What's stopping them find common ground? Corbyn "said his party had negotiated "in good faith and very seriously, and put forward a lot of very detailed arguments", which he thought was "the responsible thing to do". He added: "The issue [is] that the government has not fundamentally shifted its view and the divisions in the Conservative Party mean the government is negotiating with no authority and no ability that I can see to actually deliver anything.""
"Speaking after meeting Tory activists in Bristol, Mrs May said: "There have been areas where we have been able to find common ground, but other issues have proved to be more difficult. In particular, we haven't been able to overcome the fact that there isn't a common position in Labour about whether they want to deliver Brexit or hold a second referendum to reverse it."
In other words, there's obvious common ground: equivocation & disunity in both wings of the establishment. A common quicksand – no basis upon which to proceed.
Or to return to a frequent theme, this is a direct consequence of globalisation lacking common principles and democratic accountability.
Our physical reality is a world with 7 billion people that is one species rapidly converging as a single geo-social polity. Trade, travel, communication and a myriad of legal, commercial and technical mechanisms compel us into connection, yet the nation states have been unable to deliver an effective political mechanism to match.
We've lived in an era in which there have been more and more powerful multilateral organizations and binding agreements across the known world than since the Christian church. Most of them formed in the last 70 years.
May and Corbyn simply don't believe in the best and most complex of these: the E.U.
Good point. You are quite correct, I carelessly glossed over that.
May and Corbyn simply don't believe in the best and most complex of these: the E.U.
Yet neither of these people are fools, nor all the aprox 50% of Britons who voted for Brexit. The question has to be why do they not believe in it? My answer is that we have yet to fully embrace the idea of globalisation as an moral idea. We believe in our families, our communities (whatever form they may take) and the nations we're citizens of yet somehow the next logical step, a belief in the organic unity of the human race, eludes us.
Stiglitz' 'Globalisation And Its Discontents' covers most of this ground.
I think we're about as unified as a human race as we are going to get, and we've done pretty well at it. Importantly we prefer the nation-state a the most powerful and enduring of the collective.
And honestly we expect too much from any one cross-national agreement, the CPTPP being a fairly strong recent one with buckets of extra moral suasion thrown in at the end to keep us happy.
I certainly expect the nation state to endure. Human history can be roughly modeled as successive extensions of our ability to unite. We started with modest family clan and tribal units, then built layers onto them, the village, the city state and currently the nation. It's crucial to recognise that each new layer incorporated and enhanced the ones that came before.
For instance, when the family/tribal unit is the largest political unit you have to work with, everything must be solved at that level. The appearance of the nation state far from being a constraint, liberated the family unit.
At this moment in history all the big problems we face are global in nature. Only when we have the political mechanisms at that scale to address them, will the nation states be liberated to reach their full and unsuspected potential.
And thanks for the Stiglitz link. Yes worth a read by the looks.
“The main message of Globalization and its Discontents was that the problem was not globalization, but how the process was being managed. Unfortunately, the management didn’t change. Fifteen years later, the new discontents have brought that message home to the advanced economies.”
The global agreements that will bind nations to reverse the great global problems won't exist. We've pushed human cooperation as far as it's going to get. There's plenty of juice left in the existing organizations if they were supported. You can probably name good examples.
But there are plenty of other mechanisms that are more powerful than national and multinational agreements. The most powerful of them are markets, and many of those are already regulated in the broader interest very well.
Other mechanisms exists in only two of the most powerful countries we have: China and the United States. China's Belt and Road initiative for example. Plenty of faults, but no lack of international ambition or will.
Further mechanisms for global consensus exist in social media. Trump has led the way on how strong this mechanism is.
Even Ardern+Macron's Christchurch Call shows that agreement can simply start from fresh events. It's not a breakthrough, but it's a dent.
I don't think there's any need to wait until a global government arrives.
Britain went through much the same turbulent era, such as the War of the Roses, as it transitioned from city state level of social unity to the nation state. Achieving a broader level of social cohesion never an easy process, and encounters much resistance. This isn't necessarily a bad thing; not all new forms are necessarily a good thing. It's wise that we should test the new before we commit irreversibly.
Yet there is a deep paradox in human social organisation. We value our freedom and independence, yet in isolation we perish. It's a terrible contradiction, but in order to gain true liberty we must first surrender part of our freedom. For example, in order to make the best use of a road we must collectively abide by the constraints of a road code. If we each retained the right to randomly choose whichever side of the road to drive on each morning, collectively the result would render them catastrophically useless.
Collectively we all share a planet and the nation states have reached the point where each must surrender a part of their sovereignty in order to evolve to their next step. Until then we're stuck in escalating cycles of mismanaged globalisation, confrontation and conflict.
I do agree with your last sentiment; waiting for a fully functioning federated global government is not necessary; there are many incremental steps along the way that can be achieved. The EU was as you say one of the better attempts.
It is Germany's sense of postwar cross-national amity that sought a structure of cooperation that would stop all future wars, and that evolved from the EC to the EU we have today.
The E.U. is still expanding, so that impulse is still alive. But barely.
So the historical circumstance is pretty different to what you point to.
I'm still waiting for the Pacific Islands to figure that their tiny non-sustaining little fiefdoms are better amalgamated into a pan-national confederation. They've got plenty to fight for after all.
In the meantime New Zealand needs to keep dear, dear hold of that special relationship with Australia. That's as close as we're going to get to Federation with something of any heft.
So the historical circumstance is pretty different to what you point to.
In the normal course of events you are right, the impulse toward higher levels of cooperation is fitful and unsatisfying.
But every now and then, such as in the aftermath of WW1 and WW2, we have a moment of clarity, when in horror and shame at what we have done, we take a decisive step.
We have a choice, doing this the hard way, or the very horrifyingly traumatic way. But it will happen, because the alternatives to my mind are not acceptable.
Seems to me it's the difference between ideal & reality. United Europe is an excellent idea. The consequent eurocracy has alienated too many people. Just as the United Nations was an excellent idea, discredited by dysfunction.
What's necessary in high-level political organisations is appropriate design, followed by smooth operation. Design flaws and malfunctions must be eliminated as they appear. Instead, the human tendency to instutionalise such problems kicks in. The tacit assumption `fixing it is too hard' prevails. We need to empower fixers. Democracy selects non-fixers.
We've lived in an era in which there have been more and more powerful multilateral organizations and binding agreements across the known world than since the Christian church. Most of them formed in the last 70 years.
Very powerful and ubiquitous these new religions eg Harari (sapiens)
“The capitalist and consumerist ethics are two sides of the same coin, a merger of two commandments. The supreme commandment of the rich is ‘Invest!’ The supreme commandment of the rest of us is ‘Buy!’ The capitalist–consumerist ethic is revolutionary in another respect. Most previous ethical systems presented people with a pretty tough deal. They were promised paradise, but only if they cultivated compassion and tolerance, overcame craving and anger, and restrained their selfish interests. This was too tough for most. The history of ethics is a sad tale of wonderful ideals that nobody can live up to. Most Christians did not imitate Christ, most Buddhists failed to follow Buddha, and most Confucians would have caused Confucius a temper tantrum. In contrast, most people today successfully live up to the capitalist–consumerist ideal. The new ethic promises paradise on condition that the rich remain greedy and spend their time making more money and that the masses give free reign to their cravings and passions and buy more and more. This is the first religion in history whose followers actually do what they are asked to do. How though do we know that we'll really get paradise in return? We've seen it on television.”
I've been waiting to see how long it would take for kiwi entrepeneurs to rise to the challenge of waste recycling since the early eighties. It's finally happened!
"When China stopped taking plastic in 2018, it had a knock-on effect. Our soft plastics had been going to Australia but with a global market flooded with plastic, we can no longer rely on overseas processors and are forced to manage our own waste. Soft plastic has no commercial value and is difficult to repurpose."
"That's where Jerome Wenzlick steps in. He's a farmer and fencer who came up with an idea while putting up fencing at a rubbish dump. "We were putting wooden posts into the ground and the posts were snapping and we thought why don't we make some posts out of the plastic that's in the ground," he told Newshub. He's set up a company called Future Post and since the start of the year, he's recycled 300 tonnes – that's 75 truck loads."
"The soft plastic is sorted and granulated, then mixed with milk bottles, before going through a New Zealand-designed and built extruder to melt and reform it into fence posts. The equivalent of 550 plastic bags goes into making each post."
Fancy a district council being that enterprising! "It's up to the Manawatū District Council to persuade the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment after the provincial development unit handed it $81,000 to put together a business plan."
I hope the economics is viable. Fits in with regional development too eh? Not many jobs but they all help. I wouldn't trust the MBIE to necessarily get it right though.
If they fail to approve it, the MDC ought to pay a leading economic consultancy to appraise the plan too, to identify whatever the design flaw is, or it exists merely in the minds of bureaucrats, formulate a contrary analysis in support of it which the MDC could then submit directly to the minister for regional development – or the minister for the environment, perhaps. Because a viable scheme could be copied in other regions…
Yes, that's a realistic view of local body politics. And why the MDC initiative is so unusual. To be optimistic, one could also anticipate a copycat effect, which is likely if the scheme works. That would provide a progressive trend.
While agreeing that the way Tame Iti was treated was appaĺling and most certainly had a racist element to it, the major flaw in your argument is that he couldn't be charged with murder, having not killed anyone! Besides, the murder charge for the Chch perpetrator is, as I understand it, only an initial charge and there is more to come. I think you are comparing apples with oranges
…the major flaw in your argument is that he [Tama Iti] couldn't be charged with murder, having not killed anyone! JanM
Hi Jan,
I didn't argue, that Tama Iti should have been charged with murder. That would have obviously been completely ridiculous, (almost as completely ridiculous as charging him with terrorism).
I contended that if Tama Iti could be charged with terrorism, (despite not terrorising anyone), then the Christchurch white supremacist must be charged with terrorism, after oganising and planning an attack that killed 51 innocent New Zealand men women and children.
I further contend; that to not to charge this white supremacist with committing a terrorist act would represent a racist double standard.
….the murder charge for the Chch perpetrator is, as I understand it, only an initial charge and there is more to come. JanM
Jan you are absolutely right, the police can bring extra charges under the Suppression Of Terrorism. But will they?
Can a white person be a terrorist in New Zealand, or not?
The whole world is watching.
I am hopeful that this white supremacist mass murderer, will face extra charges laid under the Suppression Of Terrorism Act.
I suspect (though don't know) that if hes charged with murder its probably because charging him with terrorism might be problematic in getting the conviction whereas 51 counts of murder will certainly be easier to prove
to be honest you need to take that up with the current government not me.
to me he is a white supremacist and a terrorist and a mass murderer and an all around shitheel.
Any other question you may have you need to address with those that make the rules and that ain't me.
As for the privilege that white people have i have on more then on occasion addressed the fact that us white people have it, want it and are currently crying big tears about the fact that we are loosing it. And again, my position is that white people should never have had that privilege in the first place and in the case of many countries only got to be the top dog by systematically killing and eradicating the first nations by point of gun, with the help of chicken pox invested blankets, starvation, stolen generations and so forth.
As for those that cry over lost 'equality' in this country of any other 'white' country, i would like to point out that people of color, and women/children of all colors never were considered 'equal', never had 'equal rights' and certainly did not have the 'equal protection' accorded to white men in the courts of law and public opinion.
You haz questions. The esteemed and learned Professor Geddis haz answers.
Go to https://www.pundit.co.nz/ and scroll down to March 16, 2019. (the URL for the article contains the fuckwit's name so it gets caught in the moderation trap here)
tl;dr Charging the fuckwit with terrorism involves trying to prove stuff like state of mind that's much more difficult to prove than the bare facts of his murderous actions. In any case, getting a conviction for terrorism on top of the murders won't have any material effect on what his sentence is likely to be. So yes, that shows the terrorism law is not fit for purpose and needs to be changed.
it wont have any material effect on sentencing but it will set precedent (and unfortunately provide platform) ….if this isnt a terrorist act then what is?…is that a question worth asking including removal of some future defendant using a lack of charge in this instance as a potential defence?
"During Mike Pence’s first year as governor of Indiana, his state put a young woman in prison for having a miscarriage, alleging that she’d taken an abortion-causing drug. Purvi Patel didn’t have a trace of such a drug in her system, but Pence’s state sentenced her to 20 years in prison anyway. Just a few years earlier, Indiana had also held Bei Bei Shuai for 435 days in the brutal maximum security Marion County prison, facing 45 years to life for trying to kill herself and, in the process, causing the death of her 33-week fetus.
Utah charged 28-year-old Melissa Ann Rowland with murder because she refused a C-section, preferring vaginal birth for her twins, and one of them died. Sixteen-year-old Rennie Gibbs was charged by the state of Mississippi with “depraved heart murder” when her baby was born dead because his umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck: her crime was that she had cocaine in her bloodstream, according to prosecutors. Angela Carder was ordered to have a C-section to deliver her baby before she died of cancer; both she and the baby died from the procedure."
yeah, lets all just mock the idea of some religious zealots having a party in NZ and getting a say in Parliament because the Party of No mates is run by wet toast covered in margarine.
Cause we absolutely should not look to what happens in other countries and wonder if we want the same shit happening here.
Sabine (5) this is shocking! Yet they are out there, those "Christian" zealot conservative white males, wanting complete control over vulnerable women and girls. Demonstrating total ignorance of the highest order!
I'd be interested to know if the same cruel rules and actions would apply to the wives, daughters and granddaughters of the sadistic, vile Mike Pences of the world, whose rabid and dangerous mindsets belong back in the dark ages and before that even.
NZers have to be very alert as to who/what creeps into our political system, particularly when it comes to electing representatives.
the whole point is not to give married women grief (at least for now), but to harrass unmarried women who may only have sex for fun or so and force them back under the tutelage of Daddy until given over to Hubby at the church. Ownership over women and children is the whole point. The fetus is just the tool to achieve that.
in saying that, if you look at south america you will see that many women already are in prison for having miscarriages/or self induced abortions as the doctors don't want to incriminate themselves or simply report them to police and ……..locking up some poor women is just easier then proving solutions that would allow women access to science based healthcare, prenatal care, and / or simply the right to live a live save of sexual predators.
