This link was posted yesterday by one of the rw idiots who frequent this site.
It’s (in my opinion) one of the more perceptive and positive articles about combatting climate catastrophe, and was, predictably, described as a totalitarian hell hole by the poster.
But BAU will end in killing us all! At least this article offers a glimmer of hope, a possible way out of the mess we’ve created for ourselves.
First, we have to nationalize the fossil fuel industry and the energy companies, bringing them under public control, just like any other essential service or utility.
We need to focus the economy on what is required for human well-being and ecological stability, rather than on corporate profits and elite consumption.
Third, we need to tax the rich out of existence.
Fourth, we need a massive public mobilization to achieve our ecological goals.
Finally, we need a strong commitment to climate reparations. Rich countries have colonized the atmosphere for their own enrichment, while inflicting the majority of the costs onto the global South.
This article deserves wider readership and comment.
A final quote:
We cannot afford to just sit back and wait to see what happens. We have to capture political power where we can, or otherwise force incumbents to change course.
Yes. Its racing towards us…at horrifying pace. Well, horrifying to ..you, me and… how many others?
For most, the prime concern is fuel the car (not public transport)….buy heaps of food (incl fast food ! ), pay the rent (to landlord/gougers), and watch the rugby, (build a new stadium Fucks sake ! ) Oh also ditch your mask…because : selfish.
And of course Clustopher Luxon's blowing his Special Dog Whistle for all he's worth…
Years ago I read an insight…for some (most?) people, the pain of their cut finger…means more than the death of thousands…."somewhere else".
Anyway…I aint gonna stop doing my best…and trying to change this.
During the review two interviewees said when they were out in the field and radioed for immediate backup because they were at risk, bully officers failed to provide backup.
"The interviewees subsequently verified that these other officers had been in radio contact and not involved in any other urgent job," the IPCA added.
The senior officer went as far as to tell the prosecutor to call the complainant (the girlfriend) and tell her there was "little evidence of an assault," the IPCA report said.
I still see this as a Top Down problem. As in the toxic culture seeps down from “some” embedded toxic Police. I wonder what happened to the Senior Policeman who “advised” the Prosecutor ?
NZ SMEs are from this month going to have to find an additional 50 million (plus) a month for the next 3 years…..how do we think that additional income will be sourced?
The government has lent around 2 billion to SMEs to help them survive the covid demand crunch..those loans were over 5 years with a 2 year grace period…as of this month they have to begin repaying them (if they havnt already, though given the circumstances most will not have)…that equates to around 50 million a month that SMEs will have to find that they previously didnt have to.
The customers of those SMEs will ultimately be funding it.
Not that Ive seen….though I expect the likes of the RBNZ are well aware of it, Treasury will have advised on it when the Gov decided to implement the scheme.
We’re one of those SMEs and don’t see the repayments as an issue. We knew it was coming and have planned accordingly
We are also incredibly grateful to our Government for the assistance. Right through the COVID emergency the aupport for our business has been sufficient to allow us to continue and transition our business to a more sustainable model in the face of a very uncertain tourism market
Traditional sources of financial support just weren’t there, and without the Government support it would have got very ugly very fast
As for any inflationary impact of the repayment, it should be deflationary as the 2 billion is going out of the economy, just what we need right now. I seem to remember Grant Robertson saying pretty much the same thing in one of the 1:00 pm briefings at the time it happened.
Pat dealt with the 2B but it's money that's going to the government presumably to pay down the debt they incurred for the programme, rather than re-circulated in the economy on goods or services.
We managed to see out our lease at the end of March and moved the Gallery totally online with a proper full service web store. We didn't have a brick and mortar business post covid, that was bleeding 5-10K / month for the 2 years which support payments assisted but our retirement savings took a huge hit, and the customer dynamic had become so toxic around masks and scanning, along with just plain nastiness, that we were glad to be out of there. Another couple of months of it and it would have killed my partner, she had enough going on with her health without crap from the public, all that kept her going was preparing to get out.
The web store we built ourselves on an online platform (Shopify) with strategic advice and some implementation funding through the Tourism Regeneration programmes. We got 5K funding for strategy and another 5K to implement that strategy, but only ended up drawing down a fraction of that because we had the time and ability to do so much ourselves. Came across a lot of people who wanted to spend the funding but couldn't identify an outcome though.
The web store is going quite well, we're making sales and Shopify's metrics say we're in the top 20% of stores that launched in the same week as us (there must be some real fizzers in the e-commerce world). Site visitors are more than we had through the gallery, and engagement is probably similar, but you don't have the same interaction that drives sales. That's making it hard for some of our more tactile lines / artists which aren't doing so well online, others are doing as well, maybe better online. a huge learning curve and we're loving it.
Cashflow and profitability are much better without the brick and mortar expenses, we're saving money and have time and weekends. But it's hard to get out of the 7 day work habits but we're getting there, kinda…
Strategy is to go back into premises once things settle with covid, and we start seeing what the future of tourism holds and can put a value on leased premises. The online store will make that easier. Way too soon to be able to do that yet, think there's more pain for the sector yet. Maybe later this year at the soonest, but more like end of next year.
Right now really happy to be at home watching it all unfold. The way covid's going, the Queenstown tourism sector could get really messed up this winter.
We dont know that 2 billion will be removed from the economy…yes the original debt will be repaid but the Government may choose to leave the money in the economy in another form….i.e. not reduce gov debt by the 2 billion paid back…but meanwhile the businesses that have to pay it back still need to earn it.
I expect that when the decision was made there was no expectation that inflation was going to be a problem 2 years into reduced demand.
Well yes, no one has a crystal ball and international ‘Events’ are certainly supplying extra stresses, but such is life everywhere.
As Graeme stated above SME’s knew this was a loan, knew this had to be repaid and planned accordingly. That seems to me to be the bare minimum that anyone taking out credit is required to do.
Unless you are suggesting a Jubilee? In which case it should be for individual debts not commercial ones.
I think there was an acknowledgement by Robertson that Government didn't expect all the borrowers to be able to repay the loan. There's provision to talk about it if you can't repay, and I know of several businesses that have gone tits up and everyone's out of pocket, particularly the owners.
But SMEs that were severely affected got a lot of cash from Government by way of Support Payments etc, which generally went to meeting existing contractual payments, like lease and loan payments. Mass defaults wouldn't have been pretty and especially with lease payments would have cascaded badly and easily taken out the economy. Justifiable support for businesses and quite successful.
Sorry arkie…my reply was supposed to be to weka, however, im not advocating for a jubilee for SMEs (though I personally would benefit) I am simply pointing out that on top of all the other pressures on SMEs they from this month have to find collectively an additional 50 million a month for the next 3 years….and all that flows from that.
As is often noted the cure for high prices is high prices….read recession.
I assume that many (?) of those businesses that took a loan under this scheme may not have survived without it. Surely, businesses going belly-up is not good for the economy and wouldn’t this be inflationary?
Our unemployment would have been higher. Less tax and so it goes.
Pat it is scary to face a debt not anticipated before covid, but would you have coped without it?
Has it given you time to strengthen aspects of your business and pivot if you needed to?
Did it help cashfow, and are you now building that into your costs? Yes some inflation involved, but what would have been without it?
People have accepted we need to pay more to give people a better standard of life and to cope wth the stresses of covid.
People are making home more attractive, spending savings on what they see as essential to survive then thrive and at the same time build in a premium for borrowing and climate adjustments. You are not alone.
frankly it made no difference to my situation…like many I accepted it as I had no idea how the pandemic and its impact on the economy was going to play out. I'll also add my situation is not typical.
None of which changes the fact that there is 50 million additional dollars a month now needed within the SME sector.
I read Bowalley this morning. Rings a bell regarding Woke and Civil War. But hard to connect the dots re NZ.
"But there is one thing they will not tolerate: losing status in a place they believe is theirs. In the 21st century, the most dangerous factions are once-dominant groups facing decline.”
Think the rise of Trumpism and in NZ the Antivax crowd.
interesting read, thanks. Important to look at the other factions in NZ especially the loose collection of 'freedom' protest movements. Groundswell, the anti-mandate protests, rising white supremacy. In all of that, it's the people yet to be radicialised one way or the other that concerns me. The left/liberals appear to think that they can force people to like their values and beliefs. I don't believe this is true, and the biggest progress we could make at this point is how to engage with people who think differently from us and learn how to work with them.
"and the biggest progress we could make at this point is how to engage with people who think differently from us and learn how to work with them."
I posted this approach a couple of weeks ago, but don't know if you saw it. It was the process used in 1971 to resolve a school provision issue between a prominent black rights activist, and a Ku Klux Klan leader.
You would expect many of those on the left to possess such skills and be able to facilitate similar processes. However, I think those skills may have been undervalued and lost.
What needs to come first, is the desire to engage respectfully.
I read it, and I couldn't get past the fact that one of the most well known civil wars, the American Civl War, is described like this:
The central cause of the war was the status of slavery, especially the expansion of slavery into territories acquired as a result of the Louisiana Purchase and the Mexican–American War. On the eve of the Civil War in 1860, four million of the 32 million Americans (~13%) were enslaved black people, almost all in the South.
I don't know a lot about it but presumably the super faction in that case is Lincoln and the Union demanding an end to slavery.
We'd all agree I hope that the American Civil war was inevitable and necessary because the Confederacy seceded and thankfully they and their ideologies were largely defeated.
What does Chris Trotter expect us to do in the case of New Zealand, not progress on Treaty partnership because it might offend the racists?
You can't placate these idiots. Best to make the changes and they will fall into line.
The crucial difference between the North and the South was that the economy of the plantations was essentially still pre-industrial – and like all such societies throughout history slavery was a regrettable but necessary part of life.
The northern states by contrast were too cold for the plantations and were compelled to industrialise in order to grow. And in that context the chattel slavery of the south was not necessary – burning coal in boilers replaced the raw muscle power of slaves very effectively.
It is unnecessary to introduce modern moral judgements into this. The US Civil War is best thought of as a conflict between two economic systems, one rooted in the old agricultural, sunshine based economies – and a new fossil fuel based one about to replace it.
I read a different explanation – that wages were suppressed in the South, by the availability of a cheaper alternative. This left little incentive for the kind of development that craftsmen had in the North.
Pretty sure it was here – sorry I don't recall the page.
Or you could equally argue that by industrialising the Northerners were making labour far more productive – and raising wages by comparison to the South.
I rest my argument on the simple observation that in pre-Industrial times almost all expansive societies depended on chattel slavery to succeed – because the only sources of energy available to them were essentially muscle power or burning wood or charcoal. And while domesticating animals like horses or cattle harnessed lots of useful power in a rural setting – anything indoors or complex needed humans to accomplish. The problem was not so much economic as thermodynamic.
