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notices and features - Date published:
6:00 am, November 15th, 2022 - 46 comments
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The current rise of populism challenges the way we think about people’s relationship to the economy.We seem to be entering an era of populism, in which leadership in a democracy is based on preferences of the population which do not seem entirely rational nor serving their longer interests. ...
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Regarding climate change adaptation, one of the ways we can all contribute individually and as a country, is to reemphasise the importance of repair and goods that can last enough to be repaired. Organisations like this are a fantastic source of knowledge, skills and community:
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/478745/repair-cafe-volunteer-says-bring-in-your-stuff-and-give-it-a-second-life
What do people think about this?
We grow crops to make air travel sustainable.
The next airline industry solution to air travel pollution. (after offsets)
What if, instead of unworkable scams, we tax air lines for the full cost of their carbon emissions making air travel so expensive that we have to forgo air travel and take the train instead.
What train would you take to get to OZ or Singapore, or the US / Europe for that matter? The underwater train?
Following Greta Thunberg's example. I have sworn off flying. I will not be going to OZ or Singapore, or the US / Europe anytime soon.
For travel between cities I will be boarding an intercity road bus rather than an Airbus A320
Howsabout you Sabine, bus or plane to Wellington?
Two significant elements to that pledge not to travel internationally.
Did you previously (i.e. pre-pandemic) regularly take either business or holiday trips overseas?
Do you have any reason now (during and/or post-pandemic) to travel internationally? (e.g. family or friends overseas; business requirements to travel; bucket list of things that you want to do with your life, etc.).
Because, it's really easy to notionally 'give up' something that you actually have no intention of doing.
Not regularly. But yes, I have had reason, and still do occasionally have reason to travel internationally.
So it is a hardship for me to give it up.
But putting the question of international travel to the side for a moment, I do have a much more pressing need to travel nationally, and it is a sacrifice for me to forego air travel. (which I enjoy for its convenience and comfort).
How about you, do you travel within New Zealand?
When there are other options for national travel, do you choose to fly?
Not travelling much at all, anywhere, ATM.
Rarely travel by air in NZ – and usually, only for work (when they would rather pay my airfare, than pay for me to travel for a day (or most of a day), and then do the work. i.e. my boss would prefer not to pay for 3 days, out of town, only one of which is productive; and rather chooses to pay for 1 day of productive work and 2 airfares.
However, I don't travel by inter-city bus or train either – I pretty much drive.
Reasons: more than one person travelling; Covid contagion concerns (that may be emotional, rather than logical); poor PT links at the 'other' end of the travel (so I'd have to hire a car anyway); limited holiday time, which I'd rather spend doing things or seeing people, than stuck on a bus.
I get it. This country's public transport network is sub-optimal.
The saying goes:
'A rich country is not where poor people have a car, but where both rich and poor ride the subway'
(Read; bus, train, PT generally)
Unfortunately, in this country if you don't have a drivers license or access to a car you are pretty much a second class citizen.
Really the country's PT transport only works for travel to and from the CBD in large cities; or for people who have unlimited time, and very limited budget.
I don't know if that's a 'fixable' problem. Yes, we can all quote overseas cities where PT works (I've lived in some of them, and never felt the need to own a car). Unfortunately, those cities are outweighed – even in their own countries – but the village and rural areas – where you need a car (unless you want to be trapped at the mercy of a very limited bus link).
https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-35491464
A great deal of air travel is discretionary – Zoom, though imperfect, ought to be the first choice over flying in in person.
Air freight, the hidden reason for subsidizing Air New Zealand (a lot of exports use it) could be developed using unmanned lighter than air drones. The Zeppelin trip to Oz would use far less carbon, and still be well within the freshness lifetime of meat or seafood.
Our neglected shipping industry would have been good about now too. Although Maersk's entry is better than nothing, they don't seem to be about to generate disruptive change that will favour the environment.
Physics would prove that a airship, because it takes longer with a lighter payload would use almost the same amount of fuel per tonne carried as an aircraft. The old work/energy conundrum, and then add in a good stiff headwind. There are bugger all easy answers in the real world and there are good reasons why they have never been more than a novelty.
15,000 demonstrators detained for taking part in the recent protests in Iran against the regime, are being held in police detention.
In shocking move, the Iranian government has overwhelmingly voted they all be executed.
It will be a test of wills whether the regime will be able to carry out this dreadful death sentence, or the whether the protests will grow be an even larger challenge to the regime, causing the regime's enforcers to lose their nerve to carry out this mass execution.
He Tangata, He Tangata, He Tangata.
Kia Kaha.
That story claims that the Parliament called for them to be executed. In para 3 it says "the country's parliament overwhelmingly voted in favor of the death penalty for protesters.".
However a little further on it greatly mutes the claim when it says "to treat those, …. in a way that would serve as a good lesson in the shortest possible time," the letter read. Lawmakers added that such a punishment – the methods of which were not specified……"
Where does the story give any evidence that they were calling for all 15,000 to be executed?