Modern, innovative learning environment in re-born Christchurch.
Police have been called in after a pig in the school's petting zoo had a stick stuck up its bum.
At the very least the children should have been taught how to slaughter and prepare the pig before putting it on the spit.
Seriously, is this school an anomaly, or is this the reality for education today?
An in depth article which gathers opinions from both sides.
Many staff who had their own children enrolled had since removed them, they said.
"I know those leaders were really intent on believing in the school philosophy but at the end of the day, after under two years, they just couldn't sacrifice their beloved kids.
"They [Haeata management] developed a philosophy without knowing the kids. They left out the most important thing."
Kai Fong said that every staff member had the opportunity to give feedback and meet face to face with the board if they chose.
Relief teacher Nadine Garrett liked Haeata's environment but said it wasn't right for everyone.
"I felt really sorry for the traditional teachers, they felt like they were just floating."
Personally, I'd find the noise in a classroom of 300 self -directed learners unbearable and while its laudable for the school to use incidences of bullying as a learning opportunity it appears it is not doing much to reduce the level of violence.
It's going to take a while and a lot of training to bring mainstream teachers to a point where they can operate successfully in an environment like this. Its basic kaupapa would appear to be similar to the ec Te Whariki curriculum and is common sense to us (I am ece trained ) but very scary, I would think, to a lot of the 'chalk and talk' brigade. By the way, I would never leave animals unprotected in any environment around children, no matter what their backgrounds. The inability to show kindness and compassion is most emphaticaĺly not confined to any one class or ethnicity.
Kai Fong said there was no evidence to suggest the rate of violence was higher at Haeata than other schools and he believed there was an "inherent bias" against the east side of Christchurch. "I think the preconception of more violence here is unjustified."
However, he said a proportion of Haeata's pupils struggled to "engage consistently in learning" and some "do not have the requisite social and emotional skills to be fully functional in learning".
A former teacher recalled incidents in 2017 when a glass object was thrown near an itinerant teacher and smashed. She was also told to "f… off, you b….," while being swung at with a traffic patrol pole by a 5-year-old. Children threw scooters, rode bikes inside, and there was constant swearing and verbal abuse.
As a result, the teacher took two terms off with post-traumatic stress, and had private counselling for 12 weeks.
The following year, the school sought police help to change the culture. The "highly successful initiative" focused on "pro-social behaviours" with girls at Haeata.
It seems counterintuitive to have a bunch of kids with known behavioural and learning difficulties in such an open plan environment. Too much noise and distraction and it would be damn near impossible to concentrate. I wonder if (in these days of mainstreaming kids with learning/behavioural issues) they have a squadron of teacher aides,or if they have 'special' rooms where those kids that are struggling can go for quiet time.
It would be interesting to know the make up of the kids being pulled from Haeata.
Experience in how politicians and government interact with the rich, relative to how they interact with the poor, points directly to such a school never being allowed to be experimented in Remuera or Fendalton.
Wake up.
No apology, but yes plenty of bitterness. All very real. Is why society is cleaving down the middle. Fuck the rich and their politicians.
This quote confirms a comment I made the other day about the difficulties that teachers have these days.
But a former teacher said teaching was impossible because they would spend their time wrangling naughty students. "I can't believe what a bad teacher I became," they said.
If this is an experimental school it has too big a roll. Nearly a thousand children can't be thrown together with the emphasis on them finding their own preferences.
I was waiting in the library at school while one of my children was in a class decades ago and the kids were supposed to be using the library facilities and looking at the range of books. One boy got out a motor magazine and turned the pages making vroom,vroom noises. I was helping another who couldn't concentrate his mind because he wanted to watch his friend. Encouraging him to work out a plan for a short piece on what he remembered from a trip to California was very difficult. Distraction is no good for the 10 second attention span generation.
Is the National Party tearing itself apart? Here's a letter posted on kiwiblog today.
Chuck Bird
It will be interesting to see which National MPs respond.
To all National MP’s
As a National supporter for the past 47 years, I wish to voice my disgust at your actions in supporting the Government in the passing of the recent bill to make criminals of law abiding gun owners. I attended a recent meeting in Te Awamutu where MP’s Bishop and Kuriger were speaking about this very topic. I have never been in a group of people so hostile to anybody, let alone MPs. I would venture to say that about 300-350 people were there. Most would have been National party supporters. For how long, I can only guess. If they are like me, not for much longer, unless you change the way you are heading.
Your actions were despicable in casting aside the rights of law abiding citizens. All in the name of socialist ideology. I thought that was the purvue of the left. How wrong I am.
This will be posted on my blog site http://www.ysb.co.nz . It is a blog dedicated to upholding free speech and WAS a National Party support blog. Your actions mentioned above have seriously bought this support into question.
well that is a bit of a stretch would you not think?
Consider that the only one type of weapon was outlawed and a few tools around ( i am not a gun enthusiast so am not too versed in that lingo) and that he still can own chickenshit loads of other weapons for his hunting and collecting needs.
So no, legal gun owner have not been criminalised, but a legal gun owner has mowed down 50 people and maybe he should think about that too.
But he is lucky, soon he can vote for a bunch of "Not National – but almost" Parties and all is good again.
Earlier today, I read the then 25 comments and they were so stereotypical of RWNJs that I thought that blog was an extremely well done parody of KB. Fact is stranger than fiction and reality is scarier than nightmares.
The means of exchange need to be regulated as otherwise when it becomes an end to itself, value systems and directions are lead by donkeys towards cliffs.
It would seem likely that the majority of collusion that takes place with the use of financial bubbles in unproductive predatory capitalism would involve relatively concentrated/substantial actors rather than such endeavours being the co-operation of multitudes, so a small financial transaction tax system could be a good way to provide tag and trace info to that, which can then be graduated up down the chain when critical thresholds start to be traced before such acts are able to be followed through to completion.
Rose delivers his mostly banal ruminations in a croaky basso profundo, his words larded with an extraordinarily high "um" and "y' know" count. Donovan's role is to meekly underscore Rose's philosophical gems occasionally with a supportive "Mmmm, mmmm."
EMIL DONOVAN: It's time for Midweek Media Watch, our weekly catch-up with the Mediawatch teeeeam, one of the Mediawatch team, to talk about all things media. Today it's Jeremy Rose's turn in the chair. Hullo, Jeremy.
JEREMY ROSE: Gid-daaaaay Emil, how ARE ya?
EMIL DONOVAN: Very well thank you. Ahhhh, what've you got for us this week?
JEREMY ROSE: Well I THOUGHT I'd start with the "power of the signature" you were just talking, y'know, about….
Rose spends an inordinate time talking about a woman's Facebook petition to change the Milo recipe. Donovan thinks this is a very serious topic: "It taps into the cultural zeitgeist, doesn't it," he observes.
Next topic: a Russian blogger called "Stalin Gulag" who operates on a site called Telegram. "It shows the importance of social media for holding the powerful to account," says Rose.
Rose says something about the need to break up Facebook, and then moves on to the distasteful topic of white supremacist sites like 8chan. He praises recent work on this by Max Towle and Patrick Gower. Rose plays a clip of Gower in fighting mood: "I'm ready for ANOTHER go with Stefan Molyneux and Lauren Southern." That cuts no ice with Jeremy Rose, however. He reckons that interviewing people like Molyneux and Southern is unwise—"these people are nonentities"—and akin to a prizefight.
So far, so humdrum. Then the interview with Jeremy Rose, who's billed as a media "expert", becomes foolish, bizarre, almost inexplicable. It turns out that Rose, who just a couple of minutes earlier talked grandly about "the importance of social media for holding the powerful to account", does not think that the mainstream media, i.e. the BBC, should hold the powerful or the influential to account at all. In fact, he says, there's no "point" in holding the words of a brutal racist against him in an interview. "I just don't think it HELPS", he croaks to an obviously unconvinced Donovan. Here, for those who can stomach pretentiousness and bewilderment dressed up as media commentary, is four minutes of Jeremy Rose's dire and dismal vaporing….
(For those listening on the audio link, the horror starts at the 19:33 mark)
JEREMY ROSE: …..so I really wanna know WHY you'd bother getting them on. And that kinda brings us to ANOTHER one that's had a bit of a sporting overtone. I think you were quite keen to talk about, which is the Ben Shapiro—
EMIL DONOVAN: Yes.
JEREMY ROSE: —interview. A well known, American, ultra-conservative, right wing commentator with a LOT of Twitter followers, I think, y'know, well over a million—
EMIL DONOVAN: Mmmm.
JEREMY ROSE: And he was interviewed on the BBC byyyyy, um—-
EMIL DONOVAN: Andrew Neil, the notorious hard-nosed interviewer Andrew Neil. Yeah this was a FASCINATING interview, wasn't it.
JEREMY ROSE: It, it really was. Shall we—let's, let's have a listen to a BIT of it.
ANDREW NEIL: Some of the ideas that are popular in YOUR side of politics, ahh, would seem to take us back to the DARK AGES. These GEORGIA new ABORTION laws, ahhh, which YOU are much in FAVOUR of, ahhhh, that a woman who MISCARRIES could get THIRTY YEARS, A Georgian woman who travels to another STATE for an abortion procedure could get TEN years! These are EXTREME hard policies.
BEN SHAPIRO: Well, okay, a couple of things. One, I'm not sure, I mean frankly I don't know whether you're a s— , ARE you an objective journalist or are you an opinion journalist?
ANDREW NEIL: I'm a journalist that asks QUESTIONS.
JEREMY ROSE: Y-y-yeah, ha, so y' know, uh, it's gone VIRAL on the internet. Everyone, including ahhhh, Shapiro, say that it, that it was a DISASTROUS performance by him. He's tweeted, though, "Neil one, Shapiro zero." Again, that sporting kind of metaphor.
EMIL DONOVAN: Mmmmm.
JEREMY ROSE: Wanting a rematch. I don't think there was much in it, I don't think you LEARNT much, and I ACTUALLY think he had a KIND of point, whe-e-e-ere, that there was, y'know, when he was accused of being from the Dark Ages—
EMIL DONOVAN: Mmmm.
JEREMY ROSE: —which is obviously a metaphor. But it wasn't actually that HELPFUL, and it ended UP just being …. [long caesura]…. for want of a better word, a shit fight.
EMIL DONOVAN: Mmmm, mmmm.
JEREMY ROSE: A-and I'm NOT sure that that REALLY serves ANYBODY.
EMIL DONOVAN: Yeah, I know it was fascinating stuff wasn't it. It's um, yeeeahh, the idea that—I mean, it's a TEMPTING metaphor. Sporting metaphors ARE tempting when it comes to, to interviews like tha-a-a-at, because the, a confrontational interview can sometimes be NECESSARY, right? Y' know? And, and sometimes there IS a winner and a loser out of an interview. And sometimes people are satisfied by seeing that. But it's not necessarily a HELPFUL metaphor.
JEREMY ROSE: No-o-o-o. And I, and I, and that whole idea of kinda punching OUT and a winner. And that was how it was portrayed, because he kept THROWING these ABSOLUTELY obnoxious quotes which he had ma-a-a-ade—
EMIL DONOVAN: Mmmm.
JEREMY ROSE: —in the past at him, and asking him to DEFEND them. ….[long caesura]…. I don't know what the POINT is. If I hadn't seen the interview, I wouldn't know that this guy had made these racist, revolting comments about Arabs, about—- And I don't think that it HELPS, knowing that.
EMIL DONOVAN: Mmmm, mmmm.
JEREMY ROSE: Ahhhm, and he did have a BOOK out, I've got NO idea what he says in the book. There was nothing in it in the interview.
EMIL DONOVAN: Well I think this was the thing about it, that the book was about the rise of, um, extremist discourse, and, and, and ANGER within sort of SOCIETY and I think that Andrew Neil was pointing out the hypocrisy of the idea that Ben Shapiro would write a book about anger and society when he had contributed to it himself through his previous kinds of statements. But it's a very interesting kind of issue, isn't it—
JEREMY ROSE: Yeah.
EMIL DONOVAN: —and one that I imagine we won't see go away, because they always seem to be held up as SPECTACLES, these interviews, y'know….
JEREMY ROSE: I think that's exactly right. It, it, it's interviewers' performance. I think when we're dealing with things that matter as much as white supremacy, THAT's not the time to do that. To me-e-e-e-e, THAT's actually exactly what white supremacist type people would ENJOY.
EMIL DONOVAN: Mmmm, mmmm. It's sort of, yeah, the fuzzy line where information blurs into entertainment. Yeahhhh. Well, uh, Jeremy, thanks so much for that. Really appreciate it.
1. Andrew Neil is an excellent interviewer. He has variously made mincemeat of Jeremy Corbyn, Diana Abbot, Natalie Bennett and many others. Andrew has no problem tackling those on the right of politics, it is just that generally the left provide easier targets.
2. Andrew underestimated Ben Shapiro's intellect, and his attack dog line about Georgia's abortion law was ill-informed and justified Ben's response. At the same time, Ben was clearly ill-informed about Andrew's interview style, and came across as petulant. That's a shame, because Ben is intellectually the superior of virtually anyone Andrew will have interviewed, and the exchange could have been far more productive if both men had been better prepared.
3. For anyone to suggest Ben Shapiro was treated 'unfairly' by Andrew Neil is nonsense. Ben has been interviewed countless times, he has spoken to openly hostile audiences and has faced de-platforming by the lefty snowflakes on US campus's. In short, he is tougher than the person you quote gives him credit for.
4. Take time to listen to what Ben Shapiro says. You might not agree with him, but unlike some of the crazies on both the left and right of politics, Ben is a sound thinker, who speaks a rational, conservative voice into the issues of the day.
Watch the disastrous (for Shapiro) interview with Andrew Neil again. Neil reels off example after example of Nazi-quality filth, all of them direct quotes from Shapiro.
You are excoriating Morrissey of all in broadcasting and media generally.
