Will Slavoj Zizek be correct, that Trump will be so bad it will bring about the left revolution?
I suspect it’s more likely Dems will look at how far left they moved their platform because of pressure from Bernie, look at how hard-lefties still put more effort into bagging Clinton than fighting Trump and voted for Stein or stayed home, and conclude that trying to attract hard-lefties isn’t worth it. After all, Obama was quite centrist and look how popular he finished up.
And if they do ‘stay put’ as you seem to imply they will do, what do you think will happen, given that it appears that many younger voters are rejecting their essentially conservative approach? Do you think perhaps that after a substantial dose of Trumperism even the hard left will run back to mother? – Can’t see it myself!
I think the way hard-lefties didn’t support the Dems and Clinton even after they moved their platform a long way left is going to produce the really crap result of further reinforcing status quo politics and further reducing engagement and turnout, particularly among the young.
I can’t see the Dems emerging from the depths they have plunged to for a very long time. Imo they are corrupt to the core, just like the whole ” American Dream”.
Will Slavoj Zizek be correct, that Trump will be so bad it will bring about the left revolution?
No, he won’t. I hate these communist “After Hitler, us!” fucks. They’re happy to see right-wing authoritarian nationalists wrecking the country because the resulting cruelty and destabilisation may create the conditions for a boot stamping on a human face forever, sorry I meant a communist revolution.
.. do you mean the u.s.a boot stamping cruelty in south America and other places … under the guise of fighting communism ….. remember the u.s.a calls health systems like NZ has ‘communism’.
William Blum ‘killing hope’ : …… ” every socialist experiment of any significance in the twentieth century—without exception—has either been crushed, overthrown, or invaded, or corrupted, perverted, subverted, or destabilized, or otherwise had life made impossible for it, by the United States.
Not one socialist government or movement—from the Russian Revolution to the Sandinistas in Nicaragua, from Communist China to the FMLN in Salvador—not one was permitted to rise or fall solely on its own merits; not one was left secure enough to drop its guard against the all-powerful enemy abroad and freely and fully relax control at home.
It’s as if the Wright brothers’ first experiments with flying machines all failed because the automobile interests sabotaged each test flight. And then the good and godfearing folk of the world looked upon this, took notice of the consequences, nodded their collective heads wisely, and intoned solemnly: Man shall never fly. ” …
“” By the summer of 1918 some 13,000 American troops could be found in the newly-born Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Two years and thousands of casualties later, the American troops left, having failed in their mission to “strangle at its birth” the Bolshevik state, as Winston Churchill put it.”
————————————————————————-
and John stockwell : …. ” President Reagan allocated 19 million dollars to form an army, a force of contras, they’re called, ex-Somoza national guards, the monsters who were doing the torture and terror in Nicaragua that made the Nicaraguan people rise up and throw out the dictator, and throw out the guard. We went back to create an army of these people. We are killing, and killing, and terrorizing people. Not only in Nicaragua but the Congress has leaked to the press – reported in the New York Times, that there are 50 covert actions going around the world today, CIA covert actions going on around the world today.
“[When the U.S. doesn’t like a government], they send the CIA in, with its resources and activists, hiring people, hiring agents, to tear apart the social and economic fabric of the country, as a technique for putting pressure on the government, hoping that they can make the government come to the U.S.’s terms, or the government will collapse altogether and they can engineer a coup d’etat, and have the thing wind up with their own choice of people in power.
Now ripping apart the economic and social fabric of course is fairly textbook-ish. What we’re talking about is going in and deliberately creating conditions where the farmer can’t get his produce to market, where children can’t go to school, where women are terrified inside their homes as well as outside their homes, where government administration and programs grind to a complete halt, where the hospitals are treating wounded people instead of sick people, where international capital is scared away and the country goes bankrupt. ”
“The Indonesian covert action of 1965, reported by Ralph McGehee, who was in that area division, and had documents on his desk, in his custody about that operation. He said that one of the documents concluded that this was a MODEL operation that should be COPIED elsewhere in the world. Not only did it eliminate the effective communist party (Indonesian communist party), it also eliminated the entire segment of the population that tended to support the communist party – the ethnic Chinese, Indonesian Chinese. And the CIA’s report put the number of dead at 800,000 killed. And that was one covert action. We’re talking about 1 to 3 million people killed in these things. ”
“”Just to give you an example of how complete this is, and how military this has been, between 1900 and W.W. II, we had 5,000 marines in Nicaragua for a total of 28 years. We invaded the Dominican Republic 4 times. Haiti, we occupied it for 12 years. We put our troops into Cuba 4 times, Panama 6 times, Guatemala once, plus a CIA covert action to overthrow the democratic government there once. Honduras, 7 times. And by the way, we put 12,000 troops into the Soviet Union during that same period of time.”
The Narcissistic Billionaire Trump can be criticized for many many things …. but it seems bizarre to me that stopping or lowering The U.s.a’s role in feeding these death-spots with weapons and support is one of them.
How many people are aware of the war against russia which started in 1918 ?
.. do you mean the u.s.a boot stamping cruelty in south America and other places …
No, I mean the people Orwell was actually referring to when he wrote that phrase. Still, kudos for the lengthy apologia for the worst totalitarian regimes in the world’s history – most people are too duplicitous or have too strong a sense of shame to be up-front about it.
“Washington policy makers and diplomats saw the world out there as one composed of “communists” and “anti-communists”, whether of nations, movements or individuals. This comic-strip vision of the world, with righteous American supermen fighting communist evil everywhere, had graduated from a cynical propaganda exercise to a moral imperative of US foreign policy.
John Foster Dulles, one of the major architects of post-war US foreign policy, expressed this succinctly in his typically simple, moralistic way: “For us there are two sorts of people in the world: there are those who are Christians and support free enterprise and there are the others.”14 As several of the case studies in the present hook confirm, Dulles put that creed into rigid practice.”
Over 2 million Vietnamese Killed…. freedom???
800,00-1.5 million Indonesians Murdered …. and a natural partner for NZ according to our nZ mfat webpage … Joshua Oppenheimer’s description of present day Indonesia … Where workers get threatened with the death squads that killed their parents https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orD_WOrEN5o
And Sorry if I find John Stockwell,…. an ex cia officer …. to be more credible on cia/usa policy and actions …. than your opinions .. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmYZ_kWHk3Q
Nicaragua for Instance …….. “To destabilize Nicaragua beginning in 1981, we began funding this force of Somoza’s exnational guardsmen, calling them the contras (the counter-revolutionaries). We created this force, it did not exist until we allocated money. We’ve armed them, put uniforms on their backs, boots on their feet, given them camps in Honduras to live in, medical supplies, doctors, training, leadership, direction, as we’ve sent them in to de-stabilize Nicaragua.
They use terror. This is a technique that they’re using to traumatize the society so that it can’t function. I don’t mean to abuse you with verbal violence, but you have to understand what your government and its agents are doing. They go into villages, they haul out families. With the children forced to watch they castrate the father, they peel the skin off his face, they put a grenade in his mouth and pull the pin. With the children forced to watch they gang-rape the mother, and slash her breasts off. And sometimes for variety, they make the parents watch while they do these things to the children. This is nobody’s propaganda. There have been over 100,000 American witnesses for peace who have gone down there and they have filmed and photographed and witnessed these atrocities immediately after they’ve happened, and documented 13,000 people killed this way, mostly women and children. These are the activities done by these contras. The contras are the people president Reagan calls `freedom fighters’. He says they’re the moral equivalent of our founding fathers. ”
Sounds like Ukraine Banderist nazi methods if you ask me ….
You know the ones ….. resurrected and backed up by trade sanctions against their enemy’s … solidarity from little ol NZ
well you did say …. “kudos for the lengthy apologia for the worst totalitarian regimes in the world’s history – most people are too duplicitous or have too strong a sense of shame to be up-front about it.”
…are you unaware of approx 8000 unkraine SS officers given sanctuary and some even recruited by the us.a and other good guys after WWII??? …… Of the Banderist nazi flavor ….. some ended doing operations back home( killing/destroying ) …. and some taught torture.
Which brings me back to Nicaragua …. but I’d like to explore our/Nzs links with Indonesia more next time ….
Given our ‘natural partnership’ with them …. and the flurry of National party + business activity with this gangster nation ….before key made off …
********************************************
Ronny Raygun:”The Contras are the moral equivalent of our Founding Fathers.”
“The United States supported the brutal Somoza dictatorship in Nicaragua for over 40 years.
The Nicaraguan people, led by the Sandinistas, overthrew this regime in 1979, a breathtaking popular revolution.
Sandinistas
The Sandinistas weren’t perfect.
They possessed their fair share of arrogance and their political philosophy contained a number of contradictory elements.
But they were intelligent, rational and civilised.
They set out to establish a stable, decent, pluralistic society.
The death penalty was abolished.
Hundreds of thousands of poverty-stricken peasants were brought back from the dead.
Over 100,000 families were given title to land.
Two thousand schools were built.
A quite remarkable literacy campaign reduced illiteracy in the country to less than one seventh.
Free education was established and a free health service.
Infant mortality was reduced by a third.
Polio was eradicated.
Dangerous example was being set
The United States denounced these achievements as Marxist/Leninist subversion.
In the view of the US government, a dangerous example was being set.
If Nicaragua was allowed to establish basic norms of social and economic justice, if it was allowed to raise the standards of health care and education and achieve social unity and national self respect, neighbouring countries would ask the same questions and do the same things.
There was of course at the time fierce resistance to the status quo in El Salvador.
I spoke earlier about ‘a tapestry of lies’ which surrounds us.
Taken generally by the media
President Reagan commonly described Nicaragua as a ‘totalitarian dungeon’.
This was taken generally by the media, and certainly by the British government, as accurate and fair comment.
But there was in fact no record of death squads under the Sandinista government.
There was no record of torture.
There was no record of systematic or official military brutality.
No priests were ever murdered in Nicaragua.
There were in fact three priests in the government, two Jesuits and a Maryknoll missionary.
El Salvador and Guatemala
The totalitarian dungeons were actually next door, in El Salvador and Guatemala.
The United States had brought down the democratically elected government of Guatemala in 1954 and it is estimated that over 200,000 people had been victims of successive military dictatorships.
Six of the most distinguished Jesuits in the world were viciously murdered at the Central American University in San Salvador in 1989 by a battalion of the Alcatl regiment trained at Fort Benning, Georgia, USA.
That extremely brave man Archbishop Romero was assassinated while saying mass.
It is estimated that 75,000 people died.
Why were they killed?
They were killed because they believed a better life was possible and should be achieved.
That belief immediately qualified them as communists.
They died because they dared to question the status quo, the endless plateau of poverty, disease, degradation and oppression, which had been their birthright.
Poverty stricken once again — ‘Democracy’ had prevailed
The United States finally brought down the Sandinista government.
It took some years and considerable resistance but relentless economic persecution and 30,000 dead finally undermined the spirit of the Nicaraguan people.
They were exhausted and poverty stricken once again.
The casinos moved back into the country.
Free health and free education were over.
Big business returned with a vengeance.
‘Democracy’ had prevailed.
But this ‘policy’ was by no means restricted to Central America.
It was conducted throughout the world.
Power is not a means, it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship.
1984 Book 3, Chapter 3
And from Gustave Flaubert:
Inside every revolutionary there is a policeman.
I agree, ‘accelerationists’ as they are called are despicable – they’re happy to see other people suffer even more than they are now for the sake for the sake of the precious revolution, then jerk off over the thought of being in the Inner Party because they’re the ‘pure’ ones. If they want to burn a house down, they should start with their own.
So your take-home message from the large popularity of Sanders is to move the Democrats away from Sanders back toward what lost them the election.
Please go work for the Nats as a tactician.
Registered Democrats are the big leftie group in the US. Clinton won the primary by 55% to 43%. That’s a very clear margin, and a clear signal that leftie Americans were more comfortable with Clinton’s offerings than Sanders. Nevertheless, Clinton and the Democrats changed their platform to align more closely to Sanders’ platform. Then lost the general election. To Trump!!!! How does all of that add up to an argument the Dems should have gone even further away from the mainstream?
They didn’t lose the election because of the slight changes in platform, which did nothing to win voters in the rust belt – by comparison, Sanders’ platform would have been vastly more popular in the rust belt. That would come at a cost of votes in conservative states where he was losing anyway.
Gotta say that I’m not aware of anyone in the Dem pipeline that has quite the blindness about how their actions can be made to look that Hillary had, let alone doing that stuff while wearing the stains from 25 years of smears.
The overwhelming weakness of the left is a tendency to believe that if things only get a little worse, they will suddenly flip into a revolution that creates utopia.
Fuck Hegel.
Eager anticipation when things get worse is a clear conflict of interest to actually getting off your arse and improving things.
I’ve mostly thought the biggest weakness of left politics is a lot more lefties are into purity and principle politics to the point of being willing to vote for parties/candidates with no chance, even though it helps their polar opposite opponents win.
Whereas as righties seem to be a bit more pragmatic about voting for the possible winners closest to their views.
In New Zealand, just look at the peak vote for ACT (7% in 2002) and compare to pre-96 votes for say Greens or Alliance.
Thanks, will have a proper read later. I cam across something recently that said one of the core disagreements between Lange and Douglas was Douglas’ UBI proposal. Might be worth looking up to see the NZ neoliberal version.
An interesting read, Xanthe. This guy explores some of my gut-instinct feelings about the current push for a UBI. I do see this in effect becoming a subsidy for employers and landlords. Current policies such as WFF and accommodation grants for people on benefits also work this way, of course, but not in such a wholesale way.
I can’t say I’ve done a lot of research into the issue, and could still be convinced – there probably are models which address my concerns, but any move in this direction would need to be very strongly designed in order to achieve its goals rather than (perversely) acting as a transfer of wealth into the pockets of those who least need it.
He’s also a Fox News commentator accused of groping a female colleague – which makes it clear why he appeals to Trump, but that’s not exactly a great CV when it comes to dealing with New Zealanders.
I imagine for the US (for any administration), picking an ex Senator is seen as a good thing and an affirmation of the relationship.
Obama’s first Ambassador was an ex Senator.
Senators, even when they have lost elections, are usually highly regarded in the US political system. And the fact that he is a Fox commentator would be seen by the Trump administration as a demonstration of his connectedness in the political system.
However, I did not know about the groping accusation referred to by Psycho Milt.
I think it would be going too far to say “no” to him on that basis.
However, I would expect him to acknowledge that is not New Zealand’s view, and to recognise that he needs to adjust his position, given the strong New Zealand position on this.
