TEPCO finally admits that the No 1 reactor melted down a mere 16 hours after the Earthguake. It also admitted that since reactor no 2 and 3 (the one with the MOX fuel) have similar damage they also may have melted down.
Pre-empting Rare earth man’s tsk,tsking for doubting the official lies the following: when asked TESCO stated that they could not have known that this was the case until they went into the reactor a couple of days ago.
Hiroaki Koide, professor of nuclear safety engineering at Kyoto University, was critical of TEPCO.
“They could have assumed that when the loss of power made it impossible to cool down the reactor, it would soon lead to a meltdown of the core. TEPCO’s persistent explanation that the damage to the fuel had been limited turned out to be wrong,” he said.
It is a well known fact that a nuclear reactor goes into meltdown within 90 minutes if it is not cooled.
So what we have is three reactors in melt down freely releasing their nuclear destruction into the Pacific ocean and the air. They have done so for the last two months and will do so until a way has been found to stop them from doing so. This will take at least 6-9 months. The reactors are much bigger and older (i.e. more radioactive) than Chernobyl.
All information about the amounts of the dispersion of radioactive particles into the atmosphere is unavailable to the general public but rest assured we will find out in a couple of years through cancer and extinction of sea life in the areas around the reactors.
Japan has announced to expand the uninhabitable areas around the reactors.
I thought the lesson was: there is always a big enough disaster to make nuclear energy a grossly stupid idea (aka there’s no such thing as safe nuclear power).
There is safe nuclear power, it just requires much more technological nous than was used in the 60’s through 80’s in designing and installing power plants. Safe nuclear power may also not be economically feasible, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t possible.
Saying there is safe nuclear power is like saying we can build earthquake proof buildings. It’s a semantics that works for those who think the risk is acceptable but doesn’t work for those that don’t.
Well weka it seems we can build earthquake proof buildings. Not one new (current building code) high-rise building in Christchurch’s world record breaking shake collapsed or caused death. All stayed upright as intended and everyone got out. The fact of damage was always expected and known to be a big clean-up job afterwards.
Quite why the idea that we can’t build such buildings is out there I am not sure. The reality is that we can and have. It has been proved.
Depends on what you mean by quake-proof, too.
We do build quake-proof multi-storey buildings, but they are quake proof in the sense that they have a design philosophy of preserving life. Is it good enough to just preserve human life if it results in an unserviceable building, which results in a long recovery period? Or should we insist on buildings that do not kill people and continue to fully function after an earthquake?
Perhaps this is too engineering-nerd a subject for The Standard.
Fuck, just set to replty and another fucking doozy shake sets the nerves afire again. Tell ya, I’m gonna deck one of these quakes someday soon…
Anyways… from my understanding of building engineering it is near impossible to build buildings (current technology) that can withstand such a shake or ten and come out undamaged. The reason is that a completely solid structure will just blow apart under such stress and it is bettr to let the building move and bend with the ground movement.
I explained it like this once (adult rated)… imagine you have a sudden and extreme bout of the shits but your arsehole is concreted up. What’s going to happen? Obviously blow apart in some unseemly fashion. Better to blow it out and clean up the mess afterwards – at least you survive. (apologies for the less than savoury analogy)
Thanks for your analogy, as it happens I’ve just sat down for lunch.
As I understand it, buildings can be designed to withstand enormous shakes and remain serviceable. The idea is to make them light and flexible, whereas the current school of thought is to make them ductile. I was just contemplating whether this needs to be changed, and structural engineers (all of them, in training, practicing and teaching) need to update their philosophy. Designs might need to be assessed based not only on whether they will protect life, but also, if they become unusable, (because the steel in the connections between the columns and beams has yielded), how long will it take to dismantle and replace the building. And what can the building be used for, meanwhile, and what risks does it present until it is demolished, what inconvenience will be caused during the demolition etc.
Perhaps. Christhurch’s newest and tallest building happenned to be a steel frame structure (Pacific Tower) which has got away quite lightly, being lighter and more flexible, compared to the usual construction material of choice, concrete, which is heavy and brittle.
That’s not quake proof, that’s quake resistant. Are you saying those building would withstand a 9.0 quake?
The issue with nuclear power isn’t how ‘safe’ it is. It’s what are the consequences if things go wrong. Like I said, the semantics work one way if you think the risks are worth it*, but they don’t if you think the risks aren’t worth it. Most people who are against nuke power don’t believe the risks are worth it despite the benefits.
*although when used like this the word ‘safe’ implies that disaster can/will never happen. Which is ridiculous. It may be theoretically possible to build a nuclear power generator that is completely and forever safe, but once you bring in human and other real world factors, that idea of absolute safety fails again.
weka, our shake was greater than the japanese one, though the richter measure was lower (6.3 cf 8.9). So our buildings did survive an equivalent 9.0. These are the facts.
Are you sure about that? Had you had a 9.0 (richter) with the kind of geology in Chch and that fault and the way that it moved, would you not have had a much worse earthquake? Or are you saying that the Chch quake was the biggest possible for that area? Why couldn’t a bigger quake be possible?
Sorry you have having more aftershocks though, that’s a real bastard.
I aint entirely 100% positive of course. Iis mother nature. But I do know that the shake Christchurch experienced was the biggest recorded. And the new buildings went through it and out the other side with no loss of life.
and yeah cheers. the aftershocks are bastards for sure.
“But I do know that the shake Christchurch experienced was the biggest recorded. And the new buildings went through it and out the other side with no loss of life.”
That to me says that the buildings are built to the best standards we are willing to pay for and in relationship to the type of quake risk that’s been assesssed. Which is good. But it’s a different thing than saying that those buildings would definitely withstand any and all larger quakes.
This is the point about nuclear power generation. It’s about risk assessment. Using a word like safe obfuscates the downsides. Maybe a better comparison is with safe sex vs safer sex. See the difference?
They can make nuke power generators safer than the ones built decades ago. They can’t make them absolutely safe.
Yes agreed. And “risk” around nuclear power is entirely different than a natural disaster due to the ongoing effects of radiation I would have thought. A start could be made by not letting the likes of Homer Simpson near any such plants…
It wasn’t the earthquake biggest recorded, one aspect of it (peak ground acceleration) was the biggest recorded in New Zealand and one of the greatest in the world.
The peak ground acceleration (PGA) in central Christchurch exceeded 1.8g (i.e. 1.8 times the acceleration of gravity), with the highest recording 2.2g, at Heathcote Valley Primary School, a shaking intensity equivalent to MM X+. This is the highest PGA ever recorded in New Zealand; the highest reading during the September 2010 event was 1.26g, recorded near Darfield.
The PGA is also one of the greatest ever ground accelerations recorded in the world, and was unusually high for a 6.3 quake, and the highest in a vertical direction.
There are many factors that influence earthquake damage – energy released, PGA, depth, proximity, ground and faultline conditions, layering, proximity to different ground structures:
It is also likely that “seismic lensing” contributed to the ground effect, with the seismic waves rebounding off the hard basalt of the Port Hills back into the city.”
One explanation I heard was that different layers of the earth separated when initially thrust up, the upper layer came higher so tok longer to drop back down and met the underlayer coming back up on the next wave.
It seems that the Februrary quake was a bit like a “perfect storm” combination of factors in proximity to a city centre.
If the quake was higher on the Richter scale the effects and damage would have been worse. No building can be earthquake proof.
Well that sorts it than. All we have to do is get rid of those reactors build with 60’s through to the 80s technology. Oh oops, no solution for the waste created in that time.
Other than bombing Libya and other assorted countries we want to protect and liberate with it of course.
Trust but verify. If you can’t verify then the authority is illegitimate.
If the media does not have an independent authority then the media is also illegitimate.
Unless there is a damn good reason for them to lie, like panic in Toyko.
So what was lost? Was anything going to change, was there some way to
stop the meltdown? No. So any benefit from the lies was saving the
population from causing more harm. Was irradiating them was far less costly
that the alternative???
Nuclear power is too dangerous.
At the risk of threadjacking my own thread now extrapolate that sentiment to the events of 9/11.
If no steel framed buildings ever collapsed before and after the events of 9/11 than how come three steel framed buildings collapsed on that one day as a result of fossil fuel fires, one of which as the result of mere office fires, into their own footprint breaking all three of Newton’s laws of motion.
Who do you believe? Your government or your lying eyes?
DNFTT? Do not fall to this? Do not feed this T? Darn no foot turn tipsy?
Do not feed this thread? yeah that could be it.
Laws of physics don’t lie AC. They can not be broken. Your turn.
Oh, thanks Weka. It means do not feed this troll. Duh. LOL.
Yeah AC? How is my post trolling? All I do is point out an inconsistency in the official story which purports that 19 young men can defeat the entire military might, can’t fly but still manage to fly three planes into the most protected buildings in the universe and are able to break all Newton’s laws in the process.
Fukushima was an exercise in covering up the most blatant lies and all I do is ask VTO to extrapolate his new found cynicism to the events of 9/11.
OK, it was unfair of me to call you a troll, ev. I just couldn’t be arsed searching for your last major attempt (on The Standard) at convincing the masses that you are right. But I’ve done it now – the link is here.
For anyone who doesn’t know what to expect when engaging ev on this subject, have a read of the Open Mike of 9 November 2010. And expect the same again if you choose Option B.
Oh, feel free to point them to my blog AC. Just because you don’t have the mental acumen to actually read up on science doesn’t mean that others don’t either.
