I don’t think so. They died because we were dragged into a war because of a complicated system of alliances between Queen Victoria’s relatives meant that when a Serbian nationalist shot an Austrian Prince, a lot of strutting and posturing and “my cannon is bigger than your cannon” lead to a totally un-necessary conflict which affected most of the world.
And the men who died specifically at Gallipoli did so because no one bothered to update the strategy after the Turks were kicked out of Russia. Most pointless invasion ever.
those conscripted went cos the choice was death or prison
those who volunteered believed the propaganda that it would be quick… painless and adventurous
they did not get killed, maimed or mentally scarred so that 100 years later politicians could exploit their memories for their own ends
the auckland war memorial museum has poignant interviews with people who went and their reasons for going. many talk about being pacifists afterwards. i honour their words more than roflcopters propandic judgments.
i had 2 great uncles die in france in ww1. one in action. one as a result of wounds sustained at the somme. they were cannon fodder for colonels and generals who valued livestock higher than their men.
blackadder goes 4th is practically a documentary in its depiction of british command.
“those conscripted went cos the choice was death or prison”.
None of the New Zealand soldiers who went to Gallipoli were conscripts Tracey. They were all volunteers.
After all, the landings at Gallipoli were in 1915 and New Zealand did not introduce conscription until 1916.
The reasons men went to war in 1914- 18 was many and varied and changed over time – those that volunteered early thinking it would be a bit of adventure and be over by Xmas may have different reasons than those who were conscripted later and did have some idea of the slaughter that was going on.
So reasons could be a sense of adventure, social or peer pressure, a response to propaganda, a feeling that it was the ” right thing ” to do or one’s duty , to get a paying job, to defend Belgian neutrality, hatred of Germans , a Christian duty, and no doubt many other reasons.
I took your statement to be referring to Gallipoli, and not that it was a general statement about the war, because it is a reply to a comment by Stephanie Rodgers who said, at the very beginning of her comment.
“And the men who died specifically at Gallipoli”
I thought that when you were replying to a comment that said that that you were also talking about Gallipoli. A perfectly reasonable assumption I would have thought.
I wouldn’t have been mislead about your meaning if you had made your comment a reply to Rolfcopter, rather than to someone else.
What a load of BS. Chances are that even if the West had lost WWI or WWII we’d still be able to post on the internet. Oppressive regimes tend not to last too long.
Hard to say the internet would have been invented, developed and evolved as it has.
It’s actually quite amazing that the internet managed to be released to the public with so little in the way of regulation and oversight. It seems to be too late to put the genie back in the bottle now.
Hard to say the internet would have been invented, developed and evolved as it has.
IMO, as soon as we had computers the internet was inevitable. Sure, it’s development may have taken longer and a different direction but we still would have got it.
We had BBS. It’s entirely possible that TCP / IP could have been kept as a DARPA / military-only technology, and we would have had an ad-hoc linkage of BBSes together. Really the fact that private ISPs were allowed to get IP addresses and connect to the network is what enabled the spread; it is very easy to imagine a world where private ISPs like that simply weren’t allowed to join the ‘military’ network.
Also it’s very easy to slip into thinking that ‘the world-wide web’ is ‘the internet’. Of course the internet didn’t gain broad popular appeal until the web was created; before that it was gopher, usenet and other clunky text-based systems.
But sure, some system of wide networking probably would have been invented eventually, but again it’s easy to imagine a system that was very heavily controlled by a state (or states), and required such things as real-name identification online, strict controls around porn and other ‘dubious’ content etc.
From my understanding, the explosive growth of the worldwide web was fueled in the very early days by pornography. An ideal way to share pornographic pictures worldwide anonymously.
So in other words, the worldwide web was impervious to state control from the very beginning.
Its war propaganda instead of remembrance. So many people died and for what? The way we should remember them is to ask the question whether we want to see their great great great great etc children experience the same. It would open a debate that is about a better world and safe place for humanity.
I belief that would at least make sure their death was not in vain.
Yes maybe. However VTO has some valid points and as an ex National Serviceman I agree with him. It is all bullshit. it is glorifying war so the next generation can expect to be cannon fodder for the right wing aresoles.
If I hear the last post played one more time I will go up the fucking wall.
You only have to read about butcher Haig and his class (O golly gosh we have lost 20 00 men, never mind send over another 20.000 peasants) My interpretation of those aresoles.
Spike Milligan summed it up once when he said about the upper crust duchesses, “must knit something for our poor lads at the front,” but when the surviving “poor lads” came back to “a land fit for heroes” these same upper crust duchesses could not give a shit about the conditions and slums they lived in with kids undernourished getting sick with diseases like TB and Rickets.
I can’t see any difference today, Key can attend the bullshit but does not give a shit about the child poverty that is increasing in NZ.
I for one does not need the bullshit to remember family members who fought in both wars. My dear old dad, stretcher bearer on the Somme. My lovely eldest brother doing his bit at Imphal stopping the Japanese invading India, my other lovely brother working all hours servicing transport aircraft on the Berlin Airlift and school mates who did National Service,(we had no choice had to do it,) ending up in places like Aden, Cyprus, Malaya, Kenya, and Suez, and the follow on generations who the the right wing prats sent to places like Vietnam, Falklands, The Gulf, and the on going Afghanistan, Iraq.
It is annoying every man and his corporate dog jumps on the ANZAC bandwagon in an attempt to craft a buck. Key tried it on with an Anzac theme to send our troops off to the Middle East. Disgraceful.
Thanks for that Skinny. I can tell many a tale about my family and my dear lovely mother who was devastated when her first born lovely son was sent off to Burma and how determine she was to keep me and my other brother well fed and safe under extreme circumstances during the war. I feel the mothers and wives left behind were also hero’s but do not get the recognition they deserved. Anzac day should also acknowledge them. My wife says I should write my history as a kid in the east end during the war, but who will read read it? Not the right wing fuckwits who are brain dead, They are only interested in how much they can sell their overvalued house for and the next brain numbing episode of Master Chef on the television.
Vto posted that because they died. They died because British strategists considered that Johnny Turk was too deficient in manly qualities to stand up to British Imperial steel. They died so Vickers could make a fortune. They died for nothing that made any sense.
If they had not died at Gallipoli, at Al Alamein, at Monte Cassino, at a rice growing hamlet in Viet Nam, at thousands of miles from home in Afghanistan, we’d still be able to post whatever we like, maybe more than we’re allowed today. Militarism and worship of military adventure has been used to curtail our rights, not to defend them.
No, they died because they were sent to bail out the bloody Belgians.
Sure, Belgium today is a joke country (cobbled together out of the Dutch that Holland doesn’t want, and the French that Paris doesn’t want), but the Belgians of a hundred years ago were the Khmer Rouge of their day – estimates of the total killed in the “Congo Free State” range from 2½ to 5 times the number killed by Pol Pot.
And, because of an overdose of ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend’ type thinking, they got sent to interfere in a Middle Eastern situation that nobody in command had a clue about. A hundred years later, our government is still sending our youngsters out to die in the Middle East, in a situation that nobody in command has a clue about, and ignoring all the times that the “West” has interfered in the Middle East and made matters worse for everyone. (“Yay, we got rid of Mossadegh! Oh shit, here comes the Ayatollah! Let’s give Saddam shitloads of money and set him up against the Ayatollah! Oh shit, what’s he doing in Kuwait! Yay, we got rid of Saddam! Oh shit, here comes Daesh!” etc. etc. etc.)
I sympathise with you vto. At the moment the media is full of maudlin’ gushing which goes on and on and on… Its the usual over-kill the media love to wallow in whilst the news of the day is almost entirely ignored. Expect more draconian government measures to be announced this week that will go largely unreported.
Its a time to remember one’s own family and the trials and tribulations they endured – not this vulgar, blustering jingoism that means very little and achieves even less.
Here’s an interesting “Insight” interview with SIS Director, Rebecca Kitteridge this morning.
For once (just this once 😉 ), Key may have got something right. I was impressed. A woman Director untainted by the Cold War rhetoric and paranoia of yesteryear is a welcome improvement.
Agee wholeheartedly Anne. I am also a little disturbed by what rather looks like a WW1 theme park created by jackson (my son of 25 gave it this description). Is it helpful for young people or does it detract from the honour and respect I have always given our wonderful heroes that gave their lives for us. I still hear the solitary gun that went off at 11 am on the eleventh day of the eleventh month as I was growing up. Man woman and child would be silent for two minutes in memory of our lost. And the poppies.
I liked the memorials in Wellington and London. I thought they added to the stature our lost ones deserved.
I used to do the dawn service thing, but stopped when it seemed that most people there didn’t know the meaning between “commemoration” and “celebration” – literally, people would say it was a celebration of our war dead.
Sigh.
Our media are still referring to it, Anzac day, as a celebration. Mind you, today our PM referred to the Police as “retailers” when advising parents concerned what to do if fearful their child is being pulled toward terrorism. he meant vis a vis…. GCSB? or something. But it shows you how he thinks, everything is measured against a market type interpretation or reference point. Money baby.
I went to an Armistice Day memorial at the London Cenotaph forty plus years ago. It was the most moving event I have ever witnessed. London fell silent. Not a sound. I swear there were a million plus people present – all standing quietly in rows. At the 11th hour of the 11th day… the bugle played loud and clear. The only sound was the the odd person who broke into sobbing. The memories were still very deep and painful.
That day changed me forever. I abhor the way it is now being celebrated as a false glorification of war. Most of those who were present n that occasion, I am sure would be horrified at the way it has been cheapened.
+1 vto. Sums it up for me. As mentioned earlier this week, the thing that tipped me over in my response to the morbid sensationalism around the centenary of Gallipoli was the sight of chocolates in the shape of WW1 tin helmets, for sale at New World. Just crass.
+1 to all replies after that except for Roflcopter.
Anne is right about the maudlin gushing of the media, its meaningless. Remembering our own families roles in war and the consequences for them I agree with.
If anything those memories should strip away the faux collective military flavoured grief. That just leaves you with the reality of what those memories mean for the family and the disappointment of what nations haven’t learnt.
For us, those reflections are for our Grandfather who was lucky enough to have his leg blown off by friendly fire on the eve of the Battle of the Somme, who went on to live a good and full life, and for our Aunts husband who on returning from WW2 was sent to another part of the country for work, far away from his iwi, and not coping with the adjustment to civilian life and the racism he encountered, suicided.
A post war casualty.
Link to good podcast on Gallipoli as the Australian nation-builder by Peter Fitzsimons, Australian author, journalist, ex-Wallaby who wrote a recent book on Gallipoli and is currently writing on the Western Front. About 20 minutes. Very down to earth take on it – he notes that one of the reasons Aussies went to war was that they were the best-paid soldiers on 6 shillings a day (Brits on 1shilling). Hence they were very popular with the ladies in Cairo and had a massive reputation as drinkers and larrikins. Quel surprise!
Good point – they don’t give flying about climate change and the effects on people, communities, and the environment and have no plan/solution – but they do care about growing ‘our’ economy – ffs I hope (not really tbh) they can drink or eat dollar notes
Hmm. Thinking she misses the mark there. By a wide margin. Take away the bubble and we’re back to reality TV of late 70s/early 80s that covered starvation and back to… ‘More Whitewashing’
And if you send a little money you can sleep tonight
Or starve in sympathy on a Limmits Diet
And you know that charity cures malnutrition
And hunger put the sparkle back in television
Hunger put the sparkle back in television
Hunger put the sparkle back in television
Auckland-based Rocket Lab has unveiled what it says is the world’s first battery-powered rocket engine.
The engine on its Electron rocket will do away with expensive and complex gas generators and instead use small high-performance electric motors and lithium polymer batteries to drive its turbo pumps. The engine will also incorporate parts made by 3D printers to cut costs and speed up the manufacturing process.
So that shows that we can keep up with the firms in the US and elsewhere as far as tech goes.
Rocket Lab is a privately funded company with its major investors including Sir Stephen Tindall’s K1W1 and United States firms Khosla Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners and Lockheed.
Unfortunately, I figure that soon after it achieves success it and it’s technology will be bought out and shifted to the US. And before anyone goes on about private owners being allowed to do that:
The company has developed and launched a number of smaller rockets and received up to $25 million of New Zealand government funding over five years.
Commercial success via government funding with the ones who will benefit not being NZ.
Now think of what we could do with dedicated government funding that can’t be bought out and shifted offshore by foreigners.
Interesting that quite a few people, including – from memory – some on these pages, have been resistant to the idea that so-called terrorists have been nothing more than poor suckers set up by self appointed defenders of our freedoms.
An aside – I noted yesterday that the Australians seem to be targeting kids now.
Four teenagers who had knives and, allegedly, some half baked scheme to stab cops at ANZAC memorial services. Now, even if true, stabbing cops is not terrorism. That the Australians are now apparently planning to be flooding memorial services with cops is risible all things considered.
It’ll all be pushed by field agents chasing promotion, and managers wanting more power. They employ unscrupulous criminal types and off they go. I wouldn’t be surprised if 100% of the convictions were fabricated.
Our ngati poaka, especially the drug squads, have a long history of similar stuff and will happily transfer their skills to manufactured threats. With their infiltration into animal rights groups, they already have. They don’t protect us. They look for new ways to control us.
