Open mike 12/12/2015

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, December 12th, 2015 - 64 comments
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64 comments on “Open mike 12/12/2015 ”

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  1. Chooky 1
    12 December 2015 at 9:33 am

    An Opinion Piece which could be turned into a Post. (This article caught my eye before I even realised that Chris Perley stands for the Green Party. He has a background in strategy, policy , research and operational management in provincial economies and land use. In my opinion, he would make a great Minister of Agriculture)

    To summarise, in ‘The NZ Farmers Weekly’ ‘Money root of industrial cruelty’ Perley argues:

    “Most family-run farms do not make a practice of cruelty and undignified death.( This is my experience also)

    But there are operations where such things happen. And the first question to ask is why, identify that deeper cause and deal with that.

    It is the changing values underpinning how we look at land, community, people, animals and land use that are the deeper roots to this debacle.

    And it is the systems that proclaim and reinforce the soulless and mechanical view: produce more , cheaper, never mind downstream, people are cogs, animals aren’t even that

    …Our target ought to be to remove the beast. And that monster is the pervasive industrial corporate thinking and its narrow and short-term money lens, which makes us leass , not more, wealthy in the long-term…

    New Zealand’s love affair with industrial commoditisation is a race to a Third World bottom, digging ever deeper…family farmers have to stand up against this rising tide of the commoditisation of life and land and to all the associated advocacy of genetically modified organisms, intensification, pollution and ever more commodities.

    There is another path: go value, not volume.”

    https://home.greens.org.nz/candidates/chris-perley

    (This article by Chris Perley is very relevant to what another commenter on the Standard and the Daily Blog posted recently on Farming and the TPP)

    SAVENZ says:
    DECEMBER 10, 2015 AT 11:42 AM

    “Very interesting video about how TTIP (and likewise TPP) can destroy small and medium farmers (i.e. like NZ farmers), introduce Genetically modified foods, introduce chlorinated meat washing techniques and USA agricultural intensive farming practises around the world with these ‘free trade’ agreements.

    It is not only NZ farms being bought up by agribusiness and foreign investors it is also happening in Europe. Soon as well as being tenants in our own country we will also be able to afford the ‘raw food’ materials of our country as they will be exported using mega supply chains to other countries to be processed.

    The video also has a lot of useful statistics like how 70% of the worlds fresh water is used in agribusiness and 52% of emissions are from agribusiness as to get that massive scale petrol is used to ship around the world.

    While we like to think NZ is an exporter so TPP will ‘help’ farmers it appears that most mega agribusiness like Montanso and investment companies buying up land for food are most likely to use NZ as a banana republic, and use their own migrant labour, offshore productions and supply chains to export the food cutting out the middle men (Kiwis) and using sophisticated tax laws to pay the minimum of taxes while getting the maximum of corporate welfare.

    It is already happening, TPP just means governments will not be able to stop it as they can be sued.

    http://amara.org/en/videos/RB5o7MJ0YZgr/info/ttip-the-countryside-gone-into-liquidation/

    We all know John Key is for the future re-colonisation of NZ but perhaps his biggest coup is getting the Maori party and Farmers to support him to sell off their land and NZ resources on mass!

    Hope everyone has deep pockets as under the ISDS they will need it!”

    – See more at: http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2015/12/10/the-daily-blog-open-mic-thursday-10th-december-2015/#sthash.18Z5ZtXf.dpuf

    ( Where is the New Zealand Labour Party on the TPP and farming ?..Fence sitting as usual ?…Certainly has not joined the Greens and NZF in opposing the TPP !)

    • Tautuhi 1.1
      12 December 2015 at 11:21 am

      Very little critical analysis being done on MSM about the TPP, I guess the MSM journalists are not educated enough to understand the ramifications of this agreement or are to scared to write anything controversial for fear of losing their jobs.

      • Chooky 1.1.1
        12 December 2015 at 11:38 am

        +100 agreed….and here is another reason NOT to sign and to OPPOSE the TPP

        …another merger multinational corporation which New Zealand land and farmers and legislators will have no protection from( Labour Party where are you?)