The Iranian parliament has voted for the death penalty for people convicted of protesting against the regime.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/iran-votes-to-execute-protesters-says-rebels-need-hard-lesson/ar-AA13SNuc
There are currently 15,000 people convicted of protesting being held in prisons in Iran.
The logistics of installing the needed apparatus and related procedures to execute that many people on this scale will take some time. Decisions will have to be made over burying or releasing the bodies to their relatives.
More likely, these executions will be carried out piecemeal.
A start has been made.
Thank you. This story is a bit later than the other one you linked to which was about the letter and does confirm the death sentences explicitly.
Bastards aren't they? Still they have form for this. In 1988, under orders from Khomeini there were an estimated 30,000 people murdered in a couple of months.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1988_executions_of_Iranian_political_prisoners#Estimates_of_the_number_of_fatalities
Thank you.
Your point is well taken. The vast majority of Iran's parliament signed a letter demanding the death penalty for protesters. No formal legislation was enacted.
As the majority of MPs support the death penalty for the protesters in their custody it would be a foregone conclusion if it had been.
Instead Iranian lawmakers informally called on the judiciary and machinery of state to impose and carry out this death sentence on protesters.
There is a historic parallel. The Holocaust was never formally ordered in German parliament either. But needless to say it was carried out anyway.
There is a certain logic to this, as Bob Dylan wrote "The executioners hand is always well hidden".
No one wants to be formally recorded as having voted for genocide. And so the chain of command is always kept murky. Going down the ranks, the prison guards who actually have to carry out these executions can point out that they were following the orders from above. But try and follow that order back up the chain of command and it becomes very hard to find anyone who actually gave the order.
P.S. The closest historians have ever been able to come in identifying who actually ordered the Holocaust, was the secret Nazi leaders Wansee conference of 1942.
But in 1942 the Holocaust was already in full swing especially in the East. Wansee delegates mostly discussed how to more efficiently conduct this mass murder.
Despite this terrible order, and the first of these death sentences against detainees about to be be carried out, the protests have intensified.
Aotearoa 2022.
A salute to brave people.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/300739233/four-teenagers-one-adult-charged-after-jewellery-store-heist-in-central-auckland
In my opinion, it won't be long before the public form groups of vigilantes.
Labour has received much odium over law and order issues. And rightly so. But what's National going to do? Will the crims care? Or will they see things as just one set muppets being replaced with another set of muppets?
Your as thick as the am show tv host .
Labour isn't doing anything blah blah blah.
They got arrested dummy.
''They got arrested”
Well, no shit Sherlock. Case closed. Lets all move on. Everything is kapai.
Arrests within 24 hours? Even CSI don't get results that quickly.
They got arrested. Good. Now lets get a decent judge that doesn't release them so they can do the same again next week.
It's a hard road finding a hanging judge nowdays, Jimmy. By the time the judge has strummed a few verses of Kumbaya on his guitar, read a cultural report, listened to submissions from excuse mongers in favour of the criminal and cleared the court of screaming gesticulating relatives, he's forced to let the criminal go because of time already served.
More to the point, by the time the case actually gets to court (18 months or so down the track – if then) – the bus has left on any effective punishment or rehabilitation for the offenders. Delayed justice is denied justice.
https://thespinoff.co.nz/the-bulletin/29-07-2022/justice-system-backlog-at-acute-pinch-point
I didn't realise things were that bad. National needs to get creative on this issue. 24 hour court sittings?
Good idea….night courts.
Also effective penalties for lawyers and associated professionals (e.g. writers of cultural reports) who are not ready for the court case (or not even present), when it finally rolls around.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/130406594/judges-frustration-boils-over-delay-in-sentencing-of-taranaki-meth-dealer
And, sanctions for 'waste of time cases' frequently brought by litigious criminals, who literally have nothing better to do with their lives.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/high-profile-murderer-prison-escapee-phillip-smith-takes-corrections-to-court-in-bid-to-wear-necklace-behind-bars/JKHXRCJPFSX6A2SGCICIY66VQ4/
Do we really need to waste court time (and High court, at that) on an appeal from a convicted murderer because (for legitimate H&S reasons) he's not allowed to wear a necklace with an attached crucifix in jail?
With this kind of rubbish clogging up the court system, it's no wonder that serious cases take ridiculous lengths of time.
Those are good ideas. Having watched the court system from the public gallery, I couldn't help noticing it seems like an old boys network between criminals, legal council and the judge. Everything moves in slow motion, and the day I was in court, I noticed the judge and some offenders seemed to have been the best of mates. Repeat offenders I would guess. Yep , time for a judicial ''hurry up.''
You are a piece of crap – Have you every worked in a place that has experienced such an event ?? You remind me of a physiologist who turned up a week or 2 later the bank that was robbed in the 1990's I was at twice in 2 weeks to tell everyone that such events whilst being traumatic down played the 2 robberies. They were given their marching orders by the manager for the total inappropriateness of their comments.
What of those who have experienced and faced now with the aftermath – They got arrested, tell that to the workers and others who were there !! You sound like Hipkins removed and just parroting talking points – NO REAL LIFE EXPERIENCE or UNDERSTANDING. There is a major cost/toll being paid that is unseen and not valued.