1. Thanks for the invitation ev. In the past I’ve considered commenting on your blog and I’ve always decided against it. Nothing you have done subsequently has made me reconsider my decision.
2. I’ve read or viewed most of the links you’ve provided and concluded that, in general, they are not credible. If that leads you to conclude I lack mental acumen, so be it. You seem to be quite fixed in your opinions, and I won’t go out of my way to try to change your mind.
“Pre-empting Rare earth man’s tsk,tsking for doubting the official lies the following”
It’s not you “doubting the official lies”, it’s you deliberately mis-contrueing what their communications said. I’ll put it simply for you: Tepco absolutely knew for 100% certain that event X had happened because they detected it with their instruments, and were fairly sure (as were all external experts) that because X had happened, it means that event Y almost certainly also happened. They put out press releases saying X happened. Then later once they had definitive proof of event Y happening, they put out press releases saying Y has happened. At no point have they actually denied that Y happened. Upon publishing of the later press releases, you accuse them of deliberately lying for initially saying only X had happened and that Y definitely did not happen – they never did any such thing. It is simply not “lying” by any definition of the word.
You’re allowed to be as sceptical as you want about tepco and their communications strategy, but accusing them of ‘lying’ is just grossly wrong.
“It is a well known fact that a nuclear reactor goes into meltdown within 90 minutes if it is not cooled.”
And yet it took 16 hours, funny that.
“So what we have is three reactors in melt down freely releasing their nuclear destruction into the Pacific ocean and the air.”
“freely releasing” nuclear destruction into the air is what Chernobyl did. Fukushima is a significantly different failure mode.
While independent experts have been saying for ages now that there is evidence of nuclear meltdowns at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, the confirmation by Japanese officials has until very recently been missing from the official story. This information has seen no coverage from mainstream media, who’ve largely forgotten the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant.
I don’t see anything objectionable in that post, except this:
“After levels of radiation had been measured as high as 700 millisieverts* per hour last week”
“*Exposure to this level of radiation will cause death. According to the NIH radiation levels of 4 sieverts per hour will cause fatality in 50% of people and at 6 sieverts per hour death is almost certain. 100 sieverts per hour is far above the 100% lethal dosage amount of 6 sieverts per hour.”
You do know the difference between a millisievert and a sievert, right? Everything is fine until the final sentence, which says “100 sieverts per hour is far above the 100% lethal dosage amount of 6 sieverst per hour”. Sure, it is, but they haven’t found 100 sieverts/hour anywhere, so this statement is completely irrelevant. It’s like saying: “water boils at 100 degrees, and the melting point of tungsten at 2770 degrees is far above the boiling point of water” – factually true, but irrelevant to the case at hand.
I suspect you simply made a mistake here and confused millisieverts for sieverts. But if you’re going to specifically include a footnote about something like this, you really need to get it correct.
No L,
It did not take 16 hours. the power went down after the Tsunami not the earthquake for starters and as far as I am concerned TEPCO can not even be relied upon to get the 16 hours straight.
The issue is not if and when the meltdown occurred. The issue is that TESCO which was running these horrors could have reasonably known that since the reactors were not cooled meltdown was unavoidable.
No power= meltdown.
Meltdowns prevents cold shut down. Since they have not been able one way or another to do a cold shut down since the 11th of March we are looking at a meltdown which has been allowed (Since there simply is no solution for it) to emit huge amounts of radioactive material to spread through our oceans and atmosphere.
It isn’t rocket science.
Since TESPCO as the owner of these monstrosities has denied these events since the beginning until it could no longer be denied it is reasonable to assume they either lied or are so incompetent they should not be allowed to go near a reactor let alone own them.
As TEPCO has a history of obfuscation and lying I don’t think that it is unreasonable to assume they did so on this occasion.
Now run along and go play outside with your mates. Oh no, you can’t any more. If it rains you might get contaminated. Well you might still be able here in New Zealand but it is down right hazardous in an 80 miles radius around Fukushima.
For those of you wanting to know about the size of that; think basically the entire centre of the North Island. No more Taupo, Cambridge, Rotorua, king country, te Awamutu and everything in between.
Untouchable for the rest of times and that is just were it begins.
You are right L,
Fukushima is a different cattle of fish altogether. Chernobyl was a relatively small newish reactor (at the time). Compared with Fukushima, Chernobyl was a walk in the park.
So basically the Fukushima incident resulted in a release of a huge amount of radioactive material into the environment because there was a meltdown and meltdowns always mean that radioactive material will be released environment? And we don’t know about this because Tepco/the Japanese government/whoever are controlling the release of information from all the detectors of radiation in the whole world in a giant conspiracy (just like 9/11 I guess)? Even though radiation is relatively easy to detect and there are numerous detectors worldwide? And this poses a huge risk to the whole world (not just the immediately surrounding area where the material would be most concentrated) because we are all going to get cancer, after all its not as if the release of radioactive material across a huge area such as the Pacific ocean/the whole world would have resulted in the radioactive material being diluted at all?
Why has there not been more comment about the gross invasion of privacy, to suit commercial interests, involved in the credit reporting changes.
Do not make the mistake of thinking it is about responsible lending. It will have adverse effects on any one who has had a period of illness or hard luck.
Right – Keep profits flowing offshore to maintain power in base support/contributors.
Left – Counter Right in opposition but do little to stand up (in the way) of big offshoring of profits.
Greens – Grow up already, never be a debtor be, planet, credit cards, mortgage
(unless absolutely necessary when you are impelled to pay back and rewarded for
it in a timely fashion).
For some astounding reason the government of NZ believes that kiwis who
spent spent spent, and now are paying paying paying, and see prices hiking
on food and oil for the foreseeable future, will rush back to open their wallets
and invest in housing or buying crap again. They are living on the whiff of
of a empty barrel of petroleum.
Any bounce in the economy will be short lived, the population was bullish
when oil was cheap and credit easy to come by, now its bearish. Until
NZ changes its tax gearing to support the retention of capital in NZ,
by valuing capital gains by taxing it, we are going to continue to work
very hard making profits, and pushing those who take the risk into
debt. A NZ farm on average is carrying 2.8 million in debt.
Brash lied, worse he distracted the debate, targeting public debt in the
future rather than the real present private debt the credit agencies are
so concerned about. Until we have honest politicians who can hold
themselves from telling lies to muding the debate we with continue to
have an economy that gets worse. And that’s the surprise people, why
the credit agencies haven’t yet figured that out. That shit debate in
the public political forums led by shit politicians who openly distort the
debate means shit policy and more dithering and ineptitude.
Everyone who will vote Brash ACT knows nothing about the economy,
or politics, or how to make a dollar that they can retain legitimately,
retards.
‘millsy’ that sort of insightful, highly intelligent ‘comment’ sums up why the Left remains where it is in the polls. Suggest turning some of the opposition anger that is written here into some internal change and growth. Many voters currently see it the other way around.
The Horizon poll suggests the left is only a couple of points behind the right, Chris, and closing fast. It’ll be interesting if Thursday’s Roy Morgan poll confirms the trend, because the budget isn’t going to win the Government any friends and once the slide starts, it’s hard to stop.
Lets hope you are correct Voice. That is the ‘closing of the gaps’ we really want to see!
Chris, you seem unable to recognise a sound bite (aka Millsys nutshell) today. Your sarcasm has prompted me to make any of my posts today in the style of ‘Spud’ on Red Alert.
• Natzional/ACT working for the clampdown-bastards
• Go Labour Green Te Mana!
Another excellent Julian interview on Native Affairs last night, Maori TV. This time with Tariana Turia. She tried hard to be upbeat but her words sounded sort of hollow. A bit evasive about funding and success of MP. Wish I could figure out the replay.
Let us know what you find out. The numbering didn’t make sense to me either, but their latest video is speculating on when Hone Harawira might resign, so it’s from last Monday presumably.
Yes Macca, interesting bit was the “wait till the public see how much money has been won by the MP, they’ll be amazed” – type statement from Turia. Confirms the suspicion of truckloads of blankets and beads under the radar over the past two years – and even more interesting will be to see where it’s ended up.
The chickens of contradiction are coming home to roost: Turia forced to claim credit for “Maori gains under National” and Brash poised to scream “special privilege” the second she does.
Too little too late for the MP, and thursday’s poll will tell us whether NZ is still susceptible to the Right’s race-baiting poison. Anything but a major boost for ACT indicates another premature hatemongering ejaculation and doom for the nasties. Another rancid Epsom rort may not be an option for Mr Nice.
Also of extreme pertinence was Turia’s repeated “whichever main party leads govt” indication of a willingness to ditch NAT: on top of the Horizon poll, wee Johnny suddenly looks very cold and lonely.
Bomber Bradbury’s ignorance about the word “Redneck”
The normally excellent Bomber Bradbury wrote a piece on his Tumeke! blog yesterday, about the campaign against Hone Harawira. Foolishly, however, he chose to entitle it The redneck hate of Hone and the Auckland Uni protest, which implies it’s hard-working Pakeha farmers, truck-drivers and road workers who are spouting all the racist bilge in the media.
Bradbury uses the term “redneck” repeatedly throughout the article. So he describes racist engineering students in the 1970s as “predominately white provincial and rednecked”, and now, at Auckland University in 2011, Hone is “once again…facing off against rednecks”.