        ‘$130b mega-merger: Dow, Dupont to form world’s largest agrochemical entity’

        https://www.rt.com/usa/325668-dow-dupont-merger-chemical/

        ….”The Pesticide Action Network calls Dow, Dupont, BASF, Monsanto, Syngenta, and Bayer the ‘Big 6’ of the seed, pesticide, and biotechnology industries. The companies “have historically unprecedented power over world agriculture, enabling them to control the agricultural research agenda, heavily influence trade and agricultural agreements and subvert market competition,” the organization says…

        “Dow and Dupont have a combined annual revenue of around $83 billion, with operating profit of about $15 billion.

        Dupont and Dow Chemical have long been criticized for their track records regarding environmental stewardship. For decades, Dupont refused to take responsibility for toxic pollutants spilled into the Ohio River, it has been alleged in federal court. In October, a West Virginia woman was awarded $1.6 million after it was determined that Dupont chemicals contaminated water supply, contributing to her kidney cancer. The company has also received scrutiny of its release of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), used to make non-stick products like Teflon cookware. The American Cancer Society said the chemical causes higher risks of bladder and kidney cancers in those with workplace exposure to it.

        READ MORE: 25,000 killed, 500,000 poisoned: Bhopal demands justice 30 yrs after world’s worst chem disaster

        Dow was responsible for producing napalm, the chemical used by the US military to devastate populations in Vietnam. Its subsidiary, Union Carbide, was responsible for the deaths of thousands in Bhopal, India, in 1984 following a massive leak of a chemical used to make pesticide. Dow continues to refuse to clean the site or to fund medical initiatives to address the spill’s ongoing aftermath, the company’s critics say.”

    • RedBaronCV 1.2
      12 December 2015 at 12:02 pm

      I can see very good money in the production of organic and/or high quality food.
      The sort of production that used to be everyday farming. The sort of production that family farms do best and they are smart enough to know it and to realise it.

      The last thing we want is our food production compromised by multinational factory farming complete with GE etc. Remember the Hawkes Bay declared itself GE free with out too much farmer muttering. The Greens pick up surprising numbers of votes in the rural areas – and given the way Nact has sidelined farmers there may be an opportunity there.

    • Cowboy 1.3
      12 December 2015 at 9:26 pm

      One of the concerns I have is the gradual loss of the food production supply chain to foreign multinational ownership. The recent example of Silver Fern Farms losing control of their company to Shanghai Maling is a case in point. If we don’t own and control the supply chain and have a mechanism to bring value added premiums back to the family farmer then farmers get trapped as price takers at the end of the chain. This all leads to a production mind set akin to a mouse on a wheel. As a country we need to be much more strategic about how we leverage our opportunities or this trend will continue.

      • RedBaronCV 1.3.1
        12 December 2015 at 10:37 pm

        i agree we want to trap as much production in country as possible under local ownership and export the food as close to end product as possible. What fonterra where supposed to be doing but didn’t.

        • Chooky 1.3.1.1
          12 December 2015 at 11:14 pm

          +100… re What fonterra were supposed to be doing but didn’t.

          Apparently when Diane Foreman was approached by a Chinese businessman to sell her multi- million dollar international export business ‘New Zealand Natural’ ..(a New Zealand ice-cream brand business) she felt honour-bound to offer her brand/business first to Fonterra.

          Fonterra didn’t respond to her first approach.

          On her more formal approach by a professional advisor on her behalf ; “He was told Fonterra had ‘absolutely no interest in the brand’ “.

          Her comment: “Fonterra is often criticised for not having a single brand with international significance and recognition. Anchor? That’s not it. New Zealand Natural? My business was a bit of a minnow compared with Fonterra’s scale but surely there was a brand fit that could have been applied across a range of products.”

