The news media uses emotive language and quotation marks to take a side in a story, as opposed to reporting the news..
This is how they report action by animal activists to highlight animal welfare issues at a sea park in Australia.
“Distressed parents were forced to take their children from theme park shows after protesters refused to leave and labelled them “disgusting”.
Fun family days out across the weekend have turned ugly as “peaceful” protesters storm Gold Coast theme parks.
Demonstrators who targeted several amusement parks held their hands up in peace signs, despite the situation becoming quite violent.
Dozens of children were forced to watch distressing situations at Sea World on Saturday after the group, Justice for Captives, refused to get out of the water until its famous dolphin show was stopped.”
The vocabulary used sets the scene ….’distressed parents’ , ‘disgusting protesters’,
Speech marks are used to describe the protesters are peaceful to undermine that claim, reinforced by the used of verbs like ‘storm’, ‘forced’ and adjectives like ‘ugly and voilent’
The reporter should continue. Make it really clear whose side you take.
Just another example brought to you to prove the corporate media sucks.
In my younger days, I worked for several weeks on Hamilton Island, and one of the jobs there was at the Dolphin Restaurant. A restaurant near the sea, surrounded by a concrete pool that held three dolphins.
It was sad to see those animals in such a artificial, enclosed environment, even though their keepers treated them with affection that ‘seemed’ to be returned. While I was there, one of the females just became listless and died.
After I left – I heard the dolphins pool was closed down, but that memory of those huge mammals kept in such a confined area to provide a living, backdrop for the restaurant patrons has stayed with me.
The journalist who wrote this piece is one Stephanie Bedo, a senior journalist, who, apparently..
“..has won awards for her health reporting and admits to being a bit of a science nerd, particularly when it comes to animal stories that often only she is excited about.”
She is “good” at making a clear “distinction” between “animal abuse” (bad) and “animal abuse” in the name of “entertainment” (good).
She is also a “chronic” uses of “inverted” commas.
Bit like this twit, really:
“His views are backed up by some eyewitnesses to the parade. One parent told Newshub the Māori Santa left children stunned and in tears.
“All these kids were dumbstruck really, you could hear the ‘that’s not Santa’,” she told Newshub.
“Our six-year-old son burst into tears after the video finished. We had to explain to him that Santa was running late.”
Garner blamed some “PC wally” and “woolly woofter” for the “stupid decision by Nelson”.
“A conservation group is calling for a total fishing ban for crayfish in the Hauraki Gulf and Bay of Plenty as the population “collapses towards extinction”.
Forest & Bird is calling for the wider Hauraki Gulf to Bay of Plenty crayfishing area (known as CRA2) to be closed for three years to allow the species to start recovering.
“The wider Hauraki Gulf to Bay of Plenty crayfish population has undergone a significant decline,” Forest & Bird marine conservation advocate Katrina Goddard said.
“Without an urgent end to fishing pressure, crayfish could become functionally extinct throughout the entire area within a few years.” ….”
In our rebuttal to the original article, we point out that fish stocks are nowhere near as healthy as suggested. There is a lack of scientific data to correctly run the QMS. Three quarters of fish stocks have no formal or detailed assessment, and very few have independent research surveys.
we should probably be considering either an outright ban on all fishing for 20 years or at least a serious decrease on commercial fishing by only allowing fish caught in NZ controlled waters to be sold in NZ.
if we go down that path could we first have words with the like of Ngati Kahungunu who insist on allowing the D’Esposito Brothers fishing rights?? I’m not sure of the total charges the D’Esposito’s and their various companies have attracted over the years, but it’s well over the hundreds. Infact Ngati Kahungunu (and Waikato Tainui) only concern seems to be the possible loss of jobs.
Then again, who can blame them for not taking overfishing seriously. The D’Espositos simply turn up in court, year after year, facing the same charges, paying the fines with their ill gotten gains, and continue on their merry way.
Restricting to NZ fishing companies only makes sense if we create bigger penalties for repeat, flagrant, breaking of the law. Otherwise we are kidding ourselves.
Restricting to NZ fishing companies only makes sense if we create bigger penalties for repeat, flagrant, breaking of the law. Otherwise we are kidding ourselves.
Agreed. If a company breaks the law it should be nationalised and then sold. The previous owners should keep the debt that the company had built up as well as being fined in the millions of dollars. Limited liability should not exist.
That said, I didn’t actually say that the fishing be restricted to NZ companies. I said that the fish caught could only be sold in NZ. I suspect that foreign companies wouldn’t bother.
And, yes, I’m quite aware that many Iwi are standing in the way of what we need to do to protect the environment. Just have to look at their whinging about the Kermadec fish sanctuary to see that.
“And, yes, I’m quite aware that many Iwi are standing in the way of what we need to do to protect the environment. Just have to look at their whinging about the Kermadec fish sanctuary to see that.”
If the Iwi (or any other group) conflict with what we need to do to protect the environment than they need to change.
Hard for Kahungungu to complain when some of them were apparently travelling with the brothers to Greece during the court case. Family over there also wonder about who was benefitting from the back door sales over the years this was going on. Would have been much more interesting if the court case proceeded.
Still they did conveniently have a track to get upset about to take attention away.
“we should probably be considering either an outright ban on all fishing for 20 years ”
Do you mean just in NZ or worldwide? If you mean worldwide then you’ll run into problems because in some developing nations (and other western nations but it isn’t really a problem for Western Nations) fish make up a huge percentage of their protein. You’d need to introduce an alternative…Soylent Green?
That said, considering that fish stocks are collapsing worldwide I suspect that those nations, which does include Developed Nations, that are dependent upon fish to feed themselves are in for a world of hurt.
The report found that fishing fleets each year harvest more than 170 billion pounds (78 million metric tonnes) of wild fish and shellfish – from the oceans, and that this so-called “world catch” is essentially unfair and becoming increasingly difficult to sustain without risking a future global collapse in fishing stocks.
It’s not that far off either….I have a young daughter and I am saddened by the idea she might grow up in a world where there are no tigers or Rhinos or….everything
The website features an atlas showing some large sites and locations in countries around the world …. these locations are where exploitation, corruption, pollution and environmental destruction … and various other bad things are taking place.
A couple of examples missing from the New zealand would be the 80% non compliant swamp Kauri smash and grab industry … with Judith collins connections providing the gps google earth location.
There is still loads of ‘slash’ from forestry that was washed down the Motueka valley during Gita. They cleared the roads, but crikey there’s a heap of wood in the dry parts of the river bed.
Fustrating to see it still sitting there. So I loaded up some logs, took them home, whipped out the chainsaw and hello free firewood.
Not sure if it’s legal or not, pretty legal maybe? It’s been almost a year now, maybe they were waiting for the locals to pick it up for fire wood as it’s not on private property?
“I’m going to write up and submit The swamp kauri looting …. with a special mention for Judith Collins … who hates wetlands .”
Pucky!
Was Judith on your list of Blue-Green Environmental Champions?
You better fly to her defence!
Paul Goldsmith’s car crash interview on RNZ.
Just a tiny bit of preparation by Guyon had Goldsmith talking utter garbage.
Amazing how many politicians who can’t cope when they are forced off their mantra.
As one who travels to Whangarei quite a bit (work related), it is a tricky road. It has way more traffic than 10 years ago. It would be hugely safer if it was 4 lane. Same with Katikati to Tauranga.
But this govt hates the idea of 4 lanes, so we get band aid solutions.
Now obviously not all of dangerous roads have enough traffic to justify 4 lanning but the two I mentioned certainly do.
So yes, some parts of the Labour/Green plan are sensible, but their complete opposition to any new 4 lanes roads is foolish.
Personally I thought Paul did quite ok, though he did get sidetracked at one point.
Doubt it especially when I take into account that you’re talking anecdotes and are ideologically in favour of more cars despite the evidence showing that we can’t afford the ones that we have.
But this govt hates the idea of 4 lanes, so we get band aid solutions.
It’s not the government that hates it – it’s reality.
Now obviously not all of dangerous roads have enough traffic to justify 4 lanning but the two I mentioned certainly do.
Actually, rail would be better especially if it was electric. Increase freight and safety while being cheaper, faster and more ecologically sound.
So yes, some parts of the Labour/Green plan are sensible, but their complete opposition to any new 4 lanes roads is foolish.
No, it’s National’s desire to coat the entire country in roads that is foolish as it goes against all the evidence.
Draco,
You could not be more wrong even if you tried.
The 4 lane roads, especially the newer ones are by far the safest roads in the country. Not just anecdotal, actual fact.
As for 4 lanning well there is no doubt complete ideological opposition from the left, even for the blindingly obvious projects (Dome valley). Fortunately countered from the right. So at least when National is govt, they get built (though opened by Jacinda). Just as National will get to open the light rail-the northwest one is good, the Dominion Rd not so. Light rail should also go into the Southeast (Tamaki, Pakuranga, etc) and to North Shore.
So the next National govt will build the next set of motorways, to be opened by the Labour PM who follows Jacinda, who is possibly not yet in Parliament.
As for 4 lanning well there is no doubt complete ideological opposition from the left, even for the blindingly obvious projects (Dome valley).
It’s not ideology – it’s reality. The stuff that National ignores because it doesn’t conform with their beliefs. We really can’t afford cars and so we can’t afford four lane roads.
So the next National govt will build the next set of motorways
Of course they will as they’re fully opposed to reality.
Yes well any road is going to be safer with 2 lanes rather than one… Would the astronomical build cost meet any sort of sane business cost ratio like pretty much all of the Nats other Roads of National significance? I doubt it. Two laning doesn’t solve traffic jams either as they don’t eliminate choke points, in fact they’re likely to make them worse by bringing more traffic into them.
With fluctuating fuel prices and declining world oil reserves does it make any sense to build new roading infrastructure? Don’t think so. It is possible to make roads safer without having to double the road width. This is what the Government are actually doing right now.
For the next 100 years or more, (probably more like 200 years or more) roads will be the main transport system in NZ. Roads have been a key land transport system for literally thousands of years going back to Roman times. It will not remain with fossil fuel engines. Electric and hydrogen will be the main power source.
There is zero prospect that rail could ever be dense enough in NZ to replace the majority of land transport. Even if rail quadrupled in the next few years, it would still be moving way less freight than road.
It would take a fantastic new, energy dense system to replace roads (magnetic levitation or something similar). But that requires power at multiple levels of what we currently use.
When considering the maximum number of containers that can be transported by each transport mode (ie 550 for coastal shipping, 40 for rail, and 1 for road), the maritime mode is shown to be slightly more efficient in terms of fuel consumption and CO2 emissions than the rail mode, and markedly better than the road mode. In fact, both maritime and rail modes are about twice as efficient as the road mode.
The only reason why trucking freight by road even exists in this country is because of those perverse incentives that I mentioned.
Flat bed rail carriages , drive on enjoy the trip, a meal the view, drive off. Rail to the airport, allow tourist easy access to rural tourist hubs and hire their campers and cars from there. Travellers, sales and business, use rail and hire ev’s. In 200 yrs the northern motor way is under 20 mtr of water, so it will be barges and ferry.
It’s a shame then @ Wayne that the short-sighted, vision-less of planners over the years have chosen to close down, or mothball the network we once had.
Just imagine the commuter rail and freight forwarding capability we might have had.
(For example, by now):
-Dunedin could have had an earport ta ciddy rail transit system, and even an alternative means to the burbs along the way and further north
-Christ’s Church could have had a commuter system from Lyttleton to points north, and from the outliers like Rolleston to the city
-Gisborne wouldn’t be worrying about its limitations – by now it’d have had a link between Matawai and Opotiki and onward to Tearonga, or that “choice’ to go southward
Living in Stratford or Eltham and working in the Plym might be viable.
Instead, that Auckland/Hamilton/Tauranga triangle is now seen as some sort of HUGE deal in terms of being able to furnish it with commuter and freight rail – let alone a fucking commuter & freight system to the Auckland REGIONAL & INTERNATIONAL Earport
And then there’s the south…..the system came close to linking the Queens town with Dunners
You do realise (I sincerely hope) that current transport arrangements are not sustainable long term ( and I don’t mean just because there might be some pretty bloody suspect truck/trailer linkages on the road, or because we can’t attract enough slaves to drive them before driver-less trucks become viable – probably not in my loiftoim)
Oh, and btw, you did another of your spray and walkaway acts the other day
You are assuming all future land transport will use fossil fuel engines. It won’t.
Electric and hydrogen will become the norm. But the vehicles still have to go over something. They are roads, just as horses and carts had to also use roads.
Most people in NZ need roads because they lack the skills to survive without them, forgetting that our ancestors travelled mainly on foot. You won’t be the only one driving out of town on business. We could organise our communities so we didn’t need to, but there’s no incentive because road transport is affordable and people are hooked on driving. Why not walk to your workplace, work from home, teleconference if necessary ?
but there’s no incentive because road transport is affordable
Climate change tells us that individual road transport is no longer affordable as it is.
The problem is that our entire economy has become based upon that unaffordable mode of transport. It’s what happens when externalities aren’t taken into account and become a massive subsidy to the manufacturers.
So, considering that we can’t actually afford cars/trucks then we must consider that we’re paid too much, that costs aren’t properly attributed or a combination of both.
Well, public transport is CaaS too, it’s just inconvenient. I have to get to where the vehicle is, at the time when the vehicle is there.
My dream: the electric autonomous vehicle turns up when and where I need it because Big Data knows that’s when I need it. Maybe shared with other passengers for efficiency.
Well, public transport is CaaS too, it’s just inconvenient. I have to get to where the vehicle is, at the time when the vehicle is there.
Does have the benefit of being economical and workable.
My dream: the electric autonomous vehicle turns up when and where I need it because Big Data knows that’s when I need it. Maybe shared with other passengers for efficiency.
Which is a dream that is both uneconomic and unworkable.
“But this govt hates the idea of 4 lanes” Comments like this remove any credibility to the rest of your comment. Perhaps this Government is just looking at get more Bang for it’s Buck (or less Bangs as the case may be) rather than spend more on your two favoured stretches of road.
However the reality is that they do hate 4 lane roads, especially the Green MPs. They have said so many, many times.
Just about the very first action of this government was to cancel every single 4 lane road that had not actually beeen started. Ideology was the reason.
However the reality is that they do hate 4 lane roads, especially the Green MPs. They have said so many, many times.
