or performance, or put into mining for precious metals, a new rip-off venture perhaps. Or the biggest fireworks in the southern hemisphere, an abomination while people are homeless in NZ and starving that so much money can be spent on a short term spectacle.
Perhaps everyone should go into a retreat once a year and meditate on the amazing world lived in and the amazing creature we are, amongst other amazing creatures and plants, and get the feeling of appreciation of life for itself. Then go out in the boat or the yacht, play with the toys, but look at them as extras not passing amusements for the bored, those with ennui. (Where are you ennui?)
Janis Ian had a song about people who sell out on growing up and venturing and living as an individual learning what you are, making mistakes and feeling lonely and having to find reserves inside oneself, and learning some empathy.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUydOqxhDQg
Those sort of people generally are very warm and practical, and materialism isn’t their principal crutch for life. Our task these days is to find each other, and form networks to help us face the coming hardships. The rest will lock themselves away, Lost on an island separated off like Planet Key?
I’m doing a lot of philosophising. We haven’t done much over the past 30 years and now facing the uncertain future, have to change our way of thinking as it requires us to decide on how we want to live; those who want to stay the same will eventually have to manage for themselves as best they can. There will have to be tight-knit groups who fend off those who want to latch on and use up resources without sufficient input, and there will be those who want to rob and destroy and they will have to be kept at bay. There must be something set aside for the outsiders who are needy, but not all will be able to be helped.
We see the world’s attitudes to the African immigrants. Already they are receiving the cold shoulder, having had their countries involved in conflict, their homes, water and crops demolished, and unable to follow their customary practices to last through drought. They are mostly men, it is hard for women and children to flee and last through the demanding journeys to a safe harbour with more privation beyond.
Inner hollowness is killing our world. We must try to maintain a soft centre, but still stay firm enough to cope. It is a difficult balance to achieve.
Cheer up, Grey, with some Eliot.
The Hollow Men
Mistah Kurtz-he dead
A penny for the Old Guy
I
We are the hollow men
We are the stuffed men
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
Our dried voices, when
We whisper together
Are quiet and meaningless
As wind in dry grass
Or rats’ feet over broken glass
In our dry cellar
Shape without form, shade without colour,
Paralysed force, gesture without motion;
Those who have crossed
With direct eyes, to death’s other Kingdom
Remember us-if at all-not as lost
Violent souls, but only
As the hollow men
The stuffed men.
II
Eyes I dare not meet in dreams
In death’s dream kingdom
These do not appear:
There, the eyes are
Sunlight on a broken column
There, is a tree swinging
And voices are
In the wind’s singing
More distant and more solemn
Than a fading star.
Let me be no nearer
In death’s dream kingdom
Let me also wear
Such deliberate disguises
Rat’s coat, crowskin, crossed staves
In a field
Behaving as the wind behaves
No nearer-
Not that final meeting
In the twilight kingdom
III
This is the dead land
This is cactus land
Here the stone images
Are raised, here they receive
The supplication of a dead man’s hand
Under the twinkle of a fading star.
Is it like this
In death’s other kingdom
Waking alone
At the hour when we are
Trembling with tenderness
Lips that would kiss
Form prayers to broken stone.
IV
The eyes are not here
There are no eyes here
In this valley of dying stars
In this hollow valley
This broken jaw of our lost kingdoms
In this last of meeting places
We grope together
And avoid speech
Gathered on this beach of the tumid river
Sightless, unless
The eyes reappear
As the perpetual star
Multifoliate rose
Of death’s twilight kingdom
The hope only
Of empty men.
V
Here we go round the prickly pear
Prickly pear prickly pear
Here we go round the prickly pear
At five o’clock in the morning.
Between the idea
And the reality
Between the motion
And the act
Falls the Shadow
For Thine is the Kingdom
Between the conception
And the creation
Between the emotion
And the response
Falls the Shadow
Life is very long
Between the desire
And the spasm
Between the potency
And the existence
Between the essence
And the descent
Falls the Shadow
For Thine is the Kingdom
For Thine is
Life is
For Thine is the
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.
Oops! Not as cheerful as hoped – perhaps some Leunig!
God bless this tiny little boat
And me who travels in it.
It stays afloat for years and years
And sinks within a minute.
And so the soul in which we sail,
Unknown by years of thinking,
Is deeply felt and understood
The minute that it’s sinking.
Better still, this and this, from our good friend Michael Leunig:
There are only two feelings.
Love and fear.
There are only two languages.
Love and fear.
There are only two activities.
Love and fear.
There are only two motives,
two procedures, two frameworks,
two results.
Love and fear.
Love and fear.
Dear God,
We rejoice and give thanks for earthworms,
bees, ladybirds and broody hens;
for humans tending their gardens, talking to animals,
cleaning their homes and singing to themselves;
for rising of the sap, the fragrance of growth,
the invention of the wheelbarrow and the existence of the teapot,
we give thanks. We celebrate and give thanks.