          ( p260 ‘In the Arena’…incidentally a damned good book for budding entrepreneurs …)

      • Chooky 1.3.2
        12 December 2015 at 10:39 pm

        +100…and Russia certainly sees the importance of this and the marketing advantage of organic foods

        ‘Putin wants Russia to become world’s organic food superpower but first hopes to clip Turkey’s wings’ by Bryan MacDonald

        “Vladimir Putin’s annual parliamentary address, roughly equivalent to America’s ‘State of the Union,’ was heavy on talk of fighting terror. However, his proposals for organic agriculture reform may prove a lasting legacy…

        An organic dawn
        As the Kremlin has rejected the idea of GMO food production, now a mainstay of American agriculture, Russia could become the world’s principal supplier of high-quality organic food. Meaning there is potential to dominate the “high-end” market in both the West and in other wealthy countries – like China and the Middle Eastern states.

        “We are not only able to feed ourselves taking into account our lands, water resources – Russia is able to become the largest world supplier of healthy, ecologically clean and high-quality food which the Western producers have long lost, especially given the fact that demand for such products in the world market is steadily growing,” said Putin….

  2. Manuka AOR 2
    12 December 2015 at 10:13 am

    “Turn the World Around”

    Ta’Kaiya Blaney is a 14-year-old activist, singer and actress from the Tla’amin First Nation, north of Vancouver, Canada. On Saturday, she sang her song “Turn the World Around” at the International Tribunal on the Rights of Nature in Paris, France. “I was told by a Haida elder that to turn the world around, you have to turn it upside down,” Blaney told Democracy Now! after her performance.
    http://publish.dvlabs.com/democracynow/360/wx2015-1210_TakayaBreak-360P.mp4

  3. Bearded Git 3
    12 December 2015 at 10:18 am

    2.4 million voted in the 2014 election. 1.5 million voted on the flag. My guess is that’s 0.9 million, for a start, voting to keep the current flag in the next vote.

  4. Manuka AOR 4
    12 December 2015 at 10:37 am

    Naomi Klein calls the Climate Deal “extraordinarily dangerous”. She notes that when we speak of climate change as being something far away (or, I guess, something sufficiently unimportant that the nz gov can appoint a minister with no particular knowledge of it, let alone qualifications in this area) – this is nothing less than “subliminal racism”.

    Her interview with Naomi Klein on Democracy Now!
    “We are already living the era of dangerous warming. It is already costing thousands of lives and livelihoods, from the Philippines to Bangladesh to Nigeria to New Orleans and the Marshall Islands—I could go on and on. But it’s important to understand that language matters and that when we speak about dangerous warming as something that is far off in the distance, it is nothing less than, as my friend Kumi Naidoo put it yesterday, “subliminal racism.” And that racism is getting less subliminal every day. We are discounting lives when we speak that way, and we have to stop doing it.” http://www.democracynow.org/2015/12/9/naomi_klein_decries_climate_deal_as

  5. weka 5
    12 December 2015 at 11:09 am

    anyone else getting very slow load times on ts this morning?

  6. Morrissey 6
    12 December 2015 at 11:24 am

    Why are extreme right wingers so reluctant to engage in debate?

    I’ve recently been banned from Cameron “Blubberguts” Slater’s hate blog for the third and undoubtedly last time.

    Click on the following link and you will see how Slater has systematically gone about removing every one of my posts from his foul joke of a site…..

    https://disqus.com/by/disqus_On9DYCpWl2/

    • Chooky 6.1
      12 December 2015 at 11:46 am

      lol…i dont go there…i might get contaminated…but I applaud you going there sword in hand and toxic protective gear on.

      • Morrissey 6.1.1
        12 December 2015 at 8:20 pm

        I won’t be going there any more, Chooky, as I’ve been banned—permanently this time, I’m sure. Not that I did anything wrong; I carefully avoided flippancy or any put-downs of my interlocutors.

        I note that he cut me off almost straight after I raised the embarrassing fact that the New Zealand government backed Pol Pot’s regime in 1979, obediently following the lead of the United States and Great Britain. To provide evidence of that, I had just cited the following article from the New Zealand Journal of History…..

        http://www.nzjh.auckland.ac.nz/docs/1999/NZJH_33_2_05.pdf

        I’d like to do a little more research on this, but I suspect Cameron Slater’s father, John Slater, was one of the “brains” behind the National Government’s decision to support the Khmer Rouge. By even mentioning that shameful episode, I may have provoked Cameron Slater into an apoplectic fit.