Your statement is demonstrably incorrect. A quick review of my oeuvre shows I am more than happy to praise ethical, talented and conscientious journalists—both locally and internationally. On this forum and on many others I have praised: Julian Assange, Max Blumenthal, Mihi Forbes, Juan González,Amy Goodman, Glenn Greenwald, Nicky Hager, Amira Hass, Paul Jay, Caitlin Johnstone, Gideon Levy, Selwyn Manning, Abby Martin, Aaron Maté, Matt Nippert, Paula Penfold, John Pilger, Laura Poitras, Jeremy Scahill, Jon Stephenson….
That's just a few off the top of my head, in alphabetical order. I've praised every one of them at least once, some of them many times.
I hope someone pays you for all that. I don't think TS does, so whom?
What difference does it make? Mike Hosking gets paid to produce his rubbish; all the easy money in the world doesn't give him an ounce of credibility.
Temperatures Soar as Nearly All Old Arctic Sea Ice Has Vanished HEADLINEMAY 16, 2019
In climate news, temperatures near the entrance to the Arctic Ocean in northwest Russia reached a record-shattering 84 degrees Fahrenheit over the weekend, in an area where high temperatures are normally 30 degrees cooler this time of year. This comes as the National Snow and Ice Data Center recorded a record-low sea ice extent for the Arctic Ocean in April, noting that almost all of the sea ice more than four years old is gone. Over the weekend, meteorologists measured carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere at over 415 parts per million — the highest level in human history, and a concentration that’s not been seen on Earth in over 3 million years.
A campaigner from Big Brother Watch – who were protesting the use of cameras on the day – was also filmed telling an officer: ‘I would have done the same.’
https://metro.co.uk/2019/05/15/bike-handle-stuck-woman-two-years-husband-shoved-vagina-9556829/ My summary – This shows how women get treated when they are not respected in a society and become helpless pawns. Husband intoxicated by alcohol – such a common drug abuse. Woman 30 has six children, can't have any more. Might be good for her in the long run – depends on husband. If she hasn't had boys he might put her aside.
Millions of birds are being sucked out of trees and killed each year to feed our olive oil habit. Iconic birds such as robins, warblers and wagtails have seen their numbers decimated because of intensive farming practices. Experts have warned the international community that it needs to act before legally-protected species disappear for good. During the winter months, birds from central and northern Europe, flock to the Mediterranean basin. At the same time, the olive oil harvest happens in Spain, France, Italy and Portugal…
Farmers use large and intensive harvesting machines at night to strip the trees of their fruit. However, the birds are sleeping in the trees and are getting sucked into the machines on a ‘catastrophic scale.’…But, 96,000 birds are known to die in Portugal every winter as a result of this technique.
RSPCA director of conservation, Martin Harper, said: ‘Numbers of farmland birds in Europe have plummeted by 55% over the last three decades and this is another shocking example of how modern agricultural practices are impacting our bird populations, including some UK species passing through the region.’
And koalas. This cant' be.
The Australian Koala Foundation has confirmed that, with only 80,000 members of the species left in the wild there isn’t enough to support a new generation.
They’ve declared the marsupial ‘functionally extinct’ which means the population has dropped so low it no longer has any effect on its surrounding environment. Koalas have too few breeding adults left to support the species and any kind of genetic disease or pathogen would put the final nail in the coffin.
Koalas are dying out due to effects caused by climate change. Rising temperatures are causing heatwaves that kill thousands of koalas through dehydration. The species has also suffered hugely from deforestation. According to the Australian Koala Foundation, there are no koalas left at all in 41 out of 128 Federal environments where they have known habitats.
I suggest NZ sets up a fund to support the Koala Foundation and give the Australians a message that they need to both support their own vulnerable animals and the Kiwi people who live there and who they have arbitrarily arrested on spurious grounds and hold in camps against international law precedents. Maybe there will be some politicians who have integrity to do something for the Koalas and the Kiwis.
When you think these pricks had hit peak vileness.
Oklahoma state legislator Rep. Justin Humphrey is sponsoring a draconian bill, HB 1441, that would require a woman to get written permission from her sexual partner if she wants to have an abortion.
Attempting to justify the despicable legislation Rep. Humphrey told The Intercept that women have no right to bodily autonomy once they are pregnant because they are merely “hosts”:
I understand that they feel like that is their body. I feel like it is a separate — what I call them is, is you’re a ‘host.’ And you know when you enter into a relationship you’re going to be that host and so, you know, if you pre-know that then take all precautions and don’t get pregnant.
The Missouri House has voted to approve some of the strictest abortion laws in the country, and because it's Missouri, the process somehow managed to include a Republican lawmaker defending the bill by talking about, sigh, "consensual rape."
[…]
It was on the issue of exceptions for rape victims that Hovis, a retired Cape Girardeau police lieutenant first elected to office in 2017, took his stand. He pointed out that "most of the rapes" that he saw in law enforcement didn't involve "gentlemen jumping out of bushes."
"Most of them were date rapes or consensual rapes," he continued, "which were all terrible, but I'd sit in court when juries would struggle with those situations, where it was a 'he-said-she-said,' which was unfortunate if it really happened."
Having suggested that rape is often no big deal — because hey, if it didn't happen at gunpoint, it's a real struggle for a jury to know what to do — Hovis finally seemed to find his point, which appeared to be that that rape victims would still have plenty of time, after the rape, to decide whether to get an abortion
If you're looking for someone without a humorous bone in her body, and lacking even a rudimentary sense of the ridiculous, you can't go past this thoroughly Anglo, non-German, fool (unfunny fool)….
no, you just looked for a reason to again post one of your pointless video clips.
it has nothing do to with what i posted, and it is so far removed from anything that really it is just your typical posting a shit video so that you can post a shit video.
and when it comes to you and your shit videos i am just bored and bored, and bored, and bored, and bored.
no, you just looked for a reason to again post one of your pointless video clips.
"Pointless"? You didn't get the point? Frankly, I'm not surprised.
it has nothing do to with what i posted,
In fact, it has everything to do with what you posted. In a fit of self-deprecation, you repeated the stupid falsehood that Germans "don't have a sense of humour." I helpfully steered you to an example of someone—a non-German— completely lacking any sense of humour, or absurdity, or even increasingly—it's been clear for more than two years now—any grasp of reality.
and it is so far removed from anything that really it is just your typical posting a shit video so that you can post a shit video.
???? You really can't understand that clip? Really?
and when it comes to you and your shit videos i am just bored and bored, and bored, and bored, and bored.
There are German writers I admire tremendously: Mann, Sebald, Roth. Your embarrassing and awkwardly phrased rants are not quite in their company, I'm sorry to say. Perhaps you should read a bit more, think a bit more, see if you can pick up a few stylistic tips from some of your compatriots who can actually write.
It's extremely serious. See, Andre is afflicted by these Russian bots, controlled by those Russian masterminds who control Trump, and …. hell, you know the rest. It's what Rachel Maddow says.
Thoughts and prayers, Andre. That evil Putin, darn him.
Hi Sabine It might have been one of my videos that you didn't like. Sorry. But I put them in as changes when the tone is too dark or it seems we need some light relief. They are just a break in between bouts of seriousness, or indeed slapstick occasionally.
You're a real gentleman, Mr Shark. But rest assured: unser guter freund Sabine has been confused and bewildered for a good two and a half years now. Sie kann dich nicht dafür verantwortlich machen.
Yep. I used to love one NDR programme in the mid-90s, can't remember what is was called now – everything absolutely deadpan, no clues you were supposed to find it funny, fuck it was good. Morrissey just lacks the self-awareness to recognise bigotry when he's indulging in it.
Sorry Milt, you've got the wrong end of the shoe here. It's our friend Sabine that's running down Germans, not me. I stuck up for them, having appreciated their music, literature, art, cinema, food, beer and, yes, their sense of humour for as long as I can remember.
The Trump administration has taken its war on abortion worldwide, cutting off all funding to any overseas organisation or clinic that will not agree to a complete ban on even discussing it.
The Mexico City policy, dubbed the “global gag” by its critics, denies US federal funds to any organisation involved in providing abortion services overseas or counselling women about them. It was instituted by the then US president Ronald Reagan and has been revoked by every Democrat and reinstated by every Republican president since.
“For the past three days, Ollie Langridge has sat on the lawn of Parliament, sitting on a bolster pillow wrapped in plastic, and holding a sign calling on the Government to declare a climate change emergency.
Langridge is a self-employed father of six, living in Thorndon with no political affiliation or ties to climate change advocacy groups – just a man worried about the future he's leaving for his children.
"I just see myself as a normal guy that doesn't know what to do and this is the best thing I could think of.”
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 27 were:1. The Minister for Ford Rangers strikes againTransport Minister Simeon Brown was again the busiest of the Cabinet ministers this week, announcing an ...
You got a fast carAnd I want a ticket to anywhereMaybe we make a dealMaybe together we can get somewhereAny place is betterYesterday’s newsletter, Trust In Me, on the report of abuse in state care, and by religious organisations, between 1950 and 2019, coupled with the hypocrisy of Christopher Luxon ...
New Zealand is again having to reconcile conflicting pressures from its military and its trade interests. Should we join Pillar Two of AUKUS and risk compromising our markets in China? For a century after New Zealand was founded in 1840, its external security arrangements and external economics arrangements were aligned. ...
The ‘50 Shades of Green’ farmers’ protest in 2019 was heavy on climate change denial, but five years on, scepticism and criticism about the idea that pine forests can save us is growing across the board. File photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate ...
This morning the sky was bright.The birds, in their usual joyous bliss. Nature doesn’t seem to feel the heat of what might angst humans.Their calls are clear and beautiful.Just some random thoughts:MāoriPaul Goldsmith has announced his government will roll back the judiciary’s rulings on Māori Customary Marine Title, which recognises ...
In 2003, the Court of Appeal delivered its decision in Ngati Apa v Attorney-General, ruling that Māori customary title over the foreshore and seabed had not been universally extinguished, and that the Māori Land Court could determine claims and confirm title if the facts supported it. This kicked off the ...
Earlier this week at Parliament, Labour leader Chris Hipkins was applauded for saying that the response to the final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care had to be “bigger than politics.” True, but the fine words, apologies and “we hear you” messages will soon ring ...
TL;DR: In news breaking this morning:The Ministry of Education is cutting $2 billion from its school building programme so the National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government has enough money to deliver tax cuts; The Government has quietly lowered its child poverty reduction targets to make them easier to achieve;Te Whatu Ora-Health NZ’s ...
Kia ora. These are some stories that caught our eye this week – as always, feel free to share yours in the comments. Our header image this week (via Eke Panuku) shows the planned upgrade for the Karanga Plaza Tidal Swimming Steps. The week in Greater Auckland On ...
1. What's not to love about the way the Harris campaign is turning things around?a. Nothingb. Love all of itc. God what a reliefd. Not that it will be by any means easye. All of the above 2. Documents released by the Ministry of Health show Associate Health Minister Casey ...
Trust in me in all you doHave the faith I have in youLove will see us through, if only you trust in meWhy don't you, you trust me?In a week that saw the release of the 3,000 page Abuse in Care report Christopher Luxon was being asked about Boot Camps. ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking about the Royal Commission Inquiry into Abuse in Carereport released this week, and with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent on a UN push to not recognise carbon offset markets and ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 26, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Transport: Simeon Brown announced$802.9 million in funding for 18 new trains on the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines, which ...
The northern expressway extension from Warkworth to Whangarei is likely to require radical changes to legislation if it is going to be built within the foreseeable future. The Government’s powers to purchase land, the planning process and current restrictions on road tolling are all going to need to be changed ...
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedFirst they came for the doctors But I was confused by the numbers and costs So I didn't speak up Then they came for our police and nurses And I didn't think we could afford those costs anyway So I ...
Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on UnsplashWe’re back again after our mid-winter break. We’re still with the ‘new’ day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when we have our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream ...
Notes: This is a free article. Abuse in Care themes are mentioned. Video is at the bottom.BackgroundYesterday’s report into Abuse in Care revealed that at least 1 in 3 of all who went through state and faith based care were abused - often horrifically. At least, because not all survivors ...
Luxon speaks in Parliament yesterday about the Abuse in Care report. Photo: Hagen Hopkins/Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:PM Christopher Luxon said yesterday in tabling the Abuse in Carereport in Parliament he wanted to ‘do the ...
About a decade ago I worked with a bloke called Steve. He was the grizzled veteran coder, a few years older than me, who knew where the bodies were buried - code wise. Despite his best efforts to be approachable and friendly he could be kind of gruff, through to ...
Some of the recent announcements from the government have reminded us of posts we’ve written in the past. Here’s one from early 2020. There were plenty of reactions to the government’s infrastructure announcement a few weeks ago which saw them fund a bunch of big roading projects. One of ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Thursday, July 25 are:News: Why Electric Kiwi is closing to new customers - and why it matters RNZ’s Susan EdmundsScoop: Government drops ...
Hi,I felt a small wet tongue snaking through one of the holes in my Crocs. It explored my big toe, darting down one side, then the other. “He’s looking for some toe cheese,” said the woman next to me, words that still haunt me to this day.Growing up in New ...
Yesterday I happily quoted the Prime Minister without fact-checking him and sure enough, it turns out his numbers were all to hell. It’s not four kg of Royal Commission report, it’s fourteen.My friend and one-time colleague-in-comms Hazel Phillips gently alerted me to my error almost as soon as I’d hit ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Thursday, July 25, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day were:The Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquirypublished its final report yesterday.PM Christopher Luxon and The Minister responsible for ...
The Official Information Act has always been a battle between requesters seeking information, and governments seeking to control it. Information is power, so Ministers and government agencies want to manage what is released and when, for their own convenience, and legality and democracy be damned. Their most recent tactic for ...
TL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:Transport and Energy Minister Simeon Brown is accelerating plans to spend at least $10 billion through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) to extend State Highway One as a four-lane ‘Expressway’ from Warkworth to Whangarei ...