It is worth recalling that in 2003/2004 that NZ SAS soldiers strongly protested about American treatment of detainees, and took the issue up the command chain.
Reason,
I strongly protest about what you have said about me. And by implication that National supports torture.
In relation to Afghanistan (your link) in fact I made sure we deployed additional legal officers to Afghanistan so we could ensure, as best we could, that any detainees that the CRU arrested were not ill-treated. This whole issue was a major concern for us. One of our goals during the deployment was to improve the behaviour of the CRU.
A general dilemma that all western nations faced in Afghanistan (in fact in any country where the West or the UN gets involved in) is that the Afghans did not act in accordance to the standards we would expect. NATO/ISAF put in a huge effort to with the Afghan authorities to improve respect for human rights, to improve their prisons and their legal system. Are they yet like out courts and prisons?
No, but they are way better than they used to be.
As a general point, no matter the divergence of view we may have on various things, I don’t think it is necessary to demonise one opponents like that.
I would expect him to acknowledge that is not New Zealand’s view, and to recognise that he needs to adjust his position,
For those that don’t have our back, we’re taking names.
The problem here is that your torturer mates aren’t from Afghanistan, and your desire to appease them looks a lot like being an accessory.
[lprent: You and AndreReason are starting to go too far. Whilst I have serious doubts about Brown as being inappropriate for NZ, you have to remember that he isn’t here to represent NZ. He is here to represent the USA.
If there was anything definitive in his history (for instance a conviction for groping a fellow Fox presenter) then at a government level we could (maybe) refuse to accept his credentials. However having opinions that are distasteful and obnoxious isn’t a ground for rejecting them. Ambassadors and ambassadorial staff are there for a purpose and are covered by some pretty specific law. We don’t have to like them, we just have to put up (with limits) what they say. ]
lprent, maybe I’m being thick but I’ve carefully re-read what I wrote and I don’t see where I’m near a line. I was genuinely interested in Wayne’s views on the waterboarding and potential rejection as ambassador issues, particularly given the positions he has held in his service to NZ, and didn’t attack him or anyone else. Now that Wayne has shared his views, I’m not inclined to have a go at him for those views.
I’d be grateful if you have the time to explain where I’m close to the line. Or perhaps there was some mix-up between what I said and what Reason said?
[lprent: You notice that I put the warning (from memory) on Reason who was over the line (as Wayne pointed out), and on OAB who was continuing the same theme. I may have copied it on an additional comment of yours? Your first one was ok and from memory Wayne treated it by explaining his opinion. Edit: Oh I see what you mean. I said Andre where I meant Reason. I will adjust. It is because I see the comments running in reverse time order…
However OAB and Reason were effectively saying that the personal actions and opinions of an ex-minister and national party member were those of the government and national party. They were doing it on a topic that even National and their government have little to no leeway on. The law covering diplomatic embassies is pretty draconian.
It amounted to pointless abuse of a person for something where there was absolutely no effective relationship between Wayne and what they were objecting to. It was liable to drop into even more pointless flaming. I intervened to make sure it didn’t escalate into a bullying flamewar I’d have to start banning people for. Like the policy says, we prefer to warn rather than ban.
With that kind of brushwar, I tend to put the warning on each branch of an issue to make sure that everyone is aware of an issue and has no excuse to work around it. That is because of the tree structure of our comments. It is far too easy to miss warnings as the debate branches. ]
Thanks. Your warning to OAB started “lprent: You and Andre are starting to go too far…”, so I take it it should have been reason there instead of me. I was worried maybe I was violating a policy about being too beige or something.
Yeah, unless I jump tabs, when I start editing (rather than quick edit) a comment on the backend comment list. I lose all context. I usually rely on memory. Screwed up this time..
Lprent. Thanks for the longer explanation. It’s Wayne’s opinion as a law commissioner I’m interested in, although I think it’s fair to say that many of the experiences he cites derive from his time as a Minister.
(Sorry to discuss you in the third person Wayne.)
I agree that Browne is the US representative here, and from the sounds of it, he represents POTUS quite well. What I’d like to know is where the line is, for establishment figures like Wayne. How far does the US have to descend before they would consider “cutting ties” (whatever that means to them). Or is there no line – for similar reasons to Hobbes’ dictum that the worst dictator is better than the alternative, or whatever.
I’ll try and be more polite in trying to find out.
I remember going through a rather horrendous set of lectures and readings in dual areas; about the history of diplomacy and the law governing diplomacy in the commonwealth and NZ. Some of those lessons came from my military training and lifelong interest in the military and military history – the application of which is often viewed as being the failures of diplomacy. Being born 14 years after WW2, I grew up in the shadow of the ex-servicemen where i could see the consequences of diplomatic failures.
What you realize after looking at it is that the primary reason for diplomats is to keep open lines of direct communication to stop various types of warfare (from weaponry to trade). The actual quality of the diplomats is of far less importance than that they can accurately reflect both parties to each other. That is because the consequences of miscommunication between monarchs and states will often tend to be somewhat horrendous.
As someone who did law, military and government somewhat more than I did, Wayne probably got a whole lot more of that particular set of horror stories than I did.
But my view is that diplomacy is one area that needs to be somewhat isolated from populist thinking so that it can concentrate on downstream consequences. Of course that is because I know somewhat more clearly what the downstream failures of diplomacy can be than most of the recent generations. But you only really need to reflect on the diplomatic miscommunication and the miscalculations that fell out of the diplomatic schism between the USA/UK and Iraq to see a recent example.
Global Legal Action Network and the Stanford International Human Rights Clinic have taken a case against Australia and various private companies to the ICC.
Should the case proceed, law enforcement officials in New Zealand may be put in the invidious position of having to protect visiting heads of state for whom there are outstanding international arrest warrants. As Idiot Savant has pointed out, these individuals would also be wanted under domestic law.
As someone with a foot in both diplomatic and legal camps, Wayne can shed some light on the practical issues that arise. I still reckon he’ll give them (torturers) a free pass.
PS: in case you’re wondering why I switched from the USA to Australia, the legal and ethical issues are similar: the practical and diplomatic considerations are slightly different.
Not that much. If they are coming under a diplomatic credentials/passport, then there will be bugger all that we could do except to deny their visa or reject their credentials and ship them home.
Visiting heads of state typically come under diplomatic credentials. We’d be more likely to deny entry if they had an ICC warrant.
It is pretty much the same rules as any diplomat, like that guy from the Malaysian embassy a few years ago. We can boot them but that is about all unless they or their country waive immunity.
The alternative for inter-state communication is that effectively every diplomat is a probable hostage. Because trumped up charges could be made for literally anything. Laws could be passed purely to entrap. And no-one would send diplomats anywhere.
If you want to see an example, have a look at the terrible economic price that Iran faced for more than 25 years (and arguably on to today) after a state mob stormed the US embassy in Tehran. Apart from the ongoing sanctions, they were literally starved on any significiant capital and were shunned during a major war that they barely survived.
After all who in the hell would want to send diplomats into the precedent hellhole that the Iranian revolution created.
People who are not currently travelling under diplomatic immunity are private citizens and are fair game. That is what happened to Pinochet and Dotcom. However a case to extradite has to be made under the laws of the arresting country.
But I can assure you we (NZDF and myself) put a lot of effort in trying to ensure fundamental human rights were protected in Afghanistan.
An interesting and insightful discussion on the role of Ambassadors by Iprent.
Presumably during the confirmation hearings Brown will have the opportunity to say the right thing. Surely as relatively senior JAG officer he must know the law in this area in detail. And he should be well informed by State of the New Zealand view.
I am certain the ICC will refuse jurisdiction in the Australian case. Whatever the Australian defaults, they do not reach the threshold required by the ICC.
“The Iraq War was an act of pure aggression, no different in moral or legal standing from Hitler’s invasion of Poland. That is what Bush and Blair made themselves. Small Hitlers, betraying all the hopes of the generation of 1945, which dreamed of forestalling further such atrocities.
Had the war been launched in response to Saddam Hussain’s own attack on Iran in 1980, and had there been a consensus at the UNSC for such a move, it could have been justified. But in 2003 there was no international emergency calling for such a war. The level of Western hypocrisy can be measured, however, by the lack of any move to punish Iraq for invading Iran and starting an 8-year war that killed hundreds of thousands. Worse yet, the Reagan administration actually swung behind Iraq in 1983, allied with Saddam, and shielded him from charges brought by Iran to the UNSC that he used mustard gas and perhaps Sarin on Iranian troops at the front. And then the Reagan administration authorized the sale to Iraq of precursors for anthrax. ”
And your wanting NZ not to be bound by international law … ” the fact remains that under international law, any non-defensive war waged without its approval is illegal and a crime. So when Wayne Mapp says he doesn’t want our foreign policy to be subject to a UN veto, what he is really saying is that he wants to wage war in contravention of international law and the UN charter – in other words, he wants us to be a rogue nation, just like the US… ”
I just presumed a little water boarding …. would be water of a ducks back among a few million dead Iraqis …or Afghans .
Don’t be so racist about the Afghans wayne ………… how come if they are naturally so bad …. how is it that Afghanistan was a safe place for women and others to travel too and through? …. in that the time before the usa armed Muslim extremists there ….
I don’t regard a person who has openly advocated torture methods like waterboarding is a suitable person to send to NZ, but I appreciate in Trump’s world it would be seen as a plus…
Would you like to back up that statement Joe, and or disprove the quote?
Repeated use of insults, no matter how much of a release from the issues you refer to in your life this blog provides you, is no excuse
[lprent: While we are on that subject – where is the source of that quotation? That was what you rightfully were pulled up on.
Since you objected to being pulled up, then I will object to you avoiding substantiating your out of context quote. Banned for 2 weeks. Read the policy and look at your own damn behaviour before trying to exercise moderator powers on this site. ]
However, I did not know about the groping accusation referred to by Psycho Milt.
One of his ex fellow Fox presenters has alleged that he groped her at work. She is suing Fox, him, and I believe several managerial staff at Fox both for the grope and that her complaint caused her bosses to push her out, She alleges that Fox is a hotbed of misogyny.
I can see how Trump might see groping female workmates as a plus. I can’t see how it would endear him to most of NZ.
Edit From the link that Anne put up
Former Fox News contributor Andrea Tantaros filed a complaint with the New York Supreme Court against the Fox News Network, its former president Roger Ailes and four others alleging sexual harassment.
She claims: “Fox News masquerades as defender of traditional family values, but behind the scenes, it operates like a sex-fueled, Playboy Mansion-like cult, steeped in intimidation, indecency, and misogyny.”
Tantaros also mentions being groped by Brown in documents filed with the court.
“On or about August 18, 2015, former Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown appeared on (Fox panel show) Outnumbered.
“Brown made a number of sexually inappropriate comments to Tantaros on set, including, and in a suggestive manner, that Tantaros “would be fun to go to a nightclub with”.
“After the show was over, Brown snuck up behind Tantaros while she was purchasing lunch and put his hands on her lower waist. She immediately pulled back, telling Brown to ‘stop’.
“Tantaros then immediately met with (Fox News co-president Bill) Shine to complain, asking him to ensure that Brown would never be booked on the show again. Shine said that he would talk to Scott. Thereafter, Shine and Scott ignored Tantaros’s complaint, and continued to book Brown on Outnumbered.”
Tantaros also alleged she rejected the Ailes’ advances and was punished by being removed from Fox shows.
Brown has denied the allegations, and the lawsuit is ongoing.
Yes waterboarding is one enhanced interrogation technique – there are many other ones within that category. Brown endorsed them all not just waterboarding. This is important because when you search and read the list of what they do under enhanced interrogation techniques it will turn your stomach.
David Dunning of Dunning-Kruger effect fame reckons Trump is the most public example of the Dunning-Kruger effect he’s ever seen. Ouch.
In hindsight, this kind self-reflection may have been useful in the lead up to the 2016 presidential election, when mentions of Dunning-Kruger on social media reached a new high. In the beginning, many of them were in reference to the candidate Donald Trump, whose combination of over the top blustering (“My IQ is one of the highest,” he has claimed) and obvious ignorance in areas such as foreign policy struck many Twitters users as, “the personification of the Dunning-Kruger effect.”
The 57-year-old supports torture, posed nude for a photoshoot, and was named as having groped and made sexually inappropriate comments towards by former Fox News contributor Andrea Tantaros. Brown denies the allegations.
May we should refuse to give him a visa because he is not fit and moral character.
Andrew Littles handling of the Willie Jackson selection/waiver debacle has finally lost the votes of myself and my wife. I’m a middle of the road swing voter and my wife is/was true Labour (she is a union rep). I change between parties but my wife has never even thought of anything but Labour. The biggest problem for Labour is I will never vote green and she may or may not. If Andrew is still looking for the missing million he can add one maybe two more to that number.
I detest swing voters. They’re even worse than National voters. Swing voters are fence-sitters, without the courage or conviction to stand by their principles.
I have always been a swing voter, you detest me? I don’t detest you muttonbird. Do you blindly follow one party no matter what policy they do or don’t produce?
My needs from my government have changed over the last 40 years.
“My needs from my government have changed over the last 40 years.”
Andrew, has it ever occurred to you to vote on the basis of others’ needs, and not just your own?
I’m less than thrilled by the Jackson selection. I do understand the reasoning behind it, though, and I would like to hear from the guy himself. Willie, if you’re out there, how about fronting up like Greg O’Connor and putting your side of the story? I would have questions for you and I’m sure others would too.
You don’t think they can establish a building program or raise taxes on the top?
I suggest you look at the expansion in the state housing stock during the period 1999-2008, the increase in the tax rate in 1999, and note that unemployment was at ~3% by 2007.
Did they fix everything? No. Have many indicators (everything from the rule of law to the infectious disease admission rate) declined since 2008? Yep. Are we getting mentioned in too many UN reports for all the wrong reasons? Yep.
Does the National Party care, let alone have the competence?
Make sure you also read the comments esp. the one from Stephen Ihaka. I still have many reservations about Willie but without he has done a lot for poor, urban Māori over the years.
I’m going to try and put a post up about that in the next day or so. I disagree with her evaluation of the relative treatments of Māori and Pākehā radio hosts (but based on memory, I haven’t gone back and looked), but more interesting to me is that I read her piece as an example of how Māori handle things differently than Pākehā. More willing to forgive and be understanding of frailty and find ways of being inclusive as part of the solution.