    • b waghorn 6.2
      12 December 2015 at 6:33 pm

      I would imagine that slater proves the saying “that you can’t argue with stupid”

      • Morrissey 6.2.1
        12 December 2015 at 8:06 pm

        Slater doesn’t engage in argument; clearly, he lacks the wherewithal to defend his own statements.

        It’s a pity, really, because in those threads in which I participated, a large number of people who argued with me—and they all argued with more coherence and intelligence than Slater—seemed genuinely eager to debate in good faith.

  7. greywarshark 7
    12 December 2015 at 11:46 am

    On Kim Hill RADIONZ this morning so interesting.
    11:05 James Crow: vegan treats and the homeless
    Auckland mates James Crow and Tom Holden founded their company Tommy and James five years ago, to produce the dairy-free Nice Blocks range. Their Little Island Coconut Creamery now produces Little Island Nice Cream and Little Island Coconut Milk. James Crow is also the founder of Gimme Shelter, a think-tank project working on ideas to secure permanent housing for homeless in New Zealand.

    11:45 Kate’s Klassic: Essays by George Orwell
    Kate Camp has published five collections of poems, most recently Snow White’s Coffin (VUP). She will discuss Essays by George Orwell.

    • Chooky 7.2
      12 December 2015 at 4:37 pm

      +100 greywarshark …their Little Island coconut products are delicious!

      …and I bet Philip Ure eats them…now where is his VEGAN sausage?

      • greywarshark 7.2.1
        12 December 2015 at 8:05 pm

        Chooky
        The great? grate? P Ure. Still remembered – could TS swop (ban) 2 of our present RW rabble rousers for one P Ure just for a while say a month till he becomes too repetitive and contradictory. If we asked him about his vegan sausage he might come back.

        • Chooky 7.2.1.1
          12 December 2015 at 10:42 pm

          lol…you can find him over on the Daily Blog…and yes I miss him here…he was quite witty, very smart, and he did have interesting things to say

          ( I think his ban is long over…he is now in self-appointed exile)

          • greywarshark 7.2.1.1.1
            12 December 2015 at 11:08 pm

            I miss the one in Australia. He didn’t like being knuckled because of perceived bias against females. And was tossed out when he wrote on a feminist post. Silly bloke it is not a debatable subject, everyone knows that.

            But he was one that could produce pithy useful comments. Phillip U is long-winded but like a dog with a bone about his points, apart from that he came up with some good observations.

  8. maui 8
    12 December 2015 at 12:24 pm

    Outstanding commentary from Pala Molisa on capitalism and climate change, when will we start listening.
    http://www.radionz.co.nz/international/programmes/datelinepacific/audio/201781962/capitalism-accelerating-eco-collapse-says-pacific-academic

    • Manuka AOR 8.1
      12 December 2015 at 12:43 pm

      From that link: “once a community loses a sense of the sacred, one it commodifies everything so that nothing has an intrinsic value, it then opens up the ability to exploit everything, both human beings and the natural world, until it actually collapses. And that’s the situation we are in.”

      • Chooky 8.1.1
        12 December 2015 at 4:38 pm

        +100 maui and Manuka AOR

      • greywarshark 8.1.2
        12 December 2015 at 11:16 pm

        Manuka AOR
        Chris Trotter on Bowalley Road has written a recent post called Secret Agreement I think. He looks at the attitudes of politicians to the people and vice versa. And comes up with an interesting idea that we not only get the politicians we deserve but the politicians we expect. Few decent people who value their job and regard it in an ethical manner get into Parliament, and when they do stand up to make an ethical comment or express shock at wrongdoing they are not taken seriously, may be derided.