By contrast once a society was able to harness steam power and to mechanise it – essentially the primal forms of automation – chattel slavery within several generations disappears and never returns.
Industrialisation in the South in the form of the cotton gin resulted in an explosion of slave labour.
The invention of the cotton gin caused massive growth in the production of cotton in the United States, concentrated mostly in the South. Cotton production expanded from 750,000 bales in 1830 to 2.85 million bales in 1850. As a result, the region became even more dependent on plantations that used black slave labor.
While it took a single slave about ten hours to separate a single pound of fiber from the seeds, a team of two or three slaves using a cotton gin could produce around fifty pounds of cotton in just one day. The number of slaves rose in concert with the increase in cotton production, increasing from around 700,000 in 1790 to around 3.2 million in 1850.
Because of its inadvertent effect on American slavery, and on its ensuring that the South's economy developed in the direction of plantation-based agriculture (while encouraging the growth of the textile industry elsewhere, such as in the North), the invention of the cotton gin is frequently cited as one of the indirect causes of the American Civil War.
For the first generation of cotton gins this would be true – but very quickly they became more sophisticated and mechanised, needing less and less labour to run. Modern textile machinery is almost completely automated to an astonishing extent. No slaves needed to operate them – indeed it will usually be skilled and rather well paid operators and maintenance techs.
The transition to industrialisation was complex and had many moving parts running on different timelines – and the resulting social and economic shifts were turbulent. But once you have gotten through it, no-one sane wants to revert back to the previous conditions.
Ok. I thought for a moment you were saying industrialisation ended slavery, but I pointed to an example where industrialisation actually increased slavery.
Also, Victorian Britain during the industrial revolution was about as exploitative of labour as you can get in modern times. Ever read Dickens?
It is not industrial revolution which ends practices like slavery and exploitation, it is social revolution.
I thought for a moment you were saying industrialisation ended slavery, but I pointed to an example where industrialisation actually increased slavery.
For a period yes – but the key to understanding slavery is that yes it harnesses muscle power – but unlike domesticated animals it also harnesses intelligence. So as I explained above the first generation of primitive machines did increase slavery for a period, but then very quickly after that it was eliminated once their mechanisms became more sophisticated and required less labour to run.
Modern highly automated textile machines requiring no direct labour – and certainly no slaves.
It is not industrial revolution which ends practices like slavery and exploitation, it is social revolution.
So why then did 'social revolution' only occur after the industrial revolution? You had 10,000 years of known history for your social revolution to eliminate slavery – but either it never happened or in those few locations where it did fall out of favour, it never stuck for one reason or another.
The Wikipedia article I linked to says the cotton gin caused a massive increase in slave numbers from 700,000 in 1790 to 3.2 million in 1850. On the eve of the US civil war in 1860, 4 million of the 32 million inhabitants were enslaved (13%). When was it the more sophisticated machines eliminated slavery?
I imagine because the industrial revolution accelerated exploitation for private profit, as shown in the example of the cotton gin. Industry bosses would have carried on were it not for the demands of social conscience.
I know the point you are trying to make, that it is businessmen and engineers responsible for ending all the world’s ills.
I’m saying it social and political movements just like the ones Trotter is decrying in the article ianmac posted @ 4.
"Up to twelve times less risk of contamination in the classroom if there is air purifier" If there is an air purifier in the classroom, the chance of a child infecting another child with the coronavirus decreases by a factor of twelve.
This is evident from the first results of the project of engineer Bert Blocken (KU Leuven / TU Eindhoven), virologist Marc Van Ranst (KU Leuven) and Leen Peeters (Th! Nk E), in which air purifiers were placed in classrooms. Blocks gives the concrete example of a class with 25 students. If an infected student airborne the other 24 students in a class without an air purifier, he would only infect two if the class is equipped with a filter.
The engineer bases this calculation on an internationally recognized formula that determines the risk of infection. In order to be able to assess the risk of contamination with and without air purifiers even more accurately, additional data is needed, Blocken emphasizes.
The project therefore runs until the end of December this year. A total of 100 schools participate: 47 in Flanders, 3 in Wallonia and 50 in the Netherlands. A total of one thousand classrooms are monitored: 500 received a filter, 500 did not.
Ah. Marc Van Ranst. Famous he is as that guy hired to scare the Belgian population into compliance during the 2009 H1N1 epidemic. Cold, calculating and deeply cynical bastard who boasts about the importance of timing and the imperative of gaining and exploiting 100% capture of mainstream media.
A proud Big Pharma shill…he heavily promoted the new vaccine, and he jokes in this speech how many people protested that the new vaccine was unsafe and the pandemic response was over egged.
However….IN MARCH, 2012 A SIGNIFICANT INCREASE in the rate of childhood narcolepsy associated with the influenza vaccine Pandemrix (GlaxoSmithKline) was reported in Finland.1 ….
but …
...the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control commissioned two reports to investigate the rates of narcolepsy in Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Italy, France, the Netherlands, Norway and the United Kingdom. The report concluded that:2
There was no increase in the rates of narcolepsy due to the 2009 pandemic itself
An increase in the rate of childhood narcolepsy in Finland and Sweden had occurred with Pandemrix vaccination
There was no detectable association between influenza vaccination and childhood or adult narcolepsy in the Netherlands, Italy, the United Kingdom, Norway* and Denmark**
A significantly increased risk of narcolepsy in adults, associated with Pandemrix vaccination did occur in France, although the risk of selection bias could not be excluded. This result should be interpreted with caution and is being investigated further. https://bpac.org.nz/bpj/2013/april/h1n1-vaccination.aspx
Despite inconsistencies across age groups and countries that tended to suggest the risk of childhood narcolepsy associated with Pandemerix was exaggerated, this vaccine is no longer given to under 20 year olds.
Van Ranst's contemptuous manipulation of the Belgian population during the 2009 epidemic, his overweening ego and his smug demeanor actually created a fertile breeding ground for a lack of trust in the responses to the current shit-show. People have long memories.
As is typical of such persons…he hasn't learned from his past blunders.
ok, so what's the connection between the Air Purifiers in Schools project and Joe's tweet?
Have you spent much time cooking over open fires or inside on smokey fires? It's hard on the lungs, eyes and skin, which improves with ventilation. Can't see the connection here either. Smoke and viruses are completely different challenges to the human body.
Its his name that leapt out at me when I scanned joe90's post. I'm pretty sure the expression 'mind-fuckery' was invented to describe his (Mr Van Ranst's) tactics during the 2009 pandemic. Some folks might think that the circumstances warranted such callous and unethical manipulation of the population, but it had such a negative effect at the time that it effectively (and ironically) inoculated a sizeable portion of the population against such campaigns. He did more harm than good (in some peoples opinion) with respect to uniting the nation against a killer virus. Folks don't like being manipulated and don't enjoy being treated like fuckwits. Unless they're of very nervous constitutions and fear has incapacitated their thought processes.
For him to speak as he did at the Chatham House gig in early 2019 … fwiw I found it almost obscene. A person with such obvious deep disdain of the population should not, in my opinion, be in charge of setting the tone and rallying the troops in the face of a national or worldwide health crisis. Yet there he is.
And speaking of inappropriate message delivery, there's another 'scientist' with a seeming fixation for treating the population like infants (and acting like a dork)…
…that has stepped up to terrify us out of breathing.
After that painful little effort you'd think a performer scientist would quietly fade away into the mists. Or the smoke. But no…here he is telling us that there's almost certain death or disability in every particle of someone else's breath we may inhale.
For goodness sakes. We human beings have been doing this cohabiting and breathing thing for eons. Rather than population annihilation we have a planet bulging at the seams. Metaphorically speaking. Surely we can collate and process the knowledge gathered over this time to issue some simple and suitably non-scary advice.
Open the windows and doors and let the fresh air circulate. In your home, your workplace, in a vehicle.
Cover coughs and sneezes you dirty buggers. Don't do that disgusting hoick and spit thing so beloved of sportspeople. And as for the blowing snot forcibly from the nostril onto the footpath or playing field….off with his head!!
If you feel you are at risk from Te Virus, or any virus, or any other nasty pathogen, then for heaven's sake wear a mask. Wear two. Mount a fan on your head to force the breath of others away from yourself. Wear gloves and goggles and a full body condom if that will make you feel safe.
But for the Goddess's sake…don't force healthy folk to do likewise.
Our immune systems are more efficient than we have been led to believe. Let the healthy get on with their lives. Let the children and young people breathe the air and exercise their immune systems. Or is the plan to actually weaken the population?
ok, so no connection between Joe's tweet and Marc Van Ranst other than something obscure about some dude you don't like.
Open the windows and doors and let the fresh air circulate. In your home, your workplace, in a vehicle.
This more than anything tells me you are way off base. We're getting regular snow on the hills and heavy frosts this winter. Suggesting that opening windows and doors is a replacement for masks and filtration is daft.
MHRV delivers outside filtered fresh air into your building without creating uncomfortable drafts and mitigates excessive demand on your heating and cooling systems.
The health benefits to the occupants cannot be understated.
Protects your internal building and furnishing investment.
Modern airtight buildings need to ventilate to remove moisture, CO2 and dirty air more than ever before. For those who have investigated ventilation, understand that MHRV is not only the best option to ensure a clean environment, but also in achieving thermal comfort
The incoming air is filtered before it is introduced into the buildings. MHRV has two airflows (supply & exhaust) that pass one another parallel within the heat-recovery heat exchanger without mixing physically. The heat from "stale" extracted outgoing air is transferred to the "fresh" air introduced from outside.
The overall MHRV process exhausts moisture laden air from wet rooms such as bathrooms, kitchen, laundries and supplies fresh air into all habitable living areas and bedrooms. Thereby replacing the need for independent bathroom and laundry extraction fans.
I put an early version of one of these into one our rental units 20 years ago as an experiment. While I was local and able to service the filters it worked really well, but I turned it off when we came to Aus.
Basic systems are not terribly expensive and a tiny fraction of the total build cost. Essentially they allow you to 'open the windows' and get fresh air into the dwelling – without freezing your arse off.
In other words, you flip your lid at a research project that is still in progress in Belgium and the Netherlands aimed at reducing Covid-19 infections in classrooms through air purification because you recall something one of the three core members may have said/done in 2009.
And you flip your lid at an aerosol chemist from Auckland who’s trying to inform and educate us about the air we breathe. Are there no bounds to your bias and negativity and have you lost all sound perspective on causes that you choose to be upset by?
Have you ever seen the crap (aka soot) that they trap in filters in those measuring stations in downtown Auckland to measure air pollution? The outside air is not as ‘fresh’ as you seem to think it is.