I live my life (woo-ooh-ooh)With no control in my destinyYea-yeah, yea-yeah (woo-ooh-ooh)I can bleed when I want to bleedSo come on, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)You can bleed when you want to bleedYea-yeah, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)Everybody bleed when they want to bleedCome on and bleedGovernments face tough challenges. Selling unpopular decisions to ...
Please note:To skip directly to the- parliamentary footage in the video, scroll to 1:21 To skip to audio please click on the headphone iconon the left hand side of the screenThis video / audio section is under development. ...
Given the crackdown on wasteful government spending, it behooves me to point to a high profile example of spending by the Luxon government that looks like a big, fat waste of time and money. I’m talking about the deployment of NZDF personnel to support the US-led coalition in the Red ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:40 am on Wednesday, July 24 are:Deep Dive: Chipping away at the housing crisis, including my comments RNZ/Newsroom’s The DetailNews: Government softens on asset sales, ...
As I reported about the city centre, Auckland’s rail network is also going through a difficult and disruptive period which is rapidly approaching a culmination, this will result in a significant upgrade to the whole network. Hallelujah. Also like the city centre this is an upgrade predicated on the City ...
Today, a 4 kilogram report will be delivered to Parliament. We know this is what the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care weighs, because our Prime Minister told us so.Some reporter had blindsided him by asking a question about something done by ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Wednesday, July 24, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Beehive:Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced plans to use PPPs to fund, build and run a four-lane expressway between Auckland ...
NewstalkZB host Mike Hosking, who can usually be relied on to give Prime Minister Christopher Luxon an easy run, did not do so yesterday when he interviewed him about the HealthNZ deficit. Luxon is trying to use a deficit reported last year by HealthNZ as yet another example of the ...
Back in January a StatsNZ employee gave a speech at Rātana on behalf of tangata whenua in which he insulted and criticised the government. The speech clearly violated the principle of a neutral public service, and StatsNZ started an investigation. Part of that was getting an external consultant to examine ...
Renting for life: Shared ownership initiatives are unlikely to slow the slide in home ownership by much. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:A Deloittereport for Westpac has projected Aotearoa’s home-ownership rate will ...
You're broken down and tiredOf living life on a merry go roundAnd you can't find the fighterBut I see it in you so we gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsWe gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsAnd I'll rise upI'll rise like the dayI'll rise upI'll rise unafraidI'll rise upAnd I'll ...
There’s been a change in Myers Park. Down the steps from St. Kevin’s Arcade, past the grassy slopes, the children’s playground, the benches and that goat statue, there has been a transformation. The underpass for Mayoral Drive has gone from a barren, grey, concrete tunnel, to a place that thrums ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Global society may have finally slammed on the brakes for climate-warming pollution released by human fossil fuel combustion. According to the Carbon Monitor Project, the total global climate pollution released between February and May 2024 declined slightly from the amount released during the same ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Tuesday, July 23 are:Deep Dive: Penlink: where tolling rhetoric meets reality BusinessDesk-$$$’sOliver LewisScoop:Te Pūkenga plans for regional polytechs leak out ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Tuesday, July 23, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Health: Shane Reti announcedthe Board of Te Whatu Ora-Health New Zealand was being replaced with Commissioner Lester Levy ...
Health NZ warned the Government at the end of March that it was running over Budget. But the reasons it gave were very different to those offered by the Prime Minister yesterday. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon blamed the “botched merger” of the 20 District Health Boards (DHBs) to create Health ...
Long ReadKey Summary: Although National increased the health budget by $1.4 billion in May, they used an old funding model to project health system costs, and never bothered to update their pre-election numbers. They were told during the Health Select Committees earlier in the year their budget amount was deficient, ...
As a momentous, historic weekend in US politics unfolded, analysts and commentators grasped for precedents and comparisons to help explain the significance and power of the choice Joe Biden had made. The 46th president had swept the Democratic party’s primaries but just over 100 days from the election had chosen ...
TL;DR: I’m casting around for new ideas and ways of thinking about Aotearoa’s political economy to find a few solutions to our cascading and self-reinforcing housing, poverty and climate crises.Associate Professor runs an online masters degree in the economics of sustainability at Torrens University in Australia and is organising ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on National's Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill. The bill sets up water for privatisation, and was introduced under urgency, then rammed through select committee with no time even for local councils to make a proper submission. Naturally, national's select committee ...
Some years ago, I bought a book at Dunedin’s Regent Booksale for $1.50. As one does. Vandrad the Viking (1898), by J. Storer Clouston, is an obscure book these days – I cannot find a proper online review – but soon it was sitting on my shelf, gathering dust alongside ...
History is not on the side of the centre-left, when Democratic presidents fall behind in the polls and choose not to run for re-election. On both previous occasions in the past 75 years (Harry Truman in 1952, Lyndon Johnson in 1968) the Democrats proceeded to then lose the White House ...
This is a free articleCoverageThis morning, US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the Presidential race. And that is genuinely newsworthy. Thanks for your service, President Biden, and all the best to you and yours.However, the media in New Zealand, particularly the 1News nightly bulletin, has been breathlessly covering ...
A homeless person’s camp beside a blocked-off slipped damage walkway in Freeman’s Bay: we are chasing our tail on our worsening and inter-related housing, poverty and climate crises. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Orderimage, ...
Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
Te Rangi e tu nei (The sky above us) Te Papa e takoto nei (The land beneath us) Tatou katoa te hunga ora (To us all the living) Tena koutou katoa (Greetings) ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi Māori rallied against the Crown’s attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hīkoi of a generation and the birth of Te Pāti Māori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinian’s have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinian’s who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Government’s disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whānau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they can’t escape on ...
Te Pāti Māori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. “This announcement is just another example of the government’s anti-Tiriti, anti-Māori agenda.” Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. “Seymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged. ...
Te Pāti Māori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. “Reinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Māori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. “This legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whānau out onto the street for no reason” said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “Their solution to the housing ...
“National’s campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,” Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
“There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,” Jan Tinetti said. ...
“This government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this government’s agenda and the future of our mokopuna,” said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
“Today’s climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,” Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how they’re taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
Tēnā tātou katoa, Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament’s test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Section 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. “The level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations I’ve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawke’s Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,” was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry “Whanaketia – through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “Tax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says a bill that has passed its first reading will improve parental leave settings and give non-biological parents more flexibility as primary carer for their child. The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (No3), passed its first reading this morning. “It includes a change ...
Two Bills designed to improve regulation and make it easier to do business have passed their first reading in Parliament, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. The Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Bill and Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Bill make key changes to legislation administered by the Ministry ...
New legislation paves the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Competitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. “Under current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and Whangārei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “For too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
Sir Don McKinnon will travel to Viet Nam this week as a Special Envoy of the Government, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “It is important that the Government give due recognition to the significant contributions that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made to New Zealand-Viet Nam relations,” Mr ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says newly appointed Commissioner, Grant Illingworth KC, will help deliver the report for the first phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons, due on 28 November 2024. “I am pleased to announce that Mr Illingworth will commence his appointment as ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters travels to Laos this week to participate in a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led Ministerial meetings in Vientiane. “ASEAN plays an important role in supporting a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” Mr Peters says. “This will be our third visit to ...
Construction of a new mental health facility at Te Nikau Grey Hospital in Greymouth is today one step closer, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says. “This $27 million facility shows this Government is delivering on its promise to boost mental health care and improve front line services,” Mr Doocey says. ...
New Zealand is committing nearly $50 million to a package supporting sustainable Pacific fisheries development over the next four years, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This support consisting of a range of initiatives demonstrates New Zealand’s commitment to assisting our Pacific partners ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says proposed changes to the Education and Training Amendment Bill will ensure charter schools have more flexibility to negotiate employment agreements and are equipped with the right teaching resources. “Cabinet has agreed to progress an amendment which means unions will not be able to initiate ...
In response to serious concerns around oversight, overspend and a significant deterioration in financial outlook, the Board of Health New Zealand will be replaced with a Commissioner, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti announced today. “The previous government’s botched health reforms have created significant financial challenges at Health NZ that, without ...
Minister for Space and Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins will travel to Adelaide tomorrow for space and science engagements, including speaking at the Australian Space Forum. While there she will also have meetings and visits with a focus on space, biotechnology and innovation. “New Zealand has a thriving space ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will travel to China on Saturday to attend the Ministerial on Climate Action meeting held in Wuhan. “Attending the Ministerial on Climate Action is an opportunity to advocate for New Zealand climate priorities and engage with our key partners on climate action,” Mr Watts says. ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is travelling to the Solomon Islands tomorrow for meetings with his counterparts from around the Pacific supporting collective management of the region’s fisheries. The 23rd Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Committee and the 5th Regional Fisheries Ministers’ Meeting in Honiara from 23 to 26 July ...
The Government today launched the Military Style Academy Pilot at Te Au rere a te Tonga Youth Justice residence in Palmerston North, an important part of the Government’s plan to crackdown on youth crime and getting youth offenders back on track, Minister for Children, Karen Chhour said today. “On the ...
The Government has welcomed news the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has begun work to replace nine priority bridges across the country to ensure our state highway network remains resilient, reliable, and efficient for road users, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“Increasing productivity and economic growth is a key priority for the ...
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour has been in contact throughout the evening with senior officials who have coordinated a whole of government response to the global IT outage and can provide an update. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has designated the National Emergency Management Agency as the ...
New Zealand and Japan will continue to step up their shared engagement with the Pacific, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand and Japan have a strong, shared interest in a free, open and stable Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “We are pleased to be finding more ways ...
New developments in the heart of North Island forestry country will reinvigorate their communities and boost economic development, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones visited Kaingaroa and Kawerau in Bay of Plenty today to open a landmark community centre in the former and a new connecting road in ...
President Adeang, fellow Ministers, honourable Diet Member Horii, Ambassadors, distinguished guests. Minasama, konnichiwa, and good afternoon, everyone. Distinguished guests, it’s a pleasure to be here with you today to talk about New Zealand’s foreign policy reset, the reasons for it, the values that underpin it, and how it ...
Last summer when Matairangi burned, Ginny and Tom stood at the window of their lounge, watching kākā shoot skyward from the burning trees. From the distance, they looked to Ginny like pages torn from books and thrown into a bonfire. It was Tom, voice tight, who told her it was ...
Opinion: The Canadian short story writer Alice Munro – winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013 – died in May at the age of 92. Her work was about “the damage people inflict on one another in the name of love”, Deborah Treisman wrote in the New Yorker. ...
This month marks two years since the most powerful telescope ever built sent its first pictures back to earth. From its lofty vantage point, beyond the moon in orbit around the sun, the James Webb Space Telescope was tuned to observe the first stars and galaxies being born soon after ...
Comment: After Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ preview several weeks ago, I had some optimism about the Government’s emissions reduction plan. Now I’ve read the discussion document, that hope has been dashed. How can the Government propose a plan that wants to take New Zealand taxpayers’ hard-earned money, and spend ...
Christopher Luxon: hurdles The little man from National jumps hurdles in his sleep. He’s quite good at it in his dreams and even though the reality doesn’t quite match up you have to give him credit for getting up every morning and crashing into the very first hurdle of the ...
Comment: It was a good two hours into the conversation when Tyrone Marks raised the most basic of questions when I first spoke to him in 2017. “They didn’t explain the things they did to me. They never told me why. And they still haven’t. There’s no explanation for it. ...
Madeleine Chapman rounds out Death Week on The Spinoff with a final recommendation. You can read all of our Death Week coverage here. Nothing forces you to reflect on your life and relationships quite like proximity to death. For those whose nearest and dearest have died, there are reasonably obvious ...
Whitney Greene takes us through her life in television, including the TV character she’d like to plan a funeral for and her cow lung catastrophe on The Traitors NZ. “If the phone rings, I have to answer it,” Whitney Greene from The Traitors NZ warns as we begin our My ...
Maddie Ballard reviews the debut essay collection of Pōneke writer Flora Feltham.In ‘The Raw Material’, the longest essay in Flora Feltham’s dazzling debut collection, the author heads out for a run after hours of weaving and sees the world turn to textile. “Pounding along the Parade, I saw the ...
Andy Christiansen, one half of the experimental rock-pop duo TRiPS, shares the tunes inspiring the band’s perfect weekend and new release. “Good speakers, good food, good music, no distractions”: that’s all you need to enjoy the psychedelic stylings of TRiPS, a new band formed by Fly My Pretties’ Barnaby Weir ...
Celebrating our quadrennial opportunity to become experts in a bunch of sports we never normally watch.The games of the XXXIII Olympiad are upon us. Paris will host this year’s showcase of sporting and athletic prowess, which means some late-night and early-morning viewing for us in Aotearoa.But what sports ...
The photograph is striking and beautiful, but also disturbing – a reminder that my love for John was often entangled in shame.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.In the spring of 1980, in Dunedin, shortly before his death, someone took a photograph ...
Get to know Babushka, our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Babu’s humans, Jo and Isabel, for their support. Dog name: Babushka (Babu for short) Age: 2Breed: Border Collie X poodleIf rescued, ...
Pacific Media Watch A Lebanese photojournalist who was severely wounded during an Israeli air strike in south Lebanon carried the Olympic torch in Paris this week in honour of her peers who have been wounded and killed in the field — especially in Gaza and Lebanon. Christina Assi of Agence ...
The first report in a five-part web series focused on the 15th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women taking place in the Marshall Islands this week.SPECIAL REPORT:By Netani Rika in Majuro Women continue to fight for justice 70 years after the first nuclear tests by the United States caused ...
Christopher Luxon has joined with Australia and Canada's leaders in voicing support for US President Joe Biden's ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The 2022 election brought the “teal wave” into parliament. The next election will test whether teals, who occupy what were Liberal seats, and other independents can maintain their momentum. Joining us on the Podcast ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Musgrave, Senior lecturer in Pharmacology, University of Adelaide Pixavri/Shutterstock A major Federal Court class action has been dismissed this week after Justice Michael Lee ruled there was not enough evidence to prove the weedkiller Roundup causes cancer. Plaintiff Kelvin ...