I posted a response on the Tumeke! blogsite, but so far, Bradbury has not deigned to publish it. In case he doesn’t publish it, here is what I wrote:
Bomber, please stop using the term “redneck” when you really mean “bigot”. Some of the hardest-working, most serious and socially concerned people I know are rednecks—i.e., farmers, truck drivers, road-workers and manual workers of all kinds.
“Redneck” is an American term of condescension and abuse used by eastern establishment “liberals” in the 1960s to sneer at white working people in the southern states.
In our country, the most extreme bigots and race-baiters operate in the comfort of talkback radio studios (Michael Laws, Leighton Smith, Paul Holmes) and university offices (David Round, Michael Bassett, Dov Bing); not a red neck among them.
Your use of this term is unreflective—and unfair on working people.
No, he’s using the word in blissful ignorance. The term was originally, and remains, a sniffy and elitist term of contempt for poor white southerners. As I pointed out, the worst, most vicious racists and bigots are comfortably off, well-remunerated talkback hosts and academics. It is also imprecise; some of the worst, most disgraceful bigots—both here and overseas—are Indian, Maori and Chinese.
“Bomber, please stop using the term “redneck” when you really mean “bigot”. Some of the hardest-working, most serious and socially concerned people I know are rednecks—i.e., farmers, truck drivers, road-workers and manual workers of all kinds. ”
I’m in two minds about this. I understand a bit of the history of the word and so take your point. But I wouldn’t call evey NZ farmer, truckdriver, roadworker etc a redneck, and most of the people I know that do those things aren’t rednecks in the way that Bomber uses the term either. What is your definition of redneck in a NZ context? When would you use the word? The way you’ve used it here is too generic.
But I wouldn’t call every NZ farmer, truckdriver, roadworker etc a redneck…
Fair enough—it’s really an American term. Working people in the States cheerfully call themselves rednecks—it’s only a term of abuse when the (ignorant) elites use it.
…and most of the people I know that do those things aren’t rednecks in the way that Bomber uses the term either.
No, but Bomber should not be using the word as a term of opprobrium. I know Hone Harawira often flings it around, too—he has obviously given it no more thought than Bomber.
What is your definition of redneck in a NZ context? When would you use the word? The way you’ve used it here is too generic.
I don’t think it should ever be used as a term of abuse. Rednecks—i.e., working men—are the very people who the left should be allying with against this rotten government; instead, the likes of Hone and Bomber are invoking them as a term of abuse.
The all-purpose word for a boor like Garth McVicar, a canting hypocrite like Stephen Franks and a ranting racist like Paul Holmes is not “redneck” but a far more accurate word: bigot.
I think the problem is we don’t have a non-perjorative use of ‘redneck’ here, so it’s too easy for people to fling around. I agree bigot is a better word to use though. It’s less divisive and much more accurate for what they’re talking about.
I think the problem is we don’t have a non-perjorative use of ‘redneck’ here, so it’s too easy for people to fling around.
It’s not a pejorative word unless used with contempt and ignorance, as Bomber Bradbury and Hone Harawira unwittingly do.
I agree bigot is a better word to use though. It’s less divisive and much more accurate for what they’re talking about.
Other appropriate words for the likes of Holmes, Franks, McVicar, Leighton Smith, Murray Deaker, David Round, etc. might be: chauvinist, dogmatist, extremist, hypocrite, racist. But they do not deserve the label “redneck”—my uncle was a “redneck”; he read books, was unfailingly polite to all kinds of people, worked hard on his farm all his life—and he despised bigots and racists.
Has your comment turned up on Tumeke?
No it hasn’t. I definitely sent it, and I can’t imagine that Bomber has censored it. Maybe something went wrong.
The United Mine Workers of America (UMW) and rival miners’ unions appropriated both the term redneck and its literal manifestation, the red bandana, in order to build multiracial unions of white, black, and immigrant miners in the strike-ridden coalfields of northern and central Appalachia between 1912 and 1936.
Language evolves over time. He may not be using ‘redneck’ in it’s original definition, but he’s using it with the commonly accepted definition.
Sorry, Lanthanide, I am really unimpressed by the “language changes” argument. You talk about the “commonly accepted” definition, but who knows what that is? (It’s not a commonly used term) Granted, here in NZ we now ‘speak American’ as some guy rather smugly and hostilely predicted we would, in the Listener in 1984.(I remember his saying “Only the elderly and the Brits will object). I put my hand up to being one-half of each of those things, and it’s all rather rough on those of who don’t and would frankly rather die than speak American. The change has not wholly taken place yet.
It’s not the term “redneck” that I find problematic—it’s the use of it as a term of abuse. I note that that groveling, sniveling little creep Kevin Rudd used the word to denigrate Texans in his cringe-inducing contre-temps with Robin Williams a few months ago.
Over the weekend the NZ and Australian Police conducted their fourth operation under the banner of Operation Unite supposedly ‘A police blitz on drunken violence’
A campaign against alcohol abuse and how it manifests during a typical weekend in NZ is on the surface not something that a reasonable person would complain about or comment on except to praise. The coordinated international approach adopted by our police force however is quite a different beast.
In 2007 the Australian and New Zealand Police Ministers and Commissioners formed ANZPAA – the Australia New Zealand Policing Advisory Agency http://www.anzpaa.org.au/
Its stated goal of achieving in Australian and New Zealand Policing excellence is once again a very reasonable sounding proposition- on the surface.
Collaboration between NZ and Aussie in certain areas of Policing such as forensic and investigative techniques would seem to achieve some of the efficiencies, or effective use of resource that the ANZAA points to as a rationale for its existence.
Why be worried? Because it doesn’t stop there.
After the recent Canterbury earthquake Australian police officers were deployed in Christchurch. The presence of foreign Police operating inside another Country, even under supervision, is a very rare sight indeed – something only usually seen when a country is occupied by a foreign power or a peacekeeping force. The government pointed to the earthquake and invoked the ‘extraordinary circumstance’ clause – but at this point I will be quite clear – It is NOT normal for foreign Police to patrolling in another country.
It seems that not everyone agrees that this should remain so – despite that fact that citizens have a fundamental right to be policed by their own countrymen.
The Rugby World Cup will likely be the next instalment of ‘Introducing World Police – Phase one – A/NZ amalgamation’ – the unstated goal – to get us to accept being policed by an international or multinational force.
Despite the clear and rational focus on harm reduction and equally appropriate suggestions that would help us to avoid pointlessly criminalising people our Government is poised to reject these suggestions. Why? Not because the suggestions are inappropriate – these suggestions will be rejected because if adopted we would be not be ‘in alignment’ with Australia and the US.
The ‘Operation Unite’ initiative began in the United States – a country where almost 10% of the population are in prison. In fact, the business (and it is a business because they are privately run) is such a large part of their economy that if the US was to go back to the imprisonment rates that it had in the 70’s close to a million people who work at the these prison franchises would lose their jobs and the economy as a whole would take a significant hit.
This is utterly shameful. The intrusion of the profit motive into the provision of prisons opens up a Pandora’s box of conflicting interests and give rise to situations such as have occurred in the US where a Judge was caught taking bribes from a prison operator in return for handing down longer sentences.
Operation unite, in NZ/Australia and the US, is anti-drug and focussed on increased enforcement – or as they term it here ‘stronger policing’. This ideological preference for punitive measures and enforcement over education and harm reduction is not an accident – in any country where there is profit to be made from prisons there is a motive for putting people there.
This is about sovereignty – New Zealand should be heeding the advice of its own experts and developing an approach that actually works rather that following the flawed, unjust and essentially immoral approach of the US.
Correction: the actual percentage of people in prison, when taken across the population as a whole is around 3 percent. However one in nine black males between the ages of 20 and 30 are imprisoned in the US.
Nationals recent announcement calling ‘prisons a moral and fiscal failure’ and asserting that no new prisons will be built cannot be viewed as a turnaround in their stance on law and order. The grouping of fiscal considerations with the corrections dept is no accident – the privatization of prisons is still firmly on the agenda – now to be rationalized as a cost saving measure.
Be prepared for a roll out of the double bunking and other such ill advised measures which will enable the private operators to make a tidy profit by sacrificing any attempt at education and real reform.
I think he just wondered if that was what she was up to. Whatever it might be.
Without naming the place, b/c for all I know they have dropped the policy, but when bookie jr was at that age there was a cafe in central wellington that said mothers were welcome to breast-feed their children, but that there was a corkage fee of 2$. True story.
I thought corkage was supposed to recompense staff from the arduous tax of taking the cork out of the bottle (what about screw-caps?) and providing the glassware and table service. And also a token gratuity because you probably won’t be buying as much, or any, alcohol from them.
Maybe corkage might apply to breastfeeding if the wait staff came and manually pumped it out of you and put it into a bottle so it didn’t spill or something?
Yes he did. And neither Brian Edwards nor Michele Boag picked him up on it. In fact, Boag scoffed at the idea that women needed to organise themselves into a pro-breastfeeding organisation.
On Friday’s programme, another complacent and self-satisfied ideologue, Deborah Hill Cone, indignantly challenged the idea that people might be struggling to get by in this country. “Struggle is a very relative term,” she lectured. “If you compare us to the 1930s we’re a LOT better off!” A dubious Jim Mora said thoughtfully: “Mmmmmmmmm….but…mmmmmm.”