[citation needed]
Just about the very first action of this government was to cancel every single 4 lane road that had not actually beeen started. Ideology was the reason.
The reason why they were cancelled was because they were uneconomical.
You’re saying this to someone who has to drive across a One Lane bridge on SH1 cancelled by Simon Bridges after promising double lanes. Your feeble attack on this Government holds no validity.
4 lane roads aren’t safer because they’re 4 lanes.
In modern cars most people die because they hit something solid like a tree, lamp-post, collide with oncoming traffic or T-Bone someone. Motorways are safer because oncoming traffic and trees etc are on the other side of barriers. Colliding with a vehicle travelling the same way as us is rarely fatal.
We don’t need 4 lanes just safe merging, passing lanes where easy done and barriers both sides and middle of a largely 2-lane road.
When so many are dying on our roads each year, I think the right thing to do is to make them safer and put off the luxury of 4 lane Interstate stylings for the time being. 4 lanes through the Aussie interior, no worries cobber, punching them through our mountainous, ravine ridden landscape, jolly expensive.
Wayne Wayne Wayne possum. This government doesn’t hate the idea of 4 lanes.
It just realises that there has been an under-investment over many years and it’s trying to deal with the basics (based on research) before it goes for the luxuries you think you’re entitled to.
Your gorgeous spokesman couldn’t have made that more clear this morning on Moaning Report, however in doing so, he came across as a complete egg roll and showed exactly where he places human life over convenience.
Oh, and btw, hopefully they’ll realise that there are other alternatives before we get to the 4 lane option becoming necessary.
Apparently you see no problem with placing emphasis on four lanes so that the world’s ‘best drivers’ – no doubt including yourself can text whilst driving, tailgate, merge like it is some sort of competition, put driving on auto, etc. with less risk
Just responding to a couple of articles about Grace Millane on open mike yesterday, one by Alison mau and one from Paul little. The Gus of these articles was that we care more about grace, because she was white, young and pretty. In Alison attempt to highlight this she quotes some studies (although no references given) which is useful information, then travels to south Auckland to a street where a woman was murdered, the day or so before. There is a blanket ban and name suppression around this case, but that didn’t stop Alison.
I found her article and indeed all comments about we only care about grace because she was pretty, in very poor taste at this time. I hope none of her extended family see them while they are grieving.
A crucial reason that people got so involved in grace tragic story, was initially a missing person. So we followed that story and hoped like hell she’d be found. And or course we experienced a roller coaster of emotion, right through to the bitter end. And it was a bit like the story of the Thai cave boys. Who would have clocked that story if the were missing foe a few hours then res used.
I am not denying what ms mau says about white pretty woman getting more publicity. That is not going to solve our problem though. I am going to pause now and will write about going to the vigil and my experience about that, and getting real about solving this problem ie what research tells us about these perpetrators and why slogans grandstanding isn’t going to change things
Hell week is this week for retail and service sector workers. Under appreciated and sometimes not understood, have a thought for the people who ensure you can get your Christmas shopping done. Not all do.
Wrightson’s has gone down hill since the majority owned overseas ownership with many delays to farmers getting their seeds this year and disorganisation. Any issues with being able to plant swiftly to the season (especially with climate change) from poor management from Wrightsons has the ability to bankrupt farmers relying on a decent service. There are not many major seed firms in NZ.
The Wrightson’s chairman sounds a dodgy as.
“In one of those egregious deals that are only too common in the regulatory sector, Lai has agreed to pay a US$400,000 ($583,000) penalty and be barred from acting as a director or officer of a public company for five years for manipulating prices in Agria’s NYSE-listed shares.
The settlement with the SEC followed claims that the agriculture investment firm hid losses from investors through fraudulent accounting and overstated the value of its New York-listed stock.”
Totally agree that seeds are a ‘strategic’ asset that need to be NZ owned and also WELL run for the benefits of NZ agriculture. Good call for it to be bought by a NZ consortium and made sure it is well run to the benefit of many small and medium business in NZ that rely on it. Food is strategic. It should be retained for NZ.
So crickets on the up and Kane Williamsons winning record is off the charts (at least for NZ cricket) so to add a bit of controversy to the day heres my all time NZ test team, since the advent of one day cricket (because I don’t want to add any names I haven’t seen play)
1. G Turner
2. M Richardson
3. K Williamson (C)
4. M Crowe
5. R Taylor
6. J Oram
7. BJ Watling (WK)
8. D Vettori
9. Sir R Hadlee
10. S Bond
11. T Boult
Unlucky mentions to J Wright, S Fleming and B McCullum
Number 6 was the most difficult position for me to choose as there were 3 candidates: Chris Cairns, Jacob Oram and J Coney
Cairns has a very good bowling average of under 30 but his batting is weaker than the other two (though certainly not bad) and of the three Coneys bowling is the weakest however I’m also looking at team players and how players would play under Williamsons captaincy
So Oram gets the nod because I’m banking on Hadlee, Bond and Boult to do the job
with the ball and Oram and Vettori to do the donkey work of tying up one end and building pressure plus Orams height adds to the variety of bowling
The bowling averages are quite similar though Vettori just shades Bracewell on all but Vettoris batting sees hims through however this selection is based on not knowing what the pitch will do…if its a spinning pitch then maybe Oram would get dropped for Bracewell (and then S Boock would get the apology 🙂 )
Bracewell bowed against far better players and was more of an attacking spin bowler.
You felt Bracewell could get wickets every time he bowled, while Vertori’s best hope was to just bore them out.
Yeah those are good arguments and not all my decisions are based on numbers but in Vettoris case over 360 test wickets and six centuries are pretty compelling
The thing with Cairns is there’s quite a bit of…shall we say baggage…so I wouldn’t be comfortable having him in the team when he could break down with injury, possibly play through the injury but choose not to, fake an injury and then that stuff with Indian cricket and Lou Vincent and I’m happy to go with Orams better batting
Which the means the bowling line up of Hadlee, Bond, Boult, Vettori and Oram all have their strengths and differences
I mean you survive Bonds right arm 145kph plus in swingers and then you have Hadlees line and length (and under rated bouncer) or Boults left arm in swingers you get to the other end and now you have to try to score of Vettoris accuracy or Orams natural pitch of a 2 meter frame
He kind of had that winning mentality which I think many New Zealand cricketers have lacked over the years. In the age of Warne, Waughs and McGrath, he was possibly the only Kiwi who may have got a start in a hypothetical combined Trans-Team. Certainly he was the only one the Channel Nine team gave any respect to.
I would probably put McCullum ahead of Turner as well, based solely on his late career form (even though he did not open in Tests). They are polar opposites in style. McCullum was a fire cracker where anything could happen at any stage. Turner was a methodical bore-fest of a player.
Bert Sutcliffe instead of Richardson (by a mile)
JR Reid ahead of Oram as the all-rounder (Reid’s offspin gives another slow bowler) – or alternatively Jeremy Coney, who could also be captain.
Jack Cowie ahead of Boult (much as I like Trent’s bowling)
Boult as 12th man or Bruce Taylor (terrific seamer and explosive hitter)
Vettori would have to be the young version before his first back injury – a wonderful bowler then with a more open-chested delivery and more spin, but he was pretty average after his back injuries..
They are fantastic players (especially JR Reid) but I figure the cut off point had to be around the time I first started watching otherwise its simply a matter of inputting stats in only, stats are a good place to start (or as tie breaker) but they don’t tell the full story
Agreed with Vettori but in my game plan hes there to tie an end down and build pressure, along with the natural bounce of Oram, to let Hadlee and Bond do their thing also 6 centuries batting down the order isn’t anything to sniff at
Boult gets in purely for variety reasons as a left arm pace bowler , I mean hes not bad but being left arm it’d be just something else for the batsmen to have to adjust to
1. G Turner
2. S Dempster
3. K Williamson (C)
4. M Crowe
5. B Sutcliffe
6. J Reid
7. B McCullum (WK)
8. Sir R Hadlee
9. S Bond
10. C Grimmet
11. T Boult
You have the wrong Cairns.
Lance was much more fun to watch, particularly in the one day game.
Against Australia in 1983 he got 50 runs in about 12 minutes, including 6 sixes in 10 balls.
Put Lance Cairns in somewhere, anywhere.
Is there are NZ politician who mis-judges more than Simon Bridges??????? I don’t think so. What a completely inappropriate thing to say. I don’t want to know the leader of the opposition likes to watch sex on tv………………………more information than I need to know…..
“Expense controversy
On 10 June 2010 after the release of ministerial credit card records, Jones admitted to having used a Crown credit card for personal expenditure, but assured the public that he had reimbursed the Crown in full for the expenditure. Later that day Jones admitted that he had used the card to hire pornographic films at hotels while on ministerial business.[11] The credit card record showed that he chartered an executive jet for $1200, which he claimed was due to bad weather which forced a change in his schedule.[12]”
I think Shane watching porn was bloody awlful as well. Worse than Simon.
Jones didn’t win the Labour leadership battle, Cunliffe did and Robertson came second. A lot of feminist women in the Labour Party, and I don’t imagine many voting for Jonsie.
As for whether he’ll continue former leader John Key’s tradition of sending wine with his Christmas cards, Mr Bridges said he wasn’t “quite in that league”.
“You know, it’s lucky for some, isn’t it? Vineyards in the south.”
Now there’s the envy of the rich that National are always going on about.
I’d agree with “the envy of the rich that National are always going on about”. I don’t think it exists as much as those who are motivated by possessions would say.
Who really wants a vineyard in the south? Just as I didn’t detect envy in what Bridges said. I thought I heard instead a rather gentle jibe at John Key.
I did listen, rather than read the transcript. I certainly am not going out of my way to defend the captain of the NCC, but the video ref might find him not out with the benefit of the doubt on this one. 🙂
I’m rather struck by this Joe Hildebrand essay. As with any political opinion piece I understand not everyone will agree with everything being said here; but on my first read I bookmarked it and came back later for another pass at it.
It’s not long:
Now I am certainly no slave to Western ideology, if only because the whole point of Western liberal democracy is that it is not an ideology — it is merely a framework. A framework that allows people to choose their own governments, be judged fairly by their peers and have their individual freedoms respected and protected. A framework that allows nations to oscillate between capitalism and socialism if they so choose but only when they so choose. A framework that doesn’t just tolerate dissent but celebrates it. A framework that isn’t imposed from the top down but has evolved organically over centuries and millennia in republics and constitutional monarchies alike, from Sweden to Switzerland, from the United Kingdom to the United States.
A framework that allows people to choose their own governments
And there in lies the problem with Western liberal democracy.
How about, instead of electing people to govern us and to tell us what to do and why we can’t have what’s actually needed we stand up and govern ourselves?
Maybe then we’ll be able to stop the failings of dictators be they ever so democratically elected.
No dictated orthodoxy, just peoples across the world independently choosing the freedom to choose.
Representative democracy doesn’t allow us the choice. It empowers a few to have that choice and they’re the ones that are implementing policies that don’t work. Policies that are designed by the businesses and corporations for their own benefit.
Ironically it was these common democratic values and freedoms that led to the European Union in the first place
Yes it was.
Question: Did the people of Europe actually have a say in the creation of the EU or was it all driven from the top?
When its values are exported not walled up.
The only ‘Western’ values that have been exported are those of exploitation and theft so it really shouldn’t be surprising that the rest of the world views our stated values with scepticism.
And the West works best when ideas are debated, not denounced. When speech is free and frank, not criminalised and condemned.
A framework that allows people to choose their own governments, be judged fairly by their peers and have their individual freedoms respected and protected…
Yeah, and its a friggin disaster unless you have a well educated, scientifically literate middle class. That took centuries to happen in the West. And it was helped along by enormous amounts of wealth looted from the non-Western world, that enabled the elites to trickle some down to their own downtrodden to keep them just happy and educated enough to serve the cause of empire.
Nowhere in the developing world has so called ‘democracy’ worked well. It has only worked well in countries after they became wealthy, and not before.
Case in point is India vs China. What country has performed better on almost all indices of economic growth, literacy, human happiness, life expectancy, and social well being? Google it.
Of course the West loves to thrust ‘democracy’ prematurely on shit-holes around the world – in order that they remain feudal disorganized shit-holes ripe for exploitation. The West fears most those strong secular states that adopt modern science and technology, eschew backward feudal superstitions, and who can stand up to the West. That is why the West supports the Syrian opposition. That is why they hate China, and love India.
That is, the West fears most those who adopt the scientific method first developed in the West, in order to stand up to the West.
“Justice Winkelmann will replace retiring Chief Justice Dame Sian Elias, who is leaving the role in March next year, having reached the compulsory retirement age of 70 for judges.”
What a pity USA didn’t retire their Supreme Court Judges at 70.
Thousands of enraged demonstrators, during the fourth night of angry protests over the past week, marched to the headquarters of Hungarian state television in Óbuda, in the hope that the taxpayer-funded Fidesz propaganda machine that pretends to be a public broadcaster would allow for the demands of the opposition to be read on air.
[…]
Remarkably, but not surprisingly, the taxpayer-funded television station refused to give air time to ten democratically elected Hungarian MP’s who wanted to read the following in a live broadcast:
Rescinding the so-called “slave law” (overtime law)
Decrease required overtime hours for police officers
The end of Fidesz-run separate courts
Hungary must join the European Prosecutor’s Office
A non-partisan, independent state broadcaster. The immediate firing of Dániel Papp from the leadership of the state broadcaster.
Meanwhile shortly before 23:00 Budapest time, MP’s still inside the public broadcasters headquarters called on all 66 opposition MP’s to come to the headquarters as well. At the same time, police used tear gas against the first line of demonstrators, while a growing number of protesters called for a push towards storming the building.
Maybe if government passed down the word to judges to start sending people who do violent acts to prison, if parole had to be earned rather than given, if multiple acts of crimes were added up then maybe we might be able to start having a talk but if government won’t even take violent seriously then is it any surprise men think they can get away with it, especially when society (in the form of government) allows them to
No, send them to prison then they arn’t out on the streets. Send them to prison and the message from the state is violence won’t be tolerated. Send them to prison and make parole dependent on rehab and training.
Making parole hard to get is silly. Parole allows for monitoring and conditions once the person has been released with the hope of better re-integration. If they complete their full sentence then the state has no strings on them whatsoever.
The principle of justice involved is that once you have served your sentence then you have paid your debt to society. Being a fanboy for Collins though i can see why you wouldn’t care about human rights.