In your opinion
I will be pleased if your opinion doesn’t come to pass. How about you?
Talk of the devil. I thought I'd listen to Today FM. I haven't listened to them since they sacked Peter Williams(?). The topic being covered was the above heist I posted on. There was talk on vigilantism, bravery, crime in general, should you intervene during a robbery, the alarming rate of officers quitting the force etc? ( Today FM 1.42 PM)
Mark Mitchell rang in. His talk:
1- Political support for the police.
2- Changes in Police hierarchy.
3- Having other agencies do their share regarding criminal processing. And not having everything dumped on the police.
4- A look at the justice system.
5- No quick fixes.
6- Return of Three Strikes.
I have no problem with vigilante action. When the police don't act as a criminal deterrent, why shouldn't the innocent fight back as they did in the above case?
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/471379/400-percent-increase-in-ram-raids-few-prosecutions-police-data
Maybe that's because Mitchell believes the current "Police hierarchy" doesn't provide the right kind of 'support' for front line police, but "Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia and Darfur" we're not, and never will be.
To repeat my question (@5.2), would you be pleased if vigilante action doesn't become (more) common in Aotearoa New Zealand. Or would you be pleased if vigilantism does became more common?
Bear in mind that the only countries in which a vigilante’s actions are not illegal are those in which the Rule of Law has fundamentally broken down. Are we getting there, and, if so, why?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vigilantism
We live in peaceful times, in a comparatively peaceful country, and yet the temptation of vengeance and violence is ever-present. Imho, Kiwis need (more?) vigilantes like we need a hole in the head – or a ‘good’ ol’ tarring and feathering.
https://www.visionofhumanity.org/maps/#/
https://i.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/130412293/12000-hectares-approved-for-sale-to-overseas-investors-for-forestry
I've never been a single issue voter but will be this election.
Any party that wants to stop the ridiculous situation of a foreign oil company among other polluters buying our land to plant treed has vote.
Even if it has to be act.
ACT would obstruct the progress of free trade like that?
No idea what acts opinion on this is ,but labour thus far are all talk,
The Greens:
https://www.greens.org.nz/trade_and_foreign_investment_policy
Ex military and perfed policemen.
We hear of (usually after a serious event) that former NZ servicemen or police have been involved as independents (or even as contractors/advisers) in trouble spots around the world. Some have gone in, made a fortune (National's Mark Mitchell as an example) and settled back into life here.
Do any of these individuals go with the approval of our governments, or is it on their own initiatives. And further, do they pose a threat to our own independent foreign policy if and when they need bailing out.
Auckland Action Against Poverty have a petition directed to the Prime Minister and Minister for Child Poverty Reduction Jacinda Ardern, and Minister for Social Development and Employment Carmel Sepuloni:
https://our.actionstation.org.nz/petitions/take-seven-steps-toward-a-fairer-future-for-all-of-us-1
Please sign to put pressure on the Government to take more action to address poverty and inequality.
Covid cases rise topping 4000 highest daily rate since August.Population reduction program continues with excess mortality rising to 15% (similar to Australia at 14%)
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/478769/daily-covid-19-cases-top-4000-for-first-time-since-august
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/excess-mortality-p-scores-average-baseline?country=NZL~AUS
Covid minister mumbling as usual,although 77 m of the covid contingency fund has been sent to Mahuta for training for 3 waters governance.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/checkpoint/audio/2018866028/government-says-no-plans-at-this-stage-for-annual-covid-19-booster-for-most-people
It was very quiet around COVID recently, so I checked on the FT Covid tracker over the weekend. Surprised no real actions have been taken and we even allow cruise ship with significant COVID cases to unload and roam the cities without any precautions (same as Australia). What we do for a couple of dollars from the tourists using the cable car…
We were so keen to save all those lives and now we just "let it rip".
"let it rip".
Of course. The world has moved on and the PM has moved with it. The adulation has moved to a new topic and she is following.
Covid Bad luck seems to follow her first McMurdo,then Cambodia.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2022/11/cambodian-prime-minister-hun-sen-tests-positive-for-covid-19-after-meeting-handshake-with-jacinda-ardern.html
There is an alarming lack of masking in the south, people just seem to think it's over. We might be done with Covid but it's not done with us. Was it 52 deaths last week? and quite a number under 70.
I think the MoH should be running a campaign to encourage more masking in crowded areas. We don't need mandates – just raise awareness a bit.
Mask's don't hurt you. Check out any Asian city webcam, eg
Meanwhile in Australia ATAGI are not recommending another booster until early 2023.
Canada:
cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-public-masks-update-1.6649916
Except it is now with 2 Omicron specific boosters.(from December)
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-11-15/pfizer-omicron-covid-booster-available-australia/101654846
Media has been spared a war with the Governor of Arizona.
Kari Lake resented having to read the news about Trump's election defeat. She said she would war on media if she was elected. Media have been reporting that peace has been preserved.
The defeated candidate's resume says – decades working in media, failed political career. Since Fox has abandoned Trump her options are Truth Social and being sponsored by Thiel to do podcasts on Rumble.