A few minutes later, Hill Cone was equally impatient with the do-gooder notion that poor people get very sick because they cannot afford to get their teeth fixed: “But DO people die with bad teeth? I’d like to see FIRM FIGURES on that.”
When Joky Hen admitted in his flippant and endearing way that he had had the snip, what did he really mean by the statement quote… ‘All I can say is it’s been highly successful, but we won’t get into that either.’ …unquote. ?
It seems that there was probably a bit more of a story there, and having quipped he then wished he hadn’t. Many a slip twixt cup and the lip perhaps. What a shame the Hardtalk host couldn’t have followed that up for us.
I wonder if it was this kind of privatisation by stealth that John Key was interested in speaking to David Cameron about at their recent meeting? Sounds like he should have had a chat with Tony Blair instead (maybe he did?).
Not that I think that the health system is the primary target – at the moment.
That’s the road that National tried in the 1990s – it failed then but I wouldn’t be surprised if they tried again. They’re always after more ways to channel our wealth to themselves and their rich mates.
It is all very well cutting the backrooms of public agencies but it may compromise the frontlines. One of the frustrations of the Productivity Commission’s 2017 review of universities is that while it observed that their non-academic staff were increasing faster than their academic staff, it did not bother to ...
Buzz from the Beehive Two speeches delivered by Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters at Anzac Day ceremonies in Turkey are the only new posts on the government’s official website since the PM announced his Cabinet shake-up. In one of the speeches, Peters stated the obvious: we live in a troubled ...
1. Which of these would you not expect to read in The Waikato Invader?a. Luxon is here to do business, don’t you worry about thatb. Mr KPI expects results, and you better believe itc. This decisive man of action is getting me all hot and excitedd. Melissa Lee is how ...
…it has a restricted jurisdiction which must not be abused: it is not an inquisitionNOTE – this article was published before the High Court ruled that Karen Chhour does not have to appear before the Waitangi Tribunal Gary Judd writes – The High Court ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – One of reasons Oranga Tamariki exists is to prevent child neglect. But could the organisation itself be guilty of the same?Oranga Tamariki’s statistics show a decrease in the number and age of children in care. “There are less children ...
David Farrar writes: Graeme Edgeler wrote in 2017: In the first five years after three strikes came into effect 5248 offenders received a ‘first strike’ (that is, a “stage-1 conviction” under the three strikes sentencing regime), and 68 offenders received a ‘second strike’. In the five years prior to ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in politics. That’s refreshing and will be extremely ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the two days to 6:06am on Thursday, April 25:Politics: PM Christopher Luxon has set up a dual standard for ministerial competence by demoting two National Cabinet ministers while leaving also-struggling ...
Hi,Today I mainly want to share some of your thoughts about the recent piece I wrote about success and failure, and the forces that seemingly guide our lives. But first, a quick bit of housekeeping: I am doing a Webworm popup in Los Angeles on Saturday May 11 at 2pm. ...
It is hard to see what Melissa Lee might have done to “save” the media. National went into the election with no public media policy and appears not to have developed one subsequently. Lee claimed that she had prepared a policy paper before the election but it had been decided ...
Open access notablesIce acceleration and rotation in the Greenland Ice Sheet interior in recent decades, Løkkegaard et al., Communications Earth & Environment:In the past two decades, mass loss from the Greenland ice sheet has accelerated, partly due to the speedup of glaciers. However, uncertainty in speed derived from satellite products ...
Buzz from the Beehive A statement from Children’s Minister Karen Chhour – yet to be posted on the Government’s official website – arrived in Point of Order’s email in-tray last night. It welcomes the High Court ruling on whether the Waitangi Tribunal can demand she appear before it. It does ...
Mr Bombastic:Ironically, the media the academic experts wanted is, in many ways, the media they got. In place of the tyrannical editors of yesteryear, advancing without fear or favour the interests of the ruling class; the New Zealand news media of today boasts a troop of enlightened journalists dedicated to ...
It's hard times try to make a livingYou wake up every morning in the unforgivingOut there somewhere in the cityThere's people living lives without mercy or pityI feel good, yeah I'm feeling fineI feel better then I have for the longest timeI think these pills have been good for meI ...
In 1974, the US Supreme Court issued its decision in United States v. Nixon, finding that the President was not a King, but was subject to the law and was required to turn over the evidence of his wrongdoing to the courts. It was a landmark decision for the rule ...
Every day now just seems to bring in more fresh meat for the grinder.In their relentlessly ideological drive to cut back on the “excessive bloat” (as they see it) of the previous Labour-led government, on the mountains of evidence accumulated in such a short period of time do not ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Megan Valére SosouMarket gardening site of the Itchèléré de Itagui agricultural cooperative in Dassa-Zoumè (Image credit: Megan Valère Sossou) For the residents of Dassa-Zoumè, a city in the West African country of Benin, choosing between drinking water and having enough ...
Buzz from the Beehive Melissa Lee – as may be discerned from the screenshot above – has not been demoted for doing something seriously wrong as Minister of ...
Morning in London Mother hugs beloved daughter outside the converted shoe factory in which she is living.Afternoon in London Travelling writer takes himself and his wrist down to A&E, just to be sure. Read more ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – The recent announcement of the University Advisory Group, chaired by Sir Peter Gluckman, makes very clear where the Government’s focus and priorities lie. The remit of the Advisory Group is that Group members will consider challenges and opportunities for improvement in the university sector including: ...
Eric Crampton writes – The Reserve Bank of New Zealand desperately wants to find reasons to have workstreams in climate change. It makes little sense. They’ve run another stress test on the banks looking to see if they could find a prudential regulation case. They couldn’t. They ...
Rob MacCullough writes – Pundits from the left and the right are arguing that National’s Fast Track Bill that is designed to speed up infrastructure decisions could end up becoming mired in a cesspool of corruption. Political commentator ...
Looking at the headlines this morning it’s hard to feel anything other than pessimistic about the future of humanity.Note that I’m not speaking about the future of mankind, but the survival of our humanity. The values that we believe in seem to be ebbing away, by the day.Perhaps every generation ...
Swabbing mixed breed baby chicks to test for avian influenzaUh oh. Bird flu – often deadly to humans – is not only being transmitted from infected birds to dairy cows, but is now travelling between dairy cows. As of last Friday, Bloomberg News reports, there were 32 American dairy herds ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
What is it with the mining industry? Its not enough for them to pillage the earth - they apparently can't even be bothered getting resource consent to do so: The proponent behind a major mine near the Clutha River had already been undertaking activity in the area without a ...
Photo # 1 I am a huge fan of Singapore’s approach to housing, as described here two years ago by copying and pasting from The ConversationWhat Singapore has that Australia does not is a public housing developer, the Housing Development Board, which puts new dwellings on public and reclaimed land, ...
Buzz from the Beehive Reactions to news of the government’s readiness to make urgent changes to “the resource management system” through a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) suggest a balanced approach is being taken. The Taxpayers’ Union says the proposed changes don’t go far enough. Greenpeace says ...
I’m starting to wonder if Anna Burns-Francis might be the best political interviewer we’ve got. That might sound unlikely to you, it came as a bit of a surprise to me.Jack Tame can be excellent, but has some pretty average days. I like Rebecca Wright on Newshub, she asks good ...
Chris Trotter writes – Willie Jackson is said to be planning a “media summit” to discuss “the state of the media and how to protect Fourth Estate Journalism”. Not only does the Editor of The Daily Blog, Martyn Bradbury, think this is a good idea, but he has also ...
Graeme Edgeler writes – This morning [April 21], the Wellington High Court is hearing a judicial review brought by Hon. Karen Chhour, the Minister for Children, against a decision of the Waitangi Tribunal. This is unusual, judicial reviews are much more likely to brought against ministers, rather than ...
Both of Parliament’s watchdogs have now ripped into the Government’s Fast-track Approvals Bill. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMy pick of the six newsey things to know from Aotearoa’s political economy and beyond on the morning of Tuesday, April 23 are:The Lead: The Auditor General,John Ryan, has joined the ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Sarah SpengemanPeople wait to board an electric bus in Pune, India. (Image credit: courtesy of ITDP) Public transportation riders in Pune, India, love the city’s new electric buses so much they will actually skip an older diesel bus that ...
The infrastructure industry yesterday issued a “hurry up” message to the Government, telling it to get cracking on developing a pipeline of infrastructure projects.The hiatus around the change of Government has seen some major projects cancelled and others delayed, and there is uncertainty about what will happen with the new ...
Hi,Over the weekend I revisited a podcast I really adore, Dead Eyes. It’s about a guy who got fired from Band of Brothers over two decades ago because Tom Hanks said he had “dead eyes”.If you don’t recall — 2001’s Band of Brothers was part of the emerging trend of ...
Buzz from the Beehive The 180 or so recipients of letters from the Government telling them how to submit infrastructure projects for “fast track” consideration includes some whose project applications previously have been rejected by the courts. News media were quick to feature these in their reports after RMA Reform Minister Chris ...
It would not be a desirable way to start your holiday by breaking your back, your head, or your wrist, but on our first hour in Singapore I gave it a try.We were chatting, last week, before we started a meeting of Hazel’s Enviro Trust, about the things that can ...
Calling all journalists, academics, planners, lawyers, political activists, environmentalists, and other members of the public who believe that the relationships between vested interests and politicians need to be scrutinised. We need to work together to make sure that the new Fast-Track Approvals Bill – currently being pushed through by the ...