        The people expect to be exploited and so have dropped their standards, have become cynical bystanders at the rorts and antics of pollies. And so they diminish national standards, and don’t demand better so we all end up being complicit in what is in 2015, this shabby play or farce called democracy and elections.
        edited

        • Manuka AOR 8.1.2.1
          13 December 2015 at 5:52 am

          Thanks Grey – found it:
          “In practical terms, this means that it is the honest and principled politicians who attract the most scathing condemnation. Such people have clearly failed to understand their job description, which demands only a show of decency – and not even that if the politician’s indecent objectives can be achieved swiftly, decisively – and with ostentatious brutality.” http://bowalleyroad.blogspot.co.nz/

  9. Manuka AOR 9
    12 December 2015 at 12:37 pm

    Republican candidate wants to nuke Syrian targets?:

    “As Republican presidential candidates lined up to one-up each other about how they would fight Islamic terrorism, many mainstream pundits questioned the hysteria and took particular aim at billionaire Donald Trump for seeking a moratorium on admitting Muslims to the United States, but Trump’s proposal was far from the most outrageous.

    “Getting much less attention was a statement by Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, who is considered by many a more likely GOP nominee than Trump. Cruz suggested that the United States should nuke the territory in Iraq and Syria controlled by Islamic State militants.” ~ Robert Parry. http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/33999-ted-cruz-threatens-to-nuke-isis-targets

  10. Pascals bookie 10
    12 December 2015 at 1:14 pm

    The sourcing on this piece about ISIS funding could be better, but it’s interesting none the less (and it’s better sourced, or at least no worse, than the zerohedge type stuff)

    http://talisman-gate.com/2015/12/11/the-islamic-states-sovereign-wealth-fund/?platform=hootsuite

  11. joe90 11
    12 December 2015 at 4:04 pm

    Slavoj Žižek:

    We need to talk about Turkey

    The so-called “war on terror” has become a clash within each civilisation, in which every side pretends to fight Isis in order to hit its true enemy.

    http://www.newstatesman.com/world/middle-east/2015/12/slavoj-zizek-why-we-need-talk-about-turkey

  12. Robert Atack 12
    12 December 2015 at 4:17 pm

    Could you ever see FJK giving a speech like this ?
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6uYxborC9c
    Putin attends RT10 anniversary evening: Full speech with English translation

  13. The Chairman 13
    12 December 2015 at 4:49 pm

    “It only needs two or three dozen [Auckland buyers] to influence the market here”

    Wellington property sector heating up.

    http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/business/residential-property/74949866/home-buyers-hell-emerging-in-wellington-with-hot-competition-for-fewer-houses

  14. The Chairman 14
    12 December 2015 at 5:10 pm

    Duncan Garner:

    Her reinstatement is not about redemption, it’s about shutting her up because she was starting to cause trouble and gain headlines from the backbench, a senior MP told me this week. 

    http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/comment/columnists/74975343/duncan-garner-forget-crusher-paula-bennett-is-nationals-next-leader

    • sabine 14.1
      12 December 2015 at 6:45 pm

      I can see a lot of things happen, but her? i can’t see happening. She is such an unpleasant person generally speaking, devoid of any charm, any curiosity, any humor and seems lacking in humanity. I have also yet to meet a person who actually ‘likes’ her. And most people I interact with on a daily basis are not on the benefit , so i don’t see her tenure at MSD as a factor. It’s just that she is mean. Simply put if the new thing in NZ is now ‘mean’ than we are truly fucked as a Nation. Cause that chick is mean and angry.

      • The Chairman 14.1.1
        12 December 2015 at 7:46 pm

        It’s been touted before.

        It would be interesting to see how she would fare in the polls as preferred leader.

        What some perceive as mean others consider a firm hand.

        • b waghorn 14.1.1.1
          12 December 2015 at 8:21 pm

          One would wonder why Ardern is getting a mention in the polls yet bennetts not shown up, is she not even in peoples minds or is more proof of the right stirring shit by pushing the Ardern factor.

          • The Chairman 14.1.1.1.1
            12 December 2015 at 9:50 pm

            You could be on to something. But I’d say it’s more a matter of circumstance.