“16-year-old Amandla Stenberg played Rue in “Hunger Games,” but her career as an actor and activist is just getting started. The evidence is on her Tumblr, where she posted a video she and a classmate made for their history class. Titled, “Don’t Cash Crop My Cornrows,” the video shows Stenberg explaining the appropriation of black culture. ”
How is THIS not a major and potentially corrupt ‘conflict of interest’ in the U$A?
Where former corporate lobbyists lead the Office of the United States Trade Representative, responsible for negotiating the TPPA (Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement) and TTIP (Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership), from which the main beneficiaries will arguably be those same corporations?
The Office of the United States Trade Representative, the agency responsible for negotiating two massive upcoming trade deals, is being led by former lobbyists for corporations that stand to benefit from the deals, according to disclosure forms obtained by The Intercept.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a proposed free trade accord between the U.S. and 11 Pacific Rim countries; the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) is a similar agreement between the U.S. and the E.U.
The Obama administration is pushing hard to complete both deals, which it says will increase U.S. trade opportunities. Critics say the deals will provide corporate interests with sweeping powers to challenge banking and environmental regulations.
Here is information on three major figures in the Trade Representative’s office, gleaned from their disclosure forms:
— Sharon Bomer Lauritsen, the assistant U.S. trade representative for agricultural affairs, recently lobbied for the Biotechnology Industry Organization, a trade group for biotech companies. Lauritsen’s financial disclosure form shows she made $320,193 working to influence “state, federal and international governments” on biotech patent and intellectual property issues. She worked for BIO as an executive vice president through April of 2011, before joining the Trade Representative office.
— Christopher Wilson, the deputy chief of mission to the World Trade Organization, recently worked for C&M International, a trade consulting group, where he represented Chevron, the Biotechnology Industry Organization, British American Tobacco, General Electric, Apple and other corporate interests. Wilson’s financial disclosure shows he made $250,000 a year, in addition to an $80,000 bonus in 2013, before he joined the Obama administration. Wilson left C&M International in February of 2014 and later joined the Trade Representative’s office. C&M Internationalreportedly lobbied Malaysia, urging it to oppose tobacco regulations in Australia.
— Robert Holleyman, the deputy United States trade representative, previously worked as the president of the Business Software Alliance, a lobbying group that represents IBM, Microsoft, Adobe, Apple and other technology companies seeking to strengthen copyright law. Holleyman earned $1,141,228 at BSA before his appointment. Holleyman was nominated for his current position in February of last year.
These disclosures about the revolving door at the trade agency come after U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman received scrutiny over a special bonus paid to him in 2009 after he left Citigroup to join the Obama administration as deputy assistant to the president. Froman received more than $7.4 million from Citi in the year prior to joining the administration.
Critics note that under the TPP, corporations will be empowered to file lawsuits against governments to block laws that could impair future profits. The lawsuits would fall under special tribunals set up by the World Bank.
Many of the former clients of the trade officials now negotiating these agreements stand to gain immensely.
but good form to have your name 3 times – I can’t understand that – your name is on top of the comment you don’t need to sign off with your name again, and Penny if you put your website in when you put the comment in you will get a blue name where people can connect directly to your website.
wasn’t michael froman one of the main players in the global financial meltdown who unbelievably ended up with obama. saw it on a full length documentary / film about six months ago but can’t remember the name of it. ( it was about the money men and the global bank collapse.)
sorry to post from Daily Mail, but it seems they provide the answer on who/what Key really is … the clear likeness is wonderful, even to the hair line !! a ray of light in a dark day anyway … lol .. and just like Key, it can “can react to facial expressions, engage in conversation and even make eye contact”.
The nurses who served in the First World War were not allowed to march or participate in ANZAC days when they returned – took several decades for the women’s contribution to be acknowledged. Even in the 1970s the women victims of war were not allowed to be mentioned on Anzac days. So there is a lot of sexism in the war commemorations. Only one woman in the Te Papa exhibition.
Looking forward to attending a Union gathering in Auckland on the 28th April where we
be honouring the dead and fighting for the living. Its World Workers Memorial day, tragically far too many workers leave for work and never come home. Hoping to catch up with some of you Auckland unionists from here.
Yeah there wasnt a ‘none of the above’ option either. I think people who voted for the toll option failed to take into account the volume of traffic that will leave/avoid the motorways and move through residential streets where ever possible.
Why should the public subsidise what we no longer own or operate?
How much Auckland citizen and ratepayer public monies could be saved by ‘cutting out’ the privately-owned passenger transport services and returning them ‘in-house’, under the ‘public service’ model?
Are NZ Prime Minister (ex-Wall Street banker) John Key, and his pro-corporate mate U$A President Barak Obama ‘cruising for a bruising’ with TPPA
‘FAST TRACK’?
Too much FIGHTBACK against FAST TRACK?
“Obama’s Fast Track Bill a last-ditch move to rescue TPPA”, says Professor Jane Kelsey …..
Press Release: Professor Jane Kelsey
Obama’s Fast Track Bill a last-ditch move to rescue TPPA
‘With less than two months until the window is likely to close for President Obama to get a deal in the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) under his watch, the administration has put a bill before Congress to grant him “fast track” authority’, according to Professor Jane Kelsey who monitors the negotiations.
The controversial process of Fast Track, euphemistically called Trade Promotion Authority, would require Congress to vote yes or not to a final text and it time limits the debate to prevent filibustering.
According to Professor Kelsey a number of governments at the TPPA table have recently said they won’t reach a final deal unless Obama has Fast Track, including New Zealand.
‘Doing something this week was really do or die for the President, even though he doesn’t have the votes to get the bill through, especially in the House of Representatives’, Kelsey said.
The 110-page Bill is a generalised wish list of what the US wants from the TPPA, while protecting its domestic interests. Although the content has been heavily negotiated before being introduced, the negotiating objectives can be ignored.
So I bike down Pt Chevalier Rd towards Unitec instead, carefully threading the needle between the stop-start traffic on my right and the parked cars on my left. The other night, between Meola Rd and the traffic lights, a distance of 1km, I passed 43 cars crawling along.
Anyway, I sidled through the traffic jam, revved up Carrington Rd, and made it to my destination in exactly ten minutes. As I tied my iron pony to the railings and headed into class, I realised I’d seen the future… and it sure as heck wasn’t self-driving cars.
I just use a standard bicycle on my commute but slowly passing the parked cars in rush hour traffic is highly amusing and I find that I enjoy riding far more than I ever enjoyed driving.
And, of course, this. Can’t just have bicycle lanes – we need good public transport as well.
Have you noticed ianmac there has been virtually no political news since the byelection? The MSM has gone dead quiet. To my knowledge Andrew Little has only been ‘allowed’ one spot on the 6pm TV news since that time. Nobody from the Greens have had a look in.. to anything.
“Go back to bed, America. Your government has figured out how it all transpired. Go back to bed, America. Your government is in control again.
Here. Here’s American Gladiators. Watch this, shut up. Go back to bed, America. Here is American Gladiators. Here is 56 channels of it! Watch these pituitary retards bang their skulls together and congratulate you on living in the land of freedom. Here you go, America! You are free to do what we tell you! You are free to do what we tell you!”
Don’t forget that National is the main RW Tory party with no other real RW party for support under MMP, where as the opposition to National has three main parties : Labour, Greens and NZF.
National= 49%
Labour 31+Greens 9+NZF 7= 47%
Not too far off.
And, the general election was only a few months ago. There are still about
2.5 years to go. That is a long time in politics.
However, in the mean time, do enjoy that poll for now.
One of the most touching, enlightening, thought provoking and lovely articles I have read:
A Colorado teacher who posted notes from her third grade class online and started a social media whirlwind under the hashtag #IWishMyTeacherKnew said the assignment had been a revelation for her.
Kyle Schwartz, 26, asked the 8- and 9-year-olds at her Denver inner city school to write down something they wished she knew about them, partly as a writing exercise, and partly as a way for her to learn about her pupils.
After she went into a home, diabetic David turned to the state for help while he looked for work.
But under the Coalition’s callous new benefits rules he had his £71.70 a week Jobseeker’s Allowance axed – merely because he missed an appointment with an adviser.
Stripped of his income, the 59-year-old could not afford food or electricity and died starving, penniless and alone at his home.
His grieving sister Gill Thompson has called for the Government to review the way that benefits are “sanctioned” in the wake of the tragedy.
But a spokeswoman for the Prime Minister has brushed off calls for change.
Asked if it was right that a diabetic man had had his benefits taken away she said: “Judgments that are made around benefits are based on individuals circumstances relevant to their looking to find work, their various conditions.
“Even when someone is sanctioned then they can still get financial support through the Hardship Fund.
“And before people have their benefit sanctioned there will be a series of efforts to contact people by letter and by phone if they fail to attend an appointment.”
These Tory governments find a shitload of hapless Adolf Eichmanns to work for them. They have the mentality of clerks, where only ticked boxes on a list are real. Life and death don’t enter into it. How have so many either lost, or never had, any basic humanity?
As the first week of Level Four lockdown unfolded, mounting questions grew as to just what was (and was not) allowed under its “rules”. Partly these were driven by some apparently contradictory messagesfrom different authority figures and explanations carried in the media. Partly they reflected a somewhat sketchy legal basis ...
. . April 3: Day 9 of living in lock-down… Another late-start to my work day. Everything is temporarily upended as clients are shuffled around so we can minimise our “bubble” by reducing the number of people we help. One of my colleagues has been removed from his clients; his ...
In order to meet our 2050 carbon target and do our bit to avoid making the Earth uninhabitable, New Zealand needs to decarbonise our economy, replacing fossil fuels with electricity in the energy, industrial and transport sectors. The good news is that it will mean cheaper power for all of ...
For those folk who find my other Lock-Down Diary versions too “negative” or otherwise unpalatable… Here’s a photo of a pretty flower, . . Better? Tomorrow’s Sanitised Version: a cute animal video. . . . =fs= ...
. . April 2: Day eight of living in lock-down… Today, my work day starts late. Our rosters and clients have been dramatically changed, lessening (theoretically) the number of people in our work “bubble”. If just one of us catches covid19 the impact could be considerable as Grey Base Hospital ...
As Aotearoa enters week two of lockdown, it’s clear we’re all still working out what our “bubbles” look like and how to stay in them to stop the spread of Covid-19. New to the government’s Covid-19 website is some good guidance for people living in apartment blocks. Recent decades have ...
“There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen.” Lenin Don’t we all know that feeling now.
Prospect Magazine alerted me to this particularly apt quote. It is a much more evocative quote than Hemingway’s “gradually then suddenly” which is also doing ...
Yesterday was the day the consequences of the lockdown suddenly got very real for many. Firms have been closing and laying people off since the outset of the quarantine but this has mostly been happening out of the public eye. The mass closure of a number of iconic New Zealand ...
Brian Williamson1, Prof Nick Wilson2 (1Economic consultant, UK; 2University of Otago Wellington)In this blog, we outline how a win-win social contract could be forged to address the major dimensions of response to the COVID-19 pandemic when using a mitigation strategy: the particular need to protect older people from high ...
Resuming Normal Service: The Republican Party's nominee for in 1920, Warren Harding, promised the American people: “not heroics, but healing; not nostrums, but normalcy; not revolution, but restoration”. If she wishes to remain our prime minister, then Jacinda Ardern will offer New Zealanders the same.HOW EDUCATED AMERICA snickered when the ...
No Free Society Without A Free And Functioning News Media: If we are to surrender our civil rights to the broader cause of defeating Covid-19, then foreign corporations must, likewise, surrender their right to inflict immense economic and cultural harm on New Zealanders simply because it improves their bottom line.I’M ...
by Daphna Whitmore A third of the world is under lockdown and a clear assessment of this measure to curb the spread of COVID-19 is urgently needed. With any high-stakes decisions it has to be asked what are we dealing with here? Are the measures warranted? Will they achieve their ...
I haven’t done a huge amount in the last few days. I’m reading The Poppy War and I’ve sort of poked at a couple of games – I started SOMA but I’m a wimp and I quit while in the first room after the brain scan. I might try it ...
The swan politicians may be gliding on the water, occasionally snapping at one another. Meanwhile, as the Covid19 crisis illustrates, the officials are desperately paddling below providing the real locomotion. One of the most fatuous recent grandstanding comments (of about a week ago), adding to the public’s anxieties, was ...
Much has been written about the importance of discretion in an emergency situation, and the concerns raised by the potential for it to be exercised arbitrarily. Given the quality of the discussion, there seemed little point in adding to it at any length. In particular, I point to the evidence ...
Today has felt surreal. I was all set to touch base online with my science communication students when a colleague shared the news that Bauer Media would be shutting down its publications immediately. The first link I saw implied it was Woman’s Weekly affected, and even that shocked me. But ...
Bogeymen, Real And Imagined: Is the number of psychopathic and sociopathic individuals in any given society truly as vanishingly small as we like to tell ourselves? Isn’t it more likely that the mass-shooters and serial-killers filling the headlines represent only the tip of a much, much larger iceberg of frightfulness? ...
Outgoing Police Commissioner Mike Bush appeared before the Epidemic Response Committee today, who asked him for the rules police are using to enforce the lockdown. He refused:Police Commissioner Mike Bush has admitted the advice given to Kiwis about what they're able to do during the lockdown hasn't been clear enough. ...
For those folk who find my other Lock-Down Diary versions too “negative” or otherwise unpalatable… Here’s a photo of my cat, . . Better? Tomorrow’s Sanitised Version: a pretty flower. . . . =fs= ...
