Conference Invitation
People who are in, or can get to Wellington on the weekend of 9 & 10 October – 3 weeks away would enjoy Information, ethics and the public good.
Conference info at http://bit.ly/whocanwetrust
The mini-conference will be held at St Andrews on the Terrace church and conference centre. It follows on from one held last year titled democracy, ethics and the public good when Sandra Grey, Bronwyn Hayward and Jane Kelsey were amongst the speakers. 2014 Conference report
This years conference has come directly out of the recommendations of last years which were that the lack of reliable information and problems with information flows to and from the media were amongst the most important challenges to NZ’s democracy. Like last year the focus is as much on participation as listening.
If you’d like to support this but can’t come you can donate to help us cover the costs of videoing, facilitation and some of the speakers travel costs.
The conference is part of the programme of lectures and seminars put on by the St Andrews Trust for the Study of Religion and Society and also Public Good whose kaupapa is to defend strong public services and a good quality democracy.
Jan Rivers
Thanks for the heads up on that conference. I hope you will get good numbers and help with donations. It is good that there are meetings for thought and discussion in other places than Auckland. I hope people will be able to go. You can get cheap hotels in the weekends in Wellington when the political tide is out. Myself I have another project on just now but will try to get to Wellington from Nelson. There are lots of airlines available for from here to there now.
It would be lovely to meet you. I’m sure we can find places to stay in Welly for anyone coming from out of town, We’ll be videoing parts of the conference as per last year. To get a sense of what happened last year here’s a href=”http://www.publicgood.org.nz/wp/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Democracy-conference-summary.pdf” title=”summary report “ with links to video presentations by Jane Kelsey, Bronwyn Hayward, Lloyd Geering and Michael Macaulay and Sandra Grey and Charles Sedgwick’s report on their research on NGOs amongst others.
Anyone’s who’s needs somewhere to stay can text or email the address on the public good website – http://www.publicgood.org.nz
There’s a couple of feel good stories on rural delivery this am (will be on tv1 delay at 8) one’s a young orchard grower that employs local and pays a living wage the other one is for Draco T B about growing pine nuts on hard country.
Noms Pine nuts! A crop we should be growing instead of importing the korean ones. Theres many years wait before the tree is mature enough to harvest, but those little beauties are worth the wait. Once you’ve had a NZ grown pine nut you’ll never go back.
Buy NZ grown walnuts too. Support our local growers (lots of walnuts come from Canterbury) and wow yourself with their superior taste and freshness
Is the show about pine nuts on tvnz on demand?
Sometimes country calendar has good news shows about sustainable agricultural and cropping practices. Nice antidote to the horror stories about pollution, unsustainable irrigation and farmed animal cruelty.
Thank you Robert. I missed that show. I’ve watched a few minutes and put it in a file to watch the rest later.
I love what you both have done with your land. The food forest and native forest look’s like it’s bursting with life as a result of the methods you’ve used for cultivation. What an achievement!
Lowers my blood pressure just to see all that green and hear the bird song. I live on a wasteland of a development and really do feel the loss of connection to nature. You actually feel it almost as a physical loss, because the psychological loss is so great.
Look forward to watching the rest of the show when chores are out of the way.
Great to see your picture on promo on TV on Demand. Sounds great what you have done but don’t want to get on TV1 list of addresses. So can’t get access to this public service. I don’t need their sort of service, just would like to catch up on occasional archives.
– More corporate welfare – if the big 4 media companies were so sure he was guilty (Unlike Sony who kept out of it) why is the NZ taxpayer paying this legal tab. Shouldn’t the overseas media companies be paying the bill as this is a civil claim! Of course to make the corporate welfare work they had upgrade the charges. Hmmm – this is a good way to waste NZ taxpayers money on red herrings for the movie industry. They have the money to fight, but why should they, when John Key will get the NZ public to pick up the tab to get back at him.
Did he even get compensation when the GCSB illegally spied on him?
ISDS; privatized justice system, conflicts with human rights, rubbished in
UN report published 17 Sept 2015
UN expert: UN Charter and Human rights treaties prevail over free trade and investment agreements
GENEVA (17 September 2015) – United Nations Independent Expert Alfred de Zayas today urged the UN system and Governments across the world to radically reform the international investment regime by putting an end to free trade and investment agreements that conflict with human rights treaty obligations. In his full-length report* to the Human Rights Council, he also called on States “to conduct human rights, health and environmental impact assessments before and after entering into bilateral and multilateral investment agreements.”
“In his report the expert deplores the paradox resulting from assuming conflicting treaty obligations. “States that ratify human rights treaties also enter into agreements that prevent them from fulfilling their human rights obligations. Revision of the investment treaties must ensure that in case of conflict, human rights prevail,” he noted.
“In the light of widespread abuse over the past decades, the Investor-State Dispute Settlement mechanism, which accompanies most free trade and investment agreements must be abolished as contra bonos mores, because it encroaches on the regulatory space of States and suffers from fundamental flaws including lack of independence, transparency, accountability and predictability,” he stressed.
In his report, the expert observes that: “This dispute settlement mechanism has mutated into a privatized system of ‘justice’, incompatible with article 14(1) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, whereby three arbitrators are allowed to override national legislation and the judgments of the highest national tribunals, in secret and with no possibility to appeal. This constitutes a grave challenge to the very essence of the rule of law”.
Mr. de Zayas also recommends that the International Court of Justice issue an advisory opinion clarifying that in case of conflict between human rights treaty obligations and investment treaties, priority must be given to human rights. “Moreover those provisions of international investment agreements that violate fundamental principles of the UN Charter including State sovereignty and self-determination must be declared invalid under article 103 of the Charter, and eliminated pursuant to the doctrine of severability” he says.
This.
It is this that pretty much rules invalid all of the present FTAs.
TPPA developments – we need to keep the pressure on PM John Key and Trade Minister Tim Groser!
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Last ditch TPPA Ministerial in 10 days
Press Release – Professor Jane Kelsey (17 September 2015)
Last ditch TPPA Ministerial in 10 days – is Groser preparing to swallow the rat? Canadian officials have confirmed rumours that the trade ministers from the twelve countries negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) plan to meet …Last ditch TPPA Ministerial in 10 days – is Groser preparing to swallow the rat?
Canadian officials have confirmed rumours that the trade ministers from the twelve countries negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) plan to meet in Atlanta, US at the end of the month in a last ditch attempt to conclude the deal. The chief negotiators are set to meet on 26 September to try to clear the ground for the politicians.
The ministers’ meeting coincides with the UN Sustainable Development Summit when their political leaders will be together in New York, giving US President Obama the perfect opportunity to pressure John Key and the others to accept US demands, according to Auckland University law professor Jane Kelsey.
Of the three big outstanding issues – market access on automobiles and dairy and longer monopoly protections biologic medicines – autos is the only one where there have been public moves to settle the differences.
Mexico and Canada object to a deal on autos reached by the US and Japan. The four said progress was made at a meeting this week and will meet again early next week in the US.
‘Whether the Atlanta ministerial would proceed without agreement on autos remains to be seen’ Professor Kelsey said. ‘Another failed ministerial would doom the negotiations. But they are between a rock and a hard place, as the controversial deal is now hostage to the US presidential election cycle and this is really their last chance to conclude it under Obama’.
The market access issues are especially sensitive for Canada, which has an election in a month from now, but the details of the deal would not be released until after that date.
‘In contrast to autos, there has been no noise about dairy at all,’ Kelsey said. ‘This lends support to the view expressed to me by informed people in other countries that autos is the bigissue and once that is settled dairy is not expected to delay a final agreement.’
‘Put another way, Groser is expected to swallow the rat, rather than hold up the deal, and wear the flack at home by saying New Zealand couldn’t afford not to be part of the TPPA. The details of the final deal won’t be available for another 30 days so he can talk up the benefits without any facts to get in the way.’ *
Professor Kelsey called on Minister Groser to ‘abandon his carefully ambiguous language and set out some real bottom lines on pharmaceuticals, investment, state-owned enterprises, and dairy so New Zealanders know where he stands before the secret deal-making resumes in Atlanta.’
* New Zealand officials have confirmed inevidence to the Waitangi Tribunal that no substantive changes can be made after the negotiations are concluded. The US Fast Track law then drives the timetable. The President must give 90 days notice before signing the TPPA and the text must be made available 30 days after that – but too late to change anything in the text.
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Energy and Resources Minister, Simon Bridges, refused to answer questions over the bulbs, instead sending a statement via his private secretary Stephanie Edridge.
It read: “The Government believes that consumer choice should be preserved, and so does not support the phasing out of whole categories of lighting. Instead, our focus has been on encouraging consumers to make informed choices about their lighting needs.”
It stated that market share of “efficient lighting for the year ending July 2015 has reached around 27 per cent of total sales in supermarkets, where most consumers buy their lightbulbs,” but did not define efficient lighting.
The statement said the numbers showed Government did not need to get involved.
It happens that if you are very short of cash, had $5, and need to buy a light bulb, some bread and stuff for sandwich lunches, you will buy a bulb for $1, some white bread for $1, and have $3 for a couple of bananas and some other fillings. Buy a long-last bulb and you are lucky to have any of that $5 left. They are too dear for poor people, and will lead to a rise in candle use.
They are too dear for poor people, and will lead to a rise in candle use.
Interestingly enough the solution to that is to get the cheap, inefficient light bulbs out of the market pushing demand for the efficient ones and thus shifting the resources used for the bad light bulbs to efficient light bulbs.
BTW, if I had $5 and had to buy a light bulb and food I’d go hungry for a meal or two to get the efficient light bulb because I’d save more money and thus be able to get more food.
Of course, in reality I plan it so that I don’t get into that position.
I think the point is that not everyone has the same choices you do.
btw, have the pollution issues been solved with CFLs? If not, it’s just swapping one set of problems for another. What we should have done is worked towards transitioning to LEDs and then we wouldn’t have wasted all that industry on tech that too many people didn’t want to take up and that was always going to cause environmental problems. I agree with you that the govt should have regulated this process.
edit, myself, I’d rather we had a choice, and I’d choose incandescents where appropriate and save power in other ways. But really the whole notion that we would increase efficiency via light bulb change when we ignore conservation and sustainability in almost every other area kind of makes a mockery of the conversation.
btw, have the pollution issues been solved with CFLs?
Nope because we still don’t have proper recycling processes. That said, it was never really that much of a problem. A concern that should have been addressed, yes, and now that LEDs are available it probably means that we should be banning CFLs but watch as National and other idiots scream blue murder over that one.
Shifting over LEDs would also give us the excellent excuse to shift house lighting over to 12v DC as well thus improving safety there.
edit, myself, I’d rather we had a choice, and I’d choose incandescents where appropriate and save power in other ways.