A lot of the arguments about WJ in the past few weeks look to me to have been (white) feminists arguing with (white) men over rape culture issues and how they play out in Pākehā cultures. Not that all the people arguing have been white, but that the discourse I saw has happened in predominantly Pākehā spaces and those values are there. If women had equitably shared power in Labour, this would have played out differently, and the whole thing is a showcase of the patriarchy within Labour, and the wider culture as much as anything. It’s the still relative powerlessness of women in Pākehā society that jumps out.
Good to have a wahine Māori perspective just to bring that into focus as well as just hear how it looks from that side.
One thing I am tired of though is this idea that a good person can’t be misogynistic in certain areas. We really need to get over that.
then there’s this, which is a very good example of exactly why so much is still made of the issue and will continue to be despite WJ’s other good works.
“Sean Plunket
@SeanPlunket
@etangata good piece. Way to much made of roastbusters affair willy was asking legit questions that reflected the position of many kiwis.”
My ongoing problem with Willie is that he still seems to play down the effect of homophobia, misogyny, rape culture etc although I do think he has more understanding now than in the past (I am mainly basing this on tweets from Alison Mau and comments made to me by a couple of Māori friends who know him well).
He is also a bit of a loose cannon and a better talker than he is a listener. These traits can cause more problems than they solve sometimes.
Translation: I am now wealthy enough that I can afford not to give a toss about the people who are struggling to get by. The Willie Jackson issue is a smokescreen to justify to myself voting National so I can stay wealthy, even though I know deep down that National are full of far worse people than Jackson and their policies are terrible for New Zealand as a whole.
@ Andrew (6.3.1) you state …
“my needs from my government have changed over the last 40 years.”
This attitude is the reason we still have a National government. People voting for THEIR personal needs, with little thought as to what’s beneficial for the nation as a whole, is what’s destroying NZ.
If more voters gave considered attention to what’s best for their country in general, instead of themselves, NZ just might become a more egalitarian place for all Kiwis to live and enjoy.
Well here is an almighty one $Billion dollar Government stuff up. Joyce and Bridges are going to have egg on their faces over this;
“Transport blogger Patrick Reynolds said the purpose of the western ring route was to provide free-flowing traffic but it had been badly designed and would open to gridlock.”
“The reason for that is because of the failure to build parallel rapid transit. There is no busway,” Reynolds said.
“He claimed the ramp signals were being installed because of limitations on the ventilation system in the event of traffic coming to a standstill inside the tunnels.”
I recall Transport Minister Simon Bridges saying “the Waterview tunnel and ring route would be a faultless marvel” kind of thought at the time he would put the kiss of death on the ‘faultless’.
Bound to be hotly debated at the Mt Albert By-Election Transport Debate next Wednesday night.
There is no separated congestion-free busway on either North-Western or South-Western motorways like the one on the Northern motorway from Albany to the Harbour Bridge.
Buses have to merge back into clogged traffic at every overbridge where the shoulder lanes disappear. Transport agencies are only belatedly adding shoulder lanes to the SW motorway in any case.
Seems like another very expensive stuff-up like when the SW was first connected to the Southern motorways, requiring urgent remedial work to correct problems. The whole Western Ring Route from Manukau to Albany totals $4b, yet people have been giving its sub-projects a free pass and whinging instead about the core rail link budgeted at half that amount.
Akl has suffered under every single national govt when it comes to transport.
Muldoon wouldn’t finish the suburban rail network, Williamson sat by whilst Bolger and Shipley plundered the fuel and RUC charges to use elsewhere and now this mob.
Not only has the shonky reign screwed over public transport since day 1 it’s double whammied it by flooding akl with moneyed migrants.
Ad you should know by now that it’s not too far in the future for complete gridlock in Auckland. The situation deteriorates by the day. It’s very obvious to someone who travels into the city once or twice a month, and not on a daily basis. Over the past 2 – 3 years the traffic flows have become slower and slower and gridlocks occur at anytime of the day. The opening up of SH 20 at Waterview onto SH16 will simply sift the problem from one point to another.
Gridlocks are not necessarily caused by accidents. They invariably occur when too many vehicles all want to be in the same place at the same time – ie the roads become choked and cannot carry the number of vehicles wanting to use them. All over Auckland now this situation is occurring on a daily basis at almost any time of the day. It can take up to 2 hours now in the late afternoon to travel from Auckland airport to Pukekohe a distance of around 40 km.
Accidents of course exacerbate the problem.
Yes – a picture (or in this case video) is worth a thousand words.
That is what we are now experiencing daily on Auckland’s motorways. It’s obvious that what is really needed is not more motorways. What is needed is better public transport thereby relieving the pressure on over crowed motorways.
I guess we shouldn’t be surprised that they’re ramping up the conflict angle. The post I read was balanced and good-humoured, and the comments have had a similar tone. Hardly “taking aim at critics”. Plus the old chestnut “Labour-aligned bog”. Sigh…
Got to love the out going President of Bolivia. President Correa talks to Abby Martin, about what the last 9 years have meant for him, his administration, and the people of Bolivia.
Just a small correction. Correa is the outgoing president of Ecuador, not Bolivia. Evo Morales is the president of Bolivia. What is true is that in spite of some problems both Ecuador and Bolivia have done pretty well under Left rule.
The defense of qualified privilege permits persons in positions of authority or trust to make statements or relay or report statements that would be considered slander and libel if made by anyone else – Wikipedia.
“Emotionally fragile farmers still trying to rebuild their lives after the earthquake are at breaking point, with police having to confiscate guns for fear of self-harm.”
Often we think when things have tidied up after a traumatic event that people just get on with the job. But for many it just doesn’t work like that. It can take years if not a lifetime to work through some trauma and the fallout from it. Trauma has a cascading effect into relationships, self esteem, financial issues, motivation and depression and for most it takes expert help to navigate through these very dangerous shoals.
I know mental health resources are scarce and it can take severe behaviour to trigger them sometimes.
I suppose what I am saying is that if you know someone who may be affected then it is worthwhile offering a compassionate ear to listen to them – it is possible to validate how they are feeling without agreeing with what they are saying eg “It must be really difficult to be feeling that way.” At the bottom of the article are the links to the support services out there – they are important and necessary for helping people and they can help people.
rich, poor, famous, unknown, father, mother, sister, brother, son, daughter, young, experienced, talented, loud, quiet – don’t be fooled into thinking some are not living in a very difficult place…
Interesting topic MM. I think people who have gone through trauma carry it with them for a long time. From what I’ve seen it’s often dealt with not by talking but its released through other outlets, violence, depression, anger, addictions. Especially men I think find it hard to discuss these/their issues and probably struggle with these things for longer.
I’m not sure what the answers are, a free availability of all kinds of mental health care would be great, getting it out front and centre would reduce the stigma of people too scared to go for help. Maybe also having a compulsory counsellor/psychotherapist always present and available at the local doctor’s practice, so anyone can drop in and know they can get mental health help at any time. That could also help with making people aware that going to the doctor is not about just physical health too. Integrate it so noone bats an eyelid.
To Levchin, prepping for survival is a moral miscalculation; he prefers to “shut down party conversations” on the topic. “I typically ask people, ‘So you’re worried about the pitchforks. How much money have you donated to your local homeless shelter?’ This connects the most, in my mind, to the realities of the income gap. All the other forms of fear that people bring up are artificial.” In his view, this is the time to invest in solutions, not escape. “At the moment, we’re actually at a relatively benign point of the economy. When the economy heads south, you will have a bunch of people that are in really bad shape. What do we expect then?”
[…]
By January, 2015, Johnson was sounding the alarm: the tensions produced by acute income inequality were becoming so pronounced that some of the world’s wealthiest people were taking steps to protect themselves. At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Johnson told the audience, “I know hedge-fund managers all over the world who are buying airstrips and farms in places like New Zealand because they think they need a getaway.”
I read quite a bit of stuff about Peter Thiel’s citizenship. It got all political, no surprise, and there were all sorts of angles, all sorts of pros and cons and explanations.
To sum all that up without the politics and put it into the sort of succinct reality that big business people like:
‘It has been said that figures rule the world. Maybe. I am quite sure that it is figures which show us whether it is being ruled well or badly.’ GoetheI was struck at a recent conference on equity for the elderly, how many presenters implicitly relied upon Statistics New Zealand. ...
Buzz from the BeehiveReporting on defence spending late last year, RNZ said the coalition government will have to make some tough calls this term to help the force address staff shortages and ageing infrastructure. “These are huge, huge amounts of government spending. It’s a significant proportion of the government’s ...
Peter Dunne writes – I am always wary when I hear that the Controller and Auditor-General has commented on or made recommendations to the government about an issue of public policy that does not relate strictly to public expenditure. According to the legislation, the role of the Controller ...
How Labour’s and National’s failure to move beyond neoliberalism has brought NZ to the brink of economic and cultural chaos Chris Trotter writes – TO START LOSING, so soon after you won, requires a special kind of political incompetence. At the heart of this Coalition ...
And why did the Crown not challenge the Tribunal’s jurisdiction? Gary Judd writes – Retired District Court Judge, David Harvey, has posted on his A Halflings View Substack an excellent summary of Justice Isacs’ judgment declining to uphold the witness summons issued by the Waitangi Tribunal ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Do you believe New Zealand runs its general elections fairly and competently? As a voter, can you be confident that the votes on your ballot will be counted towards the final result?As a political scientist, I’ve been asked these questions many times and ...
Macklemore isn’t someone I’d usually think about. Sure I liked his big hit from a few years back, everybody did it was catchy and cool with some memorable lines. But if I was going to think of artists who might speak out on political matters or world events, he wouldn’t ...
Another week goes by in the Luxon government’s efforts to roll back the past 70 years of social progress. The school lunches programme is to be downgraded by $107 million, and women need bother their heads no longer about pay equity, let alone expect ACC to provide adequate sexual violence ...
Brrr, the first cold snap of the year. Hope you’re rugged up nice and warm. Here are some stories that caught our eye this week… This Week on Greater Auckland On Monday, we had a post from a new contributor, Connor Sharp, who dug into the public feedback ...
Almost all of the Wellington City Council’s recommended zoning changes to allow many more apartments and townhouses in its inner-suburbs have been approved.Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for subscribers features co-hosts and , along with regular guest on geopolitics, ...
Open access notablesA Global Increase in Nearshore Tropical Cyclone Intensification, Balaguru et al., Earth's Future:Tropical Cyclones (TCs) inflict substantial coastal damages, making it pertinent to understand changing storm characteristics in the important nearshore region. Past work examined several aspects of TCs relevant for impacts in coastal regions. However, ...
Do you believe New Zealand runs its general elections fairly and competently? As a voter, can you be confident that the votes on your ballot will be counted towards the final result? As a political scientist, I’ve been asked these questions many times and always answered “yes”, with very few ...
Thus far May has followed on from a quiet April in the blogging department, but in fairness, it has been another case of doing what I am supposed to be doing, namely writing original fiction. Plus reading. So don’t worry – I have been productive. But in order to reassure ...
Buzz from the Beehive A new government agency will open for business on July 1 – the Social Investment Agency. As a new standalone central agency effective from 1 July, it will lead the development of social investment across Government, helping ministers understand who they need to invest in, what ...
Bryce Edwards writes – “Follow the money” is the classic directive to journalists trying to understand where power and influence lie in society. In terms of uncovering who influences various New Zealand political parties and governments, it therefore pays to look at who is funding them. The ...
Alwyn Poole writes – After being elected to Parliament in 2008 the maiden speech of Hipkins was substantially around education policy. He was Labour’s spokesperson for education 2011 – 2017. He was Minister for Education from 2017 until February 2023. This is approximately 88% of the time Labour ...
Eric Crampton writes – A fashion industry group is lobbying for protections. They make the usual arguments and a newer one. None of it makes sense. An industry group says it pumped $7.8 billion into the economy last year – that’s 1.9 percent of New Zealand’s GDP. ...
In December 2006, Fiji's military leader Voreqe Bainimarama overthrew the elected government in a coup. He ruled Fiji for the next 16 years, first as dictator, then as "elected" Prime Minister. But now, he's finally been sent to jail where he belongs. Sadly, this isn't for his real crime of ...
Don't like National's corrupt Muldoonist "fast-track" law? Aotearoa's environmental NGO's - Greenpeace, Forest & Bird, WWF, Coromandel Watchdog, Coal Action Network Aotearoa, Kiwis Against Seabed Mining, and others - have announced a joint march against it in Auckland in June: When: 13:00, 8 June, 2024 Where: Aotea Square, Auckland You ...
Seymour describes sushi as too woke for school meals. There are no fish sushi meals recommended by the School Lunches programme. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / Getty ImagesTL;DR: The Government will swap out hot meals for packaged sandwiches to save $107 million on school lunches for poor kids. MSD has pulled ...
I don't mind stealin' bread from the mouths of decadenceBut I can't feed on the powerless when my cup's already overfilled, yeahBut it's on the table, the fire's cookin'And they're farmin' babies, while slaves are workin'The blood is on the table and the mouths are chokin'But I'm goin' hungry, yeahSome ...
The Ardern Government’s chickens came home to roost yesterday with the news that the country is short of natural gas. In 2018, Labour banned offshore petroleum exploration, and industry executives say that the attendant loss of confidence by the industry impacted overall investment in onshore gas fields. Energy Resources Minister ...
Hi,If you’ve been digging through the newly launched Webworm store (orders are being dispatched worldwide as I type!) you’ll have noticed the best model we had was Calvin.This is Calvin.Calvin.Calvin is 7, and is the son of my producer over on Flightless Bird, Rob — aka “Wobby Wob”. Rob also ...
This video includes conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Adam Levy. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). Climate change is everywhere. And when something's everywhere it can feel like it's nowhere. So how do we get our heads ...
Its a law like gravity: whenever a right-wing government is elected, they start attacking democracy. And now, after talking to their Republican and Tory and Fidesz chums at the International Democracy Union forum in Wellington, National is doing it here, announcing plans to remove election-day enrolment. Or, to put it ...
Yesterday Winston Peters focussed his attention on the important matter at hand. Tweeting. Like the former, and quite possibly next, orange POTUS, from whom he takes much of his political strategy, Winston is an avid X’er.His message didn’t resemble an historic address this time. In fact it was more reminiscent ...
Buzz from the Beehive A significant decline in natural gas production has given Resources Minister Shane Jones an opportunity to reiterate his enthusiasm for the mining and burning of coal. For good measure, he has praised an announcement from Genesis Energy that it will resume importing coal. He and Energy ...
“Follow the money” is the classic directive to journalists trying to understand where power and influence lie in society. In terms of uncovering who influences various New Zealand political parties and governments, it therefore pays to look at who is funding them. The political parties are legally obliged to make ...