And while we're on the topic of Pure Air….how on earth did we humans survive the caves? And smoked filled earth lodges through winter?
We developed respiratory diseases.
Here, we have argued that the extensive changes to human ecology and unprecedented physiological consequences brought about by the controlled use of fire in the Pleistocene created ideal conditions for the emergence of TB. It is possible that during this period of significant ecological and social change, range extensions leading to the consumption of novel food sources and altered energy requirements increased exposure of early humans to the natural reservoir of ancestral MTBC, likely the soil. This increased exposure brought about an increasing number of infections and stuttering transmission chains, both of which provided new opportunities for within-host adaptive evolution. Coupled with increasing host-susceptibility to mycobacterial infection attributable to biomass smoke-induced lung damage and the increased opportunities for transmission brought about by the developing social culture that fire use encouraged, we hypothesize that the MTBC precursor evolved an R0 greater than unity relatively quickly, almost guaranteeing MTBC's emergence as a specialized human pathogen.
Histological assessment of the lungs of ancient human mummies has shown that anthracosis was a regular disorder in many ancient societies, including the Egyptian, Peruvian, and Aleutian. The only human mummy recovered from ancient Rome (the so-called Grotta Rossa mummy) shows severe anthracosis despite the young age of the person at the time of death.
Thus, indoor pollution produced chronic reduction of the function of the ciliated respiratory epithelium with an increase in the incidence of inflammatory disease of the pulmonary tree. Therefore, the idea that air pollution and its effects is an exclusively modern phenomenon is probably incorrect.
what's the connection between Joe's tweet and Marc Van Ranst?
There's no connection. Just the usual extremist fuckery.
In the last months of 2020, several Flemish newspapers also published articles about Van Ranst’s 2019 lecture, commenting on how the video corresponds to how he managed communication in the event of a new health crisis.
Mid-December, former president of the Flemish extreme-right Vlaams Belang party, Filip Dewinter, posted a compilation video with excerpts from Van Ranst’s conference in London.
[…]
What actually happened?
On 22 January 2019, Van Ranst took part in a conference of the “Centre on Global Health Security” at Chatham House in partnership with the European Scientific Group on Influenza (ESWI).
The conference was held “to mark the 100th anniversary of the influenza pandemic and to discuss future challenges,” Chatham House told RTBF. “It was a full-day event with guest speakers, including Marc Van Ranst, who spoke about communication in the event of a pandemic.”
In his speech, which lasted just over 23 minutes and can be watched in full here, Van Ranst explained how he managed crisis communication during the outbreak of the swine flu in 2009.
Back then, the authorities were very concerned about the swine flu – the H1N1 virus – and they took great precautions, including the mass purchase of vaccines. However, the announced epidemic proved to be much less severe than initially feared.
In front of an audience of experts, Van Ranst explained how he made sure he was the reference point for various media during that period, using the slogan “one voice, one message.”
“You have to be omnipresent, the first day or days,” he said. “In order to attract the attention of the media, you make an agreement with them: you will tell them everything, and if they call you, you pick up the phone.”
He explained that, by doing so, there will be maximum coverage, and the media will not look for alternative voices. “If you do that, it will be much easier to convey the message.”
Falling over yourself to shoot a messenger while failing to do the research, again, because you’ve already found enough ammunition to blow the other sucker out of the water, metaphorically speaking.
Pandemrix (Pandemic Influenza Vaccine), suspension for injection GlaxoSmithKline (NZ) Ltd
Consent is given subject to the following restriction:
The vaccine may only be marketed, or distributed in accordance with the directives contained in the current version of the New Zealand Influenza Pandemic Action Plan.
An association was found in 2010 between narcolepsy and one H1N1 pandemic vaccine (Pandemrix, an adjuvanted vaccine not licensed or used in New Zealand). Data from various European countries support a temporal link.[118, 119, 120] The onset of narcolepsy may be confounded by other factors, such as genetic predisposition, A(H1N1)pdm09 influenza and/or other environmental factors.[121, 122, 123] A 2018 systematic review found that although the risk of narcolepsy type 1 increased in association with this particular vaccine, it remains a rare disease and the benefit of the influenza vaccination outweighs the risk.[124] [my italics]
The investigations led to a vaccine Pandemrix, that featured a specific adjuvant, which is a means to enhance the impact of the vaccine. It turned out that the vaccine was working as a trigger for young people in Scandinavia who had a genetic predisposition to narcolepsy.
Some comments do not age well. This from well known sports expert on Kiwblog, Kimbo. On the Irish Rugby TV You Tube site. On the comments section of the first test highlights.
Kimbo
13 days ago
You can clearly see NZ is the stronger and faster team. Ireland competitive but not close contest.
The key thing being Ireland were the better "team". They were clearly more organised on both attack and defence from set play. Thus they had better go forward (Sexton and Aki had it all over Barrett and Havili) – while we had individual athletes (ASavea AIoane and WJordan). And the MOM was Beirne for his breakdown disruption.
Some parallels in winning both in rugby and politics:
1. It's not about hair styles, or posturing.
2. Choose a wise and charismatic leader as captain. Appoint good selectors who in turn should select good team players.
3 Get good advice and have a plan B. If plan B doesn't work, then going back to plan A probably won't either.
4, Safe hands. Don't drop the ball. Keep the opposition pinned well in their half. It's only a game of two halves if you are losing!
5. Discipline and commitment. Turn up, practise, maintain fitness.
6. Support, encourage, have self belief. Never underestimate the opposition.
7. Revisit your strategies, and try to please your fans. The role of the commentators and writers is fairest when neutral. While the referee is fair, learn and play by the rules. The public can be fickle, but you need their money, support and attendance.
8. Remember you will lose eventually. That's the time to relearn 1-7.
And business confidence will plummet, domestic abuse will rise and Mac1 will celebrate his fourth generation Irishness, to the dismay of his walking companions this morning.
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is sea level rise exaggerated? Sea levels are rising at an accelerating rate, not stagnating or decreasing. Warming global temperatures cause land ice ...
Here is a scenario, but first a historical parallel. Hitler and the Nazis could well have accomplished everything that they wanted to do within German borders, including exterminating Jews, so long as they confined their ambitious to Germany itself. After all, the world pretty much sat and watched as the ...
I’ve spent the last couple of days in Hamilton covering Waikato University’s annual NZ Economics Forum, where (arguably) three of the most influential people in our political economy right now laid out their thinking in major speeches about the size and role of Government, their views on for spending, tax ...
Simeon Brown’s Ideology BentSimeon Brown once told Kiwis he tries to represent his deep sense of faith by interacting “with integrity”.“It’s important that there’s Christians in Parliament…and from my perspective, it’s great to be a Christian in Parliament and to bring that perspective to [laws, conversations and policies].”And with ...
Severe geological and financial earthquakes are inevitable. We just don’t know how soon and how they will play out. Are we putting the right effort into preparing for them?Every decade or so the international economy has a major financial crisis. We cannot predict exactly when or exactly how it will ...
Questions1. How did Old Mate Grabaseat describe his soon-to-be-Deputy-PM’s letter to police advocating for Philip Polkinghorne?a.Ill-advisedb.A perfect letterc.A letter that will live in infamyd.He had me at hello2. What did Seymour say in response?a.What’s ill-advised is commenting when you don’t know all the facts and ...
NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi President Richard Wagstaff has called on OJI Fibre Solutions to work with the government, unions, and the community before closing the Kinleith Paper Mill. “OJI has today announced 230 job losses in what will be a devastating blow for the community. OJI needs to work with ...
NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi President Richard Wagstaff is sounding the alarm about the latest attack on workers from Minister of Workplace Relations and Safety Brooke van Velden, who is ignoring her own officials to pursue reckless changes that would completely undermine the personal grievance system. “Brooke van Velden’s changes will ...
Hi,When I started writing Webworm in 2020, I wrote a lot about the conspiracy theories that were suddenly invading our Twitter timelines and Facebook feeds. Four years ago a reader, John, left this feedback under one of my essays:It’s a never ending labyrinth of lunacy which, as you have pointed ...
And if you said this life ain't good enoughI would give my world to lift you upI could change my life to better suit your moodBecause you're so smoothAnd it's just like the ocean under the moonOh, it's the same as the emotion that I get from youYou got the ...
Aotearoa remains the minority’s birthright, New Zealand the majority’s possession. WAITANGI DAY commentary see-saws manically between the warmly positive and the coldly negative. Many New Zealanders consider this a good thing. They point to the unexamined patriotism of July Fourth and Bastille Day celebrations, and applaud the fact that the ...
The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts & talking about the week’s news with regular and special guests, including: and on the week in geopolitics, including the latest from Donald Trump’s administration over Gaza and Ukraine; on the ...
Up until now, the prevailing coalition view of public servants was that there were simply too many of them. But yesterday the new Public Service Commissioner, handpicked by the Luxon Government, said it was not so much numbers but what they did and the value they produced that mattered. Sir ...
In a moment we explore the question: What is Andrew Bayly wanting to tell ACC, and will it involve enjoying a small wine tasting and then telling someone to fuck off? But first, for context, a broader one: What do we look for in a government?Imagine for a moment, you ...
As expected, Donald Trump just threw Ukraine under the bus, demanding that it accept Russia's illegal theft of land, while ruling out any future membership of NATO. Its a colossal betrayal, which effectively legitimises Russia's invasion, while laying the groundwork for the next one. But Trump is apparently fine with ...
This is a guest post by George Weeks, reviewing a book called ‘How to Fly a Horse’ by Kevin AshtonBook review: ‘How to Fly a Horse’ by Kevin Ashton (2015) – and what it means for Auckland. The title of this article might unnerve any Greater Auckland ...
This story was originally published by Capital & Main and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. Within just a week, the sheer devastation of the Los Angeles wildfires has pushed to the fore fundamental questions about the impact of the climate crisis that have been ...
In this world, it's just usYou know it's not the same as it wasSongwriters: Harry Edward Styles / Thomas Edward Percy Hull / Tyler Sam JohnsonYesterday, I received a lovely message from Caty, a reader of Nick’s Kōrero, that got me thinking. So I thought I’d share it with you, ...
In past times a person was considered “unserious” or “not a serious” person if they failed to grasp, behave and speak according to the solemnity of the context in which they were located. For example a serious person does not audibly pass gas at Church, or yell “gun” at a ...
Long stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Thursday, February 13 are:The coalition Government’s early 2024 ‘fiscal emergency’ freeze on funding, planning and building houses, schools, local roads and hospitals helped extend and deepen the economic and jobs recession through calendar ...
For obvious reasons, people feel uneasy when the right to be a citizen is sold off to wealthy foreigners. Even selling the right to residency seems a bit dubious, when so many migrants who are not millionaires get turned away or are made to jump through innumerable hoops – simply ...