Did you not see this part: “parole dependent on rehab and training.”
Its not out of sight out of mind but it is protecting society from these people and encouraging them to make something of their lives while incarcerated
I just can’t see how, on one hand, we want to stop violence towards women yet instead of keeping society safe, for a little while, we let them out
Someone attacks a cop and they get home detention, what message does that send
I find it disgusting that a tiny % of men commit violence against both women and men.
The vast majority of women is behind closed doors and curtains, by their partners, basically because they are scum and know full well it’s wrong, so it isn’t exactly on display
The fact that I am a male doesn’t make me somehow culpable or colluding in it.
And to say that it is somehow down to just men to fix it all, because they happen to be the same sex is dumb
Given the most likely people to know about this shit is the abused friends I would think it is extremely stupid to think that it is just men that should be highlighted to call it out.
I was at the vigil for grace and found the talk of toxic masculinity unhelpful, even though I am a feminist.
We have to understand who these violent offenders are so we have a better chance of doing something to change it.
Most men who are physically violent have come from abusive backgrounds and have personality disorders such as anti social, boarderline or narcissistic. They are often substance abusers.
On a completely personal level when I was a much younger woman I worked with some really sexist men. But I felt completely safe with them and they never crossed a boundary, although they may have held a door open for me.
I have also come across progressive men who support feminist causes who I felt emotionally abused by.
It is a psychological approach we need to apply to solve the problem. Not a social/cultural one
A big part of the problem is cultural. Culture is a system of shared meaning. We have some particularly toxic male culture in this country. The only way to change something shared is collectively.
“men thinking they can hurt, rape and murder”.
The men might not be thinking. “The failure of “top-down” control systems in the prefrontal cortex to modulate aggressive acts that are triggered by anger provoking stimuli appears to play an important role.” https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4176893/
“Make part of release conditions monitoring, education, training, whatever for people who commit crimes of violence”. Is there good evidence this affects the top-down control systems ?
Good comment.
The development of humans in the animal behavours sense didn’t automatically become extinct due to the near instant developement of modern society.
Oxytocin and Vasopressin biology in regards to some DV and some sex crimes is very interesting, and an eye opener for people who have experienced how biology controls behavours, but never could explain things due to the social construct that everything we do is intentional.
Actually the evidence is pretty discouraging in terms of what works with treatment for violent offenders.
Solka I honestly do appreciate your contribution on the standard but I have to disagree with you about changing toxic male culture. Of course it is a good idea to do that but I don’t believe it addresses the problem of violent male offenders and the research that teaching these men to respect women more shows it to be a very weak intervention
And they blame the indigenous people for this – bloody kali yuga. The Amazon is under so many threats it is scary.
“Approximately 8,000 barrels of crude oil have spilled into the Amazon, and the Peru State oil company Petroperu says its because local indigenous people severed the pipeline. According to a company statement, members of the Mayuriaga community in the Loreto region first damaged the pipeline and then interfered with the technicians trying to repair it.”
WHO in the hell cranked Trotter up. To be fair I find it difficult to read his murmuring but the comments left me gob smacked. Someone advised Prime Minister Ardern to “open your eyes my love” Really!!.
I think your problem is that you can’t handle long-form journalism, ie more than 50 words!
This is interesting from a WMLB: That the organised criminals controlling the New Zealand drug trade – especially the scourge of methamphetamine – are, overwhelmingly, wealthy Pakeha, is a fact too frightening for their middle-class neighbours to acknowledge. https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/2018/12/the-salvation-armys-latest-report.html
Could it be that this sort of finger-pointing comes uncomfortably close to such as you?
I think your problem is that you are an over-active vinegarish critic lacking sufficient humour to be effective. Having a lemon drink every day seems quite good for cleaning the tubes, but it is even better with a spot of honey.
Open Mike this morning? 18/12
I wonder if after this helpful New Zealander was helping in Australia with clearing a track, that politicians might remember how we have been a big part of their advancement and are no more prone to criminality than they are. After all Ned Kelly is one of their heroes. Please stop hating Kiwis and treating us as 4th class citizens – and let our people go and stay. You know what I mean!
There you go some of our Aotearoa sea food is like gold over seas MPI need to be vigilant and the public need to dob in people rading our fisheries and fishes
The Ministry for Primary Industries said it was at least the sixth occasion in the last five years that overseas crew from merchant ships had been caught breaking fishing rules during a stopover in Bluff.
This was despite the ministry providing crew members with the rules around the legal take and size limit of shellfish.
Ministry spokesman Garreth Jay said the most recent incident in November involved four crew members who were caught near Ocean Beach at Bluff with a total of 91 black foot pāua, 82 of which were undersized, and 42 yellow foot pāua, of which 26 were undersized. Link Below ka kite ano . P.S We do want the mokopunas to experince the joys of gathering sea food.
Eco Maori tau toko Vanuatu action to sue big carbon companys who are burning OUR future mokopunas right to a happy healthy future
Vanuatu threatens to sue biggest carbon energy producers The power of the courts
If Vanuatu sues it will add to a growing trend of climate change litigation.
Before 2014, only 12 countries had climate law suits — by March 2017, nearly 900 such cases had been filed in 24 countries, according to the UN Environment Programme.
“There’s just a tremendous urgency to take action now, so environmental groups, citizens, states and cities are taking to the courts to try and force action,” says Michael Burger, executive director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School.
The majority of climate change lawsuits have been filed in the US.
“Governments are almost always the defendants in climate change cases,” according to a 2017 UN Environment global review of climate change litigation.
In 2015, activist group Our Children’s Trust filed a law suit in the state of Oregon against the federal government. “I am suing the US government for taking direct action that puts my generation disproportionately at risk from climate change, and violating my constitutional rights to life, liberty and property,” Vic Barrett, a 19-year-old American university student and member of Our Children’s Trust, told CNN at the COP24 climate talks.
That year, attorneys for the federal government filed a motion to dismiss the case.
Among the defense’s arguments were that the law suit “presents a generalized attack on government action and inaction regarding climate change, rather than a challenge to specifically identifiable violations of law that can be concretely rectified by a favorable decision.” Links below ka kite ano
Aftre shonky and his money men m8 joyce have inplanted the culture of Tangata /People are just some thing to siphon profts off who cares if there actions cause great stress and harm even death. 1 Winz 2 ACC 3 Housing Corp 4 Justice System 5 Health system 6 Education System 7 Maori wealth has dived under 9 years of his corporate way of running Aotearoa. All of these have put millions of people in hardship and stress I know Eco Maori is still being treated like DIRT NOW my UTU will be REKA.
ACC spying: ‘It’s nothing less than warfare’
At some point somebody with intelligence needs to stand back and say this is crazy. This is insane, we’re spending all this money and the guy is mad as hell – what do we need to do to fix this?”
As for Stryder, his war with ACC continues. To date, he has had 16 reviews of ACC decisions and applied to appeal three review decisions in the district court. He has been barred from communications with ACC case managers and trespassed from dispute resolution service Fairway Resolution Limited premises That kind of figure is made up … it’s not a hard figure, it’s speculative.”
Sara said ACC needed to learn how to better deal with people like Stryder.
“Like a number of people who have had unhappy dealings with ACC, they get mad as hell and that can lead to … nothing less than warfare.”
ACC defended the figure, saying the value of its integrity unit “intervention” was calculated based on claim history modelling.
In the financial year to June, ACC made 802,099 payments totalling $131m for medical assessments.
ACC used lawyers for about 10 per cent of review hearings due to “legal complexity, the precedence value of the issue, indications the client intends to progress the matter to court, and the workload of our people”.
Sara said hiring lawyers for reviews only inflamed the situation and put claimants in an unfair position.
“Once you’ve got a lawyer involved, every case has to have a lawyer.The financial stress, severe back pain, insomnia and challenging of ACC caused his marriage to break down and he suffered from anxiety and depression, he said.
“I hate it when ACC don’t believe you. I’m going to have to keep battling with them; I believe it’s totally criminal behaviour.”
ACC BY THE NUMBERS*:
1.98 million new claims received
79,648 new weekly compensation claims received
$69m – spending on injury prevention
$1.7m – spending on treatment and emergency travel
$740m – spending on care and support
$1.48m – spending on financial compensation and vocational rehabilitation
$740m – spending on operating costs
$40 billion – size of ACC’s investment portfolio to cover future claims
$3.5m – amount ACC earned in interest on its investment
99,500 – number of claims declined annually (disputed by some lawyers and advocates who say the figure could be as high as 300,000)
7616 – number of applications for reviews of ACC claim decisions*
$12.2m – spending on review services to FairWay Resolution**
(Source: ACC Annual Report 2018 and ACC Media Adviser)
* For the financial year to June 2018
** For the financial year to June 2017. links below ka kite ano
Eco Maori could see that wahine and maori have been getting a underarm bowl as of late. I tau toko Cliff Curtis word’s as I have seen maori diserpear off Aotearoa screen quite quickly in the last decade I have voiced my concerns on this Phenomenon.
Its is also Very good that Nga puhi iwi are calling for more wahine to be involved in there treaty settlement process I will not com anymore on there settlement as Eco Maori does not know the facts and my Iwi is were I should & will put my nose in
Cliff Curtis calls for women, Māori leadership in NZ film industry
He said he formed Whenua Films with directors, Taika Waititi and Ainsley Gardiner, because the Māori film industry was going through a pretty rough time.
“Māori content could not get through the funding agencies, could not get through the broadcasters, could not get through the distributors unless we had somebody above us, and literally speaking we looked above us [and] there weren’t any Māori. We were it.
“If you have Māori content that you are exploring, and you are exploiting … whether it be a character or whether it be an aspect of your content, then partner with Māori.
Ka kite ano links below
Kia ora Newshub Paddy many thanks for the story of tompson and clark for spying on kiwis and IWI to what a big mess I wont say it Paddy. The imagration process is getting some checks and balances to stop employers ripping employes off the problem I have is money was good Dairyfarming and there were quite a few maori in dairy farming a few years back as we love working on the whenua .Now the money is crap and maori have been pushed out of dairyfarming show me how many maori dairy farmers made it into share milking not many if any because shonky flooded the dairyfarm workers market with Immigrints.
That development in Coromandale will lift the prospects of the locals E hoa one has to rembmer to be tact full so as not to put some peoples nose out of joint Eco want’s to our maori leaders in power a long time ka pai.
Yes Mike and Samatha Eco Maori is very pleased that national is not in power we would have never been able to roll them out if they had another term with the tec they would have had at the finger tip’s to con people into beleving them/vote for them
Lloyd Megen is a strong kind wahaine who see the big picture all the best to Harry and Megen. I did see the story on Nigella Lawson letting the TV networks know that air brushing her pictures is not on as it put a fulse image of her out there and puts a lot of pressure on some wahine to starve them selves to look slim .
I would like to try a cut of that wagyu Japanese beef cow they have to be treated like a pet lamp to get the best out of them they get the best treatment in Japan.
Ka kite ano
The final Atlas Network playbook puzzle piece is here, and it slipped in to Aotearoa New Zealand with little fan fare or attention. The implications are stark.Today, writes Dr Bex, the submission for the Crimes (Countering Foreign Interference) Amendment Bill closes: 11:59pm January 16, 2025.As usual, the language of the ...
Excitement in the seaside village! Look what might be coming! 400 million dollars worth of investment! In the very beating heart of the village! Are we excited and eager to see this happen, what with every last bank branch gone and shops sitting forlornly quiet awaiting a customer?Yes please, apply ...
Much discussion has been held over the Regulatory Standards Bill (RSB), the latest in a series of rightwing attempts to enshrine into law pro-market precepts such as the primacy of private property ownership. Underneath the good governance and economic efficiency gobbledegook language of the Bill is an interest to strip ...
We are concerned that the Amendment Bill, as proposed, could impair the operations and legitimate interests of the NZ Trade Union movement. It is also likely to negatively impact the ability of other civil society actors to conduct their affairs without the threat of criminal sanctions. We ask that ...
I can't take itHow could I fake it?How could I fake it?And I can't take itHow could I fake it?How could I fake it?Song: The Lonely Biscuits.“A bit nippy”, I thought when I woke this morning, and then, soon after that, I wondered whether hell had frozen over. Dear friends, ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Asheville, North Carolina, was once widely considered a climate haven thanks to its elevated, inland location and cooler temperatures than much of the Southeast. Then came the catastrophic floods of Hurricane Helene in September 2024. It was a stark reminder that nowhere is safe from ...
Early reports indicate that the temporary Israel/Hamas ceasefire deal (due to take effect on Sunday) will allow for the gradual release of groups of Israeli hostages, the release of an unspecified number of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails (likely only a fraction of the total incarcerated population), and the withdrawal ...
My daily news diet is not what it once was.It was the TV news that lost me first. Too infantilising, too breathless, too frustrating.The Herald was next. You could look past the reactionary framing while it was being a decent newspaper of record, but once Shayne Currie began unleashing all ...
Hit the road Jack and don't you come backNo more, no more, no more, no moreHit the road Jack and don't you come back no moreWhat you say?Songwriters: Percy MayfieldMorena,I keep many of my posts, like this one, paywall-free so that everyone can read them.However, please consider supporting me as ...
This might be the longest delay between reading (or in this case re-reading) a work, and actually writing a review of it I have ever managed. Indeed, when I last read these books in December 2022, I was not planning on writing anything about them… but as A Phuulish Fellow ...
Kia Ora,I try to keep most my posts without a paywall for public interest journalism purposes. However, if you can afford to, please consider supporting me as a paid subscriber and/or supporting over at Ko-Fi. That will help me to continue, and to keep spending time on the work. Embarrassingly, ...
There was a time when Google was the best thing in my world. I was an early adopter of their AdWords program and boy did I like what it did for my business. It put rocket fuel in it, is what it did. For every dollar I spent, those ads ...
A while back I was engaged in an unpleasant exchange with a leader of the most well-known NZ anti-vax group and several like-minded trolls. I had responded to a racist meme on social media in which a rightwing podcaster in the US interviewed one of the leaders of the Proud ...
Hi,If you’ve been reading Webworm for a while, you’ll be familiar with Anna Wilding. Between 2020 and 2021 I looked at how the New Zealander had managed to weasel her way into countless news stories over the years, often with very little proof any of it had actually happened. When ...