Rob MacCullough writes – Here is my subjective ranking on a “most-left” to “most-right” scale of most of our major NZ Universities, with some anecdotal (and at times amusing) evidence to back up the claim.Extreme Left Auckland University of TechnologyEvidenceThe ...
Eric Crampton writes – I hadn’t thought about this one until a helpful email showed up in my inbox.It’s pretty obvious that income tax thresholds should automatically index with inflation – whether to anchor the thresholds in percentiles of the income distribution, or to anchor against a real ...
Jacqui Van Der Kaay writes – Parliament’s speaker had no option but to refer Green MP Julie Anne Genter to the Privileges Committee for her behaviour in the House last Wednesday evening. The incident, in which she crossed the floor to wave a book and yell at National ...
Gary Judd writes – The Dean of the law school at the Auckland University of Technology is someone called Khylee Quince. I have been sent her social media posting in which she has, over the LawNews headline “Senior King’s Counsel files complaint about compulsory tikanga Maori studies for ...
Cleo Paskal writes – WASHINGTON, D.C.: ‘Many of us have received phone calls from [the opposing camp] telling them if they join the camp they will be given projects for their wards and $300,000 [around US$35,000] each’, says former Malaita Premier Daniel Suidani. The elections in Solomon Islands aren’t ...
With hindsight, it was inevitable that (a) Hamas would agree to the ceasefire deal brokered by Egypt and Qatar and that ( b) Israel would then immediately launch attacks on Rafah, regardless. We might have hoped the concessions made by Hamas would cause Israel to desist from slaughtering thousands more ...
Placards and mourners outside the Kilbirnie Mosque following the Christchurch terror attack: MSD has terminated the Kaiwhakaoranga service, which has been used by 415 families since the attacks. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: The Government’s pledge to only cut ‘back office’ staff rather than ‘frontline’ services is on increasingly shaky ground, with ...
There’s been a few smaller public transport announcements over the last week or so that I thought I’d cover in a single post. Fareshare I’ve long called for Auckland Transport to offer a way to enable employer-subsidised public transport options. The need for this took on even more importance ...
Parliament’s speaker had no option but to refer Green MP Julie Anne Genter to the Privileges Committee for her behaviour in the House last Wednesday evening. The incident, in which she crossed the floor to wave a book and yell at National Minister Matt Doocey, reflects poorly on Genter and ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Who likes being sneered at? Nobody. Worse yet, when the sneerer has their facts all wrong, and might well be an idiot.The sneer in question is The adults are in charge now, and it is a sneer offered in retort to criticism of this new Government, no matter how well ...
When in government, Labour pushed to extend the Parliamentary term to four years, to reduce accountability and our ability to vote out a bad government. And now, they're trying to do it through the member's ballot, with a Four-Year Parliamentary Term Legislation Bill. The bill at least requires a referendum ...
A ballot for a single Member's Bill was held today, and the following bill was drawn: Public Works (Prohibition of Compulsory Acquisition of Māori Land) Amendment Bill (Hūhana Lyndon) The bill would prevent the government from stealing Māori land in breach of Te Tiriti o Waitangi. It ...
Simeon Brown, alongside Wayne Brown, is favouring a political figleaf now in exchange for loading up tens of millions in extra interest costs on Auckland ratepayers. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s is pushing back hard at suggestions from Local Government Minister Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown ...
Buzz from the Beehive One headline-grabber from the Beehive yesterday was the OECD’s advice that the government must bring the Budget deficit under control or face higher interest rates. Another was the announcement of a $1.9 billion “investment” in Corrections over the next four years. In the best interests of ...
Chris Trotter writes – Had Zheng He’s fleet sailed east, not west, in the early Fifteenth Century, how different our world would be. There is little reason to suppose that the sea-going junks of the Ming Dynasty, among the largest and most sophisticated sailing vessels ever constructed, would have failed ...
David Farrar writes – Two articles give a useful contrast in balance. Both seek to be neutral explainer articles. This one in the Herald on Social Investment covers the pros and cons nicely. It links to critical pieces and talks about aspects that failed and aspects that are more ...
The tikanga regulations will compel law students to be taught that a system which does not conform with the rule of law is nevertheless law which should be observed and applied…Gary Judd KC writes – I have made a complaint to Parliament’s Regulation ...
The future of Te Huia, the train between Hamilton and Auckland, has been getting a lot of attention recently as current funding for it is only in place till the end of June. The government initially agreed to a five year trial, through to April 2026, but that was subject ...
TL;DR: Hamas has just agreed to Israel’s ceasefire plan. Nelson hospital’s rebuild has been cut back to save money. The OECD suggests New Zealand break up network monopolies, including in electricity. PM Christopher Luxon’s news conference on a prison expansion announcement last night was his messiest yet.Here’s my top six ...
A homicide in Ponsonby, a manhunt with a killer on the run. The nation’s leader stands before a press conference reassuring a frightened nation that he’ll sort it out, he’ll keep them safe, he’ll build some new prison spaces.Sorry what? There’s a scary dude on the run with a gun ...
Hi,I know it’s been awhile since there’s been any Webworm merch — and today that all changes!Over the last four months, I’ve been working with New Zealand artist Jess Johnson to create a series of t-shirts, caps and stickers that are infused with Webworm DNA — and as of right ...
The OECD’s chief economist yesterday laid it on the line for the new Government: bring the deficit under control or face higher Reserve Bank interest rates for longer. And to bring the deficit under control, she meant not borrowing for tax cuts. But there was more. Without policy changes—introducing a ...
After a hiatus of over four months Selwyn Manning and I finally got it together to re-start the “A View from Afar” podcast series. We shall see how we go but aim to do 2 episodes per month if possible. … Continue reading → ...
In 2008, the UK Parliament passed the Climate Change Act 2008. The law established a system of targets, budgets, and plans, with inbuilt accountability mechanisms; the aim was to break the cycle of empty promises and replace it with actual progress towards emissions reduction. The law was passed with near-universal ...
Buzz from the Beehive Local Water Done Well – let’s be blunt – is a silly name, but the first big initiative to put it into practice has gone done well. This success is reflected in the headline on an RNZ report:District mayors welcome Auckland’s new water deal with ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate ConnectionsA farmworker cleans the solar panels of a solar water pump in the village of Jagadhri, Haryana Country, India. (Photo credit: Prashanth Vishwanathan/ IWMI) Decisions made in India over the next few years will play a key role in global ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – The Children’s Minister, Karen Chhour, intends to repeal Section 7AA from the Oranga Tamariki Act 1989 because it creates conflict between claimed Crown Treaty obligations and the child’s best interests. In her words, “Oranga Tamariki’s governing principles and its act should be colour ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – The gloves are off. That might seem to be the undertone of surprisingly tough talk from New Zealand’s foreign and trade ministers. Winston Peters, the foreign minister, may be facing legal action after making allegations about former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr on Radio New Zealand. ...
Brian Easton writes – This is about the time that the Treasury will be locking up its economic forecasts to be published in the 2024 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) on budget day, 30 May. I am not privy to what they will be (I will report on them ...
TL;DR:Winston Peters is reported to have won a budget increase for MFAT. David Seymour wanted his Ministry of Regulation to be three times bigger than the Productivity Commission. Simeon Brown is appointing a Crown Monitor to Watercare to protect the Claytons Crown Guarantee he had to give ratings agencies ...
The gloves are off. That might seem to be the undertone of surprisingly tough talk from New Zealand’s foreign and trade ministers. Winston Peters, the foreign minister, may be facing legal action after making allegations about former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr on Radio New Zealand. Carr had made highly ...
I could be a florist'Round the corner from Rye LaneI'll be giving daisies to craziesBut, baby, I'll wrap you up real safe Oh, I can give you flowers At the end of every dayFor the center of your table, a rainbowIn case you have people 'round to stay Depending on ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to May 12 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Finance Minister Nicola Willis will give a pre-budget speech on Thursday.Parliament sits from Question Time at 2pm on ...
The price of the foreign affairs “reset” is now becoming apparent, with Defence set to get a funding boost in the Budget. Finance Minister Nicola Willis has confirmed that it will be one of the few votes, apart from Health and Education and possibly Police, which will get an increase ...
A listing of 26 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 28, 2024 thru Sat, May 4, 2024. Story of the week "It’s straight out of Big Tobacco’s playbook. In fact, research by John Cook and his colleagues ...
Yesterday I received come lovely feedback following my Star Wars themed newsletter. A few people mentioned they’d enjoyed reading the personal part at the beginning.I often begin newsletters with some memories, or general thoughts, before commencing the main topic. This hopefully sets the mood and provides some context in which ...
April 30 was going to be the day we’d be calling Mum from London to wish her a happy birthday. Then it became the day we would be going to St. Paul's at Evensong to remember her. The aim of the cathedral builders was to find a way to make their ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Can’t remember the last book by a Kiwi author you read? Think the NZ government should spend less on the arts in favor of helping the homeless? If so, as far as Newsroom is concerned, you probably deserve to be called a cultural ignoramus ...
Today New Zealand First will introduce a Member’s Bill that will protect women’s spaces. The ‘Fair Access to Bathrooms Bill’ will require, primarily in the interest and safety of women and girls, that all new non-domestic publicly accessible buildings provide separate, clearly demarcated, unisex and single sex bathrooms. This Bill ...
The Green Party is welcoming Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ continuation of Hon. James Shaw’s cross-party work on climate adaptation, now in the form of a Finance and Expenditure Committee Inquiry. ...
The National Government plans to cut 390 jobs at ACC, including roles in the areas of prevention of sexual violence, road safety and workplace safety. ...
The Government has been caught in opposition to evidence once again as it looks to usher in tried, tested and failed work seminar obligations for job-seeking beneficiaries. ...
The Green Party is welcoming the announcement by the Minister Responsible for RMA Reform Chris Bishop to approve most of the Wellington City Council’s District Plan recommendations. ...
David Seymour has failed to get the sweeping cuts he wanted to the free and healthy school lunch programme, Labour education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
Hon Willie Jackson has been invited by the Oxford Union to debate the motion “This House Believes British Museums are not Very British’ on May 23rd. ...
Green Party MP Hūhana Lyndon says her Public Works (Prohibition of Compulsory Acquisition of Māori Land) Amendment Bill is an opportunity to right some past wrongs around the alienation of Māori land. ...
A senior, highly respected King’s Counsel with decades of experience in our law courts, Gary Judd KC, has filed a complaint about compulsory tikanga Māori studies for law students - highlighting the utter depths of absurdity this woke cultural madness has taken our society. The tikanga regulations will compel law ...
The Government needs to be clear with the people of the Nelson Marlborough region about the changes it is considering for the Nelson Hospital rebuild, Labour health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said. ...
Ministers must front up about which projects it will push through under its Fast Track Approvals legislation, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
Introduction Good morning. It’s a great privilege to be here at the 2024 Infrastructure Symposium. I was extremely happy when the Prime Minister asked me to be his Minister for Infrastructure. It is one of the great barriers holding the New Zealand economy back from achieving its potential. Building high ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced the upcoming Budget will include new funding of $571 million for Defence Force pay and projects. “Our servicemen and women do New Zealand proud throughout the world and this funding will help ensure we retain their services and expertise as we navigate an increasingly ...
New Zealand’s ability to cope with climate change will be strengthened as part of the Government’s focus to build resilience as we rebuild the economy, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “An enduring and long-term approach is needed to provide New Zealanders and the economy with certainty as the climate ...
Jobseeker beneficiaries who have work obligations must now meet with MSD within two weeks of their benefit starting to determine their next step towards finding a job, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “A key part of the coalition Government’s plan to have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker ...
A new standalone Social Investment Agency will power-up the social investment approach, driving positive change for our most vulnerable New Zealanders, Social Investment Minister Nicola Willis says. “Despite the Government currently investing more than $70 billion every year into social services, we are not seeing the outcomes we want for ...
Check against delivery Good morning. It is a pleasure to be with you to outline the Coalition Government’s approach to our first Budget. Thank you Mark Skelly, President of the Hutt Valley Chamber of Commerce, together with your Board and team, for hosting me. I’d like to acknowledge His Worship ...
Your Excellency Ambassador Meredith, Members of the Diplomatic Corps and Ambassadors from European Union Member States, Ministerial colleagues, Members of Parliament, and other distinguished guests, Thank you everyone for joining us. Ladies and gentlemen - In diplomacy, we often speak of ‘close’ and ‘long-standing’ relations. ...
The Therapeutic Products Act (TPA) will be repealed this year so that a better regime can be put in place to provide New Zealanders safe and timely access to medicines, medical devices and health products, Associate Health Minister Casey Costello announced today. “The medicines and products we are talking about ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop, today released his decision on twenty recommendations referred to him by the Wellington City Council relating to its Intensification Planning Instrument, after the Council rejected those recommendations of the Independent Hearings Panel and made alternative recommendations. “Wellington notified its District Plan on ...
Rape Awareness Week (6-10 May) is an important opportunity to acknowledge the continued effort required by government and communities to ensure that all New Zealanders can live free from violence, say Ministers Karen Chhour and Louise Upston. “With 1 in 3 women and 1 in 8 men experiencing sexual violence ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government will be delivering a more efficient Healthy School Lunches Programme, saving taxpayers approximately $107 million a year compared to how Labour funded it, by embracing innovation and commercial expertise. “We are delivering on our commitment to treat taxpayers’ money ...
New research on the impacts of extreme weather on coastal marine habitats in Tairāwhiti and Hawke’s Bay will help fishery managers plan for and respond to any future events, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. A report released today on research by Niwa on behalf of Fisheries New Zealand ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Winston Peters will lead a broad political delegation on a five-stop Pacific tour next week to strengthen New Zealand’s engagement with the region. The delegation will visit Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, and Tuvalu. “New Zealand has deep and ...
There has been a material decline in gas production according to figures released today by the Gas Industry Co. Figures released by the Gas Industry Company show that there was a 12.5 per cent reduction in gas production during 2023, and a 27.8 per cent reduction in gas production in the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins tonight announced the recipients of the Minister of Defence Awards of Excellence for Industry, saying they all contribute to New Zealanders’ security and wellbeing. “Congratulations to this year’s recipients, whose innovative products and services play a critical role in the delivery of New Zealand’s defence capabilities, ...
Welcome to you all - it is a pleasure to be here this evening.I would like to start by thanking Greg Lowe, Chair of the New Zealand Defence Industry Advisory Council, for co-hosting this reception with me. This evening is about recognising businesses from across New Zealand and overseas who in ...
It is a pleasure to be speaking to you as the Minister for Digitising Government. I would like to thank Akolade for the invitation to address this Summit, and to acknowledge the great effort you are making to grow New Zealand’s digital future. Today, we stand at the cusp of ...