I’m happy for people to have that choice – as long as we get to charge for the extra power that they use. I suggest a selling price of $20 each with $19 of that going to lower power prices for everyone else.
Or perhaps we could have it so that the price per kilowatt went up with the more you used on the basis of supply and demand. You demand more (use inefficient light bulbs) you get charged more.
Or, the better option, is to just ban inefficient light bulbs (it is possible to get efficient light bulbs that look like incandescent bulbs and even have similar colour).
And then read this article to find out why you’d never, ever buy an incandescent light bulb ever again if you were smart:
Of course, that same math could indeed kill the incandescent light bulb one day. While a compact fluorescent might cost you $2 each, or $13 for a 60-watt equivalent LED, they use closer to $1 a year in electricity, and since they last much longer that yearly savings can stack. The expected life of a halogen bulb is just one or two years, but compact fluorescents can sometimes make it to ten. According to manufacturer estimates, an LED bulb can last 15-20 years before it even starts to dim by a perceptible measure. That’s why savings-conscious consumers already stocked up on fluorescents years ago, and why they might pick LEDs now.
Going hungry for a day is worth it to buy an efficient light bulb so that you’ll eat better for years to come.
Interesting DTB about DC lighting. Going hungry to afford a better light bulb is making a sacrifice for the future public good. Austerity touch.
But when each day there is something one has to sacrifice food as a gesture of public good, rational choice for the future you can end up with a starving child and a parent with insufficient energy to even think and cope with today. That’s the reality.
Going without now to make a better future is only possible if you are in the precariat and managing your way through the present with time to think and hope for a future that’s better.
There is a lot we don’t know about the new lighting, its effects on the human brain through changing light levels and spectrum, then there is the extra bulb cost, noticeable for multiple lights. There is a lack of information and effective regulation with new lighting being placed into old fittings some of which can be a fire hazard,
And not overlooking that there may be extra energy and resource required to make these bulbs. Is there a sufficiency of the raw materials for them? Will the gas in them add to greenhouse gases, or mix with other gases resulting in another problem. Perhaps we should start burning rushes again, be collecting fat from meat eating households and making old fashioned tallow candles?
Then there are the manufacturers statements about their efficacy. How many people know how long their bulbs last? I have marked the base of my incandescent ones and get about 6 months. How many people do that with their new bulbs, said to last four years, actually much less – who would remember, who would note the placement date?
And the lightness comparison doesn’t seem correct. Supposed to be 75 watt equivalent, it seems more like 60watt. I fear that we will never get a true statement of equivalence on the packets and we will end up disagreeing with scientific findings presented to us and have to go by our own findings. This could be like television advertisers saying that ads are not louder, they just sound that way because of compression (whatever that is. And don’t anyone bother to tell me –
I will just accept that and put my time into thinking about the news and information about the world falling to pieces round our ears.)
Going hungry to afford a better light bulb is making a sacrifice for the future public good.
Actually, it was for your own personal good. And I did point out that people should plan these things so that they’re not in that position. It is possible to do that.
And not overlooking that there may be extra energy and resource required to make these bulbs.
There isn’t. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if they ended up using less.
Is there a sufficiency of the raw materials for them?
Yes – once we get recycling going properly.
Will the gas in them add to greenhouse gases, or mix with other gases resulting in another problem.
How many people do that with their new bulbs, said to last four years, actually much less – who would remember, who would note the placement date?
Occasionally you’ll get a bad one. I’ve personally had one last for more than ten years. The one in my bedroom is more than two years old.
And the lightness comparison doesn’t seem correct.
It’s correct. The problem seems to come from the fact that a lot of modern ones have a lot of blue light in them which looks darker to many people. If this is true for you then look for ones that have more yellow light in them (usually advertised as warm).
There is a lot we don’t know about the new lighting, its effects on the human brain through changing light levels and spectrum
It’s like stocking up on cheap specials on groceries, or buying good quality (as opposed to just plain expensive) clothes, or paying the power bill early to get the discount, or getting the vehicle serviced regularly to avoid breakdowns – richer people can afford to do that, so end up spending less than poor people.
Remember the stated reasons for the establishment of the United Nations?
If the underpinning ‘Purposes and Principles’ were actually PRACTISED – would there be such an international refugee crisis happening now?
As New Zealand is currently a member of the UN Security Council – what steps are being taken to advocate, promote, implement and enforce the following underpinning ‘Purposes and Principles’ of the UN Charter?
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CHAPTER I: PURPOSES AND PRINCIPLES
Article 1
The Purposes of the United Nations are:
To maintain international peace and security, and to that end: to take effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to the peace, and for the suppression of acts of aggression or other breaches of the peace, and to bring about by peaceful means, and in conformity with the principles of justice and international law, adjustment or settlement of international disputes or situations which might lead to a breach of the peace;
To develop friendly relations among nations based on respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples, and to take other appropriate measures to strengthen universal peace;
To achieve international co-operation in solving international problems of an economic, social, cultural, or humanitarian character, and in promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion; and
To be a centre for harmonizing the actions of nations in the attainment of these common ends.
Article 2
The Organization and its Members, in pursuit of the Purposes stated in Article 1, shall act in accordance with the following Principles.
The Organization is based on the principle of the sovereign equality of all its Members.
All Members, in order to ensure to all of them the rights and benefits resulting from membership, shall fulfill in good faith the obligations assumed by them in accordance with the present Charter.
All Members shall settle their international disputes by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and security, and justice, are not endangered.
All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations.
All Members shall give the United Nations every assistance in any action it takes in accordance with the present Charter, and shall refrain from giving assistance to any state against which the United Nations is taking preventive or enforcement action.
The Organization shall ensure that states which are not Members of the United Nations act in accordance with these Principles so far as may be necessary for the maintenance of international peace and security.
Nothing contained in the present Charter shall authorize the United Nations to intervene in matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any state or shall require the Members to submit such matters to settlement under the present Charter; but this principle shall not prejudice the application of enforcement measures under Chapter Vll.
“Ending Syria’s horrific civil war is possible, but the political will to do so remains elusive. Over the years the facts on the ground have changed in Syria – with the rise of the Islamic State being the deadliest new reality. But Washington and its regional allies remain focused on an illegal regime change in Damascus. The west is fighting the wrong war and will surely lose the peace.
CrossTalking with Kapil Komireddi, Scott Bennett, and Richard Murphy.”
Sigh. I take it some developer or other has their eye on Jollie St in Christchurch. McGehan Close, Madeline Ave, now the whole of Glen Innes – the list goes on. The subtext is always the same – this place will be lovely once we remove the scary poor people. They could basically have a standard form newspaper article ready for download and just change the street name as each one becomes ripe for middle class/developer colonisation:
They could basically have a standard form newspaper article ready for download and just change the street name as each one becomes ripe for middle class/developer colonisation:
Sounds Rachmanish. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Rachman
” In the annals of the London underworld, few names cast as long a shadow as that of slum landlord Peter Rachman, a racketeer and pimp who ran a squalid empire of overcrowded properties in the run-down Notting Hill area in the post-war period.
His speciality was “sending in the schwarzes” which is a disparaging Yiddish term for Blacks. Rachman would put West Indians and their prostitutes into his London properties to drive out rent-controlled White neighbours with their outrageous and disgusting behaviour. To ensure stubborn tenants got the message, a crew of thugs with Alsatians doled out threats, intimidation and worse.”
The link is not a balanced one so no address.
Peter Rachman sounds like a regular old racketeer, without the veneer of respectability given to our lot. And where he was into rack-renting, our lot seem to be more into ethnic or class cleansing. But the get-the-money-and to-hell-with-the-people principle seems to rule in both cases.
The rise of ad blockers isn’t just a clash of sensibilities, though. The major leaders in tech are all trying to leverage their advantages at the expense of their competitors. “So it’s Apple vs. Google vs. Facebook, all with their own revenue platforms,” Nilay Patel wrote, in his article for The Verge. “Google has the web, Facebook has its app, and Apple has the iPhone.” It’s also no mistake, as Newitz pointed out, that Apple starting allowing ad blockers on the same operating system that features a news app that can’t be deleted from people’s homescreens.
Bold mine.
Can’t say I’m surprised by Apple’s tactics there. It’s pretty much the end of ‘competition’ where each ‘player’ is out to destroy the others rather than working together to develop better products.
I use ad blockers. I’m paying for my bandwidth and not the advertisers. I’m also against ads anyway as I view them as psychopathic manipulation of the people and thus think that they should be banned. There has got to be a better business model than manipulation.
hi draco
“I’m also against ads anyway as I view them as psychopathic manipulation of the people and thus think that they should be banned. There has got to be a better business model than manipulation.”
amen brother.
minutemen “fuck advertising,
psychological methods to sell,
should be destroyed.
let the products sell themselves.”
and don mcglashan re ads,
“with their enticements and their threats.”
i feel the same as you have described, and that is partly why i have kicked the habbit of ugly fm,newspapers and most tv.
It has always been there. However it has become mandatory on iOS9 which got released some time last week. It was a bloody nuisance as I was direct updating an inhouse app (that I’d fixed bugs in) on a pile of iPod touch. That useless behemoth iTunes kept prompting me for each of them about an upgrade to the iOS.
Takes about 4 minutes to boot a iPod, update the app, check that it works, and shut it down. Takes about 15 minutes to update the iOS.
One of the problems with the Apple ad blocker is that it also blocks trackers like google analytics, sitemeter, and wordpress stats.
We depend on those for figuring out loads. I can tolerate robots that do that because I have many mechanisms to limit their access and cut them off. At present the only limits on humans are the numbers of pages per minute and no cutoff, just a throttle. The reason that works is because trackers allow the databases for not-humans to be updated automatically. They don’t execute the JavaScript. If we lose the trackers, then we lose that ability.
To keep loadings under control, I will probably set up a JavaScript feedback system that looks like a tracker and eliminate anything that doesn’t use it apart from google, natlib, and wayback.
Bye bye new safari users and a whole lot of bots. It lowers my costs and eliminate a browser that just became threatening to the net – safari heads off to extinction.
I couldn’t give a damn if apple eliminates ads. But when they start eliminating something useful for our site, then they can get stuffed.
There was a Radionz report on what it is like on a small poor Greek island getting an influx of refugees whose bags and their resources have been thrown over the side by their ferry masters – to fit the maximum people in without sinking.