It's a long white cloud for you, baby; staying together alwaysSummertime in AotearoaWhere the sunshine kisses the water, we will find it alwaysSummertime in AotearoaYeah, it′s SummertimeIt's SummertimeWriters: Codi Wehi Ngatai, Moresby Kainuku, Pipiwharauroa Campbell, Taulutoa Michael Schuster, Rebekah Jane Brady, Te Naawe Jordan Muturangi Tupe, Thomas Edward Scrase.Many of ...
Last year, 292 people died unnecessarily on our roads. That is the lowest result in over a decade and only the fourth time in the last 70 years we’ve seen fewer than 300 deaths in a calendar year. Yet, while it is 292 people too many, with each death being ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Jeff Masters and Bob HensonFlames from the Palisades Fire burn a building at Sunset Boulevard amid a powerful windstorm on January 8, 2025 in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. The fast-moving wildfire had destroyed thousands of structures and ...
..Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.The Regulatory Standards Bill, as I understand it, seeks to bind parliament to a specific range of law-making.For example, it seems to ensure primacy of individual rights over that of community, environment, te Tiriti ...
Happy New Year!I had a lovely break, thanks very much for asking: friends, family, sunshine, books, podcasts, refreshing swims, barbecues, bike rides. So good to step away from the firehose for a while, to have less Trump and Seymour in your day. Who needs the Luxons in their risible PJs ...
Patrick Reynolds is deputy chair of the Auckland City Centre Advisory Panel and a director of Greater Auckland In 2003, after much argument, including the election of a Mayor in 2001 who ran on stopping it, Britomart train station in downtown Auckland opened. A mere 1km twin track terminating branch ...
For the first time in a decade, a New Zealand Prime Minister is heading to the Middle East. The trip is more than just a courtesy call. New Zealand PMs frequently change planes in Dubai en route to destinations elsewhere. But Christopher Luxon’s visit to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) ...
A listing of 23 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, January 5, 2025 thru Sat, January 11, 2025. This week's roundup is again published soleley by category. We are still interested in feedback to hone the categorization, so if ...
The decade between 1952 and the early 1960s was the peak period for the style of music we now call doo wop, after which it got dissolved into soul music, girl groups, and within pop music in general. Basically, doo wop was a form of small group harmonising with a ...
The future teaches you to be aloneThe present to be afraid and coldSo if I can shoot rabbits, then I can shoot fascists…And if you tolerate thisThen your children will be nextSongwriters: James Dean Bradfield / Sean Anthony Moore / Nicholas Allen Jones.Do you remember at school, studying the rise ...
When National won the New Zealand election in 2023, one of the first to congratulate Luxon was tech-billionaire and entrepreneur extraordinaire Elon Musk.And last year, after Luxon posted a video about a trip to Malaysia, Musk came forward again to heap praise on Christopher:So it was perhaps par for the ...
Hi,Today’s Webworm features a new short film from documentary maker Giorgio Angelini. It’s about Luigi Mangione — but it’s also, really, about everything in America right now.Bear with me.Shortly after I sent out my last missive from the fires on Wednesday, one broke out a little too close to home ...
So soon just after you've goneMy senses sharpenBut it always takes so damn longBefore I feel how much my eyes have darkenedFear hangs in a plane of gun smokeDrifting in our roomSo easy to disturb, with a thought, with a whisperWith a careless memorySongwriters: Andy Taylor / John Taylor / ...
Can we trust the Trump cabinet to act in the public interest?Nine of Trump’s closest advisers are billionaires. Their total net worth is in excess of $US375b (providing there is not a share-market crash). In contrast, the total net worth of Trump’s first Cabinet was about $6b. (Joe Biden’s Cabinet ...
Welcome back to our weekly roundup. We hope you had a good break (if you had one). Here’s a few of the stories that caught our attention over the last few weeks. This holiday period on Greater Auckland Since our last roundup we’ve: Taken a look back at ...
Sometimes I feel like I don't have a partnerSometimes I feel like my only friendIs the city I live in, The City of AngelsLonely as I am together we crySong: Anthony Kiedis, Chad Smith, Flea, John Frusciante.A home is engulfed in flames during the Eaton fire in the Altadena area. ...
Open access notablesLarge emissions of CO2 and CH4 due to active-layer warming in Arctic tundra, Torn et al., Nature Communications:Climate warming may accelerate decomposition of Arctic soil carbon, but few controlled experiments have manipulated the entire active layer. To determine surface-atmosphere fluxes of carbon dioxide and ...
It's election year for Wellington City Council and for the Regional Council. What have the progressive councillors achieved over the last couple of years. What were the blocks and failures? What's with the targeting of the mayor and city council by the Post and by central government? Why does the ...
Over the holidays, there was a rising tide of calls for people to submit on National's repulsive, white supremacist Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Bill, along with a wave of advice and examples of what to say. And it looks like people rose to the occasion, with over 300,000 ...
The lie is my expenseThe scope of my desireThe Party blessed me with its futureAnd I protect it with fireI am the Nina The Pinta The Santa MariaThe noose and the rapistAnd the fields overseerThe agents of orangeThe priests of HiroshimaThe cost of my desire…Sleep now in the fireSongwriters: Brad ...
This is a re-post from the Climate BrinkGlobal surface temperatures have risen around 1.3C since the preindustrial (1850-1900) period as a result of human activity.1 However, this aggregate number masks a lot of underlying factors that contribute to global surface temperature changes over time.These include CO2, which is the primary ...
There are times when movement around us seems to slow down. And the faster things get, the slower it all appears.And so it is with the whirlwind of early year political activity.They are harbingers for what is to come:Video: Wayne Wright Jnr, funder of Sean Plunket, talk growing power and ...
Hi,Right now the power is out, so I’m just relying on the laptop battery and tethering to my phone’s 5G which is dropping in and out. We’ll see how we go.First up — I’m fine. I can’t see any flames out the window. I live in the greater Hollywood area ...
2024 was a tough year for working Kiwis. But together we’ve been able to fight back for a just and fair New Zealand and in 2025 we need to keep standing up for what’s right and having our voices heard. That starts with our Mood of the Workforce Survey. It’s your ...
Time is never time at allYou can never ever leaveWithout leaving a piece of youthAnd our lives are forever changedWe will never be the sameThe more you change, the less you feelSongwriter: William Patrick Corgan.Babinden - Baba’s DayToday, January 8th, 2025, is Babinden, “The Day of the baba” or “The ...
..I/We wish to make the following comments:I oppose the Treaty Principles Bill."5. Act binds the CrownThis Act binds the Crown."How does this Act "bind the Crown" when Te Tiriti o Waitangi, which the Act refers to, has been violated by the Crown on numerous occassions, resulting in massive loss of ...
Everything is good and brownI'm here againWith a sunshine smile upon my faceMy friends are close at handAnd all my inhibitions have disappeared without a traceI'm glad, oh, that I found oohSomebody who I can rely onSongwriter: Jay KayGood morning, all you lovely people. Today, I’ve got nothing except a ...
Welcome to 2025. After wrapping up 2024, here’s a look at some of the things we can expect to see this year along with a few predictions. Council and Elections Elections One of the biggest things this year will be local body elections in October. Will Mayor Wayne Brown ...
Canadians can take a while to get angry – but when they finally do, watch out. Canada has been falling out of love with Justin Trudeau for years, and his exit has to be the least surprising news event of the New Year. On recent polling, Trudeau’s Liberal party has ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Much like 2023, many climate and energy records were broken in 2024. It was Earth’s hottest year on record by a wide margin, breaking the previous record that was set just last year by an even larger margin. Human-caused climate-warming pollution and ...
Submissions on National's racist, white supremacist Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Bill are due tomorrow! So today, after a good long holiday from all that bullshit, I finally got my shit together to submit on it. As I noted here, people should write their own submissions in their own ...
Ooh, baby (ooh, baby)It's making me crazy (it's making me crazy)Every time I look around (look around)Every time I look around (every time I look around)Every time I look aroundIt's in my faceSongwriters: Alan Leo Jansson / Paul Lawrence L. Fuemana.Today, I’ll be talking about rich, middle-aged men who’ve made ...
A listing of 26 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, December 29, 2024 thru Sat, January 4, 2025. This week's roundup is again published soleley by category. We are still interested in feedback to hone the categorization, so if ...
Hi,The thing that stood out at me while shopping for Christmas presents in New Zealand was how hard it was to avoid Zuru products. Toy manufacturer Zuru is a bit like Netflix, in that it has so much data on what people want they can flood the market with so ...
And when a child is born into this worldIt has no conceptOf the tone of skin it's living inAnd there's a million voicesAnd there's a million voicesTo tell you what you should be thinkingSong by Neneh Cherry and Youssou N'Dour.The moment you see that face, you can hear her voice; ...
While we may not always have quality political leadership, a couple of recently published autobiographies indicate sometimes we strike it lucky. When ranking our prime ministers, retired professor of history Erik Olssen commented that ‘neither Holland nor Nash was especially effective as prime minister – even his private secretary thought ...
Baby, be the class clownI'll be the beauty queen in tearsIt's a new art form, showin' people how little we care (yeah)We're so happy, even when we're smilin' out of fearLet's go down to the tennis court and talk it up like, yeah (yeah)Songwriters: Joel Little / Ella Yelich O ...
Open access notables Why Misinformation Must Not Be Ignored, Ecker et al., American Psychologist:Recent academic debate has seen the emergence of the claim that misinformation is not a significant societal problem. We argue that the arguments used to support this minimizing position are flawed, particularly if interpreted (e.g., by policymakers or the public) as suggesting ...
What I’ve Been Doing: I buried a close family member.What I’ve Been Watching: Andor, Jack Reacher, Xmas movies.What I’ve Been Reflecting On: The Usefulness of Writing and the Worthiness of Doing So — especially as things become more transparent on their own.I also hate competing on any day, and if ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by John Wihbey. A version of this article first appeared on Yale Climate Connections on Nov. 11, 2008. (Image credits: The White House, Jonathan Cutrer / CC BY 2.0; President Jimmy Carter, Trikosko/Library of Congress; Solar dedication, Bill Fitz-Patrick / Jimmy Carter Library; Solar ...
Morena folks,We’re having a good break, recharging the batteries. Hope you’re enjoying the holiday period. I’m not feeling terribly inspired by much at the moment, I’m afraid—not from a writing point of view, anyway.So, today, we’re travelling back in time. You’ll have to imagine the wavy lines and sci-fi sound ...
Completed reads for 2024: Oration on the Dignity of Man, by Giovanni Pico della Mirandola A Platonic Discourse Upon Love, by Giovanni Pico della Mirandola Of Being and Unity, by Giovanni Pico della Mirandola The Life of Pico della Mirandola, by Giovanni Francesco Pico Three Letters Written by Pico ...
Welcome to 2025, Aotearoa. Well… what can one really say? 2024 was a story of a bad beginning, an infernal middle and an indescribably farcical end. But to chart a course for a real future, it does pay to know where we’ve been… so we know where we need ...
Welcome to the official half-way point of the 2020s. Anyway, as per my New Years tradition, here’s where A Phuulish Fellow’s blog traffic came from in 2024: United States United Kingdom New Zealand Canada Sweden Australia Germany Spain Brazil Finland The top four are the same as 2023, ...
Completed reads for December: Be A Wolf!, by Brian Strickland The Magic Flute [libretto], by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Emanuel Schikaneder The Invisible Eye, by Erckmann-Chatrian The Owl’s Ear, by Erckmann-Chatrian The Waters of Death, by Erckmann-Chatrian The Spider, by Hanns Heinz Ewers Who Knows?, by Guy de Maupassant ...
Well, it’s the last day of the year, so it’s time for a quick wrap-up of the most important things that happened in 2024 for urbanism and transport in our city. A huge thank you to everyone who has visited the blog and supported us in our mission to make ...
Leave your office, run past your funeralLeave your home, car, leave your pulpitJoin us in the streets where weJoin us in the streets where weDon't belong, don't belongHere under the starsThrowing light…Song: Jeffery BuckleyToday, I’ll discuss the standout politicians of the last 12 months. Each party will receive three awards, ...
Hi,A lot’s happened this year in the world of Webworm, and as 2024 comes to an end I thought I’d look back at a few of the things that popped. Maybe you missed them, or you might want to revisit some of these essay and podcast episodes over your break ...
Hi,I wanted to share this piece by film editor Dan Kircher about what cinema has been up to in 2024.Dan edited my documentary Mister Organ, as well as this year’s excellent crowd-pleasing Bookworm.Dan adores movies. He gets the language of cinema, he knows what he loves, and writes accordingly. And ...
Without delving into personal details but in order to give readers a sense of the year that was, I thought I would offer the study in contrasts that are Xmas 2023 and Xmas 2024: Xmas 2023 in Starship Children’s Hospital (after third of four surgeries). Even opening presents was an ...
Heavy disclaimer: Alpha/beta/omega dynamics is a popular trope that’s used in a wide range of stories and my thoughts on it do not apply to all cases. I’m most familiar with it through the lens of male-focused fanfic, typically m/m but sometimes also featuring m/f and that’s the situation I’m ...
Hi,Webworm has been pretty heavy this year — mainly because the world is pretty heavy. But as we sprint (or limp, you choose) through the final days of 2024, I wanted to keep Webworm a little lighter.So today I wanted to look at one of the biggest and weirdest elements ...
A listing of 23 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, December 22, 2024 thru Sat, December 28, 2024. This week's roundup is the second one published soleley by category. We are still interested in feedback to hone the categorization, ...
We’ll have a climate change ChristmasFrom now until foreverWarming our hearts and mindsAnd planet all togetherSpirits high and oceans higherChestnuts roast on wildfiresIf coal is on your wishlistMerry Climate Change ChristmasSong by Ian McConnellReindeer emissions are not something I’d thought about in terms of climate change. I guess some significant ...
KP continues to putt-putt along as a tiny niche blog that offers a NZ perspective on international affairs with a few observations about NZ domestic politics thrown in. In 2024 there was also some personal posts given that my son was in the last four months of a nine month ...
The Green Party has welcomed the provisional ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, and reiterated its call for New Zealand to push for an end to the unlawful occupation of Palestine. ...
The Green Party welcomes the extension of the deadline for Treaty Principles Bill submissions but continues to call on the Government to abandon the Bill. ...
Complaints about disruptive behaviour now handled in around 13 days (down from around 60 days a year ago) 553 Section 55A notices issued by Kāinga Ora since July 2024, up from 41 issued during the same period in the previous year. Of that 553, first notices made up around 83 ...