New Zealand is urging both Israel and Hamas to agree to an immediate ceasefire to avoid the further humanitarian catastrophe that military action in Rafah would unleash, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The immense suffering in Gaza cannot be allowed to worsen further. Both sides have a responsibility to ...
A new online data dashboard released today as part of the Government’s school attendance action plan makes more timely daily attendance data available to the public and parents, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. The interactive dashboard will be updated once a week to show a national average of how ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced Rosemary Banks will be New Zealand’s next Ambassador to the United States of America. “Our relationship with the United States is crucial for New Zealand in strategic, security and economic terms,” Mr Peters says. “New Zealand and the United States have a ...
The Government is considering creating a new tier of minerals permitting that will make it easier for hobby miners to prospect for gold. “New Zealand was built on gold, it’s in our DNA. Our gold deposits, particularly in regions such as Otago and the West Coast have always attracted fortune-hunters. ...
Minister for Trade Todd McClay today announced that New Zealand and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will commence negotiations on a free trade agreement (FTA). Minister McClay met with his counterpart UAE Trade Minister Dr Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi in Dubai, where they announced the launch of negotiations on a ...
New Zealand Sign Language Week is an excellent opportunity for all Kiwis to give the language a go, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. This week (May 6 to 12) is New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) Week. The theme is “an Aotearoa where anyone can sign anywhere” and aims to ...
Six tertiary students have been selected to work on NASA projects in the US through a New Zealand Space Scholarship, Space Minister Judith Collins announced today. “This is a fantastic opportunity for these talented students. They will undertake internships at NASA’s Ames Research Center or its Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), where ...
New Zealanders will be safer because of a $1.9 billion investment in more frontline Corrections officers, more support for offenders to turn away from crime, and more prison capacity, Corrections Minister Mark Mitchell says. “Our Government said we would crack down on crime. We promised to restore law and order, ...
The OECD’s latest report on New Zealand reinforces the importance of bringing Government spending under control, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The OECD conducts country surveys every two years to review its members’ economic policies. The 2024 New Zealand survey was presented in Wellington today by OECD Chief Economist Clare Lombardelli. ...
The Government has delivered on its election promise to provide a financially sustainable model for Auckland under its Local Water Done Well plan. The plan, which has been unanimously endorsed by Auckland Council’s Governing Body, will see Aucklanders avoid the previously projected 25.8 per cent water rates increases while retaining ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters discussed the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and enhanced cooperation in the Pacific with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during her first official visit to New Zealand today. "New Zealand and Germany enjoy shared interests and values, including the rule of law, democracy, respect for the international system ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
The fight to control major transport policy and projects in Auckland has burst into the open again, with councillors rejecting Mayor Wayne Brown’s latest attempt to steer things more under his influence. Councillors from the left and right broke ranks on the mayor’s bid to control Auckland Transport more directly ...
Exhausted by the general election campaign, horrified by the twilight zone of coalition negotiations, distracted by the silly season and waiting for the honeymoon to begin, Raw Politics has been in hibernation since October. From today, we’re back. Our weekly political video show and podcast returns for ...
By Patrick Decloitre, RNZ Pacific correspondent French Pacific desk Authorities in the small town of Boulouparis have commemorated Armistice Day on May 8 with a new memorial honouring New Zealand soldiers who were stationed in New Caledonia during World War II. The ceremony took place in the township on the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sara Dehm, Senior lecturer, international migration and refugee law, University of Technology Sydney The High Court unanimously ruled today that the Australian government can keep asylum seekers in immigration detention indefinitely in cases where they do not “voluntarily” cooperate with their own ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kim Munro, Lecturer, Creative Industries and Digital Media, University of South Australia Twenty-four hours after the release of Macklemore’s pro-Palestine protest song Hind’s Hall on social media on May 7, the video had already notched up over 24 million views. In ...
Failing to anticipate the complexity of the consenting system is being cited as the the current builder's shortcomings, an Infrastructure Commission review says. ...
350 Aotearoa is calling the Environment Select Committee’s decision to allow oral submissions from just 40% of individual, unique submitters who asked to speak to the committee ‘a disgraceful blight to democracy’. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Helal, Assistant Dean (Sustainability), The University of Melbourne Dubai skylineAleksandarPasaric/Pexels Since ancient times, people have built structures that reach for the skies – from the steep spires of medieval towers to the grand domes of ancient cathedrals and mosques. Today ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Edward Musole, PhD Law Student, University of New England Girts Ragelis/ShutterstockRecent trends show Australians are increasingly buying wearables such as smartwatches and fitness trackers. These electronics track our body movements or vital signs to provide data throughout the day, with ...
Papua New Guinea experienced a significant earthquake on 24 March in East Sepik and there has also been recent flooding there and in surrounding provinces. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Yousuf Mohammed, Dermatology researcher, The University of Queensland Maridav/Shutterstock You wake up, stagger to the bathroom and gaze into the mirror. No, you’re not imagining it. You’ve developed face wrinkles overnight. They’re sleep wrinkles. Sleep wrinkles are temporary. But as your ...
The Environment Select Committee has just announced that 60 percent of individuals who asked to speak at the hearings will not be heard. This equates to almost 700 people who made individual submissions and more than 1000 more who made a form submission. ...
The Royal New Zealand Ballet is performing Swan Lake around the country. What kind of dream does the ballet sell?Before going to see the Royal New Zealand Ballet perform Swan Lake, I had about as much familiarity with the plot of this ballet as could be expected from having ...
A new poem by Auckland poet Eamonn Tee. High Tide at Local Maxima It is only going to get worse. The streams will be narrow and fickle. The week will bend and buckle like a pot-bellied waist. You will make it to the weekend with one ...
The New Zealand entrepreneur behind beauty business Ethique is gearing up to launch a new eco-venture. This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. Our thirst for a tasty bevvy is insatiable, but it comes with a hefty plastic price for the planet: 580 billion ...
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 James by Percival Everett (Mantle, $38) A retelling of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from ...
By Kamna Kumar in Suva Pacific Islands Forum Secretary-General Henry Puna stressed the importance of media freedom and its link to the climate and environmental crisis at the 2024 World Press Freedom Day event organised by the University of the South Pacific’s journalism programme. Under the theme “A Planet for ...
Tara Ward previews a new local TV series offering alternative visions of motherhood. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. A woman is clambering up the side of her two-story house, clinging desperately to a drainpipe. Nearby, her child is perched on the ...
Local Government New Zealand (LGNZ) is supportive of the cross-party approach to climate adaptation announced by the Minister of Climate Change today. ...
The Sustainable Business Council (SBC) and Climate Leaders Coalition (CLC) welcome today’s announcement from Government around a bipartisan inquiry into an enduring climate adaptation framework for New Zealand. ...
The Free Speech Union welcomes the decision by the Department of Internal Affairs, and Minister Brooke Van Velden, to abandon proposals to further regulate online speech. ...
Its new building in Wellington will not be nearly big enough for all its records, and it has also run out of money to build its new storage facility in Levin. ...
BusinessNZ is congratulating the Minister of Climate Change for his work in achieving cross-party consensus for a way forward on climate adaptation. ...
Recent research reveals the repeal of smokefree measures is not only bad for our health, but also the economy. The Government has repealed various smokefree measures to ensure it keeps collecting $1.2 billion a year in tobacco taxes, in order to pay for tax cuts already being delivered to ...
The club’s surprisingly good season is built on the desire to prove a random A-League YouTuber wrong… and a few other factors.“There’s no way that Wellington Phoenix play finals this year. I can’t see it happening at all.” Those are the words of Lachlan Raeside, an Australian football content ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By César Albarrán-Torres, Senior Lecturer, Department of Media and Communication, Swinburne University of Technology Apple TV+ As one of billions of bilingual individuals in the world, it disappoints me when a film or TV show with characters of a non-English-speaking background is ...
The under-utilised course is a waste of space, and with a little political will, it could be turned into something better. For the duration of her stay in Wellington, my long-suffering cousin listened to me rant about golf courses. They’re bad for the environment: water intensive and pesticide heavy. They ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Leah Ruppanner, Professor of Sociology and Founding Director of The Future of Work Lab, Podcast at MissPerceived, The University of Melbourne Shutterstock A recent report from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows US fertility rates dropped 2% in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amy Corderoy, Medical doctor and PhD candidate studying involuntary psychiatric treatment, School of Psychiatry, UNSW Sydney shop_py/Shutterstock Picture two people, both suffering from a serious mental illness requiring hospital admission. One was born in Australia, the other in Asia. Hopefully, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Treby, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, RMIT University P.j.Hickox, Shutterstock Peatlands store more carbon per square metre than any other ecosystem on Earth. These waterlogged, mossy bogs beat even dense rainforests for their ability to act as carbon reservoirs. Under the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Goss, Adjunct Associate Professor, Health Research Institute, University of Canberra Government spending on health has been growing so rapidly that a decade ago the then health minister Peter Dutton called it “unmanageable” and “unsustainable”. Health spending grew in real terms by ...
New Zealand's largest electricity distributor is warning the country to hurry up with controls around charging electric vehicles or face unnecessary bills running into the billions. ...
New Zealanders have been asked to conserve energy this morning to combat a possible electricity shortfall, writes Stewart Sowman-Lund in this extract from The Bulletin. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. A call to conserve power New Zealand is facing a possible electricity shortfall, with people up ...
Writer Rebecca K Reilly breaks down the national book awards. What are the Ockhams?The Ockham New Zealand Book Awards are our annual national awards for books published for adults, and have existed in this form since 2016. There are four categories: Fiction, Poetry, General Non-fiction and Illustrated Non-fiction. There ...
Wellington City Council should keep its 34% ownership share in Wellington International Airport, argue Unions Wellington spokespeople Finn Cordwell and Ashok Jacob. Insanity, as the saying goes, is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Wellington City Council (WCC) is yet again proposing to dispose ...
New Zealand’s largest book publisher has undergone drastic changes this week, leaving its future role in local publishing uncertain. Two of the most recognisable local publishers in New Zealand are among those restructured out of Penguin Random House, it was announced this week. Head of publishing Claire Murdoch will leave ...
In 2021 the Public Interest Journalism Fund launched the Te Rito Journalism project, a $2.4 million initiative to boost diversity in New Zealand’s newsrooms. The initiative was in response to the decades-long shortage of Māori and Pacific journalists in the media industry. It was billed as New Zealand’s ...
The Black Ferns Sevens appeared to be a mile behind Australia at the halfway point of the 2023-24 SVNS international circuit. Winless in three tournaments, a cup quarter-final exit in Perth was one of their worst results. To add insult to injury, talismanic skipper Sarah Hirini had been ruled out ...
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Successive governments have tried, and failed, to count Māori. But with the return of social investment, it’s more important than ever to get good data. The post Government looks for a better way to count Māori appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Experts in financing social investment initiatives say New Zealand is in a prime position to tackle social issues via a social investment approach The post What will Willis’ social investment fund look like? appeared first on Newsroom. ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist A former Tuvalu prime minister says while the New Zealand government’s oil and gas plans show it is concerned about its economy, he is more concerned about the livelihoods and survival of the Tuvalu people. Enele Sopoaga — who still serves as an MP ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Many people who follow federal budgets know about the magnificent “budget tree” in a parliamentary courtyard, which turns a glorious red in time for the May event. This week Treasurer Jim Chalmers posed by ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Samantha Bennett, Professor of Music, Australian National University Richard P J Lambert/flickr, CC BY The future belongs to the analogue loyalists. Fuck digital. As a tsunami of CDs, DAT tapes and samplers swept the recording industry in the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Catherine Strong, Associate professor, Music Industry, RMIT University This week American rapper Macklemore released a new track, Hind’s Hall, which has gained a lot of attention because of its explicitly political nature. The track is unapologetically pro-Palestine. It declares the artist’s ...
Explainer - The government from 2025 is mandating how state schools teach children to read. But what is structured literacy and how does it compare to other teaching methods? ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Danica Jenkins, Lecturer in European Studies, University of Sydney On a freezing spring night in March, Georgia’s national soccer team beat Greece in a nail-biter penalty shootout to qualify for the Euro 2024 championships. The atmosphere on the streets of the capital ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adam G. Arian, Lecturer (Accounting & Finance), Australian Catholic University Loic Manegarium/Pexels Imagine every ton of carbon dioxide a company emits is slowly inflating its costs — not just in terms of potential fines or fees but in the capital it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Somwrita Sarkar, Senior Lecturer in Design and Computation, University of Sydney The “latte line” is the infamous, invisible boundary that divides Sydney between the more affluent north-east and the south-west. Historically, people north of the line enjoy better access to jobs and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Dowdy, Principal Research Scientist in Extreme Weather, The University of Melbourne Nomad_Soul/Shutterstock In media articles about unprecedented flooding, you’ll often come across the statement that for every 1°C of warming, the atmosphere can hold about 7% more moisture. This ...
RNZ Pacific Former Fiji Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama has been sentenced to one year in prison, Fiji media are reporting. Bainimarama, alongside suspended Fiji Police Commissioner Sitiveni Qiliho appeared in the High Court in Suva today for their sentencing hearing for a case involving their roles in blocking a police ...
Acting Chief Human Rights Commissioner Saunoamaali’i Dr Karanina Sumeo says, “Addressing violence and abuse remains New Zealand’s most significant human rights issue affecting women. ...
Will Slavoj Zizek be correct, that Trump will be so bad it will bring about the left revolution?
I suspect it’s more likely Dems will look at how far left they moved their platform because of pressure from Bernie, look at how hard-lefties still put more effort into bagging Clinton than fighting Trump and voted for Stein or stayed home, and conclude that trying to attract hard-lefties isn’t worth it. After all, Obama was quite centrist and look how popular he finished up.
http://www.salon.com/2017/02/18/out-of-darkness-light-will-the-trumpian-nightmare-lead-to-a-real-political-revolution-after-all/
And if they do ‘stay put’ as you seem to imply they will do, what do you think will happen, given that it appears that many younger voters are rejecting their essentially conservative approach? Do you think perhaps that after a substantial dose of Trumperism even the hard left will run back to mother? – Can’t see it myself!
I think the way hard-lefties didn’t support the Dems and Clinton even after they moved their platform a long way left is going to produce the really crap result of further reinforcing status quo politics and further reducing engagement and turnout, particularly among the young.
So do you think the growing number of disillusioned and disengaged will just continue to sit on the sidelines and grizzle?
Yep, mostly. But I hope I’m wrong.