A new season of White Lotus is nearly upon us: more murder mystery, more sumptuous surroundings, more rich people behaving badly.Once more we get to identify with the experience of the pampered tourist or perhaps the poorly paid help; there's something in White Lotus for all New Zealanders.And unlike the ...
In 2016, Aotearoa shockingly plunged to fourth place in the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index. Nine years later, and we're back there again: New Zealand has seen a further slip in its global ranking in the latest Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI). [...] In the latest CPI New Zealand's score ...
1. You’ve started ranking your politicians on how much they respect the rule of law2. You’ve stopped paying attention to those news publications3. You’ve developed a sudden interest in a particular period of history4. More and more people are sounding like your racist, conspiracist uncle.5. Someone just pulled a Nazi ...
Transforming New Zealand: Brian EastonBrian Easton will discuss the above topic at 2/57 Willis Street, Wellington at 5:30pm on Tuesday 26 February at 2/57 Willis Street, WellingtonThe sub-title to the above is "Why is the Left failing?" Brian Easton's analysis is based on his view that while the ...
Salvation Army’s State of the Nation 2025 report highlights falling living standards, the highest unemployment rates since the 1990s and half of all Pacific children going without food. There are reports of hundreds if not thousands of people are applying for the same jobs in the wake of last year’s ...
Mountain Tui is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Correction: On the article The Condundrum of David Seymour, Luke Malpass conducted joint reviews with Bryce Wilkinson, the architect of the Regulatory Standards Bill - not Bryce Edwards. The article ...
Tomorrow the council’s Transport, Resilience and Infrastructure Committee meet and agenda has a few interesting papers. Council’s Letter of Expectation to Auckland Transport Every year the council provide a Letter of Expectation to Auckland Transport which is part of the process for informing AT of the council’s priorities and ...
All around in my home townThey're trying to track me down, yeahThey say they want to bring me in guiltyFor the killing of a deputyFor the life of a deputySongwriter: Robert Nesta Marley.Support Nick’s Kōrero today with a 20% discount on a paid subscription to receive all my newsletters directly ...
Hi,I think all of us have probably experienced the power of music — that strange, transformative thing that gets under our skin and helps us experience this whole life thing with some kind of sanity.Listening and experiencing music has always been such a huge part of my life, and has ...
Business frustration over the stalled economy is growing, and only 34% of voters are confidentNicola Willis can deliver. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Wednesday, February 12 are:Business frustration is growing about a ...
I have now lived long enough to see a cabinet minister go both barrels on their Prime Minister and not get sacked.It used to be that the PM would have a drawer full of resignations signed by ministers on the day of their appointment, ready for such an occasion. But ...
This session will feature Simon McCallum, Senior Lecturer in Engineering and Computer Science (VUW) and recent Labour Party candidate in the Southland Electorate talking about some of the issues around AI and how this should inform Labour Party policy. Simon is an excellent speaker with a comprehensive command of AI ...
The proposed Waimate garbage incinerator is dead: The company behind a highly-controversial proposal to build a waste-to-energy plant in the Waimate District no longer has the land. [...] However, SIRRL director Paul Taylor said the sales and purchase agreement to purchase land from Murphy Farms, near Glenavy, lapsed at ...
The US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act has been a vital tool in combatting international corruption. It forbids US companies and citizens from bribing foreign public officials anywhere in the world. And its actually enforced: some of the world's biggest companies - Siemens, Hewlett Packard, and Bristol Myers Squibb - have ...
December 2024 photo - with UK Tory Boris Johnson (Source: Facebook)Those PollsFor hours, political poll results have resounded across political hallways and commentary.According to the 1News Verizon poll, 50% of the country believe we are heading in the “wrong direction”, while 39% believe we are “on the right track”.The left ...
A Tai Rāwhiti mill that ran for 30 years before it was shut down in late 2023 is set to re-open in the coming months, which will eventually see nearly 300 new jobs in the region. A new report from Massey University shows that pensioners are struggling with rising costs. ...
As support continues to fall, Luxon also now faces his biggest internal ructions within the coalition since the election, with David Seymour reacting badly to being criticised by the PM. File photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate ...
Not since 1988 when Richard Prebble openly criticised David Lange have we seen such a challenge to a Prime Minister as that of David Seymour to Christopher Luxon last night. Prebble suggested Lange had mental health issues during a TV interview and was almost immediately fired. Seymour hasn’t gone quite ...
Three weeks in, and the 24/7 news cycle is not helping anyone feel calm and informed about the second Trump presidency. One day, the US is threatening 25% trade tariffs on its friends and neighbours. The reasons offered by the White House are absurd, such as stopping fentanyl coming in ...
This video includes personal musings and conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Adam Levy. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). Wherever you look, you'll hear headlines claiming we've passed 1.5 degrees of global warming. And while 2024 saw ...
Photo by Heather M. Edwards on UnsplashHere’s the key news, commentary, reports and debate around Aotearoa’s politics and economy in the week to Feb 10 below. That’s ahead of live chats on the Substack App and The Kākā’s front page on Substack at 5pm with: on his column in The ...
Is there anyone in the world the National Party loves more than a campaign donor? Why yes, there is! They will always have the warmest hello and would you like to slip into something more comfortable for that great god of our age, the High Net Worth Individual.The words the ...
Waste and fraud certainly exist in foreign aid programs, but rightwing celebration of USAID’s dismantling shows profound ignorance of the value of soft power (as opposed to hard power) in projecting US influence and interests abroad by non-military/coercive means (think of “hearts and minds,” “hugs, not bullets,” “honey versus vinegar,” ...
Health New Zealand is proposing to cut almost half of its data and digital positions – more than 1000 of them. The PSA has called on the Privacy Commissioner to urgently investigate the cuts due to the potential for serious consequences for patients. NZNO is calling for an urgent increase ...
We may see a few more luxury cars on Queen Street, but a loosening of rules to entice rich foreigners to invest more here is unlikely to “turbocharge our economic growth”. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate ...
Let us not dance daintily around the elephant in the room. Our politicians who serve us in the present are not honest, certainly not as honest as they should be, and while the right are taking out most of the trophies for warping narratives and literally redefining “facts”, the kiwi ...
A few weeks ago I took a look at public transport ridership in 2024. In today’s post I’m going to be looking a bit deeper at bus ridership. Buses make up the vast majority of ridership in Auckland with 70 million boardings last year out of a total of 89.4 ...
Oh, you know I did itIt's over and I feel fineNothing you could say is gonna change my mindWaited and I waited the longest nightNothing like the taste of sweet declineSongwriters: Chris Shiflett / David Eric Grohl / Nate Mendel / Taylor Hawkins.Hindsight is good, eh?The clarity when the pieces ...
Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on UnsplashHere’s what we’re watching in the week to February 16 and beyond in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty:Monday, February 10The Kākā’s weekly wrap-up of news about politics and the economy is due at midday, followed by webinar for paying subscribers in Substack’s ...
A listing of 23 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, February 2, 2025 thru Sat, February 8, 2025. This week's roundup is again published soleley by category. We are still interested in feedback to hone the categorization, so if ...
Today, I stumbled across a Twitter Meme: the ending of The Lord of the Rings as a Chess scenario: https://x.com/mellon_heads/status/1887983845917564991 It gets across the basic gist. Aragorn and Gandalf offering up ‘material’ at the Morannon allows Frodo and Samwise to catch Sauron unawares – fair enough. But there are a ...
Last week, Kieran McAnulty called out Chris Bishop and Nicola Willis for their claims that Kāinga Ora’s costs were too high.They had claimed Kāinga Ora’s cost were 12% higher than market i.e. private devlopersBut Kāinga Ora’s Chair had already explained why last year:"We're not building to sell, so we'll be ...
Stuff’s Political Editor Luke Malpass - A Fellow at New Zealand IniativeLast week I half-joked that Stuff / The Post’s Luke Malpass1 always sounded like he was auditioning for a job at the New Zealand Initiative.Mountain Tui is a reader-supported publication. For a limited time, subscriptions are 20% off. Thanks ...
At a funeral on Friday, there were A4-sized photos covering every wall of the Dil’s reception lounge. There must have been 200 of them, telling the story in the usual way of the video reel but also, by enlargement, making it more possible to linger and step in.Our friend Nicky ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park from the Gigafact team in collaboration with members from our team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is methane the ...
The Government’s idea is that the private sector and Community Housing Providers will fund, build and operate new affordable housing to address our housing crisis. Meanwhile, the Government does not know where almost half of the 1,700 children who left emergency housing actually went. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong ...
Oh, home, let me come homeHome is wherever I'm with youOh, home, let me come homeHome is wherever I'm with youSongwriters: Alexander Ebert / Jade Allyson CastrinosMorena,I’m on a tight time frame this morning. In about an hour and a half, I’ll need to pack up and hit the road ...
This is a post about the Mountain Tui substack, and small tweaks - further to the poll and request post the other day. Please don’t read if you aren’t interested in my personal matters. Thank you all.After oohing-and-aahing about how to structure the Substack model since November, including obtaining ...
This transcript of a recent conversation between the Prime Minister and his chief economic adviser has not been verified.We’ve announced we are the ‘Yes Government’. Do you like it?Yes, Prime Minister.Dreamed up by the PR team. It’s about being committed to growth. Not that the PR team know anything about ...
The other day, Australian Senator Nick McKim issued a warning in the Australian Parliement about the US’s descent into fascim.And of course it’s true, but I lament - that was true as soon as Trump won.What we see is now simply the reification of the intention, planning, and forces behind ...
Among the many other problems associated with Musk/DOGE sending a fleet of teenage and twenty-something cultists to remove, copy and appropriate federal records like social security, medicaid and other supposedly protected data is the fact that the youngsters doing the data-removal, copying and security protocol and filter code over-writing have ...
Jokerman dance to the nightingale tuneBird fly high by the light of the moonOh, oh, oh, JokermanSong by Bob Dylan.Morena folks, I hope this fine morning of the 7th of February finds you well. We're still close to Paihia, just a short drive out of town. Below is the view ...
It’s been an eventful week as always, so here’s a few things that we have found interesting. We also hope everyone had a happy and relaxing Waitangi Day! This week in Greater Auckland We’re still running on summer time, but provided two chewy posts: On Tuesday, a guest ...
Queuing on Queen St: the Government is set to announce another apparently splashy growth policy on Sunday of offering residence visas to wealthy migrants. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Friday, February 7:PM Christopher ...
The fact that Waitangi ended up being such a low-key affair may mark it out as one of the most significant Waitangi Days in recent years. A group of women draped in “Toitu Te Tiriti” banners who turned their backs on the politicians’ powhiri was about as rough as it ...