Feel worried. Shane Jones and a couple of his Cabinet colleagues are about to be granted the power to override any and all objections to projects like dams, mines, roads etc even if: said projects will harm biodiversity, increase global warming and cause other environmental harms, and even if ...
Bryce Edwards writes- The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. ...
Michael Bassett writes – If you think there is a move afoot by the radical Maori fringe of New Zealand society to create a parallel system of government to the one that we elect at our triennial elections, you aren’t wrong. Over the last few days we have ...
Without a corresponding drop in interest rates, it’s doubtful any changes to the CCCFA will unleash a massive rush of home buyers. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: The six things that stood out to me in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate on Monday, April 22 included:The Government making a ...
Sunday was a lazy day. I started watching Jack Tame on Q&A, the interviews are usually good for something to write about. Saying the things that the politicians won’t, but are quite possibly thinking. Things that are true and need to be extracted from between the lines.As you might know ...
In our Weekly Roundup last week we covered news from Auckland Transport that the WX1 Western Express is going to get an upgrade next year with double decker electric buses. As part of the announcement, AT also said “Since we introduced the WX1 Western Express last November we have seen ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 29 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Stats NZ releases its statutory report on Census 2023 tomorrow.Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivers a pre-Budget speech at ...
A listing of 29 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 14, 2024 thru Sat, April 20, 2024. Story of the week Our story of the week hinges on these words from the abstract of a fresh academic ...
The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. The Government says this will ...
This is a column to say thank you. So many of have been in touch since Mum died to say so many kind and thoughtful things. You’re wonderful, all of you. You’ve asked how we’re doing, how Dad’s doing. A little more realisation each day, of the irretrievable finality of ...
Identifying the engine type in your car is crucial for various reasons, including maintenance, repairs, and performance upgrades. Knowing the specific engine model allows you to access detailed technical information, locate compatible parts, and make informed decisions about modifications. This comprehensive guide will provide you with a step-by-step approach to ...
Introduction: The allure of racing is undeniable. The thrill of speed, the roar of engines, and the exhilaration of competition all contribute to the allure of this adrenaline-driven sport. For those who yearn to experience the pinnacle of racing, becoming a race car driver is the ultimate dream. However, the ...
Introduction Automobiles have become ubiquitous in modern society, serving as a primary mode of transportation and a symbol of economic growth and personal mobility. With countless vehicles traversing roads and highways worldwide, it begs the question: how many cars are there in the world? Determining the precise number is a ...
Maintaining a safe and reliable vehicle requires regular inspections. Whether it’s a routine maintenance checkup or a safety inspection, knowing how long the process will take can help you plan your day accordingly. This article delves into the factors that influence the duration of a car inspection and provides an ...
Mazda Motor Corporation, commonly known as Mazda, is a Japanese multinational automaker headquartered in Fuchu, Aki District, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. The company was founded in 1920 as the Toyo Cork Kogyo Co., Ltd., and began producing vehicles in 1931. Mazda is primarily known for its production of passenger cars, but ...
Your car battery is an essential component that provides power to start your engine, operate your electrical systems, and store energy. Over time, batteries can weaken and lose their ability to hold a charge, which can lead to starting problems, power failures, and other issues. Replacing your battery before it ...
In most states, you cannot register a car without a valid driver’s license. However, there are a few exceptions to this rule. Exceptions to the RuleIf you are under 18 years old: In some states, you can register a car in your name even if you do not ...
Mazda, a Japanese automotive manufacturer with a rich history of innovation and engineering excellence, has emerged as a formidable player in the global car market. Known for its reputation of producing high-quality, fuel-efficient, and driver-oriented vehicles, Mazda has consistently garnered praise from industry experts and consumers alike. In this article, ...
Struts are an essential part of a car’s suspension system. They are responsible for supporting the weight of the car and damping the oscillations of the springs. Struts are typically made of steel or aluminum and are filled with hydraulic fluid. How Do Struts Work? Struts work by transferring the ...
Car registration is a mandatory process that all vehicle owners must complete annually. This process involves registering your car with the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and paying an associated fee. The registration process ensures that your vehicle is properly licensed and insured, and helps law enforcement and other authorities ...
Zoom is a video conferencing service that allows you to share your screen, webcam, and audio with other participants. In addition to sharing your own audio, you can also share the audio from your computer with other participants. This can be useful for playing music, sharing presentations with audio, or ...
Building your own computer can be a rewarding and cost-effective way to get a high-performance machine tailored to your specific needs. However, it also requires careful planning and execution, and one of the most important factors to consider is the time it will take. The exact time it takes to ...
Sleep mode is a power-saving state that allows your computer to quickly resume operation without having to boot up from scratch. This can be useful if you need to step away from your computer for a short period of time but don’t want to shut it down completely. There are ...
Introduction Computer-Assisted Translation (CAT) has revolutionized the field of translation by harnessing the power of technology to assist human translators in their work. This innovative approach combines specialized software with human expertise to improve the efficiency, accuracy, and consistency of translations. In this comprehensive article, we will delve into the ...
In today’s digital age, mobile devices have become an indispensable part of our daily lives. Among the vast array of portable computing options available, iPads and tablet computers stand out as two prominent contenders. While both offer similar functionalities, there are subtle yet significant differences between these two devices. This ...
A computer is an electronic device that can be programmed to carry out a set of instructions. The basic components of a computer are the processor, memory, storage, input devices, and output devices. The Processor The processor, also known as the central processing unit (CPU), is the brain of the ...
Voice Memos is a convenient app on your iPhone that allows you to quickly record and store audio snippets. These recordings can be useful for a variety of purposes, such as taking notes, capturing ideas, or recording interviews. While you can listen to your voice memos on your iPhone, you ...
Laptop screens are essential for interacting with our devices and accessing information. However, when lines appear on the screen, it can be frustrating and disrupt productivity. Understanding the underlying causes of these lines is crucial for finding effective solutions. Types of Screen Lines Horizontal lines: Also known as scan ...
Right-clicking is a common and essential computer operation that allows users to access additional options and settings. While most desktop computers have dedicated right-click buttons on their mice, laptops often do not have these buttons due to space limitations. This article will provide a comprehensive guide on how to right-click ...
Powering up and shutting down your ASUS laptop is an essential task for any laptop user. Locating the power button can sometimes be a hassle, especially if you’re new to ASUS laptops. This article will provide a comprehensive guide on where to find the power button on different ASUS laptop ...
Dell laptops are renowned for their reliability, performance, and versatility. Whether you’re a student, a professional, or just someone who needs a reliable computing device, a Dell laptop can meet your needs. However, if you’re new to Dell laptops, you may be wondering how to get started. In this comprehensive ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
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The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
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TEPCO finally admits that the No 1 reactor melted down a mere 16 hours after the Earthguake. It also admitted that since reactor no 2 and 3 (the one with the MOX fuel) have similar damage they also may have melted down.
Pre-empting Rare earth man’s tsk,tsking for doubting the official lies the following: when asked TESCO stated that they could not have known that this was the case until they went into the reactor a couple of days ago.
Hiroaki Koide, professor of nuclear safety engineering at Kyoto University, was critical of TEPCO.
It is a well known fact that a nuclear reactor goes into meltdown within 90 minutes if it is not cooled.
So what we have is three reactors in melt down freely releasing their nuclear destruction into the Pacific ocean and the air. They have done so for the last two months and will do so until a way has been found to stop them from doing so. This will take at least 6-9 months. The reactors are much bigger and older (i.e. more radioactive) than Chernobyl.
All information about the amounts of the dispersion of radioactive particles into the atmosphere is unavailable to the general public but rest assured we will find out in a couple of years through cancer and extinction of sea life in the areas around the reactors.
Japan has announced to expand the uninhabitable areas around the reactors.
The lesson is simple (like any more such lessons should be needed..)..
Do not trust authority.
I thought the lesson was: there is always a big enough disaster to make nuclear energy a grossly stupid idea (aka there’s no such thing as safe nuclear power).
There is safe nuclear power, it just requires much more technological nous than was used in the 60’s through 80’s in designing and installing power plants. Safe nuclear power may also not be economically feasible, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t possible.
Saying there is safe nuclear power is like saying we can build earthquake proof buildings. It’s a semantics that works for those who think the risk is acceptable but doesn’t work for those that don’t.
Well weka it seems we can build earthquake proof buildings. Not one new (current building code) high-rise building in Christchurch’s world record breaking shake collapsed or caused death. All stayed upright as intended and everyone got out. The fact of damage was always expected and known to be a big clean-up job afterwards.
Quite why the idea that we can’t build such buildings is out there I am not sure. The reality is that we can and have. It has been proved.
Depends on what you mean by quake-proof, too.
We do build quake-proof multi-storey buildings, but they are quake proof in the sense that they have a design philosophy of preserving life. Is it good enough to just preserve human life if it results in an unserviceable building, which results in a long recovery period? Or should we insist on buildings that do not kill people and continue to fully function after an earthquake?
Perhaps this is too engineering-nerd a subject for The Standard.
Fuck, just set to replty and another fucking doozy shake sets the nerves afire again. Tell ya, I’m gonna deck one of these quakes someday soon…
Anyways… from my understanding of building engineering it is near impossible to build buildings (current technology) that can withstand such a shake or ten and come out undamaged. The reason is that a completely solid structure will just blow apart under such stress and it is bettr to let the building move and bend with the ground movement.