I can’t see the Dems emerging from the depths they have plunged to for a very long time. Imo they are corrupt to the core, just like the whole ” American Dream”.
Will Slavoj Zizek be correct, that Trump will be so bad it will bring about the left revolution?
No, he won’t. I hate these communist “After Hitler, us!” fucks. They’re happy to see right-wing authoritarian nationalists wrecking the country because the resulting cruelty and destabilisation may create the conditions for a boot stamping on a human face forever, sorry I meant a communist revolution.
.. do you mean the u.s.a boot stamping cruelty in south America and other places … under the guise of fighting communism ….. remember the u.s.a calls health systems like NZ has ‘communism’.
William Blum ‘killing hope’ : …… ” every socialist experiment of any significance in the twentieth century—without exception—has either been crushed, overthrown, or invaded, or corrupted, perverted, subverted, or destabilized, or otherwise had life made impossible for it, by the United States.
Not one socialist government or movement—from the Russian Revolution to the Sandinistas in Nicaragua, from Communist China to the FMLN in Salvador—not one was permitted to rise or fall solely on its own merits; not one was left secure enough to drop its guard against the all-powerful enemy abroad and freely and fully relax control at home.
It’s as if the Wright brothers’ first experiments with flying machines all failed because the automobile interests sabotaged each test flight. And then the good and godfearing folk of the world looked upon this, took notice of the consequences, nodded their collective heads wisely, and intoned solemnly: Man shall never fly. ” …
“” By the summer of 1918 some 13,000 American troops could be found in the newly-born Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Two years and thousands of casualties later, the American troops left, having failed in their mission to “strangle at its birth” the Bolshevik state, as Winston Churchill put it.”
————————————————————————-
and John stockwell : …. ” President Reagan allocated 19 million dollars to form an army, a force of contras, they’re called, ex-Somoza national guards, the monsters who were doing the torture and terror in Nicaragua that made the Nicaraguan people rise up and throw out the dictator, and throw out the guard. We went back to create an army of these people. We are killing, and killing, and terrorizing people. Not only in Nicaragua but the Congress has leaked to the press – reported in the New York Times, that there are 50 covert actions going around the world today, CIA covert actions going on around the world today.
You have to be asking yourself, why are we destabilizing 50 corners of the troubled world”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmYZ_kWHk3Q
“[When the U.S. doesn’t like a government], they send the CIA in, with its resources and activists, hiring people, hiring agents, to tear apart the social and economic fabric of the country, as a technique for putting pressure on the government, hoping that they can make the government come to the U.S.’s terms, or the government will collapse altogether and they can engineer a coup d’etat, and have the thing wind up with their own choice of people in power.
Now ripping apart the economic and social fabric of course is fairly textbook-ish. What we’re talking about is going in and deliberately creating conditions where the farmer can’t get his produce to market, where children can’t go to school, where women are terrified inside their homes as well as outside their homes, where government administration and programs grind to a complete halt, where the hospitals are treating wounded people instead of sick people, where international capital is scared away and the country goes bankrupt. ”
“The Indonesian covert action of 1965, reported by Ralph McGehee, who was in that area division, and had documents on his desk, in his custody about that operation. He said that one of the documents concluded that this was a MODEL operation that should be COPIED elsewhere in the world. Not only did it eliminate the effective communist party (Indonesian communist party), it also eliminated the entire segment of the population that tended to support the communist party – the ethnic Chinese, Indonesian Chinese. And the CIA’s report put the number of dead at 800,000 killed. And that was one covert action. We’re talking about 1 to 3 million people killed in these things. ”
“”Just to give you an example of how complete this is, and how military this has been, between 1900 and W.W. II, we had 5,000 marines in Nicaragua for a total of 28 years. We invaded the Dominican Republic 4 times. Haiti, we occupied it for 12 years. We put our troops into Cuba 4 times, Panama 6 times, Guatemala once, plus a CIA covert action to overthrow the democratic government there once. Honduras, 7 times. And by the way, we put 12,000 troops into the Soviet Union during that same period of time.”
The Narcissistic Billionaire Trump can be criticized for many many things …. but it seems bizarre to me that stopping or lowering The U.s.a’s role in feeding these death-spots with weapons and support is one of them.
How many people are aware of the war against russia which started in 1918 ?
How many russians would know ?
.. do you mean the u.s.a boot stamping cruelty in south America and other places …
No, I mean the people Orwell was actually referring to when he wrote that phrase. Still, kudos for the lengthy apologia for the worst totalitarian regimes in the world’s history – most people are too duplicitous or have too strong a sense of shame to be up-front about it.
You quote Orwell …. in a cartoonist way
“Washington policy makers and diplomats saw the world out there as one composed of “communists” and “anti-communists”, whether of nations, movements or individuals. This comic-strip vision of the world, with righteous American supermen fighting communist evil everywhere, had graduated from a cynical propaganda exercise to a moral imperative of US foreign policy.
John Foster Dulles, one of the major architects of post-war US foreign policy, expressed this succinctly in his typically simple, moralistic way: “For us there are two sorts of people in the world: there are those who are Christians and support free enterprise and there are the others.”14 As several of the case studies in the present hook confirm, Dulles put that creed into rigid practice.”
Over 2 million Vietnamese Killed…. freedom???
800,00-1.5 million Indonesians Murdered …. and a natural partner for NZ according to our nZ mfat webpage … Joshua Oppenheimer’s description of present day Indonesia … Where workers get threatened with the death squads that killed their parents https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orD_WOrEN5o
South America …. running drugs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIVbFhVYB64
And Sorry if I find John Stockwell,…. an ex cia officer …. to be more credible on cia/usa policy and actions …. than your opinions .. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmYZ_kWHk3Q
Nicaragua for Instance …….. “To destabilize Nicaragua beginning in 1981, we began funding this force of Somoza’s exnational guardsmen, calling them the contras (the counter-revolutionaries). We created this force, it did not exist until we allocated money. We’ve armed them, put uniforms on their backs, boots on their feet, given them camps in Honduras to live in, medical supplies, doctors, training, leadership, direction, as we’ve sent them in to de-stabilize Nicaragua.
They use terror. This is a technique that they’re using to traumatize the society so that it can’t function. I don’t mean to abuse you with verbal violence, but you have to understand what your government and its agents are doing. They go into villages, they haul out families. With the children forced to watch they castrate the father, they peel the skin off his face, they put a grenade in his mouth and pull the pin. With the children forced to watch they gang-rape the mother, and slash her breasts off. And sometimes for variety, they make the parents watch while they do these things to the children. This is nobody’s propaganda. There have been over 100,000 American witnesses for peace who have gone down there and they have filmed and photographed and witnessed these atrocities immediately after they’ve happened, and documented 13,000 people killed this way, mostly women and children. These are the activities done by these contras. The contras are the people president Reagan calls `freedom fighters’. He says they’re the moral equivalent of our founding fathers. ”
Sounds like Ukraine Banderist nazi methods if you ask me ….
You know the ones ….. resurrected and backed up by trade sanctions against their enemy’s … solidarity from little ol NZ
Another natural partner perhaps ?
Sounds like Ukraine Banderist nazi methods if you ask me ….
No-one did. But you do get today’s High Score for false equivalence.
well you did say …. “kudos for the lengthy apologia for the worst totalitarian regimes in the world’s history – most people are too duplicitous or have too strong a sense of shame to be up-front about it.”
…are you unaware of approx 8000 unkraine SS officers given sanctuary and some even recruited by the us.a and other good guys after WWII??? …… Of the Banderist nazi flavor ….. some ended doing operations back home( killing/destroying ) …. and some taught torture.
Which brings me back to Nicaragua …. but I’d like to explore our/Nzs links with Indonesia more next time ….
Given our ‘natural partnership’ with them …. and the flurry of National party + business activity with this gangster nation ….before key made off …
********************************************
Ronny Raygun:”The Contras are the moral equivalent of our Founding Fathers.”
http://thewe.cc/contents/more/archive2006/torture_death_and_nicaragua.htm
“The United States supported the brutal Somoza dictatorship in Nicaragua for over 40 years.
The Nicaraguan people, led by the Sandinistas, overthrew this regime in 1979, a breathtaking popular revolution.
Sandinistas
The Sandinistas weren’t perfect.
They possessed their fair share of arrogance and their political philosophy contained a number of contradictory elements.
But they were intelligent, rational and civilised.
They set out to establish a stable, decent, pluralistic society.
The death penalty was abolished.
Hundreds of thousands of poverty-stricken peasants were brought back from the dead.
Over 100,000 families were given title to land.
Two thousand schools were built.
A quite remarkable literacy campaign reduced illiteracy in the country to less than one seventh.
Free education was established and a free health service.
Infant mortality was reduced by a third.
Polio was eradicated.
Dangerous example was being set
The United States denounced these achievements as Marxist/Leninist subversion.
In the view of the US government, a dangerous example was being set.
If Nicaragua was allowed to establish basic norms of social and economic justice, if it was allowed to raise the standards of health care and education and achieve social unity and national self respect, neighbouring countries would ask the same questions and do the same things.
There was of course at the time fierce resistance to the status quo in El Salvador.
I spoke earlier about ‘a tapestry of lies’ which surrounds us.
Taken generally by the media
President Reagan commonly described Nicaragua as a ‘totalitarian dungeon’.
This was taken generally by the media, and certainly by the British government, as accurate and fair comment.
But there was in fact no record of death squads under the Sandinista government.
There was no record of torture.
There was no record of systematic or official military brutality.
No priests were ever murdered in Nicaragua.
There were in fact three priests in the government, two Jesuits and a Maryknoll missionary.
El Salvador and Guatemala
The totalitarian dungeons were actually next door, in El Salvador and Guatemala.
The United States had brought down the democratically elected government of Guatemala in 1954 and it is estimated that over 200,000 people had been victims of successive military dictatorships.
Six of the most distinguished Jesuits in the world were viciously murdered at the Central American University in San Salvador in 1989 by a battalion of the Alcatl regiment trained at Fort Benning, Georgia, USA.
That extremely brave man Archbishop Romero was assassinated while saying mass.
It is estimated that 75,000 people died.
Why were they killed?
They were killed because they believed a better life was possible and should be achieved.
That belief immediately qualified them as communists.
They died because they dared to question the status quo, the endless plateau of poverty, disease, degradation and oppression, which had been their birthright.
Poverty stricken once again — ‘Democracy’ had prevailed
The United States finally brought down the Sandinista government.
It took some years and considerable resistance but relentless economic persecution and 30,000 dead finally undermined the spirit of the Nicaraguan people.
They were exhausted and poverty stricken once again.
The casinos moved back into the country.
Free health and free education were over.
Big business returned with a vengeance.
‘Democracy’ had prevailed.
But this ‘policy’ was by no means restricted to Central America.
It was conducted throughout the world.
It was never-ending.
And it is as if it never happened. ”
http://thewe.cc/contents/more/archive2006/torture_death_and_nicaragua.htm
whose shameless?????
My Grandfather got sent to war and fought the Nazis …. Unlike you he knew what to do with them.
It would be a disgrace to shut up and now pretend there are good nazis …. like some do.
Mind you, I doubt he went to war so a sleaze like Key could sell out his great grand-kids futures either ….
Another quote from Orwell that seems appropriate:
Power is not a means, it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship.
1984 Book 3, Chapter 3
And from Gustave Flaubert:
Inside every revolutionary there is a policeman.
I agree, ‘accelerationists’ as they are called are despicable – they’re happy to see other people suffer even more than they are now for the sake for the sake of the precious revolution, then jerk off over the thought of being in the Inner Party because they’re the ‘pure’ ones. If they want to burn a house down, they should start with their own.
So your take-home message from the large popularity of Sanders is to move the Democrats away from Sanders back toward what lost them the election.
Please go work for the Nats as a tactician.
Registered Democrats are the big leftie group in the US. Clinton won the primary by 55% to 43%. That’s a very clear margin, and a clear signal that leftie Americans were more comfortable with Clinton’s offerings than Sanders. Nevertheless, Clinton and the Democrats changed their platform to align more closely to Sanders’ platform. Then lost the general election. To Trump!!!! How does all of that add up to an argument the Dems should have gone even further away from the mainstream?
They didn’t lose the election because of the slight changes in platform, which did nothing to win voters in the rust belt – by comparison, Sanders’ platform would have been vastly more popular in the rust belt. That would come at a cost of votes in conservative states where he was losing anyway.
The dems might consider supporting an honest unentangled candidate.
Or not.
Gotta say that I’m not aware of anyone in the Dem pipeline that has quite the blindness about how their actions can be made to look that Hillary had, let alone doing that stuff while wearing the stains from 25 years of smears.
The overwhelming weakness of the left is a tendency to believe that if things only get a little worse, they will suddenly flip into a revolution that creates utopia.
Fuck Hegel.
Eager anticipation when things get worse is a clear conflict of interest to actually getting off your arse and improving things.
I’ve mostly thought the biggest weakness of left politics is a lot more lefties are into purity and principle politics to the point of being willing to vote for parties/candidates with no chance, even though it helps their polar opposite opponents win.
Whereas as righties seem to be a bit more pragmatic about voting for the possible winners closest to their views.
In New Zealand, just look at the peak vote for ACT (7% in 2002) and compare to pre-96 votes for say Greens or Alliance.
That is another big issue, too
This is interesting, how a UBI could go wrong
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/opinion/Basic-Income-as-a-Neoliberal-Weapon-20170217-0009.html
Thanks, will have a proper read later. I cam across something recently that said one of the core disagreements between Lange and Douglas was Douglas’ UBI proposal. Might be worth looking up to see the NZ neoliberal version.
An interesting read, Xanthe. This guy explores some of my gut-instinct feelings about the current push for a UBI. I do see this in effect becoming a subsidy for employers and landlords. Current policies such as WFF and accommodation grants for people on benefits also work this way, of course, but not in such a wholesale way.
I can’t say I’ve done a lot of research into the issue, and could still be convinced – there probably are models which address my concerns, but any move in this direction would need to be very strongly designed in order to achieve its goals rather than (perversely) acting as a transfer of wealth into the pockets of those who least need it.
Trump’s pick for diplomatic posting an “insult to NZ”.
http://i.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/89560459/its-an-insult-backlash-against-trumps-pick-for-diplomatic-post-to-new-zealand
He’s also a Fox News commentator accused of groping a female colleague – which makes it clear why he appeals to Trump, but that’s not exactly a great CV when it comes to dealing with New Zealanders.
I imagine for the US (for any administration), picking an ex Senator is seen as a good thing and an affirmation of the relationship.