In The Week in Politics: politicians have to decide what to do about child abuse, Health NZ is booked in for major surgery and Darleen Tana returns. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Corbould, Associate Professor, Contemporary Histories Research Group, Deakin University Mainstream media are surprisingly muted at the prospect of the world’s most powerful nation being led for the first time by a woman – specifically a woman of colour, Vice President Kamala ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rebecca Bennett, PhD Student, Associate Research Fellow, Deakin University Last week, a drone delivery company called Wing (owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet) started operating in Melbourne. Some 250,000 residents in parts of the city’s eastern suburbs can now order food from ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan Foo, Lecturer, Physiotherapy, Monash University pikselstock/Shutterstock In the next 40 years in Australia, it’s predicted the number of Australians aged 65 and over will more than double, while the number of people aged 85 and over will more than triple. ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexandra Jones, Program Lead, Food Governance, George Institute for Global Health wavebreakmedia/Shutterstock On Thursday, Australian and New Zealand food ministers at state, federal and national levels met to thrash out what’s next for health star ratings on packaged foods. Now, after ...
The Abuse in Care report found many Pacific survivors lost their connections to their culture and language, resulting in trauma that has been carried from generation to generation. ...
In the regulatory review, ECC intends to suggest that ERO focus on curriculum delivery reviews rather than the Ministry, because it’s not efficient or effective to have two agencies with radically different approaches climbing over each other. ...
Te Rūnanga Nui o Ngā Kura Kaupapa Māori invites the current government to work in partnership with them to develop a pathway forward, including the development of a parallel pathway and meaningful policy and strategy for Kura Kaupapa Māori ...
If you haven’t started watching yet, Tara Ward begs you to reconsider. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. In the world of New Zealand reality television, we have many gems in our crown. There’s the delicious second season of the Celebrity Treasure ...
A new poem by Fiona Kidman. The clothes of the dead I did not keep my mother’s furry red beret for long nor the stringy scarves that adorned the necks of my aunts, although I have kept tag ends of gold, the rings and trinkets they wore, the brooches no ...
The government’s announcement that it will re-open the foreshore and seabed controversy by changing the rules on recognising centuries-old Māori customary title for a third time goes against the rule of law and New Zealand values,” Mr Tipa says. ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Lioness by Emily Perkins (Bloomsbury, $25) Roarrrr! Perkins’ brilliant, award-winning, Marian-Keyes anointed, darkly funny, long ...
The 2004 Act vested ownership of the foreshore and seabed in the Crown, extinguishing any Māori claims to ownership and causing widespread outrage and protests among Māori communities. ...
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From Lewis Clareburt in the swimming to the start of the rowing – the first seven days of Paris 2024 promise to be big for New Zealand. There are few events that bring the country together quite like an Olympic Games. Nothing quite matches the excitement of getting up in ...
Groundbreaking local science just showed up in the most surprising of places: the season finale of The Kardashians. In the season five finale of The Kardashians last night, several members of the family gathered together in one of their signature empty, cream-coloured rooms to hear test results that had been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Saikal, Emeritus professor of Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies, Australian National University The Middle East is on the brink of a possibly devastating regional war, with hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah reaching an extremely dangerous level. Washington has engaged in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Elizabeth Eades, Rheumatologist, Monash University Lupus is an inflammatory autoimmune illness, where the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks itself. Lupus can affect virtually any part of the body, although it most commonly affects the skin, joints and kidneys. The symptoms ...
A law firm that specialises in working with survivors of abuse in State care is disappointed that the Government fails to recognise that its boot camps can be directly compared to previous boot camps from the 1990s and 2000s. ...
Dying is a natural part of life, like updating your Wof or seeing your hairdresser, but without the word-of-mouth recs that help guarantee a good service. What if we changed that? Dying Reviews received by The Spinoff have had the names of organisations redacted while Hospice NZ collects further data. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonti Horner, Professor (Astrophysics), University of Southern Queensland Mike Lewinski/Flickr, CC BY On any clear night, if you gaze skywards long enough, chances are you’ll see a meteor streaking through the sky. Some nights, however, are better than others. At ...
Despite having no bars or other designated spaces for lesbians, Auckland boasts a small but mighty lesbian museum. So how did it get here? The past 18 months has brought increasing hostility towards the queer community across Aotearoa. Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull’s anti-trans rally in Tamaki Makaurau last March led to a ...
Poneke Antifascist Coalition has invited Wellingtonians to stand in solidarity with the Kanak people at 12pm today outside the French Embassy in Wellington. ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lee White, Senior Lecturer and Horizon Fellow, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Sydney Australia was slow to introduce minimum building standards for energy efficiency. The Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme (NatHERS) only came into force in 2003. Older homes ...
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A night of karaoke and community in a pub that feels like a memory. You’d barely even notice it, unless you knew to look. Tucked away behind a liquor store on busy Constable Street is the capital’s last great pub. Newtown Sports Bar is an emblem of the pub culture ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Wright, Professor in Marine Geology, University of Canterbury Louise Corcoran/Getty Images The decline in the number of doctoral candidates at New Zealand universities is a worrying sign for the country’s effort to build a knowledge-based economy. Aotearoa New Zealand’s ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vaughan Cruickshank, Senior Lecturer in Health and Physical Education, University of Tasmania Paris is about to host its third summer Olympics. While we don’t yet know what the legacy of this year’s games will be, let’s take the opportunity to reflect on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hugh Breakey, Deputy Director, Institute for Ethics, Governance & Law, Griffith University In the wake of the assassination attempt on former US President Donald Trump, there were calls from bothsides of US politics, as well as internationally, to reduce the brutal, ...
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Dying is inevitable and, so it seems, is it costing a lot, writes Stewart Sowman-Lund in today’s extract from The Bulletin. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here.The cost of dying ...
The government took Joyce Harris's first baby and sent her off to a girls' home. Half a century on - and out of oceans of hurt - it asked her to be a mother figure. ...
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If there is going to be a new Conservative / Christian Party ..
Then they will need renounce those parts of the Bible that condemn Gays to hell ..
Like the Israel Folau outrage expressed..
But it wont happen will it. So neither the christians nor the outraged have credibility.
Over to Bridges and Ngaro…
Hi Vto
I do not recall Christ sending Gays to Hell.
Nor do I recall Christ playing Rugby Union.
However, HIV is still a big problem in our Society. Have you heard of that ?
Why bring up HIV? Curious, did Jesus mention HIV?
It must be big in rugby or something. I'm sure the preachers are on it.
Split the National Party vote.
Blue/Greens, New Conservatives, Ngaro Christian Party, Act Party.
That's a great plan. National might poll in the 20's on a good day.
Funny how the religious right are so selective in their reading of the Bible.
"Gays are unnatural and doomed to hell!"
The whole rich man going to heaven thing…..silence
LOL.
Along with usery.
"Talks between Labour and the government aimed at breaking the Brexit impasse have ended without an agreement." https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-48304867
What's stopping them find common ground? Corbyn "said his party had negotiated "in good faith and very seriously, and put forward a lot of very detailed arguments", which he thought was "the responsible thing to do". He added: "The issue [is] that the government has not fundamentally shifted its view and the divisions in the Conservative Party mean the government is negotiating with no authority and no ability that I can see to actually deliver anything.""
"Speaking after meeting Tory activists in Bristol, Mrs May said: "There have been areas where we have been able to find common ground, but other issues have proved to be more difficult. In particular, we haven't been able to overcome the fact that there isn't a common position in Labour about whether they want to deliver Brexit or hold a second referendum to reverse it."
In other words, there's obvious common ground: equivocation & disunity in both wings of the establishment. A common quicksand – no basis upon which to proceed.
Or to return to a frequent theme, this is a direct consequence of globalisation lacking common principles and democratic accountability.
Our physical reality is a world with 7 billion people that is one species rapidly converging as a single geo-social polity. Trade, travel, communication and a myriad of legal, commercial and technical mechanisms compel us into connection, yet the nation states have been unable to deliver an effective political mechanism to match.
Until we do expect more quicksand everywhere.
We've lived in an era in which there have been more and more powerful multilateral organizations and binding agreements across the known world than since the Christian church. Most of them formed in the last 70 years.
May and Corbyn simply don't believe in the best and most complex of these: the E.U.
Good point. You are quite correct, I carelessly glossed over that.
May and Corbyn simply don't believe in the best and most complex of these: the E.U.
Yet neither of these people are fools, nor all the aprox 50% of Britons who voted for Brexit. The question has to be why do they not believe in it? My answer is that we have yet to fully embrace the idea of globalisation as an moral idea. We believe in our families, our communities (whatever form they may take) and the nations we're citizens of yet somehow the next logical step, a belief in the organic unity of the human race, eludes us.
Stiglitz' 'Globalisation And Its Discontents' covers most of this ground.
I think we're about as unified as a human race as we are going to get, and we've done pretty well at it. Importantly we prefer the nation-state a the most powerful and enduring of the collective.
And honestly we expect too much from any one cross-national agreement, the CPTPP being a fairly strong recent one with buckets of extra moral suasion thrown in at the end to keep us happy.
I certainly expect the nation state to endure. Human history can be roughly modeled as successive extensions of our ability to unite. We started with modest family clan and tribal units, then built layers onto them, the village, the city state and currently the nation. It's crucial to recognise that each new layer incorporated and enhanced the ones that came before.
For instance, when the family/tribal unit is the largest political unit you have to work with, everything must be solved at that level. The appearance of the nation state far from being a constraint, liberated the family unit.
At this moment in history all the big problems we face are global in nature. Only when we have the political mechanisms at that scale to address them, will the nation states be liberated to reach their full and unsuspected potential.
And thanks for the Stiglitz link. Yes worth a read by the looks.
“The main message of Globalization and its Discontents was that the problem was not globalization, but how the process was being managed. Unfortunately, the management didn’t change. Fifteen years later, the new discontents have brought that message home to the advanced economies.”
https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/globalization-new-discontents-by-joseph-e–stiglitz-2016-08
The global agreements that will bind nations to reverse the great global problems won't exist. We've pushed human cooperation as far as it's going to get. There's plenty of juice left in the existing organizations if they were supported. You can probably name good examples.
But there are plenty of other mechanisms that are more powerful than national and multinational agreements. The most powerful of them are markets, and many of those are already regulated in the broader interest very well.
Other mechanisms exists in only two of the most powerful countries we have: China and the United States. China's Belt and Road initiative for example. Plenty of faults, but no lack of international ambition or will.
Further mechanisms for global consensus exist in social media. Trump has led the way on how strong this mechanism is.
Even Ardern+Macron's Christchurch Call shows that agreement can simply start from fresh events. It's not a breakthrough, but it's a dent.
I don't think there's any need to wait until a global government arrives.
We've pushed human cooperation as far as it's going to get.
Yet this same statement could have been made by any of the tiny warlord duchy states prior to the emergence of say the unified German state.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_historic_states_of_Germany
Britain went through much the same turbulent era, such as the War of the Roses, as it transitioned from city state level of social unity to the nation state. Achieving a broader level of social cohesion never an easy process, and encounters much resistance. This isn't necessarily a bad thing; not all new forms are necessarily a good thing. It's wise that we should test the new before we commit irreversibly.
Yet there is a deep paradox in human social organisation. We value our freedom and independence, yet in isolation we perish. It's a terrible contradiction, but in order to gain true liberty we must first surrender part of our freedom. For example, in order to make the best use of a road we must collectively abide by the constraints of a road code. If we each retained the right to randomly choose whichever side of the road to drive on each morning, collectively the result would render them catastrophically useless.
Collectively we all share a planet and the nation states have reached the point where each must surrender a part of their sovereignty in order to evolve to their next step. Until then we're stuck in escalating cycles of mismanaged globalisation, confrontation and conflict.
I do agree with your last sentiment; waiting for a fully functioning federated global government is not necessary; there are many incremental steps along the way that can be achieved. The EU was as you say one of the better attempts.
Germany is a Federation within a Community.
It is Germany's sense of postwar cross-national amity that sought a structure of cooperation that would stop all future wars, and that evolved from the EC to the EU we have today.
The E.U. is still expanding, so that impulse is still alive. But barely.
So the historical circumstance is pretty different to what you point to.
I'm still waiting for the Pacific Islands to figure that their tiny non-sustaining little fiefdoms are better amalgamated into a pan-national confederation. They've got plenty to fight for after all.
In the meantime New Zealand needs to keep dear, dear hold of that special relationship with Australia. That's as close as we're going to get to Federation with something of any heft.
So the historical circumstance is pretty different to what you point to.
In the normal course of events you are right, the impulse toward higher levels of cooperation is fitful and unsatisfying.
But every now and then, such as in the aftermath of WW1 and WW2, we have a moment of clarity, when in horror and shame at what we have done, we take a decisive step.
We have a choice, doing this the hard way, or the very horrifyingly traumatic way. But it will happen, because the alternatives to my mind are not acceptable.
Seems to me it's the difference between ideal & reality. United Europe is an excellent idea. The consequent eurocracy has alienated too many people. Just as the United Nations was an excellent idea, discredited by dysfunction.
What's necessary in high-level political organisations is appropriate design, followed by smooth operation. Design flaws and malfunctions must be eliminated as they appear. Instead, the human tendency to instutionalise such problems kicks in. The tacit assumption `fixing it is too hard' prevails. We need to empower fixers. Democracy selects non-fixers.
We've lived in an era in which there have been more and more powerful multilateral organizations and binding agreements across the known world than since the Christian church. Most of them formed in the last 70 years.