I have just put $20 into helping through Give-A-Little. I have some big bills to pay but thought I’d keep feeding money in to various money ports set up by communities to go direct to their needs, toilet paper, feeding bottles, food, footwear, probably spades to dig graves, drinking water bottles, sanitary pads? You name it the refugees will need it – except clothes they have plenty. It is better to give money at this time from here. And Greece is still trying to run a country and may have to charge duty on gift parcels which no-one will be able to pay. http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player/201770839
09:05 New Zealander on front line of refugee crisis in Greece
As Europe fails to reach an agreement over how to share the burden of the massive flow of asylum seekers out of Syria and Iraq, we meet Christchurch woman Anne Tee, who has lived on the tiny Greek island of Leros for 25 years. Leros has been inundated by refugees, mostly from Syria, and Anne is co-ordinating volunteer aid to them.Just yesterday a boat from Turkey sank off the nearby island of Farmakonisi – the BBC are reporting that 34 people drowned, amongst them four babies and 11 children.
Give a little: Help a Kiwi care for Syrian refugees in Leros, Greece
But it’s one thing to speculate; it’s something entirely different to have hard proof.
And while speculation was rife that just like the CIA-funded al Qaeda had been used as a facade by the US to achieve its own geopolitical and national interests over the past two decades, so ISIS was nothing more than al Qaeda 2.0, there was no actual evidence of just this.
That may all have changed now when a declassified secret US government document obtained by the public interest law firm, Judicial Watch, shows that Western governments deliberately allied with al-Qaeda and other Islamist extremist groups to topple Syrian dictator Bashir al-Assad.
According to investigative reporter Nafeez Ahmed in Medium, the “leaked document reveals that in coordination with the Gulf states and Turkey, the West intentionally sponsored violent Islamist groups to destabilize Assad, despite anticipating that doing so could lead to the emergence of an ‘Islamic State’ in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
… there is the possibility of establishing a declared or undeclared Salafist Principality in eastern Syria (Hasaka and Der Zor), and this is exactly what the supporting powers to the opposition want, in order to isolate the Syrian regime ….
In other words, the powers supporting the Syrian opposition – the West, our Gulf allies, and Turkey wanted an Islamic caliphate in order to challenge Syrian president Assad.
Apparently our troops are over there to help stop the allies that the US built up to topple Assad.
Like the tobacco companies and their research, the oil industry knew decades ago about the potential for disaster.
At a meeting in Exxon Corporation’s headquarters, a senior company scientist named James F. Black addressed an audience of powerful oilmen. Speaking without a text as he flipped through detailed slides, Black delivered a sobering message: carbon dioxide from the world’s use of fossil fuels would warm the planet and could eventually endanger humanity.
“In the first place, there is general scientific agreement that the most likely manner in which mankind is influencing the global climate is through carbon dioxide release from the burning of fossil fuels,” Black told Exxon’s Management Committee, according to a written version he recorded later.
It was July 1977 when Exxon’s leaders received this blunt assessment, well before most of the world had heard of the looming climate crisis.
A survey of 2,000 people found that Mr Corbyn’s election as Labour leader has made one in five people who voted for his party at the May general election more likely to vote Conservative next time. Some 37 per cent of Labour voters say they are less likely to back the party at the next election.
A long but interesting review of a book by Kevin M. Kruse
‘One Nation Under God: How Corporate America Invented Christian America’
The secret history of the 1950s Christian right and its zeal for capitalism. http://www.democracyjournal.org/38/laissez-prayer.php?page=all
Apologies in advance folks for being a prick but just talking on phone with a right-wing-ish mate in Aux (not by philosophy or considered application…….by default really) – prosaic Aux media type if you know what I mean.
Me: “Donald Trump reminds me of one of those blow-up plastic fuck dolls……mouth all circular and ready for use.”
My mate (belly laughing): “You’re right you’re right !”
Anyone else ?
I’m afraid that even if I was a coiffed, silver-haired, Viagra spruiked, Mid-West, GOP arsehole…….like the fruit loop who told Old Fuck Mouth that Obama’s a Muslim, that vision would haunt me……
So the EU don’t like the current ISDS setup and have proposed changes.
Will the TPPA be rushed through with the existing ISDS system (with its faults pointed out in the link in my comment #5) or will they take the time to look at alternatives, like those proposed below.
European Commission publishes draft investment chapter for the TTIP, including investment protection provisions and the establishment of an International Investment Court
“The proposed new Investment Court system
The Commission proposes the establishment of a new court system to resolve disputes under the TTIP, to be comprised of a Tribunal of First Instance (to be called the “Investment Tribunal”) and an Appeal Tribunal.
The Investment Tribunal would consist of 15 judges appointed jointly by the EU and US governments, with 5 EU nationals, 5 US nationals and 5 nationals of other countries. This standing body of judges would be appointed for a six-year term, renewable once. Tribunals would be appointed at random from the 15 members with no party influence over who would hear any case, although always comprised of one EU, one US and one third party tribunal member (with the third party member as chair). However, the disputing parties could agree on a sole arbitrator (to be appointed out of the 5 nationals of third countries). Once appointed, the tribunal would resolve the dispute under the rules chosen by the investor in the case in question from the ICSID rules, UNCITRAL rules or “any other rules agreed by the disputing parties”.
The permanent Appeal Tribunal would be comprised of six members, each appointed for a six year term, with two EU and two US nationals, and a further two nationals of third countries. The Appeal Tribunal would have a President and Vice-President selected only from the nationals of third countries. The composition of each Appeal Tribunal would be “random and unpredictable” (albeit that each tribunal would need an EU, US and third country national). The Appeal Tribunal would be there to ensure that there (to quote the Commission) “could be no doubt as to the legal correctness of the decisions of [first instance] tribunals“. There would be strict time limits for the parties to appeal an award (90 days from issuance) and for the appeal proceedings themselves (usually not to exceed 180 days from notification of appeal to decision, but subject to a longstop of 270 days).
All judges of the Investment and Appeal Tribunals would be required to have high technical and legal qualifications, including having demonstrated expertise in public international law. They would also be subject to strict ethical rules under Article 11 and a Code of Conduct under Annex II. In particular, Article 5 of Annex II requires that they “shall not be influenced by self-interest, outside pressure, political considerations, public clamour, loyalty to a Party or disputing party, or fear of criticism“. They would be prohibited from taking on work as counsel on any investment disputes under the TTIP or any other agreement.”
This is the way an agreement should be attained- by openly discussing the terms and rules of the agreement in the way that the European Commission has published this draft investment chapter for discussion.
The secrecy of the TPPA has been a total abuse of process. Sure, there are some aspects that needed to be treated in a confidential manner, but the blanket secrecy and shutting out of any public input (as if the public are not stakeholders when their sovereignty is being threatened) is downright shameful.
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There are some wellness, crystal-gazing, holistic spiritual guidance types in my disaster-hit coastal community who insist that the power of positive thinking will overcome the physical and material damages incurred by the community. They object to restrictions on road travel … Continue reading → ...
Evaluating the recent crashes of Silicon Valley Bank in the US and Credit Suisse in Switzerland plus two other banks (perhaps more by the time you read this) needs to begin with a review of the inevitable instability in the financial sector. The financial sector is inherently unstable, like military ...
1. We see here new police minister Ginny Andersen. Which larger than life NZ political figure was her great-uncle?a. Rob Muldoonb. Bill Andersenc. Richard John Seddond. Norman Kirk2. We see here archival footage of Ginny Andersen coming out of her electorate office to ask ex-tobacco lobbyist Chris Bishop if he ...
Buzz from the Beehive Stuart Nash, speaking as Minister of Oceans and Fisheries, one of his remaining portfolios after he was dropped down the Hipkins Government batting order, has drawn attention to the blue economy and its potential. Nash says the government is investing in the blue economy, or – ...
Photo by Josh Mills on UnsplashIt’s that time of the week for an ‘Ask Me Anything’ session for paying subscribers about the week that was for the next hour, including:The runs on Silicon Valley Bank and First Republic Bank on the west coast of the United States that forced the ...
Roundup is back! We skipped last week’s Friday post due to a shortage of person-power – did you notice? Lots going on out there… Our header image this week shows a green street that just happens to be Queen St, by @chamfy from Twitter. This week (and last) in ...
After threatening Prime Minister Chris Hipkins of consequences if he dared to bar her entry, Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull has been given her visa, regardless. This will enable her to hold rallies in Auckland and Wellington this weekend, and spread her messages of hostility against an already marginalised trans community. Neo-Nazis may, ...
* Bryce Edwards writes – The New Zealand Government has been silent about Australia’s decision to commit up to $400bn acquiring nuclear submarines, even though this is a significant threat to peace and stability in the Asia Pacific. The deal was struck by the Albanese Labor Government as ...
Boomers voted him in, but Brown’s Trumpish moments might spook Aucklanders worried about what a change to National nationally might mean. Photo: Lynn Grieveson/Getty ImagesTL;DR:Auckland MayorWayne Brown has become our version of Donald Trump and Boris Johnson, except without any of the insatiable appetite for media appearances. He ...
The New Zealand Government has been silent about Australia’s decision to commit up to $400bn acquiring nuclear submarines, even though this is a significant threat to peace and stability in the Asia Pacific. The deal was struck by the Albanese Labor Government as part of its Aukus pact with the ...
Recently you might have heard of a person called Posie Parker and her visit to Aotearoa. Perhaps you’re not quite sure what it’s all about. So let’s start with who this person is, why their visit is controversial, and what on earth a TERF is.Posie Parker is the super villain ...
The chair of Parliament’s Select Committee looking at the Government’s resource management legislation wants the bills sent back for more public consultation. The proposal would effectively kill any chance of the bills making it into law before the election. Green MP, Eugenie Sage, stressing that she was speaking as ...
Open access notables The United States experienced some historical low temperature records during the just-concluded winter. It's a reminder that climate and weather are quite noisy; with regard to our warming climate,, as with a road ascending a mountain range we may steadily change our conditions but with lots of ...
Buzz from the Beehive The Nanny State has scored some wins (or claimed them) in the past day or two but it faltered when it came to protecting Kiwi citizens from being savaged by one woman armed with a sharp tongue. The wins are recorded by triumphant ministers on the ...
Sometimes you see your friends making the case so well on social media you think: just copy and share.On acceptance and decency, from Michèle A’CourtA notable thing about anti-trans people is they way they talk about transgender women and men as though they are strangers “over there” when in fact ...
Not that long ago, things were looking pretty good for climate change policy in Aotearoa. We finally had an ETS, and while it was full of pork and subsidies, it was delivering high and ever-rising carbon prices, sending a clear message to polluters to clean up or shut down. And ...
Comparing (and switching) electricity providers has become easier, but bundling power up with broadband and/or gas makes it more challenging. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The Kākā TL;DR: The new Consumer Advocacy Council set up as a result of the Labour Government’s Electricity Price Review in 2019 has called on either ...