Amen.
I hope you were able to paste most of that, Robert. Good reading, but if you typed it all out, you have undermined my confidence.
Well written Grey, well written indeed, thoughtful words that ring true. I really appreciate your outlook and wisdom thank you for sharing.
Thanks may we always have good games of ping pong here, words and thought back and forth, feeding the ball to each other and keeping it in the air never falling.
(So poetic eh or something.)
Good buzz Grey 😀
What a little treasure of words. Leunig is special. I once had a ticket to a talk he gave and forgot. So it is good to have his perky words. And the other poem. I think you have talked about WH Auden. His words are from the heart too, and speak to any heart that can at that moment receive them. Wow it’s a long poem but I thought that these two verses are for the time.
http://www.poemdujour.com/Sept1.1939.html
SEPTEMBER 1, 1939
by W.H. Auden
Into this neutral air
Where blind skyscrapers use
Their full height to proclaim
The strength of Collective Man,
Each language pours its vain
Competitive excuse:
But who can live for long
In an euphoric dream;
Out of the mirror they stare,
Imperialism’s face
And the international wrong.
Faces along the bar
Cling to their average day:
The lights must never go out,
The music must always play,
All the conventions conspire
To make this fort assume
The furniture of home;
Lest we should see where we are,
Lost in a haunted wood,
Children afraid of the night
Who have never been happy or good.
He mentions Linz in his poem.
This might have been what he was referring to:
The astronomer and the witch: How one of history’s great scientists saved his mother from burning at the stake
Johannes Keppler in 1620 did this thing by speaking for her at her trial.
The dramatic story of how Johannes Kepler saved his own mother from being burned as a witch is told in full in a new book by Professor Ulinka Rublack, which reveals the devastating human consequences of Early Modern Europe’s witch-trial culture.
http://www.joh.cam.ac.uk/astronomer-and-witch-how-one-history%E2%80%99s-great-scientists-saved-his-mother-burning-stake-see-more-http
I should have included WH Auden’s last verse to September 1, 1939. TS must be a lighthouse.
Defenseless under the night
Our world in stupor lies;
Yet, dotted everywhere,
Ironic points of light
Flash out wherever the Just
Exchange their messages:
May I, composed like them
Of Eros and of dust,
Beleaguered by the same
Negation and despair,
Show an affirming flame.
Fabulous!
+1 (From a lazy keyboarder.)
In Vino
Not lazy at all. You like all of us here have broken through the technology barrier and become slaves tapping at the coalface. It’s not so much the typing, it’s all the new apps and helpful systems that you have to fight off before they take over your life, read your mind before your aware of your thought and reduce you to a sort of avatar of yourself. Interesting thought.
Now I did think that myself, didn’t I?
The neolib Gnashionals proceed with their plan to denature the environment and the communal society of NZ, and the belief in NZs as a special country with great attributes. We are just to be a bunch of mainly poorly-paid or disaffected unemployed living at the whim of overseas business while our natural and previously accumulated wealth is distilled from us leaving the essence of sour grapes for most, and fine wine for the minority.
That is the attitude shown by the latest economic burble coming from the PTB – they are going to erect legal borders and separate areas of NZ into SPECIAL ECONOMIC ZONES. This name should be noted. (Incidentally this idea was one promoted prior to 1840. I think the new effort indicates the mindset that this government is returning to, bugger advanced enlightenment and respect for an equal democracy.)
And the Local Bodies are apparently willing to go along and so sell us out.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/201850921/lgnz-supports-special-economic-zones
economy
8:25 am today Thursday 13 July 2017
LGNZ supports special economic zones
From Morning Report, 8:25 am today\
Listen duration 4′ :03″
The idea of special economic zones which could suspend rules for the environment, overseas investment and possibly immigration is getting strong support from local councils.
Up till now many of us have had a modicum of fellow feeling of warmth from our local government administering services and promoting the local economy for us, feeling an interest in our community and listening to what we want.
They have sometimes been captured by strong local lobbies particularly from the farming community. But with some effort people have mostly been able to have a say and persevere to a better outcome or to stop unwise projects or plain rorts.
But now LG seems to have drunk the Koolaid and we will have to fight our corner hard if they turn out to adopt this RW bastards idea. Watch this, the RW desire to destroy NZ as a country for people, is never-ending. The people who want to be able to have a happy life being people just living a normal life are not appreciated or wanted. Look at r0bs post today – https://thestandard.org.nz/nat-act-dont-think-poor-people-should-have-kids/
Paula Bennett famous solo mum –
““I can tell you that they are completely fed up with these children continuously being born to completely unfit parents. That’s a step that’s right out there, and I can tell you there is certainly discussion going on around it.””
😕
The RWs don’t want you, or you, or……..?