            For example, whether or not Ardern would replace King coupled with her high popularity and Labour and Little requiring to boost theirs. Opposed to National and Key sitting comfortable in the polls, largely ceasing speculation of the party requiring leadership change.

          • Sabine 14.1.1.1.2
            13 December 2015 at 3:14 pm

            cause no one likes her other then the business men that gave her good ratings for reducing/removing benefits and introducing a slave labour system called ‘job seekers benefit’ for unemployed, 60+ year old widows, and cancer and other disease stricken people. .

            Have a game, go ask people willy nilly what they thing of that chick as PM. Don’t ask for Party affiliation, just ask would you vote for her as PM.

      • Anne 14.1.2
        12 December 2015 at 10:02 pm

        And Bennett certainly doesn’t have the intellectual grunt. In fact she is an appallingly ignorant person but well versed in animal cunning.

        • The Chairman 14.1.2.1
          13 December 2015 at 8:42 am

          Bennett was nominated and accepted an Eisenhower Fellowship for the Women’s Leadership Programme 2010.

          The prestigious Fellowship was awarded to only 20 women around the world, identified as outstanding leaders.

          • Anne 14.1.2.1.1
            13 December 2015 at 11:04 am

            I remember that. Who nominated her? From memory her government – and JK in particular – engineered it. What a travesty she was chosen instead of one of the many outstanding young(ish) women this country has produced. It was a political nomination and nothing less! It degraded the prestige of the Fellowship.

            Did you listen to her response to her new role as CC minister the other night on TV? That was a far better indication of her lack of suitability to any leadership role in government.

            • The Chairman 14.1.2.1.1.1
              13 December 2015 at 11:26 am

              The NZ nominating committee. Eisenhower Fellowships has nominating committees in 48 countries.

              Sorry, didn’t see the interview.

            • greywarshark 14.1.2.1.1.2
              13 December 2015 at 3:35 pm

              It is a bit of a junket with its main point on acquiring personal skills to get on and looking out for other similar potential high-flyers and more EF (Eisenhower Fellowship) candidates. A big girls get-together for those in the upper strata – for ‘true leaders in all professions and geographies’ – and for those not in professions, but at the menial level of working at the grassroots where the most amount of entrepreneurship and development work is needed and being piloted, it’s all pie in the sky.

              2015 Women’s Leadership Program – Eisenhower Fellows
              https://efworld.org/our-programs/2015-women-leadership-program
              GOAL: The Women’s Leadership Program (WLP) will promote women in leadership … EF hosted the first WLP in 2010. … Fellows will be selected based on their leadership achievements, potential for future impact and plans for tangible outcomes.

              See Paula looking integrated and engaging in groupthink hi-jinks?
              https://efworld.org/news/women-bringing-new-energy-to-london#.VmzWs44ShMg
              …two and a half days in May when 60 Eisenhower Fellows from government, private sector, and non-profit arenas around the globe will address leadership challenges for women.

              Women in the EF network are a force and they make an impact on their communities (true of Paula B) – they are members of Parliament, cabinet ministers, CEOs and true leaders in all professions and geographies. This event will ignite conversations around ways women can be further recognized and engaged in professional growth and global leadership experiences.

              Attendees will come away from the event having strengthened their global & regional ties among female Eisenhower Fellows & become equipped with the tools from the EF network to support women in their professional activities, careers & personal development.
              edited

  15. Anne 15
    13 December 2015 at 12:23 pm

    The NZ nominating committee.

    And who directed the nomination committee perhaps by way of submitting a falsely grandiose CV? Paula Bennett is as cunning as a rat but she has no guiding principles and is intellectually barren. Them’s the facts, and no amount of fellowship granting based on questionable evidence can change it.

    Bear in mind, women have an instinctive understanding of other women and if they are being honest – not all of them are of course – they will know it’s true.

  16. te reo putake 16
    13 December 2015 at 4:05 pm

    Sunday arvo quiz:

    Hawaii, New Hampshire, North Dakota, West Virginia and Wyoming.

    What do they have in common?