Hokitika-based Westland Milk Products has put the heat on dairy giant Fonterra with a $120m profit turnaround in 2022, driven by record sales. Westland paid its suppliers a 10c premium above the forecast Fonterra price per kilo, contributing $535m to the West Coast and Canterbury economies. The dairy ...
* Bryce Edwards writes – New Zealanders are uncomfortable with the high level of influence corporate lobbyists have in New Zealand politics, and demands are growing for greater regulation. A recent poll shows 62 per cent of the public support having a two-year cooling off period between ministers leaving public ...
New Zealanders are uncomfortable with the high level of influence corporate lobbyists have in New Zealand politics, and demands are growing for greater regulation. A recent poll shows 62 per cent of the public support having a two-year cooling off period between ministers leaving public office and becoming lobbyists and ...
This is a guest post by accessibility and sustainable transport advocate Tim Adriaansen It originally appeared here. A friend calls you and asks for your help. They tell you that while out and about nearby, they slipped over and landed arms-first. Now their wrist is swollen, hurting like ...
Floating offshore wind turbines offer incredible opportunities to capture powerful winds far out at sea. By unlocking this wind energy potential, they could be a key weapon in our arsenal in the fight against climate change. But how developed are these climate fighting clean energy giants? And why do I ...
Over the past two or three weeks, a procession of Maori iwi and hapu in a series of little-noticed appearances before two Select Committees have been asking for more say for Maori over resource management decisions along the co-governance lines of Three Waters. Their submissions and appearances run counter ...
The decision of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue war crimes arrest warrants for the Russian President and the Russia Children Ombudsman may have been welcomed by the ideologically committed but otherwise seems to have been greeted with widespread cynicism (see Situation in Ukraine: ICC judges issue arrest warrants ...
Let’s say you’re clasping your drink at a wedding, or a 40th, or a King’s Birthday Weekend family reunion and Drunk Uncle Kevin has just got going.He’s in an expansive frame of mind because we’re finally rid of that silly girl. But he wants to ask an honest question about ...
National Party leader Christopher Luxon may be feeling glum about his poll ratings, but he could be tapping into a rich political vein in describing the current state of education as “alarming”. Luxon said educational achievement has been declining, with a recent NCEA pilot exposing just how far it has ...
Way Beyond Reform: Rawiri Waititi and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer have no more interest in remaining permanent members of “New Zealand’s” House of Representatives than did Lenin and Trotsky in remaining permanent members of Tsar Nicolas II’s “democratically-elected” Duma. Like the Bolsheviks, Te Pāti Māori is a party of revolutionaries – not reformists.THE CROWN ...
Buzz from the Beehive Auckland was wiped off the map, when Education Minister Jan Tinetti delivered her speech of welcome as host of the inaugural Conference of Pacific Education Ministers “here in Tāmaki Makaurau”. But – fair to say – a reference was made later in the speech to a ...
Morning mate, how you going?Well, I was watching the news last night and they announced this scientific report on Climate Change. But before they got to it they had a story about the new All Blacks coach.Sounds like important news. It’s a bit of a worry really.Yeah, they were talking ...
Always a bailout: US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the Government would fully guarantee all savers in all smaller US banks if needed. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: No wonder an entire generation of investors are used to ‘buying the dip’ and ‘holding on for dear life’. US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen ...
Wealthy vested interests have an oversized influence on political decisions in New Zealand. Partly that’s due to their use of corporate lobbyists. Fortunately, the influence lobbyists can have on decisions made by politicians is currently under scrutiny in Guyon Espiner’s in-depth series published by RNZ. Two of Espiner’s research exposés ...
Yesterday afternoon it rained and traffic around the region ground to a halt, once again highlighting why it is so important that our city gets on with improving the alternatives to driving. For additional irony, this happened on the same day the IPCC synthesis report landed, putting the focus on ...
The Beginning: Anti-Co-Governance agitator, Julian Batchelor, addresses the Dargaville stop of his travelling roadshow across New Zealand . Fascism almost always starts small. Sadly, it doesn’t always stay that way. Especially when the Left helps it to grow.THERE IS A DREADFUL LOGIC to the growth of fascism. To begin with, it ...
Hi,From an incredibly rainy day in Los Angeles, I just wanted to check in. I guess this is the day Trump may or may not end up in cuffs? I’m attempting a somewhat slower, less frenzied week. I’ve had Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s new record on non-stop, and it’s been a ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
RNZ has been shining their torch into corners where lobbyists lurk and asking such questions as: Do we like the look of this?and Is this as democratic as it could be?These are most certainly questions worth asking, and every bit as valid as, say:Are weshortchanged democratically by the way ...
RNZ has continued its look at the role of lobbyists by taking a closer look at the Prime Minister's Chief of Staff Andrew Kirton. He used to work for liquor companies, opposing (among other things) a container refund scheme which would have required them to take responsibility for their own ...
Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta has left for Beijing for the first ministerial visit to China since 2019. Mahuta is to meet China’s new foreign minister Qin Gang where she might have to call on all the diplomatic skills at her command. Almost certainly she will face questions on what role ...
TL;DR:The Opportunities Party’s Leader Raf Manji is hopeful the party’s new Teal Card, a type of Gold card for under 30s, will be popular with students, and not just in his Ilam electorate where students make up more than a quarter of the voters and where Manji is confident ...
When I was a kid New Zealand was actually pretty green. We didn’t really have plastic. The fruit and veges came in a cardboard box, the meat was wrapped in paper, milk came in a glass bottle, and even rubbish sacks were made of paper. Today if you sit down ...
Looking back through the names of our Police Ministers down the years, the job has either been done by once or future party Bigfoots – Syd Holland, Richard Prebble, Juduth Collins, Chris Hipkins – or by far lesser lights like Keith Allen, Frank Gill, Ben Couch, Allen McCready, Clem Simich, ...
Chris Trotter writes – The Crown is a fickle friend. Any political movement deemed to be colourful but inconsequential is generally permitted to go about its business unmolested. The Crown’s media, RNZ and TVNZ, may even “celebrate” its existence (presumably as proof of Democracy’s broad-minded acceptance of diversity). ...
Four out of the five people who have held the top role of Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff since 2017 have been lobbyists. That’s a fact that should worry anyone who believes vested interests shouldn’t have a place at the centre of decision making. Chris Hipkins’ newly appointed Chief of ...
Feedback on Auckland Council’s draft 2023/24 budget closes on March 28th. You can read the consultation document here, and provide feedback here. Auckland Council is currently consulting on what is one of its most important ever Annual Plans – the ‘budget’ of what it will spend money on between July ...
by Molten Moira from Motueka If you want to be a woman let me tell you what to do Get a piece of paper and a biro tooWrite down your new identification And boom! You’re now a woman of this nationSpelled W O M A Na real trans woman that isAs opposed ...
Buzz from the Beehive New Zealand Education Minister Jan Tinetti is hosting the inaugural Conference of Pacific Education Ministers for three days from today, welcoming Education Ministers and senior officials from 18 Pacific Island countries and territories, and from Australia. Here’s hoping they have brought translators with them – or ...
Let’s say you’ve come all the way from His Majesty’s United Kingdom to share with the folk of Australia and New Zealand your antipathy towards certain other human beings. And let’s say you call yourself a women’s rights activist.And let’s say 99 out of 100 people who listen to you ...
James Shaw gave the Green party's annual "state of the planet" address over the weekend, in which he expressed frustration with Labour for not doing enough on climate change. His solution is to elect more Green MPs, so they have more power within any government arrangement, and can hold Labour ...
RNZ this morning has the first story another investigative series by Guyon Espiner, this time into political lobbying. The first story focuses on lobbying by government agencies, specifically transpower, Pharmac, and assorted universities, and how they use lobbyists to manipulate public opinion and gather intelligence on the Ministers who oversee ...
Nick Matzke writes – Dear NZ Herald, I am a Senior Lecturer in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Auckland. I teach evolutionary biology, but I also have long experience in science education and (especially) political attempts to insert pseudoscience into science curricula in ...
James Shaw has again said the Greens would be better ‘in the tent’ with Labour than out, despite Labour’s policy bonfire last week torching much of what the Government was doing to reduce emissions. File Photo: Lynn Grieveson/Getty ImagesTL;DR: The Green Party has never been more popular than in some ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Sarah Wesseler Poor air quality is a long-standing problem in Los Angeles, where the first major outbreak of smog during World War II was so intense that some residents thought the city had been attacked by chemical weapons. Cars were eventually discovered ...
Yesterday I was reading an excellent newsletter from David Slack, and I started writing a comment “Sounds like some excellent genetic heritage…” and then I stopped.There was something about the phrase genetic heritage that stopped me in tracks. Is that a phrase I want to be saying? It’s kind of ...
Brian Easton writes – Two senior economists challenge some of the foundations of current economics. It is easy to criticise economic science by misrepresenting it, by selective quotations, and by ignoring that it progresses, like all sciences, by improving and abandoning old theories. The critics may go ...
This week marks the twentieth anniversary of the Iraq War. While it strongly opposed the US-led invasion, New Zealand’s then Labour-led government led by Prime Minister Helen Clark did deploy military engineers to try to help rebuild Iraq in mid-2003. With violence soaring, their 12-month deployment ended without being renewed ...
After seventy years, Auckland’s motorway network is finally finished. In July 1953 the first section of motorway in Auckland was opened between Ellerslie-Panmure Highway and Mt Wellington Highway. The final stage opens to traffic this week with the completion of the motorway part of the Northern Corridor Improvements project. Aucklanders ...
National’s appointment of Todd McClay as Agriculture spokesperson clearly signals that the party is in trouble with the farming vote. McClay was not an obvious choice, but he does have a record as a political scrapper. The party needs that because sources say it has been shedding farming votes ...
Rays of white light come flooding into my lounge, into my face from over the top of my neighbour’s hedge. I have to look away as the window of the conservatory is awash in light, as if you were driving towards the sun after a rain shower and suddenly blinded. ...
The columnists in Private Eye take pen names, so I have not the least idea who any of them are. But I greatly appreciate their expert insight, especially MD, who writes the medical column, offering informed and often damning critique of the UK health system and the politicians who keep ...
A chronological listing of news articles posted on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Mar 12, 2023 thru Sat, Mar 18, 2023. Story of the Week Guest post: What 13,500 citations reveal about the IPCC’s climate science report IPCC WG1 AR6 SPM Report Cover - Changing ...
Buzz from the Beehive The building of financial capability was brought into our considerations when Social Development and Employment Minister Carmel Sepuloni announced she had dipped into the government’s coffers for $3 million for “providers” to help people and families access community-based Building Financial Capability services. That wording suggests some ...
Do you ever come across something that makes you go Hmmmm?You mean like the song?No, I wasn’t thinking of the song, but I am now - thanks for that. I was thinking of things you read or hear that make you stop and go Hmmmm.Yeah, I know what you mean, ...