. . April 1: Day seven of living in lock-down… This morning I had a brief chat with one of my neighbours, “D” (social distance between us, a good three or four metres). I learned he had resigned from his previous job and had been hired by another company – ...
Funnily enough, my thought as I start this post is whether it will be well written enough. Or should that be well enough written? Because so much of what I know about good writing came from my two stints at The Listener, which this morning was shut down due to ...
With normal democratic procedures in abeyance, there were two ways to go. First, it was open for the government to dissolve itself and invite the National Party to join a ministry of national salvation. That would have lessened the democratic deficit of the times by having a team of rivals without ...
Dr Kirsty Ross Children and young people can respond differently in times of distress. This also varies by age and developmental stage, with younger children having more magical and imaginative thinking, and older children having more awareness and knowledge of the issues our communities are facing (which brings up ...
Hungary has been a virtual dictatorship for a decade now, as Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has gradually eroded its democracy. But now, its official, with the passage of an indefinite emergency law allowing rule by decree:Hungary’s parliament has passed a new set of coronavirus measures that includes jail terms for ...
While the economy is on pause under lockdown, the government is beginning to plan how to cope with the post-lockdown, post-tourism, post-export education world we will eventually find ourselves in. They're planning a lot of infrastructure spending as economic stimulus, and have asked for proposals which can start the moment ...
It's my distraction, setting up tiny scenes to photograph. I've got stuck on the Babushka dolls for now. Something about their bubble shape. Something about their never changing, smiling features, suggesting persistent equanimity. Can we get through everything that is being thrown at us and keep at least a tiny ...
. . March 31: Day six of living in lock-down… This time I managed to sleep a little longer and the alarm woke me at the pre-set time: 6.55am. Then remembered I was working a later shift and could’ve slept in. Oh well, there are things to do at home. ...
Image credit:Diamond Harbour School Blogs I notice a few regulars no longer allow public access to the site counters. This may happen accidentally when the blog format is altered. If your blog is unexpectedly missing or ...
Yesterday's Horizon poll showing support for a "Yes" vote in this year's cannabis referendum sliding into the majority for the first time in a year looked like good news for reformers – and it probably is. But the result warrants some scrutiny.The poll is the fifth in a series commissioned ...
For almost a week now, every one of us who isn’t an essential worker has been confined to their bubble. We are allowed to go shopping for groceries, to visit the doctor, and to get a bit of exercise if we stay local. The reason we are doing this is ...
The Covid-19 saga will no doubt produce many twists and turns for us before it is finally brought to an end. But one thing it has shown us – and what comfort it should bring us – is that our country’s government is in good hands. I am not thinking ...
In the absence of a vaccine or a cure for a deadly disease, staying home in your bubble is what you do, the concept is not new. To the best of my knowledge last time we did this in NZ was for polio, in the years before a vaccine came ...
The following statement was released on March 28 by the National Network on Cuba, a coalition of 40 groups, based in the United States. In recent weeks, Cuba has deployed hundreds of medical providers to over a dozen countries in Europe, Asia, as well as to their neighbors in Latin ...
This has been a terrible summer for Hector’s dolphins. The first indication was very low numbers of dolphin sightings during late spring and early summer. The Otago University Marine Mammal Research Team has carried out routine dolphin surveys at Banks Peninsula for more than 30 years. In all that time, ...
On March 17, Finance Minister Grant Robertson was quick out of the blocks with an economic rescue package to help businesses through the inevitable recession resulting from the coronavirus pandemic. Robertson had pulled together a scheme in short order that so far seems to have saved many jobs. In his ...
The purpose of the lockdown is to save lives, by reducing the spread of covid-19. We won't know if its really working for another week, but given the devastation that will result if it doesn't - 14,000 dead is the optimistic scenario - its definitely worth trying. But pausing the ...
. . March 30: Day five of living in lock-down… Woke up still in darkness. Alarm hadn’t gone off. Turn to radio clock; it’s a few minutes after 6am… I lie there in the dark, waiting to drift off to sleep… but it ain’t happening. Clock ticks over to 6.55 ...
The story of Les Gray, the public sector psychologist who told the truth about his use of cannabis and set off a storm, has a special place in the lore of cannabis reform in New Zealand.When Paul Shannon interviewed Gray for the 'Dope and Hope' issue of Planet magazine in ...
by Phil Duncan For Marxists, a key concern about social trends is their context – not just their causes, but why they happen when they do. Events and phenomena have causes, but they also are time or period-specific. While much of the left have capitulated recently to postmodernism, most notably ...
Since the lockdown began, we've all suddenly been reminded who the actually essential workers in our society are: not the people at the top who pay themselves the big bucks and rort the perks, but the people at the bottom they screw over and squeeze: cleaners, warehouse staff, truck drivers ...
Kia ora! As I've watched nearly all my remaining work vanish over the past couple of days, it has occured to me that one good way to keep me away from arguing with fools on Twitter all the time (in the knowledge that all we're really doing is processing our ...
Aotearoa New Zealand has committed to trying to extirpate the virus that causes COVID-19 from its shores. To do that, as a society we’ve moved to “Level 4”. That means adapting to unprecedented restrictions on our personal freedoms, particularly to our rights to move freely and associate with friends and ...
When the Prime Minister declared a state of emergency last week, she handed the police powers to enforce it. And almost immediately, we started hearing about heavy-handed, arbitrary "enforcement" by police who (at best) cared more about order than law, or (more likely) had no idea what the rules were ...
. . Lock Down: Day 4 – A photo essay with observations . March 29: Usual wake up routine as RNZ snaps on my radio-clock. Jim Mora’s voice slowly enters my conciousness; there’s talk of a second wave of covid19 taking hold in South Korea; the week in Parliament – ...
Yesterday, New Zealand recorded its first Covid-19 related death on the West Coast. Unfortunately this is unlikely to be the only fatality, with the virus now being found in every region of the country.However despite the significant danger, people are still unfortunately breaching lockdown rules.There’s really only one main very ...
Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Climate Feedback Claim Review... SkS Week in Review... Poster of the Week... Story of the Week... ‘Misinformation kills’: The link between coronavirus conspiracies and climate denialGrist / Rob Kim / Stringer / CSA Images Scientific ...
The kids did surprisingly well today – meltdown count was about 3, and mostly fairly short ones. (And a fourth while I was writing.) Game-wise I had a go at Fell Seal: Arbiter’s Mark. It’s a fairly standard RPG with turn-based combat and what they call a “mature storyline” (it ...
by Don Franks Hi David, Nice hearing from you, I’m glad to hear you’re getting by okay in these grim times. You asked how’s it going for us back here in New Zealand. You would have heard that the whole country is locked down and with breaks for exercise and ...
. . Lock Down: Day 3 – A photo essay with observations . March 28: First day of the first weekend in Lock Down. It feels like it’s been weeks since only Level 3 was declared last Tuesday, only four days ago. Woke up this morning to RNZ; coffee; toast, ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week, i.e., Sun, Mar 22, 2020 through Sat, Mar 28, 2020Articles Linked to on FacebookSun, Mar 22, 2020In Just 10 Years, Warming Has Increased the Odds of Disasters by Chelsea Harvey, ...
I’m here in lockdown with my flatmate and her two girls (6 and 2) and it. is. a time. They’re usually really active so to start with the only boardgame in the house is the copy of Guess Who that the 6 year old got for her birthday. Flatmate commented ...
The CV-19 (COVID) pandemic has seen the imposition of a government ordered national quarantine and the promulgation of a series of measures designed to spread the burden of pain and soften the economic blow on the most strategically important and most vulnerable sectors of society. The national narrative is framed ...
. . Lock Down: Day 2 – A photo essay with observations . March 27 – Day 2 of our Strange New World. The Park and Ride near my suburb, usually filled with hundreds of vehicles, had just… four; . . Another drive into Wellington City on a highway nearly ...
Fortune's Children: Under extraordinary pressure, the leader of the Government and the leader of the Opposition will each show us what they are made of. Have they been blessed with intelligence, grace, wit, poise, toughness, empathy and humour – and in what measure? More importantly, to what extent have they ...
If you’ve ever had the misfortune of having to rent a property on the open market in New Zealand, which is one of the most expensive in the entire world, you’ll likely be keenly aware of just how arrogant and entitled landlords and their real estate agents can be.Unfortunately for ...
Society-wise, aside from the specific morbidity shall we say of the medically-oriented aspects of this COVID-19 crisis, what is unfolding before the world is in more than one way an instructive study of humanity and reactions to a high intensity, high stress environment in real time. Friends, we are at ...
Right now low waged and insecure workers are feeling the economic brunt of the looming #Covid19 Recession. In response legal advocate Toby Cooper* and hospitality and worker’s rights advocate Chloe Ann-King, are putting together a series of legal blogs about your employment rights:In this legal blog we outline some ...
by Equipo Jurídico Pueblos and Gearóid Ó Loingsigh (25/03/2020) An escape plan in question On the night of March 21st and the early morning of the 22nd, the forces of the Colombian state stormed into the Modelo prison in Bogotá, murdering 23 prisoners and injuring 83, in response to the ...
When the government banned semi-automatic weapons in response to a terrorist atrocity, gun-nuts were outraged. Mired in toxic American gun culture, they thought owning weapons whose sole purpose was killing people was some sort of "constitutional right", a necessity for "defending themselves" against the government. Now, the Court of Appeal ...
Just before midnight on Wednesday March 25, Aotearoa New Zealand entered a countrywide alert level four lockdown. For at least the next four weeks, everyone who isn’t an essential worker is confined to their bubble. We are doing this to stop the explosive growth in people contracting and dying from ...
. . Lock Down: Day 1 – A photo essay with observations . Day one of the Level 4 nationwide lock-down (or, DefCon 4 as I sometimes cheekily call it) started at 11.59PM on 25 March. For a moment, most of the nation held it’s collective breath. In that brief ...
Broad, Sunlit Uplands: How those words fired my young imagination! Or, perhaps, it is more accurate to say: how those words fused, in my young mind, with the image printed on every packet of Fielder’s Cornflour. Always fascinated by history, especially modern history, I cannot hear Churchill’s wonderfully evocative words, even ...
. . 24 March 2020 9.46AM Number of covid19 cases in Aotearoa New Zealand: 102 . As of 11.59 on Thursday, most of New Zealand will go into “lock down”. People will be expected not to travel to work; not to socialise; and to stay home. I will not be ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections A respected research group, Project Drawdown, finds that deploying solutions consistent with meeting the Paris climate targets would cost tens of trillions of dollars globally. But crucially, those outlays would also yield long-term savings many times larger than the up-front costs. The new 2020 Drawdown ...
It will pass. What happens next? Not immediately, but longer term. There are many opinions, fewer certainties. Will it “change everything!” as many confidently, and contradictorily predict? In this post I look at how foresight can help bound some of the uncertainties so you can more objectively consider the future. ...
We’ve been meaning t write something on Cuba and the coronavirus but have just discovered a very good article on the subject in the US left publication Jacobin. The article looks at how Cuba, a poor country but one where capitalism has been done away with, is leading the way ...
In 2018, El Shafee Elsheikh and Alexanda Kotey - two British citizens who had purportedly been stripped of their citizenship by the British government - were captured while fighting for Isis in Syria. The British government then conspired to hand them over to the US, and agreed to provide evidence ...
Transformers: The disaster of the Great Depression was transformed into a new and fairer society by the democratic socialism of the First Labour Government. The disaster of the Covid-19 Pandemic offers a similar transformative possibility to the Labour-NZ First-Green Government. Seize the time, Jacinda! You will never have a better ...
Tamper with The System? Well, we already are. But there's a difference between accidentally trickling sand into a precision gearbox versus formulating a plan to alter it on the fly with improvements in mind. One action is more or less innocently unscrupulous, the other amenable to earning an easy ...
Associate Prof George Thomson, Louise Delany, Prof Nick WilsonWhile it is possible that New Zealand can use intense public health controls to eradicate COVID-19 from the country – we must also plan for other scenarios where thousands of New Zealanders are sick – including many urgently hospitalised.1 Better resilience ...
Kia ora my name is Chloe Ann-King* and I am the founder of Raise the Bar, a campaign and non-profit that gives free legal aid, advocacy and tautoko to hospitality workers in Aotearoa. Right now all over our country hospo workers are being fired at will, having shifts cut or being ...
We're about to do something unprecedented as a nation. We hope that by taking this extraordinary action before a single life in New Zealand has been lost to the deadly novel virus we will save tens of thousands of lives. Our lives. We'll do it together, in households, in isolation ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters says getting New Zealanders back home and other travellers out of the country is "a nightmare for our embassies, consuls, and staff around the world".Speaking to NewstalkZB's Mike Hosking, the Foreign Minister said that he gave a clear message to people travelling overseas that they ...
The domestic travel ban has been lifted for stranded foreign tourists trying to get to international airports to fly home, after the Coalition Government announced a plan to help the tens of thousands of foreigners stranded here. Foreign Minister Rt. Hon. Winston Peters spoke with RNZ's Susie Ferguson said foreign ...
Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters believes the country is rediscovering its resilience and self-reliance through its response to the COVID-19 pandemic.He says he is heartened that the mass majority of New Zealanders are following lockdown rules and that the government looking at the future, including paying to keep much ...
New Zealand can emulate the success of the US after the Great Depression by exploiting our own resources to turn the economy around quickly, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters says. Mr. Peters told Magic Talk that New Zealand has an opportunity to come out of the COVID-19 pandemic a "superior, ...