The time it takes to process building determinations has improved significantly over the last year which means fewer delays in homes being built, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “New Zealand has a persistent shortage of houses. Making it easier and quicker for new homes to be built will ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden is pleased to announce the annual list of New Zealand’s most popular baby names for 2024. “For the second consecutive year, Noah has claimed the top spot for boys with 250 babies sharing the name, while Isla has returned to the most popular ...
Work is set to get underway on a new bus station at Westgate this week. A contract has been awarded to HEB Construction to start a package of enabling works to get the site ready in advance of main construction beginning in mid-2025, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“A new Westgate ...
Minister for Children and for Prevention of Family and Sexual Violence Karen Chhour is encouraging people to use the resources available to them to get help, and to report instances of family and sexual violence amongst their friends, families, and loved ones who are in need. “The death of a ...
Uia te pō, rangahaua te pō, whakamāramatia mai he aha tō tango, he aha tō kāwhaki? Whitirere ki te ao, tirotiro kau au, kei hea taku rātā whakamarumaru i te au o te pakanga mo te mana motuhake? Au te pō, ngū te pō, ue hā! E te kahurangi māreikura, ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says people with diabetes and other painful conditions will benefit from a significant new qualification to boost training in foot care. “It sounds simple, but quality and regular foot and nail care is vital in preventing potentially serious complications from diabetes, like blisters or sores, which can take a long time to heal ...
Associate Health Minister with responsibility for Pharmac David Seymour is pleased to see Pharmac continue to increase availability of medicines for Kiwis with the government’s largest ever investment in Pharmac. “Pharmac operates independently, but it must work within the budget constraints set by the government,” says Mr Seymour. “When this government assumed ...
Mā mua ka kite a muri, mā muri ka ora e mua - Those who lead give sight to those who follow, those who follow give life to those who lead. Māori recipients in the New Year 2025 Honours list show comprehensive dedication to improving communities across the motu that ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden is wishing all New Zealanders a great holiday season as Kiwis prepare for gatherings with friends and families to see in the New Year. It is a great time of year to remind everyone to stay fire safe over the summer. “I know ...
From 1 January 2025, first-time tertiary learners will have access to a new Fees Free entitlement of up to $12,000 for their final year of provider-based study or final two years of work-based learning, Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds says. “Targeting funding to the final year of study ...
By Koroi Hawkins, RNZ Pacific editor in Port Vila More than 180,000 registered voters are expected to cast their votes today with polls now open in Vanuatu. It is remarkable the snap election is even able to happen with Friday marking one month since the 7.3 magnitude earthquake struck the ...
New Zealand needs to boost its productivity growth and become more attractive and accessible as a workplace in order to fix its labour market woes, a recruitment agency says.Commenting on new salary survey results from Robert Walters, Shay Peters, the company’s Australia and New Zealand chief executive, says the Government ...
Comment: When Newsroom’s editor Jonathan Milne invited me to write one of two special pieces for the summer break, I faced quite the conundrum. My options were to either review a work of non-fiction or write a column about hope and optimism for 2025.I initially misread Jonathan’s request to review ...
By Daniel Perese of Te Ao Māori News Māori politicians across the political spectrum in Aotearoa New Zealand have called for immediate aid to enter Gaza following a temporary ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel. The ceasefire, agreed yesterday, comes into effect on Sunday, January 19. Foreign Minister Winston Peters ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexandra Sherlock, Lecturer, School of Fashion and Textiles, RMIT University Australian-owned brand UGG Since 1974 has announced it will change its name to “Since 74” for sales outside Australia and New Zealand. There has been a long-running battle over the rights ...
The committee has agreed to split into two sub-committees to increase the number of people it can hear from in the time available. Each sub-committee will meet for 30 hours total, together making up 60 of the 80 planned hours of hearings. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Parmeter, Research scholar, Middle East studies, Australian National University The ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, to come into effect on Sunday, has understandably been welcomed by the overwhelming majority of Israelis and Palestinians. Israelis are relieved that a process for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christine Carson, Senior Research Fellow, School of Medicine, The University of Western Australia Over the past several days, the world has watched on in shock as wildfires have devastated large parts of Los Angeles. Beyond the obvious destruction – to landscapes, homes, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rose Cairns, Senior Lecturer in Pharmacy, NHMRC Emerging Leadership Fellow, University of Sydney AtlasStudio/Shutterstock TikTok and Instagram influencers have been peddling the “Barbie drug” to help you tan. But melanotan-II, as it’s called officially, is a solution that’s too good to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Paula Jarzabkowski, Professor in Strategic Management, The University of Queensland A series of wildfires in Los Angeles County have caused widespread devastation in California, including at least 24 deaths and the destruction of more than 12,000 homes and structures. Thousands of residents ...
COMMENTARY:By Monika Singh The lack of women representation in parliaments across the world remains a vexed and contentious issue. In Fiji, this problem has again surfaced for debate in response to Deputy Prime Minister Manoa Kamikamica’s call for a quota system to increase women’s representation in Parliament. Kamikamica was ...
What compels someone of significant status in society to break the law, repeatedly, might be the same reason I did as a poor teenager. Former Green MP Golriz Ghahraman, who left parliament a year ago today following revelations of shoplifting, is now at the centre of another shoplifting complaint. As ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kath Albury, Professor of Media and Communication and Associate Investigator, ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making + Society, Swinburne University of Technology natamrli/Shutterstock Last week, social media giant Meta announced major changes to its content moderation practices. This includes an ...
"Gisborne has suffered from housing underdevelopment and a lack of supply, coupled with damage from severe weather events," Minister Tama Potaka says. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marta Andhov, Associate Professor, Law School, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau Iconic Bestiary/Shutterstock They say a picture is worth a thousand words. But in the world of legal contracts, pictures can be worth even more by making complicated concepts more ...
Asia Pacific Report The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called on Egyptian, Palestinian and Israeli authorities to allow foreign journalists into Gaza in the wake of the three-phase ceasefire agreement set to to begin on Sunday. The New York-based global media watchdog urged the international community “to independently investigate ...
The agreement will ease Palestinians’ suffering, but international agencies will struggle to meet the massive need for humanitarian relief. This is an excerpt from The World Bulletin, our weekly global current affairs newsletter exclusively for Spinoff Members. Sign up here. We start the World Bulletin’s year with a rare piece of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marika Sosnowski, Postdoctoral research fellow, The University of Melbourne After 467 days of violence, a ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel has been reached and will come into effect on Sunday, pending Israeli government approval. This agreement will not end the ...
We love to suffer through tramps to enjoy natural beauty… except when we don’t.It can feel a bit shitty to stay inside and wallow all day when it’s nice out. Hot sunlight hits your window and your mum’s voice rings around in your head: get outside and enjoy the ...
Requests for official information involving potentially damning correspondence are totally legitimate – but have been put in the ‘too hard basket' by officials refusing to properly follow the Local Government Official Information and Meetings ...
With the local body elections in October, a long-awaited upgrade of Courtenay Place, and big changes for water, housing and the economy, it’s set to be another dramatic year for the capital city. The Golden Mile Conservative city councillors made a last-minute attempt in November to scrap the Golden Mile ...
I’ve already broken most of my resolutions, and it’s only January. How do I salvage my clean slate? Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nz Dear Hera,It’s only 6 days into the new year, and I’m already ready for 2026. I made five resolutions and have already broken ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Samuel Cornell, PhD Candidate, UNSW Beach Safety Research Group + School of Population Health, UNSW Sydney byvalet/Shutterstock Australia is considered a nation of beach lovers. But with all this water surrounding us, drownings remain tragically common. At least 55 people have ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Uri Gal, Professor in Business Information Systems, University of Sydney Sergii Gnatiuk/Shutterstock Over the past two years, generative artificial intelligence (AI) has captivated public attention. This year signals the beginning of a new phase: the rise of AI agents. AI ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dorina Pojani, Associate Professor in Urban Planning, The University of Queensland shisu_ka/Shutterstock A wide range of voices in the Australian media have been sounding the alarm about the phenomenon of “forever-renting”. This describes a situation in which individuals or families ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Liz Giuffre, Senior Lecturer in Communication, University of Technology Sydney Originally known as 2JJ, or Double Jay, when it launched in Sydney at 11am on January 19 1975, Triple J has since become the national youth network. The station now encompasses broadcast ...
Currently, under 18s are legally allowed to buy Lotto tickets. That’s about to change, explains The Bulletin’s Stewart Sowman-Lund. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. ...
The anonymised database is crucial to the government's social investment approach to funding programmes - but was incapable of doing so without extra investment. ...
Opinion: As I reflect on the tumultuous year that has passed and look forward to the year ahead, I wonder what it will hold.For me I can’t look past the middle of February right now as that is when my dissertation must be submitted, hopefully completing my master’s degree. It ...
Opinion: 2025 is a critical year for Aotearoa New Zealand’s natural world. With the entire environmental management system slated for reform, it’s the most important year in decades. If the hot-headed excesses of last year’s law-making continue, it will lead to terrible long-term outcomes. But if sense prevails, we could ...
An anticipated move to tax charities’ business operations would reduce charitable activity and may cause businesses to leave New Zealand, a lawyer warns. In a push to find new sources of revenue the Government is looking at implementing a charity tax, which would see the business arm of companies such as ...
As parliamentary staff start to read through thousands of submissions on the Treaty principles bill, Shanti Mathias explores how submitting became the go-to way to engage with politics – and asks whether it makes a difference. While the exact number is currently being confirmed, it seems almost certain that submissions ...
The news media uses emotive language and quotation marks to take a side in a story, as opposed to reporting the news..
This is how they report action by animal activists to highlight animal welfare issues at a sea park in Australia.
“Distressed parents were forced to take their children from theme park shows after protesters refused to leave and labelled them “disgusting”.
Fun family days out across the weekend have turned ugly as “peaceful” protesters storm Gold Coast theme parks.
Demonstrators who targeted several amusement parks held their hands up in peace signs, despite the situation becoming quite violent.
Dozens of children were forced to watch distressing situations at Sea World on Saturday after the group, Justice for Captives, refused to get out of the water until its famous dolphin show was stopped.”
The vocabulary used sets the scene ….’distressed parents’ , ‘disgusting protesters’,
Speech marks are used to describe the protesters are peaceful to undermine that claim, reinforced by the used of verbs like ‘storm’, ‘forced’ and adjectives like ‘ugly and voilent’
The reporter should continue. Make it really clear whose side you take.
Just another example brought to you to prove the corporate media sucks.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=12177949
Is this dolphin under a lot of stress and duress ….???
Would that Dolphin prefer to live in the Ocean … or little concrete pens ?.
The test would be to allow the Dolphins access to the sea …
If they’d stay to do tricks for Sardines …. that would show them to be content and happy … But we all know they’d leave if not held captive.
In reality they are providing a high octane monkeys tea party…. an aquatic zoo where the animals do tricks for us.
In my younger days, I worked for several weeks on Hamilton Island, and one of the jobs there was at the Dolphin Restaurant. A restaurant near the sea, surrounded by a concrete pool that held three dolphins.
It was sad to see those animals in such a artificial, enclosed environment, even though their keepers treated them with affection that ‘seemed’ to be returned. While I was there, one of the females just became listless and died.
After I left – I heard the dolphins pool was closed down, but that memory of those huge mammals kept in such a confined area to provide a living, backdrop for the restaurant patrons has stayed with me.
The journalist who wrote this piece is one Stephanie Bedo, a senior journalist, who, apparently..
“..has won awards for her health reporting and admits to being a bit of a science nerd, particularly when it comes to animal stories that often only she is excited about.”
She is “good” at making a clear “distinction” between “animal abuse” (bad) and “animal abuse” in the name of “entertainment” (good).
She is also a “chronic” uses of “inverted” commas.
Ignore her and she might just go away.
And then they deliver quality, intellectually rigorous gems like this
https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/109405675/if-national-is-dog-whistling-on-migration-others-have-too
Bit like this twit, really:
“His views are backed up by some eyewitnesses to the parade. One parent told Newshub the Māori Santa left children stunned and in tears.
“All these kids were dumbstruck really, you could hear the ‘that’s not Santa’,” she told Newshub.
“Our six-year-old son burst into tears after the video finished. We had to explain to him that Santa was running late.”
Garner blamed some “PC wally” and “woolly woofter” for the “stupid decision by Nelson”.
I have a feeling he could be the one left feeling like a “wally” though – lol
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/109291323/mori-santa-from-nelson-parade-coming-to-wellington
Right on Ed. Not only are the majority of humans ignorant they are also plain dumb!
The dumbing down of the masses is working as intended.
I worry about the crayfish 🙁
Is your worry in relation to this article?
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12177804
“A conservation group is calling for a total fishing ban for crayfish in the Hauraki Gulf and Bay of Plenty as the population “collapses towards extinction”.
Forest & Bird is calling for the wider Hauraki Gulf to Bay of Plenty crayfishing area (known as CRA2) to be closed for three years to allow the species to start recovering.
“The wider Hauraki Gulf to Bay of Plenty crayfish population has undergone a significant decline,” Forest & Bird marine conservation advocate Katrina Goddard said.
“Without an urgent end to fishing pressure, crayfish could become functionally extinct throughout the entire area within a few years.” ….”
Considering the state of our QMS and thus the unknown state of our fisheries
we should probably be considering either an outright ban on all fishing for 20 years or at least a serious decrease on commercial fishing by only allowing fish caught in NZ controlled waters to be sold in NZ.
if we go down that path could we first have words with the like of Ngati Kahungunu who insist on allowing the D’Esposito Brothers fishing rights?? I’m not sure of the total charges the D’Esposito’s and their various companies have attracted over the years, but it’s well over the hundreds. Infact Ngati Kahungunu (and Waikato Tainui) only concern seems to be the possible loss of jobs.
Then again, who can blame them for not taking overfishing seriously. The D’Espositos simply turn up in court, year after year, facing the same charges, paying the fines with their ill gotten gains, and continue on their merry way.
Restricting to NZ fishing companies only makes sense if we create bigger penalties for repeat, flagrant, breaking of the law. Otherwise we are kidding ourselves.
Just a random sample..