Very powerful and ubiquitous these new religions eg Harari (sapiens)
“The capitalist and consumerist ethics are two sides of the same coin, a merger of two commandments. The supreme commandment of the rich is ‘Invest!’ The supreme commandment of the rest of us is ‘Buy!’ The capitalist–consumerist ethic is revolutionary in another respect. Most previous ethical systems presented people with a pretty tough deal. They were promised paradise, but only if they cultivated compassion and tolerance, overcame craving and anger, and restrained their selfish interests. This was too tough for most. The history of ethics is a sad tale of wonderful ideals that nobody can live up to. Most Christians did not imitate Christ, most Buddhists failed to follow Buddha, and most Confucians would have caused Confucius a temper tantrum. In contrast, most people today successfully live up to the capitalist–consumerist ideal. The new ethic promises paradise on condition that the rich remain greedy and spend their time making more money and that the masses give free reign to their cravings and passions and buy more and more. This is the first religion in history whose followers actually do what they are asked to do. How though do we know that we'll really get paradise in return? We've seen it on television.”
I've been waiting to see how long it would take for kiwi entrepeneurs to rise to the challenge of waste recycling since the early eighties. It's finally happened!
"New Zealand's soft packaging recycling scheme is about to start up again on Monday, after being suspended last year when global recycling options dried up." https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2019/05/soft-packaging-recycling-scheme-relaunches-in-new-zealand.html
"When China stopped taking plastic in 2018, it had a knock-on effect. Our soft plastics had been going to Australia but with a global market flooded with plastic, we can no longer rely on overseas processors and are forced to manage our own waste. Soft plastic has no commercial value and is difficult to repurpose."
"That's where Jerome Wenzlick steps in. He's a farmer and fencer who came up with an idea while putting up fencing at a rubbish dump. "We were putting wooden posts into the ground and the posts were snapping and we thought why don't we make some posts out of the plastic that's in the ground," he told Newshub. He's set up a company called Future Post and since the start of the year, he's recycled 300 tonnes – that's 75 truck loads."
"The soft plastic is sorted and granulated, then mixed with milk bottles, before going through a New Zealand-designed and built extruder to melt and reform it into fence posts. The equivalent of 550 plastic bags goes into making each post."
Thanks Dennis, a bit of good news that includes atypical ingenuity.
Is is going too far to call it plastic sequestering?![wink wink](https://cdn.ckeditor.com/4.11.3/full-all/plugins/smiley/images/wink_smile.png)
If this gets off the ground maybe they could talk to each other:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/111784322/feilding-could-home-new-zealands-first-plastic-reprocessing-centre#comments
Fancy a district council being that enterprising! "It's up to the Manawatū District Council to persuade the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment after the provincial development unit handed it $81,000 to put together a business plan."
I hope the economics is viable. Fits in with regional development too eh? Not many jobs but they all help. I wouldn't trust the MBIE to necessarily get it right though.
If they fail to approve it, the MDC ought to pay a leading economic consultancy to appraise the plan too, to identify whatever the design flaw is, or it exists merely in the minds of bureaucrats, formulate a contrary analysis in support of it which the MDC could then submit directly to the minister for regional development – or the minister for the environment, perhaps. Because a viable scheme could be copied in other regions…
This, or any other proposal, when a district council is involved, can only succeed when it doesn't clash with councillor's own vested interests.
So to have councils being the ones to tackle climate change, doesn't fill me with hope especially the provincial councils.
Yes, that's a realistic view of local body politics. And why the MDC initiative is so unusual. To be optimistic, one could also anticipate a copycat effect, which is likely if the scheme works. That would provide a progressive trend.
Is the Christchurch killer a terrorist, or a white person?
Both I would have said.
he is both,
a white supremist terrorist.
there, that was not hard.
The White supremacist shooter is only being charged with 'murder'.
Tam Iti, who is not white, was charged with terrorism.
Despite not killing, or even threatening to kill, anyone.
A double standard?
Guilty of terrorism until proven white?
I will repeat the question, and enlarge on it.
Is the Christchurch killer a terrorist, or a white person?
Are white people, not terrorists by definition?
How can anyone explain this discrepancy?
While agreeing that the way Tame Iti was treated was appaĺling and most certainly had a racist element to it, the major flaw in your argument is that he couldn't be charged with murder, having not killed anyone! Besides, the murder charge for the Chch perpetrator is, as I understand it, only an initial charge and there is more to come. I think you are comparing apples with oranges
…the major flaw in your argument is that he [Tama Iti] couldn't be charged with murder, having not killed anyone! JanM
Hi Jan,
I didn't argue, that Tama Iti should have been charged with murder. That would have obviously been completely ridiculous, (almost as completely ridiculous as charging him with terrorism).
I contended that if Tama Iti could be charged with terrorism, (despite not terrorising anyone), then the Christchurch white supremacist must be charged with terrorism, after oganising and planning an attack that killed 51 innocent New Zealand men women and children.
I further contend; that to not to charge this white supremacist with committing a terrorist act would represent a racist double standard.
….the murder charge for the Chch perpetrator is, as I understand it, only an initial charge and there is more to come. JanM
Jan you are absolutely right, the police can bring extra charges under the Suppression Of Terrorism. But will they?
Can a white person be a terrorist in New Zealand, or not?
The whole world is watching.
I am hopeful that this white supremacist mass murderer, will face extra charges laid under the Suppression Of Terrorism Act.
I hope that I am not proved wrong.
I suspect (though don't know) that if hes charged with murder its probably because charging him with terrorism might be problematic in getting the conviction whereas 51 counts of murder will certainly be easier to prove
I understand that is correct. Much easier to get a conviction for multiple murders.
to be honest you need to take that up with the current government not me.
to me he is a white supremacist and a terrorist and a mass murderer and an all around shitheel.
Any other question you may have you need to address with those that make the rules and that ain't me.
As for the privilege that white people have i have on more then on occasion addressed the fact that us white people have it, want it and are currently crying big tears about the fact that we are loosing it. And again, my position is that white people should never have had that privilege in the first place and in the case of many countries only got to be the top dog by systematically killing and eradicating the first nations by point of gun, with the help of chicken pox invested blankets, starvation, stolen generations and so forth.
As for those that cry over lost 'equality' in this country of any other 'white' country, i would like to point out that people of color, and women/children of all colors never were considered 'equal', never had 'equal rights' and certainly did not have the 'equal protection' accorded to white men in the courts of law and public opinion.
I hope this answers all your question for now.
You haz questions. The esteemed and learned Professor Geddis haz answers.
Go to https://www.pundit.co.nz/ and scroll down to March 16, 2019. (the URL for the article contains the fuckwit's name so it gets caught in the moderation trap here)
tl;dr Charging the fuckwit with terrorism involves trying to prove stuff like state of mind that's much more difficult to prove than the bare facts of his murderous actions. In any case, getting a conviction for terrorism on top of the murders won't have any material effect on what his sentence is likely to be. So yes, that shows the terrorism law is not fit for purpose and needs to be changed.
it wont have any material effect on sentencing but it will set precedent (and unfortunately provide platform) ….if this isnt a terrorist act then what is?…is that a question worth asking including removal of some future defendant using a lack of charge in this instance as a potential defence?
currently in the US
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/5/17/1858446/-Republican-Party-Is-on-the-Road-to-Mass-Lockups-for-Women-Who-Have-Miscarriages-by-Thom-Hartmann?utm_campaign=recent
"During Mike Pence’s first year as governor of Indiana, his state put a young woman in prison for having a miscarriage, alleging that she’d taken an abortion-causing drug. Purvi Patel didn’t have a trace of such a drug in her system, but Pence’s state sentenced her to 20 years in prison anyway. Just a few years earlier, Indiana had also held Bei Bei Shuai for 435 days in the brutal maximum security Marion County prison, facing 45 years to life for trying to kill herself and, in the process, causing the death of her 33-week fetus.
Utah charged 28-year-old Melissa Ann Rowland with murder because she refused a C-section, preferring vaginal birth for her twins, and one of them died. Sixteen-year-old Rennie Gibbs was charged by the state of Mississippi with “depraved heart murder” when her baby was born dead because his umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck: her crime was that she had cocaine in her bloodstream, according to prosecutors. Angela Carder was ordered to have a C-section to deliver her baby before she died of cancer; both she and the baby died from the procedure."
yeah, lets all just mock the idea of some religious zealots having a party in NZ and getting a say in Parliament because the Party of No mates is run by wet toast covered in margarine.
Cause we absolutely should not look to what happens in other countries and wonder if we want the same shit happening here.
Geez, that is horrific Sabine..
Sabine (5) this is shocking! Yet they are out there, those "Christian" zealot conservative white males, wanting complete control over vulnerable women and girls. Demonstrating total ignorance of the highest order!
I'd be interested to know if the same cruel rules and actions would apply to the wives, daughters and granddaughters of the sadistic, vile Mike Pences of the world, whose rabid and dangerous mindsets belong back in the dark ages and before that even.
NZers have to be very alert as to who/what creeps into our political system, particularly when it comes to electing representatives.
the whole point is not to give married women grief (at least for now), but to harrass unmarried women who may only have sex for fun or so and force them back under the tutelage of Daddy until given over to Hubby at the church. Ownership over women and children is the whole point. The fetus is just the tool to achieve that.
in saying that, if you look at south america you will see that many women already are in prison for having miscarriages/or self induced abortions as the doctors don't want to incriminate themselves or simply report them to police and ……..locking up some poor women is just easier then proving solutions that would allow women access to science based healthcare, prenatal care, and / or simply the right to live a live save of sexual predators.
https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-24532694
https://www.thenation.com/article/ecuador-abortion-miscarriage-prosecution/
Tracey Watkins swansong????
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/112809543/palaces-protests-prime-ministers-and-a-donald-trump-hat–memories-ive-got-a-few
I faced it all and I stood tall; I did it my way.
She certainly managed to demonstrate an inteĺlectual bypass. Facile and disingenuous
Indeed
"Clark moved in artistic circles but probably didn't have an arty bone in her body" (pfft!)
and of Key "Behind the humour and optimism was a sharp financial brain" I presume she means in a Nick Leeson kind of way
I'm hoping she's not going to be put on the RNZ goto list of rent-a-voices – it's been under a big enough threat as it is.
Humbling to realise that decades of experience in a job does not necessarily make you any wiser. We deserve better.
We do deserve better, but we rarely get it. Most journalists, in this country anyway, are certainly members of the B team 😣
Modern, innovative learning environment in re-born Christchurch.
Police have been called in after a pig in the school's petting zoo had a stick stuck up its bum.
At the very least the children should have been taught how to slaughter and prepare the pig before putting it on the spit.
Seriously, is this school an anomaly, or is this the reality for education today?
An in depth article which gathers opinions from both sides.
Many staff who had their own children enrolled had since removed them, they said.
"I know those leaders were really intent on believing in the school philosophy but at the end of the day, after under two years, they just couldn't sacrifice their beloved kids.
"They [Haeata management] developed a philosophy without knowing the kids. They left out the most important thing."
Kai Fong said that every staff member had the opportunity to give feedback and meet face to face with the board if they chose.
Relief teacher Nadine Garrett liked Haeata's environment but said it wasn't right for everyone.
"I felt really sorry for the traditional teachers, they felt like they were just floating."
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/112671944/pet-pig-assaulted-by-christchurch-school-students
Personally, I'd find the noise in a classroom of 300 self -directed learners unbearable and while its laudable for the school to use incidences of bullying as a learning opportunity it appears it is not doing much to reduce the level of violence.
Shameful experiment tried out on the poorest people in town
Unbelievable
Why didn't the education department try it out in Remuera? Or Fendalton? Or Max Key's school?
Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why?
We all know the answer. Fuck the rich.
'We all know the answer. Fuck the rich.'
Do tell – how is this 'the rich's' fault ?
While you're at it who are there 'rich' ?
Perhaps in this instance the MoE was trying to do the right thing and the school in question just lacked the appropriate leadership and governance.
It's going to take a while and a lot of training to bring mainstream teachers to a point where they can operate successfully in an environment like this. Its basic kaupapa would appear to be similar to the ec Te Whariki curriculum and is common sense to us (I am ece trained ) but very scary, I would think, to a lot of the 'chalk and talk' brigade. By the way, I would never leave animals unprotected in any environment around children, no matter what their backgrounds. The inability to show kindness and compassion is most emphaticaĺly not confined to any one class or ethnicity.
Headmaster…
Kai Fong said there was no evidence to suggest the rate of violence was higher at Haeata than other schools and he believed there was an "inherent bias" against the east side of Christchurch. "I think the preconception of more violence here is unjustified."
However, he said a proportion of Haeata's pupils struggled to "engage consistently in learning" and some "do not have the requisite social and emotional skills to be fully functional in learning".
A former teacher recalled incidents in 2017 when a glass object was thrown near an itinerant teacher and smashed. She was also told to "f… off, you b….," while being swung at with a traffic patrol pole by a 5-year-old. Children threw scooters, rode bikes inside, and there was constant swearing and verbal abuse.
As a result, the teacher took two terms off with post-traumatic stress, and had private counselling for 12 weeks.
The following year, the school sought police help to change the culture. The "highly successful initiative" focused on "pro-social behaviours" with girls at Haeata.
It seems counterintuitive to have a bunch of kids with known behavioural and learning difficulties in such an open plan environment. Too much noise and distraction and it would be damn near impossible to concentrate. I wonder if (in these days of mainstreaming kids with learning/behavioural issues) they have a squadron of teacher aides,or if they have 'special' rooms where those kids that are struggling can go for quiet time.
It would be interesting to know the make up of the kids being pulled from Haeata.
Kids with parents who give a toss I guess.
”We all know the answer. Fuck the rich.”
thats the the kind of comment often made by people who are far from rich and normally because of their own actions.
Stop being so bitter.
Experience in how politicians and government interact with the rich, relative to how they interact with the poor, points directly to such a school never being allowed to be experimented in Remuera or Fendalton.
Wake up.
No apology, but yes plenty of bitterness. All very real. Is why society is cleaving down the middle. Fuck the rich and their politicians.
An inane response that one can only pontificate a real looser that is looking for sone one to blame re their lot
Why is the word "loser" so hard to spell?
I note that loose spelling too.
This quote confirms a comment I made the other day about the difficulties that teachers have these days.
But a former teacher said teaching was impossible because they would spend their time wrangling naughty students. "I can't believe what a bad teacher I became," they said.