All 45 New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) personnel are either on their way back to New Zealand, or already in the country, according to Defence Minister Ron Mark."Twenty-eight personnel arrived back in New Zealand last week and are in isolation at the Royal New Zealand Air Force base in ...
The COVID-19 situation in New Zealand is moving fast - and to avoid what we've seen overseas - the Government's response must be to move fast too. We're committed to keeping New Zealanders safe and well-informed every step of the way. ...
We know people are feeling anxious about COVID-19. While the situation is serious, New Zealand has a world-class health system and we’re well-prepared to keep New Zealanders safe. ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters is encouraging New Zealanders overseas to stay where they are amid the COVID-19 pandemic. "We are reaching a point where the best option for most New Zealanders offshore is to shelter in place, by preparing to safely stay where they are.” "This includes following the instructions ...
Rt. Hon. Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs Foreign Minister Winston Peters is encouraging the tens of thousands of New Zealanders travelling overseas to consider sheltering in place, in light of COVID-19. “Since 18 March, we have been warning New Zealanders offshore that the window for flying ...
Ground-breaking law has passed that will decriminalise abortion and ensure women and pregnant people seeking abortions have compassionate healthcare. ...
The Green Party says that the measures announced by the Government today will help families and businesses to prioritise our collective health and wellbeing in the response to COVID-19. ...
As New Zealanders brace for a global downturn due to Covid-19, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters says his Coalition Government’s rescue package "more significant" than any other he's seen around the world. The Coalition is to reveal a multi-billion-dollar stimulus plan on Tuesday afternoon designed to cushion the economic blow ...
The Government will be introducing legislation to make changes to the Companies Act to help companies facing insolvency due to COVID-19 to remain viable and keep New Zealanders in jobs. The temporary changes include: Giving directors of companies facing significant liquidity problems because of COVID-19 a ‘safe harbour’ from insolvency ...
The Government’s plan to cushion the blow of COVID-19 by supporting incomes, jobs and businesses, and position the economy to recover has been backed by another international report. International credit rating agency Moody’s today reaffirmed its highest Aaa credit rating on New Zealand, saying the economy is expected to remain ...
National sports organisations have been given certainty of funding to ensure they can remain viable through the COVID-19 pandemic, Sport and Recreation Minister Grant Robertson announced today. “The global spread of COVID-19 has had a significant impact on sport and recreation in New Zealand, including the cancellation or postponement of ...
Changes have been made to allow butchers to process pork, only for supply to supermarkets or other processors or retailers that are open, Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor has announced. “We carefully weighed the risk of allowing butchers to open their shops for retail customers, but the risk of spreading COVID-19 ...
Essential workers who take leave from work to comply with public health guidance are being supported with a leave scheme to ensure they will continue to receive income, say the Minister of Workplace Relations and Safety Iain Lees-Galloway and Minister for Social Development, Carmel Sepuloni. A number of essential businesses ...
A Government WhatsApp channel has been launched to help make information more easily accessible and shareable in the fight against COVID-19. Govt.NZ, which is free to use on any mobile device, will carry information and news for the public, businesses, healthcare providers, not for profits and local government. It can ...
The Government has announced a plan to enable the safe, orderly exit of tens of thousands of stranded foreign nationals from New Zealand during the current COVID-19 Alert Level 4 restrictions, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Winston Peters has said. “When we moved into lockdown a week ago, the ...
Health Minister Dr David Clark says the Government is delivering on its commitment to support general practice doctors and nurses, and pharmacies on the front-line of our fight against COVID-19. "For us to overcome COVID-19, we need community health services such as general practice and community pharmacy to step up ...
Justice Susan Thomas has been appointed Chief High Court Judge, Attorney-General David Parker announced today. She replaces Justice Geoffrey Venning who has resigned from the position. David Parker paid tribute to Justice Venning, who he said had stewarded the High Court very capably over the last five years. “On behalf ...
Businesses can start applying to their banks for loans under the Business Finance Guarantee Scheme set up to support the New Zealand economy during the COVID-19 pandemic. “We’re moving quickly to protect New Zealand businesses, jobs and the economy during this unprecedented global economic shock,” Finance Minister Grant Robertson said. ...
Work is underway looking at measures to speed up consents for development and infrastructure projects during the recovery from COVID 19, to provide jobs and stimulate our economy. Environment Minister David Parker said the COVID-19 pandemic is a serious global crisis that will have a wide ranging and lasting impact ...
Advance payments will be made to transport construction industry contractors to retain the workforce and ensure it is ready to quickly gear up to build projects which will be vital to New Zealand’s COVID-19 economic recovery, Transport Minister Phil Twyford announced today. He said keeping the workforce required to build ...
The Government has tasked a group of industry leaders to seek out infrastructure projects that are ready to start as soon as the construction industry returns to normal to reduce the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Economic Development Minister Phil Twyford and Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones say. The Infrastructure ...
Work to scale up the health system in preparation for COVID-19 was today outlined by Health Minister David Clark, as he reported back to the new Epidemic Response Committee. “We are well placed to contain the spread of COVID-19. We have taken early and decisive action at our borders, and ...
The Government is refining its COVID-19 essential business guidance to include the distribution of news publications for communities which are hard to reach. The Minister of Broadcasting, Communications and Digital Media, Kris Faafoi, said the move was in recognition of the importance for New Zealanders who might be harder to ...
The Government is ensuring supermarkets can open on Easter Sunday so we can buy groceries, but stay closed on Good Friday allowing workers to take a break. This provides a balanced approach and ensures we avoid large queues that two days closure may cause. “Supermarkets will be able to open ...
Following the successful conclusion of the Building Partner Capacity (BPC) mission at Taji, New Zealand defence personnel are returning to New Zealand from Iraq, in accordance with the Cabinet decision made in June 2019, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Ron Mark announced today. “New Zealand is very ...
The State of National Emergency to help stop the spread of COVID-19 has been extended for a further seven days, Minister of Civil Defence Peeni Henare said. The initial declaration on March 25 lasted seven days and can be extended as many times as necessary. “Since we went into isolation ...
New Zealand’s ability to go hard and go early in the fight against COVID-19 has been underpinned by strong Government finances and the growing economy heading into this global pandemic, Finance Minister Grant Robertson says. The Treasury today released the Crown financial statements for the eight months to the end ...
Health Minister Dr David Clark says 36 new intensive care beds at Christchurch Hospital’s new Hagley building are being fast tracked so they are available for treatment of COVID-19 patients. The Ministry of Health is working with contractor CPB and Canterbury DHB to enable access to the hospital’s ICU, ...
The Government has fast-tracked up to $1 million to help Air New Zealand move urgent freight to and from New Zealand, with the first flight to Shanghai leaving tonight, Transport Minister Phil Twyford announced today. Phil Twyford says it’s crucial that trade in vital goods such as medical supplies and ...
New Zealand will temporarily remove tariffs on all medical and hygiene imports needed for the COVID-19 response. Trade and Export Growth Minister David Parker and Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Kris Faafoi said today that the New Zealand Customs Service will apply tariff concessions to all diagnostic reagents and testing ...
Minister of Finance Grant Robertson has clarified that the changes to the wage subsidy scheme announced yesterday mean that employers should be passing on the full subsidy to workers, except in the case where the person’s normal income is less than the level of the subsidy. “We still want employers ...
Medical face masks from the national reserve supply are now being distributed to District Health Boards, while at the same time local production is being ramped up. Yesterday more than 640,000 masks were sent to DHBS – that is an immediate two week supply, with more to follow in coming ...
The Government has made modifications to the wage subsidy scheme to ensure people don’t lose their jobs during the national lockdown. These changes will soften the impact of COVID-19 on workers, families and businesses, and position them to exit the lockdown and look to recovery, Finance Minister Grant Robertson says. ...
Farmers whose herds were culled in response to the outbreak of Mycoplasma bovis will be able to minimise the tax treatment of their income in some circumstances. Revenue Minister Stuart Nash says Cabinet has agreed to change the law. It means farmers may be eligible to spread their income over ...
A $27 million dollar package, effective immediately, is being provided to social sector services and community groups to ensure they can continue to provide essential support to communities as we stay at home as a nation to stop the spread of COVID-19, Minister for Social Development Carmel Sepuloni announced. “At ...
“The guilty plea today will provide some relief to the many people whose lives were shattered by what happened on March 15,” Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said. “These guilty pleas and conviction bring accountability for what happened and also save the families who lost loved ones, those who were injured, ...
The Prime Minister is holding daily press conferences to update New Zealanders on the Government's response to COVID-19. Links to videos and transcripts of these updates below. These transcripts also include All of Government press conferences led by Director Ministry of Health's Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield. 25 March: Live update from the Prime ...
Frontline Police numbers have broken through the 10,000 mark for the first time in history as officers step forward to keep the community safe during the COVID19 lockdown. “Two Police graduations in Auckland and Wellington in the past week have been conducted in unprecedented circumstances,” Police Minister Stuart Nash said. ...
Urgent legislation has been passed to support the package of economic and social measures needed to recover from the impact of the coronavirus outbreak. “The COVID-19 Response (Taxation and Social Assistance Urgent Measures) Bill will cushion New Zealanders from the worst economic impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak,” said Revenue Minister ...
From tomorrow, Government support for farmers and growers affected by drought will be expanded and extended across the country, with access to Rural Assistance Payments (RAPS) available throughout the North Island, parts of the South Island and the Chatham Islands, Social Development Minister Carmel Sepuloni announced. “These challenging conditions have ...
Parliament has passed amendments to legislation that give the Secretary of Education stronger powers to act in the fight to limit the spread of COVID-19, Education Minister Chris Hipkins said today. “They are part of a suite of changes passed under the COVID-19 Response (Urgent Management Measures) Legislation Bill,” Chris ...
Canada, Australia, Chile, Brunei and Myanmar have joined forces with New Zealand and Singapore by committing to keep supply chains open and remove any existing trade restrictive measures on essential goods, especially medical supplies, in the face of the Covid-19 crisis. Trade and Export Growth Minister David Parker today welcomed ...
Immediate freeze on rent increases Tenancies will not be terminated during the lock-down period, unless the parties agree, or in limited circumstances Tenants who had previously given notice can stay in their if they need to stay in the tenancy during the lock-down period Tenants will still be able to ...
As New Zealand unites to lock-down in the fight against COVID-19, the Finance Minister is urging all businesses and workers to stay connected over the next four weeks. “We understand the extreme pressure many businesses are under right now. I know most business owners think of their workers as family ...
A State of National Emergency has been declared across the country as the Government pulls out all the stops to curtail the spread of COVID-19. “Today we put in place our country’s second ever State of National Emergency as we fight a global pandemic, save New Zealanders’ lives and prevent ...
Mr Speaker I wish to make a Ministerial Statement under Standing Order 347 in relation to the recent declaration of a State of National Emergency. Having considered the advice of the Director Civil Defence Emergency Management, the Minister of Civil Defence declared a State of National Emergency for the whole of ...
People needing to travel on domestic flights, trains and Cook Strait ferries to get home before the country moves into level 4 lock-down tomorrow night will be able to continue using the passenger services until midnight on Friday, Transport Minister Phil Twyford said today. Domestic passenger services, particularly ferries, have ...
The Government, retail banks and the Reserve Bank are today announcing a major financial support package for home owners and businesses affected by the economic impacts of COVID-19. The package will include a six month principal and interest payment holiday for mortgage holders and SME customers whose incomes have been ...
Simon Wren-Lewis, Emeritus Professor of Economics and Fellow of Merton College, University of Oxford, raises good questions about Britain’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. Some of them seem germane to this country’s response. Wren-Lewis posted his critique on his Mainly Macro blog under the heading Following the Science or a ...
Alex Casey speaks to a dream expert about why so many people are suddenly remembering their vivid and often horrible dreams. As the days begin to blur together and the only thing we get between sleeps is unimaginably horrible news and an embarrassing tootle around the block, it’s no surprise ...
How is Covid-19 spreading within the country? Newsroom is collating information as it's available to paint a picture of what's happening.The following charts are based on numbers shared at the daily press conference. These may vary from the full day's numbers released in the Ministry of Health's spreadsheet of ...
Medical centres across the country are condensing services, moving online, and ushering in pandemic plans. Josie Adams assesses what it’s like to access and provide essential medical care under alert level four.On Monday, Sandra Russell woke up before dawn and drove to Milford to get her blood tested. She has ...
In our new series The Lockdown Letters, some of New Zealand’s best writers tell us what they’ve been up to in the days of Covid-19 alert level four. Today, writer and doctor Glenn Colquhoun, with the second of his Letters to Hone Tūwhare and his Travelling Band of Constant Companions. ...
ANALYSIS:By Haiqing Yu of RMIT University and Michael Keane of Curtin University China has gradually emerged out of its shadow of despair as the epicentre where the coronavirus pandemic started. Now, there is face saving required – as well as agenda-setting in the global power play. China played ...
Tech giant Google has released a giant global data set which shows how different countries are locking down, and which NZ regions are most compliant with its lockdown.A giant set of reports released by Google, created using its anonymised cellphone location data reveals the scale of human behaviour change the ...
Comedian Penny Ashton writes on the necessity of the arts, especially during lockdown.On March 22, everyone’s favourite fiscal bloodhounds, the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union, sent out a tweet in response to Creative New Zealand’s announcement that it will dedicate an emergency response package to helping New Zealand’s artists, in the ...