Hi,This week’s Flightless Bird episode was about “fake seizure guy” — a Melbourne man who fakes seizures in order to get members of the public to sit on him.The audio documentary (which I have included in this newsletter in case you don’t listen to Flightless Bird) built on reporting first ...
National’s cuts to disability support funding and freezing of new residential placements has resulted in significant mental health decline for intellectually disabled people. ...
The hundreds of jobs lost needlessly as a result of the Kinleith Mill paper production closure will have a devastating impact on the Tokoroa community - something that could have easily been avoided. ...
Today Te Pāti Māori MP for Te Tai Tokerau, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi, released her members bill that will see the return of tamariki and mokopuna Māori from state care back to te iwi Māori. This bill will establish an independent authority that asserts and protects the rights promised in He Whakaputanga ...
The Whangarei District Council being forced to fluoridate their local water supply is facing a despotic Soviet-era disgrace. This is not a matter of being pro-fluoride or anti-fluoride. It is a matter of what New Zealanders see and value as democracy in our country. Individual democratically elected Councillors are not ...
Nicola Willis’ latest supermarket announcement is painfully weak with no new ideas, no real plan, and no relief for Kiwis struggling with rising grocery costs. ...
Half of Pacific children sometimes going without food is just one of many heartbreaking lowlights in the Salvation Army’s annual State of the Nation report. ...
The Salvation Army’s State of the Nation report is a bleak indictment on the failure of Government to take steps to end poverty, with those on benefits, including their children, hit hardest. ...
New Zealand First has today introduced a Member’s Bill which would restore decision-making power to local communities regarding the fluoridation of drinking water. The ‘Fluoridation (Referendum) Legislation Bill’ seeks to repeal the Health (Fluoridation of Drinking Water) Amendment Act 2021 that granted centralised authority to the Direct General of Health ...
New Zealand First has introduced a Member’s Bill aimed at preventing banks from refusing their services to businesses because of the current “Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Framework”. “This Bill ensures fairness and prevents ESG standards from perpetuating woke ideology in the banking sector being driven by unelected, globalist, climate ...
Erica Stanford has reached peak shortsightedness if today’s announcement is anything to go by, picking apart immigration settings piece by piece to the detriment of the New Zealand economy. ...
Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. The intention was to establish a colony with the cession of sovereignty to the Crown, ...
Te Whatu Ora Chief Executive Margie Apa leaving her job four months early is another symptom of this government’s failure to deliver healthcare for New Zealanders. ...
The Green Party is calling for the Prime Minister to show leadership and be unequivocal about Aotearoa New Zealand’s opposition to a proposal by the US President to remove Palestinians from Gaza. ...
The latest unemployment figures reveal that job losses are hitting Māori and Pacific people especially hard, with Māori unemployment reaching a staggering 9.7% for the December 2024 quarter and Pasifika unemployment reaching 10.5%. ...
Waitangi 2025: Waitangi Day must be community and not politically driven - Shane Jones Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. ...
Despite being confronted every day with people in genuine need being stopped from accessing emergency housing – National still won’t commit to building more public houses. ...
The Green Party says the Government is giving up on growing the country’s public housing stock, despite overwhelming evidence that we need more affordable houses to solve the housing crisis. ...
Before any thoughts of the New Year and what lies ahead could even be contemplated, New Zealand reeled with the tragedy of Senior Sergeant Lyn Fleming losing her life. For over 38 years she had faithfully served as a front-line Police officer. Working alongside her was Senior Sergeant Adam Ramsay ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson will return to politics at Waitangi on Monday the 3rd of February where she will hold a stand up with fellow co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick. ...
Te Pāti Māori is appalled by the government's blatant mishandling of the school lunch programme. David Seymour’s ‘cost-saving’ measures have left tamariki across Aotearoa with unidentifiable meals, causing distress and outrage among parents and communities alike. “What’s the difference between providing inedible food, and providing no food at all?” Said ...
The Government is doubling down on outdated and volatile fossil fuels, showing how shortsighted and destructive their policies are for working New Zealanders. ...
Green Party MP Steve Abel this morning joined Coromandel locals in Waihi to condemn new mining plans announced by Shane Jones in the pit of the town’s Australian-owned Gold mine. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to strengthen its just-announced 2030-2035 Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement and address its woeful lack of commitment to climate security. ...
Today marks a historic moment for Taranaki iwi with the passing of the Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill in Parliament. "Today, we stand together as descendants of Taranaki, and our tūpuna, Taranaki Maunga, is now formally acknowledged by the law as a living tūpuna. ...
Labour is relieved to see Children’s Minister Karen Chhour has woken up to reality and reversed her government’s terrible decisions to cut funding from frontline service providers – temporarily. ...
It is the first week of David Seymour’s school lunch programme and already social media reports are circulating of revolting meals, late deliveries, and mislabelled packaging. ...
The Green Party says that with no-cause evictions returning from today, the move to allow landlords to end tenancies without reason plunges renters, and particularly families who rent, into insecurity and stress. ...
The Government’s commitment to get New Zealand’s roads back on track is delivering strong results, with around 98 per cent of potholes on state highways repaired within 24 hours of identification every month since targets were introduced, Transport Minister Chris Bishop says. “Increasing productivity to help rebuild our economy is ...
The former Cadbury factory will be the site of the Inpatient Building for the new Dunedin Hospital and Health Minister Simeon Brown says actions have been taken to get the cost overruns under control. “Today I am giving the people of Dunedin certainty that we will build the new Dunedin ...
From today, Plunket in Whāngarei will be offering childhood immunisations – the first of up to 27 sites nationwide, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. The investment of $1 million into the pilot, announced in October 2024, was made possible due to the Government’s record $16.68 billion investment in health. It ...
New Zealand’s strong commitment to the rights of disabled people has continued with the response to an important United Nations report, Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston has announced. Of the 63 concluding observations of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), 47 will be progressed ...
Resources Minister Shane Jones has launched New Zealand’s national Minerals Strategy and Critical Minerals List, documents that lay a strategic and enduring path for the mineral sector, with the aim of doubling exports to $3 billion by 2035. Mr Jones released the documents, which present the Coalition Government’s transformative vision ...
Firstly I want to thank OceanaGold for hosting our event today. Your operation at Waihi is impressive. I want to acknowledge local MP Scott Simpson, local government dignitaries, community stakeholders and all of you who have gathered here today. It’s a privilege to welcome you to the launch of the ...
Racing Minister, Winston Peters has announced the Government is preparing public consultation on GST policy proposals which would make the New Zealand racing industry more competitive. “The racing industry makes an important economic contribution. New Zealand thoroughbreds are in demand overseas as racehorses and for breeding. The domestic thoroughbred industry ...
Business confidence remains very high and shows the economy is on track to improve, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis says. “The latest ANZ Business Outlook survey, released yesterday, shows business confidence and expected own activity are ‘still both very high’.” The survey reports business confidence fell eight points to +54 ...
Enabling works have begun this week on an expanded radiology unit at Hawke’s Bay Fallen Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital which will double CT scanning capacity in Hawke’s Bay to ensure more locals can benefit from access to timely, quality healthcare, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. This investment of $29.3m in the ...
The Government has today announced New Zealand’s second international climate target under the Paris Agreement, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand will reduce emissions by 51 to 55 per cent compared to 2005 levels, by 2035. “We have worked hard to set a target that is both ambitious ...
Nine years of negotiations between the Crown and iwi of Taranaki have concluded following Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/the Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill passing its third reading in Parliament today, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “This Bill addresses the historical grievances endured by the eight iwi ...
As schools start back for 2025, there will be a relentless focus on teaching the basics brilliantly so all Kiwi kids grow up with the knowledge, skills and competencies needed to grow the New Zealand of the future, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “A world-leading education system is a key ...
Housing Minister Chris Bishop and Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson have welcomed Kāinga Ora’s decision to re-open its tender for carpets to allow wool carpet suppliers to bid. “In 2024 Kāinga Ora issued requests for tender (RFTs) seeking bids from suppliers to carpet their properties,” Mr Bishop says. “As part ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour has today visited Otahuhu College where the new school lunch programme has served up healthy lunches to students in the first days of the school year. “As schools open in 2025, the programme will deliver nutritious meals to around 242,000 students, every school day. On ...
Minister for Children Karen Chhour has intervened in Oranga Tamariki’s review of social service provider contracts to ensure Barnardos can continue to deliver its 0800 What’s Up hotline. “When I found out about the potential impact to this service, I asked Oranga Tamariki for an explanation. Based on the information ...
A bill to make revenue collection on imported and exported goods fairer and more effective had its first reading in Parliament, Customs Minister Casey Costello said today. “The Customs (Levies and Other Matters) Amendment Bill modernises the way in which Customs can recover the costs of services that are needed ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Department of Internal Affairs [the Department] has achieved significant progress in completing applications for New Zealand citizenship. “December 2024 saw the Department complete 5,661 citizenship applications, the most for any month in 2024. This is a 54 per cent increase compared ...
Reversals to Labour’s blanket speed limit reductions begin tonight and will be in place by 1 July, says Minister of Transport Chris Bishop. “The previous government was obsessed with slowing New Zealanders down by imposing illogical and untargeted speed limit reductions on state highways and local roads. “National campaigned on ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis has announced Budget 2025 – the Growth Budget - will be delivered on Thursday 22 May. “This year’s Budget will drive forward the Government’s plan to grow our economy to improve the incomes of New Zealanders now and in the years ahead. “Budget 2025 will build ...
For the Government, 2025 will bring a relentless focus on unleashing the growth we need to lift incomes, strengthen local businesses and create opportunity. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon today laid out the Government’s growth agenda in his Statement to Parliament. “Just over a year ago this Government was elected by ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour welcomes students back to school with a call to raise attendance from last year. “The Government encourages all students to attend school every day because there is a clear connection between being present at school and setting yourself up for a bright future,” says Mr ...
The Government is relaxing visitor visa requirements to allow tourists to work remotely while visiting New Zealand, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis, Immigration Minister Erica Stanford and Tourism Minister Louise Upston say. “The change is part of the Government’s plan to unlock New Zealand’s potential by shifting the country onto ...
The opening of Kāinga Ora’s development of 134 homes in Epuni, Lower Hutt will provide much-needed social housing for Hutt families, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I’ve been a strong advocate for social housing on Kāinga Ora’s Epuni site ever since the old earthquake-prone housing was demolished in 2015. I ...
By Caleb Fotheringham, RNZ Pacific journalist Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown says the deal with China “complements, not replaces” the relationship with New Zealand after signing it yesterday. Brown said “The Action Plan for Comprehensive Strategic Partnership (CSP) 2025-2030” provides a structured framework for engagement between the Cook Islands ...