I explained it like this once (adult rated)… imagine you have a sudden and extreme bout of the shits but your arsehole is concreted up. What’s going to happen? Obviously blow apart in some unseemly fashion. Better to blow it out and clean up the mess afterwards – at least you survive. (apologies for the less than savoury analogy)
Thanks for your analogy, as it happens I’ve just sat down for lunch.
As I understand it, buildings can be designed to withstand enormous shakes and remain serviceable. The idea is to make them light and flexible, whereas the current school of thought is to make them ductile. I was just contemplating whether this needs to be changed, and structural engineers (all of them, in training, practicing and teaching) need to update their philosophy. Designs might need to be assessed based not only on whether they will protect life, but also, if they become unusable, (because the steel in the connections between the columns and beams has yielded), how long will it take to dismantle and replace the building. And what can the building be used for, meanwhile, and what risks does it present until it is demolished, what inconvenience will be caused during the demolition etc.
Perhaps. Christhurch’s newest and tallest building happenned to be a steel frame structure (Pacific Tower) which has got away quite lightly, being lighter and more flexible, compared to the usual construction material of choice, concrete, which is heavy and brittle.
Hang in there vto.
+1. Thoughts are with vto and family
That’s not quake proof, that’s quake resistant. Are you saying those building would withstand a 9.0 quake?
The issue with nuclear power isn’t how ‘safe’ it is. It’s what are the consequences if things go wrong. Like I said, the semantics work one way if you think the risks are worth it*, but they don’t if you think the risks aren’t worth it. Most people who are against nuke power don’t believe the risks are worth it despite the benefits.
*although when used like this the word ‘safe’ implies that disaster can/will never happen. Which is ridiculous. It may be theoretically possible to build a nuclear power generator that is completely and forever safe, but once you bring in human and other real world factors, that idea of absolute safety fails again.
weka, our shake was greater than the japanese one, though the richter measure was lower (6.3 cf 8.9). So our buildings did survive an equivalent 9.0. These are the facts.
Are you sure about that? Had you had a 9.0 (richter) with the kind of geology in Chch and that fault and the way that it moved, would you not have had a much worse earthquake? Or are you saying that the Chch quake was the biggest possible for that area? Why couldn’t a bigger quake be possible?
Sorry you have having more aftershocks though, that’s a real bastard.
I aint entirely 100% positive of course. Iis mother nature. But I do know that the shake Christchurch experienced was the biggest recorded. And the new buildings went through it and out the other side with no loss of life.
and yeah cheers. the aftershocks are bastards for sure.
“But I do know that the shake Christchurch experienced was the biggest recorded. And the new buildings went through it and out the other side with no loss of life.”
That to me says that the buildings are built to the best standards we are willing to pay for and in relationship to the type of quake risk that’s been assesssed. Which is good. But it’s a different thing than saying that those buildings would definitely withstand any and all larger quakes.
This is the point about nuclear power generation. It’s about risk assessment. Using a word like safe obfuscates the downsides. Maybe a better comparison is with safe sex vs safer sex. See the difference?
They can make nuke power generators safer than the ones built decades ago. They can’t make them absolutely safe.
Yes agreed. And “risk” around nuclear power is entirely different than a natural disaster due to the ongoing effects of radiation I would have thought. A start could be made by not letting the likes of Homer Simpson near any such plants…
It wasn’t the earthquake biggest recorded, one aspect of it (peak ground acceleration) was the biggest recorded in New Zealand and one of the greatest in the world.
There are many factors that influence earthquake damage – energy released, PGA, depth, proximity, ground and faultline conditions, layering, proximity to different ground structures:
One explanation I heard was that different layers of the earth separated when initially thrust up, the upper layer came higher so tok longer to drop back down and met the underlayer coming back up on the next wave.
It seems that the Februrary quake was a bit like a “perfect storm” combination of factors in proximity to a city centre.
If the quake was higher on the Richter scale the effects and damage would have been worse. No building can be earthquake proof.
The Japanese reactors were Gen 1 – built in the era of the sliderule. The new gen reactors, are, one presumes, much safer.
Thorium power looks much more promising as the waste is non-toxic, and the reactors can be turned off – they do not go into meltdown
Well that sorts it than. All we have to do is get rid of those reactors build with 60’s through to the 80s technology. Oh oops, no solution for the waste created in that time.
Other than bombing Libya and other assorted countries we want to protect and liberate with it of course.
So Lanth where DO you HIDE the waste ? Weapons grade depleted uranium anyone ? The Iraqis no all about the repercussions of that .
Trust but verify. If you can’t verify then the authority is illegitimate.
If the media does not have an independent authority then the media is also illegitimate.
Unless there is a damn good reason for them to lie, like panic in Toyko.
So what was lost? Was anything going to change, was there some way to
stop the meltdown? No. So any benefit from the lies was saving the
population from causing more harm. Was irradiating them was far less costly
that the alternative???
Nuclear power is too dangerous.
At the risk of threadjacking my own thread now extrapolate that sentiment to the events of 9/11.
If no steel framed buildings ever collapsed before and after the events of 9/11 than how come three steel framed buildings collapsed on that one day as a result of fossil fuel fires, one of which as the result of mere office fires, into their own footprint breaking all three of Newton’s laws of motion.
Who do you believe? Your government or your lying eyes?
Option A: DNFTT
Option B: Here we go, again…..
DNFTT? Do not fall to this? Do not feed this T? Darn no foot turn tipsy?
Do not feed this thread? yeah that could be it.
Laws of physics don’t lie AC. They can not be broken. Your turn.
At this stage I’m picking Option A, ev.
How is that trolling?
Oh, thanks Weka. It means do not feed this troll. Duh. LOL.
Yeah AC? How is my post trolling? All I do is point out an inconsistency in the official story which purports that 19 young men can defeat the entire military might, can’t fly but still manage to fly three planes into the most protected buildings in the universe and are able to break all Newton’s laws in the process.
Fukushima was an exercise in covering up the most blatant lies and all I do is ask VTO to extrapolate his new found cynicism to the events of 9/11.
OK, it was unfair of me to call you a troll, ev. I just couldn’t be arsed searching for your last major attempt (on The Standard) at convincing the masses that you are right. But I’ve done it now – the link is here.
For anyone who doesn’t know what to expect when engaging ev on this subject, have a read of the Open Mike of 9 November 2010. And expect the same again if you choose Option B.
The internet, and this blog, is full of people trying to convince everyone else they are right 😉
Oh, feel free to point them to my blog AC. Just because you don’t have the mental acumen to actually read up on science doesn’t mean that others don’t either.
1. Thanks for the invitation ev. In the past I’ve considered commenting on your blog and I’ve always decided against it. Nothing you have done subsequently has made me reconsider my decision.
2. I’ve read or viewed most of the links you’ve provided and concluded that, in general, they are not credible. If that leads you to conclude I lack mental acumen, so be it. You seem to be quite fixed in your opinions, and I won’t go out of my way to try to change your mind.
“Pre-empting Rare earth man’s tsk,tsking for doubting the official lies the following”
It’s not you “doubting the official lies”, it’s you deliberately mis-contrueing what their communications said. I’ll put it simply for you: Tepco absolutely knew for 100% certain that event X had happened because they detected it with their instruments, and were fairly sure (as were all external experts) that because X had happened, it means that event Y almost certainly also happened. They put out press releases saying X happened. Then later once they had definitive proof of event Y happening, they put out press releases saying Y has happened. At no point have they actually denied that Y happened. Upon publishing of the later press releases, you accuse them of deliberately lying for initially saying only X had happened and that Y definitely did not happen – they never did any such thing. It is simply not “lying” by any definition of the word.
You’re allowed to be as sceptical as you want about tepco and their communications strategy, but accusing them of ‘lying’ is just grossly wrong.
“It is a well known fact that a nuclear reactor goes into meltdown within 90 minutes if it is not cooled.”
And yet it took 16 hours, funny that.
“So what we have is three reactors in melt down freely releasing their nuclear destruction into the Pacific ocean and the air.”
“freely releasing” nuclear destruction into the air is what Chernobyl did. Fukushima is a significantly different failure mode.
Fukushima Cover-Up
While independent experts have been saying for ages now that there is evidence of nuclear meltdowns at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, the confirmation by Japanese officials has until very recently been missing from the official story. This information has seen no coverage from mainstream media, who’ve largely forgotten the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant.
I don’t see anything objectionable in that post, except this:
“After levels of radiation had been measured as high as 700 millisieverts* per hour last week”
“*Exposure to this level of radiation will cause death. According to the NIH radiation levels of 4 sieverts per hour will cause fatality in 50% of people and at 6 sieverts per hour death is almost certain. 100 sieverts per hour is far above the 100% lethal dosage amount of 6 sieverts per hour.”
You do know the difference between a millisievert and a sievert, right? Everything is fine until the final sentence, which says “100 sieverts per hour is far above the 100% lethal dosage amount of 6 sieverst per hour”. Sure, it is, but they haven’t found 100 sieverts/hour anywhere, so this statement is completely irrelevant. It’s like saying: “water boils at 100 degrees, and the melting point of tungsten at 2770 degrees is far above the boiling point of water” – factually true, but irrelevant to the case at hand.
I suspect you simply made a mistake here and confused millisieverts for sieverts. But if you’re going to specifically include a footnote about something like this, you really need to get it correct.