By the end of the week, the dramas over Stuart Nash overshadowed Hipkins’ policy bonfire. File photo: Lynn GrieveasonTLDR: This week’s news in geopolitics and the political economy covered on The Kākā included:PM Chris Hipkins’ announcement of the rest of a policy bonfire to save a combined $1.7 billion, but ...
When word went out that Prime Minister Chris Hipkins would be making an announcement about Stuart Nash on the tiles at parliament at 2:45pm yesterday, the assumption was that it was over. That we had reached tipping point for Nash’s time as minister. But by 3pm - when, coincidentally, the ...
Two senior economists challenge some of the foundations of current economics. It is easy to criticise economic science by misrepresenting it, by selective quotations, and by ignoring that it progresses, like all sciences, by improving and abandoning old theories. The critics may go on to attack physics by citing Newton.So ...
Photo by Walker Fenton on UnsplashIt’s that time of the week again when and I co-host our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kaka for an hour at 5 pm. Jump on this link on Riverside (we’ve moved from Zoom) for our chat about the week’s news with ...
In a nice bit of news, my 2550-word deindustrial science-fiction piece, The Dream of Florian Neame, has been accepted for publication at New Maps Magazine (https://www.new-maps.com/). I have published there before, of course, with Of Tin and Tintagel coming out last year. While I still await the ...
And so this is Friday, and what have we learned?It was a week with all the usual luggage: minister brags and then he quits, Hollywood red carpet is full of twits. And all the while, hanging over the trivial stuff: existential dread, and portents of doom.Depending on who you read ...
When I changed the name of this newsletter from The Daily Read to Nick’s Kōrero I was a bit worried whether people would know what Kōrero meant or not. I added a definition when I announced the change and kind of assumed people who weren’t familiar with it would get ...
There was a time when a political party’s publicity people would counsel against promoting a candidate as queer. No matter which of two dictionary meanings the voting public might choose to apply – the old meaning of odd, strange, weird, or aberrant, or the more recent meaning of gay, homosexual ...
Photo by Joakim Honkasalo on UnsplashIt’s that time of the week for an ‘Ask Me Anything’ session for paying subscribers about the week that was for the next hour, including:PM Chris Hipkins announcement of the rest of a policy bonfire to save a combined $1.7 billion, but which blew up ...
Even though concern over the climate change threat is becoming more mainstream, our governments continue to opt out of the difficult decisions at the expense of time, and cost for future generations. Photo: Lynn Grieveson/Getty ImagesTLDR: Now we have a climate liability number to measure the potential failure of the ...
Thomas Cranmer writesLike it or not, the culture wars have entered New Zealand politics and look set to broaden and intensify. The culture wars are often viewed as an exclusively American phenomenon, but the reality is that they are becoming increasingly prominent in countries around the world, ...
Good afternoon. Thank you for the invitation to speak with you today and in your busy lives turning up to this meeting. Forty five years ago, in Howick, often described as racist, and where few Maori lived because it had been a ‘Fencible’ settlement at the time of the Anglo-Maori ...
The Green Party has marked the National Party’s new education policy and given it a fail, especially for its failure to address the underlying drivers of school performance. ...
Political parties that want to negotiate with the Green Party must come to the table with much faster, bolder climate action, co-leaders James Shaw and Marama Davidson emphasised in their State of the Planet speech today. ...
Political parties that want to negotiate with the Green Party after the election must come to the table with much faster, bolder climate action, co-leaders James Shaw and Marama Davidson emphasised today. ...
You will never truly understand, from the pictures you’ve seen in the newspapers or on the six o-clock news, the sheer scale of the devastation wrought by Cyclone Gabrielle. ...
We’re boosting incomes and helping ease cost of living pressures on Kiwis through a range of bread and butter support measures that will see pensioners, students, families, and those on main benefits better off from the start of next month. ...
The error Labour Ministers made by stopping work on a beverage container return scheme will be reversed by the Greens at the earliest opportunity as part of the next Government. ...
“Cabinet needs to do better - and today has shown exactly why we need Green Ministers in cabinet, so we can prioritise action to cut climate pollution and support people to make ends meet,” says Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson. ...
Biggest increase in food prices for over three decades shows the need for an excess profit tax on corporations to help people put food on the table. ...
The Green Party has today launched a submission guide to help Aucklanders give crucial input and prevent potentially disastrous Auckland Council budget proposals. ...
With calls growing for inquiries and action on bank profits, the Greens say the Government has all the information it needs to act now and put a levy on banks. ...
As large parts of Aotearoa recover from two of the worst climate disasters we have ever experienced, it would be a huge mistake for the Government to deprioritise climate action from future transport investments, the Green Party says. ...
The Green Party is celebrating the signing of a historic United Nations Ocean Treaty, and calls on the new Oceans and Fisheries Minister to urgently step up protection for Aotearoa’s oceans. ...
Attorney-General David Parker has announced the appointment of Christopher John Dellabarca of Wellington, Dr Katie Jane Elkin of Wellington, Caroline Mary Hickman of Napier, Ngaroma Tahana of Rotorua, Tania Rose Williams Blyth of Hamilton and Nicola Jan Wills of Wellington as District Court Judges. Chris Dellabarca Mr Dellabarca commenced his ...
A new Government-backed project will help ocean-related businesses in the Nelson Tasman region to accelerate their growth and boost jobs. “The Nelson Tasman region is home to more than 400 blue economy businesses, accounting for more than 30 percent of New Zealand’s economic activity in fishing, aquaculture, and seafood processing,” ...
After three years of COVID-19 disruptions schools are finally settling down and National want to throw that all in the air with major disruption to learning and underinvestment. “National’s education policy lacks the very thing teachers, parents and students need after a tough couple of years, certainty and stability,” Education ...
People aged over 50 with innovative business ideas will now be able to receive support to advance their ideas to the next stage of development, Minister for Seniors Ginny Andersen said today. “Seniors have some great entrepreneurial ideas, and this programme will give them the support to take that next ...
A cross government target for relevant government procurement contracts for goods and services to be awarded to Māori businesses annually will increase to 8%, after the initial 5% target was exceeded. The progressive procurement policy was introduced in 2020 to increase supplier diversity, starting with Māori businesses, for the estimated ...
77,000 fewer children living in low income households on the after-housing-costs primary measure since Labour took office Eight of the nine child poverty measures have seen a statistically significant reduction since 2018. All nine have reduced 28,700 fewer children experiencing material hardship since 2018 Measures taken by the Government during ...
Deputy Prime Minister Kamikamica; distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen. Tēnā koutou katoa, ni sa bula vinaka saka, namaste. Deputy Prime Minister, a very warm welcome to Aotearoa. I trust you have been enjoying your time here and thank you for joining us here today. To all delegates who have travelled to be ...
$2.9 million convertible loan for Scapegrace Distillery to meet growing national and international demand $4.5m underwrite to support Silverlight Studios’ project to establish a film studio in Wanaka Gore’s James Cumming Community Centre and Library to be official opened tomorrow with support of $3m from the COVID-19 Response and Recovery ...
Transport Minister Michael Wood has today launched the first national EV (electric vehicle) charging strategy, Charging Our Future, which includes plans to provide EV charging stations in almost every town in New Zealand. “Our vision is for Aotearoa New Zealand to have world-class EV charging infrastructure that is accessible, affordable, ...
Associate Minister for Social Development and Employment Priyanca Radhakrishnan has today launched the Love Better campaign in a world-leading approach to family harm prevention. Love Better will initially support young people through their experience of break-ups, developing positive and life-long attitudes to dealing with hurt. “Over 1,200 young kiwis told ...
Hon Rino Tirikatene, Minister for Courts, welcomes the Ministry of Justice’s appointment of Dr Garry Clearwater as New Zealand’s first Chief Clinical Advisor working with the Coroners Court. “This appointment is significant for the Coroners Court and New Zealand’s wider coronial system.” Minister Tirikatene said. Through Budget 2022, the Government ...
The Government via the Cyclone Taskforce is working with local government and insurance companies to build a picture of high-risk areas following Cyclone Gabrielle and January floods. “The Taskforce, led by Sir Brian Roche, has been working with insurance companies to undertake an assessment of high-risk areas so we can ...
E te huia kaimanawa, ko Ngāpuhi e whakahari ana i tau aupikinga ki te tihi o te maunga. Ko te Ao Māori hoki e whakanui ana i a koe te whakaihu waka o te reo Māori i roto i te Ao Ture. (To the prized treasure, it is Ngāpuhi who ...
113,400 exits into work in the year to June 2022 Young people are moving off Benefit faster than after the Global Financial Crisis Two reports released today by the Ministry of Social Development show the Government’s investment in the COVID-19 response helped drive record numbers of people off Benefits and ...
The Government’s priority to keep New Zealand at the cutting edge of food production and lift our sustainability credentials continues by backing the next steps of a hi-tech vertical farming venture that uses up to 95 per cent less water, is climate resilient, and pesticide-free. Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor visited ...
E nga mana, e nga iwi, e nga reo, e nga hau e wha, tena koutou, tena koutou, tena koutou kātoa. Warm Pacific greetings to all. It is an honour to host the inaugural Conference of Pacific Education Ministers here in Tāmaki Makaurau. Aotearoa is delighted to be hosting you ...
The new renal unit at Taranaki Base Hospital has been officially opened by the Minister of Health Dr Ayesha Verrall this afternoon. Te Huhi Raupō received around $13 million in government funding as part of Project Maunga Stage 2, the redevelopment of the Taranaki Base Hospital campus. “It’s an honour ...
Defence Minister Andrew Little has marked the arrival of the country’s second P-8A Poseidon aircraft alongside personnel at the Royal New Zealand Air Force’s Base at Ohakea today. “With two of the four P-8A Poseidons now on home soil this marks another significant milestone in the Government’s historic investment in ...
Aotearoa New Zealand will provide further humanitarian support to those seriously affected by last month’s deadly earthquakes in Türkiye and Syria, says Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta. “The 6 February earthquakes have had devastating consequences, with almost 18 million people affected. More than 53,000 people have died and tens of thousands more ...
Migrant communities across New Zealand are represented in the new Migrant Community Reference Group that will help shape immigration policy going forward, Immigration Minister Michael Wood announced today. “Since becoming Minister, a reoccurring message I have heard from migrants is the feeling their voice has often been missing around policy ...
Construction has begun on major works that will deliver significant safety improvements on State Highway 3 from Waitara to Bell Block, Associate Minister of Transport Kiri Allan announced today. “This is an important route for communities, freight and visitors to Taranaki but too many people have lost their lives or ...