Obama’s first Ambassador was an ex Senator.
Senators, even when they have lost elections, are usually highly regarded in the US political system. And the fact that he is a Fox commentator would be seen by the Trump administration as a demonstration of his connectedness in the political system.
However, I did not know about the groping accusation referred to by Psycho Milt.
Wayne, how do you feel about Brown’s reported enthusiasm for waterboarding?
Any view on Jonathan Milne’s opinion that Brown’s support of waterboarding is a good reason for New Zealand to say no, we don’t accept him?
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/89507191/jonathan-milne-if-we-as-a-nation-find-senator-scott-browns-actions-abhorrent-we-can-do-more-than-talk–we-can-say-no
Andre,
I think it would be going too far to say “no” to him on that basis.
However, I would expect him to acknowledge that is not New Zealand’s view, and to recognise that he needs to adjust his position, given the strong New Zealand position on this.
It is worth recalling that in 2003/2004 that NZ SAS soldiers strongly protested about American treatment of detainees, and took the issue up the command chain.
Reason,
I strongly protest about what you have said about me. And by implication that National supports torture.
In relation to Afghanistan (your link) in fact I made sure we deployed additional legal officers to Afghanistan so we could ensure, as best we could, that any detainees that the CRU arrested were not ill-treated. This whole issue was a major concern for us. One of our goals during the deployment was to improve the behaviour of the CRU.
A general dilemma that all western nations faced in Afghanistan (in fact in any country where the West or the UN gets involved in) is that the Afghans did not act in accordance to the standards we would expect. NATO/ISAF put in a huge effort to with the Afghan authorities to improve respect for human rights, to improve their prisons and their legal system. Are they yet like out courts and prisons?
No, but they are way better than they used to be.
As a general point, no matter the divergence of view we may have on various things, I don’t think it is necessary to demonise one opponents like that.
You’re out of touch.
I would expect him to acknowledge that is not New Zealand’s view, and to recognise that he needs to adjust his position,
The problem here is that your torturer mates aren’t from Afghanistan, and your desire to appease them looks a lot like being an accessory.
[lprent: You and
AndreReason are starting to go too far. Whilst I have serious doubts about Brown as being inappropriate for NZ, you have to remember that he isn’t here to represent NZ. He is here to represent the USA.If there was anything definitive in his history (for instance a conviction for groping a fellow Fox presenter) then at a government level we could (maybe) refuse to accept his credentials. However having opinions that are distasteful and obnoxious isn’t a ground for rejecting them. Ambassadors and ambassadorial staff are there for a purpose and are covered by some pretty specific law. We don’t have to like them, we just have to put up (with limits) what they say. ]
OAB,
Did you not read or understand my comment. I expect Brown to change his position on this issue.
When he doesn’t, you will advocate appeasement.
[lprent: See my note above. ]
Lprent, I’m more interested in Wayne’s movable feast of ethics than Brown’s. Warning noted.
lprent, maybe I’m being thick but I’ve carefully re-read what I wrote and I don’t see where I’m near a line. I was genuinely interested in Wayne’s views on the waterboarding and potential rejection as ambassador issues, particularly given the positions he has held in his service to NZ, and didn’t attack him or anyone else. Now that Wayne has shared his views, I’m not inclined to have a go at him for those views.
I’d be grateful if you have the time to explain where I’m close to the line. Or perhaps there was some mix-up between what I said and what Reason said?
[lprent: You notice that I put the warning (from memory) on Reason who was over the line (as Wayne pointed out), and on OAB who was continuing the same theme. I may have copied it on an additional comment of yours? Your first one was ok and from memory Wayne treated it by explaining his opinion. Edit: Oh I see what you mean. I said Andre where I meant Reason. I will adjust. It is because I see the comments running in reverse time order…
However OAB and Reason were effectively saying that the personal actions and opinions of an ex-minister and national party member were those of the government and national party. They were doing it on a topic that even National and their government have little to no leeway on. The law covering diplomatic embassies is pretty draconian.
It amounted to pointless abuse of a person for something where there was absolutely no effective relationship between Wayne and what they were objecting to. It was liable to drop into even more pointless flaming. I intervened to make sure it didn’t escalate into a bullying flamewar I’d have to start banning people for. Like the policy says, we prefer to warn rather than ban.
With that kind of brushwar, I tend to put the warning on each branch of an issue to make sure that everyone is aware of an issue and has no excuse to work around it. That is because of the tree structure of our comments. It is far too easy to miss warnings as the debate branches. ]
Thanks. Your warning to OAB started “lprent: You and Andre are starting to go too far…”, so I take it it should have been reason there instead of me. I was worried maybe I was violating a policy about being too beige or something.
Yeah, unless I jump tabs, when I start editing (rather than quick edit) a comment on the backend comment list. I lose all context. I usually rely on memory. Screwed up this time..
Lprent. Thanks for the longer explanation. It’s Wayne’s opinion as a law commissioner I’m interested in, although I think it’s fair to say that many of the experiences he cites derive from his time as a Minister.
(Sorry to discuss you in the third person Wayne.)
I agree that Browne is the US representative here, and from the sounds of it, he represents POTUS quite well. What I’d like to know is where the line is, for establishment figures like Wayne. How far does the US have to descend before they would consider “cutting ties” (whatever that means to them). Or is there no line – for similar reasons to Hobbes’ dictum that the worst dictator is better than the alternative, or whatever.
I’ll try and be more polite in trying to find out.
I remember going through a rather horrendous set of lectures and readings in dual areas; about the history of diplomacy and the law governing diplomacy in the commonwealth and NZ. Some of those lessons came from my military training and lifelong interest in the military and military history – the application of which is often viewed as being the failures of diplomacy. Being born 14 years after WW2, I grew up in the shadow of the ex-servicemen where i could see the consequences of diplomatic failures.
What you realize after looking at it is that the primary reason for diplomats is to keep open lines of direct communication to stop various types of warfare (from weaponry to trade). The actual quality of the diplomats is of far less importance than that they can accurately reflect both parties to each other. That is because the consequences of miscommunication between monarchs and states will often tend to be somewhat horrendous.
As someone who did law, military and government somewhat more than I did, Wayne probably got a whole lot more of that particular set of horror stories than I did.
But my view is that diplomacy is one area that needs to be somewhat isolated from populist thinking so that it can concentrate on downstream consequences. Of course that is because I know somewhat more clearly what the downstream failures of diplomacy can be than most of the recent generations. But you only really need to reflect on the diplomatic miscommunication and the miscalculations that fell out of the diplomatic schism between the USA/UK and Iraq to see a recent example.
Perhaps “cutting ties” is a poor choice of words.
Global Legal Action Network and the Stanford International Human Rights Clinic have taken a case against Australia and various private companies to the ICC.
Should the case proceed, law enforcement officials in New Zealand may be put in the invidious position of having to protect visiting heads of state for whom there are outstanding international arrest warrants. As Idiot Savant has pointed out, these individuals would also be wanted under domestic law.
As someone with a foot in both diplomatic and legal camps, Wayne can shed some light on the practical issues that arise. I still reckon he’ll give them (torturers) a free pass.
PS: in case you’re wondering why I switched from the USA to Australia, the legal and ethical issues are similar: the practical and diplomatic considerations are slightly different.
Not that much. If they are coming under a diplomatic credentials/passport, then there will be bugger all that we could do except to deny their visa or reject their credentials and ship them home.
Visiting heads of state typically come under diplomatic credentials. We’d be more likely to deny entry if they had an ICC warrant.
It is pretty much the same rules as any diplomat, like that guy from the Malaysian embassy a few years ago. We can boot them but that is about all unless they or their country waive immunity.
The alternative for inter-state communication is that effectively every diplomat is a probable hostage. Because trumped up charges could be made for literally anything. Laws could be passed purely to entrap. And no-one would send diplomats anywhere.
If you want to see an example, have a look at the terrible economic price that Iran faced for more than 25 years (and arguably on to today) after a state mob stormed the US embassy in Tehran. Apart from the ongoing sanctions, they were literally starved on any significiant capital and were shunned during a major war that they barely survived.
After all who in the hell would want to send diplomats into the precedent hellhole that the Iranian revolution created.
People who are not currently travelling under diplomatic immunity are private citizens and are fair game. That is what happened to Pinochet and Dotcom. However a case to extradite has to be made under the laws of the arresting country.
That’s true..
But didn’t stop the US border officials stopping the ex Norwegian PM travelling on a diplomatic passport to a prayer meeting in the US because he had visited Iran on a humanitarian visit a few years back..
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/feb/03/former-norway-pm-bondevik-held-washington-dulles-airport-2014-visit-iran
What’s good for the goose….
OAB
I really don’t have any more to add.
But I can assure you we (NZDF and myself) put a lot of effort in trying to ensure fundamental human rights were protected in Afghanistan.
An interesting and insightful discussion on the role of Ambassadors by Iprent.
Presumably during the confirmation hearings Brown will have the opportunity to say the right thing. Surely as relatively senior JAG officer he must know the law in this area in detail. And he should be well informed by State of the New Zealand view.
I am certain the ICC will refuse jurisdiction in the Australian case. Whatever the Australian defaults, they do not reach the threshold required by the ICC.
Sorry Lprent …..
good on you wayne… for your strong protest…. about you , the nats and torture…………. I legally accept your plausible deniability
Its a shame about the mass amounts of torture and brutal killing of civilians that have directly resulted from the bits of war you do support ….
………..http://www.juancole.com/2016/07/real-problem-illegal.html
“The Iraq War was an act of pure aggression, no different in moral or legal standing from Hitler’s invasion of Poland. That is what Bush and Blair made themselves. Small Hitlers, betraying all the hopes of the generation of 1945, which dreamed of forestalling further such atrocities.
Had the war been launched in response to Saddam Hussain’s own attack on Iran in 1980, and had there been a consensus at the UNSC for such a move, it could have been justified. But in 2003 there was no international emergency calling for such a war. The level of Western hypocrisy can be measured, however, by the lack of any move to punish Iraq for invading Iran and starting an 8-year war that killed hundreds of thousands. Worse yet, the Reagan administration actually swung behind Iraq in 1983, allied with Saddam, and shielded him from charges brought by Iran to the UNSC that he used mustard gas and perhaps Sarin on Iranian troops at the front. And then the Reagan administration authorized the sale to Iraq of precursors for anthrax. ”
And your wanting NZ not to be bound by international law … ” the fact remains that under international law, any non-defensive war waged without its approval is illegal and a crime. So when Wayne Mapp says he doesn’t want our foreign policy to be subject to a UN veto, what he is really saying is that he wants to wage war in contravention of international law and the UN charter – in other words, he wants us to be a rogue nation, just like the US… ”
I just presumed a little water boarding …. would be water of a ducks back among a few million dead Iraqis …or Afghans .
Don’t be so racist about the Afghans wayne ………… how come if they are naturally so bad …. how is it that Afghanistan was a safe place for women and others to travel too and through? …. in that the time before the usa armed Muslim extremists there ….
It was on the hippy trail and a nice country http://www.messynessychic.com/2014/03/11/road-trip-to-afghanistan-snapshots-from-the-lost-hippie-trail/
Apart from bombs, shells and troops …. the usa brought the ‘Phoenix /El Salvador option’ to Iraq and Afghanistan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TN4Sn5u_pK0
very very nasty stuff …. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxHEI603bF4
My research has found that vicious dog handlers were in big demand and paid very well in Iraq post invasion …..
Given all the torture and prisoner abuse ……… should mark Mitchell clear up exactly what he was doing over there earning his money ….
Just so we know Mike Sabins replacement is squeaky clean ..
….. after that whale oil email in Nicky Hagers ‘Dirty Politics” book ….something about ‘bite em till they scream’
Mark Mitchell said he was gong to sue ………………… http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/10429236/MP-considers-legal-action-against-Nicky-Hager
Any info on that? …. or Judith … I think she threatened to sue too ?
I don’t regard a person who has openly advocated torture methods like waterboarding is a suitable person to send to NZ, but I appreciate in Trump’s world it would be seen as a plus…
Barack Obama…
“..We tortured some folks”…
Dishonest cocksplat quote mines.
Would you like to back up that statement Joe, and or disprove the quote?
Repeated use of insults, no matter how much of a release from the issues you refer to in your life this blog provides you, is no excuse
[lprent: While we are on that subject – where is the source of that quotation? That was what you rightfully were pulled up on.
Since you objected to being pulled up, then I will object to you avoiding substantiating your out of context quote. Banned for 2 weeks. Read the policy and look at your own damn behaviour before trying to exercise moderator powers on this site. ]
Incomplete citation is technique used by the dishonest.
Joe’s right: what you did is called “quote mining”, and is a form of lying. Hence “dishonest”.
Did you think no-one would notice?
cocksplat? Nice one.
Browns endorsement of torture, would make him not suitable for most NZ citizens ..
He would be ok by the Nats …
And perfect to someone like wayne …. http://norightturn.blogspot.co.nz/search?q=mapp%2Btorture
… there might even be a trade deal in it.
[lprent: see my note above ]
One of his ex fellow Fox presenters has alleged that he groped her at work. She is suing Fox, him, and I believe several managerial staff at Fox both for the grope and that her complaint caused her bosses to push her out, She alleges that Fox is a hotbed of misogyny.
I can see how Trump might see groping female workmates as a plus. I can’t see how it would endear him to most of NZ.
Edit From the link that Anne put up
Yes waterboarding is one enhanced interrogation technique – there are many other ones within that category. Brown endorsed them all not just waterboarding. This is important because when you search and read the list of what they do under enhanced interrogation techniques it will turn your stomach.
He sounds like just the man to represent the current US administration. He has it all!
/sarc
Sorry, a little late to the discussion. Since I was cited in the article about Mr. Brown here is a more detailed elaboration of my views on his possible nomination: http://www.kiwipolitico.com/2017/02/where-to-draw-the-line/
Readers wil note that there is a cautionary tale for Wayne at the end of my post, given his position during the period the IG is looking at.
David Dunning of Dunning-Kruger effect fame reckons Trump is the most public example of the Dunning-Kruger effect he’s ever seen. Ouch.
In hindsight, this kind self-reflection may have been useful in the lead up to the 2016 presidential election, when mentions of Dunning-Kruger on social media reached a new high. In the beginning, many of them were in reference to the candidate Donald Trump, whose combination of over the top blustering (“My IQ is one of the highest,” he has claimed) and obvious ignorance in areas such as foreign policy struck many Twitters users as, “the personification of the Dunning-Kruger effect.”
http://nymag.com/scienceofus/2017/01/why-donald-trump-will-be-the-dunning-kruger-president.html?