No L,
It did not take 16 hours. the power went down after the Tsunami not the earthquake for starters and as far as I am concerned TEPCO can not even be relied upon to get the 16 hours straight.
The issue is not if and when the meltdown occurred. The issue is that TESCO which was running these horrors could have reasonably known that since the reactors were not cooled meltdown was unavoidable.
No power= meltdown.
Meltdowns prevents cold shut down. Since they have not been able one way or another to do a cold shut down since the 11th of March we are looking at a meltdown which has been allowed (Since there simply is no solution for it) to emit huge amounts of radioactive material to spread through our oceans and atmosphere.
It isn’t rocket science.
Since TESPCO as the owner of these monstrosities has denied these events since the beginning until it could no longer be denied it is reasonable to assume they either lied or are so incompetent they should not be allowed to go near a reactor let alone own them.
As TEPCO has a history of obfuscation and lying I don’t think that it is unreasonable to assume they did so on this occasion.
Now run along and go play outside with your mates. Oh no, you can’t any more. If it rains you might get contaminated. Well you might still be able here in New Zealand but it is down right hazardous in an 80 miles radius around Fukushima.
For those of you wanting to know about the size of that; think basically the entire centre of the North Island. No more Taupo, Cambridge, Rotorua, king country, te Awamutu and everything in between.
Untouchable for the rest of times and that is just were it begins.
No, it’s not – it’s far more complex.
You are right L,
Fukushima is a different cattle of fish altogether. Chernobyl was a relatively small newish reactor (at the time). Compared with Fukushima, Chernobyl was a walk in the park.
So basically the Fukushima incident resulted in a release of a huge amount of radioactive material into the environment because there was a meltdown and meltdowns always mean that radioactive material will be released environment? And we don’t know about this because Tepco/the Japanese government/whoever are controlling the release of information from all the detectors of radiation in the whole world in a giant conspiracy (just like 9/11 I guess)? Even though radiation is relatively easy to detect and there are numerous detectors worldwide? And this poses a huge risk to the whole world (not just the immediately surrounding area where the material would be most concentrated) because we are all going to get cancer, after all its not as if the release of radioactive material across a huge area such as the Pacific ocean/the whole world would have resulted in the radioactive material being diluted at all?
Why has there not been more comment about the gross invasion of privacy, to suit commercial interests, involved in the credit reporting changes.
Do not make the mistake of thinking it is about responsible lending. It will have adverse effects on any one who has had a period of illness or hard luck.
In a nutshell:
National (and ACT) want to TEAR THINGS DOWN.
Labour (and the Greens) want to BUILD THINGS UP.
What do you want, NZ?
Right – Keep profits flowing offshore to maintain power in base support/contributors.
Left – Counter Right in opposition but do little to stand up (in the way) of big offshoring of profits.
Greens – Grow up already, never be a debtor be, planet, credit cards, mortgage
(unless absolutely necessary when you are impelled to pay back and rewarded for
it in a timely fashion).
For some astounding reason the government of NZ believes that kiwis who
spent spent spent, and now are paying paying paying, and see prices hiking
on food and oil for the foreseeable future, will rush back to open their wallets
and invest in housing or buying crap again. They are living on the whiff of
of a empty barrel of petroleum.
Any bounce in the economy will be short lived, the population was bullish
when oil was cheap and credit easy to come by, now its bearish. Until
NZ changes its tax gearing to support the retention of capital in NZ,
by valuing capital gains by taxing it, we are going to continue to work
very hard making profits, and pushing those who take the risk into
debt. A NZ farm on average is carrying 2.8 million in debt.
Brash lied, worse he distracted the debate, targeting public debt in the
future rather than the real present private debt the credit agencies are
so concerned about. Until we have honest politicians who can hold
themselves from telling lies to muding the debate we with continue to
have an economy that gets worse. And that’s the surprise people, why
the credit agencies haven’t yet figured that out. That shit debate in
the public political forums led by shit politicians who openly distort the
debate means shit policy and more dithering and ineptitude.
Everyone who will vote Brash ACT knows nothing about the economy,
or politics, or how to make a dollar that they can retain legitimately,
retards.
‘millsy’ that sort of insightful, highly intelligent ‘comment’ sums up why the Left remains where it is in the polls. Suggest turning some of the opposition anger that is written here into some internal change and growth. Many voters currently see it the other way around.
The Horizon poll suggests the left is only a couple of points behind the right, Chris, and closing fast. It’ll be interesting if Thursday’s Roy Morgan poll confirms the trend, because the budget isn’t going to win the Government any friends and once the slide starts, it’s hard to stop.
Lets hope you are correct Voice. That is the ‘closing of the gaps’ we really want to see!
Chris, you seem unable to recognise a sound bite (aka Millsys nutshell) today. Your sarcasm has prompted me to make any of my posts today in the style of ‘Spud’ on Red Alert.
• Natzional/ACT working for the clampdown-bastards
• Go Labour Green Te Mana!
Another excellent Julian interview on Native Affairs last night, Maori TV. This time with Tariana Turia. She tried hard to be upbeat but her words sounded sort of hollow. A bit evasive about funding and success of MP. Wish I could figure out the replay.
Doesn’t look like it’s up on their site yet. All the video is from last week.
I have emailed MTV to ask how to access. The numbering underneath each item doesn’t make sense to me.
Let us know what you find out. The numbering didn’t make sense to me either, but their latest video is speculating on when Hone Harawira might resign, so it’s from last Monday presumably.
It seems to take at least a week for them to get it up.
Yes Macca, interesting bit was the “wait till the public see how much money has been won by the MP, they’ll be amazed” – type statement from Turia. Confirms the suspicion of truckloads of blankets and beads under the radar over the past two years – and even more interesting will be to see where it’s ended up.
The chickens of contradiction are coming home to roost: Turia forced to claim credit for “Maori gains under National” and Brash poised to scream “special privilege” the second she does.
Too little too late for the MP, and thursday’s poll will tell us whether NZ is still susceptible to the Right’s race-baiting poison. Anything but a major boost for ACT indicates another premature hatemongering ejaculation and doom for the nasties. Another rancid Epsom rort may not be an option for Mr Nice.
Also of extreme pertinence was Turia’s repeated “whichever main party leads govt” indication of a willingness to ditch NAT: on top of the Horizon poll, wee Johnny suddenly looks very cold and lonely.
Bomber Bradbury’s ignorance about the word “Redneck”
The normally excellent Bomber Bradbury wrote a piece on his Tumeke! blog yesterday, about the campaign against Hone Harawira. Foolishly, however, he chose to entitle it The redneck hate of Hone and the Auckland Uni protest, which implies it’s hard-working Pakeha farmers, truck-drivers and road workers who are spouting all the racist bilge in the media.
Bradbury uses the term “redneck” repeatedly throughout the article. So he describes racist engineering students in the 1970s as “predominately white provincial and rednecked”, and now, at Auckland University in 2011, Hone is “once again…facing off against rednecks”.
I posted a response on the Tumeke! blogsite, but so far, Bradbury has not deigned to publish it. In case he doesn’t publish it, here is what I wrote:
Bomber, please stop using the term “redneck” when you really mean “bigot”. Some of the hardest-working, most serious and socially concerned people I know are rednecks—i.e., farmers, truck drivers, road-workers and manual workers of all kinds.
“Redneck” is an American term of condescension and abuse used by eastern establishment “liberals” in the 1960s to sneer at white working people in the southern states.
In our country, the most extreme bigots and race-baiters operate in the comfort of talkback radio studios (Michael Laws, Leighton Smith, Paul Holmes) and university offices (David Round, Michael Bassett, Dov Bing); not a red neck among them.
Your use of this term is unreflective—and unfair on working people.
Yours sincerely, Morrissey Breen (Northcote Point)
——————————————-
Read the original piece by Bomber Bradbury, complete with its thoughtless elitist stereotyping, HERE….
http://www.tumeke.blogspot.com/
Language evolves over time. He may not be using ‘redneck’ in it’s original definition, but he’s using it with the commonly accepted definition.
No, he’s using the word in blissful ignorance. The term was originally, and remains, a sniffy and elitist term of contempt for poor white southerners. As I pointed out, the worst, most vicious racists and bigots are comfortably off, well-remunerated talkback hosts and academics. It is also imprecise; some of the worst, most disgraceful bigots—both here and overseas—are Indian, Maori and Chinese.
“Bomber, please stop using the term “redneck” when you really mean “bigot”. Some of the hardest-working, most serious and socially concerned people I know are rednecks—i.e., farmers, truck drivers, road-workers and manual workers of all kinds. ”
I’m in two minds about this. I understand a bit of the history of the word and so take your point. But I wouldn’t call evey NZ farmer, truckdriver, roadworker etc a redneck, and most of the people I know that do those things aren’t rednecks in the way that Bomber uses the term either. What is your definition of redneck in a NZ context? When would you use the word? The way you’ve used it here is too generic.
That’s weird that Tumeke doesn’t allow you to link to a specific post. Why is that?
But I wouldn’t call every NZ farmer, truckdriver, roadworker etc a redneck…
Fair enough—it’s really an American term. Working people in the States cheerfully call themselves rednecks—it’s only a term of abuse when the (ignorant) elites use it.
…and most of the people I know that do those things aren’t rednecks in the way that Bomber uses the term either.
No, but Bomber should not be using the word as a term of opprobrium. I know Hone Harawira often flings it around, too—he has obviously given it no more thought than Bomber.