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has today appointed Ginny Andersen as Minister of Police. “Ginny Andersen has a strong and relevant background in this important portfolio,” Chris Hipkins said. “Ginny Andersen worked for the Police as a non-sworn staff member for around 10 years and has more recently been chair of ...
Six further bailey bridge sites confirmed Four additional bridge sites under consideration 91 per cent of damaged state highways reopened Recovery Dashboards for impacted regions released The Government has responded quickly to restore lifeline routes after Cyclone Gabrielle and can today confirm that an additional six bailey bridges will ...
Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta departs for China tomorrow, where she will meet with her counterpart, State Councillor and Foreign Minister Qin Gang, in Beijing. This will be the first visit by a New Zealand Minister to China since 2019, and follows the easing of COVID-19 travel restrictions between New Zealand and China. ...
Education Ministers from across the Pacific will gather in Tāmaki Makaurau this week to share their collective knowledge and strategic vision, for the benefit of ākonga across the region. New Zealand Education Minister Jan Tinetti will host the inaugural Conference of Pacific Education Ministers (CPEM) for three days from today, ...
A vital transport link for communities and local businesses has been restored following Cyclone Gabrielle with the reopening of State Highway 5 (SH5) between Napier and Taupō, Associate Minister of Transport Kiri Allan says. SH5 reopened to all traffic between 7am and 7pm from today, with closure points at SH2 (Kaimata ...
Internal Affairs Minister Barbara Edmonds has thanked generous New Zealanders who took part in the special Lotto draw for communities affected by Cyclone Gabrielle. Held on Saturday night, the draw raised $11.7 million with half of all ticket sales going towards recovery efforts. “In a time of need, New Zealanders ...
The Government has announced funding of $3 million for providers to help people, and whānau access community-based Building Financial Capability services. “Demand for Financial Capability Services is growing as people face cost of living pressures. Those pressures are increasing further in areas affected by flooding and Cyclone Gabrielle,” Minister for ...
Minister of Education, Hon Jan Tinetti, has announced appointments to the Board of Education New Zealand | Manapou ki te Ao. Tracey Bridges is joining the Board as the new Chair and Dr Therese Arseneau will be a new member. Current members Dr Linda Sissons CNZM and Daniel Wilson have ...
Fifteen ākonga Māori from across Aotearoa have been awarded the prestigious Ngarimu VC and 28th (Māori) Battalion Memorial Scholarships and Awards for 2023, Associate Education Minister and Ngarimu Board Chair, Kelvin Davis announced today. The recipients include doctoral, masters’ and undergraduate students. Three vocational training students and five wharekura students, ...
High Court Judge Jillian Maree Mallon has been appointed a Judge of the Court of Appeal, and District Court Judge Andrew John Becroft QSO has been appointed a Judge of the High Court, Attorney‑General David Parker announced today. Justice Mallon graduated from Otago University in 1988 with an LLB (Hons), and with ...
The economy has continued to show its resilience despite today’s GDP figures showing a modest decline in the December quarter, leaving the Government well positioned to help New Zealanders face cost of living pressures in a challenging global environment. “The economy had grown strongly in the two quarters before this ...
Aucklanders now have more ways to get around as Transport Minister Michael Wood opened the direct State Highway 1 (SH1) to State Highway 18 (SH18) underpass today, marking the completion of the 48-kilometre Western Ring Route (WRR). “The Government is upgrading New Zealand’s transport system to make it safer, more ...
This section contains briefings received by incoming ministers following changes to Cabinet in January. Some information may have been withheld in accordance with the Official Information Act 1982. Where information has been withheld that is indicated within the document. ...
Aotearoa New Zealand Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta reaffirmed her commitment to working together with the new Government of Fiji on issues of shared importance, including on the prioritisation of climate change and sustainability, at a meeting today, in Nadi. Fiji and Aotearoa New Zealand’s close relationship is underpinned by the Duavata ...
The Government is delivering a coastal shipping lifeline for businesses, residents and the primary sector in the cyclone-stricken regions of Hawkes Bay and Tairāwhiti, Regional Development Minister Kiri Allan announced today. The Rangitata vessel has been chartered for an emergency coastal shipping route between Gisborne and Napier, with potential for ...
The Government will progress to the next stage of the NZ Battery Project, looking at the viability of pumped hydro as well as an alternative, multi-technology approach as part of the Government’s long term-plan to build a resilient, affordable, secure and decarbonised energy system in New Zealand, Energy and Resources ...
This morning I was made aware of a media interview in which Minister Stuart Nash criticised a decision of the Court and said he had contacted the Police Commissioner to suggest the Police appeal the decision. The phone call took place in 2021 when he was not the Police Minister. ...
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This is The Detail's Long Read - one in-depth story read by us every weekend This week, it's What's Up With ADHD?, written by Mirjam Guesgen and published in North & South's April 2023 issue. You can find the full article, with illustrations by Rachel Salazar, in this month’s issue of North & South. Once a condition ...
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The worm has turned in the latest Roy Morgan Poll!
RM polls are too ‘bouncy’ for a single one to mean much. The trend is encouraging though.
Kia ora all,
Conference Invitation
People who are in, or can get to Wellington on the weekend of 9 & 10 October – 3 weeks away would enjoy Information, ethics and the public good.
Conference info at http://bit.ly/whocanwetrust
The mini-conference will be held at St Andrews on the Terrace church and conference centre. It follows on from one held last year titled democracy, ethics and the public good when Sandra Grey, Bronwyn Hayward and Jane Kelsey were amongst the speakers. 2014 Conference report
This years conference has come directly out of the recommendations of last years which were that the lack of reliable information and problems with information flows to and from the media were amongst the most important challenges to NZ’s democracy. Like last year the focus is as much on participation as listening.
If you’d like to support this but can’t come you can donate to help us cover the costs of videoing, facilitation and some of the speakers travel costs.
The conference is part of the programme of lectures and seminars put on by the St Andrews Trust for the Study of Religion and Society and also Public Good whose kaupapa is to defend strong public services and a good quality democracy.
Jan Rivers
Thanks for the heads up on that conference. I hope you will get good numbers and help with donations. It is good that there are meetings for thought and discussion in other places than Auckland. I hope people will be able to go. You can get cheap hotels in the weekends in Wellington when the political tide is out. Myself I have another project on just now but will try to get to Wellington from Nelson. There are lots of airlines available for from here to there now.
Greyrawshark,
It would be lovely to meet you. I’m sure we can find places to stay in Welly for anyone coming from out of town, We’ll be videoing parts of the conference as per last year. To get a sense of what happened last year here’s a href=”http://www.publicgood.org.nz/wp/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Democracy-conference-summary.pdf” title=”summary report “ with links to video presentations by Jane Kelsey, Bronwyn Hayward, Lloyd Geering and Michael Macaulay and Sandra Grey and Charles Sedgwick’s report on their research on NGOs amongst others.
Anyone’s who’s needs somewhere to stay can text or email the address on the public good website – http://www.publicgood.org.nz
There’s a couple of feel good stories on rural delivery this am (will be on tv1 delay at 8) one’s a young orchard grower that employs local and pays a living wage the other one is for Draco T B about growing pine nuts on hard country.
Noms Pine nuts! A crop we should be growing instead of importing the korean ones. Theres many years wait before the tree is mature enough to harvest, but those little beauties are worth the wait. Once you’ve had a NZ grown pine nut you’ll never go back.
Buy NZ grown walnuts too. Support our local growers (lots of walnuts come from Canterbury) and wow yourself with their superior taste and freshness
Is the show about pine nuts on tvnz on demand?
Sometimes country calendar has good news shows about sustainable agricultural and cropping practices. Nice antidote to the horror stories about pollution, unsustainable irrigation and farmed animal cruelty.
This one:
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/ondemand/country-calendar/22-08-2015/series-2015-episode-21
🙂
It’s yourself!
Thank you Robert. I missed that show. I’ve watched a few minutes and put it in a file to watch the rest later.
I love what you both have done with your land. The food forest and native forest look’s like it’s bursting with life as a result of the methods you’ve used for cultivation. What an achievement!
Lowers my blood pressure just to see all that green and hear the bird song. I live on a wasteland of a development and really do feel the loss of connection to nature. You actually feel it almost as a physical loss, because the psychological loss is so great.
Look forward to watching the rest of the show when chores are out of the way.
I had a look today. Once traversed the TV1 On Demand (!)it was an inspirational program. Thanks Robert.
Great to see your picture on promo on TV on Demand. Sounds great what you have done but don’t want to get on TV1 list of addresses. So can’t get access to this public service. I don’t need their sort of service, just would like to catch up on occasional archives.
Dotcom case sets Crown back $5.8m
– More corporate welfare – if the big 4 media companies were so sure he was guilty (Unlike Sony who kept out of it) why is the NZ taxpayer paying this legal tab. Shouldn’t the overseas media companies be paying the bill as this is a civil claim! Of course to make the corporate welfare work they had upgrade the charges. Hmmm – this is a good way to waste NZ taxpayers money on red herrings for the movie industry. They have the money to fight, but why should they, when John Key will get the NZ public to pick up the tab to get back at him.
Did he even get compensation when the GCSB illegally spied on him?
ISDS; privatized justice system, conflicts with human rights, rubbished in
UN report published 17 Sept 2015
UN expert: UN Charter and Human rights treaties prevail over free trade and investment agreements
GENEVA (17 September 2015) – United Nations Independent Expert Alfred de Zayas today urged the UN system and Governments across the world to radically reform the international investment regime by putting an end to free trade and investment agreements that conflict with human rights treaty obligations. In his full-length report* to the Human Rights Council, he also called on States “to conduct human rights, health and environmental impact assessments before and after entering into bilateral and multilateral investment agreements.”
“In his report the expert deplores the paradox resulting from assuming conflicting treaty obligations. “States that ratify human rights treaties also enter into agreements that prevent them from fulfilling their human rights obligations. Revision of the investment treaties must ensure that in case of conflict, human rights prevail,” he noted.
“In the light of widespread abuse over the past decades, the Investor-State Dispute Settlement mechanism, which accompanies most free trade and investment agreements must be abolished as contra bonos mores, because it encroaches on the regulatory space of States and suffers from fundamental flaws including lack of independence, transparency, accountability and predictability,” he stressed.
In his report, the expert observes that: “This dispute settlement mechanism has mutated into a privatized system of ‘justice’, incompatible with article 14(1) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, whereby three arbitrators are allowed to override national legislation and the judgments of the highest national tribunals, in secret and with no possibility to appeal. This constitutes a grave challenge to the very essence of the rule of law”.
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=16439&LangID=E
This.
It is this that pretty much rules invalid all of the present FTAs.
TPPA developments – we need to keep the pressure on PM John Key and Trade Minister Tim Groser!