Wellington writer Philippa Swan’s new novel TheNight of All Souls is an homage to Pulitzer-winning and all-round fabulous American writer Edith Wharton. Wharton died in 1937 but, Swan writes, she’s very much of the moment. Nobody does social distancing like Wharton did. While Wharton was still comparatively young, she created the ...
For all The Spinoff’s latest coverage of Covid-19 see here. Read Siouxsie Wiles’s work here. New Zealand is currently in alert level four. The country is shut down, apart from essential services. For updated official government advice, see here.The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is funded by The Spinoff Members. To support this work, join The ...
Normally heaving year-round, Queenstown has ground to an eerie halt as Covid-19 cases rise and tourism income plummets, reports Paul Taylor. On a hill behind Queenstown's coronavirus Covid-19 community testing centre, the resort's iconic Skyline gondola sits motionless. More than 17 million people are estimated to have ridden the gondola ...
Are we drinking more in the lockdown? Hard to know, writes David Slack, but we’re certainly having to get creative about it. Almost every phone call I’ve answered this week has begun the same way: “You still off the drink, then?” Fair question. What a time to be not drinking. ...
Kiwi clinical psychologist Desiree Dickerson is stuck with her family in Spain and has written a guide in Nature: "Seven tips to manage your mental health and well-being during the Covid-19 outbreak." It’s Day 17 of the Covid-19 lockdown in Spain. In a small village on the Mediterranean coast, about ...
"Will our ills be cured? Will our feet carry us? For how long?": a short story set in Henderson by West Auckland writer Serie Barford.I learned to drive a tractor when I was a kid feeding out hay with my cousins on a dairy farm down the line. I ...
Without active testing in the community our Covid-19 picture isn’t complete, an epidemiologist says. David Williams reports. There are worse places to be self-isolating than Whakatāne, in the Bay of Plenty, says Bridget Robson, who lives on a two-acre block and keeps chickens. “We live in a beautiful part of ...
How do you hold a funeral service with the country in lockdown? Where there’s a will – and a tech-savvy uncle – there’s a way, Erin Kavanagh-Hall discovered.I was floating somewhere in the Cook Strait when I heard my grandfather’s funeral had been cancelled.I should elaborate. It was a Monday, ...
‘Stay in your bubble’ didn’t exist 100 years ago, but our ancestors would want us to know how essential it is to do so, says Jai Breitnauer.It was a warm but slightly grey January day in 2019 when I pulled the car over to the side of SH1, just south ...
David Clark’s misadventure in mountain biking was a stupid, but ultimately forgivable offence. The bigger problem is the continued uncertainty around what is and isn’t appropriate activity in lockdown, as Sam Sachdeva writes. Given the pressure he and his Cabinet colleagues are under, it is little surprise Health Minister David ...
Assessing the economic impact of Covid-19 requires a new approach to a problem economists have not encountered in modern times, writes Dr Kirdan Lees Covid-19 has presented quite a problem for economists. Containment policies that seek to flatten the Covid-19 curve or eliminate the virus, restrict economic activity. All governments ...
Every day at 1pm New Zealand’s Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield announces precise figures on the number of confirmed and probable cases of Covid-19 in the country. He is working on the best information available, and during this week the level of community transmission was put at around ...
Most of New Zealand's MPs are in lockdown just like the rest of us, confined to their neighbourhoods and stuck in their bubbles. Checkpoint called a few to ask them what they're doing. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ben Deery, Lecturer in Early Childhood Education, University of Melbourne “Stupid coronavirus!” I heard my six-year-old mumble while talking in her sleep. Earlier that day her swimming and basketball lessons were cancelled, a birthday party postponed, and she had to race with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Tuffley, Senior Lecturer in Applied Ethics & CyberSecurity, Griffith University “Zoombombing” in case you haven’t heard, is the unsavoury practice of posting distressing comments, pictures or videos after gatecrashing virtual meetings hosted by the videoconferencing app Zoom. With hundreds of millions ...
Analysis - A leading epidemiologist says health authorities 'really have no idea' of the extent of community spread, Parliament's Epidemic Response Committee gets its teeth into what's going on during the lockdown and the horrendous economic imp ...
The fifth in our new series of charts, graphics and data visualisations by Chris McDowall, covering the Covid-19 epidemic within New Zealand. We’ll publish the latest set each day on The Spinoff.This work is entirely funded by the generosity of The Spinoff MembersInformation about confirmed and probable cases of Covid-19 ...
The Finance Minister says struggling companies will be able to put some debt into hibernation, under new legislation unveiled today. Watch the latest government update here. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Lund, Commissioning Editor, The Conversation Editor’s note: The following is current as at April 3, 2020. Things are changing quickly so best to keep an eye on the latest information from WA Health, as well as the federal government.This article ...
During the challenges associated with lockdown, the Māori Party are congratulating Ngāti Ruanui and South Taranaki on the decision of the Court of Appeal, announced today, to stop Trans-Tasman Resources plans for risky seabed mining off the South ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sunanda Creagh, Head of Digital Storytelling What does the COVID-19 pandemic sound like? For this episode, Dallas Rogers – a senior lecturer in the School of Architecture, Design and Planning at the University of Sydney – asked academic colleagues from all over ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sven Gallasch, Lecturer in Law, Swinburne University of Technology “People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion,” wrote Adam Smith in The Wealth of Nations (published in 1776), “but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the ...
Environment Minister David Parker has directed officials to find ways to fast-track consents for infrastructure and development projects. He says his goal is to help create a pipeline of projects so that some can start immediately once Covid-19 restrictions are lifted “so people can get back into work as fast ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin Spain and Switzerland top cases, countries converging. Chart by Keith Rankin.Spain and Switzerland top cases, countries converging. Chart by Keith Rankin.Of the larger European countries, Italy is now in third place for known cases per person in the population. Spain has overtaken Switzerland for ...
Contact tracing is a crucial part of the Covid-19 puzzle and technology might prove essential to scaling up New Zealand's tracing capacity, Marc Daalder reports With the lockdown reducing physical contact between members of the public and testing ramping up, the only missing piece of the Covid-19 puzzle is contact tracing. ...
Insolvency laws will be temporarily changed to allow troubled companies to trade while technically insolvent Finance Minister Grant Robertson has announced changes to the Companies Act to allow companies to put their debts into "hibernation". Robertson said companies facing liquidity problems would have "safe harbour" from their normal insolvency duties ...
Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Ruanui and Te Kaahui o Rauru are celebrating the decision of the Court of Appeal, announced today, to stop Trans-Tasman Resources plans for risky seabed mining off the South Taranaki Bight. The Court of Appeal found that there ...
Bernard Hickey talks to Kiwibank Chief Economist Jarrod Kerr about a massive spike in US jobless claims, and they talk about an inspiring Kiwi app to fight Covid-19 globally. Guest, Pie Funds chief executive Mike Taylor also joins them to talk about the massive market swings and hopes for recovery. Bernard zooms out ...
Political commentators from the left and right sides of the political divide are questioning the powers being exercised by police during the nation-wide “lockdown”. The Asian Invasion 2019 blog draws attention to the warning sounded by former UK Supreme Court Justice Jonathan Sumption when he challenged Covid-19 actions by British ...
Pacific Media Watch The International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) has strongly condemned the shoot-to-kill order by President Rodrigo Duterte this week as a ‘dangerous’ opening to target and kill anyone in a public space. “We are raising the alarm in the international community on President ...
The Reserve Bank looks set to start buying council bonds as well as Government bonds to unfreeze financial markets and allow councils to defer rates and jointly invest in infrastructure with the central Government, Dileepa Fonseka reports In what would be another unprecedented move to calm financial markets and help ...
Four PhD students engaged a clinical psychologist to help them navigate an uncertain time in their studies. They share their findings here.As four PhD students from Massey University’s Joint Centre for Disaster Research we, like many others, can’t stop reading and talking about the unfolding events that have gripped our ...
The SpinoffBy Ashleigh Rushton, Lisa McLaren, Marion Tan & Sara Harrison
Covid-19 testing of the wider population is on the cards as World Health Organisation research shows people are most contagious within their first few days of being infected Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield says Covid-19 carriers are highly infectious when they show few signs of carrying the virus. People were ...
Z Energy is the latest company to cut its dividend payout and start talking to its banks about strengthening its finances. Chief executive Mike Bennetts said the company, the largest fuel retailer in the country, had been battered by a range of issues over the past 18 months, and was ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Melissa Kang, Associate professor, University of Technology Sydney Young people in Australia are among the fastest-growing group to contract COVID19. According to the Department of Health, there are now more cases in Australia among people aged 20 – 29 years than any ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cassandra Pattinson, Research Fellow, The University of Queensland Getting a good night’s sleep can be difficult at the best of times. But it can be even harder when you’re anxious or have something on your mind – a global pandemic, for example. ...
Journalist and Great Barrier Island resident Lindsay Wright reflects on outer gulf pandemic preparedness. Hardy locals can tough it out but Auckland bach owners and boaties should keep their distance. Aotea Great Barrier, the easternmost island in the Hauraki Gulf, are undergoing a Covid-19-inspired population flood. Great Barrier has scenery that makes ...
The Pharmaceutical Society of New Zealand is delighted that the government has moved quickly to provide an initial financial support package for pharmacy. The $15 million package was paid this week to pharmacy contract holders. Pharmaceutical Society president ...
How is Covid-19 spreading within the country? Newsroom is collating information as it's available to paint a picture of what's happening.The following charts are based on numbers shared at the daily press conference and are "as of 9am" of the day. There were 71 new cases of Covid-19 in ...
A new poem by Wellington poet and bookseller Ash Davida Jane. washed up! it gets tiring pushing the fire alarm every nightbut things keep catching on fireor sometimes ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Charles Foster, Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of Sydney Our earliest vertebrate (animals with backbones) ancestors laid eggs, but over millions of years of evolution, some species began to give birth to live young. There is a traditional dichotomy in vertebrate reproduction: species ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Charles Foster, Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of Sydney Our earliest vertebrate (animals with backbones) ancestors laid eggs, but over millions of years of evolution, some species began to give birth to live young. There is a traditional dichotomy in vertebrate reproduction: species ...
Welcome to the second edition of our lockdown Top 10s. A reminder that this chart has nothing to do with sales or launches or the publishing cycle; these are just books the Unity team love – and this week it’s westerns, full of big skies and long rides and showdowns.AUCKLANDAll ...
Wellington Mayor Andy Foster’s plan to cover revenue shortfalls through borrowing without cutting low priority spending is immoral, says the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union . “Businesses and households across the country are meeting financial challenges ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kevin John Brophy, Emeritus Professor of Creative writing, University of Melbourne “Katrina, I had in mind a prayer, but only this came,” Bruce Dawe wrote to his infant daughter, new-born, in intensive care, her life in the balance, declaring as poets must ...
The shock closure of Bauer NZ – and with it all of the country’s current affairs magazines – is a stark reminder of the fragile state of local media, writes Mel Bunce, the author of a book on the subject.It is a dark week for journalism in New Zealand, with ...
Join Leonie Hayden as she works through the first four weeks of Scotty Morrison’s Māori Made Easy.Rāmere/FridayWe made it to the end of week one e te whānau. It wasn’t that hard! In fact it was… Māori made easy.To end our week of pronunciation practice we’re going to revisit everything we ...
India faces more challenges battling Covid-19 than any other country in the world. With 1.3 billion inhabitants, hundreds of different languages spoken, and an estimated 80% of the workforce daily wage earners currently without jobs, it could be a recipe for disaster.I’ve been living in India for more than three ...
By Sri Krishnamurthi of Pacific Media Watch The Vanuatu government is using the Covid-19 to impose draconian measures and authoritarian rule by end of last month. Wholesale censorship of all Covid-19 related content has been instituted. Office of the Government Chief Information Officer (OGCIO) took the extraordinary step to ...
People with lower credit scores increased their borrowing upon news of the lockdown, while those with higher scores dropped away. March data from the credit-reporting agency Centrix, which runs credit checks on behalf of banks, finance companies, online lenders, and buy now pay later schemes, showed credit inquiries dropped sharply ...
Small business owners say commercial rent relief is desperately needed if they are to survive past the Covid-19 disruptions. While the wage subsidy helped with staff costs, there is currently no government assistance for commercial rent - which typically accounts for 40 percent of a firm's fixed costs. Landlords and ...
SkyCity is making 200 staff redundant as part of cost cutting because of the Covid-19 virus. The casino operator said it had no choice but to cut the size of the workforce given that once business resumes it will be at much reduced level. Chief executive Graeme Stephens said it's ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Glikson, Earth and paleo-climate scientist, Australian National University At several points in the history of our planet, increasing amounts of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere have caused extreme global warming, prompting the majority of species on Earth to die out. In ...
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand. Today’s contentMedia Henry Cooke (Stuff): There’s no easy way for Government to save media drowning. But a fast fix is ...
Just after midday a cyclist was killed on a straight road on a clear day, after being hit by a van in North Canterbury. Lucinda Rees from NZ School Speeds is asking for the mandatory cyclist/vulnerable road user passing gap, which is in consultation, ...
By Indra Singh in Suva Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama says that if Fijians continue to disregard the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic directives from authorities, a nationwide 24-hour curfew could be imposed. His comments come as Fiji yesterday recorded its two latest coronavirus cases, taking the total to seven. Bainimarama said ...
In our new series The Lockdown Letters, some of New Zealand’s best writers tell us what they’ve been up to in the days of Covid-19 alert level four. Today, Ōtaki author Renée.Yes, a few cyclists out and about. I remember my first bike bought from Farmers around 1942, five shillings a ...