What is your definition of redneck in a NZ context? When would you use the word? The way you’ve used it here is too generic.
I don’t think it should ever be used as a term of abuse. Rednecks—i.e., working men—are the very people who the left should be allying with against this rotten government; instead, the likes of Hone and Bomber are invoking them as a term of abuse.
The all-purpose word for a boor like Garth McVicar, a canting hypocrite like Stephen Franks and a ranting racist like Paul Holmes is not “redneck” but a far more accurate word: bigot.
I think the problem is we don’t have a non-perjorative use of ‘redneck’ here, so it’s too easy for people to fling around. I agree bigot is a better word to use though. It’s less divisive and much more accurate for what they’re talking about.
Has your comment turned up on Tumeke?
I think the problem is we don’t have a non-perjorative use of ‘redneck’ here, so it’s too easy for people to fling around.
It’s not a pejorative word unless used with contempt and ignorance, as Bomber Bradbury and Hone Harawira unwittingly do.
I agree bigot is a better word to use though. It’s less divisive and much more accurate for what they’re talking about.
Other appropriate words for the likes of Holmes, Franks, McVicar, Leighton Smith, Murray Deaker, David Round, etc. might be: chauvinist, dogmatist, extremist, hypocrite, racist. But they do not deserve the label “redneck”—my uncle was a “redneck”; he read books, was unfailingly polite to all kinds of people, worked hard on his farm all his life—and he despised bigots and racists.
Has your comment turned up on Tumeke?
No it hasn’t. I definitely sent it, and I can’t imagine that Bomber has censored it. Maybe something went wrong.
i find the term cracka ass cracka wayyyy more endearing…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redneck#Coal_miners
The United Mine Workers of America (UMW) and rival miners’ unions appropriated both the term redneck and its literal manifestation, the red bandana, in order to build multiracial unions of white, black, and immigrant miners in the strike-ridden coalfields of northern and central Appalachia between 1912 and 1936.
Sorry, Lanthanide, I am really unimpressed by the “language changes” argument. You talk about the “commonly accepted” definition, but who knows what that is? (It’s not a commonly used term) Granted, here in NZ we now ‘speak American’ as some guy rather smugly and hostilely predicted we would, in the Listener in 1984.(I remember his saying “Only the elderly and the Brits will object). I put my hand up to being one-half of each of those things, and it’s all rather rough on those of who don’t and would frankly rather die than speak American. The change has not wholly taken place yet.
Interesting, Morrissey.
As I often point out, using the American term for things, is a mistake – because they’re trendy, doesn’t make them applicable!
It’s not the term “redneck” that I find problematic—it’s the use of it as a term of abuse. I note that that groveling, sniveling little creep Kevin Rudd used the word to denigrate Texans in his cringe-inducing contre-temps with Robin Williams a few months ago.
http://tumeke.blogspot.com/2011/05/dear-don-in-response-to-your-dear-john.html
Trump fires self, hair to go it alone?
The hair has always gone with corporate welfare, never alone.
Operation Unite – Why we should be worried.
Over the weekend the NZ and Australian Police conducted their fourth operation under the banner of Operation Unite supposedly ‘A police blitz on drunken violence’
A campaign against alcohol abuse and how it manifests during a typical weekend in NZ is on the surface not something that a reasonable person would complain about or comment on except to praise. The coordinated international approach adopted by our police force however is quite a different beast.
In 2007 the Australian and New Zealand Police Ministers and Commissioners formed ANZPAA – the Australia New Zealand Policing Advisory Agency http://www.anzpaa.org.au/
Its stated goal of achieving in Australian and New Zealand Policing excellence is once again a very reasonable sounding proposition- on the surface.
Collaboration between NZ and Aussie in certain areas of Policing such as forensic and investigative techniques would seem to achieve some of the efficiencies, or effective use of resource that the ANZAA points to as a rationale for its existence.
Why be worried? Because it doesn’t stop there.
After the recent Canterbury earthquake Australian police officers were deployed in Christchurch. The presence of foreign Police operating inside another Country, even under supervision, is a very rare sight indeed – something only usually seen when a country is occupied by a foreign power or a peacekeeping force. The government pointed to the earthquake and invoked the ‘extraordinary circumstance’ clause – but at this point I will be quite clear – It is NOT normal for foreign Police to patrolling in another country.
It seems that not everyone agrees that this should remain so – despite that fact that citizens have a fundamental right to be policed by their own countrymen.
The Rugby World Cup will likely be the next instalment of ‘Introducing World Police – Phase one – A/NZ amalgamation’ – the unstated goal – to get us to accept being policed by an international or multinational force.
The ANZPAA is promoting an alignment of policy, practice and resource implementation that is already influencing government policy in New Zealand. The recently released Law Commission report recommended a change in approach to drug offences.
http://www.lawcom.govt.nz/project/review-misuse-drugs-act-1975?quicktabs_23=report
Despite the clear and rational focus on harm reduction and equally appropriate suggestions that would help us to avoid pointlessly criminalising people our Government is poised to reject these suggestions. Why? Not because the suggestions are inappropriate – these suggestions will be rejected because if adopted we would be not be ‘in alignment’ with Australia and the US.
The ‘Operation Unite’ initiative began in the United States – a country where almost 10% of the population are in prison. In fact, the business (and it is a business because they are privately run) is such a large part of their economy that if the US was to go back to the imprisonment rates that it had in the 70’s close to a million people who work at the these prison franchises would lose their jobs and the economy as a whole would take a significant hit.
This is utterly shameful. The intrusion of the profit motive into the provision of prisons opens up a Pandora’s box of conflicting interests and give rise to situations such as have occurred in the US where a Judge was caught taking bribes from a prison operator in return for handing down longer sentences.
Operation unite, in NZ/Australia and the US, is anti-drug and focussed on increased enforcement – or as they term it here ‘stronger policing’. This ideological preference for punitive measures and enforcement over education and harm reduction is not an accident – in any country where there is profit to be made from prisons there is a motive for putting people there.
This is about sovereignty – New Zealand should be heeding the advice of its own experts and developing an approach that actually works rather that following the flawed, unjust and essentially immoral approach of the US.
I can’t think of another country that is so close that a citizen can
immediately move to the other country without any restrictions.
Correction: the actual percentage of people in prison, when taken across the population as a whole is around 3 percent. However one in nine black males between the ages of 20 and 30 are imprisoned in the US.
Nationals recent announcement calling ‘prisons a moral and fiscal failure’ and asserting that no new prisons will be built cannot be viewed as a turnaround in their stance on law and order. The grouping of fiscal considerations with the corrections dept is no accident – the privatization of prisons is still firmly on the agenda – now to be rationalized as a cost saving measure.
Be prepared for a roll out of the double bunking and other such ill advised measures which will enable the private operators to make a tidy profit by sacrificing any attempt at education and real reform.
This has probably been shared already, but for anyone else that missed it:
Bryan Gould’s amusing piece on concerns for John Key after it has been more than 2 hours between photo opportunities is here.
Did Jim Moira really just criticise a woman for ‘breastfeeding militantly’?
I think he just wondered if that was what she was up to. Whatever it might be.
Without naming the place, b/c for all I know they have dropped the policy, but when bookie jr was at that age there was a cafe in central wellington that said mothers were welcome to breast-feed their children, but that there was a corkage fee of 2$. True story.
Lol.
I thought corkage was supposed to recompense staff from the arduous tax of taking the cork out of the bottle (what about screw-caps?) and providing the glassware and table service. And also a token gratuity because you probably won’t be buying as much, or any, alcohol from them.
Maybe corkage might apply to breastfeeding if the wait staff came and manually pumped it out of you and put it into a bottle so it didn’t spill or something?
That’s a bizarre bit of profiteering! It’s also funny, sorry.. 😀
Yes he did. And neither Brian Edwards nor Michele Boag picked him up on it. In fact, Boag scoffed at the idea that women needed to organise themselves into a pro-breastfeeding organisation.
On Friday’s programme, another complacent and self-satisfied ideologue, Deborah Hill Cone, indignantly challenged the idea that people might be struggling to get by in this country. “Struggle is a very relative term,” she lectured. “If you compare us to the 1930s we’re a LOT better off!” A dubious Jim Mora said thoughtfully: “Mmmmmmmmm….but…mmmmmm.”
A few minutes later, Hill Cone was equally impatient with the do-gooder notion that poor people get very sick because they cannot afford to get their teeth fixed: “But DO people die with bad teeth? I’d like to see FIRM FIGURES on that.”
When Joky Hen admitted in his flippant and endearing way that he had had the snip, what did he really mean by the statement quote… ‘All I can say is it’s been highly successful, but we won’t get into that either.’ …unquote. ?
It seems that there was probably a bit more of a story there, and having quipped he then wished he hadn’t. Many a slip twixt cup and the lip perhaps. What a shame the Hardtalk host couldn’t have followed that up for us.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1282816/New-Zealand-PM-John-Keys-vasectomy-admission-Ive-snip.html#ixzz1MakpPov5
I wonder if it was this kind of privatisation by stealth that John Key was interested in speaking to David Cameron about at their recent meeting? Sounds like he should have had a chat with Tony Blair instead (maybe he did?).
Not that I think that the health system is the primary target – at the moment.
That’s the road that National tried in the 1990s – it failed then but I wouldn’t be surprised if they tried again. They’re always after more ways to channel our wealth to themselves and their rich mates.