————————————————————————————–
Last ditch TPPA Ministerial in 10 days
Press Release – Professor Jane Kelsey (17 September 2015)
Last ditch TPPA Ministerial in 10 days – is Groser preparing to swallow the rat? Canadian officials have confirmed rumours that the trade ministers from the twelve countries negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) plan to meet …Last ditch TPPA Ministerial in 10 days – is Groser preparing to swallow the rat?
Canadian officials have confirmed rumours that the trade ministers from the twelve countries negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) plan to meet in Atlanta, US at the end of the month in a last ditch attempt to conclude the deal. The chief negotiators are set to meet on 26 September to try to clear the ground for the politicians.
The ministers’ meeting coincides with the UN Sustainable Development Summit when their political leaders will be together in New York, giving US President Obama the perfect opportunity to pressure John Key and the others to accept US demands, according to Auckland University law professor Jane Kelsey.
Of the three big outstanding issues – market access on automobiles and dairy and longer monopoly protections biologic medicines – autos is the only one where there have been public moves to settle the differences.
Mexico and Canada object to a deal on autos reached by the US and Japan. The four said progress was made at a meeting this week and will meet again early next week in the US.
‘Whether the Atlanta ministerial would proceed without agreement on autos remains to be seen’ Professor Kelsey said. ‘Another failed ministerial would doom the negotiations. But they are between a rock and a hard place, as the controversial deal is now hostage to the US presidential election cycle and this is really their last chance to conclude it under Obama’.
The market access issues are especially sensitive for Canada, which has an election in a month from now, but the details of the deal would not be released until after that date.
‘In contrast to autos, there has been no noise about dairy at all,’ Kelsey said. ‘This lends support to the view expressed to me by informed people in other countries that autos is the bigissue and once that is settled dairy is not expected to delay a final agreement.’
‘Put another way, Groser is expected to swallow the rat, rather than hold up the deal, and wear the flack at home by saying New Zealand couldn’t afford not to be part of the TPPA. The details of the final deal won’t be available for another 30 days so he can talk up the benefits without any facts to get in the way.’ *
Professor Kelsey called on Minister Groser to ‘abandon his carefully ambiguous language and set out some real bottom lines on pharmaceuticals, investment, state-owned enterprises, and dairy so New Zealanders know where he stands before the secret deal-making resumes in Atlanta.’
* New Zealand officials have confirmed inevidence to the Waitangi Tribunal that no substantive changes can be made after the negotiations are concluded. The US Fast Track law then drives the timetable. The President must give 90 days notice before signing the TPPA and the text must be made available 30 days after that – but too late to change anything in the text.
————————————————————————–
or http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1509/S00215/last-ditch-tppa-ministerial-in-10-days.htm
Could not resist reposting this for a LOL on a cold, wet Saturday.
So – many – ponytails …
Lol. Thanks. Needed that today. That twitter thing is funny all the way through.
National still a pack of obdurate ideologues:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/money/72167422/consumer-nz-calls-for-incandescent-bulbs-to-go
Of course the government needs to get involved – inefficient lighting shouldn’t be on the shelves.
It happens that if you are very short of cash, had $5, and need to buy a light bulb, some bread and stuff for sandwich lunches, you will buy a bulb for $1, some white bread for $1, and have $3 for a couple of bananas and some other fillings. Buy a long-last bulb and you are lucky to have any of that $5 left. They are too dear for poor people, and will lead to a rise in candle use.
Interestingly enough the solution to that is to get the cheap, inefficient light bulbs out of the market pushing demand for the efficient ones and thus shifting the resources used for the bad light bulbs to efficient light bulbs.
BTW, if I had $5 and had to buy a light bulb and food I’d go hungry for a meal or two to get the efficient light bulb because I’d save more money and thus be able to get more food.
Of course, in reality I plan it so that I don’t get into that position.
DTB
You are so wise, objective, efficientand with a touch of austerity.. Why can’t we all be like that. It’s a puzzle.
/facepalm
People need to do what they can – not try and do what they wish.
In the mean time we try and change the system so as to eliminate poverty.
I think the point is that not everyone has the same choices you do.
btw, have the pollution issues been solved with CFLs? If not, it’s just swapping one set of problems for another. What we should have done is worked towards transitioning to LEDs and then we wouldn’t have wasted all that industry on tech that too many people didn’t want to take up and that was always going to cause environmental problems. I agree with you that the govt should have regulated this process.
edit, myself, I’d rather we had a choice, and I’d choose incandescents where appropriate and save power in other ways. But really the whole notion that we would increase efficiency via light bulb change when we ignore conservation and sustainability in almost every other area kind of makes a mockery of the conversation.
Nope because we still don’t have proper recycling processes. That said, it was never really that much of a problem. A concern that should have been addressed, yes, and now that LEDs are available it probably means that we should be banning CFLs but watch as National and other idiots scream blue murder over that one.
Shifting over LEDs would also give us the excellent excuse to shift house lighting over to 12v DC as well thus improving safety there.
I’m happy for people to have that choice – as long as we get to charge for the extra power that they use. I suggest a selling price of $20 each with $19 of that going to lower power prices for everyone else.
Or perhaps we could have it so that the price per kilowatt went up with the more you used on the basis of supply and demand. You demand more (use inefficient light bulbs) you get charged more.
Or, the better option, is to just ban inefficient light bulbs (it is possible to get efficient light bulbs that look like incandescent bulbs and even have similar colour).
And then read this article to find out why you’d never, ever buy an incandescent light bulb ever again if you were smart:
Going hungry for a day is worth it to buy an efficient light bulb so that you’ll eat better for years to come.
Interesting DTB about DC lighting. Going hungry to afford a better light bulb is making a sacrifice for the future public good. Austerity touch.
But when each day there is something one has to sacrifice food as a gesture of public good, rational choice for the future you can end up with a starving child and a parent with insufficient energy to even think and cope with today. That’s the reality.
Going without now to make a better future is only possible if you are in the precariat and managing your way through the present with time to think and hope for a future that’s better.
There is a lot we don’t know about the new lighting, its effects on the human brain through changing light levels and spectrum, then there is the extra bulb cost, noticeable for multiple lights. There is a lack of information and effective regulation with new lighting being placed into old fittings some of which can be a fire hazard,
And not overlooking that there may be extra energy and resource required to make these bulbs. Is there a sufficiency of the raw materials for them? Will the gas in them add to greenhouse gases, or mix with other gases resulting in another problem. Perhaps we should start burning rushes again, be collecting fat from meat eating households and making old fashioned tallow candles?
Then there are the manufacturers statements about their efficacy. How many people know how long their bulbs last? I have marked the base of my incandescent ones and get about 6 months. How many people do that with their new bulbs, said to last four years, actually much less – who would remember, who would note the placement date?
And the lightness comparison doesn’t seem correct. Supposed to be 75 watt equivalent, it seems more like 60watt. I fear that we will never get a true statement of equivalence on the packets and we will end up disagreeing with scientific findings presented to us and have to go by our own findings. This could be like television advertisers saying that ads are not louder, they just sound that way because of compression (whatever that is. And don’t anyone bother to tell me –
I will just accept that and put my time into thinking about the news and information about the world falling to pieces round our ears.)
Actually, it was for your own personal good. And I did point out that people should plan these things so that they’re not in that position. It is possible to do that.
There isn’t. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if they ended up using less.
Yes – once we get recycling going properly.
No, because the gases used in them are inert.
Occasionally you’ll get a bad one. I’ve personally had one last for more than ten years. The one in my bedroom is more than two years old.
It’s correct. The problem seems to come from the fact that a lot of modern ones have a lot of blue light in them which looks darker to many people. If this is true for you then look for ones that have more yellow light in them (usually advertised as warm).
Probably somewhere between zero and none.
Long term good.
Short term not-so-good.
That’s actually one of the prisons of poverty – you end up paying more because you can only afford to pay less at the time.
It’s like stocking up on cheap specials on groceries, or buying good quality (as opposed to just plain expensive) clothes, or paying the power bill early to get the discount, or getting the vehicle serviced regularly to avoid breakdowns – richer people can afford to do that, so end up spending less than poor people.
Remember the stated reasons for the establishment of the United Nations?
If the underpinning ‘Purposes and Principles’ were actually PRACTISED – would there be such an international refugee crisis happening now?
As New Zealand is currently a member of the UN Security Council – what steps are being taken to advocate, promote, implement and enforce the following underpinning ‘Purposes and Principles’ of the UN Charter?
—————————————————————————
CHAPTER I: PURPOSES AND PRINCIPLES
Article 1
The Purposes of the United Nations are:
To maintain international peace and security, and to that end: to take effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to the peace, and for the suppression of acts of aggression or other breaches of the peace, and to bring about by peaceful means, and in conformity with the principles of justice and international law, adjustment or settlement of international disputes or situations which might lead to a breach of the peace;
To develop friendly relations among nations based on respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples, and to take other appropriate measures to strengthen universal peace;
To achieve international co-operation in solving international problems of an economic, social, cultural, or humanitarian character, and in promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion; and
To be a centre for harmonizing the actions of nations in the attainment of these common ends.
Article 2
The Organization and its Members, in pursuit of the Purposes stated in Article 1, shall act in accordance with the following Principles.
The Organization is based on the principle of the sovereign equality of all its Members.
All Members, in order to ensure to all of them the rights and benefits resulting from membership, shall fulfill in good faith the obligations assumed by them in accordance with the present Charter.
All Members shall settle their international disputes by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and security, and justice, are not endangered.
All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations.
All Members shall give the United Nations every assistance in any action it takes in accordance with the present Charter, and shall refrain from giving assistance to any state against which the United Nations is taking preventive or enforcement action.
The Organization shall ensure that states which are not Members of the United Nations act in accordance with these Principles so far as may be necessary for the maintenance of international peace and security.
Nothing contained in the present Charter shall authorize the United Nations to intervene in matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any state or shall require the Members to submit such matters to settlement under the present Charter; but this principle shall not prejudice the application of enforcement measures under Chapter Vll.
‘Obama’s Syria’
https://www.rt.com/shows/crosstalk/315495-syria-war-isis-rise/
“Ending Syria’s horrific civil war is possible, but the political will to do so remains elusive. Over the years the facts on the ground have changed in Syria – with the rise of the Islamic State being the deadliest new reality. But Washington and its regional allies remain focused on an illegal regime change in Damascus. The west is fighting the wrong war and will surely lose the peace.
CrossTalking with Kapil Komireddi, Scott Bennett, and Richard Murphy.”