Internal memos from NZ’s biggest magazine company, which announced its sudden closure yesterday, state they were lobbying to change a ban on publication. But the minister responsible, Kris Faafoi, has doubled down on rejecting that position, calling those internal communications ‘contradictory’ to what they said to him directly.Magazine publishing giant ...
Up to 100,000 foreigners could be seeking to leave the country in coming weeks, now the Government has relaxed domestic travel restrictions for them. ...
The loss of a loved one can be difficult in the best of times. But it’s even more painful when the planes are grounded.Late on Saturday night, three days into New Zealand’s level four lockdown, Harish got a call from his sister in India telling him that his father had ...
Health Minister David Clark has flouted the Government's advice to exercise locally after confirming he drove to a park to go mountain biking on Thursday. ...
Covid-19 cases top 1m; Trump brags he's #1 on Facebook and says he knows about the virus because a 'friend' got it; UK testing scandal grows; Cats more vulnerable to virus than dogsTicking up to a million cases: A gruesome landmark was passed today when we go over one million ...
“So do not fear, I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand” Isaiah 41:10 COVID-19 - Lock down: one week on Welcome to the latest Policy Watch ...
Open mike 19/04/2015 
Open mike is your post.
As the first week of Level Four lockdown unfolded, mounting questions grew as to just what was (and was not) allowed under its “rules”. Partly these were driven by some apparently contradictory messages from different authority figures and explanations carried in the media. Partly they reflected a somewhat sketchy legal basis ...40 mins ago
. . April 3: Day 9 of living in lock-down… Another late-start to my work day. Everything is temporarily upended as clients are shuffled around so we can minimise our “bubble” by reducing the number of people we help. One of my colleagues has been removed from his clients; his ...4 hours ago
We must root out the traitors among us! ...19 hours ago
In order to meet our 2050 carbon target and do our bit to avoid making the Earth uninhabitable, New Zealand needs to decarbonise our economy, replacing fossil fuels with electricity in the energy, industrial and transport sectors. The good news is that it will mean cheaper power for all of ...1 day ago
As Aotearoa enters week two of lockdown, it’s clear we’re all still working out what our “bubbles” look like and how to stay in them to stop the spread of Covid-19. New to the government’s Covid-19 website is some good guidance for people living in apartment blocks. Recent decades have ...1 day ago
Resuming Normal Service: The Republican Party's nominee for in 1920, Warren Harding, promised the American people: “not heroics, but healing; not nostrums, but normalcy; not revolution, but restoration”. If she wishes to remain our prime minister, then Jacinda Ardern will offer New Zealanders the same.HOW EDUCATED AMERICA snickered when the ...1 day ago
by Daphna Whitmore A third of the world is under lockdown and a clear assessment of this measure to curb the spread of COVID-19 is urgently needed. With any high-stakes decisions it has to be asked what are we dealing with here? Are the measures warranted? Will they achieve their ...2 days ago
I haven’t done a huge amount in the last few days. I’m reading The Poppy War and I’ve sort of poked at a couple of games – I started SOMA but I’m a wimp and I quit while in the first room after the brain scan. I might try it ...2 days ago
Much has been written about the importance of discretion in an emergency situation, and the concerns raised by the potential for it to be exercised arbitrarily. Given the quality of the discussion, there seemed little point in adding to it at any length. In particular, I point to the evidence ...2 days ago
46 Articles Physical science of global warming & effects Global response of evapotranspiration ratio to climate conditions and watershed characteristics in a changing environment Greenhouse effect: the relative contributions of emission height and total absorption Observations & observational methods of global warming & effects Climate change induced a ...3 days ago
Image credit: Diamond Harbour School Blogs I notice a few regulars no longer allow public access to the site counters. This may happen accidentally when the blog format is altered. If your blog is unexpectedly missing or ... 3 days ago
The Covid-19 saga will no doubt produce many twists and turns for us before it is finally brought to an end. But one thing it has shown us – and what comfort it should bring us – is that our country’s government is in good hands. I am not thinking ...3 days ago
The following statement was released on March 28 by the National Network on Cuba, a coalition of 40 groups, based in the United States. In recent weeks, Cuba has deployed hundreds of medical providers to over a dozen countries in Europe, Asia, as well as to their neighbors in Latin ...4 days ago
Yesterday, New Zealand recorded its first Covid-19 related death on the West Coast. Unfortunately this is unlikely to be the only fatality, with the virus now being found in every region of the country.However despite the significant danger, people are still unfortunately breaching lockdown rules.There’s really only one main very ...5 days ago
The CV-19 (COVID) pandemic has seen the imposition of a government ordered national quarantine and the promulgation of a series of measures designed to spread the burden of pain and soften the economic blow on the most strategically important and most vulnerable sectors of society. The national narrative is framed ...1 week ago
Society-wise, aside from the specific morbidity shall we say of the medically-oriented aspects of this COVID-19 crisis, what is unfolding before the world is in more than one way an instructive study of humanity and reactions to a high intensity, high stress environment in real time. Friends, we are at ...1 week ago
Right now low waged and insecure workers are feeling the economic brunt of the looming #Covid19 Recession. In response legal advocate Toby Cooper* and hospitality and worker’s rights advocate Chloe Ann-King, are putting together a series of legal blogs about your employment rights: In this legal blog we outline some ...1 week ago
Kia ora my name is Chloe Ann-King* and I am the founder of Raise the Bar, a campaign and non-profit that gives free legal aid, advocacy and tautoko to hospitality workers in Aotearoa. Right now all over our country hospo workers are being fired at will, having shifts cut or being ...1 week ago
Foreign Minister Winston Peters says getting New Zealanders back home and other travellers out of the country is "a nightmare for our embassies, consuls, and staff around the world". Speaking to NewstalkZB's Mike Hosking, the Foreign Minister said that he gave a clear message to people travelling overseas that they ...1 day ago
The COVID-19 situation in New Zealand is moving fast - and to avoid what we've seen overseas - the Government's response must be to move fast too. We're committed to keeping New Zealanders safe and well-informed every step of the way. ...1 week ago
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The scale of what we face right now is unlike anything we have ever seen before. Overcoming it is our common purpose. ...1 week ago
The Government will be introducing legislation to make changes to the Companies Act to help companies facing insolvency due to COVID-19 to remain viable and keep New Zealanders in jobs. The temporary changes include: Giving directors of companies facing significant liquidity problems because of COVID-19 a ‘safe harbour’ from insolvency ...1 day ago
Simon Wren-Lewis, Emeritus Professor of Economics and Fellow of Merton College, University of Oxford, raises good questions about Britain’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. Some of them seem germane to this country’s response. Wren-Lewis posted his critique on his Mainly Macro blog under the heading Following the Science or a ...19 mins ago
Alex Casey speaks to a dream expert about why so many people are suddenly remembering their vivid and often horrible dreams. As the days begin to blur together and the only thing we get between sleeps is unimaginably horrible news and an embarrassing tootle around the block, it’s no surprise ...1 hour ago
How is Covid-19 spreading within the country? Newsroom is collating information as it's available to paint a picture of what's happening. The following charts are based on numbers shared at the daily press conference. These may vary from the full day's numbers released in the Ministry of Health's spreadsheet of ...3 hours ago
ANALYSIS: By Haiqing Yu of RMIT University and Michael Keane of Curtin University China has gradually emerged out of its shadow of despair as the epicentre where the coronavirus pandemic started. Now, there is face saving required – as well as agenda-setting in the global power play. China played ...6 hours ago
Normally heaving year-round, Queenstown has ground to an eerie halt as Covid-19 cases rise and tourism income plummets, reports Paul Taylor. On a hill behind Queenstown's coronavirus Covid-19 community testing centre, the resort's iconic Skyline gondola sits motionless. More than 17 million people are estimated to have ridden the gondola ...9 hours ago
Are we drinking more in the lockdown? Hard to know, writes David Slack, but we’re certainly having to get creative about it. Almost every phone call I’ve answered this week has begun the same way: “You still off the drink, then?” Fair question. What a time to be not drinking. ...10 hours ago
Kiwi clinical psychologist Desiree Dickerson is stuck with her family in Spain and has written a guide in Nature: "Seven tips to manage your mental health and well-being during the Covid-19 outbreak." It’s Day 17 of the Covid-19 lockdown in Spain. In a small village on the Mediterranean coast, about ...10 hours ago
"Will our ills be cured? Will our feet carry us? For how long?": a short story set in Henderson by West Auckland writer Serie Barford. I learned to drive a tractor when I was a kid feeding out hay with my cousins on a dairy farm down the line. I ...10 hours ago
Without active testing in the community our Covid-19 picture isn’t complete, an epidemiologist says. David Williams reports. There are worse places to be self-isolating than Whakatāne, in the Bay of Plenty, says Bridget Robson, who lives on a two-acre block and keeps chickens. “We live in a beautiful part of ...10 hours ago
David Clark’s misadventure in mountain biking was a stupid, but ultimately forgivable offence. The bigger problem is the continued uncertainty around what is and isn’t appropriate activity in lockdown, as Sam Sachdeva writes. Given the pressure he and his Cabinet colleagues are under, it is little surprise Health Minister David ...11 hours ago
Assessing the economic impact of Covid-19 requires a new approach to a problem economists have not encountered in modern times, writes Dr Kirdan Lees Covid-19 has presented quite a problem for economists. Containment policies that seek to flatten the Covid-19 curve or eliminate the virus, restrict economic activity. All governments ...20 hours ago
Most of New Zealand's MPs are in lockdown just like the rest of us, confined to their neighbourhoods and stuck in their bubbles. Checkpoint called a few to ask them what they're doing. ...20 hours ago
During the challenges associated with lockdown, the Māori Party are congratulating Ngāti Ruanui and South Taranaki on the decision of the Court of Appeal, announced today, to stop Trans-Tasman Resources plans for risky seabed mining off the South ...23 hours ago
Environment Minister David Parker has directed officials to find ways to fast-track consents for infrastructure and development projects. He says his goal is to help create a pipeline of projects so that some can start immediately once Covid-19 restrictions are lifted “so people can get back into work as fast ...23 hours ago
Contact tracing is a crucial part of the Covid-19 puzzle and technology might prove essential to scaling up New Zealand's tracing capacity, Marc Daalder reports With the lockdown reducing physical contact between members of the public and testing ramping up, the only missing piece of the Covid-19 puzzle is contact tracing. ...24 hours ago
Insolvency laws will be temporarily changed to allow troubled companies to trade while technically insolvent Finance Minister Grant Robertson has announced changes to the Companies Act to allow companies to put their debts into "hibernation". Robertson said companies facing liquidity problems would have "safe harbour" from their normal insolvency duties ...1 day ago
Bernard Hickey talks to Kiwibank Chief Economist Jarrod Kerr about a massive spike in US jobless claims, and they talk about an inspiring Kiwi app to fight Covid-19 globally. Guest, Pie Funds chief executive Mike Taylor also joins them to talk about the massive market swings and hopes for recovery. Bernard zooms out ...1 day ago
The Reserve Bank looks set to start buying council bonds as well as Government bonds to unfreeze financial markets and allow councils to defer rates and jointly invest in infrastructure with the central Government, Dileepa Fonseka reports In what would be another unprecedented move to calm financial markets and help ...1 day ago
Covid-19 testing of the wider population is on the cards as World Health Organisation research shows people are most contagious within their first few days of being infected Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield says Covid-19 carriers are highly infectious when they show few signs of carrying the virus. People were ...1 day ago
Z Energy is the latest company to cut its dividend payout and start talking to its banks about strengthening its finances. Chief executive Mike Bennetts said the company, the largest fuel retailer in the country, had been battered by a range of issues over the past 18 months, and was ...1 day ago
Journalist and Great Barrier Island resident Lindsay Wright reflects on outer gulf pandemic preparedness. Hardy locals can tough it out but Auckland bach owners and boaties should keep their distance. Aotea Great Barrier, the easternmost island in the Hauraki Gulf, are undergoing a Covid-19-inspired population flood. Great Barrier has scenery that makes ...1 day ago
How is Covid-19 spreading within the country? Newsroom is collating information as it's available to paint a picture of what's happening. The following charts are based on numbers shared at the daily press conference and are "as of 9am" of the day. There were 71 new cases of Covid-19 in ...1 day ago
Vodafone says its continuing to see significant increases in calls and data on its networks after the first week of level 4 lockdown. ...1 day ago
People with lower credit scores increased their borrowing upon news of the lockdown, while those with higher scores dropped away. March data from the credit-reporting agency Centrix, which runs credit checks on behalf of banks, finance companies, online lenders, and buy now pay later schemes, showed credit inquiries dropped sharply ...1 day ago
Small business owners say commercial rent relief is desperately needed if they are to survive past the Covid-19 disruptions. While the wage subsidy helped with staff costs, there is currently no government assistance for commercial rent - which typically accounts for 40 percent of a firm's fixed costs. Landlords and ...1 day ago
SkyCity is making 200 staff redundant as part of cost cutting because of the Covid-19 virus. The casino operator said it had no choice but to cut the size of the workforce given that once business resumes it will be at much reduced level. Chief executive Graeme Stephens said it's ...1 day ago
Up to 100,000 foreigners could be seeking to leave the country in coming weeks, now the Government has relaxed domestic travel restrictions for them. ...1 day ago
Health Minister David Clark has flouted the Government's advice to exercise locally after confirming he drove to a park to go mountain biking on Thursday. ...1 day ago
Covid-19 cases top 1m; Trump brags he's #1 on Facebook and says he knows about the virus because a 'friend' got it; UK testing scandal grows; Cats more vulnerable to virus than dogs Ticking up to a million cases: A gruesome landmark was passed today when we go over one million ...1 day ago
anzacs
war
defence forces
john key and American wars
militarism
honour
patriotism
gallipoli
all piled up together in some hell-stink pile of shit
Anzac day is about the men who died imo, nothing else, and especially not the fucking military who caused them all to die.
this twisted mixed-up pile will exaggerate itself this week with all manner of crap wrapped around the deaths of these 2,500 men…
I remember my family and the men that were killed.