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/shows/2018/08/inside-mpi-s-2-5m-fishing-investigation.html
https://www.maoritelevision.com/news/regional/ngati-kahungunu-chair-concerned-jobs-after-fisheries-raid
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/72827811/null
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/100241472/fisheries-trial-ends-abruptly-after-seven-months-with-guilty-pleas-entered-to-122-charges
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/104888202/hawkes-bay-fishing-company-and-directors-back-before-court-to-be-convicted
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business-around-new-zealand/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503701&objectid=11333980
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/hawkes-bay-today/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503462&objectid=11627567
Agreed. If a company breaks the law it should be nationalised and then sold. The previous owners should keep the debt that the company had built up as well as being fined in the millions of dollars. Limited liability should not exist.
That said, I didn’t actually say that the fishing be restricted to NZ companies. I said that the fish caught could only be sold in NZ. I suspect that foreign companies wouldn’t bother.
And, yes, I’m quite aware that many Iwi are standing in the way of what we need to do to protect the environment. Just have to look at their whinging about the Kermadec fish sanctuary to see that.
“And, yes, I’m quite aware that many Iwi are standing in the way of what we need to do to protect the environment. Just have to look at their whinging about the Kermadec fish sanctuary to see that.”
If the Iwi (or any other group) conflict with what we need to do to protect the environment than they need to change.
They don’t seem willing to as doing so gets in the way of their profits.
Hard for Kahungungu to complain when some of them were apparently travelling with the brothers to Greece during the court case. Family over there also wonder about who was benefitting from the back door sales over the years this was going on. Would have been much more interesting if the court case proceeded.
Still they did conveniently have a track to get upset about to take attention away.
“we should probably be considering either an outright ban on all fishing for 20 years ”
Do you mean just in NZ or worldwide? If you mean worldwide then you’ll run into problems because in some developing nations (and other western nations but it isn’t really a problem for Western Nations) fish make up a huge percentage of their protein. You’d need to introduce an alternative…Soylent Green?
The thread was about NZ fisheries.
That said, considering that fish stocks are collapsing worldwide I suspect that those nations, which does include Developed Nations, that are dependent upon fish to feed themselves are in for a world of hurt.
Yes I share your concern about the collapse of ecosystems.
It’s not that far off either….I have a young daughter and I am saddened by the idea she might grow up in a world where there are no tigers or Rhinos or….everything
I think it was a Standard poster who provided a link and put me onto this morbidly fascinating website
https://ejatlas.org/
The website features an atlas showing some large sites and locations in countries around the world …. these locations are where exploitation, corruption, pollution and environmental destruction … and various other bad things are taking place.
New Zealand is lightly ….. and under-represented
https://ejatlas.org/country/new-zealand
A couple of examples missing from the New zealand would be the 80% non compliant swamp Kauri smash and grab industry … with Judith collins connections providing the gps google earth location.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/35%C2%B052'06.7%22S+174%C2%B027'55.2%22E/@-35.868539,174.4647718,119m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m14!1m7!3m6!1s0x6d0c84ab7cf51103:0x500ef6143a30170!2sRuakaka!3b1!8m2!3d-35.9063963!4d174.4471293!3m5!1s0x0:0x0!7e2!8m2!3d-35.8685388!4d174.4653194
Another example of greed and destruction could be the forestry operators behind our recent Lumber Lahars ….that rooted Tolaga bay https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/04-07-2018/satellite-images-tell-the-story-of-tolaga-bays-forestry-disaster/
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/109025916/prosecutions-over-floodtriggered-logging-debris-on-east-coast
“The Malaysian owner of a forestry company blamed for tonnes of debris washing up in Tolaga Bay has been fined twice for illegal logging overseas, but it took the Overseas Investment Office nine years to realise.” https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/366868/tolaga-bay-forestry-company-s-illegal-logging-history-revealed
And I’m sure there are many more sites around NZ where destruction, pollution, poisoning and exploitation of our Land and resources has taken place.
We could probably include most of Canterbury …. with dairying destroying freshwater resources.
The old Dow site in Taranaki … which is still poisoning its surrounds
The Waihi open pit mine
etc etc
I’m going to write up and submit The swamp kauri looting …. with a special mention for Judith Collins … who hates wetlands.
There is still loads of ‘slash’ from forestry that was washed down the Motueka valley during Gita. They cleared the roads, but crikey there’s a heap of wood in the dry parts of the river bed.
Fustrating to see it still sitting there. So I loaded up some logs, took them home, whipped out the chainsaw and hello free firewood.
Not sure if it’s legal or not, pretty legal maybe? It’s been almost a year now, maybe they were waiting for the locals to pick it up for fire wood as it’s not on private property?
It’ll be legal. If it’s been a year and nothing has been done about it, chances are it’s been abandoned and therefore free for the taking.
Unless the council has passed a resolution of some kind taking ownership or otherwise
“I’m going to write up and submit The swamp kauri looting …. with a special mention for Judith Collins … who hates wetlands .”
Pucky!
Was Judith on your list of Blue-Green Environmental Champions?
You better fly to her defence!
Paul Goldsmith’s car crash interview on RNZ.
Just a tiny bit of preparation by Guyon had Goldsmith talking utter garbage.
Amazing how many politicians who can’t cope when they are forced off their mantra.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018675894/the-government-is-focusing-solely-on-safety-national
Yes. Heard that. Should we take Goldsmith seriously or is he just a yapping Peke?
Too many cars (and big trucks) and not enough road, somethings got to give.
As one who travels to Whangarei quite a bit (work related), it is a tricky road. It has way more traffic than 10 years ago. It would be hugely safer if it was 4 lane. Same with Katikati to Tauranga.
But this govt hates the idea of 4 lanes, so we get band aid solutions.
Now obviously not all of dangerous roads have enough traffic to justify 4 lanning but the two I mentioned certainly do.
So yes, some parts of the Labour/Green plan are sensible, but their complete opposition to any new 4 lanes roads is foolish.
Personally I thought Paul did quite ok, though he did get sidetracked at one point.
Doubt it especially when I take into account that you’re talking anecdotes and are ideologically in favour of more cars despite the evidence showing that we can’t afford the ones that we have.
It’s not the government that hates it – it’s reality.
Actually, rail would be better especially if it was electric. Increase freight and safety while being cheaper, faster and more ecologically sound.
No, it’s National’s desire to coat the entire country in roads that is foolish as it goes against all the evidence.
Draco,
You could not be more wrong even if you tried.
The 4 lane roads, especially the newer ones are by far the safest roads in the country. Not just anecdotal, actual fact.
As for 4 lanning well there is no doubt complete ideological opposition from the left, even for the blindingly obvious projects (Dome valley). Fortunately countered from the right. So at least when National is govt, they get built (though opened by Jacinda). Just as National will get to open the light rail-the northwest one is good, the Dominion Rd not so. Light rail should also go into the Southeast (Tamaki, Pakuranga, etc) and to North Shore.
So the next National govt will build the next set of motorways, to be opened by the Labour PM who follows Jacinda, who is possibly not yet in Parliament.
It’s not ideology – it’s reality. The stuff that National ignores because it doesn’t conform with their beliefs. We really can’t afford cars and so we can’t afford four lane roads.
Of course they will as they’re fully opposed to reality.
Yes well any road is going to be safer with 2 lanes rather than one… Would the astronomical build cost meet any sort of sane business cost ratio like pretty much all of the Nats other Roads of National significance? I doubt it. Two laning doesn’t solve traffic jams either as they don’t eliminate choke points, in fact they’re likely to make them worse by bringing more traffic into them.
With fluctuating fuel prices and declining world oil reserves does it make any sense to build new roading infrastructure? Don’t think so. It is possible to make roads safer without having to double the road width. This is what the Government are actually doing right now.
For the next 100 years or more, (probably more like 200 years or more) roads will be the main transport system in NZ. Roads have been a key land transport system for literally thousands of years going back to Roman times. It will not remain with fossil fuel engines. Electric and hydrogen will be the main power source.
There is zero prospect that rail could ever be dense enough in NZ to replace the majority of land transport. Even if rail quadrupled in the next few years, it would still be moving way less freight than road.
It would take a fantastic new, energy dense system to replace roads (magnetic levitation or something similar). But that requires power at multiple levels of what we currently use.
Only if we allow the delusional idiots at National to control everything.
Have you ever considered why rail is still in use today?
It’s because its far more economic than cars and trucks.
https://grist.org/article/freight-trains-19th-century-technology-due-for-a-21st-century-revival/
And we have the perverse subsidies mentioned in that article as well. If trucks actually paid their way they’d be out of business.
In NZ we have one other form of transport available that’s also more efficient than roads – ships.
https://www.nzta.govt.nz/assets/resources/research/reports/497/docs/497.pdf
The only reason why trucking freight by road even exists in this country is because of those perverse incentives that I mentioned.
Flat bed rail carriages , drive on enjoy the trip, a meal the view, drive off. Rail to the airport, allow tourist easy access to rural tourist hubs and hire their campers and cars from there. Travellers, sales and business, use rail and hire ev’s. In 200 yrs the northern motor way is under 20 mtr of water, so it will be barges and ferry.
It’s a shame then @ Wayne that the short-sighted, vision-less of planners over the years have chosen to close down, or mothball the network we once had.
Just imagine the commuter rail and freight forwarding capability we might have had.
(For example, by now):
-Dunedin could have had an earport ta ciddy rail transit system, and even an alternative means to the burbs along the way and further north
-Christ’s Church could have had a commuter system from Lyttleton to points north, and from the outliers like Rolleston to the city
-Gisborne wouldn’t be worrying about its limitations – by now it’d have had a link between Matawai and Opotiki and onward to Tearonga, or that “choice’ to go southward
Living in Stratford or Eltham and working in the Plym might be viable.
Instead, that Auckland/Hamilton/Tauranga triangle is now seen as some sort of HUGE deal in terms of being able to furnish it with commuter and freight rail – let alone a fucking commuter & freight system to the Auckland REGIONAL & INTERNATIONAL Earport
And then there’s the south…..the system came close to linking the Queens town with Dunners
You do realise (I sincerely hope) that current transport arrangements are not sustainable long term ( and I don’t mean just because there might be some pretty bloody suspect truck/trailer linkages on the road, or because we can’t attract enough slaves to drive them before driver-less trucks become viable – probably not in my loiftoim)
Oh, and btw, you did another of your spray and walkaway acts the other day
Wayne have you heard of climate change?
Did you listen to Greta’s speech at COP?
Building more roads as we head to climate catastrophe- that’s a plan!!
You are assuming all future land transport will use fossil fuel engines. It won’t.
Electric and hydrogen will become the norm. But the vehicles still have to go over something. They are roads, just as horses and carts had to also use roads.
Have you considered that we can’t afford the roads due to the environmental damage that the roads do/cause?
He hasn’t , I sense.
Most people in NZ need roads because they lack the skills to survive without them, forgetting that our ancestors travelled mainly on foot. You won’t be the only one driving out of town on business. We could organise our communities so we didn’t need to, but there’s no incentive because road transport is affordable and people are hooked on driving. Why not walk to your workplace, work from home, teleconference if necessary ?
Climate change tells us that individual road transport is no longer affordable as it is.
The problem is that our entire economy has become based upon that unaffordable mode of transport. It’s what happens when externalities aren’t taken into account and become a massive subsidy to the manufacturers.
Even if/when cars/trucks go electric they mat still not be affordable because of the environmental damage caused by roads and the lack of resources needed to get everybody a car.
So, considering that we can’t actually afford cars/trucks then we must consider that we’re paid too much, that costs aren’t properly attributed or a combination of both.
why would everybody need a car? I can’t wait for CaaS.
Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore?
Car as a Service.
Won’t work as you expect.
Either there won’t be enough at peak times or we’ll still have congestion.
It’ll work outside of peak times when a reliable average can be determined.
For peak times there’s going to have to be public transport and as soon as there’s reliable public transport then CaaS doesn’t work again.
BTW, taxis are CaaS.
Well, public transport is CaaS too, it’s just inconvenient. I have to get to where the vehicle is, at the time when the vehicle is there.
My dream: the electric autonomous vehicle turns up when and where I need it because Big Data knows that’s when I need it. Maybe shared with other passengers for efficiency.
Does have the benefit of being economical and workable.
Which is a dream that is both uneconomic and unworkable.
It’s here now.
It’s called Uber. Comes with a driver and everything.
It’s brilliant.
I protested Uber on Saturday night. The wife and boy used it but I and the girl walked the 2km home instead. Everyone was happy.
“But this govt hates the idea of 4 lanes” Comments like this remove any credibility to the rest of your comment. Perhaps this Government is just looking at get more Bang for it’s Buck (or less Bangs as the case may be) rather than spend more on your two favoured stretches of road.
However the reality is that they do hate 4 lane roads, especially the Green MPs. They have said so many, many times.
Just about the very first action of this government was to cancel every single 4 lane road that had not actually beeen started. Ideology was the reason.
[citation needed]
The reason why they were cancelled was because they were uneconomical.
You’re saying this to someone who has to drive across a One Lane bridge on SH1 cancelled by Simon Bridges after promising double lanes. Your feeble attack on this Government holds no validity.
4 lane roads aren’t safer because they’re 4 lanes.
In modern cars most people die because they hit something solid like a tree, lamp-post, collide with oncoming traffic or T-Bone someone. Motorways are safer because oncoming traffic and trees etc are on the other side of barriers. Colliding with a vehicle travelling the same way as us is rarely fatal.
We don’t need 4 lanes just safe merging, passing lanes where easy done and barriers both sides and middle of a largely 2-lane road.
When so many are dying on our roads each year, I think the right thing to do is to make them safer and put off the luxury of 4 lane Interstate stylings for the time being. 4 lanes through the Aussie interior, no worries cobber, punching them through our mountainous, ravine ridden landscape, jolly expensive.
Wayne Wayne Wayne possum. This government doesn’t hate the idea of 4 lanes.
It just realises that there has been an under-investment over many years and it’s trying to deal with the basics (based on research) before it goes for the luxuries you think you’re entitled to.
Your gorgeous spokesman couldn’t have made that more clear this morning on Moaning Report, however in doing so, he came across as a complete egg roll and showed exactly where he places human life over convenience.
Oh, and btw, hopefully they’ll realise that there are other alternatives before we get to the 4 lane option becoming necessary.
Apparently you see no problem with placing emphasis on four lanes so that the world’s ‘best drivers’ – no doubt including yourself can text whilst driving, tailgate, merge like it is some sort of competition, put driving on auto, etc. with less risk
Train.