If this is an experimental school it has too big a roll. Nearly a thousand children can't be thrown together with the emphasis on them finding their own preferences.
I was waiting in the library at school while one of my children was in a class decades ago and the kids were supposed to be using the library facilities and looking at the range of books. One boy got out a motor magazine and turned the pages making vroom,vroom noises. I was helping another who couldn't concentrate his mind because he wanted to watch his friend. Encouraging him to work out a plan for a short piece on what he remembered from a trip to California was very difficult. Distraction is no good for the 10 second attention span generation.
Is the National Party tearing itself apart? Here's a letter posted on kiwiblog today.
Chuck Bird
It will be interesting to see which National MPs respond.
To all National MP’s
As a National supporter for the past 47 years, I wish to voice my disgust at your actions in supporting the Government in the passing of the recent bill to make criminals of law abiding gun owners. I attended a recent meeting in Te Awamutu where MP’s Bishop and Kuriger were speaking about this very topic. I have never been in a group of people so hostile to anybody, let alone MPs. I would venture to say that about 300-350 people were there. Most would have been National party supporters. For how long, I can only guess. If they are like me, not for much longer, unless you change the way you are heading.
Your actions were despicable in casting aside the rights of law abiding citizens. All in the name of socialist ideology. I thought that was the purvue of the left. How wrong I am.
This will be posted on my blog site http://www.ysb.co.nz . It is a blog dedicated to upholding free speech and WAS a National Party support blog. Your actions mentioned above have seriously bought this support into question.
Your replies will be appreciated
Regards
Chris Roberts
MAY 18, 2019 9:10AM
well that is a bit of a stretch would you not think?
Consider that the only one type of weapon was outlawed and a few tools around ( i am not a gun enthusiast so am not too versed in that lingo) and that he still can own chickenshit loads of other weapons for his hunting and collecting needs.
So no, legal gun owner have not been criminalised, but a legal gun owner has mowed down 50 people and maybe he should think about that too.
But he is lucky, soon he can vote for a bunch of "Not National – but almost" Parties and all is good again.
Diddums to Chris. He can't be Rambo this weekend.
The 37 odd comments criticising Simon and the National Party are very telling.
https://ysb.co.nz/email-to-all-national-mps/#comments
Earlier today, I read the then 25 comments and they were so stereotypical of RWNJs that I thought that blog was an extremely well done parody of KB. Fact is stranger than fiction and reality is scarier than nightmares.
Australia goes to the polls.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/may/17/australian-election-day-guide-what-you-need-to-know
Watch the Oz election live here:
Hope the "Bob Bounce" carries Shorten home but GO THE GREENS.
Thanks!. I've been suffering Skoi News Stray ya.
They just had some fukwit on called Poida Duddin, Minstafa Homo Fears
The means of exchange need to be regulated as otherwise when it becomes an end to itself, value systems and directions are lead by donkeys towards cliffs.
https://www.dw.com/en/eu-fines-major-banks-1-billion-over-currency-cartels/a-48759642
It already is.
The systemic failing is that the regulators are the financial institutions.
They exist in a mutual symbiotic relationship to ensure the flows.
$1bn dollar fine is simply… good business for all involved.
It would seem likely that the majority of collusion that takes place with the use of financial bubbles in unproductive predatory capitalism would involve relatively concentrated/substantial actors rather than such endeavours being the co-operation of multitudes, so a small financial transaction tax system could be a good way to provide tag and trace info to that, which can then be graduated up down the chain when critical thresholds start to be traced before such acts are able to be followed through to completion.
FTT you think there is hope to get that?
Or are you just continuing the legendary oral history tradition so you can recite it to your great-grandchildren about the inglorious past.
"I don't know what the POINT is. … I don't think that it HELPS."
Incredibly, Jeremy Rose contends that Ben Shapiro was treated unfairly by Andrew Neil
Lately, RNZ National, Wednesday 15 May 2019, 10:30 pm
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/lately/audio/2018695310/midweek-mediawatch
Midweek MediaWatch
Jeremy Rose is this weeks Midweek Mediawatcher.
Rose delivers his mostly banal ruminations in a croaky basso profundo, his words larded with an extraordinarily high "um" and "y' know" count. Donovan's role is to meekly underscore Rose's philosophical gems occasionally with a supportive "Mmmm, mmmm."
EMIL DONOVAN: It's time for Midweek Media Watch, our weekly catch-up with the Mediawatch teeeeam, one of the Mediawatch team, to talk about all things media. Today it's Jeremy Rose's turn in the chair. Hullo, Jeremy.
JEREMY ROSE: Gid-daaaaay Emil, how ARE ya?
EMIL DONOVAN: Very well thank you. Ahhhh, what've you got for us this week?
JEREMY ROSE: Well I THOUGHT I'd start with the "power of the signature" you were just talking, y'know, about….
Rose spends an inordinate time talking about a woman's Facebook petition to change the Milo recipe. Donovan thinks this is a very serious topic: "It taps into the cultural zeitgeist, doesn't it," he observes.
Next topic: a Russian blogger called "Stalin Gulag" who operates on a site called Telegram. "It shows the importance of social media for holding the powerful to account," says Rose.
Rose says something about the need to break up Facebook, and then moves on to the distasteful topic of white supremacist sites like 8chan. He praises recent work on this by Max Towle and Patrick Gower. Rose plays a clip of Gower in fighting mood: "I'm ready for ANOTHER go with Stefan Molyneux and Lauren Southern." That cuts no ice with Jeremy Rose, however. He reckons that interviewing people like Molyneux and Southern is unwise—"these people are nonentities"—and akin to a prizefight.
So far, so humdrum. Then the interview with Jeremy Rose, who's billed as a media "expert", becomes foolish, bizarre, almost inexplicable. It turns out that Rose, who just a couple of minutes earlier talked grandly about "the importance of social media for holding the powerful to account", does not think that the mainstream media, i.e. the BBC, should hold the powerful or the influential to account at all. In fact, he says, there's no "point" in holding the words of a brutal racist against him in an interview. "I just don't think it HELPS", he croaks to an obviously unconvinced Donovan. Here, for those who can stomach pretentiousness and bewilderment dressed up as media commentary, is four minutes of Jeremy Rose's dire and dismal vaporing….
(For those listening on the audio link, the horror starts at the 19:33 mark)
JEREMY ROSE: …..so I really wanna know WHY you'd bother getting them on. And that kinda brings us to ANOTHER one that's had a bit of a sporting overtone. I think you were quite keen to talk about, which is the Ben Shapiro—
EMIL DONOVAN: Yes.
JEREMY ROSE: —interview. A well known, American, ultra-conservative, right wing commentator with a LOT of Twitter followers, I think, y'know, well over a million—
EMIL DONOVAN: Mmmm.
JEREMY ROSE: And he was interviewed on the BBC byyyyy, um—-
EMIL DONOVAN: Andrew Neil, the notorious hard-nosed interviewer Andrew Neil. Yeah this was a FASCINATING interview, wasn't it.
JEREMY ROSE: It, it really was. Shall we—let's, let's have a listen to a BIT of it.
JEREMY ROSE: Y-y-yeah, ha, so y' know, uh, it's gone VIRAL on the internet. Everyone, including ahhhh, Shapiro, say that it, that it was a DISASTROUS performance by him. He's tweeted, though, "Neil one, Shapiro zero." Again, that sporting kind of metaphor.
EMIL DONOVAN: Mmmmm.
JEREMY ROSE: Wanting a rematch. I don't think there was much in it, I don't think you LEARNT much, and I ACTUALLY think he had a KIND of point, whe-e-e-ere, that there was, y'know, when he was accused of being from the Dark Ages—
EMIL DONOVAN: Mmmm.
JEREMY ROSE: —which is obviously a metaphor. But it wasn't actually that HELPFUL, and it ended UP just being …. [long caesura]…. for want of a better word, a shit fight.
EMIL DONOVAN: Mmmm, mmmm.
JEREMY ROSE: A-and I'm NOT sure that that REALLY serves ANYBODY.
EMIL DONOVAN: Yeah, I know it was fascinating stuff wasn't it. It's um, yeeeahh, the idea that—I mean, it's a TEMPTING metaphor. Sporting metaphors ARE tempting when it comes to, to interviews like tha-a-a-at, because the, a confrontational interview can sometimes be NECESSARY, right? Y' know? And, and sometimes there IS a winner and a loser out of an interview. And sometimes people are satisfied by seeing that. But it's not necessarily a HELPFUL metaphor.
JEREMY ROSE: No-o-o-o. And I, and I, and that whole idea of kinda punching OUT and a winner. And that was how it was portrayed, because he kept THROWING these ABSOLUTELY obnoxious quotes which he had ma-a-a-ade—
EMIL DONOVAN: Mmmm.
JEREMY ROSE: —in the past at him, and asking him to DEFEND them. ….[long caesura]…. I don't know what the POINT is. If I hadn't seen the interview, I wouldn't know that this guy had made these racist, revolting comments about Arabs, about—- And I don't think that it HELPS, knowing that.
EMIL DONOVAN: Mmmm, mmmm.
JEREMY ROSE: Ahhhm, and he did have a BOOK out, I've got NO idea what he says in the book. There was nothing in it in the interview.
EMIL DONOVAN: Well I think this was the thing about it, that the book was about the rise of, um, extremist discourse, and, and, and ANGER within sort of SOCIETY and I think that Andrew Neil was pointing out the hypocrisy of the idea that Ben Shapiro would write a book about anger and society when he had contributed to it himself through his previous kinds of statements. But it's a very interesting kind of issue, isn't it—
JEREMY ROSE: Yeah.
EMIL DONOVAN: —and one that I imagine we won't see go away, because they always seem to be held up as SPECTACLES, these interviews, y'know….
JEREMY ROSE: I think that's exactly right. It, it, it's interviewers' performance. I think when we're dealing with things that matter as much as white supremacy, THAT's not the time to do that. To me-e-e-e-e, THAT's actually exactly what white supremacist type people would ENJOY.
EMIL DONOVAN: Mmmm, mmmm. It's sort of, yeah, the fuzzy line where information blurs into entertainment. Yeahhhh. Well, uh, Jeremy, thanks so much for that. Really appreciate it.
JEREMY ROSE: Oh thanks very much.
EMIL DONOVAN: Mediawatch's Jeremy Rose.
More Mediawatch mediocrity….
https://morrisseybreen.blogspot.com/2019/01/liars-of-our-time-no-27-lyse-doucet-i.html
Morrissey
1. Andrew Neil is an excellent interviewer. He has variously made mincemeat of Jeremy Corbyn, Diana Abbot, Natalie Bennett and many others. Andrew has no problem tackling those on the right of politics, it is just that generally the left provide easier targets.
2. Andrew underestimated Ben Shapiro's intellect, and his attack dog line about Georgia's abortion law was ill-informed and justified Ben's response. At the same time, Ben was clearly ill-informed about Andrew's interview style, and came across as petulant. That's a shame, because Ben is intellectually the superior of virtually anyone Andrew will have interviewed, and the exchange could have been far more productive if both men had been better prepared.
3. For anyone to suggest Ben Shapiro was treated 'unfairly' by Andrew Neil is nonsense. Ben has been interviewed countless times, he has spoken to openly hostile audiences and has faced de-platforming by the lefty snowflakes on US campus's. In short, he is tougher than the person you quote gives him credit for.
4. Take time to listen to what Ben Shapiro says. You might not agree with him, but unlike some of the crazies on both the left and right of politics, Ben is a sound thinker, who speaks a rational, conservative voice into the issues of the day.
He "made mincemeat" of Corbyn, did he? That seems unlikely.
I and I'm sure many others got a laugh from your comical assertion about Shapiro's great intellect.
Corbyn is a lightweight. No, I'll go further, he's a fool.
And it's a shame you have judged Shapiro without listening to him. You're the one missing out on that score.
I've listened to Shapiro, sadly. Unlike you, I've listened to him with a critical ear.
Your comment about Corbyn is as ridiculous as your insistence that Shapiro, that canting, brutal racist, is "a sound thinker."
Provide a single example of Ben Shapiro being 'racist'.
Watch the disastrous (for Shapiro) interview with Andrew Neil again. Neil reels off example after example of Nazi-quality filth, all of them direct quotes from Shapiro.
Disastrous? You are joking right?
And just over 16 minutes of video and you still haven't given a single example of Ben Shapiro being racist. Quote just one, Morrisey.
rofl, Oh my – just one.
"Arabs like to bomb shit, and live in garbage" – yeah that is racist.
Quote your source, and the context.
Are you really that stupid Shadrach?
It's from the video, which proves you either an idiot or bloody lazy…
Clearly nearly everything you've stated is wrong shadders. Lies or stupidity?
Wow you’ve just excelled yourself at hit and run.
You are excoriating Morrissey of all in broadcasting and media generally.
I hope someone pays you for all that. I don't think TS does, so whom?
You are excoriating Morrissey of all in broadcasting and media generally.
Your statement is demonstrably incorrect. A quick review of my oeuvre shows I am more than happy to praise ethical, talented and conscientious journalists—both locally and internationally. On this forum and on many others I have praised: Julian Assange, Max Blumenthal, Mihi Forbes, Juan González, Amy Goodman, Glenn Greenwald, Nicky Hager, Amira Hass, Paul Jay, Caitlin Johnstone, Gideon Levy, Selwyn Manning, Abby Martin, Aaron Maté, Matt Nippert, Paula Penfold, John Pilger, Laura Poitras, Jeremy Scahill, Jon Stephenson….
That's just a few off the top of my head, in alphabetical order. I've praised every one of them at least once, some of them many times.
I hope someone pays you for all that. I don't think TS does, so whom?
What difference does it make? Mike Hosking gets paid to produce his rubbish; all the easy money in the world doesn't give him an ounce of credibility.