A message to talleys.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1509/S00256/global-food-unions-watching-talley-affco-bargaining-closely.htm
Sigh. I take it some developer or other has their eye on Jollie St in Christchurch. McGehan Close, Madeline Ave, now the whole of Glen Innes – the list goes on. The subtext is always the same – this place will be lovely once we remove the scary poor people. They could basically have a standard form newspaper article ready for download and just change the street name as each one becomes ripe for middle class/developer colonisation:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/72095461/life-in-jollie-st-you-wouldnt-last-a-week
What makes you think that they don’t?
Creepy
Sounds Rachmanish.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Rachman
” In the annals of the London underworld, few names cast as long a shadow as that of slum landlord Peter Rachman, a racketeer and pimp who ran a squalid empire of overcrowded properties in the run-down Notting Hill area in the post-war period.
His speciality was “sending in the schwarzes” which is a disparaging Yiddish term for Blacks. Rachman would put West Indians and their prostitutes into his London properties to drive out rent-controlled White neighbours with their outrageous and disgusting behaviour. To ensure stubborn tenants got the message, a crew of thugs with Alsatians doled out threats, intimidation and worse.”
The link is not a balanced one so no address.
Some Brit housing and speculation links.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/aa1c9dfa-30ea-11e3-b478-00144feab7de.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buy_to_let
http://www.icij.org/offshore/secret-london-real-estate-speculators
Peter Rachman sounds like a regular old racketeer, without the veneer of respectability given to our lot. And where he was into rack-renting, our lot seem to be more into ethnic or class cleansing. But the get-the-money-and to-hell-with-the-people principle seems to rule in both cases.
The Allure of an Ad-Free Internet
Bold mine.
Can’t say I’m surprised by Apple’s tactics there. It’s pretty much the end of ‘competition’ where each ‘player’ is out to destroy the others rather than working together to develop better products.
I use ad blockers. I’m paying for my bandwidth and not the advertisers. I’m also against ads anyway as I view them as psychopathic manipulation of the people and thus think that they should be banned. There has got to be a better business model than manipulation.
hi draco
“I’m also against ads anyway as I view them as psychopathic manipulation of the people and thus think that they should be banned. There has got to be a better business model than manipulation.”
amen brother.
minutemen “fuck advertising,
psychological methods to sell,
should be destroyed.
let the products sell themselves.”
and don mcglashan re ads,
“with their enticements and their threats.”
i feel the same as you have described, and that is partly why i have kicked the habbit of ugly fm,newspapers and most tv.
And where does iOS force you to use that news app? I have used iOS for around 7 years and never used it.
Have you removed it from your homescreen?
But to answer your question: I didn’t say anything about force did I moron?
It has always been there. However it has become mandatory on iOS9 which got released some time last week. It was a bloody nuisance as I was direct updating an inhouse app (that I’d fixed bugs in) on a pile of iPod touch. That useless behemoth iTunes kept prompting me for each of them about an upgrade to the iOS.
Takes about 4 minutes to boot a iPod, update the app, check that it works, and shut it down. Takes about 15 minutes to update the iOS.
One of the problems with the Apple ad blocker is that it also blocks trackers like google analytics, sitemeter, and wordpress stats.
We depend on those for figuring out loads. I can tolerate robots that do that because I have many mechanisms to limit their access and cut them off. At present the only limits on humans are the numbers of pages per minute and no cutoff, just a throttle. The reason that works is because trackers allow the databases for not-humans to be updated automatically. They don’t execute the JavaScript. If we lose the trackers, then we lose that ability.
To keep loadings under control, I will probably set up a JavaScript feedback system that looks like a tracker and eliminate anything that doesn’t use it apart from google, natlib, and wayback.
Bye bye new safari users and a whole lot of bots. It lowers my costs and eliminate a browser that just became threatening to the net – safari heads off to extinction.
I couldn’t give a damn if apple eliminates ads. But when they start eliminating something useful for our site, then they can get stuffed.
“the Apple ad blocker … also blocks trackers like google analytics, sitemeter, and wordpress stats.”
Ridiculous. Richly deserve your response.
There was a Radionz report on what it is like on a small poor Greek island getting an influx of refugees whose bags and their resources have been thrown over the side by their ferry masters – to fit the maximum people in without sinking.
I have just put $20 into helping through Give-A-Little. I have some big bills to pay but thought I’d keep feeding money in to various money ports set up by communities to go direct to their needs, toilet paper, feeding bottles, food, footwear, probably spades to dig graves, drinking water bottles, sanitary pads? You name it the refugees will need it – except clothes they have plenty. It is better to give money at this time from here. And Greece is still trying to run a country and may have to charge duty on gift parcels which no-one will be able to pay.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player/201770839
09:05 New Zealander on front line of refugee crisis in Greece
As Europe fails to reach an agreement over how to share the burden of the massive flow of asylum seekers out of Syria and Iraq, we meet Christchurch woman Anne Tee, who has lived on the tiny Greek island of Leros for 25 years. Leros has been inundated by refugees, mostly from Syria, and Anne is co-ordinating volunteer aid to them.Just yesterday a boat from Turkey sank off the nearby island of Farmakonisi – the BBC are reporting that 34 people drowned, amongst them four babies and 11 children.
Give a little: Help a Kiwi care for Syrian refugees in Leros, Greece
From the What you already knew but were too afraid to believe file:
Secret Pentagon Report Reveals US “Created” ISIS As A “Tool” To Overthrow Syria’s President Assad
Newly-Declassified U.S. Government Documents: The West Supported the Creation of ISIS
Apparently our troops are over there to help stop the allies that the US built up to topple Assad.
I’m so slow – I was sent this a couple of days ago.
Are people seeing this?
Not, bad. Not bad at all.
https://leapmanifesto.org/en/the-leap-manifesto/
Like the tobacco companies and their research, the oil industry knew decades ago about the potential for disaster.
At a meeting in Exxon Corporation’s headquarters, a senior company scientist named James F. Black addressed an audience of powerful oilmen. Speaking without a text as he flipped through detailed slides, Black delivered a sobering message: carbon dioxide from the world’s use of fossil fuels would warm the planet and could eventually endanger humanity.
“In the first place, there is general scientific agreement that the most likely manner in which mankind is influencing the global climate is through carbon dioxide release from the burning of fossil fuels,” Black told Exxon’s Management Committee, according to a written version he recorded later.
It was July 1977 when Exxon’s leaders received this blunt assessment, well before most of the world had heard of the looming climate crisis.
http://insideclimatenews.org/news/15092015/Exxons-own-research-confirmed-fossil-fuels-role-in-global-warming
A survey of 2,000 people found that Mr Corbyn’s election as Labour leader has made one in five people who voted for his party at the May general election more likely to vote Conservative next time. Some 37 per cent of Labour voters say they are less likely to back the party at the next election.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/jeremy-corbyn-loses-a-fifth-of-labour-voters-with-critics-already-plotting-to-oust-leftwinger-10508584.html
Oh, Happy Happy Happy Lost Sheep I guess……
good therre obviously sheep gd work lost sheep
A long but interesting review of a book by Kevin M. Kruse
‘One Nation Under God: How Corporate America Invented Christian America’
The secret history of the 1950s Christian right and its zeal for capitalism.
http://www.democracyjournal.org/38/laissez-prayer.php?page=all
Apologies in advance folks for being a prick but just talking on phone with a right-wing-ish mate in Aux (not by philosophy or considered application…….by default really) – prosaic Aux media type if you know what I mean.
Me: “Donald Trump reminds me of one of those blow-up plastic fuck dolls……mouth all circular and ready for use.”
My mate (belly laughing): “You’re right you’re right !”
Anyone else ?
I’m afraid that even if I was a coiffed, silver-haired, Viagra spruiked, Mid-West, GOP arsehole…….like the fruit loop who told Old Fuck Mouth that Obama’s a Muslim, that vision would haunt me……
So the EU don’t like the current ISDS setup and have proposed changes.
Will the TPPA be rushed through with the existing ISDS system (with its faults pointed out in the link in my comment #5) or will they take the time to look at alternatives, like those proposed below.
European Commission publishes draft investment chapter for the TTIP, including investment protection provisions and the establishment of an International Investment Court
“The proposed new Investment Court system
The Commission proposes the establishment of a new court system to resolve disputes under the TTIP, to be comprised of a Tribunal of First Instance (to be called the “Investment Tribunal”) and an Appeal Tribunal.
The Investment Tribunal would consist of 15 judges appointed jointly by the EU and US governments, with 5 EU nationals, 5 US nationals and 5 nationals of other countries. This standing body of judges would be appointed for a six-year term, renewable once. Tribunals would be appointed at random from the 15 members with no party influence over who would hear any case, although always comprised of one EU, one US and one third party tribunal member (with the third party member as chair). However, the disputing parties could agree on a sole arbitrator (to be appointed out of the 5 nationals of third countries). Once appointed, the tribunal would resolve the dispute under the rules chosen by the investor in the case in question from the ICSID rules, UNCITRAL rules or “any other rules agreed by the disputing parties”.
The permanent Appeal Tribunal would be comprised of six members, each appointed for a six year term, with two EU and two US nationals, and a further two nationals of third countries. The Appeal Tribunal would have a President and Vice-President selected only from the nationals of third countries. The composition of each Appeal Tribunal would be “random and unpredictable” (albeit that each tribunal would need an EU, US and third country national). The Appeal Tribunal would be there to ensure that there (to quote the Commission) “could be no doubt as to the legal correctness of the decisions of [first instance] tribunals“. There would be strict time limits for the parties to appeal an award (90 days from issuance) and for the appeal proceedings themselves (usually not to exceed 180 days from notification of appeal to decision, but subject to a longstop of 270 days).
All judges of the Investment and Appeal Tribunals would be required to have high technical and legal qualifications, including having demonstrated expertise in public international law. They would also be subject to strict ethical rules under Article 11 and a Code of Conduct under Annex II. In particular, Article 5 of Annex II requires that they “shall not be influenced by self-interest, outside pressure, political considerations, public clamour, loyalty to a Party or disputing party, or fear of criticism“. They would be prohibited from taking on work as counsel on any investment disputes under the TTIP or any other agreement.”
http://hsfnotes.com/arbitration/2015/09/18/european-commission-publishes-draft-investment-chapter-for-the-ttip-including-investment-protection-provisions-and-the-establishment-of-an-international-investment-court/
This is the way an agreement should be attained- by openly discussing the terms and rules of the agreement in the way that the European Commission has published this draft investment chapter for discussion.
The secrecy of the TPPA has been a total abuse of process. Sure, there are some aspects that needed to be treated in a confidential manner, but the blanket secrecy and shutting out of any public input (as if the public are not stakeholders when their sovereignty is being threatened) is downright shameful.
Walkom in the Toronto Star.
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2015/09/18/canadas-election-and-the-return-of-activist-government-walkom.html