Just responding to a couple of articles about Grace Millane on open mike yesterday, one by Alison mau and one from Paul little. The Gus of these articles was that we care more about grace, because she was white, young and pretty. In Alison attempt to highlight this she quotes some studies (although no references given) which is useful information, then travels to south Auckland to a street where a woman was murdered, the day or so before. There is a blanket ban and name suppression around this case, but that didn’t stop Alison.
I found her article and indeed all comments about we only care about grace because she was pretty, in very poor taste at this time. I hope none of her extended family see them while they are grieving.
A crucial reason that people got so involved in grace tragic story, was initially a missing person. So we followed that story and hoped like hell she’d be found. And or course we experienced a roller coaster of emotion, right through to the bitter end. And it was a bit like the story of the Thai cave boys. Who would have clocked that story if the were missing foe a few hours then res used.
I am not denying what ms mau says about white pretty woman getting more publicity. That is not going to solve our problem though. I am going to pause now and will write about going to the vigil and my experience about that, and getting real about solving this problem ie what research tells us about these perpetrators and why slogans grandstanding isn’t going to change things
That is not going to solve our problem though
Just so we’re all clear, what problem is that?
Our problem is the significant levels of domestic violence and the homicides that occur, even though the rate is dropping.
Hell week is this week for retail and service sector workers. Under appreciated and sometimes not understood, have a thought for the people who ensure you can get your Christmas shopping done. Not all do.
What a load of rubbish, It’s only a hell week if you tell yourself it’s a hell week, your just busy and it’s work,
Just mind over matter eh Wildebeest? You don’t mind and no one else matters.
Indeed, good manners, courtesy, Larry Davids golden rule “do unto others…”, retail = underpaid!
Have you worked in the retail or service sectors?
I currently work in the service sector and did 7.5 years (6 years part time; 1.5 full)from 2001-2008 in a supermarket.
I could tell you a few stories. Think you know? Try working in the sector first.
Good article about seeds being a strategic asset for NZ and should be held by a NZ owned consortium.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12177017
Wrightson’s has gone down hill since the majority owned overseas ownership with many delays to farmers getting their seeds this year and disorganisation. Any issues with being able to plant swiftly to the season (especially with climate change) from poor management from Wrightsons has the ability to bankrupt farmers relying on a decent service. There are not many major seed firms in NZ.
The Wrightson’s chairman sounds a dodgy as.
“In one of those egregious deals that are only too common in the regulatory sector, Lai has agreed to pay a US$400,000 ($583,000) penalty and be barred from acting as a director or officer of a public company for five years for manipulating prices in Agria’s NYSE-listed shares.
The settlement with the SEC followed claims that the agriculture investment firm hid losses from investors through fraudulent accounting and overstated the value of its New York-listed stock.”
Totally agree that seeds are a ‘strategic’ asset that need to be NZ owned and also WELL run for the benefits of NZ agriculture. Good call for it to be bought by a NZ consortium and made sure it is well run to the benefit of many small and medium business in NZ that rely on it. Food is strategic. It should be retained for NZ.
We could call it the Ministry for the Primary Sector.
So crickets on the up and Kane Williamsons winning record is off the charts (at least for NZ cricket) so to add a bit of controversy to the day heres my all time NZ test team, since the advent of one day cricket (because I don’t want to add any names I haven’t seen play)
1. G Turner
2. M Richardson
3. K Williamson (C)
4. M Crowe
5. R Taylor
6. J Oram
7. BJ Watling (WK)
8. D Vettori
9. Sir R Hadlee
10. S Bond
11. T Boult
Unlucky mentions to J Wright, S Fleming and B McCullum
Number 6 was the most difficult position for me to choose as there were 3 candidates: Chris Cairns, Jacob Oram and J Coney
Cairns has a very good bowling average of under 30 but his batting is weaker than the other two (though certainly not bad) and of the three Coneys bowling is the weakest however I’m also looking at team players and how players would play under Williamsons captaincy
So Oram gets the nod because I’m banking on Hadlee, Bond and Boult to do the job
with the ball and Oram and Vettori to do the donkey work of tying up one end and building pressure plus Orams height adds to the variety of bowling
Bowlers win matches but batter save matches 🙂
and of course…
Never rated Vettori, thought he was a very average spin bowling, for a start the guy could hardly even spin the ball.
He got his wickets just through the sheer volume of overs he’d bowl, his strike rate and average was rather poor.
I’d have John Bracewell any day over Vettori.
Also when the guy was batting you’d swear he had wet noodles for wrists.
http://www.espncricinfo.com/newzealand/content/player/36306.html
http://www.espncricinfo.com/newzealand/content/player/38710.html
The bowling averages are quite similar though Vettori just shades Bracewell on all but Vettoris batting sees hims through however this selection is based on not knowing what the pitch will do…if its a spinning pitch then maybe Oram would get dropped for Bracewell (and then S Boock would get the apology 🙂 )
Bracewell bowed against far better players and was more of an attacking spin bowler.
You felt Bracewell could get wickets every time he bowled, while Vertori’s best hope was to just bore them out.
I had C Cairns over Oram as well.
Yeah those are good arguments and not all my decisions are based on numbers but in Vettoris case over 360 test wickets and six centuries are pretty compelling
The thing with Cairns is there’s quite a bit of…shall we say baggage…so I wouldn’t be comfortable having him in the team when he could break down with injury, possibly play through the injury but choose not to, fake an injury and then that stuff with Indian cricket and Lou Vincent and I’m happy to go with Orams better batting
Which the means the bowling line up of Hadlee, Bond, Boult, Vettori and Oram all have their strengths and differences
I mean you survive Bonds right arm 145kph plus in swingers and then you have Hadlees line and length (and under rated bouncer) or Boults left arm in swingers you get to the other end and now you have to try to score of Vettoris accuracy or Orams natural pitch of a 2 meter frame
Shes not a bad team
Always rated the likes of Bracewell and C Cairns for their gimme the fucking ball, I’ll get him out attitude.
I think I have that covered with Hadlee and Bolt 🙂
“I’d have John Bracewell any day over Vettori.”
+100%
360 wickets and six centuries are pretty compelling reasons for me
I couldn’t leave Cairns out.
He kind of had that winning mentality which I think many New Zealand cricketers have lacked over the years. In the age of Warne, Waughs and McGrath, he was possibly the only Kiwi who may have got a start in a hypothetical combined Trans-Team. Certainly he was the only one the Channel Nine team gave any respect to.
I would probably put McCullum ahead of Turner as well, based solely on his late career form (even though he did not open in Tests). They are polar opposites in style. McCullum was a fire cracker where anything could happen at any stage. Turner was a methodical bore-fest of a player.
Need Henry, Hosking and Key in there to keep Richardson company.
Bert Sutcliffe instead of Richardson (by a mile)
JR Reid ahead of Oram as the all-rounder (Reid’s offspin gives another slow bowler) – or alternatively Jeremy Coney, who could also be captain.
Jack Cowie ahead of Boult (much as I like Trent’s bowling)
Boult as 12th man or Bruce Taylor (terrific seamer and explosive hitter)
Vettori would have to be the young version before his first back injury – a wonderful bowler then with a more open-chested delivery and more spin, but he was pretty average after his back injuries..
They are fantastic players (especially JR Reid) but I figure the cut off point had to be around the time I first started watching otherwise its simply a matter of inputting stats in only, stats are a good place to start (or as tie breaker) but they don’t tell the full story
Agreed with Vettori but in my game plan hes there to tie an end down and build pressure, along with the natural bounce of Oram, to let Hadlee and Bond do their thing also 6 centuries batting down the order isn’t anything to sniff at
Boult gets in purely for variety reasons as a left arm pace bowler , I mean hes not bad but being left arm it’d be just something else for the batsmen to have to adjust to
Best all time test team
1. G Turner
2. S Dempster
3. K Williamson (C)
4. M Crowe
5. B Sutcliffe
6. J Reid
7. B McCullum (WK)
8. Sir R Hadlee
9. S Bond
10. C Grimmet
11. T Boult
Not sure we can count number 10 🙂 but otherwise a more than handy team
Some comments are being removed, I’m not sure whats happened or if I’ve inadvertently broken some sort of rule?
Just released a few comments, PR. Not sure what happened. New IP address, maybe? That or misspelling a name or email are the usual triggers.
I thought maybe there were some hard core Chris Cairns fans not liking what I’m posting 🙂
You have the wrong Cairns.
Lance was much more fun to watch, particularly in the one day game.
Against Australia in 1983 he got 50 runs in about 12 minutes, including 6 sixes in 10 balls.
Put Lance Cairns in somewhere, anywhere.
Sorry but his numbers nowhere near make him eligible for a position on my team
Also hes a major creepy sleaze (according to my wife)
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2018/12/blood-and-guts-and-sex-that-s-the-way-to-go-simon-bridges.html
Is there are NZ politician who mis-judges more than Simon Bridges??????? I don’t think so. What a completely inappropriate thing to say. I don’t want to know the leader of the opposition likes to watch sex on tv………………………more information than I need to know…..
# keep Simon
“Expense controversy
On 10 June 2010 after the release of ministerial credit card records, Jones admitted to having used a Crown credit card for personal expenditure, but assured the public that he had reimbursed the Crown in full for the expenditure. Later that day Jones admitted that he had used the card to hire pornographic films at hotels while on ministerial business.[11] The credit card record showed that he chartered an executive jet for $1200, which he claimed was due to bad weather which forced a change in his schedule.[12]”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shane_Jones
Watching sex on TV never did this guy any harm….
Read what he said again.
I think Shane watching porn was bloody awlful as well. Worse than Simon.
Jones didn’t win the Labour leadership battle, Cunliffe did and Robertson came second. A lot of feminist women in the Labour Party, and I don’t imagine many voting for Jonsie.
Now there’s the envy of the rich that National are always going on about.
I’d agree with “the envy of the rich that National are always going on about”. I don’t think it exists as much as those who are motivated by possessions would say.
Who really wants a vineyard in the south? Just as I didn’t detect envy in what Bridges said. I thought I heard instead a rather gentle jibe at John Key.
I did listen, rather than read the transcript. I certainly am not going out of my way to defend the captain of the NCC, but the video ref might find him not out with the benefit of the doubt on this one. 🙂
I’m rather struck by this Joe Hildebrand essay. As with any political opinion piece I understand not everyone will agree with everything being said here; but on my first read I bookmarked it and came back later for another pass at it.
It’s not long:
http://europechronicler.com/joe-hildebrand-the-west-is-falling-and-its-all-our-fault/
And there in lies the problem with Western liberal democracy.
How about, instead of electing people to govern us and to tell us what to do and why we can’t have what’s actually needed we stand up and govern ourselves?
Maybe then we’ll be able to stop the failings of dictators be they ever so democratically elected.
Representative democracy doesn’t allow us the choice. It empowers a few to have that choice and they’re the ones that are implementing policies that don’t work. Policies that are designed by the businesses and corporations for their own benefit.
Yes it was.
Question: Did the people of Europe actually have a say in the creation of the EU or was it all driven from the top?
The only ‘Western’ values that have been exported are those of exploitation and theft so it really shouldn’t be surprising that the rest of the world views our stated values with scepticism.
That works wonderfully – when nobody’s lying.
A framework that allows people to choose their own governments, be judged fairly by their peers and have their individual freedoms respected and protected…
Yeah, and its a friggin disaster unless you have a well educated, scientifically literate middle class. That took centuries to happen in the West. And it was helped along by enormous amounts of wealth looted from the non-Western world, that enabled the elites to trickle some down to their own downtrodden to keep them just happy and educated enough to serve the cause of empire.
Nowhere in the developing world has so called ‘democracy’ worked well. It has only worked well in countries after they became wealthy, and not before.
Case in point is India vs China. What country has performed better on almost all indices of economic growth, literacy, human happiness, life expectancy, and social well being? Google it.
Of course the West loves to thrust ‘democracy’ prematurely on shit-holes around the world – in order that they remain feudal disorganized shit-holes ripe for exploitation. The West fears most those strong secular states that adopt modern science and technology, eschew backward feudal superstitions, and who can stand up to the West. That is why the West supports the Syrian opposition. That is why they hate China, and love India.
That is, the West fears most those who adopt the scientific method first developed in the West, in order to stand up to the West.
“Justice Winkelmann will replace retiring Chief Justice Dame Sian Elias, who is leaving the role in March next year, having reached the compulsory retirement age of 70 for judges.”
What a pity USA didn’t retire their Supreme Court Judges at 70.
Hungarians are over Orban and his autocracy, but Soros…
Thousands of enraged demonstrators, during the fourth night of angry protests over the past week, marched to the headquarters of Hungarian state television in Óbuda, in the hope that the taxpayer-funded Fidesz propaganda machine that pretends to be a public broadcaster would allow for the demands of the opposition to be read on air.
[…]
Remarkably, but not surprisingly, the taxpayer-funded television station refused to give air time to ten democratically elected Hungarian MP’s who wanted to read the following in a live broadcast:
Meanwhile shortly before 23:00 Budapest time, MP’s still inside the public broadcasters headquarters called on all 66 opposition MP’s to come to the headquarters as well. At the same time, police used tear gas against the first line of demonstrators, while a growing number of protesters called for a push towards storming the building.
http://hungarianfreepress.com/2018/12/16/chaos-erupts-at-hungarian-state-media-headquarters-as-demonstrators-demand-air-time/
Our Minister of Finance released this yesterday to explain the headline budget categories leading into 2019:
All this talk recently about what we can about men thinking they can hurt, rape and murder with impunity well heres part of the problem
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/109399536/man-who-used-martial-arts-to-flip-waikato-cop-injuring-him-sentenced-to-home-detention
Attacks cop, sentenced to home detention
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/108969105/man-who-injured-auckland-judge-sentenced-to-community-work
Breaks judges wrist, community work
Maybe if government passed down the word to judges to start sending people who do violent acts to prison, if parole had to be earned rather than given, if multiple acts of crimes were added up then maybe we might be able to start having a talk but if government won’t even take violent seriously then is it any surprise men think they can get away with it, especially when society (in the form of government) allows them to
Yarp send them to prison and the problem goes away. Not the brightest idea there.
No, send them to prison then they arn’t out on the streets. Send them to prison and the message from the state is violence won’t be tolerated. Send them to prison and make parole dependent on rehab and training.