Godbye world.
https://www.democracynow.org/2019/5/16/headlines/arctic_ocean_temperatures_soar_as_nearly_all_old_arctic_sea_ice_has_vanished Arctic Ocean
Temperatures Soar as Nearly All Old Arctic Sea Ice Has Vanished HEADLINEMAY 16, 2019
In climate news, temperatures near the entrance to the Arctic Ocean in northwest Russia reached a record-shattering 84 degrees Fahrenheit over the weekend, in an area where high temperatures are normally 30 degrees cooler this time of year. This comes as the National Snow and Ice Data Center recorded a record-low sea ice extent for the Arctic Ocean in April, noting that almost all of the sea ice more than four years old is gone. Over the weekend, meteorologists measured carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere at over 415 parts per million — the highest level in human history, and a concentration that’s not been seen on Earth in over 3 million years.
Some horribly fascinating things.
https://metro.co.uk/2019/05/16/moment-man-fined-90-hiding-face-police-facial-recognition-cameras-9571463/ The man pulled his jumper up above his chin as he walked past Met Police officers trialling Live Facial Recognition software in east London. BBC cameras filmed as officers swooped on the man, told him to ‘wind his neck in’ then handed him the hefty penalty charge.
A campaigner from Big Brother Watch – who were protesting the use of cameras on the day – was also filmed telling an officer: ‘I would have done the same.’
This not so bad. I am thinking that's a good design for a simple bus shelter. https://metro.co.uk/2019/05/17/bus-shelter-built-road-no-buses-9582629/
https://metro.co.uk/2019/05/15/bike-handle-stuck-woman-two-years-husband-shoved-vagina-9556829/ My summary – This shows how women get treated when they are not respected in a society and become helpless pawns. Husband intoxicated by alcohol – such a common drug abuse. Woman 30 has six children, can't have any more. Might be good for her in the long run – depends on husband. If she hasn't had boys he might put her aside.
https://metro.co.uk/2019/05/17/middle-class-murder-millions-birds-vacuumed-death-olive-picking-9584002/
Millions of birds are being sucked out of trees and killed each year to feed our olive oil habit. Iconic birds such as robins, warblers and wagtails have seen their numbers decimated because of intensive farming practices. Experts have warned the international community that it needs to act before legally-protected species disappear for good. During the winter months, birds from central and northern Europe, flock to the Mediterranean basin. At the same time, the olive oil harvest happens in Spain, France, Italy and Portugal…
Farmers use large and intensive harvesting machines at night to strip the trees of their fruit. However, the birds are sleeping in the trees and are getting sucked into the machines on a ‘catastrophic scale.’…But, 96,000 birds are known to die in Portugal every winter as a result of this technique.
RSPCA director of conservation, Martin Harper, said: ‘Numbers of farmland birds in Europe have plummeted by 55% over the last three decades and this is another shocking example of how modern agricultural practices are impacting our bird populations, including some UK species passing through the region.’
And koalas. This cant' be.
The Australian Koala Foundation has confirmed that, with only 80,000 members of the species left in the wild there isn’t enough to support a new generation.
They’ve declared the marsupial ‘functionally extinct’ which means the population has dropped so low it no longer has any effect on its surrounding environment. Koalas have too few breeding adults left to support the species and any kind of genetic disease or pathogen would put the final nail in the coffin.
Koalas are dying out due to effects caused by climate change. Rising temperatures are causing heatwaves that kill thousands of koalas through dehydration. The species has also suffered hugely from deforestation. According to the Australian Koala Foundation, there are no koalas left at all in 41 out of 128 Federal environments where they have known habitats.
https://metro.co.uk/2019/05/16/koalas-now-functionally-extinct-9565982/?ico=pushly-notifcation-small&utm_source=pushly
I suggest NZ sets up a fund to support the Koala Foundation and give the Australians a message that they need to both support their own vulnerable animals and the Kiwi people who live there and who they have arbitrarily arrested on spurious grounds and hold in camps against international law precedents. Maybe there will be some politicians who have integrity to do something for the Koalas and the Kiwis.
From the UK political scene.
Latest on Brexit and May-not. 17 May 2019
https://metro.co.uk/2019/05/17/prime-minister-theresa-may-tears-forced-say-will-quit-9580917/
Summary – May must go before June 30. Boris has put his name forward. Jeremy says that talks are not getting anywhere.
https://metro.co.uk/2019/05/17/neo-nazi-plotted-murder-mp-rosie-cooper-jailed-life-9583420/ 17May 2019 Summary – Young white youth – his ideas poisoned by evil ideas was planning to knife a woman MP. (Remember one woman MP was shot a few years ago.)
When you think these pricks had hit peak vileness.
Oklahoma state legislator Rep. Justin Humphrey is sponsoring a draconian bill, HB 1441, that would require a woman to get written permission from her sexual partner if she wants to have an abortion.
Attempting to justify the despicable legislation Rep. Humphrey told The Intercept that women have no right to bodily autonomy once they are pregnant because they are merely “hosts”:
https://www.patheos.com/blogs/progressivesecularhumanist/2017/02/oklahoma-lawmaker-men-must-approve-abortion-women-hosts/
As Colbert put it, "it's either an overreach by the Alabama gop or some pretty intense viral marketing for the new season of Handmaid's tale.
But wait, there's more.
The Missouri House has voted to approve some of the strictest abortion laws in the country, and because it's Missouri, the process somehow managed to include a Republican lawmaker defending the bill by talking about, sigh, "consensual rape."
[…]
It was on the issue of exceptions for rape victims that Hovis, a retired Cape Girardeau police lieutenant first elected to office in 2017, took his stand. He pointed out that "most of the rapes" that he saw in law enforcement didn't involve "gentlemen jumping out of bushes."
"Most of them were date rapes or consensual rapes," he continued, "which were all terrible, but I'd sit in court when juries would struggle with those situations, where it was a 'he-said-she-said,' which was unfortunate if it really happened."
Having suggested that rape is often no big deal — because hey, if it didn't happen at gunpoint, it's a real struggle for a jury to know what to do — Hovis finally seemed to find his point, which appeared to be that that rape victims would still have plenty of time, after the rape, to decide whether to get an abortion
https://m.riverfronttimes.com/newsblog/2019/05/17/missouri-lawmaker-cites-consensual-rapes-as-house-passes-abortion-bill
also this
https://rewire.news/article/2019/05/17/science-fiction-behind-ohio-reps-ban-insurance-ectopic-pregnancy/
it goes hand in hand with 'co-parenting rights for rapists ' . Cause …..something, reason, god, bullshit, and such.
well at least he understands that the dears actually believe they have a right to their bodies.
also hosts get pregnant and men have nothing to do with it until the host is pregnant and then the host needs permission from the man.
They used to call that shit slavery.
Rep. Humphrey told The Intercept that women have no right to bodily autonomy once they are pregnant because they are merely “hosts”:
That phrase "once they are pregnant" is redundant in context, said context being Rep. Humphrey's fucked-up opinions.
i know i know germans don't have a sense of humor, and they always only shout and the language is hard and what not….but
https://twitter.com/dw_sports/status/1128306663226843137?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dw.com%2Fcda%2Fen%2Fgermanys-women-we-dont-have-balls-but-we-know-how-to-use-them%2Fa-48776813
quote: we don't need balls, we have ponytails (actually Horsetails but then english:) ) .
is funny.
Some subtleties are always lost in translation. Good ad!
Who said Germans don't have a sense of humour?
If you're looking for someone without a humorous bone in her body, and lacking even a rudimentary sense of the ridiculous, you can't go past this thoroughly Anglo, non-German, fool (unfunny fool)….
you are one boring shit stirrer aren't you?
Sorry, I should have made it clear that some Germans do lack a sense of humour. You're a case in point.
no, you just looked for a reason to again post one of your pointless video clips.
it has nothing do to with what i posted, and it is so far removed from anything that really it is just your typical posting a shit video so that you can post a shit video.
and when it comes to you and your shit videos i am just bored and bored, and bored, and bored, and bored.
no, you just looked for a reason to again post one of your pointless video clips.
"Pointless"? You didn't get the point? Frankly, I'm not surprised.
it has nothing do to with what i posted,
In fact, it has everything to do with what you posted. In a fit of self-deprecation, you repeated the stupid falsehood that Germans "don't have a sense of humour." I helpfully steered you to an example of someone—a non-German— completely lacking any sense of humour, or absurdity, or even increasingly—it's been clear for more than two years now—any grasp of reality.
and it is so far removed from anything that really it is just your typical posting a shit video so that you can post a shit video.
???? You really can't understand that clip? Really?
and when it comes to you and your shit videos i am just bored and bored, and bored, and bored, and bored.
There are German writers I admire tremendously: Mann, Sebald, Roth. Your embarrassing and awkwardly phrased rants are not quite in their company, I'm sorry to say. Perhaps you should read a bit more, think a bit more, see if you can pick up a few stylistic tips from some of your compatriots who can actually write.
Fuck me, you asserted something I agree with! Jimmy Dore is indeed completely lacking in humour or even any grasp of reality.
I feel a bout of introprobation coming on.
You're a funny guy, Andre. Sharp as ….. oh, Sabine?
That sounds pretty serious, Andre.
It'll pass quickly. I hope.
It is gut-wrenching when it goes on for too long. Some sufferers are never the same again after a severe and long bout.
Laughter really helps alleviate the symptoms. The mozzie is doing sterling work supplying that.
And there's no warning when the impacted matter flares up to cause a fresh attack.
It's extremely serious. See, Andre is afflicted by these Russian bots, controlled by those Russian masterminds who control Trump, and …. hell, you know the rest. It's what Rachel Maddow says.
Thoughts and prayers, Andre. That evil Putin, darn him.
When somebody talks of Russian masterminds I always think of chess. Maybe one of my hypnotherapy sessions went wrong.
Hi Sabine It might have been one of my videos that you didn't like. Sorry. But I put them in as changes when the tone is too dark or it seems we need some light relief. They are just a break in between bouts of seriousness, or indeed slapstick occasionally.
I have no idea what you talk about.
Seriously. I actually don't watch tv, listen to the radio generally because it is full of shit and nothing much else.
I usually scroll by Morrisey as i don't see why i should read stuff that i don't listen or watch.
and when Morrisey posts a video i don't expect humor nor slapstick as generally he/she is about outrage and i can't be bothered.
So really i have no idea what you talk about. Sorry.
Well I did wonder about the video reference which seemed very strongly negative.
and when it comes to you and your shit videos i am just bored and bored, and bored, and bored, and bored.
And i thought it might be some of mine you were thinking of. But not. So I'll forget about it. Sorry to have confused you.
Sorry to have confused you.
You're a real gentleman, Mr Shark. But rest assured: unser guter freund Sabine has been confused and bewildered for a good two and a half years now. Sie kann dich nicht dafür verantwortlich machen.
Germans have a great sense of humour! Usually very dry and dark, but very funny.
Yep. I used to love one NDR programme in the mid-90s, can't remember what is was called now – everything absolutely deadpan, no clues you were supposed to find it funny, fuck it was good. Morrissey just lacks the self-awareness to recognise bigotry when he's indulging in it.
Sorry Milt, you've got the wrong end of the shoe here. It's our friend Sabine that's running down Germans, not me. I stuck up for them, having appreciated their music, literature, art, cinema, food, beer and, yes, their sense of humour for as long as I can remember.
Shit I shared a flat with one German in Toronto and he was the most "wooden "person with absolutely no detectable chararter at all.
was he from hamburg?
that would explain a lot.
Harrumph. Hamburg was full of highly entertaining loose units when I lived there. Maybe it's become more spiessig in the last 20 years?
nope, but they are special. Usually very formal, quite uptight until they know you. I guess its the cold and the rain.
Compare Bavarians and Hamburg'ers and its like English and Italians. Bavarians being the Italians. 🙂
but yeah, the northern humor is something to behold. I lived there for a while and it was a good time.
Does that include Israel?
The Trump administration has taken its war on abortion worldwide, cutting off all funding to any overseas organisation or clinic that will not agree to a complete ban on even discussing it.
The Mexico City policy, dubbed the “global gag” by its critics, denies US federal funds to any organisation involved in providing abortion services overseas or counselling women about them. It was instituted by the then US president Ronald Reagan and has been revoked by every Democrat and reinstated by every Republican president since.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/may/17/trump-takes-war-on-abortion-worldwide-as-policy-cuts-off-funds
https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/climate-news/112826745/parliaments-lone-protester-will-be-on-its-lawn-until-a-climate-emergency-is-declared
Cool guy. Follow him on https://www.instagram.com/thathumbleman/
“For the past three days, Ollie Langridge has sat on the lawn of Parliament, sitting on a bolster pillow wrapped in plastic, and holding a sign calling on the Government to declare a climate change emergency.
Langridge is a self-employed father of six, living in Thorndon with no political affiliation or ties to climate change advocacy groups – just a man worried about the future he's leaving for his children.
"I just see myself as a normal guy that doesn't know what to do and this is the best thing I could think of.”
DUM BRITONS
Exhibit 4: Kirsty Wark
Is there a stupider person in Britain than Kirsty Wark?
https://azvsas.blogspot.com/2019/05/eurovision-2019-madonnas-total.html
DUM BRITONS is compiled by Hector Stoop, for Daisycutter Sports Inc.
Collect ALL the Dum Britons….
1 Michael Gove; 2 Chris Leslie; 3 Sir Mark Thatcher.
https://morrisseybreen.blogspot.com/2018/11/dum-britons-exhibit-3-sir-mark-thatcher.html
Not all Germans lack a sense of humour, and not all Fox News hosts lack a heart and brain. Case in point: Geraldo Rivera
Poor old Dan Bongino is as bewildered and nasty as any of our own NewstalkZzzzzB hosts, however.
http://normanfinkelstein.com/2019/05/16/bongerinos-how-americans-talk-about-palestine/
Same old? same old from the Mozz, Zzzzzzz
Sleepy ol suburb with not much to do.. zzzz
heh
https://twitter.com/TheOnion/status/1129443052815360000
'Murica threatens to shoot down commercial airliners in the Arabian Gulf.
https://twitter.com/AJENews/status/1129657916116672513
So the US is officially a rogue state.
Arresting the last 4 peace activists in the Venezuelan Embassy in DC.
they have been a roque state for a long time now.