The government should not set military style academies into youth justice law, the children's commissioner says, despite its first bootcamp getting a glowing report. ...
The infamous over-the-suit T-shirt worn by the PM at a Parliament barbecue has gone on sale to raise funds for children living in poverty, in a TradeMe auction. ...
MONDAYSheriff Seymour rode slowly down the main street of Dodge on his faithful white horse Atlas Network.He liked what he saw.Children were being fed free lunches prepared by kind people who collected the scraps from an offal rendering plant.“Very strongly flavoured liver, such as ox liver, can be soaked overnight ...
Once upon a time it was all about being an astronaut, a firefighter or doctor; but these days kids have their sights set on becoming vloggers or YouTubers.That’s according to a 2019 study by Lego that surveyed 3000 children between the ages of eight to 12 from the US, the ...
Madeleine Chapman reflects on the week that was. From the moment I started high school and realised almost every other girl in my year was at least partially interested in what the boys were up to, I realised that I would be single for life. The feeling wasn’t one of ...
The Pacific profiles series shines a light on Pacific people in Aotearoa doing interesting and important work in their communities, as nominated by members of the public. Today, Selina Alesana Alefosio.All photos by Geoffery Matautia.On a bright Sunday morning from her grandparent’s home in Pito-one, I spoke with ...
The White Lotus star reflects on her life in TV, including the local ad reference that doesn’t work in Australia, and her bananas co-star on Neighbours.Morgana O’Reilly was scrolling her phone next to her sleeping son on an idle Saturday morning when she got the call confirming that she ...
Claire Mabey explores the pros and cons of puff quotes on book covers.In January, Publishers Weekly put out an article by Sean Manning – publisher of Simon & Schuster’s flagship US imprint – in which he said he’d “no longer require authors to obtain blurbs for their books”.The ...
New Zealand’s Entomological Society is hosting its annual bug of the year contest. Here are some of the insects in the running. For some reason – perhaps humans’ inherent competitiveness, the idealisation of democracy, the need to demarcate winners and losers – one of the best ways to get people ...
A journey along the border, with words and illustrations by Bob Kerr.The Spinoff Essay showcases the best essayists in Aotearoa, on topics big and small. Made possible by the generous support of our members.The Sunset Limited leaves Union Station New Orleans on time at nine in the morning. We ...
Neville Peat is the 2024 recipient of the Prime Minister’s Award for Literary Achievement in nonfiction. He’s written 56 books, mostly on natural history; this excerpt is from The Falcon and the Lark: A New Zealand High Country Journal, first published in 1992. The falcon wintering on the Rock and ...
It was a light-hearted gesture Greta Pilkington will be forever grateful for – thanks to an Aussie rival who jumped in when the Olympic sailor couldn’t be at her own graduation.Pilkington, then 20, had been leading a double life – while qualifying for the 2024 Paris Olympics in the ILCA ...
I was born in the back of my grandfather’s ute, by an overgrown windbreak in a remote place called Wahi-Rakauyou can’t find on a map. I was born a girl but given the man’s name Harvey, as my dad always wanted a violent-minded boy to one day help him ...
“We’re not here to interfere in people’s property rights,” Ngāi Tahu’s Te Maire Tau has told the High Court.Tau, a historian, Upoko (traditional leader) of Ngāi Tūāhuriri, and a university professor of history, is the lead witness in a case designed to force the Crown to recognise the tribe’s rangatiratanga ...
Pacific Media Watch Trump administration officials barred two Associated Press (AP) reporters from covering White House events this week because the US-based independent news agency did not change its style guide to align with the president’s political agenda. The AP is being punished for using the term “Gulf of Mexico,” ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific Presenter/Bulletin editor France’s top diplomat in the Pacific region says talks around the “unfreezing” of New Caledonia’s highly controversial electoral roll are back on the table. The French government intended to make a constitutional amendment that would lift restrictions prescribed under the Nouméa Accord, which ...
By bringing these global voices to the fight for free expression in New Zealand, we’ll continue to protect and expand our culture of free speech, says Nathan Seiuli, the Free Speech Union's Events Manager. ...
The issue is no longer a hypothetical one. US President Donald Trump will not explicitly suggest death camps, but he has already consented to Israel’s continuing a war that is not a war but rather a barbaric assault on a desolate stretch of land. From there, the road to annihilation is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cecelia Cmielewski, Research Fellow, Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University To be selected as the artist and curator team to represent Australia at the Venice Biennale is considered the ultimate exhibition for an artistic team. To have your selection rescinded, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Steve Turton, Adjunct Professor of Environmental Geography, CQUniversity Australia Severe Tropical Cyclone Zelia is bearing down on the northwest coast of Australia and is likely to make landfall early Friday evening. It’s a monster storm of great concern to Western Australia. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Danielle Ireland-Piper, Associate Professor, ANU National Security College, Australian National University A Victorian government decision to allow dingo culling in the state’s east until 2028 has reignited debate over what has been dubbed Australia’s most controversial animal. Animals Australia, an animal welfare ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hassan Vally, Associate Professor, Epidemiology, Deakin University Overnight, Robert F. Kennedy Jr was confirmed as the secretary of the US Health and Human Services Department. Put simply, this makes him the most influential figure in overseeing the health and wellbeing of more ...
Everything you missed from day five of the Treaty principles bill hearings, when the Justice Committee heard eight hours of submissions.Read our recaps of the previous hearings here.It was another work from home day for the Justice Committee, the only people in Room 3 being security guards, committee ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Milad Haghani, Associate Professor & Principal Fellow in Urban Risk & Resilience, The University of Melbourne Juris Teivans/Shutterstock In Australia, fatal road crashes are climbing again, especially since the pandemic, and despite years of attempts to reduce road trauma, the numbers ...
In its eagerness to appease supporters of Israel, the media is happy to ride roughshod over due process and basic rights. It’s damaging Australia’s (and New Zealand’s?) democracy.COMMENTARY:By Bernard Keane Two moments stand out so far from the Federal Court hearings relating to Antoinette Lattouf’s sacking by the ...
“The reality is we’re getting poorer. The government this year is leaning heavy on chasing economic growth, which is absolutely the right thing to do.” ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 The Vegetarian by Han Kang (Granta, $28) Han Kang’s astounding novel was based on an ...
This new docuseries about two single comedians looking for love is also a joyful celebration of female friendship. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. “How many people do you think are boning right now?” Kura Forrester asks Brynley Stent as the bright ...
This link was posted yesterday by one of the rw idiots who frequent this site.
It’s (in my opinion) one of the more perceptive and positive articles about combatting climate catastrophe, and was, predictably, described as a totalitarian hell hole by the poster.
But BAU will end in killing us all! At least this article offers a glimmer of hope, a possible way out of the mess we’ve created for ourselves.
https://www.currentaffairs.org/2021/11/what-would-it-look-like-if-we-treated-climate-change-as-an-actual-emergency
Some selective quotes:
This article deserves wider readership and comment.
A final quote:
Yes. Its racing towards us…at horrifying pace. Well, horrifying to ..you, me and… how many others?
For most, the prime concern is fuel the car (not public transport)….buy heaps of food (incl fast food ! ), pay the rent (to landlord/gougers), and watch the rugby, (build a new stadium Fucks sake ! ) Oh also ditch your mask…because : selfish.
And of course Clustopher Luxon's blowing his Special Dog Whistle for all he's worth…
Years ago I read an insight…for some (most?) people, the pain of their cut finger…means more than the death of thousands…."somewhere else".
Anyway…I aint gonna stop doing my best…and trying to change this.
Stalin (I think) said: "One death a tragedy, a million deaths, a statistic!"
Which goes a long way to explaining why we simply cannot (yet) envisage an end to the human species!
I still see this as a Top Down problem. As in the toxic culture seeps down from “some” embedded toxic Police. I wonder what happened to the Senior Policeman who “advised” the Prosecutor ?
Back of the envelope thought for the day.
NZ SMEs are from this month going to have to find an additional 50 million (plus) a month for the next 3 years…..how do we think that additional income will be sourced?
details and context would help.
K.
The government has lent around 2 billion to SMEs to help them survive the covid demand crunch..those loans were over 5 years with a 2 year grace period…as of this month they have to begin repaying them (if they havnt already, though given the circumstances most will not have)…that equates to around 50 million a month that SMEs will have to find that they previously didnt have to.
The customers of those SMEs will ultimately be funding it.
Inflationary? (on top of everything else)
that doesn't sound good. Have MSM been talking about this?
Not that Ive seen….though I expect the likes of the RBNZ are well aware of it, Treasury will have advised on it when the Gov decided to implement the scheme.
We’re one of those SMEs and don’t see the repayments as an issue. We knew it was coming and have planned accordingly
We are also incredibly grateful to our Government for the assistance. Right through the COVID emergency the aupport for our business has been sufficient to allow us to continue and transition our business to a more sustainable model in the face of a very uncertain tourism market
Traditional sources of financial support just weren’t there, and without the Government support it would have got very ugly very fast
As for any inflationary impact of the repayment, it should be deflationary as the 2 billion is going out of the economy, just what we need right now. I seem to remember Grant Robertson saying pretty much the same thing in one of the 1:00 pm briefings at the time it happened.
how is the 2B going out of the economy?
What did you do re a more sustainable model if you don't mind sharing?
Pat dealt with the 2B but it's money that's going to the government presumably to pay down the debt they incurred for the programme, rather than re-circulated in the economy on goods or services.
We managed to see out our lease at the end of March and moved the Gallery totally online with a proper full service web store. We didn't have a brick and mortar business post covid, that was bleeding 5-10K / month for the 2 years which support payments assisted but our retirement savings took a huge hit, and the customer dynamic had become so toxic around masks and scanning, along with just plain nastiness, that we were glad to be out of there. Another couple of months of it and it would have killed my partner, she had enough going on with her health without crap from the public, all that kept her going was preparing to get out.
The web store we built ourselves on an online platform (Shopify) with strategic advice and some implementation funding through the Tourism Regeneration programmes. We got 5K funding for strategy and another 5K to implement that strategy, but only ended up drawing down a fraction of that because we had the time and ability to do so much ourselves. Came across a lot of people who wanted to spend the funding but couldn't identify an outcome though.
The web store is going quite well, we're making sales and Shopify's metrics say we're in the top 20% of stores that launched in the same week as us (there must be some real fizzers in the e-commerce world). Site visitors are more than we had through the gallery, and engagement is probably similar, but you don't have the same interaction that drives sales. That's making it hard for some of our more tactile lines / artists which aren't doing so well online, others are doing as well, maybe better online. a huge learning curve and we're loving it.