Making parole hard to get is silly. Parole allows for monitoring and conditions once the person has been released with the hope of better re-integration. If they complete their full sentence then the state has no strings on them whatsoever.
” If they complete their full sentence then the state has no strings on them whatsoever.”
Ask Stewart Wilson if thats the case, the state can put restrictions on anyone if they choose to
Only in such extreme cases.
So who decides whats extreme or not.
Make part of release conditions monitoring, education, training, whatever for people who commit crimes of violence
The principle of justice involved is that once you have served your sentence then you have paid your debt to society. Being a fanboy for Collins though i can see why you wouldn’t care about human rights.
The problem is some of these people aren’t receiving sentences proportionate to their crimes and the victims aren’t receiving justice
If that is what you think then argue for more severe sentences.
Our problem is the significant levels of domestic violence and the homicides that occur, even though the rate is dropping.
So it’s out of sight out of mind – a bit like sending plastic to Thailand – maybe the crims can go pick up plastic while outside on the inside.
Did you not see this part: “parole dependent on rehab and training.”
Its not out of sight out of mind but it is protecting society from these people and encouraging them to make something of their lives while incarcerated
I just can’t see how, on one hand, we want to stop violence towards women yet instead of keeping society safe, for a little while, we let them out
Someone attacks a cop and they get home detention, what message does that send
“…but it is protecting society from these people…”
Mate these people are you and your mates from work, from school, neighbors and relatives. There is no them and us unless you don’t identify as a male.
I can quite honestly tell you that they are not my mates, they may be the people you identify with but I don’t.
Of course, how unsurprising.
What utter kak
Yes there is an atrocious amount of male violence in NZ, but to try and guilt trip an entire sex over it is incredibly silly
Your sentence says it all – there is no guilt tripping because it is the truth as uncomfortable as you may find it.
The point is I don’t find it uncomfortable.
I find it disgusting that a tiny % of men commit violence against both women and men.
The vast majority of women is behind closed doors and curtains, by their partners, basically because they are scum and know full well it’s wrong, so it isn’t exactly on display
The fact that I am a male doesn’t make me somehow culpable or colluding in it.
And to say that it is somehow down to just men to fix it all, because they happen to be the same sex is dumb
Given the most likely people to know about this shit is the abused friends I would think it is extremely stupid to think that it is just men that should be highlighted to call it out.
It is everyone, what ever sex they are
Everyone includes the subset ‘men’. So what exactly is the problem again?
. Actually Chris I agree with you.
I was at the vigil for grace and found the talk of toxic masculinity unhelpful, even though I am a feminist.
We have to understand who these violent offenders are so we have a better chance of doing something to change it.
Most men who are physically violent have come from abusive backgrounds and have personality disorders such as anti social, boarderline or narcissistic. They are often substance abusers.
On a completely personal level when I was a much younger woman I worked with some really sexist men. But I felt completely safe with them and they never crossed a boundary, although they may have held a door open for me.
I have also come across progressive men who support feminist causes who I felt emotionally abused by.
It is a psychological approach we need to apply to solve the problem. Not a social/cultural one
Why are some men so full of hatred and want to hurt women?
Maybe we need to look at the Mothers and why/how they raise these violent Men?
The insinuations it is an issue for all men do to deal with, and the onus is on them to stop it.
A big part of the problem is cultural. Culture is a system of shared meaning. We have some particularly toxic male culture in this country. The only way to change something shared is collectively.
Yes all men. You said no! Its everyone. Everyone includes all men.
No shit
That is because I mean everyone including men. I haven’t said otherwise, so not sure what you are trying to imply.
But the insinuations that it is JUST A MEN’S issue they have to deal with, and it is down to men to fix it borders on the irresponsible.
Again. It should be a message to EVERYONE who learns about it, to speak up. Not targeted at men only.
No matter what sex they are, no matter how rich (because it is just as likely), how poor, how much of a shitty upbringing the subjects had.
Edit: Actually just as likely should probably be “does happen”. As the financial side of things seems to exacerbate the problem
You must have hung out with a lot of arseholes Marty?
Ever join in on the “action”? are you feeling a bit guilty in your old age?
Feel the need to do penance?
“men thinking they can hurt, rape and murder”.
The men might not be thinking. “The failure of “top-down” control systems in the prefrontal cortex to modulate aggressive acts that are triggered by anger provoking stimuli appears to play an important role.”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4176893/
“Make part of release conditions monitoring, education, training, whatever for people who commit crimes of violence”. Is there good evidence this affects the top-down control systems ?
Good comment.
The development of humans in the animal behavours sense didn’t automatically become extinct due to the near instant developement of modern society.
Oxytocin and Vasopressin biology in regards to some DV and some sex crimes is very interesting, and an eye opener for people who have experienced how biology controls behavours, but never could explain things due to the social construct that everything we do is intentional.
Actually the evidence is pretty discouraging in terms of what works with treatment for violent offenders.
Solka I honestly do appreciate your contribution on the standard but I have to disagree with you about changing toxic male culture. Of course it is a good idea to do that but I don’t believe it addresses the problem of violent male offenders and the research that teaching these men to respect women more shows it to be a very weak intervention
Thank you so much Grafton gully. Finally someone is looking to and posting stuff on the science of aggression. Very interesting article
And they blame the indigenous people for this – bloody kali yuga. The Amazon is under so many threats it is scary.
“Approximately 8,000 barrels of crude oil have spilled into the Amazon, and the Peru State oil company Petroperu says its because local indigenous people severed the pipeline. According to a company statement, members of the Mayuriaga community in the Loreto region first damaged the pipeline and then interfered with the technicians trying to repair it.”
https://inhabitat.com/oil-spill-in-the-peruvian-amazon/
WHO in the hell cranked Trotter up. To be fair I find it difficult to read his murmuring but the comments left me gob smacked. Someone advised Prime Minister Ardern to “open your eyes my love” Really!!.
Where was this report?
Ed. Chris Trotter article at http://www.interest.co.nz. Some of the comments singularly unenlightened from the knuckle draggers.
Sometimes Trotter is a caricature of White Male Leftie Boomer.
I think your problem is that you can’t handle long-form journalism, ie more than 50 words!
This is interesting from a WMLB:
That the organised criminals controlling the New Zealand drug trade – especially the scourge of methamphetamine – are, overwhelmingly, wealthy Pakeha, is a fact too frightening for their middle-class neighbours to acknowledge.
https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/2018/12/the-salvation-armys-latest-report.html
Could it be that this sort of finger-pointing comes uncomfortably close to such as you?
I think your problem is that you use the term “journalism” far too loosely.
I think your problem is that you are an over-active vinegarish critic lacking sufficient humour to be effective. Having a lemon drink every day seems quite good for cleaning the tubes, but it is even better with a spot of honey.
Sometimes?
Open Mike this morning? 18/12
I wonder if after this helpful New Zealander was helping in Australia with clearing a track, that politicians might remember how we have been a big part of their advancement and are no more prone to criminality than they are. After all Ned Kelly is one of their heroes. Please stop hating Kiwis and treating us as 4th class citizens – and let our people go and stay. You know what I mean!
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/378502/great-grandmother-sees-funny-side-in-getting-lost-in-australian-bush
There you go some of our Aotearoa sea food is like gold over seas MPI need to be vigilant and the public need to dob in people rading our fisheries and fishes
The Ministry for Primary Industries said it was at least the sixth occasion in the last five years that overseas crew from merchant ships had been caught breaking fishing rules during a stopover in Bluff.
This was despite the ministry providing crew members with the rules around the legal take and size limit of shellfish.
Ministry spokesman Garreth Jay said the most recent incident in November involved four crew members who were caught near Ocean Beach at Bluff with a total of 91 black foot pāua, 82 of which were undersized, and 42 yellow foot pāua, of which 26 were undersized. Link Below ka kite ano . P.S We do want the mokopunas to experince the joys of gathering sea food.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/109418722/merchant-ship-crew-fined-for-plundering-paua-stocks-in-bluff
Eco Maori tau toko Vanuatu action to sue big carbon companys who are burning OUR future mokopunas right to a happy healthy future
Vanuatu threatens to sue biggest carbon energy producers The power of the courts
If Vanuatu sues it will add to a growing trend of climate change litigation.
Before 2014, only 12 countries had climate law suits — by March 2017, nearly 900 such cases had been filed in 24 countries, according to the UN Environment Programme.
“There’s just a tremendous urgency to take action now, so environmental groups, citizens, states and cities are taking to the courts to try and force action,” says Michael Burger, executive director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School.
The majority of climate change lawsuits have been filed in the US.
“Governments are almost always the defendants in climate change cases,” according to a 2017 UN Environment global review of climate change litigation.
In 2015, activist group Our Children’s Trust filed a law suit in the state of Oregon against the federal government. “I am suing the US government for taking direct action that puts my generation disproportionately at risk from climate change, and violating my constitutional rights to life, liberty and property,” Vic Barrett, a 19-year-old American university student and member of Our Children’s Trust, told CNN at the COP24 climate talks.
That year, attorneys for the federal government filed a motion to dismiss the case.
Among the defense’s arguments were that the law suit “presents a generalized attack on government action and inaction regarding climate change, rather than a challenge to specifically identifiable violations of law that can be concretely rectified by a favorable decision.” Links below ka kite ano
https://edition.cnn.com/2018/12/17/world/vanuatu-cop-climate-change-intl/index.html
Some Eco Maori Music for the minute.
Aftre shonky and his money men m8 joyce have inplanted the culture of Tangata /People are just some thing to siphon profts off who cares if there actions cause great stress and harm even death. 1 Winz 2 ACC 3 Housing Corp 4 Justice System 5 Health system 6 Education System 7 Maori wealth has dived under 9 years of his corporate way of running Aotearoa. All of these have put millions of people in hardship and stress I know Eco Maori is still being treated like DIRT NOW my UTU will be REKA.
ACC spying: ‘It’s nothing less than warfare’
At some point somebody with intelligence needs to stand back and say this is crazy. This is insane, we’re spending all this money and the guy is mad as hell – what do we need to do to fix this?”
As for Stryder, his war with ACC continues. To date, he has had 16 reviews of ACC decisions and applied to appeal three review decisions in the district court. He has been barred from communications with ACC case managers and trespassed from dispute resolution service Fairway Resolution Limited premises That kind of figure is made up … it’s not a hard figure, it’s speculative.”
Sara said ACC needed to learn how to better deal with people like Stryder.
“Like a number of people who have had unhappy dealings with ACC, they get mad as hell and that can lead to … nothing less than warfare.”
ACC defended the figure, saying the value of its integrity unit “intervention” was calculated based on claim history modelling.
In the financial year to June, ACC made 802,099 payments totalling $131m for medical assessments.
ACC used lawyers for about 10 per cent of review hearings due to “legal complexity, the precedence value of the issue, indications the client intends to progress the matter to court, and the workload of our people”.
Sara said hiring lawyers for reviews only inflamed the situation and put claimants in an unfair position.
“Once you’ve got a lawyer involved, every case has to have a lawyer.The financial stress, severe back pain, insomnia and challenging of ACC caused his marriage to break down and he suffered from anxiety and depression, he said.
“I hate it when ACC don’t believe you. I’m going to have to keep battling with them; I believe it’s totally criminal behaviour.”
ACC BY THE NUMBERS*:
1.98 million new claims received
79,648 new weekly compensation claims received
$69m – spending on injury prevention
$1.7m – spending on treatment and emergency travel
$740m – spending on care and support
$1.48m – spending on financial compensation and vocational rehabilitation
$740m – spending on operating costs
$40 billion – size of ACC’s investment portfolio to cover future claims
$3.5m – amount ACC earned in interest on its investment
99,500 – number of claims declined annually (disputed by some lawyers and advocates who say the figure could be as high as 300,000)
7616 – number of applications for reviews of ACC claim decisions*
$12.2m – spending on review services to FairWay Resolution**
(Source: ACC Annual Report 2018 and ACC Media Adviser)
* For the financial year to June 2018
** For the financial year to June 2017. links below ka kite ano
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/108759109/acc-spying-its-nothing-less-than-warfare
Read the comments to .
Eco Maori could see that wahine and maori have been getting a underarm bowl as of late. I tau toko Cliff Curtis word’s as I have seen maori diserpear off Aotearoa screen quite quickly in the last decade I have voiced my concerns on this Phenomenon.
Its is also Very good that Nga puhi iwi are calling for more wahine to be involved in there treaty settlement process I will not com anymore on there settlement as Eco Maori does not know the facts and my Iwi is were I should & will put my nose in
Cliff Curtis calls for women, Māori leadership in NZ film industry
He said he formed Whenua Films with directors, Taika Waititi and Ainsley Gardiner, because the Māori film industry was going through a pretty rough time.
“Māori content could not get through the funding agencies, could not get through the broadcasters, could not get through the distributors unless we had somebody above us, and literally speaking we looked above us [and] there weren’t any Māori. We were it.
“If you have Māori content that you are exploring, and you are exploiting … whether it be a character or whether it be an aspect of your content, then partner with Māori.
Ka kite ano links below
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/376017/cliff-curtis-calls-for-women-maori-leadership-in-nz-film-industry
Kia ora Newshub Paddy many thanks for the story of tompson and clark for spying on kiwis and IWI to what a big mess I wont say it Paddy. The imagration process is getting some checks and balances to stop employers ripping employes off the problem I have is money was good Dairyfarming and there were quite a few maori in dairy farming a few years back as we love working on the whenua .Now the money is crap and maori have been pushed out of dairyfarming show me how many maori dairy farmers made it into share milking not many if any because shonky flooded the dairyfarm workers market with Immigrints.
That development in Coromandale will lift the prospects of the locals E hoa one has to rembmer to be tact full so as not to put some peoples nose out of joint Eco want’s to our maori leaders in power a long time ka pai.
Yes Mike and Samatha Eco Maori is very pleased that national is not in power we would have never been able to roll them out if they had another term with the tec they would have had at the finger tip’s to con people into beleving them/vote for them
Lloyd Megen is a strong kind wahaine who see the big picture all the best to Harry and Megen. I did see the story on Nigella Lawson letting the TV networks know that air brushing her pictures is not on as it put a fulse image of her out there and puts a lot of pressure on some wahine to starve them selves to look slim .
I would like to try a cut of that wagyu Japanese beef cow they have to be treated like a pet lamp to get the best out of them they get the best treatment in Japan.
Ka kite ano
Some Eco Maori Music for the minute.