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/89560459/its-an-insult-backlash-against-trumps-pick-for-diplomatic-post-to-new-zealand
Does he need a visa to travel to US territory? They’d just put him in the diplomatic bag 🙂
Andrew Littles handling of the Willie Jackson selection/waiver debacle has finally lost the votes of myself and my wife. I’m a middle of the road swing voter and my wife is/was true Labour (she is a union rep). I change between parties but my wife has never even thought of anything but Labour. The biggest problem for Labour is I will never vote green and she may or may not. If Andrew is still looking for the missing million he can add one maybe two more to that number.
Why will you never vote Green?
My personal dealings with the Greens have been arduous. I won’t go into specifics but I was left with a bad taste in my mouth.
Oh, well done, Andrew. One issue, the selection of a mouth as a candidate has put you off voting Labour. Great.
So you’d rather have another three years of the most appalling government this country has had since the last National government.
And very likely you will not even be in the same electorate as Willie. But take your principled stand – and suffer the consequences.
You give short-sightedness a whole new dimension!
It’s not one issue Tony, for me it’s the culmination of scores of issues. For my wife however, I believe it does rest on the Willie Jackson issue.
@ Andrew
I would be interested to see a list of the “scores of issues” you refer to
I detest swing voters. They’re even worse than National voters. Swing voters are fence-sitters, without the courage or conviction to stand by their principles.
I have always been a swing voter, you detest me? I don’t detest you muttonbird. Do you blindly follow one party no matter what policy they do or don’t produce?
My needs from my government have changed over the last 40 years.
“My needs from my government have changed over the last 40 years.”
Andrew, has it ever occurred to you to vote on the basis of others’ needs, and not just your own?
I’m less than thrilled by the Jackson selection. I do understand the reasoning behind it, though, and I would like to hear from the guy himself. Willie, if you’re out there, how about fronting up like Greg O’Connor and putting your side of the story? I would have questions for you and I’m sure others would too.
Can you give an example or two of Labour policies which will help the Country. I’m struggling to find any I think would work.
You don’t think they can establish a building program or raise taxes on the top?
I suggest you look at the expansion in the state housing stock during the period 1999-2008, the increase in the tax rate in 1999, and note that unemployment was at ~3% by 2007.
Did they fix everything? No. Have many indicators (everything from the rule of law to the infectious disease admission rate) declined since 2008? Yep. Are we getting mentioned in too many UN reports for all the wrong reasons? Yep.
Does the National Party care, let alone have the competence?
Three years free tertiary education 😀 I firmly believe that will work.
The career development plan and the Future of Work Commission.
I just want ‘value’ for my tax dollars, not bailouts, not ministry overspending or mismanagement . I want an educated society/community. That’s what’s important to me.
Red-blooded –
Re Willie Jackson you may find the piece from Moana Maniapoto in today’s
e-tangata interesting:
http://e-tangata.co.nz/news/moana-maniapoto-the-willie-jackson-i-know
Make sure you also read the comments esp. the one from Stephen Ihaka. I still have many reservations about Willie but without he has done a lot for poor, urban Māori over the years.
I’m going to try and put a post up about that in the next day or so. I disagree with her evaluation of the relative treatments of Māori and Pākehā radio hosts (but based on memory, I haven’t gone back and looked), but more interesting to me is that I read her piece as an example of how Māori handle things differently than Pākehā. More willing to forgive and be understanding of frailty and find ways of being inclusive as part of the solution.
A lot of the arguments about WJ in the past few weeks look to me to have been (white) feminists arguing with (white) men over rape culture issues and how they play out in Pākehā cultures. Not that all the people arguing have been white, but that the discourse I saw has happened in predominantly Pākehā spaces and those values are there. If women had equitably shared power in Labour, this would have played out differently, and the whole thing is a showcase of the patriarchy within Labour, and the wider culture as much as anything. It’s the still relative powerlessness of women in Pākehā society that jumps out.
Good to have a wahine Māori perspective just to bring that into focus as well as just hear how it looks from that side.
One thing I am tired of though is this idea that a good person can’t be misogynistic in certain areas. We really need to get over that.
then there’s this, which is a very good example of exactly why so much is still made of the issue and will continue to be despite WJ’s other good works.
“Sean Plunket
@SeanPlunket
@etangata good piece. Way to much made of roastbusters affair willy was asking legit questions that reflected the position of many kiwis.”
https://twitter.com/mizjwilliams/status/833167309216714753
I agree with most of your points.
My ongoing problem with Willie is that he still seems to play down the effect of homophobia, misogyny, rape culture etc although I do think he has more understanding now than in the past (I am mainly basing this on tweets from Alison Mau and comments made to me by a couple of Māori friends who know him well).
He is also a bit of a loose cannon and a better talker than he is a listener. These traits can cause more problems than they solve sometimes.
Translation: I am now wealthy enough that I can afford not to give a toss about the people who are struggling to get by. The Willie Jackson issue is a smokescreen to justify to myself voting National so I can stay wealthy, even though I know deep down that National are full of far worse people than Jackson and their policies are terrible for New Zealand as a whole.
I do not own a home and am not wealthy. I would love Labour to take the lead on issues that I think are important but they don’t.
such as?
Make them work for their vote Andrew.
You do not owe it to them or to any other party.
Labour’s got a long, long way to go before it can show it’s bringing back swing voters.
The great majority of whom will be women.
@ Andrew (6.3.1) you state …
“my needs from my government have changed over the last 40 years.”
This attitude is the reason we still have a National government. People voting for THEIR personal needs, with little thought as to what’s beneficial for the nation as a whole, is what’s destroying NZ.
If more voters gave considered attention to what’s best for their country in general, instead of themselves, NZ just might become a more egalitarian place for all Kiwis to live and enjoy.
Part of the problem is that the Right spends all its time destroying society, and then says it’s all about choice.
The system and players are the problem…(let’s ignore those behind the curtain for now)
And when combined with folk who believe that a regular vote equates to ‘freedom/democracy’…
The decline rapidly increases
Voting/voters are the problem you’re incorrectly identifying!
pentagon pays 500m to UK PR firm to create ministry of truth in Iraq,who would have though that?
http://labs.thebureauinvestigates.com/fake-news-and-false-flags/
Well here is an almighty one $Billion dollar Government stuff up. Joyce and Bridges are going to have egg on their faces over this;
“Transport blogger Patrick Reynolds said the purpose of the western ring route was to provide free-flowing traffic but it had been badly designed and would open to gridlock.”
“The reason for that is because of the failure to build parallel rapid transit. There is no busway,” Reynolds said.
“He claimed the ramp signals were being installed because of limitations on the ventilation system in the event of traffic coming to a standstill inside the tunnels.”
I recall Transport Minister Simon Bridges saying “the Waterview tunnel and ring route would be a faultless marvel” kind of thought at the time he would put the kiss of death on the ‘faultless’.
Bound to be hotly debated at the Mt Albert By-Election Transport Debate next Wednesday night.
http://m.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11803442
If you watch the video it says there’s dedicated bus shoulder lanes.
There is no separated congestion-free busway on either North-Western or South-Western motorways like the one on the Northern motorway from Albany to the Harbour Bridge.
Buses have to merge back into clogged traffic at every overbridge where the shoulder lanes disappear. Transport agencies are only belatedly adding shoulder lanes to the SW motorway in any case.
Seems like another very expensive stuff-up like when the SW was first connected to the Southern motorways, requiring urgent remedial work to correct problems. The whole Western Ring Route from Manukau to Albany totals $4b, yet people have been giving its sub-projects a free pass and whinging instead about the core rail link budgeted at half that amount.
Akl has suffered under every single national govt when it comes to transport.
Muldoon wouldn’t finish the suburban rail network, Williamson sat by whilst Bolger and Shipley plundered the fuel and RUC charges to use elsewhere and now this mob.
Not only has the shonky reign screwed over public transport since day 1 it’s double whammied it by flooding akl with moneyed migrants.
Patrick would do well to keep his powder dry until the SH20 Waterview system actually opens. Lest he’s wrong and looks like a complete dick.
And who would have thunk it? The interviews for the three vacant Auckland Transport Board appointments are in a matter of days.
Ad you should know by now that it’s not too far in the future for complete gridlock in Auckland. The situation deteriorates by the day. It’s very obvious to someone who travels into the city once or twice a month, and not on a daily basis. Over the past 2 – 3 years the traffic flows have become slower and slower and gridlocks occur at anytime of the day. The opening up of SH 20 at Waterview onto SH16 will simply sift the problem from one point to another.
I agree it’s getting worse – and more brittle. Only takes one crash at AM or PM peak to really throw things for an hour.
But NZTA are not proposing SH20 Waterview as a solution to gridlock.
Gridlocks are not necessarily caused by accidents. They invariably occur when too many vehicles all want to be in the same place at the same time – ie the roads become choked and cannot carry the number of vehicles wanting to use them. All over Auckland now this situation is occurring on a daily basis at almost any time of the day. It can take up to 2 hours now in the late afternoon to travel from Auckland airport to Pukekohe a distance of around 40 km.
Accidents of course exacerbate the problem.
it is an interesting area of study
Yes – a picture (or in this case video) is worth a thousand words.
That is what we are now experiencing daily on Auckland’s motorways. It’s obvious that what is really needed is not more motorways. What is needed is better public transport thereby relieving the pressure on over crowed motorways.
The Standard leading the political news with Newshub quoting directly from Greg O’Conner’s guest post.
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2017/02/labour-s-h-riu-candidate-greg-o-connor-takes-aim-at-critics.html
Farrar will be spewing.
Heh, thanks for that.
“Labour-aligned blog”. Hmmm. Is that them shit-stirring, or them simply not grasping what TS is? Maybe just being lazy in explaining it properly.
The MSM being lazy? So it ain’t so…
I guess we shouldn’t be surprised that they’re ramping up the conflict angle. The post I read was balanced and good-humoured, and the comments have had a similar tone. Hardly “taking aim at critics”. Plus the old chestnut “Labour-aligned bog”. Sigh…
Yep, it’s all in the headline; ‘takes aim’, ‘gun-toting’, ‘fascist cop’.
Poor old Dan Satherley had to get the Standard to do his work for him today though.
Got to love the out going President of Bolivia. President Correa talks to Abby Martin, about what the last 9 years have meant for him, his administration, and the people of Bolivia.
Farkinell. Could he please come and run New Zealand after he retires?
Just a small correction. Correa is the outgoing president of Ecuador, not Bolivia. Evo Morales is the president of Bolivia. What is true is that in spite of some problems both Ecuador and Bolivia have done pretty well under Left rule.
I think I’m going to post more from this site, which I really enjoy reading. This arrived into my mail box this morning, be prepared to be challenged.
“WE’VE ALWAYS BEEN HERE”
ONE MUJERISTA TALKS BACK TO INTERSECTIONALITY AND WHITE FEMINISM
https://bitchmedia.org/article/dont-let-intersectionality-be-years-buzzword/one-mujerista-lays-out-harmful-realities-white
Thanks for posting this.
Is North Korea Done? I think it may be.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/china-north-korea-sanctions-coal-economics-nuclear-tests-kim-jong-nam-donald-trump-a7587931.html
Case finally thrown out. Seen this?
http://ourauckland.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/articles/media/council/2017/02/defamation-case-struck-out/
The defense of qualified privilege permits persons in positions of authority or trust to make statements or relay or report statements that would be considered slander and libel if made by anyone else – Wikipedia.
It’s a very detailed written judgement for such a trivial case.
I’m worried about these people.
“Emotionally fragile farmers still trying to rebuild their lives after the earthquake are at breaking point, with police having to confiscate guns for fear of self-harm.”
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/89383876/Gun-confiscated-as-Marlborough-farmers-battle-quake-trauma
Often we think when things have tidied up after a traumatic event that people just get on with the job. But for many it just doesn’t work like that. It can take years if not a lifetime to work through some trauma and the fallout from it. Trauma has a cascading effect into relationships, self esteem, financial issues, motivation and depression and for most it takes expert help to navigate through these very dangerous shoals.
I know mental health resources are scarce and it can take severe behaviour to trigger them sometimes.
I suppose what I am saying is that if you know someone who may be affected then it is worthwhile offering a compassionate ear to listen to them – it is possible to validate how they are feeling without agreeing with what they are saying eg “It must be really difficult to be feeling that way.” At the bottom of the article are the links to the support services out there – they are important and necessary for helping people and they can help people.
Let’s try and help them if we can.
rich, poor, famous, unknown, father, mother, sister, brother, son, daughter, young, experienced, talented, loud, quiet – don’t be fooled into thinking some are not living in a very difficult place…
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=11803773
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/wanganui-chronicle/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503426&objectid=11802202
Interesting topic MM. I think people who have gone through trauma carry it with them for a long time. From what I’ve seen it’s often dealt with not by talking but its released through other outlets, violence, depression, anger, addictions. Especially men I think find it hard to discuss these/their issues and probably struggle with these things for longer.
I’m not sure what the answers are, a free availability of all kinds of mental health care would be great, getting it out front and centre would reduce the stigma of people too scared to go for help. Maybe also having a compulsory counsellor/psychotherapist always present and available at the local doctor’s practice, so anyone can drop in and know they can get mental health help at any time. That could also help with making people aware that going to the doctor is not about just physical health too. Integrate it so noone bats an eyelid.
Lots of attention given to Peter Thiel’s fast-tracked citizenship, so here’s a bit of context.
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/01/30/doomsday-prep-for-the-super-rich
To Levchin, prepping for survival is a moral miscalculation; he prefers to “shut down party conversations” on the topic. “I typically ask people, ‘So you’re worried about the pitchforks. How much money have you donated to your local homeless shelter?’ This connects the most, in my mind, to the realities of the income gap. All the other forms of fear that people bring up are artificial.” In his view, this is the time to invest in solutions, not escape. “At the moment, we’re actually at a relatively benign point of the economy. When the economy heads south, you will have a bunch of people that are in really bad shape. What do we expect then?”
[…]
By January, 2015, Johnson was sounding the alarm: the tensions produced by acute income inequality were becoming so pronounced that some of the world’s wealthiest people were taking steps to protect themselves. At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Johnson told the audience, “I know hedge-fund managers all over the world who are buying airstrips and farms in places like New Zealand because they think they need a getaway.”
I read quite a bit of stuff about Peter Thiel’s citizenship. It got all political, no surprise, and there were all sorts of angles, all sorts of pros and cons and explanations.
To sum all that up without the politics and put it into the sort of succinct reality that big business people like:
Peter Thiel bought citizenship in New Zealand.