Nothing else.
They died so you could post that.
I don’t think so. They died because we were dragged into a war because of a complicated system of alliances between Queen Victoria’s relatives meant that when a Serbian nationalist shot an Austrian Prince, a lot of strutting and posturing and “my cannon is bigger than your cannon” lead to a totally un-necessary conflict which affected most of the world.
And the men who died specifically at Gallipoli did so because no one bothered to update the strategy after the Turks were kicked out of Russia. Most pointless invasion ever.
those conscripted went cos the choice was death or prison
those who volunteered believed the propaganda that it would be quick… painless and adventurous
they did not get killed, maimed or mentally scarred so that 100 years later politicians could exploit their memories for their own ends
the auckland war memorial museum has poignant interviews with people who went and their reasons for going. many talk about being pacifists afterwards. i honour their words more than roflcopters propandic judgments.
i had 2 great uncles die in france in ww1. one in action. one as a result of wounds sustained at the somme. they were cannon fodder for colonels and generals who valued livestock higher than their men.
blackadder goes 4th is practically a documentary in its depiction of british command.
“those conscripted went cos the choice was death or prison”.
None of the New Zealand soldiers who went to Gallipoli were conscripts Tracey. They were all volunteers.
After all, the landings at Gallipoli were in 1915 and New Zealand did not introduce conscription until 1916.
http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/conscription-conscientious-objection-and-pacifism/page-1
The reasons men went to war in 1914- 18 was many and varied and changed over time – those that volunteered early thinking it would be a bit of adventure and be over by Xmas may have different reasons than those who were conscripted later and did have some idea of the slaughter that was going on.
So reasons could be a sense of adventure, social or peer pressure, a response to propaganda, a feeling that it was the ” right thing ” to do or one’s duty , to get a paying job, to defend Belgian neutrality, hatred of Germans , a Christian duty, and no doubt many other reasons.
It is easy , but quite wrong, to generalise .
agree. that is why i expanded roflcopters jingoistic generalisation.
when did wwi come to only include gallipoli alwyn… or even anzac day
I took your statement to be referring to Gallipoli, and not that it was a general statement about the war, because it is a reply to a comment by Stephanie Rodgers who said, at the very beginning of her comment.
“And the men who died specifically at Gallipoli”
I thought that when you were replying to a comment that said that that you were also talking about Gallipoli. A perfectly reasonable assumption I would have thought.
I wouldn’t have been mislead about your meaning if you had made your comment a reply to Rolfcopter, rather than to someone else.
🙄
Well, you obviously thought all that without bothering to read Tracey’s comment, particuarly when she refers to relatives dying in France in WW1.
Don’t blame other people for your comprehension fail.
Fair enough but I thought the references to other than Gallipoli and WWI would be enough. Sorry.
you will need to expand on that to be understood
They died due to incompetent and misguided political/military leadership.
In essence, they died so that we would remember that.
What a load of BS. Chances are that even if the West had lost WWI or WWII we’d still be able to post on the internet. Oppressive regimes tend not to last too long.
Hard to say the internet would have been invented, developed and evolved as it has.
It’s actually quite amazing that the internet managed to be released to the public with so little in the way of regulation and oversight. It seems to be too late to put the genie back in the bottle now.
IMO, as soon as we had computers the internet was inevitable. Sure, it’s development may have taken longer and a different direction but we still would have got it.
We had BBS. It’s entirely possible that TCP / IP could have been kept as a DARPA / military-only technology, and we would have had an ad-hoc linkage of BBSes together. Really the fact that private ISPs were allowed to get IP addresses and connect to the network is what enabled the spread; it is very easy to imagine a world where private ISPs like that simply weren’t allowed to join the ‘military’ network.
Also it’s very easy to slip into thinking that ‘the world-wide web’ is ‘the internet’. Of course the internet didn’t gain broad popular appeal until the web was created; before that it was gopher, usenet and other clunky text-based systems.
But sure, some system of wide networking probably would have been invented eventually, but again it’s easy to imagine a system that was very heavily controlled by a state (or states), and required such things as real-name identification online, strict controls around porn and other ‘dubious’ content etc.
Kiaora,
From my understanding, the explosive growth of the worldwide web was fueled in the very early days by pornography. An ideal way to share pornographic pictures worldwide anonymously.
So in other words, the worldwide web was impervious to state control from the very beginning.
Which pretty much proves that you don’t have any understanding at all.
Kiaora Draco T Egg
Oh but I do
They died at the behest of the same controllers still waging war around the globe today
really? Who are the “controllers”?
Its war propaganda instead of remembrance. So many people died and for what? The way we should remember them is to ask the question whether we want to see their great great great great etc children experience the same. It would open a debate that is about a better world and safe place for humanity.
I belief that would at least make sure their death was not in vain.
Sounds a bit Anzacary there cobbah!
“They died so you could post that.”
Yes maybe. However VTO has some valid points and as an ex National Serviceman I agree with him. It is all bullshit. it is glorifying war so the next generation can expect to be cannon fodder for the right wing aresoles.
If I hear the last post played one more time I will go up the fucking wall.
You only have to read about butcher Haig and his class (O golly gosh we have lost 20 00 men, never mind send over another 20.000 peasants) My interpretation of those aresoles.
Spike Milligan summed it up once when he said about the upper crust duchesses, “must knit something for our poor lads at the front,” but when the surviving “poor lads” came back to “a land fit for heroes” these same upper crust duchesses could not give a shit about the conditions and slums they lived in with kids undernourished getting sick with diseases like TB and Rickets.
I can’t see any difference today, Key can attend the bullshit but does not give a shit about the child poverty that is increasing in NZ.
I for one does not need the bullshit to remember family members who fought in both wars. My dear old dad, stretcher bearer on the Somme. My lovely eldest brother doing his bit at Imphal stopping the Japanese invading India, my other lovely brother working all hours servicing transport aircraft on the Berlin Airlift and school mates who did National Service,(we had no choice had to do it,) ending up in places like Aden, Cyprus, Malaya, Kenya, and Suez, and the follow on generations who the the right wing prats sent to places like Vietnam, Falklands, The Gulf, and the on going Afghanistan, Iraq.
Good call there cobbah halfcrown.
It is annoying every man and his corporate dog jumps on the ANZAC bandwagon in an attempt to craft a buck. Key tried it on with an Anzac theme to send our troops off to the Middle East. Disgraceful.
Thanks for that Skinny. I can tell many a tale about my family and my dear lovely mother who was devastated when her first born lovely son was sent off to Burma and how determine she was to keep me and my other brother well fed and safe under extreme circumstances during the war. I feel the mothers and wives left behind were also hero’s but do not get the recognition they deserved. Anzac day should also acknowledge them. My wife says I should write my history as a kid in the east end during the war, but who will read read it? Not the right wing fuckwits who are brain dead, They are only interested in how much they can sell their overvalued house for and the next brain numbing episode of Master Chef on the television.
Vto posted that because they died. They died because British strategists considered that Johnny Turk was too deficient in manly qualities to stand up to British Imperial steel. They died so Vickers could make a fortune. They died for nothing that made any sense.
If they had not died at Gallipoli, at Al Alamein, at Monte Cassino, at a rice growing hamlet in Viet Nam, at thousands of miles from home in Afghanistan, we’d still be able to post whatever we like, maybe more than we’re allowed today. Militarism and worship of military adventure has been used to curtail our rights, not to defend them.
No, they died because they were sent to bail out the bloody Belgians.
Sure, Belgium today is a joke country (cobbled together out of the Dutch that Holland doesn’t want, and the French that Paris doesn’t want), but the Belgians of a hundred years ago were the Khmer Rouge of their day – estimates of the total killed in the “Congo Free State” range from 2½ to 5 times the number killed by Pol Pot.
And, because of an overdose of ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend’ type thinking, they got sent to interfere in a Middle Eastern situation that nobody in command had a clue about. A hundred years later, our government is still sending our youngsters out to die in the Middle East, in a situation that nobody in command has a clue about, and ignoring all the times that the “West” has interfered in the Middle East and made matters worse for everyone. (“Yay, we got rid of Mossadegh! Oh shit, here comes the Ayatollah! Let’s give Saddam shitloads of money and set him up against the Ayatollah! Oh shit, what’s he doing in Kuwait! Yay, we got rid of Saddam! Oh shit, here comes Daesh!” etc. etc. etc.)
I sympathise with you vto. At the moment the media is full of maudlin’ gushing which goes on and on and on… Its the usual over-kill the media love to wallow in whilst the news of the day is almost entirely ignored. Expect more draconian government measures to be announced this week that will go largely unreported.
Its a time to remember one’s own family and the trials and tribulations they endured – not this vulgar, blustering jingoism that means very little and achieves even less.
And on a related issue:
Here’s an interesting “Insight” interview with SIS Director, Rebecca Kitteridge this morning.
For once (just this once 😉 ), Key may have got something right. I was impressed. A woman Director untainted by the Cold War rhetoric and paranoia of yesteryear is a welcome improvement.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/insight/audio/20175123/insight-for-19-april-2015-how-real-terrorism-threats-in-nz
edit: the whole programme is well worth listening to.
Agee wholeheartedly Anne. I am also a little disturbed by what rather looks like a WW1 theme park created by jackson (my son of 25 gave it this description). Is it helpful for young people or does it detract from the honour and respect I have always given our wonderful heroes that gave their lives for us. I still hear the solitary gun that went off at 11 am on the eleventh day of the eleventh month as I was growing up. Man woman and child would be silent for two minutes in memory of our lost. And the poppies.
I liked the memorials in Wellington and London. I thought they added to the stature our lost ones deserved.
I used to do the dawn service thing, but stopped when it seemed that most people there didn’t know the meaning between “commemoration” and “celebration” – literally, people would say it was a celebration of our war dead.
Sigh.
Our media are still referring to it, Anzac day, as a celebration. Mind you, today our PM referred to the Police as “retailers” when advising parents concerned what to do if fearful their child is being pulled toward terrorism. he meant vis a vis…. GCSB? or something. But it shows you how he thinks, everything is measured against a market type interpretation or reference point. Money baby.
I went to an Armistice Day memorial at the London Cenotaph forty plus years ago. It was the most moving event I have ever witnessed. London fell silent. Not a sound. I swear there were a million plus people present – all standing quietly in rows. At the 11th hour of the 11th day… the bugle played loud and clear. The only sound was the the odd person who broke into sobbing. The memories were still very deep and painful.
That day changed me forever. I abhor the way it is now being celebrated as a false glorification of war. Most of those who were present n that occasion, I am sure would be horrified at the way it has been cheapened.
+1
+2
and women who died. who were injured. who nursed.
Well said Tracey, there is not enough reconition to what the women did during these terrible times, and are still doing in places like Gaza.
+1 vto. Sums it up for me. As mentioned earlier this week, the thing that tipped me over in my response to the morbid sensationalism around the centenary of Gallipoli was the sight of chocolates in the shape of WW1 tin helmets, for sale at New World. Just crass.
+1 to all replies after that except for Roflcopter.
Anne is right about the maudlin gushing of the media, its meaningless. Remembering our own families roles in war and the consequences for them I agree with.
If anything those memories should strip away the faux collective military flavoured grief. That just leaves you with the reality of what those memories mean for the family and the disappointment of what nations haven’t learnt.
For us, those reflections are for our Grandfather who was lucky enough to have his leg blown off by friendly fire on the eve of the Battle of the Somme, who went on to live a good and full life, and for our Aunts husband who on returning from WW2 was sent to another part of the country for work, far away from his iwi, and not coping with the adjustment to civilian life and the racism he encountered, suicided.
A post war casualty.
Lest we forget…
Link to good podcast on Gallipoli as the Australian nation-builder by Peter Fitzsimons, Australian author, journalist, ex-Wallaby who wrote a recent book on Gallipoli and is currently writing on the Western Front. About 20 minutes. Very down to earth take on it – he notes that one of the reasons Aussies went to war was that they were the best-paid soldiers on 6 shillings a day (Brits on 1shilling). Hence they were very popular with the ladies in Cairo and had a massive reputation as drinkers and larrikins. Quel surprise!
Peter Fitzsimons
Record world temperatures again.
Groser, Bridges and Key’s solution.
Put their heads in the sand and drill for more oil.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2015-04-17/this-has-been-the-hottest-start-to-a-year-on-record
To fair, that is not their “solution” to climate change at all.
That’s their solution to growing our economy.
Good point – they don’t give flying about climate change and the effects on people, communities, and the environment and have no plan/solution – but they do care about growing ‘our’ economy – ffs I hope (not really tbh) they can drink or eat dollar notes
Brilliant cartoon by Sharon Murdoch in the Sunday StarTimes today
Can’t find a link to it.