Cashflow and profitability are much better without the brick and mortar expenses, we're saving money and have time and weekends. But it's hard to get out of the 7 day work habits but we're getting there, kinda…
Strategy is to go back into premises once things settle with covid, and we start seeing what the future of tourism holds and can put a value on leased premises. The online store will make that easier. Way too soon to be able to do that yet, think there's more pain for the sector yet. Maybe later this year at the soonest, but more like end of next year.
Right now really happy to be at home watching it all unfold. The way covid's going, the Queenstown tourism sector could get really messed up this winter.
Ultimately deflationary….I suspect not so in terms of CPI.
Profit seeking knows no bounds.
We dont know that 2 billion will be removed from the economy…yes the original debt will be repaid but the Government may choose to leave the money in the economy in another form….i.e. not reduce gov debt by the 2 billion paid back…but meanwhile the businesses that have to pay it back still need to earn it.
I expect that when the decision was made there was no expectation that inflation was going to be a problem 2 years into reduced demand.
Events.
Well yes, no one has a crystal ball and international ‘Events’ are certainly supplying extra stresses, but such is life everywhere.
As Graeme stated above SME’s knew this was a loan, knew this had to be repaid and planned accordingly. That seems to me to be the bare minimum that anyone taking out credit is required to do.
Unless you are suggesting a Jubilee? In which case it should be for individual debts not commercial ones.
I think there was an acknowledgement by Robertson that Government didn't expect all the borrowers to be able to repay the loan. There's provision to talk about it if you can't repay, and I know of several businesses that have gone tits up and everyone's out of pocket, particularly the owners.
But SMEs that were severely affected got a lot of cash from Government by way of Support Payments etc, which generally went to meeting existing contractual payments, like lease and loan payments. Mass defaults wouldn't have been pretty and especially with lease payments would have cascaded badly and easily taken out the economy. Justifiable support for businesses and quite successful.
I make no judgement on the effectiveness or need for the scheme and I have no trouble repaying the loan….the original point remains.
Sorry arkie…my reply was supposed to be to weka, however, im not advocating for a jubilee for SMEs (though I personally would benefit) I am simply pointing out that on top of all the other pressures on SMEs they from this month have to find collectively an additional 50 million a month for the next 3 years….and all that flows from that.
As is often noted the cure for high prices is high prices….read recession.
I assume that many (?) of those businesses that took a loan under this scheme may not have survived without it. Surely, businesses going belly-up is not good for the economy and wouldn’t this be inflationary?
Our unemployment would have been higher. Less tax and so it goes.
Pat it is scary to face a debt not anticipated before covid, but would you have coped without it?
Has it given you time to strengthen aspects of your business and pivot if you needed to?
Did it help cashfow, and are you now building that into your costs? Yes some inflation involved, but what would have been without it?
People have accepted we need to pay more to give people a better standard of life and to cope wth the stresses of covid.
People are making home more attractive, spending savings on what they see as essential to survive then thrive and at the same time build in a premium for borrowing and climate adjustments. You are not alone.
frankly it made no difference to my situation…like many I accepted it as I had no idea how the pandemic and its impact on the economy was going to play out. I'll also add my situation is not typical.
None of which changes the fact that there is 50 million additional dollars a month now needed within the SME sector.
ditto.
Think the rise of Trumpism and in NZ the Antivax crowd.
https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/2022/07/rumours-of-civil-war.html
interesting read, thanks. Important to look at the other factions in NZ especially the loose collection of 'freedom' protest movements. Groundswell, the anti-mandate protests, rising white supremacy. In all of that, it's the people yet to be radicialised one way or the other that concerns me. The left/liberals appear to think that they can force people to like their values and beliefs. I don't believe this is true, and the biggest progress we could make at this point is how to engage with people who think differently from us and learn how to work with them.
"and the biggest progress we could make at this point is how to engage with people who think differently from us and learn how to work with them."
I posted this approach a couple of weeks ago, but don't know if you saw it. It was the process used in 1971 to resolve a school provision issue between a prominent black rights activist, and a Ku Klux Klan leader.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2019/04/05/ann-atwaters-amazing-rise-poverty-teen-pregnancy-best-enemies-stardom/
You would expect many of those on the left to possess such skills and be able to facilitate similar processes. However, I think those skills may have been undervalued and lost.
What needs to come first, is the desire to engage respectfully.
There seems little evidence that this exists.
about to have a read, here's a free access version
https://archive.ph/BPV6C
Really moving reading about this. brought a tear to my eye. Thanks for posting Weka
good read. Both sides needed to change their approach, yeah?
would love to know what happened when they met with the kids. Have you watched the film?
Yes, on Netflix at the moment.
Had watched a documentary which had Ann Atwater and Claiborne Ellis on it a while ago and remembered the story.
The man called in to facilitate the charette is worth researching too:
https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/the-inherent-value-of-a-charrette-a-discussion-with-bill-riddick
He's written a handbook of the process:
https://www.amazon.com/Charrette-Handbook-Bill-Lennertz/dp/1611901472
I think the recent work with marginalised groups was aimed at this, but "Soft on crime" is the meme which often derails it.
I think this is different. You are working with groups in opposition.
The work with gangs is analysis and solution oriented.
username typo
Thanks, late night phone fat finger syndrome.
I read it, and I couldn't get past the fact that one of the most well known civil wars, the American Civl War, is described like this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Civil_War
I don't know a lot about it but presumably the super faction in that case is Lincoln and the Union demanding an end to slavery.
We'd all agree I hope that the American Civil war was inevitable and necessary because the Confederacy seceded and thankfully they and their ideologies were largely defeated.
What does Chris Trotter expect us to do in the case of New Zealand, not progress on Treaty partnership because it might offend the racists?
You can't placate these idiots. Best to make the changes and they will fall into line.
The crucial difference between the North and the South was that the economy of the plantations was essentially still pre-industrial – and like all such societies throughout history slavery was a regrettable but necessary part of life.
The northern states by contrast were too cold for the plantations and were compelled to industrialise in order to grow. And in that context the chattel slavery of the south was not necessary – burning coal in boilers replaced the raw muscle power of slaves very effectively.
It is unnecessary to introduce modern moral judgements into this. The US Civil War is best thought of as a conflict between two economic systems, one rooted in the old agricultural, sunshine based economies – and a new fossil fuel based one about to replace it.
You call for us not to judge Confederates because they were too agricultural to know any better.
Future generations of Kiwis might call not to judge Groundswell & Co. for the same reason.
I read a different explanation – that wages were suppressed in the South, by the availability of a cheaper alternative. This left little incentive for the kind of development that craftsmen had in the North.
Pretty sure it was here – sorry I don't recall the page.
Or you could equally argue that by industrialising the Northerners were making labour far more productive – and raising wages by comparison to the South.
I rest my argument on the simple observation that in pre-Industrial times almost all expansive societies depended on chattel slavery to succeed – because the only sources of energy available to them were essentially muscle power or burning wood or charcoal. And while domesticating animals like horses or cattle harnessed lots of useful power in a rural setting – anything indoors or complex needed humans to accomplish. The problem was not so much economic as thermodynamic.
By contrast once a society was able to harness steam power and to mechanise it – essentially the primal forms of automation – chattel slavery within several generations disappears and never returns.
Industrialisation in the South in the form of the cotton gin resulted in an explosion of slave labour.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotton_gin
For the first generation of cotton gins this would be true – but very quickly they became more sophisticated and mechanised, needing less and less labour to run. Modern textile machinery is almost completely automated to an astonishing extent. No slaves needed to operate them – indeed it will usually be skilled and rather well paid operators and maintenance techs.
The transition to industrialisation was complex and had many moving parts running on different timelines – and the resulting social and economic shifts were turbulent. But once you have gotten through it, no-one sane wants to revert back to the previous conditions.
Ok. I thought for a moment you were saying industrialisation ended slavery, but I pointed to an example where industrialisation actually increased slavery.
Also, Victorian Britain during the industrial revolution was about as exploitative of labour as you can get in modern times. Ever read Dickens?
It is not industrial revolution which ends practices like slavery and exploitation, it is social revolution.
I thought for a moment you were saying industrialisation ended slavery, but I pointed to an example where industrialisation actually increased slavery.
For a period yes – but the key to understanding slavery is that yes it harnesses muscle power – but unlike domesticated animals it also harnesses intelligence. So as I explained above the first generation of primitive machines did increase slavery for a period, but then very quickly after that it was eliminated once their mechanisms became more sophisticated and required less labour to run.
Modern highly automated textile machines requiring no direct labour – and certainly no slaves.
It is not industrial revolution which ends practices like slavery and exploitation, it is social revolution.
So why then did 'social revolution' only occur after the industrial revolution? You had 10,000 years of known history for your social revolution to eliminate slavery – but either it never happened or in those few locations where it did fall out of favour, it never stuck for one reason or another.
I know the point you are trying to make, that it is businessmen and engineers responsible for ending all the world’s ills.
I’m saying it social and political movements just like the ones Trotter is decrying in the article ianmac posted @ 4.
The article you linked to answers your question.
Blame whoever you like for high fuel prices but oil companies know demand for their product is waning.
https://twitter.com/climate/status/1546955682225819648
If Ian Foster is still All Black Coach next year please, please schedule the election before the Quarter Finals start.
1000+ Barfly.
Masks and filtration work.
"Up to twelve times less risk of contamination in the classroom if there is air purifier" If there is an air purifier in the classroom, the chance of a child infecting another child with the coronavirus decreases by a factor of twelve.
This is evident from the first results of the project of engineer Bert Blocken (KU Leuven / TU Eindhoven), virologist Marc Van Ranst (KU Leuven) and Leen Peeters (Th! Nk E), in which air purifiers were placed in classrooms. Blocks gives the concrete example of a class with 25 students. If an infected student airborne the other 24 students in a class without an air purifier, he would only infect two if the class is equipped with a filter.
The engineer bases this calculation on an internationally recognized formula that determines the risk of infection. In order to be able to assess the risk of contamination with and without air purifiers even more accurately, additional data is needed, Blocken emphasizes.
The project therefore runs until the end of December this year. A total of 100 schools participate: 47 in Flanders, 3 in Wallonia and 50 in the Netherlands. A total of one thousand classrooms are monitored: 500 received a filter, 500 did not.
google translation
https://www.hln.be/wetenschap-en-planeet/tot-twaalf-keer-minder-risico-op-besmetting-in-de-klas-als-er-luchtreiniger-is~a82b2594/
The Belgian/Dutch Air purification in the classroom project in English.
https://www.aircleaningintheclassroom.eu/
edit:
We need to protect youngsters if we’re to break the cycle.
https://twitter.com/chrischirp/status/1546907336526237698
https://twitter.com/chrischirp/status/1546907353437585408
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1546907336526237698.html
Can we have ads like this?
https://twitter.com/JohnSnowProject/status/1546245019702640641
https://johnsnowproject.org/
Ah. Marc Van Ranst. Famous he is as that guy hired to scare the Belgian population into compliance during the 2009 H1N1 epidemic. Cold, calculating and deeply cynical bastard who boasts about the importance of timing and the imperative of gaining and exploiting 100% capture of mainstream media.
A proud Big Pharma shill…he heavily promoted the new vaccine, and he jokes in this speech how many people protested that the new vaccine was unsafe and the pandemic response was over egged.
However….IN MARCH, 2012 A SIGNIFICANT INCREASE in the rate of childhood narcolepsy associated with the influenza vaccine Pandemrix (GlaxoSmithKline) was reported in Finland.1 ….
but …
...the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control commissioned two reports to investigate the rates of narcolepsy in Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Italy, France, the Netherlands, Norway and the United Kingdom. The report concluded that:2
Despite inconsistencies across age groups and countries that tended to suggest the risk of childhood narcolepsy associated with Pandemerix was exaggerated, this vaccine is no longer given to under 20 year olds.
Van Ranst's contemptuous manipulation of the Belgian population during the 2009 epidemic, his overweening ego and his smug demeanor actually created a fertile breeding ground for a lack of trust in the responses to the current shit-show. People have long memories.
As is typical of such persons…he hasn't learned from his past blunders.
what's the connection between Joe's tweet and Marc Van Ranst?
Van Ranst is one of the folks involved in the 'Air Purifiers in Schools' project.
With his unashamed connections to Those Who Profit from Pandemics, I'd be suspicious of any project he is involved with.
And while we're on the topic of Pure Air….how on earth did we humans survive the caves? And smoked filled earth lodges through winter?
Are we not supposed to be evolving?
We died at 30.
ok, so what's the connection between the Air Purifiers in Schools project and Joe's tweet?
Have you spent much time cooking over open fires or inside on smokey fires? It's hard on the lungs, eyes and skin, which improves with ventilation. Can't see the connection here either. Smoke and viruses are completely different challenges to the human body.
Marc Van Ranst.
Its his name that leapt out at me when I scanned joe90's post. I'm pretty sure the expression 'mind-fuckery' was invented to describe his (Mr Van Ranst's) tactics during the 2009 pandemic. Some folks might think that the circumstances warranted such callous and unethical manipulation of the population, but it had such a negative effect at the time that it effectively (and ironically) inoculated a sizeable portion of the population against such campaigns. He did more harm than good (in some peoples opinion) with respect to uniting the nation against a killer virus. Folks don't like being manipulated and don't enjoy being treated like fuckwits. Unless they're of very nervous constitutions and fear has incapacitated their thought processes.
For him to speak as he did at the Chatham House gig in early 2019 … fwiw I found it almost obscene. A person with such obvious deep disdain of the population should not, in my opinion, be in charge of setting the tone and rallying the troops in the face of a national or worldwide health crisis. Yet there he is.
And speaking of inappropriate message delivery, there's another 'scientist' with a seeming fixation for treating the population like infants (and acting like a dork)…
…that has stepped up to terrify us out of breathing.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/in-depth/470690/whose-breath-are-you-breathing
After that painful little effort you'd think a
performerscientist would quietly fade away into the mists. Or the smoke. But no…here he is telling us that there's almost certain death or disability in every particle of someone else's breath we may inhale.For goodness sakes. We human beings have been doing this cohabiting and breathing thing for eons. Rather than population annihilation we have a planet bulging at the seams. Metaphorically speaking. Surely we can collate and process the knowledge gathered over this time to issue some simple and suitably non-scary advice.
But for the Goddess's sake…don't force healthy folk to do likewise.
Our immune systems are more efficient than we have been led to believe. Let the healthy get on with their lives. Let the children and young people breathe the air and exercise their immune systems. Or is the plan to actually weaken the population?
ok, so no connection between Joe's tweet and Marc Van Ranst other than something obscure about some dude you don't like.
This more than anything tells me you are way off base. We're getting regular snow on the hills and heavy frosts this winter. Suggesting that opening windows and doors is a replacement for masks and filtration is daft.
Heat Recovery Ventilation Systems
I put an early version of one of these into one our rental units 20 years ago as an experiment. While I was local and able to service the filters it worked really well, but I turned it off when we came to Aus.
Basic systems are not terribly expensive and a tiny fraction of the total build cost. Essentially they allow you to 'open the windows' and get fresh air into the dwelling – without freezing your arse off.
In other words, you flip your lid at a research project that is still in progress in Belgium and the Netherlands aimed at reducing Covid-19 infections in classrooms through air purification because you recall something one of the three core members may have said/done in 2009.
https://www.aircleaningintheclassroom.eu/over [in English]
And you flip your lid at an aerosol chemist from Auckland who’s trying to inform and educate us about the air we breathe. Are there no bounds to your bias and negativity and have you lost all sound perspective on causes that you choose to be upset by?
Have you ever seen the crap (aka soot) that they trap in filters in those measuring stations in downtown Auckland to measure air pollution? The outside air is not as ‘fresh’ as you seem to think it is.
We developed respiratory diseases.
Here, we have argued that the extensive changes to human ecology and unprecedented physiological consequences brought about by the controlled use of fire in the Pleistocene created ideal conditions for the emergence of TB. It is possible that during this period of significant ecological and social change, range extensions leading to the consumption of novel food sources and altered energy requirements increased exposure of early humans to the natural reservoir of ancestral MTBC, likely the soil. This increased exposure brought about an increasing number of infections and stuttering transmission chains, both of which provided new opportunities for within-host adaptive evolution. Coupled with increasing host-susceptibility to mycobacterial infection attributable to biomass smoke-induced lung damage and the increased opportunities for transmission brought about by the developing social culture that fire use encouraged, we hypothesize that the MTBC precursor evolved an R0 greater than unity relatively quickly, almost guaranteeing MTBC's emergence as a specialized human pathogen.
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1603224113
Histological assessment of the lungs of ancient human mummies has shown that anthracosis was a regular disorder in many ancient societies, including the Egyptian, Peruvian, and Aleutian. The only human mummy recovered from ancient Rome (the so-called Grotta Rossa mummy) shows severe anthracosis despite the young age of the person at the time of death.
Thus, indoor pollution produced chronic reduction of the function of the ciliated respiratory epithelium with an increase in the incidence of inflammatory disease of the pulmonary tree. Therefore, the idea that air pollution and its effects is an exclusively modern phenomenon is probably incorrect.
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(05)71971-1/fulltext
In NZ?
There's no connection. Just the usual extremist fuckery.
In the last months of 2020, several Flemish newspapers also published articles about Van Ranst’s 2019 lecture, commenting on how the video corresponds to how he managed communication in the event of a new health crisis.
Mid-December, former president of the Flemish extreme-right Vlaams Belang party, Filip Dewinter, posted a compilation video with excerpts from Van Ranst’s conference in London.
[…]
What actually happened?
On 22 January 2019, Van Ranst took part in a conference of the “Centre on Global Health Security” at Chatham House in partnership with the European Scientific Group on Influenza (ESWI).
The conference was held “to mark the 100th anniversary of the influenza pandemic and to discuss future challenges,” Chatham House told RTBF. “It was a full-day event with guest speakers, including Marc Van Ranst, who spoke about communication in the event of a pandemic.”
In his speech, which lasted just over 23 minutes and can be watched in full here, Van Ranst explained how he managed crisis communication during the outbreak of the swine flu in 2009.
Back then, the authorities were very concerned about the swine flu – the H1N1 virus – and they took great precautions, including the mass purchase of vaccines. However, the announced epidemic proved to be much less severe than initially feared.
In front of an audience of experts, Van Ranst explained how he made sure he was the reference point for various media during that period, using the slogan “one voice, one message.”
“You have to be omnipresent, the first day or days,” he said. “In order to attract the attention of the media, you make an agreement with them: you will tell them everything, and if they call you, you pick up the phone.”
He explained that, by doing so, there will be maximum coverage, and the media will not look for alternative voices. “If you do that, it will be much easier to convey the message.”
https://www.brusselstimes.com/155486/how-to-sell-an-epidemic-a-marc-van-ranst-conspiracy-theory-explained-chatham-house-pandemic-vlaams-belang-h1n1
QFT
Falling over yourself to shoot a messenger while failing to do the research, again, because you’ve already found enough ammunition to blow the other sucker out of the water, metaphorically speaking.
https://www.medsafe.govt.nz/profs/riss/restrict.asp
https://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/immunisation-handbook-2020/11-influenza
https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/news/2022/01/24/global-guardian-for-vaccine-surveillance.html
Astute as ever.
https://twitter.com/lailaharre/status/1548165963484647424
lol
https://twitter.com/LouisHenwood/status/1548047108363628548
Some comments do not age well. This from well known sports expert on Kiwblog, Kimbo. On the Irish Rugby TV You Tube site. On the comments section of the first test highlights.
"Yeah that aged like milk"
The key thing being Ireland were the better "team". They were clearly more organised on both attack and defence from set play. Thus they had better go forward (Sexton and Aki had it all over Barrett and Havili) – while we had individual athletes (ASavea AIoane and WJordan). And the MOM was Beirne for his breakdown disruption.
It was shocking, the amount of AB passes, Smith included, that went above the shoulder, behind the shoulder, below the knee…
There were very few players running onto the ball and catching it at pace – a la league.
Far too many handling errors.
Cane still looks a little underdone for test rugby.
Then there are some selection issues, too many players playing out of their position and a roster that looks to be creaking with age.
Great performance from Ireland, their competitiveness at the breakdown and the never say die attitude even with the occasional momentum swing.
Congrats to Andy Farrell, Johnathon Sexton, coaches and players for their series win.
Some parallels in winning both in rugby and politics:
1. It's not about hair styles, or posturing.
2. Choose a wise and charismatic leader as captain. Appoint good selectors who in turn should select good team players.
3 Get good advice and have a plan B. If plan B doesn't work, then going back to plan A probably won't either.
4, Safe hands. Don't drop the ball. Keep the opposition pinned well in their half. It's only a game of two halves if you are losing!
5. Discipline and commitment. Turn up, practise, maintain fitness.
6. Support, encourage, have self belief. Never underestimate the opposition.
7. Revisit your strategies, and try to please your fans. The role of the commentators and writers is fairest when neutral. While the referee is fair, learn and play by the rules. The public can be fickle, but you need their money, support and attendance.
8. Remember you will lose eventually. That's the time to relearn 1-7.
As you well know Mac, all failures on the sporting field are down to the government.
And business confidence will plummet, domestic abuse will rise and Mac1 will celebrate his fourth generation Irishness, to the dismay of his walking companions this morning.