It summarises in one picture how goddam awful our media ( Christie – Rawden and Julie), Weldon, Hosking, Henry, Williams, ….) are.
Brilliant.
She usually posts them on twitter https://twitter.com/domesticanimal
Not up yet, but there is one about CGT,
Thank you.
Have you seen today’s cartoon?
It is superb.
No newspapers here 😉
In my defence , it was a rare random purchase!
And other than the cartoon and an interesting article any Rod Oram, a waste of money and paper.
It’s on twitter now,
Hmm. Thinking she misses the mark there. By a wide margin. Take away the bubble and we’re back to reality TV of late 70s/early 80s that covered starvation and back to… ‘More Whitewashing’
lol – rodney defending henry by telling off blue – ‘You don’t know what feminism is, you’re not a male’
ffs has rodney hide EVER done anything that could slightly be respected – nah, didn’t think so
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11434877
The very definition of mansplaining from Hide.
hide is a necessary caricature of some folks in nz.
Rocket Lab unveils world’s first battery rocket engine
So that shows that we can keep up with the firms in the US and elsewhere as far as tech goes.
Unfortunately, I figure that soon after it achieves success it and it’s technology will be bought out and shifted to the US. And before anyone goes on about private owners being allowed to do that:
Commercial success via government funding with the ones who will benefit not being NZ.
Now think of what we could do with dedicated government funding that can’t be bought out and shifted offshore by foreigners.
but how would usa companies get their risk subsidised your way dtb? we owe it to them.
The Intercept: new movie describes how FBI sets up innocents as “terror suspects” using a network of 15,000 informants
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/04/15/fbi-informant-stung-fbi/
Interesting that quite a few people, including – from memory – some on these pages, have been resistant to the idea that so-called terrorists have been nothing more than poor suckers set up by self appointed defenders of our freedoms.
An aside – I noted yesterday that the Australians seem to be targeting kids now.
Four teenagers who had knives and, allegedly, some half baked scheme to stab cops at ANZAC memorial services. Now, even if true, stabbing cops is not terrorism. That the Australians are now apparently planning to be flooding memorial services with cops is risible all things considered.
Transition to a surveillance and security state, on the flimsiests of pretexts.
It’ll all be pushed by field agents chasing promotion, and managers wanting more power. They employ unscrupulous criminal types and off they go. I wouldn’t be surprised if 100% of the convictions were fabricated.
Our ngati poaka, especially the drug squads, have a long history of similar stuff and will happily transfer their skills to manufactured threats. With their infiltration into animal rights groups, they already have. They don’t protect us. They look for new ways to control us.
Dumb and Dumber
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11434895
I highly recommend this – inspiring
“16-year-old Amandla Stenberg played Rue in “Hunger Games,” but her career as an actor and activist is just getting started. The evidence is on her Tumblr, where she posted a video she and a classmate made for their history class. Titled, “Don’t Cash Crop My Cornrows,” the video shows Stenberg explaining the appropriation of black culture. ”
http://www.makers.com/blog/%E2%80%9Chunger-games%E2%80%9D-star-perfectly-explains-cultural-appropriation
thanks, that was very enlightening.
“Bill, you look AWFUL. What the hell happened?”
“Glenn Greenwald happened.”
Bill Maher Gets Owned by Glenn Greenwald Over Benghazi and Interventionism – May 10, 2013
See also….
How The US Government Legally Stole Millions From Kim Dotcom.
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150326/18041530458/how-us-government-legally-stole-millions-kim-dotcom.shtml
How is THIS not a major and potentially corrupt ‘conflict of interest’ in the U$A?
Where former corporate lobbyists lead the Office of the United States Trade Representative, responsible for negotiating the TPPA (Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement) and TTIP (Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership), from which the main beneficiaries will arguably be those same corporations?
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/04/16/tpp-revolving-door/
The Office of the United States Trade Representative, the agency responsible for negotiating two massive upcoming trade deals, is being led by former lobbyists for corporations that stand to benefit from the deals, according to disclosure forms obtained by The Intercept.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a proposed free trade accord between the U.S. and 11 Pacific Rim countries; the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) is a similar agreement between the U.S. and the E.U.
The Obama administration is pushing hard to complete both deals, which it says will increase U.S. trade opportunities. Critics say the deals will provide corporate interests with sweeping powers to challenge banking and environmental regulations.
Here is information on three major figures in the Trade Representative’s office, gleaned from their disclosure forms:
— Sharon Bomer Lauritsen, the assistant U.S. trade representative for agricultural affairs, recently lobbied for the Biotechnology Industry Organization, a trade group for biotech companies. Lauritsen’s financial disclosure form shows she made $320,193 working to influence “state, federal and international governments” on biotech patent and intellectual property issues. She worked for BIO as an executive vice president through April of 2011, before joining the Trade Representative office.
— Christopher Wilson, the deputy chief of mission to the World Trade Organization, recently worked for C&M International, a trade consulting group, where he represented Chevron, the Biotechnology Industry Organization, British American Tobacco, General Electric, Apple and other corporate interests. Wilson’s financial disclosure shows he made $250,000 a year, in addition to an $80,000 bonus in 2013, before he joined the Obama administration. Wilson left C&M International in February of 2014 and later joined the Trade Representative’s office. C&M Internationalreportedly lobbied Malaysia, urging it to oppose tobacco regulations in Australia.
— Robert Holleyman, the deputy United States trade representative, previously worked as the president of the Business Software Alliance, a lobbying group that represents IBM, Microsoft, Adobe, Apple and other technology companies seeking to strengthen copyright law. Holleyman earned $1,141,228 at BSA before his appointment. Holleyman was nominated for his current position in February of last year.
These disclosures about the revolving door at the trade agency come after U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman received scrutiny over a special bonus paid to him in 2009 after he left Citigroup to join the Obama administration as deputy assistant to the president. Froman received more than $7.4 million from Citi in the year prior to joining the administration.
Critics note that under the TPP, corporations will be empowered to file lawsuits against governments to block laws that could impair future profits. The lawsuits would fall under special tribunals set up by the World Bank.
Many of the former clients of the trade officials now negotiating these agreements stand to gain immensely.
…….
_______________________________________________
Penny Bright
http://www.pennybright4mayor.org.nz
Copying and pasting an entire article is poor form, as is not acknowledging that the words are not yours.
but good form to have your name 3 times – I can’t understand that – your name is on top of the comment you don’t need to sign off with your name again, and Penny if you put your website in when you put the comment in you will get a blue name where people can connect directly to your website.
Q. How much do you contribute in the ‘activist space’ Sacha ?
Both your comments and martys are asinine
Whatever.
wasn’t michael froman one of the main players in the global financial meltdown who unbelievably ended up with obama. saw it on a full length documentary / film about six months ago but can’t remember the name of it. ( it was about the money men and the global bank collapse.)
And thanks Penny,very informative.
‘inside job’ ?
That’s the one. Cheers idlegus.
sorry to post from Daily Mail, but it seems they provide the answer on who/what Key really is … the clear likeness is wonderful, even to the hair line !! a ray of light in a dark day anyway … lol .. and just like Key, it can “can react to facial expressions, engage in conversation and even make eye contact”.
And, and … it’s even known as Ham 😀
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3044955/Aye-robot-Amazingly-lifelike-humanoid-incredible-range-facial-expressions.html
My goodness – the profile shot is just like him …. down to the pinochino nose !
I know !! hope everyone has a look … made me laugh !!
The nurses who served in the First World War were not allowed to march or participate in ANZAC days when they returned – took several decades for the women’s contribution to be acknowledged. Even in the 1970s the women victims of war were not allowed to be mentioned on Anzac days. So there is a lot of sexism in the war commemorations. Only one woman in the Te Papa exhibition.
thanks Sirenia.
Looking forward to attending a Union gathering in Auckland on the 28th April where we
be honouring the dead and fighting for the living. Its World Workers Memorial day, tragically far too many workers leave for work and never come home. Hoping to catch up with some of you Auckland unionists from here.
Looks like a one sided survey. I don’t believe toll roads is the answer a regional fuel tax would be far cheaper and would cover public transport funding too.
http://www.3news.co.nz/nznews/aucklanders-want-road-tolls-to-fund-transport-network-2015041715#ixzz3Xb25pDsm
Yeah there wasnt a ‘none of the above’ option either. I think people who voted for the toll option failed to take into account the volume of traffic that will leave/avoid the motorways and move through residential streets where ever possible.
Why should the public subsidise what we no longer own or operate?
How much Auckland citizen and ratepayer public monies could be saved by ‘cutting out’ the privately-owned passenger transport services and returning them ‘in-house’, under the ‘public service’ model?
Same applies to the trains.
Penny Bright
http://www.pennybright4mayor.org.nz
Are NZ Prime Minister (ex-Wall Street banker) John Key, and his pro-corporate mate U$A President Barak Obama ‘cruising for a bruising’ with TPPA
‘FAST TRACK’?
Too much FIGHTBACK against FAST TRACK?
“Obama’s Fast Track Bill a last-ditch move to rescue TPPA”, says Professor Jane Kelsey …..
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1504/S00149/obamas-fast-track-bill-a-last-ditch-move-to-rescue-tppa.htm
Friday, 17 April 2015, 11:41 am
Press Release: Professor Jane Kelsey
Obama’s Fast Track Bill a last-ditch move to rescue TPPA
‘With less than two months until the window is likely to close for President Obama to get a deal in the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) under his watch, the administration has put a bill before Congress to grant him “fast track” authority’, according to Professor Jane Kelsey who monitors the negotiations.
The controversial process of Fast Track, euphemistically called Trade Promotion Authority, would require Congress to vote yes or not to a final text and it time limits the debate to prevent filibustering.
According to Professor Kelsey a number of governments at the TPPA table have recently said they won’t reach a final deal unless Obama has Fast Track, including New Zealand.
‘Doing something this week was really do or die for the President, even though he doesn’t have the votes to get the bill through, especially in the House of Representatives’, Kelsey said.
The 110-page Bill is a generalised wish list of what the US wants from the TPPA, while protecting its domestic interests. Although the content has been heavily negotiated before being introduced, the negotiating objectives can be ignored.
…… ”
__________________________________________________________________________________
Penny Bright
http://www.pennybright4mayor.org.nz
7 Ways E-Bikes May Surprise You
I just use a standard bicycle on my commute but slowly passing the parked cars in rush hour traffic is highly amusing and I find that I enjoy riding far more than I ever enjoyed driving.
And, of course, this. Can’t just have bicycle lanes – we need good public transport as well.
Big game hunter crushed to death by elephant he was hunting today:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/professional-big-game-hunter-ian-gibson-crushed-to-death-by-elephant-during-hunt-10186864.html
Would you like a cockroach with that?
Woman chomps on cockroach in Big Mac.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/marlborough-express/news/67862922/woman-chomps-on-cockroach-in-big-mac
Oops. TV1 Poll.
49 % National
31 % Labour
42 % Key
11 % Little
10 % Peters
Have you noticed ianmac there has been virtually no political news since the byelection? The MSM has gone dead quiet. To my knowledge Andrew Little has only been ‘allowed’ one spot on the 6pm TV news since that time. Nobody from the Greens have had a look in.. to anything.
Out of sight and out of mind? I think so.
So NZ is still sound asleep.
Unbelievable.
They are now in a politically comatose state – as planned.
I wonder what will happen when the housing bubble bursts?
Or when the collapse of the milk prices affects them?
You really do wonder how disconnected from reality people are.
“Go back to bed, America. Your government has figured out how it all transpired. Go back to bed, America. Your government is in control again.
Here. Here’s American Gladiators. Watch this, shut up. Go back to bed, America. Here is American Gladiators. Here is 56 channels of it! Watch these pituitary retards bang their skulls together and congratulate you on living in the land of freedom. Here you go, America! You are free to do what we tell you! You are free to do what we tell you!”
Oh Dear What can the matter be
Nae drop in in the poll of the T V
Little’s tae chicken to sit on the highest tree
He kens he’s gonna get beat
Andrew little is no match for John key .john key just uses his awesomeness knock blows to all opponents and john key has more money knows the game
Stephanie’s reference to Poe’s Law ?
Don’t forget that National is the main RW Tory party with no other real RW party for support under MMP, where as the opposition to National has three main parties : Labour, Greens and NZF.
National= 49%
Labour 31+Greens 9+NZF 7= 47%
Not too far off.
And, the general election was only a few months ago. There are still about
2.5 years to go. That is a long time in politics.
However, in the mean time, do enjoy that poll for now.
One of the most touching, enlightening, thought provoking and lovely articles I have read:
A Colorado teacher who posted notes from her third grade class online and started a social media whirlwind under the hashtag #IWishMyTeacherKnew said the assignment had been a revelation for her.
Kyle Schwartz, 26, asked the 8- and 9-year-olds at her Denver inner city school to write down something they wished she knew about them, partly as a writing exercise, and partly as a way for her to learn about her pupils.
Read about some of the moving responses:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/americas/67864071/i-wish-my-teacher-knew-third-grade-assignment-gets-heartbreaking-response
This is the Brighter Future National is delivering to us:
David Cameron slammed for ‘brushing off’ death of starving soldier killed by benefit cuts
Pretty much amounts to state sanctioned murder.
the difference between the propaganda and the reality
These Tory governments find a shitload of hapless Adolf Eichmanns to work for them. They have the mentality of clerks, where only ticked boxes on a list are real. Life and death don’t enter into it. How have so many either lost, or never had, any basic humanity?